sumption of its produce, the process of accumulation goes on, and the unconsumed results of previous labour swell to larger proportions.

As industry extends and wealth increases, it is early found necessary to provide for the security of property, for the suppression of violence and fraud, and for the settlement of disputes that will here and there arise, even without evil intention on either side. Hence all the machinery of courts of justice, and of government, from its highest to its lowest functionary. As these, though not in themselves directly producers, are indispensable to production, and exist for the welfare of all, they must be maintained at the expense of all; hence comes taxation of various kinds, which it is the business of the legislature to impose justly, and in the way least likely to fetter industry, and prevent increase of wealth. DR. HODGSON.

THE SONG OF THE SHIRT.

[THOMAS HOOD was the son of a bookseller in London. He was born in 1798, and died in 1845. He abandoned his original profession of an engraver when he witnessed the popularity of his sportive muse. Hood is chiefly distinguished as a punster and a satirist, but some of his smaller pieces, such as "The Song of the Shirt,” are stamped with the purest character of poetry.]

WITH fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread.
Stitch stitch! stitch!

In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch
She sang the "Song of the Shirt !"

Work! work! work!

While the cock is crowing aloof!
And work! work! work!

Till the stars shine through the roof!

It's oh to be a slave

Along with the barbarous Turk, Where woman has never a soul to save, If this is Christian work!

Work! work! work!

Till the brain begins to swim;
Work! work! work!

Till the eyes are heavy and dim!
Seam and gusset and band,
Band and gusset and seam,
Till over the buttons I fall asleep,
And sew them on in a dream!

Oh, men with sisters dear!

Oh, men! with mothers and wives!
It is not linen you're wearing out,
But human creatures' lives!
Stitch stitch! stitch!

In poverty, hunger and dirt,
Sewing, at once, with a double thread,
A shroud as well as a shirt.

But why do I talk of Death,
That phantom of grisly bone?
I hardly fear his terrible shape,
It seems so like my own-
It seems so like my own,

Because of the fasts I keep,

Oh, God! that bread should be so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap!

Work! work! work!

My labour never flags;

And what are its wages? a bed of straw,

A crust of bread and rags.

That shatter'd roof-and this naked floor-
A table-a broken chair-

And a wall so blank, my shadow I thank
For sometimes falling there!

1

Work! work! work!

From weary chime to chimc, Work! work! work!

As prisoners work for crime! Band and gusset and seam, Seam and gusset and band,

Till the heart is sick, and the brain benumbed, As well as the weary hand.

Work! work! work!

In the dull December light; And work! work! work!

When the weather is warm and bright!

While underneath the eaves

The brooding swallows cling,
As if to show me their sunny backs,
And twit me with the spring.

Oh but to breathe the breath

Of the cowslip and primrose sweet!
With the sky above my head,
And the grass beneath my feet.
For only one short hour

To feel as I used to feel,

Before I knew the woes of want,
And the walk that costs a meal!

Oh! but for one short hour-
A respite, however brief!
No blessed leisure for love or hope,
But only time for grief!

A little weeping would ease my heart,
But in their briny bed

My tears must stop, for every drop
Hinders the needle and thread!

With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread.

Stitch! stitch! stitch!

In poverty, hunger, and dirt,

And still with a voice of dolorous pitch,
Would that its tone could reach the rich!
She sang this "Song of the Shirt."

HOOD.

FIRST NOTIONS OF GEOLOGY.

Agglomerate, (ad, glomus, L.) to collect Petrified, (petros, G.) turned into

into a mass.

Aqueous, (aqua, L.)

Detritus, (de, tero, L.) the waste of rocks, &c., washed down by streams. Fossil, (fodio, L.) Lit. anything dug out of the earth.

Fusion, (fundo, L.) the state of being
melted.

Geology, (ge, logos, G.)
Igneous, (ignis, L.)

Metamorphic, (meta, morphe, G.)
Naturalist, one who studies natural
history.

Oolite, (oon, lithos, G.) egg-stone-so called from its resemblance to the roes of fishes.

stone.

Phenomenon; Plur. Phenomena, (phaino, G.) an appearance.

Primary, (primus, L.) first in order. Schist, (schizo, G.) a kind of stone easily split.

Secondary, (secundus, sequor, L.) next to the primary.

Stratum, (sterno, L.) a bed or layer. Hence stratified, unstratified, stratification.

Tertiary, (tertius, L.) next to the secondary.

Transition, (trans, eo, L.)

Volcano (Vulcanus, the god of fire, L.) a burning mountain. Hence volcanic.

HOW ROCKS ARE FORMED.

THE crust of the earth is that portion of it, from the surface downwards, which man has been able to explore. It is the business of geology to inquire of what materials this crust is composed, and how they have come to assume the forms in which we now find them. These materials are all included under the general name of rocks. It is not necessary that a substance be hard and stony, in order to be called by geologists a rock, for they apply the name to sand, clay, and mud, as well as to granite and limestone.

As the earth has a diameter of nearly 8000 miles, it is obvious that only a very small portion of its whole mass is accessible to us. Of its vast interior we know nothing with certainty. There are, indeed, plausible grounds for conjecturing that, beyond a certain depth, stones, metals, and all other substances, are in a state of fusion, and that the

centre of this our fair world is nothing else than a huge cauldron of liquid fire. Though this is by no means certain, it cannot be doubted that there are in its interior more or less extensive reservoirs of melted matter, which now and again finds its way to the surface. It is by the action of these internal fires that such phenomena as volcanoes and earthquakes are accounted for.

Volcanoes throw out immense quantities of dust, mud, and liquid matter called lava, which spread over the surrounding country, and solidify into rocks. By these substances the surface of a large district is often completely changed. The courses of streams are diverted, and sometimes so obstructed that the water accumulates and forms lakes. Valleys are filled up, trees and fields buried, and whole towns submerged beneath the fiery torrent. Such is one of the causes that contribute to the formation of rocks.

The rocks which owe their origin to the agency of fire are called igneous, and are found in many places where no volcanoes are known to have been in actual operation within the period embraced by historic records. They are usually hard, of rugged and irregular outline, and more or less crystalline in structure. The granite, porphyry, whinstone, and basalt, of which our sublimest and most picturesque hills, cliffs, and caverns are formed, bear evident marks of igneous origin, whether they were produced by volcanic fires, or by the action of the same element on a still grander and more extensive scale.

But there is another and quieter agency by which a great proportion of the rocks of the earth have been produced. We are wont to speak of the "everlasting hills," without thinking that every one of our hills is constantly wearing away. But we cannot help seeing, if we will take the trouble to consider the matter, that this is the case. The streams which run down their sides have hollowed out for themselves channels that are ever deepening. When swollen by rains, the quantity of detritus which they carry down is often astonishingly large. But, even in their ordinary state, there is always more or less waste of the rocks