2. Silver is a white metal; heavy, sonorous, brilliant, and very ductile. It is found in the greatest abandance in South America.

3. Copper is of a red colour; very sonorous and elastic, and the most ductile of all the metals, except gold. It is found in various parts of the world; but particularly in Sweden.*

4. Iron is universally and largely diffused throughout nature; pervading almost every thing: being the chief cause of colour in earths and stones, and existing in vegetables and animal fluids.

Though the cheapest, it is by far the most useful of all metals.

When placed for some time in contact with redhot charcoal, it becomes much harder and more elastic; and is then called steel: and when suspended perpendicularly for a considerable period, or acted on by intense friction, it acquires the property of the magnet.

5. Lead is very heavy; of a livid white colour, and the softest of all metals. It is extensively used in making paints; producing grey, white, red, or brown, according to the quantity of oxygen with which it is brought in contact. It is found in the greatest abundance in England.

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6. Tin is a white, fusible metal, neither so hard as silver, nor so soft as lead. The tin mines in Cornwall and Devonshire (England) furnish the greatest part of all the tin consumed in Europe.*

7. Mercury or quicksilver is a fluid matter, re* sembling melted silver.

In the temperature of our atmosphere, it is neither ductile nor malleable. It is the heaviest of all metals, gold and platina excepted; is in a high degree volatile, and extremely fluid; easily adhereş to gold, less readily to silver, with difficulty to copper, but to iron not at all.

Q. What of the diamond, and other precious stones?

A. The diamond, called by the ancients, adamant; the most valuable of all the precious stones. Its goodness consists in its water or colour, lustre and weight. It is found chiefly in the mines of Golconda in Hindoostan, is the hardest of all gems, and can be cut only by itself.

The ruby is next to the diamond in value, and is of a crimson colour, inclining to purple.

The garnet is very like the ruby, and perhaps is of the same species.

The hyacinth is sometimes of a deep red, and sometimes of a yellow, colour.

Six pounds of brass, with fifteen pounds of lead, and a hundred pounds of tịn, make the composition called pewter.

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The emerald is a grass green.
The beryl, a sea, or bluish, green.
The sapphire, a sky blue.
The topaz or chrysolite is of a gold colour.

All these are transparent; but the corneliun, which is of a pale red or orange colour; the onyx, of a grayish cast; the turquoise, between a blue and a green; and the lapis lazuli, which is studded witla spots of gold on an azure ground; are opaque, or only half transparent.

Q. What do you know of the magnet or loadstone?

A. That it is found in iron mines in several parts of the world: as, China, Arabia, Bengal, Hungary, Germany, and England; and that it resembles the ore of iron in appearance, but is closer and more ponderous. It powerfully attracts iron, to which it also communicates the same attractive power; and every magnet, however small or divided, has two poles, one of which points to the north and the other to the south. The discovery of the virtues of this stone is of the highest importance to naviga tion and commerce.

RHETORIC AND ORATORY.

Q. What is meant by rhetoric?

A. Rhetoric, or oratory, is the art of speaking justly, methodically, and elegantly, upon any subject; so as to instruct, persuade, and please. A speech made according to the rules of this art, is called ant Oration, and the speaker an Orator.

Q. Whence, is the word rhetoric derived?

A. From a Greek word (rhetoriche] of the same signification.

Q. What are the qualifications requisite for excelling in this art?

A. A good orator must be eminent for invention, disposition, memory, gesture, and elocution.

Q. Please to explain the purport of each.

A. Invention is the talent of forming, or selecting, such arguments, for the proving or illustrating of a subject, as will move the passions, and conciliate or instruct the minds of the hearers.

Disposition is the arrangement of the arguments, in the most orderly and advantageous manner.

Gesture is the natural, or the artificial, accommodation of the attitude to the several parts of a discourse; the "suiting of the action to the word.”

Elocution is the art of expressing our ideas in a clear and distinct manner, and in harmonious, appropriate language.*

Q. How many parts has an oration?

A. Five; the exordium, narration, confirmation, refutation, and peroration.

Q. Explain each of these.

A. The exordium, or preamble, is the beginning of the discourse; serving to gain the good opinion of the hearers; to secure their attention, and to give them a general notion of the subject. It ought to be clear, modest, and not too prolix.

The narration is a recital of the facts as they happened; or, as they are supposed to have happened. It ought to be perspicuous, probable, concise, and (on most subjects) entertaining.

• Elocution comprises,

Ist. Composition or the grammatical arrangement, plain. ness, and propriety of language.

2d. Elegance; which consists in the purity, perspicuity, and politeness of language, and is gained chiefly by stu. dying the most correct writers, conversing with polite, well informed people, and making frequent and careful essays in composition.

3d. Dignity; which adorns language with sublime thoughts, rhetorical figures, &c.