OWN EARTHS AND STONES. ail

T, Ay; they are avery material comfort in a climate
luke ours,—where we so often wish to let in the light,
and keep out the cold wind and rain. What could be
more gloomy, than to sit m the dark, or with no other
light than came in through small holes, covered with
oiled paper or bladder, unable to see anything passing
without doors! Yet this must have been the case
with the most sumptuous palaces, before the invention
of window-eglass, which was much later than that of
bottles and drinking-elasses.

fi, | think looking-glasses are very beautiful.

Z. ‘They are, indeed, very elegant pieccs of furniture,
and very costly, too. The art of casting glass into
large plates, big enough to reach from the bottom to
the top of a room, was some years ago introduced into
this country from France. But the most splendid and
brilhant manner of employing glass, is in lustres and
chandeliers, hung round with drops, cut so as to reflect
the hght with all the colours of the rainbow. Some
of the shops in London, filled with these articles,
appear to realize all the wonders of an enchanted
palace, in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.

G. But are not spectacles, and other optical glasses,
more useful than all these ?

7. 1 did not mean to pass them oyer, I assure you.
By the curious invention of optical glasses of various
kinds, not only the natural defects of sight have
been remedied, and old age has been in some measure
lightened of one of its calamities, but the sense of
seeing has been wonderfully extended. The telescope
has brought distant objects within our view, while the
microscope has given us a clear survey of near objects
too minute for our unassisted eyes. By means of both,
some of the most important discoveries of the moderns
have been made; so that glass has proved not less
admirable in promoting science, than in contributing
to splendeur and convenience. Since the recent re-
moval of a heavy impost on the manufacture of glass,
ercat improvements have been effected in the art; and