to answer these conditions; and all of these are now used more or less in paper-making. The combination of flexible fibers by which paper is produced, depends on the minute subdivision of the fibers, and their subsequent cohesion. The rags used are chiefly cotton and linen. Woolen rags are no longer used for the purpose, on account of their increased value for making into shoddy, and for manure. Cotton is used in the manufacture of paper, not only in the form of rags, but also in the form of waste or sweepings from spinning-mills. Before the rags or other materials can be made into paper, they must be torn or cut into minute particles, so small that they form a pulp with water. A sheet of paper is a thin layer of this pulpy matter, mixed with some kind of glue or size to give it firmness, and then dried. Paper is made either by the hand or by machinery. When it is made by the hand, the pulp is placed in a stone vat, in which revolves an agitator, which keeps the fibrous particles equally diffused throughout the mass; and the workman is provided with a mold, which is a square frame with a fine wire bottom, resembling a sieve, of the size of the intended sheet. These molds are sometimes made with the wires lying all one wayexcept a few which are placed at intervals cross-wise to bind the others together-and sometimes with the wires crossing each other as in a woven fabric. Paper made with molds of the former kind is said to be laid, and that made with those of the latter kind, wove. The two kinds can easily be distinguished by the difference of their appearance when they are held up to the light. Spell and pronounce: -aloe, admirably, era, mold, adhere, agitator, pulp, cleansing, conversion, sieve, reticule, fiber, cohesion, fabrication, subsequent, and Japanese. Synonyms.-apparent—visible; distinct; plain; obvious; clear; certain; evident; manifest; indubitable; notorious. diffuseexpand; spread; circulate; extend; scatter; disperse; publish; proclaim. remnant - residue; rest; remains; remainder. qualed-unrivaled; surpassing; unparalleled. une LESSON XIX. hāʼlō, a circle of light. to tǎl'i tỷ, the whole sum. quí ès’çent, still; not moving. disk, flat circular surface. Єo rō'nȧ, a crown-like margin. THE SUN. A total eclipse of the sun was visible in the United States in the year 1878. Astronomers gathered from all parts of the world to witness it. Instruments were made use of which were unknown on similar occasions before. Moreover, every man had a limited share of work assigned him to do in the few minutes during which the totality lasted; and thus a more complete series of observations was obtained than ever before from a single eclipse. During a total eclipse, the sun appears surrounded by a red envelope, from four to five thousand miles in height, consisting of hydrogen and other gases, from which vast masses of glowing vapor are given off with more or less frequency. These masses, or prominences as they are called, rise like huge jets, sometimes to a height of eighty thousand miles. Then they bend back and fall like water from a fountain on the surface of the sun. The prominences are regarded as true solar eruptions, as if from a gigantic volcano, and during periods of their greatest activity, have been known to eject matter to a height of two hundred thousand miles. The ejected material, or at least its outer coating, consists of glowing hydrogen gas. Beyond this vast envelope, lies the halo of light, or corona, which, during a total eclipse, is seen to radiate in all directions from the black disk of the moon. This halo has been shown to be a true appendage of the sun; and consists chiefly of minute solid or liquid particles in a state of incandescence. In 1878, the red envelope of the sun was seen to be remarkably quiescent. Solar eruptions were few and insignificant; while the corona, instead of having the ruddy appearance which it presented in the eclipse of 1869, shone with a faint white light. A similar quiescence was observed on the surface of the sun, as indicated by the scarcity of sunspots; so that it seems certain that a close connection exists between the condition of the sun's surface, as indicated by its spots, and these great appendages. The spectroscope, which ranks next to the telescope in the service which it has rendered to astronomy, has made us aware of the presence in the sun of a large number of the same elements with which we are familiar on our earth. Thus, traces have been found of the presence in the sun of iron, copper, zinc, nickel, and other metals; while it seems certain that the gas hydrogen appears to exist in enormous abundance both in the sun and its immediate surroundings. The substances hitherto found to be constituents of the sun are all metals; and it has now been proved that hydrogen also is a metal existing in the gaseous state, just as mercury, although liquid, is certainly metallic. More recently, traces of oxygen also have been found in the great source of light. How surprising that science has bridged over the distance of more than ninety millions of miles, which separates us from the sun, so far as to enable us to know what is passing on its surface, and the elements of which its body is composed! Spell and pronounce : — gigantic, metallic, particles, eclipse, prominence, appendage, liquid, frequency, insignificant, traces, minute, constituent, gaseous, scarcity, ejected, and astronomer. Synonyms.-total-whole; entire; complete; integral. assigned— appointed; allotted; apportioned; designated; specified. appendage—addition; adjunct; concomitant. enormous-huge; vast; immense; excessive; prodigious. abundance-exuberance; plenteousness; plenty; copiousness; overflow; riches; affluence; wealth. LESSON XX. dō'tage, childishness of old age. de tē'ri o rā'tion, state of growing worse. ĕ'go tist, one who repeats the word “I” too frequently. ex těm' po rā'ne oùs, composed without previous study. păr'a dŏx'ie al, contradictory; seeming to be absurd though true. CONFESSIONS OF A DRUNKARD. Twelve years ago I had completed my six-andtwentieth year. I had lived from the period of leaving school to that time pretty much in solitude. My companions were chiefly books, or at most, one or two living ones of my own book-loving and sober stamp. I rose early, went to bed betimes; and the faculties which God had given me, I had reason to think, did not rust in me unused. About that time I fell in with some boisterous spirits, sitters-up a-nights, disputants, drunken; yet they seemed to have something noble about them. We dealt about the wit, or what passes for it after midnight, jovially. Of the quality called fancy, I certainly possessed a larger share than my companions. Encouraged by their applause, I set up for a professed joker! I, who of all men am least fitted for such an occupation, having, in addition to the greatest difficulty which I experience at all times of finding words to express my meaning, a natural nervous impediment of speech. Reader, if you are gifted with nerves like mine, aspire to any character but that of a wit. When you find a tickling relish upon your tongue, disposing you to that sort of a conversation, especially if you find a preternatural flow of ideas setting in upon you at the sight of a bottle and fresh glasses, avoid giving way to it as you would fly to your greatest destruction. If you cannot crush the power of fancy, or that within you which you mistake for such, divert it; give it some other play. Write an essay, pen a character or description-but not, as I do now, with tears trickling down your cheeks. To be an object of compassion to friends, of derision to foes; to be suspected by strangers, stared at by fools; to be esteemed dull when you cannot be witty; to be applauded for witty when you know that you have been dull; to be called upon for the extemporaneous exercise of that faculty which no premeditation can give; to be spurred on to efforts which end in contempt; to be set on to provoke mirth which procures the procurer hatred; to give pleasure, and be paid with squinting malice; to swallow draughts of life-destroying wine which are to be distilled into airy breaths to tickle vain |