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ON BEAUTY AND GOOD SENSE.

LADIES often fall into the fatal error of imagining that a fine person is, in our eyes, superior to every other accomplishment; hence the lavish care bestowed on the im-. provement of exterior and perishable charms, and the neglect of solid and durable excellence; hence the long list of arts that administer to vanity and folly, the countless train of glittering accomplishments, and the scanty catalogue of truly valuable acquirements, which compose, for the most part, the modern system of fashionable female education. Yet, so far is beauty from being in our eyes an excuse for the want of a cultivated mind, that the women who are beautiful, have, in reality, a much harder task to perform than those of their sex who are not so. Even our self-love here takes part against them; we feel ashamed of being caught, like children, by mere outside, and perhaps even fall into the contrary extreme.

On the other hand, when a woman, the plainness of whose features prevented our noticing her at first, is found, upon more intimate acquaintance, to be possessed of the more solid and valuable perfections of the mind, the pleasure we feel in being so agreeably undeceived, makes her appear to still greater advantage; and we even involuntarily strive to repair the injustice we have done her, by a double portion of attention and regard.

It appears, then, that though a woman with a cultivated mind may justly hope to please, without even any superior advantages of person, the loveliest creature that ever existed, can only hope for a transitory empire, unless she unite with her beauty the more durable charm of intellectual excellence.-Anon.

PROVIDENCE.

JUST as a mother with sweet pious face,

Yearns towards her little children from her seat; Gives one a kiss, another an embrace,

Takes this upon her knees, and on her feet:

And while from actions, looks, complaints, pretences, She learns their feelings and their various will,

To this a look, to that a word dispenses,

And, whether stern or smiling, loves them still.

So Providence for us, high, infinite,
Makes our necessities its watchful task,

Hearkens to all our prayers, helps all our wants,
And evʼn if it denies what seems our right,
Either denies because 'twould have us ask,

Or seems but to deny, or in denying grants.-Anon.

THE MANUFACTURE OF PINS AND NEEDLES.

THERE is hardly any commodity cheaper than pins, and but few that pass through more hands before they come to be sold. It is reckoned that twenty-five work-people are successively employed on each pin, between the drawing of the brass-wire and the sticking the pin into the paper.

When the brass-wire, of which the pins are to be formed, is first received, it is generally too thick for the purpose of being cut into pins; it is therefore wound off from one wheel to another, with great velocity, and made to pass between the two, through a circle in a piece of iron, of small diameter. The wire is then straightened, and afterwards cut into lengths of three or four yards, and then into smaller ones, every length being sufficient to make six pins. Each end of these is ground to a point, which is performed by a boy, who sits with two small grinding stones before him, turned by a wheel. Taking up a handful, he applies the ends to the coarsest of the two stones, being careful at the same time to keep each piece moving round between his fingers, so that the points may not become flat; he then applies them to the other stone: by these means a boy of twelve or fourteen years of age is enabled to point about sixteen thousand pins in an hour. When the wire is thus pointed, a pin is taken off from each end; and this is repeated till it is cut into six pieces.

The next operation is that of forming the heads, or, as it is called head-spinning, which is done by means of a spinning-wheel, one piece of wire being thus wound round another with astonishing quickness, and the inner one being drawn out leaves a hollow tube: it is then cut with shears, every two turns of the wire forming one head; and these are softened by being thrown into iron pans, and placed in a furnace till they are red-hot. As soon as they are cool again, they are distributed to children who sit

with anvils and hammers before them, which they work with their feet by means of a lathe, and, taking up one of the lengths, they thrust the blunt end into a quantity of the heads that lie before them; and catching one at the extremity, they apply it immediately to the anvil and hammer, and by a motion or two of the foot, the point and the head are fixed together in much less time than it can be described in, and with a dexterity only to be acquired by practice, the spectator being in continual apprehension for the safety of their fingers' ends.

The pin is now finished as to its form, but still it is merely brass, and has yet to be coloured; for which purpose it is thrown into a copper containing a solution of tin and the lees of wine: here it remains for some time, and, when taken out, it assumes a white though dull appearance. To give it a polish, it is put into a tub containing a quantity of bran, which is set into motion by turning a shaft that runs through its centre, and thus, by means of friction, it becomes perfectly bright. The pin being complete, nothing remains but to separate it from the bran, which is performed by a mode exactly similar to the winnowing of corn-the bran flying off and leaving the pins behind fit for immediate sale.

The first thing in making needles is to pass the steel through a coal fire, and, by means of a hammer, to bring it into a cylindrical form. After this is done, the steel is drawn through a large hole of a wire-drawing iron, and then returned into the fire, and drawn through a second hole of the iron, smaller than the first; and so on till it has acquired the degree of fineness required. The steel being thus reduced to a fine wire, is cut into pieces of the length of the needles intended. The pieces are flattened at one end on an anvil, in order to form the head and eye; they are then softened and pierced at each extreme of the flat part, on the anvil, by a punch of well-tempered steel, and laid on a leaden block, to bring out, with another punch, the small piece of steel remaining in the eye. When the head and eye are finished, the point is formed with a file, and the whole is filed over. The needles are then laid, to heat red-hot, on a long narrow iron, crooked at one end, in a charcoal fire; and when taken out again

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they are thrown into a basin of cold water to harden They are next placed on an iron shovel on a fire more or less brisk in proportion to the thickness of the needles, taking care to move them from time to time. This serves to temper them, and take off their brittleness. They are now to be straightened, one after another, with a hammer. The next process is the polishing. To do this they take fifteen thousand needles, and range them in small heaps against each other on a piece of new buckram sprinkled with emery-dust. When the needles are thus disposed, emery-dust is thrown over them, which is again sprinkled with oil of olives; and at last the whole is made up into a roll, well bound at both ends. This roll is laid on a polishing table, and over it a thick plank, loaded with stones, which men work backward and forward for two whole days, by which means the needles become gradually polished. They are now taken out, and the filth washed off with hot water and soap. They are then wiped in hot bran, a little moistened, which is placed with the needles in a round box suspended in the air by a cord, which is kept stirring till the bran and needles are dry. The needles are afterwards sorted; the points turned one way, and smoothed with an emery-stone turned by a wheel; and this is the end of the process: nothing further remaining to be done, but to make them up in packets of 250 each.-Book of Trades

THE DISEMBODIED SPIRIT.

O SACRED star of evening, tell
In what unseen celestial sphere,
Those spirits of the perfect dwell,
Too pure to rest in sadness here.
Roam they the crystal fields of light,
O'er paths by holy angels trod,
Their robes with heavenly lustre bright,
Their home, the Paradise of God.
Soul of the just! and canst thou soar
Amid those radiant spheres sublime,
Where countless hosts of heaven adore,
Beyond the bounds of space or time?

And canst thou join the sacred choir,
Through heaven's high dome the song to raise,
Where seraphs strike the golden lyre,
In ever-during notes of praise?

Oh! who would heed the chilling blast,
That blows o'er time's eventful sea,
If bid to hail its perils past,

The bright wave of eternity!

And who the sorrows would not bear
Of such a transient world as this,
When hope displays, beyond its care,

So bright an entrance into bliss!-Peabody.

INTEGRITY.

INTEGRITY is the first moral virtue, the basis of all that is valuable in character. For suppose one was inquiring the character of a servant, and should be told that she was active, cleanly, good tempered, and possessed of a dozen other good qualities, who would reckon her character worth any thing if it must be added, "but she is not honest?" Well, then, let young people who wish to be respectable and happy through life, begin by cultivating the strictest integrity in all their dealings. By honesty, I do not mean merely abstaining from such acts as, if detected, would expose to a halter or a prison, but a nice feeling of principle that would shrink from the smallest and most secret fraud, or act of unjust gain. Show me a youth, who, if an account is made out, a shilling, or a penny in his favour, points it out, and returns it as soon as the error is detected: or, who, when tempted by companions to take some little perquisite not expressly allowed, steadily refuses to make use of the smallest part of his master's or his parent's property, without express permission; and I will show you one who possesses the first requisite to respectability and happiness. A person of another cast, who takes every little mean advantage that presents itself; who now and then takes a pinch of tea, or a sip of wine, or one apple out of a heap, or one penny out of a till, goes the way to ruin and misery. If a per

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