their believing that a great goose, which weighs (I have it written down here) about five pounds, and measures more than two feet in length, and nearly four feet and a half in breadth, "came out of this little shell!"

"But Lucy," said her mother, "I do not think that is the incredible part of the story."

"No, mamma! don't you indeed?"

"I do not. Do not the common geese you see every day, come from an egg almost as much less than the full-grown bird, as the barnacle shell is less than the barnacle goose?"

"That is true to be sure," said Lucy, "great birds come from small eggs, we see. But then, mother, the wonder is that the bird should come from the shell of a fish."

"Now you have it, Lucy," cried Harry. "And why should not that be believed?" said their mother.

"Oh, mamma! and do you really believe it?” cried Lucy.

"I do not recollect telling you that I believed it," replied her mother, smiling. "But I asked you your reason for disbelieving; unless you can give some reason for your belief or your disbelief, you are not wiser than the poor people you have been laughing at."

"That is perfectly true," said Harry; "but I did not think of it till mamma said 30."

"My reason for not believing it," said Lucy, "is, that it is contrary to all we ever heard or read of the history of birds or fishes."

"That is a good reason," said her mother: "all that we know of their history is from observation, or from reading the observations of others; and all the means we have of judging whether any new fact we hear related be true or false, must be from comparing it with former established facts, and considering whether it agrees with them or not."

"Yes, mamma, I understand," said Lucy; "also by considering whether it

agrees or not with what are called the laws of nature."

"And what do you mean, my dear, by the laws of nature?" said her mother.

"The laws of nature," repeated Lucy, to gain time. "Oh, mamma! you know what I mean by the laws of nature; you only ask that to puzzle me."

"No, my dear Lucy, I ask it only that you may not puzzle yourself; that you may not use words without clearly understanding their meaning."

"Is not the laws of nature a good expression, mamma?" said Lucy.

"A very good expression for those who understand what they mean by it," said her mother; "but no expression can be good for those who do not. To them it expresses nothing."

Lucy thought for some time, and then said, "Harry, do you try, you can explain it better."

"You mean by the laws of nature," said Harry, "things or circumstances, which have been known regularly and constantly

to happen about animals, and vegetables, and minerals, and all things in nature. I cannot express it quite, mother. But, for instance, it is a law of nature that the earth turns round every twenty-four hours."

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Yes, that the sun rises every morning,' said Lucy. "And in the same way it may be said to be a law of nature, mamma, that birds do not come of fishes' shells."

"Very well, between you, you have explained pretty nearly what is meant by the laws of nature," said their mother.

"What, from the beginning of the world, was never in any instance known to happen, we do not believe can happen," said Harry, "I mean in nature. And yet," continued he, "new facts are discovered, which sometimes prove, that what was thought to be quite true, and a settled law of nature, is not so."

"But," said Lucy, "to go back to the barnacle goose tree. Harry, suppose that you and I had lived in Queen Elizabeth's days, and in Lancashire, and near that

island of geese, do not you think that we should have believed in the goose-tree?"

"I hope not," said Harry, "but I am not sure."

"Suppose that a great many people had told you, that they were sure there was such a tree," said Lucy, "what would you have said then?"

"I would have asked whether they had seen it themselves, or whether they had only heard of it from others," said Harry, "I would have questioned the people separately, and have observed whether they all agreed or disagreed in their answers. And, above all, I would have gone to the place, and would have examined the barnacle shells with my own eyes. Then I think I should have perceived, that what people had mistaken for feathers of a bird, were the membranes, or, what do you call them, Lucy? tentacula of a fish. I would have returned at different times of the year, to watch what became of the barnacles, and then I think I should have found the truth."