BITS FROM BOOKS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 8, Issue 29, 9 April 1907, Page 8

BITS FROM BOOKS.

An Easy Mind. - He that loses his conscience lias nothing loft that is worth keeping Therefore be sure you look to that. And in the next place, look to your haAllh ; and if you have it praise God, and value the bless ; ng of health next to a good conscience.

Never Make Fun of Nervous Chil-dren,--A word about nervous children Never scold them nor ",make fun” of them. They suffer enough without your threats Ur sarcasm. Pretend not to see their awkwardness when in company nor their grimaces when alone. A case was reported the other day of a boy of ten years who, on being vexed, and often without any apparent provocation, will clench his hands and make the most frightful contortions of the muscles of his face and head till his poor mother fears he is idiotic. By no means. He is lire brightest boy in his class at school, fond of reading and of natural history, but he is ol a highly nervous temperament, and has not been taught to control the little wires, so to speak, on which he is strung. This is no single case. There are thousands of children who give way to their nerves in similar fashion. Talk to them about these curious little fellows that should be their servants, not their masters. Never whip them. The man or woman who whips a nervous child is on a level with brutes that have no reason. Encourage them. Help thorn, Be patient with them. They arc the making of tmr future successful men and women, for they will work hard at whatever they undertake. Brace up your own nerves first, and then be indulgent towards the capers of your over-nervous children,— Uoston Globe.

Manual Training, Manual training Multiplies opportunities for personal experience and contact with external realities. One gains not by personal experience alone I lie experience of the race is recorded in established methods and in the appliances of practical arts. The antiquarian sees in a flint arrow-head a chapter of ethnology ; in a rusty coin an era in classical history. What must the student's of civilization see in a circular saw, an engine-lathe, a locomotive engine, in an ocean steamer? To the untaught and unexperienced the arrowhead and the coin are refuse; the saw is a frightful and dangerous thing; the lathe is a stupid machine, which does work with precision because it cannot help it; the locomotive is an awful and inexorable mystery; the ocean steamer is a grand and inexplicable phenomenon, as beyond explanation as the ocean itself. But give one a skilful teacher, with a knowledge not only of things but of the student mind, and all these exponents of human thought, these monuments of human progress, become transfigured ; they are luminous with the bright record of past experience. Manual training labours to give the pupil the results of human experience along certain lines. The various laboratories of mechanics, physics, chemistry, and drawing give him a modicum of personal experience, by means of which bo may subseqently interpret and appropriate the experience of others.—" Manual Training." By C. M. Woodward.

Melbourne and the Queen. The Prime Minister was 58 years of age, a man of the world, and at the same time the soul of honour. His temperament was sympathetic, he had a passion for female society, and he had no one of his own to love, He was devotedly attached to the Queen. He regarded her with almost parental affection, and for her sake accustomed himself to a mode of life which in other circumstances would have been felt as an intolerable " bore." His manner to the Queen was marked by most respectful deference. Without a trace of obsequiousness his demeanour had all the effect of the most winning and graceful flattery, differing from it only in being perfectly sincere. The discipline was morally useful to him in many ways. It obliged him to prune his speech of all needless expletives. In the Queen’s presence he took care to speak only the Queen’s English. Melbourne lived at the Castle. He was in constant attendance upon the Queen, At his farewell interview with her, on the fall of his Ministry, he could say that for the previous four years he had seen her every day, Every morning 'efore breakfast he took her the despatches 0 read. After lunch he almost invariably rode out with her, one of a numerous cavalcade, but taking his place next to her. At dinner in the evening he was always present when his Parliamentary duties permitted. and his seat at the table was next to hers, on the left. It was a permanent arrangement. He took in the lady-in-wait-ing in order that he might sit next the Queen, and if public business required his temporary absence, the place was kept vacant for him. It is not easy to see how any " gap" could exist between the Queen and Melbourne, and we may take it for granted that there was none. Stockmar’s biographer says: " Lord Melbourne was strongly devoted to the Queen; and even warmly attached to her personally. Ho initiated her in public affairs in the most easy and kindly manner. She, on the other hand, placed in him an almost filial confidence."—" Lord Melbourne." By llenru Diuwkley, M.A., L.L.D.

Tnu Law ok Growth—The rule of growth is that l a child should increase 2 lb. in weight lor every inch in height between 3 It, and 4 ft., and lb. for every inch between 4 ft. and 5 ft. Any child more than 7 lb. below the weight here given should be examined medically. A remarkable fad that comes out from the tables is that the boys at the public schools and young men at the Universities, and entering the public service, at Home called the upper classes, average about 3 in. taller, and from 6 lb. to 20 lb. heavier, than boys in tls® Board Schools ( and young apprentices amy workmen. Iwo causes may be assigned for this —first, heredity, the one springing from ialler parents ; and, secondly, favourable surroundings. Deficient and improper food, town air, laborious work at early ages, all stunt the growth, livery one knows how a change from close town to free country life, with plenty of exercise, stimulates growth. I have seen three and a half inches thus produced in four months where all means in town had signally failed before. A good uilc for predicting future height is that if live feet is passed between ten and eleven years of age, the child will be tall ; if between thirteen and fourteen, of medium stature ; if not till fifteen, he will be short Increase of weight is also largely due to climate. I remember an exceedingly slim and elegant young lady coming to the north of London from the West of Ireland. In a lew weeks there was trouble with the dresses, and this continued, for the girl soon got so stout as to quite lose her elegant I lor irpnds were in despair. Banting was tried, bu still she grew apace. Circumstances a( diis time required her return to Connanghl, and in two months’ time when she had got thoroughly soaked again in that humid climate, she wrote in triumph that the odious fat had all disappeared and her beautiful figure returned. Again she came to London, and as she gradually dried f lowed troubles with the drosses began and at last the question became urgent vlubber she would he dry and stout in London, or damp and elegant in Ireland It is to say she at once chose the h 1 *'' j,.c. has nor been to town since, Dr VL. ■ 'vt iat "Leisure Honr.''