blossom from the bud, stimulate us to deeds of love, and ripen in us the fruit of universal charity; so that the New Year may begin in the light, and the warmth, the joy, and the gladness of Him who is ever near us, and who is especially beside us in our deeds of love.

There is, too, another way of looking at the opening of a New Year. Who can see a New Year opening upon him without considering what may be the end of it? The Book of the year is unwritten,-its pages are blank; they may be filled either with a fair and beautiful moral caligraphy, or, like some of my young friends' "copy-books," be "blurred and blotted" with errors and slovenly carelessness. It is yours,-aye, and mine too,-for PETER PARLEY does not mind putting himself among boys and girls in such a case, to endeavour to make the coming year better than the last. To IMPROVE OUR TIME is the duty of old as well as young. I am a poor, ricketty old man, while you are in the bud of your lives. We are not, it is true, to think that in our own strength we can do anything; but we know that God always helps us when we strive to do right; and the more we strive, the more he helps us. So let us go on, my young friends, in His strength-striving and doing; and while we strive, and dare, still let our motto be-"LAUS DEO."

Industrial Arts. But I left a few for the present Volume, and these few are among the most important. They embrace the subjects of Glass-making, and some other manufactures. The Manufacture of Glass is highly interesting, and I shall, therefore, lay before my readers a full account of this highly useful material, and the means which are used, in the present day, to bring it to its astonishing perfection, as we see it in the large beautiful plate glass in our windows, or in the beautiful imitation of gems and diamonds found at the jewellers. Of all the articles made by human skill, there is not one more beautiful or interesting.

CONTAINING

THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS.

SOMETHING

ABOUT ITS HISTORY; EGYPTIAN,

ROMAN, AND ANCIENT BRITISH GLASS; AND OF THE VARIOUS MODES OF GLASS MAKING.

It is very difficult to ascertain the period of the invention of glass. Glass, of a rude kind, has been found by Mr. Layard in the ruins of Nimroud; it has also been found in the Pyramids. Pliny informs us that Sidon was the first city distinguished for its glass-works, and that glass, as a distinct manufacture, was introduced into Rome in the reign of Tiberius. But the Egyptians had, before this, carried the art of glass-making to some perfection, performing many difficult operations in glass-cutting, and manufacturing cups of glass of astonishing purity. The ancients also used glass to ornament their rooms, but it was not made transparent, and blocks of glass, used for paving, have been found of the thickness of a common-sized brick. The ancient Britons had beads and rings of glass, which were common to them at the time of Cæsar's invasion. The Britons valued them greatly, and they are supposed to have been worn round the neck as a charm against disease or misfortune. It is thought that they had them from the Phoenicians, with whom they traded.

There is a story related by Pliny, the naturalist, who lived about seventy-nine years after Christ, which, if true, would seem to furnish us with the origin of the invention of glass. It is as follows:-Some merchants, being shipwrecked on the sandy shore of the river Belus, in Syria, had occasion to dress

their food by a fire kindled on the white glittering sand. A plant called "kali" grew there in great abundance, and was probably made use of to boil the kettle. It was, of course,

burned to ashes. These ashes mixing with the sand which had been melted by the heat of the fire, produced a substance believed to have been till then unknown. This substance was Glass.

In the middle ages, the Phoenician processes were learned by the Crusaders, and transferred to Venice in the 13th century, where they were long held secret, and formed a lucrative mercantile monopoly. Soon after the middle of the 16th century, Colbert enriched France with the blown mirror glass manufacture. The window-glass manufacture was first begun in England in 1557, in Crutched Friars, London, and fine articles of flint-glass were soon after made in the Savoy House, Strand. In 1635, the art received a great improvement from Sir Robert Mansell, by the use of coal for fuel instead of wood. The first sheets of blown glass for lookingglasses and coach windows were made in 1673, at Lambeth, by Venetian citizens employed under the patronage of the Duke of Buckingham. The casting of mirror plates was commenced in France about the year of our revolution, 1688, by Abraham Thevost. But this kind of plate has been for some time rivalled by the English. The Bohemian and German glass have various degrees of perfection, and we have seen in the National Exhibition whether these can rival the productions of our own country.

The word glass is derived from an old German word, and is connected with gleissen, to shine, and with the English word, glisten, and with glace, the French for ice. I need not say

that its manufacture is now brought to a high degree of perfection in this country.

Glass is made by melting silicious earth or sand with alkaline substances, and a metallic oxide, at a white heat. Sand, soda, and lead are the three ingredients usually employed, in certain proportions, and with various modifications.

There are five different and distinct qualities of glass manu. factured for domestic purposes in England. 1. Flint glass. 2. Crown or sheet glass. 3. Broad or common window glass. 4. Bottle or common green glass. 5. Plate glass. We shall consider the manufacture of them separately.

The English glass manufactories, or glass-houses, as they are commonly called, are large conical buildings, rising from 50 to 80 feet in diameter, and from 60 to 100 feet high, terminating in a chimney. The interior is dome-shaped, and supported on arches. Flues are constructed under these for the admission of atmospheric air, which rising through the holes in the centre of the floor of the furnace, the flames are made to envelop the pots, and thence pass on to the chimney, issuing from the centre of the dome.

ON THE MANUFACTURE OF FLINT GLASS.

Flint glass, known to foreign countries under the name of crystal, is the beautiful compound whereof the finest articles designed for domestic use or ornament are made. It is the most costly, the most brilliant, and the one most easily fashioned by the hand of the workman. One of the most celebrated manufactories is that of Messrs. Pellatt, Holland