A Table of Troy Weight.

24 grains make 1 pennyweight, 20 pennyweights 1 ounce, 12 ounces 1 pound.

The characters are,

lb. Pounds. oz. Ounces. dwts. Pennyweights.

gr. Grains. By this weight, gold, silver, bread, and some few other things, are sold. The equal parts of a pound troy, are much ike those of a shilling.

£.

s. d. grs.

4 0

0 4 0

1 dwt.

0

201

0

N. B. 100/. in gold weighs 25 oz.; in silver, 32 lb, 3 oz.

2 dwts. almost.

APOTHECARIES' WEIGHT.

3 scruples make 1 drachm, 8 drachms 1 ounce, 12 ounces 1 pound. This weight is used in medicine.

AVOIRDUPOIS WEIGHT.

16 drachms make 1 ounce, 16 ounces pound, 28 pounds 1 quarter, 4 quarters 1 hundred, 20 hundred 1 ton. By this weight most commodities are bought, and most sorts of goods sold. The equal parts of a ton are the same as of a pound sterling. The equal parts of an hundred weight

4 nails make 1 quarter, 4 quarters 1 yard, 3 quarters 1 ell Flemish, 5 quarters 1 ell English, 6 quarters 1 French ell. LONG MEASURE.

3 barley-corns make 1 inch, 12 inches 1 foot, 3 feet 1 yard, 5 yards or 16 feet 1 pole or perch, 40 poles 1 furlong, 8 fur longs 1 mile, 69 miles 1 degree.

DRY MEASURE.

2 pints make 1 quart, 2 quarts 1 pottle, 2 pottles 1 gallon, 2 gallons 1 peck, 4 pecks 1 bushel, 8 bushels 1 quarter, 5 quarters 1 wey, 2 1 last. This is the corn measure which is weys struck with a roller even with the edge of the measure. But the coal measure differs from it, being larger and heaped up. Here 9 bushels make 1 vat, 4 vats one chaldron, 21 chaldrons one score. There are some other dry measures, which particular goods are sold by; as, fruit by the sieve of 3 pecks; pricket, or prickle, of 7 pecks; mound of 1 or of 2 bushels, &c. WINE MEASURE.

pints,

8 pints make 1 gallon, 63 gallons 1 hogshead, 2 hogsheads 1 pipe or butt, 2 butts 1 ton. There are other wine measures both small and large; as, gills or pints, half gills or &c., the tierce of 42 gallons, anker of 10 gallons, and many others. Oil is sometimes sold by wine measure, but generally by weight avoirdupois, 7 lb. to the gallon.

BEER AND ALE MEASURE.

4 quarts make one gallon, 4 gallons 1 pinn, 8 gallons 1 firkin of ale, 2 pinns 1 firkin of beer, 2 firkins 1 kilderkin, 2 kilderkins 1 barrel, 1 barrel 1 hogshead, 2 barrels 1 puncheon, 2 hogsheads 1 butt. So the barrel of ale is 32 gallons, and the barrel of beer 36 gallons, the other measures being in proportion.

TIME.

60 minutes make one hour, 24 hours 1 day, 28 days I month; 13 months, 1 day, 6 hours, or 365 days 6 hours, 1 year. The 6 hours, every fourth year, add one day to the shortest of the calendar months, called February; and that fourth year is called leap-year. The calendar months differ in their number of days; for in common,

Thirty days hath September,

April, June, and November.
February hath twenty-eight alone,
All the rest have thirty-one;

Except in leap-year, then's the time

February days are twenty and nine.

A

SELECT FABLES.

FABLE I.

DOG seeing a bull grazing in a field, furiously assaults him without any provocation.

The bull, disliking such treatment, tossed the dog over his head, saying "Dare not to approach me once more, lest thy life pay for thy presumption.'

The dog replies, "I fear not thy threats: I am not intimidated by thy pretended courage; I am bred to conquer or die."

The bull enraged, replies, "Then take thy fate: thy folly is thy ruin: thy breeding has undone thee: thy education causes thy destruction." Thus saying he immediately killed him.

MORAL.

Education makes or mars the man; youth well instructed will hardly err; but if vice be suffered to take root, it is almost impossible to eradicate it. Nothing has a more direct tendency to promote the honour of a nation, or the good of society, than the initiation of youth in virtue and knowledge. This is laying a sure foundation for time to come; this is giving our children a portion that can never waste; and this is leaving them an inheritance that will out-last time, and vie with eternity.

On the other hand, the want of a good education is the source of all the evils mankind feel or fear. If virtuous principles are not carefully instilled in the tender minds of children, vice will naturally possess them; the consequence of which is ruin and destruction.

Therefore, if there be any regard to the glory of God who first gave us a being, any desire to promote the welfare of society, or any

concern for the spiritual or temporal happiness of our offspring, let a virtuous education of youth be our care; that our sons may grow up as the young plants, and that our daughters may be as the polished corners of the temple. Alexander the Great had such an extraordinary value and esteem for his education, that he used to say, He was more obliged to Aristotle, his tutor, for his learning, than to Philip, his father, for his life: seeing the one was momentary, and the other permanent, and never to be blotted out in oblivion.

Never was a virtuous education of youth more needful than in the present age, when such a general corruption of manners has overspread our land, that even reality is become a rarity, and virtue, by excommunication, is dead in law.

A soul without education is like marble in a quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties, till the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein that runs through the body of it. Education, after the same manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which, without such help, are never able to make their appearance.

THE SICK MISER AND THE ANGEL.

ARICH and covetous man being sick, and near his death,

surveys and reflects on his past actions.

And considering how, by oppression and extortion, he had amassed large sums, endeavours to atone for his injustice by a death-bed charity.

He makes his will, and bequeaths large sums to be applied to pious uses, but not a penny was to be paid till after his decease.

An angel appears to him, and tells him, What he gave thus was not charity, because he parted with nothing he could keep; but if he would do good, it must be in his life-time.

The miser, perplexed, still grasps his wealth, till death forces him to let go his hold.

MORAL.

Of all the vices mankind are subject to, none is of so long continuance as covetousness. All others leave us, or we leave them, when old age overtakes us; but this (too often) goes with us from this world to the next. It is surprising to consider, that a person labouring under the infirmities incident to ancient people, and seeming to draw very near the grave, should still carp and be anxious for what can by no means be serviceable, and which if acquired, must very soon be parted with. This is like a thief robbing at the gallows, or a shipwrecked mariner loading himself with weights, that more speedily will sink him. But such is the restless temper of many persons, they can never be satisfied, though they enjoy more than enough.

Augustus represented the folly and unreasonableness of this vice to his favourite, Mæcenas, by shewing him that six feet in length and two feet in breadth, of earth, was the whole portion of the greatest monarch.

Nevertheless, riches, when honestly acquired, and religiously applied, are the greatest blessings; they enable the possessor of them to do much good in the world, by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, instructing the ignorant, reclaiming the vicious, and many other ways they capacitate him to be the instrument of God's honour, by being a public benefactor to mankind. But when riches are got

ten by dishonest means, and applied to wicked purposes, they are then a great evil, as being capable of doing very much mischief. However acquired, they ought to be rightly used; either justly, in sa tisfying the demands of those who have a property in them; or charitably, by distribution to those who need them. And never to be coveted for their own sake, nor hoarded for our humour; but religiously managed for the glory of Him who gave them.

"For misers do tormented lie:
They wish to live, and fear to die."

FABLE III.

THE FARMER AND JUPITER.

AFARMER, having no children, prays to Jupiter, who

grants his request, by giving him two sons and a daughter. Not yet content, he prays again, that they may be rich, great, and fair, to which Jove consents.

The first son grows vastly rich, but withal extremely covetous. The second becomes the favourite of his prince, whereby he