And home to Virtue's cot returned--
These feet with angel wings shall vie,
And tread the palace of the sky!

THE BEGINNINGS OF THINGS.

EVOLUTION OF THE PIANO.

The pianoforte was directly evolved from the clavichord and the
harpsichord. In 1711, Scipione Maffei gave a detailed account of the first
four instruments, which were built by Bartolommeo Cristofori, named by him
pianoforte, and exhibited in 1709.

Marius, in France, exhibited harpsichords, with hammer action, in 1716;
and Schroter, in Germany, claimed to have invented the pianoforte between
1717 and 1721.

Marius at first was generally credited with the invention, for it was not
until 1738, when Cristofori's instruments had become famous, that the
Italian advanced his claim, and it was in 1763 that he brought forward the
proof of his contention.

Pianos of that period were shaped like the modern grand, the first square
piano being built by Freiderica, an organ builder of Saxony, in 1758. The
first genuine upright was patented in England and the United States by
John Isaac Hawkins, an Englishman, in 1800.

THE FIRST LIGHTHOUSE.

There is excellent authority for stating that the first lighthouse ever
erected for the benefit of mariners was that built by the famous architect
Sostratus, by command of Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, between
285-247 B.C. It was built near Alexandria, on an island called Pharos, and
there was expended upon it about eight hundred talents, or over a million
of dollars.

Ptolemy has been much commended by some ancient writers for his liberality
in allowing the architect to inscribe his name instead of his own. The
inscription reads: "Sostratus, son of Dexiphanes, to the protecting
deities, for the use of seafaring people." This tower was deemed one of
the seven wonders of the world and was thought of sufficient grandeur to
immortalize the builder.

It appears from Lucian, however, that Ptolemy does not deserve any praise
for disinterestedness on this score, or Sostratus any great credit for his
honesty, as it is stated that the latter, to engross in after times the
glory of the structure, caused the inscription with his own name to be
carved in the marble, which he afterward covered with lime and thereon put
the king's name.

In process of time the lime decayed, and the inscription on the marble
alone remained.

ORIGIN OF THE TYPEWRITER.

Many persons will be surprised to learn that the typewri