Less regard should be paid to what he
says than to the motive which leads him to speak. This caution,
heretofore unnecessary, is of the utmost importance as soon as a child
begins to reason.

There is a chain of general truths by which all sciences are linked to
common principles and successively unfolded. This chain is the method
of philosophers, with which, for the present, we have nothing to do.
There is another, altogether different, which shows each object as the
cause of another, and always points out the one following. This order,
which, by a perpetual curiosity, keeps alive the attention demanded by
all, is the one followed by most men, and of all others necessary with
children. When, in making our maps, we found out the place of the
east, we were obliged to draw meridians. The two points of
intersection between the equal shadows of night and morning furnish an
excellent meridian for an astronomer thirteen years old. But these
meridians disappear; it takes time to draw them; they oblige us to work
always in the same place; so much care, so much annoyance, will tire
him out at last. We have seen and provided for this beforehand.

I have again begun upon tedious and minute details. Readers, I hear
your murmurs, and disregard them. I will not sacrifice to your
impatience the most useful part of this book. Do what you please with
my tediousness, as I have done as I pleased in regard to your
complaints.

The Juggler.

For some time my pupil and I had observed that different bodies, such
as amber, glass, and wax, when rubbed, attract straws, and that others
do not attract them. By accident we discovered one that has a virtue
more extraordinary still,--that of attracting at a distance, and
without being rubbed, iron filings and other bits of iron. This
peculiarity amused us for some time before we saw any use in it. At
last we found out that it may be communicated to iron itself, when
magnetized to a certain degree. One day we went to a fair, where a
juggler, with a piece of bread, attracted a duck made of wax, and
floating on a bowl of water. Much surprised, we did not however say,
"He is a conjurer," for we knew nothing about conjurers. Continually
struck by effects whose causes we do not know, we were not in haste to
decide the matter, and remained in ignorance until we found a way out
of it.

When we reached home we had talked so much of the duck at the fair that
we thought we would endea