alileo, then a youth of only eighteen, noting it attentively,
conceived the idea of applying it to the measurement of time.

Fifty years of study and labor, however, elapsed before he completed
the invention of his pendulum,--an invention the importance of which,
in the measurement of time and in astronomical calculations, can
scarcely be overvalued.

While Captain Brown was occupied in studying the construction of
bridges, he was walking in his garden one dewy morning, when he saw a
tiny spider's-net suspended across his path. The idea occurred to him,
that a bridge of iron ropes might be constructed in like manner, and
the result was the invention of his Suspension Bridge.

So trifling a matter as a straw may indicate which way the wind blows.
It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of
success in business, in art, in science and in every other pursuit in
life.

LESSON XLVIII

THE AFFECTION AND REVERENCE DUE A MOTHER

What an awful state of mind must a man have attained, when he can
despise a mother's counsel! Her name is identified with every idea
that can subdue the sternest mind; that can suggest the most profound
respect, the deepest and most heartfelt attachment, the most unlimited
obedience. It brings to the mind the first human being that loved us,
the first guardian that protected us, the first friend that cherished
us; who watched with anxious care over infant life, whilst yet we were
unconscious of our being; whose days and nights were rendered wearisome
by her anxious cares for our welfare; whose eager eye followed us
through every path we took; who gloried in our honor; who sickened in
heart at our shame; who loved and mourned, when others reviled and
scorned; and whose affection for us survives the wreck of every other
feeling within. When her voice is raised to inculcate religion, or to
reprehend irregularity, it possesses unnumbered claims of attention,
respect and obedience. She fills the place of the eternal God; by her
lips that God is speaking; in her counsels He is conveying the most
solemn admonitions; and to disregard such counsel, to despise such
interference, to sneer at the wisdom that addresses you, or the aged
piety that seeks to reform you, is the surest and the shortest path
which the devil himself could have opened for your perdition. I know
no grace that can have effect; I know not any authority upon earth to
which you will listen, when once you