"Certainly, but it is far inferior to the foreign. In Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, great quantities are made annually by the poor people, who subsist by the sale of this article. I have seen British lace which has been very handsome, for instance, the black as well as the white lace gowns belonging to your mother. They will not, however, stand a comparison with the same article of foreign manufacture." "Pray, papa," said Theodore, "look at that tall thin old gentleman who is standing at the OPTICIAN'S, [Illustration: _Optician_] How woe begone he seems. I suppose he cannot find a pair of spectacles to suit his dim eyes." "And pray look at that pert young lady, who appears to be making herself merry at the old gentleman's expence," cried Emily, "I hope she is not his granddaughter. See how cunningly she looks through the glass which she holds in her hand." "She may not intend to make game of him," replied Mr. Durnford, "but young people cannot be too cautious how they take liberties with those who are so much their seniors. Perhaps, Maria, you can inform me, how telescopes were first invented. The optician has got a very good sized one on his counter." "The invention is owing rather to chance than thought," said Miss Durnford, modestly, "for if I remember right, the children of a spectacle-maker at Middleburgh, in Zealand, playing in their father's shop, held two glasses between their fingers at some distance from each other, through which the weather-cock on the steeple appeared much larger than usual, and as if near to them, but inverted. They spoke of it to their father, who instantly thought of fixing two glasses in brass circles, and placing them so as to be drawn nearer or removed, by this means he found he could see objects more distinctly." "That happened about the year 1590;" said Mr. Durnford, "but none of the telescopes there made were above eighteen inches long. The celebrated Galileo, astronomer to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, improved them; and the invention has often been ascribed to him. That was the refracting telescope, but the reflecting telescope is the invention of the great Sir Isaac Newton." "I should like to have a microscope, papa," said Theodore. "My telescope may be converted into a microscope, my dear," said his father, "by removing the object-glass to a greater distance from the eye-glass, as I will show you when we go home. It is generally supposed, that we owe the invention of them to the Hollanders, and that spectacles, so useful to the aged and the near-sighted, was first invented by a monk of Pisa. The thermometer and barometer are both very useful instruments. The former ascertains the degrees of heat, and the latter the changes of the weather." "Oh, mamma!" exclaimed Caroline, "only observe what an odd face that old woman has got, who is examining with such strict attention that nice large silk UMBRELLA.