_S----_ admired Hugh Trevor for this extremely.
The farmer in his lucid intervals is extremely penitent, but his fit of rage seizes him again one morning when he sees some milk boiling over. He flies at Hugh Trevor, and stabs him with a clasp knife, with which he had been cutting bread and cheese; the knife is stopped by half a crown which Hugh Trevor had sewed in his waistcoat; _this half crown he had found on the highway a few days before_.
It was doubted by Miss M. S----, whether this last was a proper circumstance to be told to children, because it might lead them to be dishonest.
The evening after Mr. ---- had read the story, he asked S---- to repeat it to him. S---- remembered it, and told it distinctly till he came to the half crown; at this circumstance he hesitated. He said he did not know how Hugh Trevor "_came to keep it_," though he had found it. He wondered that Hugh Trevor did not ask about it.
_Mr. ----_ explained to him, that when a person finds any thing upon the highway, he should put it in the hand of the public crier, who should _cry it_. Mr. ---- was not quite certain whether the property found on the high road, after it has been _cried_ and no owner appears, belongs to the king, or to the person who finds it. Blackstone's Commentaries were consulted; the passage concerning _Treasuretrove_ was read to S----; it is written in such distinct language, that he understood it completely.
Young people may acquire much knowledge by consulting books, at the moment that any interest is excited by conversation upon particular subjects.
Explanations about the _law_ were detailed to S----, because he was intended for a lawyer. In conversation we may direct the attention of children to what are to be their professional studies, and we may associate entertainment and pleasure with the idea of their future profession.
The story of the passionate farmer in Hugh Trevor was thought to be a good lesson for children of vivacious tempers, as it shows to what crimes excess of passion may transport. This man appears an object of compassion; all the children felt a mixture of pity and abhorrence when they heard the history of his disease.
(November 23d, 1795.) This morning at breakfast Miss ---- observed, that the inside of the cream cover, which was made of black Wedgwood's ware, looked brown and speckled, as if the glazing had been worn away; she asked whether this was caused by the cream. One of the company immediately exclaimed, "Oh! I've heard that Wedgwood's ware won't hold oil." Mr. ---- observed, that it would be best to try the experiment, instead of resting content with this hearsay evidence; he asked H---- and S---- what would be the best method of trying the experiment exactly.