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son Esau, and blessed him, and prayed that all the promises of God might come upon him, and that he might be the father of the great nation. It was his mother Rebecca that persuaded Jacob to deceive his poor old father; and she gave him the meat to take in to his father. So Esau could not get his birth-right again, though he hoped for it when his father promised him his blessing.

Questions to be asked after the child has read the Lesson.

Q. What did Isaac do when he was old?

A. He told his son Esau to go and hunt, and bring him some savoury

meat.

Q. What did he promise to give him?

A. His blessing, before he died.
Q. Did Esau get the blessing?

A. No.

Q. Why not?

A. His brother Jacob got it from him.

Q. How did he get it?

A. He told his father that he was his eldest son Esau.

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Q. Could not his father see him?
A. No.

Q. Why?

A. Because he was so old that his eyes were dim.

Q. Did he take Jacob for his firstborn Esau ?

A. Yes, and gave him his blessing?
Q. What did he pray for?

A. That God would bless him, and
that he might have God's promises.
Q. What were God's promises?
A. To make him a great nation.
Q. What else?

A. That in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed.

Q. Had God said to which of Isaac's sons he would give the promise?

A. No.

Q. Had Esau given it up?

A. Yes, for a mess of pottage. Q. Who persuaded Jacob to deceive his father?

A. His mother Rebecca.
Q. Was this right?

A. No.

(To be continued.)

SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

SIR Isaac Newton was one of the most eminent men we read of. He was the only child of a Mr. John Newton of Colesworth, in Lincolnshire.

Mr.

Newton had an estate of about a hundred and twenty pounds a year, which he cultivated himself. His son Isaac was born at Grantham, on the Christmas day of 1642. Sir Isaac Newton's father died when his son was very young. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Newton, by the advice of her brother Mr. Askew, put Isaac to school at Grantham.

When Isaac had finished his studies, his mother took him home, and meant, as she had no other child, to have the pleasure of his company, and that he should manage their little estate, as his father had done. But Mr. Askew found out that his nephew employed himself in a very different manner from that of attending to his farm, for his mind was wholly occupied with learning and one day his uncle found him in a hay loft, working a mathematical

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problem. He thought it a pity that such a talent should not be cultivated, and he prevailed on his mother to send him to Trinity College, in Cambridge. Isaac had not been there long, before he was taken notice of by Dr. Isaac Barrow, who soon found out his bright genius, and felt a great friendship for him. Isaac was industrious, and learned more of mathematics in a few years than many persons could have learned in their whole life. He found out a great deal that had never been known before, and, when he was twenty-seven years old, he was chosen professor of mathematics in the university of Cambridge, in the room of Dr. Barrow, who had just given up that, place.

Newton studied for many hours a day. Whatever he undertook, he was determined to do it well, and he did not care how much time and labour it cost him, so that he did but succeed at last. When he met with any thing in books or figures that he did not, at first, understand, he never laid it aside; if it were figures, he thought on it again and again, until he felt that he understood it: or, if it were a book, he read it over and over, until what

at first appeared too difficult for him. ever to know, at last became quite easy to him. By this patience and thought, Newton made so many discoveries, that he is known as one of the most wonderful men that ever lived.

Newton was chosen member of parliament for the university of Cambridge, in consequence of his great learning, and the wonderful books that he had written. This was in the reign of king James the Second. He was also appointed warden of the mint, in which situation he was of great service in managing the coinage of the country. Three years after this, he was appointed master of the mint, which situation was a very profitable one, and he held it for the rest of his life. In the year 1705, he was knighted by queen Anne; and about this time he wrote and published some other books. When George the First came to be king, Newton was better known at court than before. The princess of Wales was used very often to ask Newton questions, and to say that she thought herself happy in living at the same me with so great a man, and having d the pleasure of talking with him,

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