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RE L ATIVITY

W ITHOUT

S PAC E T IME

Jo s e p h K. Co s g r o v e
Relativity without Spacetime
 Joseph K. Cosgrove

Relativity without
Spacetime
Joseph K. Cosgrove
Philosophy
Providence College
Providence, RI, USA

ISBN 978-3-319-72630-4 ISBN 978-3-319-72631-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72631-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018935932

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.

Cover credit: Tetra Images / Getty Images

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer

International Publishing AG part of Springer Nature.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
For Natalia, a thinker
 Contents

1 Introduction: A Critique of Minkowski Spacetime 1

Part I The Concept of Minkowski Spacetime 9

2 Minkowski’s “Space and Time” 11

2.1 Minkowski and Göttingen Science 11
2.2 “Space and Time,” Sections I and II 14
2.3 “Space and Time,” Section III 20
2.4 “Space and Time,” Section IV 24

3 Special Relativity and Spacetime 35

3.1 Spacetime and the Concept of a Continuum 35
3.2 The “Geometry of Spacetime”: Graphs and Images 39
3.3 Invariance and Special Relativity 48
3.3.1 Invariance and Objectivity 48
3.3.2 Invariance and the Clock Paradox 56
3.4 On the Arrow of Explanation 58
3.5 Conceptual Difficulties of Minkowski Spacetime:
The Need for a Historical Approach 60

vii
viii CoNTENTS

Part II The Symbolic-Algebraic Constitution of the

Concept of Spacetime 65

4 The Historical Sense-Structure of Symbolic Algebra 69

4.1 The Concept Number in Greek Mathematics 73
4.1.1 Arithmetical Operations in Euclid 73
4.1.2 The Concept of Ratio 74
4.1.3 Arithmetic and Geometry in Euclid 76
4.2 Algebraic Equations in Greek Mathematics: Diophantus
of Alexandria 77
4.2.1 The Concept of Number in Diophantus 77
4.2.2 Algebraic Calculation with “Species” 80
4.3 Modern Symbolic Algebra 81
4.3.1 Vieta’s Reinterpretation of Diophantine Species 82
4.3.2 Vieta’s “Law of Homogeneity” and the Symbolic
Concept of Number 83
4.3.3 Vietan Algebra as Mathesis Universalis 87
4.4 Descartes and Symbolic Space 89
4.4.1 Geometrical Representation of Arithmetical
Operations 89
4.4.2 Descartes’ Symbolic Interpretation
of Geometrical Magnitude 91
4.4.3 Symbolic Space 93

5 The Historical Sense-Structure of Modern Algebraic

Physics 101
5.1 Pre-Algebraic Physics in Galileo 101
5.2 The Assimilation of Algebra into Physics 104
5.3 A Case Study: Newton and “Quantity of Motion” 108

6 Desedimentation of Minkowski Spacetime 117

Part III General Relativity Without Spacetime 123

7 Minkowski Spacetime and General Relativity 125

7.1 Tensor Calculus and “Geometrical Objects” 126
7.1.1 Tensors as Ratio-Compounding Machines 126
7.1.2 Tensors and Invariance 128
 CoNTENTS ix

7.2 Against the Long Clothes: Minkowski Spacetime

in Einstein’s 1916 Review Article 129
7.2.1 Einstein 1916, Part A: “Fundamental
Considerations on the Postulate of Relativity” 130
7.2.1.1 Part A, §2: The Principle of Equivalence 130
7.2.1.2 Part A, §3: General Covariance 136
7.2.1.3 Part A, §4: The “Linear Element” 138
7.2.2 Einstein 1916, Part B: “Mathematical Aids
to the Formulation of Generally Covariant
Equations” 141
7.2.2.1 Part B, §8: Fundamental Tensor gμν 141
7.2.2.2 Part B, §9: Mathematical Derivation
of Geodesic Line 142
7.2.2.3 Part B, §12: The Riemann Tensor 144
7.2.3 Einstein 1916, Part C: Theory
of the Gravitational Field 146
7.2.3.1 Part C, §13: Law of Motion 146
7.2.3.2 Part C, §14: Vacuum Field Law 150
7.2.3.3 Part C, §16: General Field Equation
and Stress-Energy Tensor 152
7.2.3.4 The Gravitational Field Equation
Without a Matter Tensor 158
7.3 Geodesic Law by Other Means 159

Part IV Time Without Spacetime 163

8 Relativity and Time 165

8.1 Simultaneity in Special Relativity 165
8.2 Simultaneity in General Relativity 169
8.3 Time and Becoming 172

Bibliography 179

Index 187
 note on Citations

I have given citations in endnotes in the “author-date” style. Where I have

consulted translations or other versions of a specific work, I list in square
brackets, following the date of publication, the original date of the edition
used. For example, I cite the Cohen and Koyré translation of the 1726
third edition of Newton’s Principia as “Newton 1999 [1726].” Similarly,
the standard Perrett and Jeffery translation of Einstein’s 1916 review arti-
cle on general relativity, from The Principle of Relativity, I cite as “Einstein
1952 [1916].”

xi
 List of figures

Fig. 2.1 Spacetime coordinate rotation 14

Fig. 3.1 Spacetime coordinate rotation 40
Fig. 3.2 Tangent vector in Euclidean 3-space (one dimension suppressed) 45
Fig. 3.3 Tangent vector in spacetime (two dimensions suppressed) 46
Fig. 3.4 Minkowski’s spacetime cross-section 47
Fig. 4.1 Euclid’s Elements, Book I, Proposition 47 70
Fig. 4.2 Multiplication in Descartes’ Geometry 90
Fig. 6.1 Two world-lines with light pulse 119

xiii
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: A Critique of Minkowski

Spacetime

In 1908, three years after Einstein first published his special theory of rela-
tivity, the mathematician Hermann Minkowski introduced his four-
dimensional “spacetime” interpretation of the theory. Einstein initially
dismissed Minkowski’s theory as a “piece of mathematical trickery,”
remarking wryly that “[s]ince the mathematicians have invaded the theory
of relativity I do not understand it myself anymore.”1 Yet Minkowski’s
theory soon found wide acceptance among physicists, including eventually
Einstein himself—his conversion to Minkowski engendered principally by
the realization that he could profitably employ it for the formulation of his
theory of gravity (the general theory of relativity). Thus in his popular
book on the theory of relativity published in 1916, Einstein famously
remarks that general relativity “would perhaps have gotten no farther than
its long clothes” if it had not been for Minkowski’s innovation.2
The physical validity of Minkowski’s concept of merged spacetime has
rarely been questioned by physicists or philosophers since Einstein incor-
porated it into his theory of gravity. This is strange in one sense, for there
is no general agreement on the physical meaning of Minkowski’s theory.
Indeed, one can only sympathize with Vesselin Petkov’s complaint that
while physicists and philosophers of science routinely endorse and employ
Minkowski’s four-dimensional formal apparatus, at the same time they
habitually speak about the world as if it were really three-dimensional in
the usual sense, giving back to themselves with one hand, as it were, what
they have just taken away with the other.3 Physicists in fact often employ

© The Author(s) 2018 1

J. K. Cosgrove, Relativity without Spacetime,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72631-1_1
2 J. K. COSGROVE

Minkowski spacetime with little regard to the whether it provides a true

account of the physical world as opposed to a useful mathematical tool in
the theory of relativity, while philosophers, for their part, sometimes treat
the philosophy of space and time as if it were merely an appendix to
Minkowski’s theory. The purpose of this book, then, is to subject the con-
cept of spacetime to a much overdue critical examination, with a view
toward a more physically intelligible interpretation of Einstein’s special
and general theories of relativity. For I believe that Einstein’s initial assess-
ment of Minkowski was essentially correct.
Anyone conversant with the theory of relativity knows, or at least thinks
they know, that Minkowski “merged” space and time into a single four-
dimensional geometrical continuum. However, the precise character of
the intended merging of space and time is not always clear in the literature
on spacetime. One often reads, for example, that from our present vantage
point we can see that even Newton and Galileo employed a “four-
dimensional spacetime continuum,” even if they treated time and space
independently of one another. Einstein himself, for instance, suggests that
the idea of a four-dimensional continuum is not something newly intro-
duced by the theory of relativity, since classical mechanics also employed a
four-dimensional continuum which, however, “falls naturally into a three-
dimensional and one-dimensional (time), so that the four-dimensional
point of view does not force itself upon one as necessary.”4
It would be helpful at the outset, then, to note briefly some of the
senses in which it may be said that space and time are “unified” in a given
theory of physics. The minimal notion of such unification is a mere
“n-dimensional manifold” in which each point event can be associated
with n numbers (coordinates). This amounts to saying that every event
happens at a time and place. In this minimal sense, Newton’s physics
indeed may be said to employ a four-dimensional spacetime manifold,
something naturally suggested by diagrams in which time is symbolically
represented by the length of a line in space (usually in Cartesian coordi-
nates). But there is no single continuum of space and time in Newtonian
physics, since space and time intervals are independent of one another,
with no four-dimensional interval between events defined and therefore
no metrical unification effected. While it is commonplace today to recon-
struct Newtonian physics using the mathematical apparatus of differential
geometry, as Michael Friedman notes, “We effect a relativistic unification
of space and time only if we view space-time as a four-dimensional semi-
Riemannian manifold.”5
 INTRODUCTION: A CRITIQUE OF MINKOWSKI SPACETIME 3

Einstein’s 1905 special theory of relativity introduces a new kind of

metrical entanglement of space and time. Here the measure of a time
interval between two events in some inertial frame A depends, through
the Lorentz transformation, on both the time and distance between those
events as measured in an inertial frame B in motion relative to A, and like-
wise for a distance in A as a function of time and distance measured in B.
As Einstein formulates it, the “necessity” of the four-dimensional point of
view in special relativity, unlike the situation in Newtonian dynamics, lies
in the “formal dependence between the way the space coordinates, on the
one hand, and the temporal coordinates, on the other, have to enter into
the natural laws.”6 By contrast, in pre-relativity mechanics, metrical inter-
vals of time and distance are the same for all inertial reference frames.
Nevertheless, Einstein 1905 special relativity in no sense merges space
and time into a single continuum. That is to say, even though in pre-
Minkowski special relativity we regard the metrical properties of space and
time as interdependent or entangled, space and time themselves remain
distinct continua with no metrical unification per se. Thus, while in dif-
ferential geometry, for instance, a metric continuum is defined by its dis-
tance function or line element (quadratic differential form), in Einstein
1905 there is no such distance function for time and space taken together.
This point is easily obscured by the standard use in special relativity of
Minkowski diagrams (which would be much more aptly termed “special
relativity diagrams,” since they in no wise distinguish Minkowski’s theory
conceptually from Einstein 1905), and the associated jargon of “world
lines,” “light cone structure,” and so forth.
At the very least, then, it seems the term “spacetime” is associated with
a number of distinct conceptions of the unification of space and time. But
it is only with Minkowski’s introduction of the invariant “interval” or
four-dimensional displacement vector that we encounter anything that
could be properly termed the unification of space and time into a single
continuum. By “spacetime” in this study, then, I shall always intend spe-
cifically “Minkowski spacetime” or the idea, set forth most famously by
Minkowski in his Cologne lecture of 1908, that space and time as they
physically exist are merged into a single continuum, geometrically deter-
mined by a four-dimensional line element analogous to the Pythagorean
line element of standard differential geometry.7 To be sure, today we often
speak of spacetime in a wider sense. However, the present terminological
restriction is not at all arbitrary, for only with the advent of Minkowski’s
theory do we find the essential condition for a metric continuum of space
4 J. K. COSGROVE

and time: a distance function. Clearly there is no such notion in Galileo or

Newton, and therefore it is misleading to say that either of them employed
a “four-dimensional continuum.”
It is unfortunate, in view of the very radicalness of Minkowski’s pro-
posal, that Einstein’s 1905 special theory of relativity has come to be
regarded as virtually synonymous with Minkowski’s 1908 theory, as if the
latter simply elaborated what was already implicit in the former. Such an
identification, which forecloses the possibility that one might wish to avail
oneself of Einstein 1905 while abstaining from Minkowski 1908, reflects
a kind of whiggish view of the history of relativity, according to which
Minkowski’s theory represents the inevitable disclosure of the deep geo-
metrical structure of Einstein’s 1905 theory, originally overlooked by
Einstein himself. But the proposition is a dubious one. For even if
Minkowski’s theory yields the same empirical results as Einstein 1905, the
former nevertheless posits a new set of absolute geometrical objects that
have no role whatsoever in the ontology of Einstein’s original theory—the
absolutes of which are rather the laws of nature. Thus, unless we wish to
insist that theories making the same empirical predictions are equivalent,
regardless of their respective ontologies and conceptual structures,
Einstein 1905 and Minkowski 1908 are clearly different theories.
The weightiest argument on behalf of the physical reality of Minkowski
spacetime has always been Einstein’s general relativity. For in general rela-
tivity the metrical properties of the gravitational field find expression, at
least in the usual version, through a “semi-Riemannian” generalization of
the Minkowski spacetime interval. It would thus appear that save for the
concept of the Minkowski interval, Einstein’s formulation of the
gravitational field in terms “curved spacetime” could hardly begin.
However, an additional category of evidence for Minkowski’s theory is
primarily philosophical. Minkowski spacetime is often regarded as resolv-
ing a set of philosophical paradoxes, regarding time in particular, engen-
dered by Einstein’s 1905 special theory of relativity. According to a
popular textbook presentation, for example,

[A]lmost all of the “paradoxes” associated with SR [special relativity] result

from a stubborn persistence of the Newtonian notions of a unique time
coordinate and the existence of “space at a single moment in time.” By
thinking in terms of spacetime rather than space and time together, these
paradoxes tend to disappear.8
 INTRODUCTION: A CRITIQUE OF MINKOWSKI SPACETIME 5

To be sure, it would redound greatly to the favor of Minkowski’s theory if

the concept of spacetime truly resolved such paradoxes.
However, we shall find on the contrary that the concept of Minkowski
spacetime actually plays no vital role in Einstein’s theory of gravity and can
be of no utility whatsoever in resolving paradoxes of time in either special
or general relativity. Nevertheless, as Julian Barbour observes, “Minkowski’s
ideas have penetrated deep into the psyche of modern physicists … [who]
find it hard to contemplate any alternative to his grand vision.”9
Minkowski’s ideas arguably have concentrated the minds of philosophers
even more. Indeed, Minkowski’s merging of space and time into a single
entity has been a veritable boon to philosophy, providing endless oppor-
tunity for metaphysical speculation about the true nature of reality beyond
the naive deliverances of subjective human experience. Moreover, it is not
just physicists’ and philosophers’ “psyches” that have been penetrated by
Minkowski’s ideas, but the very language and mathematical notation by
means of which relativity theory is formulated. Thus one can hardly open
a textbook on general relativity without running across the assertion that
a tensor, for instance, is an “inner product of vectors” or a “mapping of
vectors onto to real numbers,” the theory of spacetime dealing exclusively
with associated “geometrical objects.” This even though a tensor was not
regarded as a geometrical object by Ricci and Levi-Civita, creators of the
absolute differential calculus, nor is the quadratic differential “line
element” of general relativity actually derived from geometry (it is rather
derived from the Lorentz transformation).10
Rarely has it been remarked in this connection that while Minkowski’s
theory is set forth in vector form, by evident contrast with Einstein’s alge-
braic methods in the 1905 special relativity paper, Minkowski spacetime is,
in fact, an essentially algebraic entity.11 In this respect Minkowski space-
time is quite unlike its alleged analogue the Pythagorean Theorem, which
can be but need not be represented algebraically; for Minkowski spacetime
can only be represented algebraically. In this regard, there has been insuf-
ficient scholarly attention to the historical process by which modern sym-
bolic algebra was assimilated into mathematical physics, a development
which, against much opposition, spanned the second half of the seven-
teenth century and most of the eighteenth century. As the physicist and
historian John Roche observes, in his valuable study The Mathematics of
Measurement (1998), the clarification of concepts in mathematical physics
requires just such a historically informed approach:
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This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
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or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
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Title: Plain tales, chiefly intended for the use of charity schools

Author: Anonymous

Release date: September 4, 2023 [eBook #71559]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Vernor and Hood, 1799

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLAIN

TALES, CHIEFLY INTENDED FOR THE USE OF CHARITY
SCHOOLS ***
 Plain Tales,
Printed for Vernor & Hood, 31 Poultry, April 1799.
 P L A I N TA L E S ,
CHIEFLY INTENDED FOR

THE USE

OF

CHARITY SCHOOLS.
 LONDON:

Printed for VERNOR and HOOD,

No. 31, Poultry.

1799.
 Plain Tales.

TALE I.

ukey Dawkins and Polly Wood had been some time in the
charity-school. They had behaved very well, and could do a good
deal of work: they were regular in going at the exact time, and so
soon as school hours were over, they went strait home to see what
they could do to assist their mothers. As they were diligent, they
sometimes got a spare half hour to take a walk in the fields. This was
of great service to their health, and helped to make them strong,
active, and cheerful. One evening, after they had been working very
hard, their mothers gave them leave to go. Out they set, as brisk as
larks; they tripped over the stile very nimbly, and had soon gathered
a handful of primroses and violets. Presently they heard a loud noise
at a little distance, and away they ran to find out what it was. In a
wood, not far off, they observed a man felling a large tree, and
around lay a great number of chips. I wonder, said Sukey Dawkins, if
any body makes use of these: how glad my mother would be to have
some to light her fires with; let us ask the carpenter. Pray, said she,
do you think the person who owns these, would give me leave to
take a few home to my mother?—Yes, said the man, I think he
would: they belong to Mr. Ownoak, who is walking in the next field,
and you may ask him, if you will. O, said Polly Wood, do not let us
go, I cannot abide to ask: her companion replied, what is there to be
ashamed of, I am not a going to do any thing wrong; and, unless I
was, I do not see what reason I have to be ashamed. These chips
are of no use to this gentleman, and, perhaps, he does not think how
useful they might be to others. Come, let us make haste: so she
went up to Mr. Ownoak, and said—Pray, Sir, will you give me leave
to take a few of those chips home to light my mammy’s fire? Who is
your mammy, my little girl, said he? Widow Dawkins, sir. Where does
she live? In the Well-yard. How many children has she? Four, sir. I
am the oldest: I strive to do a little, but we are very poor, and my
mother has hard work to get cloaths, food, and firing; so that a few
chips would be very useful to us. You may take as many as you can
carry, my child, said he; and you may come again to-morrow, and the
next day, and, if your companion wants any, let her have some too.
Away they ran, and told the carpenter that Mr. Ownoak had given
them leave to take some. Sukey Dawkins had on a good strong
woollen apron, which she had made of one of her mother’s, so she
began filling it with chips; but Polly Wood’s apron was an old ragged
checked one. Sukey had often begged her companion to endeavour
to mend her cloths; but this she had too much neglected, and was
now very sorry she had. However, Sukey helped her to pin it
together as well as she could; and, after filling them as fully as they
would hold, and wishing the carpenter a good night, away they set
off towards home. As they were getting over the last stile, Polly’s
tattered apron gave way, and down fell all the chips. This was a sad
disaster, and she began to cry; but her companion asked her if
crying could possibly remedy the misfortune, and begged her not to
do what a little baby would. Let us think what is best to be done, that
is all we ought to do when any accident happens. Let us see: well,
your gown is whole, that is a good thing; suppose you take it up, and
put the chips in that, and, if you like, I will help you to mend your
apron to-morrow. So they picked up the chips again as fast as they
could, and made haste to get home. Mother, said Sukey, I am afraid
you thought me long; but these will make amends for staying. She
then threw down the chips under the coal-shed, and told her mother
how she came by them. Her mother thanked her very kindly for her
attention to the comfort of the family, and told her she believed, that,
if she had not been so good a girl, and often contrived, in some way
to help her, they must all have gone to the workhouse. Sukey was
much more satisfied with herself that evening, than if she had been
romping with the girls in the street, and went to bed thankful that she
had been useful.
Children, in many a different way,
Can give their friends delight;
Nor will she pass a useless day,
Who brings home chips at night.
 TALE II.

other, said Nancy Bennet, I wish you would let us have tea
to breakfast: there are neighbour Spendalls and their children
drinking tea every morning when I go by to school, and we never
have it but on Sunday afternoons. My dear, said her mother, every
thing which is good for you, that I can buy, I wish you to have; but
there are many reasons which would make it improper for us to drink
much tea: One is, that it is very dear, and affords but little
nourishment: Another, that it is neither pleasant nor wholesome
without cream and sugar. Two pounds of the coarsest sugar I could
buy, would cost eighteen pence. With that eighteen pence I could
buy you a new shift; the sugar, you know, would be soon gone and
forgotten; the shift will help to keep you warm and comfortable for
years. Which would you rather have? O the shift, said she to be
sure. Well, my dear, said her mother, it is by denying ourselves tea
that we are able to get a comfortable change of shirts and shifts; and
another advantage is, that I believe we have better health than many
people who live a good deal on tea. Your father finds himself more
able to work after bread and cheese and a pint of beer, than he
would after tea: And a bason of milk-porridge is a much more
satisfying meal for us; and, it is a very happy thing, that the most
wholesome food is generally the cheapest. Ploughmen and
milkmaids, who look so ruddy, and are the most healthy people in
the kingdom, seldom taste tea. Part of their health and strength, it is
true, is owing to their rising early, going to bed early, and living a
good deal out of doors: but we, who are obliged to do our work more
in the house, ought to get the most wholesome food we can; and,
spending our money in tea and sugar, would deprive us of many
more useful things. I have heard my mother say, that tea was very
little drank when she was young; and, I believe, people were quite as
healthy and as happy then. For one quarter of a year, I laid by, every
week, just as much as I should have laid out had we drank tea. This,
at the least I could reckon it, was one shilling and sixpence a week.
As there are twelve weeks in a quarter of a year, this, you know,
came to eighteen shillings; and, with that money, I bought myself and
you, these good stuff gowns, which have kept us so warm all the
winter, and a pair of sheets for your bed: Would you rather have
been starved in rags, and drank tea; or, comfortably clad, and had
milk-porridge? O, I have heard enough about tea, said Nancy, give
me milk-porridge, a stuff gown, and new sheets.
If comfort round a cottage fire,
The poor desire to see,
Let them to useful things aspire,
And learn to banish tea.
 TALE III.

enny Bunney sometimes did an errand for her school-

mistress: sometimes she took her mother’s work to the warehouse,
and was often employed to go on other errands, because she was
very quick, never loitering on the road. She was also careful to
remember what was told her, and carry a proper message. She had
a sufficient pleasure in being useful, and finding herself trusted, and
did not wish for any other reward; however, the people where she
went, were very kind, and would sometimes give her a halfpenny.
There was a woman lived very near where she did, who sold apples
and gingerbread, &c. these she thought looked very nice, and
sometimes she would buy a halfpenny-worth, but there was very little
for money; she had soon eaten it, and found herself not at all
satisfied. What a foolish thing, said she to herself, will it be to spend
all my money in this way, and have nothing useful for it. I will lay by
the halfpence I get till I can buy something useful, and then I shall
find which affords me the most satisfaction. She observed, that her
mother had long worked very hard to get food and cloaths for her
children, and that she hardly ever bought anything for herself. Her
caps were almost worn out, and Jenny knew that she did not know
how to get any new ones: so she asked her mistress, at the school,
to be so good as to tell her how much would buy her mother two
caps. Her mistress told her she thought she could buy her two for ten
pence: so she saved all the halfpence she got, and very anxious she
was till the number was compleated: then, the next time she went to
school, she gave it to her mistress to lay it out. The following
morning the caps were bought, and ready for her to make. She
worked hard, and, at night, had hemmed the border, set it on neatly,
and finished one cap! The second day her task was compleated, and
the caps carried home. If she had had a dozen given to herself, I do
not think her joy would have been half so great as that she had, in
the thought of giving these to her mother. As soon as she got into the
house, she ran up to her and said, mother, I have got a little present
for you, if you please to accept it. A present, said she! what is it?
Jenny then pulled out the caps, and put one on her mother’s head,
and the other in her lap. How came you by these, said she? Who
sent them? Mother, said Jenny, I have bought and made them
myself: You do a great deal for me, and I am sorry that I can help
you no more; however, I feel more glad that I could buy you these,
than if any body else had given you them. My dear, said her mother,
where could you get the money? O, said she, you know that I had
many odd half-pence given me, these I kept till I got enough to buy
you two caps, as I thought it would give me more pleasure than
laying it out in any thing else. Her mother almost cried for joy, to find
she had so good a child, and told her she should value the caps
more than if any fine lady had given her them. Young, as you are,
you now find how much you can do to render your parents
comfortable; and I rejoice, that poor as we are, you will never want
pleasure, since you have learned that you need only try to be useful.
When gingerbread and apples lure,
I’ll think on Jenny Bunney:
Rememb’ring pleasures that endure,
Are better worth my money.
 TALE IV.

ear to Jenny Bunney lived Nancy Thoughtless. She too,

sometimes, had halfpence given her; but they soon went at the
apple-woman’s in cakes, gingerbread, nuts, &c. Sometimes she
would save several in her little box; but she did not think of laying
them out in any thing useful, and they soon followed the rest. One
very sharp winter, in which they found it hard work to get victuals, her
father had a very long illness: this was a great trial; however, the
poor woman, his wife, kept up her spirits pretty well. All worked who
were able, and they just managed to live, every day hoping the
father would get better. One day, said her mother to Nancy, my dear,
I wish I had a little wine to give your father, he is very weak, and I
think it might do him good; but it is dear, and I have no money to buy
any with. You know that I never go, nor send you a begging, for it is
generally the idle and wasteful who beg; and, as I am not one of
them, I do not choose to follow their example. I think I have seen you
take the halfpence which were given you to your little box. Perhaps
you have as much as six-pence, this would buy a little wine for your
poor father; and, I dare say, you will be glad to put it to such a use.
Money, my dear child, is of no more value than stones or dirt, any
further than as it is useful; and, it is every body’s duty to make the
best use he can of all he has. I dare say you feel that you can do
nothing better with yours, than buy your father a little wine. I need
say no more, you will run up stairs and fetch it. Nancy hung down
her head, and did not stir. Her mother waited: at last she burst out a
crying, O, mother, said she, I have no six-pence, I have not even a
half-penny. How have you laid it out, said her mother? O I have
wasted it all in gingerbread and nuts, and now I have none to buy my
poor father a drop of wine with. What shall I do! What shall I do! Her
mother told her, as crying could not bring back her money, she had
better give over. I am very sorry, said she, you have lost all the
pleasure you would now have had in doing good to your father, and
helping the family; but, perhaps, you like the remembrance of your
nuts and your gingerbread better. O, mother, do not say so; I would
rather have never tasted them if I could but now buy the wine. My
dear, said she, I hope you will be wiser then for the future, and
always remember, that those things which please the longest, are
the best.
She, who in trifles, spends her gain,
Will lose all lasting pleasure;
And when she would do good, in vain
Laments her wasted treasure.
 TALE V.

s Mary Atkins was one day going to fetch some turnips for
dinner, she saw, at the corner of Poverty Lane, a second-hand shop,
at the door of which hung a great deal of ragged finery. There was a
tawdry flowered gown: to be sure, it had some holes in it, but it was
well starched, and made a show: there was, likewise, an old muslin
cap, with a pleated border, and a fine red ribband round it. Mary went
home, and told her mother she wished her to go with her to Poverty-
lane, to buy something at the second-hand shop, for she had seen
some very pretty things there; and Sally Idle had bought a white
apron for six-pence, and a muslin handkerchief for two-pence. My
dear, said her mother, there is not a place in the town I have so great
a dislike to as a rag-shop, for such it may properly be called; and, it
is one great cause of the ruin of poor people, that they lay out their
money at these shops. The apron and handkerchief which Sally Idle
bought, would, probably, be in rags the first time they were washed,
and she would then find that she had laid out her money in a very
wrong manner. The pleated bordered cap you saw, was, I dare say,
already in holes; and, perhaps, after once washing it, could be
pleated no more: besides, such a thing would take a great deal of
time, which poor people have not to spare. I would rather see a plain
cloth cap, with a strong lawn border, set strait on, which would wear
well for years, than such fine ones which would not last a month. The
cotton gown, perhaps, I could buy for half what I gave for my new
stuff one; but it would often want washing, and that would take a
great deal of time, which would very much hinder my work at the
wheel. Soap too, is very dear, so that it would soon cost me more
than that I have: besides, I think it very untidy to see a poor woman
with a dirty bit of a cotton gown all in rags, when she might, by a little
contrivance, have a comfortable stuff one. Poor people, in general,
find it difficult to raise money enough at a time to go to the shops and
buy a new garment: but my way is to put by, weekly, a little out of
what every one gets. You know you have each a place to put your
own in, and, by many a little being often put together, it soon
becomes a good deal. When I want a new garment for any of us, I
go and see how much is in the drawer, and if there is not enough,
your father and I endeavour to make it up out of our own earnings. I
should think it a shameful waste, indeed, to spend my money and
my children’s at a rag shop. I never have done it, nor do I ever mean
to do it; but, if you think it a better way, you are very welcome to try.
But, as I think it a disgrace for an industrious woman to be seen
there, you will excuse my going with you. O, said Mary, I will not go, I
am convinced that your way is best; and, now I think of it, Sally Idle
had a great many rents in the linen gown, which I know she bought
there but a little time since, and it looked very dirty and untidy too.
Some people, said her mother, may laugh at my putting by the six-
pences and the penny’s every week, but I am sure we have a great
deal of comfort from it; and, it matters not who laughs, so long as we
are certain that we are doing right. I do not think that I should hoard
up a great many shillings and guineas as if I could get them, for they
are only desirable to make use of; but I know it to be my duty to do
the best I can with my little, and, while I do that, you may be sure I
shall not go to the rag-shop.
Ruin within the rag-shop stands,
And all who dare to enter,
With tattered bargains in their hands,
Repent so rash a venture.
 TALE VI.

olly Brown went one day to carry her grandmam a little

broth, for the poor can do good to others as well as the rich. Her
mother desired her to go carefully, not to stay by the way, and to
come strait back: she said she would. As she was going, she met
Sukey Playful and Dolly Careless: where are you going? said they.
To take my grandmam some broth. Come, said they, set it down a
little while, and have a run with us. O no, said she, I cannot now, my
mammy desired I would make haste; beside, the broth will be cold.
When a little girl knows what is right, she ought to listen to no
persuasions to do wrong. They told her, her mammy would never
know anything about it: that they were going to buy a half-penny
worth of apples, and would give her one if she would go with them.
Come, said they, you may set down the jug in this snug place, and
we shall soon be back again. At last she consented; but she had no
comfort as she went, nor when she had got her apple; for she
thought, if the jug should be thrown down, what should she do. They
made haste, but when they came back to the place, a dog had
thrown down the jug, and spilt all the broth. Polly began to cry most
terribly, and scolded Sukey and Dolly for persuading her to go, when
she might have recollected that it was her own fault for not minding
her duty. They were a good deal frightened: however, they said,
never mind it, as the jug is not broke, you can go home and tell your
mammy you took the broth, and, perhaps, she will never know any
thing about it. Polly dried her eyes, took up the jug, and went home;
but she was very uneasy, and felt that she did not like her play-
fellows half so well as she had done before, for they had now taught
her to do wrong. When she got home, well, said her mother, how
does your grandmam do, my dear, and how did she like the broth; for
I dare say she was hungry enough, poor soul, and would eat them
directly? Polly said, she was much as usual, and liked them very
well. All the day she was very dull, and found she could not work
with half so much pleasure as she used to do. At night, when she
went to bed, she was very uncomfortable indeed; she had been
taught always to tell the truth, as the only way to be happy herself, or
of any use to others. She now felt that she had deceived her mother,
and therefore did not deserve to be trusted by her. Thus she
continued very uneasy all the week: On Saturday night, when her
mother had done all her work, and washed the young children and
put them to bed, Polly, said she, I think I will just step and see how
your grandmother does: you, my dear, will take care of the house;
and mend a hole in your father’s stocking for to-morrow. You begin to
be a great help to me now, and I thank God that I have one child to
depend upon for a little comfort and assistance: be sure to take care
against the fire and candle, I shall soon be back again. She then
went out, but Polly’s heart was ready to break: she had always,
before, deserved her mother’s praise, and it was the next comfort
she had to the satisfaction of her own mind. But now she had
deceived her; she was miserable; she was going to be found out;
and she could no more expect to be trusted. The grandmother was
very glad to see her daughter, and began to enquire after all the
children, and particularly Polly, who, she said, was now a notable
little maid, and would soon, she hoped, be a great comfort to them
all. But child, said she, I am afraid you have raised no broth lately, for
you used to be so good as to send me some, and it is now many a
long day since I have had any. Mother, said she, you forget, we
made broth on Monday, and Polly brought you some then. Well, said
she, I believe my memory fails me, but I thought it had been longer.
Here is my neighbour Green, who brings in her wheel sometimes,
she has sat with me a good deal this week, it may be that she can
tell. Monday, Monday, let me see, said Betty Green; no, neighbour, I
am sure Polly brought none on Monday, for that was the day we
made some at our house, and I brought you a little of mine. Well,
said Polly’s mother, I do not know how it could be, but I will enquire
when I get home. I must now wish you a good night, for my husband
will want his supper. You have a shift here over the line that wants
mending I see: Polly is now very ready with her needle, they have
taught her so well in the charity-school. I am sure she will be glad to
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