I have related to my sister Caroline all that you have taught me of natural philosophy, and she has been so much delighted by it, that she hopes you will have the goodness to admit her to your lessons.
Mrs. B. Very willingly; but I did not think you had any taste for studies of this nature, Caroline.
Caroline. I confess, Mrs. B., that hitherto I had formed no very agreeable idea either of philosophy, or philosophers; but what Emily has told me has excited my curiosity so much, that I shall be highly pleased if you will allow me to become one of your pupils.
Mrs. B. I fear that I shall not find you so tractable a scholar as Emily; I know that you are much biased in favour of your own opinions.
Caroline. Then you will have the greater merit in reforming them, Mrs. B.; and after all the wonders that Emily has related to me, I think I stand but little chance against you and your attractions.
Mrs. B. You will, I doubt not, advance a number of objections; but these I shall willingly admit, as they will afford an opportunity of elucidating the subject. Emily, do you recollect the names of the general properties of bodies?
Emily. Impenetrability, extension, figure, divisibility, inertia and attraction.
Mrs. B. Very well. You must remember that these are properties common to all bodies, and of which they cannot be deprived; all other properties of bodies are called accidental, because they depend on the relation or connexion of one body to another.
Caroline. Yet surely, Mrs. B., there are other properties which are essential to bodies, besides those you have enumerated. Colour and weight, for instance, are common to all bodies, and do not arise from their connexion with each other, but exist in the bodies themselves; these, therefore, cannot be accidental qualities?