Dr Miller then proceeds to point out the objects, to which, in his view, the attention of the "Literary and Philosophicial Society of New Jersey" should be more particularly directed.

Allow me, then, first of all, to say, that the great interests of education appear to me to be among the most radical and important to which our attention can be directed. Our state possesses a large and constantly accumulating common-school fund, which will soon be set in active operation, and possess, we hope, much potency. It is of the utmost importance that a wise system be formed, by means of which this fund shall be made to accomplish, under the Divine blessing, the largest possible amount of benefit to the rising generation, and especially to the children of the poor.

Dr Miller also enumerates "Civil and Political History," "Natural History," "Agriculture and Horticulture," "all the departments of Astronomy, Natural and Experimental Philosophy, and Chemistry," "Legal and Political Science," "Theological and Moral Science," "Medicine," and "Philology and Belles Lettres," as among the objects of the association. We did not take up this discourse with a view to find faults either in the plan or the purposes of the society before whom it was delivered. But if this vast range of subjects constitutes only a part of those to which the attention of the society is to be more particularly directed; we think that, to say the least, the plan is sufficiently comprehensive for the operations of an infant association. One advantage of societies of this kind undoubtedly is, that they act as a sort of lens to concentrate the rays of many minds upon a given point, and thereby produce an intensity, which could not otherwise be created. This advantage in the present instance must be nearly lost, by dividing the attention of the society at once, among so many different topics. But this, we are aware, is no concern of ours. Our fellow-labourers in New Jersey have a right to pursue literature and science according to their own good pleasure; and they will be entitled to the thanks of their country, for whatever they may contribute to the advancement of knowledge in any of the departments embraced within their plan.

While upon the subject of "the great advantages resulting to nations from their progress in the arts and sciences," Dr Miller observes,

Of these advantages, Great Britain has furnished the most signal example. And the distinctness with which, amidst other causes, they may be traced to her progress in Philosophy and the liberal Arts, is too plain to be controverted. Within a little more than the period to which I have alluded, her improvements in agriculture, and, consequently, in the quantity and quality of the products of the soil, have been almost beyond estimate. In consequence of this increase of the means of subsistence, her population has nearly doubled. Her inventions of machinery for saving labour, and of new processes for expedit

ing and improving manufactures, have been equivalent to the addition of several millions more to the number of her people. The rents and profits of estates have had a corresponding augmentation. New and astonishing sources of wealth, both within and without the bowels of the earth, have been opened. The comforts, and even elegancies of life, have been brought within the reach of multitudes who could not enjoy them before. The wealthy have been far more conveniently and comfortably accommodated, for the same expense, than formerly. The lower classes have been better rewarded for their labour, and, of course, better fed, better clothed, and in every respect better situated than in any preceding times. The national exports have increased in the ag gregate, within the period in question, at least fourfold, many of them fifty-fold; and the national income has advanced to an extent once considered as altogether incredible. In short, the progress of that wonderful country, since the principles of science and art have become popular in their culture and applicatiou-her progress in wealth, in refinement, in comfort of living, in power, and in all the means of national elevation, has been the theme of wonder and eulogium with all who have understood, from authentic records, her situation sixty or seventy years ago, and who have been permitted to witness her present condition.

INTELLIGENCE.

GENERAL GOURGAND versus COUNT DE SEGUR.

General Gourgand's work, in reply to that of Count de Segur, is in press we understand, and about to be published in this country. The subject of this book, and the circumstances attending its publication in France, may give it temporary interest here; but if the Monthly [London] Review gives it a true character, we cannot rely much upon the authenticity of the facts stated in it, or the impartiality of the writer's inferences from them. "His [General Gourgand's] critical examination," says that Journal, " is the most finished piece of hypercriticism we ever read. Every sentence, every syllable of the work of the Count de Segur displeases him. He impugns every fact, he carps at every opinion, he adds an item to or deducts one from every summary Again: "Gourgand's work consists chiefly of objections such as these, and the most important of which are supported by the ipse dixit of the writer alone. The excitation, which the work produced in Paris, is not surprising; but, upon the whole, it contains very little to invalidate the testimony of M. De Segur, or detract from his merit as an able and accomplished writer."

PARIS A SEAPORT.

The wiseacre's plan of going from Calais to Dover by land, having been scouted by government, or at least adjourned until the London experiment under the Thames be tried, another has hatched the noble idea of making Paris a sea-port, or, in other words, making a ship canal from Deippe to Paris. We would recommend the author first to try his hand at the canal from St. Denis to Paris, a short distance of

about four or five miles. They have been about it and about it these seven years, and yet it will not hold water! We recollect the late Mr Brindley was in a similar predicament, and not being able to overcome the difficulty, went to bed, where he lay for three weeks without uttering a sentence in answer to his foreman, who came daily to inquire a what was to be done, save puddle and daub." After keeping his bed three weeks, he conceived the remedy: up he rose and the plan succeeded to his wishes. His secret has evidently not crossed the channel; for all the ingenuity of the French engineers has not yet enabled them to make this imp of a canal hold water.

PERCIVAL'S POEMS.

Mr John Miller, New Bridge Street, London, has published an edition of Percival's Poems in 2 vols. post 8vo. He has also brought out within a short time editions of Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia; Europe, by a Citizen of the United States;" and Everett's "New Ideas on Population."

A NEW INVENTION.

An artizan in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, has invented a mechanical contrivance to supply the place of a forearm lost by the burst ing of a musket. It is so perfect that the maimed person is able to use a spade, to dress vines, to work at smithery, to use a knife and fork simultaneously at table, &c. The name of the inventor is Taillefer.

An Essay on Planetary Motion. By James Sims. 8vo. pp. 8 Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Newtonian system supposes that the planets are kept from falling to the sun, and made to revolve in their orbits by a projectile force. The existence of this projectile force, Mr James Sims (we suppose he is some nephew or cousin of the celebrated John Cleves Symmes) shows to be absurd. He then explains his own bypothesis, which accounts as well for the diurnal as the annual motion of the earth, the former of which Newton never could account for.

He says that modern chemistry demonstrates that all substances are capable of existing in three different states, solid, fluid, and gaseous. He says, also, that none are so ignorant as not to know that it is the nature of vapour and gas to fly away from the heat which produces them. He then supposes "the earth to be placed in a situation naturally resulting from the absence of heat," and to be approaching the sun by his attraction. When it comes within the influence of his heat, a part of the earth's substance would be changed into vapour and gas. "This is primitive motion." This

vapour constitutes the atmosphere, and having a tendency to fly away from the heat which produces it, it moves in a tangent to the earth's surface, and carries the earth with it, and thus makes it revolve on its axis. tion, once begun, must be constantly kept up; for new vapours being conThis motinually formed, are forced into the atmosphere, (the atmosphere resisting them by its weight, not causing them to rise by its greater specific gravity), keeps it in motion. And the motion is from west to east, because the parts most heated are about 45° east of the vertical sun. He does not explain why it took its present direction rather than the other in the first instance.

The planets, by this theory, are kept from approaching nearer to the sun, by the same cause, viz; the tendency of vapour to fly from the heat which produces it. And the author takes the opportunity to laugh at "the folly of the calculations of the old school on the hypothesis of the earth's falling to the sun"-" which," he says, "would be just as natural as for the smoke to fall back into the fire that produces it." To account for the movement which produces the seasons, he finds a very simple method on the same principles, to make the earth vibrate back and forth so as to present the poles alternately to the sun. He is able also to apply his theory very happily to the movement of the secondary planets, by assuming as an axiom, that secondary planets must be acted upon by secondary causes.

This mode of moving the world, if not the true one, is certainly a very good one. We think, however, there is one other mode still better; and if that awkward machine had been made in modern days, the method would doubtless have been adopted. That is, to move it by steam Indeed we

are not quite sure but this is the case, and wonder that it did not occur to Mr Sims, for the hollow in the earth, discovered by his uncle, would make an excellent boiler; and the mode of getting in the light, would answer as well to convey the heat, which might be made intense by a proper disposition of the reflectors. This, by the way, is an excellent hint to geologists; and will enable them to explain earthquakes, volcanoes, boiling springs, and various other phenomena, as easily as the blowing up of steam-boats.

DRAMA.

The Forest Rose, or American Farmers. A Pastoral Opera; in two Acts; as performed at the Chatham Theatre, New York. By Samuel Woodworth, author of the "Deed of Gift," &c. &c. Davies, Esq. New York. E. M Murden. Music by John

EDUCATION.

Second Class Book, principally consisting of Historical, Geographical, and Biographical Lessons, adapted to the capacities of Youth, and designed for their improvement. By A. T. Lowe, M. D. 12mo. pp. 222. Brookfield. A. & G. Merriam.

English Grammar, with an Improved Syntax. Part I. Comprehending at one view what is necessary to be committed to memory. Part II. Containing a Recapitulation, with various Illustrations and Critical Remarks. Designed for the use of Schools. By J. M. Putnam. 12mo. pp. 142 Cambridge. Hilliard & Metcalf.

The Pronouncing Spelling Book, adapted to Walker's Critical Pronouncing Dictionary; in which the precise sound of every syllable is accurately conveyed, in a manner perfectly intelligible to every capacity, &c. By J. A. Cummings. Revised and improved from the fourth edition. 12mo. pp. 168. Boston. Cummings, Hilliard, & Co.

English Grammar, adapted to the different Classes of Learners; with an Appendix, containing Rules and Observations for assisting the more

advanced Students to write with perspicuity and accuracy. By Lindlay Murray. 12mo. pp. 339. Boston. T. Bedlington.

Colmena Española; ó, Piézas Escogídas de vários Autóres Españoles, Moráles, Instructívas, y Divertidas; La vária Significacion en Engles de las Particulas, Vóces y Fráses Idiomáticas al pié de cada pieza, y en el Indice General; todo Acentuado con el mayor cuidado al uso de los Principiántes. Por F. Sales, Instructor de Frances y Español en la Universidad de Harvard, Cambridge. 18mo. pp. 216. Boston. Munroe & Francis.

GEOGRAPHY.

An Introduction to Ancient and Modern Geography. To which are added Rules for Projecting Maps, and the Use of Globes. Accompanied with an Ancient and Modern Atlas. By J. A. Cummings. Tenth edition revised and improved. 12mo. pp. 204. Boston. Cummings, Hilliard, & Co.

HISTORY.

The History of Kentucky, by Humphrey Marshall, including the Ancient Annals of that State. By C. S. Rafinesque. 2 vols. 8vo. Price $4.

LAW.

A Treatise on the Law of Descents in the several United States of America. By Tapping Reeve, Esq. 8vo. pp. 515. New York. Collins & Hannay.

An Abridgment of the Acts of Congress, now in force, excepting those of Private and Local Application; with Notes of Decisions, giving Construction to the same, in the Supreme Court of the United States; and a copious Index. By Edward Ingersoll, Esq. Royal 8vo. pp. 800. Philadelphia. Towar & Hogan.

MEDICINE.

Elements of Therapeutics and Materia Medica; to which are prefixed two Discourses of the History and Improvements of the Materia Medica, originally delivered as Introductory Lectures. By N. Chapman, M. D. Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Physic and Clinical Practice in the University of Pennsylvania. Fourth edition revised and enlarged. Philadelphia. Carey & Lea.

An Essay on the Remote and Proximate Causes of Phthisis Pulmonalis; being an Essay to which the Prize was adjudged for the year 1825, by the New York State Medical Society. By Andrew Hammersley, M. D. With a few Explanatory Notes. 8vo. Philadelphia. James

Webster.

MISCELLANEOUS.

An Address pronounced at the Opening of the New York High School; with Notes and Illustrations. By John Griscom. 12mo. pp. 200. New York.

Analytical Outlines of the English Language, or a Cursory Examination of its Materials and Structure. In the form of Familiar Dialogues, intended to accompany Grammatical Studies. By John Lewis. New York.

A Lecture on Human Happiness, comprehending a General Review