source of both sanguineous and nervous disorder to the feeble constitution; and at this period consumption does, without question, very often show itself. More rarely, it is seen at an earlier age. But its supervention at a later period is still more common than at the age of puberty. We are ourselves disposed, after some attention to this particular fact, to believe, that of all ages at which phthisis shows itself, the most common is that between thirty and forty. Instances have not been wanting in which the malady has become fatal at a much later time of life, or in which it has even made its first appearance in advanced age. M. Andral mentions the case of a patient of sixty-eight, who had enjoyed previous good health, and in whom symptoms of phthisis then first showed themselves; the complaint proved fatal after a few months, and numerous tubercles were found in both lungs; which, judging from the patient's health having previously been uninterrupted, would seem to have been recently developed. trachea (windpipe), and also of the bronchial ramifi- | By the early and rigid adoption of measures of this The duration of the malady after it has been incontestibly declared, is also very variable, or rather, to speak more correctly, the malady is capable of suspen-multaneously accomplished. sion for considerable intervals, with occasional returns, which at length prove fatal. In such cases the patient is generally more or less a valetudinarian; caunot endure much exertion; his respiration is soon oppressed, and his heart is irritable: he suffers much on every attack of common catarrh, and seems at last, from this cause, to fall into consumption. M. Andral says he has known individuals remain in this intermediate state, between illness and health, from early life to thirty or forty years of age. Far more commonly, consumption destroys the patient in a much shorter time. The average duration of life, after the disorder is actually established, cannot be stated as greater than two years. Many pa. tients are worn out by the disease much within that period; some sink in less than a year, and some are hurried to the grave in a few months, or, though more rarely, even in a few weeks. The latter description of cases are so striking, even to common observers, as to be designated, in popular language, galloping consumptions. Of these M. Andral gives some examples. In one, death took place four weeks after the first appearance of cough; in another, five weeks after the first symptom of ill health; in a third, the symptoms of phthisis had been observed in a slight degree for many years, without affecting the patient's health or strength; and then the softening and expectoration of tuberculous matter, occurring apparently for the first time, were followed by death in the short space of eleven days. It cannot be a matter of surprise that the patients are in these cases generally unconscious of their danger, and unprepared for death. We have known them chiefly complaining of symptoms which had little connection with the pulmonary disorder, and loath to acknowledge any cough or other affection of the respiratory organs, only a few days before they died of pulmonary consumption in the last degree. In variable climates like our own, there is always an additional difficulty to be contended against, arising out of the perpetual irritation of the air-passages, by the actual contact and unavoidable reception of the air itself. If, desirous altogether to avoid this inconvenience, the patient is restricted to the air of rooms of which the temperature is carefully regulated, the want of invigorating freshness is too often productive of general effects which induce some other disadvantages, both as regards the general health and the pulmonary disease; and if attempts are made to secure the benefit of that freshness which the external air alone can impart, hardly any care or watching can long prevent some accidental exposure, which brings on an aggravation of symptoms which it is most desirable to repel. The hope of securing the advantage, without incurring the counterbalancing disadvantages, produces the numerous annual migrations of the consumptive to various parts of foreign countries and of our own; and these again impart a high degree of interest to the character of particular countries of the Continent, or of particular islands to which so many sail in quest of health, or of particular parts of our own island, to which those who are unwilling or unable to leave their native country commonly resort.* THE NIGHT ATTACK. IT is thirty-five years, this very month, since I was quartered with my regiment in Waterford; I recollect the time particularly, for I got my company in the thirty-seventh on the same day that I received an invitation from a Mr Morden, with whom I had formed a mail-coach acquaintance, to spend a week with him, and join his nephew in partridge-shooting. This gentleman's house was fourteen miles distant Such being the hopeless character of consumption from the town, and situated in a very retired part of when once established, the fact of its establishment the country. It was a wild but beautiful residence, becomes of the greatest importance, and the means of placed upon the extremity of a peninsula which jutted determining either its absence or its presence cannot into an extensive lake. To a sportsman it offered all be too carefully studied. By these means, supposing the inducements that shooting and fishing could afthem to exist, a protection may be given against the ford. But it had others besides these; no man lived deceptions of the quack, who pretends to cure what better than Mr Morden-and his daughter Emily, does not exist; and in other cases, where the disorder and her orphan cousin, who resided with her, were is but too well established, a protection of another decidedly the finest women who had attended the last kind may be afforded to the unfortunate patients them-race-ball. No wonder then that I accepted the old selves, who may be spared the infliction of remedies which are powerless to heal, and may yet obtain much relief by palliative measures, adopted in consequence of sound views being entertained of the actual state of the lungs. gentleman's invitation willingly, and on the appointed The house was one of those old-fashioned, comfort- loss, in the sudden death of two favourite dogs. They "Oh, no! I wish they were, for that would afford a hope that chance or money might recover them. No, sir, they would not follow a stranger; alas! they died yesterday by poison. We unfortunately laid arsenic in a meal-loft to destroy rats; and yet, how the poor animals could have got to it, is a mystery; the steward declares the key never left his possession. I would give an hundred guineas the meal had been in the bottom of the lake. No loss, short of the death of a friend, could have given us all so much uneasiness. They were my daughter's companions by day, and my protectors at night. Heigh, ho!-come, sir, pass the wine." Tears stood in the old gentleman's eyes as he spoke of his unhappy favourites; and from the valuable properties of the lost dogs, it was not surprising that their death occasioned so much regret to the family. We joined the ladies in the drawing-room. After tea, Mr Morden took a bedroom candle, and apologised for retiring. "Old habits best suit old people, captain; but I leave you with the ladies, who will sit up till cock-crow, if you please;" and bidding us a good night, he departed. "Emily," said young Morden, "you are still thinking of your favourites; well, I will ride the country over, till I find you a handsome dog. Julia, hand me that violin from the piano, and Captain Dwyer will dance a reel with you and Emily." "Gracious! who is at the window ?" exclaimed Miss Morden, suddenly; "it looked like that nasty beggar. man who has been haunting the house and grounds these three days. Ah, Wolf and Sailor! had you been living, that vagabond would not have ventured here at this late hour." Henry Morden had left the room on hearing his cousin's exclamation, but soon returned, assuring the lady that the beggar was a creature of her imagination; he had searched the shrubbery and flower-garden, and no mendicant was to be found in either. The alarm was speedily forgotten, and we danced reels till supper was announced. The doors were locked, the windows fastened, the ladies wished us good night, and retired to their respective chambers. Henry and I remained for some time in the eatingroom; the clock struck twelve, and young Morden conducted me to my apartment, and took his leave. I felt a strange disinclination to go to bed, and would have given any thing for a book. For temporary employment, I unlocked my gun-case, put my fowling-piece together, and examined whether my servant had sent all necessary apparatus along with me. I opened the window-curtains. The moon-a full, bright harvest moon-was shining gloriously on the lawn and lake: I gazed on the sparkling surface of the waters, till I felt the chin of the night-breeze; then closing the shutters, reluctantly prepared to undress. I had thrown my coat and vest aside, when a distant crash was heard; and a fearful noise, with oaths and screams, succeeded. I rushed into the corridor, and encountered a terror-stricken maid-servant running from the extremity of the passage. Miss Morden next appeared; she was in complete dishabille, and had hastily thrown on a dressing-gown. "Oh! Captain Dwyer, what has occurred?" A volley from without prevented my reply, and the crashing of the windows, as the glass was splintered by the bullets, made it unnecessary. "The house is attacked," she said; and then, with amazing self-possession, added, "There are always loaded guns above the kitchen fireplace." We both ran down the corridor, she to alarm her father, and I to procure a weapon; young Morden, armed with a sword, met us. "The attack is upon the kitchen," he said, hastily; "it is our weakest point; this way, Captain," and we both entered it together." There was a bright fire burning on the hearth. The large window was shattered to pieces; and the idiot I had noticed on the lawn was standing beside the ruined casement, armed with a spit, making momentary passes at the breach, and swearing and beltwo muskets which were suspended in the place Mist Morden had described. I handed one to Henry, when the fire blazed out suddenly, and discovered me to the banditti without. Instantly three or four shots were discharged. I heard a bullet whistle past my head, and felt something strike my shoulders like a sharp cut from a whip; but having secured the gun, I jumped from the table uninjured. We heard Mr Morden in the passage; his manner was calm and collected, as he ordered the servant-men to the front of the house, and dispatched his daughter for ammunition. If we suppose the disease to be established, or tubercles to be actually formed in the lungs, there would seem to be two especial indications of treatment; namely, to prevent the progress of these foreign bodies, and to check the symptoms of irritation produced by them, not only in the lungs but in other organs. The presence of the tubercles is often declared more strongly by the supervention of these secondary irritations than by any primary embarrassment in the functions of the lungs themselves. It is, consequently, against these secondary states that the efforts of the practitioner are very frequently directed; and some of them-in-clad simpleton, urging before him, from a neighbour-lowing frightfully. I leaped upon a table to seize flammation of portions of the pulmonary tissue for ex. ample-demand the promptest attention, inasmuch as they tend to hasten the progress of the tubercles, before existing in a passive condition, into that stage in which they work the most serious effects on the general constitution. The means of preventing at once the inconveniences of the different supervening irrita. tions, and the acceleration of the process of tubercular change, are, generally, all such as are calculated to prevent excitement of the vascular system. The pre-cerity, and his handsome daughter added a warm welsence of actual inflammation may make it necessary to prescribe moderate bleeding, and this may become again occasionally necessary, although the wasting character of consumption is sufficiently declarative of the impropriety of the repeated, and as it were perio. dical, bleedings, to which practitioners have sometimes resorted. Blistering the chest, as near as possible to the inflamed part of the lung, the exact situation of which may be ascertained by the stethoscope, is a powerful auxiliary to the venesection; and, in many cases, if resorted to after the application of leeches, may render it unnecessary to incur the inconvenience of a general bleeding. Irritations of the larynx and Mr Morden was a clever and respectable man; he come. They apologised for not having company to "We are in trouble here," said Mr Morden, address- of the principal places of resort for the consumptive, will be given Meanwhile, a dropping fire continued from without; from within no shot had been returned, as the robbers sheltered themselves effectually behind the angles of the offices, and the piers of the gates. From some hurried words we overheard, they were arranging a determined attack. They will make a rush immediately," said the elder Morden, coolly; "and here comes Emily in good time; don't come in, love!" and he took some forty or fifty cartridges, which she had brought in peril of our situation, I could not but gaze a moment the skirt of her dressing-gown. Notwithstanding the ceding night. We refreshed ourselves, and went to In the interim I got a majority in the seventieth, then quartered in Cork. Soon after I joined, I happened to be field-officer of the day on which a notorious criminal was doomed to suffer. The regiment had given a guard, and curiosity induced me to attend the execution. on this brave and beautiful girl. "Go, love, tell John to bring the captain's gun-case from his chamber; and do you, Emily, watch from the end window, and if you perceive any movement on that side, apprise us of it here. Now, my boys, be cool; I'll give my best horse to him who shoots the first man. You have a good supply of ammunition, if we could but coax the I entered the press-room. In a few minutes the Scoundrels from their shelter, and I'll try a ruse." malefactor appeared in white grave-clothes, attended The old gentleman took the idiot's spit, placed a coat by two priests. It was mine ancient enemy," O' upon it, while Henry and I chose a position at either Brien! Suddenly the sheriff was called out, and after side of the broken window. Mr Morden raised the a short absence returned, accompanied by a plain, vi. garment to the breach; it was indistinctly seen from gorous country gentleman, enveloped in a huge drivwithout; three bullets perforated it, and it fell. "He's ing-coat, and apparently like one who had travelled a down," roared a robber, exultingly. "Now, Mur- Our escape from robbery was fortunate indeed; Mr considerable distance. phy, now's your time; smash in the door with the Morden had seven thousand pounds that night in the I looked at the criminal; he was the ruin of a sledge!" Instantly a huge ruffian sprang from behind lodge, for he had just received the rents of two estates. powerful man, and the worst visaged scoundrel imaa gable; his rush was so sudden that he struck twice It was almost entirely paid in specie. This was of ginable. He was perfectly unmoved, and as the priests with shattering force. We heard the hinges give-course known, and two desperate bands, who had kept hurried over their Latin prayers, made a careless rewe saw the door yielding-and, at that critical mo- the adjoining counties in alarm since the rebellion sponse whenever they directed him. The door leadment, young Morden's gun missed fire! He then was suppressed, united, for the purpose of robbinging to the drop was open; the felon looked out upon caught up an axe, and placed himself determinately Morden's house, and securing this immense booty. the crowd most earnestly. "He is not there," he mur. before the door, which we expected to be momentarily The body of the smith was sent away-and having mured; "he caused my apprehension, but he will not driven in. Murphy, perceiving the tremendous ef- brought the battle to a close, I shall explain some see me die!" and added with a grim smile, “Morden, fects of his blows, called to his comrades to " be ready." matters connected with this daring outrage. you neither kept your word nor proved your prophecy!" He stood about five yards from me; the sledge was A man named Mitchell originated the intended rob- The muffled stranger stood suddenly forward—“ I am raised above his head-that blow would have shivered bery, and arranged the method of attack. He was a here, O'Brien ! I paid for your apprehension, and have the door to atoms. I drew the trigger-the charge, a slight, low-sized person, but his activity was amazing, come some hundred miles to witness your execution." heavy one of duck-shot, passed like a six-pound bullet and no attempt was too hazardous for his desperate "Morden!" said the dying felon solemnly, "if a through the ruffian's body, and he dropped a dead man courage to undertake. On the morning of his execu- ghost can come back again, I'll visit you !” upon the threshold. "Captain Dwyer," said Mr tion (he, with the three others, was hanged the subseMorden, calmly, "the horse is yours!" quent assizes) he gave us a cool detail of his plans. I had now received my own double gun, and gave the musket I had used so successfully to Henry Morden. The death of the ruffian with the sledge brought on a heavy fire from his comrades. Between the volleys, they summoned us to surrender, with fearful denunciations of vengeance, if we resisted longer. We were within a few yards of each other, and during the intervals of the firing, they poured out threats, and we sent back defiance.Morden, you old scoundrel!" exclaimed the captain of the gang, "in five minutes we'll have your heart's blood." No," was the calm reply; "I'll live to see you arrayed in cap and halter." "Surrender, or we'll give no quarter.' "Cowardly scoundrel! come and try your hand at the sledge!" said the old gentleman, with a cold and sarcastic smile, as he turned his eye on me, where I was watching the door, with the confidence a man feels who has his own trustworthy weapon to depend upon. "Morden! we'll burn the house about ye." "Will you put the coal in the thatch, O'Brien ?"" Morden, you have a daughter?" and the ruffian pronounced a horrid threat. The old man shuddered, and in a low voice, tremulous with rage, he muttered, "O'Brien, I'll spare five hundred pounds to hang you, and travel five hundred miles to see the sight!" "The coal! the coal!" shouted several voices, and unfortunately the scoundrels had procured one in the laundry. "Oh! they will burn us out," said Henry, in alarm. "Never fear," replied his cooler uncle; "the firing must have been heard across the lake, and we'll soon have aid sufficient." But a circumstance occurred almost miraculously, that averted the threatened danger. The moon became suddenly overcast, heavy rain-drops fell, and in an instant an overwhelming torrent burst from the clouds, rendering every attempt the robbers made to ignite the thatch abortive. "Who dare doubt an over-ruling Providence ?" said the old gentleman, with enthusiasm ; "surely God is with us!" The storm which came to our relief appeared to dispirit our assailants, and their parley recommenced. "Morden," said the captain of the banditti, “you have Lord 's rent in the house; give us a thousand pounds, and we'll go off and leave you." "All I promise, I'll perform," said the old gentleman coldly. "O'Brien, for this night's work you have earned a halter, and I'll attend and see you hanged." "Dash in the door," exclaimed the robber in a fury; "we'll have the old rogue's heart out!" A volley of stones rattled against the door, but produced no effect, and again the robber parleyed. Will you give us an hundred, Morden ?" "Not a sixpence," was the laconic answer. Once more stones were thrown, shots discharged, and threats of vengeance fulminated by the exasperated villains. At last the demand was reduced to twelve guineas, a guinea for each man." "They'll be off immediately," said the old gentleman: "they know assistance is at hand: would that we could amuse them for a little longer!" But the ruffians were already moving, and Miss Morden presently announced that they were embarking, twelve in number, in a boat. "Now for a parting shot or two," said Henry Morden. We picked up a dozen cartridges, and sallied from the house as the banditti were pulling hard across the lake. We opened a quick and well-directed fire, which they feebly, and without effect, replied to. While a musket-ball would reach them, we plied them liberally with shot; and as we learned afterwards, mortally wounded one man, and slightly injured two others. As we returned to the house, we met some fifty countrymen, armed with all sorts of rustic weapons, coming to our relief. Without a moment's delay we launched boats, and set off to scour the country; and at noon, so prompt and vigorous had been the pursuit, that six of the gang, including the wounded robbers, were secured. The dogs were to be destroyed, and the premises He Circumstances, they say, will often make men courageous. In this case it had the same effect on two beings of a very different description a lovely girl and an idiot boy. Miss Morden throughout the trying scene displayed the coolest courage-and the poor simpleton, who commonly would avoid the appearance of a gun, armed with his spit, defended the breach like a hero. The person addressed smiled coldly. "I found you unable to execute your threats while living, and, believe me, I apprehend nothing from you when dead." The clock struck-the sheriff gave the signal— O'Brien advanced to the scaffold-the drop fell—and in two minutes he was a corpse. MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS IN My first observation relates to that species of marine animal which is known to naturalists by the name of Medusa capillata. It is a frequent inhabitant of most of the shores of this island, and may easily be distinguished from the other species of the same animal, by the remarkable transparency of its whole mass; and more particularly by some beautiful spots of bright purple, which are placed near the centre of its disc. I ought, perhaps, to remark, for the sake of some readers, that the class of animals, of which that alluded to in the following observation is a species, is commonly known in this country by the name of the sea-blubber, and is remarkable for several striking properties, which characterise some of its species, such as that of occasioning a feeling of irritation in the skin when touched, and of being phosphorescent in the dark. To a common observer, all the varieties of this ani. mal appear to be merely masses of a transparent jelly, scarcely worthy of being ranked among the class of animals, and apparently driven, without the power of directing their course, by the varying direction of the winds or the waves. If, however, on a fine day, when the sea is calm, and when one of the species to which I now allude is swimming near the shore, an attentive eye be kept upon its movements, within a yard or two of the place of the animal, the following very beautiful and amusing appearance will be observed :-As the animal moves forward, it is constantly employed in "You little coward," said the old man, jocularly, forming its disc into a greater or less degree of con'you must give your deliverer one kiss, for your pre- vexity, while at every such change in the form of its servation:" the blushing girl received my salute. mass, a fringe of most beautiful and apparently silky Miss Morden took my hand. "You, too, Emily, filaments, all around the circumference of the disc, is will you not reward your protector?" Without co-protruded into the water, and again withdrawn into quetry she laid her lips to mine, and that kiss was a the body of the animal, as it resumes its ordinary and sufficient reward for twice the peril I had encountered. more flattened appearance. These filaments proceed For me no praises seemed sufficient; the successful from the circumference of a circular space, which is defence was attributed to my exertions; and the for- placed near the centre of the animal, and may be dis tunate shot that killed the villain smith, was never to tinctly seen passing from thence, in the form of rays, be sufficiently commended. to the extremity of the disc. The progress of this animal is therefore performed, as the reader will understand from the foregoing remarks, by a species of spinning; and the kind of organisation by which this is effected, has always appeared to myself to be one of the most pleasing instances of the wisdom of nature with which I am acquainted, and adapted most happily to illustrate the remark, that some of the finest specimens of what is exquisite in structure, may be discovered in animals of the very lowest order. We met at dinner. Julia, Miss Morden's cousin, would hardly venture to join us, for her brother rated her timidity severely. When the alarm was heard, the fearful girl buried her face beneath the bed coverings, and remained in pitiable agitation until the contest ended. Mr Morden took her from his daughter's arm, kissed her, and congratulated her on their delivery from the last night's danger. My visit ended-I was in love with Emily; but then I had little chance of succeeding to the property, which afterwards, by a chapter of accidents, fell to me; and a company of foot was all my earthly riches. She was an heiress; would it be generous to take advantage of a casual service, and press a suit that would be as painful to refuse as unlikely to be granted? I mean (so says vanity) by Mr Morden. No; I overcame the temptation of risking a trial, and returned to Waterford, possessing the esteem and good wishes of every inmate of Mr Morden's mansion. I was on parade some mornings after I rejoined the regiment, when a horse, splendidly accoutred, with a superb tiger skin, holsters, saddle, and every housing fit for a field-officer, was led into the barrack-yard by a groom. The animal was a perfect picture of symmetry and strength; a dark chestnut, sixteen hands high, and worth at least two hundred guineas. The groom presented me a letter-it was from Mr Morden-the horse was a present. Emily and her cousin married most happily, and we have often met since. They treat me as sisters would a brother, and we frequently talk of the night attack upon the lodge. I have only further to remark on this article, that, as the substance of the Medusa is gelatinous, and as this matter is soluble in common water, any person may procure the filaments I before noticed, by placing one of the animals possessing them in a basin of river water during forty-eight hours. At the end of that time, the substance of the animal will be found to have become entirely dissolved, leaving the filaments afloat on the surface. For many years as a boy I was accustomed to travel to my parish-school, over a district of wild uncultivated country, extending for two or three miles; and when relieved from the more important duties of the day, our great amusement in the spring and summer months was to ramble over that country in search of Three years passed away; the gang had been inces- birds' nests. Now, even in those days I was struck santly followed by Mr Morden, and were extirpated, with many singular discoveries (for such I still conwith the solitary exception of Captain O'Brien. Dread-sider them) in the economy of some birds, that I have ing the sleepless vengeance of that determined old not as yet seen explained, or even hinted at, in any We reached the house completely exhausted by the man, this ruffian fled the country, and established him- scientific work which I have perused on the subexertions of the morning, and the fatigue of the pre-self in a disaffected district of the south. ject. The lapwing or green-plover (Tringa vanellus), it is well known, generally deposits its eggs in low marshy ground. It is not at the trouble of building a nest, as I have never observed more than a small round hole scratched in some little eminence, with perhaps a few particles of fog or dried grass between the eggs and the moist earth. It lays four eggs; and what I have to remark as deserving of consideration is, that, if the nest is discovered as soon as the bird has begun to lay, and you remove an egg, so as to allow only one or two to remain in the nest, the bird will continue to lay for ten or twelve days, nay, for weeks successively. If, however, you allow the number to reach four, it immediately begins to hatch, and there is no further deposition of eggs; but if any of the eggs are then removed, that is, after the natural number has once been completed, it immediately forsakes the nest, and prepares a new one. I have my self continued to remove the eggs for ten days at a time, and always found a fresh one every morning; and have often tried also to take away one after the ordinary number four had been completed, but always found the nest immediately forsaken. I have tried the same experiment with the common lark. If you allow only one or two eggs to remain in the nest, the bird will go on to lay for a time indefinite; but if they reach three, the bird will hatch. The common number of eggs in a lark's nest is five; but it will hatch with three. In former days, when cock fighting was more in vogue than at present, the great desideratum was a gamecock that had been hatched by a magpie. The being nursed by such a stepmother was considered as rendering the hero invincible. Yet no small degree of finesse was necessary to beguile the pyet, and the being able to paint the hen's egg so as to impose upon that wily bird, was considered an acquirement of no trifling consequence among the knowing ones of those days. If the magpie discovered the egg, it was indignantly thrown out; but if the young bird was once hatched, she was even more attached to the stranger than to her own offspring. I have seen several gamecocks that first saw the light on the lofty summit of an old ash-tree that grew in my father's kail-yard. They were certainly much more spirited, and, if I may be allowed the expression, more cruel, than when hatched by their natural mother. If you disturb a magpie in her operation of building, she will immediately remove the sticks she has collected to another branch of the same tree, but much lower down than the one she first occupied. BIOGRAPHIC SKETCHES. FRANCIS BACON. constitute its cause, it is evident we shall be able to command the event, whenever we have it in our power to produce that combination of circumstances out of the means which nature has placed within our reach. III. That the means of producing many events which we little dream of, are actually placed within our reach; and that nothing prevents us from using those means, but our inability to select them from the crowd of other circumstances by which they are disguised and surrounded. IV. That therefore we should endeavour, by diligent observation, to find out what circumstances are essential, and what extraneous, to the production of each event; and its real cause being stripped free from all the perplexing concomitants which occur in nature, we shall perceive at once whether we can command the circumstances that compose it or not. This, in short, is to generalise; and having done so, we shall sometimes discover that objects, which of all others appeared the most useless, remote, and inapplicable to our purpose, possess the very properties we are in search of. Nature stands ready to minister to our designs, if we have only the sagacity to disentangle its operations from one another, to refer each event to its real source, and to trace the powers and qualities of objects into their most abstract form. In pursuing the dictates of this noble philosophy, man is no longer impotent and ridiculous. He calmly vanquishes the barriers which oppose his wishes-he eludes the causes of pain-he widens the range of enjoyments, and, at the same time, feels the dignity of intellect, which, like a magician's talisman, has made all things bow before his feet. To this extraordinary individual we are indebted also for an attempt to reduce the chaos of literature into some degree of order; and to show that, notwithstanding the multiplicity and variety of books, there are only three different objects, to one or other of which the contents of every book must apply. According to Lord Bacon, human knowledge is resolvable into history, philosophy, and poetry. By history, is meant a statement of particular events which have occurred in past time. By philosophy, is meant the knowledge of general facts, concerning the relation of one phenomenon to another. By poetry, is meant an assemblage of ideas brought together for the purpose of exciting emotion. BORN in London, January 22, 1561, this illustrious philosopher was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, lordkeeper of the great seal, and Anne, daughter of Sir Anthony Cook, tutor to Edward VI. The sprightliness of mind which he displayed in boyhood caused Queen Elizabeth to converse with him frequently, and to style him her young lord-keeper. In 1573, he was entered a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, where the progress of his intellect was so very rapid, that, before completing his sixteenth year, he had satisfied himself of the futility of that Aristotelian philosophy which had bewildered the human intellect for centuries, and which he was destined to supplant by the true philosophy since pursued with so much advantage to mankind. At this period of his life, he was placed under the charge of Sir Amias Powlet, the queen's ambassador in France, where he gathered a vast quantity of facts useful to an English statesman, which he formed, before his nineteenth year, into a Treatise on the State of Europe. The unexpected death of his father having obliged him to choose a profession, he adopted that of the law, and studied it with great assiduity at Gray's Inn, but without neglecting philosophical pursuits. It was here that, at the age of twenty-six, he formed the first sketch of his great work, "The Instauration of the Sciences." His first preferment was to the post of counsel extraordinary to the queen, which brought him rather honour than profit. His contracted circumstances leaving him no other choice than between virtuous poverty and the dependence of a courtier, we was so unfortunate as to choose the latter. He was at first an adherent of the Earl of Essex, who used every exertion to obtain his advancement, but was thwarted at every step by the secretary Cecil. Afterwards, when Essex lost the favour of the queen, and became a rebel against her authority, Bacon, in whom the selfishness of ambition had deadened every better principle, consented not only to plead against him, but Lord Bacon's Essays are by no means the least part disclosed some confidential letters, which went a great of his philosophy. Wisdom has never appeared in a It is a common practice in the country to set a hen, way to prove his guilt. Against such unworthy and garb so closely adapted to her person. Every subject is treated with a clear and luminous brevity, which as it is called, upon ducks' eggs, and the agony which heartless conduct, this period of his life only presents places the propositions side by side, without any intershe suffers when she sees her young charge first take some rather spirited appearances which he made in mediate ornament. A florid discourse may astonish to their natural element, the water, has often been ob- the House of Commons, in behalf of the popular rights. us, but it is a simple one like this which enables us to served and remarked upon. The following anecdote Till the accession of King James, Bacon made little arrive at conclusions." These essays are the most may be relied upon, as the circumstance was observed advance either in reputation or in fortune. His learn- popular of his writings, being devoted to subjects and by a gentleman of science as well as rank; and it oc- ing having recommended him to the king, he was involving thoughts which, as he says of them himself, curred in the town or suburbs of Stirling :-A hen, knighted, and appointed king's counsel, with a salary" come home to men's business and bosoms." They which had been employed to hatch a duck's eggs, in of forty pounds a-year. In consideration of the merit often unite the most profound philosophy with the the neighbourhood of a dyer's mill, where there was of his work "On the Advancement of Learning," most fanciful illustration and poetical language, and a small pond, was observed to exhibit the usual symp- published in 1605, he was appointed, two years after, sometimes display an almost scriptural pathos, as in toms of terror and alarm when the ducklings first to the post of solicitor-general; and about this time the following beautiful passage:took to the water, but, by degrees, she became quite his practice as a lawyer became both extensive and "The parts and signs of goodness are many. If a man reconciled to their habits, and was accustomed, in profitable. If Bacon had been content to wait may be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows great quietness, to enjoy herself on the banks while upon fortune, he could have hardly failed, with he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no they gamboled in the pool. For two or three years the first abilities of his time, to reach, without dis- island cut off from other lands, but a continent that she uniformly brought out ducklings, and, at last, as credit, the highest honours of the state. But the joins to them. If he be compassionate towards the regularly led them to the water as their natural dam eagerness of his ambition, joined to a certain softness afflictions of others, it shows that his heart is like a would have done. In the course of time, however, and facility of disposition, by which he was disabled, noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the she brought out a breed of chickens. These she imas it were, for the entertainment of high and manly balm. If he easily pardons and remits offences, it mediately led to the side of the pool also, but when principle, caused him to seek elevation by means which shows that his mind is planted above injuries, so that she found they did not enter the water, she became have stamped his name with infamy. Not only was he cannot be shot. If he be thankful for small benequite uneasy-called them close to it-made every he content to present an almost impious kind of flat-fits, it shows that he weighs men's minds, and not motion for them to enter it-flew over to the beetling- tery to his weak sovereign, but he stooped to become their trash." stone in the centre of the pond, and then called on the minion of a minion, namely, Villiers Duke of Another specimen of Bacon may be given from his them to follow; but all to no purpose. When she Buckingham, who had been recently raised from ob- praises of learning:-" Learning taketh away the found that nothing would entice them to enter the scurity to the highest court honours, merely on ac- wildness, barbarism, and fierceness of men's minds; water, she actually seized upon one or two of them, count of his possessing a handsome person. By such though a little of it doth rather work a contrary and threw them into it, and if she had not been pre-means, and by writing to the king a letter studiously effect. It taketh away all levity, temerity, and in vented, it is believed she would have drowned her whole depreciating all the other great lawyers of his day, he solency, by copious suggestion of all doubts and diffiprogeny. This shows how much the native habits obtained, in March 1617, the appointment of lord-culties, and acquainting the mind to balance reasons of even fowls may be changed by circumstances, and keeper, and, two years after, that of lord chancellor, on both sides, and to turn back the first offers and proves, in some degree, the existence of memory, with- with the title of Baron Verulam, subsequently ex- conceits of the kind, and to accept of nothing but out judgment, in the feathered tribes. changed for that of Viscount of St Alban's. [what is] examined and tried. It taketh away all vain admiration of any thing, which is the root of all weakness: for all things are admired, either because they are new, or because they are great. If a man meditate upon the universal frame of nature, the earth with men upon it (the divineness of souls excepted) will not seem more than an ant-hill, where some ants carry corn, and some carry their young, and some go empty, and all to and fro a little heap of dust. It taketh away or mitigateth fear of death, or adverse fortune: which is one of the greatest impediments of virtue, and imperfection of manners. Virgil did excellently and profoundly couple the knowledge of causes and the conquest of all fears together. It were too long to go over the particular remedies which learning doth minister to all the diseases of the mind-sometimes purging the ill humours, sometimes opening the obstructions, sometimes helping the digestion, sometimes increasing appetite, sometimes healing the wounds and ulcerations thereof, and the like; and I will therefore conclude with the chief reason of all, which is, that it disposeth the constitution of the mind not to be fixed or settled in the defects Without apparently gaining much personal esteem, Bacon had at this time obtained the highest reputation as a philosophical writer. To the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, published in 1605, and afterwards republished in an extended form, was added, in 1620, the Novum Organum, which was designed as a second part of his grand work, the Instauration of the Sciences. Another portion, intended to complete the work, was never produced. The objects of the whole work, were, to answer the objections made to the progress of knowledge, to classify the branches of knowledge, and to explain a new method of employing the faculties for the increase of knowledge; namely, to ascertain facts in the first place, and then to reason upon them towards conclusions a mode which may now appear very obvious, and even unavoidable, but which was nevertheless unknown till explained by him. To come to parti A gentleman in the county of Stirling kept a greyhound and a pointer, and, being fond of coursing, the pointer was accustomed to find the hares, and the greyhound to catch them. When the season was over, it was found that the dogs were in the habit of going out by themselves, and of killing the hares for their own amusement. To prevent this, a large iron ring was fastened to the pointer's neck by a leather collar, and hung down, so as to prevent the dog from running or jumping over dikes, &c. The animals, however, continued to stroll out to the fields together; and one day, the gentleman, suspecting all was not right, resolved to watch them, and, to his surprise, found, that the moment they thought they were unobserved, the greyhound took up the iron ring in his mouth, and, carrying it, they set off to the hills, and began to search for hares as usual. They were followed, and it was observed, that whenever the pointer scented the hare, the ring was dropped, and the grey-culars, Bacon tells us, hound stood ready to pounce upon poor puss the moment the other drove her from her form, but that he uniformly returned to assist his companion when he had accomplished his object.* * Edinburgh Magazine, 1818. "I. That the ultimate aim of philosophical investigation is to bring the course of events, as much as possible, under our own control, in order that we may turn it to our own advantage. II. That as each event depends upon a certain combination of circumstances which precede it, and * * Life of Bacon, prefixed to an Edinburgh edition of his Essays, 8vo. 1817. 286 thereof, but still to be capable and susceptible of re- 9th of April 1626, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. THE STOCK-JOBBER. PERHAPS no vicissitudes to which speculative men are quite intoxicated him with success; all he touched seemed to prove advantageous to his fortunes. As his wealth increased, he drew around him the usual groups of adulators and sycophants who attend on the opulent, and whose subserviency established all that the weakness of his understanding suggested; he therefore became the slave of folly and ostentation. He was delighted at hearing himself praised as a speculator, and was in ecstacies at a puffparagraph in one of the public prints, for which he had previously paid. But with all this sudden increase of riches, Thomson was not a happy man; something was always wanting; he durst not let himself think, and when left by his companions he became capricious and tyrannical. Mrs Thomson, an excellent woman, who, when the family prospects appeared confined, had been selected for the endowments of her mind, now oc that Bacon had also accepted bribes from suitors in subjected to the genuine demands of some individuals, casionally remonstrated with her inflated spouse on From the glories of the sage, it is our painful duty to revert to the infamy of the courtier. In his capacity of chancellor, Bacon displayed the same servility to the king and Buckingham as before, affixing the great seal to many patents which were intended as instruments of extortion in behalf of the royal favourite. In 1621, these abuses became the subject of investigation by Parliament, when it was discovered the Court of Chancery. A committee of the House of Lords, appointed to inquire into the latter delinquencies, brought no fewer than twenty distinct charges against him, comprising sums which amounted to several thousand pounds; and Bacon, with his natural pusillanimity, could only meet them with an abject confession. He was sentenced to pay a fine of forty thousand pounds, to be imprisoned in the Tower during the king's pleasure, and to be for ever incapable of holding any office or employment, and never again to sit in Parliament, or to come within the verge of court. Overwhelmed with the infamy of this sentence, he retired to solitude. During the remainder of his life, under the discouragement of public censure, a heavy Durden of debt, and the still greater pressure of selfreproach, he yet retained so much vigour of intellect, and warmth of fancy, as to be capable of producing writings of singular merit, in history, morals, and philosophy. In his humiliated state, he found some comfort in comparing himself with three great men of antiquity, Demosthenes, Cicero, and Seneca, all of whom, after occupying high stations in their respective countries, had fallen into delinquency, and been banished into retirement, where they consoled themselves with letters and philosophy. These examples, he declares, confirmed him in the resolution, to which he was otherwise inclined, of devoting the remainder the egregious folly of his proceedings. She repre sented to him the error of concluding that extravagance was synonymous with comfort, and plainly said that it was as ill suited to her love of tranquillity as it was to the preservation of his health and reputation. This was not to be endured; he scorned the and to the illegal uses of others, produces an assem When poses, money is drawn from the stocks, or funds, to an enormous amount, and the value of the remaining tired on a mere pittance to a distant village. Freed from what he deemed an incumbrance, the heedless Thomson pursued his idea of happiness. Such had been his extraordinary success on the Stock Exchange, that it was suspected he possessed some means of obtaining information not given to the general ear; such was his good luck at the gaming-houses he frequented, and such was his gain as a contractor, that it was concluded his fortunes were augmented by some kind of improper means. A short period of time unfolded the nature of his transactions. A sudden convulsion in the monied interest in which he was engaged, to of his time wholly to writing. Yet even now neither consequently inserted in the books connected with the gether with a depreciation in the value of a foreign philosophy nor experience had perfectly taught Bacon the lesson of moderation. After his release from the Tower, which was soon granted him, and the entire remission of his sentence which was by degrees obtained, when the king's indulgence had yielded him a pension of L.1200 a-year, in addition to the grant which he retained of L.600 a-year from the Alienation-Office, and L.700 which he derived from his own estate, he still lived at a great expense and sometimes appeared in splendour. It is said that the Prince of Wales, one day observing, near London, a coach followed by a considerable number of people on horseback, was told, on inquiry, that it was Lord St Alban's, attended by his friends; upon which his highness said, "Well, do what we can, this man scorns to go out like a snuff." It was no inconsiderable aggravation of the folly of this prodigality, that he was still encumbered with a heavy load of debt: though, about the time of his fall, he found means to discharge arrears to the amount of eight thousand pounds, he died in debt upwards of twenty-two thousand. Yet particular stock in which the transaction may oc cur. There are transactions of a very different nature, the rise may be determined; accordingly, when the loan in which he had deeply involved his fortune, instantaneously prostrated his fortune in the dust. Luckily he was not a defaulter with respect to public property, as his pride had caused him to relinquish the office of collector of rates, and pay up his arrears. He asked for his com The result of Thomson's unlucky ventures and losses, was a species of mental derangement, which for a short time affected him. He raved about bonds, bills, consols, and securities, as things in his possession; but all were gone. panions-they had deserted him, after the usual manner of parasitical dependents. found to alleviate his sufferings, save his discarded wife. That gentle being, forgiving and forgetting all her wrongs, flew to his aid; she endeavoured to console him by all the means in her power, raised him from despair to a consciousness of life and hope, No one was Bacon's greatest weakness was not so much a high of extraordinary means having been resorted to for and inspired a belief, that, although greatness had opinion of himself, as an inordinate thirst for the good opinion and applause of others. With more selfesteem he might probably have been more virtuous. When the French ambassador flattered him by saying that he had never before been in the company of an angel, he remarked, "If the politeness of others compare me to an angel, my own infirmities remind me that I am a man." It was a striking proof of his self-command, that, receiving from a friend an account of the failure of an application at court for some important favour, at the moment when he was dictating to his chaplain an account of some philosophical experiments, he calmly said, “Be it so," dismissed his friend with thanks for his services, and turning to his chaplain, and saying, "Well, sir, if that business will not succeed, let us go on with this, which is in our power," continued to dictate for some hours, with out hesitation of speech or apparent interruption of thought. the purpose of producing an effect on the funds, by Connected with improper transactions on the Stock Exchange, an example may be given that not very long ago excited the attention of many persons in one of the suburbs of the metropolis. Mr Thomson was a tradesman of considerable shrewdness, and doing what is called a pretty little business, by which he obtained all that was necessary to the comforts of life. He also managed to obtain an appointment as collector of rates and taxes, in a wealthy district, on furnishing bondsmen to the amount of twenty thousand pounds. Some people conduct themselves remarkably well in society, as long as they are not under any temptation; but no sooner are large sums of money placed in their power, than they become bewildered with the He pursued his philosophical researches to the last in the midst of bodily infirmities brought on by in possession; and having no basis of principle, they are tense study, by multiplicity of business, and, above easily turned aside into practices of a disgraceful naall, by anguish of mind. In his letters to the king ture. Such was Thomson, the hero of our story. He for the remission of his sentence, he is perpetually did very well till he became a collector of public reckoning how old he is in misery, the date being money, when, without reflecting on what might be from his fall. In the winter of 1625, he found his the consequence of his folly, he began a practice of health and spirits much impaired. In the spring of the following year, making an excursion into the speculating on the Stock Exchange; and although he country to try some experiments upon the preserva- risked his reputation, the public property, and the tion of bodies, he is supposed to have been affected welfare of his bondsmen, he could not withstand the He first ventured on a large purchase of by some noxious effluvium, as he was suddenly seized temptation. with pains his head and stomach, which obliged him, stop at the Earl of Arundel's house at High-Spanish bonds, and was successful; a few hundreds gate. Here, after a week's illness, he expired on the became thousands with the effect of magic. From what might have been termed a plodding existence, he started into comparative affluence. Another lucky hit This expression is given in the original in Latin. departed, happiness might still be secured. She continued closely attendant and solicitous to procure the restoration of his health, while legal proceedings and seizures pressed hard on the remnant of his property; even the little that might have been converted into use for future exigencies, merged into the general ruin, and they were left nearly destitute. Without a friend, without a home, the world that lately bloomed so luxuriantly appeared a sterile desert; they seemed alone amid thousands; not one heart sympathised with them, nor was there one friendly hand to avert the most abject wretchedness. Part of a very humble dwelling, in an obscure back lane, was taken by Mrs Thomson, to which they removed, and for a time their immediate necessities were supplied by the sale of a few trinkets, of which the unfortunate lady had not been deprived. On these they contrived to subsist until he gained strength, and was enabled to contemplate the miserable state to which he was reduced. He grew morose or furious, as the bitterness of adversity pressed upon him. Hi ravings against a world, which he insisted had trested him with unparalleled cruelty, were loud and inces sant, while for days he paced his room, or lay on his humble pallet, in a state bordering on distraction. In this extremity of hopeless misery, Mrs Thomson, by chance, met one of their former intimates, to whom she related a few of their sufferings. The listener despised the husband; but the sorrows of the wife called forth an expression of sympathy, and a ence. purse was administered, containing a few sovereigns and coins of lesser value. This accidental relief called up the ruling passions of this ill-assorted couple. The wife, ever thoughtful, proposed that a small stock of trifling articles should be purchased, and that she, with a basket over her arm, would endeavour to obtain the little that was now required to sustain existThe wretch spurned the idea as derogatory; he would not entertain a thought so contemptible, and therefore proposed that he should put himself in fortune's way by attending one of the lower order of gambling houses. Nothing venture nothing have, said he, exultingly; and despite of every objection which the prudence and humility of the wife could suggest, the passion and the propensity of the gambler prevailed. He went he lost even the last shilling vanished; and he returned in a state of phrenzy and intoxication to his disconsolate wife. With woman's kindness she again administered every aid, and endeavoured to console him; and although her heart was bursting with anguish, she watched him with unremitted care. But nothing more could soothe him into resignation-his brain was too surely affected with madness. In this melancholy state the hapless couple were taken to the last refuge for the destitute-the poorhouse. In a few days Thomson showed symptoms of returning consciousness; self-condemnation appeared in all his looks and actions, but he was never heard to speak after being informed where he was. He felt his pride insulted; and in less than a month he died, the victim of an acute fever of the brain. Mrs Thomson paid the last tribute to her departed husband, and then accepted of a comfortable home which had been provided for her by a few worthy persons, who knew and could appreciate her virtues. The fate of this infatuated man is not without its lesson to those, who, like him, may imagine that there exists some partial agency that turns the ordinary events of life to success, independently of moral exertion. The knave and the sluggard may cherish such a hope; but they will perish in the delusion. He who knows the value of reputation, or possesses the pride of independence, will regulate his expenditure by his honest receipt. Such a man can never be subjected to what is called the "frowns of Fortune,' nor be ruined in his prospects by gambling, nor injured by reverses arising from speculations on the Stock Exchange. He will move in confidence, however humble his path; and, protected by his integrity, his journey through life will be satisfactory to himself, and worthy the imitation of others. towards the spectator's eye. This radiating centre Humboldt and Bonpland witnessed a similar shower We cannot go into the minute details collected, in order to furnish data for inferences as to the nature and source of the meteors. We shall only observe, that from observations made in places at a distance from one another, the parallax of the radiating point was found approximatively [parallax is the angular change of position which an object undergoes when observed from different localities], from which its height was calculated; and Professor Olmstead of Yale College thinks that the facts ascertained afford a basis for the following conclusions: 1. The meteors of November 1833 had their origin far beyond the limits of the atmosphere, at the height of about 2200 miles above the earth, and they had no connection with electricity or the aurora borealis. 2. They were attracted to the earth by the force of gravity, and descended in straight lines nearly parallel, their apparent divergence being the effect of perspective. 3. As the lightest and heaviest bodies fall through empty space with the same velocity, these meteors would enter the atmosphere (which extends about fifty miles above the surface of the earth) with a velocity of four miles per second, or ten times greater than that of a cannon ball. 4. They were composed of combustible matter, remained invisible while in free space, but took fire and were consumed in traversing the atmosphere, the larger ones leaving a cloud visible for some minutes, the product of the combustion. The ignition was probably caused by the compression of the air before them in their rapid course. 5. They were composed most probably of light nebulous matter, similar to the tails of comets. From what body did they come? The professor shows that the facts do not consist with the supposition that the nebula was wandering lawless through the planetary spaces, or that it was a satellite of the earth, revolving round it like the moon. After weighing all the facts, he concludes, that it revolves round the sun in six months, from left to right, like the earth, and in an elliptical orbit which is nearly in the plane of the ecliptic; that this orbit lies within the earth's orbit, touching it in its aphelion (or point of greatest distance from the sun), and having its perihelion (point of least distance) within the orbit of Mercury. The nebula was probably of great size, for an unusual light, like the zodiacal light, preceded the dawn on 13th November, and was visible after sunset in the beginning of December. The meteors consisted of the extreme parts of this nebula, detached from the mass by the earth's attraction, and falling down in a fiery shower. METEORIC SHOWER IN AMERICA. A REMARKABLE fall of meteors took place in North America in November 1833, which was amply described in the newspapers. If the speculations of some men of science on this phenomenon be correct, it either reveals to us the existence of a new and curious class of bodies in the solar system, or it discloses to us new properties in bodies previously known. We are not aware that any connected view of the facts, and the conclusions drawn from them, has yet been published in this country. What follows is derived from various papers in Professor Silliman's Journal. On the morning of the 13th November 1833, from midnight to six o'clock, the whole horizon was filled with fiery meteors or shooting stars, as far as the eye could reach. They seemed to take their course from a single point, a little S. E. of the zenith, shooting to every quarter of the compass; they were of all sizes, If these conclusions are sound, an extraordinary from a small point to three times the diameter of fall of meteors might be looked for about the 12th or Venus; and the larger ones left a train of light in 13th November, not perhaps every year, but fretheir course, which continned for some minutes after quently; and we may well suppose that the Americans their extinction, resembling a white cloud, which were on the watch when that day came round in 1834, moved upwards, curving, undulating, and changing for materials to prove or disprove the hypothesis. The its shape, till it vanished. Some of these luminous result did not entirely disappoint them. The phenoor phosphorescent clouds occupied six or eight degrees menon wanted the splendour of that of the preceding in length, and one in breadth, the colour not fiery, but year, but there was an unusual number of meteors; silvery, like moonlight on a thin transparent cloud. they seemed also to radiate from a common centre, The meteors shot downwards with great rapidity, and that centre was in the constellation Leo, as in some descending to within ten or fifteen degrees of 1833. The zodiacal or pseudo-zodiacal light also the horizon, but none reached it. There was no re-appeared from the middle of October to December, port heard, and no solid substance fell, so far as known. The sky was perfectly free of clouds; but the atmosphere had a yellowish tinge, and was so very Upon the whole, the hypothesis has a sufficient deluminous as greatly to obscure the fixed stars. A few gree of probability to entitle it to attention, but it meteors were seen as early as nine or ten P. M., and they must still be considered as under trial. It is perfectly continued till after six, but were most numerous from credible that there may be hundreds of parcels of fine twelve till four. They were described as so thick and transparent vapour, such as the tails of comets-or if abundant that they resembled a snow-shower, and we choose to vary the expression, comets without many ignorant persons thought them miraculous. nuclei-which revolve round the sun within the liThey were observed with nearly the same appear-mits of our system, or revolve round some of the ance at sea and on land, from Lake Superior to the middle of the Mexican Gulf, and from 60° W. longitude to 90°, over a space greatly exceeding a thousand miles each way. The meteors seemed to diverge or radiate from a given point, the position of which was noted by its place among the constellations. The paths of the meteors were not seen to commence at this point, but by tracing them backwards they seemed to meet in it. The meteors seen farthest from this centre had long apparent courses; those seen nearer to it, shorter; and at the centre itself, some observers noticed what they deemed a nebulosity, in which slight flickering motions were discernible; and now and then a luminous point would present itself, swell gradually on the sight, and then vanish, presenting exactly the appearance which a meteor would have when travelling right and changed its place in reference to the sun, exactly nomenon is rather too regular. That the earth's periodic time should be so exact a multiple of that of the nebula, is rather against the doctrine of chances; and that so light a body, exposed to disturbance in crossing the orbits of Venus and Mercury, should keep its time so regularly since 1799, is improbable. The radiating centre, too, of a sheet of vapour more than 1000 miles each way, and only 2200 miles high, should not have presented itself as a confined space, of the breadth of three or four moons, in the constellation Leo. These are not reasons for rejecting the hypothesis, but they inculcate the prudence of sus pending our entire faith in it, till time shall add to its evidences. In the meanwhile, naturalists will do well to watch for meteoric phenomena for some nights before and after the 12th November.—Scotsman. THE FIVE KERNELS OF CORN. [From Mrs Sigourney's Tales and Essays for Children. Hartford (United States), 1835.] ous. THOSE who form a new colony, or establish a regular government where there was none before, have need of patience to endure toil, and wisdom to overcome difficulty. The first settlers of New England had many dangers to meet, and hardships to sustain. Their voyage over the ocean was long and tempestuThey approached the coast during the cold of winter. At their first landing on the rock at Plymouth, December 22, 1620, the whole appearance of the country was dreary and inhospitable. The thick forests looked dark and gloomy, and the tangled underwood and brambles had never been cleared away, to make a comfortable path for their feet. There was no shelter from the cold winds and storms of snow. Some of their number were delicate women and little children, who had been accustomed to comfortable rooms and soft beds. But here was not a single house, or even a board with which to build one. They were forced to cut down logs, and with them, and the branches of trees, to construct rude huts for the refuge of their families. The Indians, who were nu merous, lived in simple dwellings called wigwams, and were astonished at the arrival of the white stran gers. At first they fled away and viewed them at a distance. Then they became acquainted, and were sometimes friendly, and supplied them with corn. But they grew suspicious, and were disposed to consider them as intruders and enemies-so that wars with the natives were among the troubles of our forefathers. They were an industrious and pious people-patient under hardships, and anxious for the right education of their children. Their sufferings were so great from cold weather and coarse food, and storms from which their habitations were too poor to shelter them, that many of them died. Among their domestic privations, it was not the least, that for four years no cows were brought to the colony. It is almost impossible for us to realise the inconvenience and suffering which would ensue, if no milk was to be procured, even though our tables should in other respects be well provided. But there the weaned infant pined and the aliment best adapted to its sustenance could not be obtained. The little shivering child hungered, and wept for the bread and milk which it used freely to eat in its home beyond the sea. The feeble sick woman languished, and there was no means of preparing for her what might tempt the decaying appetite. There was neither milk, nor sugar, nor eggs, nor chickens. Coarse bread, made of pounded corn, was what they depended on fe nourishment. But they were patient and thankful. And these circumstances are mentioned, that children may remember what our ancestors endured and may learn not to complain if their own food is not always according to their fancy. But there is a greater evil than being obliged to eat coarse food, namely, not being able to obtain food enough to support nature. This is called famine. This also came upon the colonists at Plymouth, or the pilgrim-fathers, as they are styled in history. In 1621, the year after their settlement, they were exceedingly distressed for provisions. For two or three months they had no bread at all. Their friends across the ocean, three thousand miles distant, knew not of their distress, and could not therefore relieve it. Many of the less vigorous were not able to bear it. The flesh wasted away from their bones, and they died. Children, with dry and parched lips, asked their parents for a little bread, and they had none to give. But they prayed to God, and besought him to have pity upon his people in the wilderness. Vessels arrived from England, bringing them aid, and summer ripening the corn which they had planted, once more supplied them with food. planets, and are generally invisible: we have no rea |