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WALWORTH CHURCH

whole range of nature, with all its varieties and enjoyments, is converged into the narrow space of one room and one hour, and placed at the absolute disposal of the humblest individual in society.

We shall only select one more of our author's "Gaieties," and then conclude:

THE JESTER CONDEMNED TO DEATH.

One of the Kings of Scanderoon,
A Royal Jester,

Had in his train a gross buffoon,
Who used to pester
The Court with tricks inopportune,
Venting on the highest folks his
Scurvy pleasantries and hoaxes.

It needs some sense to play the fool,
Which wholesome rule
Occurr'd not to our jackanapes,

Who consequently found his freaks
Lead to innumerable scrapes,

And quite as many kicks and tweaks, Which only seem'd to make him faster Try the patience of his master.

Some sin, at last, beyond all measure Incurr'd the desperate displeasure

Of his serene and raging highness: Whether he twitch'd his most revered And sacred beard,

Or had intruded on the shyness

Of the seraglio, or let fly

An epigram at royalty,

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cargo may not be hazarded by the mere lumber with which it is associated. Some of the papers, both in thought and quotation, are more tritical than any we remember to have seen, and are striking specimens of modern essayism, in which the great object is to spread out the smallest quantity of intellect over the greatest possible extent of surface. As to the general character of this work, we retain the opinion we expressed at the beginning; it abounds in a great many innocent pleasantries, tending to promote cheerfulness and gaiety, without the smallest alloy of offensive matter. But as to any traces of original power or thinking, we see none. What the Smiths were at the beginning they still continue; on their first literary début they were hailed as clever imitators, and beyond that grade they have not advanced. Such being the case, they cannot be said to stand very high in the intellectual scale ; for, however successful mimicry may be, it only holds the same relation to genius and original mind, that the acting of a Kean or a Kemble holds to the Great Spirit who conceived the characters they so ably personify,

WALWORTH CHURCH.

THREE stained glass windows have been placed in the new church at Wal

None knows; his sin was an occult worth, which was recently consecrated.

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slave!
Thou stand'st condemned to certain
death.

Silence, base rebel!-no replying!-
But such is my indulgence still,
That, of my own free grace and will,
I leave to thee the mode of dying."

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For the centre piece, the church is indebted to the liberality of one of the parishioners, Mr. Firth; and for the side pieces, to Mr. Soane, the architect of the building. The whole have been executed under the direction of Mr. Collins, near Temple-bar. The subject of the centre piece is Christ bearing his cross, copied from an artist more eminent for his tenderness than force-Carlo Dolci, This is only a bust, but the hands, in consequence of being uplifted, are introduced. The remaining space of the window is occupied by elegant and brilliant ornaments surrounding this centre piece; the colours and forms of which are admirably contrasted, rendering the general effect brilliant and harmonious. The side pieces are Christ delivering the keys to Peter, two figures from the group of Raphael's famous cartoon, and Peter delivered from prison, also part of a composition of Raphael. These are painted in one uniform umber colour, possibly for the purpose of assisting, or to avoid injuring, the effect of the centre. One of the principal objects of stained glass, brilliancy of colour, is thus lost. But placing this deficiency

out of consideration, they are certainly not in so good taste as the centre.

In contemplating these works many persons of judgment have expressed regret that the directors should have, for whatever reason, considered it necessary to apply to the productions of foreign painters to furnish them with compositions to ornament an English church, when so many English artists are truly competent to it. The effect of these glass pictures is considerably diminished by their want of novelty, for prints of them are in every body's hands. Mere copies indeed, and copies, too, which have been repeated over and over again, can never be high in our estimation: it was not by such means that the original inventors of these compositions, which we so servilely imitate, attained their eminence. We may, in truth, say of a painter what Churchill has said of an actor"The painter who would build a solid

fame

Must imitation's servile arts disclaim, Act from himself, on his own bottom stand,

I hate e'en Raphael at a second hand." But if the side windows are objectionable as being copies, they are still more so as being copies of parts only of compositions. In the cartoon of "Feed my flock," by Raphael, the value and beauty of every individual figure depends principally upon its situation in that composition, and its contrast or harmony with the rest of the figures. If one, two, or three of these figures be extracted, and presented alone to the spectator, they not only lose their greatest merit, which lies in their fitness as parts of one grand whole, but become scarcely intelligible, as far as regards the telling of a story. This appears to us to be the case in the glass window, and the same objection may, in a great measure, apply to its companion of Peter delivered from prison, if we compare it with the complete composition of Raphael.

It has often been remarked that those

works, entitled "Beauties of Shakspeare,"

"Beauties of Milton," &c. which are collections of extracts, impart no idea whatever of the beauties of those great writers. The fact is, the speeches or passages extracted receive their greatest beauty from time and place, from the contrast of passion, from the chain of incidents, or, in a word, from a view of the whole composition together.

lecture on botany, by explaining' the nature of sap, which he said was conveyed to the different parts of trees, plants, and flowers, by means of certain vessels or arteries. It was evident to every oneTM that trees differed in structure from each other. Plants contained various substances, such as sugar, gum, and several acids, which are deposited in different cells. Air exists in vegetables; plants are supported by water, which they readily absorb and convey through vessels to every branch of the plant: the sap, which is really the blood of the plant, is also conveyed through other vessels.

Plants contain tubes, which were formerly supposed to be air vessels. Dr. Darwin was the first person who discovered that these supposed air tubes were sap vessels, and Mr. Knight established a new theory in the vegetation of young plants, which was inserted in the "Philosophical Transactions" for the year 1801-4-5, to whom the lecturer was indebted for the plate shown on the present occasion, representing the different sap vessels, which were found to be secured by matter similar to that of the fig-tree. Mr. Knight traced vessels becoming more numerous as they these vessels into the leaf of the plant, the plant; thus an overruling providence has approach the grand artery or heart of the provided against the fatal effects of stopping the circulation of the sap or blood of plants, by numerous small fibres, similar

to those of the animal frame. Sir A.

Cooper has even gone so far as to tie the largest artery, and the circulation of the blood still went on. The same would be the result of stopping the flow of the sap vessels of plants; these small fibres being sufficient to keep on the power of circulation. A certain degree of heat is necessary for the nourishment of plants, besides natural heat: various mechanical causes have the same effect.

The last function of life, in the human

frame, is the emptying of the vessels nearest

the heart. This is also the case in the

vegetable kingdom: whence arises the

mistaken notion of the ancients, who considered these vessels to be air tubes. Sap may be obtained from trees by wounding them from a vine-plant at this season of tracted. The flow of this is observed at the year, near a pint of sap may be exthe spring and autumn of the year, when

the

other periods of the year it is scarcely peryoung leaves begin to expand; and at ceptible. Some plants will bleed when wounded, until they die. The assafoetida

LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITU- plant, for instance, which defies the aid of

TION.

LECTURE ON BOTANY.

MR. WHEELER commenced his second

the most skilful gardeners to prevent their withering.

The Indians, resident in North America,

MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

supply themselves with sugar extracted from the sugar maple. From about twenty pounds weight of sap, they, by the process of boiling, are enabled to obtain one pound of sugar.

When the leaves of a plant begin to expand, perspiration takes place. The sunflower perspires considerably; and some plants are known to perspire more than a

man.

Vegetables possess heat, which may be exemplified by the snow, when lodged on them, houses, &c. The snow disappearing first from off the vegetables.

Vegetation may be forced by artificial means, such as heat, manure, &c. Thus foreign plants, in this country, are made to

retain the nature of their own.

In whatever situation seeds are placed in the ground, the root is invariably found downwards.

The lecturer then went on to explain the anatomy of plants, and the technical terms of the roots, stems, &c. and concluded by stating that all plants cultivated from buds, cuttings, layers, or roots, partook of the properties of the parent plant, which accounts for several sorts of apples and pears, known in former times, being now completely extinct.

SPITALFIELDS MECHANICS' INSTITUTION. This institution is rapidly organizing, and on the 15th instant, Mr.Gibson ad. dressed, to a numerous auditory, some preliminary observations on the objects and manner of conducting these establishments. By means of trifling contributions from numerous bodies, they are enabled to obtain scientific information at a cheap rate; to have access to a library, and hear a course of lectures, on those branches of knowledge best adapted to the situation and circumstances of the members. A book will be opened for the purpose of receiving the names of such as are willing to become members of the society, under rules and regulations similar to those adopted by other institutions, and at the same rate of payment:- .namely, one pound a year, or five shillings a quarter. A committee will then be appointed; twenty of whom,or two-thirds of the whole number, will be working mechanics, chosen by the members themselves, and the remaining ten consist of those individuals who had assisted in forming the institution. In forming the institution, Mr. G. alluded to one striking advantage that would result from it; by uniting two classes hitherto separated-namely the employer and the employed.

Mr. Partington next delivered an inter.. esting lecture on PNEUMATICS. He elucidated, in a simple and striking manner,

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the materiality, weight, and elasticity of the air, and announced his intention of explaining, on a future occasion, how these important qualities were combined in the steam-engine.

[NORWICH MECHANICS' INSTITUTION. Mr. Drummond prefaced the inaugral lecture at this institution, by congratulating those who, from a desire of promoting and diffusing knowledge, had become members of the Norwich Institution, and at the same time expressed the gratification he felt, at being allowed to deliver the first lecture. After alluding to the institutions of Glasgow and London, he entered on the main subject of his discourse. An opinion at one time prevailed, that the earth, air, fire, and water, were each a primary element, but it had now been ascertained, that each of them was a compound.

Matter is that of which all things are made. Solids are composed of many minute parts, in close compact with each other, which depends entirely upon their powers of attraction: thus, if a piece of polished glass be placed on another, they will adhere

This is called attraction of cohesion. For this reason mechanics take care to plane surfaces smooth, and the glue merely fills up the interstices. Solid substances have also an attraction for other substances, called magnetic attraction, which Mr. D. illustrated by the load stone--electric attraction, by balancing a tobacco pipe on a watch glass, and presenting to it wax rubbed on woollen cloth, which attracted the pipe, although kept at a distance. The attraction of gravi tation is the power of impelling small bodies towards each other as a stone thrown into the air falls to the ground, or a pendulum held near a mountain inclines towards it. An inclined plane and double cone were then exhibited: by placing the cone at the lowest and narrowest point of the plane, and setting it moving, it appeared to roll up hill, contrary to the attraction of gravity. This was to be accounted for thus: when the cone was near the point of the inclined plane, the mass of the cone laid upon the plane, but as it rolled to the broader part, it sunk lower, and the body of the cone fell nearer the earth than when in its first position, near the point. Mr. D. here mentioned, that the plane and cone were made by Mr. Philip Taylor, a native of, and lately a resident in, that city, when a boy of twelve years old, now one of the first mechanics in the world.

Mr. Drummond next explained the component parts of earth, air, and water, and concluded with exhibiting some in

teresting experiments in electricity. The president, in the name of the members, thanked Mr. Drummond for his valuable and instructive lecture, which the members received with unanimous plaudits.

Diary of Occurrences.

March 14. THE CATHOLICS.-Ministers are carrying their measures with a great deal of address and management; they so dexterously mix up bitter and sweet in their potions, that there is no refusing either, The contemporary measures. of putting down the Catholic Association and listening to their grievances are clever strokes of policy. By the former, an end put to a great deal of speech-making and caballing, and the latter assuages any irritation which the first might have excited. As to Catholic Emancipation, it begins to be considered of very little importance it was a mere bugbear that only frightened at a distance. That it will endanger the protestant establishment few are inclined to believe, and that it will afford direct and substantial relief to Ireland, people are equally incredulous. The most favourable point of view in which it is contemplated is, that it will remove out of the way a question of engrossing and endless discussion, and leave an opening to probe the more vital distempers under which the Irish are suffering.

Colonel Berkeley has been horse-whipping the editor of the Cheltenham Journal. The colonel is certainly a very queer man. Towards Mr. Claggitt he demeaned himself in the most peaceable, contrite way imaginable, while towards poor little Judge he is as fierce and pugnacious as a

lion.

It is reported Miss Foote will be married on the 26th instant.-The mackarel season has commenced favourably in Cornwall. During two days the boats took 9000, which were sold 50s. per hundred for the London market.-90,000 tubs of oysters were taken from the beds discovered last year off the town of Shoreham, the taking of which gave employ. ment to upwards of 300 vessels during the season. Meat sold in the Leeds mar

ket last Saturday, at an advance of just one hundred per cent. upon the prices it fetched in the same market in the corresponding week of 1822.-At Paris there is an establishment Orthopédique, for making crooked people straight; which answers the purpose of adding a cubit to the stature. Neither hay nor oats are known to the Turks, nor has any nation in the East ever used them for horses.-Although the country bordering the Rio de la Plata.

abounds with the richest land,and possesses the finest climate for the growth of corn, agriculture is so neglected, that the flour chiefly used is drawn from North America, and even Africa.

15.-PHRENOLOGY. Dr. Spurzheim resumes his lectures on this comical science. The doctor professed to be well pleased with the progress the study had made since he left England, and congratulated his audience on the disappearance of the prejudices that had been excited against it. He exhibited a variety of sculls to establish his theory of bumps. The sculls of idiots were hideously ugly, when contrasted with the well-formed penthouses of men of talent. The heads of women, he said, differed from those of men, in a larger proportion of the occiput, and in a smaller size of the frontal parts. Artists were aware of the necessity of accurately proportioning the size of the head to that of the body, but in the Venus de Medicis, the head was made so small, that with such a head the goddess could never have possessed common sense. Campher had drawn a line from the upper lip to the ear, and another from the same point to the most prominent part of the forehead. These two lines formed an angle according to the acuteness or obtuseness of which he conceived he could judge of the talent or stupidity of the individuals. The more obtuse the angle, the greater the talents of the individual; and as the form of the Negro head gave a more acute angle than that of the European, the inference was, that the negro was naturally of inferior abilities. In all the statuary of the ancients, a certain conformation of the head was given to men according to their qualities, or professions, and no man expected to find the head of a Socrates upon the body of a gladiator.

THE WARRIOR'S TOMB,

O'ER yonder lowly verdant mound,

The wind moans heavily around,
The cypress sheds her sable gloom;

And sighs above the warrior's tomb.

The morn arose the sunbeam shone

On helm, and plume, and glittering

spear;

The trumpet sang! and every tone

Was rapture to the warrior's ear;

In every tone he heard the call,

Of home, and friends, and native land; He hail'd the hour to fight, to fall, Or conquer with his warrior-band.

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Weekly Calendar.

S

March XXVI.-Saturday.

High Water, Morn. VI. 2 m.-Even. VI. 28 m.
Sun rises, V. 45 m. : sets VI. 15 m.
Oxford Term ends.

March XXVII.-PALM SUNDAY.

High Water, Morn. VI. 51 m.-Even. VII.'27 m. Sunday Lessons, Morn. Exod. 9, Matt. 26. Even. Exod. 10, Heb. 5.

CUSTOMS.-Palm Sunday, in the missals, is denominated Dominica in Ramis

Palmarum, and was so called from the palm branches and green boughs formerly distributed on that day, in commemoration of Jesus Christ riding into Jerusalem. In the northern latitudes, box, olive, and the blossoming willows, are used as substitutes for palm; which tree does not here, as in Judea, grow by the way sides.

A lively writer in the "New Monthly Magazine "says, boys and girls may be met early in the morning, in blithe, but breakfastless, companies, sallying forth towards the pretty outlets about Hampstead and Highgate,on the one side of the water, and Camberwell and Clapham on the other all of which they innocently imagine to be "the country;"-there to sport away the pleasant hours till dinner time, and then return home, with joy in their hearts, endless appetites in their stomachs, and bunches of the sallow willow, with its silken bloom-buds, in their hands, as trophies of their travels.

CHRONOLOGY.-1625. James I.expired at Theobald's, near Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire. This seat formerly belonged to lord Burleigh, who often entertained queen Elizabeth at this residence.

1802. The brief peace of Amiens concluded between England and France.

March XXVIIL-Monday.

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High Water, Morn.VIII.2 m.-Ev. VIII, 36 m. CHRONOLOGY. 1757. Robert Da miens, a native of Arras, was executed at Paris, with horrible torture, for having attempted to assassinate the king of France, by stabbing him in the right side with a

knife.

1766.-A dreadful eruption of Mount Vesuvius happened.

1801. Died the gallant sir Ralph Abercrombie: - he received his deathwound on the 21st.

1802.-Dr. Olbers discovers the new primary planet Pallas.

March XXIX.-Tuesday.

gh Water, Morn. IX. 13m.-Even. IX. 50 m. CHRONOLOGY. 1461. The famous battle of Touton, (a place situated a few miles south-west of York,) which terminated in favour of the Yorkists, after a slaughter of 36,000 human beings.

1807.-Dr. Olbers discovers the planet Vesta. There are now eleven primary and eighteen secondary planets belonging to the Solar System.

March XXX.-Wednesday. High Water, Morn. X. 24 m.-Even. X. 59 m.

CHRONOLOGY.-The Sicilian Vespers. The word vesper means evening song, answering to our evening prayers. Sicilian Vespers denote a memorable era in French history; being a general massacre of all the first toll that called to vespers was the the French in the island of Sicily, to which signal. The number destroyed was computed at 8,000.

1824. Died the Rev. T. Maurice, assistant librarian in the Museum.

March XXXI.-Maundy Thursday.

High Water Morn. XI. 42 m.-Even. XII. 0 m.

CUSTOMS. Maundy Thursday, in Latin, dies mandati, the day of command, being the day on which Christ washed the feet of his disciples. This commemoration was long kept up in the monasteries. It was a custom, both in this and other countries, for the king and queen, and persons of high estate, and the abbots of religious houses, to perform their maundy

that is, to wash the feet of a certain number of poor people, originally twelve, the number of the apostles. The kings and queens of England, indeed, increased the number, and usually washed the feet of as many persons as they were years old, or had reigned. They afterwards gave them meat, clothing, and a little bag of

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