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men and women whose thoughtful courtesy and kindly bearing are in marked contrast with the ill-bred manners of the day. Let these bring their influence to bear on society at large, and by example and precept do their utmost to cause the advent of the time when the British nation, both at home and abroad, shall be distinguished for the politeness of its demeanor.

A true gentleman is naturally courteous-he could nardly be the reverse if he tried; but in these days, when so many lay claim to the title who possess few of the qualities of gentility, it may be well to point out that a courteous manner is a quality which, especially in the present days of rudeness, possesses a distinctly commercial value. However boorish we may be ourselves, we all appreciate civility and courtesy in others. We would rather have dealings with a man who treats us with civility, not to say with deference, than with one who treads on our corns and generally irritates us.

If British boys and girls were taught to subordinate self, to respect their neighbors, and in non-essentials not to run counter to their prejudices, we should probably in a few years find that, although for political reasons Great Britain might still maintain that "splendid isolation" of which we have lately heard so much, her people were no longer disliked, but by their polite. ness and urbanity had won the respect and friendship of foreigners, and had thereby increased the influence of their country, and taken the most effective steps to diminish the chances of international misunderstandings.

From Chamber's Journal. SOLUBLE SILVER.

Truly, chemistry, above all the sciences, is the great-granddaughter of the fairy godmother of the folk-tales. She has always some new wonder in store for us, and her wonders are more beautiful and more astonishing even than the tree with the golden apples, the wishing-caps and Fortunatus'

purses that we read of in Grimm and Hans Andersen. The magic spy-glass that enables the spectator to tell what is going on in any part of the world is a baby's toy compared to the spectroscope, which shows us what is happening in the farthest star, and the purse of Fortunatus is quite eclipsed by the cyanide process that enables us to extract gold from rocks so poor in the precious metal that no one but a chemist would suspect its existence. Precious and wonderful are the lesser gifts of our modern fairy godmother, and the curious substance we are about to describe is one of them. Like many other of her gifts, we do not know of any practical use for it at present, but we shall find a use for it some day, as we have done for nearly all her other gifts. For the present it is sufficient that the gift is beautiful and interesting; so now to tell you all about it.

With one exception, metals, so far as we know, are practically insoluble in water. This is true of all simple substances, as, for instance, sulphur or charcoal. It seems necessary that before a body can become soluble it must unite with some other body or an opposite character to itself. Sometimesunion takes place with the water, as in the case of the metals sodium and potassium, which combine with water so violently that flames are produced. Silver seems to be the only exception, and even then it dissolves in a curious gelatinous condition, quite unlike silver as we know it. This soluble silver exists in two or three forms, and is interesting not only as a chemical curiosity, but also on account of the intrinsic lustre and beauty of the different forms.

Soluble silver is not difficult to make. The materials required are: ordinary green sulphate of iron, citrate of soda,. and silver nitrate. A thirty per cent.. solution of the first should be made, a forty per cent. of the second, and a ten per cent. of the third. We give the proportions in case any of our readers might like to make some of these beautiful varieties of silver for themselves. The liquid becomes black immediately on mixing, and must be shaken vigor

ously for several minutes. It is then allowed to settle for a quarter of an hour, and the liquid portion is poured off, leaving a lilac-colored gelatinous material behind. This gelatinous material is soluble silver. It can be dissolved in water to form a blue solution, or spread on paper in a blood-red layer. As it dries, the color changes to a metallic blue when half dry, and to a dead blue surface when quite dry. If it be dried in lumps, various colors and lustres can be produced.

dried on glass. If the gold-like variety is kept perfectly dry it changes to a more brilliant yellow on exposure to sunlight, but in presence of moisture it is resolved into ordinary silver of great beauty in a few days. The other varieties degenerate rapidly on exposure to light into various shades of brown.

The different modifications that we have mentioned are only the most stable and clearly defined varieties of this curious form of silver. It seems capable of assuming all the colors of the spectrum. Almost every shade of blue, green, red, yellow, and purple has been obtained. On one occasion Mr. Carey Lea secured a variety giving an intense yellowish-brown solution, which changed to bright scarlet on addition of phosphate of soda, separating, on

wards turned bluish-green.

From the soluble form of silver, another variety is obtained by adding to it a solution of Epsom salts. The remarkable thing about these varieties or silver is the astonishing changes of color they can assume. The insoluble variety is brown, gradually getting darker and darker, but various chemical solutions will re-dissolve it, chang-standing, in a purple jelly, which aftering it back into soluble silver, but of a color totally different from the original. Solution of borax gives brown; Glauber's salts, yellow-red; sulphate of ammonia, red. Mr. Carey Lea, who discovered these interesting substances, found in one case that the insoluble variety became soluble suddenly of its own accord, giving a beautiful rose-red liquid.

The films produced by spreading the insoluble variety on paper give gorgeous effects of color, varying from yellow to blue through a whole series of brilliant metallic greens. The colors depend to a great extent upon the amount of washing the material has received. If it has not been washed at all, the film has the appearance of bright blue metal, but the blue seems to disappear gradually in washing, until finally almost pure yellow is obtained. When it is spread on glass, very perfect mirrors are produced on drying.

The next form is obtained by a more complicated chemical process. It is red at first, changing to black and then to bronze color. If dried in lumps or spread on paper, it has the appearance of burnished gold. Like the former variety, it gives a perfect mirror when

No fairy tale that we have ever read has put on record such a wonderful substance as this. Even the "Arabian Nights," with all the imagery of the East to draw upon, has failed to hint at such a marvel. Many chemical solutions, when brushed across the dry films, produce wonderful hues, and a crystal of iodine placed on the film becomes surrounded with rings of Newton's colors.

The only immediate application that we can think of for these beautiful forms of silver is in coating glass and similar materials with films of silver to form mirrors. We should have mentioned, by the way, that some of these films possess very interesting optical properties. Another possible application is in photography; if we could find a means of rendering them permanent, the films might be of much use, but the matter is too technical for us to deal with here. Nevertheless, even if it is of no practical use, and therefore, in spite of its beauty, uninteresting from an utilitarian point of view, the discovery of this form of silver may lead to the finding of other similar materials which may be of the greatest practical value.

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GEORGE THE THIRD. By E. H. Parker, Nineteenth Century,

IV. LETTERS ON TURKEY. By Georgina
Max Müller. Part II.,

V. CYCLING IN ᎢᎻᎬ ᎠᎬᏚᎬᎡᎢ, By D. G.
Hogarth, .

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VI. THE MUSICAL TEMPERAMENT AND ITS
MANIFESTATIONS. By W. W. Hutchings, Blackwood's Magazine,

VII. ANIMAL HELPERS AND SERVERS. By

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VIII. THE CALLS TO PRAYERS,

IX. CHOPPING OIL IN WEST AFRICA,
X. STUDY OF A SWISS AVALANCHE,

Cornhill Magazine,

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For SIX DOLLARS remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually for warded for a year, free of postage.

Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made

payable to the order of LITTELL & CO.

Single copies of the LIVING AGE, 15 cents.

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On that Day, when-the angels uphold- If simple Sense will not succeed, ing

Thee sinless-thou'lt dare,

Without flinching or fear,

To gaze at the heavens unfolding?

I make no Bustling but abide; For shining Wealth, or scaring Woę, I force no Friend, I fear no Foes JOHN BYROM,S XTC

From The New Review. TALKS WITH TENNYSON.1

"Doric beauty," is the phrase by which the late Mr. Huxley once expressed the special character of Tennyson's conversation - with its terse simplicity and freedom from artificial ornament; "and yet," he added, "on hearing the first few words one might only say, 'Exactly, this is the man who wrote the "Northern Farmer."'" In recording some past conversations with the late poet-laureate, I have used notes made at the time, some of which give his ipsissima verba. In all cases the substance of what is here recorded

was written down very shortly after it was said.

My first recollections of Tennyson

date back as far as 1869, or earlier. As a boy, living near him in the Isle of Wight, I was somewhat in awe of the mysterious figure, whom I often saw in company with his friend and neighbor, Mrs. Cameron, or at times with my father, tall and thin, enveloped in a huge cloak, walking rapidly, with a slight stoop, on the Beacon Down or in the Freshwater lanes. He seldom spoke to me in those days, although I was intimate with his second son, Lionel. I think it was the report of a careful study I made of the Holy Grail, in Rome, in the year 1879, which changed this. On my return to England our acquaintance was at once on a new footing. I stayed with him at Aldworth next year; and thenceforward walks and talks with the poet were frequent.

There were several things which struck me afresh after I had come to know him better. One was, that even at a time when I was walking with him often, and enjoying the real intimacy which was my privilege, his shyness on first coming into the room, before we

1 This article was written last year, at the suggestion of the present Lord Tennyson, for the Deutsche Revue. Certain difficulties arose as to the conditions of publication, and its appearance was postponed. It is now transferred to the pages of the New Review, the editor of which has kindly consented to the publication of a translation in

the Deutsche Revue.

started for our morning walk, remained. One had noticed it less when it appeared to be only the slowness of a man of a certain age to talk to a boy. But to the very end it was the same, even with those whom he was most frequently seeing. How familiar the picture yet remains. One waited perhaps in the ante-room at Farringford for a few minutes before he appeared. And when he did so there was the far-off look in his eyes, something between the look of a near-sighted man and a very far-sighted man; due, no doubt, partly to defective vision, but conveying also a sense that his imagination was still occupied with itself, and that his mind was not yet "focussed" on the world

immediately about him. I have known him stand for several minutes, after a half absent "How d'ye do?" in this dreamy state, with his curious look of high-strung sensitiveness, before he And if one waited began to talk. silently for him to speak, one might have to wait in vain. To tell him an amusing story was the best means of breaking the spell. The gleam of humor came to his face at once, he broke into laughter, left the regions of mental abstraction, and probably at once capped the story himself. If a stranger had come to see him, the shyness and abstraction might last longer. I remember once going to Farringford with a friend-a true worshipper of his genius-and after the first words of greeting he seemed to be entirely in the clouds; until, after long waiting, we hit upon a device to arouse him. A picture by Edward Lear hung in the room, and under it were four lines from the "Palace of Art:"

One seem'd all dark and red-a tract of sand

And some one pacing there alone, Who paced forever in a glimmering land, Lit with a low large moon.

We were looking at the picture, and I said to my companion: "Read the lines." She read them, giving them a kind of metrical jingle. In a moment Tennyson, who had been standing alone at the other side of the room,

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