of topics of illustration, that the author seems to deal out any illusion to the conventional realities of a rough and vulgar world as tokens only of smartness or sagacity. He seems not to write for the average of readers who delight in Lord Byron's poetry. He would appear to count rather on a critical wonder at difficulties of manner, and choice of subject overcome,-or an admiration of chaste effect and polished finishing,-than on the rapidly excited sympathy,―the undiscriminating enthusiasm of ordinary men. It is not enough that such productions are those of a most ingenious and a most amiable man, who has the rare merit of being not only perhaps the most acute among the ingenious, but one of the very best among the acute. Every poet writes for fame; and, in this respect, poetry is not, like virtue, its own reward. The man, therefore, who submits himself " arbitrio popularis auræ," with more than two or three trials of a style and manner in poetry which are found to be any thing rather than popular, or even generally relished among the more respectful and indulgent race of critics, must submit to mediocrity of praise,-the "unkindest cut of all" to generous minds. And no friend can see a person of real talent come to this, without feeling even more than the force of a great poet's anathema,

"Mediocribus esse poetis Non homines, non Dii, non concessere columnæ."

There are some agreeable "copies of verses" in the same volume with the Bower of Spring; but we have already said so much of it and its favoured predecessor, as to have no room left for any quotations from either. All that we can give is an extract from verses addressed to Mrs Stewart, the lady of Mr Dugald Stewart, which are whimsically enough denominated 66 THE NON-DESCRIPT-To a very charming Monster,"-but which contain nothing whimsical or unfounded in their praise.

"Thou nameless loveliness, whose mind,
With every grace to sooth, to warm,
Has lavish Nature bless'd,-and 'shrin'd
The sweetness in as soft a form!
Say on what wonder-bearing soil

Her sportive malice wrought thy frame,
That haughty science long might toil,

Nor learn to fix thy doubtful name!

For this she culled, with eager care, The scatter'd glories of her plan,-All that adorns the softer fair,

All that exalts the prouder man : \

And gay she triumphed,-now no more
Her works shall daring systems bound;
As though her skill inventive o'er,
She only trac'd the forms she found.
In vain to seek a kindred race,

Tir'd through her mazy realms I stray-Where shall I rank my radiant place? Thou dear perplexing creature! say! Thy smile so soft, thy heart so kind,

Thy voice for pity's tones so fit,
All speak thee woman; but thy mind

Lifts thee where Bards and Sages sit."

Eccentricities for Edinburgh, &c. By GEORGE COLMAN the Younger. Foolscap 8vo. Edinburgh, Ballantyne, 1817.

MR COLMAN's poetical productions are chiefly remarkable for two things: in the first place, one half of his verses are generally without any meaning whatever; and to make up for this, he contrives, in the second place, to endow the other half with what the French call double meanings,—that is, licentious, vulgar, and disgusting ideas, disguised (in MrC.'s case, very slightly) under equivocal or ambiguous terms. In justice to Mr Colman's taste, we must add, that there is sometimes a third part of unpalliated grossness; though we mention this with some hesitation, because our apology for alluding to him at all, namely, the plan he has adopted for localizing the present effusion, may, after that, we fear, scarcely be sustained by our more respectable readers. These Eccentricities are exactly such as have been produced by heads of the same altitude, and morals of the same standard, down from Haywood's days. Edinburgh, it seems, had resisted all his attacks in print, and his books could never penetrate beyond the Border: he was therefore advised to steal in in manuscript; and his employers (for his genius resembling a hotbed, where the stercoraceous heat produces, in a few hours, abundance of insipid vegetables; the booksellers, when they need a supply, appoint him time and subject) invented, as he informs us, the lying designation in the title. Mr Colman is now an old man-and ought to be otherwise occupied than in writing doggerel verses for the vulgar and the vile.

FROM the observations made by Professor Jameson, it would appear, that augite, hitherto considered a rare mineral, is very generally and abundantly distributed throughout Scotland.

It is much to be regretted that we possess no mineralogical map of Scotland. Mr Smith, an industrious and intelligent surveyor, has published a mineralogical map of England and Wales, which, although incomplete, is a creditable work for a single individual. The public anxiously expect the promised map of England, from the active and intelligent president of the Geological Society of London, Mr Greenough. Professor Jameson has been for several years collecting materials for a general mineralogical map of Scotland; and it is expected, that he will soon communicate the result of his labours to the public.

The celebrated traveller, Baron Von Buch, is now printing, in London, a Mineralogical Account of the Canary Islands, which, it is confidently expected, will prove a classical work on the natural history of volcanoes. In the same work, he will treat particularly on the geographical and physical distribution of these nearly-tropical isles-in which investigation he will be materially assisted by the observations of the companion in his voyage, the late excellent but unfortunate Dr Smith of Christiana, who perished in the calamitous expedition up the Congo.

Mr Boue of Hamburgh, an active and intelligent disciple of the Edinburgh school of Natural History, is about to publish a Tract of the Physical and Geographical Distribution of the plants of Scotland.

We ought to have noticed, in a former Number, the Map of the County of Edinburgh, by Mr Knox. It is on four sheets, well engraven, and exhibits in a lucid and accurate manner, the Physiog nomy of that portion of Scotland. We would recommend it to the attention of those who are interested in geographical and geological researches, and the more so, as we understand that it is to be illustrated by a Memoir from the Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh.

Mont Blanc, hitherto considered as the highest mountain in the old world, is now far eclipsed by the lofty ranges of the Himmalah, which rise 27,000 feet above the sea. Even the Elbrus, a European mountain, measured by Wisnievsky, is said to be 2,500 French feet

higher than the far-famed summit of Mont Blanc.

A monstrous birth is stated to have taken place in the city of Jyopre : the wife of a Bramin, named Kishun Ram, had been brought to bed of a girl with four faces and four legs. When this ominous circumstance was related to the Rajah, he instantly ordered a charitable donation to be made to the poor, to avert the calamity which such an occurrence was supposed to threaten.-Ceylon Gaz.

Mr Stanley Griswold, in the New York Medical Repository, informs us, that earthquakes, extending for more than an hundred miles, are occasionally produced by the combustion of beds of coal in marshy places.

New Barometer.We understand that an instrument has lately been invented by our very ingenious townsman, Mr Alexander Adie, optician, which answers all the purposes of the common barometer, and has the advantage of being much more portable, and much less liable to accident. In this instrument the moveable column is oil, enclosing in a tube a portion of nitrogen, which changes its bulk according to the density of the atmosphere. Mr Adie has given it the name of sympiesometer (or measure of compression). One of these new instruments was taken to India in the Buckinghamshire of Greenock, and by the directions of Captain Christian, corresponding observations were made on it, and on the common marine barometer, every three hours during the voyage. The result, we are informed, was entirely satisfactory-the new instrument remaining unaffected by the most violent motion of the ship.

We may add, that the sympiesometer may be made of dimensions so small as to be easily carried in the pocket, so that it is likely to become a valuable acquisition to the geologist.

The Glasgow Astronomical Society has lately procured a solar microscope from Dolland, the largest that celebrated optician has ever constructed. It is exhibited to most advantage betwixt eleven and two o'clock, during which hours the sun is in the best position for observing it. The first trial of this superb instrument disclosed some wonderful phenomena; hundreds of insects were discovered devouring the body of a gnat. These animalcula were magnified so as to appear nine inches long, their actual size being somewhat less than the fourteen hun dredth part of an inch. The mineral

kingdom afforded another display of brilliant objects; their crystalization, and the splendour of their colouring, exceed any thing the most lively imagination

can conceive.

Mr E. Donovan, the ingenious author of a series of interesting works illustrative of the Natural History of Britain, and proprietor of the museum of Natural History in Fleet street, has announced his intention of selling that collection by public auction in the beginning of next year, unless it shall have been previously disposed of. He states that it has cost him the labour of thirty years, and an expense of more than £15,000.

Sir Edward Home has submitted to the Royal Society a paper on the nature and effects of an infusion of colchicum autumnale and eau medicinale on the human constitution in cases of gout. He found from experiments, that the sediment of the latter is excessively drastic and severe, while that of the infusion of colchicum possesses about half the strength of the former; and that the clear tincture of both is equally efficacious in curing gout without being so dreadfully destructive to the constitution. The result therefore of these experiments is, that the clear fluid, either of the vinous infusion of colchicum or of the eau medicinale, may be taken with equal advantage to the health, and much less injury to the body; but that of the former is much the milder of the two.

Mr John Davy has detailed, in a letter to his brother, Sir Humphry Davy, many new and curious experiments and observations on the temperature and specific gravity of the sea, made during a voyage to Ceylon.

From these it appears, that the specific gravity of the sea is nearly the same every where; that the temper ature is generally highest about noon; that it is higher during a storm, but that in this case the period of the highest temperature is somewhat later. He has found that shallow water is colder than deep; so that by this difference seamen may discover, at night, when they approach either shoals, banks, or the shore. On approaching the coast the water was always found to be two degrees colder than when in the open sea.

In August last, a buck that was remarkably fat and healthy in condition, was killed in Bradby park, and, on opening him, it was discovered that, at some distant time, he had been shot in the heart; for a ball was contained in a cyst in the substance of that viscus, about two inches from the apex, weighing 292 grains, and beaten quite flat. In the second volume of the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, is published an

extraordinary case of a soldier who survived forty-nine hours after receiving a bayonet-wound of the heart; but a gunshot wound of the heart affords a still more striking example of the great extent to which this vital organ may sustain an injury from external violence, without its functions being immediately destroyed, or even permanently impaired.

Fusion of Wood Tin.-Dr Clarke of Cambridge has made a curious addition to our knowledge respecting wood tin. When exposed to the action of his powerful oxygen and hydrogen blow-pipe, it fuses completely, acquires a colour nearly similar to that of plumbago, with a very strong metallic lustre. Dr Clarke was so obliging as to give me some specimens of wood tin thus fused. It was very hard; as far as I could judge, nearly as much so as common tin-stone. It was brittle, and easily reducible to a fine powder. I found it not in the least acted on by nitric acid, muriatic acid, and nitro-muriatic acid, even when assisted by heat. Hence, it must still continue in the state of an oxide.

The circumstance, that wood tin (and probably tin stone also (acquires a metallic lustre when fused, seems to decide a subject which has been agitated in this country with much keenness. It was asserted by Dr Hutton, and is still maintained by his followers, that all granite has been in a state of igneous fusion. From Dr Clarke's experiment, it may be inferred, with considerable confidence, that the granite in which the ores of tin occur has never been in a state of fusion.-Thomson's Annals, No 55.

FRANCE.

Theories of the Earth.-Many of the fanciful theories of our globe, founded upon false conclusions, drawn from the repeated discovery of fresh water shells and marine shells being found together in the same strata, are likely to be set at nought by an experiment of M. Bendant of Marseilles, from whence it results, that fresh water or marine mollusca will live in either medium, if habituated to it gradually; but with some few exceptions.

The Society for Elementary Instruction in France lately held a public meeting at the Hotel de Ville of Paris. From the reports read by the secretaries it appears, that during the past year the new method of instruction has made great progress both in Paris and the provinces, and there is every reason to hope that it will soon become general. In the capital there are 15 schools in full activity; one of them has 333 scholars. The Prefect of the department of the Seine has ef

fected the establishment of two normal schools, one for training masters, and the other mistresses. The country towns want nothing but teachers to found institutions similar to those of Paris: and in several places, societies numbering more than 700 subscribers have been formed. The methods of Bell and Lancaster have been combined, and improved in various respects. In the garrison towns a beginning has been made to apply the new method to the education of soldiers' children. The minister of the interior has sent out teachers to the Isle of Bourbon, Senegal, and Corsica. Swiss, Spaniards, Italians, and Russians, have come to Paris to learn the new method; so that we may fairly presume, that the benefits of this system, which originated in England, will soon be diffused over all Europe. The Society of Paris speaks in high terms of the encouragement and the assurances of friendship that it has received from the Society of London, with which it keeps up a correspondence.

At a general meeting of the Society for the Encouragement of Industry in France, held on the 9th April 1817, the secretary, Baron de Gorando, read a report of the labours of the Society during the preceding year.

In the department of experiments and observations, notice is taken of a siphon presented to the Society by M. Landren, which has two branches that convey at the same time both water and air, and is supposed by the inventor to be capable of renewing the air in mines. The committee of the Society, to whom it was remitted, had not been able to form a judgment of this instrument, but from very imperfect models, and from reports, the results of which they have not been able to verify. Similar in some respect to the tinman's pump of Seville, and the horns of the Catalonian forges, it can introduce air into furnaces and mines at all times, when there is an opportunity of carrying off the water employed or deposited; but in the one case the humid air unavoidable by this method must, in the opinion of the committee, be injurious to the fusion of the metals; and in the other case the chance, they think, is greater, of the noxious gases common to mines being aspired than of their being displaced by the introduction of new air.

Among new improvements of existing processes, the attention of the Society was particularly directed to the perfection to which the preparation of plati num had been brought. Not only is the mode of purifying it most complete; but little ductile as it seems, it is now reduced into leaves as fine as those of gold. MM. Guog and Contourier of Paris, have

presented to the Society a vase of platinum, purified according to the process of M. Breant, assayer to the mint, which is formed of one single leaf without soldering; contains 160 litres, and weighs 15 kilogrammes (31 lbs.). The cost is 18 francs per ounce. The vase is intended to be employed in the concentration of sulphuric acid. It is but just, the Report adds, to observe that Janety the younger was the first to fabricate vases of platinum of a large size, but not without soldering. This artist furnishes the metal at present at 14 francs the ounce, either in plate or wire.

The most remarkable of the new inventions which have been submitted to the Society, is one of a portable anemometer, constructed by M. Regnier. The idea of it was suggested to the inventor by M. Buffon. It has been applied in a very ingenious manner to make a hall clock indicate not only the force and direction of the wind, but even the maximum of action which it has exerted during the absence of the observer.

GERMANY.

The illustrious anatomist Sömmering has just published the description of a new species of the fossil genus of animal, named ornithocephalus, under the name brevirostris. Of the ornithocephalus antiquus or longirostris, a figure and description has been given to the public, by Professor Jameson, in the third edition of Cuvier's Theory of the Earth.

Dr Spix of Munich, well known to naturalists by his history of Zoology, and a splendid work on the Crania of Animals, is now preparing for publication an uncommonly interesting work, entitled "Zoologia et Phytographia Bavaria Subterranea."

The celebrated comparative anatomist Tiedmann, along with Oppel, is employed on an extensive work on the Anatomy of the Amphibia. It is promised to compare the structure of the present tribes of amphibious animals with those fossil species found in limestone and other rocks, and thus to connect together, in an interesting manner, the views of the zoologist with those of the comparative

anatomist.

Mr Secretary Von Schreiber has brought to Vienna a series of specimens of the diamond imbedded in a venigenous mass, not an amygdaloidal rock, as maintained by some mineralogists.

Count Dunin Borkowsky, a distinguished pupil of Werner, has discovered amber imbedded in sand-stone, a fact of great interest to geologists.

Blesson has just published a treatise on the Magnetism and Polarity of Rocks.

There has been lately published at Berlin, by P. E. Miller, a curious collection of the Sagen, or Stories of Ancient Scandinavia.

Ebeling has published the seventh volume of his History of the United States of America. It is dedicated to the geography and statistics of Virginia.

William Von Humboldt, brother to the celebrated traveller, has published an admirable metrical translation of the Agamemnon of Eschylus.

C. J. M. Langenbeck has published a valuable work, entitled "Commentarius de structura pertonæi, testiculorum tunicis, eorumque ex abdomine in scrotum descensu, ad illustrandam, herniarum indolem. Annexæ sunt xxiv. Tabulæ ancæ. Text 128 pages large 8vo, plates in folio.

The celebrated Professor Eschenberg has just published the sixth edition of his Manual of Classical Literature, which is particularly valuable on account of the full and accurate enumeration it contains of all the newest and best editions of the Roman and Grecian classics.

Professor Brandes of Breslau, well known by his astronomical writings, is now engaged in a work on Meteorology, on the same plan with his popular Treatise on Astronomy. He also proposes the publication of a periodical Meteorological Journal.

Tiedmann has lately published a folio work, with plates, on the anatomy of the Asterias, Holothura, and Echinus.

The first part of the second volume of Meckel's Classical Work, Pathological Anatomy, has just appcared.

H. de Martuis has published, at Leipsic, a curious tract De Lepra Taurica.

The celebrated philosopher, Tenneman, has published a second edition of his excellent work, entitled, Elements of History and Philosophy, for the use of Academies.

It

Sprengel has just published the 6th volume of his Institutiones Medicæ. treats of Therapia Generalis.

There has just appeared at Leipsic, a work on Western Africa, in 4 volumes, with 44 plates and maps.

The missionary scheme meets with much support in Germany. Most of the proceedings of the Missionary Society are reported in Germany-their works translated and commented on. The travels of Campbell in Africa have just been translated.

N. Furst, at the last Leipsic fair, pub. lished an interesting series of letters on the Literature of Denmark.

Scheller has just published the 2d volume of his Manual of German Literature, from Lessing to the present time. VOL. I.

The celebrated Swedish botanist, Thunberg, has just published a Flora of the Cape of Good Hope, under the following title, Flora capensis sistens plantarum Promontorii Boni Spei Africæ, secundum systema sexuale emendatum redacta ad classes, ordines, genera, et species; 2 vols. Upsalæ.

A Greek Atheneum, or College for modern Greeks, has been founded on a liberal plan at Munich, by Professor Thursch. This conspires with many other circum stances to raise the character and prospects of the Greeks.

The ancient library of Heidelberg has been restored in great splendour, and now contains some of the most curious manuscripts in Europe.

An Academy, in some measure similar to our Society for the encouragement of Arts, has been recently established at Vienna; it is endowed by the Emperor with his grand collection of Natural History, and likewise possesses an extensive chemical and philosophical laboratory, together with models and specimens of machinery, &c. The Austrians hope by its means to improve their manufactures, and to become independent of foreign industry. The design is patriotic, and we wish them success; but of this we are certain, that as foreign nations become rich by means of manufacture, so will a new class start up for the purchase of British manufactures. A country, merely agricultural, is never a very good cus

tömer.

A German paper states, that Professor Goerres, who is now at Coblentz, has declined the situation of Secretary to the Academy of Fine Arts at Stuttgard, in order to accept the more advantageous offers made to him by the Prussian Go vernment, from which he has obtained permission to resume the publication of his Rhenish Mercury.

Goëthe has resigned the management of the Weimar theatre, which owes its reputation to himself and Schiller, because he would not assent to the appear3 H