his toil-ploughs, sows, and reaps, as surely as a | of servitude to the tardy enjoyment of political Herschel or an Airy sweeps the face of the independence. Every remarkable advance of heavens that he may satisfy himself whether or human intelligence may be traced to the history not some world has begun to be. And herein of former ages. Providence has not allowed the lies the difference, which the sciolist cannot be reason of mankind to suffer a total eclipse, even made to comprehend, between real knowledge in the darkest and most disastrous periods. Amid and mere empiricism. Sédillot, for example, the gloom of the feudal age, a series of eminent found in the third book of the Almagest of Abul men transmitted from generation to generation Wassa a discovery which, under the name of the light which burst forth in the age of Colum'Variations of the Moon,' has long been attribu- bus, with a splendor that kings and priests were ted to Tycho Brahè. The observations of Ebn not able to obscure. In the thirteenth century Junis at Cairo have been of great importance as we find the names of Roger Bacon, Albertus to the disturbances and secular deviations of Magnus, Vincent of Beauvais. When, 1415Jupiter and Saturn. The astronomical meeting 1525, Diego Ribero returned from the congress at Toledo, under Alphonso the Wise, in which at the Puente de Caya, near Yelves, in which the Rabbi Isaac Ebn Sid Hagan played so great the disputes concerning the limit of the Portua part, was the result of their studies. To these guese and Spanish monarchies had been determerits of the Arabians must be added the results mined, the coast of the New Continent, from of their exertions in the field of pure mathemat- Labrador to the Terra del Fuego, had already ics. Deriving their first knowledge of algebra been explored. So assiduous and successful were from two sources, they compiled out of the rival the joint efforts of the English, Spaniards, and systems of India and of Greece a method of Portuguese, that in less than half a century the their own, which, however defective it might be configuration of that vast mass of earth was asin many of its symbols, proved of incalculable certained. use to the Italian mathematicians of the middle ages. To them, therefore, be the praise of having, by their writings and their extensive commerce, spread that method of notation from Bagdad to Cordova without which the range of physical science would have been to us narrow, indeed; and the doctrines of heat, of magnetism, and the polarization of light, in an especial manner, sealed books.

The fifteenth century is one of those remarkable eras in which all the efforts of the human intellect are pointed in one direction, and indicate a common character. To this must be ascribed the splendor which belongs to the age of Sebastian Cabot, Gama, and Columbus. In the history of mankind, the thirteenth century is a transition period, belonging in part to the middle ages, and in part to the commencement of another epoch. It is the age of great discoveries in space, embracing all degrees of latitude and all varieties of elevation. As it doubled the works of creation for the inhabitants of Europe, so it gave at the same time a new and powerful incitement to the perfection of physical and mathematical science. In no other period was so great an accumulation of facts, or materials so numerous, for obtaining a complete knowledge of the terrestrial globe presented to mankind. At no time did discoveries in space, and in the material world, by enlarging the range of ideas, by multiplying the means of communication, by the establishment of colonies on a scale more magnificent than had yet been known, produce more astonishing and beneficial changes in the manners of mankind, raising them from a state

We must, however, be careful to distinguish these voyages from those of the Normans, who were, unquestionably, the first discoverers of America. While the Abbassides ruled at Bagdad, and the Samanides in Persia, in the year 1000, America was discovered by Lief, the son of Eric the Red, from the extreme north, to the forty-first degree of northern latitude. Iceland had been taken possession of by the Normans in the year 875. Greenland was colonized from Iceland 100 years later; so that 125 years must have elapsed after the first occupation of Iceland by the Normans, before they discovered America. The coast they explored was called Wineland, from some wild grapes which were found upon it (Vinland it Goda). It included the track between Boston and New York; thus comprising part of the present States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. This was the chief settlement of the Normans. may form some idea of the daring spirit of that gallant people from the fact, that these discoveries extended from 41 1-2° to 72° 55′ north latitude. The Runic stone found in the autumn of the year 1824 under that parallel, bears the date 1136. Their north-western station was called the Kroksjardar Heide; and accounts are published of the quantity of drift-wood (iberian), the whales (phoca), sea-horses, and sea-bears, for which it was at that time celebrated. Authentic accounts of the intercourse of the North of Europe, and of Greenland and Iceland, with the American continent, reach no later than the middle of the fourteenth century. In the year 1347, a ship sailed from Greenland to New Scot

We

the deviation of the magnet, the inflection of the | Cortes corresponded with the kings of Zebu and isothermal line between the west coast of the Tidore in the Asiatic archipelago. It is but a new and the east coast of the old continent, with superficial and erroneous view of human motives, visions of physical geography, as vivid as they which regards as the sole principle that animated are correct, are all shadowed forth in it. But these conquerors and discoverers the love of the career of Columbus, and of the enterprising gold, or even religious fanaticism. There is a men who followed in his steps, is too well known poetry in danger and enterprise which, for a to demand that we should dwell upon it. Against time at least, prevails over the monotony and many and terrible difficulties they were forced routine of vulgar life; and the freedom and magto contend, superstition holding the mind of the nanimity of the age in which these events took world in bondage, while a newly-awakened spirit | place-the only age which can be set in comof enterprise operated as a constant spur to fresh parison with the periods of classical antiquity — bodily exertion. But truth prevailed in the end, lent an unspeakable charm to perilous and reas it ever will, and its course was mainly made mote voyages. The imagination, even of the clear by three men,- Albertus Magnus, born at vulgar, was touched and captivated, the realities Cologne, the master of Thomas Aquinas, and, of life glowed with all the splendid coloring of therefore, mentioned in the Paradiso, canto xx. romance; the meanest Spanish peasant, who verse 93; Friar Bacon, of Ilchester, the most knew that he was the subject of an empire within remarkable person of his age; and Vincent of the limits of which the sun never set, that he Beauvais,—who, by their writings and example, was the countryman of Cortes and the contemmore than any other of the lights of that age of porary of Columbus, must have felt his heart dawn, contributed to promote a sounder and dilate with pride; and a sense of dignity was healthier system of physical investigation. communicated to the national character which generations of oppression and misgovernment, of Bourbon kings and of Jesuit confessors, have not been able to destroy.

After the discovery of the continent of America, and its extension from Hudson's Bay to Cape Horn, the opening of the South Sea ranks as the most important addition of the age to the geographical knowledge of mankind. This event, which Columbus had foretold ten years previously to its occurrence, led to the knowledge of the west coast of the new and the eastern coast of the old continent, and put an end to the erroneous opinions which had hitherto prevailed touching the relative proportions of land and water on the globe. Heretofore the most liberal calculator allowed only two fourths of fluid to one of solid land. Columbus regarded this as extravagant; and Toscanelli, in his correspondence with the Admiral, renders it narrower still. Like Esdras, he supposed six sevenths of our planet to be dry land; and, in the Imago Mundi of Cardinal Petrus de Aliaco, a book which accompanied Columbus in his voyages, and from which, in his letters to Queen Isabella, he made large translations, the same notion was insisted upon. Six years after Balboa, wading up to his knees in the Pacific, had taken possession of it in the name of Castile, Magellan was navigating its waters. He traversed the mighty ocean from S.E. to N.W. for 1500 geographical miles; and, by an extraordinary fortune, saw no land but two small uninhabited islands, till he reached the Isles de los Ladrones and the Philippines.

After the murder of Magellan in the island Zebu, Sebastian de Elcani completed, in his ship, the circumnavigation of the globe. He entered the harbour of San Lucar, 1522. In 1527, an expedition under Alonzo da Saavedra had sailed from Mexico to the Moluccas, and

We cannot agree with our illustrious author, that the petty detail of the present age is a sufficient compensation for the loss of such thrilling and splendid objects. He who looks at the giant efforts of mankind in those days, at the sudden and magnificent increase of all the elements of civilization and knowledge, might well have anticipated for Europe a destiny far more glorious than she has since achieved; and, after the lapse of three centuries, a condition far more ennobling than that to which she can now lay claim. It seemed in that favored age, as if all things were combining to illustrate and to hasten the progress of mankind. In the same month when, after the battle of Otumba, Cortes led his troops against Mexico, Martin Luther, with all his faults the great champion of intellectual freedom,- burnt the papal bulls at Wittenberg, and severed the first links of the chain which had so long bound his species to the earth. Then Leonardo da Vinci fathomed the depths of every science; and, by his exquisite art and inspiring eloquence, hastened the regeneration of the species. Then side by side with the return to light of the poets, orators, and historians of antiquity, came forth the most glorious monuments of Grecian art; the Laocoon, the Torso, the Apollo Belvedere, and the Medicean Venus; while Germany had her Holbein; Italy, her Michel Angelo, Titian, Raphael, Tasso, Ariosto, and Macchiavelli. The system of the universe was discovered by Copernicus, though not pub| lished, in the very year when Columbus died.

The discovery of the real size and distribution of the earth was followed by discoveries in the heavens. That man should acquire a correct idea of the planet which he inhabits is by no means wonderful, but that he should carry his investigations into regions separated from him by intervals so vast as to set imagination at defiance, may well justify the expressions of astonishment which pour from the lips and pens of those who have studied his nature most attentively, and portrayed his infirmities with greatest

success.

"If," says he, "any foolish sciolists should draw from some perverted passages in Scripture weapons for an attack upon his doctrine, he will treat them with contempt and disregard. Mathematicians only are authorities on mathematical topics. The wretched nonsense which Lactantius has written upon this subject is well known. To show how little he had to fear, he dedicates his work to the Father of the Church, for the Church itself may derive benefit from his calculations for its calendar."

Thus it was, that as chemistry and botany were endured for the sake of medical knowledge, astronomy owed its toleration by the secular and spiritural authorities to its supposed connexion with astrology, and the aid it furnished for making tables for movable feasts. The war of reason against prejudice ought to be open and unsparing, as it must be in the nature of things eternal and implacable. It is mere childishness

What is an astronomical fact? That a star has been seen in the heavens at a particular moment, and at a particular angle. What fact, separately considered, can be less important? It was not the Chaldean shepherd or the Egyptian priest, but the Greek philosopher, who laid the foundation of astronomical science, by referring to certain general laws, the phenomena of if we may imitate a splendid passage in Dediurnal movement. Astronomy began to exist when man was first able, from observations methodized by reason, to predict the time when the sun would rise, or any star would appear at a particular time and place in the horizon. It is this foresight, embodying the results of generalization, which, in the world of mind as well as of matter, in the speculations of the geometer as well as in the government of nations, distinguishes philosophy from erudition, and reason from routine,

the Montesquieus from the Eldons, and the Cromwells from the rulers of the day.

mosthenes-to suppose that darkness will ever be the friend of light; or that they who are supported by superstition and ignorance will cease to wage war against those who desire the welfare and improvement of mankind. There is a striking passage in Copernicus, which seems to shew that the theory of gravitation floated before his mind. But it is still more remarkable that Anaxagoras should have said that the moon, if the impulse which urged it forward was to cease, would fall to the earth like a stone from a sling. Copernicus and his followers, not aware of the strength of their own cause, admitted some of the principles of their antagonists. "A ball,” said the latter, "dropped from the mast, does not fall at the foot of the mast, but behind it." The answer to this is, that the ball does fall at the foot of the mast. But, strange to say, so simple an appeal to experiment was not made; and a solution was sought in the doctrine, that the motion was not natural.

Humboldt, before he enters upon the age of Kepler, Galileo, Bacon, Tycho Brahé, Descartes, Huyghens, Fermâh, Newton, and Leibnitz, gives an account of a man who has identified his name with the system of the universe. When Columbus discovered America, Copernicus was studying astronomy at Cracow. After six years' residence in Italy, he returned again to that city, wholly engrossed with astronomical speculations. Having, by the influence of his uncle, Bishop of Ermland, been appointed Dean of Frauenburg, he continued for thirty-three years to labor at his work, De Revolutionibus Orbium Calestium. The first printed copy of it was brought to him on his death-bed; he saw and touched it, but his thoughts were turned to other subjects, and he beheld it with indifference. It has been erroneously supposed that Copernicus, through fear of provoking ecclesiastical indignation, merely put forward his discoveries as an hypothesis. This is a complete mistake, and is, indeed, directly contradicted by the dedication of his work to Pope Paul III. He stigmatizes the pre-regard to the ball, they admitted the reality of vailing notion with regard to the immovability of the earth, as an absurd error, and censures the stupidity of those who entertained so ridiculous an opinion.

Tycho Brahe was the most illustrious antag onist of the Copernican doctrine; and it is sin gular enough, though Humboldt does not mention the fact, that, by having first brought forward the true theory of comets, he should have furnished an unanswerable argument in its favor. For if the Ptolemaic system were true, Tycho Brahe's theory of comets, in Fontenelle's phrase, exposoit l'univers á être cassé. However, in Tycho Brahe's defence it should be said, that the arguments of the advocates of the Copernican theory were equally vicious and metaphysical with those of their adversaries. Thus, with

6

the fact, and endeavoured, by a scholastic subtlety, to escape from the logical inference furnished by it against the motion of the earth. Even after the demonstrations of Galileo, Gassendi

was obliged to perform a particular experiment | be numbered Cassini, Huyghens, Childrey, Horin the port of Marseilles to convince these obsti-rox (whose early death was probably as great a nate Peripatetics.

loss as science has ever been called on to de-
plore), Hevelius, and Descartes. There was
yet wanting one man to crown its glory, one
discovery to complete the lucid and harmonious
whole. That man was Isaac Newton, and that
discovery was the Law of Gravitation.
– Fraser's Magazine.

CONVERSATION OF AN EASTERN TRAVEL

persuaded that poor little silly Miss Vain to turn Mahometan, and sent her up to the Turkish ambassador's to look out for a Mufti. -Our Street.

The experiment of Richer at Cayenne in 1672, when he found that the pendulum which swung seconds at Paris did not swing them at the equator, furnished-as the mere protuberance of the earth would not account entirely for the phenomenon, and the residue of it must, therefore, be explained by a centrifugal force— a conclusive proof in favor of Copernicus, even if the astronomical arguments had been set aside. The three most direct arguments for the Coper-LER."You look like a perfect Peri to-night. nican theory, drawn from the celestial phenome- You remind me of a girl I once knew in Cirna, are the precession of the equinoxes, the sta- cassia-Ameena, the sister of Schamyle Bey. tionary and retrograde appearances exhibited by Do you know, Miss Pim, that you would fetch the planetary motions, and the aberration of light twenty thousand piastres in the market at Conas discovered by Bradley, which last phenome- stantinople?" "Law, Mr. Bulbul!" is all Miss non is the most unanswerable and mathematically Pim can ejaculate; and having talked over Miss decisive of the whole. Kepler followed Tycho, Pim, Clarence goes off to another houri, whom and rivalled Copernicus. His wonderful genius he fascinates in a similar manner. He charmed was equalled by his patience. On the 8th of Mrs. Waddy by telling her that she was the exMay, 1618, he discovered that the squares of the act figure of the Pacha of Egypt's second wife. periodic times are to each other as the cubes of He gave Miss Tokely a piece of the sack in their mean distances from the sun. His discov-which Zuleikah was drowned; and he actually ery that the planets move round the sun in ellipses, of which the sun is the focus, cleared the Copernican system from the eccentric cycles and epicycles with which it was still encumbered. But an accidental discovery of the telescope in Holland, 1608, led to results beyond any which human genius had before been able to anticipate. Galileo, who heard of this at Venice, 1609, applied himself to various combinations of lenses, and succeeded at last in finding one which magnified thirty-two times. He discovered four of the satellites of Jupiter; he directed his telescope to the moon, and made those discoveries to which Milton has so beautifully alluded; he found the spots in the sun; and by observing the horned figure of Venus and the gibbosity of Mars, he added to the evidence of the Copernican system, and verified the prediction of its author, who had said, with unequalled sagacity, "that if the sense of sight were sufficiently strong, we should see Venus and Mercury exhibiting phases like those of the moon." No triumph could be more complete; it roused the jealousy of the ecclesiastical authorities. In 1633 Galileo was obliged to disavow his belief in the motion of the earth. "Eighty years," said the indignant Kepler, "have passed away, during which the doctrine of Copernicus has been taught without interruption; and now that new proofs of it are discovered, and new arguments obtrude themselves in its favor, arguments and proofs utterly unknown to the ecclesiastical judges, the teaching of the system is prohibited."

UNCHANGEABLENESS IN THE ETERNAL CITY. As an instance of how much the god Terminus rules in Rome, and how little liable an established thing is to alteration, I can mention that not only the house and the baker's shop, but even the identical marble counter and the scales, are to be seen in full operation this week, just in the same state as they were when, over three hundred years ago, Raphael's Fornarina sold penny rolls across that counter, and a succession of bakers and baker maidens has never ceased to officiate therein. The almost invisible inscription over the plinth of the door was carved by Raphael's own hand, "TRAHIT SVA QUEMOVE VOLVPTAS." The family of Prince Massimo (our famous postmaster) have lived on the same spot where the Palazzo Massimo stands, in the Via dei Massimi, for the last nine hundred years! When I was a student at the university here, a quarter of a century ago (I am ashamed to own as much), I used to frequent, with the other collegians, a large establishment for dining in Via Condotti. There were ten waiters attending the various rooms twentyfive years ago, and on looking into the concern the other day, I recognized eight of the ten still extant! The two others waited there no longer, because they were dead, Roman CorreAmong the great names of this century must spondent of the Daily News.