gained of our sex, from this and other similar experiences! With what truth of emotion will he repeat, as he gives the toast of The bridemaids,' the hackneyed quotation about pain and sorrow wringing the brow, and smile half-adoringly, halfpathetically, at the ministering angels' who titter around him. They, charming innocents! will doubtless go home avouching What a delightful person is Mr. SO-AND-SO! I wonder he never gets married.' While Mr. So-AND-SO also goes home, sardonically-minded, to his dull lodgings, his book and his cigar, or- he best knows where. And in the slow process of inevitable deterioration, by forty he learns to think matrimony a decided humbug; and hugs himself in the conclusion that a virtuous, high-minded, and disinterested woman, if existing at all, exists as a mere lusus natura- not to be met with by mortal man now-a-days. Relieving his feeling with a grunt-half-sigh, half-sneer-he dresses and goes to the opera, or the ballet, at all events, or settles himself on the sofa to a French novel, and ends by firmly believing us women to be- what we are painted there!'

Miss MULOCH has divided her book into twelve chapters, headed, 'Something to Do;' 'Self-Dependence;' 'Female Professions;' 'Female Handicraft; ' 'Female Servants;' 'The Mistress of a Family;' 'Female Friendships;' 'Gossip;' 'Women of the World;' 'Happy and Unhappy Women;' 'Lost Women;' and 'Growing Old.' There are few women in any class of life who will not sympathize with these 'Thoughts,' and find in them good advice and help for action. We offer our special meed of praise to the publishers of this work, for the very beautiful manner in which they have issued it; and indeed, for the style in which all their publications are placed before their readers. Their books have the appearance of being issued by men who have some respect for the authors they introduce. They are printed with handsome type, on fine paper, carefully revised, beautifully bound, and altogether have that perfect ensemble in their make-up, which indicates taste, liberality, and a just appreciation of the needs of an intelligent public.

ADELE: A TALE. BY JULIA KAVANAGH: Author of 'NATHALIE,' 'RACHEL GRAY, etc. Three Volumes in One: pp. 574. New-York: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

Ir would do the author of 'JULIA Kavanagh' good, we think, were she to know with what avidity a new work from her pen is sought for. In a family, one has occasion more particularly to remark this: for no sooner is one of her works advertised in the daily journals, than inquiries are daily made for it, until it arrives from the publishers'. This stated, and conceded, we postpone an adequate notice of our author's last book, just at hand, until another Number; whetting our reader's appetite, in the mean time, with this merely incidental picture of the heroine:

'YET her heart beat a little as she approached the door of the hall; she opened it boldly, then half-shyly paused on the threshold, and the pause gave the three ladies time to recognize her. Ay, it was ADELE. The light of the lamp fell on her flushed face; the gloom of the stair-case behind, as she stood with the half-open door still in her hand, gave double vividness to the distinct outlines of her young and graceful figure. Her hair was bound in the fashion of the day, with three velvet bands, blue to suit the silk dress of the same color, dark enough for the season, and light enough to show at night, which fell around her in rich and ample folds. A little black-silk apron, gayly embroidered in flowers of every hue, gave it a careless household grace. Jewels or ornaments she wore none, save a light gold chain that glittered around her neck, and fell down to her waist, but her collar and lace sleeves were thin and delicate as a cobweb, and, as in her half-bending forward attitude, her little foot peeped out from underneath the edge of her dress, feminine eyes could plainly see that her velvet slipper was trimmed with fur, and what fur: good heavens! sable, real sable.'

EDITOR'S TABLE.

INTERESTING FACTS IN SCIENCE AND ART. - We have been much interested in 'The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art for 1858,' a very valuable 'Annual of Scientific Discoveries and Improvements' in all parts of the world: edited by DAVID A. WELLS, A.M., and recently published by Messrs. GOULD AND LINCOLN, Boston. We present two or three passages. The first is the following Curious Anticipation of the Discovery of the Magnetic Telegraph, foreshadowed one hundred and twenty-eight years ago, in BAILEY'S 'London Dictionary' for 1730:

'SOME authors write, that by the help of the magnet or loadstone persons may communicate their minds to a friend at a great distance; as suppose one to be at London, and the other at Paris, if each of them have a circular alphabet, like the dial-plate of a clock, and a needle touched with one magnet, then at the same time that the needle at London was moved, that at Paris would move in like manner, provided each party had secret notes for dividing words, and the observation was made at a set hour either of the day or of the night; and when one party would inform the other of any matter, he is to move the needle to those letters that will form the words, that will declare what he would have the other know, and the other needle will move in the same manner. This may be done reciprocally.'

An ingenious instrument has been invented, called 'The Ophthalmoscope,' which must supply a most important desideratum; for by its aid the human eye may be as easily examined internally as externally:

THE instrument is in the form of a concave mirror, with a hole in the centre, in which a lens is inserted; to this another lens is added, which, however, is separate and movable. When the instrument is used, a lighted candle is placed by the side of the patient. The concave mirror is then held in front of the eye to be examined, while the movable lens is suspended between the light and the mirror in such a manner as to concentrate the rays of the first on the second. The reflected rays converge on the retina, and on passing through it diverge and render luminous the whole interior of the eye, which the observer can see by looking through the lens placed in the mirror's centre. The retina and the lens form a microscope, the multiplying power of which is about five hundred.'

Another remarkable instrument called 'The Sphygmoscope' has been invented by Dr. ALISON of London, for indicating the movements of the heart and blood-vessels:

'IT consists of a small chamber containing alcohol, or other liquid, provided with a thin India-rubber wall, where it is to be applied to the chest. At the opposite extremity the chamber communicates with a glass tube, which rises to some height above its level - the chamber. Liquid is supplied to the instrument until it stands in the tube a little above the level of the chamber. The pressure of the column of liquíd in the tube acts upon the elastic or yielding wall of India-rubber, and causes VOL. LI.

42

it to protrude. This protruding part, or chest-piece, is very readily affected by external impulse; it yields to the slightest touch, and, being pushed inward, causes a displacement of this liquid in the non-elastic chamber, and forces a portion of the liquid up the tube. The protruding wall of India-rubber is driven inward when it is brought in contact with that portion of the chest which is struck by the apex of the heart, and a rise in the tube takes place. When the heart retires, the Indiarubber wall, affected by the pressure of the column of liquid in the tube, is pressed back, follows the chest, and permits the liquid to descend. The degree to which the India-rubber wall is forced in by the tube, and the amount of protrusion of the Indiarubber wall which takes place when the heart retires is denoted by a corresponding fall in the tube. The tube is supplied with a graduated scale, to denote the rise and fall with exactitude. When the heart is excited, the liquid in the sphygmoscope rises and falls more than usual; but the rise and fall of the excited enlarged heart is much the same as the rise and fall of the excited normal organ. The sphygmoscope indicates with exactitude both the absolute and the comparative influence upon the heart, of food, cordials, stimulants, and tonic medicines. It does the same in respect to depressing causes, such as hunger, cold, and sedatives. With the aid of this instrument the fact is demonstrated that the action of the heart may be great when the pulse is small; that the pulse is one thing, and the heart's action another, and teaches that the pulse is only an approximate sign of the state of the heart.'

Such are a few only of the wonderful and most important scientific discoveries of these modern days.

PAAS FESTIVAL OF THE ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY.—The last Paäs Festival of the St. Nicholas Society was held at the St. NICHOLAS Hotel on Paâs Monday. There was a lively and 'precious season,' although it should have been enjoyed by more than eighty-eight members out of three hundred and sixty-four. This remissness, it is pleasant to think, affected most the absentees; for if it certainly was not our 'gain,' it was as certainly their loss. It was our great pleasure to be present, after an absence from many previous festivals of the good patron SAINT; and seldom have we enjoyed a more delightful evening. The chair, of course, was occupied by the PRESIDENT of the Society, Hon. GULIAN C. VERPLANCK; and every one knows how he presides. Characteristic speeches were made, all short, and to the point, by the PRESIDENT; Judge VANDERPOOL; ExPresident J. DE PEYSTER OGDEN; Professor RENWICK; F. DE PEYSTER, Esq., Dr. VERMILYE; JOHN VAN BUREN; J. ROMEYN BRODHEAD, Esq.; Dr. Beales, and others; while songs were sung, and well sung too, by Dr. J. G. ADAMS and Mr. HAIGHT, including 'St. PATRICK was a Gentleman,' from a member whose name we cannot now recall. Then came the vari-colored Paäs-Eggs, (of which two bushels were consumed!) schnaäps and pipes; and good humor and abundant jollity prevailed, during the cracking-trials. One member was detected in the use of a Guinea-hen's egg, and severely reprimanded by the PRESIDENT. To show the universality and antiquity of Paäs, by the way, we ask attention to Professor RENWICK's response to a call from the PRESIDENT:

'PROFESSOR RENWICK stated, that on entering the room, he had taken a seat near the foot of the table, and as a quiet member of the Society, had not anticipated that he should be called to the honor of the Daïs. Far less had he expected, even after 'honor had been thrust upon him,' that he should be called upon to speak. So far, indeed, from preparing to address the Society, he had been spending such intervals as he could spare, in the task, partly of deci

phering and partly of translating a very interesting paper which had been put into his hands by the President. The President had stated to the Society, that it was a portion of a letter describing the manners and customs of the Chaldean Church in Mesopotamia, and that it had reference to the observation of Paäs. The manuscript appeared, on first inspection, to be written in a curious variety of the arrow-headed character, and it was feared that it might be in some Eastern tongue; but on more close inspection, it proved to be Latin, written in a very neat but not very legible Italian hand.

'As this manuscript contained matter very apposite to the serious business in which the Society was at the moment engaged, Professor RENWICK thought that a translation of it would be more interesting to his hearers than any speech which he could make, and he would therefore proceed to give it :

'ORIGINAL.

TEMPORE Paschalis Christianorum pueri emunt sibi quotquot possunt ova, quæ etiam rubro colore efficiunt. Alii autem viridi, aut flavo, ova sua subinde tangunt. Quinet in ipso foro sunt homines qui dato tempore ova hoc modo tincta vendunt.

"Ludus in eo consistit, ut unus puer manu teneat ovum ita ut sola ejus extremitas in superiore parte manûs inter pollicis et indicis complexum appareat; dum alter alio ovo tanquam malleolo superne ferit, pulsat que leniter. Ille autem cujus ovo accidit contusio aut levior aliqua fractura, vincitur, illudque suum ovum contusum perdit. Et sic deinceps proceditur. Postquam vero pro multis ovis luserunt, ille qui ultimus vincit, omnia quotquot ova alter lucratus fuerat reportat. Hujusmodi autem ova hac ratione non ita vitiantur quin postea pro minore pretio facile vendantur.

''Si quis fraude utitur et arte aliquâ ova sua indurat ut ab altero frangi nequeat, quando fraus detecta est, si vir adultus ab officiario punitur, si puer, ejus parentes mulctantur.'

TRANSLATION.

Ar the time of Easter, the sons of the Christians buy as many eggs as each of them can afford, which they dye of a red color. Some, however, dye their eggs green, and others yellow. There are also persons who keep eggs dyed in this manner for sale in the market-place.

The game is conducted in this manner: One boy holds an egg in his hand in such a manner that no more than one of its ends shall appear above the upper part of his hand, held closely between the thumb and the fore-finger, while another, with another egg, strikes down upon the first from above, as if with a little hammer, and beats gently. He whose egg is crushed, or even slightly cracked, loses it. And thus the game goes on, until many eggs are at stake, and he who is finally victor carries off all the eggs which the other had broken or won. In this way the eggs are not so much defaced but that they may be readily sold afterward, although at a less price than before they were cracked.

"If any one hardens his egg artificially, so that it cannot be broken, when the fraud is detected, the culprit, if grown up, is punished by the authorities: but if he is still a boy, his parents must pay the penalty.''

The supper was superb: doing no less honor to 'mine hosts' of the St. NICHOLAS, than to the liberality and good taste' of the STEWARDS. The colored waiters, in their quaint costume of the time of PETER STUYVESANT, were present as usual, including good old 'ALEXANDER HAMILTON,' although he had been mentioned, at the last quarterly-meeting, as 'on his last legs,' and 'the hat' was passed around, and money collected to bury him! By some strange hocus-pocus he had been put on his legs' again, instead of under the ground. The company, (keeping good Dutch hours,) separated at half-past twelve, after 'uniting' in 'Auld Lang Syne.'

GOSSIP WITH READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. The subjoined lines (although written several years ago) upon 'GREIG-Hall, Canandaigua,' will find a melancholy interest now, in the minds of hundreds of our readers who have participated in the kindly and elegant hospitalities of a noble mansion, which has lately been made desolate by the death of its esteemed and distinguished proprietor, Hon. JOHN GREIG:

'HALL-GREIG: CANANDAIGUA.

'HALL-GREIG, with its court-yard of beauty and grace,
Is built on the Indian's Chosen Place:

For such is the meaning, the Iroquois make,
For the name Canandaigua, its land and its lake.
And right well it deserved, by their council's voice,
To be made the pet spot of the wild-man's choice;
For the lake and the forest abounded in game,
Here the woodland-deer coursed, and the bison came,
And the wild-fowl soared and the fish swam in pride,
And together, the wigwam, with plenty supplied.
Here the warrior-chief sported his arrow and bow,

And the squaw strung her beads and her feathers for show.
And on the lake's waters so tranquil and blue,

They paddled abroad in their birchen canoc.

'But how changed is the scene! By the white settler pressed,
The red man has hied far away to the west;

And scarce a memorial remaineth to day,

To tell of the race that is fading away!

Where the rude lodges stood, and the hunting-grounds spread,
A beautiful village has risen in their stead.

And along up the slope, as it springs from the lake,

Of civilized life and its joys you partake.

Here mansions and cottages, gardens, and fields,

Imparting the comfort that industry yields,

Are spread in profusion and beauty around:

Here the temples of worship and learning are found.
Beloved Canandaigua! so pleasant and fair,
What village with thee can in beauty compare!

And among all these homesteads, so tasteful and neat,
There are no grounds more lovely, no gardens more sweet,
Than are those of Hall-GREIG, in its splendor and grace,
As it stands on the Indian's Chosen Place.

Oh! look on its grounds, and its green-house behold!
There are flowers of all colors, white, crimson, and gold.
There flourish choice plants from each far-distant clime,
The rich grape, the lemon, the orange and lime,

The apricot, nectarine, apple, and pear,

And the peach too, the best kind of all fruit, is there.
And of beautiful flowers, all the fairest and best,

Are here, from the north, south, the east, and the west,
From the tiny moss-flower and the violet sweet,

As they in their beauty, spring up at our feet,

To the stately magnolia, America's pride,

Which spreads its rich perfume abroad far and wide:

The dahlia, the various-hued, velvet-leaved flower:

And the cereus, which blooms but in night's witching hour:

The aloe, which, neither for smiles nor for tears,

Will bloom, till it makes you wait full fifty years:

The jasmine, the hyacinth, eglantine too,

And the iris, whose color is delicate blue:

The snow-drop, which peeps forth, first flower of the spring,
And the mountain ash gorgeous, when autumn-birds sing:
The shamrock, the thistle, the white and red rose,

The lily, geranium, and all else that grows,