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such like women's ornaments; but Achilles, on the contrary, laid hold of the targets, and fitted the hel mets to his head, and brandished the swords, and pla ced them to his side. Thus Ulysses plainly discovered Achilles from the virgins, and compelled him to go to the war: after that Vulcan, by Thetis' entreaty, had given him impenetrable armour. Achilles, at Troy, killed Hector, the son of Priamus; and was killed himself by Paris, by a trick of Polyxena: and all the Nymphs and Muses are said to have lamented his death."

ULYSSES.

with the harp taat he received from his father, played and sang so sweetly, that he tamed wild beasts, stayed the courses of rivers, and made whole woods follow him. He descended with the same harp into hell to recover from Pluto and Proserpine, his wife Euridice, who had been killed by a serpent, when she fled from the violence of Aristæus. Here he so charmed both the king and queen with the sweetness of his musick, that they permitted his wife to return to life again upon this condition, that he should not look upon her till they were both arrived upon the earth: but so impatient and eager was the love of Orpheus, that he could not perform the condition; therefore, she was taken back into hell again. Upon this, Orpheus resolUlysses was the son of Laertes and Anticlea. His ved for the future to live a widower: and with his ex-wife was Penelope, a lady highly famed for her pruample alienated the minds of many others from the dence and virtue. He was unwilling that the Trojan love of women. This so provoked the Mænades and war should part him and his dear wife; therefore, to Bacche, that they tore him in pieces: though others avoid the expedition, he pretended to be mad, joining assign another reason for his death, which is this: the the different beasts to the same plough, and sowing the women, by the instigation of Venus, were so inflamed furrows with salt. But this pretence was detected by with the love of him, that quarrelling with one another Palamedes, who laid his infant son in the furrow, while who should have him they tore him in pieces. His Ulysses was ploughing, to see whether he would suffer bones were afterward gathered by the Muses, and re- the ploughshare to wound him or not. When Ulysses posed in a sepulchre, not without tears; and his harp came where his son lay, he turned the plough, and was made the constellation Lyra.” thus it was discovered that he was not a madman, and he was compelled to go to the war. There he was very serviceable to the Grecians, and was almost the sole occasion of taking the town. He forced Achilles from his retreat, and obtained the arrows of Hercules from Philoctetes, which he brought against Troy. He took away the ashes of Laomedon, which were preserved upon the gate Scæa in Troy. He stole the Palladium from the city; killed Rhesus, king o. Thrace, and took his horses, before they had tasted the water of the river Xanthus, in which things the destiny of Troy was wrapped up: for if the Trojans had preserved them, the town could never have been conquered.

AMPHION.

Amphion was the son of Jupiter by Antiope. He received his lute and harp from Mercury; and with the sound thereof moved the stones so regularly, that they composed the walls of the city of Thebes.

Amphion too, as story goes, could call
Obedient stones to make the Theban wall.
He led them as he pleas'd: the rocks obey'd,
And danc'd in order to the tunes he play'd.

"The occasion of which fable was this: Orpheus and Amphion were both men so eloquent, that they persuaded those who lived a wild and savage life before, to embrace the rules and manners of civil soci-he sailed backward and forward ten years; opposing "When Ulysses departed from Troy to return home,

ety."

ARION.

"Arion is a proper companion for these two musicians, for he was a lyric poet of Methymna, in the island of Lesbos, and gained immense riches by his art. When he was travelling from Lesbos into Italy, his companions assaulted him to rob him of his wealth; but he entreated the seamen to suffer him to play on his harp, before they cast him into the sea: he played sweetly, and then threw himself into the sea, where a dolphin, drawn thither by the sweetness of his musick, received him on his back, and carried him to Tenedos.

He on his crouching back sits all at ease,
With harp in hand by which he calms the seas,
And for his passage with a song he pays.

winds and bad weather preventing his return. During which time, 1. He put out the eye of Polyphemus with a fire-brand; and then sailing to Eolia, he there obtained from Eolus all the winds which were con trary to him, and put them into leathern bags. His companions believing that the bags were filled with money, intended to rob him; therefore, when they came almost to Ithaca, they untied the bags, and the winds gushed out, and blew him back to Eolia again. 2. When Circe had turned his companions into beasts, he first fortified himself against her charms with the antidote that Mercury had given him, and then ran into her cave with his sword drawn, and forced her to restore his companions to their former shapes again. After which he and Circe were reconciled, and he had by her Telegonus. 3. He went down into hell to know

"The dolphin, for this kindness, was carried into his future fortune from the prophet Tiresias. 4. When heaven, and made a constellation."

ACHILLES.

"Achilles was the son of Peleus by Thetis. His mother plunged him in the Stygian waters when he was an infant, which made his whole body ever after invulnerable, excepting that part o his foot by which he was held when he was washed. Thetis, his mother, had heard from an oracle that he should be killed in the expedition against Troy. On the other hand, Calchas the diviner had declared, that Troy could not be taken without him. By the cunning of Ulysses he was forced to go: for when his mother Thetis hid him in a boarding-school (in Gynecæo) in the island of Seycros, one of the Cyclades, in the habit of a virgin among the daughters of king Lycomedes, Ulysses discovered the trick: he went thither in the disguise of a merchant, and took with him several goods to sell. The king's daughters, began to view and handle curiously the bracelets, the glasses, the necklaces, and

he sailed to the islands of the Sirens, he stopped the ears of his companions, and bound himself with strong ropes to the ship's masts: by these means he avoided the dangerous snares into which by their charming voices, they led men. 5. And lastly after his ship was broken and wrecked by the waves, he escaped by swimming; and came naked and alone to the port of Phæacia, where Nausica, the daughter of king Alcinous, found him hidden among the young trees, and entertained him civilly. When his companions were found, and the ship refitted, he was sent asleep into Ithaca, where Pallas awaked him, and advised him to put on the habit of a beggar. Then he went to his neat-herds, where he found his son Telemachus; and from them he went home in a disguise, where, after he had received several affronts from the wooers of Penelope, by the assistance of the neat-herds and his son, to whom he discovered himself, he set upon them, and killed them every one; and then received his Penelope."

PENELOPE.

ed her with ruin unless she declared which of them "Penelope, the daughter of Icarus, was a rare and should marry her, she desired that the choice might perfect example of chastity. For though it was gene- be deferred till she had finished a piece of needlerally thought that her husband Ulysses was dead, work, about which she was then employed: but unsince he had been absent from her twenty years, yet doing by night what she had worked by day, she deneither the desires of her parents, nor the solicitations layed them till Ulysses returned and killed them all. of her lovers, could prevail upon her to marry another | Hence came the proverb, To weave Penelope's web;' man, and to violate the promises of constancy which that is, to labour in vain; when one hand destroys she gave to her husband when he departed. And what the other has wrought." when many noblemen courted her, and even threaten

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The above engraving is from a sketch taken on the | spot by a lady. It represents the house in which lord Byron died at Missolonghi. The apartment in which he expired is at the top on the left, distinguished by an awning and balcony in front of the window.

Lord Byron went to Greece for the laudable purpose of offering his personal means and services to assist those unfortunate people in their struggle for freedom. He embarked from Genoa in July 1823, in the English brig Hercules, which he had chartered at his own expense, and loaded with arms, ammunition and hospital stores for the benefit of the Greeks. He arrived at Missolonghi after many dangers, difficulties and delays, on the 5th January, 1824. "He was received by Prince Mavrocordato, at the head of the magistracy and the whole population civil and military, with distinguished honours, and every token of gratitude and delight." At his own expense, he soon formed and equipped a corps of Suliotes, numbering between five and six hundred. "Having received a regular commission as an officer in the Greek service, he assumed the command." But he found them undisciplined, riotous and unmanageable. He also commanded a corps of artillery, supplied by the Greek Committee in London. He at one time got all things in readiness to attack Lepanto, then in the hands of the Turks; but his disorderly soldiers broke out the day before the meditated attack into open mutiny; and their faithless conduct and extravagant demands compelled him to abandon the expedition. He laboured incessantly at Missolonghi both mentally and bodily, to heal intestine dissensions, and to strengthen the Greeks against their enemies. In the midst of his labours, however, on the 9th of April, he was attacked with an inflammatory fever, which ended his days on the 19th.

The same day Mavrocordato issued a proclamation

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"2d. All the publick offices, even the tribunals, are to remain closed for three successive days.

"3d. All the shops, except those in which provisions are sold, will also be shut; and it is strictly enjoined, that every species of publick amusement, and other demonstrations of festivity at easter, shall be suspended. "4th. A general mourning will be observed for twenty-one days; and prayers and a funeral service are to be offered up in all the churches.

His body was taken to London, where it lay two days in state, and on the 16th July was deposited in his family vault, in the parish church of Hucknell, a small village near Newstead Abbey.

"Over the chancel of the church is a tablet of white marble, bearing the following inscriptions:

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This system is called the True Solar System, and is now universally received amongst mathematicians and astronomers, and indeed very generally admitted by all to be not only the true, but also the most ancient system in the world, or of which we have any account; and is in truth more consistent and even more conformable to natural appearances and the circumstances of the celestial motions, than any other hypothetical system of Astronomy, that has ever been propagated amongst mankind.

This system was first of all, as far as the moderns have been able to ascertain, introduced into Greece and Italy, about 530 years before the commencement of the Christian era, by the great Pythagoras and his disciples, from whom it has been called the Pythagorean System.

The opinions of Pythagoras, though perhaps derived originally from some Eastern nation, were held by some of his pupils; but were either too contradictory, or not sufficiently obvious and clearly explained, to be maintained in continual succession, during a series of ages, emphatically styled the dark ages-a period of the most consummate ignorance and barbarism. The system of Pythagoras was, however, adopted and retained, until Plato, Aristotle, and the philosophers that came after them, embraced the vulgar idea, or what was afterwards called the Ptolemaic* system; and their authority imposed it upon mankind, till the doctrine which had been taught by Pythagoras more than 2000 years before, and which had been rejected and in a great measure become lost or extinct, was revived about the year 1510, by the genius of Nicholas Copernicus, an eminent astronomer, born at Thorn, in Prussia, A. D. 1473; from whom it has been denominated the Copernican System. For the Ptolemaic and Tychonic Systems, See Vol. 1. p. 92 Fam. Magazine.

Copernicus having adopted and greatly improved the Pythagorean or true system of the universe, published it to the world with new demonstrative arguments in its favour, in his work entitled, De Revolutionibus Orbium Caelestium, first printed at Nuremberg, in 1543, a little previous to his death, which took place in the same year, at the age of seventy. The truth of the ancient Pytha-. gorean system, by applying mathematical reasoning to mechanical experiments, was afterwards completely established by the incomparable Sir Isaac Newton.

VARIATIONS OF THE SEASONS.

It is the inclination of the axis of the earth, to the plane or level of its orbit, that occasions the variations

of the seasons.

It is easy to be shown, that the alternate succession of day and night is produced by the rotation of the earth upon its axis; but the different lengths of days and nights in every part of the world, in the course of the year, and the phenomena of the different seasons, or the changes of heat and cold, Summer and Winter, Spring and Autumn, are occasioned by the annual revolution of the Earth about the Sun, in the plane of the ecliptic.

During one half of the year, the north pole is continually illuminated by the Sun, and the South pole is all the time in darkness; and during the other half of the year, the South pole is constantly in the light, and the north pole is in darkness; and other parts in a proportional degree partake of this vicissitude, and create the variety of the seasons.

The difference in the degrees of heat, is chiefly owing to the different heights, which the Sun attains above the horizon, and the different length of the days. In summer the Sun appears nearest the zenith, and its rays falling nearly perpendicularly, more of them fall on any given

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portion of the Earth's surface, and therefore produce a greater heat than in winter, when the Sun is nearer the horizon and its rays fall obliquely. When the days are long, and the nights short, the earth and air are more heated in the day than they are cooled in the night, and the reverse when the days are short and the nights long.

In the figure given above let the inner circle or rather oval, represent the orbit of the Earth; S, the Sun in the lower focus of the orbit, the four globes, N. E. S. W. the Earth in different parts of its elliptic orbit, receiving from its changing position the varying seasons, and the succession and different lengths of day and night; N. S. the Earth's axis, N. its north pole, S. its south pole, &c. The spectator is here supposed to be beyond or without the orbit of the Earth, at a considerable distance, and to look upon it obliquely.

As the Earth revolves round the Sun, according to the order of the letters, A B C D, &c., its axis N. S. keeps the same obliquity, or always preserves its parallelism, it being, in any one part of the orbit, in a position always very nearly parallel to that in which it was, in any other part of its orbit, and its northern extremity always pointing nearly towards a fixed star situate immensely beyond the bounds of the solar system, and hence denominated the North Polar Star.

We shall now suppose the Earth to set off from its position at the time of the vernal equinox, in the Spring, and to revolve annually round the Sun, S, from the point A, or that part of the orbit in which a spectator in the Sun, would see the Earth coincide with the beginning of the sign Libra, of the ecliptic, and the inhabitants of the Earth see the Sun in the direction of Aries, or when the Sun, as seen from the Earth, appears to enter Aries. In this position of the Earth, about the 20th of March, the axis, though inclined to the plain of the orbit, is not inclined towards the Sun, the rays of which for a short time illuminate both hemispheres alike, from one pole to the other, causing an equal length of day and night in all parts of the world. At this time, which is called the Vernal Equinox, the rays of the Sun fall perpendicularly on the terrestrial equator, and more or less obliquely on places more or less remote from the equator.

As the Earth proceeds in its orbit, according to the order of the signs, and passes from Libra, along the signs Scorpio and Sagittarius, to Capricornus, the Sun is seen to advance from the west towards the east, along

the signs, Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, to Cancer; until in about three months, that is to say, on the 21st of June, the Earth will arrive at the beginning of Capricorn, and the Sun, as seen from the Earth, will appear at the beginning of Cancer. Here the north pole, in consequence of the obliquity of the axis, becomes eventually so inclined towards the Sun, that a considerable space round that pole becomes illuminated by the solar light, and an equal space round the south pole is in the shade, in consequence of being turned from the Sun. At this time, which is our Summer Solstice, the solar rays fall obliquely on the equator, and perpendicularly on a parallel of latitude about 23° 28′ north of the equator, that is, on the Tropic of Cancer. The space then illuminated round the north pole, and that in obscurity about the south pole, extend also to the distance of about 23° 28' from each pole.

After this the days begin to shorten in the northern parts of the world, and the nights lengthen, in proportion, as the Earth continues its course along the signs, Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces, at the same time that the Sun is seen to advance along the signs, Cancer, Leo, and Virgo, the Earth, in its annual revolution, advan cing towards the first point of Aries, at which it arrives on the 23d of September, when the Sun, as seen from the Earth, appears at the beginning of Libra ; and at this time, which is the Autumnal Equinox, the same conditions occur as when the Earth is in the opposite part of its orbit, at the vernal equinox.

If we now follow the Earth through the other half of its orbit, we shall find, that exactly the same effects take place in the southern hemisphere, while the Earth is percurring that half of its orbit, as what have been just remarked with respect to the northern hemisphere, while the Earth was passing from A through B to C. When the Earth arrives at D, about the 22d of December, the time of our Winter Solstice, the north pole is involved in obscurity, and a space round the south pole becomes enlightened to the distance of about 23° 28' every way from that pole; and then the solar rays fall perpendicularly on the Tropick of Capricorn, the parallel of latitude 23° 28' south of the equator.

Thus we see, that from March to September, or while the Earth is moving from Libra through Capricorn to Aries, the north pole is inclined towards the Sun, so that the rays of light fall most directly on the northern he misphere, producing summer in the northern parts of the world; the north pole remaining all that time in the

illuminated hemisphere, will therefore have six months of continual day;—at the same time that the south pole is turned from the Sun, which then shines very obliquely on all those parts of the southern hemisphere which are enlightened by the Sun, thus producing winter in that hemisphere. But during the other half of the year, from September to March, while the Earth is moving from Aries through Cancer to Libra, the north pole is turned from the Sun, and therefore in darkness, while the south pole is presented more directly to that luminary; and the inhabitants of the southern hemisphere are cheered with summer, while those of the northern hemisphere are chilled with winter. Hence it is easy to perceive, that the inhabitants of the southern hemisphere have the same vicissitudes with those of the northern hemisphere, though not at the same time, it being winter in one hemisphere when it is summer in the other. In this way, the two hemispheres always have opposite seasons at the same time."

The inclination of the Earth's axis to the plane of the ecliptic, also causes a variation in the days and nights in different parts of the Earth's surface, and in different seasons of the year; that at the equator the days and nights are equal, as they always are, and the Sun rises and sets at six o'clock throughout the year; that, about the 20th of March, and the 23d of September, which are the periods of the equinoxes, the days are equal to the nights in all parts of the world; every part of the Earth's surface coming into the light at six in the morning, and going into the dark at six in the evening.

NATURAL HISTORY.

seems to be the main pillar or support of the whole skeleton; and as this forms a striking characteristick common to all these animals, they are hence called VERTEBRAL animals.

INVERTEBRAL animals have no such skeleton, and of course, no vertebral column; but consist of a collection of organs more or less distinct, without any solid basis, and are generally of a soft, yielding texture. though sometimes protected externally by a shell or other hard covering. The brain and nervous system are less distinct than those of vertebral animals, and are unprotected by any bony covering. They are called invertebral amimals, because they have no vertebræ. The first division may be subdivided into, 1, warmblooded, and 2, cold-blooded animals. The warmblooded animals have all a temperature above that of the element in which they reside. Among these are man, quadrupeds, whales and birds. The cold-blooded, among which are included frogs, toads, lizards, serpents and fishes, have a temperature varying but little from that of the air or water in which they live. We experience a sensation of cold, when we touch them, and hence we call them cold-blooded.

And again, warm-blooded animals may be divided into two classes. 1. Mammalia, or those which produce their young alive, and nourish them by their own milk, from organs called mammæ, or breasts. 2. Birds, or those which produce their young by means of eggs, which they hatch by the heat of their bodies.

The cold-blooded vertebral animals also form two classes. 1. Reptiles, or those which breathe air only. 2. Fishes, or those which breathe through the medium of water.

The second grand division is not capable of so accurate an arrangement. But according to our present The classification of animals is founded upon a knowledge of the characteristicks of the animals, knowledge as well of their most obvious characteris- which are included in this division, we may arrange ticks, as of their more intimate nature and corresponding them into five classes. 1. Insects, which may be arpoints. According to their degrees of similarity, they ranged into extremely numerous orders, genera and spehave been separated and connected together, in various cies. 2. Crustacea, as the lobster, crab, crawfish, &c. divisions and subdivisions. Each sort of animal, con- 3. Mollusca, as the snail, squid, oyster, clam, &c. stitutes a distinct SPECIES; a number of species taken 4. Vermes, as the earth-worm, and leech. 5. Zotogether form a GENUS; those genera, which have im-ophytes, as the star-fish, sea-anemone, the polypus, portant and well defined points of resemblance in sponges, and animalcules.

structure and conformation, are placed together in an We have then two grand divisions, and nine distinct ORDER; whilst upon a similar principle, but more ex-classes. tensive in its application, these orders are marshalled

into separate CLASSES.

Who is entitled to the credit of having first originated the idea of classifying animals, and what are the comparative merits of the several systems which have been since proposed, we have shown in our first volume. Cuvier's system* is, we believe, almost universally admitted to be the most accurate, definite, and philosophical of any yet proposed. There can hardly be any question of its superiority, or of its ultimately superseding those of all other naturalists. We shall adopt his system generally, taking advantage of others in whatever points they may be more approved.

In a general view, the whole series of animals, from the most insignificant worm up to man, may be arranged, in the first place, into two grand divisions.

1. VERTEBRAL.

2. INVERTEBRAL.

1. Mammalia, 2. Birds, 3. Reptiles, 4. Fishes,

I. Vertebral Animals.

Warm-blooded.

Cold-blooded.

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The foundation of this classification seems very apparent. It is to be found in the very considerable similarity which exists, in the general anatomical conforty in the production and treatment of their young-in their adaptation and confinement generally to the surface of the earth. But few animals of this class are capable of mounting in the air, as the bats; the number of those is also few, which can subsist in the water, as the whales.

Vertebral animals are possessed of an internal skel-mation of all the animals of this class. The similarieton, or a system of bones covered by flesh, which gives form and strength to their whole fabrick. They have likewise a cranium or skull, which contains the brain; and a number of bones called vertebræ, so connected together, as to form a column, known as the spine, back bone, or vertebral column. This column

"The principles on which M. Cuvier's divisions rest will necessarily preside over all the changes which still more extended observation will render indispensable; but the basis of zoological classification is for ever laid, and its solidity will prove better than all the discourses of future naturalists, the elevated genius

of the author."-Laurillard.

Upon a consideration of the differences in the anterior extremities-in the feet-in the teeth, and in the skin of the animals of this class, their division into orders is founded. We can judge of the character, mode of life, and food of an animal by his structure. In

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