No. 221.

PRICE FOURPENCE.

REVIEWS

Observations on the Mussulmauns of India, Descriptive of their Manners, Customs, and Habits. By Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1832. Parbury. THE Mussulmaun character in India exhibits so many of the effects of transplantation, that one would almost imagine the people to be a distinct race from their ancestors nearer Europe. The gorgeous ceremonial of the Hindoo law could not fail to make a strong impression on imaginations prone, by their Asiatic temperament, to the love of the wild and extravagant; and, accordingly, after the lapse of a few centuries, we find the strangers-elsewhere so grave and reasonable vying with the aborigines themselves in unmeaning mummery. Even the tolerance, in matters of religious belief, which forms a part of the Brahminical as well as Bhuddist system, appears to have sunk gradually into the indurated hearts of the Mohammedans; and we are assured by more than one author, that the followers of the Prophet may be seen at this day, mixing occasionally, without fear of damnation, in the idolatrous processions of the Hindoos. An account therefore of such a people must not be confounded with the innumerable contributions we already possess towards a moral history of the Mohammedans of Arabia and the neighbouring countries.

to throw the light of her own experience upon things which she was not aware were dark to the optics of others. Her opportunities, notwithstanding, have been by no means thrown away. She has described what she saw, and repeated what she heard; and, although the work so produced would be altogether useless as a description of the people, it will enter as valuable materials into the store laid up, and laying up, for the use of the future sage, who is destined to write the history of India.

That the present work will be useless, as a description of the people, is owing to the very circumstances, which no doubt render the author an estimable and amiable character in private life. The countrymen of her husband are described by her as the least imperfect of human beings; the sect of the Sheahs is greatly better than that of the Soonies, because her husband, as a Meer or Syaad, is a descendant of Ali himself; and, although her husband's religion, Mohammedanism, is not exactly her own, Christianity, yet it is so near it, even in points of doctrinal belief, that the two may very easily be confounded. As for the orthography of proper names, about which the author appears to have some misgiving, we are rather pleased than otherwise, to find her spelling the words, not as she might have seen them written, but as she heard them pronounced. The time has not yet arrived, when rules can be laid down for the imitation, in our

But even if the lady-author now before us had not possession of a field where the glean-language, of names written in a character, ings are yet abundant, her labours, under the circumstances in which she has been placed, could not fail to be productive. The changes, that time and foreign contact have brought about in the customs and habits of the men, have not extended to the privacy of the zenana; the same seclusion prevails that has so often excited and baffled our curiosity nearer home; and the once intolerant Mussulmaun, who now looks upon an idol without shrinking, would still be ready to dig out with his dagger the eyes that had rested on the

face of his wife.

Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali

to which the united alphabets of the east and west of Europe supply no parallel powers. Some attempts, however, of Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali to convey such sounds in Roman letters, will render the words nearly unintelligible to persons not intimately acquainted with the subject; but others, we can say of our own knowledge, bespeak a nice ear and a proper acquaintance with the powers of the Roman alphabet. The word Mohammed," for instance, as it is the fashion to spell it, is rendered by her "Mahumud" (Mahumud), which makes as near an approach as is possible in this language to the Arabic pronunciation; for the soft and musical prolongation of the m, is caricatured, not imitated, by our own double letter.

66

toilet:

(Bless us, what a word on A title-page is this!-) appears to be an English lady married to a Mussulmaun native of India. Her opportunities of observation, therefore, must have It is time, however, to take advantage of been all that inquirers have hitherto been our author's peculiar opportunities of obserpanting for, and capable of furnishing more vation; and, this we shall do in the first than all that has hitherto been begged, bor-place, by presenting a sketch of the female rowed, or stolen on the subject. In estimating, however, Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali's merit in the execution of her task, we must remember, that she is no professed blue-stocking. She carried to the work no previous knowledge of what had been written and thought in Europe about the Mussulmauns of India. She could not combat errors which she did not know to exist; nor was she led

"The missee (a preparation of antimony,) is applied to the lips, the gums, and occasionally to the teeth of every married lady, who emulate each other in the rich black produced. The eyelid also is pencilled afresh with prepared black, called kaarjil: the chief ingredient in this preparation is lamp-black. The eyebrow is well examined for fear an ill-shaped hair should impair the symmetry of that arch es

teemed a beauty in every clime, though all do not, perhaps, exercise an equal care with Eastern dames to preserve order in its growth. The mayndhie is again applied to the hands and feet, which restores the bright red hue deemed so becoming and healthy.

The nose once more is destined to receive the nutt (ring) which designates the married lady; this ring, I have before mentioned, is of gold

wire, the pearls and ruby between them are of great value, and I have seen many ladies wear the nutt as large in circumference as the bangle on her wrist, though of course much lighter; it is often worn so large, that at meals they are obliged to hold it apart from the face with the left hand, whilst conveying food to the mouth with the other. This nutt, however, from ancient custom, is indispensable with married women; and,

though they may find it disagreeable and inconvenient, it cannot possibly be removed, except for Mahurrum, from the day of their marriage until their death or widowhood, without infringing on the originality of their customs, in adhering to which they take so much pride. "The ears of the females are pierced in many places; the gold or silver rings return to their several stations after Mahurrum, forming a

broad fringe of the precious metals on each side the head; but when they dress for great events -as paying visits or receiving company-these which fall in rows from the upper part of the give place to strings of pearls and emeralds, ear to the shoulder, in a graceful, elegant style. My ayah, a very plain old woman, has no less than ten silver rings in one ear, and nine in the other,† each of them having pendant ornaments; indeed, her ears are literally fringed with silver.

"After the hair has undergone all the ceremonies of washing, drying, and anointing with the sweet jessamine oil of India, it is drawn with great precision from the forehead to the back, where it is twisted into a queue which generally reaches below the waist; the ends are finished with strips of red silk and silver ribands entwined with the hair, and terminating with a good-sized rosette. The hair is jet black, without a single variation of tinge, and luxuriantly long and thick, and thus dressed remains for the week,-about the usual interval between their laborious process of bathing;- -nor can they conceive the comfort other people find in frequent brushing and combing the hair. Brushes for the head and the teeth have not yet been introduced into Native families, nor is it ever likely they will, unless some other than pigs' bristles can be rendered available by the manufacturers for the present purposes of brushes. *

*

"It must not, however be supposed, that the Natives neglect their teeth: they are the most

particular people living in this respect, as they never eat or drink without washing their mouths before and after meals; and, as a substitute for our tooth-brush, they make a new one every day from the tender branch of a tree or shrub,as the pomegranate, the neem, babool, &c. The fresh-broken twig is bruised and made pliant at the extremity, after the bark or rind is stripped from it; and with this the men preserve the enamelled-looking white teeth which excite the

+ They generally adopt an odd number.

admiration of strangers, and which, though often, envied, I fancy are never surpassed by European ingenuity. i. 102-6.

And now for the Hindostannee "fashions," for which our fair readers, we have no doubt,

will return us their best thanks :

"The ladies' pyjaamahs are formed of rich satin, or cloth gold, goolbudden, or mussheroo (striped washing silks manufactured at Benares), fine chintz,-English manufacture having the preference, silk or cotton ginghams,-in short, all such materials are used for this article of female dress as are of sufficiently firm texture, down to the white calico of the country, suited to the means of the wearer. By the most fashionable females they are worn very full below the knee, and reach to the feet, which are partially covered by the fulness, the extremity finished and the seams are bound with silver riband; a very broad silver riband binds the top of the pyjaamah; this being double has a zarbund (a silk net cord) run through, by which this part of the dress is confined at the waist. The ends of the zarbund are finished with rich tassels of gold and silver, curiously and expressly made for this purpose, which extend below the knees; for full dress, these tassels are rendered magnificent with pearls and jewels.

"One universal shape is adopted in the form of the ungeeah (bodice), which is, however, much varied in the material and ornamental part; some are of gauze or net, muslin, &c., the more transparent in texture the more agreeable to taste, and all are more or less ornamented with spangles and silver trimmings. It is made to fit the bust with great exactness, and to fasten behind with strong cotton cords; the sleeves are very short and tight, and finished with some fanciful embroidery or silver riband. Even the women servants pride themselves on pretty ungeeahs, and all will strive to have a little finery about them, however coarse the material it is formed of may happen to be. They are never removed at night, but continue to be worn a week together, unless its beauty fades earlier, or the ornamental parts tarnish through extreme heat.

"With the ungeeah is worn a transparent courtie (literally translated shirt) of thread net; this covers the waistband of the pyjaamah but does not screen it; the seams and hems are trimmed with silver or gold ribands.

"The deputtah is a useful envelope, and the most graceful part of the whole female costume. In shape and size, a large sheet will convey an idea of the deputtah's dimensions; the quality depends on choice or circumstances; the preference is given to our light English manufacture of leno or muslin for every-day wear by gentlewomen; but on gala days, gold and silver gauze tissues are in great request, as is also fine India muslin manufactured at Decca transparent and soft as the web of the gossamer

-

term, cannot exist; for the wooer never sees his mistress's face till after the marriage has been solemnized. Our author had an opportunity of witnessing, in one case, the whole affair, and she has described minutely, both wooing and matrimony. A lady having been determined upon

"The overture was to be made from the youth's family in the following manner:

"On a silver tray covered with gold brocade and fringed with silver, was laid the youth's pedigree, traced by a neat writer in the Persian character, on richly embossed paper ornamented and emblazoned with gold figures.

"On the tray, with the pedigree, was laid a nuzza, or offering of five gold mohurs, and twenty-one (the lucky number) rupees; a brocaded cover, fringed with silver, was spread over the whole, and this was conveyed by the male agent to the young begum's father. The tray and its contents are retained for ever, if the proposal is accepted; if rejected, the parties return the whole without delay, which is received as a tacit proof that the suitor is rejected: no further explanation is ever given or required." 355-56.

tained; and some splendid presents being The tray in the present instance was resent by the youth to his mistress, including the nuptial ring, the contract was concluded.

Next week we shall give an account of the weddings of the Mussulmauns—to which the former is only an introductory ceremony and bring our article to a conclusion, with some other anecdotes of "life" in Hindostan.

WE shall begin our extracts on this occasion, with another pleasant letter of Mrs. Clive's, and Garrick's answer.

"Mrs. Clive to Mr. Garrick.

"Twickenham, March 22nd, 1778. Pivy; she has been killed by the cruelty of the "There is no such being now in the world as Garrick; but the Clive (thank God) is still alive, and alive like to be, and did not intend to call you to a severe account for your wicked behaviour to her; but, having been told of your good deeds and great achievements, I concluded you was in too much conceit with yourself to listen to my complaints; and would pay no more regard to my remonstrances than the King does to my Lord Mayor's, and therefore the best thing I could do would be to change my anger into compliment and congratulations. I must needs say I admire you (with rest of the world) for your goodness to Miss Moore; the protection you gave her play, I dare say, she was sensible was of the greatest service to her;

"I know the young lady, am acquainted with her; she is extremely agreeable, with a temper as sweet as her voice, and she sings like an angel.

well; happy she must ever be; she has a dis"I hope my dear Mrs. Garrick is perfectly position which will make her so in all situations;

you and I can alter our tempers with the weathercock. We are all here at present but queer; I have had a violent cold and a little fever; Mr. Mastwin is not sick (but sorry); your Jemsey is neither one thing nor the otheralways dreaming of Garrick and the opera.

Everybody is raving against Mr. Sheridan for his supineness; there never was in nature such a contrast as Garrick and Sheridan: what, have you given him up that he creeps so? The country is very dull; we have not twenty people in the village, but still it is better than London. Let me see you-let me hear from you, and tell me all the news you can rap and rend to divert your ever "Affectionate and forgiving,

"C. CLIVE. "Our brother and sister join in compliments to your lady and self."

"Mr. Garrick to Mrs. Clive.

"Hampton, Friday Morning. "My dear Pivy,-Had not the nasty bile, which so often confines me, and has heretofore tormented you, kept me at home, I should have been at your feet three days ago. If your heart (somewhat combustible like my own) has played off all the squibs and rockets which lately occasioned a little cracking and bouncing about me, and can receive again the more gentle and pleasing firework of love and friendship, I will be with you at six this evening to revive, by the help of those spirits in your tea-kettle lamp, that flame which was almost blown out by the flouncing of your petticoat when my name was mentioned.

Tea is a sovereign balm for wounded love. Will you permit me to try the poet's recipe this evening? Can my Pivy know so little of me to think that I prefer the clack of Lords and Ladies to the enjoyment of humour and genius? I reverence most sincerely your friend and neighbour, not because he is the son of one of the first of first ministers, but because he is himself one of the first ministers of literature. In short, your misconception about that fatal champatra (the devil take the word!) has made me so cross about everything that belongs to it, that I curse all squibs, crackers, rockets, airballoons, mines, serpents, and Catherine-wheels, and can think of nothing and wish for nothing but laugh, gig, humour, fun, pun, conundrum, carriwitchet, and Catherine Clive!

"I am ever, my Pivy's most constant
and loving, &c.

"D. GARRICK.
"My wife sends her love, and will attend the

from its delicate texture, and is procured at a great expense, even in India; some deputtahs are formed of gold-worked muslin, English crape, coloured gauze, &c. On ordinary occasions ladies wear them simply bound with silver riband, but for dress they are richly trimmed with embroidery and bullion fringes, which add much to the splendour of the scene, when two or three hundred females are collected together in their assemblies. The deputtah is worn with much original taste on the back of the head, and falls in graceful folds over the person; when standing, it is crossed in front, one end partially screening the figure, the other thrown over the opposite shoulder." i. 106-9.

How it happens, one does not know, but the next ideas in association with that of ladies, are love and marriage. Among the Mussulmauns, however, love, as we use the

into gold; and though she had great merit in dren was a very great happiness to her, for you the writing, still your affection for tragedy childandled it, and fondled it, and then carried it in your own arms to the town to nurse; who behaved so kindly to it, that it run alone in the month. Poor Mr.-what's his name - Mr.

Montgomery! So Cumberland's, I hear, did not meet with such good fortune, for it died with the Rickets.

The ladies have the advantage throughout rally delightful, and there are some pleasant this correspondence- Kitty Clive' is geneletters from the Countess Spencer-light and gossiping.

"The Countess Spencer to Mr. Garrick. Althorp, Nov. 13th, 1778. "Did not you promise and vow, when first we entered into correspondence, that you would never expect me to be punctual, but write on letters or not: I own this reproach is but an from time to time, whether I answered your ungrateful return for a letter that gave me much real satisfaction, for I was seriously alarmed by the accounts I had had of you, and sent Townsend himself twice to your house; but no information from him could be so satisfactory as a letter from yourself, only this should have been

followed in due time by another to tell me you continued well.

"I will promise never to ask you to read when Lord March (that was) is by; but then I will make a wow, which is, never to have him with me, if I can help it, at the same time with you. Who the other person is, I cannot guess.

66

Pray, Mr. Garrick, where are you now? what are you about? and how do you do?these are three questions I must have answered. We shall be in town for the meeting of the Parliament, and hope you will be ready to return with us here as soon as that sets us at liberty. Give my best compliments to Madame, and tell her, if her winter habiliments are not bought, there is a certain scarlet and white silk to be had at Mr. King's, the mercer's, which we have fixed upon as a sort of uniform for the ladies of the Althorp party. I would not have her make it till I see her in town; but if she is so up gracious as to intend to have one, she had better send Mr. King notice, lest there should be a scarcity of the silk.

"The Duke and Duchess and George are all arrived here from their respective camps, and look extremely well. They desire their best compliments to you and Mrs. Garrick.-Pray write soon, and send me some news if there is any.-Adieu!"

The following are not without interest, and the earnest zeal in favour of Hogarth tells well for the heart and understanding of Garrick.

"Mr. Churchill to Mr. Garrick.

My dear Mr. Garrick,-Half drunk-half mad -and quite stripped of all my money, I should be much obliged if you would enclose and send by the bearer five pieces, by way of adding to favours already received by

"Yours sincerely,

"CHARLES CHURCHILL."

"Mr. Garrick to Mr. Churchill.

Dear Churchill-I sent to you last night, but could not hear of you. I cannot conveniently this week obey your commands, but I will the latter end of the next. I have made a purchase that has beggared me; however, should you be greatly pressed, I will strain a point before that time, though I suppose it is the same thing to you, I was in hopes your ghost was laid, or at least your acrimony against the Laureate, for still I cannot get it into my mind that your attack upon him is a justifiable one. "I must intreat of you, by the regard you profess to that me, do not tilt at my friend Hogarth before you see me. You cannot sure be angry at his print? there is surely very harmless, though very entertaining stuff in it. He is a great and original genius: I love him as a man, and reverence him as an artist. I would not, for all the politics and politicians in the universe, that you two should have the least cause of ill-will to each other. I am sure you will not publish against him if you think twice. I am very unhappy at the thoughts of it. Pray, make me quiet as soon as possible, by writing to me at Hampton, or seeing me here.

you

"I am, dear Churchill,
"Your most obedient,
"D. GARRICK.

"At the Rev. Mr. Porter's, Woolwich."

Art makes another appearance in these letters, and the player plays the patron with great kindness.

thing to save myself from perishing, and have no hope but that of disposing of the works I have already done. This, from want of being known and patronized, is out of my power; but with your assistance would be effected with little difficulty. The drawing has met with universal approbation, and Mr. Cipriani (an artist well known) valued it as cheap at a hundred guineas. "Should neither the merit of the drawing nor the circumstances induce any single person to purchase it, it might be done by raffle: were it introduced by such a person as yourself at the Savoir Vivre, I should think it could not fail of success.

"Wherever these requests may appear too importunate and improper, I rely on your goodness to pardon me, who well know that necessity will drive a man to do what otherwise he would scarce dare to think.

"I am, Sir,

"With the utmost gratitude and respect, "Your most obliged and obedient servant, "MAURITIUS LOWE.

"Since I wrote the above, your brother called on me, and gave me the mortifying information of your intention to drop the work that I am engaged in for you, and substitute the above drawing in its place. My being in possession of that drawing is the only reason my creditors have left me so long at liberty, as hoping from it for less than was sufficient to pay them, my the sale of it to get their money: was I to sell fate would be certain to perish in a gaol. My parting with it for less than a hundred guineas instead of essentially serving me, would be my certain ruin. It is my all, and my only resource.

"Three years' illness has thrown me so far behind, that had I the whole hundred it would serve but to stop and pay in part the debts I have been forced to contract. I therefore most earnestly beg, and hope you will continue in your first kind intention of patronizing your portrait, which I will (with your permission) finish as soon as my health will permit, and consider the drawing of Homer as a thing apart; the sale of which, if you can effect, will greatly repair the miseries which illness hath involved me in, and the publishing your portrait may lay the ground

of a future subsistence.

Mechanism of the Heavens. By Mrs. Somerville. London, Murray.

We have universities, a considerable portion of whose vast revenues is annually paid for the support of men of science, and a further portion annually set apart for the printing of books on science. How is it that no English edition of the Méchanique Céleste' has hitherto appeared under the sanction of a learned body and a respectable editor? If other evidence of the decline of science in this country were wanting, a strong case of suspicion might be grounded upon this one fact.+

It is recorded, on the authority of the Edinburgh Review, that some fifteen years ago the British empire did not contain six individuals sufficiently learned in the exact sciences, to read this work; and here we have, at the hands of a lady, the very spirit and essence of its four quarto volumes and supplements, in a single octavo. In the preface to her book, Mrs. Somerville very pro

An English translation of La Place is at present publishing at Boston, in North America, one volume of which has found its way to this country. The translator is Mr. Bowditch. The text is excellently printed, and accompanied by notes.

perly gives us some account of its parentage. Lord Brougham, it appears, was father to the thought, having expressed a wish that its talented authoress would endeavour to introduce the working classes to a knowledge of the doctrines of the Méchanique-a wish which, conceived in the very spirit of that boundless philanthropy for which his Lordship is remarkable, and encouraged by the Society for Diffusing Useful knowledge, is realized in the work before us.

We are convinced that the gratitude of the working classes would be unlimited, could they but appreciate the extent of the obligation. We are not, however, sanguine on this subject. With the very best wishes for the general diffusion of knowledge, we do not expect, for many years, to find the work of La Place much read among the labouring poor; and, indeed, looking at the splendour of the typography of the volume before us, and the patrician name of the bibliopole, we are disposed to think that Mrs. Somerville herself never seriously contemplated an early period

Contrectatus ubi maníbus sordescere vulgi
Cœperit:

There is reserved for it a higher destiny than in our critical imagination, reposing in gracethe hands of the unwashed. We behold it, ful indolence on the table of every confirmed blue of the United Kingdom; its leaves will be cut, its pages turned over, by the fair hands of the very fairest of created beings-and not more fair than wise. On the mysterious symbols which so mysteriously shadow forth its meaning, there will dwell (in beautiful wonder,) the brightest eyes that, since the days of our first mother, have shone, for evil or for good, upon the less fortunate portion of humanity. What a world of delightful prattle will it originate! And then, when the novelty of its youth has passed away, how dignified, how conspicuous a place will be assigned to it in the library!-how perfect, how uninterrupted will be its retirement! A more complete realization of the "otium cum dignitate" of a book cannot be imagined.

Although we have long considered an English translation of La Place the great desideratum in our science, yet we confess that, when the rumour was brought to us that such a work had been undertaken by a lady, we found the information somewhat comfortless-all the chances appeared to us to be against her success. We foresaw, in the promised translation, an occasional echo of that understanding of his doctrines which had established itself in her own mind, and the prospect was discouraging. Our critical discomfort arrived, however, at a maximum, when, on opening the book, we found it blazoned in the preface that, instead of a translation, we had the spirit of La Place, according to Mrs. Somerville, bottled up in an octavo. The gloomiest of our forebodings had never led us to dream that the sacrilege of remodelling the thoughts of La Place would be otherwise than an occasional evil, insinuating itself, as it were, upon the task of the translator: we were utterly unprepared to find it thus openly avowed.

La Place is perfectly competent to convey his meaning in his own words: his style is simple, and yet full of power; his words a fitting vehicle for the sublime truths which they convey; and his method strictly logical. He was far too great a man to deal in

verbiage; and it is our religious belief, that any person capable of understanding (we use the word emphatically) the mechanism of the heavens at all, will understand it best in his own pages. We want his work as fresh from his intellect as it can be brought to us through the medium of a translation; and we like not the task which Mrs. Somerville has undertaken, of giving us his thoughts in language different from that which he thought best calculated to convey them. If her object was to simplify his reasonings, we cannot but applaud the intention; but we have every excuse for not having observed it, inasmuch as the work itself laughs all simplicity to scorn. The following instances of lucid explanation are from the first page: "The activity of matter seems to be a law of the universe, as we know of no particle at rest."

Now this proposition is manifestly true, provided always, that if the particle were at rest, we should know it. But we do not know this ;- -as Mrs. Somerville proceeds immediately to informs us; for

"Were a body absolutely at rest, we could not prove it to be so, because there are no fixed points to which it could be referred."

The argument therefore stands thus: The activity of matter would seem to us to be a law of the universe, provided that, if any particle (of whose existence we were conscious) were at rest, we should know it, and that we know of no such particle at rest. But the particles of matter may be at rest, and we not know it: therefore, the activity of matter does not seem to us to be a law of the universe.

This is the first proposition laid down in Mrs. Somerville's book; it is peculiarly unfortunate. We continue the quotation :

:

Consequently, if only one particle of matter were in existence, it would be impossible to determine whether it were at rest or in motion."

Now, we submit, that the rest or unrest of this solitary particle of matter, would remain equally in doubt, were the world ever so thickly peopled with particles, provided there were no one point known to be at rest. Mrs. Somerville proceeds:

of bodies; and we conceive them in motion, when they occupy successively different situations in space.'

Our readers will perceive that Mrs. Somerville has framed her definition of motion according to that idea of it which La Place has mentioned only to discard. Now, it is to the discussion of this motion, with reference to which Mrs. Somerville and her author are thus at variance, that the whole work is devoted. It appears to us, from a careful consideration of the question, that in this first remarkable sentence of her book, Mrs. Somerville has endeavoured to show the whole universe to be in a state of unrest; in which she has failed, the proof being, as she has shown, impossible. She has then proceeded to establish the incontrovertible proposition, that there is no one point in the universe known to be at rest, because there is no such point known to be at rest. From which proposition, laid down with a naïveté such as few could bring to so grave a discussion, she infers, that, if there were but one particle of matter in the universe, we should not know whether it were at rest or in motion a useful conclusion, which leads her to terminate the discussion of absolute motion, by an admission of absolute ignorance.

On the subject of force, Mrs. Somerville is singularly unintelligible. We are not quite sure whether she admits the existence of a principle passing by that name or not. She talks of force exerted by matter-of matter acting upon matter-and much more in the same strain. At, length, however, her mind grasps a definition; it is this:-" lytically F, WHICH

ABOUT IT."

di

ana

IS ALL WE KNOW

Spirit of the working classes, here is a boon! How admirable is the arrangement of symbols which thus concisely developes to us all that may be known of force. This is in the very spirit of that compression, by which an octavo volume of mathematics is brought into the compass of a threepenny pamphlet, and, at the same time, simplified from the intellectual standard of the well-read student in physics to the mind of a mechanic.

We, for our own parts, protest against Mrs. Somerville's comprehensive admission of ignorance. It seems to us pretty plain, that relative motion cannot exist without absolute motion. Now, of this relative motion, we are allowed to know something; we are not therefore totally ignorant of absolute

motion.

thing more, and then this over again. She afterwards becomes quite diffuse upon the subject, and that so plausibly, that had she not before defined all that was known of force, we should have believed that we were really adding to our knowledge of it. In the fundamental proposition of the parallelogram of forces, Mrs. Somerville has replaced the demonstration of La Place, not by that of Paisson or Pontécoulant, but by an old method now generally admitted to be no proof at all, and to be found in Dr. Wood's Mechanics. We

We open the book casually at page 14, and we learn that the centre of curvature is the intersection of two normals-that "it never varies in the circle and sphere, because the curvature is everywhere the same." Now,

it

appears to us, that the term curvature, having no other than a conventional signification, dependent upon the position of the centre of curvature, it is beginning at the wrong end to argue a permanency of that position in any case from an equality of the curvature. The opposite is the true order of induction.

We find in the next sentence, that r being the radius of curvature," it is evident, that though it may vary from one point to another, it is constant for any one point, where dro.' Now, that for the same point the radius of curvature is the same, and for different points different, we need not have been told, but how these facts involve the inference that dro, escapes us.

The calculus of variations is despatched in a page. In the theory of areas, the beautiful demonstration of La Place is replaced by the method of the Principia. There appears to be few pages of the book which do not offer matter for similar animadversion: the subject will not, however, we fear, be interesting to the generality of our readers; we will therefore stop here.

Before we satisfy our critical conscience by recording an impartial opinion on the merits of a book, about which more than an usual share of nonsense will, we foresee, be talked, we may be allowed to state, that we have risen from the perusal of it with the conviction, that Mrs. Somerville is a person of very extraordinary talents, and that we are possessed with an admiration, all but unlimited, for what we understand to be the extent and variety of her attainments. Having said thus much, we feel ourselves compelled to add, that, in our belief, the work before us has been rashly undertaken, and very imperfectly completed; and that, remarkable as Mrs. Somerville's powers undoubtedly are, she has here assigned to herself a task considerably beyond them.

Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. Vol. II. Quebec, 1831. WHEN this Society was first formed by the Earl of Dalhousie, in 1824, the principal object was to collect and arrange such documents, known to exist in the convents, public offices, and in the possession of individuals, as would throw light, not only on the early history of the settlement, but on the primi

tive state and condition of the Indians. This object, it is acknowledged, has not been attained--but much valuable matter of another

kind has been collected; and the Papers on the Huron Language the interesting Sketches of the Tête de Boule Indians-and the Topographical Notices, with maps of a country hitherto nearly unknown, give value to the present volume. There is also a curious paper, by the Honourable Chief Justice Sewell, on "Dark Days in Canada," from which it appears, that our colonists are occasionally visited with gloom, as well as ourselves, though not from the same cause. In October, 1785, there was a memorable eclipse of this nature:

"About ten o'clock in the morning, black clouds were seen rapidly advancing, and by half after ten it was so dark, that printing of the most usual type could not be read; this lasted for upwards of ten minutes, and was succeeded by a violent gust of wind, with rain, thunder, and lightning, after which the weather became brighter until twelve o'clock, when a second period of so much obscurity took place, that lights became necessary, and were used in all the churches. longer in its duration than the first; a third This period was rather period of obscurity came on at two o'clock, a fourth about three, and a fifth at half-past four o'clock, during which the intensity of the darkness was very great, and is described by