The first that was brought to England was about the beginning of last century; a few planks having been sent to Dr Gibbons of London, by a brother, who was a West India captain. The Doctor was erecting a house in King Street, Covent-Garden, and gave the timber to the workmen, who rejected it as being too hard. The Doctor's cabinet-maker, named Wollaston, was employed to make a candle-box of it, and as he was sawing up the plank, he also complained of the hardness of the timber. But when the candle-box was finished, it outshone in beauty all the Doctor's other furniture, and became an object of curiosity and exhibition. The wood was then taken into favour; Dr Gibbons had a bureau made of it, and the Duchess of Buckingham another; and the despised mahogany now became a prominent article of luxury, and, at the same time, raised the fortunes of the cabinet-maker, by whom it had been at first so little regarded. Mahogany is now in universal use for furniture, from the common tables of a village-inn to the splendid cabinets of a regal palace. Indeed, so universal is the demand for it, that a very nice selection is rendered necessary for those articles which are costly and fashionable. A short time ago, Messrs Broadwood, the celebrated pianoforte-makers, gave the enormous sum of £3000 for three logs of mahogany. These logs, the produce of one tree, were each about 15 feet long and 38 inches wide. They were cut into veneers of eight to an inch. The wood was peculiarly beautiful, and, when polished, reflected the light in the most varied manner, like the surface of a crystal. Lib. of Entertaining Knowledge. ADVANTAGES AND POWER OF STEAM. SINCE the invention of printing the power of man to extend knowledge has been immensely increased; but, within the last thirty years, a prodigious augmentation has taken place even in this power. The steam-press which now works the Times newspaper prints four thousand sheets per hour, or more than a sheet per second. It may be clearly proved, that to write by hand the num ber published by the Times daily, would require a million and a half scribes; yet they are printed with ease by two dozen men. Such is the effect of a skilful division of labour, that a debate in the House of Commons of eight or ten hours' length, may be reported, printed, and published, so as to be read in London within three or four hours of its close. Steam works wonders on sea as well as on land. Since steam-vessels were employed, intercourse has been vastly extended, not only between all parts of the British islands, but between the United States and the countries of Europe. By the steam-packets we pass easily, and with certainty, in a single night from Liverpool to Dublin. They operate as bridges, connecting the sister island with England. Calms do not retard their flight over the waves; adverse tides and winds, though they somewhat impede, cannot arrest their progress. Instinct with power, "they walk the waters like a thing of life.” By their aid the voyage to India will probably be made ere long almost as easy an enterprise as a journey from London to Scotland was a century ago.-Liverpool Times. THE age in which we live may be called the mechanical age. It is the age which, with its whole might, teaches and practises the art of adapting means to ends. Nothing is now done directly, or by hand; all is by rule and contrivance. For the simplest operation, some help is in readiness. Our old modes of exertion are all thrown aside. On every hand the living artisan is driven from his workshop to make room for a speedier inanimate The shuttle drops from the fingers of the weaver, and falls into iron fingers that drive it faster. The sailor furls his sail, and lays down his oar, and bids a strong, unwearied servant, on vaporous wings, bear him through the waters. Even the horse is stripped of his harness, and finds a fleet fire-horse yoked in his stead. Nay, we have an artist that hatches chickens by steam. move mountains, and make seas our smooth highway. Nothing can resist us. We war with rude nature, and, one. We re by our resistless engines, come off always victorious, and loaded with spoils. Edinburgh Review. A BOOK. I'm a strange contradiction; I'm new and I'm old, I've no flesh, and no bone, yet I'm covered with skin; I'm English, I'm German, I'm French, and I'm Dutch; I often die soon, though I sometimes live ages, And no monarch alive has so many pages. HANNAH MORE. THE BAROMETER. THE barometer or weather-glass shows us, strictly speaking, only the weight of the air; but as the weight of the air depends greatly upon the quantity of moisture that is in it, and as the state of the air in regard to moisture determines in a great measure the state of the weatherthis instrument is not incorrectly described and employed as a weather-glass. The heavier the air is, the higher does the quicksilver rise in the barometrical tube; and as the air is heaviest in clear weather, the higher the degree of the scale at which the mercury stands, the greater is the probability of fine weather. The great practical value of this instrument to the farmer, whose operations are so much regulated by the weather, is obvious. It is of use by aiding and correcting his prognostications of the weather, drawn from other sources. It is of equal value to the traveller, who must guide his motions in a great measure according to its intimations. But its great use as a weather-glass is to the mariner, who roams over the whole ocean under skies and climates altogether new to him. The watchful captain of the present day, trusting to its warnings, is often enabled to take in sail and to make ready for the storm, in cases where, in former times, the dread ful visitation would have fallen upon him unprepared. Dr Arnott relates a striking instance of this which occurred to himself : "It was," says he, "in a southern latitude. The sun had just set with placid appearance, after a beautiful afternoon, and the usual mirth of the evening watch was proceeding, when the captain's order came to prepare with all haste for a storm. The barometer had begun to fall with appalling rapidity. As yet, the old sailors had not perceived even a threatening in the sky, and they were surprised at the extent and hurry of the preparations: but the required measures were not completed, when a more awful hurricane burst upon them than the most experienced had ever braved. Nothing could withstand it ; the sails, already furled and closely bound to the yards, were riven away in tatters; even the bare yards and masts were in great part disabled; and at one time the whole rigging had nearly fallen by the board. Such, for a few hours, was the mingled roar of the hurricane above, of the waves around, and of the incessant peals of thunder, that no human voice could be heard, and, amidst the general consternation, even the trumpet sounded in vain. In that awful night, but for the little tube of mercury which had given the warning, neither the extraordinary strength of the noble ship, nor the skill and energies of the commander, would have saved one man to tell the tale. On the following morning the wind was again at rest, but the ship lay upon the yet heaving waves an unsightly wreck.” THE CAST-AWAY SHIP. HER mighty sails the breezes swell, Oh! she was never heard of more! When, on her wide and trackless path Say, sank she 'mid the blending wrath Vain guesses all! Her destiny Is dark!-she ne'er was heard of more! The moon hath twelve times changed her form, And though we know that all is o'er, Oh! were her tale of sorrow known, By which her doom we may explore; We only know-she sailed away, And ne'er was seen nor heard of more! JOHN MALCOLM. NESTS OF SOLITARY WASPS. Most persons have more or less acquaintance with the hives of the social species of bees and wasps; but the nests constructed by the solitary species are not less worthy of notice, nor less remarkable for displays of ingenuity and skill. We admire the social bees labouring together for one common end, in the same way that we look with delight upon the great division of labour in a well-ordered manufactory. As in a cotton-mill, some attend to the carding of the raw material, some to its formation into single threads, some to the gathering these threads upon spindles, others to the union of many threads. into one; so do we view with delight and wonder the successive steps by which the hive-bees bring their beautiful work to its completion, striving, by individual efforts, to accomplish their general task, never impeding each other by useless assistance, each taking a particular 6 |