Page images
PDF
EPUB

Then wildly gazing on the burnish'd maily, 'ns put o elf, giards Of the false Trojan fled, noy 3dguso sad i Some dying words she utter'd, and the sound bord Of their last mournful accents rang bainox old Along the sculptured roofs, and Echo sadsproo tad Holong time, with sighs, the distal tonetoprolong dres 10tool '195ro sd nitos na 'iw 'ns eins to eig nob nedt biss 190002 No. It's teiod of 19ddal s has a bad-198 lie ys7919bb913-9911 91 now -10 190 ATEQUBADOUE SONG.997 sted a 19fts lianFrom the Provençal,es adim 97 Teol vergier, sot fuelha d'albeipt. & bong good ALL under bower of the green willow leaves, The fady her lover's last farewell receives, Till the footpage says softly, the dawn he perceives "The dawn! O, Heavens! Is it morning so soon?

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors]

elled laney, ved dauords ohnev, auiraing "By this air, that the scent of the rose would outvie, From my own love so beautiful, noble, and young, Of If the help of his breath I have drunk a sweet sigh, The dawn! O, Heavens! Is it morning so soon?"

rode hajan adt go gaidel Intiquir

O, fair is that maid, as e'er tongue told, and more,
And many the knights that her beauty adore,
But fealty to love in her own heart she swore,-
"The dawn! O, Heavens Is it morning so

dmot Loaf oly Bob No. Fo

Jeub billig box on gift mit brdt A SELF COMMUNINGS

ch 10

[ocr errors]

From the Italian of Michael Angelo, in extreme old age.
Ан, wretched me when I reflect on all d oT
My years long past, and muse on life mispent,
Alas! no day of all I reckon mine
Idle desires vain fears, fallacious hopes,
Wishes and sigh and grief, and pride, and lovel
'Whate'er the manly heart hath felt have been
A part of me they are all number'd 'now!
How far from Good, how far from Truth, am I;
Yet I go step by step towards the grave,
And the shades deepen round me, and the sun A
Becomes to me as night soon sink I powerless.
O my weak soal since thus the forfeit years
Of thy ffhil body steal on hour by hour;
Sinbe even go to earth thy weary load
dosStands prompt to fall, and then thou in another
Thine blynitrite fatherland wilt find thyself;'
Still canst thou all thine ancient impulses,'!
In age and weakness, thus infirm of purpose,
Scourge and resist, rebukese yet still obey?
Alas! thou dostiass God, dehd me thy strength!
From the codiceal Tonought: dejected,
bavy the awnthilate dead go much before thee
Trembles shy downicast soul, Reach thou to me
Thyllingarin, and snatch me soon away
Unto thyself and make me what thou wilt.
paniles dones adt nogue basines
•See Mikadowareng Cholk des Poesies des Troubadours."
Tome sd. About the year 1950s foaib- 2011.

T

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Where first he saw me smile, rond out thi
And fondly knelt C O sweet delightful hour!
Had not misfortune's power
Those days serene n'ercast with deepest night latel
O tree, O fountain bright!

[ocr errors]

All, all, are here, but not the youth I moan,Ah! whither, flowery vales, hath my Sireno flown? ANITARRAM A 40 TAIL 921 DATTMC2

[merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small]
[graphic]
[ocr errors]

Our fleet and anxious hours toodi di adı anxious hours at me at 201 Becomes Eterniti otsact

1 10W 2 o too oon sa 'aidib 27 97 mods Busling & No aos en sil Sell you SPT > 38 98 THEFATTENDE of de vote dot aizli a From the German, IL God send him an unlucky, year, dont a tour Who made of me a Nungo he dito odi And gave to me the mantle black gt er strowad Instead of the snow-white gown, com 200; 20 dine on hit

1977 of o rebasan n

[ocr errors]

No happier joy have Fon earth,
In the cloister, a poor Nun,
Than to weep that e'er I took the oath,
A worldly life to shun,-

[ocr errors][merged small]

ni O'Love, what have I done vodi ai te h non so doom anf qste mid airw At-morning when to churchgoed niesel ebrow And I chant the mass alonegateizzis C90 'ourtzb

And when the Gloria Patri singt albd% The thought of my love sinks me deeper in sin me du bave what have I done? sqe et de el doodt sb ym i smoa beer ssd I 3rd ; Hither my father and mother come, A

[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

To hear thy good report, now borne along
Upon the honest breath of public praise:
We know that with the elder sons of song
In honouring whom thou hast delighted still,
Thy name shall keep its course to after days.
The empty pertness, and the vulgar wrong,
The flippant folly, the malicious will,
Which have assail'd thee, now, or heretofore,
Find, soon or late, their proper meed of shame;
The more thy triumph, and our pride the more,
When witling critics to the world proclaim,
In lead, their own dolt incapacity.
Matter it is of mirthful memory

To think, when thou wert early in the field,
How doughtily small Jeffrey ran at thee
A tilt, and broke a bulrush on thy shield.
And now, a veteran in the lists of fame,

I ween, old Friend! thou art not worse bested,
When, with a maudlin eye and drunken aim,
Dulness hath thrown a jerdan at thy head.
We should be well content to engage in any tournament where
"small Jeffrey" tilts on our side: and, though allowed no other
weapons but a bulrush a-piece, we should not scruple to throw down
the gauntlet to Dr Southey and Charles Lamb, and should hold cir-
selves no true knights if we did not put them into as much bodily
perturbation as ever these "old friends" were in their lives before.

ments, on the Zodiacks of Denderah and Esneh, on the Expedition of Rameses the Great, called Sesostris by Herodotus, and on the Affinity subsisting between the Mythological Systems of Egypt and India. The work will extend to two thick octavo volumes; the first of which will be devoted exclusively to an exposition of the tripar tite system of writing which obtained in ancient Egypt, viz. the hieroglyphical or monumental, the hieratic or that used by the sacred scribes (called hierogrammatists), and the enchorial or demotic, being the form applied to the business of ordinary life; while the second will be occupied solely with the dissertations above-mentioned, the object of which is, to determine some of the most important and interesting questions in ancient history, and particularly to explain, upon a theory entirely new, the remarkable resemblance, so often noticed, and never as yet accounted for, between the superstitions of Egypt, and those of India-an investigation which will be found to lead to some important conclusions respecting the origin of the sacred language of the Hindoos, and its well-known affinity to some of the principal languages and dialects of the West. In the introductory chapter, an historical account will be given of the various steps by which the long-lost key to the graphic system of ancient Egypt was discovered; the respective claims of Dr Young and M. Champollion will be discussed, and the question of priority finally set to rest; an analysis will be given of the system of Spohn, as explained and illustrated by Seyffarth; the theory of Acrological Hieroglyphics proposed by the Chevalier Goulianoff, and subsequently expounded by the very learned author of Asia Polyglotta, will also be examined; and, lastly, the nature and extent of the contributions to Egyptian Literature made by the Baron Silvestre de Lacy and M. Letronne, will be fully detailed. It may be proper to state further, that as none of the works on Egyptian Literature hitherto published have given an adequate account of the enchorial form of writing, and of the contents of such enchorial papyri as have been discovered and deciphered, it is the intention of Dr Browne to devote a considerable portion of his "Elementary Exposition" to this branch of the subject; and also, to exhibit accurate fac-similes of some of the most remarkable of these papyri, accompanied with interlinear translations, both in La-ments, and conforming to the terms of tuition prescribed by the tin and in English. Hieroglyphical, hieratical, and enchorial alphabets, corrected and adjusted conformably to the most recent discoveries, will, moreover, be appended to volume first, for the benefit of such persons as may choose to prosecute independent researches, or to verify the readings and translations hitherto executed by Young, Champollion, Peyron, De Lacy, Salt, and other Egyptian scholars.

Mr Daniel Weir of Greenock is preparing a small volume of poetry, which will consist of sacred and other pieces.

Mr John Murray, F.L.S., is preparing the Natural History of Poisons, in which the author will treat of the Physiology of LifeSecret and Slow Poisons-Epidemic and Endemic Diseases-Contagion-American and Arrow Poisons-Serpent Poisons-Pleasures and Pains of Opium.

An edition of Bombastes Furioso is about to appear, illustrated by eight humorous designs, by George Cruickshank.

Tales of the Cyclades, and other Poems, by H. J. Bradfield, author of "The Athenaiad," is in the press..

Charles Swain, of Manchester, has in the press, the Beauties of the Mind, a Poem, with Lays, Historical and Romantic.

THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, NO. CIL-We have been favoured with an early copy of this Number, but it reached us too late to admit of our giving any decided opinion on its contents till next week. -The papers on Monk's Life of Bentley, and on Colonel Kennedy's Researches into the Origin and Affinity of Languages, appear to be powerfully written. Sadler is attacked and settled in the first article, and we hope will not be meddled with any more. The article on Jefferson is lengthy and instructive-that on the Ministry, brief and piquant.

CHARLES LAMB'S" ALBUM VERSES.”-We expressed our opinion pretty freely of the namby-pambyism of many of these " Verses," and it appears that the London Literary Gazette did the same,-a fact we mention, not because it is any confirmation that we were either right or wrong, but because it has elicited some lines from Robert Southey, which are good in themselves, with the exception of the childish sneer they contain at Jeffrey. We give these lines a place here as a literary curiosity, at the same time stating distinctly, that Dr Southey is not our magnus Apollo in matters of poetical taste; and besides, in the present instance, he is evidently biassed by motives of personal friendship:→

[ocr errors]

EDUCATION IN AMERICA. We have just received the Fifth Annual Report of the Trustees of the High School Society of New York. Some years ago, a number of respectable citizens in that town formed themselves into a joint-stock company for the organization of a High School. They first erected a building to be devoted to the education of males. As some members, however, were doubtful of the possibility of managing such an institution by a Board of Trustees, an offer was accepted from two eminent teachers to take a lease of the school for a term of years, on the understanding that they were to manage the whole concern, receiving the emolnBoard. On subsequently erecting a similar school for females, they ventured to retain the management in their own hands, and sueceeded so well, that upon the death of one of the associate teachers, they obtained from the survivor a surrender of the remainder of his lease. Both of the High Schools are at present entirely under their control. The High School for males is divided into an intreductory, a junior, and a senior departinent. In the first, 160 boys. under the care of a master and three assistants, are engaged in spelling, reading, arithmetic, the elements of geography, declamation, and composition. Oral instruction is likewise given in graminar and the outlines of history. Twice a-week, short lectures on natural history and the useful arts are delivered in a style level to the comprehension of the boys, by the Principal. A system of rewards by tickets is established; and a class of honour formed of the thirty, who, during the month, acquire the greatest number of these tokens. Books are also distributed as premiums at certain periods. In the junior department, there are likewise 160 boys under a master and three assistants. The branches taught are spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, elocution, grammar, history, and geography, The master gives popular lectures on natural history, and physical and political geography. In the senior department, the studies of ancient and modern languages, of mathematics and natural science, are pursued under the Principal and his assistant. A French teacher, educated at Paris, attends the school four days in the week. A native of Spain attends at stated times to teach Spanish to such as are destined for commercial pursuits. There is an extensive and excellent apparatus for illustrating the lectures on natural philosophy. Owing to some accidental circumstance, there are at present only 86 scholars in this part of the establishment. The introductory de partment of the female school is under the charge of a female teacher, with three salaried assistants, and five young ladies who give their assistance on receiving instruction in the higher branches of education after school hours. There are 107 pupils who are taught the alphabet, reading, writing, spelling, the elementary principles of arithmetic, geography, and plain needle-work. In the junior department, 83 pupils are taught spelling, reading, writing, mental and mechanical arithmetic, geography, grammar, history, linear drawing, and needle-work. In the senior department, 86 pupils receive instruction from the Principal, two teachers, and a French lady, in the higher branches of English education, French, drawing, and paint.

TO CHARLES LAMB, ON THE REVIEWAL OF HIS "ALBUM VERSES" ing. In both schools the monitorial system is adopted, and in ad

IN THE LITERARY GAZETTE.

By Robert Southey.

Charles Lamb, to those who know thee justly dear
For rarest genius, and for sterling worth,
Unchanging friendship, warmth of heart sincere,
And wit that never gave an ill thought birth,

Nor ever in its sport infix'd a sting:

To us who have admired and loved thee long,

It is a proud as well as pleasant thing

verting to this circumstance, the report pays a high compliment to Professor Pillans. Both are subjected to the superintendence of a visiting committee, more with a view to report the general state of education in the school, than to ascertain the individual proficiency of the pupils. Schools on a similar plan have been established in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Boston. Kentucky has lately sent two gentlemen to examine the schools in the Western territories, with a view to the establishment of similar institutions in Lexington and Louisville. The High Schools of New York have also become an object of emulation with teachers in different parts of the State.

[blocks in formation]

LITERARY CRITICISM.

Principles of Geology; being an attempt to explain the
former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by reference to
Causes now in operation. By Charles Lyell, Esq.,
F.R.S., For. Sec. to the Geol. Soc. &c. In two vols.
Vol. I. London. Murray. 1830. 8vo.

PRICE 6d.

creation, was in a state of fusion, and has been gradually cooling and acquiring a solid crust; same have maintained that the vestiges of great and terrible catastrophes are visible in every part of the globe, and that it is "so cleft, so marked out for destruction, that it will again, before many years have elapsed, be the subject of other dreadful convulsions. Nay, man himself is said to be of recent origin, and the earth, therefore, with all its forests, its mountains, and its valleys, was, a few centuries ago, only a magnificent theatre, on which hyenas, hippopotami, and mammoths, wandered uncontrolled. Human ingenuity, however, has been sadly puzzled to account for the creation of animate beings, and hence it has been argued, that in the first period of the world cryptogamic plants only existed, and animals were confined to zoophytes, testacea, and a few fish; that in the next epoch plants of a more complex structure appeared, and oviparous reptiles began to abound; and, finally, the terrestrial flora became more diversified and perfect, and then the highest orders of birds and animals were ushered into existence.

GEOLOGY may be pursued both as a practical and a speculative study; and in either case possesses strong claims on the attention of men of science. They who pursue it practically content themselves with examining the structure of the earth, and describing the relations and nature of its various strata; they who study it as a subject of speculation, not only accumulate geological facts, but consider these as the data by which they are to explain the causes that produced them. The disposition to theorize is natural to the human mind; but the secrets of nature are not so easily unveiled, and the theories hazarded by philosophers to explain her operations, are Amidst this motley group of theories, it seemed to be too frequently nothing more than ingenious fictions, which distinctly understood and admitted, that the laws which are suggested by the imagination to supply the knowledge called into existence and governed the world were formerof those truths which lie beyond the reach of their re- ly very different from those which are now in operation. search. This anxiety to explore the arcana of nature, It is, however, to subvert this proposition, that the author and to trace every effect to its proper cause, has indeed of the volume at present under review has brought forgiven rise to many wild and extravagant speculations, ward a strong phalanx of facts and arguments, which, we and has very seriously retarded the progress of Geology. apprehend, the majority of scientific men will, on mature It is much to be regretted that Geologists have so fre- consideration, deem sufficiently convincing. His posiquently mistaken the legitimate object of their science, tion, in contradistinction to the one above laid down, is, They have at one time treated it as a subordinate de- that the changes of the organic and inorganic creation are partment of mineralogy; they have, at another, regarded referable to one uninterrupted succession of physical it merely as a branch of historical geography; and they events, governed by the laws now in operation. The have repeatedly confounded it with attempts to explain agencies to which he refers are water and volcanic fire, the origin of animate beings, and the creation of the which act as antagonising forces, the former labouring world. The latter was a fatal error, for, out of it a phy-incessantly to reduce the inequalities of the earth's sur sico-theological controversy arose, in which theorist opposed theorist, each animated with a zeal to defend the faith of his forefathers, and each influenced only by an uncharitable desire of obtaining victory, when they should have united, in a spirit of true Christian philosophy, their mutual abilities to watch the phenomena of nature, and should have discussed them with minds untainted by superstition, and unfettered by prejudice.

The history of Geology presents us with a melancholy picture of the arrogance of human pretensions on the one hand, and the blind stubbornness of human prejudices on the other. It is only recently that the science has begun to emancipate itself from those palpable inconsistencies which merited even the bitter sarcasms of Voltaire. The geologist, or rather the cosmologist, (for the two persons can be recognised only under one identity,) arrogated to himself the privilege of making, or unmaking, worlds at his own pleasure; and varied, reversed, or sus pended the laws of nature, to suit the exigencies of the particular hypothesis which he engaged to advocate. Accordingly, some have argued that the plane of the ecliptic was at one time coincident with that of the equator, and that there was then a perpetual equinox or unity of the seasons; others have contended that the earth, at its

face, and the latter equally active in restoring its unevenness. Mr Lyell is therefore, to a certain extent, an Huttonian. He commences his volume with an outline of the history of Geological Science, in the course of which he displays much research, and details, with remarkable accuracy, the theories and opinions of the most celebrated Geologists. He next proceeds to consider, the causes that have retarded the progress of Geology. These are, first, The delusions occasioned by erroneous preposses sions concerning the age of the world, and the first creation of animate beings; second, The delusions from erroneous conceptions regarding the duration of past time; and, third, The disadvantages with which we have to contend, from not having it in our power to witness the progress of subterranean changes. Mr Lyell then examines the change which the climate of the northern hemisphere has undergone, and proves, from the remains both of the animal and vegetable kingdom found in strata of different ages, that there has been a great diminution of heat in the latitudes now occupied by Europe, Asia, and America. This vicissitude in climate, he contends, has been caused by variations in the respective geographical positions of land and sea; and he demonstrates, that a remarkable coincidence, in point of time,

exists between the greatest alterations in the climate, and the changes that have taken place in the physical geography of the northern hemisphere. Having illustrated the alterations which the surface of the earth has undergone, by referring to the structure of the Apennines and Alps, he proceeds to consider the theory above adverted to, concerning the progressive developement of organic beings; and though he contends against this hypothesis, he does not maintain that a real departure from the antecedent course of physical events did not take place in the introduction of man. But in reference to

mense rush of water, a boat can pass across the stream with ease. The pool, it is said, into which the cataract is precipitated, being one hundred and seventy feet deep, the descending water sinks down, and forms a wide current, while a superficial eddy carries the upper stratum back towards the main fall. This is not improbable; and we must also suppose that the confluence of two streams, which meet at a considerable angle, tends mutually to neutralize their forces. The bed of the river below the falls is strewed over with huge fragments, which have been hurled down into the abyss. By the continued destruction of the rocks, the falls have, within the last forty years, receded nearly fifty yards, or, in other words, the ravine has been prolonged to that extent. Through this deep chasm the Niagara flows for about seven miles; and then the table land, which is almost on a level with Lake Erie, suddenly sinks down at a town called Quenstown, and the river emerges from the ravine into a plain, which continues to the shores of Lake Ontario. There seems a good foundation for the opinion gradually retrograded from that place to their present pothat the falls were once at Quenstown, and that they have had never exceeded fifty yards in forty years, it must have required nearly ten thousand years for the excavation of the whole ravine; but no probable conjecture can be offered as to the amount of time consumed in such an operation, because the retrograde movement may have been much more rapid when the whole current was confined within a space not exceeding a fourth or fifth of that which the falls now occupy. Should the erosive action not be accelerated in future, it will require upwards of thirty thousand years for the falls to reach Lake Erie, (twenty-five miles distant,) to which they seem destined to arrive, unless some earthquake changes the relative levels of the district."

the creation of every living thing, all human speculations are utterly futile and preposterous. The origin of the minutest insect, nay, of the most humble forest weed, is as much involved in obscurity as the creation of man. The one is not a greater marvel than the other, nor is it possible, by tracing any fancied chain or graduation in the scale of animal beings, or by hazarding any theory of progressive developement, or by pretending to recog-sition, about seven miles distant. If the ratio of recession nise a certain unity in the type of all organized beings, to cast a single ray of light on so profound and solemn a mystery. Fortunately, it is not necessary for the Geologist to enter on this perplexing enquiry; and our author, therefore, proceeds to consider the changes that have taken place in the inorganic world, from the effects of rivers, torrents, springs, tides, and currents, and from the agencies of volcanoes and earthquakes. We shall subjoin some extracts, illustrating the changes that have taken place from the operation of these agents, and thus far elucidating and confirming the proposition embodied in the title-page of the volume before us:—

TRANSPORTING POWER OF RUNNING WATER ILLUSTRATED BY
THE RECENT INUNDATIONS IN SCOTLAND.

Many remarkable illustrations of the power of running water in moving stones and heavy materials were afforded by the late storm and flood, which occurred on the 3d and 4th of August, 1829, in Aberdeenshire and other counties in Scotland. The floods extended almost simultaneously; and in equal violence, over a space of about five thousand square miles, being that part of the north-east of Scotland which would be cut off by two lines drawn from the head of Lochrannoch, one towards Inverness, and another to Stonehaven. All the rivers within that space were flooded, and the destruction of roads, lands, buildings, and crops, along the courses of the streams, was very great. The ele ments during this storm assumed all the characters which mark the tropical hurricanes; the wind blowing in sudden gusts and whirlwinds, the lightning and thunder being such as is rarely witnessed in that climate, and heavy rain falling without intermission. The bridge over the Dee at Ballater consisted of five arches, having, upon the whole, a water-way of two hundred and sixty feet. The bed of the river on which the piers rested was composed of rolled pieces of granite and gneiss. The bridge was built of granite, and had stood uninjured for twenty years; but the different parts were swept away in succession by the flood, and the whole mass of masoury disappeared in the bed of the river. The river Don (observes Mr Farquharson) has upon my own premises forced a mass of four or five hundred tons of stone, many of them two or three hundred pounds weight, up an inclined plane, rising six feet in eight or ten yards; and left them in a rectangular heap about three feet deep on a flat ground, and, singular enough, the heap ends abruptly at its lower extremity. A large stone of three or four tons, which I have known for many years in a deep pool of the river, has been moved about one hundred yards from its place. When we consider how insignificant are the volume and velocity of the rivers and streams in our island, when compared to those of the Alps, and other lofty chains, and how, during the various changes which the levels of different districts have undergone, the various contingencies which give rise to floods, must, in the lapse of ages, be inultiplied, we may easily conceive that the quantity of loose superficial matter distributed over Europe, must be very considerable."

GRADUAL RECESSION OF THE CATARACTS OF NIAGARA.

"The waters which expand at the falls where they are divided by the island, are contracted again, after their union, into a stream not more than one hundred and sixty yards broad. In the narrow channel immediately below this im

RIVERS CHANGING THEIR COURses.

"The Po affords a grand example of the manner in which a great river bears down to the sea the matter poured into it of mountains. The changes gradually effected in the great by a multitude of tributaries descending from lofty chains plain of Northern Italy, since the time of the Republic, been gradually filled up, as those near Placentia, Parina, are very considerable. Extensive lakes and marshes have and Cremona, and many have been drained naturally, by the deepening of the beds of rivers. Deserted riverformerly fell into the Adda, in Lombardy; and the Po itcourses are not unfrequent, as that of Serio Morto, which self has often deviated from its course. Subsequently to the invaded that of Parma; its old channel being still recog year 1390, it deserted part of the territory of Cremona, and nisable, and bearing the name of Po Morto. Bresello is but which is now on the right bank. There is also an old one of the towns which was formerly on the left of the Po; channel of the Po in the territory of Parma, called Po Vecchio, which was abandoned in the twelfth century, when a great number of towns were destroyed. There are records of parish churches, as those of Vicobellignano, Agowards rebuilt at a greater distance from the devouring jolo, and Martignana, having been pulled down, and after.

stream.

sumed its deserted channel, and carried away a great island In the fifteenth century, the main track again re opposite Caselmaggiore. At the end of the same century, it abandoned a second time the bed called Po Vecchio,' carrying away three streams of Caselmaggiore. The friars in the Monastery de Serviti, took the alarm in 1471, demolished their buildings, and reconstructed them at Fontana, whither they had transported the materials. In like manner the Church of S. Rocco was demolished in 1511. In the seventeenth century also, the Po shifted its course lar aberrations, a general system of embankment has been for a mile in the same district. To prevent these and simiadopted; and the Po and Adige, and almost all their tributaries, have been confined between high artificial banks.” EARTHQUAKES REPAIR THE LAND DESTROYED BY AQUEOUS

CAUSES.

"Besides the undulating movements and the opening of fissures, it has been shown that certain parts of the earth's crust, often of considerable area both above and below the level of the sea, have been permanently elevated or depressed; examples of elevation by single earthquakes have occurred to the amount of from one to about twenty-five feet, d of subsidence, from a few inches to about fifty feet, exclusively of those limited tracts, as the forest of Aripao, where a sinking down to the amount of three hundred feet took place. It is evident that the force of subterranean movement does not operate at random, but the same continuous

tracts are agitated again and again; and however inconsiderable may be the operations produced during a period sufficient only for the production of ten or fifteen eruptions of an active volcano, it is obvious, that in the time required for the formation of a lofty cone, composed of thousands of lava currents, shallow seas may be converted into lofty mountains, and low lands into deep seas. The renovating as well as the destroying causes are unceasingly at work-the repair of land being as constant as its decay, and the deepening of seas keeping pace with the formation of shoals. If, in the course of a century, the Ganges, and other great rivers, have carried down to the sea a mass of matter equal to many lofty mountains, we also find that a district in Chili, one hundred thousand square miles in area, has been uplifted to the average height of a foot or more, and the cubic contents of the granitic mass thus added, in a few hours, to the land, may have counterbalanced the loss effected by the aqueous action of many rivers in a century. On the other hand, if the water displaced by fluviatile sediment cause the mean level of the ocean to rise in a slight degree, such subsidences of its bed as that of Cutch in 1819, or St Domingo in 1751, or Jamaica in 1692, may have compensated, by increasing the capacity of the great oceanic basin. No river can push forward its delta without raising the level of the whole ocean, although in an infinitesimal degree; and no lowering can take place in the bed of any part of the ocean without a general sinking of the water even to the antipodes."

66

host of newspapers would be seen strewed up and down all over the country-" sine nomine umbræ!" With the Times time would be no more; all would be dark with the Sun; the Globe would have reached its last day; the Spectator would bite the dust; the Atlas would not sustain its own weight; Bell's Life in London would meet its death at last; the Scotsman would look like a Dutchman; and the Mercury would for a certainty be discovered new lighted on a heaven-kissing hill." Not one would reach the goal; they would all distance each other; and the maimed and disfigured editors would crawl back to their respective places of abode, and shudder at the name of a horse for all the rest of their lives.

66

Such being the present state of matters in the literary, commercial, and fashionable world, Captain Brown's book is well-timed, and may be instrumental in effecting important improvements. It is both an amusing and instructive volume-mainly a compilation no doubt, but a After presenting us judicious and sensible compilation. with a sketch of the early and modern history of the horse, including an historical account of hunting, he proceeds to divide his work into five sections. Section 1st treats of Asiatic horses, including eight different species; section 2d, of African horses,-the Barb, the Nubian, the Dongola, and the Egyptian; section 3d, of European horses, and more particularly the race-horse, the hunter, the hackney or roadster, the charger, the coach-horse, the Galloway, the Highland pony, and the horses of the different European countries; section 4th, of American horses; and section 5th, of what our author, somewhat obscurely, calls the “allied species," comprehending the Dziggtai, the Ass, the Mule, the Zebra, and the Quagga. To all the matter contained in these different chapters are added, a table of the terms used in describing a horse, an anatomical description of the skeleton of the horse, and a copious index. A great number of anecdotes, illustrative of the habits of the horse, are scattered through the book, and altogether the volume is not inferior in interest to the Captain's previous work, constructed in a simi

We have thus given our readers an outline of the lead ing object and nature of Mr Lyell's “ Principles of Geology;" but it is almost impossible to analyse completely, within the limits of this Journal, the condensed mass of information which the volume contains. There are certain points in which we differ from him; but we forbear to enter into any discussion concerning these, because they are of minor consequence, when compared with the important and valuable researches which constitute the more striking features of the work. We shall look with anxiety for the second volume, in which we expect to see the views of the author reduced to more practical application; and, in the meantime, hesitate not to recommend very cordially these "Principles of Geology" to the attention of scientific men. The work is in many parts writ-lar style, on Dogs. ten with considerable eloquence, and is, in every respect, creditable to the author, who holds the responsible office of Foreign Secretary to the Geological Society.

Biographical Sketches and Authentic Anecdotes of Horses, and the Allied Species. Illustrated by Portraits, on Steel, of celebrated and remarkable Horses. By Capt. Thomas Brown, F. L. S. &c. &c. Edinburgh. Daniel Lizars. 1830. 12mo. Pp. 580.

MULTITUDES talk about horses every day of their lives who are most profoundly ignorant of the subject. We are not aware that there are more than a dozen good riders in all Scotland. As for literary persons,-poets, writers in periodicals, and others who frequently affect to delight in the quadrupedante sonitu, and on paper "witch the world with noble horsemanship," they are, without an exception, the most miserable cadgers who ever put an in-kneed leg across a saddle, and after an inexpressible jolting of three miles and a half, felt the most honourable portion of their whole corporation in a state more excruciating than if it had endured a blister of Spanish flies for a week. We should like much to see a convocation of editors— those universally wise men, who, according to their own story, are up to every thing-riding a steeple chase. Good Lord! what a stramash there would be! What pulling, and kicking, and tumbling, and "legs and arms all walloping, walloping!" The Westminster Review would be in one ditch, and the Quarterly in another; the New Monthly Magazine would be plunging desperately half way over a three-barred gate, and Blackwood, like a second John Gilpin, would be holding on for his very life by neck and mane; the Edinburgh Review would break down at the first brush, and Fraser would cut a more woeful figure than Billy Button going to Brentford. Then what a

We should have been glad, had time or space allowed, to have followed our author through many of the amu sing details with which he presents us, and, by the acuteness of our occasional remarks, to have made him believe, in spite of himself, that we alone, of all the editors enumerated above, are fit to appear either on the road, the hunting-field, or the race course. But as we cannot have this pleasure at present, we must content ourselves with one or two detached extracts, which we have catered with care for the entertainment of our readers. Our sporting friends will have no objection that we begin with the following passage:

THE ENGLISH versus THE INDIAN RACE-HORSE.

"Horse-racing is much practised in India, but principally with Arabian coursers; the other horses, as I have above noticed, being unable to compete with them. Lately, however, the celebrated race-horse Recruit, by Whalebone, formerly Lord Exeter's, was taken out to Čalcutta, and was matched against Pyramus, the best Arabian of the day on the Bengal side of India. As this race settles, in some measure, a long-disputed point regarding the speed of the English race-horse and the Arabian, I shall give an account of it.

"The race took place in January 1829, over the Barrackpore course. It was for a comparatively trifling sum-one hundred gold mohars, equivalent to one hundred and sixty pounds sterling. The distance was two miles, give-andtake weights, fourteen hands to carry nine stone, and the Arabian to take off seven pounds. The weights were as follows:

"The Honourable Colonel Finch's E. b. h. Recruit, ten

stone, twelve pounds, four ounces.

"Mr Grant's A. gr. b. Pyramus, eight stone, three

pounds, eight ounces.

"The horses started well together, and ran the first quarter of a mile neck and neck; but, however doubtful the issue might have been before starting, the lengthy stride of Recruit, and the evident exertions of Pyramus, as they

« PreviousContinue »