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object. They create a taste for knowledge, which will remain with the pupils through life. It will be years before the fruits of the work are seen; but while many men of eminence have acknowledged themselves greatly indebted to the instruction received in charitable institutions, we may yet hear men declaring that they owe their distinction to the work which they began while ragged boys in a 'Ragged School.'

THE ART-UNION.

THAT the present is a great and satisfactory epoch in the progress of the British nation, can hardly be doubted. Former times had their men, but now we have a general diffusion of the things which made the men illustrious. The age has neither a Shakspeare nor a Milton, but the capacity to apprehend and appreciate both is far more common than in their own day. We no longer write, perhaps, like the giant authors of old, for distant generations: genius no longer turns away, sick and indignant, from the unconsciousness around, to fix its longing gaze on futurity. Our great living writers are the exponents of their own time, and a man who has anything to say worth the hearing, is sure to find a numerous and intelligent audience.

architecture we shall speak with reference only to that which is observable in street improvements; particular buildings indicate alone the talent of some eminent architect-a point we are not discussing; but it is from general results we must deduce the proof of general progress. Judging by this, then, who can deny that, within the last twenty years, greater general progress has been made than in a century prior to that date? The buildings in the new streets of the metropolis exhibit at intervals a well-designed and richly-decorated mass, or are marked with breadth and simplicity, combined with much novelty and appropriate treatment. Many houses recently erected also, such as those at Kensington-although at times reminding us of some delineated by Durand-have at least this merit, that, if not entirely original, they possess grandeur, and are effective. Not the least cheering in this branch of art, too, is the fact, that almost all our recent public buildings, of which opinion has favourably spoken, are from designs of artists comparatively unknown.' In painting, we are declared to rival fairly the French and German schools; many of our artists exhibiting a vigorous and pure imagination, great knowledge of character, skill in its delineation, aptitude to represent the dramatic incidents of life with truth, and domestic scenes with feeling.' Sculpture is said to be chiefly resigned to busts;' but surely some mention might have been made of the works, few as they may be, which give its character in this department to the time. In engraving, English artists occupy confessedly a very high place.' But they are unable to rival the productions of the continental engravers of the works of the great Italian masters, just as in painting we fall short of the genius of the latter themselves.

The advance of the national mind is satisfactory, not so much from its rapidity, as from its consistency. Although some departments of knowledge may be less cultivated than others, we are now a generally informed and enlightened people; and although the direct tendency of the age may be towards the useful and practical, we are far from neglecting the beautiful and ideal. This indeed may almost be said to involve a distinction without a difference; for the influence of both upon the minds and moral destinies of men is pretty nearly The prospects of art are declared to be highly satisalike. At all events, luxury appears to succeed comfort factory. We know it is the custom to assert of the by a natural law, and the cultivation of taste to grow aristocracy and the upper classes, that art among them out of the abundance of coarser acquisitions. The is considered only as the appanage of rank and wealth; cotton manufacture, for instance, was an achievement but it is not so. Knowledge and taste are combined, of the practical spirit of the age. It gave us cheap among the majority of these classes, with a liberal apclothing, but it did not stop there. Possessing cheappreciation of the artist. Neither is this a mere fashionclothing, we set to work to improve and adorn it; till what was at first a source of mere animal comfort, became a fountain of taste and elegance.

If the triumphs of art do not in our day keep pace with the triumphs of science, there is at least a feeling for the beautiful diffused much more widely among the people than at any former period of the national progress; and as sound principles of taste are all-important in a state of movement like ours, we are proportionably pleased with the success of a journal devoted to the task of affording the public' the means of justly ascertaining and estimating the progress of art.' The ArtUnion is now too well known to require any detail of its objects; but we may inform such of our readers as are not already acquainted with it, that they will find in its pages every kind of information concerning art and artists, both in this country and abroad, and that the work takes its name from the alliance which has of comparatively late years been established between the fine and useful arts. The chief literary feature of the part commencing the New-Year, is a statement of the Prospects of British Art; in which we are well pleased to find just discredit thrown upon government patronage, and the best influence declared to be that of educated example acting upon a sensitive, generally educated people.'

'Exhibitions of the fine arts,' says our author, and expositions of the manufacturing and mechanical arts, are now common to all our large towns; and we defy the greatest sceptic to doubt that there is real progress. In decorative art there has been also a great advance. To the advantages derived from science as applied to the arts, and of which we have almost daily evidence, it is unnecessary for us to do more than allude. Of

*A Monthly Journal, 4to., with illustrations. Published by Chapman and Hall, London.

able, but a truly intellectual feeling. Thus we find in the manufacturing districts manifest signs of improvement-in design, in the chemical knowledge of colour, the laws of its employment, greater novelty and correctness of form; and that works of the commonest kind are now conducted upon principles which produce the highest. That an improved feeling does exist, we are proud to acknowledge, and far more to admit and to combine with it that which is observable among the middle and lower classes. There is now hardly a house you enter in which some engraving at least is not found, after an English artist, that, but two generations ago, would have been held as only suited to the palace. No love of art! Go into the cottages of the poor, and see how art has displaced the prints of the "Twelve Knights," the titular "St George and very Apocryphal Dragon," the "Golden Game of Goose," and tawdry dramatic incidents from the stores of Messrs Belch and Langley, by Scripture illustrations, and cheap reproductions of works of a good class. No love of art! Why, art has descended to teaboards, and refines even the productions of papier mâché. We repeat again, let our readers but refer to the pages of the "Art-Union' for the last year; it will guarantee our assertion of the present progress, and our hope of the future prospects of art as founded upon that progress. Yes, great as has been the extension of literature, will be that also of art; for art appeals to the same faculties of the mind for its appreciation. Like literature, it has its origin in fancy and the imagination, and is equally the type and relater of moral and historic truth.'

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This part, like many former portions of the 'ArtUnion,' contains numerous specimens of engraving of very high merit. A portrait of the Queen, by H. Robinson, after a miniature by R. Thorburn, is the frontispiece, and will probably be considered the best

resemblance extant.

A fairy tale by Mrs S. C. Hall,

which in itself is one of the chief attractions, is exquisitely illustrated in wood; and, upon the whole, in estimating the prospects of British art, we ought to include among the best evidences on the favourable side, the enlarged size, increased merit, and consequently enhanced price, of the Art-Union.' We may conclude our notice by extracting the following passages on house decoration :—

'When Louis, the reigning sovereign of Bavaria, commanded the construction of a new palace, he said to his architect, "I desire to build a palace which shall be 'All Art;' from the architecture to the commonest articles, everything shall be designed by my best artists; nothing shall be copied; I will have no upholstery." This project, worthy of a high and enlightened mind, has been fully carried out; and the new palace, externally and internally, is literally a monument of artistic invention. A grand idea is completed! From the saloon of entrance into the throne-room, a gradation of decoration is observed; beginning by simple forms and modest colours, up to the luxuriance of gilding, ornament, and vivid hues.

""I will have no looking-glasses to usurp the places I can occupy with pictures," was another of the sovereign's commands in the furnishing of his palace of art. Thus everything is in perfect harmony of style: whatever the style may be, it is strictly adopted; not an object violates the unity of thought.

In the most magnificent mansions of England this completeness has scarcely ever been attained; there is always some incongruous piece of furniture, some illpatterned carpet, badly -designed curtain cornice, or ugly gilt frame. We are so much accustomed to these "upholsteries," that we become blinded to their anomalies, by valuing them only at the great sums they

have cost.

'Even in the architectural composition of the interior of the principal rooms of such mansions, what "monstrosities" of proportion, jumblings of character, and violations of forms are displayed. Lanky pilasters and column patchwork cornices, and clumsily massive chimney-pieces of the purest Carrara marble, carved into repulsive forms, without an atom of skill, much less of design!

water have additionally both a defence of oil on the surface
of the feathers, and the interstices of the ordinary plumage
filled with delicate down-a bad conductor, which abounds
particularly on the breast, as it, in swimming, first meets
Then there are animals with
and divides the cold wave.
warm blood which live in the water-for example, the
whale, seal, and walrus; but neither hair nor feathers
oiled would have been a fit clothing for them; they ac-
cordingly derive protection from the cold water by the
enormous amount of blubber or fat which surrounds their
bodies; it is a non-conductor.-Arnot.

THE DAISY AND THE STAR.

THE modest daisy on the hill,
That drinks of morning dew its fill,
And spreads its leaflets to the light,
And then in quiet meek repose
Its crimson coronet doth close
Beneath the shade of night,
Lives calmly out its little day,
Then fades unseen away.
And yonder shining star,
That dwells in heaven afar,
Whose trembling ray no more is seen,
Lost in the myriad orbs of light
That spangle o'er the veil of night,
Than is the daisy on the green,
Will but live out a longer day,
Then pass unseen away.

SOLAR HEAT.

C. WITCOMB.

In all our excursions over the surface of the globe, innumerable objects excite our admiration, and contribute to inspire delight; but whether our gratitude is awakened by the verdure of the earth, the lustre of the waters, or the freshness of the air, it is to the beneficial agency of heat, under Providence, that we are indebted to them all. Without the presence and effects of heat, the earth would be an impenetrable rock, incapable of supporting animal or vegetable life; the waters would be for ever deprived of their fluidity and motion, and the air of its elasticity beautifies all nature; its influence is absolutely necessary and utility together. Heat animates, invigorates, and to enable plants to grow, put forth their flowers, and perfect their fruit; it is closely connected with the powers of 'It is true a brighter dawn gently opens upon us, and life, since animated beings lose their vitality when heat is the interiors of our houses are gradually becoming withdrawn. Such is the universal influence of this powercovered with designed ornament. Hope is, however, ful agent in the kingdoms of nature; nor is this influence chilled by the certainty that much of good intention diminished in the provinces of art. It is with the aid of will be wasted by its being consigned to incapable heat that rocks are rent, and the hidden treasures of the hands. It is not here our province, nor does it suit our earth obtained; matter is modified in countless ways by present purpose, to investigate all the bearings where- its agency, and rendered subservient to the uses of man; fore, or the under-current of influences which makes furnishing him with useful and appropriate implements, attempts sickly and feeble. All comment on the sub-food, needful and effectual shelter.-Treatise on Heat. warm and ornamental clothing, wholesome and delicious ject may be condensed into a sentence-" Employ an artist to design, and an upholsterer to execute." You cannot go into a shop and order works of art as you would a portmanteau. Study, cultivation, learning, and talent are wanting; they form no part of the stock in trade of the stone mason, the carpenter, or the upholsterer. If, therefore, we would make our houses palaces of art, let us impress upon our minds the noble "order" of the monarch of Bavaria-" I will have all art-I will have no upholstery."

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NATURAL CLOTHING.

The clothing which grows from the bodies of animals is always suitable in quality and quantity to the climate and season under which they live. In hot climates the coat of quadrupeds is short and thin, but it thickens with increasing latitudes, and yields soft and abundant fleeces. At the poles it is externally shaggy and coarse, internally shorter and fine, as in the skin of the arctic bear. How defensive is the fur of amphibious animals; the beaver for example! How abundant and smooth upon birds as feathers, shutting up the heat of their warm blood, and opposing no resistance to the air through which they fly! The birds of very cold regions have plumage almost as bulky as their bodies; and those which live much in the

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CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.

No. 163. NEW SERIES.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1847.

PLAYFUL IMPOSTURES. FICTION is one of the great elements of life. We cannot constantly present ourselves as exactly what we are. There is an incessant craving to be something else; to go out of ourselves, for however short a space, or to whatever little apparent purpose or end. We see this in the sports of children, where, by the mere prompting of the instinctive mind, each readily and easily assumes and sustains a feigned character, and all becomes a masquerade. We see it in the social meetings of the adult, where each sets himself to be something a little more refined and pleasant than he is in his common moments, and the whole are gratified by the temporary sinking of the homely reality. It is not affectation, it is not an aping of superiority, which is here concerned; it is merely a tendency to seek a relief and a pleasure in the exchange of the actual for the ideal. An immense proportion of the innocent pleasures of life arises from this source: jokes, badinage, raillery, are various forms of it, which, though sometimes carried to a bad excess, are all excellent in moderation, and under the government of good feeling. I thoroughly believe that life would be a desert, but for the little fictions thus mixed up with it; which everybody understands, and which therefore do nobody any harm.

It is necessary, however, to keep a rigid watch upon this disposition, lest it pass beyond the line of innocence. And the ethics of fun is well worthy of serious consideration. Wherever a jest has the least chance of hurting any one's feelings, much more wherever it tends to damage of a more practical kind, it ought of course to be suppressed. Nothing will justify its being carried forward, unless its whole consequences can be foreseen, and these are clearly limited to a little passing merriment.

In some places, and in certain little societies, there sometimes reigns a habit of what is variously called hoaxing, trotting, and selling; that is to say, practising upon the faith of individuals by stories possessed of no real foundation, or leading them into expectations which are to end in ludicrous disappointment. It is an extension of April fooling; and though certainly we can suppose more dignified amusements, yet if all are willing to take and give in this way, and nothing but a langh ever accrues, no one can well find fault with the system. The handsome little town of - lives, as far as mirth is concerned, upon jests of this kind, and broad grins have as yet been the only consequence. When I was last there, the predominant drollery was a dinner which had been given by a little party of wags to one of their set, noted for his numberless successes in quizzery, the occasion being his completing a small villa for his own residence. He had been led to understand

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that his friends were to crown the feast by presenting him with a piece of plate: and they were true to their word; but it was a brass-plate for his door, containing a name for the house, in which the familiar name of the owner bore a part! Now, if a little joke of this kind can enliven the natural dulness of a country town for a week, and the subject of it laugh among the loudest, and even extend the fun, as this gentleman did, by putting the door-plate to its proper use, there is certainly some good done, and no harm. Another case.

On a misty January morning I found myself seated at the breakfast table of my kind-hearted friend Sir Hugh Melford, along with two other guests, and the ladies of the family. It was the morning of an appointed shooting party, and a third guest was expected. 'Pray,' said I to Miss Selina Melford, who is the other gentleman that Sir Hugh expects to make up his set?'

'Oh, it is John Stirling, eldest son of our neighbour Sir Samuel Stirling; an excellent person, whom we all like very much. We lately played him an amusing trick.'

'What was that?'

'Why, the last time he came here to shoot, we dressed up a female figure, which we planted at table, with its back to the light; and when he arrived, we asked him to sit next to that lady, and introduced him to her. He bowed, and made a few remarks, without discovering anything but that she was rather stiff in her manners. We had such fun about it afterwards!'

At this moment Mr Stirling was announced, and Sir Hugh was asked out for a moment to see him. Presently our host returned, ushering in Mr Stirling, and introducing as his companion and friend a remarkably handsome mustached youth, whose name was given as Count de Leudher, an officer in the Austrian service. Greetings passed between Mr Stirling and the ladies, and the count made his bow, but unfortunately, from ignorance of the language, was unable to pay his respects in words. Very soon we were all once more seated, and breakfast went on right mirthfully, the ladies evidently being greatly interested about the stranger.

So unconscious did he in the meantime appear to be of the chat going on around him, that very handsome and interesting!' 'his melancholy air reminds one of Thaddeus of Warsaw,' and other sufficiently broad compliments, passed freely among the ladies, in implicit reliance upon his inability to understand their words.

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coming to visit them, had met in the coach a fine-looking youth, whom she took for a foreign count at least, if not a prince, and who had alighted at the Stirlingfield gate. He had, she said, eyes like the dove, hair like the raven, and a look that might command an army They had had a great deal of talk on this subject; and the curiosity of the Misses Melford was only increased when Fanny Bloomfield, going soon after to Stirlingfield, wrote to them that the foreigner was staying therethat he was a count, belonging to the Austrian service -and the most fascinating person she had ever met. 'Really,' declared all the ladies with one consent, 'Fanny has gone not a bit beyond the truth.' I remarked a slight smile play round the mustache of his countship at this remark, but readily supposed that he might understand a few words of English, although unable to speak it.

I finished breakfast, without for a moment dreaming that the count was anything but a count, or Mr Stirling anything but the downright good-natured man he appeared to be; but in the drawing-room, to which we soon after adjourned, Sir Hugh took an opportunity of telling me how the case really stood. The stranger was, although in the Austrian service, a Briton, and a cousin of Mr Stirling-in fact, the son of another gentleman of the neighbourhood-and the affair was an attempt on the part of Mr Stirling to revenge the trick lately put upon him by the Misses Melford. Oh, very well,' said I, let the joke be carried on by all means. For my part I shall enjoy it, if it were for nothing else but as an overthrow to my friend Miss Melford, who tells me, at every difference we have about matters of fact, that she is always right, and therefore I must be wrong.' That's right,' quoth Sir Hugh. It will be a good joke indeed if she be taken in. Let us by all means keep it up till after dinner if possible.'

for dinner, when the impression formerly produced by the count was, if possible, deepened, as he now appeared in an attire that set off his person to the best advantage. Before this, we had settled upon the procedure deemed right that our hostess, Sir Hugh's mother, to be observed in the dining-room, and it had also been should be let into the jest. I may remark, as a proof of the success of the deception, that this lady had some difficulty in believing us when we undeceived her, fearing that the only trick lay in this new direction. The count, as presumably the person of greatest consideration present, was accorded the honour of leading out the lady of the house. Dinner passed without his saying more than a few words in German to Mr Stirling. Some attempts were made by one or two to make a conversation in French; but unluckily they were all failures. At length the servants left the room, and the denouement of the plot took place in the manner agreed

upon.

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Mr Stirling,' said I very formally, did your friend ever meet a person who is never wrong? I wish you would tell him that Miss Melford says she is never wrong, never deceived, and never makes mistakes.' She looked a little queer at my pointing her out to notice in this manner, and her puzzlement increased when she saw smiles on the faces of all but the ladies present.

Nevertheless she answered, laughing, Well, it is the case. Somehow I am never wrong. I am sometimes almost distressed at my own correctness, as if it were what a human being ought not to be able to boast of." 'But do you think you could not be deceived in anything.'

'No-I think not. I never am deceived, and therefore never could be.'

'Very well,' said I to Mr Stirling, 'you hear it from her own mouth. I beg you will tell it all to your friend in his own language.'

hard, and then Sir Hugh rose up.
Mr Stirling did so in a few words; the count smiled

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this account; but I trust he will believe that this is matter of regret to us, and that, as far as good-will can go, we are anxious to make it up to him. Without further preamble, I propose the health of Captain John M'Evan!'

My friends,' said he, I feel impelled on this occasion to resort to an old fashion, and ask you to join me The shooting party now set out with its proper train in drinking the health of a gentleman whom it has of attendants, and myself as a civilian attaché; and for given my mother and myself much pleasure to see here four hours we rambled along the high grounds in quest to-day. I am sorry he does not understand our lanof bares, pheasants, and moorfowl. What success my guage, but I hope he will do so by the time he returns friends met with it is of no use to rehearse; neither is make us wish for a repetition of his visit. I am afraid to our neighbourhood; though this is not necessary to it important that I should specify the various adven-his day with us has been a somewhat stupid one on tures and misadventures of the party. Suffice it, that we met in a little lodge to lunch at two o'clock, and during the repast, could speak of nothing but the delusion now in progress, which, however, we all feared would not hold out till dinner, as there were ten chances to one that some communications among servants would betray the real quality of the count. By and by shooting was resumed, and I, after accompanying the party a little longer, proceeded to the castle, in order to write some letters before dinner. I entered the drawing-room, where the ladies sat with a mind and ears prepared for all imaginable clamours; but behold, all was safe. They were innocently telling Lord Montresor, who had come upon a morning call, what a delightful young German count had arrived from Stirlingfield that morning; that he spoke only German, not a word of English, -not even French. They hoped he was, like all Germans, musical, and that would help to make the dinner pass pleasantly,' and so forth.

I felt thankful, and joined in the conversation. His lordship afterwards met the shooting party, was let into the secret, and invited to stay to see it developed at dinner, but, to his great regret, was under a prior engagement, so that he only could indulge in a hearty laugh at the affair impending over his fair friends, and then leave the party to their own enjoyments.

At seven, the party assembled in the drawing-room

The familiarity of the name now announced broke the tremendous; that the ladies looked a thousand displot at once. It is needless to say the sensation was comfitures; and that the rest of the company, bursting through all rule, raised a shout of merriment which penetrated to the servants' hall, where it was at first mistaken for the alarm at some direful accident.

It is but fair to the ladies to say that, after the first moment, they entered heartily into the humour of the affair; so here, too, some good accrued, and no harm.

When, as in the above case, the subject of the decepcannot be deceived, the enjoyment of the joke is of tion is one who stands very strong in a belief that he course greatly enhanced to third parties. Such was the character of an imposture which was practised a number of years ago by a lady of remarkable representative talent upon a counsellor in high practice at the Scottish bar, and of literary celebrity also, who had expressed his belief that she could not, with all her dexterity, impose upon him. The tale was told in 'Blackwood's peculiar manner, but in the main faithfully; and to Magazine' by Mr Galt, with a strong dash of his own this record we resort for a brief sketch of the in

cidents.

One day when the counsellor (whom Galt calls Mr

Jamphler) was to entertain a party, inclusive of the young lady, at dinner, he was told, while dressing for that meal, that two ladies desired to see him on urgent business. Joining them in the library, he found an elderly matron, in tortoiseshell spectacles, and a huge black bonnet, attended by a blushing young one. The senior female announced herself as Mrs Ogle of Balbogle, come to Edinburgh on purpose to take the benefit of counsel from the learned gentleman, whom she forthwith proceeded to compliment in a most extravagant style. But mine's a kittle case, Mr Jamphler,' she proceeded, ' and it's no a man o' sma' capacity that can tak it up.' If her late husband had been to the fore, she would not have needed to trouble anybody; but he has won awa out of a sinfu' world, and I'm a lanely widow;' with much more to the like purpose.

Mr Jamphler, getting impatient, suggested that she had better consult her agent.

My augent!' she exclaimed; 'ye're my augent-I'll ha'e nae other but you-I ha'e come here for nae other purpose than to confer wi' you anent my affair' 'Well, but what is it-what is it?' interrupted the counsellor.

The lady then made him sit down beside her, introduced her daughter, and gave a sketch of her family connexions, which produced another burst of impatience. At length he asked her pointedly what was her business. This only led to more palaver.

'Howsomever,' she at last proceeds, 'being, as I was saying, left a widow-it's a sair thing, Mr Jamphler, to be a widow-I had a' to do, and my father having left me, among other things, o' my bairns' part of gear -for the Barwullupton gaed, as ye ken, to my auld brother the laird, that married Miss Jenny Ochiltree o' the Mains; a very creditable connexion, Mr Jamphler, and a genteel woman. She can play on the spinnet, Mr Jamphler. But no to fash you wi' our family divisions: amang other things, there was on my bit grund a kill and a mill, situate on the Crokit-burn, and I lent the kill to a neighbour to dry some aits; and, Mr Jamphler -oh what a sight it was to me!-the kill took low, and the mill likewise took wi't, and baith gaed just as ye would say a crackle, and nothing was left but the bare wa's and the steading. Noo, Mr Jamphler, wha's to answer for the damage? Howsomever, Mr Jamphler, as I can see that it's no an aff-hand case, I'll bid you guid day, and ye'll consider o't again the morn, when I'll come to you afore the lords in the Parliament House.'

The counsellor was now, it may be supposed, in no small tribulation. The lady, however, was not yet done with him. Rising and going to the window, she cried, "Oh! Mr Jamphler, the coach that brought us here I wouldna come but in a coach to Mr Jamphler --but it's gone. Oh! Mr Jamphler, as I'm a wee o' a lamiter wi' the rheumaticks, will ye hae the kindness just to rin out for a coach to me? I'll be very muckle obliged to you, Mr Jamphler; it's but a step yonder to whar the coaches are biding on outlook."

'Mr Jamphler rung the bell, and ordered his servant to fetch instantly a coach.

withdrew. Mr Jamphler then joined the company in the drawing-room, and soon after, the young lady, in propria persona, with the Odontist's address in her hand, was announced as Mrs Ogle of Balbogle.'

These anecdotes serve to illustrate the circumstances under which little playful impostures may rightly be carried on. No satire being indulged in, the parties being friendly, and disposed to enjoy innocent jokes even at their own expense, no harm can well arise. Where, however, all are not of one humour, or where the jest rubs on a known sore, or for certain will place the subject of it in a false and ridiculous position, or even gall an unlucky over-sensitiveness of nature, the whole procedure must tend to mischief, and therefore is to be unhesitatingly condemned.

THE CENTRAL SUN. LECTURES on astronomy have for many years been highly popular with a large portion of the public; in the smaller provincial towns, the arrival of an itinerant lecturer, and the delivery of his 'course of three,' illustrated by an orrery, was an event productive of general satisfaction, and served to enliven one or two of the dreary weeks of winter. Most readers will remember the average amount of information imparted on these occasions: commencing with the sun, the lecturer gave a description of our solar system, taking the planets in their respective order, their bulk, orbitual motion, and distance from the central luminary, and, assisted by a magic lantern, finished with representations of the moon's phases, Jupiter's belts, and Saturn's ring. Something was generally added that largely excited the wonder of the auditors, who went away fully persuaded that they had learned the whole scheme and compass of astronomical science-for them it had no more secrets.

It is no longer the same in the present day: with increased knowledge, has grown up, to a certain extent, an increased desire to comprehend it; the old limits have been found far too narrow for an intelligence ever seeking to enlarge its boundaries; and no sooner is a great thing achieved, than it is immediately made a starting point for something still greater. The popular mind is not now satisfied with the aliment it fed on ten or fifteen years ago; it has become in some sense the reflex of the progress of science-wider in its grasp, but more simple, certain, and accurate.

As a consequence of this movement, popular astronomy now embraces something beyond the sun and planets: it has learned something of other systems beyond our own-of double and triple stars, many of them inconceivably remote; of nebula; and a new planet. But there is one fact, first announced by the elder Herschel, which, although well known to men of science, has been much less frequently brought into general notice than the others, in direct opposition to commonly received opinions. The prevalent idea respecting our sun is, that, with the exception of a movement round its centre of gravity, it occupies a fixed and invariable position in the heavens. Recent researches have, however, verified the assertion, that, in common with the whole universe, it has what is called a 'movement of translation' through space in obedience to some mighty and unknown influence, analogous to that which impels the minor planets and moons in their orbits. And we shall now endeavour to give an outline of the present state of our knowledge respecting this interesting subject.

"But, Mr Jamphler," resumed Mrs Ogle of Balbogle, "I hae another favour to ask. Ye maun ken I'm sometimes tormented wi' that devilry they call the toothache; are ye acquaint wi' ony doctor than can do me good?" Mr Jamphler immediately mentioned our friend and correspondent, the Odontist. "Eh!" said Mrs Ogle of Balbogle, "the famous Dr Scott! But whar does he bide, Mr Jamphler?" The urbane coun- As we have already stated, the late Sir William sellor mentioned his address. "Ah! but, Mr Jam- Herschel was the first to demonstrate what had for phler, ye maun write it down, for I hae but a slack some time been suspected by astronomers-the progresmemory." Mr Jamphler did so immediately; but the sive movement of the sun through space. In the course lady, on looking at the paper, said, " Na, na, Mr Jam- of his persevering investigations of the heavens, he had phler, that winna do: I canna read Greek ye maun at different periods made three surveys of the stars pit it in broad Scotch: I'm nane of your novel leddies, comprised in the catalogue published by Flamsteed, the bat Mrs Ogle o' Balbogle." Mr Jamphler was in con- first astronomer-royal. On each occasion he found that sequence obliged to write the address more legibly, and the positions differed greatly from those marked in the the coach coming to the door, the lady and her daughter | catalogue: two stars of the fourth magnitude in the

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