One artist has, however, ventured on a sacred subject, and one that had occupied the pencil of the late President of our Royal Academy, Mr. West; who, by the bye, was a native of the United States. The picture of Christ rejected,' recently painted in America, is by Mr. Dunlap, an artist of some celebrity on the other side of the Atlantic. Of this painting we are glad to introduce the following critique from the Providence Gazette' of the 16th of April last : Dunlap's "Christ Rejected."-Having been much gratified with a view of this elegant production of the pencil, we intended to speak of some of its most striking beauties, and recommend it to public patronage, but are anticipated in our design by the following communication: We spent an hour, yesterday, with great pleasure, and we hope with some profit, in viewing this splendid and highly interesting picture. It is an epic composition, on the loftiest theme, and fitted to kindle in the heart of the Christian that holy glow of love and gratitude, which tends to the purest thoughts and most benevolent actions. "The artist has chosen that point of time, when Pilate, having in vain endeavoured to save the Redeemer from the fury' of his enemies, delivers him up to the sufferings of the cross, and releases unto them Barabbas, whom they prefer to Jesus. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he said, I am innocent of the blood of this innocent person: see ye to it.' Then answered all the people and said, "His blood be upon us and on our children.'. the Roman Proconsul. "The masses of shadow are truly grand, and the colouring clear, harmonious, and natural, producing the effect of reality in a greater degree than we have before experienced. The expression of character and passion is peculiarly strong and true. and enraged fanatic, crying out, in answer goes back to his old quarters at Covent "The executioner, sitting on the cross, and explaining to the boys around him the use to be made of the instruments of torture, is well conceived and admirably executed His indifference to all that is passing around him, characterizes the callous heart which may be presumed to appertain to his calling. This figure, and the children about him, will engage the attention of all who see the picture. "There are, indeed, many individuals and groups in the painting, which entitle them to particular consideration: the beautiful Magdalen - the ferocious Barabbas-the manly centurion-and many others: but after they have all been examined, still the eyes and the feelings of the spectator turn to the meek and holy expression which eminently distinguishes the countenance of Him who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; who is about to lay down his life, through love to those who persecute and despitefully use him!"" course. The Drama AND PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. pre remain. The English Opera House still secures good audiences by the spirit with which it is conducted; night after night Mathews made laughter hold both its sides; but on Monday night he took leave of his London friends until February, when he will be found At Home' again. Caleb Quotem, Morbleu, and Dick Cypher were the cha racters with which he concluded his performance for the season, and he played them as Mathews alone could play them. Since he has left, Wrench, Wilkin. son, and Wallack, who had been almost shelved, have resumed their proper station and by their exertions secured a continuation of public patronage. HAYMARKET THEATRE.-Revivals have been the order of the day at this theatre. On Monday we had High Life below Stairs, which when first performed at Edinburgh caused riots among the motley robed gentlemen, and afterwards led to the abolition of vails. Liston's Lord Duke, and Mrs. Gibb's Kitty are performances with which the public are well acquainted, and they were the only ones worthy of notice, for Harley's Sir Harry was mere buffoonery. Literature and Science. THE summer season at the theatres (the only summer we have had this year,) is drawing to a close, and the winter theatres are prepared to open. During the recess, the lessees of Co"Of the execution we are not competent vent Garden, and the great lessee of judges, but every person can speak of the Drury Lane, have each expended the effect produced upon himself, and in this, we sum of £5000, in alterations and de- Ship Ventilator.-A new machine, called can truly say, we were surprised into a feel-corations, all intended for the comfort the Fluid Ventiduct, has recently been ining of being present at the awful tribunal of and convenience of the audience of vented by a Mr. R. Buckley, of New York, for ventilating vessels at sea, and preventing mocratic theatrical ascendancy as the diseases. This machine is so constructed Indeed in an age of such de- the generation of foul air and pestilential present, no manager would venture to as to operate merely by the power gained do otherwise. We have often thought by the motion of the vessel. It is not extheatrical property and theatrical popu-pensive, needs no repairs, requires no atlarity very precarious, and were never tendance during the longest voyages, and "Another peculiarity, if we may say so, is more struck with it than lately, when we may be applied to vessels of any dimenthe simplicity, united with energy, in all the found the proprietors of Covent Garden sions. Mr. Buckley has adduced a variety twelve, without the frame, and contains up carded servant, (whom the public once in a perfectly clean and healthy state. attitudes. The picture is eighteen feet by Theatre compelled to pension a dis- of cases, to prove that fever may be generated in the holds of ships which leave port wards of two hundred figures, all in action, compelled them to dismiss) under the yet there is no crowding, no confusion, no indistinctness all is happily and judici-threat of having the house pulled about ously arranged. It also possesses the great merit of never distracting the attention from the prime object of the artist-to show the greatness of the sacrifice made by Christ for man. The expression of the Saviour's countenance is calm, dignified, beautiful. The humility, resignation, and placidity evinced in the whole figure, are finely contrasted with the savage ferocity of the wretch, who is about to tear the gorgeous robe from the shoulders of the divine sufferer. The High Priest, a commanding and splendid figure, is in the animated action of a personal enemy : their ears. We venerate old age, and Some changes have taken place in Commodore Porter is said to have certified that he has examined Mr. Buckley's invention, and entertains no doubt it may be advantageously used on board ships of war; and Henry Eckford, Esq. who has witnessed the practical operation of the Ventiduct, states it as his opinion that it will fully accomplish the object intended. Many valuable lives are annually lost by disease on board ships of war and merchantmen; and if the machine in question can avert pestilence and death, it ought forthwith to be introduced into extensive use. made by an engineer in Upper Canada, emNiagara Falls.-A report has lately been ployed to level the ground between the are employed; but so little account is made Roelli is now at Paris, in the Hôtel des Invalides: two silver concave plates cover his his cheeks, and conceal from the eyes of observers the horrid state of his face, muti lated and mangled by the Miguelets.' Aerostation. Mr. Graham had announced his intention of ascending in his balloon on Monday last, at Cheltenham, but the wea In Canada the Fine Arts as well as litera- ther proving unfavorable, the ascent was ture are advancing; a periodical journal, to postponed till Wednesday, when it took be called the Canadian Magazine' was an-place from behind the Royal Oak Iun. Amnounced to be published early in August; ple arrangements had been made for a supand a well executed plan of the city and ply of gas from the gas-works of the town; suburbs of Montreal has been engraved by Mr. Graham superintended the inflation, Mr. Burns from an original drawing. and by two o'clock the balloon was so far distended as to display its shape. The ground was fully attended, and amongst the company was the Duke of Buckingham. Mr. Graham fixed the car to the balloon and all was ready by twenty minutes after four o'clock, when he and Mr. Webbe got into the car amidst the cheers of the popu lace. The balloon then rose, the ropes having been cut, but it with difficulty cleared the roofs of the stabling, the car even knocking off some of the slates. The balloon then descended, which created considerable alarm for the aeronauts; however, it fortunately descended into the middle of the main street, when the crowd laid hold of the car and paraded it up the street to a more open space. It was now found requisite for Mr. Webbe to quit his station, which he did with considerable reluctance. That having been done, and Mr. Graham having righted himself, he gave the word of command to let go. The balloon then ascended rapidly, beautifully, and steadily, Mr. Graham waving his hand to the populace to evince that all was safe and promising. Onwards the balloon winged its way, but with so much apparent slowness as to afford the public ample opportunity for witnessing its progress. In about seven minutes it was entirely out of sight. Canal Navigation.-The following account A work has been lately published, at Paris, of an improvement in canal navigation is entitled 'The Life of Mina, his Origin, the communicated in a letter from Trenton in principal Causes of his Celebrity, his Milithe United States. For some years past, tary Stratagems, his Galantries, &c.' It is Colonel Clark, of Philadelphia, has been a complete romance, in which there are not a engaged in preparing a boat and apparatus, few marvellous and unfounded tales. There and making experiments to effect a naviga- are, however, several anecdotes exceedingly tion against the rapids in the Delaware, op- curious: for instance-'The mistress of an posite to this place, as a cheap substitute inn, Donna Marguirita, a fiue looking wofor locks and canals; and, contrary to the man, enterprising and amiable, took a fancy, prevailing opinion of our citizens, he has though married, to a soldier in the 6th Itafinally succeeded. I had the curiosity yes-lian regiment. Her amours were adroitly terday to visit the vicinity of his operations with a view to witness the passage of a Durbam boat on his plan against the current, and on expressing a wish, although an entire stranger to Mr. Clark, he politely took me on board, and I had the satisfaction of passing the rapids by means of his novel, ingenious, and yet simple contrivance; and also of seeing a river boat, containing considerable freight, towed up by it with great apparent ease. The power, I have no doubt, was fully competent to have taken up ten or fifteen tons additional. If such, however, was not the case, the principles on which the apparatus are constructed and applied admit of increasing the power to any required extent. The machinery consists of a pair of water wheels supported by a shaft placed across the boat: there is also another short shaft; they are both furnished with a drum, over which a rope is passed by several convolutions, and fastened by one end to an anchor at the head of the rapids, while the other is secured to a buoy drag at their foot, and is kept constantly on a strain by the action of the current. The water wheels are turned by the running water, and when the apparatus is placed in geer, the rope winds on to the drums in the ascending direction, and off in the other, and occasions the boat to ascend at the rate of three miles per hour. The plan is exceeding simple, and no doubt it will be adopted on all our lage rivers, and prove a great public benefit. The channel of the Delaware at this place is very crooked, shallow, and rocky; it however admits of a suitable improvement for this kind of navigation at a comparatively small expense, and the same may be said of all the rapids on this river for a considerable distance up. It should be recollected that three boatmen are necessary to take an empty boat up the Delaware, and for them it often proves a difficult undertaking :when freight is taken up, additional hands Mr. Sadler has made two good ascents in Yorkshire. The first on Thursday, the 18th inst., from Sheffield, when, after a fine aerial voyage, he descended near Tickhill. The second ascent was on Monday last, from York. concealed from the poor husband, and had Longitude.-Dr. Tiarks has returned to Greenwich from his astronomical and trigonometrical survey. The result of his observations in the Seringapatam has been a discovery that the longitude from Greenwich to Falmouth is set down in the published accounts one mile short; that from Falmouth to Madeira is correct. The trigonometrical. surveys which have been made will consequently prove incorrect, but the discovery affects nothing relating to practical seamanship. M. EPITAPH. fectly fresh, and could only be distinguished ocean, Brother Jove must look out for his skies let me Poor sable child of honesty and fun, L'hommme sans argent.-A man without In the year 1711, a question in parlia ment was carried in the negative, by two accidents; the going out of one member, by chance, to speak to somebody at putting the question; and the coming in of another in his boots, at the very minute. If either of these accidents had not happened, it had gone the other way. What great events from little causes flow? Lord lost a question of importance in the upper house, by stopping to cheapen a pen-kuife. ...... A Jewish play, of which fragments are still preserved in Greek iambics, is the first drama known to have been written on à scripture subject. It is taken from the Exodus, or the departure of the Israelites from Egypt under their leader and prophet Moses. The principal characters are Moses, Sapphora, and God from the bush, or God speaking from the burning bush. Moses delivers the prologue in a speech of sixty lines, and his rod is turned into a serpent on the stage. The author of the play is Ezêkiel, a Jew, who is called the tragic poet of the Jews. Warton supposes that he wrote it after the destruction of Jerusalem, as political spectacle to animate his dispersed brethren with the hopes of a future deliverance from their captivity under the conduct of a new Moses; and that it was composed in imitation of a Greek drama, at the close of the second century. The third Quarterly Part of THE LITERARY CHRONICLE, for the present year, is now ready for delivery. A novel Insurrection.-The Missionary tell ye, Reports from the African Islands, of last Or the Russian will bury them all in his belly. year, detail a singular insurrection in MadaIndian Trial and Execution.-On Mon-gascar. The women rose, to the number of day last, an Indian in this place was stab- 4000, and threatened to chastise the king, bed by another; the friends present deci- unless he would grant them some of their 'ded on the merits of the case the accused wishes, and consult them as to the manner was found guilty, sentenced, executed, and of cutting his hair. He, however, collected This day is published, in one vol. post 12mo. price 38, 6d. interred on the spot. The whole transac- his soldiers around him, and boldly sent tion took place in less than fifteen minutes. them word that he was king, and would do -Baton Rouge Gazette. as he pleased. Slow Travelling.-The earthquake which set out from this town at 7 o'clock, A. M. on the 23d ult. arrived the same day at Niagara at 11 o'clock, p. m. being at the rate of about 25 miles an hour-Salem Gazette. Origin of going Snacks.—At the time of the plague in London, a noted body-searcher lived, whose name was Snacks. His business increased so fast, that, finding he could not compass it, he offered to any person who should join him in his hardened practice half the profits: thus, those who joined him were said to go with snacks. Hence, going snacks or dividing the spoil. extra boards, LETTERS TO MARIANNE. turesque,' &c. &c. &c. Published by Thomas Boys, 7, Ludgate Hill. NEW BIBLE ATLAS. This day is published, engraved on 26 small 4to. plates, price 16s. colonred, or 12s. plain, neatly half-bound, +++ These Maps are all newly constructed, after a careful and critical examination of the recent discoveries of Burkhardt, Richardson, Henneker, Wells, &c.: and references to them are facilitated by a copions consulting Index. Horsemanship.-The Moors frequently amuse themselves by riding with the utmost apparent violence against a wall, and a stranger would conceive it impossible for them to avoid being dashed to pieces; when, just as the horse's head touches the wall, they stop him with the utmost accuracy. To strangers on horseback or on foot, it is a THE BIBLE ATLAS; or, Sacred Geography Delineated, in a Complete Series of Scripcommon species of compliment to ride vio-tural Maps, drawn from the latest and best authorities, lently up to them, as if intending to trample and engraved by Richard Palmer. Dedicated, by per them to pieces, and then to stop their horses mission, to his Grace the Archbishop of York. short, and fire a musket in their faces. Upon these occasions they are very proud in discovering their dexterity in horsemanThe celebrated Countess of Dorchester, ship, by making the animal rear up, so as mistress of King James II. having seated nearly to throw him on his back, putting herself, at the theatre, on the same bench him immediately after to the full speed for a with a lady of rigid virtue, the other immedi- few yards, and stopping him instantaneously; ately shrunk back, which the countess ob- and all this is accompanied by loud and holserving, said, with a smile, 'Don't be afraid, low cries. There is another favourite amusemadam, gallantry is not catching.' ment, which displays perhaps superior agiClerk of the Pipe in the Exchequer is an lity. A number of persons on horseback officer, who charges down, in a great roll, start at the same moment, accompanied made up like a pipe, all accounts and debts with loud shouts, gallop at full speed to an due to the king, drawn out of the Remem-appointed spot, when they stand up strait in -brance Office. the stirrups, put the reins, which are very Printed for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, London; aud A. and W. Barclay, York. London:-Published by Davidson, at No. 2, Surrey Street, Strand, where advertisements are received, and communications for the Editor (post paid) are to be addressed. Sold also by Simpkin and Marshall, Stationers' Hall Court; Ray, Creed Lane; Ridgway, venor Square, and 192, Strand; Booth, Duke Street, Piccadilly; H. and W. Smith, 42. Duke Street, GrosPortland Place; Chapple, Pall Mall; by the Book sellers at the Royal Exchange; Sutherland, Calton Street, Edinburgh; Griffin and Co., Glasgow; and by all other Booksellers and Newsvenders.-Printed by G. Davidson, in Old Boswell Court, Carey Street. And Weekly Review ; Forming an Analysis and General Repository of Literature, Philosophy, Science, Arts, This Paper is published early every Saturday Morning, Price Sixpence; or 10d. if sent into the Country, Free of Postage, on the Day of Publication; No. 229. LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1823. Price 6d. Review of New Books. phastrus, who had been his scholar, point. The Jews appear to have been made a collection of popular prognos-general observers of the weather, and Meteorological Essays and Observations. tics, and Aratus gave them another that habit is evidently alluded to by By J. FREDERIC DANIELL, F. R. S. dress in his Dioxemea. Many meteoro- Jésus Christ, in his speech recorded 8vo. pp. 479. With Engravings of logical observations are scattered in the by Saint Matthew, but he answered Instruments, Diagrams, and Linear works of the Greek historians; and the them, in the evening you foretell fairTables. London, 1823. Romans appear to have drawn their weather when the sky is of a bright red, 'MAN,' says Mr. Daniell, may almost, knowledge of the weather from the and in the moring when the sky is of a with propriety, be said to be a meteor- Greeks at least the methodical part of dusky red,'-a brown or reddish grey; ologist by nature. He is placed in such it; Virgil copied Aratus, and Seneca, and so, that proverb, which has evia state of dependance upon the atmos-in his natural-history questions, drew dently obtained its current and high repheric elements, that to watch their largely from the same source. In Pli- putation even in modern times, from its changes, in order that he may anticipate ny's works there are a great many of imitation or coincidence,— their vicissitudes, becomes a portion of Aratus's maxims, and a few original 'An evening red, and a morning grey, the labour to which he is born. The daily ones, but interwoven with many absurd Are certain signs of a rainless day.' tasks of the mariner, the shepherd, and and ridiculous fables and superstitions. We know nothing of the knowledge of the husbandmen, are regulated by me- Mr. Daniell has given an explanation the weather among the Chinese or teorological observations; and the obliga- of an obscure reading of a passage in Arabians, and during the middle ages, tion of constant attention to the changes his works, which may be considered it would probably be a waste of labour of the weather has endued the most illi- as one of the most curious cases on re- to look for a profound attention to meterate of the species with a certain de- cord, in which the sagacity of the an- teorology, amid the wreck of every other gree of prescience of some of its most cients anticipated an observation which science; but we may remark that, in capricious alterations.' This is unques- has been held to be peculiarly demon- our own language, many, if not the tionably true, and hence the numerous strative of the superior refinements of greater part of our rhyming-proverbs, adages prognosticating the weather, the present state of experimental philo- are taken from the works of our barbawhich may be considered as theorems sophy, and may settle a disputed claim rous poets. Bacon, in more modern deduced from ages of meteorological to the honour of priority of discovery times, recorded some observations on observation; and the long list of pecu- amongst the existing race of philoso- the weather, and in his works are found liarities in the habits of animals and phers. Nec non et in conviviis mensis- many of the popular dicta concerning plants, with a reference to the weather, que nostris vasa quibus esculentum ad- it. Boyle, from his experiments with which are found in the literature and ditur sudorem repositoriis linquentia the air-pump, made many valuable obsuperstitions of every people, may be diras tempestates prænutinant.' Nat. His. servations on the atmosphere; and regarded as popular descriptions of the lib. xxiii.; which is translated by Hol- some respectable guesses were thrown mode of action of so many instruments land-and to conclude and make an out by Bohun, in his duodecimo, on the indicating atmospheric variation. The end of this discourse, whensoever you Winds. In our own times, Franklin, earliest recorded descriptions of atmos- see at any feast, the dishes and platters Deluc, Saussure, Wilson of Glasgow, pheric phenomena, among the Greeks, whereon your meat is served up to the Wells, Howard, and Dalton, have greatwere of this description; and, among board, sweat or stand of a dew, and leav-ly distinguished themselves as observers them, Aristotle may be considered as ing that sweat, which is resolved from of the weather. We would also name the first who arranged his notices in a them, either upon dresser, cupboard, Mr. Leslie, but he has talked so much systematical manner, and formed a re- or table, be assured that it is a token of of his own merit, and of that of his ingister of natural appearances for the terrible tempests approaching.' Instruments, that we will not trespass on purposes of comparison. He appears translating esculentum, it is a necessa- a field which he has made so exclualso to have made some good observa- ry interpretation that it should be cold sively his own; besides, from our imagitions on hail, rain, snow, and meteors, meats, as the vasa must have been cold, nation being constitutionally costive, and to have drawn some sagacious in- and this dew, or sweat, so accurately de- we could not puff his playthings half so ferences as to the causes of the halo and scribed, could only have arisen from poetically as he has puffed them himrainbow; his good name has, within depression of temperature. The philo- self. late years, also received an accession of sophical reader will easily recognize in The ancients appear to have had no respectability, from the truth of some this, the identical principle acted on by contrivances to foretell or to estimate of his experiments, or rather remarks, the academicians del Cimento, in their the changes in the atmosphere, but reon the deposition of dew, having been hygrometrical experiments, and also Mr. lied on their observation. But in the corroborated by the masterly observa- Dalton's beautiful mode of finding the more artificial states of modern society, tion of the late Dr. Wells. Theo- force of aqueous vapour, and his dew-much of the necessary tact of observa their hygrometers to be toys, unsatisfactory and deceptive; and, as such, are soon consigned, among other playthings, to the nursery. In comparing the value of ancient weather-proverbs with modern hypotheses, we feel it much safer to rely on an empirical maxim or popular saying than on those rules' which have been framed in modern times on experiments made with instruments so defective. To this we may add the impossibility of comparing the labours of any two meteorologists, if their hygrometers have differed in construction or even if they have been of the same kind nay more, even if they should have used the same identical hygrometer; for it cannot be concealed that with all the semblance of minute philosophical precision, our formulaic corrections for the change or difference in the scales of different instruments, of the same instruments as affected by extra-hygrometric circum tion is blunted or lost; and hence the a bit of sea-weed with him to town, not numerous inventions resorted to, to sup-so much as an evidence of his having ply the want of our knowledge of natu- been to the coast,' but, (being curious ral indications of the weather. A ba-in them sort of things') as a hygromerometer is one of the best which is con- ter, which he hangs by a pin on the wall sulted, although nine out of ten of its of his bed-chamber, to be touched every motions cannot be referred to their pro- morning with the point of his little finper causes. A slip of whalebone or of ger; for from its dampness or dryness ivory have had quartos written in praise he can tell when it is damp or dry out of of their sensible indications of atmos-doors, and is guided by these feelings pheric changes, and even quartos have when it is proper to accoutre himself in been written against them. Who has his great-coat and goloshes; and when not heard of the 'extreme sensibility' of to substitute for his smart twig of hazel, the hair hygrometer,-of a human hair his still smarter well-kept brown silk -the triumph of Saussure-and the umbrella. His faith is not to be shaken, glory of Geneva? and what meteorolo- even when his wife rallies him on the gist, if of limited fortune, could afford to knowing way' in which he touches his purchase all the profound dissertations hygrometrical instrument, and tells him, by immortal philosophers, which have that by putting his finger in the salt-celbeen printed, preferring (with reasons) lar, he could tell the weather as truely Deluc's filament of whalebone, to Saus- by that as he can by his ugly nauseous sure's human hair; and Saussure's hu- gim-crack. And the lady is quite in the man hair to Deluc's filament of whale- right, for the hygrometric properties of bone? The meteorological world hung the salt, we ought to say muriate of fondly' by a hair and a filament! We soda, have been used by dozens of phi-stances, or the change of hygrometric say nothing of the tomes' of instruc-losophers as 'hygrometric tests of ex- power of the same instrument, at differtions; (shall we call them tom-fooleries) cessive delicacy; and, therefore, had ent times, are, one and all, but so many how to rid the air of its grease, with- she been born to strut in breeches, she guesses, which depend, for their value, out destroying its organic susceptibi- might have been a philosopher too, and on our opinion of the sagacity or expelities,' the various manipulations of ex- carried her head as high as the biggest rience of the conjecturer. A delicious treme nicety necessary to fix the point of them. A beard of an oat has been sample of this absurdity, miscalled sciof saturation,' the proper position for lauded as a hygrometer until the welkin entific research, is that article entitled wetting the hair or the filament, the rung again, and it is still an instrument of hygrometry, in the Edinburgh Encyheight of the barometer, the tempera- great consideration and price when made clopedia.' Here we have Greek and ture of the air, that of the fluid, the by philosophical artists, and may be seen Latin and Italian alphabets marshalled electric state of the atmosphere, the age on their shelves bearding its neighbours in due algebraic order; minuses and of the moon, the sun's altitude, and the the ivory ones, the paper ones, the hair pluses and square root signs, and proheight of the table on which the expe- ones, the whalebone ones, the deal ones, digious hyphens, marks of ratios and riments are made above the level of the the sea-weed ones, (for these are to be proportions, twisted and retwisted into sea, all which must be taken into the purchased,) and even the salt ones. The algebraic formula, some of them alaccount to fix with accuracy the Zero oat-beard, in its turn, has a powerful ri- most a span long; these, too, growing of saturation; and, when Zero is found, val in a slip of rat's bladder: we forget out of some other term in some other we must begin again, and find its oppo- the Linnean name of the rat, but it has a equation, that out of a third equalsite, the Point of Siccity;' and here is very becoming Latin designation for ly formidable, and so on, like the the point which requires the hand, eye, state occasions; and so has its blad- ramifications of a genealogical tree, and analytical acquirements of a genius der; aye! and descriptions of it have where the various branches of the faof the first order; for, in addition to all been written in Latin, that metereologi-mily, Blarney Fudge and Fiddle Faddle our enumerated proceedings in getting cal philosophers, in all corners of the his wife, sprawl forth with all their prothe Zero of saturation, how many more earth, may avail themselves of its assist-lific appendages, over the huge sheet, to must be taken into account in fixing ance; for it is not reasonable to expect Siccity; and, when these momentous that the merit of an instrument like this points have been fixed, (but not be- could be widely enough known through fore) another herculean series of expe- the medium of the English language; riments may be commenced to deter- and, besides, our vulgar tongue may bemine whether this hair or filament will come obsolete and perish, but the lanelongate between the points of 'sic-guage of the Romans will remain for city and saturation' in proportion to ever, and, of course, so will the oration' the increments of moisture, or in the of the rat's bladder hygrometer. ratio of the square' or 'cube' or in what other ratio. A slip of paper or a shaving of wood have also their thousands of supporters. And every cockney who goes by the steam-boat, or the hoy, or the coach, or the van, to Margate or Brighton, brings These are the instruments which meteorogical giants have invented, and which those who give themselves the airs of giants use to gratify their thirst of seeming wise, and others for their curiosity; but, unless the observers have their systems to support, they soon find end at last in some unproductive old maid or cypher-in the case of our en cyclopedian equations in a ten-thousandth part of an inch, but which, we are told, may be safely left out in practice without introducing any very material errors into our calculations!! Most exquisite philosophy! superhuman 'cuteness! There is nothing so noisome as this pedantic officiousness of unattainable accuracy, and we feel great pleasure in noticing certain indications, among those who sit in the high places, of a return to common sense in treating physical subjects; and it is this taking of things as he finds then, and making |