your advice till it is asked. Well-so you need it not; no harm done, and if yon seek any thing, you cannot find one here so well able to direct you to it as myself."

"I do, indeed, seek some information, father; but I fear me, 'tis not in your power to give me what I require," answered the youth.

Nay, nay, young fellow, scorn not the aged; though the limbs, perhaps, are less fleet, the head is stronger by experience."

"I will tell you, then," said Walter, as we are alone. I am myself of foreign; birth, though educated and brought up as English, and with English people; therefore know 1 nought of England's ground, much less of such a retired spot as this, your native village. Tell me, father, does your recollection serve you to remember one of this place, named Gaylove? Yes, Fanny Gaylove was she in her native home." 66 Gaylove!" said the old man, starting. "Yes, what of her? You are not, you cannot be, her son?" "No," was the answer, "I am not.”

"You knew her then abroad?" said the smith, much agitated.

'No, I knew her not; but still 'tis the same. She had a son, father; he was my constant friend and protector."

"Tell me, boy, lives that son now?

"No, he sleeps beside his injured mother;" and the young man covered his eyes: 'twas but for an instant; dashing his hand hastily over his brow:-" father, I laid him by her side. Yes, I watched his latest breath; his end was much accelerated by his not being able to reach this place before the death of his parent. One wish alone reigned uppermost in his mind, and that was to see his mother's name restored to its place in society; and by his death-bed he made me swear to see it done and, father, I am here, if possible, to redeem my pledge; can you assist me? L'Haville was the name of the youth who so falsely betrayed her. She often assured him they were married, but that the certificate had been taken from her by force when she was hurried from the country. Could we recover that "

:

"Walter," said the old man, as he took his hand, and with his own wiped the scalding tear from his furrowed cheeks, "you have caused that fountain to flow which for years has been dried up; and I thank you for it. I knew that mother, alas, too well. Oh, my poor deluded girl, how has your old broken-hearted father wept in secret for thee; how often has the bitter bursting of his soul been concealed under the firmness he has displayed, sooner than betray his weakness to the world. Tell me, my boy, how ended her life; was it in misery? In wretchedness, perhaps; and when I was blest with every thing in plenty, my poor sister perished for want. Was it so ?"

"Comfort yourself, my father; 'twas not, I assure you. When she was sent out of England, her betrayer had settled on her a yearly sum quite sufficient for her support; on this she lived." "Thanks, thanks for that at least ;" gasped the old man; "though you have afflicted me, I still have consolation in your tidings. She was, you say, married." "Yes, she said so often. To find that certificate shall be my duty. But we will to the manor."

"Yes, father; could I but once get to stay there for a short time, among some of the old papers in the ruined rooms, I may find that

we seek."

(To be continued).

MEN AND BOOKS.

IN Books a close affinity we find

To Meu in outward garb and inward mind:
Some like the tinsell'd lordlings of the day,
A splendid covering and name display-
Attract attention with the passing hour,
Then die forgotten like the fading flower;
Others of modest guise and humble name
Live in the annals of recorded fame,
Possess the sterling worth of wit and sense,
And outlive pomp and splendid impotence.

SCIENTIFIC VARIÆ.

GREAT excitement has been caused in the scientific world for the last month by the publication in almost all the journals of the following extract from the Somerset County Gazette: "We feel much pleasure in according the following singular experiment of Mr. Andrew Crosse of Broomfield. Some weeks ago he prepared a silicious fluid for the purpose of crystallization by means of the galvanic battery. He heated a flint to a white heat, and then plunged it into water to pulverize it. The silex thus reduced was saturated to excess in muriatic acid, and the mixture being placed in a jar, a piece of flannel was employed to filter the liquor which fell through a funnel on to a piece of iron-stone from Mount Vesuvius, upon which were laid the two wires of the battery. The iron-stone had been previously heated to a white heat. In fourteen days he saw some white specks on the stone, and four days after they had elongated and assumed an oval form. He concluded these were incipient crystals, but great was his surprise when, on the 22nd day he found eight legs projecting from each of these white bodies, and on the 26th day they moved, fed, [on what?] and were perfect insects. Eighteen or twenty more have since appeared, exactly resembling the former; they are of a pulpy substance of a grey colour, and the movements are perfectly visible to the naked eye. [This, it will be observed, is the only part of the account by which we may form any idea of the size of the animal]. The above experiment was afterwards repeated but without using the muriatic acid, and a perfectly similar result was again the consequence. A German naturalist has recently discovered that silicious rocks are principally formed of the remains of insects, and the germs of some of these [after having passed through an intense heat and most destructive acid] may perhaps have thus been endowed with vitality after a sleep of thousands of years."

Any person perusing this statement cannot fail to observe the total want of anything like a philosophic regard for important minutiæ, without which it would be impossible to form any idea of the cause of this extraordinary appearance. Nevertheless the tale obtained such implicit credence, that the poor experimentalist was almost killed by the storm

VOL. I.

G 2

of letters which arrived every post from every part of the empire-until at last he was compelled in his own defence to write to the editor of the Taunton Courier, stating “That the above account was published without his knowledge, and that, although the main fact is as there represented; yet the mode of conducting the experiments is extremely inaccurate." While Mr. Crosse had the pen in kis hand, he might have contrived to have been a little more explicit, for as the affair rests at present we are very little wiser than at first. As a learned friend of ours observed on reading the letter—“it is impossible to say what the ‘main fact' is: whether it be that the galvanic battery was merely used on that occasion-whether the crystals only were produced-or whether Mr. Crosse really has created these insects."-E. N. L. M.

ANALYSIS OF WOOD.-Two German chemists, Petersen and Schodler, have been occupied for some time in making some elaborate experiments in order to ascertain the relative quantities of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, contained in different species of wood. They have analysed twenty-four different kinds. After having dried them and reduced them to powder, they took 100 parts in weight of each, and have found that the quantity of carbon does not vary more than 2 per cent. The quantity of hydrogen contained in each is from 5.3 to 6 per cent, and the oxygen only varies from 43.3 to 45.4 per cent. The different proportions with regard to volume are, of course, very dissimilar, as a piece of oak weighing 479 lbs. is no lagrer than a piece of poplar which weighs 221 lbs.

METEOROLOGIGAL.-In December last, Patrick Murphy, Esq. presented to the Meteorological Society the "anticipated state of the weather during the whole month of January, 1837." "The tendency of the weather throughout the month will be to drought," says he. "Frost may be expected to set in about the 5th, and the period of the greatest cold may be expected to occur on the night of the 13th, after which a thaw will take place; squally weather with rain thence to the 22nd; after which a return to frost and dry harsh weather to the close of the month." What a prophet Mr. Murphy has proved himself!

ARCS OF ELLIPSES AND CIRCLES.-Professor Müller, of Berlin, (according to the Athenæum), has in a late course of lectures offered a simple and mechanical explanation of the universal admiration bestowed on these curves. The eye, he observes, is moved in its socket by six muscles, of which four are respectively employed to raise it, depress it, and turn it to the right and left. The other two have an action contrary to one another, and roll the eye on its axis, or from the outside downward and from the inside upward. On an object being presented to the eye for inspection, the first act is that of circumcision, or going round the boundary lines so as to bring consecutively every portion of the circumference, upon the most delicate and sensitive portion of the retina. Now if figures bounded by straight lines be viewed, it is obvious that but two of the muscles can be brought into action, and it is equally evident that in curves of a circle or ellipse, all must be alternately exercised. The effect then is, that if only two be employed, as in rectilinear figures, those two have an undue share of labour; and by repeating the experiment frequently, as we do in childhood, a notion of tedium is instilled, and we form gradually a distaste for straight lines, and are led to prefer those curves which supply a more general and equable`share of work to the muscles.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

"Nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice."

Sketches by" Boz," second series. Macrone, St. James's Square.

While the "Sketches" and the "Pickwick Papers" by Mr. Charles Dickens (writing under the soubriquet of " Boz") are praised by every one for the amusing fidelity with which they describe English manners and customs, in all the various grades of society, it would be an useless and unprofitable task in us to echo the delight with which every thing from the pen of this humorous writer is received. The present volume is a continuation of the "Sketches of every-day Life and every-day People," which first brought Mr. Dickens' name before the public. Like its predecessors, it is illustrated by the pencil of G. Cruickshank, and no artist can better delineate the narratives of the author. The etchings are all excellent, but there is one in particular (we allude to Streets by Morning") which is really superb. The coolness of the air, and the peculiar freshness produced by the rising sun are inimitably expressed. As a specimen of the happy manner in which "Boz" hits off the "patois" of the "lower orders," we extract the following from his sketch of the 1st of May :

"These were signs of the times-portentous omens of a coming change, and what was the result which they shadowed forth? Why, the mastersweeps, influenced by a restless spirit of innovation, actually interposed their authority in opposition to the dancing, and substituted a dinner-an anniversary dinner at White Conduit House-where clean faces appeared in lieu of black ones, smeared with rose-pink; and knee-cords and top-boots superseded nankeen drawers and shoes.

"Gentlemen who were in the habit of riding shy horses; and steady going people who have no vagrancy in their souls, lauded the alteration to the skies, and the conduct of the master-sweeps was described as beyond the reach of praise. But how stands the real fact? Let any man deny, if he can, that, when the cloth had been removed, fresh pots and pipes laid upon the table, and the usual loyal toasts proposed, the celebrated Mr. Sluffen, of Adam and Eve Court, whose authority not the most malignant of our opponents can call in question, expressed himself in manner following:

"That now he'd cotch'd the cheerman's hi, he vished he might be jolly vell blessed, if he vorn't a going to have his innins, in vich he vou'd say these here obserwashuns-that how some mischeveous coves, as know'd nuffin about the con-sarn, had tried to sit people agin the mas'r swips, and take the shine out o' their bis'ness, and the bread out o' the traps o' their preshus kids, by a making o' this here remark, as chimblies could be as vell svept by 'cheenery as by boys and that the making use of boys for that there purpuss was barbareous-vereas, he'ad been a chummy-he begged the cheerman's pardon for usin sich a wulgar hexpression-more nor thirty years; he might say he'd been born in a chimbly, and he knowed uncommon well, as 'cheenery vos vus nor o'no use; and as to ker-hewelty to the boys, every body in the chimbly line know'd as well as he did, that they liked the climbing better nor nuffin as vos." From this day we date the total fall of the last remnant of May-day dancing among the elité of the profession and from this period we commence a new era in that portion of our spring associations which relates to the 1st of May."

Although the sketches in this volume are mostly humorous, there are some tales of sorrow or of crime told with such a degree of pathos and feeling as cannot fail to force their way to the heart. Amongst these we would particularize "Meditations in Monmouth Street," "The Drunkard's Death," and the "Hospital Patient." We had marked out several passages for extract, but we regret that our limits will not allow it. We, therefore, reluctantly take leave of the volume, sincerely advising our readers to procure it as soon as possible, for we are convinced they will derive the same gratification from its perusal that we ourselves have done.

Spartacus, or the Roman Gladiator. A Tragedy, in five acts. By JACOB JONES, Esq. Ridgway and Sons, Piccadilly.

It is but a few fleeting months back when every paper and every periodical teemed with the cry that the stage was on the decline, that all taste for legitimate drama was passing away from amongst us, and that spectacle and melodrama were alone calculated to fill the benches of a theatre, and the pockets of the manager. To prove the incorrectness of this statement, we need only call to the recollection of our reathe enthusiastic reception with which the beautiful dramas of Talfourd, Bulwer, and Sheridan Knowles have been received; and now we have another to add to this list, for we are convinced that if produced upon the stage, the tragedy before us would meet with that success which from its intrinsic worth it so justly deserves. Mr. Jones has been long favourably known in the literary world by a volume of poems entitled "The Anglo-Polish Harp," and we are glad to find that he has devoted his superior talents to the noble purpose of rescuing the drama from the degraded state into which we are compelled to confess that it has in some measure fallen. The tragedy of Spartacus will tend to augment Mr. Jones's fame-the dialogue is powerfully written and contains many passages of great poetical beauty. But it is not in the closet that we think its merits can be fully appreciated. To the stage it would prove a most valuable acquisition, and we sincerely hope that we shall one day have the pleasure of witnessing its production.

The Walk; or the Pleasures of Literary Associations. By W. ROBSON. Smallfield and Son, 69, Newgate Street.

This is a little volume intended for the amusement and the instruction of young persons, by means of the conversation of a father and son during a walk. We must certainly agree with the author in the opinion that were teachers to seize those opportunities which are constantly occurring, unconnected with the ordinary routine of a school, as, for instance, the accidental contemplation of a picture, to afford instruction in a familiar manner; a wish for improvement, and an enjoyment of knowledge would be gradually instilled into the scholar's mind; and that which is considered an irksome task would be rendered agreeable both to master and pupil. We have the pleasure of being acquainted with a gentleman, the proprietor of a large academy, who fre