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mer holiday; and the future sometimes glimmers before you, while a sick pang shoots through your heart, from the doubt whether all or any of the fair prospects with which your dreams have invested it, will ever come true. I suppose that you have already learned many awful lessons. You have watched by the couch of a sick friend; perhaps you have witnessed death; you have known doubt, anxiety, and suspense; you have met with coldness and misapprehension from some, for which the kindness of others has hardly compensated, for one cruel word well aimed will wither the heart that received it, long after the lips that spoke have even forgotten the cause. You have known what it is to lose the presence of those you best love; to feel a restless anxiety about things over which you have no control, but which are essential to your happiness; and, in short, you have gone through the usual discipline of changing joy and sorrow with which even the first thirty years of a man's life will suffice to make him most deeply intimate.

"I conclude, therefore, that you are not always happy; and though your enjoyment of life may be as keen as energetic youth can make it, still the laugh which rings upon your lips has not always its echo in your heart, and the jest with which you excite the mirth of others sometimes falls upon your own ear with a hollow sound. At times like these, when you are either deeply sorrowful or much depressed, there are some more unusual thoughts and some stern questions which seem to exert stronger power over you. First of all, there is that feeling, which you are never quite without, that you are an immortal being who has an unknown home in another world, for which world this is to be looked upon as a preparation. Then you have the recollection of the Almighty Being who created you, and who has therefore a claim upon your obedience and your service. You know that He is great and holy; you feel that He is raised infinitely above you, and you are probably in some degree uncertain of the position in which you stand before Him; and therefore you are also, at least at times, and with a passing pang, anxious about it. You believe that there is a Providence which guides all human concerns; and though you may not be in the habit of constantly referring to that guidance either for hope or comfort, yet when your feelings are strongly called forth, you do remember it, and you often hope, and sometimes pray, that it may befriend you. You look back upon the past, you scan over your present habits of life, and you then cannot say that you are sure you have done all, or nearly all, which your Creator demands from you. You may not have been in the practice of constantly attending the church of God (which is the place especially appointed for our worship of Him). When you have gone thither, it was too often, if not always, either for the sake of going where so many others went, and doing as they did, or else from a half-irksome feeling, that it was right and advisable to pay that mark of respect to the place and the subject to which it is consecrated, and thus occasionally to acknowledge that you do not consider yourself as quite independent of it. Perhaps in your childhood your mother taught you a few simple words of prayer, which you failed not to repeat night and morning. At school they were probably forgotten; and now the grown man, upon whose head rest all the sins and follies of his youth, whose mind is the treasure-house of high capabilities and deep emotions, and whose soul has been redeemed by the blood of an incarnate God, lies down night after night, with no recollection of the Being on whom his life is dependent, and with no petition for pardoning mercy or protecting care! Should it be so? Is it right, is it safe, to give no more thought than this, no more love to the eternal truths upon which our whole welfare hangs?"

The next extract is from "the Transgression," and points to a practice too common in respectable society:

"Love your neighbour as yourself;" and "do unto others as you would they should do unto you," are Scripture commands, to be no more forgotten in language than in action. How often and how much is truth sacrificed to a good jest against another, and how many a sharp remark, which began in idle mirth, has passed from lip to lip till it kindled an unkind feeling, and has irrecoverably wounded the unlucky

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cause of it. It must indeed be a very strong love of truth, which will prevent a man's overstepping the exact fact with regard to the conduct of another, when by some exaggeration he could make a witty speech which is burning on his tongue! Yet "false witness" is more often exaggeration than a direct lie. To say that a keen sense of the ludicrous is in itself wrong, would be absurd; it is a talent, and one without which all other talents will be sure to get out of their right place, and lead a man into most destructive mistakes. A man devoid of it will offend against his own dignity, or against the dignity of his mission, were it of the highest upon this earth; and consequently will lower himself and his office in our respect. There is no genius without it; for if in genius there must exist an innate perception of congruities, a detecting of new fitnesses in common objects, and thus making a new world out of the old materials, in which ordinary minds could discover only worn-out realities; there must of course also exist a corresponding sense of incongruity, of misapplication and oddity. The quality in itself is invaluable, but, like all other gifts in human hands, most dangerous and open to abuse. Yet high as may be ranked among mental posses sions this keen sense of the ludicrous, the system of turning all things or persons into ridicule is but a very shallow proof of wit; almost any fool may acquire it by habit, at least quite enough (and that is the utmost extent supposed to be positively necessary), to make others laugh in return. It is the very fact of its being a system, that makes it so detestable, and it is when the feeling comes on that by the depreciation of another you slightly exalt yourself,-that by showing how quick your perception is alive to foibles and infirmities, that you believe might have passed unobserved amongst others less strikingly acute,-you imagine you reflect some credit upon your own cleverness; it is when, in short, you feel that you depreciate another from the internal sensation that those who hear you must draw an inference respecting your supe rior sagacity, that this mode of conversation becomes unchristian. This were a dull world, indeed, without some good-natured jests to enliven its every-day plodding, and there may be benevolence even in raillery; but there are few minds great enough and simple enough for this; for the line which divides jesting from sin is very narrow; and unhappily, excepting in the merry ringing voice of a child, there is seldom laughter without some guile in it. Mirth is a sacred thing, for there is very little that is pure and untarnished; but what there is of it left in our own hearts let us guard and watch, that it may not injure our consciences by making us infringe upon integrity, and leading us to throw an unkind slur upon the name, the weaknesses, or the peculiarities of another." This is wholesome precept, gracefully inculcated.

Varieties.

Epicurism.-Enjoyment is the great business of existence with the Viennese, from the noble to the working man. A fine fat capon from the fertile valleys of Styria, and a flask of genuine Hungarian wine, are more acceptable than the most liberal constitution; and a Bohemian pheasant, garnished with sauerkraut and salmi di Milano, more palatable than the production of the most able pen. No where are the good things of this life found in greater abundance than at Vienna; the environs teem with luxuries. Hungary, only a few miles distant, furnishes excellent wines; Grätz, in Styria, sends armies of capons; Würtemberg and Bavaria, myriads of fat snails; Trieste transports sea-fish in ice across the Alps; while the Danube supplies plenty of fresh-water fish.

Nuremberg has given to the world many useful inventions. Here the pocket-watch first coursed its tiny dial; here the air-gun, gun-lock, wood-cuts, and various mathematical and musical instruments, first sprung into existence; and at present, half the children of Europe are indebted to her for toys. The industry of the inhabitants is even extended to teaching birds to pipe; and through the sale of the little warblers, many an urchin is clothed and fed.—Germany and the Germans.

Copyright. The following fact" speaks volumes" for the present Copyright Act. In 1807, an indefatigable author, (who was his own publisher,) wrote Blair's Mother's Catechism, the copyright of which was sold for the benefit of his estate in 1808, or the year following, and passed into the stock of another publisher. The little book became very popular, and some thousand copies were sold annually; so that, on the copyright reverting to the author, in due course, in 1835, he received from the then proprietor no less a sum than EIGHT HUNDRED POUNDS for the renewal! although the publishing price of the book is only ninepence. This is a case for the Parliamentary Committee upon the new Copyright bill. It can be verified, although the names of the parties are, from motives of delicacy, withheld for the present.-ED. L. S. J.

Rings.-In Vienna, every man, from the prince to the shoeblack, wears a ring: the noble has his arms engraved on it; the merchant, his initials; the mechanic, the device of his trade.

Sir H. Davy.-Laybach, in Styria, is interesting to the lover of science, for having been the retreat of Sir Humphrey Davy not long before his death; he resided in an hotel here, and the pretty daughter of the hostess relates several anecdotes respecting him. He was a most indefatigable angler: his extraordinary success in transferring the trout to his basket, procured for him the title of "the English wizard;" and the scared peasants, who could never understand by what artificial means he caught the fish, shunned him as if he had been his Satanic majesty. He spent the greater part of the day in angling, or in geologizing among the mountains, and generally passed his evenings in the society of the hostess' daughter, who made his tea, and was his antagonist at écarté, or some other light game; indeed, the "maid of the inn" played her cards so well, that she secured a handsome legacy from the philosopher in his will.-Germany and the Germans. Champagne. The knavish hotel-keepers of Nassau mix the mineral water with wine and sugar, and sell the compound for champagne. A recent traveller overheard a waiter at Fachingen ask his master, whether he might serve the English gentlemen with the champagne made in the morning! Vanity.-A Frenchman mistook the letters S. M. B. (St. Mary la Bonne) upon the lamp-posts in the Regent's park, for Sa Majesté Britannique; observing, "how proud we ought to feel at this additional proof of the universal adoption of our most civilised language!"

Potato Cheese.-The potatoes, which should be mealy, must be boiled, and then grated: to this add the sixth part of its weight in curd, and a little salt. Knead the whole well together, and let it stand three or four days; in winter longer. It is then to be kneaded a second time, when it should be made into a form, and left to dry in the usual manner. The older it is, the more agreeable the flavour. If you wish it particularly good, take two-thirds potatoes, and one-third curds, to which add a little sheep's milk. Thus prepared, It will remain free from decay for years; but it must be kept in a dry place, and covered.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa.-When at Pisa, Captain Basil Hall investigated the origin of the divergence of the above tower from the perpendicular, and established completely to his own satisfaction, that it had been built from top to bottom, originally, just as it now stands. His reasons for thinking so are, that the line of the tower, on that side towards which it leans, has not the same curvature as the line on the opposite, or what may be called the upper side. If the tower had been built upright, and then been made to incline over, the line of the wall on that side towards which the inclination was given, would be, more or less, concave in that direction; owing to the nodding, or "swagging over" of the top, by the simple action of gravity acting on a very tall mass of masonry, which is more or less elastic, when placed in a sloping position. But the contrary is the fact, for the line of wall on the side towards which the tower leans, is decidedly more convex than the opposite side. Captain Hall has, therefore, no doubt whatever, that the architect, in raising his successive courses of stones, gained, or stole, a little at each layer, so as to render his work less and less

overhanging as he went up; and thus, without betraying what he was about, really gained stability.-Patchwork. Starfishes are called at Bangor, (county Down), the Devil's Fingers, and the Devil's Hands; and the children have a superstitious dread of touching them. Mr. E. Forbes, when drying some in the garden behind his lodgings, heard some of the children, on the other side of the hedge, put the following queries:-"What's the gentleman going to do with the bad man's hands? Is he ganging to eat the bad man's hands, d'ye think?"—Forbes's History of British Starfishes.

Ancient Water-wheels in the Euphrates.-The only obstacle to the navigation of this river consists in the remains of the water-wheels used for irrigation. In the short space of 130 miles are nearly 300 of these wheels, about one-third of which are in operation at the present day. They consist of large parapet walls built into the stream, directing the current of the river to the wheels, which are the most clumsy pieces of mechanism, made of branches of trees, and having slung round them 150 clay vessels to raise the water in. The wheels are 40 feet in diameter, placed at the end of an aque duct, raised upon well-built Gothic arches. They are the nearest approach to perpetual motion; and it is surprising the quantity of water which they raise to the surface. They cause a current of six or seven knots, with a fall of two or three feet where they are, so that this part of the river is difficult, and somewhat dangerous; but, as it is, we have surmounted all. I should rather say the genius and skill of Messrs. J. Laird and Macgregor, who furnished the boats and engines, have overcome obstacles which baffled the well-dis ciplined legions of Trajan and Julian, when they went to besiege Ctesiphon, and failed to drag their fleets against the stream on account of the current.-Account of the Euphrates Expedition, in the Times.

Snails.-In Transylvania, the large wood-snail is a favourite dish, and a very good one it is. The snails are drawn out of the shell, cut small, with a kind of savoury stuffing, and served up replaced in the shell. As for their being disgusting, it is all fancy; delicate ladies have relished them, who would have shuddered at the sight of a raw oyster. In some parts of Transylvania, instead of eggs and fowls, the peasants pay their tribute in snails and game. One lady's ordinary winter supply was upwards of 5000 snails.—Paget's Hungary, &c.

Easter is a season for the general interchange of civilities in Vienna, where, instead of the coloured egg in other parts of Germany, and which is there merely a toy for children, the Vienna Easter-egg is composed of silver, mother-of-pearl, bronze, or some other expensive material, and filled with trinkets, jewels, or ducats.

Gipsies, in Hungarian law, are called "new peasants." The name of Pharaoh nepek, Pharaoh's people, Mr. Paget imagines to have been given either from contempt or error. The name Czigany, by which the Hungarians call them, is so like the Zingari, Zigeuner, Gitani, gipsy, of other nations, that Mr. Paget has no doubt it is the one they originally gave themselves.

The first Coffee-house was opened at Vienna, in 1683, by the Pole, Koltschitzky, who had the privilege conferred on him in return for the important services he had rendered the state, as a spy, during the siege of Vienna. Coffee is made here in a glass decanter, with a handle, closely stopped, with the exception of a small tube for the steam to escape: in this decanter, the coffee is boiled by means of a spirit-lamp. The women make the best coffee, which is not always the case in England: the Empress of Austria makes her husband's coffee.

Hospitality.-In some Alpine districts, you cannot offer a greater insult to the peasant who regales you with refreshment, than by tendering him money as a recompense.

"The Armourer of Paris," Chap. VIII. in our next. London: Published for the Proprietors, by W. BRITTAIN, Paternoster Row. Edinburgh: JOHN MENZIES. Glar gow: D. BRYCE.

Printed by J. Rider, 14, Bartholomew Close,

LONDON SATURDAY JOURNAL.

CONDUCTED BY JOHN TIMBS, THIRTEEN YEARS EDITOR OF "THE MIRROR," AND "LITERARY WORLD."

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Fac-Simile of a Drawing found at Ghuznee, and supposed to be the Portrait of an Afghan Exquisite.

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call themselves Pushtaneh, and are termed by the Indians Patans. Afghan is the name by which they are known to Persians, and through them to Europeans. Their speech is the Pushtu, a sister-language of the Persian, with some marks of near relationship to the idiom of the Koords. Their proper country is the southern declivity of the great chain of Hindoo-Kosh, the western continuation of Himalaya and the Paropamisan range; it includes also the chain of Suliman, and the table-land to the westward of it.

The antiquity of the Afghans, as a people, is great. They are, it has been proved, the Assecani of Arrian, who gives an account of them in his history of the expedition of Alexander of Macedon. Pliny terms the same people Aspagome, and describes them in terms which leave no doubt that their country was Afghanistan. Lastly, Professor Lassen has discovered the name of this people in the catalogue of nations tributary to the Great King, engraved in cuneiform letters on the monuments of Persepolis. "The climate of Afghanistan," says Dr. Prichard,* "is one of the most delightful in the world. It is dry, we are informed by Mr. Elphinstone, and the average temperature greater than that of England; the extremes of heat and cold being greater. According to Sir Alexander Burnes, it produces the fruits of England and of southern Europe-peaches, plums, apricots, pears, cherries, mulberries, grapes, and pomegranates; and the groves are stocked with our singing-birds-nightingales, blackbirds, thrushes, and doves. The pears and apples of Cabul are celebrated, and the seasons said to be there delightful. Cabul itself is more than 6000 feet above the level of the sea. eastern parts of Afghanistan consist of plains, intersected by abrupt chains of hills; the western, chiefly of downs and table-lands, in many parts bleak and cold.

The

"In such a country, we might expect to find the people very different from the natives of Southern Hindostan. We are informed that the Afghan men are of robust make, being strong and muscular, with high nose and prominent cheek-bones, and long faces. Their hair and hands are mostly black, sometimes brown, but rarely red. Mr. Fraser describes some Patan or Afghan soldiers, whom he saw, as having red hair and blue eyes. Mr. Elphinstone says that the Eastern Afghans have generally dark complexions, approaching to that of the Hindostanees; while those of the west are of lighter colour, with an appearance of health but among them, he says, as among the Eastern Afghans, men as dark as the Indians, and others as fair as Europeans, are to be met with in the same neighbourhood; the fair being the most common in the west, and the dark in the east. In describing a tribe of Afghans near Dera, the same writer says, 'the number of children was incredible; they were mostly fair and handsome, the girls have aquiline noses, fine faces, Jewish features; the men were generally dark, though some were quite fair.'"

Afghanistan is divided, like the ancient kingdom of Israel, almost solely according to the tribes who inhabit it. The Durani are, at present, according to Dr. Prichard, the dominant clan, as the Eusofzyi are said to have been in earlier times; the Khyberi and Ghilji are also powerful tribes. Though one nation, and little mixed with foreigners, the Afghans differ very much among themselves in physical character, and the difference is very remarkable. The people who live near the Indus are, as Mr. Elphinstone assures us, black, and resemble the Hindoos. The Ensofzyi, who inhabit a high mountainous country, in a cool climate, are thus described: "They are generally stout men, but their form and complexion varies. In

In his valuable "Natural History of Man," Part IV., just published.

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those whose appearance is most characteristic of the tribe," says Mr. Elphinstone," one is struck with their fair complexions, grey eyes, and red beards, by the military affec tation of their carriage, and by their haughty and insolent demeanour. Indeed, they scarcely know any subordination whatever. The mountaineers, in particular, are excessively rude and ignorant. An instance is related of one of them, who, seeing a Mollah copying the Koran, struck off his head, saying: You tell us this is the book of God, and yet you make it yourself." The inhabitants of the plains, on the contrary, are debauched and superstitious." The Afghans, with their high, and even harsh features, sun-burit countenances, long beards, loose garments, and shaggy mantles of skins, give the idea of a much ruder and more unpolished people than the Hindoos, on whom they immediately border. Many of the luxuries of Hindostan are unknown to them; and there is nothing like the same organized police and regular course of justice. Yet they are said to possess many estimable qualities:"their martial and lofty spirit, their bold and simple mauners, their sobriety and contempt of pleasure, their unbounded hospitality, and the general energy and independence of their character, render them, on the whole, a superior race. In India, every movement originates with the government, or its agents, and the people are accounted as nothing-while here, men put themselves little under control, and follow undisturbed their own inclinations." * They show great curiosity as to the products of European art and skill, with an eager disposition to inquire into the processes employed. Polygamy, and the obtaining of wives by purchase, is established; and, oddly enough, offences are punished by fines of a number of young women, who, in this pecuniary appropriation, might properly be called "currency lasses." Matrimonial contracts are not, however, as usual in Mahometan countries, negotiated entirely by the friends of the parties, who, especially in the country districts, meet and court for themselves. But the youth must earn the purchase-money of his mistress, which condition often imparts a character of interest and adventure to the connexion, and has thus become the subject of love-tales, similar to those which are popular in Europe.

The Afghan religion is strictly Mahometan, as already intimated. The mollahs, or religious doctors, are very numerous; they take arms, and sometimes muster hosts of 2000 or 3000, who, though they cannot match the prowess of the Afghan warriors, are so aided by the superstitious awe of the multitude, as generally to carry their point. These traits are remarkable, in connexion with the document quoted at page 173 of this Journal, No. 67.

A taste for knowledge is general among the Afghans, though few of their works are more than two centuries old. There are schools in every little town, and even village; so that the first elements of knowledge are very widely diffused, and, the Afghans are not just now petitioning their government for grants of money to educate the people. The higher branches are logic, law, and theology; to which are added the Persian and Arabic languages and literature. The taste for poetry is very general: there are many poets by profession, and the chiefs and warriors often display genius in celebrating their own feelings and adventures.

About half the Afghan population are dwellers in tents, and they hold in disdain a residence in houses, and the occupations there carried on. The fixed habitations of the lower orders are rudely constructed of unburnt brick, with

* Murray's Encyclopædia of Geography. + Twelve ladies form the fine for murder.

wooden roofs; the palaces and their appointments are on the Persian model.

serves: "From his earliest appearance as a public character in this metropolis, till almost the hour that the hand of death fell on him, I had the happiness, (as I cannot but deem it,) of possessing his uninterrupted friendship, and his fullest professional confidence. We were associated in office for a period of nearly thirty years, during which, not a single unkindly feeling, that am aware of, existed between us. Indeed, his mild and amiable manners, not less than his upright and honourable principles, rendered it almost impossible that such should be the case."

The Afghans are violently attached to field sports: hunting is, as it were, the rage all over the country; and the fighting of quails, cocks, and other animals, is favourite pastime with an observable inconsistency, the same persons will play at marbles, hop-scotch, and other games, considered in England as only suited to children. The attum is a hearty and noisy village dance, and the delight of both sexes. They are also very fond of walks and collations, in the gardens which surround their cities, particularly Cabul. Although sober and temperate, they are enabled to live well, by the extreme cheapness of all provisions, particularly fruit and vegetables. They are social and hospitable; and even the poorer classes, when they can afford to kill a sheep, invite the neighbours to partake." and then to have removed to London, where he had the The tables of the great are served after the Persian manner, and the dishes are garnished with gold and silver leaf; and the company are great talkers, though, from their gravity, it must be "an up-hill business."

The Afghan dress presents a striking contrast with the Indian attire of light, loose, flying robes, leaving a great part of the body naked. It consists of close tunics and wide mantles, composed, among the lower ranks, of sheepskin, or coarse woollen cloth; among the higher, of velvet, fine shawl-cloth, or silk. Boots are universally worn, and no one is allowed to appear at court without them. Jewels are chiefly employed to decorate their armour. The favourite dress of the ladies is a jacket, somewhat similar to that of a dragoon, and pantaloons of velvet, shawl-cloth, or silk. Strings of Venetian sequins, chains of gold and silver, and ear-rings, are the bijouterie. The prefixed portrait, a supposed exquisite, has none of the above ornaments. In the coloured drawing, his vest is deep yellow, and cap green, and the pointed beard very dark. The original of our Engraving, (in which the rude drawing is preserved,) forms one of a series of illustrations of Afghanistan, cleverly drawn lithographs, lately published by Mr. J. F. Walton, who has courteously permitted us to copy this "Portrait of a Gentleman."

LOVE'S RAINBOW.

BY THE HON. D. G. OSBORNE.

I SMILE not, for Hope cannot move
The gloom upon my brow;

And to these lips that woo thy love,
The smile's a stranger now.

I ask thee not that bliss to share,
That lovers ever dream;

But o'er my darkened lot of care,
To fling thy young love's beam.
Is not the rainbow's varied form
So glorious to our eyes,
Because, to chase away the storm,
It shineth in the skies?

And such is woman's love,-it glows
With holier, brighter ray,

When through the storms of fate it throws
A light upon our way.

THE LATE DR. BIRKBECK. Or this highly-distinguished individual, Dr. Clutterbuck, on January 17, read before the Medical Society of London, a brief but interesting Memoir, in which he prefatorily ob

The agricultural part of the Durani tribe live in small villages, to each of which is attached the castle of a khan, who seems to hold a rank in society somewhat similar to that of the Scottish laird. At one of the gates, is always a building, set apart for the reception of strangers.

Dr. Birkbeck was born at Settle, in Yorkshire, in the year 1776; and, after the usual course of scholastic education at a village in the neighbourhood, he commenced his studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he took his doctor's degree in physic, in the year 1799. In a Memoir in the Times, Dr. Birkbeck is stated to have first studied his profession at Leeds;

good fortune to become a pupil of the celebrated Dr. Baillie, whose friendship he retained, until death put an end to that illustrious man's career. Afterwards, he removed to complete his education in Edinburgh, then in the zenith of that fame as a school of medicine, which, by means of nepotism, mismanagement, and conceit, it has subsequently lost. Here also he had the happiness to form a friendship with Brougham, Horner, Jeffrey, Scott, and others of that race, who were then beginning to blaze in the northern capital with a splendour, such as its past annals had not seen, and its future are not likely to see." But while cultivating this brilliant society, he did not neglect his scientific pursuits; and in these he had made such attainments, that, almost immediately after graduation, he was invited to offer himself as a candidate for the Professorship of Natural Philosophy, in the Andersonian Institution, Glasgow. This institution was founded by Mr. John Anderson in 1795, and endowed by him with a library, museum, and philosophical apparatus: it was incorporated the following year, and placed under the superintendence of eighty-one trustees. The object of the founder was to give instructions to the educated classes, male and female, of Glasgow, free of expense, by means of lectures on the principles of science. Dr. Birkbeck succeeded in obtaining the professorship he sought for, the duties of which he fulfilled to the entire satisfaction of the trustees, as well as of his numerous hearers. Dr. Birkbeck's "ardour in the cause was not, however, to be restrained within such narrow limits. He at once determined to institute a gratuitous course of philosophical lectures, for the especial use of the uneducated classes -persons engaged in the actual exercise of the mechanic arts, and whose humble station in early life had precluded them from almost a possibility of acquiring scientific knowledge. These lectures abounded in simple but striking experiments, and were delivered in the most familiar language, so as to adapt them to the taste and capacity of such an audience. In this way he hoped to rouse a taste in the uneducated classes for rational amusement, as well as instruction; with the additional and almost necessary effect of weaning them from vicious habits, and frivolous pursuits. His success in the undertaking was complete; and hence it appears that Dr. Birkbeck was the first to establish a mechanics' class, to which the attendance of the operatives, as they are now termed, was especially invited; and a foundation thus laid for the various Mechanics' Institutions, which have since been formed in the metropolis, as well as most of the manufacturing districts of the kingdom."

Dr. Birkbeck quitted Glasgow in 1804, and after having delivered lectures to admiring audiences at Birmingham, Liverpool, and Hull, he removed finally to London, where he may be said to have commenced his professional career, in 1805. He was, for many years, an active member of the Medical Society; and he was one of those who opposed the attempt made to monopolise, and perpetuate in the person of a single individual, the chief honours of the society. Their efforts were unavailing at the moment, though they afterwards proved successful. Their failure, however, was the im mediate cause of the secession of a considerable number of the most able and influential members of the society; and this led to the first formation of the Medico-Chirurgical

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