are but as nothing amidst eternity; and, as it were, in mockery of the fleeting perishable course of the mightiest potentates among mankind." We have spoken of the exactitude and minuteness of geological research. Were we disposed we might draw abundant arguments from other collateral sources. On a footing with these fossil tracks, we might place fossil insects of many varieties,-spiders from the Jura limestone, scorpions from the carboniferous rocks, coleopterous insects in ironstone, the hard wing covers of beetles from the oolite slate,-and some of these so well preserved, that even the hairs on them are as distinct as in their living successors, the ink bags of the loligo or cuttle fish, in such excellent preservation that the author has made drawings of extinct species, with their own sepia,—of so excellent a color as to deceive an expert painter, who begged to know by what colorman it had been prepared. We might also cite the unhatched eggs of birds, and a thousand varieties of the soft and delicious fruits of the tropics, converted by the slow process of petrifaction into stones so hard that they may be used to strike fire. tioned. The most elaborate imitations of living foliage upon the painted ceilings of Italian palaces, bear no comparison with the beauteous profusion of extinct vegetable forms, with which the galleries of these instructive coal mines are overhung. The roof is covered as with a canopy of gorgeous tapestry, enriched with festoons of most graceful foliage, flung in wild, irregular profusion over every portion of its surface. The effect is heightened by the contrast of the coal black color of these vegetables, with the light groundwork of the rock to which they are attached. The spectator feels himself transported, as if by enchantment, into the forests of another world; he beholds trees, of forms and characters now unknown upon the surface of the earth, presented to his senses almost in the beauty and vigor of their primeval life; their scaly stems and bending branches, with their delicate apparatus of foliage, are all spread forth before him, little impaired by the lapse of countless ages, and bearing faithful records of extinct systems of vegetation, which began and terminated in times of which these relics are the infallible historians. "Such are the grand natural herbaria, wherein these The Flora of this old world is not of less interest than most ancient remains of the vegetable kingdom are preits Fauna. Our author remarks, (p. 341.) "If we take a general review of the remains of terrestrial vegetables, that are distributed through the three great periods of geological history, we find a similar division of them into groups, each respectively indicating the same successive diminutions of temperature upon the land, which have been inferred from the remains of the vegetation of the sea. Thus, in strata of the transition series, we have an association of a few existing families of endogenous plants, chiefly ferns and equisetaceæ, with extinct families, both endogenous and exogenous, which some modern botanists have considered to indicate a climate hotter than that of the tropics of the present day. served in a state of integrity, little short of their living perfection, under conditions of our planet which exist no more." There is an excellent quotation from Dr. Lindley, (p. 351,) which we cannot avoid extracting. It is in reference to the lepidodendron. "The lepidodendra, are, after calamites, the most abundant class of fossils in the coal formation of the north of England; they are sometimes of enormous size, fragments of stems occurring from twenty to forty-five feet long; in the Jarrow colliery, a compressed tree of this class measured four feet two inches in breadth. Thirty-four species of lepidodendron are enumerated in M. Ad. Brongniart's catalogue of fossil plants of the coal formation. In the secondary formations, the species of these most early families become much less numerous, and "The internal structure of the lepidodendron has been many of their genera, and even of the families them-shown to be intermediate between lycopodiaceae and selves, entirely cease; and a large increase takes place in two families that comprehend many existing forms of vegetables, and are rare in the coal formation, viz. cycadea and coniferæ. The united characters of the groups associated in this series, indicate a climate whose temperature was nearly similar to that which prevails within the present tropics. "In the tertiary deposites, the greater number of the families of the first series, and many of those of the second, disappear; and a more complicated dicotyledonous vegetation takes place of the simpler forms which predominated through the two preceding periods. Smaller equisetacere also succeed to the gigantic calamites. Ferns are reduced in size and number to the scanty proportions they bear on the southern verge of our temperate climates; the presence of palms attest the absence of any severe degree of cold, and the general character marks a climate nearly approaching to that of the Mediterranean." coniferæ, and the conclusions which Professor Lindley draws from the intermediate condition of this curious extinct genus of fossil plants, are in perfect accordance with the inferences which we have had occasion to derive from analogous conditions in extinct genera of fossil animals. To botanists this discovery is of very high interest, as it proves that those systematists are right, who contend for the possibility of certain chasms now existing between the gradations of organization, being caused by the extinction of genera or even of whole orders; the existence of which was necessary to complete the harmony, which, it is believed, originally existed in the structure of all parts of the vegetable kingdom. By means of lepidodendron, a better passage is established from flowering to flowerless plants, than by either equisetum or cycas, or any other known genus." We might greatly extend these excerpts; enough perhaps has been done to show the high character of the work. The second volume, which consists entirely of In relation to the vegetable origin of the coal depo- expensive plates, with their explanation, must of course sites, (p. 344,) "A similar abundance of distinctly preserved vegetable remains, occurs throughout the other coal fields of Great Britain. But the finest example I have ever witnessed, is that of the coal mines of Bohemia, just men speak for itself. It appeals at once to the eye, even of those who are not conversant with the minutiae of geology and natural history. It contains, as a preface, a large and beautiful plate, several feet long, as an explanatory section of the crust of the earth, appropriately colored; "Favete linguis." A. and we may venture to assert, that more geology may | done much, and promises far more, we would say to be learnt from the study of this plate, than from read- both, in the ambiguous phrase of the monarch of the ing some professed treatises on the science. Indeed, Roman lyre, any one who will take up this second volume, and look at its plates, and remember that these are the faithful representations of fossil organic remains, he will at once understand what we have been all along laboring to impress, that GEOLOGY, so far from being a science of mere speculation, appeals at once to our eyes and to our reason, and stands forth, though the youngest, not less beautiful or less enchanting than her sisters, and proudly claims kindred with Astronomy in her perfection, and Mathematics in her exactitude. The whole range of science is lending its aid to geological development, chemistry, comparative anatomy, astronomy, natural history, and physics. The moment a fossil plant is formed, the botanist considers it and assigns it its proper place in the Flora,-an extinct ani. mal, the comparative anatomist announces its functions and laws of life,-the mechanical philosopher is studying the conditions of the structure of the earth's crust, so that in this way the science increases as it were in a geometrical ratio. A few years will doubtless produce results, for which, at the present moment, we should be found quite unprepared were they announced to us. But there is that dependance of one thing on another in the natural world, that the philosopher is often able to trace effects and causes, and find symmetry and relationship where ordinary men perceive nothing but confusion. The structure of the eye of an extinct fossil animal, will point out to us the condition of the medium in which it lived, in relation to light; and hence we can, from a single evidence of this sort, indicate the general character of external nature at any given epoch. The eye of a trilobite, found in the transition rocks, reveals to us the constitution of the sea at that remote period, and also that of the atmosphere; we know from the conformity of these ancient organs to the eyes of recent crustaceans, that little or no change has taken place in relation to the impressions of light on these organs in the long lapse of time that has intervened; and thereby that the media in which these animals lived, has not much changed in its physical character. And what is more, it is millions of years since these creatures lived, if we are to believe our eloquent author; and yet in all that immensity of time, and with the experience which the springing into existence of a thousand species might have given him, the Almighty has never seen proper to alter in any respect this particular species of organ; but he forms the eye of the animal born to-day, on the earth, on the very same unaltered model which he gave to those of a remote period; surely this is no blind chance, but deliberative wisdom and forecaste,-an evidence of perfect OMNISCIENCE. Here we shall leave our author, and we rise from the perusal of his work both entertained and instructed. We have freely discussed what we consider to be the capital objection to it, if there be any objection at all, and sincerely and cheerfully recommend it to our readers. To those who would be captious, as well as to those who would be considerate, we would ask for it a fair perusal; and because the subject on which it professes to treat is yet in its infancy, and has already VERSICULI-NO. III. BY LEWIS ST. MAUR. SONG OF THE LOVER OF PLEASURE. Drain the full goblet dry, Come, here are luxuries, The fruit of every clime; From distant, sunny hills; Our life is but a day, And swift its moments fly; To-morrow we must die. And, after death, what then? Say, is our spirit naught? In wine we'll drown that thought. NO. IV. TO A COMET. What art thou, flaming visitor, Thy frightful bloody dye? Dost light thy blazing torch- The power to burn and scorch? Dost thou presage some coming ill, Or writest on the firmament, The fiend insatiate, Death, A hot and withering breath? Art thou the prison-house of them— Dost drop them into liquid fire, To writhe in untold pain, Or art thou but a vapor-wreath, The diadem of night? Thou art a thing surpassing strange, And ride above the storm, Who rais'd on the confines of space Of all the wise, the wisest is, POLITICAL SCIENCE; A discourse on the questions, "What is the seat of sovereignty in the United States, and what the relation of the People of those States to the Federal and State Governments respectively," read before the Petersburg Lyceum on the 15th of May, 1839. By Judge Beverley Tucker, of William and Mary College. Gentlemen of the Lyceum- vengeance on the heads of tyrants, and then turning their thirsty weapons on each other's hearts. In these two extremes is a summary of the every-day history of man. Here the dull ox bears not more tamely the mas ter's yoke, than he submits to the exactions, the caprices, the atrocious cruelties of tyranny. There, the tiger roars not for his prey, with more eager ferocity than that which whets his sword against his brother's life, and proclaims "war to the knife,” against him who hung with him at the same breast. How refreshing, how consoling to the jaded spirit, to turn from the contemplation of scenes like these, to the calm, yet grand and imposing spectacle of a people but just emancipated from a degrading thraldom, and, in sober wisdom and quiet dignity, addressing themselves, as to the performance of a sacred duty, to the solemn and responsible task of SELF GOVERNMENT! That spectacle, on this day sixty-three years, Virginia exhibited to the world, and the memory of that majestic scene it is now my task to rescue from oblivion. It was on that day that she renounced her colonial dependence on Great Britain, and separated herself forever from that kingdom. Then it was, that, bursting the manacles of a foreign tyranny, she, in the same moment, imposed upon herself the salutary restraints of law and order. In that moment she commenced the work of forming a government complete within itself, and, having perfected that work, she, on the 29th of June, in the same year, performed the highest function of independent sovereignty, by adopting, ordaining and establishing the constitution under which all of us were born. Then it was that, sufficient to herself for all the purposes of government, she prescribed that oath of fealty and allegiance to her sole and separate sovereignty, which all of us, who have held any When I accepted the courtesy which invited me to office under her authority have solemnly called upon lay before you my thoughts on such subject as I might the searcher of hearts to witness and record. In that select, it became my duty to fix on one not unworthy hour, gentlemen, it could not be certainly known, that of the occasion. I owed it to you to choose a theme the the other colonies would take the same decisive step. bare announcement of which might awaken important It was indeed expected. In the same breath in which reflections in your minds, and thus supply those deficien- she declared her own independence, Virginia had adcies in myself, which it may, at the same time, render vised it. She had instructed her delegates in the genmore conspicuous. It happens fortunately that the na-eral congress to urge it; and it was by the voice of one ture of our institutions suggests innumerable topics of of her sons, whose name will ever proudly live in her this character; and the page of our history is resplen- history, that the word of power was spoken, at which dent with events worthy to be commemorated in loftier the chain that bound the colonies to the parent kingdom strains and to be illustrated by profounder reflections fell asunder, "as flax that severs at the touch of fire." than any which I can offer. But even then, and while the terms of the general declaration of independence were yet unsettled, her's had already gone forth. The voice of her defiance was already ringing in the tyrant's ears, her's was the cry that summoned him to the strife, her's was the shout that invited his vengeance. This day, gentlemen, is the anniversary of such an event. Sixty-three years have now rolled away since, in the ancient capital of Virginia, a deed was done worthy to live forever in the memory and in the hearts of Virginia's sons. Yet may I not ask, without offence, how many of those who hear these words are aware of the event to which they allude? How many are aware that this day is at all distinguishable from other days, when the sun, in his progress round the earth, looks every where on the same events, monstrous indeed when contemplated singly, but, to the eye that beholds all things, stale and monotonous in their ever recurring atrocity? In one region indeed he views a scene, where Despotism, with his iron grasp, crushes the hearts and hopes of prostrate nations. In another the infuriate shout of lawless anarchy rises from tumultuous millions just escaped from chains, wreaking their hoarded "Me! me! Adsum qui feci. In me convertite ferrum.” I am persuaded, gentlemen, that I should disappoint your just wishes, should I permit myself to be led away by this glorious theme into a declamatory celebration of this important event. It becomes me to suppose, that, in inviting me to appear before you, you expected that I should submit to you sober thoughts upon some subject of deep practical and enduring interest. I was bound to suppose that you wished me to select a topic illustrative of some important point in the institutions of our country. It was under this impression that I fixed on this day, not as a theme for schoolboy declamation, but I ple. They are the concurrent declaration of all conas a text for remarks, which I trust may be thought not | cerned, both rulers and people, that to the latter all powunworthy of serious and solemn meditation. er rightfully belongs, and that the former are but their servants. Of what people were these words spoken? Of the people of the ancient colony of Virginia, then in the act of establishing itself a free, sovereign and independent state. There was none other of whom they could be spoken. To that hour the yoke of colonial vassalage still rested on the necks of all the other North American colonies. As yet there was no political union between Virginia and the rest, nor was there any thing to draw or compel them to each other, but a common danger, and a common enemy. They were indeed invited and expected to follow the lead of Virginia. So too was Canada; and there was not one of them, which, like Canada, might not have identified herself with the I will not weary you by laying before you the record of the transaction to which I have adverted. Enough has been said to show that Virginia, on that occasion, standing in her own place, and in her own strength, performed for herself the highest and most unequivocal act of absolute and independent sovereignty. She then affirmed in herself the right of self-government; she then took upon herself the task of self-government. In that day she commenced the work of framing for herself a constitution, under which all the powers of government were to be exercised by the ministers of her sole and sovereign will. In that day she severed her people from all connection with any other power, from all subjection or responsibility to any authority on earth but her own. Her right to do this was indeed contest-common enemy, by shrinking from that decisive step of ed by the only country having an interest in disputing it; but the contest was finally relinquished. By the treaty of peace the sovereignty thus claimed was distinctly recognised by England, and, through her, by all the world. Thus, by the common consent of all man-call rulers, are but servants, and that the people are kind was Virginia established in the character of a free, sovereign and independent state-in the indefinite right to govern her people, to control and direct their conduct in all things, to hold them responsible to her for all their acts, and irresponsible to all the world besides. In the contemplation of this remarkable event, questions present themselves to the mind, which will deserve our most serious thoughts. Virginia then affirmed her sovereignty, and it has since been recognised by all the world. But what is that which was thus affirmed and thus recognized? What is sovereignty; and what is the seat of that sovereignty among us? I shall not trouble you, gentlemen, with a formal definition of the word. I am afraid I could offer none which should assign it a palpable and efficient meaning at which some who affect to stickle for the sovereignty of Virginia would not impatiently cavil. Yet even at the hands of such I will accept what shall serve me as a definition. Define it as we may, none will deny, that where all power rightfully is, there must be sovereignty. And where is that? I give the answer from an authority that none can question. I give it in the language of that bill of rights which was intended to guard from misconstruction and abuse the powers which Virginia was about to confer on her own public functionaries. Its promulgation was immediately consequent on the declaration of her independence, and immediately preceded the adoption of the constitution. The three may be considered as simultaneous, and each may be taken as illustrating and explaining the other two. In that instrument it is declared," that all power is vested in, and consequently derived from the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amena ble to them." Whose words are these? I answer that the bill of rights, in which they are found, was adopted nemine contradicente in the same convention which ordained and established the constitution. They are then the unanimous voice of the people of Virginia, proclaimed by the lips of those, who, clothed with all the authority then recognised within her borders, thus declared that they held it as the trustees and servants of the peo which Virginia had just set the example. What then do we learn from these words? Do they not teach us that governments are but creatures, and the people the creator? that they, whom we familiarly their master? that sovereignty cannot be rightfully predicated of government, the creature, or of magistrates the servants, but that it inheres, and must forever rightfully inhere in the people, the creator and master. If this admits of any doubt, that doubt must vanish when we read in the same instrument the farther decla ration, "that whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to the happiness and safety of the people, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable and indefeasible right to reform, alter, of abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most con ducive to the common weal." Gentlemen-in other countries men may speculate on the theory of the social compact. Here is the thing itself, in written and palpable form. In these words, thus promulgated, we find an authority for affirming their truth. As far as we are concerned they are true, because thus declared to be so. Elsewhere the authority of government may not be the result of universal consent, and men may elsewhere be governed by laws enacted by those whose behests they have never agreed to obey. Not so here. Here is the unanimous act of all concerned; the unanimous consent of all to live in obedience and fealty to Virginia, under any form of government that a majority of her people may prescribe to the rest, so long as it may be so prescribed, and no longer. If there be any lawful sovereignty on earth; if any where the authority of men to bind their fellows can be traced to a legitimate source, it is here. May I not then safely affirm, that on the day when these memorable words were spoken, Virginia was a sovereign state; that her sovereignty resided in the collective body of the people, and that in that people was the seat of all power. May I not affirm, that nothing then done can be rightfully so construed as at all to derogate from this paramount supremacy thus dis tinctly asserted? May I not go farther and affirm, in virtue of this fundamental principle of our social compact, that nothing done then or since, and nothing to be done hereafter, can have the effect of disparaging of impairing the sovereign right here pronounced to be unalienable and indefeasible, but by the utter dissolution of the society in which it is declared to inhere? Virginia may dissolve her ancient incorporation; her people may disband, or amalgamate themselves, by a sort of political fusion, with another community, but here stand the original terms of our association, that so long as she retains her individuality, so long will the right of a majority of her people to reform, alter, or abolish any form of government that they have adopted, or may adopt, remain indubitable, unalienable, indefeasible. Are we not at least bound to understand these words as qualifying and explaining every delegation of power made by the constitution about to be adopted? Are they not an admonition to those, whom, in conformity to the jargon of courts, we call our rulers, that they are our servants still-that their powers, however great, are not their own, but ours, exerted through them, our instruments. I beg you to observe, gentlemen, that the answer to these questions is not be affected by the degree of power thus conferred, or the forms used in designating and appointing those who are to exercise it. Remove all the restrictions of the constitution on the powers of go vernment; obliterate every prohibition; surrender the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press; abolish popular election, and let the title to office be conferred by lot or birth, for one year or for life; it will make no difference. The rights of the people will be less secure, but not less unquestionable. The ultimate sovereignty may be not so easily exerted, but it will be no less sacred. As long as the words of the people are sounding in the ears of magistrates; as long as they are admonished in the very charter of their authority, that their powers are but delegated, and may be resumed; that the constitution is but the creature of the people, and may be by them abolished; and that they themselves are servants, not masters; so long must it be confessed that the seat of sovereignty is in the people. "Be ye sure," saith the Psalmist, "that the Lord he is God. It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves." "God spake once. Yea, twice have I heard the same. Power belongeth unto God." "He can create, and he destroy," and he "is God alone." Gentlemen, I mean nothing profane. But such is the relation in which the people stand to the political existence of their governments; and such is the language, modified to the nature of the case, which it becomes magistrates to apply to their creator, the master of their life, the people. But, gentlemen, it is not my purpose to magnify this sovereignty of the people. It is not from my lips that even to this hallowed name shall be addressed that flattery which all sovereigns delight to hear. My only object is to disabuse the minds of those who are in the habit of imputing sovereignty to governments. The error is so natural that it is almost universal. In other countries it may not be error. There may perhaps be nations, where, by the consent of all concerned, sovereignty resides somewhere else than in the people. I do not know that the case is possible; but if it be, that is their concern, not ours. But, unfortunately, our lips are familiar with forms of speech more suited to foreign institutions than our own. We are taught to associate, in our minds, the idea of sovereignty with the trappings of royalty; and we look at least for the insignia of active power; the axe-the fasces, and the lictors. It demands an effort of thought and imagination for which VOL. V.-72 we are illy prepared, to look beyond the veil, to the presiding spirit of the Temple, that sanctifies the Priest, the Altar, and the Sacrifice. Like him who spoke to Moses on the Mount, it has no bodily presence by which we can identify it. It is an object of contemplation to the mind alone. The moral and intellectual faculty alone can comprehend it. What is that object? It is the coMMON MIND, made up of the collective intelligence and experience and virtue, and alike of the prejudices, passions and infirmities of a great multitude, bound together in one great permanent co-partnership of generation with generation; of the living with the dead, and with those who are yet unborn; in which the wisdom of each is the wisdom of all; the strength of each the strength of all; and the wants and weaknesses of each alike the care of all. He must have a very imperfect perception of this object, who does not discover in it something to be approached with reverence and awe. The idea of a common will pervading such a multitude, and acting with a power so overwhelming, is august and imposing. The sense of moral dignity must be perverted and corrupt in that man, who does not feel that it is the more august, the more imposing, because, withdrawn from vulgar gaze; "circling its throne with the majesty of darkness," it reposes quietly within the sanctuary; while they who strut the busy stage of life, and dazzle men's eyes with the trappings of authority, are but its servants, "the ministers of its will, to do its pleasure." With us, at least then, gentlemen, government is not sovereign. And this is the truth with which I am mainly anxious to impress you. If there be no sovereignty in government, we owe it no allegiance. That sentiment; that subordination of the heart; that devotion of spirit, which accounts the surrender of life itself a cheap sacrifice, is due alone to that collective whole, of which we ourselves are part. But is there then no sovereignty in that great central government, which, Colossus-like, bestrides the continent, and beneath which the states are sometimes invited to seek shelter for their violated rights and insulted dignity? Can there be so much active power, and yet no sovereignty? Can the thing so huge be yet a creature? Yes, gentlemen. That central government itself is but "the Leviathan of all the creatures of the people's will. Huge as it is, and while it 'lies floating many a rood,' it is still a creature. Its ribs, its fins, its whalebone, its blubber, the very spiracles through which it spouts its torrents of brine against the author of its existence, every thing of it and about it is from the people." In proclaiming that ratification of the federal constitution, from which it derives all its authority over her citizens, Virginia again accompanied this new delega tion of power with the same emphatic declaration, “that all power is naturally vested in, and consequently derived from the people; that magistrates, therefore, are their trustees and agents, and at all times amenable to them." In the very act of ratification itself she again declares, "that the powers granted under the constitu tion, being derived from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them, whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression." Was I right, when I just now inferred from the use |