between them and the Supreme, whose good offices are to be gained by entreaties and bribes; and when their presents have no effect, they feel themselves aggrieved, and grumble accordingly. When the service was over, men and women, young and old, thronged around the altar, pouring forth praises, prayers, complaints, and adjurations. There was a woman with a scrofulous child, streaming with tears, and shrieking out: 'O divine lady, who dost so much for others, why wilt thou do nothing for this?' An old man, paralysed, held up by his two sons, was making the best bargain for himself: 'Two candlesticks I promise thee, of the best silver; and if the harvest be good, a gown at least worth ten carlini.' In a corner apart, a man lay prostrate on the ground, his frame quivering with his emotions, and evidently weeping bitterly. 'You see that man?' said L. 'I know him, for I saw him only three months ago where do you suppose? At Naples, on trial for his life, for an atrocious murder at Resina. He escaped only by a flaw, and meantime has, no doubt, committed a dozen crimes, and will commit a hundred more, till stopped by the fate of all his tribe, a bullet or the galleys. Meanwhile, he is winding up his score with Heaven, and to-morrow he will be again on the mountains with a comfortable conscience. A little noise at the door made us turn; a train of pilgrims appeared blindfolded, with each a handkerchief round the arm, the end held by a friend. Down the middle of the aisle ran a strip of gray marble, which the people scrupulously avoided treading on. The foremost pilgrim now knelt down, and proceeded to crawl along the marble from end to end, licking it as he went. The rest forthwith knelt down, and did likewise. The length might be about sixty feet, and there were eighteen of them who went through this nasty superstition. party at their meal, is to insure an invitation to join them; and if the invitation is accepted, they are genuinely delighted. There must be no mean qualities in a people which continues kind-hearted and amiable after eight centuries of the very worst government in Europe. The fun had been fast and furious up to this point, but as the sun sunk in the west, there was an evident slackening. Carriages began to move off one by one; the sons and daughters, wives and husbands, who had been dancing and flirting apart till now, gathered themselves together, every one bearing a bough from the neighbouring trees with an image of the Madonna suspended from it. Tired and pleased, we retraced our morning's path through the vines, and entered the Portici gate as the last rays of the sun were fading over the murmuring city and quiet bay. THE MONTH: MANY a one is glad that the holidays are over, and to be once more fairly at work. The scientific and learned societies have all commenced another session Linnæans, with something very dry; the Antiquaries, -the Royals, with something very abstruse; the with something very dusty; the Geographicals, with something very amusing; the Chemicals, with something very acid. From such beginnings the brightest hopes may be entertained of the discoveries to be made, and the work to be accomplished by the time the session shall be over in June of '59. The Geographicals here and there, however, find time for a serious paper, and had one on the laborious search From the church into the open air, was stepping at made in Australia for Leichardt and his exploringonce into the deluge. A sea of figures covered the party; as hopeless a search, unfortunately, as that open space, and spread out far and wide between the after Franklin. Mr Gregory, the author of the trees, and from the crowd ascended a universal hum paper, is already favourably known as an earnest and tumult of voices, broken by shouts of laughter traveller and explorer. He is, as the phrase runs, and the reports of occasional crackers and guns in the Geographical Society's medallist, not because he honour of the day. Wherever the shade was thickest, makes their medals, but because he received one; a group was on the grass, spread out around their meal; and wherever the ground was smoothest, the which is about as clever as to call the man who dance was going on with unwearied activity. Here listens to a good story, a humorist.-The Civil first I saw the tarantella danced, and, till then, never Engineers have awarded a long list of prizes in the knew what dancing really was. These brown, vigorous, shape of medals and books, in encouragement of handsome women, and swarthy, strong-knit men, as their own special branches of art and science: for their deep eyes flashed and sparkled, and the rattle of improved methods of submerging telegraph cables— the castanets rung louder and sharper, seemed to have for hydraulic mortar-for an improved construction a new life in them, and to fling their whole life into and arrangement of railway stations-for the building their limbs. The tarantella is, in fact, a wonderful piece of pantomime, and one that will not bear of docks, and the laying down of water-supply; and transplanting. Then, as they stopped at last, utterly they announce that they will be ready with similar exhausted and panting for breath, the glass of iced-rewards next year for whomsoever may have the water or lemonade was at hand, and they would genius or industry to deserve them. recommence as perseveringly as before. The consumption of macaroni that day must have been something enormous. To see a Neapolitan eat it at any time, is a fact in one's life. Coils upon coils descend into his fathomless interior; and when he has stopped-apparently from sheer repletion-a glass of lemonade starts him as fresh as ever. This day, the few who stopped in Naples must have been badly off for their food, for all the macaroni-sellers seemed congregated here, and the smoke of their little tin stoves went up under every tree; but those venders of spirits and strong drinks that are the pest of an English fair, were not to be seen. The Italians are habitually and constitutionally temperate, and perhaps, for this reason, a stranger wandering through the crowd is sure not only of civility, but kindness. If you draw near the dancers, they give way to give you the best place. To stop near a As regards mechanical subjects-we have heard of Alger's patent furnace, which is so constructed as to produce from 400 to 600 tons of pig-iron a week, and with a saving of 25 per cent. in fuel and labour; and viewing the cost in proportion to the quantity of iron produced, it is said to be one-half of that by the present method.-We hear, too, that certain manufacturers in Sweden are producing iron and steel by Bessemer's process; and that in works newly established at Sheffield, equally successful results have been achieved.-Now that the noisy talk concerning the Atlantic telegraph is over, much quiet discussion is held thereupon; on the causes of failure, means of reparation, precautions to be observed; besides the puzzling questions of magnetic phenomena. A few signals have been forced through the advantages to be derived from steam-machinery. The Peninsular and Oriental Company have caused diligent experiments to be made on the shape of screws, to discover, if possible, that which will secure the wire by the aid of a Daniell's battery; but too few and feeble to make the projectors very sanguine. Professor Thomson, writing to his friend Joule, says that in his trials upon the wire, he has discovered some curious facts with respect to insu-quickest voyage. Their fleet now comprises twenty lation, and the freaks of electric currents, some of which admit of explanation, while the most remain unintelligible. The rationale will no doubt be brought to light some day; meanwhile the professor is busy studying what he calls the pathology of faults. There is telegraphic progress to be recorded nevertheless. The Gorgon, on her return from that triumphant demonstration at New York, took soundings for another line of telegraph, from the banks of Newfoundland to Fayal, and thence to the mouth of the English Channel. A cable, weighing ten tons to the mile, is to be laid across from Suffolk to Holland; one from Cromer to Emden, and another to Cuxhaven. And our countrymen at the antipodes are about to connect Victoria with Tasmania by a cable of 300 miles across Bass's Strait. Wrecks on the eastern coast have again occasioned a revival of the question about harbours of refuge on that side of the island. Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire each claims foremost consideration, and we can only wish the Harbour of Refuge commissioners who are now inquiring into the subject a happy deliverance.-The much-debated question of coal for the steam-navy is decided by the committee in favour of north-country coal in preference to Welsh. It is preferred, they say, because, while effectual means exist for the consumption of smoke, it injures the boiler-tubes less than the coal from Wales. This accords with the experiments made in Lancashire with coal and coke as a fuel for locomotives, which give the advantage demonstrably to coal, and for the same reason: the mischievous incrustation deposited on the tubes is avoided; they collect only an oily soot such as forms on a tea-kettle, and last as long again as with coke. This reads fairly enough in print; but we happen to know that the annoyance to passengers on some railways from the smoke of coal-burning locomotives, is a constant grievance one which they ought not to be expected to tolerate.-Up in Caithness a considerable deposit of bituminous shale has been met with, which, on analysis at the School of Mines in London, is found to contain 45 per cent. of fish-oil. How came the oil into the shale? is a question we should like to see answered. Will it do for gas? There is a village in Ireland now lit with gas manufactured from the peat of a neighbouring bog. The merits of Mr Wethered's 'combined steam' are more and more recognised by practical men, and not without reason. Mr Wethered, proceeding from the fact that ordinary steam is far from pure, and therefore less energetic than it might be, causes it in his machines to combine in certain proportions with a very dry steam, and then utilising the waste heat by an arrangement of tubes in the chimney, he shews that the steam can be worked at from 300 to 400 degrees; and he makes it appear that, with this combined steam,' engineers have greater economy with great increase of power.-In Paris, M. Séguin aims at the economy in another way: by his pulmonary steam-engine,' constructed on the principle, that as heat and force are correlative, it is possible to get the force without the prodigious waste of heat that takes place in engines of the usual construction. All that we as yet know of its mode of action is, that the same steam is used over and over again, returning in full vigour to the generator to repeat its work. It is clear that we are yet far from the end of the seven screw-steamers of from 350 to 2620 tons burden. Few persons but have heard of the advantages promised from the use of thick iron plates or slabs as shields for ships or batteries in naval warfare. Government has been trying the question in a practical way at Portsmouth, and set the Excellent firing away at an iron-banked frigate, and at the Erebus, one of the iron-batteries built for use in the Russian war. The result appears to be conclusive. A discharge from thirty-two pounders made slight hollow scars upon the surface; but the ball from a sixtyeight pounder went through the four-inch iron, and shivered the oaken beams behind. It seems safe to infer from this, that the superiority of iron to wood for defensive purposes is not yet established. A machine-making firm in Surrey have brought chant praises, because turnip-growing is to become out a blast-drill,' over which agriculturists ought to therewith a matter of absolute certainty, seeing that it makes short work with the fly. Drawn up and down a field, it dusts the young leaves of the turnipplants with a mixture of lime and soot, not on one side only, but on both sides; and while the fans are performing this salutary operation, they create a strong indraught, which sucks in and annihilates the fly. What will the entomologists say ?-Heer Ochsner of Rotterdam-and who so likely to accomplish such a feat as a Dutchman?-has demonstrated the possibility of walking on water. He does this by means of his newly-invented podoscaph; and recently astonished his countrymen by appearing on the Maas, wearing a podoscaph fifteen feet long on each foot, and holding a pole, flattened at one end as a paddle, in his hand. Thus equipped, he walked up the Maas to the Rhine, and on to Cologne in seven days.--In Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute have approved a brick-making machine, which, fed with clay, squeezes out bricks quite as fast as they can be lifted away. The moulds are fitted to the rim of a wheel; hence the supply is rapid and regular.—We may very properly end these notices of machines and minerals with a passage from the recently published Report of the Chamber of Commerce of Wolverhampton, a town that knows something about coal and iron. Theythe Chamber-are not afraid to refer the late commercial crisis to its true causes, chief among which was the forcing of manufactures into the market far beyond the natural and legitimate demand; and this system of forcing, they say, was rendered possible, and in many cases, stimulated by a system of open credits granted by mercantile houses in favour of foreign correspondents; by banking facilities afforded to men of little or no capital, and by the discounting of fictitious bills of exchange.' Let manufacturers and money-brokers lay these things to heart, and we shall hear no more of ruin arising out of what was fondly called 'unexampled prosperity.' We find in the chemical arts a few noticeable facts: a red dyeing material derived from coal-tar, specimens of which were exhibited to the Franklin Institute above mentioned.-At Montreal, two able chemists, to baffle the dishonest designs of those who take photographic copies of bank-notes, have discovered an ink which is to render that trick impossible for the future. The ink, made of calcined oxide of chromium, the colouring matter of the emerald, is in colour a good green, and is distinguished as the 'Canada bank-note tint."' With this a geometrical pattern is to be printed as a groundwork, and on that the denomination in the usual way, and such a note, we are assured, is safe from the attempts of knavish photographers. are. M. St Claire-Deville, whose mission to the volcanoes M. Jamin has done some good work, and of refined quality, in optical science, experimenting on the variations in the refraction of water under different pressures. The result, it is thought, will have a practical use, inasmuch as the phenomenon is a measure of the compressibility of water; and if a concordance should be discovered between water and other liquids, the measure will be arrived at without having to take into account, as at present, the size of the tubes or vessels in which the compression is carried on. Referring to the statement in the September Month concerning the insecticide powder exhibited to the Academy by M. Millot-Brulé, we take the opportunity to mention here, that the sulphur-coal of which the powder is said to be composed, exists abundantly in England, and is known among geologists and miners as 'coal brasses.' Large quantities are raised near Halifax, and used in the manufacture of vitriol and copperas; as also in the adjacent counties of Lancashire, Durham, and Northumberland. In South Wales, the coal contains pyrites of a superior quality, which, after a roasting to expel the sulphur, are used in the manufacture of pig-iron. According to the returns prepared by Mr Robert Hunt, and published by the School of Mines, the quantity of pyrites raised in the United Kingdom in 1857 amounted to 74,000, worth £63,000. In this the pyritous coal, or coal brasses, figures for 11,000 tons. New discoveries are recorded in photography. One is, that photographs having all the appearance of real solid relief, can be taken from engravings-a flat surface. And Mr Fox Talbot, to whom this interesting art owes so much, 'has succeeded,' to quote the statement put forth by the Photographic Society, 'in transferring the sun-picture direct from either glass or paper negatives to the engraver's steel or copper.' Some well-known objects have already been experimented on in this way, which, as Mr Talbot describes, 'is easy to practise, requiring the same qualifications in the operator that ordinary photography does— namely, a certain tact and dexterity which everybody does not possess. All photographs can be engraved that make good transparencies; but feeble ones, without strong contrast of light and shade, are not so successful.-The Society are making preparations for another photographic exhibition at their rooms in Coventry Street next January; they announce, moreover, the formation of a photographic library for the use of members; and place the rooms 'at their service for all purposes connected with the progress and recognition of the heliographic art;' and further, to prevent the record of their proceedings falling into arrear, the Society's Journal is to appear twice a month during the period of their meetings. With a view to the promotion and preservation of what is called 'high art,' painters are warned against copying from photographs instead of copying from nature: a warning well worth attention. Few real lovers of art would wish to see it degenerate into a laborious PreThe diffusion of sound knowledge thereupon by the aid of primary schools, as in Austria, is a question on which many thoughtful minds are engaged. One of the best papers read at the late Social Science meeting at Liverpool, was Mr Ruskin's on Education in Art: it abounds in sensible remarks on the subject. People should learn to draw as a matter of course, as they learn to read, write, and cipher; if only that with the knowledge of drawing they have the same power over form, as with arithmetic over number. No fear that all the world will become astonishing artists: Mr Ruskin speaks the truth on that point where he says: 'We shall not succeed in making a peasant's opinion good evidence on the merits of Elgin and Lycian marbles; nor is it necessary to dictate to him in his garden the preference of gillyflower or of rose; yet I believe we may make art a means of giving him helpful and healthy pleasure, and of gaining for him serviceable knowledge.' CRYSTAL PALACE OF NAN-KING. SITTING at our comfortable firesides, and reading any old-style book that speaks of the Porcelain Tower of Nan-king,' we at once conjure up to view a famous superstructure of china-ware-a leviathan cream-jug, flower-pot, or tea-cup of exquisite porcelain. But let us hear what a late visitor says of it: 'A comparatively small portion is white. Green is the predominant colour, from the fact that the curved tiles of the projecting roofs are all of this colour, while the wood-work supporting the roofs is of the most substantial character, and in the peculiar style of Chinese architecture, curiously wrought and richly painted in various colours. The bricks in the body of the building are well burnt, and on the external surface are green, yellow, red, or white. The bricks and tiles are of very fine clay, and highly glazed, so that the tower presents a most gay and beautiful appearance, that is greatly heightened when seen in the reflected sunlight.' So that, after all, an Englishman at a distance is not far wrong in the conception he may have formed of the Nan-king wonder; and if any reader has a wish to see for himself a veritable 'China brick' of this far-famed tower, just let him step aside for a moment into the Missionary Museum, the next time he passes Bloomfield Street, Finsbury, London, E. C., and there, we doubt not, the porter or the clerk will feel flattered if called upon to exhibit the singular specimen of Nan-king porcelain. The Nan-king prodigy has doubtless been a pet with the Chinese people themselves, for they have not failed to ornament it within and without. For instance, the inner walls of each story are lined with polished tiles, a foot square, on each of which the figure of Buddh is moulded in bass-relief, and richly gilt. Each flat has, on an average, more than two hundred of these Dutch-tiles;' and over the whole of the interior, there is an aggregate of two thousand. The niches in each landing-place are graced with idols and miniature images. Short and pithy proverbs are inscribed here, there, and everywhere, to catch the eye of the stroller. Outside, over each balcony, there is a projected roof of wood, carved and curiously painted; and from these jutting corners there swing bells, which keep up a perpetual jingle with every passing breeze. The native account of the pagoda gives the calculation that, on the whole, there are 150 bells on the edifice.' To give additional attraction to it, this pagoda has its lamps and lanterns in its windows and at its angles. The work already referred to states that 'outside the nine stories there are 128 lanterns, and in the lower floor, twelve glass lamps;' 140 in all, which, when lit up, must produce a most striking illumination. A building like this, then, must have its attractions for various grades-the superstitious, the sight-seers, the gay, the curious, and the idle. To notice one of the names borne by the lofty mass-the recompensing favour monument. Some four centuries ago, the emperor Yung-loh removed his court from Nan-king to Pe-king; and on doing this, he looked about to see what tribute of gratitude he could raise to the memory of his august mother in that metropolis where his parent had nursed and trained him. The celebrated pagoda was in ruins; and his majesty conceived the idea of re-erecting the fallen structure. He did so; and, setting aside its connection with a form of meaningless superstition, the pagoda of Nan-king has stood for four hundred years in the centre of China, a glorious mark of the grateful love of a son for his mother's care, and a Chinese sermon in stone,' on the text, Honour thy father and thy mother.' Amongst the names given by the Chinese to this famous tower are-The Long Spear, and The Thirteenstoried Pagoda. Either appellation suggests something of its great elevation, and to illustrate both requires a hurried outline from top to bottom of the huge skeleton. Its site lies a little south of the city-walls, near the gate of collected gems,' within the precincts of some Buddhist lands that are of great extent, stretching northward to the banks of the Yang-tze-Kiang. There is a tradition that, on laying the foundation of this gigantic superstructure, several thousand poundsweight of coal-dust were first of all laid down, to make the underground firm and safe. Over this, a brickwork platform rises ten feet high, up which there is, all round the base, a flight of ten steps, leading into the interior of the lowest floor. The circumference of the structure at this part is nearly 300 feet. The thickness of the wall here is computed at four yards. The material used in the construction is generally brick, stone, and mortar; the bricks in the body of the building being large and well burned-their exterior being vari-coloured. There is a huge, lofty mast that runs up from the bottom to the top through the middle of the entire structure, which possibly may have originated the name 'long spear' or shaft.' The exterior of the pagoda is octagonal throughout, but-except the lower floor, which also is eight-sided -the interior to the top is quadrangular. As you ascend to the summit of this tower, you have to wind up a screw-flight of 190 steps. You pass through nine floors or stories, all of equal height. At each story there is a landing-stage, with two or three openings leading out to a small and unsafe balcony, from which, if one likes to venture, he may take a When grand survey of the surrounding country. you reach the highest floor, you find, of course, that the diameter of the circle has lessened considerably, and the thickness of the wall is four feet less than at the bottom. But what may probably disappoint you much, is the discovery that this so-called thirteen-storied pagoda' has, after all, only nine. It is invariably spoken of by the citizens of Nan-king, and believed by their countrymen at a distance to be of thirteen stories.' The inconsistency is explained by themselves, on the ground that in the original outline it was the design of the projectors to build up thirteen floors; but, having reached the ninth, apprehensions were excited lest the course of the clouds should be interrupted, or the wrath of the god of thunder should be awakened. So it was deemed prudent to desist from any further addition to a tower whose top might reach unto heaven.' In the original plan, the full height of the heavenpointing spire was to be near 350 feet; but the latest foreign visitors, on measuring it, found it to be only 261. Thirty feet over and above the topmost story, the cupola rises on the summit of the magnificent may-pole we have described as running up from the bottom, and forming a shaft to the whole edifice. This pinnacle consists of several coils of iron hoops; and, as report goes, under this valuable dome there are deposited gems of marvellous virtue and value, besides bolts of gold, strings of copper money, lumps of silver, tea, silk, satins, and sacred manuscripts. The rearing of such a monument as the pagoda of Nan-king must have cost a large sum; and the repairs alone, which were undertaken by the imperial government four hundred years ago, drew three million and a quarter dollars from the national funds, or nearly L.1,000,000 in English money. Another of the native names for the Porcelain Tower is The Pagoda of A-yuh; and this leads us to look a little into its early history. The form of the building clearly connects it with the introduction of Buddhism into China. A-yuh was an early sovereign in Central India, noted for the number of temples he caused to be raised in honour of Buddha. It is presumed, from his name being given to this tower, that it was erected by some of his followers on their migrating into China. The legendary account of the event is as follows: An Indian priest of the Buddhist profession reached Nan-king about the year of our Lord 250. This city was at the time the capital of China, and the residence of the imperial family. That foreign priest soon became popular for his ability to perform extraordinary and unheard-of feats, all of which he attributed to the divine spirit he worshipped. The renown of the western sojourner reached the ears of his majesty on the throne, who commanded the stranger into his presence, and demanded what supernatural evidences he could produce in favour of Buddha. The Buddhist father, in reply, assured his majesty that there were numerous relics of Buddha to be found over the face of the earth, and that, if his majesty desired, he himself would go in search, and return with one possessed of supernatural qualities. The emperor then promised that, should the priest succeed in obtaining such a relic, he, on his part, would erect an edifice in which it should be meetly lodged. The priest started upon his cruise, and within a month returned with a jar or earthen receptacle, in which a relic of Buddha was lying. It was at once presented to his majesty, and immediately the splinter-it was said to be a bone of Buddha-began to exhibit its miraculous virtues. It lighted up the imperial apartments; it smashed the copper vessel into which it was thrown; steel and diamond could not scratch it; fire could not injure it; and huge hammers could not make the slightest impression on it. Not only this; but the emperor ordered an attendant of powerful muscle to advance, and, with a heavy mallet, strike some tremendous blows on the piece. Still to no purpose, except to break the hammer, and to magnify the effulgence of the bone. The king's faith was confirmed. He at once commenced building the first pagoda in China; and this was the Nan-king pagoda. At last, to conclude, which we do with great reluctance, we have to tell a sad truth of the history of our Nan-king pagoda during the past twelve months. We confess we approach the tale with disrelish. We have lingered about the 'spiritual fane' (another name for it) as if it was now and was to be. But, as on every other object of admiration in and out of the Celestial Empire, there is written on it 'vanity of vanities.' During its existence of 1600 years, storms have swept over it, and some have swept down its dome; thunders have rolled over it, and lightning struck its iron-coiled cupola to the ground; and the ruthless hands of brigands have defaced various parts of the structure: but to the eternal disgrace of the 'rebels' who have occupied Nan-king for the last five years, they first defaced the whole of the interior by fire, and thien blew up the entire edifice with gunpowder, scattering its famous bricks and antique relics to the four winds of heaven. The Crystal Palace of Nan-king is no more. SUPERIORITY OF PREVENTIVE TO REMEDIAL 'In the operations of nature, there is generally a succession of processes co-ordinated for a given result; a peach is not directly developed as such from its elements; the seed would, a priori, give no idea of the tree, nor the tree of the flower, nor the fertilised germ of that flower of the pulpy fruit in which the seed is buried. It is eminently characteristic of the Creative Wisdom, this farseeing and prevision of an ultimate result, through the successive operations of a co-ordinate series of seemingly very different conditions. The further a man discerns, in a series of conditions, their co-ordination to produce a given result, the nearer does his wisdom approachthough the distance be still immeasurable-to the Divine wisdom. One philanthropist builds a fever-hospital, another drains a town. One crime-preventer trains the boy, another hangs the man. One statesman would raise money by augmenting a duty, or by a direct tax; and finds the revenue not increased in the expected ratio. Another diminishes a tax, or abolishes a duty, and through foreseen consequences the revenue is improved.' So remarks Professor Owen in his British Association Address. Of course, it is easy to understand that the drainer of the town, the trainer of the boy, and the diminisher of the tax, act in a more divine manner, as well as with better likelihood of good results, than those who take the opposite courses. Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH. Also sold by WILLIAM ROBERTSON, 23 Upper Sackville Street, DUBLIN, and all Booksellers. |