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teenth year of peace, shows us how little the finance system has sustained our expectations. A war, even for a year, would double our expenditure. On the continent, Rothschild is the true monarch. Every state is in his books, and what must be the confusion, the beggary, and the ultimate bankruptcy of hostilities. The fall of every throne must follow the bankruptcy of every exchequer, and the whole social system be broken up amid revolutionary havoc and indivi

dual misery. We believe that the four great powers are so fully convinced of the evil of this tremendous hazard, that they are struggling in every shape of diplomacy to avert the continuance of a war between Turkey and Russia. If they succeed, peace will, in all probability, continue for a few years more; if they fail, Europe must instantly arm, and a scene of warfare be roused, to which there has been no equal since the fall of the Roman Empire.

LINES TO A YOUNG LADY, ON HER MARRIAGE.

THEY tell me, gentle lady, that they deck thee for a bride,
That the wreath is woven for thy hair, the bridegroom by thy side;
And I think I hear thy father's sigh, thy mother's calmer tone,
As they give thee to another's arms-their beautiful—their own.

I never saw a bridal but my eyelid hath been wet,

And it always seemed to me as though a joyous crowd were met
To see the saddest sight of all, a gay and girlish thing
Lay aside her maiden gladness-for a name-and for a ring.

And other cares will claim thy thoughts, and other hearts thy love,
And gayer friends may be around, and bluer skies above;
Yet thou, when I behold thee next, may'st wear upon thy brow,
Perchance, a mother's look of care, for that which decks it now.

And when I think how often I have seen thee, with thy mild
And lovely look, and step of air, and bearing like a child,
Oh how mournfully, how mournfully the thought comes o'er my brain,
When I think thou ne'er may'st be that free and girlish thing again.

I would that as my heart dictates, just such might be my lay,
And my voice should be a voice of mirth, a music like the May;
But it may not be !-within my breast all frozen are the springs,
The murmur dies upon the lip-the music on the strings.

But a voice is floating round me, and it tells me in my rest,
That sunshine shall illume thy path, that joy shall be thy guest,
That thy life shall be a summer's day, whose ev'ning shall go down,
Like the ev'ning in the eastern clime, that never knows a frown.

When thy foot is at the altar, when the ring hath press'd thy hand,
When those thou lov'st, and those that love thee, weeping round thee stand,
Oh! may the rhyme that friendship weaves, like a spirit of the air,
Be o'er thee at that moment-for a blessing and a prayer!

KINDRED SPIRITS.

DROPS from the ocean of eternity;
Rays from the centre of unfailing light;
Things that the human eye can never see,
Are spirits, yet they dwell near human
sight;

But as the shatter'd magnet's fragments still,
Though far apart, will to each other turn,
So, in the breast imprisoned, spirits will

50 ATHENEUM, VOL. 2, 3d series.

To meet their fellow spirits vainly burn; And yet not vainly. If the drop shall pass Through streams of human sorrow unde

filed,

If the eternal ray that heavenly was,

To no false earthly fire be reconciled,The drop shall mingle with its native main, The ray shall meet its kindred rays again!

NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Housekeeper's Oracle.-THIS is the last speech and dying words of Dr. Kitchiner, and a strange farrago it is. It is really not doing the work justice to call it simply, "The Housekeeper's Oracle ;" it ought to have been entitled a treatise on the omne scibile at least. "The head of man," says the learned author, "is like a Pudding; and whence have all Rhymes, Poems, Plots, and Inventions, sprang but from that same Pudding? What is Poetry but a Pudding of Words ?" But of all "Puddings of words"since that must be the phrase-certainly the most miscellaneous it has ever been our chance to partake of, is the "Housekeeper's Oracle." The worthy doctor must certainly have been in an amazingly excited state during its composition. The work deserves, indeed, in some respects, to be ranked with the highest effusions of the lyric muse. Its transitions are quite Pindaric; indeed, in sudden starts and skips "from grave to gay, from lively to severe"-from the concerns of this world to those of the next, and back again, perhaps-from an epistle of St. Paul to fresh sturgeon or roasted pig-we venture to say there is nothing either in Pindar, or any other poet to come near to it. Let us just open the book and go over a few pages of it. Passing over the author's picture, the title-page, and the preface, we find ourselves, after getting over a page about "the cage of matrimony," "the net of courtship," and other such matters, up to the ears, before we are aware, in a rambling dissertation about Cookery, Achilles, and the Jewish Patriarchs from which we are landed amid a series of extracts from the Northumberland Housebook-all leading (most naturally it will be allowed) to a sort of sermon on the duty of order, enforced by a quotation from the 14th chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians. Then comes a set of tables and observations on the annual

expenses of a family of three persons, with "two maids and a man servant, who have a dinner party once a month" followed by "The Genuine Golden Rules of Economy"-which give way, in their turn, to "a true story" (of three pages and a half in small type) about a linen draper "who went into business with better than a thousand pounds," and, by over feeding, became first corpulent and then bankrupt, and so was reduced at last "to live upon a chop and a draught of porter." It is the same thing if we open the book any where else. Towards the end, for instance, we find receipts for varnishing oil paintings, preventing the freezing of water in pipes, &c., succeeded by hints relative to beds and bedclothes-a direction for making common paste-a mode of preventing hats being damaged after a shower of rain-the proper way of cleaning knives—and a pair of short disquisitions on cosmetics and wounds of the skin. Cleopatra herself could boast of no such "infinite variety” as this. Certainly we have never before met with anything like it in the course of our reading.

It contains too, it is but fair to add, abundant evidence of the author's zeal in behalf of much higher interests than those of the pocket, and even of his possession of a heart really liberal and feeling, with all its affection for the virtue of a wise frugality. The work tells us so much about so many things of universal importance, that it may be fairly entitled Every Man's Vade Mecum-and is certainly one of the cheapest seven shillings' worths we have ever met with.

The Natural History of Living Objects for the Microscope. By C. R. GORING, M.D. and A. PRITCHARD. 8vo. In this work, which is to be continued in numbers, we are informed "that the discovery of a set of objects for ascertaining the defining and penetrating powers of mi

croscopes, has founded a new era in the history of those instruments," and that "the substitution of diamond and sapphire lenses for those made of glass, in the single microscope, with the most ingenious and effective method of illumination contrived by Dr. Wollaston, may also in some measure be attributed to the same source." This may be confounding cause and effect; but so difficult is it to handle the subject, that the author says, “I do not believe that out of ten observers with Amician reflectors, more than one could be found, at this present moment, fully capable of causing that admirable instrument to put forth its whole mettle." This only enhances the author's merit, for he presents us with some beautiful-colored plates of the larva and pupa of a plumed culex and of aquatic larva, the result of patient investigation and of ingenious contrivances. The work is written in a style of turgid vehemence and inflation. After dreading lest the use of the word nature should subject Dr. Goring to a charge of atheism, he says, "Men are perpetually wondering what can be the use of bugs, and fleas, and wasps, and such kind of vermin, and speak of them as absolute blots in the escutcheon of the Almighty!" We were not aware that men were perpetually asking about the use of bugs and such kind of vermin, but the Doctor having informed us of the fact, we were anxious for his solution, and he tells us that "the use of these little insects is surely to teach man a perpetual lesson of humility." It is not very humble to suppose a whole species created merely to teach us humility; and a chambermaid, when she destroys a whole colony "of such kind of vermin," may forget her humility in the consciousness of her destructive energies.

The Poetical Sketch-book. By T. K. HERVEY.-With a good deal yet to learn, and something to unlearn, Mr. H. is one of the most promising of our young poets-and he has presented us with a great many beautiful verses in

this little volume-beautiful in respect both of expression and sentiment. We know no writer, indeed, who imitates Moore's tender and tuneful lyric flow more successfully and indeed our chief wish with regard to Mr. Hervey is only that he were somewhat less of an imitator. Some of the pieces we have here, show, we think, that he could write better even than he has yet written. But he must let his genius be more its own guide than it has been. His productions, at present, with all their grace and even occasional gorgeousness, want that perfect finish and unity which nothing can give but fusion in the mint of a self-heated and unborrowing fancy.

There are several pieces in the volume which show more power than the following verses: but we give them, as being of convenient length, and because they are now, we believe, published for the first time :

STANZAS.

Away-away! and bear thy breast. Away-away! and bear thy breast

To some more pleasant strand! Why did it pitch its tent of rest Within a desart land!—

Though clouds may dim thy distant skies,

And love look dark before thee, Yet colder hearts and falser eyes

Have flung their shadows o'er thee! It is, at least, a joy to know

That thou hast felt the worst, And-if for thee no waters flow,

Thou never more shalt thirst! Go forward, like a free-born child, Thy chains and weakness past, Thou hast thy manna in the wild,

Thy Pisgah, at the last!

And yet, those far and forfeit bowers
Will rise, in after years,

The flowers, and one who nursed the flowers,
With smiles that turned to tears;
And I shall see her holy eye,

In visions of the night,
As her youthful form goes stealing by,
The beautiful and bright!

But I must wake, to bear along

A bruised and buried heart,
And smile amid the smiling throng
With whom I have no part;
To watch for hopes that may not bud
Amid my spirit's gloom,
Till He, who flowered the prophet's rod,
Shall bid them burst to bloom!

Montmorency, a Tragic Drama, the first of a series of Historical and other

Dramas; with Minor Poems. By insinuates, that these ignorant crimi

H. W. MONTAGUE.-There is danger, or at least, there ought to be extraordinary caution, in criticising a tragedy, which is announced as the first of a series; for the critic may foster a spurious germ, or he may destroy a whole genus, with all its included species, varieties, and individuals. There is no lack of courage in the design of writing even one tragedy, and how much then must we applaud the energies of a gentleman who sits down with a predetermination to write a whole score; or, for what we know, many score, for a series of tragedies may extend to the crack of doom. We have no apprehension of the author failing in his design, for tragedies, like that before us, are not of very difficult execution. Montmorency is characterised by undeviating mediocrity, by many unpleasant peculiarities of phrase, by a want of stage situations and incidents, and lastly by more skill in sustaining than in the conception of characters. The play is redundant of plagiarisms, which sometimes are not concealed by even an alteration of words. The author's minor poems are of greater merit than his tragedy.

nals may have been made the dupes of the more artful knaves that have been taught in the schools of our modern system. In the conclusion of his pamphlet, he sketches what he would recommend as the outline of an act of parliament, for the establishment of a school in each parish, the management of which should be vested in the minister, churchwardens, overseers, and a given number of parishioners, annually chosen. Besides these, with the exception of Sundayschools for religious instruction, he would not allow any gratuitous school to exist, even though supported by voluntary contributions.

The Legendary: consisting of Original Pieces, principally illustrative of American History, Manners and Scenery. Edited by N. P. WILLIS. London, 1828, R. J. Kennett; Boston, S. G. Goodrich.-There is a great deal of talent in this volume, especially in the prose, which in America has taken a more national character than its poetry has hitherto done. The new imagery, the new associations, the strongly marked minds of his own country, these should be the mines of an American writer; and a store of rich material do they indeed present. Like Antæus, his strength will be in touching his mother earth. The contents of the Legendary are unequal; yet Elizabeth Latimer, the Step-mother, and the Camp Meeting, are original and interesting tales.

Leaves from a Colleger's Album has a quaintness and cleverness about it, that makes us expect its author will do much more: it is by the editor, Mr. N. P. Willis, who is also the best of the poetical contributors; and, altogether, this is a work that well deserves to be continued.

Universal Education considered with regard to its Influence on the Happiness and Moral Character of the Middle and Lower Classes, &c. by one of the People, (Whittaker, London,) is viewed by the author as the principal source of the increase of crime, and the cause of that luxury, pride, and dissipation, which at once impoverish, and, seen through false optics, embellish society. He wishes the good old days of homespun, cider, bacon, cabbage, and ignorance, again to return, that master Tommy might not be compelled to learn the classics, to prevent the porter's son from treading on his heels. He admits that facts are D'Erebine; or, the Cynic. 3 vols. rather against him, since by far the -The veriest trash that ever attemptgreater number of delinquents have ed to depict fashionable life, of which been decidedly untaught in their du- its author is evidently ignorant; and ties either to God or man. But ra- the endeavor at romantic incident is ther than education should escape, he as tiresome as it is improbable.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

"Serene Philosophy!

She springs aloft, with elevated pride,
Above the tangling mass of low desires,
That bind the fluttering crowd; and, angel-wing'd,
The heights of Science and of Virtue gains,
Where all is calm and clear."

CONSTRUCTION AND USE OF CON

DUCTORS OF LIGHTNING.

On the 30th of March, M. Gay Lussac, in the name of the physical branch of the Académie des Sciences, read a report on various questions put by the minister of war, concerning the construction of lightning conductors, and their application to powder magazines. The questions were put by the minister in consequence of an injury sustained by a powder magazine at Bayonne, to which the conductor had appeared to contribute, instead of serving as a protection. The report states, that the accident at Bayonne was to be ascribed to the imperfect construction of the conductor, which, instead of being made to enter the ground at the foot of the wall of the magazine, either to a sufficient depth, or into a pool of water, was carried off horizontally to a distance of thirtysix feet, by five wooden uprights, thirty-two inches high, and then made to take a perpendicular direction downwards, but for only six feet, into a hole six feet square, built up on every side with masonry, but having at the bottom of every side two arches, to give a greater surface of contact between the earth and the charcoal with which the hole was filled. The using the charcoal in its natural state, and not calcined, is noted as another source of imperfection. The points of contact, which were four rays of iron at three feet from the extremity of the conductor, each one foot and a half long, and having three points and four other rays lower down, and one and a half feet from the extremity, each seven and a half inches long, were also pronounced insufficient. The report concludes that a conductor well constructed would have preserved the powder magazine

at Bayonne from all injury; but that such magazines, when properly constructed, and bomb proof, having nothing to fear from lightning, they are more likely to be affected by the electric fluid, especially when the risk of imperfect construction is taken into consideration, if provided with a conductor, than if left without one.

COLOGNE WATER.

The last number of the Journal des Connaissances Usuelles contains the following recipe for making Eau de Cologne of the purest quality :-Spirits of wine of thirty-six degrees, four litres, (the litre is about an English quart); essential oil of cédrat and of citron, each three drachms; oil of bergamot, two ounces; oil of lavender, one drachm and twenty-four grains; oil of thyme, twelve grains; neroli, three drachms; oil of rosemary, three drachms and twenty-four grains. Put the oils into the spirits of wine, and leave them to infuse for one month, then filter through blottingpaper: put into the mixture, when bottled, one pint of eau de melisse.

DIMINUTION OF THE DIP OF THE

NEEDLE.

A paper by Captain Sabine was lately read to the Royal Society, detailing the result of observations made by him in August last, in the horticultural gardens at Chiswick, on the dip of the magnetic needle in London, compared with the determination of the dip in the Regent's Park, in August, 1821, published in the "Philosophical Transactions for 1822." The result obtained is the average of observations made with five different instruments. A decrease is found in the dip in London of 17.5 in seven years, or an annual decrease of 2'.5.

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