On ex

ed vegetable substances with a purplish crust. amination under the microscope, it is found to be composed of innumerable spherical bodies, seated upon a gelatinous substratum. The globules are of various At first they are sizes, probably depending upon age. furnished with a wide pellucid border, and contain a deep red homogeneous mass. As they increase in size, this border gradually becomes narrower, and at length altogether disappears, while the internal mass, which at first was simple, becomes broken into numerous distinct granules or seeds, which are finally discharged. Red snow, we are informed by Professor Agardh in his interesting memoir on the Protococcus, was first observed by Dr Saussure, in the year 1760, on Mount Beven, in Switzerland, and subsequently so frequently among the Alps, that he was surprised how such a phenomenon should have escaped the attention of other travellers, especially Scheuchzer. Ramon found red snow on the Pyrenees, and the botanist Sommerfeldt in Norway. At the beginning of the century, it was noticed on several of the mountains of Italy, along the Apennines; and in March, 1808, the whole country round Cadore, Belluno, and Feltre was covered in one night to the depth of twenty centimetres with a rose-coloured snow, a pure white snow having fallen before and after, so that the coloured The same fact snow formed an intermediate stratum. is recorded at the same time in several other Italian localities. Still red snow excited little attention among botanists, and had not obtained a place in our scientific arrangements, until Captain Ross discovered it in Baffin's Bay, covering tracts of some miles in extent, and penetrating in some places to the depth of ten or twelve feet. The specimens brought home by this celebrated traveller were submitted to Mr Bauer and Mr Brown, to be examined botanically, the latter of whom, with his usual acuteness, decided that it was "Algarum genus?? Confervis simplicibus et Tremellæ cruentæ quodammodo affine??" The "local habitation" thus assigned, has been acknowledged by all succeeding botanists; and Agardh has completed its history by giving it" a name.” -Harv.

DISTRIBUTION OF FOSSIL PLANTS, with the Number of Genera and Species. By M. Geppert, 1845.

FormationIN

Families.

Species.

Grauwacke, beds older than carbo

niferous series,

Carboniferous limestone,

3

Coal measures,

Lower new red sand

stone,

Magnesian limestone,

3

19

Gres begarre, Bunter sandstein,

Muschelkalk,

Keuper marls,

52

Lias,

12

Oolite series,

159

Wealden,

16

Lower cretaceous beds,

Chalk,

Monte Bolea beds (Lower Tertiary) 4

7

Other lower Tertiary,

10

Middle and Upper Tertiary (Mio

cene and Pliocene,)

Unknown positions,

1792

Literature.

The new part of this important work contains maps and letter-press descriptions, severally illustrative of the Geography of Quadrupeds, Rain, and European and Asiatic rivers. The style of engraving surpasses anything of the kind we have seen, whilst the matter at the end exceeds, in copiousness, as well as in felicity of arrangement, all treatises of physical geography which have appeared either at home or abroad. We shall only say, in the mean time, that if this work is not extensively studied and pored over, we shall regard science as being more on the decline in England than Mr Babbage, in his despair, thought it was.

The Edinburgh Tales. Vol. I. and II.

Healthy talented reading. Next to Mrs Johnstone's own lucubrations, we like "the Author's Daughter," "Johnny Darbyshire," and "Martha Guinnis and her Son." Mrs Johnstone excels in portraiture and dialogue, but is defective in plot and narrative incident. Take the most elaborate of her tales,-Violet Hamilton, -the plot is meagre, but some of the characters are rich to the life, as old Cryppes, his son Jack, and Mrs Burke Barker, and also the insurance agent, Bigsby, whom the husband of the latter brought to ruin and death,--whilst Mrs Herbert is, like Mrs Hemans' poetry, all pale water colours together, Marion Linton a monstrosity, no more natural than a gilded weather-cock is like the veritable "chanticleer of morn," and Violet herself as milksop as any heroine need be. "Mrs Robert's Christmas Dinner," is a most delightful, and what is more important, a most useful fiction; but our special favourite is "West Country Exclusives," which every daughter of Glasgow should read. Bailie Pirgivie is second to no magistrate we ever read of, except the luminary of the Saltmarket. We look forward to the third volume with interest, and shall be happy again to meet with Mrs Johnstone, who has herselt put too many writers on the gridiron to take our honest strictures amiss.

Graham's English Synonymes.

We have little predilection for the class termed "wordcatchers," as they often look at terms instead of ideas, and so miss the substance, both in what they write themselves, and in what they read in others,-but still in this penny-a-page era, (penny-a-line is now out of the question,) words flow so glibly, both from tongue and pen, that the nicer distinctions of language seem well nigh obpure literated, and that greatly to the deterioration of " English undefiled." Southey held that so long as we had our translations of the Bible and Prayer Book, there was no danger of the language being unloosened from its moorings; but the danger from our spreading periodical literature is more imminent than he imagined. Mr Graham's useful work is calculated to stem the current; and we should be glad to find it in the hands of modern our London writers, from quarterly reviewers down to correspondents."

ed. Its contents, although certainly not all of equal merit, are attractive and popular, and we trust that the series will be persevered in, despite of even young Southey. We are glad to see Borrow's Gypsies in Spain occupying a place in the Library-although not so racy as the Bible in Spain, it is a more solid and elaborate production; and it has a chapter on language, of which more anon. We hope many will be "sold" as well as printed."

Drew's Manual of Astronomy.

Popular manuals of science are the most difficult of all kinds of books. Scylla exists on one hand in the shape of too much simplicity, -and Charybdis on the other, in the garb of over reconditeness. In the first, you give facts with the spoon, merely giving data for the memory, without informing the head how the data have been obtained,-in the second, by being too technical, you address yourself only to learned pundits, and exclude the masses from science. This manual comes nearer the happy medium than any we have yet seen, -but still it cannot be fully understood without mathematical knowledge, which is the alphabet of astronomy as well as of all physical philosophy.

Remarks in Reference to Medical Relief.

A brief tract, pointing out the inadequate remuneration received by medical men for attendance on the poor. The New Poor Law Act authorises assessment for this purpose; and we understand that an association of practitioners has been formed in Edinburgh, to assist in carrying out this provision.

Book of Entertaining Knowledge, No. 1.-Matrimony.

A new library. The publishers have done their part well, having produced a cheap and prettily illustrated book, the author has done his rather lamely, having only given a gossipping account of marriage, as celebrated at home, the colonies, and foreign parts. His lucubrations, including what he quotes from Brand and Chapman, may, however, have charms for simpering misses, and ingenious young men, who, seeing matrimony atar off, may be charmed with the enchantment lent by dis

tal.ce.

Cleanings.

THE VOICE OF NATURE." It is to be observed, that the same wisdom which ordained the vegetable creation for the use of feeding and healing the body, hath applied it also to a moral and intellectual use, for the enlarging of our ideas, and the enlightening of our understandings. It joins its voice in the universal chorus of all created things, and to the ear of reason celebrates the wisdom of the Almighty Creator. As the heavens, from day to day, and from night unto night, declare the glory of God, so do the productions of the earth; all trees and herbs, in their places and seasons, speak the same language, from the climates of the north to the torrid regions of the south, and from winter to spring and the harvest. Happiest of all is he, who, having cultivated herbs and trees, and studied their virtues, and applied them for his own and for the common benefit, rises from thence to a contemplation of the great Parent of good, whom he sees and adores in these his glorious works. The world canuot show us a more exalted character than that of a truly religious philosopher, who delights to turn all things to the glory of God; who from the objects of his sight derives improvement to his mind, and in the glass of things temporal sees the image of things eternal. Let a man have all the world can give him, he is still miserable, if he has a grovelling, unlettered, undevout mind; let him have his gardens, his fields, his woods, and his lawns, for grandeur, ornament, plenty, and gratification, while at the same time God is not in all his thoughts; and let another have neither field nor garden; let him only look at nature with an enlightened mind; a mind which can see and adore the Creator in his works; can consider

them as demonstrations of his power, his wisdom, his goodness, his truth: this man is greater as well as happier in his poverty, than the other in his riches. The one is but little higher than a beast, the other but little lower than an angel."-Rev. W. Jones of Nayland.

SCIENCE versus SUNDAY.-In page 428 of Cosmos, Humboldt, speaking of observations of magnetic storms, uses these expressions-"One of the most remarkable disturbances was that of the 25th September, 1841, which was observed at Toronto in Canada, at the Cape of Good Hope, at Prague, and partially in Van Diemen's Land. The English festival of Sunday, upon which it is sinful after midnight on Saturday night to read off a scale, or to follow out in all their development great natural phenomena, put a stop to the observation, since, on account of the difference of longitude of Van Diemen's Land, the magnetic storm happened there upon a Sunday!" "We are surprised," says the Quarterly Review, "that Baron Humboldt, usually so cautious in imputing blame, should have thus attempted to cast ridicule upon the English Government and English men of science, and upon such a ground. But the statement having been made in ignorance of how these things are really managed with us, it requires a word of explanation. It is quite certain that the English philosophers declined to accede to the Gottingen terms, and fixed days of continual observation, from five minutes to five minutes for twenty-four hours or more, which had been fixed in defiance of the immemorial usage of all Christian communities, upon Sundays for general convenience.' There is no question of whether the mode of keeping the Sabbath in Scotland, or at Geneva, in England, or at Rome, be most correct. It is no question of whether amusements. are to be indulged in or not-whether or not the theatres should be shut-it is the simple question, whether the seventh day is to receive any distinctive observance whatever-whether the hebdomadal division of time, which even Laplace traced in its origin to the very dawn of civilization, is to be annihilated. Is there, we would ask, an observation in Europe which has not its conges de Demanche? We repent that such a positive institution of Sunday term days, (for regular observation), was disgraceful to Christendom, and it was so felt by the English philosophers, who refused to join the German confederation of magnetists, in carrying on their systems of observation. Hence, no doubt, this sally in the Cosmos. When Mr Airy mentioned these circumstances in a crowded meeting of the association in the senate-house of Cambridge, the unanimous opinion of the assembly was sufficiently marked.' [To this, we may add, that on Sunday, 15th May, 1886, the day on which an annular eclipse of the sun took place, we were present at the opening of a new church (the Dean) by Dr Chalmers. At the end of the morning service, to a crowded and eagerly listening audience, he explained the nature of the remarkable phenomenon which was about to take place, and announced that public worship in the afternoon would be delayed some hours, in order that the people might have an opportunity of witnessing this, one of the rarest and most interesting of appearances. On this occasion, so far was it thought sinful for the Scottish people to thus give one hour of a Sunday to contemplate one of the greatest wonders occurring among the starry host, that crowds were seen watching it in every convenient spot, and scientific observations were made at the observatories. But this was quite a different affair from the cold and irreverential work-day sort of business above alluded to.]

WAR.-England spent 65 years in war, and 62 in peace, in the 127 years previous to the close of the last war in 1815. In the war of 1688, we spent 36 millions sterling; in the war of the Spanish Succession, 62 millions; in the Spanish war 51 millions; in the Seven Years' War, 112 millions; in the American war, 186 millions; in the war of the French Revolution, 464 millions; and in the war against Buonaparte, 1159 millions; thus forming a total expenditure for war, in 127 years (from the Revolution in 1688, to the downfall of Napoleon in 1815), of 2023 millions of pounds sterling. M. de Pradt estimates the loss of life sustained by the French forces in the six campaigns of the Peninsular war at six hundred thousand men. The loss sustained by the Spaniards and their allies was probably as great. During the war, many districts of the Peninsula were from time to time laid waste by the contending armies, and the inhabitants were victims to all the calamities and horrors thus produced. The total destruction of human beings in this last war must have amounted to one million two hundred thousand.

Proceedings of Societies.

LONDON GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.-A paper was read by Dr Mantelt on the supposed fossil remains of birds in the wealden. Professor Sedgwick read a paper on the classification of the slate rocks of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire. The lowest rocks of the whole fossiliferous group appear to be lower silurian, the upper silurian being also very abundant.

HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.-A paper was read by Mr Goodsir, on the potato disease, in which he stated that, with others, he had detected, in the diseased potato, at least two kinds of parasitic fungi-one a minute granular, spherical, deep-brown body, which existed in enormous numbers, from the very first access of the disease; the other a branching filiform tubular fungus, with terminal sporidia, containing spores, and appearing in the potato rather later apparently than the brown spherical parasite. They both exist in the cavities of the polygonal cells, and the outside of the coats of the starch cells, binding them together, the filiform parasite branching among and between the starch cells, so as to be obscured by them. Mr G. thinks it a legitimate hypothesis that the presence of these fungi in the diseased potato must direct or influence the chemical actions and effects which have been detected in the diseased tubers.

University and Educational Entelligence.

THE NEW IRISH COLLEGES.-The following are the mmes of the gentlemen appointed to be presidents and vice-presidents of the new academical institutions for Ireland, and who have power to appoint such professors in art, law, and physic (not exceeding twelve in number) as shall be necessary for each establishment respectively, viz. -Cork,--Robert Kane, M.D., President; John Ryan, LL.D., Vice-president. Belfast, P. S. Henry, D.D., President; Thomas Andrews, M.D., Vice-president. Galway, The very reverend Joseph Kerwan, clerk, President; Edward Berwick, barrister-at-law, Vice-President.

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY.-Natural science is about to receive marked attention in this University, increased facilities having been given for admission to the museum, and a series of public lectures announced. Some time ago, we observed that Archbishop Whateley had been delivering lectures on Zoology in Dublin, and, doubtless, the above revival has had some connection with them.

POPULAR IRISH EDUCATION.-Model schools are to be erected in every county, under the auspices of the Education Commissioners.

DR SCHMITZ.-This gentleman was inducted to the rectorship of the High School, Edinburgh, on the 3d inst. It was a bold step to place a foreigner in this situation, but talent belongs to no country, and should not be trammelled by geographical boundaries. There is every prospect that Dr Schmitz will realize the expectations of his friends.

THE REV. W. L. ALEXANDER.-Mr Alexander has received the honorary degree of D.D. from the University of St Andrews.

Fine Arts.

ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY.-Our artists are busy finishing off their pictures for the ensuing exhibition, which promises to be a good one. The matter of the exhibition rooms of the Institution is now all arranged.---The Academy are to have them as usual for two years, and we suppose for any number of years afterwards

SIR MARTIN SHEE.-The Royal Academy has voted £300 per annum to Sir Martin, and has also re-elected him president. Lady Shee previously enjoyed a government pension of £200.

THE ANTIQUE.-The Royal Academy's prize for the best model from the antique, has been awarded to Mr George Mossman, a native of Glasgow.

THE TORRIE PICTURES.-This collection of paintings, now deposited in the Royal Institution, Edinburgh, has been valued at L.11,232, and insurance to that amount has been effected on them. A correspondent of the Scotsman complains that the keepership and deputy-keepership of the collection have been entrusted to parties unconnected with art their sinecures respectively being £100, and £50 per annum.

NELSON MONUMENT, TRAFALGAR SQUARE.-This is at last to be finished, with the help of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests. The sculptors, by whom the bassi relievi designs are to be executed, are Messrs Watson, Woodrington, Carew, Ternouth, and Lough.

News of the Week.

EDINBURGH REVIEW FOR JANUARY.-A correspondent of the Caledonian Mercury, has announced that the article on Parliament and the Courts, is by Lord Denman; and the one on Earls Grey and Spencer, by Lord John Russell. We do not think either of the noble reviewers will care about having their visors lifted. As a member, both of the the Parliament and the Courts, Lord Denman's writings on their respective functions, had best be anonymous; and as Lord John's paper, (if really his,) is a manifesto of what the Whigs were to do in office, we daresay he would have "stopped the press," as the newspaper phrase is, could he have done so in time to suppress or alter the article..

POST-OFFICE ORDERS.-The Post-Office authorities have adopted an awkward regulation in regard to remitting money to copartnery firms. They cannot conceive, it seems, any such miracle in nature as two or more persons being leagued in business, and hence, they can only take charge of remittances for individuals who can quote both a Christian and surname! We have had several letters addressed to us inquiring the specific address of one of our publishers, as without that important knowledge, the post-masters could grant no order. Fortunately, the stamp laws require individual designations to publishers' imprints-so that, on referring to the bottom of the last page of the Torch, no. one need be at a loss in remitting for it--but we can conceive many firms not so favourably circumstanced, as to escape so easily from this capricious rule.

STUART PAPERS.-Her Majesty has sanctioned the publication of these from the original documents, but how, or by whom they are to be published, the Athenæum, which makes the above intimation, does not state.

JUVENILE DELINQUENTS.-We would earnestly direct the attention of our readers to the newspaper report of a late meeting of the Town Council of Edinburgh, on juvenile crime and its prevention, and especially to the speech of Bailie Mack, on that occasion. This gentlemen has shown, in the clearest manner, the heavy expense of punishment, as contrasted with the lighter expense of prevention, and we regret that so much is done for the one and so little for the other. The most striking part of his statement is, that the apprehension, trial, and conviction of every delinquent, costs about L.200 sterling. For our own part, we firmly believe that one half of the sums expended in the punishment of crime, would render the perpetration of it almost impossible, if judiciously applied. Jails make more criminals than they ever reclaim, and if we wish to rescue the unhappy victims of early want and misery, we must change our whole system. Instead of allowing 100 juvenile delinquents to prowl our streets for the avowed purpose of thieving, why do our police wait till they have committed crimes? Why are they not authorised to say to these unhappy wretches, We will give you shelter and food ?-and that is all they want.-We will look out honest employment for you, we will clothe and educate you, to make you fit for the various employments for which you are qualified, and there are various openings for boys in the merchant service, in manufactories, and others. But if irreclaimable, let them be so watched that they cannot have the opportunity of committing a crime, until they are forced to cry out, Give me food, though it should be bread and water only.

"Nor think that in a world like this
The worst of suffering is to die,
No! dying is a privileged bliss
To the tired sons of misery."

It is painful to hear, day by day, in our criminal courts, offenders urging their absolute want of food, as an excuse for their delinquencies. This defence at least should be taken from them.

DR WOLFF. This gentleman has received a living in the Church of England, at the hands of a pricate patron, Lieut. Col. Michel.

AUSTRIAN CENSORSHIP.-The Emperor has been pleased, to appoint a high court of appeal from the decisions of the ordinary censors--a step for which Prussia has afforded the precedent, otherwise it probably would not have been heard of.

LIEBIG.-Liebig has been created a Baron by the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt. Had he been in this country, he might have been created a knight, if happily his emoluments from science had allowed him to pay the crown fees. The continent ennobles its philosophers,-Baron Humboldt, Baron Cuvier, Baron Liebig, Count Rumford. Britain merely places them in the uppermost rank of civilians. Coronets fall in showers on acre-holders, and noisy politicians, and it is well enough to honour them in their way, but the nation which pays homage to science, honours not more its sons, than the country which gave them birth.

SUSPENSION BRIDGE AT NIAGARA.-Proposals are made to build a suspension bridge across the Niagara river, a short distance above the whirlpool, and about a mile and a half below the cataract. The distance from bank to bank, at the selected point, is about 700 feet. The person making the proposal offers to do it for 200,000 dollars, taking himself 20,000 of the stock. However strongly it may be constructed, it hardly seems possible that people in general will be sufficiently able to command their imaginations to encounter the apparent awful dangers of a passage at such a dizzy height over a chasm so crowded with terrific objects.-Christian Register.

NAPOLEON'S LATE RETREAT AT ST HELENA.-Longwood is now little better than a barn; the glass of the windows is broken, and the outward walls much disfigured. The door at which visitors are admitted is covered with a small latticed verandah, and leads into what is called the billiard room, although it seems much too small ever to have been used for that purpose. Its walls are covered with scribbling, and its general appearance is dirty and neglected. The next apartment is about fourteen by seventeen feet, said to have been used as a dining-room, and in which Napoleon died. It is now occupied by a patent thrashing and winnowing-machine, and was strewed with chaff and straw. The adjoining room had been used as a library; its present state was disgusting, and it seemed as if appropriated to the hatching of chickens. The bath, bed, and dressingrooms which he occupied at the commencement of his illness are now in part used as a stable. The place in which his body lay in state contains eight stalls, five of which were occupied by horses and cattle.- Wilk's Exploring Expedition.

[If this be true,-and, although Lieut. Wilks be not the best of authorities on all subjects, we have no reason to doubt that it is-we must say that the dilapidation of Longwood is not creditable to the British nation; and we do hope that our new colonial minister, Mr Gladstone, is not so hopelessly given over to imports, exports, and drawbacks, as to allow such Vandalism to run its rude course unchecked.]

FATAL FIRE. We regret to see among the numerous fires, public and private, which have marked the calendar of the departed year, the loss of the fine Jewish Temple at Avignon, in France, which contained their sacred books, many of which were of great antiquity. The Athenæum describes this loss as one that cannot be repaired. The collection of the Sepher-Thora (Book of the Law) was composed of forty-two rolls of parchment, and was one of the richest in the world. This book contains a MS. of the Pentateuch; and, to show the value of a copy, we are informed that it is at Jerusalem only that the Rabbins may devote themselves to this labour. Years are consumed in the production of one of these copies; for the slightest error, the smallest erasure, the most minute imperfection or inequality in the letters, necessitates the recommencement of the work. The letters of the book are counted, and are two millions in number. With the exception of that at Bordeaux, the edifice destroyed is said to have been the finest Herbew temple in France.

ADVERTISEMENTS OF QUACK MEDICINES.-In announcing a new volume, our contemporary, the Lancet, states, that an exterminating onslaught will be directed against the obscene, disgusting, and knavish, advertising quacks." We are glad to see this-but we are afraid a medical journal is not the vehicle for accomplishing a social reform so desirable, it is only seen by medical men, who pretty generally eschew the popular delusions of quackery. The great point is, to get the public to decline taking in such papers as offend decency and common sense, by inserting obnoxious advertisements. The example of the Daily News might do something in this matter were it to take high ground at starting.

FRENCH LITERATURE.-The publications in 1845, were 6251 books; 1405 prints; 492 pieces of music; 104 maps. Total 8520 new works.

66

WORTH CONSIDERING.-We have never seen any reason why cheap publications should prosper, while cheap lectures and cheap amusements are seldom tried. The rich of Glasgow would do a good action, by substituting for the wretched theatres and miserable dens, where many thousands congregate weekly, a large and cheap building, where science might be taught attractively. Lectures for the million" might be made pleasing. Experiments and illustrations capable of gratifying the eye, even where the mind was not greatly instructed, might be introduced. The coppers of the poor might ultimately remunerate the most talented lecturers, and the cost of trying the experiment could not be great. A hundred gentlemen of Glasgow buying each a fifty pound share, and carefully paying the deposits, would accomplish the end we have in view. We are not ambitious. We are not seeking a mighty reform. It is not necessary for our object to change forcibly the habits of mankind. It is better to draw them into good-to allure them into the prosecution of their own interests, than to scold them into change. We do not suppose that the parties who attend the houses we have named, would listen to a scientific or literary lecture alone. We would set bait for them. We would endeavour to cheat them into attendance. Let them have music during breaks in the lecture, and all the attractions that experiments can produce. Five thousand pounds would accomplish the object; and we sincerely be lieve that the shareholders would obtain a proper dividend from the speculation.-The National.

[We really wish that some of the Glasgow princes would set their shoulders to the wheel, and try the experiment here suggested. Man is a thinking being, he will not go home and lie down to sleep like a dog, his mind must be excited, and the cheap theatre and the whisky shop will infallibly be his resort till something better be provided.]

DUNCAN, THE AFRICAN TRAVELLER.-Letters have been received by the Royal Geographical Society from Mr Duncan, of a recent date, intimating his return to Cape Coast, after an absence of eight months in the interior of Africa. The details of his journey are shortly expected by the Geographical Society. We are informed, that since the days of Mungo Park-of whose fate he brings authentic information -no traveller has accomplished a journey of such magnitude and interest in that continent. He reached the latitude of 13 degrees 6 minutes north, longitude 1 degree 3 minutes east, passing through a country hitherto a perfect blank on all our maps, and receiving on his way, many proofs of kindness and good-will from the native kings and carbareers, which may ultimately have the effect of checking, if not entirely putting an end to, the slave trade in that hot-bed of slavery, Dahomey. Mr Duncan brought with him in safety to the coast many specimens of rare animals and birds.

LITERARY DISCOVERY.-There has just been discovered in the library of a schoolmaster near Stockholm, in making the inventory of his effects after his death, a collection of letters of D'Alembert, addressed to George Brandt, the great Swedish chemist, who discovered the properties of arsenic in 1733.

MR EFFINGHAM WILSON.-This gentleman, who is a well known publisher in London, was unfortunate in business some years ago, and paid his creditors 28. 44d. per pound. Recently, he came into property to the value of £1400, £1350 of which he has devoted to the payment in full of all claims against him. It is gratifying to record cases where moral obligation causes a generous man to go beyond the stinted limits of legal responsibility,-they are to the credit of the species-and as literary journalists, we have much pleasure in inserting Mr Wilson's case, as one all the more gratifying, that he is professionally connected with the republic of letters.

OPENING PUBLIC PLACES TO THE PEOPLE.-The expediency of this course has received new proof at Norwich, where the Dean and Chapter have given directions for opening the cathedral to the public gratuitously for two hours every week-day, instead of one as heretofore, namely, from eleven o'clock A.M. to one o'clock P.M., and ordered that the subsacrist should attend during that time to see that no mischief ensued to the cathedral, or any of the monuments,

A NEW VIOLINIST.-Marseilles possesses at this moment a young virtuoso, a violinist, who may justly be considered a musical wonder. This harmonious child, not yet eleven years, has already enjoyed the most marked applause at the Grand Theatre of the Scala. The young violinist is named Carlo Verardi. He will shortly exhibit at the Marseilles Grand Theatre.

NOTHING seems more apparent than that certain stages of human civilization are marked by certain conditions of the mind, more especially as respects the appetency to belief, leading to the extremes of credulity and scepticism. Thus, it is the characteristic of all savages to be credulous; they readily believe what is told them, and are prone to imagine more than what is true, while, on the other hand, they are averse to sift out facts from errors, by which they might arrive at the actual truth. Even as nations advance a little in civilization, they are still apt to be more credulous than sceptical, more imaginative than analytical. Hence, in the middle stage of refinement, we find the belief in supernatural agencies-in a plurality of gods-in genii and demons-in auguries-in ghosts, witches, and fairies. This is, in short, the prevalence of the infant condition of the mind. For that the infant mind has a general tendency to belief rather than to doubt, appears to us just as evident, notwithstanding the dicta of some sage philosophers to the contrary, as that the physical appetite has a desire to swallow every thing in the form of nourishment presented to it. It is only in more mature years that the mind begins to hesitate, and reject what it finds to be false, or that it acquires a habit, it may be an evil one, of general scepticism, rejecting what is true, as well as what is doubtful or

erroneous.

When the mind begins to cease from its pupillage-and this may happen while in the possession of a very moderate stock of information, as well, and indeed more frequently, than when amply stored-it then begins an independent career of thought, and this career may either be marked by folly or wisdom, according to the temper of the mind itself. If it has hitherto been credulous and indiscriminating, the consciousness of numerous erroneous conclusions may cast it into the extreme of scepticism, or if it has been always cold, and cautious, and distrustful, it will become still more so when it has taken leave of all authority. The mind becomes tired of truth also; and to those of a certain cast, the calm, pure, and beautiful simplicity of truth has no charm compared to the novelty, and the fantastic glare, and the turbulent maze of error. Self-sufficiency, vain-glory, and the restless desire of escaping from what appear to be trammels, chains, and despotism, incite the freethinker to revel in the boundless and unrestrained field of liberty of thought-thought, free as air— free from cant, hypocrisy, and all manner of humbug.

Hence has arisen the RATIONALISM of the present day, the pantheistic rationalism of Germany, substituting abstract and imaginary ideas for the facts and realities of religion-the scepticism of France, rejecting all ideas unconnected with what

THE TORCH, No. IV.

we see, feel, and taste-the mongrel combination of both these systems of the Americans and Britons. Let us not, however, be understood, when we thus characterise nations, that we mean them as a whole-we only speak of sects or classes making part of such nations.

A Rationalist is a philosopher-we shall call him so-who rejects every system and opinion, from whatever quarter it comes, that is not consistent with human reason. The mind of man is with him omniscient, at least as regards every thing that' comes within the sphere of man's concerns. It is capable of knowing, judging, and determining of the fitness and propriety of everything which happens, or may happen. He needs no evidence but the evidence of his senses-no guide but his own experience, or the collected experience of other men like himself. He has formed certain conceptions to himself of what the Deity ought to be, and what he has done with regard to this world; and any other explanation of his attributes, or his Providence, he rejects with the most sovereign contempt. He knows what man is, and fancies what he should be in society, and he firmly maintains that until nations and societies shall act as he teaches them, they can never be anything but what they are-a parcel of rogues on the one hand, and fools on the other.

But from whence has this Rationalist derived his reason, or rather the facts and materials on which he reasons? Has it not been from those springs and fountains which he is anxious to choke up, or so to poison or muddle, as to render them unfit for use to others. A Rationalist reads a good deal, and he has not unfrequently dipped into a book called the Bible, perhaps he has read it throughout in earlier days, or studies it still with a view of criticising it. Now, we shall ask him, if any, among the numerous nations scattered over the world, who never read the Bible, or who have never had an opportunity of receiving any of the instruction contained in it, have anything like the knowledge of the Deity of the nature of the soul-of its immortality, or even of the past history of man upon earth, such as he has acquired from its pages. Have the wisest of the Chinese philosophers any such knowledge-the most learned Hindoos-the farthest travelled of the wandering Tartars? Or had the greatest sages of antiquity such precise and definite knowledge of such things, as even the most common-place intellect possesses among us in the present day. The reason why we put this question is, that we are firmly persuaded that the Rationalist, without this source of enlightenment, would probably never have dreamed of turning his thoughts upwards at all, or never had any more distinct glimmerings of a Deity or a future state, than what many strong minds of antiquity have displayed, or totally uninformed minds among

JAN. 24, 1846.