wheels as the machine goes forward. The diameter of this horizontal wheel, with the addition of the knives projecting from its edge, measures the width of the swathe, which is cut with the knives as the wheel goes forward, revolving rapidly and lying close to the ground. The apparatus which sustains the cutting wheel, is so constructed as to accommodate its height to any irregularities in the ground, and to give it any inclination required. The knives are sharpened by their own operation, without stopping the machine. There is also attached to the cutting wheel, wings, which gather the grass or grain as it is cut, and lays it in a swathe more regular than can be done with a scythe.

The machine is so constructed as to be guided with ease in any direction, and may be used in an orchard, as it can be turned in twice its length, and cut the swathe clean. With common industry, a man, with a pair of horses, can cut from twelve to fifteen acres per day; and, as it supersedes the necessity of spreading, must at least accomplish the labor of that number of hands.

THE LATE ELECTIONS.-The changes, which were anticipated to take place in the character of parties, have been more rapid and more effectual than the friends of good government had even dared to hope. Events, prognosticated by the most sanguine, but despaired of by the cautious, have so suddenly transpired, that they hardly seem more real than the phantasms of a dream. We can scarce believe that two New England states, set down as the inveterate adherents of the Administration, have been revolutionized. In spite of a system of the most complete organization in Maine-an organization made perfect by repeated exercise-the Opposition, with a force and spirit adequate to the crisis-though frequently conquered, yet never despairing-went bravely to the contest. Their noble exertions were rewarded in the election of their candidate, Edward Kent for governor, over the approved and indorsed favorite of the Administration, Gorham Parks, by a fair majority. In the State Legislature they boast a triumphant majority. In Rhode Island the Opposition candidates, Tillinghast and Cranstoun, were elected by a cheering majority. We particularly rejoiced at this result, since it excluded from the seat he disgraced, a creature known as Dutee J. Pearce-one capable of the most grovelling acts of servility, a political toad-eater-one whom, to call a man, were to malign humanity. So confident was this individual of his reelection, that his travelling paraphernalia had been prepared for his accustomed journey to Washington; but the knell of his political existence had been sounded by the people. He is too faithful a servant, however, to be deserted by his masters, and we may soon expect to see him in the cabinet or on a foreign embassy. If there is no minister to Owhyhee, we hope that Mr. Pearce's prominent claims to the situation may not be forgotten.

With regard to the Maine election, we have been amused in reading the excuses of the Administration journals. It has been designated as an election of minor importance-(simply for a Governor!)—as an election in which the real strength of the parties was not tested. To striking truths like these was superadded the hitherto unknown fact, that the Opposition had gained no more in Maine (a gain of over 10,000 votes!) than we had lost in Vermont-in which state our last majority for Governor is 4000 votes. But if the election for Governor be of minor importance, why instance the Vermont election at all? The Evening Post, (in our estimation, by far the most respectable journal which supports the Administration,) condescends not only to argument like the above, but implies that the loss of the Governor was of but little consequence, since they-the Administration party-were sure of two senators? Indeed! What then has

become of the RIGHT OF INSTRUCTION-that prominent doctrine of the illustrious Legislature of Virginia, so strenuously advocated by the friends of the Adminis tration? The Evening Post must secede from this mighty position, or submit to the ejectment of the senators from Maine by the majority in the now Whig Legislature of the state. On the first movement of this kind in Maine, we shall see the Washington Globe swearing by bell, book, and candle, that the doctrine of the right of instruction was "most tolerable, and not to be endured ;" and that it had never been maintained by Mr. Benton or Mr. F. P. Blair-which two worthies seem to form a sort of political automaton trumpet-player, the former being the wooden figure with distended cheeks blowing into an apparent trumpet, while the latter is the real musical machinery within! The Bank game will be played over again, and whatever card is turned up, the trump will be chosen by the Administration. Opposition to the Banks and to the Right of Instruction will be claimed as an emanation from the wise brain of the present President! That the president has the merit of having originated one or two good things, we are not disposed to deny. Thus have we seen luminous sparks proceed from a decayed piece of wood in a darksome night.

The position now occupied by the friends of the Government, they have been forced upon. Their retreat, from all their old and feebly-fortified points, has been loudly sounded. But they must accelerate their movements. The fortune of the

war has changed. This divorce of Bank and State is a wooden horse, which has been fearlessly brought within the walls of their political Troy. The time is not far distant when it will send out an army of foes to throw down the strongholds of its too confident sustainers.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.-The following articles await the commands of their respective writers.

1. GOTTFRIED AND BEATA, from the German of Fr. W. Caravé―(This, though seemingly a fine translation, is too long for our Magazine.)

2. POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY, (a well-written essay; but as people never read essays, we never publish them.)

3. A RAMBLE. 4. DEATH'S MESSAGES. 5. THE PLEASURE EXCURSION. 6. THY LOVE. 7. ADDRESS OF THE FAIRIES TO H. S. C., FISHKILL LANDING. 8. No. 1. of a Series of Essays, the design of which is "to offer a few observations upon the cultivation and improvement of the mind."

The following are on file for publication, and we shall be gratified to hear frequently from their authors.

1. THE CRAZY MAN. 2. GLANCES at Life, by an Itinerant SCHOOLMASTER. 3. THE GOLD HUNTER. 4. Destinies of POETRY. 5. MARTHA GARDNER. 6. PHILIP OF POKANOKET. 7. PROGRESS OF SOCIETY. 8. A SKETCH OF OLD ConnectICUT. 9. FRENCH CLAIMS. 10. RECOLLECTIONS OF THE SOUTH. 11. MY FIRST LOVE. 12. SPRING IN NEW ENGLAND. 13. SUMMER RAIN. 14. THE FORTUNES OF AN AMATEUR RAGAMUFFIN. 15. THE FLIGHT OF YUEN-A LEGEND OF CA

THAY.

The papers which we have received, and have not mentioned, are yet in abeyance. They will be designated in our next. From the political character assumed by this journal in its two last numbers, our Correspondents will perceive that articles on interesting political subjects will be peculiarly acceptable to us.

Will the author of "EXTRACTS FROM THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN OF THE WORLD" call at our office, or favor us with some further communication with regard to his papers?

THE

AMERICAN MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

NOVEMBER, 1837.

ELECTRO-MAGNETISM.

WHAT, in the entire range of nature and nature's works, is so wonderful as electricity? What, rather, in the circle of natural phenomena, is not, in one way or other, directly or indirectly, connected with this mysterious, all-pervading, and fearfully energetic principle? Above, around, beneath-nay, even within our very selves—we find it ever present, ever active. Whether we contemplate its sublimely splendid coruscations blazing along the heavens, or its more quiet, and often more gorgeous magnificence as it streams upward from the pole, or its hidden agency in quickening to life, and clothing with beauty the whole animal and vegetable world, or regulating, in the deep caverns of the earth, the labora tories of nature-the ceaseless decompositions and recompositions of matter; whether we regard it in its power, and clothed in its robe of terrors, speaking in thunders, shivering in splinters the stoutest monarchs of the forest, and prostrating in the dust the proudest fabrics of human art, or in its beauty and beneficence, breathing vitality into all the myriad forms of sentient existence, and scattering around them sources of enjoyment varied to infinity; in whatever light we view this wonderful emanation of creative power -the handmaid of creation itself-new marvels ceaselessly dawn upon us, and our imaginations are borne away in loftier and loftier flights, till we grow even giddy with our elevation, and almost shudder as we gaze through the wide expanse it has revealed to us.

Nor is it among the least of our wonders, to reflect that we are even yet upon the threshold of discovery. The science of electricity, stupendous as it is, is but an infant science still. A half century has not yet passed away since the first detection of galvanic currents. Never, perhaps, before nor since, was there made a dis

covery productive to science of consequences so vast, so splendid, and so rapidly succeeding one another, as those which have flowed from this. First in order came electro-chemistry, unlocking all the secrets of matter, dissolving nature's most curious compounds, and reducing all things to their original elements-a science which has more recently unravelled the laws of the composition, as well as of the separation of elements, and revealed to us, doubtless, the agent first employed by creative energy, to bring order and beauty out of the primeval chaotic ocean. To this have succeeded electro-dynamics, electro-magnetism, thermo-electricity, magneto-electricity, and (if the term has not been used it should be) electro-physiology -all new ramifications of a single science, growing up together, and each unfolding to us its own peculiar catalogue of wonders. Of the first two of these, and of magneto-electricity, we shall have occasion to speak at large. The curious discovery by Professor Seebeck, of the generation of electricity by heat, with the more recent inquiries of Becquerel, Nobili, and Melloni, Cumming, Faraday, and Andrews, renders it more than probable that we shall yet be compelled to strike caloric, as we have done magnetism already, from the list of distinct imponderable agents. Light, too, if the observations of Morichini and Mrs. Somerville should be confirmed, may yet be forced to add another branch to electrical science, which some future philosopher may denominate Photo-Electricity. The wonderful discoveries of Becquerel, in animal and vegetable electricity, are possibly about to throw a flood of illumination upon the science of pathology, and the healing art, as well as upon the culture of plants, to subserve the purposes, or to gratify the taste of

man.

Should the identity of light and heat with electricity be established, what then of our imponderable agents will remain? Gravi. tation stands alone-and who shall say that even this, like the rest, will not be ultimately swallowed up by electricity; leaving but a single essence in the universe, too ethereal to be matter, yet too passive and too inert, if not too gross, to be spirit? To this opinion we confess ourselves inclined. Its correctness is a question, which, if settled at all, will probably be settled in another age.

However fertile and animating a theme for speculation and declamation is afforded us by the wonderful discoveries at which we have just been glancing, we propose, in the present article, to restrict ourselves to a series of simple statements of fact. The science of electro-magnetism-a science of not yet twenty years' growth, and one which has only acquired its importance within less than ten, has become, in consequence of its practical applications, subject of general interest to mankind. Few have leisure for the

a

perusal of scientific treatises; and, were it otherwise, they would seek in vain for one which would exhibit to them the science under consideration in its present state. The last five or six years have added a world to the sum of preceding discoveries; and the sub. stance of this is still scattered through the scientific transactions and journals. There are very many persons, nevertheless, who would be gratified even with such a hasty outline of the subject, as a few pages of a magazine devoted to literature will admit. They wish to think of something more than a name, when the title of this much talked of, but little understood, science, falls upon their To such, the following sketch will, without doubt, prove ac

ears.

ceptable.

The first indication of the positive relation existing between electricity and the magnetic power, was observed in 1819, by Professor Ersted, of Copenhagen. This philosopher ascertained that an electric current, passing along the wire used to connect the extremities of a galvanic battery, possesses power to deflect the magnetic needle in a remarkable manner. If this wire, conveying a positive electric current from north to south, be placed horizontally over the needle, and therefore parallel to it, the north pole of the needle is turned toward the east. If it be placed in like manner below, the same pole is carried toward the west. If it be removed to the east side, the pole is depressed; if the west, it is elevated. The effects produced by a similar current on a south magnetic pole, are precisely the reverse. Accordingly, since in the rotation of a needle suspended by its centre, the two ends move always in opposite directions, both forces conspire to increase the effect produced upon it by a single electric current.

These appearances, at first view, seem to be singularly anomalous. They are dependent, nevertheless, on a simple law, which may be illustrated by the following artifice. Suppose that, upon the wire placed north and south as before, a small serrated wheel is made to revolve constantly in the direction in which the sun passes over that is, from east to west; the lower part of this wheel will, of course, return from west to east. If we bring down the wire from above to the needle, so that the teeth of the wheel may strike the north pole, that pole will be carried along with them to the east. But if the wire be brought upward from below, then the teeth of the wheel, moving in the direction of the sun, will carry the pole toward the west. As the teeth descend on the left, and ascend on the right, (we suppose ourselves facing the north,) the elevation or depression of the pole, according as the wire is on the west or the east side of the needle, admit of explanation with equal facility. The phenomena are, therefore, precisely such as would