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from Sir Roderick Murchison, which was to have jects, it is worth while to try the practice of exbeen read at the last meeting of the Geograph-perienced men, who often, in the long run, find ical Society, that in default of such efforts on the out the remedy. One proposition is made by Mr. part of Government, Lady Franklin has resolved William France, of Leeds, which may be easily to expend the last remnant of the fortune coming tried, and which, as it succeeded in one case to her by her husband's will, in fitting out merits consideration; at all events it is of easy another expedition, aided by a last appeal for proof. Mr. France says:Fifteen years ago, I the assistance of her friends. Is it possible that shipped a large iron boiler in one of my vessels, the Government and the country can leave Lady which stood two feet above the hatchway. The Franklin to make this further sacrifice? captain was told it would attract the needle. She has already made enough, and more than Before leaving the coast he found that to be the enough. If a better use of her suggestions and case, when he ordered the cook to bring the round her assistance has not been made, it is because iron beef-kettle, which was in daily use. He her own officers disregarded her instructions,-placed a compass inside it, when he found it perhaps on the ground that they emanated from travelled correctly. I do not know whether it a woman. By that neglect, however, while the has been tried in those large steamers crossing public money has been expended, she is brought the Atlantic, but should suggest to the captains to the verge of poverty. It is true that Franklin the propriety of trying the experiment, as it will was her husband; and she, while she possessed cost them nothing.- Courier.

a penny of her own, was bound to devote it to his rescue. As to her duty there is no question; but was the duty of the country less? Did Franklin go out in the service of his wife, or of his country? Did he encounter death in any mission of hers, or in adding to that knowledge| which he had already procured for his country? Domestic affection pointed out her duty; public virtue should point out another kind of duty towards a public servant.

NEW BOOKS.

We have received the following new books from the publishers:—

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Life-Scenes of the Messiah. By the Rev. Rufus W. Clark. John P. Jewett & Co.: Boston. [In This has been felt so strongly, that a consider- twenty-five chapters, beginning with "The Foreable sum of money was handed to Lady Frank- runner," and ending with The Ascension," lin for her assistance in one of the earlier expe- there are arranged a succession of Scenes in the ditions. But it was not English money. The Life of Our Lord. "One hour of communion £1,500 which was sent to Lady Franklin, with with Christ, will afford clearer views of duty, touching expressions of admiration for her con-richer stores of knowledge, and a higher spiritual duct, came-not from England, which subscribed enjoyment, than whole days spent with the wisest about £300-from the poor colony of Van Die- of human authors."] men's Land. The colony gave £1,500. The Lady has given many thousands; and she is ready, if necessary, that the entire remainder of her means should follow. It would not be the first time that a generous and noble creature had been reduced to total destitution through the outrage of public virtue. In past times there has been much open neglect of conscientious motive. In our day, we talk of "conscience," "improved knowledge," "practical Christianity," "regularity of justice;" and we allow Lady Franklin to make herself a beggar in paying the debts of the public!

We do not say in what mode this injustice could best be repaired. A public subscription would possibly prove a public disgrace, as there is no excitement to make the people sensible of their duty. The House of Commons, which ought to be the custodier of the national honor, as well as its purse, might "debate" the debt! The Royal hand has more summary resources for a just generosity. But we only point to the fact, that it will be a shameful breach of trust towards Sir John Franklin, if the legacy that he left to his widow be exhausted in discharging the obligation of the State.

Leaves from the Tree Igdrasyl. By Martha Russell. John P. Jewett & Co.: Boston. [Contents: The Diary; Love's Labor not Lost; A Tale of the Colony Times; Uncle John's Visit; An Incident on the Sea-Shore; Death by the WaySide; Little Bessia. These fill half the Volume; the remainder consists of Sketches of Our Village, in twelve chapters and Subjects.]

The Lady's Almanac for 1855. John P. Jewett & Co.: Boston. [A very pretty little book, of which thousands will, no doubt, be given away before 1855.

The Plurality of Worlds. With an Introduction by President Hitchcock. A New Edition. To which is added a Supplementary Dialogue, in which the Author reviews his Reviewers. Gould & Lincoln: Boston.

The Mothers of the Bible. By Mrs. S. G. Ashton. With an Introductory Essay, by the Rev. A. L Stone. "All Scripture is profitable." John P Jewett & Co.: Boston. "We freely confess that if we wish a truthful portraiture of female character, we should look to woman to sketch it. She can best appreciate her own sex, and detect all the lights and shades so necessary to form the perfect picture. While Mrs. Ashton had, in the accomplishment of her task, no liberty to range beyond the facts of Scripture, she has succeeded in presenting the mothers of the Bible in a man. ner so fascinating and true, as to promise gratification and instruction to the reader. — Presby

SCIENCE versus AN IRON POT.-In the present day, when we hear so much about the local at traction of the compass on shipboard, and when scientific men overwhelm us with corrective pro-terian.

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WHAT ARE THE BYGONES?
"Let bygones be bygones."-Times of Nov. 25.
Bygones! the grim and stolid sneer

That meet each voice upraised to show
The ills we now so sadly know,
As Troy repulsed the fated seer!

Bygones! the paper stained for nought;
While second-childhood's self might see
The sword alone must umpire be,
Where fraud and force 'gainst weakness fought.

Bygones! till Austria's game was made
The statesmanship that sent to freeze
Our stateliest ships in shallow seas,
In distant pomp 'gainst forts arrayed.

Bygones! our troops but half-equipped!
When placemen dared no more delay-
The cold more deadly than the fray
To meet-in reckless hurry shipped.

"Bygones should bygones be!" 'tis true!
And first that clique for place allied,
Whom friends deplore and foes deride,
Or England's glory's bygone too.
The Press.

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It was most almighty green
That Buchanan had not seen
That the "hunker " Aberdeen

Was a hawkin' to be sold.
For we might as well have had a
Sorter haul at ould Can-á-da
When we lighted on so bad a

Watchman as this Premier old.

S'help us 'taters, but it's vexin'
To see Cuba want annexin'
While the old coon saw the wrecks in
Sinópe shattered slick.

Might we not have aided Lopez
With at least as good a hope as
This here Nicholas did ope his

Jaw about the man wot's sick?

Then, all friends, it's our opinion
That this 'varsal great dominion
Must shut up its eagle pinion,

Or get into this here swim.
We opine we'd better go for
Jest to skeer the old Scotch loafer
Who rules England's councils over,

And to chips we'll whittle him.

[FOR THE LIVING AGE.]

IN the LIVING AGE, No. 550, Dec. 9, 1854, page 458, there is copied from the New York Evening Post a brief notice of the author of the celebrated song "Mary's Dream," with the English version of the song. The writer of the notice has erred in several particulars, which I beg leave to correct.

JOHN LOWE, the author of "Mary's Dream," was born at Kenmore, in Galloway (Scotland), in 1750. His father was gardener to Mr. Gordon of that ilk. Lowe was early placed in the parish school of Kells, and, at the age of fourteen, was apprenticed to a weaver named Heron.

Having, by industry and rigid economy, saved a sufficient sum to enable him to return to his studies, he placed himself under the charge of Mr. McKay, an eminent teacher of the languages, in the neighboring parish of Carsphairn.

obtained the place of tutor in the family of one of the Washingtons. Afterwards, he opened an academy in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and for a while prospered.

Although educated a Presbyterian, he took orders in the Episcopal Church, and obtained a parish. While engaged in his parochial duties -popular with all classes, and rising in reputation-he married most unhappily, became intemperate, and died in great distress. He was buried in or near Fredericksburgh, about 1798.

A memoir of him, by the Rev. William Gillespie (brother of his early friend and patron), was published in London in 1810, and can be found in Cromek's Remains.

The exquisite ballad, "Mary's Dream," was written on the death of one Miller, a surgeon, lost at sea, who was engaged to Miss Mary Mac Ghie, daughter of the Laird of Airds. Originally Scottish, it has been Anglicised and altered, as I believe, for the worse. Suffer me to present the original for the readers of the LIVING AGE. Pittsburgh, Pa., Dec., 1854.

MARY'S DREAM.

J. P. G.

The lovely moon had climbed the hill
Where eagles big aboon the Dee,
And like the looks of a lovely dame,
Brought joy to every bodie's ee;
A' but sweet Mary, deep in sleep,
Her thoughts on Sandy far at sea;
A voice drapt saftly on her car
"Sweet Mary, weep nae mair for me!"

She lifted up her waukening een,
To see from whence the voice might be,
And there she saw her Sandy stand,
Bending on her his hollow ee!
"O Mary, dear, lament nae mair,
I'm in death's thraws below the sea;
Thy weeping makes me sad in bliss,
Sae Mary, weep no mair for me!

"The wind slept when we left the bay,
But soon it waked and raised the main,
And God he bore us down the deep,
Who strave wi' him, but strave in vain!
He stretched his arm, and took me up,
Tho' laith I was to gang but thee,
I look frae heaven aboon the storm,
Sae, Mary, weep nae mair for me!

"Take aff thae bride sheets frae thy bed,
Which thou hast faulded down for me;
Unrobe thee of thy earthly stole-
I'll meet wi' thee in heaven hie."
Three times the gray cock flapt his wing,
To mark the morning lift her ee,
And thrice the passing spirit said,
"Sweet Mary, weep nae mair for me!"

Little Folks' Own: Stories, Sketches, Poems and Paragraphs, designed to amuse and benefit the Through the kindness of the Rev. John Gilles- Young. By Mrs. L. S. Goodwin. W. P. Fetridge pie, minister of Kells, he was subsequently ena- & Co.: Boston. [This little book is ornamented bled to enter the University of Edinburgh in with many graceful engravings; and the reading1771, where he continued a member of the divini-matter is uncommonly good. We should not be ty classes till he left for this country, in 1773. surprised should it become as popular as Original Soon after having reached the New World, he Poems were in their day.]

SPECULATORS AMONG THE STARS.-PART II.

From Blackwood's Magazine.
SPECULATORS AMONG THE STARS.

PART II.

Whatever we talk, Things are as they are not as we grant, dispute, or hope; depending on neither our affirmative nor negative.*JEREMY TAYLOR.

ones

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lectual life. The Atheist and the Infidel, the Christian and the Mohammedan, men of all creeds, nations, and tongues, the philosopher and the unlettered peasant, have all rejoiced in this individual who confides in the facts of astronomy seriously rejects it. If such a person exists, universal truth; and we do not believe that any could so gigantic a world have been framed ?* we would gravely ask him, for what purpose

LET us bear in mind the above passage, pregnant with solemnizing reflection, while dealing with the question before us; always remembering that it is one purely speculative, and I declare that I cannot tell why Jupiter I am such a person, would say Dr. Whewell, however interesting, however exciting, to im- was created. aginative persons; but to weak and superficial what purpose the stars were made, any more "I do not pretend to know for to those of unsettled opinions ble of becoming mischievous. capa- than the flowers, or the crystalline gems, or The state of that question is exactly this: No doubt the Creator might make creatures other innumerable beautiful objects. The heavenly bodies around us, some or all of fitted to live in the stars, or in the small planethem, are, or are not, in point of fact, the toids, or in the clouds, or on meteoric stones; abodes of intellectual and moral beings like but we cannot believe that he has done this, ourselves that is, be it observed, consisting without further evidence." And as to the of body and soul. That there are other and facts of astronomy," let me patiently examhigher orders of intellectual existence, both ine them, and the inferences you seek to dethe Christian and the mere philosopher may,duce from them. Besides which, I will bring and the former must, admit as an article of his forward certain facts of which you seem to "creed;" but what may be the mode of that ex- have taken no account. istence, and its relations to that physical world of which we are sensible, we know not, and tracting increased attention in all directions; As we foresaw, Dr. Whewell's Essay is atconjecture would be idle. That beings like and, as far as we can ascertain the scope of ourselves exist elsewhere than here, is not re- contemporaneous criticism hitherto pronouncvealed in Scripture; and the question, conse-ed, it is hostile to his views, while uniformly quently, for us to concern ourselves with is, recognizing the power and scientific knowledge whether there nevertheless exist rational with which they are enforced. grounds for believing the fact to be so. accomplished and eminent person who has so London reviewer, "that in the middle of the The expected," observes an accomplished diurnal "We scarcely suddenly started this discussion, has, since his nineteenth century a serious attempt would Essay appeared, and in strict consistency have been made to restore the exploded ideas with it, emphatically declared—"I do not of man's supremacy over all other creatures in pretend to disprove a plurality of worlds; but the universe; and still less that such an atask in vain for any argument which makes tempt would have been made by any one the doctrine probable. And as I conceive the whose mind was stored with scientific truths. unity of the world to be the result of its being Nevertheless a champion has actually appearthe work of one Divine Mind, exercising cre- ed, who boldly dares to combat against all the ative power according to His own Ideas; so it rational inhabitants of other spheres; and seems to me not unreasonable to suppose that though as yet he wears his visor down, his man, the being which can apprehend, in some dominant bearing, and the peculiar dexterity degree, those Ideas, is a creature unique in and power with which he wields his arms, inthe creation." But what says Sir David dicate that this knight-errant of nursery noBrewster, speaking of the greatest known tions can be no other than the Master of Trinimember of our planetary system, Jupiter? ty College, Cambridge." The reviewer falls, With so many striking points of resemblance sentiments of Dr. Whewell, when charging it appears to us, into a serious error as to the between the Earth and Jupiter, the unprejudiced him with requiring us" to assume that, in the mind cannot resist the conclusion, that Jupiter creation of intelligent beings, Omnipotence has been created like the Earth, for the express must be limited, in its operations, to the ideas purpose of being the seat of animal and intel

*"Works," vol. xi. p. 198 (Bishop Heber's edition). The following is the entire sentence of which the above is the commencing sentence: "Whatever we talk, things are as they are-not as we grant, dispute, or hope; depending on neither our affirmative nor negative, but upon the rate and value which God sets upon things."

† Dialogue, p. 37.

which human faculties can conceive of them:
with similar powers, and have had their faculties
that such beings must be men like ourselves,
developed by like means." In the very pas-
sage cited to support this charge, Dr. Whewell

* More Worlds than One, p. 59.
† Dialogue, pp. 5, 6.
+ Daily News.

may perhaps obtain some knowledge of the place of the Earth in the scheme of creation; unique, or only one thing among many like it. how far it is, in its present condition, a thing Any science which supplies us with evidence or information on this head, will give us aid in forming a judgment upon the question under our consideration."

will be found thus exactly limiting his proposi- of considering it. Can the earth alone be the tion so as to exclude so impious and absurd a theatre of such intelligent, moral, religious, and supposition: :-"In order to conceive, on the spiritual action? Or can we conceive such acMoon or on Jupiter, a race of beings intelli- tion to go on in the other bodies of the universe? Between these two difficulties the choice gent like man, we must conceive there colonies of men, with histories resembling, more or less, tisfactory, except we is embarrassing, and the decision must be unsacan find some further the histories of human colonies: and, indeed, ground of judgment. But this, perhaps, is not resembling the history of those nations whose hopeless. We have hitherto referred to the eviknowledge we inherit, far more closely than dence and analogies supplied by one science, viz., the history of any other terrestrial nation re- Astronomy. But there are other sciences which sembles that part of terrestrial history." ."* In give us information concerning the nature and the passage which we have quoted in the pre-history of the Earth. From some of these we ceding column, Dr. Whewell expressly declares, as of course he could not help declaring, that the Creator no doubt might make creatures fitted to live on the stars, or anywhere; but the passage misunderstood by the reviewer, appears to us possessed of an extensive significance, of which he has hastily lost sight, but which is closely connected with that portion of the author's speculations with which Thus the Essayist reaches the second stage we briefly dealt in our last number, especially of his inquiry, entering on the splendid dothat which regards Man as a being of pro- main of GEOLOGY. To this great but recentgressive development. To this we shall here- ly consolidated science Dr. Chalmers made no after return, reminding the reader of the allusion in his celebrated "Discourses on the course of Dr. Whewell's argument as thus far Christian Revelation, viewed in connection disclosed — namely, that man's intellectual, with the Modern Astronomy,"* which were moral, religious, and spiritual nature, is of so delivered in the year 1817, nearly thirty-seven peculiar and high an order, as to warrant our years ago: and then he spoke, in his first regarding him as a special and unique exist- Discourse, of Astronomy as "the most certain ence, worthy of the station here assigned him and best established of the sciences." Dr. in creation. Intellectually considered, man Whewell, however, vindicates the claims of "has an element of community with God: Geology, in respect of both the certainty and whereupon it is so far conceivable that man vastness of her discoveries, in a passage so just should be, in a special manner, the object of and admirable, that we must lay it before our God's care and favor. The human mind, with readers. its wonderful and perhaps illimitable powers, is something of which we can believe God to be mindful" that He may very reasonably be thus mindful of a being whom he has vouchsafed to make in his own Image, after His likeness the image and likeness of the awful Creator of all things.

--

As to the vastness of astronomical discoveries, we must observe that those of Geology are no less vast: they extend through time, as those of Astronomy do through space; they carry us through millions of years-that is, of the earth's revolutions as those of Astronomy through millions of the earth's diameters, or of diameters of the earth's orbit. Geology fills the regions of duration with events, as Astronomy the regions of the universe with objects. She carries us backwards by the relation of cause and effect, as Astronomy carries us upwards by the relations of geometry. As Astronomy steps on from point to point of the universe by a chain of triangles, so Geology steps from epoch to epoch of the

"The privileges of man," observes Dr. Whewell, in a passage essential to be considered by those who would follow his argument." which make the difficulty in assigning him his place in the Vast Scheme of the universe, we have described as consisting in his being an Intellectual, Moral, and Religious creature. Perhaps the privileges implied in the last term, and their place in our argument, may justify a word more of explanation. * One or two of these "Discourses," all of which We are now called upon," were delivered in the Tron Church, Glasgow, at proceeds the essayist, after a striking sketch of noon on the week day, were heard by the writer the character and capacity of man, especially as of this paper, then a boy. He had to wait nearly a spiritual creature, "to proceed to exhibit the four hours before he could gain admission as one Answer which a somewhat different view of mo- of a crowd, in which he was nearly crushed to dern science suggests to this difficulty or objec-death. It was with no little effort that the great tion."

-“The difficulty appears great, either way

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preacher could find his way to his pulpit. As soon as his fervid eloquence began to stream from it, the intense enthusiasm of the auditory became almost irrestrainable; and in that enthusiasm the writer, young as he was, fully participated. He has never since witnessed anything equal to the scene.

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