a circular to the presidents of the various philosophical societies in the united king dom, to all the members of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and to other scientific men, informing them of the intended present meeting, and inviting them to attend. To this circular, a great number of answers had been received; several of which he read. The writers of them were all unanimous in anticipating great advantages to result from the meeting. Among the names of these individuals, illustrious in science, were Professors Airy, Christie, Jameson, Lindley, Pavel, Buckland, and Whewell; Rev. W. Coneybeare; Drs. Henry, Hibbert, Roget; Messrs. Babbage, Davies Gilbert, Herschel, Giddy, and Heuland. Though deprived of the pleasure of attending the present meeting, yet they all expressed the hope of enjoying the personal gratification of attending the next.

Mr. Harcourt then read letters from Mr. Chantrey, who had sent one of the most valuable casts ever made in illustration of geology; from Mr. Faraday, Dr. Buckland, and the Duke of Sussex. His royal highness expressed a wish to have been present, but a previous engagement to be at Derby prevented him.

The reverend gentleman, after many appropriate preliminary observations, said, that the plan which the council proposed was in the shape of resolutions, and, in substance, was as follows-That an association be formed, to be called The British Association for the Advancement of Science -That the principal objects of this association shall be, to give a stronger impulse, and a more systematic direction, to scientific inquiry; to promote the intercourse of those who cultivate science in different parts of the British empire; to turn the national attention to objects of science; and to obtain a removal of any disadvantage, of a public kind, which impedes its progress That all members of philosophical societies be members of the association, on entering their names, and paying a small annual subscription-That the association shall meet at stated places-That a committee shall sit, during the meeting, to be composed of all persons who shall have contributed a paper to any philosophical society, which paper shall have been ordered to be printed ---- Thatpersons, not members of any philosophical society, must be recommended as members of the association by the committee-That sub-committees be formed, for the direction of the business of the meeting-That the accounts of the association be audited every year.

These resolutions were unanimously car

ried, with the exception of the third, on which a long discussion ensued; but this, also, was finally adopted.

In the evening, the large suite of rooms was thrown open, and the theatre was filled by a brilliant audience. Many of the ladies were in full-dress. The lecture was delivered by Mr. Abraham, of Sheffield. The Magnet was his subject. After stating that the best magnets were to be found in Sweden, Russia, and Lapland, and giving the general history of the magnetic needle, together with the advantages connected with it, he produced an apparatus, made by himself, for the use of the needle-point grinders. Though these men work but six hours in a day, yet, the dust arising from the grindingstone, and the steel-filings, being inhaled by them, had such a pernicious effect upon their constitution, as to materially shorten their lives. This apparatus consisted of a mouth-piece, intermixed with small magnets, which, in the course of forty minutes, were studded with steel-filings. Connected with this, he invented a process of ventila. tion, which kept the room free from dust, and other impurities. He exhibited, also, an invention of his own, for giving more than two poles to a bar of iron; and another, for attracting steel-filings from the eyes of dry-grinders: concluding with some remarks on the connexion between electricity and magnetism. This finished the business of the second day.

METEOROLOGIAL OBSERVATIONS.

THE mean temperature of January was 37 3 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermome ter. The maximum, which was 48 degrees, took place on the 10th, when the direction of the wind was westerly; the minimum, which was 27 degrees, occurred on the 5th, with a south-easterly wind. The range of the thermometer, during the month, was 21 degrees; and the prevailing wind south-west. The direction of the wind has been south-westerly, nine days; westerly, six; north-easterly, five; easterly, four; northerly, two ; southerly, two ; southeasterly, two; and north-westerly, one.

Hoar frost, and icy efflorescences, were very considerable on the 1st, 2d, 4th, 15th, 16th, 24th, and 28th. The following days were more or less foggy: 3d, 4th, and 17th to 21st. The evening of the 12th was rather windy, and a considerable fall of snow took place on the morning of the 27th, which is only the second this season.

The plants observed in flower this month were the China-rose and daisy; the former

was observed on the 4th and 18th, and presented a pleasing appearance, when the branches of the surrounding trees were thickly, studded with hoar frost, and the traveller enveloped in fog. The daisy was noticed in blossom on the 18th. On the 28th, the leafing of the alder was observed to be rather advanced.

the crafty mendicant (like many of that fraternity in all countries, who live by their miseries, but know how to relax from them at due seasons,) occasionally, at least, takes the liberty to slip out of his pillory, and enjoy a restorative nap, under the darkness of night. - Missionary Voyages and Travels.

AN INDIAN SAINT.

JULY 12. Within a few yards of the river, on our left, stood one of those horrid figures called a yogee-an Indian saint-a gentleman beggar, who had placed himself in a certain attitude, from which he had vowed never to swerve during the remainder of his life, but spend his existence in mental abstraction. He appeared on a platform of earth, raised about eighteen inches from the ground. At one end of this mound, which might be seven feet long by five broad, were erected two bamboos, seven or eight feet high, and sufficiently apart for him to stand between them. At elbow-height, a broad board was placed across, from the one bamboo to the other; and upon the middle of this, another piece of plank, two feet long by five inches wide, was fixed, sloping upwards from him. He, therefore, standing on the platform, and resting his arms upon the cross-bar, held with his hands on each side of the upright sloping board. He seemed to press equally on either foot, leaning a little forward, with his face turned rather aside, and raised towards the sun. His personal appearance was squalid and miserable. His body was daubed all over with blue mud; his hair long, matted, discoloured to a yellowish brown with exposure, and dangled in all directions. His beard was bushy and black, and the rest of his face was so disfigured with hair, that it might be said to be all beard. Not the slightest motion in one of his limbs, nor in a muscle of his countenance, was perceptible. He was altogether without clothing, except a slip of brown stuff about the loins. He wore the coita, or sacred thread, indicating that he was a Brahmin. Night and day, it is understood, the wretched sufferer (if, indeed, his state can be one of suffering) maintains, without any variation, this paralyzing position. However, at the contrary end of the platform are four upright bamboos, with a mat suspended upon them, forming such a rude canopy as the Hindoos often sleep under; and, at a short distance, there is another shelter of the same kind; so that it is not improbable

METHOD OF SHEWING THE DEVIL IN

FRANCE, IN THE 17TH CENTURY. A CONTEMPORARY writer makes Cæsar himself (a musician) thus speak-“You would not believe how many young courtiers and young Parisians have importuned me to shew them the devil. Seeing that, I besought myself of the most pleasant invention in the world, to gain money. At a quarter of a league from this city, (towards Gentilly, I think,) I found a quarry very deep, which had long caverns on the right and left. When any person comes to see the devil, I place him therein: but, before entering, he must pay me at least forty-five or fifty pistoles. He must swear never to speak of it; he must promise to have no fear, to invoke neither gods nor demigods, and to pronounce no holy word.

"After that, I first enter the cavern; then, before passing farther, I make circles, fulminations, invocations, and recite some discourses, composed of barbarous words, which I have no sooner pronounced, than the curious fool and I hear great iron chains rattle, and great dogs growl. Then I ask him, if he is not afraid if he answers yes, as there are some who dare not pass beyond, I lead him back, and, having thus got rid of his impertinent curiosity, retain for myself the money which he has given me.

"If he is not afraid, I advance farther in front, muttering some frightful words. Having arrived at a place which I know, I redouble my invocations, and utter cries, as if I were in a fury. Immediately six men, whom I keep in this cavern, throw flames of resin to the right and left of us. Through the flames I shew to my curious companion a large goat, loaded with huge iron chains painted vermilion, as if they were on fire. To the right and left there are two large mastiffs, the heads of which are placed in long instruments of wood, wide at the top, and very narrow at the other end. In proportion as these men incite them, they howl as much as they are able; and this howling resounds in such a manner, in the instruments in which their heads are placed, that there comes out of them a noise so tremendous into this cavern,

that truly my own hair stands on end with horror, although I very well know what it is. The goat, which I have dressed up for the occasion, acts on his side, rattling his chains, shaking his horns, and plays his part so well, that there is no one who would not believe that he was the devil. My six men, whom I have very well instructed, are also charged with red chains, and dressed like furies. There is no other light in the place than that which they make at intervals with the resin.

"Two of them, after having acted the devil to the utmost, come and torment my curious adventurer with long linen bags filled with sand, with which they beat him in such a manner all over his body, that I am afterwards obliged to drag him out of the cavern half dead. Then, when he has a little recovered his spirits, I tell him that it is a dangerous and useless curiosity to see the devil; and I pray him no longer to have this desire, as I assure you there are none who have, after having been beaten like a devil and a half."-Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Library, vol. vii. p. 9.

POETRY.

LINES ON REFORM.

REFORM is now the fashion of the times,
Oh! could I but reform my limping rhymes,
I'd celebrate it with a gust as loud

As thunder bursting from a tropic cloud;
Or north wind, roaring on the Baltic wave,
When winter rushes from his polar cave.
Reform is wanted in the Senate-house,

Where oft the mount has groan'd, and, lo, a mouse
Has been the birth. Waves of debate ran high,
"To waft a feather, or to drown a fly,"

Place, power, and wealth have been the patriot's bribe,

Hence general scorn has branded half the tribe.
For peers have sent their cousins, stewards, friends,
To serve their own and not the public ends:

If kind, the minister to help; if sour,
To hurl him from his pedestal of power.
Nor ministry alone, but throne to awe;
The nation's welfare did not weigh a straw,
Nor constitution, hence the rust of years,
That canker'd Magna, was the work of peers.
For Church and State they canvass, rail, or rat;
A brother was in this, a son in that:

The people's welfare-out, you sorry loon !-
Was a Utopian region in the moon.

They boroughs bought, and let them out for hire,
To those who danced as they pull'd the wire;
Pensions were multiplied as golden lures
And useless offices had sinecures :
But now the axe is levell'd at the root
Of dire corruption and its baneful fruit.
The Church, for, now the ship is in a storm,
And lurches terribly, needs some reform;
They say she has not ballast, every puff
Makes those who steer her bear away or luff.
Some hint that tithe and title, ease and gold,
Have started sundry planks within the hold;
Where all the pumps of every bishop's see
Will hardly keep the ship afloat and free
From water-logging; others boldly show
The barnacles that on her bottom grow,

;

While strife and schism half divide the crew,
In spite of all the leading pilots do;
That mutiny has torn her union jack,
And sect and party thrown her sails aback.
Hence thousands wish this stately heart of oak
Were on the rocks of revolution broke;
Because she claims the right to navigate
The British seas by patent from the State.
Some say her compass does not traverse right,
Or else her binnacle is dark as night;
That pride inflates her sails to such degree,
She makes all others scud beneath her lee:
Hence seers, and saints, and prophets not a few,
(Some pirates, some, alas, her faithless crew,)
Prognosticate she'll founder in the wave,
Unless the "Galilean Pilot" save;
Or strike and bilge upon some hidden rock,
Except new rigg'd in Reformation's Dock
And every skulking lubber sent adrift,
Who cannot reef, and steer, and log-line lift.
Oh may her bishops, every holy seer,
At Mercy's throne in her behalf appear!
Her priests, before the porch and altar kneel,
To God in penitence and prayer appeal.
May all that wish her peace be much in prayer,
That justice, while it purifies, may spare ;
Whate'er her faults, and she has many a speck,
I deprecate and should deplore her wreck,
Some think our Morals need reforming too,
Whether we wear the orange, red, or blue;
For now-a-days both flirts and dandies dash on,
As though St. Belial were the prince of fashion.
All, all, our faults, are carried to excess,
The love of pleasure, equipage, and dress;
Hence selfishness, frivolity, and pride,
A baleful trio, all the land divide:
Our blacker crimes the muse shall here omit,
For christian ears the subject is not fit.

Thongh we have cast the book of sports away,
We need reforming on the Sabbath-day;
'Tis made a day of pleasure through the land,
From Plymouth Breakwater, to Humber strand :
Though such profane amusements never square
With public worship, or with private prayer;

Gigs, steam-boats, rail-road, party, romp, or rout,
Whirl myriads all the nation round about;
While cabinets, and coteries, and dinners,
And concerts, give the cue to nobler sinners.
But will not justice visit with a rod
Such profanation of the day of God?
Though it were Majesty, I speak with awe,
He will not brook the breaking of his law.
Our Laws want reformation, jurists say,
And who, alas, should know as well as they!
Unless their clients, who have sought redress
In darkest mazes of this wilderness;
When briars, thorns, and other legal matters,
Have torn their clothes, perhaps their skin, to
tatters ?

Sav'd only like a merchant from the wreck,
By some loose plank that floated from the deck :
Or by the skin of teeth that would not skin,
Escaped safely from the lawyer's gin.
Our penal code, the worst since Noah's flood,
Is, like the rigid Draco's, writ in blood,
With iron pen upon a gallows drop-
Oh let Reform this legal murder stop!
For wilful homicide, and that alone,
Let life for life, and blood for blood, atone
We need Reform in our colonial isles,
Where many an African in bondage toils:
The cries of slaves who never cease to cry
For help, for mercy, have gone up on high.
Ye British senators, their freedom plan,
Respect the rights, redress the wrongs, of man!
Nor let oppression finer feelings steel;
Shall all the nation, save the senate, feel?
Are nature's sacred claims alone withstood,
By reason, riches, learning, rank, and blood;
What! ban a brother for his sable hue,
Which nature's self, the world's great limner,
drew?-

Wash out the blot, and break the negro's chain,
Or all your Reformation is in vain !'

J. MARSDEN.

LIKE some faint traveller who has striv'n
To gain a rugged steep,

And, having gain'd the wish'd-for hav'n,
Turns but to gaze and weep.

To weep o'er wrecks of things below,
Which charm'd in days of yore,-
He turns again-but still in wo,
For all is dark before.

So I, upon my NATAL DAY,

With retrospective ken,

Past times, past things, past joys survey,
Which ne'er can come again.

And while I gaze, sad tears will start,
Against my mind and will;
Yes-gushing from a stricken heart
They flow, and ever will.

The days of halcyon bliss I see,
Which youthful periods knew;
Or those of guileless revelry-
But they were fleet and few.
A blight, a cruel blight came o'er,
My pleasures as they ran;

Falsehood, which smiles of virtue wore,
Met me, and crush'd the man.
Smooth as the fair unruffled lake

My moments seem'd to flow;

But, ah! the rocks, which meet and break,
Lie darkly hid below.

Joys, one by one, like flow'rs which fade
Beneath some sickly blast,
Died! while deceptious hope display'd
Bliss which for aye would last.

Yet there are rills, bright sparkling rills,
From learning's fount which flow;
Cheering as dew, which soft distils

Where scented balsams blow.

At these I drank; but while the stream
My every wish supplied,

I woke, as from a fearful dream
My new-born raptures died!

A sire belov'd, belov'd how much,
Words are not made to say;

A brother, too, and few are such,
Are torn by death away.

One roves, alas! I know not where

My mother's met no more;

Lov'd sisters dwell, who sooth'd my care,
Upon a distant shore.

I had a friend, a kindred soul

I never had but one;

So dear, her glance could grief control,
Her smile was pleasure's sun.'

We thought, we felt, we wish'd the same,
We seem'd for each to live;

And yet, a hand was sent to strike
What mercy seem'd to give.

Oh! never from that painful hour
Has earthly joy been known;

'Midst crowds, and charms, which once had

pow'r,

I live uncharm'd, alone!

A shade of what I might have been,

Is all that is of me;

A thing of grief, where'er I'm seen,
Is all that I can be.

I murmur not, though mourning yet,
Nor Providence araign;
For mercy's bow my path has lit,
'Midst scenes of gloom and pain.
Yes, many a bright and sunny ray
Have shone around my head;
To light and cheer me on my way,
And have those rays all fled?

Oh no! though darkness now surround,
And, forwards as I turn,

All, all of time is dark, profound;
Yet, even here, I learn

THE winds were hushed; the dusky horizon
Obscur'd the slowly travelling sun;
All nature slept, or rather swooned with pain;
Nor voice nor noise was heard, save a distant
Subterrestrial grumbling scarcely audible.
The multitude instinctively were still;
And soldiers, used to prodigies and deaths,
Gazed silently. The heavens grew black;
A sable cloud enveloped all in darkness
Thick and tangible; and made more horrid
By the faltering rays of bloody light,
Proceeding from the city's fires and lamps,
Reflected by the gold-capped towers
Of Sion's bill, aspiring to the skies,

Then, with a voice which rent the gloom, the rocks,
And shook Jerusalem to her lowest base,

And burst the tombs, and raised the slumb'ring saints,

And made the earth to reel and stagger in her

REVIEW. A Concise View of the Succession of Sacred Literature, in a Chronological Arrangement of Authors and their Works, from the Invention of Alphabetical Characters, to the Year of our Lord 1300. Vol. II. By J. B. B. Clarke, M. A., &c. 8vo. pp. 790. W. Baynes. London. 1832.

TOWARDS the close of 1830, the first volume of this very valuable work fell into our hands, and, in col. 1046, passed under our review. At that time the second was announced as in a state of forwardness, and, from the exalted character of its predecessor, it has been anticipated with very sanguine expectations, which we are fully assured its appearance will not disappoint.

These volumes, as their title imports, were intended to notice, so far as any in

formation could be obtained, the works of every author, who had employed his pen on subjects of sacred literature, from the invention of alphabetical characters, down to the important period when the printingpress started into existence, and at once improved and astonished the world.

The first volume, traversing the obscure regions of remote antiquity, commenced with the invention of letters, and traced their progress, in the service of religion and morals, to the year of our Lord 395. The second volume begins where the other ended, and pursues the same track down to a. D. 1300, embracing a period of about nine hundred years. The reason assigned by the author, for not pursuing his subject, as originally proposed and intended, we will give in his own words.

"It was my intention, when I commenced this work, to have carried it down to a. D. 1445, the time in which printing was invented; but as I proceeded, it appeared to be such unprofitable labour to myself, and the writings of the last and succeeding centuries being in themselves so utterly valueless, with a few very rare exceptions, that I thought the reader's time as well as money would be mis-spent, either in reading or purchasing more."-p. 770.

It is well known, that about the time when the art of printing was invented, "darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people;" and we cannot but think, that, in the order of providence, this powerful engine was brought into birth, to dispel the intellectual clouds which enveloped the moral hemisphere, and to act as an auxiliary in diffusing the light of the Reformation. View ing the subject through this medium, we have more reason to thank the reverend author for cutting short his labours about one hundred and fifty years, before the time proposed, than we should have to be grateful, if he had amused. us with the unmeaning perplexities of " hair-splitting casuists," or the wild reveries of contemptible enthusiasts."

66

This volume contains the names of more than one thousand authors, and the titles of their respective works. In many instances brief biographical notices are prefixed, and, when opportunity offers, their writings are analyzed, their nature, character, and tendency pointed out, and sometimes an estimate is formed of their worth, the locality of their application, or their utter inutility. Of some few, the accounts given are extended over many pages, but the Rev. Mr. Clarke has always contrived to conclude his narration as soon as the subject ceased to be interesting.

It is somewhat remarkable, that out of these thousand authors, only few compa2D. SERIES, NO. 15.-VOL. II.

ratively are known in the present day. All besides seem to have been lost on the stream of time; and even in the exhibition before us, they rather appear as curious' specimens of ecclesiastical antiquity, than as authors whose works could ever illuminate mankind. This indisputable fact teaches a lesson of humiliation to the present generation of writers. They strut and figure in their local sphere, and imagine that their compositions bear the blossoms of immortality; but when nine hundred years have elapsed, and another Dr. Adam Clarke and his son shall arise to give a continuation of sacred literature, what vast multitudes will be either unknown, or placed on a list whence they can reap nothing but dishonour.

In the department which it occupies, perhaps, a more valuable work than this succession of sacred literature, has never issued from the press. The reading, collecting, arranging, condensing, and characterizing, which these two volumes required, must have imposed on the authors an incalculable weight of labour. They may, however, rejoice in this compensation, that the world will be benefited by their researches, and that they have laid a sure foundation for commanding a tribute of respect from posterity, when future centuries shall beam upon the christian church.

This volume may be considered as a compendious review of the ecclesiastical writers that have appeared on the great theatre of the world for nine hundred years, while its predecessor comprises all the preceding periods of time.

REVIEW.-The Works of the Rev. Robert Hall, A. M. Under the Superintendence of Olinthus Gregory, L.L. D. F. R. A. S. Vol. IV. 8vo. pp. 504. Holdsworth and Ball. London. 1831.

IT is of very little consequence, whether we view the late Rev. Robert Hall as an essayist, a reviewer, a theologian, a sermonizer, a controversialist, or a writer of miscellaneous articles; the same powerful intellect, the same acuteness of research, and the same superiority of talent, are alike conspicuous in all. In several of the above capacities, we have seen him in the preceding volumes; and in this which is now before us, he appears as a reviewer, and as a miscellaneous writer; and in the whole combined, he may be adduced as an evidence, that "first-rate abilities are of universal application."