are such as permit no electrical action with in their substance, and are as perfect, whether hollow, solid, or superficial. They conduct heat, or any excitement of motion at their surfaces, with greater facility than oxygen separates from hydrogen, and there fore do not admit the excitement, or elementary disturbance, which takes place in electrics, or bodies with inferior powers of conducting excitements of motion from surface to surface. Therefore they concentrate or display the electrical action of adjoining electrics on their surfaces laterally, abstract its radiation in electrics, bound it, and limit the expansion, thereby adding force or concentration to the action. They are "conductors" simply because they receive and absorb none of the excitement.

13. That in all experiments effecting definite results, the action of the hemispheres is thus bounded by superficial conductors, or plates of metal; so that by joining the axes of two hemispheres by a conductor, the disturbance is neutralized. This is commonly effected by wires or discharging rods, the ends of which are called the poles, and the restoration of two disturbed hemispheres at concentrated points, by wires, rods, or the hand, produces the report, flash, heat, and great mechanical or chemical action, incident to the circumstances in all varieties; and it is then only that the effects become visible, and till then the excitement exists only in silent, unobserved hemispheres, or hemispheres lengthened into cylinders, with degrees of action fining off from the centre or conducting wire.

14. That when both excitements travel on a wire, or coated tube, uniting the poles of the excitement or sphere of a central electric, the uniting wire itself propagates two hemispheres in its line of direction as the excitement proceeds, or at the instant along the whole wire: for the velocity is immeasurably rapid, because it is the union of hemispheric re-actions within the hemispheres themselves, and one is as worthy as the other, while every part concurs in the result; and the hemispheres themselves also move along the wire, collapsing, in the whole length, at the instant of the junction of the two centres in what are called the poles. That as the hemispheres of the excited or primary electric, as glass, are limited to the thickness of the glass, they are more concentrated and intense than diffused hemispheres of air. Therefore if their excitement is obstructed, and rendered continuous by a metal coating, the restoration is more intense than of a stratum of air. Excitement and spheres (ultimately hemispheres) are simultaneous, and the

intensity of restoration is inversely, cæteris paribus, as the cubes of the distance of the surfaces or centres.

15. That hemispheric action and reaction, in all electrical excitements, illustrate the entire phenomena of distant inductions, which are mere comprehended and included effects of the position of electrics and nonelectrics within two excited hemispheres. Hence all those assumed mysteries about electrical and magnetic action passing through solids, &c. for these are merely within a sphere of action from a centre, and re-action from a distant superficies. If they are electrics, the forces pass through them; if obstructors or "conductors," the forces are concentrated and distributed on their surfaces; or if imperfectly of either class, or partly one and partly the other, secondary complications of phenomena arise, which the slightest exertion of reason may fully explain. An insulated conductor whose surface is affected, may be removed from its hemisphere after excitement; but if so, it simultaneously creates its own new and distinct sphere of contrary action, and it can be neutralized only by joining the distant sphere, in the manner of poles, by some direct or indirect communication.

16. The phenomena of "attraction and repulsion," like all others of the same kind, arise from competent proximate causes, and not from any principle of appetite or aversion, as was taught in ages when reason yielded to superstition, in regard to this and other sciences. All electrical action is within electrics, as within air, glass, &c. &c. but no electric is perfect as such, and no conductor or obstructor is perfect as such, most bodies being partly one and partly the other. Electricity is the atomic disturbance of a sphere within the strata of electrics, and the two sides or surfaces of these electrics seek re-union with force. Air, the chief electric, being a fluid, therefore, and in a state of electrical excitement, the two sides of its volume or stratum, bounded by conductors, seek equilibrium with force; so that if this force, from surface to surface, is greater than the force required to move a light body through the stratum, the light body is moved by that force from surface to surface; because at either surface it acquires the electrical state of that surface, and being light is then carried to the other surface by the assimilating forces of both the surfaces.

17. That certain mystifications about aerial electricity have arisen from the mistaken forms of prime conductors, the rounded form being adopted before correllative hemispheral action was understood. In fact, every electrical charge is that of a plate of

air, plate of glass, plate of fluid in cells, &c. &c. and the agency demands facilities of radiation in proximate conducting plates. If, therefore, a prime conductor were made of a flat board covered with tin-foil or gold leaf, and above and below were opposed to other covered boards, connected with chains to the ceiling and the floor, aerial electricity would equal galvanic in power, and display unexpected wonders at little expense.

18. That primarily electrical excitements are local, and secondarily are extended to the air, owing to its containing in diffusion the very same elements that exist in the local excitement in concentrated proportions. Our sensible phenomena in air, therefore, are expansions or diffusions from positive and negative foci, in the amalgamated rubber and glass cylinder, or in the copper and zinc, and these expansions are made in COEQUAL CORRELLATIVE HEMISPHERES. These collapse when the central action is neutralized, or when the centres are brought together by poles of wires issuing from them; but wherever the contrasted action of the centres or wires from them extend, the aerial hemispheres of air is present, like their necessary shadows, and expanded terminating powers.

19. That the elements which are separated and disturbed as to their fit harmonious neutral action in gases or fluids, or in the pores or on the surfaces of bodies, are those concerned in combustion, oxygen, hydrogen, and certain degrees of carbon. Every fact, both in excitement and restoration, proves this theory; and it is opposed only by assumptions about fluids sui generis, invented by the early electricians to account for double effects in air, which they mistakenly considered as a simple element.

20. That the electricity produced by Galvani's and Volta's mode of excitement, are essentially the same as that produced by the friction of the electrics, glass and silk, with an amalgamated cushion. This is oxydated by the friction of the glass, and, so to speak, it gives out positive electricity, which passes to the prime conductor, towards the correlative negative plate at a distance, or an hemisphere of re-action on that side, while the cushion generates a negative action and positive hemisphere on its side. Air is a bad conductor, and rods, as perfect conductors, join the two sides, and restore neutrality. It is exactly the same in a galvanic combination, the acid or fluid is as the glass; the oxydated zinc gives out positive electricity, the action extends to the copper, and would return through the imperfect conducting fluid; but

the action proceeds in the contrary direction as long as the fluid is separable by the zinc; and at the same time wires are connected with each plate, and the excitement traversing them as the best conductors, is collapsed or neutralized at the poles. The little hemisphere in the cell, is thus expanded by the wires into hemispheres, exactly resembling those in electricity; and the hemispheres collapse in like manner at the poles in degree, and laterally in the entire line of the wires.

21. That as a magnet is in the direction of the axes of hemispheres which is indicated by its two ends, if the uniting wire of an electric current, with hemispheres right and left, were passed over it, the magnet would be in one hemisphere of the wire, and the axes of both be at right angles. If, therefore, the intensity of the wire was greatest, the magnet would vary, and its contrary poles be directed to hemispheres in opposite states, i. e. it would be placed at right angles to the wire. But if the wire were under the magnet, or in the other hemisphere of the wire, the other pole of the magnet would be affected by this other hemisphere of the wire, and the poles of the magnet would change sides as to the electric hemispheres. The relative positions of these hemispheres and the varied direction of their axes and surfaces, would therefore produce all that diversity of phenomena which has been so ingeniously detailed by Oersted, Ampere, Barlow, Faraday, Arago, De la Rive, and Davy, and produce the tangential law deduced by them, and all its deviations.

22. That as the connecting wire, or a helix, or spiral, or double of it, passes at the same time in opposite hemispheres of the wire, or of the direct line joining it, towards the poles, all those phenomena of "attraction and repulsion" in the wires would be observed, which Ampere and others have called Electro-Dynamic; and, in fact, all the apparent caprices and eccentricities of the mutual actions of different currents seem to be directly referrable to the rigid government or mutations of the two hemispheres by the inflexibility of their axes, and by the composition or intermingling of spheres of contrary or oblique power within or near each other.

23. The theories of lateral currents, circular currents, &c. &c. are therefore altogether gratuitous, incongruous, and unnecessary; at the same time the hemispheric action on each side of a restoring wire, would, as the currents pass, render iron or steel magnetic, and would vary the magnetic poles on either side, owing to the

needle on one side being in one hemisphere of the wire, and on the other side in its opposite hemisphere. This theory, in fact, meets every condition of the phenomena, without any hypothesis, and it accords with our constant experience in regard to hemispheric action and re-action, for there can be no electricity, small or great, or in any form, but in spherical action in opposed hemispheres.

24. That the change in the direction of the magnetic needle, as it is under or over the wire, is, therefore, not owing to any circle performed or generated around the restoring wire, but is thus owing to the united wires being necessarily the axis of two hemispheres of opposed or contrasted power, so that as the wire is above, or is below the needle, the contrary hemisphere acts on the electricity of its N. and S. poles or their hemispheres, and, by the assimilation or the contrariety, changes their direction; and it is the varied relations of these respective hemispheres to their axis in the wire, and to the variously posited needle, which beget all the phenomena of THE

ELECTRO - WIRE AND THE ELECTRO

NEEDLE, and the resulting TANGENTIAL DIRECTION to the sphere of action in the two united and restoring wires.

25. That, though we are indebted to Oersted for complete proof of the identity of electrical and magnetic action, to Ampere, Barlow, and De la Rive, for the most acute analysis of sundry perplexing relations, and to Faraday for original transfers of magnetic electricity to the galvanometer; yet mistaken theories, incidental confusion about fluids sui generis, &c. &c. leave much more to be effected by them and others; and no subject under a rational theory merits more diligent investigation, and promises more renown to science.

26. That the power at the poles, on foreign interposed bodies, is that of dispersion, from intense motion of heat, owing to the simultaneous collapsing of the two hemispheres, rendered more effective in galvanism by the continuity of the action: But since the energy is that of oxygen and hydrogen, so these elements, in the passage of the hemispheres, or resulting cylinders around the restoring lines, decompose bodies of like elementary nature, which, however, being unconnected with the primary disturbance, are deposited at the poles. The decomposition of the alkalis, the transference of these elements, &c. &c. are other, among a thousand proofs, that electrical action is merely the separation of the elements of oxygen and hydrogen, and the collapsing of extensive volumes through

points. The greatest action prevails in them, but it extends along the whole line of the wires, as is proved by their intense heat during the double collapse of restoration.

27. That in all cases of restoration with white light, atoms or particles of carbon seem to be connected, and it is not unlikely that the primary charge may be an atomic charge of carbon, and the gross effect may be produced by an aggregation of its atoms. This accords with what we may imagine of the construction of a magnet, the poles of which seem to be a positive and a negative accumulation from end to end each way of the atoms of carbon and more decidedly in carbonates of iron or steel. Hence it is that a divided magnet has constant poles at the broken ends, that great heat destroys the magnetism, (just as great heat destroys the power of electrics,) that air generates it in magnetic ore, that the force is as the surface, &c.

28. That, considering the rapid expansion of electrical action and of light, and their simultaneous developement by similar elements; it seems highly probable that both are modified disturbances of plenums of atoms produced by untraced differences of combination in the very same tools or elements. Hundreds of facts, besides the intense combustion of charcoal in a vacuum by positive and negative electricity, prove that we may call positive electricity, oxygen in action, seeking its equilibrium with hydrogen, and both involving carbon, &c. in their progress, and hence the varied colours of sparks in their connection with various bodies. Now these two are also the very conditions by which all light is generated in combustion, hydrogen evolved by heat in connection with carbon, and oxygen combining and fixing at the spot. The only point of question is as to the modus operandi. In electricity, both the oxygen and hydrogen seem to be in their relative state as volumes in velocity, but in incandescence the hydrogen and carbon are highly excited by heat previously to the combination of oxygen, which then sustains the heat.

29. That in this speculation, in regard to the common origin of light and electricity, it is impossible to avoid recurrence to the transparency of the best electrics, nor to the chemical character of the prismatic spectrum which the author has for years proclaimed to be a mere decomposition of the very same and other elements of the atmosphere. False and imperfect theory on this and a thousand subjects perverts both facts and men's judgments, and a degraded generation or two must perhaps

pass away, before this and other truths are understood, or allowed by pride to be recognized. In regard to light, the magnify. ing power of lenses have mystified many, and it is at present in vain to tell the world that a lens magnifies and enlarges angles merely on the mechanical principle of the multiplying toy, by an infinite number of images produced by the circular form. At the same time, the identification of light and electricity will so connect the former with the latter as to lead to simple mechanical solutions of the intricate phenomena of polarization, &c. If solar light is an electrical action and re-action of these elements, and has its poles and spheres in the atmosphere, we may in due time subject its definite motions to rigid analysis and inductive laws, explaining the intricacies of many phenomena.

30. That although scientific generalizations are often hazardous, yet we seem to be warranted by facts, abstracted from experiments made under adverse theories, in inferring that there exists a very striking coincidence between the causes of heat, of electrical and magnetic action, of light and colours, of combustion, of various vegetable and animal fermentation, and vitality; the instruments of nature being primarily oxygen and hydrogen, and the means their correllative actions, as displayed in electricity, in subservience to other more extensive motions of their own, and to fixed relations of the actions and re-actions to other bodies. Davy's division of all bodies into electro-positive, and electro-negative, is therefore entitled to respectful consideration.

Kensington, Aug. 9, 1832. R. P.

POETRY.

THE WESTERN EMIGRANT.

"(A Prize Poem.)

By MRS. SIGOURNEY, of Hartford, America. AMID those forest shades that proudly rear'd Their unshorn beauty toward the favouring skies, An axe rang sharply. There with vigorous arm Wrought a bold emigrant, while by his side His little son with question and response Beguiled the toil.

"Boy, thou hast never seen
Such glorious trees, and when their giant trunks
Fall, how the firm earth groans. Rememberest thou
The mighty river on whose breast we sailed
So many days on toward the setting sun?
Compared to that, our own Connecticut
Is but a creeping stream."

"Father, the brook
That by our door went singing, when I launch'd
My tiny boat with all the sportive boys,
When school was o'er, is dearer far to me
Than all those deep broad waters. To my eye
They are as strangers. And those little trees

My mother planted in the garden bound
Of our first home, from whence the fragrant peach
Fell in its ripening gold, was fairer sure
Than this dark forest shutting out the day."

"What, ho! my little girl,"-and with light step
A fairy creature hasted toward her sire,
And setting down the basket that contain'd
The noon's repast, look'd upward to his face

With sweet confiding smile.

"See, dearest, see
Yon bright-wing'd parroquet, and hear the song
Of the gay red-bird echoing through the trees,
Making rich music. Did'st thou ever hear
In far New-England such a mellow tone?"

"I had a robin that did take the crumbs
Each night and morning, and his chirping voice
Did make me joyful, as I went to tend
My snow-drops. I was always laughing there,
In that first home. I should be happier now
Methinks, if I could find among these dells
The same fresh violets."

Slow Night drew on,
And round the rude hut of the emigrant,
The wrathful spirit of the autumn storm
Spake bitter things. His wearied children slept,
And he, with head declin'd, sat listening long
To the swoln waters of the Illinois,
Dashing against their shores. Starting, he spake—

Say, was it so? Thy heart was with the halls

"Wife!-did I see thee brush away a tear?

Of thy nativity. Their sparkling lights
Carpets and sofas, and admiring guests,
Befit thee better than these rugged walls
Of shapeless logs, and this lone hermit-home."
"No-no!-All was so still around, methought,
Upon my ear that echoed hymn did steal
Which 'mid the church where erst we paid our vows
So tuneful peal'd. But tenderly thy voice

Dissolved the illusion."—and the gentle smile
Lighting her brow, the fond caress that sooth'd
Her waking infant, reassur'd his soul
That wheresoe'er the pure affections dwell
And strike a healthful root, is happiness.

-Placid and grateful, to his rest he sank,-
But dreams, those wild magicians, which do play
Such pranks when Reason slumbers, tireless wrought
Their will with him. Up rose the busy mart
Of his own native city,-roof and spire
All glittering bright in Fancy's frost-work ray.
Forth came remember'd forms-with curving neck
The steed his boyhood nurtur'd, proudly neighed-
The favoured dog, exulting round his feet
Frisk'd with shrill, joyous bark-familiar doors
Flew open-greeting hands with his were link'd
In Friendship's grasp-he heard the keen debate
From congregated haunts, where mind with mind
Doth blend and brighten-and till morning rov'd
'Mid the lov'd scenery of his father-land.

NAPOLEON IN EXILE.

HE stood upon the rock-built brow,
A prisoner, and alone;
The glassy ocean, stretch'd below;
With day's last radiance shone
The sun; just setting in the sea,
Shook him from his bright hopes free;
And plunging in the ocean's swell,
He bade the exile king farewell.

He moved not; for that parting ray
Had struck a tender spring;
And thought was soaring far away
Upon her eagle wing:
And fancy bore him once again
To the stern joys of battle plain;
And in dear climes beyond the sea,
The vision told him he was free.

A white sea mew, far, far beneath,
With hoarse-resounding cry,
Recall'd him from the scenes of death,
To those of slavery.

A tear stole down his sun-burnt cheek,
His quivering lips refused to speak;
But none in earth, or sea, or air,
Heard token of his dark despair.

He thought of suns that set as bright
On fields of battle won,

When Pity threw the veil of night
O'er deeds of slaughter done;
And fame had woven him a wreath
Of wild flow'rs from the plains of death,
That chilling winds, he scarce knew how,
Had withered on his swarthy brow.

He turn'd; the purple hues of even
Had faded one by one;

And now in the grey vault of heaven
The planets dimly shone;
For sinking deeper in the west,
The day's last hope was gone to rest,
And the last lingering ray of light
Had left the bosom of the night.

So fled thy hopes, poor exile king,
Till all were gone away,

Like snows before the breath of spring,
They vanished in a day;

And all the gain thy conquests bought,
Thy battles won, thy labours wrought,
Is but the portion of a slave,
A calm, unseen, and lowly grave.
June 6th, 1832.

p. 0.

LINES OCCASIONED BY ATTENDING THE EIGHTY-NINTH CONFERENCE OF THE WESLEYAN METHODISTS,

HELD IN LIVERPOOL, 1832.

Now fellow-soldiers greet,

From distant places come;

Now kindred spirits meet,

And tell of victories won ;

By power of their ascended Lord,

Who sent them forth to preach his word.

The fathers pour forth prayer,

Such prayer as Heaven approves ;
The world its wishes share,

A thousand hearts it moves,

To ask that truth, and peace divine,

With holiness, through earth may shine.
Thus the disciples met,
With one accord to pray;
All waiting the time set,
The pentecostal day;

When wondrous grace to them was given,
Prophetic light, and powers from heaven!

While each reports success,

Responsive voices rise,

In sounds of thankfulness,

Like incense to the skies;

A present God, the assembly feel,
All conscious now of heavenly zeal.

The veteran's solemn charge,
Receive, ye youthful band;
The army now enlarge,

And march at Christ's command;
Who sends you through the world to tell,
All power is His, to conquer hell.

Though some have fallen in death,
Brave champions in the field;
Yet till their latest breath,
Were never known to yield;
And now they live, and wear above,
Unfading crowns, the gifts of love.

O Holy Ghost, may we
Thy power in us feel!
And all inspired be,
With apostolic zeal ;

The standard of the Cross to rear,
In every land, both far and near!
Edgehill.

N. HIGGINS.

2D. SERIES, NO. 21.-VOL. II.

THE ORPHAN BOY.

DEAR are the cries of merit in distress,
Of the full heart that knows its bitterness;
And dear the widow's unaffected tear,
But childhood's orphan sorrows yet more dear.
"Tis glorious morning, when a sable cloud
Spreads o'er the azure canopy its shroud;
Its cooling drops allay the noontide heat,
And, oh! that rain is sweet, is passing sweet!
Poor little mourner! art thou all alone,
On the wide world, a helpless stranger thrown!
Could none from all their pleasures spare one joy,
To warm the bosom of the Orphan Boy?

I see thy pallid brow, thy blanched cheek,
I hear thee, and I weep to hear thee speak;
For sorrow trembles on that gentle tone,
So deep, 'twould rive it, were my heart of stone!
The purse-proud lordling, on his pleasure bent,
Brush'd careless by, and curs'd thee as he went;
Oh! hide it, Pity, with thy gentle wing,

To curse an orphan is a bitter thing!

Thy haggard looks, thy glazing eyes declare
Thy midnight wanderings, and thy meagre fare;
None for thy weary limbs a covering spread,
None stayed thy hunger with a little bread.
Ye passing sons of plenty, vaunt not now,
Tho' want has written "Beggar" on his brow;
For, oh a starving suppliant ill can brook,
A sneering answer, or a scornful look.
Poor little mourner! bitterly have fled
Thy days of mourning for thy parents dead;
That first of sorrows fill'd the bitter cup,
And the world, laughing, bade thee drink it up.
Thou hast; and now the potion is complete,
Was it all bitter? No; the dregs were sweet;
For there thou found'st one solitary joy,
That God is Father to the Orphan Boy.
June 6th, 1832.

p. 0.

REVIEW.-Tour in England, Ireland, and France, in the Years 1828 and 1829; with Remarks on the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants, &c. By a German Prince. 4 Vols. 12mo. Effingham Wilson. London, 1832.

THESE Volumes, having been for some months before the public, whose patronage they have obtained, it will be needless to expatiate on the reputation which they have both deserved and established. They are evidently the production of an acute observer of passing occurrences, of a mind that familiarizes itself with every object worthy of notice, and is capable of inferring from a combination of incidents, the varying features which, concentrated, constitute a national characteristic.