fectly the image on the Daguerreotype silver metallic body, especially when this body communiplates. The inequalities of paper have ever been felt as a great objection to its use. M. Blanquart Evrard informs us that by washing paper with a mixture of the serum of milk and a small quantity of albumen-about three-quarters of a pint of whey and the white of one egg-it is rendered free from all that has hitherto been deemed objectionable. Papers thus treated may be kept ready for use, since it has been found that after six months they are as good as when just prepared. M. Niepce de Saint-Victor states that by mixing a small quantity of Narbonne honey with albumen the sensibility of the photographic glass plates or papers is increased in a surprising manner.

cates freely with the earth. In one house which I have had the opportunity to examine, a child in taking hold of the knob of a door received so severe a shock that it ran off in great fright. The lady of the house, in approaching the speaking tube to give orders to the servants, received a very unpleasant shock in the mouth, and was much annoyed by the electricity, until she learned first to touch the tube with her finger. In passing from one parlor to the other, if she chanced to step upon the brass plate which serves as a slide for the foldingdoors, she received an unpleasant shock in the foot. When she touched her finger to the chandelier (the room was lighted with gas by a chandelier M. BOUTIGNY has devised an exceedingly simple liant spark and a snap. suspended from the ceiling) there appeared a brilIn many houses the phemethod for showing his interesting experiments on nomena have been so remarkable as to occasion the spheroidal state of fluids. He takes a plati- general surprise, and almost alarm. After a carenum wire and rolls it into a spiral like the spring ful examination of several cases of this kind, I have of a watch, taking care to depress the central por- come to the conclusion, that the electricity is cretion. He forms thus a sort of capsule, or circular ated by the friction of the shoes of the inmates on and concave gridiron, in which the water is con- the carpets of the house. In order to produce this tained when the wire has been previously made red effect, there must be a combination of several favorhot. By the repulsion of caloric the water is re-able circumstances. The carpet, or at least its uptained, and, forming itself into a spheroid, rolls per surface, must be entirely of wool, and of a about without flowing through. Alcohol or ether close texture, in order to furnish an abundance of may be substituted for water; when the vapors electricity. So far as I have had an opportunity to escaping take fire above and below the wire-but judge, I infer that heavy velvet carpets answer this the spheroidal drop moves rapidly about within the purpose best. Two thicknesses of in-grain carpetflames without undergoing combustion. ing answer very well. The effect of the increased THE American Association for the Advancement thickness is obviously to improve the insulation of of Science has been holding its third annual meet- the carpet. The carpet must be quite dry, and ing at New Haven-under the presidency of Pro- also the floor of the room, so that the fluid may not fessor A. D. Bache. As far as we have received be conveyed away as soon as it is excited. This information of the proceedings of this association, will not generally be the case except in winter, and the communications appear to have been principally in rooms which are habitually kept quite warm. connected with the physical sciences. Professors The most remarkable cases which I have heard of Olmsted, Loomis, and Silliman, and Mr. Gould in New York have been of close, well built houses, read interesting papers on electricity;-that by Mr. kept very warm by furnaces; and the electricity Gould being an account of a very extensive series was most abundant in very cold weather. In warm of experiments made by the United States Survey Weather only feeble signs of electricity are obtained. on some 1,500 miles of electrical telegraph to de- The rubber on the shoe must also be dry, like the termine the velocity of the disturbance passing carpet, and it must be rubbed upon the carpet somealong the signal wires. Professor Wheatstone had what vigorously."-The papers have been toleradetermined the velocity of current electricity as not bly numerous; and those by Professors Agassiz, less than 288,000 miles in a second. Fizeau has Silliman, W. R. Johnson, and W. B. Rogers more recently inferred from his experiments that were of much interest in their respective departthe electricity passed through iron wire at the rate ments. The following statement, made by Professors of 63,200 miles per second, and through copper Rogers and Johnson, has its value from its practical wire with a velocity equal to 110,000 miles in the importance. They took occasion to call attention same time. Mr. Gould thinks these values far too to the fact that the anticipations excited by the dishigh; and he gives as the results of his observa-covery of gold on the surface are seldom fully realtions, which appear to have been made with much ized. At the surface, meteoric influences have in care, a velocity for the current electricity of not most cases been at work, and have effected such a less than 12,000 nor more than 20,000 miles per decomposition and segregation that there the gold second as it traverses the telegraphic wire and the is easily obtained; but as we proceed lower down, earth in completing the circuit connection. A beyond the influence of the air, we find the gold so communication was made by Professor Loomis of closely connected with other minerals that its sepanovel, and to us curious, phenomena of electrical ration is a very difficult process, only effected after houses. His statement was as follows:-With- much expense and labor. In explanation of these in a few years past, several houses in the city of views, it was stated, that at Gold Hill the toll at New York have exhibited electrical phenomena in a the mill for grinding is, for surface ore, 20 centsvery remarkable degree. For months in succession for that obtained lower down, 30 cents the bushel. they have emitted sparks of considerable intensity, It is found, however, that if, after the ore has once accompanied by a loud snap. A stranger, on entering one of these electrical houses, in attempting to shake hands with the inmates, receives a shock, which is quite noticeable, and somewhat unpleasant. Ladies, in attempting to kiss each other, are saluted by a spark. A spark is perceived whenever the hand is brought near to the knob of a door, the gilded frame of a mirror, the gas pipes, or any

been operated on and all the gold possible extracted, it is exposed for a few months to atmospheric influences, you can then obtain as much gold from a bushel of ore as at first.—Athenæum.

THE REMAINS OF JAMES THE SECOND.-The following curious account, says a writer in the Notes and Queries, was given to me by Mr. FitzSimons, an Irish gentleman, upwards of eighty

west,

classic breast;

And those to whom September brings the fireside's social hours,

With those who see December's brow enwreathed with gorgeous flowers!

From where Columbia laughs to greet the smiling

western wave,

grave;

To where Potomac sighs beside the patriot hero's And from the steaming everglades to Huron's lordly flood,

The glory of the nation's past thrills through a

kindred blood!

Whenever Arnold's tale is told it dyes the cheek with shame,

And glows with pride o'er Bunker Hill or Moul-
trie's wilder fame;

And wheresoe'er above the fray the stars of empire
gleam,
Upon the deck or o'er the dust it pours a common

years of age, with whom I became acquainted when | It binds in one vast brotherhood the trapper of the resident with my family at Toulouse, in September, 1840; he having resided in that city for many years With men whose cities glass themselves in Erie's as a teacher of the French and English languages, and had attended the late Sir William Follett in the former capacity there in 1817. He said :"I was a prisoner in Paris, in the Convent of the English Benedictines, in the Rue St. Jacques, during part of the Revolution. In the year 1793 or 1794 the body of King James II. of England was in one of the chapels there-where it had been deposited some time, under the expectation that it would one day be sent to England for interment in Westminster Abbey. It had never been buried. The body was in a wooden coffin, enclosed in a leaden one, and that again enclosed in a second wooden one, covered with black velvet. While I was a prisoner, the sans-culottes broke open the coffins to get at the lead to cast into bullets. The body lay exposed nearly a whole day. It was swaddled like a mummy, bound tight with garters. The sansculottes took out the body, which had been embalmed. There was a strong smell of vinegar and camphor. The corpse was beautiful and perfect; the hands and nails were very fine. I moved and bent every finger. I never saw so fine a set of teeth in It is a sacred legacy ye never can divide, my life. A young lady, a fellow-prisoner, wished | Nor take from village urchin, nor the son of city much to have a tooth; I tried to get one out for her, but could not, they were so firmly fixed. The feet also were very beautiful. The face and cheeks were just as if he were alive. I rolled his eyes; the eyeballs were perfectly firm under my finger. The French and English prisoners gave money to the sans-culottes for showing the body. They said he was a good sans-culotte, and that they were going to put him into a hole in the public churchyard like other sans-culottes; and he was carried away -but where the body was thrown I never heard. King George IV. tried all in his power to get tidings of the body, but could not. Around the chapel were several wax moulds of the face hung up, made probably at the time of the king's death, and the corpse was very like them. The body had been originally lept at the palace of St. Germains, whence it was brought to the Convent of the Benedictines. Mr. Porter, the prior, was a prisoner

at the time in his own convent."

stream!

pride;

Nor the hunter's white-haired children who find a fruitful home

Where_nameless lakes are sparkling, and where lonely rivers roam!

Greene drew his sword at Eutaw; and bleeding southern feet

Trod the march across the Delaware amid the snow and sleet;

And, lo! upon the parchment where the natal record shines,

The

burning page of Jefferson bears Franklin's calmer lines!

Could ye divide that record bright, and tear the

names apart

That erst were written boldly there with plight of

hand and heart?

Could ye erase a Hancock's name, e'en with the sabre's edge,

Or wash out with fraternal blood a Carroll's double pledge?

Say, can the South sell out her share in Bunker's hoary height?

closing fight?

MADAME SAINT AUBIN, at one time a very celebrated singer of the Opéra Comique, died a few days ago, at the advanced age of eighty-seven. She was performing during the worst period of the Or can the North give up her boast in Yorktown's first revolution, and was in communication with Marat, Robespierre, and Collot d'Herbois. She Can ye divide with equal hand a heritage of graves, exerted her influence with these men to save vic- Or rend in twain the starry flag that o'er them tims from the scaffold, although there was a certain risk in so doing; and during all her life was remarkable for charity and kindness. She left the stage at the age of forty-two. The Empress Josephine appointed her one of her readers.

proudly waves?

Can ye cast lots for Vernon's soil, or chaffer 'mid
the gloom

That hangs its solemn folds about your common
Father's tomb?

Or could ye meet around his grave as fratricidal
foes,

And wake your burning curses o'er his pure and calm repose?

Ye dare not! is the Alleghanian thunder-toned decree;

'Tis echoed where Nevada guards the blue and tranquil sea;

Where tropic waves delighted clasp our flowery southern shore,

And where through frowning mountain gates Nebraska's waters roar!

SHORT ARTICLES: Royal Encroachments, 351.-Making Bread by Steam; Hats; A Negro
Woman without Ears; Layard's latest Discoveries; Use of Collins, 353. "Bury me in the
Garden," 367.- Chase of a Fawn, 369. The Old World and the New, 370.- Wild Sports
in Africa; The Captain's Story, 371.- Madam Saint Aubin, 383.
POETRY: A Home Scene, 367.- Our Union, 383.

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WASHINGTON, 27 Dec. 1845. Or all the Periodical Journals devoted to literature and science which abound in Europe and in this country, this has appeared to me the most useful. It contains indeed the exposition only of the current literature of the Englis· language, but this, by its unmense extent and comprehension, includes a portraiture of the human mind in the utmos expansion of the present age. JQ ADAMS

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 341.-30 NOVEMBER, 1850.

From the Edinburgh Review.

1. The Works of Quintus Horatius Flaccus, illus trated chiefly from the Remains of Ancient Art. With a Life by the Rev. HENRY HART MILMAN, Canon of St. Peter's. London: 1849. 2. The Life of Torquato Tasso. By the Rev. R.

MILMAN. 2 vols. London: 1850.

It is an occasional privilege of our craft as reviewers to turn aside from newly opened paths and to survey some beaten track upon the great common of literature. We do not, indeed, sunmon reputations which have become authentic to the critical bar for a re-hearing of their case; but we submit them to a fresh analysis, or contemplate them under novel aspects as records of intellectual effort or permanent models of art. It is a privilege we would not willingly forego, and it is one which most readers will cheerfully grant; since it enables both parties to "interpose a little ease" amid the uncertainties and excitement which inevitably attend upon our contemporary politics and literature. No essay of the present day can indeed add renown to the metaphysical pyramid of Aquinas, or to the sombre and lustrous vision of Dante. Nevertheless it is good at times to reconsider the laws of strength and beauty which governed the structure of the Summa Theologiæ and the Divine Comedy.

than critical on this occasion. "Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause." We shall take with us, on our excursion, neither Schlegel nor Dr. Blair. We are off circuit-it is vacation time. We wish for a reintroduction to the men themselves, to their friends and patrons, their employments and amusements, their foibles and their sorrows. In the course of our retrospect we shall have occasion to mourn as well as to smile; for there were shadows even on Horace's career, and there was an horizon of gloom around the life of Tasso. But whether we mourn or rejoice, it shall be with the poets themselves, and not over the defects of the Gierusalemme, or the imperfect canons of the Art of Poetry. The works have received their imprimatur centuries ago; the men may be studied anew-each from an aspect of his own-as representatives of literary or individual life in Italy during two distant and highly-cultivated ages.

Horace's address to the more beautiful daughter of a beautiful mother is not strictly applicable to the relations of Italian and Latin literature, since their several charms are in many respects too unlike for a comparison. The pulcra mater was a majestic and somewhat imperious matron; the pulcrior filia was a susceptible and somewhat voluptuous nymph. The elder literature retained even in its lighter moments and its decline the stately demeanor of a Cornelia or Emilia: the younger literature, even in its severest garb, reflected the image of a Laura Fiammetta. The prelude of the one was the trumpet-chorus of Ennius and Pacuvius; the prelude of the other was the plaintive and pastoral pipe of the solitary of Vaucluse. Yet between the extremes of Latin and Italian minstrelsy are points of resemblance and affinity which no other literature can exhibit. No other literature, indeed, has enjoyed to the same extent the privilege of metempsychosis. The Roman tongue, partly from direct transmission, partly from the influence of the Genius Loci, passed into the Italian without such foreign admixtures as render the Spanish language nearly as much Gothic or Arabic as it is Romanesque; and without such curtailments of inflection and euphony as cripple the poetic eloquence at least of France. Of all the daughters of the Roman speech, the Italian, notwithstanding the diversity we have noticed, best represents the features of the maternal idiom. Nor is the resemblance limited to words. The filial thought and idiosyncrasy are genuine grafts from the parent stem. Neither is it restricted to the sphere of intellect; there is a point of view, strange to say, in which it extends also to the sphere of action. The fortunes of the peninsula, in ancient and in modern times, if we include within our survey a sufficient orbit of change and aspect, have We purpose, however, being anything rather not been so dissimilar as they may appear. The CCCXLI. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXVII.

The volumes before us afford a fair pretext for exercising this privilege. They relate, indeed, to lighter matters than those great culminations of mediæval science and imagination. Yet the subjects of them are scarcely less illustrative of the epochs and the circumstances which gave them birth. Few authors have attained a wider reputation than Tasso; none are more popular or indeed beloved than Horace. From Tasso we learn our first lispings in Italian literature, and imbibe perhaps our most vivid impression of the partly religious, partly ferocious passions which, at the close of the eleventh century of the Christian era, precipitated Europe upon Asia. With Horace we connect the memory of days when friendships were first formed, when hopes were most buoyant, and literary aspirations retained their vernal promise. With Horace also we associate the remembrance of moments stolen or redeemed from the graver business of life; moments in which, beside the blazing hearth, or through summer noons, we pondered over his pregnant sense and genial wit; or even explored, volume in hand, under Italian skies, the scenery of his Sabine farm, his Bandusian fountain, and Venusian birthplace. Than Horace and Tasso there are indeed no companions meeter for a critic's holiday, such as we now invite our readers for a while to share with us.

25

Italy of the Cæsars and that of the Popes, the | ly, in his biography of Tasso, undertaken a labor of Italy which declined under the Etruscan Lucu- love. His diligence has been great, his materials mons, and that which withered under the feudal Colonne and Ursini, the final centre of Ethnic civilization and the earliest source of Christian art and refinement, afford parallels closer than many which have been fancied by historians or drawn by Plutarch. Before, however, we notice the points of resemblance between the age of Horace and the age of Tasso, we must briefly advert to the works now before us which have led to our proposed combination of these remote, but not alien, epochs in literary annals.

Mr. Robert Milman, we believe, commences his career as an author with the "Life of Tasso." Even were the merits of this work less than they are, we should welcome with pleasure the transmission of literary powers and pursuits in the same family. He does not, however, need the protection of his uncle's Telamonian shield-his book has considerable merit and promise of its own. Its chief defects are such as are incidental to youthful authorship. Mr. R. Milman will write more perspicuously when he has written more frequently, and will sermonize less in his books when he shall have preached oftener in his pulpit. He has evident-of Cæsar's usurpation. He was sufficiently dis