The growth and progress of a great mind, depend much on the place where a man's lot is cast in early life, and the rank he holds among his fellow men. The birthplace of Perkins was, in many respects, Every man, who knows Perkins, and is capable of friendly to a mind like his. Retirement is the nurse judging of his merits, cannot but place his intellectof thought; he had, in that place, sufficient oppor-ual powers in the first class of mind, but common tunities for deep and uninterrupted reflection. It observers have frequently thought him dull and was a busy, thriving town, with a population of six plodding-a man who built up his fame by slow and or seven thousand souls. The people, in general, patient drudgery; but they do not know him. It is

There never lived a man more destitute of selfish

true he is patient and laborious, but it is also true that he possesses that divine impulse of the mind ness, or more prodigal of his labours for publick which cannot be measured, nor exactly analyzed; good; but it generally happens that, in views and that power which creates, combines, and felicitously feelings too expanded, a very particular attention to arranges all it acts upon; that faculty of the soul ordinary and everyday matters is not readily found; which leaves all things of a common cast and seems Perkins wanted such a man as Franklin was, for to go on as if ordained to develop the great laws of his friend and companion, with his maxims on prucreation. There was much of the "mens divinior" dence, thriftiness, punctuality in pecuniary settlein him who first used the alembick, or invented num-ments, and all the economical philosophy of "Poor bers and pursued them to the higher branches of mathematicks, or taught the extent, and the charms of algebraick calculation, as in those who have produced the sublimest efforts of taste, in poetry, sculpture, and painting. The ethereal spirit which lighted up the soul of Archimedes was as intense, as pure and hallowed, and came as directly from the great fountain of light and intelligence, as that which warmed the breast of Homer. The poets, painters, sculptors, and orators, are not the only sons of God by the daughters of men: the philosophers and in-never sought him to share his fame, or followed him ventors-that have made

fire, flood, and earth, The vassals of their will,"

for the benefit of mankind, have an equal birth claim in the heraldry of nature.

Richard;" and such a sage might in return, have been paid for his friendship, by purity of feeling, singleness of heart, and an exhaustless fund of intellectual wealth.

Perkins never made any complaint of the neglect of the world, or its ingratitude, which is so common to men who are sometimes not sufficiently appreciated. In every strait and difficulty he found one friend that was never weary-such a one as is seldom seen or known-one who never obtruded his advice,

to mingle with his associates for pleasure or pride, nor kept near him to speculate on his credulous generosity-but a man of good affections and an excellent understanding, who came when the funds of his friend were low, and his pulse sinking with disappointment, to lend his name to the bank and relieve his mind from the load which oppressed him; all this was done with such delicacy and gentleness as greatly to enhance the value of the service, and to give new charms to the fraternal tie-for this was a younger brother; and the vicissitudes of fortune have given the elder an opportunity of showing a similar disposition. For several years before Perkins went to England, he had resided in Philadelphia, a city in which the arts, sciences, and letters were highly patronized.

Simplicity is the striking characteristick of the habits and manners of Perkins; and his methods of reasoning are all of the same cast; he begins upon a subject, whatever it may be, with calmness and serenity, and though constantly "on the rack of invention," he seems in a revery, on a bed of flowers. Invincibly persevering until he is certain that he can accomplish what he has undertaken, he often leaves the design to be carried into execution by some one to whom he accidentally imparts the information, and, probably, the first he knows of the advantage of Mr. Perkins has now been several years in Enghis invention is through the medium of the altered land. At the commencement of his career, he was condition, and perhaps consequential airs of the hailed by all classes with enthusiasm; he was encreature who had grown up by catching the offals ofcouraged to go on, and has, we trust, received honhis genius. Smaller arimals often feed on the prey the lion has hunted down.

our and reward from a people who have given him a fair opportunity to exhibit his powers; the British nation have been just to his merits, without asking how long it is since his ancestors left their shores. Perkins has no political account to settle with any body of men, for he always considered himself as a citizen of the world. Science was his pursuit, usefulness his object; and although he enjoyed his own opinions and exercised his rights, yet he never stopped to join a party or to warm himself by political excitements.

To his brother artists, Perkins always showed the most delicate attention; and, notwithstanding he was teazed by them, to examine and recommend their inventions, as often, and as pertinaciously as the bard of Twickenham, by his rhyming brothers, yet he never lost his patience, or ordered the door to be shut, the knocker tied up, nor charged his workmen to say that he was sick or dead; he felt no jealousy of them, and would do much at any time to oblige them, if they were tolerably clever in their Since Perkins has been in England, his fame and business. He was modest and quiet, but did not usefulness have greatly increased; still, however, think humbly of his own capacity; not that he ever disappointments and vexations, the everlasting conassumed a tone of superiority, or discovered any self-comitants of genius, have fallen to his lot. The conceit, but he always indulged ardent hopes, and publick are now in possession of a sufficient number it would not be going too far to say, a fixed belief, of his inventions, which have been practically tested, that he should find something in his course which to ensure him a permanent reputation; but he is not would lead to fame and fortune. When entreated content with what he has already done, for every by his friends, as he often was, to control his dis-hour bears witness to some new struggle by him, in position for invention, and attempt to turn some of the world of invention, and the last is more gigantick his numerous matters, already in operation, to pecu- than any niary account, he quietly answered, that he was, in his own opinion, still an apprentice in his profession, and must do something more before he should be satisfied to set up for himself; and, he sometimes modestly intimated hopes that England would be the theatre on which he should act his part.

former one.

He has a compact, athletick frame, a strong constitution, and sprang from a longlived race of hardy men; therefore we may indulge a hope that he will have opportunities of doing much before he passes the boundaries of active life. May it be so decreed-and the remotest nations enjoy the benefit of

the labour of one whose track to glory was bloodless, and whose elevation never gave the human heart a pang, nor drew from mortal eye a tear.

ASTRONOMY.

THE FIXED STARS.

NOTE.-Mr. Perkins had a safety steam-engine manuThe mechanism of the universe; the worlds that factory near the Regent's Park, London. It is doubtless fill it; the motions and the laws of the whole and of the well known that about ten years since, he invented that various parts; their relations to each other, and the wonderful specimen of human ingenuity and destructive power the steam gun. This extraordinary inven- design of the Creator of the whole in connexion with tion at once attracted the attention of the first men in the destiny of mankind, furnish one of the subli England, and a committee of engineer and artillery officers was appointed by the Duke of Wellington to mest portions of study and science, which can attract examine it. Mr. Perkins was accordingly visited by the attention of the human mind. It is interesting, that committee, accompanied by his grace the Duke, as it is sublime, and beautiful as it is inexhaustible. the Master General of the Ordnance and his staff; the

Marquis of Salisbury, Mr. Peel, Sir H. Hardinge, Lord It has an amplitude and scope, whose limits the Fitzroy Somerset, the Judge Advocate General, and imagination cannot circumscribe; depths, which many military officers of the highest rank. Mr. Per- human reason cannot fathom; complexities which it kins's experiments excited amazement and admiration in every witness. "At first," says an English paper, cannot unravel; but a sublimity and beauty which the "the balls were discharged at short intervals, in imitation mind cannot cease to wonder at and admire. But of artillery firing, against an iron target, at the distance while we are struck with the amazing splendours of of thirty-five yards. Such was the force with which they were driven, that they were completely shattered the heavens, and attempt to fathom their abysses, the to atoms. In the next experiment the balls were dis- mind is discouraged with the futility of the effort, and charged at a frame of wood, and they actually passed through eleven one-inch planks of the hardest deal, reverts to that insignificant portion of the universe placed at the distance of an inch from each other. Af which we are destined to occupy. For notwithterwards they were propelled against an iron plate one fourth of an inch thick, and at the very first trial the ball standing, we have determined the laws and motions passed through it. On all hands this was declared to of the earth, the sun, moon, and planets, yet we are be the utmost effort of force that gunpowder couid exert. in comparative ignorance of the other worlds and Indeed, we understand that this plate had been brought systems which are visible in the heavens, and indeed specially from Woolwich for the purpose of ascertaining the comparative force of steam and gunpowder. the imagination is lost when it ventures even beyond The pressure of steam employed to effect this wonder- the planets. The mind, however, congratulates itself ful force, we learnt, on inquiry, did not at first exceed 65 atmospheres, or 900 lbs. to the square inch; and it upon a progressive improvement in its knowledge of was repeatedly stated by Mr. Perkins, that the pressure the universe. Pythagoras was esteemed a crazy might be carried even 200 atmospheres with perfect man by his contemporaries, for adhering to his plan safety. Mr. Perkins then proceeded to demonstrate the rapidity with which musket balls might be project ed by its agency. To effect this, he screwed on the gunbarrel a tube filled with balls, which, falling down by their own gravity into the barrel, were projected one by one, with such extraordinary velocity, as to demonstrate that, by means of a succession of tubes, filled with balls, fixed in a wheel, (a model of which was exhibited,) nearly one thousand balls per minute might be discharged. In subsequent discharges or volleys, the barrel, to which is attached a moveable joint, was given a lateral direction, and the balls perforated a plank nearly twelve feet in length. Thus, if opposed to a regiment in line, the steam gun might be made to act from one of its extremities to the other. A similar plank was afterwards placed in a perpendicular position, and in like manner, there was a stream of shot-holes from the top to the bottom. It is thus proved, that the steam gun has not only the force of gunpowder, but also admits of any direction being given to it. But what seemed to create most surprise was the effect of a volley of balls discharged against the brick wall by the side of the target. They absolutely dug a hole of considerable dimensions in the wall, and penetrated almost one half through its thickness. We heard several officers declare their belief, that had the balls been made of iron instead of lead, they would actually have made a breach through it-the wall was eighteen inches thick."

Perkins is still in England, and his industrious ingenuity is still employed in multiplying useful inventions and improvements in the mechanick arts.

The highest perfection of human reason is to know that there is an infinity of truth beyond its reach.

or suggestion in relation to the solar system; and the world chose rather to remain in ignorance of the relative motions and distances of the sun and planets, than to stretch their credulity to the purposes of the great astronomer. It was reserved for the immortal Copernicus more than 2000 years after, to revive the Pythagorean system and establish it upon a permanent foundation; this is the true system and universally received at the present day. But since Copernicus, what astonishing discoveries have burst in rapid succession upon the world! The instruments which genius has devised have as it were brought down the heavens for the purposes of inspection and admeasurement! In addition to what was already known, we have ventured farther into the heavens, and determined the distances of the stars, their motions, variations and retrogradations, changes, relative distances, the causes of nebulous appearances, and assigned certain determinate places in the heavens to those that are fixed, and given them names, separately, and in constellations. Instead of observing but about 1000 in the heavens with the naked eye, we apply our instruments and the skies are filled with numbers, great, beyond all conception, and some of them at a distance of 11 trillions of miles! Some

which appear to the naked eye to be but single, are creases and decreases of light in regular periods, in fact, double and triple stars.

Fixed stars are known from the planets by their twinkling. They are called fixed and luminous, because they appear to have no proper motion of their own, and if their light were reflected it would be too weak to reach us. Doubtless their various apparent magnitudes cannot properly be classed, since there must be as many differences in magnitude as there are stars. It is not probable that the real magnitude of the fixed stars can ever be ascertained with certainty; we must be content with an approximation deduced from their annual parallax and a comparison of the light which they afford with that of the sun. The number Dr. Halley believes to be infinite.

“Light,” says Biot, "employs more than three years in passing from the stars to us. The stars whose light seems to break forth at once in the heavens, must have existed long before they are perceived; and in some instances their light is still seen long after they have vanished from their places. Perhaps there are some stars so distant that their light has not yet reached us; others perhaps ceased to be, millions of ages ago, while their light is still seen in the places they once occupied in the

heavens.

and are hence called variable stars.

"The ancients," we employ the language of Blair, "that they might the better distinguish the stars with regard to their situation in the heavens, divided them into several constellations, that is, masses or clusters of stars, each mass consisting of such as are near to each other. And to distinguish these groups or systems from each other, they gave them the names of such men or things as they fancied the space they took up in the heavens represented. To these, several new constellations have been added by modern astronomers.

The ideal delineations of those figures of animals and other objects, which include the constellations or asterisms, are dispersed all over the heavens, and a particular situation is assigned to each, as may be seen upon a common celestiai globe, or upon a planisphere or map of the heavens; yet some spaces in the heavens remained here and there, which according to the ancient distribution of the stars were out of the bounds of the contiguous constellations. The stars which were included in those spaces were called unformed stars; but, as represented on the modern celestial globes, the constellations are made to comprehend all the unformed or extra-constellated

stars.

Besides the names of the constellations, the ancient Greeks gave particular names to some single stars, or small collections of stars. Thus, the cluster of small stars in the neck of Taurus, the Bull, was called the Pleiades; five stars in the Bull's face, the Hyades; a bright star in the breast of Leo, the Lion's Heart, or Cor Leonis; and a large star between the knees of Bootes, Arcturus, &c. Several of the brightest fixed stars have also particular names, as Sirius, Aldebaran, Regulus, Castor, Procyon, Alioth, &c.

As it would be an endless task to give a proper name to each star, astronomers, in order that the memory may not be burdened with a multiplicity of names, denominate the stars of each constellation are applied to them according to their apparent relby means of the letters of the Greek alphabet, which ative size. The principal or brightest star in the constellation is designated by a, Alpha; the next in brightness, by B, Beta; the third, by, Gamma; and so on. When the number of stars in a constellation, exceeds the letters in the Greek alphabet, the letters of the Roman alphabet, a, b, c, d, &c. are applied to the remaining stars in the same manner; and when these are not sufficient, the numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c. are used to designate the rest in the same regular succession; so that by these means, the stars may be readily known and spoken of with as much ease as if each had a separate name.

"It is evident that the stars undergo considerable changes, since their changes are sensible even at the distance at which we are placed. There are some which gradually lose their light, as the stars of Ursa Major, others, as of Cetus, become more brilliant. Finally, there are some which have been observed to assume suddenly a new splendour, and then gradually fade away. Such was the new star which appeared in 1572, in the constellation Cassiwhich appeared in 1572, in the constellation Cassiopeia. It became all at once so brilliant that it surpassed the brightest stars, and even Venus and Jupiter when nearest to the earth. It could be seen at mid-day. Gradually this great brilliancy began to diminish, and the star disappeared in sixteen months from the time it was first seen without having changed its place in the heavens. Its colour during this time, suffered great variations. At first it was dazzling white, like Venus; then of a reddish yellow, like Mars and Aldebaran; and lastly of a leaden white, like Saturn. Another star which appeared suddenly in 1604, in the constellation Serpentarius, presented similar variations, and disappeared after several months. These phenomena seem to indicate accordingly divided the constellations into three vast flames which burst forth suddenly in these classes, called the northern, the southern, and the great bodies. Who knows that our sun may not be zodiacal. The number of northern constellations is subject to similar changes, by which great revolu-37, of the southern 47, and of the zodiacal 12; making 96 in the whole. The ancient astronomers tions have perhaps taken place in the state of our reckoned only 48 constellations-12 in the zodiack, globe, and are yet to take place." Some stars, with- 21 to the north, and 15 to the south. Modern out entirely disappearing, exhibit remarkable in- lastronomers, however, by curtailing several of the

The celestial sphere is usually divided into three portions, the zodiack, and the northern and southern hemispheres, or more properly the two regions to the

north and south of the zodiack. Astronomers have

ancient constellations of some of their stars, which stars; others appear as luminous spots of different they distributed into new constellations, and by ar- forms. The most considerable one is that which ranging into constellations the unformed stars, or those which were between the ancient constellations, have increased their number to 96, as above stated.

is about midway between the two stars on the blade of Orion's sword, marked by Bayer, and discovered in the year 1656 by Huygens. It consists only of seven stars; and the other part is a bright spot upon a dark ground, and appears like an opening into brighter regions beyond. Dr. Halley and others have discovered nebulæ in different parts of the heavens. In the Connoisance des Temps, for 1783 and 1784, there is given a catalogue of 103 nebulæ observed by Le Messier and M. Mechain. But to Dr. Herschel we are indebted for catalogues of 2000 nebulæ and clusters of stars, which he himself had discovered. Some of them form a round compact system; others are more irregular, of various forms; and some are long and narrow. The appearance of luminous spaces in the heavens, Sir Richard Phillips denies to arise from light per se; but ascribes the luminosity of all such spaces to the multitude of planets, asteriods, satellites, and cometary bodies, with which

The term zodiack is derived from a Greek word signifying an animal, because most of the constellations in that zone, which are twelve in number, are represented by the outlines of the figures of animals; as, Aries, the Ram; Taurus, the Bull; Gemini, the Twins: Cancer, the Crab; Leo, the Lion; Virgo, the Virgin; Libra, the Balance; Scorpio, the Scorpion; Sagittarius, the Archer; Capricornus, the Goat; Aquarius, the Water-bearer; and Pisces, the Fishes. The luminous part of the heavens, called the Milky-Way, consists of fixed stars too small to be seen by the naked eye. In a paper on the construction of the heavens, Dr. Herschel says, "It is very probable, that the great stratum called the MilkyWay, is that in which the Sun is placed, though perhaps not the centre of its thickness, but not those spaces are filled. far from the place where some smaller stratum branches from it. Such a supposition will satisfac-pear. Several stars mentioned by the ancient astorily, and with great simplicity account for all the phenomena of the Milky-Way, which, according to this hypothesis, is no other than the appearance of the projection of the stars contained in this stratum, and its secondary branch."

New stars sometimes appear, while others disap

tronomers, are not now to be found; several are now visible to the naked eye, which are not mentioned in the ancient catalogues; and some stars have suddenly appeared, and again, after a considerable interval, vanished; also a change of place has been

From a series of observations on double stars, Dr. Herschel has found that a great many of them have changed their situations with regard to each other; that the one performs a revolution round the other; and that the motion of some is direct, while that of others is retrograde. He has observed that there is a change in more than 50 of the double stars, either in the distance of the two stars, or in the angle made by a line joining them with the direction of their daily motion.

In another paper on the same subject, he says-observed in some stars. "We will now retreat to our own retired station From an attentive examination of the stars with in one of the planets attending a star in the great good telescopes, many which appear only single to combination with numberless others; and in order the naked eye, are found to consist of numerous to investigate what will be the appearances from this stars. a Herculis, is a double star, so is Bootes; contracted situation, let us begin with the naked eye. and Dr. Herschel, by his highly improved teleThe stars of the first magnitude, being, in all proba-scopes, has found about 700. bility the nearest, will furnish us with a step to begin our scale; setting off, therefore, with the distance of Sirius or Arcturus, for instance, as unity, we will at present suppose, that those of the second magnitude are at double, and those of the third at treble the distance, and so forth. Taking it then for granted, that a star of the seventh magnitude is about seven times as far from us as one of the first, it follows that an observer, who is enclosed in a globular cluster of stars, and not far from the centre, will never be able, with the naked eye, to see the end of it; for since according to the above estimations, he can only extend his view about seven times the distance of Sirius, it cannot be expected that his eye should reach the borders of a cluster, which has perhaps not less than fifty stars in depth every where around him. The whole universe, therefore, to him, will be comprised in a set of constellations, richly ornamented with scattered stars of all sizes. Or, if the united brightness of a neighbouring clusterof stars should, in a remarkably clear night, reach his sight, it will put on the appearance of a small, faint, nebulous cloud, not to be perceived without the greatest attention. Allowing him the use of a common telescope, he begins to suspect, that all the milkiness of the bright path which surrounds the sphere may be owing to stars. By increasing his power of vision, he becomes certain that the Milky-Way is, indeed, no other than a collection of very small stars, and the nebulæ nothing but clusters of stars."

Dr. Herschel has observed that the smaller of the two stars composing Castor, has a revolution of 3421 years round the other; the double star Leonis has a period of 1200 years; Bootes, of 1681 years;

Serpentis, of 375 years; Virginis, of 708 years; and so of the rest-but the life of one man is evidently too short to attain correct results, in regard to periods so disproportionate to his narrow space of existence.

These motions of the stars among themselves being apparent to observation, the doctrine of Dr. Herschel and other astronomers is rendered probable, that the Sun has a motion or orbit of its own among the fixed stars of the Milky-Way, at the rate of the Earth's motion, carrying with it all the planets, just as the planets themselves, carry with them their systems of satellites in their own orbits. The rotation of the Sun on its inclined axis, according to the theory of Sir Richard Phillips, seems to indicate the action of a centrifugal force in the Sun, and to render There are spots in the heavens, called nebule, the notion, that the whole solar system is analagous some of which consist of clusters of telescopick to a primary and its satellites, exceedingly probable