to defer his answers. And such is the variety and crowd of materials in his Tatler, that one might take it for the universal intelligencer of the kingdom instead of a moral or fashionable journal. Still, if we should suppose that Steele alone furnished all the matter for any one of these journals, we must give him credit for diligence and vivacity as remarkable as his genius. We do not say this chiefly in reference to the amount of the composition, but to the daily calls upon him; to the duty of furnishing so many pages as a matter of course at the regular application of his publisher. The wonder is, that he did not fall into habitual dulness and a repetition of himself, from his mechanical constancy of work. One more particular, and we will take our leave of Steele. It would be gratifying to know the prices he paid to his contributors; for it must be acknowledged that the service of the periodical writers was mercenary, even then. If he paid all as liberally as he did Berkeley, we should scarcely be justified in calling the present the most favored time for journalists ; for Steele gave him a guinea and a dinner for every paper he sent to the Guardian, and in general the numbers in that work are much shorter than those of the Tatler. So productive was the sale of the papers, that Steele himself might have been rich; but it was not in the power of public favor, or private friendship, or his wife's fortune, or his own most brilliant success to make him so. He knew well how to moralize over improvidence for the good of others, and that was all. There are many points of view, in which these Essays have an interest at the present day. They are no doubt of great consideration for their literary excellence and influence, for the variety of genius they exhibit, for their moral instruction and maxims of prudence, and for the perpetual resource they offer to those who love repose or gentle exhilaration. But they are in nothing more curious and pleasing than as a monument of their age, as a part of English antiquities. They are not so properly a history, as a set of pictures of the times. They do not serve the purposes of guide-books, which direct us to high roads and prominent objects, but they raise the veil of a hundred years, and, by a kind of magic, show us the whole of daily English city life at that period; the men and their costume, the professions, the theatres, the trades, the interior of private houses, the prevailing notions respecting education and criticism. We have every condition of life, every pursuit, - No. 99. VOL. XLVI. 47 and almost every kind of opinion, conversation, tastes, fashions, follies, vices. Till we think a little of the subject, we shall have no conception of the minuteness and extent of information which these papers give us. It seems as if nothing were left untold; not because we have looked for every thing and found it, but because nothing is felt to be wanting. London is all about us. We do not take it in at once, or, like strangers and travellers, go over the whole, as a business; but we become acquainted with it as we do with our own town and neighbours, in the course of our business and amusements. Such is the charm and power of these sketches of real life, drawn incidentally in the course of moral instruction, and not prepared for the purpose of giving lively and complete representations. ART. III. Resumo de Observações Geologicas feitas em uma Viagem a's Ilhas da Madeira, Porto Santo, e Açores, nos Annos de 1835 e 1836, pelo Conde VARGAS DE BEDEMAR, Camarista de El-Rei de Dinamarca, Director do Museo Real da Historia Natural, e Socio da Academia Real das Sciencias em Compenhagen. Lisboa; Galhardo Irmãos. 1837. 12mo. pp. 14. Summary of Geological Observations made in a Voyage to the Islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, and Azores, in the Years 1835 and 1836, by Count VARGAS DE BEDEMAR. THE student of Geology finds nothing in his popular and fascinating department of science, that has stronger claims upon his attention, or is calculated to awaken more ardent curiosity, than the phenomena exhibited by volcanoes in action, or by tracts of country, which have, as it were, been created by those whose energies have long since been exhausted. The volcanic or non volcanic origin of the rocks and strata of countries, which, to common observers, present no indications of the manner in which they have been formed, has been one of the most fruitful topics of discussion and of keen controversy among the geologists of Europe. Long and perilous journeys have been undertaken, and expensive and wearisome voyages performed, to settle the question in regard to some particular stratum or mountain, or to support a favorite theory; and every new work on volcanic regions is still looked for by the geologist with undiminished interest. The more we learn of volcanic formations, the more are we led to attribute to volcanic agency, during every geological period, and to look upon it as affording the most satisfactory explanation of the elevation of mountain chains, the inclination, depression, fractures, and dislocations of strata; in short, as having greatly modified the aspect of the whole surface of the earth. To the class of undoubted extinct volcanoes must be referred by far the greater part, if not all, those serrated, conical, or truncated summits which rise above the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; and there are but few of them more interesting than those midway between the old and new continents, which the work named at the head of this article professes to describe.. Before proceeding to the account given by Count Vargas of the geological structure of Madeira and the other islands, we propose to mention some points in their natural history and appearance, not alluded to in his work. Madeira belongs, as do the other islands described in the "Resumo," to the Portuguese, and is situated in 17° of west longitude, and 32° 30′ of north latitude, off the western coast of Africa. It rises for the most part abruptly from the Atlantic, and its highest summit exceeds six thousand feet.* Its picturesque and beautiful appearance has been often described. The air is loaded with perfumes, the large leaves of the banana wave over the walls, and the splendid palm trees overtop the houses. The coffee trees form hedges and copses, and the mimosas, protea, and a variety of the most gorgeous and fragrant plants, of which we see mere fragments in our hot-houses, here rise, says Von Buch, "to tall and stately trees, displaying their far glittering blossoms in the most delightful climate upon earth." Madeira is liberally supplied with rivulets and cascades, that leap from rock to rock, through bushes of rosemary, jessamine, laurel, and myrtle. Groves of chestnut and pine trees stretch out along the declivities of the mountains, and the air is filled with the warblings of thousands of canary birds from their branches. Bowdich, in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, No. IX. - "Named from her woods, with fragrant bowers adorned, The uniformity of the temperature of Madeira is almost unexampled. The average range of the thermometer, from the observations of an English physician long resident in Funchal, is from 68° to 76° of Fahrenheit during the summer, and from 57 to 65° in winter. The mean temperature deduced by Mr. Bowdich from his observations was 66°. Every desirable variety of temperature can be enjoyed, with the accompanying changes in vegetation, until the continued snow is entered at the height of five thousand one hundred and fortyeight French feet. At this height the precipices and chasms are numerous, and many of them frightful and inaccessible. Madeira has long been the resort of invalids, especially of consumptive patients. The most favorable season for them is from November to the middle of June. In July, August, and September, the heat occasionally becomes excessive, and the influence of the Sirocco wind has been known to cause a rise of temperature to 130° of Fahrenheit, a heat sufficient to melt wax. The winters too are sometimes stormy and uncomfortable. The geological structure of the island unfortunately is an insuperable obstacle to the construction of roads, and the invalid is debarred from the salutary exercise of riding. The other islands which are noticed in this "Resumo compose a distinct group, and are known as the Azores or Western islands. They are nine in number, and situated to the northwest of Madeira, between 37° and 39° of north latitude, and 250 and 31° of west longitude. The largest and most important is the island of St. Michael's. It is about fifty miles in length, and its breadth varies from six to ten. It rises in many parts precipitously from the water, at others very gradually. Here are seen gently sloping and spreading declivities, and there a long line of elevated ridges, with huge angular buttresses of rock running up from their base, between which, narrow silvery streams of water are often dashing along, or unite to form a picturesque cascade. The more level parts are dotted with hundreds of small hills, many of * Mickle's Lusiad, Book V. The French foot is equal to 1.066 English. which are perfect cones, while others are truncated, or terminate in crater-shaped summits. The lower parts of the island are cultivated, and exhibit extended fields of Indian corn, wheat, and the various culinary vegetables. Houses and villages are scattered all along the coast, intermixed with vineyards and orange gardens. The population is about eighty thousand. Next in importance is the island of Fayal, which is of much smaller size, being but about fifty miles in circumference. It rises more abruptly from the water, but is not inferior in point of beauty. A voyage (it can hardly be so called) of twelve or fourteen days transports us, as by a magician's spell, from the piercing blasts of our New England spring, to the bland and delicious temperature of these islands. Snow and ice are scarcely lost sight of, before the islanders are alongside in their little boats laden with baskets of luscious figs and tempting oranges, somewhat promiscuously mingled with fish of brilliant hues, shaded from the sun by the fragrant roses and geraniums just plucked from their luxuriant bushes. One who has not experienced the change can have but a faint conception of the reality, or of the new existence upon which he seems to have entered, while coasting along, under a cloudless sky and with our most delightful June temperature, towards the anchorage of Horta, the principal city of Fayal. On the right are the bold shores of the island, crowned with a rich vegetation, and divided into a multitude of small enclosures, as regular as the squares upon a chess-board, by verdant hedges. overrun with flowering vines, and coming down to the very edge of the precipices, while here and there the white tower of a church or chapel peeps out from among the trees, and the eye rests from time to time upon the cottages, singly, or in clusters, that glitter through the peculiarly green foliage. Some appear hanging over the very edge of the cliffs, and others are half concealed in the deep glens and fissures with which the coast is indented. The peasants in their picturesque costumes look down with wonder upon "the tall anchoring bark Diminished to her cock; the murmuring surge As we advance, the towering summit of Pico rises among the clouds on the left, a sharp, perfectly defined cone, its apex |