AN ANSWER TO THE FOLLOWING

QUESTION, What is Love?"

[The following is printed from the original MS. of the notorious THOMAS PAINE, signed with his initials, and certified by the subjoined note in the handwriting of Mr HOLCROFT. Whatever may be thought of the intrinsic merit of the verses, they will probably be esteemed a curiosity, as the production of a man by no means deficient in intellectual strength or acuteness, upon a subject more pleasing and innocent than those with which his name is so darkly and inseparably associated.]

TO SIR ROBERT SMYTH.

As I do not attempt to rival your witty description of Love, I will retreat to sentiment, and try if I can match you there; and, that I may start with a fair chance, I will begin with your own question, What is Love?

'Tis that delightsome transport we can feel

Which painters cannot paint, nor words reveal,

Nor any art we know of can conceal.

Canst thou describe the sun-beams to the blind?

Or make him feel a shadow with his mind? So neither can we by description show This first of all felicities below.

When happy Love pours magic o'er the soul,

And all our thoughts in sweet delirium roll, When Contemplation spreads its rain-bow wings,

And every flutter some new rapture brings,
How sweetly then our moments glide away,
And dreams repeat the transports of the day;
We live in ecstasy, to all things kind,
For Love can teach a moral to the mind.
But are there not some other marks that

prove

What is this wonder of the soul call'd Love? O yes, there are, but of a different kind, The dreadful horrors of a dismal mind. Some jealous Fury throws its poison'd dart, And rends in pieces the distracted heart. When Love's a tyrant, and the soul a slave, No hope remains to thought, but in the grave;

In that dark den, it sees an end to grief, And what was once its dread, becomes relief.

What are the iron chains the hands have wrought?

The hardest chain to break is made of thought.

Think well of this, ye lovers, and be kind, Nor play with torture on a tortur'd mind. ❤ T. P.

MR BURKHARDT's Narrative of his Discoveries in Africa has at length been put to the press. This gentleman has, for some years, been travelling in the districts to the south of Egypt, under the character of an Arab, and the appellation of Shekh Ibrahim. In this character he was met by Mr Legh, in his travels above the cataracts, so completely disguised, that he could not, unless by his conversation, have been distinguished from an Arab. This gentleman travels under the auspices of the African Association. He is now prosecuting his discoveries, and entertains sanguine hopes of being able to reach Tombuctoo.

Mr C. R. Cockerell having left England in 1810, to pursue his studies as an architect in Greece, visited Constantinople, where he found the oriental architecture, used by the Turks, so interesting, as to engage him fully during three months. In his way from Constantinople to Athens, he visited the Troad, various islands of the Archipelago and Salonica; and, on his arrival there, he had the fortune to meet a society of travellers, Messrs Bronstedt and Koes, who died in Zante, and Messrs Baron Stackelberg and Linckh. With one of these he made a survey of all the monuinents of Athens. They undertook to excavate the temple of Jupiter Panhellenius in Egina; and had the good fortune to discover the statues which formed the compositions enriching the two frontispieces of the school of Ægina. They afterwards succeeded in excavating the Temple of Apollo Epicurius, at Phigaleia, in Arcadia; where they had the gratification of bringing to light the frieze which enriched the interior of the cella, and which is now deposited in the British Museum. Mr Cockerell's avocations then led him into Asia Minor, where he completed the tour of the seven churches, making many drawings and observations on those remains, and collecting many inscriptions. He visited Priene, Samos, Miletus, and Crete, where he made plans of the labyrinth of Minos. From Rhodes he crossed to Patara, and visited the numerous cities and remains on the coast of Lycia. He then returned with Captain Beaufort to Malta, whence he visited Sicily, and at Agrigentum made a particular examination of the Temple of Jupiter Olympius, or the Temple of the Giants, which was the most considerable of all Grecian antiquity. In a second tour in Greece he visited Epirus, Thessaly, and other provinces of continental Greece, and the Ionian Islands. In February 1816, he passed into Apulea and Naples, where he

had the advantage of a six weeks' study of the antiquities of Pompeia; and remained nearly a year at Rome. He afterwards completed his tour of Upper Italy, and has just returned to England by way of Germany and Paris. He has brought with him the result of his researches during seven years and a half, which are very considerable, and in due time is expected to publish an account of his interesting travels and valuable discoveries.

There is at present in Paris a map which exhibits a curious specimen of Chinese Geography.—It was engraved at Pekin during the commencement of the last century, and comprises a great part of northern Asia; namely, the countries situated between the 35 and 55 degrees of latitude, and the 31 and 33 degrees of longitude. It was sold among a collection of charts and astronomical calculations, after the death of the learned astronomer, M. Messier.

It is 14 feet long and 6 wide; the characters to the north of the great wall of China are Tartar Mongol, and those within the wall and towards the south are Chi

nese.

The map was sent from Pekin by some Jesuit missionaries, and in 1720 conveyed to St Petersburgh by M. Lange. Several members of the French Institute have examined it with the greatest interest. It is supposed to be the only specimen of the kind in Europe.

At the suggestion of Mr Hoblyn of Sloane Street, a quantity of cocoa-nut oil has recently been introduced into this coun try from the island of Ceylon. It has been ascertained, that this oil may be very advantageously employed as a substitute for spermaceti oil, as it is considerably cheaper, burns with a clear bright flame, and is free from smell or smoke. It will be found useful also in the manufacture of soap, candles, and the finer articles of perfumery, and is likely to become a source of great revenue in Ceylon, and of importance to this country. Soap made with it costs about 10 per cent. more than tallow soap.

Dr D. White of Bombay having transmitted a packet, containing the seeds of some scarce and valuable plants, to the Caledonian Horticultural Society, the thanks of the Society were voted to him at a general meeting on the 10th of June.

A stone, adapted to the purposes of li thography, has been lately discovered in East Lothian, on the property of the Right Hon. the Earl of Wemyss and March. Various successful experiments have already been made with it by Mr Ruthven, the ingenious inventor of the patent print

ing-press, which has excited such general attention.

Mr George Sinclair, gardener to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, states, that the larvæ of the phalena tortrices, or grubs, are often the cause of blight in fruit trees. Two orchards at Woburn were annually more or less subject to the ravages of these insects, till the following expedient was adopted. Immediately after the fall of the leaves, a waggon load of lime was placed in the orchard, and suffered to slake by the weather. Advantage was then taken of the morning dews, to powder every part of the surface of the trees with the lime, while in its most caustic state. This process has been annually repeated, with such success, that since its first adoption, there has been but one partial attack of the insects; and this is attributed to the lime used that season having lost much of its causticity before it was applied, and to a heavy fall of rain immediately after the liming. It is essential that the alga be removed from the trees previously to the application of the lime, as they not only do injury by closing the pores of the bark, but also form the principal nests where the eggs of the insects are deposited during winter. When these parasitical plants are once displaced, they never recover themselves, if the liming be annually repeated. Seventy bushels of lime, proper ly applied, will be sufficient for an orchard of five acres, completely stocked with full grown trees.

The President and Council of the Royal Society of London have adjudged the gold and silver medals, on Count Rumford's foundation, to Sir H. Davy, for his papers on combustion and flame, published in the last volume of the Philosophical Transactions.

Dr Husson has made the highly important remark, that the nur vomica is very beneficial in paralysis which follows rheumatic affections, but he considers it as liable to occasional accidents, when the paralysis has succeeded an attack of apoplexy. This distinction ought to make medical men very cautious in the use of this powerful agent.

An animal hitherto unknown here to the European colonist, accompanied by two of its young, was found a fortnight ago at Cox's River, in the newly discovered country, near Sydney, New Holland. From its general conformation, it may be pronounced a species of the Jerboa tribe. Its resemblance is about midway between that of the rabbit and the rat, the ears short and erect, like those of the former, the head longer, like that of the latter, as is also the tail, which is very long, but terminating with a thick fur; the weight of the animal, to all appearance, not exceeding eight or nine ounces. Sidney Gazette.

A curious phenomenon exhibited itself on board a vessel in Sydney, to a party

while at supper. On the opening of a rock oyster, the shells of which were forced asunder with much difficulty, a small fish of two inches length, which had been curled up in the place which the native inhabitant of the shell had before occupied, sprung out upon the table, and was preserved alive for some time. Examined in a glass of clear salt water, the little intruder, which had doubt, less devoured its host, the oyster, had a beautiful appearance when alive. Its great pliancy when in motion, determines its species to be cartilaginous, while the back and belly, which were ornamented with a series of spines linked together by a transparent silken membrane, and its fine curling tail, displayed the richest beauties to the admiring eye. The creature was itself almost entirely transparent, when interposed between the eye and the sun, and the whole body marked with stripes of brown and yellow, disposed in regular intervals; nor was the head its least curious part, from its being surmounted with a fine crest, resembling the unindented comb of a cock. Many persons have seen it, and all presume it to be a novel species.-Sydney Gazette.

Two instances of the extreme virulence and rapidity of animal poison, almost unprecedented in well authenticated narrative, are recorded in the Sydney Gazette, as recent information from the party at Bathurst Plains. The sudden death of John Wood, a private of the Royal Veteran Company, on duty at that post, was owing to the bite of a snake, which he survived only a few moments. The melancholy event took place on the 24th ultimo; the fatal wound was inflicted on the foot, and the deceased putting his hand upon it, had scarcely time to implore the blessing of God, when he fell upon his face, and instantly expired. Pu trescence ensued with unexampled rapidity, and in a few hours the body of the deceased became entirely black.-A sheep belonging to Mr Lawson was also bit; it died immediately, and exhibited symptoms of putrescence in a few moments after. One of these snakes was known to advance from beneath a rock to the centre of a road as a man was passing, with the apparent intention of attacking him. They are said to be generally from five to six, or seven feet long, are of a disagreeable dark colour, and have very large heads.

Mr Armiger is engaged in Researches, and in the Collection of Materials for an English work on Physiology, intended to supply an acknowledged deficiency in the elementary books of this country, to exhibit the present state of that important science, and the extent to which it is indebted to the investigation of British physiology.

Mr Sewell, assistant professor at the Veterinary College, has discovered a mode of curing a chronic lameness, to which hunters, chargers, and other valuable horses,

are liable after any considerable exertion. It consists in dividing the nervous trunk, and extirpating a portion of it, where it enters the foot behind the pastern joint.

A paper, by Dr Leach of the British Museum, has been read to the Royal Society, containing some observations on a new genus of marine animals inhabiting the argonaut and nautilus shells. It was observed by Sir Joseph Banks, that the animal found in these shells is not the fabricator of them, but a parasite which has taken up its occasional abode there when it chooses to shield itself from the direct action of the waves. Sir E. Home also presented a paper somewhat similar, detailing his remarks on the mode and period of generation of the animals found in nautilus and argonaut shells. He found them to be oviparous animals, to be nourished nearly like snails. Serpent found in Devonshire.-Dr Leach states, that the red viper, described by Mr Rackett in a paper read to the Linnæan Society on April 15, is no more than a very common variety of the young viper of Britain. He also says, that coluber cæruleus of the Linnæan Transactions, col. prester and chersea of Linnæus, are also varieties of the same species, viz. of vipera berus.

The First Number of a New Periodical Work, entitled," Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia," has just reached this country from America. It contains, 1st, Description of Six new Species of the genus Firola, from the Mediterranean, by MM. de Sueur and Peron, with a plate. 2d, An Account of the New Mountain Sheep, Ovis Montana, by Mr George Ord; with a wood engraving of the Horn of the Animal. 3d, A Description of Seven American Water and Land Shells, by Mr Thomas Say.

Sir William Herschel, lately created a Hanoverian knight, has communicated a paper to the Royal Society on the system of the scattering of the stars, and on the best mode of dividing them into classes, so as to form a correct and convenient catalogue.

It is found by experiment, that the waters of the Thames, opposite the London Dock gates, are perfectly fresh throughout; at Blackwall, even in spring tides, the water was found to be only slightly saline; at Woolwich the proportion of salt water increases, and so on to Gravesend. From a series of observations made at and below London Bridge, compared with the river as far up as Kew and Oxford, Mr Stevenson, the engineer, is of opinion, that the waters of the Thames seldom change, but are probably carried up and down with the turn of the alternate tides, for an indefinite period, which, he is of opinion, may be one, if not the principal, cause of what is termed the extreme softness of the waters of the Thames.

FRANCE.

Gold, Paris standard, annealed .00151361
Platinum (according to Borda) .00085655
Lead ......

French crystal glass
French crown glass
French mirror glass .....

.00284836 .00087199

.00089694

......................................... .00089098 Insects living in a Vacuum.-M. Biot has observed, that the insects called by the French blaps and tenebrions, may be left in the best vacuum that can be made by an air-pump for days, without their appearing to suffer any inconvenience.

New Method of detecting Arsenious Acid, or Corrosive Sublimate, when in Solution. -Take a little recent wheat starch; add to it a sufficient quantity of iodine to give it a blue colour. Mix a little of this blue matter with water, so as to have a blue-coloured liquid. If into this liquid a few drops of an aqueous solution of arsenious acid be put, the blue colour is immediately changed to reddish brown, and is gradually dissipated entirely. The solution of corrosive sublimate produces nearly the same effect; but if some drops of sulphuric acid be added, the blue colour is again restored, if it has been destroyed by arsenious acid; but if it has been destroyed by corrosive sublimate, it is not restored, either by sulphuric acid or by any other acid. (Brugnatelli, Ann. de Chim. et Phys. iv. 334.)

New Analysis of the Meteorie Iron of Siberia.-M. Laugier has lately subjected a specimen of this well known mass of iron to analysis. He found its constituents as follow

are quite the same as those of the meteoric stones. (See Ann. de Chim. et Phys. iv. 363.)

Arragonite.-It will be recollected, that after the discovery of carbonate of strontian by Stromeyer in arragonite, Messrs Bucholz and Meissner analyzed twelve specimens from different places; that they found strontian in seven of the twelve, but could detect none in the remaining five. Among these five was the arragonite of Bastènes, which, according to these chemists, contained nothing but carbonate of lime and a little sulphate of lime. Laugier has lately examined a specimen of arragonite from the same place. He found in it traces of carbonate of strontian, though the quantity of that substance present did not exceed the thousandth part of the weight of the specimen. In two other specimens of arragonite, one from Baudissero, near Turin, the other from the country of Gex, he could detect no strontian whatever; but he remarks that these specimens did not exhibit all the characters of arragonite. That of Baudissero, though pretty regularly crystallized, was opake, and very friable. That from Gex has the vitreous fracture, and the hardness of the best characterized arragonites; but it is massive, and exhibits no appearance of crystallization. In general, the purest, most transparent, and most regularly crystallized arragonites, are those which contain the greatest quantity of strontian; while those which are impure, and mixed with sulphate of lime, either contain none, or very little of that substance. (Ann. de Chim. et Phys. iv. 361.)

A stone, adapted to the purposes of lithography, has been discovered in the quarries of Argenteuil. All the stone used in this art in France has hitherto been imported from Bavaria. Burgundy also has lately furnished some specimens, of which a trial is about to be made; but the quarry of Argenteuil seems capable of furnishing an abundant supply, and of the best quality.

GERMANY.

The great anatomical collection of Meckel of Halle is about to be offered for sale. It is only excelled by the magnificent and truly philosophical museum of the late John Hunter. The Meckels did not rest satisfied with mere preparations of parts of the adult human subject: a principal object with them has been to show, in series of preparations, the forms and condition of the various organs and parts of the animal system, from their first appearance to their period of maturity; and this cabinet is also particularly rich in objects of pathological anatomy.

Animal Magnetism is at present in high repute in Germany, as a remedy in the cure of diseases. Many large works and numberless pamphlets have been written on this

subject within two or three years, and even hospitals have been established, for the reception of such patients as require the aid of magnetism.

A periodical work is at present publishing at Altenburg, under the following title: "Archives of Animal Magnetism," by Eschenmayer, Kieser, and Nasse.

Barker, Wolter, and Hendricks, are publishing, in Holland, "Contributions to the Doctrine of Animal Magnetism."

Rohlwes has published, at Hanover, a work on the knowledge and cure of the diseases of wild animals; and the same author has also published a work on veterinary medicine.

Henriette Schubart has lately published, at Altenburg, a translation of Walter Scott's Scottish Ballads and Songs.

A curious book has lately appeared at Copenhagen, under the title, "Historia precipuorum Arabum Regnorum, rerumque ab iis gestorum ante Islamismum, e codd. MSS. Arabicis Bibliothecæ Regiæ Slavniensis collegit, vertit, Animadversiones addidit, Dr et Pref. J. L. Rassmussen."

There has just appeared at Vienna a work in 3 vols. 8vo, with 135 folio coloured plates, by Dr Joseph Scherer, entitled, Tables of the Anatomical Wax Preparations in the Imperial Museum."

Among the effects left by the celebrated Werner, there are several MSS. nearly ready for the press. This great man had printed nothing since 1774. His labours always appeared to him not sufficiently matured; but his instructions are spread over the world by thousands of his Scholars. His Cabinet of Minerals has become the property of the Mineralogical Academy at Frieberg.

The fifth volume of Professor Hausmann's Mineralogical Travels in Scandinavia has just been published.

ITALY.

Canova has just finished a charming group, a nymph reposing upon a lion's skin, and a boy playing on a lyre. He is now employed upon a statue of the King of Portugal.

Professor Moricchini, of Rome, having discovered the magnetising power of the violet rays of the prismatic spectrum, the Marquis Ridolfi has succeeded in magnetising two needles, the one in thirty, the other in forty-six minutes; and can now charge with the magnetic power, by the same process, as many needles as he pleases. The needles thus magnetised (namely, by directing on and passing over them, for a period of not less than thirty minutes, the violet rays of the spectrum, through the medium of a condensing lens) possess all the energy and the properties of needles magnetised in the common way by means of a loadstone. Their homonomous poles repel, while the