on such a subject, and that such jokes are not only You have already seen the 'civil-suited morn, kerchiefed unbecoming in young women, but really injure the tone in a comely cloud ;' I fear it will be some months of their minds, and make them think lightly of what before we shall introduce you to the 'dappled dawn, deserves most serious consideration; so we never call pranked out with 'sweet briar, or the vine, or the her James Hamilton's Christmas-Rose now, Margaret.” twisted eglantine.'

Though fully appreciating the propriety and good “But Justine will, I hope, one day feel how true is sense of Mrs. Loraine's sentiments, Miss Campbell that lovely picturecould not help smiling at the demure air with which

Where the great sun bugan his state, they were repeated by Agnes, and at the implied in

Robed in flames and amber light, formation that she too was to be considered a young

The clouds in thousand liveries dight, woman, though she was still in all the engaging loveli

While the ploughman near at hand ness of early girlhood.

Whistles o'cr the furrow'd land, After chatting some time, the party arose to go away,

And the milkmaid singeth blithe, having first asked and obtained a promise from Mr.

And the mower whets his scythe, Forster, that he and his Three Graces, as he called his

And every shepherd tells his tale daughters and their guest, would spend an evening at

Under the hawthorn in the dale. the Hall as soon as the moon was old enough to light

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures

Whilst the landscape round it measures, them home again. On leaving the parsonage, some

Russet lawns, and fallows gray, returned home, others proceeded to visit the cottagers ;

Where the nibbling flocks do stray; but all re-assembled at dinner, and the news of Mar

Mountains, on whose barren breast garet Campbell's arrival was gladly received by those

The labouring clouds do often rest; who had not before heard of it, for she was a general

Meadows trim, with daisies pied, favourite with old and young.

Shallow brooks and rivers wide.' "I am pleased but not surprised at your report Surely we have all felt its truth many, many times." of Miss Campbell's cheerfulness,” said Mrs. Martha

“And I dare say Justine has already felt the reality of Loraine, " for, though it is a common remark that per- my favourite description," said Sophia, " which is to me sons with what are called high spirits are easily de- the more striking, because only once or twice in my life pressed, those who suffer such depression are usually have I had the opportunity of realizing it by visiting those whose mirth is excited by outward circumstances,

some of our magnificent cathedrals. s and requires 'all appliances and means to boot,' whilst a cheerful disposition is in itself a homefelt blessing ;

But let my due feet never fail and when, like Margaret's, it has been encouraged by a

To walk the studious cloister's pale,

And love the high embowed roof, religious education to look for its support at the hand of God, it is as superior to the former as the blessed

With antique pillars' massy proof, sunshine is to the most brilliant illumination; as

And storied windows, richly dight,

Casting a dim religious light; superior as the light of heaven is to the lights of earth.”

There let the pealing organ blow " The first,” added Rosaline, “may be compared to

To the full-voiced choir below, the varnish which can make this wood so bright, the

In service high, and anthems clear, last to the polish of yon marble slab—tears would stain

As may with sweetness through mine ear the one, but roll off harmless from the other."

Dissolve me into ecstasies, “You must not compare your friend to marble

And bring all heaven before my eyes.'” either, Rosaline; she may be as pure, but she is far from

"And then,” added Rosaline, "how soothing is that being as hard or as cold. Charlotte and Alice have told wishus how deeply she has suffered, and how tenderly she

* And may at last my weary age exerted herself amidst her sufferings; and I have often

Find out the peaceful hermitage.'' seen her mirthful smiles checked for a while by the sorrows of others, and then called forth again only to “There, Rosaline, I believe you have found the key cheer and to assist tliem. I quite long to see her to our different tastes. In the beginning of life we again.”

have a mysterious pleasure in looking forward to the “Aunt Martha, how is it that you are so very fond of scenes which shall mark its close—“'Tis distance lends lively young people ? You always seem to enjoy their enchantment to the view; and so we, who have trasociety; and I have observed too that you like books or velled furthest on life's journey, love to look back upon poems of a lively description better than the sentimental the scenes of youth, and, as in a distant landscape the works which we young ones select. You prefer L'Al- brightest points strike the eye the most prominently, so legro to Il Penseroso."

do we gaze on the joys of those early years, and love to "I can yet read both those lovely poems with delight, have them recalled to our memory. I can remember, Sophia ; but I confess the former now charms me most, when I visited your dear mother, Justine, in Paris many and sets before me images of what I most dearly love ; years ago, I was delighted with Poussin's awful picture and pray, recollect, Milton calls them "unreproved of the Deluge; now, I should perhaps dwell with more pleasures. Justine, amidst your foreign education, I pleasure on the infant cherubs of Albano ; formerly ! trust you have been allowed a sufficient draught from was charmed with Sir Thomas Lawrence's wondertul the pure well of English undefiled, to be acquainted portrait of the serene old age of Mrs. Locke, now I love with those poems ?”

to look upon the merry imp of Sir Joshua Reynolds, “Indeed, my dear aunt, I was very early made to parading about in mamma's saque and muff

. All learn them both by heart, because my father remem- nature is lovely, but our impression of this loveliness is bered they were favourites with you and with my poor much modified by the point from which we view it ; so, mother; but I suppose I can scarcely enter into their my dear girls, whilst you prepare yourselves for old age beauties until I am a little further initiated into the by contemplating it in its most soothing aspects, let me mysteries of English rural life.”

cheer its actual presence by the reflected remembrance “Now,'” cried Charles, “ now comes the tug of war.' of earlier enjoyments-Come, thou goddess fair and The girls will be striving to make you in love with Il free, in heaven yelept Euphrosyne !'”. Penseroso, and my aunt strenuously advocating L'Al- “Why, aunt, you used to call Margaret Campbell, legro. Which will you exclaim ?

Euphrosyne ; and when I was a little girl I used to try Hence, vain deluding joys,

to find a flower of the Eyebright for her whenever she The brood of Folly without father bred!'

walked out with us."

“Why Eyebright, Agnes?” asked Frederic. “I nerer 'Hence, loathed Melancholy!'

saw such people; everything with you is apropos to

or

66

66

flowers. Eyebright is the flower Sophia was praising • Why London Pride ?" asked Frederic. last night.”

" Because, though its native habitation is far from Yes, cousin,” replied Agnes, " and I can tell you the haunts of men, in the clefts of the rock and under that its botanical name Euphrasia is supposed to be a the shades of the wood, it will thrive remarkably well corruption of the Greek word Euphrosyne, which is the in the smoke of a town, where the inhabitants may take name of one of the Graces, who presided over cheerful. a pride in its ornamental appearance.” ness, and so it was a proper offering to Miss Campbell.” "I do not remember ever to have seen the plant in

Looking at this drawing of the plant, I cannot London,"remarked Justine. guess why it should have either this name, or that of “ Probably not, my love,” said Mrs. Barlow, “for Eyebright, for it seems a very quiet looking, insignificant fashion has pushed the simple flower aside, whilst the little flower. This pretty blue flower has a much better progress of luxury and the great improvements in claim to the name, for it looks as merry and as blue as gardening now supply the wealthy inhabitants of the some eyes I know."

metropolis with a succession of lovely plants forced in "Oh, that is Veronica,” replied Sophia, “but the the conservatories of Hammersmith" or Chelsea, to Euphrasia grounds its claim on hidden virtues, which which they are returned when they cease to bloom, and our ancestors supposed to reside in it according to the from whence their place is supplied by others. To my then received doctrine of signatures."

memory the name of this pretty little plant brings back “The doctrine of signatures ! what is that? Now, my days of early childhood, when I was some time doSophia, your learning is about to peep out; so explain mesticated with my grandfather, a merchant in the your doctrine with all gravity, and let us find your hose city, in whose narrow slip of yard, which my good as blue as the Veronica, or as Agnes's saucy eyes." grandmother loved to call a garden, it flourished in

My sponsors gave me a right to be very grave and luxuriance, unchecked by the thick gloomy atmosphere very wise, when they bestowed upon me my Greek name around. Even now I can picture to myself the heavy of Sophia, or wisdom ; 80 I shall not spare you my black loam, half covered with damp green moss, in lecture, Mr. Frederic, for all your laughter.”

which it was planted, and fancy again the smell of the * Pray do not, and in time you may make me a earth, which was given forth when I was allowed to play philo-sopher-a lover of wisdom--or a lover of Sophia." | at gardening, my sole implement being one of the oys

“Well then, the doctrine of signatures taught that ter-shells which were placed as an ornamental edging to all natural productions in which could be traced a the border. How I used to watch the delicate flowers fancied resemblance to any part of the human frame, unfolding ! and how delighted I was with permission to would yield the best remedy for the complaints to which gather the first spike, and see it placed in a glass of those parts are liable. Now, if you look at the Eu- water with a group of hen-and-chicken daisies! These phrasia you will perceive upon its corolla a curious dark were my favourite flowers, and had no rivals in a few purple mark, which greatly resembles the pupil of the sprigs of bergamot which shared the border with them, human eye ; and hence this plant was supposed to pos. or in the dull grey flowers and straggling branches of a sess great efficacy in removing any complaints of the tea-tree which was trained against the wall, and which eye, and in clearing any obstruction of vision. Milton my grandfather particularly delighted in, because he alludes to this supposed virtue, where he represents the had mercantile dealings with China. It was one of my Archangel Michael as clearing Adam's sight by its ap- treats when a good child to be seated at the table beside plication, when he was about to foreshow him the fate him, raised up in a great arm-chair by the help of two of his descendants. He

or three huge old folio ledgers, and to watch him turn'then purged, with euphrasy and rue,

ing over a collection of Chinese paintings on rice paper, The visual nerve, for he had much to see.

which showed the whole process of the manufacture of

the tea we use, from the gathering of the leaves to the “You say the supposed virtue ; is it not really of use shipping of the well-packed chests. Then, when I to the sight?”

compared the plant with the drawing, I fancied it very “ Medical botanists of the present day declare it to strange and rare ; but still preferred my London Pride, be not only useless but injurious to the eyesight; yet or None-so pretty, as my grandmother called it, to the the old faith still lingers in our sequestered dales, and pale dusky blossoms of the poor foreigner.” the cottars still believe in its efficacy, and use an infusion

“I do not remember to have heard the name of Noneof the plant in milk, which they apply with a feather so-pretty before,” said Lucy," but the plant is really to the eye.”

deserving of the simple term of endearment." “What a curious fancy! Pray, are there many plants “ I had no playfellows,” continued Mrs. Barlow, "and thought to possess virtues for a similar reason ?' the manners of the day did not allow me to talk much

Many, I believe ; but my acquaintance with them to my elders, so I had plenty of time for childish reis only limited. There is the Pulmonaria, or Lungwort, veries, one of which used to be on this very name. I which, from some resemblance in the scaly leaf to the could not clearly make up my mind why the plant tubercles of diseased lungs, is held to be useful in cases was called London Pride, because it looked so very humof consumption. The Hepatica is a plant deriving its ble and unpretending; and I remembered the much name from the resemblance of its three-cleft leaves to handsomer roses of Hampshire, and had heard my the three lobes of the liver, but I never heard of its father call the rose the queen of flowers. After much popularity as a cure for hepatic diseases ; indeed, it is consideration I thought it must have grown proud benot indigenous, so not likely to be much known to the cause people sometimes called it None-so-pretty ; for rustic herbwoman."

grandmamma used to say very mysteriously to the visi. “There is the Saxifrage,” said Lucy.

tors who praised my bright eyes and rosy cheeks, “We " Oh, yes. The roots of some of the saxifrages re- must not make little girls proud and vain ; Ellen is a resemble small stones or gravel, hence it derives its good girl, and goodness is better than beauty;' and then name saxifrage, signifying breaker of stones, and is contrive to send me out of the way of my injudicious supposed to be very efficacious in those painful disorders, admirers. Having thus settled the derivation of the the stone and gravel. The Saxifraga granulata is ex- name in childhood, I do not remember to have recalled tremely lovely, showing its snowy tlowers occasionally the subject, or to have heard the real derivation until in moist meadows; but, in this neighbourhood at least, this evening." it is a rare plant. In it the resemblance of the roots to small stones or grains is very decidedly marked. The Saxifraga Hellaris, or Harry Saxifrage, is also very pretty, and so is that species which is known by the name of London Pride."

HEIDELBERG AND THE BLACK FOREST.' to be well attended to than in the more pretending

house to which you may go on chance. ONE of the most agreeable evenings which I remem- Except its castle, which will afford days of unwearying ber to have ever spent, was this evening of the first day enjoyment, and the beautiful scenery around, Heidel

. which we passed in Heidelberg. The host of the coffee berg does not possess many objects of attraction. The house was a fine jolly fellow, who accosted us in very college, though large, is a very common-place building; tolerable English, saying that he saw we were strangers, the library, attached to it, was once renowned throughas he had observed us looking at the “casquettes and out Europe ; but though that portion of it which was the hairs of the students,” pronouncing the word hairs sent to Rome by Tilly has been restored, it has never with an almost imperceptible aspirate, so that at first regained the fame which it enjoyed before the time we scarcely knew whether it was intended for hair, or when that ruthless old ravager used its finest and most airs; as the word, however, was equally applicable in valued treasures as litter for his cavalry. The university either signification, we committed no contre-temps in has degenerated also in another point of quite as much our reply, and were soon engaged in a spirited con- moment to itself; namely, in the number of its students, versation. Our host had been in England, and, though which has greatly diminished since the despotic governhis principal observation on its customs was, that he did ments of Germany have become alarmed by the spread not like the taste of porter, and thought the London of liberalism at this college, and have prohibited their ale too strong, he had a great deal more to say of his subjects from attending, lest their pure minds should be own country. He expatiated with great delight on infected by the poison, and the little innocents should Heidelberg, its students, its castle, and his own coffee suck in Liberalism with their Latin. The streets of the house, and, above all, his band ; concluding by calling town are narrow and dingy; and the number of stuin the musicians to strike up the “Valhalla Lied,” which dents, and of those establishments which minister to he said was the “God save the King” of Germany. It their wants, show what is the principal support of the was responded to with great enthusiasm, all the com- inhabitants. There are numerous booksellers' shops, pany joining, and clattering their glasses in time, with with the windows full of students' song-books and transtremendous fervour. This “ Valhalla Lied,” though a lations from the Classics; and still more numerous very fine musical composition, is not exactly the German pipe-manufactories, the windows of which display china “God save the King," as our worthy host styled it, not bowls of every shape and size, adorned with paintings being as yet a national song of any standing or very suited to every turn of mind,-soft-looking young ladies, great popularity. It is, in fact, a hymn intended for with blue eyes and flaxen" hair, for the sentimentally. the inauguration of the King of Bavaria’s Valhalla for amorous; fierce heroes, in moustache and beard, for the the reception of statues and memorials of all the Ger- warlike; and heads of Ronge and his brethren, for the man heroes, and is one of the many poetical effusions votaries of the religious movement. which have appeared of late, appealing to the general The scenery of the Neckar from Heidelberg upwards brotherhood of Germany, but none of which have at is of surpassing beauty. During part of the year a steamer tained any really universal position as national songs.

runs up the river as far as Wurzburg, but the deck of The sage Knickerbocker, in his erudite History of a steamboat is the worst possible point from which to New York, gives divers incontrovertible reasons why an appreciate river scenery, and that for one principal alderman should be fat, but I do not, for my own part, reason amongst many others, that you lose the advan. see any reason why the landlord of an inn or tavern tage of the view of the water; the true plan is to walk should be so; nor what can be the object of Nature in

or ride up the banks, as close to the water as possible. gifting these personages with a comfortable obesity, By this means you combine all the beauties, both those unless, indeed, it be to disprove the arguments of the at hand and those in the distance. It was on a delightTee-totallers, by a display of the admirable condition ful afternoon that we passed up the Neckar valley; showers vouchsafed even to the very high-priests of the forbidden of rain fell every now and then, clearing and softening worship. At any rate, whatever be the reason, the fact the air, and rendering the sunshine more brilliant, and is pretty generally admitted; in England, perhaps, the the green of the trees more verdant. The river ran rule is not quite universal, but in Germany my own ob- rapidly and musically at our feet, clear and joyous; the servation would lead me to believe that it holds in hedges by the road-side were covered with rain-bealmost every case. Our landlord of the little inn at the gemmed flowers; and the huge round-backed hills clad post-station was an admirable specimen,-with a moist with fir-trees of every hue, now closed in around us, as eye, a red cheek, and a voice that seemed as if it had got if to bar the way, and now opened up again, disclosing a twist by the continual rolling of liquor down his a long stretch of valley in front, and affording glimpses throat; he always looked as if bursting with fat and of sunny cornfields and luxuriant meadows smiling in jollity, and he had a jest and a laugh for every one that the distance. We were, however, bound for Wurzburg ; approached him. He was a great Liberal withal, and and as the road, to avoid the windings of the stream, would lecture you for hours on the necessity of enlight- leaves its course, we too crossed the water by means of ened principles in politics, and the advantages which a flying bridge, plunged deep into the woods, and here would accrue to the world in general, if Prince Metter

we were at length travelling through the Black Forest. nich were hanged, or shot, or drowned, or all three; the The Black Forest ! what a train of associations that King of Prussia, too, met with his special disapproba- name calls up. What visions, dwelt upon in early days tion, for the way in which he had treated one of the with terror-stricken delight, of blood-thirsty banditti, Deputies to the Representative Chamber of Baden, who, housing in impenetrable caves or ruined castles; horbeing of liberal opinions, had paid a visit to Berlin. rible magicians, who required the blood of innocent Baden, it must be remembered, is a free country, and victims to consummate their hellish sacrifices; inns, in enjoys a constitutional representative government. By- which the unlucky wayfarer was always murdered imthe-bye, now that I am talking of our landlord, I may mediately after supper; and dilapidated monasteries, give a piece of advice to all travellers who, on arriving in which several of the passages, and invariably the at any moderate sized town, such as Heidelberg, are at chapel, were haunted. The forest itself arose to the a loss what inn to select. If they are only to remain mind's eye, thick, gloomy, and impenetrable; enormous for a night or two, they will generally find it a good fir-trees and gnarled oaks flung a wizard gloom around; plan to put up for that short time at an inn belonging and the tangled brushwood was impervious to all, save to the post-station : these inns are small and unpretend: the robbers and spectres who inhabited these dreary ing, but I have usually found them comfortable, well wilds. Such were the recollections which arose within served, and economical; and you will be far more likely me as we entered the Odenwald, as this part of the

Black Forest is called ; and, as if to keep up the (1) Concluded from page 117.

character of the scene, the weather, before so cheerful,

a

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became dark and lowering, and finally set in for an pedestrianism, and the habit of riding whilst on a afternoon of rain. But it was in vain that I attempted journey, once universal in England, is still common in to attune my mind to the scene, by recalling all the Germany, so that no surprise will be excited by the terrific tales which had in former times invested these adoption of such a mode of conveyance. The expense, localities with such horror, from the laboured produc- too, will be a mere trifle, as a sufficiently good horse tions of the Monk Lewis and Radcliffe school, down to may be bought for a few pounds, and sold again at the those less pretending romances which, recited in bed to end of the journey, at any rate, for not much less than a juvenile audience, had caused so many a bosom to its original price. thrill with fear; romances, the incidents and characters Jogging quietly along over tolerably good roads, of which always bore a touching similarity to each we, about eight in the evening, reached the station other, there being invariably a heroine of unspeakable where the mail (for it was by it that we travelled) was beauty and guileless simplicity of heart, who is beloved to stop all night. Imagine, gentle reader, her Britannic by two heroes-the one, according to circumstances, a Majesty's mai resting for the night. It was a small wizard who has sold himself to the powers of darkness, or town, called, if I mistake not, Mittenberg. A genuine a ruthless bandit in disguise—the other, a more favoured, German country town, consisting of a square of small dirty but unhappy youth, who is eventually discovered to be at houses with a church and a post station. We drove up least a powerful baron ; a cruel uncle, a conscientious to the only inn in the place, and, passing under a low domestic, or pious father-confessor, and an ancient nurse browed archway, entered a door to the left hand, which -with such dramatis personæ the incidents of the tale opened into the common stube or sitting-room. It was may be as easily imagined as described. It was in vain, a large low apartment, the ceiling of which was formed I say, that I recalled these youthful visions; not that I by the beams and flooring of the chambers above; the was so daring as to hope for anything like an adventure room was divided down the middle by three or four such as I had once supposed occurred every day, or at pillars of rough fir; one end of the division nearest the least every night, in this charmed region; but I had door was partitioned off by rough boards into a small hoped that something of the character, whether real or den or bar, the sanctum of the host; whilst a long table supposed, of former times, might still be left, and that, of deal planks ran down the whole length of the other whilst passing through this district, and gazing on the division. Some twenty or thirty persons were seated at scene around, one might still fancy that such things the table, eating, drinking, and smoking. It was the were possible. But, alas ! the march of improvement most perfect specimen of an old-fashioned German inn has reached even here; and it must be apparent, even we had seen ; the atmosphere was thick with smoke, to the wildest imagination, that no more danger is now the candles burned dimly, and so great was the obscurity to be dreaded in the Black Forest than on Blackheath. caused by the fragrant vapour, that, when we took our Fine roads now run where formerly were mere bridle. seats at the upper end of the table, it really was almost paths, obscured by the dark shade of the gloomy firs; | impossible to discern the countenances of those farthest coaches travel up and down, full of merry passengers, from us. The whole scene was something like what the where once benighted wayfarers were wont to hurry, interior of a Black Forest hostelry should be, and we one and two together, terrified and trembling; and, made a capital supper of stewed venison and very fair instead of meeting ghastly spectres and villainous ban- beer, quite delighted with all around us. The accomditti, a harmless peasant is in general the only indi.modations of our sleeping apartment were quite as prividual to be seen. The forest, indeed, yet remains, mitive as those of the sitting-room, consisting of two though woefully shorn of its grandeur. You pass through beds about five feet by two, without any blankets or many a mile of arching fir-trees hanging on the sides, other coverlet than a huge feather-stuffed cushion, and and crowning the summits of the swelling hills; thé pillow cases not of linen, but Chamois leather-two wild flowers and the thick underwood spring luxuriantly wooden chairs, and a small table on which stood a couple from the black, leafy soil, telling of years of undisturbed of white pie-dishes of coarse earthenware and very small dominion; and it is only here and there that the forest size—beside which were two long-necked green wine opens, and displays cornfields and green pastures, dotted bottles. with farm houses and peasants' cottages. Occasionally, “These pie-dishes,” said I, "are instead of basins for too, you pass a forest-ranger with his horn and his rifle, our ablutions; but they do not seem to have given us and catch a glimpse of his little rustic lodge, half any water-at least I can't see the ewers.” hidden in the wood, or, perhaps, a woodcutter, and his “Nor I,” said Glance, “and it is very disagreeable picturesque establishment—I do not mean one of the that these bottles should have been left here. I suppose grand modern woodcutting stations belonging to govern- some of the inmates have been drinking in this room, ment, of which there are many, but the regular authentic and have forgotten to clear away the things.” woodcutter of the fairy tales. By the bye, it has always “ Perhaps,” said I, “they may keep up the good old struck me, that one gets quite a new light as to the fashion of a sleeping cup here, and the bottles are inreal character of these important personages in fairy tended to be discussed by ourselves. Are they empty? literature, by travelling on the Continent. In England No, they are full.” their occupation is gone; and one who has never been “What is it,” cried Glance, with a look of eager exout of this country can scarcely form an idea of what a pectation, as I began pouring out the contents. It was woodcutter is; but a few days travelling in France or water. Germany presents the honest peasant as he was of old We stared at each other for a minute in blank amazewith us, making up his faggots, and carrying them home, ment, and then burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter and quite as well suited as ever to shelter houseless at the disappointment. heroines, and rear up foundling princes.

“Why,” said I, " the bottles are the water jugs, and The Black Forest, then, disarmed as it is of its grisly a very fit accompaniment they are too in that character terrors, is even now not without its attractions; to say to the basins." nothing of the Hartz mountains, much of its scenery is “Well,” returned Glance, shaking his head gravely, extremely beautiful; there yet remain many ruined " that I should ever live to wash my face in a pie-dish, castles, and traditionally haunted valleys. The people and fill it from a wine bottle instead of a water ewer ! are in general a simple, kindly race, not much tainted This is keeping things in apple-pie order with a by intercourse with strangers ; and a fortnight might at vengeance.” any time be very pleasantly passed in exploring the There was no time for further discussion as we were most interesting scenery of the old forest. Any one to be up at three the next morning, and we accordingly who might attempt such an excursion will find it, I am turned in as rapidly as possible. sure, a good plan to buy a pony, and make his tour Can there be a greater misery than that of going to on horseback. The ground is not very well adapted for bed, tired and sleepy, with the knowledge that you are

a

to be roured at some such unearthly hour as this? It is a memorable event; but the discovery assumes a new in. in vain that you turn from side to side, and try to banish terest when it proves to be, as in this case, not the result of the fearful thought by sleep. It will not leave you— accident, or of a lucky guess, or even of mechanical skill your slumbers are oppressed by it--the coming misery and increased power in our glasses, but of abstract matheweighs upon you like a nightmare, and the only advan- matical reasoning, employed on the result of patient and

exact observation. The existence of the planet was estatage of the experience is that you can realize perfectly the blished as a matter of necessity—the laws of its orbit, and feelings of a man during the night before his execution. its very place in the heavens pointed out, not vaguely and Then the dread reality of the wakening—the getting out on conjecture, but on rigorous mathematical grounds, and of bed in a cold shiver, the dressing by a dismal can- | in degrees and minutes, three weeks before the planet was dle--and the hopelessness of collecting the various items descried : the mathematical analyst made his calculations of your property. Such wretchedness as this is almost on paper, and told the observer where to look, and, true to enough to make one forswear travelling.

We were

the prediction, the planet appeared.

The last and farthest of the planets, till lately, was sus; treated however as well as the circumstances would admit, and got a capital cup of coffee from an uncommonly be the extreme verge of our system, it now appears that a

posed to be Uranus. But outside that which seemed to pretty servant maid, whose appearance did great credit mighty stranger, tar exceeding Uranus in size, has been to her forest breeding.

rolling in orbits of 217 years, unknown in its outer darkness, Whilst waiting in the cold drizzly air of a raw morn- a Titan more vast and powerful than the oldest of the ing, we were joined by a gentleman with whom we had gods, and whose blind but strong intluence on the motionis made acquaintance the preceding evening, and who now of Uranus, have at last betrayed his presence. announced himself as a fellow traveller.

He was a

The credit of this brilliant discovery belongs to a French general in the Bavarian service, a very old man, with a

astronomer, M. Le Verrier, and we earnestly hope that no white beard and huge moustache, and wrapped up in a attempt will be made to diminish his well-won honour. black Caucasian felt. He was a complete character, and gularities of the orbit of Uranus having been for some time

The history of the discovery is shortly this:- The irre had travelled over all Europe and Asia as far as Persia past a difficulty to astronomers, M. Le Verrier was led to a -a perfect gentleman, but opinionative and eccentric as

more close examination of that planet's motions; he found an Englishman. Indeed, he had resided long in Eng. that of the whole amount of irregularity in its path, or, of land, and knew the whole of the British isles, from the its perturbations, only a comparatively small part could be Land's End to the Orkneys. His admiration for the accounted for by the attraction of any known forces. And British was unbounded. They were, he said, the greatest hence he was led not merely to guess at the existence of people of the world, whilst he invariably spoke of his some other unknown body or force, but to grope his way own countrymen with the greatest contempt. They by help of previous observations, and the wonderful powers

of modern mathematical analysis, to a distinct conclusion had not spirit, had not sense for anything. What was

as to the very place where a new planet, outside of Uranus, the use of the painting and singing, and so forth, with might be looked for in the heavens. Accordingly, it has which they were always taken up ? a picture could not been found within one degree of the place he assigned it talk or more, or do any good; and their confounded and very nearly at the calculated distance from the sun." music which they were always dinning into one's ears, His calculations were tirst laid before the French Académie was nothing but Ee-aw; in short, Germany was a coun- des Sciences, June 1, 1846, and an abstract of his paper is try ruined by music. These were rather curious senti- given in Les Comptes Rendus des Séances de l'Académie, ments for a German and a Bavarian, and not perhaps No.22P: 907, seq., of which we subjoin an outline :altogether correct; but I could not help thinking, that

In 1830, M. Bouvard attempted to construct exact Tables there was a great deal of sense in them, so far as Ger- of the orbit of Uranus. His data were :- 1. A few old ob

servations by Flamsted, Mayer, and others, before it was many is concerned. On the other hand, much as our

known to be a planet. 2. The meridian observations of 40 friend liked the English, so much the more did he years (1781 to 1820), since Herschel's discovery. And detest the French ; they were, he said, all robbers and 3. The analysis in the Mecanique Celesie of the influence plunderers; and his opinion of Napoleon was summed upon Uranus of the attraction of Jupiter and Saturn. But up in one pithy though not very charitable sentence- he found it impossible to make the latter observation agree "I wish he were alive, and I could hang him.” We had with the older ones of Flamsted, &c., or to make use of another fellow traveller, a gentleman with a pleasing both sets, in representing the path of the planet, and he scent of garlic, who got out about half way, and per. charging them with gross, and, as M. Le Verrier says,

cut the knot, by throwing over the old observations, and formed his toilet in the yard of the inn at which we

inconceivable errors. were changing horses, he being in fact the landlord. The process was a curious one, and the sight of it made the observed places of the planet during the 40 years from

M. Bouvard's tables represented with tolerable exactness us thankful that we had been esteemed worthy even of 1781 to 1820.' But it was found that 25 years after their our despised pie-dishes. The operator having procured construction (1845), they agreed with the latest observations a small tumbler about half full of water, took a large as little as they did with the earliest ones. mouthful and rinsed his mouth, then ejecting the These remarkable discrepancies excited M. Le Verrier's water into his hands, he rubbed them rapidly over his attention; they might be the result of want of precision in face--this operation was repeated, his hands were dried theory, or want of exactness in observations; `or Uranus in his hair, and the toilet was at an end. The Bavarian might be subject to other attractions than those of the Sun, general seeing our astonishment, took a long whiff of question, as to the possibility of determining the cause of

and of Jupiter and Saturn, and in this case there came in the his pipe and said—“Ah, you see we are not so nice these perturbations, and fixing the place of the stranger, the here as in England." And so we trundled on, and

source of so much difficulty, where it might be looked for about eleven o'clock reached the gates of the ancient by observers. city of Wurzburg in Bavaria.

On examining M. Bouvard's Tables, M. Le Verrier found so much inexactness in the data and calculations on

which they were founded, that, in order to start on a secure LE VERRIER'S PLANET.

basis, it was necessary to investigate and calculate every[Tue following account of what may be considered, thing, afresh with the utrnost rigour. This task be under

He reduced for himself the older, and the more perhaps, the most remarkable scientific discovery of the modern observations, taking in also the unpublished ones age, is taken, with some slight alterations, from the of M. Arago made between 1835—1845; and he investiGuardian newspaper. It is written with so much clear gated with very great nicety the amount of perturbation in ness as to make the steps by which the discovery was the orbit of Uranus, due to the attraction of Jupiter and reached sufficiently intelligible, we should think, even

Saturn. With these corrected data before him, he proto unscientific readers.]

ceeded to compare the calculated path of the planet with its This year has witnessed one of the most remarkable triumphs of modern science. The discovery of a new (1) Encke's Letter so Schumacher, Sept. 28. planet, and that one of the largest of our system, is in itself

(2) Nov. 1845.

(3) More than 300.