to the blessing of God, who, by his prophet had declared, that the generation of the upright should be blessed. From which position these two corollaries manifestly arise, first, that exaltation to a peerage is a blessing from Heaven; and secondly, that this blessing may be ob tained by justice and uprightness in the profession of the law; If this honest chancellor's reasoning be good, we must be led to think very highly of our present chiefs in the law, since it is plain that the practice of it is, in our times as it was heretofore, frequently the road to peerages and preferment.

Anaxagoras, one of the most celebrated philosophers of the antient world, was especially noted for teaching, that all individual beings, or bodies, originate out of one another, 'Ex Tn 'quoloμspices, by homcomery, or assimilation. Our li thologists would do well to revive this name of an occult cause; in every claypit, in every chalk-pit, in every coal-pit, it may be observed, that the domineering fossil is constantly occupied in transmuting, digesting, or assimilating, into substance like itself, the organic, the vegetable, or the mineral materials, which have fallen within its line of influence. In some places, one observes flint turning into chalk, in others chalk turning into flint; in some, clay turning into chalk, and in others, chalk turning into clay. The like is true of more complex transmutations. Now, if this digestive, or metamorphosing, power in fossils had a name, some laws might be predicated concerning it; as for instance: 1. That it is exerted by means of an atmosphere, since it extends beyond the visible limits of the digesting body: 2. That it is more easily exerted perpendicularly than hos rizontally; since the progress of petrific conversion may be traced to a considerable depth in contiguous superincumbent strata, but can be traced a very little way

sideways, where there is a trapping down of the strata, and an opportunity for las teral digestion: 3. That fossil life prine cipally consists in the presence of the assimilating power; for a fossil fragment of whatever kind, when removed from its native bed, dies, and begins to obey that assimilating force, which domineers in the place whereinto it is thrown: 4. That light counteracts the assimilating power; the accretion of stalactites and of several crystals being retarded by it.

The transplantability of fossils, if they have a peculiar sort of life, might per haps be effected, so as to cause coals to begin to vegetate, or silver, in mines not yet provided with these substances. as the assimilating power a predilection for a peculiar pabulum?

THE DEVIL'S DINNER.

In Milton's Paradise Regained, the devil offers a tempting dinner, which is described in these words:

A table richly spread, in regal mode,
With dishes pil'd, and meats of noblest sort
And savour; beasts of chase, or fowl of game,
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boil'd,
Gris-amber-steam'd: all fish from sea or
shore,

Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin,
And exquisitest name.

Probably this is a faithful description of some of those cabinet dinners, of which, while Milton was secretary of state, he partook at the protector's, or elsewhere. It differs from a modern dinner in the order of viands, the fish occurring last. It also differs in the sin gular circumstance, that the pastry was perfumed with ambergris. No doubt those tall goose-pies, built in standing crust, which last so long as to smell of the cupboard, were still in vogue; and might well require fumigation, when about to be presented before company.

And what is ambergris? Is it the drug we now call spermaceti, mingled with some aromatic?

truth

Or (frenzy to the firmest mind,)
Still seeking, never may we find,
A trace of thee among mankind,
In vain, would reason banish hence
My Son! my Son!
Or the heart sick in pale suspence
Of mortal ills the lively sense,
Or if by night we drop asleep,
Each phantom shun,
We follow thee; then, wake and weep,
Midst dreary wastes, down many a steep,
My Son! my Son!

Yet save us from the fiend Despair,
Father of mercies!-Thine we are!

Without thy providential care,

There breathes not one!

He hears the cry, when sorrow calls,
When doubts distress, or fear appals,
Without whom not a sparrow falls,
My Son! my Son!

ruth,

Pursued thy flights at distance. Quick an shifts

The vernal sun and shade, she mark'd thy glance,

And rank'd thy rapid visions in her train, Illusive, and still hail'd the fairy dance. But, when she saw thy chemic powers ad

vance,

Where mineral Nature holds her mystic reign,

Embodying forms which Poets dar'd not

feign;

Starting at thy discoveries from her trance, She own'd, with many a sigh, invention vain." p. 59.

TEN CHARACTER
OF LORD WELLINGTON.
BY MAJOR C* *

GIVE Wellesley's portrait? Oh, how vain the hope!

To gain that portrait in a letter's scope
Nur vain the hope alone; but he more vain,
Who thinks his canvas can the bust contain,
Can to one focus in his picture blend
The statesman, sportsman, warrior, and
friend,

Oh! not to me belongs the glowing lay,
That bade the multitude resound Assaye!
Nor mine, alas! the animated strain,
That told his deeds on Talavera's plain;
Nor does my Muse presumptuous wing her
flight,

To sing the glories of Bosaco's height!!!
Yet had I pow'rs! how proudly I'd rehearse
The deeds of Wellington in deathless verse;
Then future ages would repeat my lays,
In sounds of honour, and in songs of praise;
Still should these lines, however poor and
brief,

Serve to acquaint you with our much-lov'd chisf;

Shew how he shines when war's dread cla

rion sounds,

Or tell how jocundly he'll join your hounds; Or his urbanity and mirth record,

When guests surround his hospitable board! Paint the resources of his wond'rous mind, Of valour, wisdom, wit, and worth, com

bin'd;

Thus would the portrait in one sentence end,

His country's honour, and the soldier's

friend."

* Alluding to a poem, commencing Shout Britons for the battle of Assaye." 3 M Te

To R. CARMICHAEL, 28Q PAYMASTER
ASTER
OF THE 42d. HIGHLANDERS.
BY MAJOR C* * *.

ACCEPT, dear Sir, a humble lay,
To welcome this your natal day;
When, to sum up your abstract clear,
You dot and carry on, a year!
Which, if life's ledger-book be true,
Makes you exactly forty-two.
Oh! may no checks this day invade,
Nor drafts (save drafts of wine) be made;
But bills on jollity to-night,
Be honour'd and discharg'd at sight!
And oh! if e'er misfortune's tide
Has plac'd you on the debtor-side,
May you now estimate a sum,
Of tenfold happiness to come!
And when the Paymaster of all

The world's great-muster-roll shall call,
(Errors excepted, items past,)

May your accounts prove right at last.

Think not misfortune the sole mark of heaven,

On crime in man, not otherwise forgiven;
Belold the just and good partake the rod,
And, taught by discipline, approach to God.
Behold bis favourite, the patriarch Job,
Cast down from greatness to her sad abode;
Mark him sustaining the severest pain,
His virtues tried, a higher state regain.
Hail! sacted touchstone of the world's de-
ceit!

By thee, th' enchantment easily we break ;
Resplendent Truth unveils a frantic world!
And all its masquerade is now unfurl'd!
The hypocrite now stript of his disguise,

move

or Battery can avail, nor craft, nor lies. In shy true mirror seen, how few there are, That stand the test, whose characters can bear

tence

see,

And shun the rocks which fatal prov'd to thee;

That e'en when blackest seem, the gathering

storms

Affliction teacheth, and the heart reforms.
Probationary is the state of man,
Wisely ordain'd in the eternal plan,
To fit us for the better world to come,
And point our souls to their eternal home;
To teach how vain are things of time and
sense,

Compared to our future recompence.
My friend learn this, that trust in man is
vain,

Frustrates our hope, not mitigates our pain; Seek then his aid, by penitence and prayer, Who sees thy sorrows, and relieves thy care;

In thy own breast, the greatest friend thou'lt find,

To guide thy judgment, and console thy

mind.

THE FLY.-A SONNET.

WITH joyous hum, the curious thirsty fly

Within the goblet's gilded rim displays,

His wings transparent to the shining rays, That here allure: tho' fearful yet and shy. The juice nectarious longing still to try,

He buzzes round and round in giddy maze, And now the tempting beverage he es says,

And now drinks deep, nor thinks of danger nigh!

Thus, happy fly, of pleasure's cup drink deep!

Since one short summer makes thy all of

life,

No moments waste on grief, or care, or strife;

Leave these to mortals, who are born te weep!

Do thou enjoy the moments as they run, Bask in the morning ray, or noon-tide sun.

PATENTS

the tints, lines, or figures, alluded to, white instead of black; so that where in the common way the paper is covered with black or coloured ink, the new method is to leave it uncovered, and vice versa: or instead of producing dark figures on a light ground, to produce light figures on a dark ground or surface, or on a ground darker at least than the figures themselves. In the second place, instead of representing all figures by black tints or lines, or black figures, as now commonly represented on a white ground or surface. Mr. S. can adopt any other coloured ground or surface, taking care always to produce the advantageous combinations of the two arts of engraving and letter-press printing, that is to say, the dispatch and economy of the latter with the effect and general utility of the former, "a combination," says he, "hitherto wished for in vain, and from which, it may be obvious, very essential results will arise both to the artists and to traders in the arts, and, in fact, to the public, that will no doubt be actuated by interest to encourage a new invention, which may afford an extraordinary gratification by a specdier mode of intelligence, through a cheaper medium."

The engravings of the figures may be cut or stamped on plates of brass, copper, tin, pewter, type-metal, or wood, or any other substance on which engravings can be made; and, for the better adapting the ground or surface of the plate, or for the better rendering the ground or surface fit in all its parts for the proper reception and adhesion of that kind of ink used by letter-press printers, so as to produce a clear and an equal impression on all its parts at once, he causes dots or lines to be cut, marked, or stamped, or drawn across the ground or surface of the metallic plates, or other substance; or corrodes it with aquafortis, so as to produce a sufficient degree of roughness for the adhesion of the particular ink now mentioned; leaving the figures or subject of the plate or engraving, untouched by such dots or lines. The part of the surface which is not engraved upon, instead of being made

as smooth as possible, as in copper-plate engravings, ought to be made sufficiently rough, either by mechanical or chemical means, so as to make the ink, applied by the letter-press printer's balls, adhere in a way nearly equal, or in such quantity or proportion as is wanted or intended. The last preparatory process of the plate for the letter-press, previously to its being printed as described, is by fixing it on a wooden block; or by grooving it on a brass or other metallic standard; or by fixing it on a clay or earthen substance or cement; taking care that the whole body thus formed shall not be higher or lower than the types commonly used at the letter-press; and also taking care, that it be calculated in every degree to be embodied as it were with the letterpress printer's form or types, so as to produce, by the very same operation of the letter-press, the impression of both the plate and the types at one and the same time, or by one and the same pull of the letter-press printer, and on the very same sheet or piece of paper. Or the plate or plates thus prepared, may, if on particular occasions deemed more expedient, be worked off alone at the letter-press, so as to produce the intended effect of engraving with the faci lity and dispatch of multiplying copies agreeably to the nature or principle of operation peculiar to the letter-press.

"Thus by the means now described or specified," says Mr. Stuart, "I combine, or unite, for maps, charts, music, anatomical figures, or any figures or repre sentations of the human body, or for all or any of the other figures already mentioned, performed in my manner, the se parate arts of the copper-plate engraver and the letter-press printer, by engraving as engravers usually do, and by printing as printers usually do; thereby render ing, by the application of these united arts in the printing of books, magazines, newspapers, periodical publications which require dispatch, a very great saving or abridgment of time, labour, and expence, in the exercise of both arts, and conse quently a very great convenience and advantage to the public at large."

NEW