380 On the Living Novelists.-Cascades of Fire from Vesuvius [VOL. 7 drank in so deeply the spirit of superstition as our novelist of the nineteenth century. He treats, indeed, all the fantasies of his countrymen with that gentle spirit of allowance and fond regard with which he always touches on human emotions. But he does not seem to have heartily partaken in them as awful realities. His witches have power to excite wonder, but little to chill men's bloods. Ariel, the visions of Prospero's enchanted isle, the "quaint fairies and the dapper elves" of the Midsummer Night's Dream glitter on the fancy, in a thousand shapes of dainty loveliness, but never affect us otherwise than as creations of the poet's brain. Even the ghost in Hamlet does not appal us half so fearfully as many a homely tale which has nothing to recommend it but the earnest belief of its tremulous reciter. There is little magic in the web of life, notwithstanding all the variety of its shades, as Shakspeare has drawn it. Not so is it with our author; his spells have manifest hold on himself, and, therefore, they are very potent with the spirits of his readers. No prophetic intimation in his works is ever suffered to fail. The spirit which appears to Fergus the astronomical predictions of Guy Mannering-the eloquent curses, and more eloquent blessings, of Meg Merrilies the dying denunciation of Mucklewrath-the old prophecy in the Bride of Lammermuir-all are fulfilled to the very letter. The high and joyous spirits of Kennedy are observed by one of the bye-standers as intimations of his speedy fate. We are far from disapproving of these touches of the super-human, for they are made to blend harmoniously with the freshest hues of life, and, without destroying its native colouring, give to it a more solemn tinge. But we cannot extend our indulgence to the seer in the Legend of Montrose, or the Lady of Avenel,in the Monastery; where the spirits of another world do not cast their shadowings on this, but stalk forth in open light, and "in form as palpable" as any of the mortal characters. In works of passion, fairies and ghosts can scarcely be "simple products of the common day," without destroying all harmony in our perceptions, and bringing the whole into discredit with the imagination as well as the feelings. Fairy tales are among the most exquisite things in the world, and so are delineations of humanity like those of our author; but they can never be blended without debasing the former into chill substances, or the refining the latter into airy nothings. We shall avoid the fruitless task of dwelling on the defects of this author, on the general insipidity of his lovers, on the want of skill in the developement of his plots, on the clumsiness of his prefatory introductions, or the impotence of many of his conclusions. He has done his country and his nature no ordinary service. He has brought romance almost into our own times, and made the nobleness of humanity familiar to our daily thoughts. He has enriched history to us by opening such varied and delicious vistas to our gaze, beneath the range of its loftier events and more public characters. May his intellectual treasury prove exhaustless as the purse of Fortunatus, and may he dip into it unsparingly for the delight and the benefit of his species! VARIETIES. From the English Magazines, May 1820. SUBLIME PHENOMENA attending the ALTHOUGH Vesuvius, for the was much greater than any for the last two years. It commenced during terrible storm, amid showers of rain, snow, and hail, accompanied by a burricane blowing from the south, and violent peals of thunder. On the previous day, strong explosions, which excited disinay in the neighbourhood, were heard in the crater. About four o'clock in the morning they were strongest, and a smart shock of an earthquake, which was felt as far as Naples, accompanied them. At the same time there rose from the mouth of the crater an immense pillar of fire, and a powerful stream of boiling lava rolled down the dark sides of the mountain with such velocity, that it traversed a space of more than a mile in less than an hour; and being divided into two streams, arrived before noon at the foot of the mountain, where it threatened with destruction Torre del Greco and Torre del l'Annunziata. In the latter place are singularly situated the manufactory of gunpowder, and the only foundery which the kingdom contains.-Luckily the streams of lava, which had previously been cooled by their long passage from their source, were lost in numerous ravines, and did not reach the vineyards of the district, so that no damage was sustained. M. de Gimbernat, who followed the progress of that extraordinary course of eruptions which began on the 20th of October, 1818, observed the present one from a near point of view. He observed, that the stream of lava burst forth from a new chasm, which, like that of the 28th of July last, had been formed upwards of one hundred feet from the rim of the crater, by the falling in of a consider able portion of its southern side. The breadth of the fiery stream which burst through this opening, amounted to twenty-five feet; but in its descent its breadth was doubled. It then divided itself into two branches; the largest precipitated itself into an abyss with high walls, and formed a cascade of liquid fire, of 25 feet in height and 20 feet in breadth. After this fall, the liquid lava was collected in the hollow under the old lava, like a flood under a bridge. It then descended from this first stage, to precipitate itself into another ravine, where it formed a second fiery cascade, not so high as the former, but broader. Here it was lost for a quarter of an hour in a cavity, which it then left, to form a third fall of more than sixty feet perpendicular descent, and of thirty feet in breadth. After this last case 2L ATHENEUM VOL. 7. cade, the fiery torrent continued rolling on in a straight line for a quarter of an hour, over a rough surface; and when it arrived at a small hill, at the foot of the great Vesuvian pyramid, it separated itself into branches, which again subdivided themselves into minute rills,and were lost in hollows at the foot of the mountain. Such is the wonderful view which Vesuvius presented for the last eleven days; for altho' the velocity and quantity of the lava have been much diminished since the 28th of November,it still continues to flow from the cleft of thecrater,and has withinthese two days advanced still lower. The activity in the interior of the volcano, to judge by the thundering noise which is heard upon approaching it,appears as great as ever. A few days before the last eruption, M. de Gimbernat carried a barometer to the highest point of Vesuvius. He found by means of this instrument that the height of the mountain since last January has diminished more than sixty feet by the frequent falling of the crater. After this observation it became still further diminished, as even the pinnacle on which the barometer was then fixed has fallen into the interior of the crater within these two days. It is remarka~ ble, that, notwithstanding the extraordinary activity of Vesuvius, and its unceasing eruptions, the fountains which M. de Gimbernat discovered a year ago under the caverns of the old crater, continue unchanged to yield a pure and drinkable water. On the other hand, a second fountain which he since discovered twenty paces from the former, yields a water powerfully impregnated with chloric acid; the copiousness of which varies from day to day, according to the activity of the volcano." SIR WALTER SCOTT. This celebrated Poet and Novelist has received from his Sovereign's hands the honour of Knighthood. This is as it should be-if ever there was one man more than another who was entitled (independently of his own descent from an alliance with highborn connexions,) to wear the honourable badges of rank, it is he, whose life and writings have so eminently contributed to the improve In ment and happiness of mankind. the analogy: Hæc vocabitur Virago quia sumpta de viro est. Our translators are as successful as any. According to Verstegan, woman is womb-man, or female man. If this be the case, weare very near the original, in sound and sense. "When the ear tingles, we imagine that we are the subject of discourse." This is a conceit (how to be accounted for, it is difficult to say) which is mentioned, with many others equally ridiculous, by Pliny, who by recording superstitions of this sort has principally assisted to keep them alive to the present day. He says, Absentes tinnitu aurium præsentire sermones de se, receptum est. SUPERSTITION OF THE 15TH Sir, To the Editor of the Imperial Magazine. I send you a curious instance of the superstition of our Forefathers, extracted from a MS. in the British Museum, as near as I can make out, in the reign of Richard III.; at any rate in the 15th century. SO W. FOR TO STANCHE A WOUNDE A GOOD CHARME God that was in Betthleem borne and Baptysed was in the water of floon Jor-. dane, the water was wylde and wod, throw ye Fadyr and ye Son and ye stedfast Holygoste thre personys and con God in Trinitie hit stylle stood, so stonche thow blood, the wyche comy th farmer, or the master. He is ever pre- "As ever in his great task-master's eye." Long may he live to enjoy his well-deserved honours--the delight and example of this age, as he will be of futurity. THE NAMES MAN AND WOMAN. "She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man." Gen. ii. 23. The original word in the Hebrew for woman is the same, with a feminine termination, as that which is used for man. This allusion is not easily preserved in a translation. In the Septuagint the affinity disappears entirely : the words are yur and avopos. Mulier and vir have as little resemblance in Castalio's version. The Vulgate endeavours to retain Than sey thre paternosters and thre aveys and the crede in the honere of the Trinite. Amen. THE NATURALIST'S DIARY. JUNE. The innumerable species of insects that are called into life by the heat in this month, afford a never failing source of amusement and instruction to the admirer of Nature's minutest works. Many of these are only discoverable by the microscope, and are eminently worthy of our observation. They who possess this amusing instrument may easily perform with it a variety of pleasing experiments; among others, the following:-for a few days, to the open air; then place Leave some vinegar exposed, in a saucer, a drop of it, by means of a clean pen, or camel's hair brush, on the transparent obobject-plate be properly illuminated from ject-plate of the microscope; and if the below, you will observe in this drop of lied to change their figure into that of an obquor animals resembling smali eels, which long spheroid before they could pass.' are in continual motion. If you slightly bruise some pepper corns, and infuse them in water for a few days, and then expose a drop of it to the microscope, a number of animals of a different kind will be visible. These are of an oblong shape, and, like the others, in continual motion, going backwards and forwards in all directions, turning aside when they meet each other, or when their passage is stopped by some obstacle. In other infusions, as in that of new hay, differently shaped animalcula will be found. When the drop in which they swim, and which to them is like a pond, becomes diminished by evaporation, they gradually retire towards the middle, where they accumulate, and at length perish when entirely deprived of moisture. Previously to this they appear in great distress, writhe their bodies, and endeavour to escape from that state of uneasiness which they evidently feel. If the smallest quantity or drop of sulphuric acid be put into a drop of the infusion, which swarms with these insects, they immediately throw themselves on their backs, and expire; sometimes losing their skin, which bursts, and suffers small particles of air to escape. If any doubt that the blood is formed of small particles, he may easily obtain an ocular demonstration of the subject. With the tip of a fine pen, or camel's hair brush, take a small drop of blood, just drawn from the body, and spread it as thin as possible over a piece of talc, to which apply one of the most powerful magnifiers, and the globules will be distinctly seen. By this simple method it has been found that the red globules of the human blood are each composed of six smaller globules, united together, and that, when disunited by any cause, they are no longer red. These globules are so exceedingly minute, that their diameter is only about the 1600th part of an inch, so that a sphere of one-tenth of an inch in diameter would contain 4,096,000 of them. To proceed to the skin, its pores, and scales. If you take off a small piece of the epidermis, or scarf-skin, of the hand, by means of a sharp razor, and place it on the object-plate of the microscope, you will see it covered with a multitude of small scales so exceedingly minute, that, according to Leuwenhoek, a grain of sand would cover 200 of them. These scales are arranged like those on the back of fishes, or like the tiles of a house, each, in part, covering the other. If the form of these little scales are to be ascertained, scrape the skin with a penknife, and put the dust thus obtained into a drop of water, and it will be seen that these scales, small as they are, have in general, five planes, and that each consists of several strata. Underneath these scales are the pores of the epidermis, which when the former are removed may be distinctly seen, apparently like small holes pierced with an exceedingly fine needle. In the length of an inch 1200 have been counted, so that, in a surface equal to a square inch, there are 14,400; and as there are 144 inches in a square foot the number of pores in a square foot of surface would be more than two millions; and as the surface of the human body is reckoned at 14 feet, the number of pores in its surface, through which there is a perpetual perspiration going on, must be more than 28 millions. Each of these pores, indeed, corresponds in the skin to an excretory tube, the edge of which is lined with the epidermis. When the epidermis has been detached from the skin, these internal prolongations of the epidermis may be observed in the same manner as we see in the reverse of a piece of paper pierced with a bluut needle, The pores of the skin are more particularly remarkable in the hands and feet. For if we wash the hands well with soap and water, and then look at the several parts with a magnifier, we shall observe a multitude of furrows, between which the pores are situated, Those who wish to observe the circulation of the blood, by means of the microscope, may readily obtain the desired satisfaction. The objects employed chiefly for this purpose are the delicate transparent members which unite the toes of the frog and the tail of the tadpole. If this member be extended and fixed on a piece of glass illumimated below, the motion of the blood in the vessels will be distinctly visible; the appearance resembles a number of small islands with a rapid current flowing between them. Take a small tadpole, and, having wrapped its body in a piece of moist cloth, place its tail on the object-plate of the microscope, and enlighten it below, and you will see very distinctly the circulation of the blood, which in some of the vessels proceeds by a kind of undulations, and in other with an uniform motion. The former are thought to be the arteries in which the blood moves, in consequence of the alternate pulsation of the heart; the latter are said to be the veins. The circulation of the blood may be seen also in the legs and tails of shrimps. The transparent legs of small spiders, and those of bugs, will also afford the means of observing the circulation of the blood. The latter are said, by Mr. Baker, to exhibit an extraordinary vibration of the vessels, which he never saw any where else. Very small fish are good objects for this purpose: but the most curious of all spectacles of this kind, is that exhibited by the mesentery of a living frog, applied in particular to the solar microscope. According to Mr. Baker, who saw the fact which he describes, it is impossible to express the wonderful scene which presented itself to his observation. We saw,' he says, at the same moment, the blood, which flowed in a prodigious number of vessels, moving in some to one side and in others to the opposite side. Several of these minute vessels were magnified so as to appear an inch in diameter, and the globules of blood seemed almost as large as small grains of pepper, while in some vessels they could pass only one by one, and were obliging in a centre. The hairs of animals, seen through a microscope, appear to be organized bodies: they are composed of long, slender, hollow tubes: some seem to be composed of several small hairs, covered with a common bark; others are hollow throughout. The bristles of a cat's whisker, when cut transversely, exhibit the appearance of a medullary part which occupies the middle, like the pith in the twig of the elder-tree. Those of the hedgehog contain a kind of real marrow, which is whitish, and formed of radii meet 384 Varieties.-Fall of the Glacier of the Weisshorn, Dec. 1819. [VOL.7. The eyes of insects have afforded much room for microscopic observation. The greater part of insects have not moveable eyes, which they can cover with eyelids at pleasure .In these, the eyes are immoveable, and, as they are deprived of a covering to defend them from injuries, nature has supplied this deficiency, by forming them of a kind of corneous substance, proper for resisting the shocks to which they might be exposed. But it is not in this, that the great singularity of the eyes of insects consists. By the microscope, we find these eyes are themselves divided into a prodigious multitude of others much smaller. Some flies are said to have several thousand eyes. In all the different species they are disposed in a different manner. The dragon fly, besides the two hemispherical excrescences on the sides, which are visible to the naked eye, has between these two other eminences, the upper and convex surface of which is furnished with a multitude of eyes. The same insect has three also in front, in the form of an obtuse and rounded cone. It is an agreeable spectacle, says Leeuwenhoek, to examine this multitude of eyes in insects; for, if the observer be in a proper position, the surrounding objects appear painted on these spherical eminences; and, by means of the microscope, they are seen multiplied, almost as many times as there are eyes,and in such a distinct manner,as can never be attained by art. THE CALEDONIAN CANAL. The Caledonian Canal now carrying into execution in Scotland, will constitute an undertaking truly gigantic. The depth to be 20 feet; width at the bottom, 50, and at the surface of the line of water, 110. The dams or sluices from 162 to 172 feet in length, and from 38 to 40 in width. Dimensions of this magnitude will cease to excite wonder, when it is known that one main object of this canal is to be serviceable to the Royal Navy, so that frigates of 22 guns may be enabled to navigate it; in other respects, to furnish shipping with the means of avoiding a tedious and dangerous navigation round the northern and western coasts of Scotland. The whole expence about 20 millions of franks, of which 14 have been already laid out, One part of the navigation will be supplied by the means of lakes. These labours commenced in 1814, and are to terminate in 1821. A mechanic in the North has invented a machine for seminaries, which, by means of steam, not only warms the room, but flogs all the boys" on a gradurated scale," according to their offences, POLYMORPHOSCOPE. A small mirror called by this name is now made at Paris, which reflects not only the face of the lady who looks into it, but by means of painting contrived in a peculiar manner, shews her various kinds of dress and taste, so that she may see what becomes her best, and be guided accordingly in the choice of her head dress. FALL OF THE GLACIER OF THE And Destruction of the Village of Renda. On the 27th of December, 1819, about six o'clock in the morning, towards the eastern and very steep side of the highest summit of the Weisshorn, a part of the glacier became loose, fell with a noise like thunder on the mass of ice helow, and announced by the most dreadful crash, the ravages with which the valley was threatened. At the moment when the snow and ice struck on the lower mass of the glacier, the clergyman of the place, and some other persons observed a strong light* which, however, immediately vanished, and every thing was again enveloped in the darkest night. A frightful hurricane, occasioned by the pressure of the air, instantly succeeded, and in a moment It is very desirable to obtain satisfactory informa tion of this phenomenon, which, as far as we know, has not yet been observed in similar cases ; and which, in the darkness of the night, was much too conspicu ous to leave any doubt of its reality. |