Fifth Series, Volamo LXIX. } No. 2505. – July 2, 1892. { From Beginning, Vol. OXOIV. . 3 CONTENTS. I. RECENT SCIENCE, Nineteenth Century, 11. THE MATHEMATICAL MASTER'S LOVESTORY: A RECORD, Blackwood's Magasine, . III. THE QUEEN'S MESSENGER, Quarterly Review, . V. MASHONALAND AND ITS INHABITANTS, New Review, Temple Bar, All The Year Round, VIII. THE NUMIDIAN POMPEII, Spectator, IX. OF OLD LICENSES, Chambers' Journal, X. AMELIA BLANDFORD EDWARDS, Saturday Review, . 14 26 37 44 51 . TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. For EiGĦT DOLLARS remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co. Single copies of the LIVING AGE, 18 cents. WAITING Pretty robin, there's a maiden tall, and fair, I am waiting alone while shadows grow, and rather stately, and the light in the west departeth slow, With a voice as soft as yours is, dwelling in that very cot, Waiting, while breezes come and go, In the sunset glow. And her tresses catch the sunbeams, though she speaks and moves sedately, A rosebud gleams through the failing light, And her eyes are just the color of a blue Just the ghost of a rosebud, pure and white, forget-me-not. In its heart a glistening dewdrop bright — Will he come to-night? Whisper, robin — can you tell me is she wan d'ring by the river, “I will come to you when the sun gleams red Where the catkins clothe the willows and O'er the golden.sea in the west,” he said; the water-cresses grow? Alas! the sun has already fled, Tell me robin, pretty robin, and I'll be your debtor ever, For her father does not love me, and so, Chambers' Journal. M. Rock. To their nests on the cliff-side, bare and high, And still wait I. He is tarrying yet upon his way, PAN IN THE ORCHARD. He carved a Aute of elder green, And notched it well and true, Ah! how the perfume of that rose Then pursed his lips and puffed his cheeks, And merrily he blew. For it was springtime holiday, A sun-tanned boy was he, And a patch upon his knee. The apple boughs above him fung Their tangled sprays on high, With one dark, bristly blue-jay nest Rough-sketched against the sky. The burden of the hour, He saw the fierce, bluff bumblebee Touse many a clover flower. OH, you pretty robin, keeping watch beside a lowly dwelling, Where the happy sunshine rushes o'er the Orphaned and poor as poor could be, The years before him lay gorse bloom bright and gay, Dark billows of an unknown sea, Where the blackbirds and the thrushes are their loud love-stories telling No lighthouse on the way. Do you know, I fancy, robin, you as sweetly And yet, and yet his elder flute sing as they Could bring him comfort true; Do you see that verdant meadow where the He pursed his lips and puffed his cheeks buttercups are growing, And blew, and blew, and blew! Where the golden-hearted daisies twinkle Maurice Thompson's " Poems." 'mid the tender grass? Do you mark the lights and shadows that the fleecy clouds are throwing, As across the sky of azure they fantastically pass? MY :RIEND. Just above it there's a cottage, sheltered by My friend is one whom I have fancied cold the budding beeches, In early days of converse, but whose hold Where the cherry bloom is scattered on the Upon my heartstrings grew to links of gold. serried crocus lines By the playful south wind's antics, where the Deep like the sea, with riches still unguessed, glistening ivy reaches I cling to what is seen and dream the rest, To the red-tiled roof and chimneys where Knowing that what appears is not the best. the green wisteria twines. Academy. ARTHUR L. SALMON. I. From The Nineteenth Century. of the group, and on examining the whole, RECENT SCIENCE, one cannot refrain from concluding that the stars are simply spots upon which the diffuse nebulous matter has agglomerated A BREATH of youthful and youthenergy and condensed to make new suns. The ful hopes inspires modern astronomical work. Astronomy, the oldest of the same is also seen in the photographs of the nebulæ in Orion - the more so as the sciences, has more than renewed her youth," as William Huggins said at the spectroscope reveals the unity of compoend of the inaugural address he delivered which surround them and link them to sition of both the stars and the nebulæ before the last meeting of the British Association. Since the spectroscope, for gether. merly used but to study and reveal the obtained by H. C. Russell with his photo Still more interesting results have been chemical composition of the celestial bodies, has become an instrument for graphs of nebulæ in the constellation of measuring their uoseen movements and Argus. His earlier photographs, obtained for penetrating into the secrets of their by a three-hours' exposure, have already been referred to with admiration by Wil. bistory, and since photography has been liam Huggins in his address. But when taken as a necessary auxiliary by astron. omers, a new chapter of astro-physics has the photographic film was exposed for been opened. The proper movements of eight hours to the faint light of the nebula, the stars have acquired a new meaning ; not only shows that the nebulous matter new facts were revealed. The photograph the faint masses of nebulous matter, scattered round and amidst the stars, have extends far beyond the limits assigned to become animated indications of the gene. it by Herschel during his memorable obsis of solar systems; and the great prob- servations at the Cape, while confirming lems relative to the life of the stellar at the same time the great accuracy of the worlds — their origin, their growth, their description of what he did see; it also decay, and their rejuvenescence that the nebula has lived since have proves come again to the front, supported by re 1837, and has altered considerably its newed hopes as to the proximity of their aspect during the last fifty years. At the ultimate solution. very same place where Herschel saw one It is not possible, indeed, to examine of its brightest and most conspicuous the splendid photographs, made by Mr. parts, we have now a dark oval space, upon which no trace of luminous matter can be Roberts, of the nebula in Andromeda, and to see this whirlpool of luminous matter, drawn elsewhere, or is luminous no more ; detected. The matter either has been divided into dark and bright rings surrounding a large, uodefined central mass, may be, it is passing through some stage without perceiving in it a gigantic solar preparatory to the appearance of a new system in the way of formation, and with star. We are thus convinced that these out concluding in favor of a similar origin, accumulations of matter, however giganon a much smaller scale, of our own solar tic their dimensions, are living at a much system. The best drawings of the same more rapid speed than we were prepared debula, which were made by Bond and to admit. Changes occur in them, even John Herschel with the aid of the best within the short limits of one man's life; telescopes, told nothing of the kind; the and as the new star in Auriga, rapidly complicated structure of the nebula, its passing through a series of transformalife, were missing in what was reproduced tions, reveals to us the secrets of the birth of new suns,* so also we may hope by the peo of a cautious observer. Again, in another part of the sky- the that the study of the modifications of the Pleiades - the photographs of the Broth. nebulæ will initiate us into the secrets of ers Henry show at once that this cluster the earlier stages of development of the of suns is aot an occasional gathering. stellar worlds. In the movements of those Streaks of gebulous matter, revealed by • See an article by Mr. Norman Lockyer in LIVING photography, connect together the stars | Age, No. 2497, p. 323. remote agglomerations we learn to feel | The spectra of the stars, the nebulæ, the the continuous life of nature, its continu- corona, and the protuberances of the sun, ous change, its evolution. are now photographed; and by this means When the great photographic map of the powers of the astronomer are considerthe whole sky is ready, many a change in ably extended. He can study the specthe stellar worlds and nebulæ which es- trum in its ultra-violet part, which is not capes now our attention will be recorded visible to the eye, as it hardly acts upon forever. The preparatory work is already our retina, while its chemical rays act completed; the instruments are chosen, very well upon the photographic sensitive and the uniformity of methods is secured. plate; he obtains greater eolargements of The sky is apportioned between the eigh- the spectrum, and he can study the spectra teen observatories which will perform the at his leisure and measure the positions of whole of this immense work, each of them the bright or dark lines which intersect having to make from one thousand to fif- them — the more so as the spectrum of teen hundred separate photographs in some well-known body (incandesceot hy order to map all stars down to the sixteenth drogen or iron) is photographed on the magnitude; and the first specimens already same plate for the sake of comparison. published satisfy the most severe exigen. This method has already given some excies of the astronomers. Many new facts cellent results. It has permitted us to are sure to be revealed by this grand sur-measure the movements of the stars in vey of the sky, because even now, when a the line of vision with a quite unexpected simple preliminary exploration is being accuracy. The proper movements of the made, we can already mention some dis- stars offer an immense interest; but while coveries due to photography. Thus, when we always could ascertain their movethe amateur astronomer, Dr. Anderson ments north and south, or west and east, (equipped with but a small pocket tele on the celestial sphere, we formerly had scope and the little atlas of the sky by no means of telling whether a star is apKlein), discovered on the 31st of January proaching us, or going away, during its the new star in Auriga, it appeared that displacements in space. The spectrothe newcomer had already been photo-scope gives those means. The spectrum graphed without astronomers being aware of a star usually consists of a band of faiat of the fact. Professor Pickering found its light, intersected by several bright (or portrait on photographs taken on three dark) lines, corresponding to the lines apdifferent occasions since the ist of De. pearing in the spectra of hydrogen, cal. cember, and the indefatigable Heidelberg cium, iron, magnesium, natrium, and so astronomer, Max Wolf, also had it on his on. But if we reproduce under the specphotographs since the 8th of the same trum of the star the spectrum of, say, month. The appearance of the new star hydrogen, we often see that the hydrogen thus would have been recorded, even if lines in the former do not quite coincide nobody had remarked its appearance. with the same lines of the latter; they Another photographic discovery is due to are slightly displaced to the right or to the the same Max Wolf. Having photo-left. William Huggins long ago explained graphed one part of the sky on two con. that this displacement is due to the proper secutive nights in December, he sent his movements of the stars and gives a means negatives to Dr. Berberich, who at once of measuring them, and Mr. Christie even noticed that two minute spots had changed measured in this way, several years ago, their positions in the twenty-four hours. the otherwise invisible movements of sev. One of them proved to be a new addition eral stars. In fact, the blue and violet to the list of minor planets, while the other light of the spectrum is due to very quick, was a previously knowo small planet of the luminous vibrations, while its red light is same group: due to much slower vibrations, just as the However, the chief progress recently high pitch of a sound depends on much achieved in physical astronomy is due to quicker vibrations of the air than the low the spectroscope aided by photography. I pitch. But if a star approaches us with a a great rapidity, our eye will receive from ittance. We may calculate beforehand tha upon these conclusions. tory, January, 1892). + Observatory, October, 1891. from Venus, and how the movements of i Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, both the Earth and Venus affect this dis- | 1891, t. 113, P. 307. a II. |