liam Armstrong in referring to it this week | rious objects, which, since Mr. Nasmyth disin his opening address to the British Associa- covered them, have been seen by other obtion at Newcastle, "founds the pedigree of servers as well, are computed to be cach not living nature upon the most elementary 100 miles in breadth. The enormous chasms less than 1,000 miles in length, and about forms of vitalized matter," and then, per- in the sun's photosphere, to which we apply haps, accounts for even these forms by im- the diminutive term spots,' exhibit the exagining their evolution from prior inorganic tremities of these leaf-like bodies pointing nature? And what of Lyell's connected inwards, and fringing the sides of the cavern speculation as to the antiquity of the earth far down into the abyss. Sometimes they and of the human species? In every age, form a sort of rope or bridge across the indeed, there have been revolutionary specu- by lateral attraction. I can imagine nothing chasm, and appear to adhere to one another lations-heresies from all previous thought; more deserving of the scrutiny of observers but there are revolutionary speculations than these extraordinary forms. The symwhich are very revolutionary, heresies which pathy also which appears to exist between burst the walls of the mind; and these spec- forces operating in the sun and magnetic ulations of our own epoch are of this ex- forces belonging to the earth merits a contintreme nature. They are such, so far as we uance of that close attention which it has can see, as no previous epoch was exercised already received from the British Association, and of labors such as General Sabine has with, and as cannot be adopted without re- with so much ability and effect_devoted to acting upon the entire mode of thought about the elucidation of the subject. I may here all things whatsoever, and changing the notice that most remarkable phenomenon whole mental horizon. There are, moreover, which was seen by independent observers at cognate speculations of our epoch, less liable two different places on the 1st of September, to be regarded as heterodox, but hardly less 1859. A sudden outburst of light, far exrevolutionary. Connect, for example, that ceeding the brightness of the sun's surface, great speculation of recent physical science was seen to take place, and sweep like a as to the Indestructibility of Force, the Cor-drifting cloud over a portion of the solar face. relation of Forces, the Presentability of Heat as Motion, and of Motion as Heat, etc., with the still more recent investigations, through spectrum-analysis and otherwise, into the constitution of the Sun. Read the following remarkable passage from Sir William Armstrong's Newcastle address:— This was attended with magnetic disturbances of unusual intensity and with exhibitions of aurora of extraordinary brilliancy. The identical instant at which the effusion of light was observed was recorded by an abrupt and strongly marked deflection in the self-registering instruments at Kew. The phenomenon as seen was probably only part of what actually took place for the magnetic storm in the midst of which it occurred commenced before and continued after the event. If conjecture be allowable in such a case, we may suppose that this remarkable event had some connection with the means by which the sun's heat is renovated. It is a reasonable supposition that the sun was at that time in the act of receiving a more than usual accession of new energy; and the theory which assigns the maintenance of its power to cosmical matter plunging into it with that prodigious velocity which gravitation would impress upon it as it approached to actual contact with the solar orb, would afford an explanation of this sudden exhibition of intensified light in harmony with the knowledge we have now attained that arrested motion is represented by equivalent heat." "Of all the results which science has produced within the last few years, none has been more unexpected than that by which we are enabled to test the materials of which the sun is made, and prove their identity, in part at least, with those of our planet. The spectrum experiments of Bunsen and Kirchhoff have not only shown all this, but they have also corroborated previous conjectures as to the luminous envelope of the sun. I have still to advert to Mr. Nasmyth's remarkable discovery, that the bright surface of the sun is composed of an aggregation of apparently solid forms, shaped like willowleaves or some well-known forms of Diatomaceæ, and interlacing one another in every direction. The forms are so regular in size and shape, as to have led to a suggestion from one of our profoundest philosophers of Sir William does not here state the whole their being organisms, possibly even partaking of the nature of life, but, at all events, speculation; and, indeed, it takes different closely connected with the heating and vivi- forms in different minds, and does not admit fying influences of the sun. These myste- as yet of any one consistent statement. Gen erally, however, the speculation is this, that | no mind, and no modification of it can enter the sun is the sustaining body of the solar any mind, without affecting every jot and system, and that it is on the radiation of the tittle about everything whatever that that energy stored up in it, that all the other mind thinks. And these and such like specbodies of the solar system, our own earth in-ulations are the very breath of the epoch. cluded, depend—that this energy is radiated It is, doubtless, to their subtle and diffused as heat, light, and what-not, which are action disturbing and disintegrating old transmuted into other forms (the very coal- modes of thought, as much as to any mere beds of our earth being but accumulated keenness of biblical scholarship or historical power from the sun); and so that, were the criticism, that we are to attribute those new sun to fail, the entire solar system must forms of theological scepticism which are starve and collapse. But, according to some, also to be remarked as among the peculiar the sun is failing; endless radiation of his manifestations of our time. power into space is telling even upon him, Altogether, it seems probable that we and the universe will find it out one day. have a stirring quarter of a century before Those reinforcements of his energy by the us. The fast rate of events in the political absorption of comets or other cosmical bodies world will probably still continue; and the to which Sir William Armstrong refers, are, momentous speculations now in progress will according to the calculation of Professor proceed farther and farther, and interconThomson, by no means an equivalent for nect themselves more and more, and generate his expenditure; the balance is continually all kinds of extensions and applications and dwindling; and the rate of loss is such that, modifications. Perhaps even out of the very in about eight hundred millions of years, unless for some reserve unknown as yet, the sun will have cooled to a kind of cinder, and become incapable, if the conditions of life are the same as now, of continuing to sustain his dependent orbs. A vastly remote speculation this, it may seem, for all practical purposes; but, as a speculation, immediately important in this respect, that it can enter rapidity and whirl of their development there may come, sooner than might be expected, some counterblast to that spirit of enthusiastic Materialism which at first sight they seem calculated to cherish, and which is certainly for the moment all-prevailing. Meanwhile, the literature of our age, and, above all, the poetry, keeps no pace with the speculative activity. A PROPHECY IN JEST.-Perhaps the following may be of interest. It is taken from Dr. Somerville's My Own Life and Times (Edmonston and Douglas): — 6 understand?' said the priest. Walk on, then, forninst me, and I think how I can explain it to you.' The man walked on, and the priest came after him and gave him a tremendous kick. Ugh!' roared the sufferer, why did you do "Burke said that he would not be surprised that? Did you feel it?' asked the priest. at the defection of some of the colonies from theTo be sure I did,' replied the man. Well, Union.' I believe he mentioned the Southern then, it would have been a merakle if you had States. Their Constitution was not then settled, not,' returned the priest."-Reader. and the Democratic party threatened to overpower the interests of the Federalists, to whom he gave full credit for wisdom and patriotism." -Notes and Queries. recently formed the subject of long discussions at AN anonymous MS., preserved at Poitiers, has the Société Antiquaire de l'Ouest. It contains, among other valuable documents, four unedited letters by Rousseau, three by Voltaire, several by Robinet, author of the "Livre de la Nature," and by the Abbé Yoon, one of the editors of the " Encyclopédie," and, finally, several letters by the Marquis d'Argenson, which prove that, from 1765 to 1775, his chateau at Ormes was one of the most prominent haunts of the leaders of the philosophical and critical movements of the time. From Punch, 5. Sept. ENGLAND'S NEUTRALITY. A PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE, WITH NOTES, BY A CONFEDERATE REPORTER. ALL ye who with credulity the whispers hear of fancy, Or yet pursue with eagerness hope's wild extravagancy, Who dream that England soon will drop her long miscalled Neutrality, And give us with a hearty shake the hands of nationality; "What though the land run red with blood, what though the lurid flashes Of cannon light, at dead of night, a mournful heap of ashes, Where many an ancient mansion stood-what though the robber pillages That sacred home, the house of God, in twice a hundred villages "What though a fiendish, nameless wrong, that makes revenge a duty, Is daily done" (O Lord, how long?) "to tenderness and beauty?" (And who shall tell, this deed of hell, how deadlier far a curse it is Read, while we give, with little fault of state- Than even pulling temples down and burning ment or omission, The next debate in Parliament on Southern Rec ognition; They're all so much alike, indeed, that one can write it off, I see, As truly as the Times Report without the gift of prophecy. Not yet, not yet to interfere does England see occasion, But treats our good commissioner with coolness and evasion; Such coolness in the premises that really 'tis refrigerant To think that two long years ago she called us a belligerent. But further Downing Street is dumb, the premier deaf to reason— As deaf as is the Morning Post, both in and out of season; The working men of Lancashire are all reduced to beggary, And yet they will not listen unto Roebuck or to Gregory : "Or any other man to-day who counsels interfering, While all who speak on t'other side obtain a ready hearing; As, par exemple, Mr. Bright, that pink of all propriety, That meek and mild disciple of that blessed Peace Society. "Why, let 'em fight," says Mr. Bright; "these Southerners, I hate 'em, And hope the Black Republicans will soon exterminate 'em ; If Freedom can't Rebellion crush, pray tell me what's the use of her?" And so he chuckles o'er the fray as cheerfully as Lucifer. universities?) "Let Arts decay, let millions fall, for aye let Freedom perish, With all that in the Western world men fain would love and cherish, Let Universal Ruin there become a sad reality, We cannot swerve, we must preserve our rigorous neutrality." O Pam! O Pam! hast ever read what's writ in holy pages, How Blessed the Peace-Makers are, God's children of the ages Perhaps you think the promise sweet was nothing but a platitude, 'Tis clear that you have no concern in that Di-. vine beatitude. But "hear! hear! hear!" another peer, that mighty man of muscle, Is on his legs, a hearing begs, the noble Earl of Russell; Thus might he speak, did not of speech his shrewd reserve the folly see, And thus unfold the subtle plan of England's secret policy: "John Bright was right; yes, let 'em fight, these fools across the water, 'Tis no affair at all of ours, their Carnival of slaughter; The Christian world, indeed, may say we ought not to allow it, sirs; But still 'tis music in our ears, this roar of Yankee howitzers. "A word or two of sympathy, that costs us not "But for the cause in which he fell we cannot | lift a finger, 'Tis idle on the question any longer here to linger; 'Tis true the South has freely bled, her sorrows Her case is like to his of old who journeyed unto "The thieves have stripped and bruised, although We'd like to see her slay 'em all to right and left around her, We shouldn't cry in Parliament if Lee should But England never yet was known to play the "The grim Bastile, the rack, the wheel, without remorse or pity, May flourish with the guillotine in every Yankee city, No matter should Old Abe revive the brazen bull of Phalaris, 'Tis no concern at all of ours," (Sensation in the galleries) "So shall our Merry England' thrive on transatlantic troubles, While India on her distant plains her crop of cotton doubles ; And so as long as North or South shall show the least vitality, We cannot swerve, we must preserve our rigorous neutrality." "And so we pass the other side, and leave them-Your to their glory, To give new proofs of manliness, new scenes for song and story: These honeyed words of compliment may possibly bamboozle 'em, But ere we intervene, you know, we'll see 'em in Jerusalem. "Yes, let 'em fight till both are brought to hopeless desolation, Till wolves troop round the cottage door in one and t'other nation; Till, worn and broken down, the South shall no more refractory, And rust eats up the silent looms in every Yankee factory: "Till bursts no more the cotton boll o'er fields And fills with snowy flosses the dusky hands of Till war has dealt its final blow and Mr. Seward's Has put an end in all the land to Freedom and to Slavery. speech, my lord, might well become a Saxon legislator, When the "fine old English gentleman" lived When Vikings quaffed from human sculls their But 'tis a speech so plain, my lord, that all may And so we quickly turn to fight again the Yankee bandit, Convinced that we shall fairly win at last our nationality, Without the help of Britain's arm, in spite of her Neutrality! Mr. Punch has inserted the preceding lines from a Secesh Correspondent, as few straws to show which way the wind blows" in the South. Zeitschrift fur Aegyptische Sprach-und Alterthumskunde is the title of a new monthly edited by Brugsch. Its intention is, " to become the central organ for Egyptian studies, and to convey to its readers, besides original articles, information on all the latest discoveries and results of investigations in the wide field of Egyptology." Egyptian texts, drawings, etc., will accompany the text, which will chiefly be written in German, without, however, excluding French and English contributions. THE germ of a very important advance in surgery seems to have been sown in the hospitals of Paris. M. Raymond, a young physician, in a thesis recently submitted to the French Faculty of Medicine, put forth the opinion, founded on chemical analysis, that " 'gangrene consisted essentially in the diminution or absence of the oxygen necessary to the integrity of the life of a tissue." Dr. Raynaud has utilized this idea by enveloping in oxygen gas, by means of suitable apparatus, the gangrenous foot of a patient seventy-five years of age, whose toe was already mortified. The gangrene is said to have been arrested, and the foot to have resumed a healthy state. Other cures, it is stated, have since been accomplished.-London Review. THE good people of Stafford have made an appeal to Waltonians to subscribe liberally to a memorial to be erected in his native town to honest Old Izaak, the angler. From Macmillan's Magazine. BY MATTHEW ARNOLD. PART I. changes at Eton seem really important, will hardly be disposed to make those changes very sweeping. If Eton does not teach her pupils profound wisdom, we have OxensA LIVELY and acute writer, whom English tiern's word for it that the world is governed society, indebted to his vigilance for the ex- by very little wisdom. Eton, at any rate, posure of a thousand delinquents, salutes teaches her aristocratic pupils virtues which with admiration as its Grand Detective, some are among the best virtues of an aristocracy time ago called public attention to the state-freedom from affectation, manliness, a high of the " College of the Blessed Mary" at spirit, simplicity. It is to be hoped that she Eton. In that famous seat of learning, he teaches something of these virtues to her other said, a vast sum of money was expended on pupils also, who, not of the aristocratic class education, and a beggarly account of empty themselves, enjoy at Eton the benefit of conbrains was the result. Rich endowments tact with aristocracy. For these other puwere wasted; parents were giving large sums pils, perhaps a little more learning, as well to have their children taught, and were get- as a somewhat stronger dose of ideas, might ting a most inadequate return for their out- be desirable. Above all, it might be desiralay. Science, among those venerable towers ble to wean them from the easy habits and in the vale of the Thames, still adored her profuse notions of expense which Eton genHenry's holy shade; but she did very little erates-habits and notions graceful enough else. These topics, handled with infinite in the lilies of the social field, but inconvenskill and vivacity, produced a strong effect. ient for its future toilers and spinners. To Public attention, for a moment, fixed itself convey to Eton the knowledge that the wine upon the state of secondary instruction in of Champagne does not water the whole earth, England. The great class which is interested and that there are incomes which fall below in the improvement of this imagined that the £5,000 a year, would be an act of kindness moment was come for making the first step towards a large class of British parents, full towards that improvement. The compara- of proper pride, but not opulent. Let us tively small class whose children are educated hope that the courageous social reformer who in the existing public schools thought that has taken Eton in hand may, at least, reap some inquiry into the state of these institu- this reward from his labors. Let us hope he tions might do good. A Royal Commission may succeed in somewhat reducing the standwas appointed to report upon the endow-ard of expense at Eton, and let us pronounce ments, studies, and management of the nine over his offspring the prayer of Ajax: “0) principal public schools of this country-boys, may you be cheaper educated than your Eton, Winchester, Westminster, Charter- father, but in other respects like him; may house, St. Paul's, Merchant Taylors', Har- you have the same loving care for the imrow, Rugby, and Shrewsbury. provement of the British officer, the same terrible eye upon bullies and jobbers, the same charming gayety in your frolics with the Old Dog Tray; ' but may all these gifts be developed at a lesser price! 66 Eton was really the accused, although eight co-respondents have thus been summoned to appear with Eton; and in Eton the investigation now completed will probably produce most reform. The reform of an institution But I hope that large class which wants which trains so many of the rulers of this the improvement of secondary instruction in country is, no doubt, a matter of considera- this country-secondary instruction, the great ble importance. That importance is certainly first stage of a liberal education, coming beless if it is true, as the Times tells us, that tween elementary instruction, the instruction. the real ruler of our country is "The Peo- in the mother tongue and in the simplest and ple," although this potentate does not abso- indispensable branches of knowledge on the lutely transact his own business, but dele- one hand, and superior instruction, the ingates that function to the class which Eton struction given by universities, the second and educates. But even those who believe that finishing stage of a liberal education, on the Mirabeau, when he said, He who administers other-will not imagine that the appointment governs, was a great deal nearer the truth of a Royal Commission to report on nine exthan the Times, and to whom, therefore, isting schools can seriously help it to that |