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Thinking of how to clay and dust,
Canker, decay, and moth, and rust,
Come all that we love, and hope, and trust-
Beauty and Wealth, and Pleasure and Power.
And Learning, and Sense, and Wit.

Down in your coffin there,
Beauty, answer me now,
As here I sit,

In a cynical fit,

Where is hidden thy jewel chest?
Where are the diamonds that once did rest
On the rise and fall of thy snowy breast?
They sparkle no more in the gloom and dark

Than does a cretin's wit.

Ambition, thou misled fool,
Thou with the rusty crown,
As I meditate

On thy fallen state,
Open thy coffin lid, and tell

Of the battles thou hast won so well;
How many wretches there bleeding fell,
All for a fort or some farm in a dell,
A mound of earth, or a line on a map,
Wrestling so hard with fate.

Learning, thou purblind thing,
Sage with the half-closed eyes,
Come, answer me,

In my tyranny,
And prove.me how thy midnight toil,
Thy waste of wholesome, harmless oil,
And all thy fretting and careful moil,
Thy nouns declined, thy accents marked,
Avail in the dull Dead Sea !

Pride, thou art humble now,
Thanks to the sexton's spade;
Around this tree

Lies good company,
Yet none to flatter, or fawn, or bend.
Pomp and pleasure have come to an end;

Narrow the chamber is left thee, friend:

Pedigrees, parchments, charters, and rolls,
Are little avail to thee.

Wealth, thou art last of all,
Laggard and lazy of old;

Come, knave, up here
From thy velvet bier,

What is that strange frilled robe thou'st on?
"Tis out of fashion, thou simpleton.
Are all thy tinsel and trappings gone?
Yes! time is over for change and freak:
Money is useless here.

Under the Churchyard yew
(Its berries as red as blood)
I love to sit,

In my moody fit;

Round me rise the hillocky graves,

The Dead Sea's green and silent waves, Death's black banner, the dark tree braves, As I think of how vain are Power and Wealth, Beauty, and Love, and Wit.

-Chambers's Journal.

THE LADY MERLE.

As formal and lone as the statue of stone
That stood on his terraced wall,

Was the noble Earl till the Lady Merle
Moved mistress of heart and hall:
Till he met the Lady Merle--

Till he met, and loved, and wooed, and won, And married the Lady Merle.

As grave and as cold as the portraits old
That hung on his panels of oak,

Did the lines of his race o'ershadow the face
That never with laughter broke:
Till he met the Lady Merle--

Till he met, and loved, and wooed, and won, And married the Lady Merle.

As silent and dark as his untrodden park,
Lived the Earl from year to year,

And his haughty pride fell far and wide,
Chilling the land with fear:

Till he met the Lady Merle-

Till he met, and loved, and wooed, and won,

And married the Lady Merle.

But beamingly bright as the morning light
On statue and pictured wall,

Did the light of her love through his fortunes

move,

And over his manhood fall; When he met the Lady Merle

When he met, and loved, and wooed, and won, And married the Lady Merle.

And never, they say, was a fairer day

Than that when the grave-faced Earl His nature forsook for the kindly look

And the heart of the Lady Merle; When he met the Lady Merle

When he met, and loved, and wooed, and won, And married the Lady Merle.

Oh, is it not strange how our natures will change In a woman's holy control,

And how the strong grace of a lovely face

Will conquer and fashion the soul,
When we meet our Lady Merles—
When we meet, and love, and woo, and win,
And marry our Lady Merles?

--Public Opinion.

Bos

ily, formed an immense column, crowned with a curled capital of dark, heavy clouds. The new island was visible next morning, increasing sensibly to the eye as it rose out of the sea at no great distance to the south of Nea Kaïménê.

The new island has been visited by Dr. Dekigalla, a man of science and an able observer, who will record accurately all the phenomena of the BRIEF LITERARY NOTICES. eruption as it proceeds. The heat of the sea Lucy Arlyn. By J. T. TROWbridge. arose from 62° Fahrenheit to 122° as near the ton: Ticknor & Fields. 1866. This novel vicinity of volcanic action as it was safe to apopens in a fresh and lively manner; but the proach. The bottom of the sea all round Nea interest is not fully sustained. The long epi-Kaïménê appears to have risen greatly. In one sode in relation to spiritual mediums is exces- place, where the depth is marked on the Admisively tedious, and not necessary to the work-ralty ehart one hundred fathoms, it was found to ing out of the plot. The relations of Guy and Lucy also, in the first part of the book, are not clearly defined, and room is left for grave doubt and suspicion. Bating these defects, the book is highly interesting and entertaining. The Colonel and Archy are quite original characters.

Spencerian Key to Practical Penmanship. Prepared for the "Spencerian Authors," by H. C. SPENCER. New-York: Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman & Co. 1866. So far as we are capable of forming a judgment, we think this in all respects an admirable text book in this too much neglected branch of education. The principles and rules laid down are judicious and practical, while the numerous illustrations afford all the help needed for the correction of faults and the securing of a good penmanship. The publishers have given it an elegant dress for a school text-book.

SCIENCE.

be now only thirty, and at another where it was seventeen it is now only three fathoms. The new island, as it increases, will probably form a junction with Nea Kaïménê. It grows, as it were, out into the sea, the mass below pushing upward that which is already above water. The lower part is hot, its fissures, where they are deep, being 170° Fahrenheit, and the upper part, after four days' exposure, was found to be still 80°.

At present the centre of the volcanic force lies evidently far below the bottom of the sea, and only gases and smoke work their way through the incumbent earth to the water, and escape in noise, flames and smoke to the surface. But should a fissure at the bottom of the sea allow the water to penetrate to the fires that throw up the melted metal of the new island to the surface, an eruption may take place of a kind similar to that which destroyed Pompeii, but far more terrible.

The eruption that formed the present island of Nea Kaïménê began in the year 1707, and the volcanic action continued, without doing any se

1713. It is possible the present eruption may continue as long, and be as mild in its operation. But as late as 1650 a terrible eruption laid waste a great part of the island, and raised an island on its northeastern coast, which soon sunk again into the sea, leaving a shoal.

A New Island.-A correspondent of the Lon-rious injury to the inhabitants of Thêra until don Times, writing from Athens, Greece, announces that a new island began to rise above the level of the sea in the Bay of Thêra (Santorin), in the Grecian Archipelago, on the 4th of February, and in five days it attained the height of from one hundred and thirty feet to one hundred and fifty feet, with a length of upwards of three hundred and fifty feet and a breadth of one hundred feet. It continues to increase, and consists of a rusty black metallic lava, very heavy and resembling half-melted scoria which has boiled up from a furnace. It contains many small whitish, semi-transparent particles, disseminated through the mass like quartz or feldspar.

The eruption began on the 31st of January. A noise like volleys of artillery was heard, but without any earthquake. On the following day flames issued from the sea, in a part of the bay called Vulkanos, where the water is always discolored and impregnated with sulphur from abundant springs at the bottom. The flames rose at intervals to the height of fifteen feet, and were seen at times to issue from the southwestern part of Nea Kaïménê. That island was soon rent by a deep fissure, and the southern part sank considerably.

On the 4th of February the eruptions became more violent and the sea more disturbed. Gas forced itself up from the depths with terrific noise, resembling the bursting of a steam boiler; flames arose at intervals, and white smoke, rising stead

The island of Old Kaïménê made its first appearance in the year 198 before the Christian era. Its size was increased by several eruptions mentioned in history. The last addition it received was in 1457. The Small Kaïménê, which is nearest to Thêra, was thrown up in 1573. All the eruptions in the bays have been attended with similar phenomena.

The British naval commander at Malta has sent two ships to the scene of these phenomena. A letter dated February 7th, containing the latest news, says:

"The same smoke and fire in the evening as yesterday, and the hillock continues its operations. The sea, too, boils beyond the cove more than yesterday. The hillock, or land, will probably by to-morrow increase as far as the entrance to the cove, and be joined by its sides."

An Ancient Dinner.-The excavations at Pompeii are going on with an activity stimulated by the important discoveries made at almost every step, and the quantities of gold and silver found, which more than suffice to cover the cost of the works. Near the Temple of Juno, of which an

account was recently given, has just been brought | to light a house belonging to some millionaire of the time, as the furniture is of ivory, bronze, and marble. The couches of the triclinium, or dining room, are especially of extreme richness. The flooring consists of immense mosaic, well preserved in parts, of which the centre represents a table laid out for a grand dinner. In the middle, on a large dish, may be seen a splendid peacock with its tail spread out, and placed back to back with another bird also of elegant plumage. Around them are arranged lobsters, one of which holds a blue egg in its claws, a second an oyster, which appears to be fricasseed, as it is open and covered with herbs; a third, a rat farci, and a fourth, a small vase filled with fried grasshoppers. Next comes a circle of dishes of fish, interspersed with others of partridges, hares, and squirrels, which all have their heads placed between their fore feet. Then comes a row of sausages of all forms, supported by one of eggs, oysters, and olives, which in its turn is surrounded by a double circle of peaches, cherries, melons, and other fruits and vegetables. The walls of the triclinium are covered with fresco paintings of birds, fruits, flowers, game, and fish of all kinds-the whole interspersed with drawings which lend a charm to the whole not easy to describe. On a table of rare wood carved and inlaid with gold, marble, agate, and lapis lazuli, were found amphora still containing wine, and some goblets of onyx.-Shilling Magazine.

families in Scotland who lived in caves, on the Galloway coast; and they had recently had the description of the district of Charteris, in France, where about one hundred and fifty thousand people still lived in caves. No doubt caves formed a very good shelter for man in his rude statemuch better, perhaps, than anything he could construct for himself. In some of these caves had been found the stone weapons in use before man had metallic tools to work with, and at the time when animals which now had no existence were walking over France and England in great abundance.-Chambers's Journal.

The Accommodative Power of the Eye.-As recent continental inquiries have shown how utterly impossible it is for the ciliary muscle or processes to have any action on the crystalline lens, the following interesting case shows how much the phenomena of accommodation may depend upon the cornea or iris, or both. The case is given in a paper by Dr. Mackenzie, and is as follows: "As illustrating the power of distinct vision, sometimes possessed by those who have lost the crystalline, I may notice the instance of a gentleman, mentioned to me by Professor Allen Thomson. This gentleman had cataract in both eyes at rather an early period of life. He regained the use of one of them some twenty or twenty-five years ago, by extraction, under the care of the late Mr. Alexander. Employing a convex lens of about four inches focal length, he possesses an acuteness of vision wonderful, not mereCaves in Fifeshire.-At a recent meeting of the ly for a person in his circumstances, but for any Royal Society of Edinburgh, Professor J. Y. Simp- one. Always employing (as far as Professor son gave an account of the visits paid by him Thomson recollects) the same lens, he enjoys as last summer, along with other eminent Scottish complete a power as most persons of seeing with antiquaries, to the caves on the coast of Fifeshire, clearness and precision near or distant objects. at East Wemyss. There were, he said, eight or To show how minute his vision was, he wrote a nine of these caves, and on the walls of most of long passage of a letter in so small a character them they had found sculptured symbols almost that Professor Thomson found it necessary to use identical with those found upon the sculptured a strong magnifier to enable him to read what stones of Scotland. These sculptured stones had been written. Professor Thomson had frewere found along the east coast, running north-quently seen this gentleman read alternately the wards from Fife, only two having been discovered south of the Forth. They were for the most part monoliths, and the symbols had hitherto been supposed to possess a sepulchral character, an idea which was not, he thought, consistent with the circumstances that the very same emblems were now found inside these caves, which were the abode of man in his archaic condition. In these caves they found representations of the elephant, the horse, the dog, with collar round his neck, exactly like those found in the sculptured stones. They had also the bear, the deer, the swan, the peacock, the fish, the serpent; also the comb and mirror, the horseshoe, etc. They had in some cases the symbols of Christianity. Some marks were evidently pre-Roman, while the series continued down to the time of Christianity. The cave sculptures, he had no doubt, were coeval with the monoliths. They found crosses on them in considerable numbers, sometimes the cross standing on a tripod: and in one case they had the cross and tripod inverted. For himself, he had come to no conclusion as to what was the purpose of these carvings, for he thought their supposed sepulchral character was taken away by the position in which they were found. As Dr. Mitchell had found, there were even yet

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smallest type of a printed book at a near distance and the larger type of the title page across a room, as well as the words of a sign board or the names over shops, across a wide street. He could have no doubt whatever that his vision at these various distances was just as well defined and precise as that of persons possessing the ordinary powers of accommodation."-Vide Ophthalmic Review, No. VII., p. 227.

The Green Marble of Connemara.-Professor Harkness, of Queen's College, Cork, communicated his observations on these rocks to the British Association, at its last meeting. A series of sections and maps, which he displayed, proved that the green marbles of Connemara are a local and peculiar development of light-gray subcrystalline limestone, which lies on the north side of the gneiss rocks of the south of the Bens of Connemara. This limestone dips conformably under these gneissic rocks. It is superposed conformably on quartz rocks, and these quartz rocks, with their superposed deposits, are thrown into numerous contortions in the Connemara country. Where they are most curtailed, the limestones have opened out in their lines of lamination, and into these openings the serpentinous matter, to

which the green marble owes its color, has been | appeared in the shape of the Rev. Dr. Legge's introduced. The metamorphic strata in the Con- translation of the Shoo-King, may be mentioned nemara country appertain to the Lower Silurians. a Map constructed by the Rev. John Chalmers, They are the equivalents of the Quartz Rocks, A.M., of the London Mission, at Canton, repreUpper Limestone, and Upper Gneiss of the High-senting the territorial divisions and extent of the lands of Scotland, described by Sir R. I. Murchison. It has been stated that Eozoon Canadense occurs among the green marbles of Connemara. The structure which has given rise to this opinion is purely mineral, and has resulted from the deposition of Serpentine upon Tremolite and asbestiform minerals.-Popular Science Review.

The Birds of Siberia.-In an important treatise, published under the patronage of the Imperial Geographical Society of St. Petersburg, and which is the second of a series intended to be issued on Siberian Zoology, the author, Herr Radde, not only records the species, but gives an account of the periods of the migration of Siberian birds He gives a list of 368 species, which he refers to the following orders: Rapaces, 36; Scansores, 19; Oscines, 140; Gallinaceae, 18; Grallatores, 74; and Natatores, 81. Concerning the migration of birds, Herr Radde confirms the result arrived at by Von Middendorf in his learned memoir, Die Isepiptesen Russlands; the most important of them being, (1) that the high tableland of Asia and the bordering ranges of the Altai, Sajan, and Dauria retard the arrival of the migratory birds; (2) eastward of the upper Lena, towards the east coast of Siberia, a considerable retardation of migrants is again noticeable; and (3) the times of arrival at the northern edge of the Mongolian high steppes are altogether earlier than those of the same species on the Amoor.

VARIETIES.

Chinese Literature.-A work of a somewhat curious kind has been published within the last month or two at Canton, being an attempt by a native Chinese to afford foreigners a handbook in acquiring the Mandarin (spoken) language, as well as to assist natives speaking the Northern dialects in learning English. The publication of a thick and well-engraved octavo volume of this nature is an evidence-perhaps the first public one of the gradual spread of a desire for acquaintanceship with foreign tongues among the inhabitants of the remoter provinces, and even among the higher classes, by whom the "Mandarin" dialect is used. Its title is " Ying Yu Kwan Hwa Ho Kiang-the English and Mandarin Languages conjointly explained"; and its contents are chiefly in the nature of a vocabulary, interspersed with conversations, the English sound being represented, in addition to the text, by Chinese phonographic devices of the ordinary description. A brief introduction deals with a few of the most frequent grammatical peculiar ities of the English language. The author is a native of Canton, whose father compiled many years ago the handbook of Cantonese and Mandarin, from which the late Robert Thom compiled his Chinese Speaker, a little manual for students, which was extremely useful to beginners before other aids were at hand.

In connection with the invaluable contribution to Anglo-Chinese literature, which has recently

Chinese Empire in the days of Confucius. The Map has been engraved by a native workman at Canton, and is a useful aid to students of the classical history of the period to which it refers.— Trübner's Literary Record.

Assumed Literary Names.-To the list of American authors writing under assumed names which we gave in No. 9, we now add the following: Oliver Optic, William T. Adams; Paul Creyton, J. T. Trowbridge; Christopher Crowfield, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe; The Disbanded Volunteer, Joseph Barber; Major Jack Downing, Seba Smith; Ethan Spike, Matthew F. Whittier, McArone, the late George Arnold; Carleton, Charles Carleton Coffin; Warrington, William S. Robinson; Straws, Jr., Miss Kate Field; Perley, Ben. Perley Poore; Burleigh, Rev. Matthew Hale Smith; Walter Barrett, clerk, the late Joseph A. Scoville; Private Miles O'Reilly, Colonel Charles G. Halpine; Job Sass, George A. Foxcroft.-Historical Magazine.

Important Sale of Books.-The Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung contains the following communication from Venice, for the truth of which we are able to vouch: "There is no small stir occasioned here by the sale of the large stock of books left by the late G. Canciani, bookseller of this town, to the great house of F. A. Brockhaus, of Leipzig. This assortment, undoubtedly the most important in all Italy, not only on account of the number, but also of the quality of the books, is well known in all the circles which are interested in literature, and it is greatly to be regretted that this rich treasure should go abroad. That it has not met with a purchaser here is a proof of the low ebb to which the spirit of enterprise has sunk. A representative of the well-known Leipzig firm is now here, to take possession of the stock, for the packing of which about three hundred and sixty large cases will be required.-Trübner's Literary Record.

Neapolitan Brigandage.-" Neapolitan brigandage," says Count Maffei, whose former official connection with the province enables him to speak with authority on the subject, "is only the symptom of the decay that for centuries has been constantly undermining that unhappy country. The peasant there has no interest to bind him to the soil. In those districts there is a part of the population designated by the name of terrazzani, who have actually nothing to live upon but the proceeds of plunder and theft. The misery and destitution of these classes are the direct causes of brigandage. When the poor laborer compares the brigand's life with his own wretched lot, he cannot avoid drawing conclusions far from favorable to the cause of law and order; and we cannot wonder that that romantic existence lures him from the constant labor and misery to which, in his own station, he is hopelessly condemned. The voice of conscience is silenced, and he betakes himself to a course of life which appears to him a legitimate way of obtaining his livelihood."

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