atonement. He has been extolled for his skill in controlling others; but far greater praise is due to him for the firmness he displayed in governing himself.

His magnanimous benignity made him accessible to all kinds of pleasurable sensations from external objects. In his letters and journals, instead of detailing circumstances with the technical precision of a mere navigator, he notices the beauties of nature with the enthusiasm of a poet or a painter.

He was devoutly pious; religion mingled with the whole course of his thoughts and actions, and shines forth in all his most private and unstudied writings. Whenever he made any great discovery, he celebrated it by solemn thanks to God. The voice of prayer and melody of praise rose from his ships when they first beheld the New World, and his first action on landing was to prostrate himself upon the earth and return thanksgiving.

With all the visionary fervor of his imagination, its fondest dreams fell short of reality. He died in ignorance of the real grandeur of his discovery. Until his last breath he entertained the idea that he had merely opened a new way to the old resorts of opulent commerce, and had discovered some of the wild regions of the East. He supposed Hispaniola to be the ancient Ophir which had been visited by the ships of Solomon, and that Cuba and Terra Firma were but remote parts of Asia.

What visions of glory would have broken upon his mind could he have known that he had indeed discovered a new continent equal to the whole of the Old World in magnitude, and separated by two vast oceans from all the earth hitherto known by civilized man! And how would his magnanimous spirit have been consoled, amidst the afflictions of age and the cares of penury, the neglect of a fickle public, and the injustice of an ungrateful king, could he have auticipated the splendid empires which were to spread over the beautiful world he had discovered; and the nations, and the tongues, and languages which were to fill its lands with his renown, and to revere and bless his name to the latest posterity!

WASHINGTON IRVING.

LXXXVI.-MY CHILD.

I CANNOT make him dead!
His fâir sunshiny head

Is ever bounding round my study chair;
Yet, when my eyes, now dim

With tears, I turn to him,

The vision vanishes-he is not there!

rooting out the most hardened despotisms-of driving away a multitude of imps of superstition, which for ages had been the terror of the learned, and of spreading the light of truth and knowledge from the frontiers of civilization to the coasts of darkness and barbarism. The swinging of a lamp suspended from a ceiling led Galileo to search into the laws of oscillation of the pendulum; and by the fall of an apple the great Newton was led to unfold what had hitherto been deemed one of the secrets of the Deity-a mystery over which God had thrown a veil, which it would be presumption for man to lift or dare to pry beneath. Had Newton disregarded little things, and failed to profit by gentle hints, we should perhaps have thought so still, and our minds would not have been so filled with the glory of Him who made the heavens; but with these great truths revealed to our understandings, we exclaim from our hearts, "Manifold, O God! are thy works; in wisdom hast thou made them all."

When the heart of the woolspinner of Genoa was sickening with "hope deferred," and his men, who had long been straining their eyes in vain to catch a glimse of land, were about to burst into open mutiny, and were shouting fearfully to their leader to steer the vessel back again, he picked up a piece of wood which was found floating upon the waters. "The shore must be nigh,” he thought, “from whence this branch has wafted," and the inference inspired the fainting hearts of his crew to persevere and gain the hoped for land; had it not been for this trifling occurrence, Columbus would perhaps have returned to Spain an unsuccessful adventurer. But such trifles have often befriended genius. Accidentally observing that a red-hot iron became elongated by passing between iron cylinders, suggested the improvements effected by Arkwright in the spinning machinery. A piece of thread and a few small beads were means sufficient in the hands of "Ferguson, to ascertain the situation of the stars in the heavens. The discovery of Galvani was made by a trifling occurrence; a knife happened to be brought in contact with a dead frog, which was lying on the board of the chemist's laboratory; the muscles of the reptile were observed to be severely convulsed-experiments soon unfolded the whole theory of galvanism.

The history of the gaslight is curious, and illustrates our subject. Dr. Clayton 'distilled some coal in a retort, and confining the vapor in a bladder, amazed his friends by burning it as it issued from a pin hole; little did the worthy doctor think to what purposes the principle of that experiment was capable of being applied. It was left for Murdoch to suggest its adoption as a means of illuminating our streets, and adding to the splendor of our shops. Had Clayton not made known his humble experiment, we probably should still be depending on the mercy of a jovial watchman for a light to guide us

through the dark thoroughfares of the city, or to the dim glimmer of an oil lamp to display the luxury of our merchandise.

ANONYMOUS.

LXXXVIII.-ON THE DOWNFALL OF °POLAND.

O SACRED Truth! thy triumph ceased awhile,
And Hope, thy sister, ceased with thee to smile,
When leagued Oppression poured to Northern wars,
Her whiskered pandours and her fierce hussars,
Waved her dread standard to the breeze of morn,
Pealed her loud drum, and twanged her trumpet horn;
Tumultuous Horror "brooded o'er her ovan,
"Presaging wrath to Poland-and to man!

'Warsaw's last champion from her height surveyed,
Wide o'er the fields, a waste of ruin laid,—

O Heaven! he cried,—my bleeding country save!—
Is there no hand on high to shield the brave?
Yet, though destruction sweep these lovely plains,
Rise, fellow-men! our country yet remains !
By that dread name we wave the sword on high!
And swear for her to live!—with her to die!

He said, and on the rampart heights arrayed
His trusty warriors, few, but undismayed;
Firm paced and slow, a horrid front they form,
Still as the breeze, but dreadful as the storm;
Low murmuring sounds along their banners fly;
Revenge, or death,—the watchword and reply;
Then pealed the notes, omnipotent to charm,
And the loud tocsin tolled their last alarm!

In vain, alas! in vain, ye gallant few!
From rank to rank your volleyed thunder flew:—
Oh! bloodiest picture in the book of Time,
Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime;
Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe,
Strength in her arms, nor mercy in her woe!

Dropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear,
Closed her bright eye, and curbed her high career;—
Hope for a season băde the world farewell,
And Freedom shrieked-as "Kosciusko fell!

The sun went down, nor ceased the carnage there,
Tumultuous murder shook the midnight air—
On 'Prague's proud arch the fires of ruin glow,
His blood-dyed waters murmuring far below;
The storm prevails, the rampart yields away,
Bursts the wild cry of horror and dismay!
Hark! as the smouldering piles with thunder fall,
A thousand shrieks for hopeless mercy call!
Earth shook-red meteors flashed along the sky,
And conscious Nature shuddered at the cry!

O righteous Heaven! êre Freedom found a grave,
Why slept the sword, omnipotent to save?
Where was thine arm, O Vengeance! where thy rod,
That smote the foes of Zion and of God;

That crushed proud Ammon, when his iron car
Was yoked in wrath, and thundered from afar?
Where was the storm that slumbered till the host
Of bloodstained Pharaoh left their trembling coast;
Then băde the deep in wild commotion flow,
And heaved an ocean on their march below?

Departed spirits of the mighty dead!

Ye that at Marathon and Leuctra bled!
Friends of the world! restore your swords to man,
Fight in his sacred cause, and lead the van!

Yet for Sarmatia's tears of blood atone,

And make her arm puissant as your own!
Oh! once again to Freedom's cause return

The patriot Tell-the Bruce of Bannockburn!

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

LXXXIX.-REMARKABLE CLOCKS.

THE famous astronomical clock at Strasbourg, completed by Isaac Habrecht about the end of the sixteenth century, deserves particular notice. Before the clock, stands a globe on the ground, showing the motions of the heavens, stars, and planets. The heavens are carried about by the first mover in twenty-four hours. Saturn, by his proper motion, is carried about in thirty years; Jupiter in twelve; Mars in two; the sun, Mercury, and Venus in one year; and the moon in one month. In the clock itself, there are two tables on the right and left hand, showing the eclipses of the sun and moon from the year 1573 to the year 1624.

The third table in the middle, is divided into three parts. In the first part, the statues of Apollo and oDiana show the course of the year, and the day thereof, being carried about in one year; the second part shows the year of our Lord, and the equinoctial days, the hours of each day, the minutes of each hour, Easter day, and all other feasts, and the Dominical letter; and the third part has the geographical description of all Germany, and particularly of Strasbourg, and the names of the inventor and all the workmen. In the middle frame of the clock is an astrolabe, showing the sign in which each planet is every day; and thêre are the statues of the seven planets upon a circular plate of iron; so that every day the planet that rules the day comes forth, the rest being hid within the frames, till they come out of course, at their day-as the sun upon Sunday, and so for all the week.

There is also a terrestrial globe, which shows the quarter, the half hour, and the minutes. There is also the figure of a human skull, and the statues of two boys, whereof one turns the hour glass, when the clock has struck, and the other puts forth the rod in his hand at each stroke of the clock. Moreover, there are the statues of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, and many observations of the moon. In the upper part of the clock are four old men's statues, which strike the quarters of the hours. The statue of Death comes out at each quarter to strike, but is driven back by the statue of Christ with a spear in his hand, for three quarters; but in the fourth quarter that of Christ goes back, and that of Death strikes the hour with a bone in his hand, and then the chimes sound. On the top of the clock is an image of a cock, which twice in the day crows aloud and claps his wings. Besides, this clock is decked with many rare pictures; and, being on the inside of the church, carries another frame to the outside of the walls, whereon the hours of the sun, the courses of the moon, the length of the day, and such other things, are set out with great art.

Another clock, celebrated for its curious mechanism and motions, is placed in an aisle near the choir of St. John's Cathedral, at Lyons. On the top stands a cock, which every three hours claps his wings, and crows thrice. In a gallery underneath, a door opens on one side, out of which comes the Virgin Mary; and from a door on the other side, the angel Gabriel, who meets and salutes her; at the same time a door opens in the alcove part, out of which the form of a dove, representing the Holy Ghost, descends on the Virgin's head. After this these figures retire, and from a door in the middle comes forth a figure of a reverend father, lifting up his hands and giving his benediction to the spectators. The days of the week are represented by seven figures, each of which takes its place in a niche on the morning of the day it represents, and continues there till midnight. But