As Edward was standing in one corner of the room, endeavouring to catch a part of the lecture, he felt his coat twitched, and turning round saw doctor Hoare at his elbow. "6 Step this way," said the doctor: "yonder I see Ogilvy." Edward followed him out of the lecture-room.

"Well, my old friend," said the doctor, "what do you say to the moderns now? Here are golden times, when science is not only patronised by fashion, but when it is absolutely necessary to be scientific to be fashionable!"

"Science! Nonsense!

"Psha!" said Ogilvy. The world is absolutely turned topsy-turvy, and the people are run mad. Don't profane the name of science by associating that word with this depository of pots, pans, and potatoes."

"But, my dear Ogilvy, does not science gain at least some honour by having such a splendid train of lovely votaries as are in the next room?"

"No:-it's a burlesque worship. There is not half a dozen among the women there who have a spark of real love for science; and that's the only consolation I feel; the bubble will burst ere the novelty is well over."

"You do not then approve, sir," said Edward, "of the dissemination of the higher branches of knowledge among the fair sex?"

"I don't approve of the present system of making prattling philosophers in petticoats. I see no good that is to result to society from having our wives or daughters discharging electric or Galvanic batteries

at our heads, or of converting our cook-maids into chemical analysers of smoke and steam."

"But are not the scientific pursuits of the present day at least as beneficial to society as the old amusements of working carpets and chair bottoms?” said doctor Hoare.

"No; they are not. The end of such occupations was to render our homes, a word now almost obsolete, agreeable to their masters; whereas this mania of philosophy has a direct contrary tendency, converting our parlours into chemical laboratories, and our drawing-rooms into debating societies."

"But, Ogilvy, you must make some allowance for the progress of refinement, and the growth of luxury. Ladies of fashion now-a-days would faint at the sight of a tambour-frame; and at the introduetion of a spinning-wheel they would actually expire!"

"I grant you, Jonathan, that there is a necessary change in the manners of the great.-As wealth increases in a state, the number of those who live without labour must increase; and still farther I grant, that the increase of population, the source of that wealth, makes it a duty that the rich should not do those services for themselves, to do which forms the subsistence of the poor. I do not, therefore, wish to see duchesses of the nineteenth century working carpets, or spinning cloth-but, zounds, man, is there no alternative? Have they not music and dancing? Have they not drawing and poetry? Have they not the exercise of fancy and taste in all the articles of dress; and all the arrangements of routs and balls,

and assemblies? Besides, I would even allow them a dip into botany and horticulture:-all this may do well enough for amusement. But let me not hear the studies of abstruse sciences called feminine amusements, and the severest labours of human intellect termed pastimes for ladies!"

"To be serious, Ogilvy," said doctor Hoare," I feel no inclination farther to contest a subject on which it is impossible there should be a difference of opinion. But, if you are not an approver of this Institution, may I ask what brings you here?"

"I have not condemned the Institution. On the contrary, with some exceptions, I admire its plan. The avowed purpose of its establishment was the diffusion of knowledge, and facilitating the general introduction of useful mechanical improvements ;' and had your duchesses and marchionesses contented themselves with the honour of subscribing to the expence of such an institution, I should have applauded instead of censuring their conduct. I am myself a subscriber. Their lectures I think worse than useless; their pot and kettle manufactories, and their 'roasting and boiling experiments, should, I conceive, have been distinct branches, entirely separated from and unconnected with the literary or scientific parts of the establishment!--An union of. soup and science !-Good Heavens !-What cannot fashion do!-But you ask what brings me here ? The news-room and the library. These are supplied with more than fifty periodical publications, in English, French, and German, with all the Lon

don, and many of the foreign newspapers. Here I frequently lounge away the morning, more independently than in a private library, and more comfortably than in a public coffee-room."

ACCOUNT OF THE PRESENT STATE OF DUBLIN

CASTLE.

THIS building was commenced in the year 1205, and finished in 1213, under the auspices of Henry de Londres, Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland: it afterwards went to decay, and the chief governors were obliged to keep their court at St. Sepulchre's, Kilmainham, and St. Thomas's Abbey. History says that in the reign of John it was of considerable strength, moated and flanked with towers. It was not used for the viceroy's palace till the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The upper castle-yard, the principal part of the building, where the viceregak apartments are, is an oblong square, and much resembles, in gloom and unroyal-like appearance, the palace of St. James's. In the southern range is a neat edifice, called the Bedford Tower, having a front decorated with a small arcade of three arches, surmounted by an octagon steeple, with a cupola. This tower fronts the viceroy's apartments, and is connected with the building on each side by two

gates, upon which are two handsome statues of Justice and Fortitude. These statues are worthy of notice, more on account of their rarity, than their superior excellence; for Dublin is certainly very defective in statuary. Birmingham Tower, at the western extremity of the castle, remained until the year 1775, when it was taken down, aud rebuilt in 1777, and is now called Harcourt Tower. It was formerly a state prison; at present the ancient records of Ireland are kept in it. The keeper of these archives in the viceroyalty of the Earl of Wharton was his secretary, the celebrated Addison, for whom the salary of the office was raised from 100l. to 5001. per annum. I did not see any thing worthy of much admiration in the viceregal apartments. The councilchamber is a good-sized room, but little embellished; and the throne is not so shabby as some of those seats of majesty to be seen in the palaces in England. St. Patrick's Hall is a noble room, and its ceiling has been lately painted with appropriate allegorical subjects by an ingenious artist named Waldre. The parliament and courts of justice were formerly held in the Castle till the rebellion of 1641, and from thence to the restoration. In the building containing the grand entrance to the Castle, are the apartments of the master of the ceremonies, and other officers of state.

It was at the gate of the Castle over which the statue of Justice appears, during the tumults in Thomas-street, in the year 1803, that the amiable