'the image of an instrument, such as he wished for, seemed to present itself before him, and terrified him so much, that he awoke as if he bad been struck by an electric shock. He immediately started up in a kind of enthusiasm, and made a series of experiments which convinced him that what he had seen was perfectly right, and that he had it now in his power to carry it into execution. He made his experiments, and constructed his first instrument in so private a manner, that no person knew anything of it. On the 8th of March, 1790, his first instrument of this kind was completed, and in a few days he was able to play on it some easy pieces of music. To this instrument he gave the name of Euphon, which signifies an instrument that has a pleasant sound. Subsequent experiments enabled him to improve much upon the original plan, and to render the Euphon much superior to the favorite harmonica.

CHYMICAL DANGERS.

M. Rouelle, an eminent French chymist, was not the most cautious of operators. One day, while performing some experiments, he observed to his auditors, "Gentlemen, you see this cauldron upon this brazier; well, if I were to cease stirring a single moment, an explosion would ensue, which would blow us all into the air." The company had scarcely time to reflect on this comfortable piece of intelligence before he did forget to stir, and his prediction was accomplished. The explosion took piace with a horrible crash; all the windows of the laboratory were smashed to pieces, and two hundred auditors whirled away into the garden. Fortunately, no one received any serious injury, the greatest violence of the explosion having been in the direction of the chimney. The demonstrator escaped without further harm than the loss of his wig.

A professor of a Northern University, who is as remarkable for his felicity in experimenting, as Rouelle could be for his failures, was once repeating an experiment with some combustible substances, when the mixture exploded, and the phial which he held in his hand blew into a hundred pieces. "Gentlemen," said the doctor to his pupils, with the most unaffected gravity, "I have made this experiment often with the very same phial, and never knew it break in my hands before!" The simplicity of this rather superfluous assurance produced a general laugh, in which the learned professor, instantly discerning the cause of it, joined most heartily.

PETER THE GREAT.

The Czar, excited by natural curiosity, and his love for the sciences, took great pleasure in seeing dissections and chirurgical operations. It was Peter who first made these known in Russia, and he was so fond of them, that he gave orders to be informed whenever anything of the kind was going on in the hospitals, and he seldom failed to be present. He frequently lent his assistance, and had acquired sufficient skill to dissect

according to the rules of art, to bleed, draw teeth, and perform other operations, as well as one of the faculty. It was an employment to which he was very partial, and besides his case of mathematical instruments which he always carried with him, he had a pouch well stocked with chirurgical instruments,

The Czar once exercised his dexterity as a dentist in a very laughable manner on the wife of one of his valets-de-chambre, who wished to be revenged upon her for some supposed injuries. Perceiving the husband, whose name was Balboiarof, sitting in the anti-chamber with a sad and pensive countenance, the Czar inquired the cause of his sorrow? Nothing, sire," answered Balboiarof, "except that my wife refused to have a tooth drawn which gives her the most agonizing pain." "Let me speak to her," replied the Czar, "and I warrant I cure her."

He was immediately conducted by the husband to the apartments of the supposed sick person, and made her sit down that he might examine her mouth, although she protested she had not the toothach. "Ah, this is the mischief," said her husband; "she always pretends not to suffer when we wish to give her ease, and renews her lamentations as soon as the physician is gone." "Well, well," said the Czar, "she shall not suffer long. Do you hold her head and Then taking out the instrument, he, in spite of her cries, extracted the tooth which he supposed to be the cause of her complaint, with admiral address.

arms."

Hearing, a few days after, that this was a trick of the husband to torture his wife, Peter chastised him severely with his own hands.

THE LAST OF THE ALCHYMISTS.

Mrs. Manley, the fair author of the "Atalatis," published in 1709, records a singular delusion of alchymy, which so late as that day was practised. It appears that a lady, an infatuated lover of this delusive art, met with a person who pretended to have the power of transmuting lead into gold. This hermetic philosopher required only the materials, and time to perform his golden operations. He was taken to the country residence of his patroness; a large laboratory was built, and that his labors might not be impeded by any disturbance, no one was permitted to enter it but himself. His door was contrived to turn round on a spring, so that, unseen and unseeing, his meals were conveyed to him without distracting the sublime contemplations of the sage.

During a residence of two years, he never condescended to speak but two or three times in the year to his infatuated patroness. When she was admitted into the laboratory, she saw with pleasing astonishment stills, immeuse cauldrons, long flues, and three or four Vulcanian fires blazing at different corners of the magical mine; nor did she behold with less reverence the venerable figure of the dusty philosopher, Pale, and emaciated with daily operations and nightly vigils, he revealed to her, in unintelligible jargon, his pro

gresses; and having sometimes condescended to explain the mysteries of the arcana, she beheld, or seemed to behold, streams of fluid and heaps of solid ore scattered around the laboratory. Sometimes he required a new still, and sometimes vast quantities of lead. Already this unfortunate lady had expended the half of her fortune in supplying the demands of the philosopher. She began now to lower her imagination to the standard of reason. Two years had now elapsed, vast quantities of lead had gone in, and nothing but lead had come out. She disclosed her sentiments to the philosopher, who candidly confessed that he was himself surprised at his tardy processes: but that now he would exert himself to the utmost, and that he would venture to perform a laborious operation, which he had hitherto hoped he would not be under the necessity of employing. His patroness retired, and the golden visions of expectation resumed all their lustre.

One day, as they sat at dinner, a terrible shriek, followed by successive cracks as loud as the report of a cannon, assailed their ears. They hastened to the laboratory-two of the great stills had burst; one part of the laboratory was in flames, and the deluded alchymist was almost scorched to death.

Fuller relates, that "one Thomas Charnock, in pursuance of the philosopher's stone, which so many do touch, few catch, and none keep, met a very sad disaster. Once, when he was on the point of completing the grand operation, his work unhappily fell into the fire." "This," says M. D'Israeli, " is a misfortune which I observe has happened to all alchymists."

CHINESE PHYSICIANS.

The physicians of China, by feeling the arms of a sick man in three places-to observe the slowness, the increase, or quickness of the pulse

can judge of the cause, the nature, the danger, and the duration of his disorder. Without their patient's speaking, they reveal infallibly what part is affected. They are at once physicians and apothecaries, composing the remedies they prescribe. They are paid when they have completed a cure; but they receive nothing when their remedies do not take effect. European physicians, it must be confessed, are by no means 50 skilful as the Chinese; but in one thing they have the advantage over them, which is in taking their fees before they have performed the cure. Thus unlearned physicians ride in their chariots in London; while learned ones walk on foot in Pekin.

HOW THE DEAF MAY HEAR. About 1750, a merchant of Cleves, named Jorissen, who had become almost totally deaf, sitting one day near a harpsichord, while some one was playing, and having a tobacco-pipe in his mouth, the bowl of which rested accidentally against the body of the instrument, he was agreeably and unexpectedly surprised to hear all the notes in the most distinct manner By a little

reflection and practice he again obtained the use of this valuable sense, which, as Bonnet says, connects us with the moral world; for he soon learned, by means of a piece of hard wood, one end of which he placed against his teeth, while another person placed the other end on his teeth, to keep up a conversation, and to be able to understand the least whisper. His son afterward made this beneficial discovery the subject of an inaugural dissertation, published at Halle in 1754.

Perolle has given some excellent observations on the capability of hard bodies to conduct sound, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Turin, for 1790 and 1791. The effect is the same if the person who speaks rests the stick against his throat, or his breast, or when one rests the stick which he holds in his teeth against some vessel into which the other speaks.

HUNTER AND CULLEN.

The celebrated Dr. William Hunter and Dr. Cullen formed a copartnership of as singular and laudable a kind as is to be found in the annals of science. Being natives of the same part of the country, and neither of them in affluent circumstances, these two young men, stimulated by the impulse of genius to prosecute their medical studies with ardor, but thwarted by the narrowness of their fortune, entered into partnership as surgeons and apothecaries in the country. The chief object of their contract being to furnish each of the parties with the means of prosecuting their medical studies, which they could not separately so well enjoy, it was stipulated that one of them, alternately, should be allowed to study in what college he pleased during the winter, while the other should carry on the business in the country for their common advantage. In consequence of this agreement, Cullen was first allowed to study in the University of Edinburgh for one winter; but when it came to Hunter's turn next winter, he preferring London to Edinburgh, went thither. There his singular neatness in dissecting, and uncommon dexterity in making anatomical preparations, his assiduity in study, and amiable manners, soon recommended him to the notice of Dr. Douglas, who then read lectures upon anatomy in London. Hunter was engaged as an assistant, and afterward filled the chair itself with honor.

The scientific partnership was by this means prematurely dissolved; but Cullen was not a man of that disposition to let any engagement with him prove a bar to his partner's advancement in life. The articles of the treaty were freely given up, and Cullen and Hunter ever after kept up a very cordial and friendly correspondence; though it is believed, they never, from that time, had a personal interview.

FIRE PREVENTION.

In the year 1777, Lord Mahon, afterward Earl Stanhope, so distinguished by his scientific discoveries, exhibited some experiments at the

family seat, Chevening, Kent, to prove the certain, cheap, and simple method of securing houses against fire, without making use of either brick, stone, tiles, iron, or any such incombustible materials. A building entirely constructed of wood, and of lath and plaster, with a very small quantity of sand laid under the floors, which were of deal, was attempted to be set on fire, by means of an enormous quantity of dry burning fuel, several scores of very large kiln faggots, straw, pitch, and other combustibles, with which the lower room of this building was filled, from the floor to the ceiling, almost in every part; but to the great astonishment of all the persons who witnessed this interesting experiment, and who saw the flames come out at all the doors and windows, on every side of the lower room, this whole mass of fire burnt out without doing the least damage. Those who were in the small passage close to the room filled with fire, or who were on the next story, directly over this enormous conflagration, did not perceive the least degree of heat, or any effect whatever from the intense fire below. A wooden staircase secured according to this new method, was also attempted to be burnt, by laying several lare faggots underneath the stairs, and upon the steps; but the staircase, as well as all the other parts of the house, appeared in effect to be incombustible.

HERSCHELL.

It is a remarkable circumstance, that the first of living astronomers did not devote any attention to the science until he was considerably advanced in life. Dr. Herschell, the son of a musician at Hanover, was brought up to his father's profession, and followed it for many years in England; and although he devoted his leisure hours to the most abstruse questions in geometry and fluxions, it was not until he had attained a middle age, that his attention was particularly called to that science, which he has since so much adorned and enriched by his discoveries.

His studies were first directed to optics and astronomy by accident. Having, while at Bath, viewed the heavens through a two-feet Gregorian telescope, he felt so much pleasure, that he became anxious to possess a complete set of astronomical instruments. His first object was to get a large telescope, and being ignorant of the price at which such instruments are usually charged, he desired a friend in London to buy one for him; but the price appeared so exorbitant, that he declined purchasing until he had informed Mr. Herschell of the circumstance. Our astronomer's astonishment was equal to that of his friend; but instead of dropping his pursuit, he formed what many would have regarded as a most romantic resolution, that of making a telescope for himself. He did not content himself with a speculative idea, but from the scanty instructions he could gather out of a few treatises on optics, actually commenced this arduous undertaking. Disappointment succeeded disappointment, but this only acted as a stimulus to his ardent mind;

and at length his perseverance was so far crowned with success, that in 1774, he enjoyed the exquisite satisfaction of beholding the heavens through a five-feet Newtonian reflector, of his own workmanship. The modern Galileo did not rest at this attainment, great as it was; but, with a laudable ambition, set about making instruments of a greater magnitude than had hitherto been known. After constructing those of seven and even ten feet, he thought of forming one nót less than double the latter size. So great was his patience, and so determined his perseverance, that in perfecting the parabolical figure of a seven-feet telescope, he did not make less than two hundred specula before he obtained one that would bear any power that was applied to it.

While he was thus laboriously employed in his mathematical pursuits, he did not neglect the immediate duties of his profession. Yet so much did his new studies occupy his mind, that he has frequently stolen from the theatre or the concert room, to look at the stars, and then return again in time to bear his part among the musical performers. This constancy to the science was at length most bountifully rewarded, by the discovery of a new planet in our system, to which, in compliment to the king, he gave the name of Georgium Sidus. This important discovery was made in the night of the 13th of March, 1781. It was by no means a mere accidental circumstance which favored Dr. Herschell with the view of this planet, but the result of a regular, patient, and scientific chain of observations.

ence.

This discovery was communicated in the course of the same year to the Royal Society, in consequence of which he was unanimously elected a member, and had the annual gold medal bestowed upon him for his services to the interests of sciThe year following, the king took him. under his immediate protection, and he went to live at Slough, near Windsor, in a house appointed for him by his royal patron, who constituted him his own private astronomer, with a handsome salary. In 1783, Dr. Herschell discovered a volcanian mountain in the moon; and in 1787, made further observations upon that planet, and found two other volcanoes, which emitted fire from their summits. In his astronomical pursuits, the doctor was materially assisted by his late sister, Miss Caroline Herschell, who distinguished herself greatly by her application to this sublime study, and communicated to the Royal Society some very ingenious reports of observations made by her upon the starry orbs, and particularly on comets, six of which she discovered.

CAMERA OBSCURA.

When Mr. Benjamin West, the illustrious painter, was about fifteen years of age, he was confined to his bed by a fever, and remained there several days; the window-shutters being closed, his eyes acquired the power of expansion, and he at times observed living objects in the scenery before the window, moving as it were

in apparitional forms around his bed-room. It appeared extraordinary to him, that small figures of men, cows, pigs, and fowls, should traverse the wall and ceiling of his room, and yet the act appeared, to his organs of vision, too unquestionable to doubt or to account for, upon the ground of emotions caused by his illness. He related the circumstance to his friends, who seriously feared that his intellects were impaired, and sent for a physician, who declared that he was in a favorable way of recovery; he had no reason to infer that the mind of young West was unsound, although he could not but allow that it appeared singular that objects should be presented to his sight, which other persons did not see, and therefore he prescribed for him a composing draught. Young West discovered that, upon his covering with his finger a diagonal hole in the windowshutter, the visionary objects disappeared, which first caused his mental fears to subside, sensible that there must therefore be some natural connexion between the objects themselves and their representations on the wall of his apartment. Upon perforating a parlour window-shutter horizontally, he produced a representation on the wall of the objects on the other side of the street; and when he was fully recovered from his indisposition, he made a box, having one of its sides perforated, and with the reflective qualities of a mirror he produced a "camera obscura." On mentioning his discovery to Mr. Williams, an artist, he was surprised to find that he had received a more complete "camera" from England, a short time before the remarkable invention of West.

STEREOTYPE PRINTING.

The first person who is mentioned to have practised the modern art of stereotype, was a Dutchman of the name of Vander Mey, father of the well-known painter of that name. About the end of the sixteenth century, he resided at Leyden, With the assistance of Muller, a clergyman, he is said to have printed a quarto edition of the Bible, Schaaf's Syriac Dictionary, an English Testament, and a Greek Testament, all from plates of solid or fixed types. In the year 1798, the plates of the quarto Bible were stated to be still in being, and in the hands of the Leuchtmans, booksellers, at Leyden; the forms of the other works were melted down, As far as is known, Vander Mey completed nothing else in this manner; and at his death, the art of preparing solid blocks was lost, or at least became wholly neglected.

The person who first revived the use of it in more recent times, was a Mr. Ged, a jeweller of Edinburgh. In 1725, this person had, apparently without any knowledge of Vander Mey's performances, devised the plan of printing from plates; and in 1729, he entered into partnership with three other persons, for the purpose of prosecuting the art. A privilege was obtained by the company, from the University of Cambridge, to print Bibles and Prayer Books. But strange to tell, it appears that one of Ged's partners was actually averse to the success of the plan, and

engaged such people for the work as he thought most likely to spoil it. A workman who had been occasionally employed, afterward revealed "that both Bibles and Prayer Books had been printed, but that the compositors, when they corrected one fault, purposely made half a dozen more; and the pressmen, when the masters were absent, battered the letter in aid of the composìtors." In consequence of these base proceedings, the books were suppressed by authority, and the plates sent to the king's printing-house, and thence to Mr. Caslon's foundry.

Mr. Ged, being naturally still very anxious to accomplish a specimen of the new art he had discovered, afterward apprenticed his son James to a printer at Edinburgh, and with the consent of the latter, the boy sat up in the night time when the other compositors were gone, and set the types from which his father cast the plates of an edition in 18mo. of Sallust, which was published by subscription in 1736, and of which several copies are extant. Another work from plates of Ged's manufacture was printed at Newcastle in 1742, entitled, "The Life of God in the Soul of Man," but these two specimens were the only evidences of his art which Ged was able to leave to posterity.

In 1751, Ged's son James, who had been bred to the printing business, published proposals for prosecuting his father's art; but met with so little encouragement, that he abandoned the project and went to Jamaica, where he died. With him the art sunk for a second time quite into oblivion.

About the year 1780, the art of stereotype printing was a third time revived, or rather, in truth, discovered by Mr. Alexander Tilloch, then of Glasgow, since better known to the scientific world as the ingenious editor of the Philosophical Magazine. In a brief account which he has published in that work (vol. x.) he states, in a manner which can leave no doubt of the truth of the fact on the reader's mind, that he made the discovery without knowing anything whatever of Ged's or Vander Mey's previous attempts, Like Ged he was no printer himself, and was led solely by the force of what logicians called the sufficient reason, to see, that founding whole plates of types was quite as practicable a thing as founding single types. He communicated his ideas on the subject to Mr. Foulis, the eminent printer to the University of Glasgow, who furnished him with a page of types ready set up, or composed, for his first experiment, which had sufficient success to induce him to try others, and convinced Mr. Foulis that plates could be produced capable of yielding impressions not to be distinguished from those taken from types. Mr. Tilloch and Mr. Foulis agreed to prosecute the art in partnership. They took out patents for it in England and Scotland; and several small volumes were actually printed from plates made by them, and the impressions sold to the booksellers, without any intimation of their being printed out of the common way. Circumstances of a private nature induced them to lay aside the business for a time, and others supervened to prevent them ever resuming it.

No warrior was ever bolder or more intrepid in the field than Philip of Macedon. Demosthenes, who cannot be suspected of having flattered him, gives a glorious testimony on this head. "I saw," says this orator, "this very Philip with whom we disputed for sovereignty and empire. I saw him, though covered with wounds, his eye struck out, his collar bone broke, maimed both in his hands and feet, still resolutely rush into the midst of dangers, and ready to deliver up to fortune any part of his body she might desire, provided he might live honorably and gloriously with the rest.'

all covered with the blood of the enemy, ran to announce the victory at Athens; and after crying out, "Rejoice, we are conquerors!" fell dead in the presence of his fellow citizens. The Greeks in this engagement lost only two hundred

men.

Q. SCEVOLA.

THE BATTLE OF MARATHON. While the Persians, after the reign of Cyrus, became enervated by luxury and servitude, the Athenians were nobly animated by the freedom they had so recently recovered. It was this that enabled Miltiades, in the plains of Marathon, with only ten thousand Athenians, to overcome the Persian army of a hundred thousand foot, and ten thousand cavalry. This memorable battle, which was fought in the year 490 before Christ, reflected the highest glory on Miltiades. To prevent his little army from being surrounded by the enemy, he drew it up in front of a mountain, extended his line as much as possible, placed his chief strength in his wings, and caused a great number of trees to be cut down, to prevent the enemy's cavalry from charging them in the flank.

The Athenians rushed forward on the Persians like so many furious lions. This is remarked to have been the first time that they advanced to the attack running; but by their impetuosity, they opened a lane through the enemy, and supported with the greatest firmness the attacks of the Persians, The battle was at first fought by both parties with great valor and obstinacy, but the wings of the Athenian army attacking the main body of the enemy in flank, threw them into irretrievable confusion. thousand Persians perished on the spot, and amongst the rest, the traitor Hippias, the principal cause of the war. The rest of the Persian army fled quickly, and abandoned to the victors their camp full of riches.

Six

Animated by their success, they pursued the Persians to their very ships, of which they took seven, and set fire to several more. On this occasion, one Cynegirus, an Athenian, after performing prodigies of valor in the field, endeavored to prevent a particular galley from puttmg to sea, and for that purpose held it fast with the right hand; when his right hand was cut off, he then seized the galley with his left, which beng also cut off, he took hold of it with his teeth, and kept it so until he died. Another soldier,

to this state, by whose valor and prudent conduct not only the city of Rome, but all Italy, has been preserved."

CESAR.

When Cæsar was advised by his friends to be more cautious of the security of his person, and not to walk among the people without arms or any one to defend him, he always replied to these admonitions, "He that lives in fear of death, every moment feels its tortures; I will die but once."

SUBRIUS FLAVIUS.

The Roman tribune, Subrius Flavius, being impeached for having conspired against the life of the Emperor Nero, not only owned the charge, but gloried in it. Upon the emperor's asking him what provocation he had given him to plot his death? "Because I abhorred thee," said Flavius; "though there was not in the whole army one more zealously attached to thee than I, so long as thou didst merit affection; but I began to hate thee when thou becamest the murderer of thy mother, the murderer of thy brother and wife, a charioteer, a comedian, an incendiary, and a tyrant." Tacitus says, that the whole conspiracy afforded nothing that proved so bitter and pungent to Nero as this reproach. He ordered Flavius to be immediately put to death; which he suffered with amazing intrepidity. When the executioner desired him to stretch out his neck valiantly he replied, "I wish thou mayest strike as valiantly."