(Sings.) Shall my false love find me." I almost ran upon Of it. Was that it, Luke? How horribly She must have been sore used to do such crime! For that which, harming none, is the sole means For they lack'd courage so to end their griefs. Excuse what inwardly thou’rt shuddering at. What, Luke! dear Luke! And thought not of thy present grief. And still As doubt that thou might'st dread my memory, And shed no tear o'er him who loved thee so. l'll not answer thee; To pay Heaven's bounty with such fearful fancies. Luke (after a pause). Well, then, suppose me laid beside old Adam, With decent holiness: what wouldst thou do To live, my helpless Mary? Mary. Oh, I never From which I bore thee. Tell thy angry friends When I am gone. When thou art gone! O, then Thou wilt have tears enough. Nay, keep them now. To gain the smile of Providence. How bless'd In thy poor friend's bequest. Farewell, dear Mary!- LUKE, MARY, CALEB. Welcome, friend Luke, and you, So sweet a face beneath my roof again. I need not tell thee, Caleb, a Mary. Luke. Were I to hope so questionless a pledge O, when we meet again, "Twill be in joy, indeed! And will it so ? But when-but when, my Luke? To-morrow? No. Be content: Ere then I shall be watching o'er thee. Thanks, [Falling on his neck and weeping. I am too ready in the same offence. But now farewell! Until we meet again I'd have thee pass thy time in thinking over Thou wilt? So now 'tis past! Poor widow'd Mary, we shall meet no more! [The river becomes wider as he proceeds, and at last expands into a large circular pool. He rests upon his pole, and looks slowly and cautiously about him. This is the place.-How fitting for a deed Like mine! The high and shelving banks have nursed To an uncommon growth, as if to hide All eyes from me, and me from all the world. The sun did leap aloft an hour ago, But here he hath not been-'tis scarcely twilight, Clings to my heart, like the affrighted infant Which struggles closer when its parting's nigh! I must be quick.–And now that single ray pool, and then, laying down his pole, sinks THEORY OF EARTHQUAKES. M. Biot, after detailing the phenomena of the earthquake, concludes an interesting paper with these observations: In the infancy of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, it was imagined that earthquakes might be easily explained ; in proportion as these sciences bave become more correct and more profound, this confidence has decreased. But by a propensity for which the character of the human mind sufficiently accounts, all the new physical agents which have been successively discovered, such as electricity, magnetism, the imflammation of gases, the decomposition and recomposition of water, have been maintained in theories as the causes of the great phenomena of pature. Now all these conjectures seem to be insufficient to explain convulsions so extensive, produced at the same time over such large portions of the earth, as those which take place during earth quakes. The most probable opinion, the only one which seems to us to reconcile, in a certain degree, the energy, the extent of these phenomena, and often their frightful correspondence in the most distant countries of the globe, would be to suppose, conformably to many other physical indications, that the solid surface on which we live is but of inconsiderable thickness in comparison with the semi-diameter of the terrestrial globe ; is in some measure only a recent shell, covering a liquid nucleus, perhaps still in a state of ignition, in which great chemical or physical phenomena operating at intervals cause those agitations which are transmitted to us. The countries where the superficial crust is less thick or less strong, or more recently or more imperfectly consolidated, would, agreeably to this hypothesis, be those the most liable to be convulsed and broken by the violence of these internal explosions. Now if we compare together the experiments on the length of the pendulum, which have been made for some years past with great accuracy, from the North of Scotland to the South of Spain, we readily perceive that the intensity of gravitation decreases on this space, as we go from the Pole towards the Equator, more rapidly than it ought to do upon an ellipsoid, the concentric and similar strata of which should have equal densities at equal depths; and the deviation is especially sensible about the middle of France, where too there has been observed a striking irregularity in the length of the degrees of the earth. This local decrease of gravity in these countries should seem to indicate, with some probability, that the strata near the surface must be less dense there than elsewhere, and perhaps have in their interior immense cavities. This would account for the existence of the numerous volcanoes of which these strata show the traces, and explain why they are even now, at intervals, the focus of subterraneous convulsions. June 13.-M. Thollard, of Tarbes, states, that he had observed a ray of the sun after a shower of rain of a certain duration, falling upon an ear of rye, was sufficient to cause the membrane of the anther enclosing the small vessel containing the pollen, to burst like a pod. This phenomenon may render our information concerning the smut complete. Experiments on this subject should be encouraged. Number of the known Species of Organized Beings. From the collections in the Paris Museums, M. Humboldt estimates (Ann. de Chimie, xvi.) the known species of plants at 56,000, and those of animals at 51,000; among which, 44,000'insects, 4,000 birds, 700 reptiles, and 500 mammalia. In Europe live about 400 species of birds, 80 mammalia, and 30 reptiles; and in the opposite southern zone on the Cape, we find likewise almost five times more birds than mammalia. To. wards the equator, the proportion of birds, and particularly of reptiles, increases considerably. However, according to Cuvier's enumeration of fossil animals, it appears that in ancient periods the globe was inhabited much more by mammalia than birds. Papyri of Herculaneum.-Sir H. Davy's experiments on the Papyri have closed without producing any marked result. Iodine and chlorine separated the rolls without injuring the ink, which is of charcoal, on which these agents have no action; but the Papyrus itself, containing much undecompounded vegetable matter, baffled the investigation. Of the original 1696 MSS. 431 have been submitted to experiment, or given to foreign governments, by the king of Naples: about 100 of those which remain appear to be in a state to encourage the expectation of their being restored even by the chemical means already known. In general the writing is only on one side, and the MSS. are rolled round sticks, like the webs of our silk mercers. The stick is invariably carbonized, and resembles a bit of charcoal. Sir H. D. suggests, from the nature of the ink on these MSS. and the silence of Pliny, that up to this period the Romans never used galls and iron as a writing ink, and probably that this invention was contemporary with the use of parchment, of which the earliest MSS. at present known are the Codices Rescripti, discovered at Rome and Milan, by M. Mai, including the books of Cicero de Republica, supposed to be of the 2d or 3d centuries. Colouring Matter in Crabs, Lobsters, 8C.-It appears, from a series of experiments made by M. J. L. Lassaigne, that crabs, lobsters, &c. contain a red colouring principle, which may be extracted by means of alcohol.—'That this colour is not formed by the action of heat, but developed in the shell by the impulsion of that fluid.—That there ex- , ists in that class of animals a highly coloured membrane, which appears to be the source of the colouring matter, which is insoluble in cold or boiling water, but soluble in sulphuric æther and pure cold alcohol. |