ding pleasure of bestowing upon my departing child the last earthly endearments!-but, tranquil, composed and softly slumbering as he looked, I feared to disturb a repose, on which I founded my only remaining hopes. All at once, in the midst of my despair, saw a sort of smile light up my darling's features, and, hard as I strove to guard against all vain illusions, I could not at this sight stop a ray of gladness from gliding unchecked into my trembling heart. Short however was the joy soon vanished the deceitful symptom! On a closer view it only appeared to have been a slight convulsion which had hurried over my child's now tranquil countenance, as will sometimes dart over the smooth mirror of a dormant lake the image of a bird in the air. It looked like the response of a departing angel, to those already on high, that hailed his speedy coming. The soul of my Alexis was fast preparing for its flight. : insults: the ultras could not say any thing not however infer from the words primus instituit, that Ludius was the first who conceived the idea of painting landscapes. According to the evident meaning of the whole passage, Ludius was only the first who introduced the use of landscape at Rome, for the purposes of decoration on the walls, porticos, vestibules, and even the external parts of buildings. Many ancient paintings, which are called arabesques, prove that landscape was employed in the compartments of this species of ornament; and the style of the compositions of Ludins, as Pliny describes them, seems to have been here copied in miniature. But the magnanimity of the liberals is above this insignificant abuse. Not satisfied with praising the man, the soldier, and the hero, they must render homage to the legislator and the founder of liberty. This is not an easy task; Buonaparte's manners were not liberal; he was full of action, spoke little, and seldom listened. But no matter, the Buonaparte of the Hun Ired Days compensates for the other. At that period he opened his eyes to the lights of the age; he listened, permitted us to write as much as we pleased, and on his return from Waterloo, promised us a pretty little constitutional Prince. But what were his thoughts on this subject, and how did he proBut did the Greeks, in the flourishing age fit by the lessons he had received? "The of their painting, practice landscape as a securest lever of power is a military force, separate branch? This is a question which which the law grants and genius directs. cannot be answered but by conjecture. That What signifies all the reasoning of sophists, they practised in detail, and partially imiwhen authority is in full vigour? In the tated all the objects of which landscape is Lest he might feel ill at case in my lap, long run, those who obey become accustom-composed, cannot be doubted, since these ofI laid him down upon my cloak, and kneeled ed to the yoke; the sword is drawn, and the jects were necessary parts in the back grounds by his side to watch the growing change in factious are hurled to the dust. Reason is of their pictures, and equally indispensable his features. The present now was all to convention. Hobbes was the Newton of accessaries in their compositions. Yet in me: the future I knew I no longer should politics; his gospel is the best of all. The the pretty extensive list which Pliny gives of reck. Feeling my breath close to his cheek, grand point of policy is to attain its end; the great painters of Greece and their works, he half, opened his eye, looked as if after a the means are of small consequence." he says nothing which can lead to a suslong absence again suddenly recognizing his These maxims accord so ill with certain picion of the existence of the department in father, and-putting out his little mouth-liberal lectures, that several journals have question; and there are more reasons tan seemed to crave one last token of love. The one to induce the belief, that in the most temptation was too powerful: 1 gently presflourishing periods of the art, especially, this sed my lip upon that of my babe, and gathered branch was unknown or neglected. from it the proffered kiss. Life's last faint spark was just going forth, and I caught it on the threshold. Scarce had I drawn back my face, when all respiration ceased. His eye-strings broke, his features fell, and his limbs stiffened for ever. All was over: Alexis was no more. BUONAPARTE. [From the French.] denied the authenticity of the publication. Finally, though rude apothegms be direct- LANDSCAPE PAINTING.. [From the Journal des Savans.] On perusing the Maximes et Pensées du Prisonnier de Sainte-Helène*, we were not a little surprised at the very unequivocal marks of contempt with which Napoleon treats some of the principal leaders of the Hiberal party. "The present heads of the factions in France," he says, " are dwarfs mounted on stilts: they are for the most part mere prattlers. The Abbé de Pradt has produced homilies, plans of campaigns, and histories: he is an excellent romantic writer, and a pleasant archbishop. I made a Tribune of Benjamin Constant, and I removed him when he began to declaim. His mind is like that of a geometrician-it proceeds everlastingly by theorems and corollaries." Assuredly the faith of these men Landscape, treated separately as a distinct must be very robust, their principles of branch of painting, does not seem to have liberalism must be very firmly rooted, when occupied a place in the practice of the arts, they can thus suffer themselves to be styled among the ancients, before the reign of Auromance-writers, geometrical orators, prat- gustus, at which time Ludius, according to tlers, and dwarfs mounted on stilts. For-Pliny, introduced at Rome the custom of merly all this might have been borne with the resignation inspired by the presence of the Genius of Victory; formerly these trifles were current coin, but now they are gross * Published as from the papers of Las Casas. Theorie du Paysage, &c. par I. B. De perthes. 8vo. pp. 300. decorating interiors, with views of rural It was in the Venetian school, that it began to share with historical subjects, the attention of painters, and space in their pictures. The success of landscape depends on the knowledge of the two kinds of perspective, especially of that called aerial; and this latter owed its developement to the schools of the colourists alone in fact, we find the most beautiful studies of landscape in the historical pictures of Titian, Bassano, and Tintoret. It is perhaps in the Netherlands that we must look for the first painters, who made landscape a distinct branch, and applied their talents to it exclusively at the head of these painters we must place Matthew and Paul Brill. The latter died at Rome in 1626. It was really the 17th century which established the greatest splendour. Claude Lorraine, this branch, and in which it flourished with the two Poussins, and Salvator Rosa, who lived in that century, attained the limits of perfection in the various characters which nature presents to the landscape painter. Yet though many other parts of imitation in the arts of design have exercised the pens of different writers, and obtained from several artists theories or treatises, landscape, so fruitful in delicate observations, and in precepts, such as the art of writing can invest with poetic forms, had not been the subject of any work calculated to develope its rules, and to explain its beauties, either in nature, are much more numerous than those represen-racter of each tree, whether it be clothed in or in the application made of thein, in the and He has divided it into two parts, and each is subdivided into two subjects of observation. In the first part the author lets his pupil go through two courses of landscape study. The first relates particularly to the study of the sky, which fills so important a place, and acts, as it were, the first part in this kind of instruction; since in the picture, as in nature, it is from the sky that the light comes; and this light, which is the soul of the picture, is subject, and renders objects and their effects subject to numberless va rieties and modifications. But these varieties are reduced to four principal ones, pointed out by the four parts of the day. It is at sunrise that the author gives his first lesson. The difficulties which this moment of the day presents to the imitator, have their foundation in that species of mysterious veil which nature then assumes a veil, says the author, sufficiently transparent to let us see all her charms, but not to permit us easily to distinguish the lineaments of all her features. This moment of the day is that which is peculiarly adapted to the study of aerial perspective. The middle of the day is the time when the study of nature has the fewest real dithculties; the artist must profit by it, to catch objects as they are: if in effect, each object is then visible, without any alteration, it is then also, that it is the most casy to remark, first the innumerable varieties of forms and tints spread over all her productions, and then that harmony which blends together all her parts, even those which are the most dissimilar. This magical union is effected by means of the reflections which take place from one object to another. The middle of the day is the hour for those studies of harmony, which are among the most momentous to the landscape painter; at this hour too, he must study the clouds, their combinations, their effects, and all the accidents of light and shade rapidly succeeding each other, and forming compositions which seem the most arbitrary, and yet are nevertheless subject to general laws. The effects of evening, and those of the setting sun, seem to present tewer difficulties than those of the dawn of day. It is remarked that landscapes representing sunsets, If the first course of study in the first part of the work, seems to be confined to the space of a day, this is merely in consequence of the theoretical analysis of the subject: the second course, for the same reason, comprises the space of a year. The author proceeds to shew his pupil the model which he is to imitate, under the four aspects, which the four seasons present. He begins, and that on good grounds, with the winter. Trees are the chief ornament of landscapes; but the study of trees has its anatomy, like that of the human body; and as the knowledge of the muscles cannot be acquired from living bodies, it is necessary, in the same manner, to study the tree in that kind of state of death to which winter seems to have reduced it, after having stripped it of the foliage, which, to the cyc, gives it life; for how shall we get acquainted with the form of the great branches, and the true arrangement of the smallest boughs, when all these co-ordinate parts are concealed under the covering with which vegetation adorns them? The structure of the tree must therefore be studied in the only season when the eye can follow it, from the origin of the trunk to the summit of the highest branches. This winter study includes also that of the forms and colours of the bark of every species of tree; and it is by a repeated scries of observations, made in this season, that the landscape painter will learn to distinguish, and to express the peculiar cha Summer shews nature to the landscape painter, with the full formed features, if we may so express it, of the age of virility. Every object of imitation has acquired its form, its determinate colour, its developement, and a durable aspect. This is the season to put in practice the lessons of winter in the conformation of trees; but advantage must also be taken of it, for the study of a multitude of plants, which have but now acquired their growth, which have attained all their beauty, and which are to act an important part in the foreground of the picture. Summer is the season, when the most brilliant light illumines all the objects circumscribed by the horizon; when the heat produces most of those phenomena, which seem to be beyond the power of imitation; those burning skies, those masses of clouds which contain the thunder in their bosom, those impetuous winds which make the forests bend, and raise the dust in clouds. It is in this season that nature offers to the landscape painter the most varied scenes, in the heavens, in the earth, and in the empire of the waters. But autumn will often have the preference over summer, for the richness of the tints of the foliage, and the diversity of tone spread over all nature. During this season the landscape painter must hasten his studies; for each day making a remarkable change in the features of his model, he must be apprehensive that it will soon offer him only a cold and discoloured image. Thus our author comes back to the point whence he set out, to winter; which he again considers, with respect to the pictures which this season of mourning affords, but which is not so dull to the landscape painter as to the inhabitant of cities. Winter also has its charms, its green trees, its varied effects, its snows, the lustre of which is enhanced by the contrast of lighter fires. The ice also has its sports, its promenades, its diversions, and the painter does not now want either objects of observation, or subjects proper for the display of his talents. The second part of the theory of landscape is also in two sections; and this division results from the distinction which has been introduced into this kind of painting, between those compositions which seem to be only faithful portraits of scites existing in each country, of their productions, their buildings, their inhabitants, and those compositions, in which the artist transports the scene he has imagined into a country of his own creation, and which he embellishes with the most pleasing or the most noble subjects which fable or history presents. The author treats also of landscapes considered in what he calls the rural style, and what he calls the historical style. This division naturally classes in two distinct series his observations on the merits and the beauties of the two schools, which have distinguished themselves in the two styles. ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. DUBLIN UNIVERSITY. cribed to the irregular curvature of the terrestrial meridian, or to a local attraction oc curring in some places, which diverted the Mr. Dupin and the Quarterly Review. plummet from its vertical direction, or to A valued correspondent has drawn our in the astronomical instruments employed. sinall faults, remaining constant for a time, work on Marine Establishments, &c. in the struments, however ingenious the contrivattention towards a notice of Mr. Dupin's Experience has proved that in all such inlast Number of the Quarterly Review (page ance and however excellent the workman57), which he considers as not remarkable ship, such slight permanent faults may occur, for urbanity; and we are convinced that if the and that they are as difficult to discover as to Reviewers had been aware of the circum- avoid. The only means to be fully secure stances of the case, they would not have in- from them appears to be to repeat the obserted Mr. Dupin's allegations without a reservations with different instruments. The proof rather than a tacit acknowledgment of judicious liberality of the King has enabled The landscapes of the Flemish and Dutch their justice. Mr. D. states in substance, Professor Schumacher to do this. The asschool belong to the first. We should here that when he, accompanied by a learned tronomical part of the English measurement accompany the author, and collect his re-doctor, visited the Library of Dublin Unimarks on the different degrees, or the va- versity, he was obliged to go on hastily rieties of the talents of a multitude of mas-without stopping any where, and watched ters, who have cach taken nature under as if he were suspected of a design to steal a diverse aspects, and who have made their book; and this, the Reviewers observe, is pictures a kind of mirrors, in which theory sufficient to justify, in some measure, his quemay sometimes cause its lessons and the rulous remarks respecting Ireland. It is with application of its precepts to be better under-pleasure we can redeem that country and the University of Dublin from the aspersions cast upon them by the foreign traveller; for which purpose we trust the following explanation, in the words of our correspondent, will be deemed quite satisfactory. stood. In the second division are the great mnasters of the French and Italian schools, who have found means to make their landscapes historical pictures, either by ennobling the forms of nature, or by introducing subjects of history or mythology, by adorning them with ornaments borrowed from the arts of antiquity, or by reproducing in them allegories by turns ingenious or affecting. As easy as it has been to follow the author in the didactic march of the first part of his treatise, so difficult would it be, above all in an article of a journal, to give an account of a series of observations suggested by the view of the masterpieces of great artists; observations, of which he himself more than once acknowledges, that it would be difficult to render their value palpable in a discourse; so hard is it for beauties, which address themselves to the eyes, to find equivalents which may render them sensible to the mind. In fact, this second part is only the application (demonstrated by the works) of the studies, the importance of which has been enforced, and their order prescribed, in the first part. scope "Mr. Dupin, though acquainted with some of the Fellows and Professors, from whom he received every attention due to a stranger and a man of letters, chose, when visiting the Libraries to be introduced by a gentleman who was totally unconnected with the University, had only taken many years since the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and who, from his professional and other avocations, had probably no knowledge of the rules which govern the Library. Had Mr. Dupin applied to the proper means for procuring access to the literary collections in Dublin, no doubt he would have felt himself bound to praise the public as liberally as he has praised the private hospitality of Ireland." ARTS AND SCIENCES. sector of Ramsden, and that of the French was executed with the admirable zenith with the repeating circles of Borda. The King has borrowed the first from the English Government, for the Danish measurement; the place of the latter has been more than supplied by a most excellent eighteen-inch repeating circle, by Reichenbach, with an improvement in the mechanism. Here, therefore, the two kinds of instruments were first used together, which in preceding measurements had been employed singly; and between which a comparison was first made last year, on the journey of the French astronomers to England, and by the convey ance of the zenith sector of Ramsden to Dunkirk. But Professor Schumacher has also obtained another zenith sector, by Troughton, an artist no ways inferior to Ramsden; and possesses also what is called the universal measuring instrument, by Reichenbach. Thus richly furnished, and seconded by most able assistants, this celebrated astronomer and distinguished observer will probably solve all doubts. Next year (1820) the Professor will go with all his instruments to Skagen, the most northerly station, then repeat his observations at Lunenburg, with the instruments not yet employed there; and lastly, in autumn, measure the first basis in the neighbourhood of Hamburg. It is much to be wished that the governments of Germany may be induced to follow the laudable example of Denmark, and by joining the measurement there, continue the arc of the meridian to be measured (which from Skato the frontiers of Italy, where it would be easy to prolong it still farther. A great deal gen to Lunenburg, will be about 44 degrees) has already been done in Germany and Italy, which perhaps only wants to be connected It were also to be wished that some triangles together, and with the Danish measurement. might be measured from Bremen to those in Holstein; thus fully to rectify the geographical position of our city, as hitherto determined by astronomical observations, by means of a comparison with the perfect data which will be furnished by the measurement in Denmark. W. OLBERS. DR. OLBERS ON THE MEASUREMENT OF AN ARC OF THE MERIDIAN, IN DENMARK. Our readers will perceive how much Bremen, December, 1819. The operations for measuring an arc of the subject of this theory might afford for the meridian, which the King of Denmark descriptions, and for the abuse of that des- has ordered to be carried on in his dominions, criptive style, which so soon becomes fati- between Lunenburg and Skagen, were guing, particularly in prose. We must be obliged to the author for having avoided this year about the end of October at Lyssabon account of the gloomy weather, closed for affectation and excess in this respect. The bel, in the island of Alsen. The lovers of work recommends itself by a due measure science in all Europe are justly attentive to of reason and imagination, of taste and the progress of this operation; which being judgment, of precepts put in action, and carried on according to the enlightened orexamples submitted to criticism. It will be ders, and with the liberal support of his agreeable to those who seek in the arts only Danish Majesty, under the direction of a pleasure, useful to those who desire to in-mostable astronomer, Professor Schumacher, vestigate the grounds of their enjoyments, promises to throw light on many important advantageous to amateurs to enlighten their subjects, both in the French and English GLASS FROM STRAW.-Wheat straw, taste, necessary to artists to perfect their measurements of the meridian: there always without any addition, may be melted into studies, to direct their judgment, and to en-appeared certain anamolies between the seve- colourless glass with the blow-pipe. Barley rich their imagination. ral parts of the arcs measured, and it re-straw melts into a glass of a topaz yellow mained doubtful whether they were to be as-colour. (Constable's Magazine.) A new grass, unnoticed by Dr. Roxburgh, CAMBRIDGE, Feb. 4.. which produces a perfect silicious deposit in The late Dr. Smith's annual prizes of 251. the joints, has been discovered in the moun- each, to the two best proficients in mathetains of India, between the Circars and Nag-matics and natural philosophy among the commencing Bachelors of Arts, are this year adjudged to Mr. Henry Coddington and Mr. Charles Smith Bird, of Trinity College, the first and third Wranglers. pore. REMARKABLE DISCOVERY IN CHEMISTY.- Munich, Jan. 1820. Dr. Vogel, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, has submitted to a careful examination in the laboratory of the Academy of Munich, the surprising discovery of Mr. Braconnot, of Nancy, of the effects of concentrated sulphuric acid on wood and linen. He has not only fully confirmed this discovery, so as to lay before the Academy an essay on the subject, and show the products resulting from the original experiments, but also extended his own experiments, with equal success, to other similar vegetable substances, such as old paper, both printed and written upon, and cut straw. By diluting the sulphuric acid with a due addition of water, sawdust, cut linen, paper, &c. were converted into gum and saccharine matter. It must excite great interest in all reflecting minds, to see an indissoluble, tasteless substance, like the filaments of wood, converted, by chemical re-action, into two new bodies, and chemistry thus exercise a power, which, but lately, appeared to belong to nature alone, and in particular to vegetation. For this artificial formation of sugar and gum, now discovered, must not be confounded with the extraction of these two substances from bodies in which they already existed, a process which has been known from time immemorial. What has now been discovered, is a transformation, a metamorphosis, of which the most ingenious chemist had previously no idea; and it affords a new proof of the boundless extent of the domain of practical chemistry. A paper upon Dr. Vogel's repetition and investigation of Mr. Braconnot's experiments, and those added by himself, is promised in one of the next numbers of the Journal of Arts and Manufactures, published by the Bavarian Polytechnic Society. LEARNED SOCIETIES. Doctor in Medicine.-James Adey Ogle, Croxton Johnson, Esq. Fellow Commoner of Emmanuel College, was on Friday last admitted Bachelor of Arts. A grace passed the Senate yesterday, for granting to the University of Cephalonia, (of which the Earl of Guildford is Chancellor,) a copy of all the books now in the University Press, or which have been printed at the expence of this University. ORIGINAL POETRY. [By Correspondents.] Bells toll for peasants, and we heed them not; smile. We cannot grieve alike o'er youth and age: suage; We mourn'd in anguish Time could scarce as- "Farewell," is ever of a mournful sound- death; Oh what a glorious change from dark to light, Far from its ruined tenement of clay, Was but the splendid covering of a thorn; THE COURTING. Dear Annie, dinna tremble so, "Tis but the burnie's gentle flow, Nae warlock slily wanders here, And sound of stirring leaves you hear. The birdies on the greenwood spray Have ceased their melting notes o' luve, Nae troutis in the streamlet play, But hush'd is a' the sleeping grove. Nay lassie, raise thy tearfu' ee, Part from thy face the gowden hair; Nor let the rosy colour flee From that dear check so palely fair, Deem not thae birken siller stems Which glisten in the saft moonlight, Where evening bangs her dewy gems, The burnish'd arms of hostile knight. Then dinna, dinna, tremble so, Let luve, dear lassie, banish fear; 'Tis but thy lover's plighted vow, His whispered faith you trembling hear. EPITAPH On a tomb-stone in the Churchyard of Torryburn, At anchor now, in death's dark road, To vice of no kind given; The prize for each of these subjects is to be a gold medal, werth 200 franes. Dr. Bell's system of education has been established at Irkutsk in Siberia, by the Privy Counsellor Speransky. Accounts the instrument on the very day of the month LONGEVITY.-Etienne Dela:netairie, born stone. a Singular Phenomenon.-During the night LITERARY NOTICES. Contents of the Imurnal des Savans for Jan. 1820. C. B. Hase Leonis Diaconi Caloensis Historia.-Reviewed by Mr. Raoul Rochette. John Gothofr. Ludov. Kosegarten De Mohammede En-Batuta Tingitano, ejusque itineribus,-Mr. Silvestre de Sacy. Gaetano Cattaneo, Equejade, inonumento antico di bronzo del Museo nazionale Ungharesc.-Mr. Raoul Rochette. Ed. Dodwell's Tour in Greece.-Mr. Letronne. Comte d'Aberdeen.-M. Letronne. R. T. H. Laennec. De l'Auscultation me date.-M. Tessier. METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL. of Tuesday last, there fell, in the township Thursday, 3-Thermometer from 31 to 35. Barometer from 30, 15 to 30, 17. Wind S. b. E. and F. 4-Clondy. Friday, 4- Thermometer from 31 to 35. For the information of our chemical THE MOVING MOUNTAIN. from Namur say, that the Moving Mountain readers, we are authorized to state, that the has made terrible progress during the night new metal, Cadmium, originally discovered from the 30th to the 31st of January. It by Professor Stromeyer, in foreign ores of has advanced more than six feet; the com-zine, has been also found by Professor E. D. munication between that city and Dinant, Clarke, of this university, in the Derbyshire which is the great road to Paris, is shut up of Chemistry at Glasgow, has examined the Calamine. Dr. Thomson, Regins Professor people must now go by way of La Plante, Cadmium obtained by Professor Clarke from along the Meuse, and in case the waters should rise as they did last month, the passervations. (Cambridge Chronicle.) our English cres, and has confirmed his obsage would be impossible. The house of Mr. Stapleaux is cracked by the pressure of the earth, and that of Mr. Dutilleux is threatened by the neighbourhood of a mass which is sixty feet higher than the roof. Barometer from 30, 19 to 30, 21: Barometer from 30, 30 to 30, 31. Barometer from 30, 31 to 30, 32. Wind S. W. 2-Generally cloudy. Sunshine at times in the afternoon. GEORGE BIDDER, the boy whose wonderful powers in calculation have attracted so much notice, has been rescued, by a public Wednesday, 9-Thermometer from 38 to 52. subscription at Edinburgh, from the degraded situation of a common show, and a fund raised to give him a liberal education. He is now thirteen years of age; and the pro Anecdote of his late Majesty.-Among the many anecdotes of his late Majesty, with which the periodical press abounds, we have not seen the following:-The late celebrated gress of his mind will be watched with phi Barometer from 30, 25 to 30, 11. Wind S. b. E. 1. and S.W.3.-Generally clear, with clouds passing. Edmonton, Middlesex. JOHN ADAMS. TO CORRESPONDENTS. mathematical instrument maker, Mr. Rams-losophical care, by some of the learned The Translation from Fleury's Memoires, &c. which members of the university where he is placed, A new Society of Arts is projected in Edin- F. S. censures as erroneously rendering " Ma glorie est faite à moi,” as if it were “ pour moi,” 66 my glory is made for myself,” instead of “my own glory is established"—is not ours, but belongs to the English edition of the work. To S. N. R's two questions, we answer, 1st. that we cannot tell till we see the suppressed poem; and, 2dly. that till we see specimens of the letters, we cannot tell. C. F. is utterly mistaken; we do not even know of the existence of any "Theatrical Party." Our opinions up the stage, as on every other subject, are impartial and unbiassed. Two English gentlemen, some time ago, visited the field of Bannockburn, so celebrated for the defeat of Edward's army. A sensible countryman pointed out to them the Positions of the hostile nations-the stone Where Bruce's standard was fixed during the battle, &c. Highly pleased with his attention, the gentlemen on leaving him, pressed Endymion, if we may judge from his poetry, is said the honest man, returning the money, acceptance of a crown-piece. "Na, na," den, was frequently deficient in punctuality, his keep your crown-piece, the English hae paid dear aneugh already for seeing the field of Bannockburn." (Constable's Magazine.) even more struck by the moon than his namesake of old. We would to Jupiter he had also his taste, Endymionis somnum dormire. Conrad's lines want measure. exist in that state. ERRATA. In the Scotch song, last Number, for “Jude,” read "Gude." In the third line of the same Song, for "he," reud“ ye." In the preceding Number, p. 77, for "Isabella in the Mourn ing Bride, read " Isabella in the Fatal Marriage." |