minution of his memory, but was able to undertake a translation of Cicero's letters, to which he attached excellent illustrative notes. At this late period of his life, he first became a imember of the club of Free-masons, probably because it afforded frequent, neighbourly, and unrestrained society: he was admitted into the Amalia lodge of Weimar, 4th April, 1809. The brethren made a festival of his eightieth birthday in 1812, and had a medal struck in honour of him.

The estate at Osmanstadt having been ultimately acquired by the Brentano family at Frankfort, to which Wieland had been amicably attached, it was arranged that the original project of there placing his remains and his monument should still be realized. The statuary of the court of Weimar, Weisser, undertook the appropriate decorations. On the side which records the death of Anna Dorothea Wieland, born Hillenbrand, were sculptured in the marble two intwined hands, the emblem of conjugal affection; and, on the side which was destined to record Wieland's age, were sculptured a winged lyre and the star of immortality above. Wieland himself wrote for the monument a simple distich, which may thus be rendered:

Love and Friendship united their kindred souls in life;
and this common stone covers their mortal remains.

Having now calmly superintended every preparation for death, he would jokingly say that he ought not to be kept waiting any longer. In January, 1813, however, he was still well enough to attend the theatre, and to enjoy the comic acting of Iffland: but on the 13th day of that month a second paralytic stroke assailed him, which on the 20th put an end to his existence. Conscious of the approach of death, he successively took leave of his descendants, who alternately watched in his bed-room: when he thought that his end was very near, he began to repeat his own translation of Hamlet's soliloquy; and it was at the second exclamation, “to die, to sleep," that his soul took flight, to resolve the doubt.

The impression made by the news of this event was deeply felt throughout Weimar. The lodge of Free-masons applied to the family for leave to order the funeral at their expence: it was granted; and they resolved to attend as a body in their robes of ceremony. The corpse lay for several days exposed in state, on cushions of blue silk, in a rich coffin decorated with gilding: a white shroud was wrapped round the limbs; and the head alone was visible, retaining the black velvet calotte, round which was braided a wreath of laurel. A copy of Oberon and one of Musarion were placed under it, as

the

the worthiest pillows; and the imperial orders of Saint Anne and the Legion of Honour lay beside him, on a cushion of white satin. On the 25th of January, the Amalia Lodge was appointed to assemble at the Castle in Osmianstadt, to accompany the funeral-procession; the body having been conveyed thither during the night from Weimar. Deputies from the city attended, and the corpse had sixteen bearers, brother-masons. Wieland's eldest son walked as chief mourner, with the French resident Baron St. Aignan, who had requested a station in the ceremony. It was a cold but clear day, and the procession passed without accident along the alley of limetrees to the grove in the garden, through a vast crowd of silent and sorrowing spectators. Sacred music composed by Stockmann, and an appropriate anthem, accompanied the whole march; and M. Günther pronounced the usual orations during the interment.

Years hence, and centuries hence,' concludes M. GRUBER, our children and their children will walk in pilgrimage to this grave, and relate to one another that, during a long life, Wieland strove unwearied after truth, exercised goodness, and delineated beauty; and how sincerely zealous he was for the glory of German literature, which he peculiarly brought into honour among foreigners. If the proper fountain of poetry flowed less abundantly in him than in some others, yet he has diverted the fairest tributary streams of Greece, Rome, England, Italy, and France into the channel, whence to us he has fed so wide a lake of glittering waters. He singly may be said to have renewed among us Lucian and Horace, Xenophon and Shaftesbury, Ariosto and Cervantes, Voltaire and Chaulieu, Sterne and Metastasio. He has furnished models of didactic poetry such as no other nation can exhibit; he introduced the romantic epopea, and has hitherto been equalled by no imitator; he gave us our first philosophic romances; and, notwithstanding the changes of fashion to which that class of literature is peculiarly exposed, several of them retain a permanent classical rank. He founded our vernacular opera: his writings have peculiarly improved the language of polished conversation; he enabled German to supersede French, and led the Graces into Gothic halls his philosophy is cheerful, his irony gentle, his indulgence liberal, and his perseverance in struggling against error, darkness, and oppression, truly praiseworthy. The fear of man was no more known to him than the fear of death; nor can he be said to have had the fear of God: it was rather a filial love towards the Father of all, that dwelt in him. To reason about the interests of mankind impartially, and to bring to bear the inferences of that reason, formed the cordial purpose and eager business of his philanthropic life. Hallowed be thy memory, thou charming singer, thou sound philosopher, thou meritorious Ger man, thou noble man!'

2

We

We are well pleased with this biographical delineation. Some farther account is expected from the pen of M. Böttiger: but it appears to us that few lacune are left to be supplied, and that few criticisms want to be revised. We quit the production of M. GRUBER with interest, with gratitude, and with satisfaction.

ART. IX. Traité des Caractères Physiques, &c.; i.e. A Treatise on the Physical Characters of precious Stones, for the Purpose of facilitating the recognition of them when cut; by the Abbé HAUY, Member of the Legion of Honour, Knight of the Order of St. Michael of Bavaria, of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Professor of Mineralogy in the King's Garden, &c. &c. 8vo. pp. 275. Paris. 1817. Imported by Treuttel and Wurz,

Successors to M. De Boffe. Price 10s. sewed.

BY the combined aid of chemistry and crystallography, we are now frequently enabled to reform the and errovague neous vocabulary of the older mineralogists, and to impart precision to the catalogues of a Wallerius, a De Born, and á Bergmann. The exigencies of the lapidary and jeweller, however, still require that the mineral substances on which they exercise their taste and talents should be classed rather according to their colours, and other external circumstances, than according to the principles of their internal constitution, or the polyhedral forms which they are observed to assume in nature. While views of expediency, therefore, suggest the propriety of both modes of distribution, it is for the mutual benefit of the mineralogist and the artist that each should perfectly understand the language of the other; and it is not less for the benefit of the public that they should be put in possession of the means of precisely appreciating the language of both. The Abbé HAUY appears to have been so forcibly impressed with the importance of these ideas that he has, with laudable condescension, adapted his statements even to noviciates in the science of crystallography; and he has devoted the first section of the first part of this treatise to a condensed, but very perspicuous and luminous, exposition of the main principles by which he has been regulated in his distribution of mineral species. This elementary portion of the work it would be very superfluous to recapitulate: but we cannot refrain from recommending it to the attention of such of our readers as wish to become acquainted with the practical modes of estimating the angles and ascertaining the structure of crystals.

This section is followed by another, containing an abridged description of the species and the principal varieties included under the denomination of precious stones, in the order of the author's arrangement.

Under Topaz are comprized the colourless Brazilian variety termed Water-drop by the Portuguese lapidaries, the yellow or Saxon, the Siberian, and the Brazilian ruby, or burnt topaz. The primitive form of this species has not yet been ascertained, but the more remarkable varieties of its crystals are distinctly defined. To Quartz belong the subordinate varieties of the hyaline; including rock-crystal and amethyst, the quartz-agate, which affords the chrysoprase, and the quartzresinite, comprehending the different varieties of opal. Zircon is limited to the Ceylonese jargoon and the hyacinth. Corundum is of all mineral species the most fertile in gems, not fewer than eleven being referable to its first sub-species, or hyaline corundum; viz. white sapphire, ruby sapphire, indigo sapphire, girasol, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, amethyst, aquamarine, (prefixing to each the epithet oriental,) and, lastly, the asterias, or star-stone. Cymophane is also termed chrysoberyl, and oriental chrysolite. Spinel is divided into spinel and Balais ruby. The precious stones of the Emerald family are, the Peruvian emerald, and the beryl, or aquamarine. To the Dichroite belongs also the water-sapphire. The varieties of Garnet are, the Syrian, the Ceylonese or Bohemian, and the vermilion. It may be proper to apprize some of our readers that Essonite is another name for the Cinnamon-stone of Werner; indicating its inferiority in hardness, weight, and lustre, to the zircon and garnet, with both of which it had been successively associated, though its crystallization is incompatible with that of either. The island of Ceylon is the only country from which the essonite has been hitherto procured; and, for a long time, only in small-sized fragments: but, within these few years, pieces of more or less considerable dimensions have been brought to England. I have a specimen in my collection, included among those for which I am indebted to the kindness of the Count de Bournon, whose name greatly enhances their intrinsic value, as they are extremely interesting to the study of the science which he has enriched with the results of his ingenious and numerous observations. Of the varieties of ornamental Felspar, two are ranked among the precious stones, viz. the argentine, fish-eye, or moon-stone; and the oriental aventurine, or sunstone. The finest moon-stones, especially those which exhibit reflections of a very pleasing blue tint, are obtained from the island of Ceylon; usually in the form of water-worn fragments,

ments, though some of them still retain traces of crystallization. The sun-stone, which is at once so beautiful and so rare, occurs in the island of Cedlovatoi, near Archangel. The term Tourmalinis, applied to the Brazilian emerald, to the brown tourmalin of Ceylon, to the red tourmalin of Brazil, and to the red, green, and blue tourmalins of the province of Massachussets, Chrysolite, or Peridot of the French, and Diamond, are at once the scientific and commercial appellations of the mineral species which they designate.

With respect to the Turquoise, which has also been admitted among the precious stones, it is distinguished into two species; the one, stony, and termed of the old rock, coloured by the oxyd of copper, and which has been hitherto found only in shapeless masses; and the other, bony, originating in fossil bones, and more particularly in the teeth of animals, and of which the colouring principle is phosphat of iron. This latter is called Turquoise of the new rock. The first is insoluble in the nitric acid, and the other is dissolved in it without effervescence.'

This short abstract may suffice to indicate the precise range of the Abbé HAUY'S nomenclature, or the mineral substances of which he conceives the expression precious stones to be properly predicated.

Part II. of the essay before us contains, under the distinct heads of Accidents of Light, Specific Gravity, Hardness, Double Refraction, Duration of Electricity acquired by Friction, Electricity acquired by Heat, and Action on the Magnetic Needle, those statements of the physical properties of gems which the learned Professor presumes may most contribute to their elucidation. Although we do not positively object to this disposition of his materials, yet we apprehend that it would have been more strictly philosophical if the phænomena of double refraction, instead of forming a separate section, had been considered under the accidents of light, and if the electrical and magnetical details had been discussed under the more general categories of electricity and magnetism.

In his exposition of the respective physical characters, M. HAUY has been particularly solicitous to accommodate his ideas and language to those who may not have had an opportunity of applying scientifically to the various branches of natural philosophy; and he has thus rendered his labours more extensively serviceable to the public. The reflections and refractions of the rays of light he explains by familiar examples, while he deduces from them the diversities of hues among the coloured gems. The rich and changing tints of the Opal he ascribes, on the Newtonian principles of optics, to the interposition of thin laminæ of air in the minute cracks and fissures

of