ETERNITY. A FRAGMENT. From the German of Haller. YE forests, wastes of melancholy pines! -Dark as the darkness of the tomb,Through whose cold depths no straggling sunbeam shines; Ye hollow rocks, within whose womb And ye dull streams, whose waters idly feed Cloud with your presence my dark song, and be Terrific emblems of ETERNITY. My friend is dead!-the dizzy eye can trace The world of spirits, desolate and drear, And what am I? I am what he hath been And will be what he is-alas! how soon!Even now I mourn youth's morning hours serene, The sun of life already is at noon, The wings of thought, though swifter than the flight Of time, or sound, or air, or light, When to explore thy boundless realm addressed, Flutter with weariness, and sink for rest! In vain I strive to grasp the thought sublime, Heap fancied worlds on worlds, and time on time! Back from the fearful height the straining sight Giddily gazes on unending space, And, ere the evening comes with yellow light, Forward in vain it ventures to explore, May sink in sudden night— The dim eye may for ever close, ! No dream of hope to bless that last repose What is to thee their measured reign? Their weights, like those with which man measures time, Fail, when the appointed period for their doom Arrives, they hold awhile their course sublime One sinks a second shines-his fires con sume Another pours o'er heaven his cheerful flame, They fade-but thou art still the same! ETERNITY unbroken lies before? Oh God! thou art the strength and stay of all, The sun and measure of eternity! In noonday, night, and plenitude of power, Thou canst not retrograde, thou canst not fall; Eternity is in the present hour, Oh, if thy glories failed, thy strength were fled, How soon would universal darkness spread ALL-PERFECT, in thy presence what are we? birth; To-morrow, and we cease to be !- My birth-it was not that I wished to be! Ere yet the man awoke to reason's ray: Long in the womb I slept-the heavens in vain Expanded their blue arch-my eyes were closed My ear, yet unprepared for sound, reposed My only sense was hunger, bonds, and pain! Soon a new impulse to the sinews came, The tongue soon learned to shape the syllable-The spirit, strengthening with the body's strength, With joy exerts its latent powers at length— Thus moths, awakened by the burning ray, I gazed-compared, examined, measured, found Kindled with love-felt anger's glowing wound, And was a man-in strength and weakness quite! My body feels the chill approach of night, My limbs are sinking with life's weary load, The fluttering wings of pleasure take their flight With thoughtless youth, to seek a new abode! My soul is sick-it loathes the light of day; Cold shadows of despair the world invest; Life has no charms-I long to flee away; My heart breathes but one wish, and sighs for rest! CAPTAIN ROSS, AND SIR JAMES LANCASTER'S SOUND. FEW scientific enterprises in modern times have excited a more intense and general interest than those lately undertaken to the Arctic regions. Every report in regard to them was wafted with almost magical rapidity to the most remote regions of the civilized world, and distant nations and communities were unanimous in their admiration of the spirit which conceived, and the power which carried them into effect. They were not undertaken for the purpose of adding new branches of trade to those we already possess; the motive was higher and more exalted-it was entirely scientific, and we considered them as the purest and most interesting offering ever made by political power to science. Captain Buchan conducted the expedition towards the North Pole, which unfortunately failed. Captain Ross, an excellent officer, commanded the expedition to Baffin's Bay. The account of the voyage is now before the public, and has excited very general attention. It has added considerably to our knowledge of the geography of Baffin's Bay, and inpressed us with a high opinion of the skill and judgment of Captain Ross. Unfor tunately in Sir James Lancaster's Sound there appears to have been a haste on the part of Captain Ross which, although fully justified by his Admiralty instructions, leaves a disagreeable impression with the public, and which we regret we cannot remove. It would appear, that the discovery ships sailed towards the sound or bay (Smith's Bay) at the head of Baffin's Bay, but found the "entrance was com pletely blocked up with ice" (p. 149), and into Sir James Lancaster's Sound, until ice was seen at the distance of seven miles, stretching from side to side, when the ships being embayed within this dan gerous inlet above eighty miles (p. 176), they were tacked about and steered out again. Now, though we have little expectation that the desired channel could be found in this inlet, yet the exploration was very imperfect, and some of the conclusions drawn from false premises, or, at least, from premises that were not proved. For instance, land in the interval of a fog shower was said to have been seen all round; but as this land is laid down in the special map at thirty-four, forty-three, and forty-eight miles distant, they could have no assurance We have seldom seen a work more beautifully ornamented than Captain Ross's In the engravings the forms of the mountains appear to be mineralogically correct; and the numerous and very striking views of the ice bergs assist very much in enabling us te form a conception of the various remarkable forms of these wonders of the Arctic-world. that some turn in the coast might not conceal an opening twenty miles wide. With regard to ice stretching across from side to side, it is evident, from inspection of the map, it could not be seen unless it were a chain of ice bergs, and then no proof could have been had that it joined the shore. Driff ice, or field ice-the kind of ice Captain Ross here seems to allude to, cannot be seen above twelve miles distant from a ship's mast-head; and Captain Ross does not say he was there, though he says he saw the ice stretching from side to side in a place which he lays down as forty-eight miles wide. And as the ice was said to be seven miles distant, he could have no idea whether it was close or open; for a stream of ice, passable in all directions, will, at that distance from the deck, appear a solid wall, and even from the mast-head, if the ice be any thing crowded. He also says he was embayed above eighty miles (p. 176), but we cannot find out that he was more than forty-two miles within the headlands forming Lancaster's Sound. If, indeed, we suppose the constituent headlands to be Cape Horsburgh and Cape Bathurst, yet the ships could be only embayed fifty-seven miles, in a place having an entrance one hundred and twenty miles wide; and if we mea sure off eighty miles to the eastward upon the general map from the places where the ships tacked, we shall find that it is a situation having above a semicircle clear of land for a distance of four hundred leagues. Hence the circumstance of being eighty miles embayed must be a mistake, probably introduced into the work by the hurry of a very rapid publication. The supposition of ice stretching from side to side was unfounded, there being no possibility of seeing ice half way to the shore on one side, and not above two thirds on the other. And the conclusion, that the land was seen terminating the inlet to the westward, was drawn without sufficient evidence; because an opening in either corner of the supposed head of the bay, though twenty miles broad, having a turn of four points of the compass out of the main direction of the bay, would have been altogether concealed. There, however, may be a doubt that the land was seen all round; for it is well known by Greenlandmen, that the most experienced navigators may be deceived. The clouds rise on the horizon so like the land, in peaks and white patches, that in some cases no one can say whether it is or is not land. Indeed, there is an instance in Captain Ross's book, where his master, first lieutenant, and seamen, are said to have seen land at the immense distance (as afterwards ascertained) of one hundred and forty miles (p. 100). This is attributed to unequal refraction. There, however, is another mistake; for we find, by measuring the distances upon the general map (frontispiece), that the nearest land to the westward must have been two hundred miles distant-a distance which, in an ordinary state of the atmosphere, would require land to have been about four and one-half miles high, to have been seen from a mast-head one hundred feet above the level of the sea. We trust these errors, and others of a mathematical nature, contained in the Appendix, particularly in p. civ, will be corrected in the second edition of this highly interesting work, which we understand is already called for by the public. We are still decidedly of opinion that Captain Scoresby should have had the command. The fate of Captain Buchan's attempt, and the haste of Captain Ross in Sir James Lancaster's Sound, are to be attributed not to a deficiency of courage, or of naval skill, but to a want of that experience in the Greenland seas, which could only be acquired by the service of half a life time, and which is possessed in so eminent a degree by the distinguished and accomplished mariner we have just named. Another expedition to Baffin's Bay has been ordered by government. The command has been given to two skilful officers. though we trust they will complete the geography of a bay which has immortalized the name of Baffin, we have little or no hope of a north-west passage. Indeed, we consider all the assertions that have been brought forward in proof of it as falsities, and the speculations in regard to it as mere idle fancies, unworthy of a moment's serious consideration. Al LIEUTENANT KING'S SURVEY OF NEW HOLLAND. HAVING in a former Number (Vol IV. p. 286), stated the information we had received as to the progress of the expedition of discovery on the coast of New Holland, we are glad to be able to add, that a letter has been received from Lieutenant King, mentioning his arrival in the Mermaid at Sidney Cove, from Timor, the latter end of July 1818; and that on the passage he had been enabled to determine the insularity of that part of the land, of which, in Freycinet's Atlas, Capes Poivre and Dupuy, form projecting points. Lieutenant King had examined the North West Cape, the Rosemary Islands, and the Great Bay of Van Diemen. His distance from the shore had in few parts exceeded two miles, and he had completed, except in an inconsiderable distance, the survey of those parts of that extensive coast which had not been already examined. After refitting his vessel and refreshing his crew at Sydney, the Lieutenant would proceed, with the least possible delay, to finish his undertaking. No account had hitherto been received of the appearance of the French expedition which sailed for that quarter some months after Lieutenant King. ON THE TEMPERATURE OF THE WATER OF COAL MINES IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. Newcastle, May 4. 1819. 66 MR EDITOR, A very long and ably written article appeared in the Edinburgh Review, published in June 1818, on the subjects of polar ice, and a north-west passage. It was attributed, but I know not on whose authority, to Professor Lesslie, and seemed to be written as an answer to a Memoir printed a short time before in the Quarterly Review, and which was thought to proceed from the pen of Mr Barrow. The author of the first mentioned criticism, after detailing a number of curious experiments, observes, we may conclude that the temperature of the ground is always the mean result of the impressions made at the surface during a series of years. The successive strata, therefore, at great depths, may be regarded as permanent records of the average state of the weather in distant ages. Perhaps the superficial influence will scarcely descend fifty feet in the lapse of a century. Copious springs which percolate the bowels of the earth, and rapidly convey the impressions of subterranean heat to the surface, will consequently furnish the most accurate reports of the natural register of the climate. These, if rightly chosen, differ not sensibly in their temperature at all seasons, and whether they have their depth at one hundred or five hundred feet, they affect the thermometor alike." p. 7. This theory appears at first sight very feasible, but from various experiments I procured to be made on springs of water issuing both into the shafts and working of some coal mines in this neighbourhood, the results prove that the deeper you penetrate into the earth, the higher is the temperature of the water which flows immediately from the rocky strata, as is evinced by the following facts. Temperature of the water issuing into the shaft at Hebburn colliery, At 48 fathoms...54°. At 97 .58°. At 130............ ....60°. Temperature of a spring in Pentop colliery, At 63 fathoms...54°. These in some measure agree with the experiments made by Mr M'Lean in the Cornish mines, (see Philosophical Magazine, December 1815,) but are at variance with the doctrine laid down by the writer before mentioned. For my own part, I do not pretend to account for a phenomenon, the cause of which is enveloped in great obscurity, but hope, through the medium of your Magazine, to obtain information on this mysterious subject from some of your scientific correspondents.-Your obedient servant, N. J. W. REMARKS ON DARWIN'S BOTANIC GARDEN. THE ill-chosen plan of his work, and the chimerical notions there hazarded on subjects of science, have sunk Darwin's poetry almost into a state of premature oblivion. Nevertheless, he certainly was an admirable artist, and has painted some separate objects in a style never equalled either before or after him. But the nature of his talent was so limited and peculiar, that it is difficult to conceive any poetical undertaking, the successful execution of which, would not have required a greater variety of faculties than he possessed. He was utterly ignorant of the poetry of human nature; and nothing but external objects had any existence for him. His excellence lay in his exquisite manner of conceiving their qualities and appearances, and in the bright-coloured language which he applied to them. His maxim indeed was, that no expressions should be counted poetical, but those which suggested the conception of visible objects -a principle, by the adoption of which, poets would run the risk of excluding the movements of the mind, in a great measure, from the list of their materials; for it is not every feeling which can be conveniently expressed by metaphors presenting optical images. The fact of such a theory having been at that time maintained, shews how much the true sources of poetry had been lost sight of. Darwin had the eye rather of a painter, than of a poet. He had a craving for images, which demanded that every thing should be clothed in a visible form. His best passages always suggest the idea of colours spread out upon a canvass; so vivid and palpable is every trait. Indeed, his manner of conceiving things has so close an affinity to works of art, that the subjects of many of his similes are taken from antique gems, bass-reliefs, &c. Ancient mythology supplied him with illustrations perfectly agreeable to his taste, and offered a world of bright appearances, not replete with more internal passion than he cared for. Probably Ovid was indebted to works of art for much of his inspiration; and Darwin, in his preface, seems to think with pleasure of having some affinity with him; but Darwin never describes more than one moment of a story, be◄ VOL. V. cause he merely wants a graphical subject; and therefore he has none of the pathos that can be obtained by following out a succession of incidents. The nȧture of Darwin's talent adapted him rather to have succeeded as a poet, in ancient than in modern times; that is to say, he was suited to handle mythological subjects, by the species of imagination exhibited in his similies and illustrations; which are by far the best part of his poetry, and which have little to do with his chemistry, botany, or physiology. Some part of his fine perceptiveness, and painted diction, he certainly learnt from Pope. The mechanism of his versification was also taken originally from the same writer, but divested of variety, and exaggerated into monotonous mannerism. But in his mode of conceiving visible objects, he goes far beyond his master, and clothes them with an exuberance of brilliant colours, and manages them with a classical gusto, which Pope, with all his superiority of other merits, never attained to. The same style of diction and versi◄ fication which, being applied by Darwin to cold scientific subjects, failed to command any permanent sympathy from the public, was afterwards rendered popular by Campbell, in the Pleasures of Hope, where it was used as the vehicle of ideas addressed to human passions and affections. Campbell, however, never equalled Darwin in his own line. The following passage from the latter is an instance of his consummate grace and felicity: "So in Sicilia's ever-blooming shade, When playful Proserpine from Ceres strayed, Led with unwary step her virgin trains O'er Etna's steeps, and Enna's golden plains; Plucked with fair hand the silver blossom'd bower, |