"When two similar pieces of phosphorus were placed in a blue and an orange tube, at the distance of an inch from the balls of a universal discharger of electricity, the piece placed in the blue tube was illuminated by the discharge of a jar, while the other piece remained perfectly invisible. The luminous appearance of these phosphori in the dark is evidently only a continuance of an effect which had commenced in the light; for if we take a piece of Bolognan phosphorus, which exhibits the property in one part only, and expose it to light transmitted through a thick blue glass, it will appear bright and of an orange colour at that part, and blue or violet at all others; so that this emission of light seems to resemble the resonance of an instrument which has been struck, and of which the sound dies gradually away.

'Zanotti long ago obtained results nearly similar. (Comm. Bon. vi. 205.) Beccaria, on the contrary, found the light under blue glasses blue. Wilson repeated his experiments without success. Beccaria himself seems to have found that he had been mistaken, although some collateral authority has been advanced in support of his experiments; but the evidence on the other side is manifestly the stronger, even independently of these experiments.'

Grosser too, as well as Dr. Seebeck, found that even the red light of solar phosphori became most vivid in the blue rays, (Rozier xx. 270); and from his experiments on diamonds, as well as from much earlier observations, it seems difficult to believe that the general cause of these phenomena can be any change of a chemical nature, although the effect of violent ignition in contact with borax, which seems to have produced the phosphorescence, in diamonds which did not before possess it, rather favours the suspicion of some chemical agency.

'It was observed by Scheele, that the blackening of the muriate of silver took place more rapidly in the violet than in the red light of the spectrum. Sénébier compared the times required to produce a given effect; and Ritter discovered that there appeared to be rays beyond the violet, capable of reducing the metal still more rapidly, and that the orange and red had a tendency to re-oxydate that which was already reduced. I have found the colour reddish brown in the violet, and somewhat above it; about the place of the yellow, little altered; and generally pink in the red, and also somewhat below it, at least in such prisms as produced the greatest degree of heat below the red rays. These tints extended several inches on each side, where a faint light was still visible, though without the range of the ordinary spectrum. If we employ muriate of silver which has acquired a grey colour in the light, and is still moist, it becomes darker in the violet and blue light, and lighter in the red; not much lighter, but distinctly and decidedly. If we mix the violet and red of two prisms, the colour often becomes a bright crimson.

'The effects of coloured glasses were nearly similar: when inclosed in blue or violet glasses, the substance was darkened as in the open light, when in yellow and yellow green, very slightly, although the co

lour

lour was faint: in dark orange it remained long unaltered; but by exposure for weeks to the sun's light in a moist state, it became slightly reddish; and when it had previously been blackened as much as possible, it was soon rendered lighter, and in six hours became yellow or reddish.

In the open day-light, the colour is at first yellowish, then pale red, afterwards grey, brown, and black. In order to illustrate the dependence of these changes on deoxydation, I inclosed some red oxyd of mercury in three different glasses, dark blue, orange, and white, and exposed them, moistened with distilled water, to the sunshine and the day-light for several months. In the white and the blue glasses the substance was completely deoxydated, partly becoming grey, and partly being reduced to a metallic globule; while the portion contained in the orange-coloured glass was scarcely altered in six months, except that its colour became a little lighter. The colourless nitric acid also, if kept in blue or violet-coloured glasses, becomes yellow; in orange-coloured it retains its natural appearance; and a similar difference is observable in Bestuschef's nervous tincture, [an ethereal preparation containing iron,] which is whitened in the open day-light, or in a blue glass, but remains yellow in an orange-coloured one.

"In this case, too, it may be shown, as in that of solar phosphori, that the action continues after the cause is removed. This is true in the case of the muriate of silver; but it may be more distinctly exhibited with the muriate of gold: if we apply a little of the solution to two pieces of paper, and having removed the one immediately to a dark place, expose the other for a few minutes to the light, so that it may acquire a very slight change of colour, and then lay it by with the former for half an hour, the difference between the two will be much more marked; and it will increase from hour to hour, until at length the one will have assumed a violet colour, while the other retains its original golden hue.

It appears, also, from the experiments of Sénébier and Tessier, that plants assume their natural colours in the light which is transmitted by blue glasses, while in a deep yellow light they are blanched or etiolated, as if they grew in perfect darkness.'

We see no reason to call in question the general accuracy of these experiments; and as Mr. von Goethe has remarked on occasion of Sir Isaac Newton's error respecting dispersion, that an excellent philosopher may be mistaken in the observation of a simple fact, so, on the other hand, the example of Dr. Seebeck, who professes himself an Anti-Newtonian, may be sufficient to show, that, a bad theorist is sometimes capable of making correct and valuable combinations of experimental investigations.

ART.

ART.VII. ΕΡΜΗΣ ὁ ΛΟΓΙΟΣ Η ΦΙΛΟΛΟΓΙΚΑΙ ΑΓΓΕΛΙΑΙ, περίοδος Α. εν βιεννης. 8vo. pp. 437.

THE volume before us, being part of a periodical publication, does not naturally come within the pale of our jurisdiction; but several reasons induce us to think, that by extending in its favour the limits of our original plan we shall render an acceptable service to our readers.

To maintain the empire of good taste at home is doubtless the first of our duties: but it is also one, and not the least important, of them, to direct the public attention to the state of learning in foreign countries, and to promote, by all the means in our power, its improvement and expansion. The early productions of an obscure and illiterate people must ever afford matter of interest to those who love to trace in the efforts of unassisted genius the rudiments of future excellence: but this will be materially increased, when we are called upon, as on this occasion, to consider a nation, once among the most powerful and enlightened of the earth, awakening, through a recollection of its illustrious origin, to a sense of its present degradation, and struggling to escape from the intellectual bondage in which it has so long been held.

Our interest was the more strongly excited by the work in question, as it is the first systematic attempt made by the modern Greeks to turn the thoughts of their countrymen to original composition. Hitherto their efforts have been confined almost exclusively to translation, that great pest of speech,' as it is called by Dr. Johnson, which, far from reforming the language, has rather tended to render its barbarisms more numerous and inveterate. But considering the prevailing ignorance and absolute decrepitude of the nation, it was, perhaps, most prudent for those who undertook the task of reformation to begin by laying a foundation of foreign materials. It would be vain to attempt the restoration or improvement of a language, without previously diffusing a general taste for literature amongst those by whom it is spoken. There is a period in the education of every one, when he must be contented to rest. implicitly upon the opinions of others. We are disposed to hope that the modern Greeks have already passed this period; and that henceforth they will continue to strengthen their minds, and to amend their language, by thinking and writing for themselves.

The Philological Journal' was undertaken,' we are told, 'at the instigation, and partly at the expense of the Philological Society lately established at Boucorest. Its chief objects are to afford iuformation upon all matters of science and learning,-to remark apon the Greek language, comparing the ancient and modern idioms

with a view to the purification of the latter,--and to notice such new publications, whether in Greek or other languages, as have any connection with Greek literature, or tend in any way to the promotion of learning.' The studious among the Greeks are encouraged to contribute to the work by the promise that their lucubrations will be published once a fortnight under the names, and in the very words of the respective authors.

The volume now in our hands, the first and, as we believe, the only complete one of the series in this country, comprizes all the numbers successively published in the year 1811.

Of its contents the first, and perhaps the most interesting, is an account of the formation and proceedings of the Philological Society of Boucorest, which, as we are informed, was set on foot in July, 1810, by Ignatius,* the metropolitan bishop of Moldavia and Wallachia, and is composed of the clergy, nobility, physicians, schoolmasters, and principal merchants of those two provinces, at that time annexed to the Russian empire.

The purpose of this society is not merely to promote the object announced in the Hermes,' but to superintend a school (ATKEIÓN) previously established at Boucorest, and already, in November, 1810, consisting of 244 students; each of whom is instructed in one or more of the following branches of learning; viz. mathematics, experimental philosophy, chemistry, ichnography, metaphysics, logic, ethics, natural history, geography, rhetoric, poetics, history, archæology, as well as in the ancient Greek, Latin, French, German, and Russian languages.

We will not trouble our readers with the detailed account given in the Hermes' of the system of education adopted at this respectable establishment. It will suffice, for the credit of its founders, to say, that the discipline and plan of instruction laid down by them would not suffer in a comparison with those of our first schools and universities. To consult the different capacities of the pupils--to open the mind by well regulated gradations-and to stimulate exertion by the hope of distinction, rather than by the fear of punishment, are the leading principles of their system.

When a scholar has completed one branch of learning, he receives from the master a certificate, which he is to produce at the public examination, occasionally held in presence of the society. If his answers to the questions which are put to him on that particular branch, are approved of, his certificate is sealed by the president. A general certificate, or dinλoua, is in like manner granted to the scholar, who leaves the school after having gone through the entire course of education with credit.

* This prelate is a Lesbian Greek of considerable talent and erudition.

In the regulations above mentioned a considerable share of attention has been directed towards the means of improving the language, and of ultimately restoring it to its ancient purity; and for this end very particular instructions are given with respect to the manner and order in which the classics are to be read, and also with regard to translations, compositions, &c. This, indeed, forms the principal theme not only of many original essays contained in the Hermes,' but also of most of the speeches made at the different meetings of the Philological Society.

And here we propose to our readers the novel entertainment of a modern Greek harangue addressed by the bishop, in his character of president, to the scholars of the ΛΥΚΕΙΟΝ, on the occasion of a public examination:

να

* Κύριοι Μαθηταί !

· ΤΟΥΤΟ τὸ σύτημα, ὅπες τώρα βλέπετε εις την Σχολὴν δὲν εἶναι ἄλλο, παρὰ προοίμιον ἐκείνων, ὅσων μετὰ ταῦτα μέλλει νὰ γίνωσι. Δὲν ζητεῖται ἄλλο παρ ὑμῶν, εἰμὴ ἐπιμέλεια, φιλοπονία, ὑποταγὴ εἰς τοὺς διδασκάλους, καὶ ἤθη χρησὰ, διὰ νὰ καταςαθῆτε ἄξιοι οπαδοὶ τὴς φιλοσοφίας. Αυτη ἡ δεξιά, ἥτις σήμερον, εὐλογεῖ τὰς προόδες ὑμῶν, θελει σᾶς σεφανώση μίαν ἡμέραν μὲ δάφνην. Α. Μᾶσαι δεν λησμόνησαν τὴν παλαιάν των κατοικίαν, τὸν Ολυμπον καὶ τὸν Παρνασσόν. Ἐκεῖ θέλεν πάλιν ἐπιτρέψει ὕσερον ἀπὸ ἕνα τόσον μεγάλον γύρον, ὅνπερ ἔκαμαν εἰς την Ευρώπην. *Αν οἱ μαθηταὶ τῆς Βλαχίας ςαθῶσιν ἱκανοὶ νὰ τὰς συντροφέυσωσιν ἔως ἐκεῖ, ὁποία δόξα αἰώνιος θέλει εἶναι δι ̓ αὐτοὺς, καὶ πόσον μέγα κλέος διὰ τὴν Βλαχίαν! Σεῖς ημπορεῖτε νὰ ὀνομασθῆτε δικαίως εὐτυχεῖς, ἐπειδὴ ἔχετε να διατρέξητε ἕν σάδιον τόσον λαμπρὸν, ὅπερ οἱ προγενέσεροίσας, δὲν τὸ ἠξιώθησαν. Φιλοτιμηθῆτε λοιπὸν νὰ φανῆτε ἄξιοι της οὐρανίου ταύτης δωρεάς, τῆς προτασίας, καὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων κόπων.

· Η πατρὶς προσμένει παρ' ὑμῶν την βελτίωσίν της, καὶ οἱ γονεῖς προσμένουσι περί θάλψιν εἰς τὸ γῆρας των. Ο κόπος καὶ ἡ επιμέλεια ὑμῶν, ἔςι τὸ μόνον μέσον, τὸ δυνάμενον ἀποκαταςῆσαι ὑμᾶς εὐγνώμονας καὶ εἰς τὴν πατρίδα, καὶ εἰς τὰς γονεῖς ὑμῶν. Εἴθε νὰ σᾶς ἰδῇ ἡ πατρὶς μίαν ἡμέραν δαφνηφορώντας! Εἴθε να λάβωσι διὰ Σᾶς οἱ γονεῖς καὶ οἱ συμπολῖται σας τὴν ἴδιαν χαρὰν καὶ ἔυχαρίσησιν, ἥνπες ἐλάμβανον ἄλλοτε οἱ γονεῖς καὶ συμπολῖται τῶν Ολυμπιονικῶν !* This

* Young Gentlemen,

The system which you now see established in the school is but a prelude to further proceedings. Of you nothing more is required than diligence, labour, submissiou to your masters, and good morals, whereby you may prove yourselves worthy disciples of philosophy. This hand, which now blesses your progress, will one day crown you with laurel. The muses have not forgotten their ancient abodes on the summits of Olympus and Parnassus. Thither, after having traversed the whole of Europe, they will once more return. And if the students of Wallachia are able to keep pace with them, what eternal renown will they not acquire, what glory for Wallachia! You, indeed, may be called truly fortunate, who have to run this illustrious career to which your fathers were not summoned. Strive, therefore, to shew yourselves worthy of this heavenly gift, and of our patronage and labours.

From you your country expects the improvement of its condition, to you your parents look for consolation in their old age. By labour and industry alone you can prove your gratitude both to your country and to your parents. Oh may your country one day see you crowned with laurel! May your parents and your fellow citizens enjoy the

same