Various
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 461
The Dutch Society of Sciences at Haarlem have published their prize-list, in which they offer 2000 florins for the most important discovery in natural science which shall be made between the present year and 1856; and they propose sixty-one questions, the successful replies to obtain a gold medal worth 150 florins, and money to the same amount. Among them are:—The best geological description of the principal hot springs of Europe, their position, course, and quality, so as to show if they have any relation in common, and what relation exists between their changes and the changes caused by earthquakes, volcanoes, &c.—Whether, in any part of the old continents, there are dunes or sandbanks formed, at early geological periods, in the same way as those now existing on the coast of Holland—Whether the sea-level is higher or lower now than formerly with regard to the land-level of the Low Countries—On the wearing of coasts in past and present times, and the means of prevention—Whether a profitable manufacture of iodine may not be attempted on the shores of the Netherlands from certain marine plants and animals—Whether the cinchona can be profitably cultivated in the Dutch colonies—On the influence of the nerves in the origin and progress of inflammation—Whether electricity, either static or dynamic, has anything to do with the production of Daguerreotype figures: and one that will interest ethnologists—The Laplanders are said to be the remains of a people who were once numerous over great part of the north, as the Basques are and were in the south; required, a description of the two, with peculiarities and craniological examinations and explanations in full detail. These are important questions, and well worth attention; the treatises may be written in Dutch, French, Latin, German, Italian, or English, so that aspirants to scientific honours in most parts of Europe have now the opportunity to prove their merits.
The forthcoming publishing season promises to be a brisk one: we are to have good books of history, travel, and science, besides something from Carlyle and the Laureate; and in the matter of light literature there will be no lack; Thackeray is again in the field, with three volumes of the old-fashioned sort, so acceptable to novel readers; and Sir Thomas Talfourd has found time for literary as well as legal work. A learned Hindoo, after thirty-five years of labour, has just completed a Sanscrit Encyclopædia—a desirable work for scholars; and the United States' government have published a second volume of the great work on the Indian tribes—a handsome book to look at, but less valuable than it might have been had proper care been bestowed on its contents. The Smithsonian Institution have brought out the third and fourth volumes of their Contributions to Knowledge—one of the two being a 'Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota Language,' the work of missionaries who, eighteen years ago, settled in the Minnesota Valley, to teach and reclaim the Sioux or Dakotas, who number about 25,000. Among the reasons assigned for the publication of the handsome quarto, they state: 'Our object was to preach the Gospel to the Dakotas in their own language, and to teach them to read and write the same, until their circumstances should be so changed as to enable them to learn the English.' As the Smithsonian Institution distribute their publications to most of the scientific societies of Europe, our learned men will have ample means to avail themselves of their contents, and thus help to promote their object—'the diffusion of knowledge among men.'
THE POET'S POWER
Ay, scorn the Poet's Power,
Darken with doubt his glory,
Burst thou the spirit-spell he weaveth o'er thee,
Till earthward bowed thine heart in youth's warm hour
Grow hard as sinner hoary,
Scorning the Poet's Power!
Yet know the Poet's song
Recks not thy spirit's spurning,
But soars to Heaven's high throne, and thence returning,
Gladdens the heart to which its strains belong,
A rich reward still earning—
The Poet's sainted song.
Wo when the Poet's word
No more man's soul awaketh,
Nor on his clouded eye faith's vision breaketh!
Wo when the world's cold heart no more is stirred,
Though trumpet-tongued it speaketh—
The Poet's prophet-word!
Welcome the Poet's Power,
Nor deem he idly dreameth:
The light that on his heaven-borne spirit streameth,
Is but a ray of truth from Eden's bower.
When Love this earth redeemeth,
Fritz.
IMPORTANCE OF THE CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES
How our hearts bound to the spirited strains of martial music! how we thrill to the shout of the multitude! and how many a David has charmed away evil spirits by the melody of beautiful sounds! Neither is it a passing emotion of little moment in our lives we receive from the senses, for they are our perpetual body-guards, surrounding us unceasingly; and these constantly repeated impressions become powerful agents in life; they refine or beautify our souls, they ennoble or degrade them, according to the beautiful or mean objects which surround us. A dirty, slovenly dress will exert an evil moral influence upon the child; it will aid in destroying its self-respect; it will incline it to habits which correspond with such a garment. The beautiful scenes through which a child wanders, playing by the sea-shore, or on the mountain-side, will always be remembered; the treasures of shell and seaweed, brought from wonderful ocean caverns, the soft green moss, where the fairies have danced, and the flowers that have sprung up under their footsteps, will leave a trace of beauty, of mystery, and strange happiness wherever its later life may be cast. The senses mingle powerfully in all the influences of childhood. It is not merely the loving of parents, the purity and truthfulness of the family relations, that make home so precious a recollection; there are visions of winter evenings, with the curtains drawn, the fire blazing, and gay voices or wonderful picture-books; there are summer rambles in the cool evening, when the delicious night-breeze fanned the cheek, and we gazed into the heavens to search out the bright stars. It is, then, most important in educating children to guard the senses from evil influences, to furnish them with pure and beautiful objects. Each separate sense should preserve its acuteness of faculty: the eye should not be injured by resting on a vulgar confusion of colours, or clumsy, ill-proportioned forms; the ear should not be falsified by discordant sounds, and harsh, unloving voices; the nose should not be a receptacle for impure odours: each sense should be preserved in its purity, and the objects supplied to them should be filled with moral suggestion and true sentiment; the house, the dress, the food, may preach to the child through its senses, and aid its growth in quite another way from the protection afforded, or the good blood which feeds its organs.—Blackwell's Laws of Life.
AN AMERICAN NOTION
In this book-making age, every man rushes to the press with his small morsel of imbecility, his little piece of favourite nonsense, and is not easy till he sees his impertinence stitched in blue covers. Some one possesses the vivacity of a harlequin—he is fuddled with animal spirits, giddy with constitutional joy; in such a state, he must write or burst: a discharge of ink is an evacuation absolutely necessary to avoid fatal and plethoric congestion. A musty and limited pedant yellows himself a little among rolls and records, plunders a few libraries, and, lo! we have an entire new work by the learned Mr Dunce, and that after an incubation of only one month. He is, perhaps, a braggadocio of minuteness, a swaggering chronologer, a man bristling up with small facts, prurient with dates, wantoning in obsolete evidence. No matter; there are plenty of newspapers who are constantly lavishing their praises upon small men and bad books. A mendacious press will puff the book through a brief season, and then it will go to feed the devouring maw of the past.—New York Chronicle.
NEW PERIODICAL
CHAMBERS'S
REPOSITORY
of
INSTRUCTIVE AND AMUSING TRACTS
The First Tract to be issued on the First Saturday of November
The success which has hitherto attended Messrs Chambers's exertions in the preparation of a cheap and improving kind of literature, induces them to announce a new literary periodical, under the title of Repository of Instructive and Amusing Tracts. This Work, to resemble in some respects the Miscellany of Tracts completed a few years ago, will aim at a higher, though not less popular tone, and satisfy, it is hoped, the new requirements of the day in regard to literary elegance. In carrying on the undertaking, Messrs Chambers will be assisted by skilled writers in various departments; and as the whole of the Tracts will be under their own editorial supervision, they can with confidence offer the Repository as a fitting companion to the family circle. Each of the Tracts will embrace a single subject, varied to suit different ages and tastes. An important object will be to furnish innocent entertainment, mingled with correct information and sound instruction, under the control of good taste, and free, as far as possible, from controversial matter. The Editors, therefore, trust that the present Series of Tracts will take as prominent a part as the former in that department of the great business of educating the People which is committed to the untrammelled agency of the Press.
The Repository will consist of a series of Penny Sheets, issued Weekly; Four to constitute a Monthly Part, at Fivepence, and Eight to form a Two-Monthly Volume, neatly done up in coloured fancy boards, at One Shilling. Where it appears desirable, Wood-engravings will be introduced. Each Volume will possess a neat engraved Title-page.