distinguished observer who presides over the Athens observatory is, indeed, equal to a host in himself.

appear near sixteen times smaller than at present, and her illuminating and other influences would be in the same degree less. Having referred to Linné as bearing tes- I am not aware that the philosopher, to timony to the absence of a lunar atmos- meet those objections, suggested any inphere, which, again, I believe to be a strong crease of size; and it might be said that evidence of creative design, I think it not the moon of eminent physical and scientific out of place to state that, on the other value would not, according to his plan, hand, our satellite was considered by an exist neither would the moon of poetry. eminent philosopher as affording a proof The ever-round and ever-diminutive-lookthat the world was not formed by an omnip- ing satellite would furnish no striking theme otent intelligence. Laplace says that for description or romance, nor suggest to the moon is not situated to the best advantage for giving light, as she does not always shine in the absence of the sun. To attain the object for which the partisans of final causes imagine her to be intended, it would have been sufficient at the beginning to place her in opposition to the sun in the plane of the ecliptic, and at a hundredth part of the distance of the sun from the earth, at the same time giving her a motion by which the opposition would ever be maintained. The distance would secure her against eclipse, and there would thus be a continual full moon rising regularly at

genius some of its grandest conceptions. Milton could not have told of the sun looking from behind the eclipsing orb in a simile with which no other of any other writer can be compared for an instant; nor, again, could he have thrilled us with the description of the archfiend's shield, whose

"Broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon."

In a scientific point of view, it will be easily understood, that, if the distant and nightlyappearing satellite had still the power of giving any effective light to the earth, in But it may be proved mathematically place of being an object of high interest, it that the moon could not retain that position would be a positive nuisance to the astronwith respect to the earth; and even if she omer. How few of its great wonders could, the advantages suggested by Laplace would the heavenly space have revealed to would be more than doubtful. In the tides, us through the veil of an eternal moonlight! we see clearly that it is not her light-giving The most beautiful systems of the double properties alone that mark her usefulness; and multiple stars, with their different lights and her attractive force, which is shown by and motions, would be scarcely noticed. various other phenomena of less obvious, We should never receive delight from the though, perhaps, not less real importance exquisite charms of the many-bued cluster, such as precession and nutation would dappled with coloured fires, like the flashbe vastly modified by her removal to nearings of the diamond, the sapphire, and the four times her present distance. In her rela- ruby; nor should we know of the far-remote tively unchanging position, she would be cloud-worlds, with all their surprising shapes far from serving, as she does now, for the of the ring, the sphere, the spindle, the closest determination of the longitude. By spiral, and a thousand indescribable forms, the non-occurrence of eclipses, we should be many of which are already proved by the deprived of most admirable and instructive spectroscope to be no other than what they phenomena. We should never watch in appear to be luminous vapour. wonder the veiling of the lunar disk, nor mark the earth's roundness in her coppery shadow. We should never, and with still more solicitude, observe the sun himself varying, like a mystic day-moon in rapid phase, up to the awe-inspiring moment when he vanishes among the kindling stars; nor should we ever await in astonishment that most enrapturing of celestial sights when, in the annular eclipse, the thin sun-streams flow round on the central darkness, and encircle the pitchy space like a bright setting that lost its gem. Supposing still that the moon could be maintained in the position favoured by Laplace, her disk would

And if those mystic glories of the sky would remain unseen, so, also, would the wonders of its darkness. We should have no speculations about the rayless regions, such as stain the brightness of the Milky Way, or set off the splendours of the Southern Cross. The deep gulf in the great nebula of Orion would be as unseen as the marvellous promontories that it divides; and, undiscovered among the brilliant tracts of Scorpio, would remain the dreary aperture of an Avernian blackness, through which we can perceive, as it were, the eternal night of outermost space, whose secrets no telescope has ever penetrated.

Our acquaintance with the moon's own appearance would be vastly circumscribed. At such a distance, we should have little pleasure in contemplating the great landscape of half a planet. Thousands of de

tails now plainly enough visible would be only imperfectly or totally unseen; and it is probable that we should never be attract ed by such sights as the obscuration of Linné.

J. BIRMINGHAM.

mutual ignorance between rich and poor, out of which it arises that the latter listen to few advisers out of their own class, and most readily to those who most artfully influence the spirit of class antagonism; that the masters know little of what is passing in the minds of their people, are on their part often narrow and onesided in their views of the rights and feeling of their workmen, and if more enlightened, are powerless to counteract the evil influence; and that both parties can be hurried into a serious struggle with no other necessity than arises from mutual misunderstanding and mutual irritation. It is by no means a healthy symptom of our social state, though one to which we SOCIAL DISINTEGRATION. - Regard to his-ations of the workmen for mutual support and are reconciled by habit, that from all the associtory confirms the fears of common sense that a assistance in every trade, the masters are, and state of national life, in which the moral unity choose to be, excluded. Beyond the political of the nation is broken,-in which the rich and and social evils which it engenders, this class the poor begin to form two separate castes, los- separation, this caste tendency, has the worst ing mutual comprehension, mutual sympathy, effect on the life and character of both the rich mutual regard, and becoming to each other as and the poor. Each is withdrawn from a pordistinct races with separate organization, ideas, tion of the moral and social influences necesinterests, -is the sure forerunner, the first com- sary to the formation and nourishment of a mencement, of rapid national decay. It is by healthy human feeling, and their character is bridging the gulf of separation, by re-uniting the to that extent starved, dwarfed, or distorted. severed sympatnies, aud rekindling the earnest Macmillan's Magazine. ness of personal good will between the estranged orders, that we can hope to maintain in vigorous life the common sentiments, the mutual JOHN ANSTER, LL.D., the first translator of affections, which are the breath of national life. Faust into English, died last week in DubIt is ouly by bringing the two classes once more lin, and was buried on Wednesday. He was a into relatious of personal kindness and friendly member of the Irish Bar, but never practised. intercourse, by service rendered without patro- In 1837, he received an appointment of small nage and accepted without degradation, that we value from the late Earl of Carlisle, that of can avert the danger of those terrible collisions Registrar of the Court of Admiralty, which between capital aud labour (which are the fruit he retained to his death. He also became, in of mutual misconception and irritation, much 1850, Regius Professor of Civil Law in Trimore than of conflicting interests) which, if less nity College, Dublin. The place of Dr. Ansviolent, become daily more formidable, from the ter's birth was Charleville. He wrote poems gigantic proportions assumed by the separate when an undergraduate. Fragments of his organizations in which the labourers are banded translation of the first part of "Faust" aptogether, apart from, and, as it were, in antago-peared in Blackwood's Magazine for June, 1820, nisin to their employers. The extent of this and, according to a notice of him published social danger was made plain to careful observ- in 1839, immediately attracted the attention ers when a hitch in the working of the trades of Goethe. The extracts were reprinted fully union machinery led to a strike in the iron trade in England and America, and encouraged him of North Staffordshire. The quarrel was taken to complete the translation, which appeared as up on both sides by distant bodies and rival a whole in 1835. In 1837, he published a firms; and we were on the verge of witnessing volume of poetry named "Xoniola," which a social war which would have raged from Bir- contained, among other pieces, a Prize Ode on mingham to Newcastle, and in which every the death of the Princess Charlotte, which ironmaster and every foundryman would have had procured for him a gold medal. Dr. Ansa considerable prose been engaged, closing hundreds of works, and ter in later years was throwing thousands and teus of thousands out contributor to leading magazines. The second of work, merely in consequence of a local squab- part of "Faust" by him, which appeared only ble. Sucn, and so mighty, are the separate or- a few years ago, has been considered not inganizations of the labouring class. Ere long it ferior, as a translation, to the first, though, is probable that all the unions of all the trades from the character of the poem, it did not atthroughout the empire will be combined in one tract anything like the same attention. feueral league, which may bring the whole force members of the Royal Irish Academy, with of the labouring class to bear on any trade dis- the Council of which Dr. Anster had a long pute. It is impossible not to regard with the connection, formed in procession at his funeral. gravest anxiety a state of estrangement aud-Examiner, 15th June.

No. 1208.27 July, 1867.

CONTENTS.

1. Herbert and Keble.

2. Mock Holland House

3. Old Sir Douglas. Part 14

4. Letters of St. Jerome

5. The Approaching Event in Rome 6. On Poetry

7. Two Salutations

8. New Life of Napoleon I. England and France vs.

9. William Lloyd Garrison

10. Correspondence

POETRY: In the Shadow, 194. Beside the Stile, 223. Rest and Unrest, 254. Vivian Grey, (Young and Old), 255,

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From the British Quarterly Review.

1. The Works of George Herbert, in Prose and Verse. With a Memoir by IZAAK WALTON. London: Bell & Daldy. 0001861.

2. The Christian Year. Sixty-first Edition. Oxford: Parker. 1859.

3. The Psalter in English Verse. Oxford:
Parker. 1839.

4. Lyra Innocentium: Thoughts in Verse.
Fourth Edition. Oxford: 1847.
5. The Times. Article, The Late John
Keble.' April 6, 1866.

6. The Guardian, April 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th, 1866.

junction of their two names, than by any particular discrimination of the resemblances and differences which undoubtedly exist. It will be our purpose in the present article to trace some of these lines of similarity and points of contrast. To criticise the men and their works is exceedingly difficult, almost impossible. The pure unimpeachable lives of these sacred poets have thrown a softened halo around their memories, and lifted them above the range of ordinary human judgments. So, also, the modesty attendant on the production of their poems, their sacred character and purpose, the general appreciation of the Christian Church, the venerableness with which more than two centuries in the one case, and forty years in the other (an old age for a book in these days), have invested them, all conspire to disarm criticism, where otherwise it would justly exercise its peculiar functions. To discuss these works with the freedom of new publications would be an impertinence, to touch them rudely a sacrilege.

and

MORE than twelve months have elapsed since the death of the Rev. John Keble, author of the Christian Year.' The ordinary (and in several instances extraordinary) tributes to his memory have been offered and partially forgotten, and we, though somewhat late, feel a melancholy pleasure in now adding our stone to his cairn, in placing our literary wreath of The life of Keble will soon be written, reverential affection upon his tomb. It is and we, with many others, anticipate its but reiterating an oft repeated fact to say disclosures with no little interest that his death brought sorrow not only anxiety. The life of Herbert is enshrined to those intimately acquainted with him, in that quaint but matchless sketch by dear but into many circles where he was per- old Izaak Walton. That gentle citizen, sonally unknown. There have been no enthusiastic angler, and worthy brother-inmourners more sincere than some whose law to Bishop Ken, has by his 'Lives' convictions were opposed tolo cœlo to dog-earned a fame which greater men might mas which he maintained with invincible tenacity. The beauty of his devout genius radiated far beyond the sphere in which it was more directly displayed, and a large number of persons whose religious beliefs Keble could not appreciate, and whose judgment he never valued, were powerfully influenced by his sweet and graceful poems. By such, the Christian Year' is not only known as a book of sacred poetry, but is read and pondered in their holiest hours. The gentle teaching of its beautiful thoughts chastens the eager spirit into subdued restfulness, falls on the excited heart with a touch of infinite calm.' The volume stands upon our shelves in the hallowed company of the de imitatione Christi of Thomas à Kempis, Augustine's Confessions,' In Memoriam,' and of those other select few, to which the mind spontaneously turns in its seasons of profoundest need.

1

It has been customary for many years past to compare the author of the Christian Year with George Herbert the great religious poet of the early part of the seventeenth century. But this has been done more frequently by the simple con

envy. The simplicity and pathos they com-
bine are almost unequalled in our biographi-
cal literature. The poet's description of
them is hardly extravagant-

There are no colors in the fairest sky
So fair as these. The feather whence the pen
Was shaped that traced the lives of these
good men

Dropped from an angel's wing.'

Any attempt to draw a complete parallel between the personal history of Keble and that of Herbert would be unreasonable and absurd, though many a curious coincidence may be traced. They were both remarkable for an early display of great talent. Herbert took his M.A. degree at the age of twenty-two, and was made orator for the University of Cambridge six years afterwards. His biographer, in his own happy way, tells us that he had acquired great learning, and was blest with a high fancy, a civil and sharp wit, and with a natural elegance both in his behaviour, his tongue, and his pen.' So we learn, that it was an Oxford tradition, that Keble was only

เ