from any number of irregular the like number of regular figures, and thus to present him the greatest variety for the choice of his design. But, with the view of copying the design it is still most convenient in practice, in order to obtain a succession of patterns, to draw the irregular figures on paper, and to apply the simple glasses without the apparatus of tubes and object plates, however admirably these may be adapted for effect. We are disposed, therefore, rather to rank the Kaleidoscope among those ingenious philosophical contrivances which have been at various times invented to amuse the public, only that it is superior to any thing of the kind that has ever been proposed. A good deal of discussion having taken place as to the original invention of the Kaleidoscope, and as it may interest our readers, we shall state what has been collected on this subject. The repetition and reversion of images in a glass is noticed in the Magia Naturalis of Baptista Porta, a Neapolitan nobleman, who flourished about the latter part of the sixteenth century, and was distinguished for his zeal in promoting philosophical pursuits. The following is an extract from that work : "In the following manner we may construct a mirror for seeing a multitude of objects on a plain surface. This kind of mirror, when constructed, is what is called polyphaton. that is to say, multiplying; for, by opening and shutting, it shows twenty and more images of one single figure. If, therefore, you wish to prepare it, let two brazen or crystal rectangular mirrors be erected on the same base, and let the proportion of length be one and an half of the width, or any other proportion; and let each side, for the whole of its length, be so connected together, that they may easily be shut and opened like a book, and that the angles may be varied, as they are usually constructed at Venice; for if you place one object opposite to the face of each, you will see several figures; and this, in proportion as you shut it closer, and the angle shall be less. But, by opening, the objects will be reduced in number; and the more obtuse the angle under which you see it, the fewer objects will be scen. So, if you exhibit your finger as the object, you will see nothing but fingers. The right fingers will be seen on the right side, and the left on the left side, which is contrary to the usual custom with looking-glasses; but this happens from the mutual reflection and repulsion, of Kircher, printed in 1646, we have divided into its degrees. For, if the ...... of 120°, 72°, and 45°, you will see," says he, "with no less delight than admiration, a chandelier with three, with five, and with eight branches." But we need not multiply these quotations, for the combination of glasses in this manner is described, we believe, in many of the optical works of that age. The first and the only distinct account, however, which we have seen of the application of these glasses to the formation of designs, is in a treatise on gardening, published in 1717 by R. Bradley, who was afterwards Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge. It is entitled, and Gardening, both Philosophical "New Improvements of Planting and Practical, &c. &c. with a New Invention whereby more designs of Garden Platts may be made in an hour. than can be found in all the books now extant. Likewise several Rare Secrets for the Improvement of Fruit Trees, Kitchen Gardens, and Greenhouse Plants. By Richard Bradley, Fellow of the Royal Society." In the preface to Part II. he observes, " In the first place, my reader will find the description and use of my invention for the more speedy drawing or designing of garden platts; and I am of opinion, that when he once understands the right use of it, I shall have his thanks for that discovery." The following is the description of the instrument: "Since the instrument I now design to treat of has afforded some pleasure to many of my acquaintance, I have been easily persuaded to make it public. It is of that nature, that the best designers or draughtsmen may improve and help their fancies by it, and may with more certainty hit the humour of the gentlemen they are to work for, without being at the trouble of making many varieties of figures in garden platts, which will lose time, and cause an unnecessary expence, which frequently discourages gentlemen from making up their gardens. In short, the charge of the instrument is so small, and its use so delightful and profitable, that I doubt not its favourable reception in the world. 66 But, to proceed We must choose two pieces of looking-glass, of equal bigness, of the size of a long square, five inches in length and four in breadth. It must be covered on the back with paper or silk, to prevent rubbing off the silver, which would else be too apt to crack off by frequent use. This covering for the back of the glasses must be so put on, that nothing of it may appear about the edges on the bright side. "The glasses being thus prepared, they must be laid face to face, and hinged together, so that they may be made to open and shut at pleasure, like the leaves of a book." Mr Bradley then gives various examples of the use of his instrument. Placing the glasses upon any irregular figure, such as fig 14, the one glass on the line AC, and the other on the line BC, he exhibits its transformation into fig. 15; so," says he, "shall we discover an entire garden platt in a circular form, (if we look into the glasses,) divided into six parts, with as many walks leading to 66 the centre, where we shall find a bason of an hexagonal figure." After showing the transformation of some other figures; " in a word," says he, we may by this means produce some thousands of good draughts." He then refers to a plate, in one part of which a number of figures are thrown together in disorder, and he shows how, by moving the glasses over it, an immense number of designs may be exhibited. At the end of the first example he says, "And so, by moving your glasses in like manner from point to point, the draughts will differ every variation of the glasses, till you have discovered at least fifty plans differing from one another." And, in conclusion, he observes; "So that, from one plan alone, not exceeding the bigness of a man's hand, we may vary the figure at least two hundred times; and so, consequently, from five figures of the like nature, we might show about a thousand several sorts of garden platts; and, if it should happen that the reader has any number of plans for parterres or wilderness works about him, he may, by this method, alter them at his pleasure, and produce such innumerable varieties, that it is not possible the most able designer would have contrived." "And, seeing I have given such directions in this chapter as I hope may inform the curious of the use of this new invented instrument, I think it may not be improper to advertise, that the publisher of these papers is provided with glasses of several sizes, ready fitted up for the experiment, at the following prices :-The small sort at 3s. and the other at 5s." Comparing this description with the above account of the Kaleidoscope, there can be no doubt, we think, that the two instruments are essentially the same. The great object of both of them is to produce regular from irregular figures. This object is accomplished in both of them by the repeated addition of the irregular figure to itself reversing its position at each step of the process. These repetitions again are effected in both of them by the principle of the reflection of light. Both of them consist of two reflectors set together at a certain angle;-the irregular figures are in both of them brought quite in contact with the extremities of these re flectors; and in both of them the rays of light from the irregular objects fly from glass to glass in the same manner, and, according to the same well known laws, until reaching the eye they there form a series of images arranged in both of them in the same order. Though it might have answered, however, its intended purpose of facilitating the formation of designs, and though it seems also to have afforded no little amusement and surprise to the spectators, the instrument of Bradley is unquestionably far inferior to the Kaleidoscope in both these respects, but more especially in point of brilliant and striking effect. The latter being more particularly directed to this object, its arrangements for the purpose are more perfect. The instrument is reduced into a much more commodious form;-the glasses are more skilfully combined, and various other contrivances are introduced to heighten the effect; but, as we cannot perceive in any of these the operation of a new principle, we cannot help viewing them but as improvements on the original design. The instrument is brought nearer to perfection. By the removal of certain impediments to the full developement of its powers, the machine now works to admiration; but it is still the same machine,-impelled by the same moving power, and that power applied by the same species of mechanism. Such are the principal contrivances which have been thought to resemble the Kaleidoscope. But we are far from imagining, that the distinguished inventor of this instrument has taken the idea from any of them. On the contrary, we have no doubt, (according to a statement which has been published, apparently from authority,) that, having accidentally noticed the repetition of objects between two glasses, with the regularity of the figure thus produced, and quite unaware that the circumstance had been already observed, he was led to consider how the glasses might be most advantageously combined, and hence produced the very superior instrument above described. And though it is clear, as every inventor must occasionally expect, that he has been anticipated in his design,-though the history of the Kaleidoscope must include the first notice of the principle by Porta, and its application first to produce amusing effects by Kircher, and afterwards also to the formation of regular designs by Bradley; yet to Dr Brewster unquestionably belongs the merit of carrying the instrument Bradley, like all first attempts, was to its highest perfection. That of rude and imperfect in its operation; and, from its incommodious form, quite unfit for popular use. Brewster, therefore, we are indebted To Dr for all those improvements already described; without which the instrument would never perhaps have been generally known, and which have so changed its appearance, and augmented its power, as to have rendered it doubtful to many if it is not an entirely new invention. "In Since writing the above, we have observed the following additional notices in the Literary Gazette. the system of optics of C. L. D. (Dangel,) Altona, 1657, in 4tc, the following passage is quoted from the fifth volume of the Theatre of Nature: "If some lines and figures are drawn upon a paper, and this held against two mirrors, the surfaces of which are placed at an angle, this affords an opportunity to find the prettiest borders, foliage, and the like, for the use of workers in ornamental stucco, gardeners, and embroiderers." nal contains a letter from J. B. Bauer, The Nuremberg Commercial Jourinstrument-maker of that city, stating that he has manufactured an instrument like the Kaleidoscope for twenty years past, and that he took the idea from a description in Lampert's learned German Correspondence, published by M. Bernouilli. In Letter 42, lin, September 2, 1769, to M. BranVol. III. Lampert writes from Berder, at Augsburg, "Soon after I sent away my last, I had a mirror cut with four pyramidal faces, to shew the effect to amateurs. These pyramids may be considered as an optical amusement; whatever is laid at the narrow opening, becomes multiplied in a symmethe sphere: a three-sided pyramid ditrical manner, according to the surface of vides the sphere like an Icosaedron; a five-sided one forms a Dodecaedron, &c. You may represent with it a chess-board, a spherical lattice, a ball regularly illuminated in various ways." ON THE GENIUS OF THOMAS CAMPBELL. Thy power Might raise Musæus from his bower, Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing Such notes as warbled to the string, Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, And made hell grant what love did seek." MILTON. AMID the toils and turmoils of the world, and the disagreeable vicissitudes of this passing state, the intellectual eye often pauses, and reverts a longing, lingering" glance to the summer, and the sunshine of earthly existence, with somewhat of a pensive enjoyment, and somewhat of the nauseated satiety of Solomon, when, after pursuing and obtaining every thing that mortals imagine productive of happiness, he declared, that all was vanity and vexation of spirit. The dangers and disquietudes, the pains and perils of our early days, are viewed with the feelings of the mariner, who, after encountering the horrors of shipwreck, finds himself cast upon a desart shore; while the purity of the heart, and the warmth of the affections, and all the thousand witcheries of childhood," like orient pearls at random strung," gleam upon the thought in blessed succession,-seen but unapproachable,-" clear, but oh! how cold!" like the stars in the wintry hemisphere, mocking us with the semblance of light and heat, yet only serving to render the encompassing darkness more visible. So evidently do the requisites for happiness exist in our own bosoms,—so much are the scenes coloured by the eye that views them, that all animated nature seems to have altered like ourselves-to have been developing its beauties in our childhood, attaining its glory in our youth, and tending towards declension in our maturer years. The spring is not so green and gladsome; nor the summer so warm and glorious; nor the autumn so luxuriant and mellow: winter, alone, is the selfsame season of bleakness, chilliness, and tempest; though the fairy tales, and noisy gambols of its evening hearth, are also blotted out from the diurnal portrait. Let us revisit the landscapes frequented by us of yore, fair in reality, but rendered fairer, and far more delightful, by a thousaud sweet thoughts, and darling as Sociations,-and the green woods, and the blue waters-nay, the eternal mountains themselves, will seem to have lost a portion of their beauty and their majesty. Mankind have also altered in our eyes and estimation, since it was the warmest wish of our hearts to escape the trammels of tuition, and be ourselves among the actors in the great drama of the world. We knew not what we asked, nor what we wished: too soon the period, "like a horseman girt for travel," comes. The liberty we obtain is a thousand times worse than the thraldom that bounds us; and, like the children of Israel, when they were pining with famine in the wilderness, we think not of the bonds we have escaped, but sigh and pine for the pleasant places, and fertile provinces of Egypt. The frost-work palaces of the imagination, that dazzled in the distance, begin to melt as we approach, and the visions of glory that surrounded us, o'erhanging earth, and hiding heaven," dissolve like the fleecy clouds in the atmosphere. Still we hurry on in the pursuit of pleasure, and follow the steps of the syren wherever she beckons us, till we, at length, begin to grow weary at her elusions, and listless to her calls, and unsatisfied with ourselves: we behold the finger of truth pointing to the inanity and worthlessness of our engagements; we turn, at length, in satiety, and think of returning home; but lo! the gates of the garden of Eden are shut against us,are appalled at the flaming sword of the guardian angel on the right hand, and on the left: the enjoyments of our earlier days are gone for ever; and the remembrance of them is to ourselves, as to all others, like“ a tale that is told." -we These observations may appear at first to have very little to do with the subject we have in hand; but, the images presented to the eye of the mind, as well as those to the natural eye, in the earlier stages of our existence, make impressions, and kindle associations no less glorious and enchanting. The scenes that we have haunted, the friends whom we have loved, the music that we have heard, the books that we have read, every thing, in a word, connected with these early remembrances, is of itself a key, -a talisman, which, whenever touch ed, conjures up the forms of the past, and awakens a thousand beloved associations, the one introducing the other, and these following those, in countless succession, like the shadows of the clouds chasing each other over the meadows of autumn. Now the writings of Thomas Campbell are intimately interwoven with these associations in our bosoms. We have not forgot-we shall never forget, the impressions which they then made upon us, and which they are calculated to make on the youthful mind of every one who is possessed of any taste or sensibility. We see "a mass of many images" crowding like the ocean waves upon us; we hear the music of Harmonia's daughters, "the mingling tones of horn, and harp, and shell" and feel at the sight, and the sound, the enthusiasm of our souls awaken, and the purest, noblest, and most ardent of our emotions called into play, and kindling, and stirring, and blazing within us, in all their pride, and with all their energy. To what this forcible impression, which the poetry of Campbell is susceptible of producing on the youthful mind, owes its origin, it is not very easy to determine. We must look for it, either in the splendour and delicious harmony of the style, or in the purity, freshness, and majesty of the thought, or in the aptness and enticing nature of the subjects; most probably it originates from the combination of the whole, as the Corinthian brass is said to have been formed by commixture of various metallic substances. His poetry possesses marks of all the requisites that unite in forming a master of the art; yet, in each particular faculty, he has equals, perhaps superiors, among his living brethren of the lyre. He has not the irresistible power and pathos of Byron; nor the shadowy, unmanageable, and stupendous imagination of Wordsworth; but his mind, as a whole, is better regulated than either. The one leans down, and fixes upon his landscape, till he has gazed it over and over, and filled up its chasms with fancy,-till he loses the power of distinguishing the distance, and relations, and qualities, and comperative significance of objects,-till the daisy, at his feet, is magnified to the sunflower, and the bee, in the cup of the daffodil, is larger than the swallow, floating aloft in the azure sky. The other casts around him a wild, hurried, and impassioned glance, now darting from one object to another, and now fixing on a third, to delineate all its blots, and half its beauties. Campbell is endowed with more self-possession; he is never hurried away by his passions, or by his prejudices; he gazes and feels like a poet, but he thinks like a man. The mind of Wordsworth may be likened to an Icelandic region, where the outlines are all bold, abrupt, barren, and majestic,-a large surface, and scanty population. The mind of Byron to an Asiatic,-olive groves, and magnificent ruins of towns and temples, luxuriant meads, and murmuring waters, o'ercanopied by a burning sky, partly clear and partly clouded. That of Campbell to an Italian,-where the tints of the earth, and the hues of heaven, are all mild and mellowed; where the riches of the one are not too great to preclude the necessity of industry, nor the other too warm and sultry to impede its efforts; and where the traveller lingers in suspense, whether more to admire the pride of art, or the magnificence of nature. Without metaphor, Campbell's excellency consists in the vigour, yet direct equipoise of all the intellectual faculties; or, to use other words, in the delicacy of his taste. Within the range of his writings, it would be difficult to point out ten common-place ideas, or as many lines, that could be improved by alteration, either with respect to sense or sound. The paucity of his compositions must not, therefore, be attributed to the poverty of his invention, but to the fastidiousness of his taste. We are well aware, that ninety-nine out of a hundred of his readers would be more easily satisfied than himself; and we think we could almost hazard the assertion, that he has blotted as many verses as would have raised another to no mean station in the republic of letters. Campbell has no dross. Sift the writings of our poets from their impurities, and few of them have written more than he has done. In an age which is remarkable for the diffuseness of its literature, and not less remarkable for the eager thirst with which that literature is devoured, his is one of the very few great names which neither the spur of inte |