to avoid, above all things, any attempt to inquire what may be the true meaning of observations already made, and to ask constantly for more observations.

observation that the planet has an atmosphere extending six or seven, probably ten or twelve thousand miles below the apparent outline, so that a globe as large as our earth lying on the surface of Jupiter might not reach, or only barely reach, his outermost cloud-layers.

still be content to wait (as recently in the case of the solar corona) till observations which every one can understand have demonstrated what only the few could infer confidently from reasoning based on less simple observations.

From St. James's Magazine. MAIL COACHES.

Now, however, we receive news of an observation which sets the question finally at rest. When one of Jupiter's moons passes behind the body of the planet, the This is one of the most interesting dismoon does not necessarily enter the coveries yet effected by direct astronomiplanet's shadow. It only does so when cal observation. It had indeed been inthe sun, the earth, and Jupiter are nearly ferred by a few astronomers, careful to in a straight line; when the earth is con- interpret results already obtained, that siderably removed from the line joining Jupiter must be in the condition which the Jupiter and the sun, a satellite passing Australian observation indicates. But at behind the planet's outline on one side present, and probably for many years yet remains in sunlight for a considerable to come, theories based on mere reasoning, time. It probably has not occurred to however conclusive in reality, must be any observer to try to see a satellite when" caviare to the general," and we must thus in sunlight behind the planet. On the old theory, of course, it would have been absurd to look for a satellite under such conditions, when there would be several thousand miles of the planet's solid substance in the way. But of course, if the planet has an atmosphere thousands of miles deep, laden more or less heavily with cloud-masses, it might quite readily happen that a satellite should be seen apparently through the planet, - not, of course, through the middle of the planet, but through parts lying thousands of miles within the apparent outline. This is what has now actually happened. We should not quote the observation, if it were not, in the first place, one which will probably be repeated (now that it has once been made), and if it had not, in the second place, been accepted by astronomers. It is thus recorded by the council of the Astronomical Society. "A very interesting phenomenon was observed more than once independently by Mr. Todd, of Adelaide, using a new eight-inch telescope by Cooke, and his assistant, Mr. Ringwood, when a satellite was on the point of being hidden. Instead of disappearing gradually behind the planet, it was apparently projected on the disc, as if viewed through the edge of the planet, supposing the latter were surrounded by a transparent atmosphere laden with clouds. This curious phenomenon was noticed on two occasions at the disappearance of the first satellite, when it was thus distinctly visible through the edge of the disc for about two minutes before it was finally concealed." It must, therefore, have been seen where the line of sight passed fully two thousand miles below the apparent outline of the planet, or along a range of fully twelve thousand miles of cloud-laden air. It may safely be inferred from this

THE letters, Mr. Palmer proposed, should be carried in strong and well-guarded coaches made expressly for the purpose, while the post-horses should be the finest England could supply; each coach should be accompanied by a man carrying firearms, and the post-boys should be well equipped for any dangers they might encounter: the coaches laden with the London mails were all to start from London at the same hour every evening, and their departure from the country should be so regulated as to ensure as far as possible their simultaneous arrival in London every morning. This plan, admirably as it was in harmony with the English taste, even to every exact detail, and hailed as it was, accordingly, with cheers from the multitude, met with opposition from a large and powerful party, and angry discussions arose in the wayside inns, at the clubs, at the dining-table, in the drawing-room, and even in the streets; for there were in those days, as now, many who set themselves resolutely to oppose any novelty, as fraught with evils, and dangers innumerable. William Pitt, with his usual sagacity, at once comprehended that it was both excellent and practicable accordingly the country was, after a few more exclamations from the malcontents, brought to the decision that Mr. Palmer's mail-coach

theory should be adopted; and Mr. Palmer | coaches started from the western end of was installed at the post-office as comp- Piccadilly, the bags for their mails being troller-general, which promotion enabled conveyed in light carts under the care of him to perfect all arrangements, and the guards. The starting of these was a first mail-coach left London for Bristol on sight for the people of the West End. At the evening of August 4, 1784. The era about twenty minutes past eight the mailof mail-coaches lasted for about half a carts drove up at great speed, the guards' century; these safely guarded and well- horns warning passengers to make way; appointed vehicles increasing in number the bags transported to the mail-coaches, till within two years of their eclipse by the the bugles sounded, and each coach sucrailway, when they had mounted to as cessively took its departure. So spirited many as twenty-seven, which started from was the mail-coach travelling, that we find the general post-office and Piccadilly English gentlemen of that period declaring every evening. "A short time before the "five years of life" to be "worth giving hour of starting, the mail-coaches arrived up" for the privilege of an outside place in the yard around the post-office, from on a mail-coach. Crowds would stand all their respective inns, with the passengers along the line of the mail-coach route from already in their places. Through the iron London, to see it dashing past, and to railings, by the light of innumerable lamps, catch the earliest news, especially during the public could see the process of pack- the occurrence of stirring events. The ing the mail-bags. It was really a fine result of Queen Caroline's trial was sight to see twenty of these vehicles drawn shouted to the waiting crowds from the up, each occupying the same station night top of the mail-coach as it fled swiftly after night; the horses fine and spirited through the country roads. Such a brilanimals; the harness unexceptionally neat, liant reputation had the post-horses, that and the coachmen and guards wearing the all the noblemen in England greatly desired king's livery. . . . As the clock struck their favorite steeds to make at least one eight, the post-office porters dragged out journey with the letter-mail. A sight huge bags, of which the guards of the indeed after the hearts of the English was different mails took charge. In a few that of the mail-coach, with horses whose minutes each coach, one by one, passed strength, celerity, and spirit were renowned out of the yard, and the sound of the throughout Europe, guards powerful and guard's horn became lost in the noise of trusty, and the whole enlivened by the the streets." About six of the mail- sound of the post-horn.

HURRY AND "HIGH PRESSURE."It is the | sion, far less "hurry," and the need of workpace that kills; and of all forms of "over-ing at high pressure would be greatly reduced, work," that which consists in an excessive if not wholly obviated. A great deal has been burst of effort, straining to the strength, and worrying to the will, hurry of all kinds-for example, that so often needed to catch a train, the effort required to complete a task of headwork within a period of time too short for its accomplishment by moderate energy-is injurious. Few suffer from overwork in the aggregate; it is too much work in too little time that causes the break down in nineteen cases out of twenty, when collapse occurs. Most sufferers bring the evil on themselves by driving off the day's work until the space allotted for its performance is past, or much reduced. Method in work is the great need of the day. If some portion of each division of time was devoted to the apportioning of hours and energy, there would be less confu

written and said of late, to exceedingly little practical purpose, on the subject of "overwork." We doubt whether what is included under this description might not generally be more appropriately defined as work done in a hurry, because the time legitimately appropriated to its accomplishment has been wasted or misapplied. Hurry to catch a train generally implies starting too late. High pressure is, says the Lancet, either the consequence of a like error at the outset of a task, or the penalty of attempting to compensate by intense effort for inadequate opportunity. If brain is bartered for business in this fashion, the goose is killed for the sake of the golden eggs, and greed works its own discomfiture.

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MOLIERE AND HIS WORLD.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "MIRABEAU," ETC.

Molière should have had the hardihood to ridicule the courtier so mercilessly as he has done in the "marquis." But the whole policy of Louis the Fourteenth was to abase the pride and lower the consequence of the noblesse, and all which tended to that object gave him pleasure, indeed it has been said that more than one character of this kind was suggested by

been a favorite subject of ridicule with French dramatists from Molière to Lecocq.

WHEN Louis the Fourteenth asked Boileau, who was the greatest genius that had adorned his reign, the poet replied, "Molière;" the king seems to have doubted the accuracy of this judgment, but posterity has confirmed it. Corneille himself. The "marquis" has always and Racine are little appreciated by foreigners, since they reflect only the fashion of an epoch; but the whole world agrees upon the merits of the great comic writer who, while reflecting his age with marvellous fidelity, has, like Shakespeare, drawn those eternal types of human nature which are independent of time, country, or manners, and which are as true to-day as in the hour in which they were embodied, or as they will be a thousand years hence. The Tartuffes, the Sganarelles, the Dandins, the Agnès, the Orgons, the Jourdains, the Harpagons, will endure while humanity exists.

"Always the marquises!" exclaims Madame Molière in "L'Impromptu de Versailles." "Yes, always the marquises," replies her husband, “what the devil would you have me take as an amusing character for the stage? The marquis of the day is the buffoon of comedy; and as in all the ancient comedies we find a comic servant who affords laughter to the audience, so in all our pieces we must have a ridiculous marquis to divert the company."

In directing La Grange (the actor) how to support this rôle, he says:

"You know how to come on, as I have told you, with that air which is called le bel air, combing your perruque and humming a song between your teeth, la, la, la, la, la, la. Make room there you others, two marquises must have some ground, they are not the people to content themselves with a small space."

One of the first points that must strike a student of these comedies, is the extreme narrowness of the world they represent; the same personages, or rather varieties of the same, are constantly reappearing in different plays; and, with the exception of such individual types as Tartuffe and Harpagon, of which the reproduction was scarcely possible, the marquis, the valet, Do you believe [he says, speaking in his the bourgeois, the ingénue, and the intri- own person] that Molière has exhausted all guante form the whole of their dramatis that is ridiculous in mankind? Without quitpersona. The fact is, the elements of the ting the court has he not twenty characters he has not touched? Has he not, for example, society in which he lived were then as those who profess the greatest friendship in simple as those of a Greek tragedy, when the world, and who, their backs being turned, compared with the complexities and multi- make it their business to revile one another? form aspects of our modern civilization. Are there not those extravagant adulators, His world was broadly divided into two those insipid flatterers, who do not season parts, the noble and the bourgeois, the with any salt the praises they give, and whose grade below was non-existent in an artistic flatteries have a nauseous sweetness which point of view, its individualisms were too sickens the heart that listens to them? Are coarse for the purposes of the stage. there not those sordid courtiers of favor, those These two great divisions were, however, perfidious adorers of fortune, who burn incapable of several sub-divisions; there cense before you in prosperity and crush you in disgrace? Are there not those who are was the courtier, the provincial noble, and always the discontents of the court, those the plain gentleman; in the second divis- useless followers, those assiduous nuisances, ion there were the gens de robe, the men those people, I say, who can count no serof law and medicine, the merchant, and the vices but importunities, and who desire to be shopkeeper. recompensed for besieging the prince for ten It has been a matter of surprise that years? Are there not those who caress all