made by himself and friends in his native an article which appeared in Household island, and all the results of his own long, Words in the year eighteen hundred and laborious, and intelligent researches in Euro- fifty-one, relating chiefly to the culture of pean public libraries. He frequently quotes the coco-nut tree in Ceylon. RELIABLE. I cannot accept J. C. J.'s law in the matter of this neological abortion, nor assent to his reasoning. has hitherto made, or (as I conceive) ever will make use of this newspaper slip-slop, which, "deformed, unfinished, half made up," has not As a purist, he may be right that Greek ter- even the apology of supplying a deficiency in minations should not be tacked to words of Latin the language, but thrusts its mutilated stump etymology, nor Latin terminations to Saxon de- into the place of "trustworthy," a well authorrivatives; but as he admits this abuse to be be-ized English word, which signifies all that "reyond remedy, I will pass at once to the real liable" is intended,-but awkwardly fails,-to question,-which is, Whether an adjective can convey. convey the meaning of the verb from which it-Notes and Queries. "You may rely the truth of the fact " is, for want of the necessary preposition, a sentence without meaning,-incomplete in its construction -and therefore nonsense. "The truth of the fact is reliable" must be equally unmeaning, incomplete and nonsensical. P. PURVER'S TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE, SOMETIMES CALLED "THE QUAKER'S BIBLE."-J. C. Rust will find a good account of Purver and his translation of the Bible in a periodical called The British Friend, chiefly devoted to the interests of the Society of Friends, No. IV., Glasgow, 4th Month, 29th, 1843. Mr. Rust is in error when he supposes that there were no Hebrew and English grammars in Purver's time: they were common from the reign of Elizabeth. Dr. Fothergill gave Purver £1000 for the copyright, and was answerable for the cost of printing, which must have greatly exceeded £200, mentioned by Mr. Rust. It is an attempt to improve our national version, rather than a new translation, and is highly creditable to a self-educated poor shoe-maker, who to improve himself turned school-master. The notes are numerous, pertinent, and limited to the sense of the text. GEORGE OFFOR in--Notes and Queries. "The ending -ble, or able," has the force of a passive infinitive. Valuable, admirable, tolerable, &c.-to be valued, to be admired, to be tolerated, &c. Reliable is therefore" to be relied" not "to be relied upon." You may just as well omit the verb as the preposition. Their union is indispensable to produce a meaning. "The mind may be acted upon by various fluences." "A man may be imposed upon by knaves." J. C. J. asserts that "Credo' does not mean to believe' at all." How does he translate "Coelo tonantem credidimus Jovem regnare?" It means, he says, "to entrust," "to commit." No doubt, that is one of its meanings-and, in connection with the dative which it governs, conveys and expresses the full force of that preposition which, in English, must be interposed bodily. ST. PAUL'S JONRNEY TO DAMASCUS.-The general practice of artists has been to represent Saul as falling from a horse; but it was natural for them to prefer the grandest and most picturesque mode of representation. Painters and sculptors in such matters are of small authority. St. Augustin insinuates that Saul travelled on foot as best became a rigid Pharisee. Moreover, he was led by the hand into Damascus; whereas it would have been quite easy for him to sit on his horse, though blind, the horse in F. C. H. that case being led carefully. -Notes and Queries. SPINETTES. The last spinette I ever saw existed at Rumsey Place, Crickhowel; I think as late as the year 1820. I know not what be"Quid credas, aut cui credas?" writes came of it after that date, nor have I now the Terence. There are the two senses in juxta- means of tracing it. The last allusion to such position. There is nothing omitted, or left to an instrument that I now recollect was in Miss be supplied, in the "oui credas?" It is ex-Ferrier's Marriage, published about 1818 or actly equivalent to the English "On whom can 1819. you rely?" No writer with pretensions to a correct style -Notes and Queries. VRYAN RHEGED. From Chamber's Journal. ON the evening of the 2d of January in the present year, the erratic moon passed, while on her wanderings, between the earth and the planet Jupiter. The planet was wide awake, sparkling with brilliancy at the time; but the movements of Cynthia were so brisk, that he found himself excluded from the benefit of earth-shine before he could turn himself round. In ninety short seconds, his pleasant face was entirely hidden from the friendly observers who were watching it from their stations upon the terrestrial sphere. that undergoes occultation, there is also additional interest, because this planet is waited upon by four satellites of considerable brilliancy, which have to pass in succession behind, and out from, the border of the moon; so that there are, as it were, five occultations in one to be observed. During the recent occultation of Jupiter, a large number of excellent observations were recorded. From among the trustworthy observers, Messrs. W. R. Grove, Dawes, Hartnup, and J. Watson, Dr. Mann and Lord Wrottesley agreed in the positive statement that there was no perceptible alteration of the planet's figure, or distortion of outAlthough, upon this occasion, the grave line, while the planetary image was in apmajestic Olympian star was caught at disad- parent contact with the moon, and under vantage by the nimble luminary of the silver good optical definition. Mr. William Simms horns, he did not lose his ordinary self-pos- and Mr. Lassell, on the other hand, described session; his placid temperament proved to the curved outline of the planet as appearing be fully equal to the emergency. Having to be flattened, or bent outwards towards remained quietly in concealment for about the moon's limb. Mr. Lassell's observation, sixty minutes, he glided calmly out from however, affords a suggestion for the ready behind the screen which had been interposed between him and his terrestrial friends, and as he did so, adroitly turned the tables upon the moon, by giving a sly hint or two concerning certain secrets which it was her intention to have held in reserve from her curious neighbors here below. The readers of Chambers' Journal, trained as they have been to like the bonbons of science, will be glad to hear how the astute Jovian star contrived to retaliate upon the sprightly nightqueen, by throwing light upon her obscurities, in return for the temporary obscuration he suffered at her horns. explanation of this discrepancy. This gentleman noted a distortion as the planet went behind the moon, but distinctly states that there was none as it came out from concealment; and further remarks, that the air was very unsettled, and vision very unsteady at the commencement, but the definition much more even and satisfactory at the conclusion of the occultation. Mr. William Simms also says that the atmosphere at Carshalton, where his observation was made, was very unsteady. In all probability, the distortion of the planet's figure, noticed by these observers, was due to the unfavorable state of the carth's own atmosphere at their stations, causing the image of the planet to tremble and undulate while under inspection. During the recent occultation of the planet Jupiter, one-half of the civilized territory of the earth was fairly bristling with telescopes turned towards the edge of the moon. An Mr. Hartnup and Dr. Mann noticed that occultation of any of the larger planets is the line-like segment of the planet's disc was always an occurrence of surpassing interest broken up into three or four beads of light, to astronomers, because the clear, well-defined just before it finally disappeared behind the images which they present in good telescopes, moon. This result was due to small projecare pictures of such exquisite delicacy, that tions of the moon's border then crossing the they afford a very severe test of the condition streak of light in some places, while portions of the lunar surface as to the presence or of the streak were still visible at indentations absence of gaseous or vaporous investment, of the lunar edge in others. Mr. Hartnup when that surface is seen in front of the saw the third satellite of the planet shining picture in the act of sweeping before it; the in the midst of a large indentation of this smallest amount of vapor or gas would per- kind for a second or two, and looking as if ceptibly dim and distort the delicately within the circumference of the lunar face. sketched light image contemplated under Professor Challis, employing the great Norsuch circumstances. When it is Jupiter thumberland refractor at Cambridge, noticed that the moon's dark limb, as it swept in writing being there, the question remains to front of the bright planetary surface, was be answered: "Can its interpretation be distinctly jagged and zigzagged by valleys found?" Can science read the meaning of and mountain-peaks. this shadow-fringe inscription? Are there minds that can fathom, as well as eyes that could catch, this signal-hint thrown out by Jupiter at the instant of its emergence from its forced concealment behind the moon? As the planet slipped out from behind the bright side of the half-illumined six-day-old moon, the different characters of the planetary and lunar light were strikingly apparent. The planet's face was about as pale again as It was Mr. Dawes's impression on the inthe moon's, and seemed to most of the ob- stant, that the mysterious shadow was simply servers watching it to wear, as compared with an optical spectrum-a deep-blue fringe to the monn's aspect, a soft greenish hue. Mr. the light maze caused by the object-glass of Lassell was of opinion that the planetary his telescope having been accidentally overfaintness was mainly the result of the rela- corrected for one of the irregularities incitively large brilliant surface the moon pres-dent to chromatic refraction. This notion, ented in such close proximity; he believed of course, became altogether untenable so that there would not have seemed any thing soon as it was known that the same appearlike so marked a difference of intensity, if ance had been noted by other telescopes, in the planet had been contemplated in contact which the same incidental imperfection had with a piece of the moon, having dimensions no place. All felt that the shadow could not larger than itself. not be referred to a regular atmospheric investment of the moon's solid sphere, because under such circumstances the streak should have been always seen when the rim of the moon rested in a similar way across a planetary disc. The sagacious Plumian professor of astronomy at Cambridge, Professor Challis, seems to have been the first to hit upon the true interpretation of the riddle. This indefatigable star-seer has long suspected that the broad dark patches of the lunar surface -the seas of the old selenographists-are really shallow basins filled by a sediment of vapor which has settled down into those depressions; in other words, he conceives that there are FOG-SEAS, although there are no WATER-SEAS, in the moon. The general surface and higher projections of the lunar spheroid are altogether uncovered and bare; but vapors and mists have rolled down into the lower regions in sufficient quantity to fill But the most interesting fact yet remains to be told. The bright border of the moon at this time crossed the soft green face of the planet, not with a clear sharply cut outline like that which had been presented as the disc passed into concealment; it was fringed by a streak or band of graduated shadow, commencing at the moon's edge as a deepblack line, and being then stippled off outwardly until it dissolved away in the green light of the planet's face. This shade-band was about a tenth part of the planet's disc broad, and of equal breadth from end to end. Mr. Lassell described it as offering to his practised eye precisely the same appearance that the obscure ring of Saturn presents to a higher magnifying power, where that appendage crosses in front of the body of the Saturnian sphere. There could be no mistake concerning the actual existence of this curious and unex-up their basin-like hollows, exactly as water pected apparition. It was independently has gravitated into the beds of the terrestrial noticed and described by at least six trust- oceans. The professor, using the high powers worthy observers, and the descriptions of it of the magnificent telescope furnished to the given by each of these corresponded with the Cambridge Observatory by the munificence minutest accuracy. The shadow was seen of the late Duke of Northumberland, was and described by Mr. Lassell, at Liverpool; able to satisfy himself that the planet actually by the Rev. Professor Challis, at the observa- did come out from behind a widely gaping tory of Cambridge; by the Rev. W. R. hollow of the moon's surface-at the bottom Dawes, at Wateringbury; by Dr. Mann and of a lunar fog-sea, seen edgeways, so to speak. Captain Swinburne, R. N., at Ventnor; and If a shallow basin extended for some distance and by Mr. William Simms, at Carshalton. round the curvature of the lunar spheroid, It therefore only needs that the unusual and if it were filled up with vapor, that presence should be accounted for; the hand- vapor would rest at a fixed level, exactly after the manner of a collection of liquid, | light shining for the instant from beyond. and such fixed level would be concentric with Destiny was, upon this occasion, propitious the general spheroidal curvature of the satel- to the phalanx of terrestrial observers standlite. Under such an arrangement, there ing so resolutely and patiently to their would therefore necessarily be a bulging telescopes, and brought the planet, which protuberance of the vapor-surface, through had gone into occultation at a spot where which a remote luminary might be seen, when it rested in the requisite position. This, then, is Professor Challis' understanding of Jupiter's hint. The moon has fog-seas upon her surface, and the band of shadow visible upon the face of Jupiter as the planet came out from behind the earth's satellite, was a thin upper slice of one of those fog-seas seen by the favorable accident of the planets there was high and rough ground, out at a point where the moon's limb was smooth, and depressed below the general level. It is, of course, only when occulted luminaries pass behind such depressed localities, that these shade-bands ought to present themselves, if Professor Challis' shrewd interpretation be a reading of the truth. The World's Own.-By Julia Ward Howe, Author of "Passion Flowers," &c. SOMETHING fresh in subject might have been looked for in a drama by an American, but the idea of the The World's Own is old enough. The seduction and desertion of a village belle by a nobleman, whose carriage breaking down delayed his journey, was worn out fifty years ago. In this drama, Leonora, the victim, becomes the mistress of a prince; deludes the seducer Lothair into a treasonable plot; and then denounces to ruin himself, wife, and child. The tragedy closes with an old lover of Leonora appearing in a mask, and presenting the frail fair one with a summary review of her career, whereupon she stabs herself. There is no novelty in the matter, except that Mrs. Howe seems to think European nobles strike women and shuffle out of personal conflicts. The style, though occasionally warm in its description, is not remarkable; but it has the conventional dramatic trick. The best part of The World's Own is the interest imparted to the story, hacknied and in parts absurd as it is.-Spectator. Tropical Vegetable Fibres. An Address to the Chamber of Commerce of Dundee. By Joseph Budworth Sharp, F.H.S., Secretary to the Chartered Colonial Fibre Company. J. E. Taylor. THE subject of Vegetable Fibres, which has for some time past been very interesting to a large body of our manufacturers, acquired additional importance during the late war, when our supplies of hemp from Russia were necessarily much curtailed. Since then, great attention has been paid to the invention of machines capable of producing good fibre from different plants growing in abundance in our tropical colonies, and the result will probably be soon seen in the greater cheapness not only of ropes, canvas, and the coarser manufactures of this kind, but also of carpets and finer textures, for the making of which hemp is now largely used. Mr. Sharp's is apparently to call attention to The object of this pamphlet, or rather paper, of the merits of the plantain tree (musa paradisiproduces the fibre commonly called Manilla aca), the wild species of which (musa textilis) hemp. This plant is found in almost every tropical country, and is so abundant in our West India colonies, that according to Mr. Sharp, the two colonies of Jamaica and British from 500,000 to 700,000 bales of fibre per Guiaña alone can furnish a supply equal to annum. Besides being so common, it is a perennial, and keeps up a constant supply of fullsized stems throughout the year, being thus, as regards production, far superior to annual plants. the finest of which is adapted to the manufac The plantain produces three qualities of fibre, ture of paper, and is capable of being spun with or as a substitute for some descriptions of cotton; while the coarser quality is peculiarly adapted for the manufacture of ropes, both from its strength and its resistance to the action of water. Mr. Sharp confines himself almost entirely to the fibrous plants growing in the West Indies, and therefore makes no mention of the New Zealand flax (phormium tenax), which, as far as strength is concerned, is very far superior to any plant hitherto discovered, but the difficulties in the way of its manufacture have hitherto been insurmountable. That this will be the case for long, however, we can hardly believe, and we can have little doubt but that all our best ropes will be manufactured from this plant before many years have elapsed. Meanwhile the more experiments and discoveries that are made the better.-Economist. 1 From The Athenæum. Letters of Queen Henerietta Maria, includ Public Archives and Private Libraries of We see would you have done with such a volume, even if it were labelled in the Catalogue ing her Private Correspondence with Letters of Henrietta Maria?" Charles the First. Collected from the the jerk of a curl, Madam, the delicate France and England. Edited by Mary swell of a nostril, at once proud and beautiAnne Everett Green. Bentley. ful. No, we will not dare to answer for Letters of King Charles the First to Queen you. We know your invincible resolution Henrietta Maria. Edited by John Bruce, in a good cause. We may say, however, Esq. Printed for the Camden Society. that we have known more than one mascuMRS. EVERETT GREEN is the Patient line student take that tempting volume in Grissell of literature. Her industry-her hand, pore over its chasms, its ciphers, and devotion-are above praise, for they are its blundering French, and throw it down in beyond imitation. To desire our facile lady sheer despair. A lady takes it up-and writers, such as Miss Strickland, for ex-reads it off. Mrs. Green has only to stoop ample, to go and do like the editor of Queen and conquer. 1 Henrietta Maria's Letters, is to bid Andro- Such is the story of the principal contents |