the representative of their darling principle of the year 1780 will shew how far phlogisitself. A glance at part of the nomenclature ton had been insinuated into it : Old Names. Dephlogisticated air. Phlogiston, or inflammable air. Dephlogisticated marine acid. Phlogisticated vitriolic acid. Phlogisticated nitrous acid. Modern Names. Oxygen. Nitrogen. It was only in 1766 that the scientific conversation," but from an actual aversion world became intimately acquainted wtih the important gas which we now call hydrogen. The paper entitled "Experiments on Factitious Air," in which its nature was distinctly made known, is also valuable as the first important communication of Mr. Cavendish to the Royal Society. to the acquisition of that sort of knowledge. Constitutionally shy, an unexpected intrusion upon his retirement gave him the appearance of sullen haughtiness really foreign to his nature. He suffered so much annoyance from the usual ceremonies of society, as even, occasionally, violently to reLord Charles Cavendish was an intelligent sent a visit of mere necessity and civility. nobleman, who, for many years, addicted him- Many whimsical stories are related in illustraself with success to scientific pursuits; but tion of this. On one occasion an eminent his researches bestowed upon the world no banker, with whom Mr. Cavendish dealt, rebenefit so great as the gift he presented to it marked that the sum accumulated in the phiin his son. Henry Cavendish, the honorable losopher's name had increased to a very enorgrandson of two dukes, and during a long mous sum. This gentleman set out for Mr. period one of the richest commoners in Eng- Cavendish's villa to inform him of the circumland, devoted himself to philosophy, urged by stance; admitted to his presence after some a steady passion for the acquisition of truth. delay, he was received with a cold uninterFor this he neglected the natural delights of ested salutation. As soon as his tale was youth, voluntarily relinquished the pleasures told, Cavendish, without making any other belonging to wealth and station, and disapear- remark, inquired if he had no more to say; ed from society to exist only in the library or then rung the bell, and summarily dismissed the laboratory. Educated at Cambridge, the him. But the vengeance was to come. The severe studies which are necessary for dis- next day every shilling belonging to Mr. Cavtinction, and which render the years passed endish was withdrawn from the bankingthere the most learned portion of an ordinary house of his unfortunate visitor. At another young man's life, were to Cavendish but the time when an admiring foreigner had just first steps in his laboriou scourse; they afford- obtained an introduction to the great English ed him only the elements of knowledge, which chemist at Sir Joseph Banks's soirée, Cavenhe was subsequently to enlarge by original dish fairly ran away, and left him gesticulathought and original research. His talents, ting in the middle of a complimentary adadmirably qualified for severe investigation, dress. were assisted by the singularities of his moral This unhappy disposition for seclusion character in forming what Cuvier enthusi- amounted, at times, almost to insanity; inastically called the perfect model of a man deed, the general eccentricities of Mr. Cavof science;" they were delivered from all endish were so great, as to warrant a suppotemptation to less exertions by his reserved sition that the severe studies, in which his disposition, and were never hurried into ab- extraordinary faculties were constantly occusurdities by too eager an appetite for worldly. pied, had alone preserved him from the wandistinction. He was painfully diffident of his derings of a madman. His reserve increased own powers, and this, not from a too careful with his years; he had long shunned the sostudy of them, as is often the case, but from ciety ofhis noble connexions, and, in his lata morbid delicacy of taste. From his earliest ter days, he withdrew even from that of his years he had avoided much intercourse with scientific contemporaries; occasionally only the world, not because he thought, with hesat a tnoughtful judge, rather than a listenworthy Parson Brand, in Richardson's story, er at, Royal Society festivities. His villa, at that a knowledge of human nature was best Streatham, became the scene of his scientific learned in books, "the calm result of wise pleasures. There he lived in a perfect solimen's wisdom, uninterrupted by the noise tude. Any of the neighboring inhabitants and vanities that will mingle with personal who chanced occasionally to cross his path LINES, made way, with a wonder which was almost awe, for the tall, aristocratic figure-habited Suggested by reading Stanzas by Miss Camilla Toulmin, in in the precise, wide-skirted, snuff-colored Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, entitled "What dost thou whisgarments, and close-fitting knee-breeches of per, murmuring shell?" October 21, 1843. another century-which stooped, as if bent to the earth by weighty thoughts. His characteristic reserve displayed itself even upon his death-bed. When he felt his end approaching, he insisted upon being left quite alone, and dismissed his only attendant and nurse from his presence. In the middle ages, his strange manner, lonely habits, and philosophical pursuits combined, would have doomed him to the tortures of a sorcerer. In all his methods of research he was eminently great. An accomplished mathematician, he brought into experimental philosophy the perfection of demonstration and the accuracy of detail which belong to exact sci ence. His writings form a remarkable contrast with those of most chemical philosophers of his period. Simple and comprehensive, theory never found a place in them as fact, nor hypothesis as theory. Nowhere are the vague expressions, the loose notions, the cooking and trimming processes," which deformed the discoveries of that day, to be metwith in the publications of Cavendish. He had been brought up in the phlogistic faith; but so little are his writings tainted with the extensive errors of Stahlianism, that they may be read at this time with very few corrections, and the mere alteration of nomenclature, as illustrations of the doctrines of Lavoisier or Davy. His articles of belief were drawn up from a true view of facts, and, as such, still remain a part of the gospel of the chemical philosopher. A VISIT TO GENERAL TOM THUMB.-We paid a visit to this wonderful epitome of human nature during the past week, at his residence, in Graftonstreet, Bond-street, and our pleasure was greatly increased by being tête-a-tête with such a duodecimo of mankind. He received his visitors with the grace of a finished courtier, sang, danced, and gave an imitation of the French Emperor with exquisite fidelity. Numbers of the haut ton were present, who expressed the greatest admiration at his intelligence, vivacity, and beauty of person. The General has been honored with an invite to the noble mansion of the Baroness de Rothschild, in Gunsbury Park; a distinguished circle were present on the occasion, and the highest satisfaction was expressed by the company assembled. On taking leave, a splendid purse, lined with gold, was presented to the tiny wonder, by the noble hostess; since which he has visited the American minister, Mr. Everett, accompanied by his patron, Mr. Barnum, and a party of distinguished foreign noblemen.-Court Journal. From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. AND dost thou ask me, maiden fair, "Tis mine to tell of treasures bright "Tis mine to tell of countless troops "Tis mine to pour in Fancy's ear 'Tis mine to tell of fearful nights, And oh! 'tis mine to tell of rocks And still 'tis mine to tell of those JOSEPH FEARN. THE HIGHLANDS OF ETHIOPIA, From the Court Journal. The Highlands of Ethiopia. By Major Harris. 3 vols. Longman. The supply of water brought proved insufficient, and the whole company became tormented with burning thirst; some ran to the edge of the lake, and tasted the water, but it took the skin from their lips. There was no remedy for their distress; and during the afternoon, they rested THERE are people in the world so wrapped up in this miserable plight, shielding themselves as in the dull routine of daily life, that they believe they best could from the scorching rays of the romance has been banished by gas-lights and sun. With the evening, they resumed their policemen. They cannot be brought to under- march; they knew there was water in abunstand that there are yet adventures to be found dance at a distance of sixteen miles, but many at this day as wonderful as those recorded in labored under the conviction that that distance fairy tales, and perils as striking and as various they should never pass. Their path wound as ever hero of romance encountered in the veri-over sheets of rugged and broken lava, and was table days of chivalry. If such people dread to have their settled notions disturbed, let them not take up this book by Major Harris. It is, beyond comparison, the most interesting in its narrative, and the most startling in the facts it reveals, of any work of travel issued for some years past. The author was sent on a mission, with a suitable retinue, to the court of a Christian monarch, whose dominions, situated in the heart of Ethiopia, have long remained unvisited. The interest commences from the instant that Major Harris lands on the African shore, at Tajura. The march of the expedition across the desert is well told, and opens a succession of scenes to our view as novel as they are vivid. Scarcely had they well commenced their journey, before they came to Lake Assal, or the Great Salt Lake. This mighty basin is one of the wonders of the world. Descending six hundred feet below the level of the sea, it extends for several miles, girded round by a chain of giant hills. The centre of the bottom was filled with water of the purest cerulean blue, unruffled as the surface of a mirror, which seemed set in a frame of frosted silver-for all around its circumference was a mighty edge of snow-white salt, the result of intense evaporation. Through this basin, and over the shore of salt, the route of our travellers lay. As they continued their descent, they lost sight of every living thing, and every sign of vegetation. Not a ripple played on the waters, not a wandering bird flew overhead. Making their way, as best they could, down steep declivities, stumbling over huge rocks of basalt and volcanic lava, seeing all around them evidences of some mighty convulsion of the earth, and of an extinguished volcano, the travellers neared the margin of the lake. so narrow that rarely more than one person could pass at a time. We must find room for a short passage descriptive of THE HORRORS OF A NIGHT MARCH. "The agonies of that dismal night set all efforts of description at defiance. Fanned by the fiery blast of the midnight sirocco, the cry for water, uttered feebly from numbers of parched throats, now became incessant; and the supply of that precious element brought for the whole party falling short of one gallon and a half, it was not long to be answered. A tiny sip of diluted vinegar, for a moment assuaging the burning thirst which raged in the vitals, again raised their drooping souls; but its effects were transient, and after struggling a few steps, overwhelmed, they sunk again, with husky voice declaring their resolution to rise no more. Horses and mules that once lay down, being unable from exhaustion to rally, were reluctantly abandoned to their fate, whilst the lion-hearted sol dier who had braved death at the cannon's mouth, subdued and unmanned by thirst, lay gasping by the way-side, and heedless of the exhortation of his officer, hailed approaching dissolution with delight, as bringing the termination of tortures which were not to be endured." The whole company must have perished, but that a wild Bedouin brought the fainting travellers a large skin of water. A little was applied to the faces and lips of the sufferers, and they revived; and at last, with the feelings of men who approached the gates of paradise, or of those of the advanced guards of the Ten Thousand who first exclaimed "The Sea," they reached a running stream, and freely slaked their thirst. From Tajura to the frontier of the Christian At this time, it was noon; the sun was with- king's dominions is a distance of four hundred out a cloud, and shone with terrible effulgence miles. The whole way was, with slight excepupon the lake, which returned his rays as vivid- tions, a continued desert; and the only interruply as if it were one vast sheet of burnished steel. tions to the monotony of the march were such Scorched by the suffocating heat, the travellers incidents as we have described, or a quarrel prayed they might be visited with a breath of with some of the wild tribes of the Bedouins, or air. The hoped-for wind arose; but it was an encounter with a slave caravan, which occafound to aggravate their sufferings; it caught sionally in great numbers traversed the sandy the pulverized sand and salt, and whirled them waste. The majority of the slaves were very up into pillars, which were so illumined by the young, hardly escaped from childhood. They intense brilliancy of the sun as to appear on fire. travelled bare-footed, and each male and female Sometimes these pillars burst over the cattle, in carried many days' provision and water. One creasing their distress. A horrid stench arose handful of roasted corn was their daily food. from the poisonous exhalations of the lake; cam-But as the company began the ascent of the els dropped down dead, and some of the escort Abyssinian Alps, which forms the frontier of fainted. But the worst remains to be told. | the kingdom they came to visit, the scene under 184 THE HIGHLANDS OF ETHIOPIA, ETC. [JUNE, went a delightful change. They found all the prisonment and unused to the light of day. vegetation of the temperate climes of Europe blooming in the utmost luxuriance, and entered a fertile and cultivated country. They were favorably received by the monarch, who lived in rude magnificence. His kingdom was extensive, and his revenue ample. The strangers soon conciliated his favor by the presents they brought, and the ingenious arts of life they made known to him. He gave them free permission to visit every part of his kingdom; and thus the author was enabled to complete his account of this singular and interesting district of Africa. They shot the wild elephants, which had long been the terror of the rural population, designed and superintended the erection of a new palace for the king, which was inaugurated with great pomp, and made themselves in a hundred other ways useful both to the king and his people. In return, he concluded with them a solemn commercial treaty, which, by opening channels of enterprise and industry hitherto unknown to the population of this fertile country, will, it is hoped, tend to the gradual extinction of that inhuman traffic, which now forms the only commerce of the people. The last circumstance related is the most interesting. Never was a more affecting incident related in fiction. It had, from time immemorial-the usage, indeed, was believed to be prior to the introduction of Christianity-been the custom to imprison all those relations of the reigning monarch who were in such a degree of proximity to the throne, as to be likely to disturb his reign. The reader, thinking of Rasselas and the Happy Valley, may conceive that their lot was not very unendurable. But the valley existed only in the fancy of Johnson; the victims of a tyrant's suspicion have seldom the horrors of imprisonment mitigated by considerate treatment. The Abyssinian Princes were confined in dungeons, shut out from the light of day, and treated as though the blood that ran in their veins was a criminal offence. The king was naturally good-natured, and his disposition had been further softened by a terrific earthquake which destroyed great numbers of the people. The embassy took advantage of the moment when his heart was softened by affliction to press their suit. They were successful; and the monarch gave orders that the prisoners should be liberated, and signified his intention to assist himself at the ceremony. Linked together by chains worn bright by the friction of years, they feebly tottered to the foot their chains were knocked off; they were proof the throne, and fell prostrate before it. Then nounced free; and a place assigned them near the monarch's person. "My children," said the king, turning to the embassy, "you will write all that you have now seen to your country, and will say to the British Queen that, though far behind the nations of the white men, from whom the nation of Ethiopia first received her religion, there yet remains a spark of Christian love in the breast of the King of Shoa." With that sentence the book concludes; and we are to understand that Major Harris yet remains in Shoa, to carry out the wise and Christian policy he has so happily commenced. the author for the entertainment it has afforded Of such a work it is poor to say that we thank us. congratulate him, not only on the well-written, It offers higher ground for praise. We curious, and interesting book he has given to the world, but on his honorable and successful conduct of a mission which, whatever may be its effect on commerce, and in this way much may serving the interests of humanity, and of elevatbe anticipated from it, must have the effect of ing the British name. individuals, CHARACTER of itself is station and With nations, as with power. It was the reputation of this country for justice and disinterestedness that induced the banded nations of Europe, when France alone stood sullen and isolated, to place in the hand of England the sword required for the adjustment of the Syrian question; and mightily as her force was wielded, it excited no mistrust, because no rational being doubted her intention to lay aside her arms when the purpose for which they were taken up was fulfilled. This mission is comparatively a slight circumstance, yet it will have its effect; for in its whole management the British character, under Major Harris's gallant and able auspices, is shown dauntless under dangers and difficulties, intrepid in pursuit of a worthy object, Christian in its counsels, beneficent in its actions, and wise, merciful, and civilizing in its policy. If there were books on earth, as we know there MAN IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS, has often been the THE AMOUNT OF CARBONIC ACID EXPIRED BY A are records in heaven, expressly reserved for the subject of investigation among philosophers. From commemoration of deeds of mercy, charity, and a paragraph in the Medical Times, we learn that good-will, what a shining page in them would M. E. A. Scharling, after careful experiment, arbe filled by the abolition of a barbarous and bru- rives at the following conclusions. 1st, Man extal custom, which had endured beyond the mem-pires variable quantities of carbonic acid at differory of man, and by the opening of the prison doors to the unfortunate royal race of Abyssinia. The king was seated in his balcony of justice, decked out for a gala day; the British embassy stood around him, mingling with his officers of more carbonic acid than women-children burn state; the people assembled, scarcely compre- cases of illness or fainting, the quantity of carbonic proportionally more carbon than men; and 4th, In hending the news they heard, for justice and acid expired is less than in the healthy state. mercy were novel terms in their ears. At a word Dumas states that he burns rather more than one from the monarch, the state gaoler ushered in hundred and sixty-six grains of carbon in the fourseven of the royal race, men worn with long im-and-twenty hours.-Chambers's Ed. Jour. ent periods of the day; 2d, Every thing being otherwise equal, man burns more carbon when his appetite is satisfied than when fasting, and more when awake than when asleep; 3d, Men expire M. CHRONICLES OF THE KINGS OF NORWAY. From the Athenæum. The Heimskringla; or, Chronicles of the Kings of Norway. Translated from the Icelandic of Snorro Sturleson, with a Preliminary Dissertation, by Samuel Laing, Esq. 3 vols. Longman & Co. THE name of Snorro Sturleson is so well known to all who have made northern antiquities their study, and his Chronicle has proved so rich a mine of information to writers who have directed their attention to Scandinavian mythology and literature, as well as history, that it is rather surprising that no translation of the work should have heretofore appeared. We welcome, all the more heartily, the volumes before us, well pleased that the translation of so valuable a work should have been undertaken by so competent a person as Mr. Laing. Snorro Sturleson, was born in 1178, in Iceland, a country early and singularly distinguished for its literary tastes-a country in which the Scalds found their latest asylum, and which boasted a printing press, and a band of scholars, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Snorro was a member of the privileged class, claiming descent from Odin, and consequently entitled to hold the hereditary office of Godar, which, although no longer including the functions of priest, still allowed its possessor to act as judge in the district where he resided. The early associations of Snorro were favorable to the future historian. He was fostered, a phrase which signified education, rather than nursing, by Jolin Loptson, the grandson of Sæmund Frode, the compiler of the older Edda, and in Loptson's family he continued to live until he married. He appears to have been rapacious, ambitious, and overbearing, and has been accused of betraying the independence of his country, by aiding in reducing it to a mere province of Norway. It is probable, as Mr. Laing remarks, that much more is laid to Snorro Sturleson's charge than is really his due. In 1221 he took his first journey to Norway, with a poem in honor of Earl Hakon Galin, who sent him a sword and armor. He paid subsequent visits to Norway; but in 1241, his three sons-inlaw came by night, and murdered him, on the plea that he had been convicted of treason. Indeed, from the memoir prefixed to this work, the historian appears a veritable type of his times-"a man rough, wild, vigorous in thought and deed, like the men he describes in his Chronicle." their family branches, according to what has The work begins with the Saga of the Yngling family, from the days of the great founder of the Scandinavian dynasty, Odin, to Halfdan the Black; and it gives a rude description of northern Asia, where there is a river, "properly called by the name of Tanais, and which falls into the ocean at the Black Sea ;" and on the east of it was Asaheim; and here was the city so celebrated in northern mythology, Asgaard: "In that city was a chief called Odin, and it was a great place for sacrifice. It was the custom there that twelve temple Godars should both direct the sacrifices, and also judge the people. They were called Diars, or Drotners, and all the people served and obeyed them. Odin was a great and very far travelled warrior, who conquered many kingdoms, and zo success-, ful was he that in every battle the victory was on his side. It was the belief of his people that victory belonged to him in every battle. It was his custom when he sent his men into battle, or on any expedition, that he first laid his hand upon their heads, and called down a blessing upon them; and then they believed their undertaking would be successful. His people also were accustomed, whenever they fell into danger by land or sea, to call upon his name; and they thought that always they got comfort and aid by it, for where he was they thought help was near. Often he went away so long that he passed many seasons on his journeys." The "laying his hand on their heads" seems to us to point out the Asiatic derivation of Odin and his followers, as much as their burning the dead; and the subjoined story, we think, is decisive. Hæner and Mimir had been sent as hostages from Asaheim: "Now, when Hæner came to Vanaheim he was immediately made a chief, and Mimir came to him with good counsel on all occasions. But when Hæner stood in the Things or other meetings, if Mimir was not near him, and any difficult matter was laid before him, he always answered in one way-Now let others give their advice;' so that the Vanaland people got a suspicion that the Asaland people had deAt whose suggestion, or under what circum-ceived them in the exchange of men. stances, this Chronicle of the Kings of Norway' was written, we cannot ascertain;-probably his love of tales of wild adventure prompted Snorro to set about the task of collecting the materials. What these were, and from whence derived, the following extract from his preface will show : "In this book I have had old stories written down as I have heard them told by intelligent people, concerning chiefs who have held dominion in the northern countries, and who spoke the Danish tongue; and also concerning some of They took Mimir, therefore, and beheaded him, and sent his head to the Asaland people. Odin took the head, smeared it with herbs so that it should not rot, and sang incantations over it. Thereby he gave it the power that it spoke to him, and discovered to him many secrets." This notion of a human head preserved by magical art, and giving oracular replies, is one of the most ancient Eastern superstitions. It takes its place both in Arabian and Jewish legend; it was subsequently imported from the East by the earliest crusaders; and the reader |