"I'm very glad to see you come in, wonderfully happy and contented on the ma'am," she says in a complaining tone, whole; and if we have hinted, in passing, "I'm sure 'tis a pleasure to see anybody at one or two little matters in which they come in. I'm not treated as I ought to be, might be made more comfortable, we must ma'am,"-lowering her voice to a whis- not forget that in a far more important per "I oughtn't to be here at all. I've matter, and one with which not merely paid rates myself, I have, an' had things so their comfort, but their happiness, was different. 'Tis harder on me than 'tis on most closely bound up, their lot was fortuany of them! I'm sure I feel quite nate indeed. We refer to the large and ashamed that a lady should see me in such overflowing measure of kindness with a place." which they appeared to be treated by the hospital authorities. They used to talk to me of the doctor as if he were a personal friend of their own, and the kindly interest which he took in all their little concerns was evident, by the way in which his opinion used to be quoted, à-propos to almost everything. As to Hannah's plants, we think he must have come to regard them as supplementary patients, so continually did he appear to be asked to prescribe for their health. It is curious to see how often people get what they claim. We used to fancy we could perceive that this self-asserting personage received quite the lion's share of attention and respect from the others. They addressed her as Mrs. H- instead of calling her by her Christian name, and even Hannah seemed to defer to her. Do you hear a faint, catching sigh from the other side of the room a sigh that would have been a groan if the expression of suffering had not been checked by the consciousness of the presence of others? Let us go to the bed from whence it comes. There lies a woman, younger, perhaps, than some of the rest, but chained to her couch by some acutely painful, lingering disease. What a patient, pain-drawn to us!" countenance! The pale lips absolutely As we write, there rises before our mind smile an answer to your greeting, though the voice is so faint you must bend down to catch the words. "It is rather a bad day with me to-day, ma'am ; but I suffer always. I seem sometimes I can't hardly bear myself. I hope the Lord 'll send for me soon but I seem 'tis so long to wait." Ah, yes! two or three years of utter helplessness, of almost constant pain, in a workhouse ward amongst strangers, with everybody she cares for either far away or gone to a better land, must seem long indeed. "God grant her speedy release," you say in your heart as you turn away, pained at the sight of pain that you can neither relieve nor alleviate. But it is time to say good-bye and leave the workhouse; perhaps, indeed, you may even now be murmuring against the tediousness of having been kept there so long a time. But do not grudge it! In the caged monotony of these old women's lives, the coming in of a visitor now and then makes a welcome break, and gives so much pleasure. And, after all, the predominant impression that we carry away with us from the door of the hospital will not be a gloomy one. For those old women seemed And then there was 66 nurse !" If you were to ask the old women if "nurse were kind to them, they would be almost indignant at so cold a question. "Kind!” we think we hear out-spoken Hannah ejaculate. "Kind! why, she's just a mother the recollection of one of the very kindest faces that it has ever been our happiness to behold; the face of a woman who has grown old amidst the toilsome duties of her post, but who, in all the years she has spent in the workhouse, has never ceased to put such a warm, loving heart into the performance of those duties, that for her they have never stiffened and hardened, into an official routine. Hers was that service of the heart which money cannot buy, but which springs unbidden wherever there is an unfailing fount of that divine pity for the sorrowing and the suffering which is, indeed, "akin to love." The touch of her kind hand, the sound of her kind voice- these are the last impressions that we carry away with us, as we retrace our steps through the long brick passages; and glad indeed we are to think, as we come out into the open air, perhaps with a new, keen sense stirring at our hearts, of the beauty of the outer world, and the preciousness of personal liberty, that, after all, the sunshine is not exclusively to be found outside: there is sunshine, and that too of the best sort, within those walls we have just left behind us. From The Spectator. A NEW THEORY OF VOLCANOES. THERE are few subjects less satisfactorily treated in scientific treatises than that which Humboldt calls the Reaction of the Earth's Interior. We find, not merely in the configuration of the earth's crust, but in actual and very remarkable phenomena, evidence of subterranean forces of great activity, and the problems suggested seem in no sense impracticable, yet no theory of the earth's volcanic, energy has yet gained general acceptance. While the astronomer tells of the constitution of orbs millions of times farther away than our own sun, the geologist has hitherto been unable to give an account of the forces which agitate the crust of the orb on which we live. is in a state of intense heat; and if the increase of heat with depth (as shown in our mines) is supposed to continue uniformly, we find that at very moderate depths a degree of heat must prevail suffi cient to liquefy any known solids under ordinary conditions. But the conditions under which matter exists a few miles only below the surface of the earth are not ordinary; the pressure enormously exceeds any which our physicists can obtain experimentally. The ordinary distinction between solids and liquids cannot exist at that enormous pressure; a mass of cold steel could be as plastic as any of the glutinous liquids, while the structural change which a solid undergoes in the process of liquefying could not take place under such pressure even at an enormously high temA theory has just been put forward re-perature. It is now generally admitted specting volcanic energy, however, by the eminent seismologist Mallet, which promises not merely to take the place of all others, but to gain a degree of acceptance which has not been accorded to any theory previously enunciated. It is, in principle, exceedingly simple, though many of the details (into which we do not propose to enter) involve questions of considerable difficulty. that if the earth really has a molten nucleus, the solid crust must, nevertheless, be far too thick to be in any way disturbed by changes affecting the liquid matter beneath. Yet another theory has found advocates. The mathematician Hopkins, whose analysis of the molten-nucleus theory was mainly effective in rendering that theory untenable, suggested that there may be Let us, in the first place, consider briefly isolated subterranean lakes of fiery matter, the various explanations which had been and that these may be the true seat of volalready advanced. There was first the canic energy. But such lakes could not chemical theory of volcanic energy, the maintain their heat for ages, if surrounded favourite theory of Sir Humphrey Davy. (as the theory requires) by cooler solid It is possible to produce on a small scale matter, especially as the theory also renearly all the phenomena due to subter- quires that water should have access to ranean activity, by simple bringing to- them. It will be observed also that none gether certain substances, and leaving of the theories just described affords any them to undergo the chemical changes due direct account of those various features of to their association. As a familiar instance the earth's surface mountain ranges, of explosive action thus occasioned, we table-lands, volcanic regions, and so onneed only mention the results experienced which are undoubtedly due to the action when anyone unfamiliar with the methods of subterranean forces. The theory adof treating lime endeavours over hastily vanced by Mr. Mallet is open to none of to "slake or "slack" it with water. In- these objections. It seems, indeed, comdeed, one of the strong points of the petent to explain all the facts which have chemical theory consisted in the circum- hitherto appeared most perplexing. stance that volcanoes only occur where It is recognized by physicists that our water can reach the subterranean regions, earth is gradually parting with its heat. or as Mallet expresses it, that "without As it cools it contracts. Now if this prowater there is no volcano." But the theory cess of contraction took place uniformly is disposed of by the fact, now generally admitted, that the chemical energies of our earth's materials were almost wholly exhausted before the surface was consolidated. no subterranean action would result. But if the interior contracts more quickly than the crust, the latter must in some way or other force its way down to the retreating nucleus. Mr. Mallet shows that the hotter Another inviting theory is that accord- internal portion must contract faster than ing to which the earth is regarded as a the relatively cool crust; and then he mere shell of solid matter surrounding a shows that the shrinkage of the crust is molten nucleus. There is every reason to competent to occasion all the known believe that the whole interior of the earth' phenomena of volcanic action. In the dis tant ages when the earth was still fashion-1 chief mountain-ranges can have failed to ing, the shrinkage produced the irregulari- notice that the arrangement of these ties of level which we recognize in the ele- ranges does not accord with the idea of vation of the land and the depression of upheaval_through the action of internal the ocean-bed. Then came the period forces. But it will be at once recognized when as the crust shrank it formed corru- that the aspect of the mountain-ranges acgations, in other words, when the foldings cords exactly with what would be expected and elevations of the somewhat thickened to result from such a process of contraction crust gave rise to the mountain-ranges of as Mr. Mallet has indicated. The shrivthe earth. Lastly, as the globe gradually | elled skin of an apple affords no inapt relost its extremely high temperature, the presentation of the corrugated surface of continuance of the same process of shrink- our earth, and according to the new theage led no longer to the formation of ory, the shrivelling of such a skin is preridges and table-lands, but to local crush- cisely analogous to the processes at work ing-down and dislocation. This process is upon the earth when mountain-ranges were still going on, and Mr. Mallet not only being formed. Again, there are few sturecognizes here the origin of earthquakes, dents of geology who have not found a and of the changes of level now in pro- source of perplexity in the foldings and gress, but the true cause of volcanic heat. overlappings of strata in mountainous reThe modern theory of heat as a form of gions. No forces of upheaval seem commotion here comes into play. As the petent to produce this arrangement. But solid crust closes in upon the shrinking by the new theory this feature of the nucleus, the work expended in crushing earth's surface is at once explained; indown and dislocating the parts of the deed, no other arrangement could be looked crust is transformed into heat, by which, for. at the places where the process goes on with greatest energy, "the material of the rock so crushed and of that adjacent to it are heated even to fusion. The access of water to such points determines volcanic eruption." It is worthy of notice that Mr. Mallet's theory of Volcanic energy is completely opposed to ordinary ideas respecting earthquakes and volcanoes. We have been accustomed vaguely to regard these phenomena as due to the eruptive outbursting. Now all this is not mere theorizing. Mr. power of the earth's interior; we shall now Mallet does not come before the scientific have to consider them as due to the subsiworld with an ingenious speculation, which dence and shrinkage of the earth's exterior. may or may not be confirmed by observa- Mountains have not been upheaved, but tion and experiment. He has measured valleys have sunk down. And in another and weighed the forces of which he speaks. respect the new theory tends to modify He is able to tell precisely what proportion views which have been generally enterOur most eminent of the actual energy which must be devel-tained in recent times. oped as the earth contracts is necessary for geologists have taught that the earth's inthe production of observed volcanic phe-ternal forces may be as active now as in It is probable that nine-tenths the epochs when the mountain ranges were of those who have read these lines would formed. But Mr. Mallet's theory tends to be disposed to think that the contraction of the earth must be far too slow to produce effects so stupendous as those which we recognize in the volcano and the earthquake. But Mr. Mallet is able to show, by calculations which cannot be disputed, that less than one-fourth of the heat at present annually lost by the earth is sufficient to account for the total annual volcanic action, according to the best data at present in our possession. nomena. show that the volcanic energy of the earth is a declining force. Its chief action had already been exerted when mountains began to be formed; what remains now is but the minutest fraction of the volcanic energy of the mountain-forming era; and each year, as the earth parts with more and more of its internal heat, the sources of her subterranean energy are more and more exhausted. The thought once entertained by astronomers that the earth might explode This would clearly not be the place to like a bomb, her scattered fragments profollow out Mr. Mallet's admirable theory ducing a ring of bodies resembling the into all its details. We must content our-zone of asteroids, seems further than ever selves with pointing out how excellently it from probability; if ever there was any accounts for certain peculiarities of the danger of such a catastrophe, the danger earth's surface-configuration. Few that has long since passed away. bave studied carefully drawn charts of the Der Greif heiss ich, Meinem genedigen Herrn von Drier dien ich. (I am called the Vulture; I serve my gracious Lord of Treves. The French Illustration has published an The rays GERMANY AND DENMARK. - Judging by an article, attributed to the President of the Norwegian Parliament, Herr Sverdrup, which has been republished in several of the Swedish papers, the efforts of Denmark to recover the Danish portion of North Sleswick do not meet with much sympathy in the other countries of the Scandinavian peninsula. "Is it France, Russia," says this article, or is it Germany, on whose support we should rely in the future? Although this question is of supreme importance to all three of the Scandinavian nations, the power of deciding it for the present, at least, is in the hands of Denmark. After the great revolutionary struggle in Europe was over, Denmark was the only one of the Northern States whose position was not clearly defined. She ruled over a portion of the German nation, and over part of the Norwegian nation - Iceland; and it was to be expected that such an abnormal state of things must lead to misunderstanding in the end. . In the treatment of the difficulty regarding North Sieswick two THE COLOUR OF THE METALS. facts should be borne in mind; first, that the thrown off from a coloured object are mixed mistakes committed by Danish Sovereigns in more or less with white rays, because the light Sleswick were approved by the Danish people; illuminating the object is incompletely decomand second, that, chiefly for the above reason, posed. The colour of a brightly polished metalthe Germans are not conscious of having done lic surface is usually invisible, because the colan injustice to Denmark in the question of Sles-oration due to decomposed light is disguised by wick. These facts should lead Denmark to re- the more powerful reflected light. As moreover gard the question from another point of view; attempts to develop the actual colour of a meespecially as it should be remembered that the tallic surface by reflecting white light a great future relations of the Scandinavian peoples many times from it fail through the loss of the with Germany must in a great measure depend coloured light by dispersion, Seeley has proposed on the attitude which Deninark takes up in this a modification of the experiment. As, when matter. If we ask ourselves whether our white light is decomposed, the reflected coloured national mission leads us to France or to Ger- ray is complimentary to that which is transmany to the Slavs or the Germans. the an- mitted or absorbed, he recommends the examinswer cannot be doubtful. Our national devel-ation of solutions of metals in a fluid that is opment irresistibly leads us to the people whose without chemical action on them. For the alblood and religion are the same as ours, from kaline metals he used dry liquid ammonia, in which we received the first principles of our which they slowly dissolve, forming a solution faiths and which is related to us, both by race that appears blue by transmitted light; and he and by modes of thought. If this be so, Den- concludes therefore that the colour of these mark's attitude towards Germany should be metals by reflected light is red like copper. different from what it is. The language which (Der Naturforscher, No. 36, 289.) Germany now hears from Denmark is the language of hatred, and Germany naturally understands and resents it." Pall Mall Gazette. Academy. WE are assured that the following story is true: The visiting justices of a certain inland county were inspecting a lunatic asylum. A female patient handed to one of them a paper to read in vindication of her sanity; after pe THE Cologne Gazette says that one of the wonders of the arsenal of Metz was a monster cannon 15 feet long and 25,000 pounds in weight, cast early in the sixteenth century, by order of Rich-rusing a part of the document on the spot, the ard of Greiffenklau, Elector of Trèves. The French found it, in 1799, at Ehrenbreitstein, carried it off as a trophy, with 189 others, and deposited it at Metz, where the Germans after the late siege expected to find it. It had been taken to Paris, however, and placed in the Museum of Artillery, where it now remains. The enormous gun bears the following inscription in old Ger man: justices put it aside for the time being, coming to the conclusion that the very phraseology of the writer was conclusive proof of her lunacy. Upon a subsequent and more careful analysis of the petition it was discovered that the sentences which had so struck the justices as conclusive of lunacy were taken verbatim from a leading ar ticle in the Daily Telegraph. Pall Mall Gazette. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY LITTELL & GAY, BOSTON. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually for. warded for a year, free of postage. But we do not prepay postage on less than a year, nor when we have to pay commission for forwarding the money; nor when we club THE LIVING AGE with another periodical. An extra copy of THE LIVING AGE is sent gratis to any one getting up a club of Five New Subscribers. 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