shillings, &c.; and pieces of stamped copper, as pennies and half pennies; all of real general value; but of late years in England a pernicious attempt has been made to pass stamped paper for money!

Small as was Dr. Wollaston's laboratory, and minute as were the means to which he had recourse in making his experiments, they proved exceedingly profitable to his purse. His discovery of the malleability of platinum, it has been asserted, alone produced about 30,000l. He is also said to have derived great pecuniary advantages from several of his other and even minor discoveries and inventions, which, by being of a nature likely to make them immediately and generally useful, were certain in a short time to produce a considerable return. It has been doubted by some whether this distinguished man, great as he was in science, and possessing many excellent qualities, would not have been greater, had his views been somewhat less directed to the acquisition of a fortune. But if the following story be true-(and there is every reason to believe that it is so)-it proves how very distinct a thing is the prudence which acquires wealth from the iron-hearted parsimony which buries it. Having been applied to by a gentleman, who was involved by unexpected difficulties, to procure him some government situation, Dr. Wollaston's reply was, "I have lived to sixty without asking a single favour from men in office, and it is not after that age that I shall be induced to do so, even were it to serve a brother. If the enclosed can be of use to you in your present difficulties, pray accept it, for it is much at your service.”—The enclosed was a cheque for ten thousand pounds.

RECEIPT FOR MAKING GOLD.-Mr. Dittmer has published, in the Hanoverian Magazine, the following mixture of metals, invented by the Privy Counsellor, Dr. Hermstadt, which resembles gold, not only in colour, but in specific gravity, density and ductility. "Take sixteen loth (eight ounces) of virgin platina, seven loth of copper, and one of zinc, equally pure; put them in a crucible, and cover them with powdered charcoal until they are melted into an uniform mass." We recommend this to the notice of the speculators; a Joint Stock Alchymy Company would come out at a premium. If it succeeds, the occupation of Tlapuxahua and Real del Monte is gone.

THE EARTH METALLIC.-Modern chemists consider the whole earth as metallic, and the different minerals to be little more than various oxides, or rusts of metals produced

by the continued action of the air and water on them, and capable, by suitable means, of being reconverted into metals.

FOSSILS, PEBBLES, &c.

EXTRACT FROM A DESCRIPTION OF A GENTLEMAN'S CABINET OF CURIOSITIES IN PLYMOUTH.-It is, however, in the natural history department of this collection that Major W. has exercised his strength, taste, judgment and skill. The most beautiful specimens of pebbles, agates, jaspers, chertz, quartz, and crystals have been amassed together; as also labrador, topazine, amazon, blood, eagle, landscape, lazutine stone, &c. In this branch of the collection an Egyptian pebble excites the utmost wonder and the most unqualified admiration. It is a lusus naturæ-a red cornelian ground, exhibiting in the centre, in profile, the head of an African female. That it represents the head of a negress there is much more abundant testimony than what is derived from the colour of the profile; there is the evidence of the entire contour-the low forehead, the sunk nose, the dilated nostril, the projection of the jaw, and of every minute feature that is known to distinguish the heads of the negresses of Africa from those of the females of any other country. The neck is also expressed, and the head reposes on it with such perfect regard to nature and grace, that it must strike any beholder "to be the likeness of some pretty negro girl." Pebbles of this description were formerly held in high estimation; and there exist a few at the present day in the cabinets of the curious on the continent, which are valued above diamonds. The story is credited of the agates of King Pyrrhus that represented Apollo and the nine muses as lively as any painter could draw them; and Cardanus says he had one of that kind that was a true and exact picture of the Emperor Galba. In the House of Wisdom, at Constantinople, there is a stone bearing a picture of John the Baptist, and another representing the chair of Solomon. There is scarcely any good collection of natural curiosities that does not possess stones on which clouds, spots, and configurations-forming towers, landscapes, sheep, and other animals—are represented. Of all these, not one is so palpable, so striking, and so perfect in delineation as this natural profile of a negro girl. The cabinet also contains another lusus naturæ of great beauty. On its surface nature has sketched a de

lightful landscape, over which a rising sun is seen to shed both warmth and lustre. There is a stone in this collection, which, for its variety, hardness, lustre, and magnitude, is worthy to be presented to the view of his most gracious Majesty. It contains about a square foot, and is in form like a block of wood. The fibrous property of wood is visible on the upright exterior; and its horizontal surface is full of delicate clouds and figures, made by the composition of its colours :-some are topazine, and shining transparently; others more dark, smoky, and obscure. And under the greatest portion of this surface are seen the capillary vessels through which the sap of the timber was ordained to rise and fall. The appearance is modraporeous; but that the substance is of petrified tree there can exist no doubt. The organic features are those which are peculiar to wood alone. It is of adamantine hardness, takes the most lustrous polish, and is, in short, what lapidaries call agatized wood," and which they class among precious stones. Major W. has several specimens of this treasure in the shape of small blocks and fragments of branches. He purchased them for a very trifling consideration from a person who had brought them from the island of Antigua. It is possible that a London lapidary and jeweller could work them up to the value of two thousand pounds sterling. The labour, however, would be most costly, as the cutting and polishing could only be effected through the means of a power-mill, diamond powder, and mineral rouge. This cabinet holds another petrifaction of great beauty and scarcity. It originally consisted of a mass of extremely fine branches, and leaves of some tender shrub, blended, by chance, and without order, together, and exposed to receive that species of fluid which contains a congealing and petrifying power. The vegetable retains its perfect form and dark primitive colour. It pervades the whole throughout; and, as the petrifying agent is white, the appearance is peculiarly striking and elegant. The stone represents a square, each side of which exhibits the organic character of the transexed vegetable; and so mild and imperceptible was the process of the petrifying power, that it has not crushed a leaf, or decomposed a single fibre. Adjacent to this curiosity is an Arabic stone, so called from the exhibition of various letters said to be of the Arabic alphabet or character.

HUMAN LIFE.

THE life of man is like unto a dream,

Now bright, now full of clouds. It doth appear
Sometimes a glorious thing, exempt from care
And every ill, and doth all goodly seem,
And heaven's great blessing. But as the stream
Of time rolls on, its glories melt in air,
And leave us mortals drinking of despair-

A bitter cup. Within our hearts we deem
Earth one vast wilderness, where nought doth grow
Save rankling thorns, and things which cannot give
Aught to the mind, to make us wish to live,
When once we find our peace is lost below;

But God will soon in mercy end our woe,

And our freed souls the body's death survive.

Camb. Quarterly Review.

THE PLAGUE OF THE HAIL.

BY JOHN GALT.

"And Moses stretched forth his rod toward Heaven, and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt."-Exodus.

'TWAS setting sun;

The cloudless golden horizontal light

Brightened the Memphian domes.-Glittering afar
The mountain pyramids in ether shone;

The Nile below with many a painted sail

Like rippling amber flowed. The air breathed peace-
When suddenly, without portent or sign,

As if the crystal firmament were crush'd,

And the bright fragments flung in anger down,
Fell the miraculous hail.-Storms rush'd abroad;
Clouds black and thick, like shreds of elder night,
Convulsed the sky, and ceaseless thunder roll'd;
The fiery wings of God's dread ministers,
That lavish'd round the hurtling indignation,
Their inextinguishable lightning glanced.
Thrice the diurnal lapse o mortal time,
And thrice again, with deep'ning furor fell

The irresistless hail.-The woods were crushed,
And all with life within its order'd scope
Were battered dead. The old emblazonries
Of storied temples and mysterious towers,

Were worn away, or roughly broke and scarred.
At length another interval of light,
Marking the seventh and tremendous day
Of wrath accelerating, wilder rose,-

Monthly Mag

ANTHOLOGY.

RETROSPECTIVE ESSAYS, REMINISCENSES, &c.

Of midnight thoughts to take no heed

Betrays a sleepy soul indeed;

It is but dreaming in the day

To throw our nightly hours away.

Well I remember that my younger breast

The same desire, that reigns in yours, possess'd.
Me, numbers flowing to a measur'd time,
Me, sweetest grace of English verse, the rhyme,
Choice epithet, and smooth descriptive line,
Conspiring all to finish one design,

Smit with delight.

ON TASTE.

AGREEABLE emotions and sensations may be divided into three orders; those of pleasure, which refer to the senses; -those of harmony, which refer to the mind;—and those of happiness, which are the natural result of a union between harmony and pleasure: the former being exercised in virtue the latter in temperance. Harmony is principally enjoyed by those men who possess, what has analogically been termed, taste;-which Mr. Melmoth defines, "that universal sense of beauty, which every man in some degree possesses, rendered more exquisite by genius, and more correct by cultivation." It is very remarkable," says Dr. Akenside, "that the disposition of the moral powers is always similar to that of the imagination :—that those, who are most inclined to admire prodigious and sublime objects in the natural world, are also most inclined to applaud examples of fortitude and heroic virtue in the moral ; -while those, who are charmed rather with the delicacy and sweetness of colours, forms, and sounds, never fail in like manner to yield the preference to the softer scenes of virtue and the sympathies of a domestic life.” Exciting a love of true glory and an admiration of every nobler virtue, Taste exalts the affections, and purifies our passions; -clothes a private life in white, and a public one in purple. Adding a new feature, as it were, to the pomp, the bloom, and the exuberance of nature, it enables the mind to illumine what is dark, and to colour what is faded ;