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of reason, accident, or time. The struggle between despots and their sub ects for the right of legislation must, for obvious reasons, be decided by the sword; and although we feel a deep and a comforting conviction, that the day, however distant it may be, will inevitably come, when the world will find it hard to believe that a barbarous age once existed, in which governors were held to be wholly irresponsible to the governed; yet it needs but a very small share of political foresight to perceive that the contest between the sovereign de facto, and the sov ereign de jure, will be fiercely disputed and fearfully prolonged. We hope that we will not be regarded as timid or melancholy visionaries, if we venture to express our apprehensions that America may, ere very long, be compelled to take a part in the sanguinary conflict between the proprietors of kingdoms and their rebellious and exasperated subjects. In that event, if ever it should happen, the cause of liberty will mainly depend for success, on the gallant enthusiasm of her sons; and he who has at heart the temporal happiness of man, will ever look upon an ardent and inextinguishable love of freedom, as the best and only trust-worthy barrier against the advances of an enemy-far more destructive to that happiness than war, plague, pestilence, earthquakes, or famine the pretensions of arbitrary monarchy. It is these considerations which prevent us from regarding as exaggerated, the loudest and wildest exhibition of the feelings of the nation; and which, in our eyes, give a character and a consequence to the most trifling testimonial of the people's affection. Let sentiments like these be cherished and encouraged, let the ruling passions of Americans be a love of their own institutions, and a hatred of legitimate oppression; and Liberty, we venture to predict, ere the lapse of many ages, shall be roused to go forth from the place of her refuge, till her voice shall be heard, and her arm shall be felt, to the uttermost ends of the earth.

The following account of an extraordinary piece of musical mechanism, is translated from an Italian Journal, the Antologia. The achievements of this machine appear to us, we acknowledge, so incredible, that we are almost tempted to believe that some Parisian wag (for the information of the editor of the Antologia, is derived from a Paris paper) has written it, to feed the strong appetite for the marvellous, which has been recently de

veloped in that non-descript metropolis. Perhaps, however, some of our readers may have more faith than ourselves in the omnipotence of levers, pendulums and cog-wheels; and to them we refer, as an excellent subject of credulity, the following

MECHANICAL CURIOSITY.

In Paris there has been recently exhibited a singular piece of mechanism, denominated the componium,* or musical improvvisatore. When the instrument has received a musical subject with variations, applied to the machine by a process only known to the inventor, it immediately of itself, decomposes the variations, and reproduces their constituent members in all the diversity of possible permutation, and with all the fertility and address of the most copious and inexhaustible fancy. From these combinations, a series of compositions are produced, varied and determined by a principle so arbitrary, that not even the person who is best acquainted with the mechanical construction of the instrument can foresee the passages which the fancy of this automaton improvvisatore, at any given instant, shall suggest. Each of these variations lasts about a minute; and if we suppose that the instrument performed uninterruptedly, only one of the airs with all the variations which this machine is capable of affording, it would, without ever repeating a single combination, continue to furnish variations, not only for years and for ages, but for so great a number of millions of ages, that although it might be arithmetically exhibited, it could not be expressed in ordinary language. Such is the import of the account of this marvellous discovery, as furnished and confirmed by some of the profoundest natural philosophers of Paris.

Alas!--sang the youthful Feramorz in the valley of Hussun

Abdaul

Alas! how light a cause may move
Dissention between hearts that love!
A something, light as air-a look-

A word unkind or wrongly taken-
Oh! love, that tempests never shook,

A breath, a touch like this has shaken.'

I will not repeat the mournful catalogue of all the pernicious trifles, and formidable nothings, which, like the stings of a bee,

*So accomplished an instrument certainly deserves a more classical appellation.

can frighten Love away, when the javelins of the warrior are hurled at him in vain. But if Feramorz were here, I would tell him he had only told half of the truth, and instead of a vina, I would take a guitar in my hands, and thus I would sing,

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'Tis true, sweet bard- light cause may move

Dissention between hearts that love;'

Yet 'tis as true, a cause as light

May severed hearts again unite.

A look-whose timid gentleness

Will scarce the secret hope confess,

That each harsh word, each unkind thought,

Is now forgiven and forgot.

The tear-that late in anger rose,

And now in silent sorrow flows;

One of those glistening drops, that fill
The eyes of weeping penitence,
(For rebel Love full soon relents,)
Like lingering raindrops falling still,
When the rude storm has passed away,
And severing clouds unfold the day.
A playful smile-that fain would earn
A smile as playful in return;

And seeks, though struggling frowns oppose,
To win the pardon it bestows.

A word-whose mild and humbled tone,

Speaks sweetly of resentment gone;

And, when the lov'd one's heart rebels,
Wafted in suasive whisper, quells,
With more than Music's mastery,
The scornful lip and angry eye.
A single touch-from that lov'd hand,
Whose thrilling pressure can command,
With master-sway and magic art,
The stormiest tempests of the heart.
As erst the enchanter's rod, 'tis said
Wild-heaving Ocean's wrath allayed,
Lulled to repose the whirlwind rude,
And the chafed tyger's ire subdued.
A song-whose soothing speech can melt
The soul, that never else had felt
The rushing tide of tenderness
Oppress the heart with sweet excess,
Bearing a wild tumultuous throng
Of thoughts uuspeakable along.
A sigh-that with soft murmurings,

Steals over the heart's responsive strings,
(As the wind-lyre its sweetest tone
Yields to the southern breeze alone,)
And with contagious melody,

Wakes throb for throb, and sigh for sigh
Oh yes! the penitent voice of love,
Stern bosoms to forgive can move,

Vol. IL No. I,

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And melt the heart that heeded not
Or wrathful word or angry thought.
Thus the first warm sweet sighs of spring,
A kind and magic influence bring,
Dissolving on the mountain's brow,
Receding winter's lingering snow;
While gently-breathing Zephyr then,
Soothes into warmth and joy again,
The hill's cold breast which colder grew,
When the harsh blast ungently blew.
A trifling gift-a toy-a flower-

Oh! there is nought that has not power

(If love the generous charm imparts,)

To join once more divided hearts.

Then, minstrel, though light cause may move
Dissentions between hearts that love,'

Is it not true, a cause as light,

May severed hearts again unite,

In truer, kindlier harmony

Than felt before?-Thus oft we see

The floods, that, round the mountain's base,

The rude descent compelled to sever,

Ere long in closer bands embrace,

And blended thus, flow on forever.

O. P. Q.

New Ideas on Population, with Remarks upon the Theories of Malthus and Godwin. By Alexander H. Everett. 8vo. pp.

125.

We can truly say, that we never opened a book with stronger prepossessions in its favour, than the one before us, and never closed one, with sincerer regret, that we were not entire converts to its principles. The benevolence of the author is so conspicuous, that he excited in us a lively interest in his behalf, and an earnest wish, that he had more fully developed his ideas on this important subject. We have been so long accustomed to regard the theory of population, as explained by Mr. Malthus, as the true one, that we did not feel prepared to yield that full assent to Mr. Everett's, which, perhaps. we might have done, had he entered a little more into detail; neither did the article, which appeared in the North American Review, on the same subject, from the pen of the author's brother, carry entire conviction. Certainly, on no subject were we ever more disposed to be convinced, whether we regard the high source whence these opinions emanated, or the benevolent feelings by which they were dictated. The name of Edward Everett is now become endeared to us by the fondest literary associations, and his opinions on political science have long been considered indubitably correct. We may add, that with

the present solitary exception, we have always had the happiness to find our sentiments coincident with his ; and even now, it is possible, we may differ only from misapprehension. With these remarks, we shall proceed to point out those parts of Mr. Everett's essay, which appear to require some farther elucidation, in order to render them entirely conclusive.

About twenty-six years ago, Mr. Malthus published his Essay on Population, which excited considerabie sensation on its appearance. The principles which he unfolded, and which he proved, or attempted to prove, to result from an inevitable law of nature, were too startling to be readily received. His leading proposition may be stated as follows. The means of subsistence cannot, in the nature of things, increase as rapidly as population increases; but mankind cannot exist without the means of subsistence; and are, therefore, constantly perishing for want of those means. Much has been written to controvert this truth, but opposition gradually ceased, and the objections were forgotten; while Mr. Malthus's theory rose in public estimation, in exact proportion to the degree in which his opponents failed to point out his errors; and finally his work has assumed its station, as the standard on this subject.

Although Malthus cannot, generally speaking, be accused of want of perspicuity, yet there is one phrase which, as it frequently occurs, he ought more fully to have explained. It is obvious that until the precise meaning of terms is established, there can be no definite point of dispute ; and no certainty that the whole may not turn out a verbal difference. Indeed, we strongly suspect the present to be a case in point; and that one chief difficulty between Mr. Everett and Mr. Malthus consists in the meaning of the phrase, 'means of subsistence,' the latter extending its signification to every thing necessary to lengthen out life, as long as nature will permit, and the former supposing it restricted entirely to food. Thus in page 18, Mr. Everett says, that Malthus "maintains that in consequence of the laws of nature, which regulate the increase of the human species, and of the means of their subsistence, there does actually and must of necessity exist in all ages and countries, and in all stages of civilisation, a disproportion between the demand for food and its supply; or, in other words, that there is now, always has been, and always will be, throughout the whole world, a perpetual famine." Now we freely acknowledge, that if Malthus does actually maintain this proposition, he maintains it against all 'experience; for every body knows, there has not existed throughout the whole world a perpetual famine; and we should be within the mark, to assert, that not an individual in the United States has perished of

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