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It is a trough of earthenware, with plates of zinc and copper soldered together in pairs, each pair being fixed at regular distances from each other, and the interstices filled with fluid; the best is acid diluted in water. By this means the electric fluid is produced, and carried on from one plate to another, till it reaches the extremity, where a wire made of platina receives it. The fluid evolved at the one wire is positive electricity, or the same as we before stated was obtained from glass; that at the other wire negative, answering to what was obtained from the friction of sealing-wax or resin.

There are two theories with regard to the cause of this one, that it arises in some way from the contact of the zinc and copper; this is supported by Sir Humphrey Davy; the other is called the chemical explanation, which we will here give. According to this, the acid of the water oxidizes* the zinc,

and renders it unable to retain so much electricity as it had before. It accordingly gives it out to the fluid, which conducts it to the opposite plate of copper. Hence it passes to the succeeding plate of zinc, whence it is driven as before. The same action continues to the end. The chief difference between the electricity we obtain by the common glass machine and the voltaic or galvanic battery, is, that the latter gives us the fluid in the most intense state, the former in the greatest quantity.

The method of explaining the action of the electrical machine, according to the theory just mentioned, is, that the amalgam* put on the latter, obtains from the atmosphere oxygen by friction.

We have thus cursorily noticed the powers and properties of matter, under the four heads of the attraction of cohesion, the chemical or heterogeneous attraction, caloric, and electricity.

THE

(Europ. Mag.)

THE LAST SHILLING.

HE clock struck six, as Harry Craven issued from his obscure lodging in Burleigh-street, ExeterChange, to attend his professional duties, in the orchestra, at one of the minor theatres, in the southern division of the metropolis. It was a dismal November evening; a dense fog obscured the atmosphere; yet he walked forward with a firm, buoyant step, for Harry had a light heart, and a clear conscience, and was not yet eighteen. In crossing Waterloo Bridge he did not encounter a single passenger; all above, before, around him, was loneliness and gloom; while the dark watery expanse flowing silently below, showed through the beautiful balustrade with an appalling dreariness. Harry was touched with a feeling of melancholy; but the emotion was

*Here, as before, regularity obliges us to defer the explanation of some of the terms which we are compelled to use. In the acid there is a certain part of the acid and of the water called oxygen. This has a great inclination to unite with all metals, but with some more than others. It lessens the conducting power of those with which it

unites.

transient, and the unbidden sigh which arose to his lip terminated in a merry whistle.

About three hundred yards beyond the second toll, he came up with a woman, who was standing with her back towards him, as though avoiding observation, holding by the wall that skirts the foot-path, and leaning her cheek upon the stone parapet. Her tattered garb bespoke extreme poverty; her arms were bare, and the slight covering that was spread over her shoulders was drenched with the heavy dew. She asked no alms, she uttered no lamentations; but the sound of her bitter sobs reached Harry's ear, and arrested his progress. He briefly enquired the source of her suffering, and was soon enabled to gather from her broken, incoherent accents, that she was the mother of a large family, reduced to a state of the most abject distress and destitution, and having been unsuccessful during the day in her attempts to

Amalgam is a metallic compound formed of mercury, zinc, and tin, with some oil

or grease.

obtain some relief to their necessities, she had formed a resolution to drown herself, rather than return home to brave the unanswerable cries of her children's hunger. "But, oh! my baby," she exclaimed, "my own dear baby, what must become of you ;" and the tears that gushed from her eyes seemed drops of blood wrung from her heart, by the torturing thought of her infant perishing for want. Harry's hand was instinctively in his pocket; there was but one single coin remaining there, and that was a love token! a curious shilling of the reign of Queen Anne; but the end justified the means; his time was pressing; he hastily drew forth the keepsake of his absent fair, and putting it into the woman's hand, ran off towards the theatre; while the object of his compassionate bounty sunk, overwhelmed with gratitude, on her knee, pouring out fervent benedictions on the head of her youthful benefactor,for his unsolicited and timely aid. Harry was a sad, thoughtless, unthrifty cashier; his salary, such as it was, was always mortgaged a fortnight in advance; yet the boy had so much of honour and honesty about him, that his fellow-performers, or even the manager himself, never hesitated to lend him a guinea at any time. On this evening he executed his part, as secondo violino, with unusual ability and spirit; and when the performance was over, adjourned with a musical colleague, to a tavern in the neighbourhood, which the persons belonging to the theatre were accustomed to frequent. "Come," said Harry's companion, when they had made an end of their refreshment, "show us your metal, my lad; hand up some semi-quavers.'

"Devil a doit have I got," answered Harry, "not a single demi-semi to buy a bit of rosin," turning out his pockets as he spoke, to evince their utter emp

tiness.

"Why, where's your silver pocketpiece!" exclaimed the other; "your Anna Regina? the lady's head without a tongue in it. I thought you always carried it about you, just to swear by, and to pay for your swearing; a shilling's the change for taking an oath you know." ATHENEUM VOL. 1. new series,

13

"Oh," replied Craven, hesitatingly, "I've lost it, that is, I gave it away just now."

"Fie, for shame," rejoined his friend, "give away the seal of your mistress's constancy! why, I'd as soon have parted with the great seals of England."

"The fact is," said Harry, in exculpation, "I used it to bribe a poor devil of a woman not to throw herself into the Thames; though, mayhap, I was a fool for my pains, for it's odds if the world of waters, or any other world, be not better than this one."

Harry then recounted the incident he had met with on his way to the theatre, adding, "I'd gladly give a sovereign this moment to redeem that old shilling; and it's not worth more than eight-pence, I guess, to any one but me."

"Ah, you're a noble rascal," cried his messmate; "I don't want your cash. There, mine host, subtract two-thirds out of that half-crown."

The landlord, who had been standing near the box during the latter part of the dialogue, bowed respectfully as he offered the change; and eyeing Craven with a marked expression of kindness, wished his customers a cordial "good night;" and the two friends shortly afterwards left the house. It was a few days subsequently to this that Harry, being engaged one morning at reliearsal, received a message, desiring to be spoken with by a person who refused to give his name; and, on descending to the box-office, was surprised to find the landlord of the Wellington Arms waiting to see him; who at once declared the object of his visit by proffering to the astonished Harry the identical piece of money that he had bestowed in charity; at the same time explaining how it had come into his possession by saying, that having been asked its worth by a baker in the neighbourhood, who stated that he had taken it of a poor woman in payment for a loaf of bread, on the very night in question, and having heard Harry bewail the loss of such a coin, he bartered with the baker for its full nominal value, in order that he might have the satisfaction of restoring it to its original owner. Harry, delighted with the re

covery of his treasure, after making a thousand acknowledgments, drew out his purse to substantiate his gratitude; but the worthy old man declining his liberality, took Harry apart, and after briefly commenting on the youth's candour and generosity, went on to say, that, if he felt inclined to relinquish his present unprofitable pursuit, he would be happy to appoint him major domo of his own lucrative concern. "I have got neither chick nor child," said he. "I once had a boy, indeed, he might be about your age, but the perverse dog went to sea and was lost; and my wife is but a poor sickly thing, so I am obliged to confide the business almost entirely to servants, who consider it, I presume, their chief duty to cheat me of every sixpence that they possibly can; but now, if you will come and put

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(Sel. Mag.)

SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS.
THE DEADLY FIERY WIND.

NUMBERS xi. 1. "The fire of opened them. That the water which the Lord burnt among them." the caravan had with it was so heated This is now generally understood as by it, that it seemed as if it came from referring to the deadly fiery wind, the fire, so that they were not able to which sometimes appears in the eas- drink it. The camels were so affected tern deserts. MAILLET mentions its by this wind that they refused to eat. being felt in the desert between Egypt Its fury, however, lasted only six hours; and Mecca, in part of which the Israel- if it had continued longer, half the caites wandered for forty years. "If ravan must have perished. The year the north wind," he observes, "hap- before a similar wind had destroyed pen to fail, and that from the south two thousand persons of the caravan comes in its place, then the whole cara- going to Mecca. van is so sickly and exhausted, that three or four hundred persons are wont in common to lose their lives; even greater numbers, as far as fifteen hundred, of whom the greatest part are stiffed on the spot, by the fire and dust of which this fatal wind seems to be composed.

J. E. FABER is likewise of opinion, that by the fire of the Lord in the above passage, we are to understand the fiery poisonous wind described by MAILLET.

THEVENOT, who set out from Suez to Kabira, informs us, that on the journey they had for a whole day or more such a hot wind, that they were obliged to turn their backs to it, and had their mouths filled with sand whenever they

NIEBUHR not only confirms these accounts, but adds some other particulars. "It is in the desert, between Bassorah, Bagdat, Aleppo, and Mecca, that we heard most of the poisonous wind Samum. The Arabs in the desert being accustomed to a pure air, are said to be able to discover its approach; and as it blows in a horizontal direction, and consequently has not so great a force near the surface of the earth, they throw themselves on the ground while it is yet at a distance. Nature also is said to have taught animals to hold their heads close to the ground when the wind approaches." "One of my servants," Mr. Niebuhr continues to observe, "who was with a caravan from Bassorah to Aleppo,

was overtaken by this wind: some of the Arabs in the company had called out in time, that they should throw themselves on the ground; none of those who did this received any injury, but some of the caravan, and among these a French surgeon who wished to examine this phenomenon accurately, had been too secure, and perished in

consequence. When a man is suffocated with this wind, blood is said to flow from his nose and ears two hours after his death. The body is said to remain long warm, to swell, to turn blue and green, and if the arm or leg be taken hold of to raise it up, the limb is said to come off."

CUSTOM OF MAKING PRESENTS.

1 SAMUEL ix. 7. "Then said Saul to his servant, But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God: what have we ?”

"We all dined at Consul Hastings' house, and after dinner went to wait upon Ostan, the Bassa of Tripoli, having first sent our present, as the manner is among the Turks, to procure a propitious reception. It is counted uncivil to visit in this country without an offering in hand. All great men expect it as a kind of tribute due to their character and authority, and look upon themselves as affronted, and indeed defrauded, when the compliment is omitted. Even in familiar visits among inferior people, you shall seldom have

them come without bringing a flower, or an orange, or some such token of their respect to the person visited.” MAUNDRELL.

BRUCE, after noticing some insignificant present which he had received from an individual who wished to obtain a favour from him, remarks, "I mention this trifling circumstance, to show how essential to civil intercourse presents are considered to be in the East: whether they be dates or whether they be diamonds, they are so much a part of their manners, that without them an inferior will never be at peace in his own mind, or think that he has hold of his superior for protection. But superiors give no presents to their inferiors."

THE FIGURATIVE STYLE OF SCRIPTURE.

ALTHOUGH Sceptical readers of the Bible may be disposed to ridicule some of those figures which appear to them extravagant, and even absurd; yet any one who lends an impartial attention to the subject, will clearly perceive that the occurrence of imagery which would be frequently obscure, and sometimes unintelligible to us, was to be expected in any composition formed on the models of our sacred writings.

1. The innovating hand of time has rendered many things obsolete; and, consequently, the allusions which in metaphorical language are made to those things must be difficult, if not impossible, to be understood. And when we recollect that some portions of the Scriptures were written more than 3000 years ago, and that the latest of them were written between 1700 and 1800 years ago, it would have been very remarkable had we lost sight of none of those customs and none of

those events on which the figures of Scripture are founded.

This

2. The difference between the scene and climate in which the sacred writers lived, and our own, forms another barrier to the right understanding of their figurative terms. prevents us often from perceiving the full force of a passage even when its beauty, nevertheless, powerfully affects the mind. Thus when the Psalmist says, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God," it is impossible not to be affected by the combination of chaste elegance of expression with vehement ardour of feeling. Yet in our temperate clime, where water is scarcely ever known to fail, where the sun is scarcely ever known to pour his sickening ray upon our heads, we are not prepared to enter into all the beauty of the figure, as an inhabitant of Judea would have done. Again, the hart

is not with us a wild animal, subject to the various privations which it was compelled to endure in regions where the sun had burned up its food, and dried the streams at which it was accustomed to slake its thirst. It would be no unusual thing, however, for an Israelite to see this inoffensive animal exhausted and fatigued, and panting for a drop of water; and, consequently, the application of the figure to the Psalmist's desire after God would convey an impression far more forcible than can be produced by it on our minds.

Jeremiah 49, we have a figure still more peculiar to the land of Judea. He shall come up like a lion from the swelling of the Jordan against the habitation of the strong. In this pas sage too, there is obvious beauty and even sublimity of description; but it is considerably more obscure to us than the former. It would however be perfectly familiar and intelligible to those for whom it was first written. What we here know of a lion is chiefly by description, and by the exhibition of a few of these monarchs of the four-footed race encaged in caravans. These are comparatively small and feeble, and at the same time so tame through confinement and the discipline of keepers, that they show us nothing of the true character of that unrivalled animal, who walks in conscious superiority through the forest, or bounds with resistless speed and violence across the plain, and fills, by his tremendous roaring, a whole neighbourhood with terror. The river Jordan, too, is so dissimilar to our rivers, as to increase the obscurity of the passage to those who are not acquainted with the peculiarities of its course. When the snows of Lebanon and of the neighbouring mountains began to melt, and when the rainy season commenced, the mountain torrents rushed into the vale below, and regularly caused Jordan to overflow all its banks, and thus inundated all the adjoining lowlands. The lion had his abode among the lofty reeds which grew on the bank of this river; and when the descending waters caused Jordan to swell so as to invade his resting place, he was driven to madness by the intrusion of an enemy whom he

could not resist, and flew to revenge himself against the inhabitants of the adjoining cities. How striking a picture of the rage and violence of an invading army!

In the second verse of the fourteenth chapter of Hosea, the prayer of repenting Israel is, "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, so will we render the CALVES of our lips." To an English ear there is something grating in the expression "the CALVES of OUR LIPS,”—and without a knowledge of Jewish peculiarities, we shall not understand it. But when we remember that calves were among the best of the sacrifices which were offered up to God, we gain at once a key to the explanation, and a view of the beauty of the figure. The passage, in our language, means simply this; So will we render the best sacrifice of praise from our lips.

3. The dress and manners of the ancients was exceedingly different from ours. Their loose and flowing raiment formed a perfect contrast to the tight and inelegant garb of our own time and country. A knowledge of this is necessary to explain many passages of Scripture. The girding-up of the loins is frequently mentioned in places which allude either to diligence in labour, or to swiftness in running the appointed course. Now it is obvious, that a long, loose robe, would be very inconvenient to servants who required to have their hands much at liberty, and to be able to stoop with ease in the performance of their work; and also to those who had to move quickly, and required that their steps should not be impeded, nor their feet entangled by the length of their garments. To remedy this, they always had a girdle, by means of which, when they had gathered up the skirts of their garment, they fastened it round their loins. To one who knew that he could neither work nor run without having recourse to this measure, how forcible would be such passages as these-Let your loins be girded about, and your lightş burning, and ye yourselves like unto men who wait for their Lord. Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope unto the end, &c.

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