ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OF THE DAYS IN THE WEEK. The English names of the days in the week are supposed to have originated in the time of the ancient Saxons, who were a barbarous and uncultivated people, the paid obeisance to idols, of which there were seven in number; each being distinguished and worshipped by different names, and on following days, according to the reverence in which they were held. The Sun being held by them in great esteem, they dedicated the first day to its worship, which they called Sun-dag, so denominated to the present time. The next day being the second, they sacrificed to the Moon, which was called by them Moon-dag, from which it is evident Monday origi nated. The third day they dedicated to the worship of an idol named Tuisco, who had been a man of great renown in subduing the Germans. This day was styled in honour of his memory Tuis-dag, or Tuesday. It must, however, be remarked, that Tacitus ascribes this honour to the Scandinavian deity Tyr, who was supposed to preside over battles, and that, in the Danish and Swedish languages, the name Tyr's-dag is still retained. The fourth day was set apart for the express purpose of paying adoration to the image of Odin, or Woden, famous for the many conquests he had made as their leader, and called by them "The god of battle;" though Tacitus des cribes him under the name of Mercury, whence it was entitled Woden's-dag-now Wednesday. The fifth day was allotted to the worship of Thor, a god sup. posed by them to have the controul of winds and clouds, and to whom they prayed for seasonable weather; this, therefore, they denominated Thor'sdag-now Thursday. The sixth day they worshipped Freya, or Friga, a goddess, represented to be the giver of peace and plenty, and by some described as the presiding deity of love. This day they termed Frige-dag, whence was derived Friday. The seventh and last day, held in honour of Seater-the remaining image-to whom they offered their prayers for freedom and protection from all their enemies, was distinguished by them as Seater-dag-now Satur day. The ancient Latin names for the days of the week-which are still retained in the journals of parliament, and in the writings of medical men-are, Dies Solis, Dies Lunæ, Dies Martis, Dies Mercurii, Dies Jovis, Dies Veneris, and Dies Saturni. The analogy between these and those of the Saxons-the first and second called from the same planets; the similar attributes ascribed to Tyr and Mars, to Thor and Jove, to Friga and to Venus, and the resemblance between the sound of Seater and Saturn is so striking, that many authors have considered it probable that the mythology of the barbarous nations of the north had a common origin with that of the Greeks and Romans. PAINTING Light consists of but three original colours, red, yellow, and blue, from which all others proceed the orange, green, indigo, and violet, being formed from an admixture of the primary colours, between which they are to be found in the rainbow, or may be shown by the prism. Of these the red is the most intense, and seems to be pre-eminently colour, which becomes yellow in the light and blue in the dark part of the ray, (exhibiting the natural union of colour with chiaroscum.) Painters have agreed to call red and yellow, and their mixtures, warm colours; and blue, and those tints of which the larger portion is blue, cold colours; the presence of all three, either in a pure or compounded state, is indispensable to har mony; and the allotting to each its due quantity and relative position, are points of the first importance in the colouring of a picture.-Ioward on Painting. THE BEREAVED. Not a sigh was breath'd, not a tear was shed, And the stamp of a lasting sorrow, She lov'd--but the hopes of her youth had flown, The grave was made, and the prayers were said, But her pure soul lives in Heaven! T. S. M. DRUNKENNESS.-Take especial care that thon delight not in wine, for there never was a man that came to honour or preferment that loved it; for it transformeth a man into a beast, decayeth health, poisoneth the breath, destroyeth natural heat, brings a man's stomach to an artificial heat, deformeth the face, rotteth the teeth, and, to conclude, maketh a man contemptible, soon old, and despised of all wise and worthy men-hated in thy servants, in thy self, and companions; for it is a bewitching and infectious vice; and remember my words, that it were better for a man to be subject to any vice than to it, for all other vanities and sins are recovered, but a drunkard will never shake off the delight of beastliness; for the longer it possesses a man, the more he will delight in it, for it dulls the spirits and destroyeth the body, as ivy doth the old tree, or as the worm that engendereth in the kernel of a nut. Take heed, therefore, that such a careless canker pass not youth, nor such a beastly affection thy old age; for then shall all thy life be but as the life of a beast, and after thy death thou shalt only leave a shameful infamy to thy posterity, who shall study to forget that such a one was their father. Anacharsis saith, "The first draught serveth for health, the second for pleasure, the third for shame, the fourth for madness;" but in youth there is not so much as one draught permitted, for it putteth fire to fire, and wasteth the natural heat. And, therefore, except thou desire to hasten thine end, take this for a general rule, that thou never add any artificial heat to thy body, by wine or spice, until thou find that time hath decayed thy natural heat; and the sooner thou beginnest to help nature the sooner she will forsake thee, and trust altogether to art.-Sir Walter Raleigh. the brain and spinal marrow associated with the SLEEP. All degrees of excitement in the parts of tional exhaustion. The only limit to this law is the nerves of the sensitive system, are followed by proporcapability of bearing in those parts. Exhausted by mental excitement, the criminal is often awakened for his execution; and the soldier, both by mental and bodily excitement, sleeps by the roaring cannon. NOVEL STEAM-BOAT.-The Journal de SainsEtienne speaks of a new kind of steam-boat. It is called the Grapin, and is remarkable for having, in addition to the usual paddle-wheels, a large cast iron one of about 15 feet in diameter, and weighing 500 quintals, which rises or falls, according to the depth of the Rhone, and is armed with strong teeth, which take hold on the ground. The Grapin is used for the of ore from Lavotte to Givors and has transport carried, on an average, 300 tons a day. ANIMAL MAGNETISM. The history of this doctrine is curious. The ancients fully admitted the power of sympathy in the cure of diseases; but generally attributed its action to the interference of Divinity, or the operation of sorcery and enchantment. A remarkable affinity can be traced between modern magnetism and its supposed phenomena, and the ralations of the Pythian and Sibylline oracles, the wonders of the caverns of Trophonius and Esculapius, and the miraculous dreams and visions in the temples of the gods. Amongst the Hebrews, the Egyptions, the Greeks, and Romans, we constantly discover traces of this supposed power of manual apposition, friction, breathing, and the use of the charms of music and mystic amulets. However, as the progress of intellect dispelled the dark clouds that shrouded the middle ages in superstitious and credulous prejudices, philosophy endevoured to investigate the nature of this mysterious agency. Cardanus, Bacon, and Van Helmont pursued this study; and the latter physicians, having cured several cases by magnetism, was considered a sorcerer, and was seized by the Inquisition. In the beginning of the eighteenth century various experiments were made by the loadstone in researches regarding electricity. In 1774, Father Hell, a Jesuit and professor of astronomy at Vienna, having cured himself of a severe rheumatism by magnetism, related the result of his experiments to Mesmer. This physician was immediately struck with observations that illustrated his own theories respecting planetary influence. He forthwith proceeded to procure magnets of every form and description for the gratuitous treatment of all those that consulted him. Mesmer became the object of persecution and of ridicule, and withdrew to Switzerland and Suabia. It was there that he met with a certain Gassner of Braz, who, having fancied that an exorcism had relieved him from a long and painful malady, took it into his head to exorcise others. When his attempts failed, he accused the patient of want of faith, or of the commission of some deadly sin, which baffled his endeavours. Mesmer was not so credulous, and explained the miraculous cure of Gassner by the doctrines of the animal magnetism which he advocated. From Suabia, he returned to Vienna, whence he was expelled as a quack; and in 1778, arrived at Paris, a capital that had patronised Cagliostro and St. German, and was ever ready to be deceived by ingenious empiricism. Mesmer soon found a war m advocate of his doctrines in a Dr. D'Eslon, and animal magnetism became in fashionable vogue. Not only were men and animals subjected to their experiments, but this wonderous influence was communicated to trees and plants, and the celebrated elm-tree of Beaugency was magnetised by the Marquis de Puysegur and his brother; while the enthusiastic D'Eslon absolutely went knocking from door to door to procure patients. It soon became pretty evident that these phenomena were solely to be attributed to the influence of imagination; and Doppet, one of the mort ardent cisciples of the new creed, frankly avowed that "those who werere initated in the secrets of Mesmer entertained more doubts on the subject than those who were in thorough ignorance of them." Nothwithstanding this evidence brought forward against Mesmer's fascinating practice, he was warmly eulogised, and Herviers, a doctor of Sorbonne, did not hesitate to assert that the Golden Age was on the return; that man would be endowed with fresh vigour, live for the space of five genera. tions, and only succumb to the exhaustion of age; that all the animal kingdom would enjoy a similar blessing; while magnetised trees would yield more abundant and delicious fruits. Such were the circumstances that attended the introduction of animal mognetism, which to this day is defended and maintained by ardent proselytes. Sound philosophy can only attribute is wonderful phenomena to the influtive agency of faith.-Dr. Millingen's Curiosities of ence of the imagination, and the all-powerful decepMedical Experience. A DREAM. I lay me down at a briery brake Where roses hung on the eglantine, And nature appear'd to me divine: Till slumber silently closed my eyes, Had ting'd the clouds of the western skies! Her eye was full as the gay gazelle's; And sigh'd for her woods and fairy dells! To set in the crown of ocean's queen. For liberty's cause and freedom died; The owls were twittering passing by, Her murmurings fell upon the gale, And flowers around her seem'd to sigh. She offer'd up an anxious prayer That Erin might flourish and be free, Then vanish'd light as liquid air F. The heavenly maid, sweet LIBERTY! 1836 upwards of 900,000 tons of coal were brought into CONSUMPTION OF COAL IN MANCHESTER.-In the town-of course, both for manufacturing and domestic purposes. Owing to the opening of the supply of coal is now much increased. Good coal for numerous railways which centre in Manchester, the from Oldham by railway, and sold at 44d. per cwt. domestic purposes is now borught into Manchester last forty years furnished for the public service-21 ISLE OF SKYE.-The Isle of Skye has within the lieutenant-generals and major-generals: 45 lieutenant-colonels; 600 majors, captains, lieutenants, and subalterns; 10,000 foot soldiers; 120 pipers; 4 governors of British colonies; I governor-general; I adjutant-general; 1 Chief Baron of England; and I judge of the Supreme Court of Scotland. The generals may be classed thus :-8 Macdonalds, 6 Macleods, 2 Macallisters, 2 M'Caskills, 1 M⭑Kinnon, 1 Mac-Queen, and 1 Elder. The Isle of Skye is 60 miles long, and 20 broad. Truly, the inhabitants are a wondrous people. It may be mentioned that this island is the birth-place of Cuthullen, the cele brated hero mentioned in Ossian's poems. and the finer shades and variations of sentiment which are thus treasured and recorded, train their whole faculties to a nicety and precision of operation, which often discloses itself to advantage in their application to studies of a very different character. When women, accordingly, have turned their minds-as they have done but too seldom-to the exposition or arrangement of any branch of knowledge, they have commonly exhibited, we think, a more beautiful accuracy, and a more uniform and complete justness of thinking, than their less discriminating brethren. There is a finish and completeness about every thing they put out of their hands, which indicates not only an inherent taste for elegance and neatness, but a habit of nice observation, and singular exactness of judgment. ON ABSENCE FROM A DEAR FRIEND. If thou but knew this heart of mine, You'd feel that throb resembled thine. The hearts of two in friendship met. CAPABILITIES OF WOMEN. Women, we fear, cannot do everything, nor even everything they attempt; but what they can do, they do, for the most part, excellently, and much more frequently with an absolute and perfect success than the aspirants of our rougher and more ambitious sex. They cannot, we think, represent naturally the fierce and sullen passions of men-nor their coarser vices-nor even scenes of actual business or contention, and the mixed motives, and strong and faulty characters, by which affairs of moment are usually conducted on the great theatre of the world. For much of this they are disqualified by the delicacy of their training and habits, and the still more disabling delicacy which pervades their conceptions and feelings; and from much they are excluded by their actual inexperienee of the realities they might wish to describe, by their substantial and incurable ignorance of business, of the way in which serious affairs are actually managed, and the true nature of the agents and impulses that give movement and direction to the stronger currents of ordinary life. Perhaps they are also incapable of long moral or political investigations, where many complex and indeterminate elements are to be taken into account, and a variety of opposite probabilities to be weighed before coming to a conclusion. They are generally too impatient to get at the ultimate results, to go well through with such discussions, and either stop short at some imperfect view of the truth, or turn aside to repose in the shadow of some plausible error. This, however, we are persuaded, arises entirely from their being seldom set on such tedious tasks. Their proper and natural business is the practical regulation of private life, in all its bearings, affections, and concerns; and the questions with which they have to deal in that most important department, though often of the utmost difficulty and nicety, involve, for the most part, but few elements, and may generally be better described as delicate than intricate, requiring for the solution rather a quick tact and fine perception than a patient and laborious examination. For the same reason, they rarely succeed in long works, even on subjects the best suited to their genius, their natural training rendering them equally averse to long doubt and long labour. For all other intellectual efforts, however, either of the understanding or the fancy, and requiring a thorough knowledge either of man's strength or his weakness, we apprehend them to be, in all respects, as well qualified as their brethren of the stronger sex; while, in their perceptions of grace, propriety, ridicule volume, to conclude a few subjects, and to gratify several esteemed contributors. The Second Volume will be published their power of detecting artifice, hypocrisy, and affectation-the force and promptitude of their in the ensuing week. sympathy, and their capacity of noble and devoted attachment, and of the efforts and sacrifices it may require, they are, beyond all doubt, our superiors. Their business being, as we have said, with actual or social life, and the colours it receives from the conduct and dispositions of individuals, they unconsciously acquire, at a very early age, the finest perception of character and manners, and are A. D. MAUNDAY THURSDAY.-This term is derived by Spelman, from mande, a hand basket, in which the King was accustomed to give alms to the poor; by others, from dies mandati, the day on which our Saviour gave his mandate-that we should love one another. It of course always falls on the Thursday before Good Friday. On this day it was the custom of our kings, or their almoners, to give alms, and feed and clothe as many poor men as they were years old. It was begun by Edward the Third, at a jubilee held by him when he was fifty years of age, A.D. 1363, and is carried out annually to an extended number of pensioners by her Majesty almoners at the Chapel Royal. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. "E. W."-" J. L."-" INNISFAIL," and others shall meet attention in our concluding number. "M. E."- almost as soon instinctively schooled in the deep Printed and Published for the Proprietors at the Office, 11, and dangerous learning of feeling and emotion; while the very minuteness with which they make and meditate on these interesting observations, Lower Sackville-street, Dublin, where all communication are to be addressed, to the Editor. The Trade supplied direct from the Office. OF TEMPERANCE, SCIENCE, AND LITERATURE. No. 27-VOL. II. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. THE SOCIALITY OF MAN. PRICE 1d may wall in the solitary man, so that nothing can harm him; you may give him all this world's goods that he can enjoy in his lonely place, and he will pine away and wish to die; for the aching void of his nature is not filled, and he yet needs, as the vital air of heaven, the exhilarating influences of human society. These alone can breathe into his moral nature the breath of life. Surround him with men, and his moral powers, his higher and nobler faculties, spring into activity, and he moves in the moral and intellectual majesty of the noblest work of the Creator upon earth. How is this? It may be thus explained :—If it can be The first great natural want of man, arising from the constitution of his mind, is the society of his fellow-men. The hermit restrains and perverts his nature. He may escape controversy with others, but he makes war upon himself. He exists without living, and dies while he lives; for it is the essence of human life to dwell in such a position as that all the faculties of the understanding shall have full and various employment, and that all the desires and emotions of our nature shall have frequent, wholesome, and harmonious gratification and exercise. Man is so constituted, that this cannot take place except in general society. Accor-made to appear that man, in the social state, hath, dingly, all tradition and history represent man as associated in some manner with his fellow men. From the earliest ages to the present time, in some form or another, under some sort of league or fellowship, the various tribes, races, and nations of mankind have associated together, have acknowledged some common head, king, or government, or have been leagued by some compact, voluntarily entered into, and often enduring for centuries, guaranteed only by the spontaneous and universal feeling of an inward and all-absorbing desire of man's nature for companionship with his fellow man. This arises not from a calculation of greater security, nor from the facilities which society affords for pecuniary gain. Society owes not its origin to a sense of fear nor to the love of money. Neither of these is sufficient to bind man to society in its worst forms, and at the hazard of sacrificing many of his dearest rights and interests. The worst social condition he can better endure than solitude. He can bear the severest blow of tyranny rather than banishment from the face of man. Accordingly, he will endure the bitterest oppression in preference to the sweetest solitude. It must be then, that from some great cause society is as necessary to his moral nature, as food or atmospheric air is to his physical—that there are many deep demands of his higher nature that can only be answered in the midst of men, and which, unsatisfied, leave such an aching void in the soul, that life becomes a burden out of human society. You as respects a large number of his desires and wants, as sure a guarantee for their gratification as he can possibly have out of it, then it follows that, as respects these, he loses nothing by going into society. If, moreover, it shall appear that, as to other portions of his nature, he can be better gratified in the midst of men, than as a solitary being, in so far as this portion of humanity is concerned, he becomes a gainer by human fellowship; so that, if the case were left here, we should have shown that man gains something, and surrenders nothing, in the social state. But if, in proceeding further, it can be established that his noblest endowments of intellect and sentiment cannot be exercised nor gratified in any respect, except in the midst of men, then we show a case of moral necessity that the human constitution demands society-and we establish the absolute right of man to dwell in the society of his fellow men. It will suffice to refer to a few instances in which the powers of our nature are as well protected and exercised, and others in which they are better pro vided for, in society, than in the solitary state. 1. The love of life. Life is safest in society. Such is man's nature, that he will protect his fellow rather than do him harm. Benevolence prompts to sympathy and kind protection, and the sense of justice adds force and certainty to the operation of natural beneficence. 2. The means of subsistence are greatly increased in the midst of the most civilised nations of mankind, by a superior cultivation of the earth, | ciety! This is the sovereign power of the human by commerce, mechanical invention, and more extended and diligent labour. 3. The desire of property is held in most sacred regard by societies of men; its acquisition fostered, and the right to exclusive possession universally acknowledged. This right is not surrendered or abridged, necessarily, by society; while the means of attainment are greatly increased, by an interchange of commodities, a division of labour, improvement in the arts and sciences, and intellectual cultivation; and there need be no interference with it except for contributions for the general good, which in amount fall far short of the advantages for its acquisition and protection gained by society. Property gains by society, over and above all loss in contributions for the public use. 4. The loves of the sexes, in all well-regulated societies, are protected by the laws, and their sacred exclusiveness held inviolablə. In this respect, man and woman are greatly elevated and improved by their social organisation in civilised life. 5. The same may be said of the love of offspring. The parent's love, hope, and pride, receive far greater gratification in society, than it is possible for the solitary man to enjoy. It thus appears that these instinctive desires derive a greater gratification by human fellowship than in solitude; and as yet man is a gainer by communion with his brethren. A slight degree of reflection will also show how finely bis nobler nature is attuned to human fellowship. We may concede that the solitary man may exercise his reverence and awe-that his wonder may be indulged-and that his love of the beautiful, and his pride, may be gratified to some extent in solitude-yet it would not be difficult to show a decided advantage, in all these respects, arising to him from extensive human intercourse. But there remain certain well-defined powers, sentiments, and faculties, peculiar to man, which can have no satisfactory exercise out of general society. These are 1. The faculty of language implies the presence of intelligent beings, with whom we may communicate by speech." 2. Benevolence, which demands a wild field of enterprise and exertion. It enfolds all created beings in its love. The more extended its field of action, the greater gratification flows from it. It demands many objects on which to rest with kind sympathy and expansive love. It would embrace a world of intelligent and sensitive beings in its far-reaching sympathy. It has, in its very nature, express relation to surrounding life, intelligence, and sensibility. 3. Man's sense of justice-the great monitor of the human mind, for ever prompting the inner man ❝ to do unto another as he would that others should do unto him"-uttering the eternal rule of equity and right-demands also to be in the midst of men in the midst of human and moral action; of which it is the great and impartial umpire. Admit a sense of justice, burning for action, "springing eternal in the human mind," having no other office than to prompt man to do right to his fellow men, and yet suppose that his superior nature can be indulged and exercised out of so mind, the most unyielding of any; it rewards with LOVE. There is a feeling in the human heart, A ray of comfort thrilling through the soul, Th' ignited sea of glowing bliss within; Roll'd on by its own energy, to win Which feeds with holy and refulgent source CHINESE TEXTS. The following are the texts of the sixteen disempire:-1. Be strenuous in filial piety and fratercourses delivered twice every moon to the whole nal respect, that you may thus duly perform the social duties. 2. Be firmly attached to your kindred and parentage, that your union and concord may be conspicuous. 3. Agree with your countrymen and neighbours, in order that disputes and litigation may be prevented. 4. Attend to your farms and mulberry trees, that you may have sufficient food and clothing. 5. Observe moderation and economy, that your property may not be wasted. 6. Extend your cultivated. 7. Reject all false doctrines, in order schools of instruction, that learning may be duly that you may duly honour true learning. 8. Declare the laws and their penalties, for a warning to the foolish and ignorant. 9. Let humility and propriety of behaviour be truly manifested, for the preservation of good habits and laudable customs. 10. Attend each to your proper employments, that the people may be fixed in their purposes. 11. Attend to the education of youth, in order to guard them from doing evil. 12. Abstain from false accusing, that the from the concealment of deserters, that others be not good and honest may be in safety. 13. Dissuade involved in their guilt, customes to spare the necessity of enforcing them. 14. Duly pay your taxes and 15. Let the tithings and hundreds unite, for the suppression of thieves and robbers. 16. Reconcile animosities, that your lives be not lightly hazarded. FRIENDSHIP. This is seldom truly tried but in extremes. To find friends when we have no need of them, and to want them when we have, are both alike easy and common.-Feltham |