branch at Claremont; he has glimpses of man- however, frequent visits to London and other ners and opinions "when George the Third places, including Continental trips on several was king;" with frequent anecdotes, good in occasions. Her activity as a writer closed with themselves or from the names attached to them. her sixtieth or perhaps her fiftieth year; but A great part of the book, however, consists of she wrote till nearly her death. She pubtrivial remarks or slight occurrences. More of lished, in Tait and Chambers, reminiscences incident, too, is wanted as the story of a life; of her own life, (of which use has been made a greater insight into the training and pro- in this volume,) when she had passed her gress of the author, as well as into the grounds threescore years and ten. The last ten years of her religious "connection." Passages from of her life were clouded by infirmity and pain diaries, letters, or a fragmentary autobiogra- she was troubled with rheumatism; but not phy, indicate that Amelia Opie wrote as Pope more than "age protracted" almost inevitably lisp'd in numbers-for the numbers came" brings. Her life upon the whole was happy ; that her genial nature gave warmth to her and she seems to have had no idea of her style; that probably real occurrences, depos- waning fame. Few are so cosey as this at ited in the mind to grow, often formed the seventy-five.

germ of her tales; and that her extensive ac

a childless widow! All my nearest ties engrossed been a lone woman through life; an only child; by nearer ones of their own. If I did not love to be alone, and enjoy the privileges leisure gives, what would have become of me! But I love my lot, and every year it grows dearer still; though parting with beloved friends throws, for a while, a deep shadow over my path.

quaintance with society modified by art was I do so enjoy my home. In a morning I am used for the filling-up. She was born a Uni- only too full of company; but when at nightfall tarian; for years she was, perhaps, practically I draw my sofa round for a long evening to mya nothing-at-all-ist. As half a century rolled self, I have such a feeling of thankfulness!-and on, she began to turn her attention to religion; so I ought. It is well to see how the burden is and finally settled down amongst the Quakers, fitted to the back by our merciful Father. I have -prompted as much, probably, by her personal associations with the Gurney family and other "friends," at Norwich, as by any theological considerations. All this, however, we are told or see dimly. The point of struggle seems to have been one of grammar; the Friends' "plainness," in thee and thou, and that omission of distinctive titles which Chalmers notes when he met the novelist without knowing her for some time: "I could have recognized in Mrs. Opie an acquaintance of thirty years' standing; but I did not and could not feel the charm of any such reminiscences when Joseph John [Gurney] simply bade me lead out Amelia from his drawing-room to his dining-room.

From a very early period, Mrs. Opie was a constant frequenter of the Assizes at Norwich. The actualities of life and the play of the pas sions, which she saw there, gave, no doubt, reality to her fiction, and preserved her from the absurdities into which the mere frequenter of "society" is apt to fall. In youth she visited the Lunatic Asylum from pity and curiosity, till she was shocked or frightened away. A patient offered an important sug gestion.

The father of Amelia Opie was Dr. Alderson, a physician of Norwich; the family was of repute and consideration; the present Baron Alderson is a nephew of the Doctor and a cousin of the novelist. In consequence I was now eager to leave the place; but I had of the death of her mother, Miss Alderson at seen, and lingered behind still to gaze upon, a fifteen headed her father's table and entered man whom I had observed from the open door the world. We hear of little flirtations and at which I stood, pacing up and down the wintry walk, but who at length saw me earnestly attentions; but it was not till 1798 that she beholding him. He started, fixed his eyes on me married Opie the artist, and not till after her with a look full of mournful expression, and marriage that she began to publish. Among never removed them till I, reluctantly I own, her earliest works was one of her best as an had followed my companions. What a world exciting tale, the Father and Daughter. The of wo was, as I fancied, in that look! Perhaps I conjoint celebrity of husband and wife, and resembled some one dear to him! Perhaps but Amelia's Whig not to say Jacobin politics, led it were idle to give all the perhapses of romantic her into society of all classes, political, fashion-sixteen, resolved to find in Bedlam what she thought ought to be there of the sentimental, if it able, literary, and artistical, and gave her a were not. However, that poor man and his social celebrity which, looking coolly back on her actual literary merits, seems strange, although her sprightly disposition and evident love of company might have influenced it. Her husband died in 1807; Mrs. Opie subsequently lived at Norwich with her father, till Amelia and her friend Mrs. Inchbald were his death in 1825; and then by herself; making, both great admirers of extreme politicians.

expression never left my memory; and I thought of him when, at a later period, I attempted to paint the feelings I imputed to him in the “Father and Daughter."

She attended the trials of Hardy and Horne My next letter (and I shall certainly answer Tooke; was an idolator of Charles Fox, Bona- your answer) shall contain more amusing stuff. parte, and Lafayette, - Bonaparte to a de- At present I have only time to say, Kemble was gree which now seems strange, though it really arrested for a debt kindness had made him incur, only indicates the violent party feelings of the day, which swept every one within a vortex of almost faction. She lived to modify her views somewhat; though clinging to Lafayette to the last to be sure, he flattered her. If Peel was not an early favorite, he won her "heart" at last, though not by politics.

(for 2004.,) as he came out of the theatre on Saturday last. He is not yet in limbo, but to gaol Sheridan pays the money; and never will he he is resolved to go on Wednesday, unless Mr. play again till it is paid. Sheridan swears and protests that he will pay the debt, and that he knew not of the transaction; whereas, it is certain that Sheridan went to the bailiff, and, for fear of a riot, prevailed on him to put off the Sir R. Peel's heart has stolen mine: that ex- arrest till the play was over. We think Shequisite self-oblivion, and that prompt sympathy ridan dares not let him go to gaol, and go he with poor Haydon's sorrows, even only four days will. before his death: and then the feeling and immediate reply to the hopes of the poor suicide in his Although belonging to a sect, there was letter in his dying moments; and the prompt nothing sectarian about Amelia Opie except help, and the promised succor of his purse and in forms. In her last illness she had the Litany influence at a future time; and when he (Sir read to her, earnestly making the responses; Robert) was not himself lying on a bed of roses! and she was surrounded, in life and death, by Oh! he is a good as well as a great man, and God's blessing must rest on him. counterfeit presentments of men opposite enough.

Erskine was a friend and favorite. The last time she heard him was in a great "rightof-way cause," when he excelled himself. Shortly afterwards he was shelved on the woolsack; and found it out, if he did not know it from the first.

Fortunate, therefore, were those who heard him that day, as never again was he heard to equal advantage. A few months afterwards he was made Lord Chancellor; and when, while talking to him at a party in London, I told him I was every day intending to go into the Court of Chancery in the hope of hearing him speak in his new capacity, his reply was, "Pray do not come! you will not hear anything worth the trouble. I am nothing now: you heard the last and best of me at Norwich last year.

We know not whether the following story of Sheridan and John Kemble is new; it is characteristic.

were there;

She lay dead; placed in her coffin in the lower chamber beneath the one in which she had breathed her last; surrounded by the portraits of her friends, which, hanging upon the walls of the room, used so often to attract her notice, and win from her some expression of remembrance and regard. Men of all views, political and religious, there by some superiority of natural or acquired all known, and having earned a niche excellences. There Lafayette, Cooper, David, Madame de Staël, and others of her foreign friends, hung side by side. There J. J. Gurney and his brother, Elizabeth Fry and Lucy Aggs, and close by them the Bishops of Norwich and Durham, and Professors Sedgwick and Whewell; there the poets and statesmen whose genius had charmed her; and last though not the least, Mrs. Siddons in her glory as Queen Catherine.

From The Athenæum.

appears to have cared for none of these things, Memoirs of Joseph John Gurney; with Selec- provided that he could only prove his hero to tions from his Journal and Correspondence. have been a consistent quaker; his work, Edited by J. B. BRAITHWAITE. Norwich, therefore, is as elaborate a piece of effacement, Fletcher and Alexander; London, Cash. where illustration was wanted, as the library of sectarian literature contains. "The dogTHIS book is heavy, materially, morally, ma first" is obviously our writer's motto,-in and biographically; by no means equal in in- working out which he has lost sight of large terest to the Memoirs of Mrs. Frye, Fowell truths, characteristic traits, and general symBuxton, or Wilberforce, which have gone be-pathies. Joseph John Gurney fell upon evil fore it. Yet Joseph John Gurney took an ac- days for the Society founded by George Fox, tive part in the scenes and transactions among which he speaks of, in more than one place, which the energetic and benevolent persons as "withering away," as "a poor, broken, referred to moved and had their being. Like and peeled remnant," etc. Some twenty years them, he had a wide sphere of usefulness, and ago it was shaken to its centre by a schism, an extensive circle of friends. He was, too, a which resulted in the secession, both in Amescholar and a gentleman Mr. Braithwaite rica and England, of many influential and de

yout persons. Its counsels and discipline, too, | tains is the portrait of a famous and sincere have been felt to be oppressive rather than man, whose peculiarities, however, were too sanitary by those who, while they look back salient to be utterly concealed, even when the to the harsh and vigorous protests of the early portrait was painted in drab-not Indian Puritans with respect-regarding them as the ink:inevitable counter-check to Superstition-ima- As we drove up to the Eagle Inn, we met our gine that outward and visible signs must dear nephew, E- B-, a student of Trinity Col change with the times, or else must themselves lege, who was our faithful companion during the degenerate into a symbolism as superstitious remainder of the day; and G- H-afterwards as that which they were originally devised to joined us. After ordering dinner, we sallied reprove and oppose. Seeing, then, that "the forth for a walk; but first sent a note to our dear Church" has been in a state of transition friend, Charles Simeon, the well know Fellow of (not to say decay), the adherence or defalca- King's College, to propose spending part of the tion of those distinguished by education, for-the inn, there arrived a small characteristic note, evening with him. While we were absent from tune, and position, has become a matter almost hastily written by him in pencil-"Yes, yes, yes, equivalent with its life and death struggle. come immediately and dine with me!" Simeon Thus the eyes of the Society of Friends have has the warm and eager manners of a foreigner, been anxiously fixed upon Joseph John Gur- with an English heart beneath them. He is full ney as one having a "yes" or "no" which of love towards all who love his Master, and a carried momentous weight with it. From this faithful, sympathizing friend to those who have point of view, exclusively, Mr. Braithwaite the privilege of sharing his more intimate affec appears to look upon his hero's grave. Ta- tions. To all around him, whether religious or lents the latter had, we are somewhat carelessly worldly, he is kind and courteous; and by this told-tastes such as belong to a happy nature he has gradually won a popularity at Cambridge means, as well as by the weight of his character, refined by education-social qualities which which now seems to triumph over all prejudice insured him a place and a welcome wherever and persecution. He is upwards of seventy years the great and good were congregated. Hu- of age, but his eye is not dim. his joints not mors, too, he must have possessed; though the stiffened, his intellect not obscured. His mind, observances of a system nearly as merciless in lips, eyes, and hands, move along together in its destruction of individuality as monachism unison. And singularly pliable and rapid is he in its severest forms, may have dyed, and both in his mental and bodily movements; quick pruned, and tamed these till their existence to utter what he feels, and to act what he utters. was to be guessed rather than known. Yet while all his thoughts and words run in the chanHis conversation abounds in illustrations; and, we find little in Mr. Braithwaite's book save nel of religion, he clothes them with brightness Joseph John Gurney's ministerial and mission- and entertainment; and men, women, and even ary life and services, elaborately set forth and children, are constrained to listen. *** We illustrated in passages from journals, corres- declined his invitation to dinner, and had no inpondence, etc., couched in a Scriptural phra- tention of intruding upon him before the evenseology too arbitrary and peculiar for those ing; but as we were walking near King's Colwho have not matriculated in it to relish or lege, we heard a loud halloo behind us, and presalways to comprehend. The book, in short, ently saw our aged friend, forgetful of the gout, has been written with an animus not very far dancing over the lawn to meet us. Although removed from controversial advocacy, and be- the said lawn is forbidden ground, except to the ing principally aimed at the Yearly Meet-in transgressing the law on such an occasion; Fellows of the college, we had little hesitation ing" will probably find but a limited circula- and our hands were soon clasped in his with all tion beyond the worshippers represented in the warmth of mutual friendship. He then bethat assemblage. This is to be regretted, since came our guide, and led us through several of the lives of good teachers contain testimonies the colleges." of larger import than those which go to establish the peculiarities of any given sect. Nor Of other passages in these ponderous vohave their survivors any right to complain lumes such as J. J. Gurney's memoranda of that the influence of the dead is perishable, if conversations with Dr. Chalmers, and his visit their views be misunderstood, if their works to the West India Islands, shortly after the be criticised, when biographers take such work of Negro emancipation had been com pains to shroud and shut them up in the strange and exclusive cerements of a uniform which both confuses all distinctive shape and character, and painfully sets them apart from the sympathies of the great human family of believers and workers.

Such being our opinion of this book, our extracts from it must of necessity be very limited. Perhaps the brightest bit which it con

pleted-the Athenaeum has elsewhere spoken. Into the records and confessions of spiritual experience-into the pleadings for this or the other interpretation of the doctrines of the primitive Friends, it is not possible for us to enter. One day, we trust a biographer may arise who will give us a portrait gallery of the sincere philanthropists, men of the past halfcentury, without reference to shovel-hat, sur

plice, Dalmatic or Geneva bands-laboring not | excretion of oxygen from plants: [a remarkso much to display the small personalities able fact, and worth pursuing, since probably which separated one from another, as to bring there may be some physical cause for the aniout the humanities and sympathies which bind man to man, and (let us hope) priest to priest.

From The Spectator.

GOSSE'S AQUARIUM.*

mating effect which sunlight has upon human beings, apart from its cheerful influence.] The first who actually formed an aquarium was Dr. Johnson, but without any direct aquarium purpose in view. His object was to prove the vegetability," inter alia, of the Corallines. In describing the experiment, he says

IN life, in art, in mechanics, in "exhibitions," action is equally important as in ora- It is now eight weeks ago since I placed in a tory. A busy pigmy is of more account than small glass jar, containing about six ounces of a slothful giant; an active minnow is more at- pure sea-water, a tuft of the living Coralline offitractive than a lumpish whale after the first cinalis, to which were attached two or three miwonder is over. In history, in the drama, in nute Confervæ, and the very young frond of a painting, in sculpture, it is action-action-ac-green Ulva; while numerous Rissoæ, several littion! It was action that brought the crowds crawling amid the branches. The jar was placed tle mussels and annelides, and a star-fish, were round De La Rue's envelope folding machine on a table, and was seldom disturbed, though ocin the Great Exhibition. It is action that casionally looked at; and at the end of four weeks, renders the Aquarian the most attractive spot at the Zoological Gardens.

the water was found to be still pure, the mollusca and other animals all alive and active, the ConA main object of Mr. Gosse's book is to fervæ had grown perceptibly, and the Coralline bring the "wonders of the deep sea" and the itself had thrown out some new shoots, and seveinterest of its actions home to our tables and ral additional articulations. Eight weeks have our stools, with the charm of possession super- the water has remained unchanged, yet the Conow elapsed since the experiment was begun, the added. How to make or choose an aquarium, ralline is growing, and apparently has lost none from the good-sized goblet to the fountain of its vitality; but the animals have sensibly dechamber which may adorn a palatial conserv-creased in numbers, though many of them conatory-how to stock and manage it when tinue to be active, and show no dislike to their made—and finally how to observe its inmates situation. What can be more conclusive? ―are leading topics of The Aquarium. With need not say that if any animal, or even a sponge, these are combined an explanation of the had been so confined, the water would long beprinciple on which the success of this cham-fore this time have been deprived of its oxygen, ber-sea depends, the story of the discovery would have become corrupt and ammoniacal, and application of the principle, and an acand poisonous to the life of every living thing." count of a collector's visit to Weymouth, whither Mr. Gosse went last year under an engagement with the Zoological Society to furnish their cases with the creatures which attract the gaze of the visitors.

This was published in 1842. In 1850 Mr. Warington made public the results of a successful experiment he had carried out in a fresh water aquarium, and in 1852 of a like The principle on which aquatic plants and result with salt-water; and as these were done animals live and grow in glass cases as in their with the direct purpose of producing an aquanative element, if not so vigorously, is that of rium, the merit of practically establishing these balancing vegetable against animal excretions. curious and interesting objects of amusement Everybody knows that an animal consumes and study seems due to that gentleman. oxygen in respiration, and gives off carbon; Although the history of the aquarium and and that if any creature be confined to a lim-directions for forming and managing it, are ited quantity of air, the consumption and the the most useful and original part of the voexcretion poison the atmosphere, and death lume, the greater portion of it is occupied ensues. The same thing takes place in water, with a description of Mr. Gosse's explorations even without animals; all common water, whe- in the neighborhood of Weymouth, varied by ther fresh or salt, becoming after à time "pu- passing sketches of scenery and peasantry. In trid." It is equally well known that plants a certain degree it is a continuation of his forexcrete oxygen; and perhaps the merit of first mer volume, A Naturalist's Rambles on the suggesting the idea of the principle on which the aquarium is founded belongs to Professor Daubeny, when pursuing his inquiries into the effect of sunlight in specifically stimulating the

*The Aquarium: an Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea. By Philip Henry Gosse, A.L.S., etc. Published by Van Voorst.

Devonshire Coast. The ever fresh and various aspect of nature imparts some of its own character to the book. The uses of the things collected for the aquarium, and the habits of the animals in their new position give interest to the descriptions by giving them application. Passages of this kind are numerous. The following exhibits the Soldier Crab on the

look out for quarters. A story of the doings an instant letting go his old house, on which he of an American species in search of a house pertinaciously kept his feet, occasionally put has been long before the world, and by some ting in his pincers to feel the interior. At length perhaps deemed miraculous; the Aquarium, however, shows it to be a truth.

Looking at my Aquarium, I saw that the Soldier [crab] was in a different Whelk-shell from his own. Both were surmounted, as I have said before, by the Parasitic Actinia, but a diversity

he decided that, inconvenient as it was, it was

better than the new one; and therefore he returned to it, as he had done the previous day, and relinquished the attempt.

The day following he repeated the same process of temporary exchange, walking about for a considerable time with his new abode, and yet at length resuming the old one.

in the color of the tentacles rendered these distinguishable from each other at a glance. I shall call the Crab's own original Whelk No. 1, and Although in theory it seems easy to form an the other No. 2. My curiosity was excited of aquarium, especially at the sea-side, and doubtcourse, and I sat down to watch. The Crab kept less is easy to those "who know how," yet it fast hold of shell No. 1, by placing his walking- requires some preliminary knowledge, probafeet within its aperture, all the time he was with- bly some luck, and unquestionably practice in No. 2. Presently he slipped out his plump and attention. Certain plants live and flourposteriors from the new tenement, and in a mo-ish better than others in a confined and artiment popped back into his old one, which was indeed the larger of the two, and hobbled away. "The next day I saw the attempt renewed, and this time witnessed the procedure ab initio. The Soldier on his rambles blundered on a third Whelk-shell, invested by the beautiful Adamsia, but untenanted. This he seized, rolled over, and turned about in all directions, feeling it in all parts, both within and without. The Adamsia he seemed not to like, and tried repeatedly to scrape it off the shell with his pincers, laboring hard at the work, though ineffectually the rude operation appeared to produce little inconvenience to the soft and delicate but tough-skinned Anemone, which, withdrawing its tentacles and contracting its body, offered a passive resistance to the persecutor. At length he was satisfied that the shell was much too small, and, relinquishing it, proceeded on his travels.

ficial state. The same may be said of animals, and in a greater degree. Skill and delicacy are required in collecting and manipulating; the collection must be made at low-water without regard to wet or dirt; unless the amateur have some knowledge of botany and icthyology, he will be unable to name his own possessions. However, it is easy enough to make a beginning: if there is natural aptitude in the individual, he will soon make a progress; even if there is no taste, he will have filled up some vacant hours in a healthful occupation at a trifling cost.

A rich fund of entertainment is very accessible to any one who can procure a few bits of weedcovered rock from the level of low-water. They Presently he came to shell No. 2, that he had need scarcely be selected. With a hammer knock in vain tried yesterday: that essay, however, he off a few points of the stones, of the size of a had evidently forgotten, or at least did not recog-crown-piece; the rougher, more leprous, more nize the shell; for he immediately began to turn discolored, in short more dirty, the better. Put it about, rolling it over and over with his sharp them into a globe of sea water, an uncut decanfeet, twisting the Actinia most awry. He care-ter, or a widemouthed bottle, or, best of all, a fully examined the interior, feeling it all over confectioner's show-glass, and let them remain with both claws, and trying every spot as far as for a few hours. At night examine the sides of he could reach this examination he continued the bottle carefully with a pocket-lens, placing a for perhaps five minutes, and then, as if satisfied, candle on the opposite side. The multitude of cudrew out his feet and made an essay to quit his rious little creatures that will have crawled out. own shell. It was apparent that the exposure of and will be found mounting the walls of their his soft person was considered somewhat danger-prison, is quite surprising. Minute mollusca, both ous. for he first felt with his antennæ in all di- bivalve and univalve, uncouth-formed Crustacea, rections around, vibrating them up and down. tiny Star-fishes, and especially Annelida, will and partly coming out and retreating several times before he ventured. At length, however, out he popped, and into the new house as quickly, where he turned and settled himself comfortably. There was not much difference in dimensions between the shells; but, as I have said, what there was, was in favor of his original dwelling.

He remained in his new quarters for ten minutes or more, moving about a little, but never for

pretty certainly reward the investigator. The last-named class occurs in remarkable abundance and variety; while if, after you have gone round the glass, noticing particularly the very edge of the surface-line, you pass your eye, assisted by the lens, carefully over the surfaces of the bits of stone, you will probably find many more crea tures, such as tube-dwelling Annelides, the smaller Zoophytes, and several species of the delicate Bryozoa.