of these mechanics receive pay; they are merely given something additional over the field negro's allowance, but on most estates there is, I believe, no distinction whatever. Sabbath Work. The negroes are uniformly engaged in the forenoon of Sunday potting sugar-I never saw any exception-during crop, which is the only time they are so employed. The mill, too, is generally put about at sun-set on the Sabbath for the slave it is no holiday. I have heard the overseer say, with an oath, that he did not see why the book-keepers should grudge being in the boiling-house in the Sabbath forenoons, when they were paid for it. Clothing allowed by the Proprietor. They are allowed ten yards of Osnaburgh, seven yards of camblet cloth, a hat, a knife, and some needles and thread: this is a man's allowance; the females have in addition five yards of striped stuff, I think, which constitutes their whole allowance for the year; this, with seven herrings weekly, salt fish, rice, and some other trifles, along with the provisionground allowed them, is all they have for their year's toil-an everlasting disgrace to slavedealers. Are the Slaves happy? WILLING free labourers. BIRD-MIND. This ana I have little fears that the slaves would be guilty of any great excesses, were they to be To delineate the instincts, the feelings, and instantly liberated; but, firmly am I of opi-habits of the feathered kingdom, is no part of nion, that as soon as their first ebullitions of joy my present intention. There is as much of and gladness were over, that they would comwhat resembles intellectual sensibilities and mence a new era in their existence-that of reasoning, will and judgment, in them, as in any genus of fish or quadrupeds. What reason has any one to suppose other-logy may be even extended to ourselves; at wise? They have more reason to commit ex- least, I cannot but admit the application of it cesses now than they will have then. It would to such qualities in myself. I have frequently be an easy matter, nothing could be easier, to surveyed the various poultry and the birds that murder the whites in bed, were they so in- frequent the fields and gardens around me, clined. But do they do so? The free blacks with these considerations. If I could transfer and browns are peaceable, because they are my own mind, divested of all the human free; and no one has any cause for supposing knowledge it has acquired, but with its natural that the present slaves would not be equally faculties unimpaired, into the body of any peaceable and industrious, were they permitted fowl about, and give to it the ideas and meto enjoy equality of privileges, and to act their mory which their organs and habits have acpart in the great family of man. quired, should I, in the exercise of my judgment on such sensations as theirs, act otherwise than as they do under the circumstances in which they are placed and live? When I have put the question to myself, I have not been able to discern that I should, in their bodies and condition, conduct myself very differently from them. They seem to do all the things they ought; and to act with what may be called a steady common sense in their respective situations. I have never seen a bird do a foolish thing for a creature of their powers, frame, and organs, and in their state. Each acts with a uniform propriety; nothing fantastic, absurd, inconsistent, maniacal, or contradictory, appears in their simple habits of daily conduct. They seem to have mental faculties and feelings like mine, up to a certain extent; but to that they are limited. They have not the universality-the diversifying capacity-nor the improvability of the human intellect. The bird-mind is the same CHARLES JOHNSTON, bird-mind from generation to generation. Late Book-keeper, St. Ann's, Jamaica. The nightingale is now what the nightingale was four and six thousand years ago-nothing less-nothing more. The eagle is as incapable of advancement as the sparrow. The common fowl, which is found in all regions and climates of the globe, is in each one exactly alike in its functions, faculties, and habits. The song-birds warble now just as they have done ever since human history has noticed Those who are interested in the upholding of the disgraceful system, rail at the idea of knowledge being extended to the slaves; alleging that they were quite incapable of being instructed. Such, however, happens not to be the case. No candid person who has had any opportunity of studying the subject would say so. If free blacks and browns not only have the capacity to acquire knowledge, but are known to do so with an avidity truly laudable, I cannot see why enslaved blacks should not do so with equal enthusiasm, and that with infinitely more advantage and lasting benefit to themselves, than eagerly imitating the worst vices of the whites. They are, in fact, most anxious to be instructed-they frequently express that wish. I should be considered a madman were I to pronounce the slaves happy, after having entered thus far into the details of their condition. They are not happy-generally and specifically, I say they are not. It would be an easy matter to prove the assertion, were I enabled to do so at this time. They say themselves they are not happy, and one would think that they should be best qualified to judge on that point. "Better me dead!" is a common exclamation of theirs. "White man no work," say they, "but poor niger work ;" and "white man sell poor niger." I laugh at the idea of happiness being consistent with slavery; the 13, Rankeiller Street, Edinburgh, one word stands in direct opposition to the other. It is contrary to the human heart to suppose that a slave, especially a West Indian one, should be happy. Frequently has it occurred to me, when being an unwilling witness of their punishments, that the poor creatures, placed, as they are, in a state of abject degradation, looked on their oppressors with a smile of ineffable contempt, as much as to say, "God help you: if we were inclined, we could soon sacrifice you to our just resentment; but, only as we fear sinning much more than you do, we will leave you alone at present-there is a good time coming." It is my own fixed opinion, founded on some experience, that the planters, and other whites in Jamaica, owe their safety solely to the efforts of philanthropic individuals in this country in their cause. These efforts, being well known to the slaves, stay their uplifted arm and retard the day of vengeance. Would they work for wages? I certainly think they would. They seem very fond of collecting a little money; and, in my opinion, the negroes would give a better account of their labours by the substituting of rewards instead of punishments. It would be an easy matter to enlarge on the subject, but time presses. It would be a strange inconsistency were the planters to prefer their present unsettled and continually excited life, exposed on all hands to assassination and treachery, to one that should bring comparative happiness, I have little doubt, in its train, were they to substitute free for forced labour, the schoolmaster in lieu of the driver-that slavery-made fiend! I must now conclude, trusting that the December 4, 1832. Although not a full year in Jamaica, I yet had ample opportunities of observing the every day details of slavery; and, happy should I be, should my humble, but sincere, efforts in the cause of negro liberty, break but one link of the negro's chain. They may rely on my voice being ever raised in their defence, and no less my humble, but willing, pen, in spite of obloquy and scorn-so help me, God! CHARLES JOHNSTON. The whole of the above facts were wrote in great haste, Mr. Knibb having been suddenly called to London, but they can, at any time, be extended and more particularly entered upon. C. J. POPE JULIUS II. AND MICHAEL them. It is this confining identity which separates birds and all animals so widely from man. They never improve; while his capability of progression is as yet illimitable, and may perhaps ever be so.-Sharon Turner's Sacred History of the World. THE TOURIST. MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1832. CIPATION. No. II. THE FREE COLOURED AND BLACK POPULATION. all times of danger, and have received, on dif- THE SAFETY OF IMMEDIATE EMAN- with singular fidelity. During the year 1824, Ir is not sufficiently known to the British public that a numerous class of coloured and black free persons exists throughout our slave colonies. The enemies of negro emancipation cautiously avoid attending to this fact; and the friends of humanity have failed to employ it as effectively as they might have done. The truth of the matter is, it goes far to determine | the expediency, in a political and social point of view, of the measure which we advocate; and, if attentively considered in all its bearings, will be found to establish the unsoundness of the fears which are expressed respecting the consequences of immediate emancipation. Our opponents affirm, that two evils are likely to result from the abolition of slavery; first, civil insubordination, or tumult; and, second- | iy, a deterioration of the negro's condition. | The correctness of this theory may be determined by reference to the past history and present circumstances of the free coloured and black population of our slave colonies. Their number is about one hundred and fifty thousand, exceeding, by a third, the white popular tion. They consist either of manumitted slaves, or of the descendants of such ; and have come into the possession of liberty through a variety of circumstances, some of which have been far from indicating a superiority of moral principle. What then, it is natural to ask, has been their history since their emancipation? Have they lost the slight portion of civilization which they previously possessed? Have they sunk back into barbarism, extinguishing the light of knowledge, and finding pleasure only in the animal gratifications of the savage? Or have they injured the property and threatened the lives of the white colonists? Have they become tumultuous and insurrectionary, refusing obedience to the laws, and claiming the plantations of their former masters? Such are the evils with which the abolition of slavery is represented by the planters as fraught; and, strange to say, they have long succeeded in imposing on a credulous and ignorant public. But when we ask for proof-when we require facts rather than opinions when we demand from them the specification of persons, place, and time, they are unable to meet our claim, or to satisfy the natural inquiries of an honest mind. If the negro be so improvident and idiotic as the white colonists have affirmed, then it is natural to suppose that the free black population would be marked by indolence, poverty, and wretchedness; that their tendency, from the day of their manumission, would be from better to worse, until their condition exhibited the perfection of human misery. But their present state is the very reverse of this. They have been rapidly increasing in wealth and influence, and have been admitted, in some of the islands, to share in all the political privileges of the white inhabitants. Instead of disturbing the public tranquillity, they have been the foremost to protect it in | The parliamentary paper ordered to be printed on the 9th of May, 1826, and numbered 353, contains returns from fourteen slave colonies. These returns embrace a period of five years, from the 1st of January, 1821, to the 31st of December, 1825; and, amongst other particulars, they furnish important information on the subject of pauperism. We can merely give a few specimens, and state the general result; from which our readers cannot fail to perceive the prosperous condition of the free coloured and black community. "Barbadoes. The average annual number of persons supported in the nine parishes from which "Berbice. The white population appears to ،، Dominica. The white population is estimated at about 900; the free black and coloured population was ascertained, in 1825, to amount to about 3122. During the five years ending in November 1825, thirty of the former class had received relief from the poor fund, and only ten of the latter; making the proportion of more than nine white paupers to one coloured one in the same number of persons. "Jamaica is supposed to contain 20,000 whites, and double that number of free black and coloured persons. The return of paupers from the parishes which have sent returns, exhibits the average number of white paupers to be 295, of black and coloured paupers 148: the proportion of white paupers to those of the other class, according to the whole population, being as 4 to 1. The result of all the returns may be thus stated. The proportion of enfranchised persons receiving aid as paupers is about 1 in 370, while the proportion among the whites is about 1 in 40. Here then is a species of proof, most direct and conclusive; it has the advantage of being furnished, not by anti-slavery writers, but by the colonists themselves, and most triumphantly disproves the probability of injury to the slaves from their immediate emancipation. Every unprejudiced person must perceive that it constitutes a strong presumption, to say the least, of the ability and disposition of the African to provide for himself and his children. And yet we are told, with a hardihood which is without a parallel, that the slaves will sink down into poverty and wretchedness, if left to provide for themselves. Mr. Jeremie, in his late pamphlet on colonial slavery, affords still later information on this point. | "In the course of the discussions which took place in St. Lucia, and which led to public inquiry (directed by government), the glaring contradictions in the statements made by myself, comreference to the respectability of the free classes, pared with those of others in public authority, with and their general habits, rendered it necessary to investigate the point fully. On that occasion were examined, on oath, the leading merchants in the country; an officer in His Majesty's service, of many years' standing, who, in his capacity of drillmajor of militia, had had to discipline all the militia corps; and a medical gentleman of some thirty years' colonial experience;-and I further collected all the information from the different offices which could bear on the subject. The result appears in the following abstract of the testimony, testimony which those against whom I had They, the free coloured and free black class, are brought charges did not attempt to controvert.proved to be about five thousand in number, of whom one eighth, or somewhat more, may be manumitted slaves; and there are eighty discharged negro soldiers. Among the manumitted slaves there are many who possess landed property and slaves. Taken generally, they are certified by these gentlemen to be tranquil, humble, and most unassuming; and their conduct, since all distincenjoy the esteem and consideration of the white tions were removed, as truly astonishing. They them. There is not, as unanimously sworn to, a class, nor was any disturbance ever known among more respectable set of persons, taking their station in life, in His Majesty's dominions. As militia-men (and they form the bulk of the militia), they are deficient neither in intelligence nor zeal, whether as compared with whites of the same corps, or with persons of their station elsewhere. So much is it otherwise, that there is a company, formed exclusively of them, for the protection of contingencies. As to property, there are two or property in town, in case of fire, and such other three sugar-planters, and a large number of coffee, cocoa, and provision planters, possessing each from ten to forty slaves. There are two first-rate merchants, and a large number of second-rate merchants, and retail dealers, among them; and many of the latter purchase from £2,000 to £3,000 cur. rency, or about £1,000 sterling, of goods, in the course of the year. One third of the trade of the colony is in their hands. The dry-good trade they able for probity in their dealings, and for puncpossess almost exclusively; and they are remarkretail merchants and small proprietors, nor are tuality in their payments. The generality are they, by any means, so embarrassed as the whites." to a still more striking instance of the capacity of the generally known, that on a foreign slave's reach ing a British colony, he, by Dr. Lushington's bill, becomes free; and, in consequence of this discussion, several, exceeding 100 in number, came over in the year 1830. mitigated slavery; persons precisely in the con"Here were persons leaving a country of undition in which our whole slave population may be supposed to have been some thirty years ago, by those who maintain that the condition of the slave has improved;-here were persons described by their government as incendiaries, idlers, and poisoners. "When I left the colony, in April last, some were employed for wages in the business they were best acquainted with; some as masons, and carpenters; some as domestics; others in clearing land, or as labourers on estates; whilst about twenty-six had clubbed together, and placed themselves under the direction of a free coloured man, Martinique, in 1824. These last had erected a an African-one of the persons deported from pottery at a short distance from Castries: they took a piece of land, three or four cleared it, others fished up coral and burnt lime; five or six quarried and got the stones, and performed the mason 8135. Are they augmenting their wealth?think they are. 8136. To a considerable extent ?-To a con work, the remainder felled the timber and worked it in; and the little money that was requisite was I supplied, in advance, by the contractor for the church, on the tiles to be furinshed for the build-siderable extent. ing. This pottery was completed, a plain struc ture, but of great solidity, and surprising neatness. Thus had they actually introduced a new manufacture into the country, for which it was previously indebted to our foreign neighbours, or to the home market. "All this had been effected simply by not interfering with them, by leaving them entirely to themselves: they were mustered once a month, to show that government had an eye on them, and then allowed full liberty. One man only was sick in the hospital, and he was supported by the contributions of his companions." The report of the Committee of the House of Commons, ordered to be printed August 11, 1832, furnishes abundant evidence of the same fact. We regret our inability to quote largely from this invaluable document. One or two testimonies we must be permitted to adduce. J. B. Wildman, Esq., proprietor, of Jamaica, was asked 8131. Are you acquainted with the condition of the free blacks at all ?-Yes. 8132. Are they increasing in wealth and prosperity?-Yes, I think they are. 8133. Through the medium of their own industry?—Yes. 8134. Are you acquainted with the people of colour at all?-Yes. Vice Admiral the Honourable Charles Fleming gave the following testimony:the manners and habits of those liberated Afri2828. Had you any opportunity of observing cans in the Bahamas?—Yes. 2829. Is marriage prevalent among them?They are all married. 2832. Are they industrious ?-Yes, they are very much so. 2833. Do they work for wages?-They cultivate their own ground, and they work for wages there. the sort of comfort which the free Africans, and 2845. Had you any opportunity of observing free blacks, at the Bahamas, obtained by their industry?-Yes, frequently; I lived on shore frequently at the Bahamas. advance in civilization, and in the wants of 2846. Have they obtained a considerable civilized life?-Yes; they all had beds in every one of their cottages that I was in; they had cooking utensils of all kinds; and the huts were done up, for the climate, very well indeed, better than in any other of the islands; perhaps, though, that may be from its being more exposed to hurricanes. 2847. Have you any doubt that this liberated African population, by work, do obtain the means of purchasing comforts beyond the mere necessaries of life? No doubt of it. 2848. Was there any disposition evinced by them to return to the habits of savage life?-1 never observed the slightest. 2849. Have you ever inquired into that the island, with the Governor, for the express point?-Very frequently; I made a tour through purpose of inquiring into it, and the result was, that we found they had no inclination what ever to return to a savage life; on the contrary, that they wished to acquire property; many of them had acquired property; their children were all well taken care of; they were clad, and many of the women were dressed out in unnecessary finery. has been advanced, we hope, to satisfy our Here we must reluctantly stop. Enough readers of the safety of the measure which we advocate. Our only difficulty has been that of selecting from the ample materials before fore they pronounce our conclusion unsound; us. Let our opponents disprove our facts, bebut, if they cannot do this, let them at least have the honesty to avow the principle on which their opposition to the abolition of slavery proceeds, that the British public, perceiving the enormity, may pronounce its deep and lasting execration. Injustice is now defending itself through the medium of hypocrisy, but the attempt is hopeless, for the light of knowledge has revealed even the secrets of colonial policy. T. TO THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON, Esq. SIR-In calling upon the British public to renounce the use of slave-grown articles, I may be thought to require a sacrifice too great to be extensively made. Among them must be enumerated spirits, treacle, spices, coffee, and, above all, sugar; and, it may be asked, with a simplicity at which the West Indians may smile with complacency, if not with triumph, "How can such articles as these be dispensed with?" Now I will not at present say (what, however, is capable of abundant proof), that the total disuse of these articles is not necessary, but I will take up the opposite supposition, namely, that it is necessary; and then I say that, great as the sacrifice may be, no humane person ought to hesitate at it for a moment. They are none of them necessaries of life; they are all of them luxuries. The people of Eng. land lived for many ages without tasting one of them, and would continue to live if they were every one of them to perish. What then are these mere luxuries of life, that we should suffer them to stand against the attainment of so incalculable a blessing for mankind, as the abolition of slavery? It is a benefit to the world which every considerate and benevolent person should be willing to purchase, even at a much higher price, if it were required. To conquer their liberties, the North American colonies (now the United States) renounced every article as soon as the English Parliament taxed it; and if we hesitate to vanquish slavery in a similar method, it will obviously be because we care less about it. But, on the preceding supposition, the sacrifice is immensely overrated. Our abstinence could not, in any case, extend beyond a few months, inasmuch as the object of it would speedily be gained. Neither is it probable that it would be necessary for one month, since a conviction, on the part of the planters, that it was generally resolved on, would, with equal certainty, answer the purpose. But, besides this, the very same articles, I believe all of them, may be obtained from other parts of the world, as the produce of free labour. In most instances they are quite as good, and in all they are nearly so; and if not quite as cheap, they are also nearly as cheap. The only question, therefore, is this:- Will I, for the sake of overthrowing slavery, be content, for a short time, to use coffee, sugar, and spices, almost as cheap, and probably quite as good, as the West Indian?" How long can any benevolent person hesitate in answering this question? Or to what a just and indignant reproof would any person expose himself, who should say, I will neither take a few pence more out of my purse, nor control the luxuriousness of my palate, though, by doing so, I could rescue a million of my fellow-creatures from a horrible and murderous bondage?" " Every body knows that there are East Indies as well as West, and that they are extremely similar in climate, soil, and productions. With the exception of the island of Mauritius (the very name of which ought to provoke, in the breast of every Englishman, more indignation than I will here venture to express), the agricultural popula tion are not slaves. The coffee, sugar, and spices, of the East Indies, then, are raised by the labour of freemen, and they afford us the opportunity of renouncing slave produce, at almost no sacrifice at all. who, on my recommendation, have employed it. While recommending the abandonment of slaveThere is, indeed, a delicacy in its flavour adapted produce to the public at large, I am very happy to engage for it a decided preference. I am in being able to say that, in some places (and happy, also, to know that, instead of being quoted Reading may be enumerated among them), it is at nine-pence, or eight-pence halfpenny a-pound, already adopted, and in course of adoption, with a very good Bengal sugar is on sale, at a profit, at a just and spreading enthusiasm. It is evident seven-pence, and that this article is fit to bear too, from commercial letters, that the colonial comparison with any West India sugar at the market already feels the effect of it, since it is same price, and quite adapted to be brought into stated that the Bengal sugars are more frequently competition with what generally sold at six-inquired for. I hope that they will be inquired Now ask this question :-Will the people for more and more frequently every week, and pence. of England perpetuate slavery for the sake of a that the West India proprietors will not deceive penny a-pound in the price of their sugar? I hope themselves as to the reason of it. It is not, they every reader of this letter will answer-No. may be assured, for coffee-sugars, at 84d. or 9d. per pound; it is not for fine qualities, by mixing, to improve the colour of muscovades; it is for cheap serviceable sugar to supersede their own, because the people are indignant at the long maintenance of slavery, and determined on its overthrow. Look to yourselves, therefore, West India gentlemen, and see what is before you. You are poor now; but depend upon it you will soon be much poorer, unless you set free the negroes. And in a perfect spirit of kindness I ask you, Had you One of the principal obstructions to the general use of Bengal sugar, consists in the difficulty which private families often find in procuring it. In many towns it has not been kept, even by a single grocer, or by only one; and there is, probably, not yet a town in the kingdom where it is kept by the grocers universally, as a regular article of trade. People who wish for it, therefore, do not know where to get it; and so little do the shopkeepers, in many cases, care about really obliging their customers, that the Mauritius and finer West Indian sugars have been imposed on the unsuspecting confidence of the purchaser, a habit of deception which some persons have thought it would be hard to guard against. If it were necessary to use such a tone, the retailers of sugar might be warned, that, although much depends on them, every thing does not. Bengal sugar can be brought into general use, even if some of them should set themselves against it, since there are, in all places, benevolent and conscientious men who will aid the design. But I would much rather hope and believe that the grocers, as a body, will co-operate in the good work, which cannot put them to much even of temporary inconvenience, and can do them no ultimate injury. Of what consequence can it be to them, whether they sell East India sugar or West? I might almost say, of what consequence to them is their sugar trade at all, since it is become customary to do it at little or no profit, and sometimes at a loss, for the sale of other articles? If the grocers, then, are willing to promote the sale of free-labour sugar, it may be hoped that they will keep it as a regular article of trade, and put it forward; not merely of the finest qualities, but of the kind which, by its price, may be fitted to come into general use. It would be a noble thing, if, in order to favour its introduction, they should be disposed to sell it without profit, and to put, by universal agreement, a somewhat higher profit (say a halfpenny a pound) on the cheap West India sugar, upon which, it is well known, their profit is at present unreasonably low. But, at all events, it may be expected that they will maintain sincerity and truth, and will keep at the utmost distance from taking advantage of the practical ignorance of their customers, and from selling as free-labour sugar what really is not so. I am quite aware, however, that, if the use of East India sugar is much extended, its price may rise, and, indeed, that its general use would speedily exhaust the stock in the country, while some months must elapse before the supply could be proportioned to the demand. I should hope, however, that before this case would arise the West Indians would give way, and that these gentlemen, who are by no means wanting in some sorts of prudence, seeing the resolution of the country, would not push matters to such an extremity. If otherwise, our remedy would be to discountenance the use of sugar itself, abandoning it wherever practicable (as in sweetmeats, and in our tea and coffee), and diminishing it in every As sugar is the principal article in which our eastern possessions come into competition with the West Indian growth, the utmost pains has been taken to keep Bengal sugar out of the English market, both by laying on it a duty of about 7s. per cwt., or three farthings a pound, more than on its blood-stained rival, and by dissemi-respect. In this way the desired effect might be nating a violent but unfounded prejudice against the article itself. That this prejudice is unfounded I can assert, both from my own experience, and from the testimony of others, having used Bengal sugar in my own family for all purposes, and with entire satisfaction, for about nine years, and having received decisive testimonies of its adequacy and value from pastry cooks and others, produced in the colonial market, and upon the condition of the slave. And a resort to this measure may be the more necessary, because the increase of population in this country is constantly generating an increase in the demand for West Indian produce, in common with all other kinds, and thus incessantly augmenting the pressure on the slave population. not better do it at once? In conclusion, Sir, I only say, that I address this appeal to the public through you, because you are now the most prominent advocate of the abolition of slavery, and in the hope of obtaining the attention of persons much more influential Sir, than, Your humble but sincere co-operator, J. H. HINTON. Reading, Dec. 8, 1832. ANCIENT ASTRONOMERS. NO. II. TYCHO BRAHE. AMONG the astronomers who provided the materials of the Newtonian philosophy, the name of Tycho Brahe merits a conspicuous place. Descended from an ancient Swedish family, he was born at Knudstorp, in Norway, in 1546, three years after the death of Copernicus. The great eclipse of the sun, which happened on the 26th of August 1560, while he was at the University of Copenhagen, attracted his notice; and when he found that all its phenomena had been accurately predicted, he was seized with the most irresistible passion to acquire the knowledge of a science so infallible in its results. Destined for the profession of the law, his friends discouraged the pursuit which now engrossed his thoughts; and such were the reproaches, and even persecutions, to which he was exposed, that he quitted his country with the design of travelling through Germany. At the very commencement of his journey, however, an event occurred in which the impetuosity of his temper had nearly cost him his life. At a wedding-feast in Rostock, a questionable point in geometry involved him in a dispute with a Danish nobleman of the same temperament with himself; and the two mathematicians resolved to settle the difference by the sword. Tycho, however, seems to have been second in the conflict, for he lost the greater part of his nose, and he was obliged to supply its place by a substitute of gold and silver, which a cement of glue attached to his face. During his stay at Augsburg he inspired the burgomaster of the city, Peter Hainzell, with a love of astronomy. This public-spirited citizen erected an excellent observatory at his own expence, and here Tycho began that distinguished career which has placed him in the first rank of practical astronomers. Upon his return to Copenhagen in 1570, he was received with every mark of respect. The king invited him to court, and persons of all ranks harassed him with their attentions. At Herritzvold, near his native place, the house of his maternal uncle afforded him a retreat from the gaieties of the capital, and he was there offered every accommodation for the prosecution of his astronomical studies. Here, however, the passion of love and the pursuits of alchemy distracted his thoughts; but though the peasant girl of whom he was enamoured was of easier attainment than the philosopher's stone, the marriage produced an open quarrel with his relations, which it required the interference of the king to allay. In the tranquillity of domestic happiness, Tycho resumed his study of the heavens, and, in 1572, he enjoyed the singular good fortune of observing, through all its variations, the new star in Cassiopeia, which appeared with such extraordinary splendour as to be visible in the day time, and which gradually disappeared in the following year. tem of Copernicus. The vanity of giving his system, and scarcely an idea had been formed of the power by which the planets were retained in their orbits. The labours of assiduous observers had supplied the materials for this purpose, and Kepler arose to lay the foundations of physical astronomy.—Brewster's Life of Sir Isaac Newton. APHORISMS. Though it cannot be denied that, by diffusing a warmer colouring over the visions of fancy, sensibility is often a source of exquisite pleasure to others, if not to the possessor, yet it should never be confounded with benevolence; since it constitutes, at best, rather the ornament of a fine, than the virtue of a good, mind.-ROBERT HALL. There is not, perhaps, in all the stores of ideal anguish, a thought more painful than the thought of having propagated corruption by vitiating principles of having not only drawn others from the Paths of virtue, but blocked up the way by which they should return-of having blinded them to every beauty but the paint of pleasure, and deafened them to every call but the alluring voice of the syrens of destruction.-DR. JOHNSON. The death of Frederick, in 1588, proved a severe calamity to Tycho, and to the science which he cultivated. During the first years than none: as the writing of a book, the building ANY engagement which is innocent is better of the minority of Christian IV., the regency continued the royal patronage to the observa- of a house, the laying out of a garden, the digging tory of Uraniburg; and, in 1592, the young of a fish-pond-even the raising of a cucumber or a tulip.-PALEY. king paid a visit of some days to Tycho, and left him a gold chain in token of his favour. The astronomer, however, had made himself enemies at court, and the envy of his high reputation had probably added fresh malignity to the irritation of personal feelings. Dissatisfied with his residence in Denmark, Under the ministry of Walchendorf, a name Tycho resolved to settle in some distant for ever odious to science, Tycho's pension was country, and, having gone as far as Venice in stopped-he was, in 1597, deprived of the search of a suitable residence, he at last fixed canonry of Roschild, and was thus forced, with upon Basle, in Switzerland. The King of his wife and children, to seek an asylum in a Denmark, however, had learned his intention foreign land. His friend, Henry Rantzau of from the Prince of Hesse, and when Tycho Wansbeck, under whose roof he found a hosreturned to Copenhagen to remove his family pitable shelter, was fortunately acquainted and his instruments, his sovereign announced with the emperor Rodolph II., who, to his love to him his resolution to detain him in his of science, added a passion for alchemy and kingdom. He presented him with the canonry astrology. The reputation of Tycho having of Roschild, with an income of 2000 crowns already reached the imperial ear, the recomper annum. To this he added a pension of mendation of Rantzau was scarcely necessary 1000 crowns; and he promised to give him to insure him his warmest friendship. Inthe Island of Huen, with a complete observa-vited by the emperor, he repaired, in 1599, to tory erected under his own eye. This generous offer was instantly accepted. The celebrated observatory of Uraniburg was established at the expence of about £20,000; and in this magnificent retreat Tycho continued for twentyone years to enrich astronomy with the most valuable observations. Admiring disciples crowded to this sanctuary of the sciences to acquire the knowledge of the heavens; and kings and princes felt themselves honoured by becoming the guests of the great astronomer of the age. One of the principal discoveries of Tycho was that of the inequality of the moon's motion, called the Variation. He detected also the annual equation which affects the place of her apogee and nodes, and he determined the greatest and the least inclination of the lunar orbit. His observations on the planets were numerous and precise, and have formed the data of the present generalizations in astronomy. Though thus skilful in the observation of phenomena, his mind was but little suited to investigate their cause, and it was probably owing to this defect that he rejected the sys Prague, where he met with the kindest recep- tian IV. The pleasure of a well-disposed mind moves gently, and therefore constantly. It does not affect by rapture and ecstacy, but is like the pleasures of health, which is still and sober, yet greater and stronger than those that call up the senses with grosser and more affective impressions.-DR. SOUTH. RHYMES FOR YOUTHFUL READERS, ON COLONIAL SLAVERY. We are all of us stained by this national crime, If good people at home, when they sweeten their food, Would abstain from the cane-juice that's water'd 'Tis not quite enough to look sorry and sigh, "But what can we do?" say my Readers dear : Notwithstanding the accessions which as- -- T. P. |