In 1251, the chapter of the Cathedral George III.'s Library Bodleian Volumes. 500,000. 350,000. 300,000. 50,000. 300,000. 400,000. 200,000. 181,000. In addition to these, almost every scientific and literary institution, and most of the ecclesiastical foundations in Europe, have libraries attached to them, of greater. or less extent. These vast repositories contain not only such works as are most useful, but such as, from their costliness or scarcity, are inaccessible to ordinary students. ment in their new conquests, almost all measures. In the ninth century, the Abbot of Pontivi, in possessing 200 volumes, was considered to have the largest library in France. In the tenth century, so scarce and so valuable were manuscripts, that a copy of the Homelies of Aymon of Halberstat was purchased by a Countess of Anjou for 200 sheep, three measures of corn, and a number of skins of valuable furs. In the eleventh century, the abbey of Pomposa, near Ravenna, in Italy, although celebrated for the extent of its library, possessed only 63 volumes, 7 of which were volumes of the classics. In 1048, the Abbot of Gemblours, in Flanders, had collected, in addition to 100 volumes on theological, 60 volumes on profane subjects, and imagined he had formed a splendid library. In the twelfth century, the catalogue of the Abbey of Monte Cassino, one of the wealthiest in Europe, consisted but of 90 volumes, and yet had required the labours and journeyings of two successive abbots to collect. From these notices of the scarcity and high price of books, it must be obvious that was within the reach of but few. Indeed, none but kings and prelates could enjoy the costly privilege of a library. At last, in the middle of the fourteenth century, occurred the greatest revolution in the history of literature, or of the human mind. The art of printing was invented; and whilst Æneas Sylvius, Pope Pius II., in 1458, was writing in his Cosmographia, that the destruction of all written documents would, ere long, be inevitable, this art was impressing on them perpetuity and ten-fold value. A learned continental bibliographer has made a calculation, that from the year 1455 to 1500, 14,750 editions had been printed from presses established in 212 cities; which, at an average of 435 copies for each edition, would give 5,416,250 volumes as the circulation of books in 45 years. Again, from 1501 to 1536, the number of cities had decreased from 212 to 184, yet 17,779 editions had been produced; and, in consequence of a greater demand for books, each edition may probably have increased to 1000 copies, which would give us an amount of 17,779,000 copies. From these calculations it results, that during the interval of 81 years, from the date of the first printed book to the year 1536, no less than twenty-three millions of volumes had been circulated among mankind! Nor will our average appear an extravagant one, as it is well known that, in the year 1526, as many as 26,000 copies of the Colloquies of Erasmus were printed and sold. From this period, books became accessible to all classes of society; and, after a few years, national public libraries were formed, which have ever since continued to increase, and which have mainly contributed to the subsequent advance of literature. The principal throughout Europe are Thus has useful knowledge been extended and cheapened by the exertions of the moderns. The difficulty of the student is no longer to obtain, but to select, the best sources of information from the bewildering accumulations with which he is surrounded. If the literary world be in an unhealthy state, it arises from plethora from so vast an abundance of resources, as distracts investigation, and prevents the formation of a judicious choice. At all events, there can now be no excuse for ignorance. That power which our immortal Bacon attributes to knowledge, is wielded by the hands of millions; and it now becomes the special and increasing duty of the moralist and the Christian, to heighten its benefits, by keeping pace with its progress, and, by the assiduous inculcation of virtuous principles, to prepare the world for those important changes, which all the phenomena of society appear to indicate. We are indebted to D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature for the following extraordinary calculation of the number of books printed from the first invention of the art. A curious arithmetician has discovered that the four ages of typography have produced no less than 3,641,960 works! Taking each work at three volumes, and reckoning each impression to consist of only three hundred copies (which is a very moderate supposition), the actual amount of volumes which have issued from the presses of Europe, up to the year 1816, appears to by 3,277,640,000! And if we suppose each of these volumes to be an inch in thickness, they would, if placed in a line, cover 6069 leagues!! "We are, however, indebted," says this entertaining writer, "to the patriotic endeavours of our grocers and trunk-makers, the alchemists of literature; they annihilate the gross bodies without injuring the finer spirits." THE TOURIST. the foot of the fly and the gecko, the anatomist hind flipper of the walrus, so, on the other A PUBLIC DINNER IN THE NEIGH- APPARENT VIOLATION OF THE The There are many facts and appearances in nature which fail to strike us at once with surprise and admiration, only because they are so common. Among these, the motion of a fly upon walls and ceilings, and the adhesion of the gecko, a species of the lizard, to even the most polished surfaces, deserve to be classed. Familiar as the fly has been to our observation from earliest infancy, few persons have seriously attempted to explain the manner in which that insect is enabled to advance, so much at its ease, in apparent opposition to “nature's universal law," gravitation. cause of it appears never to have been correctly assigned, till Sir Everard Home, by carefully examining both the fly and the gecko, discovered, in the peculiar structure of their feet, the pneumatic mechanism by which they are enabled to carry on progressive motion against gravity. It appears that their feet are so constructed as to act like a cupping glass or common sucker, and thus, by the pressure of the air, attach them to any substance with which they may be in contact; or, on its relaxation, to allow the animal to move at its pleasure. Having detected this wondrous mechanism in On dissecting this flipper, it soon lost all appearance of a foot, and took that of the hand of a giant, so far as respected the bones and muscles, but differing from it in having a web covering all the other parts, and extending beyond the point of the thumb and fingers. On the back of the flipper, too, was found the tendon of the indicator muscle. "That this gigantic hand is employed as a cupping glass to prevent the animal from falling back in its movements, whether on the ice or in climbing the rocky cliffs, there can be no doubt; for it is only necessary to take the human hand, and envelope it in an elastic web extending some way beyond the points of the fingers, to prove that it could perform such an office: but, when we find the cumbricales muscles wanting, the only use of which is to clench the fist, it adds to the proof; and when the indicator is met with, a mode of opening a valve to let in the air is pointed out." THE CAPTIVE AFRICAN. The dolphin scarce would dare. But the storm came not, and still the ray And deep in the dark and fetid hold, Six hundred wretches wept ; Cramm'd in that dungeon-hold they stood, By the fever's scorching blight; And there they stood, the quick and dead, On her child-but she could not fall; The morning came, and the sleepless crew, They died, the gaoler and the slave- The pest-ship slept on her ocean bed, Till they all, save one old man, were dead, That man, as life around him fled, He arose the chain was on his hands, There on the deck that old man stands, He sat him down, and he watch'd a cloud, And he heard the light breeze heave the shroud, And still the negro boldly walk'd That lone and silent ship, At last he slept-but the lightning flash Away she swept, as with instinct rife, O'er her broad and dangerous path; But on board that ship was no sound of life, He sung of his Afric's distant sands, 'Neath a tyrant master's rod; He touch'd not the sail, nor the driving helm ; And he joy'd-for the waves that would o'er- Would leave his body free; And he pray'd that the ship to no Christian realm, Before the storm might flee. He smil'd amid the tempest's frown,? NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. The articles signed R. S., and C. R. T., are not suited to "The Tourist." THE TOURIST. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1832. As the dissolution of Parliament is drawing near, it becomes every friend of humanity and justice to exert himself to the utmost in order to secure the return of such candidates as favour the immediate abolition of slavery. No time must be lost-no effort spared. We have but a few days in which to work; and the happiness and existence of our negro fellow-subjects are dependant on our labours. The cool calculations of prudence must be laid aside, and our whole strength be consecrated to vigorous exertion. Our opponents are numerous, subtle, and active. They will spare no pains, nor shrink from the adoption of any measures, however reprehensible, to accomplish their purpose. To expect honesty from the abettors of theft would be to stultify ourselves, and to betray our cause. We must, to confess, that, of all the forms which We have received Contributions from W. R. P., hypocrisy assumes, there is none for which F., and B. H. Their services will always be acwe feel so superlative a contempt as for ceptable. that which is exhibited by many pro-slavery candidates. We could name men who are known to be slave proprietors, and advocates of the slave system, who can yet venture in the light of day to impose upon the ignorant and the credulous by professing an abhorrence of slavery, and a willingness to manumit their bondsmen at the proper season. And such men are frequently heard talking, in no measured terms, of the hypocrisy of the saints, as though this vice were, of all, the most hateful in their sight. Now, it is possible that some may be deluded by such professions; but we cannot think so meanly of the English public as to believe the delusion will be extensive. The friends of truth and fair dealing should unmask the hypocrite wherever he is found. Nor is it difficult to do so. Two or three plain questions put at a the candidate hesitate to reply-or if public meeting may elicit the truth. If his answers be vague-or if he talk of the pecuniary interest of the proprietor as though it were of more importance than the freedom of the negro-or of the unfitness of the slave for liberty-the electors will know what to think of his sincerity, or how far they may confide to him the protection of their rights. will happen in some cases, and this we It Should a majority of the next parlia- be dissolved. On this great question we much regret, that long connexions must ment be favourable to the continuance of must know neither father, nor brother, our slave system, it will be in vain that nor friend. No matter how long, or how the nation petitions for change. Some laboriously, certain candidates may have slight modifications may be attempted-represented us in parliament, the quessome unimportant and ineffective regula- tion we have now to determine is, whetions may be introduced; but the horrors ther we can answer it to God and our of slavery, its brutality and its vice, will conscience to return him again if we continue undiminished. 66 Now, then, is know, or have reason to think, he will vote for the worst system of oppression and slow murder which has ever been We therefore, be decided and active. interested. the accepted time; now is the day of salvation." This is emphatically the crisis of the negro's history, and upon its improvement or neglect depends the whole complexion of his future destiny. Never was the feeling of the people so awakened to the diabolical character of colonial sla established on earth. The following letter, from an elector of RESPECTED FRIEND, mand for myself, the liberty of private judg- I compensation, I say, let the negroes have their In regard to the claims of the planters to right-let a system of free compensated labour be tried; and then, if the planters can make out their case, I, as an individual, and I doubt them to the full of the loss that they can prove. not the government, would cheerfully grant say this in the full confidence that the planters would be gainers instead of losers by the change; but, as a matter of abstract right, I ask, why the planters should be indemnified for the abstraction of a privilege which has cost them nothing? The planters entered upon this speculation in the confidence that the system of slave labour was more profitable than that of free labour. If they have found it so, their speculation has answered-they have received their remuneration; but, in justice, every penny that they have gained by it belongs to the slaves-they are the parties that have a right to demand remuneration. If they for your generous contribution, which, I have are disappointed in their expectations, and no doubt, will be heartily ratified by a minute they find that they have been playing a losing and vote of the committee, when it meets. game, what ground have they to demand comWith respect to the latter subject to which pensation for the change? And, after all, thou art pleased to allude, I heartily wish we what is it that the abolitionists require? That could coincide in our views. Were the subject the peasantry of the West Indies should receive at issue between us one of mere opinion, I an equivalent for their labour-to substitute should be quite disposed to give, what I de-judicial for the private and irresponsible au very as it is at present. The national Deep in the windings of yon secret glade, THE preponderance of imagination in the intellectual character of oriental nations, and that love of the marvellous that is so generally found to obtain in times of remote antiquity and of comparative ignorance, have together generated those systems of mythology which sprung up in the east, and have descended to us, variously modified and tinctured by the notions and national character of OLD MAIDS. I LOVE an old maid-I do not speak of an individual, but of the species-I use the singular number, as speaking of a singularity in humanity. An old maid is not merely an antiquarian, she is an antiquity-not merely a record of the past, but the very past itself; she has escaped a great change, and sympathizes not in the ordinary mutations of mortality. She inhabits a little eternity of her own. She is Miss from the beginning of the chapter to the end. I do not like to hear her called Mistress, as is sometimes the practice, for that looks and sounds like the resignation of despair, a voluntary extinction of hope. I do not know whether marriages are made in hea CUPID SLEEPING. those who have subsequently entertained them. They are, in fact, only the varieties of idolatry, consisting chiefly of personifications of such qualities as are either attributed to the Divinity, or observed in human nature; and the tendency that has ever been manifested by the mind of man thus to personify seems resolvable into the principle, that we are naturally more susceptible of impressions from sensible objects than of such as are made immediately on the mind. It is not, therefore, at all surprising that an allpervading sentiment, like that of love, should have been embodied in the mythologies of antiquity; and accordingly we find it, in one or other form, in the pantheons of all the ancient nations. ven; some people say that they are; but I am almost sure that old maids are. There is something about them which is not of the earth earthly. They are spectators of the world, not adventurers nor ramblers; perhaps guardians; we say nothing of tatlers. They are evidently predestinated to be what they are. They owe not the singularity of their condition to any lack of beauty, wisdom, wit, or good temper; there is no accounting for it but on the principle of fatality. I have known many old maids, and of them all not one that has not possessed as many good and amiable qualities as ninety and nine out of a hundred of my married acquaintance. Why, then, are they single? It is their fate!-Friendship's Offering. Sometimes he was represented as a winged boy, occupied in some childish amusement; sometimes as a conqueror, armed with a helmet and spear; and sometimes, to show the extent and supremacy of his dominion, he is represented as breaking in pieces the thunderbolts of Jupiter. It is not necessary to specify the various devices under which this potent deity has been worshipped: he exhibits one more affecting instance of the mutability of human honours, on which the homilies of innumerable moralists save us the trouble of enlarging; and, having received the ardent homage of the world for ages, here he lies, degraded from his divinity, in the very earthly character of a garden orna ment. SAVINGS BANKS AND FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. MR. PRATT, the barrister appointed to certify the rules of savings' banks and friendly societies in England and Wales, has published a table, showing the increase or decrease of savings' banks, depositors therein, friendly societies, and charitable societies, in every county of England, Wales, and Ireland, between November, 1830, and November, 1831. The results are highly gratifying: the increase in the number of depositors in savings' banks is 13,750, and the increase in investments in the funds on account of savings' banks, £114,998. There has also been an increase in the number of accounts kept for friendly and charitable societies of 453. SOLAR RAYS. WHETHER the solar rays are so far hemogeneous that the same rays produce both heat and light, or whether each requires for its production a separate set of rays, is a question which has frequently occupied the attention, and divided the opinions, of philosophers. The celebrated Dr. Hooke appears to have been the first who contended for this distinction, which was afterwards supported by M. Scheele, Dr. Herschel, and Sir Henry Englefield. The two latter, especially, inferred, from their experiments, that the sun emits illuminating rays which give no heat, and calorific rays which are not accompanied with light. On placing a thermometer in the wellknown figure called the Spectrum, this thermometer seemed to be the more affected the nearer it was placed to the red margin, and less as it approached the opposite or violetcoloured edge. But the most remarkable effect of all was, that the thermometer indicated the greatest heat when placed just without the red margin, where none of the visible rays reached it at all. They, therefore, concluded that this effect was produced by a set of dark colorific rays, which are less refrangible than any of the other rays. M. Berard, by repeating these experiments, obtained similar results, except that he found the maximum of heat in the red ray. These experiments were very elaborately conducted, and afforded much reason for the conclusion we have mentioned, that the illuminating rays are distinct from those which produce heat. Professor Leslie, however, has questioned the accuracy of this conclusion, having, by a different mode of experimenting, found it impossible to detach any of these dark rays from the light. Having rendered a circular spot opaque in the middle of a large convex lens, he received the light transmitted by the remaining transparent ring upon a surface of black wax, held at such a distance that the light formed upon the wax an iris, or ring, composed of a set of distinct concentric rings, which severally possessed all the various colours of the common Spectrum. Mr. Leslie then carefully observed the effect of these rings on the wax, and found that none of it was melted beyond where it was covered by the iris; whereas, if a set of dark calorific rays had existed, these ought to have more thoroughly melted a larger ring than that whereon the light fell; for the dark rays, if less refrangible than the light, would have fallen without the margin of the red ring which includes all the others. As this experiment, which is of a more simple and decisive cast than any performed by the gentlemen above-mentioned, seems to render their conclusion doubtful, Mr. H. Meikle has suggested what appears to him the principal source of deception. If a prism, such as Dr. Herschel employed, be heated, a very delicate thermometer will, cæteris paribus, be more affected when it is held opposite to one of the flat sides of the prism, than when opposite to one of its edges; because heat escapes from glass and many other substances, when smooth or polished, chiefly in straight lines, perpendicular to the surface. Now, if we attend to the position of Dr. Herschel's prism and thermometer, this will help to explain why the thermometer indicated heat, even when none of the illuminating rays reached it at all; as, also, why the heating power of the red rays seemed so much to surpass that of the other colours, &c.; because, the more directly opposite the thermometer was to the flat side of the prism, the more of its heat would it re ceive; and, in the course of such an experi- | 8000 miles, occupying 89 days, arrived off Rio de Janeiro, having, in this interval, passed through the Pacific Ocean, rounded Cape Horn, and crossed the South Atlantic, without making any land, or even seeing a single sail, with the exception of an American whaler off COMPLAINT OF A ZOOLOGICAL Cape Horn. Arrived within a week's sail of Rio, he set seriously about determining, by luGARDEN QUADRUPED. nar observations, the precise line of the ship's To the Editor. course, and its situation in it at a determinate HONOURED BIPED SIR,-If you have ever moment; and, having ascertained this within been at our gardens, you may have observed from five to ten miles, ran the rest of the way in one of the cages near-but I must not too by those more ready and compendious methods minutely describe my locality, lest I should be known to navigators, which can be safely emsubject to fresh annoyances-a quiet demure ployed for short trips between one known point little animal, your present humble quadru- and another, but which cannot be trusted in pedalian petitioner. If you have, pity my long voyages, where the moon is the only sure sorrows and those of my brethren, who have guide. The rest of the tale we are enabled, not one day's rest all the year round. Would by his kindness, to state in his own words:-not six days in one week be sufficient for "We steered towards Rio de Janeiro for some poking parasols into my poor eyes, but a days after taking the lunars above described, seventh must be added? I always understood and, having arrived within fifteen or twenty (so far as a quadruped could understand such miles of the coast, I hove to at four in the matters), that you Christian bipeds rested one morning, till the day should break, and then day in seven, and gave your cattle and all other bore up; for, although it was very hazy, we things rest too: but, to my sorrow, I find this could see before us a couple of miles or so. to be quite a mistake; and equally a mistake the About eight o'clock it became so foggy that I old notion that man may be defined to be "a did not like to stand in further, and was just religious animal," as no other animal is so; bringing the ship to the wind again before sendfor I now see that our Zoological Garden mas- ing the people to breakfast, when it suddenly ters are not religious animals any more than cleared off, and I had the satisfaction of seeing their horses, whom, as well as our two-footed the great Sugar Loaf Rock, which stands on one keepers, they work on Sundays as well as other side of the harbour's mouth, so nearly right days. Much, it seems, has been said in a re- ahead that we had not to alter our course above ligious way about this matter; but those who a point in order to hit the entrance of Rio. manage the Gardens have not felt the force of This was the first land we had seen for three this appeal; being, I suppose, not of the reli- months, after crossing so many seas, and being gious genus. Our “half-reasoning" elephant, set backwards and forwards by innumerable a very judicious observer, who does not much currents and foul winds." The effect on all mind the annoyance of company, in considera- on board might well be conceived to have been tion of their dainty contributions of fruit and electric; and it is needless to remark how esconfectionary, is inclined to believe-so far I sentially the authority of a commanding officer mean as he comprehends the question-that over his crew may be strengthened by the ocour worthy governors are great hypocrites for currence of such incidents, indicative of a deexcluding the shilling-a-head public on Sun-gree of knowledge and consequent power beday, while the admit themselves, their fami- yond their reach. lies, their friends, and visitors. They have, it is true, a nicer quieter day, while their neighbours are at church; but if it be a sin to open the Gardens to a thousand persons, it must be so to five hundred, unless the God of Christians makes a distinction between guinea subscribers and the shilling-a-head people. But this is a matter for your consideration, being too puzzling for your poor persecuted servant, A ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN QUADRUPED, TRIUMPH OF SCIENCE. MASSILLON AND LOUIS XIV. THE publisher of Massillon's Sermons describes, in the preface, the bishop's method of preaching, by saying, that "what formed the distinct character of Father Massillon's eloquence was, that all his strokes aimed directly at the heart; so that, what was simply reason and proof in others, was feeling in his mouth. Hence the remarkable success of his instructions. Nobody, after hearing him, stopped to praise or criticise his sermon; each auditor retired in pensive silence, with a thoughtful air, THAT a man, by merely measuring the downcast eyes, and composed countenance, moon's apparent distance from a star with a carrying away the arrow fastened in his heart. little portable instrument held in his hand, and When Massillon had preached his first advent applied to his eye, even with so unstable a at Versailles, Louis XIV. addressed these refooting as the deck of a ship, shall say posi-markable words to him: Father, I have heard tively, within five miles, where he is, on a many fine orators in my chapel, and have been boundless ocean, cannot but appear to persons very much pleased with them; but as for you, ignorant of physical astronomy an approach to always when I have heard you, I have been the miraculous. Yet, the alternatives of life very much displeased with myself."" and death, wealth and ruin, are daily and hourly staked with perfect confidence on these marvellous computations, which might almost BRINDLEY, the great engineer and conseem to have been devised on purpose to show structer of the Bridgewater canal, was a singuhow closely the extremes of speculative refine-lar instance of professional enthusiasm. This ment and practical utility can be brought to he evinced, in a rather amusing way, upon his approximate. We have before us an anecdote examination before the House of Commons, communicated to us by Capt. Basil Hall, R.N. in which he spoke with so much contempt of a naval officer, distinguished for the extent rivers, as means of internal navigation, that an and variety of his attainments, which shows honourable member was tempted to ask him how impressive such results may become in for what purpose he supposed rivers to have practice. He sailed from San Blas on the been created. Brindley, without a moment's west coast of Mexico, and, after a voyage of hesitation, replied, "to feed canals!" THE RULING PASSION. |