Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

Small pity for him!—He sailed away From a leaking ship , in Chaleur Bay , — Sailed away from a sinking wreck , With his own town ' s-peoplo on her deck ! "' Lay by ! lay by I" they called to him . . Back ho answered , " Sink or swim ! "Brag of your catch of fish again !" And off he sailed through the fog and rain ! Old Floyd Ireson , for his hard heart , Tarred and feathered , and carried in a cart By the women of Marblehead !

" Hear me , neighbours ! at last he cried , — ¦ " What to me is this noisy ride ? What is the shame that clothes the skin To the nameless horror that lives within ? Waking or sleeping , I see a wreck , And hear a cry from a reeling deck ! Hate me and curse me , —I only dread

The hand of God and the face of the dead !" Said old Floyd Ireson , for his hard heart , Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart By the women of Marblehead !

Then the wife of the skipper lost at sea Said , " God has touched him !—why should we ?" Said an old wife mourning her only son , "Cut the rogue's tether and let him run !" So with soft relentings and rude excuse , Half scorn , half pity , they cut him loose , And gave him a cloak to hide him in , And left him alone with his shame and sin .

Poor Floyd Ireson , for his hard heart , Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart By the women of Marblehead ! The bronze statues of Brunei and Stephenson , about to be erected at Westminster , are to be modelled by Baron Marochetti . The manner in which Lady Gray prevented her rebel husband from joining the army of the Pretender , is related as follows by

their grandson , in his recentBewmBseeraces of a Scottish Q-entleman , commencing in 1787 : — " In the evening Lord Gray wished to bathe his feet , as he felt symptoms of a cold from having got very wet in ¦ riding to Dundee ; he therefore gaveorder to his valet to that effect . It was then my grandmother showed her strength of mind and farsightedness . She informed the servant that she would herself attend to his Lordshi accordinglwhen he retired to his

p ; y , dressing-room she accompanied him , having previously desired the valet to place hot water at the door of the room . When all was prepared , and Lord Gray had placed his feet in the foot-tub , her Ladyship brought in the almost boiling water , and poured the whole contents of the pitcher in one avalanche upon his legs and feet . A tremendous yell proved that her end was gained ; the limbs were severely scalded , assistance was obtained , the sufferer

¦ was placed in bed , and the surgeon sent for , who , after administering palliatives to soothe the pain , gave positive orders that his Lordship was to remain in bed until all symptoms of inflammation were reduced . "

Mr . Eobert Hunt , F . B . S ., writing in the Art Journal for July says : — "It is not a little remarkable that chemistry has shown us how to- obtain , from one source , nearly all the colours of the prismatic bow . Eed , in all its varieties , an approach to orange , green , blue , indigo , and violet , are colours which aniline has yielded ; yellow alone is wanting . We know of no other base possessing a similar chameleon power . When we reflect that this

aniline is obtained from the oil of coal tar , and that not merely colours of the greatest beauty , but fruit and flower essences of the utmost fragrance are obtainable from it , we cannot but admit that chemistry has a creative power of a very remarkable kind . The changes which our chemists have made by varying the proportions of oxygen , carbon , and hydrogen , prove , as Van Helmont strangely hut very beautifully said : 'The wonder is , not that God out of a few elements has made so many things , but that in His infinite wisdom He has not made many more . '" And the

same writer , discoursing very instructively of '" Mauve and Magenta" in the first number of the St . James's Magazine , beautifull y observes -. — " A piece of wood and a lump of coal have no particular resemblance to each other , but they belong to the same famil y—they are very near relations . The coal we burn , and which is dug from 1000 feet below the present surface of the earth , with most laborious toil , and under circumstances of peculiar hazard to the miner , was once a forest growing in luxurious beauty

Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

in the splendour of a tropical sun . Myriads of ages have elapsed , mountains have been worn down , and their debris strewn over the buried forests . Hundreds of yards in thickness of sandstone and shale have to bo pierced ere we reach our buried treasure , more valuable far than the ' hoarded gold' of the enchanter Merlyn . In tho deeps , and in the darkness of these rock formations , chemical changes have gone on resulting in the production of that coal which gives to our country her commercial supremacyand to our

, ladies Mauve and Magenta . We have to take our coal to the gas works and there we subject this natural product to a destructive distillation , as the process is termed . We obtain the gas with which we illuminate our towns and our houses , and the coal yields by the process , at the same time , many other things . " And having described the process by which Aniline is obtained , he adds : — "By the sunlight the face of early > Tatuie was covered with vegetable

forms , and the powers emanating from the sun were used ( expended ) in their production . The tree grew in size , and the leaves and the flowers were abundant or otherwise , and palely or intensely coloured according to the degree of sunshine poured upon them . Decay comes over the living forests , and they gradually change into the form which we name coal . We dig this from the earth , and we submit it to the destructive chemistry of the gas works . Gas is obtainedwe employ it for all purposes of illuminationand there

, , are other products left behind . The quantity of light we obtain from the gas produced by a given weight of coal is exactly the quantity of light which was necessary to complete the growth of the plants from which the coal was formed ; so that we are actually in our library writing this brief essay warmed by the heat , and illuminated by the light which was flooded upon this earth long before it was fitted to the abode of man . Again , the Mauve and Magenta with their allied colours , are due to those mysterious

forces which , we scarcely yet know how , give colour to nature . They were produced in the very youth of the world , and have been stored until now in the earth's recesses . The lady clad in Manve or Magenta , modern though these colours be , walks abroad into the sunshine of' to-day in tints produced by that same orb , ages before Eve , the mother of mankind , had been taught to clothe herself in the vegetable beauties of the Gai-den of Eden . " This is the right sort of stuff to popularize science , and we wish Mr . Hunt , and all

other teachers of the hidden mysteries of nature and science , long life to labour for the enligVitenment of the people . The Leeds Mercnry , on and ofter the first October , is to be issued as a penny daily journal . The history of this paper is a remarkable one . It was commenced in May , 1720 , as a weekly three-halfpenny newspaper ; and it is worthy of remark , that during the first two

years of its existence , it only contained some twenty advertisements , for which the charge was half-a-crown each . In 17 G 7 , after a suspension of twelve years , the Leeds Mercury was revived by Mr . James Bowling , tinder whose able editorship it remained until 1791 . In March , 1801 , it became the property of the late Mr . Edw . Baines , in whose family it still remains . It has long

maintained a high position in the ranks of the provincial press , and has of late years been issued twice a week . Dr . Spencer T . Hall , M . A ., the well-known Sherwood Forester , has , we are glad to learn , another work nearly ready for the press , entitled Days in Derbyshire , from which we may make sure of a treat . Spencer Hall is the man , of all others that we know , best

qualified to do justice to the scenery of Derbyshire , or perhaps any other of our English counties , as those who have read his able and genial work , The Pealc and the Plain , will at once agree to . As we read his admirable sketches , one not only feels in love with such writings , but their author comes in for a full share of our affections . Happv is the writer of whom one can say this .

Fine Arts.

Fine Arts .

Bro . Poulton has just produced an excellent photograph of Bro . Matthew Cooke in full costume as a Knight Templar , the whole of the details of which are brought out with remarable fidelity . Bro . Poulton appears to be very happy with his portraits , and we know not which to admire most , his album series or those of a larger size .