Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

tion and contented from experience and reason , is exploded . The notion that the mass of the people are the sources of the national wealth merely as beasts of burden—that the nation has no interest in their intelligence , inventive capacity , morality , and fitness for the duties of freemen and citizens—is a doctrine which would find no advocates . . . . Why , then , is education to be discouraged by regulations Avhich cut oft' all aid to children under seven and after

eleven years of age ? Why are the annual grants to be reduced two-fifths at one MOAV ? Why are the stipends , training , and qualifications of schoolmasters to be loivered ? Why is instruction in the school to be mainly concentrated on the three lower elements ? Why should national education be thus degraded to a mere drill in mechanical skill in reading , writing , and arithmetic ? "

Mr . Foley , R . A ., has accepted the commission for the bronze statue of the late John Pielden , Esq ., M . P ., about to be erected at Todmoiden by the friends oftlie Ten Hours' Bill . Dr . Ballantyne , late principal of the Sanscrit College at Benares , has been elected professor of Sanscrit , at King's College , London . The Builder informs us , that Professor Grace Calvert , of

Manchester , " is IIOAV making an inA'estiga ' . ion , for the Admiralty , of different kinds of AA ' OOCI used in shipbuilding ; " and our contemporary adds : — "He finds the goodness of teak to consist in the fact that it is highly charged Avith caoutchouc ; and that , if all the tannin be soaked out of a block of oak , it may be inter-penetrated by a solution of caoutchouc , and thereby rendered as lasting as teak . "

Mr . William Lockhart , F . R . C . S ., P . RG . S ., ancl for twenty years a medical missionary in China , thus describes a Chinese bath , the ¦ charge for which is equal to an English farthing : — "At the front of the house is a large hall fitted Avith boxes and compartments , where the visitors place their clothes under the care of a keeper , ¦ who supplies the bather with a clean towl , and is responsible for his property ivhile he is absent in the bath . A from this

passage hall leads to the bathing apartment , ivhich is a small room , taken up , for the greater part , by a large water-trough about a foot in depth , made of tiles or slabs of AA'hite marble . Through the floor of this tiled trough , tivo or three circular holes are made , into which iron boilers are placed , having their edges thoroughly cemented . When the trough is filled Avith Avater , a fire is lighted under the boilers in the fireplace AA'hich has been built for the

purpose , and the water is soon heated . The bathers sit on planks placed across the trough , aud Avash themselves in the steam . A teacher of mine who Avas one day enjoying his bath after this fashion , slipped off the plank into the Avater , and AA'as severely ¦ scalded ., The water is usually changed only once , but in some establishments twice , in the day—a circumstance which , though repulsive to the habits of Europeans , does not affect the Chinese , who enjoy their bath with quite as much relish in the evening as earlier in the day , when the water is fresh and clean . "

"Artists , " says the London Review , " will be glad to learn that a new and important yelloAv pigment has just been introduced under the name of aureolin , which vv ill be found to be a most valuable addendum to the palette . It is a splendid yelloAv colour cf rich and brilliant hue , and possesses the invaluable and lon ° - sought for combination of qualities—brilliancy , permanency , and transparency . Its tints are very pure in tone , the lighter ones

"being extremely delicate and clear . To scientific men it is of interest , as being a nearer approach to the pure colour of the solar spectrum than any other knoAA-n yelloAv . Aureolin mixes well AA * ith all other colours , forming with blues a magnificent range of brilliant greens ; and by the side of ultramarine and madder-red , it completes a triad of brilliant , permanent , and transparent primitive ¦ colours . It is absolutely permanent , being equally unaffected by long-continued exposure to the sun ' s rays or to the action of the impure gases ivhich may contaminate the atmosphere . "

Mrs . Thomson , in her new book , Celebrated Friendships , has the folloAving notice of Samuel Taylor Coleridge , after he had " married ¦ upon literature" in the fine old church of St . Mary Redcliffe , at Bristol : — " He still raved about ' Susquehanna ! ' yet found the Clevedon cottage Avith little furniture , at first , very far from comfortable . ' Send me doivn , ' he wrote to Cottle , ' with all despatch—A riddle slicea candle boxtivo ventilatorsIAA ' lasses for the

, , , g wash-hand stand , one tin dustpan , one small tin tea-kettle , one pair of candlesticks , one carpet brush , one flour dredge , three tin extinguishers , tivo mats , a pair of slippers , a cheese toaster , tivo large tin spoons , a bible , a keg of porter , coffee , raisins , currants , catchup , ¦ nutmegs , allspice , cinnamon , rice , ginger , and mace . ' The kind Joseph Cottle instantly complied with his request , and Avent doAvn

the next day to see the couple . The house , or cottage , was at the extremity of the village ; it Avas only one storey high ; the draAving-room , looking into a pretty floAver garden , ivas only whitewashed ; but Joseph sent down an upholsterer the very next day , and had it papered with a ' sprightly paper . ' The rent of this dwelling was onl y five pounds a-year ; so Coleridge delihted in saying that bmounting his Pegasus only for a week

g y , he could pay the ivhole rent for the year . At first , the poet and his bride were enchanted Avith their home ; but Coleridge soon found that he Avas too far from Bristol for society—out of the way . They removed to Bristol , but aftenvards accepted an invitation to visit a friend , Mr . S . Poole , of StoAvey , in Somersetshire , where they remained some time . " Her idea that the bad fare of the Blue Coat

School helped much to cause Coleridge ' s evil habit of opium eating is a charitable one , and perhaps correct : — " No Avonder full half Coleridge ' s time from seventeen to eighteen Avas passed in the sick ward of Christ ' s Hospital , ill of rheumatic fever and jaundice ; no wonder that the stomach became delicate , and the Avhole frame enervated and often miserable . Let those who blame Coleridge's agelook at his youth . When Edivard VI . founded Christ ' s

Hos-, pital , he gave it the space upon which the convent of Grey Friars stood—precincts of some extent ; open fields , kept jealously so by the city , were on one side—a placid country beyond . Never could the gentle monarch have anticipated that in the midst of smoke , noise , carts , omnibuses , to say nothing of narroiv streets , vice , and dirt , the ' fatherless children' would have been allowed still to continue .

' I do not shame to say , tbe Hospital Of London ivas my chieftest fostering place . ' Then , perhaps , the friends Avent over Colerige ' s college life ; IIOAV he fell into debt at Jesus College , Cambridge ; a debt c ollegians Avould think but little of noAA * , —for £ 100 ; owing to imprudently letting an upholsterer furnish his rooms ; IIOAV , being a freshman , and sport for othersa little bit of the tail of his goivn . ivas cut

, off so frequently , that at last it came into the form of a spencer . HOAV the Master of Jesus College called after him in the Quad ., 'Mr . Coleridge , Mr . Coleridge , Avhen will you get rid of that shameful gown ? ' Coleridge , looking round at its diminished skirts , ansAvered courteously , ' Why , Sir , I think I have got rid of the greatest part of it already . ' HOAV revolutionary , IIOAV Socinian he had been till tAventy-five ; IIOAV proud' proud as a Grecianto

, , speak as a Blue-coat boy , ' when in companionship with Butler ( afterAvards of Shrewsbury ) , Keats ( of Eton ) , Bethell , Bishop of Bangor , he Avas selected ont of eighteen men to stand for the Craven Scholarship—Dr . Butler getting it . HOAV he gave up college , perhaps not unfortunately , for

' There is a Providence Avhich shapes our ends , Rough-heAV them how we will . ' Yet he looked back Av-iqli delight 'to the friendly cloisters , and the happy grove of quiet , ever honoured Jesus College . ' ' What evenings , ' a college friend of his wrote , ' hai-e I not spent AA'ith , him there . '" Mr . Walter Thornbury , in his Life of I . 31 . W . Turner , R . A .,

thus describes the artist ' s three periods : — " In his first period , the pictures are notable for a grey or broAvn colour , and for a sometimes heavy touch . Turner is more anxious for form than colour ; the colours are simple and few , and laid on unskilfully . His colour was sober because lie was studying sober-coloured landscapes , and as the touch of them w-as heaA-y , so Avas his touch ; but he imitated Avithout copying . He did not copy

Vandervelde , but went to the sea and painted it in the Vandervelde way ; so that by degrees he learnt to paint truer than Vandervelde . Second Period . — In 1823 came his 'Bay of Baiai , ' AA'hich SIIOAVS a change to the second period . The chief characteristics of this period are colour instead of grey , refinement instead of force , quantity instead of mass . His light is now * as near the brightness of real liht as possible ; his shadownot of one colourbut

g , , of various colours . He tries IIOAV for delicacy and tenderness of contrast instead of violence . He also finds that no one had yet given the quantity of nature . The draAvings of this period , AA'hen not painted for display , are ' faultless and magnificent . ' The splendour and gladness of the ivorld , not its humiliation and pain , are now his chief object . Third Period . —There is less mechanical effortless pride in new discoveriesand less ambitious accumulation

, , , more deep imaginative delight and quiet love of nature . Sometimes in defiance of critics , conscious of poiA-er , he painted onl y to astonish . The figures are chalky in the face , and scarlet in the reflected lights . After 1840 no more foliage is well unrated , and it rarely occurs in any prominent mass . " Aud ive are told : " Soon after Turner first ivent to Solus Lodge , at Twickenham , his