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with hands, the Alpine horn sounds long and loud and shrill, Good night,' repeated by other horns; while a thousand good nights' are reverberated around, and the curtain of heaven closes on the shepherds and their flocks."-Pp. 218-19.

THE DESTRUCTION OF GOLDAU.

the Leman lake. The eagle on the escutcheon of the city arms indicates its having been an imperial city; and it is believed the key was an adjunct of Pope Martin V., in the year 1418. The motto on the scroll, "Ex tenebris lux," appears to have existed anterior to the light of the Reformation. The number of inhabitants may now be estimated at about 22,000; but it appears, "This terrible catastrophe occurred on the 2d Sepby a census in 1789, to have been 26,148. In this tember 1806, by the fall of the Rossberg, which rose, moral city, it is computed that every twelfth birth is il-originally, 3516 feet above the level of the sea. This legitimate. The number of people engaged in clock mountain has also been called Russberg or Spitzbühlt. and watch-making and jewellery may be safely rated at The eventful morning appears to have been ushered in 3000. In years favourable to these staple manufac-with rain, which continued until noon; and, during the tures 75,000 ounces of gold are employed, which is almost equally divided between watches and jewellery. The daily supply of silver is about 134 ounces. Pearls form an article of considerable value in the jewellery, and have been rated at no less a sum than 1200 francs daily. 70,000 watches are annually made, only one-twelfth of which are in silver. More than fifty distinct branches are comprised in the various departments, and each workman, on the average, earns about three shillings a-day." -Pp. 4-6.

It is impossible for us to accompany Mr Murray in his journey to explore the Valley of Chamouni, and the other interesting features of Swiss scenery, and we shall rather proceed to make a few desultory extracts from

his volume.

At Geneva, we have the following notice of

CALVIN AND CALVINISM.

"We observed, in our perambulations, the house from the projecting window of which CALVIN addressed the populace, and altogether it recalled to our minds the house of JOHN KNOX, in the Canongate of Edinburgh. In Geneva, however, we regret to say, the name of Calvin is almost unknown among the majority of its inhabitants. I asked a respectable-looking person to tell me where I could find out the house where the celebrated Calvin once lived; he was sorry, however, he said, to confess that he did not know whom I meant, fer he had not heard the name of the gentleman before.

entire day, the heavens were sad and sombre, as if in anticipation of the event about to ensue. About two P.M., the forests and orchards, which compassed the Rossberg, appeared convulsed, as if shaken by the invisible hand of Omnipotence; and occasional fragments of rock were observed to fall. About an hour after, the villages of Goldau, Lowertz, Rother, and Rusengen, were overwhelmed; and a once smiling valley, where 600 peaceful shepherds and their families dwelt, with their flocks and herds feeding on the plains beside them, was covered with the rocky wreck of fell desola. | tion and ruin, which circumscribed a square league. It was a dread picture of destruction. Thus, in one awful moment, was an Arcadian vale turned into a Gehinnom valley of shrieking. In the ruin, were involved two churches, 111 houses, 200 granaries and stables, more than 400 persons, and at least 325 head of cattle. This fearful accumulation of the wreck of the Rossberg formed a new mountain, and diminished the apparent altitude of the Rhigi on this side, by elevating the plain at its base. Strangers, whom curiosity had led toward the Rhigsberg, were unfortunately overwhelmed, as well as the inhabitants of the plain.

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"A melancholy colloquy is stated to have taken place between a child and her nurse, buried among the rocks, and separated from each other by them. "Come,' said the child, do take me away.' The day of Judgment,' said the girl, in reply, will soon be passed; we shall then find ourselves in heaven, and be for ever hapA gentleman, of the name of Dettingen, had a pretty house on the side of the hill; at the moment when the waters of the lake of Lowertz rose, there were in his house a female servant and two of his daughters; one of these was five years old, and the other nineteen, the latter dumb. She was the only one saved.

"The ecclesiastical court of Geneva is managed some-py. what like that of the Church of Scotland, and candidates for the ministry go through an almost similar course of study and examination. The title proposan applies to the individual when he enters the priesthood; but when he is set apart to the charge of a parish, he then assumes tho epithet pasteur. The oldest pastor of the city takes the title doyen; and the president over the weekly convocation or assembly of pasteurs, which meet, as in the Presbyteries of the Church of Scotland to regulate ecclesiastical affairs, is called, as in Scotland, moderator, though in. the latter the Presbytery is monthly."— Pp. 175-6.

The two following passages are powerful and graphic:

THE ALPINE HORN.

"There was a wild romance in its notes, which was characteristic, in a very high degree, of all around. This instrument is about eight feet long, and its farther extremity rests on the ground. It is used among these mountains, not merely for the herdsman's call, but as an invocation for the solemnities of religion. As soon as the sun has shed his last ray on the snowy summit of the loftiest ridge, the Alpine shepherd, from some elevated point, trumpets forth, PRAISE GOD THE LORD!' while the echoes in the caves of the everlasting hills, roused from their slumbers at the sacred name of GOD, repeat, PRAISE GOD THE LORD!' Distant horns on lower plains now catch the watch-word, and distant mountains ring again with the solemn sound, PRAISE GOD THE LORD!' and other echoes bounding from other rocks, reply, GOD THE LORD!' A solemn pause succeeds; with uncovered head, and on the bended knee, the shepherd's prayer ascends on high. At the close of this evening sacrifice, offered in the temple not made

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"There is detailed a still more wonderful instance of the interference of Providence in the case of an infant of two years old, belonging to persons named Metter, who, though seemingly swallowed up with the cottage in which it lay, was ultimately found calmly asleep on its mattress, on a mass of rubbish at some distance. In minutely examining all the circumstantial details of this remarkable instance of preservation, we find ourselves as utterly at a loss to account for it as Dr Zay seems to have been. The cottage had a solid roof, the windows were too small to permit the passage of the mattress, the door was locked, and the wooden walls and rafters were dashed to pieces. The infant, when taken up, smiled. The parents were absent from the village daring the catastrophe, and, on their return, had the happiness to receive their infant uninjured.

"The effect on the minds of the survivors seems to have been that of stupor and total abstraction. They thought that the final day of doom had arrived, and that the fall of the Rossberg would be promptly followed by that of the Rhigi, and other mountains around; and indeed it seemed almost to realize the Apocalyptic vision of the Day of Judgment, "when the wicked shall say unto the mountains and to the hills, Fall on us, and hide us from the wrath of the Lamb." It appears, from undoubted authority, that this is not the only catastrophe which the annals of the Rossberg have to record; as a former village, named Rother, was destroyed

by a fall from the same mountain, but the date is not well ascertained: 180,000 francs were contributed toward the relief of the unhappy few who survived.". Pp. 240-4.

We must now take leave of Mr Murray's work, in which he appears to advantage, both as a traveller and a man of science. In the first character, he is modest and observant; in the latter, ingenious and learned. We have heard that Mr Murray is a candidate for the Chemistry Chair in the intended King's College, London, and we shall be glad to learn that he has proved successful.

The History of Scotland. By Patrick Fraser Tytler,
Esq. F.R.S.E. and F.A.S. Vol. II. Edinburgh.
William Tait. 1829. 8vo.

THE first volume of this learned, and, we may safely say, national work, appeared last year, and will be continued at intervals till completed in six volumes. Mr Tytler stands so deservedly high in the literary world, that no congratulations of ours are necessary on the successful manner in which he is carrying on his labours. The second volume contains the history of the reign of David II., who succeeded Robert Bruce, and includes an Historical Enquiry into the Ancient State and Manners of Scotland; under which is comprehended the most complete details of the General Appearance of the Country, Distinct Races in Scotland,-Ancient Parliament of Scotland, Early Commerce and Navigation, State of the Early Scottish Church,-Sports and Amusements of the People, &c. &c. Of all these subjects, the most ample, and hitherto unknown, illustrations are given; and we are confident that the talent and research which the volume indicates will add materially to Mr Tytler's literary reputation. We mention this work thus briefly at present merely to show, that we are not slumbering at our post; and we shall, in an early number, present our readers with a much longer review, when we shall take the opportunity of discussing, likewise, the contents of the first volume, published last year.

SCIENCE.

bably in the state of sulphuret of iron. When exposed to the air, these get covered with a snowy efflorescence, just as happens to some of the argillaceous slates of our Coal Measures. This was finely exemplified in the waste coal-workings that form the Hurlet alum mines, near Glasgow. But certainly the most characteristic feature of this submedial formation, is the impressions of fish, indicating most clearly the dreadful turmoil which presided at its origin. In some places, they are found in a constrained posture, suggesting the idea, that they had actually perished in boiling water!

It cannot be doubted that the revolution which caused the vast accumulation of remains found at Monte-Bolca, must have been sudden, and that they were speedily covered after death, by the mineral deposit in which they are now buried; for one of these fossil fish, now in the blochius, had not time, before it died, to let go another galleries of the French museum, belonging to the genus fish which it was in the act of swallowing. In our clieminent feature of the work, when any fish, (and espe mates, it is added, with that acuteness which is a precially one furnished with an air bladder,) dies in summer, it remains at the bottom of the water, for two or three days; it then rises to the surface before it becomes tainted, and falls to the bottom to rise no more, till putrefaction disunites its constituent parts. Hence, if some days had elapsed between the death of the blochius, it would have mounted to the surface, and thus have above described, and its getting impacted in the strata, been separated from the fish, which it was swallowing, when arrested by the fatal catastrophe.

dies of others that had been newly swallowed, so quickFish found in the same locality, too, contain the boly had they been killed. Fish are also found in more recent rocks than Transitions, and zoophytes are seen in limestone. Every locality and circumstance of these is delightfully given by the Doctor, but we can only refer to, not follow him. These are sub-medial. The medial, main-spring of the manufacturing prosperity of Britain. or carboniferous strata, comprise the coal measures--the

"There are three different substances to which the name of coal has been given:-1. Lignite or fossilized wood, in some places, retaining its texture very disTHE FORMATION AND HISTORY OF THE EARTH. tinctly, and passing by a series of gradations from this state to that of jet. 2. Anthracite or stone coal, a subA New System of Geology, in which the Great Revo- stance destitute of bitumen, occurs on the Continent, in lutions of the Earth and Animated Nature, are re-mica-slate and other primitive rocks. In the transition conciled at once to Modern Science and Sacred slates of Derbyshire, anthracite also occurs. Carbona History. By Andrew Ure, M.D. F.R.S. Professor ceous matters of this kind can never be profitably workof Physics and Lecturer on Chemistry in the Ander-ed, so as to become objects of statistical interest. 3. sonian University. London. Longman & Co. 1829. Pp. 621.

(Second Notice.)

The proper coal measures, called the Independent Coal Formation, by Werner, from its occurring in insulated basins. This great carbonaceous deposit is interposed WE now proceed, in Book II., from the primordial between the mountain limestone and old red sandstone world, but still, in the antediluvian period, to the re- below, and the saliferous or newer red sandstone above. view of what are called SECONDARY FORMATIONS, or Coal is a peculiar compound of carbon, hydrogen, and those which present remains of once living beings, oxygen, in which the first principle greatly predomi previously, however,-considering what are expressively nates. A little azote is also generally present. Some called TRANSITION ROCKS, which are mineral masses coals, when distilled at a red heat, afford a considerable that denote the passage between the upright primitive, quantity of bitumen or tar; others, such as blind coal, and the horizontal secondary strata,-between those of afford none, and burn without flame. By a series of inorganic and organic evidence; because, in the course experiments on peat and various lignites their gradual of the consolidation and re-union of their parts, a few progress of bituminization was ascertained. By the apof the organic forms with which the sea was beginning plication of heat, under compression, to jet, it seems to to teem, falling into their crevices, became imbedded in fuse into a substance like true coal. The incipient their substance; and what is termed SUB and SUPER stage seems therefore the work of water, the final one, of MEDIAL STRATA, in which England is so rich-in re- fire. Whether these two agents have been conjoined by ference to the TERTIARY, or upper formations,the nature in her great coal formations, is altogether uncerchief of which intermediate strata, geologically speak-tain, and must be left to future enquiry. Certainly ing, is certainly GREYWACKE, although to us those strata called THE COAL MEASURES, are by far the most important. That sometimes has a schistose texture approaching to primitive clay slate, and amongst it is found alum-slate, which is merely an argillaceous schist, impregnated with carbon and sulphur; the latter pro

that hypothesis which traces the change to water alone, is the preferable. The coal districts exhibit no unequivocal tokens of igneous agency, except where they are traversed by whindykes. One is led to infer that the coal-basins have been originally lakes liable to alternate inundations; whence the alternate deposits of vegetable

matter, clay, and sand, afterwards converted into coal, The strata above chalk, or the TERTIARY rocks, conshale, and sandstone, under great superincumbent press-sist of various beds of sand, clay (London and plastic,) ure, possibly of the ocean." marl, and imperfectly consolidated limestone. That callWhile thus treating of a subject so deeply interesting ed London clay forms one of the chief of the superior to manufacturing Britain, with a fulness and condensa- strata. It holds as on the Isle of Sheppey, &c.—some tion seldom before attempted, no collateral information extraordinary remains of fruits, now exclusively of troescapes our author's research. Thus, it is remarked in-pical growth, and of an extinct species of cocoa nut, cidentally : figured in this work, &c. It occasions, however, a dense and barren soil, productive round the metropolis only by excessive working.

"Clay iron-stone, in beds or courses of nodules, is common in the coal-fields, yielding on an average about 30 per cent of metal. Indispensable as this is to all the arts which bring comfort to man, with what providential kindness is its ore here associated with its flux and fuel, the limestone and the coal, whose combined action alone can make it useful! Most justly, therefore, does Mr Conybeare say, that it can hardly be considered as recurring unnecessarily to final causes, if we conceive that this distribution of the rude materials of the earth was determined with a view to the convenience of its inhabitants.'

"The inclination of the strata which the basin shape bestows on the coal measures, is an arrangement most beneficial to man. Thus the successive seams rise on its edges to the surface or near it; and thereby disclose the mineral treasures concealed beneath, which would otherwise have rested invisible and unknown. By the sloping position, many of the beds are not only brought within the reach of the miner, but the whole become more easily worked and drained. There is one device, however, in the coal measures, which, to a superficial thinker, will appear a defect in the fabric, though it be essential to their usefulness; I allude to the dislocations of the strata, usually called faults, because they seem defects, or, at least, put the miner to fault in his search after the coal. These intersections, whether by slips or whindykes, act as valves to the porous seams, or as floodgates to arrest the diffusion of the subterranean springs. By these natural dams, the water which might inundate the whole, or, at least, entirely submerge the richest deposits of the centre, is confined to a single compartment, from which it is in most cases practicable to drain it. These safeguards of mines are, therefore, not confined to coal basins, but are providentially distributed through every important mineral bed."

A clear summary of what had preceded, in respect to the TERTIARY strata, which, near the supermedial in England, amounts to about a mile in depth, is very properly wound up by an abstract of Cuvier and Brog niart's Memoir on that singular tract of country, called the Paris Basin-celebrated for a remarkable alternation of fresh water and marine strata. We wish we could follow our author through this most interesting portion of his work, but must content ourselves with a very brief outline.

The chalk forms the bottom of the basin, or gulf, within which are deposited the several formations of the Paris district. Ere this antique chalk floor was covered by these mineral strata, its surface must have exhibited hollows and prominences, in the form of valleys, hills, and terraces. These inequalities are still indicated by the islets and promontories of chalk, which rise up through the new formations in certain points. Hence the excavations made in these upper beds reach the chalk at very variable depths. Nor have the inequalities any relation with those of the actual surface of the land.

On reconsidering these beds, from the chalk upwards, we conceive first of all a sea depositing on its bottom an immense mass of chalk, and mollusca of peculiar species. This precipitation of the chalk, and of its attend. ant shells, suddenly stops; the sea retires, waters of another kind, very probably analogous to that of our fresh-water lakes, succeed, and all the hollows of the marine formation are filled up with clays, debris of land vegetables, and of fresh-water shells. But soon another sea, producing new inhabitants, nourishing a prodigious quantity of testaceous mollusca, entirely different from those of the chalk, returns and covers the clay, its lignites, and their shells, &c. By degrees the sea withFrom such considerations, he, with happy tact and draws, and the soil is again covered with lakes of fresh the great aim of the volume ever in view, illustrates and water. We are led to believe that no organized bodies confutes in anticipation similar apparent contradictions in lived at that period in this sea, or that their exuvia have other aspects of nature. Between the medial and tertiary, been completely destroyed. Lastly, the sea withdraws as we have indicated, super-medial stratas, or the proper entirely, for the third time. Lakes or marshes of fresh Secondary Formation of Geology, come to be treated water take its place, and cover with the remains of their of. These are of great interest, and the substances of inhabitants the tops of almost all the hills. which they consist are described in order and at length, which we cannot follow here, however tempting be the path. It is singular, that among the supermedial strata, chalk, which is so frequent in Europe, should not be found in America, Mr Maclure asserting positively that it does not exist on that continent; and except in two or three spots of the Hebrides and Sutherland, a chalk formation is equally scarce in Scotland. It often produces a certain barrenness in the superior soil; but it is admirably remarked by Dr Ure, and we quote the passage as a specimen, extraordinary with most other scientific writers, but not unusual with him, of how admirably general information and precise science may be united, and made illustrative of, and aid in advancing, each other. "The chalk valleys, however, are often extremely fertile; of which the Kent and Surrey hop grounds, and the downs for pasturing sheep, afford examples. Beech is the tree best fitted for a chalky soil. The Chiltern hills in Oxfordshire were anciently covered with thickets and woods of beech, which afforded harbour to banditti. Hence the steward of the Chiltern hundreds, formerly an employment under the Crown, has become a nominal office, which members of parliament take under a fiction of law, in order to vacate their seats.".

Such are the chronometers with which Geology measures the progress of time. But that science itself must have a starting place, indicated by mightier phenomena than even these here described; and that point is THE GENERAL DELUGE, to the reality of which the belief of all nations and tribes bear concurrent, though individual, moral testimony, and of which each corner of earth's now serrated and rugged surface exhibits physical evidence. In the Third Book, we come to the second great division of this work, where is treated the Deluge, and the causes of the antecedent revolutions of the earth, and of organic beings. It is appropriately introduced by the expression of Cuvier, and the conclusions of De Luc and Dolomieu, that if there be any fact well established in geology, it is this, that the surface of our globe has suffered a great and sudden revolution, the period of which cannot be dated further back than five or six thousand years. This revolution has, on the one hand, in. gulfed, and caused to disappear, the countries formerly inhabited by men, and the animal species at present best known; and, on the other, has laid bare the bottom of the last ocean, thus converting its channel into the now habitable earth.

Striking proofs of this lie at the very threshold of in

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vestigation, and in the mere necessity for the terms needful to describe phenomena, that meet us almost on the surface of the earth. Nearly the whole table lands, ! and gentle acclivities of the mountains, are covered with deposits of gravel and loam, to the production of which no cause now seen in action is adequate, and which can therefore be referred only to the waters of a sudden and transient deluge. This deposit is hence called diluvium by geologists. In it, the pebbles and loam are always promiscuously blended, whereas, among the regular secondary and tertiary strata, they occur separate in alternate beds. The term alluvium is bestowed on the marl, sand, and gravel, deposited by existing rivers and lakes, or on planes exposed to occasional inundation. The ablest writers, Cuvier, Buckland, Brogniart, Conybeare, &c. now adopt these distinctions.

With these distinctive appellatives in view, our author proceeds to the proofs, collected with astonishing research, and arranged with much skill, of the diluvian, or flooding, action of water having reached the summits of the loftiest mountains; and, as concatenated by him, they form the most interesting and irresistible chain of evidence we have ever seen in science, or even in jurisprudence or metaphysics. Among them it is remarked, "In central Asia, bones of horses and deer, which were found at a height of 16,000 feet above the sea, in the Himmala mountains, are now deposited at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. They were got by the Chinese Tartars of Duba, in the north face of the snowy ridge of Kylas, in lat. 32o N., out of the masses of ice that fall with the avalanches, from the regions of perpetual snow. The preceding facts attest, that all the high hills that were under the whole heavens were covered' by the waters of the deluge."

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Another species of proof is that afforded by what Hutchinson and Catcott showed long ago, that the surface of the earth in many places, where it is at present furrowed by valleys, must have been formerly continuous and this in innumerable instances, where streams do not exist at all; in many chalk downs, for example, or where the existing streams, as has been demonstrated already, are quite inadequate to the effect-is thus powerfully clenched, by reference to a familiar illustration. But, besides all these, the saline impregnation of many of our plains furnishes an overwhelming proof of the present land being once submerged by the

ocean.

the first time in 1824, he remarked in the cavity twelve distinct places covered with red-hot lava, and three or four from which it spouted to the height of thirty or forty feet.

But besides this, every other volcano of importance, and its phenomena, whence issue lava or steam, as in the Geysers of Iceland, is adverted to, if we except an extraordinary one of mud in the island of Java, which might have been noticed. This forms a chapter as interesting, and even thrilling, as the finest romance we ever read. As to the causes of volcanic action, particularly of the formation of lava, Dr Ure agrees with the learned Sir H. Davy, whose admirable speculationsconfirmed by still more admirable experiments-he explains and illustrates; and with him regards the causes assigned in older times, as the combustion of coal strata, &c. &c. as quite inadequate. With this we think it impossible not to agree, since the only objection to the present theory of the eruption of water can thus be obviated. The second cause is,

II. BASALTIC ERUPTION-in treating of which, a survey of the whole trap districts of this country is admirably given. The account of the Campsie range of hills is full of interest and beauty. The igneous origin of basalt we think he convincingly proves-negatively, from the existence of whindykes, traversing all rocks indifferently-and positively, from, 1. The identity of chemical composition in basalt and lava; and, 2. The constant occurrence of trap rocks in volcanic districts. (To be concluded in our next.)

FINE ARTS.

SCULPTURE.

History of Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture.
By J. S. Memes, LL.D. Constable's Miscellany.
Vol. XXXIX. Edinburgh. 1829.

To produce a condensed and able history of the Fine Arts requires a highly cultivated taste, a vivid imagination, an intellectual refinement free from the trammels of any particular school, and a judgment almost mathematically true. We feel no hesitation in saying, that an author possessing these requisites in no slight The fact, then, of a universal deluge being demon- degree has been at work on the present instructive and strated, an inductive enquiry into its causes naturally delightful volume. Easy and perspicuous in its arfollows. These are eruptive powers, similar to those rangement, faithfully historical in its statements, vigo. which raised the primordial land, acting under the bot-rous and animated in its style, and often enthusiastic and tom of the primeval ocean, rolled its waters over the ancient continents, many of which were broken down and sunk in the sea, whilst new territories were upheaved and laid bare, and are thus arranged :

eloquent in its descriptions, this work is entitled to a high rank among the elegant literature of the day; and we hail it as, in a particular manner, calculated to encourage and hasten the revival of that pure and clasI. VOLCANIC ACTION-in treating of which, the sical taste which is alone able to secure great improveaccount of Mouna Roa, in the island of Owhyhee, just-ment in any department of art. Intellectual refinement ly termed the most remarkable volcano ever described, forms a singular and novel feature. It is estimated to rise to the prodigious height of 15,000 feet, contains an enormous crater, eight miles in circumference, and includes a vast lake of molten lava, subject to horrific explosions and undulations. The crater, instead of being the truncated top of a mountain, distinguishable at a distance in every direction, is an immense chasm in an upland country, near the base of the mountain, and is approached, not by ascending a cone, but by descending two vast terraces. It is not visible from any point, at a greater distance than half a mile. The whole summit of its ancient cone seems to have fallen in, and formed the precipitous ruins which encircle the crater to a distance of from fifteen to twenty miles. The bottom of the gulf within has a circumference of five or six miles, and a depth of 1500 feet, the descent being in general practicable. When Mr Goodrich visited this crater for

is the very element upon which the Fine Arts feed ;they were never the slaves of mere power, never helped to swell the pageant of tyrannical triumph, nor were ever dragged captive at the chariot wheels of ostentation and pride. They sprang into celebrity in the free and intellectual country of Greece, where genius expanded all her prismatic colours, and where the more sturdy and heroic virtues walked hand in hand with all the gentler sensibilities of our nature. But if the public taste be vitiated, it is in vain to look for purity of design from the artist. There will always be found minds, and minds too of considerable power, willing enough to pander to public appetite. That this has been the case, alike in architecture, painting, and sculpture, we have more than sufficient melancholy proofs presented to us in our streets and exhibition rooms. Dr Memes has resolutely gone to the root of the evil, forcibly addressing himself to the public, that the artist may profit by their

improvement. He has not stopped to delineate all the petty and scholastic differences of art, but he has given a broad and intellectual coup d'œil of his subject; and we will venture to affirm, that most men who read the work candidly and attentively will perceive a new light breaking in upon what they had previously been pleased to denominate their taste; and, as one symptom of its amelioration, will become much more diffident regarding matters, concerning whose principles they will be forced to confess that, but yesterday, they knew nothing.

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ing, from the press, we are inclined to be even more sceptical than Dr Memes, as to the actual position it is entitled to hold on the graduated scale of art. That the Egyptians had many difficulties to contend with, no one will deny :-the very spirit of their laws and religious opinions were directly opposed to improvement of any sort, which they considered as only another term for innovation. Their gods, (unlike those of the Greeks,) instead of being embodied representations of ideal excellence, collected and arranged from the finest examples of human formation, more generally partook of the character of brutified monsters; which, whether merely symbolical or not, in no small degree assisted in retardall countries, religion will be found to be the heart whence flow the arteries that feed and nourish them. Upon the character which religion first assumes depends a thousand circumstances; but none more than the progress and improvement of the Fine Arts. Sculpture may be said to have had its origin in Polytheism. Had the early inhabitants of Egypt, Greece, and Italy, entertained the religious opinions of the Covenanters, it is not probable that either sculpture, architecture, or painting, would ever have arrived at much perfection amongst them. But even had the Egyptians been willing to model their sculpture after the best examples of the human form, they would have failed to arrive at a good conclusion; because their own thick lips, and heavy contours, were immeasurably removed from grace or beauty. Their statues, possessing no indications of anatomical knowledge, and but little appearance of expression, sentiment, or feeling, derive their sole interest from their antiquity, their position, their magnitude,

Our author commences his labours with an "Introduction," in which he shortly considers the theories that have been advanced regarding the existence of a stand-ing the progress of sculpture. In the nursery days of ard of taste, and the nature of beauty. We are much pleased with the concise, clear, yet comprehensive manner, in which these points are treated. Intricate discussions on such subjects are too metaphysical to be useful; and, by attempting to carry the reader too far, they resemble rivers which have overflowed their bound aries, seldom retaining permanent possession of any portion of the ground they have usurped. Since the time when Aristotle wrote, “ Tò yàg naλòv év meyéðu xài Táļu ," hundreds have attempted comments on a text so vague; and so many have been baffled in its interpretation, that the interest may be said to gather strength with the difficulty. The notions which Burke promulgates in his Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful show, better than any other, to what unphilosophical conclusions we must come, when we attempt to discover general principles and fixed statutes, for the regulation of what must ever depend on such an endless variety of unconventional causes. Of the seven elementary principles, laid down by that writer, as the indispensable requisites of beauty in general, not one will be found applicable to Architectural beauty. Nay, sometimes they are at open variance with its most efficient causes. Aware of the danger of either generalizing too much, or of dwelling too long on painful and hazardous minutiæ, Dr Memes has first carefully cleared away all the unnecessary verbiage which has attached itself to the subject, and which, like the ivy, often totally obscures what it was at first only intended to adorn; and he then boldly and lucidly proceeds to the statement of his own opinions, which put the matter in its true light, clearly proving, that if by a standard be meant "a permanent rule of taste, beyond which human invention or genius shall never pass," there is no such thing; but, on the other hand, that, “as in every species of experimental science, those researches, in their practice the most carefully conducted, and in their inferences the most consistent, are regarded as the canons of scientific truth; so, in the liberal arts, those noble monuments which, during the longest period, and to the greatest number of competent judges, have yielded the most satisfaction, are justly esteemed standards of taste -rules by which all other works are to be tried."

Dr Memes discusses, as best illustrating the history and common principles of all, Sculpture, before either Architecture or Painting, and to a short consideration of this division of his work we at present intend to confine ourselves; but shall also proceed with him, in due time, to the two other interesting heads.

In Egypt, that mysterious country, that Cheops of the earth, concerning which such mighty things are Iconjectured, and so very little really known,-whence science earliest began to dawn upon Europe, and the attendant arts to show their humanizing faces,-the first approximation was made to what may legitimately be termed Sculpture. But, however costly, we doubt extremely that Egyptian Sculpture was ever possessed of much beauty. In spite of all the extravagant commendation that has been heaped upon it-in spite of all the overdrawn descriptions of the emotions it excites in the beholder, which have issued, and are still issu

and, in some few instances, the mysterious uncertain. ty with regard to the use and end of their formation. There may frequently be seen, in some of the wilder mountain passes of our own country, masses of detached rock playfully fashioned, by the hand of nature, into a resemblance of humanity, which will produce quite as much effect upon our sympathies as the Sphynx and many other of the graceless Egyptian relics. The uniformity of stiff and awkward attitudes, as if a common mould had been used for them all, shows great ignorance of drawing; and Dr Memes has very felicitously supposed that, in many cases, the outline was first traced from a body laid prostrate upon the block, and then finished afterwards with a vacillating and uncertain hand.

We turn with pleasure from this infantine appearance of the art, to its full power and thorough developement in Greece. There sculpture attained the greatest perfection of which it is capable; for its capacity of improvement is much more limited than that of painting. The range which it possesses, however, is quite large enough to allow sufficient elbow-room for genius of the most aspiring nature. Even the fiery and enthusiastic spirit of Buonarotti had taken flight before he approximated to the sober majesty and exquisite finish which characterise the works of the Grecian masters. Of their standard of beauty, as displayed in the representation of their Divinities, much has been written; and some disciples of the school of Michael Angelo have even gone the length of denying that it is one which should regulate other artists, alleging that it is deficient in expression. It may, however, be almost demonstrated, that the stand

We here more particularly allude to the statements made in diverse letters recently published in the Gazette de France, copied in the London Literary Gazette, from M. Champollion, unwilling to doubt the accuracy of documents presented as it were now forming part of the French expedition in Egypt. Though in an official manner to our notice, we yet cannot help forcibly recollecting the erroneous opinions and strained embellishments with which M. Denon and others have already found it profitable to feed the public taste. If the discoveries asserted to have taken place, are truly of the nature described in M. Champollion's epistles, especially as respects the columns alleged to be the true type of the Grecian Doric, Egypt may assume a more important position than she has yet done in the history of the Fine Arts.

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