of seeing a boy act his part with precocious | gency, Providence, he piously tells us, "chose gravity, and exhort his elders with confi- better for me than I should have chosen for dence, unction, and thunder. Before Angell myself;" and he considers that he was diJames was twenty he was sent as a "supply" rected from above to choose a plain woman, to Birmingham, or, as it is expressed, to the older than himself, but with position, money, "Church-meeting in Carr's-lane," where he and the home he wanted :— made his début with a coolness which he afterwards wondered at, considering the age and gravity of his audience. He so charmed them, however, that in a very short time they pressed him to stay amongst them :—

It is but rarely that a student makes a wise choice. The result is, a frivolous, weak, moneyless, thriftless woman becomes his wife-a young family comes on-difficulties increase a small stipend, hardly sufficient to obtain necessaries, is all they have to depend upon, the spirit of the husband and the father is broken, and he wears out a life in moving from church to church, without being useful anywhere."

"I find it difficult to explain the idiosyncrasy under which I labor. It is something like this: I make a promise to preach; after awhile I am somewhat poorly; I wake up in the night-the promise comes up like a spectre before me; it is a trifling concern— no matter, it is a concern, it is a future. I cannot sleep; I rise uncomfortable, and continue so through the day. I go to bed dreading I shall not sleep; the prediction verifies itself. Then I calculate there are so many weeks to intervene, and that I shall not sleep comfortably till it is over; and how can I the matter has got hold of me, and neither endure broken rest so long? By this time reason nor religion can throw it off; and where others would find that which they would never think about for a moment till the time comes, I find that which darkens every moment till it is past. It is not, observe, a dread of the service itself, but a dread that I shall not sleep till it is over." This is strange in a man who could commit a sermon two hours long to memory without misplacing a word, and hold his immense audience in breathless attention till it was over.

This is all very well; but what becomes of the Voluntary system if it needs the assistance of rich wives? Again, he is congratulated by his congregation upon "his most interesting and honorable connection." A rich London widow, the friend of Rowland Hill, would represent wealth, rank, and fashion to the "church in Carr's-lane." Perhaps it might have cast a shade over their expectations had they known that this austere female was entering on her sphere "resolving to do her utmost to discourage worldliness among the more wealthy people in her husband's congregation," and that from her arrival their tea-parties would lose the distinction of their honored pastor's presence. Nothing, indeed, is unmixed gain in this world, and we cannot but suspect that the severity of this lady's views, and her masculine power of carrying them out, was almost too much for her husband; and that possibly a more dependent wife, though with less money, might have suited his nervous system better. It does not seem a right state of things for the asceticism to be on the wife's side. For about twenty years of his life the popular preacher was afflicted with such a nervous affection as obliged him grad-volume concludes with a chapter by his son ually to give up all engagements away from on his home life, written with a truth, candor, home. It became a mania, which he thus and graphic skill which give it a very hondescribes to a friend ::orable place amongst religious biographies.

We have commented on topics occupying but a small fraction of the book, which enters largely on his public labors-his controversies with our Church-his correspondence with American ministers-his efforts to get up Revivals in England after their example

his great work, The Anxious Inquirer, which was the fruit of this movement-his curious scheme for converting China by throwing into that country a million of Testaments, as it were from the clouds-and his originating the Evangelical Alliance. The

EFFECT OF MUSIC ON THE SICK.-The ef- | the piano-forte, with such instruments as have fect of music on the sick has been scarcely at all no continuity of sound, have just the reverse. noticed. In fact its expensiveness, as it is now, The finest piano-forte playing will damage the makes any general application of it out of the sick, while an air like "Home, sweet home," question. I will only remark here that wind or "Assisa al pie d'un salice," on the most orinstruments, including the human voice, and dinary grinding organ, will sensibly soothe stringed instruments, capable of continuous them-and this is quite independent of associasound, have generally a beneficial effect—while | tion.-Florence Nightingale.

From Chambers's Journal.

the ape. One of our ablest ethnologists has just returned from a journey to Denmark, during which he searched some of the socalled "kitchen-middens "—ancient refuseheaps, containing bones, shells, and flint implements of various kinds, which, judging from appearances, were thrown aside as rub

The antiquaries of Copenhagen have come
to some very important conclusions from the
relics discovered in these primeval
"mid-
dens," which may tend to elucidate yet a
little more the early history of mankind.—
Mr. Archibald Geikie, after careful examina-
tion of the shores of the Firth of Forth,
concludes that an upheaval has taken place
within the historical period, or since the
Roman invasion. In one locality, this up-
heaval amounts to as much as twenty-five
feet; and the inference from the facts is,
that if such a change could occur without
attracting notice during its slow progress,
former changes could in like manner occur,
and that many great ones have taken place
since the appearance of man on the earth.-
Mr. Bryson brings forward further evidence
as to the aqueous origin of granite, and de-
monstrates the fact by instrumental means.
In common with Mr. Sorby, whose interest-
ing researches into this subject we have
already noticed, he finds fluid cells in all the
specimens of granite which he has hitherto

SCIENCE AND ARTS FOR AUGUST. Now that it is settled that the new Foreign Office shall be Palladian, and not Gothic, to the disappointment of those who prefer the picturesque pointed style; that Birmingham talks of building an exchange, and Boston, in New England, of establish- bish by the early tribes of the stone period. ing a zoological garden; that locomotives can cross the Rhine by a handsome railway bridge at Kehl; that Lieutenants Smith and Porcher of the royal navy have dug up fine statues in ancient Cyrene, and are prosecuting their search for more; that Lord Somers points out Cilicia as a promising region to explore for remains of early Christian art; that Mr. Lough has shown what a noble memorial of George Stephenson he will one day erect at Newcastle; that Sheffield has set up a statue to James Montgomery; that H.M.S. Icarus is pursuing her fishery-protection cruise round the coasts of the kingdom; that the "Gorilla controversy " has ended for the present by a purchase of certain of the monsters for £500 for the British Museum; that holiday-time has come to Parliament as well as people: now that all this is done or doing, Manchester, fertile in resources, has made up its mind that the forthcoming meeting of the British Association within its walls shall not be in any way backward; and as Mr. William Fairbairn is president, and will deliver the thirty-first examined.—Another geological fact worthy annual address, we may be sure that mechanical science, at least, will have due consideration. That good work will be done by the sections, is confidently anticipated: astronomy has made progress, and now that the spectroscope is available for observation of the sun, the communications on that subject will be unusually interesting. The Earl of Rosse has made further observations of the nebulæ, and discovered that the spiral form is the most prevalent in those far-remote and mysterious objects. He finds reason to believe, moreover, that they move, having some sort of rotation, so that the study of the nebula appears to be at present richer in promise than at any previous time.

Interesting facts in geology and ethnology may also be looked for, and additional particulars on a question which has been somewhat vexed of late; namely, the comparative anatomy of the brain as between man and

of notice is that, according to the report of the explorers who surveyed the American continent from Canada to the Rocky Mountains and Vancouver's Island, there is abundance of lignite in certain localities, which has long been worked as fuel by the Hudson's Bay Company, and is in request for steamers on the Pacific. Moreover, it is convertible into gas, as may be proved at some future day by the towns of New Columbia.-This mention of American exploration reminds us that Captain Parker Snow has been making preparations, though with some doubt as to the means of completing them, to sail in the discovery yacht Endeavor, to carry out, if possible, his scheme of discovering further relics of Sir John Franklin's expedition. It is his design, should the state of the ice in Baffin's Bay favor quick progress, to replenish his stores from those left on Beechey Island by former expedi

tions, and push on to winter in King William's Land, which, in his opinion, has been by no means sufficiently searched.

of gums by artificial means.-By treating antimony in a certain way, Dr. Stenhouse has discovered that it can be converted into A member of the Horticultural Society at what is now known in the market as Patent Paris, after a series of experiments, has dis- Antimony Paint, which possesses none of covered a process by which the blossom of the deleterious qualities of white-lead, and the purple lilac can be made to appear costs less. Besides being lower in price white, by preventing the development of the than the lead, a given quantity will cover natural color. The process is to plant the one-fourth more of surface; while, for outtrees in a hothouse which, facing the north, door work, it is much more durable. Dr. receives no direct rays from the sun, but Stenhouse is known for his fruitful reonly a diffused light, until the buds and searches into the chemical constituents of blossoms are about to burst, when the light various vegetable products; he has now is completely excluded by shutters, except- added to the list by discovering that a white ing now and then a faint ray introduced crystalline substance can be extracted in through a narrow slit. In this condition of considerable quantities from the bark of the darkness, the coloring principle is kept in abeyance, and the flowers come forth perfectly white; but the leaves having been in a more advanced state than the blossom at the time of seclusion, retain their natural color. By similar treatment, red roses may be changed to white, and other flowers will probably be found susceptible of the same influence; a curious interference truly with the ordinary operations of nature.

larch. This substance is pleasantly aromatic; but what its economical uses are, remains to be investigated.—It appears that there is now something in common between crockery and carpentry, for silicate of potash is found to be an excellent material for rejoining broken earthenware, glass or stone, and with such strength, that the articles will not break a second time in the same place; while carpenters and joiners may use it as a A simple remedy for the grape disease has substitute for glue, and with especial adbeen successfully tried for three successive vantage in constructions exposed to the years by a cultivator in the wine-producing weather.-"The army is not what it used to districts of France. He had noticed the be," is the desponding remark of a few perefficacy of lime in preventing the accumula- sonages of the old school, who see in change tion of moss on the bark of trees, and pre-a confession of weakness; but those who serving wheat from the rot, and he gave a coat of whitewash to all his vines, particularly to the young wood, and found that the branches lost the red spots indicative of the malady, and recovered their normal color. He now applies the whitewash immediately after the pruning, whereby the trouble is diminished; and referring to this year's operations, he says the difference between the appearance of his vines, which were limed within the first two weeks of March, and his neighbors', which were not limed at all, was astonishing. Moreover, the coat of whitewash protected the young leaf-buds from the early spring frosts.

think and see otherwise will learn with satisfaction that a professorship of Tropical Medicine as well as of Hygiene has been established in the Army Medical School at Chatham. We trust that one consequence will be a diminished mortality among our troops at stations between the tropics in the next official report on the health of the army.-The Medical Society of Boston (Massachusetts) offer a prize for a paper on the accidents that ensue from the use of ether and chloroform; on their nature, and on the means of prevention.-The Croonian Lecture of the Royal Society, delivered by Dr. E. BrownSéquard, "On the Relations between MusM. Frémy has been investigating the cular Irritability, Cadaveric Rigidity, and composition and manner of production of Putrefaction," set forth a number of intergums in the vegetable organization; a sub-esting physiological facts. Popularly exject but little inquired into, yet fraught with important results. Seeing that with a combination of lime and an acid it is possible to produce a sort of gum-arabic, we shall perhaps hear of the production of other kinds

plained, the term irritability is to be understood as signifying full power or vigor; and with this in mind it will be easy to comprehend the main argument of the lecture; namely, that the less of muscular irritability

in the body at the time of death, whether in man or animals, the more rapidly does putrefaction set in. It was noticed at Solferino, that the corpses of those killed in the morning, when the muscular system was vigorous, decomposed after a longer interval than those killed in the evening, exhausted with the fatigues of the day. For the same reason, the flesh of overdriven cattle becomes very soon tainted and unfit to be eaten.

tion is beyond question, saw no lines whatever. Mr. De la Rue endeavored to obtain a photographic image of it, but though he focused the comet for full fifteen minutes, not the slightest effect was produced. And yet the illuminating power was great, for it threw a light upon the sea equal to that of a young moon.

Some time ago, in his annual report to the Board of Visitors of the Greenwich ObservaFrom a series of observations carried on tory, Mr. Airy recommended that as the at Manchester, Dr. Thomas Moffat is of minor planets had become numerous, much opinion that diseases of the nervous centres time and labor would be saved, if instead of are more likely to occur in stormy seasons, the places of the whole number being calcu- . especially storms of hail and snow, than at lated annually by each observatory in Euother times. The diseases referred to are rope, an arrangement could be made for a apoplexy, epilepsy, paralysis, vertigo, diar- division of labor. The subject was further rhoea, vomiting, and cramps; and many per- discussed by the congress of German astronsons will perhaps be able to remember cases omers which met last year at Berlin; and which seem to bear out the theory; but we we believe that a distribution of the small think that long-continued observations in planets among certain observatories will ere places wide apart would be required before long be made. The necessity for the distriit could be established that there is, in real-bution becomes every year greater by reason ity, an intimate connection between hail of the increasing number, which is at presand snow showers, stormy weather and elec-ent seventy. It is not unworthy of record, tricity, and certain forms of disease."

66

that twelve of these threescore-and-ten were discovered at the late Mr. Bishop's observatory in the Regent's Park. The congress above mentioned meet this month at Dresden, to deliberate on a further distribution;

variable stars and nebulæ among the observatories best fitted for the work; also to devise some arrangement whereby comets and planets, when noted in future, may be followed and calculated systematically.

One of our ablest photographers, considering that it would be easy to detect forgeries of bank notes by taking photographic copies of the suspected notes, and examining them under the stereoscope side by side with genuine notes, concludes, and not without

Astronomers are now pretty well agreed, that the comet which took them by surprise on the 30th of June last, is not the famous comet of Charles V., nor any one of those mentioned in the annals of their science. In-namely, the observations of fixed and a communication to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, M. Leverrier explained how this conclusion was arrived at. Three observations of a comet, made twelve or twenty-four hours apart, according as the motion is fast or slow, enable the observer to calculate the comet's orbit, a task which occupies about twenty-four hours. The orbit once calculated, can be compared with other known orbits, and whether a comet be an entire stranger, or a former one re-appearing after a long absence, is thereby ascertained. Of reason, that with stereoscopic pictures of the comet of 1861, it may be said that no man knows whence it came, or whither it goes; and not till some very exact calculations shall have been finished, shall we know whether it will ever again come within sight of the earth. Of course some attempts were made to investigate the physical constitution of the comet; some observers with the spectroscope think they saw certain dark lines; others, whose carefulness of observa

double stars, whose motion is doubtful, astronomers would be able to detect the smallest displacement. Mr. Warren de la Rue has all the means and appliances for testing this ingenious notion, and we hope he will do so. As a case in point: M. Liais writes from Brazil, that he has determined the latitude of a place in that country by photographs of the eclipse of 1858.