have already referred, his inability to produce life-like characters. Those who people Shakespeare's stage are real men and women, with all the ordinary passions of humanity, and strongly marked individuality, though showing also, it may be, the special prominence of one quality, or the peculiar characteristics of a class. Jonson has occasionally drawn a character with some life about it, and which has become familiar accordingly, such as Bobadil, the cowardly braggart in Every Man in his Humour." But, for the most part, his characters are not much more than mere embodiments of abstract qualities, or mere types of particular classes of society.

Bristol, Winchester, and London. Soon after he was translated to the last-named see he incurred the displeasure of the Queen by a most imprudent, and almost indecent, second marriage. He was for some time suspended from his bishopric. His promotions, too, with their burdensome incidents of fees, first-fruits, and other expenses, had followed one another with fatal rapidity. The consequence was that he died in embarrassed circumstances, leaving a very scanty provision for his family. His son, the poet, in all probability, therefore, began life amid the same poverty as most of his brother dramatists. He appears, however, to have received a university education, and from his works it seems probable that he was a competent, if not a profound, scholar.

Francis Beaumont was born in 1586 of an ancient family, which had for some generations been settled in Leicestershire. His father was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He himself received his education at Oxford, and upon leaving the university became a student of the Inner Temple. He soon, however, abandoned the law for the more congenial pursuits of literature.

"What should I do

But cocker up my genius, and live free

To all delights my fortune calls me to?

I have no wife, no parent, child, ally

To give my substance to; but whom I make

Must be my heir; and this makes men observe me :
This draws new clients daily to my house,
Women and men, of every sex and age,

That bring me presents, send me plate, coin, jewels,
With hope that when I die (which they expect
Each greedy minute) it shall then return
Tenfold upon them; whilst some, covetous,
Above the rest, seek to engross me whole,
And counterwork the one unto the other,
Contend in fight, as they would seem in loves:
All which I suffer, playing with their hopes,
And am content to coin them into profit,
And look upon their kindness, and take more,
And look on that; still bearing them in hand,
Letting the cherry knock against their lips,

And draw it by their mouths, and back again." The competition in degraded servility between the flatterers; the tricks to mislead them of Mosca, Volpone's cunning and ready parasite; the brutal attempts of Volpone to gratify his lusts by violence; the base conspiracy of all these to convict the innocent; and the final exposure and punishment of the guilty, form the subject-matter of the play.

There remains one more class of dramatic compositions of Jonson's which must by no means be overlooked; it is one in which he stands without a rival among dramatists. As poet laureate it was a part of his duty to compose a vast number of those masques or entertainments which were so much in vogue at the period. In these entertainments the gentlemen and ladies of the Court, or the members of an inn of court, or other bodies of persons, used to take part. Their plots and the characters represented were borrowed from the classical or the fairy mythology. Sometimes the inhabitants of these very different regions of the imagination met upon the same stage. The pieces were illustrated by elaborate scenery and by appropriate dances. Such pieces afforded the most admirable opportunity for delicate flattery, for the judicious use of Jonson's varied learning, and the exercise of his inexhaustible invention and poetical power. They are among the most pleasing of his works.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

It was a common practice in the age of which we are writing for two or even more dramatists to combine in producing one play. Probably these combinations were generally unions not so much of choice as of necessity, and were induced by the exigencies of managers, who sometimes required the plays they had bespoken more quickly than one man could prepare thom, or who wished to secure the peculiar skill of different hands for different scenic effects. The partnership of Beaumont and Fletcher was of a very different kind. It was founded upon the warmest friendship, and lasted as long as they both lived. John Fletcher was born in 1579, of a very respectable family. His fathor was a bishop, and filled successively the sees of

Both were among the younger friends of Ben Jonson, and both seem to have been regarded with peculiar affection by that great literary chief; and it is not improbable that they met and formed their life-long friendship amid the brilliant circle of wits and poets over which Jonson presided. However this may be, it is certain that from an early period the two men lived together on terms of the closest intimacy until the marriage of Beaumont; and their iterary partnership continued until Beaumont's death in 1615. Fletcher survived his friend only ten years, dying in 1625.

The plays which have come down to us bearing the joint names of Beaumont and Fletcher are very numerous, rather more than fifty in number. Which out of the long list were really the joint productions of the two friends it is in many cases impossible to determine. Some of them were probably written by Fletcher before the literary partnership was formed; some were certainly written by him after that partnership had been dissolved by the death of his colleague. But where to draw the line so as to distinguish precisely the plays belonging to those several periods cannot be accurately ascertained, and still less is it possible to say what portions of the plays jointly written are to be attributed to Beaumont, and what to Fletcher. It is a generally received tradition that the genius of Beaumont lay more in the direction of the tragic and pathetic than that of his colleague; while the comic powers of Fletcher were more strongly marked. And this is probable, though not certain. Their plays range over the widest diversity of character, from severe and lofty tragedy, such as the very powerful play of the "Maid's Tragedy," to the broadest burlesque, like the "Knight of the Burning Pestle." But the plays from which, probably, all readers derive the greatest amount of pleasure are of a class intermediate between these two extremes. Beaumont and Fletcher have left us a large number of romantic dramas, belonging to much the same class as the majority of Shakespeare's comedies, a class of which the very pleasing play of "Philaster," the play which is said to havo established their fame as dramatists, is an excellent specimen.

The plots of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays are almost all of them, like Shakespeare's, borrowed from Italian novelists or play-writers. They are, for the most part, worked out with discretion and good taste, though the authors show neither the elaborate diligenco of Jonson in this department, nor the consummate judgment of Shakespeare. In one point, however, the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher stand especially high, that is, in dramatic effect. Some of the scenes in the "Maid's Tragedy," especially that in which Evadne, the guilty wife, reveals her infamy to her husband, seem to us among the most striking in all our dramatic literature. In delineation of character these authors are far more life-like than Jonson, though, as compared with the greatest drainatists, they each want both depth and variety. Their style is peculiarly attractive. It is always clear and perfectly intelligible, and though without either the wondrous wealth of metaphor which belongs to Shakespeare alone, or the dignified eloquence of Jonson, it is an instrument admirably adapted for the expression of passion or the simpler pur

poses of description. The great blot upon the plays of these writers is their indecency. All the literature of their age is coarse, for men's tastes were coarse. But the indecency and immorality of Beaumont and Fletcher is not merely in expression; it is too often woven into the very texture of the play, and pervades alike the plot, the, characters, and the language. One, at least, of their plays is among the most impure in the language.

A better specimen for study can hardly be chosen among the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher than the play we have already mentioned, Philaster." The story is dramatic, if not very probable. Arethusa, the daughter of the King of Sicily, is betrothed to a Spanish prince, but her affections are given to Philaster, the rightful claimant of the throne, excluded from it by the result of an unjust civil war. As the lovers cannot meet openly, Philaster sends to his mistress a beautiful boy, who has by a strange chance come into his service, to be the medium of communication between them. This plan seems to work admirably. But a wanton lady of the court, detected in a scandalous intrigue with the Spanish prince, in her anger charges the princess with an undue attachment to the boy who attends her. This charge is believed by the king, the courtiers, even by Philaster. The usual wanderings from home and sudden meetings in forests follow. In time, Philaster and the boy Bellario get thrown into prison on a charge of attempting the life of the princess. But the people rise against the king, and restore Philaster to his rights; and, all misunderstandings being removed, and all parties reconciled, the play ends happily. Every one of the characters in this play is forcibly and pleasingly drawn. But the main interest centres upon the boy Bellario, in whom, throughout the play, the combination of courageous devotion with a clinging tenderness is exquisitely depicted. In the end Bellario turns out to be no boy, but Euphrasia, the daughter of a lord at the court, who had been among the most eager of the persecutors of Bellario. The passage in which this discovery is made will afford a good example of the style of Beaumont and Fletcher :

"My father oft would speak

Your worth and virtue; and as I did grow
More and more apprehensive, I did thirst
To see the man so praised. But yet all this
Was but a maiden longing, to be lost

As soon as found; till, sitting in my window,
Printing my thoughts in lawn, I saw a god
I thought (but it was you) enter our gates.
My blood flew out and back again, as fast
As I had puffed it forth and sucked it in
Like breath; then was I called away in haste
To entertain you. Never was a man,
Heaved from a sheep-cote to a sceptre, raised
So high in thoughts as I; you left a kiss
Upon these lips then, which I mean to keep
From you for ever; I did hear you talk
Far above singing. After you were gone,
I grew acquainted with my heart, and searched
What stirred it so; alas, I found it love!
Yet far from lust; for could I but have lived
In presence of you, I had had my end.
For this did I delude my noble father
With a feigned pilgrimage, and dressed myself
In habit of a boy; and for I knew

My birth no match for you, I was past hope
Of having you; and understanding well
That when I made discovery of my sex

I could not stay with you, I made a vow

By all the most religious things a maid
Could call together, never to be known
Whilst there was hope to hide me from men's eyes,
For other than I seemed, that I might cɣer

Abide with you.

Then sat I by the fount

Where first you took me up."

As if he meant to make them grow again.
Seeing such pretty helpless innocence
Dwell in his face, I asked him all his story.
He told me that his parents gentle died,
Leaving him to the mercy of the fields,
Which gave him roots; and of the crystal springs,
Which did not stop their courses;
and the sun,
Which still, he thanked him, yielded him his light.
Then he took up his garland, and did show
What every flower, as country people hold,
Did signify; and how all, ordered thus,
Expressed his grief, and to my thoughts did read
The prettiest lecture of his country art
That could be wished; so that methought I could
Have studied it. I gladly entertained him,
Who was as glad to follow."

LESSONS IN ASTRONOMY.—XIV. COMETS -THEIR ORBITS REMARKABLE ONES PHYSICAL CONSTITUTION-LIST OF KNOWN COMETS.

THE planets and their satellites were for a long time considered to be the only members of our system. This view, however, is now known to be erroneous, as many comets have had their orbits calculated, and been found to revolve around the sun in regular periods. These bodies have always from the earliest ages attracted a large share of attention from their great apparent size and brilliancy, as well as from the suddenness with which they burst upon us, and the rapidity with which they throw out those long tails which usually distinguish them.

of superstitious dread, their appearance being usually conIn most ages and among most people they have been objects sidered as portentous of war, famine, the death of monarchs, or other great evils. Poets spoke of

"The blazing star

Threatening the world with famine, plague, and war:
To princes, death; to kingdoms, many crosses;
To all estates, inevitable losses;

To herdsmen, rot; to ploughmen, hapless seasons;
To sailors, storms; to cities, civil treasons."

On account of this feeling, the periods of their appearance have usually been carefully recorded, and in calculating their orbits considerable assistance is at times derived from these ancient records.

The appearance in the year 1066 of a brilliant comet with three tails was considered by many a sign of the invasion of William of Normandy and his conquest. In some of the ancient chronicles it is referred to as affording a proof of his divine right to the throne.

Not only were comets considered harbingers of evil, but fears were often entertained that they might in their course come into collision with the earth, thereby causing frightful results. This feeling still exists to a modified extent, considerable alarm having been felt by many on the appearance of the comet of 1858, which in one part of its journey passed across the orbit of the earth. The utter groundlessness of these fears will be seen when we learn something of the physical constitution of these bodies.

As we have seen, the planets revolve around the sun in orbits of small eccentricity, which approach closely to circles. Comets, on the other hand, move in extremely elongated ellipses, parabolas, or hyperbolas, the sun being situated almost at one extremity of their orbits, so that often at their perihelion passage they approach within less than a million miles of it, and then swiftly dash away for a considerable period from his light and heat. It is clearly only those that move in elliptical orbits that can be periodical, as the parabola does not return again upon itself.

"Hunting the buck,

I found him sitting by a fountain-side,

Of which he borrowed some to quench his thirst,
And paid the nymph as much again in tears.

A garland lay him by, made by himself,
Of many several flowers, bred in the bay,
Stuck in that mystic order, that the rareness
Delighted me; but ever when he turned
His tender eyes upon them he would weep,

no second return of these can occur, unless by the attrac tions of other heavenly bodies their orbits should be materially altered. Only five or six have been found to move in hyperbolic orbits. The number of known periodic elliptic comets whose orbits and periods have been ascertained is about twenty: elliptic orbits have, however, been assigned to many others, but no second returns of them have yet been seen, so as to verify the calculations.

In former times, before the construction of the telescope,

but few comets were observed. a year passes without four or frequently the number is greater. ever, they are so small as only to good telescopes. It is only at rare intervals that those large ones which are at once seen by the unaided eye become visible to us. The periods of these likewise are, as a rule, very much longer than those of the telescopic ones, so that only the orbits of a few have been determined. The first indication of a comet is usually a faint luminous speck visible with a telescope. This appears gradually but slowly to increase in size as the comet approaches the sun, and soon a bright spot known as the nucleus is discerned in it. This is usually of a circular form, and situated nearer to the side which is directed towards the sun. In telescopic comets this nucleus is not always discernible.

or

As the comet approaches the sun, it becomes larger and brighter, the coma cloudy mass around the nucleus also becomes less regular, and soon & tail

begins to be thrown out on the side remote from the sun.

Now, however, scarcely five being observed, and For the most part, howbe visible by the aid of

period is the longest of all those whose orbits are fully ascertained and verified by subsequent returns.

On its appearance in 1682, just after attention had been drawn to the phenomena of comets by the appearance, in 1680, of a brilliant one, whose motion Sir Isaac Newton had investigated, Halley carefully examined its movements, sơ as to ascertain whether those of any which had previously been noted would in any way accord with them. He soon found that in several respects it seemed to resemble those of 1531 and 1607, and ima gined that all three might be in reality appearances of the same body, its period being somewhere about 75 years. This conjecture proved to be correct, and Halley's comet is now regarded as one of the members of our system, revolving round the sun in a period of 76-78 years, its greatest and least distances from the sun being 3,200 and 56 millions of miles respectively. The return of this and all other comets is frequently retarded or accelerated by the attraction of planets which happen to lie near their course. The period given above is, however, the mean, and on its last return in 1835 the allowances to be made for the influences of the planets were so carefully calculated, that the date of its perihelion passage was predicted within four days. The next return of this body will take place in the year 1912.

This it is which forms the most remarkable feature in the appearance of a comet. The tail is usually more or less curved, and points away from the sun, so that when receding from that body the comet travels with its tail foremost. The annexed figure (Fig. 29), which represents the comet of 1811, gives a good idea of the general appearance of these bodies, the nucleus, coma, and tail being all distinctly marked. A period of 3,065 years was assigned to this comet. On their return after completing their orbits, comets seldom present the same appearance as before; hence they cannot be identified by their form, but only by the calculation of their orbits. According to many old illustrations, some comets have presented very remarkable shapes, at times closely resembling

On searching back through the lists of comets that have been seen, very many appearances of this body can be traced; one as far back as 11 B.C.; and the comet of 1066, already referred to, was, doubtless, another appearance of the same body.

In 1456 it appeared with a very long tail considerably curved, and an eclipse of the moon occurred when the comet was in close proximity to it, creating intense alarm.

The comet of 1858, known aş Donati's, will be remem

bered by many. Fig. 30 represents its appearance on the 3rd of October in that year. Its brightness was, however, greater than shown there.

It was first seen on the 2nd of June, at Florence, by Dr. Donati, after whom it is named. Its movements for the next two months were very slow. Towards the end of August faint traces of a tail began to be seen, and it soon became visible to the naked eye. It accomplished its passage round the sun on the 29th of September, its tail vastly increasing in length, being on the 10th of October upwards of 50,000,000 miles long.

The comet of 1744 is, however, the most remarkable, is it is stated that when it approached the sun the tail was divided into six distinct branches, all curved in the same direction, and extending 30° or 40° in length.

Halley's comet is one that has attracted as much attention as any as it was the first whose orbit was calculated, and its

On the 5th of October the comet passed in front of the star Arcturus, and though a portion of the tail at its densest part, having a thickness of several thousand miles, intervened

between us and the star, its light was not so much enfeebled as it would have been by the faintest fog on the earth's surface. During the time that the tail of this comet was being thrown out, the nucleus was watched, and presented the appearance of a series of coverings being thrown off and passing into the tail. As many as seven of these envelopes were distinctly observed. The tail appeared to be much brighter at the edges, and a dark band passed down the middle, as if it consisted of a hollow cane. The observations of this comet were very numerous, and there is little doubt but that it revolves in an elliptic orbit, completing its journey in about 2,000 years.

The great comet of 1861 was also a very remarkable one, from the great rapidity with which it burst upon us. It was discovered in the southern hemisphere about the middle of May. On the 29th of June it was first seen in this country, only a portion of the tail being then visible above the horizon. Its brightness was very remarkable, being even greater than that of the one seen in 1858. Its tail, when at its greatest length, extended over nearly 80°, and was perfectly straight. It was, however, somewhat fan-like in shape.

Fig. 31 represents it, and exhibits the appearance of the nucleus when the tail was being thrown off. Mr. Hind states that it is probable that on the 30th of June the earth actually passed through the tail of this comet; and it is a remarkable fact, in connection with this, that on that day Mr. Lowe and one or two other observers noticed a peculiar phosphorescent glare in the sky.

In 1826 a comet was discovered by M. Biela, which has since been known by his name, and has become remarkable. Observations made at different times soon showed that it moved in an elliptical orbit, and its period was found to be about 6 years. Its return in 1832 took place within a few hours of the predicted time.

thus to cause it gradually to be falling in towards the sun. Other conjectures have been started, but the matter is still a moot point among astronomers.

Of the physical constitution of these bodies comparatively little is as yet known. They appear to be self-luminous masses of vapour revolving around the sun. Some have supposed that in a few comets a solid nucleus exists; but the evidence on this point does not appear to be very strong, and if one does exist, it evidently is very small. The general opinion is, however, against its existence at all, and the great majority of comets are known to be devoid of one.

That the mass of these bodies is extremely minute is seen by the way in which they are affected by any of the heavenly bodies which they come near. Lexell's comet, for instance, in 1770, when approaching the sun, passed so near to the planet Jupiter, that it was entangled for several months among its satel lites. Its orbit was completely changed by this contact, but no effect whatever could be discerned upon the satellites, whereas, had the comet's mass been at all appreciable, their times of revolution must have been slightly modified. So, too, the comets of 1858 and 1861, though they both passed near the earth, did not alter the length of the year by a single second. The fact that the light of even faint stars is scarcely at all diminished by passing through the tail of a comet has frequently been observed.

On its next visit to the sun it was invisible, owing to the position of the earth with respect to it and the sun, which was such that the comet was lost in the solar rays. When it again returned towards the close of 1845, a very strange phenomenon was seen. The comet, which at first had been almost circular, gradually became elongated, and at length divided into two parts, which continued to travel separately till lost sight of. Both parts re-appeared in 1852, the distance between them having somewhat increased in the meanwhile. In 1859 it was again in an unfavourable position for observation, so was not seen; and in 1866, from some unknown cause, it could not be found. Whether it has been altogether thrown out of its course by the attraction of some planet near which it passed, or what has become of it, is a matter that cannot yet be ascertained.

There are several other comets that have a strange history; but we can only now refer to one-Encke's, which revolves in a period of about 3 years. More appearances of this comet nave been carefully observed than of any other, and, by comparing these different observations, Encke found that on each return it accomplished its passage round the sun 2 or 3 hours earlier than he expected. Its period thus appears to be diminishing by this amount in each revolution. He conjectured that this might be accounted for by assuming that all space was occupied by an extremely rare medium, but yet one sufficiently dense to retard the comet to this extent, and

We know how infinitely air would expand if removed far from the earth's surface, and possibly the matter of the comet's tail may be as rare even as that. This is, however, mere conjecture; but we know that the whole mass of a comet is so small that even if one were to come into full collision with the earth, no injurious effects would result from the blow.

Several large comets have at times passed so close to the sun as almost to graze its surface. The heat, therefore, to which they were exposed must have been extremely great, but they appeared not to be at all affected by it.

The number of comets which are connected with our system it is impossible to estimate. Some have imagined that it must be very great indeed. This fact, at all events, is certain, that there must be many which, from their position, are altogether hidden from us.

The following is a list of the principal comets recognised as belonging to the solar system. There are many others which have been calculated, but some need confirmation.

LESSONS IN BOOKKEEPING.-XXVI.

INVOICE BOOK.

ANY account or bill sent with goods sold to the party who has purchased them is called an Invoice. The invoices of goods sold in the country where the merchant resides are called Invoices Inwards, and the book which contains them the Invoice Book Inwards. The invoices of shipments or goods exported are called Invoices Outwards, and the book which contains

them is called the Invoice Book Outwards. In invoices outwards, besides the cost of the goods exported, there is generally a statement of the Charges attending their exportation, the cost of insurance, etc. The date is generally placed at the bottom, and before the signature of the shipper the words Errors Excepted, or their initials, are written, in order that he may be afterwards allowed to correct any mistake he may have made to his own disadvantage. In large concerns, the Invoice Book itself is journalised monthly instead of passing the entries through the Day Book.

(1)

(1)

5 0

32

2

42

0

328

367

10

0

1284

18

3

51

8

108

3

9

(2)

(2)

63