to act; this will always supply a sufficiently powerful motive to labour; and take care not to discourage the compassion that hurries to the solace of industrious poverty. Selfishnes and cupidity will always be found to be sufficiently powerful checks to the sallies of generosity. We should not forget that the good order and prosperity of societies depend upon the happiness of all, not the privileges of a

few.

The same predilections have revived, under the pen of M. Garnier, the paradoxes of Melon, that ardent apologist of luxury. If we believe them, it is of little import how capitals and hands are employed, provided the industrious man has work. The luxury of the rich is the patrimony of the poor. This epicurian maxim, quite convenient for the rich, is not therefore the more true. It is, on the contrary, of great importance, as M. Say has maintained, that a useful direction should be given to capital and labour. An equal freedom in the choice of employments promotes the moral order and the well being of a people. The prosperity of agriculture and the useful branches of industry and commerce, ought to have the preference over the arts which are merely ornamental to society, and, still more, over those which are frivolous. To adopt any other principle, would be to imitate the architect, who should attend to ornaments and trifling decorations, instead of constructing a substantial, convenient edifice, well secured against the weather. This is a luxury which may be considered useful, after a sufficient provision of necessaries is made. But frivolous luxury impoverishes more persons than it feeds, and even corrupts those whom it supports. Every thing depends, it is said, upon the demand. It is, for this very reason, of great importance that the demand should be well directed, which never can be done by means of sumptuary laws, nor by positive regulations: tastes must be under the jurisdiction of morals: they must be regulated by morals, and these must be formed by institutions. In the social order, all things are linked together, and mutually dependent upon each other. Let us then guard against mistaking an abuse for a good custom, and support, by our sentiments, all the better influences which tend to give society a right di

rection.

These imperfections, which we have thought it incumbent upon us to point out in the work of Smith and the commentary of his translator, ought to be set down to the account of their predilection for a science, to which they exclusively

devoted themselves. The work and the commentary, nevertheless, form an excellent course of public economy, in relation to the interests of society in respect to material objects. A course of instruction more solid and complete, cannot be found elsewhere. It required an economist no less able than M. Garnier, to render Smith into French, with sufficient clearness and correctness; and the labours of this accomplished translator cannot be too highly applauded. The notes he has subjoined to the text of his author, are well calculated to elucidate, and complete, and sometimes, though very rarely, to correct it. M. Garnier and M. J. B. Say, are undoubtedly the disciples of Smith who have most perfectly possessed themselves of the principles of their master; and the former has only erred in following him too implicitly. The success of the first edition and the notes accompanying it, having rendered a new edition necessary, the attacks directed against Smith by his unfaithful disciples, determined the translator to revise and enlarge his notes, for the purpose of explaining the theory of Smith and defending it against the attempts of Malthus, David, Ricardo, Buchanan, and others, to establish a new theory. M. Garnier has, in our opinion, at least, completely succeeded. He appears to us to have clearly demonstrated the errors of the new chrysologists. All the notes of the translator of Smith are so many short, well written treatises upon questions of economy which he discusses in them. The notes, taken together, may be considered as a commentary and supplement, necessary and sufficient for the complete understanding of the original. After an attentive study of the text, which the translator has facilitated by laying down a methodical arrangement in his excellent introduction, and by his labours in the notes, one finds himself initiated into all the mysteries of chrysology. To do him justice, it would be necessary to cite almost all the dissertations, which he has, with too much modesty, denominated notes. We will, however, particularly recommend to the reader's attention, among others, those relating to the history of money, the market value of wheat, and the variations in the value of the precious metals. In these discussions, M. Garnier has given proofs of extensive reading, rare sagacity, and strong powers of reasoning. The curious facts which he cites, the inferences he draws from them, and his clear, concise, and nervous style, give something of spirit and interest to these dry subjects. From these elaborate discussions result two facts that are important, and fruitful of consequence: 1. Wheat, the

the

substantial part of the subsistence of an agricultural people, varies very little in its real price, when its mean value in silver is calculated for a long period: accordingly the mean price of wheat, thus calculated, represents, with sufficient accuracy, that of common day-labour, and thus becomes a sufficiently accurate measure of value. 2. The discovery of the American mines has lowered the value of silver much more than had been supposed by Smith. The new notes added by M. Garnier, and the old ones revised, have extended the commentary to two large volumes, octavo, in the second edition, which we announce. The acknowledged merit of this translation, and the commentary, and the care bestowed by the editors in the execution of this edition, insure to it a success equal to that of the former.

ART. XI.-Test for the Action of Frost on Building Materials. By M. BRARD.

M. M. LEPEYRE and Vicat, knowing that I had been long occupied in the study of mineralogy as applicable to the arts, engaged me in an investigation of the means best adapted to distinguish such stones, as, being otherwise fit for building materials, gave way to the action of frost. I found it impossible in this respect to ascertain any thing from their mineralogical characters, and was obliged to follow another course. During the winter of 1819, I carefully examined with a lens the chalky limestone of the neighbourhood of Perigueux, and the sandstone of the coal basin of la Vezére, both equally liable to this action; I soon found, that each scale of the limestone, and each grain of the sandstone was raised by the reunion of small needles of ice, which, when they melted, suffered the particles to fall and collect about the stone, and that where particles had fallen off in this way, a fresh succession was raised in the same manner, and ultimately separated from the mass.

I was struck by the resemblance of the ice in silky crystals to the saline efflorescences which appear between the plates of certain schists, and on the surface of old walls. I remembered the effect of common salt on bad pottery, and on the saline rocks of the Tyrol, and conceived the idea of substituting the action of a saline solution to that of common water. After various experiments, I gave the preference to sulphate

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of soda, its effects being the most constant and most conformable to the action of frost.

The experiment that it may lead to satisfactory results should be conducted as follows. Suppose an excavation newly made into limestone or other rocks, and it be desired to ascertain the liability of the rock to disintegration by the action of frost.

1st. A cube of two inches in the side is to be cut from each part to be tried; the various cubes numbered with thick China ink, and their original sites also marked.

2d. About four pints of common cold water are to be saturated with sulphate of soda, so that a few grains of the salt shall remain undissolved.

3d. This solution is to be heated to ebullition, and then all the cubes are to be entirely immersed in it. When the boiling has recommenced, it is to be continued for half an hour.

4th. The cubes are to be withdrawn from the solution, and placed each one in a saucer, numbered as the cube is; a small quantity of the solution is to be poured upon each cube, and the whole left until covered with white efflorescences perfectly analogous in appearance to the rime or hoar frost, which causes the disintegration of the stones. These efflorescences will appear in about twenty-four hours, if the air is dry or hot, but in a humid atmosphere are sometimes five or six days.

5th. When the efflorescences appear on the angles and sides of the cubes, they are to be dissolved again by means of a few drops of water, or better still with a little of the solution in which the cubes were boiled. If well managed, the efflorescences will soon reappear, and when well formed, are again to be removed in a similar way; and this is to be repeated for three or four days together; after which each cube may be washed with abundance of common water, but without removing it from the saucer.

6th. The specimens to be tried having been washed on all their faces, the detached matter is to be examined, and a judgment formed from it, of the relative qualities of each kind of stone submitted to the proof: for the greater the number of the detached particles collected in the saucer, the more liable is the stone to be attacked by frost; the smaller the number, the more capable is it of resisting the action.

If the proof be continued for a longer period, good building stones may be rejected, for the prolonged action of the salt is more powerful than that of ice.

As yet all the results of this test have accorded perfectly with the effect of time and frost. Such stones as have been found to disintegrate by frost, have given way to the salt, such as time has sanctioned have resisted the new agent, so that the mechanical effects of the two are perfectly analogous. Crystalization takes place with both, augmentation of volume, efforts on the surfaces of the small cavities containing the water or solution, and if the aggregation be not sufficiently powerful to resist the action, disruption, and a gradual decay of the rocks either on their natural sites, or if they have been applied to use in their new situations. The action of the sulphate of soda being quite mechanical, is exerted indifferently on all kinds of rocks deficient in aggregation, on limestones, sandstones, large grained granite, granites of too micaceous a structure, schists, lavas, &c. It may be employed as a proof or test also even upon slates, bricks, tufas, mortars, and cements, as is proved by a table of various results of this kind.

The above is freely translated from a paper inserted by M. Brard, in the Bib. Univ. xxiv. 224.

ART. XII.-Account of some Improvements in Clocks and Watches made by HARRISON G. DYAR. [Communicated by the in

ventor.]

THE most important improvement consists in the introduction of what may be termed an endless lever, instead of the tooth and pinion, which is a series of levers. This geering possesses many important advantages over every other kind of geering now, in use; it will give from four to eight times the power or velocity of the tooth and pinion, and is nearly void of friction and inequality; is superior to the endless screw, in being a rolling action instead of a sliding one. This lever is applicable to any purpose where a quick or powerful motion is required; but simply for communicating motion, it is not superior to the common angular geering. Its most important character is to give a great difference of relative motion from one wheel to another without friction, and perfectly uniform.

The pendulum is suspended in a more simple and perfect method, which will enable it to vibrate in a cycloidal curve,