be deemed worthy of insertion in your valuable miscellany, to take no notice of any remarks thereon, of whatever nature, and by whomsoever written, we shall, as we are but commencing our correspondence, just offer one or two observations on our friend C.'s.

He states, that we have not made the "proper inquiry into the nature of phosphorus and animal oils;" and we acknowledge it; we made no inquiries whatever; we made experiments instead; and have, as far as the nature of our article would admit, given the results. These we allow differ with those given by the most celebrated writers who have mentioned the phenomenon; and, without any disparagement of their authority, this very difference was the reason why we published them. Besides, we attempted to support them by facts, of which our eyes and nostrils were the judges, and not our ears. We by no means insist upon their acceptance by any one; and C. was, and is, at perfect liberty to publish any strictures thereupon, which he thought, or may think, proper, independent of personal insinuations or animadversions. He knows no. thing of us any farther than what he has seen in our article, and there he seems unwilling to do us justice, when he states us to be "so ignorant as to suppose that animal fat could be evaporated with the heat of a dark summer evening." In our copy of the Kal. as in our manuscript, we read, "evaporation of phosphorus impregnated with animal oil," and, if there was any thing new here, it was in the idea of the phosphorus and oil entering into combination, and not forming merely a solution of the former in the latter. We, therefore, recommend to him the condescension of a reperusal. He will then find, that our intention, in producing the phenomenon, and the remarks which follow it, was not a thorough scientific elucidation thereof, but only an illustration of the preceding hints. He may thus be perhaps enabled to perceive that he was premature in presuming we were ignorant in this matter.

Previous to the winter of 1821, our opinion corresponded with C.'s. We then dissolved phosphorus in hydrogen gas, and saw the light emitted by its combustion, both in pure oxygen gas and in the oxygen of the atmosphere, and felt the effluvium which accompanied that combus. tion. This effluvium differed in the first instance from the effluvium of phosphorus in a pure state; but in the latter it was the same: the smell, as Thompson expresses it, of garlic. Hence we imagine the phosphorus alone was decomposed, and that the hydrogen gas remained the same as before the dissolution. And, if this be correct, phosphorus dissolved even in hydrogen gas will not emit light in a temperature lower than forty degrees. Such, we conjecture, is the smell of phosphate of azote. This, however, we have not ascertained, as we never dissolved phosphorus in that gas. But this smell of garlic was not similar to the smell we noticed in the church-yard; neither was the light emitted from phosphate of hydrogen similar to that light. Hence our manner of accounting for the phenomenon. We see difficulties therein as well as C.; but what he has hitherto produced has not overcome them. But if he can more satisfactorily account for them, we shall be the first to own our obligations to him.

As we have several hints in our possession upon different subjects, which we have some thoughts of publishing in this periodical; and, as we have before stated, we have no wish to enter into useless controversies, we take the present opportunity of declaring once for all, that, if our opinions therein vary with those of any other correspondent, he has full permission to discuss that difference, leav

• In all luminous mixtures of phosphorus with any solvent whatever, if the light be more or less visible, as low as the temperature of forty-three degrees, may not this be occasioned by a change of combination, by means of which the phosphorus quits its solvent state to combine with the oxygen of the atmosphere by superior affinity? And may not fortythree degrees be the degree of temperature in which the action of this superior affinity first takes place?

he ascribed to this same Deluge the total dissolutio

the su

the earth, and the subsequent deposition of all the strata; an error which would have been excusable, i readers; but in reasoning upon this part arguments had been left simply to the judgment of Catcott goes so far as to entitle those who presun doubt the truth of his opinion-mortals of self-sufic and ignorance;" and to accuse theu of the want of " to see; a charge which, on such a subject, was no d connected then, as it is now, with consequences h serious than the mere displeasure of the author.

It is singular, also, that Catcott should have enter completely into the visions of his preceptor, as to copied from Hutchinson, and gravely mentioned title-page of his own book, "A plate" representing internal structure of the terraqueous globe, from tre to the circumference," which in a "premon he advises his readers to make themselves well acqu with, as rendering "plain and clear the account flood, as philosophically explained" in one part of sertation.

Kirwan, though a chemist and mineralogist of derable merit, was, in geology, less an original of than an importer of information,-in his time easi obtained in England-from the works of forega gists, especially those of Germany. He was so de pledged to the aquatic theory of rocks, that his view warped upon all that related to that question; an fortunately, like too many other theorists, beb scrupled to hint, that those who differed from hi swayed by other than scientific considerations.

place, as the inward air was forced out through the oblique fissures; and the other of them represents of the abyss which, during the Deluge, remained be

"D, is the outward expanse, or the open firmament of Heaven. | above-mentioned larger apertures and fissures, to it "E, a circular space, filled with water during the height of the Deluge, but now with the air that came from the central hollow of the earth; and at present constitutes what we call our atmosphere.

"F, the shell of the earth, broken into innumerable apertures and fissures, of various shapes and sizes; the larger of which (f. f. f) being filled with the water that descended from the surface of the earth, form seas and lakes; the lesser (which branch from the former, or pass immediately from the under part of the shell of the earth to the tops of the highest mountains) serve as canals, for the water which supplies springs and rivers to run in: the least of all (denoted by the irregular black strokes in the solid shell of the earth) represent the cracks through which vapours principally ascend. "GH, the great abyss of water within the earth, with which all seas, lakes, rivers, &c. communicate, and from whence they receive their supplies. G and H are divided from each other by a dotted circle, because one of them represents the water that during the Deluge covered the whole surface of the earth, but which was afterwards forced down, through the

earth.

"I, a solid bail or nucleus of terrestrial matt from what the water, in its descent from the surfa sage through the strata of the earth, tore off and cam with it into the abyss, and reposited at the lowest | centre of the earth.

"So that the opinion of the ancients cened earth's resembling an egg, has great propriety in central nucleus (1) by its innermost situation and well represent the yolk; the abyss of water (G H rounds it, and is in a middle position, may stand fluid of the white. The crust of the earth (F) (allowi its breaks and cracks, by its roundness, hardness, situation, and little inequalities on its surface, is logous to the shell.

And on this account the ter of the earth, is frequently used in this treatise the Deluge. 1761, p. 54

si, that, out of so many hundreds of thousands who vested, should have detected the fallacy of the project, or the imbeir money and risked their lives in the attempt, not one posture attempted by the projector? action to his Geological Essays, Mr. Kirwan speaks of the evident agreement he has discovered" between the Mosaic account of the creation, and the most certain and striking geological observations. After some very st remarks upon the relation that may exist between stanical tes mony and the result of physical inquiry, he goes on to the investigation by which the series of fucts" that he refers to had been educed, and concludes his say On the Primeval State of the Globe," with these markable passages. Here, then, we have seven or tradiol facts, related by Moses on the one part, d, on the other, deduced solely from the most exact and Istrifed grological observations, and yet agreeing perly with each other, not only in substance, but in the der of their succession. On whichever of these we be our confidence, its agreement with the other demonates the truth of that other; but, if we bestow our connee on neither, then their agreement must be accounted If we attempt this, we shall find the improbability bath the accounts are false, infinite; consequently st be true, and then so must also the other;"laterwards," Let this improbability, as to the subof the facts, be represented only by 1-10, then the bability of their agrement as to seven events, is 77, that is, as one to ten million, and would be her if the or ler also had entered into the com'— Escys, pp. 52, 53. lar, of the facts here mentioned, as “deduced solely most exact and best verified observations," there arly one that is not either an inference of very doubtprrectness, from the observations of other writers, of bus and unequal authority, or that does not involve unsupporte hypothesis; and we are convinced, livery candid and well-informed geologist of the preday will be of opinion, that a wilder and a more fal series of propositions has hardly ever been mit togel. If, then, as the author boasts, the sion between his statements and the Mosaic hi-tory th that they must stand or fall together, the history

appeared in one of the Scientific Journals. This work is evidently the production of a gentleman and a scholar, who writes with the best intentions, after reading very largely upon geology, and seeing very little (we really have not any intention to offend) of the actual appearances of the earth; and it is precisely such a book as might have been expected, upon a subject where the proportion, or disproportion, of the author's qualifications, ought to hold an inverted order. As these pages were going to the press, "A Supplement to the Comparative Estimate" came into our hands, consisting chiefly of criticisms on the principal subject of Mr. Buckland's the contents of the caves at Kirkdale, and other places, were volume, founded on this most extraordinary supposition, that of contemporaneous deposition with the rocks in which they occur, and the caverns themselves produced by the gases evolved, during the putrefaction of the animal bodies, within the substance of the strata, while in a state of softness!! How any person, who had either seen a cave, or read Mr. Buckland's book, could form such an hypothesis, we are utterly at a loss to conceive. Some of the remarks, however, on the Kirkdale evidence, are not undeserving of attention.

[To be continued in our next.]

UNION OF THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS;AND COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

[Continued from our last publications.]

It will be perceived from the perusal of a second letter of a correspondent, Geographicus, in the Mercury of the 28th ult. that there is at least one individual who not only withholds his assent to the proposition that a passage through the South American Isthmus, would abridge the voyage to China and the Indies, but who absolutely contends that the present course is much shorter than that

recommended.

t be true!-and the same may be said of the far cumber of what are termed statements of fact his subject; which are all regarded by their reWe have already shown that the proposed junction of ve authors as identified with the scripture history, the two oceans has been recognized as facilitating the navi, in reality, not less at variance with each other, gation in question by Mr. Jeffreys, geographer to the they all are with the actual phenomena of the King, the intelligent Alberoni, the Edinburgh Reviewers, #account given by Mr. Kirwan of the Deluge is of Mr. Bryan Edwards, and by the scientific Humboldt. the character, and no less remote from demonstra-With such a mass of authority in our favour, we cannot Thus he speaks of a current from the south, as if allow our convictions on this point to be outweighed dactually been a witness of its progress; and, finally, by the line-and-rule admeasurements of one or two indi. the basaltic masses on the Scotch and Irish viduals; and we must, therefore, persist in recommendand those of Paro, as appearing to him to have real into pillars, by the concussion which separated ing the subject to the serious consideration of our countryritish islands from the Continent!" pp. 80, 81. men, until it be satisfactorily proved that we are advocating it is unnecessary to pursue the history of this sub- a mere chimerical project, absurd in theory and unatWhat we have stated is assuredly sufficient to ac- tainable in practice. for the disgust which arguments so feeble, comwith so much pretension, must have excited in the of those who were disposed to doubt the authority Sacred narrative, and no less to justify the fear of discussions entertained by some of the friends of tion. Some of the more modern publications conwith the geology of the Deluge are fortunately by different character; and the memorable preby dissertation of Cuvier, which is decidedly at their is not less remarkable for the variety of new and ing views its presents, than for the general soundits reasoning, and the moderation of its tone. have hoped that the time for such publications, as last quoted, was entirely gone by, if some very publications did not threaten to take us back again arker ages of geology.‡

We

p 12 These "Essays," which originally appeared in actions of the Royal Irish Academy, are unavoidably funder notice, in considering the history of this sub

With this preamble, we proceed to point out, from Mr. Robinson's work, some other parts of the South American isthmus where it has been proposed to effect the grand junction of the two oceans.

"In looking over the excellent maps of Melish and Doctor Robinson, recently published, we perceive that the river called San Juan discharges its waters into the Atlantic Occan, in the province of Costa Rica, about the latitude of 10° 45' north. This noble river has its source in the lake of Nicaragua. The bar at its mouth has been generally described as not having more than twelve feet water on it. About sixteen years ago an enterprising Englishman who casually visited the river, examined the different passages over the bar, and discovered one, which, although narrow, would admit a vessel drawing twentyfive feet. It is said that some of the traders to that coast, from Honduras, are likewise acquainted with the passage just mentioned, but it has never been laid down on any map; and if the Spanish Government had been informed of it, they would, conformably to their usual policy, have studiously concealed it. After the bar of the San Juan is crossed, there is excellent and safe anchorage, in four and six fathoms of water. It is stated

that there are no obstructions to the navigation of the river but what may be easily removed, and at present large brigs and schooners sail up the river into the lake. This important fact has been communicated to us by several traders. The waters of the lake, throughout its whole extent, are from three to eight fathoms in depth.

"In the lake are some beautiful islands, which, with the country around its borders, form a romantic and most enchanting scenery. At its western extremity is a small river, which communicates with the lake of Leon, distant about eight leagues. From the latter, as well as from Nicaragua, there are some small rivers which flow into the Pacific Ocean. The distance from the lake of Leon to the ocean is about thirteen miles; and from Nicaragua to the gulf of Papagayo, in the Pacific Ocean, is twenty-one miles. The ground between the two lakes and the sea is a dead level. The only inequalities seen are some isolated conical hills, of volcanic origin. There are two places where a canal could be cut with the greatest facility: the one from the coast of Nicoya (or, as it is called in some of the maps, Caldera) to the lake of Leon, a distance of thirteen or fifteen miles; the other from the gulf of Papagayo to the lake of Nicaragua, a distance of about twenty-one or twenty-five miles. The coast of Nicoya and the gulf of Papagayo are free from rocks and shoals, particularly in the gulf, the shore of which is so bold that a frigate may anchor within a few yards of the beach."

We shall now pass on to notice a brief extract from the correspondence between the unfortunate Paterson and the Darien Company, enumerating the commercial advantages which would result from the measure, to the accom. plishment of which he intended to dedicate his life and fortune. He anticipates that

"Trade will increase trade, and money will beget money, and the trading world shall need no more to want work for

blood of Alexander and Cæsar. In all our empires that have

to seek out and court their conquests from afar; but the uni versal force and influence of this attractive magnet, is such, as can much more effectually bring empire home to its proprietors' doors."

What conse

Taking it, then, for granted, that the project is as practicable as its utility is manifest, still it will naturally be asked by whose labour is the work to be effected, as the expense of transporting British labourers so far would be enormous? The answer to this query is supplied by Mr. Robinson, who, in the following passage, recommends the employment of the natives for that purpose.

"Unfold to these beings a new and rational mode of exgive them personal protection; and allow them the advan

d and excellent Dr. Graves. Lectures on the Penta2. edit. Introduction.

, for example, as, that the central parts of the earth Ammense empty cavities-the sweeping denial of the f heat in the formation of rocks-the account of the and properties of the original chaotic fluid-the chemiEcles of which, the author speaks of almost as if a porhad been carefully analyzed and tested by him in his

ET.

nay give, as a favourable example, the "Comparative of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies," by Granville ⇒4, of which a review, full of the highest praise, has

the kingdom. The English people subscribed £300,000, and the Dutch and Hamburghers £200,000 more. In consequence of the decided opposition of our Parliament, to which we have just adverted, "the Dutch, Hamburgh, and London merchants withdrew their subscriptions," and the scheme was necessarily abandoned.

Now, if the projected cut through the South American isthmus, which it was the object of this Darien Company to effect, is so very absurd and unproductive as our correspondent Geographicus contends, is it likely, we would

tages of a free external and internal commerce, and they will soon display a different character. Offer to the view of the Indians these blessings, and multitudes would repair to the proposed point from all the adjacent countries. Under such thirty, or even fifty thousand Indians would be procured for circumstances we do not entertain any doubt that twenty,

the work in question."

[For a letter on this subject, see page 191.]

See Dodsley's Annual Register, 1788, p. 213.

Poetry.

"VENITE PER ME, CARI AMICI?"

The subject of the following lines is from an affecting incident, related in Lady Morgan's “Italy."

"Are you coming for me?" cried the captive maid, From her grated window so high;

"Are you coming for me?" the lone zephyr said, As the gondola swift rowed by.

And anon as the visions of hope arose,

Like the lightning they past away;

And the mourner was left to brood on her woes,
And weep through the lingering day.

And yet still as the dashing of oars was heard
On the vast and silvery sea,

Again at her lattice the maniac appeared,

And sighed, "Are you coming for me?"

And 'twas love, it was said, that had wrought her care;
And alas! that a form so bright

Should the smile of a demon remorseless wear,
And with perjury faith requite!

But the mock'ry of fools and the wise man's pain,
To a region more blest is gone;

And love in his purity never again,

Ah, never to earth shall return!

No friends, hapless lady, are coming for thee,
And vain does that signal implore;
Thou way'st thy white hand to the pitiless sea,
And criest but to ocean's wild roar.

But a bark light is bounding, and soon will be here;
It rocks upon Acheron's tide;

And fast it approaches-nay banish that tear,
For calm on the billow thou'lt ride.

It comes from a city than Venice more fam'd,
On her hundred of isles enthroned;

A city whose portals of crystal are framed,
And with jewels of price adorned.

From a city more fair than to mortal eye
Was e'er given to gaze upon;

A city whose towers and palaces high,
Never setting, the sun shines on.

And no enemy cruel e'er enters there,

And no friend bids to friend farewell;

'Tis the city of bliss where the righteous are, And the blessed eternally dwell!

And spirits of light thy companions shall be, Through bow'rs of elysium that rove; See! minist'ring angels are waiting for thee,

And hark!-'twas the summons of love! The bark it bounds swift over Acheron's wave, And seraphs are hovering near;

Thy prison-house lofty, fair lady, now leave, The whispers of Duma* I hear.

She has quitted her lofty prison so dark,

She has bade cold sorrow adieu;

She has sailed far away in that bounding bark,

The following lines, which we do not recollect to have met with in the public prints, were, as we understand, written by Mr. Thomas Binns of Liverpool:

ON THE INSTITUTION OF THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF LIVERPOOL, 1812.

WHILE war extends his horrid roar,
From realm to realm-from shore to shore,

Old Mersey yet, with waves serene,

Rolls murmuring through a peaceful scene; The approaching bark's expanded wings

No desolating fury brings,

But with delight the wanderer sees
Its white sail swelling with the breeze;
And still, amidst the peopled plain,
Do Science and the Muse remain.

A thoughtful band, to win their smile,
Quit their accustomed cares awhile:
Profession leaves his technic lore,
And Commerce rests upon his oar.
May Science, as in days of old,

To them her mysteries unfold;
As when the admiring world of yore,
Saw our immortal NEWTON Soar:
Or as when FRANKLIN, honoured sage,
Instructed and improved the age:
Or as when LOCKE himself defined
The logic of the human mind.
O! breathe, ye names for ever dear,
A portion of your spirit here.

Nor less the Muse her influence lend,
Soft may her varied notes ascend;
Such as when MILTON Sung sublime,
The wonders of commencing time:
Or such as when, to nature true,
The changeful Seasons TnoMPSON drew;
Or such as ('OWPER's sacred lays,
That win to virtue's holy ways.
Long may attention's raptured ear,
Our Roscox's tuneful numbers hear;
The beauties of his native stream,
At once his pleasure and his theme;
And long, on Mersey's peaceful side,
May Science and the muse abide.

LIBERTY

At eve, my footsteps to attend,
To guard them, and to guide;
At morn, I ask no other friend-
My spaniel at my side:

'Tis guileless truth and free good-will
That binds him close to me;
Where'er I rove, he follows still,
Yet still at liberty.

Nor would I owe to abject fear,
The faith he freely gave;
Spontaneous flows Affection's tear,
It never soothes the slave;
Nor can his sad dejected soul
Expand with social glee,
When, as the lingering moments roll,
They bring not liberty.

But, oh! kind Heaven! let me still
For captive misery feel,
And drop a tear for every ill,
'Tis past my power to heal

So may I yet possess a friend

Whom fondness joins to me, Whose tender love will only end With life and liberty.

WRITTEN IN A FIT OF MELANCHOLY. Where shall I court my melancholy muse? In the deep glen's buried gloom, Where the sunbeams stay not ever, Where the deeply-moaning river Struggles from the mountain's womb; There, in the still night hour, my lonely seat I'll choose.

And I will sing unto yon lovely star,

The only one that shineth here,

Sparkling beneath each falling wave;

A taper in a chrystal grave,

Most beautifully bright and clear;

And tune my mournful lyre to echoes, murmuring far.
And from the darkness of yon cavern deep,
Where human footstep ne'er did tread,
And where the trickling waters fall;

From its black roof and echoing wall,
I'll hail the spirits of the dead,

Friends of my early days, who long have sunk in sleep,
And I will ask of things unknown to man,
Round which a veil is thickly cast;

Of realins where none save spirits dwell;

Of joys in heav'n, of pains in hell; Of the dark future, and the past; Of mighty worlds that rolled, ere this one's course beg And then I'll lay me on my rocky bed, And mournfully behold in dreans That rush upon my troubled raind, The forms, and scenes long left behind; Till 'wakened by the vulture's screams

I mark his wheeling flight, 'mid cliffs, high o'er my hea Liverpool, Nov. 19.

INTRODUCTION TO BLUMAUERS ENEAS

[ORIGINAL TRANSLATION, BY HONG

In times of yore a hero ran `
To save his life and lumber;
For dreadful fire and wrath of man
Broke in upon his slumber.
Eneas was the runner's name,

And he ascribed the pother
All to an apple of great fame
Once given to his mother.
Proud Juno and Minerva had
La'd claims to competition:
But Paris, though a giddy lad,
Defeated their ambition.

The charms of Venus got the prize,
As might have been expected;
And both her rivals, in a trice,
Were grievously affected.

The winning lady show'd how well
She lik'd the arbitration;
Yet dire distress her son befel
For this gay litigation.
He, driven by a mighty hand,
With much ado and clatter,
Compell'd to quit his native land,
Paid dearly for the matter.

He sav'd his dad, and this I call
An act of pious glory:
Which is, to take it all in all,
The best part of the story.
His wife and chattels fared worse,'
When Troy, infatuated,
Was sack'd by a tremendous horse,
As will be soon related.

The original is made attractive by several ty embellishments: for instance, there is an eng celebrated horse, in all its glory, as it is hauled 24 inhabitants; and the daughters of King Friam 1 larly conspicuous for their zeal: they have junct ters, in order to give a good pull themselvessented peeping out of his grotto, surrounded by under the form of full-grown boys with inflated Cad support their hands on their knees, and are realy the first nod of their master. Juno pays a visit to m on a most magnificent cloud, which is drawn by bor