by this great man that refracting telescopes would | called spherical aberration, may in a great measure never be rendered achromatic, or capable of repre- be obviated by cutting off those edges, or, what senting white objects without color-their im- amounts to the same thing, by covering them with provement he pronounced hopeless. Opticians, an opaque diaphragm, as is done in the microas was natural enough, regarding the opinion of scope and telescope. This proceeding, however, this great man as infallible, gave up the attempt, does not totally overcome the evil. Newton, and made reflecting telescopes exclusively. Re- who discovered that the different colors of light fractors, however, have since been rendered achro- were possessed of different amounts of refrangibilmatic-and how?-why, by copying the mechan-ity for the same medium, was not aware that difism of the eye. Nature suggested the means, ferent media possessed different refractive power but Newton did not take the hint. for the same color. Had he been aware of this fact he would not have pronounced the improvement of refractive telescopes hopeless. We will set out with the assumption that one kind of glass disperses one kind of primitive light-viz., for example, blue light-beyond the true focus; theory indicates that another lens of different glass, having a property (if such can be found) of dispersing the other two primitive colors, namely yellow and red, beyond the focus, would counteract the imperfection. Well, this, in modern telescopes, is actually accomplished by using compound lenses made of various kinds of glass. We will, in our next paper, show how beautifully all this knowledge had been anticipated in the construction of the human eye.

We think the beauty of the eye will be more fully appreciated if we previously take a review of the construction and optical properties of telescopes. True, this will be a digression, but what then we claimed a sort of poetical license in the treatment of our subject, and we will proceed to take it.

The merest tyro in optics knows that light when it passes through transparent bodies is refracted; if the refracting body be plane and of equal thickness, then will various rays of light be equally refracted; if, however, the body be not of equal thickness, whether plane or curvilinear, then other phenomena result, all explicable, however, by a consideration of two facts: firstly, that of the three primitive colors of which white light is composed, each possesses a different refractive power; secondly, that a ray of light impinging on a refracting body of greater density from one of lesser density, is refracted towards the perpendicular, and vice versû.

Now, we take it for granted, that everybody knows the property of a triangular prism in decomposing white light, and the reason of this property. This understood, what we are about to remark will be intelligible enough.

4 Nomenclature of Colors, Hues, Tints, and Shades, applicable to the Arts and Natural Sciences, to Manufactures, and other purposes of general utility. B. R. HAY, Edinburgh.

which the primary colors enter into the composition of the secondary colors, and tertiary and other compounds.

[IN this catalogue raisonné of colors, Mr. Hay has reduced to a system of mathematical exactness the constituent parts and value of every modification of separate and combined colors. He shows the proportions, calculated in numerical As soon as it was discovered that an arrange- ratios, that each of the primary colors bears to ment of different lenses in a proper manner would light and darkness, and the quantity of white and make an instrument capable of rendering remote black used to dilute or degrade them in order to objects more distinct-in other words, as soon as produce various tints and shades; also, the ariththe discovery of the telescope was accomplished-metical proportions and degrees of intensity in the observers viewed with regret that the outline of such objects was fringed with an unpleasant misty burr, more or less indistinct, and tinted with numerous colors. The removal of this imperfection was a great desideratum; and amongst others the celebrated Des Cartes imposed on himself the task of accomplishing this great end. He investigated the subject mathematically, and arrived at the conclusion that all lenses which were mere segments of spheres must necessarily possess this defect, inasmuch as their curve is such that they cannot possibly concentrate every ray of light, even of one color, on the same point or focus. He therefore succeeded in determining the form of a particular set of ovals, (termed, after him, the Cartesian ovals,) out of which lenses might be cut which should be free from this injurious quality; and he succeeded to this extent-that with one particular kind of primitive light his lenses overcame the previous indistinctness of vision: with compound light, however-white light for example-the imperfection still remained. Hence opticians no longer troubled themselves to make these Cartesian lenses; and even Newton subsequently pronounced the improvement of refracting telescopes hopeless.

Now the indistinct vision of which we have spoken is chiefly produced by the edges of a lens, which, in point of fact, may be regarded as prisms; consequently, the imperfection alluded to, and

The volume is illustrated by forty plates, each one containing six different hues; forming together a scale of colors sufficiently extensive for all general purposes of the artist or manufacturer: uniformity of the tints in each copy of the work being secured by the adoption of colored papers, in preference to hand-coloring. The simplicity and scientific exactness of this nomenclature recommmend it to adoption as a handbook for use in all business where colors are employed, and a standard of positive distinctness is required for reference.

The examples arranged in a tabular form, with the requisite explanations printed on a sheet, would be a serviceable chart to hang up in work-rooms: the chromatic scale might be carried out to its full extent for this purpose.

In an appendix, Mr. Hay hazards a conjecture as to the constitution of the atmosphere in relation to light and sound, that is deserving of scientific consideration.]

RAILWAY ECONOMY.-The saving between driving a sheep to the London market from Lincolnshire and conveying it by railway is proved to be no less than 10 per cent.

THE proof sheets are before us of a series of highly valuable biographies, ten in number, beginning with Voltaire, and followed by Rousseau, Hume, Robertson, Black, Priestley, Watt, Cavendish, Simpson.

The preface to them contains a just estimate of the peculiar characteristics of the epoch, in the following words :—

The reign of George III. may in some important respects be justly regarded as the Augustan age of modern history. The greatest statesmen, the most consummate captains, the most finished orators, the first historians, all flourished during this period. For excellence in these departments it was unsurpassed in former times, nor had it even any rivals, if we except the warriors of Louis XIV.'s day, one or two statesmen, and Bolingbroke as an orator. But its glories were not confined to those great departments of human genius. Though it could show no poet like Dante, Milton, Tasso, or Dryden; no dramatist like Shakspeare or Corneille; no philosopher to equal Bacon, Newton, or Locke-it nevertheless in some branches, and these not the least important of natural science, very far surpassed the achievements of former days, whilst of political science, the most important of all, it first laid the foundations, and then reared the superstructure. The science of chemistry almost entirely, of political economy entirely, were the growth of this remarkable era; while even in the pure mathematics a progress was made which almost changed its aspect since the days of Leibnitz and Newton. The names of Black, Watt, Cavendish, Priestley, Lavoisier, Davy, may justly be placed far above the Boyles, the Stahls, the Hales of former times; while Euler, Clairault, Lagrange, La Place, must be ranked as analysts close after Newton himself, and above Descartes, Leibnitz, or the Bernouillis; and in economical science, Hume, Smith, and Quesnai really had no parallel, hardly any foreIt would also be vain to deny great poetical and dramatic genius to Goldsmith, Voltaire, Alfieri, and the German school, how inferior soever to the older masters of song."

runner.

There are those that might object to the canon on poetry with the names of Byron, Scott, and Moore in the period, or think Leibnitz scarcely has his due, and possibly that the German school is treated somewhat unceremoniously-but it is a difficult matter to adjust the relative merits in so vast a field of view, and probably Lord Brougham has formed a better estimate of the exact branches than of the imaginative. His lordship next tells us, and quotes a splendid passage from Sallust for that end, that he has amused himself, in his retirement from office, with these biographies of the distinguished men of a portion of his lordship's own era. We presume the moderns will succeed in their turn, and if we have no historiographers we shall have at least biographies of the great and illustrious, written with powerful vigor, and from one who knows much of many of them. The statesmen of George III. have already passed under his lordship's hand, and now the literati of the same period succeed each other in the present work. With some Lord Brougham has had a personal acquaintance; Robertson was his relation; and there are more favorable circumstances

in Lord Brougham's behalf with many of them, than possibly any other biographer could hope to possess. It is an invidious task to depict talent, when that talent is employed to defame and debase tive to three of the biographies before us, Voltaire, purity and religion. His lordship's remarks relaRousseau, and Hume, should, we think, exempt him from severe treatment in including them in the series.

"Although," he adds, "I have no political animosities to encounter, I fear my historical statethose of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Hume, may ments and my commentaries on some lives, as find enemies among the two great parties whose principles come in question. The free-thinkers will object to the blame which I have imputed to their favorite authors; the friends of the church may take exception to the praises which I have occasionally bestowed. It may, however, be expected from the justice of both these conflicting bodies, that they will read with attention and with calmness before they condemn. From the former class I can expect no favor beyond what every one has a right to claim from avowed adversaries; a fair hearing is all I desire. To the latter I would address a few words in the spirit of respectful kindness, as to those with whom I generally agree.

"Whoever feels disposed to treat as impious any writer that has the misfortune not to be among the great body of believers, like the celebrated men above named, should bear in mind that the author of these pages, while he does justice to their great literary merits, has himself published, whether anonymously or under his own name, nearly as much in defence of religion as they did against it; and if, with powers so infinitely below theirs, he may hope to have obtained some little success, and done some small service to the good cause, he can only ascribe this fortune to the intrinsic merits of that cause which he has ever supported. He ventures thus to hope that no one will suspect him of being the less a friend to religion, merely because he has not permitted his own belief to make him blind upon the literary merit of men whose opinions are diametrically opposed His censures of all indecorous, all to his own. unfair, all ribald or declamatory attacks, however graced by wit or eloquence, he has never, on any occasion, been slow to pronounce."-Pref.

We shall now open the list, in the order preserved by his lordship, with Voltaire. Lord Brougham conceives that there are three forms under which Voltaire is to be viewed: first, as an atheist and blasphemer; secondly, as one who vents his ribaldry upon the mere ground of his skepticism; and thirdly that of a careless person, yielding to a prevailing unbelief. The circumstances of the church of his day are viewed by Lord Brougham as fully constituting the extraordinary problem of Voltaire's mind, and his deter

mined

opponence to Christianity. His atheism he considers not proved. We think this matter of much doubt; we allow that he often seemed to speak nobly of God. The celebrated extempore composition on the firmament, composed on a summer's eve, is but a plagiarism on the Pentateuch, and renders unwilling homage to its truth.

"Tous ces vastus pays d'azur et de lumière,
Tirés du sein du vide, formés sans matière,
Guidés sans compas, tournans sans pivot,
N'ont à peine coûté la dépense d'un mot."

The intent of the "Candide" is also estimated | friend, obtained permission for him to reside in far too gently by Lord Brougham; the obvious his house at Saint Ange. The Bishop Caumarinference from that work is, that all things are tin, a prelate well acquainted with literary pereither accidental when they must be for the worst, sons, probably excited him to the "Henriade" or the work of an evil agent. The following pas- and his History. On the death of Louis, which sage, however, amply redeems the piety of his occurred on his return to Paris, a libel being aslordship from any injury :— cribed to Voltaire, he was placed in the Bastile ; thence he was liberated, and recompensed for his captivity, by the Regent, with a sum of money. After this event he produced his "Edipe," which was written at eighteen years of age. His first published work was however a devotional poem. The "Edipe" gave him an introduction to Me. la Maréchale de Villars-Voltaire's first, possibly his only true, passion. He was unsuccessful. His skepticism developed itself both in the composition and performance of the " Edipe.' The lines below were not likely to be soon forgotten in the early part of the 18th century:— "Nos prêtres ne sont point ce qu'un vain peuple pense

"Let no man severely condemn the untiring zeal of Voltaire, and the various forms of attack which he employed without measure, against the religious institutions of his country, who is not prepared to say that he could have kept entire possession of his own temper, and never cast an eye of suspicion upon the substance of a religion thus abused, nor ever have employed against its perversions the weapons of declamation and of mockery; had he lived under the system which regarded Alexander Borgia as one of its spiritual guides, which bred up and maintained in all the riot of criminal excess an aristocracy having for one branch of its resources the spoils of the altar, which practised persecution as a favorite means of Notre crédulité fait toute leur science."conviction, and cast into the flames a lad of eighAct IV., Scene 4. teen, charged with laughing as its priests passed by. Such dreadful abuses were present to Vol- We perfectly subscribe to the following crititaire's mind when he attacked the Romish super-cism on his tragedies generally, and think it stitions, and exposed the profligacy, as well as the intolerance, of clerical usurpation. He unhappily suffered them to poison his mind upon the whole to that religion of which these were the abuse; and, when his zeal waxed hot against the whole system, it blinded him to the unfairness of the weapons with which he attacked both its evidences and its teachers."

felicitously expressed :—

"It is certain that the tragedies of Voltaire are the works of an extraordinary genius, and that only a great poet could have produced them; but it is equally certain that they are deficient for the most part in that which makes the drama powerful over the feelings-real pathos, real passion, whether of tenderness, of terror, or of horror. The plots of some are admirably contrived; the diction of all is pure and animated; in most passages it is pointed, and in many it is striking, grand, impressive; the characters are frequently well

stage, or even in the French tongue; it is not fine dramatic composition: the periods roll from the mouth, they do not spring from the breast; there is more light than heat; the head rather than the heart is at work."

The powerful authorities of Wilberforce, Lardner, Jeremy Taylor, and Warburton, are all adduced against that prosecution for irreligious opinions, of which we clearly see the evil effects in the Romish hierarchy; and which led, accord-imagined and portrayed, though without sufficient ing to Lord Brougham, to the reaction against it discrimination; and thus often running one into on the part of Voltaire; and to this tendency we another, from the uniformity of the language, may, although possibly almost unconsciously, pre- terse, epigrammatic, powerful, which all alike cipitate matters. We proceed to the details of speak. Nor are there wanting situations of great the biography. Voltaire was the son of the Sieur effect, and single passages of thrilling force; but, Arouet, treasurer to the chamber of accounts, a after all, the heart is not there; the deep feeling, valuable office. His mother was noble, and of which is the parent of all true eloquence as well as the family d'Aumart: he was born on the 20th all true poetry, didactic and satirical excepted, is February, 1694. Voltaire took his name from a rarely perceived; it is rather rhetoric than elosmall family estate, pursuant to the custom of quence, or, at least, rather eloquence than poetry. those days, for the younger children of wealthy It is declamation of a high order in rhyme; no commoners to take the name of their estate, leav-blank verse, indeed, can be borne on the French ing to the eldest the family honors. Fontenelle lived to nearly his hundredth year; Voltaire reached his eighty-fifth year-splendid quotations for the longevity of the learned. At twelve years old, some verses to the Dauphin, for an invalid, procured him a legacy of 2,000 francs from Ninon de L'Enclos, to buy books with. Ninon was then ninety, and Voltaire was presented to her by his godfather, the Abbé de Châteauneuf. The court of Me. de Maintenon, which was then in the ascendant, united the saintly and the sinful in a remarkable degree, and this Châteauneuf, with whom Voltaire was much thrown, was unfortunately a person of dissolute morals and of skeptical opinions. Voltaire was destined for the law, and his anxious parent sent him as page or attaché to the French ambassador at the Hague, probably with the intention of getting him clear of infidels and skeptics. A love affair caused him to be sent home. His father, incensed with his conduct, refused to receive him, unless he entered a notary's office; and M. de Caumartin, a family

The Zaire alone is excepted from the above.

The "Edipe" was performed in 1718, and in a few years was followed by the "Henriade." This poem, not without fine passages, is at such an immeasurable distance from the great epic writers that it was intended to rival, that we entertain little doubt that the disappointment produced the "Pucelle." The following remarks are both just, and do Lord Brougham's heart great honor :

"The Pucelle' is one continued sneer at all that men do hold, and all that they ought to hold, sacred, from the highest to the least important subjects, in a moral view-from the greatest to the most indifferent, even in a critical view. Religion and its ministers and its professors-virtue, especially the virtues of a prudential cast-the feel

ings of humanity-the sense of beauty-the rules contributed largely to overthrow the Cartesian of poetical composition-the very walks of litera-philosophy. Can one wonder much, when D'Aguture in which Voltaire had most striven to excel-esseau refused the license to publish his statement are all made the constant subject of sneering con- of Newton's discoveries, at his indignation? This tempt, or of ribald laughter; sometimes by wit, enthusiasm for Newton led to the liaison of his life sometimes by humor, not rarely by the broad grins with the Marquise de Chatelet. This lady analyst of mere gross buffoonery. It is a sad thing to re- was often surrounded with philosophers of kindred flect that the three masterpieces of three such men pursuits; the imprudence of the Marquis, her husas Voltaire, Rousseau, Byron, should all be the band, rendered even the pecuniary assistance of most immoral of their compositions. It seems as if Voltaire by no means superfluous; and at Cirey, their prurient nature had been affected by a bad her seat, many of his most celebrated works first but criminal excitement to make them exceed saw the light. From her and Clairault, he was themselves. Assuredly if such was not Voltaire's doubtless greatly assisted in the compilation of his case, he well merits the blame; for he scrupled Newtonian Philosophy. We differ from Lord not to read his' Pucelle' to his niece, then a young Brougham in the opinion, that had Voltaire followed out the analytic sciences, he would have succeeded. The minds of men like Voltaire and Lord Brougham are ill calculated for success in such pursuits. There is too much discursiveness

woman.

Would any one credit that this production could issue from the same person who wrote the "Discours sur l'Homme ?" Who can avoid being struck with lines like the following, from such a man, and not in them see much reason for a belief, however we must qualify it, that the corruption mingled with truth led him to mistake the truth for the corruption

"Malgré la sainteté de son auguste emploi,

too deep a desire to know much of many things, to permit of this abstraction upon one. The orator and the wit are conscious that they possess far more generally-fascinating points, and cannot forego either the rostrum or the club. Their very excellence in words prevents their acquisition of rarely go deeply inward, except in their own favorabstract ideas. They dwell on the outward, and

C'est n'être bon à rien de n'être bon qu'à toi." Lord Brougham has simply alluded to the re-ite pursuits; they are certainly not constant to cognition of the Christ in this poem; but the passage is so fine and so uncommon for Voltaire, that we give it at length :

"Quand l'ennemi divin des scribes et des prêtres
Chez Pilate autrefois fut traîné par des traîtres;
De cet air insolent qu'on nomme dignité,
Le Romain demanda, qu'est ce que vérité?
L'Homme Dieu qui pouvait l'instruire ou le con-
fondre,

A ce juge orgueilleux dédaigna de répondre.
Son silence éloquent disait assez à tous
Que ce vrai tant cherché ne fut point fait pour

nous.

Mais lorsque pénétré d'une ardeur ingénue,
Un simple citoyen l'aborda dans la rue,
Et que, disciple sage, il prétendit savoir,
Quel est l'état de l'homme, et quel est son devoir;
Sur ce grand intérêt, sur ce point qui nous touche,
Celui qui savait tout, ouvrit alors la bouche;
Et dictant d'un seul mot ses décrets solennels;
Aimez Dieu,' lui dit-il, mais aimez les mortels.'
Voilà l'homme et sa loi, c'est assez; le ciel
même

A daigné tout nous dire en ordonnant qu'on aime."

abstract science long. Any one who attempts to learn Newton by the medium of Voltaire, will be plunged into the most inextricable difficulties that a person could well desire to be involved in; of this, Lord Brougham has furnished a rather amusing condensation. In the "Courte Réponse aux longs Discours d'an Docteur Allemand," he says, "La racine carré du cube des révolutions des planètes et les carrés de leurs distances faisaient encore des ennemis. In this passage there are three blunders. The square root of the cube is taken for the cube; the revolutions, for the distances; and the squares for the cubes. Voltaire was, however, not deficient in philosophic perception; and experimented largely. Our author says of him, as an experimental philosopher :

"The experiments which he made on the heat of fluids mixed together, of different temperatures before their mixture, led him to remark the difference of the temperature when mixed from what might have been expected by combining the separate temperatures before mixture. Need I add that this is precisely the course of experiment and observation which led Black to his celebrated discovery of latent heat a quarter of a century later ?” -p. 581.

But we must resume the somewhat broken nar- While at Cirey, he made the acquaintance of rative-After the appearance of the "Edipe," Frederick, then Prince Royal of Prussia; and, in Voltaire became the friend of the Duc de Riche- 1749, experienced the loss of the Marchioness, lieu, shared in his disgrace, and was forced to quit who was suddenly taken ill at Luneville, while Paris. His well-known quarrel with the Cheva- engaged on the "Principia," and died in labor of lier de Rohan, we shall not enter on farther than a girl, born before she could be put to bed. His to remark, that it was the occasion of his visiting eccentric raillery scarce forsook him, even at the England, of his acquaintance with Pope, and of a period of her dissolution. He requests, in a letter large sum realized for the "Henriade;" a sub-addressed to Me. du Deffand, permission to weep scription in favor of which, was promoted by Queen for one qui avec ses foiblesses avait une ûme reCaroline, then Princess of Wales. A successful spectable." Her death probably led him to emlottery speculation combined with this, enabled him brace Frederick's offer of an establishment at to live at ease the remainder of his life. If he also Berlin. Voltaire was certainly nobly treated at did not succeed in comprehending our illustrious the commencement by the king: but nothing could Newton-for no one can understand Newton, who attach Voltaire long to anything; and the king, as iis unequal to his powerful analysis, with which a moral character, was beneath contempt. The Voltaire had never even a rudimental acquaintance monarch that could write to M. Darget a letter of -his sincerity in advocating what he believed to apparently Christian condolence with him on the be the true system, is undoubted. He certainly loss of his wife, and that very day sit down de