THE STUDENT; AND YOUNG MEN'S ADVOCATE. Jan 1845. TO OUR YOUNG MEN. In YOUNG MEN OF ENGLAND!-We are now fully committed to your cause. We exist, henceforth, for you. This journal will be wholly devoted to your interests. From the place which you occupy in the great social system, you have claims which cannot be denied, and must be met. this age of far-seeing intelligence and masculine effort, you cannot be left out of any scheme which promises to promote the public weal. Neither statesmen, nor philosophers, nor ministers of religion, dare to overlook you. They well know that the great ascending pyramid of society rests on you as its base, and that on the character of the foundation will depend the solidity and perpetuity of the superstructure. When Cataline attempted to overthrow the liberties of Rome, he began by corrupting the young men of the city, and forming them for deeds of daring and crime. He aimed at the foundations of social order and happiness: he knew where lay the strength and safety of the community; and, therefore, he acted wisely and well for his purpose. But the mighty spirit which has just awakened, as from a deep sleep, on your behalf, is for good, and not evil. The fiat has now gone forth that our YOUNG MEN shall be free. The fetters which a worldly cupidity has forged and riveted, shall be broken. It is not to be endured that we should have slaves in England any more than in India,-in the shop any more than in the field. The death-blow has been struck at THE LATE HOUR SYSTEM. A practice so pregnant with mischief to the physical, The curtailing of the hours of business, will leave a considerable B portion of time at your disposal. How is this time to be employed? It must be filled up :-you cannot pass your evenings in mere ennui-dream them away in idle solitude. You will, therefore, have to choose between the pleasures of sense and the pursuits of virtue. We do not mean that you must deny yourselves to every species of gratification. Pleasure, arising from a pure source, may be as pure as the source whence it flows; but when it disqualifies for the duties and engagements of life— impairs the nobler powers and feelings of the soul-stupifies and enslaves the whole man-this is a species of pleasure from which we would seek to withdraw you. Smile not at our honest simplicity. In the slow progress of some insidious disease, it is mournful to mark the smile of gaiety as it plays over the bloom of the cheek-a bloom which is not the freshness of health, but the flushing of approaching dissolution; but how much more painful is it to behold that equally insidious and far more desolating progress with which guilty passion steals upon the heart! Profligacy and vice are not matured at once. They are a gradual but certain descent from a former purity and rectitude. It is virtue which yields progressively to the force of passion and the power of evil. And for a time there may be sufficient virtue left to feel remorse, and to sigh at the remembrance of purer years, but not sufficient to throw off the guilt, and return to former purity. Habits are confirmed, the power of conscience and of motive becomes still weaker. And what is the consequence? You may have your moments of gratification and enjoyment, but you have something more. There are sensual pains, as well as sensual delights. The languor, the satiety, the sickness, the days that are spent in blighted health, the nights without repose, the restless body, and the mind within more restless still, are among the fruits of impure and forbidden pleasure. You may be gay, but it is "the gaiety of those whose headaches nail them to a noon-day bed." Nor is this all. With the loss of health, and comfort, and mental composure, there generally ensues the loss of character. If a young man pass through the period which intervenes between the age of fifteen and twenty-five, with pure morals and a fair reputation, a good name is almost sure to crown his later years, and descend with him to the close of life; but if this golden period is allowed to pass away, without taking hold of any great and fixed principles, the probability is, that he will grow up into life without a name -without a character:—will live despised, and die unwept! "His friends avoid him! Brutishly transformed, A sacred, cherish'd, sadly pleasing name, A name still to be utter'd with a sigh!" What a melancholy close to a life of pleasure! How different the experience of those who pursue the path, and seek the pleasures of virtue! "The wicked man, (it has been said,) fears and flies himself. He endeavours to be gay, by wandering out of himself." He turns around him his unquiet eyes, in search of an object of amusement that may make him forget what he is. On the contrary, the serenity of the virtuous man is internal. His smile is not a smile of malignity, but of joy; he bears the source of it within himself:-he is as gay alone as in the midst of the gayest circle; he does not derive his delightful contentment from those who approach him-he communicates his own to them. His happiness, like a well of water, springs up within himself. His heart is the fountain of his joy. Instead of running into scenes of gaiety and dissipation, he has only to turn his thoughts within himself; and, in the elements of a well-replenished mind, he finds endless sources of satisfaction and delight. If to be happy we must be occupied, then to avoid the grosser and debasing pleasures of sense, we must betake ourselves to thought-to intellectual, mental employment. Knowledge is the feast of the soul.* And in a young man nothing can compensate for the absence of information and intelligence. No amount of property or of fortune will make up for this deficiency. If he has not read and thought for himself, the fact will be discovered the moment he obtains an introduction into the better-informed circles of society; and, to his sad mortification, he will find himself the object of a contempt from which no wealth can shield him. We are intensely anxious for your improvement. The future character of the nation depends on the intelligence and virtue of its youth. It will therefore be the high aim of THE STUDENT to supply such elements of thought as shall give the widest scope and compass to the powers of the mind, and tend at the same time to purify and elevate the affections. It will embrace subjects in every department of Literature and Science,—will give directions as to the best course of Reading— will advocate and promote the establishment of Literary and Scientific Institutions, the formation of Libraries-the delivery of Lectures,— with the most recent intelligence on every subject in which either men of business or men of letters may be supposed to be interested. It will exhibit a constant variety of invaluable matter on whatever is most interesting and instructive. No pains shall be spared to make it the medium of whatever is most rare and excellent in the domain of thought— within the circle of universal science. It will be forward also to assert, with the most unyielding tenacity, your legitimate and undisputed claims. It will extenuate no wrong,-it will suffer no compromise. It is irrevocably pledged to the cause of justice, and in this hallowed cause it will spend and be spent. It will never cease to advocate and inculcate "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report." It will spare no vice-it will trifle with no virtue. It will assert truth and condemn error,-frown upon profligacy and crime in every form, brand the corrupt and the corruptor in what walk of life soever they may move, and give countenance only to what is chaste and pure in principle,-true and dignified in character. Such is the course we have prescribed to ourselves in the future car* Animae pabulum est scientia. rying on of this Journal. Nor can we refrain from indulging the hope, that, if these various objects be prosecuted in an honest, independent, and manly spirit, it will operate most beneficially on those who are embraced in our solicitude and efforts. The tide of reformation has already set in with no common force, and no scheme must be left untried to remove every barrier to its onward, inward progress, till its healing, purifying waters, shall reach every youth throughout the length and breadth of the land. Our work is but commenced. We have no common duty to perform. We have not only to care for our youth themselves, but we have to awaken society at large in their behalf. Nor can we believe that our labour shall be in vain. Success is certain. We anticipate the day when our young men, as they take the precedence in the body politic, will take the precedence of every other class in intellectual and moral excellence. Their reformation will, like some purifying fire, work up through the whole ascending scale of society; their regeneration will be felt at the very extremities of the social system; it will pervade the community, and prove the precursor of that golden age when truth shall be triumphant, and righteousness universal. In YOUNG MEN :-It is your interest we have at heart. Will you refuse to listen to our friendly counsels? Our advice, then, is this-be men of principle. Let your whole life be regulated by the simple question-WHAT IS RIGHT? Keep to this in all the relations, engagements, and business of life. And if you make this the great governing principle of action, you will seldom if ever be at a loss to determine what course to pursue. It is a principle which admits of universal application. What is right to-day will be right to-morrow-right for ever. Then, having resolved to follow only what is right, your aim in life will be truly elevated. It is indeed of prime importance that you should set before yourselves a high standard of character, and determine to reach it. Resolution is omnipotent. If you are resolved to excel, you are sure to succeed. It is in aiming at excellence, that excellence is attained. Having placed before you some suitable and commanding object, the very effort to reach it will go far to mould your whole character. such a pursuit you are not likely to be diverted by the pleasures of sense or the fascinations of the world. And according to the object in view, will be its influence. If in itself it be great and good, then you yourselves will partake its greatness and its goodness;-if pure, its influence will be to purify your affections,-if grand, to dignify your powers,—if elevated, to exalt your character. Lay hold, then, of great principles-aim at great excellence. The principles which you now imbibe, and the habits which you now form, will remain with you through life-for These will be the dying dress of the soul,-these the vestments in which it will appear amid the retributions of the final day. Of what infinite moment, then, are religious principles and religious habits! Whatever other qualities you possess, these are chief. It is Christian piety which will give to your character a dignity more than princely, and a loveliness surpassing every earthly form. It will impress on you the image of God, and fit you for the perfected society of heaven! ever. REMARKS ON ILLUMINATION. GAS BURNERS. IN entering on this part of our subject, it is necessary to consider in the first place the nature of the combustible of which we are making use, as it differs materially from any which we have yet described. The great difference between gas and any liquid or solid combustion, consists in the much larger proportion of hydrogen which it contains, which, however, differs in almost every specimen of gas which we examine. We shall still regard our fuel as consisting of two ingredients,―one gaseous, and the other solid,-notwithstanding the gaseous appearance of the whole mass. We do this because we consider that the coal-gas, though consisting, in the first instance, of hydrogen and carbon vapour, is so far decomposed before it can be burnt, that the carbon can only be regarded as a number of infinitely small solid particles. In proof of this we will bring forward one or two facts. First, It is a well-known fact, that coal-gas is decomposed (solid carbon being deposited, and hydrogen given out) at a temperature considerably below that which is necessary for its inflammation. We have abundant evidence of this, in the circumstance that in the part of the retorts in which gas is manufactured, unoccupied by coal, but still heated, and over which the gas passes, there is always a deposit of solid carbon, known by the name of coal-gas, carbon, or charcoal. Secondly, We may prove that it exists in this state in a gas flame, by simply taking some means of cooling it. Thus, if we hold a cold substance in a gas flame, it is immediately coated with lamp black or solid carbon. If the gas were not decomposed, simply cooling it would only have the effect of allowing a certain portion of gas to escape unconsumed, and could not possibly reduce the carbon to the solid form; but, being already decomposed by the heat requisite for its inflammation, the carbon exists in the solid form in the flame, and only requires a reduction of temperature to appear as soot. The difference in the quality of gas depends upon a variety of circumstances; partly on the coal from which it is made,-partly on the heat employed; too great a heat reducing a large quantity of carbon in the mouth of the retort, thus increasing the proportion of hydrogen. For our present purpose, however, it is only necessary to remember that all gas contains a larger proportion of hydrogen than oil, and consequently requires a less supply of air to prevent its smoking; the smallest quantity capable of effecting this being the best and most economical. If gas be burned from a jet consisting of but one hole, of course it is liable to the same objections as the first oil-lamp which we mentioned, with this difference, that the outside of the three flames (that in which the want of luminosity is caused, by having too much air) is much |