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If a plate of copper be laid upon a red-hot iron, the plate becomes gradually heated, and all at once exhibits the most beautiful colours, but they disappear as suddenly. Before it becomes coloured, the plate has a metallic lustre; it subsequently ceases to shine, and becomes evidently oxidized. It is therefore at the It is therefore at the moment when the colours manifest themselves that the oxygen of the air precipitates itself on the copper. In the next moment the chemical combination is effected, which takes place whenever the action of the heat is sufficiently prolonged. If the plate of copper be removed from the red-hot iron as soon as the first indication of a change of colour is perceived at any point, the process of coloration will then go on more slowly, the copper will not be oxidized, and the oxygen, which would produce this effect under a more prolonged action of the heat, now covers the plate with a film, which adheres to it like a varnish, and by its transparency produces the

usual colours.

The origin of the violet colour given to steel to prevent it from rusting, is the same. The layer, however, which produces this tint in the steel does not perhaps consist solely of oxygen, as it does when the metals are pure. Steel is a compound of iron and carbon, and the oxygen of the air precipitated on this compound being combined with the carbon in some manner or other, might form the layer in question. At all events the layer does not change its nature; it is always electronegative, and secures the metal from rust as effectually as the layers applied by the electro-chemical process.

By this latter process, as we have said, films are formed on the surface of metals with surprising rapidity, and the colours developed on metals exposed to the action of heat, are produced with equal promptitude. It is therefore essential to the production of the phenomenon of thin plates, that the electro-negative elements should be precipitated on the metal with a certain velocity. "Does not the necessity of this condition show why these layers, in order to produce the desired effect, should be brought into contact with the metallic surface by the agency either of fire or electricity? The action of moisture is, perhaps, too tedious in all cases; it gradually oxidizes the surfaces of the metals, but never covers them with that thin and extended veil, the application of which requires a rapidity unattainable in this circumstance."

At the present time, when a voltaic battery can be procured by every one at the cost of a few pieces of copper and zinc, it is certainly not too much to expect that many of our readers will repeat the beautiful experiments of which we have detailed a few of the results. Care must be taken in the use of the acetate of lead, because this salt is very poisonous. A solution must be made with rain water, and should it not be perfectly clear, it must be filtered through blotting paper.

Ir is a misfortune not to possess enough intelligence to enable one to speak with propriety, nor sufficient judgment to know when to be silent.-DE LA BRUYERE.

Ir is not the reality of grievances so much as the temper with which they are viewed, which produces a revolution.

THAT only which is becoming is good; therefore virtue is to be pursued for its own sake; and, because it is a divine attainment, it cannot be taught, but is the gift of God. He alone who has attained the knowledge of the first good is happy. The end of this knowledge is, to render man as like to God as the condition of human nature will permit. This likeness consists in prudence, jnstice, sanctity, temperance. In order to attain this state, it is necessary to be convinced that the body is a prison, from which the soul must be released before it can arrive at the knowledge of those things which are real and immutable.—PLATO.

CURIOUS CHESS PROBLEMS.

X.

ON first glancing at the following problem, the young student will probably suppose that its solution is impossible on the terms proposed. An attentive examination of the position of the pieces will, however, soon lead him to effect the solution of this by no means difficult problem. The solution is, indeed, rendered more easy by the terms, which, at first sight, seem greatly to add to its difficulty. Being required to check on the fourth move with one pawn, and to give checkmate at the fifth move with another pawn, the student is thus made acquainted with two moves out of the five, so that the number of moves to be discovered is, in fact, reduced to three.

This problem was originally invented by that great master, Damiano, who gives the player of the white pieces a Rook instead of a Bishop, and requires the mate to be given in eight moves; but Carrera made the problem more difficult by substituting a Bishop, and requiring the mate to be given in five moves. White to move first and to mate with the Pawn which now occupies the Queen's Knight's second square, in five moves; checking on the fourth move with the Pawn which now occupies the Queen's Knight's third square.

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IN the cultivation of literature is found that common link, which among the higher and middling departments of life unites the jarring sects and subdivisions in one interest; which supplies common topics, and kindles common feelings, unmixed with those narrow prejudices, with which all professions are more or less infected. The knowledge, too, which is thus acquired, expands and enlarges the mind, excites its faculties, and calls those limbs and muscles into freer exercise, which, by too constant use in one direction, not only acquire an illiberal air, but are apt also to lose somewhat of their native play and energy. And thus, without directly qualifying a man for any of the employments of life, it enriches and ennobles all: without teaching him the peculiar benefits of any one office or calling, it enables him to act his part in each of them with better grace and more elevated carriage; and, if happily planned and conducted, is a main ingredient in that complete and generous education, which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously, all the offices, both public and private, of peace and war.-BISHOP COPLESTON.

JOHN W. PARKER, PUBLISHER, WEST STRAND, LONDON.

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POUSSIN AND HIS WORKS.

II.

POUSSIN was in his thirtieth year when he first visited Rome. Having attained the long-cherished object of his desires, he had yet to struggle with adverse fortune. He enjoyed but few of the advantages which the friendship of Marino seemed to promise him. That gentleman retired to Naples, his native city, where he soon after died. Before quitting Rome he had recommended Poussin to Marcel Sacchetti, who presented him to the Cardinal Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban the Seventh; but, unfortunately, this new patron set out immediately for his legations in France and Spain, without being able to assist the poor artist. Thus left without friends, without money, and, for a time, almost without hope of rising in his profession, Poussin continued to labour hard for the means of subsistence; he was forced to sell his pictures for but little more than the cost of the materials:-he sold two battle-pieces, each containing a large number of figures, for fourteen crowns; and he was paid eight francs for a figure of a prophet, while a copy of the very same picture by another painter produced double that sum.

Most men who have excelled in any pursuit have generally found the commencement of their career to be one of trial and difficulty; as if it were kindly intended to prove the sincerity of their attachment by denying success to enthusiasm merely, and granting it only to that constancy and strength of devotion proved by years of servitude. Poussin's love for his art was sufficient to support him amid such poverty and privation as would have driven a meaner man to seek, in a meaner pursuit, that recompense which these lofty aspirings denied him; but there was an energy about the character of Poussin which maintained him in his struggle with fortune; as if he were determined to wrest from her those gifts which she refused on gentle terms. In the midst of all his troubles Poussin found a treasure more costly than any that fortune could bestow, namely, a friend. Francis Quesnoy, surnamed the Fleming, a skilful sculptor, was then in Rome: he had been as unsuccessful as Poussin, and a fellow-feeling in misfortune was a bond of union between them :-they studied together; they toiled together; they suffered together; and they also shared together that true enjoyment which springs from a genuine love of the beautiful and the true in nature, science, and art. The two artists examined, and copied, and measured, with the greatest care, many of the master-pieces of antique sculpture, and studied therein the principles of beauty and proportion.

Poussin's love of study was such, that, on holidays, he withdrew from the merry-making parties of his acquaintance, and retired to the Capitol to make some sketch. As he wandered amid the ruins of ancient Rome, his imagination would restore them to their pristine grandeur,-repeople them with their ancient occupants, constitute himself an ancient Roman;-thus would he acquire ideas and feelings which animated his compositions.

I have often admired, (said Vigneul de Marville, who knew him at a late period of his life,) I have often admired the love he had for his art. Old as he was I frequently saw him among the ruins of ancient Rome, sketching a scene which had pleased him; and I often met him with his handkerchief full of stones, moss, or flowers, which he carried home that he might copy them exactly from nature. One day I asked him how he had attained to such a degree of perfection as to have gained so high a rank among the great painters of Italy? He answered, "I have neglected nothing."

In company with Quesnoy, Poussin also applied himself with assiduity to the study of architecture, geometry, and perspective. At Paris he had commenced the study of anatomy; he continued it at Rome;

and he also frequented schools for studying from the living model.

At this period the fame of Guido was at its height, Most of the pupils, seduced by the intellectual style and easy and agreeable manner of this master, copied his works, and especially the picture of the "Martyrdom of St. Andrew," painted in fresco, in the Church of St. Gregory. But the more correct taste of Poussin sheltered him from all seduction; he was the only one who studied the "Flagellation" of the same saint, painted in the same building, on the opposite side, by Dominichino, who was regarded by Poussin as a worthy successor of the Caracchi, as well for correctness of design as for vigour of expression. At this time the health of Dominichino was in a declining state, and he lived in such close retirement that he was supposed by some to be dead; but having heard that a young Frenchman was making a careful study from his picture, he caused himself to be conveyed in his chair to the church, where he conversed for some time with Poussin without making himself known. The result was honourable to both; for, from that day, Poussin passed much of his time with Dominichino; studied in his school; enjoyed his friendship, and profited by his advice, until the old man

died.

Poussin displayed his good taste and courage in supporting the fame of Dominichino, which was then so overborne by the partisans of Guido, that his picture of the "Communion of St. Jerome," had been torn from its place in the church of San Girolamo della Carità, and thrown into a lumber room, where it remained forgotten, until the monks, desirous of having a new altarpiece, requested Poussin to paint one for them, and sent him Dominichino's picture as old canvass to paint it upon. He no sooner saw it, than, struck with its extraordinary merit, he conveyed it to the church for which it had been painted, and gave a public lecture upon it, in which he ventured to compare it with the "Transfiguration," and pronounced it to be one of the finest pictures in Rome. Dominichino had been accused of borrowing the composition from a sketch by the Caracchi on the same subject, but Poussin showed that they had never finished their picture, and that Dominichino altered and improved it in every particular, and that so far from injuring them by appropriating their idea, he had shown what a noble use might be made of it, and from it had composed one of the finest pictures in the world. The appeal was successful, and from this time the elegant but weaker attractions of the rival school gave way, and Dominichino assumed his just rank among the painters of Italy. It is said that Poussin thus produced a sort of revolution among artists, and that many of the followers and pupils of Guido abandoned that master in order to study Dominichino; and that Poussin's share in the proceeding, honourable as it was to him, was the cause of some inconvenience if not of danger to him.

men.

At this time the see of Rome and the court of France were at variance, and considerable acrimony existed among his Holiness's troops against all FrenchThese soldiers, whose duty it was to maintain the tranquillity of the city, often disturbed it by insulting Frenchmen whom they chanced to meet in the streets. One day Poussin was returning to his lodgings with his portfolio under his arm, in company with two of his countrymen, when they met at the Quattro Fontane, near Monte Cavallo, some soldiers who inmediately drew their swords and ran upon Poussin and his companions. The latter ran away, leaving Poussin to deal with the assailants; he parried their blows by means of his portfolio; but did not escape so well, but that he received a blow upon his right hand between the first and middle finger, and if the sword had not luckily been turned aside, a great misfortune must have happened both to him and to painting. Poussin, however,

continued to defend himself valiantly although he was without arms, throwing stones as he retreated, until the passengers taking his part, he made good his escape to his lodgings. From this time Poussin thought it prudent to lay aside his French attire, which then differed from the Italian, and to adopt the latter; and he never again resumed the costume of his native land.

About this period Poussin was attacked with a malady which, during some days, exposed his life to danger; but in this, as in the other events of his hitherto chequered career, he was not abandoned by Providence; he was visited in his sufferings by a countryman named Jacques Dughet, who was cook to the Roman senator. This kind-hearted man caused the poor artist to be removed to his own house, and recommended him to the attentions of his wife and children, who, entering fully into the spirit of benevolence which had prompted this kind action, watched over him, nursed him, and consoled him with their friendship. Poussin felt so much grateful affection for this family, that, when he recovered, he desired to become one of its members. He sought and obtained one of Dughet's daughters in marriage, and the ceremony was performed in the year 1629, on the day of St. Luke, the patron saint of painters. The marriage-portion of his wife furnished Poussin with the means of purchasing a small house on the Trinita de' Monti, formerly the Pincian-hill, a situation admirably adapted for painters, commanding as it did the finest views of Rome. Although this was a marriage of affection, which lasted until it was dissolved by death, it was also one of prudence, for Poussin was thereby secured against want and the mental inquietudes consequent on an insufficient income, so that he could henceforth devote himself entirely to the study and exercise of his art. His wife brought him no children, but he adopted one of her brothers and taught him his art; this was Gaspar Dughet, afterwards celebrated as Gaspar Poussin, Nicholas having conferred on him his own name and his talent for landscape-painting.

On the return of the Cardinal Barberini to Rome, Poussin was recompensed for the sufferings he had endured in his absence. The cardinal gave him commissions for a number of pictures chiefly on subjects chosen from the Scriptures. Poussin also painted for him his celebrated picture of the "Death of Germanicus," and the "Taking of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus."

He also executed a number of designs after the most beautiful monuments of antiquity for the Cavaliere del Pozzo. This gentleman had been employed by the Barberini family to superintend the excavations and discoveries they were engaged in at Palestrina. Through his means Poussin obtained permission to study in the Barberini Museum, which contained some of the finest specimens of ancient art, as well as a choice collection of pictures, many of which have since found their way to England. Gems, cameos, and statues abounded in that rich gallery, which, among other things, possessed the beautiful vase now in the British Museum, and known as the Portland Vase.

Through the means of Del Pozzo, Poussin first became acquainted with the writings of Leonardo de Vinci, and was engaged to decipher those difficult manuscripts. The publication of that great man's Art of Painting, is due to Poussin, who made a number of designs illustrative of the theory of the author. The kind friendship of Del Pozzo, and the patronage of Cardinal Barberini, procured for Poussin the honourable commission of painting one of the great pictures which was to be executed in mosaic in the church of St. Peter. This picture, representing "The Martyrdom of St. Erasmus," is one of the master-pieces of Poussin, and the only performance to which he has attached his name; and the motive for doing so in this instance was thus modestly expressed by him, "lest any one should igno

rantly attribute this feeble work to the great masters who had already adorned that splendid building with their master-pieces."

About this time, also, Poussin painted for the Marquis del Pozzo, of Turin, "The Passage of the Red Sea," and "The Setting up of the Golden Calf in the Wilderness." The "Striking of the Rock," was a gift of friendship to Jacques Stella, his pupil, one of those who most nearly approached his manner.

Poussin was not wanting in gratitude to the Cavaliere del Pozzo, his generous protector. He painted for him a number of pictures, among which was the first and smallest series of "The Seven Sacraments;" now in the possession of the Duke of Rutland at Belvoir Castle, but one of them was unfortunately destroyed in the fire which occurred there in the year 1816.

We have now arrived at that part of the life of Poussin when he had attained happiness and tranquillity. Enjoying the esteem of all who knew him, his increasing celebrity neither prompted his ambition nor multiplied his wants; he devoted himself to the execution of a vast number of subjects, of which even a list would exceed the limits of this article.

As the fame of Poussin extended over Europe, his own country was jealous at being indebted to Italy for the developement of his talents, and wished to share in the light and lustre which the works of her exiled son cast around him. The Cardinal de Richelieu had long desired to see the arts again flourish in France, and by his advice the king had sanctioned the vast plan, (which it was reserved to a subsequent age fully to realize,) or completing the Louvre, adorning the great gallery, and restoring the Palace of Fontainebleau and other royal residences.

The exalted talents of Poussin, the propriety of his conduct, and the moderation of his character, naturally indicated him as the leader of such an enterprise; and accordingly in the year 1639, he was invited to Paris. Poussin, however, was slow to accept the invitation; he called to mind the hardships he had suffered in France; he knew how to appreciate the levity of his countrymen, and the promises of the great; and besides, he had become acclimatized in Italy; he was beloved by his wife, cherished by his friends, honoured by amateurs of art, and respected by his rivals: he feared to risk his reputa tion and his happiness in another land. During two years he resisted the repeated invitations of Louis the Thirteenth, the requests of his powerful minister, and the enthusiasm of his countrymen. At length when all other means had failed, M. de Chanteloup, one of the royal household, was sent to Rome to exert his influence among the friends of our artist to persuade him to ac cept the royal invitation. This gentleman, who was a great lover of painting, no sooner saw the series of the Sacraments belonging to the Cavaliere del Pozzo, than he requested Poussin to procure their owner's permission to have them copied, leaving the choice of the artist to Poussin if he would not undertake to do it himself. Del Pozzo, however, was unwilling to trust them to another artist, and Poussin preferred painting a new series to copying his own compositions. He did not execute this work, however, till some years afterwards, when he produced a new series different in design from the former.

Poussin at length yielding to the solicitations of his friends, consented to accompany M. de Chanteloup to the French court, and towards the end of the year 1640, he set out, taking with him a younger brother of his wife's, John Dughet, as his secretary, leaving his family and affairs under the especial care of the Cavaliere del Pozzo.

Poussin's reception at the French court will be most interesting to the reader, if conveyed in his own words in a letter addressed to the Cavaliere del Pozzo, within a few days after his arrival at Paris.

Full of confidence in the good will which you have always shown me, I think it my duty to give you an account of the fortunate success of my journey, as well as of my situation, and the place I inhabit, that you, my kind protector, may know where to lay your commands on me. My health was very good during the whole journey from Rome to Fontainebleau, where I was very honourably received in the palace by a nobleman deputed for that purpose by M. de Noyers; from thence I was taken to Paris in that minister's coach, and had scarcely arrived when he came out to meet me, embraced me in a friendly manner, and showed very great pleasure at seeing me in France. At night I was conducted by his orders to the place he had destined for my apartment; it is a little palace, for so it may be called, in the midst of the garden of the Tuilleries, containing nine chambers on three stories, without reckoning the ground floor, which consists of a kitchen, a porter's lodge, a hall, and three convenient rooms for domestic purposes. There is, besides, a beautiful and spacious garden, planted with fruit trees and vegetables of all kinds, a pretty plot of flowers, three little fountains, a well, a very handsome court, and a stable. I have a beautiful view from my windows, and I can imagine that in summer this retreat must be a perfect paradise. I found the centre apartment furnished nobly, and all necessary provisions laid in, even to fire wood, and a cask of old wine. For three days my friends and I were entertained at the king's expense. The fourth day M. de Noyers presented me to the Cardinal, who took my hand, embraced me, and treated me with extraordinary condescension. A few days afterwards, I was taken to St. Germains, where M. de Noyers was to have presented me to the king; but M. de Noyers being indisposed, I was not introduced till the next day, when M. le Grand, one of the court favourites, presented me. The good and gracious prince deigned to caress me, and asked me a great many questions during the half hour he kept me with him; after which, turning round to the court, he said, 'I think we have taken in Vouet,' and then he ordered me to paint the great pictures for his chapel of Fontainebleau and St. Germains. When I went home they brought me two thousand crowns in gold, in a handsome blue velvet purse. One thousand for my salary, and one thousand for my journey, without reckoning my expenses. And, indeed, money is very necessary in this country where every thing is extremely dear.

I have now turned my thoughts upon the works I am to execute; they are pictures, cartoons for tapestry, and many other things. I shall have the honour of sending you a specimen of my first labours as a tribute of gratitude, and as soon as my packages arrive, and I am relieved from uneasiness on account of them, I hope to portion my time in such a manner as to employ a part of it in the service of your brother the Chevalier.

I recommend my little household interests to your care, since you deign to take charge of them during my absence, which shall not be long if I can help it. I beseech you, since you are born to be kind to me, to bear, with your usual generous patience, the trouble I must give you, and to content yourself in return with my entire affection. May the Lord grant you a long and happy life. As to me, with all the respect of which I am capable, I remain, &c.,

Paris, Jan. 6th, 1641.

POUSSIN.

Another article will enable us to complete this memoir of Poussin. We conclude the present notice with a short account of the picture from which our frontispiece is taken.

Poussin painted two pictures on the subject of the "Arcadian Shepherds." One is in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire. In this picture the thought has been highly and justly praised. Two Arcadian shepherds and a shepherdess are looking on the inscription on a tomb in the midst of an agreeable landscape. The inscription carries the moral; it is simply, I TOO DWELT IN ARCADIA.

In the second picture, (now in the Louvre,) from which our frontispiece is taken, the subject is differently treated. Here the tomb is in the middle of the picture, instead of the side as in the other. This is preferred by the French critics, and, perhaps, justly. The idea is the same, and the persons are only different in position.

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THE NIGHTINGALE, (Sylvia Euscinia.)
Beautiful Nightingale, who shall pourtray
All the varying turns of thy flowing lay!
And where is the lyre, whose chords shall reply
To the notes of thy changeful melody!
We may linger indeed, and listen to thee,
But the linked chain of thy harmony
It is not for mortal hands to unbind,
Nor the clue of thy mazy music to find.

Thy home is the wood on the echoing hill,
Or the verdant banks of the forest rill,
And soft as the south wind the branches among,
Thy plaintive lament goes floating along.

Minstrelsy of the Woods.

THE most celebrated of all birds, both in ancient and modern times, is the Nightingale. It is the Philomela of the ancients; that is, "the lover of darkness," from the habit of the bird to sing late in the evening and in the early morning hours, when other birds are at roost. One of the earliest notices of the nightingale is in the Odyssey.

As when the months are clad in flowery green, Sad Philomel in bowery shades unseen. Hesiod and Oppian notice the variety of its song, calling it the "various-voiced," or "various-throated" bird; Sophocles refers to its notes as affording an image of vociferous sorrow; and Virgil and Ovid attribute to them a plaintive character. Later poets describe the nightingale as lamenting and complaining, or giving way to despair.

of

All abandon'd to despair she sings

Her sorrows through the night.-THOMSON. Coleridge, however, does not admit that the character the song is melancholy. He says:

A melancholy bird? Oh! idle thought

In nature there is nothing melancholy.

But some night-wandering man, whose heart was pierced
With the remembrance of some grievous wrong,

Or slow distemper, or neglected love;

(And so, poor wretch! fill'd all things with himself,
And made all gentle sounds send back the tale
Of his own sorrow ;) he, and such as he,
First named these notes a melancholy strain,
And many a poet echoes the conceit.
We have learnt
A different lore: we may not thus profane
Nature's sweet voices, alway full of love
And joyance! 'Tis the merry nightingale
That crowds, and hurries, and precipitates,
With fast thick warble his delicious notes,
As he were fearful that an April night
Would be too short for him to utter forth
His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul
Of all its music!

The nightingale inhabits Europe from Italy and Spain in the south to Sweden in the north. It is also found in Siberia, and has been seen in some parts of Asia and Africa. It leaves the temperate countries of Europe as winter approaches, and retires into warmer regions. Sonnini has observed the arrival of nightingales in Lower Egypt during the autumn, has seen them during winter on the fresh and smiling plains of the Delta, and has also witnessed their passage in the islands of the

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