of the wires being brass, and others steel or iron, they have expanded unequally. Of all solid bodies known to the chemist, the metals are by far the most expansile and contractile; but every solid substance expands by heat in some degree or other, although we cannot ascertain it with such facility.

The metals are the most perfect conductors of heat that we know of*, and the reason why this tin cup does not crack when I suddenly fill it with boiling water, is because the heat is quickly conducted all over the tin, and it therefore expands equally inside and outside.

Earthy or stony bodies, either natural or artificial, are very bad conductors of heat, and so is glass. If I pour boiling water into a glass, it is almost sure to fly or crack, because the inside gets suddenly expanded, and the heat is not immediately conducted to the outside; so that the inside keeps getting bigger and bigger, and at last forces the glass to crack.

The thicker the glass, the more certain is this to happen, and therefore you generally see the thick bottoms of tumblers drop out when hot water is poured into them, because the heat is yet more slowly conducted through such a thick mass; but a very thin glass may be suddenly filled with boiling water, without cracking; such a glass as a Florence oil-flask, which, being exceedingly thin, conducts the heat quickly from the inside to the outside, both expand equally, and no crack takes place.

THE FACULTIES OF MAN. MAN is born with wonderful faculties into a wonderful world; and, as he journeys through this world, it is amazing what a mass of information he heaps together; how his active, able mind can gather in stores of knowledge from every side at every step.

He travels over his own globe, and marks the scenes and products of a hundred lands; the customs, deeds and tongues of a hundred nations. He explores the heights above and the depths below. Nothing is too small for his notice, nothing too great for his measurement. From the loftiest mountain that shoots into heaven, to the minutest flower that springs at his feet; from the huge animal that stalks through the forest, to the insect which finds its world on a leaf:-the fowl of the air, the fish of the water, each stone that exists, each plant that grows, each creature that moves-this immense and varied host does Man note, and examine, and name, and arrange in due class and order. Nay, spurning the limits of his own earth, winged by his instruments, he bounds over the vast space around, traverses the heavens in every direction, and makes acquaintance with worlds at distances too prodigious even for conception.

All this array of knowledge can man discover and grasp by his own faculties, his own independent exertions; by the activity of his own body, the sagacity of his own mind. And strongly does this display his astonishing powers. Look at the Infant;

Such are a few remarks about the expansion of solids by heat, and I shall next endeavour to show you the expansion of liquids by the same powerful agent.

creature! Look at the Man towering aloft in the might of his intellect ;—and what expansive faculties must they be, which have raised the helpless ignorance of the Babe to those heights of knowledge in the Man! The fact is, where man can bring his

THERE is something in the thought of being surrounded, even upon earth, by the Majesty on high, that gives a peculiar elevation and serenity of soul. To be assured in the loneliest hour of unknown or neglected sorrow, that every sigh ascends to the eternal Throne, and every secret prayer can be heard in Heaven; to feel that, in every act of conscious rectitude, the heart can appeal, amidst all the contradictions of sinners, to One who seeth not as man seeth, produces a peace which the world can never give. Feeling itself, like Enoch, walking with God, the heart perceives a spirituality and purity in every joy, a mercy and a balm in every sorrow, and, exalted above the intrusions of an intermeddling world, has its "conversation in heaven."-MATHEW.

OLD age is often querulous. It is one of its defects to be so; but let not this occasional weakness deceive you. You may be assured that naturally it has gratifications of its own, which fully balance those of earlier days, and which, if cultivated, would carry on the stream of happiness to its grave. If life has been rightly employed, it will also have the visioned recollection of its preceding comforts to enhance the pleasures which it is actually enjoying. My own experience in the sixty-seventh year of my age is, that notwithstanding. certain ailments and infirmities, and the privations they occasion, it is just as happy as all the preceding seasons were, though in a different way, so happy, as to cause no regret that they have passed, and no desire to exchange what is, for what has been. If youth has hopes, and prospects, and wishes, that enchant it, age has no inferiority even in this respect.-TURNER.

can see and finger can touch, there man can search, and detect, and comprehend, to a marvellous extent. So it is that the material world-this visible creation of earth below and heaven above-is more or less within man's knowledge.

But then, there is another world, and that world man's senses cannot reach, and there man's knowledge fails. It is a spiritual world, a world of things, which "eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard," and therefore "neither have they entered into the heart of man to conceive." There the mightiest in natural talents, the giant in earthly science, is again the ignorant, helpless babe. He may inquire, and imagine, and argue, and conjecture, but he works in the dark. He can never get one firm footing within the world invisible whereon to stay his anxious soul. That world lies on the map of his knowledge one huge void, which reason may plant with her possibilities, and fancy fill up with her figments; but of which he knows nothing, and can know nothing, in clear and certain truth. Earth and Time are within his observation; Heaven and Eternity are beyond his cognizance.

Here, then, is our position. We are hastening through the world we see into a world invisible and unknown. Meanwhile every thoughtful mind must be intensely To it death will speedily introduce us. anxious to learn something of this awful world soon to be our own world; so much at least as will enable us to do all we can to prepare for it. Whence can we gain this information?-Not from the vain inventions of the poet, nor yet from the speculations of the philosopher, dim and doubtful at the best. We must look to the mercy of the God, beneath whose eye this world of darkness to us lies clear as the noon-day. All sure knowledge of that world, must be a revelation from Him.--GIBSON.

ENGLISH LAKE SCENERY WORDSWORTH'S RESIDENCE AT RYDAL WATER. No portion of the British islands presents stronger claims on the attention of the topographer, or on the admiration of the lovers of the beautiful and sublime in landscape, than the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland. Let us take a hasty glance at the great features of this remarkable district, mountain and lake, with especial reference to a subject with which they are associated, and on which it confers the highest interest, the picturesque elysium where WORDSWORTH, "Nature's simple and unaffected bard," has fixed his residence, apart from the bustle

and turmoil of the world.

First, a word or two on the hills. Wordsworth, who has himself described the district with a poet's pen, eloquently observes that the forms of the mountains are endlessly diversified, sweeping easily or boldly in simple majesty, abrupt and precipitous, or soft and elegant. In magnitude and grandeur, they are individually inferior to the most celebrated of those in some other parts of this island; but in the combinations which they make, towering above each other, or lifting themselves in ridges like the waves of a tumultuous sea, and in the beauty and variety of their surfaces and their colours, they are surpassed by none.

The general surface of the mountains is turf, rendered rich and green by the moisture of the climate. In other places, rocks predominate; and the soil is laid bare by torrents and burstings of water from the sides of the mountains in heavy rains. The outline and colouring of these immense masses, formed as they are by one mountain overshadowing another, "are perpetually changed by the clouds and vapours which float round them: the effect, indeed, of mist or haze, in a country of this character, is like that of magic." Gilpin, in sketching the magnificent scenery of this district, says, "In many countries much grander scenes are exhibited than these, mountains more lofty, and lakes more extensive: yet it is probable there are few in which the several objects are better proportioned, and united with more beauty." The origin of the lake, which is the next striking feature of this interesting country, is thus described by the same ingenious writer :

Its magnificent and marble bed, formed in the caverns and deep recesses of rocky mountains, received originally the pure pellucid waters of some rushing torrent as it came first from the hand of nature, arrested its course till the spacious and splendid basin was filled brimful, and then discharged the stream, unsullied and undiminished, through some winding vale, to form other lakes, or increase the dignity of some imperial river.

Let us turn now from the general features of this "land of the mountain and the flood," to the subject more immediately under notice.

RYDAL LAKE is a small but beautiful sheet of water, in an amphitheatre of rocky mountains, about a mile and a half from Ambleside, on the road to Keswick. The surface of the lake is adorned by two wooded islets, which with the verdant meadow and hanging woods, that alternately environ the gracefully indented margin of the water, combine to render it an object of such beauty as immediately to fix the eye, notwithstanding the grandeur of the surrounding scenery. The little river Rotha, winding round a promontory, enters it on the north, and making its exit on the opposite side, falls into Winandermere. At the foot of Rydal Mount, on the right of the engraving, may be distinguished the home of Wordsworth, where he has resided for several years. Rydal Head, the summit of the mountain is of great height;

its frowning peaks are partially clothed with stunted bushes, and lower down, its sides are dotted with small white cottages, peering from amidst a thick coppice wood. The hills facing this lofty eminence are of less altitude, but they add not a little to the beauty of the landscape, from the diversity of their forms and tints.

The value of lake-scenery arises rather from the idea of magnificence, than of variety. The scene is not continually shifting here, as on the banks of a winding river. A quick succession of imagery is necessary in scenes of less grandeur, where little beauties are easily scanned; but one like this demands contemplation. The eye surveys with feelings of admiration and delight, the unruffled basin of this mountain "tarn," reflecting as from the surface of a mirror the varied colouring of the clouds, the light, and the surrounding hills; and every object in the more distant scenery is softened into a cerulean blue, blended with the deeper shades of the variegated woods, the reddish colour of the rocks, and the luxu riant green of the banks of the lake.

Lough-zigy Fell, a high ridge in the immediate neighbourhood of Rydalmere, towers above the surrounding mountains, and many of the adjacent lakes and waters may be seen from its summit.

On a rising lawn to the south of Rydal Head, which rises close behind the house, stands Rydal Hall, the seat of the Rev. Sir Richard Fleming, Bart. On the north and east it is sheltered by lofty mountains; in front, the view towards the south is exceedingly fine, comprising the extensive vale of Winandermere, bounded by that lake. The mountain on the east is covered with wood, and has a picturesque effect. Between Rydal Head and this mountain runs a narrow wooded valley, through which a considerable stream, falling down a quick descent, along a rocky channel, forms a succession of pleasing cascades.

On

A very curious phenomenon observable upon some of these mountains, which is called in the country a helm wind, will sometimes arise so suddenly, and with such extreme violence, that nothing can withstand its force. The experienced mountaineer, as he traverses these wild regions, foreseeing its approach, throws himself flat upon the ground, like the Arabian at the approach of the "simoom," and lets it pass over him. Its rage, however, is only momentary, and the air instantly settles into its former state of calm. Cross Fell, a lofty mountain on the borders of Cumberland, it is by no means of rare occurrence, and the blast seems to proceed from a cap or dense cloud which rests on the summit of the mountain. The lakes are subject to something of a similar kind of emotion, which the inhabitants of the country call a bottom wind. Often during a perfect calm, a violent ebullition of the water, which is forced upwards by some internal convulsion, will suddenly take place, and present the agitation of a storm. As soon, however, as the confined air has spent its force, the convulsed surface immediately subsides, and dies away in lessening circles. Basingthwaite Water is said to be frequently liable to this singular phenomenon.

Amongst the most celebrated mountains of the lake district, may be enumerated Helvellin, stretching near a league and a half in one vast concave ridge, its lofty summit towering to the height of 3313 feet; Cross Fell, which is considered by some to be still higher, being according to Jameson, 3383 feet above the level of the ocean; Skiddaw, Scaffel-Peak, and Bontomand, are scarcely inferior in altitude.

The celebrated pass, known by the name of “ Dunmail- Raise," which divides the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, is at no great distance from

Rydal water, and presents a scene of the most sublime character. Dunmail-Raise, which gives its name to the pass, is a rude monument, consisting of a monstrous pile of stones, heaped on each side of an earthen mound, and appears to be little known. Gilpin says it was probably intended to mark a division between the kingdoms of England and Scotland, in the old time, when the Scottish border extended beyond its present bounds. It is said, this division was made by a Saxon prince, on the death of Dunmail, the last king of Cumberland, who was here slain in battle. But for whatever purpose the rude pile was fabricated, it has yet suffered little change in its dimensions, and is one of those monuments of antiquity which may be best characterized by the scriptural phrase of "remaining to this very day."

WORDSWORTH, the founder of what has been styled the "Lake School of Poetry," whose genius has cast such a halo over Rydal, and its adjacent scenery, is a native of Cockermouth, in Cumberland. He was born in 1770, and is now in his sixtyseventh year. In 1803, he settled at Grasmere, in the immediate neighbourhood of his present residence, to which he next removed. In the same year, he married a Miss Mary Hutchinson, of Penrith, by whom he has several children.

The simple yet majestic beauty which pervades so great a portion of Wordsworth's poetry, is now universally acknowledged, and has been thus ably described:

There is a lofty philosophic tone, a thoughtful humanity, infused into his pastoral vein. Remote from the passions and events of the great world, he has communicated interest and dignity to the primal movements of the heart of man, and engrafted his own conscious reflections on the casual thoughts of hinds and shepherds. Nursed amidst the grandeur of mountain-scenery, he has stooped to have a nearer view of the daisy under his feet, or plucked a branch of white-thorn from the spray; but in describing it, his mind seems imbued with the majesty and solemnity of the objects round him,-the tall rock lifts its head in the erectness of his spirits; the cataract roars in the sound of his

verse; and in its dim and mysterious meaning, the mists seem to gather in the hollow of Helvellyn, and the forked Skiddaw hovers in the distance. There is little mention of mountainous scenery in Mr. Wordsworth's poetry; but by internal evidence one might be almost sure that it was written in a mountainous country, from its bareness, its simplicity, its loftiness, and its depth!

BLACK COMB.

THIS height a ministering angel might select:
For from the summit of Black Comb (dread name,
Derived from clouds and storms!) the amplest range
Of unobstructed prospect may be seen
That British ground commands:-low dusky tracts,
Where Trent is nursed, far southward! Cambrian hills
To the south-west, a multitudinous show;
And, in a line of eye-sight linked with these,
The hoary peaks of Scotland that give birth
To Tiviot's stream, to Annan, Tweed, and Clyde-
Crowding the quarter whence the sun comes forth
Gigantic mountains rough with crags; beneath,
Right at the imperial station's western base
Main ocean, breaking audibly, and stretched
Far into silent regions blue and pale ;-
And visibly engirding Mona's Isle
That, as we left the plain, before our sight
Stood like a lofty mount, uplifting slowly
(Above the convex of the watery globe)
Into clear view the cultured fields that streak
Her habitable shores; but now appears
A dwindled object, and submits to lie
At the spectator's feet.-Yon azure ridge,
Is it a perishable cloud? Or there

Do we behold the line of Erin's coast?
Land sometimes by the roving shepherd swain
(Like the bright confines of another world)
Not doubtfully perceived.-Look homeward now!
In depth, in height, in circuit, how serene
The spectacle, how pure !-Of Nature's works,
In earth, and air, and earth-embracing sea,
A revelation infinite it seems;

Display august of man's inheritance,

Of Britain's calm felicity and power!-WORDSWORTH. Black Comb stands at the southern extremity of Cumberland: its base covers a much greater extent of ground than any other mountain in those parts; and, from its situation, the summit commands a more extensive view than any other point in Britain

urung bus stew laby

Magazine.

15, 1837.

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