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phire family in beauty as gems. These contain an earth called by the Greek-derived name of glucina, from the sweetness of its salts. The metal of this earth had also been isolated by Wöhler, but its properties are first described by M. Debray, a pupil of M. Deville. It appears as a beautiful white metal, nearly as unalterable as aluminium itself, but with the curious property of being one-fifth lighter, its specific gravity being twice that of water. Lime has also now surrendered its constituent metal, calcium, in pure form, and it proves to be yellow like gold, but unfortunately as evanescent as it is beautiful. The action of the air alone is sufficient to corrode it into its natural calx, the well known earth, lime.

the properties which a metal may assume fancy already anticipates the music in which when fused into a solid mass. Even lead, some instrument whose vibrations shall ring when in fine division, will burn spontane- from aluminium bars shall take its part. ously in the air, and it is therefore not to Another metal not less curious than alumbe wondered at that in the pulverulent aluminium has followed in its wake. The emeinium of Wohler that chemist did not recog- rald and the beryl are varieties of the same nize those remarkable characteristics which mineral, rivalling all except perhaps the saphave thrown so much interest round the bars of this metal that have been produced by M. Deville, and exhibited so recently in Paris. Wöhler, indeed, had himself, previously to M. Deville, formed the metal in fused globules. But the method adopted by M. Deville, though in principle similar, was superior in details to Wohler's process. The metal, as thus obtained, possesses most curious and unexpected properties. Tin-white in color, it is unaffected by the air, and is less disposed to tarnish than silver itself. It is unattacked by any ordinary acid, except muriatic acid, which, and the alkalies, seem to be its only natural chemical enemies. It is very malleable, and when rolled and hammered becomes as hard as iron, a most invaluable property, possessed by no other metal in use. It is an admirable conductor of electricity, and slightly magnetic, like iron. It melts at a lower temperature than silver, so that it possesses all the most valuable properties required of a metal by the artisan. But its most singular property is its lightness. In this respect it stands above all other bodies of the metallic class that are in use. The lightest of these is zinc, which is seven times heavier than water; iron is nearly eight times, silver is ten and a half times, and gold nearly twenty times heavier than water, whereas aluminium is little more than twice and a half as heavy as that fluid, and consequently about a quarter of the weight of silver. An ounce therefore of this metal will go as far as four ounces of silver, or eight of gold. Its price per ounce is, however, at present that of gold, and hence about four times as dear, bulk for bulk, as silver. Doubtless neither commerce nor chemistry will rest till aluminium can be used for household no less than for philosophical purposes, and doubtless also for what may prove a most important application of it, the formation of light, hard, useful, and beautiful alloys with other metals. A bell formed of it would possess singular novelty. Its ring is the sharp clear note of glass, not the fuller tone of metal; one's

It is curious to see science thus working out, in its own way, and by lights of its own kindling, problems after the solution of which the alchemist groped in darkness, whose obscurity he increased and perpetuated, because he would retain for himself alone and for "the adepts," not for the world, the riches which he sought.

Like the miner, and unlike the metallurgist with whom we commenced, the alchemist delved in dark recesses after gold. He handled indeed metallic ores, but he touched not the living metal. It was only when that ore was brought to the light and into the furnace, that it assumed the real metallic shape; only when the fire of truth has tried it, and the advancement, intellectual no less than material, of the human race is the object to be won, is the transmutation of ignorance into knowledge effected, only then is the superstition of the miner corrected by the higher knowledge of the experienced and sagacious metallurgist.

The transmutations wrought by modern chemistry are as great in character, and, however different in kind, are far more important and useful in their result, than all that alchemy ever dreamed of; they are not the less complete because their character has been so correctly explained.

N. S. M.

148

From Fraser's Magazine.

THE LIFE AND WORKS OF GOETHE.* and Goethe, felt the tenderest sentiments totime, Frederika, the Sophia of the family, MR. G. H. LEWES has written a very good wards each other, and spent the happy hours and very interesting Life of Goethe. He has to which such feelings, in the undisturbed brought eminent qualifications to this task; seclusion of a rural home, may lead. As is for though he is an intense admirer of his common in such histories, the matter was hero, and indeed may be ranked among the much more serious on the woman's than on Goethe-idolaters, he has acuteness, discrimi- the man's side. Goethe, though undoubtedly nation, and good sense. places Goethe at the head of modern poets, Yet he kept up a correspondence with her Hence, though he deeply touched, did not intend to marry. he freely allows that he is destitute of dra- after his return to Strasburg; and her mothmatic power. Though he has unbounded er, probably hoping to revive the dying flame, admiration for Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, took her to that city. Vain in such cases he condemns the Wanderjahre of the same the plans of mothers and the charms of daughpersonage as incoherent, ill-written, and even ters! Frederika's picturesque provincial cosdull. Though he admires Faust as the sum-tume, which had made her look like a woodmit of poetry, wisdom, and wit, he cannot nymph among the groves of Sesenheim,seemed give himself up to find in the wild dreams rustic and vulgar among the fashionable and fantastical assemblage of characters belles of Strasburg. which form the Second Part of Faust, the profound symbolism which throws some of more than ever a vanished vision. But, notShe left Strasburg, marriage with Goethe his countrymen into raptures. Though he withstanding-who would have wished it considers Goethe as a great man of science, otherwise if she did not?-she was true to as well as a great poet, he founds his claim him in heart. Eight years afterwards he on his views in osteology and botany, and again saw both her and another of his youthfrankly condemns those optical fancies which ful loves, Lili. Lili was married to a worthe author regarded as utterly subversive of thy, sensible fellow, rich, well placed in Newton's optical discoveries; and which the world," and was already a happy mothHegel, after his oracular fashion, has nounced to be infallibly true. With all these the slightest attempt, he says, to rekindle in But Frederika, though she made not admissions, however, it will be found that his bosom the cinders of love, and treated Mr. Lewes goes no small lengths in advocat-him only like an old acquaintance, never being the rightness and fitness of almost all come the wife of another. that Goethe did and said. That a biograShe who had pher should have this zealous feeling in favor of his subject, is of great use in making his work lively and significant, and is not otherwise than commendable kept within moderate bounds. if the feeling be We are not at all desirous of maintaining that Mr. Lewes has transgressed these bounds; but it may be allowed us, in the way of caution to those of our readers who may peruse this work (which we by all means recommend them to do), to point out some of those passages where an impartial judge would perhaps doubt the justice of Mr. Lewes's conclusions. We take them at random, as they

come.

pro

All who feel an interest in German literature are familiar with the story of Goethe's youth-romance at Sesenheim. The brilliant young man, then residing at Strasburg for study, was taken by a fellow-student to visit the pastor of Sesenheim; whom, with his two daughters, he forthwith determined to be an exact revival of the Vicar of Wakefield, Olivia, and Sophia. In a very short

*The Life and Works of Goethe, with Sketches of his Age and Contemporaries, from published and unpublished Sources. By G. H. LEWES, Author of the Biographical History of Philosophy. Two vols. 8vo. London; David

Nutt. 1855.

er.

loved Goethe, she said afterwards, could not entertain any inferior affection. It is only justice to Goethe, to remark that he appears to have been much comforted and relieved, as every man of kindly nature must have been, at this condonation on the part of one whom he knew that he had injured.

what we are to think of Goethe, with referBut a question which naturally arises is, ence to this passage of his life; or rather, what Mr. G. H. Lewes would have us think. In his remarks on this subject (1. p. 144) he says, in his impetuous way,suppose the reader a dupe to the cant about "I will not 'falsehood to genius."" And yet his own precisely to this: that if Goethe had marexcuse or explanation of this matter amounts ried Frederika, he would have been false to his genius; which he illustrates further, by arguing that "there is an antagonism between domesticity and genius." Happily, we have only, in this country, to enumerate the greatest names of our own times to see how baseless is this plea. What does Mr. Lewes say to the antagonism of domesticity Wordsworth, Crabbe? not to mention the and genius in the cases of Scott, Southey, greatest poets, historians, zoologists, chem1sts, astronomers, mathematicians, now living among us, whose names crowd upon us

in rich profusion. Cant, indeed! - the talk | a curious part of the work in which a loveof this antagonism of genius and domesti- passage between husband and wife is made a city.

very improper proceeding, and is represented as something of which they are and ought to be thoroughly ashamed; while their two friends, whose love is not degraded by human ties, are proud of their happiness; and this husband and wife, it may be added, are persons who have made a marriage of affection, after having been, each of them, united to another in a marriage of convenience. Probably those who recollect how many similar passages there are in Goethe's writings, will not wonder at the charge of immorality being made by English readers.

To go on to another of Goethe's relations to women-his connection with Christiane Vulpius, who afterwards became his wife, long after she had borne him a son. He was married to her, as has often been said, during the cannonade of the battle of Jena; a statement which Mr. Lewes, with laudable accuracy, contradicts, seeing that the mar riage took place five days after the battle. As to this connection, though Mr. Lewes allows that it gave great offence, and raised a great scandal at Weimar, he still holds that there was, even from the first, a bright side There is one other of the charges made of this dark episode, of which, indeed, we against Goethe which also excites Mr. Lewes' dare not mention all the dark shades. "It indignation: he is accused of being irregave him the joys of paternity, for which ligious. Here again we doubt whether the his heart yearned. It gave him a faithful usual defence will produce general convicand devoted affection. It gave him one to tion. For if irreverent phrases are used by look after his domestic existence, and it gave the poet, it is no sufficient reply to say that him a peace in that existence which hitherto they are put in the mouths of irreverent he had sought in vain." And in his title to characters. Profanity is not, any more than this chapter, he points out this account of pruriency, excused by its dramatic propriety. the matter as an inquiry, "How far a poet The very presentation of such thoughts to is justified in disregarding the conventional the mind is a moral injury; and a religious proprieties of his age?" and pure-minded writer will not use their Mr. Lewes is very indignant with those language, whatever be the excuse. We will who have spoken of Goethe as an immoral not dwell upon this subject any further than writer. But it is not likely that readers in to remark, that Mr. Lewes' own account of this country will cease to think that concubi-Goethe's belief in the closing period of his nage is an immoral practice; and even that life, will appear to many persons reason the familiar introduction of it into works of enough why he cannot be reckoned a Chrisfiction, without any note of repugnance or tian or a religious man, in any ordinary condemnation, is a mode of writing unfavor- sense of the term. Faust, in the Second able to morality. The admirers of "objec- Part of that drama, where he is drawing tive" poetry will tell us that it is not the near his end, says (Mr. Lewes is the transpoet's business to condemn. But to this we lator), II. 434: "Now I take things wisely reply, that however "objective" a poet may and soberly; I know enough of this life, and be, it is his business not to dwell upon vice of the world to come we have no clear prosand unregulated passion as a familiar mat-pect. A fool is he who directs his blinking ter-of-course thing. Shakespeare does not do so. The impetuous love of Romeo and Juliet is accompanied by the moralizing voice, in order that it may have our sympathy: "For by your leaves you shall not stay alone, Till holy church incoporate two in one." Goethe, on the contrary, appears to dwell with complacent alacrity upon such connections, and even invents them in spite of history. He knew, as Mr. Lewes allows, that Egmont had a wife and children; yet even in describing the events which led to his execution, he omits all mention of them, and gives us numerous and elaborate scenes with a mistress. In Wilhelm Meister, the rich young merchant is represented as living with an actress; and the details given of their ménage are curiously minute. In the Electire Affinities not only are such arrangements introduced as matters of course, but there is

eyes that way, and imagines creatures like himself above the clouds! Let him stand firm, and look around him here: the world

is not dumb to the man of real sense. What need is there for him to sweep eternity? All he can know lies within his grasp." "These concluding words," Mr. Lewes adds, contain Goethe's own philosophy."

66

But for our own parts, we confess we are not prepared to press these words so far as Mr. Lewes does, into evidence of Goethe's own opinions. The Philosophy of Life is so obscure a theme, that a poet may well be allowed the privilege of making dramatic experiments in his reflections on that subject. And in like manner, we may say that the Philosophy of Nature is so dark and ambiguous in its general aspect, that we must not readily condemn any view as irreligious, because it differs from those to which we have been accustomed. We would apply this re

This is Mr. Hughes' comment on the affair

"Of Nelson's three great victories, two are distinctly opposed to the theories of modern tacticians; and yet one of those victories prevented a hostile combination, the other extinguished an invasion.

line-of-battle ship, at an unarmed and defenceless
yacht. At Hango they showed us how Russian at Sweaborg :
soldiers could fight, and here they showed us
how Russian gunners and seamen could shoot:
and preciously they did shoot! their round shot
went roaring dismally overhead and fell far
beyond us in the sea; the shell came curvetting
towards us, their lighted fuzes sparkling in the
dusk, and fell harmlessly fizzing, far away under
our lee; one only burst near us, and two at the
very muzzles of their own guns.

"We could not help laughing with delight to see their abortive and ungenerous missiles plunged stupidly, one after the other, into the hissing waves.

"The naval service is and must be essentially a service of enterprise and daring, and to such a service two cautious victories are more prejudicial than a glorious defeat.

"At present it seems a maxim that no enterprise should be undertaken which incurs a chance of loss or a probability of failure: those principles may be well enough in commercial eyes, but it is not thus that Cochrane, and Hamilton, and Willoughby, and Nelson, and Ex-.

"We held our course without alteration for perhaps ten minutes. Mr. Lodge kindly kept the lead going, and I took care of the helm: our high topsail, shining white as fairies' petti-mouth fought. coats in the sunset, was a capital mark; but they never succeeded in hitting us, or even throwing a shot decently near. As we approached Laghara, the last shot from Bakholm, thrown by a gun of enormous range, flew far over us, and this noisy display of puerile and unmanly rage came to an end.

"On Sunday evening, an English yacht, the Pandora, with a party of amateurs, amongst whom was a lady on board, happened to get within range of the enemy's guns, which fired eighteen shots at her, but fortunately they all missed.'

"On the evening of the 12th, the Wee Pet yacht, with some officers of the Cossack on board, and Prince Leiningen among them, much to the annoyance of the Admiral, stood in towards the forts about nine, and had a regular brisk fire opened upon her with red-hot shot and shell, and bursting and hitting near her without any results.'

"The former of these paragraphs is by the ingenious little gentleman in the Daily News, who has already afforded us some diversion. I must do him the justice to say that there is not one word of sober truth in his whole letter from beginning to end.

The latter paragraph is by another various correspondent' of the same paper, who mistakes the Eolus for a collier, and the Tourville for a transport.

"If the officers, the amateurs, the Prince, and the young lady, were as ambitious of appearing without good reason in the newspapers as some people seem to be, they would doubtless feel greatly obliged to these gentlemen for their condescending notice.

"The Pandora yacht, however, was not in any way concerned in this trifling affair. No officer of the Cossack, or of any other ship, was present; Prince Ernest was not on board; and most decidedly we were not blessed with the presence of a young lady.

"It will be seen that these gentlemen have made one or two mistakes; the worst mistake, however, consists in writing long letters to the public papers without taking the precaution to know anything of the facts they have attempted to record."

"As regards this particular enterprise, there can be no difficulty in admitting that if the ships had gone in, men, and perhaps ships, would have been sacrificed.

If they had gone crawling in, selon la règle, at about two knots an hour, in broad daylight, it is not difficult to perceive that the loss would have been heavy, though perhaps not out of proportion to the stake for which we were playing; for conceive the value to this country of a British victory in the Baltic, now that we have subsided into the second rank at Sebastopol.

"We are not, however, prepared to admit that the resources of a seaman could suggest no other expedient than this. It was ascertained that no artificial obstacles prevented the ships from approaching within five hundred yards of the batterics; and as regards natural obstacles, where Russian sailing-ships can go by day, British steam-ships should not fear to venture even by night. Men who are accustomed to ply in the darkest and most tempestuous seasons through intricate sands, without other assistance than the lead and a simple arrangement of lights, can easily understand that, commanding as we did all the outside islands which surround the approaches, we might have piloted our ships in by day or by night if we thought proper.

"The nights were dark enough for boats to sound every part of the channel in safety; and even in open day there was no great risk in doing so, and plenty of men ready and willing to undertake the task.

"On Thursday night, the enemy, probably engaged in quelling the fire, or perhaps disheartened by the disasters of the day, did not even fire upon the rocket-boats; and it is not difficult to imagine the panic and dismay which would have been created at that crisis by the blaze of five hundred guns and the explosion of their shells in the narrow limits of these islands, a considerable part of which was already on fire: add to this the uninterrupted fire of the 13-inch mortars from without and a large flotilla of gun and rocket boats closer in, and we can scarcely believe that such a shower of fire falling upon buildings already dried and heated by the neighboring conflagrations would have failed to burn the whole of them. We know from General De

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"Be this as it may, everything alive must have been driven under cover; and the fires, probably increased twofold, must have been permitted to revel ad libitum.

Berg's despatch how narrowly they escaped a still and little to become the mouth of a clergy-
more destructive explosion than any which ac- man.
tually occurred; and it seems at all events
But the real question is, whether such
probable that out of such a host of fiery pro- means would terminate the war more quickly;
jectiles some one ill-omened shell or rocket would in which case, the humanitarian method may
have forced his way into the very vitals of their really turn out the more sanguinary and cruel
magazines.
of the two. We are fighting with a power
which will not yield till she is forced; what-
ever tends to force her is justifiable on grounds
of mercy as well as policy, provided the means
taken are not such as to debase and degrade
the men employed to execute them. Where
any doubt on this point remains, certainly
the means should not be employed; and it
must be admitted that the morals of war are
not as clearly settled as they might be.

"As regards the other side of the question,
the ships would have encountered the risk of
being set on fire or sunk. But men of war were
not built to be looked at, and steam-vessels are
not like stone batteries, compelled through weal
or woe to stand fast forever and abide the issue
of the strife. A ship has in this respect immense
advantages if the fire is too hot for her she can
shift her berth; if she sees a weak position she
The volume concludes with some pleasantly
can assail it; if she sustain damage, she can written sketches of Stockholm, where the
retire out of action and allow a fresh ship to" Wee Pet" is laid up for her next summer's
supply her place. Add to this, that the glare of cruise.
the conflagration, while it afforded us a mark
which we could not miss, must have rendered all
distant objects black and invisible to the enemy.
"To do all these things in the dark among
the rocks, requires accurate knowledge of the
ground, a judicious and simple arrangement of
lights, and seamanship of a very high order. If
the thing had been attempted without these
essential elements, the whole enterprise would
have failed; half, perhaps all, the ships would
have gone ashore, and been knocked to pieces
next morning. On the other hand, I venture to
express my belief, that, with proper precautions
and by good seamanship, a great exploit might
have been performed, and imporant results would
have followed."

We quoted last week a passage by Mr. Hughes in the Cambridge Essays, recommending increased severity in our application of naval force to distress the enemy's coasts and mercantile population. Such advice may to some appear sanguinary and unchristian,

THE ADVENTURES OF THE CALIPH HAROUN AL-
RASCHID. Recounted by the Author of "Mary
Powell."

We hope Mr. Hughes may then see something that will repay him for his enterprise and pluck. Meanwhile, on the result of the policy or stupidity that controls our naval proceedings, this is the record of Mr. Hughes' observations in the countries he

visited.

find going on in England; would our countrymen
be aware that, even among our friends and kins-
men on the Continent, the decline of England's
and Government, is the topic of the day?
power, the inefficiency of England's Army, Navy,

"Mach also did we wonder what we should

"Would it have occurred to men's minds, that the paltry figure we have cut in the war is causing Swede and Dane and German to distrust the wooden walls, and to look to other quarters for a counterpoise to the great military power of Western Europe - that the name and fame of England, which cost so much to win, is oozing away from our ships, like Bob Acres's courage from the tips of his fingers ? ››

وو

consequently happens: the adventures which the reader knows already have no novelty; in those which are added he is startled or disappointed. Another cause of failure is the absence THERE is a falling-off in the interest of the Ca- of the Oriental mind and manner. The addition liph Haroun Alraschid, compared with this of historical matter to the adventures proper, so writer's previous tales; and the causes are va as to produce a kind of "life and times," has rious. Formerly, when sometimes dealing with necessitated rewriting the received adventures. known names, the heroes or heroines of the But uniformity of style is attained at the expense author of "Mary Powell" (except in the case of nature. The imitation is palpable, the Euroof Palissy the Potter) were persons of whom pean mind being continually visible. The young few or no particulars have been preserved; so Haroun and his boy friend Giafar, when introthat, while the reader felt an interest in the duced to each other by the Caliph, "promptly subject, there were no associations to be dis- embraced; and having eyed one another, they turbed by the necessary changes or interpola-clave unto one another from that time forth for tions of fiction. The Caliph Haroun Alraschid evermore" and afterwards we find them “tois the hero of Eastern romance, and as conspic-gether pouring out all their young thoughts." nous in history as Saladin himself, if the events This is not only English, but with a touch of the of his reign are more obscure. One of two things cant of sentiment. Spectator.

"

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