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The Rev. Peter Akers, D. D., has completed a work on Scripture Chronology, which is about to be published by Swormstedt & Poe, Cincinnati. It will make an octavo volume, and is said by those who have examined the manuscript to throw some new light on the important subject of which it treats. Dr. Akers contends, with some European critics, that the Christian Sunday is the day of the original Sabbath. His work has employed his studies for years.

We have lately referred to the Educational Exhibition, got up in England, under the auspices of Prince Albert. It was attended with a course of lectures, among which was an extraordinary one by Cardinal Wiseman, on "The Home Education of the Poor." Taking his illustration from France, he gave an account of the recent proceedings of the government of France in reference to the popular literature of that country. He explained (according to the reporter of the Times) how it had been carried on for three hundred years by colportage-how annually from eight to nine million volumes, varying in price from one cent to twenty, had been thus distributed-how little, in the lapse of ages, this literature had changed or been improved-and how, at length, the government of the present emperor had resolved to inquire into the character of the works thus circulated, with the view of prohibiting such as it considered noxious or foolish. On the 30th of November, 1852, a commission had been appointed, and, in consequence, the colporteur was required to have a stamp of permission on every book that he sold. The publishers had also been invited to send in their publications to be examined, and approved or rejected. The number of works in consequence submitted had been seven thousand five hundred; and of them three-fourths had been refused permission to be put in circulation. He asked the meeting to imagine, with such a result, the state of the literature infecting every cottage in France, not for five, ten, or twenty, but for the last three hundred years. Many of these books were filled with superstitions, and the exploded fallacies of astrology were still preserved in them as scientific truths. A great void had been created by the withdrawal of these works,-and the question had arisen, how that was to be filled up? The government had at first trusted to the exigency of the demand for a supply; and subsequently, finding that it did not come, had entertained the proposition of instigating men of real genius to prepare works on history, on agriculture, on elementary chemistry, and on other suitable subjects; but it had been considered dangerous thus to enter on a competition with the ordinary book trade, and the matter was still under consideration. This disclosure

of the extent of colportage in France is quite surprising. Our own country is fast imitating the example.

Madame George Sand's "History of her Life" is about to be published in one of the principal Paris newspapers. It is to fill altogether five volumes. It is of course expected with the liveliest interest, and if it imitate the frankness of Rousseau's "Confessions," will, from the genius and the adventurous career of the

authoress, be one of the most extraordinary works in existence. The newspaper proprietors esteem its popularity so highly, that they have paid Madame Sand $20,000 for the copyright.

Price of Books among the Ancients.-What an immense reduction has been made in the price of books by the invention of the art of printing! It is recorded of Plato, that although his paternal inheritance was small, he bought three books of Philolaus the Pythagorean for ten thousand denarii, nearly $1500. We are also informed that Aristotle bought a few books belonging to Speucippus, the philosopher, for three Attic talents, a sum equivalent to about $2800. St. Jerome also ruined himself by purchasing the works of Origen.

Literary Labor.-The American author, Alcott, has written one hundred volumes, Wesley wrote thirty octavo volumes, Baxter wrote several hundred volumes, and Lopez de Vega, the Spanish poet, published twenty-one million three hundred thousand lines, which are equal to more than two thousand six hundred and sixty volumes as large as Milton's Paradise Lost! Lopez de Vega was the most voluminous of writers. But it is not the quantity so much as the qual

ity of literary matter that insures immortality; for long after the millions of Lopez de Vega's lines are buried in oblivion, the few simple verses of Gray's Elegy will live to delight mankind.

Wisconsin has a school fund of one million dollars, and lands which, when sold, will increase it to five million dollars. There are three thousand school districts in the state; one hundred and five thousand and eighty-two dollars were expended last year for teachers' wages. During 1853, the number of children in the state between the ages of five and twenty years, was one hundred and thirty-five thousand five hundred, of whom one hundred and eight thousand three hundred, or nearly four-fifths, attended school. Five years ago, of seventy thousand five hundred and sixty-seven children, only thirtytwo thousand one hundred and seventy-four, or less than one-half, attended school.

Alabama.-The legislature of this state has recently passed an act "to establish and maintain a system of free public schools," and has appropriated two hundred and forty thousand dollars annually for that purpose.

Texas has established a permanent school fund of two million of dollars.

There are in the United States about sixty thousand common schools, which are supported at an annual expense of nearly six million dollars; more than half of which is expended by the states of New-York and Massachusetts.

two hundred and fifty-one to one hundred and By a recent vote of the House of Commons, sixty-one, Dissenters are admitted to study at the University of Oxford. The motion was merely to the effect that no oaths or subscriptions be necessary, except the oath of allegiance, to any person matriculated at the University. The difficulties in the way of graduating, however, are not yet entirely removed, as the oaths and subscriptions to the thirty-nine articles are not dispensed with.

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Great Invention in Printing-The Telegraph-Erics | far as Alexandria, in order from that point to
son's Caloric Engine Flowers - New Reaping reach India and Australia; and thus shall
Machine-Didron-Artificial Quinine.
Shakspeare's Ariel fulfill his promised feats.

ONE of the most important announcements since our last bulletin of scientific news, is

Our transatlantic papers report an interesting discovery-interesting not only to our fair readers, but to men of science-by a distinguished artiste in flower-painting, Madame Leprince de Beaufort, for preserving flowers. By her art, not only flowers, but trees, can be embalmed; the tree remains always green, and the flower retains its color and brilliancy: the process is instantaneous. Thanks to this discovery, the ladies can always have real flowers for their bonnets and coiffeurs, and also for the vases in their appartements; but what will become of the poor artistes in artificial flowers?

While announcing these important movements onward, we regret to say that the sanfrom Paris. It promises a revolution in print-guine announcements of the New-York press reing. This marvelous discovery, as our Eu- specting Mr. Ericsson's caloric engine have failed. ropean papers pronounce it, is nothing less than The apparatus has been finally abandoned, and the power of producing, instantaneously, copies is to be taken out of the ship bearing his name, of engravings, lithographs, and printed pages, steam-boilers being substituted. From the bewith such minute exactitude that the most ginning this result has been foreseen by pracsearching investigation, even by a microscope, tical and scientific men, notwithstanding the cannot distinguish them from the originals. alleged complete success of the experiment. The modus operandi is not described, and is, in fact, it is stated, kept a profound secret by the inventor, who is a M. Boyer, of Nismes; but it seems to resemble the operation of lithography. As a specimen of his art, M. Boyer is represented to have produced, in less than a quarter of an hour, a reproduction of a sheet containing, first, a page of a Latin book, published in 1625; second, a design from the "Illustrated London News," of April, 1854; third, a page from a recently printed biography; fourth, a page of a book printed in 1503; fifth, an engraving of the façade of a palace; sixth, a specimen of gothic characters. All these were, it is alleged, imitated with such extraordinary minuteness, that neither the eye nor the microscope could detect the difference of a letter, a line, or a spot, between them and the originals. A great number of copies can, we are told, be struck off from the stone employed, and the expense is alleged to be extremely small, fifty per cent. at least for printed works, and more for engravings. If there be no exaggeration in what is stated, M. Boyer's discovery will effect an extraordinary revolution in the printing and engraving professions with it neither print nor book can possibly be protected from piracy. It is not denied that he has already produced fac-similes of rare old engravings and books.

We have heretofore referred to the prospect of a submarine telegraph from this country to Europe. This great instrument is to be still further extended in the old world. It has lately been announced in one of the leading French papers, that after a serious study of the matter, a convention, in which the different powers interested have taken part, has been concluded for the establishment of an electrical communication which will unite the European continent with Algeria by crossing the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. The submarine telegraph from England to France is to be continued by land, and after crossing Nice and Genoa, will reach Spezzia, at the bottom of the gulf of that name. The new line will start from that point, and after crossing the island of Corsica, will pass by Sardinia to the coast of Algeria, near Bona. From that place, if it be thought necessary, it will be continued as far as the Regency of Tunis. The works necessary for the accomplishment of the first part of this plan will be completed in two years from the date of the promulgation of the law. At that time the line will be prolonged by the shore of the Mediterranean in Africa as

It is claimed, with a great flourish of trumpets, that a Frenchman has recently succeeded in perfecting what the English and Americans have so long sought to perfect, and failed-a reaping-machine. In two hours and a quarter this machine, it is said, cut two acres of wheat, with only one horse and three servants; it did not leave a straw behind; it gathered them all in bundles, and left them on the ground ready to be tied. With a relay horse they can cut ten acres per day-the work of ten cradlers and a multitude of reapers! It is also said that eight other reapers of French invention, and a quantity of thrashers, will figure at the Paris Exhibition in competition with those which may be brought from abroad. Harvest hands were scarce, this year, in France, on account of the extensive recruitments for the war, and the preparations for war, and an impetus has therefore been given to labor-saving inventions, which it is to be hoped will not be subject to reaction.

M. Didron, the author of the "Iconographie
Chrétienne," has been authorized by the French
Minister of Public Instruction to proceed to
Italy, in order to study the ancient Christian
monuments of that country which have relation
Ravenna, Venice, and Milan.
to his subject. He is to visit Rome, Florence,
Two draughts-

men have been appointed to accompany him.

Two manufacturing chemists have presented to the French Academy of Science sealed papers, each containing a specimen of artificial quinine, which they had made by different processes. The pathological qualities of the substance are to be tested, and if they are found satisfactory, the discovery is certainly important. It will obviate the necessity of importing the bark of the cinchona-trees, from which alone has the great tonic, thus far, been extracted.

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SCULPTOR.

"HOW

W palpable," says a late writer, (Rev. H. W. Bellows,) "the profound design entertained by Providence, of awakening and educating man's soul through the necessity under which he lies of subduing and regulating the material world." And in this adaptation of the outer world to the inner and higher wants of man, he well remarks, 66 we behold the grandest and most glorious proof of the being of that God, that wonderful designer, whose plan, as it opens, shows an infinite forecast-and of the VOL. V.-36

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commands to discover and subjugate them -the cloudy steam, the fugitive electricity, the expansive gas, new esculents, new medicinal elements-so the ductile metal, the finely veined wood, and the yielding marble are all as direct intimations of the divine will and purpose. In the mind God has implanted the restless urgency to realize, in beautiful forms, the spiritual ideas that rise into life within its pregnant bosom a craving more powerful than the cry for bread, and even conquering the strong natural instinct for rest and for life. And he has himself provided the unapproachable paradigms, which ever inspire and excite the human powers to their utmost ability. A beckoning hand, and a spiritual voice whispering excelsior, ever invite the reverent imagination to a higher conception, and the cunning fingers to a more delicate execution. The world is hung with pictures, adorned with statuary, and piled up in sublime forms of architecture. The great Sovereign of the universe is evidently worshiped and glorified as truly in an effort to develop and cultivate the imagination, as in the toils of daily labor and the investigations of science; and the work may be as devout. Sir Godfrey Kneller was accustomed to say: "When I paint, I consider it as one way, at least, of offering devotions to my Maker, by exercising the talent his goodness has graciously blessed me with;" and Francis I., when his noblemen expressed their surprise at his grief upon the death of Leonardo da Vinci, exclaimed: "I can make a nobleman; but God Almighty alone can make an artist." Indeed, the inspiration to accomplish these noble and beautiful results is ascribed in Holy Writ to the Almighty: "Then wrought every wise-hearted man in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding, to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary;" and in the disclosures of the "new heavens" and "new earth," the adornments of art are the chosen symbols of its glory: "Behold I will lay thy stones with fair colors and thy foundations with sapphires, and I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones."

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The effect of a true and pure work of art upon the mind of the beholder can but be wholesome and ennobling. "Though the cultivation of the taste," says the

author of the "Manual of the Fine Arts," "will not create moral principles in the mind where they do not exist, it is maintained that there is an affinity between the refinements of taste and the virtues of the soul; between the beautiful and the good. Heaven, the peculiar abode of holiness, is represented as a place of transcendent beauty and glory. And granting that the fine arts are utterly powerless to implant pure principles, still, if not abused, they will foster and expand them, and imbue them with a fine sensibility." The same author remarks with much propriety: "A cultivation of the taste, by a proper degree of attention to literature and the fine arts, elevates the mind above trivial cares and conventional jealousies, giving it a vigorous independence, and a fund of inexhaustible resources within itself." The increase of material wealth, with us, exhibits itself too often in the gratification of appetite or of the lower affections-in the over-luxuriousness of our dwellings and their furniture, and in those forms of domestic art that strike the sight with the most glaring effect-in plate and jewelry. "I cannot but think," says Ruskin, “ that part of the wealth which now lies buried in these doubtful luxuries, might most wisely and kindly be thrown into a form which would give perpetual pleasure, not to its possessor only, but to thousands besides, and neither tempt the unprincipled, nor inflame the envious, nor mortify the poor; while, supposing that your own dignity was dear to you, this, you may rely upon it, would be more impressed upon others by the nobleness of your house walls than by the glistening of your sideboards."

No form of art is better adapted to accomplish these high purposes than sculpture. Ruskin is of the opinion that there is less liability of a perverted taste in this form of art than in painting. "You are aware," he says in his interesting lectures, "that the possibilities of error in sculpture are much less than in painting; it is altogether an easier and simpler art, invariably attaining perfection long before painting, in the progress of a national mind." Our young country has presented its full share of claimants to the honors of this noble art, and among the living and the dead can point, with national pride, to names that the world will not readily let die. The lamented Horatio Greenough

John C. King, whose name stands at the head of this sketch, is intimately connected, in his early artistic history and fortunes, with his warm friend and companion, Hiram Powers. Mr. King is a

-a Boston boy—whose valuable life was of De Witt Clinton, in bronze, was a great finally fretted out, in the prime of his achievement of art; Thomas Ball, of years, by the vexatious delays of our Charleston, whose head of Webster has government in sending for the group of been much admired; Clark Mills, whose statuary executed by him in Italy, which equestrian statue of Jackson adorns the had been ordered, under the administration National Capitol; and Miss Hosmer, the of Mr. Van Buren, to embellish the pedi- latest, and in some respects most remarkment of the eastern portico of the capitol able cultivator of the art of sculpture-a at Washington, had lived long enough to young lady of Watertown, Mass., whose secure a European reputation. To him" Hesper" is considered an extraordinary belongs the honor of the severe and sub-production, affording an eloquent prophecy lime design of the monument upon Bunker of fame. Hill. His younger brother, Richard Greenough, is an emulator of his genius, and is rising to fame in the same province of art. Eve, the Greek Slave, and the Neapolitan Fisher Boy have rendered the name of Hiram Powers immortal-a New-native of Scotland, having been born in Englander by birth, but early transplanted to Ohio, and claimed by Cincinnati as one of her noblest sons. The majestic bronze statue by Ball Hughes of Dr. Bowditch, in Mt. Auburn, and other equal works, have placed the author's name among the conspicuous sculptors of the day. Henry Dexter, of New-York, became a painter, by the irresistible force of genius, and a sculptor almost involuntarily. About the time of his coming to Boston, Greenough was leaving the country for Italy, and a friend of the young painter advised him to obtain the molding clay left behind in the sculptor's rooms, as modeling might help him in acquiring a knowledge of forms. The suggestion was followed, and the clay obtained. "I mixed it with water," he says, "and prepared a mass of it in the way I supposed it was to be used. My hands were in the clay when Mr. White, the painter, came in. I requested him to let me make his face in the mud. He readily assented. In about half an hour, with only my fingers for instruments, I astonished my sitter, and almost frightened myself. This was my first attempt at modeling." His marble" Binney Child" in Mt. Auburn will not soon leave the memory of the observer. Clevenger, and Crawford, the latter of whom conceived and chiseled the striking monumental representation of the death of Dr. Amos Binney, in Mt. Auburn, have both justified by ample results their right to a position in the "goodlie" company of sculptors. And then there is Stevenson, who executed the "Wounded Indian;" Bracket, the sculptor of the "Shipwrecked Mother and Child;" Brown, whose colossal statue

the town of Kilwinning, Ayrshire, on the 16th of October, 1806. His later studies and labors were foretold by his early tastes and passion for painting. At five years of age, he began with chalk sketches, and the gift of his first box of water colors, he says, made him "happier then, than a fortune could make me now." He practiced as an amateur artist, without instruction, until the age of manhood. He was persuaded to learn the business of his father, (a machinist,) that the aid of his services might be secured to the family. In 1829, Mr. King, having become restless at home, and having heard glowing accounts of the openings for business in America, embarked for New-Orleans, where he arrived in due season, and soon after sailed for Cincinnati. His time was occupied in various forms of his trade until 1836, when, in the financial crisis of that memorable period, all manufacturing business was paralyzed. In 1832, while residing in Cincinnati, he became acquainted with Hiram Powers, and a warm and lasting friendship was the result. "In 1834," writes Mr. King, in his sketch of his life prepared for Mrs. Lee, a young friend of Mr. Powers died of cholera. Powers was applied to, to model a bust of him from memory. I had an invitation to look at it when it was finished. This was the first model in clay I had ever seen, and it possessed great interest for me. After examining it carefully, and making remarks on the parts that pleased me most, Powers came directly in front of me, threw his hands behind his back, looked at me with his large, serious eyes, as if he saw through to the back of my

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