kilns. They preferred drying them in the sun, a custom not wholly disused in Britain, though the lower temperature of our climate renders it far less efficacious than in Egypt. The piling of the bricks, and the mode of their transport, are represented in the accompanying engravings.

A VISIT TO

THE SCHOOL FOR THE INDIGENT BLIND, IN ST. GEORGE's fields, SURREY.

Ir is an old and common remark, that places and objects of interest which we have constant opportunities of visiting, frequently remain unseen, and are, therefore, unknown to us, except from the reports of others. It is equally true, that in order to form a just estimate of many of the admirable institutions with which this country abounds, it is necessary to make a personal inspection of them. The quantity of accurate information which is thus derived from the fountain-head, cannot but be improving to the mind; nor does it fail to increase the materials for profitable and engaging conversation. But we are not ashamed to own, that a far better result is, or ought to be produced, by such scenes as we will now endeavour to describe. The heart is touched: every benevolent feeling is called into play: with pity for the distressed is mingled the joy at witnessing the mitigation of their sorrows: a sentiment of gratitude arises to the Giver of all good, for the several compensations He has granted in special cases of infirmity, as well as for our own positive blessings: and, above all, the effect on the kind and thoughtful visiter will be a desire to aid, according to his means, in the glorious work of Christian charity.

These remarks have been suggested by a survey I have just made of the School, established in 1799, for the support and instruction of the Indigent Blind. The object of this Institution is to teach the inmates a trade, by which they may be qualified to provide, either wholly or in part, for their own subsistence. Applicants who have a greater degree of sight than will enable them to distinguish light from darkness, cannot be placed on the list of candidates for admission. Of the description of persons totally blind there are now sixty males and sixty-two females in the school, some of whom were born blind; others, whose claim on the compassion of their fellow-creatures is stronger, and more affecting, from their having once possessed the precious gift of sight, and lost it by illness or accident.

After passing through the rooms of the new building, which is a very handsome fabric, calculated, when finished, to accommodate an increased number of pupils, I entered a large apartment in which the males, ranged at intervals along each side, were busily occupied in making baskets, of different degrees of texture large hampers, cradles, &c. It was impossible not to be struck with the air of cheerfulness which pervaded the forms as well as the faces of these persons; so that seeing them active and industrious over their respective tasks, one might easily forget, for a time, their peculiar privation. The predominant expression, however, in their physiognomy is repose, or tranquillity of features, owing, probably, to their regular habits, and freedom from a variety of those disturbing causes which necessarily operate upon the many, particularly in the busy pursuits of a large and crowded city. In the basket-room I noticed only one painful instance of unfitness for even the easiest branch of work. It was that of a poor youth, whose

brain seemed to be oppressed, and whose mental ray was probably dimmed, if not extinguished, by the same cause that had produced his physical blindness.

I next proceeded to an apartment belonging to the Shoemakers, some of whom were learning their craft from superintendents appointed for the purpose; while the majority showed a readiness and execution which were perfectly astonishing. A strong well-finished shoe was placed in my hands, which I thought would have served any gentleman's foot this wet wintry day; while the smiling artist, whose name, if I remember right, is Wallenger, had the fellow to it on his lap, nearly completed.

The impression being fresh upon my mind, I now venture, at the hazard of wearying some of my readers, to mention the Mat-room, where all sorts of brown and white rope door-mats, fine bright mats, bordered with coloured worsted, worsted rugs for hearths and carriages, were being carried on in such a regular and business-like style, that if, for a moment, in admiration of the articles, I ceased to remember the condition of those who wrought them, I was instantly reminded of this truth," That where one sense is defective, another is generally more perfect." So delicate is the touch of these blind persons, and so strikingly do they illustrate that wonder, to which public attention has recently been called in a remarkable manner,-the wonder of the human hand!

But it is time to say a few words respecting the female part of this excellent Institution. The girls were all assembled in a large airy room, and employed in knitting stockings, in needle-work, and in preparing household linen, and linen for the scholars. A few of them were as busy as bees, in platting a singularlyconstructed patent sash-line, clock and clothes-lines, on a machine adapted to the use of the blind. I was informed, that since the first manufacture of these different kinds of line, a very material improvement has taken place, and that the sash-line, thus made, has been approved by eminent builders.

From a review of this slight sketch of the steady career of industry within these walls, the reader will learn with more gratification than surprise, that the articles made in the year 1836 by the hands of the blind persons, were sold for 17907. 17s. 6d.

On passing through a gallery to the room in which the females were assembled, I was pleased to hear the sound of sacred music growing more and more clear; till, on entering, I distinguished the words of the 149th Psalm, beginning,

O praise ye the Lord, Prepare your glad voice!

which was well sung by the blind girls in the midst of their work. One of them,-who was pointed out to me by my benevolent guide as a very good girl,— afterwards, on being requested, threaded her needle much more easily, as I told her, than I could have done. She smiled, and modestly answered, that she had been for some time in the school. Another young woman, whose sight had been destroyed, about three years since, by the shameful heedlessness of a fellow-servant in firing a large pistol at her, unconscious of its being loaded, assured me, that God had been very good to her; that she was entirely reconciled to her lot, and contented in the station which she now filled. This declaration from her own lips was peculiarly gratifying, because I remembered her forlorn and desponding condition at about the time the accident occurred, when she thought she never should have been happy again.

I was now shown some books, printed in embossed types, for the use of blind persons, and designed

to be read by the touch. The letters in the several specimens were of various character; but of all the different plans, the simplest struck me as the best. This was Mr. John Alston's, the Treasurer of the Glasgow Asylum for the Blind, who has recently added to that Institution a fount of types and a printing-press, and has completed the whole of the Four Gospels in relief, in two large quarto volumes, at 9s. 6d. per volume. The teaching of the blind to read has engaged the attention of the benevolent for some time past: and Mr. Alston's plan, which consists in using the common Roman capitals, sharply-formed, has proved the most successful; the children, if tolerably apt scholars, learning it in a very short time. Thus, though “knowledge is, by one entrance, quite shut out," they are instructed in the inestimable truths contained in the word of God.

Their hands can read, their fingers trace
The page of Truth and Love;
And thus they joyfully embrace
The message from above.

The most affecting part of the visit, however, yet remained. I well knew the taste for music possessed by blind persons generally; indeed it has frequently been a pleasure to me to reflect, that such a delightful resource should have been placed so completely within their reach. "The Hymn of Eve" was played and sung correctly, and with considerable feeling. After a short pause, one of the girls was desired to recite that beautiful chapter of Isaiah, beginning,-" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." As soon as she had ended, one of her companions repeated with just emphasis, and in a pleasing. tone of voice, the 8th chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans; and certainly two portions of Scripture more consolatory, or more abounding in passages of deep and universal concern to all, be their outward circumstances what they may, it would be difficult to select. The 18th verse sounded uncommonly affecting" For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." All, or nearly all, the female pupils, as I was informed, know the Psalms, (the prose version, used in our Liturgy,) throughout, and some can repeat any part of the Four Gospels. Listening to the inspired passages, my mind stretched onward to the period, when this mortal shall have put on immortality, and to that city which hath "no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the LAMB is the light thereof; for there shall be no night there." In that perfect day, thought I, shall not this desolate being, who walks by faith now, be gifted with a clear view of the Divine majesty; whilst many of those, who, humanly speaking, are walking by sight, and whose inward gaze of a future world is dimmed and uncertain, shall be pronounced blind? Yes; although, independently of their privations, these sad objects doubtless have their trials; yet, removed as they are from the temptations of a densely-peopled and vicious metropolis, brought up in regular habits, taught to read and to pray, they possess privileges, they enjoy advantages, the value of which it is difficult to calculate. With such reflections, I listened with pleasure to the following lines composed by one, who, if I mistake not, was formerly an inmate of the School, and addressed to the friends of the Institution. I never can forget "the deep, the low, the pleading tone," in which they were recited. And with these I shall conclude my narrative.

FROM Chaos sprang the teeming Earth,
At the Divine command;

And the untiring Sea had birth,

'Neath the Almighty hand. But darkness lowered upon the deep: Creation's first, long, silent sleep

Still hid the world in night: Till, with a voice that pealed through space, From His most high and holy place,

God said, "Let there be light." "And there was light!" and with it grew The glory of the day:

The vast, the wonderful, the new,
Were seen beneath its ray.
Not hidden was the meanest root,
The lowliest flower, the humblest fruit,
All burst upon the sight:
For unto each, as if to prove
His universal care and love,

The Lord had yielded light.

Praise be to God! another ray,
Not less divinely given,
Points, through his blessed Son, the way

To happiness and heaven.

And thus your boundless charities
Have spread before our sightless eyes,

Locked in eternal night,

That holier radiance, mild and pure,
Which makes our soul's salvation sure,-
The glorious Gospel light!

We cannot thank you as we ought,
But were our hearts laid bare,
You'd see each fond and grateful thought
Pour'd out in silent prayer..
And when we meet before the throne
Of Him to whom all deeds are known,
How shall we hail the sight

Of the pure glory, that will bind
The brows of those, who taught the blind
To seek the living light!

AMUSEMENTS IN SCIENCE. No. V.

ARITHMETIC.-Part 2.

M.

NUMBERS which increase by what is termed arithmetical progression, for instance, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, each succeeding term increasing by 2; or 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, in which the terms increase by 3, or any other number, possess some curious properties.

In every arithmetical progression, the sum of the first and last terms is equal to that of the second and last but one, and to that of the third and last but two, &c.; or to the sum of the two middle terms, when the number of terms is even; or to double that of the middle term when the number of terms is odd. For instance, if the number of terms are even, as 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16,

16 and 1 are equal to 17, and the two middle terms, 7 and 10, are also equal to 17: if the series is uneven, as 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19,

19 and 1 are equal to 20, and twice 10, the middle term, produces the same amount. In the last series the

number of terms is 7, and the difference 3; the 7th term is, consequently, equal to the first with the addition of 6 times 3, or equal to 19. This property enables the scholar to obtain the amount of any term in the series, at any distance from the first, by a very simple proceeding. By this last property, we are enabled to show in what manner the sum of all the terms of an arithmetical progression can readily be found, for as the first and last terms make the same sum as the second and last but one, and as the third and last but two, &c., it thence follows, that the whole progression contains as many times the sum of the first and last as there are pairs of such terms. The number of pairs is, of course, equal to half the number of terms, and consequently, the sum of all the terms is equal to the sum of the first and last term, multiplied by half the number of terms.

Let us put the familiar instance of the man who picked up a hundred stones, one by one, placed in a straight line at one yard distance from each other, returning to a basket placed at a yard distance also from the first stone, one hundred times.

It is evident, that to pick up the first stone, and put it into the basket, the person must walk two yards, one in going, and one in returning; that for the second he must walk four yards, and so on, increasing by two as far as the hundredth, which will oblige him to walk two hundred yards, one hundred in going, and one hundred in returning.

It may easily be perceived also, that these numbers form an arithmetical progression, in which the number of terms is 100, the first term 2, and the last 200; by the rule already noticed, the number of yards he has walked is easily ascertained.

eighth column, seven being the number of counters, Then seek for the horizontal column of figures, whose distinguishing number is one more than the number of counters to be taken at one time, which in this instance is 3, the column, therefore, is numbered 4; by carrying the finger along these columns, until you come to their point of intersection at A, we find the number 35, the number of ways in which seven counters can be arranged by threes.

Two persons agree to choose, alternately, any number less than 11, and to add these numbers together until they shall make 100; by what means can one of them infallibly attain to that number before the other?

100

11

89 11

78

11

67

11

56

11

To effect this, subtract 11 from 100, the number to be reached, as many times as possible; this will give the remainders,-89, 78, 67, 56, 45, 34, 23, 12, 1. By a knowledge of these numbers, the party who writes down the first number is certain of reaching 100 first, if he can count any one of these numbers. Let us suppose, for example, that the first person who knows the game, takes 1 for his first number; it is evident that his adversary, as he must count less than 11, can, at most, reach 11, by 11 adding 10 to it, the first will then take 1, which will make 12; if the second takes 8, which will make 20, the first will take 3, which will make 23; and, proceeding in this manner, he will reach successively 34, 45, 56, 67, 78, 89; when he attains the last number, it will be 12 impossible for the second player to prevent the first reaching 100 before himself.

45

11

23

11

11

1

It is evident that, if both parties understand the game, he who begins must inevitably win.

If a piece of square pasteboard is divided into nine cells, how can the following numbers of counters be placed in the outer cells of the square, as that they all be placed, and yet there shall, in every case, be nine counters, and no more, in each outer row of three cells? The numbers of counters are 18, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36. The following tables resolve this problem, and require no explanation.

1 2 3 4 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1

1 7

1

9

5 6 7 8

9

10

READ not to contradict and confute, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.-LORD BACON.

HE that wants good sense is unhappy in having learning, for he has thereby only more ways of exposing himself; and he that has sense knows that learning is not knowledge, but rather the art of using it.- -The Tatler.

LONDON:

JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS PRICE SIXPENCE.

INTRODUCTION.

DRYDEN.

THE contemplative mind is supplied with matter for moral, and even sublime reflection, in viewing man in his more natural state, weak, savage, and untutored; clad in the skins of animals constituting his food, which are captured with toil and difficulty; inhabiting a rude hut, and confined within the narrow range of an island girt by the ocean, which to him is interminable; knowing no other land than that on which he dwells, and never daring to lose sight of that land, in the frail bark in which be moves along his native coast. Then if, by a rapid transition, we behold man civilized and highly cultivated as he now is, borne along by

The heaven-conducted prow
Of Navigation bold, that fearless braves
The burning line, or dares the wintry pole,

we feel the force of the oft-repeated truism, that man is a progressive being. Thus, it will furnish instruction to the reader, if we endeavour to fill up the long interval between these two conditions, in which we find man acting his part as a member of the human family, by tracing the progress of Navigation from the rude raft, or ill-constructed canoe, through the various stages of addition and improvement, until we reach that triumphant monument of human skill,a ship of the line. An improvement, so vast, is of course only one of the results of the advancement of nations in the scale of civilization; and this advancement is accurately tested by their collateral progress in literature, art, and science. As the first ministers to the reflecting tastes of its members, so the two latter supply their actual wants and increasing desires; and there have been found, at all times, persons ready to devote their energies to carry out those subjects, which a few fortunate and gifted individuals have invented, or improved. But the great bulk of mankind does not the less further the progress of civilization, though all do not invent nor improve: they serve as the power for carrying on the work, which is contrived and See Saturday Magazine, Vol. III., p. 36.

VOL. XII

begun by that limited number of great minds, on which Nature has poured down her choicer gifts.

While thus laborious crowds

Ply the tough oar, Philosophy directs

The ruling helm.

In the present and succeeding papers it is our purpose, therefore, to trace the progress of Navigation from its earliest principles and practice, to its present comparatively perfect condition; and in doing so, it will be found convenient to adopt the following arrangement, and treat

1st. Of the Navigation of the Ancients.

2nd. Of the Navigation of the Middle Ages. 3rd. Of Modern Navigation.

The first division will comprehend, as to time, all the period between the creation of the world and the downfall of Rome; that is, a space of about 4500 years.

ON THE RUDIMENTS OF NAVIGATION, TO THE FORMATION OF THE BOAT.

WHEN speaking of Navigation in the earliest stages of the world, the idea of the ark, used by Noah and his family, will readily enter into the minds of our readers. But we cannot consider the formation and use of the ark, in the seventeenth century of the world, as a commencement or link in the chain of nautical invention. The entire direction and means for accomplishing this stupendous work, were afforded by God, to effect a saving purpose in the midst of the miraculous destruction of the human race; when the power and skill of man would have been, in those times at least, impotent to withstand or elude the watery havoc of Nature. In addition to this, we must notice the absence from the ark of any means, or of any necessity, for which is essentially necessary to make it belong to our its occupants navigating it from one place to another; present subject. No intention of this sort is alluded to; the ark being merely a vast shelter rendered capable of floating on the water. For these two reasons, therefore, " we conclude against assigning to this event in the sacred history, a place in this treatise.

We come, then, to regard the ocean as a part of the arrangement of the Almighty power for His own wise purposes; as among the creatures, which have been committed to the use of man; beneficial in various ways, which it is not our province to consider here, but only as it serves the purpose of a great high-way for the nations of the world; pre-eminent among which, and may it ever be, is our own country. Our subject takes not in its view a supernatural state of the floods of the ocean, but that, wherein there is "set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth." We contemn, therefore, the quailing lament of the heathen poet, Horace, who thus delivers himself:

Jove has the realms of earth in vain
Divided by the unhabitable main,
If ships profane, with fearless pride,
Bound o'er the inviolable tide.

We see how ill-timed is this awe of the sea, when we remember as readers of the Inspired Volume, that it is written,-"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep t:" and, when we call to mind, that, by means of ships, this Inspired Volume was brought to us, and has been carried out again to all parts of the habitable earth.

In the youthful condition of the world, and when all was new and untried, the innate love of exploring that which had not yet been seen, gradually extended the locality of the human race. Brooks, and such like streams, were soon forded, when new pastures, the impulse of hunting, and the + Psalm cvii. 23, 24. 358

Psalm civ. 9.

desire of novelty, prompted a change; and a mode of crossing the deeper streams was soon suggested to the observation of the savage, whose condition seems, by the testimony of Homer, to have been at its lowest pitch, when in ignorance of any means whatever, for crossing the water, which, though seeming, at first sight, to bar intercourse, does, in reality, promote it. The buoyancy of wood in the water is the germ of all his subsequent proceedings. Accident shows him that wood invariably floats; and on the fallen trunk of a tree he ventures, beyond his own depth, away from the land. The trunk of a tree, hollowed out, for a more convenient position of the body, (an idea derived, we are told, from a split reed, seen floating on the water,) forms the canoe, which is usually found among the most uncivilized of the human species. From this rude begins ning to the noble vessels of our day, how great the interval of time, how slow the pace of improvement, and how absolutely necessary, for any permanent and comprehensive effect, the application of elements, which seemed at one time out of the reach and cognizance of man.

ANCIENT PICTURE OF AN EGYPTIAN SHIP.

We seem to learn from contemplating the first materials of antiquity, that man derived, from the natural objects which surrounded him, a notion of the forms and fashions of things which conduce to his benefit. The pitcher-flower, (Nepenthes distillatoria,)* presented to him a graceful and convenient form for his cups and vases; the leaf-covered grottoes infused into him the idea of arranging his architectural principles on the patterns of nature; and the movements of the finny tribe developed the secret of directing his path on the water with nearly the same ease as on land; the trunk of the tree hollowed out, as a receptacle for the navigator, accords with the body of the fish; the forepart of this trunk, when sharpened off to an edge, in order to cleave the waters the more easily, is assimilated to the head of the animal, while the forcible motion of its tail shadows out the rudder, which, by its lateral movements, serves the purpose of steering the boat, as the tail of the animal directs the motion of the fish. This step in Navigation is completed by adopting a method for propelling the vessel onwards, which method is furnished by seeing the use of the fins of the fish in forming a passage through the waters. When oars, sculls, or paddles came into operation at the instance of Atlas, an ancient African monarch, the boat was essentially complete.

The foregoing illustration condenses into one view the various traditions, which have been handed down respecting the first decided step in Navigation; for it matters little from what other quarter, the swan, or any other aquatic fowl, the suggestion arises to the human mind, so it agree with the beauty of nature in its physical utility.

The raft, or floor of wood, formed by the lashing together of two or more planks, seems to have been an early, as it is one of the readiest modes for passing and conveying rough goods along upon the water. In time of shipwreck, or for any temporary purpose of transport, its facility of make recommends it, when other modes fail. Thus Hannibal used rafts for transporting his horses and elephants across the Rhone. The Egyptians, in very early times, used the raft on the Nile. An improved sort of raft was found in use among the Peruvians, tapered at the prow, in order to pass through the water more easily; the planks were fastened together with leather thongs, by the unnoticed decay of which the bark would oftentimes fall to pieces,

See Saturday Magazine, Vol. II., p. 159.

and its mariner and goods disappear under the waves. The celebrated timber-raft which floats down the Rhine to Dort, in the Netherlands, from the forests of Germany, is oftentimes 1000 feet long, and 80 or 90 feet wide, consisting of trees fastened together with iron spikes and crosstimber,-a floating island with a village at the top, and requiring nearly 600 labourers to manage it. When the raft is broken up and sold, it sometimes fetches a sum of £30,000. The same practice is used on the coast of Norway, thereby saving the trouble and expense of landcarriage.

On a board, or slight raft, the surf-swimmers of the Sandwich Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, pursue their pastime. They swim out to sea on this raft through a violent surf, plunging under every wave, and rising beyond it. In returning they are carried swiftly on the top of a large wave towards the shore, when they steer among the rocks, taking care not to lose their planks, for such a loss is deemed to be very disgraceful.

Somewhat superior in contrivance and effect is the construction of the pottery-floats of Egypt. Jars and various earthen vessels are made in great quantities in Upper Egypt; a large number of them are fastened together with cords and twigs into a triangular shape, having the mouths of the vessels upwards; they are then covered with bulrushes, and, being empty, are rowed as need may be, and steered down the Nile to Cairo, where the raft is taken apart and the articles are sold. Some remarks on these earthenware boats may be found in Vol. IX., p. 164, of this work.

It appears that, in very ancient times, a vessel was in use on the Nile, made from the planks of acanthus wood, so laid together as to lap over in the manner of tiling, and fastened with wooden pegs, the seams being tightened with leaves. It was also covered over with flags of the papyrus, and properly cemented, to keep out the water. In process of time an acanthus mast was added, to which was appended a sail, formed of papyrus leaves. This was the case in the infancy of Moses, and to such the prophet Isaiah alludes in the second verse of the 18th chapter of his book. In ascending the Nile the vessel was towed along; in its descent, it was steadied against the effects of the N. E. winds by a hurdle of wood let down from the prow.

By the term canoe is generally meant a single tree hollowed out boat-like, propelled onwards in the direction of the view of the Indian, who urges its course with paddles, which are worked perpendicularly in the water. The Macedonians, who saw the natives at the mouth of the Indus paddling in their canoes, thought they were digging the water with spades. Canoes are of various lengths, from 10 to 50 feet.

But the make and build of all the early naval structures depended simply upon the use they were put to, and the means at hand for their formation. We have from Herodotus the description of a vessel for conveying goods down the Euphrates to Babylon. A frame-work of willow was covered with skins, forming, when complete, a sort of large tub, which was managed by two men with long poles, without any regard to stem or stern. They were of various sizes, and carried an ass besides the merchandize; the animal was employed in conveying the vessel home by land when taken to pieces, as the downward force of the river's current prevented them from sailing up the stream. Major Rennel describes this vessel as being still in use in the lower parts of the river, under the name of KUFAH, or round vessel. Very similar to this is the coracle, consisting of a large basket, over which was stretched a horse's hide. This was found among the ancient Britons when the Romans invaded the island, and is still seen in use on the Severn, and among the people of South Wales. The American Indians use wooden-ribbed vessels, covered with skins, which vessels, owing to their lightness, can be carried overland, when it is necessary to avoid the rapids and waterfalls, which are numerous in the country. The Greenlander's canoe is covered in at the top with a skin, so as to shut up the lower part of his body when he is sitting in the vessel; the water may thus be kept out in the roughest seas.

The double canoe of the Society Islands is an ingenious contrivance for affording a safe platform, whereon the warriors may wage battle. Two canoes being placed alongside of each other, at a certain distance apart, planks are firmly fixed across, which make a stage safe from capsizing. The whole is so contrived, that the rowers may work underneath this floor, while the soldiers engage in battle above.