&c. But as these speculations are inconsistent with sound philosophy, or even with plausible hypotheses, I shall drop the subject here.

It is supposed by Cladini that they never belonged to any planet, and that they were opaque wandering masses, before they reached the confines of our atmosphere. This, certainly, is the most rational mode of accounting for their presence in the situation in which we first behold them in the atmosphere.

However, to account for their becoming luminous or red hot, when they descend into the upper regions of our atmosphere, regions of eternal frost, has been a desideratum with me, and engaged much of my attention some time past.

:

These masses, like all other ponderable materials, contain specific heat round their atoms and particles; in moving through the atmosphere they collect electricity; and this continues increasing, as there is no other soJid matter in those upper regions to prevent its accumulation. When they acquire a sufficient quantity of electric matter, the entire or a portion of their specific heat is liberated, and much of it is thrown on their surface; this gives the luminous appearance as they contain much iron and sulphur, a portion of oxygen unites to their external parts. The degree of heat produced by these different circumstances will account for the superficial fused crust which invariably surrounds these substances. It is probable also, that a quantity of electricity collects round those masses, so as to form a considerable and dense atmosphere, and that this electric * atmosphere as they move along, keeps the air in contact with them in a constant blaze. These electric stones in descending towards the earth, when they meet a cloud comparatively negative, lose a portion of their electricity; which bursting forth with great vehemence exhibits the phenomena of thunder and lightning; at the same time that they are most commonly shattered into pieces. So soon as this takes place, their luminous appearance ceases, their specific heat resumes its former station, and they are precipitated to the earth, still retaining a considerable degree of heat. The stone that fell in the county of Tipperary could not be touched with the hand some time after its descent.

It is somewhat strange that those meteors should be found to move from E. to W. which is contrary to the motions of the earth; unless it had been occasioned by the electrical explosion, which might have scattered the stones in every direction by its violence. It is impossible that such explosions could be produced but by means of electrici

ty; therefore, it appears rather singular that they should not be accompanied with lightring, which is generally the case; but probably the opacity or darkness of the clouds, during the fall in the county of Limerick, rendered it invisible. I am, sir,

Your very humble servant,

W. HIGGINS.

From the Philosophical Magazine.

ON THE KALEIDOSCOPE. This amusement being now in the hands of almost every person, any description, more particular than what will present itself in the subjoined historical detail, will here be unnecessary.

Dr. Brewster, the patentee of this amusing instrument, is charged by many with being a plagiarist, and claiming that, as a new invention of his own, which is really old, and the discovery of another. We shall lay the grounds of this charge before our readers ;— and we begin with some remarks which have appeared in the French Journals:

"Scarcely," says one of them, "had the Kaleidoscope been imported into Paris, when twenty competitors started forward, and each, his glass in his hand, contended for the attention of the public. To the Kaleidoscope one opposed the Polyoscope; another the Metamorphosiscope; and as the great majority of spectators called out for something French, we saw immediately this wish gratified by the Transfigurateur, the French lamp, &c."

"M. Robertson," a mathematical-instrument maker in Paris, of some eminence, "reclaims for France the priority of this invention. He brings in proof an instrument, of great dimension it is true, but which for many years has furnished in his cabinet the same various pictures which an adroit speculator has introduced into the Kaleidoscope. Thus Professor Brewster of Edinburgh, to whom the English have attributed the honour of this discovery, is nothing more than an imitator. This is not the first time that a French discovery has taken the longest way of arriving at Paris. M. Chevalier too enters the lists; holding in one hand a work, published more than fifty years ago, in which the principle of this agreeable illu sion is described, while in the other he presents us a lamp which, by adding much to the magic of the effects, merits truly the name which he gives it of the French Multiplicator."

However mortifying it may be to our ingenious neighbours, the French, to have their claims to the originality of this invention denied, the fact is, that should the optical principle on which the instrument is founded, and earlier publication, be held te constitute the invention, the discovery will be found to belong to England, notwithstanding the French work published more than fifty years ago, in which the principle of this agreeable illusion is described;" for

the principle was published in London more than eighty years ago, in a work entitled New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, both philosophical and practical, 6th Edition. By Richard Bradly, Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge, and F. R. S. Printed for J. and J. Knapton, in St Paul's Church-yard, 1731." The following is printed from Bradley's first chapter. “Description and Use of a new Invention for the more speedily designing of Garden Plats, whereby we may produce more variety of Figures in an Hour's Time, than are to be found in all the Books on Gardening

now extant.

"Since the instrument I now design to treat of has afforded some pleasure to many of my acquaintance, I have been easily persuaded to make it public. It is of that nature, that the best designers or draughtsmen may improve and help their fancies by it, and may with more certainty hit the hunour of those gentlemen they are to work for, without being at the trouble of making many varieties of figures or garden plats, which will lose time and call an unnecessary expense, which frequently discourages gentlemen from making up their gardens. In short, the charge of the instrument is so small, and its use so delightful and profitable, that I doubt not its favourable reception in the world. But to proceed:

"We must choose two pieces of lookingglass of equal bigness, of the figure of a long square, five inches in length and four in breadth: they must be covered on the back with paper or silk, to prevent rubbing off the silver, which would else be apt to crack off by frequent use. This covering for the back of the glasses must be so put on that nothing of it may appear about the edges of the bright side.

"The glasses being thus prepared, they must be laid face to face and hinged together, so that they may be made to open and shut at pleasure, like the leaves of a book.

"Draw a large circle upon paper, divide it into 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 equal parts, which being done, we may draw in every one of the divisions a figure at our pleasure, either for garden plats, or fortifications.

"So likewise a pentagon may be perfectly represented by finding the fifth part of a circle, and placing the glasses upon the outlines of it, and the fourth part of a circle will likewise produce a square by means of the glasses, or, by the same rule, will give us any figure of equal sides. I easily suppose that a curious person by a little practice with these glasses may make many improvements with them, which perhaps I may not yet have discovered, or have for brevity's sake omitted to describe.

"It next follows that I explain how by these glasses we may, from the figure of a circle drawn upon paper, make an oval; and also by the same rule, represent a long square, from a perfect square. To do this,

open the glasses and fix them to an exact square: place them over a circle, and move them to and fro till you see the representation of the oval figure you like best; and so having the glasses fixed, in like manner move them over a square piece of work, till you find the figure you desire of a long square."

In the foregoing description of Bradley's. which he constructs it, is precisely that invention, the principle of reflection on which Dr. Brewster has employed in his Kaleidoscope; but the means by which the objects that are to be reflected, are quite. latter presents to the reflecting surfaces the different. Even with Bradley the kind of objects and the means by which he presented these objects to the mirrors were what constituted his instrument a new invention; for the arrangement of the reflectors themselves was not of Bradley's discovering, as we shall prove immediately.

We copy the following from John Baptista Porta's Natural Magic, the English Translation published in 1658.

«To make a plain Glass that shall repre sent the Image manifold.

"A glass is made that will make many representations, that is, that many things may be seen at once; for by opening and shutting it, you shall see twenty fingers for onc, and more. You shall make it thus: Raise two brass looking-glasses [metallic mirrors], or of crystal, at right angles upon the same basis, and let them be in a propor tion called sesquialtera, that is one and a half, or some other proportion, and let them be joined together fongways, that they may be shut and opened, like a book; and the angles be divers, such as are made at Venice: For one face being objected you shall see many in them both, and this by so much the straighter, as you put them together, and the angles are less: but they will be diminished by opening them, and the angles being more obtuse, you shall see the fewer: so showing one figure, there will be more seen and further, the right parts will show right, and the left to be left, which is contrary to looking-glasses; and this is done by mutual reflection and pulsation, whence ariseth the variety of images interchangeable."

From the foregoing it is manifest whence Bradley derived the principle which he applied to the construction of his instrument, for he borrows the very words of Porta, "that they (the mirrors) may be shut and opened like a book;" and hence it follows that if the discovery of the principle cannot be allowed to the French, so neither can it to the English: for Porta's work was first published (at Naples we believe) in 1538, in four books, and 35 years after (that is about the year 1573), in its enlarged form, comprising twenty books. Bradley was not called a plagiarist,-probably because his instrument, though identically the saine as

Porta's, was applied in a different way and to a different purpose. Should Dr. Brewster then be considered in that light, for having made use of the same principle in his instrument, which in construction is different from either Porta's or Bradley's? Porta, by looking at objects before him, along the angle formed at the joining of his glasses, saw them multiplied: Bradley, by placing his joined glasses upon his drawings, at right, angles to them, and looking at them, in the same manner, saw them multiplied; but the number of reflections could be calculated. Dr. Brewster, by putting the reflectors in a tube, and attaching thereto, and at right angles to them, two discs of glass with objects interposed, forms an optical instrument ca

pable of producing an incalculable (if not an infinite) number of combinations, by merely making the discs, or the whole instrument, to revolve on its axis, while the eye looks through it. If the previous application of any known principle to the construction of instruments, is to be considered and held as embracing all future applications of the same principle, there can be no new inventions; for to obtain knowledge of a principle, not before known, is a discovery, and not an invention: no person can invent a principle; but he may apply a principle, when known, to a new purpose, and this new application with the new means employed, is what constitutes a new invention.

T.

From the London Literary Gazette.

TWELFTH DAY.

To the rejoicings on New Year's tide succeeded, after a short interval, the observance of the Twelfth Day, so called from its being the twelfth day after the nativity of our Saviour, and the day on which the Eastern Magi, guided by the star, arrived at Bethlehem, to worship the infant Jesus.

This festive day, the most celebrated of the twelve for the peculiar conviviality of its rites, has been observed in this kingdom ever since the reign of Alfred, "in whose days," says Collier, "a law was made with relation to holidays, by virtue of which, the twelve days after the Nativity of our Saviour were made Festivals."

In consequence of an idea which seems generally to have prevailed, that the Eastern Magi were kings, this day has been frequently termed the feast of the three kings; and many of the rites with which it is attended, are founded on this conception; for it was customary to elect, from the company assembled on this occasion, a king or queen, who was usually elevated to this rank by the fortuitous division of a cake, containing a bean, or piece of coin; and he or she to whom this symbol of distinction fell, in dividing the cake, was immediately chosen king or queen, and then forming their ministers or court from the company around, maintained their state and character until midnight.

The Twelfth Cake was almost always accompanied by the Wassail Bowl, a composition of spiced wine or ale, or mead, or metheglin, into which was thrown roasted apples, sugar, &c. The term Wassail, which in our elder poets is connected with much interesting imagery, and many curious rites, appears to have been first used in this island during the well-known interview between Vortigern and Rowena. Geoffrey

of Monmouth relates, on the authority of Walter Calenius, that this lady, the daughter of Hengist, knelt down, on the approach of the king, and presenting him with a cup of wine, exclaimed, "Lord King Was heil," that is, literally, "Health be to you." Vortigern being ignorant of the Saxon language, was informed by an interpreter, that the purport of these words was to wish him health, and that he should reply by the expression, drinc-heil, or "drink the health :" accordingly, on his so doing, Rowena drank, and the king receiving the cup from her hand, kissed and pledged her.

Health, my Lord King,' the sweet Rowena said; 'Health,' cried the chieftain to the Saxon maid; Then gaily rose, and 'mid the concourse wide, Kiss'd her hale lips, and placed her by his side. At the soft scene, such gentle thoughts abound, That healths and kisses 'mongst the guests went

round:

From this the social custom took its rise;
We still retain, and still must keep the prize.

Paraphrase of Robert of Gloucester.

Since this period, observes the historian, the custom has prevailed in Britain of using these words whilst drinking; the person who drank to another saying was-heil, and he who received the cup answering drinc-heil.

It soon afterwards became a custom in villages on Christmas-eve, New Year's Eve, and Twelfth Night, for itinerant minstrels to carry to the houses of the gentry and others, where they were generally very hospitably received, a bowl of spiced wine, which being presented with the Saxon words just mentioned, was therefore called a Wassail-bowl, A bowl or cup of this description was also to be found in almost every nobleman's or gentleman's house, (and frequently of massy silver,) until the middle of the seventeenth century, and which was in perpetual requisition during the revels of Christmas."

[Hence we have the word Wassel, synonymous for carousing and jovialty.]

During the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. the celebration of the Twelfth Night was, equally with Christmas Day, a festival through the land, and was observed with great ostentation and ceremony in both the Universities, at court, at the Temple, and at Lincoln's and Gray's-inn. Many of the masques of Ben Jonson were written for the amusement of the royal family on this night; and Dugdale in his Origines Judicales, has given us a long and particular account of the revelry at the Temple on each of the twelve days of Christmas, in the year 1562. It appears from this document, that the hospitable rites of St. Stephen's day, St. John's day, and Twelfth day, were ordered to be exactly alike; and as many of them are in their nature, perfectly rural, and where there is every reason to suppose, observed to a certain extent in the halls of the country gentry and substantial yeomanry, a short record here, of those that fall under this description, cannot be deemed inapposite.

The breakfast on Twelfth Day is directed to be of brawn, mustard, and malmsey; the dinner of two courses to be served in the hall, and after the first course "cometh in the master of the game, apparelled in green veluet; and the Ranger of the Forest also, in a green suit of satten; bearing in his hand a green bow and divers arrows, with either of them a hunting horn about their necks: blowing together three blasts of venery, they pace around about the fire three times. Then the master of the game maketh three curtesies," kneels down, and petitions to be admitted into the service of the lord of the feast.

This ceremony performed, a huntsman cometh into the hall, with a fox and a purse-net, with a cat, both bound at the end of a staff; and with them nine or ten couple of hounds, with the blowing of hunting-horns. And the fox and cat are by the hounds set upon, and killed beneath the fire. This sport finished, the marshal, an officer so called, who, with many others of different appellations, were created for the purpose of conducting the revels, placeth them in their several appointed places.

After the second course, the "ancientest of the masters of the revels singeth a song, with the assistance of others there present;" and after some repose and revels, supper, consisting of two courses, is then served in the hall, and being ended, "the marshal presenteth himself with drums afore him mounted upon a scaffold, borne by four men ; and goeth three times round about the harthe, erying out aloud, a lord, a lord,' &c. then he descendeth, and goeth to dance.

"This done, the lord of Misrule addresseth himself to the banquet; which endeth with some minstralsye, mirth and dancing, every man departeth to rest."

Harrick, who was the contemporary of Shakespeare for the first twenty-five years of his life, that is, from 1591 to 1616, has given us the following curious and pleasing

Be Twelfe-day Queene for the night here,

Which knowne, let us make
Joy-sops with the cake;

And let not a man then be seen here,
Who unwig'd will not drinke

To the base from the brink

A health to the King and the Queene here.

Next crowne the bowle full
With gentle lambs-wooll;
Adde sugar, nutmeg and ginger,
With store of ale too;

And thus we must doe
To make the Wassaile a swinger.

Give then to the King
And Queene wassailing;
And though with all ye be whet here,
Yet part ye from hence,
And free from offence,
As when ye innocent met here
Herrick's Hesperides.

ANECDOTE OF THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II.

The Emperor Joseph II. heard every body who pretended to discover to him any thing useful. By this means he often lost much precious time.

Baron Calisius once begged an audience to propose to the Emperor a matter of great importance; it was granted him the conversation was as follows

Calisius. The city of Comorn in Hungary has the misfortune to be visited nearly every five years by earthquakes, which have often occasioned great damage, and still expose it to the utmost danger, and threaten it with total destruction. Now I have remarked, that in Egypt there never were nor are any earthquakes. But as Egypt differs from other countries only in having pyramids, it follows that pyramids must be sure preventatives of earthquakes.

The Emperor. So then it would be good to build some of these edifices in Hungary? Calisius. This is my humble proposal, and I here present your majesty a plan how they may be erected.

The Emperor. But have you calculated the expence ?

Calisius. No: but I believe for three or four hundred thousand florins two handsome pyramids might be built; a little smaller indeed than those in Egypt.

The Emperor. Has the city of Comorn so much money?

Calisius. No, but I hope your Majesty will contribute, and the rest might perhaps be raised by a subscription.

The Emperor. Well, I have nothing against it. If a suitable place can be found, which is fit for nothing else, and you will undertake the work on subscription, begin to build as soon as you please; but I cannot fix the amount of my subscription before I see at least one pyramid quite finished.

ANECDOTE OF A RUSSIAN PRINCESS.

Many of our readers are doubtless acquainted with the name of the Swiss doctor Michael Schuppach, of Lengnau, in the Emmenthal, who was highly celebrated, and much in vogue in the last century. He is mentioned by Archdeacon Coxe, in his Travels in Switzerland, who himself consulted him. There was a time when people of distinction and fortune came to him, particularly from France and Germany, and even from more distant countries; and innumerable are the cures which he performed upon patients given up by the regular physicians, There were once assembled in Michael Schuppach's laboratory, a great many distinguished persons from all parts of the world; partly to consult him, and partly out of curiosity; and among them many French ladies and gentlemen, and a Russian prince, with his daughter, whose singular beauty attracted general attention. A young French marquis attempted, for the amusement of the ladies, to display his wit on the miraculous Doctor; but the latter, though not much acquainted with the French language, answered so pertinently, that the marquis had not the laugh on his side. During this conversation, an old peasant entered, meanly dressed, with a snow white beard, a neighbour of Schuppach's. Schuppach directly turned away from his great company, to his old neighbour, and hearing that his wife was ill, set about preparing the necessary medicine for her, without paying much attention to his more exalted guests, whose business he did not think so pressing. The marquis was now deprived of one subject of his wit, and therefore chose for his butt the old man, who was waiting while his neighbour Michael was preparing something for his old Mary. After many silly jokes on his long white beard, he offered a wager of twelve louis'dors, that none of the ladies would kiss the old dirty looking fellow. The Russian princess hearing these words, made a sign to her attendant, who brought her a plate. The princess put twelve louisd'ors on it, and had it carried to the marquis, who of course could not decline adding twelve others. Then the fair Russian went

up to the old peasant with the long beard, and said, "Permit me, venerable father, to salute you after the fashion of my country.". Saying this, she embraced him, and gave him a kiss. She then presented him the gold which was on the plate, with these words, "Take this as a remembrance of me, and as a sign that the Russian girls think it their duty to honour old age."

AN ANCIENT CROWN DISCOVERED IN SCLA

VONIA.

At a

On the 23d of last March, in making a road at Mallier, a little village in Sclavonia, as the wife of a soldier named Gasparowich, was turning up a clod with her pickaxe, she found, about two inches deep under ground, a piece of metal rolled up, which she took for iron, and threw it into the road. second stroke she discovered the basketformed vessel; which, in the opinion of all who have considered it with attention, is supposed to be a crown. It consists of two parallel circles of strong gold wire twisted together, which are about four inches asunder, and connected by a spiral ornament in this form . The inside of the crown, shaped like a hat, consists of a braid of the button in the middle, in rose-shaped braids. same kind of gold, which surrounds a net The whole weighs a little more than 24 ounces. The diameter is equal to that of a small hat.

As the workmen's attention was attracted

to this valuable relic, it was soon discovered that the whole mass was gold. By chance to the captain. Immediately on the followa corporal came up, who gave notice of it ing morning, the ground in that place was dug up five or six fathoms, and carefully examined; but nothing farther was discovered. Since the 25th of October, the crown has been at Vienna, and it is not doubted but that this curiosity will be delivered to the Imperial Treasury or Museum.

THE DOG MIME.

Who has not heard of the celebrated piece called The Forest of Bondy, and of the applause which the dog of D'Aubry has obtained in Paris, London, Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Berlin, Leipsig, Cassel, &c.? There is nothing new under the sun: see what Plutarch relates-de solertia animalium!

I must not pass over an example of canine ingenuity of which I was witness at Rome. A mime, who performed a complicated piece, in which there were many characters, had a dog with him, which made all kinds of gesticulations necessary for the representation. He afforded a striking proof of his talents, after taking poison, which was to produce sleep and then death. He took the bread in which the poison was given him, and, after he had eaten it, he pretended to tremble, to stagger, and to become giddy,