In the next room! Is it my daughter's heart That's bursting there ?-Is it ?-My Meeta !-Come!— He has strength enough to bear the sight of thee; But not to want it longer, when he thinks Thou'rt near him! Come to him! Come-come! my child! "Meeta. You bear it, father!-See !-and so do I! O, I was right!-No door that man can shut, [Muhldenau and Meeta retire. We have only further to intimate regarding the plot of the piece, that Adolpha turns out to be only the adopted daughter of General Kleiner, he having found and saved her at the siege of Magdeburg; that the discovery of this fact, together with the striking resemblance as to voice, features, figure, &c. to the Minister's wife, and to Meeta, establishes her identity beyond a question, all ending as tale readers wish a good story to end; and yet not a villain, nor a bad character, nor, as before stated, an entangled love affair is introduced, unless we except the courtship, marriage, and honeymoon, of Hans and Esther, the Minister's faithful servants, the former a fond booby of twenty-five, who from mere softness has to be wooed by the latter, a dame of a dubious and precarious age as respects the prospects of wedlock; for she can count ten summers and frosty winters more than the silly clown. This coquette, this perfect Jenny Nettles," who along with all her pertness, bustle, and noisy stampings, threatening chastisement to the simple rustic, is throughout kind-hearted after all, and perfectly natural. The manner in which she dragoons the timid lad into a husband is characteristic and delightful, as are also the attempts and the rapid progress he makes in asserting his rights the moment he finds himself clothed with a spouse. In fact, the underplot formed by this menial couple, although but very slightly connected with the main story, is one of the most humorous yet original comic pieces to be found in the whole range of the drama. It is healthy, fresh, genial, and enlivening, from beginning to end-showing how various are the powers and resources of the author, and how truly and closely he has read human nature in its most characteristic phases. As to the main plot there is considerable room for critical correction. First of all a single feeling, viz. filial affection, which is nearly its sole feature, can hardly be capable in any hands to support a sufficient interest throughout a five act play, nor become naturally connected with that variety of incident which dramatic action requires. To be sure Sheridan Knowles, beyond any writer of the present day, can surround his dramatis persone with poetic accompaniments of felicitous and forcible imagery, plant them in striking situations, and charge them with such intense moral sentiments as to sustain what would be otherwise tame and poor. But in the present instance, as if labouring under a sense of this poverty, he has overstrained sentiments in not a few intances, besides making Meeta profess far too often and with such needless, and we may add, unnatural ardour her filial affection, as materially to detract from the pleasure which might have been created, and the strength of the lesson which might have been taught. In the second place the play is deficient or faulty in regard to plot, in that the transitions from one situation to another, from one event to another, are frequently abrupt as well as without any feasible reason. Adolpha's deep interest in behalf of the old Minister is excited without any adequate occasion. Besides, the manner in which she becomes the adopted daughter of the Governor, the number of years which elapses before her father seems earnestly to have thought of searching for her, if such be the object of the journey described, which, by the bye, together with the cause of his imprisonment and doom, is left in mystery, oblige us to pronounce the plot as one of the most inartificially constructed that have come from Knowles's hand, who has never been very happy in this respect. Still, from the many affecting passages to be found in the piece, from the vigour and felicity of the thoughts, and the diction, very often being equal to the best parts which have ever distinguished our author's dramas; and, perhaps above all, from the deep sincerity, the cordial emotions with which he throws himself into the female heart, making the virtue, morality, and magnanimity of woman's nature, in its most endearing displays, the idols of his muse's devotion, together with the fine and frank philanthropy, genuine as it is warm and beautiful, which indeed pervades every one of his productions, we have not a doubt of the "Maid of Mariendorpt" being greatly admired in the closet; whilst its striking stage situations, especially in the third and fourth acts, must chain the attention, melt the hearts, and command the unanimous applause of many audiences. ART. VIII.-De Adamante Commentatio Antiquaria. Scripsit MAURICIUS PINDER. Berolini. THE Diamond being the most beautiful, or at least, on account of its various qualities and the various circumstances connected with its history, the most prized and precious mineral substance hitherto discovered, being in fact placed at the head of the whole mineral kingdom, presents an interesting subject even to those who know nothing of chemistry or natural science. There is much of popular and therefore of moral sentiment inseparable from the history of this mineral object; for where is the man, even the most austere or wise amongst us, however much he may affect a superiority over perishable things, or a contempt of them, who can remain insensible to the consideration which the possession of rarities and riches commands, or to the personal pleasure which the contemplation of that which all admire begets, when he has the showing of it? In these circumstances a hasty sketch of the history of this muchesteemed gem, going back to antiquity, under the guidance of Dr. Pinder, for the particulars which, in the course of his learned researches, he has gleaned on the subject, and also to more recent facts which are of more easy access, may not be misplaced in our journal. It is well known that the ancients possessed small knowledge of mineralogy. It was, as Dr. Pinder has stated, a very common belief among them that stones grew, and were productive. In distinguishing the various kinds of gems, it appears that they almost exclusively regarded their exterior qualities, and more particularly their hue, and hence names of many of them are expressive of colour. Of crystallizations they knew nothing. They did not even resort to the method of weighing in their examination of gems, though the Arabs employed it in the thirteenth century. Colour, in short, and particular reflections of tinted light, were more regarded than clearness and purity in their jewels; and as to chemical analysis they were entirely ignorant,-the skilful secrecy of tradesmen being able to deceive them. In treating of the diamond itself, the author yields to the etymology of the word adamas from the Greek verb damao, and the primitive a, intimating indestructibility. The Greeks gave the same name to a certain description of the hardest steel; and Dr. Pinder seems to succeed in endeavouring to show that in all passages of the more ancient Greek writers down to the third century before our era, where the term adamas is used, steel, and never diamond, is uniformly intended. Homer never speaks of jewels, the earliest instance pointed out in which a mineral adamas is mentioned being in a passage of Theophrastus. This writer treated at length of those minerals which cannot resist the influence of fire, but passed therefrom to what he considered and stated to be incombustible, viz. what he called the anthrax, which our author proves to be the same with the carbunculus of the Romans, and the ruby of the moderns. Pliny and others went so far as to believe that a diamond placed in the fire does not even grow hot. Indeed, on this subject, the last-named naturalist, as on many others, betrayed not only ignorance but credulity; for he was of opinion that the diamond could deprive poison of its baneful power, relieve the mind from fear, and perform other wonders. VOL. III. (1838.) No. III. E E Theophrastus described anthrax as being of a sexangular form; and Pliny says the same thing of the diamond. The latter also assigns India to the diamond as its native place, and says it is the most precious of all things. But what he calls diamonds must have been something else, for he also says Arabia produces this comand even talks of Cyprian diamonds, which articles were unquestionably crystals, and such as are still found near the Baffa (Paphos), being exquisitely beautiful. Whether diamonds made part of the ornaments of the high-priest of the Jews, Dr. Pinder does not inform us, for he does enter into the question at all. In the Septuagint translation of Jerem. xvii. 1, however, the Greek term already mentioned is recognized. In the time of Augustus, the word occurs more than once; indeed at this period diamonds were held in the highest estimation. 29asiq. After the time of Pliny the native place of the diamond became gradually known; while other inquirers who succeeded him state that sculptors used small fragments, or the dust of diamonds, in executing their designs. It does not appear, however, that glass was cut by this substance before the sixteenth century; red-hot steel having been employed previously for that purpose. The art of polishing the diamond was entirely unknown down to a comparatively modern date; and, indeed, between the third and eleventh centuries it seems to have been held in less esteem as an ornament than before; for while one praises its medical virtues, instead of its brilliancy, another does not allude to it as an ornament at all, and another says it is less pellucid than crystal rock. and to Coming still later down, however, diamonds were beginning obtain their just celebrity, though as ornaments they were still rough and far from being polished. They are mentioned as having been used in the buckle of the mantle of Louis IX. They were also numberless in the treasuries of eastern princes. Shehabedden ben Sam, the fourth Sultan of the Gauride dynasty, who about the year 1200 extended his power over India so far as Delhi, is reported to have had three thousand pounds of these precious gems in his possession. In many passages of the old German poems, diamonds are mentioned, particularly as worn in rings. The diamond is also sometimes referred to by the Italian poets of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; but it is not quite clear whether they allude to our gem, or to the adamas of the ancient Greeks. We shall not go more particularly along with Dr. Pinder into the ancient history of the substances which have been meant by the term adamas. It is quite clear that much obscurity attends the investigation, and that contradictory qualities have been attributed to the diamond. Indeed, our author's conclusion amounts to this, that the word, as used by the Greeks, did not really describe any sort of substance with which they were acquainted, but that it was a mere fiction of the early poets, and adopted by those of later times; and having thus gained a fanciful existence, a belief in it was transmitted to the Romans, who, for a period, which we do not find to be accurately defined or known, continued to be misled, remaining entirely ignorant on the subject. We come now to more certain and fully authenticated circumstances. The colours of the diamond are various; the most frequent tints being grey and white. Less frequent are the blue, red, brown, yellow, and green; and the rarest of all the varieties of colour is the dark brownish black. It occurs in roundish grains or crystals; and of these latter, the most frequent form is the octahedron or double four-sided pyramid. Its fracture is distinctly foliated with a fourfold cleavage, and the folia of the cleavages are parallel with the planes of the octahedron. Its lustre is splendent and adamantine. It is seldom complete ly transparent; more generally it rather inclines to semitransparent, but the black variety is nearly opaque. It refracts single. It is the hardest mineral hitherto discovered; hence it scratches all other fossils; and its specific gravity varies from 3.488 to 3.600. In a history of gems, published by Boethius de Boot in the year 1607, it is conjectured that the diamond is an inflammable substance. In 1673, Boyle discovered, that, when exposed to a high temperature, part of it was dissipated in acrid vapours. In 1694 and 1695 experiments were made in the presence of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, which confirmed those of Boyle, and showed that the diamond, though the hardest of minerals, was combustible. In 1704, Sir Isaac Newton, in his great work on optics, hinted, that, from its very great refractive power, it might be an unctuous substance coagulated. Newton does not appear to have been acquainted with the experiments made in Tuscany, and, besides, a considerable part of his work on optics was written in 1675. Since that period the diamond has often been examined by chemists, and they find when heated, though not so high as the melting point of silver, it gradually dissipates and burns; and while combining with nearly the same quantity of oxygen, it forms the same proportion of carbonic acid as charcoal. Hence it consists principally of carbon. Chemists and mineralogists now generally regard the diamond as consisting of a vegetable origin: and some late experiments by Sir David Brewster will not only go to support this theory; but, from certain unequal lines, veins or stripes discovered on its plane surfaces, he concludes that when in a soft state its structure must have been modified by varying pressures during the formation of the crystal. The most remarkable circumstance in the history of the diamond is to be found in the nature of its composition. This proud, this imperial ornament, which occupies the summit of the diadem, this most brilliant of gems, and hardest of all known bodies, is, accord |