ing to the facts above mentioned and others that might be adduced, but a morsel of charcoal, which has been made to yield to therays of the sun, and dissolve itself into a noxious vapour. Of the optical properties of the diamond we shall not say anything, but proceed to notice some of those points in its history which possess a more popular interest. This crystal which is sometimes so pure and so pellucid with its angles and faces so perfectly symmetrical, as to shine like a dewdrop in the rays of the sun, was, up to the commencement of the eighteenth century, found only in India, where diamonds are met with in detached forms accompanied with grains of gold, amongst metallic sand washed down from surrounding mountains. In 1728 a similar territory, loaded with these two most precious substances, was discovered on the southern continent of the New World. When in pursuit of gold, crystals of diamond were often found; but the labourers being ignorant of their value, laid them up as curiosities. The attention of government, however, was soon called to the circumstance, when the sovereign claimed all suchproperty. In both countries the gem is confined within the limits of the tropics. In India, Golconda has always been cited as one of its principal repositories. Visapour, Bengal, and the island of Borneo, furnish the substance also; while in Brazil the district of Serra do Frio is its locality. The working of diamond mines in Hindostan appears to afford a very miserable livelihood. The crystal is there found only in alluvial soil, or in the most recent rocks. But it never seems to have been found in a matrix which might be esteemed its original position. Tavernier, the celebrated traveller, who visited the Golconda mines, says, as to the process of the mines,-after "they have pitched upon the place where they intend to work, they level another place close by of the same extent, or else a little bigger, which they inclose with a wall about two feet high. In the bottom of that little wall, at the distance of every two feet, they make small holes to let in the water, which they stop up afterwards, till they come to drain out the water again. This done their labours are preceded by acts of devotion and a very simple feast. When that is over, the men fall to digging, and the women and children carry the earth to the place prepared in the manner that I have already described: they dig ten, twelve, and sometimes fourteen feet deep, but when they come to any water they leave off. All the earth being carried into the place before mentioned, the men, women and children, with pitchers, throw the water which is in the drain upon the earth, letting it soak for two or three days, according to the hardness of it, till it comes to be a kind of batter; then they open the holes in the wall to let out the water, and throw on more water until all the mud is washed away, and nothing left but the sand; after that they dry it in the sun, and then they winnow the sand in little winnows as 00 we winnow our corn. The small dust flies away, the great remains, which they pour out again upon the ground.' "The earth being thus winnowed, they spread it with a kind of rake as thin as they possibly can; then with a wooden instrument like a pavior's rammer, about half a foot wide at the bottom, they pound the earth from one end to the other two or three times over: after that they winnow it again, and spreading it at one end of the van, for fear of losing any of the earth, they then look for the diamonds." In India, diamonds are also collected from the gravel and sand of rivers. The usual method of searching for these gems in Brazil is also by a laborious process of washing, cleaning, and examining. The diamonds are distinguished partly by their crystalline form, but principally by their adamantine lustre. Those of the smallest size, that is, those whose weight does not exceed a fifth of a carat, or even the fifth of a grain, are by far the most abundant. These are of no use in jewellery, but when broken and ground they form what is called diamond powder: a material used for cutting and polishing the diamond itself and other hard gems. As we have already seen, the cutting and polishing of diamonds in all probability was unknown among the ancients. In modern times the Dutch artists attained a high name in these departments; but now, we believe, the cutters and polishers in London are no where surpassed. Diamonds are cut and manufactured by jewellers into brilliant, rose, and table gems. In valuing them when manufactured, attention is to be paid to their weight, their form when cut, colour, transparency, purity or freedom from flaws veins and stains, the regularity of the cleavage, proportion of the parts, &c. A good diamond must be nearly transparent, the colourless diamond of the first water being the most valuable. In valuing diamonds, either rough or cut, the practice is to take the weight in carats, to square that weight, and then to multiply the product by such a rate of price as may correspond to the state and quality of the stone. In the cutting either of a brilliant or a rose diamond, of regular proportions, so much is cut away, that the weight of the polished gem is not more than half that of the rough crystal out of which it was formed; whence the value of a cut diamond in these styles is esteemed equal to that of a similar rough diamond of twice its weight, exclusive of the cost of workmanship. Considerable modifications, however, must be made in these multipliers, according to the quality of the diamonds and the style into which it has been worked, as well as the state of the market; for, as a commercial commodity, diamonds have undergone a depreciation like other things, and may perhaps be valued at from twentyfive to thirty per cent., particularly those beyond the smallest sizes, under the prices which they bore in the times of Tavernier. At present the demand for good brilliants of one carat and under is greater in proportion to the supply than for heavier stones; and such stones will sometimes cost £10 the carat. We conclude with some notice of a few of the finest diamonds yet discovered. That of the crown of France (Pitt Diamond), weighing 1363 carats, according to the above rules, is worth £141,058. This stone was found at Pasteal, in the Golconda district. It was imported into the country by Mr. Pitt, governor of Madras, who purchased it from a native for about £20,400, at the exchange of the day, and, after being offered to different crowned heads in Europe, was purchased by the regent of France in 1717. It was placed by Napoleon in the hilt of the sword of state, and, according to several authorities, the price paid for it was £130,000; for the rules already mentioned for estimating the value of diamonds, actually only hold good in the smaller specimens of 20 carats and under. For larger ones the purchasers must be few; and individual arrangements therefore regulate the prices paid for them. The Grand Duke of Tuscany's (now Austrian) diamond, according to the rules laid down, is worth more than £153,682: that of the emperor of Russia weighs 195 carats; that of the crown of Portugal weighs 1680 carats, being rough, and valued at not less than £5,644,800. The diamond mentioned as the property of the emperor of Russia ornaments the top of his sceptre, and is of the size of a pigeon's egg; it is said also to have been the eye of an Indian idol pillaged by a deserter from the French service, who had the address to get himself installed as a priest in the service of the Malabar deity at Seringham. The empress Catherine purchased it for £90,000, together with an annuity of £4000. The Brazilian diamond has given rise to suspicions. It has been insinuated that it is only a mass of very fine white-coloured topaz; but it is not likely that the sovereign of Portugal will run the hazard of setting the question at rest. the Such are some of the circumstances most remarkable in t history of the diamond; such some of the richest specimens. And yet man by his ingenuity and imitative powers can produce objects, which to the inexperienced, appear scarcely less beautiful and valuable. The French artists have been particularly noted for their efforts in this way, having, by a composition which they call strass, communicated an adamantine lustre, and such a similitude to the real stone in all respects, hardness excepted, as to deceive the unpractised. 407 asbrevsT to samit odds ART. IX. vent' doble solar sif mfup 1.An Essay towards a Science of Consciousness, more particularly baillustrative of the Phenomena of Human Knowledge, Feeling, and Action. By J. L. MURPHY. London: Simpkin and Co. 1833. 2. Thoughts of the Times; or, Men and Things. By T. H. BROwne Esq. Esq. London: Longman. 1838. WHEN We state that the former of these volumes (the pair have no other relationship than what may be found in the general term Essays), which is a duodecimo extending to two hundred and thirty eight pages, promises and professes to expose and refute the metaphysical, phrenological, theological, moral, and political doctrines at present in vogue, or most generally accepted, and that the author is a thick-and-thin disciple of Robert Owen's " Rational System," we believe we shall have said enough to prepare our readers for a mass and jumble of assumption and assertion, of truisms, fallacies, and puerilities, not to speak of implied and expressed contradictions, which none but an enthusiast with most persevering habits could possibly cram into so narrow and small a space. But if any doubt in regard to our competency or grounds for pronouncing such a strong judgment be entertained, we pray our readers just to peruse a small number, comparatively speaking, of Mr. Murphy's dogmas, which we shall cull in rapidly turning over the leaves of his " Science of Consciousness ;" and to begin with the beginning, we quote the following burst, being the "Dedication," to him of New Lanark, the "Rational System" founder : "TO ROBERT OWEN, "MY BELOVED FRIEND, "I dedicate this book to you, as to one qualified to judge of its validity. If it contain error, you above all men, know how to unravel and expose the sophism; if it be true, you will not be deterred by the bigot's rage from giving it your sanction. The cause which you have so long advocated involves the change from ignorance, superstition, vice and misery, to knowledge, rationalization, virtue and happiness; from a system, in which the most powerful individuals are surrounded by danger and unhappiness, to one in which all will be made more happy, than any one, of any grade, under the present arrangements. "Supernaturalism is the fortress of your opponents, the strong hold of the enemies of human improvement; and dogmatic assumptions and misrepresentations form their outworks. A host of the mighty dead' speak to us through the philosophic page, and tell us that nature and Struth shall be our guide;' and a Lycurgus, a Plato, a More, and a Bacon, have left us their opinions on the effects of systematizing a society. Supernaturalism is falling away, shrinking into the void nothingness of rhetorical spiritualization, and metaphysical vagueness, before the keen scrutiny of modern philosophy, and the blazing poetic genius of a Shelley and a Byron; and the time is now arrived, when the writings of those [] great men, Godwin and Thomson, are studiously referred to by the enquirer, and your opinion, as a practical philosopher, eagerly sought after by the masses of the people. I have for some time been of opinion, that the substitution of a Science of Consciousness' for the vague metaphysics which have provéd so conservative of superstition, would much facilitate even the rapid progression of the present times; and actuated by the hope (not bringing before the public a complete science), but rather of merely calling the attention of men of greater ability than I am possessed of to the importance of the subject, I have produced the following Essay, to the investigation of which I humbly invite you. "I am, my beloved Sir, Now, to show that Mr. J. L. Murphy is himself a phenomenon in the history of human knowledge, and, like others of his school in the annals of modern times, let him be further heard out of his own mouth, and then our readers will judge whether the assertion about Byron and Shelley, and the eagerly sought for opinion of Robert Owen by the masses as a practical philosopher, be more preposterous than the entire spirit and matter of the book. Most of our readers are aware that Mr. Owen's system, which professes, as our author intimates, to be calculated for certain to establish and perpetuate universal knowledge, virtue, and happiness, in the stead of the ignorance, vice, and misery, so prevalent in past and present times, is one of equality of condition and community of goods. Take Mr. Murphy's own statement of the very first kind of circumstances to be provided in this system. These are, he says→→→→ "A number of buildings, each of which must be suitable to the use of a few thousand people, they should be erected in the most healthy and convenient situations, and in such form as is best adapted for ventilation, cleanliness, convenience, &c. The present construction of towns, is calculated more for the production of filth, huddling together of large masses of people, atmospheric deterioration, and the creation of disease and misery than for good. Each building should be possessed of all the advantages of a town and of a country residence united, with manufactories, machinery, kitchens, storehouses, private rooms, large public rooms for meals, lectures, convivial meetings, &c. To each of such must be attached sufficient land to be laid out in gardens and fields, from which to raise the raw material of the inmates. In these buildings, the inhabitants shall be located, in families of about 3000 each. In this social state the property being common, the productive operations, aided by the powers of machinery, are distributed among the widest possible number, the distribution being of the simplest character, takes but little labour." But this is not taking his "Science of Consciousness, more par |