Through the mossy sods and stones, To whoo! to whoo! near, nearer now See, with long legs and belly wide, A salamander in the brake! Every root is like a snake, And along the loose hill side, With strange contortions through the night, And, animated, strong, and many, The wanderer. Through the dazzling gloom The dewy turf beneath our tread, And, in legions intertangled, The fire-flies flit, and swarm, and throng Till all the mountain depths are spangled. Tell me shall we go or stay? Shall we onward? Come along! Every thing around is swept Forward, onward, far away!' Nor is the following, in another style, less exquisite. MEPH. That was all right, my friend, FAUST. Then saw I MEPH. MEPH. FAUST. MEPH. FAUST. What? Seest thou not a pale Fair girl, standing alone, far, far away? She drags herself forward now with slow steps, Is like poor Margaret. Let it be-pass on- Oh, too true! Which no beloved hand has closed-Alas! MEPH. It is all magic, poor deluded fool; She looks to every one like his first love. FAUST. Oh, what delight! what woe! I cannot turn МЕРН. Aye, she can carry Perseus has cut it off for her. To show how well the man who could serve the Gothic muse in this way, could feel and transfer the polished graces of an Attic master, we shall transcribe part of the first chorus in Mr. Shelley's version of the Cyclops (Πα δή μοι γενναίων μὲν πατέρων, &c.) STROPHE. Where has he of race divine EPODE. An Iacchic melody With the Maenads, whose swift feet In these wretched goatskins clad, The dialogue of the piece is rendered with equal spirit: as, for And when the Thracian wind pours down the snow, Kindle a fire, and bid the snow whirl on. Bringing forth grass, fattens my flocks and herds, Which, to what other god but to myself, And this great belly, first of deities, And, that I may be quit of all demands, The The Homeric hymn to Mercury is translated in stanzas of eight lines which difficult measure Mr. Shelley has managed with considerable skill. His version preserves very much the archaic and pastoral tone of the original, both as to manners and language; but a short specimen would be insufficient, and for a long one we have not room. One department of our literature has, without doubt, sustained a heavy loss in the early death of this unfortunate and misguided gentleman. ART. VIII. 1. Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. vol. i. 2. Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester. 2d Series. vol. iv. London. 1824. 3. Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, instituted February 11. vol. i. and ii. Penzance. 4. Report of the Liverpool Royal Institution. 1822. 5. Bristol Institution. Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting, held February 10, 1825, &c. 6. Annual Report of the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for 1824. A GROWING taste for the cultivation of Physical Science characterizes the present state of the public mind in England, and deserves attentive consideration, since facilities, whether for acquiring elementary instruction in the various departments of Natural Philosophy, or for promoting their farther advancement, have not hitherto been provided by us with such liberality as has distinguished our exertions in behalf of other branches of useful knowledge. To insist on the high relative importance of scientific studies, whether as enlarging the sphere of our intellectual enjoyments, or as contributing to the rank and power of the nation, would in the present age be altogether superfluous; and every reflecting mind must be prepared to expect that our rapid improvement in wealth, intelligence, and civilization, should not merely render indispensable successive modifications and re-modellings of our political institutions, but also call, from time to time, for some corresponding changes in our public provisions for extending the advantages of a liberal education. The introduction and discovery of various arts and sciences before unknown or disregarded, and still more the rise and swift growth of new cities, and the sudden affluence to which commercial or manufacturing industry has raised districts hitherto insignificant and thinly peopled, must necessarily have created new wants; in the attempt to supply these the energies of our countrymen have of of late been signally displayed; and the measures which have been carried into effect throughout the country with great harmony of design, although chiefly by the unassisted exertions of private individuals, are characteristic of the genius of the British people, and without parallel in the history of contemporary nations. We allude to the recent establishment of numerous literary and philosophical institutions in our metropolis and many of our provinces. These are as yet indeed in the infancy of their career, but even now, if regarded collectively, they are entitled to a prominent place amongst our national establishments. Many people, it is true, have scarcely heard of their very existence-for no other reason than that their expediency has never assumed the character of a party question, and has never therefore become an animating topic of popular discussion. When we reflect, indeed, how often the proposal of new measures bearing less directly than these on the general interests of society has served to kindle in this country the spirit of political controversy,—when we remember that, at no distant period, rival theories of a purely philosophical nature, and as unconnected with the affairs of human life as the elements which strove for mastery in Milton's chaos, around the flag, of each his faction,' derived, nevertheless, exclusively from the ranks of opponent political parties, their zealous champions, we are at a loss to conceive by what happy accident the Institutions in question have so long escaped this prevailing contagion; and the addition of a few similar instances would persuade us that 'Chance' here also, as in the poet's allegory, is high arbiter, and governs all.' But as the interests involved in the present subject are of sufficient magnitude to arrest attention without the factitious aid of party excitement, we shall proceed to lay before our readers a brief sketch of the progress of these institutions considered in the order of their date-confining ourselves, lest we should transgress the limits of a single article, to such as are designed to promote the advancement of physical science, a class of studies never in former times fostered by a due share of public encouragement. To enable our readers to form a correct idea of the present state of these establishments, a consideration of those of a more ancient foundation is indispensable; we shall, however, merely mention here the Royal Society, as the services rendered to science by that body throughout the greater part of two centuries, and the information contained in their Transactions, (now amounting to 114 volumes,) so varied in its nature and so profound, are justly and universally appreciated. For the same reason we shall merely advert to the Observatory of Greenwich, founded a few years |