various offices of the pen, as those presented by the asylum of an inn-an English one, I mean. Here, when alone, as at this instant, all the comfort of shutting out obtrusion is secured, and felt, without experiencing, or apprehending, the gloom of solitude. The spirit is at once tranquillized and cheered. The seclusion of our private room; the certainty of that seclusion; and the merry stir which we know, rather than feel, to be going on without, combine to place the mind in this state of agreeable and confederate impression. This is the moment in which we love to take up our pen, and hold converse with some distant friend: and it is the moment at which we seem to become more interesting to that friend, because, under these circnmstances, our friend is peculiarly interesting to ourselves; and both these sensations are probably augmented by that temporary abstraction from the world and from care, which not only liberates the spirit from earthly thraldom, but fashions it for the pleasures of the imagination, and the pure enjoyment of affectionate intercourse. SPECULATION. FLOATING ORRERY, I NEVER heard of any mechanic, or astronomer, having conceived the project of a floating ORRERY; by which I mean a display of our planetary system, suspended in air without the help of any mechanical, artificial power. Yet this is, perhaps, not impossible. The inventive and excursive faculty of man is far from a feeling of exhaustion by the exertions already made; and he is perpetually encouraged to continued and fresh efforts by the brilliant successes, wherewith the zealous employment of his powers and the perseverance of his labours have been so greatly rewarded. A floating orrery, implying, as it necessarily does, a certain number of spheres suspended in air by means invisible and untangible, seems, in the character of an artificial exhibition, to be an impracticable attainment—a forlorn hope: the more so, if said spheres are required to perform their proper and their several movements. The completion of such a work as this we think it prudent to commit to the advancement of time and the progress of the arts. Here the reader shall meet my ready forgiveness, if, putting down his book, he shall exclaim-and, what would be the use of a flotilla such as this? what application can ever be made of it to the purposes and conveniences of mankind? what advantage will thence be derived to the ingenious and truly valuable arts? But, the interrogator, in return of my forbearance to his haste, will just allow me to remind him, that, when Dr. Franklin was asked, "what is the use of a balloon?" that acute philosopher asked, in his turn, "what is the use of a new-born child?-it may become a man. وو And, now, committing the production of a floating orrery to a prospective date of the achievements of man, we will venture to suggest that the rudiment of such beautiful exhibition may be not only conceived, but fixed and manifested in the |