tals. The arches of the second tier, which opened into the galleries, are of semicircular form, beautifully moulded, and have two pointed windows inserted in each. The third tier is of elegant pointed windows. At the western entrance is a Norman door, with a richly moulded arch, supported by slender columns, and recessed to the depth of seven feet and a half. Above it is a semicircular-headed window, flanked by small pointed arches on long slender shafts; and above the whole, in the gable, is a circular, or marigold window, of exquisite design. But the architectural gem of the abbey is the Norman door, which formed the southern entrance to the church from the cloisters. This, for elegance and symmetry, is unrivalled in Scotland; as is the minute finish of its sculptured mouldings springing from slender shafts with richly wreathed capitals; the former exhibiting flowers, men, and various animals, of beautiful and grotesque character.

The date of the foundation of this abbey is much disputed by historians. Some refer it to 1118; others to 1147; and, again, others to the year 1100. The architecture of the choir favours the latter inference; as do also the statements that St. Kennoch was abbot of Jedburgh so early as 1100, and that it was an abbey prior to the time of David I., to whom the foundation of this edifice, together with those of Kelso, Melrose, and Dryburgh, is attributed by some writers. From its contiguity to the border, Jedburgh Abbey frequently suffered during the English wars, particularly in the invasions of Edward I. It was burned and pillaged by the Earl of Surrey, at the storming of the town of Jedburgh, in the year 1523; and it was subsequently reduced to dilapidation by the Earl of Hertford, in 1545, when he ravaged and burnt the districts of Merse and Teviotdale, at the head of an army of 12,000 men; and the walls of the abbey still exhibit the blackening of the flames as they burst through their arches.

Altogether, we know not of a more picturesque scene than the ruins of Jedburgh Abbey, which will be remembered as a favourite scene with painters. The annexed view is from an original sketch by an artistical Correspondent. Akin to the sacred halo of religious antiquity about Jedburgh, is a poetical association of no common interest. On the south side of the ruined choir is a chapel, in the last century used as a grammar-school, where the poet Thomson received the rudiments of his education.

In the town of Jedburgh is the house which was inhabited by Queen Mary, after

her ill-fated visit to Bothwell, at Hermitage Castle. It is a large building, with small windows, and very thick walls, and a turret in the rear; though it has, doubtless, been modernized, its present appearance resembling that of a mansion-house of the reign of Charles II. "It is situated," says Chambers, "in a back street, and with its screen of dull trees in front, has a somewhat lugubrious appearance, as if conscious of its connexion with the most melancholy tale that ever occupied the page of history." A broad stone stair ascends to the second story, and a narrow winding stair leads to the third: the apartment of Queen Mary is a small room, with two windows, and is hung with tapestry in good preservation.

London Exhibitions.

THE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION.

Ar this period of the year, the metropolis usually presents a host of attractions for sight-seekers; but in no season within our recollection has London offered so many available resources for scientific and intellectual recreation as at the present moment. The fact is, Science has actually become fashionable as well as popular; and, as was well observed by the President at the last meeting of the British Association: "Science pervades our manufactures, and Science is penetrating to our agriculture; the very amusements, as well as the conveniences of life, have taken a scientific colour." The truth of this remark must be evident to every one who glances at the folio of eight pages, or at the prevailing indications of the public taste; and, to shew how profitable as well as pleasurable is this predilection for the refinements of Science, we propose, from time to time, to direct our readers' attention more especially to such public exhibitions, and other collections, not strictly public, as merit inspection.

Passing, though for the present only, the British Museum, (which we were happy to find open, under the new regulation, in the Easter-week,) we are inclined to commence our tour of inspection with the Polytechnic Institution, in Regent-street, which is crowded, from noon till the fashionable dinner-hour, by inquisitive visitors. Among the novelties here, are the spinning of glass by steam-power, and the subsequent weaving of it by a loom into court dresses and tapestries; a chromatic firecloud fountain; and Green's aeronautic experiments. The diving-bell, engraved about this time last year, in the Literary World, is put in requisition, or, rather, into the water, at stated hours; and upon the

mimic sea of the tank is shewn Col. Pasley's method of blowing up the Royal George; with Mr. Snow Harris's mode of protecting ships by lightning conductors; of which latter experiments, a parliamentary report has lately appeared. The Poly technic microscope is stated to be the largest and most powerful in Europe, and to shew pictures magnified 30,000 times.

The electrical experiments are especially interesting, and are brought up to the latest results; among which is copying engraved plates by voltaic action, stated to have been discovered by M. Jacobi; although the merit is claimed, and, we believe, established, by Mr. Thomas Spencer, of Liverpool. This art seems to have engrossed more attention on the Continent than in this country. In Russia, have long been engraved what are called "Russian snuff-boxes," which are formed of a kind of imitation platinum, and have drawings made upon them by an application to their conducting powers. Jacobi, we know, received sterling encouragement from the Emperor of Russia; where science appears to have captivated the imperial taste, so as to make a wit remark, that, fascinated as is Nicholas with electricity, it is some matter of surprise that he is not more considerate to the poles. The Polytechnic experiments have been undertaken by Mr. Bachoffner, who, in the presence of the visitors, has produced, by galvanism, fac-similes of coins, medals, and engraved plates, the latter yielding perfect printed impressions; those from the original and duplicate plates being handed to the spectators for inspection. The process is briefly as follows: the original plate being placed at the bottom of a vessel, is covered with a solution of sulphate of copper, through which a current of voltaic electricity is transmitted, so as to decompose the salt, and precipitate the copper on the original plate in a series of laminæ. On removing this plate of deposited copper, it is found to bear every mark traced by the graver, or etching-tool, of the original; with this difference, that what is bas-relief in one is alto in the other; and the engraved lines in the original become raised lines in the duplicate. The plate thus obtained becomes the matrix, or mould, from which, by a similar process, any number of plates may be taken or stereotyped. An unlimited number of plates may thus be obtained from an original; and the process, it is thought, will supersede the necessity of engraving on steel for the sake of durability. By similar means, copper may be precipitated upon medals, coins, dies, &c., so as to produce copies, equal, in every respect, to those struck by the steamengine.

Perhaps, however, the most popular novelty here is the apparatus for steering, elevating, and depressing balloons, without discharging ballast or gas; the operation of which is the subject of a lecture delivered by Mr. J. Cooper, in the theatre of the Institution. Of this attraction we took some notice in the Literary World about five weeks since. Subsequently, we took occasion to witness the experiments, when the results were not, to our thinking, sufficiently matured to warrant illustration in this Miscellany. We gather, however, from the Times of the 24th ult., that Mr. Green, the aeronaut, has since advanced nearer perfection, and promises to reduce his experiments to practice in the ensuing summer, in an aerial voyage from America to Europe. As the above communication to the Times places the experiments in a more intelligible light than hitherto, we shall detail them.

At a stated hour, a bell is rung in the principal apartment of the Institution, and off the visitors rush to the theatre; where Mr. Cooper having delivered an introductory lecture on the principles and applications of aerostation, Mr. Green then steps forth to illustrate the subject with his model balloon," which, although a mere toy in size, suffices for the purpose. On our visit, there was some inconvenience, and imperfection in the results, from the drafts of air in the theatre; which defects have, doubtless, been remedied. The principal points stated to be gained are briefly these:-by the use of simple machinery, the aeronaut is enabled to propel, and, to a certain extent, with the assistance of a rudder, in a calm atmosphere, to direct the course of the balloon, as well as to attain an ascending or descending power. By the adoption of a guide-rope, Mr. Green has obtained what he terms "a resisting medium," by which he can preserve a particular altitude. The machinery consists of a spindle, "which is acted upon by works similar to those used in a watch," to the end of which are affixed two vanes, or fans, set in an angle of twentytwo degrees. On the opposite side of the car is fixed another fan, which acts as a rudder. Whatever steerage is gained by this contrivance must, of necessity, be more or less weakened by the violence or moderation of the wind, or the currents of air, into which the balloon passes. So long as the fans act horizontally, and, therefore, propulsively in the same course, by the operation of the guide-rope, the balloon may be controlled, and kept at the desired altitude; whether it be elevated into a stronger current, or sunk into a less forcible action of air, or vice versa. For the purposes of a trip across the sea, it is proposed to

ballast the guide-rope by copper vessels charged with water, so as to gain weight or resisting power at will. The guiderope is the invention of Mr. Green; but the fans and rudder are the invention of Mr. J. O. Taylor, the engineer, who has patented the discovery, which he first applied to the propulsion of ships. These instruments are placed so as to work at a right angle with the wind in a horizontal position, but their action may be shifted to a vertical course; by which change the aeronaut may ascend or descend to any given elevation," the gas with which the balloon is inflated at this moment, being the medium of buoyancy, rather than that by which the increased or depressed altitude is attained. It is proposed to fix the machinery on a platform, to be suspended between the car and the balloon, where it can be put into action without inconvenience to the voyagers."

All who are gifted with the organ of constructiveness must be especially gratified with the Polytechnic collection of models of steam-engines, mining, and other machinery; also, the progress of manufactures and processes in the mechanical arts, such as the opulent scions of rank eagerly witness, in large establishments, on pleasure tours; and how many valuable lessons must their minds receive from such visits-how many lessons of labour and diligence, to remind the wealthy and the high-born, that, in the scale of civilization, how it becomes them to encourage such manly virtues. Luxury has been termed "the sweetener of life;" for it not only gilds the saloons of the rich, but lights up the otherwise gloomy abode of the operative poor. It is impossible not to be struck with similar reflections to these on inspecting the varied productions of human industry deposited in the Polytechnic Gallery; whilst the mind is tinged with feelings of patriotic pride which it were scarcely possible to suppress.

New Books.

ESSAY ON THE UTILITY, ORIGIN, AND PROGRESS OF WRITING.

[THE writer of this interesting brochure is Mr. F. B. Ribbans, F.S.A., one of the masters of the Birmingham and Edgbaston Proprietary School; in which station he has, doubtless, numerous opportunities of carrying out the precepts which he here very attractively enforces. Here are two specimens.]

Early English Writing.

From the invasion of this island by Julius Cæsar, till the final departure of the Romans. (A.D. 427,) the Roman letters and

the Roman language were both equally familiar to its inhabitants, as is proved beyond contradiction or controversy by the numerous Roman relics that are still remaining amongst us, and to the inscrip. tions upon which we can confidently appeal for the corroboration of this part of our theory. When the Saxons landed, by invitation, on our coast, and eventually settled in our country, they brought with them no importation of learning. The characters or letters which they afterwards used, and which, from them, were called Saxon, were, in point of fact, neither brought with them nor invented by them, but were actually borrowed from the Romans. These letters, which were at first derived from the Romans, and written in conformity with the Italian method, were, in process of time, altered in form, and barbarized in their aspect, by the Saxons, who adopted them. An attentive comparison of the Roman and Saxon characters will enable any one, who possesses the slightest powers of discernment and discrimination, to come to the same conclusion, and to perceive_the_different gradations by which the Roman letters acquired their Saxon form, and lost their original shape.

Careless Writing.

Important interests may be sacrificed, and immense enjoyments lost, by not learning to write, at the least, a clear, distinct, and legible hand. The indistinctness of writing arises most frequently from not giving each letter its due shape, size, and proportions; and so causing one to be mistaken for the other, or not easily distinguished from it. Another source of confusion may be traced to the careless joining of the letters which compose a word, or the uniting of words which ought to be separated from one another. Sir Walter Scott, while he represents Francis Osbaldistone's father as a steady merchant, and a good man of business, makes him criticise closely the handwriting of his son's letter, and to complain especially that his /'s are left without loops, and want, besides, that relative height that ought to distinguish them from t's. The crossing of the last-named letter, and the dotting the letter i, is another circumstance that ought to be attended to, because the neglect of it is productive of perplexity. Some people write the letters n and u in such a manner that it is impossible, by inspection, or sometimes by the closest examination, to tell the one from the other; and this, more particularly when there occur proper names, with which the decipherer happens to be previously unacquainted, must provokingly tantalize and

effectually puzzle him; and it is to be feared that many mistakes in the writing of proper names have deprived rightful owners and deserving persons of their property. I have somewhere read of a gentleman whose will expressed that his property was to be left to a Mr. Loudon or a Mr. London, both residing in the same town, but by no means intimate; and that legal proceedings decided in favour of Mr. Loudon, merely because the testator was once seen to speak to him, and because no such evidence appeared in favour of Mr. London. This case occurred on account of the unintelligible handwriting of the testator, whose n's were like u's, and whose u's were like n's; and all this is only to be avoided by learning to write well in the first instance, and by writing carefully ever after.

Periodicals.

MODERN SUPERSTITION. (From a striking paper, in Blackwood's Magazine.) We have pursued, through many of its most memorable sections, the spirit of the miraculous, as it moulded and gathered itself in the superstitions of Paganism; and we have shewn that, in the modern superstitions of Christianity, or of Mahometanism, (often enough borrowed from Christian sources,) there is a pretty regular correspondence. Speaking with a reference to the strictly popular belief, it cannot be pretended, for a moment, that miraculous agencies are slumbering in modern ages. For one superstition of that nature which the Pagans had, we can produce twenty. And if, from the collation of numbers, we should pass to that of quality, it is a matter of notoriety, that, from the very philosophy of Paganism, and its slight root in the terrors or profounder mysteries of spiritual nature, no comparison could be sustained for a moment between the true religion and any mode whatever of the false. Ghosts we have purposely omitted, because that idea is so peculiarly Christian* as to reject all counterparts or affinities from other modes of the supernatural. The Christian ghost is too awful a presence, and with too large a substratum of the real, the impassioned, the human, for our present purposes. We Ideal chiefly with the wilder and more

"Because that idea is so peculiarly Christian.”— One reason, additional to the main one, why the idea of a ghost could not be conceived or reproduced by Paganism, lies in the fourfold resolution of the human nature at death, viz.:-1. Corpus; 2. Manes; 3. Spiritus; 4. Anima. No reversionary consciousness, no restitution of the total nature, sentient and active, was thus possible. Pliny has a story which looks like a ghost story; but it is all moonshinea mere simulacrum.

aerial forms of superstition; not so far off from fleshly nature as the purely allegoric-not so near as the penal, the purgatorial, the penitential. In this middle class, "Gabriel's hounds". - the "phantom ship"-the gloomy legends of the charcoal burners in the German forestsand the local or epichorial superstitions from every district of Europe, come forward by thousands, attesting the high activity of the miraculous and the hyperphysical instincts, even in this generation, wheresoever the voice of the people makes itself heard.

But in Pagan times, it will be objected, the popular supersitions blended themselves with the highest political functions, gave a sanction to national counsels, and oftentimes gave their starting-point to the very primary movements of the state. Prophecies, omens, miracles, all worked concurrently with senates or princes. Whereas in our days, says Charles Lamb, the witch who takes her pleasure with the moon, and summons Beelzebub to her sabbaths, nevertheless trembles before the beadle, and hides herself from the overseer. Now, as to the witch, even the horrid Canidia of Horace, or the more dreadful Erichtho of Lucan, seems hardly to have been much respected in any era. But for the other modes of the supernatural, they have entered into more frequent combinations with state functions and state movements in our modern ages than in the classical age of Paganism. Look at prophecies, for example: the Romans had a few obscure oracles afloat, and they had the Sibylline books under the state seal. These books, in fact, had been kept so long, that, like port wine superannuated, they had lost their flavour and body. On the other hand, look at France. Henry the historian, speaking of the fifteenth century, describes it as a national infirmity of the English to be prophecy-ridden. Perhaps there never was any foundation for this as an exclusive remark; but assuredly not in the next

"Like port wine superannuated, the Sibylline books had lost their flavour and their body.”—There is an allegoric description in verse, by Mr. Rogers, of an ice-house, in which winter is described as a captive, &c., which is memorable on this account, that a brother poet, on reading the passage, mistook it, (from not understanding the allegoric expressions,) either sincerely or maliciously, for a description of the house-dog. Now, this little anecdote seems to embody the poor Sibyl's history-from a stern icy sovereign, with a petrific mace, she lapsed into an old toothless mastiff. She continued to snore in her ancient kennel for above 1,000 years. The last person who attempted to stir her up with a long pole, and to extract from her paralytic dreaming some growls or snarls against Christianity, was Aurelian, in a moment of public panic. But the thing was past all tampering. The poor creature could neither be kicked nor coaxed into vitality.

century. There had been with us British, from the twelfth century, Thomas of Ercildoune in the North, and many monkish local prophets for every part of the island; but, latterly, England had no terrific prophet, unless, indeed, Nixon of the Vale Royal in Cheshire, who uttered his dark oracles sometimes with a merely Cestrian, sometimes with a national reference. Whereas, in France, throughout the sixteenth century, every principal event was foretold successively, with an accuracy that still shocks and confounds us. Francis I., who opens the century, (and by many is held to open the book of modern history, as distinguished from the middle or feudal history,) had the battle of Pavia foreshewn to him, not by name but in its results-by his own Spanish captivity-by the exchange for his own children upon a frontier river of Spain-finally, by his own disgraceful death, through an infamous disease, conveyed to him under a deadly circuit of revenge. This king's son, Henry II., read, some years before the event, a description of that tournament, on the marriage of the Scottish Queen with his eldest son, Francis II., which proved fatal to himself, through the awkwardness of the Compte de Montgomery and his own obstinacy. After this, and we believe a little after the brief reign of Francis II., arose Nostradamus, the great prophet of the age. All the children of Henry II. and of Catharine de Medici, one after the other, died in circumstances of suffering and horror, and Nostradamus pursued the whole with ominous allusions. Charles IX., though the authorizer of the Bartholomew massacre, was the least guilty of his party, and the only one who manifested a dreadful remorse. Henry III., the last of the brothers, died, as the reader will remember, by assassination. And all these tragic successions of events are still to be read more or less dimly prefigured in verses of which we will not here discuss the dates. Suffice it, that many authentic historians attest the good faith of the prophets; and, finally, with respect to the first of the Bourbon dynasty, Henry IV., who succeeded upon the assassination of his brother-in-law, we have the peremptory assurance of Sully and other Protestants, countersigned by writers both historical and controversial, that not only was he prepared, by many warnings, for his own tragical death-not only was the day, the hour, pre-fixed-not only was an almanack sent to him, in which the bloody summer's day of 1610 was pointed out to his attention in bloody colours; but the mere record of the king's last afternoon shews, beyond a doubt, the extent and the punctual limitation of his anxieties. In

fact, it is to this attitude of listening expectation in the king, and breathless waiting for the blow, that Schiller alludes in that fine speech of Wallenstein to his sister, where he notices the funeral knells that sounded continually in Henry's ears, and, above all, his prophetic instinct, that caught the sound from a far distance of his murderer's motions, and could distinguish, amidst all the tumult of a mighty capital, those stealthy steps

-"which even then were seeking him Throughout the streets of Paris." We profess not to admire Henry IV. of France, whose secret character we shall, on some other occasion, attempt to expose. But his resignation to the appointments of Heaven, in dismissing his guards, as feeling that, against a danger so domestic and so mysterious, all fleshly arms were vain, has always struck us as the most like magnanimity of anything in his very theatrical life.

Passing to our own country, and to the times immediately in succession, we fall upon some striking prophecies, not verbal, but symbolic, if we turn from the broad highway of public histories, to the bypaths of private memoirs. Either Clarendon it is, in his Life, (not his public history,) or else Laud, who mentions an anecdote connected with the coronation of Charles I., (the son-in-law of the murdered Bourbon,) which threw a gloom upon the spirits of the royal friends, already saddened by the dreadful pestilence which inaugurated the reign of this ill-fated prince, levying a tribute of one life in sixteen from the population of the English metropolis. At the coronation of Charles, it was discovered that all London would not furnish the quantity of purple velvet required for the royal robes and the furniture of the throne. What was to be done? Decorum required that the furniture should be all en suite. Nearer than Genoa no considerable addition could be expected. That would impose a delay of 150 days. Upon mature consideration, and chiefly of the many private interests that would suffer amongst the multitudes whom such a solemnity had called up from the country, it was resolved to robe the king in white velvet. But this, as it afterwards occurred, was the colour in which victims were arrayed. And thus, it was alleged, did the king's council establish an augury of evil. Three other ill omens, of some celebrity, occurred to Charles I., viz., on occasion of creating his son Charles a knight of the Bath; at Oxford some years after; and at the bar of that tribunal which sat in judgment upon him.

The reign of his second son, James II.,