LITERARY MISCELLANIES. THE AMERICAN BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. Con- what connected view of preachers and preaching up to the beginning of the present century. The whole plan and purpose of this and the two preceding volumes was well conceived and admirably executed, in good taste, judgment, and skill, preCleve-senting as they do, in one connected and consecutive view, the history and character of pulpit eloquence, centuries, down to the present time. The pulpit preachers, and preaching, through many ages and and its appropriate themes infinitely surpass all others in their interest and importance to human well-being, and therefore such volumes as this and its predecessors can hardly fail of a cordial reception and due appreciation by all lovers of sacred eloquence. They will form a rich addition to the library of the Christian, or the Christian student, and will be regarded as a valuable and standard work in all choice collections. We bespeak for it an extensive sale. The work is embellished with The work contains the biographies of over six thousand seven hundred eminent deceased Americans, including statesmen, warriors, patriots, poets, clergymen, lawyers, physicians, merchants, mechanics, and others distinguished in the various walks of life. The compiler, in his preface, says: "I can truly say of my book, that it is my own labor of half a century, during which period, I have been gleaning from the wide field of American history, and from an immense multitude of journals, papers, and memorials of the dead, aided also by the contribution of facts from the friends of the deceased. I have introduced many anecdotes; for they often combine useful and important instruction with amusement. I have attempted truly to describe all characters; and, in following the pathway of truth, I have not invested men with excellencies that do not belong to them, nor regarded with equal favor contradictory systems of faith and irreconcilable principles of conduct. As an honest man, not deprived of intelligence nor void of benevolence, I have, as I think, kuown how to censure, as well as praise. .. Intelligent patriotic inquirers concerning the lives of their predecessors may here obtain the information which, unaided by this book, it might be impossible for them to procure; and which they certainly will not find in the books, whether called dictionaries or cyclopedias, containing abridgments of my coudensed biography." PULPIT ELOQUENCE OF THE NINETEENTH Century. Containing Discourses of eminent living Ministers in Europe and America, with Sketches, Biographical and Descriptive. By Rev. Henry C. Fish. With an Introductory Essay, by Edwards A. Park, D.D., Abbott Professor in Andover Theological Seminary. 8vo., pp. 815. M. W. Dodd. We welcome this additional volume to the great treasure-house of sacred literature. We could have several portraits, and the letter-press is in the usual good style of the publisher. WILEY & HALSTED have published "Thoughts, Feelings, and Fancies," by C. Nestell Bovee, very elegantly gotten-up in square duodecimo style, and bound in blue and gold. In the preface, the author informs us, that "This book is the result of a habit, early adopted by its author, and long adhered to, of jotting down, from time to time, as occasions served and convenience permitted, such impressions deemed worthy to be noted as occurred to him in the intervals of active professional business. It is now presented to the public, with somewhat of the hope that he may be able, later in life, partly through the suggestions of friends, and in part from the addition of new matter, and the excision of portions of the old, to make it ultimately worthy of a more enduring favor than he is entitled to expect for it in its present form." D. APPLETON & Co. have published, in three duodecimo volumes, an English translation of Alphonse de Lamartine's "History of Turkey." In the preface are given the titles of over thirty historical works consulted by the author, who further says in his preface, that "The study, in the localities as well as in books, of the things of the East, which have charmed, without intention of writing this history, over ten years of our life, and which, in familiarizing us with those delicious countries, have inspired us the passion to reproduce them. Such are our titles insensibly with, not indeed the faculty, but at least almost wished that it had been numbered Vol. III. with the original documents he may find them not to credence with the reader. In verifying them of so admirable a work, instead of an isolated sup-sufficient, but he will find them strictly true and plementary volume, as it purports to be, though it is in entire unity with the two preceding volumes. Its aim and object is well expressed by the compiler, who says: "the publication of this volume completes the original design of the "HISTORY AND REPOSITORY OF PULPIT ELOQUENCE." That design was, in brief, to treasure up the acknowledged MASTERPIECES of the great pulpit orators of other ages, and, by means of historical sketches of preaching, and biographical IRON CHURCHES IN THE METROPOLIS.-The iron and critical notices of eminent men, and the intro- churches recently erected in London are found to duction of their discourses, to furnish a view of the answer every purpose for which they were designed. Christian pulpit, in all ages and countries. The There are now five of them, one in each of the foltwo preceding volumes, reaching back to the lowing districts: Kennington, Kentish Town, Newearliest of the "fathers," brought forward a some-ington Butts, St. George's East, and Holloway. The authentic. In recitals so marvelous it is not the historian that is poetic, but the subject." The same firm has also published a new edition of the "American Angler's Guide," containing numerous additions and improvements, with a new second part, that has not appeared in any previous editions. The work is copiously illustrated. Holloway church cost £1000, and is capable of accommodating 700 people. The Rev. J. Rodgers describes it as "a most comfortable place of worship, well ventilated, warm in winter, cool in summer," and adds, "that it can be easily taken down when no longer needed in the district." It is 90 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 20 feet high, lined with wood, which is covered with canvas, and papered. The same clergyman remarks that these churches are exactly adapted to the peculiar wants of the day in respect to church accommodation. HOW TO IMPART ODOR TO FLOWERS.-Every day man is extending his empire over external nature. Flowers, more especially, spring at his bidding, in forms and colors so much richer and more beautiful than the original type, that he might almost boast them for his own. He has now gone a step further: he has acquired the art of imparting odor to the most scentless-thus constraining those beautiful things to delight the sense of smell as well as sight. A florist of Aricia, as we are informed by the Emporio Italiano, has made completely successful experiments of this kind in heaping over the roots of flowers an odoriferous compost, and thus producing the required scent. By means, for instance, of a decoction of roses, he has given to the rhododendron the perfect odor of the rose. "To insure success, however, the seeds themselves of the plant to which it is desired to impart fragrance should be acted upon. Let them be immersed for two or three days in any essence that may be preferred, and then thoroughly dry them in the shade, and shortly after sow them. This operation is to give scent to those plants which have none whatever. But if it is required to substitute one scent for another natural to the plant, it is necessary to double or triple the quantity of the essence; and besides preparing the seed, it will be well to modify the nutritive substance. In order to retain the perfume, it will be necessary to repeat the moistening with the odorous substance several days during the spring-season, for two or three consecutive years. Fragrance may be given at the will of the horticulturist to any plant or tree, by boring a hole from one side of the stem to the other, or through the roots, and introducing the odoriferous ingredients into the hole." SCHOOL OF PARLIAMENTARY ELOQUENCE.-Among Mr. Spurgeon's congregation on Sunday morning were the Duchess of St. Alban's, Lady Coote, Lady Craven, Lady Mowbray, Mr. Baron Bramwell, and between sixty and seventy members of Parliament. The Rev. gentleman preached from Hebrews 4: 9, "There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God." Respecting this young Baptist minister the Patriot says: "His success is indicative of two important things, in both of which Congregationalists, especially, ought to rejoice: 1. That the same sensitiveness of the popular mind to power ful preaching which was present in the days of Bunyan, Whitefield, and Wesley, still lives among our countrymen. 2. That the great body of the laity still prefer the savor of sound doctrine. For, it will soon be evident, whether to those who read or to those who hear Mr. Spurgeon, that, young as he is, he has drank deeply, and still drinks, first at the pure spring of revealed truth; and then, that he delights himself in the study of the elder Puritan and Nonconformist divines. His theology belongs to the school of Usher and Bunyan, unpolluted by the muddy waters of German philosophy or German neology."—London Paper. AN important work is now in course of publication at Gratz. It is a complete history of the literature of the Austrian empire, and contains notices of from sixty to seventy thousand works. There are two hundred alone on the origin and rise of the House of Hapsburg. The author, Dr. Schmidt, has visited all the important public and private libraries of the kingdom to make this valuable history as complete as possible. The first volume, which alone has as yet appeared, reaches down to the time of Charles the Fifth, and the second volume, which is shortly expected, is to commence with his reign. The MONSTER DRUM.-Amongst other appliances which have been sought to augment the musical effects at the approaching Handel festival (at the Sydenham Palace) is a monster drum, the largest of its kind, as we are informed, that has been constructed. committee having heard that a skin fit for a drumhead, of unparalleled size, was in the possession of Mr. Distin, the musical instrument maker, at once commissioned its construction, more as an experiment than with any certain conviction of its utility in the orchestra. The result exceeds their most sanguine expectations. The tone is full and resounding, and more resembles that of a deep bourdon organ pipe, both in equality and continuance, than that generally obtained from an instrument of percussion. The vibration continues after the drum has been struck for nearly a minute, and for a longer period its pulsations are distinctly perceptible at a short distance. The diameter is between six and seven feet, the frame is said to contain 300 pieces of mahogany, adroitly joined in a manner best adapted to secure strength and freedom from warping. The instrument is as much under tuning control as a smaller drum. It more resembles a tambourine in its external form than an ordinary drum, having but one head, this form being said to allow greater freedom of vibration. The maker is Mr. Distin, of Melbourne street.-London paper. RUSSIAN POST-OFFICE ESPIONAGE.-It may be assumed confidently that every letter before it leaves the Russian Post-Office, if it be not stamped with the seal of a well-known and unsuspected house, or marked with the name of an unsuspected person as the writer, will infallibly be opened and read. The process observed is this: Where the impression of the seal is bold, it is laid on a piece of soft metal, and a sharp blow administered to it from the front sido of the letter with a mallet; the wax is broken into fragments and dust, but the impression remains sunk in intaglio on the metal, which thus forms a die, with an effigy that is a perfect counterpart of the writer's seal, ready for use. A letter fastened with a wafer previous to sealing it gives a good deal moro trouble; in this case a fine jet of gas is directed by means of a blow-pipe against the wax in a circle all round the wafer and the impression, and the wax being melted and the paper being burnt through in that circular line, there is no further impediment to the letter being opened, while the impression remains uninjured on the back. When the latter has been read and closed again, the gas jet is again put in requisition to fill up the perforation of the wax by fusing the neighboring parts, and the whole seal looks as if nothing had happened it. This system of letter espionage is carried on still to as great an extent as under the old régime of the Emperor Nicholas. IT has been determined to separate the office of Keeper of the Archives of Cologne from another situation which has been hitherto held with it, and to appoint to the post a man of high literary character, whose duty will be, not merely to be answerable for the safety of the records intrusted to him, but to prepare for publication the most valuable and interesting of the manuscripts. The archives of the ancient city of Cologne are replete with historical interest, and are amongst the most valuable of the old German records. There are already several candidates for the office, of high literary reputation, in the field, amongst the best known of whom, are Herr Müller of Königswinter, and Dr. Springer of Bonn. THE Natural History Society of Canada have determined upon republishing, under a committee of scientific members, the "Canadian Naturalist and Geologist." The first number of the new volume has just been received in England, and will be continued regularly to subscribers every alternate month. THE Correspondence of the Emperor Charles VI. (Charles III. of Spain) has recently been published, and conveys new and valuable information respect ing the war of the Spanish Succession. THE DEATH-WATCH.-This name evidently has its origin from dark and superstitious times. It is nothing more nor less than a diminutive beetle, the little creature that perforates the round holes in old worm-eaten furniture and wood-work. "The ticking," says an eminent naturalist, "is produced by striking its head against the wood," in the progress of these perforations; and how yet often has it struck terror in the minds of the attendants of the sick, and, from communicating the omen to the patient, the skill of the physician has been completely baffled? Even yet, in isolated rural districts, the belief that it is the harbinger of death remains unshaken. LAST WORDS OF MARIA THERESA.-To her son Joseph, who was persuading her to try and sleep, she said, “Joseph, when God is calling, who dares sleep?" A LITERARY ANTIQUITY.-Among the literary treasures in Durham Cathedral, is a book with the cover executed in needle-work by Lady Arabella Stuart, niece of Mary, Queen of Scots, and granddaughter of Henry the Seventh, who died a lunatic in the Tower. She was a well-educated woman, and worked the cover to show her respect for Greek and Hebrew learning. Her handiwork is now a little tattered, and one day a lady-visitor to the cathedral, being admitted to the library, with a young woman's kindness and love of neatness, offered to "mend the cover"-an offer which, of course, was declined. THE INSECT WORLD.-Professor Agassiz says, that more than a lifetime would be necessary to enumerate the various species of insects and describe their appearance. Meiger, a German, collected and described six hundred species of flies, which he collected in a district of ten miles circumference. There have been collected in Europe twenty thousand species of insects preying on wheat. In Berlin, two professors are engaged in collecting, observing, and describing insects and their habits, and already have published five large volumes upon the insects which attack forest trees. INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS OF CASTOR OIL-M. Bouis, a French chemist, has made some important discoveries respecting castor oil, especially when it is found that a piece of ground in Algiers will yield three times as much castor oil as olive oil, and twice as much as palm oil; and that his investigations will enable castor oil to be applied to industrial purposes, to which it was not applicable formerly. By distilling castor oil upon concentrated potash, the sebacic acid and caprylic alcohol are extracted as separate products, which may be turned to good account. The sebacic acid, having a high melting-point, may be employed instead of stearic acid in the manufac ture of candles; and if it be mixed with stearic acid. the hardness and quality of the candles are greatly improved, and in appearance they resemble porcelain. It is possible to use caprylic alcohol in all the purposes to which ordinary alcohol is put, particularly in illumination, and in the composition of var nishes; and from it certain compound ethers may be TEACHING THE EYE.—The great majority of man- derived, of remarkable odor, similar to those which kind do not and can not see one fraction of what they might see. "None are so blind as those that will not see," is as true of physical as moral vision. By neglect and carelessness we have made ourselves unable to discern hundred of things which are before us to be seen. A powerful modern writer has summed this up in one pregnant sentence: "The eye sees what it brings the power to see." How true is this! The sailor on the look-out can see a ship where the landsman sees nothing; the Esquimaux can distinguish a white fox amidst the white snow; the American backwoodsman will fire a rifle ball so as to strike a nut out of the mouth of a squirrel without hurting it; the Red Indian boys hold their hands up as marks to each other, certain that the unerring arrow will be shot between the spread-out fingers; the astronomer can see a star in the sky, when to others the blue expanse is unbroken; the shepherd can distinguish the face of every sheep in his flock; the mosaic worker can detect distinctions of color where others see none; and multitudes of additional examples might be given of what education does for the eye. are at present largely used in commerce.-Medical Times. THE "Quarterly Review" contains an anecdote of Lord Raglan, when his arm was amputated. The authority is the Prince of Orange. The Prince, we are told, used to recount that not a word announced the entry of a new patient, nor was he conscious of the presence of Lord Raglan (then Lord F. Somerset) till he heard him call out in the usual way: "Hallo! don't carry away that arm till I have taken off my ring." Neither the wound nor the operation had extorted a groan from the wounded soldier. BEES.-A swarm of bees in the natural state contains from 10,000 to 20,000 of the insects, whilst in hives they number from 30,000 to 40,000. In a square foot of honeycomb there are about 9000 cells. A queen-bee lays her eggs for 50 or 60 consecutive days, laying about 500 daily. It takes three days to hatch each egg. In one season a single queen-bee hatches about 100,000 bees. It takes 5000 bees to weigh a pound. |