duced him in a few months to send for Torquato; and when he arrived, the graces and accomplishments of the boy so pleased the Duke, that he appointed him the companion of his own son in his studies. They remained at the court of Urbino for two years, when, in 1559, the changing fortunes of Bernardo drew them from thence to Venice. This unsettled life, however, had never interrupted the youthful studies of Tasso; and after they had resided for some time at Venice, his father sent him to the University of Padua, in the intention that he should prepare himself for the profession of the law. But all views of this kind were soon abandoned by the young poet. Instead of perusing Justinian he spent his time in writing verses; and the result was the publication of his poem of Rinaldo before he had completed his eighteenth year. We cannot here trace minutely the remaining progress of his shifting and agitated history. His literary industry in the midst of almost ceaseless distractions of all kinds was most extraordinary. His great poem, the Jerusalem Delivered, is said to have been begun in his nineteenth year, when he was at Bologna. In 1565 he first visited the court of Ferrara, having been carried thither by the Cardinal Luigi d'Este, the brother of the reigning duke Alphonso. This event gave a color to the whole of Tasso's future existence. It has been supposed that the young poet allowed himself to form an attachment to the princess Leonora, one of the two sisters of the Duke, and that the object of his aspiring love was not insensible to that union of eminent personal graces with the fascinations of genius which courted her regard. But there hangs a mystery over the story which has never been completely cleared away. What is certain is, that, with the exception of a visit which he paid to Paris in 1571, in the train of the Cardinal Luigi, Tasso continued to reside at Ferrara, till the completion and publication of his celebrated epic in 1575. He had already given to the world his beautiful pastoral drama the Aminta, the next best known and most esteemed of his productions.

From this period his life becomes a long course of storm and darkness, rarely relieved even by a fitful gleam of light. For several years the great poet, whose fame was already spread over Europe, seems to have wandered from city to city in his native country, in a state almost of beggary, impelled by a restlessness of spirit which no change of scene would relieve. But Ferrara was still the central spot around which his affections hovered, and to which, apparently in spite of himself, he constantly after a brief interval returned. In this state of mind much of his conduct was probably extravagant enough; but it is hardly to be believed that he really gave any cause for the harsh, and, if unmerited, most atrocious measure to which his former patron and friend, the Duke Alphonso, resorted in 1579, of consigning him as a lunatic to the Hospital of St. Anne. In this receptacle of wretchedness the poet was confined for above seven years. The princess Leonora, who has been supposed to have been the innocent cause of his detention, died in 1581; but neither this event, nor the solicitations of several of his most powerful friends and admirers, could prevail upon Alphonso to grant Tasso his liberty. Meanwhile the alleged lunatic occupied and no doubt lightened, many of his hours by the exercise of his pen His compositions were numerous, both in prose and verse, and many of them found their way to the press. At last, in July, 1586, on

the earnest application of Don Vincenzo Gonzaga, son of the Duke of Mantua, he was released from his long imprisonment. He spent the close of that year at Mantua; but he then resumed his wandering habits, and, although he never again visited Ferrara, his old disposition to flit about from place to place seems to have clung to him like a disease. In this singular mode of existence he met with the strangest vicissitudes of fortune. One day he would be the most conspicuous object at a splendid court, crowned with lavish honors by the prince, and basking in the admiration of all beholders; another, he would be travelling alone on the highway, with weary steps and empty purse, and reduced to the necessity of borrowing, or rather begging, by the humblest suit, the means of sustaining existence. Such was his life for six or seven years. At last, in November, 1594, he made his appearance at Rome. It was resolved that the greatest living poet of Italy should be crowned with the laurel in the imperial city, as Petrarch had been more than two hundred and fifty years before. The decree to that effect was passed by the Pope and the Senate; but ere the day of triumph came, Tasso was seized with an illness, which he instantly felt would be mortal. At his own request, he was conveyed to the neighboring monastery of St. Onofrio, the same retreat in which, twenty years before, his father had breathed his last; and here, surrounded by the consolations of that faith, which had been through life his constant support, he patiently awaited what he firmly believed would be the issue of his malady. He expired in the arms of Cardinal Cinthio Aldobrandini, on the 25th of April, 1595, having just entered upon his fifty-second year. The Cardinal had brought him the Pope's benediction, on receiving which he exclaimed, "This is the crown with which I hope to be crowned, not as a poet in the Capitol, but with the glory of the blessed in heaven."

DAVID HUME AND HIS MOTHER.

Hume, the historian, received a religious education from his mother, and, early in life, was the subject of strong and hopeful religious impressions; but, as he approached manhood, they were effaced, and confirmed infidelity succeeded. Maternal partiality, however alarmed at first, came at length to look with less and less pain upon this declension, and filial love and reverence seem to have been absorbed in the pride of philosophical skepticism; for Hume now applied himself with unwearied, and, unhappily, with successful efforts, to sap the foundation of his mother's faith. Having succeeded in this dreadful work, he went abroad into foreign countries; and as he was returning, an express met him in London, with a letter from his mother, informing him that she was in a deep decline, and could not long survive; she said she found herself without any support in her distress; that he had taken away that source of comfort upon which, in all cases of affliction, she used to rely, and that she now found her mind sinking into despair: she did not doubt that her son would afford her some substitute for her religion; and she conjured him to hasten to her, or at least to send her a letter, containing such consolations as philosophy can afford to a dying mortal. Hume was overwhelmed with anguish on receiving this letter, and hastened to Scotland, travelling day and night; but before he arrived his mother expired.

No permanent impression seems, however, to have been made on his mind by this most trying event; and whatever remorse he might have felt at the moment, he soon relapsed into his wonted obduracy of heart.- -SILLIMAN'S Travels Thus in England. A story like this requires no comment. it is that false philosophy restores the sting to death, and gives again the victory to the grave!

A Tornado passed over the town of St. Louis on the evening of the 28th June, which prostrated 20 or 30 houses and damaged many more. But one life was lost as far as is known.

CLEVER WOMEN.

There is an unaccountable antipathy to clever women. Almost all men profess to be afraid of blue stockings-that is, of women who have cultivated their minds; and hold up as a maxim, that there is no safety in matrimony, or even in the ordinary intercourse of society, except with females of plain understandings. The general idea seems to be, that a dull ordinary woman, or even a fool, is more easily managed than a woman of spirit and sense, and that the acquirements of the husband ought never to be obviously inferior to those of his wife. If these propositions were true, there would be some show of reason for avoiding clever women. But I am afraid they rest on no good grounds. Hardly any kind of fool can be so easily managed, as a person of even first-rate intellect; while the most of the species are much more untractable. A dull fool is sure to be obstinate-obstinate in error as well as in propriety; so that the husband is every day provoked to find that she wilfully withholds him from acting rightly in the most trifling, and perhaps also the most important, things. Then the volatile fool is full of whim and caprice, and utterly defies every attempt that may be made by her nusband to guide her aright. In the one case, his life is imbittered for days, perhaps, by the sulkiness of his partner; in the other, he is chagrined by the fatal consequences of her levity. Are these results so much to be desired, that a man should marry beneath the rank of his own understanding, in order to secure them? I rather apprehend that cowardice in this case, as in most others, is only the readiest way to danger. As for the rest of the argument, I would be far from saying, that to marry a woman much superior to one's self in intellect, is a direct way to happiness. I must insist, however, that there is more safety for a man of well-regulated feelings, in the partnership of a superior than of an inferior woman. In the former case, I verily believe, his own understanding is likely to be more highly estimated than in the other. In the first place, he is allowed the credit of having had the sense at least to choose a good wife. In the second, he has counsel and example always at hand, for the improvement of his own appearances before society. The very superiority, however, of his wife, ensures that she will be above showing off to the disadvantage of her husband: she will rather seek to conceal his faults, and supply his deficiencies, for her own credit. Now, what sense a fool has, she must always show it, even though sure to excite ridicule from its being so little.

THE HERMIT AND THE VISION.

It is told of a religious recluse, who, in the early ages of Christianity, betook himself to a cave in Upper Egypt, which, in the times of the Pharaohs, had been a depository for mummies, that he prayed there, morning, noon, and night, eating only of the dates which some neighboring trees afforded, and drinking of the water of the Nile. At length, the hermit became weary of life, and then he prayed still more earnestly. After this duty, one day he fell asleep, and the vision of an angel appeared to him in a dream, commanding him to arise, and cut down a neighboring palm-tree, and make a rope of its fibres, and, after it was done, the angel would appear to him again. The hermit awoke, and instantly applied himself to obey the vision.

He travelled about, from place to place, many days before he could procure an axe; and during this journey, he felt happier than he had been for many years. His prayers were now short and few; but what they wanted in length and number, they out-measured in fervency.

Having returned with the axe, he cut down the tree; and, with much labor and assiduity during several days, prepared the fibres to make the rope; and, after a continuance of daily occupation for some weeks, completed the command.

The vision that night appeared to the hermit, as promised, and thus addressed him:"You are now no longer weary of life, but happy. Know then, that man was made for labor; and prayer also is his duty: the one as well as the other is essential to his well-being. Arise in the morning, take the cord, and with it gird up thy loins, and go forth into the world; and let it be a memorial to thee, of what God expects from man, if he would be blessed with happiness on earth."

At an assembly a gentleman entered into conversation with a young nobleman who was near him. Being a stranger, he nade several inquiries respecting the company, which were answered with great politeness. At length he said, "Who is that fat sow at the other end of the room?" "That, Sir," replied the young nobleman, "that fat sow is the Countess of D. -, and I have the honor to be one of her little pigs.". On the aanger of Personalities in Company-from "Instructions in Etiquette.”

The Morning Air.-There is something in the morning air, that while it defies the penetration of our proud and shallow philosophy, adds brightness to the blood, freshness to life, and vigor to the whole frame; the freshness of the lip, by the way, is, according to Dr. Marshall Hall, one of the surest marks of health. If ye would be well, therefore, if ye would have your heart dancing gladly like the April breeze, and your blood flowing like an April brook, up with the lark"the merry lark," as Shakspeare calls it, which is "the ploughman's clock," to warn him of the dawn; up and breakfast on the morning air-fresh with the odor of budding flowers, and all the fragrance of the maiden spring; up from your nerve-destroying down bed, and from the foul air pent within your close-drawn curtains, and with the sun "walk o'er the dew of the far eastern hills." But we must defend the morning air from the aspersions of those who sit in their close airless studies, and talk of the chilling dew, and the unwholesome damps of the dawn: we have all the facts in our favor, that the fresh air of the morning is uniformly wholesome; and, having the facts, we pitch such shallow philosophy to fools who have nothing else for a foot-ball.

The Bible.-Sir W. Jones, a most accomplished scholar, who had made himself acquainted with eight and twenty languages, has left it on record, that amidst all his pursuits the study of the Sacred Volume had been his constant habit. Sir Isaac Newton, the greatest of mathematicians, was a diligent student of the Bible. Mr. Locke, a man of distinguished acuteness in the study of the human mind, wrote to recommend the study of the New Testament; as having "God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth unmixed with error, for its matter." Milton, the greatest of poets, evidently had his mind most deeply imbued with the study of the word of God. Boerhaave, eminent as a natural philosopher, spent the first hour of every day in meditation on the sacred pages. Here no man can say that he has not leisure. A most beneficent institution of our Creator has given us, for this duty, a seventh part of our time, one day in eve.y week, one whole year out of every seven.

VARIETIES.

The ceremony of laying the corner stone of the Capitol of North Carolina, took place on the 4th day of July, when in conformity to the call of the citizens of Raleigh, delegates from nineteen counties attended for the purpose of devising and agreeing upon some plan of Internal Improvements to save the State from total ruin.

A large party of the Oneida Indians, under the charge of the agent, Mr. Savage, left Buffalo a few weeks since for Green Bay, in the schooner Globe. They numbered in all, men, women and children, 145-were well provided with every thing necessary to render them comfortable in their new habitation, and seemed happy in the prospect before them.

The Siamese Twins have been getting into difficulty at the West, being tried in Trumbull county, Ohio, for an assault and battery committed on an old and respectable citizen. The defendants pleaded guilty, and were each fined five dollars and cost.

The account from Mexico gives intelligence of a recent attempt to revolutionize that country. General Santa Anna was captured, but made his escape. The movement is said to have been produced by those, who are opposed to any encroachments upon the Catholic religion.

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This engraving represents a beautiful spot near Windsor in England, known under the name of Virginia Water. The lake is the largest piece of artificial water in the kingdom; if artificial it can be called-for the hand of man has done little more than turn the small streams of the district into a natural basin. The grounds are several miles in extent; although so perfectly secluded that a traveller might pass on the high road without being aware that he was near any object that could gratify his curiosity. They are now covered with magnificent timber, originally planted with regard to the grandest effects of what is called landscape gardening. By the permission of the king, Virginia Water is open to all persons.

The scenery in the neighborhood of this place is bold and rugged. A scene of great beauty bursts upon the view on approaching the margin of the lake. A verdant walk bounded by the choicest evergreens leads by the side of a magnificent breadth of water. The opposite shore is covered with heath; and plantations of the most graceful trees-the larch, the ash, and the weeping birch, ("the lady of the woods,") break the line of the more distant hills. The boundary of the lake is every where most judiciously concealed; and the imagination cannot refrain from believing that some great river lies beyond that screening wood. Every now and then the road winds through some close walk of pines and laurels, where the rabbit and squirrel run with scarcely a fear of man.

But we again find ourselves upon the margin of the lake, which increases in breadth as we approach

PRINTING AND STEREOTYPING.

The art of printing is one of the most extraordinary results of human ingenuity, and is certainly the very noblest of all the known handicrafts. Yet, important as it is acknowledged to be, three centuries elapsed from the date of the invention before it was perfected in many of its most necessary details. At first, the art was entirely in the hands of learned men, the greatest scholars often glorying in affixing their names to the works as correctors of the press, and giving names to the various parts of the mechanism of the printing office, as is testified by the classical technicalities still in use among the workmen. It was formerly mentioned that Guttenburgh the inventor, did not go the length of casting types from moulds: that great improvement is said to have been effected by Peter Schoeffer, the companion of Faust; and from that event till the invention of italic letters by Aldus Manutius, to whom learning is much indebted, no other improvement took place. It does not appear that mechanical ingenuity was at any time directed to the improvement of the presses, or any other

parts of the machinery used in printing, and the consequence was that till far on in the eighteenth century, the clumsy instruments of Guttenburgh, Faust, and Caxton, continued in universal use. The presses were composed of wood and iron, and were slow and heavy in working, while the ink continued to be applied by two stuffed balls or cushions, at a great expense of time and trouble.

At length, an almost entire revolution was effected in the printing office, both in the appearance of the typography and the working of the presses. About the same period, the art of stereotyping was discovered, and developed a completely new feature in the invention of printing. One of the chief improvements in the typography was the discarding of the long s, and every description of contractions, and, at the same time, the cutting of the letters was done with greater neatness and regularity. Among the first improvers of the printing press, the most honorable place may be given to the Earl of Stanhope, a nobleman remembered for his mechanical genius, who applied certain lever powers to the screw and handle of the old press, thereby diminishing the labor of the operative, and producing finer work. Since the beginning of the present century, and more specially within the last twenty years, presses wholly composed of iron, on the nicest scientific principles, have been invented by different men of mechanical genius in Great Britain and America, so as to simplify the process of printing in an extraordinary degree; and the invention of presses composed of cylinders, and wrought by steam power, has triumphantly crowned the improvements in the art. The introduction of steam presses has been furthered by another invention of an accessory nature, now of great value to the printer. Allusion is here made to the invention of the roller, for applying the ink, instead of the old unwieldy and insuffent balls. The roller, which is a composition of a glutinous nature, cast upon a wooden centre piece, was invented by a journeyman printer in Edinburgh, and was so much appreciated, as at once to spread over the whole of Britain and the United States.

It is our chief object, in this sketch, to give a brief explanation of the process of stereotypinga process without the aid of which the present, as well as many other works, could not be so extensively nor so cheaply circulated through the country. Stereotyping seems to have been invented simultaneously by different persons in various parts of England and Scotland during the last century. When properly made known, it was hailed with acclamation by the printing and publishing world, but, as experience developed its powers, it was found to be strictly applicable only to a particular kind of work. In putting up types, they are lifted one by one, and built into a little case held in the hand of the compositor, who, by the accumulation of handfuls, makes up a page, and lays it, with the face uppermost, on a table. After being wedged at the foot and side into an iron frame, and corrected, the page is carried to the press for working, and when the whole of the impression is off, it is brought back to the table, and the types distributed into their places. When the page has to be stereotyped, the same process of putting up is gone through, but, instead of being carried to the press, the page is plastered over with liquid stucco to the thickness of about half an inch, so that a level cake is formed on the surface of the types. As soon as

the stucco hardens, which it does almost immediately, the cake is separated from the types, and, on being turned up, shows a complete hollow or mouldlike representation of the faces of the types and every thing else in the page. There being no longer any use for the types, they are carried off and distributed. As for the cake, it is put into an oven and baked to a certain degree of heat and hardness, like a piece of pottery. It is next laid in a square iron pan, having a lid of the same metal, with holes at the corners. The pan is now immersed in a pot of molten lead, and being allowed to fill by means of the holes, it is at length taker out and put aside till it cool. On opening the pan, a curious appearance is presented. The lead has run into the mould side of the cake, and formed a thin plate all over, exhibiting the perfect appearance of the faces of the types on which the stucco was plastered. Thus is procured a fictitious page of types, not thicker than the sixth of an inch, and which can be printed from in the same manner as in the case of a real page. Such is the process of stereotyping, or making fixed or stationary types; -and now for the utility of the invention.

In all cases of common book work- it is best to print from types to the amount of the copies re quired, and then distribute the types; but in most cases of books published in parts, sheets, or numbers, stereotyping becomes absolutely necessary It is easy to perceive the reason for this. When books are published in numbers, it often happens that many more copies are sold of one number than of another, and unless the types be kept up to complete sets in the hands of the publisher, or to print copies according to the increased demand, a serious loss is sustained. The manufacture of stereotype plates is, therefore, simply a means of keeping up fictitious types to answer future demands, at an expense infinitely inferior to that of keeping the actual pages standing.

THE HAVANA SHARK. From Chamber's Edinburgh Journal. Subsequent to the disastrous attack on the American lines before New Orleans, on the 8th of January 1815, the British army proceeded to Isle Dauphine, in the Gulf of Mexico, where the troops remained until peace was concluded between Great Britain and the United States. As the men had been for several months exposed to severe hardships and many privations, the fleet was ordered, on its way home, to put into different ports, for the purpose of procuring fresh meat and vegetables. The ship I was on board of, with the regiment which I then commanded, belonged to that part of the fleet which touched at the Havana. circumstance I am about to relate is the capture of an enormous shark, which created considerable interest at the time. On arriving at the Havana, I obtained leave from the general officer commanding, to live on shore, for the purpose of seeing something of the island. I generally went on board every morning about 10 o'clock, to give the necessary orders for the regiment. Several of our men had died during the passage to Havana, and were consigned to the deep in the harber of that place. One morning when I was writing in the cabin, I heard a sudden running of the men upon deck towards the afterpart of the vessel, and a serjeant called to me from above to come on deck

The

Immediately. Not being exactly aware of what was going on, I drew my sabre, and ran on deck without my cap. I was received with a good laugh by the officers present, and very soon was made aware of the object of the men's curiosity. It was a sight I never can forget. One of our poor fellows had been thrown overboard in the morning, sewed up in his blanket, with a shot inside to sink him. By some accident, the sewing must have been loosened, and, consequently, the body floated; and, just as I came on deck, two enormous sharks made a dash at the body, divided it in two, and disappeared with their spoil. A feeling of horror ran through every spectator. At that instant, a third shark showed himself close to our vessel. I called

to the men to keep him alongside, by throwing him pieces of biscuit, at the same time desiring one of them to bring me a musket; on getting which, I fired at the animal, and the men shouted out that the ball had gone clean through him. He gave a flap with his tail, and went down, leaving the water slightly tinged with blood. At this moment, the black who beat the large drum came aft, and said to me, "Major, if you give me leave, I kill him and eat him in five minutes." I told him he should have five dollars for his pains if he kept his word. He immediately produced a shark-hook, baited it with a piece of pork, and, having fastened it to a strong line, threw it high into the air, and let it fall with a splash into the water. The effect was magical. Quick as lightning, two of the sharks were seen making towards the bait, and, in an instant, one of them swallowed it. "Now is the time, grenadier," cried blackie; "clap on the rope-line, and give him plenty o' play." Away went the monster like a whale, but our Othello's "occupation was not gone," and he commanded the grenadier, like an experienced general, until his enemy was lying spent and powerless on the surface of the water. A boat was now lowered, and the animal having been hauled alongside, a noose was made on a very thick rope, and he was swung into the air amidst the cheers of the whole fleet, every yard having been manned to witness our proceeding. The tail having been cut, the shark was laid on the deck, and blackie having selected a delicate piece from the shoulder, immediately proceeded to fulfil the latter part of his bargain, by broiling and eating it. The shark measured eleven feet in length, and seven feet across. The liver weighed seventy-three pounds. In the upper jaw were five rows of teeth, and in the under, six rows. I had the satisfaction to see that my aim had been good, as the mark of the ball was about two inches below the dorsal fin, and had gone "clean through," as the men said. Notwithstanding this wound, the voracious creature had returned to the charge within five minutes. The shark was a female, and had nineteen young ones in her belly when opened. They measured

about eighteen inches each. During the time she was alongside, I (as well as two hundred others) had an opportunity of observing the young ones passing in and out of the mother's mouth; they seemed to take refuge there on the least appearance of danger. This fact, I believe, has been doubted by some naturalists. The jaw of this animal is now at Abbotsford, having been sent to the late lamented Sir Walter Scott, by the writer of this account. the afternoon of the same day, after I had left the ship, the men caught another of the gang, rather longer than the first, and a bullock's hide and horns were found in the stomach. The horns were preserved by the surgeon of the regiment, and appeared, when taken out of the shark, to be quite soft and pulpy.

On

To account for this rather singular part of the story, I ought to mention that the captain of the vessel had hung several bullock hides on the rigging of the ship, which, producing a bad smell, I ordered them to be thrown overboard on the morning of the day on which the two sharks were killed.

But the most amusing part of the transaction was, that a complaint was made against me by the authorities of the place, for having destroyed two of the "guardians of their harbor." By this, I suppose, they meant, that these large sharks, playing about the mouth of the harbor, prevented a great fry of smaller ones from entering. They certainly were entitled to be considered in something like the light of "Tritons among the min

nows."

POPULAR INFORMATION ON SCIENCE.

No. I. ATTRACTION.

The word attraction is employed to denote that power or force by which all kinds of matter, whether of the size of atoms or of worlds, are drawn towards each other. There is, perhaps, no law of nature which produces phenomena so universally and continually presented to our observation, as attraction. If we lift our eyes to the starry heavens, and observe the motion, or, as Milton terms it, the " mystic dance" of these shining orbs, we find it, like an invisible rein, curbing them in their amazing journeys through the trackless ether, and compelling them to deviate from the rectilinear or straightforward course in which they would otherwise run, and wheel in a circular manner round some other body, the centre of their orbits of motion. Or if we turn our attention to the globe we inhabit, we find it drawing down to the earth again the stone which we have thrown into the air, or we see it forming into a globule the little drop of dew which hangs like an appropriate gem upon the delicate leaf of a flower. Or we see two contiguous drops upon the same spray, when brought near to each other, but still situated at a distance sufficient to be discerned by the eye, at last suddenly rush together and become one. Or we can detect its operations in uniting a few simple substances in various proportions, and producing the wonders of vegetable organization in infinite variety and never failing symmetry! How sublime, yet how simple; how minute, yet how comprehensive and magnificent is this law! at once exercising a power over the smallest atoms around us, while at the same time it is determining the revolutions of the gigantic and innumerable orbs that roll throughout the universe;