—From surrounding things the hues with which day has adorn’d them Fade, like the hopes of youth.—P. 1.

THIS effect of twilight, and in the very scene described, has been lately represented by Mr William Westall, in one of his Views of the Lakes, with the true feeling and power of genius. The range of mountains which is described in these introductory lines, may also be seen in his View of the Vale of Keswick from the Penrith road.

—The last pale lint of the twilight, Green as a stream in the glen whose pure and chrysolite waters Flow o’er a schistous bed.—P. 2.

St Pierre, who is often a fanciful, generally a delightful, but always an animated and ingenious writer, has some characteristic speculations con-

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cerning this green light of evening. He says, “Je suis porté à attribuer à la couleur verte des végétaux qui couvrent en été une grande partie de notre hémisphère, cette belle teinte d’émeraude que l’on apperçoit quelquefois dans cette saison au firmament, vers le coucher du soleil. Elle est rare dans nos climats; mais elle est fréquente entre les tropiques, où l’été dure toute l’année. Je sais bien qu’on peut rendre raison de ce phénomène par la simple réfraction des rayons du soleil dans l’atmosphère, ce prisme sphérique de notre globe. Mais, outre qu’on peut objecter que la couleur verte ne se voit point en hiver dans notre ciel, c’est que je peux apporter à l’appui de mon opinion d’autres faits qui semblent prouver que la couleur même azurée de l’atmosphère n’est qu’une réflexion de celle de l’océan. En effet, les glaces flottantes qui descendent tous les ans du pôle nord, s’annoncent, devant de paraître sur l’horizon, par une lueur blanche qui éclaire le ciel jour et nuit, et qui n’est qu’un reflet des neiges cristallisées qui les composent. Cette lueur paraît semblable à celle de l’aurore boréale, dont le foyer est au milieu des glaces même de notre pôle, mais dont la couleur blanche est mélangée de jaune, de rouge, et de vert, parcequ’elle participe des couleurs du sol ferrugineux et de la verdure des forêts de sapins qui couvrent notre zone glaciale. La cause de cette variation de couleurs dans notre aurore boréale est d’autant plus vraisemblable, que l’aurore australe, comme l’a observé le Capitaine Cook, en diffère en ce que sa couleur blanche n’est jamais mélangée que de teintes bleues, qui n’ont

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lieu, selon moi, que parce que les glaces du pôle austral, sans continent et sans végétaux, sont entourées de toutes parts de l’océan, qui est bleu. Ne voyons-nous pas que la lune, que nous supposons couverte en grande partie de glaciers très élevés, nous renvoie en lumière d’un blanc bleuâtre les rayons du soleil, qui sont dorés dans notre atmosphère ferrugineuse? N’est-ce pas par la réverbération d’un sol composé de fer, que la planète de Mars nous réfléchit, en tout temps, une lumière rouge? N’est-il pas plus naturel d’attribuer ces couleurs constantes aux réverbérations du sol, des mers, et des végétaux de ces planètes, plutôt qu’aux réfractions variables des rayons du soleil dans leurs atmosphères, dont les couleurs devraient changer à toute heure, suivant leurs différens aspects avec cet astre? Comme Mars apparaît constamment rouge à la terre, il est possible que la terre apparoisse à Mars comme une pierrerie brillante des couleurs de l’opale au pôle nord, de celles de l’aigue-marine au pole sud, et, tour-à-tour, de celles du saphir et de l’emeraude dans le reste de sa circonférence. Mais, sans sortir de notre atmosphère, je crois que la terre y renvoie la couleur bleue de son océan avec des reflets de la couleur verte de ses végétaux, en tout temps dans la zone torride, et en été seulement dans nos climats, par la même raison que ces deux poles y réfléchissent des aurores boréales différentes, qui participent des couleurs de la terre, ou des mers qui les avoisinent.

“Peut-être même notre atmosphère réfléchit-elle quelquefois les formes des

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paysages, qui annoncent les îles aux navigateurs bien long-temps avant qu’ils puissent y aborder. Il est remarquable qu’elles ne se montrent comme les reflets de verdure qu’à l’horizon et du côté du soleil couchant. Je citerai, à ce sujet, un homme de l’Ile de France qui apercevoit dans le ciel les images des vaisseaux qui étaient en pleine mer: le célèbre Vernet, qui m’a attesté avoir vu une fois dans les nuages les tours et les remparts d’une ville située à sept lieues de lui; et le phénomène du détroit de Sicile, connu sous le nom de Fée-Morgane. Les nuages et les vapeurs de l’atmosphère peuvent fort bien réfléchir les formes et les couleurs des objets terrestres, puisqu’ils réfléchissent dans les parélies l’image du soleil au point de la rendre ardente comme le soleil lui-même. Enfin, les eaux de la terre répètent les couleurs et les formes des nuages de l’atmosphère, pourquoi les vapeurs de l’atmosphère, à leur tour, ne pourroient-elles pas réfléchir le bleu de la mer, la verdure et le jaune de la terre, ainsi que les couleurs chatoyantes des glaces polaires?

Au reste, je ne donne mon opinion que comme mon opinion. L’histoire de la nature est un édifice à peine commencé; ne craignons pas d’y poser quelques pierres d’attente: nos neveux s’en serviront pour l’agrandir, ou les supprimeront comme superflues. Si mon autorité est nulle dans l’avenir, peu importera que je me sois trompé sur ce point: mon ouvrage rentrera dans l’obscurité d’où il était sorti. Mais s’il est un jour de quelque considération,

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mon erreur en physique sera plus utile à la morale, qu’une vérité d’ailleurs indifférente au bonheur des hommes. On en concluera avec raison qu’il faut être en garde contre les écrivains même accrédités.
Harmonies de la Nature, t. i, 129.

“I am inclined to attribute to the green colour of the vegetables with which, during the summer, a great part of our hemisphere is covered, that beautiful emerald tint which we sometimes perceive at that season in the firmament, towards the setting of the sun. It is rare in our climates, but is frequent between the tropics, where summer continues throughout the year. I know that this phenomenon may be explained by the simple refraction of the rays of the sun in the atmosphere, that spherical prism of our globe. But to this it may be objected, that the green colour is not seen during the winter in our sky; and moreover, I can support my opinion by other facts, which appear to prove that even the azure colour of the atmosphere is only a reflection of that of the ocean. In fact, the floating ice which descends every year from the North Pole, is announced before it appears upon the horizon, by a white blink, which enlightens the heaven day and night, and which is only a reflection of the crystallized snows, of which those masses are composed. This blink resembles the light of the aurora borealis, the centre of which is in the middle of the ice of our pole, but the white colour of which is mixed with yellow, with red, and with

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green, because it partakes of the colour of a ferruginous soil, and of the verdure of the pine forests which cover our icy zone. This explanation of these variations of colour in our aurora borealis, is so much the more probable, because that of the aurora australis, as Captain Cook has observed, differs in that its white colour is mixed with blue tints alone, which can only be, according to my opinion, because the ice of the austral pole (where there is no continent and no vegetation), is surrounded on all parts with the ocean, which is blue. Do we not see that the moon, which we suppose to be covered in great part with very elevated glaciers, sends back to us, in a light of a bluish white, the rays of the sun, which are golden in our ferruginous atmosphere? Is it not by the reverberation of a soil composed of iron, that the planet Mars reflects upon us at all times a red light? Is it not more natural to attribute these constant colours to the reverberation of the soil, of the seas, and of the vegetables of these planets, rather than to the variable refractions of the rays of the sun in their atmospheres, the colours of which ought to change every hour, according to their different aspects with regard to that star. As Mars appears constantly red to the earth, it is possible that the earth might appear to Mars like a brilliant jewel, of the colour of the opal towards the North Pole, of the agoa marina at the South Pole, and alternately of the sapphire in the rest of its circumference. But without going out of our atmos-

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phere, I believe that the earth reflects there the blue colour of its ocean with the green of its vegetation, at all times in the torrid zone, and in summer only in our climate, for the same reason that its two poles reflect their different auroras, which participate of the colours of the earth or the seas that are near them.

“Perhaps our atmosphere sometimes reflects landscapes, which announce islands to the sailors long before they reach them. It is remarkable that they show themselves, like the reflections of verdure, only in the horizon and on the side of the setting sun. I shall cite, on this subject, a man of the Isle of France, who used to perceive in the sky the images of vessels, which were out in full sea; the celebrated Vernet, who related to me that he had once seen in the clouds the ramparts of a town, situated seven leagues distant from him, and the phenomenon of the straits of Sicily, known under the name of the Fata Morgana. The clouds and the vapours of the atmosphere may very well reflect the forms and the colours of earthly objects, since they reflect in parhelions the image of the sun, so as to render it burning as the sun itself. In fine, if the waters of the earth repeat the colours and the forms of the clouds of the atmosphere, why then should not the vapours of the atmosphere, in their turn, reflect the blue of the sea, the verdure and the yellow of the earth, as well as the glancing colours of the polar ices?

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In one point of fact, St Pierre is certainly mistaken. The green evening light is seen as often in winter as in summer. Having been led to look for it in consequence of suspecting the. accuracy of his remarks, I noticed it on the very day when this extract was transcribed for the press, (late in December,) and twice in the course of the ensuing week, and I observed it, not in the evening alone, and in the west, (in which quarter, however, and at which time, it is most frequently seen,) but in different parts of the sky, and at different times of the day.

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Whether France or Britain be threaten’d, Soon will the issue show, or if both at once are endanger’d.—P. 11.

The murder of the Duke of Berry, and the Cato-street conspiracy, were both planned at the time of the King’s death.

This is the Gate of Bliss.—P. 13

The reader will so surely think of the admirable passage of Dante, which was in the writer’s mind when these lines were composed, that I should not think it necessary to notice the imitation, were it not that we live in an age of plagiarism; when not our jackdaws only, but some of our swans also, trick themselves in borrowed plumage. I have never contracted an obligation of this kind, either to contemporary, or predecessor, without acknowledging it.

Discontent and disloyalty, like the teeth of the dragon, He had sown on the winds; they had ripen’d beyond the Atlantic.—P. 19.

“Our New World,” says M. Simond, “has generally the credit of having first lighted the torch which was to illuminate, and soon set in a blaze, the finest part of Europe; yet I think the flint was struck, and the first spark elicited, by the patriot, John Wilkes, a few years before. In a time of

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profound peace, the restless spirits of men, deprived of other objects of public curiosity, seized, with avidity, on those questions which were then agitated with so much violence in England, touching the rights of the people, and of the government, and the nature of power. The end of the political drama was in favour of what was called, and in some respect was, the liberty of the people. Encouraged by the success of this great comedian, the curtain was no sooner dropt on the scene of Europe, than new actors hastened to raise it again in America, and to give the world a new play, infinitely more interesting, and more brilliant than the first.”

Dr Franklin describes the state of things during the reign of Wilkes and liberty. He says, “There have been amazing contests all over the kingdom, twenty or thirty thousand pounds of a side spent in several places, and inconceivable mischief done by drunken, mad mobs, to houses, windows, &c. The scenes have been horrible. London was illuminated two nights running, at the command of the mob, for the success of Wilkes in the Middlesex election; the second night exceeded any thing of the kind ever seen here on the greatest occasions of rejoicing, as even the small cross streets, lanes, courts, and other out-of-the-way places, were all in a blaze with lights, and the principal streets all night long, as the mobs went round again after two o’clock, and obliged people who had extinguished their candles, to light them again. Those who refused had all their windows

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destroyed. The damage done, and the expense of candles, has been computed at fifty thousand pounds. It must have been great, though probably not so much. The ferment is not yet over, for he has promised to surrender to the court next Wednesday, and another tumult is then expected; and what the upshot will be, no one can yet foresee. It is really an extraordinary event, to see an outlaw and exile, of bad personal character, not worth a farthing, come over from France, set himself up as a candidate for the capital of the kingdom, miss his election only by being too late in his application, and immediately carrying it for the principal county. The mob (spirited up by numbers of different ballads, sung or roared in every street), requiring gentlemen and ladies of all ranks, as they passed in their carriages, to shout for Wilkes and liberty, marking the same words on all their coaches with chalk, and No 45 on every door, which extends a vast way along the roads in the country. I went last week to Winchester, and observed that for fifteen miles out of town, there was scarce a door or window-shutter next the road unmarked: and this continued here and there quite to Winchester, which is sixty-four miles.

Even this capital, the residence of the king, is now a daily scene of lawless riot and confusion. Mobs patrolling the streets at noon-day, some knocking all down that will not roar for Wilkes and liberty; courts of justice afraid

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to give judgment against him; coal-heavers and porters pulling down the houses of coal-merchants that refuse to give them more wages; sawyers destroying saw-mills; sailors unrigging all the outward-bound ships, and suffering none to sail till merchants agree to raise their pay; watermen destroying private boats, and threatening bridges; soldiers firing among the mobs, and killing men, women, and children, which seems only to have produced an universal sullenness, that looks like a great black cloud coming on, ready to burst in a general tempest. What the event will be God only knows. But some punishment seems preparing for a people who are ungratefully abusing the best constitution, and the best king, any nation was ever blessed with; intent on nothing but luxury, licentiousness, power, places, pensions, and plunder; while the ministry, divided in their councils, with little regard for each other, wearied by perpetual oppositions, in continual apprehension of changes, intent on securing popularity, in case they should lose favour, have, for some years past, had little time or inclination to attend to our small affairs, whose remoteness makes them appear still smaller.

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Sons of slander, be warn’d! and ye, ye Factionists, learn ye Justice, and bear in mind, that after death there is judgement.—P. 20.

Discite justitiam moniti, et non temnere Divos.—Virgil.

Would that the nations, Learning of us, would lay aside all wrongful resentment, All injurious thought, and honouring each in the other, Kindred courage and virtue, and cognate knowledge and freedom, Live in brotherhood wisely conjoined. We set the example.—P. 24.

Upon the publication of Captain Cooke’s Voyages, a copy of this national work was sent to Dr. Franklin, by the King’s desire, because he had given orders for the protection of that illustrious navigator, in case he should fall in with any American cruisers on his way home.

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Calm in that insolent hour, and over his fortune triumphant.—P. 30.

The behaviour of Charles in that insolent hour extorted admiration, even from the better part of the Commonwealth’s-men. It is thus finely described by Andrew Marvell:—

While round the armed bands Did clap their bloody bands. He nothing common did, or mean. Upon that memorable scene; But with his keener eye The axe’s edge did try: Nor call’d the Gods with vulgar spight To vindicate his helpless right; But bow’d bis comely head Down, as upon a bed.

Magnificent Edward, He who made the English renown, and the fame of his Windsor In the Orient and Occident known from Tagus to Tigris.—P. 31.

The celebrity which Windsor had obtained, as being the most splendid court in Christendom, and the seat of chivalry, may be plainly seen in the

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romance of Amadis, which was written in Portugal, towards the latter end of Edward the Third’s reign. The Portugueze’ in that age took their military terms from the English, and St George came into fashion among them at the same time as being the English Santiago.

A dispute arose between two knights, the one a Cypriot, the other a Frenchman, who were serving the King of Armenia against the Soldan of Babylon. The other Christian captains in the army determined that they should decide it by single combat before King Edward of England, as the most worthy and honourable prince in all Christendom; and the quarrel, which began in Armenia, was actually thus decided within the lists, at the palace of Westminster. It was won, not very honourably, by the Frenchman.

He who discovering the secret Of the dark and ebullient abyss, with the fire of Vesuvius Arm’d the Chemist’s hand.—P. 41.

Though chemistry is one of the subjects of which I am contented to be ignorant, I can nevertheless perceive and appreciate the real genius indicated by Dr Clarke’s discovery in the art of fusion. See his Treatise upon the Gas Blow-Pipe; or the account of it in the Quarterly Review, No 46, p. 466.

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In referring to the Safety Lamp of Sir Humphrey Davy, I must not be understood as representing that to be the most important of his many and great discoveries. No praise can add to his deserved celebrity.

Not to his affectionate spirit Could the act of madness innate for guilt be accounted.—P. 31.

The act of suicide is very far from being so certain an indication of insanity as it is usually considered by our inquests. But in the case of Chatterton, it was the manifestation of an hereditary disease. There was a madness in his family. His only sister, during one part of her life, was under confinement.

The gentle Amelia.—P. 45.

In one of his few intervals of sanity, after the death of this beloved daughter, the late King gave orders, that a monument should be erected

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to the memory of one of her attendants, in St George’s Chapel, with the following inscription:

King George III. caused to be interred near this place the body of Mary Gascoigne, Servant to the Princess Amelia; and this stone to be inscribed in testimony of his grateful sense of the faithful services and attachment of an amiable Young Woman to his beloved Daughter, whom she survived only three months. She died 19th of February 1811.