An observer states that in forty-two successive days at the Cape, there were only three in which he could not see Venus in broad daylight. Sir John Herschel assures us that he has written a letter by the light of an eclipse of the moon. Under these circumstances, the starry heavens presented a brilliance, of which the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere can have no conception; the line from Orion to Antinous being remarkably rich and brilliant, and appearing as a continuous blaze of light; with, however, a few patches of the sky destitute of stars.
INTRODUCTION OF THE POTATO.
The history of the potato affords a strong illustration of the influence of authority. For more than two centuries, the use of this invaluable plant was vehemently opposed: at last, Louis XV. wore a bunch of its blossoms in the midst of his courtiers, and the consumption of the root became universal in France.
FARADAY, AS A LECTURER.
Von Raumer acutely observes:—"Mr. Faraday is not only a man of profound chemical and physical science, (which all Europe knows), but a very remarkable lecturer. He speaks with ease and freedom, but not with a gossiping unequal tone, alternately inaudible and bawling, as some very learned professors do; he delivers himself with clearness, precision, and ability. Moreover, he speaks his language in a manner which confirmed me in a secret suspicion I had, that a great number of Englishmen speak it very badly. Why is it that French in the mouth of Mdlle. Mars, German in that of Tieck, and English in that of Faraday, seems a totally different language? Because they articulate what other people swallow or chew. It is a shame that the power and harmony of simple speech (I am not talking of eloquence, but of vowels and consonants), that the tones and inflexions which God has given to the human voice, should be so neglected and abused. And those who think they do them full justice—preachers—generally give us only the long straw of pretended connoisseurs, instead of the chopped straw of the dilettanti."
THE RAILWAY SYSTEM SUGGESTED.
A striking suggestion of the extension of railway communication into a "system," as connecting lines are now called, will be found in Sir Richard Phillips's Morning's Walk from London to Kew, published in 1813. On reaching the Surrey Iron Railway at Wandsworth, Sir Richard records: "I found renewed delight on witnessing, at this place, the economy of horse labour on the Iron Railway. Yet a heavy sigh escaped me, as I thought of the inconceivable millions which have been spent about Malta, four or five of which might have been the means of extending double lines of iron railway from London to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Holyhead, Milford, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Dover, and Portsmouth! A reward of a single thousand would have supplied coaches and other vehicles, of various degrees of speed, with the best tackle for readily turning out; and we might, ere this, have witnessed our mail coaches running at the rate of 10 miles an hour, drawn by a single horse, or impelled 15 miles an hour by Blenkinsop's steam-engine. Such would have been a legitimate motive for overstepping the income of a nation; and the completion of so great and useful a work would have afforded rational ground for public triumph in general jubilees!"