waiting with youthful reverence for the feriority, if you yield to such a notion, you 66 are no girls of mine. One of the Riverses! A pretty thing! You, at least, can tell any one who asks the question that your father is an honest man.' "But I suppose, papa, no one is likely to have any doubt upon the subject," said Agnes, with a little spirit. "It will be time enough to publish that when some one questions it; and that, I am sure, was not what mamma meant." 66 address which Mamma was about to deliver. It was true they were leaving home for the first time, and true also that the visit was one of unusual importance. They prepared to listen with great gravity and a little awe. My dears, I have no reason to distrust your good sense," said Mrs. Atheling, "nor indeed to be afraid of you in any way - but to be in a strange house is very different from being at home. Strangers will not have the same indulgence as we have had for "No, my love, of course not," said all your fancies - you must not expect it; Mamma, who was somewhat agitated. and people may see that you are of a differ-"What I meant is, that you are going to ent rank in life, and perhaps may presume people whom we used to know-I mean, upon you. You must be very careful. You whom we know nothing of. They are great must not copy Mrs. Edgerley, or any other people—a great deal richer and higher in lady, but observe what they do, and rule station than we are; and it is possible Papa yourselves by it; and take great care what may be brought into contact with them acquaintances you form; for even in such a about the Old Wood Lodge; - and you are house as that," said Mamma, with emphasis young and inexperienced, and don't know and dignity, suddenly remembering the the dangers you may be subjected to; — and, "connection of the family " of whom Mrs. my dear children, what I have to say to you Edgerley had spoken, "there may be some is, just to remember your duty, and read who are not fit companions for you." your Bibles, and take care!" 66 Yes, mamma," said Agnes. Marian looked down into the apronful of lace and muslin, and answered nothing. A variable blush and as variable a smile testified to a "Mamma! we are only going to Richmond-we are not going away from you," cried Marian in dismay. little consciousness on the part of the younger "At your time of life," continued the anxious mother, "a single day may have as much effect as many years. Indeed, Marian, my love, it is nothing to smile about. You must be very careful; and, Agnes, you are the eldest-you must watch over your sister. Oh, take care! - you do not know how much harm might be done in a single day." Take care of what, mamma?" said Marian, glancing up quickly, with that beautiful faint flush, and a saucy gleam in her eye. What do you suppose she saw as her beautiful eyes turned from her mother with a momentary imaginative look into the vacant space? Not the big head of Charlie, bending over the grammars, but the magnificent stature of Sir Langham Portland, drawn up in sentry fashion by her side; and at the recollection Marian's pretty lip could not refuse to smile. "My dears," said Mrs. Atheling, putting her handkerchief to her eyes, "I am an old I know more than you do. You cannot tell where you are going; you are going into the world." No one spoke for the moment. The young travellers themselves looked at their mother with concern and a little solemnity. Who could tell? All the young universe of romance lay at their very feet. They might be going to their fate. And henceforward I know," said the good mother, rising into homely and unconscious dignity, "our life will no longer be your boundary, nor our plans all your guidance. My darlings, it is not any fault of yours; you are both as obedient as when you were babies; it is Providence, and comes to every one. You are going away from me, and both your lives may be determined before you come back again. You, Marian! it is not your fault, my love; but, oh! take care." Under the pressure of this solemn and mysterious caution, the girls at length went up-stairs. Very gravely they entered the little white room, which was somewhat disturbed out of its usual propriety, and in respectful silence Marian began to arrange her burden. She sat down upon the white bed, with her great white apron full of snowy muslin and dainty morsels of lace, stooping her beautiful head over them, with her long bright hair falling down at one side like a golden framework to her sweet cheek. Agnes stood before her holding the candle. Both were perfectly grave, quite silent, separating the sleeves and 'kerchiefs and collars as if it were the most solemn work in the world. asked Marian; and Agnes said "Hush! and softly closed the door lest Mamma should hear the low and restrained overflow of those sudden sympathetic smiles. Once more the apparition of the magnificent Sir Langham At length suddenly Marian looked up. In gleamed somewhere in a bright corner of an instant smiles irrestrainable threaded all Marian's shining eye. These incautious the soft lines of those young faces. A girls, like all their happy kind, could not be momentary electric touch sent them both persuaded to regard with any degree of terror from perfect solemnity into saucy and or solemnity the fate that came in such a conscious but subdued laughter. "Agnes! shape as this. what do you suppose mamma could mean?" fate. BUT the young adventurers had sufficient white line of road, now and then passing by time to speculate upon their " fate," and to orchards rich with fruit-by suburban make up their minds whether this journey gardens and pretty villakins of better fashion of theirs was really a fortnight's visit to than their own; now and then catching Richmond, or a solemn expedition into the silvery gleams of the river quivering among world, as they drove along the pleasant its low green banks, like a new-bended bow. summer roads on their way to the Willows. They knew as little where they were going They had leisure enough, but they had not as what was to befall them there, and were inclination; they were somewhat excited, as unapprehensive in the one case as in the but not at all solemnized. They thought of other. At home the mother went about her the unknown paradise to which they were daily business, pondering with a mother's going of their beautiful patroness and her anxiety upon all the little embarrassments guests; but they never paused to inquire, as and distresses which might surround them they bowled pleasantly along under the elms among strangers, and seeing in her motherly and chestnuts, anything at all about their imagination a host of pleasant perils, half alarming, half complimentary, à crowd of "How grave every one looked," said admirers and adorers collected round her Marian. "What are all the people afraid girls. At Messrs Cash and Ledger's, Papa of? for I am sure Miss Willsie wanted us to brooded over his desk, thinking somewhat go, though she was so cross; and poor darkly of those innocent investigators whom Harry Oswald, how he looked last night!" he had sent forth into an old world of former At this recollection Marian smiled. To connections, unfortified against the ancient tell the truth, she was at present only grudge, if such existed, and unacquainted amused by the gradual perception dawning with the ancient story. Would anything upon her of the unfortunate circumstances come of this acquaintanceship? Would of these young gentlemen. She might never have found it out had she known only Harry Oswald; but Sir Langham Portland threw light upon the subject which Marian had scarcely guessed at before. Do you think she was grateful on that account to the handsome Guardsman? Marian's sweet face brightened all over with amused half-blushing smiles. It was impossible to tell. "But, Marian," said Agnes, "I want to be particular about one thing. We must not deceive any one. Nobody must suppose we are great ladies. If anything should happen of any importance, we must be sure to tell who we are. "That you are the author of Hope Hazlewood," said Marian, somewhat provokingly. "Oh! Mrs. Edgerley will tell everybody that; and as for me, I am only your sister -nobody will mind me." So ti.ey drove on under the green leaves, which grew less and less dusty as they left London in the distance, through the broad anything come of the new position which placed them once more directly in the way of Lord Winterbourne? Papa shook his head slowly over his daybook, as ignorant as the rest of us what might have to be written upon the fair blank of the very next page who could tell? As Charlie, meanwhile, at Mr. Foggo's office, buckled on his harness this important morning with a double share of resolution. his brow rolled down with all its furrows in a frown of defiance at the "old fellow " whom he took down from the wired bookcase, it was not the old fellow, but Lord Winterbourne, against whom Charlie bit his thumb. In the depths of his heart he wished again that this natural enemy might "only try" to usurp possession of the Old Wood Lodge, A certain excitement possessed him regarding the visit of his sisters. Once more the youth, in his hostile imagination, beheld the pale face at the door, the bloodless and spasmodic smile. "I knew I owed him something," muttered once more the in- ners, and sung to themselves, in unthinking stinctive enmity; and Charlie was curious sympathy with the roll and hum of the leisand excited to come once more in contact with this mysterious personage, who had raised so active and sudden an interest in his secret thoughts. urely wheels, conveying them on and on to their new friends and their future life. They were content to leave all questions of the kind to a more suitable season-and so, But the two immediate actors in this singing, smiling, whispering (though no one social drama - the family doves of inquiry, was near to interrupt them), went on, on who might bring back angry thorns instead their charmed way, with their youth and of olive branches- the innocent sweet pio- their light hearts, to Armida and her enneers of the incipient strife, went on un- chanted garden. to the world, with its troubled in their youthful pleasure, looking syrens and its lions-forecasting no difficulat the river and the sunshine, dreaming the ties, seeing no evil. They had no day-book fairy dreams of youth. What new life they to brood over like Papa. To-morrow's magverged and bordered-what great consequen-nificent blank of possibility was always before ces might. grow and blossom from the seed them, dazzling and glorious - they went time of to-day-how their soft white hands, forward into it with the freshest smile and heedless and unconscious, might touch the the sweetest confidence. Of all the evils and trembling strings of fate-no one of all perils of this wicked world, which they had these anxious questions ever entered the heard so much of, they knew none which charmed enclosure of this homely carriage, they, in their happy safety, were called upon where they leant back into their several cor- to fear. PLACING OF LARGE STONES BY THE ANCIENTS. | henge in a single night, if the requisite stones It is usually a matter of wonder to modern ob- were prepared and placed in readiness near the servers that the ancients, destitute as they were spot. British Association Report, 1844. of complicated machinery, should have been able to transport, raise, and place large stones, whether standing alone or as part of such buildings as the pyramids. The late discoveries at Nineveh fully expound to us the means of transporting large blocks: it was by placing rollers beneath. As to the means of raising, all we learn from Herodotus is, that it was effected by short pieces of wood. How so? The following suggestion in reply was made a few years ago by a gentleman named Perigal, before the British Association: Suppose a block has to be raised up along the pyramid, in order to be placed in one of the courses of the masonry. It is brought by rollers to the base of the building. There all the rollers are removed except one near the centre. One end of the stone being now depressed to the ground, a pile of slips of wood is placed under it, close to the centre, this pile being rather higher than the roller, and terminating in one narrow piece at the top. The stone is now tilted so as to bring the other end to the ground. It is now possible to put a similar pile of pieces of wood underneath, close beside the first. On that pile, the block is tilted back to its former position, and so on till it is raised a little above the level of the next course of masonry. By rollers it is moved on to that platform, with a low pile of blocks once more near the centre underneath, Then the process of tilting and raising is again gone through; and so on till it has been raised up to the level where it is to take its place in the masonry. By this simple process, too, says Mr. Perigal, a few men might have raised Stone-dining-room. CALCULATION AND MEMORY. William Lawson, teacher of mathematics in Edinburgh, whe died in 1757, when employed about twenty years before his death as preceptor to the sons of a gentleman, was induced by his employer to undertake an extraordinary piece of mental calculation. Upon a wager laid by his patron, that the numbers from 1 to 40 inclusive could, by memory alone, be multiplied continually — that is, 1 multiplied by 2; the product thence arising, 2, by 3; the next, product, 6, by 4; the next, 24, by 5; and so on, 40 being the last multiplier- - Mr Lawson was, with reluctance, prevailed upon to attempt the task. He began it next morning at seven o'clock, taught his pupils their Latin Lessons in the forenoon as usual, had finished the operation by six in the evening, and then told the last product to the gentleman who had laid the wager; which they took down in writing, making a line of forty-eight figures, and found to be just. The shortness of the time rendered the work the more difficult, as each multiplication was in its turn so far to be forgotten as not to interfere with those that succeeded. When the operation was over, he could perceive his veins to start, like a man in a nervous fever; the three following nights he dreamed constantly of numbers; and he was often heard to say that no inducement would ever again engage him in a like attempt. A fair copy of the whole opperstion, attested by the subscriptions of three gentlemen, parties in the wager, was put into a frame, with glass, and hung up in the patron's Chambers' Journal. | enterprising missionary traveller: he was at Tette, the remotest inland trading-post of the Portuguese in Eastern Africa, in good health, having once more crossed the African continent, from Angola. The cattle of his party had all died from the attacks of that terrible fly Tetse, and great fatigues had been undergone; but, to their praise be it recorded, the Portuguese had shown much kindness to the adventurers. Mr. Livingstone has thus the merit of showing that Africa may be traversed from the Atlantic to the Mozambique Channel; and we think it likely that the narrative of his travels, when published, will prove singularly inter esting. He deserves the best attentions of the Royal Geographical Society. From Chambers' Journal. SCIENCE AND ARTS FOR AUGUST. THE quiet that usually follows the close of the season is in the present instance increased by the extreme heat which ushered in August, and all our philosophers and politicians, or at least as many as are able, are taking holiday; so there is not much to talk about. The British Association meeting at Cheltenham is now a thing of the past. Our Archæological Societies who time their annual gatherings in the summer, have met and disturbed some of the dust of antiquity, and made pleasant excursions with picnic appliances to hoary ruins and ancient barrows. The Archæological Institute held their meeting at Edinburgh, and visited the many remarkable antiquities of The notion that Sir John Franklin's the city and its neighborhood, and read in- ships, the Erebus and Terror, may yet be teresting papers. The Middlesex Society, found within a small and given area, still among other objects, took a survey of West- holds; and a memorial has been presented minster Abbey; and a hope is expressed to government, signed by the foremost of that their visit will bring about the much our arctic officers, praying that an expedineeded restoration of that glorious old edition may be sent to search the area in quesfice. What with dirt, dust, and mutilation, tion.-The Russian gevernment are about many of its noblest monuments are now to be seen only at a disadvantage; and surely respect for the artistic efforts of our forefathers, if no other motive, should make us anxious to bring out once more the beauty and fair proportions of their works. To do this, would be one of the best ways of encouraging the now-much-talked-of love for art. to send out an exploring expedition - their thirty-ninth-to circumnavigate the globe, and, who knows, perhaps to take possession of some of the islands in the Pacific. Sir Roderick Murchison recommends that an act should be passed to prevent the quarrying of cliffs and headlands, where, as in many instances is the case, waste of the adjacent lands would be the consequence. The destruction on some parts of our coasts is so great as to make this a matter of considerable importance. The Society of Arts have published Herr Bruckmann's paper on 66 From Melbourne we learn that Dr. Scoresby has accomplished his voyage, which, as our readers will remember, was undertaken with a view to carry out a careful series of experiments on the compass in an iron ship. Negative Artesian Wells" that is, wells He sailed in the Royal Charter, an iron which take instead of giving out water. vessel, and now finds the views he announced Such wells serve as permanent drains; they last year at Liverpool confirmed in all essen-are sunk in loose strata, or where communitial particulars. He says that the only way to keep the compass from being influenced by the magnetism of the vessel, is to elevate it above the reach of that influence, and that the compass was so elevated on board the Royal Charter without inconvenience. Should the return-voyage prove equally satisfactory, the principal cause of risk in the navigation of iron ships will be removed. Commodore Trottor of the Castor, writing from the Cape of Good Hope, reports the truth of the news concerning Mr. Livingstone. A letter had been received from the cations exist with fathomless fissures or with once and used in fertilization. We should like to ical science, and in botany, on which papers see this project brought to the test of fair experiment. What an enormous expense would be saved in the drainage of London, if the sinking of a few negative wells would really suffice for the discharge of all its fluid waste! are invited.-M. Becquerel has met with important facts in his electrical researches: he finds that electricity is largely produced by the mere contact of earth with waterthe fall of rain, along the shores of rivers and lakes, and still more so by the sea, the water One of our show-places, the Panopticon, being positive, the land negative. Investigawhich was to do wonders in the way of pop- tion of the phenomena led to remarkable reular education in science and art, is adver-sults, especially when carried on near a tised to be sold by auction. While the river. Alkaline streams take up positive Polytechnic lasts, there is but little chance for a second establishmest, seeing that here in the metropolis popular science and art can live only by being very amusing or very funny. The British Slag Company now talk of setting to work in earnest in their scheme for utilizing furnace-refuse. And a Boot and Shoe Company are talked about, who promise, with the machinery already at work, to produce 200 pair of boots and shoes per day; and as more than £10,000,000 are spent on these useful articles every year in the United Kingdom, they think their scheme a hopeful one. a hopeful one. The elder Brunel once constructed a machine for making boots and shoes for the army and navy, rapidly and without seams; but after some months' trial, it was abandoned. electricity; acid streams, negative electricity; and along the margin where land and water meet, electric currents are developed at times sufficiently strong to affect a telegraphic needle some miles distant. An indication is here perceived of the cause of the different nature of clouds - the difference of the exhalations. As the water evaporates, it carries of the electricity; hence a powerful source of atmospheric electricity, and a reason why storms are most frequent in summer. The Monthyon prize has been awarded to Becquerel for his investigations of this interesting subject. M. Carrère has shown to the Academy that Newton's rings may be reproduced by letting fall on water a drop of a solution of bitumen of Judea, with benzine and naphtha. The prize of 30,000 francs instituted by It is a curious optical experiment, and the the Emperor of the French for the most more so, as the film may be taken off the surnotable discovery in science, is awarded to face of the water on a sheet of paper, and M. Fizeau for his experiments and demon- kept, when dry, for permanent observation. stations on the rapidity of the movement of Another correspondent states that the light. The spongy metals discovered by M. Chenot are found applicable to purposes for which castings have hitherto been used. The metal is subjected to hydraulic pressure, and any variety of form and surface may be produced, solid and durable, with great economy of time and expense. Aluminum is now manufactured on a large scale alysis, that the common chestnut, which near Rouen; and the extraction of alcohol from beet-root, using the refuse pulp for cattle-feeding, has grown to such importance, that last year 9,000,000 kilogrammes of beet were converted at two establishments in the Pas de Calais. poisonous properties of paint do not arise from the lead or other mineral which constitutes its body, but solely from the turpentine; and that if turpentine were not used, we should never hear of paint-poison: an opinion which disagrees with the commonly received notion. A chemist shows, by an grows abundantly in France, furnishes dextrine, glucose, oxalic acid, glue, alcohol, a farina of which bread may be made, and a refuse which is an excellent food for horses. - Another mixes four kilogrammes of wheatflour with four of acorns, mashed, after havAmong the prizes offered by the Academy ing been boiled in a solution of carbonate of of Sciences at Paris, one is for the best paper soda in vinegar, and so produces an economion the perfecting of the mathematical theory | cal and palatable kind of bread, which might of the tides; another is for marine steam-en- be a resource for the poor in hard seasons.— gines, which are to be very small, very pow- Bernard is pursuing his researches in the erful, and to consume but little coal. There subject which has been so much debated in ar also questions in mathematical and phys- the Academy-namely, the formation of |