15 knots (14-937) per hour, while on the six hours' trial at sea she made nearly 14 knots (14-715). The Captain is also a fast vessel, although not nearly so fast as the Monarch. Her engines are of 900 horse-power nominal, and on the measured mile trial worked up to about 63 times, driving the ship at a speed of 14.239 knots. The Monarch is a single-screw ship; the Captain has twin screws.

Both vessels are fully rigged and equipped for sailing. The Monarch has had full trial at sea during the cruise of the squadrons last autumn, and her recent trip with the remains of Mr. Peabody across the Atlantic, and has proved herself a very fair performer. In fact, from the accounts which have recently been published of her voyage to America, it appears that she is fast under canvas as well as under steam. The Captain has not yet been tried at sea, but she will probably answer very fairly under sail. One other feature of the Monarch's behaviour, which has been prominently brought out by trial, is her remarkable steadiness. During her cruise last autumn, she is said to have been fully capable of fighting her guns in weather when all the other iron-clads were unable to fight. The Captain is reported to have behaved very well on her passage to Portsmouth, but she has yet to be tested at sea, and is not likely to equal her rival in steadiness.

From these facts it appears that both the Captain and the Monarch are very formidable vessels, and that they form important additions to our armoured fleet. In armour and guns they are superior to the greater number of our iron-clads, and in speed they also stand high. As compared with each other, there seems no question that the Monarch is the more efficient; and though she is more costly than the Captain, her greater efficiency as a war-vessel makes ample amends. In view of the success which she has achieved in steaming, sailing, and other respects, it is clear that the assertions of defects, made before her trial, were unfounded; neither can it now be maintained that the turret-system will not have in her as fair a trial as in the Captain. Indeed, for the high freeboard type, the Monarch will stand on her merits; whilst excuses for shortcomings in the Captain will be admissible for the low freeboard type.

În conclusion it is worth pointing out, that in the figure of the Monarch in the plate, some sections of the bulwarks, or technically"tumble-down top-sides," are shown up, and some turned over, to give play to the fire of the turret-guns; their extent shows the full capacity of training. In the Captain the deck sides are protected only by stanchions and ropes. Both drawings are accurately made to scale, namely of an inch to a foot; and an exact comparison of these two turret-ships can thus be made.

178

REVIEWS.

FARADAY AS A MAN AND AS A PHILOSOPHER.*

THERE

are very few men, even of the philosopher class, who would like to have the story of their lives told by the publication of their own private correspondence. For it happens, that not many, even of the wise, are devoid of pettiness of character, and the smaller and less creditable traits of their mind and disposition would be sure to unfold themselves in their common-place letters to their friends and relations. But Faraday was not made of "such stuff." Those who knew him felt that there was a character of constancy, so to speak, about the man, so that he was as much the philosopher at his own fireside as when he fascinated the crowded audiences in the Institution by the grandeur, and yet simplicity, of the laws which he had revealed. Some of our philosophers are, we are sorry to say, savants in the lecture theatre, and the veriest prigs in common life; men full of meanness, jealous of their successful brethren, exacting a stern submission from those who have not yet earned a reputation as great as theirs; men, in fact, who pursue the study of Nature not for itself, but for their own honour or glory, and for the mere gratification of a particular kind of vanity. But Faraday was a man as little to be compared with men of that stamp as Hyperion to a Satyr. All gentleness, kindness, and consideration in his dealings with his fellows, he loved his pursuits from the sheer pleasure which he found in solving the many puzzles which he saw around him. He felt himself in rivalry with none, he encouraged all to work in the vast field he cultivated so well, and, so far as he could, he assisted and protected the efforts of those whom he knew to be honest in their researches; and if his indignation was ever roused, it was when his aid was sought by some one who wished to obtain his name in support of charlatanism.

Need we be surprised, then, that the task which Dr. Bence Jones has so well and lovingly discharged in the two fine volumes before us, is one which shows us in Faraday an almost god-like nature, which his mere physical researches

The "Life and Letters of Faraday," by Dr. Bence Jones, Secretary to the Royal Institution. 2 vols. Longmans, 1870.

"Faraday, as a Discoverer," by John Tyndall. New edition. Longmans, 1870.

could not have indicated? Dr. Jones has collected together all the letters of Faraday (or nearly all) from the time when the little errand-boy had become a pupil of the great Sir Humphry Davy, to the letter which, in July 1866, he dictated and signed to Dr. Jones, in sending him his second edition of the Works of Shakespear. It would be out of the question to do justice to this noble work in our brief space, for it is only by the assistance of many quotations from the touching, tender, truth-breathing letters of Faraday, that we could give the reader an adequate idea of the, in this age, rarity, thoroughly Christian character of Faraday's life. Suffice it, then, to say, that both the general and scientific public are immensely indebted to Dr. Jones for the good work he has done in publishing Faraday's letters, and in thus telling the tale of the good and kind old man, as it were, in the very words which were so dear to all who knew him.

The book which is included in the second part of this notice is also a biography of Faraday, but it is a work of quite a different character to the other, and one, too, which must be read, as it supplies that part of Faraday's history which his letters but very imperfectly describe. Dr. Jones's volumes are really a sort of autobiography. Dr. Tyndall's smaller volume is a picture of Faraday as a scientific man. It is the laboratory life of the great discoverer, and it is a sketch executed with feeling and power. We have already noticed its merits in these pages, and we need do no more now than mention, that in this new edition, which forms a sort of appendix, as it were, to the "Life and Letters," the author has corrected a statement in reference to Faraday's and Ampère's experiments, of some importance. Dr. Jones's volumes are full of illustrations, and Dr. Tyndall's contain two excellent engravings of Faraday, taken from photographs. These two are standard works, and no educated person, who can afford to purchase them, should be without them.

WE

EARTH AND SEA.*

WE should certainly feel that something had gone wrong with the literary-scientific world, if the quarter came round without bringing us some luxuriously "got up" compilation from the pen or pens of M. Louis Figuier. Fortunately or unfortunately, as it may by different sides be regarded, this quarter is not exceptional. There is now before us one of those éditions de luxe, which have lately become so popular, and behold! M. Figuier is its author. "Land and Sea," however, is a work which, perhaps owing to the exertions of a conscientious and enterprising editor, has more claims to importance than most of M. Figuier's treatises. It is a volume covering 700 pages of the largest 8vo. It bristles with illustrations, there being a handsome woodcut on nearly every page, and finally, its type, paper, and binding combine to make it a drawing-room book of no ordinary beauty. But its scientific merits are really of a high order too, so that we think

"Earth and Sea." From the French of Louis Figuier. Translated edited, and enlarged by W. H. Davenport Adams. London: Nelson & Sons, 1870.