had a magnificent tail, though it did not approach so near to the sun in its perihelion as the earth.

Without attempting to follow Dr. Fischer, the author of No. 3, in his theory of the generation of light, and its application to comets, which would require the coinage of new terms, we shall merely protest against his connecting with the subject certain pre-suppositions, which have nothing in their favour but their triteness. How happens it that mathematical minds, which do not suffer themselves to be easily led astray by the fancy, nevertheless scruple not, pretty generally, to maintain that comets travel through two, perhaps more, solar systems, which they visit by turns? Not a single fact can be adduced in support of this hypothesis: it is a pure fiction. Equally unfounded is the assumption that "comets are planets in a state of transformation." Not only is there no evidence to this effect, but the conjecture is, on the contrary, most improbable; because there is such a striking difference between comets and planets, and because comets are so innumerable that all of them, in process of time, could not possibly find a place as planets in our solar system, without overturning those laws of harmony by which it is governed. If, in order to escape this objection, you thrust out all these supposed new planets beyond the Georgium Sidus, and adopt the notion that new comets are continually forming, and that these again are transformed into planets, you do away with all limits to the solar systems, and multiply their spheres to such a degree, that they could not find places without disturbing one another. In fact, you might as well insist that falling stars are transformed into hills, as that comets change into planets.

Respecting the great comet which is expected to appear in the present year Dr. Fischer thus expresses himself:

:

"This comet is usually called Halley's comet, after the celebrated astronomer of that name, because in the year 1682 he turned his particular attention to it, determined its course more precisely, and predicted its re-appearance in the year 1759. Edmund Halley was appointed astronomer royal at Greenwich in 1720; he was born in 1656, and lived till 1742. But it was by the assistance of the earlier observations and conjectures made by Apian, the German astronomer, in 1531, that Halley was enabled to arrive at his conclusions. Peter Apian or Bienewitz, born in 1495 at Leisnig, near Meissen in Saxony, and afterwards professor at Ingoldstadt, where he died in 1552, deduced from his observations on the comet of 1531 the probability that it was the same which had appeared in 1305, 1380, and 1456.'

Dr. Fischer next presents us with the substance of all the recorded observations of this comet since the year 1005, and a statement of the weather which attended each of its appearances--an interesting analysis, the results of which we shall subjoin as briefly as possible. In 1005 the appearance of this comet was attended by a great famine; in 1080 by an earthquake; in 1155 by a cold winter and failure of crops; in 1230 by rain and inundations (part of Friesland was overwhelmed, with 100,000 inhabitants); in 1304 by great drought, and intense cold in the following winter, succeeded by a pestilence; in 1380 by a still more destructive contagion; in 1456 by wet weather, inundations, and earthquakes; again, in 1531, by great floods; in 1607 by extreme drought,

followed by a most severe winter; in 1682 by floods and earthquakes; in 1759 by some wet, and slight earthquakes. Hence it appears that this comet has brought with it sometimes heat and drought, at others wet and cold, but the latter oftener than the former: if, however, these meteorological phenomena were not wholly independent of its appear

ance.

The author concludes with some particulars respecting its next appearance, which differ, more especially in regard to distances, from those given in the preceding part of this article. His report of its course and motions is as follows::

"Towards the end of August, 1835, the comet will make its first appearance in the eastern quarter of the heavens, in the sign Taurus. Its light will then be very faint, partly on account of the length of the days, and partly on account of its distance at this time from the earth, amounting to 190 millions of miles.

"As the motion of the comet will be at first directed towards the earth, its position in the heavens will not be much changed till the middle of September, though its light will rapidly increase in intensity. On the 13th of September its distance from the earth will be 95 millions of miles; from this time its magnificent tail will increase in magnitude and brilliancy'; the comet will rise gradually earlier; and its motion will appear to be more and more rapid. In the latter half of September it will enter the sign Gemini.

"On the 1st of October the comet will be only 27 million miles distant from the earth, and it will then enter the fore-foot of the Great Bear, in which it will cease to set, so that about this time it will have attained its highest degree of brilliancy and its greatest apparent magnitude. On the 6th of October its distance from the earth will be only about 164 millions of miles, being the nearest point to which it approaches. Its magnificent tail will now extend from the hair of Berenice to the principal stars in the constellation of the Great Bear. The head of the comet will set about nine in the evening, whilst the inner visible tail will be visible the whole night in the northern heavens, till the head re-appears in the morning red. From this period it will continue to approach perceptibly nearer to the sun, setting earlier in the evening, and at the same time receding from the earth.

"On the 17th of November the comet will be in its perihelion, consequently it will be no longer visible to us, either during the rest of that month or in December.

"In the beginning of January, 1836, it will issue from the sun's rays, again become visible, and be 190 millions of miles distant from the earth, as it was at the end of August. Meanwhile it will approach the earth a second time, and remain visible to us during the month of February.

"On the 1st of March it will be about 120 millions of miles distant, and will be visible to us in the morning in the constellations of Corvus and Crater. Thence it will continue to recede more and more from the earth and the sun, attain its greatest distance from the latter in 1873, and again arrive at its perihelion in 1912."

MISCELLANEOUS LITERARY NOTICES.

No. XXIX.

BELGIUM.

The Royal Commission for collecting the Chronicles and History of Belgium held a meeting on the 3d of April, at which Mr. Gachard read a very interesting account relative to the Bollandists, and to their great work, the Acta Sanctorum, which was left incomplete. The printing of the Chronicles of Belgium, which are to be divided into three series, will immediately commence. Three volumes of each series are to be printed at the same time.

Mr. Serrure has just made a discovery which is highly interesting to the lovers of the Flemish language. He has found, on the parchment cover of a book, about seventy verses of the Nibelungenlied in Flemish. The importance of this famous poem, which has for the last twenty years engaged the attention of the German literati, renders the discovery both interesting and honourable, since it proves how far advanced the Netherlands were in literature in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The celebrated Mr. Micali, author of the History of Italy before the Times of the Romans, is now at Brussels, collecting materials for a history of the commercial intercourse between Flanders and the Italian Republics in the middle ages.

FINLAND.

A translation of the Odes of Anacreon and Sappho has appeared in the Finland language, by Erich-Alex. Ingmann ;—also a translation of the Goldmacherdorf, by Zschokke.

The first tragedy ever written in the Finland language has been published by Fr. Lagerwall, by the title of "Bunulinus Murhe Kurwans." It is a decided imitation of Macbeth, adapted to the manners and scenery of Finland.

The Finland Literary Society at Helsingfors intends publishing a very large collection of ancient Finland songs and ballads, made by Dr. Löurot, physi cian at Kajana, during many pedestrian excursions, which extended into the government of Archangel.

FRANCE.

There never was at any former period such ardour in France for the publication of the sources of the national history as at this moment. The government has successively taken up again the collections commenced before the Revolution, by the Benedictines, and the Academy of Inscriptions, the Cartularia of Brequigny, the writers of the Crusades, the Historiens des Gaules et de la France, and the Literary History of France. To these are to be added the colossal enterprize of publishing the Documents of French History,

which the two commissions, appointed within a few years, have commenced; the foundation of the Society for French History, which has begun two series, and lastly, many private speculations, the object of which is to publish inedited MSS. Should this zeal continue for twenty or thirty years, the only difficulty of the historian will be to read this immense mass of documents. It is to be regretted that, all these plans being independent of each other, there will be numerous repetitions of the same documents; the collection of the Historiens des Gaules et de la France will frequently come into contact with the other collections, and the Histoire Littéraire, with the two last collections. So long ago as 1762 the French government conceived the idea of a work similar to Rymer's Fœdera. Three volumes, in folio, of a catalogue by Brequigny, were printed in 1769, 1775, 1782, and four-fifths of the fourth volume was printed before the commencement of the French Revolution. But a decree of the 14th August, 1791, suspended all the literary undertakings commenced by the government, and confiscated the sum in the funds, producing 45,000 francs per annum, which had been allotted to the publication. The Directory, indeed, ordered in the year iv., and the Consulate in the year xi., that the publication should be renewed, but as no money was granted nothing was done. However, in 1832, funds were assigned to complete Brequigny's Catalogue. All that portion of the fourth volume which was printed had been lost or destroyed during the Revolution, so that it was necessary to do it over again. The fourth volume is nearly ready for publication, and the fifth is in great forwardness. This, however, is but a preliminary work, and the great work, which is to contain the documents themselves, is scarcely begun. The Academy, however, has now resolved to proceed in earnest, and by the advice of M. Pardessus, in a report on the subject to the Academy of Inscriptions, has made some judicious alterations in the original plan. But still, as is above remarked, the want of concert in the direction of the several collections will cause numerous repetitions.

At the end of February last there were in Paris 81 printing-offices, 155 lithographic printers, 32 copper-plate printers, 25 letter-founders, 8 pressmakers, 9 printing-ink manufacturers, and 95 engravers and punch-cutters.

In the 84 departments of the kingdom, including Corsica, there are 258 newspapers, consequently on an average three to each department. But three departments, the Upper Alps, the Lower Alps, and the Upper Pyrenees,-have no newspaper at all. Out of these 258 papers, 101 are exclusively devoted to local intelligence, and 4 are confined to literary matters; so that the number of political journals is no more than 153.

The French papers have announced a singular speculation. They say that several booksellers, in concert with the proprietors of "Euvres complètes de M. Chateaubriand," are preparing a new edition of the works of that eminent writer. Each subscriber will be furnished with a ticket which will entitle him to a chance of obtaining one of 70 prizes, representing the value of 180,000 francs. One of these prizes will consist of one third of the property of the complete works of Chateaubriand-a property which is known to have cost more than half a million (of francs.)

M. Fontanier has published a new volume of Travels in the East, undertaken by command of the French government from 1830 to 1835. It contains the narrative of a second tour made by the author in Anatolia. The account of the first appeared at Paris in two volumes, 1829.

The commission appointed for superintending the publication of the works of M. Champollion, junior, composed of Messrs. Silvestre de Sacy, Letronne, Champollion-Figeac, Lenormant, and some others, presented on the 26th of April the first livraison of the "Monuments of Egypt and Nubia" to the minister of the interior. The designs are admirably executed by M. Dubois; and the price will be so moderate as to render this important work accessible to artists and literary men.

The property of the immense work by Piranesi, representing the most remarkable edifices of ancient and modern Rome, has been lately sold at Paris. Independently of the skill displayed in the designs and the merit of the execution which have given celebrity to the name of Piranesi, senior and junior, these plates possess the advantage of representing a considerable number of monuments which no longer exist, or which were much less injured when the views were taken than at present.

John Baptist Piranesi, whose work formed sixteen volumes, atlas folio, died at Rome in 1778. His son, Francis, continued this work. The Pope conferred on him the honour of knighthood, and Gustavus III. of Sweden appointed him his charge-d'affaires at the court of Rome. In 1798 he was sent as minister of the Roman republic to Paris. Some years afterwards, as he deemed himself unsafe at Rome, he sought refuge, with his collection, at Naples, was there apprehended, and owed his liberation to the interference of the First Consul, who gave him an invitation to settle in France, which Piranesi accepted without hesitation. His collection of engraved plates, which had fallen into the hands of the English, was restored to him, out of respect for the talents and reputation of the engraver. Napoleon granted to him his especial protection, assigned to him the College des Grassins for an atelier, and one of the lower rooms of the Palais Royal, opposite to the Café Valois, for the sale of his works. It was in this his new country that Piranesi published his "Roman Antiquities." But, though supported by Napoleon, he was obliged, by the magnitude of the undertaking, to dispose of his establishment. By an ordinance of the government it was decreed that it should be purchased at the cost of the state, and that the sum of 300,000 francs and an annual pension of 12,000 should be paid to the artist. But the disastrous Russian campaign prevented the execution of this decree. Messrs. Firmin Didot, brothers, have now become proprietors of this magnificent work, the most extensive monument of engraving produced during the last century. It comprehends 2000 plates, almost all of atlas size, the engraving alone of which cost upwards of a million of francs. Several of them are yet unpublished, and will enhance the value of the new edition which Messrs. Didot are about to prepare.

It is stated as a fact that 20,000 copies of the "Histoire de la Revolution Française," by M. Thiers, published by Messrs Firmin Didot, and now completed, have been sold in the course of one year.

GERMANY.

The Leipzig Easter Fair Catalogue comprehends in the whole 4193 articles. Among these are 426 works in the press, and 3767 ready for delivery; and among the latter are 103 atlasses or single maps of the earth or heavens. There are consequently 3664 printed works ready for delivery: 320 of these are in living foreign languages, 202 in the ancient languages, and 3142 German