Any body who can ride hard, and long, without danger or excessive fatigue, may be said to ride well. The butcher's boy, on his bare-backed bit of blood and bone, rides well. The apothecary, whose interest requires that, whether he have any business or none, he should always be in a hurry, rides well; his trunk forming an acute angle with his horse's neck, and the instruments in his coat-pockets having a very alarming jingle. Nay, even tailors, notwithstanding the vulgar prejudice to the contrary, may sometimes be seen riding well!

Again: No gentleman should ride too well; he should not, like certain painters, create difficulties for the sake of showing how dexterously he can overcome them; nor should the art or strength whereby he guides his steed be palpable to sight: it should appear as if the simple will did all. Riding à la militaire—the modern heroic poetry of horsemanship-is very imposing when used by a man of military appearance, in a military dress; but should never be attempted by dissenters, clergymen of the Church of Scotland, aldermen, or respectable burgesses. Steeple-racing, fox-hunting, &c., which correspond to the Pindaric or Dithyrambic styles, are doubtless very animated, and delightfully free from the snaffle of common sense; and therefore, as an intellectual art, those modes are not much to be studied by gentlemen who have brains wherewith to study.

1. What were the Equites of Rome?

2. What is the Latin phrase for a sound or vigorous mind in a vigorous body?

3. How should a gentleman appear to ride?

4. Who are recommended not to ride à la militaire?

Of the Nature and Uses of Hydrogen.

HYDROGEN is the basis of what has been generally called inflammable air, and is one of the component parts of water; but it cannot be exhibited in a separate state. We therefore know it only in combination with other substances, or in the gaseous form, that is, with caloric.

We call it the basis of inflammable air, because hydrogen is not combustible unless it be mixed with atmospheric air, or with some other substance that contains oxygen; for without such previous admixture it is absolutely destructive of flame, as may be proved by immers

OF THE NATURE AND USES OF HYDROGEN.

219

ing a lighted taper in a phial of hydrogen gas (from which the utmost care has been taken to exclude the presence of atmospheric air), which will be extinguished the moment it comes in contact with the pure hydrogen gas.

If a portion of atmospheric air be mixed with this gas, and fire be applied, it will explode with violence. It is related of Pilatre de Rosier, a French chymist, that having mixed one part of common air with nine parts of hydrogen gas, and drawn the mixture into his lungs, it caught fire by accident as he respired it, and the whole of the gas exploded in his mouth and nearly deprived him of life. In fact, many instances have occurred where a lighted candle has been incautiously brought too near the apparatus, and immense mischief has been the consequence. The utmost caution in experiments of this kind is indispensably necessary.

A mixture of oxygen and hydrogen gases produces the most powerful heat yet known. This may be shown by preparing a bladder full of each of these airs, and forcing some out of each into a common tube connected with both, and throwing a stream of the mixed gases on burning charcoal, or on any other substance in the act of combustion. These bladders should each be furnishad with a small metallic pipe and stop-cock, and the tube connecting with both should have a very small orifice, in order that a regular stream of the commixed gas may be thrown upon the burning substance. In performing this experiment all solid vessels should be discarded, for fear of an accident by explosion; but when bladders are used no damage can arise, even if such an accident should happen.

Hydrogen gas may be combined with water, sulphur, phosphorus, or with carbon. Sulphur dissolved in this gas forms sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which is a very fetid, elastic fluid, somewhat heavier than atmospheric air, and soluble in water. This gas is transparent and colourless; it has the property of inflammability, is nauseous to the taste as well as fetid to the smell; it possesses all the characters of an acid; and combines with earths, alkalies, and with several of the metallic oxides.

When sulphuretted hydrogen gas is set on fire in contact with oxygen gas it burns with a pale blue flame, without exploding. It will of itself extinguish burning bodies, and destroy animals which are made to inhale it. The fetid smell which arises from house-drains is

owing in a great measure to a mixture of this gas with other putrid effluvia. As the diffusion of this noxious matter within our dwellings tends to produce disease and mortality, it cannot be too strongly recommended that the cheap and simple apparatus-expressively, though not very delicately, named a stink-trap-should always be used for carrying off the waste water, &c. of sinks, as it prevents the possibility of any air ever returning back into the house from thence, or from drain which may be connected with it.

any

1. Why is hydrogen called the basis of inflammable air?

2. What is related of Pilatre de Rosier ?

3. What produces the most powerful heat yet known?

4. With what may hydrogen gas be combined?

5. To what is the fetid smell arising from house-drains in a great measure owing?

LESSON CLIV.-JUNE THE THIRD.

William Caxton.

On this day, in 1492, died the venerable Caxton, at the age of 80, or upwards, who first introduced the art of printing with moveable fusile types into England—an art which, if it did not produce, certainly facilitated the Reformation, and which has since done more for the civilization of all mankind and the spread of the Gospel than any other. For more than three centuries there was no monument to the memory of Caxton: this reproach to the country was, however, removed by the Roxburgh club, during the presidentship of the late Earl Spencer, who caused a simple tablet to be erected in Westminster Abbey, that the name of William Caxton might be found among the arches of that venerable structure, in juxtaposition with the names of those who, by the aid of the noble art which he introduced, raised themselves to literary distinction, and erected imperishable monuments in the breasts of their admiring countrymen.

"In early times, the press as yet unknown,
The artist carved his hieroglyphic stone,
The lasting pile ambition sought to raise,
To gratify his ardent thirst of praise:

While round him mouldering ruins mock'd his care,
And show'd the oblivious fate his toil must share;
Whilst genius pensive sate-in thought profound,
Mourning the spoils of ages scatter'd round!
Benighted reason slumber'd in the breast,
Lull'd by the gloom of ignorance to rest;

WILLIAM CAXTON.

The trackless age with rapid pinion flew,
And dropp'd the veil that closed the distant view.
Muse! to my pensive hours for ever dear,
With brighter scenes my languid spirits cheer;
From man unletter'd as I willing turn,
Let me the guardian hand of Heaven discern.
Blest be his shade in endless realms of light,
Who bade the alphabet dispel our night.
Those wondrous symbols that can still retain
The phantom forms that pass along the brain;
O'er unsubstantial thought hold strong controul,
And fix the essence of th' immortal soul;
Man unreluctant meets the general doom,

His mind embalm'd defies th' o'erwhelming tomb;
Lives in fresh vigour through succeeding years,
Nor yields its powers whilst Nature guides the spheres:
Where swelling Nile his fertilizing stores

O'er thirsty Egypt unexhausted pours;
Where plenty, rising from the reeking soil,
Bends with the load that asks no human toil;
And every charm luxuriant Nature brings,
Spontaneous from her teeming bosom springs.
Industrious Science form'd the great design,
To range in words the alphabetic sign;
On language, permanence, and life bestow'd,
Of written thought the first rude effort show'd;
And as the rays of morning's golden eye
Streak with resplendent light the eastern sky,
So with mild beam the sun of learning rose,
That round us now a noontide lustre throws!

"Immortal spirits! ye who first could feel
For Learning's pure delights a holy zeal;
Who first the ever-wasting lamp renew'd,
Wrapt in the joys of thankful solitude;
And raised the temple on eternal base,
To knowledge sacred, and the human race;
Through drear Oblivion's boundless vortex tost,
Sages! we mourn our great productions lost;
Yet be your worth in every distant clime

Acknowledged thro' the thickening mists of Time!"

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1. Who expired on this day, in 1492; and what art did he introduce into England?

2. What did the Roxburgh Club cause to be erected in Westminster Abbey?

LESSON CLV.-JUNE THE FOURTH.

Character of the Turks.

THE Turks appear to be distinguished from the nations which occupy the rest of Europe in nearly every circumThe ample folds of their garments, their shorn

stance.

heads covered by a turban, their long beards, their stately bearing, form a direct contrast with the trim dress and coxcomb fashions of our Christian communities. Nor is there less difference in substance than in outward appearance.

The Turk is moved by few passions, and those few carry him straight to their object: if he is revengeful, he takes away the life of his enemy; if he is covetous, he seizes the possessions of those who are weaker than he is; if he is amorous, he buys and shuts up in his seraglio the object of his love. He has no conception of the complicated intrigue, the perpetual bustle, the varying opinions, which attend and influence the business of life in our northern countries. Still less can he imagine the active society, the distinctions of rank, the conversation without any thing to say; all the toys, in short, in which vanity seeks to be remarked, and the love of novelty requires to be gratified. His life is simple, tranquil, and even dull, when not moved by the great passions of our nature. A steady trade-wind carries him to port, or a calm leaves him motionless; of the varying state of our atmosphere, and all its shifting breezes, he has no adequate conception; he wonders at and pities our activity.

Though capable, on emergencies, of great and vigorous exertion, laziness and apathy are distinguishing characteristics of the Turks; and there is nothing in which they take so much delight as in reclining in the shade from sun-rise to sun-set, apparently in a state of total indifference, occasionally sipping coffee, and inhaling the fumes of tobacco. They converse little, and the presumption is that their mind is as indolent as their body.

Whether these dispositions are suited or not to promote the happiness of the individual may admit of a doubt; but it is quite evident they are unfavourable to the progress of a nation. The busy motion of commerce, the disinterested ardour of science, the continual desire of distinction, the slow advancement of patient industry, the passion for notoriety, and the favour of what is called public opinion, are the wheels upon which the great machine of civilized society is moved forward; they are all unknown to or despised by the Turk.

Much of the form, and many of the events of our communities are owing to the admission of women in every part of our private and public life. This great element of pleasure and of anxiety is wanting to the Turks. In their behaviour to women the policy of this people is dictated by a mixture of the most delicate respect, gross