tions, in which the aid of the hand could not be dispensed with. Mr. Willis, of Cambridge, has improved upon their labours, and has superseded the use of the hand by a flat sliding board. Sir David Brewster refers to the important discoveries recently made by M. Savart respecting the mechanism of the human voice, and " has no doubt that, before another century is completed, a talking and a singing machine will be numbered amongst the conquests of science."

But even these inventions shrink into insignificance compared with that by which Mr. Babbage has communicated to machinery some of the attributes of intellect:

Of all the machines which have been constructed in modern times, the calculating-machine is doubtless the most extraordinary. Pieces of mechanism for performing particular arithmetical operations have been long ago constructed, but these bear no comparison either in ingenuity or in magnitude to the grand design conceived and nearly executed by Mr. Babbage. Great as the power of mechanism is known to be, yet we venture to say that many of the most intelligent of our readers will scarcely admit it to be possible that astronomical and navigation tables can be accurately computed by machinery; that the machine can itself correct the errors which it may commit; and that the results of its calculations, when absolutely free from error, can be printed off, without the aid of human hands, or the operation of human intelligence. All this, however, Mr. Babbage's machine can do; and as I have had the advantage of seeing it actually calculate, and of studying its construction with Mr. Babbage himself, I am able to make the above statement on personal observation. The calculating-machine now constructing under the superintendence of the inventor has been executed at the expense of the British Government, and is of course their property. It consists essentially of two parts, a calculating part, and a printing part, both of which are necessary to the fulfilment of Mr. Babbage's views, for the whole advantage would be lost if the computations made by the machine were copied by human hands and transferred to types by the common process. The greater part of the calculating-machinery is already constructed, and exhibits workmanship of such extraordinary skill and beauty that nothing approaching to it has been witnessed. In order to execute it, particularly those parts of the apparatus which are dissimilar to any used in ordinary mechanical constructions, tools and machinery of great expense and complexity have been invented and constructed; and in many instances contrivances of singular ingenuity have been resorted to, which cannot fail to prove extensively useful in various branches of the mechanical

arts.

The drawings of this machinery, which form a large part of the work, and on which all the contrivance has been bestowed, and all the alterations made, cover upwards of 400 square feet of surface, and are executed with extraordinary care and precision.

In so complex a piece of mechanism, in which interrupted motions are propagated simultaneously along a great variety of trains of mechanism, it might have been supposed that obstructions would arise, or even incompatibilities occur, from the impracticability of foreseeing all the possible combinations of the parts; but this doubt has been entirely removed, by the constant employment of a system of mechanical notation invented by Mr. Babbage, which places distinctly in view, at every instant, the progress of motion through all the parts of this or any other machine, and by writing down in tables the

times required for all the movements, this method renders it easy to avoid all risk of two opposite actions arriving at the same instant at any part of the engine.

In the printing part of the machine less progress has been made in the actual execution than in the calculating part. The cause of this is the greater difficulty of its contrivance, not for transferring the computations from the calculating part to the copper or other plate destined to receive it, but for giving to the plate itself that number and variety of movements which the forms adopted in printed tables may call for in practice.

The practical object of the calculating engine is to compute and print a great variety and extent of astronomical and navigation tables, which could not be done without enormous intellectual and manual labour, and which, even if executed by such labour, could not be calculated with the requisite accuracy. Mathematicians, astronomers, and navigators, do not require to be informed of the real value of such tables; but it may be proper to state, for the information of others, that seventeen large folio volumes of logarithmic tables alone were calculated at an enormous expense by the French Government; and that the British Government regarded these tables to be of such national value, that they proposed to the French Board of Longitude to print an abridgement of them at the joint expense of the two nations, and offered to advance £5,000 for that purpose. Besides logarithmic tables, Mr. Babbage's machine will calculate tables of the powers and products of numbers, and all astronomical tables for determining the positions of the sun, moon, and planets; and the same mechanical principles have enabled him to integrate innumerable equations of finite differences, that is, when the equation of differences is given, he can, by setting an engine, produce at the end of a given time any distant term which may be required, or any succession of terms commencing at a distant point.

Beside the cheapness and celerity with which this machine will perform its work, the absolute accuracy of the printed results deserves especial notice. By peculiar contrivances, any small error produced by accidental dust, or by any slight inaccuracy in one of the wheels, is corrected as soon as it is transmitted to the next, and this is done in such a manner as effectually to prevent any accumulation of small errors from producing an erroneous figure in the result.

This engine can not only produce the operations of common arithmetic, but likewise extract the roots of numbers and approximate to the roots of equations, and even to their impossible roots. "But this is not its object," observes Sir David; "its function, in contradistinction to that of all other contrivances for calculating, is to embody in machinery the method of differences, which has never before been done; and the effects which it is capable of producing, and the works which, in the course of a few years, we expect to see it execute, will place it at an infinite distance from all other efforts of mechanical genius."

Sir David Brewster has explained the structure of the eye with great minuteness, in order to afford a satisfactory solution of certain phenomena and illusions which approach the nearest to supernatural apparitions. The contemplation of this wonderful organ is sufficient to lower to the proper standard our appreciation of human science, after all its acquisitions. Sturmius held that the examination of the eye was a cure for atheism. Yet this was with reference only to the mechanical part of this organ, elegantly described,

in the work before us, as the sentinel which guards the pass between the worlds of matter and spirit;" but its most wonderful part is that by which the mind is able to peruse the hand-writing of nature on the retina. Indeed, some of the most common objects and operations in nature become miracles when viewed with philosophic eyes.

Spectral illusions, in which the patient fancies he sees persons and hears voices, which have been recorded by Dr. Hibbert, and to the number of his instances of which Sir D. Brewster has added that of a lady with whose case he was acquainted, are shown by the former to be "nothing more than ideas, or the recollected images of the mind, which, in certain states of bodily indisposition, have been rendered more vivid than actual impressions; or, to use other words, the pictures in the mind's eye' are more vivid than the pictures in the body's eye." Sir David Brewster, however, goes much farther, and shows, "that the mind's eye' is actually the body's eye, and that the retina is the common tablet on which both classes of impressions are 'painted, and by means of which they receive their visual existence according to the same optical laws: nor is this true merely in the case of spectral illusions; it holds good of all ideas recalled by the memory or created by the imagination, and may be regarded as a fundamental law in the science of pneumatology." This is, perhaps, one of the most curious parts of the volume, as it ventures near to the impassable gulf between mind and matter, which human intelligence strives in vain to pass.

The various deceptions produced by plane and concave mirrors are the subject of a very amusing letter; but it would be useless to make extracts without the accompanying cuts and diagrams. The feat of necromancy described in the Life of Benvenuto Cellini, by which legions of devils were raised in the Coliseum at Rome, is accounted for by Sir D. Brewster by supposing that the necromancer employed one or more concave mirrors or lenses.

In treating of illusions depending on the ear, Sir David Brewster records a variety of instances in which ventriloquism has produced all the effects of magic. With the feats of M. Alexandre the English public are familiar.

M. St. Gille, a grocer of St. Germain en Lay, whose performances have been recorded by the Abbé de la Chapelle, had occasion to shelter himself from a storm in a neighbouring convent, where the monks were in deep mourning for a much-esteemed member of their community who had been recently buried. While lamenting over the tomb of their deceased brother the slight honours which had been paid to his memory, a voice was suddenly heard to issue from the roof of the choir, bewailing the condition of the deceased in purgatory, and reproving the brotherhood for their want of zeal. The tidings of this supernatural event brought the whole brotherhood to the church. The voice from above repeated its lamentations and reproaches, and the whole convent fell upon their faces, and vowed to make a reparation of their error. They accordingly chaunted in full choir a de profundis, during the intervals of which the spirit of the departed monk expressed his satisfaction at their pious exercises. The prior afterwards inveighed against modern scepticism on the subject of apparitions, and M. St. Gille had great difficulty in convincing the fraternity that the whole was a deception.

Amongst the properties of sound, there is one mentioned and explained by Sir David Brewster, which has its analogy also in light, too remarkable not to be noticed, having more of the marvellous in it, as he observes, than any result within the wide range of the sciences. It is this: "two loud sounds may be made to produce silence, and two strong lights to produce darkness." The causes are very simple, and satisfactorily demonstrated.

Amongst the phenomena of the natural world, which, being upon a grand scale and of rare occurrence, still, to a certain extent, wear the aspect of preternatural appearances, may be enumerated the Spectre of the Brocken, the Fata Morgana, the Spectre Ship, and the Mirage. These, and a variety of analogous wonders, are treated of in the sixth letter. We subjoin an account and explanation of the Brocken Spectre, with which we conclude our imperfect notice of this very curious work :

One of the best accounts of the spectre of the Brocken is that which is given by M. Haue, who saw it on the 23d of May, 1797. After having been on the summit of the mountain no less than thirty times, he had at last the good fortune of witnessing the object of his curiosity. The sun rose about four o'clock in the morning through a serene atmosphere. In the south-west, towards Achtermannshohe, a brisk west wind carried before it the transparent vapours, which had not yet been condensed into thick heavy clouds. About a quarter past four he went towards the inn, and looked round to see whether the atmosphere would afford him a free prospect towards the south-west, when he observed at a very great distance, towards Achtermannshohe, a human figure of a monstrous size. His hat, having been almost carried away by a violent gust of wind, he suddenly raised his hand to his head, to protect his hat, and the colossal figure did the same. He immediately made another movement by bending his body,—an action which was repeated by the spectral figure. M. Haue was desirous of making farther experiments, but the figure disappeared. He remained, however, in the same position, expecting its return, and in a few minutes it again made its appearance on the Achtermannshohe, when it mimicked his gestures as before. He then called the landlord of the inn, and having both taken the same position which he had before, they looked towards the Achtermannshohe but saw nothing. In a very short space of time, however, two colossal figures were formed over the above eminence, and after bending their bodies and imitating the gestures of the two spectators, they disappeared. Retaining their position, and keeping their eyes still fixed upon the same spot, the two gigantic spectres again stood before them, and were joined by a third. Every movement that they made was imitated by the three figures, but the effect varied in its intensity, being sometimes weak and faint, and at other times strong and well-defined.

The spectre of the Brocken and other phenomena of the same kind have essentially a different origin from those which arise from unequal refraction. They are merely shadows of the observer projected on dense vapour or thin fleecy clouds, which have the power of reflecting much light. They are seen most frequently at sun-rise, because it is at that time that the vapours and clouds necessary for their production are most likely to be generated; and they can be seen only when the sun is throwing his rays horizontally, because the shadow of the observer would otherwise be thrown either up in the air, or down upon the ground.

ON THE CHALDEES AND BABYLONIANS.

No. II.

THE next point to which our attention should be directed relates to some particulars in the Babylonian and Chaldee religion, although it may be found impossible in many instances to separate the one from the other. The scanty remains of early history, the suspicious nature of some of its records, and the confusion of Babylonians not only with Chaldees, but with Assyrians, and even occasionally with Syrians, present obstacles in these colouɛvx to a clear analysis, which we may not hope to surmount. To these may be added the prevailing similarity, nay almost identity, which pervaded ancient theologies, than which nothing is more calculated to lead astray the unbiassed inquirer, by presenting to him various counterparts to his different points of research, and thus often misguiding him with respect to the countries between which the affinity really existed.

There is no country on which this circumstance may be presumed to have had a fuller operation than Babylonia, the rites of which theorists have referred to Egypt, to India, and to Persia, according to their own particular views; yet, on the other hand, since it may be proved that the Babylonian system extended to Assyria, and even to Mesopotamia, and since it is to be conjectured that the pagan worship of Syria and Palestine belonged to the same or a cognate school, we shall scarcely err in our general inference by considering them in some degree conjointly. Where so important an empire as the Assyrian, then the Babylonian, existed, the intercourse between it and the kingdoms of the East must have been considerable: the commercial system of antiquity, as well as wars, must have led to this result. If then we reflect on the position of Babylonia and Assyria with respect to Persia and Media, remembering also the early connection affirmed to have been maintained between Babylon and India, and the legends of the various colonies of Osiris, Sesostris, Hercules, and Bel, it will follow that the main character of religion in these regions must have been necessarily the same, however different features of it may have changed through time and place; consequently, it is manifest that it will be impossible to point out with security the places from which each separate rite proceeded, or to prove whether Babylon, India, or Egypt had the real claim of priority as possessors of great religious establishments. The plains of Shinar stand recorded as the nursing-spot of astrology and demonology; there the ́rude system first sprang into being; but where it received its cultivation, its mysteries, and complicated parts, the vast lacunæ in ancient history forbid us to determine. Now, if the Chaldees originally came from the Armenian mountains, from their proximity to Media and their migratory habits, it will be natural to suppose their theology to have been allied to that which generally prevailed in those countries, and to have become more similar to the Babylonian after their connection with the Assyrian empire; consequently, after their conquest of Babylon, they must have found much which was adapted to their former superstitions; and it is, probably, from this Asiat.Jour.N.S.VOL.9.No.33.

C