is not only a mathematician, but an infallible botanist and zoologist, correcting mistakes of keen sportsmen as to birds and vermin. His face is all one eye. The eyes of Moyes, although he was totally blind, were not in 6 there are two distinct sets of bees in every hive-honey-gatherers and the wax-makers and nurses; that the larvae of working-bees ean, by course of diet, be changed to queens: thus also he accurately described the sanguinary conflicts of rival queens; the recog-sensible to intense light. Colours were not nition of old companions or of royalty by the use of the antennæ; thus he explained the busy hum and unceasing vibration of wing ever going on in the hive, as being necessary for due ventilation. One of the last incidents in the old man's life that seemed to rouse and interest him was the arrival of a present of stingless bees, from the discoverer, Captain B. Hall. Unwearied diligence, and love for his work, no doubt, greatly aided him in all these discoveries; but genius effected for him what mere assiduity would never have accomplished. She taught him in a few minutes to swim the river of difficulty, while others spent hours in searching for a ford. It is the union of diligence and genius which has made so many a blind man famous among his brethren with eyes; not only the head to conceive, but the hand to carry out and achieve, in its own way, the plan of wisdom and of beauty. Thus Metcalf, the blind guide and engineer, constructed roads through the wilds of Derbyshire; thus Davidson ventilated the deepest coal-mines, and lectured on the structure of the eye; as did Dr. Moyes on chemistry and optics; thus Blacklock, poet and musician, master of four languages beside his own, wrote both prose and poetry with elegance and ease; thus, nearer to our own time, Holman, the traveller, has made himself a name far beyond the shores of Great Britain. We know not what Saundersons or Hubers the present generation is to see. One name equally great in another path of fame it already has: Prescott, the historian of "Ferdinand and Isabella," ""Mexico and Peru," &c., who, though not blind, has a defect of the eyes which prevents him from reading and writing, but whose literary labours have nevertheless delighted and instructed thousands both in the Old and New World. Coleridge remarks that " a diseased state of an organ of sense will perpetually tamper with the understanding, and perhaps at last overthrow it. But when one organ is obliterated, the mind applies some other to a double use. Some ten years back, at Sowerby, I met a man perfectly blind-from infancy. His chief amusement was fishing on the wild uneven banks of the Eden, and up the difficult mountain streams. His friend, also stone blind, knew every gate and stile of the district. John Gough, of Kendal, blind, 1 distinguished. by him, but felt. Red was disagreeable; he said it was like "the grating of a saw; while green was very pleasant, and similar to a smooth surface,' when touched." In some instances, blindness seems to have gifted the sufferer with new powers. A Dr. Guyse, we read, lost his eyesight in the pulpit while he was at prayer before the sermon; but nevertheless managed to preach as usual. An old lady of the congregation hearing him deplore his loss, thus strove to comfort him :-" God be praised," said she, "that your sight is gone. I never heard your reverence preach so powerful a sermon in my life." The detection of colour by the touch of the blind is a mooted point. Several anecdotes are told of blind persons who had the power of discriminating colours by the touch, but if the testimony of a large body of blind children can be relied on, the detection of colour is utterly beyond their reach. Saanderson's power of detecting by his finger or tongue a counterfeit coin, which had deceived the eye of a connoisseur, is a totally different question. We are hardly aware how much of our dexterity in the use of the eye arises from incessant practice. Those who have been relieved of blindness at an advanced, or even an early period of life, have often been found to recur to the old and more familiar sense of touch, in preference to sight, especially during the first few months after recovering their sight. Coleridge, in his " Omniana," mentions a most remarkable instance of a blind man at Hanover, who possessed so keen a touch as to be able to read with his fingers books of ordinary print, if printed, as most German books are, on coarse paper. GRACE AND ELEGANCE.-Grace is, in a great measure, a natural gift; elegance implies cultivation, or something of more artificial character. A rustic, uneducated girl may be graceful; but an trained. It is the same with things as with perelegant woman must be accomplished and well sons; we talk of a graceful tree, but of an elegant house or other building. Animals may be gracefal, but they cannot be elegant. The movements of a kitten or a young fawn are full of grace; but to call them elegant animals would be absurd. Lastly, "elegant" may be applied to mental qualifications, which "graceful" never can. Elegance must always imply something that is made or invented by man. ZOOLOGY.-No. XII. RETROSPECT. What great events from trivial causes spring!" FOR the twelfth time I address the readers of the Family Friend. In the preceding papers, I have led those who have journeyed with me over one of the great empires into which the Animal Kingdom is divided. Our path has lain among the Radiate animals; let us now glance back upon them, pause a little on their array, and ponder on the powers with which they have been gifted. The first tribes that we encountered, the Infusoria, were made known to us only by the aid of the microscope; yet so far do calculations as to their size and numbers transcend the limited faculties with which we are here endowed, that, to use the words of Burke, "we become amazed and confounded at the wonders of minuteness; nor can we distinguish in its effect the extreme of littleness from the vast itself." Next we were introduced to those who "shun the glare of vulgar light," and pass their lives within the bodies of other animals, the Entozoa. A strange and motley group! some of them more simple in their structure than the simplest polypes; others so highly organised that it is doubtful if they might not with greater propriety be classed among the articulated or jointed animals, such as worms and insects. And then came the Zoophytes, surpassing in their reality all the wonders of classic fable; gifted with strange powers of increase, multiplying under treatment that would to other animals be destruction, investing with delicate lacework the frond of the huge seaweed, and giving to the shallows of the tropical sea the beauty and variety of the most cultivated parterre. Then passed we on to creatures, the Acaleph, that seemed little else than masses of vivified sea-water. So frail are the tissues of their body, that they can be likened only to the web of the spider; so that the term Arachnodermata, expressive of this peculiarity, contrasts with that of the adjoining group, which bears the name of Echinodermata. At last, in our onward progress, all radiated arrangements of parts or of outline disappeared, and we found ourselves among beings which presented the appearance, and even adopted the appearance of worms. It is, I hope, distinctly understood that the classification and arrangement that has been adopted, is not that which is absolutely best, but only that which was the best ac cording to the state of science at the time such classification was adopted. Recent accessions to our knowledge of structure and transformations point the way to changes of arrangement; for when a real affinity has been shown to exist, those animals which are closely allied to each other cannot long continue to be arbitrarily separated. The boundaries of different groups will therefore, at a future time, be most probably enlarged or diminished; nay, the position of certain groups altogether changed. It must be recollected, however, that all such changes are demanded by the progressive advance of knowledge. Genera, families, and orders, are human inventions, and liable to the mutability of all human affairs; but species have a real existence in nature, and they remain unchanged, though we change the manner in which we group them together. I would not like my readers to be satisfied with knowing the little that is here put down for them. I would hope that in other books, and in the great field of nature, they would learn and observe far more than I can impart. Nor should I wish them to stop even then-to be content with a knowledge of what they read or what they see, and go no further. My favourite pursuit would fail in its highest ground of recommendation, did it stop there. It should be suggestive of long trains of thought, rising from the creature to the Creator. How is it possible we can contemplate the varied means of reproduction observable among the Radiate animals, and not feel that an Almighty power has been at work, not only in forming them originally, but in gifting them with the means of increase, and in extending a watchful care over their defenceless young! We see on all sides a bountiful provision made for their safety, so that not one species, however humble, is allowed to perish, until the period allotted for its continuance has been fulfilled. If we turn our thoughts in another direction, and consider what great results are, under the providence of God, produced by agents apparently the most powerless, the Coral Isles of the Pacific offer a familiar and most striking illustration. But we may find another example among organisms still more minute, and living in our own seas and rivers. I allude to the Infusoria. Among these are some which possess the power of withdrawing silex from the water, in which it is held in solution, and depositing it in a solid form, in varied, definite, and very beautiful patterns. The great improvements made within the last few years in microscopes, and the greater attention paid to these "minims of nature,' have enabled accurate observers to ascertain that their mode of reproduction is precisely analogous to what prevails in certain algae or water plants, and hence the inference is drawn, that the Diatomaceo-for so these organisms are named-more properly belong to the vegetabie than to the animal kingdom. It is difficult to draw a line rigidly dividing the animal and the vegetable creation; there is a border territory, where settled and recognised government does not prevail. There the zoologist may make a foray, and capture and drive off the booty on which he seizes; and there the botanist may make sharp and sudden reprisal, regain the prey, and successfully carry off with him entire species, which the zoologist had complacently regarded as his own. On such a territory let me for the present place the Diatomacea; whether they be animal or vegetable, they will equally well establish the point to which I wish to call attention, that organisms the most minute may be come the instrument of great and permanent changes. Silex is found in all waters, though in very different proportions, and once separated from it in a solid form, becomes indestruetible. The Diatomaceae deposit the silex on the tissues or membranes which they possess, and hence give to them regular patterns of extreme delicacy and beauty. The annexed figure (Fig. 45) represents some native species, and will convey an idea of the variety of forms they exhibit. The Diatomacea exist in fresh water, in brackish water, and in sea water. They are found in rivers, in lakes, in dripping wells, and in snow fields! and are extremely abundant both in the arctic and antarctic seas. There is no part of the world in which they are not silently at work; in remote periods of the past history of our globe, they appear to have been equally diffused; the proofs of their existence remain as fossil deposits. Ehrenberg discovered that the tripoli, or Polierschiefer used at Berlin, was entirely composed of these siliceous shells. He regarded the organisms as animal, and states that so rapid is their increase, that two cubic feet of tripoli might be formed in four days from one individual. At Bilin, in Bohemia, there is a single stratum of this substance, not less than fourteen feet thick, forming the upper layer of a tripoli hill, in every cubic inch of which Ehrenberg calculates there are forty-one thousand millions of one species. The city of Virginia is built on a deposit of Diatomacea, twenty feet in thickness. They are now, insignificant as they appear, filling up the mouths of rivers, and gradually, as marine deposits, affecting the ocean bed. When the antarctic voyagers reached the icy walls to which they gave the name of the Victoria Barrier, it was found embrowned with Diatomaceae; and as they sailed along the Barrier, the soundings which they took made them aware of the existence of a bank extending for four hundred miles, and composed almost wholly of their silicious skeletons. Floating masses of ice yielded them in millions, and in many places they formed a scum on the surface of the sea. Darwin, a high authority, states that fine dust which fell elsewhere on the deck of a ship at sea, was found, on examination with the microscope, to be composed of Diatomaceae. From their universal diffusion we cannot doubt that they are the unseen, and yet resistless agents of mighty changes, and of beneficial results, which we are unable to comprehend. Let us pass on to another topic. It is a summer eve; we are strolling by the shore, with the pleasant murmur of the sea sounding in our ears, the fresh air upon our cheek, the glories of a summer sunset in the western sky. Gradually the light fades, and new tints, each beautiful and glorious, enrich the azure vault. The stars begin silently to peep out, and night steals over the landscape. Yet we turn not homewards; we find the gentle heaving of the sea, calm as a sleeping child, inexpressibly charming and tranquilizing. We hear the sound of oars, a boat approaches but what a glorious sight! About its prow curl waves of fire, a long train of light follows in its wake, and the water that drips from the oar is converted into diamond sparks. We hail the boat and step on board; new wonders greet our sight. Each passing breeze lights up a track of splendour. Whenever the water is disturbed it seems converted to innocuous flames; and, deep below the surface, the large jelly-fishes shine with their own peculiar and beautiful luminosity. This phenomenon has not escaped the accurate observation of Crabbe, by whom it is thus noticed in his poem of The Borough : "But now your view upon the ocean turn, And there the splendour of the waves discern; It has been happily introduced by Sir Walter Scott, in his Lord of the Isles, under circumstances that give increased interest and vividness to the scene described. The phenomenon is said to be still more splendid in tropical seas; but without adverting to the narrative of navigators, by whom in glowing language it has been described, let us ask, how is it occasioned? What gives origin to the luminosity of the sea? Darwin expresses his opinion in the following words:-"Observing, that the water charged with gelatinous particles is in an impure state, and that the luminous appearance in all common cases is produced by the agitation of the fluid in contact with the atmosphere, I have always been inclined to consider that the phosphorescence was the result of the decomposition of the organic particles, by which process (one is tempted almost to call it a kind of respiration) the ocean becomes purified." Elsewhere, however, the same eminent naturalist observes, in (speaking of the Atlantic ocean-"When the waves scintillate with bright green sparks, I believe it is generally owing to minute crustacea." Certain polypes, as has been already mentioned (pp. 37), give out light when irritated. Some Annelids and Mollusca possess a similar power, but minute Acalepha, or Jellyfishes (pp. 74), of various kinds, are the great agents in thus illuminating the surface of the ocean. According to the views now most generally entertained, it is to the abundance of life, not to decay and death, we must attribute this luminosity. And if each spark be a unit in the amount of animal existence, how vast must be the aggregate! How great the profusion of animal life throughout the waters of the ocean! We saw, when treating of the Infusoria, that millions might be contained in a single drop of water (p. 82). When considering the Polypes we found that they sometimes numbered eight millions of individuals on a single zoophyte (pp. 37). We now find that microscopic Acalephæ are diffused throughout the sea water, and, notwithstanding their individual minuteness, give origin to one of the most striking phases of the "vasty deep." All this abundance of life connects itself with the humble Radiata we have been considering. Can we doubt that happiness is co-existent with life?—that enjoyment has been graciously bestowed wherein life in any of its varied forms has been given? It may assist us in forming correct ideas of the amount of microscopic life existing in vast tracts of the ocean, if we turn to a calculation given by Scoresby in his Arctic Regions. He found that the peculiar green colour of the water of the Arctic sea was owing to the multitude of minute Meduse which it contained. "They were," he says, "about the one-fourth of an inch asunder. In this proportion, a cubic inch of water must contain 64; a cubic foot 110,592; a cubic fathom 23,887,872; and a cubical mile 23,888,000,000,000,000." This discolouration extends over an extent of perhaps twenty or thirty thousand square miles, so that the mind sinks overpowered by any attempt to estimate their numbers. Viewed with reference to the whales and other inhabitants of these seas, how vast is the supply of food derived from this source! And it is obvious that by affecting the objects of his pursuit, they exercise a certain and not very remote influence on man himself. ANOTHER VIEW OF THE SUBJECT.-When you give a dinner-party, and after your guests are gone, sit down and review the progress of the entertainment, thinking how nicely everything went on, do you remember, madam, that at that same moment your guests are seated in their own homes, putting all the circumstances in quite a different way: laughing at your hired greengrocer, who (you are just saying) looked so like a butler; execrating your champagne, which (you are at this moment flattering yourself) passed for the product of the grape and not of the gooseberry; and generally putting yourself, your children, your house, your dinner, your company, your music, into such ridiculous lights, that, if you knew it (which happily you never will), you would wish that you had mingled a little strachine with the vintage so vilified.-Fraser. FAMILY COUNCIL. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COUNCIL.You have completed your labours in this volume in a very praiseworthy manner. It would be difficult for us to refer to better definitions. The "Conglomerations" are full of genius and abundant in variety. They reflect great credit on the Council. They are all worthy of publication; but we cannot refrain from especially distinguishing those written by Snow, F. S. Mills, Captain J. R., Marie and Elise, F. H. Knapp, Lily H., Narissa, H. H., Cleopatra, Nina Gordon, J. Greenfield, Blanche Alsington, A. Hilltown, Marguerite, Q. Y. O. Z., Estelle, Rolando, A. de Younge, and Ethol. The following is chosen more on account of its humour-(which is always refreshing) than for its being in other respects better than those enumerated. COMICAL CONGLOMERATION CONCERNING CAPTAIN CRUSTY'S COURTSHIP. CAPTAIN Crusty was a philosopher, in his own opinion, and the theme of his PHILOSOPHY was anti-matrimony, and the abuse of the softer sex in general. Yes! Crusty was a bachelor, and vowed that rather than become a Benedict he would suffer any known torture; he was not such a long-ear'd quadruped, he used to boast, as to be quietly lead to an altar-which the crusty Captain always would persist in spelling with an h,-but he was doomed to alter his opinion. That ever sly and mischievous young Cupid laid a trap for him, and poor Crusty plunged headlong into the CHASM. Marvellous as it may seem, it is a fact, that Captain Crusty-the womanhater-fell over head and ears in love with a little fairy of "sweet sixteen!" but let us do him the justice to say, that he was captivated by one of the most angelic beings, whose pretty face was ever reflected in a looking-glass. Little Kate was indeed a lovely creature; with a light graceful fawn-like figure, golden locks, that fell bewitchingly over her marble shoulders, and eyes-oh! they were the brightest, the bluest, and the tenderest that ever adorned a daughter of Eve; and as poor Crusty gazed into their liquid depths he was entranced. Little Kate was the daughter of a NEIGHBOUR of Captain Crusty's, and as our gallant hero was not altogether penniless, her Catholic parents rather encouraged the match than otherwise. There came a rumour abroad that Kate was a coquette, but Crusty did not believe it, and put it down as a DESPICABLE piece of slander that had been invented, and spread abroad, by the gossips of the village. Judge, however, of his surprise and towering rage, at finding, when he declared his LOVE, that the report he had condemned as a FALSEHOOD proved to be a fact! For Kate heartless coquette that she was when the Captain brought in his motion on matrimony, laughingly proposed, as an AMENDMENT, that her handsome cousin Harry should act the role of bridegroom, in which case she would offer no opposition! Poor Crusty! He raved, and stormed, and raved again-but all to no end. He vowed he would either drown or shoot himself-nay, in the fury of | his passion, I am not sure whether he did not threaten to do both. For a time, too, he entertained the idea of EMIGRATION; but eventually, came to the conclusion that not even the cooling atmosphere of the Arctic regions would have power to quench the flame that had been kindled in his bosom. And yet it is evident that he DID entertain the idea of roaming in foreign lands, for the gossips of the village-and they know everybody's business-wispered to each other that Crusty was heard late that same evening singing"To the West! to the West! to the land of the free! Where the mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea!" &c. in a very excited manner. But pardon him, good reader; for he is not the only young man who has been led to believe in the possibility of "drowning care in the bottle," and thereby "put an enemy into his mouth to steal away his brains." And there he sat at his open window, and passed the dreary night gazing vacantly at the stars above him (vacantly, I say, for his knowledge of ASTRONOMY was very shallow), and brooding over the SUBTERFUGE of which he had been the victim, and of which state the angelic, goldenhaired, blue-eyed, coquette had been the author. There he sat, I say, looking the picture of misery. * * * Many an old year has been rung out, and many a new one rung in, since the mournful days from Captain Crusty's courtship; and yet but few changes have taken place in the little village of Fayland, the scene of the melting drama which True it is it has been my painful duty to record. that Time, who is never idle, has worked furrows erable Crusty; but he still enjoys all the comforts in the brow, and silvered the locks of the venof "single-blessedness." And Kate, too, like all coquettes, is doomed to die an old-maid; for "that dear fellow," her dashing cousin Harry, has proved false, and has now become a worshipper at the shrine of a widow lately arrived in the neighbourhood, "fair, fat, and forty," with a very small family, and a very large fortune! The last time I saw the tough old Crusty, was at a bachelor's party, given on the occasion of the sixty-third anniversary of his BIRTHDAY; but though 'tis true he was as humorous and jolly a companion as you could wish to meet with, still I thought I could perceive beneath his mask of good-humour, the ill effects of the jilt he had received in his youthful days, as he sat there, at the head of the table, looking "Like Patience on a monument, |