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From Sharpe's Magazine.

FLIES IN AMBER.

STRANGE mysteries appear to surround | this curious natural production. It long stood between the three kingdoms of nature, like the Egyptian sphynx, an unsolved enigma: hence amber attracted the attention alike of the poet and of the philosopher, and it became the basis of more than one romantic story. Eventually, by subjecting amber to a peculiar kind of optical analysis, the enigma was solved; and, by its action on polarized light, it was determined most certainly to be a vegetable resin.

A fine transparent piece of amber appears as though it were a thing of yesterday-the gathered tears of some oriental gum tree, full of sunlight; yet it is as old, it may be older, than the hills. The flies in amber tell us thus much-there they are:

"We know the thing is neither rich nor rare, But wonder how"

they have become entangled in the now stony resin. It must have been distilled from the branches of trees, and hanging thereon like honey dews, have enticed, and afterwards entangled them in its viscous mass. Severe has been the struggle, in many cases, by the poor prisoners; they have sought to regain their liberty, and sacrificed their limbs in the effort. It is no unusual thing to find flies of all sizes, and even sturdy beetles, who have been caught in the slimy juice, with their legs and wings torn off and scattered around them; yet was the struggle in vain, they remain entombed, mummified with more than Egyptian art, as beautiful and as delicate as they were in life; dismembered things, preserved to tell the story of a very ancient existence.

The forms are numerous, the varieties of flies in amber are very various; yet there is scarcely one of them which is identical with any living creature. The entomology of the amber mines informs us that they were the winged denizens of the air, and the creeping things of the earth, at a time when a tropical climate extended as far north as the Baltic Sea.

That indeed they lived in ancient for

ests, far back in geological time, when southeastern England had not yet risen from the ocean, and when, probably, a line of cliffs, extending from Weymouth to Scarborough, were still beaten by the waves of a widespread sea. Of these imprisoned specimens a curious history is yet to be written; but it is with other flies in amber that we have now to deal with mysteries more occult than these, and principles which appear to have a world-wide application in each varied form of development.

The study of the psychological phenomena of the Grecian mind brings us acquainted with some beautiful manifestations of that exaltation of human intellect which advances beyond ordinary reason, and assumes many of the characteristics of inspiration.

In the writings of the philosophers of Greece, and in their poetical mythology, we find numerous examples of the outshadowing of philosophic truths, which inductive science has since rendered familiar to the world. It would appear, that by careful culture of the powers of the mind, the lovers of wisdom became enabled to think out great truths, which are now developed to us by the mechanical process of experiment.

The Greek mythical creations display the resistless powers of supreme intellect in developing life, and order, and beauty, out of the chaos which belongs alike to every theogony. They are all sublime outshadowings of the spiritual nature which was seen to exist behind ordinary nature. They show, as through a veil, the workings of those subtile agencies by which the great phenomena of creation are produced. The philosophers taught the people to believe that everything in nature was under the guidance of an especial spirituality; and thus were created those " spirits of air, and earth, and sea," which were the presiding powers of the organic and of the inorganic worlds. Even where observation led to the discovery of a fact, it was clothed in this spiritual vesture, and it became to the Greeks a divinity. Thus, a fine old Grecian, Thales of Miletus,

who was probably examining the flies in amber, discovered that when this substance was rubbed, it acquired the power of attracting light bodies; and he interpreted this truth, by supposing amber to possess a spirit, which, being irritated, left its transparent prison, and gathering up all floating bodies near, flew back with them again. Electron was the Greek name for amber, and electricity was the epithet by which Thales and his disciples distinguished the spirit they had learned to raise. We have lost the history, if one ever existed, of the progress made in tracking out this wonderful spirit in its devious workings and wanderings; we only know that for nearly two thousand years this fact remained barren of all results, and that the mystery in amber was regarded as one of the unknown things which are dreamt of in our philosophy.

Eventually, an English dreamer, a pensioner of the Charterhouse, called Stephen Gray, in 1720, informed the world that something of the mystery of electricity he had solved; and he showed that the same spirit which dwelt in amber was also found in glass, hair, silk and feathers. Twenty years passed, and some ingenious men at Leyden thought they could devise a plan for eliminating this spirit of the amber, and of collecting and retaining it when once developed. A large glass globe was fixed on an axis, and turned rapidly; a gun-barrel, suspended by silken strings, was hung near it, a wire fastened to the gun-barrel, dropping into a glass of water at the other end. The glass globe was excited, as old Thales excited his amber, by friction with the hands; and the person holding the glass of water, upon applying his finger to obtain the spark from the barrel, received a shock, which convinced the terrified experimenters that the spirit was a giant in its wrath. The most exaggerated statements were published in all the large cities of Europe. The glass globe and the Leyden vial, as it was called, was exhibited in Paris and London, and crowds of spectators flocked to witness the discharge, and to feel the "fearful" shock. The spirit of the amber was now fairly developed, and its powers were examined by experiment, guided by the new ideas. Men no longer used thought as the only element in the discovery of knowledge; they had begun to employ their senses and to cultivate habits of obser

vation.

At length, a great single-minded man, who had made his home

"In lands which echo further west Than the Greeks' island of the blest,"

seeing through some of the mystery which enveloped this subtile spirit in amber, resolved on determining by an experiment, beautiful in its simplicity and grand in its danger, the relation which it bore to the awful spirit of the thunder-storm.

The sculptor has idealized the noble form of the impious Ajax defying the lightning: how much more dignified would be a statue of the philosopher compelling the thunder of the heavens to speak aloud its secrets. Benjamin Franklin stood forth from among men in the boldness of his views, and he saw, or thought he saw, in the attractive principle of electron, a power of universal diffusion, and he resolved to examine for himself. He had previously made himself acquainted with the laws by which electricity appeared to be guided, and availing himself of this knowledge, Franklin devised his grand experiment.

He mounted a kite into the air, insulated its string, which served as a conductor, and waited to see the result. For some time he waited in vain, the evocator received no answer to his call, the spirit refused to obey his summons. But when man calls on nature in the purity of his soul, and solicits earnestly a development of natural truths, nature rarely fails to vouchsafe a reply.

Franklin stood watching his arrangement; presently every fibre of his kite-string was seen to stand on end, and, on applying a pointer to the ball to which it was attached, he was saluted with a discharge of electric fire of precisely the same character as that which had been previously developed from resin and from glass. Here we had a modern Prometheus, indeed, stealing fire from heaven. Thus it was proved that lightning was only a grand manifestation of the same phenomena which had first excited the attention of Thales of Miletus. The danger incurred by the illustrious Franklin was soon fatally proved by the death of a continental philosopher, who repeated his experiment. Professor Rickmann had reared high in air an electrical conductor, and connected it with some experimental arrangements in his study. Proceeding without sufficient caution, the discharge from a passing thunder-cloud flowed through the conductor, and penetrating the body of the philosopher, destroyed his life.

Further researches in the same direction confirmed the great result of Benjamin Franklin, and proved that the earth and the air

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were equally under the influence of this all-neath the water, and thus all is rendered pervading element. It was shown that no body existed in nature through which this subtile principle was not diffused, that changes were constantly being produced by the interference of other physical powers, and that in the effort made to restore equilibrium we had the manifestations of electrical phenomena.

During all the stages of animal and vegetable growth, electricity is either absorbed or given off, and no change can take place in the form of matter without its effecting a corresponding change in its electrical relations. Thus water is converted into vapor, and it takes from the earth some of its electricity. This ascends into air, and floats as clouds, accumulating in this way its quantity of electrical power. Circumstances may arise through which the electricity is quietly returned back to the earth, or such as may determine a concentration of the electrical element in the atmosphere. It floats on, dark and lowering, with its stored artillery, until, becoming overcharged, it bursts forth in fury, and too frequently performs the work of devastation.

A hill, a tall tree, a pointed spire, becomes the object of heaven's wrath, and it is torn and splintered by the violence of the disruptive discharge from the cloud. We have learnt something of this, and we are profiting by our knowledge. The electricity does not it cannot-pass by the solid matter of the object upon which it falls; consequently, it endeavors to find its way into the earth by the intersticial spaces between the particles of the solid matter. These channels being insufficient to convey it, they are split and rended in all directions. There are certain bodies which, by their peculiar molecular constitution, have the property of allowing this fluid to pass through it very freely; and if we place such a mass of matter as is sufficient to convey all the electricity of a thunder-cloud to the earth, it will pass along it quietly and harmlessly. Hence we raise a little above the highest point of a building a rod of copper, and continue it to the lowest point, connecting it with the moist earth. In our ships we carry a band of the same metal from the topmast to the copper sheeting be

There has been a popular error that lightning conductors may become lightning attractors. There are no such things as attractors of electricity; it strikes a tall tree or church spire, because such objects offer the easiest road for it to return to the earth and restore the electric equilibrium. The lightning copper conductor bears precisely the same relation to the atmospheric electricity, that the pipes which we place from the roofs of our houses, and continue to the earth, do to the rain which falls from a condensing cloud. Neither the rain nor the electricity seek the channels, but they are provided, and through these they flow.

By a good system of lightning conductors, any extent of country might be protected from thunder-storms; indeed, science proves that it is within the power of man to establish such channels of communication between the solid earth and the ambient air, as to maintain a constant balance in the electrical conditions of both, and thus prevent the development of the thunder storm.

The vineyards of the south of France formerly suffered severely from devastating hailstorms, produced by the sudden congelation of the water of the rain-cloud by its being robbed of its latent heat through a sudden electric discharge. Experience has taught the vine-growers that, by raising lightning conductors over their gardens, they quietly discharge the surplus electricity in the air, prevent the congelation of the water, and consequently remove the cause of injury. The paragrailles, as they are called, are the safeguards to the vine-grower, and where they are plentifully distributed, severe hailstorms are now rarely known.

Thus it is that, by investigating some of the most minute and apparently uninstructive phenomena, we arrive at great truths. The attractive power of amber, first observed by Thales, has led to the solution of the mystery of the thunder-storm; has instructed us how to disarm it of its terrors; and there are yet other points of interest, to which we shall return, showing the advantages which man has derived from studying the flies in amber.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

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A biography of the late Rev. Dr. Kitto, is in preparation under the editorship of J. E. Ryland, Esq., author of the "Life of John Foster." It is to be published by subscription, for the benefit of Dr. Kitto's family, and will embrace extracts from his journals and correspondence.

The author of the "Plurality of Worlds," it is now said in English Journals, is not Dr. Whewell, but Mr. T. S. Smith, of Baliol College, Oxford.

It is said that Mr. Murray has bought a work of Mr. Russell's on the Crimean Campaign, for £1,000. The English Stamp Duty on newspapers and advertisements has been removed by a vote of Parliament, amidst general rejoicing, and papers are now to be prepaid when mailed, but not before.

A Paris paper announces the fact of the discovery of an unpublished fragment of a lost tragedy of Euripides, by M. Egger, of the Institute.

The Presse which is now publishing Madame George Sands' memoirs, has received a warning not to publish that portion of her memoir which relates to 1812, and the retreat from Moscow.

The King of Prussia has just conferred the order of the Red Eagle, of the second class, to Dr. Ehrenberg, Professor in the University of Berlin, and Secretary of the Physico-mathematical section of the Academy of Science. He has also awarded the Gold Medal for Science and Art to Dr. Herrig, whose collection of British and American Literature has already been noticed in these columns.

The London "Critic" contains an account of a great work in preparation by Count Tullio Dandolo, of Milan, upon early Christian history, entitled "Studies upon Rome and the Empire till the Times of Marcus Aurelius." The work is to be in six volumes, which are said to be all preparedthe sixth of them has been published under the title, "Nascent Christianity," in the "Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica" at Milan. The other five are to contain the general history of the Roman Empire in this, its most splendid period, its statistics, its manners and customs, and the history of the Latin and Greek literature. Count Dandolo is the author of several other works-one on "Dante and Columbus," "Italy in the Last Century," "Northern Europe and America in the Last Century," "Switzerland in the Middle Ages," "Switzerland Picturesque," etc. All of these works, with the one now in the course of publication, are again only parts of a still more comprehensive scheme, a "History of Thought in Modern Times," for which the author is represented as admirably adapted, and in which he has received the encouragement of the Pope. Some of the views cited from the "Nascent Christianity" do certainly indicate a large comprehension of history, and fine powers of combination and exposition.

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The Literary Convention between England and Belgium has just been ratified. From this date the authors of new works of Literature and Art in either country, will be entitled to exercise the right of property in their works, in the territories of the other; and this protection will be extended to translations, with certain stipulations.

It is well known that since the discoveries of Champollion there has been a great difficulty in respect to the name of the Egyptian conqueror of Central Asia, whom Herodotus and all the Greek historians call Sesoois or Sesostris, while the Egyptian monuments designate him as Ramsès Meiamoun. The text of Tacitus bears out the reading of the monuments. In the royal list of Manetho, too, the name is that of Ramsès, and not that of Sesostris. In his twelfth dynasty there is the name Sesostasen, also a conqueror, but he cannot be the true Sesostris. In a communication to the French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres of Oct. 20, the Viscount of Rougé proposes a settlement of the difficulty on the ground of decipherings from the pyri of the British Museum, from which it appears that Ses or Seson was a popular abbreviation of Ramsés: it sometimes appears, too, as Sesion, which would give the form Sesoois of Diodorus.

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The French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences offered a prize of 10,000 francs for the best "Manual of Moral and Political Economy, for the use of the Laboring Classes." Cousin, Dunoyer, Count Portalis, L. Faucher, Mignet, and the Duke de Broglie were the judges. Thirty-four essays were gent in, but the prize was not adjudged to any one, and it is continued for the next year. One "memoire" was esteemed the best, but not sufficiently matured. The author begins it by a narrative of scenes in a village, with all the circumstances and incidents of ordinary life, and from this starting point deduces the rules and maxims of moral and political economy. A prize of 3,000 francs is to be decreed in 1855 for the best work on 'Pauperism in France, and its Remedy;" one for a history of the "Arabic Philosophy in Spain;" one for an essay on the "Relations of Ethics and Political Economy;" one for "History of Marriage Contracts;"-in 1857, one for "History of International Maritime Law."

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A large number of Greek and Latin MSS. have been found in the Ottoman Empire by a company of gentlemen, who have been deputed by the French Government to make literary researches wherever opportunity was afforded by the passage of the arthe libraries of Constantinople has been ascertained, mies. The precise number of Oriental MSS. in all

and the whereabouts of a valuablé treatise on Ancient Egypt, by one Ald-al-Lathif, who lived in the middle ages, has been discovered.

It is now believed that twenty volumes will hardly contain all the MSS. of the Emperor Bonaparte, collected by Louis Napoleon. Many letters, &c., written by the Emperor, are in a text hardly

legible-it is only with the greatest difficulty that | the exact words are made out.

Among the new publications announced by our Cis-Atlantic houses, we notice that PHILLIPS, ŠAMPSON & Co. have in press "A History of Massachusetts," by Rev. John S. Barry.

GOULD & LINCOLN have a "Memoir of Old Humphrey," the well-known author of "Homely Hints," &c., &c.; "Velasquez and his works," by William Sterling; also, a new and elegant library edition of "Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," with Millman's, Guizot's and Smith's notes, in 8 vols.

LITTLE, BROWN & Co. have in preparation a new revised edition of "Sparks' Life and Writings of George Washington," in 12 vols.; "Plutarch's Lives," partly from Dryden's translation, in 5 vols.; Prof. B. Peirce's "Treatise on Analytical Mechanics," in quarto; "John Adams' Works,” vols. 1 and 10; and the " Correspondence of D. Webster," edited by Fletcher Webster, in 2 vols.

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J. MUNROE & Co. announce a volume of "Popular Tales," comprising "Trap to Catch a Sun-Beam," Whatley's Detached Thoughts and Apophthegms." CROSBY, NICHOLS & Co. announce "Christianity, its Influence and Evidence," by Rev. G. W. Burnap. J. P. JEWETT & Co. have published "The Augustan Age of France," or the Distinguished Writers of the Age of Louis XIV., by Rev. J. F. Astie, with Introduction by Rev. E. N. Kirk.

TICKNOR & FIELDS announce two new works by Mrs. Mowatt, the one containing further experiences of her theatrical life, the other a volume of plays -"Armand and Fashion;" De Quincey's "NoteBook of an English Opium-Eater;" and "The School of Life," a story by Anne M. Howitt.

MILLER, ORTON & MULLIGAN have in press "My Bondage and My Freedom," by Fred. Douglass, illustrated; "Lives of Henry VIII. and his Six Queens," by Henry William Herbert, with por

traits.

Dr. Spring's new work, in press by M. W. Dood, is entitled "The Contrast."

POEMS OF MRS. BROWNING.-The entire poetical works of Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in three elegant volumes, have been published by C. S. FRANCIS & Co. They are among the profoundest and richest productions of the age, full of pathos, thought and divine philosophy. In the larger and nobler aspects of the poet, this gifted child of song has probably no living peer. Her works are worthy of study.

A history of the French Revolution has been prepared by Professor Jobson, which has the merit of being brief, comprehensive, and impartial. It condenses into a brief space the great events of that terrible era, and so far as we perceive, with entire freedom from bias or partisanship.

Lingard's History of England, from the First Invasion by the Romans to the Accession of William and Mary, in 1688, has just been completed in an edition of thirteen duodecimo volumes, published by PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & Co. The author's reputation as a historian, will secure this work an introduction into the public libraries throughout the country, particularly now that it is issued in so convenient a form and at so low a price. The several volumes have been noticed in the columns of this journal, as issued.

D. APPLETON & Co. issue a folio volume of Amer ican History, according to the "Pantological system," which furnishes a panoramic view of the origin and progress of Nations and States, by exhibiting on charts the principal events in their History, Chronology, &c., including a view of the acts of tics, Diplomacy, &c., with Statistics of Commerce, legislation, the development of Jurisprudence, PoliAgriculture, Literature, Education, Religion, &c.

Fleetwood's History of the Bible has been reprinted in a royal octavo volume, by Messrs. CARTERS. This comprises the Sacred History, from the Creation to the Incarnation, the facts presented in the Old Testament being arranged in consecutive order, and illustrated by reference to the manners and customs of the ancients, and by geographical engravings and a map. notices. The work is also accompanied by steel

A handsome edition of Rev. Matthew Henry's Miscellaneous Works, in two large volumes, has been also issued by the CARTERS. Besides the valguide in the interpretation of Scripture, Mr. Henry's uable Commentary which has been so popular a Sermons, Tracts and other productions, contain much important doctrinal and ecclesiastical matter, illustrating the general condition of the churches in England during the stormy periods of their history. The interesting life of Rev. Philip Henry, his father, who was a celebrated noncomformist Divine, is prefixed. The present, of all the editions which have been issued, contains the fullest collection of Sermons and Papers, and will be a valuable acquisition to the theological and public libraries.

R. CARTER & BROTHERS have issued the Memoirs of John F. Oberlin, a devoted Pastor of Waldrach, in the Ban de la Roche. It is a record of the labors of a faithful Missionary in a neglected neighbor

hood, which was civilized and evangelized through

his efforts.

Ashton Cottage; or, The True Faith, is a Sunday tale, illustrating many phases of religious experience, designed for the reading of youth, and pubblished in CARTERS' series of illustrated juveniles.

Dr. Johnston's Chemistry of Common Life is now complete in two duodecimo volumes, illustrated with numerous wood engravings. The valuable scientific information which is embodied in its pages, in a popular form, well commend it to the attention of the public, as an invaluable guide to the knowledge of man's most common and intimate relations to the external world. As a text book for higher classes in schools, this work would also prove highly useful. D. APPLETON & Co. are the publishers.

The Practical Fruit, Flower, and Vegetable Gardener's Companion, by P, Neill, LL. D., has been reprinted by C. M. SAXTON & Co., with adaptations to the soil and climate of the United States, by G. Emerson, M.D.

Mr. David A. Harsha has collected the most famous speeches of the eminent Orators and Statesmen of Ancient and Modern Times, with biographical notices and criticisms on their genius. It is intended by the author, not only as a text book for students, but as an every-day book for general reference. C. SCRIBNER is the publisher.

The Rag Bag is the title of a collection of Ephemera, by N. P. Willis. The work consists principally of pieces which have been published in the Home Journal," and are now preserved in a more readable form.

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