Various

“ But in our present style of decorative execution, from the most elaborate finishing of a regal palace, down to the pattern of a milk-maid’s gown, there is such latitude taken in the display of licentious fancy, that imagination itself is baffled to find anything in the infinite variety of nature’s works, to which their designs can be compared, or to which they bear the most distant resemblance! ”

“ A more beautiful spectacle cannot be described; but whoever should witness such a Northern Light for the first time, could not behold it without terror; for, however beautiful the illumination may be, it is attended, as I have learned from the relation of many persons, with a hissing, crackling, and rushing noise, throughout the air, as if the largest fireworks were playing off. ”

“ Instead of sailing heavily forth in the obscurity of the evening or morning twilight, and then retreating to its secluded abode, this bird enjoys the broadest glare of the noon-day sun, and flying rapidly along, searches for food or pleasure during the cheerful light of the day. ”

“ In the first place, let us remark that the east wind, and particularly the east winds of spring, are notorious for their moisture, and that a moist air is the best conductor of malaria, as moisture in the air, under the form of evening mists, or in other modes, appears even to be its proper vehicle, or residence, if I may use such a term; and though I have not as yet separated the case of a fog, I may now remark, that the effect in question, or the production of agues by fogs arriving from the sea, is even more notorious than their generation by an ordinary clear wind. ”

“ There is reason to believe, as I have endeavoured to demonstrate on another occasion, that some districts of the old world exceeded, in this respect, any country of modern ages. Amongst them, perhaps, may be reckoned Egypt, Mesopotamia, the lesser Asia, and some parts of Persia: but certainly, neither in ancient nor modern times do we find any instance of a single, compact, distinct empire, exactly defined, identically governed, and peopled by twenty-two millions of souls on the same extent of soil; this is undoubtedly a peculiarity the most striking which can exist among nations. ”

“ It is certainly impossible for any person who wishes to devote a portion of his time to chemical experiment, to read all the books and papers that are published in connexion with his pursuit; their number is immense, and the labour of winnowing out the few experimental and theoretical truths which in many of them are embarrassed by a very large proportion of uninteresting matter, of imagination, and of error, is such, that most persons who try the experiment are quickly induced to make a selection in their reading, and thus inadvertently, at times, pass by what is really good. ”

“ For twenty or thirty miles round Canton, and as far as the eye can reach on each side of the river on which that city stands, the general face of the country appears nearly a level plain, with but little undulation of surface. The level is, however, richly studded with beautiful hills, which diversify the landscape, and seem to rise out of the plain so abruptly, that they form the most picturesque features, united with the most pleasing combinations. The soil of the plain consists of a pure alluvial earth of great fertility and depth, and very retentive of water ”

“ If the science of Naval Architecture depend on certain physico-mathematical laws, as no doubt it does, it is monstrous to imagine for a moment that such laws can be developed by a flight of fancy, or that a man is born with an intuitive optical perception of the lines of least resistance, &c., or, in the jargon of the craniologists, that he has a naval-architectural bump on his skull; yet one would think that such was the case, when we see men, we cannot say philosophers, start up and loudly assert that they are in possession of the secret of construction ”

“ Upon preparing herbs thus potent for the table, cookery has exhausted all its skill; to dress a cardoon is declared, by the highest authority in the art, to be the surest test of a skilful cook; and one of those invaluable acquirements which, to borrow the words of a writer not less celebrated for his powers of composition than of cooking, “raises cookery to the rank of the sciences, and its professors to the title of artists.” ”

“ If England is too wise to learn of Rome or China, or of France and Germany, or even of the experiments on which I have dwelt so much and so often, it must be a pleasing reflection that it is already so amply informed as to have passed the bounds of all possible improvement and all possible wishes. ”

“ An accurate knowledge of the fixed stars is the first step to practical astronomy; it is, in fact, the alphabet of the science. By the rising, southing, and setting of these bodies, astronomers are enabled correctly to measure time; and from their apparent altitudes, to determine the latitude of places on the surface of the globe, whilst the permanent situations which they maintain with respect to one another, furnish them with so many marks by which to trace the course of the sun, moon, and planets through the heavens. ”

“ This is the history of our last summers, and it is invariable, whether as it relates to seasons or single days; and it is plainly owing to its permitting the more ready transmission of the sun’s rays. That it is the very harmattan of Africa, it is almost unnecessary to say; and as dry wind is not a conductor of malaria, as that poison is in fact decomposed or destroyed in these circumstances, daily and invariably, it is easy to see why the remittents of Holland should not be transported, like its intermittents, though even this may possibly happen under particular circumstances. ”

“ On conçoit par la que l’observation la plus attentive des phénomènes tels que la nature nous les présente, ne saurait démêler dans cette combinaison d’actions l’effet propre à chaque cause, ni reconnaître des effets qui ne seraient pas révélés par la sensation. ”

“ If fish can breathe indifferently salt water or fresh, for one week or one month, and if, in their new element, translated from salt to fresh, they thrive or grow, fatten and breed, the trial of three weeks or three months is a sufficient proof that they will neither sicken nor die of fresh water. If they can find food, it is indifferent whether the medium is fresh or salt. It is the misfortune of the age to understand every thing without knowing its principles; just as every man is now a physician. ”

“ If common salt be a chloride of sodium, and experiment obliges us so to regard it, what is there in its aqueous solution that should lead us to consider it as containing a muriate of soda; what evidence of any new arrangement of elements? Dr. T. is certainly in mistake, when he says, “for all practical purposes, therefore, the solution of a metallic chloride in water may be viewed as the muriate of an oxide, and on this account I shall always regard it as such in the present treatise.” ”

“ We have been thus minute in our analysis, because the subject of it is new to science in its present shape, and of a high degree of interest. Dr. Edwards’s researches among the different classes of animals have tended more to the illustration of the influence of physical agents upon life than any previous authorities; and the persevering industry, accuracy of observation, and patient inquiry which he has evinced in his investigations among cold-blooded animals, have placed this department of the creation in a point of view at once curious, interesting, and valuable to science. ”

“ The superior light of the single refraction can need no comment—and it is evident that there must be a degree of power at which that of the compounds will become too dim and feeble for vision,—while that of the single instrument will still retain a due intensity. For these reasons it is conceived that the close and penetrating scrutiny of lenses of diamond of perhaps only the 1200 inch focus, and an equal aperture (which their very low aberration would easily admit of,) must enable us to see further into the arcana of nature than we have yet been empowered to do. ”

“ But it is not yet too late; a knowledge and study of the genuine elements of taste, whether of art or nature, and a mind embued with rational perceptions of all that is beautiful and picturesque, and grand or sublime in either, will rise superior to all precedential fetters, as well as all modern mannerism, and will equally regard the excellencies of the ancients, as it will avoid the errors of some modern artists, who, in leaving the beaten track, have deviated far and widely from the point to which good sense and good taste would have led. ”

“ In order to obtain a correct idea of the manner in which the oscillation of a small solid body occasions undulations in an elastic fluid, it has been only necessary to consider a complete oscillation of the solid plane, which produces an entire undulation. If we suppose the oscillations of the plane to be continually repeated, we shall have a series of undulations instead of a single one: and they will follow each other without intermission, provided that the vibrations of the particle first agitated have been regular. ”

“ But we repeat that we do not see that the nation is at all likely to benefit from the science or exertions of those gentlemen so long as they are placed in situations where a superior education can have no other effect than producing disgust and chagrin in the mind of the possessor; and if the institution at Portsmouth be designed for no better purpose than that of supplying house-carpenters, joiners, and still more inferior trades, with foremen, it had better be abolished. ”

“ Without entering upon any question of the accuracy of the French philosopher’s observations, it is quite certain that such a mode of cultivation is that which is most congenial to plants, and which is indispensable to those of a habit at all delicate. The common practice of plunging pots into a tan-bed, or among sand, if in glass-houses, or in the earth if in open borders, is a proof of the necessity that gardeners have found, of securing as regular a temperature and degree of humidity as is possible for the outside of their flower-pots ”

“ Of the degree of resemblance proposed between the known and the unknown, there is no common measure for the minds of the hearer and the listener, and the point or points of comparison intended by the first must often be mistaken by the second; or, if reference is made to a similitude under one aspect, the imagination conceives a resemblance also under another: thus, if it is said, that an unknown animal is as large as a horse, the idea of the figure also of a horse, is apt to be attached. ”

“ In these huge receptacles of human labour, it would be absurd to expect that the women should be distinguished for their modesty and propriety, or the men for their prudence, temperance, and regularity. It is an unhappy law of human nature, that the force of example is most prevalent on the side of vice. ”

“ By tact, therefore, in manipulation, a considerable advantage is gained, independent of that resulting from an acquaintance with the principles of the science; and this is so considerable, that, of two persons of equal talent and information in other respects, he who is the best manipulator will soon be in advance of the other; the one will draw just inferences with accuracy and rapidity, while the other will be lost in doubt, and often led into error. ”

“ Being charged in the Bulletin with quoting an experiment from a particular page in M. Bellani’s memoir, (which I did from another journal, in which the experiment only was described,) I turned to the original place, and there, though I found the experiment I had transferred, I also found another which I had previously made on the same subject, and which M. Bellani had quoted.
I very fully join in the regret which the Bulletin Universel expresses, that scientific men do not know more perfectly what has been done, or what their companions are doing; but I am afraid the misfortune is inevitable. ”