wont to be, that the state of a nation, or a people, depends upon the diffusion abroad of the works of genius and art; and the giving the ready inventions of the brain to the hand of Labour and Toil. Genius has usually been applied as a term, to the productions of the imagination; but this is unjust, especially if the definition we have just attempted be correct. In all the departments of physics, and of general science, the workings of genius in combination with industry may be perceived. Some eloquent remarks by Sir Humphrey Davy, in the "Last Days of a Philosopher," may be quoted here:-" The practical results," he says, "of the progress of physics, chemistry, and mechanics, are of the most marvellous kind; and to make them all distinct would require a comparison of ancient and modern states; ships that were moved by human labour in the ancient world, are transported by the winds: and a piece of steel touched by a magnet points to the mariner his unerring course from the old to the new world; and by the exertions of one man of genius [JAMES WATT], aided by the resources of chemistry, a power which, by the old Philosophers could hardly have been imagined, has been generated and applied to almost all the machinery of active life -the steam-engine performs not only the labour of horses, but of man; by combinations which appear almost possessed of intelligence, waggons are moved by it, constructions made, vessels caused to perform voyages in opposition to wind and tide, and a power placed in human hands which seems almost unlimited. To these novel and still extending improvements may be added others, which though of a secondary kind, yet materially affect the comforts of life: the collecting from fossil materials the elements of combustion, and applying them so as to illuminate, by a single operation, houses, streets, and even cities. If you look to

the results of chemical arts, you will find a few experiments in electricity leading to the marvellous result of disarming the thunder-cloud of its terrors, and you will see new instruments created by human ingenuity, possessing the same powers as the electrical organs of living animals. To whatever part of the vision of modern times you cast your eyes, you will find marks of superiority and improvement; and the results of intellectual labour, or of scientific genius, are permanent, and incapable of being lost. Monarchs change their plans, governments their objects; but a piece of steel touched by the magnet preserves its character for ever, and secures to man the dominion of the trackless ocean. A new period of society may send armies from the shores of the Baltic to those of the Euxine, and the empire of the followers of Mahomet may be broken to pieces by a northern people, and the dominion of the Britons in Asia may share the fate of Tamerlane, Gengis Khan; but the steamboat which ascends the Delaware or the St. Lawrence will be continued to be used, and will carry the civilization of an improved people into the deserts of North America and into the the wilds of Canada, In the common history of the world, as compiled by authors in general, almost all the great changes of nations are confounded with changes in their dynasties, and events are usually referred either to sovereigns, chiefs, heroes, or armies, which do in fact originate from entirely different causes, either of an intellectual or moral nature. Governments depend far more than is generally supposed upon the opinion of the people, and the spirit of the age and nation."

And we surely are not to imagine that all this has resulted from the exertions of men who have occupied a position of dignity and importance in society, who were able to indulge in learned leisure, and

sought the volume and the study merely as a recreation or a relief to periods of more perfect repose. Many of the most eminent men in literature, and science and art, have sprung up from the obscurity of long and weary toil. Among the tombs of the dead, and the forms of the living, occur many names of those who have laid their country under deep obligations, by their writings and by their studies; or who have attained to a rank of universal estimation, as the ministers and interpreters of the beautiful; although every adverse wind blew around them, and obstacles innumerable lay in their path.

"It is calculated, for instance, that above a million and a half chaldrons of coals are annually consumed in London; and the amazing extention of the coal trade to meet such demands is to be traced to men called "viewers," who have generally raised themselves from lower situations. Machinery was absolutely necessary to obtain so many millions of tons of one of the first necessaries of life, and that at a rate exceedingly low, and this was provided by Newcomen the plumber, and Smeaton and Watt, the watchmakers. The cheap and elegant garments, which give bread to about two millions of people, instead of about fifty thousand, which raised the importation of cotton wool from less than 2,000,000 to 200,000,000 pounds per annum, and which increased the annual produce of the manufacture from £200,000 to £36,000,000, are to be traced through subsequent improvements, to Arkwright and Crompton, the barbers. A rude and inconsiderable manufacture was changed into an elegant art, and an important branch of national commerce, by Wedgewood, the potter."

The energy with which genius will battle with all external opposition is proverbial; it is the light within-it is a lair to itself and therefore bold and

confident; this is illustrated in a most interesting manner in the trials of BERNARD PALISSY, in his attempts to improve the beauty of porcelain :

Palissy was born in some village, the name of which is unknown, in the diocese of Agen, about the year 1500; he followed the humble calling of a land-surveyor, to which, as he advanced in years, he added that of painting on glass.

At that period the art of porcelain-making was unknown. The discovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii has enabled us to determine the progress made by the ancients in the arts of pottery; and in the beginning of the sixteenth century, the only manufactory of crockery which could pretend to the name of porcelain was in Faenza, in Italy, whither it is said to have been transported from China, by certain Venetian merchants. From this manufactory was derived the name of faience, or fayence, still used in France.

It happened that, in a visit to Agen, Palissy, the painter on glass, obtained a sight of a specimen of Faenza, or of Oriental porcelain, which inspired him with the hope of discovering some sort of white enamel, by which earthenware might be encrusted; and from that moment, he devoted fifteen years of his life to the pursuit of this single object. It appears a simple method, to have proceeded at once to Faenza, and become a workman in the famous pottery. means for so long a journey were, probably, wanting to the poor village geometer, and he accordingly gave to the enterprise all that was in his power, every moment of his days, and every faculty of his mind.

But

As a painter on glass the art of fixing and mixing colours was well known to him; but the difficulty of transferring these to pottery ware, and covering them by a transparent silicious varnish, seems to have baffled his most persevering endeavours. Scarcely able

to provide for the maintenance of his wife and family, he had the greatest difficulty in procuring colours and pottery to effect his experiments. Half his time was lost in grinding and pounding materials, and the vain attempt to construct the necessary ovens: at length he contrived to interest the owner of a pottery, who undertook to bake his experimental pieces; but, partly from ignorance, partly from ill-will, the attempt was inexpertly made: and, ruined in fortune, health, and spirits, at the close of twelve years of incessant labour, Palissy was compelled, by the wants of his family, to abandon his pursuit, and resume his more thriving calling as an engineer. Having obtained from the district a commission for the draining of certain salt marshes, he executed his task with credit and profit. No sooner, however, had he obtained the means of continuing his attempts, than he returned with greater diligence than ever to his enamelling, and despatched the new samples of his skill to be baked in the furnace of a glass house.

And now, for the first time, the composition he had invented, proved fusible. Out of three hundred specimens of various experiments submitted, at the same time, to the action of the furnace, a single one presented on cooling, a hard, white, vitreous, brilliant surface; and the joy of poor Palissy, in the discovery, may be easily conceived.

"I was, however, at that time of my life, so simple," says he, in his narrative of his experiments, "that the moment I had hit upon the real enamel, I set about making the pottery-ware to which it was to be applied; and, after losing eight months in the task, I had next to construct a furnace similar to those of the glass-houses, in which it was to be baked. No one can conceive the trouble it cost me, for I had to do all by the single labour of my hands-to sift the