190 GREAT UISCOVEIUES. 



more especially as, from the large portion of the globe, over which the 

 electric action appears to have extended, it may probably have some 

 connectior) with the tremendous hurricane which the Great Western en-^ 

 countered that night on the Atlantic. " 



GREAT DISCOVERIES. 



The labors of the illustrious Faltenschwanem in the department 

 of Classic Antiquity have not been in vain. His researches into man^ 

 ners have been particularly rich in their results. It is known to all pro- 

 found scholars— and of course to all our respected readers, that Prof, 

 F. has proposed to himself, as a main object, the tracing of all existing 

 customs to their primitive origin. Taking as he does, in a strictly lit- 

 eral sense, the declaration, that ^' there is nothing new under the sun," 

 he has endeavored to show that even the most trivial peculiarities of so-? 

 cial life have an origin, which dates back of the memory of man ; and 

 his most untiring efforts have been directed to the discovery of some 

 great primitive type of usages, which will bear the same relation to man- 

 ners that the Sanscrit is supposed to bear to languages. The public are 

 awaiting the appearance of his magnificent work with impatience. We 

 are informed by the learned author, that an unavoidable delay has taken 

 place, owing to the slowness with which the elaborate engravings are 

 executed, which form the illustration of one of the most original and 

 profound chapters "on the rudimental traces of the coat tail in the time 

 of Hesiod, with a comparative sketch of its rise in Antiquity, its merid- 

 ian in the last century, and its present decline. " We understand from a 

 confidential friend of the author, that in this chapter the brilliant para^ 

 dox is started, and a povverful attempt made to sustain it, that Homer 

 himself was provided with what is now known as the box-coat, fur- 

 nished with enormous pockets, designed for the reception of the sup- 

 plementary cold victuals, which he might receive for his singing and his 

 performances on the harp, which Prof F. shows to be the classic father 

 of the bango of our land. 



We have our information from the lips of the author himself, that 

 he has traced the modern practice of applying the thumb to the nose 

 and with the fingers grinding an ideal colfee-mill. He says that it is 

 based on the ancient gesture of derisjon, whose memory is preserved in 

 the line of Persius (1.58:) "^ iergo qiiem nulla cicoia pinsW — whom 

 no stork pecks at from behind — which consisted in directing the bended 

 forefinger toward the object of contempt, and moving it in imitation of 

 a stork pecking witli his beak. 



