on the Calcination of Metals. 83 



having the cause of these motions in themselves, they may, so 

 far, be called violent; but that this violence is gentle, and nowise 

 ruinous. Thus, the motion of the orbits of the planets* from 

 east to west, having its cause in a higher heaven, is called by 

 all violent, without, however, its doing them any injury. More- 

 over, they who aigue thus condemn themselves, since they are 

 compelled to admit, that not only the motion of water and air, 

 but their very abiding places, are held by violence: — that of the 

 latter, under fire, and that of the former, above earth. 



Having thus vanished levity, and its upward motion, from all 

 the boundaries of nature, we aver anew, that the elements of air 

 and fire, which alone come into the dispute, are endowed with 



gravity. 



[To be continued.] 



Art. X. Remarks on the Depression of Mercury/ in Glass 

 Tubes. In a Letter to the Editor. 



Sir, 



Entertaining, as I unfeignedly do, the profoundest respect 

 for the analytical talents of Mr. Ivory, and admitting most 

 readily, that he has contributed, more than any person now 

 living, to advance the reputation of this country, among our 

 cotemporaries abroad, with regard to abstract mathematics, 

 I am almost surprised at my own temerity in taking up, as 

 one of the fraternity of anonymous writers, the gauntlet, which 

 he has thrown down, in silent contempt, at the feet of one of 

 my brethren, who is also a fellow-labourer of his own, in the 

 Supplement of the Encyclopcedia Britannica. 



The elaborate speculations of his unfortunate co-operator, 

 the author of the article on Cohesion, who had flattered him- 

 self, in a sort of fool's paradise, that he had obtained a glance, 

 " like a flash of lightning," into the intimate constitution of 

 matter, so as even to form a rough estimate of the magnitude 



• " Let cieux des Planitci." So Milton, 



" Moon, that now niecl'st the orient sun, now fly'st 

 With the fixed stars, fixed in their »(■//« that fly;" 



and the generality of the pljilosophers of that day. 



G 2 



