208 Remarks on the: 
« | One happy hour cannoterase 
‘The griet phages, nor ivipart : 
New m'to Missy's roseless face, 
New verdure to a wither’d Heart. 
_ Dong years of snff’ring and decay 
Have dimm’d thine eye and sear’d thy mind; 
Have swept thy js aud Joys away, 
And left but grief and tears behind. 
Yes! they have pass’d as the Simoom, 
Whose fatal and resistiess force 
Blights manhood’s strength, and beanty’s bloom, 
And leayes a cold and biack’uing corse. 
Oh! we will never part again, 
ut ewry pang together share ; 
United, we may brave the pain, 
Which, sever’d, were too much to bear. 
As yonder violet that pines 
With wither’d stem and faded bae, 
» Upon the rose’s breast reclines, 
_ Although the rose is wither’d too. ha 
tk 
In some of Mr. Van Dyk’s produc- 
‘ tions we occasionally remark a feeble- 
Bess and even an inaccuracy of ver- 
sification, which we trust he will ayoid 
in. any subsequent work, as there is 
abundant proof, even in these faults 
eccurring so seldom, that a little addi- 
tional care and attention are alone 
wanting to prevent them altogether. 
We must likewise express our sin- 
cere regret that he should, in some in- 
stances, haye disfigured his pages by 
the ‘introduction of slang language. 
‘This gentleman must surely know that 
it furnishes a miserable substitute for 
Feal wit, and must be aware that the 
terrent with which it has inundated 
‘the town will soon be replaced by 
some other novelty, which, if equally 
absurd, will, it is to be hoped, be less 
disgraceful. Authors who write for 
the passing day only may be tolerated 
in the use of the Egan dialect, since it 
‘has most unaccountably, fora time, 
‘become the fashion, or rather the 
mania. ‘They must necessarily yield 
to thé taste, since they find their ac- 
count in so doing. “ More eorum que 
Huminibus tinatant, non eunt sed fe- 
runtur.” But awriter, for whose pro- 
ductions. we would hope a nore than 
ephemeral existence, will not, we ap- 
prehend, find it contribute to his. per- 
manent fame, to interlard his pages 
with the languagé of gipsies and pick- 
pockets; and we trust, for the credit 
of Mr. Van Dyk’s muse, that he will 
in future exclude any such embellish- 
ments from his writings. As faithful 
critics, we have felt it our duty to no- 
tice the faults of his little volume ; but 
we are happy that these are set off by 
so many redeeming beauties; and we 
ean confidently recommend the “‘ Thea- 
trical’ Portraits” as_ interesting to 
the admirers-of the drama,-and cal- 
culated io gratify the trae lovers of 
poetry. 
Phial Barometer... (Octet, 
To the Editor of tle Monthhy Magazine. 
be. SiR, Phen 
HAD much pleasure at sceing, it 
the last number of your instructive 
and well-arranged publication, answers 
to the three queries which appeared in 
it a month or two since respecting the 
phial barometer. 
An interest in the phenomena of na- 
ture commonly arises from some ge- 
neral knowledge of them; and I was 
therefore surprised at the enquiries of 
your correspoudent regarding appear- 
ances that proceeded from causes, as 
I supposed, extremely obvious, and 
whieh a yery slight acquaintance with 
the principles of natural philosophy 
would have enabled him to account 
for: but, on reading Sigma’s answer 
to the third question, viz. ‘ Why does 
the exposure of the phial to the heat 
of a fire produce the same effect as 
rainy weather?’ my surprise Was sus- 
pended, and it seemed that a more at- 
tentive observation of the phenomenon 
adverted to is requisite to its correct 
solution than I was at first aware of. 
He says, “ Whien the phial is exposed 
to the heat of a fire, as the density of 
the air is diminished -by: its greater 
rarification, its pressure on the sur- 
face of the water is diminished also, 
the same as when rain is formed, be- 
cause its elastic form is proportionate 
to its density.” 
It is, l hope, with a becoming defer- 
ence to the acuteness and judgment 
of this gentleman that I submit to him, 
and your othér readers, another an- 
swer to the third enquiry. Both of 
your correspondents have observed, if 
they have ever performed the experi- 
ment, the difficulty of inverting the 
bottle when full, without many drops 
escaping, and the consequent admis- 
sion of some air through the column 
of water to the head of the barometer. 
In the one-ounce phials it is almost, or 
quite, impossible to do it without per- 
mitting the space of an inch, at least, 
between the inner surface and the top 
of the barometer to be occupied by air. 
Now there are two ways in which 
heat inay affect the phial barometer so 
as to Occasion a convex surface at its 
orifice. First, by rarifying the external 
colummof air that presses on this sur- 
face ; and, secondly, by the expansion 
of the air within. “That the first, 
which is the supposition of Sigma, is 
not the cause, is manifest from the eir- 
cumstance, that the weight of the at- 
mosphere, where the quantity is unli- 
mited, 
