speaking Automaton. — Ionian Academij . ^ I ? 



in so much as the paper is washed in the materials of which 

 ink is made, and then dried. It is of a yellowish colour 

 and the characters are written on it in the same way. Paper 

 books, or albums, of this deicriptiou, are now manufac- 

 tured in great abundance at Paris, and ihey are in consider- 

 able request. 



A Mr. Robertson, whose name has been already befors 

 the public as an aerial traveller in Denmark, has invented 

 a speaking automaton, which he is now exhibiting in Paris. 

 It already articulates distinctly, in French, the words ' Papa,* 

 ' Mamma,' and ' Long live the emperor Napoleon 1 ' and its 

 powers of language are described as daily increasing. Our 

 readers will probal)ly recollect the flute-player invented by 

 Vaucanson, and the chess-player of Kemper; but we believe 

 the above is the first instance upon record of a speaking 

 figure, if we except the famous head invented by Albertus, 

 Magnus, according to the French tradition (but Fioger Bacon, 

 sccording to the English), and which is said to have beeiv 

 broken to pieces by St. Thomas Aquinas. 



The members of the Institution lately formed in the 

 Ionian Islands, for the promotion and encouragement of 

 literature, under the title of The Ionian Academy, desirous 

 ©f information as to the state of civilization in Greece 

 since the downfall of the empire of the East to the present 

 time, have proposed the following questions to the learned 

 throughout Europe. [The memoirs are to be addressed to 

 the Secretary of the Ionian Academy under cover to the 

 English or French Charge d'affaires at Constantinople.} 



1. What schools, libiaries, and other institutions for the 

 •ncouragemcnt of learning were founded in the difft rent 

 provinces of Greece, between the period of the downfall of 

 the Empire of the East (1433) and the present time ? 



2. What were the establishn'twts for public education 

 founded bv the Greeks out of Greece, for the education of 

 their countrvmen ? 



3. Were the printing-houses at Moscopolis, Jassi, and 

 Bucharest, the only eslablishmenty, of the kind in Greece? 

 Is it true that there was a printing establishment in the 

 Fanal of Constantinople ? How long did that continue iii 

 existence, which was begun in the Patriarchat at Constan- 

 tinople during the war lietween France and Turkey ? 



4. A biographical notice of the life and works of the 

 Icanud Greeks who have flourished since the fall of the 

 £in[)ir«: of tbe Last to the present time. 



MR. SAD- 



