602 



POLAND POLARIZATION OF LIGHT. 



and 1794 are mostly contained in a collection 

 (Teatr Polski, Warsaw, 1778, seq., 56 vols.) As 

 pulpit orators, Lachowski and Wyrwicz are known 

 even in foreign countries by translations. 



In general, the old Polish authors, particularly 

 of the time of Sigismnnd Augustus and Stephen 

 Bathory, are still the classical models of the Polish 

 style, although great changes took place in the 

 Polish language in the eighteenth century. Joh. 

 Kochanowski, Skarga, Wuiek, Bialobrzeski, Gor- 

 iiicki, Stanislaus Grochowski, Seb. Petrycy, Joh. 

 Januszowski, Cyprian Bazylik, Mart. Blazowski, 

 Mart. Bielski, and others, are yet esteemed as 

 classics. Of the modern classical prose writers of 

 Poland may be mentioned Ignatius Krasicki, a 

 model of ease and nature, Joh. Sniadecki, Narusze- 

 \viez, Skrzetuski, Jodlowski, Czacki, Louis Osinski, 

 Stanislaus Potocki, Albertrandi, Karpinski, Dnio- 

 chowski, Alb. Sweykowski, and others. The work 

 which appeared at Warsaw, in several volumes, 

 entitled fVybor Pisar's zow Polskich, contains a 

 selection from the classical authors of Poland. The 

 royal society of the Friends of Science at Warsaw 

 lias rendered important services to Polish literature. 

 It has published several volumes of transactions. 

 In 1815, three literary journals in the Polish lan- 

 guage were published at Warsaw, Wilna and Lem- 

 lierg. In 1818, there were six. See Letters, 

 Literary and Political, on Poland (Edinburgh, 

 MR).) 



The Polish nobility were never strangers to lite- 

 rature ; and of late years the spirit has spread to 

 the other citizens, and both within the limits of what 

 now constitutes the kingdom, and in all the coun- 

 tries formerly belonging to it, a literary activity has 

 prevailed since the general peace in Europe, in 

 1815, assisted by learned societies, and periodical 

 publications and journals, whose wings, indeed, 

 have been clipped by an arbitrary censorship. 

 Warsaw, Wilna. Cracow, Lemberg, Posen and 

 Breslau have been the central points of intelli- 

 gence. Learned inquirers have, in the most recent 

 periods, laboured to develop the Polish language, 

 and to purify it from the foreign terms with which 

 it has been overloaded. A literary history of all 

 the Sclavonic nations was undertaken, some years 

 since, by Linde, at W T arsaw, assisted by many scho- 

 lars of distinction. Endeavours have been made to 

 collect the historical documents of former times, 

 which are still in existence, and to obtain better 

 editions of the old original authors. A new edition, 

 in two volumes, of Bandtke's History of Poland, in 

 the Polish language, appeared at Cracow and War- 

 saw in 1822. Surowiecki, who died in 1827, dis- 

 tinguished himself by his historical and statistical 

 writings, as well as Michael Oginski, by his Me- 

 moirs of Poland, in the French language. Efforts 

 have been made also to collect works of art illustra- 

 tive of Polish history, and the episcopal palace at 

 Cracow has been converted into a museum for such 

 monuments. The Monumenta Regum Polonite 

 Cracoviensia has been published in numbers, at 

 Warsaw, commencing in 1822, and consisting of 

 engravings, illustrated by a text in Polish, Latin, 

 and French. The Polish nation has erected to the 

 hero Kosciusko, at Cracow, a monument of stupen- 

 dous proportions, and after the old Sannatian 

 fashion, consisting of a hill 120 feet high, and about 

 280 in diameter at base. The rich nobles of Poland 

 have never been deficient in a love for making col- 

 lections. Count Stanislaus Potocki, while he super- 

 intended the department of public instruction, from 

 1803 to 1821, set the example of throwing open 

 these collections to the public use ; and a library, 

 which owes its present consequence principally to 



Linde, who collected, in 1819, from the suppressed 

 monasteries, 40,000 volumes, including many very 

 valuable works, offers important means of study, 

 which have been diligently improved by the people. 

 Among the authors who are the favourites of the 

 nation, and have gained the most decided influence, 

 are Fz. Karpinski (who died in 1820); Trembecki 

 (who died in 1812), distinguished as a lyric poet, 

 fabulist, didactic poet and epistolary writer ; Stanis- 

 laus Zachowitsch, for his Fables and Tales (2d edit. 

 1826, at Warsaw). Still higher stands Julius N irm- 

 cewicz, whose patriotic historical songs have be- 

 come the possession of the people (Warsaw, 1816 

 and 1821). A dramatic work of general Bogus- 

 lawski, Krakowiani i Gorali (Warsaw, 1823), is in- 

 teresting for the number of its patriotic songs. The 

 dramatic works of count F. Wezyk (National His- 

 torical Tragedies, Cracow, 1823), and the nine 

 comedies of count Alex. Fredro (in Polish, Vienna, 



1826, 2 vols.), deserve mention. There are Polish 

 romances by count Frederic Skarbeck. J. U. 

 Niemcewicz has imitated Sir Walter Scott in his 

 historical romance Jan, Y. Tenczyna (Warsaw, 



1827, 3 vols.) The exact and experimental 

 sciences, also, have not been neglected of late 

 years. Arnold, at Warsaw, is devoted to the lite- 

 rature of natural history. Botany appears not to 

 have attracted, as yet, the interest which the unex- 

 plored treasures of the vegetable kingdom of Poland 

 deserve. Of medical treatises there are not a few, 

 though the influence of foreign models is generally 

 apparent in them. Societies are active for the ad- 

 vancement of agriculture. Gardening has received 

 the attention of men of high standing ; and the pre- 

 sident of the senate of Cracow, Stan. Wodzicki, has 

 written a treatise to make his countrymen acquaint- 

 ed with the trees and shrubs which will endure the 

 climate of the country. Works upon jurisprudence 

 have been written by Macieiowski, Budny and Se,n- 

 wicki. The present university of Warsaw arose 

 from the law school founded by count Lubieuski. 

 With respect to the historical literature of Poland, 

 we refer particularly to the Revue Encyclopedique 

 (Oct. 1827). 



POLAR BEAR. See Bear. 



POLAR EXPEDITIONS. See North Pole, 

 Expeditions to. Variation. 



POLARITY. See Electricity, and Magnetism. 



POLARIZATION OF LIGHT. In our article 

 Optics, we have considered the primary Jaws of the 

 retraction, reflection, and inflection of light, but in 

 that article the refracting or reflecting surface was 

 supposed to be homogeneous, or uniform in structure, 

 and not crystalized. It has been found, however, 

 that light suffers peculiar change, when refracted 

 or reflected under particular circumstances, and 

 that these cannot be accounted for by the ordinary 

 principles of optical science. In order to make 

 the reader acquainted with the origin of this new 

 branch of the doctrine of light, we will describe a 

 simple experiment. 

 Let there be a tube 

 N P open at both 

 ends, and let there be 

 a mirror C inclined 

 at the one end, so that 

 a ray of light from 

 some luminous object 

 beyond N may pass 

 through the tube, 

 and be reflected by 

 the mirror C to the 



eye at E. Let now the tube be turned round on 

 its axis, it will be found that the reflection from 

 the mirror, which turns with it, is equally intense 



fig- 1. 





