General Notices. 567 



dependent on the fewest causes, and detecting in these few the perfection of 

 simplicity indissolubly engrafted on the grandeur of design, were the argu- 

 ments followed out. They embraced the phenomena of bodies positively and 

 negatively electrised. (Proceedings of the Electrical Society, as quoted in the 

 Lit. Gaz., April 6. 1839.) 



The Expression of Grandeur. — The royal palace is the object which first and 

 last fixes the traveller's eye at Stockholm. In every view of the city, this 

 noble building attracts his attention from all other objects. Its chaste style 

 unencumbered with unmeaning ornaments, as -in our abortive attempts at 

 Grecian architecture, its vast volume, its effect on the mind of the spectator 

 as a grand object, an effect produced, no doubt, by the architect's skill in 

 being simple, and not distracting the attention by superfluity of breaks and 

 details in his masses, place this edifice among the few modern structures which 

 have attained the end and aim of the art ; the impressing the beholder with an 

 unmixed feeling of grandeur. (Laing's Tour in Sweden in 1838, as quoted by 

 the AthencBitm, March 9. 1839.) 



Labour not hostile to mental Improvement. — " Are labour and self-culture 

 irreconcilable to each other ? In the first place, we have seen that a man, in 

 the midst of labour, may and ought to give himself to the most important im- 

 provements, that he may cultivate his sense of justice, his benevolence, and 

 the desire of perfection. Toil is the school for these high principles ; and we 

 have here a strong presumption, that in other respects it does not necessarily 

 blight the soul. Next, we have seen that the most fruitful sources of truth 

 and wisdom are not books,- precious as they are, but experience and observa- 

 tion ; and these belong to all conditions, It is another important consider- 

 ation, that almost all labour demands intellectual activity, and is best carried 

 on by those who invigorate their minds, so that the two interests, toil and 

 self-culture, are friends to each other. It is mind, after all, which does the 

 work of the world; so that the more there is of mind, the more work will be 

 accomplished. A man, in proportion as he is intelligent, makes a given force 

 accomplish a greater task, makes skill take the place of muscles, and, with less 

 labour, gives a better product. Make men intelligent, and they become inven- 

 tive; they find shorter processes. Their knowledge of nature helps them to 

 turn its laws to account, to understand the substances on which they work, 

 and to seize on useful hints, which experience continually furnishes. It is 

 among workmen that some of the most useful machines have been contrived. 

 Spread education, and, as the history of this country shows, there will be no 

 bounds to useful inventions." (Dr. Chanhing on Self-Culture.) 



This admirable pamphlet we think the Society for the- Diffusion of Useful 

 Knowledge ought to print, and sell for Id. or 2d., instead of a shilling, the very 

 unreasonable price at present charged for it. — Cond. 



Temperance Societies. — All over Asia, where wine and spirits are forbidden by 

 religion or custom, we find recourse had to opium, which is certainly no improve- 

 ment; and that the use of that drug has of late been rapidly increasing among 

 the lower orders in Britain. Temperance societies are harmless if not bene- 

 ficial manifestations of that excited moral temperament which at the present 

 period characterises this nation. The upper classes have given up hard drinking, 

 without the aid of such societies, and have had recourse to recreations more 

 intellectual and more congenial to a social structure, in which females occupy 

 a more important station. The fine arts, especially music, are very efficient 

 antagonists of inebriety, and their influence is now descending to the lower 

 orders. We hear of societies for promoting education and temperance, when 

 the tendencies of society at large have set in irresistibly in their favour, and 

 need no one's assistance. (Quarterly Review, vol. Ixiii. p. 380.) 



Unity and Variety in Objects essential to Beauty. — Unity is necessary, from 

 the limited nature of the human mind, which can only see and understand 

 one thing at one time ; and variety is equally requisite, from the expansive 

 nature of the mind, which can see and understand an indefinite number of 

 objects, provided they are presented to it in succession. — Cond. 



