$72 
purposes embrace their interests in other 
worlds. : 
There is a fear of God observable in 
these times among Calvinists, which is 
no less hostile to piety than that rade fa- 
miliarity with the Aimighty God which 
is observable among the Methodists. Yet 
all these sentiments grow out of religion. 
Religion is considered as a duty ; piety 
asa merit: devotion and sanctity as 
equivocal excesses. This arises from the 
scepiicism of the world, which questions 
thé eventual retribution of ‘the industry 
spent in devotion, or of the privations 
jncurred from sanctity. Gne may infer 
a man’s creed from his using the words 
devotion and ‘sanctity with deference, 
or with a sneer. ere 
Kingdom— Empire. 
Etymologically speaking, a country go- 
verned bya kingisa kingdom; and acoun- 
try governed by a successful general, or 
imperator, is an empire. In this sense, 
England is now a ‘kingdom, but was, 
under Cromwell, an empire; as France 
3s under Bonaparte. 
Usage, however, defines an empire to. 
mean an accumulation of distin€t sove- 
reignties under one ruler. The French 
empire—-The British empire. Extent, 
not title, constitutes the essential charac- 
ter; yet monarchy is implied in either 
designation. We do not say, The empire 
of North America. The Roman do- 
minion was originally a kingdom, then a 
yepublic, then an empire. 
A ffliction—Chagrin. 
Affiiction is to chagrin, what a habit 
is to anact. The death of 4 parent 
causes affliction. The loss of a law-suit 
causes chagrin. 
The mother was so afflicted at the loss of 
@ fine boy, who was her only son, that she 
cied of grief for it. ApbDIson. 
Hear me, and touch Belinda with chagrin ; 
That single act gives haif the world the 
spleen. Pore. 
Put—Flace. 
To put is to place in any situation ; 
to place is to put in a specific situation. 
Columns, though put to support an-edi- 
fice, should be placed with symmetry. 
SEE a 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
in answer to DR. JONES'S MISTAKES 
about the DAMP in COAL MINES.* 
HSS very attentively perused 
Dr. Jones’s communication, on a 
very important subject, in your Number 
for November last, and being on all occa- 
* See Monthly Mag. No. 191) p. 36% 
True Method of correcting 
[Jan. 1, 
sions anxious (on account of the dignity 
of those sciences, upon which certain 
principles in the procédures of art de- 
pend, and of such practices of art, as 
‘especially tend either to ameliorate the 
‘Gondition, or lessen the fatality, of parti- 
cular pursuits,) to see facts clearly and — 
justly stated; and if, upon these facts, 
any hypothesis should be erected, that it 
would at least hold within its view the - 
acknowledged and fundamental Jaws of 
philosophizing. 
Two distinct points I shall then ob- 
serve upon in the letter of Dr. Jones. 
1. By accident, some time back, in my 
presence, and in the presence of Mr. 
Nicholas Buddock, Mr. Charlton, and 
several others, at Hexham, in Northum- 
berland, a strong copper vessel, contain- 
ing four gallons of a mixture of oxygen 
and hydrogen gases, in the propor- 
tions essential to the formation of water ; 
that'is, of eighty-five parts of oxygen gas 
and fifteen hydrogen, or two parts in 
measure of the latter to one of the for- 
ner. When these were exploded, it 
would have been reasonable to suppose, 
had aay fracture“of the vessel occurred, 
thatthe meta! would have been pushed in- 
wards, upon the principle of Dr, Jones’s 
cork: bat what happened? The strong - 
vessel, which was eylindrical, was torn ~ 
to tatiers ; ragged stripes of copper ‘were 
urged outzards in every part, and had 
just the appearance of being completely 
rent. The” explesion was, as may be 
imagined, tremendous; indeed, it 1s 
known to have been distinctly heard at 
the distance of four miles, and certainly 
will never be forgotten “by the parties 
present. _ ats , 
Were I to offer a solution of the fact, 
I should say, that although the oxygen 
and hydrogen did combine, and that the 
union of their ponderable bases formed 
water, yet that, in order to’give these 
bases an opportunity of uniting, it was 
necessary to present. them ina gaseous 
state, consequently, as much constitu- 
ent caloric was liberated, during the act 
of union, as was necessary, not simply to 
convert the water furmed as. the neces- 
sary result, but also to expand that aqua- 
tic gas, in the first instant, very consi- 
derably ; and when we view the great 
power, which a moderately increased 
temperature has in increasing the volume 
of not only steam, or invisible aquatic air, 
but also of all other elastic gaseous bos 
dies,‘ we shall be at no loss to account 
for the reason, were explosion created 
at the first moment of presenting a lighted 
taper 
