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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/76818-0.txt b/76818-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..52dce1b --- /dev/null +++ b/76818-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1023 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76818 *** + + + + + + THE PENNY MAGAZINE + + OF THE + + Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + 13.] PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. [June 16, 1832 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + THE NATURAL BRIDGE OF VIRGINIA. + + [Illustration: A rock formation in the form of a natural stone bridge, + with a stream running underneath it.] + +Virginia, the largest state in the American Union, is intersected by a +chain of mountains called the Blue Ridge, which, running in their +general direction parallel to the Atlantic coast, divide the state into +two parts not differing very considerably in extent. The portion +immediately to the west of the Blue Ridge is an extensive and fertile +valley of limestone formation. It is principally watered by one stream, +the Shenandoah, which unites with another, the Potomac, at a place +called Harper’s Ferry. At their point of junction, on the _west_ side of +the Blue Ridge, the spectator, as he takes his stand on the high ground +above the small town of Harper’s Ferry, sees before him a wide opening +in the mountain chain through which the united current finds its way. On +each side the mountains rise in some parts very abruptly, and their +rugged faces and the shattered appearance of the whole of this +magnificent natural canal show evident traces of a violent disruption. + +This passage at Harper’s Ferry has been often described by different +travellers, but never, as far as we have seen, in a way calculated to +give an accurate conception of what it really is. Nor do we intend to +attempt this description, but only to notice briefly another natural +phenomenon of the Valley of Shenandoah, which, though less talked of and +visited than Harper’s Ferry, is for beauty and grandeur perhaps +unrivalled. We allude to the Natural Bridge, or Rock-Bridge, as it is +familiarly called by the people who live near it, which is situated a +few miles on the west side of the Blue Ridge, on a small stream in the +upper part of the great valley, and in the county of Rock-Bridge. + +From a small and uncomfortable tavern in the neighbourhood, kept by a +Mr. Galbraith, (we wish this could meet his eye and make him mend his +fare,) we pass for about two miles over uneven ground, and after +ascending a small hill, we find a piece of rough stony road with a few +stunted firs and scrub oaks on the right hand and on the left. A +traveller might proceed without making any other observation, as the +common road runs right over the bridge, and it is said that some people +have actually passed over without being aware of it. But though this is +certainly a possible occurrence if a person should be in a closed +carriage, it can hardly have happened to a man on foot or on horseback, +who is accustomed to keep his eyes open when he is travelling. On the +right and left he will perceive that the slope of the hill is +interrupted by a deep and sudden descent; and on going nearer to the +right side of the road, he finds himself on the edge of a tremendous +precipice. At the bottom a small stream is seen making its way amidst +broken rocks. Going to the opposite side of the road and looking down +there, he will observe the little river continuing its course in a deep +channel down a narrow valley. The traveller is now on the Natural +Bridge; he is standing on a stupendous natural arch of limestone; and +though he may form some conjecture of his situation by looking down from +the edge of the precipice, he can have no adequate conception without +viewing it from below. The arch is best seen from the bed of the +rivulet, and from a point just under it. On looking up you behold a +noble arch of one solid mass of stone hanging over your head, somewhat +curved in its highest part, and almost like the work of man. The same +native rock forms, on each side, the supports of this enormous arch, +which is said to be about 80 feet wide near the top; at the level of the +water the width is only about forty. The whole height from the outer top +of the arch to the water is about 210 feet, as ascertained by +measurement with a string and a stone at the end. This is greater than +the height of the London monument. The vertical thickness of the arch is +probably about 30 feet. Like many other great works both of nature and +art it is not the first sight that produces the deepest impression. On a +second visit we found that we had learned to form more accurate +conceptions of this wonderful bridge, beneath which a man might sit and +gaze for hours with still increasing astonishment at the majestic arch +which nature constructed before man began his work, and which seems +likely to outlive the most durable of his monuments. Whatever may have +been the origin of this bridge, it seems pretty certain, from an +inspection of it, that it has not been produced by any sudden and +violent cause. + +The stream that runs beneath, called Cedar Creek, though inconsiderable, +adds to the general effect. When we visited the place, drops of water, +filtered through the limestone, were falling in quick succession from +the arch, and by the time occupied in their descent, their increasing +velocity, and their full bright appearance, served to give a measure of +the height from which they fell, and to increase the beauty of the +scene. There is another natural bridge in Virginia, in Scot county, +which is said to be above 340 feet high, but is inferior to that of +Cedar Creek in form and completeness. + +The Prebischthor, in the Saxon Switzerland, has sometimes been compared +with this Virginia Bridge, but it is a very different kind of thing. + +The accompanying view, taken from the N.W. side, at the level of the +water, has hardly any pretensions beyond showing the general shape of +the arch and the view through it, which is very confined and altogether +devoid of interest. + +The chain[1] of the Andes in South America presents most striking +natural phenomena in the immense clefts, or _crevasses_ as they are +sometimes called, which separate two contiguous masses of mountain, and +in some instances are near 5000 feet deep. If Mount Vesuvius were +plunged into one of these frightful abysses, its summit would not reach +to the peaks of the highest rocks on each side; while the bottom of the +cleft would be only one-fourth less elevated above the level of the sea +than the passes of St. Gothard and Mont Cenis in the Alps. + +The valley of Icononzo is less remarkable for its dimensions than for +the extraordinary form of its rocks, which seem as if they had been cut +by the hand of man. Their naked and arid summits form a most picturesque +contrast with the tufts of trees and herbaceous plants which cover the +borders of the _crevasse_. A little torrent has made itself a way +through the valley, and lies sunk in a channel, which is so difficult of +approach, that the river would hardly be passable if nature herself had +not formed two bridges of rock, which are justly regarded as the +greatest curiosity in that country. Humboldt and Bonpland crossed these +natural bridges in 1801, on their route from Santa Fé de Bogota to +Popayan and Quito. + +In the valley of Icononzo the _grès_ or sandstone is composed of two +distinct kinds of rock--one very compact and quartzose without any marks +of fissure or stratification--the other a fine-grained sandstone, formed +of an infinite number of thin and almost horizontal layers. We may +imagine that the compact material resisted the force which rent the +mountains asunder, and that it is the unbroken mass of this rock which +forms the bridge by which the traveller now crosses from one side of the +valley to the other. This natural arch is about 47½ feet long, 41½ wide, +and about 8 feet thick at the centre. By very careful experiments made +on falling bodies, with the assistance of a good chronometer, combined +with the measurement obtained by a plummet, it appears that the height +of the upper of the two natural bridges, above the level of the torrent, +is about 313 feet. + +Sixty feet below the first natural bridge there is another formed by +three enormous masses of rock, which have fallen in such a way as to +support one another. The centre rock forms the key of the arch. + +----- + +Footnote 1: + + Humboldt, Vue des Cordillères, &c. 8vo. Paris. + + + --------------------- + + + STATISTICAL NOTES. + + ENGLAND AND WALES (CONTINUED) + +(20.) Of the state of English agriculture in early ages some notion may +be formed from the fact of the prohibition for many years, and +subsequently the taxation, of the exportation of corn. It was not till +the reign of Charles II that the export of corn was exempted from a tax; +and it is from 1689 that may be dated that fundamental change in our +corn-laws which encouraged exportation by a bounty. Since that period +the fluctuations in the price of corn have been remarkable. The price of +wheat which in the beginning of the last century was 50_s._ the quarter, +became reduced in the ten years between 1740 and 1750 to 24_s._ the +quarter. The culture of corn thus received a check, and a large +proportion of arable land was transferred from tillage to grazing. The +effect of this conversion and of an increasing population raised the +price of corn in the ten years from 1750 to 1760 to an average of 42_s._ +6_d._ per quarter, and soon changed the scale from export to import, +which has continued ever since. From 1764 to 1790 the average price of +wheat varied from 42_s._ to 50_s._; our annual imports from 200,000 to +500,000 quarters of corn. But since 1792 our annual imports, under +differently regulated systems of law, have been from half a million to +above two million quarters of corn of all kinds; and the average prices +of wheat have varied from 2_l._ to 6_l._ per quarter. In 1792 the price +of wheat was 2_l._ 2_s._ 11_d._; in 1800, 5_l._ 13_s._ 7_d._; in 1812, +6_l._ 5_s._ 5_d._; in 1822, 2_l._ 4_s._ 1_d._; and in 1831, 3_l._ 10_s._ +3_d_. The annual consumption of wheat in the United Kingdom has been +estimated at 12,000,000 quarters; and that of other grain at 36,000,000 +quarters, making together 48,000,000, of which not one-twentieth part +has during any year been imported, and, in general, a far less +proportionate quantity. The daily consumption of wheat in the United +Kingdom may be taken at 36,000, and of all other grain at 108,000 +quarters, making together 144,000 quarters a day. + +(21.) During the last century, upwards of five millions of acres in +England and Wales have been enclosed under Acts of Parliament, the +average extent of each enclosure being 1200 acres, and the outlay about +10_l._ per acre. From 1719 to 1759, the average number of enclosure Acts +passed was 8 a year; 1780 to 1794, it was 30; 1797 to 1803, it was 83; +in 1811 it was 134, (the highest number known); in 1814, 119; in 1816, +49; in 1827, 21; in 1829, 24; and in 1831, only 10. The great extent to +which the enclosure system thus appears to have already been carried, +now necessarily diminishes the progress of enclosures every year. + +(22.) Among the various causes of the superiority of English husbandry +over that of the Continent, is that of the medium size of our farms, +which differ both from such large unmanageable tracts as those held by +Polish noblemen, and from such diminutive occupancies as those which +have prevailed in France since the first Revolution, in consequence of +the abolition of the law of primogeniture. The size of English farms is +the greatest in the best cultivated districts; such as Kent, Essex, +Suffolk, Norfolk, and Northumberland. In these counties the engagements +of the farmers are very large, and frequently amount to 1000_l._ a year +and upwards. In more retired districts, as in Cumberland, Westmorland, +and Wales, the occupancies are, in general, small, and an average of all +the farms in England and Wales would, perhaps, not exceed 150_l._ a +year. Leases are, for the most part, granted for seven years only, and +farms are occasionally let from year to year upon written agreements, +with specified covenants subjecting the tenants to fines in the event of +deviation from them. The tenants of great landholders, particularly of +the old nobility, often hold at will, without leases, upon the +understanding of conformity to the rules laid down by the lord for the +observance of all his tenants; and such tenants are found to occupy from +father to son for many generations. Upon the whole, the tenure of +leasehold property in England is considered to be too short to admit of +the improvements that tenants might otherwise be expected to make in our +system of agriculture. + +(23.) The expense of cultivation of land in England has much increased +of late years, as appears by the returns to the Board of Agriculture, +which state that the average expenses of cultivating one hundred acres +of land was in 1790, 411_l._; in 1803, 547_l._; and in 1813, 771_l._ +Since the latter year there have been reductions in labour and taxes, +and also, to a considerable extent, in rent. Surveyors calculate that +highly cultivated land ought to produce a threefold return, viz.: +one-third of the gross produce to the landlord for rent, another for the +expenses, and the remainder for the farmer’s profit; the rent of +inferior land being only a fourth, or even a fifth of the gross produce, +by reason of the additional expense of cultivation. + +(24.) A century ago, our cattle, from the inferiority of their feed, +were not one-half, sometimes even not one-third, of their present +weight. It is computed that England and Wales now contain, at least, +five million oxen, and a million and a half of horses, of which about a +million are used in husbandry, 200,000 for pleasure, and 300,000 are +colts and breeding mares. The number of sheep is about twenty millions, +and eight million lambs. The number of long-wooled sheep is about five +millions, their fleeces averaging 7 or 8 lbs.; and of short-wooled sheep +fifteen millions, the weight of fleece averaging from 3 to 3½ lbs. The +whole quantity of wool annually shorn in England is from eighty to +eighty-five million of pounds. The Merino were introduced about the +beginning of the present century, and were imported in large numbers +after our alliance with Spain in 1809. The great pasturage counties are +Leicester, Northampton, Lincoln, and Somerset; and for butter and +cheese, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire. The import of butter +and cheese from foreign countries is checked by duties, but these are +important articles of Irish commerce with England. + +(25) The annual amount of profit from farming is not very susceptible of +exact calculation, but was estimated some fifteen years since at thirty +millions sterling, being a sum equivalent to the rental of England and +Wales. The probable amount of the farming capital of the country was +estimated at from two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions +sterling. In regard to the value of the total annual produce of the +land, this is necessarily subject to the fluctuations of seasons, but +taking wheat at the medium of 80_s._ and other corn in proportion, we +shall find an average produce of more than sixty millions sterling in +corn, to which adding a similar value in pasturage, and a further +allowance for hops, fruit, and vegetables, we have a total of from 130 +to 140 millions. In Scotland the rent bears a higher proportion to the +gross produce, being, in general, not less than one-third. Our chief +superiority over the Continent consists in machinery and live stock. +Much valuable information on the state of agriculture on the Continent +is to be found in the Reports to the Government of Mr. Jacob, who +travelled a few years since with a view of ascertaining the effect that +would be produced by the modification of our corn-laws. From these +Reports it seems that the difficulties of transport in the corn +countries, and other impediments to production, are such as to render +the probable extent of importation under a more free system much less +than is commonly imagined. There are many improvements of which English +agriculture is susceptible, such as in the size of farms in many +counties, the length of leases, the course of husbandry, the +construction of ploughs, and the misapplication of animal strength in +labour. With attention to these points and the application of further +capital, not to wastes, but to fertile land already under culture, there +is every hope that our agriculture may be yet considerably advanced in +productiveness and in national value. + + [To be continued.] + + + --------------------- + + +An officer in the forty-fourth regiment, who had occasion, when in +Paris, to pass one of the bridges across the Seine, had his boots, which +had been previously well-polished, dirted by a poodle-dog rubbing +against them. He, in consequence, went to a man who was stationed on the +bridge, and had them cleaned. The same circumstance having occurred more +than once, his curiosity was excited, and he watched the dog. He saw him +roll himself in the mud of the river, and then watch for a person with +well-polished boots, against which he contrived to rub himself. Finding +that the shoe-black was the owner of the dog, he taxed him with the +artifice; and after a little hesitation, he confessed that he had taught +the dog the trick in order to procure customers for himself. The officer +being much struck with the dog’s sagacity, purchased him at a high +price, and brought him to England. He kept him tied up in London some +time, and then released him. The dog remained with him a day or two, and +then made his escape. A fortnight afterwards he was found with his +former master, pursuing his old trade on the bridge.--_Jesse’s Gleanings +of Natural History_ + + + --------------------- + + + THE MAHOGANY TABLE. + +Milton, who was at once the most sublime and the most practical of +writers, has said, + + ------ “To know + That which before us lies in daily life, + Is the prime wisdom.” + +The poet more especially had in view that knowledge to which all other +knowledge is secondary--we mean the knowledge of ourselves. But we may +not improperly adopt his forcible expressions as a motto to a series of +articles which we shall occasionally publish, which will have for their +object to collect some of the most striking facts belonging to the +commonest things by which we are surrounded in our every-day life, +particularly those comforts and conveniences which the humblest man +possesses in a state of advanced civilization. The history of a knife, +or a button, or a coat, or a watch, or an earthen pan, or a candle, or a +lump of coal, or a mahogany table, or a Penny Magazine, suggests to our +minds more precise and satisfactory notions of the progress of society, +and therefore of the real history of the people of these kingdoms, than +all the details of wars and treaties and state intrigues, of which +history is in general made up. In the execution of such a purpose it is +not important to pursue any systematic plan. The most material +consideration will be to select those things of ordinary use which are +so common, that it would be difficult to find a single reader who is not +more or less indebted to them for some of his enjoyments. + +We will begin with a Mahogany Table. If we had been speaking about a +mahogany table, or any other article of mahogany, thirty or forty years +ago, we should have expected only to have interested the rich in the +description of this important material of English furniture. Now, what +tradesman, or mechanic, or even cottager, does not possess some article +of mahogany--if it be only a tea-caddy? The universal employment of +mahogany for articles of furniture, whose price does not operate as a +prohibition against their use in general society, has been produced by +the large application of capital to the commercial speculation of +bringing mahogany logs to this country from the West Indies,--and, +further, by the invention of machinery for cutting those logs into thin +layers, called veneers, by which operation the finest wood is brought +within a reasonable cost. Now observe what commercial enterprise and +mechanical ingenuity will accomplish in a comparatively small period. +Some piece of mahogany furniture is now, probably, found in every house +in England;--a hundred and eight years ago the wood was unknown here. A +physician of the name of Gibbons, who resided in London, received in +1724 a present of some mahogany planks from his brother, a West-India +captain. Dr. Gibbons was then building a house in King-street, +Covent-garden, and he desired his carpenter to work up the wood. The +carpenter had no tool hard enough to touch it; so the planks were laid +aside. The doctor’s wife, after the house was finished, wanted a +candle-box, and the mahogany was again thought of. A cabinet-maker of +the name of Wollaston was applied to; and he also complained that his +tools were too soft. But he persevered, and the candle-box was at length +completed--after a rude fashion no doubt. The candle-box was so much +admired, that the physician resolved to have a mahogany bureau; and when +the bureau was finished, all the people of fashion came to see it. The +cabinet-maker procured more planks, and made a fortune by the numerous +customers he obtained. From that time the use of mahogany furniture went +forward amongst the luxurious;--and the drawers and bureaus of +walnut-tree and pear-tree were gradually superseded in the houses of the +rich. To show the present extensive use of mahogany in this country it +may be sufficient to mention that in 1829 the importation of this wood +amounted to 19,335 tons. + +The common mahogany (called by botanists _Swietenia mahagoni_) is one of +the most majestic trees of the whole world. There are trees of greater +height than the mahogany;--but in Cuba and Honduras this tree, during a +growth of two centuries, expands to such a gigantic trunk, throws out +such massive arms, and spreads the shade of its shining green leaves +over such a vast surface, that even the proudest oaks of our forests +appear insignificant in comparison with it. A single log, such as is +brought to this country from Honduras, not unfrequently weighs six or +seven tons. + + [Illustration: Mahogany Tree.] + +When we consider the enormous size of a trunk of mahogany, and further +learn that the most valuable timber grows in the most inaccessible +situations, it must be evident that a great portion of the price of this +timber must be made up of the cost of the labour required for +transporting it from its native forests to the place of its embarkation +for England. The mode in which this difficult work is accomplished is +highly interesting; and we have, fortunately, the means of giving an +account of the process (which, we believe, has never before been +described in any English publication,) from some statements printed in a +Honduras Almanac, which has been kindly put into our hands for this +purpose. + +The season for cutting the mahogany usually commences about the month of +August. The gangs of labourers employed in this work consist of from +twenty to fifty each, but few exceed the latter number. They are +composed of slaves and free persons, without any comparative distinction +of rank, and it very frequently occurs that the conductor of such work, +here styled the Captain, is a slave. Each gang has also one person +belonging to it termed the Huntsman. He is generally selected from the +most intelligent of his fellows, and his chief occupation is to search +the woods, or, as it is called, _the bush_, to find labour for the +whole. Accordingly, about the beginning of August, the huntsman is +despatched on his important mission. He cuts his way through the +thickest of the woods to some elevated situation, and climbs the tallest +tree he finds, from which he minutely surveys the surrounding country. +At this season the leaves of the mahogany tree are invariably of a +yellow reddish hue, and an eye accustomed to this kind of exercise, can, +at a great distance, discern the places where the wood is most abundant. +He now descends, and to such places his steps are directed; and, without +compass, or other guide than what observation has imprinted on his +recollection, he never fails to reach the exact point at which he aims. +On some occasions no ordinary stratagem is necessary to be resorted to, +by the huntsman, to prevent others from availing themselves of the +advantage of his discoveries; for, if his steps be traced by those who +may be engaged in the same pursuit, which is a very common thing, all +his ingenuity must be exerted to beguile them from the true scent. In +this, however, he is not always successful, being followed by those who +are entirely aware of all the arts he may use, and whose eyes are so +quick that the lightest turn of a leaf, or the faintest impression of +the foot, is unerringly perceived. The treasure being, however, reached +by one party or another, the next operation is the felling of a +sufficient number of trees to employ the gang during the season. The +mahogany tree is commonly cut about ten or twelve feet from the ground, +a stage being erected for the axe-man employed in levelling it. The +trunk of the tree, from the dimensions of the wood it furnishes, is +deemed the most valuable; but, for ornamental purposes, the limbs, or +branches, are generally preferred. + +A sufficient number of trees being felled to occupy the gang during the +season, they commence cutting the roads upon which they are to be +transported. This may fairly be estimated at two-thirds of the labour +and expense of mahogany cutting. Each mahogany work forms in itself a +small village on the bank of a river,--the choice of situation being +always regulated by the proximity of such river to the mahogany intended +as the object of future operations. + +After completing the establishment of a sufficient number of huts for +the accommodation of the workmen, a main road is opened from the +settlement, in a direction as near as possible to the centre of the body +of trees so felled, into which branch-roads are afterwards introduced, +the ground through which the roads are to run being yet a mass of dense +forest, both of high trees and underwood. The labourers commence by +clearing away the underwood with cutlasses. This labour is usually +performed by task-work, of one hundred yards, each man, per day. The +underwood being removed, the larger trees are then cut down by the axe, +as even with the ground as possible, the task being also at this work +one hundred yards per day to each labourer. The hard woods growing here, +on failure of the axe, are removed by the application of fire. The +trunks of these trees, although many of them are valuable, such as +bullet-tree, ironwood, redwood, and sapodilla, are thrown away as +useless, unless they happen to be adjacent to some creek or small river, +which may intersect the road. In that case they are applied to the +construction of bridges, which are frequently of considerable size, and +require great labour to make them of sufficient strength to bear such +immense loads as are brought over them. + +If the mahogany trees are much dispersed or scattered, the labour and +extent of road-cutting is, of course, greatly increased. It not +unfrequently occurs that miles of road and many bridges are made to a +single tree, that may ultimately yield but one log. When roads are +cleared of brush-wood, they still require the labour of hoes, pick-axes, +and sledge hammers to level down the hillocks, to break the rocks, and +to cut such of the remaining stumps as might impede the wheels that are +hereafter to pass over them. + +The roads being now in a state of readiness, which may generally be +effected by the month of December, the cross cutting, as it is +technically called, commences. This is merely dividing crosswise, by +means of saws, each mahogany tree into logs, according to their length; +and it often occurs, that while some are but long enough for one log, +others, on the contrary, will admit of four or five being cut from the +same trunk or stem. The chief guide for dividing the trees into logs is +the necessity for equalizing the loads the cattle have to draw. +Consequently, as the tree increases in thickness, the logs are reduced +in length. This, however, does not altogether obviate the irregularity +of the loads, and a supply of oxen are constantly kept in readiness to +add to the usual number, according to the weight of the log. This +becomes unavoidable, from the very great difference of size of the +mahogany trees, the logs taken from one tree being about 300 cubic feet, +while those from the next may be as many thousand. The largest log ever +cut in Honduras was of the following dimensions:--Length, 17 feet; +breadth, 57 inches; depth, 64 inches; measuring 5,168 superficial feet, +or 15 tons weight. + +The sawing being now completed, the logs are reduced, by means of the +axe, from the round or natural form, into the square. The month of March +is now reached, when all the preparation before described is, or ought +to be, completed; when the dry season, or time of drawing down the logs +from the place of their growth, commences. This process can only be +carried on in the months of April and May; the ground, during all the +rest of the year, being too soft to admit of a heavily laden truck to +pass over it without sinking. It is now necessary that not a moment +should be lost in drawing out the wood to the river. + +A gang of forty men is generally capable of working six trucks. Each +truck requires seven pair of oxen and two drivers; sixteen to cut food +for the cattle, and twelve to load or put the logs on the carriages. +From the intense heat of the sun, the cattle, especially, would be +unable to work during its influence; and, consequently, the loading and +carriage of the timber is performed in the night. The logs are placed +upon the trucks by means of a temporary platform laid from the edge of +the truck to a sufficient distance upon the ground, so as to make an +inclined plane, upon which the log is gradually pushed up by bodily +labour, without any further mechanical aid. + +The operations of loading and carrying are thus principally performed +during the hours of darkness. The torches employed are pieces of wood +split from the trunk of the pitch-pine. The river-side is generally +reached by the wearied drivers and cattle before the sun is at its +highest power; and the logs, marked with the owner’s initials, are +thrown into the river. + +About the end of May the periodical rains again commence; the torrents +of water discharged from the clouds are so great as to render the roads +impassable in the course of a few hours, when all trucking ceases. About +the middle of June the rivers are swollen to an immense height. The logs +then float down a distance of two hundred miles, being followed by the +gang in pitpans (a kind of flat-bottomed canoe), to disengage them from +the branches of the overhanging trees, until they are stopped by a boom +placed in some situation convenient to the mouth of the river. Each gang +then separates its own cutting, by the marks on the ends of the logs, +and forms them into large rafts; in which state they are brought down to +the wharves of the proprietors, where they are taken out of the water, +and undergo a second process of the axe, to make the surface smooth. The +ends, which frequently get split and rent by being dashed against rocks +in the river by the force of the current, are also sawed off. They are +now ready for shipping. + +The ships clearing out from Belize, the principal port of Honduras, with +their valuable freight of mahogany, either come direct to England, or +take their cargo to some free warehousing port of the British +possessions in the West Indies or America. + +We must describe the beautiful process of cutting mahogany logs into +veneers, before we have reached the point when the skill of the +cabinet-maker is employed to produce a mahogany table. This shall be +done in an early number. + + [Illustration: Trucking Mahogany.] + + + --------------------- + + + WHAT IS EDUCATION? + +This may seem a very simple question, and very easily answered; but many +who think so, would really be very much at a loss to answer it +correctly. Every man, in a free country, wants three sorts of +education:--one, to fit him for his own particular trade or +calling,--this is professional education;--another, to teach him his +duties as a man and a citizen,--this is moral and political +education;--and a third, to fit him for his higher relations, as God’s +creature, designed for immortality,--this is religious education. Now, +in point of fact, that is most useful to a man which tends most to his +happiness; a thing so plain, that it seems foolish to state it. Yet +people constantly take the word “useful” in another sense, and mean by +it, not what tends most to a man’s happiness, but what tends most to get +money for him; and therefore they call professional education a very +useful thing: but the time which is spent in general education, whether +moral or religious, they are apt to grudge as thrown away, especially if +it interferes with the other education, to which they confine the name +of “useful;” that is, the education which enables a man to gain his +livelihood. Yet we might all be excellent in our several trades and +professions, and still be very ignorant, very miserable, and very +wicked. We might do pretty well just while we were at work on our +business; but no man is at work always. There is a time which we spend +with our families; a time which we spend with our friends and +neighbours; and a very important time which we spend with ourselves. If +we know not how to pass these times well, we are very contemptible and +worthless _men_, though we may be very excellent lawyers, surgeons, +chemists, engineers, mechanics, labourers, or whatever else may be our +particular employment. Now, what enables us to pass these times well, +and our times of business also, is not our _professional_ education, but +our _general_ one. It is the education which all need equally--namely, +that which teaches a man, in the first place, his duty to God and his +neighbour; which trains him to good principles and good temper; to think +of others, and not only of himself. It is that education which teaches +him, in the next place, his duties as a citizen--to obey the laws +always, but to try to get them made as perfect as possible; to +understand that a good and just government cannot consult the interests +of one particular class of calling, in preference to another, but must +see what is for the good of the whole; that every interest, and every +order of men, must give and take; and that if each were to insist upon +having everything its own way, there would be nothing but the wildest +confusion, or the merest tyranny. And because a great part of all that +goes wrong in public or private life arises from ignorance and bad +reasoning, all that teaches us, in the third place, to reason justly, +and puts us on our guard against the common tricks of unfair writers and +talkers, or the confusions of such as are puzzle-headed, is a most +valuable part of a man’s education, and one of which he will find the +benefit whenever he has occasion to open his mouth to speak, or his ears +to hear. And, finally, all that makes a man’s mind more active, and the +ideas which enter it nobler and more beautiful, is a great addition to +his happiness whenever he is alone, and to the pleasure which others +derive from his company when he is in society. Therefore it is most +_useful_ to learn to love and understand what is _beautiful_, whether in +the works of God, or in those of man; whether in the flowers and fields, +and rocks and woods, and rivers, and sea and sky; or in fine buildings, +or fine pictures, or fine music; and in the noble thoughts and glorious +images of poetry. This is the education which will make a man and a +people good, and wise, and happy. Give this,--and the ends of +professional education can never be altogether lost; for good sense and +good principle will ensure a man’s knowing his particular business; but +knowledge of his business, on the other hand, will not ensure _them_; +and not only are sense and goodness the rarest and most profitable +qualities with which any man can enter upon life now, but they are +articles of which there never can be a glut: no competition or +over-production will lessen their value; but the more of them that we +can succeed in manufacturing, so much the higher will be their price, +because there will be more to understand and to love them. + + + --------------------- + + +_Honesty is the best Policy._--Irritated one day at the bad faith of +Madame Jay, Mirabeau said to her in my presence, “Madam Jay, if probity +did not exist, we ought to invent it, as the best means of getting +rich.”--_Dumont_ + + + --------------------- + + + THE WEEK. + + [Illustration: The Rev. John Wesley.] + +June 17.--The birth-day of JOHN WESLEY, the celebrated founder of the +more numerous division of the English Methodists. He was the second son +of the Rev. Samuel Wesley, Rector of Epworth, in Lincolnshire, where he +was born in the year 1703. Although his father was a man of considerable +literary attainments, being known to the public as the author of various +works in verse, it was to his mother, a woman of a much more zealous and +active character than her husband, that Wesley was chiefly indebted for +his early education, and probably also for the seeds of many of his +distinguished mental habits. + +After receiving a very systematic elementary tuition from his mother, +John Wesley was sent to the Charterhouse, from whence he removed at the +usual time to Christ-church College, Oxford. Here he distinguished +himself greatly by his diligence and success as a student, showing from +the first, in the distribution of his time, the same punctual and +persevering regard to method by means of which he mainly achieved all +the greater objects of his life. The reading of some religious works, +and especially of ‘Law’s Serious Call,’ awakened in him a strong spirit +of religious fervour; and he formed that association with a number of +his college acquaintances of similar views and feelings, to which, from +the punctilious regularity of the members in their devotions and general +demeanour, the epithet of “methodists” was given as a name of reproach +by the wags of the university. As has happened in other cases, the +objects of the intended satire were much too earnest in the views they +had adopted to feel or to regard any point of ridicule which it might be +supposed to possess, and frankly adopted the nick-name thus bestowed +upon them by their opponents, as their proper designation. Among their +number, besides Wesley, was the afterwards equally celebrated George +Whitfield. + +We cannot here attempt to pursue minutely the remainder of the course of +Wesley’s busy life, or to trace the rise of that extensive fabric of +ecclesiastical policy of which he was the founder. Suffice it to say, +that having commenced his public labours as a religious teacher in the +newly-formed colony of Georgia, in America, in the year 1735, he pursued +from this time a course of almost constant journeying, preaching, and +writing, till within a week of his death, on the 2d of March, 1791, in +the eighty-eighth year of his age. During the greater part of this long +period he rarely preached less than twice, and often four or five times +a day; while, besides presiding with the most minute superintendence +over all the public affairs of the large and rapidly growing community +which acknowledged him as its head, and transacting a great deal of +private business, he found time to send to the press a succession of +works, which, in the collected edition, amount to between thirty and +forty volumes. Mr. Southey, who has made the life of this extraordinary +man one of the most interesting books in the language, has given us the +following account of the manner in which he contrived to get through all +this occupation. “Leisure and I,” said Wesley, “have taken leave of one +another. I propose to be busy as long as I live, if my health is so long +indulged to me.” This resolution was made in the prime of life, and +never was resolution more punctually observed. “Lord, let me not live to +be useless!” was the prayer which he uttered after seeing one whom he +had long known as an active and useful magistrate, reduced by age to be +“a picture of human nature in disgrace, feeble in body and mind, slow of +speech and understanding.” He was favoured with a constitution vigorous +beyond that of ordinary men, and with an activity of spirit which is +even rarer than his singular felicity of health and strength. Ten +thousand cares of various kinds, he said, were no more weight or burthen +to his mind than ten thousand hairs were to his head.... His manner of +life was the most favourable that could have been devised for longevity. +He rose early, and lay down at night with nothing to keep him waking, or +trouble him in sleep. His mind was always in a pleasurable and wholesome +state of activity; he was temperate in his diet, and lived in perpetual +locomotion. And frequent change of air is, perhaps, of all things, that +which most conduces to joyous health and long life. The time which Mr. +Wesley spent in travelling was not lost. “History, poetry, and +philosophy,” said he, “I commonly read on horseback, having other +employment at other times.” He used to throw the reins on his horse’s +neck, and in this way he rode, in the course of his life, above a +hundred thousand miles, without any accident of sufficient magnitude to +make him sensible of the danger which he incurred. + +June 21.--_The Longest Day._--On this day there is an interval of +sixteen hours and thirty-four minutes between the rising and the setting +of the sun, which interval is longer than on any other day in the year. +Up to this point, from the 21st December (the shortest day), the days +have steadily increased in length; from this point they will steadily +decrease. We may more properly, at some future time, explain in a series +of papers some of the more remarkable phenomena of the changes of +seasons. At present we shall call our reader’s attention to the moral +reflections which the recurrence of “The Longest Day” suggests, by +re-printing a few stanzas of a poem by Mr. Wordsworth on this subject:-- + + Summer ebbs;--each day that follows + Is a reflux from on high, + Tending to the darksome hollows + Where the frosts of winter lie. + + He who governs the creation, + In his providence assign’d + Such a gradual declination + To the life of human kind. + + Yet we mark it not;--fruits redden, + Fresh flowers blow, as flowers have blown, + And the heart is loth to deaden + Hopes that she so long hath known. + + Be thou wiser, youthful Maiden! + And when thy decline shall come, + Let not flowers, or boughs fruit-laden, + Hide the knowledge of thy doom. + + Now, even now, ere wrapp’d in slumber. + Fix thine eyes upon the sea + That absorbs time, space, and number; + Look towards eternity! + + Follow thou the flowing river, + On whose breast are thither borne + All deceived, and each deceiver, + Through the gates of night and morn; + + Through the year’s successive portals; + Through the bounds which many a star + Marks, not mindless of frail mortals, + When his light returns from far. + + Thus when Thou with Time hast travell’d + Tow’rds the mighty gulf of things, + And the mazy stream unravell’d + With thy best imaginings; + + Think, if thou on beauty leanest, + Think how pitiful that stay, + Did not virtue give the meanest + Charms superior to decay. + + Duty, like a strict preceptor, + Sometimes frowns, or seems to frown; + Choose her thistle for thy sceptre, + While thy brow youth’s roses crown. + + + --------------------- + + + GENIUS AND INDUSTRY. + +Whilst we believe that education is the greatest gift that can be +conferred on a human creature, we are not sanguine enough to expect that +its more general diffusion will increase the number of men of genius. +There is a perversity in human nature which makes us relax our efforts +at the moment when they might be rewarded with the most splendid +success. It does not follow that a shepherd-boy, who passes his long day +on the side of a hill, and who acquires the principles of mechanics, or +forms for himself a plan of the stars, shall make proportionate +advancement if full opportunity of study be afforded to him. + +Nor does it follow that a young man who teaches himself to read by the +light of a shop window in the street, shall become a learned man when +admitted to libraries and encouraged by applause. + +We do not think the illustration a correct one, which represents the +scholar as like the weary traveller who plods on contentedly through +woods and over irregular ground which conceal the prospect, and who +faints when he has ascended to the top of the hill and sees the whole +extent of the road before him. + +The truth seems rather to be, that energy of mind, like strength of +body, must be acquired by exercise, and that the consciousness of desert +in encountering difficulties, must be felt to enable us to accomplish +any great work. Sir Joshua Reynolds has happily expressed this:-- + +“It is not uncommon to see young artists, whilst they are struggling +with every obstacle in their way, exert themselves with such success as +to outstrip competitors possessed of every means of improvement. The +promising expectation which was formed on so much being done with so +little means, has recommended them to a patron, who has supplied them +with every convenience of study; from that time their industry and +eagerness of pursuit have forsaken them; they stand still and see others +rush on before them. + +“Such men are like certain animals, who will feed only where there is +little provender, and that got at with difficulty through the bars of a +rack, but refuse to touch it where there is an abundance before +them[2].” + +From this it appears to be essential to success that a young man should +study to acquire confidence in his own powers. This is a condition of +mind entirely different from conceit; it exhibits itself in no vain +boasting, but essentially consists in a secret resolution to make great +efforts by persevering industry, to gain the object of his ambition. + +We believe that young men would entertain these notions oftener, if they +were not deterred by an erroneous fancy of what belongs to genius. They +think that such exertions as we recommend belong only to a plodding +fellow, whilst the man of genius does every thing by a sudden act which +costs him nothing. + +This is an unhappy mistake. All our eminent men have been distinguished +by fixing upon some great object, and possessing themselves with such a +lively conception of it that it has led them on through years of toil. + +----- + +Footnote 2: + + Sir J. Reynolds’ Works, vol. ii. p. 80. + + + --------------------- + + + HOW TO UNDERSTAND GEOGRAPHY. + +Every one says that geography is one of the most useful things that can +be learnt; yet nothing is learnt so ill, because nothing is taught so +ill. Look into any of the elementary books of geography, and read what +is said about England. First, we are told that it is divided into forty +counties; then, perhaps, follows an account of the several law circuits; +and then, after some short notices about religion, government, produce, +and manufactures, there are given lists of the chief towns, mountains, +rivers, and lakes. But all these things are given without any connexion +with each other, and it is a mere matter of memory to recollect what is +no more than a string of names. And if a man does recollect them, still +he is not much the wiser for them; he has got no clear and instructive +notions about the country, but has merely learnt his map, and knows +where to find certain names and lines upon it. + +If we wish to know geography really, we must set about it in a very +different manner. Take one of the skeleton maps published by the Useful +Knowledge Society; there is not a single name upon them, nothing is +given but the hills and the rivers. These are the true alphabet of +geography. The hills are the bones of a country, and determine its form, +just as the bones of an animal do. For according to the direction of the +hills must be the course of the rivers: if the hills come very near the +sea, it makes the rivers very short and their course very rapid; if they +are a long way from the sea, it makes the rivers long and gentle. But +rivers of this latter sort are generally navigable, and become so large +near the sea as to be capable of receiving ships of large size. Here +then towns will be built, and these towns will become rich and populous, +and so will acquire political importance. Again, on the nature of the +hills depend the mineral riches of a country; if they are composed of +granite or slate, they may contain gold, silver, tin, and copper; if +they are composed of the limestone of Derbyshire or Durham, they are +very likely to have lead mines; if of the sand or gritstone of +Northumberland, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, it is probable that there +will be coal at no great distance. On the contrary, if they are made up +of the yellow limestone of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, and +Northamptonshire, or of chalk like the hills in Wiltshire, Berkshire, +and Hampshire, or of clay like those about London, it is quite certain +that they will contain neither coal, nor lead, nor any valuable mineral +whatsoever. But on the mineral wealth of a country, and particularly on +its having coal or not having it, depends the nature of the employment +of its inhabitants. Manufactories are sure to follow coal mines; +whereas, in all those districts of England where there is no coal, that +is, in all the counties to the south-east of a line drawn from the Wash +in Lincolnshire to Plymouth, there are, generally speaking, no +manufactories; but the great bulk of the people are employed in +agriculture. + +Thus then on the direction and composition of the hills of a country +depend, first of all, the size and character of its rivers. On the +character of its rivers depend the situation and importance of its +towns, and its greater or less facilities for internal communication and +foreign trade. And again, on the composition of the hills depend the +employment of the people, their numbers on a given space, and in a great +degree their state of morals, intelligence, and political independence. +And here we have a reason for things, and see them connected with one +another in a manner at once easier to remember, and much more +satisfactory to understand when we do remember it. Some instances of +this, given in detail, may appear in one of our future numbers. + + + --------------------- + + +_The Flower Garden_ (June).--It will now be time for you to take up +those bulbs, of which the leaves are nearly decayed. I can fix no +particular day for this operation; because, as the bulbs flower at +different seasons, so the leaves will decay in like manner; but the +general rule is, to take them up carefully as soon as the leaves have +turned yellow, and to lay them under a south wall to dry and ripen; +taking care to cover them with fine, dry, sandy earth, in layers, so +that they may not touch each other. When the leaves are quite decayed, +the bulbs must be removed, and spread again to dry under shelter of a +green-house, or in a room; and, finally, after cleaning them from the +dirt, take off their old coats, or skins, and put them away in bags, or +drawers, in a cool dry place, till they are wanted for replanting in the +autumn. I must here explain why bulbs are taken up every year: the great +object is in this, as in all other operations of gardening, to imitate +Nature; to make the existence of foreign plants as near as it can be to +what they enjoy in their native place. Tulips, hyacinths, and most of +those bulbs which are taken up, come from countries where the whole +summer is dry, and in winter the ground is covered with snow; the spring +rains alone call them into life and flower. Travellers describe whole +regions in Persia as being covered in the spring with enamelled carpets +of scilla (hyacinths), tulips, and other bulbous plants: long drought +succeeds the rains of spring, the leaves die away, and the plant rests +again under the dry earth till the following spring. As in our country +they can have no dry earth naturally to rest in during the summer, the +best imitation of it is to take up the bulb, which would otherwise be +rotted by the summer rains, or caused to grow in the autumn; in which +latter case, the plant would not flower in the spring, as the +flower-stalks would be killed by the wet and cold of winter, before it +came to the surface. + +⁂ From ‘The Garden,’ a very agreeable and instructive book for children, +forming one of the volumes of a series called ‘The Little Library.’ + + + --------------------- + + +“_A little Learning is a dangerous Thing._”--Then make it greater. No +learning at all is surely the most dangerous thing in the world; and it +is fortunate that, in this country at least, it is a danger which cannot +possibly exist. After all, learning is acquired knowledge, and nothing +else. A man who can read his Bible has a little learning; a man who can +only plough or dig, has less; a man who can only break stones on the +road, less still, but he has some. The savages in one of the islands in +the South Sea, stood with great reverence round a sailor who had lighted +a fire to boil some water in a saucepan, but as soon as the water began +to boil, they ran away in an agony of terror. Compared with the savages, +there is no boy in Europe, of the age of ten years, who may not be +called learned. He has acquired a certain quantity of practical +knowledge in physics; and, as this knowledge is more than instinct, it +is learning; learning which differs in degree only from that which +enables a chemist to separate the simple metals from soda or potash. + +The geographer Malte Brun remarks, that in many cities of the United +States, that which is called a mob scarcely exists. Now it will be found +that in these Cities education has been unstintedly bestowed upon all +classes, down to the very lowest. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + LONDON:--CHARLES KNIGHT, PALL-MALL EAST. + + _Shopkeepers and Hawkers may be supplied Wholesale by the following + Booksellers:_-- + + _London_, GROOMBRIDGE, Panyer Alley, Paternoster Row. + _Bath_, SIMMS. + _Birmingham_, DRAKE. + _Bristol_, WESTLEY and Co. + _Carlisle_, THURNAM. + _Derby_, WILKINS and SON. + _Falmouth_, PHILIP. + _Hull_, STEPHENSON. + _Leeds_, BAINES and NEWSOME. + _Lincoln_, BROOKE and SON. + _Liverpool_, WILLMER and SMITH. + _Manchester_, ROBINSON; and WEBB and SIMMS. + _Newcastle-upon-Tyne_, CHARNLEY. + _Norwich_, JERROLD and SON. + _Nottingham_, WRIGHT. + _Sheffield_, RIDGE. + _Dublin_, WAKEMAN. + _Edinburgh_, OLIVER and BOYD. + _Glasgow_, ATKINSON and Co. + + Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES, Stamford Street. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + Transcriber’s Notes + + +This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. New original cover +art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Itemized +changes from the original text: + + • p. 106: Added faint or unprinted dash to “one-third” in phrase “were + not one-half, sometimes even not one-third, of their present weight.” + • p. 107: Replaced “o” with “of” in phrase “a series of articles which + we shall occasionally publish.” + • p. 109: Supplied missing “l” in “principal” in phrase “the principal + port of Honduras.” + • p. 109: Replaced “Charter house” with “Charterhouse” in phrase “John + Wesley was sent to the Charterhouse.” + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76818 *** diff --git a/76818-h/76818-h.htm b/76818-h/76818-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd3ed1b --- /dev/null +++ b/76818-h/76818-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1432 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>The Penny Magazine, June 16, 1832 | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + body { margin-left: 8%; margin-right: 10%; } + h1 { text-align: center; 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} + hr.divider {width:30%;margin-left:35%;margin-right:35%; } + hr.full {width:100%; } + .subtitle {margin-bottom:2em; } + .masthead {text-align:center; display:inline-block; width:100%; } + .masthead-left {float:left;text-align:left; } + .masthead-right {float:right;text-align:right; } + .masthead-left, .masthead-right {width:24%; } + .masthead-centre {margin:auto;width:50% } + .colophon {font-size:75%; } + .colophon-left {float:left; } + .colophon-right {float:right; } + .colophon-left, .colophon-right {width:48%;text-align:left; } + .clear {clear:both; } + .illo-wide {width:100%; } + div.linegroup > :last-child { margin-bottom: 0; } + </style> + </head> + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76818 ***</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span> + <h1 class='c000' title='The Penny Magazine, June 16, 1832'>THE PENNY MAGAZINE</h1> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div><span class='small'>OF THE</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div><span class='large'>Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="full"> +<div class="masthead"> +<div class="masthead-right">[<span class='sc'>June</span> 16, 1832</div> +<div class="masthead-left">13.]</div> +<div class="masthead-centre">PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.</div> +<hr class="full"> +</div> + +<div> + <h2 class='c002'>THE NATURAL BRIDGE OF VIRGINIA.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='illo-wide'> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<a href='images/the-natural-bridge-full.jpg'><img src='images/the-natural-bridge-inline.png' alt='A rock formation in the form of a natural stone bridge, with a stream running underneath it.' class='ig001'></a> +</div> + +</div> + +<p class='c003'>Virginia, the largest state in the American Union, is +intersected by a chain of mountains called the Blue +Ridge, which, running in their general direction parallel +to the Atlantic coast, divide the state into two parts not +differing very considerably in extent. The portion immediately +to the west of the Blue Ridge is an extensive +and fertile valley of limestone formation. It is principally +watered by one stream, the Shenandoah, which +unites with another, the Potomac, at a place called +Harper’s Ferry. At their point of junction, on the <em>west</em> +side of the Blue Ridge, the spectator, as he takes his +stand on the high ground above the small town of +Harper’s Ferry, sees before him a wide opening in the +mountain chain through which the united current finds +its way. On each side the mountains rise in some parts +very abruptly, and their rugged faces and the shattered +appearance of the whole of this magnificent natural +canal show evident traces of a violent disruption.</p> + +<p class='c004'>This passage at Harper’s Ferry has been often described +by different travellers, but never, as far as we +have seen, in a way calculated to give an accurate conception +of what it really is. Nor do we intend to +attempt this description, but only to notice briefly +another natural phenomenon of the Valley of Shenandoah, +which, though less talked of and visited than Harper’s +Ferry, is for beauty and grandeur perhaps unrivalled. +We allude to the Natural Bridge, or Rock-Bridge, +as it is familiarly called by the people who live +near it, which is situated a few miles on the west side of +the Blue Ridge, on a small stream in the upper part of +the great valley, and in the county of Rock-Bridge.</p> + +<p class='c004'>From a small and uncomfortable tavern in the +neighbourhood, kept by a Mr. Galbraith, (we wish +this could meet his eye and make him mend his fare,) +we pass for about two miles over uneven ground, and +after ascending a small hill, we find a piece of rough +stony road with a few stunted firs and scrub oaks on the +right hand and on the left. A traveller might proceed +without making any other observation, as the common +road runs right over the bridge, and it is said that some +people have actually passed over without being aware +of it. But though this is certainly a possible occurrence +if a person should be in a closed carriage, it can hardly +have happened to a man on foot or on horseback, who is +accustomed to keep his eyes open when he is travelling. +On the right and left he will perceive that the slope of +the hill is interrupted by a deep and sudden descent; +and on going nearer to the right side of the road, he finds +himself on the edge of a tremendous precipice. At the +bottom a small stream is seen making its way amidst +broken rocks. Going to the opposite side of the road +and looking down there, he will observe the little +river continuing its course in a deep channel down a +narrow valley. The traveller is now on the Natural +Bridge; he is standing on a stupendous natural arch +of limestone; and though he may form some conjecture +of his situation by looking down from the edge of +the precipice, he can have no adequate conception +without viewing it from below. The arch is best +seen from the bed of the rivulet, and from a point +just under it. On looking up you behold a noble arch +of one solid mass of stone hanging over your head, +somewhat curved in its highest part, and almost like the +work of man. The same native rock forms, on each +side, the supports of this enormous arch, which is said +to be about 80 feet wide near the top; at the level +of the water the width is only about forty. The whole +height from the outer top of the arch to the water is +about 210 feet, as ascertained by measurement with a +string and a stone at the end. This is greater than +the height of the London monument. The vertical +thickness of the arch is probably about 30 feet. Like +many other great works both of nature and art it is +not the first sight that produces the deepest impression. +On a second visit we found that we had learned to form +more accurate conceptions of this wonderful bridge, +beneath which a man might sit and gaze for hours with +still increasing astonishment at the majestic arch which +nature constructed before man began his work, and which +seems likely to outlive the most durable of his monuments. +Whatever may have been the origin of this bridge, it +seems pretty certain, from an inspection of it, that it has +not been produced by any sudden and violent cause.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The stream that runs beneath, called Cedar Creek, +though inconsiderable, adds to the general effect. When +we visited the place, drops of water, filtered through +the limestone, were falling in quick succession from the +arch, and by the time occupied in their descent, their +increasing velocity, and their full bright appearance, +served to give a measure of the height from which they +fell, and to increase the beauty of the scene. There is +another natural bridge in Virginia, in Scot county, +which is said to be above 340 feet high, but is inferior +to that of Cedar Creek in form and completeness.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The Prebischthor, in the Saxon Switzerland, has sometimes +been compared with this Virginia Bridge, but it is +a very different kind of thing.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The accompanying view, taken from the N.W. side, +at the level of the water, has hardly any pretensions +beyond showing the general shape of the arch and the +view through it, which is very confined and altogether +devoid of interest.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>The chain<a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c005'><sup>[1]</sup></a> of the Andes in South America presents +most striking natural phenomena in the immense +clefts, or <i>crevasses</i> as they are sometimes called, which +separate two contiguous masses of mountain, and +in some instances are near 5000 feet deep. If Mount +Vesuvius were plunged into one of these frightful +abysses, its summit would not reach to the peaks of the +highest rocks on each side; while the bottom of the +cleft would be only one-fourth less elevated above the +level of the sea than the passes of St. Gothard and +Mont Cenis in the Alps.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The valley of Icononzo is less remarkable for its dimensions +than for the extraordinary form of its rocks, +which seem as if they had been cut by the hand of man. +Their naked and arid summits form a most picturesque +contrast with the tufts of trees and herbaceous plants +which cover the borders of the <i>crevasse</i>. A little torrent +has made itself a way through the valley, and lies +sunk in a channel, which is so difficult of approach, that +the river would hardly be passable if nature herself +had not formed two bridges of rock, which are justly +regarded as the greatest curiosity in that country. +Humboldt and Bonpland crossed these natural bridges +in 1801, on their route from Santa Fé de Bogota to +Popayan and Quito.</p> + +<p class='c004'>In the valley of Icononzo the <i>grès</i> or sandstone is +composed of two distinct kinds of rock—one very compact +and quartzose without any marks of fissure +or stratification—the other a fine-grained sandstone, +formed of an infinite number of thin and almost horizontal +layers. We may imagine that the compact +material resisted the force which rent the mountains +asunder, and that it is the unbroken mass of this rock +which forms the bridge by which the traveller now +crosses from one side of the valley to the other. This +natural arch is about 47½ feet long, 41½ wide, and +about 8 feet thick at the centre. By very careful experiments +made on falling bodies, with the assistance of +a good chronometer, combined with the measurement +obtained by a plummet, it appears that the height of +the upper of the two natural bridges, above the level of +the torrent, is about 313 feet.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Sixty feet below the first natural bridge there is +another formed by three enormous masses of rock, +which have fallen in such a way as to support one +another. The centre rock forms the key of the arch.</p> + +<hr class='c006'> +<div class='footnote' id='f1'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. Humboldt, Vue des Cordillères, &c. 8vo. Paris.</p> +</div> + +<div class='c007'></div> +<hr class="divider"> +<div> + <h2 class='c002'>STATISTICAL NOTES.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='subtitle'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c007'> + <div>ENGLAND AND WALES (CONTINUED)</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<p class='c004'>(20.) Of the state of English agriculture in early ages +some notion may be formed from the fact of the prohibition +for many years, and subsequently the taxation, of +the exportation of corn. It was not till the reign of +Charles II that the export of corn was exempted from +a tax; and it is from 1689 that may be dated that +fundamental change in our corn-laws which encouraged +exportation by a bounty. Since that period the fluctuations +in the price of corn have been remarkable. The +price of wheat which in the beginning of the last century +was 50<i>s.</i> the quarter, became reduced in the ten years +between 1740 and 1750 to 24<i>s.</i> the quarter. The +culture of corn thus received a check, and a large proportion +of arable land was transferred from tillage to +grazing. The effect of this conversion and of an +increasing population raised the price of corn in the ten +years from 1750 to 1760 to an average of 42<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> per +quarter, and soon changed the scale from export to +import, which has continued ever since. From 1764 to +1790 the average price of wheat varied from 42<i>s.</i> to 50<i>s.</i>; +our annual imports from 200,000 to 500,000 quarters of +corn. But since 1792 our annual imports, under differently +regulated systems of law, have been from half a +million to above two million quarters of corn of all kinds; +and the average prices of wheat have varied from 2<i>l.</i> to +6<i>l.</i> per quarter. In 1792 the price of wheat was +2<i>l.</i> 2<i>s.</i> 11<i>d.</i>; in 1800, 5<i>l.</i> 13<i>s.</i> 7<i>d.</i>; in 1812, 6<i>l.</i> 5<i>s.</i> 5<i>d.</i>; +in 1822, 2<i>l.</i> 4<i>s.</i> 1<i>d.</i>; and in 1831, 3<i>l.</i> 10<i>s.</i> 3<i>d</i>. The +annual consumption of wheat in the United Kingdom +has been estimated at 12,000,000 quarters; and that of +other grain at 36,000,000 quarters, making together +48,000,000, of which not one-twentieth part has during +any year been imported, and, in general, a far less proportionate +quantity. The daily consumption of wheat +in the United Kingdom may be taken at 36,000, and +of all other grain at 108,000 quarters, making together +144,000 quarters a day.</p> + +<p class='c004'>(21.) During the last century, upwards of five +millions of acres in England and Wales have been +enclosed under Acts of Parliament, the average extent of +each enclosure being 1200 acres, and the outlay about 10<i>l.</i> +per acre. From 1719 to 1759, the average number of +enclosure Acts passed was 8 a year; 1780 to 1794, it +was 30; 1797 to 1803, it was 83; in 1811 it was 134, +(the highest number known); in 1814, 119; in 1816, +49; in 1827, 21; in 1829, 24; and in 1831, only 10. +The great extent to which the enclosure system thus +appears to have already been carried, now necessarily +diminishes the progress of enclosures every year.</p> + +<p class='c004'>(22.) Among the various causes of the superiority +of English husbandry over that of the Continent, is that +of the medium size of our farms, which differ both from +such large unmanageable tracts as those held by Polish +noblemen, and from such diminutive occupancies as +those which have prevailed in France since the first +Revolution, in consequence of the abolition of the law of +primogeniture. The size of English farms is the greatest +in the best cultivated districts; such as Kent, Essex, +Suffolk, Norfolk, and Northumberland. In these counties +the engagements of the farmers are very large, +and frequently amount to 1000<i>l.</i> a year and upwards. +In more retired districts, as in Cumberland, Westmorland, +and Wales, the occupancies are, in general, small, +and an average of all the farms in England and Wales +would, perhaps, not exceed 150<i>l.</i> a year. Leases are, +for the most part, granted for seven years only, and +farms are occasionally let from year to year upon written +agreements, with specified covenants subjecting the +tenants to fines in the event of deviation from them. +The tenants of great landholders, particularly of the old +nobility, often hold at will, without leases, upon the +understanding of conformity to the rules laid down by +the lord for the observance of all his tenants; and such +tenants are found to occupy from father to son for many +generations. Upon the whole, the tenure of leasehold +property in England is considered to be too short to +admit of the improvements that tenants might otherwise +be expected to make in our system of agriculture.</p> + +<p class='c004'>(23.) The expense of cultivation of land in England +has much increased of late years, as appears by the +returns to the Board of Agriculture, which state that the +average expenses of cultivating one hundred acres of +land was in 1790, 411<i>l.</i>; in 1803, 547<i>l.</i>; and in 1813, +771<i>l.</i> Since the latter year there have been reductions +in labour and taxes, and also, to a considerable extent, +in rent. Surveyors calculate that highly cultivated land +ought to produce a threefold return, viz.: one-third of the +gross produce to the landlord for rent, another for the +expenses, and the remainder for the farmer’s profit; the +rent of inferior land being only a fourth, or even a +fifth of the gross produce, by reason of the additional +expense of cultivation.</p> + +<p class='c004'>(24.) A century ago, our cattle, from the inferiority +of their feed, <a id='tn-third'></a>were not one-half, sometimes even not +one-third, of their present weight. It is computed that +England and Wales now contain, at least, five million +oxen, and a million and a half of horses, of which about +<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>a million are used in husbandry, 200,000 for pleasure, +and 300,000 are colts and breeding mares. The number +of sheep is about twenty millions, and eight million +lambs. The number of long-wooled sheep is about five +millions, their fleeces averaging 7 or 8 lbs.; and of short-wooled +sheep fifteen millions, the weight of fleece averaging +from 3 to 3½ lbs. The whole quantity of wool +annually shorn in England is from eighty to eighty-five +million of pounds. The Merino were introduced about +the beginning of the present century, and were imported +in large numbers after our alliance with Spain in 1809. +The great pasturage counties are Leicester, Northampton, +Lincoln, and Somerset; and for butter and cheese, +Cheshire, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire. The import +of butter and cheese from foreign countries is checked +by duties, but these are important articles of Irish commerce +with England.</p> + +<p class='c004'>(25) The annual amount of profit from farming is +not very susceptible of exact calculation, but was estimated +some fifteen years since at thirty millions sterling, +being a sum equivalent to the rental of England and +Wales. The probable amount of the farming capital of +the country was estimated at from two hundred and fifty +to three hundred millions sterling. In regard to the +value of the total annual produce of the land, this is +necessarily subject to the fluctuations of seasons, but +taking wheat at the medium of 80<i>s.</i> and other corn in +proportion, we shall find an average produce of more +than sixty millions sterling in corn, to which adding a +similar value in pasturage, and a further allowance for +hops, fruit, and vegetables, we have a total of from 130 +to 140 millions. In Scotland the rent bears a higher +proportion to the gross produce, being, in general, not +less than one-third. Our chief superiority over the +Continent consists in machinery and live stock. Much +valuable information on the state of agriculture on the +Continent is to be found in the Reports to the Government +of Mr. Jacob, who travelled a few years since with +a view of ascertaining the effect that would be produced +by the modification of our corn-laws. From these +Reports it seems that the difficulties of transport in the +corn countries, and other impediments to production, are +such as to render the probable extent of importation +under a more free system much less than is commonly +imagined. There are many improvements of which +English agriculture is susceptible, such as in the size of +farms in many counties, the length of leases, the course +of husbandry, the construction of ploughs, and the +misapplication of animal strength in labour. With +attention to these points and the application of further +capital, not to wastes, but to fertile land already under +culture, there is every hope that our agriculture may +be yet considerably advanced in productiveness and in +national value.</p> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div>[To be continued.]</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='c007'></div> +<hr class="divider"> + +<p class='c003'>An officer in the forty-fourth regiment, who had occasion, +when in Paris, to pass one of the bridges across the Seine, +had his boots, which had been previously well-polished, +dirted by a poodle-dog rubbing against them. He, in consequence, +went to a man who was stationed on the bridge, +and had them cleaned. The same circumstance having +occurred more than once, his curiosity was excited, and he +watched the dog. He saw him roll himself in the mud of +the river, and then watch for a person with well-polished +boots, against which he contrived to rub himself. Finding +that the shoe-black was the owner of the dog, he taxed him +with the artifice; and after a little hesitation, he confessed +that he had taught the dog the trick in order to procure +customers for himself. The officer being much struck with +the dog’s sagacity, purchased him at a high price, and +brought him to England. He kept him tied up in London +some time, and then released him. The dog remained with +him a day or two, and then made his escape. A fortnight +afterwards he was found with his former master, pursuing +his old trade on the bridge.—<cite>Jesse’s Gleanings of Natural +History</cite></p> + +<div class='c007'></div> +<hr class="divider"> +<div> + <h2 class='c002'>THE MAHOGANY TABLE.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c003'>Milton, who was at once the most sublime and the +most practical of writers, has said,</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in12'>⸻ “To know</div> + <div class='line'>That which before us lies in daily life,</div> + <div class='line'>Is the prime wisdom.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c008'>The poet more especially had in view that knowledge to +which all other knowledge is secondary—we mean the +knowledge of ourselves. But we may not improperly +adopt his forcible expressions as a motto to <a id='tn-seriesof'></a>a series of +articles which we shall occasionally publish, which will +have for their object to collect some of the most striking +facts belonging to the commonest things by which we +are surrounded in our every-day life, particularly those +comforts and conveniences which the humblest man +possesses in a state of advanced civilization. The history +of a knife, or a button, or a coat, or a watch, or an +earthen pan, or a candle, or a lump of coal, or a mahogany +table, or a Penny Magazine, suggests to our +minds more precise and satisfactory notions of the progress +of society, and therefore of the real history of the +people of these kingdoms, than all the details of wars +and treaties and state intrigues, of which history is in +general made up. In the execution of such a purpose +it is not important to pursue any systematic plan. The +most material consideration will be to select those things +of ordinary use which are so common, that it would be +difficult to find a single reader who is not more or less +indebted to them for some of his enjoyments.</p> + +<p class='c004'>We will begin with a Mahogany Table. If we had +been speaking about a mahogany table, or any other +article of mahogany, thirty or forty years ago, we should +have expected only to have interested the rich in the description +of this important material of English furniture. +Now, what tradesman, or mechanic, or even cottager, +does not possess some article of mahogany—if it be +only a tea-caddy? The universal employment of mahogany +for articles of furniture, whose price does not +operate as a prohibition against their use in general +society, has been produced by the large application of +capital to the commercial speculation of bringing mahogany +logs to this country from the West Indies,—and, +further, by the invention of machinery for cutting +those logs into thin layers, called veneers, by which +operation the finest wood is brought within a reasonable +cost. Now observe what commercial enterprise and +mechanical ingenuity will accomplish in a comparatively +small period. Some piece of mahogany furniture is +now, probably, found in every house in England;—a +hundred and eight years ago the wood was unknown +here. A physician of the name of Gibbons, who resided +in London, received in 1724 a present of some +mahogany planks from his brother, a West-India captain. +Dr. Gibbons was then building a house in King-street, +Covent-garden, and he desired his carpenter to +work up the wood. The carpenter had no tool hard +enough to touch it; so the planks were laid aside. +The doctor’s wife, after the house was finished, wanted +a candle-box, and the mahogany was again thought of. +A cabinet-maker of the name of Wollaston was applied +to; and he also complained that his tools were too soft. +But he persevered, and the candle-box was at length +completed—after a rude fashion no doubt. The candle-box +was so much admired, that the physician resolved +to have a mahogany bureau; and when the +bureau was finished, all the people of fashion came to +see it. The cabinet-maker procured more planks, and +made a fortune by the numerous customers he obtained. +From that time the use of mahogany furniture went +forward amongst the luxurious;—and the drawers and +bureaus of walnut-tree and pear-tree were gradually +superseded in the houses of the rich. To show the +present extensive use of mahogany in this country it +<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>may be sufficient to mention that in 1829 the importation +of this wood amounted to 19,335 tons.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The common mahogany (called by botanists <span lang="la"><i>Swietenia +mahagoni</i></span>) is one of the most majestic trees of the +whole world. There are trees of greater height than +the mahogany;—but in Cuba and Honduras this tree, +during a growth of two centuries, expands to such a +gigantic trunk, throws out such massive arms, and +spreads the shade of its shining green leaves over such +a vast surface, that even the proudest oaks of our forests +appear insignificant in comparison with it. A single +log, such as is brought to this country from Honduras, +not unfrequently weighs six or seven tons.</p> + +<div class='illo-wide'> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<a href='images/the-mahogany-table-1-full.jpg'><img src='images/the-mahogany-table-1-inline.png' alt='' class='ig001'></a> +<div class='ic002'> +<p>[Mahogany Tree.]</p> +</div> +</div> + +</div> + +<p class='c004'>When we consider the enormous size of a trunk of +mahogany, and further learn that the most valuable +timber grows in the most inaccessible situations, it +must be evident that a great portion of the price of this +timber must be made up of the cost of the labour required +for transporting it from its native forests to the +place of its embarkation for England. The mode in +which this difficult work is accomplished is highly interesting; +and we have, fortunately, the means of +giving an account of the process (which, we believe, +has never before been described in any English publication,) +from some statements printed in a Honduras +Almanac, which has been kindly put into our hands for +this purpose.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The season for cutting the mahogany usually commences +about the month of August. The gangs of +labourers employed in this work consist of from twenty +to fifty each, but few exceed the latter number. They +are composed of slaves and free persons, without any +comparative distinction of rank, and it very frequently +occurs that the conductor of such work, here styled the +Captain, is a slave. Each gang has also one person +belonging to it termed the Huntsman. He is generally +selected from the most intelligent of his fellows, and his +chief occupation is to search the woods, or, as it is +called, <i>the bush</i>, to find labour for the whole. Accordingly, +about the beginning of August, the huntsman +is despatched on his important mission. He cuts +his way through the thickest of the woods to some elevated +situation, and climbs the tallest tree he finds, +from which he minutely surveys the surrounding country. +At this season the leaves of the mahogany tree are invariably +of a yellow reddish hue, and an eye accustomed to +this kind of exercise, can, at a great distance, discern +the places where the wood is most abundant. He now +descends, and to such places his steps are directed; +and, without compass, or other guide than what observation +has imprinted on his recollection, he never fails +to reach the exact point at which he aims. On some +occasions no ordinary stratagem is necessary to be +resorted to, by the huntsman, to prevent others from +availing themselves of the advantage of his discoveries; +for, if his steps be traced by those who may be engaged +in the same pursuit, which is a very common thing, all +his ingenuity must be exerted to beguile them from the +true scent. In this, however, he is not always successful, +being followed by those who are entirely aware of +all the arts he may use, and whose eyes are so quick +that the lightest turn of a leaf, or the faintest impression +of the foot, is unerringly perceived. The treasure being, +however, reached by one party or another, the next +operation is the felling of a sufficient number of trees to +employ the gang during the season. The mahogany +tree is commonly cut about ten or twelve feet from the +ground, a stage being erected for the axe-man employed +in levelling it. The trunk of the tree, from the +dimensions of the wood it furnishes, is deemed the most +valuable; but, for ornamental purposes, the limbs, or +branches, are generally preferred.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A sufficient number of trees being felled to occupy +the gang during the season, they commence cutting the +roads upon which they are to be transported. This +may fairly be estimated at two-thirds of the labour and +expense of mahogany cutting. Each mahogany work +forms in itself a small village on the bank of a river,—the +choice of situation being always regulated by the +proximity of such river to the mahogany intended as +the object of future operations.</p> + +<p class='c004'>After completing the establishment of a sufficient +number of huts for the accommodation of the workmen, +a main road is opened from the settlement, in a direction +as near as possible to the centre of the body of +trees so felled, into which branch-roads are afterwards +introduced, the ground through which the roads are to +run being yet a mass of dense forest, both of high trees +and underwood. The labourers commence by clearing +away the underwood with cutlasses. This labour is +usually performed by task-work, of one hundred yards, +each man, per day. The underwood being removed, +the larger trees are then cut down by the axe, as even +with the ground as possible, the task being also at +this work one hundred yards per day to each labourer. +The hard woods growing here, on failure of the axe, are +removed by the application of fire. The trunks of these +trees, although many of them are valuable, such as bullet-tree, +ironwood, redwood, and sapodilla, are thrown +away as useless, unless they happen to be adjacent to some +creek or small river, which may intersect the road. In +that case they are applied to the construction of bridges, +which are frequently of considerable size, and require +great labour to make them of sufficient strength to bear +such immense loads as are brought over them.</p> + +<p class='c004'>If the mahogany trees are much dispersed or scattered, +the labour and extent of road-cutting is, of course, +greatly increased. It not unfrequently occurs that miles +of road and many bridges are made to a single tree, +that may ultimately yield but one log. When roads are +cleared of brush-wood, they still require the labour of +hoes, pick-axes, and sledge hammers to level down the +hillocks, to break the rocks, and to cut such of the remaining +stumps as might impede the wheels that are +hereafter to pass over them.</p> + +<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>The roads being now in a state of readiness, which +may generally be effected by the month of December, +the cross cutting, as it is technically called, commences. +This is merely dividing crosswise, by means of saws, +each mahogany tree into logs, according to their length; +and it often occurs, that while some are but long enough +for one log, others, on the contrary, will admit of four or +five being cut from the same trunk or stem. The chief +guide for dividing the trees into logs is the necessity for +equalizing the loads the cattle have to draw. Consequently, +as the tree increases in thickness, the logs are +reduced in length. This, however, does not altogether +obviate the irregularity of the loads, and a supply of +oxen are constantly kept in readiness to add to the usual +number, according to the weight of the log. This becomes +unavoidable, from the very great difference of +size of the mahogany trees, the logs taken from one +tree being about 300 cubic feet, while those from the +next may be as many thousand. The largest log ever +cut in Honduras was of the following dimensions:—Length, +17 feet; breadth, 57 inches; depth, 64 inches; +measuring 5,168 superficial feet, or 15 tons weight.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The sawing being now completed, the logs are reduced, +by means of the axe, from the round or natural +form, into the square. The month of March is now +reached, when all the preparation before described is, or +ought to be, completed; when the dry season, or time +of drawing down the logs from the place of their growth, +commences. This process can only be carried on in the +months of April and May; the ground, during all the +rest of the year, being too soft to admit of a heavily +laden truck to pass over it without sinking. It is now +necessary that not a moment should be lost in drawing +out the wood to the river.</p> + +<p class='c004'>A gang of forty men is generally capable of working +six trucks. Each truck requires seven pair of oxen and +two drivers; sixteen to cut food for the cattle, and +twelve to load or put the logs on the carriages. From +the intense heat of the sun, the cattle, especially, would +be unable to work during its influence; and, consequently, +the loading and carriage of the timber is performed +in the night. The logs are placed upon the +trucks by means of a temporary platform laid from the +edge of the truck to a sufficient distance upon the ground, +so as to make an inclined plane, upon which the log is +gradually pushed up by bodily labour, without any +further mechanical aid.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The operations of loading and carrying are thus +principally performed during the hours of darkness. +The torches employed are pieces of wood split from the +trunk of the pitch-pine. The river-side is generally +reached by the wearied drivers and cattle before the sun +is at its highest power; and the logs, marked with the +owner’s initials, are thrown into the river.</p> + +<p class='c004'>About the end of May the periodical rains again +commence; the torrents of water discharged from the +clouds are so great as to render the roads impassable +in the course of a few hours, when all trucking ceases. +About the middle of June the rivers are swollen to an +immense height. The logs then float down a distance +of two hundred miles, being followed by the gang in +pitpans (a kind of flat-bottomed canoe), to disengage +them from the branches of the overhanging trees, until +they are stopped by a boom placed in some situation +convenient to the mouth of the river. Each gang then +separates its own cutting, by the marks on the ends of +the logs, and forms them into large rafts; in which state +they are brought down to the wharves of the proprietors, +where they are taken out of the water, and +undergo a second process of the axe, to make the surface +smooth. The ends, which frequently get split and +rent by being dashed against rocks in the river by the +force of the current, are also sawed off. They are now +ready for shipping.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The ships clearing out from Belize, <a id='tn-principal'></a>the principal +port of Honduras, with their valuable freight of mahogany, +either come direct to England, or take their +cargo to some free warehousing port of the British +possessions in the West Indies or America.</p> + +<p class='c004'>We must describe the beautiful process of cutting +mahogany logs into veneers, before we have reached +the point when the skill of the cabinet-maker is employed +to produce a mahogany table. This shall be +done in an early number.</p> + +<div class='illo-wide'> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<a href='images/the-mahogany-table-2-full.jpg'><img src='images/the-mahogany-table-2-inline.png' alt='' class='ig001'></a> +<div class='ic002'> +<p>[Trucking Mahogany.]</p> +</div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='c007'></div> +<hr class="divider"> +<div> + <h2 class='c002'>WHAT IS EDUCATION?</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c003'>This may seem a very simple question, and very easily +answered; but many who think so, would really be very +much at a loss to answer it correctly. Every man, in a +free country, wants three sorts of education:—one, to +fit him for his own particular trade or calling,—this is +professional education;—another, to teach him his duties +as a man and a citizen,—this is moral and political +education;—and a third, to fit him for his higher relations, +as God’s creature, designed for immortality,—this +is religious education. Now, in point of fact, that +is most useful to a man which tends most to his happiness; +a thing so plain, that it seems foolish to state it. +Yet people constantly take the word “useful” in another +<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>sense, and mean by it, not what tends most to a man’s +happiness, but what tends most to get money for him; +and therefore they call professional education a very +useful thing: but the time which is spent in general +education, whether moral or religious, they are apt to +grudge as thrown away, especially if it interferes with +the other education, to which they confine the name of +“useful;” that is, the education which enables a man +to gain his livelihood. Yet we might all be excellent +in our several trades and professions, and still +be very ignorant, very miserable, and very wicked. +We might do pretty well just while we were at work +on our business; but no man is at work always. +There is a time which we spend with our families; +a time which we spend with our friends and neighbours; +and a very important time which we spend +with ourselves. If we know not how to pass these +times well, we are very contemptible and worthless <em>men</em>, +though we may be very excellent lawyers, surgeons, +chemists, engineers, mechanics, labourers, or whatever +else may be our particular employment. Now, what +enables us to pass these times well, and our times of +business also, is not our <em>professional</em> education, but our +<em>general</em> one. It is the education which all need equally—namely, +that which teaches a man, in the first place, +his duty to God and his neighbour; which trains him +to good principles and good temper; to think of others, +and not only of himself. It is that education which +teaches him, in the next place, his duties as a citizen—to +obey the laws always, but to try to get them made as +perfect as possible; to understand that a good and just +government cannot consult the interests of one particular +class of calling, in preference to another, but must see +what is for the good of the whole; that every interest, +and every order of men, must give and take; and that if +each were to insist upon having everything its own way, +there would be nothing but the wildest confusion, or the +merest tyranny. And because a great part of all that +goes wrong in public or private life arises from ignorance +and bad reasoning, all that teaches us, in the third +place, to reason justly, and puts us on our guard against +the common tricks of unfair writers and talkers, or the +confusions of such as are puzzle-headed, is a most valuable +part of a man’s education, and one of which he +will find the benefit whenever he has occasion to open +his mouth to speak, or his ears to hear. And, finally, +all that makes a man’s mind more active, and the ideas +which enter it nobler and more beautiful, is a great +addition to his happiness whenever he is alone, and to +the pleasure which others derive from his company +when he is in society. Therefore it is most <em>useful</em> to +learn to love and understand what is <em>beautiful</em>, whether +in the works of God, or in those of man; whether in the +flowers and fields, and rocks and woods, and rivers, and +sea and sky; or in fine buildings, or fine pictures, or +fine music; and in the noble thoughts and glorious +images of poetry. This is the education which will +make a man and a people good, and wise, and happy. +Give this,—and the ends of professional education can +never be altogether lost; for good sense and good principle +will ensure a man’s knowing his particular business; +but knowledge of his business, on the other hand, +will not ensure <em>them</em>; and not only are sense and goodness +the rarest and most profitable qualities with which +any man can enter upon life now, but they are articles +of which there never can be a glut: no competition or +over-production will lessen their value; but the more of +them that we can succeed in manufacturing, so much +the higher will be their price, because there will be more +to understand and to love them.</p> + +<div class='c007'></div> +<hr class="divider"> + +<p class='c003'><i>Honesty is the best Policy.</i>—Irritated one day at the bad faith of +Madame Jay, Mirabeau said to her in my presence, “Madam Jay, if +probity did not exist, we ought to invent it, as the best means of +getting rich.”—<cite>Dumont</cite></p> + +<div class='c007'></div> +<hr class="divider"> +<div> + <h2 class='c002'>THE WEEK.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='illo-wide'> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<a href='images/the-week-full.jpg'><img src='images/the-week-inline.png' alt='' class='ig001'></a> +<div class='ic002'> +<p>[The Rev. John Wesley.]</p> +</div> +</div> + +</div> + +<p class='c003'>June 17.—The birth-day of <span class='sc'>John Wesley</span>, the celebrated +founder of the more numerous division of the English +Methodists. He was the second son of the Rev. Samuel +Wesley, Rector of Epworth, in Lincolnshire, where he +was born in the year 1703. Although his father was a +man of considerable literary attainments, being known +to the public as the author of various works in verse, it +was to his mother, a woman of a much more zealous +and active character than her husband, that Wesley was +chiefly indebted for his early education, and probably +also for the seeds of many of his distinguished mental +habits.</p> + +<p class='c004'>After receiving a very systematic elementary tuition +from his mother, <a id='tn-charterhouse'></a>John Wesley was sent to the Charterhouse, +from whence he removed at the usual time to +Christ-church College, Oxford. Here he distinguished +himself greatly by his diligence and success as a student, +showing from the first, in the distribution of his time, +the same punctual and persevering regard to method +by means of which he mainly achieved all the greater +objects of his life. The reading of some religious works, +and especially of ‘Law’s Serious Call,’ awakened in +him a strong spirit of religious fervour; and he formed +that association with a number of his college acquaintances +of similar views and feelings, to which, from +the punctilious regularity of the members in their devotions +and general demeanour, the epithet of “methodists” +was given as a name of reproach by the wags +of the university. As has happened in other cases, +the objects of the intended satire were much too earnest +in the views they had adopted to feel or to regard any +point of ridicule which it might be supposed to possess, +and frankly adopted the nick-name thus bestowed upon +them by their opponents, as their proper designation. +Among their number, besides Wesley, was the afterwards +equally celebrated George Whitfield.</p> + +<p class='c004'>We cannot here attempt to pursue minutely the remainder +of the course of Wesley’s busy life, or to trace +the rise of that extensive fabric of ecclesiastical policy +of which he was the founder. Suffice it to say, that +having commenced his public labours as a religious +teacher in the newly-formed colony of Georgia, in +America, in the year 1735, he pursued from this time +a course of almost constant journeying, preaching, and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>writing, till within a week of his death, on the 2d of +March, 1791, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. +During the greater part of this long period he rarely +preached less than twice, and often four or five times +a day; while, besides presiding with the most minute +superintendence over all the public affairs of the large +and rapidly growing community which acknowledged +him as its head, and transacting a great deal of private +business, he found time to send to the press a succession +of works, which, in the collected edition, amount to +between thirty and forty volumes. Mr. Southey, who +has made the life of this extraordinary man one of the +most interesting books in the language, has given us +the following account of the manner in which he contrived +to get through all this occupation. “Leisure and +I,” said Wesley, “have taken leave of one another. I +propose to be busy as long as I live, if my health is so +long indulged to me.” This resolution was made in +the prime of life, and never was resolution more punctually +observed. “Lord, let me not live to be useless!” +was the prayer which he uttered after seeing one whom +he had long known as an active and useful magistrate, +reduced by age to be “a picture of human nature in disgrace, +feeble in body and mind, slow of speech and +understanding.” He was favoured with a constitution +vigorous beyond that of ordinary men, and with an activity +of spirit which is even rarer than his singular +felicity of health and strength. Ten thousand cares of +various kinds, he said, were no more weight or burthen +to his mind than ten thousand hairs were to his head.… +His manner of life was the most favourable that could +have been devised for longevity. He rose early, and lay +down at night with nothing to keep him waking, or +trouble him in sleep. His mind was always in a pleasurable +and wholesome state of activity; he was temperate +in his diet, and lived in perpetual locomotion. +And frequent change of air is, perhaps, of all things, +that which most conduces to joyous health and long life. +The time which Mr. Wesley spent in travelling was not +lost. “History, poetry, and philosophy,” said he, “I +commonly read on horseback, having other employment +at other times.” He used to throw the reins on his +horse’s neck, and in this way he rode, in the course of +his life, above a hundred thousand miles, without any +accident of sufficient magnitude to make him sensible of +the danger which he incurred.</p> + +<p class='c004'>June 21.—<i>The Longest Day.</i>—On this day there is an +interval of sixteen hours and thirty-four minutes between +the rising and the setting of the sun, which interval +is longer than on any other day in the year. Up to +this point, from the 21st December (the shortest day), +the days have steadily increased in length; from this +point they will steadily decrease. We may more properly, +at some future time, explain in a series of papers +some of the more remarkable phenomena of the changes +of seasons. At present we shall call our reader’s +attention to the moral reflections which the recurrence +of “The Longest Day” suggests, by re-printing +a few stanzas of a poem by Mr. Wordsworth on this +subject:—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Summer ebbs;—each day that follows</div> + <div class='line'>Is a reflux from on high,</div> + <div class='line'>Tending to the darksome hollows</div> + <div class='line'>Where the frosts of winter lie.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>He who governs the creation,</div> + <div class='line'>In his providence assign’d</div> + <div class='line'>Such a gradual declination</div> + <div class='line'>To the life of human kind.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Yet we mark it not;—fruits redden,</div> + <div class='line'>Fresh flowers blow, as flowers have blown,</div> + <div class='line'>And the heart is loth to deaden</div> + <div class='line'>Hopes that she so long hath known.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Be thou wiser, youthful Maiden!</div> + <div class='line'>And when thy decline shall come,</div> + <div class='line'>Let not flowers, or boughs fruit-laden,</div> + <div class='line'>Hide the knowledge of thy doom.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Now, even now, ere wrapp’d in slumber.</div> + <div class='line'>Fix thine eyes upon the sea</div> + <div class='line'>That absorbs time, space, and number;</div> + <div class='line'>Look towards eternity!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Follow thou the flowing river,</div> + <div class='line'>On whose breast are thither borne</div> + <div class='line'>All deceived, and each deceiver,</div> + <div class='line'>Through the gates of night and morn;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Through the year’s successive portals;</div> + <div class='line'>Through the bounds which many a star</div> + <div class='line'>Marks, not mindless of frail mortals,</div> + <div class='line'>When his light returns from far.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thus when Thou with Time hast travell’d</div> + <div class='line'>Tow’rds the mighty gulf of things,</div> + <div class='line'>And the mazy stream unravell’d</div> + <div class='line'>With thy best imaginings;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Think, if thou on beauty leanest,</div> + <div class='line'>Think how pitiful that stay,</div> + <div class='line'>Did not virtue give the meanest</div> + <div class='line'>Charms superior to decay.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Duty, like a strict preceptor,</div> + <div class='line'>Sometimes frowns, or seems to frown;</div> + <div class='line'>Choose her thistle for thy sceptre,</div> + <div class='line'>While thy brow youth’s roses crown.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='c007'></div> +<hr class="divider"> +<div> + <h2 class='c002'>GENIUS AND INDUSTRY.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c003'>Whilst we believe that education is the greatest gift +that can be conferred on a human creature, we are +not sanguine enough to expect that its more general +diffusion will increase the number of men of genius. +There is a perversity in human nature which makes us +relax our efforts at the moment when they might be +rewarded with the most splendid success. It does not +follow that a shepherd-boy, who passes his long day on +the side of a hill, and who acquires the principles of +mechanics, or forms for himself a plan of the stars, +shall make proportionate advancement if full opportunity +of study be afforded to him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Nor does it follow that a young man who teaches himself +to read by the light of a shop window in the street, +shall become a learned man when admitted to libraries +and encouraged by applause.</p> + +<p class='c004'>We do not think the illustration a correct one, which +represents the scholar as like the weary traveller who +plods on contentedly through woods and over irregular +ground which conceal the prospect, and who faints when +he has ascended to the top of the hill and sees the whole +extent of the road before him.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The truth seems rather to be, that energy of mind, +like strength of body, must be acquired by exercise, and +that the consciousness of desert in encountering difficulties, +must be felt to enable us to accomplish any +great work. Sir Joshua Reynolds has happily expressed +this:—</p> + +<p class='c004'>“It is not uncommon to see young artists, whilst +they are struggling with every obstacle in their way, +exert themselves with such success as to outstrip competitors +possessed of every means of improvement. The +promising expectation which was formed on so much +being done with so little means, has recommended them +to a patron, who has supplied them with every convenience +of study; from that time their industry and +eagerness of pursuit have forsaken them; they stand +still and see others rush on before them.</p> + +<p class='c004'>“Such men are like certain animals, who will feed only +where there is little provender, and that got at with difficulty +through the bars of a rack, but refuse to touch +it where there is an abundance before them<a id='r2'></a><a href='#f2' class='c005'><sup>[2]</sup></a>.”</p> + +<p class='c004'>From this it appears to be essential to success that +a young man should study to acquire confidence in his +own powers. This is a condition of mind entirely different +from conceit; it exhibits itself in no vain boasting, +but essentially consists in a secret resolution to make +great efforts by persevering industry, to gain the object +of his ambition.</p> + +<p class='c004'>We believe that young men would entertain these +<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>notions oftener, if they were not deterred by an erroneous +fancy of what belongs to genius. They think that +such exertions as we recommend belong only to a plodding +fellow, whilst the man of genius does every thing +by a sudden act which costs him nothing.</p> + +<p class='c004'>This is an unhappy mistake. All our eminent men +have been distinguished by fixing upon some great +object, and possessing themselves with such a lively conception +of it that it has led them on through years of +toil.</p> + +<hr class='c006'> +<div class='footnote' id='f2'> +<p class='c004'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. Sir J. Reynolds’ Works, vol. ii. p. 80.</p> +</div> + +<div class='c007'></div> +<hr class="divider"> +<div> + <h2 class='c002'>HOW TO UNDERSTAND GEOGRAPHY.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c003'>Every one says that geography is one of the most +useful things that can be learnt; yet nothing is learnt +so ill, because nothing is taught so ill. Look into any +of the elementary books of geography, and read what is +said about England. First, we are told that it is divided +into forty counties; then, perhaps, follows an account +of the several law circuits; and then, after some short +notices about religion, government, produce, and manufactures, +there are given lists of the chief towns, mountains, +rivers, and lakes. But all these things are given +without any connexion with each other, and it is a mere +matter of memory to recollect what is no more than a +string of names. And if a man does recollect them, +still he is not much the wiser for them; he has got no +clear and instructive notions about the country, but has +merely learnt his map, and knows where to find certain +names and lines upon it.</p> + +<p class='c004'>If we wish to know geography really, we must set +about it in a very different manner. Take one of the +skeleton maps published by the Useful Knowledge +Society; there is not a single name upon them, nothing +is given but the hills and the rivers. These are the true +alphabet of geography. The hills are the bones of a +country, and determine its form, just as the bones of an +animal do. For according to the direction of the hills +must be the course of the rivers: if the hills come very +near the sea, it makes the rivers very short and their +course very rapid; if they are a long way from the sea, +it makes the rivers long and gentle. But rivers of this +latter sort are generally navigable, and become so large +near the sea as to be capable of receiving ships of large +size. Here then towns will be built, and these towns +will become rich and populous, and so will acquire political +importance. Again, on the nature of the hills +depend the mineral riches of a country; if they are composed +of granite or slate, they may contain gold, silver, +tin, and copper; if they are composed of the limestone +of Derbyshire or Durham, they are very likely +to have lead mines; if of the sand or gritstone of +Northumberland, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, it is probable +that there will be coal at no great distance. On +the contrary, if they are made up of the yellow limestone +of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, and Northamptonshire, +or of chalk like the hills in Wiltshire, Berkshire, +and Hampshire, or of clay like those about London, it +is quite certain that they will contain neither coal, nor +lead, nor any valuable mineral whatsoever. But on the +mineral wealth of a country, and particularly on its having +coal or not having it, depends the nature of the employment +of its inhabitants. Manufactories are sure to +follow coal mines; whereas, in all those districts of England +where there is no coal, that is, in all the counties +to the south-east of a line drawn from the Wash in Lincolnshire +to Plymouth, there are, generally speaking, no +manufactories; but the great bulk of the people are employed +in agriculture.</p> + +<p class='c004'>Thus then on the direction and composition of the +hills of a country depend, first of all, the size and character +of its rivers. On the character of its rivers +depend the situation and importance of its towns, and +its greater or less facilities for internal communication +and foreign trade. And again, on the composition of +the hills depend the employment of the people, their +numbers on a given space, and in a great degree their +state of morals, intelligence, and political independence. +And here we have a reason for things, and see them +connected with one another in a manner at once easier +to remember, and much more satisfactory to understand +when we do remember it. Some instances of this, given +in detail, may appear in one of our future numbers.</p> + +<div class='c007'></div> +<hr class="divider"> + +<p class='c003'><i>The Flower Garden</i> (June).—It will now be time for you to +take up those bulbs, of which the leaves are nearly decayed. +I can fix no particular day for this operation; because, as the +bulbs flower at different seasons, so the leaves will decay in +like manner; but the general rule is, to take them up carefully +as soon as the leaves have turned yellow, and to lay +them under a south wall to dry and ripen; taking care to +cover them with fine, dry, sandy earth, in layers, so that +they may not touch each other. When the leaves are quite +decayed, the bulbs must be removed, and spread again to +dry under shelter of a green-house, or in a room; and, +finally, after cleaning them from the dirt, take off their old +coats, or skins, and put them away in bags, or drawers, in +a cool dry place, till they are wanted for replanting in the +autumn. I must here explain why bulbs are taken up +every year: the great object is in this, as in all other operations +of gardening, to imitate Nature; to make the existence +of foreign plants as near as it can be to what they +enjoy in their native place. Tulips, hyacinths, and most of +those bulbs which are taken up, come from countries where +the whole summer is dry, and in winter the ground is +covered with snow; the spring rains alone call them into +life and flower. Travellers describe whole regions in Persia +as being covered in the spring with enamelled carpets of +scilla (hyacinths), tulips, and other bulbous plants: long +drought succeeds the rains of spring, the leaves die away, +and the plant rests again under the dry earth till the following +spring. As in our country they can have no dry earth +naturally to rest in during the summer, the best imitation +of it is to take up the bulb, which would otherwise be rotted +by the summer rains, or caused to grow in the autumn; in +which latter case, the plant would not flower in the spring, +as the flower-stalks would be killed by the wet and cold of +winter, before it came to the surface.</p> +<p class='c009'>⁂ From ‘The Garden,’ a very agreeable and instructive book for +children, forming one of the volumes of a series called ‘The Little +Library.’</p> + +<div class='c007'></div> +<hr class="divider"> + +<p class='c003'>“<i>A little Learning is a dangerous Thing.</i>”—Then make +it greater. No learning at all is surely the most dangerous +thing in the world; and it is fortunate that, in this country +at least, it is a danger which cannot possibly exist. After +all, learning is acquired knowledge, and nothing else. A +man who can read his Bible has a little learning; a man who +can only plough or dig, has less; a man who can only break +stones on the road, less still, but he has some. The savages +in one of the islands in the South Sea, stood with great +reverence round a sailor who had lighted a fire to boil some +water in a saucepan, but as soon as the water began to +boil, they ran away in an agony of terror. Compared with +the savages, there is no boy in Europe, of the age of ten +years, who may not be called learned. He has acquired a +certain quantity of practical knowledge in physics; and, as +this knowledge is more than instinct, it is learning; learning +which differs in degree only from that which enables a +chemist to separate the simple metals from soda or potash.</p> + +<p class='c004'>The geographer Malte Brun remarks, that in many cities +of the United States, that which is called a mob scarcely +exists. Now it will be found that in these Cities education +has been unstintedly bestowed upon all classes, down to the +very lowest.</p> + +<hr class='c010'> +<div class='colophon'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c011'> + <div>LONDON:—CHARLES KNIGHT, PALL-MALL EAST.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div><i>Shopkeepers and Hawkers may be supplied Wholesale by the following Booksellers:</i>—</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='colophon-left'> + +<div class='lg-container-l'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><i>London</i>, <span class='sc'>Groombridge</span>, Panyer Alley, Paternoster Row.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Bath</i>, <span class='sc'>Simms</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Birmingham</i>, <span class='sc'>Drake</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Bristol</i>, <span class='sc'>Westley</span> and Co.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Carlisle</i>, <span class='sc'>Thurnam</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Derby</i>, <span class='sc'>Wilkins</span> and <span class='sc'>Son</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Falmouth</i>, <span class='sc'>Philip</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Hull</i>, <span class='sc'>Stephenson</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Leeds</i>, <span class='sc'>Baines</span> and <span class='sc'>Newsome</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Lincoln</i>, <span class='sc'>Brooke</span> and <span class='sc'>Son</span>.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> +<div class='colophon-right'> + +<div class='lg-container-l'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><i>Liverpool</i>, <span class='sc'>Willmer</span> and <span class='sc'>Smith</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Manchester</i>, <span class='sc'>Robinson</span>; and <span class='sc'>Webb</span> and <span class='sc'>Simms</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Newcastle-upon-Tyne</i>, <span class='sc'>Charnley</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Norwich</i>, <span class='sc'>Jerrold</span> and <span class='sc'>Son</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Nottingham</i>, <span class='sc'>Wright</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Sheffield</i>, <span class='sc'>Ridge</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Dublin</i>, <span class='sc'>Wakeman</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Edinburgh</i>, <span class='sc'>Oliver</span> and <span class='sc'>Boyd</span>.</div> + <div class='line'><i>Glasgow</i>, <span class='sc'>Atkinson</span> and Co.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> +<div class='clear'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div>Printed by <span class='sc'>William Clowes</span>, Stamford Street.</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c001'> +</div> +<div> + +<p class='c012'></p> + +</div> +<div class='transcribers-notes'> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div><span class='xlarge'>Transcriber’s Notes</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c013'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Itemized changes from the original text:</p> + <ul class='ul_1'> + <li><a href='#tn-third'>p. 106</a>: Added faint or unprinted dash to “one-third” in phrase “were not + one-half, sometimes even not one-third, of their present weight.” + </li> + <li><a href='#tn-seriesof'>p. 107</a>: Replaced “o” with “of” in phrase “a series of articles which we + shall occasionally publish.” + </li> + <li><a href='#tn-principal'>p. 109</a>: Supplied missing “l” in “principal” in phrase “the principal + port of Honduras.” + </li> + <li><a href='#tn-charterhouse'>p. 109</a>: Replaced “Charter house” with “Charterhouse” in phrase + “John Wesley was sent to the Charterhouse.” + </li> + </ul> + +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76818 ***</div> + </body> + <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57e (with regex) on 2025-09-04 16:02:54 GMT --> +</html> + diff --git a/76818-h/images/cover.jpg b/76818-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c5317f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/76818-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/76818-h/images/the-mahogany-table-1-full.jpg b/76818-h/images/the-mahogany-table-1-full.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ffb464 --- /dev/null +++ b/76818-h/images/the-mahogany-table-1-full.jpg diff --git a/76818-h/images/the-mahogany-table-1-inline.png b/76818-h/images/the-mahogany-table-1-inline.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e484a0c --- /dev/null +++ b/76818-h/images/the-mahogany-table-1-inline.png diff --git a/76818-h/images/the-mahogany-table-2-full.jpg b/76818-h/images/the-mahogany-table-2-full.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c99e76f --- /dev/null +++ b/76818-h/images/the-mahogany-table-2-full.jpg diff --git a/76818-h/images/the-mahogany-table-2-inline.png b/76818-h/images/the-mahogany-table-2-inline.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b2d9548 --- /dev/null +++ b/76818-h/images/the-mahogany-table-2-inline.png diff --git a/76818-h/images/the-natural-bridge-full.jpg b/76818-h/images/the-natural-bridge-full.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7cf0ae --- /dev/null +++ b/76818-h/images/the-natural-bridge-full.jpg diff --git a/76818-h/images/the-natural-bridge-inline.png b/76818-h/images/the-natural-bridge-inline.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9f371d --- /dev/null +++ b/76818-h/images/the-natural-bridge-inline.png diff --git a/76818-h/images/the-week-full.jpg b/76818-h/images/the-week-full.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c41dbc1 --- /dev/null +++ b/76818-h/images/the-week-full.jpg diff --git a/76818-h/images/the-week-inline.png b/76818-h/images/the-week-inline.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9258c6c --- /dev/null +++ b/76818-h/images/the-week-inline.png diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d5ea70 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #76818 +(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76818) |
