Vanda's happiness and yours, I find that the death of him I love is the sad result of the great sacrifice I have made.'' He is dying, he is dying said Peter, raising his master's head. 'Oh, Madam, for Heaven's sake, withdraw! this emotion is too much for him.'- Must I die so young and so beloved,' said Iwan, in a faint voice.—Elizabeth, Vanda, farewell! Ah! may I find in heaven angels such as you! These were his last words. At that dreadful moment, the influence of religion alone prevented Elizabeth from following Iwan to the tomb. "The news of his death, and of his triumphs, reached Vanda almost at the same time. You may easily conceive what must then have been the state of her mind. Her grief was calm, but deep; her sorrow did not spend itself in tears. The bit terness of anguish, which filled her heart, turned to fixed and inconsolable remorse. All the efforts of her friends, to arouse her from her meJancholy and disconsolate state, were vain. When apprehensions for her life were expressed, she replied,' When we have nothing to love, we have nothing to fear; and every day seemed likely to be the last of her existence. "About two years ago, a Prince L-off fell desperately in love with her, and solicited her hand. For a long time, she resisted his suit; but, unable long to see another heart of true sensibility suffering on her account, she at last yielded. Since their marriage, they have travelled through France and Germany, and have just returned from Italy. It was hoped that change of scene, and the affectionate attentions of her husband, would have alleviated the af fiction under which she laboured; but you may judge, from the forlorn state in which she still remains, how deep a wound she has received, and how little prospect there is of its ever being healed. She is a flower cut down by a whirlwind of passion, and which neither time nor care can ever make bloom again." "Alas!" said I to Madame Davidoff, passion is to man as the sun to plants. When too ardent, it burns up what its milder rays would have vivified." This melancholy story had made us forget the fete and our friends; and the night was far advanced before we recollected them. Fortu nately, some fire-works, which had just begun to be let off, attracted all the company towards the Terrace. We soon fell in with Prince Ypsy. lauti* and Colonel Davidoff, who had been looking for us. Supper was served in the Garden, after the fireworks, which were extremely beau tiful; but I was so moved by what I had heard that I was anxious to get home, where I sat down and hastily sketched out the sad story. Though I can guarantee its fidelity, I am well aware, that to make others partici pate in the emotion I felt, there is wanting the presence of the interesting heroine, and the graceful and feeling diction in which the facts were related by my fair informant. WE RECORDS OF WOMAN.t E have been long wishing to see these exquisite productions of Mrs. Hemans collected into a vol ume, and they now meet us at the very season best fitted for their appearance. There is something in this la * In his youth, Ypsylanti was full of hope and ardour. More advanced in life, he was distinguished for energy and patriotism, and for zeal in the noble cause of his country. He merited a more glorious fate; but if Greece triumph, and finally break the barbarous yoke which has so long oppressed her, thy name, Ypsylanti, will live in the memory of thy countrymen, as it will long be engraven in the hearts of thy friends. (For some further account of his life and death, see page 226 of the present volume of the Atheneum.) + Records of Woman: with other Poems. By Felicia Hemans. 12mo. Edinburgh, Blackwood; London, Cadell. 1828. In the volume now before us, the dy's poetry which always associates it in our minds with the sweet breath-highest excellences of Mrs. Hemans' poetry are displayed in their strongest light. The Records of her own sex, of those who have perished in the devotedness of their souls to their faith and love, furnished her, without fiction, with themes in every way suited to her pen. She has selected those the best adapted to show woman in her loveliest character; and never were the charms of the most exquisite verse strengthened by sentiments more beautiful, or fitter for a pure and an exalted soul. ings of summer. It is soft and musical as their gentlest echoes; and not unlike them, because its sweetness and tenderness are sometimes touched with mournfulness. Her images are drawn from all that is fairest and brightest in nature or humanity; and the characters that people her fairy scenes are of the pure and noblehearted race, alike beautiful in their death and in their love. The spirit that inspires every line, has its impulse from the thoughts of a gentle heart, elevated almost into grandeur by its admiration of a sublime moral purity and greatness; and, read which of her compositions we may, the same delight is manifested in the devolopment of this feeling. Another striking characteristic of Mrs. Hemaus' poetry, is the tone it acquires from the devout love of solitude which uniformly seems to possess its author and inspire her happiest strains. The leafy, deep green shade; the vallies and solitary hills, where the echo and ever-springing fountains have their birth; the isles of the sea, the lone bowery islands of the sea ; the river's bank, or the deserted temple :-from haunts like these she has drawn, not merely the illustrations of her verse, but the very spirit of song itself, that seems to have held communion with her in these romantic solitudes. With so many of the characteristics of genuine poetry, there is no doubt the composition of this amiable authoress would have attracted general admiration, had they possessed no higher quality. But it is not either on their mere beauty or pathos they depend, but on their impressive morality. Several other writers may have given occasionally as exquisite delineations of female love, as noble and inspiring pictures of high, self-devoting bravery; but none but the greatest geniuses have ever equalled her, in blending the tenderness of female love with the dignity of all female graces, or the bravery of man with so many of the virtues of patriotism. Our first extract shall be the little piece entitled The American Forest Girl. Wildly and mournfully the Indian drum On the deep hush of moonlight forest broke;Sing us a death-song, for thine hour is come," So the red warriors to their captive spoke. Still, and amidst those dusky forms alone, A youth, a fair-hair'd youth of England stood, Like a king's son; tho' from his cheek had flown The mantling crimson of the island-blood, Of what within his secret heart befell, Known but to heaven that hour?-Perchance Of his young sisters wandering hand in hand, RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING, BY MR. COWPER. IT T is a remarkable fact, that from the invention of the art of printing, to the year 1798, a period of nearly three hundred and fifty years, no improvement had been introduced in this important art. In Dr. Dib din's interesting account of printing, in the Bibliographical Decameron, may be seen representations of the early printing presses, which exactly resemble the wooden presses in use at the present day. The immense superiority of the press over the pen induced, perhaps, a general belief that nothing more was possible, or, it might be, that the powers of the press were quite equal to the demand for its productions. A new era has, however, arisen, the prompt and extensive circulation of the public journals and other periodicals, requiring powers which the ordinary press could never reach. The first important improvement of the common press, was the invention of the late Lord Stanhope. This press is composed entirely of iron; the table, on which the types rest, and the platten (or surface which gives the impression), are made perfectly level he has thus introduced better materials, and better work manship, to which, however, he added a beautiful combination of levers, to give motion to the screw, causing the platten to descend with decreasing rapidity, and consequently with increasing force, till it reaches the type, when a very great power is obtained. There have been, perhaps, twenty contrivances for obtaining the same effect; but, as a press, Lord Stanhope's invention has not been surpassed. Still it is only a press, and, in point of expedition, has little superiority over its wooden rival, producing two hundred and fifty impressions per hour. Lord Stanhope was also the successful reviver of the art of stereotype founding, the process of which is as follows:-a brass frame is placed round the form of types; plaster of Paris, mixed with water to the consistence of cream, is then poured on the type, the superfluous plaster being scraped off. When the plaster is hard, the mould is lifted off by means of the brass frame, and from which it is readily detached; it is now baked in an oven, and when well dried and quite hot, it is placed in an iron box, or casting-pot, which has also been heated in the oven; it is now plunged into a large pot of melted type-metal, and kept about ten minutes under the surface, in order that the weight of the metal may 39 atheneum, VOL. 9, 2d series. force it into all the finest parts of the letters; the whole is then cooled, the mould broken and washed off, and the back of the plate turned in a lathe. This manufacture has been carried to a considerable extent; Mr. Clowes, the proprietor of one of the largest and best-conducted printing offices in London, has on his premises between seven and eight hundred tons of stereotype plates, belonging to various booksellers; the value may be estimated at 200,000l. In connexion with the Stanhope press, may be briefly noticed a little improvement for the particular purpose of printing music, after a new process, and for which I have obtained a patent.-In this new process the lines are formed of thin slips of copper driven into small blocks of wood, and the notes are formed of copper driven into a separate block. Two note blocks and two corresponding sets of lines are placed on the table of the Stanhope press; to the ordinary tympan of the press is attached another tympan, which revolves in the direction of its plane on a pin in the ordinary tympan. Two sheets of paper are placed under two friskets, hinged to the revolving tympan; an impression being now taken, one sheet will receive the notes, and the other the lines. revolving tympan is then turned half round, when the sheets will have changed places, another impression is taken, when both sheets will be perfected. This plan is now in operation at the printing-office of Mr. Clowes, to whom I have assigned the exclusive use of the patent. The It was in the year 1790 that Mr. W. Nicholson took out a patent for certain improvements in printing, and on reading his specification, every one must be struck with the extent of his ideas on this subject; to him belongs, beyond doubt, the honour of the first suggestion of printing by means of cylinders. The first working printing machine was the invention of Mr. Koenig, a native of Saxony. He submitted his plans to Mr. T. Bensley, the celebrated printer, and to Mr. R. Taylor, the scientific editor of the Philosophical Magazine. These gentlemen liberally encouraged his exertions; and in 1811 he took out a patent for improvements in the common press, which, however, produced no favourable result; he then turned his attention to the use of a cylinder, in order to obtain the impression, and two machines were erected for printing the Times newspaper, the reader of which was told on the 28th of November, 1814, that he held in his hand a newspaper printed by machinery, and by the power of steam, In these machines the type was made to pass under the cylinder, on which was wrapped the sheet of paper, the paper being firmly held to the cylinder by means of tapes; the ink was placed in a cylindrical box, from which it was forced by means of a powerful screw depressing a tightly fitted piston; thence it fell between two iron rollers; below these were placed a number of other rollers, two of which had, in addition to their rotatory motion, an end motion, i. e. a motion in the direction of their length; the whole system of rollers terminated in two, which applied the ink to the types. In order to obtain a great number of impressions from the same form, a paper cylinder, (i. e. the cylinder on which the paper is wrapped) was placed on each side the inking apparatus, the form passing under both. This machine produced 1100 impressions per hour; subsequent improvements raised them to 1800 per hour. The next step was the invention of a machine (also by Mr. Koenig) for printing both sides of the sheet. It resembled two single machines placed with their cylinders towards each other, at a distance of two or three feet; the sheer was conveyed from one paper cylinder to the other by means of tapes-the track of the sheet exactly resembling the letter S, if laid horizontally, thus, in the course of this track the sheet was turned over. At the first paper cy linder it received the impression from the first form, and at the second paper cylinder it received the impression from the second form; the machine printed 750 sheets on beth sides per hour. This machine was erected for Mr. T. Bensley, and was the only one Mr. Koenig made for printing on both sides the sheet. This was in 1815. About this time Messrs. Donkin and Bacon were also contriving a printing machine; having, in 1813, obtained a patent for a machine in which the types were placed on a revolving prism-the ink was supplied by a roller which rose and fell with the irregularities of the prism, and the sheet was wrapped on another prism, so formed as to meet the irregularities of the type prism. One of these machines was erected for the University of Cambridge, and was a beautiful specimen of ingenuity and workmanship; it was, however, too complicated, and the inking was defective, which prevented its success. Nevertheless, a great point was attained; for in this machine were first introduced inking rollers, covered with a composition of treacle and glue; in Koenig's machine the rollers were covered with leather, which never auswered the purpose well. In 1815 I obtained a patent for curving stereotype plates, for the purpose of fixing them on a cylinder. Several of these machines, capable of printing 1000 sheets per hour on both sides, are at work at the present day, and twelve machines on this principle were made for the Bank of England a short time previous to the issue of gold. It is curious to observe, that the same object seems to have occupied the attention of Nicholson, Doukin and Bacon, and myself, viz. the revolution of the form of types. Nicholson sought to do this by a new kind of type, shaped like the stones of an arch.-Donkin and Bacon sought to do this by fixing types on |