the insertion of two imaginary poles, which are supposed to penetrate, and unite at the center; thus forming an axis on which the mighty orange turns with a regular diurnal revolution.

The transitions of light and darkness, whence proceed the alternations of day and night, are produced by this diurnal revolution, successively presenting the different parts of the earth to the rays of the sun. The latter is, according to the best, that is to say the latest accounts, a luminous or fiery body of a prodigious magnitude, from which this world is driven by a centrifugal or repelling power, and to which it is drawn by a centripetal or attractive force, otherwise called the attraction of gravitation; the combination, or rather the counteraction, of these two opposing impulses, producing a circular and annual revolution. Hence result the different seasons of the year; viz., spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

This I believe to be the most approved modern theory on the subject: though there be many philosophers who have entertained very different opinions; some, too, of them entitled to much deference from their great antiquity and illustrious character. Thus it was advanced by some of the ancient sages, that the earth was an extended plain, supported by vast pillars; and by others, that it rested on the head of a snake or the back of a huge tortoise: but, as they did not provide a resting-place for either the pillars or the tortoise, the whole theory fell to the ground for want of proper foundation.

The Brahmins assert that the heavens rest upon the earth, and the sun and moon swim therein like fishes in the water, moving from east to west by day, and gliding along the edge of the horizon to their original stations during night: while, according to the puranas of India, it is a vast plain, encircled by seven oceans of milk, nectar, and other delicious liquids; that it is studded with seven mountains, and ornamented in the center by a mountainous rock of burnished gold; and that a great dragon occasionally swallows up the moon, which accounts for the phenomena of lunar eclipses.

Besides these and many other equally sage opinions, we have the profound conjectures of ABOUL HASSAN-ALY, son of Al Khan, son of Aly, son of Abderrahman, son of Abdallah, son of Masoud-el-Hadheli, who is commonly called MASOUDI, and surnamed Cothbiddin, but who takes the humble title of Lahebar-rasoul, which means the companion of the ambassador of God. He has written a universal history, entitled "Mourondgeed-dharab; or, The Golden Meadows and the Mines of Precious Stones." In this valuable work he has related the history of the world, from the creation down to the moment of writing; which was under the Khaliphat of Mothi Billah, in the month Dgiou

madi-el-aoual of the three hundred and thirty-sixth year of the Hegira, or flight of the Prophet. He informs us that the earth is a huge bird; Mecca and Medina constituting the head, Persia and India the right wing, the land of Eng the left wing, and Africa the tail. He informs us, moreover, that an earth has existed before the present (which he considers as a mere chicken of seven thousand years); that it has undergone divers deluges; and that, according to the opinion of some well-informed Brahmins of his acquaintance, it will be renovated every seventy thousandth hazarouam, each hazarouam consisting of twelve thousand years.

These are a few of the many contradictory opinions of philosophers concerning the earth; and we find that the learned have had equal perplexity as to the nature of the sun. Some of the ancient philosophers have affirmed that it is a vast wheel of brilliant fire; others, that it is merely a mirror, or sphere, of transparent crystal; and a third class, at the head of whom stands Anaxagoras, maintained that it was nothing but a huge ignited mass of iron or stone: indeed, he declared the heavens to be merely a vault of stone, and that the stars were stones whirled upward from the earth, and set on fire by the velocity of its revolutions. But I give little attention to the doctrines of this philosopher; the people of Athens having fully refuted them by banishing him from their city, a concise mode of answering unwelcome doctrines, much resorted to in former days. Another sect of philosophers do declare that certain fiery particles exhale constantly from the earth, which, concentrating in a single point of the firmament by day, constitute the sun; but being scattered, and rambling about in the dark at night, collect in various points, and form stars. These are regularly burnt out and extinguished, not unlike to the lamps in our streets; and require a fresh supply of exhalatives for the next occasion.

It is even recorded, that at certain remote and obscure periods, in consequence of a great scarcity of fuel, the sun has been completely burnt out, and sometimes not rekindled for a month at a time, a most melancholy circumstance, the very idea of which gave vast concern to Heraclitus, that worthy weeping philosopher of antiquity. In addition to these various speculations, it was the opinion of Herschel that the sun is a magnificent habitable abode; the light it furnishes arising from certain empyreal, luminous, or phosphoric clouds swimming in its transparent atmosphere.

But we will not enter further at present into the nature of the sun; that being an inquiry not immediately necessary to the development of this history. Neither will we embroil ourselves in any more of the endless disputes of philosophers touching the

form of this globe, but content ourselves with the theory advanced in the beginning of this chapter; and will proceed to illustrate, by experiment, the complexity of motion therein ascribed to this our rotatory planet.

Prof. Von Poddingcoft (or Puddinghead, as the name may be rendered into English) was long celebrated in the University of Leyden for profound gravity of deportment, and a talent at going to sleep in the midst of examinations, to the infinite relief of his hopeful students, who thereby worked their way through college with great ease and little study. In the course of one of his lectures, the learned professor, seizing a bucket of water, swung it around his head at arm's-length; the impulse with which he threw the vessel from him being a centrifugal force, the retention of his arm operating as a centripetal power, and the bucket, which was a substitute for the earth, describing a circular orbit round about the globular head and ruby visage of Prof. Von Poddingcoft, which formed no bad representation of the sun. All of these particulars were duly explained to the class of gaping students around him. He apprised them, moreover, that the same principle of gravitation which retained the water in the bucket restrains the ocean from flying from the earth in its rapid revolutions; and he further informed them, that, should the motion of the earth be suddenly checked, it would incontinently fall into the sun, through the centripetal force of gravitation, a most ruinous event to this planet, and one which would also obscure, though it most probably would not extinguish, the solar luminary. An unlucky stripling, one of those vagrant geniuses who seem sent into the world merely to annoy men of the Puddinghead order, desirous of ascertaining the correctness of the experiment, suddenly arrested the arm of the professor just at the moment that the bucket was in its zenith, which immediately descended with astonishing precision upon the philosophic head of the instructor of youth. A hollow sound and a red-hot hiss attended the contact: but the theory was in the amplest manner illustrated, for the unfortunate bucket perished in the conflict; but the blazing countenance of Prof. Von Poddingcoft emerged from amidst the waters, glowing fiercer than ever with unutterable indignation, whereby the students were marvelously edified, and departed considerably wiser than before.

It is a mortifying circumstance, which greatly perplexes many a painstaking philosopher, that Nature often refuses to second his most profound and elaborate efforts; so that, after having invented one of the most ingenious and natural theories imaginable, she will have the perverseness to act directly in the teeth of his system, and flatly contradict his most favorite positions. This is

a manifest and unmerited grievance, since it throws the censure of the vulgar and unlearned entirely upon the philosopher; whereas the fault is not to be ascribed to his theory, which is unquestionably correct, but to the waywardness of Dame Nature, who, with the proverbial fickleness of her sex, is continually indulging in coquetries and caprices, and seems really to take pleasure in violating all philosophic rules, and jilting the most learned and indefatigable of her adorers. Thus it happened with respect to the foregoing satisfactory explanation of the motion of our planet. It appears that the centrifugal force has long since ceased to operate, while its antagonist remains in undiminished potency: the world, therefore, according to the theory as it originally stood, ought in strict propriety to tumble into the sun. Philosophers were convinced that it would do so, and awaited in anxious impatience the fulfillment of their prognostics. But the untoward planet pertinaciously continued her course, notwithstanding that she had reason, philosophy, and a whole university of learned professors, opposed to her conduct. The philosophers took this in very ill part; and it is thought they would never have pardoned the slight and affront which they conceived put upon them by the world, had not a good-natured professor kindly officiated as a mediator between the parties, and effected a reconciliation.

Finding the world would not accommodate itself to the theory, he wisely determined to accommodate the theory to the world: he therefore informed his brother philosophers that the circular motion of the earth round the sun was no sooner engendered by the conflicting impulses above described than it became a regular revolution, independent of the causes which gave it origin. His learned brethren readily joined in the opinion, being heartily glad of any explanation that would decently extricate them from their embarrassment; and, ever since that memorable era, the world has been left to take her own course, and to revolve around the sun in such orbit as she thinks proper. Chap. I.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

1804-1864.

A writer of singular purity and simplicity. His writings are principally denoted by their fine poetical imagery, originality of thought and expression. His pleasant fancies are philosophical, and his keen reflections not too metaphysical.

PRINCIPAL PRODUCTIONS.

"Twice-told Tales; "Our Old Home;""Mosses from an Old Manse;" "The Scarlet Letter;""The House of the Seven Gables; "True Stories from History and Biography;" "The Blithedale Romance;" "A Wonder-Book for Boys and Girls, in 1852; "The Snow-Image and other Twice-told Tales; " Tanglewood Tales, for Boys and Girls; ""The Marble Faun; Passages from the American Note-Books of Nathaniel Hawthorne."

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66

A RILL FROM THE TOWN-PUMP.

The corner of two principal streets. The ToWN-PUMP talking through its

nose.

NOON by the north clock! Noon by the east! High noon, too, by these hot sunbeams, which fall scarcely aslope upon my head, and almost make the water bubble and smoke in the trough under my nose! Truly, we public characters have a tough time of it! And, among all the town-officers chosen at March meeting, where is he that sustains for a single year the burden of such manifold duties as are imposed in perpetuity upon the Town-Pump? The title of "Town Treasurer" is rightfully mine, as guardian of the best treasure that the town has. The overseers of the poor ought to make me their chairman, since I provide bountifully for the pauper, without expense to him that pays taxes. I am at the head of the fire-department, and one of the physicians to the board of health. As a keeper of the peace, all water-drinkers will confess me equal to the constable. I perform some of the duties of the town-clerk by promulgating public notices when they are posted on my front. To speak within bounds, I am the chief person of the municipality, and exhibit, moreover, an admirable pattern to my brotherofficers, by the cool, steady, upright, downright, and impartial discharge of my business, and the constancy with which I stand to my post. Summer or winter, nobody seeks me in vain: for, all day long, I am seen at the busiest corner, just above the market, stretching out my arms to rich and poor alike; and at night I hold a lantern over my head, both to show where I am, and keep people out of the gutters.