The following from page 414, which is literally translated from the French, conveys no idea: "It appears more probable that this rarefaction of the air is limited; for, as each planet draws to itself a part of the atmosphere, refraction, according to a remark made by Wollaston, would be very marked in these planetary atmospheres."* On page 419, another false translation has been copied from the French. "The amplitude of these oscillations, that is to say, the deviations of two successive waves, are not the same for the different rays of the spectrum." "Die Weite der Excursionen, d. h. der Abstand zweier einander folgenden Wellen, aber ist für die verschiedenen gefärbten Strahlen ungleich." On page 427, we read, "The circle No. 4, to which Scoresby assigned a diameter (it should be semi-diameter) of about 40°, appeared to be very uncommon; however, (wenigstens) have never seen it more than two or three times in the Alps," &c. The French has the same errors. On page 440 we have ray for radius; but what is of more importance: -"In gusty weather I have frequently seen rainbows on a blue sky, when drops were falling to the earth, (sans que les gouttes tombassent sur la terre,) because they evaporated during their fall." On the last line but three of page 441, we have "refraction" for "reflexion."

"So werden sich beide Bögen dergestalt zeigen, dass jedesmal der Winkel zwischen dem einfallenden und gebrochenen Strahle 41° beträgt," is erroneously translated by Martins and Walker, "The two bows will always meet so that the angle between the refracted and the incident ray is 410."

A moderate acquaintance with terrestrial magnetism would have saved the English translator from another error. "From this point the western declination diminishes; and, at the east of the United States, the needle points exactly to the north pole," &c. - p. 448. "Und im östlichen Theile der Vereinigten Staaten," &c. The French reads, "a l'orient des Etats-Unis."

*Es scheint jedoch wahrscheinlicher, dass diese Ausdehnung der Luft eine bestimmte Gränze habe: denn ware dieses nicht der Fall, und eignete sich jeder Planet von der durch den ganzen Weltraum verbreiteten Materie einen Theil davon an, wie ihn seine Anziehung erfordert, so müssten die Atmosphären welche auf diese Weise um jeden Planeten gebildet werden, ähnliche Phänomenone zeigen, als die uns umgebende Lufthülle, und namentlich müsste nach einer Bemerkung von Wollaston die Strahlenbrechung darin sehr lebhaft seyn."

"Et n'ont l'apparence d'une masse lumineuse continue que parceque les intervalles sont remplis," &c., is translated (p. 456) "and which have not the appearance of a continuous luminosity only because," &c. The plain statement "Eben so wenig lässt sich angeben, ob die Luftelectricität bei Nordlichtern eine ungewöhnliche Stärke besitze," after passing its twofold ordeal, reads thus in English: "It is also equally impossible to say whether the atmospheric electricity is generally more powerful than usual." p. 461. "De la force d'impulsion," is translated, "the force of the inhalation."p. 478.

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In many passages where the translation has not perverted the sense, it is frequently inelegant and sometimes ungrammatical. Mr. Walker repeatedly translates anormale, ormal;" isolèment, "isolately; "chiffre (eine grösse,) "a figure; tres-propres, "very suited;" a la plus grande analogie, "greatly analogous; " trop forte, "higher;" plus longue, "larger." On page 450, we have this passage: "Confining ourselves in the study of terrestrial magnetism, in considering the direction of the needle, is only looking upon one part of the question," &c.

We have said enough to show that the present translation of Kaemptz's meteorology into English fails essentially of giving the author's opinions, or of teaching the truth. It is so overloaded with errors (only a part of which we have had room to specify,) as not to be a safe guide in the hands of the novice; and in its style we look in vain for that neatness, purity, and elegance of diction, which impart a charm to the paths of severe science no less than to the pleasing walks of literature.

ART. IV. The History of Ancient Art. Translated from the German of JOHN WINCKELMANN, by G. HENRY LODGE. Vol. II. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1849. Grand 8vo. pp. 270.

A PROSAIC mind is apt to consider every thing useless which is not practical, and nothing practical which does not minister

to our daily physical wants. Under this view, the Fine Arts are condemned by some as a superfluous product, existing by sufferance, if at all, but of little intrinsic value; the effeminate offspring, it may be, of passion or sensibility, but not of reason, or judgment, or any of the faculties on which we depend in the weightier affairs of life. By others again, these Arts are discarded as factitious and artificial, in judging of which there is hardly any firmer standard than fashion or caprice. Others still see in them but the trifles which the idle may well enough amuse themselves with to-day, and quite as well forget tomorrow; or, looking at them a little more gravely, — see but the dangerous baits which luxury hangs before the people whom she would enervate and ruin.

From these conclusions, it is hardly necessary, in view of the admirable, discriminating, and eloquent work which we have named at the head of our article, to indicate our absolute and unqualified dissent. We feel, nevertheless, the difficulty of speaking about arts, the grander productions of which but few of our readers can have seen, so that the very illustrations of our thoughts need themselves to be explained. But we do not forget that the spirit of art is latent in many a bosom ; that a simple ballad may please us as truly as the Paradise Lost; that the song of our fireside may charm as well as the Oratorio; that if art is to be loved by those alone whose eyes look every day upon the immortal works of the mighty Grecians or Italians, it were a melancholy conclusion indeed for many of us. We gratefully remember, too, that the love of beauty is confined to no locality; and from far away places, secluded valleys, and quiet villages, unknown to fame, have sprung those who have gladdened the world by their pictures of loveliness and power. The discipline of art is wide and manly; it supplies that which the mind earnestly and instinctively craves, that without which it is left as dry and juiceless as the stubble of the last year's cornfield! True, art is always practical in the best sense of that abused term. Its products are vigorous or delicate, sublime or beautiful, according to its means and objects; but under every phase, they are as truly natural as any products of nature. So far from being a mere contrivance for our amusement or pleasure, art springs spontaneously and necessarily from the unrepressed workings of the soul.

It is instructive to remember, that, by the ignorant and unthinking, the same objection is often brought against the highest forms of pure science as against the highest forms of art; namely, that it is unpractical, speculative, useless. Science is good when it helps us to navigate the ocean, to make railroads, to build houses; but when it quits these immediately and narrowly useful labors, and ventures into the higher regions, when it investigates the absolute laws of numbers, or the vast principles of geometry, and seems for the time content with the knowledge it discovers, then it is vain and foolish. Such also is the judgment passed upon art. We are dissatisfied and fault-finding because she does not perform what she does not pretend to perform, forgetting that man is most dignified by those powers which separate and distinguish him from every other order in creation; that the mind often finds its pleasure and reward in the very processes of its development; and that the minor advantages for which men sometimes pretend to love learning and skill, even the utility and gracefulness of the furniture in their parlors and of the vases upon their shelves, are themselves the products of more recondite studies than the objector ever dreamed of,- of those very studies and arts which he slights or condemns. It is, besides, a law of the mind, that even science itself cannot be studied for its mere economic advantages without the student's failing to understand its spirit and missing its higher aim. The miner, who digs with no other purpose than to accumulate the precious ores and metals, cannot rise to the comprehensive intelligence and wisdom of the geologist, who searches reverently into the secrets of the world's formation. The anatomist, who studies the human frame merely that he may convert his knowledge into a means of more successful livelihood, cannot understand the profounder laws of our being like him who comes with wonder, docility, and love, to discover in the crowning work of the creation, the most surprising and varied proofs of the wisdom and beneficence of the Creator.

This same utilitarian spirit, narrow at first, and of necessity ever contracting, must check every scientific discovery, and if it could rise to the contemplation of beauty at all, would be offended that so many rich and rare things exist where they never can be seen and enjoyed; so many flowers opening their brilliant petals for the sun alone to look upon, and wast

ing their fragrance on the ungrateful air; so much strength and beauty of beast and bird never recognized; so many diamonds shut up in inaccessible recesses; so many pearls that no diver shall discover.

"Rhodona! if the sages ask thee why

This charm is wasted on the marsh and sky,
Dear, tell them, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for being.

Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose,

I never thought to ask, I never knew;
But in my simple ignorance suppose,

The selfsame power that brought me there brought you."

Man liveth not by bread alone. That is useful, we cheerfully grant, which ministers to our comfort, averts calamities, and subjects the elements to our control. But is that less so which makes us more intelligent and rejoicing witnesses of the myriad ways of Providence, which encourages and cultivates reverence and purity, self-devotion and faith? All that widens and multiplies the fields of knowledge, that inspires a reasonable curiosity, (the mother of enterprise,) that renders the mind more subtle, discriminating, and discursive, and that preeminently, which most completely insures the control of the intellectual and moral over the physical and sensuous, is useful in the best sense.

Art, indeed, does not occupy itself about the common and the trivial, and is not apt to estimate the ordinary aims of labor or ambition as of the highest consequence; but rather is inclined to postpone artificial distinctions to those which are inward, essential, and permanent. So far, it may not be prudent. But we doubt whether the charge against artists, of a want of practical talent, be a just one. They, unfortunately, have been compelled to exercise as much ingenuity in getting their daily bread as most men; and if they have not lived in luxury, it has been, sometimes at least, because they have striven for something better. Recall to mind the grander ministers of art. We suspect that Phidias and Praxiteles, Michael Angelo and John of Bologna, Raphael and Titian, could handle a chisel or file, a saw or brush, as neatly as any stonecutter or housepainter of our day. The fact is, that during the centuries. when art flourished most, none were such practical mechanics as the painters and sculptors. They were civil engineers, and architects, and constructors of military engines. They built palaces and churches, planned fortifications, erected fountains,