The Monthly Magazine

Love only in their sted took up its rest, Nature made that thy constant guest,

Untoucht the other's string returns the moan,
And gives an echo to each groan.

And seem'd to form no other passion for thy Let female frailty in fond tears distil,

breast.

This made thy courtesy to all extend,
And thee to the whole universe a friend;
The strangers to thy native soil and thee,
No strangers to thy love could be:
Whose bounds were wide as all mortality;
Thy heart no island was disjoin'd,

Like thy own nation, from all human kind; But 'twas a continent to other countries fixt,

As firm by love, as they by earth annext; Thou scorn'st the map should thy affections guide,

Like theirs who love by dull geography, Friends to whom but by soil they are allied: Thine reach to all beside,

To ev'ry member of the world's great family; Heaven's kindness only claims a name more general,

Which we the nobler call,

Which walks not earth alone, but is vouch- But what were pardon'd with like haste,

safed to all.

Thou seem'st corrupted with the very power to

please;

Only to let thee gratify,

Would bribe and pay thy courtesy ;
Thy kindness by acceptance might be bought,
It for no other wages sought;
No suitors went unsatisfied away,
But left thee more unsatisfied than they;
Brave Titus! here thy portrait find,
And view thy rival in a private mind:
Twas heretofore thy praise,

By acts of goodness to compute thy days,
Not measur'd by the sun's but thy own
kinder rays;

To think each hour out of life's journal lost,
Which could not some fresh favour boast,
And reckon bounties thy best clepsydras.
Yet to the happy might this goodness most

accrue;

Somewhat was to the miserable due ;
Thou could'st afflictions from another's breast Now wisht they might adore;

translate,

And foreign grief impropriate;

Whate'er mishap did a known heart oppress, The same did thine as wretched make;

Like yielding wax, thine did th' impression

Who think that moisture which they spill
Can yield relief,

And shrink the current of another's grief;
Who hope that, breath which they in sighs

convey,

Should blow calamities away;
Thine did a manlier form express,
And scorn'd to whine at an unhappiness;
Thou thought'st it still the noblest pity to
redress;

So friendly angels their relief bestow
On the unfortunate below:
Such nature in that generous plant is found,
Whose every breach with balsam does
abound;

And wounds itself to cure another's wound..

Nor didst thou to thy foes less generous

appear,

If any durst that title wear;
They could not offer wrongs so fast,

And by thy acts of amnesty defac'd;
Had he who wisht the art how to forget,
Discover'd its new worth in thee,
He had a double value on it set,
And scorn'd th' ignobler art of memory
No injuries could thee provoke,
Thy softness always dampt the stroke,

As fiints on feather-beds are easiest broke.
Be it not thought these godlike qualities
Could stand in need of votaries;
Which heretofore had challeng'd sacrifice.
Each assignation, each converse,
Gain'd thee some new idolaters;
Thy sweet obligingness could supple hate,
And out of it its contrary create;
Its powerful influence made quarrels cease;
And feuds dissolv'd into a friendly peace;
Envy resign'd her force, and vanquish'd
Spite

Became thy speedy proselyte;
Malice could cherish enmity no more;
And those, who were thy foes before,

take,

And wore its sadness in as lively dress;

Conceive the tender care,

Of guardian angels to their charge assign'd,
Or think how dear to heav'n expiring martyrs

are;

These are the emblems of thy mind,

The only types to show how thou wast kind.
So gentle was thy pilgrimage beneath,

A small misfortune scarce could reach thy Time's unheard feet scarce make less noise,

ear,

But made thee give in alms a tear;
And when our hearts breath'd their regret in
sighs,

Thine with their mournful airs would sym-
pathize,

Throngs of like sighs from its fine fibres

croud.

And tell thy grief for our each grief aloud;
Such is the secret sweet conspiracy,
We may between two neighbour lutes descry;
If either by unskilful hand too rudely bent,
Tas soft complaint in pensive murmers vent,

Or planets gliding in eternal poise;
Life seem'd as calm as its last breath;
A still tranquillity so husht thy breast,
As if some halcyon were its guest,
And there had built her downy nest;
As that unspotted sky,

Where Nile does want of rain supply,
Is free from clouds, from storm is ever free;
As that smooth sea,

Which wears the name of Peace,
Still with one even face appears;
And feels no tides to heave it from its place,
No waves to alter the fair form it bears;
Se

So thy unvaried mind was always one;
And with such clear serenity still shone,
As caus'd thy little world to seem all tem-
perate zone.

In thee extremes were join'd;

The loftiest and the lowliest mind:
Thus tho' some part of heaven's vast round
Appear but low and seem to touch the ground;
Yet 'tis well known to circle in the spheres,
And truly held to be above the stars.
Thou stoodst at once secure

From all the flattery and obloquy of fame,
Its rough and gentler breath were both to thee
the same:

Nor this could thee exalt, nor that depress

thee lower;

Less the heaven dreads that it should fired be
By the weak flitting sparks that upwards fly;
Less the bright goddess of the night
Fears those loud howlings that revile her light;
Than thou malignant tongues thy worth
should blast,

Which was too great for envy's cloud to overcast ;

'Twas thy brave method to despise contempt; And make what was the fault the punish

ment:

So clouds, which would obscure the sun, oft gilded be,

And shades are taught to lend him pageantry;
So diamonds, when the envious night
Would shroud their splendor, look most
bright,

And from its darkness borrow light.

Fond Pleasure, whose soft magic oft beguiles
Raw, unexperienc'd souls,

And with smooth flattery cajoles,
Could ne'er ensnare thee with her wiles,
Or make thee captive to her soothing smiles;
In vain that pimp of vice essays
To draw thee to her warm embrace.
Thy prudence still the Syren past,
Without being pinion'd to the mast;
Thou didst such ignorance over knowledge
prize,

For thus to be unskill'd is to be wise;
Virtue alone thy actions guided here,
Thou by no other card thy life didst steer;
No sly decoy would serve

To make thee from her rigid dictates swerve:
Thy love ne'er thought her worse;
Because thou hadst so few competitors,
Thou could'st adore her when ador'd by none,
Content to be her votary alone;
Thy generous loyalty

Would ne'er a mercenary be,

But choose to serve her still without a livery:
Yet wast thou not of recompence debarr'd,
But counted honesty its own reward;
Thou didst not wish a greater bliss to accrue,
For to be good to thee was to be happy too;
The secret triumph of thy mind
Which thou in doing well didst always find,
Were heaven enough, were there none else
design'd.

Thou wast a living system, where were wrote All those high morals which in books are sought,

Thy practice did more virtues share
Than heretofore the learned Porch e'er knew,
Or in the Stagyrite's scant ethics grew ;
Devout thou wast, as holy hermits are,
Modest as infant roses in their bloom,
Who spend their time in extacy and prayer;

Which in a blush their lives consume;
So chaste, the dead are only more,
Who lie divorc'd from objects and from

power;

So pure, that if blest saints again could be
Taught innocence, they'd gladly learn of thee.
Thy virtues only thus could fairer be
Advantag'd by the foil of misery;
Thy soul, which hasten'd now to be enlarg'd
And of its grosser load discharg'd,
Began to act above its former rate
And gave a prelude of the unbody'd state:
So dying tapers, near their fall,
When their own lustre lights their funeral,
Contract their strength into one brighter fire,
And in that blaze triumphantly expire;
So the bright globe that rules the skies,
Altho' he gild the air with glorious rise,
Reserves his choicest beams until he dies.
The sharpest pains thou didst with courage
bear,

And still thy looks so unconcern'd didst wear;
Beholders seem'd more indispos'd than thee,
For they were sick in effigy ;
Like

me well-fashion'd arch thy patience
stood,

And purchas'd firmness from its greater load; Those shapes of torture, which to view in paint

Would make another faint,

Thou could'st endure in sharp reality,

And smile to feel what others shriek to see: Those Indians, who their kings by torment choose,

Could ne'er thy sway refuse;

If he deserves to reign who suffers best,
Had those fierce savages thy patience view'd,
Thy claims had been confest,
They with a crown

Had paid thy fortitude,

And turn'd thy death-bed to a throne.

Fate paus'd awhile with wonder struck,
And turned again the dreadful book;
And hop'd she had mistook,
And wisht she might have cut another line;
But dire Necessity

Soon cried 'twas thine,

And bad her give the blow of destiny;
Strait she obeys: the vital powers grow
Too weak to grapple with a stronger foe;
Life's sapt foundation every moment sinks;
Each breath to lesser compass shrinks; /
Last panting gasps grow weaker each rebound,
Like the faint tremblings of a pausing sound;
And doubtful twilight hovers o'er the light,
Ready to usher in eternal night;

Yet

Yet here thy courage could outbrave Go, happy soul, ascend the joyful sky
All the slight horrors of the grave ;

Prepar'd to shine with your bright company i
Pale death's arrest

Go, mount the spangled sphere Ne'er shockt thy breast;

And make it brighter by another star; That ugly skeleton may guilty spirits Yet stop not, 'till thou are swallow'd quite daunt,

In the vast unexhausted ocean of delight; Whom the dire ghosts of crimes departed Delight, which there alone in its true essence

haunt; Arm'd with bold innocence thou could'st the Where saints keep an eternal carnival of bliss, mormo dare,

And spread regales of joy,
And on the bare-fac'd king of terrors stare ; Which fill but never cloy ;
As free from all effect as from the cause of Where pleasures spring for ever new,
fear.

Immortal as thyself and boundless too.

is ;

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. comet, as they relate to the above-menI ,

N the second part of the Philosophical tioned particulars, namely, the nucleus, SCHELL has published Observations on a regarding the order of the time when they late Comet, made with a View to investi- were inade. The date of each observacion, gate its Magnitude, and the Nature of its however will be added, that any person Illumination.

who may hereafter be in possession of The comet, which we have lately ob- more accurate elements of the comet's served, says Dr. Herschell, was pointed orbit, than those which I have at present, out to me by Mr. Piggot, who discovered may repeat the calculations in order to it at Bath the 28th of September; and obtain a more accurate result. the first time I had an opportunity of ex

Of the Nucleus. amining it was the 4th of October, when its brightness to the naked eye gave me

From what has already been said, it great hopes to find it of a different con- will easily be understood, that, by the nu. struction from many I have seen before, cleus of the comet, I mean that part of in which no solid body could be discovers the head which appears to be a condensed ed with any of my telescopes.

or solid body, and in which none of the In the following observations, my atten. very bright coma is included. It should be tion has been directed to such phenomena remarked, that from this definition it fol. only, as were likely to give us some infor- lows, that when the nucleus is very small, mation relating to the physical condition

no télescope, but what has light and powof the comet: it will therefore not be ex.

er in an eminent degree, will show it dispected that I should give an account of its tinctly.

Observations. motion, which I was well assured would be most accurately ascertained at the Oct. 4. 1807. Ten-feet reflector. The Royal Observatory at Greenwich.

comet has a nucleus, the disk of which is The different parts of a comet have been plainly to be seen. generally expressed by terms that may be Oct. 6. I examined the disk of the Tiable tò misapprehension, such as the comet with a proper set of diaphragis, in head, the tail, the coina, and the nucleus; order to see whether any part of it were for in reading what some authors say of spurious; but when the exterior light was the head, when they speak of the size of excluded, so far from appearing larger, as the comet, it is evident that they take it would have been the case with a spurious for what is often called the nucleus. The disk, it appeared rather diminished for truth is, that interior telescopes, which want of light; nor was its diameter lessencannot show the real nucleus, will give a et when I used only the outside

rays

of certain magnitude of the comet, which the mirror. The visible disk of the comet may be called its head; it includes all the therefore is a real one. very bright surrounding light; nor is the

Oct. 4. I viewed the comet with difname of the head badly applied, if we ferent magnifying powers, but found that keep it to this meaning; and since, with its light was not sufficiently intense to proper restriction, the terms which have bear very high ones. As far as 200 and been used may be retained, I shall give a 300, my ten-feet reflector acted very well, short account of my observations of the but with 400 and 500 there was nothing

E ained,

gained, because the exertion of a power depending on the quantity of light was obstructed, which I found was here of greater consequence than the increase of magnitude.

Illumination of the Nucleus.

Oct. 4, 6h. 15'. The nucleus is appa rently round, and equally bright all over its disk. I attended particularly to its roundness.

Oct 18. The nucleus is not only round, but also every where of equal brightness. Oct. 19. I see the nucleus again, perfectly round, well defined, and equally luminous. Its brilliant colour in my tenfeet telescope is a little tinged with red; but less so than that of Arcturus to the naked eye.

Magnitude of the Nucleus.

Oct. 26. In order to see the nucleus as small as it really is, we should look at it a long while, that the eye may gradually lose the impression of the bright coma which surrounds it. This impression will diminish gradually; and when the eye has got the better of it, the nucleus will then be seen most distinctly, and of a determined magnitude.

Oct. 4. With a seven-feet reflector I estimated the diameter of the nucleus of the comet at first to be about five seconds; but soon after I called it four, and by looking at it longer, I supposed it could not exceed three seconds.

Oct. 6. Ten-feet reflector, power 221. The apparent disk of the comet is much less than that of the Georgian planet, which being an object I have seen so often with the same instrument, and magnifying power, this estimation from memory cannot be very erroneous.

Comparing the nucleus also with the impressions which the view of the second and third had left in my memory, and of which the real diameters were '0325 and :0290 of an inch, and magnitudes at the station of the mirror 2.77 and 2:47, I found, that the comet was almost as large as the second, and a little larger than the third.

Oct. 5. Micrometers for measuring very small diameters, when high magnifying powers cannot be used, being very little to be depended upon, I erected a set of sealing-wax globules upon a post at 2422 inches from the object mirror of my tenfeet reflector, and viewed them with an eye glass, which gives the instrument a power of 221, this being the same which I had found last night to show the nucleus of the comet well. I kept them in their place all the day, and reviewed them from time to time, that their magnitudes might be more precisely remembered in the evening, when I intended to compare the appearance of the nucleus with them.

Oct. 18. The nucleus is less than the globule which subtends 2-77.

Oct 19. The air being uncommonly clear, I saw the comet forty minutes after five; and being now at a considerable altitude, I examined it with 289, and having but very lately reviewed my globules, I judged its diameter to be not only less than my second globule, but also less than the third: that is, less than 2:47.

On examining the comet, I found the diameter of its nucleus to be certainly less than the largest of my globules, which, being 0466 of an inch, subtended an angle of 3"-97 at the distance of the tele scope in the day time.

Oct. 6. The twenty-feet reflector, notwithstanding its great light, does not show the nucleus of the comet larger than the ten-feet, with an equal magnifier, makes it.

Oct. 28. My large ten-feet telescope, with the mirror of twenty-four inches in diameter, does not increase the size of the

nucleus.

Oct. 6. Being fully aware of the objections that may be made against the me thod of comparing the magnitude of the nucleus of the comet with objects that cannot be seen together, I had recourse to the satellites of Jupiter for a more de cisive result, and with my seven-feet telescope, power 202, I viewed the disk of the third satellite and of the nucleus of the comet alternately. They were both already too low to be seen very distinctly; the diameter of the nucleus however appeared to be less than twice that of the satellite.

Oct. 18. With the ten-feet reflector, and the power 221, a similar estimation was made; but the light of the moon would not permit a fair comparison.

Oct. 19. I had prepared a new tenfeet mirror, the delicate polish of my for mer one having suffered a little from being exposed to damp air in nocturnal ob servations. This new one being uncom monly distinct, and the air also remarka bly clear, I turned the telescope from the comet to Jupiter's third satellite, and saw its diameter very distinctly larger than the nucleus of the comet. I turned the telescope again to the comet, and as soon as I saw it distinctly round and well defined, I was assured that its diameter was less than that of the satellite.

6h. 20. I repeated these alternate observations, and always found the same result. The night is beautifully clear, and

the

the moon has not yet risen to interfere with the light of the comet.

Nov. 20. With a seven-feet reflector and power only 75, I can also see the nucleus; it is extremely small, being little more than a mere point.

Of the Head of the Comet. When the comet is viewed with an inferior telescope, or if the magnifying power, with a pretty good one, is either much too low, or much too high, the very bright rays immediately contiguous to the nucleus will seem to belong to it, and form what may be called the head.

Oct. 19. I examined the head of the comet with an indifferent telescope, in the manner I have described, and found it apparently of the size of the planet Jupiter, when it is viewed with the same telescope and magnifying power.

With a good telescope, I saw in the centre of the head a very small well-defined round point.

Nov. 20. The head of the comet is now less brilliant than it has been.

Of the Coma of the Comet. The coma is the nebulous appearance surrounding the head.

Oct. 19. By the field of view of my reflector, I estimate the coma of the comet to be about six minutes in diameter. Dec. 6. The extent of the coma, with a mirror of twenty-four inches diameter, is now about 4.45.

Of the Tail of the Comet.

Oct. 18. 7h. With a night glass, which has a field of view of nearly 50, I estimated the length of the tail to be 30; but twilight is still very strong, which may prevent my seeing the whole of it.

Nov. 20. The tail of the comet is still of a considerable length, certainly not less than 24 degrees.

Oct. 31. Ten-feet reflector. The tail continues to be better defined on the south-preceding than on the north-following side.

Dec. 6. The length of the tail is now reduced to about 23' of a degree. Of the Density of the Coma and Tail of the Comet.

Many authors have said, that the tails of comets are of so rare a texture, as not to affect the light of the smallest stars that are seen through them. Unwilling to take any thing upon trust, that may be brought to the test of observation, I took notice of many small stars, that were occasionly covered by the coma and the tail, and the result is as follows.

Oct. 26. 6h. 15'. Large ten-feet reflector, twenty-four inches aperture. A small star within the coma is equally faint with two other stars that are on the northfollowing side of the comet, but without

the coma.

7h. 30'. The coma being partly removed from the star, it is now brighter than it was before.

Oct. 31. 6h. 5'. Ten-fect reflector. A star in the tail of the comet, which we call a, is inuch less bright than two others, b and c, without the tail.

Two other stars, d and e, towards the south of band c, are in the following skirts of the tail, and are extremely faint,

7h. 20'. The star e is now considerably bright, the tail having left it, while d, which is rather more involved than it was before, is hardly to be seen.

7h. 50. The star a, toward which the comet moves, is involved in denser nebu losity than before, and is grown fainter.

d is involved in brighter nebulosty than. before, but being near the margin, it will soon emerge.

Oct. 26. The tail of the comet is considerably longer on the south-preceding, than on the north-following side.

It is not bifid, as I have seen the comet of 1769 delineated by a gentleman who had carefully observed it*.

Oct. 28. Seven-feet reflector. The south-preceding side of the tail in all its length, except towards the end, is very well defined; but the north-following side is every where hazy and irregular, especially towards the end; it is also shorter than the south-preceding one.

The shape of the unequal length of the sides of the tail, when attentively viewed, is visible in a night glass, and even to the

naked eye.

*Dr, Lind of Windsor.

8h. 35'. Being still more involved, the stara is now hardly visible.

e is quite clear of the tail, and is a con siderable star; d remains involved.

9h. 10. The star d is also emerged, hut the comet is now too low to estimate the brightness of stars properly.

Nov. 25. 7h, 35'. There is a star a within the light of the tail, near the head of the comet, equal to a star b situate without the tail, but near enough to be seen in the field of view with a. The path of the head of the comet leads towards a, and a more intense brightness will come upon it.

8h. 46'. The star a is now involved in the brightness near the head of the comet, and is no longer visible, except now and then very faintly, by occasional imperfect

glimpses

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The Monthly Magazine, 第 27 巻