ON THE DEATH OF LAMAN BLANCHARD,

BY DAVID HOLT, JUN.

Forth didst thou spring in intellectual might,
Along the path of genius lay thy way,
Thou lit thy mental lamp and there was light,
And crowds admiring hung upon its ray.

Bright was thy morning where rich hues combined,
And life one oriental garden seemed,

Gay were the fancies floating through thy mind,
And glorious were the visions that thou dreamed.

But ah! too soon the spoiler came and blighted,
Thy youths fair promise: now thy day is o'er,
And that wild harp that all who heard delighted,
Shall wake the sweetness of its strain no more.

Many have mourned for thee, and tears have flowed,
And shall not cease to flow for thy dark doom,
That thou shouldst travel in the downward road
And seek the dreamless slumber of the tomb.

Pilgrim of song! where'er thy footsteps be,
Drop to his memory one heart-vent tear,
Rich was the feast that he purveyed for thee,
Return one grateful offering at his bier!

THE POET,

BY DAVID HOLT, JUN.

His mind was filled with all sweet harmonies
Of Earth and Air, and Nature was to him
An open page displayed, where fields and trees
Were things whose images might ne'er grow dim,
The rippling river and the summer breeze,
Or cries of lonely birds that swiftly skim,
Across the bosom of the wood-girt lake
A melody within his soul would wake.

'Twas his to wander when the day begun

Amidst the mists upon the mountain's head;

"Twas his to watch the rising of the sun,

When new-born beams were o'er the landscape spread ;

'Twas his to watch the rippling rivers run

In silvery softness o'er their pebbled bed;

"Twas his to roam o'er moss and woodland wild
With native step, for he was Nature's child.

One, in his early childhood, taught to look
On all her glories as on hallowed things ;
To view creation as an open book,

Imbibing knowledge from the taintless springs
Of rural life,-wandering by dale and brook,
Lost in the life of sweet imaginings,

And viewing in each flower that decked the sod
The mighty works of an Almighty GOD,

All things of stern and grand to him were dear,
The tempest raving through the darkened sky;

His was the gladness of the mountaineer,

When lightning's flashed and the wild winds rose high;
When gloaming clouds proclaimed the tempest near,
The fire of freedom lit his thoughtful eye,

And on the wild rocks musing he would stand
"Till his rapt soul was filled with feelings grand.

Yet, not the STERN alone his soul delighted,
ALL THINGS in nature unto him were fair,
And not the lowliest, not the meanest thing was slighted,
Of all that blossomed in her taintless air;

To every lowly flower his love was plighted,

And all things in his bosom had their share

Spring blossoms, Autumn fadings, Summer flowers,
Winter solemnities, snow-storms and showers.

His morning ramble and his walk at night,
His mossy seat-deep in the forest nook,
The bank whereon he stood to see the bright
And bounding waters of the joyous brook,
The summer lawn-on which 'twas his delight
To lay reclined-perusing some sweet book
Of poetry-to him were dearer far
Than all the wordling's pleasures ever are.

And thus his moments glided calm away.

And harmless were his youthful joys I ween;
In happiness he whiled away each day

Roaming some loved or new discovered scene,
The rock-girt dell or mountains summit grey,
Or wood recesses, intricate and green,-

Passing his hours of unambitious youth

With GOD and NATURE-INNOCENCE and TRUTH.

NOTICES OF REMARKABLE BOOKS.

"The Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation."

In this, one of the most remarkable books, which have appeared during the present age, a theory has been advanced, which, from its agreement with all known facts, must be considered truth-like at the least if it be not true. To the unprejudiced stu dent of nature the theory comes with all the force of truth, and startles him by its

magnificence. The object of the work is to call attention to those faint traces which mark the early history of the globe, and point out those slight indications of the progress of creation, which, by accumulation and comparison with each other, reveal to us sufficient data upon which philosophical reasoning can build a superstructure. The words here used will indicate at once to the reader that the writer is prepared to deny that "the world, and all that therein is," was created in all perfection at once. Geology and Astronomy have conspired together to prove that uncounted cycles of ages occurred between the first creation of the inferior receptacles of life and the appearance of MAN, and that consequently Creation did not take place, literally, in the manner recorded in the Mosaic cosmogony.

He who attempts to controvert the belief of another should offer some creed in the place of that which he destroys; and in the place of the commonly received, but now exploded theory, is offered the theory of DEVELOPMENT as the mode of creation.

The basis upon which the theory is founded is of course composed of facts, discovered by the investigation of philosophers, and the explanation will necessitate the use of some philosophical terms; but the use of these will be eschewed by the writer as far as possible, or otherwise explained in a popular manner.

The theory of Development takes for granted the pre-existence of MATTER, which was created and endowed with certain original properties which should act through all time in a particular manner. These properties and modes of action are called Laws OF MATTER, and for the most part are well known to students in Natural Philosophy, under the various names of attraction, of cohesion, gravity, electric-repulsion, chemical affinity, &c. &c. With reference then to any use of the term creation in the subsequent lines, it must be distinctly understood NOT to mean "the making out of nothing," but the grouping and combining of the pre-existing atoms, and the laws under which that grouping and combining went on to produce the heavenly bodies called "earths," "stars," or "planets," and the manifestations made upon them in the forms which possess those peculiar functions which we are accustomed to call vital functions, or otherwise LIFE. The work goes to prove that the FIRST CAUSE—God—in the beginning, created the primitive atoms, or component parts of all substances alike. These atoms of incredible minuteness, existed in the form of a nebula, or cloud, and were endowed by their creator with properties and laws of action which followed them through all unions and changes. The idea that all the component parts of matter were originally the same has been held as true by various philosophers of great repu tation; and among them Sir Isaac Newton. The Creator, with a foresight consistent only with perfect wisdom, ordained the multitude of complicated affinities, or attractions of the compounds of these atoms, in such a manner as to give rise to a variety of substances with very opposite activities and very different appearances and still further by a course of natural combination of the compounds and the primitives to call into existence those bodies which are included in the VEGETABLE and ANIMAL kingdoms, and whose operations, such as growth, secretion, and voluntary motion, constitute what we mean by the term LIFE. Thus the nebula, or cloud of atoms, being at first of an irregular form, the attraction of the atoms towards the greater numberi. e.-in the direction of the centre, would cause motion of a rotatory nature at the outside as the whole became more condensed by the atoms coming closer to one another. This rotation would be a necessary result of the contraction of the whole cloud. Here and there a number of atoms would rush together and form themselves into small bodies or nuclei, which, in proportion to the number of atoms or particles which they contained, would exert a greater or less attraction for the neighbouring diffused matter; and these nuclei would at once become centres, around which other atoms would congregate, and a rotatory motion would be at once established in them, as in the eddies or little whirlpools at the side of a running stream. This rotatory motion in the whole cloud would proceed in the whole cloud, and around the small nuclei in proportion, becoming more rapid as the condensation became greater, and the agglomeration proceeded.

Every body which turns on its own axes-i. e.-rotates, has a tendency to throw off all the parts which are far from the centre, and this tendency is called the centrifugal force. (This adjective is derived from two Latin words, signifying to fly away from the centre.) This centrifugal force then would exist in the rotating mass, and would act most vigorously at the outside of the agglomerating mass, producing as a result, the formation of a number of rings, left apart, each possessing motion of a

rotatory character, similar to that which still continued in the mass, and which was proper to itself before its separation from the nebula. These rings would retain their form, and still continue to exist as rings only if they were uniform in density throughout; but as there would be inconceivably vast probabilities against this, they would, with rare exceptions, break up, and be agglomerated into one, or several masses, which would become representatives of the primary mass, and taking upon themselves similar actions, would perhaps give rise to a similar ring, which would again break up into one or several globes revolving round the parent mass. Thus would be formed

PLANETS and SATELLITES, each having speed in its revolution, derived from the original centre of the ring of which it was formed, and also a rotatory movement on its axis from the excess of speed observed by the outer over the inner part of the original ring; for it is well known that the circumference of a wheel must rotate faster than the central parts, as the former has to pass through a much greater distance.

All portions of this theory-called the Nebular Hypothesis-exactly agree with what we know of our Solar System; and, what is important, it is the only theory which will explain all the facts known respecting its phenomena. The following are some of the most prominent characteristics of the SOLAR SYSTEM, and they are all in perfect harmony with the nebular hypothesis, and can be explained by no other :

1st. The rotatory motion of the whole system.

2nd. The eliptical form of the planetary orbits.

3rd. The various inclinations of the planes of their orbits.

4th. The diversified positions of the axis on which they revolve.

5th.-The phenomenon of Saturn and his ring.

6th. The oblate spheroidal form of the earth, sun, and planets.

7th. The abundance of nebular matter still in existence in the form of comets, zodaïcal light, &c. &c.

8th. The marvellous concurrence in the direction of the sixty motions,-all being from west to east.

9th. The striking gradations which mark the relative intervals between the planets and the sun; the distances being curiously relative. It has been found that if we place the following line of numbers, (whose relation to each other will be at once seen) :192.

0. 3. 6. 12.

24. 48. 96.

and add 4 to each, we shall have a series denoting the respective distances of the planets from the sun. It will stand thus:

4. 7. 10.

16. 28. 52. 100. 196. representing the respective distances of the planets from the Sun in the following order :-Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. The position. of the new planet Neptune, agrees with the rule: its relative distance being 192 x 2 = 384 X 4 = 388.-This alone must be considered a proof of the UNITY of the whole system.

10th.-There is a no less remarkable law which governs the periodic times of the revolution of the heavenly bodies,-for, "with respect to any two planets, the squares of the times of their revolution are to each other in the same proportion as the cubes of their mean distances."-(KEPLER.)

A simple experiment can be performed, by which the whole of these phenomena may be seen passing before the eyes of the operator. All the remarkable appearances of the production of planets and satellites can be reproduced from a liquid or gaseous mass, relieved from the operation of gravity. This verification of the Nebular Hypothesis was first made by M. Plateau, of Ghent : it was as follows:-" Placing a mixture of water and alcohol in a glass box, and therein a small quantity of olive oil, of density precisely equal to the mixture; we have in the latter a liquid mass relieved from the operation of gravity, and free to take the exterior form given by the forces which may act upon it. In point of fact, the oil, by virtue of the law of molecular attraction, instantly takes a globular form. A vertical axis being introduced through the box with a small disc upon it, so that its centre was coincident with the centre of the globule of oil, the axis was turned at a slow rate, and thus the oil-sphere was set in rotation. The sphere was then presently seen to flatten at its poles, and swell out at the equator, and thus realize upon a small scale an effect which is admitted to have taken place in the planets. The spherifying forces are of different natures-that of molecular attraction in the case of the oil, and of universal attraction in that of the planet ;