natural state, or which they may be made to assume artificially, by dissolving or fusing them, and then allowing their particles to return to a state of solidity, which latter process is called their crystallization. Now it happens that the same substance is not found to have always the same figure externally when in a crystallized state, but is susceptible of several different forms, some of which do not ap pear at first to have any resemblance to each other. All preceding inquirers had been very much perplexed by this circumstance, in their attempts to establish a theory of crystallized bodies; and various principles had been successively adopted and rejected as the foundations of a scientific arrangement of them. At length the attention of Haüy was directed to the subject, by having accidentally picked up an uncommonly beautiful specimen of calcareous. spar, which presented the figure of a six-sided prism, and had been detached from a group of similar crystals. By trying to split this specimen in various directions with the blade of a knife, and dividing it only where he found a natural joint, he at last reduced it to the form of a rhomboid, or oblongated cube, which it retained in spite of all subsequent sections. Now this is exactly the form in which another calcareous spar, called Iceland Spar, is commonly found; whence Haüy was led to suspect that, by the application of the process he had employed, all crystallized substances of the same species might be reduced to the same primitive form. This idea he pursued with exceeding ingenuity; till, by means not only of his unparalleled dexterity in the dissection of crystals, but of a most masterly combination of algebraical and geometrical reasoning, he rested his theory upon grounds which would almost lead to the conclusion, that the principle is of universal application, and that it is only necessary to strip

them of their external coatings to discover the same radical figure in all crystals of the same species.

But, to proceed; the celebrated WINCKELMAN, one of the most distinguished writers on classic antiquities and the fine arts that modern times have produced, was the son of a shoemaker. His father, after vainly endeavouring for some time, at the expense of many sacrifices, to give him a learned education, was at last obliged, from age and ill health, to retire to an hospital, where he was, in his turn, supported for several years in part by the hard labours of his son, who, aided by the kindness of his professors, contrived to keep himself at college, chiefly by teaching some of his younger or less-advanced fellow-students. BARTHOLOMEW ARNIGIO, an Italian poet of the sixteenth century, of considerable genius and learning, followed his father's trade of a blacksmith till he was eighteen years old, when he began of his own accord to apply to his studies; and by availing himself of the aid sometimes of one friend, and sometimes of another, prepared himself at last for entering the University of Padua. VALENTINE JAMERAY DUVAL, a very able antiquary of the last century, and who at the time of his death held the office of keeper of the imperial medals at Vienna, as well as that of one of the preceptors to the prince, afterwards the Emperor Joseph II., was the son of a poor peasant of Champagne, and lost his father when he was ten years of age. He was then taken into the service of a farmer in the village; but being soon after turned off for some petty fault, he resolved to leave his native place altogether, that he might not be a burthen to his mother. So he set out on his travels, without knowing in what direction he was proceeding, in the beginning of a dreadful winter; and for some time begged in vain even for a crust of bread and shelter against the inclemency of

the elements, till, worn out with hunger, fatigue, and a tormenting head-ache, he was at last taken in by a poor shepherd, who permitted him to lie down in the place where he shut up his sheep. Here he was attacked by small-pox, and lay ill nearly a month; but having at last recovered, chiefly through the kind attentions of the village clergyman, he proceeded on his wanderings a second time, thinking that by getting farther to the east he should be nearer the sun, and therefore suffer less from the cold. Having arrived in this way at the foot of the Vosges mountains, nearly a hundred and fifty miles from his native village, he remained there for two years in the service of a farmer, who gave him his flocks to keep. Chancing then to make his appearance at the hut of a hermit, the recluse was so much struck by the intelligence of his answers, that he proposed he should take up his abode with him, and share his labours, an offer which Duval gladly accepted. Here he had an opportunity of reading a few books, chiefly of a devotional description; and, after some time, was sent with a letter of recommendation from his master to another hermitage, or religious house, near Lunéville, the inmates of which set him to take charge of their little herd of cattle, consisting only of five or six cows, while one of them took the trouble of teaching him to write. He had a few books at command, which he perused with great eagerness. He sometimes, too, procured a little money by the produce of his skill and activity in the chase, and this he always bestowed in the purchase of books. One day, while pursuing this occupation, he was lucky enough to find a gold seal, which had been dropt by an English traveller of the name of Forster. Upon this gentleman coming to claim his property, Duval jestingly told him that he should not have the seal, unless he could describe the armorial bearings on it

in correct heraldic phrase. Surprised at any appearance of an acquaintance with such subjects in the poor cow-herd, Forster, who was a lawyer, entered into conversation with him, and was so much struck by his information and intelligence, that he both supplied him with a number of books and maps, and instructed him in the manner of studying them. Some time after this, he was found by another stranger sitting at the foot of a tree, and apparently absorbed in the contemplation of a map which lay before him. Upon being asked what he was about, he replied that he was studying geography. And "whereabouts in the study may you be at present," inquired the stranger. "I am seeking the way to Quebec," answered Duval. "To Quebec? What should you want there?" "I wish to go to continue my studies at the university of that city." The stranger belonged to the establishment of the princes of Lorraine, who, returning from the chase, came up with their suite at the moment; and the result was, that, after putting a great many questions to Duval, they were so delighted with the vivacity of his replies, that they proposed to send him immediately to a Jesuit's college in the neighbourhood. Here he continued for some time, until he was at last taken by his patron, the Duke of Lorraine, afterwards the Emperor Francis I., to Paris, where he speedily distinguished himself, and eventually acquired a high place among the literary men of the day. He never forgot, however, either his early benefactors, or departed from that simplicity of character and manners which the humble nature of his origin and first fortunes had given him. It is gratifying indeed to have to tell, that even after he had become a courtier, and was living in intimate familiarity with the emperor, he

native village, purchased the

took a journey to his cottage in which his

father had lived, and erected on its site at his own

E

expense a commodious dwelling-house for the parish schoolmaster. He always kept up a correspondence, too, with the good hermits at Lunéville; and, in particular, on paying a visit to Brother Marin, who had taught him writing, and not finding his hut so comfortable as he could have wished, left with him a sum of money to rebuild it.

Men are proud, and it is very intelligible why they should be so, of an illustrious ancestry; but to those who have achieved their own advancement in the face of disadvantages such as the individuals we have named, and many others, have had to struggle with, the obscurity of their origin is their most honourable distinction. Nothing, therefore, can be weaker, or more absurd, than the vanity which has led even some distinguished men, of humble, or at least not high birth, to attempt to conceal their real extraction from the world, by the most unfounded, and sometimes ridiculous fictions. BANDINELLI, the Italian sculptor, was the son of a goldsmith, and the grandson of a common coalman; bụt having in the course of his life acquired great wealth, and having been created by the Emperor Charles V. a knight of the order of St. James, he is said to have repeatedly changed his name, in order to hide his parentage, and to have fixed at last upon that by which he is generally known, in order that he might appear to have sprung from the noble family of the Bandinelli of Sienna. A similar anxiety to secure for himself the reputation of noble descent is also recorded to have been one of the foibles of the celebrated Spanish dramatist, LOPE DE VEGA. But, perhaps, the most extravagant pretensions of this kind that were ever brought forward were those advanced by the famous JULIUS CESAR SCALIGER, one of the greatest scholars and critics of the sixteenth century. This eminent person actually took the trouble