Berquin, a native of Bruges, discovered the | the disdain and indolence which endeavor art of cutting the diamond. The end of this to degrade them.

epoch is also celebrated for four most im- It belongs only to a Bossuet or a Bufportant events: the first is the invention of fon to trace for us the rapid progress of linen paper; the second that of gunpowder, the arts and sciences, during this last a most destructive agent in war-(some as- epoch. Until a learned and more skilful cribe it to Roger Bacon, an English friar, hand unfold to our eyes the details of others to Barthold Schwartz, a German so grand a picture, may I be permitted monk); the third is that of printing, due to to present, within a narrow compass, the Guttenberg, of the city of Mayence; the principal traits of the industry of these fourth is the discovery of the Bahama Isl- three centuries. It shall be, if desired, ands by Christopher Columbus, and of the merely a sketch, like a map of the world, Continent of America by Americus Vespu- upon which can be traced only oceans, large cius, who had the honor of giving his name rivers, lofty mountains, and cities of the to the newly-discovered world. first class; but this sketch, by fixing the attention upon certain points, will leave upon the imagination and the memory the idea of a fuller development, and will recall curious and interesting remembrances, as a general chart recalls to us the recollection of the great nations of the earth, and affords a glimpse of topographical charts, in its latitudes and longitudes.

Such are the most remarkable achievements performed by human industry during these fifteen centuries of ignorance, prejudice, barbarism, and superstition. But of these ingenious productions, some are only the imitation, or restoration of arts lost and regained; others, of entirely new invention, may be regarded as only the first rudiments of discovery, which in time received greater development and perfection. We may say of this fourth epoch, that it is, to the following, what the first ages of Greece and Rome were to the golden age, which suc-ophy, politics, legislation, metaphysics, hisceeded them.

The Fifth Epoch, from the year 1501 to the year 1833.

If, in a discourse consecrated to the discoveries of industry, I were not apprehensive of digressing from my subject, by turning my attention to theology, morality, philos

tory, and literature, what celebrated names should I have to cite! what a multitude of immortal writings! what sublime talents are presented at this moment to my memory!

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

In spite of myself, those illustrious names escape me,Ariosto, Montaigne, Charron, Tasso, Malherbe, Grotius, Racan.

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

Corneille, Milton, the Marquis de Rochefoucault, Moliere, Fontaine, Madame de Sévigné, Santeul, Nicolle, Bossuet, Puffendorf, Dryden, Bourdaloue, Flechier, Locke, Cumberland, Madame Deshoulières, Boileau, Quinault, Malebranche, Racine, La Bruyere, Bayle, Regnard, Fenelon, Abbadie, Fontenelle, Wallenston, Massillon, J. B. Rousseau, Shaftesbury, Addison, Clarke, Collins, D'Ol

What a vast picture is presented to us, in the course of this epoch! Human industry seems to awake from the long sleep in which it was wrapt for more than ten centuries. A new dawn dissipates by degrees the night of time, and seems to announce a brilliant day. Eyes are opened, illusions dispelled, philosophy collects the vague and scattered knowledge dispersed through ancient writings, to compose of it the theory of the sciences. Truth takes the place of error and imposture; taste presides over .the cultivation of the fine arts, and raises ancient monuments from the dust in which they were buried, to display their beauties, and rekindle the celestial flame of the genius of the arts. Nature, always free and communicative, has no longer any secrets from her favorites; and those who delight The President Henault, Pope, Montesin observing her, discover every day some- quieu, Mallet, Daguesseau, Gerbier, Gresset, thing to admire, to imitate, to borrow, to Marmontel, Duclos, Dorat, Crebillon, Du prepare, to fashion, and submit to every | Bellay, St. Lambert, Lemierre, Jean-Jacques kind of experiment. Isolated processes, Rousseau, Voltaire, Laharpe, Legouvé, Colwithout any connection, discoveries neg. lin-d'Harleville,Gesner, Kotzebue, Beauvais, lected or even abandoned, are arranged and | Dumoustier. . . . . I stop; there still remain disposed, by the hand of industry, to form too many names to cite. Let us return to useful and interesting arts, and to be estab- industry.

ivet.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

....

lished in honorable and lucrative profes- We have seen that the observation of sions, from which sound reason removes | nature, meditation, necessity, and chance,

The names of Vieta, Fermat, Huygens, De La Hire, Rivart, Clairault, Bossut, Monge, Laplace, Haüy, Lacroix and Prony will always recall to posterity the remembrance of the rapid and constant progress, which geometry and mathematics made in the course of three centuries.

Military fortification and artillery also supply celebrated names. Vauban was the glory of his country; he was also, by his scientific fortifications, the defender of the frontiers of France. Belidor, Dulac, the Chevalier Darcy and the Marquis de Montalembert have investigated and developed in their writings, the great art of employing artillery in sieges, either for the attack or defence of places.

contributed to the first discoveries; that to imperfect and superficial geographical from the mass of these inventions and dis- knowledge. We find in modern works on coveries, systems were composed; that geology more profound principles, more judgment, calculation, and combination de- probable hypotheses, a greater number of duced causes and effects from elementary positive facts, geographical and topographical principles, which, classified and arranged, charts, much more complete, correct and formed arts and sciences; that these arts exact. Among the learned, who have deand sciences were diffused by the inter- voted themselves to this interesting study, course of nations, and that they were trans- are distinguished Varenius, Brunet, Samson, mitted from generation to generation, rather De Lisle, Whiston, Woodward, Marsigli, by tradition than by writing; that successive Schencher, Maillet, Guettard, Buache, Bufrevolutions, by devastating empires, re- fon, Danville, Saussure, Targioni, Bergmann, plunged the people into the darkness of ig- Paun, Gosselin, Mentelle, Wallerius, Pallas, norance, stifled the germs of industry, and Methrie, Desmarest, etc. reduced men to tear each other, like wild beasts; finally, that from the age of Augustus to that of Leo Tenth, there were, from time to time, learned men, whose works prove that the arts and sciences were not entirely buried under the ruins of the ancient monuments which they had erected. But among the precious relics which have descended to us, there was introduced a crowd of systems, errors, and prejudices. Custom served as a guide in the practice of the arts. Suddenly, the scene changed. Order emerged from chaos. To the first rays of dawn, succeeded a brilliant light. Ramus, J. B. Porta, Chancellor Bacon, Alstedius, Athanasius Kircher, and Gaspard Schott, prepared the restoration of the arts and sciences; but it was reserved for Galileo, Gassendi, Descartes, Pascal, Newton, Leibnitz, Halley, Bernouilli, Wolff, Diderot, and D'Alembert, to accelerate their pro-ed the throne. In a short time this monarch gress to make them advance with giant strides, to electrify minds, to excite emulation, to give an impulse, to inspire taste, to multiply the means of instruction, and to render imperishable the knowledge acquired by the experience and theories of all ages. Astronomy took a new flight. Copernicus fixed forever the sun in the centre of the planetary revolutions. Tycho Brahe sought, but in vain, to reconcile the system of Copernicus with that of Ptolemy, to which custom had given a kind of authority. Galileo determined the form of the orbits, which the stars describe, and invented the sector and pendulum-clocks. Kepler demonstrated the laws according to which the planets move. The calendar of Julius Cæsar was reformed, during the pontificate of Pope Gregory the Thirteenth. The names of Cassini, Maupertius, Euler, Pingre, Messier, Mechain, Lalande and Herschell are universally known by their discoveries and their works.

England, Spain and Holland had a flourishing navy, while France had scarcely any vessels, when Louis the Fourteenth ascend

constructed harbors and dockyards, armed, as if by magic, a formidable fleet, disputed with the English the empire of the seas, forced the Spanish admirals to strike their flags, and bombarded Algiers, and within fifteen years, Brest, Rochefort, Toulon, Dunkirk, Havre and Calais displayed imposing forces to the eyes of maritime powers. We cannot pronounce the word navy, without calling to mind the names of De Ruyter, John Barth,. Dugué Trouin and Tourville, nearly contemporary, Suffran, Bougainville, Cook, and the unfortunate La Peyrouse. The construction of the harbor of Cherburg does honor to our times.

Sublime sciences, lofty speculations and grand exploits form the glory of nations, but contribute less to the happiness of the people, than the sciences more particularly devoted to the peaceful and daily pleasures of society. Let us follow then the progress of human industry in the labors, which are most closely connected with our wants.

The earth deserved, not less than the heavenly bodies, the attention and study of To the dreams and gropings of alchemy, philosophy. The COSMOLOGY of the ancients succeeded a systematic science-chemis was confined to a few vague opinions, and I try, first introduced by Paracelsus, Van

Helmont, Glauber, Boyle, Kunckel, Tschirn- | Desaguliers, Deslandes, Muschenbrock, haussen, Stahl, Hoffman, Lemery, Homberg, Nollet, Franklin, Paulian, Priestley, Sigaud Geoffroy and Boerhaave; more fully devel. de la Fond, Brisson, Charles, Coulomb, oped by Bayen, Macquer, Baumé, Le Sage, Hauy, have given a solid foundation to and Burquet; and since perfected by Darcet, physics. By their researches, their works Lavoisier, Pelletier, Guyton, Fourcroy, and their discoveries, this science has acVauquelin, Bertholet, Bergmann, Klaproth | quired greater extent, order and clearness. and Chaptal.... Of all the sciences, this has The experiments of Fontana, Spallanzani, made the most rapid progress, and it con- Volta and Galvani have added corner-stones tinues to offer us each day new discoveries which announce new embellishments. useful either in the arts or medicine. Mechanism is a branch of art inseparable MEDICINE! How many names might I from natural philosophy. The latter could cite, renowned for rare merit, for profound not advance without giving some impulse knowledge of anatomy, botany and chemistry, to the former. Camus, Varignon, Pitot and for experience and skill in an art so precious Vaucanson, nearly contemporary, Berthelot, to humanity-the art of healing. Pecquet, Montigni, Ramsden and Boullée have renGuy Patin, Fagon, Duverney, Winslow, Fal- dered their names celebrated, by their writconet, Sylva, Anthony de Jussieu, Vernage, ings and by their wonderful and useful inFerrein, Cheselden, Astruc, Bouvard, Petit, ventions. Tronchin, Vicq d'Azir, Portal and Hallé, How many names should I still have to and many skilful physicians, whose names enumerate, if the limits of this discourse at this moment escape my memory, but will permitted me to mention the artists, who not escape that of posterity, have contribu- are eminent either in the fine arts, such as ted to the progress of science, by their stud - | painting, sculpture, engraving, architecture ies, labors, researches, observations and and music; or in the mechanical profesexperience. sions, such as those of the carpenter, weaAfter Aristotle, Theophrastus, Dioscorides | ver, turner, clock-maker, printer, and a muland Pliny, the study of nature was almost | titude of others, which, without being anabandoned. It began to regain favor only nounced with as much pomp, as the liberal with the revival of letters and the arts. The arts, are no less praiseworthy and deserve first lineaments of NATURAL HISTORY are found no less the homage of our gratitude, by acin the works of George Agricola, Gesner, tive and daily utility. Aldrovandi, the Bouchins, Bélon, Jonston, Lister, Plumier, Tournefort and Hales; but particularly towards the middle of the eighteenth century, there arose a multitude of naturalists, animated, vivified and inspired, by the immortal writings of Linnæus and Buffon.

After these great men, those who have most contributed to the progress of this science, are,in zoology, Erxleben, Daubenton, Montbeillard, Brisson, Mauduit, Gmelin, Lacepede, Cuvier, Artedi, Bloch, Argenville, Reaumur, the physicians Geoffroy, Fabricius and Latreille; in botany, Adanson, Duhamel, De Jussieu, De Lamarck, Ventenat, L. Heritier, Desfontaines, Cavanille, Celo, and Thouin; in mineralogy, Romé De Lisle, Hauy, and a number of learned men, who preside over the researches and the labors of the mines.

It is time to come to the new inventions and discoveries, which characterize each of the three centuries, which we have just traversed.

The sixteenth century, unfruitful in discoveries and inventions, is more distinguished by the revival of literature and the arts, and by the recovery of what was lost in the night of the preceding ages. Neverthe less we can cite among others, the origin of carriages, called originally coaches, from the name of a city in Hungary, where they were first built, and the machine of Albert Durer, for drawing in perspective, which afterwards became very useful to P. Maignan, a monk, in painting in a corridor of his convent, the kind of anamorphosis, which has long excited public curiosity. Manufactories of cloth began to be established. The invention of the telescope and the cameNatural philosophy, in the fifteenth cen- ra obscura, by J. B. Porta, also dates from tury more theoretical than experimental, this century. When we cast our eyes over was enveloped in metaphysical clouds. The the works of this learned Neapolitan, we only doctrine then known was that of Aris- have a just idea of all the knowledge acquir. totle and the peripatetic philosophers. In a ed or preserved in the course of the sixword, natural philosophy was only a science teenth century. Cornelius Drebbel inventof terms. It was necessary to entirely re-ed the thermometer and the microscope. construct the edifice. Rohault, Boyle, In the seventeenth century, Torricelli Hartsoeker, Polineare, Privat de Molières, | contrived to measure the pressure of the air,

by means of the barometer; the first gazette | suggested to the citizens, Argand, Lange appeared, which was followed by a multi- and Quinquet, that the air might contribute tude of journals; Otho Guericke invented to the volume of the light of a lamp. At the the air-pump, and Hook, pocket-watches and the spiral spring; watch-glasses were first made; Brandt discovered the composition of phosphorus; Newton succeeded in decomposing and dividing light, and in exposing to the eye the prismatic colors, and the solar spectrum; Papin, by the expansion of water reduced to steam, gave the first impulse to the steam-engine; book-binding was contrived; the ingenious machine for waveing stockings was invented, but it has since been much improved at different periods; and Lebrun founded the French school. Painting in enamel, which was a very ancient invention, supplied wonderful master-pieces in the hands of Jean Petitot and Pierre Bordier. Drebbel, a Dutchman, passes for the inventor of the art of dying scarlet.

period when the French government formed the resolution of introducing uniform weights and measures, the Academy of Science, being consulted, proposed to take for the real unit, the fourth of the meridian ; for the common unit of measure, the ten millionth part of this arc; and for the unit of weight, that of a body of distilled water weighed in a vacuum, at the temperature of zero. The citizens Delambre and Mechain have measured the length of the arc of the meridian, contained between Dunkirk and Montjoy, and it was from this beautiful monument of the present age, that the new system of weights and measures derived its origin. The invention of the telegraph and telegraphic signals, by the citizen Chappe was soon adopted by different powers of Europe. M. Dihl discovered the art of fixing colors upon porcelain, and of rendering them unchangeable by fire. But one of the most important discoveries of the age, is galvanism, which has already given rise to many curious experiments, which exercise the ingenuity of philosophers.

The eighteenth century offers us many very important discoveries, among others that of the electric fluid, which has given rise to many beautiful experiments, and has taught us that we can shield our dwellings, from the terrible effects of the thunder-bolt, by the use of lightning-rods; that of pyro phorus by Homberg, and of the pyrometer I regret that I cannot enumerate the inby Muschenbrock. The first fire-machine ventions, and discoveries, and the different or steam-engine, long known under the im- improvements, introduced, incognito as it proper name of the fire-pump, was con- were, into mechanics' shops, not by learned structed in England. The Spaniards dis- men, but by laborious and industrious articovered in America, the new metal called sans, whose names would deserve to be platina. The secret of transferring pic-cited, if society, less ungrateful, deigned to tures to a new canvass was discovered. The bestow any attention upon the efforts and first manufactory of paper hangings gave rise labors, from which it derives nearly all its to a variety of papers for furniture and enjoyments. But the number overwhelms hangings. The piano forte was invented me, and I feel that it is beyond my power, at Freyberg in Saxony by M. Sillermann. to unfold entirely the vast and beautiful The invention of lamp-reflectors has replaced picture of human industry. How many inin France, the mean and gloomy lanterns, genious ideas have concurred, to perfect which formerly lighted the principal cities. the arts of the clock-maker, goldsmith, jewM. Stapart has invented and published the eller, hosier, turner, locksmith, joiner, pyroart of engraving with the pinceau. The dis- technist, founder, printer, etc., either by the covery of the aeriform fluids by Priestley perfection of tools and instruments, or by the made a revolution in chemistry, and pre- facility of the workmanship, or by the neatpared the sublime theory of the gases. We ness, effect, excellence and beauty of the works. owe to the recent labors of chemistry the The competition of the manufacturers of decomposition of water, the knowledge of the linen and woollen cloths, velvets, carpets and different primitive earths, and the combina-tapestry, weapons, pins and needles, silks, crystion of a great number of acids and salts, tals, glass, pottery, Delft ware, porcelain, patill now unknown. The first balloon of per, etc., is an evident sign of the progress Montgolfier, dangerous on account of the and prosperity of the arts, and of the multifire, which he was obliged to use, to rarefy plicity of the inexhaustible resources of the air of the balloon and assist his ascen- man, in the exercise of his intellectual fasion, furnished the idea of substituting the culties. use of hydrogen gas, for the process of Montgolfier. The new chemical theory of the atmospheric air and its component parts

Hail! beneficent industry, whose useful lessons daily form the happiness and glory of civilized nations.

GERMAN LITERATURE.

From the Foreign Quarterly Review.

Geschichte der Poetischen National Literatur dur Deutschen. Von G. G. GERVINUS.

(History of the Poetic National Literature of the Germans. By G. G. GERVINUS.) 5 vols. Leipzic. 1840-42.

THIS is a very able and very original book, and though of too large a range to admit of due notice in the space we can at present afford to it, we are anxious to bring within view of our readers at once, a work so striking and important.

mann, are in any way, save by their superior intelligence, connected with what is called the liberal and progressive party in Germany. No German ever dreamt of calling them liberals. Both were on the contrary rather more than conservative in their polibe so by their countrymen. In their oppotical opinions: and universally known to sition to the King of Hanover, it is worth keeping in mind, they followed only the steady and conscientious dictates of upright and true-hearted men. As in the tendency of certain learned pursuits, so in the purest type of honesty and honor, Gervinus will bear to be called the disciple of Jacob Grimm, the well-known restorer of the ancient literature and grammar of Germany.

The writer is a person sufficiently remarkable to claim attention in himself. G. G. Gervinus was born at Hesse-Darmstadt; Following Jacob Grimm and his brother, one of those small places scattered over however, in the way of their pursuits, GerGermany like the seed of Cadmus, to give vinus arrived at quite different results. The forth their yearly produce of armed men Grimms, Jacob and Wilhelm, set themand government employés, with hardly a selves to work to re-create, as we have said, shoot of literature at any time among them. the grammar of the ancient German lanThe early life of Gervinus was new proof guages: they pierced to the deepest and of what a man may do with the help of real most hidden roots of that wonderful tree, genius. From the dingy and miserable shop pursued it in its different branches, and at of a German épicier, where as apprentice the issue of an enormous labor, have given he passed his youth, he mastered for himself, life to the old dialects, have sent forth inin an incredibly short space of time, the valuable editions of the earliest German way to a professor's chair at Göttingen. literature, and completed all needful prepaGöttingen was then in the flower of its lite-rations for the great Lexicon or Dictionary rary reputation and influence, and neither of these suffered by the results of this appointment.

But alas! while Gervinus continued to give the fruits of his learning and genius to the students that crowded in his lectureroom, we gave Germany one more prince, in the person of King Ernest Augustus. It is hardly pleasant that our country should be even passively responsible for the sudden, sullen, and hateful storm, which, rising | from our English shores, thus burst over unhappy Hanover. It threw down Gervinus at once from the peaceful seat he had occupied so ably and so long. Proscribed by the famous manifesto of his Hanoverian Majesty, he left Göttingen: not the least illustrious of the Seven, who, like the ancient Greek philosopher omnia sua secum portans, preferred seclusion and exile to slavish obedience and shameful perjury. He went to Italy first; and ultimately settled in a beautiful villa near Heidelberg. He lives there now: not belonging in any way to the corps of the University, but solely given up to study. The book before us is the growth of that retirement: a rich, abundant, and wholesome produce.

It must not here be omitted, that neither Gervinus, nor the leader of the Seven, Dahl

of the German tongue, on which they are now engaged in Berlin. That great task, however, was only half of what was to be done: its supplement and completion we owe to Gervinus.

The work before us is the first History of German Literature, taken as whole, and considered in its relation to the nation and the several ages. We know of no similar work comparable to it in any other country. Gervinus has been the first to adopt, in writing a history of literature, the true historiographical method. The numberless attempts of this kind in his predecessors have been merely biographical, annexing the history of literature to names and persons; or still worse compilations of bibliographical notices; of fragmentary criti cisms marked by all the pedantry and prolixity German learnedness has been so proud of; stuffed out with endless quotations, and, by the effort to make themselves intelligible, hopeless of being ever understood. Gervinus's plan is simple; he starts at the earliest sound of German song, and steadily follows up the course of letters into the time of its highest perfection. This, being a true German, he holds to be an absolute perfection, never to be equalled or surpassed, and he finds it in the times of