We cannot allow the feast of Santa Cecilia to pass by without mentioning some Maltese artists, whose talents will be admired for a long period. FRANCESCO AZZOPARDI, besides an infinite number of compositions of great variety, published in 1760 a work entitled Il musico pratico, which has been translated in French by Mr. Framery, and printed at Paris in the year 1786, a copy of which still exists in the Government Library. The musical pieces of Azzopardi show the profound theorist; he however penned whatever came into his mind, little caring whether the strain of Tarantella was suited to a Gloria Patri, or to a Carnival song. Still there are several pieces amongst his compositions of great merit, particularly a Requiem, a Lauda Sion, several Motets for the Holy. Week, some Psalms, and La sequenza di St. Benedetto. NICOLA ISOUARD, better known under the name of NICOLò, was the famous remodeller of the French music. Though he was very clever in playing the piano and the harmonica, yet it was not in this branch that he rose to his fame. His works in French and Italian will be always admired, and the fame of Nicold will not be surpassed by any Frenchman. P. P. BUGEIA, who died, about eleven years ago, was an excellent composer, he united a deep philosophy with an all-creating genius. His responsorii for the Holy Week are beautiful, and will make you weep spite of yourself, His "O salutaris hostia!" is admirable in its expression of terror and adoration; his Vexilla, all the Motets ofthe Corpus, and several of his Masses, particularly that written in 1815, are very fine. His "Qui tollis," and his "Joas, are also grand pieces. This famous composer left behind him a son named VINCENZO, who returned to Malta after having studied music at Naples, and his various compositions are full of ingenious novelty, and combine a full knowledge of the Contrappunto, with great taste and ingenuity; and we may confidently expect that in the annals of music 'some pages will be consecrated to this artist. HARMONY. From HARMONY, from heav'nly HARMONY, Of jarring atoms Jay, And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high, Arise! ye more than dead, Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry, In order to their stations leap, And MUSIC's pow'r obey. From HARMONY, from heav'nly HARMONY, And, wond'ring, on their faces fell, That spoke so sweetly and so well. Excites us to arms, The soft complaining FLUTE What human voice can reach, . To mend the choirs above.. ORPHEUS could lead the savage race; But bright CECILIA rais'd the wonder higher Mistaking earth for heav'n. As from the pow'r of sacred lays, So when the last and dreadful hour Quarterly Subscriptions at ls. and communications received at No. 97 Str. Forni. MALTA. We give in the present number of the Penny Magazine a small map of Malta, which may serve as a reference for future remarks which we may offer on any of the localities of the Island; and to it we subjoin a short description of its geographical position and general features. Malta, in respect to its situation, is farther distant from the mainland than any other island in the Mediterranean. It lies in 35° 50′ of north latitude, and 14° 12' east longitude from Greenwich. It is 60 miles distant from the nearest point of Sicily, which bounds it on the north between Cape Passero and Camarano; 190 miles from Cape Spartivento, the nearest point of the mainland of Italy, and 200 from Calipia, the nearest point of Africa; so that by its position, it may claim to be an island appertaining to Europe. It is about 60 miles in circumference: its greatest width is twelve, and length twenty. Its longest day is 14 hours and 52 minutes. The two chief ports of the island are divided by the oblong peninsula on which the town of Valletta is built. The Grand Harbour, which is to the east, is about a mile and a half in length, and less than three quarters of a mile in width at the mouth. This again contains several convenient creeks or small bays, where even large vessels of war may ride safely at anchor. The entrance into this harbour is defended by the forts St. Elmo, Ricasoli, and the castle St. Angelo, so that a forcible landing from this quarter would be next to impossible, if the above fortresses were properly supplied with men and ammunition. The harbour to the west, called Marsamuscetto, is at present destined for vessels arriving from places not in free pratique. Here they are obliged to perform their quarantine, and hence called also the Quarantine Harbour. This latter is also defended by Fort St. Elmo on the one side, and Fort Tigné on the other. The Fort Manoel, which is built on * Marsa is an Arabic word signifying a place for anchorage, a harbour. a small island within the harbour, is also intended to act upon its entrance in case of attack. Besides the harbours above mentioned, there are several others in different parts of the island. The principal of these are Marsa Scala, Marsa Scirocco, and St. Thomas's bay on the south-east, and the Bays of St. Paul, St.Julian and Melleha on the northwest. Each of these is defended by a small fort, garrisoned by a detachment of the Malta Fencibles. Besides these forts, there are several others built round the coast, in order to prevent smuggling, and to give the alarm in case of the appearance of an enemy off the island. Most of the southern coast of the island is by nature inaccessible. The rocks, which rise up perpendicularly from the sea to the height of three hundred feet, form a natural fortification it would be impossible to destroy. From the general broken and rugged appearance of many parts of the shore, especially in this quarter, it is very probable that at some distant period the island underwent several extraordinary convulsions of nature; but the occasion of such an event is probably beyond the reach of history or tradition. The other divisions of the coast are low and rocky, and present a very barren appearance. The island of Malta may be said to contain two principal cities, three towns, and twenty-two Casals or villages, scattered over a part of the country. Many of the latter, from their size, population and building might be termed towns, and a few have been dignified with that title by several of the Grandmasters. So, for instance, Casal Zebbug is sometimes called Città Rohan, Casal Curmi Città Pinto; and Casal Zabbar, Città Hompesh. The two principal cities are Valetta and Città Notabile, called also Città Vecchia, and in Maltese Mdina, situate about the centre of the island. Borgo, Senglea and Burmulo, the three chief towns, occupy the two promontories on the opposite side of the harbour, towards the south-east of Valletta. HOME. THE affections which bind a man to the place of his birth are essential in his nature, and follow the same law as that which governs every innate feeling. They are implanted in his bosom along with life, and are modified by every circumstance which he encounters from the beginning to the end of his existence. The sentiment which, in the breast of any one man, is an instinctive fondness for the spot where he drew his early breath, becomes, by the progress of mankind and the formation of society, a more enlarged feeling, and expands into the noble passion of patriotism. The love of country, the love of the village where we were born, of the field which we first pressed with our tender footsteps, of the hillock which we first climed, are the same affection, only the latter belong to each of us separately; the first can be known but by men united into masses. It is founded upon every advantage which a nation is supposed to possess, and increased by the improvement which it is supposed to receive. WATER-CLOCKS. No, 2. (See p. 40.) The following engraving represents a water-clock of rather higher pretensions as a work of art; in this case the hours are indicated on a dial in the same manner as in many turret-clocks by a single hand. This hand is moved round at a uniform rate by the revolution of the cylindrical box; in its descent the machinery by which this is performed is hidden by the dial-plate, but could easily be contrived by any mechanic, since even a pulley attached to the arbour that carries the hand would be sufficient. The ingenuity displayed in the invention of this water-clock, is confined to the construction of the cylindrical box, which acts as the weight; it is clear that if this box acted simply as a weight, and was equally heavy all around its axis, it would very quickly reach the stand of the instrument, and the twelve hours would be told in perhaps twelve seconds. If one side of the box was made heavier than the other, as soon as that part was undermost, it must come to a stand-still, as the lighter portion would never be able to roll it over, Fig. 3 shows the internal construction of this rolling-weight, the white spaces tending to the centre represent so many divisions of tin metal; a certain quantity of water is introduced into this divided box, and it will, in the first instance, assume the situation marked in the engraving, or something like it; the natural consequence of this will be, that the cylinder will have a tendency towards the left in its descent; the altered position of the cylinder will, at the same time, have altered the relative situations of the different quantities of water, and as the divisions do not quite reach the circumference of the cylinder, the quantity contained in each division will be also changed, and the greatest weight will be on the right-hand side; by this alternate action, the descent of the weight is retarded, the water acting something after the manner of the pendulum of a clock. The second engraving represents a more complicated but extremely ingenious clepsydra. The water by which the machine is kept in motion is contained in the reservoir at н, from this it descends by the pipe A, which is bent upwards, and carried through the body of the little figure on the left hand, where it escapes through a small opening in one of the eyes; the size of this opening regulates the supply of water, which dropping into the trough in which it stands, conveys it through another pipe c, into the cylinder D; in this cylinder a circular piece of cork E, or any substance that will float in the water, is placed; to the upper part of the cork a metal rod is attached, which passing through the top of the clock-case, supports a little figure holding an arrow by way of index. As the water falls into the cylinder, it necessarily lifts up with it the cork, and raises the rod, and the little index-figure, whose arrow therefore indicates a different hour on the column on which the hours are marked; as soon as the water reaches so high in the cylinder as to have floated the cork above the level of the arch of the siphon F G, that is when the water is higher than F, the siphon comes into action and empties the cylinder, the cork descends, and with it the figure, and the clock is, as it were, wound up. Fig. 3. THIS IS LIFE. Like to the falling of a star, HENRY KING. Died, 1669. INDIAN WELLS. A CURIOUS method of sinking wells is mentioned by Bishop Heber, as being used by the natives of the country between Agra and Jypore. They build a tower of masonry, of the diameter required, and twenty or thirty feet high from the surface of the ground. This they allow to stand a year or more, till it has become quite firm and compact; then gradually undermining it, the whole tower sinks without difficulty into the sandy soil. When level with the surface, they raise its wall higher, and so go on, throwing out the sand and raising the wall, till they have reached the water. Were they to adopt our method, the soil, which is remarkably light, would fall before they could possibly raise the wall from the bottom; nor, without the wall, could they sink to any considerable depth. As the excavations near Casal Crendi are still going forward, we shall defer our description of the ruins styled by the natives Hagiar Chim until they are completed. Quarterly Subscriptions at 1s. and communications received at No. 97 Str. Forni. |