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Belches, heiress of a gentleman of the old stock of Invermay, afterwards. Sir John Stuart of Fettercairn. This lady was the object of Sir Walter Scott's early and lasting attachment. Visiting at St. Andrews thirty years later in his life, he says: I remember the name I had once carved in Runic characters beside the castle gate, and asked why it should still agitate my heart.' Lady Forbes had then been long dead. In 1833, Mr. Forbes was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy in the university of Aberdeen, which he held until 1859, when he became Principal of St. Andrews University. He died December 31, 1868. His principal works are 'Travels though the Alps and Savoy,' 1843; Norway and its Glaciers,' 1853; The Tour of Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa,' 1855; and 'Occasional Papers on the Theory of Glaciers,' 1859. He wrote also numerous papers in the scientific journals.

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DR. WHEWELL.

WILLIAM WHEWELL was a native of Lancaster, born May 24, 1794. He was of humble parentage, and his father, a joiner, intended him to follow his own trade; but he was early distinguished for ability, and after passing with honour through the grammar-school at Lancaster, he was placed at Heversham School, in order to be qualified for an exhibition at Trinity College, Cambridge, connected with that seminary. He entered Trinity College in 1812, became a Fellow in 1817, took his degree of M. A. in 1819, and the same year published his first work, a Trea'ise on Mechanics.' He was ordained priest in 1826. For four years, from 1828 to 1882, he was Professor of Mineralogy; from 1838 to 1855, he was Professor of Moral Theology or Casuistical Divinity; and from 1841 till his death, he was Master of Trinity College. These accumulated university honours sufficiently indicate the high estimation in which Dr. Whewell's talents and services were held. In the Cambridge Philosophical Society, the Royal Society, and British Association for the Advancement of Science, he was no less distinguished; while his scientific and philosophic works gave him a European fame. After contributing various articles to reviews, Dr. Whewell in 1833 published his Bridgewater Treatise on Astronomy and General Physics considered with reference to Natural Theology —an able work, learned and eloquent, which has passed through seven editions. His next and his greatest work was his History of the Inductive Sciences,' three volumes, 1837; which was followed in 1840 by The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences.' Passing over various mathematical publications, we may notice, as indicating the versatility of Dr. Whewell's talents, that in the year 1847 he published Verse Translations from the German,' English Hexameter Translations,' and 'Sermons' preached in Trinity College Chapel.

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In 1853 he issued anonymously, 'Of the Plurality of Worlds: an

Essay There was a common belief in the doctrine of the plurality of worlds, which was supported by Dr Chalmers in his Astronomical Discourses.' Whewell in his Essay (which is one of the clever est of his works), opposed the popular belief, maintaining that the earth alone among stars and planets is the abode of intellectual, moral, and religious creatures. Sir David Brewster and others opposed this theory. Dr. Whewell said the views he had committed to paper had been long in his mind, and the convictions they involved had gradually grown deeper. His friend, Sir James Stephen, thought the plurality of worlds was a doctrine which supplied consolation and comfort to a mind oppressed with the aspect of the sin and misery of the earth. But Whewell replied To me the effect would be the contrary I should have no consolation or comfort in thinking that our earth is selected as the especial abode of sin; and the consolation which revealed religion offers for this sin and misery is, not that there are other worlds in the stars sinless and happy, but that on the earth an atonement and reconciliation were effected. This doctrine gives a peculiar place to the earth in theology. It is, or has been, in a pcculiar manner the scene of God's agency and presence. This was the view on which I worked.' In opposition to Dean Mansel, who held that a true knowledge of God is impossible for man, Dr. Whewell said: 'If we cannot know anything about God, revelation is in vain. We cannot have anything revealed to us, if we have no power of seeing what is revealed. It is of no use to take away the veil, when we are blind. If, in consequence of our defect of sight, we cannot see God at all by the sun of nature, we cannot see Him by the lightning of Sinai, nor by the fire of Mount Carmel, nor by the star in the East, nor by the rising sun of the Resurrection. If we cannot know God, to what purpose is it that the Scriptures, Old and New, constantly exhort us to know Him, and represent to us the knowledge of Him as the great purpose of man's life, and the sole ground of his eternal hopes?

Numerous works connected with moral philosophy were from time to time published by Who well-as 'Elements of Morality,' 1845; • Lectures on Systematic Morality,' 1846; Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in England,' 1852; Platonic Dialogues for English Readers,' 1859-1861, &c. Various scientific memoirs, sermons, and miscellaneous pieces in prose and verse were thrown off by the indefatigable Master of Trinity, and perhaps as Sir John Herschel said, 'a more wonderful variety and amount of knowledge in almost every department of human inquiry was never accumulated by any man.' The death of Dr. Whewell was acccidental. He was thrown from his horse on the 24th of February, and died on the 6th of March 1866. An account of the writings, with selections from the correspondence of Dr. Whewell, was lately published by I. Todhunter, M.A., &c.

Wonders of the Universe.

The Book of Job comes down to ns freighted apparently with no small portion of the knowledge of that early age; speaking to us not merely of flocks and berds, of wine and oil, of writings and judgments; but telling us also of ores and metals drawn from the recesses of the mountains of gems and jewels of many names and from various countries; of constellations and their risings, and seasons, and infla ences. And above all, it comes tinged with a deep and contemplative spirit of observation of the wonders of the animate and inanimate creation. The rain and the dew, the ice and the hour-frost, the lightning and the tempest, are noted as containing mysteries past men's finding out. Our awe and admiration are demanded for the care that provides for the lion and the ostrich after their natures; for the spirit that informs with fire and vigour the war-horse and the eagle; for the power that guides the huge behemoth and leviathan.

Not only these connections and transitions, but the copiousness with which properties, as to us it seems, merely ornamental, are diffused through the creation, may well excite our wonder. Almost all have felt, as it were, a perplexity chastened by the sense of beauty, when they have thought of the myriads of fair and gorgeous objects that exist and perish without any eye to witness their glories-the flowers that are born to blush unseen in the wilderness-the gems, so wondrously fashioned, that stud the untrodden caverns-the living things with adornments of yet richer workmanship that, solitary and unknown, glitter and die. Nor is science without food for such feelings. At every step she discloses things and laws pregnant with anobtrusive splendour. She has unravelled the web of light in which all things are involved, and has found its texture even more wonderful and exquisite than she could have thought. This she has done in our own days-and these admirable properties the sunbeans had borne about with them since light was created, contented as it were, with their unseen glories. What, then, shall we say? These forms, these appearances of pervading beauty, though we know not their end and meaning, still touch all thoughtful minds with a sense of hidden delight, a still and grateful admiration. They come over our meditations like strains and snatches of a sweet and distant symphony-sweet indeed, but to us distant and broken, and overpowered by the din of more earthly perceptions-caught but at intervals-cluding our attempts to learn it as a whole, but ever and anon returning on our ears, and elevating our thoughts of the fabric of this world. We might, indeed, well believe that this harmony breathes not for us alone-that it has nearer listeners--more delighted auditors. But even in ns it raises no unworthy thoughts-even in us it impresses a conviction, indestructible by harsher voices, that far beyond all that we can know and conceive, the universe is full of symmetry and order and beauty and life.

Final Destiny of the Universe.

Let us not deceive ourselves. Indefinite duration and gradual decay are not the destiny of this universe. It will not find its termination only in the imperceptible crumbling of its materials, or clogging of its wheels. It steals not calmly and slowly to its end. No ages of long and deepening twilight shall gradually bring the last setting of the sun-no mountains sinking under the decrepitude of years, or weary rivers ceasing to rejoice in their courses, shall prepare men for the abolition of this earth. No placid euthanasia shall silently lead on the dissolution of the natural world. But the trumpet shall sound-the struggle shall come-this goodly frame of things shall be rent and crushed by the mighty arm of its Omnipotent Maker. It shall expire in the throes and agonies of some sudden and fierce convulsion; and the same hand which plucked the elements from the dark and troubled slumbers of their chaos, shall cast them into their tomb, pushing them aside, that they may no longer stand between Ilis face and the creatures whom he shall come to judge.

BABBAGE-AIRY-HIND-NICHOL.

CHARLES BABBAGE (1792-1871) is popularly celebrated for his calculating-machine. But he was author of about eighty volumes, including his valuable work on the 'Economy of Manufactures and

Machinery,' 1833-a volume that has been translated into most foreiga languages. Mr. Babbage's most original work is one entitled 'A Ninth Bridgewater Treatise,' a most ingenious attempt to bring mathematics into the range of sciences which afford proof of Divine design in the constitution of the world. Mr. Babbage was a native of Devonshire, and after attending the grammar-school at Totnes, was entered at Cambridge, and took his Bachelor's degree from Peterhouse College in 1814. It is said that Mr. Babbage spent some thousands in perfecting his calculating-machine. It was presented, together with drawings illustrative of its operation, to King's College, London. For eleven years (1828-39) Mr. Babbage held the appointment of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge.

The Astronomer-royal, SIR GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY (born at Alnwick in 1801), has done valuable service by his lectures on experimental philosophy, and his published Observations. He is author of the treatise on Gravitation in the 'Penny Cyclopædia,' and of various lectures and communications in scientific journals. From the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh he has received the honorary degrees of D.C.L. and LL.D., and in 1871 he was nominated a Companion (civil) of the Bath.

MR. JOHN RUSSELL HIND, Foreign Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Superintendent of the Nautical Almanac,' has discovered ten small planets, for which the Astronomical Society awarded him their gold medal, and a pension of £200 a year has been granted to him by royal warrant. Any new discovery or observation is chronicled by Mr. Hind in the Times' newspaper, and his brief notes are always welcome. Mr. Hind is a native of Nottingham, born in 1823. He is author of various astronomical treatises and contributions to scientfic journals.

JOHN PRINGLE NICHOL (1804–1859) did much to popularise astronomy by various works at once ingenious and eloquent-as 'Views of the Architecture of the Heavens, 1837; Contemplations on the Solar System,' 1844; Thoughts on the System of the World,' 1848; 'The Planet Neptune, an Exposition and History,' 1848; The Stellar Universe,' 1848; The Planetary System,' 1850. Mr. Nichol was a native of Brechin, Forfarshire. He was educated at King's College, Aberdeen, was sometime Rector of Montrose Academy, and in 1836 was appointed Professor of Practical Astronomy in Glasgow. The professor's son, JOHN NICHOL, B. A. Oxon., is Regius Professor of English Language and Literature in the university of Glasgow. He is author of Hannibal,' an historical drama, 1873, and other works, evincing literary and critical talent of a superior description.

ADAMS GRANT-PROCTOR-LOCKYER.

The discoverer of the planet Neptune, MR. JOHN COUCH ADAMS (born in 1816), is an instance of persevering original genius. He was intended by his father, a farmer near Bodmin, in Cornwall, to follow

the paternal occupation, but was constantly absorbed in mathematical studies. He entered St. John's College, became senior wrangler in 1843, was soon after elected to a Fellowship, and became one of the mathematical tutors of his college. In 1844 he sent to the Greenwich Observatory a paper on the subject of the discovery whence he derives his chief fame. Certain irregularities in the pianet Uranus being unaccounted for, Mr. Adams conceived that they might be occasioned by an undiscovered planet beyond it. He made experiments for this purpose; and at the same time a French astronomer, M. Le Verrier, had arrived at the same result, assigning the place of the disturbing planet to within one degree of that given by Mr. Adams. The honour was thus divided, but both were independent discoverers. In 1858 Mr. Adams was appointed Lowndean Professor of Astronomy, Cambridge.

A History of Physical Astronomy,' 1852, by ROBERT GRANT, is a work of great research and completeness, bringing the history of astronomical progress down to 1852. In conjunction with Admiral Smyth, Mr. Grant has translated Arago's 'Popular Astronomy,' and he was conjoined with the Rev. B. Powell in translating Arago's Eminent Men,' 1857. Mr. Grant is a native of Grantown, Invernessshire, born in 1814. In 1859, on the death of Professor Nichol, Mr. Grant was appointed to the chair of Practical Astronomy in the university of Glasgow.

Two of our younger men of science, happily engaged in popularising astronomy, are RICHARD A. PROCTOR and JOSEPH NORMAN LOCKYER. The former (late scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge, and King's College, London) is author of Saturn and its System,' 1865; The Expanse of Heaven' (a series of essays on the wonders of the firmament), 'Light Science for Leisure Hours,' 'Our Place among Infinities,' 1875; Science Byways,' 1876; and a great number of other occasional short astronomical treatises. Mr. Lockyer (born at Rugby in 1836) was in 1870 appointed Secretary of the Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction, and the same year he was chief of the English Government Eclipse Expedition to Sicily. In the following year he was elected Rede Lecturer to the university of Cambridge. Mr. Lockyer is author of Elementary Lessons in Astronomy, and of various interesting papers in the literary jourHe is editor of Nature,' a weekly scientific periodical."

nals.

BADEN POWELL-PRICHARD,

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The REV. BADEN POWELL (1796-1860), for some time Savilian Professor of Geometry, Oxford, was author of a History of Natural Philosophy,' 1842; a series of three Essays on the Spirit of the Inductive Philosophy, the Unity of Worlds, and the Philosophy of Creation,' 1855; a work entitled The Order of Nature,' 1859; and an essay On the Study and Evidences of Christianity,' 1860—a trea

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