The self-tormenting anchorite, Where nature reign'd in solemn state, Ev'n at a more enlighten'd hour, Who slipt his foot on holy ground, What, did not peace delighted dwell, No-'twas a cage of iron rule, No friend sincere, no smiling wife, Majestic tree that proudly waves, Creeps thro' our frame and charms our Or Milton-high topt mountain pine, will; "Till fill'd with forms, phantastic, wild, We feign, and then become the child. We see the hooded fathers take, That travels thro' this vale of tears stood The hand-'till she had hatch'd her brood. Hark, what a peal-sonorous, clear, Aspiring to the light divine; From the bleak Scandinavian shore, Flash'd thro' the trees, with horrid glare, This periodic ravage fell Dissention rooted in the land: Then destiny was heard to wail Was this the scheme of mercy plan'd Thus flow'd in flames, and blood, and And train the Irishry to men; tears, A lava of two hundred years; And tho', some seeds of science seen, But now no more the rugged North, Is that a friend, who sword in hand, Yes-thou shalt reign, and live to know To fertilize the human clay, Subdued, the nation then was gor'd Still there was hope th' avenging hand, And Education, here, might stand, By love of country and of kind, As from yon dull and stagnant lake, O vanish'd hope !-O transient boast! O COUNTRY gain'd but to be lost! Gain'd by a nation, rais'd, inspir'd; By eloquence and virtue fir'd; By trans-Atlantic glory stung; By GRATTAN'S energetic tongue; By Parliament that felt its trust; By Britain terrify'd, and just. Lost...by thy chosen children sold, And conquer'd not by steel, but gold. Sold in a bargain base, absurd, Dupe to a courtier's pledge-his wordHis purpose serv'd, then, nothing loth, The word is broken by the oath- A The courtier skulks behind the throne, To science lost-and letter'd truth, Where shall her sad remains he laid? HERE be the Mausoleùm plac'd— In this vast vault, this awful waste. Yon mould'ring pillar, 'midst the gloom, Finger of Time! shall point her tomb, While silence of the evening hour, GLENDALLOCH's hallow'd Hangs o'er tow'r. FOREIGN LITERATURE. (This article is furnished by a Gentleman in London.) RECENT importation of journals from France, enables us to present our readers with a brief account of what has occurred most worthy notice in the arts, sciences, and literature, on the continent up to October last. As an object of primary attention, we shall begin with Mr. Delambre's analysis of the labours of the mathematical and physical class of the French institute, during the year 1809. The account of the proceedings of the class in 1808, shewed with what success the attention of some able geometricians had been turned to one of the most important problems, the stability of the planetary system: Mr. Lagrange has now pursued his investigation still farther, extending it to a sys tem of bodies acting on each other in any manner whatever. He has likewise simplified his formulæ considerably. Mr. Poisson, as a continuation of his work on the variations of the elements of the planets, read a pa per on the rotation of the earth: the results of his investigation are, that the rotation will always coincide very nearly with the shortest principal axes, and that the poles will always answer to the same Different hypoints of the surface. potheses have been framed, in which oscillations of this axis are introduced: but Mr. P. observes, these are not confirmed by astronomical ob servations. If the oscillation were very small, however, it would pro 2 bably be unnoticed. Suppose it were of "only; and the pole, instead of going through the whole of its circle in one year, went through no more than 350; then in nine years it would be 0, and in 18 years it would be 1" in the opposite direction, so as to make a difference of two seconds in the latitude in that time. This would account nearly for Bradley's finding the latitude of Greenwich at one time 51° 28′ 41.5′′, and at another only 51 25' 38". Thus too the latitude of the observatory at Paris was found at one time to be 48° 50′ 10′′, and at other times 48° 50′ 14′′, by Lacaille, Cagnoli, Meckain, and Delambre. These differences might be ascribed to an oscillation of at least 2", and a period about 15 years: but perhaps they may be accounted for more justly by errors in observations, end inaccuracies in the instruments 'not sufficiently known. It is a point however, that merits verification with an instrument, in which no error of collimation is to be apprehended and it would be sufficient to observe with this the meridian altitudes of the polestar above and below the pole, for a few years in December and January; for we know from the analysis of Mr. P. that the period is not an entire year, so that the latitude must experience a gradual variation, if observed constantly at the same period. The following is the conclusion of Mr. P.'s paper: "The perturbations of the rotary motion of solid bodies of any given figure, owing to any given attractive forces, depend on the same equations as the perturbations of the motion of a point attracted toward a fixed centre ; thus the precession of the equinoxes, and the nutation of the earth's axis, will be expressed by the same formulæ, as give the variations of the elitical elements of the planets." Messrs. Laplace and Bouvard each read a paper on the rotary motion of the moon, by means of which it constantly presents the same face to the earth, with little variation. Instead of the approximation of Mayer, Mr. Bouvard gives a method of calculation, which is equally precise and direct; and in its results agrees exactly with those of Mayer: a fresh proof of the ability of that great astronomer, whose instruments were but indifferent, while Mr, B. had an excellent equatorial by Bellet. Mr. Burckhardt read a paper on perturbations of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth orders. He first gives a theorem, for reducing to the theory of the perturbing planet the differentials calculated by the planet perturbed, because these changes are continually occurring in calculations of this sort. He has found that the coefficients of certain terms of the third order, have the third differences equal to the cube of 3; those of the fourth order, the fourth differences equal to the fourth power of 4; those of the fifth, to the fifth power of 5; and that generally we arrive at constant differences. To this paper was added another on the calculations necessary for determining the coefficients of the different inequalities of the moon. As a trial of his method, Mr. B. proposed to determine, from the observations of Dr. Maskelyne, an inequality, which should have for its argument the mean anomaly of the moon increased by the argument that regulates the inequality, the period of which is 180 years. Nine hundred observations gave him 4.7′′ for the coefficient. This paper was added to the former, and closes the memoirs of the institute for 1808. In another paper the same astronomer calculated the perturbations of Halley's comet, which reappeared in 1759, and is expected about 1835. He has found, that the attraction of the earth. will have made an alteration of sixteen days in the period of its revolution. Mr. Burckhardt, who has formed the plan of a grand geodetic operation for connecting observations, differing greatly in longitude, was sensible how important an exact de termination of the azimuths would be to its success; and accordingly has examined the advantages and disadvantages peculiar to each of the known methods. Mr. B. also examined the dip with two different needles, the first of which gave 68 47.1', the other 65 47.4', on the 10th and 20th of August 1809. Mr. Gay-Lussac made similar observations about the same time with another compass, and, as his differed some minutes from Mr. B.'s, these two gentlemen have agreed to repeat their observations. Mr Biot read a note on the observations of the pendulum made at the two extremities of the meridian line, that is, at Formentera and Dunkirk, and the ellipticity of the earth thence resulting. These observations agree astonishingly with those made at Bourdeaux, Figeaé, and Paris; and their result ditlers very little from that, which Mr. Delambre deduced from a comparison of his are with that of Peru, or 368. Mr. Ramond has examined with great care the application of his coefficient for barometrical measurements to small heights, which were ascertained trigonometrically by M. de Cournon, and finds his correction of that of Laplace equally va lid as in higher stations On the other hand, Mr. Prony, whose barometrical calculation of the height of Mount Cenis differed from that of Mr. Ramond, has found it confirmed by the very careful and repeated measurements of Mr. Daune, during the construction of the road over it. Mr. P. is employed in con cert with Mr. Mathieu, of the imperial observatory, in endeavouring to render the barometer so far applicable to the measurement of small heights, that it may be employed in the preliminary operations of planning roads and canals, A small observatory has been built for him over the pediment of the house of the legislature. In the physical class, Messrs. Gay-Lussac and Thenard have pursued the discovery of Mr. Davy, but they are still of opinion, that the supposed new metals are compounds of the alkalis with hydroven. Mr. Gay-Lussac too professes to have made experiments, by which he proves, that gasses, in those proportions in which they are capable of combining with each other, always produce compounds, the elements of which are in very simple ratios. Thus one part of oxygen gas saturates exactly two of hydrogen; fluoric or muriatic gas saturates an equal bulk of ammoniacal gas, and forms a neutral salt; and so of many others. All this be appears to give as his own discovery, without saying a word of the hypothesis of Mr. Dalton, of Manchester. Mr. Guyton de Morveau, in a series of experiments on the diamond and substances that contain carbon, sought to ascertain the action of the diamond on water at a very high temperature. He found, that the water was decomposed, and carbonic acid produced. Mr. Sage communicated his inquiries concerning the revival of silver from its nitrat by mercury; on an acetat of ammonia obtained from wood by distillation; an analysis of the calcareous stone, called typogra phic; on the magnesia contained in shells, madrepores, limestone, and arra |