West. Copley was also a native of Boston; he was a pupil of Smibert, and in 1770 became a member of the Royal Academy. His principal historical works, on which his fame reposes, are the "Death of Lord Chatham," the "Siege of Gibraltar," the "Death of Major Pearson," "Charles I. in the House of Commons," and the "Surrender of De Winter to Duncan." Sir Benjamin West was born in Springfield, Penn. For his celebrated painting of "Christ Healing the Sick," the British Institution paid him three thousand guineas. In 1791, he succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds as President of the Royal Academy. The Burmese Ruby.-A correspondent of the Calcutta Citizen, speaking of the reception of the English Embassy by the Burmese King, says: "The only thing remarkable at the interview was an inanimate object, and that was a ruby in the center of the pagoda crown of his majesty. It was as large, if not larger, than a hen's egg, and far more valuable than the great Koh-i-noor; it was beautifully cut, and almost as round as a marble. It was torn off the ear of the Karen Queen by Alompra. It was a pendant, being suspended by a wire casing through her right ear. It is of the purest water, and more than two thousand years old, if the traditions concerning it are believed. It came originally from Assam, and belonged to the great Garrow King Moung Sa, who ruled the whole of Chin India. This ruby will, I prophesy, in ten years, be worn by our queen.' The barometer used at the Smithsonian Institution is manufactured expressly under its direction, and is of the greatest accuracy attainable. It has a glass cistern, with an adjustable bottom inclosed in a brass cylinder. The barometer tube is also inclosed in a brass cylinder, which carries the vernier. The whole is suspended freely from a ring at the top, so as to adjust itself to the vertical position. The bulb of the attached thermometer is inclosed in a brass envelope communicating with the interior of the brass tube, so as to be in the same condition with the mercury, and to indicate truly its temperature. Each instrument made according to this pattern is numbered and accurately compared with a standard. The Poet Rogers's Collection of Pictures.-Mr. Rogers had only seventy-five pictures in his collection, but they were all considered chef d'œuvres. He has left three, of very small size, to the National Gallery. Two of these, although fine in execution, are mere Catholic subjects, with out much sentiment. One is a man's head crowned with thorns, having a doleful expres sion. It is by Guido. Another, called Noli me Tangere, (Touch me not,) consisting of two small figures, is by Titian, and exceedingly fine in execution. For this small picture, Rogers paid no less than one thousand guineas! The third is the portrait of Gaston de St. Foix, attributed to Raphael. He is represented as having a suit of armor buckled on, and, except as the portrait of a warrior, has little or no merit. A correspondent of a New-York paper says: "Great disappointment is felt, that the worst-natured man, with the best-natured muse, did not leave to the nation a picture of far greater interest than those. I allude to Sir Joshua Reynolds's exquisite gem of Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, sitting on a toadstool, holding up a bunch of flowers, and embodying Shakspeare's conception of the merry little rogue in the finest manner. The expression of infantile mirth in the eyes is beyond all praise, and no artist that ever lived could convey that joyous expression equal to Reynolds. It was the gem of all Boydell's very large Shakspeare gallery, and less anxiety was exhibited when Puck was put up. while the pictures of that gallery were selling, a breathWhen it was finally knocked down, a shont of applause burst forth when the name of Samuel Rogers was announced as the purchaser. The Jackson Monument Association of NewOrleans inaugurated Mills's equestrian statue of the old hero, in Jackson-square, in NewOrleans, on the 11th ult. There was an immense military and civic procession, and the spectacle was grand and imposing. A Boston mechanic has got up an apparatus for generating gas from a new material, consisting simply of zinc and hydrochloric acid, effected without the application of external heat. This yields a gas of great purity and brilliancy; as contrasted with coal gas, the same quantity yields twice the illuminating power. The whole apparatus is contained in a cylinder three feet in height and sixteen inches in diameter; and a machine capable of generating sufficient gas for eight lights, will require looking to and feeding only once a month, or less. Brown's equestrian statue of Washington, the model of which was finished some months since, is nearly completed. It is contemplated, we understand, to inaugurate it at its place in Union Park some time during this month-perhaps the 30th, the day on which Washington took the oath as President of the United States in this city. The veteran Humboldt has written to the Astronomical Society of Paris, "On Certain Appearances connected with the Zodiacal Light”— drawing attention to new facts connected with that interesting phenomenon; from which it appears that this remarkable light is not confined to the west, as was supposed, but has been seen by himself and others in the east at the same time. The latest observer, Rev. G. Jones, chaplain of the United States frigate Mississippi, during her recent cruise in the China and Japan Seas, reports that he saw the "extraordinary spectacle of the zodiacal light, simultaneously at both east and west horizons, for several nights in succession." The conclusion drawn from the sum of his observations will be a startling one to many: it is, that the earth is surrounded by a nebulous ring lying within the orbit of the moon. So if, as is stated, the ring be complete and continuous, we have for ages been playing the part of a smaller Saturn among our brother and sister planets. An instrument for cutting wire has been invented by Mr. William Groves, of Holyoke, Mass. The nippers are made round-in other words, they are complete disks of steel, with holes of different sizes through their surfaces, for the reception of the wire to be cut. In its operation, the handles are opened until a certain sized aperture in one of the disks comes in line with its equivalent opening in the other disk; the wire is then passed through, and clipped by compressing the handles. The ordinary nippers are apt to bend the wire in cutting; they also leave a rough burr on the ends of the pieces. But with this new improvement, wire may be very rapidly and smoothly cut, without any bending. JOHN OHN KEPLER was born at Weil in the duchy of Wirtemberg, 21st December, 1571. His parents, Henry Kepler and Catherine Guldenmann, were of noble descent, although their circumstances were far from affluent. The father, at the time of his marriage, was a petty officer in the service of the Duke of Wirtem berg, and joined the army in the Netherlands a few years after the birth of his eldest son, John. Upon his return to Germany he learned that an acquaintance for whom he had incautiously become VOL. VIII.-27 security had absconded, and had left him the unexpected charge of liquidating the bond. This circumstance obliged him to dispose of his house and nearly the whole of his possessions, and to become a tavernkeeper at Elmendingen. Young Kepler had been sent, in the year 1577, to a school at Elmendingen, and he continued there until the occurrence of the event to which we have just alluded, and which was the cause of a temporary interruption in his education, as it appears that he was taken home and employed in menial services until his twelfth year, when he returned to school. In 1586 he was admitted into the monastic school of Maulbronn, where the cost of his education was defrayed by the Duke of Wirtemberg. The regulations of this school required that, after remaining a year in the superior classes, the students should offer themselves for examination at the college of Tübingen for the degree of Bachelor. On obtaining this degree they returned with the title of veterans; and having completed the prescribed course of study, they were admitted as resident students at Tübingen, whence they proceeded in about a year to the degree of Master. During his under-graduateship Kepler's studies were much interrupted by periodical returns of the disorders which had so nearly proved fatal to him during childhood, as also by the dissensions between his parents, in consequence of which his father left his home, and soon after died abroad. Notwithstanding the many disadvantages he must have labored under from the above circumstances, and from the confused state in which they had left his domestic affairs, Kepler took the degree of Master in August, 1591, attaining the second place in the annual examination. troubled state of the province of Styria, arising out of the two great religious parties into which the empire was then divided, induced him to withdraw from Grätz into Hungary, whence he transmitted to a friend at Tübingen several short treatises-" On the Magnet,” “On the Cause of the Obliquity of the Ecliptic," and "On the Divine Wisdom as shown in the Creation." In 1600 Kepler, having learned that Tycho Brahe was at Benach in Bohemia, and that his observations had led him to a more accurate determination of the eccentricities of the planets' orbits, determined on paying him a visit, and was welcomed in the kindest manner by Tycho, by whom he was introduced the following year to the emperor, and honored with the title of imperial mathematician, on condition of assisting Tycho in his calculations. The object of these calculations was the formation of new astronomical tables generally, which were to be called the Rudolphine Tables, in honor of Rudolph, the then Emperor of Bohemia, who had promised, not merely to defray the expense of their construction, but likewise to provide Kepler with a liberal salary; neither of which his circumstances ever permitted him to fulfill. The pecuniary difficulties, however, in which he found himself almost incessantly involved in consequence of the non-payment of his salary, greatly retarded the progress of his labors, and obliged him to seek a livelihood by casting nativities. While thus engaged at Tübingen, the astronomical lectureship of Grätz, the chief town in Styria, became vacant by the death of George Stadt, and the situation was offered to Kepler, who was forced to accept it by the authority of his tutors, although we have his own assurance that at that period he had given nomy," particular attention to astronomy. In 1596 he published his "Mysterium Cosmographicum," wherein he details the many ingenious hypotheses which he had successively formed, examined, and rejected, concerning the number, distance, and periodic times of the planets; and finally proposes a theory which he imagines will account in a satisfactory manner for the order of the heavenly bodies, which theory rests upon the fancied analogy between the relative dimensions of the orbits of those bodies, and the diameters of circles inscribed and circumscribed about the five regular solids. In 1597 Kepler married Barbara Muller von Muhleckh, a lady who, although two years younger than himself, was already a widow for the second time. This alliance soon involved him in difficulties, which, together with the In 1609 appeared his "New Astrono containing his great and extraordinary book "On the Motion of Mars," a work which holds the intermediate place, and is the connecting link between the discoveries of Copernicus and those of Newton. The introduction is occupied in refuting the then commonly-received theory of gravity, and in declaring what were his own opinions upon the same subject. In the course of this discussion he states distinctly, that since the attractive virtue of the moon extends as far as the earth, as is evident from its enticing up the waters of the earth, with greater reason it follows that the attractive virtue of the earth extends as far as the moon, and much further; and he likewise asserts that if two bodies of like nature be placed in any part of the world near each other, but beyond the influence of any other body, they would approach each other like two magnets, each passing over a space reciprocally in proportion to its mass; so that if the moon and earth were not retained in their orbits by their animal force, or some other equivalent to it, the earth would approach the moon by the fifty-fourth part of their distance, and the moon would approach the earth by the remaining fifty-three parts. Previous to the publication of this remarkable work, it was supposed that each planet moved uniformly in a small circle, called an epicycle, the center of which epicycle moved with an equal angular velocity in the opposite direction round the center of the earth, thus describing a larger circle, which was called the deferent. Subsequent observations being found irreconcilable with the foregoing hypothesis, it was modified by supposing the uniform angular motion of the epicycle to be described about a point not coinciding with the center of the earth, a necessary consequence of which supposition was, that the linear motion of the epicycle ceased to be uniform. The work of Copernicus, "De Revolutionibus Orbium Cælestium," had appeared in 1543, wherein he considers the sun to be the fixed center about which the planets move with uniform motions, but retains the complicated machinery of the deferent and epicycle in order to account for the variations arising from the actual inequality of the planet's motion. The system of Tycho Brahe himself was identical with one which Copernicus had rejected, and consisted in supposing the sun to revolve about the earth, carrying with it all the other planets revolving about him; and, indeed, Tycho not only denied the revolution of the earth about the sun, but likewise its diurnal rotation upon its axis. Such is an imperfect outline of the theory of the universe before the time of Kepler. The elliptic form of the orbits and the equable description of areas constitute two of the three celebrated truths known by the name of Kepler's laws. The third, viz., that the squares of the periodic times are proportional to the cubes of the mean distances from the sun, was not discovered till twelve years after, although, before the publication of his Mysterium Cosmographicum," he had been speculating upon finding some relation between those distances and periodic times. The final discovery resulted far 66 less from philosophical deduction than from the innumerable combinations which his ever-active fancy had been calling into existence during the previous seventeen years; and when he at length detected the relation which he had so long been in search of, he was only able to offer an explanation of it upon four suppositions, three of which are now known to be false. In 1620 Kepler was visited by Sir Henry Wotton, the English embassador at Venice, who, finding him, as he was always to be found, oppressed with pecuniary difficulties, urged him to go over to England, where he assured him of a welcome and honorable reception; but Kepler could never determine on quitting the continent. In 1624 he went to Vienna, where with difficulty he obtained six thousand florins toward completing the "Rudolphine Tables," together with recommendatory letters to the states of Suabia, from which he also collected some money due to the emperor. It was not, however, till 1627 that these tables-the first that were calculated on the supposition that the planets move in elliptic orbits-made their appearance; and it will be sufficient to say of them, in this place, that had Kepler done nothing in the course of his whole life but construct these, he would have well earned the title of a most useful and indefatigable calculator. In 1630 he made a final attempt to obtain a liquidation of his claims upon the imperial treasury, but the fatigue and vexation of his fruitless journey brought on a fever, which terminated his life in the early part of November, 1630, and in his fifty-ninth year. His body was interred in St. Peter's churchyard at Ratisbon, and a simple inscription, which has since disappeared, was placed on his tombstone. Upon the character of Kepler, Delambre has pronounced the following judgment: "Ardent, restless, burning to distinguish himself by his discoveries, he attempted everything; and having once obtained a glimpse, no labor was too hard for him in following or verifying it. All his attempts had not the same success, and, in fact, that was impossible. Those which have failed seem to us only fanciful; those which have been more fortunate appear sublime. When in search of that which really existed, he has sometimes found it; when he devoted himself to the pursuit of a chimera, he could not but fail; but even there he unfolded the same qualities, and that obstinate perseverance that must triumph over all difficulties but those which are insurmountable." ONE of the pleasantest excursions which the environs of the Swedish capital afford is that to the royal palace and park of Drotningholm, which I am disposed to designate as the Versailles of Sweden. A pretty little steamer leaves the pier upon the north side of the city several times each day for this excursion. The sail in itself occupies an hour, passing over the waters of Lake Malar with its beautifully wooded shores. One or two points of view bring the scenery of the Hudson somewhat to mind, but not in its more bold portions. Wooded and rocky islands seemingly dropped down here and there add greatly to the charms of the scenery. Unlike what might be expected, but few of the eligible sites for villas are occupied, and these are without any pretensions to architectural beauty. The palace of Drotningholm is hidden by the boldly projecting shores until the steamer has arrived quite near to it, when, upon a sudden turn into a singularly beautiful and sheltered bay, the royal domain bursts upon the sight. The grand and stately appearance of the edifice presents a striking contrast with the wild and thickly wooded shores which stretch Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by Carlton & Phillips, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. man. away in either direction from it. The view from the water front of the palace is strikingly wild, and destitute of any signs of cultivation. Forests of the dark northern fir, with bold and rocky shores, meet the eye without any object coming within range of vision which would lead the mind to conclude that these dark solitudes had been trodden by the foot of Two small islands composed of solid masses of rock, and entirely destitute of verdure, may be added to make up the general features of the view in this direction. In fact, presenting in the tout ensemble one of those scenes which in all its characteristics is so peculiarly northern. The clear waters of the lake were lying quite unruffled before me, reflecting such a minute detail of every object upon the shores as is often so peculiarly marked in the clearness of a northern atmosphere, presenting the most striking contrast with the golden mist and dreamy dimness so peculiar to the shores of the Mediterranean. The illusion of the remote seclusion of the spot was only broken by the sight of a single craft in the distance, her motion scarcely perceptible before the light breeze, with her white sails hanging lazily and bright in the sunshine. But turn the eye in the opposite direction, and the scene is changed, "and such |