Genre:

Extract, Travelogue; Afterword

Publications extracted:

James S Buckingham Buckingham, James Silk (1786–1855) ODNB
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Relevant illustrations:

eng.

Subjects:

Physical Geography, Biblical Authority

    The extract records: 'Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>, in his account of the marvellous properties of the Lake Asphaltes, fails not to remark the great singularity of the bitterness of its waters'.

Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Relevant illustrations:

eng.

Subjects:

Reading, Biblical Authority, Piety, Wonder, Natural History, Design, Theology of Nature

    The female narrator and a friend (Mrs Neville) are on a summer evening walk by the sea with the narrator's two small children, Emma and Elizabeth; as they walk, they read and converse. They experience what the narrator calls a 'delightful complacency in the works of God spread out before us, and above us, and around us', and in the divine work of salvation. As the adults read, they are interrupted by the children asking such questions as '"mamma, what flower is this? mamma, what shell is that? mamma, what plant is here?"' and answer them with 'mutual interest'. (5) The adults use natural phenomena to exemplify their spiritual views. Seeing a derelict cottage in the forest on the way home, Mrs Neville relates how its former occupant had been a widow who had raised an orphan there. The widow had instructed the girl in the Christian religion, and had directed her attention to the scenes of the forest and to other natural objects, teaching her to see them as productions of divine design.

Genre:

Homily

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Politics, Endeavour, Piety

    The narrator describes having travelled with a friend by stagecoach to London the previous January. On arriving, one of the outside passengers was angry at the inequity in the amount of luggage that the different passengers possessed, and had to be led away. The narrator's friend observed that the man was 'evidently insane' and that his mind 'must have been previously exercised on the dangerous subjects of equality and fake liberty', and the narrator agreed (18). The incident leads the narrator to reflect how common it is to expect effects for which one has not supplied a cause.

Genre:

Letter; Afterword

Subjects:

Meteorology, Superstition

    The correspondent introduces a diagram of the 'Holy Cross of St. Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, Saint (1225–74) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>', comprising Latin sentences which may be read in various ways. The diagram had been 'found behind every window-shutter in a house at Frescati, to preserve it from Thunder and Lightning!'. An editorial note reminds readers that it is not the cross, 'superstitiously reverenced' in Roman Catholic countries, that is worthy of trust, but Jesus.

Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Subjects:

Museums, Menageries, Climatology

    Ellen Symonds was disappointed that it was raining, since it meant that she could not go to the British Museum British Museum
Close   View the register entry >> as her father had promised. It transpired that she did not even know what the British Museum was, and her brother laughed at her, observing: 'so Ellen you are very unhappy because you cannot go to see something, and you do not know what—perhaps you expected to be introduced to a fine collection of wild beasts, or an exhibition of wax-work'. Ellen discovered that her sisters had gone to their father's study, where they were discussing 'the curiosities they expected to see' and he was 'explaining several things to them', but she declined to join them. (27) She wished that she lived in a country where it never rained, but her mother pointed out the inconveniences and dangers of such a climate. Ellen's sisters returned, and Sophia stated that she was glad that they had not gone to the museum that day, since now she knew 'so much more' about the exhibits that she would be 'doubly interested' to see them (29).

Genre:

Extract

Publications extracted:

Colton 1820–22 Colton, Charles Caleb 1820–22. Lacon; or, Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those Who Think, 2 vols, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
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Subjects:

Light, Botany

    Observes: 'as the solar light calls forth all the latent powers, and dormant principles of vegetation contained in the kernel, but which, without such a stimulus, would neither have struck root downwards, nor borne fruit upwards, so it is with the light that is intellectual'.

Genre:

Extract

Publications extracted:

Colton 1820–22 Colton, Charles Caleb 1820–22. Lacon; or, Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those Who Think, 2 vols, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Astronomy

    Observes: 'As we cannot judge of the motion of the earth, by any thing within the earth, but by some radiant and celestial point that is beyond it; so the wicked by comparing themselves with the wicked, perceive not how far they are advanced in their inquity'.

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Political Economy, Endeavour

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Ethnography

Genre:

Extract, Miscellaneous

Publications extracted:

Heber 1828 Heber, Reginald 1828. Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay 1824–25 (With Notes upon Ceylon): An Account of a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826, and Letters Written in India, 2 vols, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Ethnography, Imperialism, Natural History

Genre:

Extract, Anecdote

Publications extracted:

Thompson 1827 Thompson, George 1827. Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa: Comprising a View of the Cape Colony, with Observations on the Progress and Prospects of British Emigrants, London: Henry Colburn
Close   View the register entry >>

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Hunting, Exploration, Natural History, Animal Behaviour

    Relates an anecdote of the 'overmastering effect of the human eye upon the lion' (56).

Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Subjects:

Chemistry, Experiment, Agriculture, Providence, Amusement, Climatology, Piety

    Charles and Edward left the room 'with their papa, who had offered to assist them in some chemical experiments they were anxious to try', but Ellen continued to be peevish (57). At dinner, her father related to the family that he had been detained by a gentleman who had travelled thirty miles in the rain but was nevertheless glad of it as being beneficial to agriculture. After dinner the family enjoyed 'a geographical game, in which each was expected to give some account of the country, the name of which was on the card selected'. When Mrs Symonds took up the card 'Africa' she spoke of 'the intense heat of the climate, and the distress experienced by travellers, owing to the great scarcity of water', convincing Ellen of her former folly and causing her to apologize to her mother. (58)

Genre:

Regular Feature, Homily

Subjects:

Endeavour, Scientific Practitioners, Putrefaction

    Observes that '[t]he arts and sciences have arrived at their present state' by means of 'gradual and diligent labour' (62). Quotes from Hugh Blair's Blair, Hugh (1718–1800) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Sermons Blair, Hugh 1777–1801. Sermons, 5 vols, Edinburgh: William Creech, and London: W. Strahan, and T. Cadell.
Close   View the register entry >> the observation that '[i]dleness, like water, first putrifies by stagnation, and then sends up noxious vapours to injure the inhabitants of the earth' (64).

Genre:

Letter, Rejoinder

Subjects:

Physics, Heat, Instruments, Natural Law, Design, Natural Economy

    Responds to an earlier (February 1827) article in the magazine concerning the thermometer, in which passing mention was made of the general, though not universal law in nature 'that heat expands bodies, and cold contracts them'. Describes, in a lengthy quotation from the third edition of Neil Arnott's Arnott, Neil (1788–1874) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Elements of Physics Arnott, Neil 1828. Elements of Physics; or, Natural Philosophy, General and Medical, Explained Independently of Technical Mathematics, and Containing New Disquisitions and Practical Suggestions, 2 vols, London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, and T. &. G. Underwood
Close   View the register entry >>, the anomalous expansion of water in freezing. The quotation identifies this as an 'important exception [...] to a general law of nature' designed to accomplish a specific purpose (66).

Genre:

Extract, Travelogue

Publications extracted:

De Roos 1827, p. 175 De Roos, John Frederick Fitzgerald 1827. Personal Narrative of Travels in the United States and Canada in 1826: With Remarks on the Present State of the American Navy, London: W. A. Ainsworth
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Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [2]

Subjects:

Physical Geography

Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Subjects:

Feeling, Botany, Taxonomy, Piety, Light

    The narrator and Mrs Neville went for a ramble with their friend Mrs Montague's children, Emma and Elizabeth. They were led to discuss 'the various theories of sympathies and sentiment' as they walked. The children, too, 'had been philosophizing', gathering a basket full of 'flowers, ferns, mosses, &c &c.', which they attempted to classify and arrange, but they were called from their studies to distribute tracts and books to passing schoolchildren. Looking at the sea, Mrs Neville explained to Emma the appearance of ships over the horizon, using her ball.

Genre:

Extract, Travelogue

Publications extracted:

De Roos 1827 De Roos, John Frederick Fitzgerald 1827. Personal Narrative of Travels in the United States and Canada in 1826: With Remarks on the Present State of the American Navy, London: W. A. Ainsworth
Close   View the register entry >>

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Physical Geography

Genre:

Extract, Travelogue

Publications extracted:

Heber 1828 Heber, Reginald 1828. Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay 1824–25 (With Notes upon Ceylon): An Account of a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826, and Letters Written in India, 2 vols, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Ethnography, Religion

Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Subjects:

Exploration, Education, Physical Geography, Lecturing, Theology of Nature, Piety

    The narrator describes taking his pupils on a winter walk in London. Observes: 'the houses were all dripping with the melted snow, and old Frost was gone back to his caves in the North, or to some of his icebergs in the Polar Sea'. The pupils were pleased to be outdoors, having been 'so long confined in the house' and having in their winter studies 'dissected all the counties in England, and all the continents on earth'. (148) Their destination, near the Strand, was a 'great Nursery' for children aged up to five or six years. In the centre of the large room was a 'large planisphere, similar to those used for demonstration by public lecturers' (151). After the master taught the infants several moral and religious lessons, they sang 'a few verses in praise of the works of God in creation', the words being held up by a monitor (154). The narrator reflects on the importance of elementary religious education, and relates it to millennial hopes.

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Infidelity

    Despite a religious upbringing, Albert Hamerton was 'a total stranger to the religion of the heart'. Forming a friendship with a young man 'whose sentiments upon religious subjects coincided with Voltaire's Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de (1694–1778) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>', he began to neglect his religious observances. (156) Later, being persuaded to attend church by his cousin, he reflected on the comfort his mother's religion afforded her, and contrasted it with his own 'philosophical doubtings', concluding that hers was the better way (158).

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Education, Deformity, Natural Theology, Ancient Authorities, Mathematics, Endeavour

    Describes Alexander Laurie Laurie, Alexander (blind student at the Edinburgh Sessional School) (fl. 1829) YM3/2/5/4
Close   View the register entry >>, who 'had the misfortune to lose his sight a few days after his birth' (162). His reasoning faculties were unusually developed, and all he wanted was 'sufficient data' for their operation, which the school provided (163). Observes: 'No information ever was communicated to him, whether in the department of nature, of elementary science, or of art, which was not carefully treasured up and preserved' (164). Gives an example of his superior knowledge of the Bible. Laurie was asked by a visitor to the school, 'who seemed strongly impressed with the opinion that in order to exalt Revelation it is necessary to maintain that there is no such thing at all as Natural Religion', whether the ancient philosophers had any knowledge of religion (164–65). Against the visitor's disapproval, he answered that they did, and gave a biblical quotation to support it. Laurie made slow progress in mental arithmetic, but by continued endeavour ultimately achieved signal success.

Genre:

Extract

Publications extracted:

Reginald Heber Heber, Reginald (1783–1826) ODNB
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Subjects:

Ethnography, Religion

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Technology, Invention, History of Science

Publications cited:

Chambers 1728 Chambers, Ephraim 1728. Cyclopædia; or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Containing the Definitions of the Terms, and Accounts of the Things Signify'd Thereby, in the Several Arts, Both Liberal and Mechanical, and the Several Sciences, Human and Divine, 2 vols, London: James and John Knapton [and 19 others]
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Genre:

Extract, Miscellaneous

Publications extracted:

Heber 1828 Heber, Reginald 1828. Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay 1824–25 (With Notes upon Ceylon): An Account of a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826, and Letters Written in India, 2 vols, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Ethnography

Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Subjects:

Piety, Reading, Biblical Authority

    The narrator is one of five teenage sisters, but has alone given her parents uneasiness about her spiritual condition. She relates: 'Our parents have taken great pains, from our earliest infancy, to lead us to associate spiritual and holy ideas with the beautiful and varied works of God' (183). Following a visit to her godmother in Bath at the age of fourteen, the narrator became vain about her appearance. In January 1828, their father received a small packet from London containing little books bound in red morocco, entitled Daily Food for Christians Anon. 1828?. Daily Food for Christians: Being a Promise, and Another Scriptural Portion, for Every Day in the Year, Together With Verse of a Hymn, London: Religious Tract Society
Close   View the register entry >>, which he gave to his daughters on the condition that they read them every time they sat at their dressing tables. The narrator neglected hers, but her sisters related the biblical verses they read to the natural scenes outside their windows.

Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Subjects:

Education, Heat, Instruments, Exploration, Piety, Climatology, Providence, Biblical Authority, Theology of Nature, Menageries, Scientific Practitioners, Heroism

    On a further winter walk, one of the pupils, Henry, observed how cold it was, and how low the thermometer must be. Edward observed: 'I dare say Captain Parry Parry, Sir William Edward (1790–1855) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> feels it to his finger ends, poor man!' (191) The narrator turned the conversation of his pupils to their minister's recent sermon about winter, including biblical references to being 'whiter than snow', to the relation of the seasons to the divine covenant, and to the divine power to make the 'elements insupportable to his creatures'. (191–92) The narrator observes to the reader: 'So much for theology of nature, my dear children. How sweet are the lessons which it teaches us!' (192). In their continuing conversation, Edward was led to discuss, among other things, 'the beetle's wings at the Microcosm Microcosm
Close   View the register entry >>' and 'the denizens of Adkins's travelling menagerie Atkins's Menagerie
Close   View the register entry >>' (194). At Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey
Close   View the register entry >> they examined the statue of Isaac Newton Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>; the narrator describes the statue, observing: 'Not only a sagacious reader of the works, but of the word of God, his was the true philosophy'. The narrator urged upon his pupils the 'comparative unimportance and worthlessness of all human wisdom [...] when unaccompanied with the wisdom that cometh down from above'. (197)

Genre:

Extract, Miscellaneous

Publications extracted:

Heber 1828 Heber, Reginald 1828. Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay 1824–25 (With Notes upon Ceylon): An Account of a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826, and Letters Written in India, 2 vols, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Ethnography

Genre:

Extract

Publications extracted:

Heber 1828 Heber, Reginald 1828. Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay 1824–25 (With Notes upon Ceylon): An Account of a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826, and Letters Written in India, 2 vols, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Ethnography, Acclimatization

Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Subjects:

Disease, Epidemiology, Medical Practitioners, Piety, Psychology

    The narrator's father became ill having been soaked in a rain shower, but the narrator insisted on travelling to Barmouth with her godmother. Her father becoming much worse, with a 'decided putrid fever', she returned to find that two of her sisters had become infected by the same contagion and that she could not be admitted to the house (221). She stayed instead at the neighbouring cottage of an old woman who was 'by profession a nurse, and was actually at that time in attendance on her father' (222). In anxiety concerning the health of her father and sisters, and having meditated on biblical passages from the 'little red book', she became conscious of her religious duty. She was then 'taken ill with a complaint in the head' and her 'life was long despaired of' before she finally recovered (227).

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Infidelity, Reading, Natural Theology

    Contrasts the 'peaceful, and even triumphant' deaths of Christians with those of self-styled 'men of reason' who 'with all their boasted philosophy, stand affrighted at the approach of death; and their last hours display either the despair of an Altamont 'Altamont' (d. before 1754) Johnson 1779–81, 10: 84
Close   View the register entry >>, the fearful forebodings of a Voltaire Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de (1694–1778) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, or the subterfuges of a Hume Hume, David (1711–76) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>' (245). Recounts the life of a Scot brought up in London, who was led by friends to deny the truth of Christianity, and who met with them to read the writings of Thomas Paine Paine, Thomas (1737–1809) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>. Observes: 'Thus elevated in his imaginary philosophy and on his own superior discernment; young and in the enjoyment of health, he was promising himself length of years'. Having become ill he was visited by 'pious young friends', but did not take their warnings seriously. (246) In death his deist opinions provided no comfort, and he finally embraced Christianity.

Genre:

Extract

Publications extracted:

Heber 1828 Heber, Reginald 1828. Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay 1824–25 (With Notes upon Ceylon): An Account of a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826, and Letters Written in India, 2 vols, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Ethnography

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Piety, Botany, Endeavour

    The female narrator relates a recent visit to an intelligent and pious family, consisting of parents and several teenage children, and urges the reader to identify from her account an important defect in their domestic intercourse. When they went for a country walk, the narrator, knowing that her 'companions were students and admirers of nature' and believing that they 'looked "through nature up to nature's God" [...] confidently looked for improvement and gratification'. However, while they walked through scenes of natural beauty 'where the botanist might have found subjects for study and useful remark' no reference was made to these subjects (272). The narrator's concluding reflections urge the importance of labouring to gain and impart improvement in daily conversation.

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Phrenology

    Enumerating several species of 'disturbers of the peace' to his friend Percy, Arundel describes the 'CONCEITED, whose little knowledge has filled them with vanity and pride, and who have so much of the organ of self esteem, as phrenologists would say, that they are for ever on the watch for holes and blemishes' (275–76).

Genre:

Dialogue

Subjects:

Zoology, Animal Behaviour, Wonder, Entomology, Reading, Biblical Authority, Human Species

People mentioned:

Benjamin Franklin Franklin, Benjamin (1706–90) DSB
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Publications cited:

Taylor 1804, Taylor, Joseph 1804. The General Character of the Dog: Illustrated by a Variety of Original and Interesting Anecdotes of That Beautiful and Useful Animal in Prose and Verse, London: Darton and Harvey
Close   View the register entry >> Phillips 1818, Phillips, Richard [Rev. C. C. Clarke, pseud.] 1818. The Hundred Wonders of the World, and of the Three Kingdoms of Nature, Described According to the Best and Latest Authorities, London: Richard Phillips
Close   View the register entry >> [Aikin and Barbauld] 1792–96, [Aikin, John] and [Barbauld, Anna Laetitia] 1792–96. Evenings at Home; or, The Juvenile Budget Opened: Consisting of a Variety of Miscellaneous Pieces for the Instruction and Amusement of Young Persons, 6 vols, London: Joseph Johnson
Close   View the register entry >> Bingley 1803 Bingley, William 1803. Animal Biography; or, Authentic Anecdotes of the Lives, Manners, and Economy, of the Animal Creation, Arranged According to the System of Linnaeus, 3 vols, London: Richard Phillips
Close   View the register entry >>

    After a lengthy discussion, the dialogue concludes with the assertion that the human is the most sagacious animal and a reference to Gen. 1. 28.

Genre:

Homily

Subjects:

Horticulture, Piety

    Relates the contrasting fortunes of two garden plants grown from root cuttings supplied by a friend and draws an analogy with spiritual growth.

Genre:

Extract, Travelogue

Publications extracted:

Heber 1828 Heber, Reginald 1828. Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay 1824–25 (With Notes upon Ceylon): An Account of a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826, and Letters Written in India, 2 vols, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Ethnography

Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Subjects:

Zoological Gardens, Museums, Menageries, Animal Behaviour, Biblical Authority, Cruelty, Piety

    Observes that the 'collection in the Zoological Garden' is 'yet in its infancy', but that it contains a few species 'of rare occurrence either in museums or menageries' (297). The narrator and his pupils observed an emu and discussed the behaviour of ostriches, relating their conversation to biblical themes and quotations. Similar conversation was prompted by viewing the leopards. The narrator disapproves of the humiliating 'raree-show' of the bear pit (299). The party viewed several species of birds, and again related their observations to biblical themes and quotations. The narrator observes: 'Thus it is not only in the beauty, symmetry, colour, sweet voices, or habits of inferior creatures, that we behold the glory of the Creator; but their very presence may to a well regulated mind excite emotions of gratitude, raise a hymn of prise, or bring into the bosom of the mourner some motive for strong consolation. They ought also to urge us on in the path of duty' (300).

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Invention, Manufactures

Genre:

Extract, Miscellaneous

Publications extracted:

Heber 1828 Heber, Reginald 1828. Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay 1824–25 (With Notes upon Ceylon): An Account of a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826, and Letters Written in India, 2 vols, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Ethnography, Race

Genre:

Extract, Travelogue, Anecdote

Publications extracted:

Griscom 1823 Griscom, John 1823. A Year in Europe Comprising a Journal of Observations in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, the North of Italy, and Holland, in 1818 and 1819, 2 vols, New York: Collins & Co. and E. Bliss & E. White; London: William Phillips
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Animal Behaviour, Wonder

Genre:

Extract, Miscellaneous

Publications extracted:

Horne 1776 Horne, George 1776. A Commentary on the Book of Psalms, in which Their Literal, or Historical Sense, as They Relate to King David, and the People of Israel, is Illustrated, 2 vols, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Animal Behaviour, Instinct, Design, Piety

Publications cited:

Wesley 1763 Wesley, John 1763. A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation; or, A Compendium of Natural Philosophy, 2 vols, Bristol: printed by William Pine
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Extract, Miscellaneous

Publications extracted:

John Owen Owen, John (1616–83) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Phamaceuticals, Religion

    Observes that 'Gospel truths are medicina animæ, the medicine of the soul', and urges the necessity of applying them. Complains that '[s]ome contract, as it were, a dropsy in hearing, the more they hear, the more they desire'.

Genre:

Extract, Miscellaneous

Publications extracted:

Heber 1828 Heber, Reginald 1828. Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay 1824–25 (With Notes upon Ceylon): An Account of a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826, and Letters Written in India, 2 vols, London: John Murray
Close   View the register entry >>

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Natural History

Genre:

Essay, Homily

Subjects:

Technology, Class

    Likens types of human intellect to types of lamp, from those of the hostler ('the little lamp in the dark corner') and the mechanic (the 'small bright lamp in the shop-window'), through those of the small tradesmen ('long rows of street lamps') and the 'active and intelligent merchant' (the 'patent lamp'), to those of the 'highly gifted statesman' ('the lamp which adorned the public room') and 'the wit, or the poet' (the 'lucid gas-light, the flame of which might seem to be fed on nothing'). Observes that as the 'flame of the Argand Argand, Aimé (François Pierre Aimé) (1750–1803) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> lamp, when raised too high, is apt to crack the glass which surrounds it', so some merchants 'wishing to shine too far, have met with a similar misfortune'. Suggests an 'analogy between the noxious vapours emitted by impure gas and the effusions of a corrupt imagination' and wishes 'that some means might be discovered of subjecting the flames of our poets and fine writers to the action of lime water that, having deposited all their grosser particles, they might burn with purity and sweetness'. (406–07)

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Natural History, Animal Behaviour, Menageries

People mentioned:

Georges L Leclerc, comte de Buffon Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707–88) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Miscellaneous; Homily

Subjects:

Natural History, Piety, Aesthetics, Design, Microscopy

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Acclimatization

Genre:

Miscellaneous, Extract

Publications extracted:

[Joliffe] 1819 [Joliffe, Thomas Robert] 1819. Letters from Palestine Descriptive of a Tour through Galilee and Judaea, With Some Account of the Dead Sea, and of the Present State of Jerusalem, London: James Black
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Discovery, Accidents

Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Mathematics, Wonder

    Asserts: 'The twenty-four letters of the alphabet are capable of being joined, or combined, as many different ways as are expressed by the figures, 5,852,616,738,497,664,000'.