sketch it had nearly all changed. There may in such cases be violent chemical action, a terrific clashing together of atoms, and the precipitation of solid oxides of metals, like the fumes produced by the burning of magnesium wire.

In considering the persistence of spots or markings, it seems that the dark ones are more lasting than the light. A dark spot noticed by Cassini in 1665 was visi ble up to 1713, though obscured at intervals at one time for eight years.

Some interesting white spots were noticed in 1878 by Niesten, of the Brussels Observatory, to change from a circular to an elongated form as they appeared in the centre or nearer the sides of the disk. This would indicate something like a columnar form, looking round when seen vertically, and elongated when seen aslant.

Lately, as already mentioned, a very fine dark spot has been seen upon the south equatorial belt. It was found by Niesten to be 13′′ long and 3" wide, the polar diameter of the planet being 48". When Captain Noble saw this spot, on August 22d, 1879, he made a memorandum that "the remarkable spot sketched on November 19th, 1858 (nearly twentyone years ago), reappears-or one very similar indeed to it does-to-night."

M. Niesten kindly sent to the writer who published a translation of it in the Astronomical Register for Novembera list of observations of red spots more or less identical in aspect with this one, and probably of the same formation. It is not to be expected that in the revolutionary state of things existing in Jupiter there would be the same persistence of form that belongs to our islands and continents; and it is quite possible that there may be huge islands of vesicular formation, far bigger than all Australia, floating in viscous seas; so that if the figure of a spot remains the same, or spots seen at different times bear a strong resemblance to each other, they might be identical, even though there had been some change of place. Mathematicians tell us that the flattening at the poles noticeable in Jupiter and Saturn, and caused by their rapid rotation, would be greater than measurement shows, if such light bodies were homogeneous. There must, therefore, be some portions much denser than others, and these planets most prob

ably contain matter in all intermediate stages, from the attenuated gaseous, through the viscid, to the solid. It must often happen, as Chacornac considered traceable in the sun, that condensation produces a great down-rush, and substances that have been solidified falling into hotter regions get melted up or vaporized again."

The great red spot lies like a continent some 24,000 miles long, surrounded by a rather narrow sea of light, and over it Niesten noticed two brilliant little spots which he appropriately named " pearls." There is a general concurrence of opinion that the big spot grew ruddier than when it first appeared, or rather richer in color; its" redness" has been chiefly caused by the want of achromatism in the telescopes employed. Glass mirrors silvered -which represent colors most correctly

show the tints to be orange-brown. The bright parts, as seen by the writer with a With-Browning silvered mirror and a fine prism, closely resembled the color of autumn beech-leaves in full sunlight. Some Merz telescopes add, from their defects, a purple tint; and an instrument of another maker gives the spot the color known as Venetian red. Dr. Pigott, who has a With-Browning silvered mirror instrument, and a fine refractor by Wray, finds the latter so unusually well corrected that its performance coincides closely with that of the former. Colorchanges, both as regards time and intensity, may be caused by the greater or less translucency and refracting powers of the atmosphere through which any object is seen; but they may also very frequently arise from the greater or less heat and luminosity of solid or viscid matter below the cloudy strata, and from important modifications of chemical action. Between September 3d, at from 10.45 to 10.55 P.M., and October 4th, 10.40 P.M., Captain Noble's drawings, made at Maresfield, show a great change in the aspect of the planet, affecting the brightness and the tint of enormous spaces. Parts above the great spot which were brilliant on the former occasion had become cloudy, and south-east of the spot there came a round white spot, with very dark surroundings. These changes must have affected many millions of square miles.

On October 16th, at 10.5 P.M., he no

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ticed the color of the red spot more marked than ever." There were also extensive changes in the belts, and the polar regions were more cloudy. He made the following entry in his notebook: "It is a most noticeable feature; the red spot reposes like an island in the middle of a light space on the planet's disk, and the belts, north and south of it, seem in a great measure to conform to its curved outline. This would indicate a disturbance of a stupendous character, from the amount of the area involved.

On the whole, during the season for observation of 1879-80 Jupiter has been more than usually interesting. From pole to pole changes of great magnitude have been produced with prodigality of violence rather than with economy of time. Perhaps the mighty planet is still in the stage of youth, with blazing and explosive energies that a few hundred thousands of years may be required to tame down to the soberness of our comparatively quiescent earth.-Belgravia Magazine.

DEPEND upon it, my dear sir, there is a system of compensation; I, for example, occupy a position in the country beyond my talents, while you possess talents that are considerably above what is necessary-ahem-to a person of your condition of life."

His

This amazing speech was addressed to me confidentially in the smoking-room of our common club one night, by Mr. Dornoway-Dicke, after we had dined together for the first time. It was late in August; the club was empty, and I had invited him to join tables, though I knew him to be an ass, rather than dine alone. The bad man may take a solitary meal without moral damage, and even to the public advantage, since the custom is unwholesome, and tends to shorten life; but to the good man it is harmful. thoughts, constant as the needle to the pole to what is pure and good, are naturally attracted to himself, and his benevolent actions, his excellent motives, his whole blameless career, pass in review before his eyes, and he becomes selfconscious and self-complacent. Rather than run the risk of this, having ordered my own modest repast, I looked up at Dornoway-Dicke, who, with his glass painfully fixed in his eye, was scanning the same limited "carte" for the day, in doubt (as I guessed) about the French dishes, and observed," Shall we dine together?" and he had replied courteously, Charmed, I am sure.

As a matter of fact Mr. DornowayDicke was a man not easy to charm; it was not in Genius (though up to that

date I don't think it had ever tried it) to do so; and I believe even Beauty herself would have failed in the attempt, unless she had had a title to back her.

Mr. Dicke's weakness was for a lord; a very common one, of course, but in his case unusually pronounced. His conversation was studded with titles as the firmament is with stars; and he was in respect to them what Mr. Carlyle, in relation to spiritual things, calls "terribly at ease in Zion ;" that is, he was shockingly familiar with earls and viscounts, while as to baronets, he would refer to them by their Christian names. To say that his views upon all matters were commonplace would have been flattering to his intelligence; they were conventional to sublimity.

"Ghost stories are absurd," argues Coleridge," because, though men tell us they have had such an experience, if a man did really ever see what he actually believed to be a ghost, idiotcy would at once supervene ;" but I firmly believe that Dornoway-Dicke would have seen a ghost without the least injury to his intellectual powers; not because he was already an idiot, but (independently of that) because so unconventional a subject as the supernatural had never entered his mind. If the ghost had a title, then, indeed, an impression might have been made, but it would have been produced by his temporal not his spiritual lordship. In all matters which exercise the human mind, from theology to American bowls, he took not the faintest interest; but I had been informed-and warned-that

upon the subject of the dignity and position of the Dornoway-Dicke family he could, and would, be very diffuse if you were not careful. He was a man, in short, to nod to, but not to speak with, unless the means of escape were handy. Still, late in August, at a London club, one cannot afford to be particular, and having such strong moral reasons for not dining alone, I had to dine with DornowayDicke.

There was one circumstance, however, which really did attract me toward this gentleman, and made me wish for a closer acquaintance. It was a much-debated question in the club whether he wore a wig or not, and I wanted to solve it. If he did do so (for even after dining with him I was not sure), they were the best wigs that ever were. I say wigs, because he must have had lots of them, for his hair was sometimes short and sometimes long, and sometimes just as it ought to be in the case of a fashionable young gentleman of fifty-four. For there was this disadvantage about the distinguished position of the Dornoway-Dicke family, that, being in the peerage-though it must be confessed in a very remote and presumptive" fashion-the man's age was known to a nicety. There was then this point (as to his wig) to be cleared up, which promised me some little excitement, and I was also curious to know whether he talked of "the Land" as though it were alive, which I was assured he did. My information upon this point, as it turned out, was correct. The one supreme effort of originality which Mr. Dornoway-Dicke had made was to personify the landed interest in this peculiar fashion.

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"What the Land wants, sir," he would observe very slowly and majestically (so that you had plenty of time to suggest to yourself "top-dressing, coprolites, and what not), "what the Land wants, sir," he always repeated this charming phrase," is fair play."

"The Land" wanted so many things in the course of our conversation at dinner, that I had begun to think it somewhat exacting, and indeed to get a little impatient of Mr. Dornoway-Dicke himself. But I am never, or at least hardly ever, discourteous, and though bored to extremity, like a wooden ship exposed to the action of the teredo navalis, I endured

it as though I had been made of iron. I had asked the man to dinner, and in one sense had certainly paid for it, so felt constrained by the duties of hospitality to be civil till the meal was over. When it was finished and we repaired to the smokingroom I had no such scruple. "The Vine," says the classic author, "is the Evoker of Truth," and this is even still more the case with the Cigar. Imagine then my indignation at that amazing remark of my companion," I, for example, occupy a position in the country beyond my talents; while you possess talents that are considerably above what is necessary-ahem-to a person of your condition in life."

Pray," said I, "Mr. DornowayDicke, confine your observations to yourself, as you generally do. As to your talents, I have no reason to doubt your own modest estimation of them, but as to your position in the country I was not aware that you had any."

I hope this was not rude. I spoke in the gentlest tones of which the human voice-or at all events my voice-is capable, and in a manner that was certainly winning, for I felt that I had scored. To my astonishment Mr. Dornoway-Dicke remained quite unruffled; he carefully removed the ash from the end of his cigar with his signet-ring, and answered quietly, almost humbly, "You quite mistake me. I said my position in the country, of which, as you tell me, you know nothing. You are not then familiar with Mangelwurzelshire ?"

I was certainly not. I had heard of it of course, but I felt myself fortunate in not having to spell it.

Ah, I thought so," he continued blandly. 'You should come down to Dornoway Court and see me at home. Then you would understand why I don't oftener visit London. In town I am, comparatively speaking, nobody, but in Mangelwurzelshire-what do you say now to running down to us for the first week in September?"

Five minutes before I should have said "No" without the slightest hesitation; but the outrageous vanity of the man's manner tickled me to the core. I felt curious to see those natives of Mangelwurzelshire to whom Mr. DornowayDicke appeared to be a person of importance, and, moreover, I had not yet

discovered whether he wore a wig or not. "The worst part of a wig,' say the old riddle, "as of love, is the parting;" but Mr. Dornoway-Dicke's parting was perfect, and so delicate that one would have almost said it had been effected by a female hand. Among the simpler inhabitants of Arcadia he might take less extreme precautions to deceive the public; and he certainly would not get his hair cut, if cut it ever was, so often. "I will come to Dornoway Court with pleasure," I said; and on the appointed day I went. Important as my host's position in the country may be, it is not my intention to describe" Mr. Dornoway-Dicke at home," as though he were a public character. Suffice it to say that he was better at home than abroad (or at least in London); and as his family were pleasant people and his house full of cheerful company, I did not regret my visit. The "Court,' as he loved to call it, was, however, so peculiar that I must say a few words about it. It was the only edifice with which I am acquainted which gratified one's sense of humor. It was quite spick-and-span as respects newness, but built and furnished in the medieval style. A gravel drive, rolled to perfection, led up to a frowning entrance, with a huge oaken portal in which was inserted a little hole barred with iron for purposes of espial. Through this the porter was supposed (though he never did it) to take cognizance of the approaching visitor, and if peaceful to unbar the massive bolts of the great door to let him in. Every thing in the house was apparently of the same epoch, but in reality about there years old. In the dining-room was a fireplace as big as an ordinary parlor, and before which one would not have been surprised to see a pair of trunk hose airing, or a couple of jack-boots. The sideboard, to the modern and inartistic eye, resembled a kitchen-dresser; while in the morningroom was a spinning-wheel with the flax in it, as though the thrifty housewife had just been called away from that occupation to superintend the construction of a venison pasty, or to issue orders for the entertainment of the company invited to the morrow's tournament.

These ridiculous objects, as I soon discovered, were designed to persuade the public that the Dornoway-Dickes them

selves were mediæval, and had resided at the "Court" for the last six hundred years. Whereas, as a matter of fact, they were new-comers. In the country, even though you are distantly connected with the peerage, this is a serious obstacle to position," and the whole of my host's gigantic intellect was concentrated on attaining it. He had been "called upon" at once by every one in the county within a circuit of twenty-five miles, except One. I write it reverentially with a capital O, for it was "The Duke." I am not of course speaking of the late Duke of Wellington; in Mangelwurzelshire, as in every other county, the duke was the duke who lived there; his Grace of Turniptops. This divinity was still a young man, unmarried, and not much given to call on anybody; and for three long years all the efforts of the Dornoway-Dickes had been unavailing to induce him to honor the "Court" with his august presence. Two months ago, however, he had sent his card by a mounted messenger, and one month ago, oh, joy of joys! he had accepted an invitation to a garden party at the house for one of the very days on which I was to remain its guest.

My

It was just after this gracious promise had been given that Mr. DornowayDicke had made his appearance at the club, to make arrangements with Gunter; and now that I knew the circumstances, I was not only not surprised at the magnificence of his deportment on that occasion, but astonished that he should have been so affable as he was. private impression is, that he asked me down to Dornoway Court not so much from personal affection, as to secure an additional witness to his social triumph; but that is neither here nor there. The duke was coming, and the family were in a state of excitement rare, I should hope, in Hanwell, and not habitually exhibited even at Broadmoor.

The great subject of discussion among them for weeks had been, who was to be invited to meet the duke? and it was not exhausted yet. Everybody-who was anybody-had been asked except the Titbats; and the knotty point that could not be settled was, whether these people should be asked or not. Captain and Mrs. Titbat were their immediate neighbors; their lawn-tennis grounds were in

fact contiguous, and the two families, though not absolutely on a friendly footing, were well known to one another. Young Titbat, when a player was wanting, had sometimes even been invited to make up the party at their favorite amusement; and when the balls went over the wire fence that separated the two domains, the juvenile Titbats did not pretend (as some young people would) that they were lost, but would honestly chuck them back again. Still the Titbats were not among the County Families, nor any thing like it. Their efforts--far more desperate than those of the DornowayDickes-had miserably and utterly failed in that direction. It was not so much that their mansion was too small to be reckoned as a country-house; that their paddock could not by any strain of courtesy be called a park; or that their ornamental lake was an undeniable pond. There was something amiss-I never could find out what-about Mrs. Titbat.

She was a woman-I once beheld her, and under circumstances I can never forget-of large proportions and hirsute aspect (indeed, she had a very respectable beard); her complexion was rubicund, and to the uncharitable might seem to indicate that she indulged in liquor, though I never heard that she did so. Whatever was wrong with her had happened so long ago that it would have been much better and kinder of her fellow-creatures to have forgotten it. My impression is, that instead of rushing into matrimony with the imprudence of most young couples, Captain Titbat and herself had exercised an unusual prudence, and had not got themselves indissolubly united till time and trial had shown them to be suited to one another.

However that might have been, Mrs. Titbat was not "visited," nor would the Dornoway-Dickes have dreamed of asking her to their garden-party except for that contiguity, to which I have referred, of their lawn-tennis grounds. The duke, it was known, was devoted to the game; and if the two grounds could be thrown into one, it was felt by all the family that it would have been an immense improvement. This could scarcely be done, however, without asking Mrs. Titbat's permission, and also the pleasure of her company; and, upon the whole, it was judged best to leave matters as they

were.

The wire fencing between the two lawns was so very slight that they really looked to be one and the same, and as there was plenty of ground for the duke to play upon, he would probably never discover that both the lawns did not belong to Dornoway Court.

In the course of the intimacy that existed between the junior members of the two families, the young DornowayDickes, with a frankness characteristic of their age, had told the young Titbats that the duke was coming on Friday to play lawn-tennis, but that nobody but tip-top (not Titbat) people were to be asked to meet him; nor was even this the worst, for it had certainly been hinted by elder members of the family, in view of the suggested amalgamation of the tennisgrounds, that such good neighbors as Captain and Mrs. Titbat would certainly be included in the invitation list. To explain what follows I must add that Mrs. Titbat herself was firmly persuaded that she would be among the guests, and was transported with the idea of it; for the being asked "to meet the Duke of Turniptops" (as was stated on the cards) was in Mangelwurzelshire like being presented at Court, and at once both whitewashed and gilded the invitee. One has heard of the ire of the tigress when robbed of her young, but what is that as compared with the state of mind of a lady of blemished reputation who has persuaded herself that it will be rehabilitated, and that in the most splendid fashion, and then suddenly finds that she has been given. the cold shoulder? Mrs. Titbat had actually ordered a dress from London in which to appear before his grace of Turniptops, and the sight of it, as it hung useless in her wardrobe, envenomed her whole being, as though she had worn it, and it had been the garment of Nessus.

She clutched the skirts of Hope to the very last, but when Friday morning arrived and no invitation had come, it fled from her soul, and was replaced by the desire for vengeance. If the DornowayDickes could but have known what was passing in that injured lady's mind, they might have been reminded of those warning lines

Lest when our latest hope is fled ye taste of our despair,

And learn by proof in some wild hour how much the wretched dare;