consider the result if all the planetary bodies the sun. | heat was generated in ancient times by the Now, if the sun is not created a miraculous body, to shine on and give out heat for ever, we must suppose it to be a body subject to the laws of matter (I do not say there may not be laws which we have not discovered) but, at all events, not violating any laws we have discovered or believe we have discovered. We must deal with the sun as we should with any large mass of molten iron, or silicon, or sodium. We do not know whether there is most of the iron, or the silicon, or the sodium -certainly there is sodium; as I learned from Stokes before the end of the year 1851; and certainly, as Kirchhoff has splendidly proved, there is iron. But we must reason upon the sun as if it were some body having properties such as bodies we know have. And this is also worthy of attention:-naturalists affirm that every body the earth has ever met in its course through the universe, has, when examined, been proved to contain only known elements-chemical substances such as we know and have previously met on the earth's surface. If we could get from the sun a piece of its substance cooled, we should find it to consist of stone or slag, or metal, or crystallized rock, or something that would not astonish us. So we must reason on the sun according to properties of matter known to us here. "In 1854, I advocated the hypothesis that the energy continually emitted as light (or radiant heat) might be replenished constantly by meteors falling into the sun from year to year; but very strong reasons have induced me to leave that part of the theory then advocated by me which asserted that the energy radiating out from year to year is supplied from year to year; and to adopt Helmholtz's theory, that the sun's one illuminated the earth for as many as hundred million years, but at the same time also rendered it almost certain that he had not illuminated the earth for five hundred millions of years. The estimates here are necessarily very vague, but yet, vague as they are, I do not know that it is possible, upon any reasonable estimate, founded on known properties of matter, to say that we can believe the sun has really illuminated the earth for five hundred million years." Professor Huxley endeavours to answer this by attempting to show that Sir W. Thomson, fifteen years ago, " entertained a to tally different view of the origin of the sun's heat, and believed that the energy radiated from year to year was supplied from year to ycar, a doctrine which would have suited Hutton perfectly." Thomson shows that this assertion is incorrect, and that his view of the entire possible meteoric supply of solar heat, from masses nearer to the sun than is the earth, when properly stated, would give, at the utmost, material for 300,000 years only, at the present rate of dissipation. He carefully guarded himself, in his original paper, frou any such charge as that brought by Huxley, for he expressly showed that a meteor supply, such as would annually make up for the sun's loss, if coming from space external to the earth's orbit, would involve such an augmentation of the sun's mass as would within the last 2000 years have dislocated the seasons by a month and a half-the observed dislocation in 2600 years being but an hour and threequarters. And he pointed out that the true test of how much of the sun's loss can be supplied by meteors at present circulating in orbits less than that of the earth is best to be determined by the perturbations of Mercury. These have been examined with great care by Leverrier; and the result is unfavourable to the existence of any supply worth taking into consideration in the study of the question before us, indicating, as it does, an amount of potential energy equivalent only to a few hundred years of solar heat. Hence, as it has been shown by Helmholtz, Thomson, and others, that if the sun's mass had been made up in the most effective manner of those chemical substances known to us, which would give the greatest possible result, the heat of combination of these could not have supplied so much as 5000 years' loss, even at the present rate of radiation; the only theory of solar heat left us is that developed by Helmholtz, which regards the sun as a hot body cooling; the heat having been produced during the falling together of its parts. The specific heat of such a mass, in consequence of the pressure to which it is subject in the interior, must be, according to Thomson's latest estimate, from 10 to 10,000 times as great as that of an equal mass of water under ordinary pressure. These limits are purposely left very wide; and they show that the sun loses by its radiation 1° F. in temperature in a period longer than four years, but less than 4000 years. Thomson ends his reply on this part of the subject with the very sensible remark: "A British jury could not, I think, be easily persuaded to disregard my present estimate by being told that I have learned something in fifteen years." Now it is to be carefully observed, with regard to the three independent lines of argument just explained, that it is no answer to show that each is, from its very nature, somewhat vague in the results which it yields, The argument from the three is not, as Professor Huxley seems to think, only as strong as the weakest of the three; on the contrary, the reasoning is strictly cumulative, and Thomson's position cannot be successfully attacked except by a complete upsetting of at least two of his lines of argument, combined with a great enfeebling of the third. In truth, when we come to examine the question as a whole, giving its full weight to each of the separate details, we find that we may, with considerable probability, say that Natural Philosophy already points to a period of some ten or fifteen millious of years as all that can be allowed for the purposes of the geologist and paleontologist; and that it is not unlikely that, with better experimental data, this period may be still farther reduced. In fact, even Professor Huxley's enlightened concession that a limit of 100,000,000, 200,000,000 or 300,000,000 years requires no complete revolution in geological speculation (though it is matter of notoriety that to Lyell and Darwin, and to the great mass of British popular geolo gists, such periods would be of little use): -even this concession will soon not satisfy the Natural Philosophers; who, but with the important difference of having right on their side, will soon follow up their advan tage in a manner somewhat resembling the recent behaviour of the great Yankee nation in the matter of the Alabama Claims. For, elaborate and suggestive as have been all of Thomson's articles, this great question can hardly yet be said to be more than opened; and its future progress rests quite as much with the physical experimenter as with the mathematician. At the commencement of this article we borrowed from Milton an account of the concomitants of the preparations for a terrific combat: there we had to stop, as farther quotation might have been personal; we have seen the issue of the fight, and can now sum it up in the words of Horace, which we take to be descriptive of the triumph of Scientific Truth over all assailants, however numerous and powerful : "Sed quid Typhoëus et validus Mimas, In conclusion, as the assailants named by Horace are unfortunately all of the gigantic | 7. ART. V.-1. Holberg's Comedier i eet Bind. Udgivne ved J. LEVIN. Kjöbenhavn, 1861. 2. Holberg's Peder Paars. Udg. ved A. E. BOYE. Kjöb. 1844. AMONG the authors who appear at compara- 3. Holberg's Niels Klim's underjordiske Reise. 5. Holberg's Dannemark's Riges Historie. 6. Holbergiana. Smaaskrifter af og om L. Holberg. Udg. af A. E. BOYE. Kjöbenhavn, 1832-35. claims, "is almost the only land on earth | tal, he soon accepted the situation of tutor where people are found willing to make it a and assistant to a clergyman in Norway, point of honour that they should be ignorant where, as he says, he spent a whole year in of their fathers' tongue." The literary pa-"flogging children and converting rustics," bulum of the middle classes, who gradually while, at the same time, he suffered severely advanced in power and position after the es- from various kinds of illness, both bodily tablishment of regal autocracy in 1660, and mental. He then returned to Copenha consisted simply of meagre sermons, and yet gen to pass his "second examination;"" "there more meagre chronicles, or old ballads that after studied theology, along with the modwere only a weak reflection of the sweet and ern languages, and next spring (1704) noble songs of a preceding age; songs which, underwent his theological examination with from their very sweetness and nobleness, much success. Necessity ere long obliged failed to find admission into the hearts of him to accept once more the post of tutor; the degenerate descendants of their original this time in a family at Bergen. But in the composers. Such was the state of literary house of his new employer he stumbled upon affairs in Denmark when Holberg com- a book of travels, which to such an extent menced his career. The times needed a re- aroused within him the longing to visit forformer, and in him the reformer came- eign countries, that, in spite of the earnest came with a power and energy that were advice of every one, he gave up his situa equal to the cause for which he fought tion, sold the little he possessed, and set sail throughout a long life of severe and unre- by the first ship that happened to leave the mitting toil. The result was the intellec- harbour. He never again beheld the place tual emancipation of his countrymen, and the of his nativity. laying, fast and firm, the basis on which, in due course, was erected the entire substantial edifice of modern Danish literature. Some slight account of Holberg's life and works may therefore be acceptable to those who take an interest in the development of the different national branches of later European literature, and who, although well aware of Holberg's renown as a comic dramatist, second alone to Plautus and Molière, may yet be ignorant of the immense services which he rendered, in many most important ways, not merely to the literature of his native country, but to that of the whole north of Europe. Ludvig Holberg was born at Bergen, in Norway, on the 3d December, 1684. His father, an officer in the army, had risen from the ranks to the grade of Lieutenant Colonel, had seen foreign service, and at home distinguished himself against the Swedes, éspecially at the relief of Trondhjem in 1658. Ludvig, the youngest of twelve children, was as yet an infant when his father died. Shortly afterwards there occurred a disastrous fire, which in a single night reduced his surviving parent to poverty. She died when her son was ten years old, and the household was broken up. At this age he was, being an officer's son, enrolled as corporal in a regiment; but his desire for study was so great that his uncle by his mother's side, who felt an interest in the lad, took him to live in his own house, and sent him to the grammar-school of Bergen. When eighteen years old, Ludvig went to prosecute his studies at the University of Copenhagen, in the summer of 1702. Lacking, however, adequate means of support in the Danish capi Holland was, in the first instance, the goal of his travels. He had a capital of sixty Danish rix-dollars, and hoped to further him self as a teacher of languages; but he speedily discovered that in Amsterdam "the most learned professors were not respected so much as was a common sea-captain." On account of his slim figure and his girlish countenance, he became the object, sometimes of admiration, sometimes of impertinent questions, as for example, "Hoor gij wel, mannetje! quando deseruisti studia tua ?"—questions which, in similar fashion, he was not slow to answer. An obstinate fever helped to exhaust his purse, and he was compelled to borrow money for the purpose of returning home. On arriving in Norway he took up his residence at Christiansand, where he soon acquired reputation as a language mas ter, especially as a teacher of French. At first, notwithstanding, he nearly gave mortal offence to many of the citizens by his love of paradox, and, in particular, by his zeal in defending a newly published work, which endeavoured to prove, by no fewer than sixty arguments, that women were not human beings; yet he abjured ere long this most ungallant heresy, and continued during his subsequent career of authorship to maintain with much ardour the social equality of the female sex. His musical talents also contributed to his popularity; and for his lin guistic acquirements he became, at least in Christiansand, as renowned as King Mithridates, who spoke twenty-two tongues." But Holberg's restless spirit would not allow him to remain; and in 1706 he undertook a voyage to England, where he lived for two years at Oxford. There he spent his time studying in the libraries, partly Church his- | tory, partly modern history, and the law of nations; he held familiar intercourse with the students, and became in many ways acquainted with the various aspects of English life. At first he and a fellow-countryman, who had been his travelling companion, were forced to live so parsimoniously that for a whole quarter of a year they only every fourth day tasted animal food--a mode of diet which was quite congenial to Holberg's constitution, but which brought his comrade to the verge of despair, so that Ludvig had to console him with the words of the sage Bion, "It is unreasonable to tear the hair for sorrow, as if sorrow could be cured by baldness." Ere long he managed to support himself as teacher of foreign languages and flute-playing; in musical society his presence was indispensable. He pursued bis own quiet path, during a lengthened period, bearing the name of "Myn Heer," which title some persons had heard given to him by his barber, who believed him to be a German, and wished to show his own knowledge of the language. As there was no evil intention in such a misnomer, Holberg never heeded to correct it, and his real name would scarcely have been discovered if he had not by accident met an English student called Holber, with whom he forthwith formed acquaintance as a namesake, and perhaps a relative, through one of his ancestors who had sailed to England along with Canute the Great. By the Oxford students Holberg was greatly liked. When he was preparing to depart, one of them came to him as a deputy from Magdalen College, and offered him a considerable sum of money to defray the expenses of his journey; but with grateful thanks he declined their friendly proffer. From London he sailed in a Swedish ship to Elsinore, and thence walked on foot to Copenhagen, arriving there in the summer of 1708. แ therewith connected. Now, at last, he had Here he thought of commencing as public lecturer, and actually began a series of discourses on what he had witnessed in foreign countries. Hearers he had in plenty, but when the time for paying their instructor came, they suddenly, to his mortification, vanished; his only recompense was a low bow when he chanced to meet any of them on the street. Most opportunely, however, at this crisis, he was offered, and accepted, the appointment of travelling-tutor to a young man about to visit Germany-a country which in general seems to have had less attraction for Holberg than some other lands. On his return he was fortunate enough to re-state, and under the roof of an extortionate ceive free residence in Borch's Collegium for landlord, who, every time that "Signor Recfive years, and, in addition, a small salary co" was prostrated by illness, reckoned tanto |