repair; while on shelves and racks all around the place, bristled every description of tools and utensils, chemical and mechanical. Hard by was the apparatus-room itself, a large elongated apartment, crowded with air-pumps, model steam-engines, globes, prisms, telescopes, microscopes, kaleidoscopes, and all other kinds of scopes (the scope of Bacon, by Professor Napier, excepted), magnets, pneumatic-troughs, friction-wheels, Leyden jars, and facsimiles of strange machinery for every purpose, from raising a sunk seventy-four to punching the slit of a steel-pen. Lord of all this domain was Bob Whyte, my fellow-student and chum. He held the office of Conservator of the Scientific Apparatus to the University, and assistant to the Professor of Natural Philosophy, with a tolerable income considering, and admirable facilities of acquiring knowledge, and certainly he made the most of both. Oh, dear old Soandsonian University-dearer apparatus-room, and dearest little workshop-dear in yourselves, but how much more on account of him who was, for a period, the most intimate of my intimates -my mentor, my protector, guide, philosopher, and friend-him whose every joke conveyed instruction-whose very fun was philosophicalwho loved me with an indulgent and enduring affection-between whom and myself, there now flow some thousand miles of salt water! Bob was, however, studying medicine with a view to the profession, and had been for some years. He had nearly completed his term, but was in no hurry, for his salary came well up to his wants; and as far as study went, the noble library, apparatus, and all other resources of the university were at his command. His age was about twenty-four years (my own, at the period I allude to, being seventeen), and he was of habits at once studious and frolicsome, attentive to every thing around, and yet apparently regardless of any thing. At one time he would give you a simple and succinct analysis of Adam Smith's celebrated " Theory of Moral Sentiments," which he would tell you he considered the standard of systematic morality; next minute he would be proposing a night of it" at the sign of the Boot. Anon he would explain that the proper and scientific way of compounding punch was to pour in the spirits last of all, as the alcohol materially interfered with the perfect solution of sugar in water. แ A fellow of most excellent humour was he-the warmest in feeling, and of a spirit devoted to all sorts of merriment; But the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers, Is always the first to be touched by the thorns; and there were moments when my boyish heart was melting to sorrow as he spake, with a deep but manly pathos, of bitter disappointments in love and in prospects-of difficulties hard to be surmounted-of hopes long protracted-poverty-and, of all the most galling, the scorn of the unworthy. I have rarely known such a bright genius as Bob's. With the principles of nearly every science he was familiar, especially such as are usually treated of in a course of what is called natural philosophy, or of chemistry. These sciences were his living-by them he earned his bread, and of course he knew them as a workman does his trade. A most retentive memory he possessed, which, like a pool of water, received and retained every thing which fell upon its surface, whether of the metallic gravity of philosophic truth, or the snow-flake lightness of mere ornamental elegance. Whatever treatise he read, his mind at once absorbed, letting no fact escape; whatever process of manufacture he saw, he forthwith remembered, and could explain throughout the complications of each progressive step. In conversation with him, you would think him a walking encyclopedia, were it not for the continual bursts of fun, scintillations of bright wit, or flashes of poetic feeling that irradiated all his presence. The pursuit of knowledge, with him for a companion or a guide, became any thing but Harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose. Nay, rather as Milton continues, Musical as is Apollo's lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, He was a most muscular subject, Bob, moreover; and had given not a little attention (amongst other sciences) to the theory of pugilism and single-stick. But his exterior was the worst of him; he was short in stature, and of no particular beauty of countenance-save in as far as went a general expression of infinite goodhumour, and an eye (a splendid hazel one) actually glistening with glee. By the by, there was a curious property connected with this eye of Bob's. If he happened to glance or wink it at any young woman passing, she would immediately start into a perfectly erect gait, and brush the soles of her shoes smartly along the pavement for the next half-adozen steps or so. I could never account for this most uniform and remarkable result. I asked an explanation from himself once. He said it was a psychological phenomenon. Such was the companion that sat with me in the little workshop. Just as we were speaking, the door was opened, and in stepped our most worthy professor of natural philosophy-known among ourselves by the endearing abbreviation of " the Proff." He had come to enjoy in seclusion the quiet luxury of a pipe, and the relaxation of an hour's confab. without restraint, with his assistant and pupil. We immediately stood up, but being most affably desired to be on no ceremony, reseated ourselves, and resumed our several proceedings, and a conversation ensued broken by frequent cachinnations on the part of the professor. When this began to take somewhat of a scientific turn,― "I have heard," said the Proff," from several sources, that the northern vicinity of Soandso, affords a very rich and interesting field for geological and mineralogical study, and that some valuable specimens of either description are to be found in the neighbourhood of the village of Dritten breeks, on the banks of the little river Dritten." "That was where our ingenious friend, Mr. Coal Hunter, found his fossil cow, was it not? A most appropriate result to geological ruminations!" "Yes, and as the weather is beautiful, I do not see why you should not go out some Saturday with the view to an investigation. You can make a regular scientific excursion of it, and try if you can't collect a few tolerable specimens for lecture. We are sadly in want of some, let me tell you. The distance, moreover, is but a joke to a young chap like you-eight or nine miles only, by the footpath across the hills." "I most cordially embrace the proposal," cried Bob. "I will be off on Saturday first; the day after to-morrow, isn't it?" (turning to me. I assented). “And you shall go with me, Grim. My eyes! won't we make a day of it? An excursion, geological, mineralogical, and general funological. Such an excursion is right after my own heart. I have long entertained the notion, and if it don't afford me some entertainment in return, there is no such thing as gratitude left in human ideas." "Yes, and as you are botanical," continued the professor, "(though I can't say I care much for the science myself,) this is just the very season for you-and the very weather-and for entomology, too, if you have given any attention to it." 66 “Ŏh, haven't I? I have studied it with some interest, I promise you." "Bless me, your acquirements are endless. What charm could this study have for a Medical Student?" "The greatest of all-to render him fly, to be sure." "Mr. Whyte, Mr. Whyte, take care." Upon this the sage drew forth his pipe from a recess behind the furnace, lighted it, and drawing his chair close to the fender, was speedily lost in the mazy depths of some archimedean problem, which I sincerely hope he smoked his way to the bottom of; while Bob and I, entering into eager discourse, began to lay the plan of our intended excursion. But first we agreed that as soon as the professor withdrew, the porter of the rooms should be despatched for a supply of that singular and anomalous fluid, which has been denominated Edinburgh Yill-the investigation of whose constitution and qualities, I would beg here earnestly to recommend to the scientific reader, convinced as I am, that an inquiry instituted and carried out on the principles of the inductive or experimental philosophy, would be rewarded by the most overwhelming results. Next day towards evening, two original-looking youths were seen (by those who had nothing better to do than look at them), meandering arm in arm through the streets of Soandso, wending rather a zigzag way towards a certain thoroughfare, whose unusual width was narrowed to a lane by immense battalions of old bedsteads, cupboards, grates, signboards, chests of drawers, rickety tables, and mirrors of misanthropic tendencies—that is, if one might judge from the unnatural reflections they cast upon the honest folks around. Long did they trace their devious course through this maze, now knocking their shins against a secondhand cradle, anon startled by the apparition of a ready-made coffin, with such an alarming announce ment as "Deaths undertaken on the shortest notice." It was ourselves-Bob Whyte and his inseparable adherent, Grim, whose pen is now tracing these lines. Well, up and down we wandered, till at length we stumbled on the identical article of which we were in search; viz., a square wooden box of portable dimensions, with a padlock and key, and a broad leathern strap attached, whereby it might be slung across the shouldersa pedler's case in short. This valuable object we secured by immediate purchase, and bore it away rejoicing. On the succeeding morning, Saturday, June 22d (I am particular in dates, having been up the Levant, where they grow, since then), we met at an hour when the widow Night, putting away her sables, was going into half-mourning (excuse me, reader), we met in the apparatusroom of the university, and arranged our accoutrements previously to sallying forth. When fully equipped, I contemplated Bob. His broad muscular shoulders were cased in a middle-aged velveteen shooting-jacket; other clothes of the lightest woollen-stuff completed his apparel, and slanting on the curly pate of the fellow, was perched a broadbrimmed, white beaver of a most knowing cut. Across his back was slung the box, and his right-hand grasped a cudgel, of whose dimensions the club of Hercules may give an idea, correct enough for all general purposes. This stick which Bob had christened his "Jacobin Club," from its levelling propensities, was of weight enormous, and hirsute with knotty spines. Upon its frowning head were certain spots (not stains!) which he averred were received when it had formed his errant sire's cicerone once at Donnybrook. In a generous fit one day he presented it to me; but when he went from me across the sea, I restored it to him, telling him that as he was going among strangers, he might possibly find it a useful friend in opening his way among the heads of society in his adopted land. The box at his back contained a telescope, a geologist's hammer, a box of chalks for drawing, a book of blotting-paper for preserving flowers, a tin receptacle for insects, Hooker's "British Flora" (latest edition, containing the cryptogamia), and a soda-water bottle, filled to the stopper with genuine Farintosh, the mere aroma of which made your soul feel that the Arabian alchemists, who in seeking for gold discovered alcohol, had no cause to grumble at the alternative. For me a boy's blue dress was my fit out, and on my back, in vain emulation of Bob, I bore a student's japanned case of tin, whose con→ tents, though scarcely botanical, were still of a floury description, consisting of numerous hot rolls, whose scooped interiors afforded room in each for a rich stratum of ham-in short, a kind of half-natural sandwiches. Having ascertained that we were all right, we left the apparatus-room, and giving the key in charge to the porter, emerged into the street, and marched along to the sound of a lively air, which Bob whistled with admirable precision and effect. As we went, happening to pass several edifices in Grecian taste, we forthwith began to discuss the subject of architecture. "I am glad to think," said Bob, "I am glad to see it daily more evident, that the strange and most questionable taste of valuing every thing that is ancient in literature or art is on the decline-in fact, about speedily to go out altogether. I am not aware of any humbug that has so long withstood the march of sovereign common sense as this. A man that can grope through two dead languages is even yet held in more honour, than one that can walk over Europe without an interpreter, while our ears are dinned and our eyes blinded with affectation about the sublimity of the Greek tragedies, the wisdom of old heathen philosophers, or the astounding eloquence of Roman orators, and at the same time ten to one but the honest folks that are so havering in speech, and on paper, are altogether unacquainted with what they are ranting about, unless perchance by means of a translation by some clever modern, many times superior to the old original." Lendeavoured to combat this sweeping criticism, but Bob would only agree with me on one point. "Yes," said he, "their architecture is indeed worthy of all the praise it gets, and more than can be given to it. The Greek temples must have been perfection; but they do not so much excite my admiration as the stupendous remains of the more olden eras-the temples and pyramids on the banks of the great river of Egypt. Now the temples, and most noble they are, raise my wonder, and all that, but all is in a measure plain and above-board with regard to them, and there is pleasure interwoven with the astonishment. But then these pyramids there hangs around them a kind of magnificent mysterious obscurity a strange, vague, indefinable, semi-supernatural sublimity different from that which clothes any other earthly object. There they are, but how, when, by whom, or for what purpose they were placed there who can show? Many a long rigmarole have I read of them, and many a history and many a use have I seen ascribed to them, but all is uncertainty hardly deserving the name of hypothesis. I have seen them. proved to be tombs, treasuries, observatories, altars, gnomons of mighty sundials, penetralia for superstitious mysteries, and, quaintest of all, images of Mount Ararat, standing amid the inundations of the river, as it stood among the waters of the deluge, and erected to be worshipped as types of the Saviour mountain, the tale of which, marred by tradition, had thus descended to the sons of Ham. Now I would but add another opinion to the list to render the puzzle complete-it is that they are monuments set up whereby to remember great epochs. It is and has been the custom of men in all places, and at all times, to mark important events by the setting up of stones, single or in heaps, rude or highly wrought, according to the state of civilization. Now I would suggest that one of these may have commemorated the expulsion of the Pales Hycsos-shepherd kings, or whatever other name chronologists may have gone to loggerheads about them by, another might have-" "Stop," cried I, "if you are going on at that rate I can give you another explanation, about as probable, and certainly more originalviz., that they were just rough heaps of stones piled up, in a geometrical figure (the Egyptians doing every thing on such principles) to be at hand when wanted for useful purposes, such as the erection of temples, fortifications, &c., the same as piles of made bricks in a clay-field. March. -VOL. LXVII. NO. CCLXVII. 2 E |