The Societies' Section. LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS. Shaftesbury Institute.—On Wednes- fortnightly in the City Temperance day, December 26th, 1855, a musical Hotel, Victoria Market. soirée of the members and friends of the above institute was held at Twyford Hall, Twyford-street, Caledonian-road. After tea a selection of music from the best masters was performed, and short addresses delivered at agreeable intervals. Mrs. Wilson presided at the pianoforte, Mr. H. W. Wilkins acted at conductor, and Mr. Berger occupied the chair. There was a good attendance, and the utmost good humour prevailed throughout the evening. The Caxton Mutual Improvement Society, Manchester.· About six weeks ago a number of persons, chiefly letter-press printers of this city, met for the purpose of considering the propriety of forming a mutual improvement society. Several meetings were held upon the subject, and eventually an association was formed, entitled, “The Caxton Mutual Improvement Society." The first general meeting of the society, upon the books of which are already enrolled a large number of members, was held on Saturday last, at Grimshaw's Temperance Hotel, Victoria Market, when there was a numerous and respectable attendance. The chair was occupied by Mr. Wilkinson, of the Examiner and Times; and Mr. Thomas Partridge, the president of the society, delivered an able and eloquent inaugural address. A short discussion followed, in which most of the gentlemen present took part. After passing votes of thanks to the chairman and president the meeting separated. This society is not confined to printers, but any person, if approved of, may be admitted. The meetings to be held Its The Aberystwith Welsh Literary Society. This society, originated by a few young men desirous of improving themselves in their native language, in October, 1855, has, we are happy to say, met with decided success. meetings are held every Friday evening, when specimens of Welsh poetry or prose writing are read by the members. Addresses are read; conversations on interesting subjects, debates, music, &c., generally make the hours spent debates, we are happy to say, are both interesting and profitable. The decided favourites with our Welsh members. The society already num bers above 60 members.-JOHN W. The Revs. Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, Centenary Chapel, Stephen's Green, Dublin.-The annual soirée of this association was held on December 17th, 1855. Thos. Neptune Hull, Wallace, McMullen, and William Guard Price (president) were present on the occasion, together with the members and friends, at which a highly interesting address was delivered by Mr. Hall. The meeting separated greatly pleased.P. D., jun. Madras Young Men's Literary Society.-A report from this far-off association has just reached us, and from it we learn that the society is flourishing. There was an actual increase of 30 members, and an addition of 117 volumes to the library. There are prosperous classes for discussion, English composition, logic, rhetoric, and study of the Tamil; and though the secretary concludes with an urgent P appeal for help and assistance, both pecuniary and otherwise, we think it ought to cause a blush of shame to many in highly favoured England. St. Bartholomew's Working Men's Literary Institute,, Gray's Inn Road. -The discussion class of the above institute held its usual half-yearly meeting on Saturday evening, Dec. 29th, 1855. The secretary (C. J. J. Beard) read a report of the progress of the class during the past six months. It appears that this class was first opened on Feb. 24th, 1854, and was free to any of the members, who also had the privilege of introducing one non-member each. In May, 1855, an important alteration took place; the class was thrown open freely to the public, that any stranger might speak upon the subject under discussion. The meetings have been weekly in the lecture hall, and several hundreds have availed themselves of the opportunity of listening to, and partaking in, the debates of the class. The committee were empowered to make some necessary alterations in the rules; and a vote of thanks having been given to the chairman, the meeting separated. St. James's Literary and Scientific Society, 15, Clifford-street, Bond-street. -(President, the Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay, M.P.) The first public meeting of the elocution class was held at Burlington Hall, 21, Saville-row, on Tuesday, December 11th, 1855, Edwin Lankester, Esq., M.D., F.R.S., &c., &c., in the chair. Recitations were delivered by the members, and, notwithstanding its being the first appearance of the class in public, it passed off with great applause from a fashionable and crowded audience. The next entertainment will take place on Tuesday, March 25th, 1855, and a soirée of the institute will be held at the rooms on Wednesday, April 2nd.-E. N. December 26th, and, despite the dreary weather, was well attended. The hall (kindly lent for the occasion) was tastefully decorated with the flags of France, England, Turkey, and Sardinia, together with wreaths of flowers, ornamental statues, &c. Recitations by the members were given during the evening, interspersed with glees and duets by amateurs and professionals. Mr. Sneary presided at the piano-forte. Mr. Powell was in the chair; and the whole entertainment gave general satisfaction. The society is in a flourishing condition.-M. The East Parade Young Men's Elocution and Discussion Society.-The annual soirée of this society was held in the lecture room of East Parade Chapel, on the 1st January last, at which upwards of fifty persons were present. The president, Mr. W. S. Jackson, was in the chair. After tea, Mr. J. Jowett read the report, enlarging upon the advantages of such societies. The chairman read the trial scene in the "Merchant of Venice;" and Mr. J. Webster, Conder's "Reverie;" after which Mr. W. Toothill read some scenes from the "Hunchback of Notre Dame." The meeting was enlivened by music and singing, the piano being ably presided over by Miss Pilling. The walls were very beautifully decorated with a tasteful display of specimens of art, kindly lent for the occasion by Mr. John Turner. The meeting was concluded about eleven o'clock, after an evening spent in a pleasant and rational manner.-J. JoWETT, Secretary. Monkwearmouth (Sunderland) Mutual Improvement Society.-The first anniversary of this society was held on New Year's Day, at the society's rooms, Whitburn Street, Monkwearmouth, when the members and friends took tea, after which Mr. Peter Yule was called to the chair, and Mr. Potts, the secretary, read the report. The Cooper's Hall (Bristol) Mutual Im-chairman addressed the meeting in an provement Society.--The fifth annual excellent speech. Several temperance soirée was held on Wednesday evening, and other songs were sung by various was spent in the greatest harmony. This society constitutes, with president and vice-president, about sixteen members, and, though small, bids fair soon to extend its borders. members and friends, and the evening | takes part in the proceedings, and the object of the society is thus fully carried out. Various entertainments by the members were given, interspersed with selections from the "Creation" and Handel's "Messiah," sung by two of the visitors, accompanied by the piano, at which a young friend (only thirteen years of age) presided, to the great admiration of all present. The meeting separated about ten o'clock, after singing the National Anthem.J. G., Hon. Secretary. York Street (Walworth) Mutual Improvement Society.-The second annual soirée in connection with this society was held on Tuesday, January 8th, 1856, in the Clayton Jubilee Memorial Schools, York Street, when about 130 friends sat down to tea. The walls of the room were tastefully decorated with evergreens, and the motto of the class, "Excelsior!" appeared in proud characters at each end of the room. The chair was ably filled by the Rev. J. P. Turquand. The society was formed in the summer of the year 1854, and has steadily progressed to the present time. The number now on the books is twenty-one, and the average attendance at the meetings, which are held weekly, twelve. Nearly every member present at each meeting Seacombe Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society.-The inaugnration of the above society took place on the 15th instant, when rules were drawn up and officers elected. Although the meeting was small, yet it was deeply interesting. Addresses were delivered by Mr. Bemish, Mr. Nelson, and the secretary, Mr. Peers, upon the advantages derived from mutual improvement societies.-THOMAS PEERS, Hon. Secretary. LITERARY NOTICES. The “Library Edition of the British Poets." [James Nichol, Edinburgh; and J. Nisbet and Co., London.] This edition is intended to supply what hitherto has been considered a deficiency in our literature, viz., a uniform but economical series of our own poets; and we feel bound to say that, although Mr. Nichol and his talented editor, Mr. Gilfillan, announced a high standard by which the public were to judge their edition, the expectations induced have been more than realized. Three years' publication has just ended, and includes some of the finest poetry extant. Milton, Young, Thomson, Blair, Goldsmith, W. L. Bowles, Collins, Beattie, Herbert, and others, numbering in all 18 vols., for the comparatively small subscription of £1 1s. yearly. pamphlet written by Mr. Cobden, devoted to the consideration of the various phases which the war may assume, premising that the allies have lost in killed and wounded nearly as many men as it cost Napoleon, in actual combat, to gain possession of Moscow, and still Sebastopol is not wholly in our power, proceeds to mention a variety of hypothetical positions into which the contest may resolve itself. These form the basis of arguments as to the mode in which peace may be brought about, or the war continued. Mr. Cobden enters into the policy, trade, and general condition of Russia, and describes the feelings of the Russian people, religious and political. He recommends an instant withdrawal of all our forces, and a reduction of our "What next?- and next ?"- A navy. Mr. Haydn, the author of the "Dic- | royal album-the Ball at Versailles, tionary of Dates," and other useful and the Imperial Supper. The Queen's books of reference, has just expired. Arrival in Paris is by M. Guerard. M. Not long before, Lord Palmerston had Engène Lami illustrates the Arrival granted him a rather meagre annuity at St. Cloud. A few other drawings of £25, but he accompanied it with a are by artists less known in England. gift of £100 out of his own pocket. The case is got up in the most exHe was an industrious compiler, and quisite style, and with all the richness has saved newspaper writers many a of ornamentation for which French design is renowned. The book, we believe, was produced for the Emperor at a cost of a thousand guineas. search. While our last Number was in the press, Samuel Rogers, the poet and banker, expired. His death has given birth to more than the usual number of biographical notices. He had lived beyond the ordinary life of men,—we think his age was ninety-three or ninety-four, during the whole of which, from the cradle to the grave, he had lived beneath the smile of prosperity. His society was courted by men of the greatest intellects, and the most cultivated wits of the day; and though he studiously adhered to business, he was a traveller, a connoisseur of art, and the friend and patron of artists. "Italy" was the last and best known of his works, and upon which, it is said, the banker assisted the poet, by expending £10,000. In accordance with his will, the whole of his collections in his house at St. James's Place are to be brought to the hammer. Mr. Rogers has left several volumes of memoirs. These are in the hands of Mr. Moxon, and will be given to the reading world without loss of time. Rogers's personal property is said to be under £25,000. The pictures and books are possibly worth £40,000. The Emperor Napoleon has sent to the Queen a pretty and precious Christmas gift, in the form of a lady's album. The substance of it is an artistic memorial of Her Majesty's visit to France, consisting of drawings in water colour, by the most renowned French masters. The Queen at Boulogne is by M. Morel Fatio, and the Departure from that port by M. Mozin. M. Chavet contributes two illustrations to the Mr. John Forster, author of a "Life of Goldsmith" and other popular books, and editor of the Examiner, has been gazetted Secretary to the Commission of Lunacy-a place worth £800 a year, and involving a residence in London. Mr. Proctor (Barry Cornwall) is a member of the Commission, at a salary of £1,500. Mr. Dickens has read his "Christmas Carol" to a crowded audience in the lecture hall of the Sheffield Mechanics' Institution, in behalf of the funds of the institute. At the conclusion of the reading, and after a demonstration of applause had subsided, the Mayor (W. Fawcett, Esq.) presented to Mr. Dickens a very handsome table service of cutlery, a pair of razors and a pair of fish-carvers, in the name of the people of Sheffield. Mr. Dickens briefly returned thanks, and said that in an earnest desire to leave imaginative and popular literature something more closely associated than he found it, at once with the private homes and public rights of the English people, he should be faithful to death. The Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University has given notice that Prince Albert's gold medal for the encouragement of English poetry will be given this year to such resident undergraduate as shall compose the best poem on "Luther at the Diet of Worms." Mr. Macaulay's health is by no means such as his friends and admirers would wish it to be. He experiences great difficulty in conversing, even for a short time. Aids to Self-Culture. BY SAMUEL NEIL, Author of" The Art of Reasoning," " Elements of Rhetoric," &c. GEOGRAPHY. IN the word Kosmos-originally significant of beauty, order, and harmony-the ancient Greeks embalmed their idea of the creation. This was with them, however, an utterance of faith rather than of knowledge. It is true that the far-seeing glance of the master-minds of distant epochs have guessed that the universe was one mighty miracle of wisdom, power, regularity, and excellence; but it was reserved for later ages to prove by rigorous demonstration the exactitude and pertinency of the designation by which the earliest philosophic minds strove to express the thought which lay within them. So far as man has been enabled to comprehend what may be called the geometry of the works of the Most High, he has seen in each and all the most pervasive and persistent Order, in which term, indeed, all that is beauteous and harmonious is implied. Of all the systems in the magnificent spectacle of order, which we denominate the Universe, that within which the journeyings of our own home-planet is confined, most nearly and most immediately concerns us-most obtains as well as deserves our regard. It contains within its circle the greater portion of our interest and fears-of our sympathies, personal, domestic, social, and national-of our struggles and hopes, whether these refer to the present or the future. Not only so, but the inborn curiosity which exists in every human soul, finding, as it does, its initiative processes taking their origin from the scenes in which its present being is cast, cannot but meditate with some solemnity on, and inquire with some earnestness into, the phenomena in the midst of which it is called to act. The scenery of earth, ocean, and sky, therefore, are not only the petty adjuncts of our present state, but also mysterious realities to be studied and understood-realities along with which our own life is, with ineffable consummateness, woven together, in solemn though seemingly anomalous communion. This unique multiformity, in which creative skill has manifested itself-this mighty mesh of phenomena-this perplexed yet unital system of appearance and law-this, to us, as yet, majestic indefinitude and infinitude |