Woolner; while the statues of Aristotle, Hippocrates, Cuvier, Davy, Watt, are either unassigned, or apportioned to Mr. Munro. Statues are still wanted of Archimedes, Euclid, Pliny, Copernicus, Franklin, Herschel, Lagrange, Laplace,—of Black, Dalton, Stephenson,―of Bell, Harvey, Hunter, Jussieu, and Sydenham,—and what to ancient Oxford Dons must be a sad shock, a statue of Priestley.

Anatomy occupies the north,-that is, the coolest side. To the south, where there is most light, is a large and airy domicile for Chemistry, and an open area for experiments,-while on the south-west are spacious lecture-rooms, and on the ground-floor a laboratory, modelled from the Abbot's kitchen, at Glastonbury. Our description of the museum is complete when we have mentioned the curator's house,-a beautiful example of Gothic, occupying the eastern angle.

Thus the Museum is, as Prof. Phillips describes it,—not “ a haphazard collection of pretty stones crowned by pretty flowers," but a building at once apt and expressive.

The little volume which has served as our text consists of a Lecture delivered by Dr. Acland-two letters by Mr. Ruskin— and a letter of Prof. Phillips, the Curator, each giving his opinion on the wants or aim of the building. Mr. Ruskin, who here appears as the advocate of the practical, praises the beauty of the windows, hints at the bealthiness of physical studies, and the probable influence of science upon the industry of the age. The general barrenness of the facade, is with him a subject of complaint and the want of ornament on the windows. He dissuades from the use of color at present. Sculpture finds great favour :"As the building stands at present, there is a discouraging aspect of parsimony about it. One sees that the architect has done the utmost he could with the means at his disposal, and that just at the point of reaching what was right, he has been stopped for want of funds. This is visible in almost every stone of the edifice. It separates it with broad distinctiveness from all the other buildings in the University. It may be seen at once that our other institutions, and all our colleges-though some of them simply designed are yet richly built, never pinchingly. Pieces of princely costliness, every here and there, mingle among the simplicities or severities of the student's life. What practical need, for instance, have we at Christ-church of the beautiful fan-vaulting under which we ascend to dine? We might have as easily

achieved the eminence of our banquets under a plain vault. What need have the readers in the Bodleian of the ribbed traceries which decorate its external walls? Yet which of these readers would not think that learning was insulted by their removal? And are there any of the students of Balliol devoid of gratitude for the kindly munificence of the man who gave them the beautiful sculptured brackets of their oriel window, when three massy projecting stones would have answered the purpose just as well! In these and all other regarded and pleasant portions of our colleges, we find always wealthy and worthy completion of all appointed features, which I believe is not without strong, though untraced effect, on the minds of the younger scholars, giving them respect for the branches of learning which these buildings are intended to honour, and increasing, in a certain degree, that sense of the value of delicacy and accuracy which is the first condition of advance in those branches of learning themselves. Your Museum, if you now bring it to hurried completion will convey an impression directly the reverse of this. It will have the look of a place, not where a revered system of instruction is established, but where an unadvised experiment is being disadvantageously attempted. It is yet in your power to avoid this, and to make the edifice as noble in aspect as in function. Whatever chance there may be of failure in interior work, rich ornamentation may be given, without any chance of failure, to just that portion of the exterior which will give pleasure to every passer-by, and express the meaning of the building best to the eyes of strangers. There is, I repeat, no chance of serious failure in this external decoration, because your architect has at his command the aid of men, such as worked with the architects of past times. Not only has the art of Gothic sculpture in part remained, though that of Gothic colour has been long lost, but the unselfish-and I regret to say, in part self-sacrficing-zeal of two first-rate sculptors, Mr. Munro and Mr. Woolner, which has already given you a series of noble statues, is still at your disposal to head and systematize the efforts of inferior workmen."

The co-operation of architect and sculptor is a great desideratum :

"I believe that the elevation of all arts in England to their true dignity, depends principally on our recovering that unity of purpose in sculptors and architects, which characterized the designers of all great Christian buildings. Sculpture, separated from archi

tecture, always degenerates into effeminacies and conceits; architecture, stripped of sculpture, is at best a convenient arrangement of dead walls; associated, they not only adorn, but reciprocally exalt each other, and give to all the arts of the country in which they thus exist, a correspondent tone of majesty. But I would plead for the enrichment of this doorway by portrait sculpture, not so much even on any of these important grounds, as because it would be the first example in modern English architecture of the real value and right place of commemorative statues. We seem never to know at present where to put such statues. In the midst of the blighted trees of desolate squares, or at the crossing of confused streets, or balanced on the pinnacles of pillars, or riding across the tops of triumphal arches, or blocking up the aisles of cathedrals, in none of these positions, I think, does the portrait statue answer its purpose. It may be a question whether the erection of such statues is honorable to the erectors, but assuredly it is not honourable to the persons whom it pretends to commemorate; nor is it anywise matter of exultation to a man who has deserved well of his country, to reflect that his effigy may one day encumber a crossing, or disfigure a park gate. But there is no man of worth or heart, who would not feel it a high and priceless reward that his statue should be placed where it might remind the youth of England of what had been exemplary in his life, or useful in his labours, and might be regarded with no empty reverence, no fruitless pensiveness, but with the emulative, eager, unstinted passionateness of honour, which youth pays to the dead leaders of the cause it loves, or discoverers of the light by which it lives. To be buried under weight of marble, or with splendour of ceremonial, is still no more than burial; but to be remembered daily, with profitable tenderness, by the activest intelligences of the nation we have served, and to have power granted even to the shadows of the poor features, sunk into dust, still to warn, to animate, to command, as the father's brow rules and exalts the toil of his children. This is not burial, but immortality."

Mr. Ruskin thus sums up the design of the Gothic Revivalists. To make Art expressive rather than curious-fixed rather than portable-publicly beneficial rather than privately engrossed-to convey truthful information of form and promote intelligence among the workmen, has been attempted and carried out in the building. The University, we understand, has not been so parsimonious as Dr. Acland would have us believe, 60,000l., and not 30,000l., having been actually spent on this work. May it speed!

ARTICLE XXII.—American Association for the Advancement of Science.

This body held its annual meeting at Springfield, Mass., under the presidency of Dr. Alexander, during the week commencing August 3rd. There was a good attendance, and many interesting and important papers were read; the whole number registered being 108. On Tuesday the 9th, after having chosen Dr. Isaac Lea of Philadelphia to be president, and Dr. B. A. Gould, jr., of Boston, to be vice president for the next year, the association adjourned to meet at Newport, Rhode Island, on the 1st of August, 1860.

It is chiefly from the reports of the meeting published in the Springfield Republican, that we extract the following abstracts of several papers, which may prove interesting to our readers.

METEOROLOGY.

The first paper was by Professor Henry of the Smithsonian Institute, on Meteorology. He said that extensive operations had been made in Europe and in this country, by the British admiralty, the French government, the States of New York and Pennsylvania, and by the Smithsonian Institute. The Institute had purchased many hundred instruments which had been distributed over the country, but only a series of observations extending over many years could be of value. Prof. Coffin of Lafayette College had been especially employed by the Institution: he was abundantly qualified to execute the work. The labors performed had been immense, and an idea of what progress had been made would be given. There are 350 observers in the United States who make observations three times a day. To arrive at satisfactory results the observations must also be carried on at sea. This would be done eventually, especially if the public should demand it. It was a science which required time. It was impossible, he said, to make any advance in science if it had no hypothesis. We could collect facts, but to use them we must have a place. In studying nature, we soon learn to reject what is not true and preserve what is true.

He proceeded to give some general views of meteorology. The general idea of the motion of the atmosphere was from Hadley. The moving power in meteoric changes was the sun. It was originally supposed that the currents of air flowed from the equator to the CANADIAN NAT. VOL. IV. No. 4

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poles, but that could not be true; on account of the convergence of the meridians, there was not room for the air at the poles. There were middle systems, of intermediate currents of air. But these points were not fully established. There were excep tions in the general action which could be determined in their general bearings only by long observation.

One cause of the fitful disturbances of the atmosphere was the conversion of water into vapor. During a single shower an amount of water fell upon the Smithsonian Institute building equal to 20,000 horse-power an hour; that is to say the heat necessary to evaporate it would be equal to that required for working an engine of twenty thousand horse-power one hour. Another cause of disturbance was the motion of the earth itself upon its axis. In illustration, diagrams were given showing that the currents of air moved in circles, that the same quantity of air that moved north must come from the north, of course not in the same track. Observations made tended to show a series of currents completely around the earth, north and south of the equator, also in the temperate latitudes, and in the Arctic circles. The calms at the equator, it was shown, was caused by the upward currents of the air,-currents coming from the north and south and rising over the equator, under the influence of heat.

In regard to the meteorology of our own continent, it was shown that there were four circles,—two in the Atlantic, one of which the Gulf Stream complete its circle once in three years, one in the Southern Atlantic, one in the Northern Pacific, and one in the Southern Pacific. These are sub-divided into minor currents. It is found that the cold Arctic current setting south from the coast of Labrador, passes through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while the ice which comes down sets eastward towards Europe. Between these there is produced the deposition of vapor or fog on the banks of New foundland.

He had been assured by Mr. Wise, the æronaut, that out of 200 ascensions, he had always been enabled to move east on reaching an upper stratum of air. He (Prof. H.) therefore did not think it impossible that an aerial voyage could be made to Europe. Success would greatly depend upon the ability to make the balloon air-tight. If kept in the upper strata, it might succeed, although it was not certain there was not a reverse current in mid In the lower strata there were irregularities which must be avoided. The balloon he considered as an important means of

ocean.