at length gave way to the system introduced by the French school, and which, since the death of Lavoisier, has been acquiring strength every hour. Hence it has necessarily happened that the learned Bishop's work has lost part of its original utility, though it still contains much information, delivered in a style well adapted to the views of the general reader; and hence our academical lectures have assumed a more scientific form, and of course comprise all those varied improvements which the zeal of modern chemists has crowded upon the world.

Closely connected with this subject, one of

giston. It certainly affords an example of magnanimity (for it can be called by no other name) rarely to be met with in the records of science, that a man, who had devoted the greater part of his life to the defence of a favourite system, should at length be induced, by the force of argument alone, to divest himself of all his former prejudices, to abandon for ever what he had long considered as the legitimate result of his most laborious exertions, and to adopt opinions diametrically opposite. Nothing but an extraordinary share of candour could enable him, at so late a period, to perceive his errors, and nothing but the genuine spirit of philosophy could lead him to renounce them.

the most useful series of lectures delivered in the University, is that which owes its origin to the active mind of the present Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy. Mr. Farish commenced this course when he filled the professor of chemistry's chair, in consequence of his finding the peculiar subject of his office pre-occu pied by another lecturer. Certain it is, that he could not have selected any department of knowledge more replete with utility and interest than the application of chemistry and natural philosophy to manufactures, agriculture, and the arts; and comprehending, as his plan of necessity does, so wide a range of objects*, nearly

* To enumerate the various topics which form the substance of these lectures, would be only to copy the article's detailed in the syllabus. Metallurgy in all its departments, mining, and the smelting of ores, the modes of purifying and compounding the metals in common use, with a description of the manufactures in which they are concerned; the processes of procuring and preparing sulphur, alum, nitre, salt, and other chemical substances, with the different purposes to which they are applied, not omitting the theory and manufacture of gunpowder; the inventions and plans which have been adopted in agriculture for bringing the vegetable

allied to the concerns of common life, it cannot but afford the highest gratification to every in quisitive and intelligent mind. In what manner this task is executed, they who have enjoyed the opportunity of attending these lectures need not be informed; but it would be an act of injustice to omit stating that no trouble and expense, no exertion of mind, or toil of body, have been wanting on the part of the Professor, to acquire the best-founded information on the numerous points which his plan embraces, and to illustrate the inventions and processes of the manufacturer and the artist, by models at once ingenious, accurate, and satisfactory. The in

and animal substances, which constitute the materials of human food and clothing, to a state of the greatest perfec. tion, with an explanation of the implements recommended for the abridgment of labour; a description of the arts of weaving, dying, bleaching, and printing cotton and wool, and also of engraving and etching on copper; the nature of complex machinery, and the mode of working it by steam, together with the construction of canals, locks, aqueducts, bridges, harbours, and the principles of naval architecture; these, and numerous other particulars, are comprehended in the plan of this most useful course.

genuity, indeed, displayed by Mr. Farish in the construction of these models has frequently excited just admiration, particularly in cases where the greatest variety of movements and complexity of mechanism are designed to be explained to his auditors. So much interesting information is communicated in these lectures, that they unquestionably merit the attendance, not only of that class of young men who are destined to the inheritance of independent property, but of every member of the University who is desirous of extending his view beyond the limits of abstract science, and of observing the progress of society in adding to the accommodations and refinements of ordinary life. It will not, perhaps, be too much to assert that the two courses of lectures, on modern history, and on the application of chemistry to the arts, as they are now delivered in the University of Cambridge, may be considered as superior to any prelections of a similar description, within the boundaries of the united empire.

The series of lectures on mineralogy, delivered by Dr. Edward Clarke, already well known to the world by the publication of his

Travels, are of recent date, as they only commenced shortly before his appointment to the office which he now holds, and which was founded by the University seven years ago, in a manner highly flattering to his talents and acquirements. When it is stated that the establishment of this professorship took place in consequence of the opinion entertained of Dr. Clarke's lectures on the subject, during the two preceding years, it must be altogether needless to enlarge on their acknowledged merit *.

* The plan which the Professor pursues is in some particulars peculiar to himself. Besides the usual information on the subject, it contains remarks on the natural history of the various materials which have been adopted, both in ancient and modern times, in architecture and sculpture, and professes to elucidate the knowledge possessed by the ancients of mineralogy, as it is displayed in the sacred Scriptures, or in the writings of the Greeks and Romans. The numerous specimens which Dr. Clarke collected on his travels, are deposited in an apartment appropriated for the purpose, and are open to public inspection. The University is much indebted to this enlightened traveller for the present of some venerable fragments of Grecian art which now adorn the vestibule of the Public Library; and it is much to be lamented that it cannot boast of pos