The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-16 00:00:00

7gB been charmed, or enchanted; whereas the passage distinctly declares " Love's weak childish bow " powerless to wound, or charm, her. Act v. sc. I: If may trust thefiattering truth of sleep, 4 ‘ ought (as Blackwood suggests) to stand as it is," but rather as referring to the doubtful truth of pro verbially fallacious dreams, than to the "pleasing truth promised by them." Timon, act i. sc. 1: Of the many emendations of the speech of Ape magus, That I had no angry wit to be a lord, that of Dr. Johnson approaches nearest the truth ; but the text is peeect as it stands—viz., that he would hate himself for the deficiency of angry wit that made him fit for a lord,—i.e., for bring so stupid s to give him a just claim to a peerage Act ii. Sc. 2 : It assuredly "would not be safe to alter the text" of Ire did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent, As it he did but prove an argument, which simply implies that he so controlled or shaped the expressiun of his anger as to give it the tone of argument. Macbeth, act i. sc. 4:— Would thou hadst less deserved, That the proportion both of thanks and payment Might have been mine. Which Blackwood explains to mean " that the larger share, both of thanks and payment, might have come from my side." But the king obviously intimates that Macbeth's services were beyond pay ment ; and flatteringly wishes his merits les', that it might be in his power adequately to reward them. Nor does the dialogue, sc. 7, seem " a case of great doubt and difficulty " I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares do more, is none. Lady M. What beast was't then? Macbeth clearly means that who dares do more than may become a man, is less than man,—as shown by Lady Alacbeth's prompt rejoinder, " What beast was't then, that made you break the enterprise to me ?" on a former occasion. Macbeth's meaning, act. iii. sc. 4 Dare me to the desert with thy sword : It' trembling I enhibit, then protest me The baby of a girl— if, trembling, I forbid or reject your challenge, then protest me, &c., is so obvious, that it is only wonder ful how emendations such as " inhabit " and "exhibit" could ever have been dreamt of. And the text act iv. so. 3 All the particulars of vice so grafted, That when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth Shall seem as pure as snow— would surely be spoiled by the proposed substitution of " ripened" for " open'd "—made known, or ex posed to view, as the opening bud of the graft. Ard, lastly, the line, of Othello, act i. sc. 1, which, according to Blackwood, " has baffled all mankind," and "sail stands the opprobrium criticorum," A fellow almost damned in a fair wife, Reems, obviously, to refer to the report of Cassio's intended marriage with the fair but frail Bianca,—a fellow almost, or on the point of being, damned, or of damning himself, by a disreputable marriage ! G. It. 14, St. James's-square, Aug. 7, 1856. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. SEVERAL papers upon suhj.•ets of general interest have been read during the week. Among them one by Mr. SYMONS on LUNAR MOTION. No mathematicians either misunderstood the motion of the moon, which had been just correctly and lucidly ex plained by Professor Whewell ; nor were they likely to be misled by the modern astronomical use of the term " rotation " as applied to it, or to fancy that any point in the moon's circumference turned more than 360 degrees in making her orbital revolution. But it was far other wise with the bulk of the people, who, being told in all astronomical books that the moon rotated once on her own axis, in addition to her revolution once in her orbit. could derive no other impression than that she spun round like a pegtop, which, together with her turning round in her orbit, would cause her to make two entire revolutions, turning different faces successively to the earth ; whereas, in order to keep the same face towards it, it was necessary that she should so turn as if she were rigidly attached to the centre of her orbit. He wished so to define it. He was glad that Professor Whewell had distinctly stated that her movement might he thus correctly described ; though he differed from him in pre ferring the mathematical mode of describing it, as one of "rotation." Some astronomers, such as Woodhonse, Vince, and others, had added, that the fact that the moon rotated on her axis in the same time as she revolved in her orbit was "an extraordi nary co i nc id ence. " Thi s syn chronic movement was, on the contrary, a physical neces sity; and he was inclined to think that by using such an expression the old astronomers really mistook the moon's movement, and that modem ones had inadvertently copied THE PRESS. these descriptions, knowing better, just as Newton had cklmilated the height of tides in lunar seas, of which modern astronomers denied the existence. Mr. Symons then showed the three different modes in which the moon, or any sphere, might turn round a distant centre, by means of a simple instrument, by which the first gave the motion popularly under stood by astronomical descriptions of one orbital re volution, plus one axial rotation, whereby a point of the moon's circumference would point twice round space ; secondly, that by which she preserves her parallelism, pointing always one way in space; and, thirdly, Ler simple motion of revolution. The two former were both produced by wheels turning on their own axes ; the second having a retrograde mo tion, neutralising the direct revolution of the disc on which it was carried round; the third or lunar mo tion was alone produced without any wheel or axis, the ball being fixed firmly to the revolving disc; the latter alone presented the same face to the centre of orbit, turning the opposite face successively once round space. With respect to the term " rotation " and its mathematical application to this lunar revo• lotion, Mr. Symons laid special stress on the tendency it would have to increase the ambiguity and want of precision in the terminology of practical mechanics. It was, he affirmed, a modern change in the ordinary definition, which was formerly confined to revolving bodies in which any points formed concentric rings round a centre within them. No point in the moon did this ; all points in her (her own centre or axis included) forming concentric rings round the distant centre of her orbit. This was a distinct species of revolution, whether considered geometrically, dynamically, or mathematically ; and it required a distinct name, lie cited thee passages from Bar low's Mathematical Dictionary, to establish this as the old definition of rotation Rotation.—The motion of the different parts of a solid body about an axis, called the axis of rotation, being thus distinguished from the progressive motion of a body about some distant point or centre ; thus the diurnal motion of the earth is a motion of rotation, but its annual motion one of revolntion When a solid body turns . . . round an axis, retaining its shape and dimensions unaltered, every particle is actually describing a circle round this axis, which axis passes through the centre of the circle and is perpendicular to its plane. De Poinsot's definition, now adopted by astronomers, made any motion one of rotation, in which a section of the revolving body does not preserve its parallelism during its revolution, whether round its own axis or round a distant round. Professor Whewell was of opinion that this was more convenient, as otherwise the moon's relation to the earth might be deemed " casual and arbitrary," which Mr. Symons denied ; he also controverted the relevancy to this argument of any reference such as the professor had introduced to the moon's undulating orbit round the sun; her rotation or non•rotation had no reference to space, and could he properly determined by her own internal motion and that of her different parts in re lation to each other and to the centre of her orbit, nor could any ambiguity arise in so doing, or in re stricting the use of the term rotation to its original meaning, which would simplify the great truths of astronomy, distinguishing different motions, and render them intelligible to the whole people, espe cially in books for popular instruction. This was his sole object in mooting the question. He felt he had been unfairly attacked for so doing, and, though lie had been far from seeking to provoke controversy, he had been compelled to put his back to the wall and fight it out. The Association on Saturday made an excursion to Cirencester, and inspected the Roman remains of domestic articles discovered in 1850. In the even• ing Colonel Sir Henry RAWLINSON delivered his lecture npon the recent di , coveries in Assyria and Babylonia, and on the results of CUNEIFORM RESEARCH. He bad learned the value of fifty or sixty letters, which was but a small proportion of the 350 or 360 letters in that language. During the last year he had discovered that there was more important matter to be found in the old Babylonian records, the language of Nimrod, the Assy- rians having adopted the old Hamite language. All cunei• form inquirers had been staggered with the extraordinary fact that the letters represented a variety of powers—some. times half a dozen. This difficulty he could now see his way of overcoming. In all the dibris of the palaces, they found a number of clay tablets engrossed with inscriptions —not less than 20,000 to 30,000 of these were in the British Museum. A certain class of these tablets were found to be arranged in columns, and he had discovered that these were text books in the Assyrian, with their translations in the ancient Chaldean. He had also found copious vocabularies and grammars. It was obvious that the Assyrians had paid great attention to philology, as all their learning was in the old language which was brought into the country by the people of Nimrod. The difficul ties of interpreting arose from the mixture of the Hamite and the Semitic languages, in the same manner di in Engl'sh we write the Latin words videlicet, exempli Am The cuneiform character was originally a picture character. There were three periods of cuneiform cha racter—the Chaldean period, the Assyrian, and the Baby. loam SATURDAY, To show how small facts assist investigation, he might mention that he had long been acquainted with the names of two kings, but did not know their relationship, but the impression of a signet ring received by him that day from a friend in Bagdad, enabled him to learn that they were father and son. In Assyrian history we had as yet no anus of any importance, until we came to Sardanapalus, who built the N.W. Palace of Nimroud ; and in these records occur the names of Jehu, King of Israel ; and Hazael, King of Jndah. We have the full annals of those kings. He believed that Semiramis was a Median Princess, and that it was owing to some treachery on her part that Pul lost the kingdom of Assyria and transferred his residence to Babylon. Colonel Rawlinson then read extracts from a cylinder of Sennacherib to show how those annals agreed with the records of Scripture, and described the discovery, in what was supposed to be the remains of the Tower of Babel, of a cylinder which contained the following curious inscription : I am Nabu-kuduri-uzur, King of Babylon, the established go vernor, he who pays homage to Merodach, adorer of the Gods, glorifier of Nabu, the supreme chief, he who cultivates worship in honour or the Great Gods, the subduer of the disobedient man, repairer of the temples of Bit Shaggath and Bit-Tzida, the eldest son of Nabupal-uzur, King of Babylon. Behold now, Merodach, my great Lord, has established me in strength and has urged me to repair his buildings. Nabu. the guardian over the heavens and the earth, has committed to my hands the sceptre of royalty therefore. Bit•Shaggath, the palace of the heavens and the earth for Merodach, the supreme chief of the Gods, and Bit.Kua, the shrine of his divinity, and adorned with shining gold, I have appointed them. Bit•Tzida also I have firmly built. With silver and gold and a facing of stone; with wood of fir, and plane, and pine I have completed it. The build. ing named the Planisphere, which was the wonder of Babylon, I have made and finished. With bricks enriched with lapis lazuli I have exalted its bead. Behold now the building named the Stages of the Seven Spheres, which was the wonder of Bersippa, had been built by a former king. He had completed 42 cubits (of the height) but he did not finish its head. From the lapse of time it had become ruined ; they had not taken care of the exits of the waters, so the rain and wet had penetrated into the brick work, the casing of burnt brick had bulged out, and the terraces of crude brick lay scattered in heaps; then Merodach, my great Lord. inclined my heartto repair the building. I did not change its site, nor did I destroy its foundation platform, but in a for tunate month, and upon an auspicious day, I undertook the re building of the crude brick terraces and the burnt brick casing of the temple. I strengthened its foundation, and I placed a titular record on the part I had rebuilt. I set my hand to build it up and to exalt its summit. As it had been in ancient times so I built up its structure; as it had been in former days, thus I exalted its head. Nabu, the strengthener of his children, he who ministers to the Gods, and Merodach, the supporter of so. vereignty, may they cause this my work to be established for ever; may it last through the seven ages, and may the stability of my throne and the antiquity of my empire, secure against strangers, and triumphant over many foes, continue to the eud of time. At the conclusion of Colonel Rawlinson's address Mr. J. NACMYTEE read a paper to prove the plastic origin of the cuneiform character, and its relations to our own alphabet. Colonel RAWLINSON said he had no doubt whatever as to the correctness of Mr. Nasmyth's idea as to the plastic origin of the cuneiform character; but they had yet to explain why the inhabitants of the banks of the Euphrates adopted this character to express their ideas. The cuneiform character was not an alphabet, but a series of pictures. Although there was no immediate connection between the English alphabet and the cuneiform character, he thought he could show how a particular connection might have been introduced, and which might have given rise to the peculiarity referred to by Mr. Nasmyth. There was a particular Assyrian colony transported almost to the banks of the Mediterranean, the Samaritans. The oldest Samaritan character we have is cuneiform—the Semitic character written with arrow heads. In deference to the usages of that colony brought from the Tigris, this peculiarity of a foot to letters was adopted in Syria. We first found it used by the Syro•Macedonians ; it was adopted by the Samaritans, and by them brought from Syria to Palestine. Great care was bestowed on the graphic art; the high priest was made the keeper of the records. Later inscriptions, to prevent decay, were overlaid with flint varnish, which in one instance had preserved an inscription of 1,000 lines, although the limestone on which it was written was mumbling away. This flint varnish is supposed to be a modern invention, butit was known to Hystaspes. Mr. R. H. WALSH, on Tuesday, read an interesting paper upon " The present Export of Silver to the East," which this year is proceeding at the enor mous rate of over 9,000,0001. per annum. As the annual production of silver is only 8,000,0001., there must be some auxiliary fund to meet the demand, which Mr. Walsh asserted was to be found in the great cessation of the demand for silver in France and the United States to the extent of twelve and four millions worth per annum. In Section •1, Mr. CLAY read a paper upon "The late Manufacture of the Large Wrought-Iron Gun at Liverpool," describing the whole process of menu• facture, and concluded by expressing his opinion that, with regard to the crystallisation of iron by exposure to extreme heat, or from being carelessly burnt, its fibre might be restored by working, either under the hammer, or in the rolls. MR. BESSEMER, on Wednesda3, read a valuable paper upon THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL WITHOUT FUIL The principle of the process described by Mr. Bessemer was, that as crude iron contained