The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-11-08 00:00:00

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On the 19th ult. a► mall portion of the Box tunnel fell in,
by which the estimated loss to the contractor is £BOO.
About a mile from Cambridge stands the little church of
Maddingley, in a line with the long walk of Trinity College,
in that university. The late eminent Professor Porson, on
one occasion, whilst walking with a friend down that avenue,
observed to him. " I never walk down this path but it con-
veys to my mind the termination of a divinity fellowship at
college—the prospect of a small church a long way before
him."

ANTICIPATED RESULTS FROM THE. DAdodEßltttrtYPE.
—What we may yet expect from the Daguerreotype is finely
shown by the philosophic Arago :—" To copy the millions
and millions of hieroglyphics which extireiy cover to the very
exterior the great monuments at Thebes, Memphis, Carnac,
&c. would require scores of years, and legions of artists:
With the Daguerreotype, a single man would suffice to bring
to a happy conclusion
this vast labour. Arm the Egyptian
Institute with two or three of Daguerre's instruments, and
on several of the large engravings in that Celebrated work,
the fruit of our immortal expedition, vast assemblages of real
hieroglyphics would replace fictitious or conventional charac-
ters. At the same time these designs shall incomparably
surpass in fidelity, in truth of local colour, the works of the
ablest artists. Again, these photographic delineations hav-
ing been subjected, during their formation, to the rules of
geometry, shall enable us, with the aid of a few simple data,
to ascertain the exact dimensions of the most elevated
parts, and of the most inaccessi-le edifices. The preparati-
on employed by M. Daguerre is a re-agent Elwell more sen-
sible to the action of light than any other hitherto in
use. Never have the rays of the moon, we do not say in a
natural state, but even when concentrated by the most power-
ful lens, or in the focus of the most powerful reflector, been
capable of producing any perceptible physical effect. The
plated discs prepared by Daguerre, on the contrary, receive,
impressions from the action of the lunar rays and the suc-
ceeding operations to such an extent as permits the hope
that we shall be in a situation to make photographic charts
of our satellite. In other words, in a few minutes we shall
be able to execute one of the longest, most tedious, and most
delicate operations of astronomy. Let us not hesitate, then,
to announce the fact ; the re-agents discovered by Daguerre
will speed onwards the progress of those sciences which con-
fer the highest honour on the human mind. By their aid
the philosopher will be enabled henceforth to proceed on the
principle of absolute intensities : he will compare lights by
their effects. If he finds it useful, the same tablet will pre-
sent him with the impression of the dazzling beams of the
sun, and with the pencillings of rays three hundred thou-
sand times fainter than those of the moon—the rays of the
stars. In short, when observers apply a new instrument to
the study of nature, what they expected from it has always
proved little indeed, compared with the series of discoveries
which the instrument originated. In this instance it is upon
.the unforeseen that we are especially to reckon."