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sciously, began to mingle with her labours. Perhaps, too, a circumstance which I remember to have happened about this time, might have had more weight than she was aware of in prompting the attempt. She had often urged me to undertake some literary work; and she once appealed to an intimate friend who was present, whether he would not be my publisher. He consented readily, but added, that he would, at least as willingly, publish a book of her own writing. This seemed at the time to strike her as something the possibility of which had never occurred to her before; and she asked more than once whether he was in earnest.

A considerable part of the first volume of Self-Control was written before I knew any thing of its existence. When she brought it to me, my pleasure was certainly mingled with surprise. The beauty and correctness of the style, the acuteness of observation, and the loftiness of sentiment, were, each of them in its way, beyond what even I was prepared to expect from her.'

In one of her letters, Mrs. B. gives a most natural and amusing account of the introduction of the novel to her husband.

The thing was not meant at first to see the light; nor would it ever have done so, if I had not thought the time it came to cost me too much to be spent in mere unprofitable amusement. I cannot help laughing when I recollect the glowing face and oppressed breathing with which I read the first chapters to my husband; making in order to please him a strong effort against my reluctance to the task. Indeed the book was far advanced before even he saw it.'

The fragment which is attached to this memoir is short, but very well written. Yet we question whether, if Mrs. Brunton had lived to finish this tale, it would have been as pleasing as either of her former novels. The moral, indeed, as in every thing from this lady's pen, is excellent: but the story is painful, and almost repulsive. It is a picture of weakness suffering all the agonies of guilt, or more than the guilty heart ever can suffer; a picture of weakness amounting indeed to guilt, yet gifted with all the redeeming qualities of sweetness, tenderness, and penitence. The scorn of the world and the reproaches of conscience are not compensated by the most devoted attachment, and the kindest attentions: the beautiful and erring Emmeline in vain looks for peace even in the arms of her lover and her husband: the thoughts of her deserted home and her neglected duties will not yield even to the raptures of love; and she withers in the blight of the heart, sacrificing the happiness of her second husband to her repentance and her tears. The subject of the tale is certainly not happy: our interest is painfully excited in favour

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of one so young, so beautiful, and so tender-hearted; yet we cannot but acknowlege to ourselves that her sufferings are not undeserved. Mrs. Brunton has thrown too much nobleness and grace round the characters of those whose actions she would represent as vicious and immoral: it is impossible not to regard vice, when clothed in forms so attractive, as something less shameless and disgusting than we have hitherto imagined it; and there seems to be no utility in setting our feelings at war with our better judgment.

This tale is written with much pathos, and a considerable degree of eloquence. It opens with Emmeline's marriage to Sir Sydney de Clifford, a soldier high in fame, a gentleman who, in person, manners, and accomplishments, was rivalled by few, a lover who adored her with all the energies of a powerful mind.'

If youth, beauty, affluence, satisfied ambition, and successful love can give happiness, Emmeline was happy. Yet the sigh which swelled her bosom was not the sigh of rapture; nor was it, though Emmeline was the softest of her sex, the offspring of maiden fears. It was wrung from her by bitter recollection; for Emmeline had before been a bride attendance and respect, cheerful preparations and congratulating friends, had beguiled the apprehensions of innocence. The bonds into which she had entered had been hallowed by a parent's blessing-a blessing given, alas! in vain. The bridal ornaments which now a menial was arranging, a proud and joyful hand—but this way Emmeline dared not look." I will forget the past," thought she, "this day at least I will forget it; and from this hour I will atone for my error for my guilt, if I must call it so. Every duty will I now punctually perform sweet, willing duty now! the censorious world may be busy with my name- but what is the world to me? Never much now less than nothing. Let Lady de Clifford forgive me let Mary and my father." Emmeline checked a sigh of anguish. "I will not think of that to-day," said she; and she started up to seek in change of posture and of object an escape from thought.

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Her eye wandered over one of those smiling scenes almost peculiar to her native land. The shadows of gigantic oak and knotted elm dappled a verdure bright as a poet's dream of the lawns of Eden. A river, scarcely seen to flow, spread its glassy windings amidst the peaceful slopes, where the morning smokes, and the church-tower peeping from the woods, might lead the fancy to many a scene of cheerful labour and domestic peace. But one object alone drew Emmeline's eye. It was a graceful figure, which, with head bent downwards, and looks fixed on the earth, was slowly and thoughtfully approaching her dwelling. "Is that the step of a bridegroom?" thought Emmeline. But ere the tear that started had trickled down her check, De Clifford's eye REV. FEB. 1820.

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met hers; and his smile of fond and fervent love banished the remembrance of all sorrow and all crime.'

They are married, and De Clifford carries his bride to his antient and beloved home: but he meets not there the smile of his mother, and his sister's embrace; - they refused to see his lovely but guilty Emmeline. The friends of his family also decline to visit him, and even his tenants look on their young mistress with eyes of freedom and dislike. Her former husband restores her fortune, which she will not insult him by returning; - the haughty and high-souled De Clifford grows impatient and miserable; - Emmeline wastes her beauty and her cheerfulness in tears; and the tale breaks off at this period, sparing the reader from a scene in which goodness struggles with guilt.

This volume also contains a selection of Mrs. Brunton's letters, and some travelling memoranda, written in a lively and entertaining style: with a few devotional pieces, which manifest her fervent piety.

ART. VIII. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for the Year 1819. Parts I. II. and III. 4to. l.; 11.58.; and Ios. Sewed. Nicol and Son.

TH HE Royal Society has been more than usually bountiful to the public during the last year, having issued three instead of the customary two parts of their Transactions, comprizing also some bulky papers. Our duty in reporting them will be proportionately extended; but we must discharge it with all practicable fidelity and brevity. We begin now with Part I.

MATHEMATICS, &c.

On the Laws which regulate the Absorption of polarised Light, by doubly refracting Crystals. By David Brewster, LL. D.

F.R.S.

On the Action of crystallized Surfaces upon Light. By the Same.

The views of the author are so neatly and concisely expressed in the introductory part of the first of the above memoirs, that it would be useless for us to attempt to abridge them, or to state them in more intelligible language; we shall, therefore, only premise that Dr. Brewster, while examining the polarizing structure of acetate of copper, had his attention drawn to certain changes of colour which this crystal exhibited when exposed in different positions to polarized

light. Being induced, by certain reasons, to consider this variation of colour as a new affection of light, he accordingly .collected specimens of all the natural and artificial crystals which were characterized by any peculiarity of colour; and he then examined the various phænomena which they presented, when cut at different angles with the axes, and exposed in different positions to a polarized ray. The following are some of the most interesting of these results, as they occur in crystals of one axis of double refraction; which, for the reasons stated above, we shall give in the author's own words.

'If we fasten upon one side of a rhomboid of colourless calcareous spar, a circular aperture of such a magnitude that the two images of it appear distinctly separated when viewed through the spar, we shall find, by exposing it perpendicularly to common light, that the two images are perfectly colourless, and of the same intensity in every position of the rhomboid. Hence if Q be the quantity of transmitted light, we shall have the ordinary image OQ, and the extraordinary image E = Q.

When the rhomboid is exposed to polarised light, the intensities of the images vary with the azimuthal angle (a) which the axis of the rhomboid forms with the plane of primitive polarisation, and may be represented by the formulæ O= Q cos.' a; E=Q sin. a. But since Q cos.3 a + Q sin. a Q we have OEQ; that is, the sum of the intensities of the two pencils is in every position equal to the whole transmitted light, and therefore the rays which leave any one of the images by a change of azimuth, are neither reflected nor absorbed, but pass over into the other image. The ordinary phenomena of double refraction, consequently, afford us no reason for conjecturing that the crystals which possess this property absorb the incident light in any other way than is done by all other bodies, whether solid or fluid.

If we now take a rhomboid of certain specimens of yellow calcareous spar, and perform with it the experiments which have just been described, we shall obtain a series of entirely different results. The two images will now be found to differ both in colour and intensity, the extraordinary image having an orange yellow hue, while the colour of the ordinary image is a yellowish white. This difference of colour is distinctly related to the axis of the crystal, and increases with the inclination of the refracted ray to the short diagonal of the rhomb. It is a maximum in the equator, while along the axis the two images have exactly the same colour and intensity. In every position, however, the combined tints of the two images are exactly the same as the natural tint of the mineral. In comparing the intensities of the two images, the extraordinary one appears always the faintest, so that there is an interchange of rays; and while the extraordinary force carries off several of the yellow rays from the ordinary image O, the ordinary force at the same time takes to itself several of the N 2 white

white rays from the extraordinary image E; for if this were not the case the extraordinary image would always have the greatest intensity, whereas, in consequence of its exchanging yellow for white light, it becomes actually fainter than the ordinary image.

• If we call m and n the maximum number of rays which the extraordinary and the ordinary image interchange, and (p) the inclination of the refracted ray to the axis, the intensities may be represented by the following formula when the crystal is exposed to common light. OQ+ sin.2 4 m — sin.2 on and EQ+ sin.* On — sin.3 m. The values of m and n vary in different crystals: they are always of different colours, and in some cases they are equal to nearly one half of the transmitted light.'

When the rhomboid is exposed to polarized light, a series of still more interesting phænomena is exhibited, which are detailed with every requisite degree of perspicuity in the subsequent portions of the memoir; as they regard, first, crystals of one axis only, and then those which have two axes: but it is impossible for us to give any abstract of the results that would be intelligible to our readers, without entering on the subject at considerable length.

Dr. Brewster's second memoir has reference to a remark made by M. Malus, in his Theory of Double Refraction; viz.

"That the action which the first surface of Iceland spar exercises upon light, is independent of the position of its principal section; that its reflecting power extends beyond the limits of the polarising forces of the crystal, and that as light is only polarised by penetrating the surface, the forces which produce extraordinary refraction begin to act only at this limit." He also observes, that "the angle of incidence at which Iceland spar polarises light by partial reflection, is 56° 30'; that it then comports itself like a common transparent body; and that whatever be the angle comprehended between the plane of incidence and the principal section of the crystal, the ray reflected by the first surface is always polarised in the same manner."'

These conclusions, Dr. B. observes, being obtained experimentally by an author of such distinguished eminence as M. Malus, he should have been naturally disposed to receive them as established truths, had he not been led by a series of experiments, made before the perusal of that gentleman's work, to form opinions of an opposite kind: these experiments appearing to indicate an extension of the polarizing forces beyond the crystal. A new course of observations was accordingly undertaken, with the view of deciding this question; and from them the author is led to the following conclusions:

• First.

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