pounds of salary which would be paid to an
astronomer at the Antipodes? If that appear
to be the case, perhaps the crumb will be
bestowed in charity, for it will not be felt,
out of the public salary received by some kind
gentleman at home for looking after falcons; or
would our different coloured "sticks" subscribe
and make up the amount between them? If
the germ of a great nation exists now on the
Australian continent, we know not how we
could exert more humanising influence upon
its future character, than by filling its first
annals with such wholesome glory as attends
the victories of science.

Captain Jacobs, the East India Company's
Astronomer at Madras, has also recently
requested the Directors to establish a well-
finished reflecting telescope on the Nilgherry
Hills: there, raised above the lower shifting
air-currents and clouds, under a bright sky,
the finest occupied point of observation in the
world, probably, would be at his command.
The Company has permitted him to erect
such a telescope, but gives him to understand
that he must do so at his own expense. True
to science, the philosopher will pinch his
purse, and screw out of his salary the money
that will purchase knowledge for the human
race. Some cosy Director, perhaps, hints
that if the post of observation be so good, the
star-gazer will be repaid by fame. But fame,
unluckily, will neither roast, nor fry, nor boil.
Man is composed of two parts, mind and
body, one of which likes fame, the other
mutton. Fame is not paid out of any corporate
exchequer, and a man can no more
repay service with that commodity, than
with a gift of sunshine. Contracts of service
all depend on the necessities of flesh and
blood; minds do the work, but bodies want
the payment. The East India Company
is usually liberal towards its servants, and
we trust that it will think twice in the
present instance.

THE BLAST OF WAR

BROODING for ages o'er the darken'd earth,
  Like some gigantic Roc of Eastern fable,
It long has fill'd it with a moral dearth,
  Shading Love's sunshine with a wing of sable.

Coeval with the fatal birth of Sin,
   It grew and strengthen'd with the spread of nations;
Blighting each region with the strife of kin,
   Where founders of new empires fix'd their stations.

It dropp'd its poison on the heart of man,
   And fired his hot distemper'd blood to madness;
Through all the race the deadly plague-spot ran,
   And thickly sow'd the seeds of woe and sadness.

Widows and orphans reap'd the fruit they bore;
   Homes were made desolate in field and city;
And tears of mourners mingled with the gore
   Which foes shed freely, without ruth or pity.

But now the monster waxes faint with age;
   Its wings droop feebly, which were once expanded;
Love streaming down has melted martial rage;
   Those meet in peace, who once for fight were banded.

SOMNAMBULISM.

THAT a person deeply immersed in thought,
should, like Dominie Sampson, walk along in a
state of " prodigious " unconsciousness, excites
no surprise, from the frequency of the
occurrence; but that any one should, when fast
asleep, go through a series of complicated
actions which seem to demand the assistance
of the senses while closed against ordinary
external impressions is, indeed, marvellous.
Less to account for this mysterious state of
being, than to arrange such a series of facts as
may help further inquiry into the subject, we
have assembled several curious circumstances
regarding somnambulism.

Not many years ago a case occurred at the
Police-office at Southwark, of a woman who
was charged with robbing a man while he was
walking in his sleep during the daytime along
High Street, in the Borough, when it was
proved in evidence that he was in the habit of
walking in his somnambulic fits through
crowded thoroughfares. He was a plasterer
by trade, and it was stated in court that it
was not an uncommon thing for him to fall
asleep while at work on the scaffold, yet he
never met with any accident, and would
answer questions put to him as if he were
awake. In like manner, we are informed that
Dr. Haycock, the Professor of Medicine at
Oxford, would, in a fit of somnambulism,
preach an eloquent discourse; and some of
the Sermons of a lady who was in the habit
of preaching in her sleep have been deemed
worthy of publication.

We remember meeting with the case of an
Italian servant, who was a somnambulist,
and who enjoyed the character of being a
better waiter when he was asleep than when
he was awake. Every book on the subject
repeats the anecdote which has been recorded
of the blind poet, Dr. Blacklock, who, on one
occasion, rose from his bed, to which he had
retired at an early hour, came into the room
where his family were assembled, conversed
with them, afterwards entertained them with
a pleasant song, and then retired to his bed;
and when he awoke, had not the least
recollection of what he had done. Here, however,
on the very threshold of the mystery, we meet
with this difficulty—were these persons, when
they performed the actions described, partially
awake, or were they really in a state of
profound sleep? In solving this problem, we
shall proceed to consider some of the
phenomena of somnambulism, premising only that
if we avail ourselves of cases which the
reader may before have met with, it is to
throw light on what we may, perhaps,