trate of the State that he was, by the general consent of his colleagues, selected to bring forward the Virginia plan of government, which was submitted at an early period of the deliberations, and which became, after great modifications, the nucleus of the Constitution.

"Governor Randolph's conduct with regard to the Constitution might seem to be marked by inconsistency, if we were not able to explain it by the motive of disinterested patriotism from which he evidently acted. He brought to the Convention the most serious apprehensions for the fate of the Union. But he thought that the dangers with which it was surrounded might be averted, by correcting and enlarging the Articles of Confederation. When, at length, the government which was actually framed was found to be a system containing far greater restraints upon the powers of the States than he believed to be either expedient or safe, he endeavored to procure a vote authorizing amendments to be submitted by the State conventions and to be finally decided on by another general convention. This proposition having been rejected, he declined to sign the Constitution, desiring to be free to oppose or advocate its adoption, when it should come before his own State, as his judgment might dictate.

"When the time for such action came, he saw that the rejection of the Constitution must be followed by disunion. He had wearied himself in endeavoring to find a possibility of preserving the Union without an unconditional ratification by Virginia. To the people of Virginia, therefore, he painted with great force and eloquence the consequences of their becoming severed from the rest of the country.

"In this state of things, looking forward to the conscquences of a dissolution of the Union, he could not but remind the people of Virginia of what took place in 1781, when the power of a dictator was given to the commander-in-chief, to save the country from destruction. At some period, not very remote, might not their future distress impel them to do what the Dutch had done,-throw all power into the hands of a Stadtholder? How infinitely more wise and eligible than this desperate alternative would be a union with their American brethren. 'I have labored,' said he, 'for the continuance of the Union, the rock of our salvation. I believe, as surely as that there is a God, that our safety, our political happiness and existence depend on the Union of the States, and that, without this union, the people of this and the other States will undergo the unspeakable calamities which discord, fac

tion, turbulence, war, and bloodshed have produced in other countries. The American spirit ought to be mixed with American pride, to see the union magnificently triumphant.''

There are portions of these sketches which are open to criticism. But as the estimate of the relative standing of public men is a question, which debates cannot determine, we shall not weigh the conclusions of the author on such subjects. A candid reader will not expect every author to accord with his judgment.

ART. VI.—1. FAMILIAR LETTERS ON CHEMISTRY, in its relations to Physiology, Dietetics, &c. London, 1851.

By JUSTUS VON LIEBIG.

2. THE CHEMISTRY OF COMMON LIFE. BY JAMES F. W. JOHNSTON, M.A., F.R.S., F. G.S., &c. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1854.

3. POETRY OF THE VEGETABLE WORLD; a popular Exposition of the Science of Botany, and its relations to Man. By M. J. SCHLEIDEN, M. D., Professor of Botany in the University of Jena. Edited by Alphonso Wood, M.A., author of "The Class-Book of Botany." Cincinnati: Moore, Anderson, Wilstock & Keys. 1853.

4. CHEMISTRY OF THE FOUR SEASONS, SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, AND WINTER; an Essay, principally concerning Natural Phenomena admitting of interpretation by Chemical Science, and illustrating Passages of Scripture. By THOMAS GRIFFITHS, Professor of Chemistry in the Medical College of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, &c.

THERE is a growing disposition, on the part of the people at large, to recognize the importance of science. Hence the numerous works on various scientific subjects, treated in a popular manner, which are so frequently written, so widely circulated, and so extensively read. The "reading public," that universal devourer of books, claims this sort of nutri

ment, and gets it, of course,-for no autocrat is more imperious, or more implicitly obeyed.

Among the many articles gotten up to satisfy this demand, there are, of course, some exceedingly weak and superficial, disfigured by blunders in style and by errors in fact. There are, however, numbers which belong by no means to this class, which are beautiful in their conception, elegant in their execution, and useful in their design;-books which not only serve to instruct the novice and to attract the general reader, but also to refresh the memory of the adept, and to set before the accomplished scholar old and well-known facts in a new and attractive light.

Of the works at the head of this article we may say a few words in general, before proceeding to the study of the particular subject we design presenting to our readers. The "Familiar Letters" of the eminent Professor at Giessen have been for years before the public, and have received the just encomiums of all discriminating readers. Clear and forcible in style, copious in illustration, profoundly learned and yet extremely simple, they afford a perfect model of a popular work on science. They have been recently revised by their distinguished author; numerous additions have been made to them, so that they are now brought down to the present time, and present to the public a readable and reliable account of the interesting subjects to which they refer.

Professor Johnston is well known by his admirable Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry, which have gone through repeated editions, and have become a text-book of this useful science. His present work is a series of short but satisfactory essays, simplifying to common comprehension the various abstruse subjects of which he treats.

The third work on our list is Schleiden's exquisite morceau, "The Plant; a Biography," which the Cincinnati editor has most absurdly, prosaically, and inexcusably transformed into the dull title we have recorded. Mr. Wood has made himself favorably known by a very clever attempt to arrange the plants of the Northern States in such a manner as to make

the natural system do field-duty, and serve pupils as a sort of lexicon of botany,-a task heretofore thrown upon the Linnæan system exclusively. We cannot say much, however, for the manner in which he has conducted his present task. His preface is a very dreary piece of twaddle, and his omissions-though very well, perhaps, for the Cincinnati market-have certainly not improved the book for the majority of readers. His notes are generally harmless, being mostly formal tilts at geology and German theology, with neither of which we have, at present, any concern. Schleiden's own book, untainted by his editor's subtractions or additions, is the most charming volume of which we know any thing since St. Pierre's famous Studies of Nature, and it has a merit which that fascinating book does not always possess―rigorous scientific truth. It has, indeed, as might be expected, some Teutonic mysticism about it, and its learned author leans manifestly towards a sort of botanical translation of Muillet's absurd old development theory. These little eccentricities aside, his book is wellnigh perfect.

The "Chemistry of the Four Seasons" has also for a long time delighted and instructed the world. It has not the high poetical merit of Schleiden's book, (as whose work has ?) but it is a lucid, familiar exposition of the chemical principles on which the changes of the seasons depend.

These books all discuss very much the same set of themes, -the relations of inorganic and organic nature, and the chemical changes upon which the various revolutions of dead and living matter depend. Liebig, indeed, discusses other matters, such as the economic uses of the science; yet he gives prominence to the theories and speculations of organic chemistry.

One of the most important lessons we learn from this sort. of general survey is, the intimate connection and mutual inter-dependence of the sciences. It is the analogue of what we see in Nature. The student has but half conned his lesson, if he has failed to learn that nothing is isolated-that nothing exists for itself alone. God has economized existence, and

laid more than one duty on every thing he has created. The great forest tree has somewhat else to do than merely to live and grow. Birds shelter in its branches, and rear their young beneath the shadow of its leaves; beasts feed on the mast that is showered from its lofty boughs; its dropping leaves return to the soil a portion of the nutriment it has borrowed; its fallen trunk is cut up for human habitations; its very decay is prolific in new life-new forms spring from its ashes; brighter but frailer creatures are the offspring of its ruin. The solemn mountain, that rears its hoary brow high in the clear, bright air, subserves a thousand useful purposes to countless tribes of men and animals. The slow attrition of its rocky sides forms soil which perpetually renews the fertility of the adjoining valleys. Its multitudinous green boughs give harbor and food to a thousand living things-" many light hearts and wings lodge in the living towers" of its investing forest. Its deep seams and stony hollows, sheltered from the heat of the blazing sun by overhanging leaves, hold in their cold basins refreshing springs of water, and let down hosts of sparkling, brawling streams, which wander away to form deep rivers, destined to bear on their broad bosoms the inland commerce of an empire. Its snowy summit condenses the invisible vapor of the atmosphere into clouds, which go floating through the air, freighted with fertility, dropping plenty over a thirsty land. Nature does not map herself out into compartments, as our sciences classify her. It is we who are the map-makers. We scrawl these lines of metes and bounds over her surface, and mar her divine unity by our own inventions. Our feeble intellects cannot grasp her majestic grandeur, and we therefore are compelled thus to study her piecemeal. But underneath all our lines the unity remains unchanged; and it is well, now and then, to attempt for a moment to forget our artificial arrangements, and strive to see the harmonious plan on which this universal frame is built.

It is in this spirit that we propose to call attention to the study of the atmosphere, and to throw out a few hints, illus