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    make some reparation for all the cruel sufferings to which they had subjected her in her youth | and when they cheered her on her way to the great altar of Notre Dame , it was perhaps with the feeling that she was thitherward passing , not alone to return thanks for herself hut as a mediatrix to pray for pardon for them . In front of that altar , during the whole period of the religious ceremony , die remained prostrate / unobservant of the gorgeous display around her , and , in the centre of the countless and brilliant crowd , as much alone as though she were standing solitary in a desert , communing in her heart with God . ' " She needed all the strength that He who is the source of it could give ; for on leaving the Cathedral she had to repair to the Tuilleries—r-to that house of her parents which she had not seen since that fatal 10 th of August , when she had left it with those who were never to cross its threshold again , and traversing the garden which was to them as the valley of the shadow of death , went to ask succour of that Assembl y * who , pledging themselves to give it , consigned those who

    asked it to hard captivity and unjust death . Of the five royal supplicants of that day one alone survived . ; arid she , again to reach the palace from Ayhich she had been thrust / had made a wide and weary pilgrimage . She had stood face to face with death , had endured a mortal agony ctaiel as violent death itself , had been shut up in a dungeon , had sighed through a long exile , and wandered from court to court , from refuge to refuge ; and after all , here she was once more , in sight ofnay , her feet upon—the very threshold from which she had been driven , with all she loved . There stood there to receive her two hundred beautiful girls and women attired in white , on which the Bourbon lily was profusely embroidered . The son of one of them , a boy 6 f the age of the Dauphin when he and his sister ^ hand in hand , had fled from this spot , addressed to her a few words of welcome * She was deeply moved , and was quite unable to reply , the return was so different from the departure;— -ah ! if there had . been the same love theti ^ . The sense of the contrast overcame her ; and when this fair escort of two hundred ladies fell on

    their knees , asking the ' * daughter of St . Louis' to bless them as she passed , and , as they knelt , allowing her again to see that staircase by which she had descended with her mother , memory became too much for her , and yielding to emotions born of the past as much as of the present , she fell to the ground jn a swoon , oppressed alike with the pain of old griefs and actual joy . It was long before she recovered ; and when at length she was restored to consciousness , and found herself once more in the boudoir which , had been the favourite apartment of the ( Jueen her mother , she counted in her heart those who were wanting to this day of joy , and , bursting forth into convulsive sobs , she hurried from a chamber so prolific of sad memories . " ¦¦ ... ' ¦

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    NATURAL HISTORY OF ANIMALS . The Natural History of Animals : being the Substance of Lectures delivered before the Koyal Institution . By T . Bymer Jones , FJt . S . 2 vols . Van Voorst [ second akticxe . } W ^ return ~ $ o these volumes for a more specific descriptionrof their contents . They are but the commencement of a work which , when completed , will stand alone in our language as a popular exposition of the organization and functions of the animal-world . Comparative anatomy , the most fascinating of studies , is here brought within the reach of the general reader , who is not harassed by technical terms , rising like barriers between the subject and his understanding . The first volume embraces d i of the h Pol InfusoriaSJNettJesAnne

    a escrption Zoopytes , ypes , , ea , - lida , « fec ; the second is devoted to the large class of Insects . In following Mr . JRymer Jones , the reader follows the ascending scale of JS " ature , from simple to complex forms , and learns something of the great life of our universe so prodigally manifest . As we have repeatedly said , the great error of Naturalists and Physiologists has been the neglect of Nature ' s own progressive Method , and the almost universal commencing with the study of man and the higher animals , insteading of ascending to that study through the simpler forms of life . This History of Animals will suggest a better route . It is excessively difficult to define what an animal is , when we cease considering the higher types , and endeavour to trace the origin of animal

    life ; for at what seems the boundary line we find an inextricable entanglement of vegetable with animal life , ao that the name of zoophyte ( animal-plant ) has to be given to these equivocal creatures—a bad name , let us observe in passing , because , to say the least , it inverts the order of Nature ; if the composite term must be allowed , let us more correctly choose phytozoon ( plant-animal ) , which keeps Nature ' s progression from vegetable to animal distinctly in view . Nor is this criticism purely technical , for recent inquiries tend to make manifest that some of these creatures are true vegetables at the earlier and animals at the later stages of their existence . When some definition of an animal is secured , the important step of classification is to be taken . That proposed by Linncous has been set aside for the superior , yet imperfect classification of Cuvier dofect

    —viz ., Verfcebrata , Mollusca , Articulata , Eadiata . The inherent of this classification is , that it misses tho one true principle of arranging all the forms of life according to the dominant and co-ordinating condition- — i , c , the nervous system . And according to this principle Professor Owen has arranged animals into Acinta , wherein no distinct trace of nerve is visible ; Nematoneura , wherein the threads of nervo begin to appear ; Jlomoganqliata , wherein the nervous centres ( ganglia , or small brains , ) appear arranged in two parallel series , each pair a repetition of the othors ; Jleteroaanaliata , wherein tho ganglia become more varied both in form and in distribution , implying greater complexity of structuro in the animal ; and finally Vertcbrata , whoroin tho ganglia are once more arranged in . a parallel series , but inclosod in a bony or cartilaginous column .

    The transcendental anatomists have another classification . Wo will give that proposed by Carua , as one useful for the student to bear in mind . He begins with Oozoa , or those simple forms of lifo which may » e called eggs ; they consist of a moro albuminous globule without distinct organs ( Zoophytes , Infusoria , Kadiata . ) Next como the Corpozoa , ° r animals with bodies ; tho vitollino sao becomes an intestine ; the stomach and genital organs form tho essential portions of the abdomen , in antagonism to which the lungs and central organs of circulation are developed . Abdomen and thorax thus constitute in the idea of a trunk the most important organs . Honce the Corpoaoa are divided into

    Gwterozoa , in whom the abdominal region predominates ( as Mollusca ) ,, and Tkoracozoa , in whom the thoracic development begins—Articulata . After these come the Gepkalozoa , iq whom the head is developed- —* , e ., tne animal organs and n « rvous system . These Gephalozoa are divided into four sub-kingdoms , like those of the Vertebrata ; thus , CepJialo-acidozoa ( Fishes ) , in whom the genital organs have the primitive ovarian form j Gephalo-qaslerozoa ( Reptiles ) , inwhomthe abdominal organs are developed ; Cephalo-thoracozoa ( Birds ) , in whom the thorax is developed ; arid finally CepJidlo-cephalozoa ( Mammalia ) , in whom the head is developed . Mr . Rymer Jones adopts Owen ' s classification . After a lucid and entertaining description of Sponges , and Fungi , he enters upon the Acrita , and devotes some hundred pages to their marvels . Head this , for example : —

    " ¦ We may well suppose that it would be a beautiful and a wonderful sight , could we contemplate , in its native locality , a mass of mandrepore , even of the dimensions here delineated , covered with its living investment , and feeding itself by the agency of countless mouths , each endowed with separate life and distinct power of action j slowly precipitating from the surrounding sea cretaceous pai-ticles wherewith to build its stony fabric j gradually constructing , layer by layer , and stratum upon stratum , the elaborately-formed polypary , or skeleton peculiar to its species . But let us not circumscribe our ideas within these petty limits : rather let us give our fancy free scope ; for widely indeed must we stretch our imagination if we are at all to appreciate the importance of the class of animals we are now considering . Let us endeavour to picture to ourselves an extent of the bed of the ocean , spacious as these realms that we inhabit , carpeted with living plants ; every blade of grass

    and every flower instinct with life , and all the vast expanse busily engaged in deriving from the surrounding water materials for subsistence : let us consider that , from age to age , the wide-spread scene is building up , by constant precipitation from the sea , a rocky territory , co-extensive with itself , and then we shall perceive that , in the course of time , even these almost unknown members of the animal creation may perform achievements at which the boldest mind is startled when it comes to survey what they have accomplished . Gradually , the accumulating pile rises towards the surface of the sea , and , at length , after the lapse of ages , portions of the rocky fabric show themselves above the waves . Here further growth is checked ; the polyps cannot live beyond the point where water freely reaches them , from whence they may derive the means of nutriment , and thus they perish . Still the structure reared becomes a nucleus round which materials may

    be gathered ; and the multitudes of zoophytes , still living and still acting , swell its bulk , and add continually materials near the edge of the increasing reef . The storm tears up the dirt and sand and sea-weed from the deep to heap it on the summit of the nascent island . Animal and vegetable substances are slowly , but constantly , thrown upon the new-formed rock , and , being entangled among the coral , perish . These decay , and , by decomposition , form a mould fit to support the growth of plants . Seeds arrive , brought there by accident , or by the visits of migrating birds , which , soon taking root , become the germs of future vegetation , till , at length , islands , both broad and long , and richly wooded , stretch where all was once deep sea . Man comes at last , and with him fit inhabitants to people these new countries—regions snatched from ocean by the silent toil of beings such as those we have described . "

    We cannot follow him in his account of the progressive development of the Polypes , or his equally interesting chapter on Infusoria . They must be consulted and studied . As he says" Take any drop of water from the stagnant pools around us , from our rivers , from our lakes , or from the vast ocean itself , and place it under your microscope ; you will find therein countless living beings , moving in all directions with considerable swiftness , apparently gifted with sagacity , for they readily elude each other in the active dance they keep up . And since they -never como into rude contactobviously exercise volition and sensation in guiding their movements .

    , "Increase tho power of your glasses and you will soon perceive , inhabiting tho same drop , other animals , compared to which the former wore elephantine in their dimensions , ' equally vivacious and equally gifted . Exhaust tho art of the optician , strain your eye to the utmost , until the aching sense refuses to perceive tho little quivering movement that indicates tho presence of life , and you will find that you . have not exhausted Nature in tho descending scale . Perfect as our optical instruments now arc , wo need not bo long in convincing ourselves that there arc animals around us so small that , in all probability , human perseverance will fail in enabling us accurately to detect their forms , much less fully to understand their

    organization ! " Vain , indeed , would it bo to attempt by words to give anything like a definite notion of the minuteness of some of these- multitudinous races . Let mo ask tho reader to divide an inch into 22 , 000 parts , and appreciate mentally the valuo of each division : having done so , and not till then , shall wo have a standard sufficiently minute to enable us to measure tho microscopic beings , upon tho consideration of which wo are now entering . " Neither is it easy to give tho student of nature , who has not accurately investigated tho subject for himself , adequato conceptions relative to tho numbers in which tho Infusoria sometimes crowd tho waters they frequent ; but lot him take his microscope , and tho means of making a rough estimate , ut least , uro easily at his disposal . Ho will soon perccivo that tho animalcule-inhabitants of a drop of putrid water , possessing , an many of them do , dimensions not larger than tho l-2000 th part of a line , swifh so close together that tho intervals separating them

    are not greater than their own bodies . Tho matter , therefore-, becomes a question for arithmotic to solve , and we will pause to inako tho calculation . " Tho Monas lermo , for example , —a creature that might bo pardonably regarded as an embodiment of tho mathematical point , almost literally without either length or breadth or thickness—has boon calculated to measure about tho 22 , 000 th part of an inch in its transverse diameter ; and in water taken from tho surface of many putrid infusions , they nro crowded as closely « n wo havo stated above . We may , therefore-, safely say , that , swimming nt ordinary distances apart , 10 , 000 of thorn would bo contained in a linear space , one inch in length , and , consequently a cubic inch of such water will thus contain moro living and aotivo organized beings than there- avo human inhabitants upon tho wholo surface of this globe ! However astounding such a fact muy scorn when first enunciated , none is moro cosily demonstrated with tho assistance of n good microscope . *

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    Jvve 19 ; 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 591 _ ¦ ¦¦ _ ¦¦¦ . ¦¦ -. ¦¦' . ¦ ' " ¦ - ¦ ^ 7 ~ ^ ~^ - ^

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    * In an address lately delivered boforo tho Microscopical Society of London , Professor Owon , tho proBidont , in allusion to researches such as those , observed that , in Creation , " everything is gjcat or email only , by coinpwwon . Tho toleacopo toachoa us that our

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 19, 1852, page 591, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1940/page/19/