general and unexampled effort. Nor will you forget the frequent Auctuations of your own feelings, nor the tendency which this will often have, to throw an adventitious dulness around the pulpit labours of even an ardently pious and devoted minister. And after all, my brethren, we must ever bear in mind, that we repair to the sanctuary for instruction as well as impression, and that the latter will prove very inefficient without the former. Hearers of the gospel have great need to aspire, in general, to a more correct mode of thinking on this topic, while ministers should be ever careful to exhibit Divine truth in its due proportion and harmony. "It will regulate your views on the subject of ministerial responsibility; and you will never think of that account which the pastors of the church will have to render, at a future day, to the Supreme Judge, without, at the same time, anticipating the solemn moment when you also must lay aside your characters as hearers of the gospel, and must obey the dread mandate-"Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward."* "It will regulate your views on the subject of ministerial visits; and you will have too high a sense of Christian integrity to lay claim to an undue proportion of your pastor's invaluable time. You will never wish to convert him into a religious gossip. You will be uniformly discreet in your expectations, and will always receive him, not as a mere guest at your table, not simply as a gentleman, not merely as a private and faithful friend, but as a "man of God," whose office it is, both in and out of the pulpit, to promote the spirituality of your minds. There are very many who think their claim to the frequent visits of their minister is as clearly established as the evidence of the Christian faith, and are instantly offended if their extravagant wishes are not realized, who would rather relinquish their claim than be subject to the intrusion of a visit strictly pastoral, in which devout conversation, instruction, and prayer, constituted the prominent features. Till the good old method-and the method which still obtains, among some bodies of Presbyterians in Scotland,—of turning the pastor's visit to religious account, be restored, I despair of hearing that the clamour of the non visitation of ministers has ceased. "It will regulate your views on the subject of a minister's attentions to the sick. In this part of his embassage of mercy, he will realize the greatest possible delight; and never will he feel himself treading more directly in the footsteps of his heavenly Master, than when hastening to the abode of sorrow, there to point the afflicted to the cross of Christ, to the promises of the gospel, and to the hopes of a better world. But, while this will be his delight, let no one imagine, at any time, that he is gifted with omniscience to know every case of sickness or of accident that occurs within the sphere of his labour. When God lays his hand upon you, it is your duty, forthwith, to endeavour to find some one who will convey the *Luke xvi. 2. † 1 Tim. vi. 1. 2 Tim. iii. 17. intelligence to the ear of your pastor; in this way, an unseasonable delay will be prevented, and you will not be led to cherish the unkind and ungenerous suspicion, that he forgets you in the day of your adversity. "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.' 米 "It will regulate your views on the subject of a minister's success. You will not presumptuously imagine that it is with him to command the blessing. It is his, indeed, to labour, and watch, and pray, and exercise dependence; but it is with God to breathe upon the slain, that they may live;"+ as in the natural world, so also in the spiritual, it is with Him to "send prosperity." The full conviction of this truth will stimulate you to fervent, and oftrepeated, prayer for the Divine benediction; and should it please God to withhold the increase, or only to grant it but partially, you will thus be prevented from undue despondency, on the one hand, and from a disposition to reflect on instruments, on the other. And should "times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord,"S the instrument will not be blighted by having that honour heaped upon it which belongs exclusively to God. I cannot help considering it as most momentous, that the hearers of the gospel should think and feel correctly on this head, as it is one of a decidedly practical nature. In too many religious circles, the whole system hangs on the minister: if his popularity, or his better qualities, succeed in filling the pews, all is well; the funds prosper; his deacons can afford to pay him a liberal salary; and the pecuniary engagements of the place are met with ease, and with an air of independent dignity. Let the picture, however, be reversed; and, with equal excellence of character, though with talents less splendid, let the minister labour with a more measured popularity, let the pews be less generally filled, let the places be less handsomely supported,—and the whole affair is charged to the account of the minister, however active his exertions, and however amiable and pious his spirit. There is much of the spirit of the world in all this, and something that stands in entire opposition to the kingdom of Christ." [pp. 241-6.] Upon the whole, we cordially recommend these lectures, as a useful and interesting publication; abounding with salutary cautions, judicious hints, and powerful exhortations, in connection with the various branches of moral obligation, and adapted to the peculiar circumstances of society at large, and the Christian church, in the age in which we live. * James v. 14, 15. + Ezek. xxxvii. 9. Psalm cxviii. 25. An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Steam Engine, comprising a general view of the various mods of employing Elastic Vapour as a prime mover in Mechanics; with an Appendix of Patents and Parliamentary Papers connected with the subject. By Charles Frederick Partington, of the London Institution. 8vo. London, 1822. pp. 303. Taylor. AN interesting report upon the subject of Steam Navigation, has just been published by a Committee of the House of Commons, in the historical part of which, the work we have placed at the head of this article forms a prominent feature. Indeed, the vast importance of the steamengine, in a national and commercial point of view, evidently gives it a considerable claim upon public attention. This stupendous machine is usually considered of comparatively modern invention; its first practical application may however be traced to a much earlier period. ́În 1629, a steam apparatus was employed to give motion to a wheel in the laboratory of an Italian philosopher of the name of Brancas; though this was nothing more than a large æolipile, an instrument frequently described by the early Greek writers. The æolipile, or hollow ball, employed by Brancas, being filled with water, and placed upon the fire, was furnished with a small tube for the passage of the steam, which rushing with considerable violence from the mouth of the jet-pipe, was directed against the vanes of a float-wheel, thus producing a continuous rotatory motion. A description of this apparatus, illustrated by an engraved figure, is preserved in a very rare work, entitled Le Machine, dedicated to M. Canci, who it appears was governor of Loretto, in 1628. After the publication of this scheme, which it is probable was never put in practice with any very useful effect, nearly thirty years elapsed ere the farther consideration of this important subject was resumed by the Marquis of Worcester, in his Century of Inventions. This part of the early history and subsequent improvement of the Steam-Engine, may, however, be better given in Mr. Partington's own words: "It is said that the Marquis, while confined in the Tower of London, was preparing some food on the fire of his apartment, and the cover having been closely fitted, was, by the expansion of the steam, suddenly forced off, and driven up the chimney. This circumstance attracting his attention, led him to a train of thought, which terminated in this important discovery. But no figure has been preserved of his invention; nor, as we have good reason to suppose, any description of the machine he employed, except the sixty-eighth article in the above-mentioned work. We shall content ourselves, therefore, with extracting that article from the noble author's MS. preserved in the British Museum. "An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire; not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for that must be, as the philosophers call it, infra sphæram activitatis, which is but at such a distance. But this way hath no boundary, if the vessels be strong enough; for I have taken a piece of a whole cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it three quarters full of water, stopping and screwing up the broken end, as also the touch-hole; and making a constant fire under it, within twenty-four hours it burst, and made a great crack; so that having found a way to make my vessels, so that they are strengthened by the force within them, and the one to fill after the other, I have seen the water run like a constant fountain stream, forty feet high; one vessel of water, rarefied by fire, driveth up forty of cold water. And a man that tends the work is but to turn two cocks, that one vessel of water being consumed, another begins to force and refill with cold water, and so successively, the fire being tended and kept constant, which the self-same person may likewise abundantly perform in the interim, between the necessity of turning the said cocks.' Vide Harleian MSS. No. 2428. "In 1683, a scheme for raising water by the agency of steam was offered to the notice of Louis XIV. by an ingenious English mechanic, of the name of Morland; this, however, was evidently formed upon the plan previously furnished by the Marquis of Worcester, in his Century of Inventions. Morland was presented to the French monarch in 1682, and in the course of the following year his apparatus is said to have been actually exhibited at St. Germain's. The only notice of this plan occurs in the collection of MSS. to which we have already alluded, and forms the latter part of a very beautiful volume, containing about thirty-eight pages, and entitled "Elevation des Eaux, par toute sorte de Machines, réduite a la mésure, au poids, et a la balance. Presentée a sa Majesté tres Chrestienne, par le Chevalier Morland, gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre privée, et maistre des méchaniques du Roy de la Grande Brétaigne, 1683." "The invention of the atmospheric engine, though usually ascribed to Newcomen, or his coadjutor Savery, is unquestionably of French origin. An account of it having been published twelve years prior to the commencement of Newcomen's patent. "In 1695, Papin, then resident at Cassel, published a work, describing a variety of methods for raising water, in which he enumerates the above invention. Being unable to procure this tract, we insert the following translation of that part which relates to the steam-engine. It occurs in the Transactions of the Royal Society, for 1697. After alluding to the inconvenience of forming a vacuum by means of gunpowder, which was one of his early propositions, he recommends 'the alternately turning a small surface of water into vapour, by fire applied to the bottom of the cylinder that contains it, which vapour forces up the plug in the cylinder to a considerable height, and which (as the vapour condenses, as the water cools when taken from the fire) descends again by the air's pressure, and is applied to raise the water out of the mine.' From this it will be evident that any practical mechanic would have suggested the further application of pumps and a working beam or lever similar to those in Newcomen's engine. To experimentally illustrate the principle on which the steam or atmospheric engine acts, we have only to procure an hollow bulb of glass, connected with a tube of the same material, about four or five inches in length, and furnished with a piston or plug, sliding air-tight. A small quantity of water being placed in the vessel, must then be heated to the boiling point, and the vapour formed will speedily impel the piston to the open end. The bulb must now be withdrawn from the candle, and on being immersed in a vessel of cold water, the vapour will rapidly condense; and the minute particles of which it is composed will return to their original bulk. A vacuum being thus formed within the vessel, the piston will be driven into the tube with a force proportionate to its diameter; the atmosphere or air that surrounds it pressing with a weight equal to about fifteen pounds on each inch of its entire surface. On the heat being again applied, the process may be repeated with a similar result. If the glass tube be lengthened, and bent in the form of an inverted U, or syphon, with the lower leg immersed in an open reservoir of water, thirty feet below the heated bulb, it will be found, after a repetition of the process of condensation, that the pressure of the atmosphere, acting upon the surface of the water, will so far tend to fill up the vacuum, as to raise the water contained in the open reservoir to the top of the vessel; and it is upon this latter principle, that Savery's first engines were constructed; the remaining lift being effected by the repellent force of steam." [p. 5-12.] The atmospheric engine above described, is now, however, almost entirely superseded by the more improved engines introduced by Messrs. Boulton and Watt, and Trevithick and Woolf; the latter of which is generally employed in the mining districts of Cornwall, &c. Mr. Watt's attention was first drawn to this subject by an examination of a small model of an atmospheric engine, belonging to the University of Glasgow, which he had undertaken to repair; and having discovered that the great waste of fuel in the old engine arose from the alternate heating and cooling of the cylinder, by the admission and subsequent condensation of the steam he perceived that to make an engine in which the destruction of steam should be |