Notices of New Works.

Hosking's Guide to Healthy Homes.-John Murray,

Albemarle Street.

chimneys and fire-places. In the case of large buildings, used for the convenience of numbers of people, there is no doubt about its superiority; but in private dwellings and sleeping-rooms, especially in the smaller houses devoted to the poorer classes of society, there is but little, Manual of Public Health.-John Churchill, Princes St. if any hope of seeing the system introduced. If these ONE of the most cheering signs of the times in which places are to be ventilated at all, it must be by the natural we live, is undoubtedly, the constant republication of movements of the air, caused by variations in temcopyright works of the highest character, at such prices perature. The principles and practice of this mode of as bring them within the reach of large numbers of ventilation (which we believe to be efficient for all private the people. If we bear in mind the known axiom in rooms) are equally easy; the impure air, caused by political economy, that the demand creates the supply, breathing and by the burning of lights, is at first warm, we shall at once perceive that this fact is exceedingly and therefore lighter than the pure air, it therefore rises, creditable to the industrious masses, being indicative of and an exit should be provided for its escape; this is most an appetite on their part for something more solid, in effectually accomplished by an Arnott's valve fixed in the the way of mental food, than the diluted trash with chimney-flue; but as the foul air cannot escape unless which, until within a few short years, it has been the fresh air flows in to supply its place, an entrance must custom to serve them. And which may be regarded as a be made for that purpose; this is most pleasantly done gratifying set-off against the large circulation of the by means of a sheet of perforated zinc, which, by dividing wretched garbage of the Newgate school, with which the entering air into minute jets, and mingling it with (thanks to the authors of Oliver Twist and Jack Shep-the warm atmosphere in the room, prevents a draught, pard, who first set the fashion) our periodical shops are and which should be placed in the window or door at as now constantly inundated. The work of Mr. Hosking great a height and distance from the fire as possible. All is one which has thus been re-issued in a new and this may be accomplished for a few shillings, and those cheaper edition; proceeding as it does, from the pen of who require further information on the matter, are referred one holding the position of Official Referee of Metropo- to a tract on the ventilation of rooms, contained in the litan Buildings, and Professor of Engineering Construc-" Manual of Public Health," which may be obtained sepations at King's College, it comes stamped with a semi-rately, if desired, at the cost of one penny; but the entire official authority. A large portion of the book is devoted to a consideration of the Regulation of Buildings, as to their safe structure in respect to permanence, and their security against fire; to the members of building societies and all persons about to purchase or build houses, these chapters will be found more especially valuable. Those which follow upon the drainage and ventilation of houses, are sound, sensible, and above all, practical. The Author speaking in his official capacity, complains strongly of the utter ignorance of the first principles of ventilation, which he finds to exist in all classes of society. In speaking of the erection of churches, chapels, concert-rooms, &c., he states, that seldom has he met with an instance in which a knowledge of the most obvious principles of ventilation was shown, and he further adds:

Manual," which consists of eight such numbers, each one devoted to the amelioration of some evil in the physical condition of the working man, is most strenuously recommended to the consideration of all classes in society.

There is one class of persons to whose consideration we would most especially recommend the attentive perusal of the works whose titles head this article; they are the employers, whose businesses lead to the assembly of numbers of work-people in small rooms; to the wholesale milliners and flower-makers. to the large book binders, and others similarly situated, we would offer this valuable advice. Remember that each person in your employ requires every minute, twice the bulk of his or her body of fresh air, and that unless this is supplied, weariness, lassitude and oppression come creeping on; the work which "But it is not alone such public buildings in which you have entrusted to their care can neither be so quickly, attempts at ventilation are made in a manner wholly de- or so perfectly executed: but not to appeal to so low a void of all useful purpose. In club-houses and in public motive as self-interest, recollect that you are, by shutting offices, in banking-houses and in taverns, the luffered people up in close, over-heated, ill-ventilated work-rooms, glass ventilator may be seen in the windows, producing injuring their constitutions for their whole lives, and this in summer no useful effect in which a partially opened not from the desire of gain, for you are losing by so dowindow will not excel it, whilst in winter it is screwed up ing, but solely from " ignorance of the most obvious tightly, that it may not admit a cold draught. Sometimes principles of ventilation." Many are the rooms we know in private houses, and in other buildings too, sly ways of, where thirty to forty young girls work, and in which for the escape of spent air are made in the curbs of sky- there is not the slightest attempt at ventilation; in sumlights, or by an ingenious disposition of the glass to that mer the open windows give rise to irregular draughts, effect; but the potent fires demand air, and a cold down- and these are followed by colds and inflammations; in draught points out that the sky-light, or lantern-light, or winter, when from the burning gas more air is required, something about it, is defective. Sometimes, again, an there is none admitted, and the foul atmosphere and opening may be found to have been cut into a chimney-oppressive heat, alternating with exposure to the out-door flue, to take advantage of the up-draught of the fire, cold, hurry many a poor girl to that home where "the but here again no way has been provided for air to feed weary are at rest." the fire, and the valve is close shut; or the fire, like the inmates, would seek to respire again the air it had already destroyed. The very absurdity indeed, of providing for the exit from an apartment of spent air, without providing for air in some condition or other to supply its place, cannot, perhaps, be more aptly illustrated than by supposing a barrel of beer to be tapped, and no vent made; whilst dependence upon the opening of a door or window to give the requisite 'vent' to an apartment, may be likened to giving vent to the barrel, by drawing the bung every time a jug of beer is wanted."

Mr. Hosking is rather in favour of what has been called mechanical ventilation, by the aid of flues, pumps, &c., than of the natural system by the action of ordinary

Whatever may be thought of the folly of those persons who ruin their own health, and lessen their energies, both mental and bodily, by breathing again the sickening vitiated air which has just escaped from their own lungs, or from those of others, there can be but one opinion as to the bounden duty of all employers, to make themselves so far acquainted with the laws regulating the health of man, as to prevent their becoming the causes of sickness, want and poverty, a diseased life and early grave, to those whom circumstances have thrown into their employ. That we have not overstated the evil influence of this widely spread ignorance of the health of the working classes, the following remarks from the " Manual of Public Health," bear witness.

"If the popular mind were properly informed on the subject, we should not hear of the waste of life among working men, now regarded as almost inevitable, caused by the foul air they continually breathe in their workshops and dwellings. Were it generally known that pure air is absolutely essential to healthy existence, we should not read that at a Christmas meeting in the Highlands, thirty-six persons danced the whole night in a small room with a low ceiling, keeping the windows and door shut. The atmosphere of the room was noxious beyond description, and the effect was that seven of the party were soon after seized with typhus fever, of which two died; nor of 80 journeymen tailors sitting in one room, close together, nearly knee to knee,' where the closeness was such that new hands' fainted away in the shop-the men were in continual perspiration, and large tallow candles'melted and fell over,' from the suffocating heat. And where those not accustomed to the place generally lost appetite, and had recourse to drink as a stimulant, gin being taken instead of food,' while a considerable portion of the working hours of every day were lost, and the ultimate incapacity for performing any longer a good and profitable day's work was much hastened by the neglect of the ventilation of the place of work.'. It has also been given in evidence, that the closer the ventilation of the places of work, the worse are the habits of the men working in them.""

:

a motto on a title page, stands foremost that great truth of progression; for nature's actions seem all upspringing and lofty. But tell me why you now doubt this?" Look," replied the pupil, "at the constant discharge of hail from those murky clouds which shed a funeral gloom on all things. Down, down come the hailstones, fast descending: but how you can claim that fact as an illustration, I cannot think. My bright faith is dimmed. Yet, explain it, if you can, so that my fear may be converted into faith." "Listen, then, to my explanation, and learn the lesson of the hail. As the showers of congealed water, and balls of frozen snow, fall in thick array upon the bosom of the earth, so the words of wisdom and truth upon the heart as the gracious earth opens its breast, and absorbs the dissolved hail, that it may, in the form of water, aid the fertilization and fruitfulness of the land; so the mind, by means of memory, receives and admits the precious well-digested truths of wisdom, and retains them, that they may assimilate to the life of man, and render him fruitful in good works. The rays of the life-giving sun, in the beautiful fulfilment of the divine plans, draw by evaporation constant and rich supplies from rivulet and 'running brook,' as they sing their songs of gladness to the audience of flowers which their virtues have drawn around, as well as from the broad mirror of the ocean. Hence these dissolved hailstones returned to their original element, will form a portion of the sun's sup"The breathing of impure air is also the fruitful cause plies, and become transformed into vapour and clouds, to of two terrible diseases, Scrofula and Consumption. No be wafted over us by the summer breeze, and afterwards matter what the condition-the highest ranks as well as to descend and minister to the fainting children of Flora, the lowest suffer alike, unless they continually change and and make the hopes and heart of the husbandman exbreathe pure air. In the reports of the Health of Towns' pand. So too the precious words of wisdom and truth, Commission, it is given in evidence that cases of this dis- when changed into heavenly knowledge, shall become that ease have been traced to the patient's habit of sleeping with vital seed of faith which blooms with immortality, and his head under the bedclothes, whereby he breathed the which, whoever possesses, enables him to overcome the same poisonous air all through the night. At some world,' and to joy in tribulation; knowing that the chills villages in France, where the people lived in low, damp and storms of this earthly time are the appointed means of houses, ill-lighted, and entirely unventilated, nearly the working out, in due season, a far more exceeding and whole of them were seized with scrofula, and many fani- eternal weight of glory.' If coming events cast their lies, continually ravaged by that malady became extinct-shadows before,' we may affirm that the hail and darkness their last members died rotten with scrofula.' The same fatal results are seen in England, in the miserable dwellings of the poor, and in the mansions of the rich."

We cannot conclude without again strongly recommending both works to the attention of those of our readers to whom they respectively apply. Mr. Hosking's book will be found of great value to all about to build or buy houses; whilst the "Manual will be equally valuable to all who occupy them, or in other words to-everybody.

of to-day is but the shadow of the coming progress; and
the moral is well expressed by Professor Longfellow, in
his 'Rainy Day.'

Be still, sad heart and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some hail must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.'"

"Forgive me, said George, "I now perceive the lesson of
the hail, and never again shall doubt make me apprehen-
sive that nature does not, in all her instructions, teach
progression and infinite advancement.
G. R. T.

WRONG ACTIONS.

"THE LESSON OF THE HAIL." "Progress is the rule of all."-CHAS. MACKAY. "You have often told me," said a youth to his in- Remorse does but add to the evil which bred it, when structor, "that nature, in all her changes and aspects, it promotes, not penitence, but despair. To have erred teaches the lesson of continual advancement; and I have in one branch of our duties does not unfit us for the peralways found it true till now; for the hills rise with their formance of all the rest, unless we suffer the dark spot snowy crests to the skies, and the flowers that modestly to spread over our whole nature, which may happen blossom at their base look ardently and faithfully up- almost unobserved in the torpor of despair. This kind wards; and even the bird which builds its nest amid the of despair is chiefly grounded on a foolish belief that indicrags of the mountain, wings its way heavenward, piercingvidual words or actions constitute the whole life of man; in its adventurous flight the misty veil of cloudlets. whereas they are often not fair representatives of portions The trustful little child, too, that kneels each evening even of that life. The fragments of rock in a mountain at his mother's knees, lisping its praises at the footstool stream may tell much of its history, are in fact results of of love, turns with fondness and faithfulness its blue its doings, but they are not the stream. They were swimming eyes of beauty towards the sky-towards the brought down when it was tu. bid; it may now be clear; home and habitation of Him who took little children in they are as much the result of other circumstances as of his arms and blessed them, and whose profound instruc- the action of the stream; their history is fitful; they tions were simplified by such admirable references to give us no sure intelligence of the future course of the natural objects, and the works of creation." "Yes, stream, or of the nature of its waters; and may scarcely George, I repeat what I have always wished you to re- show more than that it has not been always as it is. The member that the lessons inscribed upon the open page actions of men are often but little better indications of of nature are varied, and valuable indeed; and that, like the men themselves.-Friends in Council.

ON RECEIVING A BUNCH OF HEATHER,
GORSE, AND FERN.

WILD blossoms of the moorland, ye are very dear to me;
Ye lare my dreaming spirit as the clover does the bee;

Ye bring back all my childhood loved, when Freedom, Joy, and
Health

Had never thought of weaving chains to fetter Fame and Wealth.
Wild blossoms of the common land, brave tenants of the sod,
Your breathings were among the first that told me of a God;
And how my reckless steps would bound, and how my heart would
burn,

Where gorse and heather flung their arms above the forest fern.

Wild blossoms of the lonely waste, no fear could ever daunt
My tiny feet from wandering amid your jungle haunt;
And many a bunch of purple bells that towered above myself,
And many a fragrant brake I pulled like some wee sylvan elf.
But, ah! those tempting leaves of gold were difficult to get;
Alas, I prove that winning gold is not more easy yet!
But then my fingers only felt the sharp and piercing smart,
And now I find the worldly thorns oft leave a bleeding heart.

Oh, happy time, cre ruth or rhyme had crossed my sunny brain,
"Tis not worth while to ask if such a time will come again;
For then my soul had not a thought but might be told aloud,
And Pleasure's optics always gave the bow without its cloud.
How bright my eye was when I gazed upon the plumes of green,
And saw young rabbits in their play go speeding on between;
When burrowed sand with root-bound arch formed strange and
antique bowers,
And ye,
wild blossoms of the waste, were fresh and Eden flowers.
Who loved me then? Oh, those who were as gentle as sincere,
Who never kissed my cheek so hard as when it owned a tear.
Whom did I love? Oh, those whose faith I never had to doubt;
Those who grew anxious at my sigh and smiled upon my pout.
What did I crave? The power to rove unquestioned, at my will;
Oh wayward idler that I was, perchance I am such still.
What did I fear? No chance or change, so that it did not turn
My footstep from the moorland coast, the heather and the fern.

Methinks it was a pleasant time, those gipsy days of mine,
When youth with rosy magic turned life's waters into wine;
But nearly all who shared those days have passed away from earth,
Passed in their beauty and their prime, their happiness and mirth.
So now, rich flowers of the waste, I'll sit and talk to ye,
For Memory's casket, filled with gems, is opened by your key;
And God be thanked that I can grasp your blossoms sweet and wild,
And find myself a dotard yet, a dreamer and a child.

LOVE AND YOUTH.

ELIZA COOK.

Why do we give the name of folly to that courage of a youthful heart which makes it endure all things, and which gives it strength to live in misery, in a desert, in a cabin, provided that it be not separated from the object

DIAMOND DUST.

Ir is in general the natural refuge of mortified vanity, to persuade itself that it retorts contempt upon those that show it, and to pass off upon itself the anger it feels, for the more dignified passion of scorn.

REPROVE others, but correct thyself.

By relying on our own resources, we acquire mental strength; but when we lean on others for support, we are like an invalid who, having accustomed himself to a crutch, finds it difficult to walk without one.

IDLENESS-the sure pilot-fish of crime and shame.

Be true to yourself for that which you recognise as right, be ready, not merely to die, for that is easy; but to live, and that is almost always difficult.

A ROOM is the large upper garment of a person, it betrays the habits, and somewhat of the character remains impressed on it. It is for this reason the chambers of famed or loved individuals are so much visited, one seems to look into their minds.

LET others apologize for us; if we can find an excuse for our conduct we might have found a way to act differently.

IT is better to need relief than to want heart to give it.

How large a portion of our happiness in this world arises from its vicissitudes? The truth is become a maxim continually proposed and immediately assented to, but who considers it? They are the changes of daily life which stimulate hope, regulate business, propose rest, and reward labour. Like our daily bread they must be looked for and prepared for. June and beauty are of little value unless marked. Our actions must be numbered like our milestones, and stand as they do at their appropriate sites, if we would rejoice in our progress.

EXCESS of ceremony shows want of breeding. That civility is best which excludes all superfluous formality.

SOLITUDE is only beneficial to the wise and the good. A PERSON that would secure to himself great deference, will, perhaps, gain his point by silence, as effectually as by anything he can say.

SYMPATHY Soothes us in sorrow, and gives a zest to our joy.

IF the clock of the tongue be not set by the dial of the heart, it will not go right.

BRAVE actions are the substance of life, and good sayings the ornament of it.

RESERVE is no more essentially connected with understanding, than a church organ with devotion, or wine with good-nature.

IN the music of silence there are a thousand variations, not in the knowledge of things without, but in the perfection of the soul within, lies the empire of man.

bles round a dinner table, and the wise host will cater THE public is a body very much like that which assem

for all.

of its love? Are not sacrifices still sacrifices, even if the object be only ideal? Are the sacrifices which men are daily making for the pursuit of wealth, glory or ambition, more real and more meritorious? And even if it be true THE streams of small pleasures fill the lake of happithat youth sometimes errs, by misplacing these warmness, and the deepest wretchedness of life is continuance affections, do we who blame it err less frequently? No! of petty pains. leave to youth its noble enthusiasm of feeling, instead of stifling it by your railleries: direct it towards the good, the beautiful, and the true, inscead of allowing it to exhaust itself on trifles; raise it to God to virtue and to eternity; the griefs and the cares of life, love deceived and friendship betrayed, will come soon enough to chill this ardent heart; too soon will come the time when reason and experience will touch all around with their freezing breath, when man will be tempted to believe no longer that happiness can be found on earth.-Family Pictures.

THERE are poets who never write a line, there is nothing in nature to which their imagination does not give a poetic hue; but the power to make others see these objects in the same poetic light is wanting. Still they must be men of fine powers and feelings, for next to being a great poet is the power of understanding one.

Printed and i'uished for the Proprietor, by JOHN OWEN CLARKE, (of No. 9, Hemingford Terrace, East, in the Parish of St. Mary, Islington, in the County of Middlesex) at his rinting Office, No. 3, Raquet Court, Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London, Saturday, January 5, 1850.

handed down with faithful accuracy from father to son. In the letters of M. Savary, a very particular account of In the cottages, the young people often gathered about these accomplished women may be found; they are called their father at night, to listen to family legends; he Almai, or learned, a title to which their acquirements justly raise them; they must be accurately acquainted would frequently entertain then with the plaintive with the rules of grammar, all the elegies, and pathetic melody or mournful ditty, composed by his great compositions, and all the lyric poetry of their country grandmother, on the death of her husband. Sometimes must be familiar to them; but it is not only in accomit detailed the wild adventure, or unlooked-for accident plishments that these must excel, who are admitted to the which had occasioned her loss; the most romantic tales distinguished order, for the rarest gifts of nature are of love—of the most disinterested devotion-of unbroken absolutely essential: a fine voice, harmonious diction, a lively imagination, and native eloquence which can adapt fidelity, were often the subjects of the family tradition itself to every mood of fancy, are requisite in those who or popular song. It is in like manner that the nurses in are to sing and to compose extempore on any given the Turkish harems recite the events of the times that subject. The presence of the Almai is considered inare gone, with a feeling which awakens the most lively dispensable at all entertainments and banquets; they are emotions. Songs of deep pathos, or of the lightest gaiety, placed in a raised orchestra, and, during the repast, they sing. When it is over, they descend, form dances, or, are accompanied by the slaves with the tambour de what might be more accurately described as pantomimes, basque and castanets. When the women are permitted in which they represent the various incidents of life-but to visit the graves of the dead, they may be seen strewing a love tale is the usual subject. M. Savary tells us that them with flowers, while they chant the solemn funeral the suppleness of their bodies is inconceivable, and the hymns. The Turks are, indeed, so passionately fond of flexibility of their features, which take impressions recitation, that they employ professed story-tellers, whose characteristic of the parts they play, quite astonishing." exhibitions are always sure to be crowded. We are in- We regret that he has been obliged to add that these exdebted to the graphic pen of Doctor Walsh for an hibitions are not remarkable for delicacy. The dress of animated description of the Turkish story-teller:-"The the Almai in the dance is a long and very light silk robe medac, or story-teller," he informs us, is a very im- which floats upon the ground, negligently girded by a portant personage, and an essential part of Turkish amuse-sash; their long black hair, perfumed, falls in tresses on ments; he enacts by himself in a monologue, various their shoulders. The sound of the flute, the castanets, characters, and with a spirit and fidelity quite astonishing, the tambour de basque, and cymbals regulate their moconsidering the inflexible and taciturn disposition of the tions. These Almai are admitted into all the harems, people. The admirable manner in which an unassisted they teach the women the new airs, recount love tales, individual supports the representations of various persons, and recite poems, which are interesting from being the versatility with which he adopts their countenance, pictures of their own manners. M. Savary describes attitude, and phraseology are so excellent, that Frank re- them as being eminently engaging and graceful; they sidents, who have been accustomed to the perfection of sing with the most expressive simplicity, their songs are the scenic art in their own country, are highly delighted sometimes light and gay, but it is in pathetic airs with this Turkish drollery. ****The place where the that they excel; they often move their auditors to tears medâc exhibits is usually a coffee-house; he generally by their touching expression. The Almai are present at has a small table placed before him, which he either marriage ceremonics, and precede the bride, playing oa stands behind or sits upon; his cuffs are turned up, and instruments; they attend the funerals, at which they sing he holds generally a small stick in his hand: if he illus- dirges, utter groans and lamentations, and imitate every trates a proverb, he gives it out as a text; he introduces moan of grief and despair. The Israelites, to whom individuals of all sects and nations, and imitates, with Egyptian manners, from long dwelling in Egypt, had beadmirable precision the language of each." In Doctor come natural, had their Almai at Jerusalem, as at Cairo ; Russell's history of Aleppo, we find a similar description it seems they gave the women lessons, joining the dance of the Eastern story-teller: his power of invention, and to recitation, and extemporary effusions are not peculiar to his ingenuity in combining the incidents which he borrows the Almai. From the earliest time we know that it acfrom other tales, and the constant variations which he companied the exhibition of dramatic power, and the unmakes in his details and catastrophes, are spoken of as premeditated song or the dance has been used on the giving endless novelty to what has often been heard most solemn and melancholy occasions; it is introduced before, under a different arrangement. So thoroughly by Sir Walter Scott into one of his most impressive are the powers of these story-tellers appreciated by the scenes. Movements remarkable for their reverential Government, that they often employ them to make some dignity and expression of profound grief were such, as we measure, which they are anxious should become popular, may suppose, were used as a mark of respect for the dead. the theme on which to ground their narrative. In Gesture appears to be the natural accompaniment of Tekriam (as we are informed by Sir Robert Ker Porter) strong emotion, indeed, it is so remarkably so, that we the national story-teller may be found entertaining his find them endowed with the most acute sensibility and audience under the covered way attached to the shops; quick feelings, almost always using action when they speak. persons of the highest rank think it no degradation to be The inhabitants of the sunny regions, whose spirits and among his listeners, and the company is consequently feelings may be influenced by the effect of climate on the strangely mixed; the monarch may often be seen nervous system, are evidently more quick in the senses, among the most squalid and ragged of his subjects; all and more animated in their gestures than those residing have an equal passion for hearing these tales. The in a colder latitude. This is exemplified by the Abbe King and Prince Governors have each a court story-teller; Raynal, in his "Survey of the European Settlements in the former passes all his leisure hours in listening to the East and West Indies;" in speaking of the negroes, him; he must always be within call to gratify his royal he says, "their organs are extremely sensible of the master, when he wishes to be amused with a story, and power of music; their ear is so true that, in their dances, so necessary does he consider him to his enjoyment, that the tune of a song makes them spring up, a hundred at he never undertakes a journey without him. The Hindoo once, striking the earth at the same instant, enchanted, Rajah has his family bard who recites his legends of as it were, with the voice of a singer, or the tone of a religion, or makes the exploits and adventures of his stringed instrument; a vibration of the air is the spirit employer's family the subject of his tale. The Almai of that actuates the bodies of those men; a sound agitates, Egypt are wonderfully skilful in extempore composition. transports, and throws them into ecstacies. In their