The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction | Page 8

saw them
direct their steps to the brother's grave. "Thank God, her grandfather is
not her only remaining stay!"
They quitted the place together; and many a sympathizing heart did
they leave behind them--by many an anxious wish and prayer were they
followed. The last promise required from me was, that I would see that
the grave of her brother was respected. What a pang did it cost her to
leave that grave?
I heard tidings of her three times afterwards. Her letters pleased me;
they testified a deep, but not a selfish or corroding grief--a power of
exertion, and a disposition to hope and be cheerful. The last letter I
received from her, arrived more than five years ago. She had taken the
name which I conjectured would in time be her's. She had lost her
grandfather; but the time was past when his departure could occasion
much grief. She was then going abroad with her husband, for an
indefinite period of time. If they were spared to return to their native
country, they proposed visiting my little dwelling once more, to gaze
with softened emotions on scenes sadly endeared to them, and to
mingle their tears once more over a brother's grave.
Perhaps that day may yet arrive.
Literary Magnet.
* * * * *

ARCANA OF SCIENCE.
* * * * *
_Polar Expedition._
It is known by the experience of all former voyages to the arctic circle,
that towards the end of the season, in consequence of the heat radiating
from the lard, the ice is detached from the shores of these seas, and
floats southward. Ice, therefore, does not detach from other ice, but
from the coast. Taking this principle with us, when we find that our
expedition traversed a surface of some hundred miles, we conclude,
whatever was the extent of that mass drifting south, it must have left an
equal extent of open water in its original place in the north. We also
infer, that there must be land at the north pole, from which this body
was separated; and that if it could have been entirely crossed, Captain
Parry and his companions would have found a clear sea for the boats,
and had little difficulty in reaching Polar Land.--Literary Gazette.
_Pemecan._
This substance (mentioned in our recent abstract of the Polar
Expedition as part of the provision for the crew) consists of meat
prepared in the same way that the Indians prepare their provision of
buffalo or deer. The flesh, beef in this case, is cut into stripes, and dried
by the smoke of wood. It is then beaten into a powder, and an equal
proportion of fat being melted, the whole is mixed up together into a
solid mass. It is evident that more of real sustenance from animal
matter cannot be combined in any less bulky or burdensome compound.
It makes an excellent and very nutritious soup.
_Egyptian Architecture._
It is somewhat surprising, that among the crowd of novelties, and very
especially of attempts to depart from the received models of
architecture, the Egyptian has not taken its share. It is true that some
very partial attempts have been made; in the metropolis, we believe,
not exceeding two; and if we add to these a school recently erected at
Devonport, a mausoleum at Trentham for the Stafford family, and an
iron-manufactory now erecting in Wales, we have probably enumerated
the whole. Such as the examples have been, they have not spread; and,
indeed, we may say, that they have scarcely attracted any notice,
whether for good or evil; though the publicity and singularity of aspect

of the most accessible specimen in Piccadilly might have at least been
expected to distinguish it, in the general eye, from the buildings by
which it is surrounded. As to the public, we find no difficulty in
accounting for this. This style has not been pointed out to them, and
they have not been desired either to admire or dislike it. Why the
architects have neglected it, they must themselves explain, since we
believe there have been but two in that profession who have been
concerned with the buildings to which we have alluded, the last named
of these being an attempt of a dillettante in the art. As to the specimens
where it has been thought fit to introduce the Egyptian window or
doorway in churches of a Greek design, we consider the attempt faulty
and censurable. This is a false and misplaced ambition after novelty,
which marks far too much of what has recently been effected in our
new churches.--_Westminster Review._
_Coinage._
Coins are generally completed by one blow of the coining-press. These
presses are worked in the Royal Mint by machinery, so contrived that
they shall strike, upon an average, 60 blows in a