The manner in which the prefect brings the result of his professional observations into play, in order to swell the catalogue of his master's virtues, is sufficiently dextrous. Thus we have official information of the emperor's extraordinary cleanliness in eating; a quality, which, by reason of its infrequency among Frenchmen, was, perhaps, worth commemorating, though the prefect's proof of the allegation, namely, that the emperor did not like to find a human hair in his pottage, is rather unsatisfactory. To show how one virtue may illustrate another, however, the prefect ingeniously adduces this preference of unsophisticated potage, as an argument to prove his hero's extraordinary self-command. "As every circumstance connected with the life of Napoleon is interesting, I will here mention an occurrence which I myself witnessed, and which proves the command he had over himself. He had a greater repugnance, than any man I have ever known, to every thing which was not perfectly clean. The bare idea of a human hair in a dish would have been sufficient to turn his stomach, and make him quit the table. On one occasion, at the conclusion of a review of the corps de garde and artillery, he ordered the bread and soup, as they were given out to the soldiers by the commissary, to be brought to him. He took up a spoon, and filled it. The first thing which he perceived was a long hair; he took it out courageously, without manifesting the least disgust, and swallowed the soup, not wishing to hurt the feelings of the soldiers by any harsh observations on this act of negligence." The following anecdote is recorded, as an instance of Napoleon's magnanimity, and of his philosophical indifference to any attacks that might be made upon him through the medium of the press. The ex-prefect forgets, as in duty bound, the fate of Palm, the suppression of L'Allemagne and the treatment of its author, the subjugated state of the French press, and the hatred of free discussion, as indeed of all free institutions, which governed Napoleon's policy, and gave to his whole civil career a character of absolute, if not unmitigated despotism. His magnanimity, as far as the press was concerned, was indeed a domestic virtue; it never took wing beyond the precincts of the imperial palace; it was confined to the circle of embroidered courtiers and harmless gossips, whose sentiments are faithfully re-echoed by the ex-prefect. "One day in the month of January, on which one of those grand entertainments was to be given, in which all the magnificence of the court was displayed, Napoleon, seating himself at table, put into my hand a manuscript, which he desired me to read aloud during dinner, as he should not have time to read it in consequence of the fête which was to take place in the evening. This manuscript was a translation of the English journals, which was regularly transmitted to him by the Duke of Bassano. I began reading with much confidence, which I soon lost, however, on coming to certain harsh and abusive expressions, which were used against the emperor. I was much embarrassed, as I observed, at intervals, the quick, piercing eye, and sarcastic smile of Napoleon. My situation was the more painful, as I was reading in the presence of the empress, the pages, maitres d'hotel, and a great number of servants of all descriptions. Read on,' said Napoleon, as he observed me stopping under pretence of taking breath, or using my handkerchief, you will see plenty of similar expressions.' I wished to excuse myself, assuring him that I should think it a breach of respect. He would hear no excuse, and desired me, with a laugh, to continue. 'Keeping my eye stretched on the lines I had to read, and endeavouring to modify the abusive terms as I kept in advance of them, I came to an expression for which I substituted, fluently enough, the word emperor. Unluckily, this was giving him a title which the English journals never conceded to him. He desired me to let him see the manuscript, and read aloud the word which I had abstained from pronouncing; he then returned me the paper, and directed me to proceed. Fortunately, nothing else occurred to occasion a similar embarrassment. The same evening, I went up to the Duke of Bassano in the drawingroom, and related my adventure. What would you have me do?' said the duke; the emperor orders me to lay before him a strict and literal translation of the English journals; he must be obeyed, since he will see every thing with his own eyes." We can afford no more space for the anecdotes of M. de Bausset, and a very brief notice will suffice to explain the nature of Mademoiselle Le Normand's book, which we have not placed at the head of this article with any serious intention of analysing its contents. Mademoiselle Le Normand has for many years followed the trade of a prophetess, or expounder of destinies, at Paris. At one period, no prophetess, we believe, enjoyed a larger share of the public confidence in that enlightened metropolis. Whether the lapse of time, or competition in the trade, or the constitutional fickleness of our neighbours, may have contributed in any degree to diminish her reputation as a Sybil, we are not prepared to determine; but if the sale of her various publications, for she has of late years united the art of book-making to that of divination, may be taken as a criterion of her popularity in the chiromantic line, the number of her votaries must still be considerable. Besides these Memoirs of the Empress Josephine, Mademoiselle Le Normand is the author of Les Oracles Sibyllins, La Sibylle au Tombeau de Louis XVI., and divers other productions, of a nature partly historical, and partly cabalistical. The greater portion of the volumes before us consists of memoirs of Josephine, purporting to have been written by her own hand, and confided to the care of the prophetess. The memoirs are written in the tawdry taste and style of the worst of novels; each chapter generally commences with an out-pouring of sentiment; we meet with an abundance of apostrophes and valedictory ad dresses to 'sun, moon, and stars,' and with interminable dialogues between Josephine and Napoleon. The characteristic feature of the book is its diagrams, representing the palms of the left hands of Napoleon and his spouse, with the astrological explanation of the phenomena they are said to exhibit. There is also much profound information in the notes to these memoirs, touching the little black man, with whom a celebrated German minister was in the habit of having frequent conferences, and the little red man, who obtained audiences of the Emperor at Fontainebleau and St. Cloud. Both Josephine and Bonaparte are represented as devout believers in the chiromantic infallibility of Mademoiselle Le Normand. The following flattering picture of Bonaparte is, according to this infallible sibyl, drawn by the hand of Josephine. "Bonaparte was truly superstitious. I have seen him throw himself into a dreadful passion when one of his valets happened to place his shaving-box, or any other utensil, on the right side, instead of on the left. He had contracted in Egypt some strange habits, which were probably connected with certain secret practices. My husband would frequently take off a part of his dress, throw it over the left shoulder, exclaiming, lands, castles, provinces, kingdoms, &c. I have seen him sit on the floor of his apartment, take off his own stockings, and fling them over his shoulder in the same way. He could never bear to see three lighted candles, &c. Besides the autobiography of Josephine, we have the last recollections of Napoleon written by his own hand at St. Helena, and also confided to the prophetess for publication. It may be inferred from the following passage in these derniers souvenirs, that the prophetess, however conversant with moon and stars, has also an eye to things sublunary. "I confide these last recollections to the hands of ***, intending them to be added to the Historical and Secret Memoirs of Josephine, my first wife. The editor (Mademoiselle Le Normand) has well fulfilled her task; she has done herself honour in my eyes. Her literary glory needs no greater consummation"!!! One of the leading journals of Paris devotes an article to the current printed lies of the day; a source of intelligence which it has found inexhaustible, and it can scarcely be disputed that the average amount of printed fabrications is greater in France than in any other country of Europe. We had almost forgotten to mention that the next part of Mademoiselle Le Normand's Album (this being the first) is to consist of a similar publication touching the secret history of the late Queen Caroline of England, dedicated, as she modestly states, by permission, to H. R. H. Prince Leopold. It is perhaps almost needless to say, which we do from authority, that no such permission was ever granted. ART. VI.-Bestimmung des Brechungs und Farbenzerstreuungs Vermögens verschiedener Glasarten. Von Dr. JOSEPH FRAUNHOFER, Mitgl. der R. Baier. Akad. der Wiss. in Munchen. 4to.* THERE is nothing more remarkable in the history of science than the slowness with which the discoveries of one country pass into another, and the length of time which elapses before they form an integrant part of systematic science. This unwilling interchange of their intellectual glories is not owing to any of those jealousies which characterise the mutual relations of rival states. In this country, at least, it springs from the inertia of established systems, which seem to resist every change which new discoveries demand; and from the lethargy of our public instructors, who prefer the twilight of their own climate to the radiance which bursts upon them from another. These remarks have a particular application to the discoveries of the celebrated Joseph Fraunhofer, which have for several years been well known in Germany. In England, and we believe in France, many of his experiments have never been repeated; and what is still more strange, the great results to which they have led, have neither been expounded in our universities, nor explained in our courses of popular instruction. Had these discoveries been solely of an abstract character, and calculated only to rouse the attention of men of profound and original acquirements, the slowness of their transfusion into the mass of our literature would not have been an object of surprise; but they are associated with the dearest achievements of British science, and have a practical bearing upon one of the most important of British arts. They relate to the prismatic spectrum, a subject over which Newton first threw the mantle of his genius, and which Dollond, by a discovery of primary importance, made the foundation of one of our most successful manufactures, equally honourable to the genius and the enterprise of England. The treatise of Fraunhofer, of which we propose to give an account, was read before the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in 1814 and 1815. He had been appointed optician to the celebrated optical establishment of Benedictbaiern, belonging to MM. Utzschneider and Reichenbach, and his first task of importance was to construct achromatic lenses for the instruments destined for the observatory at Buda. The best artists of Eng Treatise on the Refractive and Dispersive Powers of different kinds of Glass. By Dr. JOSEPH FRAUNHOFER, Member of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich. Fraunhofer-Refractive and Dispersive Powers of Glass. 425 land had hitherto combined their talents in supplying the observatories of Europe with achromatic telescopes; and as no qualified workmen could, be obtained in Germany, Fraunhofer was thrown upon his own resources. He knew little of the art of making flint glass. He had to invent new machinery for grinding and polishing his lenses; and previous to the removal of these difficulties he had to discover new methods of measuring the refractive and dispersive power of the different kinds of glass which came from his furnaces, or which entered into the composition of his telescopes. In this way Fraunhofer was led, from commercial motives, to undertake the investigation, the results of which are contained in his present treatise. The determination of the refractive and dispersive power of bodies is not in itself a problem of any difficulty. It requires chiefly the nice mensuration of angles, which might have been taken with as great accuracy as the angles in the celestial sphere, if the arches to be determined were limited by points as definite as the centres of the stars, or the limbs of the planets. Unfortunately, however, the spectrum, or elongated image of the sun formed by a prism, presented indefinite points, and no precise limits. From the most luminous part of the spectrum, which is generally near the middle of the yellow space, the light shades off with great rapidity towards the extremity of the red and the violet spaces, but it never has a definite termination, so that the apparent length of the spectrum varies with the intensity of the light from which it is formed, and it would therefore be in vain to assume any of its extremities as fixed points. In the determination of refractive powers, therefore, that of the most luminous ray was most frequently used, and the dispersive powers obtained by different observers varied with the intensity of the light in which their experiments were made. After making many experiments by the method commonly used, Fraunhofer contrived a method of obtaining homogeneous light of each of the six colours, viz. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet; and by means of a theodolite, he determined, with great accuracy, the index of refraction of each coloured ray for the following substances. Flint glass Water Sulphuric acid Vitriolic ether Oil of turpentine Solution of potash in water One part sugar of lead, three parts water. The measures of the index of refraction of each coloured ray, for the first three substances of this table, are as follow. |