ments here and carried them much further than it is possible for us to do, but we may avail ourselves of its results. Our experiments are made in the northern hemisphere, and they show us that the lower end of the rod is of north magnetism. If the earth's magnetic poles be situated as I have supposed, somewhere in the southern hemisphere the lower end of the rod should possess south magnetism. Is the theory borne out by fact? Happily it is not left to conjecture, for nearly two hundred years ago experiments made with the iron rod, as I have described, fully corroborated this theory. It was found that while in the northern hemisphere the lower end of the rod attracted the south pole of the needle, a few degrees south of the equator the attraction became very feeble, and further south it was reversed,—the north pole of the needle pointing to the lower end of the rod, and the south pole to its upper end. It was also early discovered that the earth's magnetic poles do not exactly coincide with its geographical poles. I remarked that the magnetized needle pointed nearly north and south. Its variation from a true north and south line was known about four hundred and fifty years ago, and it was discovered that its variation was different in different localities. The points of convergence of the varying lines indicated by the needle in various places we naturally take to be the terrestrial magnetic poles, and it is manifest that at certain points the magnetic and geographical meridian coincide. Columbus, in the same voyage in which he discovered the New World, found the line of no variation among the Azores. A long time afterward another singular discovery was made, and it was this: that the earth's magnetic poles are not stationary, but oscillate like the swing of a pendulum through a long series of years. It has been found that at London, in a period of about one hundred and sixty years, the needle has swung from 11° 15' east of north to 24° 41' west of north,-about thirty-six degrees, or twofifths of the quarter circle,—and that it has been swinging slowly back for the last sixty years. And so the mighty pendulum swings back and forth, ticking off at each oscillation the life-time of five generations of men. All these facts, together with the slight daily oscillation of the needle, are wonderful phenomena, involving in their solution theories which it would be foreign to the purpose of this article, even if they were more perfectly established, to attempt to explain. From this natural digression from your experiments let me call you back to them. The stovepoker, which has imparted wonderful secrets of magnetism to you, has further secrets in its keeping. Make the following beautiful experiment. Incline it to the earth as I have previously instructed you, and bring the needle near its lower end as before. Of course, the eye swings toward the rod; strike the rod a ringing blow with a hammer: the position of the needle is unchanged. Reverse the rod, and the point of the needle swings round to it. This is strange! but strike the rod another blow with the hammer: quick as thought the needle whirls its eye to the rod. Reverse the rod, and once more the point of the needle swings to it. Strike it another blow, and the eye again turns to it. Let us see what has happened. The rod in position, as you know, was a temporary magnet. The blow with the hammer violently agitated it and caused it to receive permanent magnetism. When you reversed it, turning what had been its south pole down, it still remained its south pole, and consequently attracted the north end of the needle. When you again struck it— the ends being reversed-you at once destroyed and reversed its magnetism, as the rapid sweep of the needle indicated. The question naturally arises, Can you, when the iron is permanently magnetized, strike it just enough to destroy its magnetism without reversing its polarity? Try it. First induce permanent magnetism as above directed; then place it as before, with its south pole down. Use the needle as the test of your work. Strike the rod a slight blow. If it be too hard, the needle will reverse, and you will have to make your experiment over again. If it be not hard enough, you will perceive a weakening of its influence, as indicated by the vibrations and partial deflection of the needle. Tap it again lightly. Its hold on the needle weakens. A very light blow, and the needle swings to its meridian line. It has still magnetism, but not enough to overcome the terrestrial attraction of the needle. Tap it again very lightly; bring it to a horizontal position and test it by the needle, and you find its polarity gone. Let me here answer an objection which naturally arises in connection with the theory that like poles repel, while unlike poles attract, as applied to the earth's magnetic influence. You ask how it is that the north pole of the needle points to the north magnetic pole of the earth; that the end of the rod which you incline in a northerly direction to the earth receives north polarity? Are not these results antagonistic to the above theory? The answer is found in this: That what is called the terrestrial north magnetic pole exerts exactly the same influence as the south pole of the magnet-is actually of south polarity, and should, perhaps, properly be called the south magnetic pole, and the converse is true of the south pole. It is only the convenience of expression that has created an apparent antagonism where none exists. You will find of interest experiments which you may make with a strip of hardened steel-a knitting-needle will answer if you have nothing else as handy. Magnetize it by drawing the magnet over it as before instructed. Mark it so as readily to distinguish its north and south ends. Rest it horizontally, and pass and repass your test needle along its entire length without allowing it to touch. You will be interested in observing the movements of the needle. First, its south end to the north pole of the steel; its gradual deflection as you move it along till you reach about the middle of the strip, when it stands parallel with it; then its gradual reversal completed when you reach the opposite end. The needle guages its attraction; strong at each end, growing weaker as you recede, and neutral in the middle. Dip the strip in fine iron or steel filings, and they verify the test of the needle; a bunch clings to each end, a few adhere to it some inches from the ends, fewer nearer the middle, while none cling to the middle. But break it at the middle. Are the broken ends neutral? Apply your needle as before, and you find they have strong polarity. You have two perfect magnets. The same tests you used before you apply to each of them with like results. Again divide them, and so continue to do till from the minuteness of the particles further division becomes a physical impossibility, and you have with each division all the properties of a perfect magnet. You may continue the division in imagination without limit, and there is no reason to infer any deviation from the results we have observed. two or three feet long will afford more satisfactory results than a shorter one-you will find that you may, at will, establish polarity at any number of points throughout the strip. Instead of magnetizing it, as I have before directed, you may apply the magnet at regular or irregular intervals, as suits your fancy, drawing first one pole and then the other, each a few inches along the strip, till you shall have magnetized the whole of it. Both the test of the needle and that of the iron filings will establish the fact that throughout the length of the strip you may impart polarity at will. You will notice a marked difference between iron and steel in their adapability to become permauently magnetic. A piece of soft iron receives and loses its magnetism easily. The magnetism of hardened steel is not impaired by time. Yet, you will find that intense heat will divest steel of its magnetism. There is a beautiful experiment which exhibits most perfectly the magnetic lines of force. Take first the horse-shoe magnet, lay it horizontally on the table and place over it a pane of glass or sheet of paper. Sprinkle the glass or paper (through a sieve to insure uniform distribution) with fine iron or steel filings. Observe the lines in which they seek to adjust themselves to the magnet. Lightly tap the glass or paper in order that these minute filings may come into position readily. Is not the result satisfactory? These lines or radiations toward the magnet, which the filings have assumed, indicate the magnetic lines of force, or the direction in which the attraction is exerted. If you will use the test needle you will observe that it coincides with the directions which these lines have taken. Take next the bar magnet, and your experiment will be no less satisfactory than the last. The magnetic lines indicate strong attraction at the poles and neutrality at the middle of the bar. Apply the needle, and observe that it coincides with the magnetic lines as in the last experiment. You may vary this by making a cross of magnetic bars, thus illustrating by these visible lines the influence of like and unlike adjacent poles. Between adjacent poles of opposite polarity observe that the lines are continuous, while between those of like polarity they are broken. Thus beautifully and distinctly does the magnet map out before us the pathways of its subtle influence. Apply If you will take another piece of steel-a strip the needle again, and verify the lines as before. The map which the magnet makes may be preserved with little trouble. In the preservation of my own, I coated my paper thickly with shellac, which I allowed to harden. Using a frame similar to a slate-frame for convenience in handling, I secured the paper to it by a half-dozen pins. Having then made my experiments as before described, I carefully raised the frame with the paper and placed it over a stove just sufficiently heated to soften the shellac. (If the heat is excessive, the shellac will "blister" and the work will be spoiled). As the shellac softens, the filings settle into and become embedded in it. To insure permanency I afterward applied another coating of shellac. Ordinarily this might not be neces sary. In this article I have briefly directed attention to a few experiments which may be easily and cheaply performed by almost any one. Their trial will prove most interesting, and will stimulate thought upon a subject which I have only superficially touched. It is by experiment-not through the recorded results of the experiments of others that you will learn to investigate with enthusiasm. You will find, too, that Nature converses a great deal better than any of her interpreters. “Facts looked at directly, are vital; when they pass into words, half the sap is taken out of them." LOUIS XIV. AND THE TELESCOPE. IN 1680, when the French court was at the château of Marly, Louis XIV. was compelled one day to give up a hunting party he had projected, on account of the excessive heat. To compensate for his disappointment, Madame de Maintenon, that famous woman of rare talents and beauty, sent for a fine telescope which belonged to Cassini, the geographer, and the king amused himself for a long time by looking through it at the surrounding country. The instrument was so fine and powerful that he could distinguish the features of peasants ten miles away. Suddenly he turned deadly pale, and after gazing through the glass with intense excitement, dropped it, summoned Count de Guichi, and ordered him to have a horse saddled and to draw out ten files of the cavalry, of which he himself would take command. A few moments and the king was in the saddle, spurring furiously along the banks of the Seine. On they sped, and ere long they overtook three young men, who were plainly dressed, like country people, with nothing noteworthy about them except that they seemed to be somewhat in a hurry, and a little excited at seeing the squadron of royal cavalry coming up to them. The king ordered a halt, and riding a few steps in advance, addressed the three men on foot: "An hour since you three were at the village of Maisons, and were bathing just beyond it in the Seine ?" The three men, with looks of surprise, bowed assent. Then the king, turning toward Count de Guichi, said: "Arrest these men; see that they are bound securely, and bring them back to Marly." The order was at once obeyed, and the king, followed by the soldiers and prisoners, returned to the quarters whence they had so lately set out. Great was the astonishment caused by the affair. No one of course presumed to question his Majesty. It was rumored that the king had discovered a conspiracy against his life, and had chosen thus to arrest the culprits himself. But this was not the case. The prisoners proved to be three brothers, Simon, John, and Francis, sons of Bernard Lerchet, of the Rue St. Denis. They had a younger brother named Sebastian Lerchet, their father's son by a second marriage, and his favorite. Jealousy and cupidity inflamed their minds to hatred; they resolved fo make way with him, and for the accomplishment of their purpose they took him out into the Seine on pretext of bathing, and there drowned him. The fatal deed was quickly done. Having accomplished it, they swam ashore, dressed themselves, hid their brother's clothes, and were walking along the street in presumed security, when they were suddenly arrested by the King of France. It was the sight of this deed through Cassini's telescope that had blanched the king's cheek and caused the summary action we have described. Confronted by the royal testimony, the three criminals confessed, all were sentenced to be hanged, and were executed at once. Current TOPICS. CURRENT TOPICS. Political Conscience.-To the thoughtful observer of | purporting to be a quotation from a pamphlet issued by the our political life, there is nothing which seems a greater But this lack of political conscience, of moral perceptions In the last great political campaign instructive instances of what we have called lack of political conscience were afforded by both parties. The one party fathered the infamous forgery known as the Morey letter, and gave it wide circulation, when, had the leaders been thoroughly conscientious politically, they would have examined most carefully into the history of the document before assuming the responsibility of spreading it broadcast over the land. By many it is believed that the electoral votes of Nevada and California were lost to the other party through the influence of this forgery. No terms of condemnation can be too strong for this. Not because it was a piece of political chicane, not because it was a Democratic manoeuvre, but solely and simply because it was wrong. The other party, through its national committee, uttered a forgery in the shape of an anti-free-trade campaign card, VOL. XVI.-18 Free-Trade Club of London, which was widely circulated No The attitude of individuals and press toward these acts, precisely alike in their moral bearings, is an interesting study. By many the one is condemned, the other passed over in absolute silence or condoned. Almost no one speaks out clearly and boldly with equal condemnation for both. It is pleasant to notice that the Nation plants itself upon the ground of abstract right and denounces both acts with equal zeal. The only true position to take in political matters is the one that we take in our every-day affairs. If a political act is wrong, call it wrong and denounce it, whether it was committed by the Gabriel of our party or the Lucifer of the other. "That which is wrong is wrong, nor kingly might If a political act be wise and good and beneficent, applaud it, uphold it, whether it was initiated by "the good men" of our political faith-for to our purblind sight "the good" are always in our party-or by "the bad men" who, to our prejudiced imagination, still sit in outer darkness. Indeed, in Something About our Cities. Of cities great and small, our country has an enormously large number. some of the more recently settled portions of the Republic, where the stumps of the forest still stand in the clearings, and the railways are pushing their tortuous and uncomfortable course forward into the primeval woods, there is hardly a cross-roads with its tavern and smithy, or post-office or mill-site or railway station, that is not this, that, or some other high-sounding city. One longs for the sight of a town, a village, a hamlet. Far in the distance he sees a white spire outlined against the sky. As he draws near, a cluster of little houses and a shop or two become distinct. Here at last is a village. He makes for the inn. The signs of the shops come in sight. His last hope is gone. He reads over a seven-by-nine shanty, "City Grocery"; and the inn he sought is no inn; over its pretentious portal he sees "Crescent City House." There are cities and cities; and without emulating in any degree the sanguine imaginations of Western corner-lot speculators, we may be permitted to feel just pride in the inagnificent showing which the recent census makes us. Within our borders there are at present two hundred and forty-five cities of over ten thousand people, and of this number twenty have population in excess of one hundred thousand (twenty years ago there were only nine such), while our New York ranks as the third city of the Western or Caucasian race-the race to whom the "world and the fullness thereof" are destined to belong. This rapid growth of cities throughout our country is one of the astounding marvels of the age. One's breath is fairly taken away when one compares our great cities to what they were a generation ago. Within the memory of men not yet beyond middle age, some of the vast cities of the West have grown from nothingness to their present gigantic proportions. What tremendous epics in brick and stone are these of the energy and the spirit of our out-reaching and all-subduing civilization! Ver In this grand roll-call of cities every State is represented Iy at least one, with the exception of Oregon and Florida, while Utah contributes one and the District of Columbia two. Delaware, West Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, ArLansas, Nebraska, and Colorado have each only one. mont, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, and Colorado two. New York, the Empire State, in fact as well as name, leads the list with thirty-nine-not Articles-but cities. This number is best appreciated when one notices that it is two more than the entire number of cities in the Southern and Southwestern States combined. Massachusetts comes next with thirty-one, then, Pennsylvania with eighteen. In the New England and Middle States there are one hundred and twenty-seven, or more than half of the entire number. In a few instances the same name occurs in more than one State. The younger Burlington, in Iowa, has far outstripped the older in Vermont. Lincoln, Neb., is a wellknown city; but how many people have heard of Lincoln, R. I., a city which surpasses the former by several hundred? Newport, R. I., yields in population to Newport, Ky., but it no doubt prides itself in making up in quality for any deficiency in quantity. Portsmouth, O., and Portsmouth, Va., are neck and neck. Quincy, Ill., has left the Massachusetts Quincy clear out of the race. But Springfield, Mass., still leads her younger rivals of Ohio and Illinois by many thousands, and Wilmington, Delaware's only city, is more than double North Carolina's Wilmington, likewise her only town. Every letter in the alphabet except X is represented in the initials of the names of the cities. I only once, in Indianapolis, U in Utica, and Z in Zanesville. The Outgoing Administration.-With the Fourth of March a new Olympiad in our national history begins. Without attempting any elaborate review of the outgoing administration, a few simple reflections may not be amiss. The long period of feverish uncertainty which followed the election, the extraordinary machinery which was at last devised to decide the vexed question, the strictly partisan way in which the question was decided, whether rightly or wrongly, is of no kind of consequence to the point now urging, the belief of more than half the people that the decision was unjust-all these facts contributed to make the presidency a peculiarly trying and difficult position for the new incumbent. He was put upon his good behavior as no other President ever was. As one recalls the general course of Mr. Hayes's administration, if one rises above the claims of party or clique in considering it, we think that one must admit that Mr. Hayes has, upon the whole, filled the presi dential chair with honor to himself and credit to the country. He has not been an ideal President, of course. His most enthusiastic admirers, we presume, never thought of him as a hero or as a really great man. Political conventions seldom secure a great statesman, when they nominate a man as Mr. Hayes was nominated. The administration has been, for the most part, a clean and pure one. The White House has not been redolent of jobs and schemes. No such man as Babcock, for example, has brought the odor of "crooked" whisky within its walls. And no one has heard of such a man as Boss Shepherd being a frequent guest. Indeed, perhaps there has been almost too puritanic strictness in some parts of the White House. People and press abroad have laughed and scouted a good deal at Mrs. Hayes's ultra temperance principles and practice. But most of us believe, after all, that this is a fault (if fault it be) in the right direction. Indeed, we have no doubt that upon this single question a multitude of people would sincerely echo that famous interrogatory of Mr. Stanley Matthews, utterly senseless as he used it, “What do we care for abroad' ?" Mr. Hayes has succeeded in preserving his substantial In reading the list, we have been struck with the number independence of the great ring-masters. To the impartial of comparatively obscure towns. One rather expects to have mind, to the mind that hopes for better things in our politics, heard, some time or other, about any town in his country it is a good sign when the President keeps clear of the Conkwhich has entered the second decade of thousands. But we lings, the Camerons, the Logans, and the Blaines. Against confess to have found in the list many names of towns, and such men Mr. Hayes has maintained a nearly successful near by too, of which we had never even heard mention. stand. It must be admitted that he has not accomplished as Suburban towns especially spring up suddenly and quietly, much for civil-service reform as the friends of this righteous reach their thousands, and go on living their quiet unobtru- movement had hoped. If he had only had the strength to sive life, and the world, except by accident, never hears of carry out the admirable principles he laid down, all rightthem, while some obstreperous mushroom town of the West, minded persons would feel a thrill of gratitude in thinking not half their size, is bragging you deaf about its wonderful of his work. One cannot say that civil-service reform utterly growth and incalculable importance. broke down with him, but it gained little, if any, new |