n unproductiveness, and in a worthless way. But
how different in the latter! Every thing is in movement. So many are the
changes we witness, even in the course of a very brief period, that no
one, though of the largest intellect, or in the most favourable
position, can predict the future of only a few years hence. We see that
ideas which yesterday served us as a guide die to-day, and will be
replaced by others, we know not what, to-morrow.

[Sidenote: Scientific contributions of various nations,] In this
scientific advancement, among the triumphs of which we are living, all
the nations of Europe have been engaged. Some, with a venial pride,
claim for themselves the glory of having taken the lead. But perhaps
each of them, if it might designate the country--alas! not yet a
nation--that should occupy the succeeding post of honour, would inscribe
Italy on its ballot. It was in Italy that Columbus was born; in Venice,
destined one day to be restored to Italy, newspapers were first issued.
It was in Italy that the laws of the descent of bodies to the earth and
of the equilibrium of fluids were first determined by Galileo. In the
Cathedral of Pisa that illustrious philosopher watched the swinging of
the chandelier, and, observing that its vibrations, large and small,
were made in equal times, left the house of God, his prayers unsaid, but
the pendulum clock invented. To the Venetian senators he first showed
the satellites of Jupiter, the crescent form of Venus, and, in the
garden of Cardinal Bandini, the spots upon the sun. [Sidenote:
especially of Italy.] It was in Italy that Sanctorio invented the
thermometer; that Torricelli constructed the barometer and demonstrated
the pressure of the air. It was there that Castelli laid the foundation
of hydraulics and discovered the laws of the flowing of water. There,
too, the first Christian astronomical observatory was established, and
there Stancari counted the number of vibrations of a string emitting
musical notes. There Grimaldi discovered the diffraction of light, and
the Florentine academicians showed that dark heat may be reflected by
mirrors across space. In our own times Melloni furnished the means of
proving that it may be polarized. The first philosophical societies were
the Italian; the first botanical garden was established at Pisa; the
first classification of plants given by Caesalpinus. The first geological
museum was founded at Verona; the first who cultivated the stu