Then tell me what is beautiful, I pray thee, mother kind! O! beautiful my cherish'd boy's the land of light and love; And fadeless beauty dwelleth in the islands of the blest, "Where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." Norwich. G. G. NORWICH PENNY LIBRARY. It is now rather more than half a century since a Public Library was first established in this city by a few public spirited individuals, most, if not all, of whom have since been removed from this stage of being, but the fruit of whose labours still continues to yield a more and more abundant harvest. Rather more than twelve years since, a rival Literary Institution sprung up, which so far from injuring, only aroused the somewhat dormant spirit of its precursor, and both now vie with each other in the career of literature. Nearly at the same period, a very humble, but most praiseworthy attempt was made by a lady no longer residing here, (the widow of the late Dr. H. Reeve,) to cultivate and improve the taste for general reading, which had already exhibited itself under many a humble roof. With this view she collected a considerable number of volumes of the most useful and popular description (especially that most valuable series published by the Irish Education Society, which may be looked upon as the prototype of the numerous similar publications of the present day) and caused them to circulate among poor families at the rate of a penny, or in some cases a half-penny per week. The demand for these books it was soon found, exceeded her means of supply, and she was, early in 1824, obliged to place the whole upon a public footing, which it has ever since most respectably maintained. This cheap library now consists of pearly 2000 volumes, carefully selected so as to exclude controversial theology and politics, but to embrace every other branch of science and literature, so far as they are suited to the common reader, especially the young of both sexes; who, by subscribing one shilling per quarter, have free access to its shelves for circu lation from eleven till two o'clock every day; while weekly subscribers of a penny or half-penny are limited to Mondays and Thurdays. Any one, passing No. 36 Pottergate Street, at these hours, would be gratified to witness the eagerness displayed by the young people there assembled in collecting the honey for their future intellectual stores. The number of bees so employed nearly approaches 200, and none but those, who have actually witnessed, would readily believe the vast accumulation of useful knowledge thus obtained by many a young and aspiring mind. Not a few have read almost every volume there, and their minds, not having been crammed with scholastic learning, retain the greater part of what they read. What a valuable nursery this for our now thriving Mechanic's Institution! and what a long vista does it open for a continued course of intellectual and moral improvement among the poorer population of our beloved city! DEMOPHILUS. MECHANIC'S INSTITUTION. On the 7th and 16th ult. Mr. Innes, Junr. continued his series of lectures to the class on Chemistry. The subject of the former lecture was the "Gases" and in the latter he considered the various poisons and the modes of discovering them in any bodies. Each was illustrated by numerous interesting and instructive experiments. On Thursday, the 2nd, Mr J. Kitton read a paper on the following question" To which profession are we most indebted, law, physic or divinity?" in which he argued with great perspicuity in favour of law, on the ground that it binds and cements together the social fabric, and that without it we must ere this have been reduced to a state of anarchy and confusion. The prior claim of divinity was however asserted by a majority of the speakers. On the 19th Miss Jarvis introduced the question-"Is there any moral obligation to pay taxes?" In an extremely beautiful and eloquent essay that lady contended that such obligation does exist that every individual is morally bound to support the goverment of his country, inasmuch as it affords him personal protection, and promotes the arts and sciences which tend to the refinement of mankind. The grand principle for which the opener contended was recognized by all.-But in the course of the evening it was observed that there might be circumstances in which we should not be morally bound to pay certain obnoxious Those which affect matters of conscience were more especially referred to. taxes. On the 23rd, the much-agitated subject of " Materialism" was discussed. Mr. F. Pigg, in opening it, contended that the arguments which are advanced in support of the doctrine of the materiality of mind merely prove that the brain is the medium through which mind acts and not that it is the cause of its actions. He then proceeded to notice the arguments in favour of the spirituality of the mind; and maintained that the mere organization of matter cannot bestow upon it any additional property but can merely affect the arrangement of its component parts. Mr. G. Wilson, after attacking separately the arguments of the opener, observed that as we invariably find that the brain and entire structure of a living being indicates the nature of its mind it necessarily follows that the one is dependent upon the other. -Mr. Dowson argued in favour of the materiality of mind from analogy, and contended that the vegetable creation has life, that the animal rises a step higher in the scale of being, and that it follows, in order that nature may be consistent with herself, that the mind of man is the result of a still higher degree of organization. -Miss Jarvis very ingeniously asserted and maintained the immortality, and thence deduced the immateriality of the human mind. Mr. J. Kitton was at a loss to account for the effect which an injury of the brain produces upon the mind, and for the fact that mind gradually developes itself as the brain improves, on any other supposition, than that the latter is the cause of the former.— Mr. Barker noticed and replied to the various arguments introduced in support of materialism.-He especially referred to that of the preceding speaker—that whatever affects the brain equally affects the mind, and observed that if the instrument be injured it must necessarily affect the actions performed through that instrument, even although the mind which acts be in a perfectly healthy and vigourous state. The debate was then adjourned. PRINTED BY J. FLETCHER, UPPER HAYMARKET, NORWICH. We know not whether any of our readers have made a similar observation, but it has often occurred to ourselves that, in proportion to the advancement of civilization and increased polish of mind and manners, has been the decline and deterioration of rural tastes and poetical observances. In the polite circles of the town or city, poetry, it is true, engrosses no small share of literary conversation, but usually it is rather for the purpose of coldly criticising its beauties, than springing from that impulse of feeling with which its unsophisticated admirer instinctively singles out the passages most true to nature, brings them home to his own "business and bosom," and forms tastes and associations which in after years oft times touch the chords of memory, and awaken emotions "too deep for tears." The alluring but unsatisfying pursuits of ambition-the absorbing bustle of commercial engagements-the "carking cares" of trade-incessant intercourse with all the dull realities of crowded society, insensibly, even in the breasts of the youthful and susceptible, damp the ardour of poetical enthusiasm, and freeze up the deep wells of feeling and sentiment. In circles where the formality and the heartlessness of fashion predominate, it would be almost better for the tyro in the world and its ways to commit an offence against the laws of good breeding, than to give vent to the utterance of sentiments, which, though admired in the writings of our standard poets, would be ridiculed as affectation when coming from the lips of an actor in the drama of real life. There are, however, times which come perchance to all, when the Y enchanted circle of worldly business or fashion's sway being broken through, the hidden feelings of the heart assert their control, and are again impressible to the influences of poetry. Recollections of the golden and romantic time when "life itself was young" sometimes flash across the mind, and awaken unavailing regret that the poetic illusions of those days when Shakspeare, and Spenser, and Milton were read for the first time, are gone, never again to return in their youthful freshness. To these regrets of a personal nature may be added those which every lover of rural life must feel that there are now so few traces remaining of those beautiful customs once adorned by the associations of poesy, endeared by the affections of the heart, and hallowed by the rites of religion. Among many which might be mentioned, we would here particularly allude to the practice in olden times of strewing flowers, or planting them with shrubs and trees over the graves of departed relatives and friends. These customs are still observed in the simple vallies of Switzerland and the Tyrol; but in England, few and obscure are the villages which now retain them. Gloucestershire, Berkshire, and . Staffordshire, with a few of the counties in the Principality are among those parts of our country distinguished by this interesting observance. We are not surprised to meet with it in scenes exclusively pastoral, as in the villages of Berkshire, sprinkled here and there over extensive downs, where, even in these unromantic days, the pride of the rustic community is selected as queen of the May, and the youthful dancers are garlanded as profusely, and perhaps as tastefully as the attendants of the fabled Flora herself. But amidst the din of iron-works, and the smoke of collieries one would hardly look for so sentimental a display of affectionate regard for the departed; and yet it is a fact that the poorest, the most degraded of the residents in those uninviting districts would think it a positive hardship to be obliged to "bury their dead" unadorned with flowers, those frail but beautiful emblems of mortality. On the occurrence of a death, if they possess not a plot of garden-ground themselves, the doors of their richer neighbours are resorted to by their children, who in their uncouth phraseology petition for pinks and roses, and sweet briar, or in default of these, for laurustinus, and rosemary, and southernwood. Few are the individuals who would refuse so humble a request, and oftentimes the simple tale |