Page images
PDF
EPUB

saying that the key acts on the "grasshopper," and the "grasshopper" on the "under-hammer," and the "under-hammer" on the "sticker," and the "sticker" on the "hammer," and the "hammer" on the string, we have done but little towards explaining the particular construction and action of each.

A portion of pianoforte mechanism to which we have not yet alluded is that connected with the pedals, resembling all the other portions in the high degree of care necessary in the manufacture. These pedals serve two totally distinct offices, one of which relates to all kinds of pianofortes, and the other to When we say that all these minute pieces are those only which are provided with three strings to fashioned and adjusted by hand, it will be readily every note. The first governs the "dampers," and conceived that an important part of the arrangements their use may be thus explained. In order that the of the factory has reference to them. Some of the harmonies in a piece of music may produce their workmen are entirely occupied in "key-making," due effect, it is necessary that the preceding notes who prepare the lime-tree of which the body of the should not continue to sound long after the keys key is made, glue on the pieces of ivory, cut the have been struck, else discord may usurp the place keys to their required widths, arrange the little pin of harmony. For instance, if the note c were soundor fulcrum, &c. Other workmen make the slender ed, and the next note of the piece of music were D, the cylindrical rods of pine or of pencil cedar. Some continued sounding of the c after the D has been struck are forming the "hammers," others the "under-ham- would give the discordant interval of a 2d, which the mers," the "dampers," the "grasshoppers," &c. An ear can not tolerate, except as a foil to more perfect important and very curious part of the labor is the intervals. Hence mechanism is provided, whereby adjustment of the little pieces of vellum, cloth, felt, a soft hammer or "damper" is made to fall on the and leather. Vellum is used for the hinges of some of vibrating string the moment the finger is removed the minute parts; the two ends or edges of the vellum from the key, and this damping smothers the note being glued into slits in the two pieces which are to by stopping the vibrations. As, however, it is debe hinged together; and it thus forms a hinge peculiar- sirable in some pieces of music to have the full effect ly delicate in its action. The little pieces of cloth are of the vibrating strings after the fingers are removed used in various ways for subduing the rattling sound from the keys, the player is enabled, by pressing his which pieces of mechanism would be apt to produce, foot on a pedal, to remove all the "dampers" from the and which would interfere with the tones of the in- strings, with which they do not again come in construment. To such a degree of refinement is this tact until the pedal is released. In some of the older carried, that small holes not above a twelfth or fifteenth square pianofortes this adjustment is made by means of an inch in diameter are lined with cloth, in order of a handle situated near the left hand of the player; to give a smoothness to the motion of a wire which but we believe that in all the modern instruments a passes through the hole. The felt and the leather pedal affords the requisite leverage. The other kind are principally employed as coverings for the ham- of pedal, used only in grand pianofortes, is employed mers and dampers which come in contact with the wires, and which are thus covered to give mellowness to the tone. If a stretched wire be struck by a piece of wood or of metal, two sounds are heard; one due to the vibration of the wire itself, and the other to the blow which the striking substance gives: to get rid of this latter sound is the object of leathering and felting the hammers.

[graphic]

In speaking of the strings for the various forms of pianoforte we stated that the "grand" has three strings to each note; and that each of the other four forms has two. The adjustment of all these strings is an important matter, and devolves upon the "regulators" and "tuners." It will of course be understood that in such a case the two or three strings belonging to one note must be tuned in unison; and to effect this, the strings are, as may be supposed, of equal lengths and thicknesses. The object then is to bring them to an equal degree of tension, by which the tones may be of the same pitch. The persons employed at this avocation are such as are able, from accuracy of ear, to determine musical intervals with much precision. In our concluding cut the "cabinet" pianoforte is represented as undergoing the process of tuning. We may here remark that the "regulation" involves something more than the determination of the musical intervals between the several tones: it relates also to the easy and proper action of the keys, and the general fitness of all the parts for the office which they are to serve.

for the purpose of removing one out of every three strings from the action of the hammers. If three strings were struck by every hammer every time that the key belonging to that hammer is played upon, the player could not obtain the piano passages which add so much to the grace and effect of music. There is, therefore, a provision for lessening the quantity of

[graphic][merged small]

sound-for such is in reality the operation-by less- | fiscations in Hampshire. One almost sickens at the ening the number of strings struck by each hammer. This is effected by shifting the entire key-board to a small distance from its usual position, whereby each hammer clears one of the three strings, and only strikes the other two. The foot-pedal effects this shifting by intermediate levers, and the player has thus the whole arrangement within his power. Among the minor operations in the manufacture is the preparation of fret-work or open-cut boards for the front of some kinds of pianofortes. This is effected in a very quick and elegant way. The device being marked on the board with chalk, the board is fixed vertically in a kind of vice, and, as represented in the annexed cut, is sawn by means of an extremely fine and thin saw, which follows all the turnings and windings of the chalk-marks, penetrating to every angle, however acute, and severing the small pieces, the absence of which constitutes the pattern. The other ornamental features we must dismiss without any particular notice, as involving no principle but that which distinguishes common cabinet-work.

ALFRED THE GREAT.

BY COBBET.

THE tomb of Alfred was in an Abbey, at Winhester, founded by that king himself. The Abbey and its estates were given by the tyrant to Wrigthesley, who was afterward made Earl of Southampton, and who got a pretty good share of the con

thought of a man capable of a deed like the destruc-
tion of this Abbey. Where is there one amongst
us, who has read anything at all, who has not read
of the fame of Alfred?
What book can we open,
even for a boyish days, that does not sound his
praise? Poets, moralists, divines, historians, phi-
losophers, lawyers, legislators, not only of our own
country, but of all Europe, have cited him, and still
cite him, as a model of virtue, piety, wisdom, valor,
and patriotism, as possessing every excellence, with-
out a single fault. He, in spite of difficulties such
as no other human being on record ever encountered,
cleared his harassed and half barbarized country of
horde after horde of cruel invaders, who, at one time,
had wholly subdued it, and compelled him, in order
to escape destruction, to resort to the habit and the
life of a herdsman. From this state of depression
he, during a not long life, raised himself and his
people to the highest point of happiness and fame.
He fought, with his armies and fleets, more than fifty
battles against the enemies of England. He taught
his people, by his example as well as by his pre-
cepts, to be sober, industrious, brave, and just. He
promoted learning in all the sciences; he planted the
University of Oxford; to him, and not to a late Scotch
lawyer, belong "Trial by Jury;" Blackstone calls
him the founder of the Common Law; the counties,
the hundreds, the tithings, the courts of justice, were
the work of Alfred; he, in fact, was the founder of
all those rights, liberties, and laws, which made
England to be what England has been, which gave
her a character above that of other nations, which

made her rich, and great, and happy, beyond all her neighbors, and which still gave her whatever she possesses of that pre-eminence. If there be a name under heaven to which Englishmen ought to bow with reverence approaching toward adoration, it is the name of Alfred. And we are not unjust and ungrateful in this respect, at any rate; for where is there an Englishman to be found who would not gladly make a pilgrimage of a thousand miles to take off his hat at the tomb of this maker of the English name? Alas! that tomb is nowhere to be found. The barbarians spared not even that. It was in the Abbey before mentioned, called Hyde Abbey, which had been founded by Alfred himself, and intended as the place of his burial. Besides the remains of Alfred, this Abbey contained those of St. Grimbald, the Benedictine monk, whom Alfred brought into England to begin the teaching at Oxford. But what cared the plunderers for remains of public benefactors? The Abbey was knocked down, or blown up, the tombs were demolished, the very lead of the coffins was sold; and, which fills one with more indignation than all the rest, the estates were so disposed of as to make the loanmakers, the Barings, at this day the successors of Alfred the Great!

SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS.

THE changes of the season are typical of the gradations and stages of human life. The springtide

"Puts forth the tender leaves of hope,"

when the pulses of playful childhood leap free and uncontaminated in the young veins, and the mind is fresh and vigorous and tenacious of impressions. Then is the period to inculcate lessons of virtue and patriotism and truth, which are to form character, and lead to usefulness in the walks of life. Parents and guardians should keep most careful watch, and implant those seeds in the young bosom, whose fruits would not only be pleasant to the sight and agreeable to the taste, but of the tree of life eternal. In the proverbs of Solomon, we have been struck with none more forcibly than that which says: "with all thy gettings, get understanding." This does not refer exclusively to the knowledge which is to be derived from books or from an intercourse with our fellow men, or from travel and observation. It contemplates not only the mysteries of creation, the universality of the Mighty Architect at whose bidding, worlds were wheeled from chaos into concerted action, but the latent intelligence and capabilities of the human heart, and the connexion between its promptings and emotions and the great Will by whose authority it is moved.

humility and an absence of all pride and vanity are surely marked by the sober gray or drab color and the plain cut of the quaker's coat. There is nothing austere or severe in that morality which is founded on virtuous action,-nothing forbidding in its aspect, but rather courting and holding out inducements to the young, then repressing or alarming to their quick sensibilities.

Then, while yet the heart is young, and fresh, and glowing-a very paradise in which the serpent has not been yet warmed into life-though flowers are blooming of the brightest hues, and golden fruits in clusters hang, implant the principles which are to guide in after life. Teach the heart to be pure in its conceptions, virtuous in its actions, firm in its resolves. Teach it to discard the promptings of sordid avarice and mean ambition. Point to noble examples, and cultivate generous emotions. Let it not deceive itself; for how can it be fair, and candid, and honest to others, if it practice treachery to itself?

Summer marks manhood when the character is developed, and the responsibilities and cares of life are begun to be assumed. The student applies his stores of knowledge to the pursuit he may have adopted, the past apprentice thinks of setting up a shop of his own, or at least secures the wages of his handicraft-and the dangerous voyage of life in reality begins. The helmsman makes his first venture at the wheel.

bound. He returns from his venture with a priceAutumn comes, and the voyager is homeward less argosie, or but the battered hulk, overgrown with seaweed and barnacles, is blown or drifted back. Some are invested with all the glorious garniture of Fall, while others, like trees that shed their leaves early, stand stark and bare, amid companions dressed out in emerald as well as golden sheen. Accumulated wealth and honors cluster like bacchanal grapes around the brows of some, while poverty, bitter, gnawing, soul-wearing penury, presses upon others. We do not not say that they are the artificers of their own fates, but to them how grateful, whether in affluence or indigence, the feeling that their lives have been guided by correct principle and sterling integrity. Fortune does not always favor honest industry, but, in nine cases out of ten, honesty and industry, with a little care, will always secure a maintenance, and what is better, content.

Last comes the winter, when the tenant gives up the old lease and renews his bond with his landlord. The term has expired and he must remove from his late tenement-for better or for worse, according to the account he can give of his stewardship. How potent is the argument in favor of a life of morality, integrity, and virtue! With what confidence the Youth is the seed-time, when the character should good man resigns his covenant! Little fears he but be formed and moulded, and the earlier the lessons the change will be for the better. Mark the conof wisdom and truth are inculcated, the more lasting will be the impression, and difficult to be erased. We do not advocate sternness and rigor in imparting these lessons to the young mind. Piety and morality, and a reverence for the Supreme, do not consist in a gravity of demeanor, or rigidity of mien, or an excessive show of sanctity, any more than

trast! Yon squalid wretch, whose trembling limbs and enervated frame-whose bloated cheeks and bleared vision-denote a life of debauchery and drunkenness, of rioting and sin, grasps, with all his spent energy, the contract whose expiration is being recorded. Doubt has given way to fear, and that in turn is fast yielding to despair.

HINTS FOR STUDENTS.

WE extract the following from a well-known work --Buck's Anecdotes: He who would wish to make proficiency in any science, must give himself to study. Knowledge is not to be gained by wishing, nor acquired by indolence and wealth. Application is necessary both for prince and peasant. Many in elevated situations are very desirous of the honor, but averse to the labor, of intellectual attainments.

he would amuse himself with watering a flower Barclay, in his leisure hours, was a florist. Balzac amused himself with making pastils. Pecresc found his amusement among his medals and antiquarian curiosities. Rohault wandered from shop to shop to observe the mechanics labor. Cardinal de Richelieu, among all his great occupations, found a recreation in violent exercise, such as jumping, &c. It is said of the very laborious Mr. Poole, that his common rule was, while he was engaged in writing his famous Synopsis, to rise about three or four o'clock in the morning, and continue his studies till the afternoon

DEW.

Euclid was asked one day by King Ptolemæus Lagus, "whether there was not a shorter and easier way to the knowledge of geometry than that which was pretty far advanced, when he went abroad, and he had laid down in his Elements." He answered, spent the evening at some friend's house in cheerful that "there was indeed no royal road to geometry." conversation. In the same manner, when Alexander wanted to learn geometry by some easier and shorter method, he was told by his preceptor that "he must here be content to travel the same road with others, for that all things of this nature were equally difficult to prince and people." We may apply this observation to learning THE dew, celebrated through all times and in every in general. If we wish to enjoy the sweets, we tongue for its sweet influence, presents the most must encounter the difficulties, of acquisition. The student must not be always in the world, or living at his ease, if he wish to enlarge his mind, inform his judgment, or improve his powers. He must read, think, compare, and digest, in order to be wise and useful.

In respect to study, there are some necessary precautions to be attended to, both as to the body and the mind. Hence a minister of the gospel used to give this advice to young students: 1, that they should not buy too many books, as that would hurt their pockets; 2, that they should not engage in any sensual pursuits, as that would hurt the mind; and 3, that they should not sit up late at night, as that would injure their health.

Dr. Whitaker gave the following three rules to a student: 1, to study always standing; 2, never to study in a window; 3, never to go to bed with his feet cold.

beautiful aud striking illustration of the agency of water in the economy of nature, and exhibits one of those wise and bountiful adaptations, by which the whole system of things, animate and inanimate, is fitted and bound together. All bodies on the surface of the earth radiate, or throw out rays of heat, in straight lines-every warmer body to every colder; and the entire surface is itself continually sending rays upward through the clear air into free space. Thus on the earth's surface all bodies strive, as it were, after an equal temperature (an equilibrium of heat), while the surface as a whole tends gradually toward a cooler state. But while the sun shines, this cooling will not take place, for the earth then receives in general more heat than it gives off; and if the clear sky be shut out by a canopy of clouds, these will arrest and again throw back a portion of the heat, and prevent it from being so speedily dissipated. At night, then, when the sun is absent, the earth will cool the most; on clear nights, also, more than when it is cloudy; and when clouds only partially obscure the sky, those parts will become coolest which look toward the clearest portions of the heavens. Now, when the surface cools, the air in contact with it must cool also; and like the warm currents on the mountain side, must forsake a portion of the watery vapor it has hitherto retained. This water, like the floating mist on the hills, descends in particles almost infinitely minute. These particles collect on every leaflet, and suspend themselves from every blade of grass, in drops of "pearly dew." And mark here a beautiful adaptation. Different substances are endowed with the property of radiating their heat, and of thus becoming cool with differCharles V., during his celebrated solitude, some-ent degrees of rapidity; and those substances which times cultivated the plants in his garden with his in the air become cool first, also attract first and most own hands, and sometimes rode out in the neighbor- abundantly the particles of falling dew. Thus, in the hood, and often relieved his mind in forming curious works of mechanism. Descartes spent the afternoon in the conversation of his friends, and in the cultivation of a small garden After having in the morning settled the place of a planet, in the evening

Night studies are very prejudicial to the constitution and ought to be avoided by all who wish to prolong their lives, and to be useful. However fond of study, therefore, let the student pay some attention to health. It is said of Euripides, the tragedian, that he used to retire to a dark cavern to compose his tragedies; and of Demosthenes, the Grecian orator, that he chose a place for study where nothing could be heard or seen; but, with all deference to such venerable names, we can not help condemning their taste. A man may surely think to as good purpose in an elegant apartment as in a cave, and may have as happy conceptions where the all-cheering rays of the sun render the air wholesome, as in places where they never enter.

cool of a summer's evening, the grass plot is wet while the gravel walk is dry; and the thirsty pasture and every green leaf are drinking in the descending moisture, while the naked land and the barren highway are still unconscious of its fall.

[graphic][merged small][subsumed]

PETRARCH, as crowned at Rome, from a painting by Jofanelli. Avignon, with the old Roman Bridge, and Vaucluse, from lithographs by Lemercier. Tomb at Arquà, from a print by Turner.

[blocks in formation]

was a small house," says Petrarch, "befitting an exile, as my father was." He was informed that the owners had been about to make some alterations in it; but the authorities interfered, and caused the whole to be preserved as it was on the circumstance which had given to Arezzo its chief claim to the agreeable remembrances of posterity. That event occurred in the night of the 19th of July, 1304; and was attended by two memorable incidents. His mother was in imminent danger of her life in giving birth to him, and his father Petracco who had been

« PreviousContinue »