COLUMN FOR THE LADIES. DUTIES OF A WIFE. It is for the married state that a woman needs the most instruction, and in which she should be most on her guard to maintain her powers of pleasing. No woman can expect to be to her husband all that he fancied her when he was a lover. Men are always doomed to be duped, not so much by the arts of the sex, as by their own imaginations. They are always wooing goddesses, and marrying mere mortals. A woman should therefore ascertain what was the charm that rendered her so fascinating when a girl, and endeavour to keep it up when she has become a wife. One great thing undoubtedly was, the chariness of herself and her conduct, which an unmarried female always observes. She should maintain the same niceness and reserve in her person and habits, and endeavour still to preserve a freshness and virgin delicacy in the eye of her husband. She should remember that the province of woman is to be wooed, not to woo; to be caressed, not to caress. Man is an ungrateful being in love; bounty loses instead of winning him. The secret of a woman's power does not consist so much in giving, as in withholding. A woman may give up too much even to her husband. It is to a thousand little delicacies of conduct that she must trust to keep alive passion, and to protect herself from that dangerous familiarity, that thorough acquaintance with every weakness and imperfection incident to matrimony By these means she may still maintain her power, though she has surrendered her person, and may continue the romance of love even beyond the honey-moon. "She that hath a wise husband," says Jeremy Taylor, must entice him to an eternal dearnesse by the veil of modesty, and the grave robes of chastity, the ornament of meeknesse, and the jewels of faith and charity. She must have no painting but blushings: her brightness must be purity, and she must shine round about with sweetnesses and friendship; and she shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies." IRVING. She's modest, but not sullen, and loves silence; FASHIONABLE DANCING.* dancing society full twenty years before my time. The first innovation that condemned me to be a spectator where I used to be a not undistinguished performer, was the sickening and rotatory waltz; of which I never saw the object, unless its votaries meant to form a contrast to the lilies of the valley, "which toil not, neither do they spin." Waving all objections upon the ground of decorum, surely the young men and women of the present age were giddy enough before, without the stimulus of these fantastical gyrations. If a fortune-hunter chooses to single out an heiress, and spin round and round with her, like a billiardball, merely to get into her pocket at last, there is at least a definable object in his game; but that a man should volunteer these painful circumvolutions for pleasure, really antes at the Opera; whirling their pirouettes, like whipping, seems to be a saltatory suicide. I never saw the figurtops, without wisning to be near them with a stout thongthat I might keep up the resemblance! and as to imitating their ungraceful roundabouts, by joining in a waltz, I would rather be a teetotum at once, or one of the frontwheels of Mrs. Cy's carriage. Thanks to the Goddess of Fashion, fickle as she is foolish, our ball-room misses have at length ceased to be twisted and twirled in this unmerciful manner, and our spinning-jennies are again pretty nearly confined to Manchester and Glasgow. Tired as I was of sitting like a spondee, with my two long feet hanging idle on my hands, (as a noble Viscount would say,) I began now to entertain hopes of again planting my exploded heel upon a chalked board. But, alas! I was doomed to experience that there are as many disappointments between the toe and the ground, as between the cup and the lip. France, my old enemy, was upon the watch to export a new annoyance: the genius of Quadrille started upon me from amid the roses painted on a ball-room floor, and my discomfited legs were again compelled to resume their inglorious station beneath the benches. I could not put them into a go-cart, and begin all my steps again; I could not make a toil of a pleasure, rehearse before hand, and study my task by card and compass, merely to make an exhibition of myself at last. It was too like amateur acting; the constraint of a ballet, without its grace or skill -the exertion of dancing without its hilarity; and it was moreover, an effort, in which I was sure to be eclipsed by every boarding-school miss or master who would literally learn that by heart, which I, in my distaste to these innova. tions, could only expect to learn by card. Oh, for the days that are gone !—the golden age of cocked hats; the Augustan era of country dance; the apotheosis of minuet! One of my nieces played me those exploded tunes a few days ago, and what a flush of rosy recollections did they conjure up! Their music seemed to penetrate into the quiet caves and grottos of memory, awakening ideas that had long slumbered undisturbed. Methough.t MR. EDITOR-I abhor that atrocious and impious doc- they issued from their recesses like so many embodied spitrine, that France and England are natural enemies, as if Time's great wheel, they dragged it rapidly backwards, unrits: and, fastening their flowery wreaths to the spokes of God Almighty had made us only to cut one another's til the days of my youth became evolved before me in all throats; and yet I must say that I hate the French, and hate them, too, for one of their most elegant accomplish- 1 again behold the rich Miss B, the sugar baker's daughthe fidelity and vividness of their first existence. Then did ments their inexhaustible genius for dancing. With the fertility of their ballet-masters, I have no quarrel; let the supper-dances, with many a shrewd hint that a partner ter, whom my parents invariably urged me to engage for them attitudinize till they have twisted the human form into as many contortions as Fuseli; let them vary figures at a ball often became a partner for life; thank heaven, I and combinations ad infinitum, like the kaleidescope; let holds her webby feet paddling down the middle, with the never danced with her but once, and my mind's eye still bethem even appropriate distinct movements to each class of floundering porpus-like fling she gave at the end, only acthe human and superhuman performers. I admit of the complished by bearing half her weight upon her partner, propriety of their celebrated pas called the Gargouillade, and invariably out of tune. She was obtuse in all her perwhich, as, a French author informs us, is devoted to the entree of winds, demons, and elementary spirits, and of whose ceptions, and essentially vulgar in appearance; in the conmode of execution he gravely proceeds to give an elabo-ty, but her features obstinately refused to assume any exsciousness of her wealth, she sometimes strove to look haughrate and scientific description. But why must their vaga-pression beyond that of inflexible stupidity. She was too ries quit their proper arena, the stage, and invade our ball rooms and assemblies? Sir, they have kicked me out of This letter was addressed to the Editor of the New Monthly, some years suce, and while Mr. Campbell held that honoured office; at any rate was before the era of Gallopades and the Mazourka. opulent, according to the sapient calculations of the world, to marry any but a rich man; and she succeeded, at length, in realizing her most ambitious dreams. Her husband is a yellow little nabob, rolling in wealth, and half suffocated with bile. AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING GOUDA CHEESE. (A PARTICULARLY GOOD KIND OF DUTCH CHEESE.) WHEN the milk is all collected, the rennet, which is pre pared in the following manner, must be put into it. Six rennets must be taken and cut into small pieces; on these must be poured three kilogrames of water, in which about five kilogrames of kitchen salt have previously been dissolved. It may be proper also to add two ounces of saltpetre, or the salt of nitre, and half a bottle of the vinegar of wine. This mixture must be allowed to remain for about three weeks, when it is put into bottles. The bottles must be corked with great care, the influence of the air being pernicious to the rennet. When the rennet, thus prepared, is poured into the milk, it must be stirred very gently in a plain unpainted wooden trough, without the addition of warm water. It is not advisable to add warm water, unless when the milk comes from very distant pasturage, or when, on account of the coldness of the weather, the heat necessary for promoting the operation of the rennet is wanting. It is, however, still preferable to heat the trough directly by means of fire, as is the custom in Switz. erland, where they heat the copper basins employed for this purpose. In those farms, where the pasture is very rich, it is proper to add a little warm water to the milk. Particular care must be taken not to mix portions of milk which have been drawn upon different days, or even at separate hours of the same day, as cheeses made in this manner are always of a very inferior flavour. When, by means of gentle and regular agitation, the different parts of the milk begin to separate, and when the whey is skimmed off, the curd must be kneaded with great care, in order that the large and small particles may not be put together confusedly in the frame, and that they may be as small and as equal in size as possible. The curd must then be wrapped in a thin linen cloth, of a fine but strong texture, and put into the frame. The frames used by M. Van Bell, are different from those usually employed, the sides being vertical. The lids ought to be made to fit exactly. The walls of these frames must be pierced with small holes, through which the whey will exude. If any difficulty be found in taking the cheese from the frame, it will be sufficient to blow into those apertures, as in this way the tension of the air will be removed, and the cheese easily taken out. The frame ought to be placed upon a pedestal, near the press, in order that they may be easily put beneath it. The cheese, with its cloth, ought to be repeatedly returned to the frame, and particularly at the commencement of the pressure. When the cheese is placed under the press, the pressure must at first be light, and afterwards increased by slow degrees. Care must be taken that the pillars of the windlass-press be vertical; and if the lever-press be used, that the pressure may arise exactly on the centre. With regard to the duration of the pressure, M. Van Bell's method differs entirely from that of the English, who leave the cheese under the press for a very long period, sometimes even for three days whereas M. Van Bell does not allow it to remain even so long as is the custom in Holland. It diminishes the duration of the pressure according to the warmth of the temperature, in order that he may be able to put the cheese more speedily into pickle. In truth, nothing produces the putrefaction of the cheese so easily as the acetous fermentation of the milk. Now, it is conceived that this fermentation only increased by allowing the cheese to remain long in the press, especially during warm weather; when, by the method of M. Van Bell, the curd frees it rapidly and effectually from the whey, and the cheese may be sooner put into the pickle, which acts in such a way as to prevent the fermentation. When the cheeses are removed from the pickle, they must be placed upon boards in the usual manner, which is well known to every experimental cheese-maker. M. Van Bell advises the use of pickling-troughs, of a depth sufficient to allow the cheeses to float, in order that the pickle may penetrate them equally on all sides. INTRODUCTION OF POLATOES INTO IRELAND-Mr. Tytler in his life of Raleigh, ascribes the introduction of potatoes into Ireland to that illustrious man. He says, "At Youghall, in the county of Cork, of which town he was mayor, and where his house and gardens are still seen, the first potatoes ever planted in Ireland were introduced by Raleigh, who had broughi them from Virginia; and he is also said to have been the first propa gator of the cherry in that island, which was imported by him from the Canaries. At Lismore, which formed part of thees. tensive grant made to him by Elizabeth, we find a still more interesting memorial in a Free School which he founded; and the large and beautiful myrtles in his garden at Youghall, some of them twenty feet high, are associated with that love of shrubs and sweet-smelling plants, and that elegance of taste in his rural occupations, which remarkably distinguished him." THE AND EDINBURGH WEEKLY MAGAZINE. No. 32.-VOL. II. CONDUCTED BY JOHN JOHNSTONE. THE SCHOOLMASTER IS ABROAD.-LORD BROUGHAM. SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1833. PRICE THREE-HALFPENCE. NOTES OF THE MONTH. MARCH derives its name from Mars, the God of War. By our Saxon ancestors, before their conversion to Christianity, it was called Rhedé Monath, i. e. the rugged, or rough month. It is in general remarkable for the dry winds and boisterous weather which prepare the soil for the labours of the husbandman, and for receiving the seed; hence the proverb, A peck of March dust is worth a peck of gold. Though March is often a cold month in our climate, it is as frequently, (as in the present season, 1833,) distinguished by days of truly "vernal mildness;" and at worst, the air, if cold, is free of damp, bracing and exhilarating; and most inviting to the commencement of out-door exercises, and especially of walking, that best of all modes of training. Descriptive of the weather, which is thought seasonable in March, we have another picturesque Scotch proverb, that " March should come in like the adder's head, and go out like the peacock's tail,"―stinging in the commencement, and beautiful at the close. In this month the Spring flowers, the fairest of all flowers, appear in the gardens in rich variety; and in the pastures the daisy begins to peer forth. This sweet wilding, which a fair author prettily terms the Robin among the flowers, so universally is it beloved, rarely disappears altogether, unless in seasons of great severity; but it is May and June before the profusion of daisies, when their "winking" eyes are broad open at sunny noon, absolutely whiten the " grassy lea." In England, cowslips, butter-cups, and violets,* appear in the meadows, and under the hedge-rows, though with us those beauteous Spring visitants are a full fortnight or three weeks later. Besides the garden flowers enumerated last month, we have, towards the close of this, wall-flowers, and early daffodil, or Lent lily, That comes before the swallows dares, This is the month of those two poetical existences, sweet-breathed ridges, each pouring forth his blithe and emulous carol; the whistle of both alike exhilarating, and full of a fresh Spring feeling. This is a busy and a happy time with many kinds of birds. The crows are chattering and building; the blackbirds and thrushes are in the heyday of their courtship; and at grey twilight, the saunterer in the field-paths is startled by the call of the partridge," now here, now there." This, in brief, is a season replete with interest and delight to the lover of nature, whatever be his rank or his pursuits. The ornitho.. logist may now mark the departure of the field fare and woodcock for their summer homes in Norway with us exactly at the period when our people of and Sweden; quitting their winter residences fashion seek theirs. He may now hear the goldfinch and the golden-crested wren singing, the ring-dove cooing, the pheasant crowing, the woodpecker shrieking; and the owls, having opened their parliaments and synods, hooting at night, in their wood opposite, who respond in the same grave meunintelligible jargon, to those sages in the hanging the lover of plants, has a happier time of it. Every taphysical style. The rambling botanist, or rather new day adds to his store of pleasures, till by the end of the month, while the flower-borders are in vernal pride, the woods, meadows, and wayside banks yield him treasures of primrose and pansy, delicate wood anemone; with arums, periwinkle, cowslip, and crowsfoot, the marsh marygold, and the imps. About this time the cottage dame has her chervil, and many more of Flora's hardy..bred young broods of ducklings to attend and watch, with hope of profit and certainty of pleasure; and she has often the dove-cote to rifle, with a hand more considerate than the heart is commiserating; as she is happily better acquainted with the price young pigeons bear, than with Shenstone's sentimental ballads. Her husband, after a day spent in field labour, or in tending the new dropt lambs, may now, in an evening, be seen at work for an hour, between twilight and star-light, in their garden plat putting down cabbage and savoy plants; seizing a fitting evening to sow his kidney beans, peas, and onions; or, if he be a man of horticultural ambition, dabbling in small saladings. Now he also plants a few potatoes for an early crop, to sell to his richer neighbours after his peas; and, when all is over, he rewards the assisting toil of his child-positive injunction for the jovial observance of their ren, by planting expressly for them a few slips and roots of the commonest but most beautiful flowers; and by digging and trimming the flower border, neatly hemmed in with box, or thrift, or daisies, or London pride. He begins also to think of his bees; and when he returns at night, the children tell of the frequent bee-journeys on that sunny day, and of the bee visits traced to the neighbouring sallows. To the mechanic, an hour so spent, after a long day at the loom, the last, or the forge, is at once health and enjoyment. A garden is also the most potent auxiliary of the Temperance Society that we can imagine. It is the "Schoolmaster abroad," teaching by beautiful and meaning signs, lessons of wisdom and virtue. It is the best club-room of half the year. Many holydays fall in March. The first is sacred to St. David, the patron saint of Wales, and to his savoury emblem the leek, which, on this anniversary, patriotic natives of the principality were wont to wear in their hats, and may, especially if far from home, still wear. The seventeenth is the yet grander national solemnity of St. Patrick, which, from the castle of Dublin to the lonest cabin in Connemara, is the highest holyday of Ireland, and one which, in conviviality and festivity, far surpasses the duller days of the British saints. On this day the Irishman all over Saint's day: Like Moore's bard, St. Patrick wished no fasting, tears, nor sorrowing to be indulged in, in commemoration of his memory, which shews that he understood the genius of the nation fully better than some modern statesmen. In his last speech handed down by tradition, he recommended his votaries rather to rejoice in the manner of hearty Christians at his departure for a better world than even the Emerald Isle; and the more effectually to fulfill his advice, it was coupled with an injunction to "take a drop of something to drink" in honour of his memory Few Irishmen disobey the dying request of their saint.* AIR, THE air that encompasses the earth is, from the intimate relation which exists between it and the health of all organized bodies, and from its im portance in some of our mechanical operations, an object of singular interest. It is a compound body, being composed of two gases, oxygen and nitrogen, nifying acid and generate, because, when comOxygen gas, so called from two Greek words sigbined with many other substances, acids are generated, is transparent and colourless, and of course invisible. Its distinguishing property is the power of supporting combustion and respiration. A candle, on being placed among this gas, burns with increas ed splendour; and will, even if extinguished, but the world may be known by the cross in his hat, stantly re-kindled. An animal will live longer in with a little redness remaining on the wick, be informed of the green immortal shamrock ;" and scarcely does he require this national distinction a confined quantity of this gas than in an equal to point out his Celtic origin as quite dis- quantity of common air; thus proving its power of tinct from that Saxon derivative the English-supporting respiration. It enters into the comman or Scot. This is sufficiently done at all times, but especially on "Patrick's Day," by his air of determined festivity, his franker, or more offhand manner, and that small dash of swagger which marks the warmer physical temperament, together with his less natural aptitude to fore thought and reflection. The shamrock is the common white clover or trefoil, though there is reason to believe that this sacred and mystic emblem, which became to the christianized Irish what the mistletoe had been to the Druids, may have originally been that most beautiful plant the the wood sorrel. Both plants possess the tripartite form; and were the Schoolmaster a fit personage to engage in antiquarian discussion, many proofs could be brought forward by him to shew that the ancient shamrock really was the wood sorrel. The three stalks springing from one root were spiritualized into religious emblems, as they have more recently been made political illustrations. In one of the Rebel Songs of ninety-eight, we have the following, among other spirited stanzas, upon Ireland : Let her sons like the leaves of her shamrock unite, Besides natural inclination which goes a good way at all times with Irishmen, the natives allege of nitrogen gas, the other component of air, are position of many other substances. The properties very different. If a lighted candle or an animal extinguished, the latter immediately dies. These is placed among this gas, the former is instantly. two gases, then, on being mixed in the proportion of 4 of oxygen to 1 of nitrogen, compose common respiration, it is not, of itself, well adapted for the atmospheric air. Though oxygen gas supports support of life, owing to its too powerful stimulat trogen, a gas, as we have seen, possessing propering qualities; and it is accordingly mixed with nities of a negative description; which gases, correcting and modifying the properties of each other, constitute a medium eminently fitted for the sup port of life-shewing the care and anxiety of the Creator to place the means of enjoyment within A friend of ours in Dublin, was one day, a few years ago, engaging a porter for an office of some trust in his estab lishment, and plainly put the necessary questions about readily undertook for every day of the year, save Christ steadiness, temperance, &c., &c. The candidate for office mas and "Patrick's day." He indeed made it a point of honour and conscience to get drunk upon " Patrick's day " and he honestly stipulated for the right of doing what he had always done. As the employer was himself an Irishman, though not quite so devoted, a votary of the Saint, the declaration was as much a recommendation as an ob man all the year round, but dipped deeply in "Patrick's stacle. The Porter kept both conditions. He was a steady pot" on the 17th of March, 2. Bodies of a non-metallic nature, but inflammable or acidifiable : 5. 6. HYDROGEN 7. CARBON 9. SULPHUR 10. PHOSPHORUS Gaseous Bodies. Fixed and Infusible Solids. Fusible and Volatile Solids. 3. Inflammable substances of a metallic nature. the most numerous class of simple bodies; the individuals of which it is composed being in number forty-three. These substances combine with nearly all the ten bodies named above; but the most important compounds into which they enter, are the bodies formed by their combination with oxygen. Oxygen is one of the most important agents in nature, it has not a share. Scarcely a process of any description takes place in which In a simple state, it is obtained only the air of the atmosphere contains one-fifth, and water onein the form of gas. It is an exceedingly abundant body; third of its bulk of it. It also exists in most natural products, animal, vegetable, and mineral. Oxygen gas is, like our reach. Air, which has been respired or breathed, or in which combustion has taken place, will not answer the same purpose a second time, owing to the oxygen gas having been consumed. Nor, for the same reason, can an animal live in air in which combustion has already taken place; nor will a candle burn in air which has already been respired. If we place a lighted candle on a support in a vessel of water, and invert a jar over it, and thus confine the air it will continue to burn till the oxygen gas is consumed, when it will be extinguished; and, at the same time, water will rise in the jar and occupy the place of the oxygen. If the air that remains in the jar be examined, it will be found to be nitrogen gas only. We all know that an animal placed in a confined quantity of air speedily expires. It continues to live only so long as any oxygen gas remains unconsumed. In this case, however, the quantity of air is not lessened, another substance, carbonic acid gas, or the air which escapes from brisk beer, being formed while respiration goes on. Carbonic acid gas is, equally with nitrogen gas, unfit for the sup- elastic. But it is heavier than common air, in the proporport of respiration, of which any one may convince tion 11 to 10. It is a powerful supporter of combustion; himself by putting his head within a brewer's or that is to say, when any inflamed body, as a lighted taper, distiller's fomenting tun while in active operation. is put into it, it burns very vigorously-much more so than As, in the respiration of animals, oxygen gas is con- if it were put into common air; indeed, it is owing to the sumed, and carbonic acid gas is formed, the air oxygen it contains that common air supports combustion at would soon become very impure were this not pro.. | all. Its presence is also essential for the continuance of vided against by a beautiful provision of nature. animal life. We cannot breathe air which has been de Carbonic acid is composed of carbon, or pure char-prived of its oxygen; and it must be noticed, that an ani. coal, and oxygen gas; and, as the carbon is neces-mal lives, and a combustible body burns, much longer in a sary for the growth of plants, it is absorbed by their leaves, while they reject the oxygen gas, which is accordingly set free again to purify the atmosphere. The facts here stated shew the necessity of continual ventilation where a number of human beings, or other animals, are collected together; but which, from ignorance or carelessness, is too often neglected. This, however, being a subject of some importance, we shall reserve our remarks for a future number. CHEMICAL RECREATIONS. SIMPLE BODIES.—OXYGEN, HYDROGEN, NITROGEN, CARBON, SULPHUR, PHOSPHORUS, THE METALS. THE number of hitherto-undecompounded bodies is fiftythree. Four others—light, heat, electricity, and magnetism, called the imponderable bodies-have, by some, been added to these; but, as their separate identity has not been clearly ascertained, they are not generally reckoned with the others. The whole of these fifty-three bodies may be weighed and measured, and hence (in contradistinction to the four bodies just mentioned, which cannot be weighed and measured) they are called ponderable bodies. These, in order to facilitate the acquirement of a knowledge of their properties, have been arranged as follows: 1. Bodies having an immense affinity for the simple bodies of the succeeding two classes; with which bodies they combine, and thereby form substances that are totally different in their properties from the substances of which they are composed :— common air, colourless, invisible, tasteless, inodorous, and definite quantity of oxygen gas, than it would in the same quantity of atmospherical air. Hence it is evident, that oxygen is the principle which supports both life and fire, Oxygen is not only found combined in natural bodies, but it can be made, by means of art, to combine with a great variety of substances, with which it forms very peculiar compounds. since the gaseous state is not the natural state of oxygen, Properly speaking, oxygen gas is not a simple body: but is owing to the presence of a peculiar chemical agent, which has been called caloric. But as we know of no substances that are separated from caloric, it is customary to apply the term simple to such as are com bined with caloric only. Gas is the name given to all permanently-elastic fluids, both simple and compound, except the atmosphere, to which the term air is appropriated. It is necessary to distinguish between gas and vapour. The latter is elastic and fluid, but not permanently so. The vapour of water, (steam,) upon cooling, becomes a liquid; it is, therefore, not a gas, for gases are bodies whose aeriform state is permanent. Hydrogen is only known in the state of gas, and is sometimes called inflammable air. It is the lightest species of ponderable matter with which we are acquainted; compared to oxygen, its density is as 1 to 16. It is the basis of water, from which body only it can be procured, Hydrogen gas, when pure, is possessed of all the physical properties of common air; a slight odour, which it sometimes has, is produced by some substance that is held in solution by it. It does not support combustion, though it is itself one of the most combustible of all bodies; being that which gives the power of burning with flame to all the substances need for the economical production of heat and light. But |