The difference in the vanishing of the tains. But then, at the fame time the fhelving fide, inftead of explaining it moon, instead of having the conve by mountains, may alfo, and perhaps appearance of a globe, will feem to more fatisfactorily, be accounted for be a large concave portion of a holfrom the real difference of the extent, low fphere. As foon as, by the force the arrangement, the height, and the of imagination, you drive away the intenfity of the thining fluid, added fallacious appearance of a concave to the occafional changes that, may, moon, you reftore the mountains to happen in thefe particulars, during their protuberance, and fink the cathe time in which the fpot approaches vities again-below the level of the furto the edge of the difc. However, face. Now, when I faw the fpot by admitting large mountains on the lower than the shining matter of the furface of the fun, we fhall account fun, and an extended plane, alío defor the different opinions of two emi- prelled, with fhelving fides rifing up nent attronomers; one of whom be- to the level, I also found that the fun lieved the fpots depreffed below the was convex, and appeared in its nafun, while the other fuppofed them tural globular flate... Hence I conelevated above it. For it is not im clude that there could be no deception probable that fome of the folar moun in thofe appearances. tains may be high enough occafionally to project above, the shining elastic fluid, when, by fome agitation or other caufe, it is not of the ufual height; and this opinion is much ftrengthened by the return of fome remarkabe spots, which ferved Caffini to afcertain the period of the fun's rotation. A very high country, or chain of mountains, may oftener become vifible, by the removal of the ob ftructing fuid, than the lower regions, on account of its not being fo deeply covered with it,

In the year 1791, I examined a large spot in the fun, and found it evidently depreffed below the level of the furface; about the dark part was a broad margin, or plane of confiderable extent, lefs bright than the fun, and alfo lower than its furface. This plane feemed to rife, with fhelving fides, up to the place where it joined the level of the furface.

In confirmation of thefe appearances, I carefully remarked that the dife of the fun was visibly convex; and the reafon my attention to this particular, was my being already long acquainted with a certain optical deception, that takes place now and then when we view the moon; which is, that all the elevated fpots on its furface will feem to be cavities, and all cavities will affume the fhape of moun

How very ill would this obfervation agree with the ideas of folid bodies bobbing up and down in a fiery liquid? With the smoke of volcanoes, or fcum upon an ocean? And how eafily it is explained upon our foregoing theory. The removal of the thining atmosphere, which permits us to fee the fun, must naturally be attended with a gradual diminution on its borders; an inftance of a fimilar kind we have daily before us, when through the opening of a cloud we fee the sky, which generally is attended. by a furrounding hazinefs of fome short extent; and feldom. tranfits, from a perfect clearness, at once to the greateft obfcurity.

August 26, 1792. I examined the fun with feveral powers, from go to 500. It appears evidently that the black fpots are the opaque ground, or body of the fun; and that the luminous part is an atmosphere, which, being interrupted or broken, gives us a tranfient glimpfe of the fun itself. My feven-feet reflector, which is in high perfection, represents the spots, as it always used to do, much depreffed below the furface of the luminous part.

September 2, 1792. I faw two fpots in the fun with the naked eye. In the telescope I found they were cluders of fpots, with many fcattered

ones befide. Every one of them was Certainly below the furface of the luminous difc.

September 8, 1792. Having made a fmall fpeculum, merely brought to a perfect figure upon hones, without polish, I found, that by flifling a great part of the folar rays, my object fpeculum would bear a greater aperture; and thus enabled me to fee with more comfort, and lefs danger. The furface of the fun was unequal; many parts of it being elevated, and others depreffed. This is here to be underflood of the fhining farface only, as the real body of the fun can probably be feldom feen, otherwise than in its black spots.

It may not be impoffible, as light is a tranfparent Auid, that the 'fun's real furface alto may now and then be perceived; as we fee the shape of the wick of a candle through its flame, or the contents of a furnace in the midit of the brightest glare of it; but this, 1 fhould fuppofe, will only happen where the lucid matter of the fun is not very accumulated.

September 9, 1792. I found one of the dark spots in the fun drawn pretty near the preceding edge. In its neighbourhood I faw a great number of elevated bright places, making various figures: I shall call them faculæ, with Hevelius; but without affigning to this term any other meaning than what it will hereafter appear ought to be given to it. I fee thefe faculæ extended, on the preceding fide, over about one fixth part of the fun; but fo far from refembling torches, they appear to me like the fhrivelled elevations upon a dried apple, extended in length, and most of them are joined together, making waves, or waving lines.

By fome good views in the after-, noon, I find that the rest of the furface of the fun does not contain any faculæ, except a few on the following, and equatorial part of the fun. Toward the north and fouth fee no facula; there is all over the fun a great unevennefs in the furface, which has the

appearance of a mixture of fmall points
of an unequal light but they are
evidently an unevennefs or roughn
of high and low parts.

September 11, 1792. The faculæ,
in the preceding part of the fun, are
much gone out of the difc, and those
in the following are come on. A dark
fpot alfo is come on with them.

September 13, 1792. There are
a great number of faculæ on the equa-
torial part of the fun, toward the pre-
ceding and following parts. I cannot
fee any toward the poles; but a
roughness is visible every where.

September 16, 1792. The fun contains many large faculæ, on the following fide of its equator, and alfo feveral on the preceding fide. I perceive none about the poles. They feem generally to accompany the fpots, and probably, as the faculæ certainly are elevations, a great number of them may occafion neighbouring depreffions: that is to fay, dark ipots.

The facule being elevations, very fatisfactorily explains the reafon why they difappear toward the middle of the fun, and re-appear on the other margin; for, about the place where we lofe them, they begin to be edgeways to our view; and if between the facule fhould lie dark spots, they will moft frequently break out in the middle of the fun, becaufe they are no longer covered by the fide views of there facule."

September 22, 1792. There are not many facula in the fun, and but few ipots; the whole difc, however, is very much marked with roughness, like an orange. Some of the lowest parts of the inequal ties are blackish.

September 23, 1792. The following fide of the fun contains many fa colæ, near the limb. They take up an arch of about 50 degrees. There are, likewife, fome on the preceding fide. The north and fouth is rough as ufual; but differently difpofed.. The faculæ are ridges of elevations above the rough furface.

February 23, 1794. By an experiment I have just now tried, I find

it confirmed that the fun cannot be fo
diftinctly viewed with a fmall aperture
d faint darkening glasses, as with a
large aperture and stronger ones; this
latter is the method I always ufe.

One of the black spots on the pre-
ceding margin, which was greatly
below the furface of the fun, had,
next to it, a protuberant lump of thin-
ing matter, a little brighter than the
reft of the fun.

About all the spots, the fhining matter feems to have been disturbed; and is uneven, lumpy, and zig-zagged in an irregular manner.

I call the fpots black, not that they are entirely do, but merely to distinguish them; for there is not one of them, to-day, which is not partly, or entirely, covered over with whitish and unequally bright nebulofity, or cloudiness. This, in many of them, comes near to an extinction of the fpot; and in others, feems to bring on a fubdivision.

September 28, 1794. There is a dark spot in the fun on the following fide. It is certainly depreffed below the fhining atmosphere, and has fhelving fides of fhining matter, which rife up higher than the general furface, and are brightest at the top. The preceding fhelving fide is rendered almost invisible, by the overhanging of the preceding elevations; while the following is very well expofed: the fpot being apparently fuch in figure as denotes a circular form, viewed in an oblique direction.

Near the following margin are

many bright elevations, clofe to vifi-
ble depreffions. The deprefied parts
face.
are less bright than the common fur-

about this fpot, is a confiderable plane, The penumbra, as it is called, of lefs brightnefs than the common furface, and feems to be as much depreffed below that furface as the fpor is below the plane.

is occafioned by the lucid atmafphere, Hence, if the brightness of the fun the intenfity of the brightnefs must be lefs where it is deprefied; for light. intente the more it is deep. being transparent, muit be the more

face of the fun is diversified by ine. October 12, 1794. The whole furquality in the elevation of the thining atmosphere. The lowest parts are every where darkett; and every little pit has the appearance of a more or lefs dark fpot.

A dark spot, which is on the pregreat inequalities in the elevation of ceding fide, is furrounded by very the lucid atmosphère; and its depreffion below the fame is bounded by an immediate rifing of very bright light.

the fun I obferved yesterday is drawn October 13, 1794. The fpot in fo near the margin, that the elevated fide of the following part of it hides all the black ground, and fill leaves the cavity vifible, fo that the depref. fion of the black spots, and the elevation of the faculæ, are equally evident.

"

[To be concluded in our next.]

OF MAKING MANY BOOKS THERE IS NO END.

A RHAPSODY.

my intention barely to notice en paffant, it feems at least fair to conclude, that if Solomon, who flourished in the thirtieth century of the world, were now alive in the eighteenth century of the Chriftian era, he would have the fame occafion to offer the observation which I have prefixed to this paper, as he had then. The many books, of his time, indeed, have been loft in the wreck of ages. Meritorious as they may have been (and judging from his writings, they were fo) we have reafon to lament that they were trod underfoot during the long night of intellectual darkness that overfpread his nation and kingdom.

Of making many books there is no end.' How fit is this to be a motto for the present state of literature, when the prefs groans with voluminous labours, and book fellers are adding warehouse to warehouse to contain them. At no time, and in no country do we find fo overflowing a torrent of literary lore as now threatens to overwhelm ignorance, and fertilize the language with abfolute knowledge and perfect wildom. Literary fame fwells the breast with irrefiftible ardour, and we may fafely fay that negligence only must be in fault, if any flower now, be born to biufh unfeen, or wafte its fiveetnefs on the defert air.' In every fpecies of literature our books are increasing fo greatly, as to produce a degree of confusion from which a young pupil knows not how to extricate himself, or how to make a proper choice. For amid fuch a number of books as are daily published, can it be a matter of aftonishment, if there are fome bad? Nay, I am afraid that the number of good ones does not bear fo great a proportion to thofe which are either intrinsically bad, or ufelefs, or trifling, as we are vain enough to fuppofe.

prevent the inconveniencies which the public may fuffer in this state of con. fufion and uncertainty, it had not pleafed the midwives of literature, the Mecenafes of genius, the booksellers, in their wisdom, to appoint and confiitute certain indexes or wayposts, which are better known by the name of Monthly and Critical Reviews. It is the peculiar property of these to inform the public what books are really good, bad, or indifferent: but fuch is the imperfection of human nature, that the book fellers, albeit very defirous to obtain them, have never yet been able to procure a fet of infallible reviewers. There is always fome little flaw, fpeck, or imperfection in what they perform, and they often differ fo diametrically from one another, that although we can pretty nearly guess that fome one must be right, we find it moft furprisingly dif ficult and beyond all power of conjecture to discover who that one is. And to do them justice, they are fo very modeft, that while each feems to give his own opinion as the best possi ble, he never fteps out of his way to fay that his contemporary is in the wrong.

Of making many books there is no end.' But are there readers for all the books published? Is the number of readers increased? Unquestionably--because reading is more a fashion, and, like other fashions it is often followed, where there is no confideration as to whether it be useful or not. There are fifty readers of books now to one who was a reader thirty years ago; there are more that can read; fchools among the lower claffes have been extenfively established, and although the poor may not be the purchasers of works that are very valuable in price, yet the avidity with which they peruse pamphlets, and fuch low-priced books as fuit their finances, is wonderful. Of making many books there is But the great confumption of books is no end.' Then, there must be no undoubtedly, where we are to look end to buying thim, and no end to for all other things that are great, reading them; and perhaps we should good and liberal in a nation, among really be reading them to no end if, to the middling claffes of life. As to the

upper, it cannot be denied that they better pradife it, they must excufé me too are friendly to the productions of if I think that their mode of reafonthe prefs; for it has been difcovered, ing is as acute and profound as that of that a library is only a thing intended the woman whofe fon was executed to repair deficiencies in the intellect, for a forgery. She faid, the long or, as we fay, to decorate the inward knew that no good could come of his man, but that it also serves as an ele- reading and writing. gant ornament to a houfe; and fplendid bindings make a very splendid fhow. Such men would not be content with the kind of library Dr. Johnion recommended to his friend Bofwell 10 purchase, a fall-library, because it is cheap, and as really useful as any other. But, with refpect to great men, I have obferved a fpecies of avarice very prevalent, the inconvenience of which I have fometimes felt, without being able readily to account for it. What the mifer is to his money, they are to their books. You may look at them through the glass doors, or the richly gilt and highly finished wire cafes, but the precept is Touch not, tafte not, handle not,'-and I have known a man of quality refuse a volume to one to whom he would not have refused his purse. However, there is one excufe, or apology which it is but fair to make. They obey the just and facred command, for in prohibiting others from reading their books, they deal by them, as they do by themselves.

The tyrannical and abfurd maxim (if I may call any thing abfurd a maxim) which has been advanced as an argument against Sunday schools, namely, that teaching poor people to read will make gentlemen of them, and not fervants, is, I prefume, fufficiently confuted by the common obfervation of many, if not most of my readers. It is not very eafy to make gentlemen of the rich, and I have never heard that reading has been recommended to remove the difficulty, for

Legere et non intelligere, eft negligere, according to the old school-copy. If, notwithstanding, there are any who fill adhere to the policy above-mentioned, and with to keep the poor ignorant, of their duty, that they may.

Of making many books there is no end.' There is one kind of books, to the making of which, one could with an end was put, or at leaft that fewer of them appeared. I mean novels, which, with a very few exceptions, are as devoid of tafte, genius, knowledge of life, humour, wit, or pathos, as they are pernicious to the understanding, and unfriendly to the heart. Yet they feem to be manufactured by the dozen. Indeed nothing is fo furprising as the facility with which they are made. Like quack medicines, they may be written without lofs of time, or hindrance of bufinefs.'-But they cannot be read with equal advantage, and I could with, any thing to the contrary notwith ftanding, that they were lefs read, and that time and bufinefs were confidered as too valuable to be be facrificed to them.

Yet the number of good books daily published is very confiderabie and as reading is more fashionable, let us hope that the effect produced will bear fome proportion to the intention of the authors. I am frequently difpofed to think that already we may difcover improvement in our habits of thinking-more candour, more liberality, more gentleness of manners, and, upon the whole, underftandings better cultivated. This muft render men and women more agreeable to each other, and give them a deeper fenfe of their importance in the fcale of fociety than can ever be felt by the ignorant.-And farther, to promote a revolution fo falutary, let me add this advice. Read no bad books. There are many more good books than you can poffibly study in the courfe of the longest life. Read, therefore, no bad books,

M. N.