to the second, and three to the third; and
placing the remainder of the counters on
the table, he turns his back or leaves the
room, telling the persons each to take an
article, and that whoever takes the ring is
to take also as many counters as he already
has; he who takes the shilling, twice as
many; and he who takes the key, four
times as many. This being done, the per-
former advances, and reckons the remaining
counters, and according to their number
and the underneath line, which he must
have previously acquired, he tells who has
taken each of the different articles.
1. 2. 3.
5. 6. 7.
Salve certa animæ semita vita quies.
Thus, if there had been a remainder of
six counters, the position of the vowels in
the corresponding word vita, shows that
the first person took i, the key; and the
second person took a, the ring; and, con-
sequently, the third person must have
taken the shilling. It must be observed,
that in no instance can there be a remain
der of four counters; and that the first
syllable of each word represents the first
person, and the second syllable the second
person. This ingenious feat is founded on
the permutation of the three articles, or
their representative vowels, which can only
be placed in six different positions, and
the corresponding numerical arrangement
of the counters, thus-

1. a ei salve.

2. e a i certa.

first mathematicians; it is only lately, however, that this very ingenious system for performing the feat without seeing the board, has been invented by an Edinburgh gentleman. We well recollect the surprise occasioned among chess-amateurs when it was first performed; indeed, it was generally considered a greater mental effort than that of playing three games of chess at the same time, without seeing the board. The inventor showed his system to the celebrated chess-author, Mr. George Walker, and kindly permitted that gentleman to publish an account of it in one of his interesting chess-articles in Frazer's Magazine, some ten or a dozen years ago. Whether, cramped for space, Mr. Walker's description was not so clear as his other chess-writings so invariably are, or that those who wished to learn this extraordinary feat were deterred by its apparent difficulty, we cannot pretend to say; but it is a fact that this feat is now scarcely known, and whenever performed, even in chess-circles, is always witnessed with the

liveliest astonishment.

to

The general rule for moving the Knight upon all the squares of the board, which commands the fewest points of atcommence by moving him to that square tack, and by continuing this principle he will occupy all the squares in rotation, observing, that if on any two or more squares his power would be equal, he may be placed indifferently on either of such squares. Thus we see, that there are different routes which the Knighterrant may take in his progress over all the board; still, whichever of these routes for covering the sixty-four squares may The three vowels, in their different posi-be adopted, each move forms, if we may tions, are made easy of recollection, by being united with consonants, and formed in their regular succession into the above Latin line, or into this similarly constructed French one :

1.

3.

a i e

animæ.

5. e i a

semita.

6. i a e

vita.

i e a quies.

7.

Par fer César jadis devint si grand prince. The Knight being placed on any square of the Chess-board, to direct his moves on the other sixty-three squares, consecutively, without seeing the board!!

The problem of the Knight's covering successively each square of the board, has, in all ages, attracted the attention of the

if

the

so express ourselves, a link in an endless chain, so that whatever square we start from, by taking one known route, we are sure to arrive at a square, the last link of the chain, a Knight's move distant from the square of our departure. Consequently, consecutive moves of any one route over any person could commit to memory the board, he would be able to start from any one square in that route, in the same manner that any of us, if required to mention the numerals up to sixty-four, could as easily start at thirty and end at twentynine, as if we started at one and ended at sixty-four,

each containing eight syllables; to reduce it still farther we have written the lines as sixteen words of four syllables. The only trouble is, to commit this cabalistical-looking table to memory, which may be accomplished in about half an hour; the process will be greatly facilitated by the learner frequently playing the route over on the chess-board. He will be amply rewarded by the astonishment he will cause to the natives of his locality, who may have the great misfortune of being unacquainted with the Family Friend's enlightening pages; and, if not quite a first-rate player, he will acquire an intimate knowledge of the peculiar powers, and perplexing peregrinations of the eccentric Caballeros, who

"fiery coursers guide With headlong speed through war's empurpled tide;

Alert and brave they spring amidst the fight,
From white to black, from black to candid white."

SELF-MADE MEN.

BERNARD PALISSY.

ONE of the most remarkable instances of individuals who have raised themselves from obscurity to distinction, by the exercise of intuitive talents and persevering industry, is exhibited in the life of Bernard Palissy, a native of Agen, in France, born in the year 1500, and who introduced the art of enamelling into that country.

In the fifteenth, and during the early part of the succeeding century, almost all the porcelain employed in France came from Italy, and principally from Faneza and Castel Durante.

Having by chance seen an enamelled cup of great beauty, Palissy conceived an ardent desire to discover the art by which it was produced, and, although only a common workman, gaining a precarious livelihood by painting figures on parch ment and glass, he determined at all risks to accomplish his purpose.

He had removed with his wife and family to Saintes, in the Department of Charente Inférieure, in 1539, and it was in this place he commenced his operations. Ob

attempts, the want of money being the principal; and he was also ignorant of the art of pottery, the description of furnace requisite, and the materials necessary for the purpose. So that, according to his own expression, he began his work "like a man groping in darkness," trying a different process every day; sometimes making use of the furnaces of Poictiers and Verriers, and at length, not finding these suitable to the process, inventing and constructing one himself.

THE LINDEN TREE. Of every other tree connected with rural economy, perhaps the linden is the most valuable. In Russia, its properties are so well understood that we see it growing in every hamlet and vil-stacles of every kind, however, impeded his lage possessing a soil capable of nourishing it. The wood is not only manufactured into furniture, but into a variety of domestic utensils. Cords and matting are made from its inner rind, while its aromatic blossoms not only perfume the air and feed the bees, but make an agreeable tisane for the invalid. The Circassians feed their bees on the blossoms to produce the fine green honey, aromatic in odour and delicious in flavour, esteemed so great a delicacy by the rich gourmands of Constantinople and Teheran. In order to ensure its good qualities the Palissy has given some affecting details honey is removed from the hive previously of his many fruitless endeavours to discover to the blossom changing its colour. The the art of enamelling, the labour he underyoung and tender sprigs, with their foliage, went, and the misery consequent on the serve to mix with the fodder during the almost total deprivation of the means of depth of winter, being highly palatable to subsistence; for he had abandoned all his the cattle. Several botanical writers have other pursuits for this absorbing object of favourably alluded to this extremely useful his ambition, and the pity we can feel for tree, with a desire to promote its culti- such trials is allied to admiration at the vation in this country; for, independent wonderful energy and perseverance of the of its utility, it is ornamental, and may be poor and despised artisan. seen adorning nearly every public garden and promenade in Germany.

|

Troubled in the interior of his household by reproaches from his wife and family,

ridiculed by his neighbours, some of whom called him a madman, others a sorcerer and a coiner of false money; reduced to such poverty, that one day he was obliged to give part of his clothes to a workinan who assisted him, whose salary he could not pay, and another time burning the furniture and flooring of his house to supply fuel for the furnace; still, with all these misfortunes, enough to subdue the energy of most men, Palissy continued his efforts during a period of sixteen years, gaining greater determination with every new difficulty..

At length he succeeded. A ery of joy, which echoed through the miserable house he occupied, announced the discovery, and brought the wife of the delighted workman to the cave in which the furnace had been placed. Palissy was gazing with raptured eyes on a porcelain dish of brilliant colours he was holding in his hands.

edict of 1559 against the Protestants, sent forth from Ecouen by Henry the Third, did not spare him, although in the height of court favour, and deservedly celebrated. He was sent to the Bastile, where he died in 1589, at the advanced age of eightynine.

Henry the Third visited his manufacturer of rustic pottery while he was in prison, and, finding all inducements to change his religion in vain, told him he should, perhaps, be obliged to leave him in the hands of his enemies:

"You have told me several times, sire," replied Palissy, "that you regret my incarceration; but it is I who should pity you for pronouncing the word obliged. This is no kingly expression. I, even I, will teach you what should be royal language. Neither your majesty, the Guise, nor the whole people, shall ever compel me to bend my knees before images. Such is my The news of this important event spread defiance, for I know how to die!" like wildfire through the country, and at A striking picture might be drawn of the length fortune smiled blandly on the tri-courageous and conscientious workman, in umphant operative. Henry III. summoned whom nature had implanted such lofty him to Paris, and gave him apartments in principles of moral duty, giving so sublime the Tuileries: The singular appointment a lesson to royalty: of manufacturer of rustic pottery to the king was likewise conferred upon him, and from this period he was generally called Bernard of the Tuileries. Before the events of 1789, several of his productions were to be seen in various castles in France-at

Nesle, in Picardy; Reux, in Normandy; at the Palace of Madrid, in the Bois de Boulogne, and particularly at Ecouen.

Besides his inventive talents, nature had endowed Palissy with mental acquirements of a high order, and which rendered him one of the most noted men of his time. Although entirely self-taught, he was well versed in chemistry, and was among the first who applied that science to its true object. He had also studied the monuments of antiquity, and wrote several philosophical treatises on the earth, precious stones and metals, besides giving lectures on these subjects at Paris, in 1575.

The publications from his pen are"On the Means of becoming Rich by Agriculture; and On the Nature of Rivers and Fountains, Metals, Salts, Saline Springs, Fire, and Enamels."

A noble trait of Palissy remains to be told. He was born a Calvinist, and the

CONSOLING IDEA OF DEATH.-"I con

gratulate you and myself," wrote John Foster to a friend, "that life is passing away. What a superlatively grand and consoling idea is that of death! Without this radiant idea, this delightful morning star, indicating that the luminary of eternity is going to rise, life would to my view darken into midnight melancholy. Oh! the expectation of living here, and living thus, always, would be indeed a prospect of overwhelming despair. But thanks to that fatal decree that dooms us to diethanks to that Gospel which opens the vision of an endless life; and thanks, above all, to that Saviour-friend who has promised to conduct all the faithful through the sacred trance of death into a scene of paradise and everlasting delight."

It is almost as criminal to hear a worthy man traduced without attempting his justification, as to be the author of the calumny against him; it is, in fact, a sort of mis. prision of treason against society.