probably a measurable quantity, though extremely small, and indeed he has shewn that 164" per century is not a very improbable value.

So this discovery of Adams will lead, we hope, to a renewed investigation of that most difficult of subjects, the tides. Here theory lags far behind observation. And if this retardation of the earth's rotation be established, it is curious to speculate on some of the inferences and speculations that must follow. The year ought to seem to shorten proportionally; and inferences may be made as to the increase of the sun's bulk on the meteoric theory. And if the earth is being retarded in its rotation, the last stronghold of the doctrine of the unalterability of our solar system will be taken. It taxed the imagination to conceive, amid a system of perpetual orderly change ruling over all other motions, that the earth should go on from age to age rotating in one ever invariable period. It is a sameness that seems to conflict with the variety around it. A very slow retardation is going on, how slow we do not yet know, and the same causes that are now in operation will tend constantly in the same direction, till our day becomes as long as our month. It is impossible not to see in this a probable explanation of the strange coincidence in the periods of rotation and revolution of the moon. Had she once tides, either when fluid, or in her now invisible oceans? If she had, their retarding influence, mighty as they would have been, from the size and proximity of the earth, and her own small mass, would have gradually reduced or increased her period of rotation till it coincided with her period of revolution round the earth.

And if the movement of rotation of the moon is not accelerated pari passu with its movement of rotation, will not the moon in some far distant age present to the earth another face from that with which we are so familiar? Perhaps it will be impossible to predict this with certainty. Laplace has not left even this speculation quite untouched, and has assigned reasons for believing that the acceleration of revolution will be propagated into the motion of rotation of the moon.

We have run on unwittingly into speculations further than we intended but in truth this discovery of Adams is pregnant with the materials for speculation and study and discovery. And while we thus raise our humble voices to congratulate our great Cambridge Professor and fellow collegian on his discovery, unparalleled in its kind in the

past history of science, we value it mainly as opening the way to fresh discoveries in the laws of the universe. Laplace regretted that there was but one universe, and Newton had discovered its laws. Some of our mathematicians have doubtless regretted that there could be but one Mécanique Céleste, and Laplace had written it. But now Adams has shewn that there is something yet unknown where all was supposed known; and has made it possible for some other name to be enrolled in the brilliant list of discoverers in Astronomy. Let us indulge a hope that this honour too will be won by an Englishman, a Cambridge man, and a Johnian.

JOY AND SORROW.

WHAT is sorrow but a spring,
Ever flowing, ever full?
Joys are transient, and can fling,

O'er its waters deep and dull,

But a ray that serves to shew

The depth and darkness of the woe.

Joy may like a bubble rise,

From the chilly depths below,
But too soon it breaks and flies,
While the gloomy waters flow

On for ever, and they seem,
But the darker for the gleam.

Sorrow's springs will never dry,
Joy is but a shallow stream,
Glist'ning if the sun be high,

Bright while waning 'neath its beam.

Joy is of to-day, but sorrow

Like a cloud o'ercasts the morrow.

E.

THE MAN IN GRAY.

THE little town of Aston was in a fever of excitement. For the good people of Aston, feeling the full force of their great poet's adage, that

"Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do,"

determined not to give the old gentleman a chance against themselves, but to keep their hands fully employed-with other people's business. And so it came to pass that when Mrs. Toddy, the landlady of the Aston Arms, received a letter desiring her to prepare a bed for "hers truly, Ruffe Ryder, S.G.", the inhabitants of Aston rose as one man to settle the matter entirely to their own and Mrs. Toddy's satisfaction. Not that there was anything out of the way in anybody taking up his quarters at the hotel in Aston; for Aston, being one of those central country towns in a hunting district, received many passing visits from strangers; but there was a mystery about the letters S.G., after Mr. Ryder's name, which every Astonian felt in duty bound to clear up to the best of his ability. To be sure, old Admiral Pigsed told them it only meant silly goose, like themselves, and asked what on earth it mattered to anybody else who he was, as long as he behaved himself whilst he was at Aston, and paid his hotel bill when he went away? But no one minded what that old seabear said. So it was settled that Mr. Ryder must be a somebody, (or why should he have any letters after his name?) and must be treated accordingly. It was even suggested that a deputation of influential townsmen should be sent to present an address to him on his arrival at the station, and Mr. Oxide the chemist was mentioned as the fittest person to read it, for he had once been at a school where they taught Latin, and still retained enough of that language to be able to read the names of the drugs on the drawers in his

shop. But this idea was afterwards dropped. In the meantime Mrs. Toddy got all things ready for the arrival of the illustrious stranger, for as she said to Mrs. Peepaskew the postmistress who brought her Mr. Ryder's letter, "you know, my dear, he'll have to pay for it all, whoever he is, so we may as well have the best room ready for him, in case he should turn out to be a prince in disguise." You see Mrs. Toddy's ideas were rather romantic, but her imagination had been early cultivated at a genteel school, where they taught extras. So after arriving at such a satisfactory conclusion, these two good ladies assumed an air of the utmost importance whenever the strange gentleman's name was mentioned in their presence. For wasn't Ruffe Ryder, Esq., S.G., about to take up his abode with Mrs. Toddy? And hadn't Mrs. Peepaskew carried the letter announcing his intention over to the Aston Arms with her own hands, and been present when it was read?

On the day fixed for his arrival, there was quite a crowd at the railway station, every one intent on getting the first peep at the mysterious stranger. When the train drew up at the platform, out got a short man in gray leading a small dog by a chain. As he was the only passenger, there could be no doubt that he was the "long expected one," especially as he personally superintended the transference of two portmanteaus, each marked R.R., from the luggage van to the top of a cab. He seemed at first rather taken aback at finding himself the object of such general attention, and seeing old Miss Smilkin gazing fixedly at him, he mechanically raised his hat to her, and then jumping into the cab was soon lost to the sight of the wondering Astonians. "A very well-bred gentlemanly young man," said Miss Smilkin drawing herself up. She evidently thought our hero had recognised her high birth in the contour of her bony nose, and the set of her undeceptive false front. "He must be made much of," continued the lady. And as her maternal aunt's grandfather had married into Sir Newgate Ketche's family, who was himself fourth cousin to the great Lord Calcraft of Hemptie, Miss Smilkin was naturally looked to as the setter of fashion at Aston, particularly in the matter of settling who was to be called on by those who wished to be considered as "society."

"He only came second class!" said Mrs. Peepaskew in an injured tone to Mrs. Toddy. "So he did, my dear," answered that lady, "but then you know the truly great are ever the least ostentatious." This was a sentiment Mrs. Toddy was very fond of airing on every possible occasion.

It came with several others from one of the copy books in which Mrs. Toddy learnt to write, (" practised caligraphy," she would have said,) at the genteel seminary. Miss Smilkin was as good as her word, and introduced Mr. Ryder into the tip top Aston society. He was visited and feasted and entertained in every possible way. And all the young and middle aged ladies assiduously set their caps at him. For though rather unpolished, or a little negligeé as they termed it, yet he was a good enough looking young fellow. And as Miss Smilkin said in a mysterious manner that he was 66 a bon parti, and had evidently moved in the highest circles," it was obviously the thing to do to try and secure him to Aston for ever. With the men he was a particular favourite, as he abounded in "tips" about the coming races, and was a very fair hand at billiards. But still the mystery of the letters S.G. was not cleared up, and many and various were the theories current about them. Old General Tellagoodun said he remembered him well in the Peninsula, where he had held a high rank in the Spanish Army, and that S.G. meant Sanctissimo Generalissimo, a title of honour conferred only on the most distinguished officers. As the General was very rich, gave good dinners, and had no relations, this explanation was the generally received one in Aston. To be sure, Admiral Pigsed, when he heard it, observed in a voice like an Armstrong gun with a quinsy, that if that were the case, Ryder must have worn uncommonly well, as he didn't look above thirty. But nobody cared for what the Admiral said, as he made a point of always differing from the General on every subject, and had nothing besides his half pay. So Mr. Ryder continued to live on the fat of the land.

Mr.

One day the General gave a grand dinner party, and of course Mr. Ryder was there. After the ladies had left the room, and the gentlemen were beginning to grow confidential, little Mr. Chirp the attorney sidled up to our hero and said, "do pray, my dear sir, tell me what is the meaning of those letters that every one is talking about.'

"What letters?" said Mr. Ryder, taking a huge bite out of an orange and letting the juice run down his chin.

"Why that mysterious S.G.," answered Mr. Chirp.

"S.G.?" said his friend wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, "O, it only means stud groom. I am Lord Epsom's stud groom, and I have just come down here to look after a horse he has training for the Derby"

O dear! what a commotion there was in Aston after this! Every one suddenly remembered he had often noticed how