Round the Sanctums.

Otago Witness, Issue 1581, 11 March 1882, Page 28

Round the Sanctums.

Love. Methinka I love all common things— The common air, the common flower, The dear, kind, common thought that springs From hearts that have no other dowerNo other wealth, no other power Save Love ; and will not that repay For all else Fortune tears away? Ah ! happy they who can truly echo these sweet words— who can pass by the world, Its prides, ambitions, hopes, desires, Its gold, and all its 'broidered equipage, so dazzling to the outward vision, and looking within behold by the mind's eye a purer light.

'No other dower save love'— the love of a faithful human heart I Is not that the higheßt earthly blesßing? To know that there ia one to partake our joya, and lighten the burden of our sorrows ; to sympathise with many a wayward mood that only affection can under* stand; to make the sunshine a glory, and when some darkening cloud hides its rays, stretch forth a kindly hand to clasp our own I

But why call ( common things ' the life-sus-taining air that all ahare alike, or the little way- aide flower? For another poet, perhaps more reverentially, has said of these sweet creations : The meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. And the great wealth of Love thx, when ' Fortune tears away ' all -other wealth, still abides with us ?— ah ! let ua not call this common.

There is but one counterbalance to such deep happinesp, and at moments that thought will fall like a dread shadow over even the suDnieafc path— the parting that inußt some' d»y come— the inexorable decree that await* mortality ! We fall, we lade, we die, Yet once, 'twixt death and birth, To know Love's km, Love's sigh, Is light from heaven on earth. My God, Thy sun is sweet, If, ere the twilight come, Love walks with sacred feet Across our earthly home.

Worms as Preservers of Arch&ologiool Remains.

Archaeologists ar« prob*nly not aware how much they owe to worm*, for the preaervatior* of many ancient objeots: coins, gold ornament*. *?,V , • »?fi pe< l on . tb ? sw£aoe5 w£aoe of the ground* will infallibly be buried by the cwticgs of

worms in a few years, and will thus be safely preserved. For instance, some years ago a grass field not far from Shrewsbury, was ploughed up, and a surprising number of iron arrow heads were found at the bottom of the farrows, which no Jmbt had been left strewn on the battlefield at Shrewsbury in the year 1403. In Abinger, Surrey, on a trench being dog in 1876, the concrete floor of the atrium or reception-room belonging to a,Rbman villa waß disclosed at a depth, of two or' two and one-half feet At first sight X appeared impossible that the vegetable mold covering tho pavement .could have been brought up by worms, but npott close .inspection the concrete was found decayed aod completely permeated with worm burrows. Through the channels in the softened mortar the worms had been throwing up their castings from the ground beneath, and beaping on the concrete pavement a layer of fine earth during many centuries, and perhaps for a thousand years. ' The coUjb discovered in this place dated from 133 to 375 A D. The pavement of Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire now lies at a depth of from six and three fourths to eleven and a half inches beneath the surrounding turf-covered surface. A part of this pavement haß been uncovered, but requires continual sweeping to remove the worm castings, which otherwise would soon rebury it.— Charles Darwin.

k Changes of a Century.

rThe Nineteenth century has witnessed many, And very great discoveries and changes : In 1809 Fulton took out his first patent for the invention of a steamboat. The first steamships which made regular trips across the Atlantic Ocean were the Sinus and Great Western in 1830. The first public, application to practical use of gas for illumination was made in 1802. In 1813 the streets of London were for the first time lighted with gaa. In 1813 there was built in Walthatn, Massachusetts, a mill, believed to have been the first in the world whioh oombined all the requirements of making finished cloth from the raw cotton; In 1790 there were only 25 post-offices in America, and up to 1837 the rate of postage was 25 cents for a letter sent over 400 miles. In 1807 wooden docks began to be made by machinery. "This ushered in tbe era of cheap clocks. About the year 1833 the first railroad of any considerable length in the United States was constructed. In 1840 the first experiments in photography were made by Daguerre, About 1840 the first express business was established. ' " . „ The anthracite coal business may be said to have begun in 1820. ' •In 1836 the patent for the invention of matohes was invented. Steel pens were' introduced for use in 1803, The first successful trial of a reaper took place in 1833. , „ In 1846 Ellas Howe obtained a patent for bis fjwt sewing machine. ' ' ■ The firpt successful method of making vulcanised india-rubber was' patented in 1839. In 1844 the magnetic telegraph was first brought into practical use. '

2%e>Bamele*s Author of 'Home, Sweet Home.'

.In the London City Press we read: .The author of 'Home, Qwfiet Home,' T. H.iPay'ne, • > poor,, but genial hearted man, was walking With a frjeufl in London, and, pointing to one « the most aristocratic houses in Mayfair, be •aid: 'Under those windows, I composed the ■bag" of " Home, Sweet Home. 1 ' aa I wandered i&ont without food, or a Bemblance of shelter I ooold call my own. ' Many a night since I wrote thoße words, that issued oat of my heart by absolute want of a home, have I passed and npMuedin this locality, and heard a siren voice coming from within those gilded walla, in the depth of a dim, cold London winter, warbling " Home, Sweet Home," while I, the author of ' them, knew no bed to call my own. I have been in the heart of Paris, Berlin, London, or some other city, and have heard people singing V Horn*,. Sweet Home," without a penny to buy the next meal, or a place to put my. bead In. „ The world has literally sung my song until every heart is familiar with ita melody* My country has turned me ruthlessly from office, and in my old age I have to submit to humiliation for bread.' It is hinted, by those who ought to know, that ' the genial-hearted man's 1 imorovWenoe caused his family no slight trouble and expense.