it was too apparent that, in spite of his delusion, Rode's former
confidence in himself was gone; and we know the importance of that
feeling of self-reliance which men of talent derive from the innate
consciousness of their own superiority: once destroyed, everything else
vanishes with it. He was applauded; respect for the last efforts of what
had once been first-rate talent secured him that meed; but he was
applauded because his audience considered it a kind of duty, and without
any symptoms of enthusiasm. He felt the distinction; a dreadful light
broke in upon him, and for the first time he became conscious that he
was no longer himself. The blow was the more severe as it was unlooked
for: he left Paris overwhelmed with grief; the check he had received
preyed incessantly on his mind and injured his health. A paralytic
stroke toward the end of 1829 deprived him of the use of one side and
affected his intellect, in which state he languished for nearly twelve
months, till on the 25th of November, 1830, death relieved him from his
sufferings.--_From a Memoir of Rode in the Harmonicon._

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PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.

It may be considered as sufficiently proved, that the sciences had not
acquired any degree of improvement until the eighth century before the
Christian era; notwithstanding great nations had been formed in several
parts of the earth some centuries earlier. Fifteen hundred years before
Christ there were already four--the Indians, the Chinese, the
Babylonians, and the Egyptians.--_Cuvier._

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