be due, consequently, to electric discharges taking place in the polar
regions between the positive electricity of the atmosphere and the
negative electricity of the earth. These electric discharges taking
place constantly, but with intensities varying according to the state
of the atmosphere, the aurora borealis should be a daily phenomenon,
more or less intense, consequently visible at greater or less
distances, but only when the nights are clear,--which is perfectly in
accordance with observation.

The aurora australis presents precisely the same phenomena as the
aurora borealis, and is explained, consequently, in the same manner.




THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.

WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW.


A young fellow, born of good stock, in one of the more thoroughly
civilized portions of these United States of America, bred in good
principles, inheriting a social position which makes him at his ease
everywhere, means sufficient to educate him thoroughly without taking
away the stimulus for vigorous exertion, and with a good opening in
some honorable path of labor, is the finest sight our private satellite
has had the opportunity of inspecting on the planet to which she
belongs. In some respects it was better to be a young Greek. If we may
trust the old marbles,--my friend with his arm stretched over my head,
above there, (in plaster of Paris,) or the discobolus, whom one may see