among the ancient people of China and of Arabia. The French also have laid claim to the discovery of the compass, and in the Imperial Library at Paris there is a poem, contained in a curious quarto manuscript of the thirteenth century, on vellum, in which the mariner's compass is evidently mentioned; but still it appears that the Neapolitan, Flavio Gioja, if not the original discoverer, was at least the first who used the mariner's compass, or constructed it for the use of vessels in the Mediterranean. ------------------ THE DISCOVERY OF LITHOGRAPHY. The invention, or more properly the discovery, of lithography, claims a high rank among those of the present age, on account of its extensive usefulness. The honour of the invention belongs to Alois Sennefelder, originally a performer at the Theatre Royal of Munich. He had conceived the idea of etching on stone instead of on copper, and was proceeding to make the experiment, when an accidental discovery gave a more beneficial turn to his speculations. The discovery, which was that of the lithographic art, has been thus narrated by Sennefelder himself:-- "I had just succeeded, in my little laboratory, in polishing a stone plate, which I intended to cover with etching ground, when my mother entered the room, and desired me to write her a bill for the washerwoman, who was waiting for the linen. I happened not to have even the smallest slip of paper at hand, as my little stock of paper had been entirely exhausted by taking proof impressions from the stones; nor was there even a drop of ink in the ink-stand. As the matter would not admit of delay, and we had nobody in the house to send for a supply of the deficient materials, I resolved to write the list with my ink prepared with wax, soap, and lamp-black, on the stone which I had just polished, and from which I could copy it at leisure." "Some time after this, I was going to wipe this writing from the stone, when the idea, all at once, struck me to try what would be the effect of such a writing with my prepared ink if I were to bite it in the stone with aquafortis; and whether, perhaps, it might not be possible to apply printing ink to it in the same way as to wood engravings, and to take impressions from it." Sennefelder surrounded the stone with a border of wax, and applied aquafortis, by which in a few minutes the writing was raised. Printing ink was then applied with a common printer's ball, impressions were taken off, and the practicability of the important art of lithography thus was fully established.