A very beautiful automaton was exhibited, a few years ago, in Paris, and subsequently in London. It appeared in a court suit, sitting at a table, in the attitude of writing. Several questions, inscribed on tablets, were placed on the table on which the whole apparatus stood, and visitors might select any one or more at pleasure. The tablet, containing a question, on being handed to the attendant, was placed in a drawer, and, as soon as it was closed, the figure traced on paper an appropriate reply. On the question being given, “Who may be volatile without a crime?” the answer was, “A butterfly.” And as the figure could draw a response as well as write it, when the question was put, “What is the symbol of fidelity?” it drew, in outline, the form of a greyhound. In the same way it proceeded throughout the series of questions. In some instances, the effect of automata is increased by the exhibiter proposing certain questions, and receiving responses from the figure--as shaking the head, to denote a negative; or nodding, to indicate assent. It is evident that here the inquiries or remarks are thrown in to accord with the motions that the figure is contrived to make. When, however, a performer, as one has recently done, puts a whistle in the mouth of an automaton, and then, sitting down by its side, plays a tune on a guitar, desiring the figure to accompany him; the hasty sounds with which the figure seems inclined to begin, the irregularity with which it proceeds, and the long and loud closing note, may all be easily supplied by some confederate. Surprising as are the effects produced by many automata, it would be wrong to infer that their only results are the wonder of the multitude, or gain or applause to their inventors. “They gave rise,” as sir David Brewster has remarked, “to the most ingenious mechanical devices, and introduced, among the higher order of artists, habits of nice and accurate execution in the formation of the most delicate pieces of machinery.” Those combinations of wheels and pinions, which almost eluded observation, “reappeared in the stupendous mechanism of our spinning-machines and our steam-engines. The elements of the tumbling puppet were revived in the chronometer, which now conducts our navy through the ocean; and the shapeless wheel which directed the hand of the drawing automaton (of Maillardet,) has served, in the present age, to guide the movements of the tambouring-engine. Those mechanical wonders, which in one century enriched only the conjurer who used them, contributed in another to augment the wealth of the nation; and those automatic toys which once amused the vulgar, are now employed in extending the power, and promoting the civilisation of our species. In whatever way, indeed, the power of genius may invent or combine, and to whatever bad or even ludicrous purposes that invention or combination may be originally applied, society receives a gift which it can never