The Rev. Dr. J. H. Vincent writes as follows of “Webster—an Ode:” Dr. William Cleaver Wilkinson has long been an enthusiastic admirer of the Sage of Marshfield. He has written two or three elaborate essays upon Webster’s character, genius and work. This ode is a bold and brilliant attempt to celebrate the praise of the Massachusetts giant. Taking several salient incidents from Webster’s life, he follows a “challenge” and “counter-challenge,” with several short poems on the youth, education and legal ability of the great lawyer. The ninth poem is a charming pastoral, setting forth Webster as a farmer; the tenth celebrates the orations on Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill. In the remaining poems the author exalts the statesman and the defender of the constitution; closing with a tribute to his stability, a plea to his state for a favorable verdict upon the fame of her faithful son, closing the fifteenth passage, which is a simple couplet, delicately attributing to this song a serviceable ministration in behalf of the fame of its subject. Forty quarto pages of the poem are followed by eighty-two pages of elaborate, instructive, and exceedingly valuable notes on the private morals, public virtue, genius, statesmanship, oratory, personal traits, and religious faith and character of Mr. Webster. There are passages of remarkable power in this noble poem. All admirers of its hero (and where are they not to be found), will delight in the reading. EDITOR’S TABLE. [We solicit questions of interest to the readers of THE CHAUTAUQUAN to be answered in this department. Our space does not always allow us to answer as rapidly as questions reach us. Any relevant question will receive an answer in its turn.] Q. Why do fogs often rise, if, as Professor Reynolds positively and repeatedly asserts, cloud particles are all _descending_? Is not a fog composed of cloud particles, and if so, how can it rise if “cloud particles _do not float_ but are _all descending through the air_?” A. It is a mistake to say that fogs rise. A fog is a body of aqueous vapor in the atmosphere and is formed in several ways. When the air is cooler than the earth the moisture in it is partially condensed and thus rendered visible. In this way is formed a large class of fogs and also of clouds, the only difference between the two being in their height. When the condensation takes place near the surface of the earth fog is the result. Another class of fogs is formed by the moist air radiating its heat downward to a comparatively cold body of water, earth or air. The moist air coming into contact with the cold body becomes greatly reduced in temperature and after depositing a heavy dew, lies still in the valleys over the whole surface of the ground. To this body of cold air the atmosphere above radiates heat and when the temperature is reduced to the dew-point the aqueous vapor begins to condense as fog.