The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 321, July 5, 1828Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 321, July 5, 1828
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
As the season passes on from the Equinox towards the winter solstice,
the heat of the sun daily diminishes, and the cold gains a daily
preponderance. The sedative effect on the body goes on progressively
increasing, being less and less counteracted by any genial influence
from the solar heat at mid-day; whence the gloom and depression so
universally experienced by the nervous in November and December, which
is more and more felt till the shortest day. So soon as the minimum of
solar influence and maximum of sedative effect on the body has passed
over, the sun gradually acquires more of meridian influence, and a daily
increasing ascendancy over the prevalent cold. The human constitution at
the same time is subject to a proportionate reactive disposition; which
reaction is felt most at noon, and it daily becomes more and more
apparent till the vernal equinox, when we have the difference betwixt
the meridian and midnight temperature again at a maximum. We have daily
a powerful sedative effect in the morning, a powerful meridian reaction,
which again subsides into a sedative condition on the access of the
evening. This daily effect on the constitution is exactly similar to
that at the autumnal equinox, only it occurs under different
circumstances. In autumn it is connected with departing heat and
progressively increasing cold; in Spring it is connected with
progressively diminishing cold and advancing heat. After the vernal
equinox, the difference in the meridian and midnight temperature
gradually diminishes; the daily sedative effect at morning and evening
becomes less and less apparent as general atmospheric warmth prevails,
till towards the summer solstice, the general effect on the constitution
is stimulation and excitement by atmospheric heat.
* * * * *
NOTES OF A READER.
BYRON'S "FARE THEE WELL."
On one occasion of a mediator waiting upon Lord Byron upon the subject
of a reconciliation with his wife, he produced from his desk a paper on
which was written "fare thee well," and said, "Now these are exactly my
feelings on the subject--they were not intended to be published, but you
may take them."--_Lit. G._
EARLY HOURS.
Dr. Franklin published an ingenious Essay on the advantages of early
rising.--He called it "an economical project," and calculated the saving
that might be made in the city of Paris, by using the sunshine instead
of the candles--at no less than 4,000,000l. sterling.
SENSITIVE PLANTS.
Light exercises a very remarkable influence upon the irritability of the
sensitive plant. Thus, if a sensitive plant be placed in complete
darkness, by carrying it within an opaque vessel, it will entirely lose
its irritability, and that in a variable time, according to a certain
state of depression or elevation of the surrounding temperature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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