The histories of invention present many instances of “the slip between the cup and the lip.” New modes of lighting have been very productive of such disappointments. About thirty years since was patented a light by the admixture of the vapour of hydrocarbons with atmospheric air, so as to produce an illumination equal in brilliancy to that of the purest gas; the power of light from a ten-hole burner equalling that of 22-1/8th wax-candles. This invention had been a long and costly labour; a single set of experiments having cost 500_l._ At length the patent was sold to a company for the large sum of 28,000_l._; a plant was established, licenses were advertised for sale, and, among the confident promises, it was held out that the gas-pipes and mains of the existing companies might be bought up for the requirements of this new light! But the working of the invention did not succeed in detail (indeed, it had been purchased with the knowledge that it was incomplete); and the entire capital invested, some 40,000_l._ or 50,000_l._, was lost! ---------------------------- TIME AND IMPROVEMENT. The Rev. Dr. Temple, in his glowing Essay, “Education of the World,” thus maintains that all human improvement is the result of the accumulations of Time: To the spirit all things that exist must have a purpose, and nothing can pass away till that purpose be fulfilled. The lapse of time is no exception to this demand. Each moment of time, as it passes, is taken up in the shape of permanent results into the time that follows, and only perishes by being converted into something more substantial than itself. Thus, each successive age incorporates into itself the substance of the preceding,—the power whereby the present ever gathers itself into the past, transforms the human race into a colossal man, whose life reaches from the Creation to the Day of Judgment. The successive generations of men are days in this man’s life. The discoveries and inventions which characterise the different epochs of the world’s history are his works. The creeds and doctrines, the opinions and principles of the successive ages, are his thoughts. The states of society at different times are his manners. He grows in knowledge, in self-control, in visible size, just as we do. And his education is in the same way, and for the same reason, precisely similar to ours. All this is no figure, but only a compendious statement of a very comprehensive fact. ---------------------------- EVIL INFLUENCES. It has been asked by a great author, “What does it signify whether you deny a God or speak ill of Him?”—a question well answered by another sage, when he declares, “I would rather men should say that there never was such a man as Plutarch, than that Plutarch was an ill-natured, mischievous fellow.”