The Western Georgian. (Rome, Floyd County, Georgia) 1838-18??, March 03, 1838, Image 1

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

'wraJL 4aJL *<®kw 'Myrff - JAMES A- WRICrIIT, Editor. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY MORNING BY SAMUEL S- JACK. Tci*him. Three Dollars per annum,ii? six months or four Dol lars at the expiration of the year Subscribers living oui of the State, will be expected in all cases to pay in advance. No subscription received for less than one venr, unless the money is paid in advance ; and no paper will be discontinued until all nrreurg*-? arc paid, ex cept at the option of the Publisher. Persons request ing a discontinuance of their Papers, are requested to bear in mind a settlement of their accounts. Advertisements will be inserted at the usual rates; ■when the number of insertions is not specilied, they will be continued until ordered ou‘, 17" Att Letters to the Editor or Publisher, on matters connected with the establishment, must be Post Paju in order to secure attention. O’Notice of the sale of Land and Negroes, by Administrators, Executors or Guardians, must be pub lishod sixty days previous to the day ol sale. O’ 'Pho sale of Personal Propertv. in lika manner, must be published forty days previous to the day of sale. flj” Notice to Debtors and Creditors of an Estate, must be published forty days. O' Notice that Application will be made to the Court ofOrdinary lor Leave to sell Land and Negroes, must be published four mu%tus. (J_y Notitpe that Application will be made for Let- ; iters of Administration, must be published thirty days iand Letters of Dismi-sion, six months. (TJ* For Advertisin'! —Letters of Citation, $2 7;> UfNoiice to Debtors and Creditors, (49 days,) 3 25 Four Month Notices, 4 00 Sales of Personal Property by Executors, Adminis trators or Guardi'ns, 3 25 Sales of Land or Negroes by do. 4 75 Application fur .Letters ol Dtftnissvm, 4 50 Other Advertisements will he chnri'ed 75 cents for every linect of small »yue. {or space equi. ■valent,) first insertion, and 50 cents t -r ' wch weeklj' continuance. If published every other week, 624 <”• lor each continuance. If imbbskit <1 once a mmrh it will be charged each itiime m a new «<lwi tisenient. For a single insertion-orte Dollar per t-quure. M I N <J K I. I. A N Y . TALE OP A CHEW! IST. The advancement of know ledge is i lhc triumph of truth, and, as such, is : the eventual interest of mankind; in-: asmuch as the extension of reason is by its very definition, tin* necessary object of rational beings. 'l’imid theologians ha\e trembled on the confines of some topics which might lead to dangerous discovery; forget ful that religion and truth, if not i-,■ ■dentical, are at least, inseparable. iSome nice A sensitive die uist have • < forborne the search of the ne plus ul-' tra in alchemy, dreading that, as gold is the great f oundation ol w ickedness ! on earth, the indefinite increase of that metal might be the unlimited • multiplication of human e\ iJ; but for getling that in all human affairs.from fluids up to theories, there is a spe cific gravity in all things which keep constant the level of terrestrial ope rations, and prevents die restless brain of man from raising any edi fice. in brick or discovery, high en ough to be thr ruin ofhi.i own spe cies. 7o me, however, the one con sideration, that the eternal search of knowledge and truth, is the vury ob ject of our faculties, has been the j main spring of my life, and although my individual sulferings haxe. been far from light, yet at their present N.listanee, the contemplation gives me pleasure, and 1 have the satisfaction to reflect, that 1 am now in posw s «ion of that art w hich is continually employed, day and niglrt, for the be nefit of the present generation and rtges yrt to come. I was born in the Semlaiuogorod of Vo scow ; and forUut years applied intensely to chemistry. I confess the failure of my eminent predeces sors prevented my attempting the philosopher’s stone; ray w hole th >*ts were engaged on the contemplation of gravity—on that mysterious invi sable ageat which pervaded the uni verse-—wlucb made my pen drop from my fingers—the planets move round the sun—and the very sun it self, w ith its planets, moons, and sa tellites, revohe forever, with myriads of others, round the final centre of universal gravity—that mysterious I spot, perhaps the residence of those particular emanations of Providence which regard created beings. At length I discovered the actual ingre dients of this omnipresent agent. It is little more than a combination of carbon oxygen, hydrogen, and azote; but the proportions of those consti tuent parts had long baffled me, and |l still withhold them from my species i for obvious reasons. ! Knowledge is power, —and the next easy step from the discovery of; the elements, was the decomposition : of gravity, and the nutralization of its parts in any substance at my plea-! sure. I was more like a lunatic than I a rational chemist; a burning furor J drove rue to an immediate essay of my art,'and stripped me of the power and will to calculate on consequen ces. Imagine me in my labaratory. I constructed a gravitation-pump— applied it to my body—turned the awful engine, and stood in an instant the first ol’ all created beings; devoid of weight ! Up sprung my hair; my arms swung irctu my sides above the level of my shoulders, by the in-, voluntary action of the muscles ; which were no longer curbed by the re-action of the weight. 1 laughed like a fool or a fiend—closed my arms carefully to my side, coinprcs-j sod or concealed my bristling hair under my cap. and walked forth from my study to seek some retired spot in the city where I might make in stant experiment of a jump. With I the greatest difficulty I preserved a decent gait, 1 walked with the unea sy unsteady motion of a man in wa-| ter, whose toes might barely reach I the bottom; conscious as I was of my i security, 1 felt every instant appro- < beusive cf a fall. Nothing could;: have reconcikd me to the disagree able sensation I experienced, but the anticipation of vaulting unfettered: •into the air. 5 stood behind the ca thedral of the Seven Toweis; nobo dy was near; 1 looked hurridlv a round, and made the spring ! 1 rose with a slow, uniform motion ; but gracious .heaven ! imagine my hor ror and distress, when I found that nothing Iwjt tire mere resistence of the air opposed my progress ; and wlu'ii at last it stopped my flight, I found myself many hundred feet a bove the city; motionless, and desti tute of users means of descent. J tore ms hair, and cursed myself, for overlooking so obs ions a result. Mv {screams drew thousands to t'c sin gular sight. I stretched my arms to wards the earth, and implored assis tance. Poor ikvff ’ I knew it was impracticable. Rut conceive the astonishment of the people ! I was too high to be per sonalis known; they called to me, and I answered; but they were una bh to catch the import, for sound, like myself, rises better than it falls. 1 heard myself called an angel, a ghost, a dragon, a unicorn, and a de vil. 1 sass a procession of priests come under me to exercise me ; but i had Satan himself been free of gra vity, he had been as unable to des cend at their bidding as myself. At length the tickle mob began to jeer me the boys threw stones at me. and a clever marksmau actually struck me on the side with a bullet: it w as too high to penetrate; it mere ly gave me considerable pain, drove me a few feet higher, and sunk again to the ground. Alas ’ I thought, would to God it had pierced me. for even the weight of that little ball would ha\e dragged me back to earth. At length the shades of cve \ umg hid the city from my sight: the AV isd o m , Ja s t ice, a as. d Rlodcratioii. ROME, FLOYD COUxATY, GEORGIA, IHARCK 3 9 2 838. ; murmur of the crowd gradually died away, and there I still was, cold, ter rified, and motionless; nearer to hea ven than such a fool could merit to rise again. What svas to be the end of this ! I must starve and be stared at ! I poured out a torrent of incohe rent prayers to heaven; but heaven seemed as deaf as I deserved. Imagine my joy when a breeze sprung up, and 1 felt myself floating in darkness over the town : but even now new horrors seized me; I might be driven downwards into the Mosk wa and drowned; I might be dashed against the cathedral and crushed. Just as I thought on this, my head struck violently the great bell of Bo ris Godunuff; the biowand the deep intonation of the bell, deprived me for some minutes of life and recol lection. When I recovered I found I way lying gently pressed by the breeze, against the balustrades; I pulled myself carefully along the church, pushed myself down the last column, and run as stright as my light substance would permit me to my house. With far greater joy than when I had been disrobed of it, I speedily applied a proper conden sation of gravity to my body, fell on my knees to thank heaven for my de liverance, and slunk into bed, thor- ’ oughly ashamed of my days perfor mance. The next day, to escape suspicion, I joined the re-assembled crowd—looked upward as serious as the rest, gazed about for yesterday’s phenomenon, and 1 dare say was the only one who felt no disappointment | in its disappearance. Anyone w< uld imagine that after this trial, I should have burnt my pump, and left gravity to its own op erations. But no 11 felt J was re served for great things; such a disco very was uo every (lay occurrence, | and J would work up every energy of my soul rather than relinquish this most singular, though frightful, field of experiment. 1 was too cautious to deprive my self again entirely of gravity, hi fact, in my late experiment, as in oth ers, when I talk of extracting my gra vity entirely, I mean just enough to leave me the same we ight as the at mosphere. Il’uJ 1 been lighter than that, 1 should have risen involuntary upward, like an air bubble in a buck et. E’-en as it was, I found myself inclined to rise and fall with every variation of the atmosphere, and I had serious thoughts of offering my self to the university as a barometer, that by a moderate salary, 1 might pass the remainder of my days in tranquillity aud honor. My object now was merely to render myself as light as occasion required: besides, 1 found that by continual contact with the earth and atmosphere, I always inbibed gradually, a certain portion of weight, though by extremely slow and imperceptible degrees; for the constituent parts of gravity, which I have mentioned, enter largely, as ev ery chemist knows, into the compo sition of allcafths and airs : thus in mv late essay ,1 should certainly have eventually descended to earth with out the intervention of the breeze ; indeed, I should probably have been starved first, though my body would have at least sunk dow n for the gra tification of mx friends. Three furred coats and a pair of skates I gained by leaping at fairs in Sloboda, and subsistence for tiirec weeks by my inimitable performance on the tight rope; but when at last J stood bare-foot on a single needle, and balanced myself head dow nw ard on a bodkin, all Moscow rung with applause. But the great object of all my earthly hopes was to gain the affections of a young widow in the ! Kremlin,whose heart I hop’d to move by the unrivalled effects of my des pair. I jumped head-forcma-Jt from a chair on tiie hard floor ; twice I sprung into a well, and once I actu ally threw myself from the highest : spire in Moscow. I always lay sense less after my fall, screamed at my re vival, and counterfeited Severe con tusions. But in vain ! I found my person or pretensions disagreeable to her, and determined in some great pursuit to forget my disappointment. A thought struck me. I knew that mortal man had conceived nothing so sublime, and yet it was in my 1 power ! I prepared a large tube, and bound myself round with vast bales of provisions, which, with myself, I severally divested of gravity. It was a bright moonlight night. 1 stood in my garden, with a weightless xvatch ' in my hand, gazing on the heavens • through the tube. I am confident there was in my face the intripid air of one who on great occasions can subdue the little feelings of the heart. I had resolved on visiting the planet Venus, and had prudently waited till she was in that part of her orbit which was most distant from the sun and nearest the earth; the first of' which might enable me to endure the heat of the atmosphere, and the latter to subsist on the stock of pro visions 1 could conveniently carry. In fact, I had no doubt but that ow ing to the extreme cold of a great part of the journey, the evaporations from the pores of my body would be little or nothing, and could, conse quently, subsist on a trilling meal. I had arranged some clastic rods of steel to project me with considerable , velocity along the tube, the moment the planet should face it* and by sim-' pic multiplication, 1 was enabled,, from the given velocity of projection and the known distance of the plan et, to compute to a day, the period of my arrival there. In fact, 1 took double provision, partly from over abundant precaution, and partly to support me on an immediate return, in case 1 found the heat oppressive. 7’hc moment approached—arrived I 'Fhe planet stood shining on me down the tube. I looked w ildly round me for a last farewell, and was on flic point of loosing the springs, w hen a horrid doubt flashed on me. United saints of Constantinople! should a light breeze blow me from the line ol projection, aye, even a single inch, 1 should shoot past the planet, fly off into immeasurable space and darkness from eternity, whirl raving along cold uncomforta ble chaos, or plunge headlong into the sun itself! A moment more, and I had been lost. 1 stood fixed like a statue, with distended lips, gazing on the frightful plannet; my eyes swam round—my cars rung with hideous sounds, all my limbs were para!ized; I shrieked w ildiy, fainted, and should have.sunk to earth, had I not been utterly devoid of weight. But, life less as my body stood, my thoughts still teemed w ith the frightful hor rors I had escaped : my phrenzy bore me on juy voyage, and to this day the recollections of the delirium arc fresh on my mind. Methought i was on the very journey 1 had me ditated ; —already the earth had fad ed to a twinkling speck, aud Venus, with an expanded disk, lay glittering before me : unhappy being ! I had committed blunder on blunder; I had forgot the motion of the planet her self, and the effects of refraction and the aberration of light, and I saw. at ’ the distance of manv hundred miles. that I should exactly missher. It was even so; imagine the horrors of my drcam, when, after a bitter jour* , noy of twenty-throe millions miles, I {exactly missed her by a foot; —had I there been a tree, a bush, or a largo 1 stone, I might have saved myself. I strained my powerless fingers at the planet in vain;—l skimmed along the surface rapidly, and at length found myself as swiftly leaving it on one , side aS I had approached it on the other. And then I fancied I was rushing quickly towards the sun, and iin an approach of some years, the {horrid anticipation of approaching combustion. Well, I thought 1 pas sed safely and unscratchcd by the sun, and launched past him into in finite darkness, except where a stray comet, carrying fuel to the sun, flash ed a few years’ glitter on my path. Sometimes, in the uttef silence of this boundless solitude, some k:rgo unseen body would whitz.by.me with a rushing whirl, rolling iii its orbit even here, beyond the reach of light, yet still obeying the universal laws of gravitation; —alas, how 1 envied that mass its gravity. And then 1 heard strange sounds, the hisses of snakes aud the shrieks of evil spirits, but saw nothing : sometimes 1 felt! my body pierced, and bruised, and blow n about by the w inds; and heard my name screamed out at intervals in the waste : and then all would pass aw r ay, and leave me still shooting silently on in the same black, hope-* less, everlasting track. After this my phrensy turned, and methought 1 stood even on the sur face of the planet Venus. Tho ground, if ground it’was, seemed no thing but color ; 1 stooped to touch it—my hand passed unresisted thro* the surface. There was a perpetual undulation on its face not of sub stance, but of color: every hue 1 had seen xvas there; but all were light, pale, and fleeting; blue faded into violet, violet to the lightest green, green into gentle silver, in perpetual and quick succession. 1 looked round for the inhabitants of this strange place;—methought they too were colors; 1 saw innumerable form of bright hues moving to and fro ; they had neither shape nor substance —but their outline was in continual change, now swelling to a circle, sinking to an oval, and passing thro* every variety of carve ; emitting the most glittering coruscations, and as suming every diversity of tint. But all these forms were of the brightest and most powerful colors, in oppo sition to the pale surface along which they floated. But there was order in their motions, and 1 could disco ver they were rational beings hold ing intercourse by faculties we nei ther have nor can conceive; for at one time 1 saw a number collect a bout a pale feeble light, w hose coru scations grew less frequent, aud the vividness of its colors faded:—at last it seemed to die away, and to melt into the surface of the planet from very sameness of colour ; and then the forms that stood about were for some time feeble and agitated, and at last dispersed. This 1 thought is the death ol an inhabitant of the planet Vends. 1 watched two bright colors that seemed to dance about each other, floated in the most win ning curves, and sparkled as ihey passed. Sometimes they almostraet; drew back, and again approached. At the end, in shower of light, they swam together and were blended in to one lorever. There is love then, 1 thought, even in this tinsubstantial clime. A little after, I saw vast troops of hues collect and flash vo- Sce last page* Vo J. I— NO 7.