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Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 24, 27 April 1870, Page 3

Tlia Sacrot of tho Aurora. Meu of science have long felt that a strange secret lay hidden in the Aurora. The magic arch, with its pointed streamers shifting silently but swiftly across the heavens, pulsating mysteriously as though illumined by the fitful changing glow of some concealed furnace, and rendered surpassingly beautiful by the brilliancy of its colours, has always had strange charms for men of thoughtful mind. And gradually a series of laborious researches had revealed tho laws which associate this beautiful apparition with disturbances affecting tho economy of our whole earth, and not indistinctly connected with the habitudes of the solar system itself. But recently a discovery has been made which is even more remarkable than any which bus before rewarded the labours of physicists—a discovery at once instructive and perplexing, revealing a bond of union between the Aurora and a phenomenon hitherto thought to be quite different in character, but leaving us still to learn what the exact nature of that bond of union may be. Let us consider what had been learned respecting auroral displays and their relation to the earth’s economy.

We had occasion recently to point out that a sudden disturbance in the sun in 1850 had been presently followed by intense magnetic action, the whole electric system of the earth quivering, so to speak, nncler the inllueuce of the solar forces educed by the disturbance. And we mentioned that, amongst the signs of this magnetic action, brilliant displays of auroral streamers had been witnessed in both hemispheres on the night following the solar disturbance. This circumstance teaches us the true character of the Aurora as strikingly as any which astronomers and physicists had patiently been gathering during the past half-century. We learn at once that a relation subsists between the Aurora, terrestrial magnetism, and the central luminary of our scheme. And even if we were to pause here, we should have learned enough to indicate the significance and importance of the Aurora. Our earth, we may be sure, is not the only recipient of that mystic influence which rouses into activity the phenomena we term magnetic. Over the whole realm which it rules, the central orb sends forth the strange electric impulses. When our skies arc illuminated by the magnetic streamers, we may be sure that those of Venus and of Mars, of Jupiter and of Saturn, and even the skies of those unseen orbs which travel far out in space beyond the paths of Uranus and Neptune, are lit up with the auroral displays. When once it has been shown that we owe our Aurora to solar action, wo recognise the cosmical character of the display, and that, in a sense, the terrestrial magnetism on which it depends is a bond of a(j|iflity*b£tfyi|een our earth and its sister orb i^SpecttUor.

Aberdeen described in an American j Newspaper. A letter in a recent number of the Citioinwiti Daily Newt contains the following interesting sketch of Aberdeen and its inhabitants:—“ Aberdeen is genteel, antique, and unique. A town more inviting or more interesting there is not in Scotland, unless you except Edinburgh. My wife says “ it looks as if it had just been washed and ironed." And so it does—so tidy, and pretty, and neat in its Quaker attire of grey granite. It is called the “ granite city," and looks more' like a “ Quaker city” than Philadelphia ; for although the latter is eminent for nothing so much as silence, the former is charmingly utilitarian, simple, and substantial, lie,re are miles of plain, grey granite houses. Then the ground undulates, and as it always rains in Scotland, except when it pours, the streets are washed as often here by the clouds as they are in Philadelphia by the brooms—which is a high compliment to the clouds, let me tell them. Union-street is the main street. It is a pleasant sight, especially by night, when the two rows of gas lamps are in full blaze. It is as straight as an arrow, and" as neat as a pin. At the top of the day you can cross it without the aid of the police. It is only sprinkled with vehicles and foot passengers. Its shops are pretty, to say nothing of its lassies, who have a ruddy and cheery complexion,- and lips on which it is not safe for a married man to dwell, if he would not be led into temptation. But I will hang on this luscious subject (figuratively speaking of course) long enough to bear testimony to the physical attractions of the young women of this town. I say their complexions are temptingly radiant with health and simplicity, combining softness of flesh with endurance of texture. And, for that matter, it is the same with the sex of sexes at every age hero, as far as my observation has extended. The preciousest old ladies and middle-aged ladies have I seen and shaken hands with here. The women of Scotland have juice and fibre, sprigbtliness and strength, vivacity and vigour, combined. They are not uniformly or majoritavely handsome or pretty, in the face or in figure. In complexion they are as pretty as a peach up here among the inspiring lulls, but there all prettiuess ends. The rest is beauty of soul, making an uncomely physiognomy beautiful. Good looking women, grand looking women glorious looking women, you will see here, and the sight will revive your hope of the race. The glory of Scotland at this moment is her women. They are intelligent, thoughtful, quick-brained. They have received, like the ruling sex, a first-rate elementary education from the parish school, and, but for the hateful incubus of popular prejudice, they would today furnish rivals to the most learned and eloquent men in Scotland. As it is, these women have simply gone as far as they are allowed to go, and have stopped where and when they were told to stop.”