Dr. Young's theory of light was treated with the most sovereign contempt
by Lord Brougham, in the earlier numbers of the _Edinburgh Review_; and
Dr. Young died without reaping the honour of his discovery. The theory
is now recognised as true; and M. Arago has formally vindicated Dr.
Young from the noble critic's animadversions, in a discourse delivered
at the French Institute.
In 1809, when the first application was made to Parliament on
gas-lighting, the movers in the project were much opposed; a committee
of the House of Commons was granted, but the application terminated
unsuccessfully; and the testimony of Mr. Accum to the practicability of
gas-lighting exposed him to the severe animadversions and ridicule of
Mr. Brougham.
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WHO FIRST DOUBLED THE CAPE OF GOOD
HOPE?
"Why, Vasco de Gama, to be sure"--perhaps, the reader will reply. In
Portugal, however, a much more ancient navigator has been mentioned.
Vieyra, an old preacher of great renown at Lisbon, said in one of his
sermons:--"One man only passed the Cape of Good Hope before the
Portuguese. And who was he? and how? It was Jonah, in the whale's belly.
The whale (or rather great fish) went out of the Mediterranean because
he had no other course; he kept the coast of Africa on the left, scoured
along Ethiopia, passed by Arabia, took post in the Euphrates, on the
shores of Nineveh, and, making his tongue serve as a plank, landed the
prophet there."
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