is expected
to be of a much higher order than any thing that has yet appeared from
any Art Union in the world.

The American Art Union is to have its drawing at the end of the present
month, having received a sufficient number of subscriptions, at length,
to make this step seem advisable in the opinion of its directors.

The Philadelphia Art Union is taking vigorous steps to retrieve its
recent losses by fire.

Scientific Discoveries and Proceedings of Learned Societies.

Our countryman, Mr. E. E. SQUIER, is now in London, where he has just
brought out an edition of his work on Nicaragua, and he recently
addressed the _Royal Society of Literature_ on the Mexican
Hieroglyphics, as exhibited in the publication of Lord Kingsborough. The
MSS. engraved in this splendid work are chiefly rituals--a few only
being historical. Of the events referred to, some occurred 600 years B.
C., and one reference appears to be to an eclipse that happened 900
years B. C. The dualistic principle runs through the Mexican Pantheon;
it consists, _i. e._, of male and female divinities, representing the
active and passive principles in nature. We find also in this mythology
a trinity, corresponding to Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva--the productive,
preserving, and destroying powers--in the Indian. Inferior deities
represent attributes; each name denoting an attribute; hence, the gods
of the Mexicans were far from being so numerous as they appear to be.
The supreme divinity had about fifty names: several of which agree in
signification with those applied in the Old Testament to Jehovah. He is
represented wearing a mask, to intimate that he cannot be looked upon.
For each character or attribute there was a different mask, frequently
representing animals; particular animals being dedicated to particular
deities. The different deities were likewise symbolized by different
colors--the water-god by blue--the god of fire by red--the inferior
divinities by a dark tint, &c. Peculiar symbols likewise appear as
crests, or head ornaments. The lecturer stated that the Mexican records
unquestionably refer to an Eastern origin of the nation.

* * * * *

Respecting experiments in _Photography_, the London _Literary Gazette_
says "the preparation of albumenized glass plates promised much, and in
some hands, as in those of Ross and Thomson of Edinburgh, and
Langhenheim of Philadelphia,--the best results have been obtained.
Es