On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (7)
-
July 1, 1854.] THE LEADER. 61*
-
^P tf tv-t« rff*tfi^1> JL'tH-tUHHv* 1
-
Critics are not the legislators, "but th...
-
The war does not deter publishers from s...
-
The Lectures on' Education delivered at ...
-
Now every one is travelling, or about to...
-
GUIZOT'S CROMWELL,. History of Oliver Cr...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
July 1, 1854.] The Leader. 61*
July 1 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 61 *
^P Tf Tv-T« Rff*Tfi^1≫ Jl'th-Tuhhv* 1
Ittrratart
Critics Are Not The Legislators, "But Th...
Critics are not the legislators , "but the judges and police of literature . They do not mate laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — JEdiiiburffh Review .
The War Does Not Deter Publishers From S...
The war does not deter publishers from serial works , whatever may be its effect on Literature in general . Park eh continues Ms elegant edition of our Poets ; Nxcnoi . the same with his ; Bohn shows no pause in enterprise ; John Chapman grows mote and more confident about his Quarterly Series of Philosophic Works , and announces Feuerbach ' s startling work The Essence of Christianity , which will be a bombshell thrown into the camp of orthodoxy ; and now Constable announces a new series under the title of Constable's 3 fiscellany of Foreign Literature , which is to present the public with a varied and valuable collection of Foreign and A _ merican works at 3 s . 6 d . a volume . The plan is vague ; which is at once an advantage and a disadvantage—it offers a wide field for selection , but it does not appeal to any class . Nothing but great skill in selection , and excellence in translalation , will make this series a success—but they may make a great success .
The Lectures On' Education Delivered At ...
The Lectures on' Education delivered at the Royal Institution by Wheweia , Faraday , Latham , Datjbeny , Txndaix , Paget , and Hodgson , hare been published by J . W . Parker and Son in handsome pamphlets , and paged to be united in a handsome volume , where we advise the reader to consult them ; for although it is not easy to say anything new on this hacknied subject , the subject is only hacknied because of its importance and what is here said is for the most part well worth being iterated . Faraday throughout preaches from the text of table-turning , which , he so truly says , is terrible evidence of the want of mental discipline in a public ready to accept it- He touches also on the morale of this question , as regards the attitude of scientific men : —
" And now a few words upon the mutual relation of two classes , namely , tTiose who decline to educate their judgments in regard to the matters on which they decide , and those who , by self-education , have endeavoured to improve themselves ; and upon the remarkable and somewhat unreasonable manner in which the latter are called upon , and occasionallytaunted , by the former . A man who makes assertions , or draws conclusions , regarding any given case , ought to be competent to investigate it . He has no right to throw the onus on others , declaring it their duty to prove him right or wrong . His duty is to demonstrate the truth of that which he asserts , or to cease from asserting . The men he calls upon to consider and jndge have enough to do with themselves , in the examination , correction , or verification ef their own views . The world little knows how many cf the thoughts and theories -which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator have been crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe cr iticism and adverse examination ; that in the most successful instances not a tenth of the Suggestions , tho hopes , the wishes , the preliminary conclusions have been realised . And is a man so occupied to be taken from his search after truth in the path he hopes may lead to its "attainment , and occupied in vain
upon nothing but a broad assertion ? " Neither has the asserter of any new thing a right to claim an answer in the form of Yes or No ; or think , because none is forthcoming , that he is to be considered as having established his assertion . So much is unknown to the wisest man , that he may often be without an answer : as frequently he is so , because the subject is in the region of hypothesis , and not of facts . In either case he has the right to refuse to speak . I cannot tell whether there are two fluids of electricity or any fluid at all . I am not bound to explain how a table tilts any more than to indicate how , under tho conjuror's hands , a pudding appears in a hat . The means are not known to me . I am persuaded that the results , however strange the ? may appear , arc in accordanco with that which is truly known , and if carefully investigated would justify the well-tried laws of nature ; but , as life is limited , I am not disposed to occupy the-time it is made of in the investigation of matters which , in what is known to me of them , offer no reasonable prospect of any useful progress , or anything bat negative results . We deny the right of those who call upon us to answer their sneculations . 4
if we can , ' whilst wo have so many of our own to develop and correct ; and claim tho right for ourselves of withholding either our conclusions or the reasons for them , without in the least degree admitting that their affirmations are unanswerable . We are not even called upon to give an answer to tho best of our belief : nor bound to admit a bold assertion because we do not know to the contrary . * * * * ? " When men , more or less marked by their advance , are led by circumstances to give an opinion adverse to any popular notion , or to the assertions of any sanguine inventor , nothing is moro usual than the attempt to neutralise tho force of such an opinion bv reference to the mistakes which right educated men have made ; and their occasional misjudgments and erroneous conclusions are quoted , as if they were less competent than others to give « n opinion , being even disabled from judging liko matters to those which are included in their
pursuits by the very oxerciso of their minds upon them . How frequently has tho reported judgment of Duvy , upon tho impossibility of gas-lighting upon a large scale , been quoted by speculators engaged in tempting monied men into companies , or in tho pages of journnls occupied with the popular fancies of tho day ; as if nn argument were derivublo from that in favour of somo special object to bo commended . Why should not men taught in tho matter of judgment far beyond their nei ghbours , le expected to err sometimes , sinco the very education in which they are advanced can only terminate with their lives ? What 5 s there about them , derived from this education , which sets up tho shadow of iv pretence to perfection ? Such men cannot learn nil things , and may often bo ignorant . The very progross-which science makes amongst them as a bod y is a continual correction of ignorance—* . e ., of a stnto which is ignorance in relation to the future , though wisdom and knowledge in relation to tho pnst . " The following little digression is worth quoting : —
When I was young , I received from one well able to aid n learner in his endeavours toward self-improvement , n curiouB lesson in tho mode of estimating tho amount of belief one migjit bo induced to attach to our conclusions . Tho person was I ) r . Wollnuton , who , upon n given point , wiva induced to otter me . u wngor of two to ono on tho nflirmutivo . I rothor impertinently quoted Butlor ' s woll-kuown linos about tho kind of persons who uso vrncora for argument , 1 Quoth aliO j " I ' ve hoard old cunning stngoi's , Say lbola lor arguments uso wagora . ' " And ho gently explained to mo , that ho considered such a wager not as a thoughtless thing , but ns nni expression of tho amount of belief in tho mind of tho pi'rson otluring it ; comfining thin curious application of tho wager , as n metor , with tho ncuosaity that ever existed of drawing conclusions , not absolute but proportionate to tho evidence . " Since w o have commenced citation wo will not omit the capital philosophic satire Whkwbjm . < juot 08 from Fonti 5 N 1 Qi . li : ' s Plurality of Worlds : —
There , tlio sagos of antiquity , tho PytlmgornHos , Platos , Aristotloa , nro represented as looking at . tho spectacle of tho univorao , liko aomnny spectators In tho pit of tho Opera House looking at tho ballot . Tho Hubject of the ballet is supposed to he , VhaUton curried away by tno winds ; and to repreocnt this , the dancer who t'unetti the pjirt of I'hnOton , is
made to fly away through the upper part of the scene , to the great admiration of tne gazer ? . The more speculative of these attempt to explain this extraordinary movement of Phaeton . One says , ' Phaeton has an occult quality , which carrks him away . ' This is the Aristotelian . Another says , ' Phaeton is composed of certain numbers , which make him move upwards . ' This is the Pythagorean . Another says , * Phaeton has a longing for the top of the theatre . He is not easy till he gets there . This is the philosophy whicn explains the universe by Love and Hate . Another says , ' Phaeton has not naturally a tendency to fly ; but he prefers flying to leaving the top of the scene empty . ' This is the doctrine of thajuga vacui , nature ' s horror of a vacuum . And after all this , says the speaker , comes Descartes , and some other moderns ; and they say , Phaeton goes up , because he is drawn by certain cords , and a weight , heavier than he is , goes down behind the scenes . "
Science puts an end to more absurdities than those hinted at by Fonteneiub , and is the great instrument of human progress . Therefore we unceasingly applaud efforts made in that direction , be they never so humble . We like to see science fashionable—much more do we delight in the idea of its being popular . That it will be " superficial" is no bugbear to us . We have no fear lest Faraday should fail us because Jokes talks something too loosely on dianaagnetics ; nor do we anticipate Owen ' s silence , because Smith alludes to " ganglionic centres , " as if he knew what they were . The' tide of nonsense -will flow on in spite of all Canutes . There is no . dam for that . We must bear with it , unless we adopt Camxxe ' s suggestion , — " blacklead all the blockheads , and send them to the West Indies as slaves . " Beside the fools stand those who are not fools , but merely uninstructed ; make science popular , and you reach them .
Orr ' s Circle of the Sciences , which has now peached the first volume , is one of the many praiseworthy attempts to popularise scieuce , by giving good matter at the cheapest possible cost . Owen ' s little treatise on the Structure of the Skeleton and the Teeth is , unhappily , deficient in the attractive art of popular exposition ; but if the student will but take courage , and read this treatise with labour , he will be in possession of the last word of science ort the subject . Of very great value , also , is the treaty on the Varieties of the Human Race by Dr . Latham . The Principles of Physiology , by the editor , is a compilation from good authorities ; but the tyro will find difficulties in the exposition . Abundant woodcuts illustrate the text , and altogether the work , although falling short of what it slight have been , is one which must do good .
Professor Joknstone ' s Chemistry of Common Life we have frequently noticed . It is by far the best work of the kind we have had . It is very intelligible , very readable , very valuable : quite a model for popular expositors .
Now Every One Is Travelling, Or About To...
Now every one is travelling , or about to travel , we advise the said " every one" to get The Royal Hotel Guide which Messrs . W . H . Smith and Son have published . This is not precisely Literature , yet to any one moving about , there are few works which will be consulted with greater eagerness , especially when—as in a few months must be the case—all the details are filled in where now the columns are blank . It professes to furnish the traveller with an index to all the Hotels and Inns in England and Wales— -and this first number comprises a list of upwards of eight thousand . The prices are given ia columns , so that the traveller may know beforehand what his
bed , breakfast , dinner , sitting-room , and attendance will cost him—that is to say he will know it in those case 3 where the honest and farsighted proprietor has furnished the information ; cases at present only amounting to about three per cent , of the whole . But Messrs . Smith and Son declare they will give the charges according to the receipted bills , if the hotel-keepers continue to withhold this information . It is certainly preposterous to think of an hotel publicly inviting custom , yet refusing to exhibit a tariff of charges . The Royal Hotel Guide , which will be a supplemental Bradshaw must produce a reform in our hotel system .
Guizot's Cromwell,. History Of Oliver Cr...
GUIZOT'S CROMWELL ,. History of Oliver Cromwell and the English Commonwealth , from tfie Execution of Charles the First lo the Death of Cromwell . By M . Gukot . Translated by Andrew K . Scoble 2 vols . JBentley . This work forms the second of the four projected by M . Guizoton the History of the English Revolution . It takes up the narrative where the former one ceased , with the death of Charles the h irst . We arc informed in the preface , that the two succeeding works "will conduct the history to the expulsion of James tho Second , and the final fall of tho House of Stuart . It is impossible to conceive a history written with greater care and endeavour to secure accuracy than the ono before us . M . Guizot ' gh reputation as an historian is a guarantee for this ; and in tho present instance , ho has had access to many papers and documents , in tho French and Spanish archives , now for tho first time given to the public . Ho scorns also to have examined all the immense mass of papers , letters , and memoirs alroady
existing , which , throw any light on tho history of tho period , and to have weighed and compared their evidence ; indeed , his history must be considered chicily in the light of a compilation from existing materials . To such an extent is this true , that wo scarcely read half a p < ige in the two volumes , without meeting with a reference to some works , which have been M . Guizot ' s authority for his statements and conclusions , all which authorities are acknowledged in notes at the bottom of each pujje . English literature is not poor in memoirs and histories bearing on , perhaps , tlie most important ; period in our history , —certainly tho moat important struggle for liberty , because tho most definite and enlightened . For jt was not a more rebellion against tyranny and oppression , vague , indeterminate , and almost instinctive 5 men knew what wore tlioirjust rights , what they wore contending for , and won them painfully and perseveringly . Every Englishman scorns to have a personal interest in the Revolution , every memoir , every letter of those times is road and treasured . It ia tho favourite
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), July 1, 1854, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01071854/page/17/
-