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January 8, 1853.] THE LE A D E R. 43
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Pmr.ONOPH V OK TIIM SKNSKtt. Tho Vhiloso...
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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.
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Recent Poems Mnpedoclcs On Etna And Othe...
p hrase which follows individuality . Let a man speak or sing of what he lias actually seen ani felt , a * he saw and felt it , and the right phrase is their Ian ? e ^ repeatiu £ wliat others hav < ? seen and felt , he repeats This also is the great fault to be found with Miss Parkes . Her Poems are graceful , thoughtful , but not individual . Her reading , not her heart is Jiere expressed . We turn over the leaves as over the portfolio of sketches which have filled the elegant leisures of an amateur . Talent there is , and beauty in those sketches ; but we feel they have been leisure works , not works of passionate Art . Bead this , and you will better see our meaning : — " Broad level fields , and hedges thick with trees , A calm still evening dropping fitful rain , And hawthorns loaded with their perfum'd snow ; All Nature langorous , and yet alive With humming insects and with bleating sheep ; A sky both grey and tender , —misty clouds Floating therein , streak'd here and there with gold ; And golden flowers topping the tall June grass . Ivy clothes all the ruins , sprouting weeds , Lichen , and moss for richest tapestry ; While for festivity and regal pomp Held in the olden time , is nothing how But tune of children ' s voices , and the calm Quiet evening , misty on the ruins . Ear Over the fields are farms and gardens gay ; And stron g magnificent oaks , beneath whose boughs Twilight sits brooding ere she walks abroad . A soft moist summer eve , — 'tis Nature grieving For the depart of Spring ; not yet the sun Hath dried her thoughtful tears ; or else it is The death of the Last Fairy , and the flowers Hang down their heavy heads in grief for her . " Or this : — "the alps , thusis . " Out from the house I went when early dawn As yet had hardly ting'd the peaks with gold , And cottage-smoke in faint ascending wreaths Stole from the inner depth of valleys old . At length upon a sunny hill I sat , Looking at meadows cattle-strown below , And upwards where into the clear blue sky Shot out the tapering peaks of pathless snow : And many similes within my brain Stirr'd , as if Nature spoke aloud to me , And said , ' Oh child that watcheth ever , learn That which I mean by my solemnity-Even as these high peaks above thee roar , So stand great souls above the ranks of men ; No summer warmth caresses year by year Grand heads encircled by a glorious pain . But if of verdure bare , thou must not doubt Joys of their own to such great souls pi e given ; Lonely they are ; but though forlorn of men , They stand in the unchanging light of heaven . Oh child ! receive their teaching ; even as here , Below them , fir and flower are glistering bright , Warmer , more beautiful , tho dawn descends , Till nil the lowest vales arc fill'd with light . ' " In tho following lyric , we nototwo tilings : first , that the rhythm is ono so inappropriate in its dancing play to tho meaning of the words , that a poet would instinctively have avoided it ; and , second , that the rhythm of the second stanza i « false ; which betrays carelessness , or that easiness of conscience no artist would tolerate : — " ] £ EST . " Deep heart and earnest eyes Seeking for rest , Finding a weight that lien ( Jold on thy breast , Musing on nearest ties Mournfully riven , In thy despair arise , Turn thou to Heaven . " Iluniiinity , gifted With patience and love , Thereby should be lifted Kurth's sorrow above ; Should rend with believing Tim words of tho bond ; Whilo dull hearts are { jjfioving , fthouldst thou seo beyond . " Strong will iind eager mind Striving to mould Deeds to remain behind When thou nrt cold ; CIiooho thou 1 lie better purl , Written in ntory , I / ivo in man ' s grateful hour ' , And for ( Hod ' s ^ lory . " *
January 8, 1853.] The Le A D E R. 43
January 8 , 1853 . ] THE LE A D E R . 43
Pmr.Onoph V Ok Tiim Sknsktt. Tho Vhiloso...
Pmr . ONOPH V OK TIIM SKNSKtt . Tho Vhilosop lHf of tho Souses ; or , Alan in ( Umne . rion with a Mil tori til World , lly Robert N . Wy ld . IlluHtnitod b y Forty-four NiitfniviiitfH <>«> Wuo < l ' () Iiv )) 1 . al |( 1 J { o <( What Warburkm naid of Lho philoHopher of Malniesbury , " that every vouiwr churchman militant munt neodn try hin thundernig on IIoIiIjoh h BteclTW ] ) " may bo repeated of tho unknown author ol I / to \ estiges .
Every smatterer thinks it gives Mm a superior air to have his fling at the Vestiges , unconscious as he mostly is that the Vestiges , be it true or be it false , can only be appreciated by men who , to unusual knowledge of philosophic zoology , add a power of discerning the value of generalizations even when amid erroneous details ; it is easy enough to read that book , easy to understand it , but to appreciate the force of its facts and reasonings the reader must bring with him something more than is brought by the ready scorners , who talk of development " familiarly , as maidens do of puppy dogs . " Not but what men may , and do , bring the requisite knowledge , and yet reject the reasonings . We are not here arguing the that extremelfoolish
cause of the Vestiges ; we are simply rebuking y tendency of incompetent persons to speak loftily of a subject they cannot be allowed to have any opinion on . The author of the book before us is the latest offender under our cognizance . He goes out of his way to drag in a chapter which he innocently believes to be a " refutation , " and which only shows that it is an inordinate presumption in him to pass any opinion whatever , beyond the purely personal one of saying that he had read the work , and was not convinced by it . He does not understand the theory he refutes ; and if he understood it , he has not the requisite knowledge to form an opinion on its truth . It will amuse our philosophic readers if we quote an argument " of much force , " which he has contributed to this subject ; the superficial knowledge of " organization , " and the confusion of terms which blinds him , will need no italicising from us : —
" Although the development theory , founded upon the assumption of a gradually ascending scale of complexity in the structure of animals of like formation , has been ably answered by direct appeal to geology , yet it occurs to us there is an indirect line of argument of much force , namely , not one having reference to mere structural complexity , but to mental as well as corporeal function . Thus the instincts of many animals comparatively low in the scale of organization are exceedingly curious , and seem to surpass those of more perfect animals . Again , whatever place may be assigned to insects in respect to the complexity of their organization , many of the instincts possessed by them excel those of the mammal , and even transcend human reason , and these apparently have no reference to their bodily " organization , they are purely mental functions and of a high order . There are also some peculiar corporeal functions possessed by creatures very low in the scale , which surpass those of higher animals . Without taking time to seek for the best examples , there occurs
to us that power of paralyzing its prey which the slender tentactila of some of the hydra ? possess , and these animals are at the very foot of the scale of life . Then the corroding influence exerted bv the Pholas and other molluscs of the class LithofagidaB , by which they form cavities in even the hardest stone or in wood , and which cavities increase with the growth of the animal ' s shell . Then there is the power of the electrical eel : the power of poisoning possessed by the serpent tribe , and by various insects , may also be mentioned as somewhat similar . Why should these peculiar and valuable endowments be all lost in that higher progeny , which the development school suppose to have emanated from these animals ? For the development theory to be consistent , valuable functions in constant exercise should never be lost ; they should , according to the theory , be perpetuated hi the succeeding races of higher animals . Why are such as we have mentioned confined to the humble polyp and mollusc , or to the eel , the wasp , and the spider ?"
Although Mr . Wyld has here , and in other parts of his work , pronounced decided opinions on subjects with which ho is very imperfectly acquainted , we have much pleasure in commending the work as an useful and suggestive compilation . He lias a clearness of exposition very effective in treatises of this kind . Ho compiles , it is true , from very accessible sources , and docs not acknowledge them with the distinctness one might demand ; but he puts in no claim for learning nor originality , and says —• "What we offer is merely the result of some lilLle pleas mt reading , and of some more pleasant reflection ; and we have endeavoured , so far as in our power , to give it in a form calculated to interest and amuse . " What he has aimed at lie has accomplished : more especially in the physical portions . In tho metaphysical he is less at home , as may be gathered from the fact , that ho attempts a demonstration of this proposition . — - " The properties of matter are immaterial !"
: As a description , of tho general laws of light , and sound , and of the estaWished facts , in the physiology of sight and hearing , it may bo recommended : the exposition is clear and popular—the interest in the subjeefc tiniveraal . Who , for example , lias not puzzled himself with the / act , so puzzling to philosophers , that we have ; two eyes , and only one image of the same thing ordinarily seen by the two eyes F , lx : t us hear Mr . Wyld on this question : — " Physiological causes have ; also been assigned ; and , first , anatomical examination has revealed certainly a . curious fact , that the optic nerves from each eye approach or decussate , imd interchange wine of their fibrils before entering the
i '• 1 ' < « J ¦ brain ; it , has therefore been suggested , thai , at this point of union the two inipresnions become , as it were , fused into one . A hypothesis such as ( his .. evidently savours much more of tho apothecary ' s shop than of Io ^ ic ; lor even if we roncod « i that the two physical impressions may be confounded or mixed up at this commissure of the optic nerves , yet , as these nerves are found n ^ ain lo separate before entering tho brain , the impressions transmitted backward from the commissure ought and must be again separated , and the dilliciilty thus remains untouched . Another and sufficient objection to this hypothesis is presented in 'he fad , I hat careful examination has proved tluit the deciissation of the op'ic uitvch is only pai-tiiil , that only a few of the nervous fibres are interchanged , and , consequently , thut if such a thintr an a " fusion of impressions lakes place , it can only be of a . partial
- nut inc . " The explanation now most generally received of the difficulty is ono founded on physiological grounds of u different kind , the nature of which we shall explain . II is iield , or supposed , that there are certain points on the retina of each eye , which nre to be considered as phj / siolo / jieir / l // identical , mid that when any of these identical or corresponding points arc simultaneously excited by » ho same object , the impression transmitted to the brain produces a sense of single vision of Unit object ,. These identical points nre not points of the : two rctinso , which correspond anatomically , but points which correspond , as it were , geographically , or in latitude and longitude . To explain our meaning :- An iinuginiiry lino entering tho centre of tho cornea , or prominent part of tho eye , and passing direct through the centre , of the crystalline lens buck to tho retinu , is called tho aa-is of the . ej / e ., or tho opliit axis : the point where thitf hnuyinnry lino meets the . retina may bo coiiHitlorcd and
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1853, page 43, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08011853/page/19/
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