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INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE ON POETRY. Die Xatu...
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THE PRODUCTIVE FORCES OF RUSSIA. Comment...
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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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Exile In Siberia. Jfy Exile In Siberia. ...
The reader will now be anxious to examine , from M . Herscen ' s point of xj \ ow the urospects of liberalism in Russia . Comparing the society of Mosbowin I 812 with that which he left in 1847 , his heart " beats with joy . " There was at tbe former date , a society of malcontents , formed of dismissed officials and of others , dissatisfied by nature ; but , a year before the European conflagration , independent opinions had spread ; doctrines of liberty reigned in extending circles , lie , first a professor , then an auhc councillorfwAS again permitted to live in the old capital , and remarked the effect of these tendencies upon the more earnest order of minds . Patriotism in Russia has usually been confined to a police-inspired flattery of the Government or its works—styling Schuia the "Russian Manchester , " and St . Petersburg the " Palmyra of the North . " Boulgarine wrote in the Northern 73 ee , that of one advantage likely to arise from the construction of a railroad between St . Petersburg and Moscow he could not think without emotionthat a person might then hear a Tc Deutn for the Emperor in the morning at Kasan , and another , in the evening , at Moscow ! But Tchaadajeff , the man who wrote that Russia had a vacant past , an insupportable present , and no future—that she was a hiatus in human intelligence , addressed himself more directly to the sense of the reasonable classes , who understood what lie meant , and knew it to be partly true . The book was interdicted . Its sole reviewer was dismissed from his professorship , the favouring Review was suspended , Tchaadajeff , like Tasso , was pronounced mad , and forced by Nicholas to sifm a paper engaging to write no more . Every Saturday , during a year , an officer and a physician called at his door to make a report of his health , and delivered fifty-two sworn certificates of his lunacy . The Czar had been alarmed ; but the public had been disquieted , and continued to repeat his words that Russia was as the gigantic Moscow Bell , which sank to the earth before it had produced a sound—ainute empire , asleep or dead . M . Ilerzen is a wiser patriot , for he will not despair of the Commonwealth . We ^ am from this narrative of persecution and exile a better idea of the governing system in Russia than from any previous work . It is rich in curious and authentic detail .
Gq0 The Leade R. [No. 290, Saturday,
OoiQOT * 1 ^ * 85 i 5 L ] THE LEADER . 991
Influence Of Science On Poetry. Die Xatu...
INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE ON POETRY . Die Xaturtci-fisensclta / l in ihrcm J-Sinjluss auf I ' ve sic , lieVyion , Moral , und Philosnphi ,:. Von Dr . Julius Frauenstudt . D - Nutt . Tins is a little book , though written by a German philosopher : a little book on a very great subject , and written so well that we regret it was not larger . The influence of Science on Poetry , Religion , Morals , and Philosophy , is discussed by Dr . Frauenstadt in temperate and philosophic style ; not , indeed , , with much scientific knowledge , not with any novelty of ideas , but in very readable sections full of suggestive matter . ' It is an old cry that Science is destructive to Poetry ; a cry which finds its j magnificent expression in Schiller's finest poem , T / i > Gods of Greece , and in ; the celebrated passage in Waflcnstein , so finely amplified by Coleridge in his translation : — A deeper import Lurks in the legend told my infant years Than lies upon that truth we live to learn . For fable is Love ' s world , his home , his birthplace : Delightedly dwells he ' inong fays and talismans And spirits ; and delightedly believes Divinities , being himself divine . The intelligible forms of ancient poets , The fair humanities of old religion , The Power , the Beauty , and the Majesty That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain , Or forest by slow stream , or pebbly spring , Or chasms and wat ' ry depths ; all these have vanish'd . They live no longer in the faith of reason ! But still the heart doth need a language , still Doth the old instinct bring back the old names . And it is obvious that when the gods were dethroned by men of science ; who placed Laws on their thrones ; when lightning was wrested from the , hands of " thunder-delighting Jove , " and made an electric Hash , which could bo drawn away from the clouds by Franklin's conductor ; when Helios no j longer drove Ins chariot in quiet majesty Jrom east to west , and Hamadryads j ceased to haunt the valleys , the ' Poetry which they had inspired must necessarily have died out . But as Dr . Frauenstadt asks , " Is there no otlu r Life to animate nature besides that of gods and demigods ? " The an > wer is peremptory . Let the gods die : long live Poetry ! When Schiller energetically says that " undeified Nature slavishly obeys the laws of gravitation , like the dead stroke of a pendulum" — Gluic-h dem todtcu Soiling dor Pondcluhr Divut . sie km-ektisch doni ( Jeactz tier Schwero Diu ontgottoito Nuturl » e is only poetically true , / . c . true as expressing u poet ' s regret . Mature is not godless because the old Mythologies arc deud . Nature is animated by new principles , aud Poetry accepts those principled as the ancients did their gods . JfAriosto were now to write his Orlando , he would not give ua the same journey of Aslolfo to the Moon . That is clear . But would not the sumo power of poetic representation which made Ariosto potent in the sixteenth century have enabled him to charm the nineteenth ? Because astronomy has destroyed the theories men formed about the moon , would it thereby have destroyed the mental vigour which employed those theories in poetry ? Ie the poet a poet in virtue of the materials which the creed And superstitions of his age furnish , or in virtue rather of his own great soul ? The same question applies to the Ancient Mythology , so plaintively regretted by Schiller . Our poets can no longer uae that material . But if they do not find abundant material in the world before them , and in the creeds and aspirations of their time , the secret is not that Science has destroyed Poetry , but that they are not poets . FrauenatHdt lias put his finger on the point when he says that ficionoo may destroy certain historical iorms of poetry by destroying the
superstitious of historical times ; but it cannot touch the essence of poetry . We go even further . We say that not only is it incorrect to suppose that Nature is held to be lifeless because the old divinities no longer animate it , it is also incorrect to say that Science banishes the poetical element of Wonder . The feeling of Wonder remains , even when Mathematics have displaced Fancy , and when the laws of attraction and repulsion are substituted for the wills of deities . But the Wonder is transposed from the subjective to the objective , from Ignorance to Knowledge . Does any one suppose Herschel and Huuiboldt to have less awe and wonder at the celestial phenomena than was felt by Pythagoras and Ptolemy ? Science cannot destroy Poetry , although it must force Poetry to change its imagery , and adapt its creeds to the conceptions of the age . Destruction of error is not dangerous to Poetry , which seeks to embody the truths of every age . As long as the world is fair to look upon , as long as human , hopes , human sufferings , and human struggles are present to the mind , there will be no lack of material for Poetry . Uut it is often said that the cultivation of science is destructive of that attitude of mind which permits Poetry to exercise its influence . This is plausible ; but the facts are utterly opposed to it . Never in the history of the world was Science so generally cultivated as now , and never was Poetry so much read . Arago does not hurt Lainartine , Liebig does not touch Heine , Owen leaves Tennyson undisturbed . Nay , the very striking example of Goethe is enough to give us pause in such a question . He was not simply the greatest poet of modern times , he was the most essentially modern of poets , and yet he was himself a scientific discoverer , one who opened new paths in science ; and even threw himself into a department of science—optics—the most radically opposed to poetic treatment . There is , however , a radical distinction between the Scientific and the Poetic Intellect , considered as such ; and of this Dr . Frauenstadt seems to have no suspicion . The poet , whose method is representation , is forced to be vividly concrete ; he pictures objects to the mental eye with a vividness which sometimes surpasses reality , or which is equal to what reality produces on a mind exalted by passion . The man of science , whose method is abstraction , is forced to disregard the concrete j phenomena , is forced to push out of sight the ordinar y properties and sensible appearances of objects in order to fix his whole i attention upon some unobvious similarities lurking amid diversities ; fur only thus can he pass from Observation into Science . Take as an example Davy ' s discoverv of the metallic bases of alkalies . To suppose that potash , lime , soda , \ c ., " were metallic , was in flat contradiction to the evidence of sense ; all the observation in the world would not have revealed the presence of the metals . The more he considered soda ^ as soda , the more impossible would the discovery have been . His success lay in considering it as nut soda , but as resembling another substance in -one particular only , ' namely , that of forming salts . Some salts were known to be composed of an acid and the oxide of a metal ; other salts were known to be composed of an acid and what was called an alkali . Davy perceived an identity of function between the two bases , and declared that it must depend on identity of structure , and that this alkali must also be the oxide of a metal . Experiment soon determined that his guess was right . Indeed , when we but turn over the pages of a scientific work and see it crowded with symbols , we are at ouce made aware of the peculiar process of abstraction by which Science advances ; we are made aware of the fact that the man of science , instead of thinking of the sensible properties of objects and trying to make the reader realise them vividly , is bent only on getting rid of these properties , and bringing to light certain hidden properties which the objects have in common . Thus the poet regards light as light , in its splendour , iu its iniluence on life and happiness ; the man of science abstracts from the phenomenon certain properties , undreamed of by the poet , and pushing the rest out of bight , shows you that the angle of incidence of the ray of light is equal to the angle of reilexion . But in explaining the radical distinction between the methods of science and poetry , we are not giving countenance to the popular prejudice of the one being " destructive to the former . There will always be a special class of men organised for a more exclusive pursuit of science than is compatible with any -neat enjoyment of poetry—mou who will ask what Paradise Lost Hcoa . */ -against whom may be placed the scornful poets , who ask , " What ' s the use of the differential calculus ? " I 3 ut apart from such classes , it will be found that the man of science is quite capable of enjoying poetry , and that poet . s are < nvatlv interested in science . Life is manifold . Men are not wholly given to one thing . The headache we get through a microscope , is soothed by a lvric of Tennyson , or a sonata of Beethoven . 1 araday is known to be an insatiable novel reader . Diamagnetism has not spoiled his interest in the magnetism which draws Angelica to Medoro , and Juliet to llomeo .
The Productive Forces Of Russia. Comment...
THE PRODUCTIVE FORCES OF RUSSIA . Commentaries on the I ' roJuctive Forces of'ltMaiii . By M . L . De To-obordki . Vol . I . Longman . Tins is the most pretentious of the books hitherto issued to satisfy public curiosity respecting Russia ; its magnitude , and the high official position of its author , combine to procure for it more than ordinary attention . In the opinion of the translator , this work is admirably qualified to give English readers correct , views of the resources of Russia ; exhibits a remarkujle al . senoo of leanings and prejudices ; and its statistics , drawn from the most reliable sources , have been carefully and conscientiously sifted . \\ e grant rt . u ,, ! , oiski ih much honesty and candour as consists with his " unbotimie . i confidence" in the destinies of his country , and that his estimates oj tiio productive forces of Russia are as valuable as any we are Ilkei £ ^ . J ) lor at least lmti * a century to come . Hut this is not , saying » c ' !^ labours . After a careful perusal of his Commentaries , we are boii ' ^ ^ nounco them very unsatisfactory ; qualified , at best , to suiwiuu views for vuguo notions or discontented ignorance . miracle , It M . Do Tegoboraki-8 attempt . » one m > vh , e ¦ ,, ^ J *^ inatorU l produois the attempt to analyse and exhibit all the pnjsiuw
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 13, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13101855/page/19/
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