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MAjtcfl 20, 1852.] THE LEADER. 279."¦'''...
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SAMUEL BAILEYS DISCOURSES. Discourses on...
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. A School Atlas of Ge...
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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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Men" And Women Of France. Men And Women ...
happiest person in the world . I did not hope for so happy a-oonclusipn > for- —I do not wish to conceal anything from you—I am— -I am fiftf-three . * : * Well , then , ' said Piron , with a slight shrug , * we have over a hundred years between us . We would have done well to have met sooner /" Poor Piron ! he closed his life of wit and debauchery by a not uncommon end- *—"He turned devotee ! As a first sacrifice—I will not say to God , but to his confessoTr ^ he burnt a : Bible , the margins of the pages of which he had enlivened
with lamentations and epigrams in his peculiar style . He then set himself to translating the Psalms and writing odes on the Last Judgment . He said in relation to this , It is better to preach from the ladder of the gallows than not to preach at all / Thisi edifying old agei opened the doors of the religions world to him ; he was even received by the Archbishop of Paris ; but the archbishop was not thereby secure against the epigrams of the poet . One day , in presence ^ of a large company , the Archbishop said to him , with a nonchalance which betrayed some little vanity , ' Well , Piron , have you read my charge V 'No , monsieur ; have you V "
Majtcfl 20, 1852.] The Leader. 279."¦'''...
MAjtcfl 20 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 279 . "¦'' ' ' ' ' ¦ ii i i _ : ¦ " — ¦ — ¦ i —T ^ S ^ ^ SSSS ^ ^ — I ^ TT ^^ l 'JLJ 1 ' . ^ S ^^ ST . ^^ -- —— . ^^ . ^^^ a ^ MiiMiMM ^ aM ^ MMB ^ i ^^ MiWMaMWMMMMMM ^ MMMMiMIWBMBMMMBiWWWMWWMBIMWMW ip ^^ Wi ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Samuel Baileys Discourses. Discourses On...
SAMUEL BAILEYS DISCOURSES . Discourses on Various Subjects ; Bead before IMerary and ' Philosophical Societies By Samuel . Bailey . . . Longman and Co . " BAitEY of Sheffield" is a name gratefulto the ears of all thinkers , and peculiarly grateful to the ears of the present vrriter , from its associations with the Essays on theFormation and Publication of O p inions , which charmed his youth : a volume of Jtiscourses , therefore , bearing that signature , cannot be other than acceptable . We have read it with great pleasure . To induce you to do the * same , let a brief indication of its contents suffice .
The opening discourse , on the " Mutual Relations of the Sciences , is somewhat traditional and commonplace . It is a grand subject j but when this discourse was written ( 1823 ) Mr . Bailey had not fairly ^ grasped it . The second discourse , on the " Mammoth , " is interesting . The third , on the " Changes which have taken place in the English Language , " is both interesting and valuable , and should be carefuUy read by all whose ^ inquiries are directed that way . The fourth is on the ' * Science of Political Economy ; " the fifth , on the " Ileformation of the Calendarin England ;" the sixth , on the "General Principles of Physical Investigation" —a suggestive and luminous discourse On Method ; the seventh , on the " Mechanical Causes of Thunder , " an ingenious exposition j the eighth > on the " ¦ Paradoxes of Vision ¦; ¦ " and the last , on •' . ' Wit . "
It will be seen that the topics are various ; various the merit of these essays . Our favourites are the essays on Language , Method j Vision , and Wit ; and we select that on Vision for an extract , bfecause it touches on a subject of universal interest . TheJwp paradoxes of vision discussed by Mr . Bailey are— -I . We have inverted images on the retina , nevertheless we see things erect . II , " With . two eyes we see but one image . The former of these paradoxes we will , with Mr . Bailey's aid , clear up . That the image of every obi ect is painted on the retina in an inverted position is an incontestable fact . Kepler long ago demonstrated how , from the laws of optics , it could not be otherwise . Yet that we do not see obiects inverted ia certain : and how this conies about has erreatlv » *^^ " * «*¦**¦ ¦ M » mr ^ i » iF m * ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ M W t r vmr mr ¦ w w T * r M ¦ M mr ¦ . ¦ n » mr <—¦« — ¦ - » ' « M ^
^* *^ * ^^ ^ " ^ B ^ ^^^ ^* * . ^^ ^* ^ ^ — y ml ^ ^ ^*^ ** ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^* ^^ ^™ MM puzzled philosophers . Before quoting the very satisfactory solution offered by Mr . Bailey , we may ask permission to transcribe here a note found among our metaphysical memoranda , written years ago , which , crudely enough , expresses an opinion substantially similar to that held by Mr . Bailey . "The quesion is an absurd one ; belongs to the metaphysical will-o-wisps . To ask why we see erect objects by means of inverted images is to ask for a solution of all psychological problems . As well ask why sugar tastes sweet—it is hot sweet ; why fire burns and gives pain to my finger , but only burns , and does not give pain to my stick . The retina is not the final stage of vision—the retina does not see . If erect objects aflect us through inverted images let the fact be noted . To ask the why
is'Aepo & ario / cat rrspuftpovui rov rfKiov , and ought to be left to metaphysicians . " This crude note , with its scorn of " air galloping and questioning the sun , " such aa metaphysicians delight in , would not be acceptod a . 8 an answer by any of those philosophers who had puzzled themselves with the paradox it so summarily dismisses ; and we are glad , therefore , to be able to quote the following luminous and , as we think , convincing argument : — The fundamental position on which the true explanation rests is , that tho picturo of an external object formed on the retina is not seen . There can he no doubt , that , whenever we see the object , a picturo of it must bo painted on the retina ; but that picture is itself invisible to the eye in which it is formed . Wo see tho object , not the picture ; and the presence of the latter in our own eyes can bo nothing to each of us but a matter of inference Myriads of the human race have lived and died without tho faintest suspicion of their organs of vision being tho constant theatre of such phenomena .
1 ho bearing of those facts on the question before us is obvious . If they do not , accurately speaking , solve tho paradox , they dispel it . For what is thoro of a paradoxical ehaructor remaining P If wo do not soo tho picture on the retina—if wo are novor conscious of tho presonco in our eyes of inverted or indeed of any other images , —what paradox is loft to perplex tho shnpleat mind ? 'The supposed difficulty was , ' How is it that wo see tho object upright when ne imago is inverted ? ' and We may . now turn round on tho questioner and ask , wny should the position of an imago which is not soon , which is not present to Horn p onH ^ ° "sno 8 fr » regulate tho apparent position of the oxtornal object which is th * what difficulty is tbero to bo explained in tho fact ' that our perception of ww positwn of an external object is not aflectod by tho position of an invisiblo
aam til ' . IOwovor ' 1 ) cen maintained by eminent philosophers , or , what is tho «««« ' haa boon hn P Ucitly assumed in their arguments , that wo do actually 51 i mag ° " ° n tho rotinft < Nofc to montioT * ^ ss oi ninont writoro , Dr . Thomas fl Z - mxy . namod " » ° » 090 nnml was evidently hnbuod with this notion , ror it is continually implied in his ronsoninga and language
" Now > for ihe sake of argument , let us for the present grant the position of the philosophers referred to , and mark what follows . It will be easy , I think , to show that precisely the same results in point of perception must ensue . If we actually saw the pictures on the retina , instead of seeing , as we do , the external objects which they represent , we could not see a single point or line in any other position than that in which it actually appears . Nothing in any of those pictures could possibly be perceived as inverted . . " This must be apparent to ev « ry one who reflects , that seeing an object inverted implies seeing it altered in its relative position to something else : but every object in the picture retains its relative place . » If it is the figure of a man , for example ,
in a standing posture , which is there depicted , the feet will appear nearest the ground and the head nearest the sky ; Thus , as every point in the picture must preserve its relative situation to every other point , the whole field of vision can contain no one thing in ^ comparison with which any other thing can appear inverted ; and nothing except what is in the field of vision can be concerned in the comparison . This may be illustrated by the position of the building in which we are assembled , at two different hours , as midday and midnight . At midday it is in One position in absolute space , or in reference to any fixed point ; at midnight its position is completely inverted ; but as there is nothing to be seen in reference to which it is inverted , it cannot appear so to us . On a first view , it seems incredible that this conclusion should have escaped any of the philosophers who have
speculated on the subject . But , I think , we may perceive the source of their error and perplexity . They have tacitly assumed that the spectator is , in some way or other , cognizant of both the image and the object . " Not , indeed , that they have consistently held to this duality of perception . They have sometimes spoken as if they considered the object alone to be visible , and sometimes the picture alone ; but more frequently as if they conceived the eye to have the power of passing and repassing from one to the other ,-or of taking simultaneous cognizance of both , so as to bring them into comparison . Prom this unsteadiness and confusion of ideas , the paradox appears to have sprung . In order to see your way out of it you have only to avoid combining incompatible conditions . So long as you suppose that both the external object and the internal image are in the field of vision at the same time , or in close succession , or come and go by fits , and can be recognised by the eye as inverted in relation to each other , you may be perplexed to discover why the external object should appear upright , rather than the contrary ; but keep constantly to one supposition , and you will be extricated from your perplexity . "
Books On Our Table. A School Atlas Of Ge...
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . A School Atlas of General and Descriptive Geography . Exhibiting the Actual and — Comparative Extent of all the Countries in the World , with their present political divisions , founded on the most recent discoveries and rectifications . By Alexander Keith Johnston . — ¦¦ — " * " W . Blackwood and Sons . ' A School Atlas of Physical G-eography . Illustrating , in a series of Original Designs , the Elementary Facts of ^ Geology , Hydrology , Meteorology , and Natural History . By Alexander Keith Johnston . W . Blackwood and Sons . A cahefox inspection of these Maps has given us ' a very high opinion of their utility , as the most cursory inspection will give of their elegance . The greatest pains have been taken with making them easy of reference—and that to young students is perhaps of less importance than to our grown readers , whom we may induce to place these Maps upon their shelves . For ordinary purposes they seem to us as perfect as need be ; we leave to teachers the task of appreciating them as school Maps . The plates are exquisitely engraved , and the colouring throws each portion into a striking and agreeable relief : the simple plan of uniformly distinguishing water from land by its bright blue colour greatly facilitates the use of the Maps . The Indox contains every name on every map . The Physical Atlas is an extremely interesting and valuable work , and has not the same rivalry to contcitd with as the Geographical Atlas . Students of Natural History will find it a great acquisition : especially the four last maps , which display the distribution of Vegetable Life , of Animal Life , of Races of Men , and of Religions . A mere glance at these distributions will impress his mind with a sense of the intimate correlation of organic life with physical conditions ; while a survey of tho whole must suggest to # him a variety of new ideas on this great subject . The Matter Engineers and their Workmen . Three lectures . By J . M . Ludlow , Barrister . J . J . Bezer , Fleot-stroet . We would have noticed these admirable Lectures earlier , if possible , on account of their reference to tho present contest between the Engineers and the Employed . Mr . Ludlow has compressed into these Addresses a very useful statement of tho Political Economy , and , what is of scarcely less commercial consequence , tho Morality , involved in this important struggle . It is not possible for many persons to have followed this discussion through tho tedious and tortuous comments bestowed upon it by the daily press . To such as may not have pursued this controversy—to such as may not have succeeded in getting at tho real and practical points in dispute , those pages will be invaluable . Mr . Ludlow states tho caso with great scrupulousness , and is in all respects a trustworthy and well-informed authority , and tho publication of these Lectures is as useful as it is timely . Seldom has tho difficult oflico of mediatorial advocacy between contending parties been assumed more judiciously , and conducted moro dispassionately . Tho Workmen may consult these pages for instruction and guidance , and tho Masters for information , which neither party will find elsowhoro so succinctly rendered . It is right also to say , that Mr . Ludlow is not a partisan , any more than his colleague , Mr . Vansitturt Neale , who preceded him in an able contribution to the polemics of this contest . Hearts and Altars . Bj Robert Bell . Author of " Tho Ladder of Gold , " & o . 3 vola . . * ' "Colburn and Co ' . Roueut Beii ha ? a cultivated talent . The liberal gifts of Naturo havo boon liberally uBed , and trained into varied and successful activity . To considerable knowledge of books and observation of life , ho brings tho graces of a pleasant and picturesque stylo , so that his atones have tho twofold advantage of satisfying the fastidious while delighting tho novel roador . Tho throo volumes now lying before us are composed of atorios which havo already appeared elsowhoro ; some of them wore noticed by us on their first appearance ; we cannot , therefor © , ( with so many books claiming not ice at our hands , ) do moro than announce tho publication , and rocounnend tho lovers of psychological fiction to tho strange story of Phantoms and Realities , and the lovora of Scottliko romance to tho Armourer of Mumter .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 20, 1852, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20031852/page/19/
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