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1122 THE MAPME. g^o. 348, Saturday
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THE FIVE GATEWAYS OF KNOWLEDGE. The Five...
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SEVENTEEN RUSSIAN STORIES. Russian Popul...
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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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1122 The Mapme. G^O. 348, Saturday
1122 THE MAPME . g ^ o . 348 , Saturday
The Five Gateways Of Knowledge. The Five...
THE FIVE GATEWAYS OF KNOWLEDGE . The Five Gateways of KnowJe ^ e . By George Wilson , M . D . Macmillan and Qo . Db . -Gjiosgz ! Wixsx ) ir unites poetic with scientific faculty , and this union cives sl charm to all he writes- In the little volume before us he has described the Fire JSenses in language so popular that a child may comprehend the meaning , flo suggestive that philosophers will read it with pleasure . It is aot an . axwitomical , it is not a psychological treatise ; it is a discourse oa the Senses -as ministers to our animal wants , as mijiisters to the cultivation of the intellect , and as ministers to the gratification of the perception of beauty—Ifoe two latter functions being mainly treated of . Jjfer describing the complex structure of the eye , Dr . Wilson says :
How small this eye-ehamber is , we all know ; but it is large enough . A single teat sufficed to lodge Nfapoleon ; and Nelson guided the fleets of England from one little cabin . And bo it is with the eye ; it is set apart for the reception of one gaest , whose name ifi Light , bat also Legion ; and as the privileged entrant counsels , the great erne aal limbs of the lody are set in . motion . Within our eyes , , a ± -every instant , a picture of the outer woiid is painted by the pencil of the Sun on the -white curtain at the back of the ey-e ; and when it has impressed us for a moment , the black curtain absorbs and blots out the picture , and the sun paints a new one -which in its turn is blotted out , and so the process proceeds all the day long . What a strange thing this is ! "We speak of seeing things held before onr eyes , as if the things themselves pressed in upon us , and thrust themselves into € he presence of our spirits . But it is not so ; you no more , anv one of you , see my
faee « t "tfhis moment , than you ever saw your own . You have looked betimes into a mirror , sad seen a sonaething oeautifal or otherwise , ¦ which you have regarded as your £ aoe . 3 T « t it was but the reflexion from a piece of glass you saw ; and whether ibe glaes ideaJt fairly with y <« x or not , you cannot tell ; but this is certain— -your own face you never beheld . And » s little do you see mine : some hundred portraits of me , no two the same , axe at this moment hanging , one on the back wall of each of your « ye-chambers . It is these portraits you see , not me ; and I see none of you , but only certain likenesses , tvro for each of you , a right eye portrait and a left eye portrait , both very hasty and withal inaccurate sketches . And . so it is with the whole visible world . It is far off from us , when it seems nearest . Darkness abolishes it altogether . The-mid-day . sun bat interprets it ; and we know it not in the original , but only in translation . " -. ¦ ¦ ' . ' .-. ' . ¦ . '¦ - . ¦ ¦ ¦ - ¦ ' ¦ . : : . ' - ¦ . : ' " :
Face to faee we snail never meet this visible -world , or gaze eye to eye upon it . "VTe know only its picture , and cannot tell whether that is faithful or not ; but it cannot be altogether faithless , and we must accept it , as we do the transmitted portraits of vdatnres we have never seem , or the sculptured heads of men who died ages before us . < Oa those W 30 gaze , not distrusting them , yet not altogether confiding in them ; and we « noat treat t 3 xe-outward world in the same way . What reverence thus attaches to every living eye ! What memories belong to it ! "We preserve from destruction human buildings , or even single chambers , because some one great event happened -within their walls , or some solitary noble of our race dwelt in them . John Knox read his Bible in such a room ; and Martin Luther threw his inkstand at an evil spirit in such another ; Mary Queen of Scots wept over her breviary in a third s Galileo was tortured in a fourth , Isaac Newton tracked the stars ifrom a fifth ,, and Shakspeare laid him down to die in a sixth ; and therefore we preserve "them * - —and low justly !—and go long journeys to visit places so sacred .
And a similar saeredness I > elong 8 to that-dim cell where the two most conflicting of walike ^ existences , the dead world of matter and roan ' s immortal soul , hold their twilight interviews , and make revelations rto each other . "Wlwn I think , Indeed , of that large-windowed little cottage which hides -under the thatch . of each eyebrow , and spreads every moment on its walls pictures such as Raphael never painted , aud sculptures such as Phidias could not carve , I feel that it can with justice be likened to no earthly building ; or if to one , only to that Hebrew Temple which has long been in the dust . Like it , it has its Outer Court of the Genlues , free to every visitant , ana its inner chamber where only the Priests of Light may ¦ cerae ; and "that chamber is closed by a veil , within which only the High , Priest Life « an eater , * to hold . communion with the spiritual presence beyond .
He justly insists on the necessity of educating the eye—teaching it to observe . How much we can increase our power of observation by * cultivating it can only be appreciated by those who have in some special manner cultivated theTaculty . The jpainter actually sees hundreds of details in a landscape which escape the observation of other men ; and all persons ac-< mstomed to watch their own development will remember how , by mere attention to scenery andeffects of colour , their vision has "become sharpened , until delicate shades , -which formerly were unappreciated , now give exquisite ¦ deli ght . ^ The use of the microscope marvellously educates the eye , enabling it to distinguish , amidst heterogeneous masses the minutest object it is in search of . In a shallow pool , -wherein the ordinary eye can discover nothing but water and a sandy bottom , the naturalist will instantaneously doted « olonies of animals ; because his eye is trained to detect the minute indications which to another "have no meaning .
The great majority of mankind do not and cannot see one fraction of what they were intended to see . The proverb that " None are bo blind as those that will not aee is as true of physical as of moral vision . By neglect aud carelessness we hav e made ourselves unable to discern hundreds of tillage wMch are before us to be seen . Thomas Carlyle las summed this up in one pregnant sentence , " The eye sees what it brings -the powor to see . " How true is this ! The Bailor on the look-out can sec a « bip where the landsman sees nothing ; tho Esquimaux can distinguish a white fox amidst the white snow ; the American backwoodsman will fire a rifle-ball so as to strike a mint out-of the raouthof a Bqturrel without hurting it ; / the Red Indian boys bold their hands up as marks t o each other , certain that the unerring arrow will be shot between the spread-out fingers ; the astronomer can eoe a etar in tlvo sky , where to others the blue expanae is unbroken ; the shepherd can distinguish the face of every aheep in bis flock ;; the mosaic worker can detect distinctions of coIout where others seo none ; and multitudes of additional examples might l > e given of what education does for tlie eye .
Jn his . notice of the Ear , Dr . Wilson draws a contrast between the ear and the eye , -especially with refenenoe to Deafness nnd Blindness . Agreeing with the major part of what ho has written , we question some of his statements . For wwtanoe , < vhen ha says : — It costa « s no effort to summon bofoTO us , oven though destitute of the painter ' s gina , enoicfw tendseapee , cities , or processions , and faces innumerable ; but even rarely « ndowBa mumouaB can mentally reproduce few , comparatively , of the melodies or harjnomes t & ey Toxw , if ^ debarred from uttering them vocally , or through some inatrubm »* . We may to * iiu . poiat by the experience of our dreams .
He represents the ordinary condition of the two iaculties i ^ nv , T enough , bat when he carries this on to the highly developed condSof ^ musical faculty lie is certainly in error . We are notT' rarely SSSj musicians'but we can assure him that we constantly recal melodi ™ i complicated harmonies , as pure remembrances , without < uvin « thorn i or instrumental utterance . Kay more , it frequently occm-s to ' us to hll melody , or a passage of Beethoven , haunting us through the dav wh , VJ , r appears immediately we attempt to hum or sm -it . In trying to recnl " melody , the phrases exist mentally before we can give them vocal nu » Z ~ a We should also dispute the following passage : — utterance . Although the ear has a greatly more limited range in space and time than tl . o it is in a very remarkable respect a more perfect instrument than the or ^ an of f *'
Til ft RVP . C . 31 YI' TdcrnrA lillt n . sincrlo nl % inr > K nf o iimo o ,,, l „ ,.. , 4 . . 1 - , - ¦ * UI "' Rut . The eye can regard but a single object at a time , and ruust shift its glauce fr ,, m , I to point when mawy objects are before it which it wishes ' to compare to « aether a a when prosecuting this comparison , between , for example , two bodies , it has in ' rP rt but one imprinted on it , and compares the perasiotd imago of this one * ZP remembered imago of the other . This fact escapes us in ordinary vision beeaul ti impression or shadow of a body on the retiua remains for some time after tl ^ ni - !• withdrawn from tUc sphere of sight ,-a fact of -whick we can easily assure WSea by whirling before our eyes a lighted brand , wheu it appears , notasucc ^ f Earning points , as it actually is when so whirled , but au unbroken circle of lire . .. ' . In one glance the eye . assuredly takes in as many objects as the car feVo .
in in one audition . ± he multitudinous details of a landscape must he sue cessivetj / ohsexveil , but they are simultaneously impressed on the retiua at least quite as much so as many -sounds arc on the tympanum . ' It is otherwise with the ear . Although perfectly untutored , it can listen to manv sounds at once , distinguiish their ^ difterence , and compare them together ; Everv-one must be conscious of this . The simplest two-part tune demands froni its hearer the simultaneous perception of a bass and a treble note , Avlnch impress the ear at exactly the same moment , but are perfectly distinguished from each other , A pianoforte player executing such a tune , requires alternately to shift his -eyes from the ba « s to the treble line , for he cannot see simultaneously the two notes as lie can hear
themand every one may easily observe the contrasted power-of the eye and the ear hv trying to read simultaneously all the staves of a four-part song , whilst he is hearing it sung . Even an imperfect musical ear will without ' an ellbrt distinguish each of the four voices singing different notes ; whilst the most skilful eye cannot rend more than a note or a chord at a time . I suppose every one has noticed the contrast . bct-vcen the air of anxiety which musical performers wear , when playing from music , compared with the serene or exultant look which sits upon ' their faces ' , when ' -playing from memory or improvising . This applies even to the greatest musicians , . nncl caimot be conquered by education ; for no training will confer upon the eye powers similar to those which the ear possesess - \ yithout any training .
In the lllustTation chosen Dr . "NYilson ' s argument seems correct ; butflie true contrast -.-would "be between the various sounds of a forest and tie various sights of a forest , or between the impressions of sound froiuau orchestra , and the impressions of sight on the spectator ; and here we think the eye equal io the ear ; for if it is true that the < jye is in constant inotioii to bring the different objects within focus , it is no less true that the ear is inconstant motion also— no two -different sounds reach it at ' - . exactly , the same moment ; in fact difference of sound is dependent on diilerence in the wave of the vibrating medium , and the crash of an orchestra is no more simultaneous than the visual efiects of a landscape . This , however , is too Subtle a matter to be here discussed , and perhaps I ) r . Wilson , after all , is not of a different opinion , but only seems to be so because his language , addressed to a popular audience , expresses broad distinctions . At any rate we recommend Iiis little . book—little in size , but not in aneaning—to all our readers .
Seventeen Russian Stories. Russian Popul...
SEVENTEEN RUSSIAN STORIES . Russian Popular TaUs . Translated from the German of Anton Dietrich . With an Introduction by Jacob Grimm . Chapman and Hall . Some of the tixles in this collection , though traceable to no particuhirsource , are obviously importations lroni Asia . Others have a close allinily with the popular German myth , while one , at least , is of Italian origin . Jacob Grimm identifies as purely Slavonic features the account oL" miraculous horses dug out of the earth , of the halt of an army on the royal forbidden meadows , a quaint personification of grief occurring in one ol" the stories , and the custom of combatants fraternizing when one has been overthrown bytbc other . The fraternization , here referred to is moru than nominal , it being stipulated which of the knights shall consider himself the elder , and which , the younger , brother . Grimm believes also that iu this collection the basis of a national epic , Servian in style and metro , inuy be vumgxxaxA
Dietrich brought the stories from Moscow , in the form in which they are there sold to the poorer classes of the people . Of such simple literature , an ancient popular heritage , the censorship takes no notice . The number three occurs in a remarkable manner throughout , and on . a remaikable variety of occasions , fathers Laving usually three sons , knights commencing their careers nt tiirty-three years of age , and succeeding iu their outer-prizes after three trials . The most impossible of impossibilities are described , tUe talc-tellers recording , without compunction , tlie slaying of millions by a single hero , the carrying oil" of a kingdom in an egg-shell , riders clashing , °£ for 11 year without drawing bridle . Nevertheless they often invent \ vjth wonderful ingenuity , and narrate with admirable vigor . We quote "Tto Judgment of Shemyaka , " not because it is the best in the volume , but because it is the shortest . Moreover , some of cur readers may be struck by its identity with " The Hungry Kadi / ' brought into 'this country ^ Egypt : —
Tins JUnQMENT OF SUl & TUYAKA . Two brothers once lived upon a little plot of ground , —ono ricli , Hie oilier poor . The poor brotlier went to tUo rich one , to beg of him a horse , that ho mi ^ lit fetca wood from tlio forest . His brother gave him tlio horse ; but the poor one b ^ cd ° i him likewise a horse-collar , whereat the other was angry , ami would not givo it Jiina . So tho poor fellow , in his trouble , fastened the tflodgc ,. to the hoiwo'd tail , uml tMB drove to tho forest , and got uueh a load of wood tliat liio lior . no had Bcarcfly strougP to driiw it . " When ho cuino home , he opened the gate , but forgot to remove iho f'j ' " board ; nnd the horso stumbled against tlio board and lost his tail- The i > oor fell ™ took tho horse back , but wlien his brother saw tho beast without a tail , he M ' ' ^ havo him , and wont before the judge Shoinyaku , to make a complaint . Tho poor WM
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 22, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22111856/page/18/
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