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4 Jgwira^TOgfey ' ; ' g'gg liE'A. PBfe 9...
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* Cn.taea.anei mot the tegialtrisora, bu...
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w Nq «uan who loves a quiet life, or the...
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Edinburgh is just now in an electoral fe...
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There are two numbers of the Revue des D...
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TWO PHILOSOPBLEES. Nomos: an Attempt to ...
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
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* Cn.Taea.Anei Mot The Tegialtrisora, Bu...
* Cn . taea . anei mot the tegialtrisora , but . the judges : juacL © o 3 iee « f Jiterfltiune- Th « y d <* » ot sstalce Ja , wB—they ; interpret aacLtofy to e & forpe them , —^ JE 4 tnburffh Revuw .
W Nq «Uan Who Loves A Quiet Life, Or The...
w Nq « uan who loves a quiet life , or the cpmfartable reputation which may so easily be secured on the broad and beaten ways trodden by heavy and . respectable professors , should venture on scientific innovation . Add something new to the old ideas , apply in some novel way the established principle , and your ears will be flattered by II dolce suon . di meritata lode , but do not innovate , do not disturb existing opinions , or it will be found that you are a shallow prater , a dabbler , perhaps an " atheist , " but certainly a " -Kensa troublesome fellow , " as the old Seotch professor called Davy .
Nevertheless , it is only by men of rebellious independence , resolute enough to say what they believe , and what they do not believe , that Science , or Religion , or indeed any other form of intellectual activity , attains development ; and we are—perhaps by instinct—disposed to give cordial welcome to all the " troublesome fellows" who agitate the stagnant waters by flinging in the stones they themselves have picked up on the banks . If nothing but agitation is the result , that is something—it helps to clear the waters . In this sense we applaud Mr . Jellingjer Symons for having
recently * ' fluttered the dovecots" of astronomers by denying the axial rotation of the moon . Newspapers and journals have discussed the point . We shall not discuss it , for the best of all reasons—we are incompetent to offer an opinion on any astronomical question ; and leave it to the competent to decide whether Mr . Stmons is right or wrong in opposing the established theory . If he is right , he will assuredly triumph—some day . If wrong , he will have made the professors angry , but he will have agitated the waters-Meanwhile , we refer our readers to his pamphlet on Lunar Motion ( Groombridge and Sons ) in which he says : —
I hold , that though the Moon in her orbital revolution round the Earth , keeps nearly tie same face always towards it , she does so because she has no rotation on or round her own axis ; that her movement , excepting lei librations , of which more presently , is exactly analogous to that of any portion of the outer ring of a wheel ; and that inasmuch as the centre of rotation is outside of and distant from the revolving T > ody , it is not only a misnomer to apply the term , axial rotation to the lunar movement or mode of revolving , but that axial rotation is , as these astronomers clearly imply , a totally distinct and additional movement having different dynamical forces , and distinguished by different geometrical conditions and phenomena . In other words , and shorter terms , I hold that a body does not rotate round its own axis , when that axis is not within it ; and in order that a body should rotate round its own axis , every part of that body must rotate , revolve , or turn rouud . that axis : which is dempnstrably not the case with the Moon .
Edinburgh Is Just Now In An Electoral Fe...
Edinburgh is just now in an electoral fever . The death of Sir William Hamilton has left vacant the first place in the whole kingdom for an ambitious philsopher , and to gain such a place it is natural that men should be active and pressing . We hear that Mr . Spenceb Baynes has retired from the candidature in favour of Professor J . A . Scott , who is opposed by Professor Ferriek and Professor Fiiazer—and the struggle seems to lie mainly between these three . We do not think the Press is called on to interfere in cases like this ; only in cases of jobbing should its voice be heard ; and although we have been appealed to by friends , we must preserve the most absolute neutrality . A more splendid position for a metaphysician it would be difficult to name : to succeed to such a man as Hamilton , and to form the opinions of such a speculative race as the young Scotch students , must give a man of energy a glorious consciousness of the importance of his triumph .
There Are Two Numbers Of The Revue Des D...
There are two numbers of the Revue des Deux Mondcs before us—the 1 st and IStli of June—containing politics , political economy , science , and literature enough to occupy columns , if we were minutely to specify their contents . Let us briefly refer to a very able paper by Emile Montegut on American journalism , an important paper on Sweden in its relation to the Court of Huesia , an article by Esojuiros on Whale fishing , and two papers by M- Quatjiepages on the curious phenomena known under the names of Alternation of Generations" and " Parthenogenesis . " Many readers who would not attack the works of SrEKNSTitur and Professor Owen , will find these papers by Quatjrkfagjks perfectly intelligible and wonderfully interesting . The French are masters of the art of exposition , and thoir popular science is popular without being feeble , or inaccurate . Even those who find too great a demand on their zoological knowledge in these papers , will read Life at Different
with perfect ease the pleasant article by M . Baiixnist on " Epochs of the World , " in which ho Hides with GEorraov St . Hilairh on the celebrated dispute about "fixity of species , " and record * the heads of a conversation ho had with M . Vilmc , an experimental physiologist , who has devoted himself with great success to the artificial rearing of plants , and whoso views on the primeval flora are briefly stated . The atmosphere , according to M . Viljlk , was unquestionably different from our own ; it was more abounding in carbonic acid ; but this abundance of carbonic acid was only one cause of the colossal vegetation of the primeval world ; there must also hftvobcen present sonic nitrogenous compound , not the nitrogen gnu of OUT ; atmosphere , but much moro assimilable . Moreover , it is clear that this primitive vegetation drew nothing from the soil , sinno there waa no detritus of anterior generations ; and the consequence wan that the plants acquired
ait eitormous <* feve * opmento # fbfiagw , w & 6 Fea » tltei *« oeto we * e n *< lime * i <)« Weinow—for we can do it oursetves—inajf on & certain sandy soil ; totally without ¦ vegetable detritus , a flbnrj & Miag vegetation trill grow , if we add a nitrogenous compound , such as aixoxioiua , aocfliapaaied by an excess of <» i > bonic add . It is certain : that the air or waters of # »© - psijuevai world contained a nitrogenous compound unlanowfi in iha aiu or W 6 ter & o £ our world .
Two Philosopblees. Nomos: An Attempt To ...
TWO PHILOSOPBLEES . Nomos : an Attempt to Demonstrate a Central Physical'Law in Nature . Longman and Co The Mystery ; or , Evil and God . By John Young , L . IV . D . Longman and Co . It is interesting to think of the number of mea silently wrestling with the difficulties , not to say impossibilities , attending every attempt to trnascend phenomena and penetrate to the central facts of existence ; to think of them weaving explanations out of explanations , and growing more confident as they recede farther from that confrontation with feet which sternly interferes with the " liberty of speculation . " Every now and then such men publish their speculations , which is unwise . To speculate may be an agreeable and even profitable employment of time , but to publish such speculations only misleads others and produces a heavy printer ' s bill . The author of Nomos has undertaken to demonstrate the central law which
underlies all physical phenomena . He ha & been a student of scientific works , not , we fancy , a student of science ; he has been struck with some conclusions at which modern speculators have arrived , and has tried to arrange them into a " discovery . " He writes agreeably , and has a talent for exposition , which is shown in the way he has reproduced Faraday ' s ** Researches in Electricity ; " but the sum total of his book is the vague and superfluous assertion that a central law exists—which he leaves the reader to discover for himself ! We had great misgivings of this author ' s qualifications for any philosophic task when we found his title-page bearing an epigraph from Farquhar Tupper ' s " Proverbial Platitudes ; " and we must say the vagueness of the conclusion , to which these otherwise agreeable pages lead , is quite in accordance with the " Philosophy" made " Proverbial " by that extremely foolish writer . That we are fairly representing Nomos in saying it merely asserts the existence of a law , without at all enlightening us as to the nature of the law , will be judged from this summary : —
In this way step by step , we have arrived at a point from which we catch a glimpse of a central law . As we come along , the phenomena of electricity are seen to submit themselves to the law of chemical action , and magnetinna and light and heat are found to become mere modes of electricity , while at the same time the idea of chemical action has become so comprehensive and general as to lose all proper speciality . In a -word , electricity , magnetism , light , heat , and chemical action , have all merged into a common action—an action of duality , out of which arise under peeuliar circumstances certain marked movements—an action which depends not upon incomprehensible imponderables but upon certain definite and comprehensible properties of matter . All things have indeed combined to point to a law Tvliich . is at once simple in its nature and manifold in its operations , —and this is the answer we get to the question proposed at the beginning—What is electricity ? «
__ What then ? Is this law the law which dominates ia nature ? This is the question which we have now to ask , and which we propose to answer as best we can . Now there are several signs which seem to show that this law maybe a cosmical \ a . w . Light heat , and chemical power attend upon the force of gravity m the aolar ray and render it difficult to regard this force as an isolated and . independent power , and it is not easy to suppose that magnetism and electricity do not enter into the perfect idea of that law by which the earth is ruled . The law referred to is one which the writer throughout calls the law of the laboratory : — that central law
If the law of the laboratory—if we may use this term to express to which tho philosophy of the laboratory appears to point—bo a universal law , it is necessary tliat space should bo filled , not merely with imponderable ether , but with actua matter for , according to the law of the laboratory , light , heat , and then-companion phenomena are the effects of a definite change nx matter ; and if there be ponderable rnattcr ia space , there must be a resistance to the motions of the heavenly bodies whicli is not supposed to exist at present . The reader is , of course , anxious to . know what this law is , and especially what is tho " definite change in matter " on which the action of the law depends , but Nomos ends without a hint , satisfied wtli having stated that there is a law and . a " definite change : " — The object of this work , then , has been to prove that the world of inorganic nature is ruled by one physical lawand not by several phys . cal laws
, __ ,. ,,,. 13 ft hasJe n s ^ nT ^^ f ^ Ihut the phenomena o * electricity magnetic light heat chemical action , and motion , which are developed experimentally , are not to be undo ^ toorunlcBs lhov be regarded as signs of one and tho same action m ordinary maS In doing this ( among other conaequences of the argument ) it has been found that wo may dispense with the idea of a repellent force in explammg eleotro-magnet . c rotation Sit we may find a physical explanation for the so-called repulsive power of heat and for the retention of magnetism by the loadstone and steel ; and that je may discover additional reasons for discarding imponderable agents from tho intor-^ S ^ SS ' t ^ ISSr for believing that it is ot possible to understand the nbanomenTrf electricity , magnetism , light , heat , chemical actiou , and motion , which utenTiydbr W « A the world ' around us , unlesa they be regarded as s . gna of tho action of the same central law . In this part of the argument :- " bodies will forwards backwards in
iHTba * Wn tbuttie heavenly move or orbks ^ f vSuH eccentricity , and rotate upon their « o-. If they aro subject to tins ^ ¦ airxr a s ^^ ^ S ; S ^ £ n ^ XuS i- ^^ KS ^^ Saa Sr &^ tctrZskl i Lltin vogue , which changes are j veiled by the geolog . cal evidence "' ifhaB bo « ' » Bhown that the phenomena of natural light , and chemical action and clcctdcity , , uul magnetism , are only intelligible when they aro regarded as Wffi » of ^ SgsSSSffiSni-sSSSSS
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 28, 1856, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28061856/page/15/
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