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MA¥ g%l862.] IHE I/EABER. ; " , . ;' , ....
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„ , •„„ »re not the legislators, but the...
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The election of Librarian to the London ...
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Certainly it is not in Germany that Men ...
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The invention of GuTTENBERGj of of whoev...
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Among the few French books worthy of not...
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GBEAT ABTISTS AND GREAT ANATOMISTS. Grea...
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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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.
Ma¥ G%L862.] Ihe I/Eaber. ; " , . ;' , ....
MA ¥ g % l 862 . ] IHE I / EABER . ; " , . ; ' , .. M . '
' /^¦ ¦'¦' ¦ : $M0ti&
' /^¦ ¦'¦' ¦ : $ m 0 ti &
„ , •„„ »Re Not The Legislators, But The...
„ , •„„ » re not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature , they do not CrlU make law *—tbey interpret and try to enforce Vb . vai ^ E & inbwgTi Beview .
The Election Of Librarian To The London ...
The election of Librarian to the London Library is a matter involving V considerations respecting the position of Literature . It is an excellent nost , well remunettiied j and agreeable in its duties ; a post which assuredly annat be said to lie beyond the province of literary ihen , and one therefore to which , in the ordinary coiwse , a h ' terary man of bibliopolic experience miffht reasonably aspire * Yet in the active canvas now goings on , it is earnestly desfred by one section to bring in a foreigner . Let us first state that we do not even know the name of this foreigner , and are speaking on considerations in
purely abstract saying , that unless he have some oveiv whelming pretensions , such as those of a Muratori , no foreigner ought , in comnion justice , to be preferred to an Englishman . We have already too many flagrant injustices of the kind ; and considering the extremely small patronage bestowed upon Letters in this country , as compared with other European states , it does seem wholly unwarrantable that that little should be shared by foreign exiles , however deserving of compassion Would France , would Italy , would Germany , would Spain , elect an Englishman in such a case t '
Certainly It Is Not In Germany That Men ...
Certainly it is not in Germany that Men of Letters have to complain of want of honour . They are honoured and rewarded during lifetime , and must have produced but little stir in the world , if after their death they do not leave their names reverently graven on some Denkmat—^ ai the Germans felicitously call a monument . " We find by the papers that Boeckh , Berhardy , Meier , Rqss , and Eckstein , have opened a subscription for a Denkmal to the great philologist , ifoiBDERiCH August Wolf , to be erected in Halle j and we have little doubt that the money trill speedily be collected .
The Invention Of Guttenbergj Of Of Whoev...
The invention of GuTTENBERGj of of whoever did invent *' movable types , " has not fallen on an ungrateful or inactive Europe . The quantity of printing done in England , Germany , and France , has often excited amazement ; and if we look to Sweden , we shall find Guttenberg flourishes there also with alarming activity . In the year 1861 there were 1060 books published , and 113 journals . Of the books > 182 were theological , 156 political 123 legal , 80 historical , 55 politico-teconomical and technical , 45 educational , 40 philological , 38 medical , 31 mathematical , 22 physical , 18 geographical , 3 aesthetical , and 3 philosophical . Fiction and Belles Lettres have 259—but they are mostly translations from English , French , and German . Of these details we are tempted to say , what Jean Paul ' s hero says of the lists of Errata he has been so many years collecting , — " QuiNTUS Fixlein declared there were profound conclusions to be drawn from these Errdta—and he advised the reader to draw them ¦!"
Among The Few French Books Worthy Of Not...
Among the few French books worthy of notice , let us not forget the fourth volume of Sainte Beuve ' s charming Causeries du Lundi , just issued . The volume opens with an account of MibabeauV unpublished dialogues with Sophie , and some delicate remarks by Sainte Beuve in the way of commentary . There are also admirable papers on Buffon , Madame de Scudbry , M . de Bonald , Pierre DuponT ; Saint Evremont et Ninon , Duo de Lauzun , & c . Although he becomes rather tiresome if you fead much at a time , Sainte Beuvb is the best article writer ( in our Macaulay sense ) France possesses . With varied and extensive knowledge , a light , glancing , sensitive mind , and a style of great finesse , though somewhat spoiled by affectation , he contrives to throw a new interest round the oldest topics ; he is , moreover , an excellent critic , hes Causeries du Lundi is by far the best of his works .
Gbeat Abtists And Great Anatomists. Grea...
GBEAT ABTISTS AND GREAT ANATOMISTS . Great Artists and Qreai Anatomists t a Biographical and Philosophical Study . By K . Knox , M . D . ' ' Va » Voorst . This is a very readable bit of braggadocio . The details are interesting ; tho manner is too amusing to he offensive . Dr . Itnox is what people call a dashing writer . " Ho is trenchant , dogmatic , imperious , and self-Jaudativo , There is a certain swaggering magnificence of manner which Jjobs liis sarcasms of their sting , and renders his arrogance entertaining , rfi'at all mon are asaes except Dr . R . Knox , and a few of " my illustrious mends , "—that no living being understands anything of anatomy , desonntlv or transcendental , except Dr . R . Knox , —and that this science is wont to rooeive a sudden illumination in these pages , are facts somewhat vociferousl y obtruded upon the reader , who would smilo down their pro-BUTnption with better grace , did he not observe that this braggadocio la n ° fc confined to stylo , but carries its haughty incompetence even into Dr . J ^ no x b conoeption of his subject . Hifl work , so vast and magnificent in Fospoo tus , turns out . on inspection , to be fragmentary and superficial . to of
^ o intends toll us of the life and labours Cuvier , the great Desorip-Jivo Anatomist , who first established tho relation of doBonptive anatomy «> the aeionce of tho organic world , past and present ; ho intends to tell « s ol the lifo and labours of Geoflroy St . Hilairo , tho great Transoendon-™» anatomist , who , in conjunction with Goethe , established tho umty of S 11 organic beinga : and , finally , lio intends to discover m tho works of ;; °° nardo , Michel An elo , anil Raphael , tho true relation of descriptive » mv to art . All tfis ho intends . But ho does nothing of the kind , om J i an aBBdrtion seems equivalent to a demonstration , an intention C ( luiYaloat to a yoflult . He writes with Jus wiU . Xlw wwfc w fothw to
his book . Oiistead of doing anythinglike what he jlroposes , he gives m lively and very readable sketches , which in a magazine would liaye been very acceptable . More than sketches he has not given , unless it be assertion .. . ¦ , •¦ ... ¦ . '' : ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ' ¦ . '• ¦ ' . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ . ' ¦ .. . . - : ¦ ¦ - Taking the book for what it is , and not for what it asserts itself to be , we can recommend it to the general reader , and especially to the lover of natural history . Really to write the lives , and to set forth the results of Cuvier and Geoffroy , would give a delightful and profoundly instructive book ; Dr . Knox has indicated such a task . , ^ . " Quarries were dug in the olden time ; Mount Athos was tunnelled by Xerxes ; a canal connected the Nilotic waters for many centuries with the Red Sea ; and the crust of the globe had been dissected by the metallurgist and engineer . Fossil remains had been seen by millions of men , ere Cuvier appeared . But man would hot , or could not , see the truth . All things swam in the chaotic deluge of the Roman poet ; shell-fish rested on the tops of mountains , and fishes took refuge amongst trees ! The human mind , oppressed by conventionalism , was unequal to describe simply ' the anatomy of man / At last appeared the man , gifted with
the desire to know the unknown ; the anatomist . " To the quasi-philosophic men of his day , practitioners of medicine and surgery , profoundly ignorant of the structure of that animal they practised on , Bichat offered the « Descriptive anatomy of Man ; ' Cuvier went further . " These bones , which you conjecture to have belonged to elephants and crocodiles , and horses and men , did not belong to any such animals . The exact anatomy of animals which now live teaches me , that , provided specie * cure not convertible into each other ( ph hypothesis he mistook for a bheory ) , these bones are the remains of an organic world which has ceased to be . Suddenly , and as if by magic , the obscuring veil , the thick pall of ignorance , drops from before human sight ; the mist disperses from hill and valley ; ft vast and wonderful land , redundant with lifeexhibiting ever ^ varied , gigantic , and grotesque forms , is spread out to
, the gaze of the admiring observer . That observer was George Cuvier . Still , what he saw was but an imageVa phantom of the past . His view was backwards into remote antiquity , whilst yet the world was in its infancy . Occupied with facts and details , that is , history , — -eschewing principles , tliat is philosophy , —his view , even of the past , was limited and confined . That past he did not fully cotnj > T 6 hend , or rather , he avoided admitting that he did ; of the future he s ^ id nothing . Simultaneous with him arose others , who valued facts merely as leading to principles 5 of these , Goethe and Geoffrey may be considered the type and the leader . Other illustrious names must be conjoined to these . They did not discover the transcendental in anatomy , but they collected the facts in support of its
principle , and they applied them to the history of organic life , not merely as it is now , but as it has been , and as it may be in futurity . Thus two men , and two modes of thought , overturned all existing knowledge , all existing chronology , all human history . Descriptive anatomy , which Cuvier and his followers called comparative anatomy , in his hands overturned all-existing cosmogonies : the transcendental went further ; it developed the great plan of the creation of living forms ; the scheme of nature . It unfolded the secondary laws by which the transformations are made , the metamorphosis out of which variety springs from unity : the natural history of creation was for the first time explained to man /' Although Europe excessively exaggerates the merit of Cuvier as a philosophic thinker , and Dr . Knox , in this case , sides with the majority , yet exJuDitedin
the blind conventionalism ( not to use a harsher phrase ; ne , his controversy with Geoffroy , has not escaped Dr . Knox ' s observation : — " But he advanced not ; and by the influence of his great name and position , became an obstructor of science . Latterly he resisted all attempts to theorize : and , as a leader of a numerous body of partisans of all nations , he became the bitter and uncompromising enemy of Geoffroy and the traiiscendentalists . He did his utmost to crush these men , and to drive them from the Academy . Sufficient for him it seemed to be , that he had established the great fact , that the species of animals now alive , and forming the organic world since human history commenced , differ essentially , specifically , and generically , from those whose remains , fossilized , we now discover in various parts of the world . "He called this merely a fact ! and so it is , no doubt . Cuvier called his groat
discovery a fact . It is a fact so far as it goes , the most extraordinary fact ever discovered by man ; but it is , as we shall perceive , a discovery rather than a fact , admitting of no modification . By this discovery Cuvier npsot all existing cosmogony , natural history ( if it merited the name ) , geology ; but to convert his discovery into a fact , applicable to all ages , to science , involved several hypotheses , which he at first admitted , afterwards rejected . Tho eternal fixity of species was one of these , and this included tho non-convertibility of one animal into another by any secondary cause whatever ; by climate , by domesticity , by time , by geological epochs , or cataclysms ,- lastly , by the eternal laws of development , forming an intrinsic attribute of living matter . Cuvier was scarcely dencl , when my illustrious with tho extinct fossil
friend . Do Blainville , ao connected tho living rhinoceros trenera by a series of individuals , as to lonvo little or no doubt of tho identity of tho genus , at least ; tho identity of tho present with the past . Tho mammoth of Cuvier and his mastodon , genera as ho fancied so distinct from the elephant ot the present world , were proved to bo connected therewith by a Cham of species occurring in time , ho reaombling each other , so little characteristic aa distinct species , fhnt tho idon of species began to fade from human thoughts . It was this groab law of transition , of metamorphosis , which alarmed Cuvior in his later years , although it ought not to liavo done so—Nature ' s transitions of organic life m time and oircumstonco ; tho formation of all living forms from ono living essence . His disliko to sco in tho living world , pnst and present , ono animal instead of many , was caused simply by n dread of its touching that reputation , winch l \ o know tho world based on his having proved tho contrary .
" In whatever way tho transitions are effected , they arc purely tho results of secondary causes ; to abandon this view is to abandon human reason . Transitions of organic ; beings fVom ono form to another , are tho results of certain natural laws , the cxistenco of which , ho discovers and proves by tlio history of tho organic world . " \ Vhat a history of lifo was thus disclosed by Cuvier ! Has any fiimilar fact over boon diBCOVorodP But ho refused to soe all this ; denying tho conclusions obviously resulting from his own researches . Ho took up ft dislike to thcorioH , seemingly became thoy woro adopted and patronized by his acadomio rivals . Listen to his own remarks : ' Thoorios I have sought ; I have sot up some myself , but I have not inado thorn known , because I ascertained thoy wore false as tiro all those which havo boon published up to this day . I affirm still more ; for I say that , in tho PWBOttt fltoto of floiottce , it w JiPpossiblg to discover , any / Tho doginatiam , and
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 29, 1852, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29051852/page/17/
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