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518 ¦ ¦ ¦' V . ¦ / :¦ . . \ . ? H^ \ E^y...
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JERDAN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. The Autohioqraph...
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LECTURES ON THE GREAT EXHIBITION. Lectur...
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Gbeat Abtists And Great Anatomists. Grea...
self-reliance brought out in such passages as the above , form the forte and foible of the race of men to which he belonged , « Thus he declared against theory , yet was himself the greatest of theorists ; his < reat fact led to startling hypotheses , which he asserted to be facts . He maintained thejiaitf / of species forever and ever , grounding his assertion on the paltry pitiful records of humanity ; records generally worthless , or so limited in time , as to be valueless for the settling of any great secondary law of Nature . The invention of six successive creations was at last forced upon him , chiefly through Ms English partisans j against his common sensed and in contradiction of his own writings .
" AU honour , notwithstanding , be to his great name ; his dislike to transcendentalism was forced upon him . What passes for the views and theories of Cuvier , in England , do not belong to him . They emanate from a school with whom truth in science is of no moment . They emanate from men who are not strictly scientific , but who , like Philo-Judeeus , Derbani , and Paley , look into works of science , not with any view to extract the truth therefrom , but to find happy applications in supportof errors in human history , and a cosmogony to which antiquity lias lent a sort of reverential awe . " If there were nothing else to throw a doubt on the solidity of Cuvier ' s reputation , it would be enough to mention the instantaneous and universal that surel
acceptance of his views by orthodox and academic Europe , — y was suspicious ? When we reflect that Goethe was forty years before he could get anatomists to recognise the existence of the intermaxillary bone in man , —that is to say , to recognise a fact which was offensive , because it destroyed an imaginary difference between man and the monkey ; and that his great morphological discoveries , which now rule in science , were thirty years before gaining acceptance , —this opposition , first , to a single fact , and , second , to an idea , indicates the routmiary obstructions which all reforming thinkers have to encounter , and suggests , that any man who is at once accepted as a new light , is not very likely to turn out a true light . Let us continue to borrow from Dr . Knox : —
" We have now to view Cuvier as entering on a new career ; from simple naturalist and anatomist , he had become geologist in a sense that never man was before . Historian of the catastrophes of the globe ; author of a new cosmogony . Unwittingly , the man of facts was forced , also , to become the theorist . Human bones were not found fossilized . Then came theory first—namely , that man ' s origin or formation was quite recent . In theory second he advanced the principle of the fixity of species , founded on the fact , that during the historic period animals had not changed their appearances , —forgetting that this historic period was but a drop in the great ocean of time ; that no great geological epoch had occurred during that period , and , consequently , neither man nor animals had been violently dislocated from the aboriginal continents j ever been exposed to the only influences likely or competent to produce changes in form , amounting to a specific
or permanent alteration . Lastly , a theory or two was forced on him by the theogeological school of England , which were not his , and expressions which he never tittered were ascribed to him . It passes current , for example , in England , that he advocated the theory of successive miraculous creations of animals . This is a pure invention of the English geologists , invented by them to reconcile the conflicting facts of true geology with their imaginary cosmogony and fabulous chronology . With the exception of his first paleontological essay , Cuvier constantly opposed the theory of successive creations . There cannot exist a doubt on this point , although the contrary opinion has , as is usual , become stereotyped in England;—in England , where things are said never to change—not even errors , These are his words : — ' Nous ne croyons pas meme a la possibility d ' une apparition successive des formes diverses . ' Thus the theory ascribed in England to Cuvier , this
illustrious anatomist has declared not only to be false , but impossible . " Whilst Cuvier was thus applying with sucb . success the single method of the descriptive anatomy of the adult animal to zoology , and to the history of the globe , overturning all existing theories , cosmogonies , and histories , other minds were at work in Germany and France . The descriptive anatomy of the adult animal formed selon le regie , ' is not all ; there is the anatomy of the embryo ; of varieties orlusus natures ; of monsters ; of organs found in man and animals , evidently of no use to the individual . This Cuvier persisted in overlooking . His mind was filled with that idea , the most natural of all—namely , the persistence and fixity of the present order of things ; an idea proved to be false , first by himself . But this , also , transcendental
he would fain have overlooked . Of the new doctrines of anatomy , originating in these sources , he took but little notice at first , at times admitting them , at times rejecting them . At last the doctrine of unity of organization became too great to bo overlooked ; a struggle evidently approached between the parties . But it did not fairly como off until Geoffroy , the French advocate of the heterodoxy , had boldly advocated in the Academy , and in the presence of Cuvior , the theory of development , a necessary sequel of the grand law of unity , which teaches that ' the animals to which belonged tho fossil remains , so admirably described by Cuvier , are not specifically distinct from the living organic world , but simply tho forefathers of tho existing ruco of animals / "
518 ¦ ¦ ¦' V . ¦ / :¦ . . \ . ? H^ \ E^Y...
518 ¦ ¦ ¦ ' V . ¦ / : ¦ . . \ . ? H ^ \ E ^ y ^ DA y ;
Jerdan's Autobiography. The Autohioqraph...
JERDAN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY . The Autohioqraphy of William Jordan , with his lAterary , Political , and Social ¦ Reminiscences and Correspondence . Vol . I . Arthur Hall , Virtuo & Co . When complete , this work will probably be attractive enough as a collection of gossip and of letters from celebrated persons ; but no misplaced delicacy ought to prevent tho critic from expressing an emphatic condemnation of tho work as regards tho autobiographical tissue on which tho anecdotes arc woven . William Jordan may , from the accidents of position , have materials in hand which a gossip-greedy public will eagerly devour ; but no ono can conscientiously accept him as a man whoso litorary achievements merit tho slightest notice , or whoso talents give him a claim upon biographical honours . It would be a mockery to examine his pretensions with any seriousness , for ho cannot write a page of aucoptable prose ; and wo imagine it would require considerable rosearcHto discover nnvlivW momorv of what ho has written . As tho editor of the Literary
Gazette it might pioaso certain authors anxious about reviews oftheirworka to pay him obsequious doferonco , but wo believe wo are stating a notorious fact , in affirming that he has no recognised position in literature , as wo are certain that ho novor had tho talents to desorvo ono . When therefore we find him assuming tho character of one who preaches from the text of his own example , and solemnly warning men against tho profession ,
of literature , which he denouncesi with a . fervour that would lift him into eloquence were he capable of that exaltation , we cannot suppress the thoughts that rise to meet his denunciation . "When we read such , nassa ^ a as this— . - : ' , : : / :: ' / ' . ^ X "'¦' .: ] : .. ; ' ¦'¦ . : \ . \ g S " I believe that the retrospect may be very serviceable to- my fellow-creatures and most signally so to those who have embarked , or are disposed to embark in the pursuits of literature as a provision for the wants of liffei Of all tbe multitude I have known ; who leant upon this crutch as a sole support , I could not specif y tea who ever attained anything like a desirable status either in fortune or society . On the contrary , the entire cla ^ s may be assured , that although felony may b ^ more hazardous , literature is , of the two , by far the most unprofitable profession . "
the thought thatrises spontaneously is : — -This may be so , but it mates some difference by whom it is said ! There is at this moment a man of genius forced to quit England and to seek in Australia the living his genius fails to secure- him here . Had he written , such a passage we mighfc have listened to it ; but front a writer of the quality of William Jerdan such a passage is an inexcusable insult . What I you have for very many years earned a large income , and have had the far from contemptible advantage of enjoying the personal acquaintance of ma ^ iy celebrated persons- ^ - you have earned this and more , and that too by talents which even friendship cannot magnify into distinction , and the profession in which you have earned this is to be insulted b y youy arid classed below felony ! We abstain from all allusion to notorious facts ^—we take the insult as
it comes—and in the name of the profession to which we think it an honour to belong , we protest against the tone of tiiis book . Not even age and misfortune shall restrain our protest ; for age seems to give it the countenance of experience , and misfortune to give it the evidence in proof . The querulous tone which fatigues the reader of this Autobio graphy might readily be pardoned from an old man reviewing his life , anefnot recognising in adversity the bitter fruit he had himself sown in the careless days j but the attempt to associate his personal errors with literature as a necessary condition , and thus further to traduce a profession already too much disgraced by the whimpering weakness of one class of incapables , and by the unseemly pride of others , ashamed of their high it be said
calling—tlis attempt must hot pass unexppsed . may , Why take notice of such querulous foolishness , it will die of itself P But it is not so . Literature already suffers too much from want of dignity derived from the consciousness of its high office . Had the denunciation been made against Medicine , against the Law , or against the Army , we might have suffered it to pass unnoticed , certain that it could rouse no echoes . But the Priesthood of Letters is a calling which , with all its trials and they are many , _ with all its perils * and they are many , with all its abuses , arid they are many , is still ahigh and noble calling , fitly demanding the devotion of a life , and mainly kept from the recognition which is its due . bv the miserable facility with which its members have from time
immemorial abetted the ignorant by flinging at it their sarcasms and their indignation . . __„ _ , But we will not dwell on this unpleasant topic . What has already been said will doubtless appear harsh , and attributed perhaps to all sorts of motives . . ... , We have been looking for some passage to quofce from this volume , and alighted on this fact , connected with the History of the Press , which Mr . Knight Hunt will assuredly make good use of in the next edition of his work on that subject , viz . —that the first appearance of reviews ot new books , as a department of journalism , was in 1818 , when Jerdan
edited the Sun . " The literary leaning nourished in my nature , as I have endeavoured to trace it to the fortunate tuition of Dr . Rutherford ( for with all the ills it may bring m its course , a taste for literature and literary occupation is a great blessing ) , was manifested as soon as the desperate din of war and absorbing strife of politics were so far quelled as to allow a breathing time for aught else to be heard or seen . I immediately projected a Review of New Works to form a peace feature in the paper ; and this , I believe , was the first example of any attention of the kind being paid by the newspaper press to tho productions of its less ephemeral brethren of the quill . When 1 look around me at this date , I cannot but feel a sensible gratification on witnessing this little plant become the parent of a vast treo that overspreads the land , and possesses a universal influence upon the interests of literature .
It is true that ' They must dig who gather ore , And they roust dig who gather lore ;' and that wo have a considerable proportion of very superficial scratched of the soil , both among authors and critics , but the mere fact of notoriety is a wonderful advantage to the really deserving , and can do but little temporary nmcmei in keeping back the sterling , puffing the mediocre , or bolstering up tho ^ ^ Some years hence , however , in my narrative , will bo a fitter tuno more luiiy discuss this important question , "
Lectures On The Great Exhibition. Lectur...
LECTURES ON THE GREAT EXHIBITION . Lectures on the Results of the Great Exhibition of 1851 . Delivered before tho Society of Arts , at tho suggestion of H . R . H . Prince Albert . *> . wb The twelve Lectures delivered before the Society of Arts , at tho suggjM " , tion of Prince Albert , have here been gathered into a handsome volume , which deserves its place among the many records of that gigantic wor * . Dr . Whewell opens with a very suggestive Lecture on the General & earing of the Great Exhibition on the Progress of Art and Science , a topiu fertilo in commonplaces , which he has managed to render attractivo uy suggestion from science , in the shape of classification . Here also is a i mark worth quoting , though far from novel . Having dwelt upon w prodigal magnificence of some of the " barbaric pomp Gxhl ^ . ^ Oriental nation , tho beauty of which surpasses our own manufacture's and yet holding fast to tho belief in progress , and m our superiority , ASICS J—— " . " What is the broad and predominant distinction between tho arts of nati . rich , but in a condition of nearly etationary civilization , Hko Oriental nations , u nations which have felt the full influence of progress like ourselves P « If I rnn not mistaken , tho difference may bo briefly expressed tnus * wuat
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 29, 1852, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29051852/page/18/
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