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again that it is not the magnetism but a something else in the magnet in union with the magnetism . Dr . Ashburner is not disposed to yield all these conclusions , and we coafcss that we were disposed to reason in the foliowin manner . Magnets attract t u- hand , give warmth and cold at a certain distance : let us grant it . Iron does the same when the magnetic power is gone ; all elements do the same , or something similar ; some give warmth , some cold : does it not reduce itself to what Dr . Brande said some years ago :
The mind . and senses are highly exalted , and the reasoning is quiescent , the mind takes in every idea with ease and holds it as a fact , not making any distinction between what is actual and what is merely ideal ; and so if you give a patient a magnet or a piece of cheese , you can make light come equally from either , or you could make her look out on London and sec all the chimney tops on fire , and make her
even assert and believe that you had set the Thames on fire . But we half promised not to reason in spite pf an occasional inclination , persuaded that there is gt'll underneath a something of the highest interest . We find that Brande and others by mere words so act on the minds of their patients , that we almost fear that after all man is but like a flute or a piano played on by every wind that blows , or yielding to any . chance pressure .
Some are pleased to call these things imagination : we do not accept this most orthodox explanation until it shall learn to explain itself ; imagination is quite as difficult to understand as mesmerism or Odism ; it is more complex and much more wonderful than anything asserted by Reichenbach ; and we hold that the word should be at once rejected , as by no means explaining any of those mingled Psychological and Physiological Phenomena .
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LEIGH HUNT ' S AUTOBIOGRAPHY . The Autobiography of Leigh Hunt ; with Jicminiicences of I'Vienils andContein / jorarict . In 3 vols . Smith , Elder , and Co . ( Second Notice ) "We had no time last week to express our admiration of these volumes , nor to indicate the devouring delight with which we hurried through them ; and then , with leisurely recurrence , turning to the " marked passages , " mused upon the picture set before us . It is a book crammed full of pleasant things , and bright with the sudden withdrawals of the veil which hangs over human life . It charms by its wit , its delicately picked style , its gc nial humour and anecdote , and its subtle appreciations ; criticism can but lay down arms , and be delighted in spite of itself ! None but the vulgar or the flippant (
unhappily both classes are known to journalism !) can treat the work with any feeling but that of tenderest respect ; and , if a natural curiosity may be disappointed at it numerous reticences , especially on personal matters , the author may very well reply , " Accept what I have given you , without teasing me for what I have withheld . " We will now cull an extract or two as whets to the appetite . A TOET ' S FIRST LOVE .
" Fanny wns a lass of fifteen , with little laughing eyes , and a mouth like a plum . I was then ( I feel as if I ought to be ashamed to say it ) not more than thirteen , if so old ; but I had read Tooke ' s Pantheon , and came of a precocious race . My cousin came of one too , and was about to be married to a handsome young fellow of three-and-twenty . I thought nothing of this , for nothing could be more innocent than my intentions . I was not old enough , or grudging enough , or whatever it was , even to be jealous . I thought everybody must love Fanny Dayrell ; and if she did not leave me out in permitting it , I was satisfied . It was enough for me to be
with h «> r as long as I could ; to gaze on her with delight , as she floated hither and thither ; and to sit on the stiles in the neighbouring fields , thinking of Tooke ' s Pantheon . My ftiendship was greater than my love . Had my favourite schoolfellow been ill , or otherwise demanded my return , I should certainly have chosen his society in 'irefi'iTm-ft . Three-fourths of n » y heart were devoted to friendship ; the r < st wns in a vngue dream of beauty , i » nd female cousins , and nymphs , and green fields , and a fe < Mn « which , though of u warm natuie , was full of fear and respect .
" tin \ the jsule put me on the least equality of footing as to ««<> , I know not what change might have been wrought in me ; but though too young herself for the tiri'MiH duties Aw was about to bring on her , and full of HiilHcicnt . levity and gaiety not to be uninterested with the little black-eyed sihoolboy that lingered about her , my vanity wuk well paid off by hers , for she kept me at a distance uy culling me pvtit t jari ; on . This was no better than the assumption of an elder sister in her teens over a younger cine ; but the latter feels if , nevertheless ; nnd I pet Minded mysel ! that it was particularly cruel . 1 wished the Abbe l ' uris at Jamaica with his French . There would stu- ounie in her froek and tucker ( for she hud not yet left off either ; , her curls durjeing , and her hands
clasped together in the enthusiasm of something to tell me , and when I flew to meet her , forgetting the differ ence of ages , and alive only to my charming cousin , she would repress me with a little fillip on the cheek , and say , * Well , petit garqon , what do you think of that ?' The worst of it was , that this odious French phrase sat insufferably well upon her plump little mouth . She and I used to gather peaches before the house were up . I held the ladder for her ; she mounted like a fairy ; and when I stood doating on her , as she looked down and threw the fruit in my lap , she would cry , * Petit garcon , you will let ' em all drop ! ' Oa my return to school she gave me a locket for a keepsake , in the shape of a heart ; which was the worst thing she ever did to the petit
garcon , for it touched me on my weak side , and looked like a sentiment . I believe I should have had serious thoughts of becoming melancholy , had I not , in returning to school , returned to my friend , and so found means to occupy ray craving for sympathy . However , I wore the heart a long while . I have sometimes thought there was more in her French than I imagined ; but I believe not . She naturally took herself for double my age , with a lover of three-and-twenty . Soon after her marriage fortune separated us for many years . My passion had almost as soon died away ; but I have loved the name of Fanny ever since ; and when I met her again , which was under circumstances of trouble on her part , I could not see her without such an emotion as I was fain to confess
to a person ' near and dear , ' who forgave me for it ; which made me love the forgiver the more . " Mrs . Jordan and the delights of playgping in early life are charmingly painted in this passage : " Mrs . Jordan was inimitable in exemplifying the consequences of too much restraint in ill educated country girls , in romps , in hoydens , and in wards on whom the mercenary have designs . She wore a bib and tucker , and pinafore , with a bouncing propriety , fit to make the boldest spectator alarmed at the idea of bringing such a
household responsibility on his shoulders . To see her when thus attired shed blubbering tears for some disappointment , and eat all the while a great thick slice of bread and butter , weeping , and moaning , and munching , and eyeing at every bite the part she meant to bite next , was a lesson against will and appetite worth a hundred sermons of our friends on board the hoy ; and , on the other hand , they could assuredly have done and said nothing at all calculated to make such an impression in favour of amiableness as she did when she acted in
gentle , generous , and confiding characters . I he way in which she would take a friend by the cheek and kiss her , or make up a quarrel with a lover , or coax a guardian into good-humour , or sing ( without accompaniment ) the sons ? of Since then I ' m doom ed , or In the Dead of the Night , trusting , as she had a right to do , and as the house wished her to do , to the sole effect of her sweet , mellow , and loving voice—the reader will pardon me , but tears of pleasure and regret come into my eyes at the recollection , as if she personified whatsoever was happy at that period of life , and which has gone like herself . The very sound of the little familiar word bud from her lips ( the abbreviation of husband ) , as she packed it closer , as it were , in the utterance , and pouted it up with fondness in the man ' s face , taking him at the same time by the chin , was a whole concentrated world of the power of loving .
" That is a pleasant time of life , the play-going time in youth , when the coach is packed full to go to the theatre , and brothers and sisters , parents and lovers ( none of whom , perhaps , go very often ) , are all wafted together in a flurry of expectation ; when the only wish as they go ( except with the lovers ) is to go as fast as possible , and no sound is so delightful as the cry of ' Bill of the Play ; ' when the smell of links in the darkest and muddiest winter ' s night is charming ; and the steps of the coach are let down ; and a roar of hoarse voices round the door , and mud-shine on the pavement , are accompanied with the sight of the warm-looking lobby
which is about to be entered ; and they enter , and pay , and ascend the pleasant stairs , and begin to hear the silence of the house , perhaps the first jingle of the music ; and the box is entered amidst some little awkwardness in descending to their places , and being looked at ; and at length they sit , and are become used to by their neighbours , and shawls and smiles are adjusted , and the play-bill is handed round or pinned to the cushion , and the gods are a little noisy , and the music veritably commences , and at length the curtain is drawn up , and the first delightful syllables are heard : — " Ah ! my dear Charles , when did you see the lovely Olivia ? '
" Oh ! my dear Sir George , talk not to me of Olivia . The cruel guardian , ' &c . " Anon the favourite of the party makes his appearance , and then they are quite happy ; and next day , besides his own merits , the points of the dialogue are attributed to him , as if he was their inventor . It is not Sir Harry , or old Dornton , or Dubster , who said this or that ; but ' Lewis , ' ' Munden , ' or Keeley . ' They seem to think the wit really originated with the man who uttered it so delightfully . " Leigh Hunt ' 3 whole life has been a protest against utilitarianism , and a vindication of the emotional part of our nature from the blind arithmetic of " practical men ; " let us hear him , therefore , sum up
THE CIIAKACTKU OF FUANKLIX . " Franklin , with all his abilities , is but at the head of those who think that man lives by bread alone . ' He will commit none of the follies , none of the intolerances , the absence of which is necessary to the perfection of his system ; and in setting his face against these he discountenances a great number of things very inimical to higher speculations . But he was no more a fit representative of what human nature largely requires , and may reasonably hope to attain to , than negative represents
positive , or the clearing away a ground in the back settlements , and setting to work upon it , represents the work in its completion . Something of the pettiness and materiality of his first occupation always stuck to him . He took nothing for a truth or a matter-of-fact that he could not handle , as it were , like his types ; and yet , like all men of this kind , he was liable , when put out of the ordinary pale of his calculations , to fall into the greatest errors , and substitute the integrity of his reputation for that of whatsoever he chose to do . From never doing wrong in little things , he conceived that he could do no wrong in great ; and , in the most deliberate act of his life , he showed he had grievously mistaken himself . He was , I allow , one of the cardinal great men of his time . He was Prudence . But he was not what he took himself for , —all the other "Virtues besides ; and , inasmuch as he
was deficient in those , he was deficient even in his favourite one . He was not Temperance ; for , in the teeth of his capital recommendations of that virtue , he did not scruple to get burly and big with the enjoyments that he cared for . He was not Justice ; for he knew not how to see fair play between his own wisdom and that of a thousand wants and aspirations , of which he knew nothing : and he cut off his son with a shilling for differing with him in politics . Lastly , he was not Fortitude ; for , having few passions and no imagination , he knew not what it was to be severely tried ; and if he had been , there is every reason to conclude , from the way in which he treated his son , that his self-love would have been the part in which he felt the torture;—that , as his Justice was only arithmetic , so his Fortitude would have been nothing but stubbornness . " Side by side with this we will hang up the CHARACTER OF VOI / TAIRE . " It is a curious circumstance respecting the books of " Voltaire—the greatest writer upon the whole that France has produced , and undoubtedly the greatest name in the eighteenth century—that to this moment they are far less known in England than talked of ; so much so , that , with the exception of a few educated circles , chiefly of the upper class , and exclusively among the men even in those , he has not only been hardly read at all , even by such as have talked of him with admiration , or loaded , him with reproach , but the portions of his writings that have had the greatest effect on the world are the least known among readers the most popularly acquainted
with him . The reasons of this remarkable ignorance respecting so great a neighbour—one of the movers of the world , and an especial admirer of England—are to be found , first , in the exclusive and timid spirit , under the guise of strength , which came up with the accession of George the Third ; second , as a consequence of this spirit , a studious ignoring of the Frenchman in almost all places of education , the colleges and foundations in particular ; third , the anti-Gallican spirit which followed and exasperated the prejudice against the French Revolution ; and fourth , the very translation and popularity of two of his novels , the Candide and Zadig , which , though by no means among his finest productions , had to be
yet enough wit and peculiarity accepted as sufficing specimens of him , even by his admirers . Unfortunately , one of these , the Candide , contained some of his most licentious and even revolting writings . This enabled his enemies to adduce it as a sufficing specimen on their own side of the question ; and t : e idea of him which they succeeded in imposing upon the English community in general was that of a mere irreligious scoffer , who was opposed to everything good and serious , and who did but mingle a little frivolous wit with an abundance of vexatious , hard-hearted , and disgusting effrontery I have hardly ever met , even in literary circles , with persons who knew anything of Voltaire , except through the medium of these two novels , and of later school editions of his two histories of Charles the Twelfth and Peter the Great : books which teachers of all sorts , in his own to admit into
country , have been gradually compelled their courses of reading , by national pride and the imperative growth of opinion . Voltaire is one of the three great tragic writers of France , and excels in pathos ; yet not one Englishman in a thousand knows a syllable of his tragedies , or would do anything but stare to hear of his pathos . Voltaire inducted his countrymen into a knowledge of English science and metaphysics , nay , even of English poetry ; yet Englishmen have been told little about him in connection with them , except of his disagreements with Shakspeare . Voltaire created a fashion for English thinking , manner , and policy , and fell in love with the simplicity and truthfulness of their very Quakers ; and yet , I will venture to say , the English knew far less of all this than they do of a licentious poem with which he degraded his better nature in burlesquing the history of Joan of Arc .
•• There are , it is admitted , two sides to the character of Voltaire—one liccn'ious , merely scoffing , saddening , defective in sentiment , and , therefore , wanting the inner clue of the beautiful to guide him out of the labyrinth of scorn and perplexity ; all owing , be it observed , to the errors which he found prevailing in his youth , and to the impossible demands which they made on his acquiescence ; but the other side of his character is moral , cheerful , beneficent , prepared to encounter peril , nay , actually encountering it in the only true Christian causes , those of toleration and charity , and raising that voice of demand for the advancement of reason and justice which is now
growing into the whole voice of Europe . He was the only man , perhups , that ever existed who represented in his single person the entire character , with one honourable exception ( for he was never sanguinary ) , of the nation in which he was born ; nay , of its whole history , past , present , and to come . He had the licentiousness of the old monarchy under which he was bred , the cosmopolite ardour of the revolution , the science of the consulate and the ' savans , ' the unphilosnphio love of glory of the empire , the worldly wisdom ( without pushing it into folly ) of Louis Philippe , and the changeful humours , the firmness , the weakness ,. the nourishing declamation ,
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352 & ]) £ & £ & **?* [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), July 6, 1850, page 352, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1845/page/16/
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