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for his sins . Is he not , on reflection , ashamed of the vulgar artifice by which he has enHsted the contempt of his readers for all Chartists and Infidels i Does he , in his heart of hearts , believe that Orator Wyld and the sceptic Itobison are fair typical representations of Chartisih and Disbelief ? Does he believe that he is writing truthfully and . honourably ¦ in making the one a drunkard as well as an idle vagabonds the other a thief ? We waive all question of the truth or wisdom of the opinions entertained by Chartists and Infidels—we will even grant , for the sake of argument , that they are as wicked and absurd as ' John Drayton represents— -but we still ask him whether he has so little experience of life as not to be aware how honestly such opinions maybe held , and by what irreproachable men i It would be as
ft&t to saythat allChartists and Freethinkers are men of high moral and intellectual character , as to say that they are all Wylds and Robisons . That many of them are ignorant , and arrogant because ignorant—that many of them are merely trading poli ticians—is credible enough ; and their parallels may be found in all other classes , Radical , Whig , Conservative . They arrogate to themselves-the mono * poly of truth and virtue , just as other classes do { and , just as other classes , they have all varieties of good and evil . If the author of John Drayton had given any intimation of his characters being individual and not typical , we could have accepted them ; but the animus which dictated that the leaders of the people should be liars , sots , thieves , and fools is unmistakeable .
liet us now hear the author of John Drayton in reply : — "I am in some degree pedagogic in my habits . I like to distinguish manlike and generous characteristics , and forget sometimes that men may smile at the applause , which is a Very grand affair for the boy Whom I commend ; but I shall risk this smile for the sake of saying how much it pleased me , to see a review in the paper called the Leader of . this book of mine . I like praise for itself tolerably well ; this conveyed to me a higher pleasure , for above all I rejoice in a manful man , who sees with clear eyes of his
own , and has the candour of truth in . his heart whether it b 6 in-his opinions or no ; I-am not a Tory , nor a Churchman ; and feel myself sufficiently tolerant to value the favourable opinion of al l men of good purpose , even though I cannot approve of their deeds , and am far as the Antipodes apart from their opinions . Saying this , I again repeat my protest against the imputation of bigotry which it seems the present custom to throw , only upon those who hold the Divine scheme of reformation best . I cannot recollect that any one called Mr , Kingsley bigoted ,
because it pleased him to set up a man of straw and call it Calvinism , and pleasantly and easily knock it down again ; for my own part 1 am very sure I did not . I only shook my head over my circulatinglibrary copy of Alton Locke , and smilingly assured myself that though this poor young poet of the people might very well understand the construction of the great-coat , which in this cold weather I begin to feel the need of , he knew as much of Calvinism as my landlady ' s Mary Helen does ; and that Sandy Mackaye , with no doubt a Westminster Assembly's catechism lying in some recess of his shop , not to say of his memory ^ would have taught him better , had the youth been willing to learn .
" Something has been said also of my partiality in making the type of the Chartist and sceptic leader a man oi bad habits and character . My answer to this is , that I have drawn no types in John Drayton , Wyld and Itobison are not abstract embodiments of a class ; they are mere portraits—softened ones—of men whom , to my sorrow , I have Been and known . That there are men of pure moral character , and considerable intellect who are conscientious sceptics , I
believe ; but I believe also that this state lasts only so long as the mind ia in chaos , as was the mind of John Dayton , and ceases when the intellect matures and consolidates . I believe so heartily ; and onl y grieve and deplore that it should be so usual to speak ot this , unbelieving chaotic , pitiful state , almost as an evidence of superior intelligence . I have never found it ao ; and it seems to me that we err sadly in depreciating that child-like simplicity of confidence—that oloar uplooking to the heavens—which , if it seldom falls to the lot of clever men , does beautifully blend with , and sanctify , the highest genius , and iB the happiest state of faith . "
" My answer to this is , that I have drawn no types in John Drayton . * Is that an answer ? Suppose a sceptic were to write a novel animated with impassioned antagonism against all r / syealed Religion , and were to give , us pictures of ClergVraen auch as might in all fairness be styled ' * from life " ¦—such as actually do live the miserable life of degradation occasionally opened to view in our Police Courts—would not every one feel that the selection of such realities in such a work was unfair , untrue i Would it be any answer to the indignant orthodox to reply "I have drawn no types—they are real clergymen ^ —historical acampa ' ? Obviously not .
The impression left on the _ mind f the reader would be : ¦ — " You have slandered the Church . " Precisely that kind of impression is left by John Drayton . John Drayton is apropos to the present time . The quarrel between the Engineers and their Employers will perhaps stimulate curiosity , as it will certainly bring the book- —its merits and demerits —more vividly home to men ' s " business and bosoms . "
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ELEMENTARY PHYSICS . Elementary Physics , an Introduction to the Study of JYatural Philosophy , with 217 Wood-engravings . By Bobert Hunt . Reeve and Benhatd . Although , in some respects , far from a model as an Elementary treatise , this volume is greatly superior to the volumes of popular (< science , * in which late years have been prolific . The defect , as a treatise , is that it bears rather the aspect of a series of popular articles on science , than the systematic exposition of the capital facts and principles of
science . Its merits are liveliness of statement , clearness of exposition , and felicity of illustration . Beginning with the general properties of Ponderable Matter , Mr . Hunt passes on to the General Laws of Motion —to H y drostatics , Pneumatics , and Acoustics- —to the primary phenomena of Electricity*—Heat—Light and Actinism . These topics are illustrated with two hundred and seventeen woodcuts ; a table of specific gravities is added ; and an index completes the volume .
As an Introduction to the study of Natural Philosophy , it will be more attractive than most works on the same subject . In passing this general commendation , however , criticism reserves to itself the right of censuring certain details , ^ specially in the more ambitious passages . Here is one ^ the reasoning of which will hardly be approved by the Philosopher : —
¦ " Before this portion of our subject is closed , it becomes , however , necessary to examine an hypothesis , which is sanctioned by the authority of some of the most talented philosophers ^ of the present age . In explaining the phenomena which attend the production and transmission of sound , the development and the propagation of light and heat , the passage of elictricity , and the varying modes of chemical affinity , they have stated that all those forms of force could be referred to motion , and that their development depended upon the character of the motion in action . Thus , a metal is acted upon by an acid , and during the chemical action electricity is developed ,
and under a suitable arrangement this is rendered evident by the exhibition of heat and light . In this example it is contended that we have one form of motion producing chemical affinity ; this form of force is changed , by condition , inco another , electricity ; and this again into others , heat and light . " The view entertained is , that matter , being set in vibration , gives rise , according to the order of its vibrations or undulations , to sound , light , heat , electricity , or chemical action—that they are all , indeed , modes of motion . A metal bar is struck , it vibrates with much rapidity , and a ringing sound results . Here , we know that a vibratory disturbance has been commenced in the bar , that this has been communicated to the surrounding air , and that the waves
beating upon the ear occasion a corresponding vibration along the auditory nerve , and the sensation of sound is produced . Reasoning by analogy ,. it has been inferred that light results from the vibration of some subtile principle affecting the eye ; and so of the other phenomena . It has ever appeared to me that the idea of supposing motion to produce force is opposed to all experience , and contrary to the deductions which must be drawn from the evidences of of sense , by which , notwithstanding their imperfeotions , we must be guided . It has already beeu shown that force ia , in all cases , necessary to produce motion , and that the latter bears an exact relation to the former . No form of matter can move without the application of a force ; and as soon as the power applied is expended , the body comes to rest .
" The motions of the earth and planets , and of the solar system itself , are the results of the exertion of a force which ia dimly evident to us , and which ia constantly maintained . Gravitation , wo have shown , tends to the production of motion , but we cannot conceive motion producing gravitation . Motion must always be regarded ns the xosult of a power applied . Motion is an effect , and can never strictl y stand in the relation of a cause : its secondary influences
being still results , all of thorn strictly determinable from the primitive force , whatever it may have been . " By no strictly logical deduction can wo arrive at the idea of motion producing either light , heat , electricity , or chemical affinity . But each of those forces , or agencies , are , except when they are held in statical equilibrium , conatantly producing motion . Ine error , as it appears to me , has arisen from regarding Bound as a phenomenon analogous to light . In one case we can follow oil the linka of the chain , worn the body
moved—set invibration by a force—through the medium vibrated , up to the nerves of the ear receiving the aerial tremors or pulsations . In the other instance , even those receiving this theory are driven to suppose that there is a peculiar subtile medium , called Ether , which produces by its pulsations the manifestations of these great natural agents to which the theory is supposed to apply . But even supposing we may , by the advances of science , prove the existence of this hypothetical Ether , we have still to seek for a force superior to and beyond it , before it can be moved . "When we come to consider the laws
of these great physical agencies , it will be shown to what extent the evidences of experimental examination support the idea , that variations of motion will give different forms to these subtile elements . It is , however , most important again to impress the fact , that motion cannot produce & force , and that a force must be exerted to produce motion . " We waive for the present all consideration of the hypothesis combated in this passage , and confine ourselves to Mr . Hunt's argument , which strikes us as one of those confusions arising from verbal
obscurities such as form the staple of metaphysical argument . Mr . Hunt reiterates the axiom ( which he calls a fact ) that " motion cannot produce a force , and & force must be exerted to produce motion . " When he has definitely settled what a force specifically is , it will be time enough to consider whether motion can or cannot produce it ; meanwhile a positive philosopher would suggest that motion can produce change , and that is sufficient for the hypothesis in question , that in fact is all we know of force- —its power to produce changes .
The section on Light and'Actinism is perhaps the best of the whole . Mr , Hunt opposes the undulatory theory , but does not advance very cogent arguments . We have reason to complain also of the very meagre account given of Goethe ' s Theory of Colours , confessedly one of the most original and striking theories . This is all said of it : —
•* The theory of Goethe has not received the attention it ~ merits , notwithstanding the translation by Eastlake of the German poet-philosopher ' s Theory of Colours . His hypothesis may be briefly stated to be , that light is pure and homogeneous ; that , robbed by . reflection , absorption , or refraction , of one degree of its intensity , we have yellow light ; deprived of another , that we have red illumination ; and that , reduced to its lowest degree of visible intensity , we have a blue , which passes into black , enrthe absence of light . Goethe illustrates his views in this way : place over a slit in the window-shutter of a darkened room one piece of parchment , we have yellow light transmitted ; put two , and the light becomes red ; place three or four thicknesses over the opening , and the light is then blue . "
On the whole the book is a good book ; but in a future edition we should urge Mr . Hunt to get rid of the " touch and go " style , admissible in articles but objectionable in books . He will know what we mean by a single example : he starts the obvious difficulty of our visual perception being correct , though the image painted on the retina is upside down—having started that , he was called upon either to declare it an unsolved problem or to give the solution . He does neither . He touches the question , offers an absurd explanation , and quits it . Has he made up his mind on the question ? If he has , let him tell us the result ; if he has not , let him say so .
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MISS MITFOBD WITH HER BOOKS . Recollections of a Literary Life ; or . Books , Places , and People , By Muryltuauell Mltford . 3 vole . Bentloy . Ckrtainly the admirers of Miss Mitford—and who admires her not ?—will be terribly disappointed unless the critics are careful to forewarn them that Autobiography is very sparsely mingled with these Recollections ; there are glimpses indeed , pleasant and readable enough ; but the title implies something more than that . We are very loth to say anything uncourteous ; but the title gives an appearance of book-making , which a more truthful and modest announcement would have avoided .
We . do not charge her with deliberate bookmaking . It is perfectly clear that , having published a series of papers in an obscure journal , which were afterwards thought worthy of extended- circulation in a more accessible form , she was at liberty to republish them ; and under some such title ( less taking , but less also of a take in ) as " Notes on Books and Places , " they would have been favourably received ; for there is no denying them to be p leasant reading—free from pretension and from headache . With this caveat , let us specify what the book really is . Apropos of certain books and places ,
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Jan . 17 , 1 § 5 £ . ] mfl ^ ^^ ^^ 6 JL
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 17, 1852, page 61, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1918/page/17/
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