On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (4)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
ۤt Ms.
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Untitled Article
A al consideration of a series of analogous cases in which the pheno-^ a become more and more simplified . The science of organized bodies , " ^" h embraces the phenomena the most difficult of access , is at the same ^ the only one that truly permits the union of the three modes . Astrov on the contrary , is necessarily limited to the first . And observation " ° there restricted to that of a single sense . All that it dbes ^ -and it is all rtv t is required— -is to measure angles , and reckon times elapsed . Gbservahowever indispensable ^ plays the most insignificant part in astronomy : t ' s reasoning that forms incomparably the greatest portion of the science , 1 d this constitutes the prime basis of its intellectual dignity . It is even intelligence that constructs the greater number of astronomical phenoena actual p henomena though they are . "We neither , for example , see the figure of the earthnor the curve described by a planet .
The combination of these two essential characteristics—extreme simplitv of the p henomena to be studied , with great difficulty in their observa-.- - * is what makes astronomy a science so eminently mathematical . On the one hand , the constant necessity we are under of deducing from a small number of direct measures , both angular and horary quantities , which are not themselves immediatelyobservable , renders the continual use of abstract mathematics absolutely indispensable . On the other hand ,
astronomical questions being always problems of geometry or problems of mechanics , naturally fall within the province of concrete mathematics . And finally , not only as respects the geometrical problems do we have perfect regularity of astronomical figures , but as respects the mechanical , we have admirable simplicity of movements taking place in a medium whose resistance has hitherto been left out of account without error , and under the influence of a small number of forces constantly subject to one very simple laW ; and
these circumstances allow the application of the methods and the theories of Mathematics to a much greater extent than in any other case . There is perhaps not a single analytical process , a single geometrical or mechanical doctrine , which is not ultimately made use of in astronomical investigations , and the greater part of them have hitherto served no other primary purpose . Hence it is preeminently by a proper study of this application of them that we can acquire a just sentiment of the importance and the reality of mathematical speculations .
On reflecting on the singularly simple nature of astronomical researches , and the consequent facility of applying the ensemble of mathematical resources to them in the most extensive way , we understand why astronomy is now placed at the head of the natural sciences . It merits this supremacy—1 st , By the perfection of its scientific character i 2 nd , By the preponderating importance of the laws which it discloses to us . After referring to several examples of the high practical utility of astronomy , Comte adduces that science to illustrate the fact , that the sublitnest scientific speculations often , without premeditation , lead in the end to the most ordinary practical and useful purposes , and he exposes the folly of those who would , if in their power , interdict all speculations except what have , on the face of them , an immediate practical object in view .
On a closer examination of the present condition of the different fundamental sciences , under the philosophical point of view , we shall have occasion to observe , as I have already hinted , that astronomy is in the meantime the only one which is really and finally purged of all theological or metaphysical considerations . As respects Method , this is the first title it has to supremacy . It is there that philosophical minds can effectually stud y what a true science really consists in ; and it is after this model that wo ought to strive , as far as possible , to construct all the other fundamental sci ences , having at the same time due regard to the differences , more or less profound , that necessarily ^ result from the increasing complication of the phenomena .
Those who conceive science as consisting of a simple accumulation of observed facts , have only to consider astronomy with some attention to feel how narrow and superficial is their notion . Here the facts are so s » mple , and of so little interest , that one cannot possibly fail to observe that only the connexion of them and the exact knowledge of their laws , constitute the science . What in reality is an astronomical fact ? Nothing dse , ordinarily , than this : that a star has been seen at a particular instant , nn < l under a correctly measured angle ; a circumstance , doubtless , of little "tiportancc of itself . The continual combination of these observations , and the more or less profound mathematical elaboration of them , uniquely
characterize the science even in its most imperfect state . In reality , astronomy «» d not take its rise when the priests of Egypt or Chaldea had , with more <> r less exactness , made a series of empirical observations on the heavens , but only when the first Greek philosophers began to connect the general phenomenon of the diurnal movement with some geometrical laws . The ri » o and definite object of astronomical investigations always being to prcct with certainty the actual state of the heavens at a future period , more op less distant , the establishing of the laivs of the phenomena evidently UQVtlS t . liA nnl * r « - „ — ____ _ r » _ . *\ . l . j % m .. li . .., !< . * 1 s * 4 rVt 4-k nA / iiimiilnfiAn nr Kl 8 tnc onl of at result while the accumulation of
y means arriving tyiis observations cannot , of itself , be of any practical utility for the purpose , « xeopt as furnishing a solid foundation to our speculations . Jn one word , ¦ rue astronomy did not exist so long as mankind knew not , for example , ovv to foresee , with a certain degree of precision , by the aid at least of fafftplHcol process , and in particular , by certain trigonometrical calculations , a . uistant of the rising of the sun , or of some star , on a given day and at ^ e » ven place . This essential characteristic of the science has always been 10 Same Binco its origin , All the steps in its subsequent progress have
only consisted in definitely giving to these predictions a greater and greater certainty and precision , by borrowing from direct observation the least possible number of given terms for the purpose of foreseeing the most distant future . No part of philosophy can manifest with greater force the truth of this fundamental axiom : every science has prevision for its object ; which distinguishes real science from simple erudition , limited to recount past events without any view to the future . Not" only is the-true characteristic of a science more profoundly marked in astronomy than in any other branch of positive knowledge , but we may even say , that since the development of the theory of gravitation , it has attained the highest degree of philosophical perfection that any science can ever pretend to , as respects method , —the exact reduction of all phenomena , both in kind and in degree , to one general law , —provided always that we confine the remark to solar astronomy , agreeably to the explanation given above . Without doubt , the gradual complication of phenomena ought to make us conceive a similar perfection as absolutely chimerical in the other fundamental sciences . But it ought no less to be the general type which the different classes of savans ought constantly to have in view , as being one they must approximate to as far as the corresponding phenomena will allow . It is always there we shall perceive in all its purity what the positive explanation of a phenomenon is , without any inquiry as to the first or final cause of it ; and , finally , it is there we must learn the true character , and the essential conditions of truly scientific hypotheses , no other science having employed this powerful instrument so extensively , and at the same time so fittingly . I must interrupt the exposition here , and resume it next week . Unwilling as I am to lengthen this series , yet having commenced the task of presenting all the main and necessary points of this system of philosophy , it is better to incur the charge of prolixity than to hurry over the subject and leave the reader tantalized with vague descriptions . *
Untitled Article
~ For tho Oomto aubaoription fund I have to acknowlodgo 10 * . from W . A . B . In Oxford and Cambridge I hoar that generous etudonts « ro uitorefltmg thom 8 elvos in Oomto'fl favour .
Untitled Article
THE OPERAS . I save not much to discourse about this week , and am not in the mood to disguise my poverty under magnificent phrases . It is a great art that of writing with nothing to say ! but an art , like all others , obedient to the moods and caprices of that delicate thing , the human mind . 111 trouble you for a feuilleton when your liver is inactive ! Let me see what criticism you would write on Cruvelli while your head waB heavy with yesterday ' s dinner ! Give me a taste of your quality with a toothache ! Were my mood otherwise , I could tell you something of Cruvelli in JErnani . It is , after Mdelio , her greatest part . The music which taxes every other singer falls easily upon her . She is somewhat of a screamer , and Verdi is fond of screaming . Her noble voice , her impetuous style , her pvertragic manner , better suit Elvira ; and she produces a great effect in it . What a feuilleton I could write . . . if I could 1 But O Harriet ! O Fanny ! O dinner , haunting me , as the cataract did Mr . Wordsworth— " Like a tall passion . O Love ! O Indigestion—voila de tes cotijps ! you have done it . all ! Were it not for your remorseless pursuit of me , I could do something with the " artist" Ferlotti , who in Carlo V . stamped himself in my estimation as having achieved the most perfect failure " it has ever fallen to my lot to ^ witness , " { style choisi !) It is more Ferlotti's misfortune than his fault that he has no voice , and is errantly capricious in intonation—( alter all why be fastidious , and demand correct intonation from an ' artist V )—but if I were criticising him , I should ask whether it is owing to his being " such an artist , " that he sings defiance in tho lackadaisical manner lie selected as the fitting expression of Lo vedremo veglio nudaco So resistermi potrai— ^ and I would suggest to him in future to be less of an " artiat , " and more of a singer . Do I ask too much ? Belletti as Buy Gomez , waff everything one could desire , and was not an artist . Oh but a real artist—a man for whom tho name should have been invented , had it not existed—a man who by his art makes you forget delects of voice , of intonation , of figure , till you prefer him to all othcrs-Eonconi in a word , has had a fiasco 1 little anticipated . Ho played Don Giovanm ; ho will not play it again . But ho recovered from the fall « i > y playing la ~ vaqeno in II Flauto Magico—a . performance not to bo imagined nor described . With him , and with Anna 2 orr , the triumph ot the evening rested Some day or other when I fool equal to the audacity , I will fling a stone at this idol of an opera , and try to give a bettor explanation ot its heaviness than tho usual excuse , " such a miserable libretto . I he libretto is bad enough in all conscience , but I . bohevo bettor music—more dramatic , more passionate , more earnest -would have triumphed over it . Tho union of such grandeur as that ominont in tho largo phrases oi tho ¦ priestly music , with such prottinoas nnd triviality noticeable in the rest , Is to my taste fatal ; the third apt of Othello might almost as well bo intoreolatod with Did you ever sendyourWJfatoCamberweU ? M oreover , nWminir and flowing , and piquant as tho melodies are in a drawing-room , diS ? yo ^ £ anBfer them to tfio stage , their want of depth nnd earnestness becomes apparent : thoy arc oar-catching melodies , graceful and pretty , as everything Mozart wrote , but thoy are not dramatic . All thiB I will some day try to make out more conclusively . You won I airreo with mo , I dare say ; what thcnP I am hero to ^ express __ my
ۤT Ms.
€ § t Ms .
Untitled Article
¦ ji ^ - ^; iB 52 L 3 V . ; - ' : ' .. T ^ t ^ -hM . A ^^ . TL . '\ 473
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 15, 1852, page 473, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1935/page/21/
-