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+ Tipco specs of ligbt were masses immeasurably greater than our own lobe that notion received a shock ; it recovered itself , however , and sug-** tf > k that probably these astral worlds were also inhabited—were the Sndid theatres for the drama of human life . Against this suggestion Hr > ience e mphatically pronounces . We do not know much of the constif ; A On of the stars , but we know of certain conditions which altogether Strove the notion of the stars being proper theatres for organic life , « n&rsttoding by the term' " organic life /* anything analogous to what we know of it . Dr . George Wilson's Essay undertakes to prove this . He takes an imaginary jury of common-sense men , bids them observe the diff erences , and draw their conclusions : — " Our twelve sliall first cast a glance at our own solar system , and observe that one of it 3 planets has tlse « ame magnitude , inclination of axis , so far as that has been observed , density , time of notation , or arrangement of orbit ; but that each ,
in nearly all these particulars , differs greatly from its brethren . They shall notice that several of the planets have no inosws : that our Earth has one relatively very large one : Jupiter , four relatively small ones : Saturn , seven of greatly varying dimensions : Uranus , as is believed , six ; and Neptune , two or more . They sliall see the splendid girdles which Saturn wears , and be -warned that two at least of the moons of Uranus move from east to west , or in a directs opposite to that of their planet , and of all the other bodies of the solar system . « The enormous differences in the length of the planetary years shall startle them ; that of Mercury , for example , being equal to about three of < xx months ; that of Neptune , to 164 of our years . The lesser , but marked diversities in the
length of their days shall awaken notice , the Mercurial day being , like our own , twenty-four hours long , the Saturnine only ten . The variations in the amount of heat and light received from the Sun by each of its attendants shall not be forgotten Uranus , for example , obtaining two thousand times less than Mercury , which receives seven times more than the Earth . They shall also observe the extent to which the planets are subject to changes of season ; the Earth knowing its four grateful vicissitudes ; Jupiter knowing none ; whilst the winter in Saturn under the shadow of his rings is fifteen years long . All those unresembling particulars shall be made manifest to our observant twelve . Neither shall they be forgetful of those dissimilarities in relation to atmosphere , and perhaps to physical
constitution , which astronomers have detected . When so much diversity has been seen to shine through the unity of the solar system , our twelve shall gaze forth into space , to see if all be sameness there . Sameness ! They shall discern stars of the first magnitude , stars of the second magnitude , of the third , of the fourth , of the seventh , down to points so small , even to the greatest telescopes , that the soberest of philosophers can devise no better name for them than star-dust ; and one of them declares ' that for anything experience has hitherto taught us , the number of the stars may be really infinite , in the only sense in which , we can assign a meaning to the word . ' They shall find that the Dog-star is a sun , whose light has an intrinsic splendour sixtv-tbree times greater than that of our own solar orb , and that he is
not counted chief of the stars . They shall search in vain through the abysses for a system similar to our own , and find none , but perceive instead , multitudes of double-stars or twin suns , revolving round each other . They shall learn that there are triple nyctfiuis of suns , and that there may be more complex ones ; and try to conceive how unlike cur planetary arrangements must be the economy of the worlds to which these luminaries furnish light . They shall gaze ut purple and orange suns , at blue and green and yellow and red ones ; and become aware of double systems where the one twin appears to be a self-luminous sun , and the other a dark sphere of corresponding magnitude , like a sun gone out , as if modern science would assign an exact meaning to Origen ' s reference to ' stars , which ray down darkness . '"
And their verdict is this : — " ' There are celestial bodies , and bodies terrestrial : but the glory of the celestial is one , and the glory of the terrestrial is another . There is one glory of the sun , and another glory of the moon , and another glory of the stars : star differeth * rom star in glory . ' To which verdict , we , for our part , understanding the words in their widest sense , will append our heartiest Amen . " The ' fulness of Him that filleth all in all' is of its essence inexhaustible , as wo perhaps best realize when all metaphor is set aside , and we reflect on the one quality that belongs to God ' s attributes : namely , that they are Infinite . It is part of his kindness to us , that he never lets us lose sight of this great prerogative of his nature , but , alike by suns and by atoms , teaches us that his power and his wisdom have no bounds .
" It cannot be that ho reveals himself otherwise in the oceans of space . Were wo privileged to set sail among the shining archipelagoes and starry islands that fill those seas , wo should search like marvelling but adoring- children for wonder upon wonder , and feel a cold chill of utter disappointment if the widest diversity did not everywhere prevail . The sense of Unity is an over-ruling power which never lays aside the neeptro , and will not be disobeyed . We should not fear that it would fade away , nay , wo know that it would stand forth mightiest when its kingdom Kcemcd to have sunk under overwhelming diversity . Unity is in nature often
nearest us exactly when variety seoms to havo put it furthest away . Wo are like the sailors of Magellan who first rounded the globe . Every day they sailed further as they reckoned from the p lace of their depart ure , and ploughed what seemed to them a straight lino of increasing length , which had all to be retraced boforo their first harbour could bo gained : but , Iwhold , when they hud sailed longest , and seemed furthest from home , they had tbo least to sail over , and were nearest to ]> ort . Exactly when hope- of return was faintest were they called on to exclaim , like the Ancient Mariner , —
" ' Oh < lroam of joy ! is this indeed The lighthouHo top I boo P In this the hill P ia thin tho kirk P Is this my own countreo ?' " A voyago through spaco would in like manner turn out to bo a circumnuvjgation . Wo « hould net sail from Unity , imd traverse ' tho groat circle- of a universe'h variety till wo came- round to Unity ugain . Tho words on our lips an wo dropt anchor -would be , ' There nro differences of administrations , but tho same Lord , and there are diversities of operations , but it is tho saino God which workoth all in all . '' Wo cannot follow Dr . Wilson through tho series of illustrations of his CBaay , but content ourselves with tho following : — " Wo phould be blinded with tho glnro and burnt up if transported into Moreu where tho sun actn as if sovon times hotter than on this earth ; and wo should
shiver in the dark , and be frozen to death if removed to Uranus , where the sun is three hundred times colder than he is felt to be by us . To pass from Uranus to Mercury , would be to undergo in the latter exposure to a temperature some two thousand times higher than we had . experienced in the former , whilst on this earth the range of existence lies within some two hundred degrees of the Fahrenheit thermometer . " As for our satellite , Sir John Herschel says of it , ' The climate of the moon must be very extraordinary : the alternation being that of unmitigated and burning sunshine , fiercer than an equatorial noon , continued for a whole fortnight , and the keenest severity of frost , far exceeding that of our polar winters , for an equal time . ' It would seem , then , that though all else were equal , the variations in amount of light and heat , would alone necessitate the manifestation of a
non-terrestrial life upon the sun , and the spheres which accompany the earth m its revo « lutions around it . All else , however , is not equal . The intensity of gravity at the surfaces of the different heavenly bodies differs enormously . At the sun it is nearly twenty-eight times greater than at the earth . * The efficacy of muscular power to overcome weight is therefore proportionably nearly twenty-eight times less on the sun than on the earth . An ordinary man , for example , would not only be unable to sustain his own weight on the sun , but would literally be crushed to atoms under the load . ' 'Again , the intensity of gravity , or its efficacy in counteracting muscular power , and repressing animal activity on Jupiter , is nearly two and a half times that on the earth , on Mars is not more than one-half , on the moon one-sixth , and on the smaller planets probably not more than one-twentieth ; giving a scale of which the extremes are in the proportion of sixty to one . ' "
We have only further to add , that these Essays form the twenty-sixth Part of Messrs . Longman ' s admirable and healthy series , the Traveller ' s Library .
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JEEDAN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY . The Autobiography of W . Jerdan . With Literary , Political , and Soc-lal Berniniscences and Correspondence during the last Fifty Years . Vol . II . r Arthur Hall , Vn-tue , and Co . It may be remembered that we were forced to speak with some severity of Mr . Jerdan's former volume ; to be able to speak favourably of this , the second volume of his autobiography , would have given us unfeigned pleasure . We cannot do so . The slipshod garrulity , and utter worthlessness of this volume , surpass the mischievous twaddle o £ the first . He has really nothing to tell of any interest ; and what he tells is told in a style of serious matter
that could only make way by the momentum . An accomplished writer would doubtless have given the slight materials here presented a form so agreeable as to lure the p leased reader unfatigued to the end . But Mr . Jerdan is not an accomplished writer ; he is no writer at all . The texture of his style is as loose , common-place , and inaccurate , as the thoughts they express . He does not write with the plain energetic directness of men who , having something to say , are careless of the manner of saying it ; nor with the vividness , precision , delicacy , and grace ot the cultivated stylist , conscious of the charm that lies in the form . He writes like a penny-a-liner , and a bad one . Open at random : sentences
like these " jump into your eyes' : — " lie supposed lhat the Admiralty orders against making public the particulars of a Government expedition , were violated by some officer who was in duty bound by them ; and his resentment was warm . He suspected one individual , and pointed his ire against him and his claims , which merged in a widow and children , for he fell a victim , to the climate . " The dance of pronouns here would drive Dr . Dillworth to distraction . A few pages on we meet another specimen : —
"At Little Chelsea , however , at my first occupancy , my proximate neighbour was the exiled Princess of Conde , witli whom the Duchess d'Angouleme frequently stayed . The establishment was upon a very moderate scale , and the daughter of the murdered king of France dressed little better than a milkmaid , which rank indeed she much resembled in her form , and walking about in thick-soled boots . " Occasionally , Mr . Jordan flavours his common-place with an infusion of the Classics . He quotes Horace ( but only tho well-worn passages ) , and even ventures on a Latin adaptation of his own , —e . g ., " Henry Erskino and Lady Wallace , and all the racy jests of their guy pastime are as if they had never been , sic transit facetia : mundi ! " He might as well havo said transeunt while ho was about it : but the fastidious
exigencies of grammar seldom trouble him ! The reader will not suppose we have quoted these passages for tho purpose of making merry with them ; they are quoted as the writing of one who writes diatribes against the profession of Literature , and who preaches from the text of his own experience . He defends himself in a Prefatory Chapter , and with garrulous incoherence throughout tho volume , from me charge which wo , and others , brought against him , of having insulted Literature , by making it responsible for his misfortunes ; but his defence is as feeble as his allegations wcro misplaced . Our
position in the dispxito is simply this;—Literature may or may not be " loss profitable than felony , " and altogether in a pitiable condition ; but you , William Jordan , have not the right to say so in respect of your personal fortunes ; it gave you money , it gave you friends , it gave you consideration far exceeding your literary merits ; and your complaint as a personal complaint is preposterous and insulting . Let us turn from this unpleasant subject , and beg Mr . Jerdan , in future volumes , to think a little more of the substance of his chapters , to give us more mutter of porsonal interest , more " gossip" even , so that it be amusingand no more extracts from his own forgotten writings . ¦
, ~^ - ~ — — — t i ^^ ^~^ ^ " ^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^—^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^ " ^ ^^ ^ — f w ^ B The present volume everyone must feel to be excessively meagre aim " made up . " To find a passage worth extracting is not easy , so wo fall back upon anecdotes , not of tho newest , though worth re-reading .
TAI / MA AND KKKLKY . " Talma , soon aftor his return to Turin , where tho playgoorn were ungry at hi * long ahsonco , performed Coriolanus at the TUtdre VranpuH ; and whon ho came to the lino Adiou , Homo ; jo purs—¦ a ahurp voico culled out from tho partorro . Pour loa dopurlomontu—
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„ .. __ — . ... . . \ August 14 , 1852 . ] T H E L BADE R . ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 14, 1852, page 783, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1947/page/19/
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