On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (5)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
qt>*£ L jLlurttlttrJ*
-
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
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not maie Iaw 3 — they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .
Untitled Article
The tali of the week has mostly revolved around the Crystal Palace , when diverging from the war , and this Palace of Art has various obvious connections with Literature , besides the admirable little Handbooks which guide the visitors through its various courts—handbooks which , compiled by men » o able , and for a purpose at once definite and grand , cannot fail greatly to assist in the education of the people . And while the world , ancient and modern , is represented at Sydeiiham ? philosophers are eagerly discussing the question of " Are there Inhabitants of Other Worlds , and if so , are they like our brethren here ? " Whewjblx ' s Essay has provoked this discussion . Professor Nicho&i . answered it in the North British , and Sir David Brewstkb has come forth with an Essay in
reply , under the ad captandum title of More Worlds than One : the Creed of the Philosopher and Hope of the Christian . The philosophy which underlies these astronomical discussions is not of a very definite kind . The writers are all struggling in the nets of metaphysical theology , arguing from . their hopes and wishes rather \ than from evidence , pronouncing verdicts from a " foregone conclusion . " What is the real question asked in asking whether the planets are inhabited ? The question assuredly is , " Are there beings like , or analogous to , men and women ? " That there is Life in those planets —Life under myriad forms—must be conceded . But in saying there are various forms of Life diversifying the planets , we do not necessarily imply that these forms are identical -with the forms of Life on our own planet , ox that they in any respect resemble them . We have not a tittle of evidence for
saying so , unless the " hope of a Christian' is evidence . All the positive evidence we have would lead us to . believe that the Forms of Life would be altogether unlike those of our own planet ; and in the following passage Sir David B&ewstek admits almost as much , though it is clear that he clqes not raise himself sufficiently above the menschliche standpvatkt—the merely human standard—to conceive Life as possible except under forms analogous to those on our own planet . * ' To assume that the inhabitants of the planets must necessarily be either men , or anything resembling them , is to have a low opinion of that infinite skill which has produced such a variety in the form and structure and functions of vegetable and animal life . la the various races of man which occupy akr Vglobe , there is not the same variety which is
exhibited in tue brutes that perish . Although the noble Anglo-Saxon stands in striking contrast with the Negro , and the lofty Patagonian with the diminutive Esquimaux , yet in their general form and structure , " they are essentially the same in their physical and in their mental powers . Bat when we look into the world of instinct , and survey the infinitely varied forms which people the earth , the ocean , and the - air;—when we range with the naturalist ' s eye from the elephant to the worm—from the leviathan to the infusoria—and from the eagle to the ephetneron , what beauty of form , —what diversity of function—what variety of purpose is exhibited to our vie w ! In all these forms of being , reason might have been given in place of instinct , and animals the most hoBtiie to man , and the most alien to his habits , might have been nis friend and his auxiliary , in place of his enemy and his prey . If we carry our scrutiny deeper into nature , and survey the infinity of regions of life which the microscope discloses
, and it we consider what other breathing worlds he far beyond even its reach , we may then comprehend the variety of intellectual life with which our own planets and those of other systems may be peopled . Is it necessary that an immortal soul should be hung npon a skeleton of bone , or imprisoned in a ca ^ e or cartilage and of skin ? Must it see with two eyes , and hear with two ears , and touch with ten fingers , and rest on a duality of limbs ? May it not reside in a Polyphemus with one ejeball , or in an Argus with a hundred ? May it not reign in the giant forms of the Titans , and direct the hundred hands of Briareus ? Cut setting aside the ungainly creations of mythology , how many probable forms are there of beauty , and activity , and strength , whicli even the painter , the sculptor , and the poet could assign to the physical casket in which the diamond spirit may be enclosed ; how many possible forms are there , beyond their invention , which eye hath not s « en , nor the heart of man conceived ? ¦
" But no less varied may be the functions which the citizens of the spheres have to discharge , —no less diversified their modes of life , —and no less singular the localities in which they dwell . If this little world demands such duties from its occupants , and yields such varied pleasures in tkeir discharge : —If the obligations of power , of wealth , of talent , and of * \ charity to humanise cur race , to iinite them in one brotherhood of sympathy and love , and Pinfold to them the wonderful provisions for their benefit which have been made in the structure and preparation of their planetary home : —If these duties , so varied and numerous here , have required thousands of years to ripen their fruit of gold , what inconceivable and countless functions may we not assign to that plurality of intellectual communities , which have been settled , or arc about to settle , in tlie celestial spheres ? What deeds of heroism , moral , and perchance physical 1 What enterprises of philanthropy , —what achievements of genius must be required iu empires bo extensive , and in worlds so grand . "
On a former ocasion we endeavoured to show ( as far as we are at all entitled to speak on . this transcendant subject ) all knowledge of the development of organism , forces the conclusion that in planets physically so different the nature of the organisms must differ . The answer that " although different , these organisms may be analogous , " is of Jittle pertinence . Of course they may be analogous ; but how ? where does the analogy begin , and where cease ? Is it analogy of Structure only , or of Function only ? Have the Planetarians ears , yet hear not , or do they hear without ears P We know nothing ; we may hope—whatever we please .
Do we then reject the idea that the planets are inhabited by intelligent beings P Not at all . It is quite possible that there may be intelligences analogous to those around us , even although none of the conditions which hare are found universally indispensable are present there . The Physiologist may say that on this planet intelligence is only found accompanying a peculiar form of nervous tissue , and argue that unless that form of nervous tissue exist elsewhere no intelligence must be assumed . But what is true of our planet may possibly be untrue of a planet greatly differing in physical constitution , and to argue that there cannot ' inUlligence without a nervous
Untitled Article
STIXNEY SMITH . The Works of the Reverend Sydney Smith . (' New Edition . ) Longman and < 3 o We take the two distinguishing faculties of , JSydney Smith's mind to have been genuine humour and genuine good sense . No rarer qualities than these can be claimed for any writer who labours , as he laboured , for the social good . You may count , by the dozen , men who can write profoundly , wittily , or learnedly , on all sorts of topics ; but when you begin to reckon up the men who can write with real humour and real common sense , you teu them off by ones and twos . . Tie world has not seen many instructors wlno have added as largely to its stores of innocent merriment as to it » stores of useful wisdom . It was the triumph of S y dney Smith that . he thoroughly succeeded in doing this great and admirable service for the English nation . ^
It would-not be easy , we think , to exaggerate the good he did in his generation , as a writer principally , but sometimes as a speaker . tpo «^ 3 ? hef . 0 wiiB-nardly an abuse or a prejudice of his time , whicli ' thishonest , vigorous , and dauntless thinker did not set himself heartily to reform and tb reiutW The . cause of Catholic Emancipation owes him a heavy debt _ of gratitude .. In Petex Plymley ' s Letters , " in the Edinburgh Review , in pamphlets , aiid ; in speeches , he helped it on , in public opinion , by unanswerable argument ^ and by irresistible persuasion ; never failing * in making its enemies ridiculous and never wearying of strengthening the hands of its friends . So again with minor errors and abuses . His far-seeing common sense detectecTaU their weak points at ' a glance ; and his admirable logic and consummate ^ irony assailed them , straightway , front to front , in every one of their chosen strongholds . The Game Laws , Libel Laws , and Debt Laws of his time he
ripped open , and showed in their rottenness to everybody . He spoke out manfully against the abuses of Chancery ; he dared to question boldly the infallibility of Bishops ; he insisted on Counsel being allowed to Prisoners on trial for their lives ; he exposed the mischievous follies of Missionaries ; he vindicated Christianity and common sense against the blasphemies and absurdities of whole congregations of fanatics ; ne branded the repudiating * men of Pennsylvania with the mark of their knavery before all the world ; he rescued travelling mankind from journeying as prisoners behind looked railway doors—he did all these good services , and . many more , in his generation , mostly at a time when it was not onl y hard work , but dangerous work , to attack established abuses in high places . He deserved well for this of his country ; and he will live long , as a good citizen should , iu the remembrance of his countrymen .
It has been urged as an objection against Sydney Smith , in some intolerant quarters , that he often had his own personal interests to forward when he was advancing the cause of social reform . Without stopping to prove from bis writings in how few instances this could fairly be assumed —without citing any of the cases in which , beyond all question , he endangered instead of advancing his own interests , by speaking out manfully what he believed to be the truth —let us meet the objectors boldly on their own ground , and say that a man ' s personal interests and the interests of the nation are oftener identical , and oftener harmlessly mingled together by public speakers and writers , than many people suppose . Let us take two examples from Sydney Smith himself , because he is the special text that we are now speaking from . It was his personal interest to try if he could not shame the JPennsylvanians into
revoking their fraudulent repudiation of the debt they owed him ; so he sat down forthwith , and wrote letters to them publicly , in nis most admirable vein of scorn and satire , humour and common sense . Will anybody say that all the interests of all his most Tory and retrograde fellow-bondholdere were not identical with his interests when he was doing this ?—Thus , again , he was personally interested , as a traveller , in not having all chance of ? escape cut off from him , in case of an accident , by being locked , into every railwaycarriage that he entered ; and he wrote to make the gaolers of the locomotive prison-cells of his day give up their keyd . Were not Sydney Smith's interests on that occasion the interests of the Archbishop of Canterbury and all the well-oiled clerical tail that hangs behind him—of Colonel Sibthorp , and all the lunatic landowners that ever shuddered at science an < 5
Untitled Article
tissue would be as arbitary as to argue that certain men could not have fire , arms , because they had no saltpetre with which to make gunpowder-Mfotf objector being unaware of the existence of gun-cotton . What gun-cotton i * to gunpowder , some other form of material structure may be to nervous tissue ; and hence it is legitimate to say , that the planets may tie inhabited by intelligences , analogous to our own , although the organisms must be so different . It is , however , only a maybe . For own parts we neither regard intelligence as the highest form of Life possible , nor human beings as the gTeat pattern of creation ; and in saying the planets are inhabited , we do not with Sir David , and others , think that they must necessarily contain inhabitants in any degree resembling the races which people our own . Sir Da . vh > cannot conceive any form of Life superior , or even essentiall y different . He says : — ¦ .. , -...- _
" With so many striking points of resemblance between the Earth and Jupiter , th » unprejudiced mind cannot resist the conclusion th ^ t Jupiter has been created like the . Earth , for the express purnose of being the seat of animal and intellectual life . The Atheist and . the Infidel , the Christian and the Mahometan , — -men of all creeds arid nations and tongues —the philosopher and the unlettered peasant , hare all rejoiced in this universal truth ; and we do not believe that any individual , who confides in the fects of -astronomy , seriouslyreject it . ' If such a person exists , we would gravely ask him for what purpose could so gigantic ' * world have been framed ? Why does the son give it days and nights and years ? Why io its moons throw their silver light upon its continents . and its seas ? .. Why do its equatorial breezes blow perpetually over its plains ? unless to supply the wants , and administer to the . happiness of living beings . *• " ¦• "** &
It is easy to multiply questions when there is no one to answer . J $ jjr JDA . vn > " would gravely askfor what purpose" could certain things have beea framed ; but when he gravely asks that question , does he think any one pre ~ sumptuous enough to gravely answer ? Who can know the purpose of Creation ? All answer , None can know it ! Yet having , made that answer * many straightway begin to dogmatise as if they knew 1 ,
Qt≫*£ L Jllurttlttrj*
% \ mmxt .
Untitled Article
June 17 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 56 S
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), June 17, 1854, page 569, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2043/page/17/
-