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circle . Far wider -and deeper is the sensation produced by the death of Professor Edward Fobbes , a prince among the naturalists of Europe . Born in 1815 , in the Isle of Man , of Scottish parentage , Edward Forbes had a passion for natural science from his boyhood , the origin of which he could not himself trace to any stimulus from others . Before he was seven years of age he had collected a little museum of his own ; and before his twelfth year he had read largely in books of natural science , and had compiled for himself a manual of British natural history in all its departments . At sixteen he came to London , where , besides prosecuting his favourite studies , he acquired a skill in drawing so extraordinary , that often in later
life , as he sketched illustrations of his lectures , " the interest of his explanations-was all but lost in the admiration of the beautifully graceful forms which seemed to arise , as if by magic , from beneath his long and delicate fingers . " De-voting himself to the medical profession , as that -which promised most to favour his natural bent , he went to Edinburgh , where he studied under the veteran naturalist Jameson , and other professors - In the vacations he began to contribute to scientific journals , and one he devoted to a tour in Norway . It was about this time that he began his researches into tie forms of submarine life—a department in which he mm , perhaps , his greatest triumphs . In 1837 he went to Paris , where he studied zoology tinder De B ^ ajnviixe and Geoffroy St . Hilajbe . After a continental
tour as far as the coasts of the Mediterranean , he returned to Edinburgh , where he delivered two courses of lectures , one popular and one scientific , on Zoology and Comparative Anatomy , and published , a work on British star-fishes , still a standard -work on that subject . He was then induced to go out , with a nominal appointment as naturalist , in a surveying expedition to the Greek Archipelago and the coasts of Asia Minor—the expedition to which we are indebted for the discovery of the sites of various ancient Greek cities in Asia Minor , and for the possession of the Xanthian marbles . During his absence he was appointed Professor of Botany in King ' s College , London —in -which post , and subsequently , as Professor in the Government School of Mines , and as Curator , and afterwards President , of the Geological Society , he became one of the most distinguished men in the scientific world of the metropolis . A few months ago he attained the object of his highest
ambition , by being nominated to succeed his old teacher , Professor Jameson , in the chair of Natural History in Edinburgh . He had just entered on his duties with characteristic ardour , and was full of plans for the promotion of natural science in Scotland , when a cold , aggravating a chronic illness that had affected him since his voyage to the East , cut him off in his fortieth year . Rarely has such a loss been sustained in the death of one man . His contributions to natural science are of amazing extent , and are distinguished by extraordinary power of philosophical generalization , and , by a sprightly lightness and vividness of manner peculiarly his own . He was a man of overflowing geniality , and those who knew him remember brilliant evenings of scientific and literary reunion , where he was the life and soul of the company . In person he was tall and slender , with a peculiarly shaped face and head , well represented in his bust in the Crystal Palace .
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MRS . JAMESON ON THINGS IN GENERAL . A Cotiimoryplace Boob of I'hoitgJits , Memories , and Fancies , Original and Selected . By Mrs . Jameson . Longmans . Tub contents of this very elegant volume are of the most varied kind . They comprise thoughts by Mrs . Jameson , and by Mrs . Jameson ' s friends , on all sorts of moral und literary subjects—revelations of Mrs . Jameson ' s childhood—a . translated apologue by Mrs . Jameson—Poetical Fragments , Theological Fragments , Notes from Sermons , Notes from Books , Notes on Art , and Suggestions of New Subjects for Modern Sculptors , —all by Mrs . Jameson . Hero is variety enough for the most desultory taste—hero is a book which people may read with some sort of advantage for three minutes , or for three hours together , just as they please , or just as they can . Before , howovor , we attempt to offer anything like a critical opinion on the volume , it is only fair to the writer to maike known the circumstances under which
the present publication is given to the reading world . Mrs . Jameson has been accustomed , like most authors and authoresses , to keep a cominonplacc-bopk , for chance thoughts and extracts from the works of others . The collection thus made , has , in her case , proved to be the original storehouse of material from which she has produced most of her books—especially her books oa Shakspeare ' s Women , and on Sacred and Legendary Art . These and other of her works not having altogether exhausted her literary treasury of memoranda , she has collected her remaining fragments of material , and has published them disconnectedly in the volume now under notice Her reasons for taking this course she shall give in her own words . She says of her book , u It may , like conversation witU a friend , open up sources of sympathy and reflection ; excite to argument , agreement , or disagreement ;
antl , like every spontaneous utterance of thought out of an earnest mind , suggest far higher and better thoughts than any to bo found hero , to higher and more productive minds . " We have no desire to judge too nicely of a work which is introduced to the reader in these terms . Speaking of the volamo generally , we may describe it as having impressed us with a conviction that Mrs . Jameson had taken the best thoughts out of her commonplucc-book before aho printed it . An the public has , however , already enjoyed these abstracted good things in the writer ' s former works , we make no complaint ; but take whut remaining fragments wo can get , and are thankful for thorn . The most valuable parts of the book , in our estimation , art ) those which contain the detached thoughts , and those which give hints to thiit inveterate convontionulisfc , the modern sculptor , about the choice of
new subjects . The notes from other writers are very tastefully and feelingly made , but are not the most striking portions of the volume by any means ; and , as for the extracts from sermons , it may be that we have looked at them too exclusively with the eye of Common Sense , but it struck us that they were , in plain words , neither worth remembering , nor worth printing . " Father Taylor of Boston , * ' whom Mrs . Jameson especially venerates , and of whose pulpit oratory she gives specimens , appears , in our irreverent eyes , as a species of sacred mountebank , who is always attempting ; to turn the " torch of truth" into a firework , and always succeeding
very badly indeed in the effort . —But we will not dwell on our difference of opinion with Mrs . Jameson on the vexed and unprofitable subject of what makes merit in a sermon , and what does not . We would infinitely rather quote some of her own Detached Thoughts—telling her candidly where we doubt her , and where we admire her . We fear she will not take it as a compliment from us , after what we have just said about Father Taylor , if we assure her , with perfect frankness and sincerity , that we greatly prefer the least valuable of her own Thoughts , to the finest passages that she ha 3 quoted from her friends' sermons . Here is a good idea , very happily expressed , on the
EEASONABLBNESS OOP TOLERATION . All my experience of the world teaches me , that in ninety-nine cases oat of a hundred , the safe side and the just side of a question is the generous side and the merciful side . This your mere worldly people do not seem to know , and thereia makethe sorriest and the vulgarest of all mistakes . * * How often in this world the actions that we condemn are the result of sentiments that we love and opinions that we admire ! In the above extract we have left out one weak sentence beginning with a French phrase , " which damaged the effect of the passage . Our next quotation shall be entire . A subtle distinction is very delicately discerned , and very neatly put in these few words about
THE H 1 GHES 3 C PCEITr . jBlessed is the memory of those who have kept themselves unspotted Jrcnn the world !—yet more blessed and more dear the memory of those who have kept themselves unspotted £ » the world ! Sometimes Mrs . Jameson puzzles us by axioms which certainly do not carry the appearance of wisdom and truth on the face of them . Surely she is wrong in this notion on the subject of
WR 1 TIKG FOR POSTERITY . Those writers who never go further into a . subject than is compatible -with making what they say indisputably clear to man , woman , and child , may be the lights of this age , but they will not be the lights of another . Why Hot ? Is not the author who can best make himself understood , the author who is most liked by men , -women , and children , in all ages—of course , provided he has got something to say ? Are we not better pleased -with our reading at all times in proportion as we are better able to understand wliat we read ? X < et us take an . example from two writers now on their trial before a new generation . Sydney Smith , wrote essays , and Coleridge wrote essays . Sydney Smith made himself indisputably easy to understand , by following the plan which Mrs . Jameson disapproves , and Coleridge made himself indisputably hard to understand , by following the plan which Mrs . Jameson admires . Which is the living essayist now in the eyes of the new generation ? Sydney Smith , beca-use he was easy to understand , had his readers by thousands , and keeps his readers by thousands : Coleridge had his readers by hundreds , and keeps his readers by hundreds .
Though we consider Mrs . J auieson to be mistaken on this point , and on some others , even her least happy ideas are worthy of attention . We cannot say the same , however , of the ideas of some of her friends , whose talk slie qudtes . We do not , for example , envy her the acquaintance of a certain lady ( " O . G . " ) who holds forth in this way on
A GOOD MAN "WITTH A DAD FACE . Of an amiable man with a disagreeable expressionless face , she said : " Ilia countenance always gives mo the idea of matter too strong , too hard for the soul to piorco through . It is as a plaster mask which . I long to break Qnakiny the gesture , with lier hand ) , that I may see the countenance of hLs heart , for that must be beautiful !" * ' O . G , " is still more rampant on the subject
of—BALZAC . "While we were discussing Balzac ' s celebrity as a romance-writer , she said , with a shudder : " His laurels arc steeped iu tho tears of -women , —every truth ho tells has been -wrung in tortures from some woman ' s heart . " A pleasant way this of accounting for Balzac ' s celebrity I "Who is " O . G , ? " In the absence of any information on this point , and with , great respect and terror , we figure to ourselves an osseous priestess officiating oa a "Transcendental Tripod—and we say tremulously , " That must bo ' 0 . G . '" Let us , however , do justice to Mrs . Jameson ' s friends in general , by quoting from one of them who is well worth hearing . Here is an admirable saying about
HOMANIBT 0 ONVKtt . T 8 . A obsorved in reference to somo of her friends who had gone over to tho Roman Catholic Church , " that the ponce and conifort which they had Bought anA found in that mode of faith was likq tho drugged sloop in comparison with the natural sleep j necessary , healing perhaps , whore there ia disease und unrest , not otherwise , " On another occasion . "A " shows that she possesses the best kindof * ' woman ' s wit . " Hearing a quotation from Mrs , Jameson , she makes this REA » V ANSWER . I quoted to A the saying ; of a sceptical philosopher : " Tho world is but one onormoua ynuu , constantly nulling into life . "— "la that , " who responded quickly , " another now name for God ?" But wo must get hack to Mrs . Jameson herself before we close her volume . This is truthfully and Hnoly spoken : ~
THK DHATir OF WVE . In tho Bamo moment that "wo begin to speculate oi » tho poanlbility of couaation or chango in any strong nflbction Unit wo feel , oven from Mint moment wo may dato ita ( loath ;¦—it hna becomo tha Jhteh of tho living lovo . We must conclude with a trunuliitiou of uu exquisite proso-poom ; originally written in Tersian , au < l founded oa ono of the traditions of Christ which are preserved in tho East : —
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November 25 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 1121
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 25, 1854, page 1121, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2066/page/17/
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