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t ^ . u « tkt *„< , " nil his variety of qualities has fair play , since he has In the " ^« ^ / n ™ rt from the special merit of tile dialogues , the abundant »« W ^; SSd of what was doing in England in politics , boofc as a J ^ S'&e duriS the early part of this century . Nothing is letter ^ and general We duri ^ tfjogao , since in most compositions ESSni ' tTe nfme ^ e ^ are made for theVings , and not the sayings for fc « V C « good things" pass like counters at a game of cards , which £ ltrSokin- about them to mark them as one person ' s property rather IS ? £ e other ' s The " Noctes" are singularly dramatic . The Shepherd tZlTe . He is a character whom one remembers like the dej . neations of r ^ at novel . What Hogg exactly supplied towards the creation would Se ^ ard to tell . It is Hogg , and not Hogg Hogg was not such a conterser , yet could Wilson have created the figure without Hogg ? It is Hog- as a man of genius saw him . Let any one who doubts how much is due to Wilson select the most remarkable man he knows , and try to make out of him anything a hundredth part so real ! . , There is something in this conception of the Shepherd Sancho-Panza-ish , ijnd yet poetical . It is a Scotch Sancho who is a rural poet . It is an embodiment of mother-wit , a most admirable exhibition oi our old
friend—Bastions , abnormis sapiens , crassaque Minerva . We shall select a specimen or two of his happiest vein : — A LITTLE LKAKKING . iShepherd . You may keep wagging that tongue o' yours , Mr . Tickler , till midsummer but I'll no stir a foot frae my position , that the London University , if weel schemed and weel conduckit , will be a blessing to the nation . It ' s no for me , nor the like o * me , to utter a single syllable against edication . Take the good and the bad thegether , but let a' ranks hae edication . Tickler . All ranks cannot have education . Mullion . I agree with Mr . Tickler , " A little learning is a dangerous thing . Drink deep , or taste not the Pierian spring . "
Shepherd . Oh , Man , Mullion ! but you're a great gowk ! What the mair dangerous axe ye wi' your little learning ? There ' s no a mair harmless creature than yoursel , raanu amang a' the contributors . The Pierian spring ! What ken ye about the Pierian ' spring ? Ye never douked your lugs intil't , I ' m sure . Yet , gin it were onything like a jug o' whisky , faith , ye wad hae drank deep aneuch—and then , dangerous or no dangerous , ye might hae been lugged awa to the Poleesh-office , wi' a watchman aneath ilka oxter , kickin and spurrin a' the way , like a pig in a string . Baud your tongue , Mullion , about drinkin deep , and the Pierian spring . NorHL James , you are very fierce this evening . Mullion scarcely deserved such treatment .
Shepherd . Fairce ? Tm nae mair fairce than the lave o' ye . A' contributors are in a manner fairce—but I canna thole to hear nonsense the nicht . Ye may just as weel tell me that a little siller ' s a dangerous thing . Sae , doubtless it is , in a puir hardworking duel ' s pouch , in a change-house , on a Saturday nicht—but no sae dangerous tefther as mair o ' t . A guinea ' s mair dangerous than a shilling , gin you reason in that gate . It ' s just perfec sophistry a'thegether . In like manner , you micht say a little ficfat ' s a dangerous thing , and therefore shut up the only bit wunnock in a poor man ' s house , because the room was ower sma' for a Venetian ! Havers ! havers ! < £ od ' s blessings are aye God ' s blessings , though they come in sma ' s and driblets . That ' s my creed , Mr . North—and it ' s Mr . Canning ' s too , I ' m glad to see , and that o ' . » ' the lave o' the enlicbtened men in civilised Europe . TA word or two , such as " immock" for " window , " " oxters " -- " armpits , " " havers" for gabble or -nonsense , require explanation . The editor w liberal in these matters throughout . !
MEMO IBS OF A FRENCH LADY . TicMer . "What an absurd oldT > eldame is Madame Genlis , in the last number of the 'Quarterly ! "Have you read her Memoirs , James ? Shepherd . Me read her Memoirs!—no me indeed ! But I have read the article on slut , French and a ' . There can be nae doubt but that she would marry yet ! Hoo the auld lass wad Btan pamtin her shrivelled cheeka at a plate-glass mirror , wi a frame o' naked Cupids ! Hoo she wad . try to tosh up the rizzered baddies o' her breest , and wi' paddins round her hainches ! Hoo she wad smirk , and simper , and leer wi' her bleered rheumy een at the marriage ceremony before a Papish Priest ! — and wha wad venture to say that she wadna enterteen expectations and howps o' fa'in into the family-way on the wrang side o' aughty ? Think ye she wad tak to the sunrin , and show undue partiality to her first-born ower a' the ither childer ? North . Old age—especially the old age of a lady—should be treated with respectwith reverence . I cannot approve of the tone of your interrogations , James .
Shepherd . Yes , Mr . North—old age ought indeed to be treated with respect and reverence . That ' s a God ' s truth . The ancient grandame , seated at the ingle amnng ier children ' s children , wi' the Bible open on her knees , and lookin solemn , almost severe , with her dim eyea , through specs shaded by grey hairs—now and then brightening up her faded countenance wi' a saintly smile , as she Baflly lets fa' her shrivelled hand on the golden head o' some wee bit hafflin imp eittin cowerin by her knee , and , half in love half in fear , opening not his rosy lips—such an aged woman as thatfor letldy I shall not ca' her—is indeed an object of respect and reverence ; and beats there a heart within human bosom that would not rejoice , wi' holy awe , to lay * he
homage of its blessing at her feet ?—Brit North . Beautiful , James f—Tickler , is not that beautiful ? Shepherd . I was thinking just then , wire , o' my ain mother . North . You needed not to have said so , my dear Shepherd . Shepherd . But to think o * an auld , bedizzened , painted hag o' a French harridan ripin the ribs o' her wasted carcass wi' the poker o' vanity , to waukon a spark in the -dead ashes o * her wonted fires , and tryin a' the secrets o' memory and imagination to kindle a glow in the chitterin skeleton North . Tickler , what imagery I
Shepherd . To hear her gloating ower sins she can no longer commit—nay , ower the sins o' them that are flesh and bluid nae mair , but part o' the moulderin corruption o' catacombs and cemetaries;—to ace the unconscious confusion in which the images o' virtue and vice come wavcrin thegithor aforo her een , frno the lung-ago history o' them that , in life , woro her ain kith and kin Tickler . Stop , James ! —stop , I beseech you ! Shepherd . To hearken till her drivellin , In the same dotage o' undistinguishing heartlessneffB , o' chaste matrons that filled the secret drawers in their cabinets wi ' love-letters , no frae their ain husbands , but frao princes , and peers , and counts , and gentlemen , and a' sorts o' riff-raff , as plain as pikc-staffa ettlin at adultery j—o' nae less chaste maidens blueliln in the dark , in boudoirs , in the grup o' unprincipled paramours , let lowse upon them by their vorra ain fathers and mothers , and , after year * o' aic perilous rampivugin wi' young eodgora , wulin out ano at l » 8 t for har man ,
only to plant horna on his head , and , lose a haud on the legitimacy o' ony ane o' h subsequent children except the first , and him mair than apocryphal ; —o' limmers th ; flang their chastity with open hand frae thorn like chaff , and rolling along in flunk- ] flanked eckipages by the Boulevards o' Paris , gloried in the blaze o their iniquity—North . I must positively shut your mouth , James . —You will burst a blood-vess in your righteous indignation . That ' s right , empty your tumbler . There is a raciness and boldness about this and many such passage which is refreshing in our quieter and more decorous days . And we at bound to say that on returning to the " Nodes" in this new shape , w found them quite as readable as of old when we hunted them up in th volumes of JBtackwood ' s Magazine .
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ARISTOTLE ON THE VITAL PRINCIPLE . Aristotle on the Vital I * rinciple . Translated from the Original Text , with Notes b Charles Collier , M . D . Macmillan and Ci It will perhaj > s cause some surprise in certain readers to see the well-know treatise of Aristotle , De Anima , translated by an accomplished physician , . a treatise , not on the Soul , but on the Vital Principle . To the best oi" knowledge this is the first time the work has been correctly designated , a l east by translators . De Blainville , in his Jlistoire des Sciences de UOrganiaa tion ( Vol . I . p . 220 etseq . ) , had already rectified the vulgar error , and o . stal lished the true meaning of Aristotle . Dr . Collier , in alluding to his prede cessors , says that their misconception of this physiological treatise being : psychological treatise , and their ignorance of physiology , have led them int obscurities and errors ; but he himself nowhere establishes how and why th confusion became possible , nor what properly is the signiGcation of the wor ^ vxVi translated correctly enough aniinat and vital principle . It may nc be altogether uninteresting to clear up this point as far as we can .
Every one knows that ^^ 7 means soul ; but it requires slight acquaint ance with Greek writers to be made aware that this word also means lift not only in an indirect , derivative sense , but also in the direct sense ; no simply as soul and life are used by us convertibly , but in the specific dis tinetion of soul as life and soul as intelligence—vovs . Sometimes , as i Herodotus ( Clio , i . 112 ) , the phrase " lie will not perish ns to his sou oviea 7 ro \ eeiTrivylfvxT } v , '" may be taken as a periphrasis for "he will no die ; " as Homer uses the phrase arro Bvfiov o \ eo-8 ai . Then again the expressio rtjv ^ vxv cnrtppTjgfv , " he died , " may be the equivalent for he " gave u the ghost . " But there is no such ambiguity in the phrase ylfvxw irapaiTcofxevoi
" begging for life- " nor in such a passage as that in St . Matthew , 11 . 2 < Ttfimjicacri yap ot fyrovvres rijv y r VXf v rov 7 raidiov , " they are dead who sougl the child ' s life" nor in various passages in the Dramatists where life i meant and soul cannot be meant . Throughout his treatise Aristotle obvi ously is treating directly of Life , and only indirectly of Mind ; although , : > Dr . Collier remarks , the term Vital Principle embodies Aristotle * s idea , yt the writers cited do not always employ-the term ^ ruxi this sense ; no was Aristotle himself always consistent in his use of it . Wo are not con sistent in our use of such words as Heart , and Soul , why then should we b ricrorous with the Greeks ?
The cause of the ambiguity is , however , more interesting to us than th < ambiguity itself ; and that cause , we believe , lay in the superior psychologies basis which the Greeks had . We who for centuries have been in the hnbi of dissociating Life and Mind , of inuking them either two separate intle pendent Entities residing in the body , or one Kntity ( Mind ) and 0111 process moved by it , controlled by it ( Life ) , are necessarily puzzled at thes < Greek phrases , which identify and sometimes confound the two . Jiutunless our reading of Aristotle is erroneous , unless we read into his page ; what is not in them—he , at least , saw with more or less clearness , tha Mind was only a higher development of Life , the particular manifestation o a general activity . There could bo Life without Mind—the general withou the particular form ; but 110 Mind without Life . JUead this masterly pas sage , in which Aristotle anticipates modern physiology and psychology , nnt what has just been asserted will , perhaps , become clear : —
Wo say , then , resuming our inquiry at itu outset , that tJio animate is diHtinguishec from the inanimate by having life . Now the term l \ fe baa many acceptations , luit ii one only of the following properties , viz ., mind , Beimibilit } -, locomotion , and rest , a : well as the motion concerned in nutrition , growth , and decay , be inunif <;» U > d in unj object , we say that that object is alive . And , therefore , all pluutfl seem to I" ! alive , for they nil appear to have within thorn a fuculty and a principle by wlnYh they acquire growth and undergo decay in opposite directions ; for they do not grow upwards exclusively , but they grow equally in both these and nil other direction * , and are alive throughout so long as they are nblo to imbibe nourishment , it in possible for nutrition to subsist independently of the other function ** , but tho other * cannot posaibly , in mortal beings , uubaist without it ; and thin in manifest in plants , since no other than it han bcon allotted to them . TIiub , it is by this fuculty of nutrition that life ia manifested in living beings , but an animal ia chaructoridcd above nil by .
sensibility ; for wo Hay that creatures endowed with gonttibility uro not merely living beings , but animals , although they may neither be motive nor change their locality-Touch is the nense first manifested in all creatures , mid , an tho nutritive faculty can be manifented independently of Touch and other souhcm , so the ocnsn of Touch can bn manifested independently of any other . Wo call nutritive function that part <>' Vital Principle of which plants partake ; but all animals appear besidoH it to have t '" sense of Touch ; and wo nhall , horeuftor , explain why each of thono functions ban her " allotted . Lot it Bufllce , for the present , to say that Vital Principles in tli < - nourc . i ! of the nutritive , the sentient , cogitative , and motive fuoultios ; and that by tin 111 it h '" been defined . There aio passages in which he seems to contradict thi * , but this iff tho permanent result of his teaching , and nmy bo summed up in tho p hrase ho uses : * ' Tho Vitnl Principle 0 /™* ?) > 8 that by which we live , /;•«/ , <"" ' tl "" from Lifo ' s outset . " lt \ therefore , Mind is thus identical with Life , an the flower willi ila « oof ' if Life is saturated with Mind , or ne Ariatotlo would any , poasusses M >»"
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HE LEAPED [ No . 283 , Satubday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 25, 1855, page 822, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2103/page/18/
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