On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
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
., , ; , ... ,, . -THE TKtBiE ^ QJ > , T&F ^^§ 118 ,,.,, ( . , j , ,-,..= , , . .,..,, > , The Tribes qf tJte Caucasus , with an Account of Schamyl and the Murids . By Baron August Von Haxthausen . ' " '"' ,, 'CKapmjin and Hall . A succession of writers have endeavoured ^ during many yearS f to ripuVe attention to the political value of the Caucasus . In France , that vafi * arid ! solid range has been exhibited , poised on an'epigram ? iivGermany ^ strategical geographers have , frontf ' a distance , through th& telescope of travel , surveyed its passes and fortifications ; in , England , we have watched theV perpetual efforts of Russia to breakthrough what has &eetned"tne' materiiil limit of her triumphant empire . She has , indeed , penetrated the Caucasian line at one place by roads , and turned it ait bpth ends by the nayigatjipn , of the Black and Caspian Seas ; but the territory of the independent tribes is interposed like a , wedge , loosening the basis on which she relies for fceirultimate extension to the Mediterranean , and tq the Persian Gulf . .
Whatever may be said of aggression , there is something admirable , in . the patient pertinacity with which liussia , originally a midland . duchy , has spread , in every direction to the nearest sea—eastwards to the I acific , ' northward ^ to the Arctic Ocean—to the Baltic in one direction , to the Black Sett and the Caspian in another—seeking ports whence her mariners may look on the Indies , on Italy , on America . In the Caucasus , the conditions of'nature and of history appear to bar her further progress in Asia . This stupendous range , extending , frpm the Caspian tp the , Black Sea , is about seven hundred and fifty , miles in length - Along its , northern elope lie ^ series of fei tile but thinly-peopled Tivlleys , descending ? to the plains , of Hyperborean Europe . On the southern declivity lie Georgia ,, Mingrelia * and Gooria—the gardens of nature , with Shirvan inthe east-- —the home ' of the Persian pastoral ; while the mountains themselves , forming a complex
double chain , constitute the citadel of Western Asia . ¦ They vary in altitude from ten to eighteen thousand feet , and present a series of rouflded summits fringing on both sides a spinal ridge of g laciers , steep , serrated , and rendered still more impervious by thp forests which everywhere c * eep' jip ^ the line of snow . , The traveller , approaching froin the steppes of Ru 9 S | ft rwhence the Caucasus is visible at , a , <^ at"nce of , three . hundve . d ., nuh ^ .- ^ . 8 , ees , in ' front a mighty mass of woods , raised upon broad mountainsi ; and behind these , immeasurable in height and bulk , columnar , pyramidal , conical forma , and perpendical walls wrapped in snow—too lofty , it would appear , ' for even the clouds to pass . V et beyond' them liussia holds a territory larger than the kingdom of Prussia , and on the north , provinces nearly us extentgive , containing four millions a , nd a half of people , and ¦ filHhg'tho whole spade hntwnnn tlw » rfrtBrtinh : f . hfi Sdft hf Azi > f . thte stotiries . and the Caucasus . The
race inhabiting ineBO > uciuh , tains is divided into an extraordinary multiplicity of tribes , snoakmg separafo' dialects ' , atid ' pife ^ etttlng ; a strange wjjjjp& . ff manners . The sixteen Circassian clans , . including a nopulution oi" « pput half a million ; thVfbar KabaVaiari ^ Jldnd / Jrtiuinberlhg nearly forty'thousand ; and the' twelve AbadJan clUn « , ofubWiB ortb hundred and tm th 6 n * ana > t « re the ' « lm « ty ? fcm >< dialects . bflth * Gircfltetfan , 'language ; Who Abkhmn in * from foBtyfive to fi % thousand * , jKweBS ,, ^ , ffalmttoQWm * iW ** j ™ yjFj& , wluMlw , oU in , ^ he ; heart of , the . Cauc ^ up , ou ^ uv * , ffflf ei ^ t ^^ tbe iE ^ ern ^ thousand— -Tchetchees , Lesglnans , nn ° t" ° ~ WiZ ° iitiulu * i , iti ( ftw-Tatars' ' and wW fio Origin Is' ufa'ia ? ri . In' 86 « th Wcrh' lYWiBcttucaB . a the IWjM , , ' , ' , ,, | ... . . , ; .. .. ,, i > ' .,.. ) : /; ¦ ¦ I : . . i . 1 r' ¦¦¦ '"• I ... > . "; I ' i
Untitled Article
Untitled Article
ceedihff ittves . tigators ¦ hovei extemJed * and in some cases modi tied , Suhwanns views , l > wt the splendid generalisation . to which his name is attached has only been confirmed by every fresh inquirer- . "What Schwanh did for Physiology , Herbert Spencer has done for Psvchology . As Sehwann set aside the old method of investigating the various tissues like - independent objects , and proved the Unity of Composition which really underlies all the variety of forms , so' Herbert Spencer sets aside ( lie old method of dividing the mind into so many faculties , and proves the Unity of Composition , which makes Perception , Reasoning , Instinct , Memory , Will , and Feeling so many aspects of one identical process , differing in degree , tut not in essence , we may pause by the way to notice the stages of the history of this doctrine of Unity , which succeed each other according to the law of development , i . e . from general to particular . First comes Geoffroy St . Hilaire , who proclaims the Unity of Composition in the animal forms \ then Sehwann , who proves that Unity in the animal tissues ; and filially , Herbert Spencer , who proves that Unity in animal intelligence . We have chosen this illustration as the readiest way of acquitting ourselves of a very difficult task—namely , preparing the reader to understand the aim and method of a work which he -will assuredly find worthy of being understood . It is not a work to be fathomed at a glance , but whoever will patiently read and consider it will feel that he has here a guide of singular power and clearness , or an antagonist such as he has not grappled with since Spinoza . In reviewing Herbert Spencer ' s former work , we compared him with Spinoza : a comparison which seemed strange and even hyperbolical to those who knew nothing of the old Hebrew logician ; but this Principles of Psychology is so like Spinoza in the mental qualities it exhibits , and frequently in the very doctrines it professes , that no one acquainted with the two can fail to perceive their kindred . The fundamental fact in Mr . Spencer ' s doctrine is that all cognition is the establishment of a relation of Likeness ( or Unlikeness ) . This will < not seem very enlightening , perhaps , to those who have no knowledge of the analytical process through which the conclusion was reached . But neither is it enlightening to say that all tissues are modified cells , unless the process of modification be also demonstrated . Mr . Spencer , after a preliminary inquiry into the validity of consciousness , and the criterium demanded by all speculation , proceeds to analyse every kind of cognition into its component elements . He begins with the most complex forms—such as compound quantitative reasoningand seeks in successive decompositions to reduce all cognitions to simpler and simpler forms , and thus finally to arrive at the fundamental characteristic of all thought . Every compound quantitative argument is resolved into a series of siijiple quantitative . arguments , which involve the establishment . of relations of equality or inequality . Every quantitative argument is in tie same manner an establishment of likeness or unlikeness between relations-Reasoning is a classification of relations , for every inference involves the intuition of likeness or unlikeness . ¦ •' . ; ... ¦¦ ... We cannot , of course , in the space of an article , follow the analysis through Which he demonstrates the unity of composition , which ^ makes Reasoning differ from Perception only as being the indirect establishment of a relation , whereas Perception is the direct establishment . _ It is enough that he proves Reasoning to be the classification of relations ; and that Perception itself ( as distinguished from Sensation ) is possible only by classing a present group , , of attributes and relations with a past . group . The constituents of : any-complex perception . must be severally classed with previously known constituents of the same order before the perception 5 n its totality can arise ; and for even the simp lest attribute or relation to be known , there must exist others with which it can be ranged ; seeing that the knowing it is the thinking of it as one with certain others—the classing it with those others . The majority of readers will , in all probability , see neither interest nor importance in the psychological analysis which occupies the two first divisions of the work , and for the author ' s sake we greatly regret that he did not place these divjsipns after the third and fourth , which hp himself advises the reader unversed in . metaphysical speculations to read first . In these more attractive divisions he treats of Bife and Mind , and shows how Physiology and Psychology are different expressions of the same fundamental principle of life . As was formerly hinted in these columns , Life is always and everywhere psychial but not always intelligent . Intelligence is a speczaZ development of the vital activity . Life , as it manifests itself in tlie response of the organism to stimuli without it , may be contemplated under two aspects—vital arid psychial ; « nd the phenomena presented by both will on analysis be found identical . Mr . Spencer had exhibited the genesis of these various forms of life and intelligence , gradually becoming more and more complex as from simple homogeneous tissues mpre special and complex structures are developed , and from simple reflex actions we rise to automatic , instinctive , and voluntary actions , thus uniting in one generalisation the manifold expression of Life and Mind , from the structureless amoeba to the simple polyp , upwards through the animal series closed by man ; and frPrn the earliest form of contractility to simple sensation , upwards through the perceptions , instincts , feelings , and the highest processes of philosophy : one law rules the whole , one process is seen amid the endles 3 variety . The novelty of , a system of Psychology thus elaborated will be at once apparent . Some , indeed , may deny the originality and say , "Wo have always declared that the . complexity of ) ifo brought with it a corresponding complexity of mind . " But to make this broad statement—which , indeed , is but the expression of superficial observation of the animal scries and its psychial progressivenea— jis , qujite anojtl ^ er thing . from , demonstrating it in detail , as Mr . Spe ' ncbr has done . Every one' knows tno fact that the earth revolves round the sun '; ' how rnnhy conld explain the whole prbcoss accord-, ' . !"< £ f ° astronomical Jaws ? Mr . Spencer is original in his conception , originul 'inlils working out of the conception . Wo dp not of course imply that ho is' not largely indebted to previous thinkers . It id cef tain that his Pwnsneculations are not only ' indebted to those of his predecessors , but that a few ^ ears earlier he ' tipluM '^ ofc' haVo arrived fit his' conclusions : they are ; tire T ' CTuK ' of thy r moa < i T ^ ce ) trt '! i > liyii < il 6 gical and paychPlogichl labours ; and because they are bo they ' will' lie Wcepted by ninny persons as ideas " -whibh ; : > . < v ;; .. j , inl , u , ¦ , ¦ . . ,. , ,. ...... .,,,,... .. . j . . . . ., ¦ . ) . ¦ * .,-, , . i
Spencer as an ist . of a formidable kind because he traces the genesis and growth of those beliefs and forms . Nor are these men to b . e ^ despised * . . We may regret their waste of power in a wrong direction , we cannot but Acknowledge their power ; we may wish they were not building fair palaces on the marshy ground of metaphysics , but we recognise in them the * bunding power . Although we have no Quixotic ? -ambition , to vanquish the Windmill which incessantly grinds the air , and rqfiuses to grind corn , we may . help to open the eyes of some , if we . point out the fact that air-grinding really has produced no bread , after centuries of effort , but that in proportion , as corn has been placed in the Mill , there has issued from it sustenance * bjr man . To d ^ op metaphor , we hope by a slight sketch of the history ' of the various methods pursued in Psychology , to show how the increasing experience of men has more and more thrown them into Physiology : as tile source of all true explanation ; and we shall thus point put how the works of Messrs . Bain and Spencer are the legitimate outcome of the history of thought . This we shall attempt iii another article .
To one class of thinkers—a class happily becoming daily more limitedr- *? there will be the initial objection of Method obstructing their enjoyment and appreciation of this work . They discard Physiology altogether , and think it savours of " materialism" with feeveral other isms not less pffetisive . ^ Tifey revolt from any attempt to identify human and animal intelligence . They who laugh to scorn Locke ' s practice of referring to children and savages ; for illustrations , will , be still less tolerant of any mention of molluscs ; beReving that the full-statured Mind ( theii * own ) is the only object which PsychqUjjgy , can properly analyse , they will not listen to a demonstration of the . various phases of growth which it was necessary that Mind should pass through exis it reached its present stature ; finding in themselves certain ineradicable beliefe , certain " forms of thought , " they insist on such beliefs and forms beincr accepted as belonging to the essence of mind , and will regard Mri
tiiey already held ; " it being t ^ peculiari ^ j ^ f certain generaliisatfons t carry with them so obvious an air iQwh ^ n ) ^ Rcej ^ iscovered ) that men find i difficult to believe they overlooked them . We venture to assert , however that never before has the identity of ' the vital and psychial process bfeer shtiwn . Never before has the genesis of each highejS . iritenectuil , ; ev § ti | been exhibited as dependent on and corresponding with a higher complexity of life . Never before has there been a physiological , explanation of ffce Will and of voluntary actions . Never before has the growth of intelligence through successive generations , and how by trarismi&sioft - ; X ' Si i- ) ¦ ' ¦¦ - ' - ^ X : ' ' " * The thoughts of men are widened by the process of the annsj' *' ' been placed on an intelligible p hysiological basis . So that with all its 6 blfgations to predecessors there is no lack of originality to attract and fasten the philosophic student . : ¦ ' ,. = ¦ - ; . ;
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 20, 1855, page 1013, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2111/page/17/
-