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1158 THE LEADER . [ No . 297 , Saturda y ,
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He stood and watched the cobbler at his trade , The man who slices lemons into drink , The coffee-roaster ' brazier , and the boys That volunteer to help him turn its winch . He glanced o ' er boots on stalls with , half an eye , And fly-leaf ballads on the vendor ' s string , And broad-edge bold-print ^ posters by the wall . He took such cognisance of men and things , If any beat a horse , you felt he saw ; If any cursed a woman , he took note ; Yet stared at nobody , they stared at him , And found , less to their pleasure than surprise , He seemed to know them and expect as much . So , next time that a neighbour ' s tongue was loosed , It marked the shameful and notorious fact , We had among us , not so much a spy , As a recording chief-inquisitor , The town ' s true master if the town but knew ! We merely kept a Governor for form , While this man walked about and took account Of all thought , said , and acted , then went home , And wrote it fully to our Lord the King Who has on itch to know things , He knows "why , And reads them in His bed-room of a night . Oh , you might smile ! there wanted not a touch , A tang of ... well , it was not wholly ease As back into your mind the man ' s look came—Stricken iiTyears a little , —such a brow His eyes had to live under !—clear as flint On either side the formidable nose Curved , cut , and coloured , like an eagle ' s claw . Had he to do with A . ' s surprising fate ? When altogether old B . disappeared And young C . got his mistress , —was't our friend , His letter to the King , that did it all ? What paid the bloodless man for so much gains 1 Our Lord the King has favourites manifold , And shifts hia ministry some once a month ; Our city gets new governors at whiles , — But never word or sign , that I could hear , Notified to this man about the streets The King ' s approval of those letters conned The last thing duly at the dead of night . Did the man love his office ? frowned our Lord , Exhorting when none heard— " Beseech me not ! Too far above my people , —beneath Me ! I set the watch , —how should the people know ? Forget them , keep Me all the more in mind ! " Was some such understanding 'twixt the Two ? I found no truth iu one report at least—That if you tracked him to his home , down lanes Beyond the Jewry , and as clean to pace , You found he ate his supper in a room Blazing with lights , four Titians on the wall , And twenty naked girls to change his plate ! Poor man , he lived another kind of life Iu that new , stuccoed , third house by the bridge , Fresh-painted , rather smart than otherwise ! The whole street might o ' erlook him as he sat / Leg crossing leg , one foot on the dog ' s back , Playing a decent cribbage with his maid ( Jacynth , you ' re sure her name waB ) o ' er the cheese And fruit , three red halves of Btarved winter-pears , l _ " Or treat of i * adishes in April ! nine — Ten , struck the church clock , straight to bed went he . My father , like the man of sense lie was , Would point him out to me a dozen timeB ; " St— -St , " he'd whisper , " the Corregidor ! " I had been used to think that personage Was one with lacquered breeches , lustrous belt , And feathers like a forest in his hat , Who blew a trumpet and proclaimed the news , Announced the bull-fights , gave each church its turn , And memorised the miracle in vogue ! He had a great observance from us boys—I was in error ; that was not tho man . I'd like now , yot liad haply l > ocn afraid , To have just looked , when this mun came to die , And neon who lined tho clean gay garret ' s sides And stood about the neat low truckle-bed , With the heavenly manner of relieving guard . Here had been , mark , the general-in-ohief , Thro' a wholo campaign of the world ' h life and death , Doing the King ' s work all the dim clay long , In Uia old coat , and up to hia knees in mud , Smoked like a herring , dining on a crust , — And now the day was won , relieved at once ! No further show or need for that old coat , You are sure , for one thing ! BIobs us , nil tho while How sprucely wo aro dressed out , you and I ! A nooond , and the angela alter that . Well , I could never write a verse , —oould you ? Let ' H to tho I ' rado and mako the moat of time . The passages marked for extract stand out imploringly to us , yet tho pitiless exigences of space must also be observed ; we will compromise the matter by returning to tho volumes next week .
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THR UNITY OP MATTER . Tfte Unity of Matter , A Dtahquc on the Jtchition between , the Various Forma of Matter which affect the iSeiisc ' a . By Alex . Stephen Wilson . S . Highley . It has always been , and always will be , difficult for a scientific innovator to gain a hearing . Men oppose new ideas from quite other than malevolent
motives ; they turn away from novelty , impatient at its novelty , and somewhat irritated at the pertinacity of the man who seeks to unsettle their ideas . That professor of Chemistry who , when forced to admit Davy ' s "brilliant discovery of metallic bases to all alkalis , said it was the discovery of " a verra troublesome fellow in chemistry , ' * naively gave utterance to a very general feeling . The old established notions suit the old professors who regard young- innovators as anarchists . The scientific world may be divided into two classes : one small class of men who think , and one large class of men who blindly follow their leaders . A new idea , unless it ad mit of experimental verification , of irresistible demonstration , is necessarily opposed b y the first class , because their theories are opposed by it ; and as necessarily rejected by the second class because they feel themselves helpless , afraid to decide lest their decision could be wrong , afraid to move out of the safe beaten track . It is otherwise with an idea which admits of experimental verification : the thinkers , because they are thinkers , are open , to conviction through this method j and the blockheads follow their leaders . We are about to introduce the work of a " verra troublesome fellow in physics . " Mr . Wilson has several new views , and one hypothesis worth y of more attention than it is likely to get , owing to the causes just rehearsed . To these causes another must be added . , which Mr . Wilson may obviate , and future writers avoid ; we allude to the form in which his hypothesis is put forth . Dialogue is always a dangerous form to adopt , because , unless in the hands of a master , it invariably wearies the reader , and give an air of triviality to the matter . We want to hear the man express his own views , not to see him set up feeble objections for the pleasure of refuting them , or put leading questions by way of connecting one part with another . Mr . Wilson writes clearly , vigorously ; an essay from him on this subject would have challenged the attention which this Dialogue will repel . " We must confess to having delayed reading the work two , or nearly three , months owing to a certain instinctive misgiving which such a subject in the dialogue form is certain to awaken in us . Having conquered that impression , we read the work with very great interest , and seriously commend it to philosophic students . As far as our limits permit we will indicate the chief points in this jvork . The hypothesis is that Light—or the medium of seeing is not the undulation of an ether , but the " opticable form of ordinary matter . " In other words , all the various forms of matter , solid , gaseous or imponderable are derived from the same stock of elements—they are various forms of one common matter ; and Light is the most attenuated form . The hypothesis of an ether is coznbatted from various points ; the new hypothesis may be gathered from an extract or two : — Let us commence our experiment in the dark . Here we have nothing to I suggest the existence of an extraordinary ether . And let us suppose that we j possess our present knowledge of material transmutations , but have never had f the sensation of vision . Suppose now , that we bring together such a combination of bodies as shall give rise to combustion . When the light first bursts upon us , what ought we to infer ? Ought we to infer that there is an ethereal medium pervading space , and that certain motions of the bodies we have mingled together have put this ether into a vibration ? Or should we infer that the medium , by which our vision is affected , is a direct product of the bodies we have brought into union ? "We are certain that combination gives birth to new forms ; and here is a new form directly springing out of the others . We do not know that conibustuous combinations can give motion to ethers ; but we know that they must give i-ise to new compounds , and that if these be of a fluid character , they must disperse themselves , owing to the greater volume they occupy . So that , by this simple principle of explanation ( too simple , indeed , for many people ) , we have a visual medium produced in a manner analagoua to that iu which all other forms are produced ; and its cause of motion reduced to that law which expresses the tendency to equidiffusion of all tenuous fluids . Upon reading this the question naturally arises — Is not that the doctrine propounded by Grove in his " Correlation of Physical Forces ? " His assumption he says , is , that " wherever light , heat , &c ,, exist ordinary matter exists , though it may be so attenuated that we cannot recognise it by the testa of " other forces , such as gravitation . " " On the other hand , " he proceeds , " a specific matter without weight must be assumed , of the existence of which there is no evidence , but in the phenomena for the explanation of which its existence is supposed . " And he concludes by observing , " that the assumption of the universality of ordinary matter is the least gratituou . s . " Ment . My conception of matter is not quite similar to that of Grove . For although this very clear thinker insists that ordinary matter is present wherever ; such results ns vision and heat are experienced , he does not soem to desiderate a peculiar form of ordinary matter as necessary to purposes of vision , but imagines that luminous impressions may be propagated through tho particles of ; air , water , glass , and such like , in the manner of vibrations . Whereon it appears t to me a better interpetration of phenomena , to regard the medium of vision as one of the cardinal forms of ordinary matter , propagated from any point whore L ordinary matter is being converted into this form , out of other forms . & Again : — , 8 You entirely mistake mo , if you supposo that I hold the notion which has , been entertained by somo , of but ono ultimate olomont . Wero thoro but one ; element , it is difficult to see in what way it could asBumo different forms . Gold < molted into gold can only retain tho same form ; but what I moan by snying i that tho eloniontH of tho chemist are all one kind of matter , is simply , that the matter of those elements can combino to form those generally compound Bubstances which I cnll ordinary matter . In fact Mr . Wilson extends to light the principle already admitted in other cases . Just ns every one admits tangible , liquid , and gaseous forms of matter , he admits a still more attenuated form—the opticable . He docs not believe in transmutation of matter , but in transmutation of form : — Syl . Do you moan to assert that one body may bo transmuted into anothor ' ! Ment . No , I do not hold tho venerable dootrino your quoation BUggontH . ! ' <» to mo tho biu-0 fact of a difforonoo in form or consistency ( not gooinotrioal form ; Is a proof of difference in ultimate chemical constitution . And this , by tho bye , might have lod chemists to Buspoct tho perfection of thoir modo of analyHW , which is unable to dotoot a difference botwoon , for example , ico and water , undoubtedly thoro is a difforonoo in tho balance of olomonta of ioo and wntor , which is tho foundation of tho sensible difference between tho two . Anothor error ot analysis , routing on a false assumption , is tho froquent reduction of bodies to a difforout Htato before testing . And tho false assumption hero in , that bodioH can exist in different states , bo thrown into different condition !* . Whenever u _ budy i »
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 1, 1855, page 1158, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2117/page/18/
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