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several the largest , has been regarded as a , any spot within the ^ eleiaa has beeu . viewed as a nucleolus . "Whereas many of the so-called cells are homogeneous spheres ; many of the nuclei are vacuoles , and a true nucleus is very rarely found exeept in books . " Such errors are natural , at first inevitable ; they can be corrected only fev wTacfcice , by testing observations in other ways , especially by chemical reapents and by comparison with the observations of others . The marvel is not that the miseroscope should suggest false views—do not our eyes play as that trick ? —but that it should reveal so many astounding facts as it really does ' and the one consolatory reflection which accompanies the difficult task of microscopic investigation is the unanimity which now reigns among observers on so vast a body of observations . If we read in physiological works of the yolk cells and coloured oil globules of the yolk , aud the beautiful function of assimilation which has been attributed to them , when in fact * ' they exist only in the imagination of the authors who have regarded the one as cells simply because they are round , and the other as consisting of
fat because they are highly refractive , —suee errors of interpretation do not discredit it any more than the preposterous interpretations , which have helped to make Ehrenberg ' s name at once famous and suspicious , alter the facts which he saw , and could not rightly interpret . In truth , the eye is only a preliminary instrument in science . What we see has to be interpreted ; and as it is very difficult to confine ourselves to pure observation unmixed by hypothetical interpretation , we need many collateral confirmations . Ehrenberg and others , seeing red specks in a jelly-fish , have , without misgiving , declared them to be eyes ; and that upon evidence not much better than would justify the belief in the eyes of a potato . Ko one has ever demonstrated a nervous system in these jelly-fishes ; and what is an eye without a retina ? No one has ever proved , positively or negatively , that these red specks perform the office of eyes . And thus , without any corroboration of structure or function , a red speck is said to be an eye because it resembles the eyes of certain animals .
If our readers , possessing a Microscope , happen to be at all disheartened either by their want of success or by the disputes among Microscopists , we beg them to consider the ill success of ordinary observation , and the disputes among doctors of all degrees ; and , having placed the Micrographic Dictionary on their study table , to take heart and continue the difficult but fascinating study .
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MODERN GREEK HISTORYThe History of Greece , wider Ottoman and Venetian Domination . By George Finlay , ' LLJD . Bla . ck . wood . 7 > f : events of Grecian history , from the fall of the Empire of Paleologos to the commencement of the revolution of 1821 , are not wanting in dramatic interest or variety . It is true that they have not the lustre of the ancient story—they refer to a period of servitude ; but servitude was the condition of the Grecian race for nearly two thousand years . Rome , Byzantium , the Crusaders , Constantinople , Trebizond , represent the successive eras of jftellenic bondage but traditions of glory and virtue cling to these historiqat . ruins , and irradiate at intervals the narrative of suffering and decay . Thq last epoch , that of Ottoman and Venetian rule , displays , indeed , the spectacle of a prostrate state , first governed by an Asiatic dynasty , then thrown under the divided and rival dominion of Europe and Asia , and
next restored , with the exception of some dependent islands and fortresses , to the sole sovereignty of a barbarous and fanatical nation . We see the Greeks forced to pay a tribute of children to their illiterate masters ; we see them the victims at once of religious insolence and fiscal rapacity ; we see them degraded by every form of oppression ; we see their Church corrupted , their priesthood depraved , their laity dishonoured , yet , after a series of -wars , that drenched the Roumelian territories in blood , we discern a new Greek nationality rising amid the corruptions of the Ottoman Empire . This nationality , formed under the domination of the Turks , gathers strength and prevails partially and by degrees over the political ascendancy of the military race . It cultivates aiuf inherits the soil , it enters into new relations with the Ottoman lords of the empire , it abolishes the predial slavery , it learns from the English revolution of lt > S 8 that rulers may be compelled to
• answer for the exercise of unlawful power , it begins to be restless , and the Turkish Government , in consequence , begins to be conciliatory . At first , as Mr . Finlay shows , the Greek population was not averse to the Turkish rule . It had long ceased to enjoy virtual independence , and it preferred the vigorous absolutism of the Sultans to the conflicting tyrannies of the Emperors , of the Moreau viceroys , of the Fraukish princes , dukes , and si < mors . The conquering power , though peremptory and relentless , was not sX first capricious or mean ; it exacted every fifth male child as a slave , parents gave their sons to be janissaries and their daughters to be odaliscs , but the Government was at least regular , and the people , having Ion" lost the sense of patriotism , sank , without many murmurs , under the Mohammedan sceptre . Mr . Finlay notices the curious fiict that the Ottomans subdued the orthodox Christians of Europe far more easily than they subdued some tuitions of their own faith in Asia . The truth , indeed , was , that
tne Christian emperors of Constantinople were not better than the sultans irhO succeeded them ; that as the Turks were never more hateful to the Transylvaniaus and Hungarians than the Hapsburgs , so they were not more hateful to the Greeks than the Catholic Venetians . The Sublime 1 orte bocauno thus Buppcme from tho plains of Podolia to the banks of the Don , and , at the highest point of its success , ruled without a rival from Buda , on the Danube , to Ilassora , on tho Euphrates . On the north , the Osmanhs guarded their frontier against the Poles at Kamenictz , and against the Russians at Azof . Southwards , tho fortress of Aden was the citadel of the Arabian coast , 6 f the Red Sea , and of the Indian Ocean . To the east , they possessed * boundary on the Caspian , from the Tenek to the Kour . Westwards , their dominions , stretching beyond Ornii , reached the Imperial bonljsrs ol Morocco ! The sultan might boast , without excessive vanity , that he was " the master of many kingdoms , tho ruler of three continent * , and the lord of two seas . " For three centuries tho anna of tho sultans were engaged in contests ,
not with an insurrectionary people , but with rival powers , ambitious of dividing the spoils of Greece . The long Venetian wars , the battle of Lepanto , the invasion of the islands , the sieges of Vienna , the conquest and reconquest of the Morea , form a succession of events only varied by occasional and limited outbreaks of the Greek population . But , after the cessation of the Venetian wars , in the strictly modern period of-their history , and after the first collisions between the Russian and Turkish armies , the Greeks begin to appear as a progressive , aspiring race . A change had taken place in the aspects of Europe . Venice was no longer the centre of commercial enterprise or of naval supremacy . The Greek religion was powerfully represented by Russia . The Turks were scarcely formidable to Europe . The
Forte , as we have said , relaxed its government in the provinces , and though sufficiently despotic to inflame the temper of the people , was not so energetically or so systematically despotic as to compress them , under its rule , into listless or impassive [ subjection . Indeed , the most powerful of the sultans and the ablest of their ministers had perceived the policy of governing the Christian subjects of the empire with moderation as well as firmness ; and , though severe social restrictions were maintained , together with the insulting ascendancy of the Mohammedan faith , the Greeks grew and prospered , attained an influence that was felt in the public departments of the state , and almost monopolized the industry that enriched the land and the commerce that carried the produce of the Levant to every southern
port . When France , by her revolution , affirmed that nations were independent of their governors , Greece felt the impulse . The Greeks did not rebel , but they learned . The French were welcomed in the Ionian Islands ; and , though the result of the conflict that followed was to consolidate the Ottoman power , to erase the last traces of Ottoman domination on the Continent , and to increase the influence of Russia as a representative of despotic principles , the Greeks were encouraged to hope for the historical revival of their race , and the renewal of their political existence . They had never entirely lost their veneration of letters . Their clergy preserved the ancient memorials in the ancient language . Their schools nourished many enthusiastic students . Their modern dialect was purified and ennobled by the labours of numerous scholars . Literary and ecclesiastical reformers arose . Greece was prepared for a revolution .
Mr . Finlay has closed his historical series at this point . He has now surveyed the whole course of Grecian history , from the Roman conquest , through the Byzantine , mediaeval , and modern epochs , to the treaty ot Vienna . We could wish that he had included an account of the revolution , and of the establishment of Otho ' s kingdom . The work , however—for we must regard the five volumes as part of one book—can scarcely be called ncomplete . It is a full and carefully finished narrative , composed in clear and masculine English , thoroughly impartial , and deserving of a permanent place in the library of European history . Mr . Finlay is not a pictorial or even a suggestive writer , but he narrates rapidly , olten with happy effects of style , and always with simplicity and discretion .
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SWEDENBORG ON LOVE AND MARRIAGE . Conjuijiol Love and its Chaste Delights ; also , Adulterous Love and its Insane Pleasures By Emmanuel Swedenborg . A New Edition , Revised . Published by the Swedenborg Society . " I am aware , " says Swedenborg with quiet earnestness , " that many who read the following pages , and the memorable relations attached to the chapters , will believe that they are fictions of the imagination ; but I solemnly declare they are not fictions , but were truly done and Been , and that I saw them not in any state of the mind asleep , but in a state of perfect wakefulness ; for it has pleased the Lord to manifest himself to me . . . . by virtue of which privilege it has been granted me to be in the spiritual world with angels , and in the same time in the natural world with men , and ( his now , 1768 , for twenty-five years . " __„_ makes it assuredl
What are we to say to such an assertion ? He quietly , y , knowing that men will be sceptical , but knowing that he is speaking the simple Truth . He walks with angels , and the sceptics to whom angels are invisible declare he dreams . But this he serenely smiles down . _ W hat he has seen he will describe , and describe with a . particularizing minuteness , which musl give us pause . Swedenborg , indeed , id a psychological study : learning acuteness , plain practical sense , as well as high scientific attainments , " make his visions and his teachings marvellous . One cannot dismiss him with the remark : " the man was mad . " There was strange method m his madness . There is excellent matter mingled with his ravings . He has not only founded a sect , he has gained over men ot subtlety , sagacity , and scientific eminence A madman who can achieve this is worth studying . Yet , to believe in him I to credit for one moment that he did see and near what he so circumstantially relates ! We will open at random , literally at meet
random , and quote a bit of the ( irat Relation we : — I once saw three spirits recently deceased , who were wondering about in the world of HPiritH , examining whatever came in their way , and inquiring concerning » t . luey were all amazement to find that men lived altogether a * before , and that the objectthey saw were similar to those they had seen before ; for they kn « w that they we » departed out of the former or natural world , and that in that world they believed that they should not live an men until after the day of tin , last judgment , when they should be again clothed with the flesh and bones that hud boon lui . l in the tomb , therefore , in order to remove all doubt of their being really and truly men , they by urns viewed and touched themselves and others , and felt the surrounding objects , ^ and ny a thousand proof , convinced the . naclvca that they now were men as in tho former wwld ; besides which they saw each other in a brighter light ami «» "" P ™^ object in superior . splendour , and thus their vimou was more perfect . At that instant two angelk ipiritn happening to meet them , accosted them , Haying , " Whence are you ? Sey replied , " We have departed out of a world , and again wo live in a world ; thu » we have removed from one world to another ; and this surprises u 3 . " H « r « po .. » to hrce novitiate spirits questioned the angelic Hpint * concerning heaven ; an , a . two of the throe novitiates were vouths , and there darted from their eyes as it were « iparl i f v , f . for the ' nex , the angelic spirit said , » Possibly you have aoen . ome fSle ; ad hev replied in the aili . native ; and an they nnule in . pnry respecting he ven , the angofio spirits gave them the following information : " In hoavon there U
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nucleusand Tfijrt 31 , 185 % I ^ _ : THE LE 1 DEH . __ _ 623
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Leader (1850-1860), May 31, 1856, page 523, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2143/page/19/
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