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siderable extent and accuracy of erudition ; but he is at all times ready -with stores of learning culled from the schoolmen , the Italians of the Renaissance ( Telesio , Campanella , Bruno , &c ) , and the writers of our own day , none of these being dragged in ostentatiously , but always justifying their appearance ; and o"ver and above these stores , he has a remarkable familiarity with the scientific writers , so that Bacon ' s errors can be corrected and his anticipations confirmed by reference to writers on science from . Galileo and Gilbert down to Faraday and Owen . We will cite a specimen or two merely to indicate the quality of these notes . Bacon , inquiring into the nature of whiteness , says : —" Yet it is no slight advance" ( we translate )
" towards the discovery of the . ITorm of Whiteness , that two bodies in themselves more or less diaphanous ( i . e . air and water , or air and glass ) when brought into contact , 5 n minute portions , exhibit "whiteness from the unequal refraction of the rays of light . " Upon this , Mr . Ellis remarks : —" Bacon would perhaps have given , as another illustration of what he has here said , the beautiful whiteness of frosted silver , if he had been aware that it is in reality silver foam . It appears that -when silver is in a state of fusion , a very large quantity of oxygen is condensed on and within its surface , the ¦ whole of which escapes at the moment of solidification . This explanation of the appearance of granulated silver is due , I believe , to Gay Lussac . "
Here is another note : "An excellent instance of the ' deductio nonsensibilis ad sensibile , ' occurs in the experiments recently made by Messrs . Hopkins and Soule for determining the melting-point of substances subjected to great pressure . The substance acted on is enclosed in a tube out of reach and sight . Jiut a bit of magnetized steel has previously been introduced into it , and is supported by it as long as it remains solid . A magnetic needle is placed beside the apparatus , a certain amount of deviation being , of course , produced b ^ the steel within the tu be . The moment the temperature reaches the melting-point the steel sinks ; and its doing so is indicated by the motion of the needle . " °
Is not this the kind of annotation which Bacon needs , even more than the citation of parallel passages which have only a literary merit ? We turn the page and read this note , which may be cited as a specimen of the more erudite annotations : — " The epithet ' periecta' is generally given to those animals which cannot result from putrefaction . Coesalpinus in the Qucesiiones Peripat ., \ T . 1 , maintains _ that all animals may result from putrefaction , and that this was the doctrine of Aristotle . The same opinion had , I believe , been advanced by Averioes . That mice maybe produced by equivocal generation is asserted as a matter not admitting of dispute by
Cardan , De llerttm Yarietate ; Coesalpinus refers to the same instance , but less confidently than Cardan . It is worth remarking that Aristotle , though he speaks of the great fecundity of mice , and even of their being impregnated by licking salt , does not mention the possibility of their being produced by putrefaction . \ De Hist . Animal ., vi . 37 ; Problem x . 64 . ) Paracelsus , De Reruni Gcncratione , affirms that all animals produced from putrefaction are more or less venomous . Telesius ' s opinion is that the more perfect animals cannot result from putrefaction because the conditions of temperature necessary to their production cannot be fulfilled except by means of animal heat . " It might have been well to have extended this
curious note by a reference to Redi ' s Experimenta circa generationem insectorum , 1671 , which opened the series of experiments subsequently pursued by Wrisberg , Spallanzani , and others , and utterly routed the partizans of equivocal generation . These three specimens will convey an idea of the quality of the annotations , but only actual reading can convey an adequate sense of their extensive erudition . We have left ourselves no room to speak of Mr . Ellis ' s views of Bacon ' s Method ; their importance demands a separate article , which we shall devote to them on a future occasion .
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THE LIFE OF LOUIS NAPOLEON . Louis Napoleon , Ewjieror of the French : a Biography . By James Augustus St . John . Chapman and Hall SEV ^ KAii passages in the career of Louis Napoleon Lave been overlooked by the writers who have professed to compile his biography . Such passages are : —his flight with Queen Hortcnse after the llestorution , his residence ° St . Leu during the Hundred Days , his adventures for fifteen years after the "battle of Waterloo , above all , his Italian enterprise , so courageous , so i ' ull of romance , yet so utterly neglected by the writers who have preceded Mr . St . John . The truth is , that the Cochelet Memoirs , and others of equivalent interest , are little known in this country . We are glad , therefore , to receive a biography of the LVonch Kmperor , constructed of the right materials and reviewing in detail every important event connected with his progress from the cradle to the throne .
beyond his mother , or at most the family circle ; but the court adulators , converting the incident into au historical event , had the scene painted on a porcelain vase , which . they presented to Hortense on her birthday . Having more money than she knew how to spend judiciously , Josephine thought this an excellent opportunity for indulging in a little domestic extravagance , and formed the design of reproducing the sketch on the vase in a grand oil-painting . Possibly , however , the public disasters of France , which came soon after to occupy the minds of the Bonaparte family , prevented the execution of tliis project . At any rate , I have never seen such a picture referred to in tlie history of French art . Mr . St . John brings together a great number of anecdotes , some of historical , others of purely personal interest—but most of them new to English readers—to illustrate this period of Louis Napoleon ' s life . We sele c t one . The boy prince had been listening to a eulogy on Alexander , Emperor of liussia : —
The next time Alexander came , he took a little signet ring which his uncle Eugene had given him , and approaching the emperor on tiptoe , that he might attract no attention to his movements , he gently slipped the ring into the emperor ' s hand , and then ran . hastily away . His mother called him to her , and inquired what he had been doing . " I had nothing but that ring , " he replied , blushing and hanging down his head ; " my uncle Eugene gave it . to me , and I wished to give it to the emperor , because he is good to mamma . " The emperor Alexander embraced the boy , and putting it on the ring which held the bunch of seals suspended to Ms watch , said , with emotion , that he would wear it for ever . / Mr . St . John adds : — In persons -who possess a commanding position in the world , there 5 s no more certain means of success than the habit of giving . Louis Napoleon seems always to have acted upon this conviction .
The earlier years of his life are shown to have been full of strange adventure and romance . We have been chiefly interested , however , by the story of the Italian campaign . Louis Napoleon was , in 1 S 3 O , a professed Republican avowing more concern for the affairs of others than for his own . He had been in the habit of paying an annual visit to Italy with his mother . Nearly all the members of his family were there , in Tuscany or the Roman States ; they possessed palaces at Ancona , at Florence , and in the Eternal City . His brother inhabited one of the old Florentine palaces . The young King of Home was at Vienna . Louis was impatient to act , and proposed a Greek crusade , but his mother begged him to accompany her to » Rome ,, where , in November , 1830 , they took up their l'esidence . — What the designs of the family really were at this time , it is now Impossible to determine ; but from many circumstances which they themselves had suffered to transpire , it seems perfectly clear that they were all , male and female , deeply engaged in fomenting the troubles of Italv .
The whole country , from the Alps to the Faro of Messina , was in a state of revolutionary excitement ; but the effervescence was greatest in Romagna . Travellers were stopped in the streets by eager citizens , inquiring about the dynastic change at Paris . Unfortunately for the Italians , however , the Duke of Modena had been admitted into the secret of their designs , which he hoped to work , in favour of his own ridiculous pretensions to the crown of Italy . The younger Buonapartes , also—perhaps the elder—were among the initiated . Excluded from France by the strategy of Louis Philippe , they trusted that-events might prosper their ambition in the Italian peninsula , " degraded" as Louis Napoleon wrote , "by the most brutal system of despotism . " Mr . St . John says : —
I do not lay much stress on the republican professions of Louis Kapoleon and hia brother . If they were sincere , which is of course possible , they would in all likelihood have taken advantage of circumstances to raise themselves on the ruins of the Republic ; the younger certainly would . However , the point on -which I desire to insist at present is , that Louis Napoleon , in 1830 and 1831 , was a conspirator , and attempted to subvert the established governments of Italy for the professed purpose of founding u Republic . The disorders in Rome increased . Louis Napoleon appeared in the streets on horseback , and waved a tricolor ; the Pope sent a troop ot horse to seize and conduct him to the frontier . Speedily , however , he was in Rome again , a leader of the insurrection , and wrote thus to calm the fears of his mother : — Your aft ' ection will enable you to understand us . " We have entered into engagements and must keep them ; and the name we bear compels ua to aid those unhappy populations which invite us to assist them .
Louis Napoleon and his brother were raised to high distinction in the insurgent army , but they soon proved that they possessed none of the military genius of their uncle . They were accordingly deprived of their commands , which were conferred on Generals Sereognani and Armandi : — Louis Napoleon and Ins brother were in the meantime beset with still greater inquietudes . Nothing succeeded according to their expectations . The greatest consternation prevailed at Rome . People exclaimed on all sides that their name waa the signal for invasion , and diplo m acy in fact made it the pretext of that intervention which had previously been decided upon . The letter of an ambassador , which fell into their mother ' s hands , spoke of her sons in the following terms : — " These young men , who still fancy tl ^ niselves imperial princes , if taken prisoners , will soon ihul what they really are , by the manner in wliioh we shall treat thorn . "
Of course , the elder members of the family professed to deploro the conduct of these rash young men ; but , had they succeeded , Louis , Hortense , and the rest of that avaricious connexion would doubtless luive been glad to circle once more about a throne . Soon , however , disastrous portents gathered over the Italian revolution ; its leaders were disunited ; on all sides the Jiuomipartus avcpc suspected ( an Italian naturally suspects a Buonaparte ) ; Louis . Napoleon ' s brother died ; the reliction was making way ; and Loui . s himself , assailed by measles during his Hight , wus foi . several days in murtal danger . Urcssed in menial livery he at length escaped from Auconu ; at ( jjunoscia he slept all night in a court-yard on a heap of stones . The incidents of thi . s journey resemble those of the most romantic episodes in tho early life of Charles II .
lie is next met with in England , and then in . Switzerland , composing theories and rhapsodies : — In a little piece entitled " The Exile , " there is a passage which should bo whispered
Louis . Napoleon was born on the 8 th of October , 1808 , not at the Tuileries , as the compilers say , but at the private palnca of HortensG . When two years and a half old , he was baptized by Cardinal F < jsc 1 » at Pontuine-bleau , Napoleon and Marie Louise being the sponsors . His mother was at this time a favourite with the Kmperor , dined with him almost daily , worshipped his genius , trained up her children in imitation of his character , laboured , in point of fact , to reproduce him . Her beauty was extreme ; she hud long fair hair reaching to her feet , and her manners were tender and graceful ' . Louis Napoleon , always devoted to his mother , seemed at an early : i < : e to profit by her teachings . When first confronted , suddenly , with a sweep , he was seized with ( its of terror . Hoi-tunsc reasoned his trepidation uway : —
Being asleep one morning with his brother , the nurse left the room for a moment . During her absence , n young Savoyard , n . s black as lirebus , descended the chimney , and coining out into tlie nursery , shook himself , and filled the wlwle chamber witih a dark cloud . Louis Napoleon , a light sleeper , awoke , and was nei / . cd with terror on beholding a sweep . JSut soon calling to mind what Aludamc do Bonbons had told him , about the poverty and misery of ( he little Savoyards , lie climbed over the ruilings of his < : ot , and running across the room in his night-shirt , and mounting tin a chair , took forth from a drawer bin pocket money , and gave it , purse and all , to tho little sweep , lie then tried lo climb back into his boil , buL found it impracticable , upon which his brother called the- iiuvhc : Uad this happened to any common boy , it would hardly have interested any one
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February 28 , 1857 . J _?_ JL ?_ ^ ?_ 4 i ? ^ L ?* . ' _^_ ' ¦ _ ' _ _ 209
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 28, 1857, page 209, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2182/page/17/
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