On this page
- Departments (2)
-
Text (5)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
SERIALS.
-
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.
-
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
. ' Social Science in Tuscany . By J : Montgomery Stuart . London : Chapman Hall . i 860 . . , IN " the popular view moral questions are a part of social ssienoe , and In our number of the 8 th September ( article " Reform , Social and Political ) " will be found an extract from the Edinburgh JReviexo , ua . which the wretchedly defective state of morals , considered as a science , is well e xhibited ; the subiedt of morals had not been put in anything approaching to a scientific form . As regarda social science , properly so Sailed , wl cannot do better than cite in this place theestimategiven of its present condition by one of the very lew authorities who have proved by their published Works that they really comprehend thesignWance ^ and import of the terms " social sconce . " We quotefrom
the article on " Mill on Liberty , " in Eraser ' s Magazine for May , 1859 . " The incapacity for dealing with the highest problems , says the writer of this essay ( Mr . Buckle ) , " has been curiously exemplified during the last two years , when a great number of the most active and eminent of our public men , as well as several who are active without being eminent ^ have forme d an association for the promotion of social icience . Among the papers published by that association , will be found many curious facts and many useful suggestions . But social ridentfe there is none . There is not even a perception of what that _ ,. ;<»; ,. <> ; iJAtnno arn »» Vor nv writer atremDted a scientific investigation science is'Hot one speaker or writer attempted a scientific investigation
= . of society , or showed that , in his opinion , such a thing ought to be attempted . " Where science begins , the association leaves off . All science is composed either of physical laws , or of mental laws ; and as the actions of men are determined by both , the only way of founding social science is to investigate each class of laws by itself , and then , after computing their separate results , co-ordinate the whole into a single study , by verifying them . This is the only process by which highly complicated phenomena can be disentangled ; but the association did fldt catch a glimpse of it . Indeed , they reversed the proper order , find proceeded from the concrete to the abstract , instead of from the abstract to the concrete . The reason of this error may be easily
explained . The leading members of the association : being mostly politicians , followed the habits of their profession ; that is to say , they noted the events immediately surrounding them , and , taking a contemporary view , they observed the actual effects with a view of discovering the causes , and then remedying the evils . This was their plan , and it is natural to men whose occupations lead them to look at the surface of affairs . But to any mind adcustomed to rise to a certain height above that surface , and thoroughly imbued with the sp irit of scientific method , it is obvious that this way of investigating social phenomena ; must be futile . Even in the limited field of political action , its results are at best mere empirical uniformities ' 3 while in the immense ratige of social science it is altogether worthless . When men are collected together in Bociety , with their passions and their interests touching each other at every point , it is clear that nothing can happen without being produced by a great variety of causes .. Of these causes , some will be conflicting , and their aotion being neutralized they will often disappear in the
product ; or , at all events , will leave traces too faint to be discerned . It , then , a cause is counteracted , how can you ascertain its existence by studying its effect ? When only one cause produces an effect , you may infer the cause from the effect . But if several causes conspire to produce one effect , this is impossible . The most persevering study of the effect , and the most intimate acquaintance with it , will in euoh case never lead to a knowledge , of the causes j and the only plan ia to proceed deductively from cause feo effect , instead of inductively from effect to cause . '' The whole passage is very important , but we have not space to quote farther . We entirely concur in the view there taken , and we have h sh
referred to this , and to the citation froin the Edinburg , as owing what the best authorities ou the subject think of the present state of oopial science throughout the world . When , therefore , we reflect that , as stated in the brochure before us , there has been a " Congress for the advancement of social science regularly held in Florence for more than a , hundred years ,, " we are driven to the two fold conclusion that it must have been as little qualified as our own for the investigation of the subject , and that oura is likely to he engaged for as long a time upon it to as little purpose , and with a little result . This brochure is specially interesting , however , as being reprinted from a higlvelaas fashionable daily newspaper— The Morning Post—and thus showing how the subject is attracting attention in quarters where onoe it was altogether ignored .
Jim Tedblri Milk , " The Science qf Me Administration of a State '; or , An Essay on Political Economy , in Turkish . « y Charles WoIIb , Tiirklali I ' rlssemnn of Klnu ' B Collogo , London and Edinburgh : WUUnma and Npr « ivto . 180 Q . The author takes for his motto a line of Fontaine ' s , On le peufc , jo Vesaaie , un plus savant le fasso ; . " but his immediate Jobjeot , that of writing a treatise suitable for the instruction of the Turks , he appears to have aooompliehed as well as attempted . The lamentable state of things in the Bast , arising partly from tho want of all method in governing , and partly from the decay of English influence thero , which is always friendly to commerce , appears to have led tlxo author to write this essay , upon the assumption that it is possible , by the introduction of Anglo-Oriental literature , to infuse our more onlightoned ideas of thinking and writing , and thus to promote English interests there . In order , apparently , not to be distasteful to tho Orientals , and to render a
subject proverbially dry as palatable aa possible , the treatise teems with Turkish , Arabic , and Persian sayings and quotations , and their reverenced authorities , their oldest sayings , are arrayed against their prejudices and used to enforce every conclusion which is drawn . Thue , every new fact , which , brought before them in an European stylo would not bo listened to , is presented to th " o } r minds in such a garb as not to be treated aa an enemy . Thus has the outline of ft more elaborate work on political economy , which , we understand , the author proposes writing ( if piroumstanoes be favourable in the Baet ) , been drawn , for whioh tho present work was a neoesaary preparation . To have nfc onoe written an elaborate work , would have boon the suroet raoana tp defeat tho end proposed , The writw , after a preliminary ohaptor , showing how man emerged from barbarism , and how division of labour early began to bo adopted ( remarking , en pasaqnt , on the iminenBO advantage * derived , from it nowaday ) , proceeds , in Chap , I * ., to show how cowmoroo spread , <* n 4 ifa beneflpiaJ , effoote ia Btimwlatjng oxerfron - ,
and discusses the effects of depreciating the currency . Chap . VI . treats of the various means adopted to facilitate commerce , namely , — - paper money , hanks , &c . In Chap . VII . the writer aims at convincing the Turks of the necessity of taxation ( instead of the present system of present making ) , and after giving general rules for testing the different methods of taxation , proceeds to weigh them by these . Here , then , seems to be a decided tendency to advocate direct taxation . Chap . "VIII . shows how , in meeting the exigencies of war , a suc-lden rise of the taxes would not suffice , nor could it be quickly enough collected , and here , loans are resorted to . In our opinion the less the Turks are taught of the fatal and destructive system of loaning the better .. Tho evils of this system are not alone felt in the burden of a debt unjustly transmitted to posterity , as the £ 800 , 000 , 000 with which the present
and in Chap . III ., io show what wealth is , and that the source of wealt h is labour ; that a nation can only be permanently enriched by labour ; and concludes by showing that governments which wish to enrich themselves and their states , would be wise if they confined themselves to giving all the aid and encouragement possible to labour , instead of attempting to enrich themselves by warfare . Chap . IV . shows the nature of capital ( defined as " that wealth used to produce fresh ¦ wealth " ) and the various ways of enjoying it , of which he deems commerce and manufacture the most profitable . In Chap . V ., after showing how the use of coins arose , the writer defines money as " that merchandise which all nations have agreed to accept in exchange for their merchandise , " and he dwells on the consequences of considering money as a mere medium , not necessarily having any intrinsic value ,
generation of . Englishmen are oppressed—there is the additional mischief of reckless and ruinous wars , which but for loans would bo impossible . The American constitution contains a provision that war costs shall be paid by the generation incurring Uiem ; and if this arrangement were general , we should not have so many of Sydney Smith's " absurd and iniquitous just and necessary wars . " Chap . IX ., after showing that man ' s mastery over the animato creation is owing to the power of mind , the 1 writer goes on to say that man , not content with this , has now-a-days set about bringing inanimate . things under his rule , " taking the winds . and . 'the waters into his service . " The writer next argues- that inventions and discoveries arc nothing new , only that those are : more apparent and striking to us which have taken place in our time . These inventions , discoveries , and improvements are but the results to be expected from the gradual and continual deve ' opment of man ' s mind . To attribute these discoveries to the devil ( as
the Turks do ) would be to attribute good to the devil , as it cannot be denied that nations which have adopted these inventions are rich and powerful ,, which is an evident absurdity . Lastly , the objection that these new inventions are the cause of distress to the poor , he refutes by showing that their evil effects are partial and temporaryi their good , lasting , and universal . The writer concludes by an exhortation to friendly intercourse , urging them to go forward with the other nations of the world . The work is small in bulk , but contains a good deal of matter , the Turkish character being a kind of that hand by which a good deal may be compressed in a few strokes of the pen . It is curious to reflect that there is actually a natioa in existence to which the truths of which this work consists should bo entire novelties . Tho work is dedicated to Sir Honry RaWlinson , K . O . B ., by " special permission , " and as " a slight mark of admiration for that distinguished Orientalist . "
Mr . Hollingshead ' s " Odd Journeys " has gone into a second edition within a month of its publication—wo may say a third edition , as tho different papers first appeared in All t ho Year Round , This class oi literature has often been called "light , " and light it muy be for . tho reader , but it represents a deal of heavy work on the part ; of 11 to uuthor . This book must contain the condensod results of at least ijvo thousand miles of hard travelling in all kinds of odd conveyances—many " sleepless nights and laborious days" passed in strungo places—und two , if not more "journeys , " whore thero was risk to life und limb , Light literature of this kind is not bo easily mamifuetureel as many people suppose .
A very interesting Book , upon tho subject of Iho RosicrucMttiis , s the Press . It is an examination , in addition , of tho possibility oi tho supernatural . The title of tho work , which is in two volumes , is " Curious Things of the Outaido World . " It is tho production ot Mr . Hargravo Jennings , author of the " Indian Religions 5 or ResmU of the Mysterious Buddhism , " &e . Mr . James Blaokwood 1 ms tho following works in preparation ; --" The History of a Pilgrim , with some Aooount of tho Shrino to which ho Journeyed ; " " Annie , a Romance of Indian Life > " " TlujGhrwlinns Troo for 1861 , a Book of Instruction and Amusomont for « H Young People . "
Untitled Article
gjr ^ . The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Nov . 3 , I 860
Serials.
SERIALS .
Miscellaneous Works.
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS .
Untitled Article
The North British Iteviexo . JNo . U 0 . JNov ., . ^ . -. and T . Clark . London : Hamilton , Adums , mid Co . Dublin : w . Robertson . —Wo see that Mjessra . T . and T . Clark , of Edinburgh , have become the proprietors of this review , and tho prosont mimtw shows a goodly array of articles in its table of oontonta . The opening paper , entitled " Modern Thought 5 its Progress and Consiunmution , has appropriately at its hoad throo works bearing t . ho name oi Miss Sara 8 . Ucnnoll ; wo say appropriately , as modorn thought unquestionably owes a good deal to tho BUggestivoness of tho mvesu-§ ations pursued py that class of ? thinkers of whioh shu w « - istinguishod member , and whioli numbers in lttf i _ ,. "f * some of the most profound intolloots oi' tho ago . Qi no importanqe and authority of tho school to which Mm Jlonnuu belongs , as well as ' of her own works , in tho opinion of this roviuw , may form some oetimato by tho fact , that wliilo profosaina to rog'ji " her as a junior pupil and dboiplbof that sohool , it : dovotos its , 1 ciuII " b nrtiole , of noiu' 50 )> agoa , und tilioUi-st in ( he prosont nuinhor , ohioliy 10 ooritioism of throo of lior workn , mid iu tho issue i \ , . j onia wilJi i «« - ' i oomoe off ( jooond boat . Tlio artiolo , however , is wpll wriUon , and wi » j bo eagerly road by all who take an intoruet in thoao aO'oaHoil dry » " » certainly ' moot } ttbuti'uao . but at tho finnxo < -imo trunBOondoiuiy »»" portanb topics , whioh » aieoueeos . Wo trago i » it tho stylo ° *
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 3, 1860, page 914, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2372/page/10/
-