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420 THELllB ^ 0^.- ¦ * ¦ !"¦ . ' ' . ¦ -...
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THE STUDENT'S COMPANION. A New Universal...
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I&nrtfalin.
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We ahould do our utmoab to encourage tho...
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COMTE'S POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY.* By G. H. L...
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.
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Transcript
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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.
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Leita; Oe The Silent Woman. Lena; Or The...
« ' Well done ! ' whispered Lord Merland . Y «* 1 can't bear his bawling ! You have such a nice voice , ' returned Laura ; and drawing her harp towards her , she began to play the refrain of one of the Nixen song ? , singing " There is no rest in the waters below , Ships over me sail , boats over mo row !" in the most wailing , plaintive tone imaginable . "' Don't don't ; I ' m wretched ! ' said her cousin , staying . the harp-strings with his hand . - ¦ .
" Laura stopped her song :, and went on playing the accompaniment ; making little mocking gestures at him , as if she were singing the remainder in dumb show . " < Cis comes " home to-morrow , ' she said , as she let go the harp , and tried to push it farther away with her tiny foot ; ' and then I suppose you will be happy : it ' s evident that I don't ltnow how to please you . But there is aunt llorland making the move , so I will humbly take my leave of your honour ; ' and sweeping her long crape skirts after her , she fluttered away , leaving him in an attitude of the deepest dejection .
420 Thelllb ^ 0^.- ¦ * ¦ !"¦ . ' ' . ¦ -...
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The Student's Companion. A New Universal...
THE STUDENT'S COMPANION . A New Universal , Etymological , Technological , and Pronouncing Dictionary of the English JJahgiiage ; embracing all the terms used in Arts , Science , and Literature . By John Craig , Esq ., Lecturer on Geology in Anderson ' s University , Glasgow . 2 vols . George Eoutledge and Co . Technical terms are indispensable . Their presence , however , often rebuts the reader , and perplexes him , by concealing from his ^ view the whole meaning of a passage . If he had a dictionary by his side which would clear up all obscurities by explaining the significance of every technical term , he could read with profit many works otherwise closed books
to him . But a good technological dictionary did not exist in our language —norcould we discover one in French or German ; Mr . Craig therefore was performing a most important office in devoting himself to the compilation of these two gigantic volumes ; and the result of his labour is a work which no student , who can afford two ' guineas , ' should be without : certainly no library or Institute can dispense with it . Not only the meaning of all'the terms used in Science and Art , as well as the words found in all dictionaries , but with them , the etymology and pronunciation of each word , has Mr . Craig carefully indicated ; but as one example is worth a column of description , we will open , literally at random , and quote the first half-dozen words : —
SPBtnircTEB , sfingk'tur , s . ( sphincho , ! close , Gr . ) In Anatomy , a general name for any muscle whose function consists in closing the natural orifice which it surrounds . Sphinx , sfingks , & . ( Greek and Latin . ) In Antiquity , a fabled monster , half woman _ and half lion , said by the Greek poets to have infested the city of Thebes ,- devouring its inhabitants , till such time as a riddle it had proposed to them should be solved . In Entomology , the Hawk-moths ^ a genus of Lepidopterous insects : Type of the tribe Sphingides .
Sphbagid , sftaj'id , s . A kind of ocherous earth , which falls to pieces m water with the emission of many bubbles : it is also called earth of Lemnos . Sphbagist-E , sfra-jis'te , s . ( sphragis , a seal , Gr . ) An order of Egyptian priests , whose office was to stamp the sacred seal on the bullock previous to sacrifice . Sphtbjeka , sfi-re ' na , s . ( sphyraina , the Greek name of the hammer-fish . ) A genus of fishes : Family , Percidae . Sphybjenodus , sfi-re ' no-dus , * . ( sphyra , a hammer , and odous , a tooth , Gr . ) A genus of fossil fishes from the London , clay . SpiaIi , spi ' al , s . A spy ; a scout . —Obsolete .
The privy spials placed in all hia way . —Spencer . Spioa , spi'ka , s . ( spica , an ear of corn , Lat . from the similarity of the leaves to an ear of wheat . ) A genus of plants : Order , Lamiaceav In Surgery , a bandage , so called from its turns being thought to resemble the rows of an ear of corn In Astromony , Spica virginis , a bright fixed star of the first magnitude , in the ear of corn in the constellation Virgo . Spioate , spi'kate , a . Eared like corn ; having spikes . We have examined these two volumes , containing each upwards of a
thousand pages , double-columned , and the result has been very highly to increase our value of a book which , from the first , wo were disposed to value , because it answered to a real want . "We discovered a few omissions in anatomical and pathological terms—calvaria for example , is given , but its anatomical meaning ( the upper part of the cranium ) is unnoticed ; then again , such words as anmmic , liypercemic , & c . are wanting . But in almost every case when we looked for a word we found it , and the omissions we take to bo very few , and can scarcely detract from the usefulness of a work which should lie on the table of every student .
I&Nrtfalin.
I & nrtfalin .
We Ahould Do Our Utmoab To Encourage Tho...
We ahould do our utmoab to encourage tho Beautiful , for tho Useful oncourages / itaolr . — Qoethk .
Comte's Positive Philosophy.* By G. H. L...
COMTE'S POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY . * By G . H . Lewes . Part V . — Classification of the Sciences . Hithekto I have adhered very little to Comto ' s own exposition of his system . By a more popular and discursive exposition , I have endeavoured to familiarize the , reader with the point of view from which to study the Positive Philosophy ; but in treating of the luminous conception of a new and final classification of the sciences , I will do so as much as possible in Comte ' s own words . Those who have never examined the subject of classification will fail to appreciate the gigantic force of philosophic thought * For the Comto subscription I havo to acknowledge tho following additional sums : JE 6 from Mr . Arthur Trovolyunj five ' shillings from J . W . B . ; and eix Bliilliuge from . Tamoa Parker , of Ponmince . The letters that accompany those subscriptions are not the loftat gratifying reward of vay ondoavouru to make known the thoughts oi a great thinker .
implied in this scheme . The arrangement seems so natural , so obvious that an acute thinker reviewing Cdmtew expressed what I believe to be a very general impression , in saying it Was just the sort of classification that would naturally arise in any reflective mind on a review of the subject . Had this critic only remembered the abortive attempts made by Bacon , D'Alembert , Stewart , Ampere * and others , he would never have suffered that phrase to escape him .
Without , however , criticising the attempts of previous thinkers , let us examine the principle laid down in the Positive Philosophy . The problem before us is this : How to arrange the sciences that tJie classification may itself be the compression of the most general fact apparent on a profound investigation of the objects which this classification includes . The solution of the problem lies in this : the dependence of the sciences can only result from that of the corresponding ' phenomena .
Science is a knowledge of the laws of nature . This knowledge is the only rational basis of man ' s action on nature . By it , he foresees what will be the result of the working of any phenomena left to their own spontaneous activity , and by what modifications he may produce a different result more advantageous to himself . Science gives the power to / oresee , and foreseeing leads to action . Hence the relation of Science to Art . Science leading in this way to the Useful , and there haying been so
much cause in modem times for appreciating the practical ends it serves , its cultivation has become too much associated with ideas of mere profit an < jL utility . Comte here , as elsewhere , warns us against losing sight of its higher function- —that of satisfying a fundamental want of our nature . As intelligent beings we have an insatiable craving to know the laws of nature . For this purpose , when in want of positive conceptions , we resort to the theological or metaphysical conceptions .
The laws of phenomena ( theoretical science ) , and the application of those laws to practical purposes , forming two distinct branches pf speculation , the latter subject , as may be inferred , does not fall within the scope of Comte ' s system . He make * another elimination . Natural sciences are of two kindsthe one abstract , the other concrete , special , descriptive . The first are the fundamental sciences ; the latter are secondary . The working of the abstract laws in particular instances gives rise to the concrete laws : General physiology is abstract ; zoology and botany are concrete . So with chemistry and mineralogy : in-chemistry we consider all possible combinations of matter ; in mineralogy we consider only the combinations which we . find actually existing in the minerals . It is Abstract Physics only that fall within M . Comte ' s classification .
To enter now directly upon the great question before us , we must at the outset recal to mind that * in order to obtain a natural and positive classification of the fundamental sciences , we have to seek for the principle in a comparison of the different orders of phenomena whose laws it is their object to discover- What we wish to determine is , the actual dependence of the var ious sciences among themselves . Now this dependence can only result from that of the corresponding phenomena . , Considering all observable phenomena under this point of view , we shall cate
see that it is possible to classify them in a small number of natural - gories , disposed in such a way that the rational study of each category may start from a knowledge of the principal laws of the preceding category , and become , in its turn , a foundation for the study of the next one . This order is determined by the degree of simplicity , or , what conies to the same thing , by the degree of generality of the phenomena . From this difference in simplicity or generality , there result the successive dependence of the phenomena , and , as a consequence , the greater or less facility with which
they may be studied . In fact it is , a priori , clear , that the simplest phenomena , those which are least complicated with others , are necessarily the most general also ; because that which occurs in the greatest number of cases is , from that very fnct , to the greatest possible degree unconnected with , and independent of , the circumstances peculiar to each separate case . We must therefore commence with the study of the most general or most simple phenomena , and then proceed in succession to the most complicated , if we would conceive natural philosophy in a truly methodical way ; for since this order of generality or simplicity necessarily determines the rational connexion of the different fundamental sciences by the successive dependence of their phenomenait also fixes their comparative degrees of difficulty .
, Our first survey of the ensemble of natural p henomena leads us at the outset to divide them , agreeably to the principle which we have just established , into two great classes—the first comprehending all the p henomena of inorganic bodies , the second all those of organized bodies . The latter are evidently more complex and more special than the former ; they depend on the preceding phenomena , wliich , on the contrary , do not depend on them '; hence the necessity of studying physiological p henomena only after those of inorganic matter . In whatever way we explain the differences in living
of these two modes of existence , it is certaift that we observe bodies all the phenomena , both mechanical and chemical , wliich have p lace in inorganic bodies , and , besides these , an entirely special order of p henomena— vital phenomena — those peculiar to organization . Organised and inorganized matter may , or may not , be of the samejtatnre ; the positive philosophy eschews such inquiries ; it ib enough that thcro is a * cc - gnised difference between them such aa to require them to be' stuUl separately , and that , on any hypothesis as to the nature of this dittcrcnc ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 1, 1852, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01051852/page/16/
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