On this page
-
Text (2)
-
... to THE LEADER. [No. 297, Saturday, l...
-
THE UNITY OP MATTER. The Unity of Matter...
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.
Robert Broavning's Men And Women. Men An...
He stood and watched the cobbler at his trade , The man who slices lemons into drink , The coffee-roaster ' s 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-printiposters 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 in " years 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 nains ? 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 In 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 starved winter-pears , l _ " Or treat of radishes 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 boon afraid , To have just looked , when this man came to dio , And seen who lined tho clean gay garret ' s sides And Btood about the neat low truckle-bed , With tho heavenly manner of relieving guard . Here had been , mark , the general-in-ohief , Thro' a whole campaign of the world * h life and death , Doing the King's work all the dim clay long , In his old coat , and up to his 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 nro s \ tro , for one thing ! BIobs us , all tho while How sprucely wo are dressed out , you and I ! A nocond , and the angels , alter that . Well , I could never write a verse , —could you ? Lot ' w to tho Prado and mako the moat of time . Tho passages marked for extract stand out imploringly to us , yet the pitiless exigences of space must also be observed ; we will compromise the matter by returning to tho volumes next week .
... To The Leader. [No. 297, Saturday, L...
... THE LEADER . [ No . 297 , Saturday , llOo : ¦¦ - ' ¦ ¦ ¦
The Unity Op Matter. The Unity Of Matter...
THE UNITY OP MATTER . The Unity of Matter . A Dialogue on the Halation between the Various Forma of Matter which affect the Smise ' st . 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 thnn 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 o * " 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 admit of experimental verification , of irresistible demonstration , is necessarily opposed by 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 ol 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 ir physics . " Mr . Wilson has several new views , and one hyp othesis worthy oi 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 m the hands of a master , it invariably wearies the reader , and give an air of triviality tc 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 certair instinctive misgiving which such a subject in the dialogue form is certain tc awaken in us . Having conquered that impression , we read the work witt very great interest , and seriously commend it to philosophic students . As far as our limits permit we will indicate the chief points in this work The hypothesis is that Light—or the medium of seeing is not the undulation oi an ether , but the " opticable form of ordinary matter . " In other words , all th < various forms of matter , solid , gaseous or imponderable are derived from th < 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 com batted from various points ; the new hypothesis may be gathered from ai extract or two : — Let us commence our experiment in the dark . Here we have nothing t ( suggest the existence of an extraordinai-y ether . And let us suppose that w possess our present knowledge of material transmutations , but have never hsu the sensation of vision . Suppose now , that we bring together such a combi nation of bodies as shall give rise to combustion . When the light first burst upon us , what ought we to infer ? Ought we to infer that there is an etherea medium pervading space , and that certain motions of the bodies we have minglec together have put this ether into a vibration ? Or should we infer that thi medium by which our vision is affected , is a direct product of the bodies we hav < 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 knov that coinbustuous combinations can give motion to ethers ; but we know thai 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 . S ( that , by this simple principle of explanation ( too simple , indeed , for man ] people ) , we have a visual medium produced in a manner analagoua to that u which all other forms are produced ; and its cause of motion reduced to thai 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 ,, exial ordinary matter exists , though it may be so attenuated that we cannot recogniat it by the testa of ' other forces , such as gravitation . " " On the other hand , ne proceeds , " a specific matter without weight must be assumed , of the existence oi which there is no evidence , but in the phenomena for the explanation of whicu its existence is supposed . " And he concludes by observing , " that the assumption of the universality of ordinary matter is the least gratituous . " Ment . My conception of matter is not quite similar to that of Grove . I'oi although this very dear thinker insists that ordinary matter is present wherovei such results as vision and heat are experienced , he does not seem to desiderate a peculiar form of ordinary matter as necessary to purposes of vision , bu imagines that luminous impressions may be propagated through the particles 01 air , water , glass , and such like , in the manner of vibrations . Whereas it appear * to me a better interpetration of phenomena , to regard the medium of ^ vision at one of the cardinal forms of ordinary matter , propagated from any point whore ordinary matter is being converted into this form , out of other forms . You entirely mistake mo , if you suppose that I hold the notion which has been entertained by somo , of but one ultimate element . Wero there but one element , it is difficult to soo in what way it could asBumo different form * . < - > jnolted into gold can only retain the same form ; but what I moan by saying that tho elomontH of the chemist are all one kind of matter , is simply , that the matter of thoso elements can combino to form those generally compound budstances which I call 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 « loea 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 < lo not hold tho venerable doctrino your quoation suggontH . ' ' « to mo tho bare fact of a difforonoo in form or consistency ( not goomotrioal I " " "' Is a proof of difference in ultimate chemical constitution . And tin * , >> y ' ¦» bye , might have lod chemists to suspect tho perfection of thoir raodo of analysi ., which is unable to detect a difference botwoon , for example , ico and water , i » doubtodly there- is a difforonoo in tho balance of cflomonts of ioo and wntor , wiuou is tho foundation of tho sensible difference between tho two . Another error < i analysis , rontiug on a false * assumption , ia tho froquent reduction of bo < uoH u cUfforout Htato before tosting . And tho false assumption hero in , that bodies cai exist in different states , bo thrown into different conditions . AVhonover a _ bu < 0
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 1, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01121855/page/18/
-