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ARAGO ON THUNDER AND LIGHTNING. Meteorol...
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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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The Newcomes. The. Newetmes:, Memoirs: O...
assured !* not a Christian , result . We see nothing in our age which induces us to believe thaira generous , unworldly nature engaging in its public business * SlS 5 e ' any- unusual luck on it * side Bu * what is the * moral , ' ; after all ? The exh * k itionofafihe character is moral enough ; and we should Kke to know what man would not take the Colonel ' s nature , and run the Colonel's chance ? The arfcisfcis bound to make goodness beautiful ; he is not bound to make ? itt fortunate- The moral , then , is , that it is good to be generous , and true * and-nobler—a very old story on which nobody can improve . The Colonel ' s character is marked with that light and shade which Thackeray employs in making his figures real . Thus , when he is first introduced to J . J ., he " speaks to a butler ' s son as to a private soldier , kindly but not familiarly- " He believes in the men of genius , but he is ready to quarrel when one of them quizzes the court dress . Thoroughly kindly , he i » revengeful against Barnes when he discovers him , to be a scoundrel—and vet the- sevensrefulness ( itself a bad . passion ) is mixed up with all the good
in the man . His polities , again , are capital . His character , at the same time , is happily blended- of what is military and what is peculiarly hi & own , so that you can discriminate- what belongs to him as a- soldier from what is simply personak Perfectly brave to men , he g ives in at once before the Campaigner—and this is admirably in keeping . A hundred different traits are marked in him—all naturally going to form , the whole , like the lines in a man ' s hand . He has a family likeness to Dobbin , and to Esmond , and yet the three are distinct impersonations—just . as Clive is of the same genus as Pendennis , but keeps his own individuality . Every writer must have a " manner ; " no greatness can save him from it ; but only a fewr can produce creations which , in the likeness , preserve their own peculiarities or differentia . Fielding observes that people are too hasty in pronouncing characters to be copies , and adds , that every amorous widow on . the stage would be said to be stolen from Dido , but that the playhouse critics had not Latin enough
to read VirgiL The Colonel is just as good as humanity will allow ; and ( fortunately for the utility of his example ) he does not go beyond that bound . His rage at Barnes when he brandishes the bamboo—his prejudices—his wild political views—nis rashness in that unhappy B . B . C . —these are to his beautiful natural character what shade and variety are to a beautiful face . He oflfers a notable specimen of Thackeray ' s independence of his- own creations . Many gifted men create characters—and probable ones ^—and then allow themselves to be run off with , by the work of their own hands . But no affection makes our author indifferent to the great cause of nature and truth . The Colonel must be angry ; and Ethel must be worldly—and yet both characters are . good , at bottom . Ethel has a kind of likeness to the brilliant , Beatrix in Esmond , and still
ia a separate person . She would have preferred the Duke of Hamilton ^ to Esmond—but she is a better woman au fond . Would she have married F . arintosh , if old Lady Kew had not died ? We don ' t undertake to say that she would . Thackeray loves to leave certain matters in mystery about character—as if recognising that " mystery of a Person "* which , after all , makes the complete understanding of any human being impossible . To be sure , Lady Kew ( whose descent from the noble house of Gaunt is unquestionable ) died very apropos . Let us leave the question ( like one in Vanity Hair ,, connected with the detention of Rawdon in the sponging-house ) unsettled . But it was very bad of Ethel to throw over Kew for the sake of Clive , and yet to be willing to marry Farintosh . The position , however , was no simple one , but highly complex , like the positions with which it is Thackeray ' s forte to deal . The good and the bad of her character played into one another ; and her feeling for her family ' s wishes and interests was a part of the influence by which she strove to reconcile herself to marrying the feather-headed , vicious marquis . It was quite natural that a nature so
good aufond as hers , should require a really good pretext to help her to do , what , while hankering after splendour , she felt to be wrong . Beatrix , would bave based herself on the hard , strong basis of the enormous social force of worldliness—and taunted and defied love and generosity . Ethel could not so wring her high heart or that of any other person . She was splendid in her weakness like a queen . This justifies the little stroke of fortune by which the novelist makes the old Lady Kew die at the right time ; after all , old women must die , and occasionally do die just at the right moment . There is much ingenuity in the way in which the punishment of one worldly marriage ( that of Lady Clara ) becomes an occasion of the moral discipline of Ethel , who has just escaped one herself . It is probable and convenient ; and when we remember that her natural goodness has been dwelt on from the first , her reformation through sisterly and charitable offices is quite legitimate , and not like one of tTiose stupid " conversions" which outrage and defy Natureand so are useless for moral purposes .
, With regard to Barnes . — the unworthy brother of this best of all Thackeray ' s women—we consider him the very best character as a study tfeat the author has yet produced . He is a humbug , and scoundrel , like BUtU . He is a hypocrite . But he ia one of those unconscious humbugsquite distinct from the villain of common novels—who never suspects that ( he , is a humbug , or designs to bo a hypocrite . He is as naturally bad as a snakey which , no doubt , looks after the little snakes , and has no consciousness that it' ia the enemy of mankind . Now , your regular dramatic bad man iknowB he ia hostis humani generis , and glories in it . The charm of Barnes And the reality of him is his complete , self-possessed selfishness , cruelty , jgreedinesa , worldlinese , & c , & c . —all existing in him as naturally as berries an nightshade . He a rascal ! Why , he would not be angry if you told him so- —orj at least , he would think you a fool . He is like anybody else—like any other gentleman . What would you have ?
Such > creations as this are valuable studies of the century , and when a philosophical historian by-and-by investigates our history , he will turn to Borne * as a specimen of the worldly young man , and derive much insight into our age- front mm . A certain dash and affectation—at the worst , a certain flow of animal spirits' —distinguished the youth of the same class in former days ; or , if not , ho showed some theatrical hypocrisy , and paid his " homage " Oariyle .
that way . But here we have a perfectly unaffected class of godless and gracelesayoung humbugs , who have no idea that there is anything wrong , or that they are anything but good enough young fellows as the times go . No writer of our age has given us a character so suggestive , or so peculiarly modern . '" The minor personce are so numerous that we must take them up in spooafuls , like white-bait . Honeyman , F . B . James Binnie , are all real ,, very clever portraits—F .. B . a little too much like a character in a . farce ,, perhaps . Miss Honeyman ,, of Brighton , whose favourite English word is " gentle-woman , " has always seemed to us one of the most natural , and amusing persons in the book . The Campaigner , whose vivid , pushing , showy ^ ch ar aeter — ( full of a nimal spirits , and a hollow good nature the mere result of them)—is amusing in her prosperous days , becomes in the dark timea so admirably painted at the close of the book—a terrible hag . Clive
never falls below nor rises above one set line of personal merit . Rosa is a pretty little apparition , whose destiny connects her with a set of persons to whom she is by no means equaL * She is a capital specimen of a light , pretty ,, shallow nature—wanting depth in every way—floating like a sparkling bubble on the surface of the story . But all this variety of persons has a distinct bearing on the whole plan . They all serve to show the characters , and to vary and influence the fortunes of the Newcome Family . Our sympathies throughout are with the generous side , while the worldly side is allowed that prominence , and that importance , which belong to it in our social system . It may not be too minute to remark a little fact which might otherwise escape notice ; that the good Colonel and his son derive from the marriage which the first Newcome made for love ; while the bankers come from the second one , which he made for money . All that is most blameless and beautiful is associated with the Good Cause ; and to the colonel ' s first love disappointment we owe the presence throughout the tale of that family of Florae which never appears but to touch or to amuse us .
For the style—the flowing accompaniment of witty and pathetic wisdomthese have all the charm which belong to Thackeray ' s novels , and which ranks them as mere table-talk among the first productions of the belles-lettres of Europe . The good , worldly sense—the manly humour—the delicate and polite irony—the rare but apt illustrations—these are attractions of the book even independent of its characters and its narrative . Everything breathes of experience and of accomplishment ; everywhere we are in the company of the gentleman by culture and by traditions .
Siwmtob »J«Ttj 1seeeadbb: 871
SiwmtoB » J « ttJ 1 SEEEADBB : 871
Arago On Thunder And Lightning. Meteorol...
ARAGO ON THUNDER AND LIGHTNING . Meteorological Essays . By Franc is Arago . With an Introduction by Baron Alexaader von Humboldt . Translated under the superintendence of Colonel Sabine . Longman and Co . This is the first volume of the very handsome edition of Arago ' s works which Messrs . Longman are to issue under the superintendence of men like Colonel Sabine , Professor Baden Powell , Admiral tknyth , and Mr . Robert Grant . The celebrated Frenchman , therefore , will appear in authentic shape , which in these days of slap-dash translation , at a few shillings a sheet , is no inconsiderable advantage . The present volume , which is very entertaining as well as seriously scientific , is principally devoted to Thunder and Lightning . It also contains essays on Electro-Magnetism , Animal Electricity , and the Aurora Borealis ; although upon what principles of scientific classification the two former subjects are included under Meteorological Essays we are utterly at a loss to divine . Let us be thankful for what is given us , without criticism of
classification . M- Arago has taken immense pains to collect the various observations recorded in books and journals , in order to have at least the principal facts known about Thunder and Lig htning present to our minds , in the absence of any satis factorv laws . For familiar as the meteorological phenomena are , the laws which regulate them defy our detection . The immense mas 3 of facts accumulated ° on the subject of the weather suffices to show how powerless are facts alone to constitute scientific knowledge . We are in respect of the weather in a condition analogous to that of the Chaldean the laws
shepherds in respect of astronomy . We want elementary ; we want the elementary generalisations which may lead to the detection of laws . For example , Franklin , thought himself justified in generalising the phenomena of thunder and lightning so as to assert the two requisite conditions for their production to be—1 st , that the cloud must bo large ; 2 nd , that there must be small clouds interposed between its under surface and the earth . If this generalisation were without exception , it would constitute a static law ; and all meteorologists assert it to be without exception . Unhappily , M . Arago has discovered the records of four distinct well-attested instances in which lightning was seen to dart from a very small cloud , the
sky bein « - perfectly clear ; so that Franklin ' s generalisation becomes only a generalisation . Another generalisation has not been contradicted , namely , that lig htning does not issue from smoky clouds , i . e . y those strata of cloud which are uniform in composition and regular in their surface . But perhaps the reader would like to know what the thunder-cloud id , and how he is to recognise it - and for this wo will borrow M . Arago ' s description : — THB THUNJOBB-OLOUO . When in calm weather we see that there begin to riae somewhat rapidly , at some point of the horizon , very donee clouda , resembling heaped-up masses of cottou , torminated by a great number of well-defined rounded contours , almost as sharply marked as would be the summits of dome-ahaped mountains covered with enow ; whoa these clouds appear aa it were to expand or swell out , diminishing in numbor as they increase in size ; when , notwithstanding all these changes of form , Uioy remain constantly attached to their first base ; and finally , when theso contours , wuici at flrat wore so numorous and so distinct , have gradually molted into « mu . *'" completely , that the whole presents the aspect of only one singta cloud , thoo , uu ing to Beccaria , we may miuounce with certainty tho approach ° ^ Z Apparition To these preliminary phenomena there succeeds , atill on the 1 on / on , i n of a yery dark cloud which seems to touch the earth «»< 1 « onnec J' w » a ™ J ™ which ifave juat been described . J ^^ i ffij ^ jg ^ , ^ » urfu Co , clouda t and it is worthy of romarit that it io at tlua etago uw » e
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 8, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08091855/page/19/
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