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Dec. 20, 1851.] t&fie 3, * jUre** 121i
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Pnficsare not the legislators, but the j...
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It is not often that the French return u...
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CKAIK ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Outlines ...
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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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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Dec. 20, 1851.] T&Fie 3, * Jure** 121i
Dec . , 1851 . ] t & fie 3 , * jUre ** 121 i
%Ittxahm.
% ittxahm .
Pnficsare Not The Legislators, But The J...
Pnficsare not the legislators , but the judges and police f literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them .- ^ Edinburgk Review .
It Is Not Often That The French Return U...
It is not often that the French return us the compliment we so often pay them , of borrowing their plots and characters for our novels and plays ; but Paul Feval has , in his Capitain Simon , made free with an amusing character Douglas Jerrold set before us in his comedy , Retired from Business . Mo one who remembers the martial Army Clothier ? so bellicosely rendered by Buckstone , can fail to recognize him under the amusing form of Roussel in this novel .
Apropos of French Literature the week has been unusually active in spite of society having been saved . Lamartine has given us the third and fourth volumes of his Histoire de la Restauration j Barante the third volume of his Histoire de la Convention , bringing the narrative down to 1793 . Thierry announces a new edition of his works ; and Alexandbe Dumas has commenced his Memoires in La Presse .
The French papers still continue to be filled with Governmental lies ; but Jules Janin last Monday resumed his feuilleton in his usual style—with this exception , that whereas during the last year he has scarcely published an article that was not seasoned with political hits , with tirades in favour of Order , or diatribes against the Anarchists , he now passes beside all political allusion , and exercises his rhetoric on other topics .
Among the new works just out let us notice a Spanish translation of Ticknor ' s History of Spanish Literature—by Don Pascual de Gayangos y Don Enrique de Vedia ( con adiciones y notas _ criticas ) , Mr . Ticknob having communicated some notes and corrections to the two translators , who have added from their own store . Auerbach ' s new novel , Neues Leu en , in three volumes , also lies on our table—tempting from the reputation he has acquired by less ambitions works .
In English Literature we have several dainty bits of gossip , but unhappily not one that we are " at liberty to mention , " our informants having mercilessly added , par parenthetic , that secresy was " desirable just for the present" ! Meanwhile it is no secret lhat Wilkie Collins is to give us a Christmas story , or that the authoress of Olive , not only has thrown three welcome volumes into our lap , but is about to throw a Christmas story after
them . What with the books on our table and the lists of " announcements " promising an active season , the most rapacious devourcr of novelties will find thefour-and-twenty hours too brief for the despatch of all that he should read . If the most of these are mediocre , what of that ? They are secure of an audience ; for it is as true now as it was in Boii , kaij ' s day , that the foolish readers match the foolish
writers" Aiiisi qu en sots auteurs Notre siecle est fertile en sots aehnirateurs !" Or —( to give you the same thought under the guise of another quotation ) - —as I ' ktuoniuk will tell you , the cunning writer imitates the adroit fisherman , iind only baits his hook with what the little fish will bite at . If you insist upon the original , here
' is carefully copied from the Satyricou .- — " Sic l'lo (| iicnl , ia' inngister nisi tanquani piscator cam iinposuerit hainis escam quam Hcierit appetituros <' nsi ; pisciculos , sine . spe pra ;< la ; nmnitur in scopulo . " Hill , the remark is no old , and has been so often Niade , that it is to indulge in the cheapest luxury ° 1 quotation to quote passages , thai , enforce it . ..
HCHODI . Klt H HOOK OF NATUK . K . tin : lt > i <)!; ofj \ r « tun- ; an ICIiunenturif Introduction to the Se . itmcet <' . / I'hysics . . istronomy . Chemistry , Minenitoyi / , ( . ' cotoi / y , J "'""!/ . l' / iytiotot / i / , mitt Xoolo ;;;/ . liy Kmilrirh t-Yliiiillci - J '; < lilc < l from ' tin ; Vilth ( ieriiiiin 1 ' . clil . ion , liy Mi-nry Mcillock , ' '¦* ' ¦» . j . . 1 . ( Jriil ' ui mid < : <> 1 '" '• Hook of Nature ; what an ambitious title , and what va » t , acquirements-, aiding profound capacity , : ir « needed to produce nuch n Bible ! For
thousands of years have the greatest intellects been occupied in striving to read the " open secret , " the great hieroglyphs of Nature ; and some meanings of the writing have been interpreted , but the Book of Nature still remains without a competent editor . Schodler , the German Chemist , is assuredly not the man . Men of far other capacities , and of far more accurate knowledge / would have failed in such a premature attempt . But poor Schodler gives the measure of his capacity in that profoundly erroneous assertion which meets us on the second page : "The ancients were content to use and to enjoy the gifts of Nature , but had little desire to know their causes or effects J "
The book only too plainly bears out the want of philosophic worth which that sentence implies . The very classification of the Sciences is made without principle , unless we are to accept as such the separation of Astronomy from Physics , upon the ground of the number and importance of astronomical phenomena ! While touching on this subject of classificationthe immense importance of which few writers discern—let us note the capital error of those who class Geology as one of the fundamental sciences . Unless we restrict our view of Geology till we see in
it nothing more than a branch of Mineralogy , it may easily be proved that Geology is not a science at all , in the ordinary acceptation of the term , and certainly cannot be allowed such a title by those ( and they are the majority ) who refuse it to History , which is the analogue of Geology . History is the story of the growth and development of Humanity . Geology is the story of the growth and development of this planet . They both tell of past epochs , as produced by living laws ; the same physical
causes which we now detect in the processes of Nature , are the causes we assign to the production of all Geological phenomena ; and the same laws which we see in operation now , are the laws which the Historian must master before he can explain the past . To understand Geology it is necessary that men should first understand Physics , Chemistry , and Biology . How then , can Geology take its place any where between these sciences , when thfisp . sciences subserve it ?
We do not address these observations to Schodler , for he is totally indifferent to all questions of classification , as this work proves . Indeed nothing of the philosophy of science must be expected from him . He has compiled popular treatises on Physics , Astronomy , Chemistry , Mineralogy and Geology , Botany and Zoology , and has bound them together by the Bin icr's art , without giving himself much trouble in giving them a spiritual unity . His ambitious title is altogether misleading . Had he called
his work a Popular Handbook of Science , we might have applauded it ; for many qualities desirable in such a Handbook . It is brief , clear , illustrated with abundant diagrams , well distributed , easy of reference , and not--as popular books are apt to be ¦—shamefully inaccurate . The Astronomy and Chemistry arc the best treatises . Zoology the worst . The errors in the latter are abundant and important . One of them we shall dwell on , because it implies a very superficial acquaintance with physiological
: — - " In the investigation of the internal structure of plants , the microscope shows us that their internal organization originates in modiiicat . iems of tin ; simple cell , and that sill their simple ! organs art ; roferriblo to this type . A nimilar analog 3 r is not prevalent in tin ; animal body ; on tin contrary , microscopic analysis proves that , aitinui / / issues arc composed of at . / cast , four jnimary forms , whieli are apparent , whether they be viewed individually or collectively , and between whieli there is no tran . sil . iou . stale ; perceptible , as is the rase in the ; modifications of the cellular into t . \ e vascular tissue in plants . "
We know not on what authority Schodler and his Kditor speak ; bill , unless it , be ; on some discovery of their own , we assure ; them the state'incnt just quoted is in open contradiction , not only to the cell doctrine ; , but to a variety of known facts . An ; they disposed to dispute ; tin ; now ascertained position of the eell doctrine , vi / ,., that , every animal is primarily a cell ? Are ; they not aware ; that many of the simpler Animalouhe an ; regarded as nothing
else than simple ; cells with ciliary appendages ? Are they not aware ; that in embryology the morphological transformations precede the ; transformations of tissues ? Then again , when bono is fractured what do we ; see ; take place ? Nature sets to he ; r proce : sH of reparation by developing the ; primitive " blastema , " or rcll-iiialtcr , into cartilage ; or fibroiiH tissue , and the formation of bone ( osseous tissue ;) takes place after that . What i : ; that but , a transition state of the Uhhuck ? Any burgeon will tell
you that fibrous tissue may be developed into more highly organized structures , such as the serous or mucous . But we need not further insist on the point . This section on Zoology is , as we said , the worst ; and it illustrates the want of anything like a true conception of a Book of Nature , that although Zoology is treated after Botany , yet instead of commencing with those simpler forms of animallife which spring by insensible gradations from the vegetable
forms—thus showing the connection of the two kingdoms—he commences with Man and descends to the sponge ! Not only is such a zoological arrangement eminently unpbilosophic , it is in flagrant contradiction to the very purpose of a Book of Nature . If in Botany he begins with the Algae , why not in Zoology begin with the Zoophytes ? Simply because writers of Botanical works begin in one way , and writers of Zoological works in
another . m We have been severe in our scrutiny of this work , because popular works of Science demand from criticism that scrutiny which higher works are certain to receive from those whom they address . In summing up , we repeat this Book of Nature , worthless as a philosophic work , is of considerable merit as a Handbook . Apart from the errors we have alluded to , it is an excellently compiled book .
Ckaik On The English Language. Outlines ...
CKAIK ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE . Outlines of the History of the English Language , for the use oj the Junior Classes in Colleges and the Higher Classes in Schools . By George L . Craik , Professor of History and of English Literature iu Queen ' s College , Belfast . Chapman and Hall . This is the first fruits of Professor Craik ' s new avocation , and although a small , modest volume , it has the solidity and careful accuracy which he bestows on everything he undertakes . It consists of a series of propositions embodying the leading facts in the History of our Language , to which are added the more important of those minor and subsidiary particulars which illustrate the propositions . It seems admirably adapted for the purposes of tuition , and may be taken as a text-book .
The propositions forming the texts of this work are the following : — " I . There are two kinds of Evidence by which the origin or composition of any product may be attested : the ; Internal ; and the External , or Historical . " " II . The First of the facts constituting the External or Historical Evidence that we have in regard to tlie sources of the English language is , that the country in which it is spoken ami has grown up , appears to have been occupied at an early date , in whole or in part , by a Celtic population . "
"III . The ; Second fact is , that from about tho middle of the First Century of our era till alter the ; ceinimencemcnt of" the Fifth , or for not much short of 100 years , South Britain was a Koinan province , and extensively occupied by colonists speaking the Latin tongue . " " JV . The Third and the main fact is , that after the ; extinction of the Kennan elominie > n , the country was in great part , conquered , taken possession of , and occupied by ce ; rtain tribes of ( iothie ; race ; and language , whoso descendants have ever since formed the bulk of its population . "
" V . Tho Fourth fact is , that in the latter prut of the Ninth Century , extensive ; settlements were effected in the North-eastern parts of Knglanel liy a Scandinavian people ; , the Northmen or J ) am \ s . " " VI . The Fifih fact , and tin ; e > m ; next ; in impe ) rtauce to the Third , is , that in the middle of ( lie ; Mlevi'ntb Century England was cemejuercel by the Normans , who were originally Danes , but liael been scttli'd in France ; for uhemt ; i ce'iitury and a half , anel had by this time" exchanged their ancestral ScamJiuaviuii longuo for the Neo-Latin tongue called French . "
" VII . It , would thus appear thnt . the languages which liavo boon imported into anel establishes ! in I'lngl . inel by the successive peculations that have coneiucrcd or . settled in it , anel which may each , therefore 1 , have ; in a greater or le ' . ss degree contributed to the foinuitioii of its existing language ; belong le > threo several branches of the Indo- Kurope-an Family ; the (' oltie , the <» oihic , fine ! tin ; Classical . " " VI 11 . Hut , the ; facts constituting tho External or Historical Kvidence tluit we ; liavo regarding tho sources of the ; language ; leave ; um nearly altogether uninformed as te > the ; propeirlionate amount of each of its several probable ingredients , and as to the precise results that have ; heen proeluced by their intermixture . This we . can only learn from the Internal Evidence , or that afforded by the ; language ; itself . ' *
" IX . The ; number of words which the Kiif ; lLsU language ; nppe'ars to have derived from the Celtic , of the ; original Hrilons , or their descendants the ; Welsh , in e-oiiMiele-nible ;; but tln ; y are matte-reel and unconnected , anel do not . cem . st . il ute a ehstiiigiiisliiiob ; department of its vocabulary . No Htiemu of words ha » flowed into it from that quarter . There him been ik »
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 20, 1851, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20121851/page/15/
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