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OUHSTED'S SOUL IN IsTATURE. The Soul in ...
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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 Fascination Of Chime. Narratives Fro...
•' . , " Said , ' Stay'this night until'we sup , ' •> .- '' ' The mom until we dine ; . 'Twillbe a token of good ' greement , 'Twist your good lord and mine . '" " They remained , and thus Frendraught had under his roof the son of his great feudal enemy , Huntly , and the son of the man for whose slaughter he had to make pecuniary compensation . Part of the Castle of Frendraught was the grim , windowless old square tower * so common in Scotland . Each' floor had but one of the The lowest
chamber , the " thick walls occupying the greater part space . chamber was vaulted , the others were covered with wood . The owners of stich edifices were sometimes jealous of permanent stairs , and in the centre of the vault at Frendraught there was a round hole for reaching the floor above by a ladder . In the room thus entered slept Ahoyne , with Ms follower Robert Gordon , and his page ' English Will / In the floor above slept Rothiemay with some of his followers , and in the third another baud of followers ; it was observed that the whole of the party who had escorted Frendraught from Strathbogie were lodged in this tower . After a convivial evening they slept soundly . What afterwards happened cannot be better told than in the simple words of a contemporary annalist :
"' Thus all being at rest , about midnight this dolorous tour took fire in . suddent and furious a manner , yea , in one clap , that this noble viscount , the Laird of Rothiemay , English Will , Colin Ivat , another of Aboyne ' s servitours , and other twa , being six in number , were cruelly brunt and tormented to the death , but help or relief , the Laird of Frendraught , his lady and whole household looking on , without moving or stirring to deliver them fra the fury of this fearful fire as was reported . "' Robert Gordon , called Sutherland Robert , being in the viscount s chamber , escaped this fire with his life . George Chalmer and Captain Rollok being in the third room , escaped also this fire , and , as was said , Aboyne might have saved himself also if he had gone out of doors , quhilk he would not do , but sudaintly ran upis
stairs to Rothiemay ' s chamber and wakened him to rise ; and as he wakening him the timber passage and lofting of the passage hastily takes fire , so that none of them could come down stairs again . So they turned to ane window looMng to the close , where they piteously cried help , help , many times , for God ' s cause . The laird and the lady with their servants , all seeing and hearing this woful crying , but made no help nor maner of helping , which they perceiving , they cried often times mercy at God ' s hands for their sins , syne claspit in each other ' s arnaes arid cheerfully suffered this cruel martyrdom . Thus died this noble viscount of singular expectation , Rothiemay , a brave youth , and the rest , by this doleful fire never enough to be deplored ) to the great sorrow and grief of their kin , friends , parents , and hail country-people , especially the noble marquis , who for his good-wilt got this reward . '"
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Ouhsted's Soul In Istature. The Soul In ...
OUHSTED'S SOUL IN IsTATURE . The Soul in Nature ; with Supplementary Contributions . By BDdiis Christian Oersted . Translated from , the German by Leonora and Joanna Homer . ( BoJin ' s Scientific IAbrary . ) . H . G . Bohn . The readers of this journal have not to learn our wide dissidence from German Metaphysics , ( and the term dissidence must be understood according to its etymology , as a " sitting apart , " in supreme disregard of all that Metaphysics may hare in debate ); if , therefore , we commend this last volume of Mr . Bolin ' s Scientific Library , we must do so with the reservation , that it is to some extent vitiated by German philosophy . The great merit of the book consists in its being- the production of a scientific thinker—one whose life has been given to positive science , and whose discoveries prove him to have the imagination and high generalizing
power necessary to a philosopher . It is not a treatise , but a collection ot articles , essays , conversations , and speeches , all more or less remotely bearing on the one subject—the Spiritual Presence in the Material World . Schelling , after Spinoza , and Coleridge after both , have rendered tolerably familiar the conception of a Law of Nature as the correlate of an Idea . They , and most other metaphysicians , owing to their primary assumption of Man being the measure of all things—the microcosm , of whom whatever is true must likewiso bo true of the universe—conclude that if we can make a logical series of explanations of the phenomena of tho universe , it will follow that the laws themselves must be logical . In other words , that what we reason about must be Eeason ! See how Oersted sums up : —
" We are all agreed that , except the fundamental forces in Nature , the creating forces there is nothing constant but those laws by which everything is regulated , and that these Laws in Nature may justly bo called the Thoughts of Nature . Tho fundamental forces themselves exist in all bodies ; their difference only depends upon tho natural laws by which they are governed . That from which an object derives its enduring peculiarity , its peculiar essence , is , therefore , as we havo already admitted , that combination of Nature ' s laws by which it was produced and m sustained . But the Laws of Nature nro tho Thoughts of Nature , and tho essence of things deponds upon , tho Thoughts that are expressed in them . In so far as anything is said to lio a distinct essence , all the Thoughts of Nature expressed in it must combine in one essential Thought , which wo call tho Idea of tho thing .
Tho essence of a thing is thereforo its living Idcn . " S . Then tho cssonco of a thing becomes a more thought . "A . Bo not let us forget that . I eaid its living idea , and I mean by that tho kit a roulized by the forces of nature . " Thoro can be no difficulty in proving All Existence a Dominion of Reason , as Oersted entitles one essay , if wo are allowed thus to measure tho universe by our mental standard ; and for those who like speculations of such ' rofined anthropomorphism ; Oersted ' s book will be a delightful guide . For ourselves , wo objoct profoundly to tho whole scope and method of such speculations .
In tho scientific aspect tho book is more acceptable , and wo / would especially direct attention to the luminous essay on tho Jlitiory , of Chemistry , exhibiting a masterly power of tracing the filiation of ideasto the essay on Superstition and Infidelity in their Relation to Science — and in general , to tho fine vindication of ' Science as itself an exorcise of lleliinon . Thore aro rtiany profound thoughts and noble sentiments scattered through those pages , but wo limit pur extracts to this on THE POETRY OF SCIENCE . " Lot us first consider tho impreewion produced , on a quiot night , by ft clear
cloudless sky . There is a universal impression in-it . which is felt by all men . The clearness and force of the impression , however * is liot alone modified according to the different temperaments peculiar : to each man , but also in proportion to the different degrees of mental culture each may have received . It is this point towards which we will principally direct our attention , but we must first take into account and lay aside that which is common to all . " We need scarcely mention the vastness of the impression which the starry heavens produce , ' 811106 it is so powerful as to be felt by every one . He even who seeks no more than the gratification of his senses , and whose dawning reason is but faintly traceable in his sensational apprehensions , must acknowledge « that the canopy of heaven is the grandest object he knows : this vast' extent however would be dead and blank to us were it not enlivened by the innumerable host of stars . Their light comes to us with double force from the darkness of the surrpimdine which remind of the trivial circumstances
earthj when those objects us of daily life or which are of transitory importance , and which would otherwise attract our attention on all sides , are invisible . This enlarges the scale of pur ideas , and quickens our perceptions for the reception of that light which proceeds from a higher , a greater , and a less transitory world . The glorious nature of light is here wonderfully manifested ; its animating and beneficial effects have in all times caused it to be the most beautiful emblem of life and virtue . Beneath the mild , clear , undazzling light of stars , which scarcely enables us to see anything around us , while , if I may so express myself , the light shines but to manifest itself , we feel as if Light , and Life , arid Happiness dwelt far away above us in those distant regions , while , on the other hand * Darkness , Death , and Terror remained here on earth . This idea interpreted in one manner may be easily misunderstood but the feeling which such a sight exercises upon the unperverted senses has nothing to do with these misconstructions . " \ -. ' . ' .,:
" Added to all this , we have the dee p * ,, we may say , tangible silence of night , by which the ear receives as faint impressions of the world beneath us , as are conveyed to the eye by the mild starlight . . In short , it is npt a mere flight of the imagination which causes pur devotional feelings to be excited on a starlight night , but it springs from a feeh ' ng deeply Tooted in pur nature . " How different is the impression of a moonlight night . The mild light of the moon ' s disk , unlike that of the sun , does not oblige us to lower our eyes , but rather draws them upwards to Heaven . At the same time , it so far overpowers the light of stars that they no longer attract our . notice , and sometimes become almost invisible , . Mopnlightalso shows just so much of earth as to . prevent our entirely forgetting it ; thus , Fancy and Thought , rapt in mild enthusiasm , hover indefinitely between Heaven and Earth . , :
" Let us npw consider the forms which this original view assumes m the different degrees bf development of the human mind . We can easily fancy ihe impressio ^ bf a starlight night on the mind bf uncivilized man ; the expansive vatfltprtsSJg' Vtbov ^ -the surrounding woods and mountainSj embraces all that is known to him of the earth ' s surface . His ideas of measurement ares indeed far too limited to grasp the expanse of Heaven : and yet it is the mpst imposing object he knows j the stars to him are only points of light , but the clearness and purity of that light is not without its influence . The contrast between the bright vault of heaven and the dark earth , the silence , and the accondpanyin g repose of mind , are so familiar to our senses , that we are none of us strangers to the impression .
" Let us now imagine a man whose powers of intellect and observation are perceptibly developed ; his conception of the immensity of the heavens will have proportionately increased . He has noticed particular stars , which he again recognises , and some distinguished groups more especially attract his attention : he has watched them over distant mountain summits , and as he advanced , perceived how their remoteness to each other seemed to increase , while their distance from him remained the same ; this distance must consequently be so immense , that tho journey he has made can bear no comparison with it . He now therefore has a greater standard t > y which to take his measurements : this enlarges his conception of the extent of the heavens . He observes that all terrestrial lights grow feebler and feebler the farther they are removed from us , nnd at a comparatively small distance they totally disappear , But tho lights of heaven which ho knows , aro many times more distant than tho farthest hills , yet remain as pure and clear as if they belonged to a different order of things . He has arrived at these conclusions by observation and reflection , but tho recollection of tho results follow him in those hours in which he quietly resigns himself to tho great impression of
nature . " We will now imagine one so far advanced as to havo acquired a certain knowledge of astronomy , as much as we may suppose was the case with the Chaldceans , and tho aspect of the heavens increases in magnitude and completeness . He now knows that among the lessor stars , somo wander in a pre-ordained path , while others aro fixed in tho vault of heaven ; and ho knows that these , as well as tho sun and moon , havo a regulated course . Tlie uninterrupted 6 bservations of successive races have led to somo knowledge of tho unequal distances of these wandering bodies , but wo may feel suro that ho docs not recapitulato all tho knowledge which has resulted from tho inquiries of tho human race , and which Is in some part his own , whenever ho resigns himself to the impression which tho heavenly bodies produco ; yet , still thoso discoveries are as present to his contemplation as tho occurrences of every-day life aro to men in general . His scalo of lneamiremont is far larger than on tho former position ho hold ; tho remoteness of tno moon seems to him now enormous compared to all tho distances on earth , and yc which tlio
very small in comparison with thoso of tho other heavenly bodies boforo moon frequently pnssen , and which it conceals from our view . It will be ovidon , to every ono how tho idea of tho magnitudo of tho heavens has increased m size and in importance ; and added to thin , there is now , tho still grander idea ot an order existing among tho heavenly movements , which , is also , full of boneitcnij results to our . earth . It in tho thought of a reasonable guidance , independent o ^ tho earth ; of a higher Reason manifested in accordance with tho condition < ^ human naturo , though' not devoid of oxtrnneouH olomonts . From ^ tho previm position on which wo ntood , imagination filled up tho onipty « iK | co in know'lc < g > by tho idea that a Sun-god guided tho flaming car of Day across tho HeavonH , tn ho might ropoHo at night on tho lap of Ocean . Tho moon traversing tho vatuc hoavon wan also doilicd . These idena . yield at a vory early stago of iwtronom j ^ ecionco , though they linger long among the multitude ; and not only am ° nff ignorant , but ovon with those who Imvo received somo education , wnicli 1 IMM \ . , may not havo included a diligent study of the heavens . The idea , on tlio 0 hand , hae not yot rewhed th . o unity of a divino guidanco ; each of tho wancic
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 24, 1852, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24041852/page/18/
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