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«j 1A THE LEABEB. [No. 388, July 25, 185...
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INDIGENOUS KACES OF THE EARTH. Indigenou...
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Suicides.—Mr. Carter, Coroner For East S...
The reader will probably consider that the celebrity of these Memoirs must have been mainly owing to the fact of mathematicians and astronomers so rarely writing in a popular style that when one of this class ventured on doin ^ so he was welcomed with applause such as would never have greeted -iiless grave personage . In truth they are very flimsy . The attempts at liveliness are mediocre . Not a wise thought nor a good epigram have we noticed in the volume ; but many platitudes and many poor efforts ^ at spriohtliuess . Heavy , these biographies are not ; bufc-neither are they solid . Something of the mediocrity may be owing to the translation which is everyway unworthy , not only of the respected names on the title-page , but unworthy of issuing from such a house as the Longmans . The French . idioms everywhere distress us , awkwardly appearing through the English . iSTor is this the worst defect . The translation is at times ludicrously inexact . We
have not the original at hand , or we could , doubtless , with ease find many examples of positive blundering , as the reader will believe when hearing that Arago speaks of the cock and paraphrastically calls him ce roi de la basse-cour , which is rendered « this king of the lower court . ' Elsewhere , alluding to tue vortices of Des Cartes , he is made to say the ' whirlwinds of Des Cartes '—a piece of culpable carelessness , since we cannot suppose it to be ignorance . Again , Fourier is said to have done a public service to France by attaching himself personalty to the sanguinary proconsul , and makino- him pass for a madman . ' What the original may be , we know not , but it ts clear this is a gross blunder ; probably the phrase is , s ' altachant personnellement au proconsul . We could multiply such glaring instances ; but these suffice .
With many serious defects this volume is , however , not without its interest , inasmuch as it gives rapid sketches of Bailly , Herschell , Laplace , Fourier , Carnot , Malus , Fresnel , Young , and Watt . The exposition of their discoveries is lucid ; and the discoveries are so thrilling that the narratives cannot be read unmoved . We shall not touch upon the various points either of excellence or failure in these Memoirs , because our space will be better employed in extracting a passage wherein Lacaille contrasts tbe anxious labours of the modern astronomer with the easy speculations of the ancient ; a passage which is a picture , and one the reader will be pleased to contemplate : — The Chaldceans , luxuriously reclining on the perfumed terraced roofs of their houses in Babylon , under a constantly azure sky , followed with their eyes the general and majestic movements of the starry sphere ; they ascertained the respective displacements of . the planets , the moon , the sun ; they noted the date and hour of eclipses ; they sought out whether simple periods would not enable them to foretel these magnificent phenomena a long time beforehand . Thus the Chaldseans created , if I may be allowed the expression , Contemplative Astronomy . Their ohservations were neither numerous nor exact ; they both made and discussed them without labour and without
trouble . . Such is not , by a great deal , the position of modern astronomers . Science has felt the necessity of the celestial motions being studied in their minutest details . Theories must explain these details ; it is their touchstone ; it is by details that theories become confirmed or fall to the ground . Besides , in Astronomy , the most important truths , the most astonishing results , are based on the measurement of quantities of extreme minuteness . Such measures , the present bases of the science , require very fatiguing attention , infinite care , to wliich no learned man would bind himself , were he not sustained and encouraged by the hope of attaining some capital determination , through . an ardent and decided devotion to the subject . The modern astronomer , really worthy of the name , must renounce the distractions of society , and even the refreshment of uninterrupted > sleep . In our climates , during the inclement season , the sky is almost constantly overspread by a thick curtain of clouds . Under pain of postponing by some centuries the verification of this or that theoretic point , we must watch the least clearing off , and avail ourselves of it without delay . ¦ _
.... A favourable ¦ wind arises and dissipates the vapours in tlie very direction where some important phenomenon will manifest itself , and is to last only a few seconds . The astronomer , exposed to all the transitions of weather ( it is one of the conditions of accuracy ) , the body painfully bent , directs the telescope of a great graduated circle in haste upon the star that he impatiently awaits . His lines for measuring are a spider ' s threads . If in looking he makes the mistake of half the thickness of one of these threads , the observation is good for nothing ; judge what his uneasiness must be : at the critical moment , a puff of wind occasioning a vibration in the artificial light adapted to his telescope , the threads become almost invisible ; the star itself , whose rays reach the eye through atmospheric strata of various density , temperature and refrangibility , will appear to oscillate so much as to render the true position definition of the
of it almost unassignable ; at the very moment when extremely good object becomes indispensable to ensure correctness of measures , all becomes confused , either because the eye-piece gets steamed -with vapour , or that the vicinity of the very cold metal occasions an abundant secretion of tears in the eye applied to the telescope : the poor observer ia then exposed to the alternative of abandoning to some other more fortunate person than himself the ascertaining a phenomenon that will not rocur during his lifetime , or introducing into the science results of problematical correctness . Finally , to complete the observation , he must read off the microscopical divisions of the graduated circle , and for what opticians call indolent viaidn ( the only sort that the ancients ever required . ) must substitute strained vision , which in a few years brings on blindness . Here is another passage on THIS UTXLJCNE 89 . AND GREATNESS OF BIAN . When by measurements , in which tho evidence of the method advances equally with the precision of the results , the volume of tho earth ia reduced to tho millionth part of the volume of the sun ; when the sun himself , transported to tho region of ttie ataru , takes up a very modest place among the thousands of millions of those bodies that the telescope has revealed to us ; when the 38 , 000 , 000 of leagues which separate the earth from the sun have become , by reason of their comparative flmallnoss , a baso totally insufficient for ascertaining tho dimensions of tho visible universo ; when ¦ even the swiftness of tho luminous rays ( 77 , 000 leagues per second ) barely suffices for tho common valuations of science \ when , in short , by a chain of irresistible proofs , certain stars have retired to distances that light could not travorae in loss than a million of years ; wo fool as if annihilated by such Immensities . In assigning to man , and to tho planet that he inhabits , so small a position in the material world , Astronomy acems really to have made progress onfcr to bumble us . But if , on tho other hand , we regard tho subject from tho opposite point of vlow , and reflect on tho extreme feebleness of tho natural moans by tho holp of which so many groat problems have been attacked and solved j if wo consider that to obtain - and uoasuiro tbs greater part of tho quantities now forming tho basis of astronomical
computation , man has had greatly to improve the most delicate of his organs , to add immensely to the power of his eye ; if-we remark that it was not less requisite for him to discover methods adapted to measuring very long intervals of time , up to the precision of tenths of seconds ; to combat against the most microscopic effects that constant variations of temperature produce in metals , and therefore in all instruments ; to guard against the innumerable illusions that a colil or hot atmosphere , dry or humid , tranquil ° or agitated , impresses on the medium . through which the observations have inevitably to ° bemade ; the feeble being resumes all his advantage : by the side of such wonderful labours of the mind , what signifies the weakness , the fragility of our body ; what signify the dimensions of the planet , out residence , the grain of sand on which it has happened to us to appear for a few moments !
«J 1a The Leabeb. [No. 388, July 25, 185...
« j 1 A THE LEABEB . [ No . 388 , July 25 , 1857 . ¦ 9 A- ^** " ¦ ¦ - ; '¦ : — ¦ —~ - ~ ' " ¦ Tmi Iii ' im ' ii — 1 ¦ in ** Y ¦—— - — - ^ ~ —— 7 i ~~ "
Indigenous Kaces Of The Earth. Indigenou...
INDIGENOUS KACES OF THE EARTH . Indigenous Races of the Earth ; or , A ew Chajiters of Ethnological Inquiry . Trubner . Five gentlemen have contributed the materials of this massive book— -Alfred Mauiy , Aitkens Meigs , Francis Pulszk y , Jr O . Nott , and George Gliddon . There are also communications from l . eidy and Agassiz . We have here the nucleus of a school , for although the several writers do not concur on all points , they stand generally apart from orthodox ethnological theories . The oreat principle defended is that of a diversity of races and types of languages . In support of the hypothesis we find a remarkable concentration of ( acts o-athered from all ages and literatures , and of inferences derived from monuments , natural remains , and physical analogies , which may not be satisfactory as evidence but which are certainly interesting , and reflect the highest
, credit upon the inquirers . The subject under analysis is comparatively new to science ; it is one that lies within the vaguest outlines ; it is a study of fvlimpscs and shadows ; it is involved in mythic records and conjectural resemblances . Absolutely , we believe , it is to this moment as impossible to produce a correct classification of languages as to trace the dispersions of mankind , or to discover the birthplace of humanity—in the bed of the Atlantic , or among the peaks of Caucasus . For example , following the trail of Mr . Crawfurd ' s comparative philology , what result have we in connexion with the Malay and Polynesian families ? That the substratum of common words is merely supposititious , that the links are nowhere certain , and that all research is lost between the Pacific Ocean and the deserts of Tartary . The Malay Islands , resting upon the same great platform as the continent of Asiasuggest questions to geology which , when answered , may offer , a
, gi-ound for the v steps of the ethnologist . " What do we see of these races m their ancient history ? A migration round the south-eastern valleys and ranges of Asia , the noniades of the plains becoming nomades first of the jungle and then of the sen , and lastly , a long eclipse , after which the Pelasgie nation is discovered scattered and blended with another of the curly-haired type . It may be that the blood of three races mingled ia the oriental islands—the jDravidian and Oceanic tribes , and the Thibeto-Chinese ; ' but what real value can be assigned to the faint analogies caught by Mr . . Logan between the Australian and Dravidian tongues ? ¦ \ Ve are inclined to ° attribute more importance to the testimony of JMr . Gliddon ' s iconogra-phs , to his arguments in behalf of certain ethnological propositions deduced from antique monuments ; but even here muc h of the evidence fails under scrutiny . First , Mr . Gliddon took a portrait of Lycurgus ,
which he believed authentic . M . Pulszky may be cited as a sound critic of such sin eikon . The portrait was borrowed from Pouqueville , who took it from Ennio Quirino Visconti . It cannot be traced to an earlier date . Ia fact , the old stone , according to the confession of the Italian iconogriipbisfc himself , was- baptized JLycurgus upon conjecture . Even had the bust been authentic , it might have been an ideal ; it was at all events heroic , and is of no significance whatever to the ethnologer . Pouqueville also supplied Mr . Gliddon with a bust of Alexander the Great . This was found in 1 779 , nearTivoli ; the inscription proves it not to have been contemporary witU the conqueror ' s life . The portrait of Eratosthenes , the favourite of Uunsen , is purely imaginative . That of Hannibal is utterly untrustworthy ; that of indecisive commend
tho Numidian Juba rests upon the most authority . We M . Pulszky ' s general treatise on iconography to the attention of artstudents . That of Dr . Meigs , on cranial characteristics , is interesting , and appears convincing j but we are not qualified to judge it . Languages arc traced to several stocks by Mr . Maury . In this respect , he stands on tlio same ground with the students of physical science , fortifying his theory by analyses of African , Arinn , and Mongolian typos , the first vague and poor , the second rich and irregular , the third flexible and simple . This view , of course , adapts itself to JMr . Gliddon's on Polygenism , in which he discuses the zoological , theological , and metaphysical dogmas of the old school . At this point , especially , ethnological science is merged in tho widest speculation , in which lluiuboldt , JBunsen , Knox , JUuller , and Blujneliurd winder ,
convinced yet unconvincing . Mr . Gliddon's easily on tho Monogenisls and the Polygenisls is in fact a xovy altlo though irregular and intempei'iitet contribution to an ur ^ umenfc which , we tiro ui ' ruuJ , centuries will not determine . He bu » iuH with the question whether Adam was the name of the first man , und hits out , right und left , with long thrusts of personal allusion at his predecessors . Wo will take no part in his quarrel with JBunsen , nor can we pretend to respect certain authorities upon whom he implicitly relies as occupying ' the foremost rank . ' S \ e quote an example ! of his method , which points ulso to some of hid principal conclusions : —
It appears to bo tho unavoidable fato of every lnimnn science to pass throng" ft phusa of empiricism . IS .. oh one , ut aoino time or other , is regurdud uh a Hurt ol ' univcraul puiiuouu ooinpotcnt to huul nil controversial sores . Suoli at this niuuiuiit , throughout Anglo-Su . \ ondom , id tho popular opinion concerning ' Philology : ' lust rofugo for alarmed Protestant Monogouistn , —at tho very time ¦ whon Conthionlul scholarship bus stepped into a higher ephoro of linguistic philosophy , which alruudy i'ooognizoa tho total inadequacy of pldlofogy ( or other scie , noo ) to eolvo tho dilemma whether humanity originates in ono human pair , or has emanated from a p lurality of zoological gontros . Philology , instoad of being athnoloyp ^ ia only ono iiiatniinouc , if even a moat precious ono , out of muny other tools indiaponsablo iu ethnological i'osoflrchoa . Tho powora of science tormud 'la lingulstlquo' aro not infinite ) oven supposing correct knowledge had as yot boon obtained of oven ono half tho tongues spoken over tho face of tho earth ; or that it wore ia tho capacity of ouo man tu
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 25, 1857, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25071857/page/18/
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