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iw it to subiucate ; we behold it incorporating itself by degrees into the unhappy 5 £ whE ? ah" subdued : we Bee itUving , walking , and breathing , . with ja man who lives walks , and breathes , and thus communicates to it his character , his own SMduaiity . In Angelo , crime is only a vague abstraction , connected en passant wttha proper name , with no other motive than the necessity of making that perrn commit a certain action which shall produce a certain position , from which the Set intends to derive certain effects . Angelo is not presented to us at the outset STher as a rascal or as a hypocrite ; on the contrary , he is a man of exaggeratedly severe virtue . But the progress of the poem requires that he shou d become criminal , and criminal he becomes ; when his crime is committed , he will repent ; ot it Is soon as the poet pleases , and will find himself able to resume without effort the natural course of his lifewhich had been interrupted only for a moment .
, ' " Thus in Shakspeare ' s comedy , the whole of human life passes before the eyes of the spectator , reduced to a sort of p hantasmagoria—a brilliant and uncertain reflection of the realities portrayed in his tragedy . Just when the truth seems on the point of allowing itself to be caught , the image grows pale , and vanishes ; its part is played , and it disappears . In the Winters Tale , Leontes is as jealous , san guinary , and unmerciful as Othello ; but his jealousy , born suddenly from a mere caprice at the moment when it is necessary that the plot should thicken , loses its fury and suspicion as suddenly , as soon as the action has reached the point at which it becomes requisite to change the situation . In Cymbeline—which , notthe is
withstanding its title , ought to he numbered among the comedies , as piece conceived in entire accordance with the same system—Iachimo ' s conduct is just as Tcnavish and perverse as that of lago in Othello ; but his character does not explain his conduct , or , to speak more correctly , he has no character ; and , always ready to cast off the rascal ' s cloak , in which the poet has enveloped him , as soon as the plot reaches its term , and the confession of the secret , which he alone can reveal , becomes necessary to terminate the misunderstanding between Posthumus and Imoo-en , which he alone has caused , he does not even wait to be asked , but by a spontaneous avowal , deserves to be included in that general amnesty which should
form the conclusion of every comedy . " Again : — , . "It is utterly futile to attempt to base any classification of Shakspeare s ^ works on the distinction between the comic and tragic elements ; they cannot possibly be divided into these two styles , but must be separated into the fantastic and the leal , the romance and the world . The first class contains most of his comedies ; the second comprehends all his tragedies , —immense and living stages , upon which all things are represented , as it were , in their solid form , and in the place which they occupied in a stormy and complicated state of civilization . In these dramas , the comic element is introduced whenever its character of reality gives it the right of admission and the advantage of opportune appearance . Falstaff appears in the train of Henry V ., and Doll Tear-Sheet in the train of Falstaff ; the people surround the kings , and the soldiers crowd around their generals ; all conditions of society , all the phases of human destiny appear by turns in juxtaposition , with the which naturall
nature which properly belongs to them , and in the position they y occupy . The tragic and comic element s sometimes combine in the same individual , and are developed in succession in the same character . The impetuous pre-occupation of Hotspur is amusing when it prevents him from listening to any other voice than his own , and substitutes his sentiments and words in the place of the things which his friends are desirous to tell him , and which he is equally anxious to learn ; but it becomes serious and fatal when it leads him to adopt , without due examination , a dangerous project which suddenly inspires him with the idea , of glory . The perverse obstinacy which renders him so comical in his dealings with the boast ful and vainglorious Glendower , will be the tragical cause of his ruin when , in contempt of all reason and advice , and unaided by any succour , he hastens to the battle-field , upon which , ere long , left alone , he looks around and sees nought but death . Thus we find the entire world , the whole of human realities , reproduced by Shakspeare in tragedy , which , in his eyes , was the universal theatre of life and truth . " These extracts arc sufficient to give the tone of the whole . Ilia sagacity may be inferred from his accurate perception of tko want of genuineness of the " Doubtful Plays , " even including " Titus Andronieus "—plays which Schlegel— " that great critic ' . " —unhesitatingly pronounced to bo genuine . To be sure , Schlegel is naively dull enough " not to understand" what Ben Jonson meant by " Marlowe ' s mighty line , " a confession which considerably affects confidence in his sagacity .
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l . Ttri * 17 , 1852 . ] THE LEAD E R . 687
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HERBERT SPENCER ' S THEORY OF POPULATION . A Thcoru of Fopulation deduced from the General Jmw of Animal Fertility . l \ y irorboi-t Spilncor . John Chapman . This is a reprint of an article in the April number of the Westminster Review , and its very great importance- warranted the republication . it lias two distinct though necessarily connected claims on our attention : 1 st , us the enunciation of a physiological lnw of general fertility ; 2 nd , as a solution of the great population problem . That Malthus in repugnant to our moral feelings , and that such repugnance should warn us of some Haw in his argument , has over and over again been insisted on in these columns ; and it is with peculiar satisfaction we welcome every attempt to justify by rigorous science this verdict of the feelings on a point ho vital . JLot us , however , frankly at the outset declare , that although the general law enunciated by Mr . Herbert Spencer has not simply our assent , but that adherence which must come from having by our own researches by an independent path arrived at the same result , nevertheless its application to the great population question is by no means so clear and convincing to our minds an to his , and we await his fuller development of the views here briefly indicated . There is one important consideration ho has still to meet—viz ., that the domestication of animals has the indisputable result of iuereashuf their fertility . The wild dog has but one litter a-year ; the domesticated dog has two . The hare has but two or threes breeds a-year , and only three or four at a birth ; the domestic rabbit- breeds nearly every month , and with from five to nine at a time . The wild pig has but one furrow a-year of from eight to ten at a time ; the domestic pig has two farrows and often as many as fifteen at a time . Domesticated man isfilso far more prolific ; than the savage ; and in proportion as civilization reduces the whole human race to its rules , we may expect to wee a greater fertility , unless it can bo shown that causes now in opcraticn will counteract the tendency to increuse . The question , however , ia too large to bo argued
" The attribute which thus distinguishes the lowest organic from the highest inorganic bodies , similarly distinguishes the higher organisms from the lower ones . It is in the greater complexity of the co-ordination—that is , in the greater number and variety of the co-ordinated actions—that every advance in the scale of being essentially consists . And whether we regard the numerous vital processes carried on in a creature of complex structure as so many additional processes , or whether , more philosophically , we regard them as subdivisions of the two fundamental ones oxidation and accretion—the co-ordination of them is still the life . Thus ,
here and our present purpose is with the p hysiological law enunciated in the early part of this essay and forming the basis of the theory . It is necessary to begin with the admirable definition of Lite which , rules the whole of his speculation : — " Life may be defined as—the co-ordination of actions . The growth ot a crystal , which is the highest inorganic process we are acquainted with , involves but one action—that of accretion . The growth of a cell , which is the lowest organic process , involves two actions—accretion and disintegration—repair and waste—assimilation and oxidation . Wholly deprive a cell of oxygen , and it becomes inertceases to manifest vital phenomena ; or , as we say , dies . Give it no matter to assimilate , and it wastes away and disappears , from continued oxidation . Evidently , then , it is in the balance of these two actions that the life consists . It is not in the assimilation alone ; for the crystal assimilates ; neither is it in the oxidation alone ; for oxidation is common to inorganic matter : but it is in the joint maintenance of these—the co-ordination of them . So long as the two go on togetherlife continues : suspend either of them , and the result is—death .
turning to what is physiologically classified as the vegetative system , we see that stomach , lungs , heart , liver , skin , and the rest , must work in concert . If one of them does too much or too little—that is , if the co-ordination be imperfect—the life is disturbed ; and if one of them ceases to act—that is , if the co-ordination be destroyed—the life is destroyed . So likewise is it with the animal system , which indirectly assists in co-ordinating the actions of the viscera by supplying food and oxygen . Its component parts , the limbs , senses , and instruments of attack or de ' fence must perform their several offices in proper sequence ; and further , must conjointly minister to the periodic demands of the viscera , that these
may in turn supply blood . " We find , then , that the co-ordination of actions is a definition of Life , which includes alike its highest and its lowest manifestations ; and not only so , but expresses likewise the degree of Life , seeing that the Life is high in proportion as the co-ordination is great . Proceeding upwards , from the simplest organic cell in which there are but two interdependent actions , on through the group in which many such cells are acting in concert , on through the higher group in which some of these cells assume mainly the respiratory and others the assimilative functionproceeding still to organism s in which these two functions are subdivided into many others , and in which some cells begin to act together as contractile fibres ; next to organisms in which the visceral division of labour is carried yet further , and in which many contractile fibres act together as muscles—ascending again to
creatures that combine the movements of several limbs and many bones and muscles in one action ; and further , to creatures in which complex impressions are followed by the complex acts we term instinctive—and arriving finally at man , in whom not only are the separate acts complex , but who achieves his ends by combining together an immense number and variety of acts often extending through years we see that the progress is uniformly towards greater co-ordination of actions . Moreover , this co-ordination of actions unconsciously constitutes the essence of our common notion of life ; for we shall find , on inquiry , that when we infer the death of an anhnul , which does not move on being touched , we infer it because we miss the usual co-ordination of a sensation and a motion : and we shall also find , that the test by which we habitually rank creatures hig h or low in the scale of vitality is the degree of co-ordination their actions exhibit . "
The nervous system as the great centre of co-ordinating power is that to which he directs his main attention ; and according to its greater or less development must , he . thinks , the fertility be less or greater : — " If organic life be the co-ordination of actions , then an organism may be primarily divided into parts wliO . se actions arc co-ordinated , and parts which co-ordinate them—organs which are made to work in concert , and the apparatus which makes them so work—or , in other words , the assimilative , vascular , excretory , and muscular systems on the one hand , and the nervous system on the other . The justness of thin classification will become further apparent , when it is remembered that by the nervous system alone is the individuality established . Uy it all parts are made one in purpose , instead of separate ; by it the organism is rendered a conscious whole—is enabled to recognise its own extent and limits ; and by it an ;
all injuries notified , repairs directed , and the general conservation secured . lhe more ' the nervous system is developed , the more reciprocally subservient do this components of the body become—the less can they boar separating . And that which thus individuates many parts into one whole , must be considered as more broadly distinguished from the parts individuated , than any of these parts from each other . . Further evidence- in support of this position may be drawn from the fact , that as we ascend in the scale of animal life , that is , as tin ; co-ordination of actions becomes greater , we find the co-ordinating or nervous system becoming more and more definitely separated than the rest ; and in the vertebrate or highest type of structure we find the division above insisted on distinctly marked . "
Without touching upon the various points by which he endeavours to prove the law he would enunciate , wo may sum up in this formula , " Reproduction being antagonistic to Hell-maintenance , the matter which would otherwise go towards the formation of the individual being used for the reproduction of the race ; and self-maintenance being essentially dependent on co-ordinating power , the law is that : The fertility of an animal is inversely in the ratio of the formation of nervous tissue . For a number of reasons too lengthy to be here wlafed , we prefer the formula wo . ourselves arrived at , viz . :
Reproduction is inversely in the ratio ( f the formation of tissue . Wo Hay tissue generally in preference to ' the special nervous tissue , because in the iir « t place the law will not otherwise include vegetable reproduction , which a law must include ; and moreover by thus generalizing we get rid of many facts which seem to contradict the law when it is made specially applicable to nervous tisane . For example , the overfeeding of unimala makes them / sterile ; yet it does not iucreaao their
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 17, 1852, page 687, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1943/page/19/
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