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Leader (1850-1860), 4th December 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 1164, Untitled Article

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      day , though mingled with some new species . He goes even further back , and summons history to the bar . Theophrastus and Herodotus are in the witness-box . Prom them we see that the corn , pomegranate , grape , dates , olives of our day , were the products of that day also . What then ? Unless tlie conditions of grototli have been removed , why should there be an alteration of growth ? The sun shines on the mud-banks of the overflowing jN"ile as ardently and as constantly as in days of yore . " He loved her then as now . " Wherever there is permanence of conditions there is permanence of result . The argument , therefore , that

      " If the vegetable kingdom has remained unaltered for more than 2000 years , it is in the highest degree probable that it was not subject to change long further back in historical time ; and , therefore , it is in this way also rendered exceedingly likely , though not strictly proved , that no netv species of plant has originated in the 7 iistorlcaI period , " seems to us wide of the mark , nay , demonstrably false . Let us consider it . The professor continues the passage with this avowal of the conditions being unchanged :- * -

      " If the vegetable kingdom has remained unchanged , this must have been the case with the climate also ; for climate and vegetation stand in such close connexion , that alterations of clknatal conditions must necessarily bring about changes in vegetation ; a total change when the climate is greatly altered ; a partial when the alterations are slighter . But there arc other reasons besides , which testify to the constancy of the climate . " The changes which the surface of the earth itself has undergone , through volcanic eruptions , elevations , earthquakes , altered course of rivers , the action of the sea on coast * , &c , are , taken as a whole , too inconsiderable to be taken into consideration when speaking of Nature at large .

      " We thus arrive to the remarkable conclusion , that the same nature which surrounds us , also surrounded our Pagan forefathers thousands of years ago ; that the same Nature in which the ancient Egyptians , Greeks , and Romans lived , also surrounds the Egyptians , Greeks , and Romans of the present day . " The answer is , If certain climatal conditions which produce certain organic forms remain permanent , the forms will be permanent also ; if the Mature surrounding us is in these respects the same as the INTature of the Egyptians , then Avill the corn , pomegranates , &c , be the same . Species are only produced by a specialization of the general into the particular , owing to some particular change in the conditions to which the organism has to be adapted ; and if you say that , in spite of its fifteen hundred varieties , the primitive crab-apple , from which they are all produced , nevertheless remains to testify to the "fixity of species "—if you choose

      to quibble , and call that a " variety" which , others would call a " species " ( the difference between species and varieties being only the difference between profound and superficial modifications ) , we ask you , Is a dog a different species from a serpent ? yet both are varieties of the vertebrate structure—the vertebral column remains permanent , because the general conditions to which it is adapted remain equally for the serpent , without any modifications , in the shape of appendages , as for the dog ; but although these general conditions corresponding to the general typo remain permanent , there have been particular conditions which in past times modified the general structure , and produced variations from the type ; just as in the geologic epochs the change in the climatal conditions produced flowering and fruit-bearing plants , without , however , preventing the existence of flower / ess plants . Professor Schouw says : —

      " The easiest way in which we can imagine the origin of now species , must be , either that an existing species assumes other characters through alteration . ; of the climate or soil , or that accidental deviations from the . normal type become constant through isolation . In this manner fixed , varieties are formed , which . sometimes deserve to he regarded- as sneci . es ; but in cases of this kind which present themselves , the result lias been brought ahout by the assistance oKcultioation ; so far as I am aware , we have no certain facts in regard to this point from natural conditions . " What fogginoss prevents men from seeing that the cultivation so much insisted on , is nolliing but a change in the conditions P To say , as is said hero , that we have no evidence from " natural conditions , " is asserting that Nature lias undergone no changes , Avlien the very fact of different

      results proves that there- must have been differences in the influence ! There can be no doubt that the differences we observe between species are very great , but these ; differences may hare had a common origin , just as all die oxides and carbonates have common origins in oxygen and carbon ; and if any man attentively considers the enormous differences produced through " a , series of progressive changes , which , starting from a structureless cell , passes through the forms of leaf , stein , stamen , pistil , < Ntc , he will not find it difficult , to conceive how ( . lie various 'modifications we name s / tecics , have arisen . A stamen in always a stamen , never a , leaf ; just , as much as a dahlia , is always a dahlia , never an aster ; yet in spile of the "fixity of form" ( no less ILvcd Ihaii l \\ c . famous " fixity of species , "

      admitting also its endless " varieties , " but always remaining a , leaf )—Micro . is no scientific botanist , now who doubts the truth of ( jJoctJie ' s discovery flint the stamen is only a modification of the leaf . To ( he argument that , a , ( ialilia i ' h never a cauliflower , we reply , a , leaf in never a , « lanien , never a , bud , never a need , but always a leaf ; the stamen always a , stamen , the bud always a , bud . It , is true the leaf will not- reproduce leaven , as dahlias reproduce dahlias , bill- that ( inference in the analogy does not , destroy it , ; one may call ( he leaf a hi / brid modification , in the reproductive sense . Tlit ? bud , however , if separated from the plant ,, will reproduce the plant , just , as dahlia , reproduces dahlia ,. The whole queHtion of species is bo confused by metaphysical assumptions , that no wonder men are foggy in their attempts to explain it . VVe have no H |> a , ce for moro than Micnc indications of our opinion .

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      Tin-: (! M ) isti < : k i-iI' ) ' : ok oiiaukks v . Tho dfoisti'r I ' . ' »/ , ¦ ofIhe ICiu / xror

      of his life on a throne , has always been an event which moralists and historians have delighted to consider ; and here , at last , we hare an erudite , elegant , unexaggerated , and sensible book , setting forth the story in all its details , and never once sacrificing the powerful effect of truth , to the factitious effect of " picturesqueness" or " point , " absurdly soug ht after by moderns . It is a perfectly charming book : the erudition is minute , without pedantry or dulness ; the style is quiet , elegant , unassumingly graphic . We commend it to a place on every historical s helf Who has not felt the desire to abdicate P We all of us occupy thrones *

      of greater or smaller significance in life ; we have all our parts to play , our crowns to bear as burdens or as triumphs ; and in moments of sadness , when health and hope are gone , when the elastic energy " which made ambition virtue , " has left us , we all wish that we could abdicate and retire to some solitude for repose . " O that I had the wings of the dove , to flee away and be at rest , " is the psalm of thousands , and wherefore not of kings and emperors ? If no monastery of Yuste is ready to receive us , we play the part out on the scene where we began it ; and read with something of envy the narrative of an emperor ' s retreat .

      Charles did not fly from his throne as emperors and monarchs have done in our day , terrified at then ? uprising subjects ; he stepped down from it with dignity , realizing a long-cherished plan , formed in hours of security and happiness . On the first aspect , there is something sorrowfully grand about the act ; if , on a second glance , we see collateral details which detract from its dignity , they only prove this life to be the " mingled yarn" of great and small , heroic and familiar we all know it to be . Thackeray , who loves to point with a quiet sarcasm to the reverse side of the tapestry of life , would delight in such a glimpse of the abdicated emperor as we have here : —

      " In this matter of eating , as in many other habits , the emperor was himself a true Fleming . His early tendency to gout was increased by his indulgences at table , which generally far exceeded his feeble powers of digestion . Roger Ascham , standing ' hard by the imperial table at the feast of golden fleece , ' watched with wonder the emperor's progress through ' sod beef , roast mutton , baked hare , ' after which ' he fed well of a capon , ' drinking also , says the fellow of St . John ' s , ' the best that ever I saw ; he had his head in the glass five times as long as any of them , and never drank less than a good quart at once of Rhenish wine . ' Eating was now the only physical gratification which he could still enjoy , or was unable to resist . He continued , therefore , to dine to the last upon the rich dishes , against which his ancient and trusty confessor , cardinal Loaysa , had protested a quarter of a century before . The supply of his table was a main subject of the correspondence

      between the mayordomo and the secretary of state . The weekly courier from Valladolid to Lisbon was ordered to change his route that he might bring , every Thursday , a provision of eels and other rich fish ( pescado grueso ) for Friday ' s fast . There was a constant demand for anchovies , tunny , and other potted fish , and sometimes a complaint that the trouts of the country were too small ; the olives , on the other hand , were too large , and the emperor wished , instead , for olives of Percjon . One day , the secretary of state was asked for some partridges from Gama , a place from -whence the emperor remembers that the count of Osorno once sent him , into Flanders , some of the best partridges in the world . Another day , sausages were wanted ' of the kind which the queen Juana , now in glory , used to pride herself in making , in the Flemish fashion , at Tordesillas / and for the receipt for which the secretary is referred to the marquess of Denia . Both orders were

      punctually executed . The sausages , although sent to a land supreme in that manufacture , gave great satisfaction . Of the partridges , the emperor said that they used to be belter , ordering , however , the remainder to be pickled . " The emperor ' s weakness being generally known or soon discovered , dainties of all kinds were sent to him as presents . Mutton , pork , and game were the provisions most easily obtained at Xarandilla ; but they were dear . Tho bread was indifferent , and noti c ing was good and abundant but chestnuts , the staple food of tho people . I Jut in a very few days the castle larder wanted for nothing . One day the count of Oropesa sent an offering of game ; another day a pair of fat calves arrived from ( lie archbishop of Zaragoza ; the archbishop of Toledo and the duchess of Frias were constant and munificent in their gifts of venison , fruit , and preserves ;

      and supplies of all kinds came at regular intervals from Seville and from Portugal " Luis Quixada , who know the emperor ' s habits and constitution well , helield with dismay these ; long trains of mules laden , us it were , with gout and bile . Ho never acknowledged the receipt of the good things from Valladolid without adding koi no dismal forebodings of consequent mischief ; and along with an order he sometimes conveyed n hint that it would lie much bettor if no means were found of executing it- ' if the emperor made a hearty meal without being the worse tor it , the mayordomo noted the fact with exultation ; and lie remarked with comp lacency majesty ' s fondness for plovers , which lie considered harmless . Hut his otliceof purveyor was more commonly exercised under protest ; and be interposed between his master and an eel-pie as , in other days , he would have thrown himself between the

      imperial person and ihe point of a Moorish lance . " The Knipcror wan a man , and u ' Fleming ; this love of ealing , though it may mar a pic ! tiro composed according to the "dignify <> f history , does not , really lessen tho effect . lie Avas in earnest ; had ho been acting a , part ., he would have preserved h \» " dignity" with more cart ; . We have ko much to borrow from this volume , that we must be sparing of our own reflections . . Lei- uh peep at the Umperor in bin monastery : " A great monarch , leaving of his own i ' rev . will his palace and the purple lor isaclielot . il and a ( tell , is ho fine a nt . utly , that , history , misled , nothing loath , by pujpit declamation , has delighted Io discover suehu model ascetic in the einporonit Yuste . ' His apartments , when prepared for his reception , ' says Sandoval , ' seemed rather to have been newly pillaged by the than for a great prince ; ihe

      enemy , walls were bare , except , in " his bed-chamber , which ' was liunff with black elotli , ; tho only valuable in the house were a i \ w pieces of plate of tho p lainest , kind ; liw drew , always black , wuh usually very old ; and he sat , in an old mm chair , with Im a , neat ,, and ' not , worth four icuIm . ' This picture , accurate in only two <> f the dist-iyW , is quite false in its general elloc . L The emperor ' s conventual abode , . jud ging by ij » ^ imcutory of its contents , wuh probably not- worse furnished than many <• H ! palaces in which his reigning dnys had been pawd . Ho was not surrounded »> Ynsle with the splendours of Iuh ' IiohI , of AugnbuiK ; but neither did the tnslnoiis o the . sumptuous l '' > 'W prevail at ( Ihcnt or Inimbruok , Vulsain or HcK'rv ' - *¦ liked blitek-cloth instead of arras , for his bedroom hangings ; but he had broiig ^ from Flanders nuit . n of rich tapestry , wrought with ligures , lundncnpeH , or Jlowci ..,

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      1164 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 4, 1852, page 1164, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1963/page/16/