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Ciftratttrt.
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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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Ciftratttrt.
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It is curious to observe the inaccurate estimates men form of the value of evidence . The unscientific mind is scarcely ever impressed by scientific so much as by personal or historical evidence . The testimony of the respectable Jones to a physical impossibility is of more value in ordinary eyes than the emphatic evidence of a scientific law . We had an amusing illustration of this not long ago . Our observations on Spontaneous Combustion were altogether unconvincing to a gentleman , who declared ,. " He didn ' t care what science taught , he , for his part , had heard of too many well-authenticated cases to doubt the fact of spontaneous combustion . He remembered reading , a few years ago , a . most circumstantial account of one
in—( credat Judccus !)—the Chelmsford Chronicle . " Here a newspaper statement of a marvel was thought of more value than the plain teaching of science , because the speaker could not realize the fact , that every law in science is the generalized expression of thousands of reiterated evidences ; and therefore , although the law may subsequently be resolved into some higher law , and may turn out to be not a law , but a large generalization , yet , nevertheless , before it could ever have been accepted as a law , it must have had evidence far surpassing that of the most " respectable" testimony , when that testimony is indirect , as it almost universally is in scientific questions—that is to say , when the testimony is not limited to a fact , but to a fact carrying a theory along with it , —such as are the facts of
clairvoyance , for example . The incidental defence which Charles Dickens has set up in the last number of Bleak House , for the truth of Spontaneous Combustion , is of too imposing an aspect for us to slight it , as we slighted our circumstantial acquaintance , and the importance of the question forces us to recur to it . He refers to five authorities . But in the first place against the authorities of the laws of combustion , no five , no five hundred writers will avail ; as long as the living body contains three-fourths of water to onefourth solid substance the Jiving- bodv will not flame , it must be dried before
that can take place , and when dried it is no longer living . In the second place , the authorities cited would not have weight in courts of science nowa-days , whereas Liebig distinctly says that in modern times no physician of any repute acquainted with the natural sciences has accepted the theory of spontaneous combustion . Nevertheless , as Mr . Dickens seems to have taken up this subject with his usual vigour , and desire to get at the truth , we will examine the evidence to which he refers , and report thereupon in
due course . Meanwhile we may put this much on record , that in no case we have read has there been any evidence whatever that the combustion was spontaneous , and Liehig asserts the same ; the evidence , such as it is , goes to prove that the man or woman was burnt to death , and burnt in some not obvious way ; but there is no evidence , absolutely none , to prove that this " not obvious way" was spontaneous combustion . The hypothesis is a suggestion to fill up the gap of our ignorance ; such as the " legends " which surround every unusual phenomenon .
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From Spontaneous Combustion to Mrs . Harriet Beeciier Stowe , the transition does not seem natural- —nor was it natural—it was forced by the accidents of contiguity . In our memoranda for the week We find an entry derived from American papers , that Mrs . Stowe is coming over to lOngland ; Avhether her purpose be one of merely visiting the land in which her reputation has grown with the rapidity of the protococcus nivalis , which in a single night will redden extensive tracts of snow ; or whether it be to gather materials for an English Uncle Tom , this present historian not knowing will not say .
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'HIM PHILOSOPHY OF 1 'OKTHY . Voctlcs : an J'lssai / on l ' oc / n / . My 10 . S . Ihillau . Smith , Klder , and Co _ Tins is a remarkable work—tho work of a scholar , a critic , a thinker . It contains many novel views and inueh excellent mailer . The style is fresh , independent , sharp , clear , < hh 1 often felicitous . Amidst Hie intricacies of his complex subject , Mr . Dallas moves with ( he calm precision of one who knows the labyrinth ; and il " we cannot accept his clue as that of I . Iie real Ariadne , we at least run say that no more suggestive work has come before us . To discuss the various positions of a , treatise like this would occupy a series of articles , und , unhappily , there sire too many works now crowding our / aide to ixwinifc such a , series . We will try to give hu «' Ii jui account of it sis will send tin * reader to examine it for himself . In tho Introduction , Mr . Dallas complains , and justly , of the exelusiveriess of all definitions of poetry . He desires one that will include every known species ; and he protests against the
DISTINCTION HKTWKKN OMNIUM AND TAMO NT . « It , it * maintained , however , by tumw , Unit between the HO-eaII < d poet and his fellow-man , or , in tho phrase of <; olorid o , between the limn of ^ 'iiiuH a nd tho man of talent , then ) i « a . difference not nioroly of degree , but ovou of lnnd- Th . u op .-nion is Ixiset with doubt and difficulty , aii < l is in faet an unfounded opinion . Hut t . how . who deny it an * placed in the very awkward position of g-ainmiyiiiK that of whidi r . oiilossedly thoy know nothing . If yon eannot underHhmd the dillemieo ltntwecn touch mid Hi ^ lit , you uuiHt have liren born blind : if you do not nee the csHontiul ( litVcioiu . 'i between geniim and talent , it , may be naid that you have not Ihhiu born u ^ luiiun . Whim lie , therefore , who layH claim to no other feelings and none othor powirn than tlumo common to Inn brethren . dur «*» givo hiw opinion , h «
may be told that in so doing he has begged the whole question , and that his metliinketb . must go for nothing , as not professing to be founded on a peculiar experience . The shortest way , then , of settling the point is by recalling the fact that men of undoubted genius , such as Johnson , when speaking of Cowley , of Pope , and of Reynolds ; Reynolds himself ; Thomas Gray , when he allows the possibility of a mute inglorious Milton ; and , in our own times , Thomas Carlyle—up hold that genius is but mind of greater strength and larger growth than ordinary , carried hither or thither—to poetry , to philosophy , or to action—with a fair wind , and unknown and
the tide of the age and a thousand chance currents , all more or less unknowable , but all under the eye and governance of that Almighty Wisdom which from the beginning foresees the end . Mind of such an order soon becomes alive to the power ' s with which it has been gifted ; and fearlessly trusting in the same , shaking off , not indeed the guidance , but the yoke of authority , and going forward in its own indwelling strength , utters and fulfils itself in works quickened and bedewed with that freshness commonly called originality . We may therefore conclude , with Wordsworth , that among those qualities which go to form a poet ' is nothing differing in kind from other men , but only in degree / "
Mr . Dallas here falls into a very common , if not universal , error—that of supposin g differences of kind are not always differences of degree . The phrase " difference of kind" marks a magnitude in the difference which separates it from that minor difference named " of degree . " The obverse is equally true , and thus , although the difference between an ape and a chimpanzee may only be one of degree , yet specific functions follow thereupon , as they do in the differences between ice , water , and steam ; so that when Mr . Dallas contrasts a man of genius with a man of talent , he contrasts men in . whom the magnitude of difference amounts to " difference of kind . He is inaccurate , therefore , in the absoluteness of the following statement : —
" . Poetry may be packed between the covers of a book , but we know that it had its being and home within the poet ' s bosom before he thus embodied , it in words and gave it an outward dwelling-place on paper . He felt it , and then he spoke out in words of fire . Now , although we may be unable to give such or any utterance to our feelings , we may be sure from reason beforehand , and are doubly sure from trial afterward , that the poet , as such , has no more , and no other , and not always even stronger feelings than ourselves ; and that therefore what marks out the poet , commonly so called , is not simply loftier feelings or brighter visions , but power to give these forth , and to make others see what he has seen , and feel what he has felt . We may not have to boast of the accomplishment of verse ; our muse may be Tacita , the silent one , beloved of Numa ; but those feelings of the poet which precede expression are shared with us and with all men . This truth may be gathered partly from the very use of words . We speak of the romance of childhood , of a romantic adventure , of the poetry of life in general : thus also Keats ,
making mention of what is in plain English the rapture of a kiss , says that the lips poesied with each other . As heat is found in all bodies , poetry dwells with quickening power in every man ' s soul ; but only here and there , not always , however , where it may be hottest , it breaks out into visible fire . " An illustration will probably convince him . There are men to whom music is rapture , and there are men to whom it is indistinguishable noise ; there are musicians , and those who cannotperceive a tune . These differences in the auditory power are surely differences of kind P We say tho one lias a faculty which the other has not ; both hear , but the hearing of ono
is so much more susceptible that a new faculty rises out of the intensity . What is said of music may be said of all the arts . It is not simply that the poet is gifted with a speech we have not ; his deeper susceptibilities endow him with corresponding power of expression . There are innumerable differences of degree in the susceptibility , from the dullest prosaism to the most impassioned poetry ; and when these differences assume a certain magnitude , we mark them by certain names , of which genius is the highest .
We are touching here upon ono of the fundamental points of the book ; the error , if error it be , lies at the basis of Mr . Dallas ' s speculations , and nearly all our differences from him would be found to arise directly or indirectly out of his not distinctly recognising the " difference of kind " ( or magnitude of degree ) which makes Art specifically Art . Ono excellent distinction , however , Ik ; has seen , and everywhere insisted on , that namely between the objective and subjective aspects of the thing named Poetry . The subjective aspect—the poetic feeling—tho susceptibility to certain emotions which originates Art and which responds
to it from the public—he names Poetry . The objective aspect—or the Art itself—he names J ' oc . sy or Song . In answer to the question , What is Poetry V he first couplers what in Poesy ? and looking to its " being ' s end and aim , " he deehres it to be Pleasure . This leads to a psychological discussion , occupying I 5 ook I ., on the nature of Pleasure , lie defines it as the harmonious and , unconscious activity of the soul . Within that , three luws are enfolded , the law of Activity , tlie law of Harmony , and the law of Unconsciousness . The philosophic reader will find matter in these chapters but wo must hurry on .
Hook the Second contains an examination of the Nature of Poetry . This is tantamount to asking , How is it that Poetry produces Pleasurer How does Art stimulate that "harmonious and unconscious activity of the soul" in a manner specifically diflerent from other objects P To answer this , Mr . Dallas rigorously draws upon the nature of pleasure itself ; and as correlative with its three laws of Activity , Harmony mid Unconsciousness , he sets forth the three Iuwh of Imagimition , Harmony and UnconscioiisnoHS , which create poetry . Pleasure being th <> concord produced in the mind while in activity , " poetic pleasure is the concord produced while the activity is charged more , or Ichs with imagination . I lie concord will be intensified , because of the power of imagination .
" Having Main co . iHidered in due order the three hws ,, f ,, «„ . ( , ry 4 )( i m Iooll , o tho result . In the First Hook wuu exan . ii . nl tin , lluturo ,, f Pleasure : in tho promint Hook has beon examined the nutun , of |'( U , ti « . IMmsiuv . 1 ' octie pleasure Iuih been shown to dilfer from other pleasure by \ H , ] UK ilmiKJlmiiv (> > Ho ,, ( , |» ,, „ , Nliortl y l «> dofmed to be Imatf . imtive PleHKure : , „„ , ; f , ;„ . ,,, „ , „ ,,,.,. <( f < h ( , , iw ' wonts wonubstitute a de . flmt . on , IWt . y will llu ,,. „„„¦„ full y 1 m . defined , Th » imaginative , harmonious , and nuooiuimouN uvtivilt / of tho soul " Book the Third doacondw to the objective aspect of poetry—viz ., pootry
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Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make Iaw 3—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review . .
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64 T H E L E A D E R . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 15, 1853, page 64, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1969/page/16/
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