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out to be no other than our friend Fhcabas , the absence of whose shining face we have lately had so much occasion to lament ,. Twice does he , Phoenix or Phoebus , perform figurative duty : at p . 40 , celestially as Sun—Dwindling into a daily grave Perennial Phoenix of the earth . J ^ ad once again terrestrially at p . 75 , if not son , at least as heir to a Lord Obho , deceased— Gay luminary prone to rise , Phoenix of Dives obsequies . ^ A . nd more ; by metamorphose more marvellous than a Malaprop could conceive , grows all at once , and at the sapae time , into a triune gentleman ; for -we are told—^ He is the Lucifer of men , The Saturn of historic pen , A . Daniel in a lion ' s den !
JVehave learnt moreover that—Man is but dust when he is dead , said that there is a " moral" as well as a liquid gore ; the poet informing ois that Moments there are , when murd ' rers feel The taint of poison , thrust of steel , Writhing in streams of moral gore , Worse than their victim writhed before . The fable -belongs to the same school of originality . "We renew acquaintance with the Hugos and Othos , Lauras and Allans , heavy fathers and antique sons-in-law , dutiful daughters and lawless lovers , eligible and ineligible , and vice versa , of immortal , poetastic memory , done into intolerable verse . Lord Hugo has land and a daughter , and as every lord , of course , has a right to do with his own as pleaseth him , Laura , to the loss of Allan , takes Otho for worse : —
. Six months , then Midsummer supreme , " Gilded the world with golden beam ; And all seemed happy save the maid , To Otho ruthlessly betrayed . Unhappy Lady Otho ! Meanwhile , or later , for the unities suffer as much as the lovers , Allan , whose sin was lackland , and who in fashionable variance would be termed a scorpion , becomes misanthropic and professionally , like all rejected lovers of the turned-down-collar school of romance , a seaattorney . Bat to mate a , long story short , Allan turns up again at the immemorial banquet , kills Otho , who , before he dies , does ditto to the maiden spouse ; . and the epic , probably to illustrate the poetic signification of " moral gore , "" Hinds up by general massacre and moral . Here is the moral , which we hope may be profitable to all perplexed Lauras having-to choose between the eligible and ineligible of matrimony : — Better to slumber in the grave , Than be a tyrant ' s married Blave !
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MILLER'S ELEMENTS OF CHEMISTRY . Elements of Chemistry . TJieoretiecd and Practical . By "William AlleaMiller , M . D ., F . R . S . Part . I . Chemical Physics . J . W . Parker . Beside the many treatises on Chemistry published with precipitation , and without either very definite ideas respecting the wants of the public or very accurate acquaintance with the science they pretend to expound , a few good solid works can be named which deserve the encouragement due to real labour and real merit . Dr . Miller ' s Elements promises to take its place amono the few . It is a conscientious book ; not hastily compiled , but the
direct product of thought -and teaching . This is shown in the illustrative examples , which are remarkable , not only as being good illustrations , but as Glutting the beaten track of previous writers . Everv reader of scientific treatises is aware of the fatiguing iteration with which one writer after another repeats the old examples . Dr . Miller saturates Lis book with new examples , which givo freshness to his pages and serve to impress old truths . In general the exposition is remarkably clear and simple ; and the very latest discoveries find their place here . Numerous woodcuts are added ; « od nothing is omitted which may facilitate the student ' s progress .
xTibere may seem something ungrateful in quarrelling with an author for spying . us matter which we confess to be valuable ; yet , although we should Se ^ aorry to spare a single chapter of this volume , we are compelled to pro-Botmce the whole volume a niistnke . The mistake is a mistake of Method , and shows how far we are in England from n steady conception of the true philosophy of science . The volume is devoted to Chemical rhysies—" a subject , " says Dr . Miller , " upon which mo elementary work has appeared in this country since the publication of the excellent treatise of the late Professor Daniel ; " a subject , we will ndd , which has no right whatever-to a special treatise ; for it is not Cheniistry at till . Specific Gravity , Elasticity , Cohesion , Adhesion , Diffusion of Liquids , Crystallisation , Light , Moat Electricity , and Magnetism , which make up the topics of this volume , belong to the science of Physics , and can only liy a vicious disregard of all Method be called chemical . They have their applications in Chemistry , but so have Mathematics . The Chemist must master the laws of Physios before he
proceeds in chemical investigations , hut ho must master many other things WOtfHy unchemical . [ For example , the different refractive power which sonic immtances exercise on Light is to the chemist an index of the nature of the ittbfttdnco ; ho must consequently study Light nnd its phenomena as one ot ifa preliminaries . Hut this is no more a " reason lor transp lanting from fffryaics a section on Light , and placing it in a treatise on Chemistry , . than ftarould bo for the introduction of a chapter on Arithmetic . Dr . Miller has 9 mm . u » . an outline of certain sections of the science of Physics—nn outline Web ,- « s we said , is admirably aketehod—but we cannot convert it into mmintyy by calling it Chemical Physica . It is not eheini « Ml at all . 'lhere ijfcH ^ e'been some nooesHity for instructing his pupils in thewe subjects , SP *» e our system of education recognises no need lor a gradual advance * HMft *<* ne science to another , and his pupils would for tho most part enter
the lecture-room quite innocent of Physics ; but what may be necessary with , pupils is not necessary in a Scientific Treatise , and we must regard it as a iserious error that Dr . Miller should have devoted a volume © firis Treatise to subjects not rigbtftuly belonging to it . This objection 5 s almost the only one we have to make ; and it is an objection which in no way interferes with the usefulness of the book . There are some minor questions of detail upon -which we might put in a demurrer ; for example , he states the law of chemrcal combination in Definite Proportions , thus : " In every tjhemical compound the nature and the proportions of its constituent elements are fixed , definite , and invariable . " Now this is
strictly true of Inorganic compounds , and strictly untrue of Organic compounds . It is true of a salt , but false of an anatomic element . Dr . Miller knows this as well as any one ; but in announcing the formula of Inorganic bodies he has left the Organic out of sight ; and hence his phrase " every chemical compound" becomes inexact . It may be said indeed that organic bodies are not properly speaking chemical compounds , and that the very indeterminateness of composition which characterises them raises them out of the class of chemical bodies ; and in this sense Dr . Miller ' s definition would be exact . But we do not think he has any such separation in Ins eye , because he announces , as a Third Part of his Treatise , an exposition of Organic Chemistry , thus identifying organic with chemical bodies .
We look forward to the continuation of this work as to one likely to present the best exposition of the present state of chemical science , and as such we call the attention of our readers to it .
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THE MONARCHY OF FRANCE . The Monarchy of France : its Rise , Progress , and Fall . By William Tooke , JF . R . S . Sampson Low and Son It has been said of Tacitus , il abregeait tout parce qn'il voyait tout ;—there is little danger of the application of this remark to William Tooke , Esq ., F . &-S . If we may judge by the work before us , the organ of Causality is by no means highly developed in this gentleman ' s cranium . He professes to tall all that need i > e told of the history of France , unless one desire to
make that subject his special and exclusive study . His object , he says , " has been to convey in this condensed form to the English reader as much , acquaintance with , the continued tide of public and political events in France , under its monarchy , as it may import him to acquire , with a due regard to the more important demands on his attention of professional readin" and research ; and of the large requirements of English history and biography in all their ramifications , not omitting the collateral claims of the continually increasing extent and interest of our miscellaneous literature . "
In pursuance of this laudable purpose Mr . Tooke has collected the dry bones of the past and set them up by the aid of wires in the form of a tolerably correct skeleton ; but there are no natural ligaments , no fibres , no blood vessels . As an aide-memoire of dates and proper names the book is not without its < u 6 e , but as to the causes and consequences of events , And the motives and characters of public men , it is wholly uninstructive . Though expressly founded on the ancient chronicles , this fat volume is meagre in the details that form their chief attraction , and is altogether devoid of the local colouring that imparts such a picturesque charm to those
time-honoured narratives . And it is precisely at those periods when the most diffuse information is desirable , that Mr . Tooke is the most « u < scmct and nnsuggestive . Thus , Charlemagne is disposed of in nine pages of large type , from which we learn little more than that in 779 this great monarch published " his Capitularies , requiring the payment of tithes , being the first legal endowment of them in France , according to Montesquieu . " Philip Augustus , indeed , is indulged with rather more space , but principally to record the unhappy fute of the "beauteous Agnes ; while for more important matters we are referred to Messrs . Capefigue ancl Gr . P . R . James . The separation of the royal lovers is thus pathetically described : —
The King had a last interview -with her , before her departure , in an apartment of tho palace , from whence were heard passionate sobs , vows , and even kisses . " As if to atone for this episode , the character of Louis IX . is summed up "in a few epithets , the illustration of which would occupy volumes" : — lie was pious , wise , just , brave , humane , and humblo ; of a morality above suspicion , and exemplary in the relations of son , husband , father , brother , aud friend . Should this be hold too high an osthnate of St . Louis , we would refer to his contemporary biographer , Joiaville , and to the unvarying tenor of libtory . The portrait of Henry IV . is thrown off in the same undiscriminati ng colours : —
In manner aud conversation Henry IV . exhibited tho utmost apparent frankness , combined with great tact and adroitness in never committing himself ; ho was brave , impetuous , humane , occasionally by impulse unjust , upon calculation of results ungrutoful , and constitutionally imperious and absolute . Maximilian de lierthune de Romy , Duke of Sully , is justly described as an *' honest and wise minister , friend , and counsellor , " and the writer of 44 tho best account of the character and actions of his master . " And yet it would seem from what follows that Mr . Tooke himself places no great confidence in Sully ' s statements ; for , after drily recording the assassination ol the king , he adds : — union of
It is said ho was occupied at the time in forming tho scliemo of a federal Europe , divided into lifioen states , to be called the Christum Republic : this suggestion does not rent vn any sujicient atrtho-ritt / . ll rests entirely on the authority of Henry the Fourth ' s favourite minister anil confidant , who has given " the best account- of the actions ol lua master . " In short , we are left in utter ignorance of what we wouiu wi&n to know , while we uru bored with thrice refuted aineo . lotos ami . inconsequential details . Louis XIV . was " the very concrete oi absolutism with no alloy . " JLiicholieu is chielly mentioned as the unsueoosHlul rival oi vx > rnrilfo . Mazarin > v « s » an ' astute Italian ; " Micho do l'llop . ta " a d . stmguishod judge , who died in disgrace ; " nnd the Fronde " an mexphoal , o name for an inexplicable object , " all the proceedings of which *«~ " » j £ j in the Memoirs of the Cardinal de Kete , and in scores of contemporary
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 7, 1855, page 655, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2098/page/19/
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