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    reader will now be anxious to examine , from M . Herzen ' s point of the prospects of liberalism in Russia . Comparing the society of w in I 812 with that which he left in 1847 , hie heart " beats with joy . " was , at tbe former date , a society of malcontents , formed of dismissed a and of others , dissatisfied by nature ; but , a year before the ean conflagration , independent opinions had spread ; doctrines of reigned in extending circles , lie , first a professor , then an aulic llor , was again permitted to live in the old capital , and remarked the > f these tendencies upon the more earnest order of minds . Patriotism ; sia has usually been confined to a police-inspired flattery of the Goant or its works—styling Schuia the "Russian Manchester , " and St . burg the " Palmyra of the North . " Boulgarine wrote in the Northern railroad

    iat of one advantage likely to arise from the construction of a n St . Petersburg and Moscow he could not think without emotionperson mig ht then hear a Tc Deum for the Emperor in the morning an , and another , in the evening , at Moscow ! But Tchaadajeff , the ho wrote that Russia had a vacant past , an insupportable present , and re—that she was a hiatus in human intelligence , addressed himself irectl y to the sense of the reasonable classes , who understood what he and knew it to be partly true . The book was interdicted . Its sole ir was dismissed from his professorship , the favouring Review was sus-, Tchaadajeff , like Tasso , was pronounced mad , and forced by Nicholas a paper engaging to write no more . Every Saturday , during a year , er and a physician called at his door to make a report of his health , ivered fiftv-two sworn certificates of his lunacv . The Czar had been

    1 ; but the public had been disquieted , and continued to repeat his ihat Russia was as the gigantic Moscow Bell , which sank to the earth it had produced a sound—aiuute empire , asleep or dead . M . Ilerzen ier patriot , for he will not despair of the Commonwealth . £ ain from this narrative of persecution and exile a better idea of the ' ng system in Russia than from any previous work . It is rich in and authentic detail .

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    INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE ON POETRY . trtcissenschqfl in ihrem Kinjluss auf Put sic , ifrHy i-jn , Moral , und P / tifas'ijiftU : i Dr . Julius Frauenstudt . £ >• Nutt . a little book , though written by a German philosopher : a little book ry great subject , and written so well that we regret it was not larger . iluence of Science on Poetry , Religion , Morals , and Philosophy , is sd by Dr . Frauenstadt in temperate and philosophic style ; not , indeed , ich scientific knowledge , not with any novelty of ideas , but in very e sections full of suggestive-matter . an old cry that Science is destructive to Poetry ; a cry which finds its cent expression in Schiller ' s finest poem , Th < Gods of Greece , and in brated passage in Wallcnstein , so finely amplified by Coleridge in his ion : — A deeper import Lurks in the legend told my infant years Than lies upon that truth we live to learn . For fable is Love ' s world , his home , his birthplace : Delightedly dwells he ' rnong fays and talismans And spirits ; and delightedly believes Divinities , being himself divine . The intelligible forms of ancient poets , The fair humanities of old religion , The Power , the Beauty , and the Majesty That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain , Or forest by slow stream , or pebbly spring , Or chasms and wat ' ry depths ; all these have vanish'd . They live no longer in the faith of reason ! But still the heart doth need a language , still Doth the old instinct bring back the old names . is obvious that when the gods were dethroned by men of science ced Laws on their thrones ; when lightning was wrested from the f " thunder-delighting Jove , " and made an electric Hash , which coiiKl n away from the clouds by Franklin ' s conductor ; when Helios no Irove his chariot in quiet majesty Jrom east to west , and Hamadryad * to haunt the valleys , the Poetry which they had inspired must ily have died out . But as Dr . Frauenstadt asks , " Is there no otlur inimate nature besides that of gods and demigods ? " The an > wer iptory . Let the gods die : long live Poetry ! When Schiller onersays that " undeiucd Nature slavishly obeys the laws of gravitation , dead stroke of a pendulum "Gluic-h dem todtcu Soiling dor IV . iuk'Iuhr Dient . sie knock tiach doni ( . Scsctz dor Schwero Die ontgOttcrte Nutur—\ y poetically true , / . c . true as expressing a poet ' s regret . Nature is ess because the old Mythologies arc dead . Nature is animated by nciplcs , aud Poetry accepts those princip les as the ancients did da . If Ariosto were now to write his Orlando , he would not give ime journey of Astolfo to the Moon . That is clear . But would ame power of poetic representation which made Ariosto potent in the li century have enabled him to charm the nineteenth ? Because \\ y has destroy till tho theories men formed about tho moon , would it have destroyed the mental vigour which employed those theonos ryP Ie the poet u poet in virtue of tho materials which id And superstitions of his age furnish , or in virtue rather own great soul ? Tho same question applies to tho Antythology , so plaintively regretted by Schiller . Our poets can Jr uae that material . But if thtsy do not find abundant mijthe world before them , and in tho ' creeds and aspirations of their a secret is not that Science has destroyed Tootry , but that they are i . Frauenatadt lias nut his ungor on the point when he says that may destroy certain historical iorms of poetry by destroying the

    superstitious of historical times ; but it cannot touch the essence of poetry . We go even further . We say that not only is it incorrect to suppose that Nature is held to be lifeless because the old divinities no longer animate it , it is also incorrect to say that Science banishes the poetical element of Wonder . The feeling of Wonder remains , even when Mathematics have displaced Fancy , and when the laws of attraction and repulsion are substituted for the wills of deities . But the Wonder is transposed from the subjective to the objective , from Ignorance to Knowledge . Does any one suppose Herschel and Humboldt to have less awe and wonder at the celestial phenomena than was felt by Pythagoras and Ptolemy ? Science cannot destroy Poetry , although it must force Poetry to change its imagery , and adapt its creeds to the conceptions of the age . Destruction of error is not dangerous to Poetry , which seeks to embody the truths of every age . As long as the world is fair to look upon , as long as human hopes , human sufferings , and human struggles are present to the mind , there will be no lack of material for Poetry . Uut it is often said that the cultivation of science is destructive of that attitude of mind which permits Poetry to exercise its influence . This is plausible ; but the facts are utterly opposed to it . Never in the history of the world was Science so generally cultivated as now , and never was Poetry so much read . Arago does not hurt Lainartine , Liebig does not touch Heine , Owen leaves Tennyson undisturbed . Nay , the very striking example of Goethe is enough to g ive us pause in such a question . He was not simply the greatest poet of modern times , he was the most essentially modem of poets , and yet he was himself a scientific discoverer , one who opened new paths in science ; and even threw himself into a department of science—optics—the niost radically opposed to poetic treatment . There is , however , a radical distinction between the Scientific and the Poetic Intellect , considered as such ; and of this Dr . Frauenstadt seems to have no suspicion . The poet , whose method is representation , is forced to be vividly concrete ; he pictures objects to the mental eye with a vividness which sometimes surpasses reality , or which is equal to what reality produces on a mind exalted by passion . The man of science , whose method is abstraction , is forced to disregard the concrete j phenomena , is forced to push out of sig ht the ordinar y properties and sensible appearances of objects in order to fix his whole i attention upon some unobvious similarities lurking amid diversities ; fur only thus can he pass from Observation into Science . Take as an example Davy ' s discovery of the metallic bases of alkalies . To suppose that potash , lime , soda , \ c , were metailic , was in flat contradiction to the evidence of sense ; all the observation in the world would not have revealed the presence of the metals . The more he considered soda ^ as soda , the more impossible would the discovery have been . His success lay in considering it as not soda , but as resembling another substance in - one particular only , namely , that of forming salts . Some salts were known to be composed of an acid and the oxide of a metal ; other salts were known to be composed of an acid and what was called an alkali . Davy perceived an identity of function between the two bases , and declared that it must depend on identity of structure , and that this alkali must also be the oxide of a metal . Experiment soon determined that his guess was right . Indeed , when we but turn over the pages of a scientific work and see it crowded with symbols , we are at ouce made aware of the peculiar process of abstraction by which Science advances ; we are made aware of the fact that the man of science , instead of thinking of the sensible properties of objects and trying to make the reader realise them vividly , is bent only on getting rid of these properties , and bringing to light certain hidden properties which the objects have in common . Thus the poet regards light as light , in its splendour , in its inilucnce on life and happiness ; the man of science abstracts from the phenomenon certain properties , undreamed of by the poet , and pushing the rest out of sight , shows you that the angle of incidence of the ray of light is equal to the angle of reflexion . But in explaining the radical distinction between the methods of science and poetry , we are not giving countenance to the popular prejudice of the one being " destructive to the former . There will always be a special class of men organised for a more exclusive pursuit of science than is compatible with any great enjoyment of poetry—mou who will ask what Paradise Lost pruves / — against whom may be placed tho scornful poets , who ask , " What ' s the use of tho differential calculus ? " I 3 ut apart from such classes , it will be found that the man of science is quite capable of enjoying poetry , and that poet . s are givatlv interested in science . Life is manifold . Men are not wholly given to one thing . The headache we get through a microscope , is soothed by a lvric of Tennyson , or a sonata of Beethoven . Faraday is known to be an insatiable novel reader . Diamagnetism has not spoiled his interest in the mao-netisni which draws Angelica to Medoro , and Juliet to Romeo .

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    THE PRODUCTIVE FORCES OF RUSSIA . ( \ , i / i ) iientarUs on the Productive Forces oj'Jiunsia . By M . L . Do To ^ obordki . Vol . I . Longman . Tins is the most pretentious of tho books hitherto issued to satisfy public curiosity respecting Russia ; its magnitude , and the high official position of its author , combine to procure lor it more than ordinary attention . In the opinion of the translator , this work is admirably qualified to give English readers correct , views of the resources of Russia ; exhibits a remarkable

    iilisenoe of leanings and prejudices ; and its statistics , drawn from the most reliable sumivos , have been carefully and conscientiousl y sifted . We grant T ,...- ( ) borski ih much honesty and candour as consists with his " unbounded confidence" in the destinies of his country , and that his estimates oj tho productive forces of Russia are as valuable as any we are hke'y " ,, i " lor at least haff a century to come . Hut this is not saying muoh'oi in * labours . After a careful perusal of his Commentaries , we are boiin" ™ »""" nounco theni very unsatisfactory ; qualified , at best , to substitute ciion . ous views for vaguo notions or discontented ignorance . ,,, inicle . It M . Do ' / egobon . ki-8 nttomi ) t i , ono in which aiiccow wee anmac o It is the attempt to analyse and exhibit all tho p hysical and matcual pioauc

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    QgQBBR 13 , * 855 ] THE LEADER . 9 01

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 13, 1855, page 991, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2110/page/19/