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    Ate ^ - ^ BUi " THE XEADEE . 1063

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    must possess , to some extent , the power of the last as well as of tire first . Not only the fundamental separation into vegetative and animal functions , but the subdivision of each into all the minor processes and actions , must be regarded as so many specializations of the various properties which every * part of the elemental tissue possesses in some degree . ¦ Thus , between Touch—which is the most general and elementary form of sensibility—and Assimilation—which is the most general and elementary form of vitality—there is an intimate connection : — Not only does assimilation necessarily presuppose touch ; but , among the simplest protozoa , touch and assimilation are to a considerable extent coextensive : the tactual surface and the digestive surface are the same . The Amoeba , a structureless speck of jelly , having no constant form , sends out , in this or that direction , prolongations of its substance . One of these prolongations meeting with , and attaching itself to , some relatively fixed object , becomes a temporary limb by which the body of the creature is drawn forward ; but if this prolongation meets with some relatively small portion of organic matter , it gradually expands its extremity round this , gradually contracts and gradually draws the nutritive morsel into the mass of the body , which collapses round it and presently dissolves it . That is to say , the same portion of tissue is at once arm , hand , mouth and stomach—is at once a sensory , motor , and digestive organ —shows us the tactual and assirnilatory functions united in one . And if we assume , as we may fairly do , that the stimulus * which causes the contraction of this protruded part when its extremity touches assimilable matter , arises from the chemical relation between the two—is caused by a commencing absorption of the assimilable matter , an incipient digestion of it—we shall see a still closer relation between the primordial sense and the primordial vegetable function . He analyses taste , smell , sight , and hearing in the same way , winding up with the remark , that there is not a little reason to think that all forms of sensibility to external stimuli are , in their nascent shapes , nothing but the modifications which those stimuli produce in that duplex process of assimilation and oxidation which constitutes the primordial life—a view -which receives further confirmation in a subsequent part of the work , where Mr . Spencer shows how all other impressions have to be translated into tactual impressions before their meanings can be known , The reader must seek this for himself . One extract from the summary is all we can find room for : — Thus , it will be manifest , that from the lowest to the highest forms of life , the increasing adjustment of inner to outer relations , is , if rightly understood , one indivisible progression . Just as , out of the homogeneous tissue with which every organism commences , there arises by one continuous process of differentiation and integration , a congeries of organs performing separate functions , but which remain throughout mutually dependent , and indeed grow more mutually dependent ; so , the correspondence between the phenomena going on inside of the organkin and those going on outside of it , beginning , as it does , wite some simple homogeneous correspondence between internal and external affinities , gradually becomes differentiated into various orders of correspondences , which are constantly more and more subdivided , but which nevertheless maintain a reciprocity of aid that grows ever greater as the progression adv ; in « es . The two progressions are in truth parts of the same progression . Not to dwell upon the facts which imply that the primordial tissue is endowed throughout with the several forms of irritability in which the senses originate , and that the organs of sense arise , like all otber organs , by the differentiation of this primordial tissue ; not to dwell upon the fact that the impressions received by these senses form the raw materials of intelligence , which arises by combination of them , and must therefore conform to their law of evolution ; not to dwell upon the fact that intelligence advances part passu with the advance of the nervous system , and that the nervous system obeys the same law of development as the other S 3 'Steins ; not to dwell upon these facts , it is sufficiently manifest , that as the progress of organization and the progress of the correspondence between the organism and its environment , are but different aspects of the evolution of Life in general , they cannot fail to harmonize . The final section of the work treats of Intelligence , Will , Memory , the Feelings , &c . Although full of valuable mutter , it is the least satisfactory portion—less perfect in its exposition , less thoroughly worked out as a scheme . Not to mention many points of detail which might be questioned , there is the strange omission of the Moral Sentiments altogether . True , the work is not a treatise ou Psychology ; it pretends to furnish no more than principles ; nevertheless , the Moral Sentiments deserve as large a place in such an exposition as Will or Reason can lay claim to . In the opening of our criticism , on Herbert Spencer , we compared hjs work to that of Schuam ; and we may close it with a similar reinai ' k : just as the theory of Schuam has been modified by successors , who see reason to limit the cell theory to embryonal cells , and in all subsequent stages recognise cells , tubes , fibres as the origins of tissues ; so also must Herbert Spencer ' s successors modify his theory by the introduction of Pleasure and Pain as Primordial elements , and from them the genesis of the Moral Sentiments ,

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    " STOP THE WAR !" The Great Sieges of History . By Wm . Robson . G . Routlcdgo & Co . Peace at any price would be preferable to the intolerable influx of warlike literature with which the Jiritish public is now so ruthlessly inundated . Hero we have one Mr . ltobson—not thes Yellow Dwarf , wo presume—who has taken in hand to give some account of what he considers the great sieges of history from that of Bactra , 2 , 134 years before the Christian era , down to tho full of Sebastopol in tho year of grace , 1856 . Probaby in expiation of somo unknown tan , these 627 pages of disagreeable typo have been consigned to us to road and reviow . J 3 ut , in truth , the work would be beneath regular criticism did not tho author profess to have written for Students of the military art , whereas it should rather bo called tho . Boys ' Own Book of Siogt s . Hud Mr . liobson tnkon this humbler ground , we should have tendered our meed of commendation ; but , as a mi-ans of military education-, his book is utterly worthless . What is the lesson to be derived from the assault of Thobos , in Palestine , by Abimclech , the son of Gideon ?— -what from tho om'ly sieges of Jerusalem V—what from so many other storioB related after this maunur 1 — " Gaza wns taken by Buonaparte , in hio Egyptian expedition ; but n . s llioro in no striking circumstance to give interest to tho ttiogc , wo shall content oursolvea "with recording the fact . " " Towards tho middle of tho fifth century , Clotlio , first of tho nice of Merovingian lungs of tho Franks ) in Gaul , entered Belgium , aurprwed tho llomau truoii . i , dul ' uatod

    them , and laid siege to Tournai , even then a powerful city . But it could not withstand the conqueror long ; he took it , and gave it up to pillage . " " Our French readers (?) might , perhaps , accuse us of neglect of their glory , if we omitted all notice of the surrender of Vienna to the arms and fortunes of Napoleon f but as there was not even the semblance of either a siege or resistance , the details of the affair do not fall within our plan . " Possibly these apocryphal " French readers *• may think it a greater neglect that no mention is made of the last siege of Rome , or even of that of Antwerp . On the other hand , twenty pages are devoted to the " liberation " of Jerusalem by the Cru-aders , ami nearly double that space to the fafe of Antioch at the same period . The sieges of Naples are prefaced by ! the very authentic information that the original name of the city was derived from " the siron Parthenope , " , " mortally chagrined at not being able to charm Ulysses to his destruction , drowned hersqjf from pure spited" If her chagrin were mortal , it does seem to have been very superiluous on the part of the damsel to take the trouble to drown herself , even allowing for the temptation to a woman in the gratification of" pare spite " But M ° . Robson acknowledges his partiality for fiction , provided the " colouring" be of a nature "to make virtue more attractive and vice more repulsive . " " In our account of the early sieges of Koine , notwithstanding our conviction that many of the events related of them are apocryphal , we shall adhere to the version which was the delight (?) of our boyhood . " .... " Now all the best incidents of this siege ( by Porsenna ) are deemed apocryphal ; and yet , who will dare to tell us that the well authenticated accounts of the -vices of the declining empire are equally instructive and ameliorating . " After this profession of faith , Mr . Robson can hardly expect that a student of the military art" will turn with much confidence to his pages . He will naturally fear that , to render the " bitter draught" less unpalatable , the author may have ' tinged the vessel ' s brim with juices sweet . Nam veluti pueris absinthia tetra medentes Quum dare conantur , prius oras pocula circum . Contingunt mellis dulci flavoque liquore , Ut puerorum ostas improvda ludificetur , Labrorum tcnus , & . c . However , if Mr . Robson had intended to write merely for the amusement of our martial youth , we could not blame him fox relieving the dry details of siescs by pleasant episodes , rather romantic than strictly true . He would at least have attained his end with the adoption of no worse means than have been employed by the Jesuits , who—as M . Mignet ot > - serves—pour arriver a leurs fins oserent lout , me me le bien . But having aimed too high , he has signally failed ; though , as a Christmas present , we think his book quite equal to Sandford and Morton , and better than Jack the Giant-killer .

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    ERNEST JONES'S POEMS . . The Battle Day : and oilier Poems . By Ernest Jones , of the Middle Temple Barrister-at-law . G- Routledge and Co ., There are so many pretenders to poetry , that it is too often a melancholy and insupportable business to open their books . Men string rhymes together and fancy they have penetrated what Goethe calls the open secret ; " they imagine they possess a direct insight into things unseen by tho many , and name themselves poets . Mr . Ernest Jones , however , has enough of the poetic element developed in him as to be acknowledged a poet by his neighbours . Until now , he has chiefly been popular as a political agitator , and so far realizes the notion that a man to be great should be capable of being all sorts of men . A few of his verses in tneu ' extreme homeliness , remind us of this part of his experience , and mignt have been spoken instead of sung . In poetry , we ought to be content with nothing less than perfection , in each work after its kind , great or small ; and such lines as " Deliberate and Excitement proof , " Conventions Helot—Governess " " And Patriotism is Calculation , " iar on the ear , and prove that the artist lacked heart at his work . Still the author has tho g ift of verae , and ho uses it more or less discreetly . The Battle-day , which gives tlie book its title , has no reference to tho present war . It is a chivalrous legend to display the mischief of lrrcsoluion . The hero Lindsay lovos , listens to slanders against his bride , and doubts : doubt kills love , and lie is left . The silent and gradual alienation of these lovers 13 a p iece of observation not to bo passed over : — And Lindsay !—Did ho lovo no more ? Oh ! fliill more mndly than before . But Doubt , as with enchanter ' s art , Placed hia cold hnnd upon his heart ; Fru / . o the warm glances in his eye , And turned to ioo tho burning nigh ; Chilled tho full ardour of his tono To stony words * from lips of atone , And blighting thus another ' n fate , Yet left liimsulf most desolate . At first , ho . slight tho altered guiwo , _ It woke no fear—scarce ruined tmrpribC ; JJut hour by hour , and day by day , , ' ooinelhing i'umiliur diud away , — A mirilo , a h 1 ({ 1 » , a look tho less , A lungour in the forced curosH , TIioho nameless nothings , that rovenl Tho' tongueH bo muto , what hcnrti * must fool . Though all unoeen , they felt , they know A veil wuh drawn between the two ; 'Twas rai . cd by D < nibl , 'twtxa held by Pride , " Who silent Blood on cither ni < ly ; It . hung betweflu , no thin of f » hl , And yet . Bo chilly , dark , and coM , Tho BiulluH of love uoiiM not « lii » o U" ° » h' > , Tho kind gluiMio l « Ht IlH U ' -mU-r ^ t Imu , Tho Mofi . einlt !« niHJi ) ta <> "'" ' " , Glou . nud imlo ulliwiul Uh umi * ii «» ca » t

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 3, 1855, page 1063, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2113/page/19/