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No man -who . loves a . quiet life , or the comfortable reputation which may so eaailyr be . secured on- the broad and beaten ways trodden by heavy and respectable professors , should venture- on scientific innovation . Add some * thing new to the old ideas , apply in some novel way the established principle , and your ears will . be flattered , by II dolce Buon di meritata lode , but do not innovate , do . not disturb existing opinions , or it will be found that you are . a shallow prater , a dabbler , perhaps an " atheist , " but certainly a verra troublesome fellow , " as the old Scotch professor called Davy .
Nevertheless , it is only by men of rebellious independence , resolute enough to say what they believe , and what they do not believe , that Science , or Religion , or indeed any other form of intellectual activity , attains development ; and we are—perhaps by instinct—disposed to give cordial welcome to all the " troublesome fellows" who agitate the stagnant waters by flinging in the stones they themselves have picked up on the banks . If nothing but agitation is the result , that is something—it helps to clear the waters . In this sense we applaud Mr . Jellingeb Simons for having
recently " fluttered the dovecots" of astronomers by denying the axial rotation of the moon . Newspapers and journals have discussed the point . We shall not discuss it , for the best of all reasons—we are incompetent to offer an opinion on any astronomical question ; and leave it to the competent to decide whether Mr . Symons is right or wrong in opposing the established theory . If he is right , he will assuredly triumph—some day . If wrong , he will have made the professors angry , but he will Lave agitated the waters-Meanwhile , we refer our readers to his pamphlet on Lunar Motion ( Groombridge and Sons ) in which he says : —
I hold , that though the Moon in her orbital revolution round the Earth , keeps nearly the same face always towards it ; she does so because she has no rotation on or round her own axis ; that her movement , excepting her librations , of which more presently , is exactly analogous to that of' any portion of' the outer ring of a wheel $ and that inasmuch aa ,-the centre of rotation is outside of and distant from the revolving body , it is not only a misnomer- to apply the term axial rotation to the lunar movement or mode of revolving , but that axial rotation , is , as these astronomers clearly implj-, a . totally . distinct and additional movement having different dynamical forces , and distinguished by different geometrical conditions and phenomena . In other words , and shorter terms , I hold that a body does not rotate- round its own axis , when that axis is not within it ; and in order that a body should rotate round its own axis , every part of that body must rotate , revolve , or turn round that axis : which is demonstrably not the case with the Moon .
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Edinburgh is just now in an electoral fever . The death of Sir Wiixiam Hamilton has left vacant the first place in the whole kingdom for an ambitious philsopher , and to gain such a place it is natural that men should be activo and pressing . We hear that . Mr . SrisNCJjit Bayjjtcs has retired from the candidature in favour of Professor J . A . Scott , who is opposed by Professor Fekrier and Professor Fkazer—and tbe struggle seems to lie mainly between these three . We do not think the Press is called on to interfere in cases like this ; only in cases of jobbing should its voice be heard ; and Although we have been appealed to by friends , we must preserve the most absolute neutrality . A more splendid position for a metaphysician it would he difficult to name : to succeed to such a man as Hamilton , and to form the opinions of such a speculative race as the y oung Scotch students , must give a man of energy a glorious consciousness of the importance of his triumph . ^^
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Tliore are two numbers of the Revue clcs Den . r Maudes before us—the 1 st and 15 . th of Juno—containing politics , political economy , science , and literature enough tp occupy columns , if wo were minutely to specify their contents . Let us briefly refer to a very able paper by Emice Montegut on American journalism , an important paper on Sweden in its relation to the Court . of Russia , an article by Esquiros on Whale fishing , and two papers by M . Quatuepaoes on the curious phenomena known under the names of " Alternation of Generations ' and "Parthenogenesis . " Many readers who
would not attack the works of Steenstrup and Professor Owen , will find these papers by QuATRKrAGics perfectly intelligible and wonderfully interesting-. The French arc masters of the art of exposition , and their pop ular science , is popular without being feeble , or inaccurate . Even thoso who find too great a demand on their zoological knowledge in these papers , will read with perfect case the pleasant article by M . Baiiinxt on " Life at Different Epochs of the World , " in which he . sides with Gj : offhoy St . Hilaire on the celebrated dispute about " fixity of species , " and re cords the heads of a . -m 1 t - , 1 T \* IT „„„ ^^ mnniivtnn + 1 * 1 -n \\ IT'S I r * 10 fTI ft fr . WI 1 O IlilS conversation ho had with Vhjkiexperimental hysiologistwho lias
M . ., « n p , dovoted himself with great success to the artificial rearing of plants , and whoso views on tho primeval flora are briefly stated . The atmosphere , acoosding toM . Vim , e , was unquestionably difleront from our own ; it wan more abounding in carbonic acid ; but this abundance of carbonic acid was only auo cause of the colossal vegetation of the primeval world ; there must also have boon present some nitrogenous compound , not Hie nitrogen gas of Our atmosphere , but much more assimilable . Moroover , it is clear that tins primitive vegetation flrew nothing from tho soil , since there was no detritus of anterior generations ; and tho consequence win that tho plants acquired
an en ^ pmeirtfoFfoftag ^ w ^ fereas ^ fcefirTootfr -were ? netiineirtkryy We know—for we can do ifr ouraerres—th ' afc ^ on , ascertain sandy souV totally without vegetable deirifcusva . flomiijhing / vegetft # on . will grow ,. if we adcT & nitrogenous compound , ^ such . aaiaanmonia , accompanied : bj an excess of catv borne acid . It . is certain that the air or waters , of ; tjhe-: primeval world eontained . a nitrogenous compound unknown . in the ain or-T »« tBrs : aflour world .
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TWO PHILOSOPHERS . Nomos : an Attempt to Demonstrate a Central PhysicaZZ&w in Nature . Longman and Co , The Mystery ; or , Evil and' God . By John Youngs L . E . D . Longman and Co . Ir is interesting to think of the number of men silently wrestling with the difficulties , not to say impossibilities , attending every attempt to trnascend phenomena and penetrate to the central facts-of existence ; to think of them weaving ^ explanations out of explanations , and growing more confident as they recede farther from that confrontation with fact -which sternly interferes with the " liberty of speculation . " Every now and then such men publish their speculations , which is unwise . To speculate may . be an agreeable and even profitable employment of time , but to publish such speculations only misleads others and produces , a heavy printer ' s , bill .
The author of Nomos has undertaken to demonstrate the central law which underlies all physical phenomena . He has been a student of scientific works , not , we fancy , a student of science ; he has been struck with some conclusions at which modern speculators have arrived , and has tried to arrange them into a " discovery . " He writes agreeably , and has a talent for exposition , which is shown in the way he has reproduced Faraday ' s " Researches in Electricity ; " but the sum total of his book is the vague and superfluous assertion that a central law exists—y hich he leaves the reader to discover for himself ! We bad great misg ivings of this author ' s qualifications for any philosophic task when we found his title-page bearing an epigraph , from Farquhar Tupjper ' s " Proverbial Platitudes ; " nnd we must say theVa < nxeness of the conclusion , to which these otherwise agreeable pages lead , is quite in accordance with the " Philosophy" made " Proverbial " by that extremely foolish writer . That we are fairly representing Nomos in saying it merely asserts the existence of a . , without at all enlightening us as to the nature of the law ,
will be judged from this summary : — In this way , step by , step , we have arrived at a point from which we catch a glimpse of a central law . As we come along , the phenomena of electricity are seen to submit themselves to the law of chemical action , and magnetism and light and heat are found to become mere modes of electricity , while at the same time the- idea of chemical action has become so comprehensive and general as to lose all proper speciality . In a word , electricity , magnetism , light , heat , and chemical action , have all merged into a common action—an action of duality , out of which arise under peculiar circumstances certain
marked movements—an . action which , depends not upon incomprehensible imponderables but upoa certain . definite and comprehensible properties of matter . All things have ' indeed combined to point to a law which is at once simple in its nature and manifold in its operations , —and this is the answer we get to the question proposed at the beginning—What is electricity ? . What then ? Is this law the law which dominates in nature ? This is the question which we have now to ask , and which we propose to answer as best we can . Now there are several signs which seem to show that this law may be a cosmical law . Liffht heat , and chemical power attend upon the force of gravity in tbe solar ray and render it difficult to regard this force as aa isolated and independent power , and it isnot easy to suppose that magnetism and electricity do not enter into the-perfect idea ruled
of that law by which the earth is . The law referred to is one which , the writer throughout calls , the law of the laboratory : — If the law of the laboratory—if we may use this term to express : that central law to wl » ch tho philosophy of the laboratory appears to point-bo a universal law , it b necessary that space should be filled , not merely with imponderable ether but with actual matter ; for , according to the law of the laboratory , light , heat and their cornpan on phenomena are the effects of a definite change in matter ; and if there bo ponderaWe matter in space , there must bo a resistance to tho motions of the heavenly bodies which is not supposed to exist at present . The " reader is , of course , anxious to know what this law is , and especially what Is the " definite change in matter " on which the action of he law depends , but Nomos ends without a hint , satisfied with having , stated that there ¦ is a law and a , " definite change : " — _ _ nature
The object of this work , then , has been to prove that the world of inorganic is ruled by ono physical law , and not by several phyMoal laws . It has been shown , firflt of all , that the phenomena of . electricity , magnetism ,. light , heat chemical action , and motion , which arc developed experimentally , are not to be u ^ dcVstS mlc they be regarded a 3 signs of one and tho same action in ordinary iTu tcr In doing thto ( among other consequences of the argument ) it has been found Sat wo may dispense with the idea of a repellent force in explaining electro-magnetic rotation that wo may find a physical explanation for the ao-ca led repulsive power of heat and fw the retention of magnetism by the loadstone and eteel ; and that wo may utcover additional reasons for discarding imponderable agents from the intor-^ , SS ^ frJht « SS ? for believing that it is not possible to understand the the action of the central lawI « this part of the argument :-
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Critics . areviiofc the legislator ^ bmfcrfche judges -an d p . olic&ofliteTHtarR They da not make lawaT-th . © yvinterpret . aruUsry to . enforce them . — ¦ Edinburgh . Review .
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Leader (1850-1860), June 28, 1856, page 615, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2147/page/15/
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