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      December 4, 1852.] The Leader. 1163

      December 4 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1163

      Jltternttm.

      jLtternttm .

      Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...

      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them .. —EdinlurgA Review .

      Copyright In America Is Not Only A Consu...

      Copyright in America is not only a consummation devoutly to be wished by all English writers , as a matter of pecuniary interest , tout equally as a matter of integrity , for at present their names and their works are subject to very unpleasant liberties . The American pirates , like the gypsies , smirch the faces of stolen children to make them pass as their own ; and even whe n a name is given , it often happens that the owner of that nam e would be considerably outraged by the pretended parentage . In turning over an American catalogue , we find Bulwer credited as the author of the Roue ,

      and the Oxonians ; those works being anonymous , Bulger's name is as good as any other to place on the title-page ! Agnes Grey is also put down to Cukrer Bell ,, though not anonymous . But Harrison Ainsworth has most cause of complaint , for he is charged with a small catalogue , of Newgate literature ; The Illustrated Life of Dick Turpin , highwayman , burglar , murderer , Sfc . ; Life of Henry Thomas , the western burglar and murderer ; Life and Adventures of Ninon de I'Enclos , with her Letters on Love , Courtship , and Marriage j The Pictorial Newgate Calendar , & c . This is what comes of writing Jack Sheppard 1

      This Is Magazine Week. Frazer And Blackw...

      This is magazine week . Frazer and Blackwood are agreeable and various , but not striking ; Tait and . Bentley give average numbers . It may be the accident of our own mood , it may be the fault of the writers , but we have read nothing in the magazines which can call forth such brief comment as we usually find space for ; however , it is well to take the pleasantest alternative , so let the fault be laid at our door .

      In Another Part Of Our Paper, The Subjec...

      In another part of our paper , the subject of the Chamberlain ' s interference with Marston ' s Monody is treated as a question of political significance , so that we only allude to it in passing as a topic of literary gossip . Report also says that all allusions to Louis Napoleon in the forthcoming Pantomines are interdicted ; we shall not be astonished soon to hear that " disrespectful allusions" to the Devil are interdicted , in deference to his Satanic Majesty . Satan has had his apologists , no less than the " saviour of society . " Among the public lectures of that wandering knight-errant of

      philosophy , Giordano Bruno , was an "Apology for the Devil , " full of fine irony , we doubt not . Every one remembers the pitying verse of Burns ; every one loves the magnificent imagery of Milton , wherein Satan shines with a dusky splendour , which makes him the real hero of Paradise Lost j but modern science might , in playful zoologic mood , make out a strong case for his necessary innocence , grounding it on his hoofs and horns , the indications of a graminivorous , peaceable , non-aggressive type !

      The Death Of Lady Lovelace, At The Same ...

      The death of Lady Lovelace , at the same age as that of her illustrious father , Byron , calls for a passing remark among' the events which chequer the literary world . Not only by right of her own great parentage , but by right , also , of her unusual accomplishments in Science , she deserves a notice . Those who moved within her circle know how admirable a mathematician she was , and how clear and decisive her grasp of scientific generalities ; to those without that circle it is enough to say , that for a long time she was credited as the writer of perhaps the most remarkable philosophic work which has been produced for many years in science , The Vestiges , a work which , sneered at by hundreds every way incompetent to apprehend its real scope and value , it is , nevertheless , a considerable honour to be credited with—and Lady Lovklach had that honour .

      Earth, Plants, And Man. The Martk Plants...

      EARTH , PLANTS , AND MAN . The MartK Plants , ami Man . Popular Pictures of Nature . By . 1 . F . Soliouw . Ncvtchcs from the Mineral Kiut / doiu . My Francis von Koboll . Translated and edited by Arthur Jfonfrey , F . R . tt " . ( Halm's Seientitic Library . ) . 11 ' . (<• Holm Mit . Bouk really deserves that poor students should erect , a small monument ( , o him , for " the steadiness with which he continues to issue solid books at low prices . The hist addition to his excellent Scientific Library is a very Hiiperior translation , by Arthur Uenfrey , of two popular ( iierinan works , Schouw on . Earth , Plants , and Man , and Kobell , Sketches of Minerals . Professor tfehouw ' s name , familiar to all botanists , will draw attention to l-hese " pictures of Nature . " and although tho philosophic ; student may complain of some very indifferent reasoning , and « 'i general want of organization iit the materials , which makes the volume nothing more than a nerioH of detached " articles" on various topics ; nevertheless , even tlie philosophic student , will not be ungrateful for the multiplicity of facts , while

      1-he general reader will bo delighted with the " pictures of Nature , " somewhat , skotchily pourtrayed in this work . There are as many as thirty essays on plants of form or epochs , on rain , malaria , repetitions of nature , Alpine plants , . Etna , mountain rambles , the part played by forests in nature and human life , geography of bread plants , the coffee tree , tea Ireo , sugar-cane , vine , cotton plant , pepper plant , flax , tobacco , the charac teristic plants of nations , the action of the human meo upon nature , & c . Very pleasant ; reading and very instructive details , but labouring under the disadvantage of being aimless details . . Hero is a sample : —

      CLIMATIC AND Oil A It AOTKlt . " ' Nothing in commoner Hum to hear persons tulle of tho warm blood oftho NoHtli Kuropeuns , which in supposed to depend upon f . ho warm climate , and there > uunl produce violent outbursts of pillions . Thin is used to explain the bloody

      revenge of the Corsicans . But the Hindoo , who lives in a far warmer climate than the Italian , is brought forward as an instance of patience and resignation ; while the Turk , who has come to Europe from warmer regions , is noted for hi ^ phlegmatic temperament .- Is the Dutchman more passionate than the Norwegian or Scotchman ? and whence came the sanguinary vindictiveness of olden times to Scandinavia , nay even in the cold Iceland ? " It is imagined that mountaineers possess more strength , or more energetic character , and a more warlike spirit than the inhabitants of plains ; tho character of the latter is supposed to be softer . Thus it is thought the Norweg ian and

      Swede are more energetic than the Dane . Mountainous countries , perhaps , afford more numerous examples of obstinate defences behind the cliffs of narrow valleys but a man is not to be called more courageous because he has a good shield . The soil of Denmark , however , lias not sunk since that time when it sent out those combatants who kept the population of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean coasts in terror ; whence did they acquire their spirit , and has it now really vanished ? They were inhabitants of the plain of Northern Germany who rose against Napoleon ' s despotism ; the July revolution took place in the plains , and in the plains did the Poles , alas in vain ! fight probably the last battle for their liberty .

      " It is believed that the great pre-eminence of the Europeans above the inhabitants of the rest of the world is caused by Europe being so intersected by the sea , and so free from elevated plains , so that communication between t he nations is much facilitated . But in the great Indian Archipelago , or in the Archipelago of the West Indies , communion is still easier . The cause of the earlier civilization in India and Egypt is sought in the great rivers Indus , Ganges , and Nile , which so greatly facilitate intercourse ; "but civilization did not exist on the largest rivers of the world , the South American Amazon and Plata , until the Europeans brought it . " Let us also draw attention to the following curious passage on

      THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF POEESfS . " Turning our attention , lastly , to the human race , we see that nations in the lowest stage of development are sometimes closely connected with the forests . In the colder lands , where the trees ordinarily bear no edible , or at leust no wellflavoured or nourishing fruit 3 , it is the game which chiefly furnishes the inhabitants with food and clothing ; these races then appear chieny as hunters , such as the aborigines of North America . In the torrid zone , on the contrary , races in the same stage of culture live principally upon the fruits of the trees or the pith of tho trunks , like some of the tribes of Brazil , some of the inhabitants of the Indian

      Archipelago , and several races of negroes . South America even affords an example of a race ivho , almost UTce monkeys , live upon the trees ; whose existence , in fact , is to a great extent bound to a certain species of tree . There are thefGuarauui , at the mouth of the Orinoco , who live by and upon the Maurifcia palm . While , the ground is flooded , mats woven from the leaf-stalks of those palms are suspended between the trunks ; these mats are covered with clay , so that fires can be made upon them , and here the Guarauni sleep , and pass a great portion of their lives . The trunk furnishes a fecula ; the juice , a palm-wine ; and the fruits are wellflavoured , mealy at first , and afterwards sweet . "

      This fact of men living upon trees , like the chimpanzee , is worth noting by all inquirers into the development hypothesis . Apropos of development , that hypothesis is touched ou indirectly in tho early chapters of this work , wherein Professor Schouw discusses the origin of plants . His editor , Mr . Henfrey , seems alarmed , lest even the small approach to that hypothesis indicated in these chapters , should bo allowed to find acceptance here . We cannot say that the reasonings of Professor Schouw strike us forcibly :

      " A little bay of the Odenseefiord was dy ked in about thirty years ago . One of tho landowners resident there is fortunately a meritorious botanist , M . Hofman . He has been very attentive to the overgrowing of the reclaimed land , and kept a journal of the changes which occurred upon tho tract converted from sen-bottom into dry land . A scientific and friendly contest arose between my friend and myself , whether the plants which gradually came to light in this way , originated from seeds which had come in one way or another on to the reclaimed land , or owed their existence to the so-called spontaneous origin ( equivocal generation ) , which latter opinion wan maintained by M . Hofman . Whichever opinion be adopted , this much is certain , that the newly originated plants were not man species ; no that we have here again , us it appears , im evidence that the natural forms now at work are incapable of producing new ones . "

      Setting aside the question of equivocal generation , which has no place here , what force is there in the- fact that the new appearances were ; not new species , i . c , species unknown in other parts of the globe F Does not the development hypothesis maintain that wliorever the conditions are precisely similar , the ms 7 ( ZAv will be similar ? and , in the above instance , as the sea-bottom became converted into dry land , ought we not lo expect ; that the vegetation would be analogous to that of other spots of dry land when ; the conditions were analogous ? Otherwise , what is tho meaning of an Alpine flora , for example P "The / . out ; which lies between the upper limit of the growth of trees ( tree-limit ) and the lower limit ; of the : everlasting snow ( snow-lint' ) is called the ? Alpine / one , and the plants met with hero are called Alpine plants . This Horn has ho remarkable a resemblance to the Polar llora that , it , must , be combined with it . Not only

      are almost , all the families and the greater purl , of the genera the same , but , even a . considerable number of species are common to both—a f ; ict the more remarkable , since there lie between the Alps and the nearest , Norwegian mountains , where this flora occurs again , ex . ten . sive plains , or at most only mountains not riniiig high enough for these plants to flourish upon them . "The Polar llora , or , as we nmy also cull it , the Alpine Mora , in not merely met with in the higher regions of the Alps- the highest mountains of IOurope , —it is / blind everywhere in Kurope and tin ; northern part of A . siii and America , whero mountain masses present , themselves high enough to furnish u suitable eliniato to these plants in their more elevated districts . Hence we find this Horn in tho Pyrenees , in tho Sierra Nevada , the Carpathians , mid the Caucasus ; in the Norwegian , Scotch , and Icelandic ; mountains ; and truces of it suo seen on tho highest , peaks of the Apennines and the ( Jreeinn clmiiiH ; it is . seen also in the Altai and other Asiatic mountains , and on the higher clmiiis of North America .. "

      Overlooking thin point ; , the professor naively goes to history lor confirmation . He consults the wort of a botanist , living one hundred and sixty years ago , and , from his description of the forest , of Oharlottcnlaiid , finds thai tho same plants which grew there then grow there at the present

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 4, 1852, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04121852/page/15/