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    1164 t 1 ti E LEADER. [Saturday,

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    Til 10 OLOISTNIt UKIC Oh(MIAKLIW V. The ...

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

    day , though mingled with some new species . He goes even farther back , and summons history to the bar . ' Theophrastus and Herodotus are in the witness-box . From them we see that the corn , pomegranate , grape , dates , olives of our day , were the products of that day also . What then ? Unless the conditions of grotvtJt have been removed , why should there be an alteration of growth ? The sun shines on the mud-banks of the overflowing Nile as ardently and as constantly as in days of yore . " He loved her then as now . " Wherever there is permanence of conditions there is permanence of result . The argument , therefore , that " If the vegetable kingdom has remained unaltered for more than 2000 years , it is in the highest degree probable that it was not subject to change long further back in historical time ; and , therefore , it is in this way also rendered exceedingly likely , though not strictly proved , that no new species of plant has originated in the historical period "

    seems to us wide of the mark , nay , demonstrably false . Let us consider it . The professor continues the passage with this avowal of the conditions being unchanged : — " If the vegetable kingdom has remained unchanged , this must have been the case with the climate also ; for climate and vegetation stand in such close connexion , that alterations of climatal conditions must necessarily bring about changes in vegetation ; a total change when the climate is greatly altered ; a partial when the alterations are slighter . But there are other reasons besides , which testify to the constancy of the climate . " The changes which the surface of the earth itself has undergone , through volcanic eruptions , elevations , earthquakes , altered course of rivers , the action of the sea on coasts , & c , are , taken as a whole , too inconsiderable to be taken into consideration when speaking of Nature at large .

    " We thus arrive to the remarkable conclusion , that the same nature which surrounds us , also surrounded our Pagan forefathers thousands of years ago ; that the same Nature in which the ancient Egyptians , Greeks , and Romans lived , also surrounds the Egyptians , Greeks , and Romans of the present day . " The answer is , If certain climatal conditions which produce certain organic forms remain permanent , the forms will be permanent also ; if the Nature surrounding us is in these respects the same as the Nature of the Egyptians , then will the corn , pomegranates , & c , be the same . Species are only produced by a specialization of the general into tire particular , owing to some particular change in the conditions to which the organism has to be adapted ; and if you say that , in spite of its fifteen hundred varieties , the primitive crab-apple , from which they are all produced , nevertheless remains to testify to the " fixity of species "—if you choose

    to quibble , and call that a " variety" which others would call a " species " ( the difference between species and varieties being only the difference between profound and superficial modifications ) , we ask you , Is a dog a different species from a serpent ? yet both are varieties of the vertebrate structure—the vertebral column remains permanent , because the general conditions to which it is adapted remain equally for the serpent , without any modifications , in the shape of appendages , as for the dog ; but although these general conditions corresponding to the general type remain permanent , there have been p > ar ^ ^ conditions which in post times modified the general structure , and produced variations from the type ; just as in the geologic epochs the change in the climatal conditions produced flowering and fruit-bearing plants , without , however , preventing the existence of Jloiuerless plants . Professor Schouw says : —

    " The easiest way in which we can imagine the origin of new species , must be , either that an existing species assumes other characters through alterations of the climate or soil , or that accidental deviations from the normal type become constant through isolation . In this manner fixed varieties are formed , which sometimes deserve to he regarded as species ; but in cases of this kind which present themselves , tin ; result lias been brought about by the assistance of cultivation ; so far as I am aware , we have no certain facts in regard to this point from natural conditions . " What foggincss prevents men from seeing that the cultivation so much insisted on , i , s nothing but ; i change in the conditions V To say , as is said here , that wo have no evidence from " natural conditions , " is asserting that Nature lias undergone no changes , when the very fact of different results proves that there must have been differences in the influence . '

    There can be no doubt thai ; the differences we observe between . species arc very great , but these differences may have bad n common origin , just aH all flic oxides ami carbonates have common origins in oxygen and carbon ; and if any man attentively considers the enormous differences produced through a scries of progressive changes , which , wtiirting from a structureless coll , passes through the forms of leaf , stem , stamen , pistil , <&<\ , he will not fnid it dillicult to conceive how the various -modifications we name species , have arisen . A stamen is always si utiinien , never u leaf ; just as much as a dahlia , is always a dahlia , never ; in sister ; yd ; in spite of the " fixity of form" ( no less fixed , thsm the famous " fixity of species , " admitting also its endless " varieties , " but always remaining a , leaf)—Micro

    is no scientific botanist n-ow who doubts the truth of ( idcIJic ' h discovery that the stamen is only a modification of the : leaf . To the argument flmt a dahlia is never a , cauliflower , we reply , «¦ leaf is never a stamen , never a burl , never si seed , but always a , leaf ; the stamen always si slanien , the bud always si bud . It is true the leaf will not reproduce ieaves , as dahlias reproduce dahlias , but that difference in the analogy does not destroy it ; one- may call the leaf si hy brid modification , in the reproductive sense . The hud , however , if separated from the plant , will reproduce the plant , just an dahlia reproduces dahlia .. The whole question of species is ho confused by metaphysical assumptions , thsit no wonder men are foggy in their attempts to explain it . We hsivo no hpace for more thsm these indications of our opinion .

    1164 T 1 Ti E Leader. [Saturday,

    1164 t ti E LEADER . [ Saturday ,

    Til 10 Oloistnit Ukic Oh(Miakliw V. The ...

    Til 10 OLOISTNIt UKIC Oh ( MIAKLIW V . The ( Uoistvr T , if « of the I'Jmprror ( Uiarlcs tho Fifth . By William Htirliiifr . AuMior of " AiimiiIh oC IIki AiUhIh of Spain . " ' - VV . I ' arkor mid Son . Tmk voluntary silxlicsil ion of Clmrles Ihe Fifth , in the plenitude of his imperial power , in the fifty-fourth yesir of bis ago , saddened by incurable boitowb , broken in , health , without hopo and vnorgy to phiy out tiio rest ,

    of his life on a throne , has always been an event which moralists and historians have delighted to consider ; and here , at last , we have a erudite , elegant , unexaggerated , and sensible book , setting fortlrthe stor p in all its details , and never once sacrificing the powerful effect of truth t the factitious effect of " picturesqueness" or " point , " so absurdly souehf after by moderns . It is a perfectly charming book : the erudition is minute , without pedantry or dulness ; the style is quiet , elegant , unassumingly graphic . We commend it to a place ' on every historical shelf Who has not felt the desire to abdicate P We all of us occupy thrones " of greater or smaller significance in life ; we have all our parts to play ' our crowns to bear as burdens or as triumphs ; and in moments of sadness , when health and hope are gone , when the elastic energy " which , made ambition virtue , " has left us , we all wish that we could abdicate and retire to some solitude for repose . " O that I had the wings of the

    dove , to flee away and be at rest , " is the psalm of thousands , and . wherefore not of kings and emperors P If no monastery of Yuste is ready to receive us , we play the part out on the scene where we began it ; and read with something of envy the narrative of an emperor ' s retreat . Charles did not fly from his throne as emperors and monarch s have done in our day , terrified at their uprising subjects ; he stepped down from it with dignity , realizing a long-cherished plan , formed in hours of security and happiness . On the first aspect , there is something sorrowfully grand about the act ; if , on a second glance , we see collateral details which detract from its dignity , they only prove this life to be the " mingled yarn" of great and small , heroic and familiar we all know it to be . Thackeray , who loves to point with a quiet sarcasm to the reverse side of the tapestry of life , would delight in such a glimpse of the abdicated emperor as we have here : —

    " In this matter of eating , as in many other habits , the emperor was himself a true Fleming . His early tendency to gout was increased by his indulgences at table , which generally far exceeded his feeble powers df digestion . Roger Ascham , standing ' hard by the imperial table at the feast of golden fleece , ' watched with wonder the emperor ' s progress through ' sod beef , roast mutton , baked hare , ' after which ' he fed well of a capon , ' drinking also , says the fellow of St . John's , the best that ever I saw ; he had his head in the glass five times as long as any of them , and never drank less than a good quart at once of Rhenish wine . ' Eating was now the only physical gratification which he could still enjoy , or was unable to resist . He continued , therefore , to dine to the last upon the rich dishes , against which his ancient and trusty confessor , cardinal Loaysa , had protested a quarter of a century before . The supply of his table was a main subject of the correspondence between the mayordomo and the secretary of state . The weekly courier from

    Valladolid to Lisbon was ordered to change his route that he might bring , every Thursday , a provision of eels and other rich fish ( pescado gruesd ) for Friday ' s fast . There was a , constant demand for anchovies , tunny , and other potted fish , and sometimes a complaint that the trouts of the country were too small ; the olives , on the other hand , were too large , and the emperor wished , instead , for olives of Perejon . One day , the secretary of state was asked for some partridges from Gama , a place from whence the emperor remembers that the count of Osorno once sent him , into Flanders , some of the best partridges in the world . Another day , sausages were wanted ' of the kind which the queen Juana , now in glory , used to pride herself in making , in the Flemish fashion , at Tordesillas , ' and for the receipt for which the secretary is referred to the marquess of Denia . Both orders were punctually executed . The sausages , although sent to a land supreme in that manufacture , gave great satisfaction . Of the partridges , the emperor said that they used to be better , ordering , however , the remainder to be pickled .

    " The emperor ' s weakness being generally known or soon disco vered , dainties of all kinds were sent to him as presents . Mutton , pork , and game were the provisions most easily obtained at Xarandilla : but they were dear . The bread was indifferent , and nothing was good and abundant but chestnuts , the staple rood ot the people . But in a very few days the castle larder wanted for nothing . One day the count of Oropesa sent an offering of game ; another day a pair of fat calves arrived from the archbishop of Zaragoza ; the archbishop of Toledo and the duchess of Frias were constant and munificent in their gifts of venison , fruit , and preserves ; and supplies of all kinds came at regular intervals from Seville and from Portugal . " Luis Quixadawho knew the emperor ' s habits and constitution well , beheld

    , with dismay these long trains of mules laden , as it were , with gout and bile . 11 « never acknowledged the receipt of the good things from Valladolid without adding some dismal forebodings of consequent mischief ; and along with an order he sometimes conveyed a bint that it would be much better if no means were found of executing it . If ( . be emperor made a hearty meal without being the worse for it , tno mayordonio noted the fact with exultation ; and he remarked with comp lacency bis majesty'h fondness for plovcrH , which lie considered harmless . But bin oflicoor pmveyor w : is more commonly exercised under protest ; and lie interposed between ns master and an eel-pie as , in other days , he would liavo thrown himself between the

    imperial person and the point of a Moorinh lance . ' The . Emperor was a man , and a Fleming ; this love of entiiig , Ihough it may mar a picture composed according to the "dignity of history , ^ does not really lesson the effect . Ho was in earnest ; had ho been acting a , part , he would have preserved bis "dignify" with inoro care . We have so much to borrow from thin volume , that we must bo sparing of our own reflections . Let us peep at the Emperor in his monastery : 4 , . A-. / . ¦!¦!* 1 . 1 JIwV ttlii'lll ^ lOl h and the l <> <) l

    " A great monarch , leaving of bin own free will ' m palace purp HiickcloMi and a cell , in ho line a study , that history , misled , nothing loai 1 ' ' ' ^ pulpit declamation , has delighted to discover mich a model ascetic in the einporm a ^ . Vuste . ' Him jipartnientu , when prepared for his reception , ' nays Sundoval , ' ^''"" J ^ ml her to have been newly pillaged by tho enemy , than for a great prince ; walls were bnre , except in hi . s bed-chamber , which was bung with black clot i , ^ only valuables in the hoimo were a few pieces of pluto of the p lainest k "" ' ^^ ,. divsH , always black , was usually very old ; and he Hat , in an old aim cluiir , wi . ' » ^ u neat , und ' not worth four mils . ' This picture accurate in only two ol lh <> \ ^ puhivv . H in which bin rei-ning days bad been panned . Ho was not «« rr | . """ . ' ¦ of Y usle with the splendoum of bis hont of Augsburg ; but neither < b < l tliolus ^ ^ I lie . sumptuous Fuggor prevail at ( Mienf , or Innsbruck , Valnain or > S' ^ O . !'' ] , i , liked black-cloth instead of umiN , for his bed-room liangingM ; but bo 1 » h < ^ f , () W ( . ^ from Flanders smits of rich taiwdtry , wrought with % utch , landscapes , oi

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 4, 1852, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04121852/page/16/