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    Mt Irk

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    THE OPERAS. I have not much to discourse...

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    Comte's Positive Philosophy. By G. H. Le...

    dual consideration of a series of analogous cases m which the pheno-** ** a become more and inpre simplified ; The science of organized bodies , ^ ich embraces the phenomena the most difficult of access , is at the same w Q ' - ^ ' pniy / qn & -t % ! A % - ' i ^ y ' - peimits the union of the three modes . Astro-^ y on the contrary , is necessarily limited to the first . And observation " ° ther 6 restricted to that of a single sense . All that it does—and it is all that is required- —is to measure angles , and reckon times elapsed , Observat ' on however indispensable , plays the most ihsigpnificant part in astronomy : ' t is ' reasoning that forms incomparably the greatest portion of the science , dthis constitutes the prime basis of its intellectual dignity . It is even ur intelli gence that constructs the greater number of astronomical phenoena actual phenomena though they are . " We neither , for example , see the figure of the earth nor the curve described by a planet .

    The combination of these two essential characteristics—extreme simpliitv of the phenomena to be studied , with great difficulty in their observa-,. is what makes astronomy a science so eminently mathematical . On the one hand , the constant necessity we are under of deducing from a small number of direct measures , both angular and horary quantities , which are not themselves immediately observable , renders the continual use of abstract mathematics absolutely indispensable . On the other hand ,

    astronomical questions being always problems of geometry or problems of mechanics , naturally fall within the province of concrete mathematics . And finally , not Only as respects the geometrical problems do we have perfect regularity of astronomical figures , but as respects the mechanical , we have admirable simplicity of movements taking place in a medium whose resistances has hitherto been left but of account without error , and under the influence of a small number of forces constantly subject to one very simple law ; and

    these circumstances allow the application of the methods and the theories of Mathematics to a much greater extent than in any other case . There is perhaps not a single analytical process , a single geometrical or mechanical doctrine , which is not ultimately niade use of in astronomical investigations , and the greater part of them have hitherto served no other primary purpose . Hence it is preeminently by a proper study of this application of them that we can acquire a just sentiment of the importance and the reality of mathematical speculations .

    On reflecting on the singularly simple nature of astronomical researches , and the consequent facility of applying the ensemble of mathematical resources to them in the most extensive way , we understand why astronomy is now placed at the head of the natural sciences . It merits this supremacy—1 st , By the perfection of its scientific character ; 2 nd , By the preponderating importance of the laws which it discloses to us . After referring to several examples of the high practical utility of astronomy , Comte adduces that science to illustrate the fact , that the sublimest scientific speculations often , without premeditation , lead in the end « to the most ordinary practical and useful purposes , and he exposes the folly of those who would , if in their power , interdict all speculations except what have , on the face of them , an immediate practical object in view .

    On a closer examination of the present condition of the different fundamental sciences , under the philosophical point of view , we shall have occasion to observe , as I have already hinted , that astronomy is in the meantime the only one which is really and finally purged of all theological or meta physical considerations . As respects Method , this is the first title it has to supremacy . It is there that philosophical minds can effectually study what a true science really consists in ; and it is after this model that we ought to str ive , as far as possible , to construct all the other fundamental sciences , having at the same time due regard to the differences , more or less profound , that necessarily result from the increasing complication of the phenomena .

    Those who conceive science as consisting of a simple accumulation of observed facts , have only to consider astronomy with some attention to feel how narrow and superficial ia their notion . Here the facts are so simple , and of so little interest , that one cannot possibly fail to observe that only the connexion of them and the exact knowledge of their laws , constitute the science . What in reality is an astronomical fact ? Nothing else , ordinaril y , than this : that a star has been seen at a particular instant , a under a correctly measured angle ; a circumstance , doubtless , of little Jjnportance of itself . The continual combination of these observations , and the more or less profound mathematical elaboration of them , uniquely cha-Nicte

    nze the science even in its most imperfect state . In reality , astronomy ld not take its rise when the priests of Egypt or Chaldea had , with more or less exactness , made a series of empirical observations on the heavens , ut only when the first Greek philosophers began to connect the general phenomenon of the diurnal movement with some geometrical laws . The » ie a »< l definite object of astronomical investigations always being to prec lct witl 1 certainty the actual state of the heavens at a future period , more ° * less distant , the establishing of the laws of the phenomena evidently ords the only means of arriving at this result , while the accumulation of ^ oservations cannot , of itself / be of any practical utility for ntlte purpose , cept as furnishing a solid foundation to our speculations . In one word ,

    rue astronomy did not exist so long as mankind knew not , for example , W foresee , with a certain degree of precision , by the aid at least of ^ . Cal Process , and in particular , by certain trigonometrical calculations , a . mt » tont of the rising of the sun , or of some star , on a given day and at thfV 6 U pla < ie " This ' ¦¦ e & tial characteristic of the science has always been Sanae »» ttc © ita origin . All the Uteps in its subsequent progress have

    only consisted in definitely giving td these predictions a greater and greater certainty and precision , by borrowing from direct observation the least possible number of given terms for the purpose of foreseeing the most distant future . No part of philosophy can manifest with greater force the truth of this fundamental axiom : every science has prevision for its object j which distinguishes real science - from simple erudition , limited to recount past etents without any view to the future . Not only is the true characteristic of a science more profoundly marked in astronomy than in any other branch of positive knowledge , but we may even say , that since the development of the theory of gravitation , it has attained the highest degree of philosophical perfection that any science can ever pretend to , as respects method , —the exact reduction of all phenomena ,

    both in kind and in degree , to one general law , —provided always that we confine the remark to solar astronomy * agreeably to the explanation given above . Without doubt , the gradual complication of phenomena ought to make us conceive a similar perfection as absolutely chimerical in the other fundamental sciences . But it ought no less to be the general type which the different classes of savans Ought constantly to have in view , as being one they must approximate to as far as the corresponding phenomena will allow . It is always there we shall perceive in all its purity what the positive explanation of a phenomenon is , without any inquiry as to the first or final cause of it ; and , finally , it is there we must learn the true character , and the essential conditions of truly scientific hypotheses , no other science having employed this powerful instrument so extensively , and at the same time so fittingly .

    I must interrupt the exposition here , and resume it next week . Unwilling as I am to lengthen this series , yet having commenced the task of presenting all the main and necessary points of this system of philosophy , it is better to incur the charge of prolixity than to hurry over the subject and leave the reader tantalized with vague descriptions . *

    Comte's Positive Philosophy. By G. H. Le...

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    Mt Irk

    Mt Irk

    The Operas. I Have Not Much To Discourse...

    THE OPERAS . I have not much to discourse about this week , and am not in the mood to disguise my poverty under magnificent phrases . It is a great art that of writing with , nothing to say ! but an art , like all others , obedient to the moods and caprices of that delicate thing , the human mind . I'll trouble you for a fetuUeton when your liver is inactive ! Let me see what criticism you would write on Cruvelli while your head was heavy with yesterday ' s dinner ! Give me a taste of your quality with a toothache . "Were my mood otherwise , I could tell you something of Cravelli in Brnani . It is , after Fidelio , her greatest part . The music which , taxes other singer falls easily upon her . She is somewhat of a screamer ,

    every and Verdi is fond of screaming . Her noble voice , her impetuous style , her bvertragic manner , better suit Elvira ; and she produces a great effect in it . What a feuilleton 1 . could write ... if I could ! But O Harriet ! O Panny ! O dinner , haunting me , as the cataract did Mr . Wordsworth— " Like a tall passion /'

    O Love ! O Indigestion— voila de tes coups ! you have done it all ! Were it not for your remorseless pursuit of me , I could do something with the " artist" Ferlotti , who in Carlo V . stamped himself in my estimation as having achieved the most perfect failure " it has ever fallen to my lot to witness , " ( style choisil ) It is more Ferlotti ' s misfortune than his fault that lie has no voice , and is errantly capricious in intonation —( after all why be fastidious , and demand correct intonation from an artist Y )—but if I were criticising him , I . should ask whether it is owing to his being " such an artist , " that he sings defiance in the lackadaisical manner ho selected as the fitting expression of

    Lo vt'dremo veglio nudaco So resistermi potrai —• and I would suggest to him in future to be less of an " artist , " and more of a singer . Do I ask too muchP Belletti as Buy Gomez , was everything one could desire , and was not an artist . Oh but a real artist—a man for whom the name should have been invented , had it not existed-a man who by his art makes you forget defects of voice , of intonation , of figure , till you prefer him to all ^ thers-Roncom Giovanni

    ina ^ ord . ha ^^^^ He played Don ; he wiU not play it again . But he recovered from the full by playing Papageno in jfi Auto Ma

    The union of such grandeur as that eminent in the largo phrases of tho priestly music , with such prottiness and triviality noticoaBlo in the , rest , Is to my taste fatal ; tho third act of Othello , ma \ i \ almost ; as well bo miercoffid with Did you ever send V < mr W feto $ mherwell ? Moreover , Xarminjr and flowing , and piquant as the melodies are in a drawing-room , diSV you translr Lm & tto atage their want of depth and earners becomes apparent : they aro ear-catching melodies , graceful and protty , as everything Mozart wrote , but they are not dramatic . a 11 + \\\ k T will some day try to make out more conclusively , x oil woii t agreewith ™ , I ** w «* ' the » p * ara hero to express toy

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 15, 1852, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15051852/page/21/