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    THE TRIBES OF THE CAUCASUS. The Tribes o...

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    Herbert Spencer's Jpsychology. The Princ...

    « teding ^ i » vestigators have extended , and in some cases modified , Sohwftttn < a views , put thesplendid generalisation to which his name is attached has only been confirmed by : every fresh inquirer . ,, . * . ; J What Schwanii did for Physiology , Herbert Spencer has done for Psychology- As Sehwann set aside the old method of investigating the various tissues like independent objects , and proved the Unity of Composition which really underlies all the variety of forms , so Herbert Spencer sets aside the old method of dividing the mind into so many faculties , and proves the Unity of Composition , which makes Perception , Reasoning , Instinct , Memory , Will , and , Feeling so many aspects of one identical process , differing in degree * but not in essence . We may pause by the -waj to notice the stages of the history of this doctrine of Unity , which succeed each other according to the law of development , i . e . from general to particular . First

    comes Geoffroy St . Hilaire , who proclaims the Unity of Composition in the animal forms ; then Schwann , who proves that Unity in the animal tissues j and , finally , Herbert Spencer , who proves that Unity in animal intelligence . We have chosen this illustration as the readiest way of acquitting ourselves of a very difficult task—namely , preparing the reader to understand the aim and method of a work which he will assuredly find worthy of being understood . It is not a work to be fathomed at a glance , but whoever will patiently read and consider it will feel that he has here a guide of singular pow , er and clearness , or an antagonist such as he has not grappled with since Spinoza . In reviewing Herbert Spencer's former work , we compared him with Spinoza : a comparison which seemed strange and even , hyperbolical to those who knew nothing of the old Hebrew logician ; but tlis Principles of Esychalogy is so like Spinoza in the mental dualities it exhibits , and frequently

    iri the very doctrines it professes , that no one acquainted with the two can fail to perceive their kindred . The fundamental fact in Mr . Spencer's doctrine is that all cognition is the establishment of a relation of Likeness ( or Unlikeness ) . This will not seem very enlightening , perhaps , to those who have no knowledge of the analytical process through which the conclusion was reached . But neither is it enlightening"to say that all tissues are modified cells , unless the process of modification be also demonstrated . Mr . Spencer , after a preliminary inquiry jnto the validity of consciousness , and the criterium demanded by all speculation , proceeds to analyse every kind of cognition into its component elements . He begins with the most complex forms—^ uch . as compound quantitative reasoningand seeks in successive decompositions to reduce all cognitions to simpler and simpler forms , and thus finally to arrive at the fundamental characteristic of aU thought . Every compound quantitative argument is resolved into a series of simple quantitative arguments , which involve the establishment of relations of equality or inequality . Every quantitative argument is in the

    same manner an . establishment of likeness or unlikeness between relations . Reasoning is a classification pf relations , for every inference involves- the intuition of likeness or unlikeness . * , We cannot , of course , in the space of an article , follow the analysis tfti ' jpugh which he demonstrates the unity of composition , which makes Reasoning differ from Perception only as being the indirect establishment o £ a ; relation , whereas Perception is the direct establishment . It is enough that he proves Reasoning to be the classification of relations ; and that Perception itself ( as distinguished from Sensation ) is possible only by classing a present group of attributes and relations with a past group . The Constituents of any complex perception must be severally classed with previously known constituents of the same order before the perception in its totality can arise ; and for even the simplest attribute qr relation to be known , there must exist others with which it can be ranged ; seeing that the knowing it is the thinking , of it as one with certain others—the classing it with those others .

    The majority of readers will , in all probability , see neither interest nor importance in the psychological . analysis which occupies this two first divisions of the work , and for the author ' s sake we greatly regret that he did net place these divisions after the third and fourth , which he himself advises the reader unversed in metaphysical speculations to read first . In these more attractive divisions he treats of Life and Hind , and shows how Physiolbg ' y and Psychology are different'expressions of the same fundamental principle of life . As was formerly hinted in these columns , Life is always fiiiiu everywhere psychial but not always intelligent . Intelligence is a special development , of the vital activity . Life , as it manifests itself in the response of the organism to . stimuli without it , may be contemplated under two aspects—vital and psychial ; and the phenomena presented by both will on analysis be found identical . Mr . Spencer has exhibited the genesis of

    these various forms of life and intelligence , gradualty becoming more and more complex as from simple homogeneous tissues more special and complex-structures are developed , and from simple reflex actions we rise to automatic , instinctive , and voluntary actions , thus uniting in one generalisation the manifold expression of Life and Mind , from the structureless anueba to , the simple polyp , upwards through the animal aeries closed by man ; nnd from the earliest form of contractility to simple sensation , upwards through the perceptions , instincts , feelings , and the highest processes of philosophy : one law rules the whole , one process is seen amid the endless variety . The novelty of a system of Psychology thus elaborated will be at once apparent . Some , indeed , may deny the originality and say , " We havo

    ailwnys declared that the complexity of life brought with it a corresponding complexity of mind . " But to make this broad statement—which , indeed , is but the expression of superficial observation of the animal series and its psychial progrcssivones—is quite another thing from demonstrating it in detail , as Mr , Spencer has done . Every one knows the fact that the earth revolves round the sun ; how many could explain the whole process according , to , astronomical laws ? Mr . Spencer is original in his conception , original in his working out of the conception . We do not of couree wnply that ho Ml-not largely indebted to previous thinkers . It is certain that hw own speoulaAions are not only indobtcd to those of his predecessor * , but that a low 3 fWW »^ arJier , Jjo could not have arrived at his conclusions : they are th , e result of the most r ^ csnt physiological and psychological labours ; and bec # urothey , areiso they ; will be accepted by many persons as ideas " which

    jbhey already held ; " it being tbe ^ peeuliarity ^ of certain generalisations to parry with them so obvious an air ( Avhen ^ riee discovered ) that men find it difficult to believe they overlooked , them . We venture to assert , however , that never before has the identity of the vital and psychial process been shown . ¦ < - ¦ ¦ ¦ -Never before has the genesis of each higher intellectual evolution been exhibited as dependent on and corresponding with a higher complexity of-life . ' Never before haa there been a physiological explanation of the Will and of voluntary actions . Never before has the growth of intelligence through successive generations , and how by transmission

    " The thoughts of men are widened by the process of the suns , " been , placed on . an intelligible p hysiological basis . So that with all its obligations to predecessors there is no lack of ori ginality to attract and fasten , the philosophic student . : . To one class of thinkers—a class happily becoming daily more limited ^ there will be the initial objection of Method obstructing their enjoyment and ' appreciation of this work . They discard Physiology-altogether , and think it savours of " . materialism" with several other isms not less offensive .- They revolt from any attempt to identify human and animal intelligence ., . They who laugh to scorn ; -Locke ' s practice of referring to children and savages for illustrations , will be stillless tolerant of any mention of molluscs ; believing that the full-statured Mind ( their own ) is the only object which Psychology can properly analyse , they will not listen to a demonstration of the various p hases of growth which it was necessary that Mind should pass through ere it reached its present stature ; finding in themselves certain ineradicable beliefs , certain " forms of thought , " they insist on such beliefs and forms

    being accepted £ s beloriging- 'to the essence of mind , and will regard Blr . Spencer as an i ^ of a formidable kind because he traces the genesis and growth of those beliefs and forms ; Nor are these men to be despised . We may regret their waste of power in a wrong direction , we cannot but acknowledge their power ; we may wish they were not building fair palaces ^ on . the marsby ground of metaphysics , but we recognise in them the building power . Although we have no Quixotic ambition to vanquish the Windmill which incessantly grinds ^ he air , and refuses to grind corn , we may help to open the eyes of some / if we-point out the fact that air-grinding ie & Xfy has produced no bread , after centuries of effort , but that in proportion ksF corn has been placed in the Mill , there has issued from it sustenance for man . To drop metaphor * we hope by a slight sketch of the history of the various methods pursued in Psychology , to show how the increasing experience ofjgtoen has more and more thrown them into Physiology as the . source or " all true explanation ; and we shall thus point out how the works of Messrs . Bain and Spencer are the legitimate outcome of tee history 6 i thought . This we shall attempt in another article .

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    The Tribes Of The Caucasus. The Tribes O...

    THE TRIBES OF THE CAUCASUS . The Tribes of the' Caucasus , toith an Account of Schamyl and the Mitrids . By Baron August Von Haxthausen . Chapman and Hall . A succession of writers have endeavoured , during many years , to rduse attention to the political value of the Caucasus . In France , that vast ¦ arid solid range has been exhibited , poised on an epigram ; in Germany * strategical geographers have , from a distance , through the telescope of travel , surveyed its passes and fortifications ; in England , we have watched the perpetual efforts of Russia to break through what has seemed the material limit of her triumphant empire . She has , indeed , penetrated the Caucasian line at one place by roads , and turned it at both ends by the navigation of the Black and Caspian J 3 eas but the territory of the independent tribes ia interposed like a wedgeloosening the basis on which she relies for her

    ulti-, mate extension to the Mediterranean and to the Persian Gulf . ¦ .. . '¦< Whatever may be said of aggression , there is something admirable in the patient pertinacity with which Russia , originally a midland duchy , has spread in every direction to the nearest sea—eastwards to the Pacific , northwards to the Arctic Ocean—to the Baltic in orie direction , to the Black Sea and the Caspian in anotherrr-seeking ports whence her mariners may look on the Indies , on Italy , on America . In the Caucasus , the conditions of nature andof history appear to bar her further jproffress in Asia . ?< -- ¦ ¦ - This stupendous range , extending from the Caspian to the Black Sea , v ? about seven hundred and fifty miles in length . Along its northern slope he * series of fertile but thinly-peopled valleys , descending . to foe _ plain * ,, of Hyperborean Europe . On the southern declivity lie Georgia , Mingrelfa , and Gooria the gardens of naturewith Shixvan in the east—the home of

    , the Persian pastoral ; while the mountains themselves , forming a complex double chain , constitute the citadel of Western Asia . They vary in alta * tude from ten to eig hteen thousand feet , nnd present a series of rounded summit *) fringing on both sides a spinal ridge of glaciers , steep , serrated , And rendered still more impervious by the forests which everywhere < sreep uj > to the line Of snow . The traveller , approaching frorn the stepper pf R ^ iawhence the Caucasus is visible at a distance of throe hundred miles—sees in front a mighty mass of-woods , raised upon broad mountains ; , and , behind these , immeasurable in height , and bulk , columnar , pyramidal , conical forma , aud peruendieal walla wrapped in snow—too lofty , it would appear , for even the clouds to-pass . Yet beyond them Russia holds a territory larger than the kinadom of Prussia , and on the north , provinces nearly as extenwhole

    sive , containing four millions and a half of people , and tilling tfce > apace between the Caspian , the Sea of Azof , the steppes , and the Caucasus . Tho race inhabiting these iubuntairfs is divided into an extraordinary mumP [ tc rZ of tribes , sneaking separate dialects , and presenting a strange v ^ Pl ^ n ° l manners : ' The sixteen Circasaiim clans , including ft populaflffl « of « bo " \ half a million ; the four Kabardian claits , numbering nea fy ^ l ^^ T um and the twolvo Abadian cjftnst < of about one hunUrod ^^ SSS ^ iSSL the thirty-two dialwta of the CircasHian nugimgc J * ° JJ tTfi O % Wfc forty-five ^ o Mw thousand possess a ^^^^^ J ^ S ! iS ^ SS ' . whoTdvyoir in tile heartof the Caucasus ^^^ S ^ tftight hundred ' the Efcstfcrn range Iivcs « Ji ™^ ^ " ^ 1 Xrs-wCo dialects are confu ^ , ' t thbusaiid-Tchetc , ees , IxsghiUns " ^^^^ K ^^ ucasia the X * t *** r and whose origin is uncertain . Xn soutu c »»""'

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 20, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20101855/page/17/