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    ^g^ T M. IE Ii OB A B IB IR. ^atttrbat, ...

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    ' < 2t?2+ 4- ;.^tt£P(l*t$t^£* "

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    Critics are not ths legislators, but tli...

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    EiAio somewhere (in the Timceus, if we r...

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    BAIIiEY'S PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIND. Letter...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Wftminm .

    Critics Are Not Ths Legislators, But Tli...

    Critics are not ths legislators , but tlie judges and police of literature . They do not ¦ make laws —they interpret and try to enforce them .. —Edinburgh Revieto .

    Eiaio Somewhere (In The Timceus, If We R...

    EiAio somewhere ( in the Timceus , if we recollect aright ) says that God alternately governs and forsakes the world ; in the period of government all goes right , but left to itself the perturbations of the world rise into anarchy , ' which . once more necessitates the divine interference . One does not-expect ' to meet in a Christian philosopher this sombre idea of the divine government , yet we meet with it in Sir Isaac Newton , implicitly , if not explicitly . His theory of the perturbations which affect the planets , causing them to : deviate from the perfect ellipse of their orbit round the sun , and wliicb would in time , he thought , become so great as to demand the intervention of the Creator , is Plato ' s theory considered astronomically .

    [ There is something piquant in this juxtaposition , but even more piquant is that advanced by M . Babinet in the new number of the Revue des Deux Monties , where , in an article on Aslronomie Cosmogonique well worth reading , he-shows us LiABiiACE occupying himself with these very perturbations , so alarming to the mind of Newton , and proving them to be essentially periodic and counteractive , making the planetary path deviate in one direction , and then , by compensation , deviate in another , so as at length to restore ihe > balance . " Strange ! " exclaims M . Babinet , " a mind essentially religions throws doubt on the wisdom and prescience of the Deity , and a . sceptic answers him by proving the world to be subject to laws so wise that the . stability of the system runs no risk . " of two

    In ^ comparing the services thes e great ge ometricians , Newton and Lait / age , we are led to reflect on the large part played by the Age in every . great discovery which confers immortality on genius . The same intellectual greatness will not produce the same effect if it appear a few years earlier or a . few years later . The Age must furnish the apropos . Genius coming at acertainjuncture and confluence of ideas , produces a result which the blind adoration , ol \ mankind , attributes solely to Genius—when the stupid envy of mankind does not .. take : the otherside of the question , and attribute it solely

    to 1 the--Age . Thus there was-profound truth in the boutade of Lagbanoe , •** Hhat Newton was very , lucky to have a world to explain ; " for it is certain that , had . Newton lived in the time of Laplace he would have been retctuaed'tOithe > arduous , but less glorious , occupation . of- ^ explaining the perturbations , instead of explaining a woria . Nevertheless it must not be forgotten that whatever apropos the Age may furnish , the presence of jQeaius is : necessary for that apropos to be seized . Jones will do nothing in the-most splendid confluence of ideas struggling for birth .

    . Besides the article just referred to , the Revue contains one of singular interest andfimportance , by General Daumas , on Le Cheval de Guerre . Our readers , may know , perhaps , that the general has written a work of great value , and of pleasant reading , on the Arabian horses , Les Chevaux du Sahara ,, in which he proposed the . adoption of the Arabian horse for cavalry . In this . work . he argued that although the Arabs ,, for various reasons , prize * h e-mar © above the stallion , yet for purposes of breeding'the stallion is more valuable . A discussion arose between the general and the Inspecteur des Haras , who had . traversed Asia to collect materials for a decision , and who camerto : the conclusion that the mare > was-more valuable than the stallion ,

    it'being from the- mother , not the father , that the preponderance of influence is derived . This question— : so important to cattle breeders—which has bean agitated ever since Aristotle , the question , / namely , whether the father or'fche'mother'hasthemost decided influence on the offspring , is among the most . complex problems of the . physiology of . generation , and consequently Games the / largest / burden of . nonsense of any question debated among physiologists . We cannot congratulate either of the disputants in the

    pre-. aeTrt . instance upon having mastered even the a , b , c of the matter . Both treat it empirically , and without reference to the , known laws of generation . But although the paper by General iDaumas is absolutely worthless in a scientific point of view , it deserves to be read for its very great interest , both as the elucidation of a practical question respecting cavalry horses , and above all as containing a remarkable letter from Abd + jgl-Kaixeii , showing him'to be a thinking and a lettered man , no loss than a great chieftain .

    The , great Arab chief first declares that the stallion has greater influence than . the mare : " The experience of centuries . has established , " ho says , * ' -itbat the essential parts of the organisation , such as <; he bones , the tendons , the nerves , and the veins , arc always derived from the stallion . The mare may ( give the colour and some resemblance to her structure , but the principal qualities are duo to the stallion . " Wo must content ourselves with the assertion that decisive experiments in the breeding of animals confirm the

    provision of physiologists in contradicting this notion . Mother and father participate in the product , ; nob equally , but indefinitely . Our limits restrict us to-the bare a 8 sertion , which would require a volume to demonstrate . Although therefore , as a question of breeding , we can only award to the stallion such superiority as his relative superiority of vigour may give him ( for if the mare have the superiority - of vigour , owing to her race , health ,, or ago ,-sho will { bo the more preponderant in the offspring ) , wo quito

    understand the-preference of the . Arabs for the . mare , a preference which makes them , sell stallions but-never mares , unless under the extremities of compul - sion . This preference Abd-el-Kadeb has admirably explained . Not only is the mare valuable as a producer both of stallions and mares , but she is according to the Emir , more enduring ; she better supports hunger , thirst , and the fierce radiance of eastern suns . Like the serpent , her force seems to . increase with increase of heat . On the other hand , the stallion has his superiority in certain qualities . He is more rapid , strong , and brave . He has not the serious defect of suddenly stopping during the fight , as the mare

    will if she espies a stallion . He does not fall when wounded , so soon as the mare . " I have seen a mare whose leg was fractured by a ball , drop at once to the ground , unable to vanquish her agony . I have seen a stallion whose broken leg was held only by the skin , yet he continued on three legs till he had carried his master from the field , and then he fell . " Abd-el-Kadee adds that when stallions have proved their great qualities it is almost impossible to procure them , so fabulous are the prices asked . They are only sold to great personages , or extremely rich merchants , who pay for them in thirty or forty instalments , sometimes even by an annuity to the seller and his descendants .

    These indications will suffice to pique the reader s curiosity . He -will find Abd-el-Kadee ' s letter remarkable for its masterly style , and its evidence of literary culture ; so that it will interest the reader who is indifferent to the question of horses , Arabian or English . The same Remie contains an article by Gxjstave Planche on the young poets of France , especially on a new manifesto by M . Du Camp , who , imitating the celebrated preface to Oromwell , with which Victor Hugo raised his standard of revolt , attacks all the past , and heralds the " poetry of the present . " We have

    not any knowledge of M . Du Camp's writings , nor are we disposed to take Gustavd Plan che as an arbiter ; so that what truth there may lie embedded in the exaggeration of this new Romantic School we < cannot even conjecture . It is , however , always suspicious when a poet writes theoretical prefaces . From Woedswobth to " Victor Hugo , such prefaces have been mistakes—mistakes rescued from contempt by the genius or the talent of the poet , and by some grains of truth mixed with the error , but utterly inefficacious in making systematic poetry relished by the public .

    Let us , however , assure our friends in France , that m frankly condemning the profuse indulgence of a certain school of modern French writers in magisterial nonsense and flippant exaggeration , we are not ungrateful to the many excellent writers France has produced , and to the eminent ability Frenchmen display in every department . Especially is this eminence seen in the ordonnance of their scientific writings , and in the grace , of their fugitive literature . No one can write such treatises , no one can produce such tales . We write excellent novels , but the tale belongs to France . A very

    pleasant illustration of this excellence is seen in M . Edmond About ' s tale , originally published in the Revue des Deux Mondes , and now reprinted in the Bibliollieqv-e des Chemins de JFe ?' , wherein a simple story is narrated with an attaching charm and a pervading elegance rare enough even in France . No one should grudge a couple of francs for so delightful a story of Italian life as this Tolla ; and our lady readers in want of a new novel , may with confidence ask for Tolla , not only because it is interesting and unexceptionable , but because the moral tone is thoroughly healthy .

    Baiiiey's Philosophy Of The Mind. Letter...

    BAIIiEY'S PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIND . Letters onthePhilosopliy of the Human Mind . By Samuel Bailey . First Scries . Longman and Co . Any work by the admirable author of the Essays on the Formation and Pahlication of Opinions must command at once the interest of all philosophical readers ; the union of patient thought with clear exposition , which characterises his writings , has made . those writings popular even in England , where little attention is given to metaphysical speculation . The work before us is i the . first of a series of letters on the methods of investigating and speaking of the facts of consciousness—on the abuse of figurative language in philosophy , and the consequent injury to speculation—on the classification oi mental phenomena—and on the various theories of perception , with other collateral matters .

    Amusing as well as instructive arc the examples of the abuse of figurative language , which Mr . Bailey brings forward , not out of any idle desire to ridicule , excellent writers , but out of a laudable desire to put the student on his guard respecting the fallacies which lurk in this loose kind of language . The danger of talking of " our senses informing us , " and of " our reason procuring our aesffint , " or of " the mind furnishing the understanding with ideas , " iamot the simple danger of expressing ourselves with vagueness , it is the danger of strengthening and propagating that tendency to persomly the faculties , and , having personified them , to believe in their separate independent existence , which has created so much confusion in philosophy . > Vo are not content with senses and sensations , but must place an Entity uchmu them , looking on , receiving their reports ; we are not content with feeling , we must place behind it an Entity which feels that we feol . In Una train or speculation a friend of ours conceives that he has made a discovery ot an ultimate beyond the ultimate of the Ego—a something lying deeper than tno Consciousness to which philosophers refer as the basis of all thoug ht , xx artruos that nhilosonhors do not nonetrato doep enough when they soy t » a mnveis

    behind thoSenscs there is the Ego ; for what is behind the Ego ? He n . The Nego ! As the Non Ego requiros an Ego for its existence ami coriolate , so also the Ego demands a Ncgo . Which luminous speculation oiu friend is not prepared to illustrate in two volumes stout octavo .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 26, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26051855/page/18/