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    736 THE LEADER. £§ATt7ft&AY,

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

    if we descend a little lower , we are unable to discern any anatomical distinction between the envelope and the ensemble of the organism , which is wholly cellular . " An increasing condensation , more or less equally distributed , of this cellular tissue determines—in starting from the dermal tissue , and in a higher stage of the organic series—three distinct but inseparable tissues , destined to play an important part in the animal economy , as the protective envelopes of the nervous system , and as auxiliaries to the locomotive apparatus . These are the fibrous , cartilaginous , and osseous tissues—the fundamental analogy of which is evident , and has led M . Laurent in his scheme of systematic nomenclature , to fix this analogy by the application of the general term sclerous tissue to the three . The propriety of this is the more evident , because , in reality , the different degrees of consolidation result from the deposit of a heterogeneous substance , either organic or inorganic , in the network of the cellular tissue , and the extraction of this substance leaves no doubt whatever as to the nature of the tissue . When , on the contrary , by a final condensation , the primary tissue becomes more compact , without encrusting itself with any foreign substance , then we pass to a new modification , where impermeability becomes compatible with elasticity , which characterizes the serous tissue , the destination of which consists in interposing itself between the various organs , and above all in containing the fluids of the body . "

    These are the tissues necessary to Organic life ; and as Animal life is so markedly distinguished from organic life , we may be prepared for some equivalent distinction in the modification of the tissues proper to Animal life , —viz ., the muscular tissue and the nervous tissue , both of them twofold , as I indicated just now , and related more intimately than anatomists suspect . In each case the modification is characterized by the anatomical combination of the fundamental cellular tissue with a special organic element , which , of course , affects its whole composition . In the case of the muscular tissue , the organic element is that well known as fibrine ( the analysis of which I gave above ) , and in the case of nervous tissue , the element is that named by De Blainville , neurine . The modification of which I now speak , is of course too great for us in the present state of science to describe it with precision ; but no philosophical anatomist will doubt the reality of the process , unless he prefer the supposition of three primitive tissues , —cellular , muscular , and nervous , —a supposition that would disturb the whole unity of Nature . This , then , is the object of Philosophical Anatomy : —to reduce all the

    tissues to one primordial elementary tissue , from which they are developed by modifications more and more special and profound , first of structure and then of composition . Comte energetically raises his voice against that tendency among modern German anatomists to quit the real positive point of view for some more inaccessible and chimerical position , which , if attainable , would only remove the subject still farther , and in no case explain it . Instead of contenting themselves with the reduction of all the tissues to one , they endeavour to reduce that one to an assemblage of organic monads , which are the primordial elements of all living beings . This is contrary to all sound Biology . In the science of life what have we to study but the phenomena of organized beings ? To go beyond the organism is to step beyond the limits of the science . That the differences between the inorganic and organic worlds are phenomenal and in nowise noumenal , 1 have endeavoured to prove in the section on Organic Chemistry ; but these phenomenal differences arc in philosophy essential , and whoever confounds them sins against fundamental principles . In one sense it is true that Life is every where ; but in the restricted sense in which Biology considers Vitality—viz ., ns the co-relation of two inseparable ideas , Life and Organization—it is obviously absurd to suppose Life as resident in molecules . In what could the _organization or the life of a monad consist ? That the philosophy of inorganic matter should conceive all bodies as composed of indivisible molecules , is rational enough , being perfectly conformable to

    the nature of the phenomena , which , constituting the general basis of all material existence , must necessarily belong to the smallest particles . But , on the contrary , this biological heresy is only an absurd imitation of that conception , and , reduced to plain terms , it makes all animals composed of animalcules ; and , even admitting this supposition , the elementary animalcules become more- incomprehensible than the animals , not to mention the gratuitous diilictilty introduced of their association into one animal . At the time Comte wrote , the Doctrine of Cells was unknown , and he must not , therefore , be supposed to discountenance that , while objecting to the doctrine of organic self-existent monads , lie merely wishes to keep the unity of each organization distinct . Any and every organism constitutes by its naturo an indivisible unit ; it is true that by an intellectual artifice we can decompose that unit the better to understand it ; but the last term of that abstract decomposition consists in the idea of tissue , beyond which ( if we combine with it the idea of elements ) nothing can anatomically exist , because beyond it there can be no organization . The idea of tissue is to the organic world what the idea of molecule is to the inorganic . I know not if the " general reader" has been able to follow this abstract statement of the fundamental principles of philosophical Anatomy , but certain I am that he need only open any or all of the works specially devoted to this science , and he will perceive nt once the simplicity , profundity , and luminousness of the principles here laid down . * * For tho Coinlo _fcJubacription 1 have to _uckuowledtfo 1 / . from 1 > . 11 .

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

    THE DISCIPLINE OF ART . * Concluding Letteb , —To A a . Art is the reflex of life , fixed and concentrated for our contemplation , in order to the satisfaction of our instincts , by making us more conscious of the laws of vitality , its impulses , and its enjoyments . As the most developed science constructs the most perfect mirrors , which reflect nature with the least distortion , adulteration , or dilution , so perfect art reflects nature in its simplest force . The desire to attain the object of Art , that close and true reflex of the Nature from which civilization has perchance too far removed us , enlists our instincts to be concerned in the most lively degree for the justness of the medium ; and hence Art , which , broadly considered , is but a means to a natural end , has also a substantive value of its own ; and the same piety which moves us to venerate the laws of Nature , wherever we consciously view their working , makes us also feel a grateful veneration towards the instrument . So strong is this natural piety , that the artist cannot be rendered unfaithful to that fealty . Other laws move and restrain other men—the merchant must above all be exact in his commercial dealings ; the lawyer must obey the statutes for the time-being , even against sense and justice j the worldly man must perforce consult his grosser " interests ; " but the artist is under a spell to devote his energy to good Art , so far as his strength will carry him . Annibal Caracci will not be turned aside by public favour , nor the prosperity that courts his relatives less potent in art , but must labour to work after the example of the great men before him . Ariosto would not have repelled courtly favour ; yet his vital instincts made him immortalize those brilliant " ribaldries" which his royal patron openly disparaged ; and although he adopted for his device the complaint of his predecessor— Sic vos non vobis mellificatis

    apesa hive of bees smoked out for the sake of their honey , —his instinct forced him still to work the honey , though i _* were not to be returned to himself in the sweets of grateful appreciation . Mozart was the pet of courts ; but Imperial Austria himself could not overawe the musician ' s allegiance to the simplest laws of Art : a man who could read music well enough to turn over the leaves without mistake , was greater than an Emperor . Mozart could not write down to the level of a minor theatre , but threw before an Astley audience the sublimities of a Sarastro . Painting has drawn its recruits from all rank Buonarroti gentlemanRaphael

    s—Michelangelo was a , may be called a middle-class man , Giotto was a peasant boy , Michelangelo da Caravaggio was an abandoned vagabond : but all were noblemen in the studio— are noblemen to posterity , and were so to themselves and to each other . They are Counts of an Empire more enduring than the Roman . Even the singer or player who passes away has his influence on the organic growth of his kind ., Paganini will not perish : his soul has been absorbed into the divine voice of music , that speaks unto countless generations forward , for he has enlarged its utterance . And in the fulness of her great instinct , Pasta knew no less ; for , in her private letters to her pupil , Parodi , she calls her to sustain the dignity of her vocation , by telling her , that even the singer who perishes , helps to unfold the resources of the art that perishes not .

    Artists are lawless , irregular , heedless ; but in the main they are generous ; they are faithful to Art . Seldom do you find a true artist sacrificing the laws of his art to a personal interest . If he does , he is punished by the- loss of power . Our English artists have said , " It is all very well to paint fine pictures when you can , but first you must make the pot boil : " they sometimes make the _j ) ot boil , but they cannot paint pictures . They have forfeited their faculty . You will see that the artist , within his Art , is compelled by his instinct to do that which is good——that which accords with the laws of Nature carried into Art . I do not know what this peremptory influence can be , if it is not one form of religion—a thorough obedience to the divine laws which rule our organized life , enabling it to know itself and to reproduce itself . By his thorough obedience the artist is enabled to carry on those laws , and to bring more souls under a thorough obedience , like to his own . His own feelings in each become more or less forced into the course of those laws—he must do that which is " good art ; " in other words , that which is consistent with the unperverted laws of Nature .

    The discipline which Art exercises over the artist differs only in degree from its discipline over all who have the faculties or the training to undergo that influence . In some respects , indeed , the layman is more purely influenced than the artist . By his allegiance to laws which , in their enduring and straight onward course , do not coincide with the changeful and devious course of statute and social usage , the artist is made proportionately an outlaw to society , and hence much of the audacious irregularity which distinguishes the order of illustrious vagabonds ; whereas tho layman in Art is not thrown into such defiance against temporary laws , though , he can feel the corrective influence of Art . ' /[ 'hat consists in recalling him to the most beautiful type and standard of his kind in all its attributes ; and it operates , not directly upon his reasoning faculties , wot upon his reasoning conscience , but upon his feelings and wishes . A man thoroughly imbued with right convictions will perceive whut is right , and will constrain * For tho preceding _lottcro , vide Leader of July 24 / , 17 , _iJ .

    736 The Leader. £§Att7ft&Ay,

    736 THE LEADER . £ § ATt 7 ft & AY ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1852, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31071852/page/20/