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Leader (1850-1860), 19th July 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 682, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      claims of the Allied Powers to the gratitude of European liberty . How will this suit the taste of " my uncle ' s nephew" ? The following extract from the English prospectus is worth quoting : — u And which , from its recognizing the justice of that monarchical policy pursued by our Government , in order to check the grasping ambition of Napoleon , cannot fail to be deeply interesting- to the English nation . " To say the truth , the Monarchies were , as we believe providentially , mistaken in leaguing for the destruction of the Emperor ,

      who , soldier of the Revolution though he was , played their game and not the People ' s . To this day , under the shadow of that column in the Place Vendome , liberty withers ; and while a vestige of the Imperial traditions of Government , with the prying and restless centralization , the monstrous conscription , and the army of functionaries survives , a free Government , be the form what it may , is impossible in France . Either Csesarism or anarchy . But until that stupid idolatry of a name be purged out , Democracy itself will be nothing better than a disguised and complicated despotism .

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      Socialism , manifold in denominations and developments , continues to be attacked and defended , propagated and proscribed , with equal pertinacity , if not with equal goo _ d faith and success . Let the men who ignobly flattered , and now most basely insult , the Revolution of February , stigmatize it as an accident , a surprise , a catastrophe . Certain it is , that a movement which sprung from deep social corruption and discontent , however baulked for a time , must finally accomplish its course of thorough social reconstruction . Reaction will have its day , but on ne recule que pour mieux sauter : and the

      seed having been sown , the harvest will come . * * The old society is worn out , " was the confession of Napoleon at St . Helena , and of Chateaubriand , as' he wrote the last chapter , of his Memoirs . The last stakes of the old political gamblers are played out : the new political science takes the place of party tactics and diplomatic intrigues . As a bold and able organ of the new ideas , of a generous and enlightened democracy , freedom of thought and social reform , we may mention ha Politique Nouvelle , at first a fortnightly , now a weekly , review , which has just reached its twentieth number . It is in the hands

      of the remaining chiefs of the St . Simonians , with an infusion of new blood from the more recent combatants . We are glad to observe E . Pklletan among the contributors ; and George Sand bestows her great name and a charming story or two upon its pages . Another organ of the movement Party , LeBienatre Universal , deserves notice . It is of the pamphlet size and form , and at a price below the possibility of remuneration , without an immense publicity . But in the face of all kinds of fiscal difficulties and vexatious restrictions of the new press law , it

      has attained in a few weeks to a circulation above 100 , 000 , chielly in the country . Every article has a directly practical bearing and tendency , and industrial , agricultural , and economical questions are treated with great ability by writers of special experience . The names of Emii . k uk Gihardin , Victor llvao , Kdcjah Quinkt , are a sufficient guarantee for the power with which the more exclusively political articles are written . If it enlighten the peasantry who elected Louis Naim ) - L , kon with enthusiasm , it will render incalculable servico to the future of the Republic .

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      What do you suppose to be the canker-worm of modern societies , the cause of Socialism , and of all other atrocious inventions ? Think for a moment ! The secret cause of the pestilence has just been brought to light by a distinguished ultra-montane priest , L'Abbe J . GAume , favourably known as the author of a Catechisme de la Perseverance , and

      other light treatises , in a book just published , entitled , Le Ver Rongeur des SociStSs Modemes ; ou , le Paganisme dans VEducation . Shade of Lempriere ! what have you to answer for ! But , with a naivete" which does him honour , the worthy Abbe lets the cat out o ' the bag in the following sentence , wherein he insists on the necessity of " la reaction du Catholicisme sur l ' education sans laquette toutes

      les reactions , toutes les restaurations n'aboutiront a rienj ah ! mon cher Abbe , you have had the misfortune to be born into this planet of ours some three centuries too late !

      Untitled Article

      liebig ' s chemical letters . Familiar Letters on Chemistry , in its relations to Physiology Dietetics , Agriculture , Commerce , and Political Economy . By Justus von Liebig . Third edition , revised and much enlarged . Taylor , Walton , and Maberly . The perusal of Liebig ' s admirable volume has forced upon our attention the astonishing contrast of wealth and poverty , which the philosopher must remark in the present condition of chemical science—so rich in multitudinous facts , so poor in general ideas , so accurate in details , yet so fer from philosophic accuracy . Liebig ' s noble vindication of the Alchemists ought to teach our doctors modesty , while it enables them to measure the extent of the progress that has been made . It is a mistake to- suppose that Alchemy is extinct ; the elixir vitse , or the philosopher ' s stone , may no longer be the object of search ; but , although the object changes , the spirit remains ; and every positive thinker will recognize the metaphysical method , even in some of the most celebrated chemical speculations . What , for example , is that famous Chemical Affinity , but the offspring of the metaphysical method ? Liebig has objected , indeed , to the phrase " affinity , " if by affinity be meant relationship ; but he , too , believes in a

      mysterious tendency of one substance towards another , although he would laugh at any one who should tell him that nature abhorred a vacuum , or that mercury had an affection for sulphur ! I the phrase . " chemical affinity " be used a * a phrase , there may be no weighty objection against it ; but to suppose that by " affinity " anything is explained , is to suppose that the simple enunciation of the phenomenon in abstract terms is equivalent to an explanation of it . lt Papa , " said a boy , " this crystal is heavier than this bit of wood , yet I can see through it and not through the wood ; why ? " " Of course , my dear , * replied the

      father , " of course : the crystal is transparent . ' Both believed that an explanation had been given ! When the action of sulphuric acid determines the decomposition of water by iron so aa to disengage hydrogen , this is commonly attributed to the affinity of the sulphuric acid for the oxide of iron , which tends to form itself ; so that here we have the sympathetic action of one substance upon another which does not yet exist , and the formation of , this non-existent by means of the said sympathetic affection ! Yet how absurd the Alchemists seem to us ! Not however to Liebig hear him : — " In our day , mon are only too much disposed to regard the views of the disciples and followers of the Arabian school , and of the lute alchemists , on the subject of transmutation of metuls , us a mere hallucination of the human mind , and , strangely enough , to lament it . But the idea of the variable and changeable corresponds to universal experience , and always prccodti that of the unchangeable . The notion of bodies , chemically simple , wau first iiunly established in the science by the introduction of the Daltoniun

      doctrine , which admita the existence of solid purtioleti not further divisible , or utoinu . But the ideas connected with this view nre 80 little in accordance with our experience of nature , that no chemist of the present day holds the metals , absolutely , for simple , undccomposable bodieB , for true elements . Only a few yearn since , Berzelius was firmly convinced of the compound nature of nitrogen , ohlorine , bromine , and iodine ; and we allow our so-called simple substances to pass for such , not because we know thut they are in reality unducompoaable , but because they are as yot undecomposed ; that is , because wo cannot yet

      demonstrate their decomposability so as to satisfy the requirements of science . But we all hold it possible that this may be done tff-morrow . In the year 1807 , the alkalies , alkaline earths , and earths proper , were regarded as simple bodies , till Davy _ demonstrated that they were compounds of metals with oxy gen . "In the last twenty-five years of the preceding century , many of tbe most distinguished philosophers believed in the transmutation of water into earth .

      Indeed , this belief was so . widely prevalent , that Lavoisier , the greatest chemist of his day , thought it advisable , in a series of beautiful experiments , to submit to investigation the grounds on which it rested , and to point out their fallacy . Such notions as that of the production of lime during the incubation of eggs , and of iron and metallic oxides in the animal and vegetable vital processes , have found , even in the present century , acute and enthusiastic defenders .

      " It is the prevailing ignorance of chemistry , and especially of its history , which is the source of the very ludicrous and excessive estimation of ourselves , with which many look back on the age of alchemy ; as if it were possible , or even conceivable ) that for more than a thousand years the most learned and acute men , such as Francis Bacon , Spinosa , and Leibnitz , could have regarded as true and well-founded an opinion void of all foundation . On the contrary , must we not suppose , as a matter beyond a doubt , that the idea of the transmutability of metals stood in the most perfect harmony with all the observations and all the knowledge of that age , and in contradiction to none of these ?

      " In the first stage of the development of science , the alchemists could not possibly have any other notions of the nature of metals than those which they actually held . No others were admissible or even possible ; and their views were consequently , by natural law , inevitable . Without these ideas , chemistry would not now stand in its present perfection ; and in Order to call that science into existence , and in the course of 1500 or 2000 years to bring it to the point which it has now reached , it would have been necessary to create the science anew . We hear it said that the idea of the philosopher ' s ' stone was an

      error ; but all our views have been developed from errors , and that which to-day we regard as truth in chemistry , may , perhaps , before to-morrow , be recognized as a fallacy . " Every theory which urges men to labour and research , which excites acuteness and sustains perseverance , is a gain to science ; for it is labour and research which lead to discoveries . The three laws of Kepler , which are regarded as the foundation of modern astronomy , were not derived from just views of the nature of that force which retains the planets in their revolutions and in their orbits , but are simply deductions obtained by the art of experimenting ; that is to say , by labour and research .

      " The most lively imagination , the most acute intellect , is not capable of devising a thought which could have acted more powerfully and constantl y on the minds and faculties of men , than that very idea of the philosopher ' s stone . It was that same force which urged thousands of adventurers , with and after Columbus , to venture fortune and life on the discovery of a new world , and which , in our day , drives hundreds of thousands to cross the mountains of Western America , and thus to spread cultivation and civilization over that hitherto neglected part of the globe .

      " In order to know that the philosopher s stone did not really exist , it was indispensable that every substance accessible to study and observation should be observed and examined , in accordance with the scientific resources of the time . But it is precisely in this that we perceive the almost miraculous influence of the idea . The strength of the opinion could not be broken , till science had reached a certain stage of development . During centuries , as we have seen , whenever doubts arose and the labourers became languid in their efforts , a mysterious unknown was sure to appear at the right moment , who

      convinced some prominent and trustworthy man of the reality of the great Magisterium Many of the fundamental or leading ideas of the present time appear , to him who knows not what science has already achieved , as extravagant as the notions of the alchemisto . Not , indeed , the transmutation of metals , which seemed so probable to the ancients , but fur stranger things are held by ua to be attainable . We have become so acoustoracd to wonders that nothing any longer excites our wonder . Wo fix the solar rays on paper , and send our thoug hts literally with the velocity of lightning to the greatest distances . Wo can , aa it were , melt copper in cold water , and cast it into statues . We oan freeae water

      , or mercury into a solid malleable mass , m white-hot orucibles ; and w « consider it quite praoticublo to illuminate most brightly entire cities with lamps devoid of flame or fire , and to which the air haa no access . We produce , artificially , ultramarine , one of the most precious minerals ; and we believe , that to-morrow or next day some one may discover a method of producing , from a piece of charcoal , « splendid diamond ; from a bit of alum , sapphires or rubies ; or from coal-tar the beautiful colouring prin-

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      Ah a specimen of tUo refutations (?) of Socialism ( rather say culumnicH against Socialists ) under the patronage of the " ( jJrand l * arty of Order , " take the following : —We extract tbo puff preliminary from the Dtbats . The title of the book is he Socialisme duns le passe : " the author ( ways the Dibats ) , " rUablit contra eux le sens du Christianisme et sa sublime , philosophic , lie lias indulged perhaps a little too freely in story-telliag : but that which would be a defect if the work were intended exclusively for wen of learning , becomes an

      attraction for the numerous readers who naturally prefer —une discussion piquante ! "

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      682 % ^ t %$ ai * t . [ Satorpay ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1851, page 682, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1892/page/14/