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Leader (1850-1860), 10th April 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 350, Kittxainxt

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      Untitled Article

      Critics arc not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not Critic * axe a laws _ tgey interpret aild try fo enforcetheta .-Edmhurgh Review .

      Untitled Article

      The sarcasm of Hobbes , that men would dispute the axioms of geometry if their interests were involved , will help to explain the obstruction of truth on the part of those who most prominently undertake to teach it . In Science there are many ideas rejected because they do not fall in with the orthodox system of opinions ; and this is peculiarly the case with Geology . The granite Book , which no one can doubt to be divinely inspired , is perpetually shown to contradict the written Book , also said to be inspired ! But the interests involved in orthodoxy will not quietly suffer the intrusion of adverse opinions , and Geology has to fight its battle and gain ground inch by inch .

      A little while ago pceans of triumph were shouted in geologic assemblies over the discovery of reptilian footprints in sandstone slabs taken from the Silurian epoch . Here was a blow to the Owens , Murchisons , Sedgewicks , who hold the doctrine of a progressive development of life upon our globe ; and , above all , what a blow to the " Vestiges ! . " It is true , then , that fishes did not exist before reptiles ! The bugbear of Development ( so contrary to Moses !) is crushed for ever ; no sensible man must ever allude to it , except in contempt ! Let" us hear no more of an epoch when vertebrate animals had not existence ; let us hear no more of the Silurian chronicle of the first dawnings of life upon our globe . Life never dawned—it was always day !

      This was the song of triumph , loud and lusty . Now mark that this triumph—which in some eases went to extravagant and frantic exhibitions — -was all founded upon one " conjectural fact ! " No reptile had been discovered—only what " seemed to be" the footprints of a reptile ! Against the accumulated mass of evidence , all irresistibly pointing one way —against a thousand illustrations , positive and negative—owe conjecture is allowed to turn the scale , because orthodoxy passionately wishes its system to be true ! The commonest of common " sense should have suggested the propriety of establishing the " fact" * beyond a doubt , before employing it to overturn the facts of zoology and geology ; and when the fact itself was proven , it would have been time to see if it really affected the development hypothesis , which we deny . But orthodoxy hates development , and the footprints were accepted as evidence .

      Alas ! for the jubilants—the-conjectural fact is now flung aside , even as a conjecture . Professor Owen , who last year pronounced that the footprints were most probably those of a chelonian animal ( turtle ) , not of a land species— -a pronouncement which has a prominent place in the last edition of Sir Charles Lyeli / s Manual—read a paper on the 24 th of last month before the Geological Society , in which he reversed his former position , and professed his conviction that the footprints were those of animals possessing more than four feet—some eight or ten—consequently that they indicated invertebrate animals , most probably crustacean ! We extract from the report in the Athenccum . —

      " The Professor proceeded to observe , that , from their peculiar arrangements , neither to a quadrupedal creature nor a fish-like animal could these imprints be assigned j and yet , with respect to the hypothesis that each imprint was made by its independent limb , I confess to much difficulty in conceiving how seven or eight pairs of jointed limbs could be aggregated in so short a space of the sides of the animal ; so that I incline to adopt sis the most probable hypothesis , that the creatures which have left these tracts and impressions on the most ancient of known sea-shores belonged to an articulate , and probably crustaceous , genus . With reference to the conjectures that might be formed respecting the creatures that have left these tracts , the Professor observed , that the imagination is baffled in the attempt to realize tho . extent of time passed since the period when these

      creatures were in hoing that moved , upon the sandy shores of tho Silurian sea , and we know that , with tho exception of tho most microscopic forms , all tho actual species of living hcings disappear nt a period geologically very recent in comparison with tho Silurian epoch . Tho forms of animals present modifications more and more strango and diverse from actual exemplars as wo descend into tho depths of time past . Of this the Plcsiosaur and tho Ichthyosaur are instances in tho roptilian class , and the Pterichtliys , Coccostcus , and Ccplmlaspis in the class of fishes . If then the vertebrate type has undergone such inconceivable modifications during the secondary and Devonian periods , ivhat mat / not have been the modifications ' of the articulate type during a period probahly more remote from , tho secondary period than this is from the present time ?"

      In the Dublin University Magazine for January , there is an article containing curious evidence of the hastiness with which geologists have declared for " facts" seeming to tell against tho developmental hypothesis , and to that article we particularly refer our readers . Apropos of Magazines , we must content ourselves with a summary indication of those wo have seen this month , for they arc almost old by this time . Fraser is very entertaining—when is it not ? No one will turn over its pages without reading the " Naturalist in Jamaica , " and let no one miss

      the paper on " Preserved Meats , us curious as it is lively ; we suppose there arc persona to be found who will read tho " Horro Dramatical" with interest , though what ideas they must have of the Greek drama if they owe them to such articles ! " Digby Grand" continues his revelations , and " Hypatia" ( with a . fine translation from Homer ) ia still the failure of a remarkable writer . Tait comes out under a new editor , and promises to be liberal in a more than parliamentary sense . The noticeable feature 0 f this Magazine under its new management is to be maintenance of social

      and religious liberty in addition to those of civil and political freedom . The " Prison Scene during the Reign of Terror" is remarkable for anonymously contradicting many well ascertained facts of Thomas Paine ' life while irrthe Palais du Luxembourg . In the Journal of Psychological Medicineone hundred and eighty closely printed pages are devoted to a comp lete re port of the celebrated case of Mrs . Gumming , lately filling our newspaper columns ; there is consequently little space set apart for contributions—and

      that little not well filled . The " - Psychology of Epochs" is one of tlibse ambitious failures which sonorous titles seduce men into who fancy themselves profound when they are vague . The British Journal continues to improve : there is both vivacity and variety in this number , the only objection to which is its resemblance to other Magazines . The Biographical Magazine gives us memoirs of Hartley Coleridge / , Harriet Martineau , Margaret Fuller , Armand Marrast , and Pye Smith . The Illustrated Exhibitor is profuse in wood-cuts—a marvel of cheapness .

      Untitled Article

      Now that The Corsican Brothers has become a topic of conversation , it may interest our readers to know , the origin of it . Th 0 story is founded on the mysterious sympathy of two brothers , who , even when separated by hundreds of miles , are simultaneously affected by great occurrences ; if one is ill , the other is ill ; if one is stabbed , the other feels a pang . This Corsican superstition was singularly illustrated in the persons of Loujs Blanc and his brother . Lours Blanc ( who , it will be remembered , ia Corsican , ) was one night stabbed as he entered his lodgings in Paris . "At precisely the sajne hour , " so runs the narrative we had from Louis Blanc himself , " my brother , then in Ilhodez , felt a sudden pang , which alarmed him on my account ; he insisted on setting off at once for Paris , and was with difficulty persuaded to send a letter instead . The letter came , and

      the answer told him his fears had been too well grounded . " This story was naturally enough the talk of all Paris , and Dumas , like a " whipper-up of unconsidered trifles , " turned it into a novel , and thence into a drame .

      Untitled Article

      The battle of the booksellers is extending . The article in the Westminster Review , on " The Commerce of Literature" ( written , we believe , by Mr . Chapman ) , opened the campaign , and gave encouragement to the rebels who clamour for free-trade . As we hinted last week , our sympathies are with them . Their arguments seem to us unanswerable . The Times , too , is helping them , and the Athenceum is about to pronounce in their favour . The protectionist chiefs , weakened some time since by the desertion of Mr . Bentley , and this week by that of Mr . John W . Parker , appeal to authors for aid , and rely , we have heard , upon a conference to be held next Wednesday , between themselves and Lord Granyille , Lord Campbell , Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton , Mr . Grote , and Dr . Milman , They have also

      resuscitated Dr . Johnson for the occasion , and use his defence of the bookselling system in 1776 , as a shield against the attacks of to-day . Being unable to adduce reasons for maintaining the high prices of books , they rely on authority to support them . From all this we infer that the literary protectionists are playing the losing game . Indeed we shall marvel if such men as Lord Granville , Lord Campbell , and Mr . Grote should abet their side ; but even if they do , they will only prolong a struggle which ultimately can have but an issue fatal to those who stand or fall by a policy which restricts production . The whole question , as between authors , publishers , and booksellers , cannot be too searchingly ventilated .

      Untitled Article

      NEWMAN ON KEGAL ROME . Regal Borne : an Introduction to Roman History . By Francis W . Newman , Profossor of Latin in tho London University . Taylor , Walton , and Maberly . Tiieke are two classes of students to whom this little volume will bo especially acceptable : to those who have bewildered themselves over the vexatious pages of Niebuhr , without being able to gain any clear conception of the vast critical results attained by that great scholar but inartistic expositor ; and to those who never having ventured into tho labyrinth of conjectural criticism , sagacious insight , and immense erudition of tho first volume of Rommi Itistory , do yot wish to commence their study of the subject with some dofinite ideas on tho results of modern investigation . As a corrective of Niobuhr , or as an introduction to Niebuhr , Profossor Newman's volumo deserves a wide popularity , which the clearness of its exposition , tho solidity of its tissue , and tho smallness of its bulk , will , ni all probability , secure for it . In ono hundred and seventy pages tho whole subject is set . forth . Those , and they are many , who , liko Callimachus , dislike " big books , " will rojoico in tho skill which here knows how to oluciclato recondite inquiries without parade of learning , without erratic disquisition , and without otiose superfluities ; so that they may not only expondjoas time in mastering tho story of early Jiorno , but g * a far clearer conception of it in that shorter time .

      [ Professor Newman , without concealing his differences from Niobuhr s views , such as liis own investigation and tho labours of modern critics havo loci him to entertain , does in general follow Niobuhr , and claims no moro , originality than that of having come with . a fresh mind to old discussions . Wq do not always * ftnd ourselves agrooing with him , but wo always find him thinking " freshly , " and to tho purpose . Ho divides ins little book into three parts ; " th . e ii ' rsfc treating of Alban Bomo ; tho soconci of Sabino Homo , and tho third of . Etrusoo-Latm Home . The columns ot a newspaper two not suited to tho discussion of minute points , and after a strong recommendation of tho work to till whom it may concern , wo wii j select for that mysterious individual known to reviewers as tho " general reader , " a passage or two which will interest him .

      Is not this passage symbolical ol many creedsr" Tho Latins , liko othor Italian nations , were profound believers in augury . At a much Inter time the movements of their armies , and tlioir ncceptenco of a general ,

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      350 THE , ^ U . ^ A ^^ Ar - [ Sattopa ^ ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 10, 1852, page 350, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1930/page/18/