Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 26th March 1853, Edition 1 of 1, Page 307, Untitled Article

Page 307
Page 19
19 of 24

On this page

  • Text (2)

      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.

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

  • Transcript

    • 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.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      " Thy spirit on another breaks in joy , liike the pleased sea on a white-breasted shore—" # # # # " I am alone . The past is past . I see the future stretch All dark and barren as a rainy sea . " Here are stars and sea together : — w " See yon poor star That shudders o ' er the mournful hill of pines ! 'Twould almost make you weep , it seems so sad . 'Tis like an orphan trembling with the cold . Over his mother ' s grave among the pines . Like a wild lover who has found his love Worthless and foul , our friend , the sea , lias left His paramour the shore ; naked she lies , Ugly and black and bare . Hark how he moans ! The pain is in his heart . Inconstant fool ! He will be up upon her breast to-morrow As eager as to-day . " The felicities are sand-numerous , and often Shaksperian , e . g . — " thought struck all the blood into his cheek , Like a strong buffet . " Or , when he speaks of ramblers feeling " the breezes in their lifted hair , " and " quick she turned her face—looks met like swords . " What picturesqueness in this : — " And surgy plains of wheat , and ancient woods , In the calm evenings cawed by clouds of rooks . " This is quite in Shakspeare's manner : — " My drooping sails Flap idly ' gainst the mast of my intent . I rot upon the waters when my prow Should grate the golden isles . " As also this : — " As for myself , There ' s nothing new between me and the grave , But the cold feel of death . " And this : — Now , what a sullen-blooded fool was this , At sulks with earth and Heaven ! Could he not Out-ioeep his passion like a blustering day , And be clear-skied thereafter ?" He speaks of men whose hearts " Have grown as stony as the trodden ways . " What a feeling there is in this : — " The terror-stricken rain Flings itself wildly on the window-panes , Imploring shelter from the chasing wind . Alas ! to-night in this wide waste of streets It beats on human limbs , as well as walls !" " We have quoted enough , and yet we have not quoted a third of the fine passages our pencil has marked . Having read these extracts , turn to any poet you will , and compare the texture of the composition—it is a severe test , but you will find that Alexander Smith bears it well . One word in conclusion . We are pleased to see that he is ready to correct errors when pointed out ; he will have much to correct , but the growth , of his own genius will best enlighten him if he bo watchful . In the famous love sonnet , which excited so much controversy among our correspondents , there were two epithets we condemned as belonging to the " upholstery of fancy . " See how charmingly Alexander Smith has replaced them ! Originally the line ran thus" Lust night a silken lip was pressed to mine . " Now it runs" Last night a loving lip was pressed to mine . " Again , the first version had this line —• " And golden couched on a bosom white . " Very bad ; now it reads" And softly couched upon a bosom white , Which caino and wont beneath me like- a soa !" Ah a sample of his lyric ; sensuousness we will quote this song , and thon send the reader to the volume itself : — "My heart is beating with all things that are , My blood is wild unrest ; With whut u passion punts yon eager star , Upon the water's breast ! Clasped in the air ' s soft nrniN the world doth sleep , Asleep its moving sons , its humming lands ; With what an hungry lip the wieim deep Lappcth for ever the white-breasted sands ! What love is in the moon ' s eternal eyes , ' Leaning unto the earth from out the midnight skies ! Thy large dark eyes are wide upon iny brow , Killed with as tender light As yon low moon doth fill the heavens now , Thin mellow autumn night ! On the late flowers I linger at thy feet . I tremble when L touch thy garment ' s rim , I clasp thy waist , 1 feel thy bosom's beat—O kiss me into iaintness sweet and dim ! Thou leanest to me as a swelling pouch , Full-juiced and mellow , leaneth to the taker ' ri reach .

      Thy hair is loosened by that kiss you gave , It floods my shoulders o'er ; Another yet ! Oh , as a weary wave Subsides upon the shore , My hungry being with its hopes , its fears , My heart like moon-charmed waters , all unrest , Yet strong as is despair , as weak as tears , Doth faint upon thy breast ! I feel thy clasping arms , my cheek is wet With thy rich tears . One kiss ! Sweet , sweet , another yet !"

      Untitled Article

      PUBLICATIONS AND REPUBLICATIONS . A hasty glance at several volumes on our table is all that we can give . Homoeopathy , by Dr . George Wy ld , ( Simpkin and Marshall ) , is a moderate pamphlet , wherein the author , who is physician to the Hahnemann Hospital , attempts to state the question with fairness , and to analyze the relative merits of the old and new schools . We have long been advocates of the right of Homoeopathy to a fair trial and a fair hearing . It is not for laymen to pronounce ex cathedra upon such a question ; we can have no authority in the matter . At the utmost , we may be allowed to speak of a science , not of smart , —such as Medicine is . The " new school , " then , is entitled to its hearing , knowing as it does the consequences of novelty : — " Harvey , for demonstrating the circulation of the blood , became damaged , for the time , both in reputation and in purse . Next to the discoveries of Hahnemann the most important discovery ever made in medicine was that of vaccination , by Jenner ; who , in consequence , was lampooned and vilified by the pulpit , the professional chair , and the public- press . Bark was introduced into notice by the Jesuits , and being well persuaded that from them could come no good thing , the College of Physicians , in the days of the Commonwealth , fulminated anathemas against the use of bark : but Cromwell died from an ague which bark might have cured , and so , af ter a time , bark was established as beyond all doubt the very

      greatest individual addition ever made to the Materia Medica . Moved by the College of Physicians , the government , some two hundred years ago , declared it manslaughter to administer cantharides internally ; but this drug , internally administered , is now , in the hands of the homoeopatllists , found to be an almost infallible specific in spasmodic stricture of the urethra . What can be more innocent than a well-boiled meally potatoe ? yet even this poor potatoe was at one time not permitted to be eaten , except under the strongest protests from the greatest physicians of the day ! But , as Dr . Gall snys , ' Opinions , which are to-day persecuted because they are neit ; shall one day bo worshipped because they arc old . ' "

      The great point at which ridicule will aim its shafts , i 3 the " infinitesimal doses ; " yet every scientific reader can multiply the marvels of infinitesimal division . One passage from Dr . Wyld is interesting enough to demand extract : — " I have heard Dr . A . T . Thompson , late professor of Materia Medica in University College , state , that half a grain of capsicum , if volatilized in a room by a burning heat , would set every one present sneezing . Now , if we suppose the room to have been twenty-two feet by eighteen , and sixteen in height , then we have 6 , 336 cubic feet , or 10 , 948 , 608 cubic inches ; and this multiplied by two gives us the 21 , 897 , 216 th part of a grain of capsicum existing in each cubic inch , viz ., a quantity sufficient , on coming in contact with t he schneiderian membranes of those present , to cause sneezinsr .

      " In reply to the objection that it is impossible that an infinitesimal dose can act , it has been asked , ' Can you tell me the amount of vaccine matter in a man which protects him for thirty years from smallpox ? ' The question has , I say , been often asked , but never , so far as I know , either answered or calculated , and therefore let us just see how much the vaccine amounts to . " The y o < y ° ^ n 6 rani ° t" vaccine is sufficient to efleet a good inoculation ; and a man baa about thirty pounds of blood in him , or 172 , 800 grains X 300 = 17 , 280 , 000 ; that is , the entire blood of u man is so altered by , ^ of a grain of vaccine . But if the entire blood be altered , so must each particle of blood ; and this calculation shows that each grain of the blood is so altered by the , v v ^ f / oYooi ) ° * ' grtiin of vaccine . And this alteration , be it observed , is not only for a day , but for , say thirty years ; imd as the blood is being incessantly renewed , what mi infinitely small amount of vaccine must be a suflicient protection at the end of thirty years !

      "Again , it is known that a grain of musk will scent a wardrobe for ten years , and yet be itself not diminished in size . Let us then again calculate Hie si / . e of the particle * of musk which are so invisible and yet so palpable . No loss of weight is found in the grain" of nmsk . But suppose , for argument ' s sake , that it has lost , of a grain in weight ; then the calculation is , if the wardrobe be , say twelve feet broad , by eight high and two deep = V . ) $ cubic feet , or = 330 , 77 ( 5 cubic inches . Suppose this space of air entirely changed by ventilation ( 'very day for ten years , then we have 330 , 77 ( 5 X by 3 , 650 days — l , 107 ,: ' .: ^ , l ()() cubic inches of air affected by the V J O - of a grain of musk' —viz ., in each cubit : inch of air there is flie 1 , 107 , 332 , 400 X 10 O = ' -, \ ¦ „ , , , . U . ooo <) f : i tf 1 " " " <) f luIlslc ' wlli ( l 1 ! '"' P ' ^'"^ on the olfactory nerves of an individual , would cause ; an exclamation of Oil , what a smell of musk ! ' while , if the individual wen ? of a peculiar idiosyncrasy , it iiii' ; lit even cause vomiting . " Mr . Grindon ' n Sexuality of Nature ( Frederick Pitman ) is an JiiniiBingly ingcniouB easily , wherein the presence of sex in traced everywhere , from the flower to the metaphor , it contains aiuch curious illustration and citation , but ban no pretensions to philosophic HeriousneH . s . Something moro rigorously philosophical is the translation oU ) rsearles ' Meditations ( Simpkin , Marshall and Co . ) , will , tho first purl , of his YW eiples of Philosophy , and selections from tho h . to . i . I , tli . nl , and fourth parts It in a publication enriched by . some admirable and erudite notes , and ho arranged m to facilitate the . study of Dem-artes by younger pupil * . It needa no commendation from us : cheap , clear , and compemhouH , it is a book for which tho student will bo grateful . Younger ntudents and general readers will also be grateful to the llov . . T . G . Wood for his excellent volume of Illustrated Natural History ( George Jloutledgo and Co . ) In small compass , it forms u good intro-

      Untitled Article

      March 26 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 307

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 26, 1853, page 307, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1979/page/19/