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    Orr tctraroTLotttie legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Jteview .

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    Tfflaw is something-qtrite'peculiar in the tenacity of life which a good downright , outspoken absurdity exhibits ; no error lives longer than a palpable error if it Hweatall , if it survive the first rush of contradiction . Let it once attain its footing in the world , and its immortality is sacred . O » several' occasions "we have amused ourselves , and let us hope our readers . also . a . little , by selecting , some vigorous absurdity for dissection ; and this week we propose to notice one more ; led thereto by the curious introduction of the error in an article which Fraser this month devotes to HesbiLawes , the musician , and friend of Milton .

    Wb believe Cickbo was the first to say " Exceptio probat regulam— -the exceptionuproves the rule . " No matter to whose paternity the aphorism be traced , everyone is familiar with the terrible iteration of " no rule without an . exception "—or , " it is . an . exception which proves the rule . " These phtases insult us-even on grave pages . JSFot-a weeltago we met with the abfcardity in- a scientific work ,- used as a valid argument . Now although it is perfectly unnecessary to inform our readers that no rule can have an excep&ion ,- in the strict logical sense , and that the notion of an exception

    proving * rule is a notion of the most confused' logic , yet it may not be wholly superfluous to add that the phrase originally meant nothing of the kind , but meant & very good , sensible meaning ,, viz ., that the very -existence o £ what-was signalised as an exception proved that there was a rule ; if there was-no rule at all there could be no exception ; just as there would be no vices of there were no rule of morality , no crimes if there , were no Police . But , when argumentative gentlemen dispose of an objection by saying ** Ah ! that is one of the exceptions which prove the rule , " they talk sheer

    nonsense . In the very interesting article which led to this remark ^ the ^ writer , whose initials JL- H . will-betray-hinv to ^ all lovers -of music , truly observes : — Every musician , whose opportunities and tastes have led him into the realms of general literature , will nave been struck—not once or twice , but a thousand timesby the loose Tray , in -which musical terms are used by some of our best writers , and the' almost universal Inaccuracy of their language in reference to the musical Art . The closer-Students in . every subject have , of course , much cause for complaint of a similar kind t the natural philosopher , the mathematician , or the painter , can never want opportunity of ascertaining how wildly , natural philosophy , mathematics , or pictures may be talked ttbout- But it is difficult to believe that the same quantity of unadulterated nonsense could be collected from the writings of English authors about anything as about music : for the simple reason , that it is one of theiwo or three subjects ( theology is another ) of which the average KngriigTiman takes what he calls a " plain , cotmnonrsense , view , " and on which he thinks himself entitled , not only to have , but to ' express , an opinion ! whenever he thinks proper ; a frame of mind which implies not so-much absolute ignorance ., of a subject , as of the fact that there is anything to be learnt in respect to it .

    TS 3 s < raiet unconsciousness of the very existence of principles in . general science , and ihisraudacions misuse of its technology , are confined for the most part . to writers of lesser , note " and inferior calibre ; but to a collection of musical errata , very great names would appear in the list of contributors . TJU& is happily said , and was worth -sayings although in the illustrations hoibsingR . forward ' . there is one : which does not' appear to u » strictly apposite : he objects to * the frequent -use of the phrase- " harmonious voice" as the *' confusion of ' a combination with a succession of musical sounds ;' but ** harmonious" in . English-. has . come to mean rmore than . that r . and when ap * plied ; to- a-voice , is used- as signifying a-voice-which ; - instead of jarring on

    our sensations , excites them agreeably . Waiving this point , however , and conceding all that the writer Bays about the , unscientific use of terms popular even among grave writers ; we . pass" orrwarde a few sentence * * and find him conanitthig-the very same error - with respect to another-science . After alluding to the offending , writers audacious in . their misuse of terms , he cornea -to MxvroNy adding ;;—• f The . exception proves the rule ; the more splendid the exception the more'complete-the proof ! " Jj H :, among his many- accomplishments , may be content to err ( in company with illustrious writers } on a point of Logic ; . nor should we have noticed bo venial an error hadiit not . followiedicloso upon the eiiposure of similar errors made by un-¦ seientifio-. writers'treating of music .

    Tills article on Hjenut Lawks , which , might have been longer with advantage , and told us more about the , music . of Milton ' s neglected friend , iaionoo of 'great- interest / not only as'caHfng the attention of musical amateurs i < j * a composer whose acquaintance jis well worth cultivating , but also as-incidentally conveying some piquant bits of information .. Among , these there iataUbuaion to , D # J Benjamin Rogers , who deserves especial mention as the Tory , par excellence , ofmnuicai- history—4 he Eldon of harmonists . Born as late as 1620 ; thia worthy continued to make- "false relations , " and —to Bean With Midas' earer , committing short and long , tlrrtmgh regnum and Interregnum , till the accession of the house of Hanover , and , for all-we can say , the * advent of Handel ; having ' soon the birthd , liven , and . death * of Hmnphrey , Wise , Blow , and Purcell . Niextin . interest ,. and only next becauso . its subject Lb jnoro familiar , ia the articleon ? ' PdvhrankLea in PoundyV which no readermust pass over . It is on " VnwiwiM } v'hW to make them , to keep them , and to enjoy them . The

    Vivariunt * iis theoone * new thing under the sun . ; tbe < one novelty Soi , oMoir had never- seen ; dreamt of , heard . of . Our : pleasant Naturalist , to whose light style and erudite pleasantry-Frcwer has so often been indebted , thus discusses the propriety of the name Vivarium : — By what name these crystal palaces should be designated is of little importance ; *' a rose by any other name" —and so of a vivarium ; but as , nevertheless , nobody thinks of giving any other name to a roso than its . own , we venture to suggest that " vivarium" is , after all , the very best name for a " vivarium . " It is butter than a new name , because , in the first place , the word is made to our handy , and has classical authority to back its pretensions , which " aquarium" nnd " aqua-vivarium , " (!) its proposed substitutes , have not . The ancient vivarium was a place where lice animals were kept . It was chiefly applied to fish-ponds and parks , and thus very

    nearly corresponds with our word " preserve . " Etymologicolly , it might perhaps extend to a poultry yard , an aviary , a decoy , a sty , or a copp ( most of which had further * their owu distinct name ) ; but in its commonest acceptance it signified , as we have just said , a stew for fish , or an enclosure for game . In place of this word it has been proposed ( in order , it is alleged , to give greater precision to the modern contrivance which is exclusively applied to water live stock ) to adopt a new word— " aquarium . " We forbear to do so , not only because the word is wholly without authority , but because it is anything but explicit . The nearest approach to it we know is Aquarius , the name of the man who holds the water-pot , and if there were such a deriva - tion as aqttarhcm from it ( which there is not ) , that should be by rights the water-pot he holds . We throw away " aquarium , " therefore , nnd though it may etymologically hold water—it does not etymologically hold stock .

    The following account of the balance of animal and plant life , which regulates the stocking of a vivarium , is too interesting to be omitted , although we have an objection to make to one passage : The rational * of the contrivance may be given in few words : —The animals yield , in a combined form from their system , carbon ( which is the pabulum of vegetable life ) , while the weeds of the water support reciprocally the animals , by affording the necessary supplies of oxygen . * Such a statement , however , of the balance of animal and vegetable life must not be misunderstood as implying that vegetables any more than animals can exist without oxygen . The respiration of the whole organic world is the same . Plants , as much as animals , pant for this vital air , and deprived of it , perish speedily , Dr . Danbeny found , on plunging several kinds into vessels lilled with carbonic acid gas , that the vital functions were presently disordered ( as happens under similar circumstances to animals ) , and that when the exposure was suiliciently

    prolonged , they all died in consequence . Every member of !• lora ' s domains ( on laud the lofty timber tree and the lichen that encrusts its rind ; in irater the ( JoatLng duckweed and the fucus , out of the reach of the plummet line at the bottom of the ocean ) equally absorbs oxygen ; and therefore if matters stopped here , it is clear that the introduction of weeds into either the same atmosphere or water with animal * , must prove highly detrimental to the latter by accelerating the cou&umpLiou of the limited sopply of oxygen . But the above Is only a partial statement of facts . Another Affliction in the economy of plants ( on the due performance of which the preservation of the animals confined with them in the aquarium depends ) is digestion . This process is just as essential to repair the losses , and to promote the growth of plants as it is to the sustentation of animals . In the latter , both functions may be considered as going on persistently , as they might possibly be in plants if the necessary conditions for their performance -were at all times present . But this is not the case with one of them ; the

    function of digestion absolutely requires for it * maintenance the intervention of the solar ravs , for which no other light will serve as a substitute , and thus is necessarily suspended during the night . Notwithstanding , however , this fitfullies * in operation , the process itself is so energetic whilst in action , that the quantity of oxygen set free bv the decomposition of the carbonic ucid , during even a moderately bright day , is vastly greater in amount than that which , during the whole twenty-four hours of alternate light and shade , is being continuously taken in through the respiratory -urfaces . Thus while one part of the organisation of the plants contained in a vivarium is appropriating uninterruptedly a small amount of oxygen , and giving out Jtifulhj a much larger supply ( thewhole of which surplus goes directly to oxygenate the unimals in the vicinity ) ; those reciprocally , by the constant exhalatiou of carboni .: acid gas ,. bestow upon th « plants the carbon necessary for their support and growth ; and as the mud in the

    long as either thus-furnishes toother the requisite supplies , circulating animals continues -vitalised aud purified , and the plants thrive and grow . The objection wo must raise is to the extremely loose phraseology which the writer allows himself when speaking of the function ofrfigotiun m plants . He is too good a physiologist to believe in anything of the kind ; but even in-popular writing , scientific ideas ought not to bo thus confounded , especially when there are xilready too many scientific men . constantly fulling into the error of supposing a function can cxiat tviUtoul an apparatus , and to confound Nutrition ( which is one of the elementary properties of tissue ) with Digestion , which is a function dependent on a specific apparatus oi

    organs . We cannot resist the following little picture : Here taking leave of marine zoology wo nhall conclude with n few words on fnviliwater fish . With these last , our cat Hecma an much ple-oscd as oiirs . ai ; go at an time of the day and there she is , now lying to watch from below the movement u the Blow carp within nn inch of her excited whiskers , and now having mat « a io « b series of interesting observations from that position , creeping » l > ' > u / - > ' «« » 11 U > ' purring with delight to put her round head and erect ears in nearer i-o » liguii > ^ the gliding null [ more discreet howwver in her admiration than nmn , *> " '" | " . '" h / that cold water is not her cloincnt , and so when to get at the ol . jeet •>> her ' " " temptation likely to prove too strong , fiho calmly turns round nnd Mts . lu "" i <» ' . a little , and not till she feels confidence in her powers of nelf-rontr <> l vniiuio dulge in another peep . leaser ia so very entertaining thia mouth that wo could | ' c . vliau .-a oui space and then imagine more" without coming to a conclusion . A * t us , howffrervinny . be objectionablewe will briefly refer to its articL' ^ oii

    , " Servian Proverbs , " ' " Pnria in Little , " and " The Kegimentul System , n > articles worthy 4 o bo road in club or drawing-room , and pas * on to JUacK : «•««>« , varied , bub . leaa interesting than usual—at least to u » , who can < m < l m t amusement in such papers as those on the " Poetry of the War , » n « 0 "Modern NovoUata — Great and Small , " in which Mm . (*»**> Ml ' TaojULowa , Mrs . Mabsii , Mrs . Gaskkll , Miss Jkwbiiuby , and the " n <> 1 ' ^" . '' authoress-of tlie House of Jtaby ( who will assuredly have to avow hoi . sew c long ) , KxNGsuflY , Nathaniel llAwruoiiNju , Licvku , Wiuuhj Cojxiap ,

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 5, 1855, page 426, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2089/page/18/