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    his hand « t a novel and send it him to dress up . 5 . That certain scenes and characters ia the . novels are known to have been familiar to Elizabeth Scott from her childhood . 6 " . That Walter ' s denial of the authorship in the first instance nullifies his ultimate assertion of it . *' A skilful advocate might create an effect with such a brief as thLs . But "W . J . F . so manages his arguments that they either prove too much , or else contradict each other . At one moment he tells us that Walter Scott could not possibly have had lime to write the novels ; at another , that it is not surprising if the manuscript of most of them is extant ia Walter Scott ' s handwriting , since he thought nothing of the trouble of copying , —at another , that " an adaptation must take a longer period to accomplish than a story- written icurrente cdtamo . " Again , he brings forward Sophia Scott ' s declaration , that though the whole family had access to her father's papers , they had never

    seen a scrap of the manuscript of any of the novels , forgetting that , if , as he says oa another page , Walter Scott acted the part of " a skilful editor who flueutly fills up and judiciously strikes out , " the difficulty of his daughter ' s statement is rather increased than lessened . His family would be much more likely to notice a strange manuscript on his desk , than to notice Hs own . But . we do not undertake to dissect W . J . F . ' s arguments , still less to disprove them . ' Our readers , we fancy , will thank us more for giving them a few specimens , which , to speak in the style of able editors , " need no comment . " ' Searching for cum illative evidence , W . J . F . procured an old Army List , in which he read tlie names , first , of the officers in the 70 th regiment , of \ vnielv Thomas Scott Tvas Paymaster , and , subsequently , of the officers in other regiments , engaged hi Canada , with which the 70 th was brought into frequent intercourse . Hereupon , he tells us , he was struck with , " some

    remarlcablfr coincidences ; " probably the reader will be equally " struck " ^ h en he learns what some of these " coincidences were . The list of offieers itj'the 70 th , he discover ^ has a Cajitatn O'Neil—and in " Mannerinp " tftereris a Lieutenant O'Kean ; it has a Mac Laurm—and in the Fair fifatd bf Ferth there is a MacLotiis ; in the Legend of Mcntrose a Maeieaii ; it lias a Oastoii—^ sind one of the novels is called Anne of Gierstein ! You see at' once that these nairfes are as like * ' as my fingers isto my fingers ?' But these astonishing coincidences are nothing to what is coming . ^ There was actoally in the 70 tli a Iiieiitenaht John Graham—and in Oid Moi tality thereis a Colonel John Graham of Claverhouse ( of course , analtogetheruulustorical personage ) ; -there was also a Lieutenant Smith , whose name clearly suggested that of Harry Smith , the valiant armourer in the Fair Maid of Perth . After this one does not wonder to find W . J . F

    sayitig— " Some mysteHbvs impulse led me to try whether if ' ( sic ) in the Army Wist of thai day any George Heriot would be found' ( for who ever Iieard of a GeorgejHeript except in the Fortunes of Nigel ) . " Startling result ! a Colonel F ;' ' -George H 6 rioi commanded the Canadian Vbltisreurs . The only real ' * c 6 incide . nces" between the list of the 70 th and the Waverley novels are the nan ^ es ' -- -6 f ' I > dl . gett ^ : ' a > id'Satpps ' oii-. ' ' Apropos of the former , W . J . F . quotes Dalgetty ' s teierence to * ' the learning whilk I had acquired at the Mareschnl Cojlet / e of Aberdeen , " in order to point out the eurious coincidence that * ' Maiesclial , " is the name given to on « of the characters in the BlacJe Dwarf . Apropos of the latter , lie quotes a statement made by an old messmate of Thomas Scptt'si that Adjutant Sampson , who was a queer , but honest fellow , * $ <* Pf nick-name of * ' Dominie / ' emitting to ascertain whether the nicknaniej was given before ^ or ; after the publication of Guy Mannering . " - - ' But'the most astonishing revelations are yet to come . In other resnments

    W ., J . IV . detects ah Ensign Jones—and there is a Mrs . Jones in 'St . Ronaifs jPFe ^ a ^ Liexitensint JTehnell— and you remeniber F bnella ; a Quartermaster G ^~ , ^ Nearly accounts foy Neil Gow , the" name of tire fiddler in St . Kenans Well , since no one ever heard before of Neil Gow , a fiddler * a Lieutenant I » uke—and there is " Duke Hildebrod ' * in Nigel ! Last , and riiost , amazing of all , in . the 16 th there is an officer named Dalzell , and ' docs not remember General ' ¦ Dalxell in Old Mortality f—in the 97 th there is a Captain Monk , and in Woodstock , too , there is—a General Monh ! We see what an amount of historical knowledge goes to the attainment of a " respectable literary status . ' *

    One more taste of TV \ J . F / s quality , and we have done . In the 103 rd there was a Captain Guy Carleton Colclough ; arid he sees a casual connexion between this fact and the name Guy Mannering , " For , " says W . J . F ., " Scott , in his introduction to Gtiy Mannering , says that he ' looked 5 ? . . . * . awle ana . » subject / and / rnm this observation we infer that such was h » s invariable habit when commencing a fictitious narrative . The practice'is , I believe , usual among authors . "

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    the various kingdoms of Nature—tracing the unity in the forms of plants and animals—in geological and astronomical phenomena ; the third book is de - voted to the interpretation of the facts . Both Dr . M'Cosh and Dr . Dickie have direct scientific knowledge , yet of course , their book is mainly a compilation , and reads too much like second-hand work . It shows considerable reading , although that readin * is not always well digested , nor always so accurately reported as might ° b «\ Thus , at page 17 , they say " ten is the typical number of the fingers and toes of man , and , indeed , of the digits of all vertebrate animals . " They must be perfectly aware that the digits of many vertebrata are eight , six , and even four . Again , at page 23 , they say Animals and vegetables , it is well known , are classified according to type ; and they can be so arranged , because types are really found in nature , and are not the mere creation of human reason or fancy . " Will they be good enough to say where these types are found , except in the human reason ? Do they mean that the typical fish swims amid the myriads of fishes made after his pattern , the typical bivalve gapes amid his gaping satellites , the typical polyp stretches forth its tentacles amid the branches of seaweed ? At page 280 we read : —

    The presence of a system of nervea ia the most marked character winch separates the animal from the vegetable kingdom . In some of tlie lower forma its existence lias not been clearly demonstrated ; in many it is very rudimentary . But as we rise higher in the scale we find an evident advance , commensurate with the endowments of th « animal . The nervous system does not mark the distinction , simply because large classes of unquestionable animals have none . To say that the nervous system has not been " clearly demonstrated / ' is inaccurate : its existence has nothing but gratuitous supposition by way of evidence in all infusoria , in all the myriad species of Hydrozoa and Anthozoa ; and it is now very doubtful whether even the Echinodermata have a nervous system , that which has long been taken for one being questionable . There are other examples which , on a careful revision , they will themselves alter . As a specimen of the elastic nature of their argument to meet any difficulty , take tlie following : —

    "When the action of the combination of powers necessary to the development of an organ is interfered with we have a Monster . In monstrosities the principle of Older is not accommodated to the usual special end . They axe always comparatively few in number—in short , the exception . But -we are not to conclude that they are failures , or that they have no end to serve . A world ih % hich they were tlie rule would certainly be a failure ; but , as exceptions , they are as instructive as the rule . They help man to discover the nature © f those agencies which , combine to form typical organs , and they show h . ow derangements which , when few , w ^ rk ; no evil , would have been fearful i i they lad , been frequent . Terawhich

    tology , , treats of natural monstrosities , has how a place among acknowledged sciences . Single monsters are produced by arrest of development ; double by the union of homologous parts , as of veins to veins , and arteries to arteries . The aberrations of monstrosity do nob exceed , certain limits . They have their distinctive characters , and long ago there were noticed fivo orders , twenty-three families and eighty-three genera . So far as these monstrosities do uot produce pain , they are not evils any more than an irregulai > ly-fo > rmed crystal is . So far as they are the means of entailing suffering and humiliation among mankind , they carry us into the profouudest of all mysteries ( which we cannot here discuss )—the existence of evil .

    Thus a monster turns out an example of e < admirable contrivance ; " he is produced in order that man , by noting tlie exception , may \ mderstand what is the rule , and may also learn what a fearful world it would have been had the exception been the rule ! The tone of their work is commendable . They have none of the acrimony which theologians are prone to substitute for reasoning ; and if they are soir . ewhat contemptuous towards adversaries , that is a very general failing . They should not , however , say that the phrase , " conditions of existence , " is the " miserable subterfuge of French materialists . " They should not say so for two reasons : it was not a subterfuge , and it was not invented by the materialists . They ought to know that the phrase is Cuvier ' s , and that he was very proud of it . Again , why is Buflbn ' s vanity made responsible in tlie following

    example?"We are not surprised to find a man so proverbially vain as Buffou . fuiliug to discover marks of design in the hump of the camel , but it is rather wonderful to find Cuvier , whose heart was so filled with admiration of the Divine wisdom , speaking somewhat doubtfully of the sloth . Buffon ' s deliquency is liere made moral , Cuvicr s only intellectual : is it because these authors can quote Cuvier in favour of final causes , and cannot quote the vain Kuffon ? But , as we said , the work contains much that is interesting . The reader will here lind brought into brief compass those vievvs of Owen on the vertebral theory , of Huxley on the molluscan archetype , and of Dr . Me Cosh on vegetable morphology , which Goethe long ago commenced . He will find much with which he will disagree , not a little which will strike him aa purely fanciful , but also not a little which will give fresh insight and interest into vegetable and animal forms . As a specimen , we will extract the following : —

    ' - TYPICAL FORMS . Typical Forma and Special Ends in Creation . By the Rev . Jaraea fcl'Cosb , LL . D and fceorgo Diclue , U . J > . Edinburgh : Constablo and Co . ' [ Second Notice . ] Having in the previous article protested against the argument from design , an , « g » i * ist Natural Theology altogether , ye will now attempt to convey $ orae idea of tlie work before us , which is Paley applied to the science of the nineteenth century , taking in quite the latest views of transcendental anatomy ! The authors set out with the statement that two great principles are discWcrable running through the universe : a principle of Order , or a general ™ W ? r vP ^ vy / hi ° h every object is made to conform with m ore or less preci&on ; and a principle of Adaptation by which each obiect while

    constructed after a general model , is at the same time accommodated to the situattontyhiehit has to occupy , and a purpose which it ia intended to serve . f ^ , ? bkceiv , e < l > their work seems owe of pure transcendental science ; and £ ?' ' 1 fri ?^ J l * S hnve b . feen of K reftt wto ' e- ; as it is , the illustrations they have tct ° K 1 , $ ' . ^ "s uniformity and aduptation give it the main interest . £ ? w * M y'h 6 t mingled therewith a miming tliread of Natural Theology they J 2 ?? S . j !?^ ;| n « J ^<** - 'i » lwork of permanent value ; but their theoretical pre-^^ * L ' ^ t liaiftn « fe * tbeir science . * Mtt ' Z ^^ 6 f tliveo hooka . The first collects exampks of Order SSffiSSStt' ^* '' ^^ ^ - 0111 . ^^ ^ * sccon < l consists of a co-ordinate «* fciiWWtt 8 giving ^ w « heatu >» S of combined order '* tnd adaptatioa throughout

    It will not be reckoned by any aoientiflo botauiat , ia the present day , as jvu excess pf refinement to represent the developed organs of the plant as all formed after one or other of two different typea or models , the Stem aaid the Loaf . First , The more solid parts of the plant are composed of a numbor of utoms , proceeding the ope from the other in linear sxiocossion . Springing from fcho enabryo , or seed , there ia tho axis mounting upwards and becoming the aerial stow and going downward and Iboooming tho root . From tho former of thoso , or tho ascending axis , there go off lateral stems , which wo may call branches and from j those other stems , whioh we may oalL branohlots . There proceed , iu llko manner , from tho descending aptis , or top root , lateral brunches

    which also ramify through tho soil . Thero tire important difforonooa between tho aerial and the subterranean storaa to flit thorn for their different functions . Roots , foy example , have no pith , no scales or leaves , and , in ordinary oirQumstniucoH , no lenf-buda liko tho upward axis . Still tho two aro nliko iu tho general ohamotor ; tho branched plant ia found to have a branched root . The tendencies of tho underground ramification have not , ao far ns wo know , boon carefully determined ; but , above ground , it ia very evidout that tho stom fcrnnoh » nd bxvmohlofc obey tho samo laws . " If a thousand branches from the samo troo , " si » ys Lindloy , " are oompared together , they will bo found to bo formed upon the same uuifonn plan , andtoaocord in every oaaential particular . Each fcranok . is also , under- favour-

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    376 THE LEADER , [ No . 31 T , Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 19, 1856, page 376, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2137/page/16/