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    THE FIVE GATEWAYS OF KNOWLEDGE . The Five Gateways of Knowledge . By George Wilson , M . D . Macmillan and Co . Dr . Geokge Wii ^ sox unites poetic with scientific faculty , and this union gives a charm to all he writes . In the little volume before us he has described the Fire Senses in language so popular that a child may compreheadthe meaning , so suggestive that philosophers "will read it with pleasure . It is not an anatomical , at is not a psychological treatise ; it is a discourse on the Senses as ministers to our animal wants , as ministers to the cultivation of the intellect , and as ministers to the gratification of the perception of beauty—¦ the two latter functions being mainly treated of . After describing the complex structure of the eye , Dr . Wilson saj's : —

    Howflmall this eye-chamber is , "we all know ; but it is largo enough . A single tent saffioed to lodge ISTapoleon v and kelson guided the fleets of England from one little cabin . And so it is with the eye ; it is set apart for the reception of one guest , whose name is Light , but also Legion ; and as the privileged entrant counsels , the great arms aad limbs of the body are set in . motion . Within our eyes , at every instant , a picture of tlie outer world is painted by the pencil of the Sun on the white curtain at the back of the eye ; and -when It has impressed us for a moment , the black curtain absorbs and blots out the picture , and -the sun paints a new one , which in its turn is blotted out , and so the process proceeds all the day long . What a strange thing this is 1 We speak of seeiug things held before our eyes , as if the things themselves pressed in upon us , and thrust themselves into the presence of our spirits . But it is not so ; you no more , any one of yousee ray

    , face at tbis moment , than you ever saw your own . You have looted betimes into a mirror , and seen a something beautiful or otherwise , which you have regarded as your face . Yet it was but ^ the reflexion from a piece of glass you saw ; and whether the glass dealt fairly with you or not , you cannot tell ; but this is certain—your own face you never beheld . And as little do you see mine .: some hundred portraits of me , i » two the same , are at this moment banging , one on the back wall of each of your « ye-chambers . It is these portraits you see , not me ; and I see none of you , ' but only certain likenesses , two for each of you , a right eye portrait and a left eye portrait , both very hasty and withal inaccurate sketches . And so it is with the whole visible world . It 3 s far off from us , when it seems nearest . Darkness abolishes it altogether . The mid-day sun but interprets it 9 and we know it not in the original , but only in translation . ¦ ' ¦¦ .. ¦¦' ¦ " . "' ¦ ¦ ¦'¦ ¦ ¦ : " . ¦ . ¦¦'• ¦'¦ ... '¦'¦ ¦ ¦ ' ' . ¦ ' ' " '

    Face to face we shall never meet this visible world , or gaze eye to eye upon it . We knowonly its picture , and cannot tell whether that is faithfulor not ; " but it cannot be altogether faithless , and we must accept it * as we do the transmitted portraits of relatives we hafe never seen , or the sculptured heads of men who died ages before us . On those we gaze , not distrusting them , yet not altogether confiding in them ; and we must treat the outward world in the same way . Again : — ' - \ ' \ " . ? '¦¦' , " "• " ' ' ¦ . ¦ ' V ' : / . :. :. ' ' -. ' ;• ¦ . . .. ¦ What reverence thus attaches to every living eye ! What memories belong to it ! "We preserve from , destruction human buildings , or even single chambers , because some one great event happened within their walls , or some solitary noble of our race dwelt in them ; John Knox read his Bible in sucn a room ; and Martin Luther threw his inkstand at an evil spirit in such another ; Mary Queen of Scots wept over her breviary in a third , Galileo was tortured in a fourth , Isaac Newton tracked the stars from a fifth , and Shakspeare laid him down to die in a sixth ; and therefore -we preserve them ,- —rand how justly !—and go long journeys to visit places so sacred .

    He represents the ordinary condition of the two faculties accuratX enough but when he carries this on to the highly developed condition ofthl musical faculty ho is certainly in error . We are not ' rarely ondnSmusicians but we can assure him that we constantly recal meloJWV , complicated harmonies , as pure remembrances , without myincr them vl i or instrumental utterance . Nay more , it frequently occurs Wtisto hw melody , or a passage of Beethoven , haunting us through the day which f ? - *" appears immediately we attempt to hum or sing it . In trying to rocovoimelody the phrases exist mentally before we can give them vScal ultwanJ We should also dispute the-following passage : —

    Although the ear has a greatly more limited range in space and time than tho « it is in a xcry remarkable respect a more perfect instrument than the or « -au of tfhi ' The eye can regard but a . single object at a . time , and must shift its glance from SI to point when many objects are before it vluch it wishes to . compare together AT when prosecuting this comparison , between , for example ,-two bodies it h-is in ' rein but one imprinted on it , and compares the perceived image of this one with fl renumbered image of the other . This fact escapes us hi-ordinary vision because h 7 impression or shadow of a body on the retina remains for some time after the ol Wf- " withdrawn from the sphere of sight , —a fact of which we can easil y assure ouiSs by-nrhirhng before our eyes a lighted brand , when it appears , not a succession ^ flaruuig points , as it actually is when so -whirled , but aii uubrokeu circle of fire . la one glance the eye assuredly takes in as many objects as tlie cir " takes in in one audition . The multitudinous details of a . landscape must blsaccessively observed , but they are simultaneously impressed on the retina at least quite as much so as many sounds are on the tympanum ; . '

    It is otherwise with the ear . Although perfectly untutored , it can listen to many sounds at once , distinguish their difference , and compare- " them together . Every one must be conscious of this . The simplest two-part tune . demands from its ' -hearer the simultaneous perception of a bass and a treble note ,.-which impress the ear at ' exactly the same moment , but are perfectly distinguished from each other . A pianoforte player executing such a tuiie , requires alternately to shift his eyes from the bass to the treble line , for he cannot see simultaneousl y the two notes as lie cun hear them and every one may easily observe the contrasted power of the eye and the ear by trying to read simultaneouslall the staves of four

    y a -part song , whilst he is hearing it sung . Even an imperfect musical ear will without an eflbrt distinguish eacJi of the four voices singing different notes ¦;¦ ¦ whilst the most skilful eye cannot read more tliaa a note or a chord at a time . I suppose every one has noticed thecontrast ¦'¦ between , the air ; of anxiety which musical performers wear , when "' playing from music , compared with the serene or exultant look which sits upon tlieir faces when plaj-ing from memory or improvising . This applies eren to the greatest musicians , and --cannot l ) e conquered by education ; for no training will confer upon the eye powers similar to those which the ear possesess without awv training .

    In the illustration chosen Dr . " . Wilson ' s argument seems correct ; but the true contrast would be between the various sounds of a lores't and the various sights of a forest , or between the impressions of sound from aa orchestra , and the impressions of sight on the spectator ; and here wo tliink the eye equal to the ear ; for if it is true that the eye is in constant motion to bring the different objects within focus , it is no less true that the ' ear is in constant motion also—no two different sounds reach it atcir / c // / the same moment ; in fact difference of sound is dependent on diiVerenceiii the wave of the vibrating medium , and the crash of an -orchestra , is no more simultaneous than the visual effects of a landscape . This , however , is too subtle a matter to be here discussed , and perhaps Dr . "Wilson , after all , is not of a different opinion , but only seems to be so because his language , addressed to a popular audience , expresses broad distinctions . -At any rate we ' recoup mend his little book—little in size , but not in meaning—to all our readers .

    And a similar aacredneaa belongs to that dim cell where the two most conflicting of unlike existences , the dead world of matter and man ' s immortal soul , hold their twilight interviews , and make revelations to each other . When I think , indeed , of that large-windowed little cottage which hides under , the thatch , of each eyebrow , and spreads every moment on its walls pictures such as Raphael never painted , and sculptures such as Phidias could not carve , I feel that it ¦ can with justice be likened to no earthly building ; or if to one , only to that Hebrew Temple which has long been in the dust . Like it , it has its Outer Court of the Gentiles , free to every visitant , and its inner chamber where only the Priests of Light may come ; ani that chamber is closed by a veil , within , which , only the Higb Priest Life « an enter , to hold communion with the spiritual presence beyond .

    He justly insists on the necessity of educating the eye—teaching it to observe . How much we can increase our power of observation by * cultivating it can only be appreciated by those who have in some special manner cultivated the faculty . The painter actually sees hundreds of details in a landscape which escapethe observation of other men ; and all persons accustomed to watch their own development will remember how , by mere attention to scenery and effects of colour , their vision has become sbai-pened , until delicate shades , which formerly were unappreciated , now give exquisite delight . ^ The use of the microscope marvellously educates the eye , enabling it to distinguish amidst heterogeneous masses the minutest object it is in search of . In a shallow pool , wherein the ordinary eye can discover nothing but water and a sandy bottom , the naturalist will instantaneously detect colonies ' of animals ; because his eye is traiaed to detect the minute indications which to another have no meaning .

    The great majority of mankind do not and cannot see one fraction of what they were intended to see . The proverb that " None are so blind as those that will not see" is as true of physical as of moral vision . By neglect and carelessness we have made ourselves unable to discern hundreds of tilings which are before us to bo seen . Thomas Carlylehas summed tbis up in onepreguant sentence , " The eye sees what it brings the power to see . " How true is this ! The sailor on the look-out can see a * blp whore thei landsman Bees nothing ; the Esquimaux can distinguish a white fox ¦ amidst the white snow ; the American backwoodsman will fire a rifle-ball so as to strike a nut out of the mouth of a squirrel without hurting it ; tho Reel Indian boys hold thehr hands up as marks to each other , certain that the unerring arrow will be shot between the spread-out fingers ; the astronomer can see a star in tho sky , where to others the blue expanse is unbroken ; the shepherd can distinguish the face of every steep in Lis flock ; the mosaic worker can detect distinctions of colour where others bo © none ; and multitudes of additional examples might be given of what education does for the eye .

    Inhia notice of the Ear , Dr . Wilson draws a contrast between the ear and the eye , « epe ^ iaU y with reference to Deafness and Blindness . Agreeing with t&e major part of what he has written , we question some of his statements . Jb or uaatanoe , when he soys : It coate ; ua no effort to summon before us , oven though destituto of tho painter ' s il e "t e 8 i *» wwc&p « B , cities , or processions , and faces innumerable ; but even rarely endowed muBicuma can mentally reproduce fe w , comparatively , of the melodies or liar-. ^ r" w kn T '« fK l ? eba ?* d & (> ia utterinB *» w « n vocally , or through some instrument . We may toet thw point by the experience of our ctreaoiB .

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    SEVENTEEN RUSSIAN STORIES . Russian JPojmlar 2 ales . Translated from the German of Anton Dietrich . With an Introduction by Jacob Grimm . Chapman and Hall . Some of the tales in this collection , though traceable to no particular source , are obviously importations from Asia . Others have a close allinily with the popular German myth , while one , at least , is of Italian origin . Jacob Grimm identifies as purely Slavonic features the account , ol ' miraculous horses dug out of the earth , of the halt of an army on the royal i ' uibiddcn meadows , a quaint personification of grief occurring in one of the stories , and the custom of combatants frafcrnizinnr when one has been overthrown

    by the other . The fraternization here referred to is more than nominal , it "being stipulated which of tho kniglits shall consider himself the elder , ami which the younger , brother . Grimm believes also that in this collection the basis of a national epic , Servian in style and metre , may he recognized . Dietrich brought the stories from Moscow , in the form in which they are there sold to the poorer classes of the people . Of such simple literature , an ancient popular heritage , tlie censorship takes no notice . The number three occurs in a remarkable niauner throughout , and on a remaikuble variety of occasions , fathers having usually three sons , knights commencing their

    careers at thirty-three years of age , and succeeding in their enterprises after three trials . The most impossible of impossibilities are det ; crii > e ( l , the talc-tellers recording , without compunction , the slaying of millions by a single hero , the carrying off of a kingdom in au egg-shell , rulers ( hisliiugon for a year without drawing bridle . Nevertheless they often invent with wonderful ingenuity , and narrate with admirable vigor . We quote "Tlie Judgment of Shemyaka , " not because it is tho best in the volume , hut because it is the shortest . Moreover , some of our readers may be struck by its identity with "The Hungry Kadi , " brought into this country IVoin Egypt : TJIK JUJX 3 MBNT OP S 1 I 15 MYAKA . Two brothers once lived upon a little plot of ground , —one rich , tlio other poor . Tho poor brother went to tho rich ouo , to beg of him a horse , that lie iniglit i ^ " wood from the forest . His brother gavo him the horse ; but tho poor one bu ^ ed ol him lilcc-wisc a horse-collar , -whereat the other was nngry , and would not gi \ " < - * it I '" ' So tho poor follow , in liia trouble , fastened tho slcdgo to tho lioivse ' a tail , nil" tuiu drove to tho forest , and got Much a loiul of wood that tho hor . se bad scarcely strong 1 * to draw it . When ho cumo home , ho opened the gate , but forgot to remove tlw ^ ' board ; nnd the horse stumbled n # uiii , st tho board and lost hia tail . The jioor Mw « took tho horse back , but when his brother saw tho beast without a tail , lie would » ' liavo him , and went beforo the judge Shcmyaka , to make a complaint . Tho iioor man

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    1122 ____ THE L E A l ) E B . .. , ¦ ___^ J ^ [ iro 348 i , Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 22, 1856, page 1122, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2168/page/18/