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Leader (1850-1860), 14th March 1857, Edition 1 of 2, Page 255, Untitled Article

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      Ii is interesting to note how influences act and react on eaclx other . Because scientific investigations have been until recently confined to special circles , and excluded from the general public , it has become impossible to speak now to the general public of topics which , would be intensely interesting , but are excluded on account of the prudery of language gradually increasing ; and thus , because we cannot mention certain organs and functions to ears poEte , the possessors

      of those sensitive ears are kept in perpetual ignorance of phenomena which would greatly interest tliein . Mr . Van Voorst has just issued a book of unusual interest , not only interesting to men of science , but to every lady who has ever kept a bee-hive or reared silk-worms ; yet such is the rigour of convention that we dare not , in these "b y-no-means-timid columns ,. give any account of its wondrous revelations , because , the subject being reproduction , it can only be spoken of by the introduction of words 3 innocent . , enough , but " unfit for newspapers . " The work is entitled , On . true Parthenogenesis in Moths and Bees" and is well translated from the German of Von Siebold by Mr . "W . S . Daixas , with notes by Professor Owen . A richer contribution to entomology and the history of reproduction in animals has not appeared for a long while .

      Philosophy is not restricted in this way . It has very hard technical terms to repel the lazy , but no improper terms to alarm the prude . It is even susceptible of every grace of style , as may be- seen in a volume recently issued on " Les Philosophes Francais du XIX © Siecle , " by M .. H , Taine , one of the remarkable young , writers- of the Revue des Deux Motides . A pleasanter series of feuilleton sketches of Labomiguiees , Maine de Biban , Royek-Collabd , Cousin , and Jotjitkoy , we cannot recal . But although M . Taine has powers higher than the feuilleton , the defect of his volume is a certain constrained liveliness and feuilleton flippancy unworthy of the subject , and surprising in one wlio is so vivacious and incisive as to run no chance of becoming dull .

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      It is known to most readers that one American and one English writer hare recently denied Shakspeahe ' s olaimto the authorship of Shakspeake ' s plays—Garth did not -write his own Dispensaryand Bacon , say these discoverers , wrote Hamlet , Otliello , and Macbeth . The evidence for this wild supposition has already been sufficiently discussed , and we have no intention of reopening it . But the notes to the new edition of Bacon furnish a case which a dexterous advocate might press into his service . In the De Auynientis , Bacon quotes Aristotle as saying : Juvenes non esse idoneos Moralis Philosophice andUores . "Upon which Mr . IEujs adds this note : " Aristotle * however , speaks not of moral , but of political philosophy . " It is interesting to observe tha-t the error of the text , which occurs also in the Advancement of Learning , has been followed by Shauspeare in Troilus and Cressida : — . " Not much Unlike young men , -whom A-ristotle thought Unfit to hear moral philosophy .

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      The mention , of Aristotle reminds us that once more has modem science vindicated the truth of his statements , which for many years have been repudiated . It has long been regarded as an indisputable generalization that the sexes arc separate in all vertebrate aiuimals . Only in cases of monstrosity could hermapkroditism be predicated of a vertebrate animal . This was the generalization universally accepted , when lo ! Dr . Dueosse proved , by three hundred and sixty-eight dissections , that in one genus—the Serranns , or Perch •—hcrmaphroditism is the normal condition . In the last number of the Annales des Sciences JVaturelles , the reader will find all the details ; we content ourselves with announcing the astounding fact , and with adding thereto the fact that Abistotle suspected it : his words are , " itavTes yap evpio-Kovrai KvjjfJLara * X ° vt ( s , —for they arc . always found pregnant ; " and on this account he makes them an exception to the fishes of separate sexes . It is true that some fishes are viviparous , and not hermaphrodite ; but Aristotle did not know it , and his words point distinctly to hcrmaphroditism .

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      to the amount of reflection contained in these pages , it is sufficient answer to say that in transactions so distant from interest , because so aloof from the obvious course of European history , the English reader could take little sympathy were they not t&UB philosophically connected with his present troubles and present strivings . ^ In . the events and personages of Greek and Roman history we are directly interested . Mere presentation suffices . The figure of Pericles , the passage of the Alps , the dismemberment of the empire , the deeds of JTero , or of Plutarch's heroes , are in themselves of commanding and universal interest . But who cares for Atahuallpa ? Who is interested in Guatemala ? Who understands anything about the Encomiendas ? To make these historically interesting the historian must connect them -with our universal nature by his dramatic presentation , and with ^ our immediate political difficulties bj hia philosophical reflections . This is done by Mr . Helps , and admirably done . Great therefore , as the labour of special erudition displayed by this work undoubtedly is , and precious as such special

      erudition must ever make it to those who are directly interesting themselves in Spanish America , the real value of the work lies , we must think , in . its felicitous combination of dramatic and philosophic faculty . The second volume ended with the fall of Mexico . The third opens with the administration of Cortes . To it succeeds the discovery of Nicaragua by Dayila . To that succeeds a very luminous account of the Encomiendas , which , will be new to almost every reader ; equally new , and still more interesting , is the book devoted to Guatemala , and the efforts of Las Casas . The Anglo-Saxon and the Spaniard have been the two great colonizers of modern times , and as Anglo-Saxons ,-it behoves us to study closely the procedure of the Spaniards . The conquest of Peru is a romance ; and in the hands of Mr . Helps this story loses nothing of its romantic movement-Having thus summarily indicated the scope and quality of this volume , we may now draw on it for an extract or two which can be detached without injury from the narrative . Here is one vindicating the Mexicans from the charge of barbarian ignorance : —

      Cortes could -well afford to be satisfied -with the deaths of the two principal kmgs , and to spare the other conspirators , as his discovery of this conspiracy deepened the impression which the Mexicans already entertained of his supernatural knowledge . They had seen him at the time of greatest difficulty call for a mysterious-looking mirror or chart , and after watching with solicitude the trembling movements of a needle suspended over the flat surface , determine at once upon his line of march , and never suffer the direction to be varied until they came out upon the very town which had been the ohject of the march . "When , as they thought , the Spanish commander discovered this conspiracy ( for , doubtless , the faithless Mexican kept his own counsel , or he -would have heen torn to pieces-by his countrymen ) , what could they imagine but that he had been conversing with that mysterious little rod of iron , whose tremblings had again revealed to its master the course to be taken in the midst of the dangers that beset him . Cortes was not the man to omit any opportunity of impressing others -with . a sense of his power . The belief of the attendant Mexicans ia

      the knowledge that was thus magically conveyed to the Spanish commander grew to such , a height , that some of them , -whose consciences must have been quite clear of this conspiracy , begged him to look in the mirror and the chart , and ewe there whether they were not loyal towards him . This has been construed as an instance of the " simplicity" of the Mexicans ; but it may be doubted whether there are not many amongst ourselves who would be very much puzzled to explain the phenomena which perplexed and awed the Mexican troops . And it must be remembered that the knowledge which had been possessed by their priests , and stored up in their colleges , had , for the most part , been taken from them . If , in these times , a nation were suddenly deprived of its chief men in science and art , it would probably astound the world to see how soon the great body of that nation would degenerate into utter ignorance and superstition . The principal knowledge possessed by mankind is , even now , confined to a- very few , comparatively speaking ; and in those days , when the fow were a favoured caste , and the government was entirely aristocratic or despotic , the loss of the nobles , the priests , and the kings was absolutely the destruction of the nation , as a nation . The Indian , who is

      now in such a state of stolidity that no reward , hardly , can induce him to stir from the squatting position that he has once taken up before the fixe , is the lineal descendant , perhaps , of a man who projected , or helped to carry out , with cunning workmanship , constructions which are still a marvel to the most intelligent persons of the most civilized nations in the world . The destructibility of such civilization as the Assyrian , Egyptian , Mexican , or Peruvian , and perhaps of others as notable , whose names even have been lost , or exist only in symbols that may never be interpreted , is not merely a marked fact in the world ' s annals , but ono which especially requires to bo kept in mind in American history , in order to prevent us from foiling into the delusion of supposing that the great works and remarkable polities we read of in the New World are mythical or fabulous , while in truth they are quite within the domain of modern lmtory , and rest upon similar testimony to that upon which ¦ vue give credit to the annals of our own Henry VIII . and Queen Elizabeth . The fathers of Uacon and Shakspeore were contemporaries of Montozuma and Atahuallpa . Here is another on the Peruvian telegraph : —

      HELPS'S SPANISH CONQUEST . The Spanish Conquest in Ameriia , and its Relation to the flustory of Slavery and to t 7 ic Government of Colonies . By Arthur Helps . Vol . III . j . W . Parker and Son . Tin : third volume of Mr . Ilelps ' s history is of deeper and more general interest than its two predecessors , and the historian himself seems to have acquired a greater ease in the mastery of his scattered details . The style , without losing its impressive and seductive influence , without withholding its thoughtful sagacity and picturesque concretcness , has gained in historical dignity and continuity . Three heroic figures move through this volume , very dissimilar , nil admirably presented : Cortes , Las Casas , and Pizarro .

      We are made to know these men , to see into their motives , to sympathize witli their eflbrts , and condemn their errors . They are 110 lay figures of history , but dramatic personages vividly distinct . Our sympathy also is cxciLc . 'd for the poor Indians , who are shown to have been very fur from " barbarians" in the vulgar sense of the word , although their culture was stargely unlike our European civilization . Many are the lessons in colonial government which riso spontaneously out of these narratives of the Spanish attempts at colonization ; many arc the grave political lessons Mr . Helps inculcates by the manner of presenting his narrative , no less than by the reflections which naturally accompany it . And to those who would object

      Couriers , called Chmquis ( the meaning of the word is , he -who takes ) , vrero stationed along the roads at distances of about three cross-bow shots from ono another . The ( Jurncas were obliged to maintain and renew these chasquis each month . Tiiey lived in huts upon the road , two being appointed to each station ; and ono "was alwaysto be ready to start . Their symbol of authority waa a sort of baton , -which they carried in their hands . The intelligence was transmitted from mouth to mouth . When 0110 clutsqui had received it ho ran aa fust as he could , until ho came within earshot of the chusqul at the noxt station . At that point the first dolivered his message , and the second , catching it up , ran and delivered it to the third , and soon ; by which means , it in said , this human telegraph conveyed the mossago two or threo hundred leagues in an incredibly short time . The Peruvians worshipped Nature , not in the metaphorical sense of the moderns , but in a quite earnest sense : —

      Versed as we are in second-hand thoughts about Nature , but seldom or never surrendering oiirselveH to its influence , it muBt always be a great effort for us to enter into the feelings with which a Persian , a Babylonian , a Hindoo , or a Peruvian -was impressed , when beholding the natural phenomena that came bo close to him in hia bright atmosphere . Intellectually , and even graphically , wo perceive it oil . Wo can easily imagine , and perhaps even portray , tho assembled multitudes waiting to Bee the sacred fire rekindled , or to "welcome , with , unutterable fervour , the rising of the sun upon some morning of a solemn festival . Hut our northern natures can hardly comprehend ho-yr the sun , and the moon , and the Btara were imagined in tho heart of a Peruvian , and dwelt there ; - —how the changes in these luminaries wero combined with all bis feelingn nnd his fortunes ; how tho dawn was Hope to him ; how tho fierce mid-day brightness was Power to him ; how tho declining sun waa

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      Critics are nofcfchelegiBlatoi 3 , bu . tth . e judges and police of literature . They do not make lawai—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review ¦

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      . I . * - . .. ¦ - . ¦ Mabch IA , 1857 . ) THEi LEADER . 255

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 14, 1857, page 255, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2184/page/15/