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    Tho reader will probably consider that the celebrity of these Memoirs must have been mainly owing to the fact of mathematicians and astronomers so rarelv writing in a popular style that when one of this class ventured on doing so he was welcomed with applause such as would never have gi-eeted a less "rave personage . In truth they are very flimsy . The attempts at liveliness are mediocre . Not a wise thought nor a good epigram have we noticed in . the volume ; but many platitudes and many poor efforts at spri ^ htliness . Heavv , these biographies are not ; but neither are they solid . Something of the mediocrity may be owing to the translation which is everyway unworthy , not only of the respected names on the title-page , but uti--w . orthy of issuing from sueh a house as the Longmans . The French idioms ¦ everywhere distress us | awkwardly appearing through the English . IS or is this the worst defect . The translation is at times ludicrously inexact . \\ e have not the original at hand , or we could , doubtless , with ease . find many examples of positive blundering , as the reader will believe when hearing that Ara <* t > speaks of the cock and paraphrastically calls him ce roi cle la basse-cottr , which is rendered ' this king of the lower court . ' Elsewhere , -alluding to the vortices of Des Cartes , he is made to say the ' whirlwinds of Des Cartes '—a piece of culpable carelessness , since we cannot suppose it ± j be ignorance . Again , Fourier is said to have done a public service to France " by " ¦ attaching himself personally to the sanguinary proconsul , and matins him pass for a madman . ' . What the original may be , we know not , but it ? s clear this is a gross blunder ; probably the phrase is ,, s'atlackant personnellement au proconsul . We could multiply such glaring instances ; but these suffice . " ... With many serious defects this volume is , however , not without its interest , inasmuch as it gives rapid sketches of Bailly , Herschell , Laplace , Fourier , Carnot , Malus , Fresnel , Young , and Watt . The exposition of their discoveries is lucid ; and the discoveries are so thrilling that the narratives cannot be read unmoved . We shall not touch , upon the various points either of excellence or failure in these Memoirs , because our space will be better employed in extracting a passage wherein Lacaille contrasts the -anxious labours of the modern astronomer with the easy speculations of the ' -ancient ; a passage which is a picture , and one the reader will be pleased to contemplate : —¦ The Ghaldaeans , luxuriously reclining on the perfumed terraced roofs of their houses in Babylon , under a constantly , azure sky , followed with their eyes the general and majestic movements of the starry sphere ; they ascertained the respective displacejnents of the planets , the moon , the sun ; they noted the date and hour of eclipses ; they sought out whether simple periods would not enable them to foretel these magnificent phenomena a long time beforehand . Thus the Chaldaeans created , if I may -be allowed the expression , Contemplative Astronomy . Their observations were neither numerous nor exact ; they both made and discussed them without labour and without trouble . Such is not , by a great deal , the position of modern astronomers . Science has felt the necessity of the celestial motions being studied in their minutest details . Theories must explain these details ; it is their touchstone ; it is by details that theories become confirmed or fall to the ground . Besides , in Astronomy , the most important truths , the most astonishing results , are based on the measurement of quantities of extreme minuteness . Such measures , the present bases of the science , require very fatiguing attention , infinite care , to which no learned man would bind himself , were he not sustained and encouraged by the hope of attaining some capital determination , through ¦ &U ardent and decided devotion to the subject . The modern astronomer , really worthy of the name , must renounce the distractions of society , and even the refreshment of uninterrupted sleep . In our climates , during the inclement season , the slcy is almost constantly overspread by a thick curtain of clouds . Under pain of postponing by some centuries the verification of this or that theoretic point , we must watch the least clearing off , and avail ourselves of it without delay . A favourable wind arises and dissipates the vapours in the very direction where some important phenomenon will manifest itself , and ia to last only a few seconds . The astronomer , exposed to all the transitions of weather ( it is one of the conditions of accuracy ) , the body painfully bent , directs the telescope of a great graduated circle in haste upon the star that he impatiently awaits . His lines for measuring are a spider ' s threads . If in looking he makes the mistake of half the thickness of one of these threads , the observation is good for nothing ; judge what his uneasiness must bo : at the critical moment , a puff of wind occasioning a vibration in the artificial light adapted to his telescope , the threads become almost invisible ; the star itaelf , -whose rays reach the eye through atmospheric strata of various density , temperature , tgad refrangibility , will appear to oscillate so much as to render the true position . of it . alnaoat unassignable ; . at the very moment when extremely good definition of the object becomes indispensable to ensure correctness of measures , all becomes confused , either because the eye-piocc gets steamed with vapour , or that the vicinity of the very cold metal occasions an abundant secretion of tears in the eye applied to the telescope : the poor observer w then exposed to the alternative of abandoning to some other more fortunate person than himself the , ascertaining a phenomenon that will not recur during his lifetime , or introducing into the science results of problematical correct--nesa . Finally , to complete the observation , he must read off the microscopical divisions of tko graduated circle , and for what opticians call indolent vision ( tha , only sort that tho ancjenta over required ) must substitute strained vision , -which in a few years brings on blindness . Here is another passage on THIS WXTUKNESa ANX ) ORBA . TNE 8 S OF WAN . "When by measurements , in which tho evidence of the method advances equally with the precision of the results , the volume of the oarth is reduced to the millionth part of the volume of tho nun ; when the sun himself , transported to tho region of tho stars , taltes up a very modest place among the thousands of millions , of those bodies that the tolascopa has roveuled , to us ; when the 08 , 000 , 000 of leagues which separate the earth from the sun have become , by roason of their comparative sinallness , a base totally insufficient for ascertaining tho dimensions of the visible unlverso ; when even the swiftness of the luminous rays ( 77 , 000 leagues per second ) barely suffices for tho common valuations of science ; when , in short , by a chain of irresistible proofs , certain stars havo retired to distances that light could not traverse in less than a , million of years ; wo foci as if annihilated by such immensities . In assigning to man , and to the planet that he inhabits , ao > email a position in the material world , Astronomy seems really to have made progress only to humble us . But if , on the * other hand , wo < regard the subject from tho opposite point of view , and reflect . on > tho , extrqmo fceblonosa of the natural moans by the help of which so many groat problems , havo . boon , attacked and solved i if wo consider that to > obtain And . xmmw ® tUa . g / , oater : Diirt . pje the quantities now forming the basis of astronomical

    computation , man has had greatly to improve the most delicate of his organs , to add immenselv to the power of his eye ; if we remark that it was not less requisite for him to discover methods adapted to measuring very long intervals of time , up to the precision of tenths of seconds ; to combat against the most microscopic effects that constant variations of temperature produce in metals , and therefore in all instruments '; guard against the innumerable illusions that a cold or hot atmosphere , dry or humid , tranquilor agitated , impresses on the medium through which the observations have inevitablv to ' be made ; the feeble being resumes all liis advantage : by the side oF such wonderful labours of the mind , what signifies the weakness , the fragility of orir body ; what signify the dimensions of the planet , our residence , the grain of sand on which it has happened to us to appear for a few moments ! ,

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    INDIGENOUS RACES OF THE EARTH . Indigenous Races of tha Earth ; or , JVem Chupters of Ethnological Inquiry . Triibner . Five " -ontleQien havo contributed the materials of this massive book—Alfred i Mauvy , Aitkens Meiga , Francis Pulszky , J . C . Nott , and George ( iliddon . There , are also communications from Leidy and Agussiz . We have liero the nucleus of a school , for although the several writers do not concur on all points , they stand generally apart from orthodox ethnological theories . Tho great principle defended is that of a diversity of races and types of languages . In support of the hypothesis we find a remarkable concentration of Tacts gathered from all ages and literatures , and of inferences derived from monuments , natural remains , and physical analogies , which may not be satisfactory as evidence , but which are certainly interesting , and reflect the highest credit upon the inquirers . The subject under analysis is comparatively new to science ; it is one that lies within the vaguest outlines ; it is a study of glimpses and shadows ; it is involved in mythic records and conjectural resemblances . Absolutely . , we believe , it is to this moment as impossible to produce a correct classification of languages as to trace the dispersions of mankind , or to discover the birthplace of humanity—in the bed of the Atlantic , or among the peaks of Caucasus . For example , following tlie trail of Mr . Crawfurd ' s comparative philology , what result have we in connexion with the Malay and Polynesian families ? . That the substratum of common words is merely supposititious , that the links are nowhere certain , and that all research is lost between the . Pacific Ocean and the deserts of Tartary . The Malay Islands , resting upon the same g reat platform as the continent of Asia , suggest questions to geology which , when answered , may offer a ground for the steps of the ethnologist . What do we see of these races in their ancient history ? A migration round the south-eastern valleys and ranges of Asia , the nomades of the plains becoming nomades tirat of the jungle and then of the sea , and lastly , a long eclipse , after which the Pelasgio nation is discovered scattered and blended with another of the curly-haired type . It may be that the blood of thre e races mingled in the oriental islands—the Dravidian and Oceanic tribes , and the 'llnbeto-Chinese ; but what real value can be assigned to the faint analogies caught by Mr . Logan between the Australian and Dravidian tongues ? We are inclined to attribute more ' importance to the testimony of Mr . Gliddon ' s iconographs , to his arguments in behsilf of certain ethnological propositions deduced from antique monuments ; but even here much of the evidence fails under scrutiny . First , Mr . Gliddon took a portrait of l . ycurgus , which he believed authentic . M . Pulszky may be cited as a sound critic of such an eikon . The portrait was borrowed from Pouqueville , who took it from Ennio Quirino Yisconti . It cannot bo traced to an earlier date . In fact , the old stone , according to the confession of the Italian ieonogruphist himself , was baptized Lycurgus upon conjecture . . Even had the bust been authentic , it mig ht have been an ideal ; it was at all events heroic , amd is of no significance whatever to the ethnologer . Pouqueville also supplied Mv . Gliddon with a bust of Alexander the Great . This was found in 1779 , near Tivoli ; the inscription proves it not to havo been contemporary with the conqueror ' s life . The portrait of Eratosthenes , the favourite of liunsen , is purely imaginative . That of Hannibal is utterly untrustworthy ; that of tho Numidiuu Jubu rests upon the most indecisive authority . Wo counnend M . Pulsjsky ' s general treatise oa iconography to the attention of artstudents . That of Dr . JMeigs , on cranial characteristics , is interesting , and appeal's convincing ; but we are not qualified to judge it . L . angu < ig *! ts are tiuiced to several stocks by Mr . Maury . In this respect , he stnn-ds on the sa , nie gi'ound with the students of physical science , fortifying his theory by analyses of African , Arinn , and Mongolian types , the first vague and poor , the second rich and irregular , the third flexible and simple . This view , of course , adupts itself to JYh \ Gliddon ' a on Folygonisin , in which ho discusses tho zoological , theological , and metaphysical dogmus of tho old school . At this point , especially , ethnological science is merged in the widest . speculation , in which Huniholdt , Bunsen , ICnox , JMullcr , and Blanch a rd wander , convinced yet unconvincing . Mr . Gliddon ' s essay on the Monogenists and the Polygenists is in fact a very able though irregular and intemperate contribution to mi argument which , we aro afraid , centuries will not determine . lie begins with tho question whether Adam was the name of tho lirsb man , and hits out , right and left , with long thrusts of personal iiUunion at his predecessors . VV o will take no part in his quarrel with Bunsen , nor can we pretend to respect certain authorities upon whom he imph ' ujtly relies us occupying ' the loremost rank . ' Wo quote nn example of his method , which points ulao to some of his principal conclusions : — It appears to bo tho unavoidable futo of ovory human science to pain through a phase ot' empiricism . Euch one , at some timo or other , is rognrdod as a wort of universal punacoa competent to hoal all controversial hocus . Such at this moment , throughout Anglo-Suxondom , is tha popular opinion concerning 1 ' Philology : ' lust , rofugo for alarmed Protestant Monogoniaii ) , —« t tho very time > vhon Continental ooholorauip has stopped into a , higher sphere of linguistic philosophy , which alrouily rocogniKoa tho total inadequacy of philology ( or other science ) to solve tho uilominii whether humanity orlgiiitttolS in ono human pair , or has omunated from , a plurality of zoological centres . Philology , instead , of being ethnology , ia only ono instrument , if oven a most precious one , out of many other tools indispensable in ethnological researches . The powers of science tormod 'la llnguistlque ' uro not infinite , ovou / supposing correct knowledges had as yet been obtained of even ono half the tongues spoken over tho face of the earth ; or that it wore in tho capacity of one unnu to

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    714 i THE LEABER . _ [ No . 383 , J ^ t ^^ IS&T .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 25, 1857, page 714, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2202/page/18/