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    juyl with the register of his college ; and what is perhaps of higher importance , while it rescues the memory of the greatest poet and one . . of the ripest scholars , of England from a- "shade that ¦ has long rested on it i it deprives giddy and thoughtless youth of a precedent they are fond of quoting for their own irregularities and contumacy . " The following is a slightly , paraphrased rendering of the lines above quoted : —¦ The city which the Thames laves with refluent wave detains irie , And my sweet native place possesses me not against my will ; ¦ ITow I have neither a desire to revisit the reedy Cam , JTor does the love of my father ' s fireside , lately forbidden me ( during Term-time , ) torment me .

    3 f this be what you call exile—to have visited my father ' s household gods , And , free from cares , to follow charming leisure—I refuse not the name or the lot of a banished man , And gladly I enjoy the condition of exile . Nothing can be clearer than that this , and- ' . this only , is Milton ' s meaning . The translation given by Dr . Johnson of vetiti laris seems little less than absurd , so strong was the Tory dogmatist ' s desire to find Milton in the wrong . The word toy as Mr . Eitchie Mmself observes , is . one of the most expressive in the language . It is not merely " a habitation ; " it is a home in the deepest meaning of the term—a hearth hallowed \> j the spiritual presence of the household god . It is quite beyond belief that an accomplished Latinist like Milton could apply such a name to his solitary room at a college ^ of which he takes so little pains to conceal his dislike and contempt . ¦ . _ . ¦

    ; , We have dwelt more on this than we might else have done , to show that Mr . Ritchie ' book is not compiled of merely light and trifling essays and tales , but also contains some instructive . contributions to our literary knowledge .

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    LIFE AND ORGANISATION , Outlines of Physiology . By John Hughes Bennett , M . D ., F . R . S . E ., &c . Edinibargh : Adam & Charles Black . " Life , " says the Edinburgh Review ? , in an article bearing the above title , "includes the greatest of all the problems submitted to human thought . All . distinctions and diversities are trifling- in comparison to . the distinction between inanimate matter and living organisms . " On this topic , considering with the reviewer that it is extremely important , we propose to make a few remarks , not taking much notice , however , of the ill-written and confused article in which it is discussed at great length . Nor shall we say anything

    further of the book of which the . title ; is prefixed , than that it is a very concise and useful manual , chiefly , devoted to human physiology . "By discovering /' says Mr . Herbert Spencer , in his Principles of Psychology , " that certain things shrink when touched , or fly away when approached , pr start when a noise is made , the child first roughly discriminates between the living and the not living ; and a man , when in doubt whether an object he is looking at be dead or not , stirs it with a stick , shouts , or throws a stone at it . " This explains the common idea of life , and it implies only an inherent power of self-motion when acted on by external

    causes . It is formed in ohildhood , continues with us to the end of our career , and guides all our aotions in treating Jiving' organisms . The same ¦ writer , howevei ' , after much elaborate discussion of what the definition ought to bo , dofines life as " tho continued adiustmont of internal relations to external relations . " Other writers have oallod it the " sum total of the functions whioh resist doath , " " Organisation in action , " &o . There are , there foro , two prevalent ideas of life —the one formed from first impressions , formed in childhood , remaining throughout our existence , and apparently common to us all ; the other formed

    from close , minute , and continued observation oi the struoturo and functions of living orcatures , and limited , in the first instanoo , to those who study physiology . Tho former is tho exoteric , and t | ie latter the osotorio , sido of human knowledge . In every branoU there is tho snnio distinction . Ideas formodfrom first and general impressions—as our porooptton of the sun . vising in tho cast and sotting m tho wost'T-the origin oi tho idea of tho movement of that 'lUminary and all tho host of hcavoniare generally different from , and sometimes totally at variance , as this is , with those formed from oontinuod observation , and called Boiontiflo . Wo must remember this distinction to avoid being pulled

    by p hilosophical : discussions about hie and mattd ? and space and force , and' such abstractions ; and also remember , that to whatever conclusions philosophers may be led by observations- continued from age to age , they make no pretence to change or upset the ideas formed from first impressions , fnrmpd in r >} ii ! fHinnd _ arid eonstitutihe" in the main

    the conscious life of all . They only teach us , exciting wonder and reverence , that the last conclusions to which continuous observation , leads , are . different from those formed from first impressions , by which vre guide our conduct . We readily extend , under the guidance of science , the common idea of life from animals and insects to mollusca , vegetables ,. &c , till we reach , in company witli philosophers , the prescient conclusion of the poet :

    See through this air , this ocean , and this earth , All matter quick and bursting into birth . The air is vocal with myriads of insects . Every bucket of sea-water is full of life : the ocean teems with vitality . The surface of the earth , the field , the rock , is alive with vegetables and animals . The sand , the sea-shore , aud the solid rock itself are the remains of life . Great beds of coal , many fathoms deep , and many miles of extent , were once thriving forests . All the strata of the earth bear witness to the fact that life has for ever , i . e > before our knowledge begins , existed on its surface . Including vegetation , life serves to nourish other life . Animals are sustained by it , and animals live on one another , even the most exalted supply nutriment and life to other and meaner animals . The whole perceptible universe is alive . Downwards , this has been traced to the minutest films the microscope has discovered ; upwards , though a notion of a seale of being indefinitely extensive in both directions has long been prevalent , it stops at man , " the head , the heart , and tongue of all . " the ox , the horse , the elephant , the whale , tire shark—as well as many now extinct species of animals—have bigger bodies than man , but they are his servants , or his slaves . They are pigmies in intellect compared to him , and seem Created for his use . Between , man and the planets , though pur literature teenis with notices of angels and spiritual existences of . various kinds , no organised beings have been yet discovered endowed with life and standing , higher in the scale than man . These facts suggest two very important questions ; the first is , What are the chief attributes of the life universally diffused ? To the inherent power of self motion ¦ the writer in the Review adds the " wonderful power of reproduction which maintains the continuity of the species ; " and insists earnestly that " no definition of life can . be complete without it . " Imperfect as our knowledge may yet be , we know our own life better than we know the life of others . l"Vom our " own life we must reason to the life of others ; and its chief distinction and attribute is Consciousness . We are conscious of life : Science informs us by demonstrating the continual flux and re-formation of the body , and by demonstrating the impossibility of our getting at any knowledge of matter beyond its forces or the impressions it makes 911 us , that the 'Sum total of our life is consciousness , and nothing but consciousness . Prom this great faot what can we infer but that all other life is consciousness , or attonded by consciousness ? That the dog , and the horse , aud the elephant , and the crocodile , and the

    shark , and the snake , are conscious — conscious of danger , conscious of man ' s presence , if they soo him , consoious of pleasure and of pain—is certain . Must we not extend tho fact and principle to all life ? Comparative anatomists traco one type or one form throughout the . animal kingdom , and on their principle wo infer one moral form similar to their one iypo > one consciousness , varyingacoording to the variations in tho typo through all life . On the usual and well-accredited supposition of a uniformity of design throughout creation such a conclusion is inevitable . Our lifo is in the main consciousness , and if scientific language have any meaning and bo precise and dounito , the sum of all lifo must in the main be consciousness .

    Another important faot ia that all consciousness is pleasuro or pain , The ohief if not tho first oonooptions of tho infant in the mother ' s arms aro ploasaut , it dances with delight . So the gratifications oi our appetites and passions ovory day of our livos . is a . ploasuro ; anil so \ a the last cliscoyory of a I ^ araday as to the qualitios of bodies or foroos ; and tho last disoovory of a Hcrscholl of now ( Kvcllors , double or single , or new ronmors in tho milky-way . Tims our consciousness is generally a stream oi onjoymont ; and , arguing from what wo fcbl and

    know , to what we cannot feel and know , the consciousness of other beings , we infer that all consciousness and all life is on the whole a stream of enjoyment . The hum of insects , the twittering of birds , the ' song of man , all testify to the fact that life is pleasure . Individuals perish , races , specie s of all kinds are continued , life is transmitted from one to another , or reproduced , and perishes not . The stony records of the earth inform us that life was before our time , and our limited experience of its continual reproduction convinces us that it will be after our time . In this sense it is eternal . In . the same sense consciousness is eternal . It was before us , and will be after us . Every person whohas ever given the matter a thought is aware that time and space are reciprocally the measures of 6 nc

    another , or rather observed motion is the common measivre of both . Life , consciousness , enjoyment , are diffused therefore through time and through space ; they were before and will be after us , which is synonymous with their being eternal . We do not overlook the common theory that life is a burden and pain an evil , opposed though it be to the universal practiee of striving to preserve life , when , it can be voluntarily laid down by individuals and of seeking enjoyment ; and acknowledging , as who can deny , the existence of pain , it seems a very small part of life ., The cessation of consciousness is not pain ; disease and suffering , much as we hear of them , in order to incite us if possible to remove them , are exceptions to the general rule , and form only a small part of the life of an individual or of a nation . The advanced classes oi

    societv , who have the most influence over opinion , seem always to imagine that the condition from which they have advanced is one of suffering-, and so they are induced to promote improvement Tor others . For those who are regularly fed every day , comfortably clothed , and luxuriously lodged , it is a great suffering to be deprived of a meal , to be ragged , shoeless , and homeless , To the poor , accustomed to such circumstances from-the beginning of their existence , as to the savage who has never known an improved condition , tlie actual suffering from them is much less than opulent and civilised observers suppose . Habit is second nature . God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb ; " nature is kind alike to all , " the exaggerated

    sympathy generally felt at the outward signs of suffering ' , prompting to lessen it , shows how fully and completely enjoyment is an attribute of life . As we infer from our own love and pursuit of pleasure a similar love and pursuit in other life , so , conversely , we may infer , from the pleasure which all inferior life manifests that the conscious life of man is intended to be pleasure , and that the order of nature is contravened by the apparent sufferings of tlie multitude throughout Europe . Pain is a warning and a guide , it teaches us to provide for the preservation of tlie body , and to seourc greater enjoyment through a longer p eriod ; but it is only an occasional cross current , impelling us into a new course in the great and overflowing stream of

    enjoyment . Life is known to us as an inherent power of selfmotion , and industry is life in motion to sustain life . Insects , birds , and other animals , as well as man , exert themselves to obtain the means of subsistence . The labour which builds up groat cities , cultivates and adorns tho earth , and covers the ocean with steam-ships , resembles in motives and objeots the chase of birds after insects and carnivorous boasts after their destined prey . It ia one attribute of universal lifo , and is so suitable to the structure of our frames that the exertion which is necessary to obtain subsistence proservos them ia hoalth . Without oxortion the body is but half developed . Instinct prompts it in infanoy , continues it in youth , and habit confirms it in maturity . Men and women sing at their work as birds and insects

    express their gladness as thoy roam after their Jooil . It is plainly , thoroforo , a mistake to suppose , because labour lias been , umvisqly connected wiUi slavory , that labour is a pain . Noxt to lifo ) I soil , nothing should bo more holy and sacred than tho industry by which it is subsisted . It is not amfloial , not ordained by a stato , not oallod into being by legislation ; it bolongs to all lifo . It is tho menus by whioh all lifo is sustained . To rostrict > l Js , 0 maim or to mar lifo , and is noxt door to nilautiouio or manslaughter . " ¥ ou tako my lifo when you tako that whereby I live . " And so a stato < nkQ » away or diminishes lifo when it impedes industry . L ' ifo boing universal aud otornal , our hie , high as , 11 is in tho soalo , is only an atom of iv great \ y holo . JjHO i too , lives on lifo . Mutter is organised boloro H can

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    mitmnnm ^ vt ^ TTrtjrm-r ^ y ^ m ... » ¦ » . jhi , i . -. ;¦ - —^ - .- , >* k , ^?* - » 7 ¦ : ¦ ¦ — . « - » --- .. * - » t" — * ... / ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ .- ¦' . / .. ¦ . . . ¦ . ' . . ¦¦¦¦ ... ¦ -. ¦ , ¦ - , ¦¦ .. ¦ . ' . ¦¦ ..-.., ¦¦ ' ¦ . - " i ¦¦¦ • ; " .. ¦• . , ¦ . ¦¦ . . '¦¦ .. . ¦ ¦¦ : ¦ ¦ . - . •*¦¦ .: ¦ . . - .. . , . . ¦ ¦ ¦ 206 THE lEADER . [ Ko . 464 ^ ebbttary 1 ^ , 1 & 5 &

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 12, 1859, page 206, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2281/page/14/