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    rYRTrrxrAT ttv UJilijlNALIiy

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    ORIGINALITY.

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    nected it with a similar hollow sound produced by striking a mass of vesicular rock in Naples or Sicily—we forget which he said . ^ He attributed the effect in both cases to a reinforcement of the original sound by echo or reverberation from a multitude of particles , and made two or three experiments to show how echoes were aole to make small sounds audible all over the theatre of the institution , although without such aid they were too feeble to be heard . Having arrived at a convenient station , Professor Tyndali . erected a theodolite , and caused a row of stakes to be placed across the glacier in a perfectly straight line . This process involved some danger , and ¦ would have been fatal if precautions had not been taken to secure who

    the man who fixed the stakes to three other guides , might pull him up if he fell through the treacherous crust on which he trod . On one occasion these arrangements proved both necessary and effective ; for while the Professor was looking at him , the man suddenly disappeared , and must have been lost if his companions had not drawn him up again from the crevasse into which he had accidentally fallen . The snowstorms came in fitful drifts , and sometimes rendered portions of the scene invisible , while the adjacent parts were brilliantly lit up . After much labour all the stakes were placed / and being arranged exactly at right angles to the direction of the glacier ' s slope , any motion of the mass would be indicated by their change of place . _ _ _ . _ ¦ ¦ ,.,,, „ . _ trated the fact of which the

    The lapse of a few hours demons Professor was in search ; all the posts were carried down by the ice stream , and those in the centre more rapidly than those at the sides . Thus the phenomena known to occur in summer , were found to happen in the depth of winter : the plastic power of glacial ice was preserved at a temperature considerably below zero , and the mass moved like the waters of an ordinary river , quickest in the centre and slower at the sides , where more friction took place . The Professor described the scene as far grander than in summer ; and when the sun began to sink , the gorgeous masses of flame colour contrasted with the clear deep blue of the sky , and were brilliantly reflected from the icy peaks . Newton's theory of the blue colour of the clear atmosphere and of the hues of clouds was illustrated by

    some well-contrived experiments , tending to show that the blue was the-result of reflection from thin films or particles of moisture , and that the other colours were produced by varying thicknesses of vaporous films . < 3 oethe ' s ideas were likewise noticed , and the value of his observations fully admittedralthpugh his theory was a mistake . The great poet-philosopher thought that light and darkness \ vere , _ to speakj the opposite poles of light , and that turbidity was a sort of middle term . If darkness was looked at through a turbid medium , bine was the result—if through one more turbid , yellow or red , until at last no light at all appeared . From this hypothesis Goethe supposed the blue of the sky to be occasioned by looking h turbid medium of the tmo

    at the blackness of space througa a - sphere , and was confirmed in his idea by many observations , one of which was narrated by the lecturer . It appeared that a certain picture at Weimar , representing a grave person in a -solemn black dress , had been washed , and as soon as the moisture made the varnish turbid the old gentleman appeared in a suit of blue plush , which disappeared to give place to his original costume as the surface of the picture got dry . Professor Tyndall gave numerous experiinentar ^ lustTatT ^^^ reflection from fine particles , such as those precipitated when a few drops of an alcoholic solution of resin are added to water , and closed his lecture amid general applause .

    Ryrtrrxrat Ttv Ujilijlnaliiy

    may point with pride to the prodigious undertakings of men in humble life ; their inventions * perhaps , would never have been given to the world had they been bom in another sphere—but that is not the question . Would those undertakings liave been less complete or less important if the inventors had known more . ? Were not the designs actually impeded by the want of knowledge of the . designers , not only of the forces and materials they were using , but of the means of making known to their fellow-creatures the results of their labours ? i _ Does reading suppress novelty of thought ? In this case there tt

    appears more reason for doubt . It may be said with truth ha those who are accustomed to make continual use of the thoughts of others , are very apt , unconsciously , or to save themselves trouble , to adopt such thoughts in lieu of their own . Undeniably , many very great thinkers have been men of apparently little education . Shakspeare will at once occur as the popular instance ; but was Shakspeare uneducated ? We cannot allow that the man who reflected every form of human thought and action in his own person , who was philosopher , scholar , sailor , ecclesiastic , lawyer , horse dealer , " all mankind ' s epitome , " was an uneducated man ? he must have been one of the greatest readers of any age , as he was

    one of the most original thinkers . In many minds there is an impression that there may be an education formed upon the study of nature and of mankind , distinct and apart from that of books . And this is , in a great measure , true ; but it will be found that unassisted application to nature will produce but small results . To arrive at any degree of perfection or importance , those studies must be founded on the collective wisdom of observers that have gone before . The individual observation of no single man , not even of Shakspeare , would enable him to plumb the depths of human sympathies and human character , and to penetrate to the inmost recesses of nature , as Shakspeare has done . He gleaned the thoughts of others before he spoke himself , and although he has added an enormous mass of his own to what

    he received from other sources , his contributions would have been infinitely inferior if he had been unable to avail himself of external help . If it be true that reading impedes novelty of thought , we should find less and less of creative genius as education extended ; but is that so ? Taking writers only , what equal period of Englishhistory , even of its classical days in the last century , can boast of such a phalanx of originality as the last thirty years has produced ? No other thirty years has given to England such a race as Tennyson , MaCATJLAY , CARBYIiE , DlCKENS , THACKERAY * Mitt , the BRONTES , Kingsxey , BtrcKXE , Darwin , and many others , yetrin no / 3 ge has the average education of Englishmen been so far advanced , or the thai

    individual knowledge of the writers greater . It-will be said these are men who belong to a past system , that the system which , is now being tried has yet to give forth its men . But if education , which has been steadily advancing , has up to this time , so far from reducing originality , eminently increased its luxuriance , it is fair to reason that it will continue to produce the same results . Take the instance of poetry—can any poetry in the English language rival Mr . Tennyson ' s in originality both of thought and diction ? Yet every stanza shows profound study . Of all that have gone before him , ( with the exception , of course , of Shaksfeare , Spenser and M-ttj ^ tO—r ) i ^^ "EN- , was probably less indebted to the rnind 3 of

    others than any one . How dull and pedantic Pope , Addison , and . the rest , with their poetry " formed on the best classic models , '" seem to us now . It may appear , at first sight , that this illustration militates against the position we are taking , but the truth is that Pope arid Addison applied themselves to the classic models and to little else , while Tennyson has a mind that , while escaping from the trammels of imitation , is well stored with every kind of knowledge that man ' s intellect can command . Nothing is above or beneath it » grasp , and we mav look in vain among the classic modelists for those thrills of delight we derive from his ever-recurring touches of nature . . ' . . ..

    The most remarkable instance of originality of observation in our time is Mr . Charles Dickens—we doubt if any writer that ever lived has created such a new world of fancies from the familiar objects of every day life ; nothing escapes him . The most minute and trivial circumstances , that would pass to one of us without notice , is taken hold of by him , revolved in the machinery of that fertile mind , and reproduced to us in a form we have never bofore suspected it of , and we contemplate its novel shape with wonder and delight . Of originality of language Mr . Carlyle is the great prose

    example ; it is probable that he has scarcely given to the world an absolutely new idea , but he has succeeded in clothing his thoughtsin a language to which we wore quite unaccustomed—racy and vigorous at first , it threatened to produce a revolution in the English tongue ; but in some of his later works it has degenerated into such a peculiar phraseology that it becomes troublesome to translate ifc into English . Of originality of thought the modern instances must be Miix , Buckle , and . Darwin , . , •; ' - . - - --.

    The lives of the voungeat amongst us have seen auch wonders of design that it would be invidious , nay , impossible , to select a representative example ; we will go , therefore , to Georges Stkphenson aa an instance , and an uneducated instance , of a creative man ; but by no means the least interesting part of that great mnn ' a life is the history of his endeavours to cultivate his mind . He felt hampered by his ignorance when thoBe mighty projects entered his head , and ifc was not , and never would have boon , till he became an educated man , that he became a great man . As it was with Stbphrnson , bo it has been and must bo with every

    A S might be expected , a reaction is taking place great impulse education has been receiving from the upper classes in En « 'land during the last few years . We hear that there is too much reading that originality is being destroyed , and that mediocrity prevails . These sentiments at present find vent chiefly among the ultra-refined classes ; we do not regard them as one of those affectations which occasionally possess that body , but rather as the form of expression a vague idea has assumed—that we are cramming the youth of England rather than educating them . In order to examine the subject fairly , let us inquire , Can there be too muoh reading ? Is the advance of learning calculated to suppress originality ? We shall treat reading , knowledge , and education , as synonymous terms , for our remarks are not intended to apply to such persons as are incapable of deriving information from the contents ot books .

    Originality we take to be the possession of a creative quality of the mind that is absolutely independent of all ideas that have preceded it ; and we take leave to remark that there is something very indefinite about the ordinary application of the term . Is it originality of design , of thought , of observation , or of language , that is meant P They are all distinct qualities , though strongly allied , and verv frequently , but not always , co-exiatent in the same person . the invention ot

    Thus originality of design , which we understand as some new form or cambiiiatiou that has occurred to no one else , may or may not be combined with originality of language . An original thinker is one whose thoughts , when brought to fear upon a certain subject , take a direction which is entirely independent of the thoughts of others that have , gone before ; he begets a new development of the subject . Originality of observation takes the form of an uncommon ' Bonn © of the appearances and relations of familiar objects ; while originality of langunge is the power of expressing , " in a fresh and forcible manner , the ideas that have arisen in the mind in relation to the foregoing subjects . Is education , then , opposed to originality of design P Great designs have undoubtedly sprung from illiterate persons . Mr . Smiles

    Untitled Article

    544 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . C ™ > ] 860-

    Originality.

    ORIGINALITY .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 9, 1860, page 544, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2351/page/12/