Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

cordance with our experiments; but it has never been proved that the same effect would be produced if the earth's motion were destroyed simply by the attraction of other bodies without collision. If a meteor in passing near the earth should have all its motion destroyed simply by the earth's attraction, it has never been proved that the meteor's temperature would be changed in any degree by this loss of motion. It is possible that there would be an elevation of temperature; but our experiments have only shown such a change of temperature where motion is destroyed by collision with a material body.

Prof. Tyndall concludes his lectures with a beautiful statement of the agency of the sun's light and heat in the grave operations of nature. "The earth's atmosphere contains carbonic acid, and the earth's surface bears living plants; the former is the nutriment of the latter. The plant apparently seizes the combined carbon and oxygen; tears them asunder, storing up the carbon, and letting the oxygen go free. By no special force, different in quality from other forces, do plants exercise this power; the real magician here is the sun. It is at the expense of the solar light that the decomposition of the carbonic acid is effected. Without the sun, the reduction cannot take place, and an amount of sunlight is consumed exactly equivalent to the molecular work accomplished. Thus trees are formed, thus the meadows grow, thus the flowers bloom. Let the solar rays fall upon a forest, and the quantity of heat given back is less than that received, for the energy of a portion of the sunbeams is invested in the building of the trees. I have here a bundle of cotton, which I ignite; it bursts into flame and yields a definite amount of heat; precisely that amount of heat was abstracted from the sun, in order to form that bit of cotton."

"Every mechanical action on the earth's surface, every manifestation of power, organic and inorganic, vital and physical, is produced by the sun. His warmth keeps the sea liquid, and the atmosphere a gas, and all the storms which agitate both are blown by the mechanical force of the sun. He lifts the rivers and the glaciers up to the mountains; and thus the cataract and the avalanche shoot with an energy derived immediately from him. Thunder and lightning are also his transmuted strength. Every fire that burns, and every flame that glows, dispenses light and heat which originally belonged to the sun. Every shock and every charge in battle is an application or misapplication of the mechan

ical force of the sun. He blows the trumpet, he urges the projectile, he bursts the bomb. This is not poetry, but rigid mechanical truth. He rears the whole vegetable world, and through it the animal; the lilies of the field are his workmanship, the verdure of the meadows, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. He forms the muscle, he urges the blood, he builds the brain. His fleetness is in the lion's foot; he springs in the panther, he soars in the eagle, he slides in the snake. He builds the forest and hews it down. The clover sprouts and blossoms, and the scythe of the mower swings by the operation of the same force. The sun digs the ore from our mines; he rolls the iron; he rivets the plates, he boils the water, he draws the train. He not only grows the cotton, but he spins the fibre, and weaves the web. There is not a hammer raised, a wheel turned, or a shuttle thrown, that is not raised, and turned, and thrown by the sun. His energy is poured freely into space, but our world is a halting place, where this energy is conditioned. Here the Proteus works his spells; the self-same essence takes a million shapes and hues, and finally dissolves into its primitive and almost formless form."

HISTORICAL.

MERIVALE'S HISTORY OF THE ROMANS.*-The Messrs. Appleton have undertaken to reprint, in seven volumes, Mr. Merivale's work upon Roman History. The first two volumes of the series are now before us. The substantial and elegant dress in which they are printed, will win the praise of all readers. We have seldom looked upon so fair a page. It is evident that the old days of double columns and eye-destroying type are fast passing away; and leading publishers seem to be vieing with each other in the effort to bring out their issues in the most attractive style.

Merivale's History has already taken rank in England with the standard productions in the department of historical literature. His subject is far from being so vast and difficult as that of Grote, and his power, as a writer, would be generally deemed inferior to that of Macaulay; and yet, after these two, there is no other En

*History of the Romans under the Empire. By CHARLES MERIVALE, B. D., late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. From the Fourth London Edition. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1863. [New Haven: Judd & Clark. Price $2 a volume.]

glish name, among the recent historical writers-save, perhaps, that of Arnold-which would be placed above Merivale. It was the original design of the author to carry his narrative down from the fall of the Republic to the transference of the imperial court to Constantinople. He has felt constrained, however, to limit his task to a narrower compass, and to stop at the close of the reign of Marcus Aurelius,-the point where Gibbon's great work begins. The idea at the foundation of his plan is set forth in his preface. There are two histories of every people,-the one interior and domestic, or national, and the other exterior. The former is the history of the laws, institutions, and internal changes-its onward growth until it has attained to its political individuality. The latter relates to the action of the people upon others and the part it performs in the general history of mankind. "The great interest of Greek and Roman history consists in this, that we can trace them with singular completeness in both these respects." The downfall of Greece, as a political Power, did not end its history in the second of these respects; for its influence on the destinies of mankind continued for ages, and has not yet ceased. The story of the Roman conquests is the prelude to the second branch of Roman history, which has for its end the description of the influence which the Roman government and Roman institutions exerted upon the nationalities subject to their sway. This particular subject is the one which has excited the interest of Merivale, and been chosen for the theme of his elaborate work.

These first two volumes bring the history down from the first Triumvirate to the assassination of Julius Cæsar. They comprise a full exhibition of Cæsar's entire career. The parties in the State, anterior to the Empire, and subsequent to it, as well as the leading personages, are thoroughly described. It is refreshing to come into this living contact with Roman times and Roman men; to find that underneath the rivalries of statesmen and soldiers was a contest of great principles and antagonistic political tendencies; and to see the mist which youthful imagination throws over the heroes of Roman history vanish and give place to a clearer perception. Cicero, for example, stands out upon the canvass, the ambitious young advocate and orator; the rising statesman, making his way to the highest offices; the patriotic magistrate; too vain and too timid to be ranked in the first order of greatness, and yet great enough to be immortal. His relations to the parties

and politicians, whose conflicts agitated Rome, are lucidly set forth.

Mr. Merivale writes, with a sustained animation, in pure, forcible English. The following passage upon the condemnation of Cataline is selected, almost at random, as a specimen of his style:

"Cicero's eloquence and ingenuity had conciliated thus far the favor of the people, and nerved the arm of the oligarchs with a strength to which they had long been strangers. The question now arose how much farther this favor might be relied on. Nine of the traitors had been convicted; of these five were in confinement; the nature of their punishment remained for decision. The law of the republic, as interpreted at least by the patricians, invested the chief magistrate with power of life and death as soon as the Senate should issue its ultimate decree,-Let the consuls see that the State suffers no harm. Nor were there wanting precedents to support in the present case an act of extreme rigor, which the majority of the Assembly might be found to justify and applaud. But Cicero was aware that the Commons had never consented to such a stretch of prerogative; while their power, as well as their jealousy of the nobles, had much increased since its last exercise in the time of the Gracchi. There existed also a conflicting principle in the Roman law, according to which no citizen could be put to death except by a vote of the tribes. But the Senate still hesitated to appeal to the people, by which course they would risk the failure of justice and vengeance altogether. Nor by delegating their own authority to the Consul would they secure his impunity, should he venture to act upon it. The passions of the populace, stimulated by angry demagogues, would scorn submission to any such questionable pretensions. Accordingly, even in the moment of triumph, Cicero was too wary to assume at once the proffered responsibility. He appealed once more to the Senate itself. He restored to the Assembly the sword it had thrust into his hand. The fathers met in the Temple of Concord, the ground-plan of which may yet be traced beneath the brow of the Capitoline; and from the memorials still preserved to us, we may picture to ourselves a vivid representation of the debate which ensued. The speakers on the side of the government were urgent for capital punishment, which was resisted not less vehemently by their opponents. The popular faction could not be expected to acquiesce in the assumption by the Senate of the

power of life and death. Banishment or imprisonment was, they contended, the extreme penalty allowed by the law. But their motives were questioned, their loyalty was impeached; and Cato, on behalf of the oligarchs, could maintain, not without a show of justice, that the convicted criminals were no longer citizens, but enemies of the State. By their connection with the foreign foe, they had forfeited every Roman privilege. Cicero himself demanded a sentence of death. But it was not upon the letter of the law that either party did, in fact, lay the greatest stress. Policy or expediency dictated the most cogent arguments on either side. Finally, the harsher counsel prevailed, and the Consul's hands were strengthened by a deliberate decree in favor of the bold stroke he personally advocated."*

We mention, in closing this notice, that Mr. Merivale takes care to fortify his statements by a copious reference to authorities, and, also, that an analytical index to the entire work is promised to appear in connection with the last volume.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS.-We had not been prepared to expect so important and elaborate a contribution to the religious history of modern times as Mr. Gillett has just very quietly made in these two sturdy octavo volumes, each with its six hundred pages and more. The scholar will at once see what a rich field in which to work this new candidate for literary honors has had. Neander and Milman, in their Histories of the Church, have told the story of the incredible corruption that made itself everywhere so offensive in all orders of the priesthood, and of the great schism in the Roman Church in the fourteenth century, and of the sad tragedies enacted by the Council of Constance in the beginning of the fifteenth century. But their works, are too extended for full details respecting any one period, so that even those who are familiar with their accounts of Huss and his times, will now have a new pleasure, in being introduced, under the very competent leadership of Mr. Gillett, to a more intimate acquaintance with

* Vol. I., p. 120.

† The Life and Times of John Huss: or the Bohemian Reformation of the Fifteenth Century. By E. H. GILLETT. In two volumes. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1863. Royal 8vo. pp. xx, 632. xiii, 651. [New Haven: T. H、 Pease. Price $6.00.]

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »