Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

tific grounds is not only justifiable but praiseworthy.

What perplexes us, and, we presume, many other outside readers of such discussions, is to find out what logic really is. Every new writer seems to take a new view of it, or, at least, to controvert the views of all his predecessors. Is it, as Whately contends, to be restricted to the analysis and determination of the reasoning process only so far as it is a verbal operation? is it, as Sir William Hamilton maintains, the science of the formal laws of thought only? or does it, as Professor Tappan now declares more largely, comprise the laws which govern and determine all the activities of the reason-reason itself being the sum of our intellectual faculties, or the total knowing substance? In the latter event, how are we to distinguish it from psychology, or the ordinary science of mind? All sciences are, of course, related, and more or less involve each other; yet each science must have its limits, its distinctive object, about which it is principally conversant, and which separates it from every other science. Now, Professor Tappan says, that psychology is the analysis of the reason, which makes us acquainted with its eternal and absolute ideas, while logic is that analysis of the reason which makes us acquainted with its laws; but what is the difference here between its laws and its ideas? An idea, we are told, is that "which determines our cognitions and our activity;" and a law is that "which regulates and determines the manifestations and movements" of the mind: and we cannot see the distinction. Undoubtedly, there is a distinction; but it is not here stated. As a specimen of the confusion that reigns, let us extract a single paragraph, explanatory of the function of logic.

"Reason perceives and knows : seeks and arrives at truth. But what are the laws which regulate its perceptions? What are the methods which it pursues in seeking after truth? What are the ultimate grounds of its knowledges and beliefs? When we have answered these questions, we have logic completed."

We have, however, a great deal morefor the first question relates to psychology, the last to universal philosophy, and the second only to logic. The laws of the reason, it seems to us, like its faculties, functions, operations, processes, are the objects of mental science, and not of logic.

We are not much given to such inquiries, but what little thought we have expended upon them has led to the belief, that logic is best considered as a branch of the larger science of induction-using the term, not as Bacon does, mostly in the sense of simple generalization, but for the whole procedure of method. Its other branches are, analysis and synthesis, so that the generic science of method includes the three specific functions of logical induction, analytic induction, and synthetic induction, which exhaust, progressively and in combination, every process the mind resorts to, in the investigation and establishment of truth.

A great many other observations are suggested by this volume, particularly its use of the term reason; but we have no space for them now.

SCIENCE. The Elements of Analytical Mechanics, and the Spherical Astronomy, of Professor W. H. C. BARTLETT, of the United States Military Academy, are valuble contributions to our means of attaining a competent knowledge of those branches of science. In the former, he has deduced the laws of the movements of bodies, on the principle of virtual velocities, instead of the parallelogram of forces, which is made the basis in most English and some French treatises. Combining this with. D'Alembert's principle, which is shown to be a generalization of the Newtonian law of the equality of action and reaction, he deduces six equations for the motions of all bodies, and which contain the whole subject of Mechanics. It is a method susceptible of the most simple, precise, and prolific developments. It places the most vast and fruitful principles of science within the grasp of the tyro, and enables him to commune face to face with the great masters of Mechanics, with La Grange and Luplace, with Newton and Euler, with Huygens and Bernouilli.

In the Spherical Astronomy, which treats of the magnitudes, arrangements, and motions of the heavenly bodies, we find the same simplicity and comprehensiveness of treatment, with descriptions of the structure and use of instruments no less admirable. The plates of instruments, and of the planets, are well executed, being copied mostly from the fine Astronomie Elementaire of De Launay, and in every part of the work, indeed, are traces of a clear, precise, and philosophic mind.

-The Annual of Scientific Discovery, by Mr. WELLS, is one of those works which a man of general culture, eager to keep on a level with his age, and yet unable to follow the progress of research into its minuter results, cannot well do without. It is a resumé of what scientific men have done during the year, given in brief terms, and yet with sufficient details to be intelligible. One of the unhappy effects of our modern scientific activity is, that a man who does not spend all his time in reading, is soon left high and dry on the shoals of ignorance, the century in which he lives running away from him so rapidly that it gets almost out of sight. A science which he plumed himself on once knowing something about, grows, during a short tour abroad, or a sojourn in the country, quite out of his acquaintance. He sees it, like an express train, from the station-house, at which he has arrived a few minutes too late, receding from him with prodigious speed, and, ere he he is aware, leaving him alone with the porters and draymen. Such works as Mr. Wells's enable him, if not to catch up with the train, at least to keep in sight of it, or, at the worst, to guess whither it is going. Or, to change the figure, they are tide-marks of the great ocean of scientific thought, showing the height to which it has swelled, by the deposits left along the shore.

-A similar service is rendered, though in a different and even more agreeable way, by the charming work of GOSSE, on The Ocean, which discourses of the science of the sea, in a manner to interest both the child and the mature student. One reads in it of cuttle-fish and weeds, with as entire an absorption as he reads in a novel of the fortunes of Miss Ella and Master Tommy, the wonderful orphans, and with a good deal more instruction. MISCELLANEOUS. Mr. Mackie, whose charming Cosas de España delighted the readers of this magazine, has been trying his hand on a more serious work. It is a Life of Shamyl, the famous Circassian chief, who for so many years has been a thorn in the side of Russia, and has cost her, in the long run, we venture to say, more blood and treasure than all the allied forces of the Crimea. It is compiled from the most recent and authentic German and French sources, with great industry and research, and gives us a picture,

as the writer truly says, of a career of heroism, nowise inferior to that of the most famous champions of classical antiquity; of a war of independence, such as may not improperly be compared with the most glorious struggles recorded in the annals of liberty; and of a state of society, perhaps the most romantic, and the most nearly resembling that described in the songs of Homer, which the progress of civilization has left. We need hardly say, to those who know the facility with which Mr. Mackie describes scenes and characters, that his treatment of this fine subject is worthy of it, and that, not satisfied with the simple biography of his hero, he has woven with it the most graceful sketches of the manners and customs of the Caucasus. That grand and beautiful region, which has been made dear to our imaginations by the inventions of Grecian genius, as well as by some of the most venerable sacred traditions, is now invested with the more powerful charms of an actual living history, and the lands which we have heretofore associated only with the names of Noah and Prometheus, of Jason and Cadmus, will derive a deeper interest from what we are told of the marvelous bravery and wisdom of Shamyl.

-A fourth volume has been added to the collected works of EDGAR A. POE, containing one of those De Foe like narratives of adventure, in which he most excelled, called the "Narrative of A. Gordon Pym," and several magazine articles, chiefly jeux d'esprit, not so characteristic or successful. In fact Poe was no wit, and his attempts in that kind are very dreary; but he was a most ingenious and skillful contriver of fiction, to which he managed to give a wonderful verisimilitude, even in the midst of the profoundest improbabilities. The present volume, however, will scarcely add to his fame.

-The Shakespearean Papers form the third volume of the pleasant collection which Dr. MACKENZIE has made of the writings of the late William Maginn. It is the most valuable volume of the three, though to many readers it may prove the least entertaining. It exhibits Maginn, not in his jovial and rollicking moods, when he spurted wit, learning, and nonsense in equal measure, but in his more serious aspects, as "a gentleman and scholar." Even here he cannot forget his

old tricks of ribaldry and abuse; but for the most part, he conducts himself with discretion. His criticisms of the leading characters of Shakespeare, have something of novelty in them, but more of paradox, and do not convince our judgment against the traditional or accepted version of those personages. Yet there is a remarkable acuteness in much that he says, particularly in his analysis of Falstaff and Polonius, both of whom he defends against the degradation brought upon them by the vulgar conceptions of comic actors. Falstaff, he tries to show, was not the low buffoon and glutton which he is generally represented to be, nor Polonius such a silly old fool. Falstaff was a soldier and a knight, overflowing with genial wit, and absolute master of his position, while Polonius was a shrewd courtier, knowing what's what. As to Lady Macbeth, we would fain believe in the qualifications by which Maginn (following Mrs. Siddons and Mrs. Jamieson) tempers her fierce nature, for the sake of gentle womankind; but we fear that such was not the conception of Shakespeare. We do not suppose that she was utterly destitute of womanly tenderness; but we do think that Shakespeare meant to paint her as leading the way, through ungovernable ambition, to the cruel murders by which her husband won the crown.

-RAPHALL'S Jews.--It is a remarkable fact, that from the time of Josephus, who wrote in the early Christian era, up to within the last fifty years, no Jew has written the history of his own people, except for Jews themselves. This singular neglect does not appear to have arisen from any want of men of learning among the Jews, nor from the absence of a feeling of attachment to their race, but probably from the deep-rooted prejudices existing against them, in the countries in which they have lived, and discouraging every attempt to set themselves in a more favorable light in public opinion. But about thirty years ago, Jost, in Germany, undertook to correct the hereditary errors of history-errors transmitted from one Christian writer to another-and, since then, Gratz and Salvador have contributed to the same end. In still later days, Milman, Dohm, and Gregoire, though not Jews, have done ample justice to this singular people.

A singular people, indeed-for, as Dr.

RAPHALL observes in his preface, that as the sole survivors of the really olden time, when mankind was in its infancy, unmixed in lineage, unchanged in religious belief and observance, whose history is connected with the primeval and sacred records of civilized mankind, they possess an interest unsurpassed by any other people. Exercising, by means of their great book, an influence on the world which has outlived the philosophy of Greece, and the statesmanship of Rome, and yet themselves expatriated and dispersed, and deprived of all political existence, except in the United States-victims of ignorance, fanaticism, and calumny-their condition furnishes a marvelously fruitful theme for the pen of the historian.

Dr. Raphall proposes to present us, for the first time, we believe, in the English language, a complete narrative of the postbiblical experience of this remarkable nation. The period commences at the close of the Old Testament, and continues to the present day, embracing a span of twentytwo hundred years, and extending to almost every quarter of the globe. It is, of course, a most comprehensive scheme, requiring vast scholarship and reading, to a proper completion of it; but, we may say of the two volumes, in which the labor is begun, that they augur well for the result. Dr. Raphall writes with fluency, and sometimes eloquence; his narrative is perspicuous, and easy; and he seems a thorough master of his subject, in all its relations. He confines himself too much, perhaps, to the merely external events of history, to satisfy the curiosity which is generally felt as to the internal life and economy of the Jews, under their various vicissitudes. In future volumes, however, as the historian approaches more modern periods, and the existence of his people, less connected with the general history of the world, becomes more private, we hope to see complete details of their domestic manners and experiences. We can imagine that a life so chequered and tragical as that of the "outcasts of all nations," should be full of touching, heroic, and beautiful incidents.

-The American Statesman.-Mr. J. ANDREW W. YOUNG has gathered into a single volume, under this name, a complete political history of the country. Beginning with the colonial era, he has described the causes of the original separation from the

mother country; the steps taken to maintain independence; the formation of the old confederacy; its inherent weakness; the adoption of the new constitution, and the great debates which have taken place under it, up to the passage of the Nebraska bill. His plan has been to give, in brief compass, an outline of the views of all parties on disputed points, particularly those which have exerted any influence on the political destinies of the nation; and he has succeeded in it quite well. It is easy to see what his own convictions are ; and yet he has been just to those of an adverse sentiment. For everybody who wishes to know something of our politics, without entering at large into political history, this work will prove a most invaluable assistant. Original documents are given, where they have been deemed necessary; and where they are not, clear and abundant references are made, so that the student may, at a moment, find everything that pertains to the action

of the different branches of the government. Mr. Benton's Thirty Years' View is more ample, as to the time to which it relates; but cannot supply the place of this condensed, yet quite complete, record of public affairs.

The Journal of Education.-This able periodical, under the management of Mr. BARNARD, has attained a considerable suc cess. but not a success beyond its merits. Devoted to a most important speciality, it pursues its objects with patience, enthusiasm, and ability, and it deserves the patronage of all who take pleasure in the progress of education. Its papers are contributed by some of the most eminent professors and teachers in the country, and discuss the whole theory and practice of teaching with a thorough understanding. Under the head of educational movements and statistics, it gives ample details of all that is doing in England, France, Germany, etc., towards the improvement of schools, and the extension of knowledge.

EUROPEAN

ENGLAND. Our readers have not forgotten, we hope, that we spoke with commendation, some time since, of the first volume of Mr. BURTON'S Pilgrimage to El Medinah. The whole work has now been published, and deserves a high rank in the literature of travel.

In the first place, Mr. Burton deals with a theme "unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." Seventy years ago, Gibbon said, that "our notions of Mecca must be derived from the Arabians; for no unbeliever is permitted to enter the Holy City." What was true then, is equally true now.

While the African deserts, and the American wildernesses have been traversed in all directions by the votaries of science, or the victims of ennui, El Hejaz of the Arabs, the Holy Land of Islam, has been almost untrodden by the western boot, quite unsketched by the western pencil.

A certain M. Bertolucci, Swedish Consul at Cairo, and Dr. Wallin, Arabic professor at Helsingfors, contrived, indeed, to get themselves smuggled into the city, at different times, during the present century; the one by his Bedouins, and the other by some Persians. But Bertolucci lived in constant fear, and Wallin in constant filth,

LITERATURE.

and while the former was so scared that he saw nothing, the latter was so beset and bemired, that he could not note down anything which he saw. Moreover, Wallin was specially unlucky in his companions; for the Persians, being sectarian Sufites, are regarded by the orthodox Sunnites with a most righteous horror and hatred.

Heresy is bad enough, but infidelity is a warrant for an instant auto-da-fé throughout Arabia. The Persians are tolerated, being allowed to purchase the privilege of visiting the Prophet's tomb at a fixed price, taking their change in kicks and blows. But a Giaour! An interloper caught in a lodge of freemasons might be let off with a whipping; man surprised in the sanctuary of the Bona Dea would have been only torn to pieces by pretty women; but an infidel in El Hejaz! for him many deaths and dreadful are prepared - he shall be pelted by boys, and trodden into rags by camels.

In such very exciting circumstances, it is not a little surprising that Mr. Burton should have contrived to see, and hear, and record so much. Nor would he have been able to do so, had not nature armed him with a consummate talent for humbug.

In the first place, Mr. Burton, though a true-born Briton, looks very like a Turk; in the second place, he is a master of the Persian, Bengalee, and Arabic languages; and in the third place, he wears his religion as lightly as his coat.

Having made up his mind to explore the forbidden ground of the Moslem sanctuaries, Mr. Burton applied to the Geographical Society. That noble association instantly accepted his services, and commissioned him to undertake the enterprise in their name, and at their expense. He sailed from England in the disguise of a Persian prince, adopting thus, from the outset, the oriental character it was necessary for him to assume. On arriving at Alexandria, he went into lodgings and took lessons-the lodgings being a small dog-kennel in the backyard of a disreputable dervish, and the lessons being a course of initiation into the art and mystery of the Mussulman friars, the dervishes, who possess the earth in virtue of their sanctity, their laziness, and their contempt of all cleanliness, moral and physical.

He soon became an adept in the business, and could howl and lie in the most orthodox manner. But a cunning Turk of his acquaintance advised him to drop the dervish and the Persian together, and to try his chance as a Hindoo Hadji, a respectable person making the great pilgrimage from some Mohammedan city in Bengal.

This advice, which events proved to have been remarkably sensible, Mr. Burton, after some reflection, adopted. It gives us no unfavorable idea of his qualifications for the enterprise he had undertaken, that he should thus show himself willing to abandon the results of three months of hard work, in order to enter upon a more judicious course. This course he pursued successfully to the end.

He joined a regular pilgrim caravan, taking ship at Suez; and, so completely oriental was he in his manners, as well as in his speech, that he passed for a paragon of pilgrims.

It is not easy to exaggerate the difficulties of such an impersonation as Mr. Burton kept up for months, in the midst of a large company of fellow-worshipers, who gave themselves as much concern about the faith and the manners of their neighbors as if they were members of a Methodist class.

The ceremonial law of the Jews is hardly more minute than that of the Mussulmans. Every action that man can perform must be sanctified by its special allusion to the Koran, or its special form of prayer; and the self-styled Hadji, who should omit one of the four motions and exclamations which accompany so slight an act as the drinking a glass of water, would be a marked man. Mr. Burton bore the tests splendidly. No Hadji was more scrupulous than he; nobody more devout; nobody more apt at quoting from the Koran; more fervent in exhortation; more exact in the assumption of every posture.

Nor was his stomach less elastic than his conscience. He could give thanks, with a loud voice, over a meal of boiled mareskin, sauced with clarified butter; eat, fill himself, and go his way, undisturbed, alike, by remorse and by dyspepsia.

So exemplary was his conduct, that he established a reputation above suspicion. When a shrewd Egyptian youth of eighteen, seeing a sextant among Mr. Burton's goods, conceived doubts thereupon, and communicated them to the rest of the pilgrims, he was received with intemperate objurgations, and was pronounced "a dog, a pig, a fool, an unbeliever, a wahabee and a cut-off one," for daring to slander the humble and holy Hadji from Hindoston.

Five months Mr. Burton passed in Medina, where he lived like a Mussulman; and he has given us an account of oriental life and manners, more minute and interesting than has ever been published before, except in the writings of Mr. Lane. Of the worthy people of Medina, he affords no flattering picture; and we cannot sufficiently admire the patience and energy which carried him through the trials, and the long histrionic effort of his residence among them. Mr. Bayard Taylor himself must look with envy and respect upon an explorer so undaunted-an orientalist so accomplished.

Mr. Burton is vivacious in describing what he was so industrious in learning. We should be glad to transfer to our pages some of his entertaining sketches, such as that of the desperate fight for places on the deck of the pilgrim ship, waged between the more respectable passengers and a rabble rout of Maghrabis, the "short boys" of the east, or the graphic picture of the riot and vociferation which attended the arrival

« AnteriorContinuar »