The Press. — London, England, 1854-07-01 00:00:00

616 fluous notes merely to parade his own research Some will perhaps wish for a few more notes in the present volume ; but, of the two evils, he has chosen the lesser ; and we approve of the example he has given of not stifling our great authors under commonplace books. There are nine pages of an introduction to " The Task," which we have read with much pleasure for its high-toned feeling and sound critical perception. How well he describes the effect of " The Task " on our modern Eng lish poetry : Nor was it only by throwing open the wide domain of life, and passing from the imitation of models to the in vestigation of realities, that this work, remarkable alike in its origin and its influence, succeeded in extinguishing a school that was rapidly undermining the legitimate springs of poetry, and substituting artificial fountains in their place. The diction, clear, appropriate, and varied, produced as wide a reformation as the matter. Casting aside the tawdry modes that prevailed, the coined phrases that had grown up into a sort of symbolical language, Cowper made his diction in verse as plain and copious as if he had been writing prose, demonstrating, at a time when such a de monstration was much needed, the possibility of pro ducing the highest poetical results through the medium of the most natural and direct forms of expression. As a study of pure English alone, " The Task " will always be reverted to with pleasure and advantage. A few words illustrating the difference be tween Cowper and Wordsworth's mode of finding the poetical in common life might have been added; but in the next volume Mr. Bell may afford room for some remarks on that subject, and a contrast with Thomson's " Seasons " would be, perhaps, acceptable to the general reader. The following passage evinces careful study of his author : In the versification of " The Task," Cowper aimed at entire independence of all models. He expressly disclaims imitation, although he admits that apparent resemblances may be sometimes detected in his lines. Wherever such resemblances exist, Milton is the only poet whose melody they are likely to recal. Milton was the master whose music alone filled and satisfied Cowper's ear, and whom alone he imitated, it can scarcely been said unconsciously. The whole system of melody upon which this poem is con structed is fully developed in Milton, who sustained it throughout at a higher elevation, without any of those intermittent periods of flagging energy which here occa sionally flatten the verse. But it is only when Cowper is at his best and grandest that the influence of Milton is palpably visible. It is in the unusual collocation of a sentence, in the unexpected inversion, the sudden break, or rugged sweep of a line that we are forcibly re minded of the magnificent innovations of " Paradise Lost." Such passages, however, are exceptional in Cowper, whose structure generally follows the course of the thought, flowing more like melodious prose than deliberate verse. Mr. Bell might have marked the effect of proficiency in Italian on the verse of Milton. In " The Task " we often wish for more luscious sweetness when the lovelier scenes of nature are described. There is much sound sense in the introductory preface to the " Tirocinium " which has always struck us as being very onesided. Amongst the miscellaneous notes is one upon the passage in " Charity " commencing "And, if a boundless plenty be the robe, Trade Is the golden girdle of the globe," &c. &c. Mr. Bell remarks (p. 9) : The principles of free trade are clearly indicated in this and the whole of the succeeding passage. Burke had at this time prepared the public mind for a more enlarged view of commercial reciprocities, and Adam Smith's great work, published in 1776, had already initiated the science of political economy. We doubt whether Cowper there referred to " free trade." We think that he rather al luded to " commerce " as it is described by Addison, with exquisite fancy, when he details, in the Spectator, how a fashionable lady is indebted for all her elegancies to the inter course of nations. All the subsequent allu sions of Cowper to "ingenious art," "capricious taste," &e. &c., seem to us to point to Addison and not to Adam Smith. When Mr. Fox con fessed, in 1787, that he had never read " The Wealth of Nations" we may doubt whether Cowper had paid attention to political eco nomy. If the next volume of this edition be equal in care to the present one we shall have no hesitation in recommending the " annotated " Cowper as the best popular edition of the poet. We much prefer it to that published many years since by the late James Mout- gomtuy. Of Mr. GiLfiliau's edition we need say little more than that it is not entitled to any praise. It is at once unsuitable for the library or the pocket—too inelegant for the first and too cumbrous for the last. In popular editions THE PRESS. our poets should appear in portable forms ; and Mr. Gilfillan's volumes are as heavy to the hand, and nearly as ridiculous, as John Gilpin's memorable stone bottles. He thus commences his essay: — Cowper is one of the few poets who at once attained speedy popularity, and secured permanent power. His " Task,' we have seen, arose instantly to fame, and his writings, we believe, are still as much read and relished as ever they were. No succeeding splendours of genius—no revolutions in taste—no importations of poetry from abroad —and no new schools of it at home—have been able to lessen the reputation of this true poet. Comet aftercomet has swept over the literary sky ; constellation after con stellation of genius has arisen; and still the sweet, large, solitary star of Cowper burns brightly in the firmament, and woos many an eye. Thil first assertion, that Cowper "at once " attained speedy popularity," is erroneous in fact and absurd in language. It is the privi lege of Mr. Gilfillan to have heard of " sweep ing comets " and "sweet stars " (!) that " woo," &c. &e. ; and he may, in his other experiences, have heard of poets that "at once attained" slow "popularity." He writes of his au thor: In " Expostulation " he drags his country, like a victim, by the horns to the altar, and plunges the knife to the very hilt in her forehead ; or whether he lashes London as a colossal culprit, and tears off thongful after thongful of her quivering flesh. - - • Enough of Mr. Gilfillau. His essay on Cowper is so full of Scotticisms and strange phrases, not unmingled with such a vein of wild drollery, that, as a commentator on Cow per, he can be likened only to Tam o' Shanter trying to write like Thomas Carlyle, and mis taking Souter Johnny's snoring for the ap plause of the public. LECTURES ON EDUCATION (Delivered at the Royal Institut' on of Great Britain). 1. Observations on Mental Education. By Professor Faraday, F.R.S. 2. On the Importance of the Study of Language. By Robert Gordon Latham, M.D., F.R.S. 3. On the Importance of the Study of Chemistry. By Charles G. B.Daubeny, M.D., F.R.S. 4. On the Importance of the Study of Physics. By Professor Tyndall, F.R.S. 5. On the Influence of the History of Science upon Education. By William Whewell, D.D., F.R.S. London : J. W. Parker and Son. 1. PROFESSOR FARADAY'S lecture is a strenuous and much-needed protest against pseudo philosophic quackery the assumption of scientific knowledge by those who have it not. He traces the extravagant belief in impossible things, such as table-moving, spirit-rapping, and the like, to a want of proper mental educa tion, of that kind in which each man must be his own teacher. Even our senses mislead us if not corrected by judgment. The association of ideas, or the intuitive and involuntary habit of assigning a cause for that which we see, makes us confound what we actually witness with our inferences therefrom. A more se rious cause of error is the desire to believe. Where a supposed discovery is in question nearly all persons become partisans, and nothing is received which does not square with preconceived notions. The most accurate thinkers are not free froni this propensity, but they become conscious of and strive against it, while the mass of mankind obey it blindly without so much us feeling its power:— It is my firm persuasion that no man can examine him self in the most common things, having any reference to him personally, or to any person, thought, or matter related to him, without being soon made aware of the temptation and the difficulty of opposing it I will simply express my strong belief that that point of self-education which consists in teaching the mind to resist its desires and inclinations until they are proved to be right is the most important of all, not only in things of natural philo sophy, but in every department of daily life. The simple yet not easy remedy is, to insist on a suspension of judgment in every case un til the conditions of the proposed problem are known. This is in other words to say, that in many matters where the conditions cannot be fully known we should conclude only that a conclusion is at present impossible to us, absolutely reserving our judgment until it can be formed on more sufficient data. In other cases, where some decision is imme diately necessary, we should recollect that it SATURDAY, is a decision, as it were, provisionally an nounced, and founded on probabilities only ; but liable to retractation if, by the discovery of new facts, the balance of probability should be made to incline the other way. These operations are, of course, extremely distaste ful to the untrained mind, which loves to re pose on an assumed certainty, escaping thus the labour of thought. But they are necessary, and it is the want of power to conduct them in the generality even of educated persons that makes the fortunes of so many specu lators in science, and brings ridicule on our country and age. To such dabblers in novelty, pretended discoverers of new powers in na ture, and the unconscious dupes who encou rage them, the following sensible warning is given : A man who makes assertions, or draws conclusions, re garding any given case, ought to be competent to investi gate it. He has no right to throw the onus on others, de claring it their duty to prove him right or wrong. His duty is to demonstrate the truth of that which he asserts, or to cease from asserting. The men he calls upon to con sider and judge have enough to do with themselves, in the examination, correction, or verification of their own views. The world little knows how many of the thoughts and theories which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator have been crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse examination ; that in the most successful instances not a tenth of the sugges tions, the hopes, the wishes, the preliminary conclusions have been realised. And is a man so occupied to be taken from his search after truth in the path he hopes may lead to its attainment, and occupied in vain upon nothing but a broad assertion ? In a word, the onus probatuli should ho on the assertor, not on those who doubt or dispute his word. If asked, " Can you disprove my hypothesis ? " the inquirer's reply should be, " Perhaps so, perhaps not ; but, in the first " place, can you prove it?" 2. The study of languages, says Dr.Latham, is one thing—that of language another. They require different mental powers : great compa rative philologists have been in general but moderate linguists. Languages are worth studying only as a key to the knowledge con tained in them—the abstract science of philo logy deserves attention on its own account. When we see how different nations have con nected ideas apparently dissimilar, as evi denced in the formation and derivation of words, much light is thrown on the opera• tions of the human mind. But how is this study to be pursued ? Not through ordi nary grammars, which are mere bundles of ar bitrary rules, insufficiently illustrated by ex amples. Dr. Latham thinks that in most cases one classical language instead of two is enough to learn, but that this one should be learnt thoroughly. " One of the few things that are " more useless than a little Latin is a little " Greek." 3. Dr. Daubeny advocates the teaching of chemistry, partly as tending to develop the reasoning powers, % hereby it becomes useful to that large class of students who find ab stract mathematical science repulsive—partly as promoting habits of close observation, which in all conditions of life are rarer than they ought to be. He thinks—and in this we agree with him—that the idleness of so many young men at Oxford and Cambridge is chiefly due to the studies exclusively pursued there being, until the last few years, confined to ono class. Minds of what is called a " practical" tendency—that is, those which cannot relish abstract truths, but turn with pleasure to the work of observation and experiment—find no scope for activity in classical or mathematical reading. Chemical science is for such intel lects as appropriate a training as auy, while their pursuance of it would deduct nothing from the stock of other learning acquired at the universities, since under present ar• rangements they usually spend their time in idleness. 4. An eloquent and somewhat rhetorical plea for physical science as a branch of education, varied and illustrated by anecdotes of the lec turer's own experience. The matter is familiar, the style emphatic, the conclusion just, though perhaps pushed too far. Professor Tyndall states that a young man, a Master of Arts, had complained to him that up to the age of twenty he had been left in utter igno rance of the phenomenon of phyz,ical science, the twelve previous years having been devoted Mrs