The Press. — London, England, 1854-07-22 00:00:00

- 690 Persons suspended in a balloon much elevated find it needful to speak with considerable exertion in order to render their words audible. On one occasion, when Gay Lussac had ascended to the unusual height of 23,000 feet above the level of the sea, he found that he could scarcely hear the sound of his own voice. When a person has ascended very rapidly into a stratum of air extremely rarefied, as Gay Lussac did on the tith of September, 181)4, the air contained in the middle chamber of the ear has not time to put itself in equilibrium with the constantly decreasing density of the atmosphere ; the drum is, consequently, ttretched outward with such intensity that its vibrations are extremely feeble. Miss Martineau tells us, that she lost her deafness during the time she was on the top of the great pyramid. When deafness is due to a too great laxity of the tympanum, as in the case referred to, the increase of tension, which would be painful and prejudicial to others, would act most service ably. So imperfectly does rarefied air transmit the impulses of sound, that no noise produced by the art of man can pro pagate itself to the limits of our atmosphere ; and no noise whatsoever proceeding from celestial bodies can ever reach to our earth. Thus, sound is weakened or lost when either the air is so thin as to transmit its vibrations imperfectly, or when the tympanum of the ear is so relaxed or disturbed that it does not correctly sympathise with those vibrations. If sound does not, as we believe, exist apart from the ear, and if all our infinite sensations of sound, from the thunder of the heavens to the lowest whisper of the voice, the gentle sigh of Zephyrus, or the softest breathings of a musical instrument, are caused solely by undulations of the air acting on its delicate mechanism, we must admit that in its con struction there is displayed (even with our imperfect appreciation of the use of its internal parts) an adaptability of means to ends calcu lated to excite our highest admiration. Under this view the wide air is a volume on which characters are continually being inscribed, and as these characters reach the ear they at once become vocal. It is a marvellous fact that the impressions made on the air by the human voice should in their infinite variety be faithfully conveyed until the air-waves are lost in distance ; but how much more mar vellous, that each pulsation should fall dis tinctly on the ear, and, through such a slight disturbance of the subtle fluid around us as can barely be conceived, to physically affect the tympanum of the ear, and with it all the internal parts connecting it with the auditory nerve, and excite that sensation which we call sound—a sensation so distinct and so various in its manifestations as to be commonly sup posed to reside in the objects which merely agitate the atmosphere. Dr. Brewers little volume has been put together with evident care. The arrangement is convenient and skilful, the illustrative exam ples and experiments are numerous and clear. Woodcuts are given as often as necessary, and the anatomical details of the ear and larynx are, from their simplicity, well adapted for purposes of popular instruction. The Divine Drama of History and Civilisation. By the Rev. James Smith, M.A. London ; Chapman and Hull. As there is a certain school of poets who have a great capacity for producing the false sublime, so there are writers on theology and ethics whose compositions exhibit simulated originality in every page. With a glittering phraseology, they put a new rhetorical costume on old and familiar ideas. They ornament commonplaces with quaint additions ; and, in order to pass current for deep thinkers, they take the facts of a science and the criticism that is appropriate to an art and mingle them together, and then call on the world to admire elaborate oddity as signal originality. Whim sical in their caprices and grotesque in their style, such sciolists affect to have discovered new systems of thought, while every chapter of their commentaries convicts them of having only invented, with some pains, new methods of going wrong. We suspect that the name on the titlepage of this fantastic production is a pseudonym. The writer probably thought that it would sound very pleasantly to ask readers to digest nonsense and esotericism when offered to them under the prosaic respectability of " Rev. James Smith," whose church and locality are as indefinite as his ideas. Know ing, as we do, what the volume is made of, we THE PRESS. admit that there is a spice of humour in the author coming before the literary world under such a homely appellation. The nature of the book resembles those com mentaries on the Bible which Mr. W. J. Fox used to deliver on Sundays to iesthetical sceptics and to " anti-supernaturalists" (that is the phrase), who liked to hear God's Church criticised artistically, as if it were an ingenious invention of human contrivance. Infidelity has as many schools as Popery; and "the false original" is one of its greatest impos tures. Germany has much to answer for in developing this school, which audaciously propounds and arrogantly dogmatises without any other reference than to the fleeting sensa tion produced by charlatanic genius on igno rant dupes. The writer of this work pretends to sys tematise the course of Providence into five acts, with prologues and epilogues of the author's composition. In act the first we have the " Hebrew Mission ;" then the Greek and Roman " Missions" fill up the second and third acts, in the latter of which the new or Christian drama, being the free aspect of the original Jewish mission, or its feminine corre lative (tic) (p. vii.), commences. The fourth and fifth acts are occupied with " National" and " Universal Missions. The author begins his " first prologue" thus : The design of this book is, with old materials, to throw a new and permanent ray of light upon the whole history of man. It is called" The Divine Drama," because it is an outline of the progress of human society, in such methodical form as to give it the likene ss of a magnificent providen tial drama, the archetype of the inferior drama which human genius has constructed, and the source from which it has unconsciously derived its inspiration. This dramatic arrangement of history illustrates the principles on which the science of historical analogy is based ; it exemplifies it in its greatest and its leading features ; and presents its facts like strata of rocks in superincumbent position—so indelibly fixed upon the records of ages, that every individual may study the subject in con fidence that what he studies is as truly a system of divine adjustment as botany, zoology, geology, or astronomy. The prologue in this instance is perfectly suited to " Rev. James Smith's " dramatic per formance. It is a key to the false logic and inflated rhetoric of this strange production. After indicating his historical analogy the author then tells us that " his dramatic ar rangement" * "presents its facts like strata of rocks iu superincumbent positions" — thus jumping as he pleases from a theatrical to a geological analogy, and so on throughout the volume. This work is that of an idealising materialist, who dresses up facts in a fanciful manner, imagines theories instead of induct ing them, and with a fluid style full of sesqui pedalian words, and an affectation of a scientific method, would fain be accepted as a seer, divining the course of Providence in his tory. We once heard something very like the st y le of this deceptions and disagreeable work. Two or three years since one of our most eminent " Liberal " contemporaries noticed a certain lecturer in such complimentary terms that we ventured to hear one of his discourses. Wo were not induced to repeat the experiment. The performance was meant to be fascinating, and, like the work before us, it was only fan tastic. A sort of transient vitality was by a galvanic effort given to the skeletons of de funct infidel theories. The Bible was discussed as if it were a first-class novel, and the career of Providence, in the past, present, and to come, marked out with a coolness that was meant to be astonishing, but which was only absurd. The lecturer did not answer to the name of " Rev. James Smith, M.A." He res ponded to a Scotch appellation, and, like this work before us, his system of thinking was a mechanical mixture of fragments of Mr. Tho mas Carlyle, Mr. Emerson, Theodore Parker, and that late eminent philosopher, Mr. Thomas Paine. Much of the criticism applicable to that lecturer is fitted for the work before us. Its bold assertions, and presumptuous claims to novelty, might be imposing but for the in coherency of its logic, and the patent absur dity of its matter. Here is one of the most rational passages in the book : The five great missions of the universal body are beautifully analogous to the five senses of the individual body. The hearing and its limited mission, and the sight with its extensive and universal mission, characterise tie two extremes. The audible word was given to Israel, con- SATURDAY, fined within the echoing limits of the mountains or Palestine. The written word (that is, its universal distri bution ) is given to the Isles with unlimited circulation. These two are the beginning and the end, the limited and the unlimited. Feeling belongs to Rome, as the Catholic• or universal systematic sense, the great organiser. Smell,. or metaphysical taste, belongs to Greece, and the Grecian nose is, perhaps on that very account, distinguished, in. social parlance and public estimation, as the model of per fection. Taste, or physical refinement and discrimination, characterises France as the gastronomical and fashion leading nation of modern times. We know no better representatives of the five senses of the human body than these five nations of "The Divine Drama," which represents the universal or collective body of the civilised man. Some of our readers might be amused with the dogmatism and rhapsodical fancies of this. work; but we must say that many of them would be offended with the presumption and flippancy of its composition. They will find numerous passages written in the spirit that. is apparent in the following extract, referring, to the Redeemer : This era of the humanity of the Jewish mission lasted; till the great political and final dispersion, and the two, great principles which thus characterise the whole twofold mission were personified at last, or summed up in the, character of that mysterious personage whose most appro.. priate description is the Divine Humanity, the embodiment of the two natures, the human and the Divine. Our readers probably do not desire to hear more of what " that mysterious personage,'" the " Rev. James Smith, M.A.," chooses to print about revelation. re have noticed his: book at such length as being a duty incident to us as reviewers to give cautions about the. character of certain volumes which from time to time are introduced into circulation. If the. author were content to take a lower theme), and if he condescended to philosophise with reference to reality, and to avoid confounding fancies with facts, he has abilities enough to, distinguish himself in letters. The English Envoy at the Court of Nicholas I. By Miss Julia Corner. London : Hodgson. • THIS is an original novel, making its appearance in the cheap form as one of "The Parlour Library" series. Miss Corner has applied her talents in a new department of literature, and her present per formance is creditable to her pen. But its title is calculated to mislead, as no allusions to the " envoy" and " Court of Nicholas" are made until we are half way through the volume, and scarcely twenty pages are then given to the scenes in Russia, which appear to have been " written in." An English gentleman, interested about a Russian exile, goes to Petersburg, and obtains an interview with the Czar, who is described as swearing "by the holy St. An thony" (p. 210), and who filially graciously pardons the Baron Litofsky. The rest of the novel is a con ventional tale, written with fluency, but without any invention in the characters. Evelina. By Miss BurnAy. London : Harrison. To those who now peruse it for the first time " Evelina" reads like a historical novel, iu which one is taken back to the formal manners and strong contrasts of society eighty years since. Few things are more romantic in the history of authors than Miss Burney's lather taking "Evelina" home, and its being read aloud in the family, without any one suspecting who the real writer was, until, at the end of its perusal, the weeping daughter threw herself into her father's arms, and acknowledged its compo sition. The work still reads with great vivacity, even after the voluminous diary of Mme. D'Arblay, in which the writer's lively pen falls into the same mode of description. The present edition is neatly printed, with legible type. A Practical Legal Guide for Sailors and Merchants. By William Adam Lock. London : Longmans. WORKS of this class are better adapted for those who have to explain the law than for those who have U. obey it. In responsible positions sailors and mer chants act under orders of their principals, or under professional advice ; and thus, in fact, is " every man his own lawyer." We doubt, therefore, whether the word "practical" can be said to describe the charac ter of this "Guide." An appendix to the volume contains the recent orders in council and acts re lating to prizes. The work is, with permission, respectfully and gratefully dedicated to Sir James Graham. Verbal Inspiration. By the Rev : Joseph Baylee, D.D. London: Seeleys. THE work contains part of an intended course of lectures on scripture philosophy and exegis, which it is intended to deliver at St. Ardan's College. In discussing the question as to how far the writers of the Bible were inspired, he expresses an opinion