The Press. — London, England, 1858-12-11 00:00:00

. 411•0 _4l • •• • 1218 THE PRESS, DECEMBER 11, 1858. to the understanding" by which the discovery of a "form" through that method may be promoted. He went no further, however, than to exhibit the first of the nine, which is the list of " Prero gatives of Instances" with which the treatise breaks off. In several of his chapters we seem to see that Dr. Whewell has had in view to fill up to a certain extent the outline which Bacon left behind him. Thus, Bacon proposed a section on " Varying the investigation according to the nature of the subject" ; Dr. Whewell has a chap ter on " Special methods of induction applicable to quantity; " possibly Bacon's " Prerogative Natures with respect to Induction" might be what Dr. Whewell means by the appropriate ideas on which each inductive process must be based ; and the " Preparations for Investiga tion" of the earlier might correspond to the " Facts as the materials of Science" of the later philosopher. The " application to practice " of the one, and the " application of inductive truths" of the other, would no doubt coincide; and the Inductive Tables of Astronomy and Optics—one of Dr. Whewell's principal and most ingenious achievements displaying in their downward course the order of discovery, and in their upward its verification, would probably answer both to Bacon's " Ascending and descend ing scale of axioms," and to his " Rectification of Induction." Thus six out of Bacon's nine pro cesses—so far as we can conjecture what they would have been—are more or less adequately represented by his modern disciple. How far Dr. Whewell has really completed the task which Bacon left behind him, is another question. Of the three writers who have applied themselves to a similar object—the two others being Sir John Herschel and Mr. J. S. Mill— Dr. I%Thewell is by far the most minute and cir cumstantial in his analysis, and most complete in his enumeration of all the processes which con tribute to the establishment of an inductive truth. But although every aspect of these pro cesses is copiously stated and illustrated in clear language, and sometimes with remarkable feli city of expression, we still desiderate a more methodical unity of structure than the work actually presents. If we were to say that, although elaborate, it was confused and clumsy in arrangement, we should use terms expressing a stronger dislike than we really feel ; but, after all, that is the kind of impression which the book really makes. There are certain kinds of books on the same or on cognate subjects in which the plan at once recommends itself, and in which the parts seem naturally to grow out of each other. Arnott's " Elements of Physics " and Sir John Herschel's " Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy" are examples of what we mean. There are other books in which the reader is carried on, and lifted, as it were, step by step along with the writer, so that a body of results is gradually built up by means of the solution of successive difficulties, a method of which Mr. Mill's " Logic " is, for the most part. a conspicuous instance. But Dr. Whewell's work, with a great parade of books, chapters, and sections—whether owing to a want of judgment in selecting the names for his leading divisions, or too great an anxiety to say everything, some where or other, that can possibly be said—is not unlikely, we think, to perplex a reader who strives to gain a simple and general view of the subject. We speak especially of Books 11. and 111., which contain the pith of the present volume. We have never been quite able to see why the former should be headed " Of Know ledge," and the latter, "Of Methods em.byed in the Formation of Science "—as if the knowledge which is reached by induction were something different from science. Instead, too, of proceed ing in what would seem the most natural course, from the most vaguely observed facts up to the most general and abstruse laws, and showing what processes were necessary at each stage to clear the ideas involved, Dr. Whewell begins by con sidering " conceptions," and makes the " explica tion" of these, and the " collegation of facts," the two principal " processes by which science is constructed." It is not till we come to the suc ceeding chapter that we find instructions given for dealing with the facts by decomposing and measuring them. We also think that the chap ter on the " Logic of Induction" will seem very inadequate to any one acquainted with the very able logical treatises that have lately appeared, and that no sufficient attempt has been made to exhibit in its formal aspect the cogency of the evidence by which we believe the truth of propo sitions in physical science. We have always been obscurely conscious of some drawback in the "Philosophy of the In ductive sciences," which prevented it from pro ducing the effect which both the author's high reputation and the mass of valuable matter which it undoubtedly contains would seem to demand. A reperusal of it in its altered shape has served to strengthen this impression. In the columns of a newspaper it is hardly possible to convey such a view, except in a somewhat de sultory manner; but we are confident that any one who will compare Sir J. Herschel, Mr. Mill, and our author, will come to a nearly similar conclusion respecting the comparative merit of the latter, in the points to which we have alluded. Dr. Whewell's work has, in many of its features, by this time taken up a position be yond the reach of our criticism ; but, in so far as it assumes to have completed what Bacon left undone, we believe that it falls short of the mark at which it aims. Hardly anything but a fresh recast of the two principal chapters would entitle it to the name of a renovated Novum Organon. Having thus testified to the value of Mr. Simcox's labours, we may perhaps be permitted to suggest an improvement to be adopted in future editions. It is simply the insertion of a frontispiece in either volume. In the first, we should behold the " fils d'Uly sse ," diving from a beetling crag like a sea-gull into the deep, while his travelling tutor stands exulting aloft, with hoary hair streaming, meteor-like, on the troubled air; and in the second, the pious youth would be seen beside the smoking altar, gazing aghast at the upsoaring figure of the goddess. We have omitted to mention that the right of translation is not reserved. 2. Were the course of true love impeded by as many obstacles in real life as in the imaginings of poets and tale-writers, the demand for wedding rings would suffer a notable declin e . Th e " Maiden Sisters" is an excellent example of the ingenuity that may be displayed in devising all sorts of unnecessary discomfort for two loving hearts. Colonel Oliphant, a clever man of the world, becomes desperately enamoured of a blue-eyed damsel of the eau sacrie order, and his attachment is softly reciprocated. Apparently there is no earthly reason why those two persons should not be joined together in holy matrimony in less than two hundred pages. But, somehow, the Colonel is always interrupted in the middle of the momentous question, and then a series of unaccountable misunderstandings intervenes, and both swain and sweetheart are made supremely wretched and ridiculous. By the way, a perusal of the " Maiden Sisters" might tend to correct Mr. Bright's very crude notions as to the habits and manners of the aristocracy. Nothing can be more charmingly middle-class than the addiction to tea and bread-and-butter, at all hours, on the part of Lord Johnny and his amiable and accom plished sisters. For anything that appears to the contrary it might be the family of a retired cheesemonger to which we are introduced at Houghton-hall. Although lachrymose effusions are too much the order of the day throughout the volume, there are occasional glimpses of humour in the delineation of Phil Kerr, a care less, hairbrained boy fresh from the Cape. Ile becomes somewhat of a nuisance towards the latter part of the story, but the conception of his character is the redeeming point amidst an over powering mass of twaddle and commonplace pathos. His mother, Norah, however, is also passable, but the other dramatis persona are wholly uninteresting, and the "drama" itself is far too artificial to please either critics or general readers. 1. The Adventures of Telemachus. Translated into English Verse by E. W. Simeox. In Two Vols. London : Longmans. 2. Maiden Sisters. A Tale. By the Author of " Dorothy." London : J. W. Parker and Son. 3. The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table : Every Man his Own Boswell. By 0. W. Holmes. London : Hamilton, Adams, and Co. 1. MR. EDWIN W. Simcox is a benefactor to mankind. He has solved the important problem of ascertaining the number of English verses equivalent to a metrical translation of " Les Aventures de Telernaque, Fils d'Ulysse." Had he been less ambitiously disposed, he might have calculated the time in which a snail could crawl round the greatest circumference of the ter restrial globe, and this mental exercise he might have diversified by allowing that strictly do mestic creature so many hours a day for sleep, for recreation, and for refection. With not less ingenuity he might have estimated how many shillings, sixpenny pieces, and fourpenny " bits" could be poured into the inverted dome of St. Paul's. Or, with equally commendable in dustry, he might have counted the grains of sand required to make one mile of the rope which Michael Scot's indefatigable fiend failed to achieve. Had any one of these interesting question' arrested the attention of Mr. Simcox, the world might for ever have remained ignorant of the fact that the twenty-four books devoted by the pious Archbishop of' Cambrai to the wan derings of Telemachus and the wise precepts of Mentor may be rendered into 19,798 lines of English verse. Two extracts will suffice to illus trate the style in which this great task has been accomplished. It is thus that Calypso is repre sented as bewailing the departure of Ulysses, and esteeming herself miserable for being im mortal : 3. It is evidently easier for every man to be his own Boswell than to be his own Johnson. Or it may be that Mr. Wendell Holmes merely Intends to show what manner of man the great lexicographer would have been had he lived at a boarding-house in America instead of ass ociatins , with the intellectual world of London. If such be the case, we congratulate the Doctor on his escape from being the greatest bore as well as the greatest bear of his time, or indeed of any time. These desultory lucubrations on things in general and nothing in particular have already appeared in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine, and are now reproduced for the benefit of the British public, who will feel but little gratitude for the favour. And yet they are not without merit, though disfigured by conceit, affectation, and intolerable egotism. They are supposed to be the opinions expressed by the American Johnson at a breakfast-table at a boarding-house, seem ingly frequented by very vulgar people. Occa sionally the tedium of the sage reflections in prose is attempted to be relieved by humorous and sentimental pieces in verse, but on the whole with very partial success. Still, as we have already intimated, here and there one may alight on a passage not unpleasant to read, or unprofit able to remember. The following anecdo te, for instance, is both amusing and suggestive : Calypso, wandering on the breezy coast Of her green island, mourned Ulysses lost. Such was her woe she longed in vain to die— In •ain hexaile , l her immnrUilite.— Nnrnore her tuneful voice's gladdening sound Delightful rang her caverned grotto round ; No more her duteous nymphs to serve her press, No more they dare their sorrowing queen address. Lonely she paced the green turf's flowery bound, With which eternal spring had gernm'd her island round. These haunts delicious, tar from calming grief, Revived anew the memory of her chief, Her loved, her lost Ulysses—whose dear hand She oft had duped while moving o'er that strand. Then motionless she stood, and weeping sore, Bedewed with briny tears the thirsty shore ; Her eyes still ben ling on the horizon's verge, Where the sky's concave met the distant surge: .. T tixt point still watching where her hero's sail Had, from her longing eyesight, seemed to fail. Sometimes, but rarely, one mcy be caught making the same speech twice over, and yet be held blameless. Thus, a certain lecturer, after performing in an inland city, where dwells a Litteratrice of note, was invited to meet her and 3there over the social tea-cap. She pleasantly referred to his many wanderings in his new occupation. " Yes; he replied, " T am like the Hums, the bird that never liFthts .: being always in the cars, as he is always on the wing. Years elapsed. The lecturer visited the same place once more for the same purpose. Another social cap after the lecture, and a second meeting with the distin guished lady. " You are constantly going from place to place," she said. " Yes," he answered, I am like the klams,"—and finished the sentence as before. What Passing lightly over 19,770 lines, we arrive at our second quotation, with which the poem fitly closes : The goddess ceased, and, rising in the air, IVrapt in a cloud with gold and azure fair, So disappeared. The Prince, astonished all, With hands upraiaed to Heaven, to earth did fall : Then his companions swift awakened he, And, voyaging the intervening sea, To Ithaca he came, and, joyful, knew His father dwelling with Eumcetts true. t'l