The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-15 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

wards some uncertain light; but he has no enemy worse
than the wind and rain to face, and iu the first hut he
reaches repose and comfort await him. Our officers and
soldiers, after a day like this, had to descend to the
trenches again at night, look out fur a crafty foe, to
labour in the mire and ditches of the works; what forti-
tude and high courage to do all this without a murmur
and to bear such privations and hardships with unflinching
resolution I

Very strong writing; but then it could be com-
posed at home as well as on the spot.
To conclude, the scene-painter is for ever
before us in the volume, but the sagacious ob-
server, the close recorder, the minutely-informed
correspondent, are not present enough in these
highly-coloured pages, with their vehement
rhetoric and resounding sentences. Our
complaint is not, let us observe, that Mr.
Russell is positively deficient in practical in
formation, but that with such opportunities,
and such extensive resources, he did not get
more knowledge of what was doing, and that
more practical views were not taken by him of
the events that were passing before him.
Like most professed masters of the pictorial
style, his writing wants shrewd sense and
depth of reflection. He seems not to have
a political mind, and to have developed only
those qualities which make a mere writer, as
distinct from a thinker and observer. For the
duties of sole war correspondent to a vast jour-
nal like the Times, with its myriad of readers,
we think Mr. Russell unequal, from his propen-
sity to seize upon " scenes," instead of appre-
hending facts. Another correspondent should
be by his side to gain knowledge, make
shrewd guesses, ferret out secrets, and detail
with truthful plainness the daily life around.

Meteorological Essays. By Francois Arago.
With an Introduction by Baron Alexander
Von Humboldt. Translated under the
Superintendence of Colonel Sabine. Lon•
don : Longmans.
IT has for some time been contemplated to
publish a complete edition of Arago's works
in English, and we are glad to see such a
commencement made at last as must be
eminently satisfactory to our scientific public.
To this first volume an introduction is con-
tributed by the distinguished Humboldt, who
more, perhaps, than any man living is able
to give an adequate estimate of Arago's
genius ; and this volume of " Meteorological
Essays," including the author's researches on
terrestial magnetism, is edited by Colonel
Sabine, justly celebrated for his attainments
in the latter branch of science.

Arago devoted himself to scientific pursuit
early. Humboldt's acquaintance with him
began in 1809. He was then twenty three,
and had lately returned from the coast of
Africa, having been for some time previously
a prisoner in a Spanish citadel at the conclu-
sion of important trigonometrical operations
for connecting the Balearic islands with the
continent. In the same year, 1809, he was
elected a member of the French Academy of
Sciences, and for upwards of forty years con-
tinued his labours in celestial and terrestial
physics, with a degree of ardour and success
rarely paralleled. Humboldt has chronicled
his chief labours, but has hardly done justice
to that quality of his genius which is sure
to meet with peculiar appreciation in this
country.
Arago was indefatigable in collecting facts,
and in making experiments by which he
might multiply observations. His facts, if
they did not uniformly precede his theories, yet
always formed their support and constituted
the groundwork from which he argued. In
this respect his practice was the opposite of
that tendency of the French mind to overlook
facts in its excessive love of system. The
fabled reply of the Frenchman to one who
urged that facts did not support his theory
—" Tant pis pour les faits "—must greatly
lose its point after the scrupulous re-
gard pa►d to facts by Arago throughout his
whole career. Apart from his original views,
his works would be eminently valuable merely
as the best collections of facts extant on the
particular subjects on which he wrote. Hence
his papers are more than essays—they are
scientific histories showing the solid basis on
which conclusions rest,' and distinguished as
much by their copious knowledge—the fruit

of years of research and study—as by their
profound reflection anti luminous and logical
reasoning.

Of this peculiarity of Arago's genius all may
easily satisfy themselves who will take this
volume in hand. It opens with an elaborate
essay on thunder and lightning, in which are
collected with astonishing care those great
facts connected with thunderstorm which
from their marvellous character have been re
corded, as well as those minor particulars and
observations which have been preserved by
the care of previous investigators. All these
facts are skilfully, marshalled under the see-
tions to which they refer, so that the reader
rather seems to form conclusions for himself
than to have them dictated to him by Arago.
This quality of his mind—never to be valued
too highly—commonly gave to his deductions
the force and exactitude of mathematical de-
monstration, and preserved him in a very
remarkable degree, not only from being led
astray by theoretical fancies, or by popular
delusions, but from any chance of his judg-
ment being warped by favorite preposses-
sions.

The physical philosopher, blessed with this
truthful disposition—and no man can be
eminent as a physicist apart from it—has a
great advantage over the moral philosopher,
however free he may be from prejudice, and
determined to seek truth for its own sake
alone. The physicist is surrounded with facts
—it, is with them he deals, and from thorn be
reasons. Their significance may sometimes
be obscure, but they are to be trusted as far as
they go. His language is always real: it
represents actual things which everyone can
recognise, and hence there can be no dispute
as to words. The physical investigator is only
in danger when, presuming—as he easily may,
and as geologists in our day often have done—
too much on analogy, he carries his conclu-
sions further than the actual facts will warrant.
But from any danger of this kind mathematical
minds like that of Arago are effectually pre•
served by their rigorous adherence to what is
known and determined. It is otherwise with
the moral or metaphysical philosopher. Deal-
ing with the consciousness which is in itself
impalpable, he is liable to error at every step.
His language is arbitrary. Iu reasoning, be
cannot force his opponents, or even his
readers, to attach that meaning to words
which he attaches to them himself. Hence
interminable arguments and indefinite conclu-
sions. There can be no dispute as to the
meaning of terms used by physicists—as air
and water, iron and coal—but who is to de-
termine the meaning which is to be attached
to the elemental terms of metaphysicians—as
consciousness and mind, thought and will ?
Metaphysics will never entitle to rank as a
science until its professors pay more attention
to facts and less to abstract reasoning.

It is true indeed that the theories of physi-
cists often precede those observations and
experiments by which they are demonstrated.
To take a familiar instance, suggested by this
volume: Franklin had conjectured rightly the
nature of lightning before, with his beautiful
experiment of the kite, he drew sparks from
the clouds, yet it was nevertheless the ob-
servation of facts in the first instance which
suggested his theory to him, as it was the
observation of facts which led Newton to the
discovery of gravitation, and Harvey to the
theory of the circulation of the blood. In
these and in similar cases genius does, no
doubt, take a leap. The highest reasoning
and the highest imaginative powers are some-
times allied ; and as we find that an excited
and fervid audience will anticipate the con-
clusion of an orator's sentence, and, appre-
hending his idea before it has found appro-
priate expression, will drown the conclusion
of his period in applause—so a great mind,
expanding by facts being revealed to it in a
blaze of light, will leap to a conclusion before
all the links in the chain of evidence are coin/
plete. Such jumps partake of the nature of
imagination; but the intellect of great phy-
sicists is too calm to repose in these conclu-
sions without greater certainty ; and nothing is
more remarkable in the history of science than
the patience with which the authors of great
discoveries have spent years in working them

886

out, and in giving to them a complete demon-
stration.

But, to judge rightly Arago's genius, it
seems to have been wanting in that imagina-
tive faculty which we have endeavoured to
indicate. His name is not connected with any
great original discovery. His was not an
order of mind which advanced by leaps, but
steadily, link by link. He was, as it seems to
us, more remarkable for power of classification
and analysis than for faculty of origination.
There may be exceptions to this rule in the
course of his long and arduous labours ;—we
speak of the general character of his genius
only, which was better fitted for carrying out
and perfecting theories than for suggesting
them. The mathematical and reasoning mind
is most conspicuous in his works, his inventive
power being shown chiefly in the subordinate
capacity of devising means to illustrate prin-
ciples and extend their application. His
faculties were often exercised in a purely
judicial manner, but at the same time with
admirable effect. His report on the case of a
girl who it was asserted possessed extraordi•
nary magnetic powers is a good example of
his style of dealing with those pretended phe-
nomena which from time to time excite a stir
in society. The Academy named a commis-
sion, with M. Arago at its head, to inquire
into her case, and the following was his
report :

It was affirmed that Mademoiselle Cottin exercised a
very intense repelling action on bodies of all kinds the
moment they were touched by any part of her clothes. It
was even said that stools were overturned by means of the
simple contact of a silk thread.
No appreciable effect of this kind was witnessed by the
Commission.

In the accounts communicated to the Academy, it is
said that under the influence of this young person's arm,
a magnetised needle first vibrated rapidly, and then came
to rest at a considerable distance from the magnetic
meridian. . .

________
In the presence of the Commission, a delicately-sus-
pended magnetio needle did not experience under these
circumstances any displacement, either permanent or
momentary.
M. Tanchon thought that Mademoiselle Cottin possessed
the faculty of distinguishing the north from the south pole
of a magnet, by simply touching the two poles with her

. _
fingers.
The Commission assured themselves, by varied and nu-
merous experiments, that this young girl does not possess
the supposed faculty of distinguishing the poles of a mag-
net by the touch.
The Commission will not pursue further the enumera-
tion of failures ; its members content themselves with de-
claring, in conclusion, that the only one of the announced
facts which was realised in their presence, was that of the
sudden and violent movements in chairs in which the
young girl sat. Serious suspicions had arisen as to the
manner in which these movements were produced, and the
Commission determined to subject them to an attentive
examination. The Commissioners announced, without
disguise, that their examination would be directed to dis-
cover what share certain skilful and concealed manoeuvres
by the hands and feet might have had in the effect wit-
nessed by them. From this moment it was declared that
the young girl had lost her attracting andrepelling faculties,
and that whenever they should reappear we should be ap-
prised. Many days have since elapsed, and the Commis-
sion has received no such intimation. We know, however,
that Mademoiselle tingelique Cottin is still daily presented
in drawing-rooms, where she repeats her experiments.
Wo quote this passage not only as an in-
stance of Arago's judicial capacity in scien-
tific matters, but because it suggests a mode
in which some of our scientific societies
might render themselves extremely useful. It
is their part to examine novel phenomena, to
determine what is real, to expose imposture,
and to dispel popular delusion. But, un-
fortunately, that body which would bo best
fitted for the exercise of such functions in
England, the Royal Society, has degenerated
from its original purpose, and become little
better than a corporation for conferring a style
which once was honorary as denoting real
eminence in science and literature, but which
is fast ceasing to be thought so, since it is now
to be secured by connection, and purchased
by money.
In the essay on thunder and lightning, the
general reader will readily recognise the
justice of the praise we have given to M
Arago for his diligence in collecting facts.
The following may be new to some of our
readers, and will appropriately introduce a
few remarkable facts ,ou the effects of light-
ning :
Yellow amber, when rubbed strongly, attracts light
bodies, such as down or light feathers, straws, and sawdust.
Theophrastus among the Ureeks, and Pliny among the
Reset had remarked this property, bat without sp•