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least degree corresponding to the ornamental
in expression or the varied in statement : like
logic, it deals only with " dry bones," avoiding
muscle, nerve, and blood, all, in a word, that
gives life and motion to the perfect or-
ganisation. In both logic and mathematics
indeed there is the same " bad riddance
of goof/ rubbish ;" in both, to invert a
saying of M. Comte, " conception has de-
throned expression." The mathematician, there
fore, and, more or less, every member of a so-
ciety in which, as at Cambridge, the influence of
mathematical habits of thought is the prepon-
derating influence, 1611 be likely, in so far as
those habits are uncounteracted by the effect
of other studies, to sacrifice all graces of style
(the employment of which is absolutely neces-
sary to the acquirement of extensive popu-
larity), for cold accuracy of statement, and dry
adherence to the rules of correct inference.
He will despise rhetoric for the sake of logic.
It will be difficult to persuade him to say a
single word beyond what is barely necessary
for the mere communication of his argument ;
he would be glad could he even forego that
written language which popular prejudice
obliges him to use, and employ in its stead his
much-loved algebraical shorthand. It thus
is almost impossible that a mathematician,
were he to travel out of the narrow circle of
his beautiful science, as few of the class ever
do, should be a popular writer. He would
appeal to the mass of men, whose opinions are
the result of a complete tissue of all sorts of
influences, indolence, tradition, passion, self-
interest, prejudice, love of opposition, "votum,
timor, ira, voluptas," to change their convic-
tions at the dictate of mere reason. " Que pent
" la raison, avec un filet de vc ix, contre une
" gueule commo celle-ci ?" as Moliere says ; she
has no chance whatever !

It seemed to us, before the appearance of
the " Cambridge Essays," on these and similar
grounds, not improbable either that Oxford
would carry away the prize of present popu-
larity, or that it would be impossible to insti-
tute a perfectly satisfactory comparison
between the methods of intellectual training
employed in the two Universities, inasmuch
as it was not unlikely that the majority of the
Cambridge essays would be written by
" classical " and not by " mathematical men."
How far the first alternative has been satisfied
we cannot say. The general interest of the
subjects chosen for discussion being pretty
nearly equal (perhaps Mr. Stephen's essay on
the " Relation of Novels to Life " is about the
most popular of the papers in the two
series), we cannot avoid declaring our
own opinion that Oxford puts what she
has to say in the most pleasing and
elegant form. Cambridge, for the most part,
treats the question before her as if she were
bent on " flooring a problem-paper." She is
bare, curt, blunt, and, though she has often
something odd or new to present to us, she
deals with her meaning " by approximation,"
as bad spellers do with a hard word, and gives
us a good deal of difficult reading. Like her
first-rate men in the Senate House, she does
not complete her solutions, but leaves the last
inference to be drawn by the examiner.
Though many of the contributors (for all we
know, most of them) are celebrated in Cam-
bridge as classical scholars, the influence of
the sister study is very clearly apparent in the
essays. Even the phraseology is tainted by
the technicalities of mechanics and the plane-
tary theory ; and in some instances the asso-
ciations connected with a scientific phrase
have been permitted to mislead the writer who
has employed it.
It would be difficult, perhaps, to exhibit
particular instances illustrative of the above
remarks in the shape of extracts from the
Essays." Our opinion is the result of a
general comparison between the collections
published by the two Universities; and the
impression produced on most persons familiar
with the literature of the day would be, we
imagine, on the whole, identical with our own.
The titles of the nine essays are as follow :
" The Life and Genius of Moliere," " The
English Language in America," " Notes on
Modern Geography," " Limitations to Severity
in War," " The Transmutation of Matter,"
" The Relation of Novels to Life," " Future
Prospects of the British Navy," " Tennyson's

15

Poems," and "General Education and Classic o,
Studies."

Mr. Knight Watson's " Moliere " should
have been called " A Chat about Moliere,"
rather than an essay on his life and genius.
There is a very marked dislocation of style
about it, and a very disagreeable affectation of
facetiousness, which sits about as comfortably
on the writer as one of Mr. Harley's wigs
wuuld on a college don; but it contains a care-
ful and interesting sketch of Moliere's life and
times, and a tolerably full analysis of his
works from the commencement of his theatrical
career. Mr. Watson judiciously substitutes
for the unsatisfactory and fanciful accounts of
Mohere's early years the few facts really
ascertainable from contemporary authorities :
he is thus enabled to replace the usual M.
Poquelin senior, the stern matter-of-fact up-
holsterer compelling his son (as Mr. Wateon,
with laborious facetiousness, remarks) " to aid.
" in decorating the salons of Paris and to
" forego furnishing his own brain, that upper
" story of the house of flesh," by a well-paid
" tapissier " to Louis XIIL, sending young
Moliere to complete his education at the
College Clermont, under the tuition of the
great Gassendi, and enabling him on leaving
college to apply himself to the study of the
law. The benevolent grandfather, on whom
the origin of young Poquelin's taste for
the stage has been generally fathered—or
grandfathered—disappears from the scene
entirely (and for a good reason, as he appears
to have died when his grandson was only four
years old : his opportunities of introducing
Moliere to the theatre must have been rather
limited therefore), and the real " Simon Pure "
turns out to have been a lady (not remarkable
for" purity") one Madeleine Bejart, with whom
Moliere, at the age of twenty-three, fell so
deeply in love that he gave up law, upholstery,
the reversion of his father's appointment, and
everything else, for the purpose of joining the
provincial troupe to which she belonged, and
of employing his talents and education in
writing plays for the company, and ultimately
in acting with them. The analysis of each
play is preceded by a short account of the
circumstances of its production, and occa-
sionally by remarks on the more famous
criticisms which have been written upon it.
" The English Language in America," by
Mr. Bristed (the contributor to Fraser's Maya-
zinc of many amusing papers on America), is
evidently the production of a practised writer,
thoroughly at home with his subject. Mr.
Bristed is of opinion that " to examine, de-
" termine, collect, and explain all the American
" peculiarities of language" would require,
among other qualifications, " a full knowledge
" of all the English provincial dialects, of at
" least five other modern languages and their
" dialects, an intimate acquaintance with
" every species of American literature, and a
" prolonged residence in each of the four
" great sections of the American Union ; while
" the results of the investigation would fill
" a large volume." It results inevitably from
these premises that, in the limits of a
review-article, the subject cannot be dis-
cussed to any useful purpose, ; but the
writer has managed to put forth to the
very best advantage the materials to which lie
is confined, and has produced the most read-
able " essay " in the whole collection. We
have not space to quote as many of Mr.
Bristed's interesting derivations as we desire ;
one specimen must suffice from the " Middle-
States " section of his arrangement :
The word loafer is so very common in America, that,
although closely approximating to a slang term, it cannot
be overlooked here. The expression only found its way
into writing about the year 1830, but had been in use long
before, especially in the vicinity of the markets. It is
equivalent to vagabond intensified, and its personal applica-
tion is one of the greatest insults that can be offerei to an
American—something like calling a Frenchman canaille.
It is singular that the verb (of later formation), has not
necessarily a bad meaning; a man will say of himself " I
have been loafing about ; " that is, I have been lounging, or
idling. As to the derivation, it clearly has nothing to do
with loaf. We must seek the root in Dutch. It may be
from 104, primarily weary, tired, thence faint-hearted, lazy.
cowardly ; bat it more probably comes from loopen
( =German laufen ; compare in English inter-loper.) The
term toper, applied to deserters from South• Sea whalers,
and jack-tar's familiar land-bihber, are probably connected.
Leaper in old Dutch, such Dutch as honest old Pett r
Stuyvesant may have used, meant a running footman, so
that perhaps the idea of I. key "ur "flunkey " was mixed
up with the term of contempt.

t

16

.~ .~. -.r r •. :.

Tho " Notes on Modern Geography " and
the " Transmutation of Matter," though full
of interest, are of too purely scientific a cha-
racter for our columns.
Th 9 next essay, on "The Relation of Novels
to Life," is the most characteristic of those
contained in the volume. The subject is, also,
on the whole, one of the most popular. But,
as it is mainly a criticism of the " esprits fins"
by an "esprit geometrique," it contains, as
might be expected, a few rather amusing re-
sults. Its professed object is to provide rules
by which (as the writer somewhat affectedly
expresses it) " the experience held solution
" by . . . . novels may be precipitated, and to
" ascertain the processes by means of which
" the precipitate may be made fit for use," or,
at least, " to point out the limits and direction
" of the instructions which are wanted " to
that end, Mr. Stephens has certainly taken
up a most tempting problem; but, we fear, a
most hopelessly difficult one. The idea of
drawing up a set of rules by which the effect
of " those historical and personal disturbing
" forces " the operation of which mats the
generality of the maxims, moral and social, of
any given novel-writer, and distorts his repre-
sentations of human character, may be even
approximately allowed for, when stated with
the parade of scientific precision here as-
sumed, seems worthy of a place in the
Academy of Lagado or the Palace of Queen
Whims. It is very easy to conclude, in a
rough, general way, that Mr. Thackeray is
"bitter," and Mr. Dickens "sentimental," and
so forth, and abate our belief in their repre-
sentations of human nature accordingly ; but,
even supposing that Mr. Stephen's notion
could be carried out in the case of known
writers, how should we deal with a new candi-
date for our faith, armed with new axioms,
presenting new characters, and utterly un-
known except by his " first novel" ? This is a
serious difficulty ; there would be nothing but
the witness to try the case by, and nothing
but the case to try the witness by ! It would
be tolerably difficult, one would suppose, to
draw up a table of " reductions " to be applied
to different observers of human nature by all
readers of fiction, on the principle of those in
use amongst astronomers, for example. But
suppose it done, and that we could sit safely
down to " Tom Jones" with our " Fielding-
equations " by our side, containing the appro-
priate allowances fur suppressed gout, con-
stant insobriety, duns, debts, and lace ruffles,
or take up " Sir Charles Grandison," with a
" Richardson•table," all " gruel and respecta-
" bility," what would protect us against the
latent blunders of " Ashford Owen "? To avoid
this dilemma, it would have to be made impera-
tive on every new writer to furnish a careful
biography, with testimonials from the clergy-
man and medical man of the parish, certifi-
cates from intimate friends, and, in very deli-
cate cases, thermometrical and barometrical
observations during the hours of composition,
a list of jours muigres, and the apothecary's
" small account" for the quarter I Even all
this would not be sufficient ; for Mr. Stephen's
proposition itself rests on probability alone,
and, when we conic to the details of its appli-
cation, we find some very striking instances of
the operation of the " personal disturbing
" force " and the effects of position and habit
—e.g., in his views of the relation between love
and marriage. We should thus need " correc-
tions " for " the corrections " which his theory
would furnish before we could safely apply them.
Really, it is impossible to avoid an allusion to
the famous machine for cutting cabbages, one
of the inventions of the academicians of
Lagado, which took no less than fourteen
horses to put it fairly in motion, and often
failed in making a single cut after all. We
cannot help thinking that the unfortunate
young victims of the errors of novelists, in
whose behalf this article has been composed,
will have to depend, after all, on the ordinary
effects of years and actual experience of life
for their recovery ; and that, as to that very
small section of blockheads who are narcotised
into dreaming inactivity for life by the effects
of inordinate early indulgence in fiction, it is
a matter of infinitely small importance to the
universe, or even our own planet, whether they
ever recover from their stupor or no.
Mr. B riraley's essay on " Tennyon's Poems "