The Sun.
London, England, 1849-08-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 9, 1849,

LITERATURE.
11UMBOLDT'S COSMOS.
Cosmos : Sketch of a Physical Description of the
Universe. By Alexander Von Humboldt. 2 Vols.
Translated under the Superintendence of Lieut.- Col.
E. Sabine, B. A. For. Sec. R. S.
The Same. 2 Vols. Translated from the German
by E. C. Otte.
Out of a very unfortunate rivalry in the world of
publication have originated these two remarkable
translations of the most: wonderful work of our gene-
ration. It is quite melancholy to reflect upon the
extraordinary amount of labour that must have been
lavished upon both English versions of the " Cosmos"
of Baron Humboldt, and to think that such labour
has been expended in vain. We say "in vain " ad-
visedly, for no adequate compensation can be expected
either by the translators or by the publishers, in con-
sequence of the simultaneous appearance of Colonel
Sabine's version from the establishment of Mr.
Murray, and of M. OttCt's from that of Mr.
Bohn. We regret this ; for it is but a poor
satisfaction to know that the public are benefited
at the exceeding loss of its benefactors.
Of " Cosmos, " as the perfected production of a
great and richly stored intellect, it is scarcely pos-
sible to speak in terms of too respectful admiration.
To say that it is the masterpiece of the genius of
Alexander Von Humboldt is to pronounce its noblest
panegyric. Penned by that distinguished man, that
leviathen of travel (of physical travel and intellectual
travail), that man who is to the sciences what
Doctor Johnson was to criticism, penned by
Humboldt in the sunny autumn of his years,
when the fruits of his great labours are still
heaped about him in all their bloom and profusion,
when his mind has become ripened by a long life of
varied and invaluable experiences—" Cosmos " has
grown up into one of the miracles of literature. It
is not an elegant column erected to perpetuate the me-
mory of its fabricator and to evidence his ingenuity
to posterity. Its structure, like that of the Novum
Organuni, is rather pyramidal and colossal—calculated
not only to withstand the triturating influences
of Time, but to survive a Deluge of Ignorance. No
work of such comprehensive scope, relating to the ma-
terial universe, has ever before been attempted. To
do this required the immense researches, the long life,
the unconquerable industry, the insatiable curiosity,
and the daring ambition of a Humboldt. Here, at
length, repose before us the most memorable of all the
effusions of his genius—in which he has striven, and
not unsuccessfully, to avoid, on the one hand, the te-
diousness of :interminable detail, and on the other the
vagueness of merely mystifying generalization. In
acting thus he has obeyed the conviction expressed by
him in his introductory Preface, when he says that
" a series of general results would be no less weari
some than a mere accumulation of detached facts." By
following out his gigantic design—" Physical Geo •
graphy, the limits of which have been hitherto some-
what vaguely defined, has been thus expanded, by,
perhaps (says he, with a noble diffidence), too bold a
plan, into a scheme comprehending the whole material
creation, or into that of a Physical Cosmo-
graphy." In carrying out this intention
otphfaartt
generaleda
ct
ehret
aaitnt
knowledge—
satisfiedr
degree
es of
rhethetoric
s t rnoi o
the
s a
oue
Itivhunoc nhati as
ni mg
scientific accuracy in the treatment of natural facts is
not incompatible with animated and picturesque re-
presentation." In this he has yielded to the same as-
pirations which first evidenced themselves in the
" History of the Girondins," by Lamartine' and
subsequently in the " History of England," by
Macaulay; for it is absurd for any critic like the one
writing in the Edinburgh Review to claim for Mr.
Macaulay the glory of having made the discovery
that history might be rendered as enthralling as ro-
mance, seeing that Lamartine's great annals of the
Revolutionists of the last century are, in point of
eloquence and dramatic splendour, about five times as
fascinating as the work of his English contemporary,
and knowing, moreover, that the eight volumes by
M. de Lamartine appeared just two years before the
publication of the two volumes by Mr. Macaulay.
What Lamartine is to the French, and what Macaulay
is to the English Revolution, Humboldt has proved
himself to the general sciences or to physical cos-
mography—at once their rhetorician and their histo-
rian. The great truth laid down by him at the very
threshold of the palace of his deductions is that "the
aspect of external nature is that of unity in diversity."
Hence it is that he speaks further on of our " percep-
tion of an invisible and spiritual essence manifesting
itself whether in unfolding the flower and perfecting
the fruit of a food-bearing tree, or in the subterra-
nean movements which shake the ground, and the tem-
pests which agitate the atmosphere." That is the
most melancholy peculiarity of this great work, that
Baron Humboldt, at the very time when all his facts
tend to the proof of the existence of a Supreme Being,
he seems to be always jealous of acknowledging by
name the verity of a God. What marvels are
unfolded to the imagination in the perusal of " Cos-
mos" it is impossible from remembrance to enume-
rate. Now the author reassures those who tremble
lest in the multiplicity and the apparent confusion of
the comets whisking through and through the solar
system, and threading it with their orbits like a
spider's network, our globe and one of these eecentric
bodies might come into collision—proving the impos-
sibility of such a catastrophe by facts such as that
Biela's comet, which completes its course every six
years, and does really intersect the earth's path can
only approach us when its perihelion coincides with
our winter solstice." Again the countless swarms of
shooting stars seen about the 12th and 13th of No-
vember, and the 10th and 13 th of August, are
accounted for by him as arising from " a belt of
asteroids intersecting the orbit of the earth." As an
example of the vivid and beautiful colouring of the
descriptions we shall transcribe a brief passage selected
almost hap-hazard :
"In the Andes of Cundinamarca, of Quito, and of
Peru, furrowed by deep barrancas, it is permitted to
man to contemplate all the families Of plants and all the
stars of the firmament. There, at a single glance, the
beholder sees lofty feathered palms, humid forests of
bamboos, and all the beautiful family of roes;,Mu and,
above these tropic forms, oaks, medlars, wildses and
umbelliferous plants, as in our European homes; there,
too, both the celestial hemispheres are open to his view,
and, when night arrives, he sees displayed together the
constellation of the Southern Cross, the Magellanic
clouds, and the guiding stars of the Bear which circle
round the Arctic pole. There, the different climates of
the earth, and the vegetable forms of which they deter-
mine the succession, are placed one over another, stage
above stage; and the laws of the decrement of beat are
indelibly written on the rocky walls and the rapid slopes
of the Cordilleras, in characters easily legible to the
intelligent observer."
As to the precise character of " Cosmos" it may be
best comprehended from the subjoined paragraph :
" It is not the purpose of this work to attempt to re-
duce all sensible phsenomena to a small number of ab-
stract principles, having their foundation in pure reason
physical cosmography of which I attempt
the exposition does not aspire to the perilous elevation
oo; lay puremath
,perational
adventurescience
m or
et osuoctheeesrss:
who
these depths of purely speculative philosophy, my
essay on the Cosmos consists of physical geography,
joined with the description of the heavenly bodies in space:
its aim is to present a view of the material universe,
which may rest ou the experimental foundation of the
facts registered by science, compared and combined by
the operations of the intellect."
Such is the profound and remarkable work which has
been simultaneously translated into the English
language by M. Otti and by the lady of Colonel
Sabine—unfortunately for the rival translators, but
fortunately for the fame and popularity of the
venerable and illustrious author, Alexander Von
Humboldt.

inkling of the want of all faith on the part of i SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
the writer in the stability of the Republican insti- RIPON RACES.—T EsDAYs
tutions—where (at page 3) he speaks of the The Grand Stand Stakes of 5 sovs. each, Z ft, and 20
new Constitution as a " fragile performance." added. T. Y. C.
A little further on he becomes still more explicit, de- Mr. 13. Haworth's St. Valentine, 2 yrs Keharlton
... .) 1
daring that the outbreak of February (page 9) was Mr. Rickaby's bf by Touchstone, 2 yrs . 2
"the work of a party "—the exquisite absurdity Mr. B. Green's Cigarette, 3 yrs ... ... ... 3
Sir C. Monck's Gulliver, 3 yrs
of which assertion is too glaring to require its formal
Mr. Humphries's Sister to Swallow, 2• yrs ... ... 5
te
refutation. Without, however, wishing in any re-
The Great St. Wilfred Handicap of 10 seers. each, 5 ft,
spect to depreciate the judgment of Mr. Corkran in- and 3 only if declared, with 50 added. Two miles.
dividually, we are satisfied that with the bulk of his Mr. Hale's Ada Mary, 3 yrs ... -. (Osborne) 1
readers the more valuable and agreeable portion of Mr. S. L. Fox's King Hal, 5 yrs 2
his labours will be that in which he contents himself Mr. Drake's Reversion, 3 yrs... ::: ... 3
.. :::
with pencilling down the portraits of remarkable Mr. Humphries's Escape, 4 yrs ... ... .. 4
Frenchmen, leaving the consideration of the tendency The Amateur Stakes of 5 sovs. each, and 15 added,
of their proceedings to be decided by those who shall one mile, were won in three heats by Mr. Wilkins's b
look back upon them from the impartial distance of m, by St. Martin, dam by Liverpool, beating five others.
the hereafter. Some of these portraits are singularly The City Stakes of 5 soya., and 25 added, two miles,
were won in two heats by Reversion, beating Tity and
felicitous, all of them are more or less meritorious.
Lammermuir.
The men pass before us, one by one, like the figures DEBBY
..2........,......,. EDNESDAY.
in a magic lantern, as distinct in outline, as vivid in The Chatsworth Stakes of 10 sovs. each, 5 ft, and 3 only
colouring. We see them before us in imagination if declared, with 50 added. One mile and a half.
rather than read of them. Here is "the unprepos- Mr. Fowler's Ribaldry... ... ... (Wells) 1
sessing Cremieux," whose features are stamped with Lord Chesterfield's Chicot
" the professional necessity•of adulation." Here again Mr. Sharratt's Egret ... ... ... .„ ... 3
is Louis Blanc, whose voice through the Organization Capsicum and the Probe also ran.
du Travail is like "a cry that rises from his The Chesterfield Stakes ofa
mile.
10 sovs. each and 50 added.
Lord
pierced soul against society thrilling through the Half
reader : Chesterfield's br f, by Don John, out of Lam-
poon
"Figure to yourself a very small person— Colonel Anson'sthe very .- ... ... ... ... .. (Oates) 1
.
smallest you had ever seen above the species of the ch f, by Jereed, out of Muff ... 2
dwarf. With his back turned to you, yon would be in- The following also started : The Recluse, Dick's
dined to suppose that the glossy black hair and drooping Hat Band, br fby Gladiator, and Midcote.
shoulders belonged to a girl in male disguise; the face The Innkeepers' Plate of? CO sovs. Two mile: ,
turned round, you were struck by the prominent, clear, Mr. Sharratt's Egret ... ..• ... (Denman 1
dark eyes, the olive complexion, and the disappearance Mr. Miner's Astleye ..• ••• ... ... ... , 2
Mr. Ha e'
of effeminacy in the strong jaw and chin. The general Mys Gilnochi
Three others started.
expression was rather melancholy."
One minute our attention is directed to a fair, pale, Mr. Ellis'e Acomb
The Selling Stakes of 5 sovs. each, and 30 added,
one mile, were s!on in three heats, by
somewhat bald man—it is M. Carnot, the son o (Osborne), beating K —....,.....
the Organizer of Victory. Another to a tall, thin, _ Kennett and two others. -
WORCESTER RACES—WEDNESDAY.
sickly-looking person, with somewhat clumsy The City
Member's Plate of 501. Heats,, •
k two miles.
features, a little pert, and yet a little prim, with sleek Mr. W. Shirley's Novelist, 5 yrs ... (1 as er) 3 1 1
hair falling in curls to the nape of his neck—it is M. Mr. Griffith's Apple Blossom, 5 yrs ... ... 1 2 2
Gamier Pages. On one hand is the great astronomer : Mr. Whitehouse's Reception, 3 yrs .. .23 dr
" Francois Arago is a fine, stalwart old man, tall, Mr. Bluck's Spider, aged ...
..: ". 4 dis
dark, and sinewy; his head is magnificent, and when be The Cup Stakes of 7 soya. each 4 ft, &c., with 25 added.
is seated by other men, its vast size strikes with asto-
nishment amounting to awe. Standing alone, this great Mr. Johnson's bm by Lord Stafford out of Birdlime,
(Evans) 1
(E
development of head is not so remarkable, because it isYrsDay's Milliner, 6 yrs ... ... .. 2
••• ••• ••• ••• ... va
symmetrical, for no object of fine symmetry ever strikes Mr. J. ...added, .
one
the eye as disproportioned; this noble dome is furnished The Hack Stakes of 2 sovs. each, and 10
mile and a quarter, were won in three heats by Mr.
with thin hair, once jetty black, and not yet grey; the
large eye is bold and thoughtful; the features massive Palmet's Ferry hill,
4 yrs, beating Empress of Russia,
and well shaped, and altogether Arago looks a man of 4 yrs, and two others.
iron frame and great intellectual power."
On the other is the great poet, historian, orator, states
man, diplomatist, patriot, hero—Lamartine :
" We have now before us M. de Lamartine going to
speak in his own name, or rather to read; and as regards
M. de Lamartine, the distinction is worth making.
When this gentleman puts on a pair of little black
spectacles, and droops his shoulders, with which expres-
sive action he is forced to read, he is an old man. While
delivering an harangue with his shoulders thrown back,
his arm extended, his graceful figure like marble set on
its socle, his voice of trumpet-like sonorousness vibrating
through the ears of his audience, he is ever young."
There you see M. Marie, with his high white neckcloth,
his neat apparel, and his fringe of curly, sandy hair.
There is Beranger, the ballad-maker, in his homely
costume, with green goggles before his large, lambent
eyes—his fine bald forehead—his glowing, funny little
nose—his smiling, gracious mouth beaming with kind-
liness. Yonder is Barbes, the assassin and conspirator—
pallid as death, "gargling" his words in his throat.
Cormenin looks as if he could not hurt a fly—he who
can crucify a reputation with sarcasm, or chaunt its
apotheosis in his eulogiums. Bac is introduced to us
as a Girondist who has strayed into a club of Jaco-
bins. Favre is depicted as one in whose featuress is
perceptible the concentrated white heat of malevolent
anger. Suddenly we are required to scrutinize the
figure of the celebrated Abbe Lacordaire—his thin 1
stature, his handsome countenance, his lustrous eyes, 1
his fine brow, his white robe as a Dominican friar ! 1
Of him, saith the author, " he would be the modern I,
Savonarola—he would reconcile Democracy with the
Church." The same might be said of the Padre Ventura.
M. Odilon Barrot comes before us visibly—with
his Hibernian features (indicative of his Irish descent),
his fine bald head, his voice like the sonorous tones
of a church organ. Flocon is here, with his small,
bent, thickset figure, his white swollen visage, and his
dull smoked eye. Berryer, too, with language
" bubbling on his lip" in a voice singularly
beautiful. Here, too, is Napoleon Bonaparte,
son of Jerome, ex-King of Westphalia—so like
the mighty founder of his family as to resemble a
spectral appearance of the Emperor. " Had Louis
Napoleon such a head," says Mr. Corkran, " his
popularity would be hero worship." Blanqui is
sketched as one whose features are spirited and regular,
with a long, thin face, high nose, and high but
narrow forehead. In mentioning Caussidiere, the
historian of the National Assembly remarks, that M.
de Lamartine vindicated Caussidiere's conduct. "La-
martine, the apologist of Caussidiere !" exclaims this
eye-witness. "A deep whisper ran from bench to
bench : Lamartine had given a stab to his own repu-
tation." And yet it is this noble, generous, magnani•
mous Lamartine whom M. Caussidiere has dared to
attack and calumniate in the most dastardly manner
in the two volumes of misrepresentation which the
fugitive revolutionist has written and published during
his sojourn in London. Behold the son of the re-
nowned Murat—" he is an exceedingly large man,
very tall, and very corpulent, and in no other respect,
remarkable." M. Dupin, "the Jupiter of the Cham-
ber of Deputies," is next delineated, and he is said
to stand before the National Assembly " stripped of his
forked thunderbolts." Yet M. Dupin has so far risen
again to his old altitude, that he is the President of
the Legislative Assembly. The sketch of Cavaignac,
which is introduced subsequently, is a masterpiece
—perhaps the finest of the many clever " pencillings
by the way" in these ingenious volumes. We would
willingly transcribe in our columns this and many
other passages in the production of Mr. Corkran,
but that our crowded columns forbid. Besides, we
would not glean all the merits from a work which is
peculiarly entitled to perusal. The estimate formed
of Prince Louis Napoleon in particular is so just, so
accurate, so nobly-spirited as to deserve a serious and
deliberate examination. Altogether we felicitate the
author upon the successful accomplishment of a labour
of much responsibility. While doing all justice to
France and her illustrious citizens, Mr. Corkran has
written as an Englishman—for, excepting one or two
points, in which he evidences a slight forgetfulness of
our idiom, as where he inadvertently omits the
definite article (saying " for sake of indulging, &c., p.
236, 11., and " for sake of the picture, &c." p. 237,
II.) the two volumes are penned in a strain of
liberality, fluency, good humour, fine feeling, and
occasionally eloquence, eminently befitting a citizen
of the United Kingdom.

CRICKET.
I ZINGARI V. LEAMINGTON.
This match, which commenced on Monday at Parr and
Wisden's ground, Leamington, was concluded on Tues-
day. The following is the score:—
I ZINGARI-FIRST INNINGS.
E. Hartopp, Esq.—b Wisden ...
Hon. R. Grimston—b Wisden ...
C. Morse, Esq.—b Wisden
C. J. Harenc, Esq.—b King ...
11. Vernon, Esq.—b King ...
H. Fellows, Esq.—b Wisden
Captain Mundy—not out ...
Hon. F. Ponsonby—b Wisden ...
H. B. Mayne, Esq.—b Wisden
H. G. Nethercote, Esq.—b Wisden
Rev. H. Pickering—run out ...
B 10, w 0

Total ... ... •.•
LEANINGTON---FIRST INNINGS.
Hon. E. Leigh—b Fellows
G. E. Baker, Esq —b Fellows ••• •••
Palethorpe—b Fellows ... ... ...
Lord Guernsey—b Fellows ... ...
R. T. King, Esq.—b Fellows ...
Wisden—b Fellows ..• ••• •••
Hon. A. Wrottesley—b Fellows ..•
Mr. T. L Rose—not out ...
C. M. Caldecott, Etq.—b Fellows ...
Rev. Anderson—b Fellows .. ...
Rev. 11. Knightley—c Fellows, b Mundy ...
B 7, w 3

Total
I ZINGA RI-SECOND INNINGS.
E. Hartopp, Es q .—c Knightley, b Palethorpe
Hon. R. Grimston—b Palethorpe
C. Morse, Esq.—c and b Wisden
C. J. Harenc, Esq.—not out ...
H. Vernon, Esq.—b Wisden
H. Fellows, Esq.—b Wisden . .
Captain Mundy—c King, b Wisden
Hon. F. Ponsonby—b Wisden ... ...
H. B. Mayne, Esq.—b Palethorpe
H. G. Nethercote, Esq.—absent
Rev. H. Pickering—b Wisden
B 6, w 3

... 7

... 5
••• 0
... 0

... 68

Total ...
LEAMINGTON—SECOND INNINGS.
Hon. E. Leigh—c Fellows, b Mundy... ..
G. E. Baker, Esq,—c Ponsonby, b Harenc
Palethorpe—b Fellows ••• •••
Lord Guernsey—b Mundy
It. T. King, Esq.—hit wicket, b Mundy
Wisden—c Morse, b Mundy ... ..•
lion. A. Wrottesley—hit wicket, b Fellows...
Mr. T. I. Rose—c Pickering, b Mundy ...
C. M. Caldecott, Esq.— b Mundy ...
Rev. Anderson—b Fellows ••• •••
Rev. IL Knightley—not out ...
B 1, n b 1
Total ••• ••• ••• •••
SHEFFIELD V. YORKSHIRE.
This match was commenced on Monday, at Hyde
park, Sheffield, and terminated yesterday in favour of
Sheffield. The score stood thus:—

Hurt, c Wadsworth, b Crossland 35 b Crossland ll
B. Wake, Esq., c. Nixon, b Joy 22 cG. Berry b Armit-
age
Coates, c Wadsworth, b Crossland 9 cG. Berry, b Armit-
age
T. R. Barker, Esq., bG. Berry 9 b Joy 0
Sampson, c Armitage, b Joy .. 23 b Joy 7
M. J. Ellison, Esq., c Dawson, b
C 4 not out
Crossland
Wright, b Armitage 2B b Crossland .. .. 0
Chatterton, b Armitage
R. F. Skelton, Esq., c G. Berry,
bCrossland .... . ...... ..
Ellis, cJ. Berry, b Armitage ll cJ. Berry, b Armit-
age
B. Huntsman, Esq., not out .. 6 b Armitage
B 10, w 7 n.b l7 B 10, w 3—n.b. 13

177
YORKSHIRE.

Barrett, Leeds, b Barker
Wright

Joy, Knaresbro', c Wake, U Skel-
ton
J. Berry, Dalton, not out 55 leg bfr. Ir. b Barker 10
Armitage, Dalton, b Skelton
W. 11. Denison, Esq., Leeds, c
Ellis. U Barker
C. Nixon, Esq., Leeds, c Coates,
b Wright 4 b Barker
A. Crosland, Leeds, b Skelton ... 4 leg bfr. w, b Wright 2
G. Berry, Dalton, b Barker
Wadsworth, Bradford, b Wright 8 b Wright 2
Dawson, Knaresbro', b Wright 0 b Wake ll
C. Smith, Leeds, b Wright
B 7, w 8, n.b. 1