The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-11 00:00:00

MATHEMATICAL ABSTRACTION.

The idea of this picture is capital, and has
been worked out with great skill. A staid, el-
derly, and somewhat pedantic mathematician is
sitting by his fire-side poring over a tough,
knotty problem of Euclid, which has evidently
inflicted no slight wound on his self-conceit--
though we have no idea that the wound will be
mortal. In the abstraction of the moment, he
has substituted his watch and seals for an egg,
and flung them into the saucepan on the fire,
while the egg does the duty of the watch, in his
hand. The face of the old gentleman is most
happily characteristic. His eyes, dulled with a
constant habit of intense study, peer anxiously out
from underneath his great grizzled eye-brows, as
if they would fain pierce to the marrow of the
problem at a glance, while his mouth, puckered
up in all the pride of self-conceit, seems just as
it were about to give vent to its astonishment
that such a superior intellect should be corn-
pelled, even for a moment, to succumb to such
an inferior difficulty. But there is one defect
in the picture, a sort of flaw or fracture
(though slight), in the keeping of its cha-
racter. The old pedant is meditating on his
task with the Euclid in his hand. This should
not be. The book should have been turned down
open on the table, and the student have
been poring over the problem, with his feet
on the fender. He would only gain a clue
to his difficulty by a process of thought,
which would be disturbed
.by the very act of
holding the book before him. As Mr. Lane
has portrayed the mathematician, he is appeal-
ing for assistance rather to his eye-sight than to
his reflection. The untasted breakfast, the little,
slatternly book-shelf, the dingy folios strewed
upon the floor, the formal, old-fashioned walk-
ing cane, together with tf►e other etceteras of
the print, are in the strictest and happiest keep.
ing. We suppose Mr. Lane drew from life,
and that some grave, quaint old fellow of St.
John's was his original. As an engraving the
picture is executed with more than average
ability. The light, wavy folds of the table-cloth
are perfectly free from stiffness, and the brilliant
patches of light on the silver coffee-pot almost
dazzle one to look on them. There is, how-
ever, some little slovenliness apparent in the dark
shadows of the half-opened cupboard, before
which the pedant is placed in his easy arm-chair.
They are not sufficiently discriminated.

The standing Committee of the West India
Body assembled on Thursday, at the desire of the Ministry,
to receive an official communication from the Government.
It was a Treasury minute, but much too long for our in-
sertion. The only point of general interest was the an •
nouncement that the public feeling was every day stronger
in favour of an early abolitio❑ of slavery ; that all investi-
gation into the question tended to raise the opinion still
stronger against the planter; that the Ministers would ❑ot
move the renewal of the Committee of Investigation of
last session ; nevertheless, if the West India interest brought
forward the question of the re-appointment, Ministers
would not oppose the motion. The reply of the West
India Body was, that they invited investigation, and were
at issue with Ministers; as to public opinion, there was
a decided re-action in their favour. They requested an
interview with Ministers, to receive a communication re-
specting the plans announced by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, which were to be brought forward by the Mi-
nisters, and a request that the West India packet might
be detained till they could communicate something de-
cisive on the question, otherwise that a rebellion among
the slaves might take place; the two latter have been ac-
ceded to; so rests the questio❑ at present,—London New
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