The Portland daily press., 1871-05-31
DAILY PRESS.
r MD
WEDNESDAY, MAY 81, 1871.
Recent Publications.
PORTLAND


Recent Publications
There is nothing more encouraging to The
human race than the completeness with which
modern l0uclive science has supp!anted spec
ulative philosophy. There is nothing that
gives one more hopeful view of The progress
OF the human race than the perception of the
difference between Thaes, Zenopbanes, Zeno,
Empdodes and Anaxagoras sitting down and
quielly evolving, in purely subjective way,
theories OF the universe from The depths of
thelr inner consciousness, and our modern
Investigators, patiently and laboriolsly exam
ming the minutest intimation that nature
gives OF her secrets and, making their re.
searches o! immense practical value TO their
'eiow men. The ancient philosopher reoced
Id 'ahciiui cosmogaaies-he could show, with
outtaking the trouble to look outside of bis
own brain, that the beginning of all things is
fire, or water, or air, Or atoms; the modern
philosopher. rejoices in discovering saletv
lamp, or the best means of preventing con.
| tagion, OF promoting ventilation or iucreas-
ing the facilities OF mankind for intercommu.
nication. While Pythaeoras spent his time
In relating bis experience in other human
forms, before he was transformed into phil
osopher, in listening to the music of the
spheres or discoursing upon the mysterious
import Of numbers, Count Rumfssd spent his
in building chimneys that woaldn't smoke. Ze.
no, the lElatic, was at great pains to prove
with the utmost ingenuity that there can be no
such thing as motion, but Tyndall, Huxley
and Faraday give their philosophy strictly
unitarian tendency, and make even their
widest cancellations in some way promotiye
OF the common good.
One cannot avoid such reflecti ons ss these
IN reading the last volume of that eminent
physicist, Professor Tyndall, entitled Frao-
ments Of Science. Here is found that dis
course ON "Dust and Dicease," which was de-
livered last year before the Royal Society of
Great Britain, and which has since excited so
much thought and investigation throughout
the whole civilized world. The author has
here made some valuable additions, so that
the whole lecture proves fair to mark an era
OF some Importance in the struggle of man
kind with the iDsidiOus and mysterious cans es
OF disease. The other papers embraced in
this volume are all short and all OF popular
character. They are sometimes mere frap.
ments, and have been accumulatins for the
last fifteen years. SO that if Max Muller had
not anticipated him, Prof. Tyndall might well
call his book "Chips from an English Work.
shop" Among the most valuable papers is
that on the Scientific Uses of the Imaq;na.
tion." which was delivered before the British
Association at Liverpool, in the fall of 1870
There will be those who will detect a too
skeptical spirit ia the short ESSAYS on
"Prayer and Natural Law" "MiracIes and
Special Providences," additional Tbouohts
on Miracles" and some others. But in this
respect he does not differ from those distin.
guished biologists, Huxley and Darwin. or.
in fact, from the great majority Of the emf
inent men now engaged in scientific inyesti.
gaion throughout the World. 1t does not
seem to us that their attitude is necessarily
an irreverent one. Certainly it is the farthest
possible from .atheistic. They do not find evil
deAces of the immediate interposit,on of a
higher power at any Of the stages of progress
through which the world has passed. They
hnd, instead, the constant, untailinc, uniform
operation OF law. As far back as they can
trace the working of this law they discover
no indication OF the slightest deviation from
its normal course. They even build up uni
verse from chaotic matter withou. finding it
necessary to resort to the supposition of The
direct agency of Supreme Being. But the
existence OF law and OF the chaotic mass
over which its plastic power is exerted com.
pels as distinct and as unqualified lecogni-
tion OF an Almighty Power as has been ac-
corded BY philosophers of a more orthodox
school. Published by D. Appleton & Co.,
New York. For sale by Bailey & Noyes.)
The Life and Times OF Lord Broagham
written by himself, is book that has been
looked for with great interest. The first of
the three promised volumes has now appeared,
and though it shows some of the faults that
might be expected from the extreme old age
of the accomplished autobiographer at the
time it was written, ii Is full of interest and
brsmning 'cith Harry Brougham from the
start. The editor, the present Lord Brougham
publishes his instructions fiom the author by
way Of preface. He is told lin capitals of ex.
traordinary size) to publish the book as it is
written. and that the author will have no edi.
tor employed to alter, or rewrite, "what I
desire shall be published as exclusively nv
own" The editor must have beef consider
ably embarrassed by these restrictions, espec.
tally it he felt compelled in consequence of
them to publish without explanation the tale
entitled I"Memnon, or Human WISDOM
| given in the second chapter as the production
of the author at the age OF thirteen. Mr..
Parton has discovered that it is literal
translation from the published works OF Vol
taire, which the. noble Lord credits to his own
youthful precocity! This is doubtless mere
inadvertance, aud, it not followed by the dis.
covery of other equally gross mistakes, will
not generally impair the readers confidence in,
the tIustw0rthiness OF the authors state-
mepts. Our countryman, Thurlow Weed, in
the autobiography from which he has pub
lished extracts in the GALAXY, has made mis-
takes equally unaccountable. Though the
first volume Of the autobiography cf course
embraces the least interesting part of the
writer's life, closing with the year 1911, when
he had just entered Parliament, it is full Of in
teresting personal gossip and of instructive
"reminiscences of the important historical
events of the first part of this century. So far
as Brougham himself is concerned, we are un-
able to see how any one can read this book
without being constantly impressed by the
idea, that he must have beenl in many re-.
spects very much such man as our vene ra-
bic fellow.citizen John Neal. At any rate
we are so much impressed by the notion that
| We cannot resist committing the improprety
of giving expression to it here. We are not
at all sure that, if"J. n" had been born in
England and inherited ipeerage, he would
J not have been the better man of the two, and
that he would have been as fairly entitled as
Brougham himself to the famous epigram to
the effect that "if he only knew little law he
would know little of everything" The vis-
or, versat. lity, courage and preternatural ac-
tivity OF the two men make the resemblance
between them something more than superb
cial, and, to crown all, the style OF the nara.
tives in which they tell, the one in his "Liie
and Times" the other in "Recolleclions of
a Somewhat Busy Life" the estory OF their
early lives is in many particulars strikingly
similar. In saying this We do mean to at
tribute to"J. N" any OfLhe forgetiulDess or
| weakness which Brougham shows in his au-
photography. published by Harper Il Broth.
| arS. For sale bv IOrnO Short e, Harmop |