Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art

Mr. H. C. Maxwell Lyte is now so far advanced with the history of the University of Oxford, upon which he has been engaged for some years, that an instalment of it, tracing the growth of the University from the earliest times to the revival of learning, is likely to be published by Messrs. Macmillan & Co. early in the coming year. This volume will be complete in itself, and accordingly provided with an index of its own.

The Cercle de la Librairie at Paris intends to open an exhibition of the designs of Gustave Doré for the illustration of books. Many noted French firms – Hachette, Mame, Jouvet, Hetzel, and Calmann Lévy – will contribute, and so will Le Journal pour Rire, the Monde Illustré, &c. Foreign publishers are also invited to take part.

At the opening of the winter season of the Arts Club in Manchester, Mr. J. H. Nodal stated that more books were written and published in Manchester than anywhere else in the kingdom, with the exception of London and Edinburgh, and that he believed that Manchester as a music-publishing centre came next to London.

MISCELLANY

Heligoland as a Strategical Island. – Regarded from a strategical point of view, the situation of Heligoland, only a few miles off from the mouths of the Elbe and Weser rivers, and commanding the sea entrance to the important trade centres of Bremen and Hamburg, is of considerable importance. Although any hostile differences between England and Germany are not very probable, in military circles in Germany an agitation has been going on for some years to ensure its possession by that country, as a necessary part of the coast defence of the empire; and this suggestion has been powerfully supported by Vice-Admiral Henck in the German Review, vol. ii. 1882. It has been proposed to purchase the island from England, but a great many object to the cost of the purchase, and the expense of the fortifications. Some, indeed, go further than the military strategists, and say that the abolition of the Heligoland Constitution in 1868 was illegitimate, because it was in violation of old rights and explicit assurances; destitute of well-grounded justification, because its ostensible objects could have been more successfully attained by other means; inadequate, because it failed to secure in any considerable degree the results which it proposed to seek. It must be here mentioned that a very good reason against any cession, voluntary or by sale, of the island to Germany, is the probability of the misconstruction of such an act by France, who, liable at any moment to a war with that country, would see in England handing over Heligoland to her possible foe, for the purpose of being formed into a marine fortress to defend the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser, or into a naval depôt, an aid to Germany in defence against that which France possesses, next to England, the most powerful means of attacking, namely, her preponderance in naval power. England and Germany are not likely to be embroiled in war, England and France are too closely connected all over the world to wish to be so. If Germany and France unfortunately come to blows again, England can exercise the benevolent neutrality of 1870, and proudly, firmly, but calmly, remain in possession of her distant island. —Army and Navy Magazine.

How the Coldstreams got their Motto. – The Coldstreams were raised in the year 1650, in the little town near Berwick-on-Tweed from whence the regiment takes its name. Their first colonel was the renowned George Monk (afterwards Duke of Albemarle), a General in the Parliamentary army and an Admiral of the fleet. It is owing to this latter fact that a small Union Jack is permitted to be borne on the Queen’s color of the regiment, a proud distinction enjoyed by no other corps in the service. In the year 1660 brave Monk and his gallant Coldstreamers materially assisted in the happy restoration of the English monarchy, and to perform this patriotic and eminently loyal act they marched from Berwick-on-Tweed to London, meeting with a warm and enthusiastic greeting from the inhabitants of the towns and villages through which they passed. After the Restoration was accomplished the troops were paraded on Tower Hill for the purpose of taking the oath of allegiance to the King, and among those present were the three noble regiments that form the subject of this brief history. Having grounded their arms in token of submission to the new régime, they were at once commanded to take them up again as the First, Second and Third Regiments of Foot Guards. The First and Third Regiments obeyed, but the Coldstreamers stood firm, and their muskets remained upon the ground. “Why does your regiment hesitate?” inquired the King of General Monk. “May it please your Majesty,” said the stern old soldier, “my Coldstreamers are your Majesty’s devoted soldiers, but after the important service they have rendered your Highness they decline to take up arms as second to any other regiment in your Majesty’s service!” “They are right,” said the King, “and they shall be ‘second to none.’ Let them take up their arms as my Coldstream regiment of Foot Guards.” Monk rode back to his regiment and communicated to it the King’s decision. It had a magical effect. The arms were instantly raised amid frantic cries of “Long live the King!” Since this event the motto of the regiment has been Nulli Secundus, which is borne in gold letters upon its colors beneath the star and garter of the Royal House. There also appear upon its colors the names of “Lincelles,” “Egypt” (with the Sphinx), “Talavera,” “Barrosa,” “Peninsula,” “Waterloo,” “Alma,” “Inkerman,” and “Sevastopol.” In the year 1850 this regiment held its jubilee banquet to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of its birth. —London Society.

1

Popular Astronomy, p. 145.

2

The Observatory, No. 43, p. 613.

3

Nature, vol. xxv. p. 537.

4

Silvered glass is considerably more reflective than speculum-metal, and Mr. Common’s 36-inch mirror can be but slightly inferior in luminous capacity to the Lick objective. It is, however, devoted almost exclusively to celestial photography, in which it has done splendid service. The Paris 4-foot mirror bent under its own weight when placed in the tube in 1875, and has not since been remounted.

5

E. Holden, “The Lick Observatory,” Nature, vol. xxv. p. 298.

6

Monthly Notices, R. Astr. Soc. vol. xiv. p. 133 (1854).

7

Phil. Trans. vol. cxlviii. p. 455.

8

Captain Jacob unfortunately died August 16, 1862, when about to assume the direction of a hill observatory at Poonah.

9

The height of the mercury at Guajara is 21·7 to 22 inches.

10

Phil. Trans. vol. cxlviii. p. 477.

11

We are told that three American observers in the Rocky Mountains, belonging to the Eclipse Expedition of 1878, easily saw Jupiter’s satellites night after night with the naked eye. That their discernment is possible, even under comparatively disadvantageous circumstances is rendered certain by the well-authenticated instance (related by Humboldt, “Cosmos,” vol. iii. p. 66, Otte’s trans.) of a tailor named Schön, who died at Breslau in 1837. This man habitually perceived the first and third, but never could see the second or fourth Jovian moons.

12

Sir W. Herschel’s great undertakings, Bessel remarks (“Populäre Vorlesungen,” p. 15), “were directed rather towards a physical description of the heavens, than to astronomy proper.”

13

Am. Jour. of Science, vol. xiii. p. 89.

14

The characteristic orange line (D3) of this unknown substance, has recently been identified by Professor Palmieri in the spectrum of lava from Vesuvius – a highly interesting discovery, if verified.

15

The Sun, p. 193.

16

R. D. Cutts, “Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington,” vol. i. p. 70.

17

This instrument may be described as an electric balance of the utmost conceivable delicacy. The principle of its construction is that the conducting power of metals is diminished by raising their temperature. Thus, if heat be applied to one only of the wires forming a circuit in which a galvanometer is included, the movement of the needle instantly betrays the disturbance of the electrical equilibrium. The conducting wires or “balance arms” of the bolometer are platinum strips 1/120th of an inch wide and 1/25000 of an inch thick, constituting metallic antennæ sensitive to the chill even of the fine dark lines in the solar spectrum, or to changes of temperature estimated at 1/100000 of a degree Centigrade.

18

Defined by the tint of the second hydrogen-line, the bright reversal of Fraunhofer’s F. The sun would also seem – adopting a medium estimate – three or four times as brilliant as he now does.

19

Annales de Chimie et de Physique, t. x. p. 360.

20

S. P. Langley, “Nature,” vol. xxvi. p. 316.

21

Sir J. Herschel’s estimate of the “temperature of space” was 239°F.; Pouillet’s 224°F. below zero. Both are almost certainly much too high. See Taylor, “Bull. Phil. Soc. Washington,” vol. ii. p. 73; and Croll, “Nature,” vol. xxi, p. 521.

22

This is true only of the “normal spectrum,” formed by reflection from a “grating” on the principle of interference. In the spectrum produced by refraction, the red rays are huddled together by the distorting effect of the prism through which they are transmitted.

23

Am. Jour. of Science, vol. xx. p. 36.

24

Am. Jour. of Science, vol. xx. p. 41.

25

Report of the Paris Observatory, “Astronomical Register,” Oct. 1883; and “Observatory,” No. 75.

26

Hipp. ad Phaenomena, lib. i. cap. xiv.

27

Cosmos, vol. iii. p. 272 note.

28

Am. Jour. of Science, vol. xx. p. 437.

29

Nature, vol. xxiii. p. 19.

30

An expression used by Mr. Warren de la Rue.

31

Optice, p. 107 (2nd ed. 1719.) “Author’s Monitio” dated July 16, 1717.

32

“Der grosse Mann, der edle Pedagog, Der, sich zum Ruhm, ein Heldenvolk erzogen.”

33

“Zwar sind sie an das Beste nicht gewöhnt, Allein sie haben schrecklich viel gelesen.”

34

“Zwanzig Jahre liess sich gehn

Und genoss was mir beschieden;

Eine Reihe völlig schön

Wie die Zeit der Barmeciden.”

– West. Div.

35

“Sicherlich es muss das Beste Irgendwo zu finden sein.”

36

“Dass die Welt, wie sie auch kreise,

Liebevoll und dankbar sei.”

37

“Will ich in Kunst und Wissenschaft,

Wie immer, protestiren.”

38

“An diese Religion halten wir fest, aber auf eine eigene Weise.”

39

“Was kann der Mensch im Leben mehr gewinnen,

Als dass ihm Gott-Natur sich offenbare?”

40

“Von der Société St. Simonien bitte Dich fern zu halten;” so he writes to Carlyle.

41

“Usi Natalizi, Nuziali e Funebri del Popolo Siciliano descritti da G. Pitrè.”

42

Edward, second Earl. His father, Robert Harley, first Earl, was Treasurer under Queen Anne.

43

The friend and correspondent of Dean Swift, Mrs. Delany, and other people of note in her day.

44

This criticism was passed in reference to the comic scenes in “Henry IV.” and “Henry V.”

45

A Cornish borough, now disfranchised.

46

See Eclectic Magazine for December, 1884.

47

Egypt, No. 1, 1878.

48

Egypt, No. 9, 1884.

49

See Egypt, No. 12, p, 132-133.

50

Times, September 12.

51

See Egypt, No. 12, p. 226.

52

Egypt, No. 8, 6.

53

Ibid., No. 12, 169.

54

I learn that the Committee has now been formed for the purpose of raising a statue to the memory of Schopenhauer. The following is a list of members: – Ernest Rénan; Max Müller of Oxford; Brahmane Ragot Rampal Sing; Von Benningsen, formerly President of the German Reichstag; Rudolf von Thering, the celebrated Romanist of Göttingen; Gyldea, the astronomer from Stockholm; Funger, President of the Imperial Court (Reichsgericht) of Vienna; Wilhelm Gentz of Berlin; Otto Böhtlingk of the Imperial Academy of Russia; Karl Hillebrand of Florence; Francis Bowen, Professor at Harvard College in the United States; Professor Rudolf Leuckart of Leipzig; Hans von Wolzogen of Bayreuth; Professor F. Zarncke of Leipzig; Ludwig Noiré of Mayence; and Emile de Laveleye of Liège.

55

On April 20, 1731, the English vessel Rebecca, Captain Jenkins, is visited by the coast-guards of Havanna, who accuse the captain of smuggling military goods. They find none on board, but they ill-treat him by hanging him first to the yard and fastening the cabin boy to his feet. The rope breaks, however, and they then proceed to cut off one of his ears, telling him to take it to his king. Jenkins returns to London and claims vengeance. Pope writes verses about his ear, but England did not choose to quarrel with Spain just then, and all is apparently forgotten. Eight years after, some insults offered by the Spaniards to English vessels brought up again the topic of Jenkins’s ear. He had preserved it in wadding. The sailors went about London wearing the inscription “ear for ear” on their hats. The large merchants and shipowners espoused their cause. William Pitt and the nation in general desire war with Spain, and Walpole is forced to declare it. The consequences are but too well-known. Bloodshed all over the world on land and sea. Jenkins’s ear is indeed avenged. If the English people were poetical, says Carlyle, this ear would have become a constellation like Berenice’s crown.

56

The writer of these pages had the honor of delivering the annual Oration in the Sanders Theatre of Harvard University, under the auspices of the Φ. Β. Κ. Society, on June 26, 1884. The following paper is the substance of the address then spoken, with such modifications as appeared appropriate to the present form of publication.

57

In an essay on “Pindar” in the Journal of Hellenic Studies (vol. iii.), from which some points are repeated in this paragraph, I have worked this out more in detail.

58

Saintsbury’s Short History of French Literature, p. 405.

59

In the Attic Orators, vol. ii. p. 42, I pointed out this analogy.

60

Professor Sellar’s rendering, Roman Poets of the Republic, p. 55.

61

Sir Walter Scott, Fenimore Cooper, Miss Sedgwick, and Hawthorne in his story of “The Gray Champion,” have all made use of this striking incident.

62

Elsewhere Mr. Harrison contemptuously refers to the Descriptive Sociology as “a pile of clippings made to order.” While I have been writing, the original directions to compilers have been found by my present secretary, Mr. James Bridge; and he has drawn my attention to one of the “orders.” It says that all works are “to be read not with a view to any particular class of facts but with a view to all classes of facts.”

63

Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, xxiv. part ii., p. 196.

64

Ellis, Polynesian Researches, vol. i. p. 525.

65

Journ. As. Soc. of Ben., xv. pp. 348-49.

66

Bastian, Mensch, ii. 109, 113.

67

Supernatural Religion, 2nd ed., vol. i. p. 12.

68

Dr. Henry Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 37.

69

Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii. p. 133.

70

Ibid. p. 139.

71

Ibid. p. 137.

72

Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii. p. 144.

73

Harrison contre Spencer sur la Valeur Religieuse de L’Inconnaissable, par le Cte. Goblet D’Alviella. Paris, Ernest Leroux.

74

Essays, vol. iii. pp. 293-6.