History of Civilization in England, Vol. 2 of 3

1126

Hence the removal of a great source of error; since it is now understood that in dicotyledons alone can age be known with certainty. Henslow's Botany, p. 243: compare Richard, Eléments de Botanique, p. 159, aphorisme xxiv. On the stems of endogenous plants, which, being mostly tropical, have been less studied than the exogenous, see Lindley's Botany, vol. i. pp. 221–236; where there is also an account, pp. 229 seq., of the views which Schleiden advanced on this subject in 1839.

1127

On the arrangement of the leaves, now called phyllotaxis, see Balfour's Botany, p. 92; Burdach's Physiologie, vol. v. p. 518.

1128

The classification by cotyledons has been so successful, that, ‘with very few exceptions, however, nearly all plants may be referred by any botanist, at a single glance, and with unerring certainty, to their proper class; and a mere fragment even of the stem, leaf, or some other part, is often quite sufficient to enable him to decide this question.’ Henslow's Botany, p. 30. In regard to some difficulties still remaining in the way of the threefold cotyledonous division of the whole vegetable world, see Lindley's Botany, vol. ii. pp. 61 seq.

1129

Mr. Swainson (Study of Natural History, p. 356) says ‘mineralogy, indeed, which forms but a part of chemistry.’ This is deciding the question very rapidly; but in the meantime, what becomes of the geometrical laws of minerals? and what are we to do with that relation between their structure and optical phenomena, which Sir David Brewster has worked out with signal ability?

1130

The difficulties introduced into the study of minerals by the discovery of isomorphism and polymorphism, are no doubt considerable; but M. Beudant (Minéralogie, Paris, 1841, p. 37) seems to me to exaggerate their effect upon ‘l'importance des formes crystallines.’ They are much more damaging to the purely chemical arrangement, because our implements for measuring the minute angles of crystals are still very imperfect, and the goniometer may fail in detecting differences which really exist; and, therefore, many alleged cases of isomorphism are probably not so in reality. Wollaston's reflecting goniometer has been long considered the best instrument possessed by crystallographers; but I learn from Liebig and Kopp's Reports, vol. i. pp. 19, 20, that Frankenheim has recently invented one for measuring the angles of ‘microscopic crystals.’ On the amount of error in the measurement of angles, see Phillips's Mineralogy, 1837, p. viii.

1131

He says, ‘depuis plus de vingt ans que je m'occupe de cet objet.’ Romé de Lisle, Cristallographie, ou Description des Formes propres à tous les Corps du Règne Minéral, Paris, 1783, vol. i. p. 91.

1132

See his Essai de Cristallographie, Paris, 1772, p. x.: ‘un de ceux qui m'a le plus frappé ce sont les formes régulières et constantes que prennent naturellement certains corps que nous désignons par le nom de cristaux.’ In the same work, p. 13: ‘il faut nécessairement supposer que les molécules intégrantes des corps ont chacune, suivant qui lui est propre, une figure constante et déterminée.’ In his later treatise (Cristallographie, 1783, vol. i. p. 70), after giving some instances of the extraordinary complications presented by minerals, he adds: ‘Il n'est donc pas étonnant que d'habiles chimistes n'aient rien vu de constant ni de déterminé dans les formes cristallines, tandis qu'il n'en est aucune qu'on ne puisse, avec un peu d'attention rapporter à la figure élémentaire et primordiale dont elle dérive.’ Even Buffon, notwithstanding his fine perception of law, had just declared, ‘qu'en général la forme de cristallisation n'est pas un caractère constant, mais plus équivoque et plus variable qu'aucun autre des caractères par lesquels on doit distinguer les minéraux.’ De Lisle, vol. i. p. xviii. Compare, on this great achievement of De Lisle's, Herschel's Nat. Philos. p. 239: ‘he first ascertained the important fact of the constancy of the angles at which their faces meet.’

1133

The first work of Haüy appeared in 1784 (Quérard, France Littéraire, vol. iv. p. 41); but he had read two special memoirs in 1781. Cuvier, Eloges, vol. iii. p. 138. The intellectual relation between his views and those of his predecessor must be obvious to every mineralogist; but Dr. Whewell, who has noticed this judiciously enough, adds (Hist. of the Induc. Sciences, vol. iii. pp. 229, 230): ‘Unfortunately Romé de Lisle and Haüy were not only rivals, but in some measure enemies… Haüy revenged himself by rarely mentioning Romé in his works, though it was manifest that his obligations to him were immense; and by recording his errors while he corrected them.’ The truth, however, is, that so far from rarely mentioning De Lisle, he mentions him incessantly; and I have counted upwards of three hundred instances in Haüy's great work, in which he is named, and his writings are referred to. On one occasion he says of De Lisle, ‘En un mot, sa cristallographie est le fruit d'un travail immense par son étendue, presque entièrement neuf par son objet, et très-précieux par son utilité.’ Haüy, Traité de Minéralogie, Paris, 1801, vol. i. p. 17. Elsewhere he calls him, ‘cet habile naturaliste; ce savant célèbre,’ vol. ii. p. 323; ‘ce célèbre naturaliste,’ vol. iii. p. 442; see also vol. iv. pp. 51, &c. In a work of so much merit as Dr. Whewell's, it is important that these errors should be indicated, because we have no other book of value on the general history of the sciences; and many authors have deceived themselves and their readers, by implicitly adopting the statements of this able and industrious writer. I would particularly caution the student in regard to the physiological part of Dr. Whewell's History, where, for instance, the antagonism between the methods of Cuvier and Bichat is entirely lost sight of, and while whole pages are devoted to Cuvier, Bichat is disposed of in four lines.

1134

‘Haüy est donc le seul véritable auteur de la science mathématique des cristaux.’ Cuvier, Progrès des Sciences, vol. i. p. 8; see also p. 317. Dr. Clarke, whose celebrated lectures on mineralogy excited much attention among his hearers, was indebted for some of his principal views to his conversations with Haüy: see Otter's Life of Clarke, vol. ii. p. 192.

1135

See an admirable statement of the three forms of decrement, in Haüy, Traité de Minéralogie, vol. i. pp. 285, 286. Compare Whewell's Hist. of the Induc. Sciences, vol. iii. pp. 224, 225; who, however, does not mention Haüy's classification of ‘décroissemens sur les bords,’ ‘décroissemens sur les angles,’ and ‘décroissemens intermédiaires.’

1136

And, as he clearly saw, the proper method was to study the laws of symmetry, and then apply them deductively to minerals, instead of rising inductively from the aberrations actually presented by minerals. This is interesting to observe, because it is analogous to the method of the best pathologists, who seek the philosophy of their subject in physiological phenomena, rather than in pathological ones; striking downwards from the normal to the abnormal. ‘La symétrie des formes sous lesquelles se présentent les solides que nous avons considérés jusqu'ici, nous a fourni des données pour exprimer les lois de décroissemens dont ces solides sont susceptibles.’ Haüy, Traité de Minéralogie, vol. i. p. 442; compare vol. ii. p. 192.

1137

‘Un coup d'œil peu attentif, jeté sur les cristaux, les fit appeler d'abord de purs jeux de la nature, ce qui n'étoit qu'une manière plus élégante de faire l'aveu de son ignorance. Un examen réfléchi nous y découvre des lois d'arrangement, à l'aide desquelles le calcul représente et enchaîne l'un à l'autre les résultats observés; lois si variables et en même temps si précises et si régulières; ordinairement très-simples, sans rien perdre de leur fécondité.’ Haüy, Minéralogie, vol. i. pp. xiii. xiv. Again, vol. ii. p. 57, ‘notre but, qui est de prouver que les lois d'où dépend la structure du cristal sont les plus simples possibles dans leur ensemble.’

1138

On the remarkable power possessed by crystals, in common with animals, of repairing their own injuries, see Paget's Pathology, 1853, vol. i. pp. 152, 153, confirming the experiments of Jordan on this curious subject: ‘The ability to repair the damages sustained by injury … is not an exclusive property of living beings; for even crystals will repair themselves when, after pieces have been broken from them, they are placed in the same conditions in which they were first formed.’

1139

‘M. Pinel a imprimé une marche nouvelle à l'étude de la folie… En la rangeant simplement, et sans différences aucunes, au nombre des autres dérangemens de nos organes, en lui assignant une place dans le cadre nosographique, il fit faire un pas immense à son histoire.’ Georget, de la Folie, Paris, 1820, p. 69. In the same work, p. 295, ‘M. Pinel, le premier en France, on pourrait dire en Europe, jeta les fondemens d'un traitement vraiment rationnel en rangeant la folie au nombre des autres affections organiques.’ M. Esquirol, who expresses the modern and purely scientific view, says in his great work (Des Maladies Mentaes, Paris, 1838, vol. i. p. 336), ‘L'aliénation mentale, que les anciens peuples regardaient comme une inspiration ou une punition des dieux, qui dans la suite fut prise pour la possession des démons, qui dans d'autres temps passa pour une œuvre de la magie; l'aliénation mentale, dis-je, avec toutes ses espèces et ses variétés innombrables, ne diffère en rien des autres maladies.’ The recognition of this he expressly ascribes to his predecessor: ‘grâce aux principes exposés par Pinel.’ p. 340. Pinel himself clearly saw the connexion between his own opinions and the spirit of the age: see Pinel, Traité Médico-Philosophique sur l'Aliénation Mentale, p. xxxii.: ‘Un ouvrage de médecine, publié en France à la fin du dix-huitième siècle, doit avoir un autre caractère que s'il avoit été écrit à une époque antérieure.’

1140

Comp. Mém. de Ségur, vol. i. p. 23, with the Introduction to Des Réaux, Historiettes, vol. i. p. 34. A good illustration of this is, that the Prince de Montbarey, in his Memoirs, gently censures Louis XV., not for his scandalous profligacy, but because he selected for his mistresses some women who were not of high birth. Mém. de Montbarey, vol. i. p. 341, and see vol. iii. p. 117.

1141

And that too even on such a subject as anatomy. In 1768, Antoine Petit began his anatomical lectures in the great amphitheatre of the Jardin du Roi; and the press to hear him was so great, that not only all the seats were occupied, but the very window-ledges were crowded. See the animated description in Biog. Univ. vol. xxxiii. p. 494.

1142

Dr. Thomson (History of Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 169) says of Fourcroy's lectures on chemistry, which began in 1784: ‘Such were the crowds, both of men and women, who flocked to hear him, that it was twice necessary to enlarge the size of the lecture-room.’ This circumstance is also mentioned in Cuvier, Eloges, vol. ii. p. 19.

1143

In 1779, it was remarked that ‘les séances publiques de l'Académie Française sont devenues une espèce de spectacle fort à la mode:’ and as this continued to increase, the throng became at length so great, that in 1785 it was found necessary to diminish the number of tickets of admission, and it was even proposed that ladies should be excluded, in consequence of some uproarious scenes which had happened. Grimm et Diderot, Correspond. Lit. vol. x. p. 341, vol. xiv. pp. 148, 149, 185, 251.

1144

Goldsmith, who was in Paris in 1755, says with surprise, ‘I have seen as bright a circle of beauty at the chemical lectures of Rouelle, as gracing the court of Versailles.’ Prior's Life of Goldsmith, vol. i. p. 180; Forster's Life of Goldsmith, vol. i. p. 65. In the middle of the century, electricity was very popular among the Parisian ladies; and the interest felt in it was revived several years later by Franklin. Compare Grimm, Correspondance, vol. vii. p. 122, with Tucker's Life of Jefferson, vol. i. pp. 190, 191. Cuvier (Eloges, vol. i. p. 56) tells us that even the anatomical descriptions which Daubenton wrote for Buffon were to be found ‘sur la toilette des femmes.’ This change of taste is also noticed, though in a jeering spirit, in Mém. de Genlis, vol. vi. p. 32. Compare the account given by Townsend, who visited France in 1786, on his way to Spain: ‘A numerous society of gentlemen and ladies of the first fashion meet to hear lectures on the sciences, delivered by men of the highest rank in their profession… I was much struck with the fluency and elegance of language with which the anatomical professor spoke, and not a little so with the deep attention of his auditors.’ Townsend's Journey through Spain, vol. i. p. 41: see also Smith's Tour on the Continent in 1786, vol. i. p. 117.

1145

In a letter written in 1756, it is said, ‘Mais c'est peine perdue aujourd'hui que de plaisanter les érudits; il n'y en a plus en France.’ Grimm, Correspond. vol. ii. p. 15. In 1764, ‘Il est honteux et incroyable à quel point l'étude des anciens est négligée.’ vol. iv. p. 97. In 1768, ‘Une autre raison qui rendra les traductions des auteurs anciens de plus en plus rares en France, c'est que depuis long temps on n'y sait plus le Grec, et qu'on néglige l'étude du Latin tous les jours davantage.’ vol. vi. p. 140. Sherlock (New Letters from an English Traveller, London, 1781, p. 86) says, ‘It is very rare to meet a man in France that understands Greek.’ In 1785, Jefferson writes from Paris to Madison, ‘Greek and Roman authors are dearer here than, I believe, any where in the world; nobody here reads them, wherefore they are not reprinted.’ Jefferson's Correspond. vol. i. p. 301. See further, on this neglect of the ancients, a significant precursor of the Revolution, Mém. de Montbarey, vol. iii. p. 181; Villemain, Littérature au XVIIIe Siècle, vol. iii. pp. 243–248; Schlosser's Eighteenth Century, vol. i. p. 344.

1146

For further evidence of the popularity of physical knowledge, and of its study, even by those who might have been expected to neglect it, see Mém. de Roland, vol. i. pp. 115, 268, 324, 343; Mém. de Morellet, vol. i. p. 16; Dupont de Nemours, Mém. sur Turgot, pp. 45, 52, 53, 411; Mém. de Brissot, vol. i. pp. 62, 151, 319, 336, 338, 357; Cuvier, Progrès des Sciences, vol. i. p. 89.

1147

A celebrated writer has well said, though in a somewhat different point of view, ‘Il ne peut y avoir dans les sciences morales, pas plus que dans les sciences physiques, ni maîtres, ni esclaves, ni rois, ni sujets, ni citoyens, ni étrangers.’ Comte, Traité de Législation, vol. i. p. 43.

1148

The remarks which Thomas made upon Descartes in 1765, in an éloge crowned by the Academy, illustrate the opinions which, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, were becoming rapidly diffused in France. See the passage beginning ‘O préjugés! ô ridicule fierté des places et du rang!’ &c. Œuvres de Descartes, vol. i. p. 74. Certainly no one would have used such language, on such an occasion, thirty years earlier. So, too, the Count de Ségur says of the younger nobles before the Revolution, ‘nous préférions un mot d'éloges de D'Alembert, de Diderot, à la faveur la plus signalée d'un prince.’ Mém. de Ségur, vol. i. p. 142: see also vol. ii. p. 46.

1149

Among many other illustrations which might be given of this distinction of classes by dress, see Monteil, Hist. des divers Etats, vol. vii. pp. 7–10; and Tallemant des Réaux, Historiettes, vol. i. p. 36 note.

1150

In August 1787, Jefferson writes from Paris (Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 224): ‘In society, the habit habillé is almost banished, and they begin to go even to great suppers in frock: the court and diplomatic corps, however, must always be excepted. They are too high to be reached by any improvement. They are the last refuge from which etiquette, formality, and folly will be driven. Take away these, and they would be on a level with other people.’ Jefferson was a statesman and a diplomatist, and was well acquainted with his profession. The change, however, which he noticed, had been coming on some years earlier. In a letter written in May 1786, it is said: ‘Il est rare aujourd'hui de rencontrer dans le monde des personnes qui soient ce qu'on appelle habillées. Lee femmes sont en chemise et en chapeau, les hommes en froc et en gilet.’ Grimm, Correspond. vol. xiv. p. 485; and on the increased simplicity of attire in 1780, see vol. xi. pp. 141, 142. Ségur, who witnessed these changes, and was much displeased by them, says of their advocates, ‘ils ne voyaient pas que les frocs, remplaçant les amples et imposans vêtemens de l'ancienne cour, présagaient un penchant général pour l'égalité.’ Mém. de Ségur, vol. i. p. 131. Soulavie (Règne de Louis XVI, vol. vi. p. 38) observes, that ‘les grands, vers les approches de la révolution, n'avoient plus que des habits simples et peu coûteux;’ and that ‘on ne distingua plus une duchesse d'une actrice,’ p. 43: see also an extract from Montjoye, in Alison's History, vol. i. pp. 352, 353. Compare Mém. sur Marie-Antoinette, vol. i. pp. 226, 372, vol. ii. p. 174, and Mém. de Madame au Hausset, introduc. p. 17.

1151

‘Les personnes du premier rang et même d'un âge mûr, qui avaient travaillé toute leur vie pour obtenir les ordres du roi, preuve de la plus haute faveur, s'habituèrent à en cacher les marques distinctives sous le froc le plus simple, qui leur permettait de courir à pied dans les rues et de se confondre dans la foule.’ Mém. de Montbarey, vol. iii. pp. 161, 162. Another alteration of the same tendency is worth recording. The Baroness d'Oberkirch, who revisited Paris in 1784, remarked, on her arrival, that ‘gentlemen began about this time to go about unarmed, and wore swords only in full dress… And thus the French nobility laid aside a usage which the example of their fathers had consecrated through centuries.’ D'Oberkirch's Memoirs, Lond. 1852, vol. ii. p. 211.

1152

A striking instance of which was, moreover, seen in the number of mésalliances, which first became frequent about the middle of the reign of Louis XV. Compare Mém. de Montbarey, vol. iii. pp. 116, 156, 157; Lacretelle, Dix-huitième Siècle, vol. iii. p. 220.

1153

‘Nous commençâmes aussi à avoir des clubs: les hommes s'y réunissaient, non encore pour discuter, mais pour dîner, jouer au wisk, et lire tous les ouvrages nouveaux. Ce premier pas, alors presque inaperçu, eut dans la suite de grandes, et momentanément de funestes conséquences. Dans le commencement, son premier résultat fut de séparer les hommes des femmes, et d'apporter ainsi un notable changement dans nos mœurs: elles devinrent moins frivoles, mais moins polies; plus fortes, mais moins aimables: la politique y gagna, la société y perdit.’ Mém. de Ségur, vol. ii. p. 28. By the spring of 1786, this separation of the sexes had become still more marked; and it was a common complaint, that ladies were obliged to go to the theatre alone, men being at their clubs. See the very curious observations in Grimm, Correspond. vol. xiv. pp. 486–489, where there is also a notice of ‘le prodigieux succès qu'a eu l'établissement des clubs à l'anglaise.’ See also, on the diminished attention paid to women, Williams's Letters from France, vol. ii. p. 80; 3rd edit. 1796.

1154

The remarks of Georgel appear to apply to the political clubs only: ‘A Paris les assemblées de nouvellistes, les clubs qui s'étoient formés à l'instar de ceux des Anglais, s'expliquaient hautement et sans retenue sur les droits de l'homme, sur les avantages de la liberté, sur les grands abus de l'inégalité des conditions. Ces clubs, trop accrédités, avoient commencé à se former en 1784.’ Mém. de Georgel, vol. ii. p. 310.

1155

‘Le lieutenant de police fit fermer le club nommé Club du Salon; ordre arbitraire et inutile: ce club alors était composé de personnes distinguées de la noblesse ou de la haute bourgeoisie, ainsi que des artistes et des hommes de lettres les plus considérés. Cette réunion offrait, pour la première fois, l'image d'une égalité qui devient bientôt, plus que la liberté même, le vœu le plus ardent de la plus grande partie de la nation. Aussi le mécontentement produit par la clôture de ce club fut si vif, que l'autorité se crut obligée de la rouvrir.’ Mém. de Ségur, vol. iii. pp. 258, 259. On the increase of these clubs from 1787 to 1789, compare Du Mesnil, Mém. sur Le Brun, p. 148; Mém. de Lafayette, vol. i. pp. 312, 322, 391, 434, vol. ii. p. 9; Barruel, Hist. du Jacob. vol. i. p. 40, vol. ii. p. 310, vol. v. pp. 101, 168; Thiers, Hist. de la Révolution, vol. i. p. 36, Paris, 1834.

1156

Mem. of Franklin, vol. ii. pp. 14 seq.; and Mem. of Jefferson, vol. i. pp. 17–22, where the passages are given which Congress altered.

1157

Ségur (Mém. vol. i. p. 111) says that his father had been frequently told by Maurepas that public opinion forced the government, against its own wishes, to side with America. Compare Mém. de Georgel, vol. iv. p. 370; and Flassan, Diplomatie Française, vol. vii. p. 166.

1158

The news of which soon reached England. In January 1777, Burke writes (Works, vol. ii. p. 394), ‘I hear that Dr. Franklin has had a most extraordinary reception at Paris from all ranks of people.’ Soulavie (Règne de Louis XVI, vol. ii. p. 50) says, ‘J'ai vu Francklin devenir un objet de culte.’ See also, on his popularity, Mém. d'Epinay, vol. iii. p. 419.

1159

Flassan, Diplomatie Française, vol. vii. p. 159; Life of Franklin, by Himself, vol. ii. pp. 60, 61; Mahon's Hist. of England, vol. vii. pp. 197, 198.

1160

The sneering letter written from Paris by Lord Stormont, as early as December 1774 (Adolphus's George III. vol. ii. p. 316), should be compared with Lafayette, Mémoires, vol. i. pp. 24, 169, 229; Dutens, Mém. d'un Voyageur, vol. ii. p. 317; Mém. de Ségur, vol. i. p. 149; and Schlosser's Eighteenth Century, vol. v. p. 175.

1161

De Staël sur la Révolution, vol. i. p. 88; Mém. de Montbarey, vol. iii. pp. 134, 186; Mém. de Ségur, vol. i. p. 277; Campan, Mém. de Marie Antoinette, vol. i. p. 233, vol. iii. pp. 96, 116; Soulavie, Règne de Louis XVI, vol. ii. pp. xxiv. li. iii.; Dumont, Souvenirs sur Mirabeau, p. 176; Mém. de Du Hausset, introduc. p. 40; Mém. de Genlis, vol. vi. p. 57; Jefferson's Mem. and Correspond. vol. i. p. 59; and Maitland's speech, in Parl. Hist. vol. xxx. pp. 198, 199; also the remarks of the Duke of Bedford, vol. xxxi. p. 663.

1162

Lamartine, Hist. des Girondins, vol. i. p. 46. Dumont (Souvenirs, p. 97) calls this ‘une idée américaine;’ and see to the same effect, Mém. de Lafayette, vol. i. pp. 193, 268, 269, 416, vol. ii. pp. 139, 140; Jefferson's Correspond. vol. i. p. 90; Barruel, Hist. du Jacobinisme, vol. v. p. 311. The influence which the American Revolution exercised over the mind of Lafayette is noticed by Bouillé, his cousin and his enemy. Mém. de Bouillé, vol. i. p. 102, vol. ii. pp. 131, 183.