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genious person select from the unlimited store, and arrange his analogies to suit himself, and he can prove just what he likes, so far as analogy affords any proof.

We have had experience of our author's success in this respect. Let us notice still another, a crowning instance. Nothing will convince him that the Arbor Diana and other dendritic crystallizations do not illustrate the laws of vegetation, and render more probable the spontaneous production of plants from mineral matter. He seems to have been puzzled, however, with the fact, that these crystallizations simulate trees, instead of plants of the lowest order. But to his great delight, a mineral fungus has at length been produced. "In a letter of Mr. Crosse to Mr. Leithead, it is stated, that in one of his experiments there grew, in the inside of an electrified jar filled with hydrosulphuret of potash, a mineral fungus, in the shape of a common trumpetmouthed fungus which is found on trees." Mr. Weekes also by crystallization produced "a singularly beautiful electro-vegetation, a forest in miniature, which, by aid of a good lens, presented many extraordinary appearances." He allows that the fungus-looking thing is not a plant, and that the arborescence is neither a tree nor a forest, any more than the cloud upon which Polonius theorized was a camel, a weasel, or a whale. Yet they are "very like," and he insists that the cause of the resemblance must at bottom be the same. Like effects, he reasons, must betoken the same or a similar cause. Let us see. The trees which the sketcher copies with his lead-pencil, or the painter imitates in natural colors, bear a much closer resemblance to veritable trees. Have these phenomena a common root " ? Are like causes here concerned in producing the similarity of effect? The modeller with his trowel constructs from the plastic clay the perfect form of a man. Does this point to "some relation of a very interesting kind, the investigation of which may yet give us a deeper insight than we now enjoy into the mysteries" of the creation of man?

Since our author complains so much of the reception, or rather non-reception, of his new theories, by an ungrateful scientific world, we cannot forbear mentioning, at the risk of apparent ungraciousness, that no one branch of his hypothesis is new in science. To the savans, they have not the charm of novelty. The nebular theory belongs to Her

schel and Laplace. The writer's originality consists in his incorrect statement of it in a material point, and his failure to appreciate the real difficulties in the way of its application to world-making. Spontaneous generation and transmutation are too old and familiar to father upon any one in particular. Our author has the credit of omitting some of the strongest arguments that are urged in their behalf, and of pressing some of the most absurd ones. The development scheme is just that of Lamarck, with the modifications of St. Hilaire, sustained now and then by special arguments, which, we allow, these veteran naturalists never dreamed of. All these speculations, if we may judge from the general testimony of scientific men, have been repeatedly weighed in the balance of searching inquiry, and found wanting.

Still the author has claims to originality, which we shall not controvert. Among them is the declaration, that there MAY be a faith derived from his view of nature; that, "immeasurable as is our distance from God, we are still immediately regarded and cared for by him." Our author will really accomplish something new and strange, when he inverts the whole tendency of his theory, and shows that this important truth is either deducible from, or compatible with, it. Thus far, the only ground of encouragement is, that, although the individual may suffer remedilessly, the race is going on to perfection; that, when "man is transferred to the list of extinct forms," some perfected form of being may succeed him, just as we have succeeded the extinct saurian and other races.* *

Though, indeed, "the faith may not be shaken, that that which has been endowed with the power of godlike thought, and allowed to come into communion with its Eternal Author, cannot be truly lost," it is only because the views which our author has so laboriously (and, we doubt not, honestly) endeavoured to sustain cannot be proved, and will not be logi

* Somewhat novel, also, is the ground on which he "establishes the universal brotherhood and social communion of man," and strengthens the common dictates of humanity in respect to the treatment of the inferior animals. We are to love each other, not because we are brethren in the usual sense, but because of our common descent from the lower animals; and we are never to tread upon a worm, not exactly on the principle of the Bramin, who fears he might unwittingly remand the beast-impris oned soul of an unfortunate ancestor to a worse penance, but rather out of respect to our own remoter ancestors by the collateral undeveloped line!

cally carried out. So far as this scheme reflects light on the hopes of man, all, to adopt the writer's expressive language, all is indeed " gone, lost, hushed in the stillness of a mightier death than has hitherto been thought of!"

In conclusion, our author frankly admits, though he deems it hardly necessary to advert to such a fact, "that nearly all the scientific men are opposed to the theory of the Vestiges." To the general reader, it must appear strange that his assent is demanded for a scientific theory that is generally rejected by scientific men. The author has a way of his own for neutralizing the natural effect of the admission. He doubts whether the savans understand science. Since he cannot render them tributary to his purpose, his only alternative is to annihilate them, or to reduce them to insignificance. He spares them to be merely "hewers of wood, and drawers of water," and diggers after "minute facts," - useful people, no doubt, in a small way, but whose opinions are of little worth, even in the matters of their own vocation.

"As the case really stands, the ability of this class to give, at the present time, a true response upon such a subject, appears extremely challengeable. It is no discredit to them, that they are, almost without exception, engaged, each in his own little department of science, and able to give little or no attention to other parts of that vast field. From year to year, and from age to age, we see them at work, adding, no doubt, much to the known, and advancing many important interests, but, at the same time, doing little for the establishment of comprehensive views of nature. Experiments in however narrow a walk, facts of whatever minuteness, make reputations in scientific societies; all beyond is regarded with suspicion and distrust. The conse

quence is, that philosophy, as it exists amongst us, does nothing to raise its votaries above the common ideas of their time. There can, therefore, be nothing more conclusive against our hypothesis in the disfavor of the scientific class, than in that of any other section of uneducated men. There is even less; for the position of scientific men with regard to the rest of the public is such, that they are rather eager to repudiate than to embrace general views, seeing how unpopular these usually are. The reader may here be reminded, that there is such a thing in human nature as coming to venerate the prejudices which we are compelled to treat tenderly, because it is felt to be better to be consistent at the sacrifice of even judgment and conscience than to have a war always going on between the cherished and the avowed."— pp. 124, 125.

Remembering that the cobbler was allowed to dictate to Apelles in the matter of a shoe-tie, we should imagine that the men who have devoted their lives to scientific researches would be best fitted to pronounce, "each in his own little department of science," both as to the facts themselves and as to their immediate meaning or bearing. When, therefore, the unprofessional reader of the Vestiges learns that Brewster condemns its physics, Murchison and Lyell and Sedgwick its geology, that Cuvier (in advance), as well as Professor Owen, Agassiz, and others, scouts its comparative anatomy and physiology, Whewell its whole logic and philosophy, and every sound-minded man we have yet heard of, its theology and tendency, why, we ask, should not the unprofessional reader rely upon their independent testimony, in respect to facts which they are the most competent witnesses of, and inferences of which they have the best means of judging? We may go farther, and say, that, in spite of the natural bias of a special pursuit, any such man, deeply versed in a single department, is much better qualified to judge of the whole scheme, than one who, like our author, professes to possess only a superficial acquaintance with any branch of science whatever. Who but the men of research have ever established sound and comprehensive views of nature or have made stable generalizations in any branch of science? Did Newton, Herschel, Laplace, Cuvier, Davy, De Candolle, or Humboldt, give to the world mere naked facts, the germs of great views that had to fall into other minds ere they were developed or grew fecund? Although the charge of intellectual timidity" will somewhat amuse as well as surprise the philosophers, from its direct opposition to the allegations generally brought against them, it is quite too bad to denounce them at the same time as hypocrites, who habitually avow one set of opinions in deference to popular prejudices, while they cherish another, so that they become at length the dupes of their own double-dealing! It is not on this ground, let the author be assured, that the theory of progressive development finds so little favor with naturalists; but because it is really as repugnant to their reason, and contrary to their observation, as it is to the common sense of mankind, they join the world in general in rejecting it.

ART. IX. 1. The Florentine Histories. By NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI, Secretary of State to the Florentine Republic. Translated by C. EDWARDS LESTER, U. S. Consul at Genoa, &c. New York: Paine & Burgess. 1845. 2 vols. 12mo.

2. The Citizen of a Republic. By ANSALDO CEBA, a Genoese Republican of the Sixteenth Century. Translated and edited by C. EDWARDS LESTER, Translator of the Florentine Histories, &c. New York: Paine & Burgess. 1845. 12mo. pp. 190.

THESE Volumes form a portion of "The Medici Series of Italian Prose," a title fantastic enough, yet not wholly inapplicable to the Florentine novel which introduces the Series, and to the historical work of Machiavelli; but in what way suited to designate the treatise of a "Genoese republican," or the forthcoming Autobiography of Alfieri, it is difficult to perceive. But without quarrelling with Mr. Lester for exercising in his own way the paternal prerogative of naming his own offspring, though we think less parade at the baptism would have been in better taste, we are ready to acknowledge our obligation to him for introducing to the American public the valuable Florentine Histories. Not that a work of such merit, stamped with such a name, has gone a begging for an English translator; but Mr. Lester deserves the credit of being the only American who has undertaken the task.

The works which form the subject of this notice belong to a class that cannot be too well known in our country. Our people have been too much intoxicated with the prodigious success of our great experiment, to study with sufficient care either the causes of our prosperity or the dangers which assail it. So well contented are we with having outrun all former experience, that we are slow to believe that we have any thing to learn. We are the graduates of liberty, and too wise already, we think, to be taught by mere pupils in the school. This prevalent tone of exorbitant self-complacency has of course begotten the opposite extreme, and the minds of some of our best citizens best but for this have contracted a taint of despondency, at times approaching disloyalty. Of all the states of the mind, none is less suited to

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