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Jttnb Ife 1^52.] THE LEADER. 563
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HAMLET AND THE GKHMAN ACTORS. I once had...
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Comtek Positive Philosophy. By G. H. Lew...
natural science , it is too evident that if it is already much more limited , m un certain , and less precise in physics than in astronomy , the case is still worse with Chemistry . Most frequently , the issue of any chemical action can only he known hy taking express account of the circumstances of the moment and , as it were , at the time the action is ended . . liet us now glance at the most distinguished of the philosophical properties of Chemistry , with reference to their direct bearing upon the fundamental ediication of human reason .
On this point , and in the first place , as to Method , Comte refers to the high p hilosophical utility of the arts of experiment and observation as practised in Chernistry . But there also exists in the system of positive m ethod a very important part , too little appreciated as yet , and which Chemistry had the special function of bringing to the highest degree of perfection . I do not speak of the theory of classifications ( sufficiently ill understood by chemists ) , but of the general art of rational Nomenclatures , which is altogether independent of it , and of which Chemistry by the very nature of its subject , must' present more perfect models than any other fundamental science .
Attempts have often been made , especially since the reform pf chemical lan guage , and they are still daily made , to form a systematic nomenclature in Anatomy , in Pathology , and especially in Zoology . But whatever may be the real utility of these praiseworthy efforts , they have not , and never could have beens followed by a success like that of the illustrious founders of chemical nomenclature , even if they were better conceived and more rationally directed than they have hitherto been ; for the nature of the phenomena peremptorily forbids it . It is not accidentally that chemical nomenclature is so perfect compared with all the others . In proportion as the phenomena increase in complexity , the objects are characterized by points of comparison at once more varied and less circumscribed . It consequently becomes more and more difficult ' to subject them in a manner
sufficiently expressive to a uniform system of denominations , rational and at the same time abridged , arid to have this system adapted really to facilitate the- habitual combination of ideas . Were it that the organs and tissues of living bodies only differed among themselves in one single and capital point of view ,- —that diseases were sufficiently defined by their seat , —that zoological genera , or at least families , could be always formed on one principle completely homogeneous ,- —• then , we might conceive that the sciences would immediately allow of systematic nomenclatures as rational and as efficacious as that of Chemistry . But , in reality , the-profound diversity of the numerous aspects under which they present themselves , and which are almost never susceptible of being co-ordinated uniquely under one of them , evidently renders our arriving at such perfection both
very difficult and little advantageous . Among the sciences in which the immense multitude of subjects spontaneously gives rise , at their formation , to special nomenclatures , Chemistry is the only one where , from its nature , the phenomena are sufficiently simple and uniform , and at the same time sufficiently determined , to permit of a nomenclature at once clear , rapid , and complete , and thereby mightily contributing to the general progress of the science . The direct and ruling idea in chemistry is incontestibly that of compositionj and the
peculiar object of the science , as I have shown , is to make all chemical questions resolve themselves into one pf composition . Hence , since the systematic name of each body would make its composition directly known to us , it can easily give us a general but correct notion of the ensemble of its chemical history ; and afterwards serve to us as a faithful and concise summary of that ensemble ; and from the very nature of the science , the nearer it progresses towards its final destination , the more will this double property of its nomenclature be inevitably developed .
Thus Under this important point of view , Chemistry must be considered as eminently suited to devclope , in the most special manner , one of those fundamental means of obtaining and using knowledge ( so few in number ) which together constitute the general power of the human mind . I have endeavoured to show very clearly the principal causes of the evident superiority which , in this respect , results from the very nature of chemical science . But although I required to do so , it is incontestable that the
formation of systems of rational nomenclatures in the more complex sciences must possess a real and engrossing interest , notwithstanding that they are necessarily more difficult to establish there , and less efficacious in their use . I have only wished to put beyond all doubt , on this subject , the indispensable necessity of every class whatever of positive philosophers having recourse exclusively to chemistry for extracting the true principles find general spirit of the art of scientific nomenclatures . This is just in accordance with that fundamental rule , already carried out in so many
other respects , in the Cours de Philosophic Positive—viz ., that each logical artiilcc ought to be directl y studied in that part of natural philosophy which offers the most spontaneous and most complete development of it , with t-lie ultimate object of our being able to apply it , with proper modifications , to make' more perfect the sciences less susceptible of it . The eminent philosophical properties of Chemistry are still more remarkable in respect of Doctrine than of Methpd . Its development has contribut ed much to the emancipation of human reason from theological and nictaphysical doctrines , if Chemistry , from increase of complexity , is defective in one of the two attributes which tend to that emancipation- — namel y , prevision of phenomena , it is—as a necessary and compensating consequence of the 8 " , mo fact—strikingly provided with the other—namely ,
the power of modifying them at our pleasure . Neither can co-exist with the idea of a government by providential volitions ' . Besides , Chemistry has aided in emancipating the humanmind , by rectifying our primitive notions respecting the general ec 0 norriy of terrestrial nature . Although , since Aristotle , philosophers entertained ttjepptipix that the same elementary substances essentially reproduce ^ themselves in , the ensemble of all the great operations of nature , notwithstanding their apparent independence ; nevertheless , it necessarily resulted froih the utter
impossibility of realizing this vague and metaphysical anticipation of the truth , that the universal dominion of the theological dogma of absolut ^ destruction and creation kept its hold until the great epoch of that admirable development of chemical genius which forms the principal scientific characteristic pf the last quarter of the eighteenth century . In fact , sq long as we could take no account of gases , either as the elements oi ^ the products of chemical action , a great number of remarkable phenomena inevitably encouraged the belief in the annihilation or the actual product ion
of matter in the general system of nature ; Certain discoveries were requisite to establish beyond cavil the fundamental principle of the necessarily indefinite perpetuity of all matter ; such , especially , were the decomposition of air and water , and afterwards the elementary analysis of vegetable and animal substances , and perhaps , too , at a later period , as the complement of those , the analysis of alkalies properly so called , and of earths . The tendency of those discoveries was irrevocably to substitute in all minds the positive notions of decomposition and recomposition , for the theological notions of destruction and of creation . Anew light , also , was . thereby thrown on vital phenomena . It was perceived that organic an 4 inorganic matter were not radically different ; and that vital transformations are , like all others , subordinated to chemical phenomena .
Cpmte concludes the chapter with his views respecting the divisions of chemistry . The science , he says , is still too much in the stage of its infancy , and too imperfect , to offer , of itself , a proper division . The homogeneity of its phenomena , so exceptional when contrasted with other sciences , makes a natural division of it little marked . It is clear , however , that in the meantime the division of chemistry into inorganic and organic , must be disregarded , as being irrational . Combinations cannot be classified in abstract Chemistry according to their origin , as they may be in natural historv . The two classes referred to are always mutually encroaching on each other . In reality , what is called organic chemistry is half chemical , half physiological .
Any rational division must be founded on the principle involved in the true definition of the science—that of composition and decomposition . Hence , in here applying the rule of always following the gradual complication of the phenomena , we see that , in dividing chemistry into its principal branches , we can be guided by only these two considerations . 1 st . The increase of the number of the constituent compounds ( whether mediate or immediate ) , according as the combinations formed by them are either binary or ternary , & c . 2 nd . The degree of composition ,. lower or higher , of the immediate compounds , each of which , to take for example the case of a repeated dualism , can be decomposed a greater or less number of times into two others .
It may be questioned which of those two points of view ought to pre- ? ponderate . According to Comte , the chief consideration belongs to the degree of composition , as it is a matter of more importance in the science than the multiplicity of the constituent compounds . Having closed the general considerations , Comte proceeds in subsequent lectures to treat of Inorganic Chemistry in general , and of the doctrine of Definite Proportions , and of the Electro-chemical theory in particular . In these lectures , the student will , of course , note many details which in so rapidly advancing a science as Chemistry , assume a new aspect since 1838 , when the lectures were published ; but the philosophy of Chemistry he will there find set forth in large outlines . The Lecture devoted to Organic , Chemistry is too important to be passed over in a phrase , and I will therefore devote the next paper to it . *
Comtek Positive Philosophy. By G. H. Lew...
# I havo to acknowledge , f 6 v the Oomto Subscription JTund , Gtf . from W . 'J | S . B . j and 2 a . Qd . from H . 0 ., both those being second Bubscriptioas .
Jttnb Ife 1^52.] The Leader. 563
Jttnb Ife 1 ^ 52 . ] THE LEADER . 563
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Hamlet And The Gkhman Actors. I Once Had...
HAMLET AND THE GKHMAN ACTORS . I once had a maternal unclo ( had , alas 1 vixitj ) , whose views on . thq drama were freely communicated to mo in tho high and buoyant days when live act tragedies in swelling vorso wore tho dream and occupation , of my life . He resided in Bun ^ ay , whoro ho adorned a large domestic circlo with all tho virtues of a citizen , and earned tho eternal gratitude of mankind , by his improvements in soap ! In soap ! Imagine Vivian in eonnoxion with saponaceous commerce I But biography has no delicacy , and facts are shattering to all illusions j ation of
and the fact is an X state . This freo-spoken unclo was an anticip tho Fast School of Critics . Ho snored at five act dramas , and was inert ciless to mine . Shakspenro was liia personal onomy . I think I . seo him now , rubbing his fat fingers through fxk scanty hair , as ho authoritatively delivered lumsolf of this favourite remark . " Hamlet , sir ? If Hamlet ; were produced to-morrow XCamh-t would bo d—d , sir . " After uttering that ho would relapse into his chair , complacent , authoritative , obese . I havo since hoard tho remark from others , ospocially from actors * although , in fact , no play is so popular as Bamlol ; . It amuses thousands
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 19, 1852, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19061852/page/21/
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