Part 1
Monthly Supplement of
THE PENNY MAGAZINE
OF THE
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
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26.] July 31 to August 31, 1832
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STATUE OF JAMES WATT.
[Illustration: Statue of James Watt, to be erected in Westminster Abbey.]
The people of this country have not been ungrateful to the memory of the great improver of the steam-engine. A bronze statue has been erected by subscription at Glasgow: another, of white marble, has been placed in the Hunterian Museum in the same large commercial town; and a third, also of white marble, which is completed, is about to adorn Westminster Abbey. From the latter statue the above drawing has been taken, by permission of Mr. Chantrey, who has been judiciously selected to execute these three important works. Independently of his high excellence as a sculptor, Mr. Chantrey had the advantage of modelling Watt some time before his death. Nothing can be finer in art, or more characteristic of the philosopher, than this statue. The perfect simplicity and repose of the composition, so expressive of the calm and reflecting mind of this extraordinary man, are beyond all praise.
The public meeting, at which it was determined to erect a statue to the memory of Watt, was perhaps one of the most interesting that ever was held in the metropolis. It took place on the 18th June, 1824; and the late Lord Liverpool, then Prime Minister, presided. A foreigner who was present, M. Dupin[1], was particularly struck by the announcement from the first minister of the Crown, that the distinguished persons who met that day were assembled to pay a solemn tribute of gratitude and respect to the memory of an illustrious countryman. He says,--“The simple applications of industry, which, among the nations of antiquity, appeared unworthy of the study of philosophy, are now the final object of the most sublime theories. The mechanical arts, whose practice would have made the great geometers blush, who, like Archimedes, contributed to their advancement, have become a title of honour, in the nineteenth century, amongst the British nation.” It would be singular, indeed, if it were not so; and a minister of the Crown would be unfit for the government of our industrious community, if he did not feel that the great inventions which have grown out of our commercial superiority, and which have in a large degree created that superiority, were not eminently calculated to claim the noblest rewards that the people could bestow.
At this meeting Sir Humphry Davy moved the following resolution:--
“That the late James Watt, by his profound science, and by the original genius exhibited in his admirable inventions, has, more than any other of his contemporaries, demonstrated the practical utility of knowledge, increased the power of man over the material world, and extended the comforts and enjoyments of human life.” This resolution was seconded by Mr. Boulton, the son of Mr. Watt’s distinguished partner.
The second resolution, that the services of James Watt to the civilized world demanded a national tribute of gratitude from his own country, was proposed by Mr. Huskisson, and seconded by Sir James Macintosh. We cannot forbear to quote a passage from the speech of this philosophical orator, whose words are now heard no more with reverence and delight: “In less than half a century, from the Mississippi to the Ganges, the name of Watt has been pronounced, and the benefits of his invention have been proved. If such a vast progress has been made in so small a number of years, what hopes may we not entertain of the future;--seeing that the combination of the useful and the fine arts has spread general information amongst such a multitude of minds--that knowledge has been placed within the reach of the humblest artisan--and that this class of men, for the most part remarkable for their intelligent, ingenious, active spirit, are full of the desire of instruction.”
The third resolution, that a monument to the memory of Watt should be erected in Westminster Abbey, was proposed by Mr. Brougham, and seconded by Mr. Peel. We cannot better close this notice, than with the concluding paragraph of Mr. Brougham’s speech:--“It is to honour the rare and excellent qualities of his character and genius, that we are assembled with the intention to erect a monument to the memory of the great engineer. Not that his memory has need of a monument to become immortal, for his name will last as long as the power which he has subjected to the use of man; but we are assembled to consecrate his example in the face of the universe--and to show to all our fellow-subjects that a man of extraordinary talent cannot better employ it than in rendering services to the human race. And where could we more fitly place the monument of this great man, than within a temple of that religion which preaches peace to all men, and instruction for the poor! The Pagan temples were decorated with the statues of warriors who had spread desolation amongst the people. Let ours be adorned with the statues of men who have contributed to the triumphs of Science and of Humanity; and above all by the statue of one who, without ever having given pain to any of his fellow-creatures, has been able to accomplish works which remain a lasting honour and benefit to society.”
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Footnote 1:
Our brief notice of this meeting is taken from an account in the ‘Discours sur l’Industrie,’ &c., of this writer.
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THE FEROE ISLANDS.
In the midst of a stormy sea, and under a sky rarely enlivened by sun-shine, are situated the Feroe Islands. They are two-and-twenty in number, lying between the latitudes of 61° 15′ and 62° 21′, and extending altogether 61 miles in length from north to south, and 45 in breadth from east to west. Nothing can well be more rugged and desolate than their appearance. They consist of a crowded group of harsh steep rocks, the bases of which are separated by narrow and shallow channels of the sea, and whose sides, for the most part, are tremendous precipices, from two to three hundred fathoms high--complete walls of rock that strike the mariner with terror. Within these iron-bound coasts there are no valleys of any extent; but a few narrow dales, broken and craggy, are found between their summits, where the energies of man are hardly taxed to win a scanty supply from the soil which never exceeds four feet, and is frequently not more than eight inches in depth. This soil, moreover, is often swept away by the winds of the north, that in a moment can destroy the labour and improvement of years. These winds are indeed tremendous; they descend from the lofty hills to the shore, impelling large stones, and rolling them forward like balls; at times even tearing the turf from the sides of the hills, rolling it together like a sheet of lead, and precipitating it into the valleys. To hinder the roofs of their houses from being blown away, the poor Feroese are obliged to place boards upon them, and to throw ropes over them, the ends of which are fastened to heavy stones. Another dreadful enemy they have to contend with, is the voracious rat. These animals are so numerous, that they will sometimes destroy half a corn-field in a single night, and when they get at the sea-fowl in the crannies of the rocks, they commit such havoc that the bold fowler, who pursues his avocation at the risk of his neck, finds little left to reward his pains and perils. In one island, the church-path, which is the best and often the only road, is so steep and narrow that at funerals the corpse is fastened to a board and carried upon men’s shoulders. At another island, when the clergyman comes to visit them, which he does on Sundays as often as the weather and the sea will allow, they hoist him up the lofty steep cliffs, from his boat, by a rope, there being no other possible means of landing.
Yet in spite of these manifold difficulties and horrors, (according to Landt, a Danish pastor, who resided among them many years and who wrote an admirable account of these islands,) the Feroese are a virtuous, a civilized, and a happy people. Though obliged to struggle hard for their subsistence, which is mainly procured by the perilous occupations of fishing in their dark and stormy northern seas, and fowling among their giddy precipices, they all find time to acquire reading, writing, and arithmetic. There is not a school or a school-master in the whole group of islands; but parents instruct their own children. The worthy pastor says he found his parishioners remarkably fond of reading, well instructed in the Christian religion, and often thoroughly acquainted with the Bible. They make difficult calculations by head with facility, are good practical astronomers, and delight in the scientific game of chess, which many of them play admirably well. They are a sober people. In their long and dreary winter nights, instead of giving themselves up to the expensive and every-way pernicious excitement of drinking, they gather round their decent hearth with a book, which they read aloud by turns; or they play their favourite game, which by exercising their intellect also tends to their improvement. Whilst thus occupied, the storm may rage without--the furious ocean shake their rocky islets to the base--the night extend its long dark hours--the poor Feroese are happy in the comforts which their industry procures, and in the leisure they can so rationally employ.
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INFANT SCHOOLS.
[Early Discipline Illustrated. By Samuel Wilderspin. Westley and Davis, 1832.]
This book possesses interest of no common kind. It contains an animated account of the progress hitherto made in the establishment of infant schools, and sets forth the advantages to be derived from their still farther extension.
The picture of infancy made happy by judicious means, is a most soothing subject for contemplation; made happy too, while being trained to virtuous habits and intellectual exertion, without having its buoyancy crushed by severity, or chilled by neglect. Mr. Wilderspin has here shown that an infant school, under good management, is not a scene of joyless restraint, but one of cheerful occupation. Here the infant learns to expand into an intellectual being, and to exercise all the kindly feelings of our nature. The author appears early to have directed his attention to the subject of education. He observes, “Every reflecting mind, perhaps, has some favourite topic of thought; and mine was directed, at an early period of life, to the instruction of the young. Naturally fond of children I pitied their state, both as altogether neglected and improperly treated under existing systems, and many schemes were revolved for the improvement of their condition. I observed them in the streets, in the dwellings of their parents, and in all the ‘dame schools’ to which I could gain access; thus the conviction increased, that a new order of things was most devoutly to be desired, and that it was urged on us alike by patriotism, philanthropy, and piety.”
The systems of Bell and Lancaster, which were then coming into extensive operation, did not, in the opinion of Mr. Wilderspin, sufficiently embrace all the good that could be accomplished by education, since children are not placed in schools of that class until they are _seven_ years old. Towards children under this age his care was therefore directed. In what measure he has succeeded in his benevolent task, a reference to his book will sufficiently evince. The mode in which Mr. Wilderspin has explained his views forcibly seizes upon the attention. The work before us is written in a playful, amiable spirit; and is replete with anecdotes, tending more to bring general conviction, than twenty learned lectures on the subject.
The good to be derived from educating children under seven years old is by some deemed chimerical, while by others the species of knowledge acquired is considered worse than useless. The most sceptical cannot, we think, continue in these opinions after a perusal of the work before us.
To acquire the ability of using the mental faculties is, in itself, a blessing which cannot be too highly prized; but this should be completely subordinate to the value of moral culture, and is but an accessory object of the infant school system. Upon this important point the author of this book thus distinctly expresses himself:--
“The _permanent_ end and object is _moral_ training, for which it is the first scholastic system which has made positive provision; indeed, which could effectually do so, seeing that it is the first attempt to mould the dispositions at that very tender age, when alone they can be moulded. But it is a transcendant discovery for the well-being of society, of which the present infants are to be the future men and women, that it has been demonstrated not only practicable, but easy to do so, from two to six years of age; and with 20,000 children it has already succeeded.”
The opinion of the present Bishop of London, as given in a recent charge, is thus quoted:--
“No person who has not himself watched them, can form an adequate notion of what these institutions, when judiciously conducted, may effect in forming the tempers and habits of young children; in giving them, not so much actual knowledge as that which, at their age, is more important, the habit and facility of acquiring it; and in correcting those moral defects which neglect or injudicious treatment would soon confirm, and render incurable. The early age at which children are taken out of our national schools, is an additional reason for commencing a regular and systematic discipline of their minds and wills, as soon as they are capable of profiting by it; and that is at the very earliest opening of the understanding.”
To originate and organize infant schools, on the best plan for imparting the greatest possible degree of good, appears to be the favourite occupation of Mr. Wilderspin. He is apparently possessed of a peculiar talent for attracting the attention of children, which eminently fits him for the task he has undertaken; while he possesses an energy in the cause, which no misfortunes can damp, or difficulties vanquish.
His wife, partaking of the same spirit, fell a sacrifice to the unremitting labour of superintending a school of two hundred children, without having any other assistance than her daughter, who was then a child. The narrative of her illness and death, and of the affectionate grief of her young charge, is told with a simplicity and truth which cannot fail to reach the heart. All her numerous little pupils seemed to feel for her as if she were their parent; while this testimony of the success attendant on the culture of the kindly virtues, speaks more forcibly in favour of the system than any arguments which could be brought forward in its support. A short extract from this part of the volume will, perhaps, afford some idea of its touching interest.
“Aware that her end was approaching, she intimated this to her infant charge. Their replies discovered their warm affection: ‘We won’t part with you,’--‘We can’t let you go,’--‘We love you dearly,’--was often heard. When she told them of her exhaustion from so much talking and singing, some entreated that she would not work so hard; others promised to nurse her; and when she was confined to her room, many brought oranges, and all the little presents they could command. Indeed, in the whole course of my observation, I never met with ingratitude from children under six years of age; and how much they may be acted upon by love, those to whom reference is made amply proved.”
Subsequently Mr. Wilderspin travelled through the United Kingdoms, with the endeavour of establishing infant schools in every place where there was a sufficient population to warrant the hope of success. His glowing account of the advantages to be obtained from early education, and his persuasive arguments for its adoption, were often met by incredulity, or treated with ridicule. Undaunted by these obstacles, he determined to try the effect of practical proof, and to exhibit living witnesses of the actual benefit which might be obtained. Accordingly, in many places where arguments proved unavailing, he appealed to the more certain evidence of the senses. At one time we find him surrounded by groups of children, whom he was taking in carts from an organized school at some distance, that their proficiency might be exhibited to an unbelieving audience. The lively and graphic descriptions given of these scenes are calculated to amuse every class of readers, but they have much more than this to recommend them. It is delightful to view human nature under so pleasing an aspect. Here is no stern teacher governing school automata, drilled for exhibition, or terrified into industry, but a benevolent man, surrounded by happy beings, whom he is calling into intelligence and virtue, and whose minds and hearts he has awaked to every good impression.
In closing this book it is scarcely possible to resist the conviction, that infant education, pursued on an extended scale, is a most powerful instrument for the amelioration of our species. The enthusiasm of the amiable writer must, we hope, in some measure be reflected on his readers, and his work may, in consequence, be of extensive utility, in commanding still more powerfully the attention of the public to the subject. Much still remains to be done.
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NATURAL MAGIC.
[Letters on Natural Magic, addressed to Sir Walter Scott, Bart., by Sir David Brewster. Murray’s Family Library. London, 1832. Price 5_s._]
Natural Magic is the name given to those combinations of natural agencies, which, by the illusion or surprise which they produce, seem to us to possess supernatural power. Nor is the name an inappropriate one, though somewhat strange in sound. Magic, in the ordinary sense of the word, that is, supernatural power in human hands, exists only in the imagination; it is not a thing which has ever really been; it is a mere fancy, the offspring of ignorance and superstition, and nothing more. But if we can actually produce, by natural means, the same effects which the believers in magic say are to be achieved by the aid of spirits or other supernatural agents, we have a right to give the name of magic also to the art by which we do this--adding the epithet natural, to intimate that it is only the products of the magician’s trickery which are imitated, and not his pretended mode of operation. If the impostor who professes to raise a spectre by a charm or incantation, calls the deception a piece of magic, the philosopher who does the same thing by an ingenious arrangement of mirrors, is still entitled to give it the same name.
On this subject Sir David Brewster has here produced a learned, instructive, and amusing work. The only regret or disappointment that the reader feels is on account of the parts of the subject which are only alluded to or slightly touched upon. The examples of the wonders of science given in the present volume are only a selection from a much more abundant store of materials of the same kind. It is a selection, however, very judiciously made, and so as, if not to exhaust the subject, yet to present a view, more or less full, of each of its principal departments. First we have the illusions which affect us through the eye very largely treated of. The appearance of spectres to a brain or nervous system in a diseased or extraordinarily excited state,--the case of persons who are insensible to particular colours,--the tricks of the necromancers with concave mirrors,--the magic lantern and phantasmagoria,--the spectre of the Brocken, and the Fata Morgana,--are included, among many other things, under this head. The illusions depending on the ear, including the modern exhibition of the invisible girl, ventriloquism, the effects produced by the voice on glasses, the phenomena of echoes, &c. are considered in several of the following chapters. Then come two highly interesting chapters on mechanical feats and contrivances--such as remarkable exertions of strength, the automata of the ancients, Degennes’s mechanical peacock, Vaucanson’s duck, which ate and digested its food, Baron Kempelen’s famous automaton chess-player, Duncan’s tambouring machine, Babbage’s calculating engine, &c. Lastly, the volume closes with a rapid survey of several of the most remarkable wonders of Chemistry. The art of breathing fire, that of walking upon red-hot iron, Aldini’s incombustible dresses, the spontaneous combustion of human beings, the effects of the nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, and the very curious subject of certain elastic gases which the author himself has discovered in the cavities of gems, are some of the topics among which the reader is led on through this department.
What we have stated is enough to show what a fund both of amusement and of philosophy the book is. It is an excellent work for a mechanic’s or village library.
The following is, we think, the most extraordinary of all the author’s statements. The work, it is to be recollected, is addressed in the form of letters to Sir Walter Scott:--
One of the most remarkable and inexplicable experiments relative to the strength of the human frame, which you have yourself seen and admired, is that in which a heavy man is raised with the greatest facility, when he is lifted up the instant that his own lungs and those of the persons who raise him are inflated with air. This experiment was, I believe, first shown in England a few years ago by Major H., who saw it performed in a large party at Venice under the direction of an officer of the American Navy. As Major H. performed it more than once in my presence, I shall describe as nearly as possible the method which he prescribed. The heaviest person in the party lies down upon two chairs, his legs being supported by the one and his back by the other. Four persons, one at each leg, and one at each shoulder, then try to raise him, and they find his dead weight to be very great, from the difficulty they experience in supporting him. When he is replaced in the chair, each of the four persons takes hold of the body as before, and the person to be lifted gives two signals by clapping his hands. At the first signal he himself and the four lifters begin to draw a long and full breath, and when the inhalation is completed, or the lungs filled, the second signal is given for raising the person from the chair. To his own surprise and that of his bearers, he rises with the greatest facility, as if he were no heavier than a feather. On several occasions I have observed that when one of the bearers performs his part ill, by making the inhalation out of time, the part of the body which he tries to raise is left as it were behind. As you have repeatedly seen this experiment, and have performed the part both of the load and of the bearer, you can testify how remarkable the effects appear to all parties, and how complete is the conviction, either that the load has been lightened, or the bearer strengthened by the prescribed process.