600 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[Nov. 



Rudiments of the Primary Forces of 

 Gravity, Magnetism, and Electricity, in 

 their Agency on the Heavenly Bodies, by 

 P. Murphy, Esq. With mathematical 

 astronomy Mr. Murphy has nothing to 

 do ; he doubts not astronomers are, on 

 the whole, correct enough as to the data 

 on which they estimate the magnitudes 

 and distances of the celestial bodies, and 

 calculate their orbicular and rotary mo- 

 tion. His concern is wholly with what 

 is usually styled physical astronomy 

 the causes in which the positive move- 

 ments and internal phenomena of these 

 bodies have their source. Newton's gra- 

 vitation does not satisfy him, any more 

 than it did the author himself, though it 

 seems pretty generally to have done so 

 with most or all of his disciples. The 

 truth is, astronomers, since his time, 

 have turned their attention wholly from 

 the question of causes, and confined 

 themselves rigidly to observation. It 

 is their boast to spurn speculation and 

 their ambition aspires to nothing beyond 

 the field-view of the telescope, and the 

 construction of tables. To Mr. Murphy 

 this seems a pitiful ambition he is for 

 bringing into play whatever will contri- 

 bute to the prosecution of his favourite 

 pursuit. The chemist and the electri- 

 cian have detected facts and principles 

 which to him seem capable of develop- 

 ing other mysteries. He communicates 

 his views, accordingly, to the Astrono- 

 mical Society, and Mr. South we for- 

 get his knighthood, but not his pension 

 Sir Something South carelessly an- 

 swers we know nothing about electri- 

 city. But Mr. Murphy might have 

 known he was communicating with the 

 wrong quarter. Sir James and his co- 

 terie are mere star- gazers very useful 

 observers and collectors of dry facts 

 filliping the Greenwich establishment 

 too, which requires the fillip but no 

 philosophers, nor do they wish to be, in 

 any valuable application of the term. 

 Physical astronomy is out of their de- 

 partment, and it is only for the general 

 philosopher such perhaps as Mr. Mur- 

 phy deserves to be considered to turn 

 the labours of all particular departments 

 to his own general purposes. 



Mr, Murphy has evidently given the 

 deepest consideration to the subject, but 

 he is apparently incapable of communi- 

 cating with any efficiency he does not 

 want force his own convictions. We 

 scarcely ever met with a book the pro- 

 duction of a cultivated person con- 

 structed with so little method and clear- 

 ness. He is perpetually claiming the 

 merit of discoveries, but the grounds 

 and the process are wrapt in such invo- 

 lutions of phrase, that " panting sense 

 toils after him in vain." The author 

 began to write too soon pkinly be dis- 

 covers, as he calls it, as he goes ; and 



many of the early parts of his book are 

 superseded by the later. Voltaire ob- 

 serves, says he, " II faut avouer qu'en 

 tout genre les premiers essais sont tou- 

 jours grossiers." With this conviction 

 upon him, he should have kept a more 

 vigilant eye upon his own " essais." 

 Over and over again he talks of the 

 three primary forces, on which, more or 

 less, all astronomical phenomena depend. 

 Newton's old attraction, and our mo- 

 dern magnetism and electricity. Yet, 

 at other times, this universal gravita- 

 tion is undistinguishable from mag- 

 netism, and then, again, from electri- 

 city ; and by and by, again, magnetism 

 and electricity are -pronounced identi- 

 cal, and so, of course, finally, electricity 

 is the sole operative cause. Mr. Mur- 

 phy is much too precipitate and peremp- 

 tory to gain confidence not long ago 

 he published a book denying the exist- 

 ence altogether of electricity and now 

 it is all in all. The moon, we believe 

 we represent him correctly, had nothing 

 to do with the tides now she not only 

 governs the tides, but the weather too, 

 at sea and on land he has discovered 

 such close analogies as must remove all 

 doubt. Electricity is the one cause of 

 all the sun is positive the planets 

 negative; from thence he gets light 

 thence all motion, both orbicular and 

 rotary thence, too, the ellipticity of 

 their orbits, &c. &c. Mr. Murphy must 

 write his book over again, if he hopes to 

 make any impression. There is stuff' in 

 his pages, but it is fairly smothered. 

 He may take our word for it, nobody 

 will read it in its present confused and 

 embarrassed condition. The manner 

 even is worse than the method he must 

 construct his sentences upon simpler 

 principles. It is not though^ in his 

 preface he seems to think it is the 

 inevitable consequence of the complexity 

 of his subject, but the result of his own 

 undisciplined habits of composition. 



Library of Entertaining Knowledge. 

 Vol VII. Part I. The most complete 

 and copious account of the elephant that 

 has ever been put together. The com- 

 piler has availed himself of all the most 

 recent intelligence, and books for his 

 purpose have of late abounded Shipp's 

 Memoirs, Pringle's Notes, Cowper 

 Rose's Cape of Good Hope, Ranking, 

 Colonel Welsh in addition to all the 

 older authorities within his reach. The 

 peculiarities of the animal are now well 

 understood, and, above all, the Com- 

 pany's establishments in India have fur- 

 nished facilities for correct information 

 that were never before accessible to the 

 naturalist. Evidence now quite irre- 

 sistible exists of the young sucking with 

 its mouth, and of the elephant breeding 

 in a domestic state too proud, as he 



