232 Notices respecting New Books. 



lever by which the Doctor moves his audience. His vocation is the 

 formation of a good metallurgist, and he leaves fine-spun theories of 

 human culture and advancement to those who can enjoy them. His 

 lecture is a solid substantial production ; there is something infi- 

 nitely more pleasing in this sturdy adherence to what he considers 

 to be the facts of the case, than in any affectation of philosophical 

 sentimentality ; and as long as Dr. Percy thus manfully stands by 

 his convictions, and endeavours, as far as in him lies, to enact them 

 practically, he has a claim to the respect of every lover of straight- 

 forwardness. Men, however, who take this view of things, are rarely 

 slow to affirm that it is the only view; which affirmation carries them 

 all unconsciously from the region of fact into that of fallacy. The 

 greatest mistakes of individuals, the bigotry of sects, and the ani- 

 mosity of rival theorists, are to be traced to one-sidedness, to the 

 putting of a part for the whole, to looking at an object from one 

 point of view, and denying that it possesses any other phase or cha- 

 racter than that which they discern from this point. Now that the 

 body must be clothed and nurtured is a physiological axiom which 

 nobody will feel inclined to dispute ; and as this is done through 

 the instrumentality of pounds, shillings and pence, such considera- 

 tions appear to be perfectly justifiable as incentives to exertion and 

 improvement. But we sincerely believe that the man whose theory 

 of human culture rises no higher than this, will prove defective even 

 as a practical man. It is not the love of gain, but the love of truth, 

 as incidentally remarked by Mr. Ramsay, which has produced our 

 greatest practical results. Most heartily do we sympathize with 

 those outbursts of a higher faith which shine like sunbeams here and 

 there through the discourses of most of the professors of the School 

 of Mines. They are not the outbursts of a vain enthusiasm, but 

 the aspirations of men who have encountered the difficulties of cul- 

 ture and tasted of its sweets ; and even should circumstances render 

 it necessary on their part to observe an extreme frugality in the 

 enunciation of these higher principles, our hope is that they will not 

 suffer them to decay ; and that even among their most practical 

 hearers, to borrow the concluding words of Mr. Smyth, there may 

 be some few who will not stop short at that point whence they may 

 obtain their worldly ends, but will persevere towards that goal of 

 higher knowledge which has been, and always will be, the object of 

 the noblest of mankind. 



Optical Investigations occasioned by the Total Eclipse of the Sun on 

 the 28th of July 1851. By Dr. v. Feilitzsch. Greifswald, 1852 : 

 Th. Kunike. 



The author was one of the numerous band of observers who planted 

 themselves within the moon's shadow upon the day above mentioned. 

 His place of observation was Karlskrona in Sweden. He traces the 

 doubt and mystery which have hitherto enveloped the phenomena 

 attendant upon solar eclipses to the fact, that they were observed 

 solely by astronomers, and not by physicists. This remark appears 

 to be scarcely applicable where such men as Professor Airy are con- 



