MODEEN MYSTICISM AND MODEEN SCIENCE. f 285 



no claim to them. Surprisingly little need be done to acquire 

 this title, under certain conditions of favour and position. 

 The boldest use, or misuse (no matter which), of scientific 

 terms often suffices. That admirable work of fiction, the 

 Last of the Barons, contains as few who read this need be 

 reminded some allusion to a primitive steam-engine. The 

 illustrious author, in delineating the character of Adam 

 Warner, endeavours to accomplish the difficult task (one, 

 by the way, in which no author has yet thoroughly succeeded) 

 of illustrating the mental abstractedness of one deeply 

 merged in the boundless ocean of physical discovery. 



With true artist's perception, Bulwer felt the need of 

 dealing less vaguely with this case than is the common habit, 

 the common need of authors. He desires to create, as best 

 he may, a primitive steam-engine. He knows that the func- 

 tion of latent heat in some way has reference to steam ; so 

 incorporates the words latent heat with the weft and woof of 

 Adam Warner's discourse. 



Pausing now to analyse the effect which this delinea- 

 tion conveys, the result will be curious and instructive. To 

 the uninformed in the matter of steam-engines and physical 

 science, the cleverness of intent will alone be apparent : the 

 whole will pass as a good scene of word-painting. To the 

 student of physical science, the entire misapprehension of the 

 very nature and meaning of latent heat appears as a blot on 

 the fiction. To his apprehension, the harmony of construc- 

 tiveness is violated. 



His shock is comparable to what would be generally felt, 

 had the author, in some delineation of scenery, represented 

 oak trees as producing apples, or cucumber plants blooming 

 with roses ; or had he depicted the Horatian monster- 



' Humane capiti cervicem pictor equinam 

 Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas, 

 Undique collatis membris ut turpiter atrum 

 Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne, 

 Spectatum admissi risum teneatia amici V 



