Ixxiii 



of sound, and the analysis of the intellectual powers, the supposed decline 

 of science in England, and the philosophy of apparitions. 



'Meliora' and the Foreign Review each contain two articles from his pen, 

 one in the latter being a notice of Dutrochet's f Observations sur Endos- 

 mose et Exosmose.' 



But it was in the North British Review that the longest series of articles 

 appeared. "We have a list before us of seventy-six in the first thirty-nine 

 parts of that quarterly serial, and we doubt whether the enumeration is 

 complete. This shows that, on an average, Sir David wrote two of these 

 literary productions for each part, and suggests the idea that he must have 

 reviewed every book of note that he read. The first Number of the North 

 British commences with an article by him on Elourens's 'Eloge Historique 

 de Cuvier ;' and further on in the same part he discusses the ' Lettres Pro- 

 vinciales' and other writings of Blaise Pascal. In the second Number he 

 describes the Earl of Rosse's great reflecting telescope ; and shortly we find 

 him engaged with such serious works as Humboldt's ' Cosmos ' or Iu"ur- 

 chison's ' Siluria.' The rival claimants for the honour of having discovered 

 Neptune divide his attention with Macaulay's 'History of England,' or 

 the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.' With Layard he takes 

 his readers to Nineveh, with Lyell he visits North America, and with Ri- 

 chardson he searches the Polar seas. The Exhibition of 1851, the Peace 

 Congress, and the British Association come in turn under his descriptive 

 notice ; or, turning from large assemblies to individual philosophers, he 

 sketches Arago, Young, or Dalton. In one Number we have " The 

 Weather and its Prognostics," and " The Microscope and its Revelations ; " 

 elsewhere he describes the xltlantic telegraph, whilst in a single article he 

 groups together "the life-boat, the lightning-conductor, and the light- 

 house." He reviews in turn Mary Somerville's ' Physical Geography,' 

 and Keith Johnston's ' Physical Atlas the History of Photography 

 engages him at one time, and at another Weld's History of our Society. 

 Under the guidance of Sir Henry Holland he investigates the curious 

 mental phenomena of mesmerism and electro-biology, and under that of 

 George Wilson he inquires into colour-blindness. He criticises Goethe's 

 scientific works, expounds De la Rive's ' Treatise on Electricity,' and 

 Arago's on Comets ; or, turning from these severer studies, he allows Hum- 

 boldt to exhibit the 'Aspects of Nature' in different lands to the multi- 

 farious readers of the Review. 



In addition to all this Sir David issued some pamphlets of a personal 

 nature — controversial writings which some objected to as unnecessarily per- 

 sistent, though it should be recorded to his honour that he was ready to 

 profit by friendly remonstrance. 



Few of his living companions will remember this Nestor in science 

 otherwise than as a venerable form full of vivacity and intelligence, 

 keenly alive not to physical questions alone, but to the various social, politi- 



TOL. XTII. / 



