Critical Notices [pp. 582-600]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
Upon the whole, we could wish that men possessing the
weight of talents and character belonging to Professor
Ingraham, would either think it necessary to bestow a
somewhat greater degree of labor and attention upon
the composition of their novels, or otherwise, would not
think it necessary to compose them at all.
DRAPER'S LECTURE.
Introductory Lecture to a Cotiurse of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy., Delivered in tIlianpden Sid,ey College.
By John. W. Draper, M. D. Richiimond: T. W. White.
Mr. Draper's peculiar reputation is well knownand deservedly acquired. In this Introductory Lecture
he has given direct evidence of scientific attainment-of
comprehensiveness of mind, and of a thorough acquaintance with the philosophy of instruction. He has inspired us, and we have no doubt that he has'succeeded
in inspiring all his hearers, with an earnest desire to
hear what farther he shall say in the lectures which
are to come. We take the liberty of copying a passage
of unusual interest and beauty from the pages now
before us.
Knowledge, like wealth hoarded up, has its compound
interest, increasing in an almost geometrical ratio. A
single discovery in one science sheds a light on all kindred knowledge, which is reflected back again. It is
thus that modern discovery proceeds with such rapid
steps. A first investigator, groping his way in the dark,
cannot form a just idea of tlhe nature and position of
objects he may encounter, until time and circumstances
make them more familiar. Change of opinion is often
produced by more extensive information, and the
possession of one new fact at variance with received
theories, often leads to an entire reformation of scientific faith. But though our theories alter, our facts remain unchanged; and hence we ought not to be discouraged, remembering that theory is only useful so far
as it enables us to collate and reason upon fact.
How many are the triumphs which the world of
science can boast of, even in our recollection! How
much increased is the amount of all knowledge within
the present century! We have a new chemistry, a
new science of light, that has almost furnished us with
one sense more than nature intended we should have.
Astronomny has had its Laplace. Mechanics has produced its steam boats anid rail roads. Many of the
most interesting geographical problems have received
their solution-the Niger has been navigated-and the
British standard planted on the magnetic pole. The
magnet, that riddle of antiquity, has been made to tell
its secret in characters of fire. Electricity has furnished its galvanic battery. Phlysiology has developed
more of the nervous structure of man than all the
dreams of metaphysicians could have painted. Geology
has sprung from the dust and given us animals and
plants, the earliest tenants of this earth. New planets
have been found, and the periods and orbits of new
comets determined. The laws of the elementary constitution of bodies have been fixed, and the relative
weight of their ultimate atoms assigned. Botany, mineralogy, and indeed every science, has advanced with
rapid steps, and the last half century has added more
to human acquirements thani the preceding thousand
years.
On every hand philosophy still continues to push her
conquests, and discoveries crowd upon us. EHRENBERG has opened to us a new world in his use of the
microscope; those little insects, thousands of which
miight stand on a needle's point, show to us how multiplied and how minute the mechanism of the parts of
living things may be. By feeding these creatures on
the purest carmine, and then bathing them in distilled
water, he has seen through their transparent bodies
parts which might rival for complexity the organs of
the largest animals. In another branch, FARADAY has
explained all the phenomena of voltaic electricity, in a
series of experimental researches, unrivalled since the
lime when Davy demonstrated that the alkalies and
earths were nmetallic oxides. In France, DUTROCHRT
has built up the doctrine of Endosmose and capillary
attraction, which has been extended in this country,
and furnished some renmarkable results. The newly detected facts of esormorphlism and plescomorphism, are
shaking chemistry and minera,logy to their very foundation. The discovery of the mode of polarisig lighta subject upon which I propose todwell at some length,
if time permits-has given us, to use the words of an
eloquent writer, new and infinitely refined perceptions
of touch. We are enabled, with mathematical pr-ecision, and demonstrative certainty, to assign the exact
form of atoms, millions of times beyond microscopic
power. We tremble upon the brink of discovering the
elementary constitution of the material world. We
can feel as it were the molecules of light itself, that most
subtle of all fluids. We can almost perceive their sides
and their ends, and can actually control, regulate and
arrange the constituent parts of a sunbeam!
LIEBER'S M1EMORIAL.
Memorial of Francis Lieber, Professor of History and
Political Economy in the South Carolina College, relative
to Proposals for a Work on the Statistics of the United
States.
This is a Congressional Document of about seventeen
pages, and should be read by all who feel an interest in
the welfare of America. Professor Lieber has herein
laid before the Federal Legislature, with remarkable
clearness of thought, and force of lucid arrangement,
the plan of a proposed work on the Statistics of the
Union-the word Statistics to be understood in its
truest and most expanded acceptation, as a view of the
actual state of the country. In the pages before us, a
most comprehensive exhibition is afforded of all the
pointts of interest to the student of political philosophy.
Should Congress do nothing in the matter, the author of
the Memorial (of which twice the usual number of
copies have been printed,) will still have rendered his
adopted country a service of no common value, in diffusing among our citizens, by means of the document
itself, a vast amount of needful and accurate knowledge
on a subject of pre-eminent interest. Should, however,
the proposals so ably presented for consideration, be
finally adopted, a consummation to be expected as well
as desired, America will have the honor of taking the
most important step ever yet taken in aid of the most
important of sciences. There can be no doubt of this,
we think, in the mind of any person at all conversant
with the subject, who will examine the well-arranged
and extensive plan of the work in contemplation.
Professor Lieber is well known as a writer of untiring
industry, great mental activity, and extensive attainments. His first work, we believe, was entitled "Journal of my Residence in Greece," written at the instigation of the historian Niebuhr, and issued at Leipzig in
1S'23. Since then he has published "The Stranger in
Jitmerica,"a piquantly written work, abounding in various
information relative to the States-and a volume on the
subject of Education, which was submitted to the Trustees of the College of Gira-d, and which evinces a
well-grounded and philosophical knowledge of the
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