Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 132.djvu/134

128    The passages we have given are but specimens, and we will venture to say by no means exceptional specimens, of the poetry in Mr. Dowden's charming little volume. In fact nothing we have given approaches in intensity some of the "New Hymns for Solitude," or in picturesqueness some of the modern studies from the antique, say, for instance, the very fine lines on Helen or on Andromeda. But what we have given is, we take it, quite sufficient to dispel the fear of anyone who should be sufficiently faint-hearted to apprehend that modern civilization has any tendency to extinguish poetry, — nay, that it does not create at least as many poetical points of view as it tends to hide. A highly complex world will certainly be relatively deficient in massive and simple situations and groups, but it will be relatively abundant in those spiritual attitudes of the soul out of which the poetical impulse flows at least as freely as out of grand situations and heroic forms.



 From Chambers' Journal.

very curious physiological facts bearing upon the presence or absence of white colors in the higher animals have lately been adduced by Dr. Ogle. It has been found that a colored or dark pigment in the olfactory region of the nostrils is essential to perfect smell, and this pigment is rarely deficient except when the whole animal is pure white. In these cases the creature is almost without smell or taste. This, Dr. Ogle believes, explains the curious case of the pigs in Virginia adduced by Mr. Darwin, white pigs being poisoned by a poisonous root which does not affect black pigs. Mr. Darwin imputed this to a constitutional difference accompanying the dark color which rendered what was poisonous to the white-colored animals quite innocuous to the black. Dr. Ogle however observes, that there is no proof that the black pigs eat the root, and he believes the more probable explanation to be that it is distasteful to them, while the white pigs, being deficient in smell and taste, eat it and are killed. Analogous facts occur in several distinct families. White sheep are killed in the Tarentino by eating Hypericin criscum, while black sheep escape; white rhinoceroses are said to perish from eating Euphorbia candelabrum; and white horses are said to suffer from poisonous food where colored ones escape. Now it is very improbable that a constitutional immunity from poisoning by so many distinct plants should in the case of such widely different animals be always correlated with the same difference of color; but the facts are readily understood if the senses of smell and taste are dependent on the presence of a pigment which is deficient in wholly white animals. The explanation has, however, been carried a step further, by experiments shewing that the absorption of odors by dead matter, such as clothing, is greatly affected by color, black being the most powerful absorbent, then blue, red, yellow, and lastly white. We have here a physical cause for the sense-inferiority of totally white animals which may account for their rarity in nature. For few, if any, wild animals are wholly white. The head, the face, or at least the muzzle or the nose, are generally black. The ears and eyes are also often black; and there is reason to believe that dark pigment is essential to good hearing, as it certainly is to perfect, vision. We can therefore understand why white cats with blue eyes are so often deaf — a peculiarity we notice more readily than their deficiency of smell or taste.

 

 . — The Liverpool Albion says that "A Young Liberal" having written to Mr. Gladstone asking him to furnish a list of books the best calculated in his opinion to supply a knowledge of history bearing upon political questions of the present time, has received the following reply: "Sir, — Among the books you might read with advantage are 'Green's Popular History of England,' ' Hallam's Constitutional History of England,' 'Ranke's History of England,' 'Guizot's History of the Great Rebellion,' 'Sir E. May's Parliamentary History of England.' These works are generally free from the spirit of partisanship. But let me observe that no one can effectually study history for present purposes without also examining into the accounts of other countries and of ancient times. — Your faithful servant, ."