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invited to stay with them, and remained for some weeks-being still occupied with the Chambers's Papers, leaving Aberdeen for the South towards the end of October.

Of the Papers for the People, contemplated by Page, I had myself, before the end of 1849, proposed and written one, entitled " Education of the Citizen ". It appeared in January, 1850. It dealt with a favourite topic of mine, comprising what for years I had been revolving, and had often discussed with George Walker and John Duguid Milne, viz., the analysis and classification of social elements, and the turning of this to account in the political education of the ordinary citizen. It was, perhaps, the most popular of my whole set.

The next in order of composition was entitled "Water Supply of Towns". It, too, was composed in the end of 1849, by help of materials partly obtained at the Board of Health, and still more from Clark. It was printed in December, 1850 (No. 49 of the series).

The third in order of composition, "Recent Discoveries in Astronomy," was derived in great part from the new and enlarged edition of Sir John Herschel's Treatise on Astronomy, originally published in Lardner's Cyclopædia. It dwelt more particularly upon the most recent views on comets, meteors, and sidereal astronomy generally.

The subject of "Every Day Life of the Greeks" had been mentioned as a topic, and I was engaged upon it, soon after coming to Edinburgh, in summer. Four volumes of Grote's Greece had been published by this time; but these gave only an incidental assistance. I made much use of Becker's Charikles and the current Classical Dictionary (Lemprière). I submitted the MS. to Grote, who made many corrections and emendations; and it was

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published in July, 1850 (No. 29). There was no attempt at generalization, except in the introductory dissertation upon the mental characteristics of the Greeks. Grote himself had frequently said in conversation that he meant to devote a special chapter in his history to an exhaustive view of Greek life in a methodical array. This, however, he never executed, but had so many casual references to the subject in the course of his narrative as to supply all the information ascertainable on this head.

Next followed "The Religion of the Greeks," which was much more highly speculative, and contained a discussion of the nature and sources of Grecian deification according to the views then prevalent, more being made of the powers of nature, and less of the worship of ancestry than in some of the views at present received. Grote's early volumes (I. and II.) were freely drawn upon; it being his way, however, not to commit himself to the actual evolution of the several divinities, but to describe them exactly as they were given by the Greek authorities themselves.

The paper "What is Philosophy?" is an elaborate review of all the meanings and aspects of philosophy within reach at the time, and is not materially different from the logical and scientific views held by me in later years. A conversation I had with Robert Chambers on the scope of this paper, before he had seen it in print, rather alarmed him as to its severe exclusion of something that he considered necessary for mankind to keep in view,viz., a benevolent purpose in the universe, to which he still adhered, although he had rejected the Bible as an authority, on account of its supposed misinterpretation of geological facts in the account of creation. The effect of this hesitation was to delay the appearance of the paper, and to require a good deal of explanation and apology in order to appease his reluctance.

My remaining paper, "Animal Instincts," was the

latest to be written. It was sent in at the close of the year, but, in consequence of the facts just stated, had priority in publication to the one preceding. It consisted mainly of an assertion of the substantial identity of the human and animal organisations, bodily and mental, with variations of mode and degree. That the animals, while possessing a certain amount of inborn aptitude, just as man does, have at the same time a certain extent of power derived from education and experience, is the position taken, as against the swamping of the entire animal mind under a common name "Instinct". The detailed treatment consists in a survey of human psychology, and its application to explain the animal powers, so far as the two coincide. The weak point of the paper is the attempt to force under some mode of experience the more obscure and remarkable processes of animal life, such as parturition and maternity—a mode of explanation which I now regard as incompetent and insufficient. The existence in animals of our ordinary intellectual faculties, such as memory, was fully vindicated; and Professor Owen approved of the remark that every animal that had a home must be considered as possessing memory.

During the summer, I had two important treatises put into my hands to notice for Chambers's Journal-Sydney Smith's Lectures on Moral Philosophy and Reichenbach's Researches on Animal Magnetism. came upon the world as a surprise: few persons were aware that he had composed such a course. They were delivered at the Royal Institution, London, in 1804-6; he being then a young man (born 1771). He evidently put very little value

Sydney Smith's Lectures

REVIEWS OF SYDNEY SMITH AND REICHENBACH. 215

upon them himself; but they showed that he had at one time expended both reading and study upon Mental Science. I found, on a careful perusal, various interesting points, and noted them in the article (15th June, 1850).

The other article referred to the volume of Reichenbach's remarkable researches, translated by Professor Gregory (of Aberdeen, afterwards of Edinburgh). It consisted almost necessarily of an abstract of the curious experiments in animal magnetism conducted by the author, together with the inferences drawn from them and the recondite forces supposed to be at work. The whole department thus indicated took possession, for a time, of the public mind; but, being found incapable of assimilation with existing knowledge, like so many other hyper-natural positions, it ceased to retain its interest.

Before disposing finally of the events of 1850, I may advert to the circumstance that this year included the last of my longer stays in Edinburgh, which had gone on for successive summers, five

or six years. The circle of my acquaintances

during those years comprised a well-known group whose names will recur in many historical or biographical connexions. It included George Combe, his nephew Robert Cox, Robert Chambers, John Hill Burton, Alexander Russel (of The Scotsman),

Mrs. Crowe, Dr. John Brown, his cousin Samuel Brown (surnamed the Alchemist), Patrick Macdougall, Mr. and Mrs. Stirling, the Italian refugee Ruffini, Dr. Rutherford Russell (homoeopathist), his brother Frank Russell, Professor Tait, and, of course, David Masson, who, however, had gone to London for good in 1847. I had had a two years' break in my Edinburgh visits in 1848 and 1849. In subsequent years, these visits were still frequent but short; being generally a few days at a time, either in a hotel or with Findlater, after he had settled in Edinburgh in his own house.

Winter in Bushey Heath, 1850-51.

In November of this year, I settled for the winter in a lodging at Bushy Heath, near London, on the North Road, four miles from Watford and ten miles from Marble Arch. The situation was rural and healthy; but I knew nobody, and had to spend every fourth or fifth day in an excursion by coach to friends in London. I carried with me a final engagement from the Chamberses to edit a small volume containing the Moral Philosophy of Paley, detached from his voluminous political chapters. This occupied a good many weeks of the winter; and I had, of course, many conversations

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