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"How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old!"

wooden walls between the fleets of Sebas-exposed by a refusal, and declared that the topol and the palaces of Stamboul; but still responsibility of the war which must be the she maintained peace. At Vienna, in Con- consequence of that refusal would REST ON stantinople, and at St. Petersburg, she THE EMPEROR." When Austria, bound to reasoned and pleaded with the wrongdoer. Russia by many ties, can thus write; when The butchery of Sinope thrilled her with Prussia, trammeled by the sympathies of indignant horror, but still she clung to peace. relationship and vicinage, can thus condemn; The duplicity of the Czar was unveiled step who can doubt where the justice of the war by step, till at last one of two courses only lies? Proclaim aloud the dogmas of the remained-she must draw the sword, or Peace Society, if you will. Tell us that abrogate her position as a secular power, nations have neither rights nor duties, cast away the right to self-defence and the neither privileges nor sympathies; that indedefence of justice, despise alike her own pendence is not worth a thought, and that interests and the claims of her ally, and liberty is but an idle toy; that patriotism, deny both the principles of reason and the national or philanthropic, is but the sinful dictates of generosity. Nobly, wisely, and lust of an unregenerate heart. Brand, if solemnly she chose the former alternative: you will, Spartan Leonidas and the 300 she refused to adopt the doctrines of fatalism, heroes of Thermopyla as men of blood; and to expect Providence to do that for her Quintus Curtius, as he leaped into the yawnwhich she refused to do for herself. She ing gulf, Caius Mucius, as he held his hand had tried moral means to the utmost, but in the scorching flame, and him of whom she knew that physical force must be met the poet sings,with physical weapons, and she shrunk not from the contest. She could not understand those good Samaritans, who could watch as fools and madmen. Consign Cromwell calmly watch-the thief and assassin despoil and Hampden, Tell and Washington, Kosand wound their brethren, without an attempt ciusko and Kossuth, to eternal infamy. Try to save them; she refused to adopt that to persuade us that Britons ever should be strange benevolence which will staunch for slaves, alike refusing to earn one line of a moment the bleeding death-wound which Magna Charta by their blood, or to resist it would not prevent. On February 27, the armadas of spiritual and the autocrats 1854, England, jointly with France, de- of civil despotism and barbarianism. But, manded of Nicholas that within six days oh! insult not both Deity and man by telling after the arrival of their summons, an assur- us that justice walks hand in hand with ance should be given that he would evacuate oppression; that invasion is a virtue in the the principalities by the 1st of May: the Czar, while defence is a crime in a Saxon or answer he condescended to give was, that a Turk. Tell us, if you please, that the "the Emperor had no reply to make!" Bible forbids us to resist evil; but asperse Listen to the opinions of other states. On not its sacred pages by calling good evil, and the 4th of March, Lord Westmoreland writes evil good. We believe our opponents honest, from Vienna-"Count Buol has written a but we are not the less honest ourselves; strong letter to be communicated to Count and, believing as we do, we solemnly_call Nesselrode in support of the summons ad- Deity itself to witness the purity of Engdressed by your lordship and the French land's motives, and the justice of her cause. On the same day, Lord Not in the spirit of fanaticism, but in that Bloomfield writes from Berlin: - "Baron of humble reverence, we declare our conManteuffel has just informed me that His sciences clear in this matter. We appeal to (Prussian) Majesty immediately ordered him the God of Battles, who nerved the arm of to address an instruction in the sense desired David, and the hands of Sampson; to Him by Her Majesty's government. This in- who bade his sun to stand still while Joshua struction, he said, was sent to St. Peters-smote the kings of the Amorites in defence burgh last night, by post, and was drawn of Israel's feeble ally, Gideon, to plead our very pressing language. It urged the cause; and we pray solemnly, trustfully, and Russian government to consider the dangers earnestly," May God defend the right!" to which the peace of the world would be There is one other point deserving notice.

government."

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The Vienna note of August, 1853, was accepted by the Czar, but modified by the Porte; England and the other great powers adopted those modifications, but Nicholas

ORIGINAL NOTE.

"If at all times the Emperors of Russia have shown their active solicitude for the maintenance of the immunities and privileges of the Orthodox Greek Church in the Ottoman empire, the Sultans have never refused to confirm them anew,..." &c.

"H. M. the Sultan.... has deigned to take into serious consideration the representations of H. E. the Prince Menschikoff, 99 &c.

"The undersigned has consequently received the order to declare by the present that the government of H. M. the Sultan will remain faithful to the letter and the spirit of the stipulations of the treaties of Kainardji and of Adrianople, relative to the protection of christian worship; and that H. M. regards it as a point of honour, ." &c.

....

... moreover, to allow the Greek worship to participate in a spirit of high justice in the advantages conceded to other Christians by convention or special agreement," &c. Now, every one of these amendments vindicates the independence of the Porte, and clears up a difficulty; they were the result of much deliberation in the divan, which, but for the strong advice of the mediating powers, would have rejected the note in toto. The whole note was, in reality, an extraordinary blunder;-well might Russia accept it so eagerly, for it conceded all she aimed at; well might Turkey pause, for it laid her crouching at the foot of the Czar. In its original form, the vagueness of the language would not have required the astuteness of Russian diplomacy in order to have construed it into a plain acknowledgment of the Czar's right to interfere "actively" in all matters connected with the position and privileges of the Greek subjects of the Porte; it in fact placed the sceptre of the Sultan in the hands of Russia, and yielded up to her the whole power of active rule. The modifications are courteous and civil, though firm; the Czar could not by possibility object to anything in their letter, but, at the same time, he could not bear to have the distinction clearly

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"The undersigned has consequently received the order to declare by the present that the government of H. M. the Sultan will remain faithful to the letter and the spirit of the stipulations of the treaty of Kainardji, confirmed by that of Adrianople, relative to the protection by the Porte of the christian worship, and to make known that H. M. regards it as a point of honour, &c. 'Moreover, to allow the Greek worship to participate in a spirit of high justice in the advantages accorded to other christian communities, Ottoman subjects," &c. drawn between "the worship of the Greek church," and "the Greek church in the Ottoman empire," . e., the Greek subjects of the Porte. The cause of his rejection of the modifications was, that he cared not for the worship of his church, and aimed only at the government of its worshippers. To the honour of the Vienna conference, they saw and confessed their egregious blunder; they had sinned, not against Russia, but against Turkey, and we justify their repentance. Members of the Peace Society would doubtless have rejoiced in the spectacle of the four powers urging the duty of suicide, and (in case their representations failed) deserting unhappy Turkey. We believe non-resistance to be moral suicide, and the withholding of help from the feeble and oppressed to be moral murder; and, consequently, while we mourn over the horrors of war, we believe that "the British government was justified in entering upon the present war with Russia"-nay, more, that it was their SOLEMN DUTY.

B. S.

Social Economy.

IS SECULARISM CONSONANT WITH THE HIGHEST AMOUNT OF SOCIAL

HAPPINESS?

AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-I.

SECULARISM is that phase of modern free thought developed by Mr. G. J. Holyoake, and of which he is considered, both by its disciples and opponents, the foremost exponent. It proposes pure moralism as a basis of union and rule of conduct for those who stand outside the churches and sects of Christianity-the theist, the nontheist, and the believer in the eclectical uses of the christian scriptures. It is "the philosophy of the things of time." The secularist does not pretend to have learnt the mystery of the past, nor to have penetrated—

"The stern secret folded up In the closed hand of death." To him the Past is a sealed book, the Future a problem which death will solve. What has been, or what may be, he knows not; and he cleaves to the present, and gives heed to those subjects, the issues of which can be tested in this life. Conscientiously rejecting the creeds of the past, he seeks for some surer and more reliable belief, which may guide him with dignity through life, and light him in peace to the grave. He discovers that science is the providence of man, and that reliance on other aid leads only to disastrous results; that experience is his only guidance, and that self-dependence is the safest support. He studies the order of nature, and strives to conform himself thereto. Placing no reliance on mysterious and unknown agencies, he does not, in the hour of distress or danger, consume precious time in fruitless appeals and unheeded propitiations. He will not inquire with Campbell"Oh, Righteous Heaven! ere freedom found a

grave,

Why slept the sword omnipotent to save?" but will rather repeat the wise words of Emerson, "I say to you, you must save yourselves, black or white, man or woman; other help there is none." Floating on the sea of human ills, he will not look for supernatural assistance, but will strike out with lusty vigour for land. Beholding that society

is wonderfully but indissolubly bound in one chain, and that whatever threatens the peace and repose of one threatens the peace and repose of all-that if one be ignorant and wretched the intelligence and happiness of all are in danger-he will strive after a state of society in which none shall be ignorant and wretched. When plagues curse the land with their presence, blighting the fair earth at every footstep, and sweeping away alike and relentlessly old age in its weakness, manhood in its strength, and youth in its beauty, the secularist will not recognize in them the acts of Deity, the anger of offended Omnipotence, but will know that they are the offspring of his inattention to the monitions of nature, the teachings of experience, and the requirements of his frame, and, abandoning prayers and fasts to the credulous, he will look solely to material agencies for a panacea. Others may trust in Providencehe will keep his powder dry. Instead of a day of humiliation and prayer for the success of our arms in the Crimea, the secularist would propose to send out abler commanders (if such are to be had), more troops, and a better managed commissariat, and to place in Downing-street men honestly bent on obeying the national will by pushing the war with vigour.

When men err grievously and do that which is hurtful, the secularist will not take up the language of the prophet, and say, "The heart of man is deceitful above all

things and desperately wicked," but will recall the profound reflection of Mrs Stowe, when speaking of Haley, the slave-driver,— "His heart was exactly where yours, sir, and mine could be brought with proper effort and cultivation," and will seek in an elevated standard of education, of mental and moral culture, and in an improved state of physical circumstances, for the required remedy.

The endeavour after the good and beautiful; the struggle for a nobler humanity, a purer nation, a holier, because a more manly

and practical religion, a wiser plan of life; the incessant effort to attain to whatever is brave, disinterested, patriotic, heroic, selfreliant, and loveable; the constant imitation of all that is worthy and true in our eyes; the stedfast looking to the great names of the past and present, and the resolute following in their footsteps;-this is the aim of the secularist. He may not fulfil all that is here indicated, but he goes in that direction. He believes with Paley that

"He most lives

Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best."

Thus he seeks to live, and to enjoy life wisely by employing it usefully in the service of the race. His object "is to develop those sentiments which have their source in human nature, which impel and ennoble all morality, which are grounded upon intelligent personal conviction, and manifest themselves in worthy and noble actions, especially in the promotion of truth, justice, and love." Practical in his endeavours, the secularist seeks to know and to communicate to others a knowledge of

"1. The physical laws on which health depends.

"2. The moral laws on which happiness depends.

"3. The intellectual laws on which knowledge depends.

"4. The social and political laws on which national prosperity and advancement depend. "5. The economic laws on which wealth depends."

"Excelsior!" is the motto of Secularism; and it asks of its votaries constant effort, patient endurance, and devoted service in the life-battle for a fuller and higher development of their physical and mental powers.

"Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each to-morrow Find us farther than to-day."

Living the life of the freeman, the secu larist cannot die the death of the slave. When he reposes at last, he can lay himself down without fear, in the consciousness of right intent and good conduct. He never fears that God, who is just, will condemn him in Eternity because he has not been able to see truth in some dogma in Time. He relies unfalteringly on being judged by his conduct, by the light thrown on his path, by his aptitudes and opportunities. He does not seek to evade the natural consequences and just punishment of sin; nor does he fear that a good God, whose tender

mercies are said to be over all his works, will superadd any other punishment thereto.

JAMES.

The Inquirer.

QUESTIONS REQUIRING ANSWERS.

260. Is Bull's Blood Poison?-The following cases of death from drinking fresh bull's blood are related:--Pelias, by Apollodorus Athen. and Diodorus Siculus; Midas, by Strabo; Psammenitus, by Herodotus; Themistocles, by Aristophanes, Plutarch, and Diodorus; Annibal, by Plutarch. Grote, in the case of Themistocles, and Dr. Smith, in that of Psammenitus, appear to find no difficulty in the statement of death by bull's blood; but Niebuhr denies its possibility, and fancies that the Greeks extracted prussic acid from the blood. I have elsewhere ("Notes and Queries," Vol. XI., pp. 67, 148; Nos. 274, 278) preferred the plain statement of the Greek medical writer, Dioscorides, that the blood acts as poison by coagulating in the stomach, and impeding respiration; and have also, I think, vindicated the above writers from the imputation of carelessly copying from each other a mistake originating in a corrupted line of Sophocles. The only plausible objection to the arguments I have there used is, that Thucydides, the only contemporary of Themistocles

who alludes to the manner of his death, though he mentions the report of some that it was due to poison, does not believe it. Aristophanes, how ever, who came later, may nevertheless have had better means of knowing the truth, though it is also possible that interested motives may have originated the account he adopts. But I am sensible that the question is by no means settled, and therefore propound it in the hope that medical readers of the Inquirer" will favour me with opinions on the subject.--F. J. L., B.A.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.

242. The Equation of Time, or exact difference between mean solar time and true solar time, is given in almost all almanacs of the better class. The authority on such matters is the "Nautical Almanac," which is always published some years in advance, for the benefit of nautical men, who are not always in the neighbourhood of Paternoster Row and Albemarle Street at the end of each year. A very cheap, useful, and trustworthy substitute will, however, be found in Dietrichsen

and Hannay's Almanac; its astronomical tables are amply sufficient for the purposes of ordinary astronomers. The equation of time in English tables is calculated for the longitude of Greenwich, and is given only for the precise moment when the sun is on the meridian of Greenwich; at any other time, i. e., when the sun is on the meridian of any other place, a proportional part must be taken. A. may calculate the equation of time for the instant when the sun is on the meridian of his house in Penzance, from the subjoined formula:

Let E equation of time to-day (i. e., any day), as given in the almanac,

E' equation of time to-morrow,

7= longitude (of Penzance) in degrees West of Greenwich.

Then the equation of time, at solar noon, "to

10 300

day" (in Penzance) = E + (E' E). The same formula holds good for all other places. The tables in the almanacs suppose that the hour of true noon is known, and that of mean noon sought, and not vice versa. The former, of course, is ascertained either by the sun-dial, or more accurately by the transit instrument. The

mode in which the scientific astronomer" finds" the equations of time, and so forms the tables, belongs to the abstruser branches of mixed mathematics.-B. S.

246. The Matriculation Examination of the University of London is restricted, in respect of geometry, to the first book of Euclid; but this the candidate is expected to understand, not merely to have learned. There are two means of testing whether we understand any branch of knowledge,-1st, Can we apply it? No one would say that a physician understands medicine, if he can neither discover his patient's disease, nor prescribe a remedy. It would be folly to say that a schoolboy understands Latin because he can repeat the Eton grammar by rote, if at the

same time he is neither able to construe a dozen consecutive lines of Virgil, nor to turn the simplest sentence out of English into Latin. Just so, no one can be said to understand Euclid until he can apply his propositions to the solution of easy geometrical problems or theorems such as are generally appended to the better editions of this ancient and standard author. 2nd, Can we express our knowledge in our own language, and explain it to others? My meaning will be best illustrated by an example:-" A point," says Euclid, "is that which hath no parts, or which has no magnitude." Now, in this negative description there is an evident vagneness and peculiarity which must strike every thoughtful mind; and if a student, in answer to the inquiry, "What do you understand by these words?" can do nothing but reiterate the sentence again and again, it becomes evident that he has no more intelligent conception of the nature of a geometrical point than the sheet of paper on which the definition happens to be printed. But if, on the other hand, he replies in some such words as these:-"The geometrical point defined by Euclid is the abstract idea of position, divested of those "parts" or that "magnitude" which render the position and existence of a physical point ap. preciable to the senses,"-then we perceive that he understands the definition, and that its actual words are to him what they were intended to be,

a compendious and universally recognized form of expressing a particular idea. Having premised thus much by way of explanation, we proceed to tender "Leo" our advice as to the method of his studies. Let him purchase one of Mr. Pott's editions of Euclid (college edition, 10s.; school edition, containing only the first six books, 4s. 6d.), and commence with the definitions, postulates, and axioms of the first book, learning them off by heart, and studying to understand them by the aid of Mr. Potts's notes. When this is done, let him test his knowledge by the questions at the end of the notes; if he finds that his answers (which he should write) agree strictly in substance with the explanatory notes of Mr. Potts, he may congratulate himself-subacta ferre jugum valet Cervice;"

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the first, and, consequently, the hardest step towards mental training is accomplished. If, howof Mr. Potts, he will do well to suspect himself— ever, his auswers are couched in the very words standing, and if so, Leo" is in danger of bememory may have put on the mask of undercoming a mere animated and inconveniently bulky copy of Potts's Euclid. The next step will be, to master the "propositions." The "enunciations must be learned by heart; and as the strict reasoning of the propositions themselves will not allow of more than the most trivial alterations," Leo" must make rigorous use of the notes and questions supplied by Mr. Potts, in order to guard against merely remembering what amining himself by writing out the propositions he ought thoroughly to comprehend. he has learnt, I would strongly advise the occasional use of the latter letters of the alphabet, as X, Y, Z, &c; many a student, apparently puzzled by being compelled to use letters dif quite au fait in his Euclid, has been seriously ferent from those in the text-book. Lastly, "Leo" must apply his knowledge in solving the "Geometrical Exercises on Book I.," given by Mr. Potts towards the end of the volume, in which task he may avail himself of the aid afforded by the accompanying "hints, solutions," &c. This done, he will be fully prepared for the University examination. To illustrate the general character of the examination papers, I append an abstract of that for 1851.

MATRICULATION PASS EXAMINATION. Thursday, July 3. Morning, Ten to One. 1. What is meant by a point, an angle, a circle? Distinguish between an axiom and a postulate. Do the truths of geometry, as a portion of human science, rest ultimately on the evidence of the

senses?

2. From the greater of two given straight lines, &c. (Euclid I. 3.)

3. If two triangles have two sides of the one, &c. (Euclid I. 4.)

4. To draw a straight line perpendicular, &c. (Euclid I. 12.)

5. If from the ends of the side of a triangle, &c. (Euclid I. 21.)

6. The straight lines which join, &c. (Euclid I. 33.)

7. If from the right angle, &c. (Exercise, No. 37, in Mr. Potts's "Exercises on Book I.") 8. Describe a parallelogram, &c. (Euclid I. 42);

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