1856.] Identities of Scientific Causation. for even in the mind of Newton, whose identifying reach was doubtless of the first order. He had been for a length of time in possession of the prepared idea of solar force, without its ever bringing to his mind for comparison the familiar fact of a body falling to the earth. It was obviously necessary that some preparatory operation should take place upon this notion likewise; some contemplation that would partially clear it of the accompaniments of mere smash, breakage, weight, support, &c., and hold it up in its purest form of a general movement of all free bodies towards the earth's surface, or rather in the direction of the earth's centre. Here too there was need of an analytic or disentangling procedure, an operation very distasteful and repulsive to the common mind, and stamping the scientific character upon any intellect that is at home in it. At what time Newton laid his analytic grasp upon this ancient experience of our race we may not now be able precisely to determine; it may have been the commonly recounted incident of the fall of the apple that set his mind to work, or it may have come round in the course of his studies of terrestrial phenomena. But I cannot help supposing that when the phenomenon was once taken to task in the way he had already been accustomed to deal with such things, he would very soon identify and eliminate the main fact from all the confusing circumstantials, and see in it an instance of the motion of one body towards another by virtue of some inherent power in the attracting over the attracted mass. This eliminating generalization would present the case pure and prepared to his mind, as the other had already been by a previous operation; and then came the flash of identification, and with it the sublime discovery that brought heaven down to earth, and made a common force prevail throughout the solar system. Not less to his honour than the discovery itself was his reserving the announcement until such time as the proof was rendered complete by the arrival of an accurate estimate of the magnitude of the earth, which was a necessary datum in the verifying the operation. This great stretch of identification, perhaps the widest leap that the intellect of man has had the opportunity of achieving, not only illustrates the mental attraction of similarity, it also presents in relief the preparation of the mind for bringing on the flash. We see the necessity there was for a powerful mathematical faculty to seize the laws of the composition and resolution of forces, and apply them to the complicated case of elliptic motion; in this application Newton already made a step beyond 229 any mathematician of the age. We observe in the next place the intense hold that the mathematical aspect of the phenomena took on his mind, how he could set aside or conquer all the other aspects so much more imposing in the popular eye, and which had led to quite different hypotheses of the cause of the celestial movements. This characteristic shines remarkably through all the scientific writings of Newton; however fascinating a phenomenon may be, he has always his mind ready to seize it with the mathematical pincers, and regard it in that view alone. His mode of dealing with the subject of Light is an instance no less striking than the one we have been now setting forth. There was in him either an absolute indifference to all the popular and poetic aspects of an appearance, or a preference for the scientific side strong enough to set all these aside. The example he set of uncompromising adherence to the relations of number and measured force was probably the most influential result of his genius at a time when physical science was as yet unemancipated from the trammels of a half-poetic style of theorising. purification and regeneration of the scientific method was quite as much owing to the example of Newton as to the rhetorical enforcements of Bacon. The human intellect was braced by dwelling in his atmosphere, and his avatar was the foremost circumstance in giving a superior stamp to the career of thought in the eighteenth century. The We have said enough, and quoted enough, we think, to show that the work before us is one of no ordinary character; and that in virtue of it the author is entitled to take his place, not only as a new psychologist or metaphysician of the Scottish series, distinguished from his predecessors of that series by important peculiarities, both of doctrine and method, but also generally as thinker whom the best scientific minds of the time may well welcome into their company, whether they do so as friends or as antagonists of his main principles. The style of the work, it may be proper to add, is calculated in every respect to do justice to its deeper merits. Its chief characteristic is an easy and unpretending perspicuity, sometimes varied into a kind of pleasant homeliness. Not unfrequently, however, in passages of importance, where the author has occasion to illustrate his meaning by references to matters of high interest, the language acquires Posuit annulum in manu ejus, annulum honoris titulum, libertatis insigne pignus, signaculum fidei, arrham cœlestium nuptiarum.-Pet. Chryolog. No minute objects of virtu, except perhaps gems, present themselves so often to the tourist's notice in Italy, as engraved stones, set, or ready for setting, in rings. One interesting peculiarity with regard to these relics is, the perfect preservation in which they occur; other and larger antiquities bear on their face the impress of Time's corroding touch: the crumbling brick-work of baths, walls, and broken-backed aqueducts; the columns clamped with iron, the arch of triumph in decay, cased for protection in new masonry against further mischief, attest on all sides his victory over the labours of the architect; while whole galleries of shattered statuary -here of headless, limbless forms, yclept torsos; or of whole heroes reduced to one colossal foot, ex pede Hercules-there of a long vista of busts, indebted in almost every case to the modern nosemaker for the restoration of that important feature, bear witness that he has been no less injurious to those of the sculptor. The engraver, however, is more fortunate; all his pigmy figures have successi lly resisted the damages sustained by those in marble and bronze, continue to this day as perfect in their finish and with as fine a polish as when eighteen centuries ago they first issued from the studios of ære Dioscorides and his pupils, enabling each of us to realize in these time-honoured works the boast of Horace, exegi monumentum perennius. Engraved stones turn up in abundance everywhere -in public museums, in the cabinets of monied collectors, in the refuse drawer of the working jewellers, in the cracked gallipot of the village pharmacesta, in the moleskin purse of the bronzed contadino, in the pack of the itinerant dealer, within the wires of the moneychanger's window padlocked with notes and gold coins, or stowed away in a strong box under the bed of some cœnobite frate, who wears the key of it night and day round his neck. In the great majority of cases, these stones are partially, if not wholly, antiques; that is to say, the stones are very generally ancient, as the time-worn surface on the obverse sufficiently indicates, often to the naked eye, but always with the aid of a lens; but the antiquity of the engraving must be scanned more carefully, seeing that cutting and preparing the stone by the politor is not necessarily synchronous with the engraving. When this is not Yery bad, nor superlatively good he one extreme being, in these degenerate days, unattainable, the other not worth forging), it may 1856.] Profusion of Ring-Stones in Italy. turn out on close inspection to be either altogether modern, or else an unfinished antique ritocato, touched up by the hand of a living artist, who, if he understands his trade, on offering it to your Eccellenza for sale, will modestly disclaim any share in the merit of a work, plainly-as he is himself assured, and would fain have you believe-of the times of Alexander or Augustus. Of such intaglios as are bonâ fide antiques, the merit of the engraving varies exceedingly, ranging from the very highest standard of first-rate Greek excellence, down to productions so mean as not only to have no artistic worth, but even to tax and sometimes baffle the ingenuity of the connoisseur to guess what may be intended by the indistinct sketch. In examining for the first time (which is seldom the collector's fortune) a handful of engraved stones, the certainty is that nine out of ten of the lot will be mere rubbish, abortive attempts to delineate animal and other forms; so rudely outlined as to make the examiner wish that the scratcher thereof had followed the practice of those primaval painters mentioned by Elian, who, to prevent all possibility of mistake, would wisely write under each production, This is a cow, here is a horse, a wolf, a tree,' &c. ; a sprinkling of others, much more meritorious than these, and yet far enough removed from good, might, especially if the stones themselves are pretty, perhaps be selected for further consideration. And in some such handful, once or twice in ten years, he might, among much that was mediocre, and more that was 231 ineffably bad, stumble on a trouvade that would amply repay him for the time and eyesight expended over the rest. Ah, we well remember those unfrequent moments of pleasure when our weary eye, exhausted by a whole long morning's session over such relics, has suddenly lighted upon a Greek gem-true Greek to the very core, which, on being submitted to the lens, has fully justified the decision already formed of it at the first glance; some head, perchance, of Jove, or an Indian Bacchus, most elaborately finished, and perfectly beautiful in every detail; or a nude water-nymph, glowing, as she rises in all her charms from the bath, through the ruddy light of an Oriental cornelian; or, it may be, some scene before the walls of Troy, in which the gods, and heroes like gods, are matched; where horses champ, shadowy spears cross, and chariots whirl; or where Achilles, dragging Hector by the helmet, scowls askance, and looks terrible, all within the area of a few lines' diameter.* The soil of Italy quite teems in places with old ring-stones; and at Rome especially, the daily relays of fresh truffles from the Nurcian hills is not more constant during the season, than all the year round the supply of these neverfailing 'pietri antichi.' So brisk, indeed, and flourishing is the commerce in these small valuables, and so large the quantity collected and exhibited for sale, that the amateur, familiarized with the profusion, soon ceases to view the relation of the three bushelst of gemmed rings, The wonder is that all this microscopic excellence was executed (if the prevailing opinion be the true one) without a lens or any aid to the eye beyond the occasional interposition of an emerald, or green glass, to refresh the vision. This however Natter doubts, and as no man ever came nearer than he did to the beau ideal of Greek engraving, his opinion deserves great respect. He says, 'As the art of gem engraving is far too difficult for a young hand to attain sudden proficiency in it, and as the period of youth must needs be passed in learning, essaying, re-constructing, modifying, and making slow progress towards perfection, the eye-sight must needs begin to fail before the artist becomes a master of his art.' Whence he infers, 'Qu'il y a beaucoup d'apparence que les anciens artistes ont eu recours comme nous, à quelque lunette pour supplier à ce defaut et faciliter leur travail.' According to Livy's relation, 'One bushel.' Either admission however would serve to prove the immense number of rings worn at Rome as early as the first Punic war. The word annularius,' or ring-maker, by which the ancient jeweller was designated, points also to the prevalency of the fashion of wearing rings at Rome. gleaned by the one-eyed Carthaginian general from off the fatal field of Cannæ, as an extravagant myth, and considers it a sober historic statement by no means unworthy of credit. The love of the Romans for rings dates nearly from the foundation of their city, as the gemmed fingers of the statues of the two immediate successors of Romulus, Numa and Servius Tullius, cited by Pliny, sufficiently attest. Their use was also familiar to the surrounding nations. Etruria has left large legacies of rings, which have been disinterred at various times with her other jewelleries, showing the addiction of this state to that particular finger gear. The Sabines, too, as we learn from Livy, were distinguished, even from the infancy of Rome, for the size and beauty of their rings; and so, no doubt, were all the other surrounding states which successively engaged her arms. Of our Own ancestors, we have the testimony of Julius Cæsar that they wore dark iron rings, which he mistook for the currency of the realm. In Greece the addiction to this gewgaw was as great as in Rome; and if we go still further back among the nations from whom both Greeks and Romans derived the ornament, we shall find, from sources alike sacred and profane, ample evidence that rings were in general wear from the remotest ages. That the early Persians wore them we know; for Ahasuerus gives one into the hands of Esther; and Alexander, after conquering Darius, is reported to have sealed his first acts with that monarch's ring. Of the Babylonians, Herodotus states that every man had his signet; Elian, that the Afric Cyrenians were fond of them, and that the most economic of the people carried very valuable ones; the Ethiopians, barbarians who clothed their bodies in panther and Though there is abundant evidence to prove man's passion for rings from the earliest period of his known history, and Pliny therefore wrong in asserting that the Greeks of Homer's day knew nothing about them, it is nevertheless remarkable that this poet does not once mention or even allude to rings in either of his epics, and the rather that occasions when we might have expected such reference are of not unfrequent occurrence. Pope indeed, in his translation, makes Prætus send Bellerophon to his uncle with 'sealed tablets' : 'To Lycia the devoted youth he sent, With tablets sealed, that told his dire intent.' Yet And Plutarch also to the same purpose says, 'Bellerophon, when he carried letters ordering his destruction, did not unseal them, but forbore touching the king's despatches with the same continence as he had refrained from injuring his bed, for curiosity is an incontinence as well as adultery.' But neither author is borne out by the original passage. It is moreover to be observed that, in rehearsing the trinkets of beaux, belles, and goddesses, Homer enumerates clasps, bracelets, gold studs, and ear-rings, but omits all mention of finger-rings. Nor again, when Paris and Menelaus cast lots into Hector's helmet, are rings-annuli ad sortes -alluded to, though, had they possessed them, they would have been the appropriate pledges. Nor finally in wardrobes whose valuable contents are occasionally exposed to view, does he ever speak of 'unsealing' the chests that contained them. we learn from Eritheus, that one Greek Trojan hero at least-Ulysses-certainly carried a ring, with a dolphin for device, similar to that upon his shield. His motive for adopting this emblem we give in French, from Amylot's translation of Plutarch, as it concerns Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse, always read in that language:'Telemaque estoit encores bien jeune, tomba en un endroict de la mer où l'eau estoit fort profonde, et feut sauiué par le moyen de quelques daulphins qui le receurent en tombant et le porterent hors de l'eau parquoi le pere depuis pour en rendre grace et honorer cett animal fait graver l'image d'un dauphin dedans le chaton de l'anneau dont il scelloit et le porta pour ornement à son escu. Amylot, 1584. The taste for rings has gone on, still continues, and will probably do so to the end of time. Even during the dark ages it is certain that many of the noblest engraved gems were, on the mere traditional authority of their excellence, stuck into church walls, and about the shrines of saints, as costly offerings for vows performed; and from some such motive, rather than from any actual knowledge of their excellence, Pepin sealed with an antique Indian Bacchus, and Charlemagne with a Jupiter Serapis. 1856.] Antiquity of Wearing Rings. lion-skins, used the same stones that tipped their arrows for making annular seals.* Rings were worn by the patriarchs: Judah, as we read in Genesis, gave his to Tamar; Joseph received one from Pharaoh; and later, we can scarcely doubt they would form part of the spoil which enriched the people when they made their final exodus from Egypt. In what favour the Egyptians held rings, might have been safely inferred from the profuse display of them on the fingers of painted figures adorning sarcophagus lids, even had no splendid specimens (some as early as the times of Ositarsin and Thothmes III., who were contemporaries with Joseph and Moses) been found to confirm and to illustrate such pictorial evidence; authenticated portraits of some of the Parthian and Sassandrian kings (as established by M. Silvestre de Sacy) occur in rings made of cornelian and amethyst; and 'in the Townley Collection of gems there are emeralds and bits of lapis lazuli engraved with figures precisely similar to those in the grottoes of Sallecette, near Bombay, and in the Isle of Elephanta, equalling the very best Egyptian workmanship, and evi * Herodotus. 233 dently of very remote antiquity.'+ It is said in one of the early chapters of Exodus, that Bezaleel was filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work with the graver, as well as to devise cunning work in gold and silver and brass, and in cutting of stones to set them;' so that the art of engraving and mounting stones for the finger seems to have been one of the very earliest practised, and the love of rings as wide-spread, and almost as old, as the world itself; for few are those places which the flaming Torcher circles in his ring, where he has not found the inhabitants in possession of theirs. We shall proceed anon to consider what may have been the determining motive with the world at large for adopting rings; but beforehand we would say a few words on the trinkets themselves-their ancient names, their various forms, the devices they display, and the different substances of which they are composed. With regard to the first, Licetus has taken the trouble of collecting together from authentic sources the following list: annulus,§ anellus, circulus, orbiculus, digitalius,|| + Millin. By this passage it would further appear, that the several arts of cutting and preparing a stone, engraving and mounting it, which formed in after times three separate trades, were united in the person of Bezaleel; the engraving on metals and stones are both attributed to him, but which came first, or whether the two arts were synchronous, does not appear. Of the very early engraving on metal, Herodotus gives a very interesting illustration. When Aristagorus visits Cleomenes, king of Sparta (B. C. 700), with a view to excite him to take up arms against Darius, he brings with him an atlas engraved in bronze-χάλκεον πίνακα ἐν τῷ γῆς ἁπάσης περίοδος ἐνετέτμητο καὶ θάλασσα τὲ πᾶσα καὶ ποταμοι πάντες—in which he exhibits all the Stathmoi or stations where the army might halt on its three months' march to Susa. Of engraving on glass we shall speak when we treat more particularly of gems. § Annulus, the commonest designation, was named from annus, the year, which rolls round on itself 'Atque in se sua per vestigia volvitur annus,' whence it is represented hieroglyphically by a snake swallowing its own tail. But not digitale nor digitus, which however have both been so misinterpreted. The first of these words corresponds evidently to the Italian ditale, or thimble: 'Whose primitive tradition reaches As far as Adam's first green breeches.'-Hudib. Here it is asked, by curious commentators, to whom it would be difficult to reply, why, as our first parents had unquestionably needles and thread to sew, should it be thought unlikely that they also invented, for the protection of their fingers, those thimbles which are everywhere associated and sold with them? As to the second word, digitus, it never means anything else but finger. The passage in Plautus, digitos in manibus non habet, supposed to countenance another meaning, has, rightly |