the bi-quadrate power of the distance, was nothing, that no such power was exercised by the earth." Clairaut publicly acknowledged his mistake, and found that the new calculus brought the motion of the lunar apogee to coincide with observation. A most interesting conclusion this; correcting a mistake in Newton's calculation it established his law-for theory must ever be confirmed by practice-correcting a mathematical error, and, at the same time, confirming mathematics. The Mathematician, lover of the exact sciences, was driven to more exactitude still by the Metaphysician, whom he despises for his vague argument not founded on figures but on logical distinction. Two sciences, by spirit opposed, were found aiding, correcting, and elucidating each other; two great men, seeking truth by different paths, arrived at the same point of difficulty, and helped each other to surmount it; one falling into error because he was human, corrected it because he was earnest, and published his recantation because he was an honest lover of truth. The above incident took place rather more than a hundred years ago; since that time other advances have been made in Science, and are being made daily; and all, in whatever land, or whatever the scientific subject, while they shew forth more and more the infinite richness and perfection of the works of nature, tend continually to confirm the discoveries of the greatest of her sons, Sir Isaac Newton. Mr. Grant, as his title indicates, treats of these theories, and of their subsequent development. This development was for long carried on by the Astronomers of other countries-to our shame be it spoken. In the last century Lagrange and Laplace added to the treasures of Astronomical knowledge; but of late years, as Mr. Grant shews, the names of Englishmen are to be found amongst those to whom Physical Astronomy owes many of her discoveries. We would notice briefly one or two other subjects treated of in this work-the discoveries of the present age, unknown even to our immediate ancestors. One is the discovery of the regularity of irregularities-the Law of the inverse problem of perturbation. Irregularities have appeared in different bodies of our system, irreducible to Newton's Law. These have puzzled astronomers, and held the universal belief in that Law occasionally in abeyance; but as one after another has been brought into closer observation, and more intimate acquaintance, they all fall into the general harmony. Observations and calculations were made by old Lagrange on the irregularities of Jupiter and Saturn; and he made approximations to an elucidation of the mystery by further studies of the problem of the three Bodies; but Laplace found the true cause in their exact mutual influence; that as the one, the motion of Jupiter, would be accelerated, that of Saturn (according to his computed mass, distance, motion &c.) would be retarded. He reduced the relative inequalities of the two planets to a law, found that they arise from the mean motion of Jupiter being to that of Saturn, as that of 5 to 2, the difference being th part of the mean motion of Jupiter. These inequalities reached their maximum in A. D. 1560. From that period they have been approaching their true mean motions, and became the same in 1790.' He afterwards reduced the errors in the calculated tables of Saturn, from 20 to 2". And thus this great Mathematician (by establishing the law that regulates irregularities, and shewing that having advanced to a certain defined limit of eccentricity, they begin to go back; and having attained their mean real motion begin again to change, advancing and retrograding, not according to chance, or a contradiction of the law of gravitation, but by a just computation of their mutual attractions,) this great Mathematician had the satisfaction of removing the last clog which appeared to hang on the wheel of the Law of Newton, which now rolls unobstructed through universal space. Adams and Leverrier, by their learned solution of the law of the inverse power of perturbation, discovered the new planet Neptune then yet unseen, perceived only by its disturbing influences on others!-a perfection of mathematical deduction, not contemplated by Newton, Euler, Lagrange, or Laplace! It were long to tell of all the subjects of modern interest treated of by Mr Grant, of comets, planets discovered, eclipses, Saturn's system of rings, Jupiter's new satellites, and many other wonders; but it might be interesting to such as have not followed Astronomical discovery, even in the casual way in which readers of the current literature of the day do in England, to see a table of the new planets, which have presented themselves on the field of the improved telescopes during the present century-the last 54 yearstwenty-three in number. If they really be the fragments of a disrupted planet it is indeed wonderful. Of the probability of such a theory it is not for us to judge, whilst it is adopted by many of the learned. There however are the stars. Ceres discovered in 1801 Jany 1 by Piazzi. 1802 March 28 Olbers. 29 Olbers. Astræa 1847 Aug. 13 Hind. In the misty atmosphere of our own land, though the minds of her learned men are clear their telescopes are not so, and great are the disadvantages attendant on our insular position and high latitude. It has been proposed, and let us hope for the honor of science the idea may be carried out, that a gigantic telescope should be transported to the more transparent atmosphere of tropical climates; to India where the stars and planets assume a double magnitude, to the Himalayas perhaps, mounting to an altitude above the mists that hang in the valleys, or to the Andes of South America, or to ancient Egypt, where lie the bones of old astronomers and where the air is clear. Speed it; bring it to pass, say we; may the wonders it may reveal loom in our own day. We despair not of seeing it; let all scientific men of all lands go hand in hand in such a project, and what are the marvels of beauty and design it may not reveal? What the nebulous mists it may not resolve into stars, what the distant laws and systems, what the hidden mysteries of our side of the often-considered lunar disc, what the secret history of the Sun himself? As the earth teems with life through the microscope so will the heavens through the telescope, and the largest minds will be lost in the contemplation, and see how, as one star differeth from another star in magnitude, all are nicely fitted together, "From Harmony to harmony the universal frame began, From Harmony to harmony through all the compass of the notes it ran ;" and every fresh discovery will throw light on that which has gone before, and glory on that which is to succeed; and every fresh star will swell the chorus, that the Earth and Heavens sing to Him, who made them and pronounced them "very good." byker? GlasgowART. V.—RAJPUT INFANTICIDE. History of the Suppression of Infanticide in Western India under the Direction of the Government of Bombay, including notices of the Provinces and Tribes in which the Practice has prevailed. By JOHN WILSON, D.D., F.R.S., Honorary President of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, and Missionary of the Free Church of Scotland &c. Bombay: Smith, Taylor and Co. London: Smith Elder and Co. 1855. ANCIENT and Modern India have their broad and marked peculiarities. The land is not more distinguished by geographical features, than by the moral and religious phenomena of its people. Ancient and Modern India present also some of the most perplexing problems in the history of man. On these we mean not to expatiate, but only to exemplify one of them in the subject of the work before us. Infanticide is a fact painful and bewildering-involving indeed a problem the solution of which is not to be attempted by the student of India alone but of Paganism in general-a fact only the more perplexing on that account. Were it the result merely of a moral obliquity produced by the peculiarities of Indian society we might fall back on these for its explanation. But when we should have accounted for Indian Infanticide in this way, we should have the broader fact,-proved by many historical testimonies in the opening pages of the volume before us, and patent to all conversant with the history of ancient nations,-that infanticide has prevailed in many lands, and among many nations claiming no common origin. In this presidency we are so much accustomed to hear this crime associated with the chiefs of Káthiawár and Kachh, bearing the patronymic title of Jádejá, as to forget that the same phenomena of depravity appear in other parts of India as in Rajputana, in Orissa, and in the Benares and other Districts. Seriously to ask, is infanticide a revolting crime? seems an insult to the human mind. Does it spring from man's intellectual and moral powers? or is it a violence done to them? In whatever way we view it, it presents humanity in so gloomy an aspect as to thrill the true student of humanity with horror. Yet Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Spartans, Athenians, Romans, Persians, Chinese, Hindus, South Sea Islanders,-Pagans both civilized and barbarous, are shown by historic testimonies to have been systematically guilty of this offence against humanity. It constitutes but a slight moral dif ference to say, it was here a sacrificial and there a social custom ;in other words, that in one place or time, its motive was false religion, and in another, avarice, or the desire to save dependent offspring from the evils of life. If there be a moral shade of difference between these three motives, we should be disposed to attach the greater amount of turpitude to the second, which is the motive alleged as a palliative for the crime in the case of the feudal chiefs of the provinces now brought under review. Whether a Grecian Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter, or an Indian Thakur drowning his, commit the greater qutrage on man's moral nature, we deem it unnecessary to determine. But one or two examples of the painful prevalence of infanticide, as recorded in the work before us, may be noticed. "Of all the states of Greece, the Thebans are mentioned by Elian, as the only exception to the general practice of exposing infants at the will of their parents. Schefferus, in his annotations on the passage of Ælian, remarks, that this conduct of the Thebans was contrary both to the law and the practice of the rest of the Greeks, and particularly of the Athenians. By the other states of Greece, infanticide was sanctioned and regulated by law. Some legal provisions, indeed, for the regulation of this practice, seem to have been thought requisite by the most profound and able philosophers of Greece. In the republics of Plato and Aristotle, accordingly, we find very special enactments suggested on the subject; and with as much apparent apathy as if parental feeling and natural affection were unworthy of man. The period of marriage was to be fixed in regard of either sex; the children of poorer citizens were to be destroyed at their birth; and the children of parents of whatever rank, who had attained a certain age, were never to be allowed to appear. The Romans were not superior to the Greeks. It may be proper here to quote the words of Dr. Miller, who will not be suspected of prejudice against that celebrated people. By a law of Romulus,' says he, parents are said to have been obliged to maintain their male children, and the eldest female, unless when a child, was, by two of the neighbours, called for the purpose, declared to be a monster. A regulation of the same nature is mentioned among the laws of the twelve tables; but there is ground to believe that little regard was paid to it; and even under the emperors, the exposing of new-born children, of either sex, appears to have been exceedingly common.' It is well known also, that, according to the laws and customs of the Romans, the father had anciently an unlimited power of putting his children to death, after they were grown up, and even officially employed by the state, and likewise of selling them for slaves." In connexion with this we may give another extract, illustrating the effect of the Hindu Law upon the state of society. After various quotations of passages from Manu, and other Hindu authorities, tending to degrade woman, both personally and socially, our author thus proceeds: "These statutory injunctions and representations of the Hindu Shastras, are in direct antithesis to the claims of humanity as far as the female sex is concerned. They have not yet become obsolete or ineffective among the Hindu people. They influence the spirit and habits of the whole of Hindu society. They overpower the special legislation for the preservation of woman's life. |