acceleration of speed develops an increase of the centrifugal force, or tendency to fly off at a tangent, so that the two forces thus balance themselves, and the integrity of the orbital movement is preserved. This view of the matter is a plausible assumption and is acceptable in the absence of any materials for the construction of a better explanation. We must, however, call attention to the weak spot in this theory. The acceleration of speed is caused by the attraction of gravitation, which is therefore for the time being the dominant power. This increase of velocity is supposed to develop, as a counterpoise, a force so potent in opposition to that which caused it, that this developed force is, in its turn, capable of overcoming that which is primarily the stronger; so that the superior power is supposed to give birth to a force which can govern its parent; and thus cause and effect alternately become the stronger and control each other! The product is supposed to be able to meet the producer on equal terms. What a scene of scientific confusion is here presented to our view! When once gravity begins to overcome a rival force, its career of conquest cannot be arrested except by the arrival and intervention of a third independent power, and the introduction of this third power is not properly and scientifically accounted for under the old system which we are combating. The accelerated speed already alluded to is not such a ruler as we can recognise as an independent potentate. It is, in fact, the creature and subject of the superior force, gravity, and it must become the ally of its monarch; it cannot rebel and join the opposition which has once allowed it to elude the centrifugal grasp.

The advocates of this contradictory system of causation endeavour to reconcile it to our common sense

in

and tempt us into adopting it by resorting to an illustration which, as a comparison, is altogether fallacious. They depict a man whirling round a stone in a sling, and tell us that we have here something like a representation of a planet moving in its orbit round the Sun. The stone is held in its place by the stringanalogous to the attraction of gravitation-and the faster the man whirls round the sling, the more potently is the centrifugal force developed; and when the stone is released, the more violently does it fly off in a straight line. In this object of comparison we must notice that there are three powers present, very unlike their attributes, viz. the hand of the man governed by his mind, the sling, and the motion of the sling: the sole originating motivepower which pervades and sustains the whole operation is the willenergy of the man; when that is withdrawn, the action ceases. we could suppose the hand of the Creator at the centre of the solar system, intelligently, actively, and personally employed in regulating and upholding the movements of the planets round the Sun, the comparison with the man-andsling figure would be fair and complete; but we are bound to raise the fatal objection to this supposition by pointing out that it is not permitted to Science to enter into the presence of the Creator Himself, so as to trace His conduct and examine His actions. The proper office of Science is to discover and expound the eternal laws and temporal methods of working with which the Almighty has endowed Nature, and by which her operations are governed. The moment we address ourselves direct to the Creator, we cease to be scientific, and we become theological.

If

The theory of Polarity as an explanation of the movements of the universe will, we believe, get rid

of a great deal of the subtle confusion that has hitherto prevailed; and, we venture to think, will offer for general acceptance something more lucid and philosophical than the old mechanical doctrine of the centripetal and centrifugal forces-a doctrine which appears to us an inadequate explanation of the grand processes to which it is applied. Centrifugal force is the result of a repellent, and not an attractive, power. The existence of this repellent power is not properly accounted for in the Newtonian system; but by the theory of Polarity we acknowledge two forces of equal rank, quality, and might, which are all-sufficient for the work they are appointed to do, and their

generator, Electricity, governs theu both with requisite supremacy.

If there be any force in what we have put forward, we must considerably modify if not banish the old-fashioned doctrines from our astronomical science, if we would in future associate finer and truer ideas with the subtle powers of the universe, and express in more comprehensive language the sublime order and methods of her working. We cannot, however, by the utmost exercise of human skill, hope to penetrate very far into the mysteries of Nature. Like the Mohammedan Deity, she is covered with seventy thousand veils; after an age of labour, we may succeed in lifting one of these veils, but another appears behind.

NEWTON CROSLAND.

A

MORE fascinating subject for portraiture has seldom offered itself to the literary artist than the life and character of Heine. The lights are so brilliant and the shadows so dark, that a faithful hand possessed of ordinary skill conld scarcely fail to produce an effective likeness. The comparative ease of his task does not, however, detract from the credit due to Mr. Stigand, who has brought to it special attainments and more than ordinary skill. With some little qualification we can commend his faithfulness also. Of Othello's golden rule of narrative,

Nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice,

he has duly observed the second clause, but has been sometimes tempted to neglect the first. A biographer should not need to be reminded of Hannibal's two portrait-painters, the one of whom, by representing his full face with both eyes perfect, won his censure; the other, by representing his profile with the defective eye concealed, won his praise. No fault could be found with Mr. Stigand had he followed the example of the latter, and, confining his biography to the career of a man of letters, left Heine's profligate life in Paris altogether out of sight. But we regret that, having undertaken to tell the whole truth, he should think fit to palliate it by such special pleading as disfigures his chapter upon that unsavoury topic. There are excuses which do but make prominent what they are designed to obscure. Such further exceptions as we must take to Mr. Stigand's treatment of his subject

He

may be disposed of at once. doubtless found it impossible, in dealing with the life of an exile from Germany who made a home in France, to avoid reference to the deadly conflict so recently waged between the nations, or, being so intimately acquainted with and warmly attached to the defeated people, to abstain from disclosing his sympathies. But a biographer who recalls in his preface that it was the great task of Heine's life to labour at a hearty understanding between Germany and France,' and laments the tendency of 'late events' to frustrate it, should consistently refrain from language which is obviously calculated to retard its accomplishment. The outbursts of animosity which he loses no opportunity of venting against the conquerors, however grateful to his own feelings, and justifiable in their proper connection, seem strangely out of place here, where their only influence upon the French and German readers among whom his book may circulate can be to stir up memories already too vivid, and foment a hatred which five years of peace have done something to abate. Mr. Stigand's love of contrasting the characteristics of races has doubtless seduced him into this imprudence. His reflections upon that theme are often instructive, but he is apt to prolong them beyond due limits. If in his next edition he can be persuaded to make certain modifica tions in these particulars, the only serious drawbacks that prevent this book from taking a high place in literary biography will be removed.

None of its chapters are more pleasant to read, or display the

writer's skill to better advantage, than the first five, which are devoted to Heine's youth, and the various influences combining to mould his mental and moral nature. Of his inherited tendencies we hear little. His parents were Hebrews by blood and creed, belonging to the middle class. The father, who seems to have been a dull, amiable man, was a cloth-merchant by calling, settled at Düsseldorf, where Heinrich was born in 1799. The mother, who contributed most to the formation of the boy's temperament, is commemorated as of a quick, impassioned, energetic nature, with a good deal of taste for literature, art, and music.' For the most lasting of the external influences which environed his childhood he was indebted to the French occupation of Berg, the little Duchy of which Düsseldorf was the capital. The state of semi-slavery in which the people lived under the feudal régime of their Electors had been exchanged for social and educational equality, and a beneficent administration of justice under the Code Napoléon. The Jewish community, whose condition in Germany up to that time had resembled that of the Pariah caste in India, reaped the full benefit of these reforms. The illusion respecting the great autocrat's services to the cause of European freedom which Heine shared in common with too many Liberals as a young man, and continued to entertain until past middle life, may have been chiefly due to his grateful remembrance of the local advantages conferred by French rule, and the glamour of his individual associations with it. He relates in his Pictures of Travel (Book Le Grand') how, as a boy, he witnessed the march of the French troops into Düsseldorf; made friends with the veterans of the Grande Armée, and learnt from those who had taken part in its triumphs the true tales of Lodi and

Marengo, of Austerlitz and Jena; and how the vision which imagination pictured of the invincible hero of a hundred victories was realised to the eye of sense five years later, when Napoleon made his entry into the town in his well-worn green uniform and his world-historic little hat,' with a marble countenance, whose lineaments were 'nobly cut as those of the old statues,' and whereon was written Thou shalt adore no other gods but me.' If, however, Heine was thus induced to take an erroneous view of political history, it was some compensation to obtain the facts at first hand from the lips of men. Such formal instruction as he received was given at the Lycée established by the French Government, wherein all instruction was communicated in that language. Here he went through the usual classical and mathematical course, and gained some insight into the sphere of metaphysical controversy by attending the lectures of the Rector Schallmeyer, a kindly, philosophic Catholic, who soon discerned the boy's ability and desired to make a priest of him. In his twelfth year we hear of a golden-haired maiden (daughter of the chief judge of the town) who had enthralled his fancy; and not much later he seems to have exchanged some transient love-passages with maidens of his acquaintance in the villages upon the Rhine, and much delightful converse on its historical legends and fairy lore. His literary taste was early determined by the reading of Don Quixote, which he took in sober earnest,' weeping 'the bitterest of tears when the noble knight for all his noble valour got but cudgelling and ingratitude.' Gulliver's Travels, and some of the writings of Sterne, Rousseau, Goethe, and Schiller, were also familiar to his youth; and by that intellectual magnetism which is among the clearest signs of definite bias, he appears to have extracted

from all his studies the elements best adapted to his future development. To any such signs, however, his father was blind; and at sixteen he was placed in a banker's office at Frankfort. Here he remained but a short time, finding the occupation distasteful, and unable to endure the social outlawry to which his race was still subject there. The description of the Ghetto in his Rabbi von Bacharach' is supposed to be drawn from remembrances of this sojourn. After a year's residence at home, he was sent, at the suggestion of his uncle, Solomon Heine, who was established as a banker in Hamburg, to try his fortune there in commerce. The experiment proved a failure. The mechanical routine of trade and the tone of thought which its habitual pursuit engendered in spired him with intense aversion, and the three years which he spent in vainly endeavouring to overcome it were the dreariest of his life. By his uncle, a rough, illiterate man, choleric and tyrannical, although not ungenerous or implacable, shrewd enough to become a millionaire by his transactions in stock jobbing, but incapable of appreciating ability of a different kind, Heine was misunderstood and despised. The husbands of the banker's eldest daughters, regarding the youth as an interloper who was seeking to appropriate a share of their fortune, spared no efforts to poison his uncle's mind against him. Such temporary solace as he found in this circle was in the society of a younger cousin, Amalie, with whom he fell deeply in love, and who under various disguises is the heroine of his early poems. After years of fluctuation the passion had an unhappy issue; but the true story of its course was never told by the poet. It can only be gathered from his allusions that, after allowing him to believe her affections won, the lady capriciously transferred them to another, who

proved faithless to her, and that she then married in pique the first eligible suitor who presented himself. Heine's nature was profoundly if not permanently embittered by this experience, and the morbid tone which infects much of his tenderest poetry may be clearly traced to it.

In 1819, two years before its disastrous termination, the hopeless attachment was brought to the knowledge of his uncle, who had also come to perceive that the youth's commercial career at Hamburg was not destined to be successful. It was accordingly resolved that he should return home, with the understanding that he should thence proceed to the University, where his expenses would be paid while he prosecuted such studies as would enable him to take a doctor's degree and practise as an advocate in Hamburg. To this arrangement Heine joyfully consented, and after a short stay at Düsseldorf was entered as a student at Bonn. In the faculty of Jurisprudence he attended the lectures of Mittermaier and Welcker, and was duly admitted to matriculation, after eliciting a mild rebuke from the examiners for the satirical vein in which he replied to some of their questions. History and literature were the studies which most engrossed him. He was especially impressed by the lectures of A. W. von Schlegel, then at the height of his critical celebrity, who took occasion from the recent discovery of the Nibelungen-lied MS. to discourse upon the dignity and beauty of medieval poetry. Heine's predisposition to the Romantic school was greatly fostered by his master's eloquent enthusiasm. Among his contemporaries at Bonn were Liebig, the great chemist; Müller, the physiologist; Hengstenberg, the theologian; and Wolfgang Menzel, afterwards so infamous as the betrayer of the Liberal press; but his intimates were selected from