MAN

MAN AS A CONDENSED GAS

ANY of the fundamental or leading ideas of the present time appear, to him who knows not what science has already achieved, as extravagant as the notions of the alchemists. Not, indeed, the transmutation of metals, which seemed so probable to the Ancients, but far stranger things are held by us to be attainable. We have become so accustomed to wonders, that nothing any longer excites our wonder. We fix the solar rays on paper, and send our thoughts literally with the velocity of lightning to the greatest distances. We can, as it were, melt copper in cold water, and cast it into statues. We can freeze water into ice, or mercury into a solid malleable mass, in white-hot crucibles; and we consider it quite practicable to illuminate most brightly entire cities with lamps devoid of flame or fire, and to which the air has no access. We produce, artificially, ultramarine, one of the most precious minerals; and we believe that to-morrow or next day some one may discover a method of producing from a piece of charcoal a splendid diamond; from a bit of alum, sapphires or rubies; or from coal tar the beautiful coloring principle of madder, or the valuable remedies known as quinine and morphine. All these things are either as precious or more useful than gold. Every one is occupied in the attempt to discover them, and yet this is the occupation of no individual inquirer. All are occupied with these things, inasmuch as they study the laws of the changes and transformations to which matter is subject; and yet no one individual is specially engaged in these researches, inasmuch as no one, for example, devotes his life and energies to the solution of the problem of making diamonds or quinine. Did such a man exist, furnished with the necessary knowledge, and with the courage and perseverance of the old goldmakers, he would have a good prospect of being enabled to solve such problems. The latest discoveries on the constitution and production of the organic bases permit us to believe all this, without giving to any one the right to ridicule us as makers of gold.

Science has demonstrated that man, the being who performs all these wonders, is formed of condensed or solidified or liquefied gases; that he lives on condensed as well as uncondensed gases, and clothes himself in condensed gases; that he prepares his food by means of condensed gas, and, by means of the same

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agent, moves the heaviest weights with the velocity of the wind. But the strangest part of the matter is, that thousands of these tabernacles formed of condensed gas, and going on two legs, occasionally, and on account of the production and supply of those forms of condensed gas which they require for food and clothing, or on account of their honor and power, destroy each other in pitched battles by means of condensed gas; and, further, that many believe the peculiar powers of the bodiless, conscious, thinking, and sensitive being, housed in this tabernacle, to be the result, simply, of its internal structure and the arrangement of its particles or atoms.

From "Letters on Chemistry.”

JOHN LINGARD

(1771-1851)

INGARD'S "History of England," which appeared in fourteen volumes between 1819 and 1831, ran through numerous editions during the author's lifetime, and was translated into French, German, and Italian. Cardinal Wiseman called it the only impartial history of England, and it is valued by students because it is, in fact, the only history which gives the material necessary for an impartial study of the evolution of English civilization during the period when the priests of the Roman Catholic Church were hanged, drawn and quartered as traitors, if they persisted in the attempt to say mass anywhere in England, Scotland, or Wales. Lingard was born at Winchester, England, February 7th, 1771, and educated in the Roman Catholic College at Douay, France. Returning to England he was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in 1795. In 1811 he took up his residence at Hornby, in Lancashire, where he spent the rest of his life in clerical and literary labors. Besides his "History of England" he wrote the "History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church » and a considerable number of controversial tracts and essays. He died at Hornby, July 17th, 1851.

A

CROMWELL'S GOVERNMENT BY THE «MAILED HAND»

T LENGTH (1653) Cromwell fixed on his plan to procure the dissolution of the parliament, and to vest for a time the sovereign authority in a council of forty persons, with himself at their head. It was his wish to effect this quietly by the votes of the parliament-his resolution to effect it by open force, if such votes were refused. Several meetings were held by the officers and members at the lodgings of the lord general in Whitehall, St. John and a few others gave their assent; the rest, under the guidance of Whitelock and Widrington, declared that the dissolution would be dangerous, and the establishment of the proposed council unwarrantable. In the meantime the house resumed the consideration of the new representative body; and several qualifications were voted, to all of which the officers

raised objections, but chiefly to the "admission of members,

a

project to strengthen the government by the introduction of the presbyterian interest. "Never," said Cromwell, "shall any of that judgment who have deserted the good cause be admitted to power." On the last meeting, held on the nineteenth of April, all these points were long and warmly debated. Some of the officers declared that the parliament must be dissolved "one way or other"; but the general checked their indiscretion and precipitancy, and the assembly broke up at midnight, with an understanding that the leading men on each side should resume the subject in the morning.

At an early hour the conference was recommenced, and, after a short time, interrupted, in consequence of the receipt of a notice by the general, that it was the intention of the house to comply with the desires of the army. This was a mistake; the opposite party had, indeed, resolved to pass a bill of dissolution; not, however, the bill proposed by the officers, but their own bill, containing all the obnoxious provisions, and to pass it that very morning, that it might obtain the force of law before their adversaries could have time to appeal to the power of the sword. While Harrison "most strictly and humbly" conjured them to pause before they took so important a step, Ingoldsby hastened to inform the lord general at Whitehall. His resolution was immediately formed, and a company of musketeers received orders. to accompany him to the house. At this eventful moment, big with the most important consequences, both to himself and his country, whatever were the workings of Cromwell's mind, he had the art to conceal them from the eyes of the beholders. Leaving the military in the lobby, he entered the house and composedly seated himself on one of the outer benches. His dress was a plain suit of black cloth, with gray worsted stockings. For a while he seemed to listen with interest to the debate; but when the speaker was going to put the question, he whispered to Harrison, "This is the time; I must do it"; and rising, put off his hat to address the house. At first his language was decorous, and even laudatory. Gradually he became. more warm and animated; at last he assumed all the vehemence of passion, and indulged in personal vituperation. He charged the members with self-seeking and profaneness; with the frequent denial of justice, and numerous acts of oppression; with idolizing the lawyers, the constant advocates of tyranny; with neglecting

the men who had bled for them in the field, that they might gain the Presbyterians who had apostatized from the cause; and with doing all this in order to perpetuate their own power and to replenish their own purses. Lord had disowned them; he ments to perform his work. by Sir Peter Wentworth, who declared that he had never heard language so unparliamentary, -language, too, the more offensive, because it was addressed to them by their own servant, whom they had too fondly cherished, and whom, by their unprecedented bounty, they had made what he was. At these words Cromwell put on his hat, and, springing from his place, exclaimed, “Come, come, sir, I will put an end to your prating." For a few seconds, apparently in the most violent agitation, he paced forward and backward, and then, stamping on the floor, added, "You are no parliament; I say you are no parliament; bring them in, bring them in!" Instantly the door opened, and Colonel Worsley entered, followed by more than twenty musketeers. "This," cried Sir Henry Vane, "is not honest; it is against morality and common honesty." "Sir Henry Vane," replied Cromwell; "Oh, Sir Henry Vane! The Lord deliver me from Sir Henry Vane! He might have prevented this. But he is a juggler, and has not common honesty himself!» From Vane he directed his discourse. to Whitelock, on whom he poured a torrent of abuse; then pointing to Chaloner, "There," he cried, "sits a drunkard"; next to Marten and Wentworth, "There are two whoremasters"; and afterwards, selecting different members in succession, described them as dishonest and corrupt livers, a shame and scandal to the profession of the Gospel. Suddenly, however, checking himself, he turned to the guard and ordered them to clear the house. At these words Colonel Harrison took the speaker by the hand and led him from the chair; Algernon Sidney was next compelled to quit his seat; and the other members, eighty in number, on the approach of the military, rose and moved towards the door. Cromwell now resumed his discourse. "It is you,” he exclaimed, "that have forced me to do this. I have sought the Lord both day and night that he would rather slay me than put me on the doing of this work." Alderman Allan took advantage of these words to observe that it was not yet too late to undo what had been done; but Cromwell instantly charged him with peculation, and gave him into custody. When all were gone,

But their time was come; the had chosen more worthy instruHere the orator was interrupted