Literature and Personality

PMLA ◽  
1897 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calvin Thomas

While the Germans have long recognized a Litteraturwissenschaft, we do not often speak in English of a ‘science of literature.’ Do we then lack something which the Germans have, or do they lack something which they think they have? Do we feel that the name is a misnomer? Or is it that we are satisfied to possess the thing without caring how it is called? If this last is so, it were as well perhaps to be a little less indifferent, since names gradually affect modes of thinking. A rose by any other name will smell as sweet, but a rose by the name of rose tempts people to smell of it, especially blind people. It is a fact of some import for the users of German, that they have the convenient word Wissenschaft, which they can apply freely to the serious and systematic study of any subject under the sun. On the other hand, we are not unaffected, and I think the effect is bad, by the drift of English usage toward a restricted application of the word ‘science.’ The tendency leads people to associate with that word not so much the grand ideals of carefulness and love of truth, as rather the particular methods employed, and the kind of accuracy aimed at, in the study of physics and biology. Many are also led to feel that there are spheres of thought in which science has nothing to say; and so, instead of enlarging their conception of science, they become suspicious of it. The result is that we are far from realizing that universal allegiance to the scientific spirit, which in our day we ought to have. Instead, there is a division of sentiment, many persons, intelligent persons too, feeling that for certain purposes science is a blind guide. As if there could be in the long run any better basis of life than the truth ! And as if there could be any more hopeful way of getting at the truth than to keep trying, with all our might, in the light of all the evidence!

1867 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 256-258 ◽  

The two most recent theories dealing with the physical constitution of the sun are due to M. Faye and to Messrs. De la Rue, Balfour Stewart, and Loewy. The chief point of difference in these two theories is the explanation given by each of the phenomena of sun-spots. Thus, according to M. Faye, the interior of the sun is a nebulous gaseous mass of feeble radiating-power, at a temperature of dissociation; the photosphere is, on the other hand, of a high radiating-power, and at a temperature sufficiently low to permit of chemical action. In a sunspot we see the interior nebulous mass through an opening in the photosphere, caused by an upward current, and the sun-spot is black, by reason of the feeble radiating-power of the nebulous mass.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Armstrong-Taylor

Abstract When do politicians lie? A politician who admits to wrongdoing will likely suffer some loss of popularity, but probably not as great as if he denied wrong doing and was subsequently discovered to have lied. This simple observation has a number of implications. For example, a politician in a marginal seat may have little choice but to risk lying as admitting will lose him too much popularity to survive. On the other hand, a politician in a relatively safe seat might survive the loss from admitting, but not from lying and being caught. Therefore we might predict the likelihood that a politician admits to a scandal to be positively related (over some range at least) to the security of his seat. This paper tests this prediction, and some others, with data from House bank scandal of 1991-92.


1933 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-422
Author(s):  
R. C. Evans

In the spectrum formed by a grating the red is more deviated than the blue, while in that formed by a prism, which does not exhibit anomalous dispersion in the visible spectrum, the reverse is the case. If, then, white light is passed first through a grating and then through a prism, the nature of the spectrum produced will depend on the relative dispersions of the grating and prism. If throughout the spectrum the dispersion of the prism is less than that of the grating, the sequence of colours will be the same as that in the spectrum due to the grating alone, red being more deviated than blue. If, on the other hand, the dispersion of the prism is throughout the spectrum greater than that of the grating, the sequence of colours will be reversed. On account of the rapid increase in the dispersion of glass near the blue end of the spectrum, it may, however, be possible that the dispersion of the prism exceeds that of the grating in the blue while in the red the reverse is the case. Under these conditions both red and blue will be more deviated than some intermediate colour for which the dispersions of the grating and prism are equal. The spectrum will thus have a sharp edge of this colour at the end of minimum deviation, while in the direction of greater deviation it will at each point consist of two superimposed colours. It is as if an ordinary white light spectrum was folded back on itself about the sharp edge.


Pairs of colonies of differently coloured bees were placed with their entrances only 2 in. apart, and m any bees tried to enter the wrong colony, as if it were their own. Strangers were recognized by their different scent, and their reception depended upon foraging conditions. In nectar flows there was no hostility and the bees of both colonies mingled indiscriminately. In fairly good conditions there was no hostility, but partial separation was maintained through the discrimination shown by incoming foragers. In dearth conditions, when bees try to rob other colonies, all strangers were received with hostility; most were thrown out and many were killed. In dearth conditions marked foragers from one of the two colonies were fed with sugar syrup, but they were nevertheless repelled when they tried to enter the unfed colony; on the other hand, unfed strangers were more readily admitted into the fed colony. Thus hostility to strangers was inversely proportional to the availability of forage; the condition of the community which was to be entered was important, but the behaviour of the intruder was not. These results are discussed in relation to the defence of the community against both robber bees and strange queens.


1929 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-221
Author(s):  
T. M. Lowry

Two alternative views have been expressed in regard to the configuration of quadrivalent atoms. On the one hand le Bel and van't Hoff assigned to quadrivalent carbon a tetrahedral configuration, which has since been confirmed by the X-ray analysis of the diamond. On the other hand, Werner in 1893 adopted an octahedral configuration for radicals of the type MA6, e.g. inand then suggested that “the molecules [MA4]X2 are incomplete molecules [MA6]X2. The radicals [MA4] result from the octahedrally-conceived radicals [MA6] by loss of two groups A, but with no function-change of the acid residue…. They behave as if the bivalent metallic atom in the centre of the octahedron could no longer bind all six of the groups A and lost two of them leaving behind the fragment [MA4]” (p. 303).


1972 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
INGEMAR LARSSON

A systematic study has been carried out concerning ground water in faults and fractures in a granite rock and the results are compared with those of uniaxial testing of granite specimens in rock mechanic laboratories. Dikes of diabase intersect the granite and indicate the plane of deformation syntectonic to the dikes. A collection of the tectonic data from the granite is statistically treated and the tectonic picture of the area fits very well into the deformation plane, indicated by the intrusion (Jotnian). The faults and fractures of the granite are, according to their position in relation to the plane of deformation, hypothetically interpreted as tension and shear faults. The faults in shear position are supposed to be tight and have very little ground water. The tension faults, on the other hand, are supposed to be open and to be capable of a high yield of ground water. This hypothesis is tested by core-drillings, percussion drillings and test pumping.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jungho Baek

<p>This paper attempts to re-examine Korea’s import demand behavior with an enhanced<br />econometric technique and an up-to-date dataset. To achieve the goal, an autogressive<br />distributed lag (ARDL) approach is adopted. Our results show the existence of the long-run<br />relationship between Korea’s imports and its major determinants such as income and price. It<br />is also found that income plays an important role in influencing Korea’s imports in both the<br />short- and long-run. On the other hand, price is found to have a significant impact on Korea’s<br />imports only in the short-run.</p>


1933 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 34-57
Author(s):  
M. C. E.St John ◽  
MM. Abbot ◽  
Abetti ◽  
Anderson ◽  
Bjerknes ◽  
...  

The president calls attention to the large and increasing membership of Commission 12 and the policy of concentrating in it all matters relating to the sun. The result makes it comparable in breadth of field and in membership to the former Union for Co-operation in Solar Research. The main point in favour of this policy is the increased interest in the meetings of the Commission and the larger number of individuals reached compared with the meetings of small committees. One recalls the general sessions of the Solar Union in which each one present felt himself a part of the Union and in real touch with the work of different sections and after the discussions went away with fuller knowledge of what it was all about. This was a valuable result not attained to the same degree from the general sessions of the present Union, but in a measure it does follow from the meetings of the Solar Physics Committee. On the other hand the question may be raised whether or not the merging of independent commissions into subdivisions of a large commission lessens their interest to an extent not balanced by the advantages. If the present policy holds, it seems to the president that a re-organisation of Commission 12 is advisable by which more responsibility is laid upon the directors of centres. The basis of membership in the Commission may well be considered and recommendations formulated for transmission to the Executive Committee.


1862 ◽  
Vol 7 (40) ◽  
pp. 461-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Maudsley

As it has ever been the custom of man to act as if he were eternal, and lavishly to scatter the limited force which he embodies as though the supply were inexhaustible, it produces no unaccustomed surprise to witness the useless expenditure of force which is so frequently made at the present time. It may even, perhaps, be deemed a token of some modesty, that the being, who since his first formation has been continually occupied in metaphysical regions with the investigation of the origin of all things, should be content for a while to amuse himself with physical theories concerning his own origin. That which is to be regretted in the new and comparatively praiseworthy occupation is the old evil of hasty theorizing on the one hand, and on the other hand, the evil, scarcely less ancient, of an impetuous eagerness to demolish any theory, however plausible, which comes athwart a favourite prejudice. What though the anatomist does discover a very close resemblance and very slight differences between the structure of a gorilla and the structure of a human being; there is no need, on that account, that mankind in a feeling of injured dignity should angrily rouse up and disclaim the undesired relationship. Whatever may be said or written, it is quite plain after all that a man is not a gorilla, and that a gorilla is not a man; it is furthermore manifest that gorillas do not breed men now-a-days, and that we have not the shadow of any evidence to guide us in forming; an opinion as to what they may have clone in times past. The negative testimony of Du Chaillu, who says that he searched in vain in the gorilla region for any intermediate race or link between it and man, scarcely adds anything to the conviction of the non-existence of any such link, which has long been universally entertained.*


1883 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 335-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ad. Michaelis

Of peculiar interest among the Arundel marbles of the Pomfret donation at Oxford, is a slab in the shape of a pediment, ‘in which there is in basso relievo the figure of a man as big as the life with his arms extended as if he was crucified, but no lower than about his paps is seen, the cornice cutting him off as it were; and this extension of his arms is called a grecian measure, and over his arm is a grecian foot.’ The marble thus described by George Vertue, the engraver, was first published in Chandler's Marmora Oxoniensia, Pt. I., Pl. lix., No. 166, but its importance was completely overlooked until the late Prof. Matz, in one of his last papers, published a better drawing and pointed out the artistic interest of the relief as a sculpture belonging to a rather early period of Greek art. On the other hand, the merit of the monument as an authentic document of Greek metrology was set forth, at my request, by my friend Dr. Fr. Hultsch, the author of Griechische Metrologie, whose views are repeated in my Ancient Marbles in Great Britain. The chief result of his exposition was that our relief unites in a most interesting way the indication of the length of a fathom (ὀρλυιά) of 2·06 or 20·07 m. with that of a foot of 0·295 m., which is not, as one might expect, the sixth, but exactly the seventh part of the fathom. As such a division of the fathom does not agree with the well-known facts of Greek metrology, Hultsch imagined that the foot on our marble might rather be a modulus used by sculptors and architects, and he observed that the recent excavations of Olympia seem to show the dimensions of some of the temples, particularly of the very old temple of Heré, to be based on a double measure, on a foot but little longer (of 0·298 m.), as well as on a fathom of 2·084 m. which, again, corresponds to seven of those feet.


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