CURRENT LITERATURE.
Light Science for Leisure Roars. By Richard A. Proctor. (Long- reans.)—Mr. Proctor has collected from various newspapers and maga- zines a number of papers which he has contributed during the last few years on various subjects. He deals chiefly with astronomy, the most important of the papers on this subject being "Venue on the Sun's Face," an account of the transit of the planet which is due December 8, 1871. Among the more noticeable of the others we may mention "The Greatest Sea-Wave Ever Known," an account of the terrible catastrophe which overwhelmed the coast of Porn in August, 1868 (the wave rose so high at Arica that it carried a Peruvian corvette and another vessel of considerable size half-a-mile inland); "The Usefulness of Earth- quakes ;" and "Tornadoes." In a "New Theory of Achilles' Shield" Mr. Proctor suggests that the poet was "dealing with an important series of religious sculptures, possibly that he was describing the dome of a temple adorned with celestial and terrestrial symbols ;" and be further speculates on the possibility that this description was made use of more than once, that it appears in the "Shield of Hercules," commonly attributed to Hesiod, as well as in the Iliad. This is one of the curious speculations which it always interests one to read, but which pro- bably gain no converts. We should be inclined to demur to the criticism which makes Mr. Proctor's starting-point :—"Scarcely any one, I think, can have read the description of the shield without a feeling of wonder that Homer should describe the shield of a mortal hero as adorned with so many and such important objects." Did any one ever really wonder at it? We must confess to having been dull enough to think it the most natural thing in the world. We observe an interesting statement that the observations recorded in the "Phenomena" of Aratus describe an aspect of the heavens which must be referred to a remote antiquity. Mr. Proctor is so well known a writer that we need hardly say that he puts his matter very clearly and attractively.
Previous page
