MR. FEARN'S LETTER TO SIR DAVID BREWSTER.
SOME time ago, we very briefly informed our readers of a course of curious experiments on Vision, by Mr. FEARN, by which some remarkable discoveries had been elicited. Several successive Publications continued the communication of Mr. FEARN'S further 'Regress, until he had altogether established a pretty complete iheory, which he named Cerebral Vision. The substantiation of these views necessarily led to great changes in the received doc- trines of Optics; and as the experiments were gone through with much care, by a man of a patient and penetrating genius, who had been long accustomed to speculations in the profoundest parts of pneumatological science, it was to be presumed that a very strong case had been made out, and that the matter was in the hands of Philosophers, and the truth would be evolved sooner or later. Mr. FEARN is, however, a gentleman of advanced life, of retired habits, unconnected with scientific societies, and not enjoying those means of dispersing his opinions which are possessed by men who are more in the world, and of younger and more active tastes. His publications have consequently always made their appearance in a most unbusiness-like form, and couched in a style very unlike that of the nineteenth century : it is, in fact, rather thinking than writing, and just that description or language. and expression which all hermits fall into, and which shows that a man has been in the habit of carrying on long mental trains of thought, and has not concerned himself much with the business of communication. Be this as it may, Mr. FICARN was entitled to the attention of the scientific world, and got but little; though he hat 'valuable documents to show that in partieular places his merits were highly appreciated. And now, what is exceedingly hard to bear, he is not only treated with the most insufferable contempt by Sir DAVID BREWSTER, in a review of his works in Sir DAVID'S own Philosophical Journal, but this very Sir DAvin, be alleges, has appropriated his discoveries, and in a paper read before the Association held lately at Oxford, has stated, that there have been no careful experiments performed in the department of " pressure on the eye '-" but that it is a source of very curious discoveries, some of which he has hint- self made, and that he is proceeding to make more : and all this in the teeth of his own notice, a year before, of Mr. FEARN'S in- vestigations, and in the face of all Mr. FEARN has from time to time debite on the subject,—for his queer-looking and singularly- fashioned pamphlets are scarcely to be called publications. Every one will allow that this is deeply galling ; the more so as tly3 science of cerebral vision is not a mere fanciful plaything, but leads to the most beautiful and instructive considerations, and may moreover prove the substratum and groundwork of a new theory of Mind altogether. This is what we think of it. We can, there- fore, readily understand Mr. FEARN'S alarm when he heard of his discoveries being appropriated, before the assembled savans of Oxford, by a bustling and active man of science, of name, note, and other mark of likelihood. We can also share his indignation— he, FEARN—a philosopher of eminence and profundity, almost be-. fore BREWSTER was born—at being schooled as he was in BREW- STER'S Philosophical Journal, and told that- " If he will only leave the field of speculation, and, with some feelinge'd respect for his predecessors, will devote himself to the hard labour of expel:mein and oh:Treat:on, we have no doubt that he will do something that will givelint credit and reputation."
This was painful enough to a man of great merit, though not much known to the world. Known he is not—for who mails meta- physics, unless the pupils of a professor, who sends forth his lec- tures at the desk with a silvery voice and a sparkling eye; or in a work of elegant style, beautiful composition, and tasteful illustration, as those Of DUGALD STEWART? AS for truth—pair Mr. FEARN, you have lived very much in your own room, not to know that nobody cares one halfpenny about truth, unless it hap- pens to serve his purpose. But Mr. FEARN, though not known to the world, at least generally, had published works of vast labour, great originality, and of the utmost subtilty ; and perhaps; since BERKELEY, has not been equalled for the ingenuity of his meta- physical speculations. Well can we understand the feelino, with which the anxious, sensitive, but still most courageous old man, penned the following lines, in the stiff band of age and nervouS- ness. The passage is worthy of being placed side by side with the answer of LOWTH to WA.mivaroN, when taunted with bis Oxford education, and as it is quoted in GIBBON'S Auto-biography:
Now this chain of implications, when turned into the chain of assertions with which it is strictly identical, is as follows : that I have never laboured hard, in experiment and observation ; that I have never had so much as some feelings of respect for my predecessors ; and lastly, that I have never, in the whole course of my labour in every department, done any "thing that will give me credit." Let us therefore here observe, what are the relative situations of the parties, from and to whom this flow of scoffing was directed.
It was not that of a nameless writer, to whom no man of gentlemanly feeling, and far less any who had laboured and merited any thing in science, would deign to return a smile of contempt ; but it was the avowed act of a man on whom his Majesty had bestowed the honour of knighthood for Isis scientific attainments, and, consequently, whose elevation and place in the community ought to have been safely reckoned upon as a guarantee to his King and Country for his ob- servance of at least a treatment that could be endurable to the feelings of any other gentleman who had handsomely appealed to his judgment, and without which guarantee the arena of science must become the scene of every latitude. Arid it was thrown in the face of a num so old, as to have commenced an ho.. nourable life, I believe, before you were born, and whose life since then has never rendered him a fit object of personal treatment that would flush the face of a boy ; a man, moreover, who had never intentionally crossed your path, and whose only disrespect or provocation to you was his complimenting you by an appeal at once to your judgment and your ingenuousness; one who has, at least with great labour, produced a number of volumes that are not without witnesses in the world; and who, it is certain, has been pronounced, both by English and by Scottish criticism, to have been right in a controversy of great moment with your "illustrious countryman." On this act, therefore, I say— let men of right feeling judge you. Sir DAVID BREWSTER, not content with depreciating Mr. FEARN'S optical discoveries, impeached his moral views; hi a con- troversy in which he was engaged with DUGALD STEWART. This matter lies in a small compass, and exhibits in all its enormity the modern shamelessness of assertion—the disgraceful indif- ference to truth, which marks the present age. Thus speaks the then Dr. BREWSTER, in his Review— "Many of our readers are no doubt acquainted with the pneumatolagical writings of Mr. Fearn, and with the correspondence which they occasioned with file late Professor Dugald Stewart, and which has been published in the Parriana, or notices of Dr. Parr. Our illustrious countryman did not view the speculations of Mr. Fearn with a favourable eye ; and to Mr. Stewart's great influence over the public opinion Mr. Fearn attributes the total indif- ference of his countrymen to his intellectual labours. He has therefore made a direct appeal to the philosophers of France, to whom he dedicates his present work ; and if it should meet their unqualified censure, he says he shall be con- tent to have it supposed that his previous writings are of no better complexion." You ought here, in fairness, to have inserted my accompanying remark, namely —"although the matter is not my subject."
Now, read Mr. FEARN'S answer to the charge of attacking Drr- GALD STEWART, because he did not view Mr. FEARN'S labours with a favourable eye—
The moment which you cht.se for thus fixing upon me a stamp of odium, was next after that in which yourself had recorded the act of my deep com- plaint, to our own and to other countries, as labouring under literary oppression,
net -indeed: from critical cepdemnation, but from critical silence • a moment whom any fill -adversary might seem safe to say—" Persecute and take him, for there Is nese to deliver him." It would be inconsiderate in any one to think thattlae-hurt in this case was of no baneful consequence. The man who could attack, with tenor of deep import (and such indeed did mine, from resistance of any right, become), the venerable, the meritorious, and highly-distinguished Pro- fessor Stewart, for no deeper cause than the "not viewing his speculation with a favourable eye," must not only be lost to every sense of urbanity and decorum, but he must be much worse; he must be unsafe in every sort of intercourse, scientific or social. Let every man lay his hand upon his breast and say, what 'would be his feeling, and his rule of action also, towards any one upon whose character such a stigma had been justly affixed. Would he seek either friend- ship or intimacy, or yet willingly mix himself up in scientific discussion, or or- dinary acquaintance, with a being so resentful, and unawed by worth or eminence? It is certain that even the imputation of a want of probity could not make a man more shunned than that in question. Thus, when bent upon the act of sweeping my scientific labours from the ken of the community, and 'when (it will be shown) you had premeditated to appropriate to yourself my originality in the _field Pressures upon the Eyes," you commenced this act by stamping a mark of odium upon my name; and turned me forth, most certainly to be unsympathized with, and to scare every delicate and every de- corous person, that might otherwise be disposed either to discuss or defend my labours. • It is, when pointed out, a striking coincidence of proceedings, that you have herein imitated Professor Stewart; though you have gone far beyond hirn. For lie admirably employed the tact of reiterating upon me the imputation of my having taken " offence ;" although I, first and last, delicately and studiously expressed myself as being utterly without any such feeling. I trust, the keeping a the two procedures, in the logic which they both alike evince, form their own commentary, and show the wisdom in its generation, as well as the power, with
• which I have had to contend.
Here I might stop for a moment, and ask, whether any who have conversed • With me will charge me with being intolerant of opposite opinion, or out of the pale of urbanity or candour, on any discussion of my views. I deceive myself af I might.not even hazard the asking, if they know any man who they dunk would more respect the public dealer of a fur blow at my conclusions, than they have found me. But I resume the matter under consideration.
' Now, the truth of the case which you have thus misrepresented is that, so far 'was Mr. Stewart from ever avowing any difference from my views that could call up from me the least degree of resentment, that, on the contrary, HE HAD 33MBRACED—i. e. TAKEN UP—my Views; and had then persevered, against my several przente appeals to ham through a course if three years, that he would merely publicly acknowledge my "priority" in the matter. In which patient appeals, instead of taking up any tone of offence, I always put it upon the sup- ' position that he had not known of my biting before him. And thus lie drove me, by oppression, to a public appeal. As you have read the account of the matter in the Parriana, and have referred to that work, it is impossible you can say you have been misled. And, besides this, from your accredited office and responsibility, you were especially bound to be not misled in throwing a moral and onerous imputation upon any man. I can have no doubt in appeal- ing such an act to the judgment of good men.
We have now done. If we have induced any one to look into Mr. FEARN'S Optical Discoveries, or to examine into Sir DAVID BREWSTER'S depreciation of them, our object is answered.
Previous page
