and dim. We have but to fix
the eye on some object directly in front of us, and then attempt,
without removing it, to ascertain the forms of objects at some
distance on both sides, in order to convince ourselves that the field
of distinct vision is a very limited field indeed. And in this
transcript of the larger _tableau vivant_ we find exactly the same
phenomena. The central figures come all within the distinct field. Not
so, however, the figures on both sides. They are dim and indistinct;
the shades dilute into the lights, and the outlines are obscure. How
striking a comment on the theory of Brown! We see his mysterious power
resolved in that drawing into a simple matter of light and shade,
arranged in accordance with certain optical laws. The clear central
space in which the figures are so distinct, corresponds to the central
space in the retina; it is the attention-point of the picture, if we
may so speak. In the eye this attention-point is brought to bear,
through a simple effort of the will, on the object to be examined; and
the rest of the process, so pleasingly, but at the same time so
darkly, described by the philosopher, is the work of the eye itself.

THE TENANT'S TRUE QUARREL.

It has been remarked by Sir James Mackintosh, that there are four
great works, in four distinct departments of knowledge, which have
more visibly and extensively influenced opinion than any other
productions of the human intellect. The first of these is the
_Treatise on the Law of War and Peace_, by Grotius. It appeared about
two centuries ago; and from that period downwards, international law
became a solid fact, which all civilised countries have recognised,
and which even the French Convention, during the Reign of Terror,
dared, in its madness, to outrage but for a moment. The second is the
_Essay on the Human Understanding_, by Locke. It struck down, as with
the blow of a hatchet, the wretched mental philosophy of the dark
ages,--that philosophy which Puseyism, in its work of diffusing over
the present the barbarism and ignorance of the past, would so fain
revive and restore, and which has been ever engaged, as its proper
employment, in imparting plausibility to error and absurdity, and in
furnishing apology for crime. The third was the _Spirit of Laws_, by
Montesquieu. It placed legislation on the basis of philosophy; and
straightway law began to spring up among the nations out of a new
soil. The fourth and last great