In human chemistry, Charles Norton (1827-1908) was an American editor noted for []
Overview
In 1887, Norton was the editor of Correspondence between Goethe and Carlyle, the collection of correspondences between Goethe and Thomas Carlyle who contacted Goethe in 1824, after becoming enamored with German philosophy from his reading of famous book on Germany by Germaine Stael (1766-1817). [2]
James Lowell?
Of note, American English literature professor Eugene Murray (1927-1995), in his 1968 article “‘Elective Affinity’ in The Revolt of Islam”, attributes [possibly; check] the "men are not chemical substances" (Mary Shelley, 1939) quote [misattributed, tentatively, by Thims in 2012 to Norton] to American romantic writer James Lowell (1819-1891). [3]
Lowell, if the above quote was by him, would have been age 36 at the time, which would seem more reasonable of an age for a man to be making such a discernment.
Murray's citation, however, may be a misattribute, as the “Memoir of Shelley”, in which the above quote is found, is listed in the 1855 addition as being written by Norton? Though, on the other hand, in The Complete Writings of James Russell Lowell, which seems to have been edited by Norton, Lowell’s essay on John Milton speaks about the rule of elective affinities of opposites: [4]
“Speaking of Mary Powell, he says, ‘We have no portrait of her, nor any account of her appearance; but on the usual rule of the elective affinities of opposites, Milton being fair, we will vote her to have been dark-haired.”
More research will have to be done on the actual source of the "men are not chemical substances" quote [Update (2015): the "men are not chemical substances" was written in 1839 by Mary Shelley in her "Memoir of Shelley" on the chemical philosophy of relationships, love, and marriage of Percy Shelley.
References
1. Norton, Charles E. (1855). “Memoir of Shelley”, in: The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley: in Three Volumes (pg. xxviii). Little, Brown and Co.
2. Goethe, Johann and Carlyle, Thomas. (1887). Correspondence between Goethe and Carlyle (editor: Charles Norton). MacMillan and Co.
3. (a) Murray, Eugene B. (1968). “‘Elective Affinity’ in The Revolt of Islam” (abs), Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 67:570-85.
(b) Lowell, James. (1864). “Memoir”, in: The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, ed. Mary Shelley, 2 vols. [Boston], I, 22.
(c) James Russell Lowell – Wikipedia.
4. Lowell, James R. and Norton, Charles E. (1870). Among My Books (§:Milton, pgs. 243-312; quote, pg. 257). Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1904.
External links
● Charles Eliot Norton – Wikipedia.
