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634 tRfft %t&ttt t* [Saturday,
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literature.
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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A small boy complained to a farmer, "O m...
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Pliny the younger in one of his pleasant...
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Madame Charles Reybaud has sent forth an...
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Barantk's Histoire de la Convention is o...
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Sverdrup, the most renowned of all the S...
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Thackeray's Sixth Lecture, and, alas! th...
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GREGORY OF NAZfANZUM. Gregory of JVaxian...
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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634 Trfft %T&Ttt T* [Saturday,
634 tRfft % t & ttt t * [ Saturday ,
Literature.
literature .
Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
A Small Boy Complained To A Farmer, "O M...
A small boy complained to a farmer , "O mister , your bulldog has been a-biting me so ; " whereupon the philosophic farmer replied , " Has he ? Then bite ' un again . " We really think the " retaliation " practised upon literary America by pirated England is very much of the same kind as the small boy biting the bulldog . America reprints all our literature—does it so lavishly , that it is not even a compliment to be reprinted in such company ; and England , smarting under the fraud , reprints Nathaniel Willis !
If as a question of retaliation we think this procedure unwise , as a question of legislation we think there never can be an advantage in sanctioning what the moral sense disapproves . If it be wrong for American publishers to pirate English works , it is wrong for English publishers to pirate American works . Being a wrong , no Legislature should be asked to sanction it . On this broad general basis
we object to the tactics proposed by the Meeting of Authors and Publishers , held on Tuesday , at the Hanover-square Rooms , with Sir Edward Lytton as Chairman , and Mr . Henry G . Bohn as Vice-chairman . The present unsettled state of the law is indeed an evil , and should at once be remedied ; but we hope that an International Copyright will be gained by other means than that of a retaliatory spoliation .
Pliny The Younger In One Of His Pleasant...
Pliny the younger in one of his pleasant letters , which look like anticipations of the French , says" If my discernment is shown more conspicuously in one thing than in another , it is in my admiration for Asinius Rufus—Si quid omnino , hoc certe judicio facio , quod Asinium Rufum singulariter amo . " Supply the place of Rufus with the name of Thomas de Quincey , and we claim the passage as our own . Therefore are we peculiarly sensible to the compliment he pays the Leader , in the last number of Tail's Magazine—nay , believing that the praise of such a man will gratify our wellwishers , we will incur the risk of being thought somewhat self-trumpeting , and quote the
paseage : — " My last paper on Pope has been taxed with exaggeration . This charge comes from a London weekly journal ( the Leader ) , distinguished l > y its ability , by its hardihood of speculation , by its comprehensive candour ; but , in my eyes , still more advantageously distinguished by its deep sincerity . Such qualities give a special vulue to the courtesies of that journal ; and I in particular , as a literary man , have to thank it for repeated instances of kindness , the most indulgent on any occasion wliich has brought up the mention of my name . Such qualities of necessity give a corresponding -value to its censures . "
That the simple expression of an unaffected admiration should have given 1 ) e Quincey pleasure is , indeed , a pleasant thought to the present writer . On the point in question De Quincey sees no reason to alter his view of Pope ' s deep and abiding falsehood , nor do we see any reason to alter our view of 1 ) k Quincey ' s deep and abiding- misconstruction of Poi'i :. The very examples lie adduces < lo not , to our minds , bring the slightest persuasion ; and on the literary question of French
influence ( which 1 ) k Quincky altogether denies ) it seems to us of all paradoxes the most untenable to dispute the dominion of l'Vench taste all over Europe . The shining locks of young Apollo were recognized only in the periwig of Louis Quatouze . Not in Kugland only , but in Spain , in Italy , and in ( Germany did this fashion reign : it was cried up by one party and railed against by another ; but to dispute iih existence is of all paradoxes the most daring and least convincing .
The number of Tail thin month is interesting ; Fraser is remarkably good—varied , stirring , and suggestive . The Westminster Review opens with a paper espousing the views of the Convention of Woraon , held in the Htate of Ohio , for the purpose
of effecting the enfranchisement of women ; it has also a long and pains-taking article on the Exhibition , an attack on the Royal Academy , and a firstrate paper on Greg ' s Creed of Christendom , the authorship of which will be pretty generally guessed . The writer notes it as the most remarkable characteristic of our age , that ihe most startling attacks are made upon the very foundations of existing Churches , and nobody repels these attacks . Nothing is offered to break their effect , except the inertia of the mass that rests upon the base assailed . In the last century every sceptical
work produced a score of answers ; but to the sceptical works now published not one adequate reply has been given . " If the efficacy of * holy orders' is called in question , streams of sacerdotal refutation flow from the press ; but if the inspiration of the twelve Apostles is denied , it is a thing that neither bishop nor priest will care to vindicate . " No one can deny the painful truth of this ; the reason we take to be , the scepticism which works within the Church as well as without—the natural shrinking from inquiries which men dread to open , for fear they should issue conclusions they would rather not accept .
Madame Charles Reybaud Has Sent Forth An...
Madame Charles Reybaud has sent forth another pretty little story , Faustine , wherein provincial life in France is daguerreotyped . It is a mere trifle , but it is charming . Le Drame de ' 93 , by Alexandre Dumas , turns out to be nothing more nor less than a narrative of the Revolution , in his rapid , novelist style . He has been writing
novels lately , the time of which is that of the Revolution , and having to " read up " for these , he now turns his studies to other accounts : having carved his statue , he picks up the chips and dust and sells them ! So that the parcel issues from his atelier , the public cares little what shapes it may contain ; and , indeed , he touches nothing that he does not render attractive .
Guizot is about to issue a new work , Histoire des Origines du Gouvernement Representatif . This important publication is really a new work , being the carefully revised issue of his Lectures from 1820 to 1822 , which have never yet seen the light , except in the imperfect comptes rendus of the Journal des Cours Publics . Guizot has undertaken to present them to the public in the shape in which he wishes to have them accepted , and no student of history will be long without them .
Barantk's Histoire De La Convention Is O...
Barantk ' s Histoire de la Convention is on the eve of publication ; and the Dibats has given a long extract from it ( on the Massacres of September ) , which excites curiosity .
Sverdrup, The Most Renowned Of All The S...
Sverdrup , the most renowned of all the Swedish philologists , died the other day in his seventy-ninth year ; he was for nearly fifty years Professor at the University of Christiana .
Thackeray's Sixth Lecture, And, Alas! Th...
Thackeray ' s Sixth Lecture , and , alas ! the last—was on Sterne and Goldsmith . He stigmatized severely all Sterne ' s relations with women ; showed up the sham sensibility which wept through his writings ( not altogether such a sham , we believe , as Thackeray would have us think ; but ( sincere enough in places , though from the volatility of his mind , serious emotions soon paused into laughter ) : dwelt upon the perilous thing it was to make a market of one ' s sorrows , and Hell the deepest experiences of one ' s life at so much per volume : and
wound up with an emphatic condemnation of the pruriency of Stkrne ' h writings , contrasting that pruriency with the purity of Dickens . The compliment to Dickens came gracefully from Thackeray ; but , unless we , take Dickens as the representative of our whole comic literature , it should bo remembered that all the corpic writers of this day are free from hucIi indecencies as soil the pages of the seventeenth nnd eighteenth centuries . ( JoiiUHMiTH wa « painted with a loving hand . All the generosity , Bweetncss , and improvidence of his Irish nature wore emphatically brought
forward ; and the lecture closed with a strong , and in many respects hard-hitting , onslaught upon the current complaint that Literature , as a profession , does not meet with the homage which is its due . He maintained that it met all its due . On this head we should have much to say , but neither time nor opportunity favour us at present .
Gregory Of Nazfanzum. Gregory Of Jvaxian...
GREGORY OF NAZfANZUM . Gregory of JVaxianxttm . A Contribution to the Ecclesiastica l History of the Fourth Century . By Dr . CarlUllmai n . Translated by G . V . Cox , M . A . - J . W . Parker . Like most German works of this kind , the biography before us is characterized by patient industry , and lifelessness . It is obviously the careful product of original research ; but it fails in painting even a dim likeness of Gregory ; nor does it vividly describe the condition of the Churches at that period . In the course of reading , we noted some interesting passages ; but on the whole we cannot regard this monograph as of very great
value . Only half of the original work is here given , and that is too much . Mr . Cox deserves praise for his translation [( a"d f ° occasional annotation ) ; nor must the prudence which induced him to withhold the second , or dogmatic , part of the volume—wherein Gregory ' s theological opinions are stated and criticized—be overlooked by a grateful public . At present we have the biography in a compact readable form ; if swelled to twice the bulk , readers would unquestionably have paused before undertaking it . With the fourth century Christianity entered
upon a new phasis of existence . It became imperial . From the struggling community wherein Faith was paramount , it changed into a dominant Church . From a persecuted it changed into a persecuting Church . Shame and want were no longer the consequences of confessing Christ's name ; honour and emolument were the consequences . Christianity ceased to be an anarchical reformation , and grew into a Polity . Of course the selfish and the worldly-minded thronged its churches , now that honours followed profession ;
of course luxury and corruption flourished apace within the sanctuary ; of course the eternal struggle between the honest believers and the vacillaiing make-believers was there , fighting its way through history ; and , according as we turn our eyes in one direction or in the other , s < hall we find Religion a terrible reality , or a costume worn because it was the mode . From its origin downwards , Christianity has been taken up by great and by sincere men ; but , as Dr . Ullmann
remarks" But the free course of this development was completely checked , when in the fourth century external force was introduced into a contest hitherto carried on by intellectual weapons . Now ( tar otherwise ) outward means of compulsion were thrown into the scales of opinion along with internal principles and convictions . Now , all thinking men were required to understand a Christian truth in precisely the snme formula . Now , episcopal assemblages ( the members of which were not always the moat pious or the most judicious of the cl « rgy , while the greater number could by no means be considered as pure instruments
of the Holy Spirit ) determined upon the adimssibility and objectioniiblenees of different formula ) , stamping one Bet with the seal of divine authority , branding others with the mark of condemnation . Now , that which had been decided by such an assembly ( and that oftentimes under anything but free discussion ) was carried out into actual life by the support of the civil law « nd external power , occasionally not without the application of violence and bloodshed . Now it was that a Byzuntine courttheology was formed , which , commencing from Miiall beginnings , by degrees came to such a point , that a Justinian was able , by the same act of power , to make a spiritual as well as a civil legislator , and that ,
under the ni & iti of his authority , an Origen and a Theodorus of MopHuestia , though long in the grave , were yet condemned by persons who were not capable of comprehending the greatness of their mind , and not worthy to loosen the latchet of their hIioo . Now , instead of peace being Teutorod by the » tr ng arm of power , the polemical deputes of the Chiintians with each other were kindled with the inoro violence , when they no longer hud any external enemy to contend with . The whole Rumuu emp ire , from its head to its meanest subject , was in commotion , for the establishment of one dogmatic formula , and the suppression of another ; liast and West wero torn asunder : cities and fumilies were full of
diHquiet ; all was dogmatic und polemic , and thin , very few instances , from religious interests . It wuh a time of frightful purt } r -spirii . But . where parties exist , religious , political , or scientific , there is intolerance and persecution , bo it open or concealed , with tho weapon of tho tongue or pon , or with thoflc
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 5, 1851, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05071851/page/14/
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