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October 8, 1853.] THE LEAD r EI: 9W
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THEODORE PARKER'S MEW WORK. Theism, Athe...
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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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It Is An Old Fault, That Of Decrying The...
, Had crown'd , in proof , the statue of his fame , " Were they , from all who could not reach so high , The best and not the impudentest few ,. Upon the platform . Ab the record is , Napier ennobles En ox , and . Be it so . Sleep , thou war-shatter'd frame 1 Brave spirit , rise From the yet warlike Earth to a grander world , And clothe thyself in God ' s eternal peace !—W . Allingham . " That is from the Dublin University Magazine , where we always meet with some pleasant writing , and often , with poetry .
The Westminster ( to which we return ) contains two very striking articles indeed—the one already alluded to , and one on the Universal Postulate , one of the profoundest and clearest metaphysical essays we have read In it Common Sense is reconciled with Philosophy : a scientific basis is given for our universal conceptions . We hope to discuss this paper more at length on a future occasion ; meanwhile , we call attention to it as a great contribution to our philosophy . Religion in Italy is an interesting article , written by one who is thoroughly master of the subject , and so familiar with its details , that he must be an Italian . An agreeable paper on the Progress of Fiction as an Art which , however , falls off towards the conclusion , —a very
serviceable paper on Partnership with Limited Liability , —a curious specimen of German Mysticism in the Seventeenth Century , — and an article on Russia , we pass without discussion , ' to pause at the article on The School Claim's of Language . Overburdened with quotations and notes , and somewhat loose in texture , this article is nevertheless to be welcomed as the emphatic record of one who , competent to speak on the classical side , has allowed good sense to sway him over to the anti-classical side . Without denying that the study of the classics has its advantages , the writer clearly sees the preponderating advantages on the other side . For ourselves , we think Greek and Latin ought to
be learned . But we no more consider them necessary as the basis of general education than we consider Malachology or Numismatics necessary as the basis , both of them desirable as they are . As to discipline , Greek and Latin have no superiority over German and French , while vastly inferior to the discipline of science ; as to " familiarizing the mind with the great models , " it betrays a misconception of fundamental principles to talk of that as a healthy procedure in education ; and we question , the assumed superiority of these " models . " In Poetry , in Philosophy , in Literature , our own great writers are better " models . " But we refer the reader to the Westminster Review , where this and other points are discussed .
The New Quarterly Revieiv , which has the speciality of being a review of new books , and not a collection of essays , has three qualities vivacity , knowledge , and independence ; it has also the " faults of its qualities , " though these are disappearing , and the Review is rapidly improving . The Scottish Revieiv \ s a temperance oriran , mingling general literature and social progress , well worth its shilling . We intend to enter upon this temperance question shortly ; meanwhile , we may mention that Dr . Carpenter has just published an es ^ ay in Bohn's shilling volumes on The Physiology of Temperance and Total A hdinencc .
October 8, 1853.] The Lead R Ei: 9w
October 8 , 1853 . ] THE LEAD EI : 9 W
Theodore Parker's Mew Work. Theism, Athe...
THEODORE PARKER'S MEW WORK . Theism , Atheism , and the Popular Theology ; Sermons . By Tlieodoro Parker , author of " A . Discourse on Matters iwrlnining to llvli <; ion , " & c . IVioo 9 s . John Chapman . We have more than once declared our high opinion of Theodore Parker . ¦ His " Discourse of Matters pertaining to Religion " is one of the works which belong to the history of the age . It ia distinguished not only by manly directness , by the noblest moral sentiments , by a careful application of extensive learning , by depth a « d richness of p < xfcc sensibility , and by a wide grasp Of generalization , but also by moderation in its polemic—by precision adornment
in the statement of contested views , nay , even by a generous of them . The style is fervid ; often splendid with imagery and with bursts of prophet-like eloquence . Many a page is in itself a prose poem . Disappointed in Mr . Parker ' s last published volume , nnd wishing to check the impulse to a rather bitter expression of that disappointment by reviving our old feelings of admiration and gratitude , we have opened the " Discourse " at some of our favourite pages , and , as a justification of at least a part of our praise to those readers who are not familiar with the book , we must be allowed to quote the following passage on Pantheism—a theory of the universe to which , be it remembered , the writer is opposed : —
" Pantheism linn , perhaps , never been altogether a stranger to the world . It maluw all things God , nnd God all things . Thin view at first seem * congenial to a poetic and religious mind . IT the world bo regarded a . s a , collection of powcr-H , —the awful force of the ntorm , of tho thunder , the earthquake ; tho hugo magnificence of the ocean , in its Hlmnber or its wrath ; the sublimity of tho over-during hill . s ; the rooks which resist all but the uiiHcon band of time- ; these might lend to the thought ; that , , they were God . If men loolc at the order , fitness , beauty , love , everywhere apparent in nature , the impression in confirmed . The All of things appears ho beautiful to the comprehensive eye , that wo almost think it is its own Cau . se and Creator . The animals find their Hport and thoir pleasure ; tho painted leopard and tho miowy
ftwan , each living by its own law ; tho bird of passage that , pursues , from zone to zone , its unmarked path ; the Hummer warbler which sings out its melodious existence in tho woodbine ; tho flowor * that , come unasked , charming tho youthful year ; tho golden fruit maturing in iln wilderness of green ; the dew anil tho rainbow ; the front-lluko and tho mountain snow ; tho glorioH fhut wiiit upon the morning , or Hing tho mm to his ambrosial rest ; tho pomp of tho huh at , noon , ainid the clouds of a Juno day ; tho awful majesty of nigbt , when all tho fttars with n , serene step como out , and treiul thoir round , and neom to watch in blest tranquillity about tho slumbering world ; tho moon waning and waxing , walking in benuty through tho nifjjht : —daily tho wator i « rough with tho winds ; thoy como or abido at no man ' ii bidding ,
and roll the yellow corn , or wake religious music at night-fall in the pines . These things are all so fair , so wondrous , so wrapt in mystery , it ia no marvel that men say , This is divine . Yes , the All is God . He is the light of the morning , the beauty of the noon , and the strength of the sun . The little grass grows by his presence . He preserveth the cedars . The stars are serene because he is in them . The lilies are redolent of GocL He is the One ; the All . God is the mind of man . ' Tho soul of all- more moving than motion ; more stable than rest ; fairer than beauty , and stronger than strength . The power of nature is God . The universe , broad and deep and high , a handful of dust , which God enchants . He is the mysterious magic that possesses the world . Yes , lie is the All : the Reality of all phenomena . "
An author who has given us such a precedent by which to judge him , and who has thus taught us to regard his name on a title-page as a guarantee that a book deserves to be read , must not be surprised if he meets with a warm remonstrance when he shakes the credit of that guarantee by too hasty publication . The friends of social and religious freedom on this side of the Atlantic are jealous for the reputation of Theodore Parker , as associated with the precious cause of which he is a conspicuous champion . The volume before us consists of sermons , delivered , unwritten , to Mr . Parker ' s congregation at Boston , and printed , with the exception of three , from the notes of a short-hand writer . It may be doubted whether any man , however morally and intellectually gifted , can hold the position of a preacher for a long series of years , without contracting some habitual mode
of presenting his thoughts , which must be unacceptable to the world outside his church or chapel doors . Sermons are ordinarily delivered to a docile , sympathizing audience , and from their fugitive character are not expected to incur any ri g id , microscopic criticism ; hence there is no external check either on the temptation to produce a strong momentary effect by exaggerated contrasts and tawdry declamation , to which an impetuous nature is liable in extemporaneous speaking , or on the tendency in a preacher of the colder and more systematizing cast , who delivers elaborately prepared discourses , to assume an oracular air , as if he alone held the delicate scales in which theological opinion can be correctly weighed . All the more need is there that when a preacher determines to give his sermons to the public at large , he should subject them to a severe revision , and scourge out of them
everything likely to suggest either the vulgar pulpit orator or the oracle of the congregation . But so far is Mr . Parker from having bestowed such a revision on these sermons of his , that he does not appear even to have taken any pains to purify them from the slip-shod English or the numerous specimens of what D'Israeli wittily calls " the American language , " which are perhaps inevitable in extemporaneous speaking on the other side of the Atlantic , but which are inexcusable in a work deliberately offered to the public We do not wish , however , to dwell on this secondary point—though to us the ever-recurring use of such phrases as " a great ways , " " timid people regard God as the great hunker of the universe , " & c . & c . is no slight blemish to an author ' s pages—the volume presents graver matter of objection . In the four first sermons , on " Speculative Atheism , Practical Atheism ,
the Popular Theology as a Theory of the Universe , and the Popular Theology as a Principle of . Ethics / ' we too often miss the philosophic breadth , * the just appreciation of every form of thought , and the faith in humanity as a fountain of goodness and beauty apart from , or in spite of , theological" belief , which we are accustomed to expect from the author of the " Discourse . " The two sermons on atheism , with the exception of a few passages in which Mr . Parker is "himself again , " consist of heated declamation against an altogether imaginary class of thinkers , who are supposed to believe that , 1 ° . the universe is " a fortuitous concourse of atoms "; that , 2 ° . there is no distinction between Right and Wrong ; that , 3 ° , grovelling sensuality , cowardice , treachery , and all the basest forms of selfishness , are the only wisdom . In this Quixotic combat with a hypothetic
monster ( which he himself here and there admits to have no real existence ) , Mr . Parker is hurried into the double fallacy , first , of identifying Theism with the theory that man ' s soul is " immaterial , " and with the positive conviction that this soul is immortal ; and secondly , of making all morality dependent on the Idea of God . Our readers well know that we have as little sympathy with dogmatic atheism as with the popular theology , but we must enter our protest against this latter position , as one fruitful alike in intellectual confusion and moral perversion . Every moral tendency of man is primarily drawn forth and developed by the object to which it immediately relates , and however true it may bo that the Idea of God has an influence on that development , tho influence can only be secondary . Mr . Parker , indeed , appears to recognise this in another part of his book , when ho speaks of our faculties as " each containing its law within itself . "
The same damaging exaggeration is occasionally seen in his treatment of the Popular Theology . When the " Orthodox" theologian ia told that be looks out on the world and sees a body blasted by a soul , a here undermined by a Hereafter of Hell , arched over with a little , paltry sounding-board of / leaven , whence the elect may look over the edge and rejoice in the writhings of the worms unpitied beneath theirjfoet "—that be " looks out and sees u grim and revengeful and evil God . Such is his sad whim "he is less likoly to recognise bis own portrait , thus drawn in phosphorus and put , in a dark corner , than if tho artist had chosen more subdued materials and a more natural effect . In tho sermons on Speculative and Practical
Theism , on Immortal Life , and on Providence , in which Mr . Parker enlarges on his own religious views , there is , together with great beauty of thought , much confident assertion' —for example , that " tho universe is insured at tho office of tho Infinite God , " ami that " there must be another world fqr tho sparrow as for man "—which does not engJigo tho sympathy of our reverential feelings . To us it frequently appears , that what is represented ub tho necessary product of the purest and most active religious sentiments , is in truth nothing more than an impatient effort to throw off « ' tho burthen of tho mystery" which envelopes our being , by tenaciously clinging to an , agreeable hypothesis in spite of facts .
Having discharged tho disagreeable duty of pointing out what wo feol to bo proofs of carelessness or degeneracy in a writer whoso genius nnd character aro dear to us , wo aro now free to speak of what is valuable in tho volume before us . It opens with an Introduction of forty pages , containing an admirable panoramic sketch of tho progress and actual condition , of
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 8, 1853, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08101853/page/17/
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