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—.r THE LEADER. P^ 0 - 333 > Saturday * ...
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j» —? It is a serious evil that owing to...
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FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. On the Sta...
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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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
—.R The Leader. P^ 0 - 333 > Saturday * ...
— . r THE LEADER . P ^ - 333 > Saturday * 7 oO — : — -
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J» —? It Is A Serious Evil That Owing To...
j » —? It is a serious evil that owing to the variety and contradictoriness of the texts of Scripture , fools and knaves , bigots and men of etern uncharitableness are generally a ble to fortify themselves with a text , which they do in utter indifference to the texts explicitly condemning what they uphold . No matter how rickety the foundation , a text can be found to buttress it . For
observance of the Sabbath , for non-observance , for teetotalism and for vinous enjoyment , for intolerance and for tolerance , for rebellion and for submission , texts are equally ready . It is worthy of remark that the men who most vehemently insist on carrying into action the principle laid down in one text , are at the same time the most regardless of the other texts which limit or contradict it . The very fact of there being two contradictory statements , should make men aware that neither can be accepted as absolute , but that both express a limitation . In the North British Review a very able and liberal writer has noticed the apparent contradiction in the
language of Scripture on the subject of Missions : — Among the words of the same Divine Teacher , and in the same narrative of them , are contained , both an earnest exhortation to proselytize , and a denunciation , which sounds contemptuous of proselytism . Contrasts such as this are a characteristic of the Christian religion . Far from accounting these a weakness or reproach , it possesses few more convincing proofs of its truth , or surer pledges that it is to last for ever . In this very peculiarity consists , in a great degree , its superiority over the other religions Of the world , and most of its own sects . Each of these seizes on truths singly , and develops them into action , unchecked by the necessary counterpoise by which each is , in its own nature , accompanied and controlled . The result of such a procedure is a course of religious efforts , vigorous and energetic even to the extreme of violence , but eccentric and ultimately self-destroying , such as we may imagine that of a planet in ¦ which inertia had overpowered gravitation . Christianity , on the other hand , presents her truths to us , in their own true nature and connexion , each checked and balanced by an opposite .
This writer , although his orthodoxy cannot be suspected , is fully alive to the onesidedness of the Missionary spirit , and he exposes the vices to which it leads . He courageously says : — Nothing is baser or more mischievous than mere proselytism . The missionary impulse of each is one , that has disdained to inquire , whether its -spirit is one of pure or false zeal , and whether its mode of proceeding is always in strict conformity with the moral law . Hence , the history of these , as of most other proselytizing sects , has been a very chequered one . In each , we may read of acts of dauntless heroism and noblest self-denial . But these are balanced by enormous crimes , in which heroic and self-denying men are often found to have been the criminals . No wars have been more sanguinary or inhuman than religious wars , whether in Christianity or in Islam . No self-interest has ever produced so cold-blooded and calculating a cruelty as sincere unselfish religious persecution . No frauds or forgeries have been so cunningly devised or so perseveringly sustained , as those which have been practised , within the ranks of sacerdotal Christianity , by self-devoted men , in behalf of the law of love and the gospel of truth .
Hard words these , but true words , and worthy of being iterated . In commenting on the odious assumption that sprinkling babies in secret saves thousands of innocent souls which would otherwise perish everlastingly , the writer says : — Can this be mere ad captandum language , intended to draw contributions to th e missionary societies ? If so , it is . very wicked . But if it be really genuine and sincere , how melancholy a fanaticism does it display ! We shudder at the accounts of devil-worship which come to us from so many mission-fields . We pity the drearydelusion of the Manichees , who enthroned the Illvil Principle in heaven . But if -we proclaim that God is indeed one , who could decree this more than Moloch sacrifice of tiie vast majority of his own creatures and children , for no fault or sin of theirs , -we revive the error of the Manichee ; for the God , whom we preach as a destroyer of the guiltless , can be no God of justice , far less a God of love . Again , contrasting the Protestant appeals to the baser motives , made by missionaries with the Catholic appeals , he says : —
We do not presume to promise out contributors payment in full in anotber world , for the money that they contribute here . But we offer them an equivalent in this -world . We furnish them witjj distinction and notoriety , and ample moans for glorifying themselves . Thus wo pay them , not , like the Pope , in paper , but , like honest tradesmen , in ready money . We give an unnecessary and very expensive prominence to the names of our subscribers , and so encourage Pharisaism ; nay , we infuse the evil spirit of religious self-display even into our children , and give them the very debasing taste for seeing their charitable gifts in print . It would be a good dcod if some of our missionary societies would remind Master John Smith and Miss Matilda
Jones , the contents of whose money-boxes are chronicled in the annual report , that those reports are the veritable street-corners of the nineteenth century , and that the solf-display of modern Pharisaism transcends that of its elder sister , in the proportion , in which the publicity of a work of 10 , 000 or 20 , 000 copies surpasses that of n village thoroughfare . Nor can we find much to admire in our great public meetings . They are often nothing but a snare to the actors , and a delusion to the audience . What aelf-display , what vapid oratory , what exaggerated statements , what distorted f « 4 # are considered allowable in these assemblies of men associated together for the propagation of the truth I Incidentally the writer lashes the British public on another ground : —
We arc . standing , at this moment , in curious circumstances of close alliance , with the nation , whose present state , and real aims , and traditional policy , are most oppo-8 lt * to our own . We , zealots for civil liberty , stand embracing , with a grand flourish of fraternisation , the nation that discredited it by its excesses , und then threw it away an , a spoilt child might a plaything of a few days old , and cheering , as our most faithful ally , from Dover even unto Aberdeen , the despot who , for hla own selfish endu , trqde it under foot . "We , zealots for religious liberty , have united our forces with the only vigorous nation , which lends its strength to tho support of the now decrepit spiritual despotism . The situation is a curious one , and aooms unlikely to bo very durable . A poor article on tho " Literary Tendencies of Franco" follows ; it is
mainly a panegyric on M . Victor Cousin , who has had the art of s ecuring more " favourable notices of the press" than any other contemporary . The next article , on " Holland and its Martyrs and Heroes , " begins with great spirit , but falls into ineffectuality towards the middle . People must be con . siderably wearied by Rogers , and articles on Rogers , by this time ; but the paper in the North British should not be left unread , for the sake of its graphic touches of the men and things amid which the poet ' s life was passed ; we can only spare space for this curious rapprochement . —
Any man who lives ninety-three years is remarkable , —much more a poet -who lives ninety-three years , —and more still , a poet who lives ninety-three years in the very centre of the social and literary activity of his country , and in possession of such means as enable him to be in cordial and even influential relations with all . Ninetythree years ! Why , it is no insignificant bit of the entire duration of the world ! Seventy Samuel Rogerses , at this rate , might shake hands in an unbroken chain up to Adam ; twenty would connect us with the commencement of the Christian era ; nine would ' take us back , with room to spare , to the date of the Norman conquest ; and three linked together would reach into the age of Shakspeare .
The article on " Microscopes" needs no signature , it contains much information , and a somewhat insufferable display , on Sir David Brewsteb ' s part , of the inventions , discoveries , suggestions , and improvements of Sib David Bbewsteb . Angry with Dr . Carpenter for not mentioning his services with sufficient emphasis , he seems resolved on mentioning them himself . Black-wood opens with a lively , well-written paper on Macablat , not sayino- anything new , but saying well what it does say . The " Visit to Selborne" will interest all who have , as children or as men , delighted in White ' s popular work ; and those who have been to Ilfracombe will understand the enthusiasm of the writer of " Seaside Studies , " in which that lovely
bit of the Devonshire coast is described , and the pleasures of the amateur naturalist are set forth in detail . " Tickler among the Thieves" is a continuation of the history of a stolen dog . The review of Aytoun ' s new poem opens with an emphatic disclaimer of the current notion that Professor Aytotjn is or was the editor of Blackwood . One of the miseries which we journalists and reviewers have to endure , is the conviction that if once a name gets known in connexion with any periodical , that name is at once credited with all the offences which any or all of the contributors may commit . No matter how individual your style , or tone of thought , the fact of your name being known is enough to cause all articles to be affiliated to you . Readers are singularly dull in detecting differences of style , or
thought ; so that you have attributed to you opinions which all your published and private opinions disavow , and Brown , whose poem you have never seen , and never mean to read , hates you , with the deep and lasting hate of wounded vanity , for a review which you perhaps have never read . You may be abroad , known to be hundreds of miles away , but still the objectionable child is affiliated to you . And against this there is no remedy ; none , at least , but signature . In Fraser , as we have before noticed , the principle of signature is adopted , and with great advantage . Yery often the signature is a guarantee ;
sometimes a warning . For example , it is probable that the majority oi readers would have left unread the admirable story of " The Double House , ' had it not been signed by the author of " John Halifax , Gentleman ; " and in that case the majority of readers would have missed a real pleasure . We seldom venture on Magazine stories ; but the authoress attracted us to this , and will attract every one else . Besides this story Fraser has a " Peep into the Principalities , " an essay on " Dwarfs and Giants , " giving some biographical details of celebrated monsters ; a continuation of the dissection of Sir Archibald Alison ; an amusing paper of " Life at the Watercurc ; " a very curious account of some " Contemporay Literature from the two Sicilies , " with other papers which we have not space to notice .
France Before The Revolution. On The Sta...
FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION . On the State of Society in France before the Revolution of 1789 ; and on the Causes which led to that Event . By Alexis do Tocqucviile . Translated by Henry Kcevc . Murray . Fkw books have an immediate effect on public opinion ; but M . dc Tocqucvillc's is one of the few . Though it will not inform , except on points ol detail , those persons who have made the French Revolution a subject _ ot philosophical study , it presents for their use a large variety of testimonies and illustrations , arranged according to critical method , and enforced by ^ % . * Vm - ¦ Wk * u £ \ »** J J Vfei f \ n 4 * J ~ fc »» I « r ' ««/ - & M % n f \ n m » - * * - » I i E » r \ - « Y « rf-v 4 * V * f \/* ± % * V I f \ T i * 1 t ^ / 1 i ^ i ^ £ 1 l . fl 1 Y-1 W * ---
*"* * *^ * J 1 U 1 UUI 1 U CWtVt JUJUIOLVJI « V X V-44 OL /« . tl * lLia . JLL JljlU H \ J \ i MVJU 11 l ^ At ) u « w ^ v-j - _ Tocqueville to discover the true theory of the unparalleled event of which he undertakes to explain tUe origin , but ho has demonstrated that theory in a manner jn which it had never been demonstrated before , and wo perceive already a conspicuous effect produced by his argument , at least u P the English mind . All political students , however , whether prepared by their own inquiries to assume the premises established by this commentatoi on laws and inanner 3 , or forced to acknowledge that they have hitherto misunderstood the Revolution , will take up M . < le Tocqucvillc ' s volume , aim road with interest , and with gratification , every page . It is a specimen oj deep historical analysis , broad in scope , circumstantial in evidence , illiimnic * by purely logical thought , and based upon purely reliable authorities . M . de Tocqueville is u critic an well aa a collector , and thia , in addition to qualities of style , constitutes the -difference between tho compiler and tue historian .
M . do Toccjuoville writes in contradiction of two errors which wo have frequentl y pointed out , and which have becomo proverbial in Eng land- ^ The first is , that tho French people arc naturall y addicted to change . 11 ® calls them alavgs of habit , Tho second is , that they are a gay peop le , l ^)
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 9, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09081856/page/16/
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