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Ai.ru, 12, 1856.1 THJ5 LEADER. 351
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Crimes a^-e not the legislators, but the...
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Library Tables, in Clubs and Literary In...
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THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN". 2\ pical Form...
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.
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Ai.Ru, 12, 1856.1 Thj5 Leader. 351
Ai . ru , 12 , 1856 . 1 THJ 5 LEADER . 351
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I feature .
Crimes A^-E Not The Legislators, But The...
Crimes a ^ -e not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not " make laws-they interpret and try to enforce them , -tiutnburgk lteciaic .
Library Tables, In Clubs And Literary In...
Library Tables , in Clubs and Literary Institutions , look unusually attractive this quarter . The Westminster Review , though wanting in the lighter graces which in periodicals so well set off the more serious exposition of principles and exposure of abuses—as a charming wife sets off the solid merits of her husband , and makes his partiespleasantas well as important—gives us a varied and attractive list of articles ; among them will be'noticed a temperate and able view of the English haw of Divorce , which will be all the more effective because it will frighten no one . The same may be said of the article on Sunday in Great Britain , a timely and sober exposure of that gangrene of oui' social existence—the puritanical tradition . The picture drawn of Sunday in Scotland is not overdrawn , as almost every one who has had the misery of spending Sundays in that country will admit . The writer , speaking of Scotland in the olden time , says : — Several collections of the ordinances of the Kirk Sessions have been published recently , and there we have the whole record of this mournful but ludicrous history . There are scarcely any contemporary documents which equally set before us the life of the quiet homely citizen of the day , or show more clearly under what a frightful spiritual . bondage he was gradually falling . All games were strictly prohibited- One man is " set at the pillars " ¦ for playing at bowls on the Sabbath ; another is fined twenty shillings for playing at football . Salmon fishers gave especdal ti'ouble ; some resolute sportsmen even bade defiance to the elders of the Kiri , and fished in spite of them . ' But , generally , their tyranny was only too . successful . We read of an unfortunate widow having to pay eight marks " for having spits and roasts at the fire in time of sermon . " Even peaceful exercise and walking in the fresh air was rigorously put down . " Vaging" in the streets , Or a stroll to Castlehttl , was punished with imprisonment . An unhappy sinner named David Dugall was [ censured for " going to Cramond on the Lord ' s-day moi-ning with shoes / ' and was obliged to find surety against a repetition off the offence . The magistrates and their spiritual rulers were . to see that the ordinances of the Sessions were executed , and it was directed that they ' ¦ * shall go up and down the streets upon the Lord ' s-day , after the afternoon sermon , and cause take particular notice of such as shall be found foorth of their houses , vaging upon the streets , and cause cite them before the Session , to be rebuked and censured . " The climax of folly and tyranny was , perhaps , reached by the Edinburgh Sessions , -who ordered , April 5 , 1658 , that " the magistrates is to cause some English soldiers goe along the streets , and those outparts above written , both before s « rmon . aijd after sermon , and lay hold both upon young and old whom they find out of their houses or out of church . " The waiter truly sayV that the stronghold of Puritanism is the class of small shopkeepers ; and for those who know what small shopkeepers in England usually are , there is something very saddening in the following passage : — Unfortunately , the class of small shopkeepers is , in England , the governing class . A few grocers and tailors can make their borough member eat his "words and deny his opinions , "because they hold his re-election in their hands . On most questions the shopkeeping class does not interfere ; but when it does interfere , it is sure to be successful . Let any one , who is neither a small shopkeeper nor a Member of Parliament , reflect seriously on the debate of this session on the motion for opening the British Museum and National Gallery on Sunday , and he can hardly fail to see that the true lesson it teaches is , that the franchise must be lowered . The wrong kind of electors return the wrong kind of legislators . The higher class of artisans and of day labourers is , in thought , character , habits of reflection , even honesty , far above the class of petty shopkeepers ; and if these men had votes , they might do something to x * egenerate the electoral body . jNo more powerful argument than this for the enlargement of the franchise . One of the ludicrous aspects of this Sunday Question is the difficulty of " drawing the line" with respect to Amusements . Granting that the Creator of the Univevse can be incensed at seeing the human atom amuse itself on a Sabbath ( cfest une trds forte supposition /) we Lave next to settle what is an xYrcnjsement ? The writer in the Westminster says , " A clergyman lately told us that he had been severely censured by a Sabbatarian iox—carrxjing a walking-stick on a / Sunday J " Another energetic protest against vexatious legislation will be found in the article on Medical Despotism . The Westminster has been long a consistent advocate of the modern political philosophy which sees in over-legislation the source of ten times as many evils as those it professes to remedy ; and this article is an application of those principles to Mr . Headum ' s dangerous bill . We recommend all parliamentary and medical readers to possess themselves of it , ere the bill becomes law . Indeed , the idea of making Medicine a monoply , find of legislating for the protection of a particular class of Medical men , could never hnvc enteredjthe head of a reasoning man if the true nature of Medicine as an Art , not a Science , had been clearly understood . To give the Royal College of Physicians the ^ rights it claims , is as absurd us to give the Royal Academy of Painting an exclusive right to appoint the Artists of Great Britain . The best article in the number is one with an unpromising title The Congress of Vienna , an article full of the minute knowledge and picturesque power winch make CAiavin so fascinnting even to those who dissent from lus opinions . The writer of this paper is an imitator of Caklylr , but the imitation springs from kindred sympathy , and does not displny itself in extem . il cluimctcriatics . The picture of the Bastei and the promenadcrs who in those days mudo it piquant to the observer , is a picture which the reader most nuhfflireiit to Congresses of all kinds will do well to look for . The National Review , the British Quarterly , nnd the London Quarterly
have each an article on Macaui * ay , that in tie National being the best . It is a lively paper , the liveliness giving piquancy to some really serious , thought . The view it suggests of the stationariness of Macaulay ' s mind , its uneducableness by experience , is both novel and deep . " He looks on a question , " it is well said , " as posterity will look on it ; he appeals from this to future generations j he regards existing men . as painful prerequisites of great grandchildren " Both the National and the British Quarterly have articles also on Goethe , the former on his " Characteristics , " the latter on his " Life . " Students of Goethe will find much in the former both to interest and instruct them . From the latter , we are tempted to quote this on the morality of Wilkelm Meister : — The latter part of Wilhelm Meister was written , and the -whole given to the public , during the period when Goethe and Schiller were labouring in concert . The beauties and defects of this well-known novel , at once eo admirable and so provoking , lie -upon the surface . We cannot agree with those who regard its tendancy as immoral . It 3 effect as a whole , is to enlarge the sympat / des and to gird the loins of action . Every mind in tolerable health will derive invigoration from its pages . It is no more immoral than Macbeth , is immoral because Shakspeare does not pause to dilate on the guilt of murder . Antony and Cleopatra , would not ha . ve been rendered more edifying had the poet reminded ua continually that th . e Queen of Egypt would have been happier in a hut with the virtue she had not , than in a palace with the temperament she tad , and that the triumvir was exceedingly foolish to lose the world for so false a fair one . Pleasant papers on The English , Stage , and on tlie Conversation and ^ Poetry of Rogers , help , with the two more elaborate papers just named , to set off the serious articles in the National , which is altogether a very attractive number . Very attractive and various also is the British Quarterly , with its due admixture of grave and gay , of lively and severe—especially severe on unfortuaiate German theologians , who seem almost as objectionable wh « n orthodox as when rationalist . Let no one pass over the paper on the Arctic Voyages , a capital resume of the subject with , picturesque details interspersed : — The first Arctic voyage undertaken by Englishmen was characterised by an ominous but romantic catastrophe . Three gallant ships , built as ships had never been previously constructed— -for their timbers were of surpassing strength , and their keels were plated with lead—^ -swept proudly past the palace at Greenwich on a May rnorning in thfc year 1553 . Clustered at the windows and in the turrets of the building where the sixth Edward lay stretched on a couch of suffering , noble dames and courtly gentlemen were assembled to cheer the mariners with their presence , and bid " God Speed " to the adventurous little fleet . Thousands of the commonalty lined the hanks of the stream , and eyed the bold crews who were about to tempt the perils of the North with feelings of curiosity , such aa we should entertain were it possible to launch an expedition for the planet Uranus . Shouts flew from the shore to the ships , and back from the ships to the shore , until ¦ ' the sky rung "with the noise . " Fe ~ w flotillas- of discovery have probably put to sea under more exhilarating auspices . The good wishes of the nation seem to have filled its sails . It carried a letter from the king addressed to all the princes and governors of the earth , requesting them to give his sex-vamta free passage " by their regions and dominions . " It was furnished with a code of instructions drawn up by Sebastian Cabot , the great maritime authority of the day wherein he counselled the adventurers against many real and several fastastic perils—against savages who wore the Bkins of lions and bears for the purpose of horrifying their foes , and against naked barbariauB who haunted various coasts , where they swam abmit in the waters to seize the bodies of men , " which they coveted for meat ! " The ohject of the expedition was to discover a short route to India and Cathay , for it was hoped that by probing the north in an eastern direction , a path might be found fco those golden climes . In a storm off Norway , Sir Hugh Willoughby , the commander , was separated from his second , Richard Chancellor . The latter reached Archangel , and for a while escaped . The former , with a consoifc vessel , rambled onward till a barrier of ice forbid his further advance . Then he turned round and found shelter on the shores of Lapland . After a lapse of some months , two vessels were aeen drifting at random by some Russian sailors . On boarding them not a living soul could be found . The bodies of the men were there , stiff and frozen : lout hot one of the company survived to tell how hiB comrades had perished . Death sat at the helm , and in his keeping the secret of their fate was secure . Had he > piloted the vessels back to the Thames with their crew of corpses , how the nation would have rnourned to see the Bhips whioh had gone forth freighted with life and hope , return silent and sepulchral—changes from thronged and bustling barques into floating hearses . Our space is run out before we have said half our say on the Reviews . A line must suffice to convey our sense of the great care and ability with which the London . Quarterly is edited . The present number is very good . The article on Chemistry is especially worth reading ; that on Raffaelle and his Cartoons will be certain to catch the eye , and need not be commended .
The Argument From Design". 2\ Pical Form...
THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN " . 2 \ pical Forma and Special Ends in Creation , By the JRov . James McCosIj , LL . D ., and George Dickie , M . D . lCdiiiburglx : Constable and Co . Paley dealt many a damaging blow to the Church he served with such re ~ markable talent , but the most damaging of all we believe to have been his delightful work on " Natural Theology . " Of course he was unconscious of the harm ho was doing ; ho did it with the best intentions ; ho thought lie was vanquishing inndenty . Nor can wo , personally , express anything but gratitude to him . His Natural Theology placed the scalpel in our hands , and completely banished from our minds tho belief in that " design" he had taken so much pains to prove . To him we directly owe our interest in the organic sciences , nnd indirectly our emancipation from tho metaphysical theology which calla in the dangerous aid of science . We believe thai " Natural Theology ! Mmsjnade and will continue to make ten sceptics for on < whose belief it strengthens . Nor can it be otherwise . Those who belicv < already , do not need the confirmation of science ;_ those who do i \ ot belicv * will assuredl y find no evidence in science ; but many of those who an hesitating will have their belief rudely shaken by the appeal to Bcienco .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 12, 1856, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12041856/page/15/
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