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8SQ- ^__ THE IiEADEB, [No. 338, Saturday...
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TV£1 i. ILlt^rilllir? /«wv«w **«
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- . ¦ •—- w ' ¦ ¦ : ¦ <CoLtic3 are not t...
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It has long 1 seemed to us that the educ...
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EMERSON ON ENGLASTD. English Traits. % R...
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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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8sq- ^__ The Iieadeb, [No. 338, Saturday...
8 SQ- ^__ THE IiEADEB , [ No . 338 , Saturday ,
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- . ¦ - w ' ¦ ¦ : ¦ < CoLtic 3 are not the legislators , "bat the judges ana police of literature . Thej-do not jcaake laws— th . e . y interpret aad try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
It Has Long 1 Seemed To Us That The Educ...
It has long seemed to us that the education of mankiad would be more effectually accomplished by the establishment in all schools and colleges of a thorough instruction in the principles of Evidence , thaa by any course of study . We have indeed a Chair of Logic in every college , and Evidence is supposed to form one chapter of Logic . But instead of treating Evidence as one chapter of a course , it should be made the subject of a course of lectures , and carried into minute detail . You cannot teach men how to reason ; you cannot endow -them with greater ratiocinative power than they
have received from nature ; but you can instruct them in the principles of Evidence , you can make them alert to the demands made by Evidence , you can teach them not to accept as Evidence facts and statements which have no validity- No one even superficially acquainted with science , philosophy , history , or political economy , will deny that the errors which incessantly arise ou these subjects are less frequently traceable to imperfect reasoning than to imperfect data ; and in . any vexed question we are sure to > find the disputants disagreeing because they cannot satisfactorily settle for themselves what is Evidence and what is not .
We must not write an essay here ; indeed no space at our disposal would suflice ; but we will take two illustrations offered by the literature of the week , to show how this neglect of a proper appreciation of Evidence opens the door to absurdity . Our first illustration is a pamphlet which kas been sent to us bearing this title : —
"Was Lokd BACo ^ f the Author of Shakspjbare ' s PlaysV The pamphlet is printed for " private circulation onlyV yet , inasmuch as It "has been forwarded to this journal , we presume the author mea . ns us to give it publicity . As a compromise we re 3 pect the author ' s desire of privacy , and suppress his name . We do not notice ' the pamphlet from any belief that it will convince a single human being , but simply from a desire to show the sort of Evidence which can satisfy a man of culture and talent , like the author ; in that respect it is worthy of attention . * The doubt respecting Shakspeabe ' s authorship is by no means novel , although it is no more justified than would be the doubt whether Dryjmsn wxote Jisolom and Achitoxel , or Bxbon Childe Harold . It is true we knovr
little of Shakspe & bb ' s life , but we have Evidence , as satisfactory as Evidence of thi 3 kind can be , respecting his authorship . We have the Evidence of his contemporaries , friends , and rivals , and of his editors , fellow actors , who knew his dramatic ability , and knew his handwriting . If Ben Jonson aad Hemmings and Cokdeli . could be so imposed upon , that the one should believe him capable of writing the works to which he only lent his name , as a screen , and the others should believe that the handwriting from which they printed was his , it being Bacon ' s all the while , there is a chanc-e for some future critic to discover that MACAtxr . Ar wrote ' the Pickwick Papers , and that B . BADBUBr and Evans were dupes when they believed in -the handwriting of Dickens .
It is quite possible that Shaksf . ea . re was merely the ostensible author ; but we require some evidence to make that possibility a probability . The writer of the pamphlet under notice thinks he has such evidence . He sketches briefly the facts of Shaksp-eare ' s history : — Such , being the circumstances connected with the parentage of William . Shakspeaie , the information we possess respecting his early years is even more scanty . There is neither record no > r rumour of his having exhibited any precocity of taloat . It ia only known that , at the age of eighteen , he contracted or wa 3 inveigled into a marriage with a woman eight yeara older thaa himself ; aad it is believed that , somewhere about the time at which , his father was deprived of his alderman's gown ., be left Ms "wife and family at Stratford-upon-Avon , and wont to seek his fortuno ia the metro - polis .
. Now , up to the time of Shakspeare ' s arrival in London , there is no suggestion , or tradition of hia having manifested any superior attainments . The hypothesis connecting him with the stage is , that he may havo formed an acquaintance , at Stratford , with Burbidge ' s company , during their visits to that town , aad , being unable to procure a livelihood in his native town , have been encouraged in the desporate resolution of going to Loadon by the hope of employment by him . The absence of rumours and traditions ( which , by the way is more than questionable ) is considered as evidence of Sha . kspea . rb ' s having no remarkable talent , and that , too , in the face of the direct evidence of Bbn Jonson ' s intense appreciation of his talent ! The writer further saya : —
From these varied circumstances it would appear that 'William Saakapoaro was eaaentlally the man of business of tha theatre ; that to him waa entrusted providing the wardrobe , properties , and plays ; and that in negotiating for the purchase of any Ot * of the 3 e matter 3 i ** exhibited that shrewdness , skill , caution , and sagacity u \ v 8 ttwhed him in every transaction of his life , and from tho exorcise of wnicnthe company ho was connooted with derived no small benefit , whilst he , in forwarding their intereats , was by no means unmindful of his own . ^ seeing theo , that William Shakapoaro was a man of limited education , careless of twft ' rA * P 2 !! i ' mon ° y-g « tting , and actively ongagod in the management of a ? o . ** ' llvSl ** m tho 8 lm I > l ° circumstance of his namo being assooia-tod with tlieao plays , to believe , at once , that h ^ os the author of them ? No , not from the « simple circumstance of his name being aaaociated with the plays , but from quite other circumstances . But having satisfied himself that Sh ^ sfe abio did not write the plays , this writQP is at no difficulty in proving that Baco » was their author ;—
The history of Bacon is just suet as we Bhould have drawn of Shakspeare if w « aad been required to depict him from the internal evidence of his works . ' His daily walk , letters , and conversation , constitute the beau ideal of such a m < m as we might suppose the author of these plays to have been , and the very absent ;™ those letters , of all allusion to Shakspeare ' s plays , is some , though slight , corrobora won of his connexion with them . ° o -i . "vuv « a-Now we venture to say that had this ingenious geatieman been early instructed in the nature and principles of Evidence , he would never have wasted his time and ingenuity 5 asuch an investigation as this ; aad still less would the many cultivated and intelligent persons who have been so deplorably duped by Spirit Rappers and Mediums , have permitted themselves to draw philosophical and religious deductions from the ' facts' furnished bv Tables and Mediums
Turning Writing , Our second illustration is suggested by an article of great independence and ability in the Revue deParis on the •; " Mystical School , " a prqpos of a French translation of the work of Goerkes . From this article , we learn that Spirit Rapping was eagerly accepted , by one portion of the French clergy as " an . additional argument in . favour of the truth of supernatural agencies in general , and of miracles in particular . But when Spirit Rapping and TableTurning were experimentally proved to be delusions or impositions , a great blow was given to the whole doctrine of supernatural agency , in as far as it relied upon human testimony ; since , if the testimony of hundreds of honourable and educated men could thus be proved to have no value whatever , it became clear that the reliance on historical testimony in support of miracles must also cease to coerce tile
convictions of men . If ay , so clearly wa 3 this seen , that a well-known writer of the Evangelical school , the Count A « bnor be G-aspaehst , published a book to show that with respect to supernatural things huina . 11 testimony was radically ' incompetent . Tie Bible carried its own evidence . All the . bulwark of historical testimony was thrown down . Curiously enough this book was accepted "by the whole party T But we have not to deal with that question here , our purpose is to poinfc out the wretched want of philosophical culture , in the direction of Evidence ^ , which the whole dispute implies . The subject of philosophic culture naturally leads us to Professor Febbieb ' s pamphlet , ScottisJv Philosophy the Old mid the Neio , in which with great spirit he defends himself against his adversaries . Taking for . his
motto a passage m Sophocies ( which , we may render " If you think my doctrines madness , I will not suffer you to think me mad" ) , he complains of having been shut out from the Edinburgh Chair because his doctrines were novel . We have throughout abstained from interfering in this question , but we must call attention to Professor PEttBiEB ' s explanations .
Emerson On Englastd. English Traits. % R...
EMERSON ON ENGLASTD . English Traits . % R . W . Emerson . G . Routledge and Co . Elmers on has twice visited England , at intervals of fourteen years , and he has allowed the classic nine years to elapse before publishing the reflections suggested by his last visit . It is evident , then , that in English Traits we have the matured results of a matured and original mind reflecting on the aspects of ^ English Life which came under its observation ; and if these results sometimes appear incomplete , sometimes too complimentary , andsometiraes not sufficiently appreciating , every serious reader will make allowances for the difficulty , if not impossibility , of adequately describing phenomena so complex as those of national life . Certain we are that only the incorrigible coxxonibs will treat this work with disrespect . Small reviewers may ' patronize' & man like Emerson , may ridicule Mm , and ' set him right . ' But ^ the serious minds of England will , while differing from him , recognize in him a man of great culture , of essential veracity , of original power , and
of noble , simple nature . Those— -and we are of the number—who object strongly to much both of manner and matter in his former -works , will find nothing obscure or fantastical in English Traits . They may differ from his judgments , but at any rate they will have no hesitation as to his meaning . They may" think lie paints England and the English too much en beau , but they will admit that he really sees the prominent characteristics . Many wise and excellent observations are scattered through these pages , but their great attraction is the glimpse they give us of the man himself . It is _ interesting to watch this meditative solitary American contemplating the gigantic organism of English life with calm yet curious eye , not satirical , not polemical , having no party to flatter , no cause to uphold , no theory to support . As we want all our space for extracts ^ we shall content ourselves with this brief indication of the quality of the work . It opens with sketohes of Lanaor , Coleridge , Carlyle , and Wordsworth , as they presented themselves to the young American in 1833 , These sketches are very graphic , done with si few touches ;—
CANDOR . Greenough brought mo , through a common friend , an invitation from Mr . Lanclor , who lived at San Domcnica di Fiesole . On the 15 tli May I dined with Mr . Landor . I found him noble and courteous , living in a cloud of pictures at his Villa Glierardesca , a fine house commanding a beautiful landscape . I had inforred from his looks , or magnified from some anecdotes , an impression of Achillean wratli—an untamable petulance . I do not know whether the imputation wero just or not , but certainly on this May day his courtesy veiled that haughty mind , and he was the most patient and gentle of hoats . He praised the beautiful cyclamen which grows all about
Florence ; he adiulrod Washington ; talked of Wordsworth , Byron , Massingor , Beaumont , and Fletcher . To bo sure , ho is decided in hia opinions , likes to surprise , and is well content to impress , if possible , his lEnglish whim upon the immutablo past . No groat man over had a groat son , if Philip and Alexander be not an exception ; and Philip ho calls tho greater man . In art , ho loves tlio Greeks , and in sculpture , them only , _ Ho prefers tho Venus to everything olso , nnd , after that , the head of Alexander , in tho gnllery hero . Ho profors Jo-hn of Bologna to Michnol Angolo ; in pftinting Iiaffaollo ; and shares the growing taste for Perugino and tho early mastora . The Greek histories he thought tha only goo-d ; and after them Voltniro ' s . I could no ' make him praiaa ^ tackintoab , nor my mojo recon ^ fr { gn < ta ; Montaigne very cordially
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 13, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13091856/page/16/
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