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Jan. 1.4, I860.] The Leader and Saturday...
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THE ART OF PINING.* I T is Man alone who...
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a , JL IwlVivHiWWlJI io ( wmv»»(i * " --...
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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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The Russian People And Socialism.* Let U...
to exaggeration or injustice . His thought may have been too much Influenced by Germany , his style by France ; nevertheless , a broad , S trong , genial individuality bursts irresistibly through . The man predominates over the writer , and renders '¦ the writer much more suggestive and impressivethan if he were merely the writer . We a © not sympathise with Herzen ' s Hegelianism , and his rhetorical ornaments of the French sort are not to our liking . Hegelianism is a cold and misty moonshine ; and French rhetoric , if intolei ' ablo at first hand , must be something at second hand which we do not choose to name . Spite of defects , Herzen is an author of great power and eloquence . He has distinct ideas distinctly enunciated . Though
he may borrow . gaudy Gallic phrases , he hammers his meaning home ; arid it ' is rather the jargon of French publicists than Bossuet bombast , in which he occasionally deals . The rhetoric of the French of the present day is entirely publicistic . It has no pompous periods , but it mocks us with false clangor -. —it is antithetic , epigrammatic , with a dash of the military : it has so much pith and point as to have neither point nor pith . The empire which the . French language , French literature , French fashions have hitherto held in Russia , must have been eminently fatal to originality . Herzen has not escaped the contagion , but he has perhaps suffered as little as it is possible for a Russian to suffer .
f The object of Herzen's pamphlet is to vindicate the Russian people from certain charges brought against them by Michelet . There are few writers whom we admire more warmly than Michelet ; but he assuredly indulges in that recklessness of assertion to which all Frenchmen at the present day are so prone . Pope Voltairethe only Pope for whom the French care—was in the habit of deciding the more emphatically the grosser his ignorance . His countrymen , even the most insignificant , have not been slow in arrogating the same infallibility . It is evident that Michelet knew absolutely nothing about the Russian people when attacking them . He was carried away partly by French vanity and vivacity , and partly by his sympathy for Poland . When confounding the Russian Government with the Russian People , Michelet . was , as Herzen shows , guilty of serious wrong towards the latter . No one can denounce the Russian Government with hotter wrath than Herzen
himself . To him it is vicious as a system , vile in the instruments it employs , horribly cruel , corrupting , degrading in its action and results . The Russian Government has had its flatterers : ^ but ifc-has never been its own honest sons who have flattered , it . To call it a despotism is not correct ; it" is a bureaucracy , based oil lies and guarded by spies ; The question is , how far the people , let their virtues be as great and genuine as Herzen represents them , are responsible for what is wicked in the doings of the Government ? Heraeii neither designs nor endeavours to make out a case ; and he could not even unconsciously be a sophist . But in all ages of the world the deeds of a Government have been regarded as the deeds of the nation . Why should a nation be willing to share all the fame , yet cast from it the burden of the infamous ? What a nation tolerates it approves . When , for fivc-and-tvverity years , England saw no disgrace , and felt no shame in being ruled by Charles the Second , was not the foulness of the English Court a stain on the than half
faith , a gladness , —if nothing more , a beautiful dream . Even if he were only a visionary , yet visionaries are in their way always missionaries too . Still , if we are to calculate the future by the present and the past , and even introduce some roseate ; phantasies to help us , we can see no glimpse of the dawn for Russia , and through -Russia for Europe , which Herzen predicts * If Russia has taken a . bold attitude ^ it is not from her own vigour , from her own consciousness of superiority , but from the faults and feebleness of the exhausted dynasties around her . She owes something to her valour , far more to her unscrupulousness . Russia has only one real rival in the world ; that rival is England .. But while one of Russia ' s moist notable characteristics is mendacity , England surpasses all other nations in truthfulness . It is as truthful as Rome when Rome
was in its prime . Now , England , abounding still more in vitality than Russia—at least , having its vitality more concentrated , and symbolising , besides , that right which alone can give enduring greatness to kingdoms—must , rather than Russia , have the vocation to regenerate the world . It is confessed by-. Slavonians that Sclavonianism has neither the hunger to urge nor the courage to march till impregnated and impelled by foreign elements . The very name of Russia is Scandinavian ; and it is always an influx , an onset from one quarter or another , which has swept Russia into the path of victory . Of course , as long as the other states of Europe are the unmurmuring slaves of an idiotic Mediaevalism ; as long as they prefer dynastic puppets to real rulers , and diplomatic ' tricks to sagacious and stalwart statesmanship ; as long as potentates and ¦¦
priests dread the democracy more than they dread the 'Cossack , the Cossack is a peril , and a dread to Europe . Intensely as we hate Russia—not the Russia which presents itself to us in . Pbdolia , Volhynia , Ukraine , ; and elsewhere , with something of idyllic , charm and patriarchal simplicity—but the Russia which is crucified by the insatiable avidity for territorial aggrandisement;—intensely as we hate Russia , we should welcome even Russia as a deliverer , if otherwise no escape is offered from feudal monstrosities . The kings , the priests , the aristocracies of Europe have ceased to be patriotic . In the late war with Russia , there ' was no attempt to strike Russia where Russia is most vulnerable . The war was thus a sham war . But there was the craven alarm lest , if you kindled a colossal combat in Poland , there would be a rising throughout Europe .
But if kings and priests and aristocracies are selfish , it remains to be seen whether the heart of the people , in England , in Germany , and in other lands is not sound . If sound , then Russia has small chance of first enslaving , then regenerating Europe . The danger in England—perhaps bur only dangers-is , lest the soil should pass wholly away from . the hands of the people . In Russia , the peasant is in the fashion he likes best ^ a-proprietor of the soil ; and he who is proprietor of the soil , to an extent however small , is yet to that extent a better battler for the fatherland . What is the English peasant ? A drudge , bedewing with his sweat the arid road to the workhouse . Give the English peasant a direct interest in tlio ^ soil , a share in the soil , and he will be the soil's best defender . This is the most salutary lesson which we have learned from Herzen's powerful pamphlet . . .
English community ? When , for more a century , France was satisfied to have Louis Fifteenth as monarch , did not the filth of Versailles pollute every Frenchman ' s household , its guilt lie at every Frenchman ' s door ? A vast mass of the Russian people are serfs , and , according to Herzen ' s own statement , the feelings and ideas of the serfs do not go . beyond that communal existence to which they are so passionately and pertinaciously attached . The serfs are not a stolid race ; they are lively , quick , dexterous , apt , and able . But if their habits , prejudices , superstitions are let alone they are thoroughly apathetic . They seem to have many of the good and evil qualities of the Irish ; and we all know how , spite of ardent affections and brilliant faculties , it is almost impossible to raise the Irish peasant higher than the most embryonic form of political and social life . Miehelet ' s accusation , that the JRuesians are destitute of a moral sense , that they lie and steal , continually steal , continually lie , and that with perfect innocence , it beinjr their nature , Herzen explains away rather than refutes .
We find neither much meaning nor much nobleness in the saying of Hegel , which Herzen quotes , that cunning is the irony of rudo strength . To Hegel himself cunning was often convenient as the disguise of cowardice . If , from the Government expecting no mercy , from the tribunals no justice , the Russian peasant retaliates by cunning , it is a sign not merely that he is contented with his lot , but that conscience and the conception of right are naturally somewhat feeble in his soul , Herzen prophesies a sublime destiny tor Russia , in contrast with the' rest ot Europe , pining in mediaeval dotage , tormented by scepticism and despair ; But from what class of the Russian people is the redemption for Russia itself—for Europe—for the world to spring P The civilization of Russia , so itir as it has a civilization , is forced , foreign , artificial . Its barbarism may conceal some generous instincts , but it is lethargic , and it costs only a liberal application of the cudgel to converji it into a Government tool . Its numerbus official clams is an finny of knaves ,
who can be bland or brutal as circumstances or their own advantage may demand . There is not prpporly a middle class , and to whatever extent it exists , its clutch is on pelf , its g lance on things most sordid . A few enthusiastic students , a few philanthropic noblemen , ¦ . may long , may work for . the . divine trauafig'ureinehb of the fatherland . But ; how fruitless ore their words and their efforts in the wndst of a multitude which narrows whatever it has that is really alive , to communal order and communal organization . Wo cannot quarrel with Herzon for hoping the boat of his country and for it . Let his country ' s glorious and mighty development bo to mm ft
Jan. 1.4, I860.] The Leader And Saturday...
Jan . 1 . 4 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 45
The Art Of Pining.* I T Is Man Alone Who...
THE ART OF PINING . * I T is Man alone who knows how to eat ; all the other animals feed . Such i . s the maxim of a philosopher who belongs more to the school of Epicurus , than of him that pronounced roots and water sufficient for a reasonable being , and all the rest super flinty . Without . inclining too closely to either of these schools , let us freely admit that the art of good living—and by that we do not mean over-luxurious ] j v j n a . —is one that tends very much to the welfare of mankind . It needs no very profound physiologist to inform us that ill-asaortod and ill-cooked food will , in time , beget bad digestion , —then confirmed bad health , and then a degenerated state of the brain , . even in the strongest organizations . The valuo of the sound mind in tho sound body has boon recognised in all ages ; and he is guilty of tho gross folly of self neglect , who permits the fear of being ridiculed as a gourmand to prevent him from studying those principles upon which the ffood erifta of Nature may be judiciously applied to the ,
sustenance of the human frame . These very general reflections ha , ve been suggested to us by tho perusal of Mrs . Tabitha Tickjetooth ' s admirable liLtlo volume , winch is indeed one of the most useful and sensible manuals upon the subject with which wo are acquainted . We do not propose to enter very deeply into the subject , which was nearly exhausted during the memorable discussions excited by the momentous question , " How to live on Three Hundred a Year P" and the famous letters of « . lx . M . in tho columns o f tho Times . W hat will be much more to tho purpose , and of far greater interest to the reader , will bo to take a peep into Mrs . Tickletooth ' s book , and notice ouch matters in it as upuuur most service
worthy of observation , and likely to be Qt greatest wuwr « u « .. In the first ; place , we not unnaturally inquire , Who is Mrs . AioKlotooth P Alas 1 wo know not . The , frontiapioco presontfi , tho eidolon of a comely , comfortable matron , in old-fashioned muslin cup , lace tippet , and apron ; juat such a sonsy , well-favoured woman as might easily be believed in her assertion , that she had given the utmost satisfaction to ever so many families of distinction . Ohis p oiwunt picture is described as being from a photograph by Mr . Hwboit Watkins , and & is not imroaaohable , therefore , to suppose tl uit Mi * . Tiokletooth is definite entityPewo bp with her ! >> ny nmy mio t uviiiiauv — i— ¦ ¦
A , Jl Iwlvivhiwwlji Io ( Wmv»»(I * " --...
a , JL IwlVivHiWWlJI io ( wmv »»( i * " --v - r u ^ J ^^^& S ^ il ^^^^ B Sarolnq . By Tabldha TioWotooth . London ; llQutleaso , wuruo , J . loutl < J < lgo . Pp . 1 P 2 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1860, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14011860/page/17/
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