On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Auqvsx 19, 1854.] T-HiE: LEADER. 789
-
FRENCH LITERATURE. History of French. Li...
-
BOOKS ON OUH TABLE. Critical and Histori...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Faith And Negation. Miracles And Science...
a like fate , because they see no help . And so they fall : so any one of us may fall at any moment , because we will not trust God to strengthen our weak faith in His own way ; because we will maintain it by the pride of an unsympathising formal orthodoxy , instead of by that frank and free discussion of our doubts and perplexities which would itself le a truer symbol and earnest of Church communion , and of the presence of Him whose presence makes the Church , than either rituals and dogmas , or traditional interpretations of Scripture . There is a schismatic temper which leads us to deny Church fellowship to men who believe in Christ , because they will not deny Him b y the admission that the faith which is His gift is worthless if not supplemented with our rituals and articles : and : t is only another manifestation of the same spirit which excludes those who will not , because the God of truth forbids them , worship at the shrines of a traditional bibliolatry . And so we excommunicate each other because we will not admit on either side that the light should be set in the candlestick of plain speaking , and not under the bushel of orthodox " Our " religious" life in relation to the Bible—and without the Bible there can be no religious life long—is all sickly and flabb y and stunted for want of free discussion . We keep our Body Politic in sobriety no less than vigour of health by a discussion as free as the air we breathe , and which we permit one-sided or unwise , or even bad men to use in their way because so only can the wise and good use it effectively for the common weal . We do this and laugh or grieve at the panic-stricken rulers of the Continent , who repress with the eyes and hands of an ever-present police each natural and in itself innocuous expression of thought and feeling . But in religion we liberty-prizing English are very Austnans : in every social meeting , almost in every household , we have some member of a spiritual police which is ever ready to make a man an offender for a word , and to exert an activity in suspecting evil , which is only equalled by its incapacity for apprehending the utterance of truth or reason . And it does its work just in the fashion of its civil counterpart : for if some individual who still retains a more than ordinary loyalty to the orthodox creeds should , therefore , make an effort to defend them by insisting on their applicability to the new wants of men ' s minds , him it discovers and denounces and casts out of the synagogue ; but the greater number of inquirers our police system merely ( yet how effectively we all know ) represses into a mental and spiritual condition , which too often suggests the question whether a rational reformation is still possible , or whether there onl y remains for us the alternative of a volcanic torrent of atheism or a Byzantine Christianity , in-which faith and scepticism will be but contending forms of death and corruption . Solitudimemfaciu 7 it , pacem appellant . " . We cannot do better than recomnnend the writers of these two significant and stirring books to read' one another .
Auqvsx 19, 1854.] T-Hie: Leader. 789
Auqvsx 19 , 1854 . ] T-HiE : LEADER . 789
French Literature. History Of French. Li...
FRENCH LITERATURE . History of French . Literature in the Eighteenth Century . By Alexander Vinet . Translated from the French by the Eev . James Bryce . Edinburgh : T . and T . Clarl . This book contains the substance of a course of lectures prepared for delivery during the summer of 1846 , at Lausanne . M .-Vinet ' s labours , however , were interrupted by deathj and as the lectures -were never written , tie French editors had to rely partl y on the professor ' s own notes , and partly on the notes of some of his pupils who had attended the course . No less than twenty-seven writers are included in the list , some of them scarcely known by name except to students of French literature . No one , however , must look for either a history or a series of biographies : the book is best described as Notes upon the French Literature of the Eighteenth Century , written , as became the Professor of Theology at Lausanne , from the Christian and orthodox point of view . There is nothing strikingly novel in the way either ~ oTTact or ^ criticism , lmt the book will doubtless be useful as an index or an introduction to tbe history pf French Literature . The truth is , M . Vinet had been long engaged in collecting materials for a more elaborate work , of which this must be regarded as a study . M . Vinet thus sums up his account of Voltaire : ' " If we had only here to sum up his moral character , our task would be easy . What rentiers him terrible , and what exaggerates Ms wickedness , is his genius ; there is in this an optical illusion . But we ought not to take , as the measure of a man ' s wickedness , the evil which he has produced . If any one were desirous to estimate Voltaire as a man , he must keep out of view his talent and his works ; take him merely in his personal relations ; in a word , make tlie distinction between the writer and the individual . It would then be seen tliat lie was not more wicked than many others , but that , in his case , all was prominent and freely developed . His life received no guidance from the law of God , or from his conscience—lie had only instincts . Some were decidedly bad , others were not . Had he been reduced to the condition of a citizen or nrtizan , Voltaire would have been , like so irany others , impassioned , unbriilled , very vain , very irritable , capable of sympathy , and of many things which the most vulgar morality quickly repels ; formidable , hateful , and one to whom there would have been granted some interest and niiectjon . His talent and his age have impressed on his existence something monstrous , without being able to call him a monster . " The character of Voltaire does not present the dignity of harmonious existence ; but ho bus the power , which is joined to the irregularity of a nature in lively contrast . No nian was made up of antitheses more frequently repented . Extravagancies multiply ; this disposition is like a thicket , whose branclies crossing one another , stop your progress in eTery direction . As a man of sirt , in the ideal sense of the term , Voltaire would have known internal pcaco and harmony . In philosophy and literature men of system arc encountered . They may bo so in two ways ; some embrace , their circle of ideas with abreudth which allows them to comprehend tho-o of other men ; others are exclusively attach e tlioir own k ' cas , but their exclusivcncss is quite consistent with themselves . Unity always prevails , lint in all ages men of action liuvo been n sories of contrasts , and so far from weakening them , those contrasts were a condition of their strength . Tho power of a scientific , synthetic , benevolent , and peaceful genius , is much more bonelicent ami profound ; but it nets only at a distance—tho force near at hand v \* i \ s exercised by men deficient in internal harmony . " It ia difficult to rofi ' isa to Voltaire th « epithet great ; his destiny pronounced him 'to ba of an entire ago tho thought and tho lifu ; ' this is to bo great , and this is his greatness . 1 ' u repcre impenopopulos . But tl | is greatness is not personal : true greatness cannot bo concoived without generosity , and without u certain degree or goodness , otherwise tho devil himself would bo grout . ' We see liorc , ' said . Lnvutor , ' a poraonagc greater and more , energetic than wo . Wo feel our weakness in his prosonco , but without his making ua groat ; instond of each being , who ia at onco great ana gooj , not merely awakening in us tl » o feeling of our wbnknoss , but , by a secret clnum , eluvnting ua above- oursc-lvoR ^ nnd communicating 1 to ue something of ita greatness . Thero ia nothing sublime in Voltairenothing to inspire respect for lmnmn nature , Ho haa not ono grout thought . That of tho destruction or Christianity ia nol great—an abstraction made from our fnith to tho divinity of our belief , llntrud . according to its object , muy inako u man great , but that of ^ oluiro was not high-mindou und not honost . Besides , to strip , without any indemnity , tlio human sjiocios of tho future atato and of God , and consequently of their dignity , ia not proatnesH . btrnngo and primary antithesis , ho has for human nature im anlont lovo , but it is without respect ; ho lovoa her as u mmlrona , not oh a lawful wiio . ' OoiiBOivrttlvci from disposition and intercut , Yoltairo , in his hatred of Christianity , apcmln liia lojig life in destroying it . Ho aims at improvements in the social govormnent , iiui no rejects with anger everything which might reach tho root of tho evils against which « io complains . Ao overturn tho positive religion of his t \ go and country , and to maintain almost everything else , whb liia wish anil tho end of hit ) i efforts , irreverence , violonoe , nnd irono jcry Hitfniylaod tho wnr which ho tleohrod against Christianity , or at loast wlmt ho wok lor ^ iiiwtuu . ity . lhogrotiH iudooenoy of his uttnoks boonmo proverbial ; thero wus no v-l , ! , i , ii ' i I i , rc ( l wil' « l authori lion , ho had no hesitation In referring to books > wuui uia hoi exist . Ho continually appealed to prejudices , instead of raising the mind to
generalities , at which he himself might have arrived . He brings forward the perpetual sophisms of the evils produced by Christianity . To superficial understandings tiis argument is irresistible ; to persons of cultivated minds it is very weak . The true statement of the question is this : ' Does the Gospel contain any doctrine intended to authorise the horrors , of which the Christian religion has been the occasion ? ' Let us suppose that Socrates , for example , had been a witness of the life of Jesus Christ , of His miracles , of His doctrine , and of the conduct of His first disciples , he would undoubtedly have said : ' There is a religion about to banish oppression , injustice , and wars ; it will render the world happy . ' He would , have spoken as a wise man of the world . God alone could say : ' I have come to send fire on earth . Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth ? I tell you , Nay . ; but rather division . ' A sublime" paradox , which God alone could utter ! God alone knew that He was going to create upon the earth two worlds at enmity with each other . He saw all vices and all hypocrisies taking refuge under the robe of Christianity . He knew that the worst of corruptions is that of excellent things , and the worst of persecutions that of false against true Christians . Yes , the Gospel has brought out human nature in all its wickedness . Will it be said , on this account , that Christianity has been hostile to society ? One word is sufficient : do we live for time or for eternity ? Is tbe direct object of Christianity better to organise the society of the earth , or to prepare the society of heaven ? Do we consider Jesus Christ merely as the author of the principle of social equality and fraternity ? Let us reject , then , a religion which becomes to society the occasion of unquestionable evils , or let us accept it as training the soul for heaven ; and , in that case , let us hold it as absolved from all the scandals with which men have been pleased to weigh it down . " ' False shame , according to M . Vinet , was the great moral defect in J . J . Rousseau . He g ives instances from the Confessions : "M . de Fontaine , formed a correct judgment of Rousseau , when he said : —' L « t a man open the Confessions of J . J . Rousseau ; all the faults of which lie is accused spring from false shame . ' I add faults , in appearance the most opposite . When , from timidity , he had violated the truth ? then , to balance it , he was guilty of some preposterous brutality . If we wish examples of'these consequences of false shame , Rousseau will amply supply them . The facts are not important , but they are characteristic . " The Abbe , afterwards Chevalier de Boufflers , had painted a portrait of Madame de Luxembourg : — ' This portrait was horrible . She maintained , Rousseau tells us , tlat it did not at all resemble her , which was the truth . The treacherous abte consulted va & , I , like a fool and a liar , said that the portrait was a resemblance . ' " Will any one say , that almost everybod y would have done the same thing ? Perhaps ; but Jean Jacques was not free to do as every one did ; he was bound to be more inflexibly true than everybody else . " On another occasion , he says : — ' I had a dog , which Bad been given to me quite young , about the time that I came to the Hermitage , and at that time I called him DuJce . This dog , not beautiful , but of a rare species , that . I had made my companion—and friend , 3 nd certainly he deserved that title better than the most of those who took it to themselves , had become celebrated at the Castle of Alontmorency for his affectionate sensible disposition , and for the attachment which we ha : d' for one another ; but from a pusillanimity , very foolish , I changed his narne to Turk , as if there were not multitudes of dogs called Marquis , without any Marquis giving himself any trouble about it ; The Marquis de Villeroy , who . knew this change of name , annoyed me so much about it , that I was obliged to tell before the whole community at table * what I had done . In tliis story , what was offensive in , regard to the name of duke did not consist so much in my having given it to him as in having taken it from him . The worst of it was , that several dukes were there—M . de Luxembourg and his son had that title . " One more extract must suffice . It is a criticism on Fontenelle : " On the whole , Fontenelle was a being by himself , Voltaire , in his Temple if Taste , characterises him by a just epithet ; he calls him ' the discreet Fontenelle . ' Discreet marks a man who has at once discretion arid discernment ; now , in both senses , Fontenelle was discreet . He was called the Erasmus of the eighteenth century , but in spite of some relations , the differences are too marked , —let us keep by tho epithet of Voltaire . We may add that Fontenelle was less discreet during the most reserved period , and that Le became singularly so at the time when society threw off its reserve . Bash in the time of Louis XIV ., and bearing then the [ character of the times which were coming , he became prudent as the eighteenth century proceeded in its development . As to this matter , we must reckon in Fontenelle the effect of age , and the progress of minds beyond himself ; what but lately would have passed for boldness , had becomo reserve ; but we must not mistake the mixture of boldnoss and circumspection for the peculiar character of Fontenelle . " Ho has also been culled the sage Fontenelle . Tlie philosophers of tho eighteenth century regarded him as the model of wise men , because he had dared to think , and . had only spoken out the half of his thouglits . It was a tractable wisdom and tolerably egotistic . Ho said , that ' if he had his hand full of truths , ho would tako good care not to open it . ' He did , however , open this hand a little , but never entirely . Nowhere in his writings is there any very explicit explanation of morality or philosophy ; nevertheless , from the whole of his life and writings , we may easily deduce amoral and philosophical system . It is nowhere and everywhere . This philosophy at bottom is mere scepticism . To affirm nothing , and to have no sure belief' nbout anything , only there must be no quostion about tho cortainty of physical and mathematical truths , summed up the philosophy of an age , which regarded as wisdom tlie disbelief of philosophical truth . Fontenelle , a sceptic in history , as in everything else , thought that ho possessed this wisdom . Reserved as ho wns , he said ho was unacquainted with any folly . Folly , indeed , as tho age viewed itthat is to say , exaggeration and excess—was not in the nature of Fontenelle . His wisdom consisted in living morall y and intellectuall y in a moderate temperature , it is a lukewarm existenco , but pleasant , like everything which is lukewarm . It may he said that his character itself was a system ; the nit of being happy wad with him a talent , and in this respect his life deserves to bo studied . At sixty yours of nge , lie was placed in circumstances peculiarly favourable , but oven then , though hi . s nature prevented him frcm sharp suffering , ho was exposed to a mass of contradiction . At wijr with tho classical writers of tho seventeenth century , he was on the point of being persecuted for having indulged in some writings by no means Catholic , nnd ho wns attacked in libels , which , however , ho made a rule not to read . These struggles were prolonged till the Uegency ; at tli » t period tho prevailing opinion changed , and ho ) iu < l then only admirers . Fontenollo was a bachelor , and waa really born for celibacy ; ho wns afraid , above all , of lively impressions , and knew how to avoid them cvon to the end . In his last moments , when n & Ued what lie felt , ho answered , ' I feel only tho difficulty ui existing , ' Tlm » tormmntod a life singulurly happy in a enrocr which is scarcely so—that of men of letters . "
Books On Ouh Table. Critical And Histori...
BOOKS ON OUH TABLE . Critical and Historical Kssays contributed to the lulinburyh Jitvlew , by tho Right lion . Thomas Bnbington Macaulay , M . I * . Tart 6 . Longman , Brown , Grcon , and Longmans . Census of Great Britain , 1851 . Population Tables ' if . A gen , Civil Condition , Occupations and liirthphce of the People : With the Number ' s and Ai / cs of the Jilind , t / ia Deaf and Dumb , cud the Inmates of Workhouses , J'risou * , ' Lunatic Ant / lwns , and llonjiitaltf . Kyroaml Spottiswoodc . What to Truth ? J ""' 1 Chapman . Tho Smoko Question Simplified . J » hn Weulo . Routhdiia ' a American Handbook aivl Tourist / ( liddf throuuh the I'uitvd States . G . Houtlodgo and Co . The History of the Decline and I ' nll of ( he Roman J ' -. 'iimim . By Edward Gibtwn , Esq ., with Notes by Dc « n Mllhnun and I \ I . ( Jui / . ot . Wiled , with additional Notes , by William Smith , L . L . D . Vol . IV . Jolin Mlin'" ) ' Clinical Handbook of Auscultation cud ro-ctisshm : an J : \ rposHion , from first Principles of tlie Mvthod of Investiyatiwj JUaeases of tins / itvpinttoru ami ' , C trcidattntj Vrr / anv , from tho German of Weber , liy John Ooeklo , A . ftl ., M . D ., * . K . G . b . ' yamuol Highl y-
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 19, 1854, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19081854/page/21/
-