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November 20, 1852.] THE LEADER. 1115
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dDpen CflituriL
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A 1U r lH "'"'AUTMUNT , AH AM. OPINIONS,...
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I>I'di ¦ l | M ' 7 | 1 ' i > '''iu'll('l...
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"SAIUUTH OBSKRVANfJE" IN SCOTLAND. (To t...
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NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. We must entre...
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Tick .Iuconskquknoj! of Love.—What is th...
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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Transcript
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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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Curiosities Of Literature—Plagiarism. (B...
Dl 8 BABlI-CI . AtTDIAtf-STILICHO . placable literary sportsman , the Globe , expresses ^ ffAT hie surprise at Mr . Disraeli quoting Claudian as fl rea TX to his petit souper of Thiers . ( By-the-bye , did ^ c \ i design an execrable mental pun , or did lie forget pisrac ^ , feaTB aro spelt ?) The solution ia obvious . if * ! " always quoted Virgil , and the common men of the ons seldom stray beyond the precincts of that un-^ owled ged thesaurus of Parliamentary classicism , the p " latin Grammar . But our author-statesman , who is ' ° tfiinff if nofc Novel , " resolved to break the servile tran n ( j to display his familiarity with an unfamiliar fllllCJ
* - ' - ) ___ • i ii . * ' * , £ - t ] ie Lower Empire , in whose verses , indeed , turgid ^ mbast is nofc seldom interrupted by passages of grace 0 _ ran ( Jcur , but who , for all purposes of school and colflD ( jopg not exist . Vivian would say that the official ^ nec-vrisfc wanted "lead to his sandals , " so he went to T heav iest , rather than to the most ancient lie could . , 0 I perhaps a malicious secretary went for him . But ' surely there is more in Disraeli-Claudian-Stilicho than ts the eye . Why did he select Claudian , the poet of , ^ ower Empire , and not a classic ? Surely as a delicate
jimenfc to Louis Napoleon and his friends the priests , ho forbid " paganism in education , " and forswear the lassies . Why did he pick oufc that not euphonious couiidrel , Stilicho ( the name sounds like an " o ' clows ' - nmn ) , as a peg whereon to hang the venerable grey hairs of the Duke , which ( we mean the crop of 1831 ) have just been offered for sale by advertisement . Stilicho , as the Globe indignantly exclaims , the " contemporary of Alaric : " fhe marauding and traitorous ruffian in the pay of the TandaL Again , we say , a delicate compliment to Louis
IS ' apolcon and to his dme damnie , that respectable Minister of War , jVI . Leroy St . Arnaud . It is to flatter the nephew of the uncle whom Wellington conquered , that the memory of Wellington must be profaned , in the British House of Commons , by tho miserable lip-service of his official panegyrist , speaking to the ear of attentive Europe ! Again , it is asked , where is the appositeness or grace of the quotation ? Claudian speaks of the shining scalp and wellknown grey hair of Stilicho ( whom we suspect to have
been nearly bald ) . Disraeli , alluding to the Duke s grand old face among the British Peers , quotes tho " shining scnlp" of Stilicho . We reply , in behalf of Mr . Disraeli , that he has merely followed an admirable precedent . Cnptain Fluellen compared Macedon and Monmouth , because there was a river at both places , and " salmons in poth . " Disraeli compares Wellington and Stilicho , because they both had grey hair when they were old . Wo , trust wo have avenged the literary reputation of Mr . Disraeli—by doing for him what the Scholiasts did for Homer . Mr . Disraeli ' s ' ' quotations" aro those of a stockbroker . Voila tout '
November 20, 1852.] The Leader. 1115
November 20 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1115
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"Saiuuth Obskrvanfje" In Scotland. (To T...
"SAIUUTH OBSKRVANfJE" IN SCOTLAND . ( To tho ICJitor of tho . Loader . ) ' " 'III v 'Iclit > " l " < : |( ' <' I ' H » * mu «»!¦ l )« ilarl . y culled a " reli" 1 it- n l < i <) llu" Horn in nu obscure sea-coast town die ' s li "' ' ' WUS ( ' " '< 1 < M <;<) ll ri tf " observance of "simii i " " M y" ( loin ( ' HU <; ii »' al" ° » tliiit < ( lilv waH iMl ( | -V 'I" 1 <> llM ( ' palatable of any moiil during the week , | , | , | - "< l (> 1 » oslie evening" niosl , disturbed through | mW ( ., i <) U ln ° l ) y lllv well-meaning- 1 ml ill-ju « lp : <« l 11111 ia Hkin a « torH . ' Ah for " rent" and it •' quiet
walk , " the one was unknown to me , while the other I was taught to regard as a desecration of the " holy day . " So great , indeed , was my Sabbath a day of unrest , that I looked forward to it with a sickening loathing and inward shudder . The duties of the day , I find , singularly enough , faithfully detailed in almost every particular , by Mr . George Combe , in the memoir ' s of his brother Andrew . It presents a very good general picture of a Sunday as spent by a Scotch family : —
" The children rose at eight , breakfasted at nine , and were taken to the West Church at eleven . The forenoon service lasted till one . There was a lunch between one and two . The afternoon ' s service lasted from two till four . They then dined ; and after dinner , portions of the Psalms and of the Shorter Catechism with the ' Proofs' were prescribed to be learnt by heart . After these had been repeated , tea was served . Next , the children sat round a table and read the Bible aloud , each a verse in turn , till a chapter for every reader had been completed . After this , sermons or other pious works were read till nine o ' clock , when supper was served ; after which all retired to rest . Jaded and exhausted in brain and body as the children were by the performance of heavy tasks at school during six days of the week , these Sundays were no days of rest to them . "
Now , Sir , it becomes an important question , What is the result of all this cramming of Bible and Catechism—this extraordinary spiritual tight-lacing—on the physical and moral health of the people of Scotland ? Are the people really—I know they are professedly—a more religious people than the Englis h and some of our continental neighbours ? They are , we know , the greatest " Church-goers" in the world ; but Dr . Guthrie tells us , also , that they are the greatest " dram-drinkers , " and we all know the relationship which obtains between drunkenness , misery , and crime .
Since the days of John Knox until now , the Protestant clergy have had almost the sole power of imparting secular and religious knowledge . Contemporaneously with their instruction have grown up the most appalling social evils , defying all description . For a faint glimpse , however , of some of these , the reader would do well to peruse Dr Bell ' s Days and Nights in the Wynds of Edinburgh ; or let him read the following evidence of the Rev . Robert Buchanan , of Glasgow , on the condition of his parish , as cited by George Combe in his admirable lecture on The Comparative Influence of the Natural Sciences and the Shorter Catechism on the Civilization of Scotland : —¦
" Taking the parish all over , says lie , " it contains hardly ono bed for every three individuals . " " I have transcribed from our minute and careful survey , an almost endless list of eases in which from ten to twenty individuals of both soxes , and of all ages , occupy ono single apartment , and that , too , of the very scantiest dimensions . " " Within the limits of that single parish , whoso entiro area is less than cloven acres of ground , there are 115 places for the sale of intoxicating drinks—spirit shops and cellars , low taverns , flaring gin palaces , and gaudy music saloons , all doing the devil ' s work as busily as they can . " Tho reverend Doctor adds , " It is absolutely horrifying to think of such a stato of things . "
Now , Sir , what is the social and moral condition ol our continental neighbours , the French , ' so much traduced for their levity on religious subjects ? Let the
Reverend Dr . Guthrie—the great Scotch doctor—tell . In lm Plea for Drunkards , ho says , " he spent , as A student , some five or six months in Paris ; he witnosHcd the carnival ; yot amid such scenes , and during that extended period , ho saw but one ense of intoxication ; and this in a city containing a population six times larger than Edinburgh . " " Well—wo stopped from the steamer upon ono of the London quays , and
hud not gone many paces , when our national prido was humbled , and any Christianity we may have had was put to the blush , by the disgusting spectacle of drunkards reeding along the streets , and filling the air with strange und horrid imprecations . In one hour wonihv in London—and in Edinburgh , with all her churches , and schools , and piety , we hoo every di * y — more drunkenness than we wiw in five long months in
guilty Pans !" How , Sir , do ( lie clergy propose to remedy this dmidful stale of things ? they answer , " I 5 y means of morn churches and more Catechism ! " Scotland and England both have tried ( heir hand at civilization for now two or three centuries ; and yet , this in tho state we mo in , and niy quotations prove the state of our civilization . Unless ' thiH said over-dose of church and ( -atochimii iiosscnh tho properties attributed by some to
Homoeopathy , Unit " a medicine or a po ' iHon which will produce a disenso will euro it , " I confess thai , I must despair of any salutary reform from mw . li nil application . Doctors of divinity , like doctors of physio , I fear , thrive ; best while tho patient is sick . If it be not ho , appearances at all events are against them . In physic , the principle of every man being his own doctor is , we all know , by the faculty dreadfully abhorred ; and no it is with tho doctor of divinity , as witness tho s ' nnploinindcd confefwion of honest Doctor ( Jroly— " Jl m Uio
intellectual character of the people ' s pursuits which we fear !" It is obvious , from these facts , that the people must think for themselves . The laws of Nature are open to them : ever present with them—encoxiraging by reward , or condemning by punishment . They tell us byinsp ired lips , that the Sabbath was made for man—not man for the Sabbath . The most eloquent of prophets , Isaiah , reproves the Jews ( as if speaking from the Most High ) , in a series of questions , as follows , for making their relig ious professions and fasting a cloak for their sinful wickedness ! Why were not the passages quoted by Dr . Croly ? They must have smote him : —
" Is it such a fast that I havo chosen ? a day for a man to afflict his soul ? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush , and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him ? Wilt thou call this a fast , and an acceptable day to the Lord ? " Is not this the fast that I have chosen ? to loose the bands of wickedness , to undo the heavy burdens , and to let the oppressed go free , and that ye break every yoke ?" But I have greatly exceeded the space I fear this communication merits in your columns . Permit rne , in conclusion , to urge upon my countrymen—the sons of Scotland—to make a bold stand against the present
spiritual desecration of the Sabbath : against the present slavish and demoralising bondage . The opening of the Crystal Pulace a portion of the Sunday at Sydenham does not necessarily close the church-doors of the metropolis , or anywhere else . The battle waged is not so mucti against slavish Church customs as against slavish pot-house customs . The aborigines of Britain were first raised from their wild barbarity by a cultivation of the simple arts—by studying the capabilities of the external world to promote their immediate happiness . A simple belief in any superstition has ever failed to effect this for them . And so with our own
Christianity ; beautiful and humanising as it undoubtedly is , rightly understood and taught , it will fail to perfect our civilization so long as the moral and physical elements of Nature are unstudied , and science and the arts neglected . I am , Sir , yours obedicntty , . A *
Notices To Correspondents. We Must Entre...
NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . We must entreat many of our correspondent * who havo favoured us with recent communications , to luy what may aenn neglect to the charge of tho extraordinary circumstances of tho past week , circumstances which are not likely soon to occur again . Wo have to plead tho same excuse for the omission of several important papers in type . Mr . Dry , of Dublin , writes ' to the effect that the early closing movement has not produced the expected results in musing want
young men liberated from the counter to study—not from ; of disposition on tho part of young men , but from want ot power . After the day ' s attention to business , the frame ia too exhausted for mental application . Mr . Dry proposes that the young men should go early to bed and rise early in tho morning , and so study when the mind is fresh . For this purpose , Jlrrak of Day Schools should be instituted . The plan is good on paper , but wo fear there will hi : u :- > great a diificully in getting tho young men to bed as is now experienced in getting them up . The Early Closing Movemont will havo to be succeeded by an ! Enrly Sleeping Movement .
Tick .Iuconskquknoj! Of Love.—What Is Th...
Tick . Iuconskquknoj ! of Love . —What is the meaning of fidelity in love , and whence the birth of it ? 'Tis ji state of mind that men fall into , and depending on the man rather than the woman . We love lining in love , that ' s the truth on't . If we had not met Joan , we should have met Kate , and adored her . We know our mistresses are no better than many other women , nor no prettier , nor no wiser , nor no wittier . "Us not for these reasons we love a woman , or for any Kpeehil quality or charm I know of ; we might as well demand that u lady should be the tallest woman in the world , like the Shropshire giantess , as that she . should lie a paragon in any other character , before wo began to love her . Esmond ' s mistress had a thousand faults bi ; sido
her charms : he knew both perfectly well ; she was imperious , she was light-minded , she was Mighty , she was false , she had no reverence in her character ; she was in everything , even in beauty , the contrast of her mother , who was the most devoted and tho least selfish of women . Woil , from the very first , moment , ho saw her on the stairs at ; Walcote , lvsmond knew he loved Ueutrix-. There might , be better women—he wanted that one . lie caral for none other . Was it , because
she was gloriously beautiful V l ' eautiful as she was , he hath heard people say a score of times in their < > ( iinpany , that Houlrix ' s mother looked us young , and was the ' handsomer of the two . Why did her voice I IiriH in his ear so ? She could not sing near so well as Nieolini or Mrs . Tofts ; nay , she sung out of tune , and yet he liked to hear her l >!; Ucr than St . Cecilia . She had not , a liner complexion < him Mrs . Steele ( Dick ' s wife , whom he had now got , and who ruled poor I ) ick vvil . h a . rod of pickle ) , mitl yet to fleu her dazzled Ksinond ; ho would shut his eyes , airtl the thought of her dazzled him all the . same . She was brilliant and lively in ( alk . but , not ho incomparably willy as her mother , who , when she was cheerful , said the finest things ; ' but , yet to hoar her , and to bo with , hor , wan Esmond ' s crreute . sl pleasure . —TirAOKKKAY ' Esmond .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 20, 1852, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20111852/page/15/
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