On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (8)
-
686 etft ILt&bt ' V* [SaTCrdaV,
-
txtnatntt.
-
Critics are not the legislators, but the...
-
Oil la vertu va-t-elle se nicker ? Where...
-
Among the enormous scandals of the daywh...
-
The trial of Bocabme, the aristocratic p...
-
be to rear poetry what Dresden China is ...
-
the first step towards civilization, whe...
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.
686 Etft Ilt&Bt ' V* [Satcrdav,
686 etft ILt & bt ' V * [ SaTCrdaV ,
Txtnatntt.
txtnatntt .
Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
Oil La Vertu Va-T-Elle Se Nicker ? Where...
Oil la vertu va-t-elle se nicker ? Where shall we look for Genius next ? In the lowest deep there is a deeper still , and after ^ discovering Genius in every possible variation of mediocrity , so that the word is losing altogether its signification , our times have been happy enough to possess such an effulgence of this divine light that it has penetrated and illuminated even the wording of an apology ! In a recent trial for a libel which appeared in Blackwodd ' s Magazine , an apology was offered to the effect that " inquiries having been instituted , the writer believed the statements he had made were
unfounded . " As an apology this is explicit and sensible enough ; but it seems by its brilliancy to have excited the literary enthusiasm of Mr . Keene , the council for the plaintiff , to a height from which he declares that the " apology exhibited the talent and genius of the gentleman who was understood to be the writer of the article / ' We have no suspicion who that writer is , arid are perfectly aware that men of talent , ay , and of genius , do write in Blacliwbod : but with the best intentions We have
been utterly frustrated in the endeavour to discover wherein the talent and genius of that apology consists !
Among The Enormous Scandals Of The Daywh...
Among the enormous scandals of the daywhich is political in its object , though literary in form—we call attention to that amazing example of a free press which France has given us in the case of Victor Hugo ' s son , condemned to a fine and six months' imprisonment for writing an article against capital punishment , not half so striking or so antagonistic as Dickens ' s famous letter on the execution of the Mannings . The plea was that the article excited disrespect to the Law ! But as Victor Hugo—who defended his son in a
powerful plaidoyer—very justly pointed out : Respect for the Law can only mean respect for the execution of the Law so long as it is not abolished ; if it meant silence and acquiescence in the abstract propriety of the law itself , all reform of legislation would be impossible , since how are legislators to repeal a Law which no one dares to call unjust ? If the Party of Order wishes to prove how stupid it is , and how odious it can become , we must say its recent conduct has been very adroit ; but if it really wishes for the support and sympathy of honest men , it is as blind as Demagorgon !
The Trial Of Bocabme, The Aristocratic P...
The trial of Bocabme , the aristocratic poisoner , has been the gossip of the week , which has brought to light the story of Balzac's connection with the Bocakmes . Every reader of Balzac knows the fondness of the novelist for aristocratic circles , and the endless list of sounding names honoured by the dedication of his works ; among them was
Madame Bocabme , and one of his novels Was written in the Chateau de Bitremont . While on a visit at the Chateau , Balzac was taken to see a farmer , and , as usual , interested himself so much in the cattle that , alter an hour ' s conversation , he was amused to find that the farmer had taken him , II . i > ic Balzac , the brilliant Parisian , for a cattle dealer !
Be To Rear Poetry What Dresden China Is ...
be to rear poetry what Dresden China is to sculpture , and worth turning over by any " gentleman of lazy literature . " But the staple of the discourse was , as it deserved to be , about Pope , whom he traced through his literary boyhood , —his sham loves for women , and his pretended passion for Lady Mary Wortlby Montagu ( hot so pretended , we believe , as the lecturer pretended )—his first introduction to Addison ' s select circle , and his breaking away from it to set up an empire of
Thackeray ' s fourth lecture was even more crowded than the former were , and fuller also of matter without losing anything in brilliancy of manner . It treated of Prior , Gay , and Pope . There was a pleasant sketch of Prior , the English Horace , who gained the secretaryship to an embassy by writing an indifferent poem , and who sang the old songs of love and wine to music that will never be old ; still pleasanter the sketch of Gay as a social favourite , whose poetry was aptly said to
his own . There were admirable and telling re * marks oh the great literary friendships of that day , and the cordial recognition of each other ' s merit which these wits displayed j and in speaking of the quarrel between Addison and Pope , after quoting Pope ' s terrible portrait of Attic us , he beautifully compared this dark wound in Addison ' s character to the arrow in the side of St . Sebastian . Great stress was laid upon Pope ' s love for his mother and friends , and Thackeray managed to bring
out the humanity of the satirist , though he deprecated the wantonness of the satire . To Pope , he said , we owe the Grub-street tradition ; he ruined the literary profession by his insistance on the miserable accidents of poverty and shame which destroyed many of its professors ; he dragged into light , things which decency should have kept concealed ; and the public learned to associate with the name of author , ideas of squalid meanness and unpaid milkscores .
Among the announcements wo notice tho tenth volume of Thii & iis ' h Hiatoire du Consulat , and a new novel by Dumah—(/» Drafnv de ' 93 ; but nothing likely to bo interesting .
The French are a strange people . Julkh Janin , the week of his marriage , thinks of nothing nlore opportune than to write a fcuilleton on his Wedding day ; and Kdouakd Plouvikk , a . young dramatist who brings out his draine Lies Vengeurs at the Ambign , by way of additional piquancy to the first night , that very morning marries Mile . Litcjb Mauikic , the actress who has to play the heroine in his drame ! The critics and friends who go to the theatre that night , are all aware that it is a bride who is thus acting for her bridegroom !
The First Step Towards Civilization, Whe...
the first step towards civilization , when they devote themselves to different special occupations so as to be in a social sense necessary to one another . Each for himself—is the devise of the savage . Each for himself and for others—is that df the civilised man . Can we desire a more distinct formula for Corn * , petition and Assdciation ? And is it hot evident that the greater development of the civilised dr social condition must depend less upon the flourishing condition of learning ; , lUJcury , dr art , than upon the increase in that dare for others and concert iti all employments which & f e implied in the principle of Association r" Trace civilization from the Family ,
tagonism . Mr . Newman is a thinker of too severe an order not to admit that what is morally wrdng cannot be politically right ; and every one who admits that , concedes the tew < rvvpm $ i or starting * point of Socialism , unless he happen to declare that to overreach one another is a more moral procedure than to assist one another . Mr . New * man himself points out the capital distinction be * tween the savage and the civilized man : The savage state derives all its peculiarities from the isolation of man . In it each man does everything for himself . Men begin to cease to be savages and take
the Tribe , the "Village , the City , tne Nation , till you arrive at that essentially ihoderri conception of the Solidarity of Nations in ohfe Human Brotherhood , and you will therein read the gradual rise and fall of the competitive , and strengthening of the associative influence . That , we say , is the verdict of history—the forethought of science . It is no argument against such a verdict that the competitive influence is traceable throughout , and that it hitherto seems to have been an instinctive tendency . The question is not whether it is operative , but whether it is morally to be approved , and whether it is capable of being set aside .
We cannot pursue the argument ; enough if we have indicated pur point of separation ; and we will now turn to other chapters—that , for example , on Population , which is full of interest . On the Mal >* thusian doctrine Mr * Newman ' s opinion is that when stated as an abstract theory " it is undeniably true ; but that every practical application which either Malthus or his followers have given it , is deplorably and pertinaciously false ; " adding-:
—" Mr . Malthus was a benevolent man , of great learning and original thought . His doctrine "was one of the phases through , which Political Economy inevitably passed , just as Philosophy passed through that of the Selfish System , the upholders of which , were not selfish persons . I see not how to deny , that , however true in the abstract is the nucleus of Malthusianism , yet its applications have been blighting to our science . On every point practical Malthueianism has been undermined , —I do not mean by the often unjust assaults of unscientific repugnance , but by reason and accumulated fact .
" First , it ia impossible for any poor man to hope that his individual prudence in the delay or renunciation of marriage will ever be remunerated by a higher rate of wages . He knows that others will swamp his market with their children , if he live childless . If the good alone are Malthusians , the bad families will outbreed them . Next , the progress of Irish population has demonstrated that a total absence of Poor Laws has no tendency to check
population , but rather the contrary . When men live in a half-brutish state of mind and body , you can no more Btop their multiplication than that of rabbits , by enacting laws : the only way ib to shoot them down . If men are to be treated as men and governed by law , there is only one way of checking their increase ( supposing that to be desired ) , viz ., by increasing their comfort and their self-respect , by developing their mental faculties , and lifting them above mere aniinul instincts . An Irish lad marries at
eighteen , because he has nothing to loBe and something to gain by it . lie has no comfort in life to hope for but that of a wife ; and who will succeed i " persuading him to renounce that also ? Pool Lawn are found to be esHential an a means of police ; they are alw > ( as I think ) matter of justice to tho poor , in all countries where Law keeps masses ot land idle ; on which subject I Hhall afterwords Bpeak . Hut they likewise aid to sustain the poor above that state of recklessness in which they multiply thoughtlessly aa animals .
" You muHt remember the wild ages through which Human Nature hus paused . Our forefathers werd all mere savages . In conflict with so many powers of destruction , our raeo could not have sustained itsetf , had there not bfeon in its animal basis ft marvellous powor of self-roparation . A powor essential in times of violenoe needs to be partially ^ ttiescririt in times of tranquillity . As the fefooity rtf the savage ie tempered into a noble and mild patriotic , ho the instinct which joiiiH him to Woman becom *» refined into a tender sentiment , which ^ in order to listen to virtue and pri ^ dence , may ieed awhile upon the mental response which it receives .
elenchi , or argument beside the question . Every advocate of Aasociation knows perfectly well the part Competition playe ; but lie also known that Annotation is identical > vith civilization—that the higher the stages of civilization the wider the development of tho Associative principle—and that thin development visibly increasing Jn theno times will finally absorb the greater part , if not all , of that competition which it opposed . Socialism is a tendency , not a system . It will take years before it can Hyutematically establish itself in tho convictions and acfca of the nation ; but during the transition period vre shall see competition dwindling a # fty and « eotititoti" usurping the place of
iin-13 y this criticism on the excellence of the work We are not to be supposed to endorse all its opinions ; on some points we are at open issue with Mr . Newman ; but these have been so often treated in our columns that it would be needless to reopen the questions . On one point only we would beg leave to make a remark , viz ., on his opposition to Socialism . Like all other writers on his side , Mr . Newman , finding competition in full activity here in this social condition of ours , finding it inseparably inwoven with " existing arrangements '' has no great difficulty in proving jt to be " necessary" aa well as " beneficial . " Hut this is something like an itrnoratio
within such narrow limits , and yet not have a tedious page . It consists of thirteen lectures , each of which is of an hour ' s length , and in . that course of thirteen is contained the best manual or Introduction to the Study of Political Economy with which we are acquainted . The lectures were delivered recently at the Ladies * College iu Bedfordsquare ; and it says much for the tuition at that College that such science should be taught in so dignified a style , with no abasement to " popularity" or arhusingness .
Newman's political economy . Lectures on Political Economy . By Francis William Newmanformerly Fellow of Balliol College , Oxford . Johu Chapman-For a lucid statement of principles in a singularly compact and readable volume we know of nothing comparable to this . Any person familiar with the subject and the writings upon it , will appreciate the union of fulness with brevity which distinguishes it ; but only those who have some experience in lecturing can understand the amount of thought and dexterity required to keep such a subject
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), June 21, 1851, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21061851/page/14/
-