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Kn 4M. September 25,1858.] THE I,E A P E...
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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STUDIES OP CHRISTIANITY. Studies of Chri...
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THE PATNA CRISIS. The Patna Ci-isis. By ...
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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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creased in a much less ratio than the deaths from Ot If the ^ methods followe d in this communication , and the various conclusions thence deduced be thoroughly reliable , then it is obvious that many of the recommendations made by the Boyal Commissipn on the sanitary state of the army , however valuable they may be on other grounds , will not , if carried out , produce the intended effect of reducing the ratio of deaths from diseases of the respiratory organs among our soldiers to the normal conditions of the country generally . __ ¦¦¦' lL ..-. ¦
.. . _ .. It was proposed to discuss in * his paper the statistical value of the Commissioners' hypothesis only , and not to enter on the consideration of the real cause of the high ratio of deaths from consumption in the army . Enough , it is believed , has been already adduced in Appendix LXXL of the report to indicate the chief cause of not only the general high rate of mortality , but also of the very unprecedented and frightful destruction of life by diseases of the lungs .
Kn 4m. September 25,1858.] The I,E A P E...
Kn 4 M . September 25 , 1858 . ] THE I , E A P E B . 1005
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Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—the 3 * interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review . *
Studies Op Christianity. Studies Of Chri...
STUDIES OP CHRISTIANITY . Studies of Christianity . A series of Original Papers , now first collected , or new . By James Martineau . Longman and Co . A criticism of a history , poenri i or nove ^ which regarded , nothing more than its style and outward manner would be most meagre and unsatisfactory And a similar treatment of a book of any kind containing opinion and though tfulness , will be just so much the more disappointing to those interested in the questions discussed in the book , as matter rises
in relative proportion to manner , when you ascend the gamut of literature , from lightest " belles lettres" to richest metaphysic and theology . And yet , knowing as we do the superficial and meagre character oi such criticisms of such books , we can venture no more in a catholic literary journal , which takes no side in the sectarian disputes either of literature or religion , and assumes no duty in this field but the impartial chronicling of the progress of opinion , than to tell our readers , in a summary way , what this l > ook is , what it professes , and how its
professions are verified , in respect of the mechanism and literary handicraft . This book , though written by a well-known , popular , and influential Englishman , is a reprint Irom the publication of it in America . This is a curious and a growing feature . We have more than a surmise that , in New England , a book of opinion of any kind is more widely read , and speaks more directly to the popular mind , than in England . The influence of Mr . Oarlyle here is , we believe , deeper and wider than that of Mr . Emerson over
his countrymen . But Mr . Carlyle ' s influence is not exercised directly upon the people ' s minds . It is exerted only through bis large band of popularisershis ^ thorough or partial disciples and copyists . Whereas Mr . Emerson , not without his special esoteric school , speaks to and is responded to with wonderful directness by the general mass of the minds of his fellow-citizens . True , Mr . Emerson does not give a half-educated man so many nuts to crack as Jus ^ brother of Chelsea ; and his stylo is more attractive and alluring to a class of minds
far larger and more impressible than those Mr . Carlvlo specially affects . But even if you make due allowance for that , the main features of the contrast , on which we could easily bring other illustrations to bear , remain unaccounted tor , except by the solution that it is in some elements occupying the minds addressed , and not the minds teaohing , that the explanation is to be found . We hazard an opinion , not as complete and sufficient in itself , but as at least offering a partial explanation ot the
greater zeat for controversy and disoussion of high questions , whioh prevails in New England . Ihe more popular institutions of the States , the more general diffusion of all the means of education , the greater leisure afforded by better pay for loss work , are all factors towards our conclus ion * But they are not sufficiently spepifio for , our purpose . i . l \ ey only partially explain the increased devotion Jo speculative questions , and rather account for a larger public for literature generally to address , mere are two types of religious belief which ,
by their respective specialties , produce a somewhat hard and iconoclastic mental culture , and habitude for dialectic . These are Calvinism and Unitarianism . These are the poles of religious belief within the pale of Christian faith . The latter has travelled further from the former than from any other dogma The former opposes the latter as no Christianity at all . And yet the influences which both exercise on the minds of their believers are singularly similar . They both , differing as they do in doctrine , agree in this , that they disclaim with equal zeal the worth of a ritual and the efficacy of a priesthood . They both strongly foster individualism . The one sighs for communion with a personal Deity—the other
firmly directs the conscience to personal duty . Now these two forms of belief are just those current and powerful in New England , each the more energetic by the present antagonism of the other . Hence the highly developed logical activity and spirit of mental research , which make America more quickly and generally responsive to speculative opinion and its advocacy , than England . This view , if correct , it must be confessed , so far from solving , only throws a partial light u p on the pheno * menon , and carries it one stage further back . For if the forms of belief have produced this specific result in the national mind , the national mind first chose and worked its way to those forms of belief .
Mr . Martineau commences his preface with the following sentences :- ^—The volume here presented to the English reader has been compiled , primarily for American use , by the zealous band of my friend , the Rev . W . R * Alger , of Boston , U . S . " With the exception of the last piece but one , which is new , the papers comprised in it have been published before , and have nothing to plead in excuse for their reappearance , except that many of them ,, being either out of print or buried in Reviews , had become prematurely inaccessible . For the friendly estimate to which they owe their preservation in more permanent forni , I desire to express my grateful acknowledgments . Whether ratified or not by a more public judgment , it gives assurance of that kind of sympathy which best delivers the solitary student from his self-distrust .
. The reader will be at ho loss how to divide the responsibility of this volume between , my editor and myself . For the contents of the papers ,- taken- separately , I alone am answerable . "Their selection , their grouping , and the common title ; which brings them into a certain unity , are due to editorial care . We , cannot agree with tliis . The avowed publication of a name on a title-page involves the author ' s responsibility for evejey detail ; for arrangement and selection , as well as for the matter presented . This is not a very cardinal point of objection . It is the only one we believe ought to be strongly alleged against the book ; and we clear our conscience of it at once . The same rule would
have justified Mr . Macaulay , if , supposing Mr , Vizetelly ' s publication of his speeches had been made in America , their author had introduced them as a collection and reprint to the English public , with his name put on the title-page by himself , along with a new preface , disclaiming responsibility in the matter . But if Mr . Macaulay had done so , instead of adopting the wise course which in selfdefence he pursued , the present and the future could have most fairly alleged against him an undue disregard for historical accuracy easil y to be secured . VVe believe that Mr . Martineau is satisfied with the " editorial care , " else he would not
have stood , by its results . Practically , therefore , he is responsible for all . Mr . Martineau has been for years before the public in anonymous literature , and more than once as the avowed author of separate works . It is not therefore necessary , de novo , fully to criticise his stylo and literary character . It is enough to say that here wo have , as before , his easy flow , his capacity for lucid exposition of somewhat recondite subjects , and his choice selection of appropriate and elegant language . Hero , too , we nave , as before , Ins considerable tendency to ovcr-theorising
and refinement , and the attempt to solve things uuexplainablc . The book has a biographic and historic interest . It shows the growth ot tho writer ' s own mind ; and it contains nis contemporary opinion and criticism on many notable books , ana new presentations of doctrines , contained within the last thirty years . Tho dates of first publication are affixed to caoh paper , and range from 1839 to the present year . And such tides of artioles in the contents , as " Creed and Horesies of early Christianity , " " The Creed of Christendom , " "The Restoration of Beliof , " and " St . Paul and his Modern Students ' , " load you to expoofc , wheu you refer to their
respective pages , as you do find to be ihe case , that the important works on these subjects ,- of Messrs . Bunsen , Rathbone Greg , Conybeare , Stanley , and Jowett , are to be treated and commented on . Mr . Martineau says in his first paper on " Distinctive Types of Christianity "—which is evidently intended to be introductory in purpose as well as in position— . . It is an obvious , yet little noticed consequence of the invention of printing , that no one mood of feeling or
school of thought can tyrannise over a generation of mankind , and sweep all before it , as of old ; and then again , with change in the intellectual season , rot utterly away , and give place to a successor no less absolute . Generations and ages now live in presence of each other ; the impulse of the present is restrained by the counsels of the past , and in fighting for the throne of the human mind , finds it not only strong in living prepossession , but guarded by shadowy sentinels , encircled by a band of immortals .
This is fine writing ; but it is more—it is true , and obviously so . And hence the value of such a book as this , which re-collects for us from partial obscurity well-weighed opinions , written upon doctrines when they first took to themselves new utterances and advocacy , and which are still amongst us , fighting for supremacy over our minds . You can trace for centuries as clear a succession in the dynasty of thought as you can run up the pedigree of German Kaisers or English kings . The arch thought-rulers leap to your recollection at once ; such names as Plato , Augustine , Abelard , Aristotle , Aquinas , Ramus , I ) es Cartes , asserting special and paramount prominence . Then come the republics , or at least divided empires , which Mr . Martineau risrhtly says have existed since the effects of printing
had full time to develop themselves . Locke and Leibnitz concurrently founding schools—Voltaire and Butler , each a . t the same time gaining : an independent and lasting sway : —Stewart and Brown skimming over the mind of man at Edinburgh— - Kant and Hegel digging through it , into infinity , at Konigsberg and Berlin . We need hardly say , thai in . the ¦ -midMs _ of- polemics , **;¦ ¦ tj ^^^ a ^^ y er ** WfvF T-r *^*""' ' *" that lie is faiF " and candid iii argument , and never shrinks from showing his whole front and unfurling every fold of his banner . The book may well he read by those to whom it is new , and will acquire an additional value to those who have read it in its scattered parts .
The Patna Crisis. The Patna Ci-Isis. By ...
THE PATNA CRISIS . The Patna Ci-isis . By W . Tayler . Nisbet and Co . No history of the Indian rebellion—we cannot bring ourselves to call it a military mutiny—will be comp lete unless use is made of the important materials in this small volume . The book , hardly more than pamphlet size , contains an account of the events which occurred at Patna , between the 20 th May and the 11 th August , 1857 . Mr . Tayler , it will be recollected , obtained a considerable share of
public attention in consequence of his abrupt dismissal from his post by the Governor-General of India . Mr . Tayler was Commissioner of Patna during the height of the rebellion . Suddenly he was deprived ot his appointment—he remained unemployed for seven months , and then was placed in a post of lower grade . Feeling his character compromised , he proceeds in a nervous pamphlet to lay before the world the circumstances , leaving it to pronounce its verdict on his case . Here is Mr . Tayler ' s statement : —
And what \ 9 the crime of which he stands accused ? It must surely bo of a strange and unusual character to bo compatible with so much wise judgment and vigorous action ? His crime is , that at a time when Behar was trembling in the balance between loyalty and rebellion , between order and anarchy , he directed , or suggested , the withdrawal of the civil officers and Christian resi dents from several out-stations , and the-concentration at Patna of the scattered forces .
It appears that symptoms of an insurrectionary spirit in Behar had been observed by Mr . Tayler for two years previous to the outbreak in 1850 , and that he had communioated with tho Government , which resulted in a , proclamation explaining matters that had alarmed and aroused both Mohammedan and Hindoo . Subsequent events proved that Mr . Tayler ' s representations wore founded on fnots . After tho outbreak at Moorut and Delhi had occurred , it became necessary to take precautions to meet and suppress mutinous demonstrations ot Patna . Tho narrative hero becomes mtonsly interesting , and taking tho statements for panted no praise can bo too high to award to Mr . layler
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 25, 1858, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25091858/page/21/
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