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1294 THE LEA DEB. £No. 505. Nov. 26, 185...
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THE WAY OF THE WORLD. By Alison Kcid. 3 ...
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THE HABITS OF GOOD SOCIETY: A HANDBOOK O...
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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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Vjews Of Jlahouu Jvnu Oou>. L»Y William ...
THE BOOKE OF THE PYXGrKEMAGrE OF THE SOW 1 B , Translated ; from the French of G-uillaume de Guileville . Edited by Kathcrine Isabella Cust . —Basil Moritag-u Pickering . This " booke , " was printed by William Caxiou , anno 1483 , and is here . reprinted , with illuminations taken from the MS . copy in the British Museum . It is one of the numerous allegories on the progress of the soul which preceded Bunyan ' s extraordinary / work . Some persons have sought , on this account , to question Bunyan ' s originality . But such an attempt can only demonstrate an ignorance of the real state of the question . The the Dantes
honest John . We see no traees of genius , whethe 1 * literary or religious in the earlier work , but merely conventional piety , and a technical dealing with authorised dogmas . In the latter we are enabled tq appreciate the thinking man , the mind struggling for light , and making the most of that already ' granted . Bunyan ' s originality shines out in beautiful contrast with the timid copyings of Dc Guileville .
Bunyans , , and the Spensers , who showed such a fondness for illustrating allegorically this favourite subject , and thus endeavoured to make " A Sunshine in the Shady Place , " wrote in the spirit of the age in which they flourished , and followed the current of the general mind . The present work follows the dogmas of the Church of Rome in its argument , and is supposed to have been' translated by Lydgate , from the French , in 1413 , who seems to have added to it some poetry in seven-lined stanzas , and to have repeated in the thirty-fourth chapter a portion of his metrical life of the "Virgin , Mary . The complete work is not here reprinted , but the publishers have
** ri £ h . much respect that we examine intp his opi-• ntOns on the important subjects named in his title page . We regret that these are stated in so « Ifcsultory a . manner , that we find it difficult to form them into a system . Perhaps Mr . Barnes intended no system , but was contented to register iis observations under each particiilar head , without attempting to gather them into a regular iseheme of doctrines . Yet such is the task that must be accomplished if these data are to be applied to purposes of practical value . We can perceive readily enough * ihat the author Is the stern advocate of the interests of labour ; may , so much of an advocate , that he seems almost Mind to the advantages of machinery , whether to iihe individual or to society . Labour is the basis of capital with him , and the happy use of gold , not gold itself the true wealth of a state . Tor example , he found that in 1852 three hundred pounds a year in Australia would only go as far as sixty pounds in England . But how the state of things in Melbourne has improved , more labour being spent in the winning of true life-gear , and less in that of the hard metal . His meaning he Illustrates by the following fable : — "If in an island , as , for instance , in JPitcaim island , the people were all working for life-gear , and suddenly one-fifth of them left their Winning of food for the winning of fossils , it is clear enough that -with an increase of fossils tliey would find a decrease of life-gear , unless , indeed , the four-fifths should increase their labour by one-fourth , which , . if ' they " had heretofore done the fair work of tlieir bodily strength ,. would' be a physical evil . If , "however , the one-fifth that began to dig for fossils liad therefore been -wholly inactive , then their " "labours would make the community richer by their fossils , and so no . community can be the more -wealthy by the digging of gold , unless it is dug by Tiands hitherto unworking , or unless the finding of it stirs working hands to greater labour ^ Spain is . none the more wealthy for the silver and gold she drew from America , and the wealth of England in all "kinds of life-gear and handy work might be no Jess with less bullion than is the store we now iold . ¦** . Tlie Manchester and Salford water company liave allowed a hogshead of water a day to a head , i ) ut water was at one time 3 s . a hogshead in Mel-Jbourne , so that the Manchester allowance of water would have cost a guinea a week . If the Israelites 3 iad found a gold-yielding creek in the wilderness , and a thousand of them had left the picking of manna for the digging of it , they would most likely "have starved ; and more welcome to Robinson -Crusoe would have been potatoes than nuggets of 3 gold only a spit deep . * ' It is true that men may win in Australia a fulness of good life-gear and the elements of true -wealth and happiness , if they seek them , rather than worse elements of wealth and -vicious pleasure ; Tbut it was not fair or good that newspapers often misled so many working men by stating Australian . -wages jn weight of gold , without the truth of its commercial value . The question for a working xpan migrating to another town or another land , is not what weight of gold , but -jvliat life-gear his -week ' s work will win him . Labour in England may earn more gold thai ) in Switzerland , and yet we may Ihave among us as 'great a share of half-starved Tbodies as have the Swiss ; and we may have as great a share of underfed bodies as could have been found by Captain Cook in the Tonga Islands , whore there was no money . " So far is clear enough . Nor arc we disinclined . to allow to the author his three elements of -wealth : —1 . The spiritual one of righteousness ; © . The bodily " one of healtJi , and , 3 . The social one of good government . Groat inequality of snrealth renders states insecure . It is not well ihat * ' one . class may be over rich to wanton luxury , while another is . poor to naked hunger . " We likewise agree "with , him .. in the frequent evil reaction of wealth upon the mind , as instanced in some tales from the diggings , where its sudden ^ acquisition not seldom results in the maddest . ^ BreokB . We know not how some of our political ' economists will take many of Mr . Barnes' propositions , lie holds with the cynics , that little anoro than food and raiment is worthy of our ^ careful yearning . " The love of money , he adds , *** undermines probity and , freedom , as it breeds a "subserviency in vice , " and a readiness to sell the aB 9 Qu of one ' s fatherland for gain . " Such arc awnovQf Mr . Barnes' notions , an <* they may serve *•&;• $ »*& aw readers one as to the nature of kte ¦¦ w olumei ,
omitted whatever relates to Mariolatry , and purgatory , and also some metaphysical dogmas which have been deemed too abstruse or otherwise objectionable . It is preceded by a preface written by the Rev . Edward Polehampton , MT . A ., and the Rev . Thomas S . Polehampton , M . A ., Fellows of Pembroke College , Oxford . These preface writers have done their work reverentially , if not in an _ altogether and absolutely satisfactory rnanner . They appear to think that allegories like these proceed from , our curiosity to learn something of the world after death . Surely this is an error . The attempt is clearly to interpret the mystery of our present life , and the growth of religion in the soul .
One of the motives stated for this publication is the fact that John Bunyan ' s works have acquired more notice lately than formerly- —are indeed growing , riot only in popularity , but in that fame which lives in the opinion of the wise and good from age to age . He is taking high rank among the intelligences of the world—those " rule our spirits from their urns . " Let us trace , with the aid of the Messrs . Polehampton , the course of De Guileville ' s pilgrimage , The Pilgrim inquires his way to the Celestial City ; the lady Grace-Dieu undertakes to be his guide , and leads him , by the way of baptism , to the church . The official of the house of Grace-Dieu receives him , and shows him many wonders . He is then led through many dangers , trials , and sorrows , until he meets with Old Age , Infirmity , and Death , Satan then claims the soul as his own ; and complains that the fair Dame Grace-Dieu has unfairly deprived him of his bargain . Its guardian angel remonstrates with Satan ; and the case "is' finally laid before Michael . The poor soul having no naerit to plead , throws itself wholly on the judge ' s mercy , and appeals to Jesu . Justice refuses to listen to either repentance or prayer ; Conscience likewise testifies against the soul , and Reason concludes the argument . Its merits and its sins are then weighed in the balance , and the result is against the soul . Then Mercy flies to heaven , and brings down a charter of pardon , sealed with the Redeemer ' s blood . Whereupon the soul is permitted to go into Purgatory , in order finally to be admitted to Eternal Bliss . After Purgatory the soul is led by its guardian angel to heaven . Amidst all'this allegorising , wo sometimes have a pleasing touch oi the natural . Reference is made to larks . who sing in the air , " Nothing else saying but ever , ' Jesu , Jesu !" These , it is added , "be the birds that God Almighty raade to that intent , that mortal folk should take their example . These be called larks , which in Latin have the name of praising and worshipping , and be called ? alaudss , ' not without cause . TTor why f" They rise and mount far from the earth , and spread their wings , praising God with their merry song , and all their disport and play is to sing *? Jesu f " Such passages as these are , however , rare ; and if we were to leave the reader to suppose that many such abound , or that De Guilevillo ' s Pilgrimage has anything that can compare with the poetic spirit , the dramatic character , and the moral sentiments of Bunyan's Pilgrim , we should bo misleading the publio , and doing great injustice to
1294 The Lea Deb. £No. 505. Nov. 26, 185...
1294 THE LEA DEB . £ No . 505 . Nov . 26 , 1859
The Way Of The World. By Alison Kcid. 3 ...
THE WAY OF THE WORLD . By Alison Kcid . 3 vols . — Hurst and Ulackett . " The Way of the World " is a good novel , and one that gives great promise for the writer's future works . As a novelist he gives evidence of great talents , talents that only require cultivation to ensure great success for the writer in the branch of literature in which he has made his debut in the world of letters . We , who have passed through the better half of the " seven stages'" allotted by the irnniortal " JBard of Avon " to man , looked upon life in lhuch the same manner as Mr . Reid ' s hero , until like him we found out . the difference between the shady and the sunny side of the road * and were able to judge for ourselves what -was good and what was bad in this work-a-day -world of ours . Experience teaches some people much more than others . When a person , is well-to-do , or he is supposed to be doing well , which is .-the same thing , all the world smiles on him , and life is , to the successful , pleasant enough ; but when reverses come , what a difference there is in those friends who have smiled on us in our prosperity . Mr . Beid has worked out his plot and developed his characters in such a manner as would do credit to the most experienced novelist . He has not attempted to paint the world , or the people in it , perfection : he takes them under his consideration as they are , and delineates them most truthfully , showing how people do , think , talk , and act , and in such a manner that leads us to predict for him great success as a novelist . On the whole , we are inclined to Mr . Jleid ' s descriptions of the ways of the world . His work might have been , improved with a little curtailing , but , as it is , it falls little short of being a first-rate novel .
The Habits Of Good Society: A Handbook O...
THE HABITS OF GOOD SOCIETY : A HANDBOOK OF ETIQUETTE FOK LADIES AND G ENTLEMEN . —James Hogg and Sous . The " Man in the Club Window , " who writes the prefaco to this book , is a weaver of sentences , a coiner of saws , and an utterer of instances , that group themselves in picturesque confusion , and serve to perplex the reader sufficiently to induce him to talke an interest in the book that follows . There is a second preface als $ , ostensibly written by a lady , but evidently masculine in stylo . At length we come to the book , and detect a different hand altogether , Let us , however , do justice to the writer . This book of etiquette is not one of those silly productions fit for the meridian of China , that give positive rules concerning proper behaviour . On the contrary , the remarks nrc remarkabl y sensible , and deal rather with the spirit than with the forms of good manners . Wo doubt , indeed , w hether it should not rather be regarded as a treatise on morals . In treating of the composition and manuors oi Good Society , the writer relates the rise and present position of the middle class , as having a considerable bearing both on its elements and its external arrangements . The circle , ns ho truly states , widens daily . Men who have risen from the " cottage and the workshop , without tiwnjjjg for , and without experience of , fashionable ino , are now repeatedly admitted . It is diflicult , under . such ciroumstances . to construct a code of manners . Scope must be left for the play of individuality and the manifestation of character , hardly ncrmissible in the old times of strict etiquette , fcor will the writer admit the old motivoa—a desire to shine , or an ambition to rise in thd world . Exclusive society , he warns us , is not often ngrecabio society , and not necessarily good , Tlicso conuitions of the subject will , wo / ear , be rather u » appointing to some who may resort to this book lor instruction in the art of pushing their w « y , jm « making a good appearance in ranks to which tuey are not accuatomed . Should the work before ufl not exactly snuoro with the notions of the self-interested , it will , wowever , proportionately pleaBe ft bettor class w readers . They will not loam irom it either to bo snobs or flunkies . Neither Beau BrummoU nor
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 26, 1859, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26111859/page/10/
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