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304 '" THE LEADER. [No.. 418, March 27, ...
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w Critics are not the legislators, but t...
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Again we have to offer our respectful co...
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Both the snbjeot and the speaker conspir...
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FltOUDE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. A History ...
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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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304 '" The Leader. [No.. 418, March 27, ...
304 '" THE LEADER . [ No .. 418 , March 27 , 1858 .
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Ctttrataw .
W Critics Are Not The Legislators, But T...
w Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do noi makelaw * they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Bevtew . ¦ * ¦
Again We Have To Offer Our Respectful Co...
Again we have to offer our respectful congratulations to the University ol Oxford upon an appointment which deserves to be cited as a perfect example of 'the right man in the right place . ' For some time past the venerable Alma Mater has confounded her adversaries and silenced her detractors by the admirable names she has added to her Professoriate , and the enlightened course of self-reform upon which she has spontaneously entered and has continued to advance with unhasting but unresting steps . Only the other day we were rejoicing in the triumphant election of Matthew Arnold , the poet and critie of antique serenity of thought and true philosophic culture , to the Chair of Poetry . Then came the concurrent nomination of Dr . Acxand , the esteemed and enlightened representative of the natural sciences , to the Regius Professorship of Medicine , and his election to the Clinical Professorship ; and now we have to express our unfeigned satisfaction at the appointment ol Mr . Goudwin Smith , Fellow of University College , to the Professorship oi Modern History . We are assuredly expressing the opinion of all who have watched the career of the new Professor in his boyhood at Eton and his earlj manhood at Oxford , of all who have seen the ripe fulfilment of his early promise , when we say that a more unexceptionable choice could not have been made . At Eton , where he sat side by side with'poor Henry Hallam , Mr . Goijdwin Smith was distinguished among his schoolfellows by the earnest , energy and masculine vigour of his intellect , and in his prose and verse compositions the nervous energy and the terse felicity of expression gained him an easy pre-eminence . Out of school , too , his cast of thought was more serious and severe than boyish , although not wanting in the elasticity and freedom of a boy ' s ( an Eton boy ' s ) disposition . But at Oxford , where he was marked for honours and distinctions , the fine tone of mind , the broad and liberal culture , the refined and somewhat austere manner , the elevation and dignity of thought , the generous sympathy , and the uncompromising sincerity , amply fulfilled the promise of the boy . He was distinguished at once within the University and beyond its precincts , and no one was surprised to hear that he was Secretary to the University Reform Commission , and in that capacity des tined to be the most active and laborious agent in the great work of reconstruction and renovation . The anonymous system , with its unquestioned advantages to the Press as an ' Estate , ' combines the obvious disadvantage ol suppressing the light of individual reputations ; and it seems almost like disclosing a secret to mention that among the most stirring articles in the most conspicuous columns of the London press , not a few of late years have been due to the fine Roman hand of Mr . Goldwin Smith . Wherever public liberty and political justice were to be defended and upheld , wherever tyranny , and corruption , and servility were to be condemned and chastised , a finer and stronger hand could not be found to wield the language and the thought ol Miltok . Such an appointment , therefore , to the chair of Modern History is full of promise and significance , and it does infinite honour to Lord Deuby , a * Tory' Minister and a ' Tory' Chancellor , to have ratified , by anticipation , the spontaneous and unanimous choice of the University . It is a hopeful augury to University Reformers ; it is a pledge of the decay and disappearance ol bigotry and intolerance ; it is a guarantee that the young men who ( as the Master of Balliol used to say ) are " fitting themselves to take their seats in the Senate or the vestry , " shall be taught the principles and the doctrines ol wholesome English freedom while their hearts are still uncontaminated and their brains unmuddled by contemporary politics . Verily Oxford is awakened : she is reconciled to the nineteenth century , and is once more resolved to teach the nation how to live . Esto perpetua !
Both The Snbjeot And The Speaker Conspir...
Both the snbjeot and the speaker conspired to iuvest with special interest the lecture delivered by Mr . Buckle at the Royal Institution a week ago , the subject being ' The Influence of "Women on the Progress of Knowledge , ' and the speaker a philosophic student of history . Tho ladies naturally crowded to hear their * mission' expounded by one who had notoriously devoted himself to the History of Civilization , and gentlemen are generally willing to listen to any theory of woman ' s position unfolded in the presence of the faots . As a muscular and intellectual feat Mr . Buckle ' s lecture was certainly a great success . He spoke for an hour and a half not only with vigour and animation , but with unfailing- fluency and precision . As an exposition of the subject to be discussed it was less successful . Indeed , Mr . Buckle scarcely touched tho special point in . view—the influence of women—till towards the close of his discourse , his lecture being thus like his volume , rather an introduction to the subject _^_ than a discussion of it . Nor , -when he at length arrived at it , was the lecturer's ' view of the subjeot a happy one . MrTBuimLE ' mMmtiinl ^ hm ^ 'Onien are deductive rather than inductive , in other words , that in tho progress of knowledge women contribute the principles while men gather tho facts ; and that the influence of women is thus of the highest value in checking tho matter-of-fact tendency of mankind . If this means simply that women are impulsive rather than reflective , that they jump at conclusions rather than arrive at them by any process of reasoning , it may pass as a polite , if not philosophic , version of an old truism . But if the epithet * deductive' means more than this , as it surely must do in tho mouth of suoh a speaker , the dootrino is not only not
true , but exactly the reverse of the truth . Deductive reasoning , as Mj Buckle himself explained , is a reasoning from general ideas to facts , and the deductive mind is one in which the abstract rules the concrete , in which the idea colours and transforms the reality . The true deductive spirit to which principles are everything , facts comparatively nothing , naturally expresses itself in the philosopher ' s exclamation on being told that the facts contradicted his theory , "So much the worse for the facts . " According to Mr . Buckle ' s doctrine therefore , women care more for principles than facts ; but so far is this from being the case , that women are rarely able even to recognize or understand a general idea apart from the particular instances that illustrate and vivify it . Prin .
ciples , as stated by them , are for the most part only facts disguised . Their philosophical reflections on human nature are generally in the strictest sense reflexions—censures on particular persons and particular acts , with the names and dates suppressed . When Mrs . Jones , for instance , says with a resigned and reflective air that " Prosperity chills and hardens the heart , " she probabl y simply means that Mrs . Smith , whose husband is getting on in the world , did not invite herself and the dear girls to her last party . The influence of women on the progress of knowledge is great , greater and more important than any otber , but not in the direction Mr . Buckle suggests . The lecture is , however , we believe about to be published , and we therefore reserve further criticism till it appears in a more permanent form .
Turning from the philosopher to the humorist , from Mr . Buckle , whose notion of women seems to have been elaborated , like the German philosopher ' s idea of a camel , ' from the depths of his moral consciousness , ' to Mr . Thackjjhay , whose representations are ever direct from life and intensely real , take the following passage from the last number of the Virginians . It touches with a master ' s hand the influence of women , not on the progress of knowledge , but on the happiness of the race : — Two fish-pools irradiated by a pair of stars would not kindle to greater warmth than did those elderly orbs into which Harry poured his gaze . Nevertheless , he plunged into their blue depths , and fancied he saw Heaven in their calm brightness . So that silly dog ( of whom JEsop or the Spelling-book used to tell us in youth ) beheld a beef-bone in the pond , and snapped it , and lost the beef-bone he was carding . 0 ,
absurd cur ! He saw the beef-bone in his own mouth reflected in the treacherous pool , which dimpled , I dare say , with ever so many smiles , coolly sucked up the meat , and returned to its usual placidity . Ah ! what a heap of wreck lie beneath some of those quiet surfaces ! "What treasures we have dropped into them ! What chased golden dishes , what precious jewels of love , what bones after bones , and sweetest heart ' s flesh ! Do not some very faithful and unlucky dogs jump in bodily , when they are swallowed up heads and tails entirely ? When some women come to be dragged , it is a marvel what will be found in the depths of them . Cavete , canes ! Have a care how ye lap that water . What do they want with ' us , the mischievous syren sluts ? A green-eyed Naiad never rests until she has inveigled a fellow under the water ; she sings after him , she dances after him ; she winds round him , glittering tortuously ; she warbles and whispers dainty secrets at his cheek , she kisses liis
feet , she leers at him from out of her rushes : all her beds sigh out , " Come , sweet youth ! Hither , hither , rosy Hy las ! " Pop goes Hylas- ( Surely the fable is renewed for ever and ever ?) Has his captivator any pleasure ? Doth she take any account of him ? No more than a fisherman landing at Brighton does of one out of a hundred thousand herrings The last time Ulysses rowed by the Syrens' Bank , he and his men did not care though a whole shoal of them were singing and combing their longest locks . Young Telemnchus was for jumping overboard : but the tough old crew held the silly , bawling lad . They were deaf , and could not hear his bawling nor the sea-nymphs' singing . They were dim of sight , and did not see how lovely the witches were . The stale , old , leering witches ! Away with ye ! I dare say you have painted your cheeks by this time ; your wretched old songs are as out of fashion as Mozart , and it is all false hair you are
combing ! In the last sentence you see Lector Benevolua and Scriptor Doctissimus figure as tough old Ulysses and his tough old Boatswain , who do not care a quid of tobacco for any Syren at Syrens' Point ; but Harry Warrington is green Telemachus , who , be sure , " was very unlike the soft youth in the good Bishop of Cumbray ' s twaddling story . Jle doea not see that tho syren paints the lashes from under which she ogles him ; will put by into a box when she has done tho ringlets into which she would inveigle him ; and if she eats him , as she proposes to do , will crunch hia bones vritn a new set of grinders , juBt from the dentist ' s , and warranted for mastication . Tuo song tune that 8113
is not stale to Harry Warrington , nor the voice cracked or out of I G '' But—but—O , dear me , Brother Boatswain ! Don ' t you remember how pleasant we opera was when wo first heard it ? Cosi fan tutti was its name—Mozart a music . Now , I dare say , they have other words , and other music , and other singers an fiddlers , and another great crowd in tho pit . Well , well , Cosi fan tulti ia still i » F u tho bills , and they are going on ringing it over and over and over . This is a partial but profound glance at that darker side of female ehawojg which Thackeray is so fond of painting . It has all tho writer ' s usual truin and reality of representation- a terrible truth and reality . Wo quote a n » illustration of the meditative richness and calm picroing intuition wincn i » there is kWW
eminently mark tho new story . Many people object that » , T " j in the Virginians , but thoso who make sucli a complaint are »" l T " enjoying Thackeray ' s peculiar qualities . There are two classes ot 11 » v 0 " ^ those who write storios full of incident and ' situations , ' to bo » w ' lllo rJ down iu gulps like draughts of strong ale ; and thoso who write cluipto b , m of exquisite humour and delicate insight , to bo sipped like ilue wine . J .. «* bba belongs to the latter , and his rare subtlety in character-pan "" J ^ inimitablo easo and eloquence of his stylo , cannot bo adequately « 1 » 1 r °° ll \ by thc _ common novel-reador . To aU capable of appreciating Ihackmww , Vwainians will ^ iv ^^ Tioirdeliglitr- ^ " - ^ - ^ " ~*~—— - " — ~~
Fltoude's History Of England. A History ...
FltOUDE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND . A History of Enyland from tho Fall of Wotsey to tho Death of M ™ * ' ** L flon Froudo , M . A .. Vola . III . and IV . J- W . T » ' " " ^ Within a few years , every existing version ofEngliah hislory will P "' . have become obsolete . Excepting a low fragments , the whole m » w ^ written , Tho compilers hnvo so long exclusively possessed tno liem u State archives , contnining the most valuuble and olmost tuo omy " «*"
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 27, 1858, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27031858/page/16/
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