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Sept. 27, 1851.] JCfte &*£&*?? 923
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Donoso Cortes, the Spanish publicist, in...
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g. p. b. james's louis xiv. The Life and...
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I'ROIIDIION ON ASSOCIATION. Idee (Ifnh'i...
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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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Among The New Works Let Us Notice A Sele...
about to issue an edition of her works at twopence a part , whici will make the cost of the complete set only tw ? nty shillings . Not long since we announced that the virtuous Lkon Faucheb had suspended the performance of Balzac ' s brilliant comedy Mercadet , until certain passages offensive to the susceptibility of virtuous politicians were removed . We have now read the comedy with unusual attention , and are perfectly bewildered as to what passages could have alarmed the Ministerial conscience . Poor Faucheb ,
to be sunk so low as that ! Only last week he gave another specimen of his quality . In a one-act comedy , performed at the Odeon ( the Sadler ' s Wells of Paris ) , called * Sous les Pampres , the word Emp 6 reur ( applied to Cbsar ) is everywhere effaced , and dictateur substituted . Does the virtuous Faucheb mean that CLbsab was not an Emperor ? or does he think the word too august to be profaned by comic poets ? As Leon Faucheb probably had once some " acquaintance with the classics , " let us remind him that Julius C , esar , like a
veritable Emperor , when Catullus wrote a stinging epigram against him , did not believe that Rome was in danger , or that the poet ought to expiate his boldness in prison—he simply invited Catullus to supper ! Will the Hero of Strasburg open the Elysee to his satirists ?
Sept. 27, 1851.] Jcfte &*£&*?? 923
Sept . 27 , 1851 . ] JCfte &* £ &*?? 923
Donoso Cortes, The Spanish Publicist, In...
Donoso Cortes , the Spanish publicist , in an essay on Catholicism , Liberalism , and Socialism , eloquently points out the present condition of Europe as having but two possible issues—either Catholicism or Socialism ; either the reestablishment of Absolute Authority , or the triumph of unlimited Liberty . Choose , he says , between the doctrine of original sin and necessity of evil , and the doctrine of the final disappearance of evil
through the gradual perfectibility of man . If the first , you must be Catholic ; if the second , you must be Socialist . He sees no logical compromisenor do we . He is a stanch . Catholic . Reason and Liberty are to him words of terror . They are firebrands ; they can do nothing unassisted , except prepare the triumph of Satan . The guidance must come from above . Beneath the shadow of the Church , menaced society may repose in safety ; there , and only there !
If the Church be the only capable monitress of nations—if Society can find refuge only within her fold—why has the Church suffered it to escape ? Why during three long centuries has the opposition been so deeply spread ? It is something-, however , to hear Spain raise her voice even in defence of Catholicism , for the " moral pestilence" ( liberty of thought ) has penetrated even there , as we are reminded by our excellent comrade La Tribuna del Pueblo , a Democratic paper published in Madrid . This journal is established for a purpose which in Spanish has a strango accent to
our ears : — " We come not to destroy but to propose ideas of reform ; we come not to implore pity , but to expound the doctrines accepted by thinking men , that the People may see them , may meditate on them , and reject them as noxious , or accept them as beneficial . " That is the mission of />« Tribuna del I ' ueblo , a paper which proclaims Liberty of thought as the greatest of modern conquests ! In Spain 1 in the land of the Inquisition ! Wo should add , however , that the journal has been " suppressed " three times in the space of one fortnight ; but the fact in significant that freedom of opinion has its organ even there .
There , and beyond , nrazil , too , has ita energetic People ' s party . The Apostolo do Norte , several numbers of which wo have looked over , hoists the flag of " <« od and the Republic : '' Deos e . a liepublica Universal ; with this motto : — " The Apostle of the North holds no compromise with the monarchial factions { corn < is factors monarchies . ' ) it is the organ of Universal Republicanism - <) i Liberty and Order . " Our llra / . iliati confrere does not mince phrases ; he i , s resolved to sweep away the " official anarchy" which distracts his country , and for that purpose he will preach
Democr in energetic language . Which he does . He quotes Burke , too ( though he will persist in calling him Bubck and Burcke ) , and delares that all the monarchies in Europe are " , the rail " or dying ( desorientados e moribundos ) , and speaks of the Cabinet of St . James ' s being governed by Lord Palmerston , whom he does not admire as Foreign Minister . These facts may seem trifling ; but to those who reflect on the solidarity of nations ( an awkward word , but we want an equivalent ) every indication of the spread of Democratic principles is welcome . If Europe is to become Republican or Cossack , we must look out for such " signs of the times . "
G. P. B. James's Louis Xiv. The Life And...
g . p . b . james ' s louis xiv . The Life and Times of Louis the Fourteenth . By G . P . R James , Esq . Two vols . ( Bohn ' s Standard Library . ) H . G . Bohn . This work will prove an acceptable variety in the excellent series Mr . Bohn issues , although not by any means of equal importance with the majority of those published in the Standard Library . G . P . R . James has a reputation which will serve to fix attention on this history ; and the reign of Louis XIV . is so important , so varied , and so interesting , that no treatment can rebut the reader .
We are of that class of quidnuncs who desire that History be treated in a grave conscientious manner ; for we look upon it as one of the noblest employments of literature , speaking as it does of the anterior existence of Humanity , and enabling us to connect this our transitory life with the life of the whole Past . But although our standard be high , we can accept works having humbler pretensions . There must be gradations in literature . Hundreds who would throw aside a better , will read pleasantly such a book as this Life and Times
of Louis XIV . Its aim is not ambitious . The careless " general reader" is addressed , not the historical student ; above all , not the philosopher . Mr . James , like Alexander Dumas and Lamartine , confines himself to telling the story x > ver again in his own words ; and as little or no trouble is taken in sifting authorities and criticising statements , he deems it unnecessary to adduce in the footnotes the authorities upon which he relies . All this would be reprehensible in a more ambitious work ; it is quite justifiable in a history such as the present .
Let our commendation , therefore , be distinctly understood as implying no more than that this Life and Times of Louis XIV . is a readable narrative of an eventful reign , treated anecdotically instead of historically , and making no demand upon the reader ' s thought as it probably made but little on the writer ' s . In all the higher requisites of a history—as we conceive it—the work is deficient . But if you remember the style of historical disquisition and characterization which prevails in Mr . James's novels you will form an accurate idea of the style of this book—its merits and demerits . Let us take a sample of its more ambitious pages to exhibit this : —
" Could the astrologer Morin , who was concealed in the chamber of Anne of Austria at the moment when she was giving birth to Louis XIV ., have really foretold the fate of the child who was at that instant ushered into being , how strange , how overpowering , would have been the vision of the future which his eye beheld ! How astounding would it huve been to have looked forward upon the change which that one man ' s life wrought upon the state of society in Kurope : to have beheld in one glance the rise , the triumph , and the fall of one destined to influence throughout existence not alone a kingdom but a world . "
Very sonorous and iutcrjcctional , is it not ? but if the meaning be impertinently sought , a certain disappointment ; will be inevitable . No doubt the astrologer would have been astonished could he lruvo seen in one glance the " vision of the future" — the crowded pageant of Kuropcan progress embraced within the period of one long life ; but the remark is scarcely to be considered as cither novel or striking ; und it applies with the same force to the infant Jones as to the infant , Louis Capet ;
therefore , as the opening sentence ; of a history—as the key-note—we do not . think it ; well chosen . At , the worst , however , it is but a platitude . The next sentence , if it means what it , says , implies a popular , but very false conception of social movement , viz ., that Louis himself , by his personal iniluence , wrought the great changes which were evolved during Iris reign ! This habit of rounding a sentence with indifference as to meaning , common enough in novelists , mukes Mr . James talk of the
rise , the triumph , and the fall" of Louis . It may be thought that we are microscopic in our criticism ; but we have taken the opening passage , one evidently elaborated for effect , and we have taken ifc because it is a fair sample of the style . The book is a hasty production , meant for hasty reading . Hence , when you meet with passages like the one just quoted , you consider it as the music which accompanies and animates a march ; the rolling drums and blazing trumpets may not satisfy a musical connoisseur , but they cheer the weary soldier . So , when Mr . James in what he calls a sketch of
society during the reign of Louis XIII ., weaves to * gether a few not very significant anecdotes taken from memoirs of the time , you are not to suppose they really convey any adequate idea of the society , but are meant to " enliven " the gravity of facts . by the piquancy of fiction . When he tells you that " female virtue was held as nought throughout the land " you accept it as the loose generalization of one who cares more for a weli-turned sentence than for a precise expression . And after all , the sentences are but indifferently turned !
It is surely needless to protest against such a sweeping phrase as that on women being accepted literally . The state of female virtue in France was never an exemplar , but to suppose that libertinage was at any time universal is to misconceive the very nature of society—the dames galantes may have been more or less numerous ; but the mass of women were always virtuous . Bussy Rabutin , the dissolute dog , might write to his charming cousin , Madame de Sevigne \ " Vous vous amusez apres la vertu comme si e ' etait une chose solide—you run after virtue as if it were a reality ; " but she , and thousands of others , knew better than Bussy . We will not enter into the discussion which might be opened by the subtle remark of the mother of the
celebrated Duchesse de Longueville , that many are chaste with their persons , but who will answer for their thoughts ? Beaucoup defemmes sont vertueuses de la ceinture en bas ; mats de la ceinture en haut qui pourrait en repondre ? Nor will we touch on those piquant instances of capitulations with conscience—the union of devoutness with gallantrywhich abound in the anecdotical history of the time ; all of which may be summed up in this reproach , murmured by a woman celebrated for her gallantries , while caressing her lover , the Count de Fiesque : — " My little pet , I have a charge against you ... you do not pay your devotions to the Virgin ! Ah ! you neglect the Virgin ! that gives me extreme pain !"
It is usually forgotten by historians and essayists that the virtuous women make no figure in the chronicles of the time , simply because they were virtuous . They realized the ideal of Thucydides that a woman should escape notice ! But some of them , by the very eminence of their positions , do force themselves upon our notice , and we would ask those who talk of the dissoluteness of women in France during the seventeenth century to remember the r < Hi () ieuses of Port Royal , the mother and daughter of Fouquet , the daughters of Colbert , Madame Pontchartrain , Marie Martinuzzi , the sisters of Arnauld and Pascal , Madame ( Jluyon , and a whole list of virtuous women .
But we are wandering from Mr . « I amesand this edition of his book , which is in two compact volumes , with an index . Mr . Holm cannot he too often thanked for the solicitude he exhibits to make his publications useful by appending indexes to them : works tea times as costly are constantly issued without an index ; ;' . nd in some cases it would be worth the student ' s while to purchase an edition of any work in this Standard Library , if only for its index—that is , assuming "his own edition to bo without one .
I'Roiidiion On Association. Idee (Ifnh'i...
I'ROIIDIION ON ASSOCIATION . Idee ( Ifnh ' ittr tie In Itrvolutiun , mi . A' / . V A /' cr /<' . ( 'lioi . r il'lit tides sur In l ' i < itii [ ti < : Itevolutioiimiirt ! < t ln < lus ( rirlle . 1 ' ar . I * . -I . 1 ' roiullioii . \ V . . Ic / I ' ri .
( Third Notice . ) I ' ltounuoN has , from the first , been the most redoubted of the opponents of (' oir . iniuiisin , and all those schemes of Socialism , which have ; been , as we must confess , so prematurely ami unphil <> soplii < : ally set down for the regulation of society . This opposition on IVoudbon ' s part is not , as some idly assert ., the lshuiadite tendency to destroy the impatience at other men ' s system *; it in fundamental , iincl issues from his very method , which we may remind the reader is Unit Method of Contradictions or Doctrine of Opposite * to be nwit with in various schools of Philosophy : the irpoq u \' K-f [ k < x . < xvriKti [ A . evuv «* tj ( W oftlus KleaticH ; tho " Antinomies ofllcason "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1851, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27091851/page/15/
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