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Jan. 28, I860] The Leader a7id Saturday ...
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SOCRATES.* The student of history has no...
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*Tli<\ Dlahxnten qf Plato. By Dr. WjibwW...
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NOVELS OF THE DAY.* IT is impossible for...
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•M4WmW O;i.i«-j.. JJy Joii* 11. Wihm. 2v...
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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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Gog And Magog,* We Are Not Ashamed To Co...
mn « -o ~ in Mr ! Fairholt ' s picture , we seem to discern in Ins counteivinee ° a crest fallen expression—a certain air of baffled wickedness which we never remarked before * and which confirms this version . In" justice to the giants let us not forget another version , . which ' declares -that "•* Corinseus and Gogmagog were , two brave giants , who nicelv valued their honour , and exerted their whole strength and force " in defence of their liberty and country ; ^ so the City of London , bv placing these their representatives in their Guildhall , emblevnatHrally declare that they will , like mighty giants , defend the honour of their country and liberties of this their native city which excels all others as much as those huge giants exceed in stature the common bulk of mankind . " For this account , however there is no earlier authority than the ¦ " Gigantick History' published by . Thomas foreman , in 1741 : and we are afraid that it is merely mythical , growing out of the popular feeling towards Gog and - Mao-off- For the people evidently loved their giants : they were associated with all theirJ ^ tes and holidays ; and to this day , we believe , form part of the Lord Mayor ' s annual procession Anciently , Go" and M ; . g <>< - were two vast figures , made only of wickerwork and pasteboard . The present two substantial giants were , at the city charge , " formed and fashioned " by one << Captain ^ Richard Saundersf an ¦ e-. nin . uiit . carver , in King-street , Cheapside , ' somewhere about the year 1708 . , ' ¦ , . Mr . FairhoH hardly solves a question which will strike most of his reader * . Why are giants so universally connected with civic display ? Chester . ' Coventry , Salisbury , Antwerp , Douai , Arras , Brussells . •& .. have all their giants . We believe that they had their origin in the histrionic performances with , which t he ancient bourgeoisie of Eno-land . and the Continent were wont , after the fashion ot more TDOwerTul governments , to amuse the people . For these they appear ¦ - to have dramatised or otherwise represented popular legends already well known . The history of Gogmagog and Corinanis was , no doubt , one of those which \ vere annually brought forward ; and the giants , we suppose , being elaborately constructed , were . preserved and made to do duty from year to year . The names of Gog and Ma < -o . r are found in the Bible , and Mr . Fairholt has some curious renfarks upon the traces that may be found of them in Oriental * It was ri «* ht that this memoir of the old city giants should be . written before their history and the grandeur that anciently surrounded them are for ever forgotten . As : late as the middle ot the last century Mr . Fairholt informs us that the great stone hall in which they stand was filled with small shops , and formed a gay . bazaar . The '' Gigaiitiek History " from which we have quoted was sold by its publisher " near the Chinks in Guildhall . " But civic , o-lories are lading fast . An all-devouring centralization , of more than doubtful benefit , is fast consuming the city ' s ancient po wer and independent ' . When last we sauntered into Guildhall the workmen were peaceably engaged in a labour of sacrilege that , of old time , would have sot the city in , ablaze . They were removing the venerated monument of Alderman Beckford . the great championof City Radicalism ,-to make way for the monument of the great Tory soldier , tho Duke of Wellington . The change was effected without riot—indeed ,. we believe , without remark . The giants looked down upon the change with faces , as it seemed to us , of deeper crimson than before ; but the people merely watched the workmen , as if no cry ot Wilkes and Liberty had ever been heard within those walls , and pressgangs and general warrants had always been allowed to go forth unquestioned .
Jan. 28, I860] The Leader A7id Saturday ...
Jan . 28 , I 860 ] The Leader a 7 id Saturday Analyst . ¦ 91 ;
Socrates.* The Student Of History Has No...
SOCRATES . * The student of history has no more melancholy task than to trace the career ot one of those pioneers of nascent Truth , whose fate in every age of the world it has been to lay down then' hvos for the " creed thev preach . To be persecuted , despised , rejected , and undone , such ' is the sacrifice that Truth has ever demanded of men who dared to bo her herald , and well it is that in every case their glory ' jma proved equal to . the risk they ran , and that tho names of such live for ever , long after their bodies rest in peace ; and on tho brow of nono has posterity placed a nobler crown than that winch rosta on Socrates , the pagan philosopher of Athens , Whom well inspired , the oracle pronounced , "Wisest of men , He enjoys , too , the advantage of having met with one among his pupils who was able to do justice to his teaching , and whose works , unsurpassed for beauty of style and illustration , still remain the storehouse from whioh ' mornlists of every ago have drawn , as Iroin a flowing fount , whatever could adorn their pages , or render their lessons more easy to understand . On nono of the writers of Greece is tho impress of the beauty of nature moro clearly stamped than on Plato—tho most eloquent of all , who in everything that was lovely around , saw a type of ( something still more lovely in the moralnature of man within , His Dialogues should be in every hand , and we therefore welcome with pleasure u volume , from tho ablo pen of Di \ Whewell , which promises in an adequate manner to throw open this trcasuro to tho English reader . In Soi-ratos , an in nmny another who has boon tho chosen apostle of tho liipluMt truths , thcra was nothing" to attract or nllu . ro " the many" to his wide . Rude of speech , in appoarnnoo plain , with throaXlbnrVcloak and unshod feet ho walked by tho Bide of the polished and . luxurious vitiKon of Athens , aiid hoodies * of everything" forcpd his conversation on one and nil alike . And when wo remember that tho object of these colloquies was to prove tho ignornncio of tho
persons who engaged in them , and their utter folly in supposingthat they knew anything at all , we need not Wonder when we ^ find that hatred and jealousy were roused against him ,, who sought m such a novel way to propagate the practice of virtue and enforce the stern duties of morality . The whole city were against him ; and , supported singly , by the approval of the internal monitor conscience , that reigns supreme , and which he called his Demon , to his seventieth year he stood his ground , and nobly pursued the course he had marked out . . There can be nothing more pathetic in the range of history than the Moralist of Athens standing at the bar of his . country to receive its last award . After a life of self-denial spent in labouring to bring men to the knowledge of the duties they owe themselves , and to a higher conception of their work below , he stands forth to meet his sentence at the hands of those whom he has sacrificed all to save . Rectitude of purpose unflinchingly pursued and blameless integrity are there in his person , to be judged by the selfish bigotry which represses the one and the proud ignorance that refuses to acknowledge the other . And the result was , as it has ever been , that the life of Socrates , noble as it was , was still more ennobled by his death . Martyrdom , indeed , has never failed to raise to the highest rank ot heroism those have passed through its fiery trial ; and many a name that would have perished long ago , or only , survived to be abhorred , has thus been saved from such a fate . But no commendation is too high for the g lorious martyr of virtue of whom we now speak , and his last defence is one of the most touching addresses tliat we have ever read , which , after many n noble passage ,, thus concludes : — " But vbu too . ray judges , must be of a good courage with regard to death , and must bear in blind this one great truth , that to a good man it mutters not whether he live or die ; nor are the gods regardless of his course : ana so even I , helpless' as I seem , am sure that this haB not happened to me by chance , but that it is good for me to die and be removed from tins scene below , and I bear no grudge against those who have condemned and accused me here /* Charity was not so common a virtue in those or after days , as that we should despise the smallest approach to it we can trace , and it must have sounded strange on the ear of selfish aiid time-serving Athens to listen to a man who could forgive the enemies who had broken up and destroyed his ^ home , and were about to consign him to an unjust and ignominious death . But she reaped abundantly the harvest she had sown ; and the words of the despised criminal who fell'a victim to her blindness , that it would be } ° ? % Jt ™ . *™ found such another as himself , were-amply and m ournfully fulfilled . Four hundred years after , in the days , of the Apostle Paul , we find the very saine Athens a ^ ain . rejecting a teacher of the truth , and still devoted to the study of the unknown gods . The very charges that are brought against the one are almost verbally tho same as those that wore urged against the other : Socrates was condemned berause he believed in other than his country ' s gods : laul was a babbler because his gods were strange , and the similarity may surelv serve to invest , tho Pagan moralist with something ^ ot the- ¦ interest that attaches to the career of the Christian saint , lo those who would further study the practical morals of the former , as presented to us in the works of his pupil Plato , we can do no better , than recommend the series of volumes by Dr . Whewell , of which the first has just been issued . The dialogues are arranged in chronological order , and to each is appended an argument ; while the matter , which consists partly of a torso abridgment and partly of vigorous translation , is illustrated by able notes . English readers h . nve " to thank the author for having brought homo to them what we are sure , if rightly read , will bo " a joy for ever , " ami for having enabled them for themselves to verify tho justice of posterity m havin < " reversed a verdict which , more than two thousand years ago , was passed on . one of tho most celebrated characters of that or indeed of any lime . ^__^_________
*Tli<\ Dlahxnten Qf Plato. By Dr. Wjibww...
* Tli <\ Dlahxnten qf Plato . By Dr . WjibwW ., Trin . Coll ., Qaml > . MftoMlllan . 18 GU .
Novels Of The Day.* It Is Impossible For...
NOVELS OF THE DAY . * IT is impossible for any novelist to succeed who does not , as a primary element , supply , himself with a sure foundation in the shape of an efficient plot . To write two long volumes , composed of merely conversational or dry descriptive chapter * , is not to produco » . >""«>> in the proper meaning of the word . A novel is , uftor « U , a diliioult form of composition , requiring not only the imaginative and perceptive faculties , but much general information and actual experience of the world . In those days of light literature , unfortunately , the rago for novel-reading is only outrun by the mania for novelwriting : the consequence is , that so much irash is presented to the public in the shape of 'tales" and " romances , that it becomes really dangerous to speculate in a book , unless wo nave tlio name of a well-known author as a guarantee for tho rospeutubiMty of its contents , , We do not wish tho reader to infer , from tho forcing remarks , that Mr . Wise ' s now work , Tho Cousins' Ojurtahip , i « entirely dovoid of any sort of individual murit . On the contrary , there is , hero and there , dispersed throng '"^ ^ ° two volumes , somo httlo bits ot genuine poetic feeling , which gleam pleasantly and relroHhi . itfly through tho long wilderness of unintorosting dutnil . bull , however , tliev avo only gloamingH in tliu wilderness ; and wo doubt mn « i » thonatiouco ' of the general reader will allow him to wade througli so
•M4wmw O;I.I«-J.. Jjy Joii* 11. Wihm. 2v...
• M 4 WmW O ; i . i « -j .. JJy Joii * 11 . Wihm . 2 vo 1 b . Smith , hkjor , ' Sw , afJSlltM ,, *; a » 'l othov Talc , I ) y tho Author of / ' Tho K" * '" ™** Maids . "' Origlnully published in Fraser ' a Mrwwlno . " ' Johu " l tuJcor & a Xoovl . By the Buroneu Tavvpumvb . Klolmrd Bontloy .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1860, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28011860/page/15/
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