On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (6)
-
January 29, 1853.] THE LEADER. Ill —^ ¦—...
-
: XmnXtixt.
-
Critics are not the legislators but the ...
-
In default of literary gossip this week,...
-
In answer to sonic queries about Spontan...
-
TJIH itKLKHON FOR OUR AGK. Tnv Harmons o...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
January 29, 1853.] The Leader. Ill —^ ¦—...
January 29 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . Ill —^ ¦— — . — . :
: Xmnxtixt.
: XmnXtixt .
Critics Are Not The Legislators But The ...
Critics are not the legislators but the judges and police of literature . Thev do not makelawa—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .
In Default Of Literary Gossip This Week,...
In default of literary gossip this week , we will say a word oq Faraday ' s lecture , "On the Magnetic Forces , " at the Royal Institution ; a lecture which commanded the attention of the most crowded audience we remember within those walls . Faraday is still pursuing his researches , and has not yet arrived at any conclusion sufficiently definite to bring forward ; but he gave one of his admirable expositions of the nature and objects of his search in determining magnetic force ; and called attention to a most remarkable and far-reaching discovery recently made , a discovery which , while it opens new tracks
" In the shadowy thoroughfares of thought , " well illustrates the value of all direct and accurate observation , even when the observation seems to have little practical application . It is this . A German astronomer has for many years been watching the spots on the sun , and daily recording the result . From year to year the groups of spots vary . They are sometimes very numerous , sometimes they are few . After awhile it became evident that the variation in number followed a descending scale through five years , and then an ascending scale through five
subsequent years , so that the periodicity of the variations became a visible fact . Now , of what use , asks the practical Jones , is this fact ? "We know that every ten years there has been a cycle of variations ; what then ? What are these said spots , what do the groups mean , how do they affect us ? Jones sees nothing but astral twaddling in this patient observation . And in truth , so long as the fact remains an isolated fact , it is silent to us ; but connect it with some other fact , and it may discourse significantly . Can this be done ? There seems good hope it may .
While our German friend was busy with his groups of sun-spots , an Englishman was busy with the variations ofthe magnetic needle . He , too , was a patient recorder of patient observation . On comparing his tabular results with those of the German astronomer , he found that the variations of the magnetic needle corresponded with the variations of the sun-spots , — that the years when the groups were at their maximum , the variations of g | the needle were at their maximum , and so on through the series . This ref lation may be coincident merely , or derivative ; if the latter , then do we connect astral and terrestrial magnetism , and new reaches of science are open to us !
How beautifully this illustrates the slow and certain conquests of Science , compared with the rapid and illusory usurpations of Metaphysics I The facile method of a metaphysician would have been employed in vain upon these sunspots . The " depths of moral consciousness" might have been ransacked , and die Idee zu construiren—the construction of the true Idea would have been hopeless . Nature answers if we " interrogate ; " but only if we interrogate her , not if we interrogate ourselves . She will have nothing to say to the Idee als solches !
And yet on the other hand this discovery ( if it be one ) lends only partial countenance to the narrow dogmatism of the " fact men . " Observation was necessary ; it was the laborious Hodman toiling with a weight of bricks , not the great Architect , who shaped bricks into palaces and cathedrals . Without the facts no progress was possible , nor was it possible with them , if they were unaccompanied by " ' s large discourse of reason looking before and after . " Science is the synthesis of facts . It is the Temple built by the soul from the materials furnished by Nature , wherein the soul may fitly worship Nature ' s God ; and if Science has ever seemed irreligious , it is because the thinkers were not truly scientific .
In Answer To Sonic Queries About Spontan...
In answer to sonic queries about Spontaneous Combustion—a subject exciting interest just now—we repeat our intention of investigating the subject ^ jind bringing the results before our readers . We have not had the time to gather together the authorities cited by Ciiaimwsh Dickkns , and until we , have done so , and carefully examined them , discussion must be in abeyance . Our columns me open , however , to all opinions . Let correspondents furnish their evidence and arguments , they will meet with that attention uniformly accorded by us to differences of opinion .
Tjih Itklkhon For Our Agk. Tnv Harmons O...
TJIH itKLKHON FOR OUR AGK . Tnv Harmons on Itolh / ion . By Theo . Ion , Marker . John Chapman . Wk seize on tho volume Theodore Parker hn « just published , m an oxcollent opportunity for Haying a , Aw words in . tho inoro positiyo direction of our rel irioiiH viown . Theaeeiclentn of position , the neeess . l , ^ o ( combat , make us often assume ltor » aii antagonism winch , though neocllul , is wean-Homo Wo aw constantly criticising donyiutf ; wo are He Worn afhrmiiiflr A journal like ours imiHt lake its topics from tho hour . Jt raunt bo anfai-£ / nX whenever the adversary dosoemlH into tho arena . It can only bo positive , on the rare occasions afforded by its own cause . A series ol 110-J ^ U ™ lirlioleH worn written on Butler's Analog ; a series of positivo ^^^ ^ TT . Z ^^^^ k »»™ . « « celebrated aS ^ "A havfn ff worked Iuh way through all formal thoolZy \ I oast aside as falno or obstructive eVeryth . ng but tho central Sof ChriHtianiU . speafcs to the present ^ ration with he bole nesn of conviction and the warmth of a lofty passion , bidding iUcmiho to quairol over Ho osBify itBolf in tho details and formulas wliioli have from SneZ time boon flot up iibUio embodiments of tho rolujiouB spirit , and
bidding it rather fix its devout eyes upon the real significance of Religion . For all religious men are tolerably agreed upon essentials ; they only dispute over collaterals . In the hearts of all there is agreement ; in . theories alone is there discord . That God is Truth , Love , Justice , Omnipotence , no one denies . That Religion is a binding together of all our faculties- —the keystone of our being ' s arch- —no less than the binding together of all men into one humanity , the keystone of the social archthat to live a noble life , to live a happy life , it is imperative we should follow Truth , Lore , and Justice , which is the act of both—no man , be his sect what it may , will for a moment deny . If no man reaches that ideal standard , all men have that standard as their aim . In the silent hours of serious thought it is clear to us all ; in the turmoil of daily needs it is more or less consciously operative . We fall away from it ! "vre lie , we hate , we err ! we think injustice , and act it too ! we are weary , and faint , and sad , but still the loosened kevstone of the arch , though , shaken , is
never utterly thrown down ; and over the crumbling mortar we-mourn , as a soul in rums ever will mourn 1 ¦ Now , if this agreement exists , by what short-sighted tyranny of opinion is it that men refuse to act on this agreement , and persist in quarrelling over details ? If Religion be love of God and love of Man , why do we start off from the proper culture of those emotions into sectarian disputes respectingtheformtheseshallassume ? Love islove , thou ^ hspokenin Arabic differently from its language in English . We , of the Leader , have abundantly shown how perfectly we believe in the sincerity of the most diverse forms of belief ; and have only protested against them when they were to be imposed on those who rejected them , or when they seemed to obstruct the very aim they wished to reach . Let us see how Theodore Parker understands the aim and scope of Religion .
His first sermon is on the Relation of Piety to Manly Life . By a psychological distribution , which is very arbitrary and questionable , but which serves his purpose , lie divides the faculties of the human spirit into four classes : the intellectual ( including the sesthetical ) , the moral , the affectional , and the religious , or Mind , Conscience , Heart , and Soul . This is not an acceptable classification , but it is only advanced for the sake of " convenience , " and we let it pass . " I s"hall take it for granted that the great work of mankind on earth is to live a manly life , to use , develop , and enjoy every limb of the body , every faculty ofthe spirit , each in its just proportion , all in their proper place , duly co-ordinating what is merely personal , and for the present time , with what is universal and for ever . This being so , what place ought piety , the love of God , to hold in a manly life ? It seems to me , that piety lies at the basis of all manly excellence . "
He then undertakes to prove this proposition , by showing how the spirit of man is in proportion to its clearness and purity animated by this piety : — " The Mind contemplates God as manifested in truth ; for truth—in the wide meaning of the word including also a comprehension of the useful and the beautiful — is the -universal category of intellectual cognition . To love God with the mind , is to love him as manifesting himself in the truth , or to the mind ; it is to love truth , not for its uses , but for itself , because it is true , absolutely beautiful , and lovely to the mind . In finite things we read the infinite truth , the absolute object of the mind . " Love of truth is a great intellectual excellence ; but it is plain you must have the universal love of universal truth before you can have any special love for any particular truth whatsoever ; for in all intellectual affairs the universal is the logical condition of the special .
" Love of truth in general is the intellectual part of piety . Wo see at once that this lies at the basis of all intellectual excellence , —at love of truth in art , in science , in law , in common life . Without it you may love the convenience of truth in its various forms , useful or beautiful ; but that is quite different from loving truth itself . You often find men who love the uses of truth , but not truth ; they wish to have truth on their side , but not to be on the . side of trulh . " In the same way Conscience contemplates God as Justice , ov ( lie love of right : — " The love of right is the moral part of piety . Tin ' s lies at tho basis of all moral excolleneo whatever . Without this you may love right for ifs uses ; but if only
ho , it is not right you love , but only tho convenience it may bring to you in you ) Hellish schemes . None was so ready to draw the . sword for Jesus , or look after thr money spent upon him , as the disciples who straightway denied and betrayed him . Many wish right on their side , who take small heed to be on the side of right . You shall find men enough who stem to love right in general , because they clamour for a specific , particular right ; but ere long it becomes plain they only love tho personal convenience they hope therefrom . The people of the United States claim to love the unalienable right of man to life , liberty , and the pursuit of happiness . But the long-continued cry of three million slaves , groaning under the American yoke , shows beyond question or eavil that it is not the universal and unalienalwV right which they love , but only the selfish advantage ! it affords them . If y ou love the right , as right , for itself , because it is absolutely beautiful to your conscience , then you will no more * depr ive another of it . than submit yourself to bo deprived thereof . Kvtsn tho robber will fiiibt for his own . The man who known no hotter
rents in the solfitth love of tho private use of a special right . The Heart and the Soul are Hiinilarly considered , but with letw mieceHH , in our opinion , because the psychology is inaccurate . The result , however , of the whole survey is to show how naturally the human hoii in its free energetic action shapes itHolf according to religious iuuih ; ' and that , deeply considered , Religion is not dependent on " orthodoxy , but on sincerity—not on rigfdiwss , but on uprightness . — "There may bo an unconscious piefy : the man does not know that , ho loves universal truth , justice , love ; lovi's ( Jod . H «> only think * of the . pecul truth , justice , and love , which ho prizes . Ho ( Ioch not reflect upon it ; does not aim to lovo ( Jod in thin way , yet does it , nevertheless . Many a philosopher him warned without religion even to a careful ohserver ; HoinetimcH has passed for an atheist . Some of them have to themselves weenied without any religion , and havo denied
that there was any God . Hut all tho while their nature was truer than their will ; their instinct kept their personal wholeness better than they wore awnre . Those men loved absolute truth , not for itH uses , but , for itself ; they laid down their liven for it rather than violate tho integrity of their intellect . They had tho intellectual
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 29, 1853, page 111, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29011853/page/15/
-