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^msm^i m^^i TflaE TX3BAP^^> ___^______ ?...
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^ • •, - ,.„ „«+ the letfislatora , but ...
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Fob many years the antagonism between Sc...
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AN AMERICAN TOUR. A Vacation Tour in the...
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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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Fob Many Years The Antagonism Between Sc...
Fob many years the antagonism between Science and Theology ( which must not be confounded with Religion ) has given theologians increasing uneasiness at the rapid advance of Science , and its acceptance by the public . They have been put to strange shifts to " reconcile" what they could not deny . They have in the main adopted two courses : to fulminate against Science , and to prove that the teachings of Science and the teachings of Theology are the same ; the sort of proof generally consisting in that logical artifice which secures your assent for a particular by securing it for an universal , so that they having proved Socrates to be a man , you are made to believe on the same proof that he was a Frenchman . Having overwhelmed you with rhetoric on the theme—An undevout astronomer is madthey conceive that nothing more is necessary ; yet you reasonably ask , If there are no undevout astronomers surely there are some heterodox astronomers ? Laxandb , Laplace , Arago rise to the memory as persons of very
mediocre orthodoxy . The last week has introduced us to two theological athletes , types of the two classes just named . The first of these is father Gbatrt , the Oratorian , who , according to the Revue des Deux Mondes , has published , a new Logique to remedy the disease of the age by bringing back truant Philosophy to the school-benches of relig ion . The second is Dr . W . P . Lunt , an American divine , who , in a Lecture on the " Functions and Province of Faith , " printed in the Christian Examiner , undertakes also to supplant the old logic . Father Gbatry announces a discovery ; Dr . Lunt is purely rhetorical . The Oratorian believes he has detected the one fundamental process upon which all
Science and all Metaphysics is conducted ; and this process is nothing more than the theological process . What , he asks , is the process of Physical Science ? induction ; of Mathematics ? the calculus ; of Metaphysics ? dialectics . Now observe , all these processes are the same process : they all proceed from the particular to the general , from the contingent to the necessary , from the finite to the infinite . And when positive science , in its superb disdain for metaphysics , declares that man cannot transcend finite knowledge because the infinite must ever be inaccessible , in that very announcement it belies its own existence , for induction itself is a passing from the finite to the infinite . If the reader has not seen the logical sleight of mind by which this result is attained , ; he will open his eyes when he hears that on the same ¦ method , man passes to the knowledge of God . Reason is impotent ; faith alone can succeed , and faith will come in humility . For what is humility ? It is the profound sentiment the creature has of its weakness ; it is the finite bowing before the infinite ; it is analogous to the process by which the geometer
passes from the finite to the infinite I Very different from this logical fence is the rhetoric of Dr . Ltjnt . He does not want science reconciled with religion ; he wants it banished altogether from the same sphere of thought . He says : — It may be made a question -whether the philosophy of . Bacon , which has wrought such marvels for the benefit of the world in physical science , has not been to an equal extent pernicious in regard to morals and religion . The habit which it has induced , of looking only at sensible facts and of using the understanding alone , while the higher facts of consciousness are neglected and the intuitions of the soul are ignored , has been followed by disastrous consequences . the line which his and coldhearted
The successors of Bacon proceeded in sagacious - cenius had pointed out . Locke in England gave systematic application to his principles , eo for as they related to mental philosophy . But Locke waa too good , too Christian a man to go where Bacon had pointed the way . Others of coarser and less scrupulous natures followed , until , under their influence , man was reduced to a lusty and beautiful t > rute , out of whom , with the dissecting knife of their subtle analysis , thev had extracted all soul , —in the mysterioup chambers of whose complex nature their foul chemistry had dissolved all faith , and had left only a caput mortmm of earthy matter , as the worthless residuum of immortal man . This " habit of using the understanding" is doubtless disastrous ; for the precise explanations furnished by science banish the superstitions fostered by priests . Euripides , in one of his bold and thoughtful passages , declares that the gods throw the world into confusion that we in our ignorance may worship them— rapaypov evridcvres , two- ayvcocrHj .
cre / 3 « yu «/ avrovs , and it is clear that in proportion as Religion founds itself on ignorance it must dread Science . Dr . Lunt has no misgivings on this point ; he pines for the superstitions of a bygone ago , as you mny see in this passage : — The great heresy of our poriod ia not a denial of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mury , or of any other of the thousand formulas of positive doctrine that proceed ex cathedra Romas , or from any other propaganda in Christendom . But it is a heresy to humanity . It is a denial of the crowning attribute of man . It is disbelief in tho soul . We believe in and worship a huge idol—the material universe—¦ which , liko Ifabuchadnozzar ' s imago , has ahead of gold , and feet of iron and clay . Wo are intent upon running a continuous wire round the globe , that tvo may ohaftor with the Orientals by lightning—a stupendous achievement , doubtless , which science has shown to be theoretically possible , and which . experiment is trying to prove practicable ; and the tvhola world ia leaning with eyelid : ajar to watcli the doing of the dopign , . And at the same time wo have recklessly destroyed that better telegraph , which existed , in what wo term ages of darkness , and which led from earth to th «
world of spirits , fetching and carrying conmunicatibrisi between aie ^ ounT" of * Bein & and the souls of men . ¦ ¦ -, " It was surely worth while to extract this passage , if only for that image of the " world leaning with eyelids ajar , " which is in the purest style ot what Disbaeu wittily calls "the American language . " For the rest * Dr . Lotst may grieve , but Science will not stop even to make way for witches . : The Revue des Deux Mondes , besides its article on Father Gbatkt , has a very pleasant story by Champixeijbt ; an account of Babtouwi , the
sculptor ; and a continuation of the Princess Belgiojoso's pleasant travels in the East . But nothing that leads us to comment . In the Annales des Sciences Naturelles there is a long and curious paper by M . Camixjus Dabeste on the colouring matters of the sea . He has collected together all the observations of travellers , historians , and naturalists , and describes the various algae , infusoria , and Crustacea which give their red and yellow hues to vast tracts of sea water . The paper is too long , and not of a nature for analysis : but the curious reader will do well to seek it in the Annales .
An American Tour. A Vacation Tour In The...
AN AMERICAN TOUR . A Vacation Tour in the United States and Canada . By Charles Bichard Weld , Barrister-at-Law . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . Before alluding to results , perhaps it would be well to describe the motives of A Vacation Tour , and then a book , which cannot fail to interest a large class of readers , will have an additional claim upon their attention . Half a century ago a relative of Mr . Weld ' s travelled over a very large portion of the United States and Canada . This gentleman published his experiences , and became a recognised authority on American subjects . A tour through an unsettled country was certain to furnish plenty of adventure , as , trusting
to the guidance of Indians , or his own sagacity , on foot , or by canoe , the traveller made his way through forests where railways are now established , and over waters now navigated by modern steamers . Mr . Weld thinks a contrast between the America of fifty-five years ago and the America of to-day may not be a worthless undertaking , and the desire to chronicle the changes which have taken place had a considerable influence in determining his visit to the New World . In the short space of three months Mr . Weld devoured 10 , 700 miles of road , but he did not scamper over it in the style of Leigh Hunt's friend , who used to get over a play of Shakspeare s before breakfast , and boast that he had "done ' so much . A really surprising amount of information is condensed in the compact narrative of so rapid a journey .
Mr . Weld sees everything , without reminding the reader ot his hurry ; He abandons himself to the enjoyment of his tour , and yet always keeps equal to his literary purpose . We know of no book more useful to emigrants , as tto greatest pains are taken to correct ill-founded statements or exaggerated notions . The external appearance of a place , or theincidents sure to arise in travelling , are not overlooked : but this sort of information is accompanied by what is of more consequence , and merely paves the way to sterner stuff . We must say we do not entirely sympathise so much with Mr . Weld when he gets reflective , for his style then becomes affected and pedantic | however , this is a fault auite apart from the excellent subject-matter . One
may get an extremely definite idea of the author's route by referring to the map prefixed to the volume . Starting from Boston , his journey lay through Peterborough , Montreal , Quebec , Toronto , Buffalo , Cincinnati , Columbus , Washington , Richmond , Philadelphia , and New York . The strange hotel life which has grown up in the great American towns is described with a minuteness necessary for the reader ; and this is where Mr . Weld differs from , so many ordinary writers : he tells the very thing he has to tell without thinking it beneath his own , or the reader ' s attention . The resources of these enormous establishments , it is well known , are marvellous , and they quite keep pace with the go-ahead propensities of their haoituts , who pass a dolce farniente kind of existence . The Americans , from the justice they do to the culinary department , would seem to reverse the maxim of eating to hotels the customers
live by living to eat . In the bar-rooms of these are allowed to help themselves ; the consequence is , visits are very frequent , and the apparent liberality of the proprietors is well rewarded . No people understand the economy of time and labour so well as the Americans ; to be rapid is the first consideration , and every contrivance is exhausted by which time may bo saved . To save time they shorten their own lives , for _ the restless fever which pervades all classes must be fatal to longevity . I his excited incapacity to be quiet accounts for the whittling propensities so common in the States , which are so far recognised amongst themselves , that the public seats in tho park at Boston arc covered with sheet iron . Even when attending divine worship , tho Americans have no command over their recreant limbs ; legs and arms are thrown violently about , and fans are passed from hand to hand ; tho incessant stir producing a most chaotic
effect . , ~ The tobacco-chewing nuisance , which disgusts the strangers m the States , is brought out with horrible effect in divers practical instances . When the party were sitting down to dinner on a railway journey , a fellow deposited bis " reeking tobacco quid" on Mr . Wold ' s plate . Liko cigar smoking in England , tobacco chewing is a tost of manhood . " What the — do you mean , " said a stripling to a judge in tho United States , "by calling mo a boy ; I ' ve chawed these two years . " Weld docs not stop among tho lighter traits : from the quid he rises to political economy , lhe manufacture of this chewing-tobacco is carried on to a great extent m Virginia . Tho presses nro worked by slaves insteud of machinery , owing to tho scarcity of capital , which is a drawback to progress in many of the slave states . Tho American disregard of life and limb made its due "" prcss'on on -Mr . Weld , but little can any previous information prepare tho ««« ° * « £ , \ ™ desperate reality . Two cases told by Mr . Weld make ono liold one , a biooth . Leaving the gay and glittering scene , in the ^ " ^^^^ KSS S Monroe , and proceeded by Btago over a plank ™«< I o * «« £° fc ' oomod doubtful eighteen miles . I was the only piwsongor , and for »^ *^ However , X inwhothor tho driver would proceed with so iinromunorotiv © » *> aa . '
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 29, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29091855/page/17/
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