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520 T ^L^_J^ j 1 4: ^JLJ^. -tNo- 375 > S...
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Owe of - the most striking features in t...
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Two dignitaries of the Second Empire hav...
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ROMANY RYE. The Romany Rye: a Seqtiel to...
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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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Owe Of - The Most Striking Features In T...
Owe of - the most striking features in the recent development of philosophic thought in France is the opposition arising within the bosom of the Church to the Catholic champions of the reaction , especially the two most celebrated , M de Bonald and Count Joseph de Maistre . Of the two other distinguished
men whose names were originally associated with the reaction , Lamennais soon abandoned the side of authority he had at first espoused to unite himself with the people , and Chateaubriand had but little real induence , his plea m favour of the old regime being sentimental and aesthetic rather than political or philosophical . Bonald and Maistre , however , devoted themselves heart and soul to defend the extremest claims of absolutism in politics , and authority in religion . They were both , in different ways , not only men of great power , but also of extensive personal influence , and the effect of their vigorous polemic fwrainst the claims of reason and the advocates of progress was for a time
considerable . " Count Joseph de Maistre , a man of society and of the world , taking a prominent part in public affairs , possessing lively passions , an immensely active and acute , though not profound , intellect , and writing in the easy , brilliant , paradoxical way so popular in France , became the political and literary champion of the reaction , while M . de Boxald , devoted more to abstract pursuits , and fond of metaphysical refinements that often indeed impede the free action of his naturally powerful mind , undertook the defence of authority from the philosophic side . Each congratulated himself on the successful result of his labours , M . de Bonald , in particular , evidently
believing that by his celebrated theory of traditionalism he had overthrown , m the most unanswerable way , the claims of free inquiry , and finally established the principle of authority over every department of thought and life . Nevertheless , the great cause for which they thus contended is already lost . How , indeed , could it be otherwise ? How is it possible , with any logical chevauxde-frise , however cunningly fashioned , to keep back the rising tide of free opinion ? It must advance equally against the authority of the monarch of thought who ' would stay its progress--the Casxjte-upon the shore—and the senile fury of the unreasoning bigot-the Mrs . Partington of opinion—who stands on the margin , broom " in hand , angrily beating back the waves . The riews of Bonald and Maistre , which , even during their lifetime , made little real progress beyond the circle of their own followers , are now abandoned by the Church in whose interest they were advanced ; the leading opponents of traditionalism , Father Chastbl and the Abbe Maret , being both ecclesiastics
of ability , position , and influence . This singular ecclesiastical reaction in favour , if not of rationalism , at least of the rights of reason and free inquiry against the exclusive pretensions of authority , forms the subject of two able papers by M . de BAuusat in the cur . rent numbers of the Revue des Deux Mondes . The heading of these papers is Traditionalisme , a term which M . de Rkmvsat employs to designate in general the ideas and arguments , the whole polemic , in fact , of all who m philosophy , politics , or religion , tend to exclude the free use of reason ; the first article being devoted to M . de Bonald , who may fairly be taken as the ablest and most consistent representative of the class . Certainly , in his iugenious theory touching the origin of language , he has carried the principle of
authority to the utmost possible extreme . According to this theory , tradition is the one key that explains all the mysteries of human science and human life . The essence of his theory , which is , however , not always clearly seized or consistently kept in view even by himself , is as follows : AH knowledge , all science and art , all law and government , all human life , in fact , depend on thought—thought depends on language , which is of divine origin , being in fact originally communicated to man directly from his Maker , and thus a divine tradition . In tho nature of the case , man can never discover or invent anything , his very reason being the result of tradition—lie thinks only on authority . This doctrino at once settles all the central questions over agitated by philosophers or divines . It decides in tho simplest manner
the philosophic question touching tho origin of knowledge . This must not bo looked for in sense or understanding , in reason or experience , the true source of all science being trndition . It settles tho fundamental question of politics touching the origin of government and the aourco of power , which is not to bo found amongst tho nobles or the pooplo , but cvor resides in an individual , who holds it in virtue of a divine tradition , and is himself tho embodiment or representative ) of the divine authority . All government is thus theocratic . Tho theory obviously deoidqs all religious questions in tho saino way , religion being in fact simply a tradition which tho Church preserves und you accent . To talk about tho excroiso of reason in any department of intellectual or moral activity , is in faot simply an absurdity . A reaction from such an extreme view was obviously
inevitable , though we should hardly have oxpeoted it to proceed in tho first instance from tho Church horsolf . Tho recent philosophical roprosoutatives of Catholicism , however , taking a more profound view of tho whole question , have decided that their prodoccsaOra , in their zeal to provo the qaso to tho utmost , proved too much . In their anxiety to destroy everything but tho Church , tho Churoh itaolf did not escape—they undermined tho very ground on whioli fc ' joy stood . If reason is destroyed , there is nothing to which the Churoh can appeal , no foundation on which it onn build . Accordingly , Father Cuastju ,
at the outset of his work , De la Valeur de la Raison , a temperate , butj at the same time , spirited and philosophical attack on the whole doctrine of Traditionalism , says pertinently that M . deBonald's views leave to society no alternative between blind fanaticism and hopeless scepticism . He undertakes to vindicate the outraged rights of reason , and in doing so exposes , without pity , the numberless self-contradictions and paralogisms running through M . de Bonaxd ' s witings . The Abbe * Maret helps forward the same work in his Philo & ophk et Religion ; and as his fellow-labourer opposes Bonald chiefly on philosophic grounds , so the Abbe" attacks him on the side of authority , proving that the very tradition which is with him the test of truth , contradicts the leading propositions of his system . The second article , devoted to M . de Maistre and the recent works of Ids powerful opponent , M . Bordas Demoulin , we cannot attempt to analyze , but would earnestly recommend both to the attention of all who arc interested in the progress of religious and philosophical thought .
Two Dignitaries Of The Second Empire Hav...
Two dignitaries of the Second Empire have lately been lost to France—M Vieillard , the old and early friend of Louis Napoleon , and M . de Pastoket , who after having served for years as tutor and guardian to the Comte de Cham - jj okd , accepted , with a mysterious suddenness , the pay and trappings of a Napoleonic Senator , to the disgust ami surprise of all honourable Legitimists . A . veteran member of the French . Academy , now lying dangerously ill , on hearing of these two deaths , exclaimed , Ah ! mon Dieu , je rais mourir corume Notre Seigneur , entre deux larrons .
Romany Rye. The Romany Rye: A Seqtiel To...
ROMANY RYE . The Romany Rye : a Seqtiel to Lavcnyro . By George Borrow , Author of ' TheBible in Spain , ' & c . & c . 2 vols . Murray . Mr . Borrow is perfectly justified in making war upon gentility , since he is unquestionably the most unconventional writer of the present-age . Theobjeets of his special detestation are the Pope ami the critics , and he attacks both after the most ferocious fashion . What he says of his Holiness is considerably too Ion" to be quoted , and so , indeed , is bis opinion of the critics ; hut when he comes to speak of the manner in which he would like to dispose oi them , he has a pretty little passage which . we think worth extracting : he will hold them up , he says , "by their tails , wriggling , blood andionn streaming from their broken juws . " In these classical expressions . Mr Borrow does nothing more however , than express his disgust for those
, who find fault with his books . It is an extremely offensive practice , and we quite sympathize with Mr . Borrow—or , rather , we should if . he were not so well able to defend himself . ; The object of The Romany Rj / e it is extremely difficult to discover . It appears to be part of a narrative winch , will probnby never be terminated , till Lavengro has solved the gveftt problem , whether he has a soul or not . Every now and then , two or three volumes will make tfieir avatar in this world of critics , to whom they will reveal nil that Mr . Borrow may have in the meantime discovered about the genesis of popery . We like his fancy of deriving bis Holiness iroin the Dalai Lama . But he nttnhntPfl t . n Rml . lhiani an anticiuitv which its most celebrated I alapoins do not
claim for it . In fact , it is only the reformed religion ot llnidoston . About six hundred years before Christ , Brahmamsm was nearly stifled beneath mountains of rites and ceremonies , fables and legends . Buddha , the Luther of northern India , entered Ins protest against the corrupt system ; and introduced a religion far more purc and humane than that which it undertook to overthrow . Mr . Borrow , Wever , is extremely hostile to reformed Hindooism , because he believes the I ' ope and the Cardinals to have been given by it to the West . While he is in great strength upon tins topic , he introduces a concise dissertation on the word Amen , which he derives from the Hindoo formula , Omani Vatsiklioui . Tins strong y rern . mls usot Voltaire ' s epigram , in which he show * how Altuna came from Lquus . We should have thought it more rational to derive Amen from the Arabic word
Amccn ; that is , Have niurcy on us ! ' . But enough of this . There arc very capita scenes in the bootbotwee the hero and gipsies . Tho author has it good deal of hll" 10 u , ' ^ ° ' J of which he often makes us laugh . His very . pWjud . ceB render , mjn - ing . He hates the Scotch excessively , which i * surprising , co isulonnghut they generally sympathize with him in his detestation of he be or « l Woman . It is Skid thatT the sound of a bagpi p e would put . the wh o « J ""^^ dimils to fli « ht oven if St Peter himself were in the nmlst ol nun , b » thoroughly fsevoo-thing connected with North Britain detested o » theb . nb of the Tiber . B , il perhaps Mr . Borrow is joa ous of ho boo * » " , «! « pi lilt ? Jiiuur . jJUb iiuuiu is * . * .. ~~ -- , # -- ¦ - ir , v . ii ,,, riir hn ( rives that it hi Ho wovej 1 . 0 »
the Pope , and has a suspicion goes beyond * own . , o us the genealogy of his dislike ; Scott ' s novels diCfu . edu tiwtefo Jutob u songs , tho « ng ? ng of which revived n pu-ualily for tlio Jacobite- liomstl i who , after the apostasy of James II ., went over m droves to t Vaton This wo take to be a very philosophical reason for hating ° ^ °%£ [<> name be-ins with Mac , or who has oven breakfasted on <) lltn ^\ L ^ their tho Scotch , Mr . Borrow most detests tho Germans Ho know n f ^^ literature , in which he finds no poem worth mentioning e f «; ' \ . j J We four that Mr . Borrow knows a great deal too much . Loi kw ti he will , some fragments of his nmltiniriius knowledge st u t * i pi > minrl ' snvo . nnd lends him like a Will-o ' -the-wisp away front his i urn 1
Welsh , Irish , Spanish , Chinose-all tongues are familiar to him . ' ho became a polyglot bv reading nil sorts ol translations of t . hoI . j * , ; s » ny rate , many tongues no has , which wo Bincoroly rcgre a co 1 would bo mucii pleasanter if his vngariui . were res trio to H »«» ( , ^ nor of our own dinlJot . Still , to read Mr . Borrow » to bo often amuw , Q > ( annoyed , and sometime * disgusted . Ho has ivgi *« ftt d < 3 » , ^ ' 7 , uurivl great deal more vanity . It is thin latter quality th t nukesi »» ^ with the critics and the newspapers . If ho Iwul tlio lon » t notion <») a ho would admit that they have just ns much right to laugh ^ at M * j ( , aa ho has to enlarge upon theirs . Wo hold that nowspapois aie ver ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 30, 1857, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30051857/page/16/
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