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    584 THE LEADER. [Satub ]

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    A QUEER STORY. Moredun: a Talc qfthe Twe...

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    The Church Asd Phh.Osoph* » Fsance. Uegl...

    his nostrils , but the Spirit to whom he turned them . We suppose the rudest Poly- _nesian islander regards with profounder veneration the black , unchiselled , eyeless idol to which he bows _do-vm , than the wisest and mightiest chieftain he knows : the one holds of the unseen and the infinite , the other he can look upon , and examine , and compass in his thought ; to the one he may look in the day of battle , of the other he will think in the shadow of the thunder-cloud ; the one he will respect and obey , the other alone will he worship . Immediately afterwards he adds a consideration which naturally presented itself : — But we think we hear some one indignantly exclaim , Why , in the first place , all this is the extreme o / triteness ; and , m the second , Mr . Carlyle , by his doctrine of _iero-worship , means _reaUy _nothmgmore . This is honestly said . Mr . Bayne , we see , contends that the hero was a mere interpreter between man and his God : never important enough to be the object , strictly , of worship himse f . The Carlylian , however , would reply , You confound the philosophers perception of the relation with the relation as apprehended at the tune by the worshippers themselves . Just let us conceive the conditions of the early races of mankind and then try to suppose them _drawing this distinction of yours ! " In his well-known " Lectures" on the subject Mr . Carlyle is careful to show that the " Hero as God" is the very earliest form of the worships ; and students of the subject _yould do well to keep the order of time in remembrance and not to con- found the modified worship of an Alexander with the worship of _anOdm , of a Hercules , or the like . We know that for all practical purposes Napoleon could command a degree of devotion to which it would be hard to deny the name of worship . Conceive a Napoleon m an age without an alphabet— among a people attaching , supernatural ideas to every wind of _^ eaven , to the thunder and the cloud , to the cave , the forest , and the sea . Would not he concentrate this vague religious emotion , and so help them to that very idea of unity which we are told by our author they felt independent of him ? As far back as we can see into the mists of time immense personalities are the earliest things visible Heaven is peopled by human figures , ruling there in subordinated ranks . Tradition says that Hercules was admitted into heaven —that Romulus was admitted into heaven . How came mankind ever to shape such notions ? Even as an interpreter , the hero did so much that , m its effect upon history , the worship of him was the same as if he had been worshipped plainly and directly as God If Mahomet ' s followers had thought him a mere man , it is incredible that they should have accepted on h » authority what we see they did accept . Yet the phenomenon of his career belongs to a comparatively modern epoch . To some such effectas th _. _s , we say , the follower of the Hero-worship doc- trme would reply to Mr . Bayne . Nay , more he would credit his favourite principle with the results which Mr . Bayne claims for his own creed Mr . Bayne directs our attention to the noble career of a Christian Chalmers , which all men respect But every doctrme he preached was known , as well as the arithmetical table , before his time , and was ( and is ) ineffectually preached every day Be gave his great personality to these doctrines , and hundreds felt them to have become quite new and living for them Here was Hero- worship in one of its forms . Every thinker knows that God is God , and .. I v ¦ _% . T » _i _.-i / -i _i i- . ., . . 7 ¦» . the best Hero only a man .--the Carlylian insists that _^ through great men £ _E _S _7 « J _^ * f _** _" _" _******'> and that m certam _h _» t <> rlcal P « "ods he _uasscooa lor _uroa _ozmseif . We have stated all this , not to impose the doctrine dogmatically upon our _, -u . _.- _> . _i _* V _•^• . _iTVr fc T > , J _^ readers , but that people may see how ineffectual Mr . Bayne s reasoning „_ ij -k i- a' i » » , i nil tm * * -ii _i _i would be in converting a disciple of Mr . Carlyle . That it will be welcome . _„ ., ,. j s _r . % _i ¦ vi a' » ., , , . _t to the ordinary crowd ( who feel , in reality , nothing of the heart-warmth of either doctrine , and who only want an " answer " in" aid of their impo- tence ) isvery probable . But we are much mistaken if such a success would be sufficient for the aspirations of Mr . Bayne . To deal critically with the whole of the book , however , would be to write an essay on the mental condition of the age . We have Mr . Bayne versus Carlyle ; Philanthropy versus Satire ; Christianity versus Pantheism ; Instinct _vlsus Positivism f all the great questions earnestly , if not always ably , handled . Mr . Bayne is an impressive writer ; and—a fact which alone would prove him no ordinary man—he is thoroughly imbued with a relish for Carlyle without aping hfs manner . It is indeed chiefly his feeling of the importance of _Carlyle ' _s influence which seems to have spurred him on to write the book . We think it a pity however that he did not restrict himself to some one subject and exhaust it , instead of throwing himself headlong as he has done into the troubled ocean of thought . _^ _The ability with which the biographies are written leads us to expect much from Mr . Bayne when he devotes himself to a task to which he is really equal ; and considering the many merits of his work , we should be sorry to find that the controversial chapters in the first and third parts interfere with the popularity which the main body of his book justly deserves . _^ . ~~~

    584 The Leader. [Satub ]

    584 THE LEADER . [ Satub ]

    A Queer Story. Moredun: A Talc Qfthe Twe...

    A QUEER STORY . Moredun : a Talc _qfthe Twelve Hundred and Ten . By W . S _. Sampson Lowe and Son . The one very doubtful claim of this book to the special attention of the public has been adroitly enough mentioned in tho advertisements it is ** ascribed to Sir Walter Scott . " Tho story , by which an effort is made to justify this ascription , wont the round of tho papers a few months back . Some of our readers may not have seen it ; some may have forgotten it . Before we say a word on tho subject of the book , therefore , it may be as well to recapitulate tho main points of thevery extraordinary narrative which has ushered it into tho world . The story being a little intricate , and extending over a considerable space of time , we will , for the sake of clear- nesa and brevity , present it , with some of the critical consequences which it has produced , in a dramatic form . Let us begin with the Persona of the Drama . These are : — Sir Wai / _teh Scott and his daughter , Miss Annb Scoxx An Eudem . y German Monomaniac . Thus _Eldbrmt German Monomaniao ' h Widow and Daugiitkr . Monsieur E . be Saint _Mauiuoe Cahant—A credulous French Gentleman . Messrs . Sampbon Lowb & Son—Two cautious London Publishers .

    Disbelieving Friends of Sir Walter Scott . Disbelieving Critics of the "Athenaeum" newspaper . The Converted Sceptic of the " Journal des De'bats . " The Ditto Ditto of the "Daily Hews . " properties A _Wr _^ _M-desk . A heap of MSS . A Letter ' addressed to « W . S . » u _-yr . s . scene . Partly in _England and partly in France . The Firgt Acfc b ins about tne year 18 lg gir Walter Scott ha ( e | fch _j . de fe fo _^ Qr ft 1 Jttle Jter _^ blication of Waverl ¦ _^ . _^ _^^ When { f . ig don hQ ig n £ satisfied with it _^ hurt hJs reputation . resolves not to publish it . What does he do manuscrip _^ under these circumstances ? Lock it up ?—No . Tear Nq _> He _K gives it to his daughter ! This is the great effect of the ] Thevery fast thmg , iadies ° nd gentlemen , which any man with a gense in _^ _- g head w ° ould think of _^ with a iece o _£ work _wnIch be unworth of him ; s exactly the thing which we represent that _< d eminently prilcticai man , Sir Walter Scott , as having do : _^ fche d cene _faU _, amid general astonishment . The Se _% ond Acfc carries ufon to the r 1825 The scene _^ elderl German monOmaniac appropriately engaged on " statistic and _^ irieg _> ,, He is assisted in his occupations by M . Cabany , tl loug F _^ ench entleman and hero of the play . The monomaniaca Jnto statistic _^ has one interesting and pardonable weakness— h < Walt Scott and is dying to become the possessor of one of Walt manuscripts _ l nay , it is even reported among his friends that he _^ _^ _£ nlesg h _*> wigh . g _^ _^^ While things are in this critica the pec _^ iary affairs of ou _° elderly friend become involved , his « _, . n u _^ ries » h _£ vi apparently not led him as far as his own accou : H _^ s rt * { _J wreck \ his beart is broken : he fa unable t Q ba _£ _{ _^ Buf . he hag eserved a wr iting-desk ; and , it m _^ he ointg mvsteriously to it , and , with " a melancholy _sn hJs faitllful P assistan _£ « This Is all I have to leave you ; but it durable _memorial than any sum I could have bequeathed to n fellow . labourer in the fieid of statistical inquiries . " With these v venerable monomaniac dies , and his widow _iSd daughter depart for ( k - ? writi desk wi _' th them . M . Cabany _» ffers 11 O _oppositi _= laim hig _fe does ive ifc J much as ft _^ cond d v _unsuspecting , as the widow and daughter go their . 8 _writing-desk ? P Hush ! The drop-scene fauVto slow musi Ei _, rht . aud _ t # entv years are suppoSed to elapse ; and the curtair fc _^ M . Cabany discovered . Our credulous French g _r . _& w _^ . now G _^ Director of the % Record . Keeper 3 of France , and Directing Editor-in-Chief of the 1 P ( N _& rologt ) for the ° Nineteenth Century . O the S month of September-for there is nothing like being particulai f . _dficovery-a box arrives for _° M . Caban ° y ! It con * ,, ... n f _f A . _rp _, „ _,, _o _^^ / _^^ r _, o _^ fn / _i u , r „ i , memorable _writing-desk ol Act Iwo ; and is accompanied by a le _< _£ ceased mono D maniac's daughter . The letter explains that the taken £ _eight-and-twenty > _° ears ago by mistake , and that it we b b k fc b t f t ] writer ' s fears that _; t mign , ,, , " u * i * _i r _« a _* . _>^* valuable _enousrh to be worth the expense oi carnage . A relat : " _«" . « = . . v o ever , _happening to visit Paris , has taken charge of the desk , and c , ' / ] - , _^ , e .. _r ' n ¦ , P & i ' _f _> fortunate inheritor oi it irom all need ot payinsc so much as a iai « . _«"" i < = < - _^ . 7 « . . , _^ rnagc expenses . M . Cabany , a little surprised at receiving the c an interval of twenty-eight years , opens it and pulls out first collection of Royalist tracts 1 he next article is a packet of man . _£ e examines it- merciful Heaven ! do his eyes deceive him ? Is Record-Keeper of Franco and Head Registrar of the Dead ai the I Century-or has he become a raving maniac ? No ! a thousand t _« e , ls stlU 1 D »? "S ht _se"sf' and he has actual _y found , n the old des A k an unpublished novel by Sir Walter Scott !! _> ,. Act r , oui : I s , V shercd m by warlike music M . Cabany has mad h _' s wonderful discovery , and has committed himself to al « rench tr of the treasure of fiction found in the old writing-desk _Disbehevin of Sir Walter Scott , and disbelieving critics ot the Athcuarum beg troublesome questions directly . How did the elderly German moi get possession of themanusenpt ? to begin with . —He got it m lb 20 _, ? Jr r ' William Spencer , the once fashionable song-writer of London s What prool?—l lie monomaniacs own conversation . lie was fo ma ' of talking about getting a manuscript from Scott , through . " » fact , ho said he had got it . But we did not believe lam then , Cabany . —Nor do we now ( cry the opposite faction ) . Any other proo a letter in a handwriting like Scott ' s , addressed to W . S . and on ! W . S . ; but , of course , one must mean William Spencer , and the othc Scott ; and ( also of course ) nothing could be more natural than great novelist , at u period of his life when ho was ruined , and whei was of the greatest possible importance to him , should give away , hu _* ° r anonymous publication for a stranger ' s benefit , a manuscript _^ might have published anonymously himself for his own benefit . — Nc ifc ! shout the enemy . Walter Scott never wrote that letter ; Wall WftS the last man on earth to act as it represents him to liavc actt 8 _ides , we were in his confidence , and wo deny that he ever wrote i _novtJi as you have published . —You were not in his confidence , know nothing about it ! cries M . Cabany . —Your book is an impos _J ° ' n the critics of the Athenaeum and the friends of Walter Scott . — ure _aU a m ° _k of scurvy unbelievcra , retorts M . Cabany . Thereupoi buttle ensues , M . Cabany , tho converted sceptic of the J )< Jbat . _s , and _duloua brother of the Daily News , on one side—the diabelioving » ind critics on the other . Both sides claim tho victory , and the _scei w > th a valiant resolution on tho part of M . Cabany to renew tho I English ground . Of Act Five , one scene only has , as yet , been played out . The cui risen and has disclosed our two cautious London publishers , Messrs . > . Lowo and Son , advancing very gingerly to the front of the stage , c

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1855, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/sldr_16061855/page/8/