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The Oxford Commemoration is the literary event of this week ; although , except in its associations , one cannot attach much literary importance to it . Oxford is * with all her iaults , dearto England ; and fills _ a' large ¦ space , in English History , although she retains too much of her mediseyal constitution , and still in some respect deserves the name Giordano Bruno wittily gave her , "la vedova di buone lettere—the widow of sound learning . " Giordano had reason for his contempt . When , in 1583 , he was there , holding public disputation with her doctors , her statutes set forth that the Bachelors and Masters of Arts who did not faithfully follow Aristotle , were liable to a fine of five shillings for every point of divergence , or for every
fault committed against the .. * Organon . Those were the days when Pedantocracy was in the plenitude of its power . Yet there is a noble aspect even to this , as indeed to every form of life , if we but contemplate it from the right side . Those days of learning-worship , the extravagancies of which may raise a smile , are not so unfavourably contrasted with our days of cotton-worship . If Aristotle was rashly thought to have exhausted Science , his aims , at least , were grander , and his wisdom more becoming " men who strove with gods , " than the aims and wisdom of Mr . JVI'Crowdey Cotton , the great manufacturer . They " lionized" great men in those
days , as in ours ; but they did not think that worship was best shown by asking the great man " to breakfast / ' or by " getting-up a dinner at the club !" Apropos of this , we may place here the mot of our great sarcastic philosopher—the Ezekiel , of this age—to whom some one was uttering the commonplace , that if Christ were to appear again , again would he be crucified . "No , sir ; they would not crucify him . They would make a lion of him , and ask Urn to dinner . Fashionable London would have cards of invitation , To meet Our Saviour ! " There is terrible sarcasm in that wit . Though one might reasonably reply , < c What then ? does this not show that we have become more humane and social ? " Follies and fashions are
straws that show the direction of the wind . And the great satirist of our follies and fashions—Thackeray—where is he ? In Italy . His novel is finished at last , and he is away to drink his beaker full of the warm South : "^ i bit of gossip we hope you will be grateful for . Here are two other bits : a cheap edition of Alton Locke is about to appear , and with it a new romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne , a romance of our day , wherein the experiences of that illustrious little knot of Communists at Brook Farm will furnish materials . Dana , Curtis , and Hawthorne , were of them ; Margaret Fuller and Emerson were more or less connected with them . Does that not excite your expectation ?
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To a very large circle of our readers , it will be of intense interest , to hear that Auguste Comte has just issued the second volume of his Politique Positive , embracing Social Statics . A mere indication of its chapters will suggest its importance : 1 st . General Theory of Religion , or the Positive Theory of Human Unity ; 2 nd . Sociological Appreciation of the Human Problem , from whence the Positive Theory of Property ; 3 rd . Positive Theory of the Family ; 4 th . Positive Theory of the Social Organism ; 5 th . Positive Theory of Language ; 6 th . Positive Theory of Social Existence systematized by the Priesthood ; 7 th . Positive Theory of the General Limits of Variation of which Order is susceptible .
Although it will be in vain to attempt a thorough appreciation of this volume without a previous preparation in the Positive Philosophy , yet no one can even carelessly glance at its contents without being struck with the largeness and elevation of his scheme . On that all-important point , Religion , we venture to say none but those who , on the one hand , permit no , divergence from the dogmatic orthodoxy , and those who , on the other , permit no religious teaching at all , will rise from this work without being filled with gratitude to this great thinker . Comte clearly sees that Religion is the fundamental all-embracing bond of human life ; and in his scheme wo see Science , Art , and Politics naturally range themselves in due
order . If we set aside certain dogmas and their collateral applications , we shall find in jtl ' iis Positive Religion the essence of Christianity , both as regards this life ami the future . What , indeed , is its watchword , Vivre en autrvii , but another expression of St . Jqiin ' h , " Love one another ? " What is its subordination of the intellect to the heart , but the Christian predominances of the moral and human point of view ? What is its tolerance and charity ; and what its vindication of the true position of Woman , but Christianity as advancing civilization has gradually modified it ? We point to these essential agreements for the sake of calling , the attention of philosophic Christians to the . harmony of Positivism w . ^ th their own scheme so soon us tl » c dogmatic and transcendental portions are <» iminAted ;
And we point to them also as a striking illustration of the Influence of 1 Woirian" —perhaps the most striking that can bo named . Here is a man , i | M * d ^ lRilfy of the highest ; intellect , not ; a poet , not a lhith whose habits and » ^ ^ Jt ^ qfijI ^ ntSigH predisposed him to sentimental 'eccentricities ( winch might ^ SS ^ S ^ PW ^ toK ^ * " ' ^ ' ^ '"fA / iqu und 'J ) ANT ) 3 ) r but a . niun of seismic , a scjypre ,, 'rv' ^ ' ^ lLtt *!^^ lift ; is modified , deepened , | c'Uv . ngpd , l > y iUp ,, ^ influence i ( l 5 >/^' " ^^ Her love ondns to him a naw world s It , expands ; hisaa-i V *\< l \ fA Lr-rwM / Qj " ¦ ' '" ' — " '" !••¦ ' ¦>;••»•' v" *^ * X * •¦ ' ** 'tLrt '"'¦''" ¦ V i ^ "' \ i- ^^ siX * r uativai fe .
ture till his nature is capable of embracing not science alone , but the grandeur of Life . She elevates hisvmorai being , arid completes his life , enabling him to complete his philosophy . She finds hini a savant , she leaves him a Prophet ! ' . . " ' ¦ " ;\" ' . \ , "; ; . ' . ' ¦ ' . " ¦ . ' , '"¦ ' ;\ ¦ " ¦ " " ' : '¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ; •; - . '
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THE SCIENCE OF "POLITICS / J . Treatise on the MeiJiocts of ' Observation and [ Reasoning [ inPolitics . By Georco Cornewatt Lewis . 2 viols . / \ '; " ,. J . W . Parker andScm Me . Cobnewaii . Lewis has Herei aune < 3 . at producing a companion to Stuart Mill ' s JEogic , It is" to political Science yery niucli what Mill ' s work is ' to PhUosophy in general . " W'ithoutcl ^ iining any novelty , it seeks to extend to Politi c ^ those uVfetliods of Observation and ^ easonm £ ? which hitherto have been the only sure guides in physical investigation , which Comte " was tiie ^ rst to declar e in dispensable to the right investi gation of social pb . eiionieha / Mr . Cornewall Xiewis does not Here stand forth as a political teacljer , but as the teacher of ce : rtain logical canons necessary to the scientific treatment of politics .
" Our main , object , then , being to distinguish between sound and unsquncl methods of reasoning in politics , and to obtain the proper instruments of inquiry for each department of'the subject , we must first consider what value belongs to a method of reasoning , and how much assistance a logical instrument affords in the conduct of intellectual processes , such as those which are required in political dis
"A good logical method directs all pur efforts to the right end , and furnishes a compendious and well-contrived mechanism for the attainment of that end . Hence it abridges mental labour , and renders an equal amount of exertion more productive . Thus , arithmetic is the scientific method of counting . Common sense , if left to itself , could , only count unit by unit ; a process so tedious , that for large numbers it is , in general , impracticable . Arithmetic abridges the labour , by providing compendious methods , which dispense with the necessity of individual numeration . Geometry , in like manner , is the scientific method of measuring . In cases
where actual measurement is laborious and difficult , geometry furnishes an indirect method of measuring without the physical application of the rod or the tine . Scientific processes abridge intellectual labour to a far greater extent than mechanical processes abridge physical labour . Moreover , though more rapid and less wearisome , they tend to accuracy , and diminish the chances of error : thus , an arithmetical process , where the data are certain , is more likely to be correct than a result obtained by counting t whue they sometimes , as in the measurement of the heavenly spaces by geometrical methods , render it possible to arrive at results which , without their assistance , would he unattainable . "
He commences with an inquiry into the province of Politics , together with the necessary organic fitness of Man to Society ; he then examines the Division of Politics into Departments , and into the Technical Language of Politics . These preliminaries settled , he begins to consider the Methods of Observation in Politics ; he reviews the nature ^ of political facts , and the means we have > of observing them , viz . —historical records , scientific observation , positive and speculative , and observation in practical politics . Then comes the question of Experiment in Politics , the Treatment of Political History , Causation in Politics , the Determination of Positive Causes , the Assumption of False Causes , the Determination of Hypothetical Causes , and the Determination of the Positive Effects of a Political Cause , as well as of the Hypothetical Effecte . We have then chapters on Political Theory , and the Universality of Propositions ; on Partial Theories ; on Hypotheses , and on the Existence of a Science of Politics ; followed by chapters on the Art of Politics , the Application of Political Theories arid Maxims , Practical Examples and Beal Models m
Politics , Ideal Models , Political Conduct , Prediction in Politics , Fallibility of Political Practice and its Causes and Securities , and finally , on Political Progress . We are thus minute in specifying the subjects treated , in order that their great variety and importance may bo appreciated ; for we have no space to examine them in detail . The merit of the work lies there ; not in its philosophic insight , but in its laying out of the subject , and the suggestiveness consequent thereupon , Mr . Cornewall Lewis is rather a philosophical reader than a philosophical thinker . His own remarks are sensible , and sometimes valuable ; out the great value of his book , alter all , lies in its indirect influence—in its suggestiveness and its erudition . The erudition is immense , and genuine . The foot-notes , indeed , would serve as a commonplace book , so ample and varied are the quotations . But although these quotations are liberally , even fatiguingly , broug ht iorward , they have the one excellent merit of not being second-hand display . Varied as his reading is , it is not desultory or superficial .
Therefore , wo . say , this Treatise will be a welcome addition to eyex v student ' s library ' ; first , as furnishing an excellent programme of Political Logic ; and next , as furnishing , beyond many good ideas on the subject , a variety of references and quotations facilitating access to other writers . Although considerably below the standard of a Philosophic Treatise on the Methods of Politics , it is a scholarly and important publication—a good book , not a great book . i It would be easy to fill columns with good extracts , but wo must uo sparing . Hero is an admirable
DEFENCE OV ANTIQUARIAN LEAliNING . " Facts , in tho physical science ^ oithor recur in definite cycles , ns the p henomena of astronomy , of animal and vegetable lifo , and of foliation and fructi fication ; « r they recur at indeterminate intervals , an the phenomena of mechanics , optics , W » and electricity . The latter are irt many eases roproducihlo at our volition , »» ^ nil experimental phenomena . Historical facts , on fcho other hand , ( jannot bo ropr - duced . They nro not recurrent , oithor in fixed cycles , or at uncertain intervu ; but , having once happened , uro not repeated . Thoy succeed each other in an iterininable and perpetually * varying series . " Now it iH true that a physical fact in as much a complete and pnat event fl « hwfcori « d fiwsfc . For OKinnplo , tho ( Uct that at Ilomo , on tho ides of March , in u ^ year 4 A : n . o ., tho huti appeared above the horizon In the east , at a certain nioiw j » i »> as rtmcli nil event past and gono an tho fucfc tbat , on that day , Jtiliun CiwHftr w assHHirintttad hv the- Benate-house . But the physical fact of the sun ' s rising reo every diiy ; whereas fcho historical fact has never been , nor can ever be , ropoft ' . iMimmhim ' M » 'V ¦ ¦< i MMh I , j ' '• ¦ » t *
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Critics are not the legislators , but . t&e judges ana police of literatiore . They do not make laws—they interpret andtry to enforcethem . —Edinburgh Review .
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612 : \ , THE 1 . IADER , [ Satorpay ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 26, 1852, page 612, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1941/page/16/
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