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its reasonableness . For if , as we have seen , there is an expenditure of mental cnergv in the mere act of listening to verbal articulations , or in that silent repetition of them which goes on in reading—if the perceptive faculties must be in active exercise to identify every syllable—then any mode of combining words so as to present a regular recurrence of certain traits which the mind can anticipate , will diminish that strain upon the attention required by the total irregularity of prose . In the same mliiner that the body , in receiving a series of varying concussions , must keep the muscles ready to meet the most violent of them , as not knowing when such may come ; so the mind in receiving unarranged articulations must keep its perceptives active enough to recognise the least easily caught sounds . And as , if the concussions recur in a definite order , the body may husband its forces by adjusting the resistance needful for each concussion ; so , if the syllables be
rhy thmically arranged , the mind may economize its energies by anticipating the attention required for each syllable . Far-fetched as this idea will perhaps be thought , a little retrospection will countenance it . That we do take advantage of metrical language to adjust our perceptive faculties to the force of the expected articulations , is clear from the fact that we are balked by halting versification . Much as at the bottom of a flight of stairs , a step more or less than we counted upon gives us a shock , so , too , does a misplaced accent or a supernumerary syllable . In the one case , we know that there is an erroneous pre-adjustment ; and we can scarcely doubt that there is one in the other . But if we habitually pre-ddjust our perceptions to the measured movement of verse , the physical analogy lately given renders it probable that by so doing we economize attention ; and hence that metrical language is more effective than prose , simply because it enables us to do
this . " The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin is characterized in a sparkling paper , doing it justice while pointing out its intrinsic mediocrity . In the opening remarks on satire generally there are assertions which if put less conversationally would " make us pause , " but being more like " after dinner talk" than literary history we may let them pass . The next articles are Goethe as a Man of Science , little likely to be read we fear by those who are not interested in Comparative Anatomy , and The Profession of Literature , apropos to a review of Jerdan's Autobiography —an article which has the serious drawback—perhaps inevitable—of saying over again , at greater length , what has already been said by Jerdan's reviewers . It is , however , a well-written , well-reasoned article ; and the position assigned to
Literature is the true one . There is one more article—besides the customary surveys of English , American , German , and French Literature—and that is on the hackneyed subject of the Duke of Wellington , which meets us everywhere now , from Colburn ' s United Service Magazine to Fraser and Blackwood . The Duke , the Duke , and nothing but the Duke ! Mr . Bentl . ey reprints in his Shilling Series the account of the Battle of Waterloo by Professor Creasy ' s Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World , and reprints , with additions from the French papers , the Life of the Duke which appeared in the Daily News . Longmans reprint the Life from the Times . Mr . Boiin issues Maxwell's Lif e in three forms . Mr . Booth re-issucs his History of the Battles of Ligny , Quatre Bras , and Waterloo . In fact , the Wellington Literature just now needs an enterprising man to catalogue it—not Mr . Panizzi .
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Some few weeks ago a manuscript was left with the doorkeeper of the Gym-nose Theatre , in Paris , which on inspection proved to be a comedy bearing the title La Puriare de Jules Denis . It was read , produced a most favourable impression , was put in rehearsal , when suddenly it became necessary to find out who the author was . No name , no address , no indication had been given . Rehearsals went on , and hopes were universal that the author would conic forward and claim his work . No one appeared . At length the manager was forced to put an advertisement in the papers , and then the happy writer avowed herself—for a lady , young , da beau , mon . de , unknown to literature , is the author after all ! The piece is to be performed this week , and from the very originality of its presentation we augur success . ( jOETiiio says it is easier to weave laurel crowns than to find heads worthy to be crowned , vet this is the first time that managers have had to m / .-nrrf . isr for the head !
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It may interest some of our invaders , especially the admirers of that admirable ami orig inal American novelist , Nathaniel Hawthorne , to bear that he has just published a life of his old college " chum , " and Ktcdlasl . friend through * fe , Franklin Pierce , whom the Liberal hopes would carry into the President , ' * chair , and thus bring us one slop nearer to tin ; desired end—the An <; lo-Am khican Alliance . Till' : RESTORATION OV \ i 1 ) 1 ADV . The 'Restoration of Uet ' ief . Purl , II . On the Kiipcnmttint ! Ml mini t eoii / tiined in , the . Kpistles , ttmi its Uear ' mtf on the An / itmnit . Mminillim arid (!<> . To restore Belief- —i . e ., belief in Christianity—to its once dominant and
Hineere position in the mind of Kurope , is , on ( he lace of it ., an impossible attempt ; lor the belief which has onee died out docs not revive again under the Hume form . We shall as noon see Feudalism once more the organization of society . Hut under whatever Conn Uelief is possible to be restored , there is one imperative and primary condition jillixed to every attempt at ivh ( oral ion- ¦ - ¦¦ viz ., a , sincere sing le-hearted candour in lacing Disbelief--a righteous and manful conlest wilh the enemy . . Skimiinhiiitf with outposts and stra ^ lin ^ companies will tf ain no victory . Let Christianity have its Waterloo . .
. .. .. , The readers of this journal are perfectly uwa . ro that we earnestly denire 1 o see the battle fought by the Church with all her infill .. It is not the nriny of Disbelief that shirks an encounter . And when first the Cambridge , manifesto was announced , we welcomed it in no m ^ ard terms , hoping that , the writer of so ambitious a work would , at ; least , do something towards bringing the <] ue « tion info opon iield . Our notice ol the
First Part courteously abstained from any severe inquiry as to the main purport of the argument ; the preliminaries we allowed the author to settle at his own pleasure , and we were content to await his further and more precise exposition , in the hope that we should meet with precision . To Part the Second we looked for the opening of serious warfare ; and the opening sentence seemed to promise a fulfilment : — " We are told that Christianity must be content to take its place along with many indeterminate questions , which are , and which should be spoken of among reasonable men as ' matters of opinion / " I deny this allegation ; and I take my position , with all humility , yet fearlessly , on tliis opposite ground , namely : that , if those modes of proceeding which have been authenticated as good in other cases , are allowed to take effect in this case , nothing in the entire round of human belief is more infallibly sure than is Christianity , when it claims to be—Religion , given to Man by God .
" The same proposition , stated exceptively , may be thus worded . Christianit y can be held in question only by aid of violence done to established principles of reasoning , and by contempt ' of the laws of evidence , which , in all cases analogous to this are enforced . " After language so confident , coming from so accomplished a writer , our disappointment is not easily to be expressed , without departing from that courtesy we are anxious not to overstep . Yet , in all seriousness , we must assure the author , that the effect of his treatise on our minds was that of what the French call an immense mystification . As to any human soul struggling with doubts being guided and enlightened by such reasoning as mav here be met , the supposition seems preposterous . Minds of a weak
and casuistic cunning , no less than minds ot an acquiescent , sheep-like nature , easily drawn after a confident assertion , and silenced by a bold denial , may be delighted with this elegantly-worded web of sophistry . But minds of energetic temper—men looking with sincere directness at questions of immense importance , will feel that they are played with , if not mocked , by this oily incompetence and this shifty logic . They might grant—for the sake of argument—nearly everything the writer asks , short of the fundamental assumption , and not be moved an inch from their position . Judge : — , n-i i' v " addicted to and imposing preliminary
The author—who is graceful flourishes , which occupy him more than a direct mind will find agreeable —sets forth with some parade the distinction between matters which are simply adhesive to history , and matters which are cohesive : the formeras some of the facts related by Herodotus—admit of removal without destroying the integrity of the history ; but with the latter , such a removal is not possible : — " Wherever the tie is of this kind , an attempted separation of the two masses touches the life , and we should look well to the consequences before we set about it I affirm that , in the instance of the canonical documents of Christianity , the connexion of the historic mass with the supernatural , is a case of cohesion , and
that it is absolutely indissoluble . " Having asserted that the supernatural clement in the Gospel narrative is a case of cohesion , he has an easy task of it : —
" The course of argument , therefore , in relation to Christianity must be tins : — In behalf of it , it should be shown , first—That the alliance of the historical and the supernatural which it oilers to our view is not an instance ot mere adhesion , but of indissoluble cohesion . . . " We must then show that , unless violence is to be done to every principle which is applicable to the occasion , the conglomerate cannot be cast aside , us unsubstantial , or as destitute of value ; inasmuch as the historical portion is ot indisputable- validity : —it is sure , if any tiling be sure /' What think you of this as the deliberately occupied position of a man who undertakes to face Disbelief ? If the narrative is true , the miracles arc true , because they art ) cohesive with the narrative—•* . ., Jorm a \ uii > of it . If there is any truth in the history of Matthew Hale , then , inasmuch as the supernatural clement of witchcraft' coheres' with ( Hat history . lllUCll un MIL HUllU ' ii' * '" - " uiymi-m . wi •»* . « . i »» .- — in narrative ol Hw
witchcraft is a truth ! If there is any truth the -J Diaz , then , is the appearance of St . James on a white horse leading ic Spaniards to victory ( our recollection of this miraculous appearance is uhazy—perhaps the reader will supply the precise details lor Iiunsdi al to lie accepted , because it coheres with the narrative . We might pio vo anything hv evidence of this kind . . ., , The jugglery by which this author amuses his readers is painful U one conies to examine it . He talks , with all the emphasis ol type o t £ Pauline sty le as an historic kkamtv , and rnigs the changes 01 ¦ word history , without stopping to specify what history , what rca # one doubts " that St . Paul lived uixl wrote . Tlmt's history J ' . ^ in : Did St . Paul write that whieh is true V Whcu he talks < avm , performed miracles , arc we to believe hi . nf Yes , answers on' "J ; /;„• the miraculous is cohesive with the historical , and ii y <> " 1 . ¦<• } you must reject both . This is so solid a pos . t . on ac-cord . ng to ini , ¦ " he boldly rests the claim of Christianity upon its basis : he sets in . i
-Nor do we now touch any question as to the alleged Imhi mhatu > n ¦ ,,, « Htl « s , or of any other books of the Canon . We are often told that w . ¦ ^ bold up this -Inspiration" as a seven , lest the documents -of our > » J . ^ ,,,. , „ . ! ,. to be dealt with severely , in the mode that is proper to h'st ">< ^ . ^ Only let this Historic , Severity lake its free course , and P . sbel . ei will _ . „ ,.,, fm . ; . its last standing-plnce . It is m . y perfect persuasion that , in U « ' ( , i ||() . position of the Christian argument , the < Uri .. e of the 1 ^ '' "' AT . on I ^ . ^ „! ,,, ! | MM , kH is of more importance , in a logical Hens ,-, to Dinhelicf than "" "If every one of the Canonical books of the New Tes ! ... n . e . i . t--- ^^^ l ^ iu behalf of which Inspiration is alleged , had perched , him . 1 not r-. r (!| ,. l ,,, for « us but the uninspired documents of Chrisfiamfy - ( those ol 1 , <• ^ ^ J ||() fury ) I must still be u Christian , although I should oiten be at " ";• ., . „„ ,,,, t Hiu ih , items of n , y Creed . 15 ,, ! , now if the Canonical wr . ^ J 1 ,, ;„ . < MHi < lenMl were dealt with in the historic mode , without , » re | .. < lu e
,, helief would wither like the gniHS of the fioj . ie . s . " ^ , „ It would bo a vain attempt , in any number « f 1 U ) WB J ^ J" ^ ^ ii » U examine in detail the historic value of the Uonpol narrative , und *
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950 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1852, page 950, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1954/page/18/
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