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any thing like equal ability on our side so impervious to argument . There is nothing orthodoxy cannot " reconcile . " A week or two ago we saw how the North British Review tiirned the failure of the express object of the Bible—conversion of men—into a proof of its success ; its failure proved its divinity . ; it failed not because it was not good enough ( that is the cause of failure of human books ) but because it was too good . A similar facility in turning the corner of a "difficulty is visible in every chapter of Butler . We have seen some examples , let us notice one more . That Reason is competent and called upon to decide in matters of morality and evidence Butler admits ; but the admission carries no danger to him because he quietly denies that there are any things discernible in Scripture by [ Reason which can be called contradictory or immoral . There are , indeed , some ugly passages ; things which elsewhere would be grossly immoral ; he is too adroit to deny that ; but see how he turns the corner : —
« Beason can , and it ought to judge , not only of the meaning , but also of the morality and the evidence of revelation . First . It is the province of reason to judge of the morality of the Scripture ; i . e ., not whether it contains things different from what we should have expected from a wise , just , and good Being ; for objections from hence have been now obviated : but whether it contains things p lainly contradictory to wisdom , justice , or goodness ; to what the light of nature teaches us of God . And I know nothing of this sort objected against Scripture , (!) excepting such objections as are formed upon suppositions , which would equally conclude that the constitution of nature is contradictory to wisdom , justice , or goodness , which most certainly it is not . Indeed there are some particular precepts in Scripture given to particular persons , requiring actions which would be immoral and vicious were it not for sucJi precepts . But it is easy to see that all these are of such a kind , as that the precept changes the whole nature of the case and of the action , and both constitutes and shows that not to be unjust or immoral , which , prior to the precept , must have appeared and really have been so ; which may well
be , since none of these precepts are contrary to immutable morality . If it were commanded to cultivate the principles , and act from the spirit of treachery , ingratitude , cruelty , the command would not alter the nature of the case or of the action in any of these instances . But it is quite otherwise in precepts which require only the doing an external action : for instance , taking away the property or life of any . For men have no right to either life or property , hut what arises solely from the grant of God : when this grant is revoked , they cease to have any right at all in either ; and when this revocation is made known , as surely it is possible it may be , it must cease to be unjust to deprive them of either . And though a course of external acts , which without command would be immoral , must make an immoral habit , yet a few detached commands have no such natural tendency . I thought proper to ^ ay thus much of the few Scripture precepts , which require , not vicious actions , but actions which would have been vicious , had it not been for such precepts ; because they are sometimes weakly urged as immoral , and great weight is laid upon objections drawn from them . "
The intellectual dishonest y of this passage is painful to contemplate . When madmen slay their wives or children , and declare that God commanded thorn to do so , we pity the unhappy hallucination which takes away from the deed its criminality , but we do not consider the deed justified by morality ; and what is to prevent any man from pleading God ' a command for any " doing of an external action ? " Moreover , every one sees that upon latitude of reasoning like this there is an absolute impossibility of proving any immorality in Scripture , consequently the appeal to Reason is idle . And thus is argument useless with theologians . They pretend to court it fairly ; they parade the formulas of investigation ; they call Reason into the arena , and when Reason strikes they , tortoise like , retire within the impenetrable shell of assumption and are unharmed . Reason emphatically says that the idea of a Mediator in the theologic sense implies an essential injustice in the Creator . Butler , however , is ready with bis analogy : —
" The whole analogy of nature removes nil imagined presumption against the general notion of a Mediator between God and man . For we find all living creatures are brought into the world , and their life in infancy is preserved , by the infitrmnentality of others ; and every satisfaction of it , pome way or other , is bestowed by the like means . So that the visible government which God exercises over the ; world is by tbo instrumentality and mediation of others . And how far his invisible government bts or be not so , it is impossible to determine at all by reason . And tho supposition that part of it is so appears , to say the least , altogether as credible as the contrary . There is then no port of objection , from the light of nature , against the general notion of a mediator between God and man , considered as a doctrine of Christianity , or as an appointment in this dispensation ; since we find by experience that God does appoint mediators to be tin ; instruments of good and evil to us—tho instruments of bis justice and his mercy . "
O potent analogy , what will it not provo ! Reason , piercing through this " general notion" of " inafnimentnlity , " simply asks : Mediator for what ? Mediator to whom ? Mediator by whom ? And Theology answers : Mediator for our imperfections to tho creator of those imperfections , by himself ! In it not monstrous F God makes man imperfect , and then in his own person mediates to his own mercy Tor that imperfection ! Reduced thus to its wimple logical expression tin ; doctrine of mediation becomes ou trageous to Reason ; but Theology finds no difficulty in " reconciling " that , or anything else . Way , Butler says that there is no force in the objection thai ,
" Tho doctrine which represents man as being in a lost and fallen state in incon"intent with the divine goodness . Our answer is that oven the supposition that nof onl y man but tho wl ) ol . e creation must have been lost but for ( Joel ' s remedial inferleroiice , would not have been inconsistent wit ft God's goodness . And if ho , then much lens the former . " | t was only mercy saved creation from the wrath of its Creator ! 'jet the- reader imagine that lie places a young child of his own in a 1 'ooin full of various objects to delight him , at tho same time strictly onjoining that tho child leave the jam pot untouched , llo knows tho fondness of tho child for jam , and will be pleased if" the child have sullioient toornl streng th to resist tho temptation . That is a " trial . " Hut now fiu pposo a vory artful , pernnasivo l > oy bo allowed to join tho child , and to « xort all } u ' b eloquence and artifice in making tho child diHoboy tho
paternal command ; suppose the child to succumb to the temptation and eat the jam ; what would be the father ' s feelings ? Ungovernable wrath at the child or at the tempter P Would he disown that child and turn it into the streets , because its appetites were stronger than its sense of duty ? Add to this supposition the further supposition that the father knew beforehand how the boy would tempt his child , and how that child would succumb in spite of his " free will" and " moral responsibility , " you have then an analogy" with the scheme of Man ' s original Sin which requires a Mediator ! - - "We shall give but one more sample . It has generally been thought , by men not having " made up their minds , " that , considering the vital importance of belief in Revelation as a necessary step towards salvation , Reason would suggest the necessity of that Revelation being universal , whereas fact declares that it is partial . To Butler this is no difficulty : — " Then those who think the objection against revelation , from its light not being universal , to be of weight , should observe , that the Author of Nature , in numberless instances , bestows that upon some which he does not upon others , who seem equally to stand in need of it . Indeed , he appears to bestow all his gifts with the most promiscuous variety among creatures of the same species : health and strength , capacities of prudence and of knowledge , means of improvement , riches , and all external advantages . " Although Butler has written an elaborate Treatise , we will do his honesty the justice of doubting whether his mind ever clearly appreciated the nature and value of analogy , for in the instance just quoted , as in so many others , an ordinary logician would point out to him that , in truth , Monmouth and Macedon were of equal analogical force . God bestows health , beauty , happiness upon some and not upon others , ergo , he may be presumed to bestow eternal salvation on some and eternal damnation on others . There is no respect of proportions in this distribution . Because a father gives a knife to Johnny and a ball to Tom , he is not justified to turning the unoffending Dick into the streets to starve ! And this element of " proportion" is violated in the ordinary analogy between temporal and eternal punishments . Vice is said to entail punishment upon the third and fourth generation ; and truly so . Drunkenness in one generation becomes gout in the second , scrofula in the third , consumption in the fourth , and so on . Tliat is to say , Nature ' s Jaws are inviolable . But what analogy is there—what proportion is there between the consequence of drunkenness , i . e . gout , and the consequence of disbelief , i . e . damnation ? And let us ask if gout be the proper punishment on the child of a father ' s drunkenness , ought it to be extended to the child whose father never touched wine ? By which we mean , if damnation be the proper punishment for us who reject Revelation , ought it to be extended to those who , never having beard of Revelation—Mahometans , Hindoos , and others—cannot have committed the sin of disbelief ? And finally , if disbelief be a sin , why was the Book act so convincing as to insure belief ? human books accomplish that ! We close here our remarks on this greatl y overrated work , with the hope of having done some service , by bringing it face to face with the religious questions of to-day . Next week we shall print a selection from the Letters of Correspondents on this subject , and beg those of our readers who desire to say a word in defence of Butler to do so now , as we cannot re-open the subject .
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GOEGEI'S LIFE AND ACTS IN HUNGARY . My Life and Acts hi Hungary , in tho Years 1848 and 1849 . . By Arthur Gorgei . Two vols . Bogue . A Refutation of some of the Principal Misstatemcnts in Gurgci's " Life and jLcts . " By George Jvmoty , late General in the Hungarian Army of independence . Cash ( late Gilpin ) . [ SKCOND AKTICr . E . *] No sooner had Gorgei obtained the command of the army of the Upper Danube , than he began to dream of the Dictatorship . Control was always hateful to him ; his instincts were arrogant ; he was , in this respect , a counterpart of Milton ' s Satan , to whom it
seemed" Hotter to reign in I It'll than serve m Heaven . Gorgei denies that lie ever dreamed of obtaining tho dictatorship for himself ; and so far as you can infer from fl ' uperJioiMl facts , his denial seems to be justified . For instance , he wrote a . Letter to the Committee of Defence on the 11 th of November , 18 IS , in which lit ; threw out tho idea of saving the country by a dictatorship ; but then he ingeniously insinuated his own name in close connexion with that idea . Recent , events , said he , have taught us the necessity of unify ; and unity , he continued , can only be obtained when the confidence of the nation " concentrates in one man . " In the next paragraph lie adds , that those men who have " placed the
greatest part of Hit ; Hungarian army Tinder lint orders of a inert ; private individual , " could best determine whether the time for tho dictatorship had arrived , Jl ; in probable that Gorgei had not , in 1 HIS , yet shaped out to himself into clearness the baton of the dictator as something to grasp at ; but that it hovered before him , like ( lit ; dagger before . Macbeth , is only too obvious from tho following elaborate effort , made in tho quietude of Klagenfurfh , to convince ( lie reader ( lint lie was not ambitious . There is a whole chapter of such writing . The reader must understand that Gorgei has described how Austria was waiting to strike the last decisive blow at Hungary , and destroy her— -a fa to which , although inevitable , she was bound in honour not to await on her knees : ' —
" 1 seemed to have been destined ( o be ono of ifs last leaders ; mid though nothing less than ii national enthusiast , yet the grandeur of ( lie situsifion filled me to such n decree with tin ; idea of identifying my personal honour as a free man with that of the nation , that it soon became my leading sentiment . " It was this ideu especially whieh often made the employment of extremely strict nay , even harsh measures , appear to lae to be a . duly ; and probuhjy tho involuntary gleaming of this idea through the mysterious gloom which concealed tin ; motives of my actions -in addition to my remarkable Incitiirnity in deeisivo moments—had called into existence the almost superstitious confidence with whieh the nation—so uniformly and to tho last deceived in regard ( o its desperate condi-
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* tfeo Leader , No . I ' M
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November 27 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1143
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 27, 1852, page 1143, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1962/page/19/
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