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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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Ingthi^- Kittntnvt.
ingthi ^ - Kittntnvt .
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It is an old remark that people are more angry with those who expose an imposture than with those who perform it ; and in exposing the pretended Spirit Manifestations , we knew the consequences which would ensue . But it was high time to do so when clever and even distinguished men were allowing themselves to be deceived . If " gossip Report" be not wholly a , liar , a very celebrated novelist is a believer , and is actually writing a novel in which the " spiritualism" so miraculous in its communications ( at one guinea a head ) will supply the old machinery of mysticism . In Germany , as we hear , the article which first attracted attention to the subject in these columns has been liberally reprinted , but the article which ^ exposed the imposture is passed over in silence ! The following extract from our correspondent ' s letter will be read with interest : — My deae Sir , —I am very sorry to tell you that the leading German papers 3 iave translated ray article on the Spirit Rappers , but , as far as I am able to ascertain , the same has not been the case with your refutation . I seldom or never see 'German papers , and can therefore only go by what others tell me , or what I acci-• dentally hear ; but I trust the good people at Berlin , Cologne , and Hamburgh , will have had sufficient common sense to give their readers both sides of the question . Professor Michelet at' Berlin , rather famous in chemistry I have been , told , has . been writing a letter to the editor of the National Zeitung , in which my article ^ appeared . 1 have read , that letter . He talks a great deal of magnetism , and is of ¦ op inion Mrs . Hay den , whom he supposes to be clairvoyante , reads the names aiid answers to be given on our hearts' tablets , if I may use such an expression . Thus it was ( says Professor Michelet ) that she read cognoc instead of cognac , the word "being strange to her , and she taking an a for an o ! Oh ! But , after all , it comes ¦ nearl y to what you say , —that it is an imposture , and that Mrs . Hayden gives the answers ( and the raps ) , and not the spirits . I thought the above might be of some interest to yon , and therefore made free fo > communicate it to you . In the Zoist for this month , in spite of Dr . Ashburner ' s known connexion with the work , there is an article exposing the imposture , and ( qualifying it as such in energetic terms . There is nothing very decisive in this paper , —decisive , we mean , to obstinate believers , —for the writer merely records failures , not experiments .. He explains the rapping sounds an this way : — ¦ " Place the sole of one of your boots or shoes with one side bent downwards ( one foot being crossed over the other , if you please ) , so that the upper edge shall touch the leg of the table or chair , and then a very slight movement of it backwards or forwards will give you the precise Rappist sound ; and you may give any intensity you think proper . " This may be the manner , but it may not , and if it is not , then the Kapping Devotees will come forward with triumphant refutation , and imagine that by disproving the assertion they have proved their doctrine ! Conscious of this danger , we abstained from any speculation as to how the raps were produced- Ey . ery one lias reproached us with the omission . But as we did not know , we would not hazard a guess , which , if wrong-, might discredit all we had said on the way the answers were communicated . There are a hundred ways of producing the raps , but as we are ignorant fof the precise manner Mrs . IIaydxcjv produces them , we remain silent on ; the point .
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Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Beview .
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ApfiitaiL 9 , 1 S 53 . ] THE LEADER . 355
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HOOKS ON OUR TAIJLE . The Holy Bible . John OlmjiiiiiiiK The Ca « eofMr . W . II . Barber . »' ' V \ i »«» n . The 1 ' ouHry Hook . W \ H . < >«• «• ' « < ; » - Writinat o ' fDounlas Jerrold—A Man Made < rf Money , l ' arl , I . ' '» ' < " >» ' *•«¦ Handle ,, Cro » ., or Mr . J » rrock »' Hunt . » rii « l ' <»/'""' hy . uiH . Jlorutii Opera Omnia . Wlnltak .-r mid Co . Temple liar the City ofOolootha . . . ; lU % ™ V The Journal , qf /> » y ' eh » to < ji < -al Medicine . J / <> '" J ( ' Y » ' » - Otbert qfAIdaate and the Troubadour . My Mi .-m K . M . Hl . owiiH . Ii > Kinm , Cooko , uiu Co . The Domeatio Medical ami Surgical Uude . Hy J . II , InK . iun , CooLo , aixl Co . 'the Complete An ,, ler . Iiikhiiii , Cooko , » ii < Co The Dodd Family Abroad . Cliiummn and Hull . Home Cirele W . N . JoIuihoii . I ' apevfor the Schoolmatler . HimpHon , Miii-hIiii !! , and Co . The Parlour Library-Arrah Neil . Hiiuium niul Molntyro . liaroda- and Bombay , their Political Morality . Hy John Chapman . John Uny > iimn . My Child-Life . By M . . fom-phiuo . ' ¦ .. , ]• ChamoU Ilnnlina in the Mountain ! of Hamtrin . My (! lnirl « w Honor . Clinpmiui ami Hull . Ji-aust : A Tramnly . Hy . 1 . W . Von tJooUio . With Comour Note * . Hy 1 « alok Lotmliit , I'll ., Dr . Longman , Itrowu , OrtM-n , and Lon ^ maiiH . Tail'it Mat ,, cine . . , ., , , , , ^ truluio iin . l <)« k « y . The Jlittdriual Uomancie ( f Jliteiim / ham and Utchtiltrit . Hy . Aloxandur JJuiuuh . BmnoM . French Cookery adapted for Jin q lbh I'hmiliet . Hy Mitm Crawford . It . llontloy . J ' oUtiaal Incident * ( if the hVrtt Jiurmeati War . Hy T . O . KobortHon . It . Itunthty . The Suotti * h Mducaliomd und JUterary Journal . Jtiiuou Hogg .
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Rumour reaches us of a new weekly paper , The Press , " which is to he on the high Tory side what the Leader is on the democratic side . " We are sensible of the compliment , and shall welcome such sin antagonist . Fret ; speech and free thought are much needed on all sides ; and the stronger our antagonist , the more heartily shall we applaud his entrance into the arena . By strength , we do not menu " powerful invective" and ultra-proclamations , but the steadfastness of convictions , and the cauulour they empower men to show .
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r Tfoe new number of the Westminster Review is a remarkable one . 'Thackeray ' s writings are characterized in a thoughtful , searching , and : admirably-written article . It is no slight praise to say , that the writer has produced a criticism which few who begin it will leave unread , without ihaving 'jroiao . . 3 e to paradox or polemics to give piquancy to this much-worn topic . Iconoclasm in German Philosophy introduces to the English reader « new and remarkable thinker , Schopenhauer , whom the writer of this paper may be said to have discovered , so unknown is Schopenhauer even in his own country . The article is masterly ; it presents an intelligible and very interesting account of Schopenhauer ' s position and system , forming an omitted chapter in the History of Philosophy . Martial and his Times is a good subject , laboriously , but indifferently , treated . The writer bus not seized the peculiarities of that dissolute , disreputable wit ; nor has he distinctly pictured to the render ' s eye the state of Roman life . His comments and translations are poor . Thus : " In one lino ho frequently asserts a fact , and deduces from it in tho next a . startling paradox— " ' Hubet Africanus millicH , et tanicn captnt ; Fortuim niult'm dat niini . s , nut is nulli . ' " ' Ho fuwiiH for inoro , though he hi « thouwuidH own : Fortune giveH nome too much , enough to none . ' This reflux of opposite principles into oaeh other , am < l tho analogies which thoy nuggest in tho physical world , struck Lord Ihicou , and hulpod him to iihooihI to the platform of Iiih fh * nt philoHophy . " We are at a loss to detect the ' / startling paradox" in this old epigrammatic turn ; aind we are amazed to find the writer turning the edge of the sarcasm as he does in his translation of tho following witty epigram : " ' l ' otit GemelhiH nupthts Murouilhi ; , Et cupit , ot instul , ot prccntur , ct donat . Adeono pulchrai est ? imnao foodiiiB nil out : Quid orgo in ilia iM ) titur ot placet ? tussit . '
" ' Strephon most fierce besieges Chloe , A nymph not over young or showy . What then can Strephon ' s love provoke ? A charming paralytic stroke . '" The effect of this epigram is in the sudden tussit , " she coughs , " which stops the hurried questions , bringing them down with a pistol-shot . " A charming paralytic stroke , " is but a feeble version of tussit . Let us try a hasty stanza : " Gemellus watits to marry Maronilla . Sighs , ogles , prays—and will not be put oft " . Is she so lovely ?—Hideous as Scylla ! What makes him ogle , sigh , and pray ? Her cough !" Martial wrote more platitudes than any writer of reputation , but he also wrote some good epig rams , and several of these we miss ; for instance , the original of " I do not love thee , Doctor Fell /' " Nbn amo te Sahidi : nee possum dicere quare , Hoc tantum possum dicere : non amo te I " And the amusing sai'casm against the doctor turned undertaker , who , as Martial says , does not change his profession by the change . " IN ~ uper erat medicus , nunc est vespillo Diaulus : Quod vespillo facit , fecerat et medicus . " Which Boileau may have had in his eye when he wrote that delicious couplet— 11 vivait lorence medecm
" jams a r un , Savant hableur , dit on , et celebre assassin . " How came the essayist to omit that perfect epigram" Pauper videri vult Cinna—et est pauper . " " Cinna pretends to be poor , and is what he pretends" — a monostich not easily surpassed . In spite of drawbacks , this paper on Martial will have its interest ; we only regret it was not treated in a more lively and epigrammatic manner . Two other subjects are elaborately treated in two papers—British Philanthropy and Jamaica Distress , and JEarly Christianity . its creeds and heresies—the latter a minute and comprehensive review of Bunsen ' s Hippolytus , remarkable for its fulness of knowledge and the fine discrimination with which it distinguishes the various shades of the trinitarian conception ; it is not , however , written with the fervour and eloquence usually noticeable in the articles of its well-known author . We omitted to mention the appearance of a new quarterly journal , The Scottish Review , issued for the purpose of advocating the " Temperance cause , " with other subjects of " social progress . " The second number is before us , and deserves a word of praise for the variety and ability of its articles . Dr . Carpenter is among its contributors , as we needed not the initials to inform us—the repetitions of what he has previously published betrayed his hand . This same temperance cause is roughly handled in the opening article of Blackwood , from which the leaders of the movement might gather profitable hints ( if movement leaders were in the habit of profiting by criticism . ) There is so much that is good , wise , and practical in the movement , that all who stand without the circle must regret to observe so many stumbling-blocks of fanaticism and false science thrown by its leaders in their own path . While glancing thus rapidly at the magazines of the month , let us note , in Fraser , a delightful article on Longfellow , the most popular of American poets ; an amusing Portrait of Brown , hy Alhert Smith , in Bentley ' s Miscellany ; an article on India , and one on Gold in the New Quarterly Review , ( which Review is improving rapidly , ) a pleasant paper on Kirmy , the entomologist , in the Eclectic , and a new journal , The Scottish Educational Journal , which pleasantly mingles literature with pedagogy .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 9, 1853, page 355, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1981/page/19/
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