On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (4)
-
TtWrt+lt™ % XXXiUlUtt*
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Ttwrt+Lt™ % Xxxiulutt*
iCtteraturt
Untitled Article
to the earnest spiritualism of real Christianity , aa lie understood it . And how did he understand it ? Not by any means as Christians in general , and evety Protestant sect in particular , understand it , namely , as a purely individual thing , the salvation ( not to say coddling ) of our own souls , with " pity " for those unfortunates who must perish , and with Exeter Hall flanked by formidable regiments of black coats and white neckcloths to " convert" the heathen . Not so , at all ; bat as the great influence which was to elevate Humanity . He viewed it in its social aspect- —how it affected the mass how it organised society . Hence he was logical and superior in hia proclamation of the immense benefits of Roman Catholicism and its great Popes . lt Jesus Christ , " he said as early as 1826 * " did not change the
religion , nor the rights , nor the duties ; but in developing the primitive law , and in fulfilling it , he raised religious society into a State , he constituted it externally by the institution of a marvellous police . " Lamekmam , therefore , considered Christianity as humanitarian more than as individual . This will help the reader to an explanation of bis writings . It will explain also his passing from papacy to democracy . The great constituted authority at Home would not attend to him . He turned to the greater authority on the other sidethe People . His object being to spiritualise society , and the Church declining to aid him , he appealed directly to society . Hence that biblical outpouring , Zes Paroles dun croyant . Hence , also , Le Livr& dti Peuple&nd Le Livre de la Religion , ¦ - ¦ -
This week France has had to deplore the loss of one of her glories : Lameitnais is dead . The great writer , the democratic priest , the pride of a nation , the glory of a cause , and the " scandal" of a Church which could not retain its splendid advocate , but forced him into antagonism— 'LtAmks sais is no more I He was in his sixty-second year , his body worn out with long suffering , hia spirit saddened but not discouraged by defeated hopes . A biography written by one competent would be a work o > f immense value ; let us hope that such a text will not be spoiled by incompetent treatment .
A few words are all we can give our readers relatmg to this extraordinary man ; but the present occasion demands them . Fkmcitk Robert de La Mennais ( to give him his full title—friends and disciples still call him . affectionately by his school name of Fkli ) was born at St . Malo on the coast of Brittany in June , 1782 . Hia family had been ennobled by Louis XVI . for their generous assistance given to the people during a famine . The noble title of De la Mennais was thrown aside by him when he passed over to the ranks of democracy , and De Laotkxxais was substituted for it . Femcite , as a child , exhibited the qualities of the man—vehemence , liveliness , impat ience , bodily and intellectual , tenderness and piety . To keep
nun quiet on his . bench at school his master was forced to tie him to it with a rope . At the age of eight or niae he had turned his restless activity to study , and in his uncle ' s library read novels , classics , history , philosophy , science , anything and everything that fell under his hand ; he never went to beii without a volume under his pillow . At the age of twelve ie taught himself Greek . His piety was remarkable even then ; but having been placed under the care of an old cure , the attempts to convince him intellectually roused the intellectual spirit , and then all the arguments he had read
in Dedehot , Roussxau , and Company , came to his aid . Hence his first communion was delayed till after the age of twenty-one , when he had returned to the faith of his ancestors . But , although he had relinquished his scepticism , he had not a 3 yet become fervently devout . He" accepted Religion as the world usually accepts it . At this time he had a great passion , for sword exercise ; for his was a combative nature from first to last . He had also Byron ' s passion for swimming to excess ; and Ajlfiebi ' s delight in violent horse exercise . But although thus preluding for a life of " society , " in 1811 he received the tonsure , and in 1817 was ordained a priest .
It is thought by those who know him intimately that the cause of this entrance into the church was one which has sent many a wounded spirit there for solitude and consolation , one whicli a nature , ardent and tender like his , could not easily hare escaped —profound sorrows waiting upon a profound passion . Religion cicatrised his wounds . Religion became , his passion . There was work for him to do such as would task the strongest . He rose up to do it , a second Savonakojuv .
It was in 1817 that the first volume oF his JEssai sur VIndifference en Matieres de Religion startled Europe . Da Maistre and De Bonauo had already moved believers by their theological and metaphysical superiority in treating Catholicism ; Chatjeaubbiand had touched those to whom the other writers were inaccessibly repulsive , treating as he did the artistic side of the subject , and making Christianity a thing of bon gout . But Lamennais saw that the real disease was less intellectual than moral—it was
not bad logic , but indifference ^ which under various forms corrupted the heart of society . In this age , " terrified at scepticism , yet dest itute of faith , " he saw'icnmense languor , death-like indifference in priest and potentate , in noble and artisan . He had touched the seat of disease , and the cry which responded was immense . We sliould have aaid that two years before this he was an exile in . England . This was in 1815 , during the Hundred Days . We remember a noble article by Mazzeni in one of the numbers of The Monthly Chronicle ( unfortunately not at hand just now ) , wherein Lamennais is appreciated by a spirit earnest as himself , and almost as eloquent ; in this article it is said that Lamexnais presented a letter of introduction to Lady Jersey , but we forget whether it was she or another who procured for him a situation as teacher in a school .
As we cannot here follow the series of his works , a few broad outlines must suffice . Passing over all intermediate writings , we come to his rupture witli Rome . It may bo imagined that whatever aid his eloquence and logic miiy have given the Church when fulminating ag . iinst the world , the aid might also turn out a danger to the Church when it became evident that tins Savonabojua was , as Kemblk said of Kean , " so terribly in earnest . " We will not in a sentence venture to appreciate ho complex a question .
We will not say that the fault lay with Koine . But the fact remains Savonaboia was farced to brcnk away from the Church he had attempted to reform . He "withdrew his allegiance from the Pope , and gave it once and lor ever to the People . Shallow thinkers accuse him of inconsistency , not to mention worse things , in this change . They have not penetrated the real meaning of hia life and 'ifK'triui ' , which was to rescue society from its indifference and materialism , "
Let it be added that not even the acrid ardour of polemics has ever denied to Laaebknais an unblemished reputation as a rnanv He was loved and respected by all . As a writer he ranks among ; the -very highest . We may conclude this scanty notice with two trifling details . He w * s an xinuuS" takable Breton , retaining to the last the Breton accent , Ba . y ' wjk scgr&e for secrete , retaining to the last the Breton pertinacity of purpose which no vivacity of temperament could swerve . It will interest many to know that he had been for some time engaged on a translation of Dante . It will not be uninteresting to the readers of the Leader to know that" among our continental readers he Was one : he differed greatly from up , but , while differing , encouraged and applauded . The fate of the Soldier of Thought and that of the Soldier of Arms is strikingly contrasted in this passage , which we copy as it stands from the telegraphic news of the Times : — (
u The interment of the Abbe" Lamkkxais took place this morning without thfpfeast disorder . In accordance with the wishes pf the deceased , his body was carried straight to the cemetery , without being taken to any church . ' . ' . '''' " " The funeral of Admiral Rocssin was celebrated to-day with great pomp ; twelve battalions of Infantry , two squadrons of Gardes de Paris , one . o £ . Chasseurs , , £ 0 d arbattery pf Artillery , escorted the remains of the Admiral irpm the Madeleine to PereXa ChaUe . " Blackwood this month , is gayer and more amusing than usual . It opens with a thorough-going defence of Disbaem , assailing the anonymous author
of the recent Political Biography in language which is too unmeasured to be telling . There is , moreover , this inconsistency in it : namely , an anonymous critic assails a writer for assailing another man under the shield of anonymity . The critic gravely doubts whether such biographies of living men are justi 6 able . So do we . But he adds * that if such party spite ftnq party criticism is to be perpetrated , at least let the writer boMly avow it . So do we . Anonymous libels should bo treated like anonymoua letters . It is not , however , for anonymous critics to fulminate against anonymous
critics . A very serviceable survey of the Russian Church will be read with interest iust now , that the Christian pretensions of the Czar afford a cloak for his aggression- The writer establishes these points : — - " Fisrt , that the homogeneity of the Russian and Eastern Churches , on . which the Czar lays his strongest " cluim to the protectorate bo demands , has no foundation in fact , and that the Christian communities on which he would impose his protection deny tlie orthodoxy of his faith , and regard him as the usurper of spiritual power ; second , that the doctrines of the Synod of St . Petersburg are denounced by Russians themselves , and tba establishment
opposed by a formidable sectarianism , and that that Church is itseu rather in a condition fo require protection against its internal enemies than to afford it to others ; f / jrird , that even supposing the Russian and Eastern Churches to be identical , the protectorate in question would , in consequence of the temporal privileges preserved by the Patriarch of Constantinople , as alread y noticed , be the positive introduction of a dangerous foreign influence in the domestic administration of tho Ottoman empire , and that the Sultan would thereby become the vassal of the Czar - fourth , that as there are numerous Christian subjects of Che Sublimot Porte who do not belong to the Greek communion , their protector , where protection is needed , cannot be the Oza . r ; and , JifVi , that the semi-independent Moldo-Wallaohiana also disavtfw tlie doctrines of tho Russian Church , antt . reject her protection . "
In a criticism on Matthew and Edwin Aknow » , the writer humorously and opportunely indulges In reflections on the evils of the lavish admiration so frequently given to verse-writers . The following capital bit of burlesque is not to be passed over : — " Accordingly , scarce a week elapses without a shout being raised at the birth of a thin octavo . " Apollodorus , or the Seraph of Gehenna , a Dramatio Mystery , by John lunks , appears : and wo are straightway told , on tho authority of Mr . Guffaw , the celebrated critic , that— 'It is a work more colossal in its mould than tho undefined structures of the now mouldering Poraopolis . Tunica may not , like By ron , possess the hypochondnacal brilliancy of a . blasted firework , or pour forth hia Hoods of radiant spunu with the intensity of an artificial volcano . He does not protend to the spontaneous combustion of oar young fnena Gander Rediiag ( who , by tho way , has omitted to wnd u . hui last volume ) though m almost think tfiat ho possesses * diviner share of the poofs ennobling lunacy . He does not dive so sheer as the author of Ftatu , iuto tho bosom or far unteUigibUity . plummet-deep beyond the ranee of comprehension , or tho shuddering ; g « za of ths immortals . He may not bo endowed with tlie naked cagk-cye of Gideon Stoupie , the bard of Kirrieimur , whose works wo last week noticed , and whose grand alcoholic enthusiasm shouts Ha , ha , to the mutchkln , aa loudly as tlie call of the trumpot that summons Behemoth from his lair . Ho may not , liko the young Miuaaviah , to wJiuso rising talont wo have aUo borne testimony , bo able to swathe his reiU meaning in t ' Titanic obscurity of the parti-coloured Oseianio mysticism ' 1 I (« uiny not liku > Slmkripenrc , &c . &c . ' And tlion , having occupied many columns in telling
Untitled Article
March 4 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 209
Untitled Article
Oritic-3 are not the Iegi 3 la . or 3 , bat the judges and . police of literature . They do not maJce Iaw 3—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review . /
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 4, 1854, page 209, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2028/page/17/
-