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3P*4- ft**i» jLtttnilutE*
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3p*4- Ft**I» Jltttnilute*
literature .
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Every thinker lias had occasion to notice the cool assumptions which often lie in the coupling together of adjectives and substantives by controversialists . As young versifiers have their epithets which are de rigueur , their " melancholy moon" and " ruddy sunrise , " not because they have ever been made melancholy by the moon or have ever seen the sunrise , but because they adhere to the etiquette of verse ; so dignified philosophers and theologians have their traditional phrases , which they are just as far from having verified for themselves . We are often struck with the absurdities into which even men of talent and candour are betrayed by the unthinking adoption of a jargon whicli is sometimes only the fossil remains of ideas long dead , sometimes the incarnation of a still living prejudice or perversion . For example , the writer on Comtk in the British
Quarterly speaks of him as " the most unblushing unbeliever . " But for the etiquette in epithets , which we are noticing , so sensible a writer would surely not have allowed an absurdity like this to slip from his pen . To expect an unbeliever to blush for his unbelief is about as rational asr to expect an editor of the " Phonetic Kuz , " who gives his energies to a crusade against the monstrosities of orthography , to blush , for the heretical spelling of that defunct periodical . A man who acknowledges a theory or rule from which he habitually departs , may be understood to have reason for blushing ; but a man who sees in that theory a mistake , and protests against it as fatal , could only blush from an unmanly dread of a public opinion wluch he holds to be false . To say that an unbeliever is " unblushing " is , therefore , to pronounce a eulogy on his moral strength . But perhaps this was the sense in vhich the reviewer intended it ?<
Again , in an article on Locke in the Edinburgh Review the writer , while vindicating Iiockb from what he calls a " gross physiological bias , " admits that there is a " tang of materialism" in him , and that there is too much truth in the accusation that '' his philosophy smells of the earth , earthy . " Of course , •* gross materialist" and "grovelling materialism" come to the lips or the pen of "lofty spiritualists" as inevitably as the "Venerable Bede " or the " admirable Crichton ; " bat those—we do not now discuss whether they are right or wrong—who decline to accept any conclusions drawn from definitions of the " immaterial , " who find no reason to think contemptuously of matter , and who hold that the " smell of the earth * ' is a very wholesome smell for human nostrils , may very fairly protest against this opprobrious christening as a begging of the question . To the theory that the mind
of man has some kindred with tltat of the brutes , the spiritualist says , with the Mormon prophet , " The very idea lessens man in my estimation . I know better ; " but cogent as this reasoning may be , the man of " gross physiological bias" may reply that in . his estimation this theory does not lessen man , while it emancipates brutes from the contemptuous disregard to which eminent spiritualists like Professor Whkwkjll . consign them , and that therefore , his sphere of reverence is widened instead of narrowed . He may say that the ill-name " grovelling ; ' * is most appropriately applied to what narrows sympathy and admiration , and that in elevating the material and the earthly to the height of his loving reverence he is so much the farther from that negative condition , —that to raise " a mortal to the skies" evidences the same love of the anyelic as to bring " an angel down . "
Before we leave the Edinburgh ^ let us observe that the article on Mormonisin is fuller on some points in the history and character of this sect than any previous account published in England . The story of these people reads like a hideous burlesque of human society and creeds , but it is not without suggesting some useful criticism on our civilisation .
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The author of the Right Honourable Benjamin Disraeli , M . P ., a Literary and Political Biography , has published a second edition of his work with a preface , in which he meets the objections made by hia critics to the anonymous character of his work . But , like many apologists , he spoils a good excuse by following it up with a bad one . He alleges , first , that the facts in Ins book are not dependent on any personal authority , but are all " deduced from authentic documents , " which " every reader may examine . " So far his apology is valid . But ho makes an infelicitous addition when he says" Perhaps it was essentially necessary that a work of this kind should appear anonymously , in order that the public judgment might be unbiassed . " If , he declares
as , he is «• not a party politician , " and has " no personal object to attain , " the publication of his name , if it could add no force to his arguments , would have induced the public to give them greater attention ; and a writer who , for the better achievement of his purpose , abstains from thus lt biassing ' the public judgment is in an anomalous mental condition . Perhaps the only candid statement would have been , that the author shrinks from the odium of personal responsibility , and this , together with the documentary character of his facts , would have been a . consistent excuse for anonymousness , if not a thorough justification of it . But one who out of pure zeal for the public good devotes time and labour to a subject for which he cannot be supposed
to have an aesthetic or scientific enthusiasm-unless , indeed ; Mr . Disraeli be to him what the potato aphis is to a naturalist , or a " beautiful case' * to a phyriciaii—ndght have been expected to be equal to the further martyrdom which publicity would entail . *
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It is important to know what the people ™ ll read when they have the opportunity . The Liverpool report on the reading and readers at its free libraries during the first quarter is now published . The following list gives a comparative view of the number of volumes issued in each department : — ,. , _ . . Volumes . Biographies and Histories ... . 8576 Novels . . . . . . 4203 Miscellaneous Literature . . . . 868 Geography and Travels . . . . 579 Poetry and Drama . . . . 254 r Theology , Morality , and Metaphysics . . 218 Natural Histery . ... . 181 Commerce and Political Economy . .. . 18 The readers in Science and Art have been 215 ; the total number of readers being- upwards of 1200 .
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HISTORY OF FRENCH PROTESTANT EEFUGEES . ( SECOXJD- XBTICLK . ) - t History of the French Protestant Refugees , from the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes t » the present Time . By Charles Weiss . Translated by Frederick Hardman . Price 14 « . VfcStaclriroodaaa S& 25 . Was return to M . Weiss ' * work for the sake of giving tile reader * few mW extracts . .. ; . ,-: . . . - ¦ , - _ - „ ' . ¦ .. "' ¦¦ - ' [ ,. :: ¦ The following passages describe some of the modes of ^ conversion' * which were tlie prelude to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes : — " For along time past siujdren had been authorised to ai ^ i ^ r ^ te ^^ -lfcwi ^ fourteen , girls * t twelve years old . An edict of the 17 th of Jnne , 1681 aUowed them tor return to the bosom of the church as early as at the age of seven years . ' It is our wilt and pleasure , ' said the ordinance , ' . that our subjects of the so-called ntfomad ' religwn , totS male and female , having attained the age of seven , tte pennittedt 6 embra ^ ' th ? € aCMlic Apostolic and Roman religion , ^ and that , to that end . their be admitted to abiure the s < w
called reformed religion , without their fathers and mothers and other parents being saftettd to offer the least hindrance , under whatever pretext' This was enbeuraging woselytism in its most immoral and hideous foriri , for henceforward it addressed itrselfto minors ; to feeble beings , incapable of comprehending the acts they were made toperforrri . " ^ - v- ; " This law had terrible consequences . It undermined paternal , authority : in Protestant families . It now sufficed that an envious person , an enemy , a debtor ; declared tefoi * * tribunal that a child had -wished to become a Catlolic , had manifested an intention of entering * church , had joined in a prayer , or made tixe sign of the crosS i or Icissed an imira of the Virgin , for the child in question to be taken from his parents , who were ' c 6 mpeiledto make him an allowance proportioned to their supposed ability . But such estimates > # erd flfecessarily arbitrary ^ and it often happened that the loss of his child entailed upon the un- ' fortunate father that of all his property . • • Soon it became a fasjbkm to labour at conversion . The discreet Madame de Haintenon busied hei ^ f in the i » 6 * k with-I iorfc
rage . » Madame oVAutngne , ' she wrote to her brother , * ought cerUinryi to convert » oW « one of our young relatives . ' To another ahe wrote— ' I ana continuaUj ^ eesv , leadine some Huguenot to church : * and to a third— ' Be converted , as so many others have ! £ & ? be converted -with God alone ; be converted , in stort , in the manner that : best plefts « you ; but , in short , be converted . ' . ., , V- '' - '¦ ' : ¦ , "The Marchioness of Caylus was descended , like her , from Agrippad'Aubignrf , ' wh os ^ daughter her grandfather had married . Her father , the Marquia of Villette , a naval bffidkr distinguished for merit and for Protestant zeal , was first cousin to Madamede Maihtenon . She several times attempted to win him over ; and when she saw that she <» aid not sttcctod * she resolved at least to convert his children . She caused a distant mission to be aiuiim « d i ^
the marquis , and m his absence carried off his daughter , and took her to St , Qennaln . , P& child wept ; but the next morning she found the king ' s mass so beautiful that ahe consWbtait to become a Catholic , on condition that she should hear it every day , and sfaouldrnevel be whipped . ' That was , ' she says in her memoirs , * all the argument , emplove& and , tiie aol abjuration I made . ' On his return the marquis bitterly complained , Whicli did not prevent Madame de Maintenon from working at the conversion of his tiro sons , whoJield putipijgex-Finally the marquis who had been , wont to say , * It would take me a hundred years to credit the infallibility , twenty years to believe in the real presence , ' yielded in his turn : andwheir the king complimented him on the change , he replied , with tUe address of a consummate courtier , that it was the only occasion in hisiife upon which he had not sought to phase hit Majesty . ' * . -.-. ..
Louvois was the author of the dragonnades . He-wished to eclipse the proselyting achievements of Madame de Maintenon , of whose influence he was jealous , and , being , at the head of the war department , ha hit upon thi * method of making his services important to the end .-which Louis had moat at heart . On such miserable court rivalry depended , at least proximateta horrors like these I " Nowhere was the violence more horrible than in the south . At Montauban , Billion Nesmond convoked , at the quarters of Marshal Boomers , the Barons de Mftucao . de VicozQ de Montbeton . Suddenly the lackeys of the hotel , hidden behind the ! door , fell upon theni by surprise , threw them down , and compelled tlwra to kneel ; and whilst the gentleman were struggling in the hands of the varlets , the prelate made the sign of the cross ovar them , and their conversion was held accomplished . The citizens , delivered up as a prey to the frantic soldiery , were compelled to abjure , after a mockery of public deliberation ! An aged man at Nismes , M . de Lacassagne , after having been for several days deprived of
*« P » yielded to this horrible treatment , and became a Catholio . ' You aw now at peace , ' Bishop Segaier said to him . ' Alas ! my lord , ' replied the unfortunate man , ' I expect ho peace but in heaven ; and God grant that what I have this day done ftiay not close its gates to me . ' Whilst he renounced his fuith , Madame de Lacassajjne , disguised as a servant ,, wandered in the fields , where many women , overtaken in their night by the pains of labour , were delivered without aid . At Bordeaux , a brother of Bayle , who was pastor at Carlat , where his fattier had just expired , was thrown , by order of Lou void , into a dungeon in the Chateau Trompetto known by the name of Hell , to remain confined there until such time as he ahould become a convert . He held out c-ourngeously ; but his courage was greater than his strength , and after five months of suffering , alleviated by the tardy intervention of iPdlisson , death released him . Same of the horribk cells in that castle were called chausse d'hypocras . The walls , arranged lozenge-fashion , had the form of an alembic , and persons
there confined could neither stand upright , nor sit , nor lie down . They were let down into tliem by corda , and daily drawn up to undergo whipping or the strappado . Several prisoners , after some weeks passed in the dungeons of Grenoble , came out without eitfl « c hair or teeth . At Valence they wore thrown into a sort of well , in which , by a refiaemetU of barburoa 8 cruelty , sheep ' s entrails were left to putrefy . 44 Drivon to despair hy _ the inventive fury of their torturers , a great number of Protestant * feigned to bo converted , in order to gain time to realise their property and quit the kingdom . Meanwhile the court exult ad in its victory over heresy . Early In September , Louvois wrote to the old chancellor , hia father : 'There have been 60 , 000 conversions in , the gSndraliU of Bordeaux , and 20 , 000 in that of MonUuban . The rapidity with which this goes on if such tliat tliere will not bo 10 . 000 Protestants loft in all the giMraXUi of Bordeaux , when there wore J 50 . 000 on tho 16 th of last month . ' The Duke of Noailles announced the com-
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Critics are not the legislators , but the judges aad police of literature . Tiiey do not make Iaw 3— they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
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April 22 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 377
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Leader (1850-1860), April 22, 1854, page 377, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2035/page/17/
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