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THE DEAD BOG . " Jesus , " says the story , " arrived one evening at the gates of a certain city , and he sent his- disciples forward to prepare supper , -while he himself , intent on doing good , walked through the streets into the market-place . " And he saw at the corner of the market some people gathered together looking At an object on the ground ; and he drew near to see what it might be . It was a dead dog , with a halter round his neck , hy which he appeared to have been dragged through the dirt ; and a viler , a more abject , a more unclean thing , never met the eyes of man . " And those who stood by looked on with abhorrence . " ' Paugh ! ' said one , stopping his nose ; ' it pollutes the air . ' ' How long , ' said another , ' shall this foul beast offend our sight ? ' 'Look at his torn hide , ' said a third ; ' one could not even cat a shoe out of it . ' ' And his ears , ' said a fourth , ' draggled and bleeding ! ' ' No doubt , ' said a fifth , ' he hath been hanged for thieving !' " And Jeans heard them , aad looking down compassionatel y on the dead creature , he said , ' Pearls are not equal to the whiteness of his teeth !'
" Then the people turned towards him with amazement , and said among themselves , * Who is this ? this must be Jesus of Nazareth , for only He could find something to pity and approve even in a dead dog ; ' and " being ashamed , they bowed their heads fiefore him , and went each on his way . " Mrs . Jameson ' s fine and cultivated taste in matters of art is so well known . and so widely appreciated , as to make it almost unnecessary for us to say that the illustrations to her Commonplace Book , though small in size , are xeally ornaments to the volume ,, and must certainly add greatly to its attractions ia ifoe . estimation of all readers .
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SELECTIONS GRAVE AND GAY . Miscellanies ., By Thomas Be Quineey . Edinbtrgh ' : James Hogg . London : E . Groombridge and Sons . In our review of the last volume , which appeared some months since , we gave a general notice of the character and scope of these " Selections ; " in introducing tlie new volume our husiness may he confined to the pleasant labour of making extracts . The present book is fairly representative of the mind of De Quineey : of its depth and its flexibility , its gravity and its gaiety . The paper on \ Murder as a Fine Art" is deservedly celebrated ; ^ nd we think it las a fair chance—when a later editor shall again resort to Still more limited selections—to a permanent place in the literature of its class—the Essay . The coarse criticism it has met with—that " the subject is unfit for such levity "—we treat with contempt : such critics think that
Diablerie should deal with Browns and Robinsons ; and would object to Fables as interfering with the functions of the Decalogue . De Quincey ' s ¦ oyyri defence of it is inimitable and unassailable—we will not , therefore , mimic it or sustain it : merely saying , for once venturing on that style of descriptive criticism , that this Essay , marked by Sterne ' s cast of thought , has the recklessness of the humour of llabelais in the purified style of Jean Paul . The next selection is a paper which we do not recollect to have before met -with , describing—a weird and wondrous panorama—a strange episode in the hideously dramatic history of Russia — the Exodus of Kalmucks from Russian Domination in 1760-5 . This Essay , written , in all the gravity of history , is an epic—resplendent with masrmficentlv elonuent
passages ; and it reads in startling contrast with the immediately preceding pajper , _ Of the " Dialogues on Political Economy" we are not disposed to ± Mnk highly , and among other reasons because , tempted by what followed , we did not read them : The sketch of the " Mail Coach" and its system is among the best of De Quincey ' s papers : and this , as well as the less finished , but philosophical Essay on " War , " may be read at the present moment with the extrinsic interest attaching to a vindication of the " godliness" of human warfare , and to a description of the machinery by which , in the Peninsular epoch , provincial England learnt , from day to day , news of that marvellous series of victories which were won by the two men who now lie side by side in St . Paul ' s .
The Peace Society people , perplexed in conscience by what is in progress in the Crimea , might read with advantage the views of a scholar and a sage upon warfare . "We { jive , by way of suggestion , a passage containing a bold ¦ vindication , for which , the Christian Wordsworth is to some extent xesponsible : — It is tho strongest confirmation of the powor inherent in growing civilisation , to amend wax , and , to narrow the field of war , if to look hack for the records of the changes in this direction which have , already arisen in " generations before our own . Tho moat careless reviewer of history can hardly fail to read a rude outline of pro-; gress made by men in the rights ( and consequently in the duties ) of war through tho last twenty-fiv © centuries . It ia a happy circumstance for man , that oftentimes he ia Ifcd by pure selfishness fcnto reforms tha very same aa high principle would have prompted ; and , in tho next stage of his odvanco , when once habituated to an improved ; code « f usages , he begins to find a gratification to his sensibilities ( partly
luxurious sensibilities , bat partly moral ) , in what originally had been a mere movement of self-interest . Th . cn comos a third stage , in which , having thoroughly reconciled himself to a better order of things , and mode it even necossary to his own comfort , at length ho begins in his reflecting momenta to perceive a moral beauty and a fitncHa in arrangements that had originally emanated from accidents of convenience ; ao that , finally , Uo generates a sublime pleasure of conscientwuanosa out of that which had commenced in , the meanest , forms of mercenary convenience . For instance a Roman lady of rank , as luxury advanced , out of mero voluptuous regard to her own comfort , revolted from tho harsh clamours of eternal oliaatiaomonts inflicted on her numerous slaves ; sho forbade thorn ; the grateful slnvoe showed thoir lovo for her this love , by natural reaction awakened her own benevolent sensibilities 5 gradually and unintentionallflho trained her
y feelinga , when thrw liberated from a continual tomptjition to cruelty , into a demand fox gentler and purer excitement . Her purpose originally had been one of luxury ; but , l ) y tho benignity of nature still watching for ¦ ennobling opportunities , the actual result was a development given > to tho higher capacities of hor heart . In tho same way , whon tho bmtal right ( and in many circumstances the brutal duty ) of inflicting doatk upon prinonora taken in battlo had oxohapjrod itsolf for tho profits of ransom or nlavory , this relaxation of ferocity { though commencing in selfishness ) gradually exalted itself into a habit of mudnona and some dim perception of a sanctity in human life . Tho very vice of avarico minlstorod to tho purification of barbarism 5 and tho very evil of slavery in ita oarlloat Com woa applied to tho mitigation of another evil—war conducted In tho spirit of piratlaal outrage . Tho commercial instincts of men having worltud ono sot of changes in war , a second sot of changos wan prompted by instiaots derived from tho arts of
ornament and pomp . Martial music , splendour « f arms , of banners , of equipages of ceremonies , and the elaborate forms of intercourse with enemies , through conferences armistices , treaties of peace , &c , having tamed the savagery of war , a permanent light of civilisation began to steal over the bloody shambles of buccaneering -warfare Other modes of harmonising influences arose more directly from the bosom of war itself . Gradually the mere practice of war , and the culture of war , though still viewed as a rude trade of bloodshed , ripened into an intellectual art . Were it merely with a view to more effectual carnage , this art ( however simple and gross at first ) opened at length into wide subordinate arts , into strategies , into tactics , into castrametation into poliorcetics , and all the processes through wliich the first rude efforts of martial cunning finally connect themselves with the exquisite resources , mathematic and philosophic , of a complex science . "War being a game in which each side forces the other into the instant adoption of all improvements , through the mere necessities of self-preservation , becomes continually , and must become , more intellectual .
It is interesting to observe the steps by which ( were it only through impulses of self-defence , and with a view to more effectual destructiveness ) war exalted itself from a horrid trade of butchery , into a magnificent and enlightened science . Starting from no higher impulse or question than how to cut throats most rapidly , most safely , and on the largest scale , it has" issued even at our own stage of advance into a science , magnificent , oftentimes ennobling , and cleansed from all horrors except those which ( not being within man ' s power utterly to divorce from at ) no longer stand out as reproaches to his humanity . What opening is there for complaint ? If the object is , to diminish the frequency of war , this is , at any rate , secured by the enormous and growing costliness of war
In these days of accountability on the part of governments , and of jealous vigilance on the part of tax-payers , we may safely leave it to tlie main interests of almost every European population not to allow of idle or frivolous Avars . Merely the public debts of Christendom form a pledge , were there no other , that superfluous war will no longer be tolerated by those who pay for them , and whose children inherit their conseqiienees . The same cause , which makes Avar continually rarer , will tend to make each separate war shorter . There will , therefore , in the coming generations , be less ofwar ; and what there is will , by expanding civilisation , and , indirectly , through science continually inore exquisite applied to its administration , be indefinitely humanised and refined .
It is sufticient , therefore , as an . apology for war , that it is—1 st , systematically improving in temper ( privateering , for instance , at sea , sacking of cities by land , are in . a cour&e of abolition ); 2 ndly , that it is under a necessity of becoming less frequent ; 3 rdly , that on any attempt to abolish it , the result would be something very much , worse . ¦ < Thus far , meantime , war has been palliated merely by its relation to something else—viz ., to its own elder stages as trespassing much more upon human happiness and progress ; and , secondly , by its relation to any conceivable state that could take place on the assumption that war were abolished by a Pan-Christian , compact . But is this all that can be pleaded on behalf of Avar ? Is it good only in so far as it stands opposed to something worse ? ~ Ro . Under circumstances that may exist , and have existed , war is a positive good ; not relatiA-e merely , or negative , but positive . A great truth it Avas which "WordsAvorth uttered , whatever might be tho expansion which lie allowed to it , when he said that
" God's most perfect instrument , In working out a pure intent , Is man—array'd for mutual slaughter : Yea , Carnage is his daughter J " There is a mystery in approaching this aspect of tlie case , which no man has read fully . War has a deeper and more ineffable relation to hidden grandeurs in man , than has yet been deciphered . To execute judgments of retribution upon outrages offered to human rights or to human , dignity , to Adndicate the sanctities of the altaj and the sanctities of the hearth—these are functions of human greatness which war has many times assumed , and many times faithfully discharged . But , behind , all these , there tOAvers dimly a greater . The great phenomenon of Avar it is , this and this only , which keeps open in man a spiracle—an organ of respiration—for breathing a transcendent atmosphere , and dealing with an idea tliat else Avould perish—viz ., the idea of mixed crusade and martyrdom , doing and suffering , that finds its realisation in a battle such as that of Waterloo—viz ., a battle fought for interests of the human race , felt even where they are not understood ; so that the tutelary angel of mam , when he traverses such a dreadful field , when he reads the distorted features , counts the ghastly ruins , sums the hidden anguish , and the harvests
" Of horror breathing from the ailent ground , " nevertheless , speaking as God's messenger , " lilesscs it , and calls it very good . " The wit and Ieai * ning of this extract , which we make from tho sestlietical estimate of Murder , will charm : — In these assassinations of princes and statesmen , there is nothing to excite our wonder ; important changes often depend on thoir deaths ; and , from tho eminence on . whicli they stand , they are peculiarly exposed to the aim of every artist who happens to bo possessed by the craving for scenical effect . But there is another class of assassinations , which has prevailed from «« - early period of tho seventeenth century ,
that reall y does surprise mo ; I mean the assassination of philosophers . For , gentlemen , it is a fact , that every philosopher of ominenco for tho two last centuries has either been murdered , or , at tho least , been very near it 5 insomuch , that if a man calls himsolf a philosopher , and never had his life- attempted , rest assured there is nothing in him ; and against Locke ' s philosophy in particular , I think it an unanswerable objection ( if we needed any ) , that , although ho carried his throat about with him in this world for eeventy-two yoars , no man ever condescended to cut it . As those cases of philosophers arc not much known , and are generally good and well cowpowod in thoir circumstances , I shall hero read an excursus on that subject , chioily by way of shoring my own laarning .
lite first groat philosopher of tho seventeenth century ( if we except Uaeon and Galileo ) Avas Dos Cartes ; and if over one could any of a man tbut ho was all but murdered—murdorcd Avithin an inch— -ono must Hay it of him . Tho cane was thin , aa reported by Uiullefc in his " Vie l > e M . Doh CartcH , " torn . i . p . 102-8 . In tho year 1021 , whon Dos C / irtes might bo about twonfcy ~» ix yoara old , ho was touring about aa uauwl ( for he was as reHtlean as a hyena ); and , coming to tho Elbo , either at Gluok-8 todt or at Hamburgh , lio took shipping for East Frio / Jand . What ho could want iu lCa&t ; Friosskuid no man lina over discovered j and perhaps ho took thin into consideration himself ; for , on reaching Einbdon , he resolved to wail instantly for West Friozlancl ; und boing very impatient of delay , lio hinxl n bark , with a few marinor . i to navigate it . No Boonor had ho got out to nca , tlian ho mudo a pluuoing discovery , viz ., that ha had shut hlmnelf up in 11 ( Km of murdororu . ltin crow , Hayri M . Dnillut , ho soon found out to ho " dos Hcdldratrt "—not amatuuni , gentlumon , im wo are , but professional men—tho height of whowo lunLUion at , that moment Ava « to cut his individual throat
Excuse my liuighing , gentleman ; but the fact in , T always do laugh when I thinlt of this cubq—two thlngtt about it msom so droll . One io , tho horrid panic or " funk" ( as tho men . of Jflton call it ) in which . JDob Cartua muut luivo found himself , upon hearing
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3 * 22 THE LEADER . [ Saturday-, ~ ^ aa ^ i —»« n—n »«»^ ¦ - . ttmh ¦»¦ ' ' ' ¦•
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 25, 1854, page 1122, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2066/page/18/
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