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"il^ ttiM^rtfiti** 3LllviUilll-v»
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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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"Il^ Ttim^Rtfiti** 3lllviuilll-V»
Xitttatm .
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The opening article of the North British Review extends to no less than seventy-two pages , not one of which will be skipped by a reader who glances at the first . It is a biography of " Sir Walter Raleigh , " an eloquent , we may almost say a passionate defence of him , and that too " on the Bible method , " which will make many a reader stare , but which the writer very seriously attempts : — We merely take the broad facts of the story from documents open to all , and comment on them as we should wi 3 h our own life to be commented on . But we do so on a method which we cannot give up ; and that is the Bible method . "We say boldly , that historians have hitherto failed in understanding not only Raleigh , Elizabeth , but nine-tenths of the persons and facts in his day , because they will not judge them by the canons which the Bible lays down . This , indeed , seems to him the only way cut of the difficulty .
"Judged as the Bible taught our Puritan forefathers to judge every man , Ihe character is intelligible enough ; tragic , but noble and triumphant : judged as men have been judged in history for the last hundred years , by hardly any canon save those of the private judgment , which philosophic cant , maudlin sentimentality , or fear of public opinion , may happen to have begotten , the man is a phenomenon , only less confused , abnormal , suspicious than his biographers' notions about him . " Whether the fault lie in the method or in the writer we will not determine , but the net result is that a biography of Raleigh is presented to us which is very interesting and altogether incredible . We read , but it is as
if we read a novel . We have no belief in the reality of the picture thus painted . It reads as if originally intended for an episode in Westward-Ho ! ( for no sagacious reader will fail to discern its authorship)—and we would rather have read it there than in the pages of a Review . While entering this protest , however , let us urge every one to get the Review for the sake of this article . We cannot indeed commend the Review as usual . This number is very inferior to the average . We know how many difficulties beset an editor , how hard a task it is to p roduce even an average number when the standard is high , as in the present case ; but if critics did not occasionally apply their cautery , the public would infallibly soon apply one
less agreeable . Apropos of the difficulty of producing a succession of g ood numbers , we may mention that another Review is about to be started to try that question , and to render it more difficult for others . It is to be called the National Review . The prospectus is as vague as prospectuses usually are , and we cannot therefore pretend to say whether the Review will fill any unoccupied place ; the first number will show this , and show whether the " obvious void " . was felt in the minds of any class- except its projectors . There is nothing in the new number of La Revue des Deux Mondes which
tempts us into comment , although there are two or three papers which may tempt the reader . For instance , any one not wholly fatigued with the war q uestion , may read Xavier Raymond ' s clear and candid summary of military and diplomatic operations , Une Armce de Guerre ct de Diplomatic , especially for its defence vof the Turks , whom it praises for sobriety , patience , courage , truth , dignity , gratitude , and for tolerance superior to that of any European nation . This claim of tolerance M . Raymond
knows will bo paradoxical , but history is ready to prove— not , as he says , that it is no paradox , for it is one , but—that the paradox is a truth . " Of all European states , " he says , " the Ottoman Empire is the o nly one which for centuries respected the various religions opposed to its own , and permitted them to exercise their rites within its states . Jews , Christians , Armenians , Yezcdis , Druses , Ansaries , Greeks , or Latins—all have been able to live and maintain themselves under the empire of the Turks . " We are not disp osed to enter on this historical q uestion , but rather to follow our habitual vein of commenting on detached points , and say a word on the
much-abused error respecting paradoxes . " I will prove this to be no paradox ' is a perpetually recurring phrase . Good sir , all the proof in the world , piled demonstration deep , like Pelion on Ossa , will do nothing of the kind . A paradox is a paradox , and cannot be proved to bo no paradox until it has outlived this its larval condition , and wings its way over our heads as a perfected and familiar truth . You may prove that a paradox is not an error , but you cannot prove it to bo no paradox ; it may cease to be a , paradox in ceasing to clash with your views , but it is you who change your position with regard to it . For what is a paradox ' t It is a 8 oga , or opinion , which is irapa , in contrast with , your Sofn , t
You have your doxies in which you devoutly believe ; and as these doxies have full privilege of ranging amid unmitigated nonsense , a privilege of £ which they avail themselves profusely , you see how easily it may occur that t ] my more sedate and circumspect doxies should hold aloof from , and some- a what haughtily contradict , your doxies . Every such contradiction is to you a tl paradox . It ceases only when the contradiction ceases ; but although you g may remove a contradiction , you cannot prove it to 4 jo no contradiction . * j Wluit ia true of the individual opinion ia true of current opinions . Every new n opinion is a paradox and must remain such until it has familiarised itself so JJ far with tho opinions current among the crowd as to lose its gloss and h novelty and become a truism or a falsism . tl g
It would hardly be worth pausing to point out such an error , were not th < error general even among writers usually accurate . In leisure moments il is always useful to note down a popular error ; one knows not how manj readers may be interested . Who knows what will not interest some readers ? Man is intellectually omnivorous ; otherwise what a dismal world for dunces , what a poor chance for maniacs ! The advertising columns , read by this light , are full of profound philosophy ^ and as Jean Pau £ says of his ' Quintus Fixlein , who was engaged in a compilation of errors of the press , " he was of opinion that great moral conclusions were to be drawn from these errata , and advised the reader to draw them , " so say we of the advertisements . Here is one , for example , cut from the Athenceuni : —
EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERIES . —THE GRAND SECRET ; or , Knowledge Purified from Doubt and Error ; Bible Truth vindicated ; Scientific 1 'allaeies exposed ; Infidelity disarmed . —The relation of the Nile to the Natural History of Light ; the proof from it that Yellow Rays only are derived from the Sun , &c ., &c » will be found of au astounding nature . Is . Houlston and Stonemau , Paternoster-row . This is a tdxt on which we could preach for an hour ( suppress the rising terror , we will not do so ) , pointing out the nature of the mind exhibited in this noble incoherence of ideas , and this startling rapprochement of infidelity disarmed by the yellow rays of the sun . But we follow Fixlein , and advise the l'eader to draw the moral for himself . Besides this pap er on the war , the Revue has a survey of French literature under the monarchy of July , written by Gustave Pjlanche in his accustomed style of intense arrogance and acerbity ; and a paper on the proposed canal
from Alexandria to Suez , by M . Talabot . The Prince de la Moskowa narrates the historical episode of the siege of Valenciennes in the seventeenth century ; and M . Amp&he discourses of Washington with that ingenious fertility and pliancy of allusion by which Roman Imperialism is tempered . To every Domitian there is a Tacitus . Referring to the six months' absolute command of the military forces granted to Washington , M . Ampeke observes , " The danger of a military dictatorship was not great with a man who wrote to Congress , ' Far from considering myself released by this mark of confidence from every civil obligation , I shall always remember that the sword , to which we have appealed only in the last extremity for the defence of our liberties , must be laid down as socn as ever those liberties shall be firmly established . ' Washington was one of those men who , after having made such p 7-o ? nises , keep them . ' ' '
The Revue is certainly comprehensive enough in its hospitality . After the Due d'Aumale we have the Prince de la Moskowa ; atfer the son of Louis Philippe , the son of Net , and the » devoted adherent of the Empire . lint the Prince de la Moskowa dispenses with the signature of V . de Mars , whose interesting series of papers on the Zouaves and the Chasseurs is about to be p ublished in a handsome volume , without any author's name .
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CONGREVE'S LECTURES ON THE ROMAN EMPIRE OF THE WEST . The Roman Empire of the West . * Four Lectures delivered at the Philosophical Institution , Edinburgh , February , 1855 . By Richard Congreve , M . A . Late Fellow and Tutor of Wadham College , Oxford . John W . Parker . These Lectures contain a vigo rous and luc id summary of the history of the Western Empire , but with a startling moral , and a still more startling application of that moral . We are quite prepared to hear that the autocracy of Augustus was a necessity to a city torn by factions and a heterogeneous and disorganised empire This necessity arose from the vices of the republicans , not from the republic an constitution ; for had all the governors of provinces been Ciceros the provinces could have desired nothing better except freedom . But it had arisen ; and we only beg a little sympathy for those who , in their
loyalty to a principle , refu . se to accept the " judgement ot events , for of such are the liberators of nations . No doubt , too , in studying Roman history , we have looked too exclusively to the Republic and too little to the vast civilisation o f the Empire , which , we are apt to forget , lasted almost as lon « - as the Republic , and as long , to measure by our own history , as from the middle of the reign of Edward III . to tho present day ; and which , moreover , left to the world great legacies of law , international unity , and municipal org anisation , inherited by itself mainly from its predecessor . So far we go with Mr . Congi-eve , and we confess that his Lectures ex cite in us a desire to study more intimately the Imperial system . But we pause when ho speaks of the government of the Caesars in language of enthusiastic approbation ; and we start back when he tells us that it is tho true typo of government for all the kingdoms of Europe at the present day . to the drawn by lacitus
. Does Mr . Congreve attempt change picture , Suetonius , and Juvenal ? Does he deny the reigns of terror and suspicion , he frnntic excesses of tyranny , tho hideous orgies of the palace , tlio domination of frecdmen and spies , the Messalinas and Locustas , tho abysmal corruption of bociety , the decimation of talent and merit , tho utter degradation of intellect and literature , the paralysis of art and even of invention , the persecution of Christianity and philosophy , the annihilation of P" * " ?^ and political virtue , the sure decay of vitality and tho power oi suit-defence , the maddening effect of despotism on the despot , or the condition of i world overned by a madman r He does not . He sometimes give * the facts rather a new colour . Ho reprccn . s the insane cruelties o CidiguU to fei ^ the worthless title of Roman citizen . Hut he leaves Nero a 3 he was when
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Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make Iaw 3-they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
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May 12 , 1855 . ] THE LEADER . 449
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1855, page 449, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2090/page/17/
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