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tritanphttiitlj ^ adducoiia& tJtB special ; £ bot 6 teps «> f th » Greater ( asvifi&e whole * geology piesantttlf anything else ) ; so titair wharrvfutureandi enlarged discovery- shall disclose the ^ connexion aud explanation of these appearances , by regular laws ,, their argument for a Deity will fall to the ground ! . According . to this mode of representation , " nature" was the rule , " Deity" the exception * - The belief in nature was the doctrine of " reason and knowledge ; the ackno-wledgment of a God was , only the confession of" ignorance . So long as we could trace physical laws , ; nature was out : acknowledged and legitimate guide : when we could attain nothing better , we were to rest satisfied-with a God ! Even learned writers on natural theology have thought it pious-to argue in this way . To take a single
example ,: The apparent anomaly tliat water arrives at . its maximum density before freezing , occasions its freezingfirst at the surface , and other results connected with important . points in the economy of ' the globe and the good of its inhabitants : and this argument for design is sometimes represented as if it acquired a peculiar force from . t&a > circumstance of the factr being an anomaly , and inexplicable by our theories . And on this ground . it is particularly held up to popular acceptance as an instance of special intervention , for the benefit of man , traceable to no physical cause . But when the apparent exception shall come to be reduced to its proper place as a part of some more comprehensive law ( as it assuredly will ) , all the peculiarity and mystery of the case will be at an end , and with it will fall the theological argument , and the popular
faith proppedup on so false a support . Tefe'in spite of the better knowledge which ought to prevail , we often hear , for example ; any sudden and marvellous infliction of disease or famine * pestilence or blight , whiclf ( it-is added with a sort of triumph ) "baffle the boasted powers of science tc&explain ) " held forth as signal instances of direct interposition . T 5 > resort to such . , representations , however it may serve a temporary purpose , or exert : an influence on the multitude , is the resource of ignorance , the encouragement of superstition ,, and eventually the unfailing-parent of a sceptical and irreligious reaction ; anucLif the faith , of the many be propped up by such false supports , it must fail altogether as soon as an increasing knowledge clears them away . We ; must reserve for a . future occasion our remarks on the two other ¦ essays .
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WESTWARD HOI Westward Ho ! or , the Voyages a-ad Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh , Knight , of Burrough , in the county of Devon , in the reign of Her - Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth . Rendered into modern English by Gharles Kingsley . Cambridge' : Macmillan and Co . There are two points of view under which a book like this may be examined . Ojae maytBy its purpose ,, and inquire how far it is wise in whatrit advocates ; or . x > ne . may consider , ii simply as a work ., of art , and investigate its claims to pictorial excellence . So , Dr . Johnson , in his " Life ., of Akenside , begins his oritieism hy ? saying-r—* ' W-ifch . the philosophical or religious tenets of the aa&hon ILthasie-. nothing : to- do ; , my business , is with , has poetry . " And so , Bkwwbetf the- , critic ; of sb picture : o £ the " Annunciation '' would , pronounce oh its * ' meritj -rathoat- troubling himsel £ ¦ whether the orthodox view of the " ^ i&miwneiatSQtt- " was correct or not ;
Tfc-wtmld ' , however , be-pecirirarlyunjost"to Mri Eingsley to look at tjus work only as an historical picture . We well know that he- had other designs * in .: writing it thanthe merely producing a-novel . It so happens that novels in our age contribute to the formation of public opinion . Mir . Kingsley , whet knows that , and has many of the talents of a novelist , uses the novel ( as some religious bodies use : secular tunes ) for his own objects as a churchman . Bfes is * a , preacher and -painter' iaone .. He aims at catching by fiction those : vdnojare' out of his pulpit range . He ' is a . lucky priest to be able to exercise iBStikculties hr . this * way . In- Scotland we fear that his Presb y tery would have silenced or dismissed him long ago ; But it is- a- , characteristic of the Otitrrch or ^ Biisgland 4 i --ahd t nobody-will accuse the Leader of being bigoted in iiterrftcvour ^—thafr she- constantly- produces * popular- -writers ^—many of them ,
indeed ,. such as reflect by their gravity , no great additional dignity on- the venerable institution . Skeltont and Bishop Half , two of our earliest satirists , -were of her . Then , Swift the terrible , and'Sterne , and Churchill , and Peter Pindar , and Sydne y Smith 1 How much jolly 4 * profane" literature we owe to these parsons ! Aidd , as members of the rival Church , Rabelais -and Erasmus- —and it > will'be seen at'once that Europe owes its best laughter t 6 its spiritual"guides . We mention these facts to vindicate Mr : Kingsley in-the . eyes of those sour and stern persons who may think novel-writing , no proper employment for a clergyman . We say it is a great advantage to Mother Church to have , a ; aon who can write a > successful novel- , Mr . Kingsley has done more for- her , by his novels than even he himself ( not to mention ; inferior men ) , could , do by his sermons . We , ourselves , never heard Mr-. Eingsley ; preachy bu * , we have -read his books—and of these books none
lias given us more pleasure ttTan the one before us . Now to begin with , the " purpose , " which , as we , have said , is the great matter with > Mx .. Kingsley . It is . plain enough . The reign of Bess was great And . glorious ,. Everybody / was . religious in the days of Bess , It was a grand tivae > . England , then ropresented liffhty freedom , and truth ; Spain tile Bone * , despotism ,, and . the devil . Tub great Armada fight in 1588 was < ** -I » ritain > 's Salamis . " .. . . Hare you have the " viowB" of this Novel . It is wxdtten * altogether from' that , standing : point , and Mr :. Kingsley hammers aitmy at his > favourite' subjects o € detestation / as * heartily as Francis Drake hammered at the Spanish fleet . For he is , before everything else ,, a ¦"" hearty" writer ^ ana notably pugnacious . Indeed , if . he will excuse our familiarity , vre-will 1 ' venture to say that two influences more ' than any other seem to have made him the writer he is—the influence ; of Thomas CarlyleaamJ'that of—Thomas Cribb !
Tb carry out these . views , then , Mr . Kingaley centres his interest round one . Amyas Leigh , a Devonshire gentleman , and one of the great sea-« direnturerfl . of . that period who so excellently , represent its spirit . Goethe apoaks of the age of . Shakspeare as " a great , and energetic time " Now ,, energy i * precisely tho word which describes the Elizabethan ajgp . "There is a burning vitality to be seen in everything it produced ,, from ite < 5 oloaiies taitseongsi Nowhvore is it move seen than ia its . naval histony , audit it-wawwiso of Mr . Kingsley to > choose that , for the , moat prominent feature ^ Hound 1 Ainyu » other portraits ' ove- hung ;—the courtier , gallant , chivalrous , graceful;—the Jesuit—the Spanish JJon—the merchant—the gttatltomun—all' typical' figures and' careful studies . The- author has broken
from the- routine habit of painting only- court figures and known incidents A commonplace' man would have brought in Elizabeth at every turn * swearing her usual oath ,, and boxing people ' s ears . Mr . Kingsley gives us the life of England' , as , it has formed that which still exists . A homely reality distinguishes the book—earnestness dashed by colloquial ease . Witness our first extract , in which the reader shall see * A- YOTIITO- GBNTLEaiAN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH ' S TEHE . Now this young gentleman , Amyas Leigh , though come of as good blood as any in Devon , and having lived all his- life in what we should even now call the very best society , and being ( on account of the valour , courtesy , and truly noble qualities which he showed forth in his most eventful life , ) chosen by me as the hero and centre of this story , was not , saving for his good looks , by any means what would be called now-adays an " interesting" youth s still less a " highly educated" one ; for , -with the exception of a little Latin , which had been driven into him by repeated blows , as if it had
been a nail , he knew no books whatsoever , save his Bible , his Prayer-book , the old " Mort d'Arthur" of Caxton's edition , which lay in the great bay window in the hall and the translation of " Las Casas' History of the West Indies , " which lay beside it lately done into English under the title of " The Cruelties of the Spaniards . " He de ^ voutly believed in fairies , whom he called pixies ; and held that they changed babies and made the mushroom rings on the downs to dance in . When he had warts or burns he went to the white witch at Northam to charm them away ; he thought that the sun moved round the earth , and that the moon had some kindred with a Cheshi re cheese . He held that the swallows slept all the winter at the bottom . of the horse-pond ; talkedj like Raleigh , Grenvil , and other low persons , with a broad Devonshire accent ; and was in many other respects so very ignorant a youth , that any pert monitor in a national school might have had a hearty laugh at him . Nevertheless , tliis ignorant young savage , " vacant of the glorious gains" of the nineteenth century , children's literature and science made easy , and , worst of all , of those improved views of English
history now current among our railway essayists , which consist in believing all persons , male and ' female , before the year 1688 , and nearly all after it , to have been either hypocrites or fools , had learnt certain things which he would hardly have been taught just now in any school in England ; for his- " training had been that of the old Persians , "to speak the truth , and to draw the bow , " both of which savage virtues he had acquired to perfection , as well as the equally savage ones of enduring pain cheerfull y , and of believing-it to be tho finest thing in the world to be a gentleman ; by which word he had been taught to understand the careful habit of causing needless pain to no human being , poor or rich , and of taking pride in giving up his own pleasure for the sake of those who were weaker than himself . Moreover , having been entrusted for the last year with the breaking of a colt , and the care of a cast of young hawks which his father had received from Lundy Isle , he had been profiting much by the means of those coarse and frivolous amusements , in perseverance , thoughtfulness , and the habit of keeping his temper ; and though he had never had a single " object lesson , "
or been taught to " use his intellectual powers , he knew the names and ways of every bird , and fish , and fly , and could . read , as cunningly as the oldest sailor , the meaning of every drift of cloud which crossed the heavens . Lastly , he had been for some time past , on account of his-extraordinary size and strength , undisputed cock of the school , and the most terrible fighter among all Bideford boys ; in which brutal habit he took much delight , and contrived , strange as it may seem , to extract from it good , not only for himself , but for others , doing justice among his schoolfellows with a heavy hand , and succouring the oppressed and afflicted ; so that he was the terror of all the sailorlads , and the pride and stay of all the town ' s-boys and girls , and hardly considered that he had done his duty in his calling if he went home without beating a big lad for bullying a little one . For the rest , he never thought about thinking , or felt about feeling ; and had ^ no ambition whatsoever beyond pleasing his father and mother ,
getting by honest means the maximum of " red-quarrenders" andmazard cherries , and going to sea . when he was big enough . Neither was he what would be now-a-days called by . many a pious child ; for though he said his Creed and Lord ' s Prayer night and morning , andi went to the service at the church every forenoon , and read the day ' s Psalms with his mother every evening , and had learnt from her aud from his father ( as he proved well in after life ) , that it was infinitely noble to do right , and infinitely base to . do wrong , yet ( the age of children ' s religious books not having yet dawned on the world ) he knew nothing more of theology , or of his own soul , than is contained in the Church Catechism . It ia a question , however , on the whole , whether , though grossly ignorant ( according to our modern notions ) in science and religion , he was altogether untrained in manhood , virtue , and godliness ; and whether the barbaric narrowness of his Information was not somewhat counterbalanced both in him and in the rest of his generation ) by the depth , and breadth , and healthiness of his Education .
The consistency of bluff Amyas is well preserved throughout the story . The plot we do not feel called on to describe . Those who have read , or are going to read the * book don't require it ; and for others , it would have but a faint interest : We shall select a few characteristic bits of writing , such as can be enjoyed without much reference to the context . Look well at the following group , reader , for they were " men worthy of this land , as Aristophanes singeth . The scene is the terrace bowling-green , behind the Pelican Inn , Plymouth : the time , July : —
THE ARMADA ' S 31 KN . Chatting in groups , or lounging over the low wall which commanded a view oi tho soimd and tho shipping fiin bolow ; were gathered ulmost every notable man oi the Plymouthfleet , the whole ¦ posse comitatus of "England ' s forgotten worth ugh . A He Armada has been scattered' by a storm . Lord Howard has been out to look for it , iu » fafaa the-Spanish coaut ; but the wind has shifted to tho south , and fearing lost tho Dons should pass hin ^ ho has returned to Plymouth , uncortain whether tho Armada will come after all or not . Slip on for awhile , like Prince Hal , the drawer * apron ; come in through tho roso-ola&dbor which opens from tho tavern , with u tray oi longnecked Dutch glasses , and a silver tankard of wine , and look round you at tho gallant captains , who are waiting for tho Spanish Armada , us lions in their lair might wail for the paeeintr herd 1 of door . oveihonr
See those five talking earnestly , in tho coirtre of a ring , which longs u > - , and yot is too respocftfal to approach oloso . Those eoft long eyes and pointed ohm you recognise-already , they are- Walter ll&leigh's . Tho fair young man in tho Uumocoloured doublet , whose arm . in round Kaleigh ' a neck , is Lord Shoflield ; oppoMitu t iein stands , by the side of Str Richard Gronvilo , a man an stajtoly even an he , Lord » noiflold ' a undo , tho Lord Charles Howard of Eilingluun , Lord High Admiral of ij . nKW »« i noxt to bim . is lvia Bon-in-law , Sir liobort Soulhwoll , captain of « tho Elizabeth 't "' aH < but wlio is that short , sturdy , fcplainly-drou 8 cd man , who stands with loga » l « - apart , and hands behind his bacic , looking up , with koon grey eyes , into tlu : luco oi each epoakor ? His cap is . hvb . ia handa , so you can boo tho bullet head of ori *)> Inwa hair and tho wrinkled forehead , aa well aa tho high chcok-bonos , tho abort , rtqimriiiuct , tho broad temploa , tho thick lips , which arc yet firm as granite . A eonrno jiloiwin stamp of man : yet tho whole figure and attitude are that of boundlosH dotoinimuiioi " , self-possession , energy ; and , when at last ho apcaks n fow blunt wordw , all uy « - ' » turned respectfully upon him ;—for hie name is Francis Druko .
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4 # & TZ ' BLM . liEABER [ Satttbd a ^ ,
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Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1855, page 474, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2091/page/18/
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