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Slitea 8 theday * ' 6 # the Byzantine Empire there never was a period more ffistfnguisbed thai * the present for the ingenuity with which dead forms have been animated With ^ mulacra of life , and obsolete named ' rehabilitated ' mttf momentary renown . To restore the Past , historically , is a grand and !
Worthy aim'i ahd'itibsemen are real benefactors who , by throwing long lines of light over th ' evd ^ t-spaces of time , reveal to us that there has been no break in the continuity , but that we are united to the Past as children to parents , arid that our present advantages have been gained only because our anc ^ tors struggle ^ manfully , as * we now struggle for our descendants . Wrth this . historical tendency in our Literature , it is natural to find a luxuriance of paradox . Every one must be rehabilitated . All old opinions must be questioned ,, and , if possible , refuted , all reputations put to the bar . It is said that the darkest of coloured gentlemen is not so black as he is painted ; and we may expect to find him turn out of Christian whiteness in the dexterous defence of some ' restorer . ' Why not ? It is so easy to
argue , when we , have- the due latitude of supposition ; as every Ojjl Bailey advocate daily proves . All depends on the " point of view . " By placing yourself at a certain point of view the square tower is round ; the blotches disappear , or appear but as specks . ^ iWith this general indication of our opinion on the rehabilitating process , we may refer « very reader to a very able and boldly paradoxical article in the North British Review on " Plays and Puritans , " the tone and diction bearing scarcely mistakeable traces of Mr . Kingsuett ' s hand . The purport of ithe essay is to prove that the Puritans did not spoil the taste of England , or affect its Art , and that they were fully justified in all , or almost all , their
opinions on the subject . Is not this a good startling thesis to shake the drowsy reader into attention ? Yet a bold advocate , having chosen his " point of view" may make much of it . First he has the theme which Stephen Gosson , Prynnb , and Jeremy Collier have at various times bandied with great effect , namely , the undeniable licentiousness of the Plays . This ? pari of the argument is certain to be victorious . The plays were immoral , and no defence can alter the fact j immoral as plavs , arid gathering round them many objectionable-accessories . The fact of boys being trained to perform the parts of profligate women justly scandalised Pkynne , and Mr . Kingsi / ey adds : —
Let any man of common sense imagine to himself the effect on a young boys mind * which would be produced by representing shamelessly before a public audience , not merely the language , but the passions , of the most profligate women , of such characters as occur in almost evVy play . We appeal to common sense—would any father allow his own children to personate , even in private , the basest of mankind ? And y « t we must beg pardon ; for common sense , it is to be supposed , has decided against ' . us , as long as parents allow their sons to act yearly at Westminster the stupid low art of Terence , while grave and reverend prelates and divines look on approving But we have too good reason to know that the Westminster play has had no very P urifying influence on the minds of the young gentlemen who personate heathen damsels " of easy virtue . "
Having proved this , the advocate has only to prove that the Puritans objected to plays because of their immorality , and his case is left to the Jury . But if the jury look a little closer into the matter they will see that the Puritans objected to plays because they were amusements quite us much as because they "were immoral . As JMacaulay wittily puts it , they interdicted " bearbaiting , not because it gave pain to the bear , but because it gave pleasure to the spectators . " We have Puritans enough in our own day to enable us to understand the hateful and unrig hteous Puritanism which has
darkened English history ; and while doing justice to the earnestness and conscientiousness of the sincere Puritans , we cannot help regarding the best df them as miserably perverted in one direction , while the fierce egoistic passions of men fdund ample justification in their tench ing—justification all the more terrible , because it enabled hateful vices to wear the aspect of virtues . It is very painful to us to sec a man of genius settin g himself to rehabilitate the Puritans out of sympathy for the one quality which makes Puritanism human—as if no other men possessed that quality ! as if only
Puritans were sincere ! , Mr . Kingsley ' s mistake , as we conceive it , is that his eye rests only on the onenquaHty which he admirus ; the others arc uob visible from his " point of view / ' It is thie which makes him , towards the close of his essay , attribute toi » urj ( tan influence changes which a little reflection will suggest have quite other causes i / — ; <\ Snt in tiio matter of dreaa and of ' mannors , the Puritan triumph has boon complete . EWtf their worst enemies have come over to their aide , and " the whirligig of time ha 6 bronjilit about its revenge . " ' _ i ! O \ h « Ii ? 'Li » i > ns of taste huvo become those of all England , and High Churchmen , who / rtmc » U -them round-heada and cropped euro , go about rounder-beaded and
. clpaaii cropped than they over went . They held it moio rational to cut the luur to ia comftrtablo length than , to wear effeminate curls down the buck And w » cut ours mfl&'klMftfer than they over did . They hold ^ with the Spaniards , tliou the finest gfcntlOttten in the world ) , that and , i . e . dark colours , al *> vo oil black , wore tho iittest ft » r >» t » t » ly and oariwet gnntkmen . Wo all , from tho Tractarian to the Anytlungariau , aw . ^ aqtty , ofl , ^ q . aomo , opinion ,, They W * - tbftt lace ,, por fiinifa , and jwvfl Uory , on ^ W « f W « ro mXs pf . unmanly foppishness and vanity ; and « o hft M the fluei * ^ utlfiifteft IHEnglandnow . ' they thought it equally absurd and ainful for" a man tp carry infl ihco * me 6 w his took , and bodisseir hiinsoW out in rode , blues , and greens , ribbond , ¦ ¦ ¦ mIV / ' ¦¦ . ¦ ¦ •¦
knot ? , slashes ^ and "treble quadruple , daedahan ruffi ^ built up on iron and timber < a fact ) , which have more arches in them for pride than London Bridge for use . " ~ W « , it ' Yt&i ^ tsa < A ' a '' iiilf ^ i ^ : xvdB !^ '' yixiiethy as used ' to swagger by hundreds up and down Paul ' s Walk ^ not knowing how to get a dinner , much less to pay his tailor should look on him as firstly a fool ,, and secondly a swindler ^ while , if . we met an old Puritan , we Bhould consider him a mdn gracefully and pictujresquel y dres . t , but withal in the most perfect sobriety of goijd " taste | and when we discovered ( as we probably should ) , over and above , that the harlequin cavalier had a box of salve and a pair 61 dice in one pockety a pack of cards and ; a few pawnbrokers' duplicates in the other ;
that ; his thoughts were , altogether . of citizens' wivesr and their too easy virtue ';) and that he could not open his mouth . without a dozen oaths , we should consider the Puritan ( even though he did quote Scripture somewhat through his nose ) as the gentleman , and the courtier as a most offensive specimen of the " snob triumphant , glorying in his shame . The picture is not ours , nor even the ' Puritan ' s . It is Bishop Hall's , Bishop Earle ' e ,- —it is Beaumont ' s , Fletcher's , Jonson ' s , Shakspeare's ,- —the picture which every dramatist , as well as satirist , has drawn of the l \ gallant" of the seventeenth century . " No one can read those writers honestly without seeing that the Puritan , and not the Cavalier conception or what ' a British gentleman should be , is the one accepted by the -whole nation at this day .
To show the fallacy of this one-sided statement , we have only to attribute to Quakerism the influence here given to Puritanism , and the passage reads just as well . If Mr . Kqtgsi-ey had cast his eye : over Europe he would have seen the same changes slowly operating in lands where no Puritanism ever distorted the national life ; and this would have suggested to him that the connexion between Puritanism and these changes in England is incidental ^ not causal . . , .-: ' .. ;' In his zeal for the Puritans Mr . Kingsley will have them to be great poets . One of them was indeed a mighty singer ; but if Puritans had been like Mii / ton " , Puritanism would have been as noble and elevating a doctrine as it is narrowing and debasing . In default of other poets , Mr . Kingslk * will have it that the Puritans lived poems in lieu of writing them . > This may be so ; but it makes ^ nothing for the argument , against ; which he Combats , namely , that Puritan influence on Artwas and continues pernicious ; We must not , however , pause longer on this essay , which we , commend to the reader , trusting he will accept it as a clever paradox . We have only left ourselves space to mention an able article in the same Review on Ghote ' s History of Greece , a correction of some inaccuracies in Macauxay , and an interesting paper on the " Weather . "
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SIGNS OF THE TIMES . Signs of the Times : Letters to Ernst Moritz Arndt on t / ie Dangers to Religious Liberty in the Present State of the World . By C . C . J . Bunsen . Translated by Susannah : Winkworth , Author of " The Life of Niebnhr . " ¦ Smith / Elder , and ' Co . The Chevalier ' Bunsen ^ retiring from - diplomatic activity , refusing the suffrages of Berlin and Magdebiirg , has devoted the period of the Russian jwar to an investigation-of the religious principles at work in the Christian" world : He discovers the central sign in Germany , but , traces , as far as modern politics extend , the action of priesthoods , associations , and secular decr . eps enforcing spiritual dogmas . The . great problem of the time , he affirms , is—r-Whether faith and liberty are not sinking under Jesuit or ecclesiastical influence , or whether mankind are not passing under an eclipse , to reappear
amid the lustre of a moral and social revolution . His argument , through which an unvarying eloquence breathes , is developed in an imposing range of epistles , based upon an experience of men and a knowledge of history possessed by few of his contemporaries , and illuminated by that clear and generous philosophy which all who know him attribute to Christian Charles Bunsen . Anticipations of a mighty struggle between the spirits of the , Qld * . and the New , foreboding bitterness and confusion on the earth , fill his eft ^ ly letters with gloom ; reliance on right and truth inspire them at the close w , itu exultation and fervour . He rejects the despairing lyrics of . Leopardi , tbp abject sanctimony of Romieux , sees in the dilating power of the Hierarchy " not Hesperus ; but Phosphor , " believes , indeed , in freedom , and trusts to human virtue . ' ¦}
Such , distilled from this body of essays , is the moral of Chevalier Bunsen ' s present view . But by Sign he means Danger ^ for , if he be confident , it is only in the hope that Europe has not . been degraded intp scepticism , , qij apathy , or despair , or content ; has not been dazzlqd by Cjesarism , or cpn * ciliated to the service of immoral ! power . Great princi p les , the bases < of systems , are arrayed face to face ; decisive conflicts are preparing ; a tieyp order of things will be born , amid the convulsions of the next century . But what will that new order be ? Chevalier Bunsen follows the inquiry with an assurance that mankind are , at least , ' not indifferent ; that in ftfett countries , or countries partially free , the general anxiety finds utterance in a thousand ambiguous forms , and that , wherq opinion is silenced , tin Aspect of torpor conceals a hope and a menace . Romieux , compares this condition of Europe to that which prevailed under the empire of tho , Caesars , \>\ xt t ) we have now many Cossars instead of one . A Si g ^ of , £ ho age , then , , is t tha ' t wherever there is not torpor there is excitement ; that nowh 6 re exists a tranquil felicity of public reeling ; that where men ' 'do ' hot stand in attitdd ^ s tnus await the transition
of tragic expectation they repose upon irony , ana . Comparing ^ in a strong historical light , the results of fourteen years' ex-J perienco in England with his knowledge of Germany , Chevalier Bunrien indicates as two universal and . significant , characteristics , pf the ag ^ tfeej spontaneous and powerful development of the s |> irit of association , and jtl «) evident iiicreaso of the power of the clergy or hierarchy . His illustrations arc taken from every point of view . The Britishlnd ' ian empire , constructed in less than a ccntiiry Dy a company of traders ' aiid capitalists ; the Americati republic founded by voluntary churches' and other English assbdatibttb , Canada ; in which ho prophesies a future Union >; the gigantic railway system which , iu twenty years , has sprung from a capital largor than' tho r ^ veAaefc of all the statca of the world ; andthe now thurehes , oUapols , and oongre ^ ni tiQns wImcIi , in England , havo surpassed all that governments lot Uierarch » ea have croa , ted Um'ing four hundred years , aro among th « s witness , fM tliis power of association . In England , ' oarly ae the seventeenth-century , th ^ Independent body enrolled itself , , and defied tho persecution of two hostiUj state churches . Tho Baptists have not only gaincid a potation in the'Britidti
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( Mties aro-txop tlhe legislators , but the judges and police of literature . . They do not -7 ^ naake lawa—tbj © y interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 17, 1856, page 473, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2141/page/17/
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