On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (6)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
VU*»rtti*«»* V: fLuPTUlUr?* ^ - ¦ ^ ; dono
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
It is anxasing to watch the vrar of epigrams in JVance . All free speech being interdicted , all discussion closed , nothing but epigram and allusion remains to express the national contempt . The flatterers of Lotus Napoieoh having used with effect the magical name of Csisar , his antagonists have retorted ¦ with greater effect the contemptible name of the ( Lesaes ; not the empire in its palmy , but the Empire in . its ignoble days , is the parallel they choose . In
the Revue des Deux Mondes a series of admirable articles las appeared , signed by the weU-knowTi name of Ampere , treating of " Romaa History in Borne , " and sketching the portraits of the Emperors ; nor while indulging thus in literary amenities , has M . Amp&re lost the many opportunities afforded him of indirectly speaking his mind about Prance and her rulers . The articles have made a ' sensation . ' Allusions have been read in them which hare been repeated and commented on with delight . In the last number there are several staging sentences . Tor example , M . Amp £ re begins by remarking on the singular abase of language -which styles the twelve absolute masters of Home the " twelve C ^ esabs . " The truth being , as he says with terrible distinctness ,
that " GassAB ( Napoleon ) did not found a dynasty , he had but one heir . " Tibeee succes&eur dupeiit-neveude Cesar , rCa plus rien de son sang . . ¦" . . Claude , Caxigttxa , Neron , sont deja Us eltis de la soldatesque . INay more , he adroitly remarks that the descendants of Augustus had all of them something of that fine Caesar-like profile which , by a strange caprice of fortune , the first Trench Emperor exhibited after so many centuries . Who can help thinking of the grand physiognomy of Napoleon the Great ^ and the stolid , stupid profile of Napoleon the Little ? "With Galba , we are slily told , a new series commences ., empereurs < Vaventure 3 qid n ' ont plus nne goutte du sang d' Anguste et dont les traits sont nouveaux comnte V ' origine . In the same Revue there is an interesting criticism of Bossuet , Bourdalotte , and Massillon , by Nisard , and an article on Italy by M . C . Gouraud .
Untitled Article
Some time ago we had occasion to discuss the " Argument from Design ;" our positions were impugned by Dr . McCoemac in a letter which was unfit for insertion , as every one mil see who takes the trouble to read it in his pam - phlet "Two Letters to the Editor of the Leader on the Theory of Final Causes . " He was so little aware of the impropriety of his letter , that he sent it to an Irish newspaper , determined to see himself in type . Since then he has written another letter , which however he did not send to us ; and both these extraordinary productions are printed in the pamphlet just named . Extraordinary they are , in the power of misapprehension they display . We said , incidentally , that John Henry Newman , and Kant , both repudiated the teleological argument . Whereupon Dr . McCormac writes to Francis (!)
New-Judgment of Final Causes , " fttitif bet SSeleOQlfcljen Uttt ) eit 6 ftaft . Kant dilates in . the subject of Final Causes with a fulness of illustration , and afacundia , so to snwit peculiarly his own . ^ > From any one else this passage would be surprising . We beg Dr . McCoamac to read that part of the " Critique of Judgment" which he cites so familiarly , and he will find that it is expressly directed to establish the principie of final causes being incompetent to explain nature , although they furnish a useful point of view in our study of nature . To introduce this principle of final causes is to introduce a principle derived from our minds which can have no analogy with things in themselves . Kant does not reject the emp loyment of Final Causes , as we do ; but he very decidedly protests against their being used as philosophical proofs . . ¦
man , and quotes with great triumph his declaration that he , Francis , does not repudiate that argument . This may be Irish logic , but in England it has a droll effect . Dr . Cummin g might imitate it , and inform the world that John Henry Newman does not believe in Papal infallibilty , for Francis Newman emphatically repudiates it . Something of the same felicitous inquiry is visible in his efforts to get at Kant ' s opinions . Since I had the pleasure of addressing you , I have devoted a little time , all too
little ia truth , to Kant and hia writings . With this intent , I have looked over Meiklejohn ' s translation of the " Criticism of Pure Reason , and Cousin on the Philosophy of Kant ; " also , Vera ' s " Introduction a la Philosophie de Hegel" ( and incidentally that of Kant , Fichte , and Schelling ) . —Ingram , 1856 . I have referred to Rosenkranz's edition of the whole works of Kant ( Leipzig : Vosa , 1838 } , also Vera ' s Inquiry into Speculative and Experimental Science , with special reference to Mr . Caldenvood and Professor Ferrier ' s publications , and to Hegel ' s doctrine ( London Longmans , 1856 ) .
Surely Kani's own works were the proper sources ; but Dr . McCormac thinks Messrs . Tera , Ferrier , Calderwood , and Hegel may enlighten him respecting Kant ; as Francis enlightened him respecting John Henry ! The reader -will be prepared to find that Dr . McCormac , when he takes these books in hand , does not know how to read them aright ; and such is the case . He says : — I cannot well imagine , sir , how you have contracted the impression tliat Kant was opposed to Final Causes , since of all writers , perhaps , no one , ia the main , has enlarged on the doctrine with aa entire an approval as he has done . If Dr . McCoumac cannot imagine how we " contracted the impression , " he may be informed , that it was from no more mysterious source than reading the sixth section of Chap . in . of Kant ' s Transcendental Dialectic , which bears this
title— " Of the impossibility of a Physico-Thcological Proof ; " and again in the succeeding section , where Kant proves that transcendental questions can admit only of transcendental answers , for « all synthetical principles of the understanding are valid only as immanent in experience ; while the cognition of a Supreme Being necessitates their being employed transcendent ally , and of this the understanding is quite incapable . " In a word , no one at all conversant with Kant is unaware of his strongly expressed views on this point ; and if Dr . McCohmac had bestowed on Kant a little of the time he superfluously gave to Vera , Cai ^ erwoob , and Ferrieb , he would have saved himself from this Wundcnng pamphlet . But ho has looked into Kant with eyes so Irish that Ue can say : — Thm second part of the " Criticism of Judgment" constitute the » Criticism on the
Untitled Article
NEW EDITION OF CARLYLE . The Worfts of Thomas Carlyle . Vol . I . —The French Revolution . Chapman and Hall . Fob many years thirsty souls with thirsty purses have been clamouring for a cheap edition of the most remarkable writer of our day ; and at length Messrs Chapman and Hall have answered these demands by the commencement of an edition in monthly volumes at six shillings each . For twelve shillings that wondrous book , The French Revolution : a . History , will now he attainable ; for eighteen shillings Oliver CronncelVs Letters and Speecheswhereas hitherto the one has cost thirty-one shillings and sixpence , the other two guineas . Even this reduction in price will not reach , the mass of readers for such "works , but it will be very welcome indeed to a large public . Carlyle has passed through all the stages through which inevitably pass the great writers -who sway the minds of their generation . He began "b y fanaticising the few , who were stirred and startled , and loudly proclaimed the advent of a prophet . He then became notorious , though not popular ; and had to be affectionately discriminated from Richard Carlisle , also notorious . Reviewers attacked him . His " style" was singled , out for
reprobation by men who never deviated . into a felicity not sanctioned by the most approved writers : it was not English , it was not endurable . His iconoclastic onslaughts were " highly injudicious . " His opinions were evidently not of the " safe" kind . Thus the chorus of admirers awakened the chorus of antagonists , and in . strophe and antistrophe the name of Carlyle ascended from all quarters . For some years past this has almost ceased . He has taken his place among the illustrious writers of England ; and as a certain proof thereof small journalists speak patronisingly of him , " regret" his " eccentricities , " and regard with suspicion any one -who speaks of him with reverence . Swift says it is a sure sign of a genius that all the blockheads are in league against him ; and as sure a sign is it of gigantic power wlen certain critics , who laud insignificant writers in terms fit only to be applied to the highest , adopt the lofty nil admirari tone -which forces one to exclaim with Voltaire , " Qjuel grand homme est le seigneur Pococurante J rien nepetit luipZaireJ *
Meanwhile it is clear to all men of insight and knowledge of contemporary Literature , that Carlyle has profoundly influenced his generation , given an impulse and a direction to the thoughts of serious men , and opened the eyes of all to much , that was hidden , and in many important respects changed the forms of Literature . Many have imitated his style and iterated his opinions ; this , however , is not the influence of which yre speak , it is only the superficial result of that influence , and belongs to the mimetic tendency always active in Literature ; for , as G-oethe says , "in this world there are so few voices and so many echoes . " The influence to which we refer has been deeper , more fruitful ; affecting the minds of men , rather than their speech ; teaching them to see differently , rather than to express themselves differently . A 3 a " model of style" in the vulgar sense , Carlyle is detestable ; and critics may well reprimand the imitators of that mode of utterance , which , although it suits his peculiar mode of thinking , must necessarily on that account be unsuited to ordinary thinking . Nevertheless , in a deeper sense , Carlyle is a
model of style ; not an academy model to be diligently copied , but a Jiving figure to be carefully studied . All great writers are models . All men who produce powerful effects on their generation produce them by means of powerful qualities ; and to separate these qualities from the faults—to analyze the style and detect the causes of its influence—is the real study which succeeding writers should propose to themselves . Instead of this , the majority of writers confound mere accidents and excrescences with -what is vital and organic , imagining that the peculiarities and tricks of diction are the sources of the new effects , and thus they vainly strive to produce similar effects by imitating the peculiarities . Because an orator who sways multitudes is in the habit of twiddling his watch key , and cannot be eloquent without twiddling , Jones pours forth platitudes , and hopes by means of a conspicuous watch-key , carefully twiddled , to make other multitudes hang suspended on his lips . If instead of fixing his attention on the watch-key , he had fixed it wholly on the oration , he might have ascertained what it really was that swayed the crowd .
Carlyle has several watch-keys . They nre , however , for the most part , hindrances rather than aids ; and if they assist him as a writer , they diminish the effect produced on the reader . Analysis of his books will discover that their wonderful influence is by no means attributable to the peculiarities of his style , except in so far as those peculiarities are the expression of some more concrete picturesque mode of looking at things . It is felt on all hands that an imitation of his manner ia intolerable ; but if the matter were imitated with equal success , then , indeed , we could forgive tlie manner . Let this
" lironch Revolution" bo taken as a model by any historical writer ; not a model to be imitated in its obvious and superficial aspect , but one to be studiod . It is impossible to read this work without being deeply impressed with the power and genius which everywhere flash through it : the humour alternating with passages of biblical grandeur , the fanciful and fantastic mode of representation everywhere based on the most scrupulous exactitude , the tone throughout impassioned , moral , generous . Laug hter and tears , quick detection of sophisms , ludicrous * ripping open of hollow solemnities , pathetic painting of tragic episode ? , succood ouch other in such
Vu*»Rtti*«»* V: Fluptulur?* ^ - ¦ ^ ; Dono
JTitoturt
Untitled Article
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—th . ey interpret and try to enforce them . — " Edinburgh Review ¦ .
Untitled Article
112 __ THE LEADER . [ No . 358 , Saturday
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 31, 1857, page 112, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2178/page/16/
-