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The new number of the Edinburgh Review opens with an article on ' Confraternity of La Salette / in which the clumsy theatrical imposture of the alleged Marian vision to the peasant children in the Holy Mountain is thoroughly exposed ; and the efforts made by Dr . Umathoune , Bishop of Birmingham , and others , to advance its credit by circulating in this country the ' ted to and devotion
Manual of the Confraternity / as ' calcula promote piety , especially to the Mother of God , ' severely and justly censured . The success of this imposture among English Catholics , after its barefaced mendacity has been proved in the local courts of France , and denounced by the more honest amongst the resident priesthood , is another of the curious religious phenomena of the time , which seem to show that the extremes of knowledge and ignorance are almost equally favourable to the growth of superstition ; that the weak intellect , like the feeble eye , whether dazzled by the light or grouping . amidst the shadows , is alike unable to distinguish mere appearance from reality .
The two literary articles of the number , ' The License of Modem Novelists / and ' Goethe ' s Character and Moral Influence / are alike in spirit , style , and purpose . In both , the point of view is ethical rather than sesthetical , and the object moral censure rather than literary criticism . The style is naturally serious , not to say heavy , and the tone grave and judicial , in harmony with the general purpose of the writers , so that the papers read , respectively , very like a sentence and a sermon . In the first article , on the License of Modern Novelists , the writer takes his seat on the bench with the gravity of a judge , and proceeds in the most solemn manner to try the prisoners at the bar , Mr . Chahlks "Dtck-etms and Mr . " Chakles Reade , for the publication of certain
libellous works , entitled Little Dorrit , and It is never too late to Mend . After having carefully examined the plea in justification that the libels were true , and their publication for the general welfare , and admitted evidence as to the excellent motives and previous good conduct of the writers , he feels it his painful duty , nevertheless , to condemn the unhappy culprits as guilty of the alleged offence ; and the sentence he pronounces upon them is , that they be henceforth banished from the realms of reality into those of romance . They may still pursue their lawful calling as writers of fiction , but the fictions must not be founded on fact ; they may . still publish romances , but are prohibited , under heavy penalties , from making them matter-ofvfaet romances . We have , however , but little complaint to make against the article , except on the score of its spirit and manner . The general purpose of the writer is good , but the tone lxe adopts is one of unwarrantable assumption ; and he
treats the subject in a prosaic , pedantic way , intended , perhaps , to be impartial and effective , but which is really an injustice and an offence . He seems , moreover , to have no sense of humour , and to be quite inaccessible to a joke . It is amusing to hear Mm censure Mr . Dickens ' s pleasant fiction of the Circumlocution Office in the most solemn tones , as though it were offered as a full and fair account of the whole science and art of government ; and scarcely less so to see with what pains he endeavours to convict Mr . Keade of error , 'by comparing his novel minutely with the Report and Evidence of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the charges against the Governor of Birmingham Gaol , and with the evidence on his trial . ' We by no means consider It is never too late to Mend a faultless work of art , and agree with the writer , that many passages are bad enough both in taste and style ; but it is absurd to try to convict the writer of a grave moral offence , on the ground of some trivial discrepancies between his narrative and the official Report .
The second article , starting from Mr . Lewes ' s ' Life' as a text , discourses of Goeihe ' s character and moral influence in a grave and earnest manner , doing full justice to his intellectual greatness , but urging , on the usual grounds , his alleged want of moral sensibility . Though in some parts too much like a mere homily , the paper is throughout scrupulously temperate in tone , the writer being evidently anxious to judge equitably one towards whom he feels not ouly high admiration , but on many grounds sincere gratitude and regard . Two biographical articles on ' Marshal Marmont's Memoirs' and ' Schoclclier ' s Life of Handel / are interesting , the latter particularly so , being written with enthusiasm and ability , and with full knowledge of the subject . Take , for example , the following account of Handel ' s character , and his volution to the society in which he lived : —
He was one of tho strong men of the earth , who do what woakor men dream . With him the delight in this exercise of creative power was bright , fertile , ceaseless , and unhesitating enough to supersede that morbid solicitude as to results which belong to genius of a less robust order . In his day there was not so much talk about art , as art . The sifters , the analyzers , the arrangers of periods , the adjusters of ecstasies , the interpreters of what was never meant , had not , as yet , sprung into life , or at least blossomed into pen and ink . Enthusiasm was a little ignorant , and very well bred . Even Horace Walpole—man of wit as ho wns , prescient in taste , in his associations courageous , in his friendships real , howevor affected he might bo in his dilettantism
, finicalities of language—has scarcely left a word of judgment concerning painting or nrnela worth reading . Domoniohino was bis divinity—Buononcini his prophet . Italian music wns one of the curiosities to bo looked for on the ' grand tour' by the Englishman , supposing that he was not afraid of being lashed for liis effeminacy in caring for opera singers and their fine stuff . ' In the eighteenth century the ancient , practical , and sympathetic interest in Muslo , which had distinguished an earlier period of England ' s History , was almost extinct . Dilettantism had superseded honest love And participating knowledge : but it was a lisping , not a lecturing , dilettantism —a folly which ministered no real help to tho creative artist , yot which was not
strong enough to impede any one on , y ivings or specious counsels . The age of Handel was a bad time for a , composer who stood in need of sympathv , but it was not a bad time for a monarch who felt within him the vigour of independence in despotism . There was no one for him to be compared with there was no one capable of calling him to account . The necessities of hia position and of his nature impelled him to work ceaselessly , and if he failed in one direction , to try in another ; if he had not time to perfect hia own wares he would lay hands on those of other men , and thrust them into his mosaic , as the first Christian , churchbuilders were glad to use fragments of Greek ornaments stripped from Pagan temples as Shakspeare permitted not patches , but passages , from Plutarch and Hollinshed to figure , almost in their literal baldness , in the midst of the diction of his own imagination . With such an artist as this , the day ' s work becomes the uppermost object ; the means , a secondary one ; and the future fades into a distance too remote to excite immediate curiosity or trouble . Handel knew that he had an immortality within him ; though deferred success sometimes made him peevish , or imperfect moment had but
execution sometimes fretted his ear for a passing . He rages , they were healthy , not morbid , fits of wrath . Betwixt such a grand , coarse , jovial , and stout nature as his , and the more sickly and sensitive organisations , the productions of which -we are now perpetually invited to contemplate , compelled to pity , and forbidden by compassion to analyze , there is all the gulf that lies betwixt truth and seeming , betw-ixt life and disease , betwixt achievement and aspiration . He was a strong , angry , inspired man , with more of the freebooter than of the martyr in his composition . He rated the court gentlemen and ladies if they talked while his music was going on , less enamoured of ' the full pieces ' than his royal patrons . He scolded professors who wished to hear ' The Messiah , ' and had been indifferent to ' Theodora . ' He swore at his singers , and yet would allow a prima donna to interpolate ' ¦ Angelica splendor' ' Corfedele ' in the most sublime parts of his ' Israel , ' for the exhibition of her voice and the entertainment of fools of quality . On the whole , his life was too busy a one to leave time for much unhappiness , till Time cast over his eyes the cloud of blindness : and even then hi 3 memory and his mechanical dexterity stood him in
stead . The two first articles in the current number of the Westminster are admirable , in matter and style . In the first , entitled 'Ancient Political Economy / the -writer gives the results of ripe knowledge and . keen reflective insight in a simple , graphic , unpretending -way , and treats a dry subject in such a wise , liberal , and humane spirit , that the discussion becomes thoroughly interesting throughout . The paper abounds with ' wise saws and modern instances '—the wise saws being taken from the Hebrew Scriptures , from Aristotle ' s Politics , and Plato ' s Republic , and the modern instances from Adam Smith , Mixl ,, and other recent political economists . Here is a specimen : —
Nor are many of the ideas which modern science has reduced to axioms and formulas so new as would at first appear , but are discoverable far back , floating in the very dawn of human thought . The famed modern axiom for instance , that ' capital is the result of labour , ' is simply an elaboration and paraphrase of this most ancient and venerable admonition to man , ' In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread : ' exertion only will create commodities or ' capital . ' The virtue of association , again , is foreshadowed in the dictum , ' It is not good for man to -be alone ; ' the formation of the family being indeed the microcosm of all associations and the beginning of society . King Solomon even anticipated Fourier : ' Two are better than one , because they have a good reward for their labour . '
It is not many years since the Rev . Mr . Malthus startled the British nation not a little by his alarming arithmetical demonstration of ' the true law of population : ' that population necessarily increased faster than production ; that it is not in the power of nature to furnish a sufficient banquet for all the hungry guests ; and that , in short , unless some saving preventive check intervened , the world must ultimately come to an end by universal starvation . That was the Rev . Mr . Malthus ' s dismal discovery , which robbed Poor-Law Commissioners of their sleep , and tasked the inventive faculties of ingenious philanthropists to work out some cunning machinery for the ' prevention' of such dire destiny ! Well , the subject had been stated long before , though in a
more qualified and less alarming form . ' When the goods increase , they increase also that eat them / said the ancient Hebrew Preacher three thousand years ago . And the Registrar-General and the new Preacher of The Times , with airs of superlative wisdom , do but enlaTge upon it at recurring seasons , when the periodical returns of births , marriages , and deaths , happen to show that prosperous trade is attended by shoals of new guests at the banquet of nature ; ' brisk Tom , ' made brisker by abundant wages , having taken ' smart Sally' to church , whereof numerous little Toms and Sallys are the inevitable result . Moreover , adds the ancient Preacher , asserting thus early the solidarity of . the interests of all classes , ' moreover , the profit of the earth is for all ; the king himself is served by the field . '
The second paper , 'On English Courts of Law / is veil and vividly written , and abounds throughout with most important practical suggestions , evidently the result of experience and reflection , and a thorough knowledge of the whole subject . The article entitled Suicide in Life and Literature ' is a valuable contribution towards the fuller discussion of a most important but ill-understood subject . The practical part of tho subject—Suicide in Life—appropriately receives the fullest attention , tho writer giving the statistics on the subject that have been collected both in this country and in France , and discussing both physiologically and psychologically the causes which lead , to self-destruction . Wo may be ablo to give a specimen of theso able papers in returning to the remaining roviews next week . In tho Train , for this month , a particularly good number , Mr . Edmtjnd Yatks continues hia series of the * Men of Mark' of the now generation , with a brief biography of the young days of John Everett Millais , illustrated by a sketch from an admirable photograph by Herbert Wa . tk . ins .
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MORAL LIFE IN FRANCE . La Religion Natwelle . —Libcrte" dc Consoienoe . . Par Jules Simon . Paris : Hachottc-The two great works—for great works -we may call them , both on account of their intrinsic merit and on account of the interest they have excitedof M . Jules Simon on Natural Religion and Liberty of Conscience , are not interesting in a philosophical point of view alone . Tho Natural Religion ia indeed an excellent book , perhaps it ia tho best book tliat has been written on that subject , though its philosophical cogency is , to our mind , ecarcoly equal to the elevation of its sentiments , and the eloquence of ita langungo . Tije Liberty of Conscience is a memorable and irrefragable exposition of that groat principle of which all tho sacerdotal despotisms of Europe arc a standing violation , and for their violation of which , as well as for their hostility topolitioal justice and to political progress , they an ? nil doomed jn tho end to die . 33 ut the main importance of these works seoma to us to consist in
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bent creationbsuggested misg THE LEADEK . _ [ No . 381 , Jtji . y 11 , 1857 .
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Leader (1850-1860), July 11, 1857, page 664, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2200/page/16/
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