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    Aug. 2, 1851.] 0$* ^Lta^tX. 733

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    PALGRAVK' S NORMANDY AND ENGLAND. The Hi...

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    uookh on or/it taiu.i;. l,<:<:t.ur«a on ...

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    St. Giles And St . Jambs. St. Giles And ...

    merciful Master , solacing sinners to be m a moment strangled by the warrant of a Christian king . He paused , and with his hand before his eyes , leaned against a wall ; and piercing words in terrible distinctness fell upon him— 'I am the resurrection and the life . ' He started , and a few paces from him , in St . Giles ' s churchyard , he beheld the parish priest . The holy man was reading the burial service over pauper clay ; was sanctifying ashes to ashes , dust to dust , amid the whirl of life—the struggle and the roar of money-clawing London .

    " The ceremony went on , the solemn sentences tuned with the music of eternal hopes , fitfully heard through cries of ' Chairs to mend , ' and JLiye MackareL' The awful voice of Death seem « d scoffed , derided , by the reckless bully , Life . The prayer that embalmed poor human dust for the judgment , seemed as measured gibberish that could never have a meaning for those who hurried to and fro , as though immortality dwelt in their sinews . And that staid and serious-looking man , with upturned eyes and sonorous voice , clad in a robe of white , and holding an open book , —why , what was he ? Surely , he was playing some strange part in a piece of business iri which business men could have no interest . The

    ceremony is not concluded , and now comes an adventurous trader with a dromedary and a monkey on its back , the well-taught pug , with doffed feathered cap , sagaciously soliciting halfpence . And there , opposite the churchyard , the prayer of the priest coming brokenly to his ears , is a tradesman smiling at his counter , ringing the coin , and scarcely snuffing the Golgotha at his door , asking what article he shall next have the happiness to show ? And thus in London highways do I > eath and Life shoulder each other . And life heeds not the foul , impertinent ¦ warning ; but at the worst thinks Death , when so very near , a nuisance . It is made by familiarity a nasty , vulgar , unhealthy thing ; it is too close a neighbour to become a solemnity . "

    Aug. 2, 1851.] 0$* ^Lta^Tx. 733

    Aug . 2 , 1851 . ] 0 $ * ^ Lta ^ tX . 733

    Palgravk' S Normandy And England. The Hi...

    PALGRAVK ' S NORMANDY AND ENGLAND . The History of Normandy and of England . By Sir Francis Palgrave , K . H . Vol . I . J . \ y . Parker . It is in presence of such works as this that we feel how inadequate is the most elaborate criticism we can admit into our columns , and how restricted must be our notice . There are many heads upon which we might discourse—many topics upon which we should willingly enter into discussion with Sir Francis Palgrave ; but we cannot dismiss in a brief paragraph what has evidently cost years of careful consideration , and more than brief paragraphs we cannot afford room for .

    It is a vast undertaking which Sir Francis has before him , and he seems disposed to treat it with commensurate amplitude . Indeed , only what Thackeray , in his lectures , expressively called " of lazy literature , " will view with equanimity the flowing copiousness of this garrulous history , adapted rather for the literature of Patriarchs than for our busy vapid time . The very prelude would form a moderate volume ; and when the story itself begins to uurol its gigantic coils , the same slow movement

    continues . Sir Francis defends this excessive length : his tediousness has a design in it . But although the principles laid down in his preface will find many adherents , we doubt whether their application in his work will meet with equal success . Sir Francis knows better what is needful to be done than how to do it . He has studied history till he has realized a very distinct conception of what is needed ; but the artistic faculty is not often the accompaniment ; of the critical ; and although the diversity and amplitude of his narrative make his volume agreeable to read , they by no means serve

    their purpose of fixing more permanentl y in the reader ' s memory ; i picture of the epoch and its events . We might establish this position by a variet y of illustrations ; one shall content us : —The chapter on the Komnri Language is pleasant and Kossipy , but its application to the work is of the Hlightest . A volume of mediaeval history may not jmfitly he preluded by a chapter on the Latin language , hut not by such a chapter as this , which Jh no more than » collection of " notes , " and might have been copied from a Commonplace book without modification . Remove it , from the volume and

    you do not make the volume a whit less intelligible rili . ° i ne opening paragraph of this chapter is one of those sententious platitudes which seriously disji gure the work . It is of the kind which modern historians seem prone to indulge in . There is an iur of impertinence about such sermonizing which « "t . irrt ought not to overlook . Mr . Alison , for sample , in hiH History of Europe , has no outj " K < -d common sense b y the immodesty of his iwik UUo , Uiat he has made the book hateful to our iif t ^ lV ^ liinciH nilH n o » " « " gemH of solemn IAU | ty ati those that sjuirklo in the pages of the

    History of Europe ; but he obviously belongs to the same school of thinkers , as witness this : — " He who breathed into man ' s nostrils the breath of life , first opened the lips of man . Adam first spake when he was solitary . No human ear but his own could hear the sound of his human voice ; called into action under the immediate tuition of the power from whom the faculty emanated . " We will not rub the bloom off this delicate fruit of philosophy by any brutal commentary—we present it to the reader for his inspection , merely informing him that the marginal note to this grand utterance intimates it to be nothing less than this : — " Origin of language not the subject of human philosophy /*

    Whatever his capacity as an artist , you will not expect much from him as a philosopher after the above . We are tempted to give two specimens of his philosophy of history , the more so because he is excessively prone to preach it . The first shall be

    on—PROVIDENCE IJf HISTORY . " Mathematicians have felt aggrieved , because they often hear those who are usually called 'sensible men , ' ' educated men , ' and the like , assert that they do not doubt of ' runs of luck '; speaking in a tone which implies that the occurrences of such tides of success or adversity are occasioned by an unknown or mysterious cause . The analyst calls this a superstition ; but there is a superstition approaching to weakness , or worse , in being over-afraid of superstition . Men do not doubt the fact of ' luck , ' simply because the casual coincidences which over-rule all theories of moral or mathematical probability , are matters of daily observation .

    " The theories of probabilities may be indisputably true according to mathematical reasoning , showing that no one man can have a greater chance in the game than another ; nevertheless , experience constantly contradicts the reasoning . Perhaps we may rather say that both views of the question are true ; if so be we recollect that « chance , ' under every form or mode of existence , is predestinated in the universal plan of Providence . Matter , Life , Soul , and Spirit , are ruled by the One Maker of all things visible and invisible , the One Lord of infinity and eternity . Every permutation , every succession , every series and every combination of number , weight , or measure , is preordained .

    " Omnipresence cannot be absent . The Omnipotent cannot be limited , nor his Omniscience bounded . Upon that earth which has been created for the habitation of man , accident is regulated with determined relations to the accountable beings who are affected by the events , fortuitous and yet designed . The gamester is brought to the Casino , where the faces of the die are to'be turned uppermost , which will make or mar his fortune . He is conducted thither to meet the predirected series of throws . By figures , and tables , and theorems we calculate ourselves out of these realities ; but activity , anxiety , above all

    danger , will surely bring them home . 'Every bullet has its billet , ' says the soldier , who falls into the contrary extreme , yielding to the dreary apathy of a blind fatality . Yet the soldier expresses himself truly , for the man who receives the mortal wound is driven by the destroying Angel before the mouth of the cannon whose discharge is to cut him ofF . And this involves the whole bearing of casualties and apparent trifles upon the mightiest alfairs of collective mankind . Universal History bears witness to the truth , yet the Philosophy of History shrinks away from the conclusions which fihe dares not deny .

    " Nor with respect to those events resulting evidently from physical laws , is the need of the acknowledgment less cogent ; for we are bound to reverence these laws as the emanations of Almighty power , obeying His will . When the sun ' s noonday rays are made to fire the meridian mortar , the explosion occasioned by tl » e unvaried rotation of the planetary sphere is effected by the workman whose adaptation of the lens guided the concentrated beams . , " Apply the same reasonings to nil the operations of secondary causes developed in the material or transitory world , when they are rendered directl y and immediatel y subservient to the government of the spiritual or eternal kingdom . Very superficial and erroneous are the teachers who worry themselves to employ their science . The outward yet marvellous knowled

    ge of the works of God obtained through the senses , in discrediting or denying the dispensation that the particular events , occasioned l > y the regnim- mi ( j orderly course of nature , does equally fulfil the decree of » peoiitl Providence . The mist or the blast may be condensed or dispersed , guided or Htaycd by the general laws of electricity and heat , of air and moisture ; and the fertility of the field certainl y depends on the operation of the laws by which vegetal ion in promoted or retarded . But tho husban dman , who acknowled ge * the abundance as a messing , or who receives the failing crop an a puniHhment , h , » H boon allotted to that very field for inn profit <„• ] UH trial . muI for / um > t . . in | livi ( liml cloud has been wafted upon the wings of tho wind , with tho purposed intent that it may drop fulness on

    the globe , or destroy the hopes of the harvest . No event can be disconnected from the First Cause of all events . It was one of the shallowest gibes of Frederick ' the Great' that , somehow or another , Providence always takes the aide of the King who has the largest battalions . This dictum has not even the recommendation of historical truth—he himself falsified it . But even if it were true , it would not in any wise alter the highest truth ; for the question would still remain to be answered , Who imparts the power by which the armies are raised ?"

    Now , this appears to us extremely vicious reasoning , but we content ourselves with indicating whither it points : If every permutation , every succession , every series , every trifle be preordained , there can be no special Providence , since the whole scheme is the fulfilment , in every detail , of Providence ; and—observe this dilemma!—if the whole scheme be but the fulfilment of Providence preadjusted , preordained , then all vice and crime vanish from the world , or are the deliberate will of Providence !

    Sir Francis is , however , consistent ; he not only reads the writing of Providence in all events , but he sees Divine Warnings or Smiles in the variations of the weather—sunshine being to him the real smile of Providence upon man ' s effort : — " The cosmieal phsenomena , so physically and morally important during the mediaeval era , continued and increased . The heavens throbbed with blue and red and yellow fires ; comets and cometary beams traversed the sky—tremendous earthquakes increased the alarm . The volcanic Rhine region was particularly disturbed , but the concussions were

    not confined to this locality . Commencing with earth—thunder . The shocks prevailed seven days throughout the Gauls ; the subterraneous ' bellowings , ' as they are described , recurring periodically at certain ascertained watches and hours of night and day . To these were added keen famine and dire pestilence . Taken in the wider sense , every physical phaenomenon is an historical incident , whether affecting the material condition of man or his mind—the pestilence-breathing blast not more so than the

    Aurora s innocuous beams . Feebly and faint-heartedly would Livy , the rebuker of a corrupt and apostate generation , have fulfilled his high mission , had he not constantly and faithfully borne witness to the prodigies whilome received by his forefathers , as testifying the active presence of the Deity , teaching them to nourish their strength by confessing their weakness , and to acknowledge that their power has a free gift , which the gods , the divine warnings contemned , would take away .

    " Science cannot dispel this lurking belief , bo flippantly denominated * superstition '—it is innate and unconquerable . If the weather be coarse during the national fete , the tricolour is gloomy . The Parisians crowds are dispirited by the darkened heavens , and they loudly give utterance to their heaviness . That a bright gleam of sunshine should suddenly illuninate the House of Peers , and dart down upon the Lords Commissioners when they declared the royal assent to the Reform Bill , was joyfully accepted by

    the hard-headed unimaginative Radical as a happy foreboding . Tokens , predictions , prognostics , possess a psychological reality . All events are but the consummation of preceding causes , distinctly felt though not clearly apprehended until the accomplishment ensues . Whilst the strain is sounding , the preesttiblished harmony of atmosphere , of nerve , and of soul , reveals to Uuj most untutored listener that the tune will end with the key-note , though he cannot explain why each succeeding bar leads to tho coneluding chord . "

    These examples will justify our mediocre respect for the philosophic qualities exhibited in this volume , but we must not mislead our readers into the supposition that philosophy is the great claim of this History of England and Normandy . Unable , from the very nature of things , to present any adequate account of its content ** , we have merely seized upon one point , which was not unimportant ,

    and could easil y he detached . Having done so , we must , pay homage to the labour and learning here set forth . Sir Francis has studied his vast subject with courageous ardour ; he has gone to the sources for his knowledge ; and he handles each topic with easy adroitness resulting from long familiarity . In all the higher qualities of an historian we consider him seriously deficient ; but bin work will he a contribution of decided value to nil who occupy themselves with medieval history .

    Uookh On Or/It Taiu.I;. L,<:<:T.Ur«A On ...

    uookh on or / it taiu . i ; . l , < : < : t . ur « a on ( lie ( iumiitu Mim-iul \ Vntcrn , u »< l <»» t / l ( lir KuLomil KinployiiKtiit , lor t . l «« euro ol curtain Chronic Oim-unoa . lijr HifjiHiiiuiKl Mutro , M . l > . J . W . 1 aiker . Dr . ttutro in a German who nan devoted upceiiil attention to the HpiiH of hi « country , and has delivered ho results of hi * study in lectures at tho Hunteriun . School o £ Mvdiuiuo , which arc hero republi » h . cd in . a

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 2, 1851, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02081851/page/17/