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    834 THE LEADER. [Saturday,

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    : HIPPOLYTUS AND HIS AGE. Hippolytus and...

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    A Russian Pamphlet.* [.We Repeat The Cau...

    favour of her ; national Church is represented by factitious clamour as a protect of aggrandisement . The attitude of the allies towards Turkey herselfproves-- that Russia desired nothing but the tranquillity of the East , for peace -would hare been preserved if Russia could have persuaded Turkey that the only reform wMcTi , in the hazardous career of reforms she ivas entering upon , could prolong her existence , was that of her oppressive regime ¦ with respect to the Christians . In his chivalrous frankness , the Emperor Nicholas did not stand forward as the champion of the Ottoman empire , which he considered as a sick man hopelessly dying ; but he endeavoured to

    prepare-the way for a political , moral , and . Christian regeneration of the East , and to guarantee the peace of the world in the crisis he saw approaching . He reserved for himself only the satisfaction of a Sovereign , and of a Christian fulfilling bis duty to liis people and to his own religious sympathies , and to Iris Church , which for ages has counted upon Russia , her yoiingest daughter , for her salvation . It is the pretext of this initiative that the people and the Governments ¦ of Western Europe , shaken in . their principles and traditions by the Revolution * have seized to isolate Russia , and to declare war . of the in

    Are ^ the natural consequences re-raction Russian feeling against Western civilisation , a subject for your congratulation ? Russia was becoming rapidly occidentalised in . tastes , manners , language , and luxuries , when-the war came to drive her back in haughty isolation to her old Oriental principle , hostile to Europe . Seventy millions of men subdued by the pacific civilisation , of the century to modern society , repudiate and repel Aheadvances of the West . tl So much the better , " perhaps you say : " let Russia return to hei : ancient barbarism , to the epoch of her Grand Dukes of-Muscovy , and-to her old frontiers , from the Pruth and the Ataxes , to the Dnieppr andthe Dotu As fellow-guests at the banquet of modem civilisa-¦ tion weprefer the . Turks , who- are ^ more accommodating , cs ^ eci ' ctiKy stwce ^ e Russians ( have accitsiomedtliepito be beaten ^ ! W ; e believe , in the sincerity of your wishes , but we doubt their wisdom .

    If , however , you persist in themj let us remind you that history never reicedes . Look at the political and administrative organisation of the Russiau < empire ,: a . nd even if you fail to recognise the decrees of OProvidence'in the genius of men like pPeter the Great , and in the prodigions vitality of that element which tendsto incorporateanddissolve the Mussulman populations ,, ask if such a nation , and sue ]! a system , can be hurled back two hundred years ? States , like . inen , are born to Nourish , decays and perish , some by a . natural , others by a Molent death } but never has a youth ^ become a child again ; . and : the . experiment of restoring youth to age by transfusion , has "long been abandoned .. ¦ " ' The' nations it'hich subsist only by industry and commerce , by absorbing the riclies of other nvtiom , t ^ it is they who are attempt our eyes the miserable experiment of' transjTi ^' o . ^ :: ^ .: As'lfoi ;'' R . u 8 si ' av ' ' 8 h ; e .: lives by her own life and her ovm resources ;

    and toy . the special favour of Providence she might , at the ¦ woirst , live independent © f , the rest of the world altogether . It is , then , the interest of tlie West , rather to conciliate than , to isolate the Russian' Empire , Russia , it is known , was the only State unmoved . / by the revolutionary -earthquake in . ' 49 ., / Polishi peasants gave up to the authorities the emissaries of Posen and Gallicia , and the German Provinces of the Empire offered a frecgift of many thousand horses for the remount of the cavalry . Such was jnibjiaspirit on the Westein frontier of the Empire in ' 48 . Xet the Emperor [ Nicholas , interested in the repose of Europe , and disdaining to imitate the selfish and scandalous isolation of England , armed his reserves : in Denmark , . Hungary , and the Principalities , he appeased the storm . At hpme he devoted Ins attention to public works and material interests ; -abroad he negotiated treaties of commerce with secondary States who had

    no equivalent to oflfer . He laboured to harmonise the commercial rivalries of Austria and Prussia , and to combat English intrigues . His conduct in ^ 48 wstLat of his brother Alexander , when , ' arbiter of Europe , he guaranteed 4 he integrity of France , and thus realised , not by a written pact , but by a stronger moral pact , the grand idea of Napoleon *— the idea which Napoleon preserved even in his war against Russia— -the alliance of France with Russia * After so many and striking pledges of moderation given to Europe by the twolmpjarialbrothers * what . must the Russian people feel at those cries of hate which resound in the W eat , and at that aggressive coalition , cemented by the mercantilism , of England and the personal adventurism of the heir of Napoleon ? 3 No , you will neither drive back the frontiers nor the civilisation of Russia , but you , will make , her menacing to Europe by seeking to expel her , and you will realise the phantom you . have conjured up . You will reanimate

    the . spirit of her distinct nationality , -while it is impossible to deprive her of heir political experience , her . administration and industrial development , fcer financial elasticity and enormous land credit ( credit fonder ) which is capable of issuing millions of assignnts . With such material and moral forces even rcvoraes will only brace up lver strength and give fresh energy to hoc people . Faith has always performed miracles , and faith retains its fervour in a country whoso ruler is invested with atinoral authority more powerful even than her nrmy of a million mven . The sympathy of the Slave , Greek , and Asiatic populations of the Eastern countries is assured to her against the sacrilegious union of tho Orescent with the Christian flags * Within the empire Anglomania and Gallomania are no more ; the pernicious influence of a parasitical and exotic civilisation

    as incapable of prostrating the national energy . Tct thousands of JJVenoh and English remain in Hussia protected in their peaceful industry . Many of thonx have become naturalised Russians , On the other hand , tho oflieers of two Russian frigates , compelled to put into Portsmouth for repairs last October ,, were daily exposed to the insults of a population whose Government was < il the same Umcprojwe in protesting the dncerest friendship . Among the most accredited accusations against tho Russian Government there in one which finds acceptance in elevated oirolca , and which tends to arouao tho susceptibilities oS Austria . It is that of a Panslavisfc propaganda . Now this idea ia not oven of Russian origin . It is a theory of Russian revolutionists , and like every theory of raca in politics , n . pure creation of

    revolutionary ideologues . xlm theory of race was in high favour in ' 48 at Frankfort andPcsth , We beliovo it equally false in politics and in philosophy , Thq predominant ido « of Russia , over sinco tho foundation of the empire by Peter

    the Great , has been the progressive union of the Slave race with the peoples incorporated by conquest ; and this work of legislation operates successfully under the impulse of modern civilisation , which respects at once the national traditions in the past and the peculiar sympathies of every race . This is the secret of the sympathy so conspicuously Russiau in Finland as in Livonia , among the Tartars of the Crimea , and the Mussulmans of the Trans-Caucasian provinces ! But the Journal de Constantinople has improved on this accusation by convicting the Russian policy of Pajsbtjssism . We will not venture to discuss this Colossus , whether in theory or in expectancy . Supposing it to mean a project of universal conquest , we will simply recall the old principle of u who proves too much proves nothing , " and remind our readers of the world being round , which reduces all ideas of universal conquest

    to the formula of zero . As foe Panslavisaa , after having visited Hussia , and cultivated Russiun society , we found the idea rested on a mistake of words . We never heard a Russian mention Panslavism , but we . have listened to long and passionate discourses on Slavism , as the true and sacred source of civilisation for Russia , in opposition to the all-absorbing Western element . Whenever we glanced at the Slaves of Austria , the Bohemians , and the Illyrians , the reply was , " They belong to the West , they are more than lialf Germans , and they are Catholics : \ ve have nothing but a few literary traditions in common with the Western branch of the Slave race . " And even this is the language of a few hot-headed enthusiasts : the government has no share in opinions which are subversive of the policy of Peter the Great . There is such a thing as opinion even in Kussia : if its publicity is restrained it finds an outlet in literary and poetical extravagance : but no shade even of ' Slave opinion . ' in Russia lias ever hinted at the incorporation of the Slave proymejes of Austria and . Turkey . The most exalted patriots ' , speak of Russia s

    chief danger being her territorial extension . To attribute the conquest or Poland to the idea of PanslavisDa , would be to attribute to an Utopia impossible in the future the retroactive ' . right ' .-of , distorting ' ' historical facts—to prove one error by another even more absurd , Panslavism has been preached , but by Polish emigrants in Austria and Tuiksy , against Russia . Ask the Serb and ! the Bulgarian , who preached to them the confederation of all the Slave peoples : ask the Greeks if it was a sapant froin-Moseow or the Bavarian Faliineier , wild laboured to convince them that they were more Slave than Greek ? TheBavariah will scarcelybe suspected of haying served as a Eussian agent in his writings and his travels in the TJaSt .-.: Ask theEditors of the Revue des Deux Mondes , if the articles of Mi Cyprien Robert , that great 'doctor of Panslavism , have passed the sifting process of the Russian censorship ? LTo be concluded in our next . ")

    834 The Leader. [Saturday,

    834 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

    : Hippolytus And His Age. Hippolytus And...

    : HIPPOLYTUS AND HIS AGE . Hippolytus and his Age j or , tlie Beginnings-andProspects of Christianity . By C . C . J Bunseu , D . D ., & c . ; Longmans . Outlines of the Philosophy of Universal History , applied to Language and Religion . , By ¦ C . 0 . J . Bunsen , D . D ., & c . ' ; Longmans . Analecta Ante-Niccem . Collegit recensuifc , illustrarifc O . C . J . Bunsen , D . D ., & c . Longmans . The seven volumes whose titles we have transcribed form the second edition of Hippolytus and his Age , published , as our x * eaders may recollect , three years ago , by Messrs . Longmans . M . Bunsen tells us , in his preface , that the first edition was disposed of in six-months . ' The extraordinary interest attached to the publication of the work against Heresies was due , in some measure , to the fact that the Oxford authorities had ) a short time previously , ascribed it to Origen . This theory , we venture to think , M . Bunsen has

    successfully demolished , and we do not intend to reopen the controversy . The preface to . the second edition is chiefly occupied with a refutation of the numbei 4 ess criticisms which appeared in the first publication of Hippolytus . In England , M . Bunsen ' s chief antagonist was Dr . Wordsworth , late Head Master of Harrow School , and a warm supporter of what is called the High Church party . The questions at issue between M . Bunsen and his critic 3 are concerned with subjects on which it would be useless for tia to express an opinion . But the work , which will henceforth bear the name of Hippolytus , presents us with a lively picture of tile Christian Church in its earliest epochs : •—" The problem was , first to reproduce the character of one of tho leading men of ancient Christianity j and , secondly , to make that character and life reflect their light upon the later history of the Church in general , and on our own times in particular . " The original work of four volumes has been expanded into seven .

    " Tho present volumes , thoroforo , appear flanked by two other works . Tlie first presents in two parts a key to the philosophical , historical , and theological views which porvudo 1 Iiippplytus and his Ago . ' it bears the title : ' Sketch of the Philosophy of Language and of ltoligion , or tho Beginnings tind Prospects of tlio Human llaco . ' This sketch comprises tho Aphorisms of the second volume of tho first edition , bolter digested una worked out so us _ to form « n integral pavfc of a philosophical glunoo at tho primordial history of our wco With regard to tho principle of development and of progress . " Tlio second substruction , tho pmlologicnl , i . 1 nlso presented as n . Bopnrato work , and forma throo volumes . Tho remains of ante-Niceao documentfi constitute tliroe uoctiona , nono of which have hitherto been given in a coinploto and auliafiotory manner s the litonivy romnirie , tho constitutional docum ' ents , and tho limrcioal recor « lu . Of tljose , tlio third kco-B » on whs critically almost a blank before tho publication o ( my Itoliauiro Lituraiciu . I havo

    had nothing to ndd to those liturgical toxta ; bub I havo this time printed in ecutciw the paaflagoa of tho Syrian JncoWto liturgy which correspond with tho Greek toxfc , whereas , in tho ilrab edition , 1 only indicated that they woro identical . Uut I hiivo prodxeU to tlioso texts tho JElomentu Liturgioa , popularly flxhibkod in my ' 13 ook of tho Oliuroh- ' " It is obviouis that as a history of primitive Christianity , M . Bunson ' s work is invnluablo . He haa collected all tho writinga of early timea which throw light upon the creed or practice of the Church . Wo nro compelled , however , to defer for the present any lengthened criticism , and must content ourselves with one more extract from tho letters to Archdeacon Hare , which explains tho faot of Ilippolytua , Biahop of Portus ( i . e . tho harbour of ltomo ) , being also designated preabytor , and atfwds one of tho strongest proofs in favour of M . Bunaon ' s theory as to tho authorship of tho disputed book , so long aaoribed to Origon—" Tho Kefutntion of nil Heresies . "

    11 Tho ninth book gives still oloivror evidence that at that timo he resided at or near Home , ana was n member , « nd « n ominont one , of tho Hainan presbytery , lfivon they who knvvr no inoro of tho primitive ocoloaiaatk'iU polity tlwn what they may havo loarnod Ironv Uinghmn

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 2, 1854, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02091854/page/18/