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Leader (1850-1860), 6th November 1852, Edition Country of 2, Page 20

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      Til Ac Kk Ray's Nkw Novml , History Of H...

      charmingly drawn , from the same originals , we suspect , as Mrs . Pendennis and Blanche Amory . The attentive reader will note , however , that in the portrait of the coquette , Beatrix , he has thrown so much real impulsive goodness , that she becomes a new creation—and , let us add , a true one . She is not bad—she is vain ; and her fascination is made very intelligible . What novel readers will say to Lady Castlewood ' s love , and to Esmond s love for the woman who calls him " , " we will not prophecy ; for ourselves we feel , that although vrai , it is not always vraisemblable . Novel readers wiJl be more unanimous about the dramatic interest of the scenes at the close of the first and third volumes . We give no hint of the story ; but by way of extract will take a passage or two of the purely reflective kind . Who will gainsay this : —

      LOVES YOUNG DBEAM . " 'Twas easy for Harry to see , however much his lady persisted in obedience and admiration for her husband , that my lord tired of his quiet life , and grew weary , and then testy , at those gentle bonds with which his wife would have held him . As they say the Grand Lama of Thibet is very much fatigued by his character of divinity , and yawns on his altar as his bonzes kneel and worship him , many a home-god grows heartily sick of the reverence with which his familydevotees pursue him , and sighs for freedom and for his old life , and to be off the pedestal on which his dependents would have him sit for ever , whilst they adore him , and ply him with flowers , and hymns , and incense , and flattery;—so , after a few years of his marriage , my honest Lord Castlewood began to tire ; all the highflown raptures and devotional ceremonies with which his wife , his chief priestess ,

      treated him , first sent him to sleep , and then drove him out of doors ; for the truth must be told , that my lord was a jolly gentleman with very little of the august or divine in his nature , though his fond wife persisted in revering it , —and besides , he had to pay a penalty for this love , which persons of his disposition seldom like to defray : and , in a word , if he had a loving wife , had a very jealous and exacting one . Then he wearied of this jealousy : then he broke away from it ; then came , no doubt , complaints and recriminations ; then , perhaps , promises of amendment not fulfilled ; then upbraidings , not the more pleasant , because they were silent , and only sad looks and tearful eyes conveyed them . Then , perhaps , the pair reached that other stage which is not uncommon in married life when the

      woman perceives that the god of the honeymoon is a god no more ; only a mortal like the rest of us , —and so she looks into her heart , and lo ! vacuce sedes et inania arcana . And now , supposing our lady to have a fine genius and a brilliant -wit of her own , and the magic spell and infatuation removed from her which had led her to worship as a god a very ordinary mortal—and what follows ? They live together , and they dine together , and they say ' dear' and ' love' as heretofore ; but the man is himself , and the woman herself : that dream of love is over , as everything else is over in life ; as flowers and fury , and griefs and pleasure ? are over . "

      Or this : — A HOTTSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF . "In houses where , in place of that sacred , inmost flame of love , there is discord at the centre , the whole household becomes hypocritical , and each lies to his neighbour . The husband ( or it may be the wife ) lies when the visitor comes in , and wears a grin of reconciliation or politeness before him . The wife lies ( indeed her business is to do that , and to smile , however much she is beaten ) , swallows her tears , and lies to her lord and master ; lies in bidding little Jacky respect dear papa ; lies in assuring grandpapa that she is perfectly happy . The servants lie , wearing grave faces behind their master ' s chair , and pretending to be unconscious of the fighting ; and so , from morning till bed-time , life is passed in falsehood . And wiseacres call this a proper regard of morals , and point out Baucis and Philemon as examples of a good life . "

      The question of " Woman ' s Rights , " and especially of that unholy right Man exercises in the name of hushand—a name which sums up in itself all domestic rights — having lately been discussed , let us hear Thackeray on OUR SLAVES . " Much of Iho quarrels and hatred which arise between married people come in my mind from the husband ' s rnge and revolt : it discovering that his slave and bedfjlow , who ih to minister to all his wishes , and is church-sworn to honour and obey ] , i ,,, —is his superior ; and that he , and not she , ought to be the subordinate of the iwiiin ; and in these controversies , 1 think , lay the cause of my lord ' s anger against his lady . When he left her , she began to think for herself , and her thoughts were not in his favour . Alter the illumination , when the love-lamp i . s put out that anon

      we spoke of , and by the common daylight you look at the picture , what a daub it looks ! what a clumsy cfligy ! I Tow many men and wives come to this knowledge , think you V And if it be painful to a woman to find herself mated for life to a boor , and ordered to love mid honour a dullard : it is worse hUII for the man himself perhaps whenever in bin dim coinprehoiiHian the idea dawns that his slave and drudge yonder is , in truth , his superior ; that the woman who docs his bidding , and HiibinitK to his humour , . should be his lord ; that she can think a thousand things beyond the power of his muddled braiim ; and that in yonder head , on the pillow opposite ! to him , lit ; a thousand feelings , mysteries of thought , latent scorns arid rebellions , whereof he only dimly perceives the existence as they look out furtively from hereyes : treasures of love doomed to perish without a hand to gather them ; sweet

      fancies and images of beauty that would grow and unfold themselves into flower ; bright wit that would shim ! like diamonds could it be brought , into the sun ; and the ; tyrant in possession crushes the outbreak of all these , drives them back like slaves into the dungeon and dark ness , and chafes without that his prisoner is rebellious , and his sworn subject undutifiil and refractory . So the lamp was out in ( Jn-tlewood Hall , and the lord and lady there saw each other as ( hey were . With her illness and altered beauty my lord ' s fire for his wife disappeared ; with his selfishness and faithlessness her foolish fiction of love and reverence was rent away . Love r — -who is to love what is base and unlovely ? Respect ? who in to respect wluit is gross and sensual r" Not . all the linirriiige oaths sworn before all the parsoiiHcardinalsministers , muftis and rabbin * in the world , can bind to tlmt

      nion-, , HtroiiH allegiance . This couple was living apart then : the woman happy to bo allowed to love and tend her children ( who wen : never of her own good-will away from her ) , and thankful to have saved Midi treasures as these out of the wreck in whi < : h the better part of her heart went down . " Before concluding , wo muut quote one of those simple passages , which ,

      coming quietly from the depth of real experience , go straight tn ft , heart : — e o tae "At certain periods of life we live years of emotion in a few weeks ; anH i t . back on those times as on great gaps between the old life and the new . ' Yo ° d not know how much you suffer in those critical maladies of the heart , unt & th disease is over , and you look back on it afterwards . The day passes In more less of pain , and the night wears away somehow . " or

      1073 The Leader. {Satomu*,

      1073 THE LEADER . { Satomu *

      Butler's Analogy V. Modern Unbelief. The...

      BUTLER'S ANALOGY v . MODERN UNBELIEF . The Analogy of ' Religion , Natural and Revealed . By Joseph Butler , D . C . L . ( Stan daxd Library . ) Bi . Q- . BoJm ' [ second abticle . ] Having treated of Rewards and Punishments , Butler next proceeds to show that God ' s government of the world is moral , and that this moral government is the same as we find taught in Scripture . If men were in the habit of attending to logic when debating such questions , they would see at once that the proof of a moral government was no proof of the particular moral government for which Butler argues , but was proof as demonstrative as such proof can be , of the very contrary . And yet Butler himself emphatically calls upon us to employ our logic , to appeal to the supreme arbiter , Reason : the passage is so explicit that we must quote it : —

      " I express myself with caution , lest I should be mistaken to vilify reason ; which is indeed the only faculty we have wherewith to judge concerning anything even revelation itself : or be misunderstood to assert , that a supposed revelation cannot be proved false from internal characters . For , it may contain clear immoralities or contradictions ; and either of these would prove it false . " ^ We meet him on this ground ; we call in Heason to decide . Let us begin with one of his propositions : — " The fact that God lias given us a Moral Nature is in itself a proof that He will finally support virtue . The fact that God influences mankind to act in the same way , and to favour virtue and to discourage vice , is not the same proof , but an additional proof of his Moral Government . It shows that He does at present favour and protect virtue . "

      Reason here may ask , Who gave us our immoral nature ? To say that we gave it o ' urselves , is to say that God is not the Author of our Being , but only of a part thereof ; to say that it belongs to our " fallen condition" is no answer—it only removes the difficulty , since the origin of the fall has still to be explained : Who is the author of that ? God , Satan , or Man ? And , with reference to this said . " fallen condition , " let Reason , also , suggest another question . We are told that although placed with a sinful nature amidst allurements to sin , yet we have Free Will , which ,

      enlightened by Foresight , may guard us from sin . Our foresight of the consequences makes us responsible for our acts . The argument is held to be conclusive . It must be extended . If foresight makes us responsible , we must either deny foresight to the Creator , or hold him responsible ! It is the old dilemma : either the Creator could not foresee the results of placing man in such a condition ; or he could not help it . He is said to " permit wickedness : " but he must foresee the result of that permission , and yet he punishes ! Butler lends us an illustration : —

      * ' Suppose two or three men , of the best and most iiuyruveO . understanding , m a desolate open plain , attneked b _ y lun ( . iuiea tlic number of beasts of prey : would their reason secure them the victory in this unequal combat ? Power then , though joined with reason , and under its direction , cannot be expected to prevail over opposite power , though merely brutal , unless the one bears some proportion to tho other . " v If " power , joined with reason , " cannot be expected to prevail over a wild beast , how can human strength prevail over Satan P And what is to be said of the morality which " permits Satan , " and condemns tho defeated struggler to eternal torments P These arguments have , of course , presented themselves to almost every mind " in the spacious circuit of its musing , " and theologians , feeling their force , have invented a method of eluding them : this is the doctrine of Probation . line for

      Life is said to bo a trial , a state of moral discip , preparing us eternity . Moral government implies moral trial . There would be no virtue " wore there no vice . If men were not in danger how could they be strong ? . u There is in this general doctrine a truth which carries tho assent of an religious minds ; and we who hold the " development hypothesis , " may readily concede what is here claimed . But , as we have noticed belore , the artifice of gaining assent to a funeral doctrine , and then assuming tlmt it , provos tho truth of a particular doctrine , in to bo gimrdud against . Ow may assent to the assertion that there am winged crcntiuva , and yet withhold belief in Arioisio'B Ilippogrif . In tho observations wo arc about to make , therefore , the reader will bear in mind that they aim at the par ^ ticular not at tho general doctrine , —at Scripture , not at Religion , —at tut '

      Ilippogrif , not at morality . , What , then , shall wo Hay of the morality of a system of Govemmcni , wherein the governor publishes edicts which he knows cannot bo obeyed , by th « vast majority of hw subjects—which ho foreseen must bo ami win bo disregarded " , 1 . By millions who can never hear of those c < h <; tH ; 2 Uy millions who , having heard of them , cannot , under tho circumstances , obey . thorn ; 3 . lty others who , having read tlirm , < ja >» not beliovo in thrir authenticity , but consider them to be toluenes \ "" f K ] c , r tho state of this world ; and damnation is the result ! . Indeed , n » J * 'H ' naively confesses , — " Indeed the present stuto is ho far from proving , in event , a discipline of vir ««' to the generality of men , Unit , on the contrary , they worn to make it » < IIHc ; "f " of vice . And tlio viciouHiiosH of the world i « in dillerent wuy « tho great ™ l ( Mil turn which renders it u ntuto of virtuouw discipline , in the degree it i » <> h

      IIH' 11 . lit if "Analogy" tells uh anything here , it certainly < loen not << " ' . •'" ' ,. " tho Scrip tural scheme is a moral ono . Indeed , tho very notic not " scheme" destroys tho idea of sin . whon tho Creator ih tic sohomoi . if sin were not inyolvcd in tho scheme uh a constituent element , u

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1852, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06111852/page/20/