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546 The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [ J...
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HAYES'S AECTIC BOAT JOURNEY* ARCTIC lite...
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* An Arctia lioat Journey in the Autumn ...
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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.
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The Chuech Before The Reformation.* Mhan...
of the work to which we have adverted . We shall , we believe , best discharge our duty to our readers by giving a concise sketch of the plan and leading features of the book , pointing out , where occasion seems to us to deman . d , special ' merit or . special shortcoming , ; Early in the introductory matter , Dr . Kurtz marks the leading lines oi' historical inquiry which he is to follow . Primarily , he will narrate the history of the Extension and Limitation of Christianity ; then the history of Ecclesiastical Constitution—this as obviously suggests the Development of Ecclesiastical Doctrine and Science ; lastl
from that , again , springs the History of Worship ; and y , the inmost kernel of all these concentric shields , the History of Christian Life . Under these , there are subdivisions—the History of Worship , for example—branching into the various aesthetieal accompaniments to Church Service , akin to and connected with _ it , yet not its integral parts . And when the dawn of the " Reformation comes to be traced , there are chapters on " Humanism . " the secular awakening help of Bessarion , Valla , Erasmus , and Buchanan , to the religious work of Savonarola , Luther , and Knox .
So much for the plan and method of the book . These concurrent , generally parallel , yet not always distinct lines , have each certain common stages of changed development . The manual is thus 7 iistoriealhj divided . The first and shortest epoch is the " Foundation of the Church by Christ ; its Constitution in the Apostolic Age . " To some little extent—for the theory is not overstrained—this is regarded as the Oriental phase of Christian development . What Oriental character is marked as distinguishing early Christian teaching , is traced rather to the Judaism of the first Christian teachers , than to subsequent influences of the soil affecting the firstfounded Churches of the East .
The second section of the book , both chronologically and in respect of the space given to it , is the " Development of the Church in its Antique and Classical form . * ' The last and longest section of the -book has to do with the " History of the Church in its Mediaeval and Germanic form of Development . " Here we have an important divergence from the ordinary plan of Church histories . Professor ^ Kurtz sees what ultimately became the Protestantism of Wittemfoerg and Wornis existing in germ hi the first days , when Goth and ¦ Burgundian were baptized , ' either * into Catholicity or Arianism . In entering , then , upon his third and—as is natural to an orthodox Protestarit and a Gentian *—his ' 011161 * and most elaborate section , he goes back to the first IDhristianization of the Teuton faihily . He travels over all the centuries he had "fust left , "when he
hn & doxie with the Church " Antique and Classical —in other words , Roman . He gets back into the main and full line of narrative only when , long after Charlemagne , modern composite ¦ na tioDS were quite formed and fused , and the ascendancy of the Teuton life over the dead classic , imperial form , which lias given "to the world its new forms of civilization , was becoming assured . This seems to us at once a most orderly and historically correct and , at the siime time , a pleasing arrangement . There is perhaps ( but this is pariloriable ) a little too much mere Germanism in the working out of this section . It certainly tries pur faith in the theory when we see Hildebrand ' s name appearing in one of the chapters of this section , The attempt , too , to credit the —Sclayoiuc-x * ace-imdjeluinili _ w . ith a large share in the development of
the common features of Christianity is altogether untenable and inexcusable . This literary form of Russo-mania is , however , accountable ; for is not Dorpat , the scene of the professor ' s prelections , which , in n condensed form , we are now considering , a Cferman colony far off in the heart of Muscovy P It is just to our author to state explicitly that his views of the development of Christian history , which bur space has made us so meagrely summarise , have regard only to the accidents and externals of the faith . The concurrence of Platonism with . Christianity , for instance , he traces as prodtxeing the thence accruing heresies of the times . But he does not believe that there is left any residuum in the recognised orthodox doctrine of our own days , from the msitrimony effected at Alexandria between the dreamy and emas- > culate Christianity of Oriental proselytes and the lofty and soaring imaginings of him who wrote the Phoedo . Dr . Kurtz will not have it that-ought of the dogmatics which he teaches to his Dorpat disciples can be traced to what Proclus or Plotinus wrote .
One great defect there is in the book , very damnatory indeed of its worth u ' R translated into English for English readers . _ Our ^ national services in the development and in the destruction of ecclesiastioitun and superstition are almost ignored . Only what could not , except by the veriest ignorance , have been omitted , is given . There are six pages devoted to Chrintianity in * early Britainonly six puges . Into these aro , perforce , compressed all notice of the long vitality of the Saxon national Church ufter the Papacy had subjugated the continent ; und of the longer vitality of primitive faith in Ireland , and in the isloa of Iona und Lindisfarne , where the Culdee preachers were trained to teach primitive truth , after enlisted their
( IconoclaHtic ftud Monpphysite controversiefl had wordy aud belligerent combatants . We bnveabout double as ninny pages on Wyclifle , the most of thoae bdng * interpolated by the editor and translator . This is all the room given . to the English pre-Reforma-, tioa Church by an author who dwells with some prolixity upon Ohazi > rs and Bulgarians as prominent' agents in the development Of - Chrirttiun doctrine and worship 1 Had these men less of Sclavonic leanings , loss of more Germanism , more of Catholic Teutonism , more room might have been found for the religious history of a ( people who refused to p » y Peter ' s pence when all Europe was ceding the tribute ; who , not to speak of other namen , sent one Boniface to earn his canonization in Khinelmid , and- who warmly seconded that
other and less mythical Boniface , the handsome Savoyard prelate , who bearded his king as valiantly as did De Montfort , who feared the Pope as little as did Wycliffe .
546 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [ J...
546 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ June 9 , 1860 .
Hayes's Aectic Boat Journey* Arctic Lite...
HAYES'S AECTIC BOAT JOURNEY * ARCTIC literature , since Sir John Franklin ' s expedition , hasgrown into a library of considerable dimensions , numbering , in fact , about 100 publications . The one now added to the list is supplementary to the Narrative of Dr . Kane , and gives a fuller account of the party of eight persons who left the brig Advance , then in Rensselaer Harbour , in order to reach Upernavik , in North Greenland , and after four months returned . A verbal report was made to Dr . Kane at the time of the journey ; but that being found too meagre for use , the present one has been written , containing fuller and minute details , and is now published as preliminary to another expedition towards the North Pole , proposed to be undertaken by the author . It is preceded by an introduction wrilten by Dr . Norton Shaw , from which it appears that Dr . Kane , regardless of the instructions given to Sir John Franklin , adopted the Russian theory of si " Polvnia , " or Open Polar Water , to which he fancied
that the lost Franklin expedition must have penetrated , vid Wellington Channel , and pursued his line of search under the most apr palling difficulties . In his opinion , Greenland terminated at Cape Agassiz , in the great glacier named by him after Humboldt . This opinion , however , has been contested . Dr . Henry Rink , the Danish inspector for North Greenland , for instance , believes that the Humboldt glacier of Kane is not to be considered as the outlet of the great fluvial ice system of Greenland , but as one simply analogous to the- ' other glaciers of that country , and looks upon these glaciers as pieces , which have been separated or " calved " from the masses , gradually advancing from the interior of the country towards the sea . Mr . Hayes ' s intended expedition is to be directed up Smith Sound , in which it is hoped that he will be more successful than Dr . * . Kane ; at any rate his proposed adventure is in accordance with the spirit of the age .
There is , at the beginning of the present narrative , the record of a pedestrian excursion on the ice , ' which presents sortie exquisite points of description . It was not all rugged scenery ; for the party came on a more lively spot , where the outline of . the hills became more even , and the valleys were picturesque , sloping 1 down to river bankswhich were verdant and broad , " Patches of audroineda , —arctic type of ScotiaV heather , —its purple blossoms not yet nipped by the winter frosts , gave here and there a , carpet to the feet ; , and furnished us fuel for the cooking of a meal . Becls of green moss-and turf , whose roots supplied pabulum to some festucine grasses on which were browsing little 'herds , of reindeer , gave to the scene an aii of enchantment , and brought to recollection the verdure * of my native Chester . These meadows often tempted us from our course ,
sometimes to steal a shot at the deer . In the former purpose we were always amply successful , but in the latter vve were frustrated by the timidity of the animals , who could not , with all our arts , be surprised , nor approached within rjflo shot . The old buck who stood guard over the herd , gave the alarm by a significant snort ; and , nn ^ Ty-at-being-diti + ui'bedT-lttd--away— his _ clia ^ e , _ JJie ^ jviKUellj |^ Qp __ bounding off to the mountains . Thence , looking down over the cliffs , they were seen watching us until they were lost among : the . rocks , from which , in the distance , they could not be distinguished , " But we cannot linger with pictures such as these , beaut iIul as they are . There is sterner labour to go through . It having been resolved , as above suggested , to make a southward journey in boats tp Upernavik rather than to hazard a second winter in the ice , a
leader of the enterprise had to be chosen , and the election fell on Mr . Petersen , who had experience of twenty years in all the phases of arctic life and travel . , Provisions , calculated to last four or five weeks , were taken ; and they set forth to-transport their ciirgo to the open water , but they approached the outter extremity of the cape without ; seeing anything but ice . The brig was ten miles behind them , and Upernavik more than a thousand miles before . Wluit a wilderness intervened ! At length the floes giving way , the sen is left open to the south-west . Still they have to await the floodtide before the boat cum bo launched , and even then its way is impeded by pieces of heavy ice . Again they have to try the " floes , " and
encounter many serious accidents , which caused their courage to wane . Open water was seen in the distance , but could not be raiched . They had to make a passage by breaking through the ice ; and after going a little waj ' , to pitch thoir tent again on an old floe . Ultimately , they succeeded in getting under sail , but hoou found their lead closed . But again the movements of the ic : e-fields afforded an opening . More than once this happened ; until , lo , they found " no barrier at all ; and in an open sea , dotted only here and there by a floe , " they " were spinning down the coast at the -rate of four knots an hour . "
Four hours ' sail , and again the cry is " Ice ahead ! " They had run down into a bights . ' with a leeAshore to the " east , and k * ot <> the , south and west . They must scud nwny from the clanger , sind ultimately find harbour upon a floe . But only tem p orarily ; for , in a moment , the whole face of things wjis changed . The ice had been in rapid motion ; ' there remained only a tongue , a fow feet wido , to protect them from tho surf . Tho boat , 'howovoi-, was hauled up in time to save her . For the description of tho whole HCene and' the
* An Arctia Lioat Journey In The Autumn ...
* An Arctia lioat Journey in the Autumn nflSBi . By Isaac J . IIAVE 3 , Surgeon of tho Second Griiinell Expedition . Edited , with an Introduction and Notes , by Dr . Norton Hiiaw . Iiioliard Bontlcy .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 9, 1860, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09061860/page/14/
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