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Leader (1850-1860), 10th November 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 6

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      * Wmmton', Oarer , . Itituw «»<< ''"""'«...

      himself Emperor . He probably feared nothing- from the " commandant of Sering-apatam , the adviser on Indian affairs , the general of Sepoys , or , even the conqueror of the Mahrattas . But the gradual expansion of Wellington ' s sphere of activity promised more solidity and balance to his genius than the sudden outburst of JNivpoleon , Avhose ambition was from the first so larg-ely fed . by fame and success , that it outgrew even his vast talents and capacious judgment . "

      The guiding stars of these two mighty opponents were very different in their character and influence . The one followed glory ; the other duty . The author of the Essay before us , Mr . Hiimley well distinguishes between these in his remarks on "Wellington ' s strategy in Portugal , in connection with his famous lines of Torres Vedras . Having surmounted all the difficulties that threatened his operations with failure— 'having defeated Massena , and lured him towards the fatal triple line ' of impregnable defences—Wellington was . then hi such a position , that had he " made glory , as it presented itself to the Napoleonic mind , his chief end , he would have

      poured down from his entrenchment and swept the invader back m a battle , or series of battles , which might have forestalled his later triumphs . But Ms far-sighted wisdom , his steadfastness of purpose , and his lofty sense of public duty , were never more conspicuously displayed than at that juncture . The temptation was great * but he resisted it . His was the only army fit to oppose the French in the Peninsula , and his men wove , therefore , too costly to be sacrificed except for a certain advantage . If he sallied out , the winter and privations would press on his troops as they were pressing on the French . "

      Patience was the power on whose aid "Wellington depended mo- < t . All around him was impatience—the Government at home and that of Portugal—none understanding his policy , and his secresy beingimpenetrable . But all , at length , was justified . The siege of Almeida left him the victor , and the veteran Massena worse than defeated . The latter had fought his last field . ' " . His . master demanded absolute success from those who served him ; and enraged at the protraction of a war in which the French arms constantly suffered defeat ^ he now forgot , in his anger , the earlier services of one of the ablest qf his officers , and with harsh rebukes deprived the Prince of Essling of his command . "

      Then came the turns of Marmont and of Sou . lt , and the fall of Rodrigo and Badajos . And now the stern character of the -warrior comes but into full relief ; and the two great masters of the mighty art show a mutual resemblance . Hear the panegyrist of Wellington , and what here he is compelled to acknowledge . The name of Badajos ; , he says , sheds " a lurid and bloody glare over the . page of the Peninsular annals . That slaughter , " he rijtids , " probably affected Wellington more deeply than any incident of his victorious career . Neither he nor Napoleon were ' indifferent to suffering—the natures of both suffered violence from such scenes ; yet both of them , nevertheless , caused such scenes to be enacted without hesitation , when their plans needed it . Both showed the same resolution to earn victory , even at a frightful expense of blood ; and , judged by their deeds only , it is difficult to decide betwoen what some will [ call the heroism , some the ruthlessness , of the two men . "

      We shall not imitate Mr , Hamley in attributing hotter motives to Wellington than to Napoleon . The latter was as sincere in his cause as the former ; and , as we havo since found , was reall y fighting the cause of nations against tyranny . Wellington was us conscientiously employed in delivering mankind from the threatened yoke of JSonapartism . The issues of the mighty contest are even now undecided ; and the verdict of history is yet unpronouncod . The consideration of this part of the question involves much that belongs to Wellington's character as a statesman . In this , as well as in that of soldier , he maintained the path of duty . His great faculty was that of Prevision . In that Napoleon was wanting

      He was the passionate child of the Revolution , drivon onward by mysterious impulses ; not the reflective seer who shapes the future by his own visions . Both wore forcos erjual to the crisis—and never was one more momentous . At length it passod ; and Wellington appeared in a now character . To judge him properly in this requires some power of abstraction . Wo must separate " the man from his circumstances . Wellington , at the outset of his now carcor , was confessedly behind , the ago . The civil world , when ho returned to it , was no longer what it was when ho loft it . for the wars . Ho failed , in the first instanco , to mako allowance for the lapse of time and the change of manners . Ho still stood on the lapse of time and the change of manners . Ho still stood on tho

      ancient ways , as a conservatist and aristocrat j bxit as both ho wiw a thoroughly English nohlomim . Ho judged , too , of hip position as a soldier . When ho found by experience that it was untonublo , he most honourably capitulated , and marched out with tho honour * Ultimately ho got rid of party trammels , and camo to consider himself as tho servant of tho Queen and tho pcoplo , to bo omnlovod > n any very groat emergency which it required groat force of character to stem or to turn . His personal wisdom and Iuh influonoo wore in this manner more than onco appoalod to , nor in vain Investigated closely , ho was undoubtedly » great man . Ho was folt to bo so by tho Iflngrlwh poopUvwhoBo instinct is seldom in tho wrong-. Ho was us much trustocl by thorn , in great nolitioal erinoa .

      as by thoir Queon . And nobly ho repaid thoir oouffdonoo . What ho aid ho did thoroughly and woll . Whon onco ho rpooffnisod tho need of change lie nccoptocl the fact with tho honourable ilotormination to do justice to it ; . JIo livos in our romombranco us ono whom tho future will glorijty—who will nhino as tho horo of a groat world-drama , tlio moral of which who identified with Juj & fortune ana confirmed by his triuwiphM . '

      926 T/Ie Saturday Analyst Ii>Ul Leader. ...

      926 T / ie Saturday Analyst ii > ul Leader . [ Nov . 10 , I 860

      Transmutation Of Species.* Fjnjils Is A ...

      TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES . * fjnJILS is a most interesting book on a most interesting subject . JL Tlie book is interesting because , it brings into one focus all the arguments and facts ' that all the critics of Mr . Darwin ' s universally-criticised book have put forth against his theory ( Dr . Bree ' s own facts and arguments-inclusive ) , and that the subject is-important may be inferred from the extent to which -Mr ; . Darwin' has been criticised . Every one interested in the subject should read the book ; the Darwinians ^ to find their views confirmed by the uiost powerful arguments that can be adduced against their theory ; the anti-Darwinians , that they may learn at length how useless , it ' is to kick against the pricks . There are some parts " of this book which we think Dr . Bree had better have loft out . It is to be regretted that a writer in the examination of a- scientific theory

      should reveal so prejudiced and partial a state of mind-as that which Dr . -Brec does reveal in . the following passages : —lie tells us that Mr . Darwin ' s book £ i destroys every vestige of , the beautiful- from the mind , without replacing it with a plausible or even intelligible theory . " Now , passing over the somewhat ¦ ' singular circumstance that for . Bree should take the trouble to write a long and elaborate treatise to overthrow a book that not only is nut " plausible , " but is not even ** intelligible ; " passing over this as a trilling- rhetorical Jiasco , one of those literary inconsistencies , such its we meet with in a certain class of works by ' the . hundred , we certainly are astonished at the proposition that Mr . I ) arwinV non- '" ' plausible '' and V unintellii-ible " book' has " destnned every vestige of the beautiful . "

      If the beautiful is simply resolvable into the pleasing stale of consciousness produced by the cuntempliitioii of some particular object , such as the human tbrin , for instance , we really do not sec how Mr . Darwin ' s , or any other theory , about . thy ori g in of the being possessing this form , cunlmvo any thing to do with that circumstance . t > ome minds formed under one set of opinions , might think the ' origin of . man , as taught by another set , very absurd . or very revolting . A . sectbelieving that sublunary mail has-descended lineally from , the man in the moon , or that soino particular race oT men is the offspring of the brother of the' sun ( which cases find their parallels and exemplars . among tlie Asiatics ) , might be shocked at ' b ' cimr- told that their iu'Mvoiv-desuendod ancestors were originally

      made out of the chemical ingredients which enter into the composition of this earth ' s crust . But how any genetical theory eaii have anything to do with the beauty of tho human form as it now is at the present day , we can lio more understand than . we ' can understand that a-beautiful woman would lose her charms upon its being known that she came of ugly imivnt-s . / " We truce in this one of"the most vulgar . of vulgar prejudices . ' It is not only a vulgar prejudice , but a most mischievous prejudice , to judge of men and women not from what they are and do , ' but Iroiii their ancestry . Let aman be a model of- " intellectual , moral , juhI physical perfection , as fur as anything earthly is perfect , yet if he is born of poor parents , if he is bom of working-people , b ' r even of trades-people , the mark-is- upon other handlet him be

      his forehead ; li " e is under the bail . On the , vicious , idiotic , misshapen , and yet born to a hig-h estate , and lie in , of course , an Adonis , a Solon , ' and a Socrates , all rolled into one . We regret to sec this spirit of ( what Curly . Us calls ) ilimkeyisin imported into philosophy . Philosophy , which ought , above all things , to bo above narrow prejudices and paltry antipathies , should not be written in away which makes us deplore that the writer did not boar in mind even so homely a counsel as that suggested by tho vulgar saying " handsome is as handsome- does . " And this brings us to . the other view of " beauty ; " according to which " beauty consists not merely in an impression on tho senses , but in I ho consciousness , though it may bo what has boon called , for want of a belter tenn , tho unpereoivod consciousness , of ichtp fatiuii in the thing considered beautiful . Upon this theory u part of tho beauty of the human form is resolvable into the eoiisc-iouMness that it is tho best

      adapted ofliving forms to render tho external world subservient to its needs ; upon this theory wo consider the human form bcautilul , not merely bocuusc of its mero shape- ami outline , but bucuusu it w associated " in our minds with all that man has achieved m the mences and arts . . ( Vhlo our nuinbor of gOth Oct ., p . NS' 2 , notice oi the Manual of health aiul vigour , or tho laws of life applied to tho mitural , healthful , and boautiful , in Immunity . ") . Now , wliulover was tho origin of tho human mtv , whether it ( k'sc-uniled Iroin tho main in tho mpun , or tho brother of the sun , or " growcu , according to Topsy ' s theory , out of tho onrth , what it lias bum uncl what it him done m tho pust , and what it is , and what it is ( loinjf in the proHont , cannot in tho lwist bo uflbutuil by tlieso or any otiier

      g'onotio hypotheses . ... Uut Dr . . Hreo ia still inoro vehement in tho expresMon of . liw \> wjudicoH , and of his pnHsionato dislike of that oxlromely iiiuIIoiihivo ami dispassionate entity , tho Darwinian theory . Ono would havo tliojiym that anything 1 so abstruso , ho profound , ho rigorously sciuutjIU ! ui scope , and tompornto in lanKua ^ o , as Mr . Darwin ' s book , would havo aictod iiH n sort of moiitul sodutivo to tho vory lii y host nimIo «> l wn » - bral fonnonlation und oxuberant animal Mpirits . Hut no ; '" '• Broo breaks forth in this wiso : " 1 . uunnot c <» ncl . iulo , h « . vh la 1 , " without oxprcswing 1 my detestation of tho theory j '' and \ vI i . v . < lo 0 h tho reader . HuppoMo P J 3 ooiiuso it is 1 ' jiIho or illo ^ ifivl ? !> " hiitii thing- j but bocauHo thp doctor supposuB it collides with sonio ^ ol hi « i ' orogono oonclusions i . " booauso , " to yivo liin i-onsons in Inrf own words , " of its vinflincliiiifji' inntorialisin ; bucnusdit linn ( UvvrtOd tin indnctlvo track , tho only Hiiro track that lcadnto pliysinil tnim i because it utterly roymlintes final uiuimoh , and iht'vob j V umit'Mt « ' » domoraliHod uiuloi'stauding' un tho pnrt ofitfl advooatcn . ^> n . Y ^

      * Snaohs Not Tmiwnutable, Nor Tfiamatift...

      * Snaohs not Tmiwnutable , nor tfiamatift <\ f £ iooondctr { j Cannot t (> vi > HI « . <¦>' tlfl * Examination of Mr . Pnrwin ' a Work , entitled "Origin « n « ]\ xi'Mm (/ ty'M't' - w ' C ' It , Bvoc , M . D . Lcmdon ; GwomtorMgo iuuI Sons .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 10, 1860, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10111860/page/6/