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Leader (1850-1860), 12th May 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 17, The opening article of the North British...

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      May 12, 1855.] The Lea Be B. 449

      May 12 , 1855 . ] THE LEA BE B . 449

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      Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...

      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make Iaw 3-they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

      The Opening Article Of The North British...

      The opening article of the North British Review extends to no less than seventy-two pages , not one of which will be skipped by a reader who glances at the first . It is a biography of " Sir Walter Raleigh , " an eloquent , we may almost say a passionate defence of him , and that too " on the Bible method , " which will make many a reader stare , but which the writer very seriously attempts : — We merely take the broad facts of the story from documents open to all , and comment on them as we should wi 3 h our own life to be commented on . But we do so on a method which we cannot give up ; and that is the Bible method . We say boldly , that historians have hitherto failed in understanding not only Raleigh , Elizabeth , but nine-tenths of the persons and facts in his day , because they will not judge them by the canons which the Bible lays down . This , indeed , seems to him the only way cut of the difficulty . " Judged as the Bible taught our Puritan forefathers to judge every man , the character is intelligible enough ; tragic , but noble and triumphant : judged as men have bsen judged in history for the last hundred years , by hardly any canon save those of the private judgment , which philosophic cant , maudlin sentimentality , or fear of public opinion , may happen to have begotten , the man is a phenomenon , only less confused , abnormal , suspicious than his biographers' notions about him . " Whether the fault lie in the method or in the writer we will not determine , but the net result is that a biography of Raleigh is presented to us which is very interesting and altogether incredible . We read , but it is as if we read a novel . We have no belief in the reality of the picture thus painted . It reads as if originally intended for an episode in Westward-Ho ! ( for no sagacious reader will fail to discern its authorship)—and we would rather have read it there than in the pages of a Review . While entering this protest , however , let us urge every one to get the Review for the sake of this article . We cannot indeed commend the Review as usual . This number is very inferior to the average . We know how many difficulties beset an editor , how hard a task it is to produce eve n an average number when the standard is high , as in the present case ; but if critics did not occasionally apply their cautery , the public would infallibly soon apply one less agreeable . Aprojios of the difficulty of producing a succession of good numbers , we may mention that another Review is about to be started to try that question , and to render it more difiicult for others . It is to be called the National Review . The prospectus is as vague as prospectuses usually are , and we cannot therefore pretend to say whether the Review will fill any unoccupied place ; the first number will show this , and show whether the " obvious void " . was felt in the minds of any class —except its projectors . There is nothing in the new number of La Revue des Deux Mondes which tnree wnicu

      It would hardly be worth pausing to point out such an error , were not the error general even among writers usually accurate . In leisure moments ifc is always useful to note down a popular error ; one knows not how manyreaders may be interested . Who knows what will not interest some readers ? Man is intellectually omnivorous ; otherwise what a dismal world for dunces , what a poor chance for maniacs ! The advertising columns , . . read by this light , are full of profound philosophy ^ and as Jean Pau £ says of his ' Quintus Fixlein , who was engaged in a compilation of errors of the press , " he was of opinion that great moral conclusions were to be drawn from these errata , and advised the reader to draw them" so say we of the advertisements . Here is one , for example , cut from the Atkenceum : — EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERIES . —THE GRAND SECRET ; or , Knowledge Purified from Doubt and Error ; Bible Truth vindicated ; Scientific Fallacies exposed ; Infidelity disarmed . —The relation of the Nile to the Natural History of Light ; the proof from it that Yellow Rays only are derived from the Sun , & c ., & c » will be found of an astounding nature . Is . Houlston and Stonemau , Paternoster-row . This is a tdxt on which we could preach for an hour ( suppress the rising terror , we will not do so ) , pointing out the nature of the mind exhibited in this noble incoherence of ideas , and this startling rapprochement of infidelity disarmed by the yellow rays of the sun . But we follow Fixlein , and advise the reader to draw the moral for himself . Besides this paper on the war , the Revue has a survey of French literature under the monarchy of July , written by Gustave Planche in his accustomed style of intense arrogance and acerbity ; and a paper on the proposed canal from Alexandria to Suez , by M . Talabot . The Prince db la Moskowa narrates the historical ep isode of the siege of Valenciennes in the seventeenth century ; and M . Amp ^ he discourses of Washington with that ingenious fertility and pliancy of allusion by which Roman Imperialism is tempered . To every Domitian there is a Tacitus . Referring to the six months' absolute command of the military forces granted to Washington , M . Ampere observes , ' The danger of a military dictatorship was not great with a man who wrote to Congress , ' Far from considering myself released by this mark of confidence from every civil obligation , I shall always remember that the sword , to which we have appealed only in the last extremity for the defence of our liberties , must be laid down as socn as ever those liberties shall be firmly established . ' Washington teas one of those men who , after having made such promises , keep them . ' ' ' The Revue is certainly comprehensive enough in its hospitality . After the Due d'Aumale we have the Prince de la Moskowa ; atfer the son of Louis Philippe , the son of Net , and the » devoted adherent of the Empire . lint the Prince de la Moskowa dispenses with the signature of V . de Mars , whose interesting series of pap ers on the Zouaves and the Chasseurs is about to be p ublished in a handsome volume , without any author's name .

      tempts . us into comment , although there are two or papers may tempt the reader . For instance , any one not wholly fatigued with the war q uestion , may read Xavier Raymond ' s clear and candid summary of military and diplomatic operations , Une Armce de Guerre ct de Diplomatic , especially for its defence vof the Turks , whom it praises for sobriety , patience , courage , truth , dignity , gratitude , and for tolerance superior to that of any European nation . This claim of tolerance M . Raymond kno \ v 3 will bo paradoxical , but history is ready to prove— not , as he says , that it is no paradox , for it is one , but—that the paradox is a truth . " Of all European states , " he says , " the Ottoman Empire is the o nly one which for centuries respected the various religions opposed to its own , and permitted them to exercise their rites within its states . Jews , Christians , Armenians , Yezedis , Druses , Ansaries , Greeks , or Latins—all have been able to live and maintain themselves under the empire of the Tui-ks . " We are not disposed to enter on this historical question , but rather to follow our habitual vein of commenting on detached points , and say a word on the much-abused error respecting paradoxes . " I will prove this to be no paradox ' is a perpetually recurring phrase . Good sir , all the proof in the world , piled demonstration deep , like Pelion on Ossa , will do nothing of the kind . A paradox is a paradox , and cannot be proved to bo no paradox until it has outlived this its larval condition , and wings its way over our heads as a perfected and familiar truth . You may prove that a paradox is not an error , but you cannot prove it to bo no paradox ; it may cease to be a paradox in ceasing to clash with your views , but it is you who change your position with regard to it . For what is a paradox Y It is a bo £ a , or opinion , which is irapa , in contrast with , your Sofn , You have your doxies in which 30 U devoutly believe ; and as these doxies have full privilege of ranging amid unmitigated nonsense , a privilege of which they avail themselves profusely , you see how easily it may occur that my more sedate and circumspect doxies should hold aloof from , and somewhat haughtily contradict , your doxies . Every such contradiction is to you a paradox . It ceases only when the contradiction ceases ; but although you may remove a contradiction , you cannot prove it to "too no contradiction . What is true of the individual opinion is true of current opinions . Every new opinion is a paradox and must remain such until it has familiarised itself so far with tho opinions current among the crowd us to lose its gloss and novelty and become a truism or a falsism .

      Congreve's Lectures On The Roman Empire ...

      CONGREVE'S LECTURES ON THE ROMAN EMPIRE OF THE WEST . The Roman Empire of the West . " Four Lectures delivered at the Philosophical Institution , Edinburgh , February , 1855 . By Richard Congreve , M . A . Late Fellow and Tutor of Wadham College , Oxford . John W . Parker . These Lectures contain a vigo rous and lucid summary of the history of tho Western Empire , but with a startling moral , and a still more startling application of that moral . We are quite prepared to hear that the autocracy of Augustus was a necessity to a city torn by factions and a heterogeneous and disorganised empire . This necessity arose from the vices of the republicans , not from the republic an constitution ; for had a ll the governors of provinces been Ciceros , the provinces could have desired nothing better except freedom . But it had arisen ; and we only beg a little sympathy for those who , in their loyalty to a principle , refu . se to accept the " judgement of events , " for of such are the liberators of nations . No doubt , too , in studying Roman history , we have looked too exclusively to the Republic and too little to the vast civilisation of the Empire , which , we are apt to forget , lasted almost as long as the Republic , and as long , to measure by our own history , as from the middle of the reign of Edward III . to tho present day ; and which , moreover , left to the world great legacies of law , international unity , and municipal organisation , inherited by itself mainly from its predecessor . So far we go with Mr . Congreve , and we confess that his Lectures excite in us a desire to study more intimately the Imperial system . But we pause when ho speaks of the government of the Caesars in language of enthusiastic approbation ; and we start back when he tells us that it is tho true typo of government for all the kingdoms of Europe at the present day . ^ m Does Mr . Congreve attempt to change the picture drawn by lacitus , Suetonius , and Juvenal ? Does he deny the reigns of terror and suspicion , the frnntic excesses of tyranny , tho hideous orgies of the palace , tho domination of frecdmen and spies , the Mcssalinas and Locustas , tho abysmal corruption of bociety , the decimation of talent and merit , tho utter degradation of intellect and literature , the paralysis of urt and even of invention , the persecution of Christianity and philosophy , the annihilation o < patriotism and political virtue , the sure decay of vitality and tho power oi self-defence , the maddening eftoet of despotism on the despot , or the condition of a world governed by a . madman Y He docs not . Ho sometimes giyoa the facts rather a new colour . Ho represents the insane cruelties o Caligula to tho population immediately around him as springing m some degree iroui a grand Imperial idea of vindicating the cause of nations against Kome . Ho flelicntely designates as a financial motive the thirst of money for his mad lusts which led Curnoullu to force all the world to buy with increased taxes tho worthless title of Roman citizen . Hut ho leaves Nero a 3 he was when

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12051855/page/17/