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    CLAHK ABHKY. Clara Abbey ; or, the Tria ...

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    DEFENCE OF IGNORANCE. A Defence of Ignor...

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    Systems Of Psychology. . Elements Of Cat...

    faculty of vision , association will , until corrected by experience , connect a new impression on either of them , with the corresponding action of the other , or -with that repetition of the past impression W ich we call memory . As the faculties of the mind are constantly observing new phenomena in the . external world , associations multiply ; they rise no longer exclusively , from the senses , put extend to the other faculties , connect themselves in series , form trains of thought , and constitute the discursive power of reason and of imagination .

    " We find , then , with reference to the faculties of the impulsive class , that their ordinary state is that of repose , if not of sleep , from which they are roused only by the presentation , either actually through the ?? senses , or by association through the imagination , of their appropriate objects . They then become suddenly and violently excited , and , unless reason , the moral sentiments ,, and self-control , are properly developed , dominate for a time over thought , speech , and action . The appetite or instinct gratified , the faculty returns to its ordinary state of repose , and generally cannot again be roused for a definite time .

    ** The faculties of the organic class appear never to be entirely dormant , although they are capable of great increase of energy under the stimulus of the will , which converts perception and memory into attention and recollection . " When the impulsive powers are the most highly developed , the intelligent powers become instrumental to their gratification , and their energies are chiefly exerted as servants to the passions . of

    " In the directive class , a very equable degree activity , although not incapable of some modification , appears to prevail . The just , the benevolent , or the religious man , is never for a moment unconscious of the dues of justice , charity , and religion , even though , under the strong excitement of other emotions , he may be led to do violence to those faculties . It is manifest that the permanent energy of the social , ethical , and religious virtues , is necessary to consistency of character . "

    We have sufficiently indicated the nature of this work , we cannot enter here upon a discussion of the system . The weakest part strikes us as being those chapters wherein he undertakes to apply this system to politics , theology , and ethics . If we are to take Bacon ' s test and judge of philosophies by their " fruits , " the Natural System here disclosed wall not secure our adherence . But the book is , nevertheless , the production of a thoughtful man , and will be read with profit even by those who like ourselves reject its " system . "

    The Manual of the Human Mind has a more modest aim . Dr . Carlile proposes to set forth , in a brief , clear statement , what the various powers and operations of the mind are , the place they hold in the mental organism , and their connection with one another . In doing this he modestly repudiates all claims to originality . He is too \ vell read in metaphysics not to be aware of the danger of claiming originality , and says that we ought to hesitate before hinting such a claim . " For himself the author avows that not unfrequently when he imagined that he had arrived at certain conclusions by his

    own excogitations , he has not only found them anticipated in other books , but in books which he had read , and from which he had , in all probability , though unconsciously , derived both the conclusions and the reasonings on which they were established . " Such a passage is enough to inspire confidence ; and we are sufficiently conversant with philosophical writings to pronounce Dr . Carlile an original thinker although his thoughts are no novelties . In this little hook he has not only produced an excellent Manual , but be has thought out for himself the conclusions it contains . Aa an educational book it has the decided advantages of brevity and clearness .

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    Clahk Abhky. Clara Abbey ; Or, The Tria ...

    CLAHK ABHKY . Clara Abbey ; or , the Tria l * of Youth . By the Author of " The ^ Discipline of 1-ife . " InJJvola . Jl . Collmrn . When a writer achieves any success , no matter how small , by one publication , he almost invariably writes a Kecond time , because he succeeded , not because he has anything to say . This is the causa of the general inferiority of second works . They arc manufactured to ordor , they do not come spontaneously .

    The Discipline of lAfe gained some small success , and henoo Clare Abbey . It is quite clear that there wus no internal impulse * forcing the authon'ss to write this book . She had no story to tell , no characters to paint , no experience to communicate , no Jesson to teach . Invention there in none , pathos none , humour none , subtle analysis of character none . The story moves in the broadest mta of commonplace , the characters are at once vague , uninteresting , and yet iumiliur iu their stereotyped lineaments .

    ^ Enaeat % ejr ( notice the names a high spirited youth , bred up to fortune , but ruined hy his father ' s speculations , and forced to leave the ffttfnly- domains and to earn a living for himself . Clare Abbey passes into the hands of Lord Vere , whose sob and daughter—Reginald aad Camilla St . Maur-r-fprm two of the principal figures in thje story . Reginald is affected with aa unaccountable fivmpathy for Ernest de Grey , and when

    that vague young gentlemen enters the Church and comes dWa to tjie living at Cranleigh , the reader forsees that a friendship will spring up between tbese two shadowy persons , and love between Ernest de Grey and the gay young Camilla . As if to forestal expectation , the authoress actually has the courage to make Ernest meet Reginald and Camilla riding in the lane—Camilla ' s horse does what all horses are bound to do in novels , viz ., he stumbles—Ernest , as a correct hero , darts forward ,

    et cetera , et cetera . Mem . for Novelists . This is to give notice , that for the last . time we have narrated the incident of a hero " dartiqg forward " to arrest a runaway horse , or rescue his future heroine from being " dashed to earth . " Our patience is thoroughly exhausted ! Not one more repetition of that incident will we be servile enough to record ! If novelists will employ such invention , we will not aid and abet them by noticing it . Let heroes save heroines in some less familiar way . TThe horse business is used-up j let the carcase be sent forthwith to the knackers !

    The superb young Ernest having ° darted forward , " you know of course what oceurs . Intimacy springs up . Songs are sung , poetry is read aloud , love follows in due course . But Camilla is only coquetting with Ernest ; and when he pours forth passionate words she is flurried , and begs he will not think of such a thing . Camilla is not captive to that killing young clergyman . Her heart is susceptible enough , however , in the case of a still more

    shadowy person , Mr . Frank Hargrave , who gains her affection in a rapid and incomprehensible manner . He induces her to elope with him . But Ernest de Grey is at hand to " save her . " He does " save her "; and she , having shed the requisite amount of tears , and having learned that Frank Hargrave is married to another , marries Ernest , and " they live very happily all the days of their lives . "

    Now , really , we must protest against paper and ink being wasted on such a story as that . Old as every page is , it is not selected from among the interesting pages of romance ; there are some stories that never grow old ; there are some that are never young , and this is of them ! But , if the author lack invention , we are bound to demand that this deficiency be compensated by some other qualitysuch as dramatic power , or eloquence , or wit , or observation . With one of these qualities , a great variety of commonplace incident may be accepted ; without them , we cannot understand why novels

    should be written . Is there such an imperious necessity for " new novels , " that they must be supplied , even if the only novelty lie in the binding and titlepage ? Is there such an cestrus goading the writer , that in spite of having nothing to say , he must write on as if his teeming brain were ' * bursting with big thoughts" ? What was it forced the author into writing this book ? It was not " hunger , " or the feat might be excused ; if it was " request of friends , " we trust , that when that request is made again , it will not be granted until after a plaiu aelf-interrogatioh . of this kind : —

    " Have I , clever writer that I am , any new story to tell ? or any old one with new incidents or new characters such as I have known ? or have < I experienced anything in my own life which I have not yet given shape to , but which , if truthfully fashioned , would appeal , ns all experience does , to the universal heart ? or havo I known strange out-of-theway people in strange out-of-the-way scenes ?" Having nnswered any of those queries affirmatively , it becomes lawful to grant the request of friends . Otherwise it ia not lawful . Positive injury is the result , and injury purchased with no greater good than th « tf satisfaction the author derives at seeing three lifeless volumes on his table 1

    Our readers know the keen relish with which we devour yood novels , and how heartily we praise them when we have tl )© chance ; but it docs appear to us that the lawless leniency of criticism , pulling as ohefn d'oftuvres , works which have not salt enough within them to bo preserved in the memory for three days together , has , with concurrent cuuBeti , helped to make the novels of the day as bad as they were iu the glorious epoch of tho Minerva rr « 88 . Therefore , although severity is never

    ¦ ' — an agreeable necepwbp , jt is a necessity whiclTli ' i critics should accept . *« Of Clare Abbey we haye already indicated a , opinion ; but injustice we should add , thaj unf vourable as that opinion is , the work is not wor —nay , perhaps something better—than the n ^" rity of novels which claim to be " read ' * becaii they aria baptised this season . There is notfejn positively absurd or foolish in it j level mediocrit sustains its pages equably ; and if it nowhere < 2 for admiration , it may pe read with the ai < iof copious " skipping /*

    Defence Of Ignorance. A Defence Of Ignor...

    DEFENCE OF IGNORANCE . A Defence of Ignorance . By the author of " * How t « ~ , Home Unhealthy . " ' Chapman and Kg It is somewhat surprising that a writer of bo muc ^ wit , humour , fancy , and intelligence should not have perceived that the irony lying at the bottom of this Defence of Ignorance could not , in the very nature of things , be successful beyond the limits of a few pages . A man may write a Panegyric on Folly , or a . Defence of Ignorance ; but to suppose that a volume with serious and even polemical tendencies could be borne along b y such a machinery as this , viz * , a select committee inquiring into the state of education ., with a view of adopting necessary measures for the Defence of Ignorance is

    to suppose that the substance of a volume lies ia a foon mot . In the present case the reader sees throughout that the author is careful to bring forward his views on education , and adopts a clumsy machinery for the purpose . All that is said might have been as successfully said without the elaborate jest being constantly thrust before the attention . There is too much of the joke prepense in it . But although we regard the machinery as a failure , the book has fortunately the redeeming merits of being very witty , very amusing , ay , and very suggestive . The pages are crowded with fanciful and humorous similes , illustrations , turns of phrase , and beneath the pleasantry there is serious thought , Take the following of a- ^

    CLASSICAL ACADEMY . "Dr . Thomas Williams , a member of the University of Cambridge , and fh . D . of Pisa , does by no means neglect the Greek and Latin of ' his young gentlemen at Euclid Hall Aoademy . When Captain Harris exhibited hia drawings of wild beasts to the Zooloos , they were amazed , and said , that' he undoubtedly took very string medicine' before he could become so clever . Doubtless they knew how Englishmen are taught . Very strong medicine and y ery nauseous is daily administered by Dr . Williams to his young gentlemen , whom by that means he hopes to make extremel y wise . In an uncarpeted room , with dirty walls , the windows made opaque

    with paste , sit the recipients , fifty in number . They six on forms that are immovable , and they are expected to remain immovable upon , their forms . Their books are supported before them upon dull rows of unpainted , wooden desks , With inkstands fixed therein , about as far apart from one another as the raisins in the Sunday pudding . Dr . - William * struggles with nature to put bigness into his own five feet seven . He sits on a lofty throne , before a desk or altar , and to him the rows of worshippers look up . He might bo SerApia , as tho god appeared before his demolition . The gigantic idol , with his arms upon the temple roof , was no less a real god in the Serapion , than here in hi « Williamaion , Williams is sublime . When the hollow metal of the idol

    broke under the profane hatfthet of the iconoclast , the crack was thought to be the crack of doom . Tho worshippers shrank to the ground , cowering with fear : these worshippers of Williams even in their dreams would shudder at the thought of a bold hand or voice uplifted against him . "Uuho . I mot Williams , by-the-by , one day at a dinner-party , and the five feet seven of his heig ht seemed then to be by five feet six too much for him ; if he could have had but an inch of himself left , wherewith to run into a mouse-hole , I believe that such a temple would have then sufficed .

    " Civbtta . A nod expresses the aublimo w » D , quickly understood among an abject crowd . l he first Greek class goes up . Twelve boys stand side by side , oach holding a book which slightly trembles ; they stand before the desk ; if the cane were » sacrificial knife , a picture might be drawn of WiUi **" as a savago priest about to offer twelve youths to tho God of Ignoranqc . I grant that this is not agreeable . ourfl

    and I could wish that a most useful oause , like , could be maintained in tho ascendant by menus lew repulsive . But children sock for knowledge , » n their eagerness must bo repressed . Tho book wluc these youths bold is in each caso the same , « ° d ° P at tho Hiimo page . It con tains the plays of Sopnoc Thuso boys havo boon draggod through grammar through a cactus-bush . They know all about rv % *^' Williams bad not the consistency toeay for them t active pnrt , I strike , I havo etruck , I will striko ;

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 12, 1851, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12071851/page/16/