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Leader (1850-1860), 16th August 1856, Edition 2 of 2, Page 17, 7" It Las always been interesting to Eng...

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      August 16, 1856.] The X, Eadeb, 785. . —...

      August 16 , 1856 . ] THE X , EADEB , 785 . . — - ^^^—^^^^——^———^— . —

      ^Jv* X I Jlti£Rilthl X?

      ? iCitmitmt-

      ? Critics Are Not The Legislators, Bub T...

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

      7" It Las Always Been Interesting To Eng...

      7 " It Las always been interesting to Englishmen to read the criticisms of Frenchmen upon Shakspeake . For many years these criticisms had a splendour of absurdity which made them the delig ht of every one whose sense of the ludicrous was keen . Of late years we have seen this source of amusement gradually disappearing ; its place has been filled by a graver interest—that of watching the serious judgments of able and well-informed

      men on works which have rarely since their first appearance been judged without absurd partialities . Shakspeaue , in England , in Germany , and in France , has been the subject of more criticism , and worse , than any other poet since poems were first written . This should always be remembered in speaking of any attempt to judge him . If the modern French critics fail to satisfy us , we are forced to confess that no English nor German critic has succeeded better . An air of unreality , and something also of insincerity , vitiates them all ; and M . Taine , in his remarkable essay published in the Revue des Deux Mondes , says with strict accuracy that " il est si populaire , qu'au lieu de le jugcr on 1 ' adinire : " and in place of criticism we have dithyrambics . Even M . Taine constantly forgets the purpose of his essay , and

      makes it the mere starting-point of rhetoric . He has studied Shakspeabe with care , and he interests us by his remarks ; but he shows too plainly the desire of the writer to write brilliant paragraphs with small regard as to the fitness of what he says . Phrases fall from his pen which are merely phrases , and not expressions of his real meaning . For example , when he speaks of Shakspeake's inspiration as " superieure a la raison par les revelations improvise " es de la folie clairvoyante , " and , elsewhere , lays so much stress on the feverish delirium of the poetry —( " on s ' arrete avec stupeur devant ccs metaphores convnlsives , qui semblent ecrites par unz main Jie ' v reuse dans uiie ? iuii de delirf )—he is using the cant language of Young France , which cannot conceive poetic exaltation except as delire , which cannot admit genius without madness . There is something so essentially opposed to French taste in the

      works of Shakspeare that we ought not to be surprised if , accustomed to the sobriety and precision of their classic authors , Frenchmen should pause u avec stupeur" before such extraordinary productions . M . Taine justly compares this sobriety of the French classics with the profusion of the English poet , in whom three images constantly do the work of one . The French poet employs an image to render intelligible the idea he has to express . Not so Shakspeare . He thinks in images . He gives you one to express his meaning , and that one calls up another , that other a third ; and debVhtin"' in these images for their own sake , he scatters them prodigally along his path . The French poet employs an image as a proposition : the English poet employs it for its own sake , delights in it because it is an image , and indeed cannot express himself otherwise than by images .

      "While M . Taine is endeavouring to make his countrymen appreciate Suakspeake , Mr . H . Denison , late Fellow of All Souls , has been endeavouring to persuade his countrymen to translate Shakspeare—into Latin ! and published a version of Julius Cccsar as a sample of what may be achieved in this direction . Of all languages known to us Latin is the least adapted to render Shakspeabe : a meagre language , having no virtue but its characteristic brevity , a language for epigrams , inscriptions , and aphorisms ; it is incompetent , even in the hands of a master , to reproduce the luxuriant overgrowth of Suakspeauean style , so prodigal yet so felicitous , so crowded and at times so simple , and always flexible with the grace of strength ; in the hands of a modern Englishman no approach to success is possible . W will give one specimen of Mr . Denison ' s attempt , and it shall be a passage full of brief sentences and free from Shakspeark's peculiarities : — Ct 8 . —Let nio liavo men about mo that , are fat ; Cos- —Qui milii aslant , Antoni . obcsi Sleek-headod men , and such as sleep o ' nights : *> i » t ; beno curatfl . cute ; qui noctem Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look ; edormiunt . Cassias isto nsyectu macro Ho thinks too much : such men aro fenxorouo . SiSSSXirX * ' 8 """^ Ant . —Jb ' ear hiui not , Cccsar , he ' s not dangerous ; Ant . —Ne ilium motuas , Ctcsar ; non Ho is a noble lloinan , aud well given . est illo oavendua ; btmo natus cst , C «& . —Would ho were fatter : —But I fear him optimo afFectus . not ; CUts . — Utinain pinguior cssot : —nihil Yet if my name wcro liablo to fear , metuo tuition : sin autem Oicaaris no-T ( Iniinf Irnmv Mm rrinn I nhmild n . vowl U 1 U " aliquid CUII 1 fomildlllO COmmUllC I do not know tlio man 1 snouia avoid css . cfc llullliucm novi quein usque vi tan-So soon as that spare Cassius . Ho reads much ; dum ju , iicarem , no macrum istinn Cas-Ho is a great observer , and he looks aium . Multa legit ; notat multa ; acta Quito through tho deeds of men : ho loves no plays , hoininuin usque ad itnum perspicit ; As thou dost , Antony { ho hears no music : ludos non , ut tu , Antoui , frcquentat ; Seldom ho smiles ; and smiles in such a sort musician fastldit ; raro feolom in risuni A . if ho mock'd himself , and . oornM his spirit gg *; ^ l ^ K ^ u ^ l That could bo mov'd to smile at anything . contemptu , qui ad hoc ulloniodo mo-Such men as he 1 ) 0 never at hoart ' a ease , veri pohmL . Talon dumper asgro foriuit , ¦ Whiles they behold a greater than themselves ; si qu an do alium nibi ip . sis supcriorom And therefore aro they very dangerous . aniiuadvorteriut : idcireo iinpriiniH <; a-I rather toll thoo what is to bo fear'd . vo"di Kllllt" , Qllod v . K ° niotuoudum Than what I fear for always lam Cosar . ^ S ^^^ ' "SjTXTil Como on my right hand , lor this ear is deaf , doxtrum , ultoi ' a oiiim aure surdior num . And toll mo truly what thou think ' st of him . et Uio muii quid do illo vero cl-iiDoivh .

      I Journalists Occupy So Prominent A Plac...

      I Journalists occupy so prominent a placo in France that the trial of one of ( them for libel ia thought worthy to fill nearly tho wholo of a newspaper . , Strange indeed mo tho revelations made in the proces Jujlks Lrcomtk . i

      Our readers may perhap s have occasionally read in 1 JIndependence J & el ge , a very flippant and very worthless feuilleton , or " Courrier de Paris , " signed 'Jules Lecomtb . " This man , who has been thrice before the criminal court , who has forged , and been condemned to the galleys , according to the evidence of the trial , has had the strange audacity to bring an action for libel against some other journalists , and to demand 20 , 000 francs as damages from one , and lesser sums from the others . The jury , after hearing the whole case , award the sum of 25 francs without costs ! Will the IttdS pendance continue to put forward as a principal contributor one whose honour is estimated at the sum of 25 francs?—a man whom even in France nobod y will fight with , because , as Ddmas told him when they quarrelled , "Je ne me hals pas avec vous , parce que vous etes nn escroc /" _

      Materialism In Germany. Der Jsfaterialum...

      MATERIALISM IN GERMANY . Der JSfaterialumus : Seine Wahrkeit und Sein Irrihum . Von Dr . Jnlius Frauenstadt . D . Nutt . This is the latest of a series of works issued during the last two or three years , which have made great stir in Germany . The origin of the battle , which has since waged fiercely , was Rudolph Wagner ' s ill-judged attack on Vo ^ t . Vogt , one of the most distinguished of German zoologists , and also one ° of the " extreme left" in the Frankfort parliament , has expressed himself ¦ with a plainness amounting to crudity respecting the nature of the soul and the origin of the human race . In the scientific views maintained by him the vast majority of scientific men in Germany are unanimous , and when Rudolph Warner ventured to open a discussion at a scientific congress

      respecting the existence of a peculiar " soul-substance" ( or as we in England should term it , " the immaterial principle superadded to the brain" ) , he could get none of his brethren to espouse his cause . It would have been wiser had he been quiet after this rebuff ; but , unhappily , personalities of a bitter kind , had already passed ; Vogt had ridiculed and attacked both him and his views ; he had retorted ; the quarrel became fierce , pamphlets abundant . We have no space to write the history of this quarrel ; but we may briefly indicate its nature . Apart from all personalities , it is the ancient quarrel between Theology and Science ; the endeavour on the theologian ' s side to coerce Science " withiu the doctrines Theology is willing to admit . Such an attempt we may unhesitatingly declare to be in its principle unphilosophical , and fatal in its resultsobstructing Science and not advancing Religion .

      , The attempt is , however , one which under other forms continually presents itself as an obstruction to the progress of discovery . It neglects this fundamental canon of all sound philosophy , namely , that no speculation should be controlled by an order of conceptions not presupposed by it . The canon may be most strikingly exemplified in the absurdity of controlling Poetry by Mathematics ; and in the necessity of controlling Physical speculations by Mathematics . The very reason which makes Physics amenable to Mathematics absolves Poetry from all such authority ; the speculations of physical philosophers imply , and are dependent on , Mathematical laws , consequently by these laws they must be controlled .

      Truth is always consistent . Any fears on our parts of the " consequences " to which a true proposition can lead or be supposed to lead are as unwise as they are unworthy . A true proposition cannot legitimately lead to false consequences and instead of permitting our anger and our terror to alight on the proposition , we should resolutely set to work first to see if the dreaded consequences are legitimate and inevitable conclusions from the new proposition ; and next , to ascertain whether , if this be so , it will not on the whole be better to give up our old conclusions in favour of the true . It is of no use screaming , " This leads to Toryism ! " or " This is rank socialism ! " both isms may be very hateful to you , but the thing you are called on to decide is , whether a moral or economical principle is in itself just and true . Having settled that , the ism will shortly settle itself . © _ — -mm t iiliJf / T" ¦ 3 _ Z * totalldifferent order of

      ... Theology , we need scarcely say , belongs to a y conceptions from those which constitute science . Its aims are different , its methods are different , its proofs are different . Not presupposing the evidence of science , it cannot be controlled by science . Neither can it control science . The two are as distinct as Mathematics and Poetry . In theology , there may be debates between Catholic and Protestant , Lutheran and Zwinglian , Presbyterian and Quaker , because all these systems proceed from one starting point , all invoke the same evidence , all employ the same methods . But what should we say to Lutheran botany , or Low Church chemistry ? to Presbyterian optics , or Evangelical physiology ? These dissonant phrases express the discordance of the ideas . We are justified , therefore , in the assertion that Theology and Science ought to be kept utterly distinct ; the teachings of science cannot be invalidated by anything taught by theology ; if the two clash , we muat ascertain their noint of contact , and izive to each its own . This has been more or less

      consciously maintained in England for years ; many of our eminent scientific men having been cither clergymen or orthodox believers . They have , indeed , been ut all times ready to decry novelties on the ground of " dangerous tendency . " They like to use the arm of the Church as a weapon of offence ; but for all established truths , or theories , they are willing to let science have credit . This is very much the position maintained by Wagner . In his work Ueber Wisscn . und Glaubcn ( 1854 ) , he said : " In matters of Faith , I prefer the plain nnd simple creed of the charcoal burner ; but in / natters of Science , 1 belon « to those who are most sceptical . " The p hrase produced an uproar .

      Vogt replied , in u terrible pamphlet entitled Kohlerglaiibe und tYissenscnajt . We think there is a good position to be made out for Wagner , but it is certain that he failed to lnuke one for himself . lie tried to support scientific opinions by Scripture ; and he was liberal in accusations against tho * ' consenueneca" which would ensue if the opinions he opposed were to prevail . This tone would not succeed with the Germans , although it is eminently successful with ud . Tho Germans think more of truth and less of consequences . Long ago , Leasing , writing to his brother , said : — " With Orthodoxy we wcro hitherto on comfortable terms ; a line of demarcation had

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16081856/page/17/