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Leader (1850-1860), 18th August 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 7, Aug. 18 I860.] TUe\ Saturdayr Analyst an...

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      Aug. 18 I860.] Tue\ Saturdayr Analyst An...

      Aug . 18 I 860 . ] TUe \ Saturdayr Analyst and Leader . 735

      Divine Judgments. Whilst Some Persons Se...

      DIVINE JUDGMENTS . Whilst some persons seem to deny all moral government . of the universe , others admit a moral , government b y which certain classes of action are led by a train of pre-arranged natural causes to the production of happiness or calamity , as almost unerring eonseq uehees ; whilst they deny all special interference and interposition . Others have , in Pope ' s -words , " with their weak and terring hands , " presumed to throw God ' s bolts , and dealt damnation eternal and temporary suffering-, much , according to their own notions . These last , however right they may have , been in their general creed , have often been so intolerant in temper , so onesided in view , so superstitioiisly incapable of seeing any thingcalculated to make against their own argument , so injudiciously

      inactive , that they have done the greatest injury to the cause they have wished to maintain , and have quite forfeited their claim to that special possession of the Spirit of truth which they ai-e fond of claiming . Montaigne tells us plainly what was the effect of the prediction of judgments by the opposed sects of religionists in France in his own time . In his essay ( 31 st of Book I . ) , " On the propriety of sober judgment in Divine things , " he says , " Those who gained the battle at Roche Abeille made a great triumph ( grandefeste ) of that event as a proof of the future of their cause , but when they were defeated at Monteoutour and Jarnac , they called it a paternal rod and chastisement . " Hence , he says , " there is danger that the faith which is to receive its confirmation from such changeful circumstances as these , will be shaken to its foundation in the hearts of men by events so opposite to wliat they might fairly anticipate , and by this blowing of

      hot and cold from the mouths of their prophets and preachers . The same thing has been done thousands of times with the same effect , at least on the minds of reasoning people—not superstitious ones , for superstition seems to refuse to be untaught anything , and persists in believingj or saying it believes , that people can only die at the ebb of the tide , though it sees people dying by hundreds at the flood—an extraprdinaryiJertinacity—one of the phenomena the most difficult to be accounted for in ¦ ¦ " our strange complex human nature , and well worthy of more of the metaphysician ' s attention than it has hitherto received .. It is only by unwearied strokes of the hainnier that Thou and Ba . al at last come do wn , and when we see . so inuch pertinacity in absurdity the Avonder is that they have ever come down at all . Against laying our imger on this or that event , and saying , positively , this is a judgment of God on his or our enemies , Adpisox has spoken , and a higher authority ^ Mixtox , most severely .

      Forourselyes , we object not to the doctrine of the occasional interference of the Divine hand , but to the constant pointing of the presumptuous human finger ; and let those who are disposed to ridicule altogether the question of judgments be careful , for they have some individuals to deal with whom they may think more serious pj ) ponents than a Hebrew legislator or Christian apostle . Shakespeake evidently did not . think the idea of divine interposition to be pooh-poohed or absurd , when , in that famous passage in the " Tempest" he speaks of the fate of traitors . Lord Bacox , in one of his letters , says " disloyalty , ingratitude , and insolency , are three offencesj wh ' ich in ail examples , have seldom their doom adjourned to the world to come . " These men were not

      ignorant and implicit Believers , but men of thought , to whose minds all the ordinary arguments against providential interference were as fanxiliar as they are to ours , and as they were long ago to Cicero's , who speaks fully on all of them in his third book on the •' Nature of the Gods . " The sensible Owen Fjelthaxi say _ s we ought to be cautious , "because we do not see how God ' s judgments walk their rounds in striking . " All divines are not enthusiasts , and as well as ourselves see clearly the difficulties without altogether exploding the doctrine . The shrewd practical Burxet , in reference to a practical point in English history , speaks thus modestly : " I know it is not possible to determine when such accidents rise from a chain of second causes in the course of nature , and when they are direoted by a special Providence ; but my mind has always carried me so strongly to acknowledge the latter , that

      I love to set these retlections in the way of others , that they may consider them with the same serious attention that I do myself . " This passage occurs in a history , not in a sermon . There is a passage in Leighxon in a similar modest strain , to which wo oannot at the present moment refer , but as different as possible in spirit from the " dealings out" of the old Puritans . Historians , and by no means pious ones , havo thought that in certain cases they discovered interference : thus Bbantome says that almost all thoso who were personally and principally concerned in tho massacre of the Huguenots met with violent deaths . Bacon says the same of the Spanish oonquerors in America : — " Far be it from me to justify the cruelties whioh were used towards them ( tho

      American Indians ) which had their reward soon after , thero boing not one of tho principal of tho first conquerors but died a violent death himself . " (" An Holy "War . " ) Most of our readers are aware that of tho monstora of the groat revolution in Franco , nearly every one met with , a violent death . Certainly the doctrine of retribution has too many apparent confirmations to be considered in tho light of an ordinary superstition . Wo havo stated the call for . special j udgmouts as fairly as wo havo been able to do , but to those who are too fond of assigning thorn , wo bug to offer the following considerations , first quoting tho promise that the rain , i . e . tho ordinary blessings of Providenoo , shall " full on tho just and tho unjust , " and the words , uttered by a divino mouth , —i . " Or those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam foil , think ye that they were sinners above all them that dwell in

      Jerusalem ?^—no verily ; " by which Christ forbade men to consider the incidence of sortie special calamity in itself a sign of sin . Again , let those who are too fond of tracing and assigning providential p 6 nalties reflect , if they are capable of reflecting , on what follows , and give it its due weight—no more . Some of . the heaviest calamities are continually falling on those defects of character which belong to weakness rather than to wickedness . Look first at inere carelessness . How much dreadful loss and suffering of the most terrible kind does every week's batch of newspapers announce from this cause only . In pecuniary matters , again , look at the disastrous effects of that most amiable fakit , a too great depehdanCe on the honour or honesty of otheis ; those who are the most honest-themselves being almost always the least

      suspicious , and consequently being most frequently the victims . Hundreds , perhaps thousands of families , are ruined yearly from this cause alone . Observe , again , the damaging effects of that innate want of judgment and defect of prudence which we see in some characters to be almost invincible , yet which can scarcely be assigned to that class of actions which are commonly considered as entailing judgments . How many a man ' s career has been ruined by aa irresistible nervousness ! How ihany a life has been rendered in its main current futile , if not miserable , by physical states , ofte , n strictly and merely constitutional , and for which even blame would be almost erueltv . Add , ajrain , the effects of

      prejudice , sometimes even on conscientious and religious grounds , such , for instance , as have existed in France and now exist in Russia , ( Times , May 9 th , 1859 , ) against inoculation and vaccination , and have existed in the minds of many in England and Scotland against chloroform , as rational as a prejudice against lightning conductors . A mere stupid though well-meant scruple may play its thousands and tens of thousands , and cause almost as much suffering as a great national crime ., Look once more at fickleness and weakness of character , in nionarchs especially , and see how these qualities have led to the scaffold , from which mere boldness , cunning , and determination might at least , according to human probabilities , have saved them .

      In spite of all these considerations we do n 6 t deny special judgments or interferences . ; . still we hope we have said enough , or suggested enough , to ' prevent weak-sighted and presumptuous beings from faneving that they can -.. see the flight or the aim of the

      arrow . - ¦ - ..... " • ¦ - .. . , . ¦ . ¦ ¦ . .. ¦ . - ; ¦ '; ' . -v . '' -. ¦ Perhaps , after all , the philosophical view is this : individual preservation is the general law . Human law and the law of conscience subserve this by acting as a restraint upon such direct criminal action as tends to the dissolution of society , or the destruction of the individual : but where conscience arid law iaot feebly as restraints , as . in the ease , of rashness , weakness , timidity , thoughtlessness , it , is necessary that the consequences should be especially calamitous to furnish sufficient warn ings for self-preservation , so that the measure of suffering is by no means commensurate with that of guilt , often the contrary , though there still remain difficulties which we could easily state , and which probably no human wisdom could solvei .

      Telegraphic Communication With A Me Rica...

      TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH A ME RICA npHE time has arrived , ' when a public necessity urges us to call "" JL' attention to the important subi ect ^ t ^ el ^ raplTj ^^ with the attempt to establish submarine communication with America . ¦ . ' . . ¦' . \ ¦ ¦¦ , . ... . ¦ : ¦ ¦' . ¦ v ' .. - . ' ¦ ¦ .:.: ' Out of consideration for those who with so much public spirit came forward to form the Atlantic Telegraph Company in the years 1856 and 1857 , we have abstained from giving in our columns details of the proceedings taken b y others interested in tho JSTortherh route , not from feeling any misgiving as to the reasonable character of the latter undertaking 1 , but simply that we would not be instrumental in giving publicity to any project that might arrest the course or damp the ardour of those still interested in the re-1

      eonstructian of the old undertaking ; at the same time feelingourselves thoroughly satisfied of our great want of both these lines . Now , however , that we gather from the report of Mr . Varley , the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company , that he has no hope of ever recovering their cable , and has , indeed , abandoned the attempt , we must no longer hesitate in our course , . _ but would most urgently invite •> the attention of men of science and men of public spirit , and all who are interested in the progress and well being of Great Britain and Amerioa to take this matier in liaud in a business-like way , and complete it by one route or another ; for it is not to bo endured that while " we havo effected telegraphic communication with most parts of Europe , Africa , and Asia , that the country , founded by our most inaefiUijjable race , and prospering in overy art and soience—furnishing

      us with their products and taking in x * eturn ours to an enormous amount , should alono bo shut out from that benefit . Thero _ can be no doubt that an amply remunerative return would he obtained upon tho cost of construction of any line that could be laid and ww-kod ^ au-as-talinJcJagataer ^ respect the balance of probability is greatly in favour of tho project now , we hope , springing into lifc and taking its northeruly course through looland , Greenland , « nd Labrador , nntl-thence through Canada to . New York , us wo perewivu its longest line ot Biibmurino ' wire is aboutU 00 miloa only , tho whole route bting divided into lour sections . Its existence . * , tli .-rof . irc , ouimot in its entirety bo jeopardised , as was tho oaso with tho lulu unfortunate cablolaid i ' u ono continuous lontftli butsvot-n . rruhind and JNowfouudland , now mainly to Lkj romumborocl and doplorert u ? a totaL wroolc . At present we only oull attontion to tho nubjuct ; but wo

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 18, 1860, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18081860/page/7/