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    ^nrtfalin.

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    We should do our utmost to oncourhtfe th...

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    PASSAGES FROM A BOY'S EPIC. OLYMl'lIS. ,...

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    Mr. Commissioner Phillips As Student And...

    saw his disciple sink in suicide before him , without rebuke , without murmur , without interference!—and shall I believe thy coward blasphemy against such bright examples ? Shall I , for the paltry hour of pitied misery thy trembling avarice would hoard , asperse the path antiquity has hallowed ?—the path which sages trod and martyrs sought and heroes travelled ?—the path made lucid by the track of piety and " virtue ! by the holy march of that illustrious crowd , Lucretia , Cato , Brutus , consecrated ?—No , that act , the resource of the persecuted , tyrants may denounce , but cannot punish , —the act of the brave , those may slander who dare not perform . Let the posthumons vengeance of the monk display itself— though the earthly relic moulder not in monastic clay , the flowers , which bloom on its neglected grave , will not be the less lovely in the eye of heaven because they rise up from the brave man ' s resting-place without the culture of hypocrisy ! , "Thee whose rites

    At nature's shrine with holy care are paid Daily and nightly : boughs of brightest green , And every fairest rose , god of the groves , . ; -, . ¦¦ - ¦¦ ¦ . ' ' The queen of flowers shall sweeter savq for thee . ' , , . ; ; , I confess it—the weight of life was too heavy and I determined on its renunciation . From that moment I felt a sweet serenity : I thanked my God that I had never listened to the canting tale of mercenary jugglers who had armed the return to his abode with terrors . Life ' s journey done , death seemed to me only as a . kind restorer to those departed friends who had already finished the oppressive pilgrimage , and were now at rest in heaven . 'Tis but a fancy i yet a fancy , Burely , just as rational , as full of happiness to man and meek belief in heaven ' s benevolence , as any of the complicated and fantastic theories which ingenuity has invented or bigotry would enforce . " , . •¦¦/¦ , / . ¦¦ Jesus Christ , you observe , is only " a pure and spotless prophet ,: " and lie countenances suicide ! ' i PLEADINGS IN FAYOUR OF ADULTERY . ' ; < r : \ u "Alas , Celestine , are those the arguments with which you oppose toy passion ? Could you submit to the cold decision of prudential calculation , an ardour whieh is identified with my very existence , and which nothing but ; death 1 can '^ itbinishP would you extinguish the celestial flame by the frigid maxims of earthly policy ? would you bind love by reason , or calculate the degrees of passion according to the rules of arithmetic ? It is impossible—you might as well try to freeze the lava , in its current , or to enchain the wings of the lightning!—You tell me you are married , . and that the law forbids my passion ! Law forbid passion ! human laid restrain a celestial instinct ! Can it be , Celestine ? ask your own soul , can it be ?

    Do you feel the less because the law forbids it ; can you repress or raise your ardour according to the modifications of the statute ?—No , bnt you 'try to conquer , to conceal it / What then ? 'tis not the reality but the appearance at which this law aims—you may feel , provided you can hide the feeling : that is , God gives you a sentiment which man calls vice , and the law corrects it by the substitution of hypocrisy ! that is , the legislator first blasphemes heaven , and then consoles himself by deceiving man ! ! Eut , even according to its advocates , this law cannot destroy the vice—why ? because it only governs appearance ; hut the sei * ipture , oil which it professes to be built , expressly tells you that vice consists not in act , but intention . " LIFE . " You , philosophers of the world , who smile at this , tell me what is life but a vision ? what are its certainties—what its consequence ? Like the fantastic forms of the morning sun , wo ilit along the earth and vanish : the evening may not find us . " THE POETKAIT < OF A TEIEST . " Do l'Enfcr was about that age at which men begin to forget everything except their interest ; not that I would infer that this principle originnted in him , so much from years as instinct . lie tvas astern reli gionist , and had as little pity for the woes as he had charity for the weakness of his species . The man , who was vile enough to obey one single impulse of nature , deserved , in his opinion , neither respect nor toleration , and , he was often heard to declare , ought to die without the rites of the church . His onl y exception was in favour of the rich . , Sad was it for tho unprotected child of . sorrow who happened to solicit him . Ever ready to reprove , but never to relieve , the base pretence for his brutality usually was , that compassion for u sinner was an encounigeincnt to . sin ! There was , however , something so ludicrous in his hypocrisy and so fascinating in him when lie fortrot it ,

    ^ Jnit he was a prime favourite with my father . He lmd certainly a mind , much above his station , for , though his deceit gave him some claim to the highest dignities in the church , his talents proved an insuperable bar to his preferment . l ?\> i _ - mykcW , I never liked the man , nor believed Iuh professions , and , us . for his ostentatious friendship ' for my father , I strongly suspected it originated in his wine-cellar- D <> l'Knfer had 11 kind of religious prejudice in favour of this liquor . Koussemi hi » urself could not liuve accused him on the score of temperance . 1 know not whether lie Was most indebted to the . strength of his head or the coldness of hit * licarl ., but lie certainly never seemed intoxicated . There was something ludicrously profane in hearing him lecture , over his third bottle , on the heinousness of inebriety , for it , was at the appropriate ¦ period ol" this indulgence thai , he was ino . sl , zealous in his reprobation of sensuality . 1 own 1 was glad to catch the Abbe in bis .

    relaxationit , confirmed me in the suspicion of his hypocrisy , for , even in tho slight elevation which the flush of indulgence occasioned , one Could see , notwithstanding all his caution , an anxiety to impose upon other * , for his interest , that which it was plain he did not foel himself from conviction . Thin wretch covered ulimwt all liin vices with the semblance of some virtue , at . least , all hm virtue * bore the appearance ; of vire , soured as they were by the ; natural acidity of his spirit . J / e was vain throuqh talent , and intolerant , through rr / hjio ,, . The intolli ^ enee w hich would liave rendered others humble , made him haughty . Tin- ( luspel , which its admirers call , mrcfc , was , in linn , insolence . His sacred calling he used hut , as mi exemption from vulgar censure , and , for ln . s own interest ,, he m , hardened the natural ¦ impracticabilitof the doctrine winch he

    y preached , that poor men were almost terrified into infidelity : indeed , bad he not held the omnipotence of ( he Pope and the heavenly j ) iitrona e of the priesthood , neither the patience of Job nor tin ; pioty of [) avi ( i 11 O"J . the jxM-Ncvcnmco of Paul could have obtained salvation ! In all t , h 0 externals of religion De 1 'Knfer wiw a most refined practitioner ; a kind of polemical iiostureniaster . There was not a sainl , in the calendar , lor whom he had not some distinct grimace , or a sanctified ruin in f . ho neighbourhood , before which ho did not make koiihi peculiar reverence ! To he mire , indeed , these ningulnrit . uw ini" -ht occasionally be excused , iim they were the only instances in which KM j ) i ,, | y ^ , practical . Kven these , however , he most uiieereinoniously di . sponned with whenever they interfered with his most trilling gratification : than hi « grace before

    dinner was a brief contortion of his eye-balls , ' lest the meat should cool' and his subsequent devotion was , if possible , more laconic , * lest the wine should heat . ' The only rival propensity , which this love for good living held , was a fervent admiration of money . Though the failing zvas professional , he was ashamed of it , a nd pretended to defend it on orthodox principles . He would say , lie only took from his flock those superfluities of fortune which , if left in their hands , might be employed in the pursuits of vice , but , in his , might serve the purposes of religion ; and thus the conclusion was that the fleecing which he gave them , had the double good of preventing sin and improving the church ! " Such was De TEnfer , the almost constant inmate of iny father's house and companion of his table . A greater compound of pious craft and haughty humilit y the priesthood never nourished . A folio could say no more . '

    THE SOLDIER AND THE PRIEST . "' Such , ' said he , ' are ever the motives of a soldier , no matter how affected liberality may mask them . A fierce hyaena , he riots mid the memorials of our nature ' s frailty , and fattens and enriches himself on the plunder of the grave . ' St . Aubert , stung to the soul at the unjust reflection , retorted bitterly— ' If the soldier pursues to the grave , he pauses there : his condemnation should not come from the hypocritic monTc who sends . his impious anathema beyond it . '

    "De l'Enfer , in his rage , appealed for protection to my father , who , wishing to end the controversy in good humour , playfully replied , ' Not I , indeed , my good Abbe , I must preserve a laughing neutrality at the expense of both . You know , though a soldier myself , I have ever regretted the necessity of an army , and often told you that , in my mind , both the bishop and the general , though so different in their pursuits , found their common origin in the vices of the world . At all events , it is not policy in the priest to quarrel with the soldier , to whose pious efforts he is indebted for so many fees and so many converts / "

    A . EETEOSPECT . "' Far , far be it from me , my children / said the beat of parents , ' to reprove a passion which I well know is neither vincible nor voluntary . There are some pretended moralists in life whom age has withered into a negative virtue ; who are passive , because they are powerless , and are ever loud in their censure , because they are incapable of enjoyment . Let such men selfishly deny to others the pleasures of that season which they have passed themselves ; I would as soon think of giving my defenceless infant to an hungry cannibal , as of making such men the model of my imitation . No , these grey hairs have not chilled the recollection of my youthful joys , and they shall not freeze me into a fretful and impotent austerity . Our life is but , at best , a fleeting year ;—may the hand be blighted which would embitter its spring I "

    THE MOBALISTS . " Oh , how I hate those mendicant moralist ' s , who , like the ancient cynic , make their rags their merit , entrenching themselves in the intolerable and intolerant filthiness of their superstition ! hypocrites , who , coiling themselves up in the little , cautious circle of a cowardly abstinence , misname their timidity , and call it virtue . " After reading these extracts from Mr . Phillips ' s work , we may appreciate the sincerity and the dignity with , which , he refused to hear Mr . Holyoake—refused to believe that a man holding Mr . Holyoake ' s opinions could possibly be a member of ^ pciety or worthy of the protection of its laws . Perhaps it is superfluous to add any illustration to the character of the defender of Courvoisier ; but we have thought it right to take this retrospective glance , and leave our readers to meditate upon it .

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    1214 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

    We Should Do Our Utmost To Oncourhtfe Th...

    We should do our utmost to oncourhtfe the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages ¦ ¦ itself . —Gojbthi ; . . ,

    Passages From A Boy's Epic. Olyml'lis. ,...

    PASSAGES FROM A BOY'S EPIC . OLYMl ' lIS . , ,. , . XIV . . ¦ , She ended ; but a soft and winding stream Of music flowed among the purple hills , With echo answering echo , for the calm Seemed crystal clear , us in the windless days When autumn dyes the woodlands red and gold , And men stand mute and count the falling leaves ; And where of late the solid darkness crOticht ,

    Imperial day now sent exploring eyes , To scare the yellow mist that seaward rolled , ' Touclit with bright colours'from the . emerging , snn > Until far out upon the level waves , A rainbow stood am ! statel y vessels suijed IJeneath its arch , and men with . wondering eyes , Praised the glad circle growing on the cloud . Imt Ariadne in the brightness stood , Smiling amid her tenrw , when , fjia * awuy , [ a the blue hollows of the silent hills .

    1 he echoes caught the sounds of revelry , . And , lo ! from hei ghts that disappear in clouds , Fust streaming < lmvn the mountains' side , advance The Bacchanals , with Bacchus at their head . The Satyrs come , with ivied thyrses armed , And , crowned with violets , the Silejii come , And come the Micnad maids , with kindled cheeks ,

    Quivering their leaf y lances us they whirl , Still eddying round , while their resplendent ; limbs , In dazzling convolutions , wheel in wheel , To the harmonious ring of timbrels move , Of cymbals uiul ofsiKtrums , Unit confound The heaven with interwoven melodies :

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 18, 1852, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18121852/page/18/