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    474 THE LEADER. [Sattj rdat, 1 ¦ ¦ 1 1 ¦...

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    WESTWARD HO! Westward Ho t or, the Voyag...

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    Baden Powell's Inductive Philosophy. ; E...

    triumphantly adduced as the special footsteps of the Creator ( as if the whole geology presented anything" else ); ao that when future and enlarged discovery shall disclose the connexion and explanation of these appearances by regular laws , their argument for a Deity will fall to the ground ! According to this mode of representation , " nature" was the rule , " Deity" the exception . The belief in nature was the doctrine of reason and knowledge ; the acknowledgment of a God was only the confession of ignorance . So long as we could trace physical laws , nature was our- , acknowledged and legitimate guide : when we could attain nothing better , we were to rest satisfied with a God ! Even learned writers on natural theology have thought it pious to argue in this way . To take a single

    example : The apparent anomaly that water arrives at' its maximum density before freezing , occasions its freezing first at the surface , and other results connected with important points in the economy of the globe and the good of its inhabitants : and this argument for design is sometimes represented" as if it acquired a . peculiar force from the circumstance of the fact being an anomaly , and inexplicable by our theories . And on this ground it is particularly held up to popular acceptance as an instance of special intervention , for the benefit of man , traceable to no physical cause . But when the apparent exception shall come to be reduced to its proper place as a part of some more comprehensive law ( as it assuredly will ) , all the peculiarity and mystery of the case will be at an end , and 201 th it will fall the theological argument , and the popular

    faith propped up on so false a support . Yet in spite of the better knowledge which ought to- prevail , we often hear , for example , any sudden and marvellous infliction of disease or famine , pestilence or blight , which ( it is added with a sort of triumph ) " baflle the boasted powers of science to explain , " held forth as signal instances of direct interposition . . To resort to such representations , however it may serve a temporary purpose , or exert an influence on the multitude , is the resource of ignorance , the encouragement of superstition , and eventually the unfailing parent of a sceptical and irreligious reaction ; and if the faith of the many be propped up by such false supports , it must fail altogether as soon as ' an increasing knowledge clears them away . We must reserve for a future occasion our remarks on the two other assays .

    474 The Leader. [Sattj Rdat, 1 ¦ ¦ 1 1 ¦...

    474 THE LEADER . [ Sattj rdat , 1 ¦ ¦ 1 1 ¦ . ^^ g ^^^^ t ^^ - ^^^^ - ^^*^ - ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^— . _ ^ —

    Westward Ho! Westward Ho T Or, The Voyag...

    WESTWARD HO ! Westward Ho t or , the Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh , Knight , of Burrough , in the county of Devon , in ike reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth . Rendered into modern English by Charles Kingsley . Cambridge : Macmillan and Co . Thebb are two points of view under which a book like this may be examined . One may try its purpose , and inquire how far it is wise in what it advocates ; or one may consider it simply as a work of art , and investigate its claims to pictorial excellence . So , Dr . Johnson , in his Life of Akenside , begins his criticism by saying— " With the philosophical or religious tenets of the author I have nothing to do ; my business is with his poetry . " And sx > , likewise , the critic of a picture of the " Annunciation " would pronounce on its merit , without troubling himself whether the orthodox view of the •** Annunciation " was correct or not .

    It would , however , be peculiarly unjust to Mr . Kingsley to look at this work only as an historical picture . We well know that he had other designs in writing it than the merely producing a novel . It so happens that novels in our age contribute to the formation of public opinion . Mr . Kingsley , who knows that , and has many of the talents of a novelist , uses the novel ( as some religious bodies use secular tunes ) for his own objects as a churchman . He is a preacher and painter in one . He aims at catching by fiction those who are out of his , pul pit range . He is a lucky priest to be able to exercise his faculties in this ' way . In Scotland we fear that his Presbytery would have silenced or dismissed him long ago . But it is a characteristic of the Church of England—and nobody will accuse the Leader of being bigoted in

    her favour— = that she constantly produces popular writers—many of them , indeed , such as reflect by their gravity no great additional dignity on the venerable institution . Skelton and Bishop Hall , two of our earliest satirists , were of her . Then , Swift the terrible , and Sterne , and Churchill , and Peter Pindar , and Sydney Smith ! How-much jolly " profane" literature we owe to these parsons ! Add , as members of the rival Church , Rabelais and Erasmus—and it will be seen at once that Europe owes its best laughter to its spiritual guides . We mention these facts to vindicate Mr . Kingsley in the eyes of those sour and stern persons who may think novel-writing no proper employment for a clergyman . We say it is a great advantage to Mother Church to have a son who can' write a successful novel . Mr .

    Kingsley has done more for her by his novels than oven he himself ( not to mention inferior men ) could do by his sermons . We , ourselves , never heard Mr . Kingsley preach , but we have read his books—and of those books none has given us _ more pleasure than the one before us . iNow to begin with the " purpose , " which , as we have said , is the great matter with Mr . Kingsley . It is plain enough . The reign of Bess was great and glorious . Everybody was religious in the days of Bess . It was a grand time . England then represented light , freedom , and truth ; Spain the Pope , despotism , and the devil . The great Armada fight in 1588 was xt Britain ' s Salmnis . " . . . Here you have the " views" of this Novel . It is written altogether from that standing point , and Mr . Kingsloy hammorg away at his favourite subjects of detestation as hoartily as Francis Drake hammered at the Spanish fleet . For he is , before everything else , a " hearty" writer , and notably pugnacious . Indeed , if he will excuse our familiarity , we will venture to say that two influences more than any other 9 eem to have made him the writer ho is—the influence of Thomas Carlyloand that of—Thomas Cribb ! .

    To carry out these views , then , Mr . Kingsley centres his interest round one Amyas Leigh , a Devonshire gentleman , and one of the great seaadventurers of that period who so excellently represent its spirit . Goethe speaks of the age of Shakspcaro as " a great and energetic time . " Now , energy ia precisely tho word which describes the Elizabethan a ^ o . There is a burning vitality to bo seen in everything it produced , from its colonies , to its songa . Nowhere is it more Been than in its naval history , and it was wise of Mr . Kingsley t'o choose ' that for tho most prominent feature . Round Amyas other portraits aro hung—the courtier , gallant , ohivalrous , graceful , —tho Jeeuit—tho Spanish Don— -the merchant—the gentleman—all typical figures and careful studies . The author has broken

    from the routine habit of painting only court figures and known incident A commonplace man would have brought in Elizabeth at every turn swearing her usual oath , and boxing people ' s ears . Mr . Kingsley gives a the life of England , as it has formed that which still exists . A homel reality distinguishes the book—earnestness dashed by colloquial ease . "VVi / ness our first extract , in which the reader shall see A YOtJNG GENTLEMAN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH ' S TIME . Now this young gentleman , Amyas Leigh , though come of as good blood as any in Devon , and having lived all his life in what we should even now call the very best society , and being ( on account of the valour , courtesy , and truly noble qualities which he showed forth in his most eventful life , ) chosen by me as the hero and centre of this story , was not , saving for his good looks , by any means what would be called now-adays an " interesting" youth , still less a "highly educated" one ; for , with the

    exception of a little Latin , which had been driven into him by repeated blows , as if it had been a nail , he knew no books whatsoever , save his Bible , his Prayer-book , the old " Morfc d'Arthur" Caxton ' s edition , which lay in the great bay window in the hall and the translation of " Las Casas' History of the West Indies , " which lay beside it ' lately done into English under the title of " The Cruelties of the Spaniards . " He devoutly believed in fairies , whom he called pixies ; and held that they changed babies and made the mushroom rings on the downs to dance in . When he had warts or burns ' he went to the white witch at Northaui to charm them away ; he thought that the sun moved round the earth , and that the moon had some kindred with a Cheshire cheese . He held that the swallows slept all the winter at the bottom of the horse-pond ; talked like Raleigh , Grenvil , and other low persons , -with a broad Devonshire accent ; and was in many other respects so very ignorant a youth , that any pert monitor in a national school might have had a hearty laugh at him . Nevertheless , this i gnorant young savage , " vacant of the glorious gains" of the nineteenth century , children ' s

    literature and s « ience made easy , and , worst of all , of those improved views of English history now current among our railway essayists , which consist in believing all persons , male and female , before the year 1688 , and nearly all after it , to have been cither hypocrites or fools , had learnt certain things which he would hardly have been taught just now in any school in England ; for his training had been that of the old Persians , "to speak the truth , and to " draw the bow , " both of which savage virtues he had acquired to perfection , as well as the equally savage ones of enduring pain cheerfully , and of believing it to be the finest thing in the -world to be a gentleman ; by which word he had been taught to understand the careful habit of causing needless pain to no human being , poor or rich , and of taking pride in giving up his own pleasure for the sake of those who were weaker than himself . Moreover , having been entrusted for the last year with the breaking of a colt , and the care of a cast of young hawks which his father had received from Lundy Isle , he had been profiting much by the means of those coarse and frivolous amusements , in perseverance , thoughtfulness , and

    the habit of keeping his temper ; and though he had never had a single " object lesson , " or been taught to " use his intellectual powers , " he knew the names and ways of every bird , and fish , and fly , and could read , as cunningly as the oldest sailor , the meaning of every drift of cloud which crossed the heavens . Lastly , he had been for some time past , on account of his extraordinary size and strength , undisputed cock of the school , and the most terrible fighter among all Bideford boys ; in which brutal habit he took much delight , and contrived , strange as it may seem , to extract from it good , not only for himself , but for others , doing justice among bis schoolfellows -with a heavy hand , and succouring the oppressed and afflicted ; so that he was the terror of all the sailorlads , and the pride and stay of all the town's-boys and girls , and hardly considered that he had done his duty in his calling if he went home without beating a big lad for bullying a little one . For the rest , he never thought about thinking , or felt about feeling ; and had no ambition whatsoever beyond pleasing bis father and mother ,

    getting by honest means the maximum of " red-quarrenders" andmazard cherries , and going to sea when he was big enough . Neither was he what would be now-a-days called by many a pious child ; for though he said his Creed and Lord ' s Prayer night and morning , and went to the service at the church , every forenoon , and read the day ' s Psalms with his mother every evening-, and had learnt from bor and from his father ( as he proved well in after life ) , that it Avas infinitely noble to do right , and infinitely base to do wrong , yet ( the age of children ' s religious books not having yet dawned on the world ) he knew nothing more of theology , or of his own soul , than is contained in the Church Catechism . It is a question , however , on the whole , whether , though grossly ignorant ( according to our modern notions ) in science and religion , he was altogether untrained in manhood , virtue , and godliness ; and whether the barbaric narrowness of his Information was not somewhat counterbalanced both in him and 111 the rest of his generation by the depth , and breadth , and healthiness of his Education .

    The consistency of bluff Amyas is well preserved throughout the story . The plo ); we do not feel called on to describe . Those who have road , or are going to read tho book don ' t require it ; and for others , it would have but a faint interest . We shall select a few characteristic bits of wl'ltin ?< such as can be enjoyed without much reference to the context . Look well at the following group , reader , for they were " men worthy of this land , as Aristophanes singcth . The scene is the terrace bowling-green , behind the Pelican Inn , Plymouth ; the time , July : —

    THIS AKHADA 8 MUN . Chatting in groups , or lounging over tho low wall which commanded a view of lue sound and the shipping far below , were gathered almost every notable uian oi tie Plymouth fleet , the whole posso comitatus of " England ' s forgotten worthies . _ ine Armada has been scattered by a storm . Lord Howurd has been out to look lor it , us far as tho Spanish coast ; but tho wiud has shifted to the south , and fearing U ' . st the Dons should pass him , he has returned to Plymouth , uncertain whether the Armada will come after all or not . Slip on for awhile , like Prince Hal , tins drawers apron ; come in through the rose-clad door which opens from tho tavern , with a tray ol longnocked Dutch glasses , and a silver tankard of wino , and look round you at tho gallam captains , who are waiting for tho Spanish Armada , na lions in their lair might wai for tho passing herd of deer . x-V to overhear

    See those live talking earnestly , in tho centre of a ring , which longs , and yet is too respectful to approach close . Thotto Holt long eyas and points <»" you recognise already ; they are Walter lialcigh ' s . Tho fuir young i »«« " 1 the Ha'iiecolourcd doublet , whose arm is round Kaleigh ' w neck , is Lord Sliollicld ; oppo .-utu t n ; i stands , by tho side , of Sir Kichard Grenvilo , a man as ntately even as he , Lord p utl 1 ' fleld ' a undo , tho Lord Chariot * Howard of Eninglmm , Lord High Admiral ol England , next to him is his son-in-law , Sir Robert Southwell , captain of tho Elizabeth , ' ]( > but who in that short , sturdy , plainly-drossed man , who stands with leg * " 11 j apart , and hands behind his back , looking up , with koon gray oye * , into ( lie mv ouch speaker ? His cap % in hiu hands , ho you cam seo tho bullet bead of crisp i >> ' »« ^ hair and tho wrinkled forehead , as well as tho high ohcok-boiuw , tho short Hf l , " , ' tho broad tomplos , tho thick lipH ( which aro yot firm an granito . A coarmi P *"" : stamp of man : yet tho whole figure and attitudo aro that of boundlon .-i detonnnn m > , self-poHsosHion , energy ; and , when at hint ho npuakn a few blunt words , all oyod turned respectfully upon him ;—for hia numo is i ' rancia Drake .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19051855/page/18/