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Leader (1850-1860), 19th November 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 17

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      Literary Notes Of-The Week. I Ast Saturd...

      and it is much to be regretted that he did not live to see the proof-sheets . The literary world , however , will not be disappointed , as his son , Mr . Thornton Hunt , the veil-known journalist , has finished the work begun by his father . Mr . Thornton Hunt has also contributed two new chapters to the new edition of his father ' s autobiography , published this week by Messrs . ' Smith , EMer . and Co . —Mr . J . C . Robinson , the author of ' Whitefriars , ' has just completed a new novel , the subject of which is historical . It will not be published' before the spring . Mr . J . Payne Collier , the Shakespearian scholar , has in the press a new and complete edition of the works of It , dmund Spenser . The work will be published in the spring , by Messrs . Bell and Dalcly , in their ' Aldinc Poets . ' Mr . Buckle has nearly ready for publication the second volume of his valuable ' History of

      Civilisation . ' In this volume the mode of arrangement is much superior to that adopted in the previous volume . " Mr . Skeet announces two works by authors who propose for the first time to make their appearance in the literary arena . Miss Crichton whoenme out , we are reminded , on the L . ondon stage a few years back , in opera , has since that time been residing in Italy , where a dangerous illness so impaired her vocal powers as to compel her to rclinciui . sh her profession . Her work , " -Before the Dawn , " is intended to illustrate the condition of the people of Italy previously to the recent struggle . Mr . Winwood Reartc , a nephew of the celebrated ¦ Charles Tirade has written a novel of college life , entitled " Libertv Hall , Oxon . "

      No. 504. Nov. 19, 1859.1 The Leader. 127...

      No . 504 . Nov . 19 , 1859 . 1 THE LEADER . 1277

      A View Of Tiik Kvrdkxces '.Ov Cliuistian...

      A VIEW OF TIIK KVrDKXCES ' . OV ClIUISTiANlTY ; In Three 1 ' iirts , by William l ' aloy , M . A ., Archdeacon . . of Carlisle . With Annotations , by Kiehurd "Wliately , D . D . — . John AV . l ' nrker ami Son . The Archbishop of Dublin is an acute logician , but unfortunately lie is little more . Whether the assumptions which logic necessarily supposes be true or not , he lias no faculty for perceiving . With him Christianity is a matter of historical belief , not of spiritual , faith . Hume was a more philosophical religionist than lie , when he stated that a perpetual miracle is performed in the consciousness of the religious believer , in the act of faith with which the supernatural is received . The archbishop ' s mind is , in fact , dead to all transcendental influences . No wonder , therefore , that

      always he speaks with ill-disguised anger , and feigned contempt of German systems . They are stiu inore above mid beyond him than they were to Diigald Stewart ; and his incapacity , to nppreciatc them is even move decided . Stewart was too , indolent to investigate them ; but Dr . Wliately wants the faculty by which alone they arc to be understood . It is quite natural that such a mind should grow up on the soil of Protestantism . Our reformers appealed to the intellect , and reduced the articles of faith to intelligible formula ) . Philosophy also became speculative , and subsisted on the fruits of lace of those aute

      " master to whose decisions no reasonable man can take exception . A madman , he frequently gives us to understand , possibly may ; but the cases must be rare , even in Bedlam , so thoroughly clear and demonstrative are all his statements . Happy delusion , shared no doubt by other episcopal minds— -probably shared to a greater extent ; for long" ago Dr . Whately surrendered all apostolic claims on the part of the clergy , and is not at all tainted with the Pueeyite heresy . Let us be thankful for this , and not ungratefully receive his amendments on the worldly religionism of Paley . Will lie as gratefully receive some amendments on his own ? We find , for instance , in p . 27 , an unphilosophtcal assertion ; namely , " that there was a time when men did not exist . " n s s r j I r 3 1 r 1 ; , .

      This is a proposition nearly as untenable as that " there was a time when there was nothing ;" which Coleridge lias so . well exposed in the introductory essay of liis " Friend . " Time had its birth with the human intelligence of which it is the form ; and is therefore coeval with man , but not anterior to lain .. Kant , to every philosophical mind , lias demonstrated this beyond the power of contradiction . To assert otherwise is to be misled by appearances of the same class that induce the * vulgar observer to assert that the sun rises and sets ^ and that the earth is sedentary . Science , that corrects the vulgar observer in one case , corrects him r . Iso in the other . In the one case motion is i ' ; i ;

      abstracted from one body and assigned , to the other , . and in the latter-time likewise is abstracted from the perceived appearance and given to the perceiving mind . It is a law of our thinking , and not necessarily that of the object . The merely carnal state of Dr . Whately ' s mind is something awful . What does the reader think ofihis hypothesis as to the tree of life in Paradise ; that it bore medicinal fruit which , when habitually

      eaten , ensured physical immortality ; and when no longer partaken still ensured longevity for many generations , until its original virtue was worn out of the human constitution by gradual decay ? Here we find the archbishop at issue with King Solomon , who tells us that " Wisdom is the tree of life . " But then it is clear ' that Solomon did not interpret Genesis literally , and Dr . Whately cloes ;—adding this medicinal fancy of his own as a sort of historical or scientific " -loss .

      In his great proposition , that each individual civilised man is a standing revelation , we agree ; and also in the impossibility of the savage civilising himself . Civilisation is , doubtless , the original state , and the first man was , in the highest sense , a revelation . Xny , why should we not say with the late John Wilson that ' Man i * the one Revelation , " and thus , in the manner of Newton , universnlise the fact , and announce the Law ? Dr . Whately has glimpses of the truth ; but , wanting the philosophic faculty , the transcendental sense , of its full

      necessarily'fulls short acceptance . He stops short , we sec , witli the individual phenomenon , and ascribes reality to the appearance . In this manner nl . so he overrates the importance of . the historical evidence of i in" ra trios to the authenticity of a . religion , as if they were necessarily demanded and absolutely roquirpd . Not so the Scriptural writer ? , who shite tlu . 'in to be needed only by _ " « 'i carnal and . adulterous generation . " The spirituully-miruled recognise iutermil wonders of fnv higher value .

      observation and experience , in p - cedent verities . which had previously served , not only for the forms , but for the matter of thought . Views lower , and still lower , were taken of science , until some recognised phenomena only , to the ignoring almost of the . laws of the univur . se ; and some speculators on morals , like Paley , wore fain to substitute expediency for right . Horo ami there the voice of a solitary I'latonist was heard , who sought , but comparatively in vain , to recall the mind of the age to the old truths that , still , to the initiated , looked lustrous through the midt of ages . Meanwhile , tU . o more intolluctuulist could not exactly Hand still , lie caught at least some echoes of that voice , and was induced to revise his

      schemata , i niu ' ' considerable jneiirmre to exorcise reflection .. Speculative reasoning was still reasoning , though too . frequently unmindful ol * its moral im < T practical foiintlalimis , and was enforced to veoogmse certain principles and idous . The way " onward was also necessarily tlm way upward i n . ncl thus it came to pns . s that a Wlmtuly , sucoeoding a Puloy and becoming bin coininoiihitor , saw a- little furtlier than his predecessor , ami wiih to u corresponding extent enabled to correct wnnu of his ori'oi'H . Hul liu wiifl none the less behind tho throat schools of philosophy which lwul ustablished themselves on l , he Continent , and supplied motive for research to the thoughtful and learned whereof ho remained contentedly ignorant , and whereto ho stood iu an attitude of obstinate antagonism .

      In ( ho volume- beforo us wo have- tluiH Di ' , Wlintely annotating and reforming Paloy 5 himself i needing to bo annotated mid ruformed to a givator 11 extent , yet complacently esteeming himsolf n ' I

      " | I 11 ' 1 1 1 Timox, Iin<L Other I'Oe...

      1 1 1 TIMOX , iin < l other I ' oemH s also , TIIK COMPACT , a . Drnmn , & o . Ac . lly J . II . I ' owell .-l'lpor , Steplw 11 son , nnd Spoiu'o . Mb . Powkm , has already made hiifisolf known as a labourer-poet , in a volume entitled " IMtasos of Thought and Fueling , " which was cnrnent and promising . Such ' men reveal to us what are the poor man ' s wrongs and suiu"ering ;—what underlies the social condition that is the real cause of Strikes and Discontonts ; and in what respects the bahinoo between Labour and Capital needs readjust intf . Those two stern truths for poeliy to deal with . It is hard , to got them into metro , and make tlium rhyme ; but this Mr . Powell attempts , and performs the task with skill and force . The leading poom of his volume linn 11 story , and a . moat interesting ono . It volutes how the son of a bookish craftsman boenme a schoolboy , and got ahead of his fellows , became a tutor , and then , for 1 the suko of independence , n labourer in a paper 1 mill . Dismissed from thence , he wanders in Lou- I don , seeking work in vain , and is gluil to return to 1 tlio master who had discorded him . And now ho I

      : contrives to amuse his evening hours with landscapes-painting , and finds solace in the exercise of artistic instinct . Gradually he gains perception of the laws of commerce , learns to hope , and thinks on marriage . But misfortune dogs him . Thrown out of . employment at length his steps wander to Manchester , where he meets with all the difficulties that beset the more enlightened sons of toil from the brutal companionship of their fellows . The iron enters into his soul . " But still he en'duxes the scorn and the wrong , and maintains a poet ' s soul in the midst of labour , which is still so much of a curse that it affords no hope of bettering , of itself , his condition , Rude and crude and unpolished as are the stanzas in wliieh the tale is told , they bear the lesson of a , life . Is it a true one ? AVe fear it is . Nay , we" have the author ' s witness for it , in his own experience . Does it not follow that there "is something rotten in the state of Denmark ?" We present a few stanzas as specimens of the author ' s power : — Come- forth , ye city denizens , who sadden Amid perpetual strife ! come forth , and view Kind nature ' s glowing- scenes , which smile to gladden . Give time to woo her pleasant charms , in lieu Of vulgar pastimes , which degrade the crew Who foci a pleasure ' mid the tap-room ' s revel . Come forth ! forsake the wiles of drink , review The -Maker's works , aspire to wisdom ' s level . And thus escape the vices that enthrone the devil . Alas : that thousands , bred in wftnt and sin . Should harden , suffer , sicken to despair . Striving with Iaifyiutr energies to win Know of fortune to suspend from car . e Their shntfer'rt forms , which ne ' er can know repair . Alas : that children , emblems sweet of truth , Should victims prove to gold , condemut ; d to bear The pains of toil from infancy , to youth , Then die diseased , unsolaccd , e ' en by loving- ruth . Lo ! Justice . slumbers while Oppression reigns ! JSterual Power , may weakness woo thy aid Kre crime iu madness wantonly sustains The infant forms that ' mid pollution ' wa . de , Lik < - trodden flowers to prematurely fade . Heavens ! what mnklimr miseries plngrue-like crowd "Where ill-requited slaves by Mammon made , ¦ Get lean in want with ncliiujr heads down-bow'd , While Justice slumbers-deep in "Wrong ' s accursed shroud . Impervious f ; ite ! shall piniug weakness ever ,, . Within , the grasp of avarice groan , and pray That death in haste may come . ' kindly sever 'The . suui iiiiuiortul lV ' oin its h * > i : se of clay— ¦ Dear God ! dost thpu thy tender mercies stay . While commerce swells on infant toils and woes , As home affections one by one decay , And parents and their children meet ris foes . In-Mammon ' s ' peting mart , where life swoons out in throes These are no dainty verses : they bear the impress of the rough hand of toil : but it is a thinking head that directs the hand , and the appeal gains strength even from its defects-. Better , howovci * , are some of his lyrics ; though , devoted to real life , they paint the street-walker ' s misery and the drunkard ' s fate . As we proceed , we find the versification mend . The following , lor instance ; allows an improved ear ; in fact , it is vavy musical : — WHISl'KUS OF WISDOM . I silt in the £ lary of Summer , Sluul'iw ' cl by trees , Anil voices df wisdom , in wlitapcra . Ci ( iu (! on the breeze . They cmiic « 8 the liorii ! ii . J of heaven , NVIiisiierlnLf low i And CV .-U the birdf * that wore siiiglns , < l'CUK ' d tO kllOW . ' Ami my spirit on winys . ifbouiity » Sul ' lluu awiiy , , J lieckon ' . l l > y drei . iiKTtf mid auitw ( U oldvn <| ny . Au . li' . irili ; wnlt i « H heav . ny . sorrow , W 11 * li'ft Leliliu , \ h the licMvoii cil wl *« . Uni ) , orb-liKi . Shun * - oil iny mind . Olh « ' -p « 'omr » , MU'lnis those < . ir N " nua Sahib and thu Indiiiii Hov . ilt , ovidtM . ce an inareusiiig power of oMnvsinii . . Tliu iimnerou * siibscrihora to this little vj'lumo have . lono wull ill enabling the liuinblo .. net . to uiiilorlaku it- publication . \\ u hIiiiII pi-o-Liblvli ' sin- iiiort * uf liim . In LMiei'gy , « liiv (! lnoss , iiii ( t ' lli « » lvalilv nl'liirt topics , he- in not tn , likely to l : ike Ih ' h plafcs iimon . U' peasant pouts , lid 11 kind of I-Jnglifh Hurns . , TUA'iH 1 IHfAMAH FlUM SCOTTISH 1 IMTMIIV . Killnbiiixli 1 'MmiiiiiH ( , ' onfttublo nnd < ' a Tunf'K druiiias aru conlainu . l in 11 * 11 * volume- — niiiiK-lv , " JIuHulritf , " a Wallace , " « nU " Jnmoa thu First of hJooUund . " . The two fonnpr , it would nppunr , havo boon proviously p ^ iltlishud . Wo know not what reception tboy mny huvo mot > vMh , but ( bey oorliiinly ik'Borvo , if they linvo not yet commaiulud , snoceHH . Tlio author iH onpnblo of portraying druiuatio chivnoter , nnd do & ling with

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 19, 1859, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19111859/page/17/