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Leader (1850-1860), 21st February 1852, Edition Country of 2, Page 16, All Paris is at this moment running afte...

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      Ftittniun.

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      The; Priesthood Ofxetters, Which Is A Co...

      The ; Priesthood ofXetters , which is a conception daily . growing more familiar tp the European mind , could only have arisen beside a priesthood incapable of fulfilling its whole function . Literature , as an amusement , as a graceful employment of the feelings and the intellect , might fairly co-exist with a Church which gathered into its bosom all the earnest problems that could vex and occupy the human mind ; but Literature—in our modem and almost solemn conception of its function—became a rival to the Church the moment that it ceased to be a plaything . IJesid . e the Cathedral rose the Laboratory ; the crosier and the surplice acknowledged rivals in the pen

      and the alembic . The Church immovable upon ancient dogmas , was the antagonist of Science moving in the march of new conquests j the Church persisted in her old explanations , Science practically demonstrated their untruth . Not only so , but even Morals , and the science of Life , were wrested from the hands of a Priesthood which in all earnestness repeated the old formulas , and were tacitly allowed to be treated otherwise by another Priesthood ; so that at last we have reached this stage . Beside the old Priesthood there is a Priesthood of Letters , whose doctrines are all either in contradiction to . or in extension of , the doctrines taught by its rival !

      A strange , unhappy anomaly ! It is startlingly apparent in the questions now prominently before England respecting National Education . Our table is crowded with pamphlets and boolcs on the subject . Mr . Zincke ' s School of the Future we reserve for review . Words by a Working Man , about Education , a pamphlet published by John W . Parker and Son , though clearly not by a Working Man , is worth attentive consideration , as briefly sketching what has been done , and what may be done , in this momentous matter . In his retrospect , the writer has this remark : —

      " The evils threatened were public and social . Not so the remedies .. Education in the popular mind was identified with Religion , and Religion was no longer the binding , but the dislocating force in citizenship . The Established Church , forgetful of the mission implied in her establishment , had not groion with the growth of the people , and was no longer a home for the multiplied activities of their spiritual life . The religious organisations which had arisen beyond her borders existed for independent ends , and owned no relations to any English polity , " Did we not say that everywhere in social life Religion , because it moves the heights and depths of man ' s nature , is either an animating impulse , or

      a retarding obstacle ; and should we fulfil our function as Journalists , if we sat down in quietness , resolutely " ignoring" Religion , lest we should " offend" by plain speech ? Is there any man who denies the inadequacy of all attempts at giving the people education ? Is there any man unaware of the fact that the great and abiding obstacle to all reasonable solution of the difficulty , is Religion ? To place children at a school where the man who teaches d , o , g , dog ; c , a , t , catj and opens the mystery of the multiplication table , without at the same time thrusting upon the infant mind some sectarian conceptions of the Great Mystery—that is shriekingly declared to be " irreligious "—darkest ignorance is preferable !

      It requires no peculiar sagacity to read in this , and in many other phenomena , the operation of those antagonistic forces which we have hinted at as necessitating a Priesthood of Letters . The Church is naturally jealous of its rival . Had it the power , it would suppress that rival , as we see in the traditional foolishness of the Index Expurgatorius . The Pope continues his prohibition of books even now , when his prohibition has lost the power of creating that interest which formerly hovered round forbidden books . In the last edict we observe the Avorks of Eugene Site , in whatever language published , opera omnia quocumque idiomate exarataj the

      same of Piioudhon and Gioberti ; nor can Tommasi ' s 11 Magnetismo Animale be permitted to ingenuous Catholics . Our Church is wiser . It enters the field of Literature . It patronizes and cultivates science . The attempts by which it aims at " reconciling" Science with Scripture may be forgiven : their helplessness should gain them toleration . Meanwhile , the very fact that the Priesthood tries to identify itself with the Priesthood of Lettere , is immensely significant . Let us recommend the reader to consult on this subject Dr . Vaughan ' s article on the Priesthood of Letters , in his Essays , rcpublishcd from the British Quarterly .

      All Paris Is At This Moment Running Afte...

      All Paris is at this moment running after La Dame aux Camelias , a drame which Alexandhe Dumas , the Younger , has arranged from his affecting novel of that name . It will surprise our publio to hear that this furore of interest is created by the representation of a courtesan ' s life . But French literature , ever since Manon Lescaut , has been singularly addicted to that subject over which our better taste has always thrown a veil . ; When every cottage has its tragedy , when every family has its mystery , when every roof shuts in more emotion , more sacrifice , more prime , more folly , more love , and

      more prayers than any writer can oxhaust ; why must he rush to that saddest of all subjects—saddost , because the most hopeless and most remote from the idealization of poetry and passion—and try to move our sympathies for that «« immense impiety , an unworthy life" ( to uao Tawso ' s noble language ) : " L'immonza hnpioth , la vita indogna . " How men , who , as poets and novelists , must bo supposed , in a peculiar degree , to feel for women that tenderness and chivalrous respect which animate the finest natures , can consent to treat with levity or false sentiment ,

      a subject go terrible , a subject that deppetizep the » ex end soils the imam , nation , —* that , indeed , is a question moralists may ponder cm . We can t ^; derstand u . sternpicture presenting the tragedy of the subject bold ! v seizing it in its reality , and showing what a black giilf oj > ens under , it . y / e cau understand a picture like that of ' the : old Greek P 9 e ^ whp > in ; animat e painted the whole moral of the •¦> courtesan iife T ^ W- ' ^^ l ^ -. wViUtivfia , % q says , when their claws have the vigour of youth , tbeyjrise triumphantl y with their prey in the air , but when old age comes on tKem they die starved and lonely , on some remote ledge of rock . But we cannot understand taking up this subject as the French take it up . Alexandra Dumas * Younger , has handled , it with more delicacy and Reeling than is usual ; biit he , too , dwells cbmplacently on the orgies , ; the , extrava gance the want pf principle , and the mere sensual fever of thatlife , — -IHmmenza

      znipietQ , ! ¦ .., ; _ . . . .. . - .- ¦ . . - ; .. ¦ ; . ;¦ :: ¦ :. " ¦¦ ¦ . '• -: ¦¦ . ' .: :. ' ¦ , ¦ We have to announce the third and last volume of Eugene Sue ' s Fernand Duplessis , wherein the memoirs of a husband are recounted with a licence which only a French public could permit . Perhaps theworst thing m Sue is not his positive passion for what is criminal and odious , so nluch as the way in which he always c ontrives to render the good people odious . Much as we reprobate his pictures of vice , we think them less offensive than his pictures of virtue . How a man so essentially vulgar-minded could ever have attained th , e position he had once ! ..-. , ¦¦ Besides Fernand Duplessis , Mr . Jeffs places before us the two first

      volumes of the Memoirs of Alexandre Dumas . Curiously enough , the Brussels edition is , in this instance , the authentic "work , published by Dumas himself , and containing the passages which a susceptible censorship struck but . The two volumes contain little more than memoirs of his father , and are unblushing specimens of book-making ; but they are agreeable reading , nevertheless , and we look forward to the continuation . When we look over the recent productions of French literature , we cannot help recalling , with a smile , Victor Hugo ' s magnificent and intensely French declaration , not long ago :- — " At the present hour , there is but one literature full of vigorous life—[ vivante et allume ' e , )—and that is the literature of France !"

      Disraeli's Bentinck. ' Lord George Benti...

      DISRAELI'S BENTINCK . ' Lord George Bentinck : A Political Biography . J 3 y B > iisraeli , M . P . Golburn & Co . An accident ; caused . an , omission in our pages , when-Mr . Disraeli ' s Political Biography vtm suffered to pasfc . without notice , but we are not about to revert to it for elaborate review . It is not # . happy specimen of Mr . Disraeli's writing j the subject was not a happy one for hisipohi He was indeed an active participator in the struggles of which Lord G-eorgo Bentinck was the leader ; he took an intense interest both in the cause of Protection , and in the personal career of the leader . But " delicacy" has probably precluded him from that part of the subject which is the soul of biography—the personal life of the man ; and that which forms the staple of the thick book before us , a recapitulation of debates in the House of Commons at a time of no very strenuous action , is not a subject capable

      of being made other than dry . The extracts from correspondence , 'chiefly with Mr . Burn , editor of the Commercial Glance , in search of statistics , do not throw much variety into the action of the story ; and even the councils held from time to time with the residue of the Conservative party that adhered to Protection , do not suffice by way of incident . In one sense , Mr . Disraeli has endeavoured to make the most of his materials ; by the dramatic tone in whioh he has translated Hansard ; but the drama of tho manner only renders more conspicuous the essentially und ramatic character of the events . The author does more than try to " cut blocks with a rasor ; " he endeavours to make those blocks pass for dramatis persona jn a melodrama , of which Peel is the villain , Lord John tho " heavy

      father , " and Lord George the generous , all-saving 1 hero ; but the Protectionist blocks aro not so tractable as the Marionettes . Most of us remomber those debates too woll ; and its moral—that a policy which ft nation has outgrown cannot be maintained by the most energetic efforts of Conservative genius—does not need five 01 * six hundred pages to dovelopeit-We might survey tho book with a view to analyso the oharaotor of its author ; but to discover his true goniua we must look into other volumes . Ho has kept himself in tho background ; and it is only in the handling ot his subject ? that personal traits como out . Disraeli is a man of whom it were well if there wore more amongst our acting politicians . Ho is one of tho few who treat politics as a scionce , their application as an art . That ho is really to be countod among patriots avo believe ; l » J liability to tho fever-access of " an honourable ambition" is obvious ; but

      above all , ho is artist . Events aro for him tho materials for arranging " groat state opic , and porforming it before the world for audience . W'J strango twists aro explained by that unoxtingurehivble imrtinot , exaggerate " though they have been b y accidents . It was a grievous mistake of 1 oei » not to attach the able and artistio partisan to His ranks ; and wo cannot help thinking that tho mistake- contributed to tho false cstimato wuion Disraeli forms of Pool . . * His judgment of that statesman has boon circulated throug h tlio labourou

      world w the columns or tho Times ; tho writer has evidently to bo just , handsome ; yet is the result a prejudiced and partial viow Pool is dismissed as " tho groatost Member of P ' arliamont that ever livea ; as if all his acts and famo wore limited to " the House 1 " Peel cliang ° j * tho policy of a country ; and there arc abundant evidences that ho f ° r 0 B ? r events with a sagacity as far-sighted as it was bold . He foresaw tu ° advent of tho working-clnssos into political notion , us Pluinor Ward w > - nosses ; ho foresaw the consummation of l ? rce Trade long bofor / i ho Kno that ho should effect it with hi « own hand ? he foresaw , and did not tw *> tUo cQHwng on of , tho Socialist discussion , on which Disraeli touches w ^»

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 21, 1852, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21021852/page/16/