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    180 «!) * $Ltail$t* [Saturday,

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    I'OUKIKIt ON TIIK I'AHHIONN. Tin' Passio...

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    Rendell's Antediluvian History. The Ante...

    manency in "writing , but their significance has perished , because this was not recorded , and , also , because the genius to which it was perceptible has passed away . " These 'acts are incontestable , and we are led from them to conclude that the documents of Gen sis , popularly regarded as a description of the origin of the world , the beginning of humanity , and the first constiution and progress of society , are somewhat of a similar character , and that they describe the moral sentiments and religious conditions of men through their corresponding images in nature . " Indeed , he plainly asserts that : —

    " Mankind would long ago have acknowledged their mythic character , but for the powerful influence of a traditional opinion to the contrary . But this cm have but little real weight , when it is remembered that such traditions were originated by ecclesiastical authority , at a time when the true signification of those writings had long been overlooked . " Mr . Rendell , then , discards any thing like a literal interpretation of Genesis , and sees in it a mythical and spiritually-symbolical language , which it is for our philosophy to interpret . He believes it to be the Word of God , but he believes God spoke in symbols .

    To Giordano Bruno , Sedgwick , Buckland , Rendell , and all whom it may concern , we beg to submit these reflections : Either the Bible is the Word of God , or it is the Word of Man . If it is the latter , other words of men condemn it . If it is the former , we must accept its literal teachings , and agree with Dr . Pusey , that it is an act of impiety to bend any word of Scripture from its plain obvious meaning . No flinching , no compromise ; the Letter , the whole Letter , and nothing but the Letter ! It is God ' s writing , let no man presume to correct it ! Choose then , O ye earnest minds of our age , between the teachings of Science and those of Scripture : say which shall it be , Moses or Galileo , Moses or Newton , Moses or Dalton , Moses or Lyell , Moses or Blumenbach ?

    Because , shift the ground and " compromise" as you may , to that the world must come at last . Logic leads there , and nowhere else . Logic says to that ingenious reconciliation , theory : It is surely a much easier thing to believe that God wrote no such book , than to believe that in undertaking so momentous a work ( if the happiness , the salvation of the whole human race may be considered momentous !) he should not have written the plain truth once and for ever . Simply for this reason : while they were about it , the Jews could just as easily have bowed down to truth as to error ; and , inasmuch as God must have foreseen how many thousands would for so many years have believed

    in these errors because they had his sanction , and how many would reject the whole book because they rejected these errors—because , being found unworthy of credit in several important particulars , they naturally saw no reason for crediting it in others—inasmuch as all this must have been foreseen , it is unworthy of an exalted conception of the Deity to believe in it . Were a philosopher to distort the truth for the sake of finding a ready acceptance to other doctrines , we should brand him as a timeserving and ignoble philosopher . Shall we think more unworthily of God than of Man ? Shall we suppose that God could not so have stated the truth that men should believe in it , when upon their belief so much depended ?

    The path of compromine leads direct to the father of lies ! Accept the Uible as the Inspired Writing , and accept it without the impiety of " interpretation "— believe its plain and obvious language—or , accept it as one of the great Records of Humanity . Believe what Moses tells you of the heavens and the earth and the waters under the earth , or believe what Science tells you—Init make no vain effort to believe that both are true .

    This is what we say to those who doubt ; meanwhile we may give Mr . llundcll very high praise for the extremely ingenious manner in which he haw interpreted what he believes to be tho symbols of Scripture .

    180 «!) * $Ltail$T* [Saturday,

    180 «!) * $ Ltail $ t * [ Saturday ,

    I'Oukikit On Tiik I'Ahhionn. Tin' Passio...

    I'OUKIKIt ON TIIK I'AHHIONN . Tin' Passions i \ f the Human Soul . Ily Cliurh'H Fourier . Trnua-Intril from the J'Yeiicli l > y Ilio Id-vcriinl . lolin Krynell Mnirll . With Critical Annotation !* , a Ilio ^ nipliy of Fourier , anil n UkiiithI lutr ului-. tioii , by Hugh Dolkerly . 2 voIh . London : liuillicru . ( Second Notice . ) This work which Mr . Morcll ban translated in a collection of Home of tho writings of Fourier that have been ponthurnouHly published in the Vrench FourieriHt periodical La Phalange . For the grouping of these papers together , us well as for the title , " The Passions of the Human Soul , " ^ iven to thorn collectively , wo believe Mr , Mordl himself in responsible ; nor are we quite tune that

    in translating them first he has adopted the best mode of introducing Fourier to the English public . The work before us , for example , is not selfcontained ; many of its ideas and phrases being continued out of the previous writings of Fourier , so as hardly to be intelligible in their present state of isolation . Possibly a translation of Fourier ' s writings in their chronological order would have been , on the whole , the most suitable . But Mr . Morell ' s task was one of no ordinary difficulty , and he deserves hearty thanks for having undertaken it

    at all . If he has presented us first with that portion of Fourier ' s writings which contains the fullest exposition of what may be called his system of Psychology , it has doubtless been for reasons that have weighed sufficiently with himself ; and we do not know but that the translation of these may prepare the English mind better for the reception of Fourier ' s more celebrated treatise on " Domestic and Agricultural Association , " which , we are glad to learn , Mr . Morell is now engaged in putting into English .

    The cardinal notion of Fourier ' s Psychology is the existence in men of twelve distinguishable passions or tendencies to activity . These he arranges as follows : Group I . Five Sensitive Passions , or Passions of the Senses , viz .: Touch , Taste , Smell , Hearing , and Sight . Group II . Four Affective Passions , or Passions of the Affections , viz .: Love , Friendship , the Family-feeling , and Ambition .

    Group III . Three Distributive Passions , or Passions of the Higher Intellect , viz ., Cabalism , or the Cabalist Passion , i . e ., the Passion for Intrigue , Dissension , subdivision into sects ; Papillonism , or the Papillonist Passion { Papillon , a Butterfly ) , i . e ., the Passion for Variety , Alternation , Change of Occupations ; and Compositism , or the Composite Passion , i . e ., the Passion for Combination , Harmony , Unity .

    That ideal sum-total of human activities which we call Duty , or Perfection , consists , according to Fourier , in the harmonious and symmetrical gratification of all these Passions . All are , in their own nature , equally legitimate . This , the legitimacy of all the Passions , is a great point with Fourier . " How great would be the inconsistency of God , if He wished to degrade five out of the twelve passions ; and why should He have given us five vicious springs in the five sensitive passions ? If you listen to the moralists they will not fail to vilify the seven animic passions , ambition , love , & c , into the bargain ; so that if we may

    believe thetn , there remains only one good passion , Philosophisni , which would drive a man to spend a million of money ( if he has got it ) in order to buy 400 , 000 volumes of philosophy , and expose himself to ridicule , by ruining himself to acquire a wisdom the authors of which do not understand their own meaning . In answer to their galleries of volumes , I am about to prove that all the passions are Rood , such as God hath created them , and that the five sensitive passions are useful as well as the seven auimic ; but they are good conditionally , and in the case of associative development , they are vicious , all twelve of them , in the case of incoherent development . "

    At present there is hardly an individual in whose character there is exhibited a full and harmonious play of all the passions . Some men are slaves to one passion , or , according to the language of Fourier , have one dominant others are swayed pretty equally by two passions , or have two dominants others , again , are more complex natures , and arc governed by three , four , five , six , or even seven dominants . Classifying mankind on this principle , Fourier calls those men who are swayed by one dominant , of whatever kind , Monogynes ; those who are swayed by two dominants , which

    must be either both affective passions , or the one an affective passion , the other a distributive , he calls Digynes ; those who have three dominants , two distributives and one affective , ho calls 'Vrigynes ; those who lnivo four dominants , two at least being distributive , he calls Tetragyncs ; those who have five dominants , one distributive and four affect . ivcs , be calls Pentugynes ; those who have five dominants , whereof tlnce are distributives and two alJ ' ectives , he culls llcxagyncs ; those who have six dominants , four affectives and two distributives , lie calls lleptuyynes ; and those who are dominated by

    all the seven affectives and distributives , lie calls Onmigynes . ( How , in the above list , he is able to specify the number of passions out of each group that can go together , he does not inform us : this is probably one of his dogmatisms . ) Of the foregoing varieties of character , the three last , to wit , the Ilexagynes , the Ilc [> tagynca , and the OmnigyncH , aretlic most rare and transeendant . Out of H 1 O individuals , taken at random , r > 7 (> will be MonogynoH , 0 ( 5 will be Digynes , 24 will be TrigyneH , H will be ' 1 ' etragyncM , and 2 will be PentagynoH ; while tho remaining' 104 will belong to certain

    ambiguous or mixed denominations , for which he provides titles . For one Hexagyne , however , one must search 2434 individuals ; for one Heptagyne , 9740 individuals ; while an Omnigyne will be found only once in a crowd of 29 , 222 . This extraordinary classification Fourier illustrates by examples . Here is his picture of one Monogyne in whom he took particular interest ; the sketch is quite Rabelaisian : — " It was a tippler , a monogyne with the dominant of taste , the tonic of drinking . I saw him in a public diligence or stage coach ; he was not a sottish drunkard , but a man gifted with a marvellous instinct for referring all the circumstances of life to wine . Similar , to those

    mystical personages who see everything in God , this fellow saw everything in wine ; instead of reckoning time by hours and half-hours , he reckoned it by the number of bottles drunk . Supposing you asked him , Will it take long to reach Such a place ? ' * Well ! about the time of drinking four bottles . ' When the horses stopped for a moment , I said to him , ' Do we stop long here ?' ' About long enough to toss off a bottle standing . ' Now I knew that in his arithmetic a bottle drunk while standing was equal to five minutes , and a bottle drunk while seated was ten minutes . One of the two coaches on the road , which had bad horses , passed us going down a hill , but he called out to it in a bantering tone , ' Bah , bah , we shall drink before you ! ' ( that is to say , we shall arrive before you , for why do you arrive at all if not to drink ?)

    One of the passengers made us wait at the station where he had got down ; the passengers complained , and asked , ' What is he after ? he delays us . ' The monogyne replied , ' Perhaps he has not yet drunk his gill ( for why do people delay you except it be to drink ) . * * * Some one ventured to complain of the weather , which was cold and foggy ; our friend took him up severely , and explained that the weather was exceedingly good , because it kept back the vines that would have been exposed to frost by two precocious a vegetation . I listened to him during the moments he conversed familiarly with one of his companions , and nothing was heard but dozens of wine , casks being tapped , beginning to drink the wine , & c . In short , wine was to this man a focus , or a common centre , to which he referred all nature . "

    His illustration of the other six varieties of character is also worth quoting : — " Louis XIY . was a digyne governed by ambition and by love . The digynes are for the most part interesting characters , but those with the pivot of ambition and of parentism are very odious in civilization . Those of ambition and cabalist are the most false and dangerous of all beings ; those of friendship and of papillon , or of love and of papillon , are the most seductive characters . " The twenty-four trigynes , or characters of the third

    power , are commonly cold people , or people of concentrated ardour ; they pivot on two of the three distributives , to which is joined one of the affectives . When endowed with the composite , the cabalist and ambition , they become , according to circumstances , either frightful wretches , like Robespierre , who was a trigyne of this title , or men of great political character , as Lycurgus , a trigyne of the same title . This genus furnishes very graceful characters under the pivot of composite , papillon and friendship , and likewise very repulsive ones .

    " The eight tetragynes are very noble characters when they have for their pivot a majority of affectuous passions . Henry IV . was a magnificent tetragyne pivoting on friendship , love , ambition , and composite ; Voltaire , was one of a different title . A tetragyne is very dangerous when he is on the pivot of cabalist and papillon , with two affectuous passions different ironi friendship . Such a character will be early capable of all crimes . Nero was of this title ; he treated crimes grandly after the manner of the tetragynes .

    " The pentagynes , or kings of the passions , are the lowest step of the transcendent characters . Nature only Rives one couple out of 405 . It is rare that these brilliant characters are mischievous . This can only take place when their pivot is composed of the cabalist joined to the four aff < ctuous passions , as descending tonics , but they are sublime when their distributive is the composite or the pupillon . J . J . Rousseau was a pentagyne of gentle tonics . Charles Fox appears to have been of thin title ; I cannot certify this . * * * *

    " The hcxiigynes , second of the transcendent degrees , areordinarily indomitable characters , that become terrible in civilization when they are on thrones . As they have for their dominants the throe distributives with two alfcctuouH passions , the latter have at nil events the smallest share of influence . Tho great Frederick ami liuonaparte arc two hexagyncs . These characters are almost unsociable in the inferior conditions , where" the wmit of development , sours them , and gives them a taint of misanthropy ; but on thrones they cannot fail to signalize tlninmlveH . Mow , as the character are distributed at . hazard , it , is infinitely rare for a king to liiul himself endowed with one of these transcendent notes ; they fall commonly to the lot of poor individuals unable ; to develops them . Nature only creates a couple of them in IM . 'M individuals ; ( hey govern three or four phalanges or eoimnnnitics .

    " 1 lie hept'igyni'H , or characters of the seventh power , who pivor . upon four nlfectuouN and two distributive pansioiiH , are the most seductive of the whole octave ; one would think them to he of a more ihnn human nut me . J ulius CnsHitr and Alcibiades were two heptagynes . They are hoiiIh of a marvellous flexibility , and have an infinite upt . it . ude for all uorts of studies anil of functions . Nature only produces a couple of them in !> 728 individuals ; they govern twelvo communities . " The omnigynea me the most rare and the most useful notes , though less seductive than the heptagyncH ; tliey liMVo-too many functions to fulfil to bu able to luy Htresa from preference on the beautiful shades of character .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 22, 1851, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22021851/page/16/