On this page

• Text (3)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    May 26, 1860.J The Leader and Saturday A...

  • 

    .ECCENTKIC LITimA-TURE* AS the facility ...

  • 

    * Miranda; a Hook divided hito Throe Par...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Fakabay's Juvenile Lectures * Ryhe Deart...

    natural miracle ; and when , as Faraday explained to his youngauditors , the same paper is pulled or pushed by the invisible agency of electricity , our minds , less accustomed to this method of exercising force , cannot help being astonished at the result . The forces operating in nature are extremely few , compared with the multiplicity and variety of their results , and it is impo . ssible to get a philosophical conception of any one of-them unless their connection or correlation is understood . These ideas may seem too ¦ profound , and too-far removed , from ordinary conceptions to ba made . intelligible to the young , but Faraday accomplishes the task with ease and . simplicity , and any thoughtful boy or girl can , by means of these lectures , readily follow the'thread of a scientific ' investigation , commencing with gravitation , and running through- cohesion , and the principal phenofew

    mena of Hi ^ ht , heat , electricity , und chemical affinity . Very men could have put so much information in so intelligible a form , and in so small a space , or have chosen with such consummate judgment the most apt methods of illustration ; but the lectures are not valuable only , or chiefly , for the communication of actual knowledge—they have a deeper ' importance in their power of stimulating philosophical thought , and leading to the habit of associating ideas according to the principles of accurate science . We cm imagine the delight ' of the juvenile audience to whom they were delivered . "Here is a boy ' s experiment—ind I like a boy ' s experiment , " exclaimed their teacher , as he told them how to melt l « -. ad in a tobacco-pipe , and by pouring the fused metal upon a stone , get smooth clear surfaces , that would unite with a little pressure , and strikingly illustrate the attraction of cohesion . His readiness to look at things from their point of view comniends itself to all boys and girls . And " when the grev-haired philosopher proceeded to blow real soaphad beforethe

    bubbles , and give ' them a significance they never , charm must have been complete . Most of the experiments described in these lectures arc within the reach of an ordinary family ; and it would be a good plan if some enterprising purveyor of scientific apparatus fitted up a small box as an accompaniment to the cheap volume , and thus brought an admirable course of instruction within the reach of a large number of juveniles * or those who have to discharge the duty of teaching them . To the benevolent mind of Pakaoay , his success with children must be a source of delight , and he evidently _ experienees as much pleasure in planting their steps firmly upon some of the lower rounds of the ladder of ' Truth , as-in his own more lonely wanderings to its Alpine heights . In later times the worth of such teaching will become apparent , and some of the youngsters , who found these lectures among the . plea- * santest incidents in their Christinas holidays , may have unconsciously carried away impulses that will urge them to intellectual distinction , and beneficially influence--the- whole current of their lives . - , - . ¦ ¦

    May 26, 1860.J The Leader And Saturday A...

    May 26 , 1860 . J The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 499

    .Eccentkic Litima-Ture* As The Facility ...

    . ECCENTKIC LITimA-TURE * AS the facility for printing and publishing increases , the world must not be surprised if it is from time to time deliberately treated to some marvellously intellectual follies perpetrated in the name of Reason and Faith . ' There are books , it is true , which can only bo

    produced at special periods , and by men of peculiar idiosyncrasies . It is also very certain that history cannot be written Before tlTTfact ^ nor prophecy after it . The greater portion of writing , at the present time , and perhaps the best , is that of commentary . All that , has occurred , or is occurring iu the world , is either subjected to critical comment or lucid exposition . The right conception of the whole , or any part of history , religion , or science , depends , we imagine , very much upon the integral unity of the intellectual faculties and moral instincts of the individual . Should reason be strong and predominant in mi individual , experience testifies that he will be exempt from the total influence and control of appearances , and from visions whose fabrics are baseless . We need not state the

    converse of this proposition . We know that an individual of great imagination and small reasoning powers is subject to all sorts ot illusions and conceits . Ho lives in a cloudy atmosphere ot intelligence , aud is incapable of perceiving any thing clearly , or of thinking any thing rightly . But what shall wo say when we perceive a mind possessing the imaginative and the rational iaculty apparently to an equal decree , and calmly exercising both in forming a theory absolutely based upon pure coujt / cture , fancy , or whim ? Such appears to bo Uiu author of the strange work before us entitled " Miranda . " He professes to hud confirmations of the old and new docrinos of C . urist from wonders hitherto unheeded in the words and divisions of the Bible , in the facts and dates of history , ami in the position and motions of the

    heavenly bodies . With ' this phantasy he sets oil' on an expedition through the whole Pagan , Jewish , mid Ciristian history ol the world , and having satisfied himself us to the direct bearing and relation of everv historical ami every uuhistorical occurrence , ( act , fable , niyih , tale , romance , and legend in the earth to the Christian- religion , he deliberately proceeds to . classifyand form them all into u system , which po ^ o ^ jd transcendent beauty , «»«*•» 'U'thur s estimation . . But we luivo deep misgivings that he will get more disciples to wonder and laugh at hin collection of wonders than to admire und believe them . Indeed , we are strongly of opinion that to believe in hit . t ' heory demaiuls an utter abnegation of all common uenaoand common judgment . Our author , however , at the outsot of his system , has committed » fatal error . 01 all works with

    which we are acquainted , " Mtrauda approaches the nearest to a Neo-Caristian extravaganza . For to pretend for a moment to look upon his-arguments as sound , and his conceits as-cpnfirmations . of the Christian religion is a profanation and a farce . We do not deny Chat here and there in- the work we fall upon a statement with which , the logician may be satisfied , a fancy with which the poet may be pleased , and a sentiment of which the saint may ap wove , but t-iese occasional merits only make the concoction of such a work the more to be lamented , inasmuch as it displays an evident misuse and waste of erudition and superior talents . There is hardly jin-extravagance in human conception that it does not dignify bv the name of trutu , hardly an error in heathenism that it does not try to sanctify in the holy font of C . iristianitv . An-i this fact alone is unanswerable evidence of the absurdity of its entire mass of assumptions .

    That the reader may be satisfied that the book we are remarking upon has an actual existence in good readable type , though tlie revising and correcting of the author ' s pet work has , from the numerous errors we discover in it , been sadly neglected , we will lay before him a few passages by which he may obtain a fair view of the whole . On the divine liw of eternal and universal progress , the writer begins by remarking , that " The Infinite goodness of G > d would fun" have created all things as perfect in their limited nature , as He is immense in al His eternal . attributes . This being impossible by an intrinsical contradiction , Hu did what was next desirable , that is to say , He made all capable of an indefinite ami never-to-be-stopped improvement and progress . " He then declares that the actual world is still in its vouth , and that it is destined to live many

    hundred thousand years . If it be , Dr . Camming and our anonymous author are sadly at variance in their calculations , and it requires no great gift of prophecy ou our part to suy , that the author o " Miranda , " and , alas ! we ourselves , will be utterly obliterated from the memory of men at that time . ¦ " But , " he continues , " thei old a < re and decay of the world , though it live many huudred-thousand \ years , will inevitably come . The sun shall be queiiche I . the centripetal and centrifugal forces shall lose their equilibrium ^ the reign of chaos shall begin anew . But a short reign it will be . Out of the seeds and ¦ ¦ ¦ materials "' of the dissolved Cosmos God will make another , physically and morally better than this , winch , m its turn , will be dissolved to make room for a still more beiiuriftil order of things , and so on with ail endless succession . " Ihis writer is not quite a Pantheist , though he says there must be some troth the most Avertul

    in a doctrrnrt-that has been believed by some of p human minds , and by nearly one-half of mankind , namely , the Hindoos and _ Cninese . He says , however , that The " Universe , or aggregate of all material things , is not God i for God , he declares , " ° is an Infinite .. Sp irit ,-omnipresent , all-powerful , and all-seeing . Yet in the next paragraph but two that follows this declaration , his philosophy becomes muddled , for he says , that " the union ot the Spiritual God with the material Universe , constitutes the One , Infinite , Divine , and Supreme Being . " In spite of his love of clearness , however , he acknowledges that there are two terms especially which he must use with some obscurity and confusion , " not voluntarily , but because the confusion and obscurity are inherent in the ideas which- all human minds associate with them . Ti . ese two terms are " Spibit and Matter . WTiat-is-JTiirtterf—Fkmwr-nofc What is Spirit ? I am equally at a loss how to define it . . VVe are here irresistibly remind . nlof the answers which , 1 ' unch , lias of

    given to these famous questions ; and as philosophers despair ever beiri" able to give better , we are tempted to repeat them for the benefit of the author of " Miranda , " who , should the perplexing 1 question , " what is matter ? " ever recur to annoy him . would do well to keep in remembrance the sensible and witty answer ot " Punch" " Never mind '; " nor should he forget the soothing and comforting reply— "No matter , " when he is next puzzled by the question— " What is spirit P " The reader , however , may be not a little surprised to find a writer who can answer questions regarding Spirit and Matter in a conoid and philosophic spirit that ho knew not how to define them , yet believing in and lirmly maintaining the doctrines of the transmigration and metempsvehosis of souls ; and not only so , but actually making them cardinal doctrines of tho Christian religion—nay , even exceeding that extravagance by n statement that C . n-ist has had iortynino incarnations , the first of which was A'lam , and the last the author of " Mirand . i" who supplies as . evidence ot the iaot—the

    , initials J . T ., and address 2 <'> , University Street , twenty-six being : n Hvbilline ' number . UuL our au'hor says there were three AduniH . " Tiio ' trt ' o first chapters of the bo > k 6 t Moses reluto to Adam tho first , tho immediate founder of tho blade variety ot mankind ; tho remainder of Gurnww contains the history ot Adam tho third , or white Ada ..., as well as that of his descendants , Adam tho second , or red Adam , namely , t > . e founder of tho human variety comprehend . ng the Americans and tho Yellow Mongolians , js intimated in the Bible by the very muno of Adam , the etymology ot which is red earths H « ro , upon the authority <» tl > r Webster , w « liuiv' Ntatu that Adam means " form or " image , and not red earth thin latter definition being an error ot Josephus . ana

    ; ai-coutod by theologians , till corrected by the learned doctor we have mentioned . But Adam tho first was n " . nan of K «""'« - " Ho elaborated in his mind a whole system of language . A i »» M" - fiouut language , with words for uli tho |> riu « ipal ol ?| j * « 'l " * " ^ j and for all tho primitive wants of socfal intercourse , and ¦ ko » I men of genius ho was endowed with superior V ° ^ . ; fj" ^ l analysis and of mental synthesis . to . H huj h J *«* » h $££ Adam called every thuiit / creature , that was the name thcreoj .

    * Miranda; A Hook Divided Hito Throe Par...

    * Miranda ; a Hook divided hito Throe Parts , entitled Hants , AW '" ' * Stars , on tho Noo-Vhristitxn JMhfion . London ; printed and publishoU by James Morgan .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 26, 1860, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26051860/page/15/