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    142 THE LEADER; [JS"o:462

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    monds has not made it a part of his book...

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    Lecturks On Christian Dogmas. Lectures O...

    of German enabled thein to avail themselves of the labours of one of the niost celebrated divines of the Prussian Protestant Church . TZhefiogmengeschiehte , Twhicb : we have placed first on the list , is here presented to us in an English dress , and as this translation is uniformly printed with the English version of his Church History , \\\ s Life of Christ , his Planting of Christianity dndAntignosticus , and his Memo rials of Christian Life in . the Early and Middle Ages , those who have no knowledge of German may now

    also participate in the advantages to be derived from a perusal of works which earned for themselves a ¦ wide-spread European reputation . Dogma and doctrine are distinct terms in Scri p tural language ^ and , though the first signification ot the Greek word is simply an opinion or a notion , we must not on that account 16 se sight of the value of the word in Alexandrian Greek , the language of the New Testament and of the Apostles . By them it is always used as equivalent to a statute or decree , as will be readily admitted upon referring to Luke ii . 1 , Acts xvi 4 , and various other passages .

    the great Scotch novelist did the personages of his inimitable romances , face to face ; he penetrated beneath the veil of the past > and was thus eminently qualified by his knowledge of what might have been , to fill up the hiatus where information was wanting in recording what really had- taken place . - . The work is divided into three principal sections ;—I . from the first planting of Christianity to Gregory the Great ; II . from Gregory to the Reformation ; and III . the period which embraces the development of doctrines since the " Reformation .

    Of the Way in which Dr . Jacobi has presented the work of his revered friend and preceptor to the world we have no need to say more than that the verdict of Europe and America has already stamped it with approbation . With , respect to the translation , from a familiar acquaintance with the original , we are enabled to bear testimony to its accuracy , and to the fact that Mr . Ryland has wisely not sacrificed , in a book of such great and authoritative reference , the sense of his author to the desire of presenting the text to the English reader in more attractive language than is to be met with in its original form .

    It is no New Testament idea , least of all a Pauline one , that Christ effected the abrogation of the Law by his doctrine ; for Christ ' s efficiency is attributed in the New Testament not to his teaching , but to his doing and Buffering . The Apostles were conscious , that they imputed not subjective human knowledge , but the contents of a Divine Revelation , arid therefore made use not of dogma but of logos , to designate Christian Doctrine . MarceUus of Ancyra , in the early part of the third century , had already drawn the distinction , and defined the word dogma as expressing " something of human purpose and opinion . " There -were two stand-points by which the distinction was not recognised ; namely , that of a harsh supernaturalism , and the one diametrically opposed to it , a rationalism which could find in the New Testament

    nothing but what was purely human . On the former stand-point the phrase boynara Oeia was used at an early period by the Fathers of the Church for Xoyos & e ? os . They confounded the : peculiarly human apprehension of divine truth with divine truth as it is in itself , so that each person recognised that truth only in the form that suited liis own individuality . Rightly understood , the word dogma is peculiarly fitted to mark the human side in the development of divine truth . History is a thing purely , human . No sooner does human culture begin to germinate , than , we behold attempts at historical composition . Its office is to impart unity to the consciousness of Mankind when it has been

    divided by Time . It originates m the effort to connect the present and the past , and in the conviction that the vicissitudes of Time are a revelation of what is eternal and diyine . Everything lies within its province , which , though in itself unchangeable and exalted above Time , can be presented in the succession of events—everything which , although divine , can be propagated and developed by human agency . But such development can only i > e rendered intelligible by tracing the connexion of one age with , another , and the conjunction of each individual phenomenon with all the rest . Such is the office of History . It forms the connecting link between two worlds , the changeable and the unchangeable .

    Hence it has strict relation to practical life , inasmuch as we belong to a higher order of things , and yet in our development are subject to the vicissitudes of time . It is the highest aim of mankind to advance from the human to the divine , and to this the function of History corresponds , leading us to recognise the revelation of a higher government of the world . To use the words of Diocjorus Sioulus , " the Historian is the Prophet of Divine Providenqe . " Neander ' s love of truth is apparent in all his ¦ frorks ; a love so intense that it kept him ever back from wishing to advance truth itself ; by disingenuous liaeans . This characteristic is everywhere apparent in his JDogmengescMchte , and the Lectures of which it consists were looked upon by him as the most important of all his labours : —

    His method is adapted to excite cautious deliberation ; for ho clearly marks the respective limits of Probability and Certainty , and when Truth is found , ho loves to jnnko it fruitful by protracted contemplation ; bu t if genuine Objectivity consists not merely in confidence of assertion , but in a truthful representation of fact , seldom has it been attained by an historian in so high a degree . The temptation—one of the severest—to model history , according to certain preconceived aims and opinions , whether dogmatic or not , scarcely nflfeotod him . Ho had overcome it beforehand by his oblivion of self , and would sometimes say that nothing seemed , easier to him than to let hiatorioal phenomena bo taken for what they are worth .

    JEftie dovotednoss to faofc find truth impollod him to dorivo his evidencofl and information , from the purest and most original sources . Ho surroundod him self , as it were , with the distinctive pliuraotoi - iatica of both times and persons , transporting himself into the midst of both , and , viowing them , as

    142 The Leader; [Js"O:462

    142 THE LEADER ; [ JS " o : 462

    Monds Has Not Made It A Part Of His Book...

    monds has not made it a part of his book , though ) he has shown us how many articles of animal food . are available to us , and when , prompted by the popularity of this volume ; he brings out the other promised volume on the curiosities of food from the vegetable kingdom , ; Jie may still carry the subject further , for . the curiosities of the mineral kingdom will afford him but scant matter , as the various , earths that are' consumed b y savages hi Guiana , and the few minerals that can be Chemically converted ,, as sulphuric acid for confectionary and vinegar , avUI not yield many chapters to back up that on salt , saltpetre , and other condiments , for laughing-gas can hardly be enrolled as an article of food . It is probable that , had zoology been as well cultivated as horticulture has been , considerabl e additions might have been made to our resources , but the Zoological Society , although cultivating the science of the subject and professing to favour the economic application of zoology , has never instituted exhibitions on an { idequate scale , and has paid no real attention to the economic products of the animal kingdom . This has been left to Mr . Simmonds and to the various museums . The Horticultural Society , by keeping its exhibitions at chief features , stimulated the formation of other societies in its own branch , and thereby of agricultural societies , and the example having been set , there lias been more activity in this one of the

    natural kingdoms . Nearly twenty years ago an economic garden , exhibition , and museum for botanical products , was begun at the lloyal Botanic Gardens in the Regent ' s Park , but though the example was there set it was not followed up , but at Kcw the idea was taken up and a good economic museum formed . The Exhibition of 1 S 51 did much for making vegetable products known , and that of 1 S . 61 will have the same results ... ¦¦ ..,

    Were a society formed for encouraging the economic utilisation of animals and animal products , very much might be done . The Zoological Society have grown a few hybrid ducks for show , but have let the Crystal Palace and other exhibitions deprive them of the profits of the poultry show , because , we suppose , it was beneath the fashionable diguity of the Fellows ; but a well-organised system of yearly exhibitions would have made known in their several classes , new food animals and food products , wool-bearing animals , silk insects , animal fats and oils , hair , bristles , teeth , ivory , bone , and

    numerous articles of commerce . The Zoological Society has had no share in the propagation of the alpaca and the camel in our colonies ; has done nothing for the spread of silk moths ; has taken no care for fish breeding , or for forming oyster beds , and has left to Paris the : labours of a society of acclimatisation .. Mr . Simmonds , in speaking of acclimatisation , strongly recommends experiments to domesticate the capercailzie and the bustard , which would givo birds weighing nearly thirty pounds a piece . An example of what may be done is afforded in

    the case of the eland , of the culinary properties of which Professor Owen gives such a flowing account in last week ' s Titties . There seems to be really a chance for eland meat , and . if so wo shall have a lent to set off against the hippophagists , for hippophagy has small chance in England . After all , one reason why Mnglishmon show little disposition to permit experiments on their stomaohs is that the consumption of animal food in the shape of meat is already of good average ; and although the populations ot Scotland and the west of Ireland have to be brought

    up to this standard , the groat improvements in feeding and the economy of railway transit allow us to moot tho yearly demand , besides the Tact that wo draw upon the Continent for supplies of live and dead moat . It is this copiousness of meat supply which not only relieves us from eating horses , ( logs , and cuts , as they do from necessity or choice in Paris , but oven restricts tho consumption ol fish . The encouragement of the fishorios is muchlalkgil of , but the encouragement of getting the population to consumo fish , iVosh or suit , lias not hucn obtainod furthor than tho cilbcts of railway operations havo ineroasod the inland supply , which they have largoly . Mr . Simmonds has not reforrod to such points as those , because Jho has loft for tho time tho K > 'iivo disquisition of statistios , but I here can bo no clouljr . tho ill-rod populations of Europe aro larguly hciio-( il , od by tho Increased supply of sea Hah , and tliO saying of food on railway-curried cattle . komo years ago most of tho boasts for tho supply ol Paris wore driven from tho lowlands of I'Juiuloi's and Holland , and ovory ounoo of fnl worked out oi

    THE CURIOSITIES' OF FOOD . The Curiosities of Food ; or , the Delicacies and Dainties of Different Nations , obtained from the Animal Kingdom . By Peter Lund Simmonds , F . R . G . S ., F . S . S ., Author of a ^ Dictionary of Trade Products , " " The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom , " & c . & c . R . Bentlej ^ . Mb . P . L . Simmonds has been best known as a laborious statician , the author of the standard work on the Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom , and , as the practical director of the classification in the economical departments of the South

    Kensington Museum , and he now makes lumself known to thepublic as the author of a wbrk of entertainment which , bears the title of the . Curiosities of Food . In rummaging over the stores of South Keiisingtonj and in forming his own museum , Mr . Simmonds must have come upon curiosities enough , and he is welcome-to them , but the curiosities of food we would rather learn from liis book than by means of the organs of taste , for > not content with such hors d ' eeuvre of the bill of fare as snails and frogs , puppy dogs and sea slugs , he proceeds to inform us that almost every beast , nice and nasty , has been made at some time or another an article of food .

    It is comfortable to know that Musical Jack , monkey , and alligator may , if it conies to the worst , afford us a meal , but the community here will be quite satisfied to let them be curiosities . We , do not think it necessary to consider whether this book is useful because it is very entertaining , but Mr . Simmonds hints for the benefit of the traveller and the settler , that it will teach them to be content sometimes with what they can readily obtain , and to avail themselves of many an unusual article of food , which would be rejected under more favourable circumstances , and with a greater choice for selection .

    The author is content to bear forth froih the abundant stores which have accumulated during many years of research , and under rare opportunity , a mass of facts which , from the circumstances to which they relate and from his treatment , keep up the iuterest of the volume , or wo should have becu tempted to ask him for a few philosophical disquisitions , particularl y on tho topics why the luxurious yariety of our forefathers has been so oircuinscribod and brought to such simplicity that wo havo little more choice than beef , mutton , and veal , a few typical fowl and typical fish , and those troatod with such soantinoss ot rosourco that each dish is reduced to a specific sauoo , and tho dinner givor of eicht hundred a vcar and the dinuor-makor for

    eight thousand a year become horrified , and shako tho -Times from its political propriety . Why should this be , and what havo becoino of tho swans , poucocks , ruffa , roovos , blackbirds , cranes , herons , plovers , mallards , larks , and other dainties , on which mediroval dignitaries regaled P Why should wo havo got down from tho run of all tho vintages of Europe to two wines , port and sherry , loaving Lisbon , Malaga , Malvoisio , Canary , Alioaut , and wino aftor wmo to oblivion , or to some chance votary of tho antiquo P Why should not Mr . Simmonds and tho loarnod discuss why , in Uiiu ago of invent ion , so fow now articles of animal food aro introduced among us , oven to muko up for tho disr appoaranco of tho rank and filo of tho old bills of fitt'Q p ' Hero is enough to bo disoussod , but Mr , Sim-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 29, 1859, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29011859/page/14/