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Leader (1850-1860), 6th July 1850, Edition Town of 1, Page 354

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      is hard hitting in this chapter . He laughs at the notion of our Cotton Lords being any improvement upon the Feudal Lords : — " A battle is said to have been fought , a victory accomplished ; let us survey the battle-field , let us estimate the victory . Instead of beta * a great protest of humanity against inhumanity , we find it to have been simply a conflict between clique and clique . The monied men of the nation have succeeded in getting their right to be proud , their right to a higher position in man s respect than the unmonied , acknowledged by the people . That is all . " The Mammon spirit breathes upon our age and infects even the noblest schemes : —

      " High-sounding Christian schemes of no war and universal peace are afloat , but how , for the most part , advocated ? By pointing to the expenses of the last war , as they stand in the grand mammoth of the national debt . An attempt to govern a nation by laws believed to be from God , has never been made , except by the Puritans ; the idea of such a thing has been ridiculed and scoffed at , until at length the genius of the Economists has discovered that to carry out certain of Christ ' s precepts would benefit trade and preserve and increase capital . No sooner is that demonstrated than peace principles , et cetera , progress ; and the idea of legislating on Chrisridiculed

      tian principles is not as Utopian any more , now that to do so can be shown to have a tendency to reduce taxes and foster commerce : were the carrying out of these things proved to be expensive and injurious to commercial money-amassing , how paralyzed would the anti-war agitation speedily become I And yet they are generally believed to be the positive commandments of God himself . It therefore appears that modern middleclass politics , as regards this subject , go upon the principle that it is advisable to carry out in our home and foreign polity what are received by most as the teachings of the God of the universe , whenever so doing is in conformity with the more congenial edicts of the great God-Mammon . "

      Association and Moral Mechanism—Literature—the Duties and Vocation of the Literary Man—and the Spiritual are in turns summoned up at the Rhadamanthus seat of our inflexible censor , -who speaks more like a priest than a social critic , for he allows of no falling short of the abstract excellence . Thus he says , truly enough : — " On every hand we find a respectable conformity to established rules of religious propriety ; but earnest devotion to God we do not find . " We find respectable men , breaking no law of society , never overstepping the line of a conventional religiousness , cither by an open

      flagrant sin , or an energetic good . They conform to some sect , attend its services punctually , pay subscriptions freely and regularly , and run a roifnd of arid respectability with the monotony of machines , never bursting forth into the full , world-despising spontaneity of a spiritual life . And this is what is accounted religion in the world—this is what satisfies the most zealous pastors ; and yet is it all a pure matter of social arrangement , as are the forms of introduction , of eating , or of dancing . Men go to church , not to pray , nor to worship ; of the idea of the human soul prostrating itself before its eternal Maker , and crying in passionate , David-like fervour for

      pardon and for strength , they have no conception . It is respectable to go to church , and they go . They give guineas to charities , but such a matter of business is it that , if they be in trade , they mostly place them to their trade expenses as a kind of semi-religious rent or tax ; but a leviathanic charity that shall be felt , —a selling of ' all that they possess , ' they never hear of and never entertain . Nay , have we not this anomaly perpetrated , more or lessi in every town , in every clique of men ? You shall find a spiritual man , believing in God , in truth , in purity , endeavouring to the best of his ability to stand firm to truth and purity , cost it what it may ; actually leading an almost irreproachably Christian life ; and yet because simply his conscience forbids him to attend the to the

      worship of a sect , you shall see him subjected Englishman's hell , and not * get on / owing to the conventional disapprobation which he incurs by so violating respectability in these matters . At the same time you shall see another , a dissolute , bad , un-Christian man , who does attend , as a form , some church or chapel , looked upon with favour by ministers and by men . It is a fact , that ministers of Christ ' s gospel , and society at large , prefer a dissolute man who has no worthy ideas of God or religion at all , but who conforms to the churchattending law , and gives his guineas to oil the church machinery , to the vividly religious , good man who cannot so conform . Fur , as I said , Christianity has sunk into a mere conventional convenience , a worldly arrangement , and has ceased to be a life-and-death eternal fact , superior to all arrangements of society . The world is impatient of the man who is sceptical of Christianity ; but it is even mure so of the man who believes in it with

      his whole heart and soul , and would strive , at all costs , to realize it . " True , most true ; and yet one must say that it hns ever been so since the world begun . Spirituality in any constant or exulted state was never found to characterize a wholo people ; therefore we cannot see the decny of England in that aspect of our social discrepancy . On the wholo there is mutter for thought in this book ; and our slight outline of its contents conveys but ti very inudequuto idea of it . Force , earnestness , and closeness nrc its characteristics . It may do good in stray quarters ; it cannot do harm .

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      BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Historical Analysis of Christian Civilization . By Professor de Vericour , Queen ' s College , Cork . John Chapman . There is obvious advantage in all historical summaries like the present , as furnishing a general outline which special studies hereafter may fill up , or as reviving the general impressions which historical studies have left in the mind . History is a subject so vast in its importance , so vast and complex also in its details , that the mind becomes bewildered in the inextricable confusion of states , empires , heroes , and policies , unless some general classification have been previously laid out in the mind , enabling us to follow any one point through its course without losing the general connection of the whole . Professor de Vericour ' s book has great superiority over the ordinary text-books and manuals , inasmuch as it is written with a more distinct purpose , and is guided by

      general principles . His object is not to produce a handbook of modern history , but to trace throughout modern history the law of progress and the application of Christian principles . It is thus the philosophy of modern history rather than a manual ; but it is not a work of mere generalizations : leave out the philosophy and there is still a text-book of dry historical fact as a residuum . The utility of such a mixed work may be gathered from this fact : We who differ extremely from Professor de Yericour on almost all points of historical philosophy can , nevertheless , profit by his historical survey . Those who can admit his calm assumptions and accept his sweeping generalizations will find the work suggestive and instructive . To the orthodox it will be extremely valuable ; and we have little doubt that it will become popular in colleges and schools .

      The Ministry of the Beautiful . By Henry James Slack , F . G . S ., of the Middle Temple . Bentley . Reveries in prose . The object of the book is to present " some of the truths which forni the basis of our philosophy in their character of verities of the imagination and the heart , as well as the intellect ; " but the execution fails from vagueness and want of life . With considerable powers of writing there is no effect produced . Prose is not the proper vehicle for such thoughts . Auverene . Piedmont , and Savoy . A Summer Ramble . By Charles Richard Weld . J . W . Parker .

      Impossible to travel over pleasant ground with a less agreeable companion . In this respect Mr . Weld stands in contrast with Mr . Clark , whose delightful Gazpacho we reviewed the other day . Like Mr . Clark he has nothing but his own trivial adventures to communicate , but unlike Mr . Clark he has not the lively , genial style , which can make trivialities agreeable . It is a summer ramble by a mere Englishman during a vacation . It tells us nothing new ; it tells us what is old in an old manner . The trash and twaddle such a man might suffer to escape him in conversation or in a letter , has here been pretentiously gathered into a book . Mr . Weld has no idea how

      he betrays himself by a thousand slight touches , and how ridiculous the position he sometimes naively assumes in his criticisms on the French people whom , we take the liberty of informing him , he understands no better than the vulgarest cockney just landed at Boolong , and all those jaunty airs of superiority which he gives himself are but exhibitions of fatuity . The book is provoking not only from the want of agreeableness in the author , but also from its poverty . There are no pictures ; there are no good stories ; there are no social observations . It is destitute of extractable matter , and lured us to the end in the vain hope of finding one passage worth quoting .

      The Fiower and the Star ; or , the Course of a Stream , A child ' s story . Wild Flowers for Children . By Mr . Honeysuckle . Master Woodbine's Alphabet . The Young Ladybird ' s Alphabet . The Good Child ' * Alphabet . The Tiny Alphabet . C . Honeysuckle . We have subjected these little books to the fairest and

      most fearless of all criticism , viz ., that of children . They have been placed in the hands of boys from three years up to seven , and a verdict of unqualified delight has been given . The fairy story was found a little hazy , and some of the objects were coloured so as to mislead the little critics ; but on the whole there was great clapping of hands , and we have never been able to get the books away again : which looks like a practical compliment to them better than any sentence we could turn in their

      praise . Favourite Song Birds . Being a popular Description of the leathered Songsters of Britain , with an Account of their Haunts , Habits , and Characteristic Traits . Edited by II . G . Adams . Part * I . and II . W . 8 . Orr . An excellent idea well executed . The nightingale and goldfinch are the birds treated of in these two parts .

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      NOTES AND EXTRACTS . The Ocean Monarch in Danger . —The end of this book is to proclaim danger ; the feather has been flung up , and we find that Euroclydons and Siroccos are abroad . And we find that with a lazy dreaming crew there is small hope for the salvatiou of the vessel . This Ocean Monarch drifting among the breakers demands an energetic crew , cannot spare a single hand from the necessary labour . Deeper and deeper does she sink ; higher and higher is the water in her hold . A few on board see the danger ; but one-half of the crew is boisterously rude and ignorant of all vital knowledge ; and the other half , that has the power to save , the means

      and the influence and the knowledge , lolls listlessly in the saloons amid perfumes and delicacies , lisping a languid " let us alone" to all who come to warn them . Nay more : such heaps of fashionable fripperies have they ; such a chaos of packages , of pier-glasses , rougepots and epergnes , that the one chief cause of the vessel ' s founderinsr is the ponderosity of their accumulated trash . Who shall gainsay , therefore , that the only chance for this poor Ocean Monarch is that the uncultivated portion be taught to assist as speedily as may be ; and that the fripperies of the others be cast remorselessly overboard , and their owners shaken into life , so that they shall leave their dreamy saloons and come and save the vessel ?—Social Aspects , by J . S . Smith .

      Cooperation among Working Men . —It is stated that , within not many years past , £ 3 , 000 , 000 sterling have been expended in this country in strikes for wages . I do not think the working classes have been paid interest upon that outlay . Here is a capital ! The men that can raise even in the course of years such a sum as this must be able , when they apply themselves with determination to the purpose , to realize capital enough to make themselves masters of engines , which work now only for the benefit of individual capitalists . Your steamengine is impartial , and is no respecter of persons : he will work as much for the labourer as for the lord . He

      will work for those who use him best , who have the greatest knowledge how to employ his mighty and varied powers . The time will indeed be a happy one when , by cooperation thus applied , steam and other great mechanical powers shall work not for individuals only , but for the mass of the community ; when they sustain the great amount of human toil , when their contributions to the public good are realized by those who most need them . It is said that there are legal difficulties in the way of such cooperation . It is a great shame that it should be ; and the subject is well worth probing to the bottom as to such difficulties . — W . J . Fox .

      The Soul of Good in Things Evil . —We can get nothing in this world worth keeping , not ^ as much as a principle or a conviction , except out of purifying flame or through strengthening peril . We err ; we fall ; we are humbled—then we walic more carefully . We greedily eat and drink poison out of the gilded cup of vice , or from the beggar's wallet of avarice ; we are sickened , degraded ; everything good in us rebels against us ; our souls rise bitterly indignant against our bodies ; there is a period of civil war ; if the soul has strength , it conquers and rules thereafter . —Ctirrer Bell .

      A Brief Obituary . —I remember a story told of the late Dr . Thomas Warton , the poet-laureate , who was _ at no time fond of minute detail in conversation , being asked by an old lady for an account of all the particulars of his grandmother ' s death , and this when he was very intent on a very interesting slice of venison . " Madam , " said the poet abruptly , " she died suddenly ! " This stopped all further investigation , and left him in the quiet enjoyment of his dinner . — Duncan * a Essays and Miscellanea .

      Soul of Animals . —What do we know of the ox , but to eat his beef , and make trade with his hide and horns ? What of the sheep , but his mutton and his wool ? Of the elephant ?—we know that he furnishes us with ivory , and that he is a wise beast , and comprehends many things that relate tons ; but there our knowledge of all that is within him stops abruptly . We see him die—his body decays , his bones lie strewn about like a great wreck , —and we conclude there is an end of him for ever and ever . Why so ? The same fate awaits ourselves , yet we have very different expectations . The physical conformation of all animals being identical in principle with our own—one general law , with special adaptations—and the apparent , or physical , finality of be sort of

      us all being exactly the same , can no argument for the annihilation of any class , however inferior . We assume that dumb creatures die for ever—more absolutely than the grass they eat , which springs up again in its season : but , honestly speaking , we know no more of the matter than the dumb creatures themselves . When the dog , whose intelligence and faithfulness had won our admiration and regard , stretches himself out and dies , a something has departed very different from the poor skin and bones which remain . What has become of it ? Oh , it was merely instinct . Well , where is that gone ? Perhaps it has gone out like a candle-flame blown by the wind , and lost in the wide atmosphere ! A death-puff has settled it . But the candle-flame has no instinct , no perceptions ; its

      diffusion is not the same thing as the departure of tbe smallest degree of affection or intelligence . " What !" it will be asked , " do you argue an immortality for the dumb creatures ? " Certainly not ; but we do think some such inference would be far more logical by close analogy , than their utter annihilation . Hath not a dog eyes ? hath not a dog limbs?—organs , dimensions , senses , affections , passions / - —fed with the same food , hurt with the same weapons , warmed and cooled with the same winter and summer that a prize-fighter is ? We do not argue for the perpetuity of dumb animals , but only say there is a something within them which , by whatever name it be called , is spiritually distinct from their material organization ; and all we do is to ask , What becomes of that something ? How do we appear to these our dumb companions in the world ? Some of them , our domestics , regard us

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      Sermons . By the Reverend Joseph Sortain , A . B ., Minister of North-street Chapel , Brighton . Longman and Co . Homoeopathy and its Principles Explained . By John Epps , M . D . 1 J . \ V . Piper . Moral Reflections , Sentences , and Maxims of Francis Due tic la Jiocht'Jucauld . Newly translated from the French . With an introduction and notes . Longman and Co . The City of the Jugglers ; or , Free-Trade in Souls , A . Romance of the "Golden" Age . By W . North , Author of " Anti-Couingsby , " " The Impostor , " &c . With four highly-finished etchings by 1 \ II . T . Bellew . II . J . Gibus . MAOAZINBS FOR JULY . The Universalist . For June and July . The Gentleman ' s Magazine and Historical Review . Frazcr ' s Magazine . The Westminster Review . Eliza Cook ' s Journal . London Medical Examiner * Monthly Review . Household Narrative . Household Words :

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      354 € !> * n , t& %$ t . [ Satpbdat ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 6, 1850, page 354, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1845/page/18/