On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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.

    Untitled Article

    —others reason , was a question he never troubled himself to answer ; for he had a huge distrust of human learning and human inventions , but none of the promptings of his own spirit . What he cal s ' Hebrew , Greek , aud Latin , and the seven arts , ' he regarded as little better than devilry and paganism . The knowledge of many tongues , foe said , began with rebellion against God ; and at the beginning , therefore , languages were accursed , and so they continued ; it was the woman and the beast which had power over tongues . God , he contended , stood in no need of human l earning ; to which South replied very finely—If Goddoes not standinneed of human

    learning , still less does He stand in need of human ignorance . But Fox went on his way rejoicing . The inner light was enough for him and for all men . Even the Scriptures were to some extent superfluous ; and he ventured to reject them when they could not be made to harmonize with the light within . Never was there a greater innovator than this George Fox . Philosophies , religions , arts , legislations , were as nothing in his system . Every man was complete in himself ; he stood in need of no alien help ; the light was free of all control —above all authority external to itself . Each human being , man or woman , was supreme .

    " Here was an intellectual basis for democracy ! In an age of anarchy , when men were running to and fro in search of a revelation , a doctrine like this naturally attracted to itself many of the iriore restless and dissatis fied spirits ; and as each of these added to its dogmas his own peculiar vagaries and oddities , the followers of George Fox , or the Children of Light , as they called themselves , were for several years only known to the general religious world by the extravagance of their behaviour : an extravagance which in many cases amounted

    to a real insanity . Entering and disturbing churches and dissenting congregations in the manner of their master , was the most innocent mode of displaying their new-born zeal . This they considered a sacred duty ; and they performed it not only in England , where their tenets were understood , but in foreign towns and cities very much at their personal peril . Divers persons among them were moved of the spirit to do things—some fan tastical , some indecent , some monstrous . One woman went intft the House of Parliament-with a trenchard on

    her head , to denounce the Lord Protector , and before the face of his Government dashed the trenchard into pieces , saying aloud— ' Thus shall he be broken in pieces . ' One Sarah Goldsmith went about the city in a coat of sackcloth , her hair dishevelled , and her head covered with dust , to testify , as she said , against pride . James Naylor gave himself out as the Messiah ; and a woman named Dorcas Ebery made oath before the judges that she had been dead two days and was raised again to life by this impostor . Gilbert Latye , a man of property and education , going with Lord Oberry into the Queen ' s private chapel , was moved to « stand up on one of the side altars and inveigh against Popery to the astonished worshippers . One Solomon Eccles went through the

    streets , naked above the waist , with a chafing dish of coals and burning brimstone on his head , —in which state he entered a Popish chapel and denounced the Lord ' s vengeance against idolaters . William Sympson , says Fox , who never did these things himself , was moved to go at several times for three years , naked and barefooted , in markets , courts , towns and cities—to priests and great men ' s houses , as a sign that they should be stript naked even as he was stript naked . There seemed to be a general emulation as to who should outstrip the rest , —and many persons went about the streets of London in all the nudity of nature . Most of the- zealots , however , kept to the decencies of a sackcloth dress ; and with their faces besmeared with grease and dirt they

    would parade about the parks and public places , calling to the people as they passed , that in like manner would all their religions be besmeared . One fellow , who seemed to have had more of purpose in his madness than the others , went to Westminster with a drawn sword in his hand , ' and as the representatives came down to the House he thrust at and wounded several before he could be arrested . On being asked by the Speaker why he had done this , he replied that he had been inspired by the Holy Ghost to kill every man who sat in Parliament . No wonder that the prisons were crowded with Quakers , as they were with enthusiasts and innovators of every other kind ! ...... These enthusiasts not only preached the doctrines of

    social and political equality ; they aimed at the establishment of an universal religion . Fox himself appealed to the highest and to the lowest . He wrote to admonish Innocent . XL and tried to convert the Lord Protector Cromwell . He preached to milkmaids and discussed points of theology with ploughmen . He invoked in thousands of the yeomanry of England a fervour ot spirit almost equal to that which possessed himself , lie exhorted the ambassadors of the great powers , then assembled at NimmcKticn , to treat of peace , —and warned the citizens of Oldei . burgh that lhe " re wln

    of Cromwell , mixed with the rough soldiers , to win them over to the doctrines of peace and goodwill to man . lniii > i : ent girls and unworldly men went forth in conscious and fearless innocence to bear the needs or truth to every corner of the earth . Hester Bidclel forced her way into the presence of the grund monarch at Versailles , and commanded him in the name of God to Hheiuhe his destroying nword . Others made their way 10 Jerusalem and to New England , —to Egypt , to China and to Japan . One young woman of dauntless r <' 8 olution curried the words of peace to the successor of Mohummed in liin camp at Adrianople , who received her with the respect due to one profcsning to come in the inline of God . Another took a iiienHuge to the Supreme Pontiff and his curdinuls at Rome . Homo were- moved to go forth and convert the savages of the west and the negroes of the south ; and one party set out in search of

    the unknown realms of Prester John . Everywhere these messengers bore the glad tidings they had themselves received ; everywhere treating all men as equals and brothers ; thee-ing and thou-ing high and low ; protesting against all authority not springing from the light in the soul—against all powers , privileges , and immunities foundedT on carnal history and tradition ; and often at the peril of their lives refusing to lift the hat or to bend the knee—except to God . " The public teaching of a doctrine like this was in itself a revolution . Cromwell clearly understood the nature of the movement ; and tolerant as he was of religious sects , he would willingly have put it down . But even his mighty arm was paralyzed . The children of light -were also the children of peace . They did what they believed to be right ; and if their conduct pleased not th « rulers of the earth , they took the consequences to themselves in silence . Sects like the Anabaptists , the Levellers , and the Fifth-Monarchy Men he knew how to cajole or coerce . Their plots and conspiracies he could meet on equal terms : as it suited his purpose , he could buy them with honours or crush them them with the sword . But fear and favour were alike lost on the

    followers of Fox . They would neither obey his laws nor resist his troops . They opposed their silence to his severity . They were readier to endure than he was to inflict ; and he foresaw that their patience would tire out persecution . " The Juror biographicus not only prevents Mr . DLxon from seeing any faults in his hero , but almost blinds him to the faults of his hero ' s father , the stout but disreputable Admiral . If the reader compare pages 14 and 117 he will notice an amusing contradiction : while recounting the treachery of the Admiral , Mr . Dixon says no term of reprehension is too strong for it ; yet when the Admiral is dying Mr . Dixon assures us " he retained his patriotic ardour to the last . He bewailed the

    corruption of the age , the profligacy in high places , &c . !" Before closing our notice we must , give an extract which would have made Sydney Smith chuckle at the forefathers of his " repudiators" : — " Penn believed that if he were only in America , his presence would reconcile parties now at variance , and put an end to these dangerous complaints and suggestions . But he was too poor to pay for an outfit for his family . Owner of twenty million acres of land , he had no means of raising a few hundred pounds for necessary expenses ! The Irish estates had ceased for the moment to yield a shilling of rental ; and his unfaithful stewards , could hardlmake his

    . the Fordes , pretended they y English property cover the cost of his simple household . In the depth of his difficulty and distress , a thought occurred to him : he had spent a princely fortune in his colony ; the million or so of acres already sold had a small quit-rent reserved , —which , for the ease of the colonists , he had allowed to stand over till good harvests came round , so that for ten years he had not received a single shilling from this quarter . He would now , he thought , apply to these prosperous settlers in the land he had made for them , recently blessed with most abundant seasons , for a loan of ten thousand pounds—a hundred pounds each from a hundred persons . This money would set him right ; and the quit-rents and the lands of the colony would be ample security to the lenders . He wrote a manly and touching letter to Robert Turner , in which he opened his heart to his old friend , and made this proposal , pledging himself , in the event of its success , to set sail immediately with a large party of emigrants , who were only waiting for the signal of his departure : if the colonists refused him this kindness , he said , he knew not what he must do , so very low were his affairs reduced . It is an eternal disgrace to the settlers that they evaded and postponed this request —too mean to comply with grace , too cowardly to refuse without shuffling and false pretence . The men to whom he had looked for help—to whom in confidence he had laid bare his private misfortunes—sought in the fact of his distress an opportunity to encroach on his just rights , and gossipped about his fall , to their own shame and the scandal of the country . They said they loved him veiy much , but they had no mind to lend money . " The style of this Biography is energetic , clear , and rapid ; totally deficient in grace and in felicity of expression , and not always irreproachable in its syntax ; but on the other hand it is free from ail ' ectaiion and from rhetoric . Commonplaces— . such as " the cup of misery wan full , " and " the entire work will repay perusal "—are too frequent , and certain novelties of expression need revision , such as his calling Locke " the philosopher of sensation "—which is a vulgar error in bad English . But we must not close with an objection : the book is a good book and an amusing book , pleasant to read , and useful to conmilt .

    Untitled Article

    Hl'KNCKR S HOCIAIj HTATICH . / Social Statics ; or , the Condition * essential to Human Happiness npeci / icd , and the first of them dcvcloptd . \\ y II 01 Ik : it Spt ; ur . <; r John ( Jhupni . iu . ( Third Notice . ) Tnk third part of Mr . Spencer's book \ h perhaps the moHt interesting and important of the wholetreating iin it does of those " burning questions " Political Rights . As previously intimated , we do not always agree in the opinions ho se , tn forth , but , wo are quite euro that no one will read them ; fic-

    Untitled Article

    tions without profit , so luminous and suggestive is every page . Space fails us to enter into any discussion , we will therefore confine ourselves to a few extracts . PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION . " Considering society as a corporate body , we may say that man , when he first enters into it , has the repulsive force in excess , whilst in the cohesive force he is deficient . His passions are strong ; his sympathies weak . Those propensities which fitted him for savage life necessarily tend to breed war between himself and his neighbours . His condition has been that of perpetual antagonism ; and his antagonistic habits must of course accompany him into the social state . Aggression , dispute , anger ,

    hatred , revenge—these are the several stages of the process by which the members of a primitive community are continually being sundered . Hence the smallness of the first communities . Populations burst as fast as they increase . Races split into tribes ; tribes into factions . Only as civilization advances do larger unions become possible . And even these have to pass through some such stage as that of feudalism , with its small chieftainships and right of private war , showing that the tendency to repel is still active .

    " Now , in proportion to the repulsive force subsisting between atoms of matter , must be the restraint required to keep them from exploding . And in proportion to the repulsive force subsisting between the units of a society must be the strength of the bonds requisite to prevent that society from flying to pieces . Some powerful concentrative influence there must be to produce even these smallest unions ; and this influence must be strong in proportion to the savageness of the people ; otherwise the unions cannot be maintained . Such an influence we have in the sentiment of . veneration , reverence for power , loyalty , or , as Carlyle terms it—hero-worship .

    By this feeling it is that society begins to be organized and where the barbarism is greatest , there is this feeling strongest . Hence the fact that all traditions abound in superhuman beings , in giants and demigods . The mythical accounts of Bacchus and Hercules , of Thor and Odin , and of the various divine and half-divine personages who figure in the early histories of all races , merely prove the intensity of the awe with which superiority was once regarded . In that belief of some of the Polynesian Islanders that only their chiefs have souls , we find a still extant example of the almost incredible influence which this sentiment of reverence has

    over savage men . Through it only doe 3 all authority , whether that of ruler , teacher , or priest , become possible . It was alike the parent of beliefs in the miraculous conception of Gengis Khan , in the prophetic characters of Zoroaster , Confucius , and Mahomet , and in the infallibility of the Pope . \ Vhere it no longer deifies power , it associates it with drvine attributes . Thus it was death for the Assyrian to enter unbidden into the presence of his monarch . The still stationary Orientals ascribe to their emperors celestial relationships . Schamyl , the prophetchief of the Circassians , is believed to have entire union with the Divine essence . And the Russian soldiers pray for tueir Czar as ' our God upon earth . ' The fealty of vassal to feudal lord—the devotion of Highland Celt to chief—were exhibitions of the same feeling . Loyalty it made the brightest virtue , and treason the blackest crime .

    " With the advance of civilization this awe of power diminishes . Instead of looking up to the monarch as a God , it begins to view him as a man reigning by divine authority—as ' the Lord ' s anointed . ' Submission becomes less abject . Subjects no longer prostrate themselves before their rulers , nor do serfs kiss their master's feet . ~ Obedience ceases to be unlimited : men will choose their" own faiths . Gradually , as there grow up those sentiments which lead each to maintain his own rights , and sympathetically to respect the rights of others — gradually as each , thus , by the acquirement of selfrestraining power , becomes fitted to live in harmony

    with his fellow—so gradually do men cease to need external restraint , and so gradually does this feeling which makes them submit to that external restraint decrease . The law of adaptation necessitates this . The feeling must lose power just as fast as it ceases to be needful . As the new regulator grows the old one must dwindle . The first , amelioration of a pure despotism is a partial supplanting of the one by the other . Mixed constitutions exhibit the two acting conjointly . And whilst the one advances to supremucy , the other sinks into decrepitude ; divine right of king's in exploded , and monarchical power becomes but u nnine .

    " Although the adaptation of man to the social state has already made considerable progress—although the need for external reHtrainc is less—and although consequently that reverence for authority which makes restraint possible , lias greatly diminished—diminished to such an extent that the holders of power are daily caricatured , and men begin to listen to the National Anthem with their hats on—still the change is far from complete . The attributes of the aboriginal man have not yet died out . We still trench upon each other ' s claims—still pursue happiness at . each other ' s expense . Our savage HclJishncHH is seen in commerce , in legislation , in social

    arrangements , in amusements . The shopkeeper imposes ' on his lady customer ; his lady customer heats down the shopkeeper . Chissea quarrel about their respective ; ' interests ; ' ami corruption is defended by those who profit from it . The spirit of casto morally tortures its victims with as much coolness aw the Indian tortures his enemy . Gamble ™ pocket their gains with unconcern ; and your sh : nc-Hjx < : uliitor carea not who loses , ho that he gets his premium . No matter what their rank , no mutter in what they arc ; engaged—whether in enucting a Corn-law , or In struggling with each other at the doors of « theatre—men show themselves , as yet , little else than barbarians in broadcloth . " Lot us notice in passing " admirable refutation of tlit * popular iiiijici iaitK / 11 i . liitt majorities ought to

    Untitled Article

    April 12 , 1851 . ] ^ t % t&i ! tt > 347

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 12, 1851, page 347, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1878/page/15/