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Leader (1850-1860), 30th August 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 824, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      Germany has lost two of her illustrious thinkers , Oken , the philosopher , and Paulus , the Rationalist . Lobenz Oken , who was in his seventy-third year , will be known to many of our readers as the originator of that theory of cranial homologies which has effected so great a revolution in anatomical science .. His discovery of the skull as a continuation of the vertebral column—of its being , in fact , nothing but a congeries of four vertebra ? , as the brain itself is

      but a congeries of nervous ganglia—will immortalize his name ; but if any unwary man of science opens the Lehrbuch der Natur Philosophic with the expectation of studying a work of positive science , he will be considerably astonished at finding Nature subjected to the forms of Scheidlin ' s metaphysics ; nor will he be reconciled to its startling formulas by Oken ' s assuring him , that where " God is called Fire or Water , these expressions are only to be understood

      symbolically— symbolisch zu nehmen seyn . " The British reader is the last to learn with patience that , " Nothing exists but the Nothing : es existirt nichts als das Nichts . " Nor can you pacify him by the assurance , that Nichts does not mean no existence , but means no special phenomenon , the only true existence being The Absolute . He very properly discards such " metaphysic wit" j and when Oken teaches that , " God is the

      selfconscious Nothing ; Creation is but God ' s act of self consciousness ; and that God came first to his self consciousness through the spoken word Myoq ) , the world . If God did not think , there would be no world ; nay , be himself would not be "—when we say Oken teaches him in all seriousness such " high arguments " as these , the British reader is apt to ask , " My dear Sir , hoio do ifou hnow all this ?"

      A Translation of Oken was published by Mr . Tulk among the works of the Kay Society , and excited both astonishment and merriment in England . But , as we said , Oken ' s name is indelibly associated with a great advance in science ; to his labours we owe the admirable researches of Professor Owen , and no amount of German metaphysics can quite obscure his renown .

      Paui . uk , who for more than half a century has been a distinguished name , who has published upwards of thirty different works , and given us the best edition of Spinoza , was born in 1700 ( not 17 <> 1 , and at Lemberg , not Leonburg , as in the Times ) , and a friend writes to us that he saw him in Heidelberg about a year ago , when he was lively

      and talkative , bearing his ninety years with ease . Paumjs was a man of truly German erudition ; and , with Kiciioiin , Planck , and I . kssincj , one of the leaders of Rationalism , which has ended in Stbaiihs and . BniJNO Baijiok —• unless we are to carry the influence further , and leave it in the hands of Fkikkhacii and Max Stkinhr , avowed Atheists .

      Mhjnkt ' h Tjife of Mary Stuart appears simultaneously in French and Knglish , and that is the only important work French literature oilers just now . Among the curiosities announced we observe this—Ijcs Affiches Jlonyes , Reproduction exact a ct Histoire critique dc . tout . es les Affiches ultra-re " - publicaines placardts sur les murs dc , Paris dejmis Fivrier , 1 H 4 H . Jt will doubtless be very interesting . Brussels sends us some novelties this week . Among them a cheap reprint of Mjkahka u \ s correspondence with Com tic i > k Lamarck , noticed recently by us ; a new novel in two volumes by Eijgknk Sue , with the attractive title Miss Mary , which promises fun ; a talo by Heniii Miriuai . it , vailed Claude et Marianne . ; and volumes iv . and v . of Ange Pitou , by Alexandrk Dumah .

      Untitled Article

      THE SECOND REFORMATION . The Second Reformation : or Christianity developed . By A . Alison , Esq . Simpkin , Marshall , and Co . " Three centuries have passed away since Luther and Calvin founded the Churches of the Reformation . But glorious as their work will ever remain in the eyes of the world , subsequent experience has taught us that their Reformation is neither complete nor destined to be final . " This is Mr . Alison ' s opening sentence , and it raised our hopes . That Luther ' s

      work was not final—that another and deeper reformation awaits the Church , we have incessantly proclaimed ; and our hope was that in Mr . Alison ( mistake him not for the Alison the Magnificent , sheriff of Glasgow and Tory historian ) we had found an ally . As far as honest desire to get at the truth , and to state it without equivocation can make him an ally , Mr . Alison is one ; but he would assuredly reject our cause , and seek for another issue from the difficulty .

      The issue lie seeks is in the study of Nature and the light which that study will throw on Scripture . Stated thus broadly , the principle is our own . But our differences early manifest themselves in the application . He insists upon the necessity of clearing the mind from all Superstitions , and the method he conceives to he simply this : —We must teach men that all events are natural—in other words that there are no miracles : — " Since the Christian epoch there has not occurred a single well-authenticated case of a iniiacle , or an exception to the uniform and established course oi Divine Providence . This is a fact to which all men

      who have studied Nature will assent ; and we venture to add , that no Protestant will deny tho general truth of our statement . We shall presently find , however , that doctrines are held which ch » sh with belief in a system of general providence ; hence lew Protestants can JifFord to aigree to the statement that all events are natural . In short , the Churches of the Reformation commit the inconsistency of denying miracles and believing in them at the mime time . At the first . Reformation , when science was

      little known , belief in miracles of dnily occurrence , or in a Special Providence , was unavoidable ; for until science was evolved in the mind , there was no other way of accounting for events . The tiire , however , has arrived when it is impossible any longer to refuse credence to science , or to disregard the revelations of Nuture . And what is the revelation which Nature invariably given?—That Uod governs man by general and not by particular laws . This is the grand discovery of modern times . "

      All thin we hold to be very sound ; hut Mr . Alison does not seem aware of \ tu extended application . If miracles are to be denied , why is the primary miracle of revelation to be accepted ? A miracle is a Kpeeial interference ; but special interferences imply weakness or inconsistency in the general laws . It seems to us , therefore , that unless you accept the Catholic belief of special interferences ( and 1 ' rotentantn do accept it in their " Special Providence" ) you must take the other alternative of the Spiritualist School and reject miracles altogether ; not this or that miracle , hut all miracles . If general laws do without exception rule the universe , and no special interference be credible , then

      er clergy the laity— the vindication of the right of every human soul to interpret Scripture for itself ; the individual responsibility being too solemn a thing to be left to vicaril ous aid . There was Revelation , and Luther claimed the right of every man to interpret it . He protested against the authority claimed by the ChurcH as overriding the authority of his own calm reason What the Bible told him , that and that only would he believe , let Churches dogmatize as they pleased .

      tual barribetween the and Revelation as a special interference is not credible Does this alarm you ? Then accept the Catholic alternative of special interferences and contemno rary miracles ! ^ Truly enough , the work of Luther was not final f But how are we ta complete it ? What is the burden laid upon our age ? In Luther ' s time the great conquest to be gained was the liberty of private judgment—the annihilation of the presume d spiri .

      As long as no one thought of doubting the authenticity of this Revelation , the Protestant Church had an easy office . Liberty of private judgment was conceded—though with ill grace . But when that judgment issued in a verdict against the Bible—when free thought , nourished by Science , grew into decided antagonism to the Bible—when men pointed to the Revelation of Nature as a source of eternal fact which , if any other Revelation contradicted it , must irresistibly set aside that other , and quash its claims—then the task of the Reformed Churches became terribly complex . Such it is now . Mr . Alison does not see this . He

      argues as if the task were simply as of old , a puri . fixation of our theology in its Scriptural interpretations . He speaks at sorre length on the subject of miracles , of good and evil , of grace , &c , but he never alludes to the vital question of the Scriptures themselves ; and yet this passage , one would think , ought to have led him directly to it : — " The doctrines of Protestantism were fixed at the Reformation , when Europe was just emerging from the darkness of the middle ages . These doctrines were embodied in the articles of faith of the various

      Protestant Churches ; thus Iheology became stereotyped , and it has ever since effectually resisted improvement . The centuries that have since elapsed have increased knowledge tenfold ; hence , while science has gone on advancing , theology has been left behind ; and the longer this false position of the Church is pdnuttcd to stand , the greater will the separation become . If man is a progressive being , knowledge , both sacred and secular , must progress ; for -what is man apart from knowledge ?

      " Theology , like Nature , is unchangeably true , but man ' s knowledge of both is progressive . The Sacred Record does not change , but the knowledge we are able to draw from that volume does change . During the dark ages the laws of Nature were unknown ; evf ry event narrated in Scripture was ascribed to a miracle , and that simply because they had no other means of accounting for events . The best proof that this was the position of the early Church is , that they applied the same rules to every event that happened in the- affairs of life .

      Our position is very different ; we take up the very same Bible as they did , but we draw very dittereni results from it . Nothing is more clear than that our knowledge of religion must be progressive like everything else ; and it is because we have raised up an - licial barriers to this natural progression , tnat find ourselves met by increasing difficulties an « consistencies . Could we arrest the march of intei . and of science , then we might stop the Pr 0 ?* * religion . Progress may be impeded , of whit' i unalterable creeds of our Churches is a notable t ample , butthanks to God , it cannot be stopped art

      , " When all cheeks to religious progress ^ moved , improvement will obtain in the ^ liur j ' jie proportion as secular knowledge increases ; « n . gulf which now so widely separates knowledge fiiith will gradually close . Theology _ and * cil will then be reconciled and go on hand m """" ^ science will enlighten and enforce religion- A ^ should find errors in a Church conducted U P" in false principles we have specified , is what . was ve ^ to occur , and what might have been predictcc ^ time the : Protestant Church was first instituted .

      But although a serious writer , i mpressed wj t ^ Hcnso of the present anarchial condition oi' jr ( j tianity , Mr . Alinon has nothing to bring . which the world will care to hear . He »» m * 'u , ) il () . that is all . Neither as a theologian nor a V ^ oat tjopher can lie arrest the attention oi lu , n 0 docile reader . Scattered up and down '"* . ti oUBly are some sensible remarks , and some am t stated truisms . The portion which p f ^ V ^ es , is the comparison made between the 1 wo ^ from which we extract tlii « bit on MiitA . oi . Kfl . . arr " The doctrine of n Special Providence « thBO to a much greater extent in the Itomwh ^ 'IU 1

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      Untitled Article

      Pnticsare not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They dc not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

      Untitled Article

      g 24 Wbt ZLV&ilt V * [ Saturday ,

      Untitled Article

      Balzac ' k posthumous comedy Mercudct

      lefaiseur has been produced and saluted with immense applause . It is another variation of the Robert Macaire type ; but as Mercadet , not content with dabbling in the funds , adroitly makes a pedestal of his defence of Religion , Family , and Property—the shibboleth of Order—M . Leon Faucher ( feeling no doubt that he himself , and such as he , are stigmatized by the satire ) interdicts the performance .

      The Censor allowed it to pass ; M . Faucherpure and virtuous creature!—sees in it an attack on public morality . To satirize the Fauchers would indeed imperil Order ! Faucher the upright , Faucher the truthful , Faucher the zealous defender of public morals , cannot permit hypocrisy to be unmasked , for is not hypocrisy the homage paid to virtue ? The curious point in this affair is that when Moliere under a despotic monarchy

      satirized the hypocrites of Religion , the outraged hypocrites were unable to prevent the performance of Tartufe ; but now under a Republic the political hypocrite can prevent the performance of Mercadet . His susceptibility seems the greater from the fact that not only did the Censor suffer Mercadet to pass without suspicion , but even Jules Janin , generally so keenly alive to the " tendency " piece , has not a word to say against it . Poor France !

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 30, 1851, page 824, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1898/page/12/