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Leader (1850-1860), 13th November 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 1093, Untitled Article

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    • Ktttwinn.
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      Ktttwinn.

      Ktttwinn .

      Untitled Article

      Juliet ' s innocent query as to the value of a name , applied better to roses than to writers ; a rose , indeed , by any other name would smell as sweet , but would a novel by the eminent Jones command that instantaneous and eager attention certain to gather round a novel by Dickens ? A name , therefore , in Literature is a vested ri ght . Who is there owning a name shared by others that has not wished those others in—a better world ? If you are a Smith , it is a privilege to be Sydney Smith or Albert Smith ; but if you are a Caklyle , and have managed finally to emerge from the confusion of Carlisle , and are known as Thomas , not at all Richard , think of the agreeable surprise on finding another Carlyle , another Thomas Carlyle , and a Thomas Carlyle writing on Germany , above all things ! This was the fate of Teufelsdrb ' ckh not long ago . Caroline Norton has had a taste of the same dish of late ; to her just horror she sees announced a new novel by the Hon . Mrs . E .

      Nortonand a sharp skirmish in the Times has been the result . In the case of the two Carlyles there was simply an identity of name ; they were both named Thomas Carlyle ; but in Mrs . Norton ' s case there has been an obvious supercherie litteraire , the obscure lady ( or her publishers ) trading upon a " colourable pretext . " Mrs . Erskine Norton has no claim to the title of Honourable , and even were the claim conceded , a sense of delicacy should have suggested the avoidance of any subterfuge , by printing the name of Erskine in full , and not leading the whole public to suppose that the Hon . Mrs . Norton , the woman of genius , loved by the public , was the authoress of Mrs . Erskine Norton ' s novel .

      Untitled Article

      In that queer and enormously fatiguing publication , Postulates and Data , which is only relieved from the waste-paper fate by its revelations on the Ecclesiastical Courts , there is an article on Anagrams ( in No . 20 ) , containing some curious specimens of these literary curiosities . Thus , if you jjrint the figures representing the numbers by whom Louis Napoleon was elected President , and the numbers who opposed him , separated by a line from each other * . ~ rnH ~~ ¦* -, 1 nmrt uuc uum c « -u « iuci 75597961119000

      and turn the paper to the light , the blank side being towards your eye , and your finger hiding the 000 as it holds the paper , the word JEmpereur will appear ; this is even better than He asserts a true claim , made from Charles James Stewart , or than Frantic Disturbers from Francis Burdett . The two best anagrams , however , are certainly the honor est a Nilo from Horatio Nelson ; and the reply evolved from Pilate's question of "What is Truth ? Quid est Veritas ? The man who stands before you , — Vir est qui adest . ' "

      Untitled Article

      In the last number of the North British Review there is a remarkable paper on Lavoisier , in which , while justice is done to the old Alchemists and metaphysical chemists , a clear and philosophic history of the evolution of chemical science is graphically narrated . In the article on Siiakspjgake and Cokneille there arc some good passages , but as a whole , it is extremely unsatisfactory , and the portrait of Cornkillk is featureless . From this paper we extract a passage needful to be borne in mind by authors and critics : — " A plea in behalf of ' the interesting' in literature seems to us to he much needed » . t the present time . We would lay it < down an u canon that no book can lie jjood that is not ( in its kind , and in relation to those who are intellectually

      < : <> inpetcnt to its matter ) hit ereslintj . This might seem a truism , wore it not practicall y denied every day by the timidity of our critical judgments . There are many books which pass as good ones , and are praised as deep , solid , and what not , notwithstanding I hat they are -nay , in some cases , possibly just because they are , tvanseendentl y uninteresting . If the style is dull ; if then ; arc ; no glemris of light , " <> sallets , no brisk allusions ; if the matter does not standout above the surface '" clear shape- and relief , but only peeps forth here and there , suggesting some' liiiig amorphous underneath—then , forsooth , the book is a dee ]) one , and the author

      Is a man of heavy metal ! People ought to have courage to resist this fashion , and never praise a book that does not interest them . No one is entitled to praise 11 book that , does not , interest him . True , on the other hand , on * is not , entitled 1-0 (// . spraise a book simply because it does not interest him . But , to the right kind of reader no good book is dull ; and the right kind of reader being supposed , —that ' . a reader intellectually competent to the intrinsic ; matter of the book , whatever li is > then , if a , book is dull , it is not a good one . We ; maintain that this canon "will sweep ( , h ( . whole range of interesting books from Kind to . L'iekniick , and ( ail in no oik ; mso . "

      There iH also one other article of great ability and lemming on the subject of The Infallibility of the Itihlc and llcc . cnt Theories of ht . si > ir < ttion , wherein the writer first examines what , is styled the " Natural Inspiration Theory , "—i m ( . ^ ( j , ( . theory held by I ' a kkkk , Nkwman , (* u . Kti , nm \ others ° ' the spiritualist school , that Musks was inspired in the same sense us I'O . N ' i'ixuiM or Sochatks , or any other great , Thinker may be called '" spired . After disposing of this theory more ; satisfactorily to himself " u to us , the writer proceeds to examine tin ; recent theories of orthodox "' inkers in ( Jmnsiny , ( Jcneva , and Mnghiml . Historically , the paper is valuable ; critically , we mid it with strange , almost sad feelings , as we U () te « l how hopeless argument seems to be when once the mind hits erys''• llized in a peculiar form . Here is a man , distinguished in many ways ,

      who nevertheless holds the Bible to be the genuine and infallible word of God—and this not as a matter of faith , but of argument : — " We count it no shame , but a signal felicity and honour , with the evidence which lies before us , to hold up our every-dny Bible , beginning with Genesis and ending wi th Revelation , as the genuine and infallible Word of God . It is a cheap and easy thing to defend this belief , on the ground of more tradition , nnd to repel every sceptical questioning of revelation , every insinuation ngainst the integrity of the canon of Scripture , every suspicion of the infallible accuracy of our Biblical records , as in itself profane and blasphemous . Sudi a homage to the infallibility of the Bible would itself , require a . personal inspiration to redeem it from presumption and wilful blindness . "

      He has gone through German and English criticisra , and declares that it has not weakened airy one point of the old doctrine of Infallibility . Such an instance as this—and there arc many like it—ought to absolve every believer from the scorn which unbelief is apt to feel when its intense perception of absurdity is not shared at all ! The believers will say , that such cases are strong proofs of the Truth of their creed . They are welcome to the proof . To our minds , it is only a psychological curiosity—a proof of the force of some dominant assumption—a proof of the sarcasm uttered by Hobbes , that the axioms of geometry would be disputed , if men's feelings were wound up with them . In fact , except with tlic young , argument is , in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred , totally useless . When a man earnestly believes in the Bible , he finds no difficulty in " reconciling" anything in it . What to you seems an irresistible argument , passes bv him

      " as the idle wind which he regards not . " Let us , as an example , quote a passage from this very article . If God hns written , a Book for the salvation of man , and that book is , from various causes , internal and external , not accepted by Humanity , not believed in by millions , ordinary logic would conclude one of two things . First , That the Book must want the primary quality of an educational work—clearness in its propositions , and rigour in its demonstrations ; or , Second , That very imperfect means have been devised of securing the reader ' s attention . These two objections , which are summed up in Diderot's irresistible question , " If God has spoken , why is not the universe convinced ? " have no sort of weight with any believer : he is within the inner circle , and " bears a charmed life , " for logic reaches him not . If you object to the failure of the Bible in accomplishing its purpose , he , serenely smiling , tells you that very failure is a proof of its Divine origin' It was meant to convince mankind ; it has not done so : a human work might have succeeded , but divine works follow not the human course ; with divinity , failure is success , and success failure . That we are not exaggerating , you may read in the passage alluded to : — " The resistance of ages to this book , however , is , after all , ' tis c . rowniiu / leifdimilation ! The Bible is too good for the . race it hns come to bless ! It bkssos them like an angel whose mission is peremptory , and it troubles too many waters in its work of healing to be left in peace , it is felt and feared by all the rulers of the darkness of this world . "

      Untitled Article

      Among the novelties worthy of recognition , is the new Railway Library started by Chapman and IIai . l , under the serial title Reading for Travellers . The first work is most promising . It is Old Roads and Nev > Roads , a charming volume of curious and learned gossip , such iis would have rivetted Chaiu . us Lamm by its fine scholarly tone , and its discursive wealth . If the other volumes are up to this murk , the series will he by far the best of the inanv which now make Literature the luxury of the poor .

      Untitled Article

      CiOJMTKI'S IVrFlO AND . ACTS IN JlirNtJAKV . My TA fe and Acts in ll ' unijary , in . the I ' mrs lHIM « iul I HID . Hy Arthur C . \"> r <' , ei Two vol . s . JSo ^ uo A Refutation of some if the Principal M isslatciiicnts in . ( , ' iir / fri \ s- ' Life anil Acts . " ] i y ( jl ( toi * fjo jvinety , late ( irneral m ( he 11 ii ] i <;; uinii Army < il Independence . t ' ash ( lnle ( iil pin ) TTunoaky , the land in wbo . se behalf Matthew Corvinus displayed the wisdom and the virtues of nit AKVed , and I ' elhlen ( Jjihur performed the acts of a Cromwell ; where representative insl i ( uf ion . s <; ivw and flourished , and local government struck its roots deeply in the noil ; where life was held cheap when its price Mas national liberty , where conscience accepted and sustained the Reformation , and Protestantism withstood Ihenxoand

      the dungeon ; the land which was the bulwark ol huropo against , the fiery assaults ol ' the children of lVlaliomel ,- — w Inch had alternatel y defied and saved the Austrian crown—defied , when it , menaced liberty , and saved when its existence was menaced ; this 11 unwary , whose ; constii ut ioual lawn are nearly as old as our own , was lately traversed front Kaab to Orsovn , l > y the youn ^ Kniperor < 4 ' Austria , who | . hereby celebrated tho triumph of arbitrary power ami armed usurpation over eonslil iit . ionnl law and nul . ional ri « j j ht—¦ l ji ! t > "lMiid idl y looking on . . Hungary bad resisted

      encroachments like those of'IS a score ol" times . Tin ; house of I lapsltur ^ h , in its hour of need , bud p romised obedience ( o instil ul ions which Hungarian slices had established and Hungarian swords upheld . Hid- ( lie hour of need having passed , tin ; hour of I reachery si ruek , and I he house of Jiapslmrgh ever strove by force or fraud l . o show thai , its- promises were worthless , and its guarantees a mockery- When Austria , was strong she Inmiplcd on Hungary ; u hen A us ! rm u ; i . s m cali nIk * implored 11 iin « nrinn aid ; when outraged 11 unwary menaced Ihe I lapsbur » her in his imperial city , tdie dastardly llapsb ur ^ hor hired the alien sword (<> conquer Ins foo l , ru « tiii £ Hungarians . The scenes we saw in IS I !) a , h ' ussiun army aiding an Austrian invasion , were nol , without parallel in hislory . With shame be it spoken , and there seems some retribution in Ihe fact ,, lhal , John NoImchIu and his Poles performed , in ( he , seventeenth century , the part which Paskicwic / , and Ins Ku -sians performed in the ninerfeenl h . -Hut ,, through all her ^ loric-i and calamities , her heroic stru ^ lc . s mid equally heroic defeats , while we rend that , . Poles and . Russians have Ibu ^ lit

      Untitled Article

      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws— they interpret and try to enforcethem . — Edinburgh Hevieto .

      Untitled Article

      November 13 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1093

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1852, page 1093, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1960/page/17/