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    Had crown'd , in proof , the statue of his fame , Were they , from all who could not reach so high , The best and not the impuderitest few , Upon the platform . As the record is , Napier ennobles England . Be it so . Sleep , thou war-shatter'd frame I Brave spirit , rise From the yet warlike Earth to a grander world , And clothe thyself in God ' s eternal peace!—W . Allingham . " That is from the Dublin University Magazine , where we always meet with some pleasant writing , and often with poetry .

    The Westminster ( to which we return ) contains two very striking articles indeed—the one already alluded to , and one on the Universal Postulate , one of the profoundest and clearest metaphysical essays we have read . In it Common Sense is reconciled with Philosophy : a scientific basis is given for our universal conceptions . We hope to discuss this paper more at length on a future occasion ; meanwhile , we call attention to it as a great contribution to our philosophy . Religion iti Italy is an interesting article , written by one who is thoroughly master of the subject , and so familiar with its details , that he must be an Italian . An agreeable paper on the Progress of Fiction

    as an Art , which , however , falls off towards the conclusion , —a very serviceable p aper on Partnership with Limited Liability , —a curious specimen of German Mysticism in the Seventeenth Century , —and an article on Russia , we pass without discussion , to pause at the article on The School Claims of Language . Overburdened with quotations and notes , and somewhat loose in texture , this article is nevertheless to be welcomed as the emphatic record of one wlio , competent to speak on the classical side , has allowed good sense to sway him over to the anti-classical side . Without denying that the study of the classics has its advantages , the writer clearly sees the preponderating advantages on the other side . For ourselves , we think Greek , and Latin ousrht to

    be learned . But we no more consider them necessary as the basis of general education than we consider Malachology or Numismatics necessary as the basis , both of them desirable as they are . As to discipline , Greek and Latin have no superiority over German and French , wliile vastly inferior to the discipline of science ; as to " familiarizing the mind with the great models , " it betrays a , misconception of fundamental principles to talk of that as a healthy procedure in education ; and we question the assumed superiority of .. these " models . " In Poetry , in Philosophy , in Literature , our own great writers are better " models . " But we refer the reader to the Westminster Review , where this and other points are discussed .

    The New Quarterly Review , which has the speciality of being a review of new books , and not a collection of essays , lias three qualil \ e 3—vivacity , knowledge , and independence ; it has also the " faults of its qualities , " though these aro disappearing , and the Review is rapidly improving . The Scottish Revieiv is n . temperance or [ ran , mingling general literature ond social progress , well worth its shilling . We intend to enter upon this temperance question shortly ; meanwhile , we may mention that Dr . Carpenter has just miblished an cs ^ ay in Boiin ' s shilling volumes on The Physiology of Temperance and Total A hstinence .

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    THEODORE PARKER'S NEW WORK . Thcixm , Alhckm , and thr Popular -Thcnloi jii ; Fti'rmons . By Theodore Parker , anfhor of " A Discourse on Matlcrx pcrjeiinhifl to llrlit / ioii , " tec . IVioi ! Os . John Clianman . We have more than once declared our high opinion of Theodore Parker . Ilia " Discourse of Matters pertaining to Religion " is one of the works which belong to the history of the age . It is distinguished not only by manly directness , by the noblest moral sentiments , by a careful application of oxtensive learning , by depth and richness of po « tic sensibility , and by a wide grasp of generalization , but also by moderation in its polemic—by precision

    in the statement of contested views , nay , even by a generous adornment of them . The style is fervid ; often splendid with imagery and with { mists of prophet-1 ilee eloquence . Many a pago is in itself a prose poem . Disappointed in Mr- Parker's last published volume , and wishing to checic the impulse to a rather bitter expression of that disappointment by reviving our old feelings of admiration and gratitude , we have opened the " Discourse " at some of our favourite pages , and , as a justification of at least a part of our praise to those readers who are not familiar with the book , we must he allowed to quote the following passage on Pantheism—a theory of the universe to winch , be it , remembered , the writer is opposed : —

    " Pantheism has , perhaps , never been altogether si Ntrrmger to tbe world . It makes sill things CJod , and ( Jod all things . This view at first seems congenial to » poetic and religions mind . If tbe world l > e regarded sin a collection of powers , —tbe awful force of tlm storm , of tbe thunder , tbe earthquake ; Mm huge magnificence of the ocean , in itrt slumber or its wrath ; the sublimity of tho ovor-during hills ; the rocks which r <> sint nil but tbe unseen hand of time ; these might lead to the thought that they wero < Jod . If men look at tbo order , fitness , beauty , love , everywhere apparent in nature , the impression in confirmed . Tbe All of thing . ' ) appears no beautiful to the con > i > rchensive eye , that we almost think it is its own (' mine and ( Ireufor . The animals find their sport and their pleasure ; the painted leopard and the . snowy

    swan , each living by its own law ; the liird of passage thai ; pursues , from / one to zone , its uninurkud path ; the . summer warbler which stings out its melodious existence in the woodbine ; the ( lowers that come iinaxked , charming the youthful year ; the golden fruit maturing in its wilderness of green ; the dew and the rainbow ; the frost-Hake and tho mountain snow ; the glories that wait upon the morning , or sing the sun to his ambrosial rent ; the pomp of the nun at , noon , amid the clouds of a Juno day ; tho awful majesty of night , when all the t-iturn vyith a , serene step cinno out ,, and tread flieir round , and fieem to watch in blest tranquillity about the slumbering world ; the moon waning and waxing , walking in beauty through tbe night ; : —daily the water in rough with the winds ; they come or abide at no nmn'ri bidding ,

    and roll the yellow corn , or wake ' religious musi c at ni ght-fall in the pines . These things are all so fair , so wondrous , so wrapt in mystery , it is no marvel that men say , This is divine . Yes , the All is God . He is the light of the morning , the beauty of the noon , and , the strength of tire sun . The little grass grows by his presence . Ho preserveth the ' cedars . The stars are serene because he is . in th ' em > The lilies aTe redolent of God . Ho is the One ; the All . God is the mind of man . Tiie soul of nil ; more moving thin motion ; more sfr / blo than rest ; fairer than beauty , and stronger than strength . The power of nature is God . The universe , broad and deep and high , a handful of dust , which God enchants . He is the mysterious magic that possesses the world . Yes , he is tlie All : the Reality of all phenomena . "

    An author who has given us such a precedent by which to judge him , and who has thus taught us to regard his name on a title-page as a guarantee that a book deserves to be read , must not be surprised if he meets with a warm remonstrance when he shakes the credit of that guarantee by too hasty publication . The friends of social and religious freedom on this side of the Atlantic are jealous for the reputation of Theodore Parker , as associated with the precious cause of which he is a conspicuous champion . The volume before us consists of sermons , delivered , unwritten , to Mr . Parker ' s congregation at Boston , and printed , with the exception of three , from the notes of a short-hand writer . It may be doubted whether any man , however morally and intellectually gifted , can hold the position of a preacher for a long series of years , without contracting some habitual mode

    of presenting his thoughts , which must be unacceptable to the world outside his church or chapel doors . Sermons are ordinarily delivered to a docile , sympathizing audience , and from their fugitive character are not expected to incur any rigid , microscopic criticism ; hence there is no external check either on the temptation to produce a strong momentary effect by exaggerated contrasts and tawdry declamation , to which an impetuous nature is liable in extemporaneous speaking , or on the tendency in a preacher of the colder and more systematizing cast , who delivers elaborately prepared discourses , to assume an oracular air , as if he alone held the delicate scales in which theological opinion can be correctly weighed . All the more need is there that when a preache * determines to give his sermons to the public at large , he should subject them to a severe revision , and scourge out of them

    everything likely to suggest either the vulgar pulpit orator or the oracle of the congregation . But so far is Mr . Parker from having bestowed such a revision on these sermons of his , that he does not appear even to have taken any pains to purify them from the slip-shod English or the numerous specimens of what D'Israeli wittily calls " the American language , " which are perhaps inevitable in extemporaneous speaking on the other side of the Atlantic , but which are inexcusable in a work deliberately offered to the public . We do not wish , however , to dwell on this secondary point—though to us the ever-recurring use of such phrases as " a great ways , " " timid people regard God as the great hunker of the universe , " &c . Sec . is no slight blemish to an author ' s pages—the volume presents graver matter of objection . In the four first sermons , on " Speculative Atheism , Practical Atheism , the Popular Theology as a Theory of the Universe , and the Popular

    Theology as a Principle of Ethics , " we too often miss the philosophic breadth , the just appreciation of every form of thought , and the faith in humanity as a fountain of goodness and beauty apart from , or in spite of , theological belief , which wo are accustomed to expect from the author of the " Discourse . " The two sermons on atheism , with the exception of a few passages in which Mr . Parker is "himself again , " consist of heated declamation against an altogether imaginary class of thinkers , who are supposed to believe that , 1 ° . the universe is " a fortuitous concourse of atoms" ; that , 2 ° . there is no distinction between Right and Wrong ; that , 3 " , grovelling sensuality , cowardice , treachery , and all the basest forms of selfishness , are the only wisdom . In this Quixotic combat with a hypothetic monster ( which he himself here and there admits to have no real existence ) ,

    Mr . Parker is hurried into the double-fallacy , first , of identifying Theism with the theory that man ' s soul is ** immaterial , " and with the positive conviction that this soul is immortal ; and secondly , of making all morality dependent on tbe Idea of God . Our readers well know that we have as little sympathy with dogmatic atheism as with the popular theology , but wo must enter our protest against this latter position , sis one fruitful alike in intellectual confusion and moral perversion . Every moral tendency of man is primarily drawn forth and developed by tho object to which it immediately relates , and however true it may be that the Idea of God lias an influence on that development , the influonce can only bo secondary . Mr . Parker , indeed , appears to recognise this in another part of his book , when he speaks of onr faculties as " each containing its law within itself . "

    The same damaging exaggeration is occasionally seen in his treatment of the Popular Theology . When the " Orthodox" theologian is told that he " looks out on the world and sees a body blasted by a soul , a here undermined by a Hereafter of Hell , arched over with a little , paltry sounding-hoard of Heaven , whence tho elect may look over the edge and rejoice in the writhings of the worms unpitied beneath theirjfoet "—that he " looks out : uid sees n grim and revengeful and evil ( Jod . Such is his sad whim "he is less likely to recognise his own portrait , thus drawn in phosphorus and put in a dark corner , than if the artist had chosen more subdued materiiilH and a more nntural effect . In the sermons on Speculative and Practical

    Theism , on Immortal Life , and on Providence , in whicli Mr . Parker enlarges on his own religious Views ? , there is , together with grout beauty of thought , much confident assertion- —for example , that "the universe is insured at the office , of the Infinite God , " and that " ( hens must be . another world for the sparrow as , for man "—which does not engage tho sympathy of our reverential feelings . To us it frequently appears , that what is represented as the necessary product of the purest and most active religious sentiments , is in truth nothing more than an impatient effort to throw of I' " the burthen of the mystery" which envelopes our being , by tenaciously clinging to an agreeable hypothesis in spite of facts .

    Having diaduirged the disagreeable duty of pointing- out what we feel to be proofs of carehiHHiiCHs or degeneracy in a writer whoso genius an < l character are dear to us , we are now free to speak of what is valuable in the volume before us . It opens with an Introduction of forty pages , containing an admirable panoramic ekofcch of the progress and actual condition ot

    Untitled Article

    Oaiosm 8 , 1853 . ] THE LEA DEB . 977

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 8, 1853, page 977, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2007/page/17/