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    Conway to reconcile his intellect with his position ; never so clearly understood the mastery which actual and substantial science gives to the intellect as when Edwardes explained his rule of life . If we were but reasoning creatures , and nothing more ! Oonway ' s bearing was at-once admirable and painful . By conirnon consent he appeared to be fixed upon as the next in the council to enlighten us on the law of life ; but he shrunk from the duty . " Put me , " he said , " in the pulpit : I cannot preach out of church . " " Poor fellow ! " cried Julie ; " his intellect cannot stand out of its go-cart !" " We do not , " said Ed wardes , " want a sermon , but a confession ; you speak not as parson , but as witness . "

    Still Conway struggled : he had not , he said , come to any conclusion worth avowing . " But such as it is , man ! " cried Edwardes . "I have positively none , " replied Conway . " ¦ Well , it is something to kuow that : but why ?—why have you a negative conclusion V " It would take too long to tell . Only , perhaps , because no conclusion satisfies me . " ' ** But you must have some rale , Conway . What is your own rule 1 You have your opinions , convictions , resolves : how do you act

    your" Not as I would have others act . " " Nonsense , man ; don ' t evade , like a witness suspected of liorsestealing . You are a student , a philosopher ; you have observed , reflected , concluded ; you must act , and how ? That is the whole question . " " Well , then , I act no how . " "Yes , but—Conway , my dear fellow , we are not spies . Tell us why you , of active mind , resolve upon inaction . " " 1 do not know . Say that I am only half wise , half penetrating . Say that I only see defects—am only destructive , and cannot construct . Say that I can see enough to hate what is , but have not the courage to denounce it . Yes , that is the fact . " " What is V " I am a hypocrite . "

    ^ We were silent , until Markham called upon Edwardes to explain his rule ; but Edwardes refused to let Conway be passed ; and at last the clergyman himself appeared to have gained courage by his avowal . He told us , partly repeating what he had said before , how in early l . fe he was destined for the church ; how he had studied in a technical submission , receiving what he was taught on authority ; how he began " to doubt , " to enquire , to confirm his doubts ; how he had resolved to leave the church , but found that there was no retreat from the fraternity , no refuge in a change of employment , nothing in any violent escape but ruin for his sisters ; how he then generalized upon his own case , and found it not worse than that of others , every man being

    placed in a position unnatural and distasteful to him—the tradesman confined to unwholesome in-door life ; the husbandman debarred from education ; the soldier taught to fight , not for his country , but for " a system ; " and how tho vis inertiaSoi that same system so far exceeded the power of any individual , that he must yield , obey his destiny , bear las thrall , and mitigate the pressure of his bondage by outvvardiy conforming , and so avoiding the penalty of dissent . To struggle agaiuat a resistless power is the mistake of vulgar presumption ; and the only refuge for the intellectual dissenter is quietly to aid those influence ' s which he bolieves calculated to free mankind at some future day--if

    ever . " I perform my functions in the church , he continued , " as it would bo performed if another did it . I study Comte , and make others study him . I watch tho progress of free-thinking , and help it occasionally to find out the weak places in my own craft . I am working for truth in tho camp of falsehood , and console myself by thinking that there arc many like mo , both in the disgrace and m the devotion : " " You arc tho Harvey Birch of tins intellectual republic , " said Julio .

    "If I may construe my own conduct so favourably . But I am not euro . Perhaps it is only cowardice 'I If I had had rnoro energy , I might have found tho menus of providing for Lucy and Sarah otherwise , and thon have won the means of speaking out my heart . " " And living it out , " . said Margaret . Conway started a « if ho had been ntung b y an adder , and looked into MargarefcY ) unmoved countenance like one expecting to discover thore a further meaning . After a pause , he said ,---" Yea ; Margaret is right' — -I might have lived afl well us spoken Ah it is " . ¦ " You have , " mild Edwarde . s , "like mo . st of u « , been obliged to waive your own purposes — but , if I undoiHtand you right , in a greater degree . And yet you recommend that course to other . s !" " No , I < lo not recommend ; I only yield . It In destiny . I do not know whether iny own bondage in greater than any man ' H , for I am wtill free in thought . And I do not tseo that others are freer . Ignoranco , bigotry , and hypocrisy aro too strong : education will have a , long task and a winding path . Wo must conform or bo crushed ; and it wo yield , wo preserve liberty at least within ourselves . " "P ° y ° moan , Conway , " » nid Stanhopo , " that othora aro constrained in action as much or moro than you aro ?"

    " Yes . " " But to what extent ?" " Entirely . " " What , to speak a faith they don ' t own , to accept a conduct thev do not wish , to own an allegiance where they have no affection ?" : " Yes . " " - ' : . ' ' : - . . ; . ' ¦ ¦ " Then you are wrong . At least / can say for one . Not that I have succeeded in all I desired ; but I have never been restrained in . pursuing what I desired , save by that conscientious doubt which crushes desire itself . "

    " Do you mean , " said Conway , ^ your desires and your convictions were never at war , yourself divided between the two 2 " " Never . " " Happy man !" " Nor need they be , " said Edwardes , "if we cultivate in ourselves a healthy condition . A healthy appetite has no desire for poison or excess , but is satisfied with what is before it . " " Besides , " said Markham , " Stanhope is an artist , and artists are chartered libertines—free to do what they list , without law or control . "

    By an unavoidable gaucherie , we most of us looked at Margaret , or did woMook at her ; and a deep dark blush , which made her eyes look grave and sad , evidently rebuked Markham more than the sharp pettish blow which his hand received from Julie ' s indignant fingers . " Art is no libertine , " said Conway . "No , that is not the point , " cried Edwardes , with that admirable single-mindeduess that nothing distracts from its purpose . " True art , of course , must be consistent with every other truth , and Raphael is as true to virtue as he is to anatomy . Conway , my dear fellow , I am sure you will forgive me for saying that you embody the attempt

    to reconcile an obsolete dogma with the progressive knowledge of science , and you are a failure . You can ' t be candid ; you are ex olficio bound , not to the Ptolemaic system , for Luther dragged us out of that , but to a system which is obliged to interpret a ' first day ' to mean ages and ages . For the Church of England sticks to its apostolic succession , and escapes only from , the local , not the general superstitions of Rome . Yout ; an only be half scientific , —that is , "you can only half recognise the actual laws of the universe—laws which take a hundred thousand years to construct that most modern edifice , the delta of the Mississippi , notwithstanding the Pentateuch " " I said I would have no Pentateuch , " cried Julie .

    " But you must , lady of my adoration , " cried Edwardes , "if you live in England . The Pentateuch meets you at every turn . It is in the cottage , in the shop , in the charity-boy as much as the bishop , in Acts of Parliament and Bridgewater Treatises , in the judge ' s sentence and the lover ' s declaration . The real contest of social life in England is not with ' capital , ' or Parliament , or Christianity , but with tho Pentateuch . We base our principle of life on the physiology of the Egyptian brickmakers thousands of years ago ; and no wonder we aro unhappy ; for , after all , physiology is tho true basis of social law . " " Tho shop ! " cried Julio ; " Markham would make us live by tho till , and you , Mr . Edwardes , by tho phartnacopooia . "

    " Without the pharmacopoeia . The physiologist is encroaching on the province of tho ' doctor ; ' and when he ia quite superseded , Julie , man will be happy . " And on that text Edwardes spake . His rule of life is to adapt all our actions to physiological laws . Wo must sleep , labour , and recreate by a rule of proportion—as he does . Wo must educate ourselves until our tastes desiderate only what is healthy ; without passions , savo for rational indulgence , without impulse , Have for healthy exorcise . H we understand our own impulses , if we learn to know tho laws of necessity within limit of which wo act , our own aspirations will bo shaped in harmony with possibilities . " And in the meanwhile ? " said Margaret .

    " You represent man himself , " flaid Markham , " as a sort of vicegerent , considering , with his author , the objects of his own existence , and carrying out the laws by which he is himself governed . " " And what can bo more noble ? ' ' " And in the meanwhile , " insisted Margaret , " before wo attain that perfect knowledge ?" "In the meanwhile ! " cried Conway ; "in the meanwhile , act neither on [\ u \ Pmif . iitmmli t \ tw n « i * inui + i < rn Dfiiiii » in Wi \ hriuLT clnl *' *^' *« i ^ .. ^ aa w * . w *¦¦* ^ uiiuauuuiill IH 71 Kill IH / OI l > l L 5 1

    ** . . V OOUJJUUIJ . »» ^ ^ ' * ' O . ... into tho world by tho million , and debar them from freo life or civilJ «* education ; wo pair Homo , lovern or aliens , to each other , or ' chaine < iboH , ' in wedlock , and keep , othera apart , some in lifeless wearing ; otlierh in fierce misrule ; we leave kohio untutored savages to toi j ^ tho rudent toil , ignorant of all ( hat inakcH tho world what it w , ^ hcjkI others into crowded cities , to know life only a . s wo nifiko it , J « to I $ pw Nature not at all . We leave nations barbarous , with no r » ^ but the aabro , and teach tho . se who have knowledge in trust to loI ^ their strength , to become holplesB before the barbarian , sn "! betray

    Alexandrian library of civilization to tho invader . " j "All proving , " objected I'Mwanles , " that we have not yet jmIvjuK " far enough in education . " . . ^ "No , EdwardcH , all proving that human nature , with its " ^ yO and untold destinies , ia too strong for a didactic treatment . * <> . not yot ovou tho promises of your law , and you novor will . V °

    Untitled Article

    980 THE LEADEE , [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 8, 1853, page 980, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2007/page/20/