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    tlm regular dram * sketehed for Ms own death—funeral—succession and administration to his effects . But another thins which seems to me still more funny about this affair is , that if these Friezlaud hounds had been " game , " we should have no Cartesian philosophy ; and how we could have done without that , considering the -world of books it has produced , I leave to any respectable trunk-maker to declare . However , to go on : spite of his enormous funk , Des Cartes showed fight , and by that means awed these Anti-Cartesian rascals Possibly , gentlemen , you may fancy that , on the model of Cassar ' s address to his poor ferryma n— " Ccesarem vehis etfortimas ejus "—HI . Des Cartes needed only to have said , Dogs , you cannot cut my throat , for you carry Des Cartes and his philosophy , " ¦ and might safely have defied them to do * their worst . A German emperor had the same notion , when , being cautioned to keep out of the way of a cannonading , he replied , " Tut !* nan . Did you ever hear of a cannon-ball that killed an emperor ?" As to an emperor 1 cannot say , but a less thing has sufficed to smash a philosopher ; and the next great philosopher of Europe undoubtedly was murdered . This was

    Spinosa-I know very well the common opinion about him is , that he died in his bed . Perhaps he did , but he was murdered for all that ; and this I ahall prove by a book published at Brussels in the year 1731 , entitled " La Vie de Spinosa , par M . Jean Colerus , " with many additions , from a MS . life , by one of his friends . Spinosa died on the 21 st February , 1677 , being then little more than forty-four years old . This , of itself , looks suspicious ;> and M . Jean admits , that a certain expression in the MS . life of him would warrant the conclusion , " que sa mort n ' a pas e * te tout-a-fait natnrelle . " Living in a damp country , and a sailor's country , like Holland , he may be thought to harve indulged a good deal in grog , especially in punch , which was then newly discovered . Undoubtedly he might have done so ; but the fact is , that he did not . M . Jean calls him " extremeinentsobre en son boire et en son manger . " And though some wild stories were afloat about his using the juice of mandra « -ora ( p . 140 )

    and opium ( p . 144 ) , yet neither of these articles is found in his druggist ' s bill . Living , therefore , with such sobriety , how was it possible that he should die a natural death at forty-four ? Hear his biographer ' s account : ^~ u Sunday morning , the 21 st of February , before it was church time , Spinosa came down stairs , and conversed with the master and mistress of the house . " At this time , therefore * perhaps ten o ' clock on Sunday morning , you see that Spinosa was alive , and pretty well . But it seems "he had summoned from Amsterdam a certain physician , whom , " says the biographer , " I shall not otherwise point out to notice than by these two letters , L . 3 L" This E . 3 M . had directed the people of the house to purchase " an ancient coek , " and to have him boiled forthwith , in order that Spinosa might taie some broth about noon ; which in fact he did ; and ate some of the old cock with a good appetite , after the landlord and Ms wife had returned from church . . ' . .

    After masticating that " ancient cock , " which I take to > mean a cock of the preceding century , in -what condition could the poor invalid find himself for a stand-up fight with L ~ M . ? But who was L . M . ? It surely never could be Lindley Murray , for I sa-w him at York in 1825 ; and , besides , I do not think he would do such a thing—at least , not to a brother grammarian : for you know , gentlemen , that Spinosa wrote a very respectable Hebrew grammar . Hobbes—but why , or on what principle ' , I never could understand—was not murdered . This was a capital oversight of the professional men in the seventeenth century ; because in every light he was a fine subject for muider , except , indeed , that he was lean and skinny ; for I can prove that he had money , and ( what is very funny ) he had no right to make the least resistance ; since , according to himself , irresistible power creates tho very highest species of right , so that it is rebellion of the blackest dye to refuse to > be murdered , when a competent force appears to murder you . However , gentlemen , though he was not murdered , I am happy to assure you that ( by his own . account ) he "was three times very near being murdered , which is consolatory .

    The first time was in the spring of 1640 , when he pretends to have circulated a little MS . on the king's behalf against the Parliament ; he never could produce this MS ., by-the-by ; but he says , that , " Had not His Majesty dissolved the Parliament" ( in May ) , "it had brought him into danger of his life . " Dissolving the Parliament , however , was of no use ; for in November of the same year the Long Parliament assembled , and Hobbes , a second time fearing lie should be murdered , ran away to Franco . This looks like tho madness of John Dennis , who thought that Louis XIV . would never make peace with Queen Anne , unless he ( Dennis , to wit ) were given up to Prench vengeance ; and actually ran away from the sea-coast under that belief . In Trance , Hobbea managed to take care of his throat xiretty well for ten years ; but at the end of that time , by way of paying court to Cromwell , ho published his " Leviathan . " The old coward began to " funk" horribly for the third time ; ho fancied the swords of the cavaliers were constantly at his throat , recollecting how they had served tho Parliament ambassadors at the Hague and Madrid . " Turn , " saya he , in his dog-Latin life of himself ,

    Turn vonit in mentem vnihi Dorislaus et Ascham ; Tanquam proscripto terror ubiquo aderaV ' And accordingly he run home to England . Now , certainly , it is very true that a man deserved a cudgelling for writing " Leviathan ; " and two or three cudgellings for writing a pentamoter ending so villanously as " terror ubiijuo adorat ! " But no man ever thought him worthy of anything beyond cudgelling . And , in fact , tho whole story is n . bounce of his own . For , in a moat abusivo letter which he wrote "to a learned person" ( meaning Wnllia tho mathematician ) , ho gives quite another account of the matter , and says ( p . 8 ) , ho ran homo " because he would not trust his safety with the French clergy ; " insinuating that he was likely to be murdered for his religion , which would have beon a high joko indeed—Tom ' a being brought to tho stake for religion . Bounce or not bounce , however , certain it m that Hobbos , to tho end of bia life , feared that somebody would murder him

    Malobrancho , it will givo you pleasure to hoar , was murdered . Tho man who murdered him iB well known : it was Bishop Berkeley . Tho story is familiar , though hitkotto not pat in a propur light . Derluiloy , when a young mini , wont to Paris , and called on JL ' erc Malobrunoho . Ho found him in his coll cooking . Cooks huvo over been a ffernts irrittthile ; authors nti ] l more so : Malobrunohc was both ; a dispute nroao ; tho old fatlmr , warm already , became wanner ; culinary nnd metaphysical irritations united to doraugo hia liver ; ho tooli to his bod , and died . Such is tho common version of the story : " So tho whole our of Dunmark in abutted . " Tho fact is , that the matter was hushed up , out of con ^ duration for Berkeley , who ( as Popo justly obaorvon ) had ¦ " uvery virtue under hunvon : " « i 1 h « it was well known that Berkeley , feeling himself nottlud by tlio waMpinlinotm of tho old Frenchman , mjuurcd at him ; a tunt-np was tho coiujoquoiiau : Malubmuoho wim iloorcd iu tho fijrat round ; th « conceit wan wholly taken out of him ; iind ho woul « l perhaps havo given in ; but Bwkflloy ' s blood wuh now up , and ho insisted on tho old Frenchman ' s retracting his ¦ doctriuo of Occasional Cnunua . Tho vanity of tho man " \ van too groat for thin ; and ho fell a HucriUco to tho iinputuouity of lrirth youth , combined with his own absurd obstinacy .

    Loibmts , boing every way superior to Malobrancho , ono might , < i fortiori , have counted on his boing murdered ; which , however , watt not tho enso . I boliovo lio waa uottlcd at tuia neglect , and folt himself insulted by tho security in which ho paaaod

    his days . In no other way can I explain his conduct at the latter end of bis life wheo . he chose to grow very avaricious , and to hoard up large sums of gold , which he kept in his own house . This was at Vienna , where he died ; and letters are still in existence , describing the immeasurable anxiety which he entertained for his throat . Still his ambition , for being attempted at least , was so great , that he would not forego the danger . A late English pedagogue , of Birmingham manufacture—viz ., Dr . Parr —took a more selfish course under the same circumstance . He had amassed a considerable quantity of gold and silver plate , which was for some time deposited in hia bedroom at his parsonage house , Hattoo . But growing every day more afraid o £ being murdered , which he knew that he could not stand ( and to which , indeed , ha never had the slightest pretensions ) , he transferred the whole to the Hatton blacksmith ; conceiving , no doubt , that the murder of a blacksmith would fall more , lightly on the solus reipublicm , than that of a pedagogue . But I have heard this greatly disputed ; and it seems now generally agreed , that one good horse-shoe is worth about two and a quarter Spital sermons .

    As Leibnitz , though not murdered , may be said to have died , partly of the fear that he should be murdered , and partly of vexation that he was not , Kant , on the other hand—who manifested no ambition in that way—had a narrower escape from a murderer than any man we read of , except Des Cartes . So absurdly does fortune throw about her favours ! The case is told , I think , in an anonymous life of this very great man . For health ' s sake , Kant imposed upon himself , at one time , a walk of six miles every day along a high-road . This fact becoming known to a man who had his private reasons for committing murder , at the third milestone &om Konigsberg be waited for his " intended , " who came up to time as duly as a mail coach . But for an accident , Kant was a dead man . This accident lay in the scrupulous , or what Mrs . Quickly would have called the peevish , morality of the murderer . Air old professor , he fancied , might be laden with sins . Not so a young child . On thia consideration , he turned away from Kant at the critical moment , and soon after murdered a child of five years old . Such is the German account of the matter ; but my opinion is , that the murdeTer was an amateur , who felt how little would be gained to the cause of good taste by murdering an old , arid , and adust metaphysician ; there was no room for display , as the man could not possibly look more like a mummywhen dead , than he had done

    alive-In the following he is describing ah incident of the road in the Mail-coach era . He is the solitary passenger ; it is aboil t five in a misty morningy the coachman is asleep ; the guard ditto ; both beyond his power of arousing in sufficient time to avert the danger he foresees ; the horses are at a tenmile-an-hour gallop ; and he has been taking laudanum . Thus he paints the picture in a laudanumy distemper : — Before us lay an avenue , straight as an arrow , six hundred yards , perhaps , ui length ; and the umbrageous trees , which rose in a regular line from either side , meeting high overhead , gave to it the character of a cathedral aisle . These trees lent a deeper solemnity to the early light ; but there was still light enough to perceive , at the further end of this Gothic aisle , a frail reedy gig , in which were seated a young man , and by his side a young lady . Ah , young sir ! what are you about ? If it is requisite that you should whisper your communications to this young lady—though

    really I see nobody , at an hourjandon a road so solitary , likely to overhear you—iait therefore requisite that you should carry your lips , forward to hers ? The little carriage is creeping on at one mile an hour ; and tb& parties within it being thus tenderly engaged , are naturally bending down their heads . Between them and eternity , to all human calculation , there i&but a minute and a . half . Oh heavens ! what is ib that I shall do ? Speaking or acting , what help can . I offer ? Strange it is , and to a mere auditor of the tale might seem laughable , that I should need a suggestion from the Iliad" to prompt the sole resource that remained . Yet so it was . Suddenly I remembered the shout of Achilles , and its effect . But could I pretend to shout like the son of Peleus , aided by Pallas ? No : but then I needed not the shout that should alarm all Asia militant ; such a shout would suffice as might carry terror into the hearts of two thoughtless young people , and one gig-horse . I shouted— and tuo young man heard me not . A second time I shouted—and now he heard me , for now he raised Ms head .

    Here , then , all had been done that , by me , could be done : more on my part was not possible , filine had been the first step ; the second was for the young man ; the third was for God . If , said I , this stranger is a bravo man , and if , indeed , he loves tho young girl at his side—or , loving her not , if he feels the obligation , pressing upon every man worthy to be called a man , ' of doing his utmost for a woman coniided to his protection—he will , at least , make some effort to save her . If that fails , he will not perisl * the more , or by a death more cruel , for having made it ; and lie will die as a bravo 'hmn should , with his face to the danger , and with his arm about the woman , that ho sought in vain to save . But , if he makes no eifort , shrinking , without a struggle , from his duty , lie himself will not the less certainly perish for this busenesa of poltroonery . He will die no loss : and why not ? Wherefore should wo grievo that thero is one craven less in the world ? No ; let him perish , without a pitying tliought of ours wasted upon him ; and , in that case , all our grid' will bo reserved for tho fate of the helpless girl who now , upon the least shadow of failure in Mm , must , by tho fiercest of translations—must , without time for a prayer—must , within seventy seconds , stand before the judgment-seat of Clod .

    But craven lie was not : sudden had been the call upon him , and sudden waa hia answer to the call . He saw , ho hoard , ho comprehended , tho ruin that was coming down : already its gloomy wlimlow darkened above him ; nnd already ho wan measuring his strength to deal with it . Ah ! what a vulgar thing does courago soein , whea wo seo nations buying jt and selling it . for a shilling a < iay : all ! what a Bublimo thing does courago seom , when nomo fearful summons on the groat deeps of lifio carries a man , as if running before a hurricane , up to the giddy crest of uomo tumultuous orinis , lrom which lie two courses , and a voice anya to him audibly , " One way Iic 3 hope ; take tho other , and mourn for over ! " How grand a triumph , if , even then , amidst the . raving of all around him , and tha frenzy of tho danger , tho man is ablo to confront His situation—is nblo to retiro for a moiuout into solitude with God , and to sock liis

    Vox seven seconds , it might bo , of his seventy , tho stranger nottlud his countonanca steadfastly upon us , an if to search and valuo ovory oloinent in tho conflict boforo him . For five seconds inoru oi' liin seventy ho sat immovably , like 0110 that mused on sonao groat purpose . ]? or flvo more , perhaps , ho sat , with oyes uj » rnino < l , liko one thab prayed in Morrow , under Bonio extremity of doubi , for light that nliouM guido him to tho hotter choice . Thou suddenly ho rose ; Blood upright ; and by a powerful strain upon tho reins , raining his lior » u ' u foro-fcot , from tlui ground , honltiwod him round on tho pivot of hi , 4 hind-lugs , no jib to plauL tho Ultlu e < juij > au'o in u position Hourly at right , anylon to ours . 'Duih far hit ) ooiulitjuu was not hniirovoil ; oxcopt on a lirnt sUj p Iwd boon takon towurdw U 10 [ mtitilbUUy of uhocwkJ . If no inoro woro douo , nothing was < lon «; for tho lit . tlo carriago still oucupiod tUu xnry conLro of our path , though in . an allorud direction . Yot oven now it , may not . ho too lalo : iU ' Uiuii of tho msvonty seconds may still bo unuxlimisUid ; and 0110 almighty bound muy avail to cloar tho ground . Hurry , then , hurry I lor iho flying luoinontu—thuy hurry ! Oh , hurry , hurry , my bravo young man ! for tin ; cruel lioufn of our honor *—they also hurry 1 Faat tt . ro iho Hying momenta , faster are tho hoofs of our horsos . But foar not for hint ,

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    November 25 , 1854 . ] TIE LEADER . 1123

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 25, 1854, page 1123, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2066/page/19/