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Leader (1850-1860), 27th February 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 208

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      Untitled Article

      THE LEABEE . [ No . 414 , Februar y 27 , 1858 .

      Untitled Article

      ^ Two works have recently appeared which tend to show that the revived study of philosophy at Oxford is likely to produce substantial fruit , I lie first of these—Sir Alexander Grant ' s Essays on the Ethics of Aristotle—is a decided advance on the meagre elucidations hitherto given by Oxford scholars of their favourite text-book . Even at Oxford it has been too much the fashion to study the Nicomachean Ethics as Greek rather than philosophy , and for fifty years past no progress has been made in the critical interpretation of its difficult passages , or the philosophic discussion of its higher problems . of Aristotle in

      Sir Alexander Grant treats the ethical system . a manner worthy of the subject and of the University , his essays , six m number , being evidently the result of zealous labour , varied scholarship , and independent thought . The subjects discussed are the genuineness of the Ethics , the position of ethical science in Greece previous to Aristotle , the relation of Aristotle to Plato , the special method and ideas of the Ethics , and the relation oi Aristotle ' s speculations to modern systems . The most interesting of the essays are the second and last , which connect the work of Aristotle with the entire history of ethical philosophy , showing what moral ideas he inherited from his predecessors , and the position in which his treatise stands to the peculiar doctrines of modern thinkers . The work is a really useful one to all students of philosophy , but especially to Oxford men , being an excellent introduction , not only to the Nicomachean Ethics , but to the ethical systems of

      antiquity as a whole . The second work is the elaborate article , Metaphysics , recently contributed by the Rev . H . L . Mansel to the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica-This is a complete , and in many respects original , treatise , discussing in order the various points and problems of mental science under two main divisions-Psychology and Ontology—the former being , in Mr . Hansel ' s view , the science of phenomena , the latter of reality . In the psychological part of the essay , the author turns to good account the most recent contributions to the subject , with the whole range of which , both in this country and on the Continent , lie is evidently familiar . It is in the ontological part of his work that Mr . Mansei / s originality is most apparent . Starting from consciousness as a basis , he attempts to establish a science of reality in three main directions—those of

      man , nature , and God—but , in his own view even , is fully successful m one alone , that of man . He maintains that we have a direct and absolute knowledge of ourselves , consciousness being not simply a manifestation of personality , but personality itself . " I exist as a person , " says Mr . Mansel , " only as I am conscious of myself , and I ana conscious of myself only as I exist . The consciousness of personality is thus an ontology of the highest sense of the term , and cannot be regarded as the representation of any ulterior reality . " But is there as matter of fact any such direct consciousness of pure being , of abstract personality as Mr . Mansel assumes P The condition of consciousness is difference , division , while being is necessarily one . We cannot be directly conscious of ourselves apart from all states , but only of ourselves in some particular state . While admiring the acuteness of Mr . Mansel ' s discussions , we cannot , therefore , congratulate him on the success of his attempt to construct a science of being .

      Untitled Article

      The vexed question of international copyright between this country and the United States seems at length in a fair way to be settled . The only wonder is , that the present piratical system has existed so long , the interests of authors on both aides of the Atlantic being alike concerned in its abolition . But family quarrels are notoriously the most inveterate , the most difficult to arrange , and to this it is probably to be attributed that , while wo have had for years past an international copyright witli the nations of the Continent , we have up to the present time come to no arrangement with our cousins in America . We hail with sincere pleasure the prospect of a speedy termination to such an injurious and disgraceful state of things held out in the following paragraph from the American Publishers * Circular ; —

      The subject of International Copyright Is once more brought prominently before the public by two independent measures—a bill submitted by Mr . E . Joy Morris to tho { louse , intended to secure a partial compensation to foreign authors , whose works may be reprinted in this country , and the draft of a treaty which Lord Napier is understood to have laid before General Oass , having the same object . It is highly probable that ; some action will be taken on one or both of these propositions . "We have never been able to see -why our laws should protect the rights of a foreign inventor , yet ignore those of a foreign author . Was not Lord Byron as truly the creator of Childo Harold as James Watt was of the steam engine ? And if to build a steam wglnVin ^ tlils ^ countiry-ttftertho-model-ofWW « tt-fl . was . « ninfringement . of-. tho rights of said Watt , why waa not an American reprint of Ohildo Harold an invasion of the rights of Lord Byron ? We cannot guess .

      One of the ablest arguments against international copyright assorts that ouoli writers as Bulwer , Dickens , Thackeray , borrow their ideas from tho great thinkers and philosophers pf their own and former ages , and havo no just property therein . This , if good at all , ia good , not against international copyright , but in bar of tho claim of certain persons to share its advantages . No matter how stringent tho law , His clear that a plea of Plagiarism , if mado out , would constitute a valid dofenoo . A . thief cannot maintain an action for tho recovery pf property which he is known to have stolen , but of which a third party has taken possession . Wo have no manner of doubt that' Oliver Twist' or' Little Dorrlt' is qa truly and absolutely tho production pf Charles Dlokans as tho * Wealth of Nations' was that of Adam Smith ; but . If

      the contrary were established , it would make nothing against the propriety and justice of international copyright . Inventions are , to a considerable extent , products of their time . We cannot doubt that steamboats would have been constructed though neither Fitch nor Fulton had never been born , and that the electric telegraph would have flashed intelligence from country to country though there had never been a Morse , a Bain , nor a House . But could we have had Christabel without Coleridge , Sartor Resartus without Carlyle ? Clearly not ; and herein is the proof that the author ' s right is clearer and stronger than that of the inventor . The latter anticipates ; the former creates .

      Untitled Article

      SHELLEY AND BYRON . Shelley- and his Writings . By Charles S . Middleton . 2 vols . ( Newby . )—It has been said that a certain downward road is paved with good intentions ; and Mr . Middleton seems in these two volumes to have unwittingly laid a flagstone on his path to that literary Gehenna which boasts _ so large a population of unfortunate authors . Five years ago , he conceived the idea of devoting his leisure to writing a Life of Shelley ; and the result is a work to which , indeed , we can give the praise that fairly belongs to a well-meant design , and to industry , but which is open to . certain grave objections . Properly to write the Life of a genius so exalted and so subtle as Shelley ' s , requires a profound critical insight and a knowledge of human nature not necessarily implied in any amount of mere admiration and re-Middleton does not The task

      verence ; and these qualities Mr . possess . , moreover , demands , in a biographer who writes so close to the poet ' s own time , when friends and near relations are still living , an exquisite delicacy of mind which shrinks , with instinctive perception of the limits of publicity and privacy , from touching on matters which are necessarily painful to those concerned , however honourable they may be to all parties , and which cannot be placed in their true light without a further violation pf that fine sense of reserve which Mr . Middleton seems almost to have forgotten . In saying thus much , we do not mean to accuse him of a bad intention towards any one . He seems to be a person of amiable feelings , deeply sympathizing with Shelley , anxious to place him in the true light of his genius and his noble heart , and to show the meanness , spite , and vulgarity of his enemies . But , for want of that rare perception to which wo have referred , he has violated sanctities which , in justice to him , we will hope he did not perceive as such ; has published letters which his own judgment should have told and

      him ought never to have been exposed to the vulgar curiosity misapprehension of the crowd , to whom , indeed , they can bo of no legitimate interest whatever ; and has publicly related circumstances which he has no right to drag from out the circle of private confidence , even supposing them to bo correct , which in many cases they are not . It must be admitted that Mr . Middleton does not stand alone in this tad habit . If there be any palliatipn in community of error , the present biographer of Shelley may claim it . The lives of great men , written while those yet remain who are capable of bein ' g pained by injudicious statements , frequently show the same evidence of disregard of delicacy . Mr . Cottle , in his Life of Coleridge , published letters uddressed to himself by his friend , in one of hie sore extremities , soliciting the loan of a few kitchen utensils . He did not appear to understand that a sacred silence should bo thrown around such facts ; that their publication must have been painful to relations ; and that the knowledge of them puts the prosperous and insolent of mankind in a position of apparent triumph over genius and misfortune . Ot tin intnnA tn nrtv that flllftll SOrflirl details ttS tllCSC C ( M DO not intend 10 uit amuiu uoiauo iubo

      nnnrao mo nn * nnv course , wo uo say «« ny ouuu *«» » v <~" — related of Shelley ' frionda , or of Shelley himself , who , though at one time straitened in his means , was never reduced to such extremities as poor . Cpjojrjdge ; nevertheless . Mr . Middleton is justly chargeable with not sulficiently rcspectrnjiflhTrpHv ^ y ^^ by friendship and affection . He has suffered himself to bo led ustray by a principle which he may have thought warranted by previous examples , but which ia opposed to that tenderness for the feelings of others which ia tho finest characteristic of the true gentleman . Ho would be sorry , also , il Ho could know that ho haa placed in the light of mere receivers of benefita tliose who have beatowod in an equal degree , and that ho has thus—not willingly * we are assured , but by virtue of a . mistaken system—given purely sectional portraitures , leading to misapprehension on the part of the reader . With respect to some persons , indeed , he appears to have moat imperfect information , and has consequently gone astray .

      Untitled Article

      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . Theydo not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Jceview .

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      Ittmiturt .

      Untitled Article

      M . Aitioine Roche has recently published the first volume of a Histoire des Principatix Ecrivains Frangais , which though specially addressed to young ladies , as an educational work , will be read by cultivated readers with pleasure and profit . It is the cream of literary history , exhibiting the progress and perfection of French literature in the most eminent writers . After a very brief } but lucid , sketch of the origin and formation of the language during the sixl teenth and seventeenth centuries , M- Roche passes all the great writers iii review , from Marot to Boileatj , giving some illustrative extracts from each , and expressing in clear , elegant diction the opinions which , in France , may be said to have passed into laws . We have on more than one occasion noticed it as a remarkable peculiarity in revolutionary and free-spoken France , thai ; no

      subject is so sacred there as an established reputation . A Frenchman will doubt of everything that can be expressed in a proposition , except the preeminence of France , and the qualities attributed to a French classic : to find a Frenchman who has any misgivings about France as the brain of the world , ' is as impossible as to find one who thinks of Corneiixe , Lafontaine , or Bosstjet with any independence of judgment . What has once been said and accepted respecting a classic , remains a tradition which no levity ventures to disturb . M . Roche is , in this respect , like all his distinguished country men , and his criticisms are interesting as expressing the general sentiment of Frenchmen , and therein , perhaps , even more useful to the audience he addresses than if they had been original . His volume is very pleasant reading , and will be very acceptable to a large class .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 27, 1858, page 208, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2232/page/16/