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Leader (1850-1860), 27th March 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 301, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      home and abroad . If he goes winning to foreign courts lie will get no redress , bat if he stays in Great Britain , spends his money here , or , as a last resource , takes passage in the Leviathan for a season ' s tour in North America , the rotten and bankrupt old Continent will be recalled to its senses , and will be anxious to lure back its best customers by an apology .

      Untitled Article

      INFLUENCE OF WOMEN ON CIVILIZATION AND BUCKLE . Mb . Buckle ' s Lecture on the Influence of Woman on the Progress of Knowledge has beea welcomed as supplying a decided want in the social and political market . Our statesmanship has been for some years gradually but rapidly degenerating , from a failure of the chivalrous element . It has become empirical handicraft , devoid of large ulterior objects , unanimated by . generous motives ; and thus the conclusion of Mr . Buckle ' s discourse is gladly

      accepted , for all the incompleteness of his reasoning . It was imperfect where he had to deal with the knowledge during the classic ages , when , as he said , in proportion as knowledge and civilization advanced , the position and the influence of Woman became more degraded . Now , how does the Preux Chevalier of Modern Science know that ? was he there ? The proposition is almost like a contradiction in terms , and ought to make any ingenuous and intelligent man pause to re-examine it . What evidence have we of this alleged decline of the influence of woman ? We shall find it probably in some formal records , as to the extension of slavery , the subordinate position of the wife in the household , her very imperfect recognition at law , and in some cases the brilliant position of an Aspasia . The fact is , we know very little about the real life of the classics . The records that come to us deal principally with the events that are historical because they are exceptional . Were we to accept as proofs of the social condition the anecdotes current respecting any living despot , very false ideas would be transmitted to posterity of our social state ; the very influence acquired by an Aspasia is , if it is fairly considered , a striking proof of the influence that woman , exercised over the commanding minds and the progress of knowledge . The ingenuous Buckle , we tear , has been stumbling into the inductive method ; for if he had turned from these scraps of political brawling and scandal , which we call history , to the more consistent writings of the poets , he would have learned something very different—something consistent with the living as

      well as written history of the world . It is , however , entirely to misconceive the drift of his own argument when he contends for the superiority of the deductive over the inductive method , of the ideal over the actual . Here , again , there is a contradiction in terms , and the facts do not support him . Buckle deals witli facts as if they stood alone . Goethe , he says , discovered the greatest fact in botany—the metamorphosis of the leaf into the flower , or vice versa ; Goethe being a Soet who was ridiculed when he first enunciated lie ' idea . ' Newton was led to the doctrine of gravitation by reflection on seeing an apple fall , and

      from that' idea' he was led to pcrccivo the moon ' s motion in her orbit , and the planets' round the sun . It was the power of imagination which enabled Hauy to conceive the system of crystallography . It is the imaginative Shakspoare who , tracing the dust of Alexander , conceives the great idea of the indestructibility of matter ; a proposition from which the actualist Horatio flics oft at a tangent . We observed more than one clerical pair of shoulders shudder at this utterance of a truth as to the indestructibility of matter ; but no clerical protest , even if it hau been uttered aloud , could have withstood the earnestness , power , and sympathetic force with which Mr . Bucklo sustained Ins great argument : for ho did sustain it , though ho stumbled

      here and thcro logically . What is all this about ^—^ oj ^ igSojeiyjof great truths in science but a ^ painful misconception p Wlion"Goc"tire conceivea"t ; hc " idcTv ' of botanical metamorphosis , was his mind unstored with inductive facts P Was not tho idea itself suggested by inductive observation ? Would the brightest imagination in the world , untaught , while . it gazes on a flower springing from tho root in its most perfect and brilliant form , for an instant conceive the idea which Goethe detected by tho help of his imagination and his inductive knowledge P What is ' imagination , except tho habit of

      conceiving- facts which have not been experimentally tried , but which would be consistent with ascertained facts ? So Newton was prepared to see the apple fall by an immense mass of knowledge : that slight accident was only like the tinkle of the mule-bell which brings down , in a great avalanche , the mass of snow standing ready to fall by its own accumulated weight . It is possible , nay , probable , that Shakspeare did conceive the idea of the indestructibility of matter ; but by what process ? By bis vast perceptive faculty ; by a power in which he excelled all other men known , of grasping innumerable facts so tenaciously and so clearly that he could

      perceive their connexion and sequence ; and any man reflecting for an instant on the purport of physical facts would be most likely to stumble upon the idea that he never yet has ascertained a clear case of annihilation . In proportion as Buckle approaches the truth , its splendour blinds him , and he is incapable of depicting it for us exactly in the ratio of his own consciousness . The ideal , he says , is greater than the actual . What does this mean ? It means that the conscious perception of creation lurking in the mind of the creature is greater than emanations of the creation by the direct power of the Creator . Consider both in the same remoteness of abstraction ,

      the ideal and the actual , and both are manifestations of the power of God , in their origin equal , and equal in their value for the human race . The power of the poet to call up ideas from imperfect data is imagination ; the power of the machinist to conjure up a constructive engine out of the imperfect suggestions of fact is . imagination . The ideal and the actual are , as Buckle would correctly say , but the complements of each other , and neither will work perfectly without the other . But how can a man who has studied the facts and the history of the subject venture upon the assertion that the influence of woman is exerted principally

      in imparting to man a larger share of imagination ? That women possess more ' lively imagination' greater ' quickness of intellect ? ' He might as well say that women possess a greater amount of inductive power , and a more vigorous contractility of muscle . Detail is against him , and so are the broadest facts . If women have a more lively imagination , where are their poetical works ? Speaking of the sex generally , it might be said that they are aliens to Parnassus , unknown in that parish . If there have been female poets , they are wonders—the exception that proves the rule . Are there any female painters ? Titian ' s daughter has left us some few

      works , and we know not how much Titian touched . Angelica Kaufman feebly traced feeble outlines , and daubed them with feeble colours . The most vigorous female artist , the one vigorous female artist , is llosa Bonheur , a truly powerful painter ; a woman handsome and delicate , with the countenance and carriage of a young naval officer . And when we turn to music , where 'imagination' appears in its purest form , most separated from the inductive or the actual , there the genius of Woman

      is entirely silent : there is no female composer . AVhere are the female teachers , the professors ? Nay , where is the one woman who , in conversation , shows anything of those qualities which come under the two words united ' quickness' and ' intellect f ' If you find her , you will discover that she possesses the qualities in a remarkable degree only as a woman . What woman could play the part of barrister , not only for five minutes , but for five hours or for five days ? Tho monster is unknown—thank God !

      Buckle ' s truths are greater and better than his arguments . It is the fact , as he says , that there is a coming struggle to lift tho veil of truth which will task all the faculties of man , and need the imaginative powers to assist tho induotivo powers in the struggle . It is the fact that tho struggle will need tho support of the affections as well as of the imagination ; that man will need tho help of woman m that joint labour , but not because she possesses his faculties in a higher degree ; nor will no gain anything by tho attempt ot some ' reformers' to make

      woman man . If we have some doubt as to the mode in which tho influence of woman wascxeroised ( lwi » ing the"stagos-oPGreek-and-I | , oman-civilizatioii swe have none as to tho benefit whioh the middle ages conferred upon mankind , in breaking up tho pedantries of philosophy and imperialism—none as to the nature of tho chivalry which grow out of the middle ugos . If tho Greek philosophy incited man to study the influences ana beauties of life about him , if Christianity taught him to love his brother as himself , it was ohivalry which taught him to prize that which was stronger though * weaker ; ' and it is

      modern philosophy which is teaching us , by a combination of past wisdoms , that the male ana female mind are not the one higher than the other , are not opposed to each other . George Sand pointed out the fact that they are in their nature different . Their true relation is best described by a knighterrant in our own day . Says John Jacob , writing to a lady , " Leave all effects of study and cultivation out of the question , and , believe me , that no human intellect , much less my poor understanding , is higher or better than your own . Though , as a man ' s , my intelligence may differ somewhat from your womanly understanding , yet in this , as in all else , you may be well assured that the sexes are not superior and inferior the one to the other , but complementary to each other . "

      Man ' s nature is the iron engine , woman s gives the steam , the motive power . But there is another reason why man ' s understanding cannot go alone . More complex , quicker , profounder , in the brute sense stronger , it can and does grasp a multitude of questions , facts , inferences , conclusions and ideas , which contradict , distract , confound , and entangle each other . ; it is only when man brings back his own struggling data to the test of healthy instinct , natural affection , and clearer judgment , that he is made certain , by the final test , of the truth which he himself has worked out—to the last stage but one . One quality , in which woman excels man , it is that furnishes that last test—simplicity . The poet says of ¦ ' Nature 'Her ' prentice ban' she tried on man , And then she made the lasses . O !

      But the philosopher who raises his contemplations above ' nature' might be inclined to guess that , whichever was made first , woman was more the direct and favourite work of God , retaining ^ more of his own nature and less spoiled by the world of man . And stronger , quicker , more agile though he be , in intellect , imagination , and idea , no man is wise until his half-understanding is made complete by that which is more simple , stronger in its consciousness of God ' s unspoken laws , and endowed with the divine right that is reserved to it of making the intellect which seeks it perfect .

      Untitled Article

      THE OATHS BILL DEBATE . The admission of the Jews into Parliament is a matter past all discussion . It is too late in the day to argue on the exact intention of the existing oaths or on the possible unchristianizing of the Legislature . We wonder that any one replied to Mr . Newdegate and Mr . Walpole , except that the North Warwickshire gentleman fell into gross misstatements of fact , and turned the debate into a comedy by malevolent interpretations of passages in the Talmud . The real question is whether the bill is

      to pass this session , and , if not , whether the House of Commons will assert itself against the domination of the House of Lords . If Lord Derby has so profound a respect for majorities as he professed vrlien consenting against his declared views to legislate without delay for India , may he not agree to waive his privilege of obstruction , and so put-an end to an unseemly conflict between the two branches of the Legislature ? If he persists in opposition , when and Jiow is the war of opinions to end ? Is Lord John Uussell sincere ? Sir John

      Pakington has recorded his conviction that Baron Rothschild may be admitted by a resolution of the House of Commons . Sir Richard Bethell , the late Attorney-General , has pledged himself to base a motion upon that view of the case . Mr . Duncombe and Mr . Diliwyn are prepared to act if these honourable gentlemen fail , and will Lord John Russell slink into the rear of Religious Liberty P That is now tho main and almost the only point to be considered . Polemics have gone far enough . No one wishes to convince Mr . Newdcgatc or Lord Chelmsford . Tho simple truth is that the elected representatives of tho nation have a duty to perform by abolishing a disability originating in accident and perpetuated by fanaticism , and that the country expects them to perform this duty in ono way or another .

      Untitled Article

      NO THANKS tO ™ DOWNING-STREETr ~ The intervention of tho British press has effected tho liberation of Mr . Watt and Mv . Parko at Naples . Lord Malmcsbury appears in tho House of Peers like Lord Castleroagh walking down the floor with tliePcMoo of Paris in his hand , and horeditary legislators ehocr the vindicated honour of tho country , But tho release of tho imprisoned Englishmen is due to no minister and to no party . The

      Untitled Article

      No . 418 , Mabcji 27 , 1858 . ] THE LEA DEB . 301

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 27, 1858, page 301, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2236/page/13/