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    been asked whether it truly is so or not . _ vvhen once attention is fixed on it , and the inquiry distinctly raised , Is there inaction in nature , or inadequate apprehensionon the part of man ? the whole case . will assume a different complexion . " Can it be decided except in one way ? Fairly to ask the question is the difficulty , not to answer it ; to free ourselves sufficiently from conclusions which Lave always been taken for granted . " One obvious objection will strike the intelligent reader . Our author assumes that the inertness is

    in man . " Why ribt in Nature ? Analogy as certainly in his favour . In astronomy , the fact has been demonstrated to be the contrary of the appearance . Why then not in all cases ? So , then , if Nature appears inertj it must be man who is really so . Again , our essayist calls this inertness in man a defect . Why a defect ? That the senses are passive recipients was the doctrine of the founder of transcendentalism . But it never occurred to him to regard this passivity as a defect . It was simply the law of their structure . Nor is it the whole mind

    that is thus passive . The intellect is awakened to activity by the impression passively received ; . ' and the reason at once recognises a cause for ifc . The impression made on the senses is an effect . That effect has a cause in foreign being . Now , the difference that must be predicated between cause and effect , gives the precise difference that our author contends for ; the latter passive , the former active . This passivity , however , is confined to the senses . Again , the impression made on the senses , or their organs ^ becomes : a sensation ; but not necessarily . Unless the mind is in ail attitude of attention , the

    impression received will never reach the consciousness . An act of attention must therefore be presumed ; that is a predetermination of the will . In this activity of the will , accordingly , man already co-operates , as an active cause , with the cause in Nature , and the sensational result is the product of their communion . It is this consciousness of activity in himself , as a cause , that justifies hini in inferring other causes , in Nature , as contributing to the generation of the pheiiomeual world . Man is , consequently , in the very state of redemption which the essayist thinks so desirable ^ but which he « nn » Jo >» . o + ill Pi .+ iii-o Snr » li is flip om-i «; t . riir > t . ion of ¦ »» w ¦¦

    i CcflilUO C 4 O OvlXL < 1 UwlAA V *« »»^»*^^** m ** ** . w . v »* w _— * . m >*—w— >•—the human mind , as now acknowledged in all philosoplucal schools , however much they may differ on other points . What then is the " sum of the matter r" Nature appears inert so far as she is a system of effects in the human sense and intellect ; but she is alive and active , so far as she is a system of causes in herself and in the estimation of the human reason . Does the author mean that the general recognition of this philosophical truth is equivalent to a regeneration of the race ; or does he suppose that the limits as now recognised of the senses and the understanding of man will be removed or enlarged , so that Nature shall appear to be living ana active , as well as really be so ?

    Some have supposed that what we call . Death may mean this ; but our author seems to mean it of what we call Life , when man shall have arrived at the redemptive period . He seeks , indeed , . to reunite philosophy and theology ; a worthy attempt in the main , and which we are glad to sec made by such a writer as our essayist , who is evidently a clergyman desirous of reconciling Faith and Science By some misapprehension , however , of the full scope of philosophy , as now recognised , and an evident desire to ignore certain authorities that should have been more carefully consulted and gratefully acknowledged , the author has landed in a perplexed statement which he may find ifc difficult to explain . Nevertheless , the purpose Of his book is admirable i the stylo clear and logical ; and it must bo of eminent service to theological students with philosophical tendencies .

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    THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS . Historic Wotes on the Boohs of the Old and New Testaments . By Samuel Sharpe . Smith , Elder , and Co . Mr- SiiARr-E ' s aim is to explain the "history of the books of the Bible by the aid of the his < ory of the Jewish nation . By confining himself to this object he seeks " to avoid the difficult subjects of inspiration , miracles , prophecies of a Messiah , and . the authority now due to the Mosaic law since the introduction of Christianity . " The public generally appear satisfied with his performance , for this is the second edition of the work , which it is scarcely to say addresses itself more to the English

    necessary reader than to scholars and divines . It is not for us to test the merits of a work by a higher standard than its author adopts , and for those for whom it is especially compiled it has many recommendations . We quote the following passage : — The language of history is easily translated , and needs little remark . ; the actions and the things named are nearly the same at all times ; a horse , a camp , a general , a battle , a sword , find words in all languages . But it is far otherwise with our philosophical thoughts and religious feelings . The words which express these

    in one age of the world , are not easily understood in another . They must be explained by the help of the known opinions of the people who have used them , and adapted them to their wants . . The simple language of the Gospels which spoak to the heart , which describe the Saviour ' s life and acts of mercy , is more easily understood by everybody , than the philosophical arguments of the Apostle * Paul , which have often been wrested by the unlearned to the defence of opinions which the apostle never held . But even in the simplest parts , of a book written eighteen centuries ago there are many words which a translation leaves obscure , and which

    require the help of a common tat or . Many words by uao gain a meaning more limited finil more particular than they at first bore . Thus the Jews had such strong national feolinga , that their word nations moans foreign nations , and we leave it untranslatedtho Heathens or the Gentiles . So Paul , in Cor . siv ., speaking of a Ianr / uar / a , moons ft foreign language . Since tho conquest of . Tudoa by tho Assyrians , the Jqws hod been very much ' scattered among tho neighbouring nations , but never lost thoir love of home . Tho won dispersion thereby gained a peculiar moaning ; nnn Peter , writing to his countrymen abroad , cnlln thorn tlie Pilgrims of tho Dispersion ( 1 Po ( or , » . l ) . . Tame * also writes to tho fcwolvo tribes of tho Dispersion .

    "Words which have two meanings in tho same Bon ^ once can seldom be properly translated . Thus , in John ill . » . wo have ono word meaning both Wind and Spirit , in Mark viii . 85 , 07 , wo have a word moaning both lAW and Sonl . In Hebrews , ix . 15 , 20 , wo have a > voni moaning both Toatqment nnd Covenant . In oncli oi these cases" tho argument rosttt on tho ambiguity ott «< J words , and is | bot In n translation . It must bo Jolt to tho commentator to explain them . Even tho vory simple words Greeks , Jews , and Hebrews , aro not without two meanings oach . The Apoalio i aw , by Greeks , often moana nil who aro not Jew »? » B / ( " There is no difference betwoon Jqw and Qroov-

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    TALES FROM THE NORSE . Popular Tales froin the Norse . By George Webbe paeent , D , C . t . With an Introductory Essay on tho Origin and Diffusion of Popular Tales . Edinburgh : Edraonston and Douglas . The popular tales of all nations , ifc is now well known , have a remarkable similarity . Horo aro fortyeix brief Tales from the Norse , translated with great vigour and correctness ; and ifc « wiH bo found that , either in spirit or in form , they roscmblo tho tales onoe told in our own nurseries and lately familiar there , and might bo so still , but for the manufactured child-books whioh have recently , usurped tho place pf the simpler fables in . which ourselves v / ere educated , This similarity is claimed by Pi \ Dasont ,

    in common with the brothers Grimm , Professor Max Muller , Sir William Jones , and other Oriental scholars , as forming a link in the chain' of evidence that seeks to establish a common origin between the East and the West--bet \ veen the Hindoo on the one hand , and the nations of Western Europe on the other . "We all came , " says he , " Greek , Latin > Celt > Teuton , Slavonian , from the East , as kith and kui i leaving kith and kin behind us ; and after thousands of years , the language aud traditions of those who went East and those who went West , bear such an affinity to each other , as to have established , beyond discussion or dispute , the fact of their descent from a common stock . "

    Dr . Dasent hais no mercy on the old classical theorists of the eighteenth century , Avho saw no importance in these philological inquiries ; or only in subservience to the claims of Greek or Latin genius , from which it fondly believed that all other literatures were copies . The despised vernacular tongues , he contends , with a host of authorities , too , on his side , " have preserved the common traditions far more faithfully than the writers of Greece and Rome . " He carries us up to a preehistoric race , traces of which we find everywhere ; underlying more recent vestiges—a race probably akin to the Mongolian family , " whose miserable

    remnants we see pushed aside , and huddled up in the holes and corners of Europe , as Lapps ,, and Finns , and Basques . " That all the -thousand shades of resemblance and affinity , he insists , " which gleam and flicker through the whole body of popular tradition in the Aryan race , as the aurora plays and flashes in countless rays athwart the ¦ Northern heaveiv should be the result of mere servile copying of one tribe ' s traditions by another , is a supposition as absurd as that of those good countryfolk , who , when they see an aurora , fancy it must be a great fire , the work of some incendiary , and send off the parish-engine to put it out !" will stumble at the term

    Most of our readers " Aryan race" in the above extract . The term , whether applied to race or language , means the Indo-European . The theory implied by the term isi that bur ancestors came from the central plain of Asia , now commonly called Iran— - " Iran , the habitation of the tillers of the earthy as opposed to Turan , the abode of restless , horse-riding nomads ; of Turks , in short , for in their name the root survives and still distinguishes the great Turanian or Mongolian family from the Aryan , Iranian , or Indo-European race . " This race wandered westwards until they reached the Atlantic and the Northern Ocean . Those they left behind , after

    a while , appear to have turned their faces eastward , and passing the Indian Caucasus , poured through the denies of Affghanistan , crossed the plain of the Five Rivers , and descended on the fruitful plains of India . Those who travelled westward became the prominent actors in the drama of history , as Celts , Greeks , Romans , Teutons , Slavonians . " In continual struggle with each other , " says Miiller , " and with Semitic and Mongolian races , these Aryan nations have become the rulers of history , and it seems to be their mission to link all parts of the world together by the chains of civilisation , commerce , and rolisrion . " Dr . Dasent thinks that this

    race is intended by the younger brother , hi the tales that he has collected , who wont out and did , and who passes under the name of Boots , tho hero of incredible adventures . The older brother <^ the Southern Aryans ) , who stayed at home , having driven out the fow aboriginal inhabitants of India with little effort , and following the course of the great rivers , gradually established themselves all over tho peninsula , and gave themselves up to tlio business of thought . The result is to bo found in the Vedas , tho earliest collectionof philosophical speculations that tho world possosses . And they have remained ever since in a passive , abstract , unprogressivo state . .

    ^ Nevertheless , wo have a great interest in thoir literature , for those same Feaas arc . written in a language olosoly allied to tho primeval common tongue of tho two branches bofore they parted , and descending from a period anterior to thoir separation . It may even bo tho very tonguo itself—certainly it is not far removed— -while the spocoh of tho emigrants to the West rapidly changed . This it is , to ' quote our author , " which has given such value to Sanaorifc , a tongue of whioh ifc may bo said that if it had porishod the sun would ixovor have risen on the soionoo of comparative philology . ' ? Our studious readers will thank us for tins brief statement of a learned argument frequently misunderstood .

    One of these tales originally appeared iii Blackwood ' s Magazine . It is called "The Master Thief , " and comes in illustration of the above reasonin g . Traits of the same story are to be found in the Sanscrit Ililopadesa , also in the story of Jlhiunp sinitus , ' \\\ Hcrpdofcus , and in . many German , Italian , Flemish , and popular -tales , but told in all with variations of character and detail .... Thus ; , also , iu relation to the popular tale of William Tell and his daring shot , we find , that it is told of many a hero , and , indeed , is common to the . whole Aryan race . It appears in Saxo Grammaticus , who flourished in the twelfth century , Where it is told of IPalnatojci , King Harold Gormsoii ' s thane and assassin . In the thirteenth century , the Wilkina Saga relates it

    of Egill , Volunde ' s younger brother . So , also , iu the Norse Saga of Saint Olof , King aud martyr . Other instances are mentioned which would occupy too much space to recount . Suffice ifc to add that the fable is common to the Turks aed Mongolians ; and a legend of the wild Samoyeds , who never heard of Tell or saw a book in their lives , relates it , chapter and verse , of one of their famous marksmen . " What shall we say , then , " asks Our author , "but that the story of this bold master-shot was primcuval amongst many tribes and races , and that it only crystallised itself round the great name of Tell by that process of attraction which- invariably leads a grateful people to throw such mythic wreaths , such garlands of bold deeds of precious memory , round the brow of its darling champion . "

    We commend this volume , as an important audition to our general stock of information , iu relation to a most interesting inquiry .

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    X 72 THE LEADEB . [ No . 463 , F ^ BRUAR y 5 , 1859 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 5, 1859, page 172, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2280/page/12/