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Leader (1850-1860), 18th June 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 750, Untitled Article

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      own mfcrit , and recognise the sound truth that * it is better for a man to honour his profession than to be honoured by it . ' . For my own part , I never made any distinction between the two names , and shall employ them indiscriminately , until some new Jules de ltovere arrive to enrich the Dictionary of the French Academy . " M . Robert-Houdin , in the course of his practice , derived great reputation by his construction of automata . In that of the throat of a mechanical nightingale he showed wonderful ingenuity . He has recorded the growth and progress of the idea , and its final accomplishment . In the Paris

      Exhibition of 1844 , he was permitted to exhibit some specimens of his skill , which had the good fortune to please Louis Philippe . M . Robert-Houdin soon after built a theatre in the Palais-Royal , in which at first he encountered some difficulty . But at length appeared the bill for the " First Representation of the Fantastic Soirees of Robert-IIoudin . " It is dated Thursday , July 3 , 1845 . The rest of his life consists of a series of successes . Yet he had to work hard for them . He tells how he invented second sight . It depends on the cultivation of memory , which is capable of indefinite improvement : He had his losses and crosses , too . A theatrical agent seduced him to a trial at the Brussels Theatre , where he was cheated . On a subsequent occasion he was engaged by Mr . London from

      Mitchell for the St . James ' s Theatre , ; that gentleman we are glad to find that he experienced great courtesy and liberality . He performed also at Manchester , and Buckingham Palace . On his return to France he gave up his theatre to his brother-in-law . But he still continued his studies and experiments . In 1855 , he presented at the tlniversal Exhibition several new applications of electricity and mechanism , and was awarded a prize by the jury . In . 1856 lie was employed by the Government to go to Algiers , that he might out-conjure the Marabouts , and thus deprive of prestige the superstitions that frequently induced the Arabs to revolt . " His success was splendid . With this , the crowning deed of his life , we . close our review . . The rest must be sought in the book itself .

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      THE NAVIES OF THE WORLD ; their Present State . and Future Capabilities . By Huns Busk , M . A . With Illustrations . —Routlcdge , Warnes arid Koutlodge . This work is evidently Written to supply a sudden demand . The relations between England and France , interpreted by Mr . Busk in " a Pickwickian sense , " supply the motive ; for the publication . The fortifications and dockyard of Cbei'bourg lend their aid ; and the article in the " Conversations Lexicon , " on the Navies of England and France , serves for both impulse and matter . There is also an opinion that the agency of steam in the construction of war-ships will , henceforth render

      superiority in seamanship of less importance than formerly . We must , therefore , preserve an absolute numerical superiority in ships and men . Progressive improvement in tlie state of our navy from the sixteenth century to the present left little to be desired ; but a sense of security led to the relaxation of effort . The expense of steam for a large fleet is enormous . Nevertheless , the application of steam to the entire navy of every firstrate Power is now assumed as u fundamental condition of its strength . In this respect , tlie French must for some time be placed sit disadvantage , owinjr to the distance of the mines from the various

      ports , a hey are , indeed , compelled to keep on hand one year ' s consumption , to guard- against coivtingences . In this country the maintenance , constantly and during peace , of a large body of men suitable for manning the navy is a problem hard of solution . But itTis proved that in naval resources none of the Powers of the world , with the exception of France , arc at all equal with this country . Every effort is making in our dockyards to place our royal navy once more in a position of pre-reminence . Our author evidently -writes in dread of what he names " French national vanity , "

      and still , thinks the phrase of " faithless Albion not obsolete , lie quotes a highly-decorated French officer who had served with us in the Crimea , who at a table d'hdte remarked that the islanders " ¦ had once arrogant pretensions to the dominion of the ocean ; - —but , bah ! there is an end of all that now —the destiny of France is irresistible ; to attempt to oppose it is impious—it is opposing the will of God . " Strange things are said at tables d'hote ! We may point to this book as some sort of reply to them . It is ably compiled , and contains a largo store of accurate information .

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      TIIK ENGLISH BII . JLK . History of ( lie Trnnslniiou of tho Holy Scriptures into thu English Ton ^ iio . With Specimens of the Old English Versions , lty Mrs . II . C . Conant ; edited , and with an introduction , by the Kcv . C . 11 . Spurgeon . —Arthur Hall , Virtue-ami Co . . Tun authoress of this work has already distinguished herself as a translator of Neundur ' s 1 ractical Commentaries , and writes upon the subject of her book in a learned and sober spirit . lhe introduction by Mr . Spiirjjccon does him great credit . It is free from fanaticism ! and biljliolutry . It ia the opinion of this gciitlonum , as well as of the authoress , that a now translation of the Bible ia imperiously needed : and the proof that it

      must be so is implied in the history . It could not be otherwise , in the order of uvouts . Thp Bible , us we hftvo it , was influenced by the kingcraft ot Its projector ; and its faults aro thu necessary results of the platform invented for it by James , in order to save tho Church , and of thu defective knowledge of the translators in tho oriental languages . , Mrs . Conant happily expresses this fact when version thu last

      she states that tho " common , was great effort of tho infant period of Biblical science in , England . " That scionco has ainoo attained something like maturity . A new era of saorotl learning commenced with tho second < l" ( U't < "' ol tho seventeenth century . Tho works of Walton , Castell , Lightfoot , Pocooko , may bo mentioned as illustrative of this : whilo in tho eighteenth oontuiy those ofMill , Bontley , and others , abound in scholarship . The conclusion to which n thorough investigation of tho subject lifts conducted tho authoress and Mr . Spurgoon , and tho evidence hero adduced , will go fiir to substantiate tho demand for a now and Faithful version , truly conducted by sohpnu ' s

      Untitled Article

      Gillespie attacks , may hold their place without interference with- the Mosaic theology ; - —they are related as discretes , not as concretes , and run parallel and not antagonistic to eacli other . " This , we have thought good to state at once , as the shortest way of settling a very foolish dispute . The geological eras must be considered as subsequent to the fatal Adamic lapse . Let Mr . Gillespie

      subscribe to this , avid his mind will be no more troubled with thick-coming fancies , Rather let him hold , with Plato and Wordsworth , the doctrine of the soul ' s pre-existeiice , and interpret physical facts by its light . Nor in this are we prescribing a hard task ; for Mr . G . has himself suggested the expedient . But we are not sure . thatlie lias interpreted the dogma rightly . At any rate , on other points he is liable to the charge of mahicheism .

      fiat . The creative act , being eternal * still continu es ; and the Providence by which man and nature are sustained from hour to hour is but another name for an Eternal Creator , " whose generations have no end . ' ' ¦ ¦ ¦'

      According to Dr . Kurtz , the unfallen man had the power of " clearlyandwith 6 t . it error recognising not only the essence of created things , as they then existed , but also the history of their origin . They were transparent to man , nor did he require to use violent means in order to investigate them . " Thus a mere survey of the animal world sufficed to enable him to name the creatures . He also named Eve , but Dr . Kurtz pauses to remark that it was

      God himself who named Heaven and Earth , and Day and Night . The giving of names is a revelation of the Giver . Man , nevertheless , had not thoroughly known the nature of the serpent , " more subtile than any beast of the field , " or " he would not so readily have credited its smooth speeches . " He was ignorant-also of the nature of the Tree of Knowledge till God liad revealed it . " Wherefore the learned- Doctor doubts whether

      primaeval . Adam was intuitive of the entire innverse . AH along , too , evil is presumed as preexisting . Dr . Kurtz ascribes a prophetical character to the Biblical account of Creation . It was given to the first man in a vision , the peculiarity of which consists in this- —" that the Spirit of God , who knows -neither'past . nor future , but to whom every thing is eternally present—partly and temporarily elevated the spirit of man , who—though bound to time and " space , is breath of his breath , and his offspring- —above the limitations of time ; and enabled him to share his power of beholding the past and future as if it were present . Here the

      theologian gains almost a philosophic insight , but not altogether . The " days" of the Mosaic record are with him natural days . But he equivocates as to the commencement of Creation . God , he says , " created it in time , or rather along with time . " The latter is a philosophical -truth , the former a-popular error . He holds , however , that the words , " without form and void , " do not refer to an eternal chaos ; and that the idea of a creation out of nothing is a fundamental principle of the Old Testament . In conclusion , and in favour of the philosophical interpretation , lot it bo noted that Job describes the sun , moon , and stars as ex- , isting before the foundation of the visible earth , and as admiring witnesses of its formation .

      THE THEOLOGY OF GEOLOGISTS , as exemplified in the cases of the late ' Hugh Miller , and others . By ¦ William Gillespie . —Edinburgh : Adam and Charles Black , . HISTORY OF THE OLD COVENANT . From the German of J . H . Kurtz , D . D ., Professor of Theology at Dorpat . Vol . I . Translated , annotated , and prefaced by a condensed abstract of Kurtz ' s " Bible and Astronomy . " By the Rev . Alfred Edersheim , Ph . D . The Same ; Vol . II . Translated by James Martin , B . A . — Edinburgh : T . and T . Clark . Geology has been needlessly brought into collision ¦ wi th Theology , by a misapprehension of the Mosaic account of Creation . Plain enough it is that the

      phrase " In the Beginning" is a mere Hebraism for eternity ; and that therefore the Six Da ys' Creation but represents an infinite procession of developments , independent altogether of the law of time . Nevertheless , commentators still hold to the unphilosophicol statement of the Origin of Creation in Time ; though Coleridge , and all competent authorities , declare tho contrary . The former even opens his " Friend" with the axiom , 44 There never was a Time when there was Nothing . " Milton , also , in his " Christian 'Doctrine , " declared that Moses by " the Beginning" signified " Eternity "— -tit being a more Jewish carnal expression for tho idea than the more refined Greek term by which we are now accustomed to recognise it .

      Mr , Gillespie , not accepting this interpertation of the Mosiac text , accuses Mr . Miller of heterodox statements in regard to the geologic periods of nalcaotfoic , secondary , » nd tertiary formations , inasmuch as they would prove that during all time , since " the Beginning , " the divine economy in relation to animals has been one of warfare and suffering ; which he regards as incompatible with the doctrine of unfallen man in Paradise . Men

      have as yet looked in vain for tho site of Paradise on tills planet . They would have acted more wisely had they reoognised it as included in the heavens and earth which the Eternal created in " the Beginning , " and not in time ; and forborne further inquiry . Praotioalty , for every man his birth ia tho original pin which has to be expiated by his death ; and his transference from an eternal state to a temporal condition is the fall which , in all coses , necessitates the redemptive process . The geologic positions , - therefore , which Mr .

      It is the aim of Dr . Kurtz to render the Mosaic account consistent with astronomy , as it is that of Mr . Gillespie to harmonise it with geology . Between science and religion peace must be declared , for the age is intellectual , and insists on concord . The way , however , for accomplishing this result is constantly missed . Philosophy is the only reconciling powex ' , and the combatants refuse her for arbitrator . The work j accordingly , is ill-done ; and incompleteness reigns , instead of perfect order . Dr .

      Kurtz creeps where he might soar—gropes where he should enlighten . Religion , however , in his opinion , may believe in the stars being inhabited ; though astronomy bo incapable of pronouncing about tho nature and destiny of their spiritual tenants . Tho latter , ho says , " only affords isolated and unsatisfactory glim ' pses of tlio physical constitution of those stars . On tho other hand , the Bible , whioh is an exclusively religious revelation , cannot and does not teach anything about tho nature and constitution of tho stars . But it

      contains indications that those stars aro tho abodes of angels . Dr . Kurtz goes through tho ovidenoos ofgeogony , whioh he prefers to geology , ijn support of his opinions . But enough has boon , stated for tho purpose of this review . Ovor and over , again , tho Scriptures declare the Divine Creation to consist of Noumenn , and the phenomenal universe to be tho product of human porooption in communion with the intelligible world , as the product of an eternal

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      750 THE LEADER . [ Literary

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 18, 1859, page 750, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2299/page/18/