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    Fm>. 1, 1851] C1)tf %Vatftt. K>9

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    MACKAY'S " EGERIA." Egeria, or the Spiri...

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    The Hand Of God In History. The Hand Of ...

    find teeth opposite each other . History ( which h « regards as " a great moral entetprize " undertaken by God ) , furnishes him with a variety of illustrations . Nothing is too trivial for him ; nothing but will fit in with his theory . The accident or ignorance which made Ptolemy ' s map of the world a guide to the discovery of America , was contrived by the hand of God , in order that the raw world might be evangelfcsed . God ' s hand is also visible in the great prevalence of the English language : —

    « ' Another facility for the universal spread of the Gospel , in which the hand of Providence is clearly discernible , is the very great prevalence of the English language , and a corresponding desire to become acquainted with that language , " which is flattering to us , and decidedly a mercy of Providence to our clergymen . Christianity , of course , could not be spread over the world in any other language so effectively . You cannot imagine the French language evangelizing the world ; nor the Germanj as for the Italian , it is " bastard Latin "; Spanish , Portuguese , and Dutch are quite incompetent . Any unbiassed critic must see that English is the only sensible , intelligent , honest , evangelical language ; and , therefore , its great prevalence is providential . But , here is more good

    news : — " The hand of God is abundantly "visible , too , in the encreased . demand for the sacred Scriptures . I speak now more especially of antichristian nations , The people in almost every portion of the world show an unwonted desire to become acquainted with , the Christian's Bible , though generally opposed by the priesthood . " Whence this desire , if not wrought into the world's mind by the Spirit from on high ? The Bible and the Paganism of India , or of Iiome { cannot long live together . Weinay , therefore , regard this desire to possess and read the pure Word of God , both as a providential preparation and a premonition of the speedy coming of the Messiah ' s kingdom . "

    Not only in general events , but in biographical anecdotes our author boldly reads the handwriting he is so familiar with . Thus : — " John Newton was another chosen vessel ; and how did God watch over him when calamity , pestilence , or disease was near , and shield him from danger , while yet his heart was enmity to God ! We quote a signal instance : * Though remarkable for his punctuality , one day some business so detained him that he came to his boat much later than usual , much to the surprise of those who had observed his former punctuality . He went out ia his boat , as heretofore , to inspect a ship , but the ship blew up just before he reached her . ' Had he arrived a few minutes sooner , he must have perished with tnose on board . "

    Very comforting to John Newton ; less so to " those on board " ! Read this also : — ' * An obscure female is born in Persia . At an early age she is left an orphan . An uncle adopts her , and hopes she may yet solace his declining years . She is beautiful , lovely , modest , yet nothing points her out to any enviable " station above the thousands of the daughters of Persia . To all human forethought she would live and die unknown as she was born . But the Church of God ia scattered throughout the hundred and twenty and seven provinces of Persia . Esther is a daughter of the captivity ; and God would raise up some guardian to

    spirit save his people from an impending danger , and honour them iu the sight of the heathen . The palace of Shushan , and the gorgeous court of the Shah , shall stand in awe of Esther ' s God . By a ' singular train of circumstances the obscure orphan is brought to the notice of tho king , finds favour , and is called to share with him the honours of his throne . And what deliverances « he wrought for her people , how she brought them out from tlu > : r long obscurity , and gave them notoriety and enlargement , and prepared the way for their restoration to their native land and to the Holy Hill of Kion , is known to all who have traced the hand of Providence in tins portion of Sacred Hiatory . "

    How ineffably silly all such -writing is , may be shown by employing the same method to the biography of a scoundrel . " An obscure female was born in London . She wus bred up by poor parents . In early life she married a Mr . Brownrigg . To all human forethoug ht she would live and die unknown . Hut ( iocl » H parish children are scattered around her neighbourhood . She takes some of them as apprentices , and history saith that parishes still stand hi awe of her name . " Now , one must read the hand of ( j od m Mrs . Brownrigg ' s career no less than m Esther's . And if one were to pursue the enquiry , no great amount of research would be needed to write a companion volume to this , entitled , "The hand of the Devil in History . "

    1 here in one other point upon which we may remark . When those gentlemen who are ho j > erlectly at homo in all the designs of Providence lay out the scheme of this world before us , and prove that the spread of the Gospel ( mainly through ftnglitili ministers ) all over the world is the aim and «»» u of this mysterious universe of ours , the reflection naturally enough occurs that the machinery' is giganticall y disproportionate to the result , and that

    if to see mankind accept the Gospel was the great aim of the Creator , he might have accomplished it in less time and with less means : hut they always have an answer ready : — " That , in working out the stupendous problem of the redemption of men and of nations , God takes time . Moral revolutions are of slow development . The works of Providence , more especially , perhaps , than those of creation , have a direct reference to the display of the divine character , and to the exhibition of man ' s character . It was needful , therefore , that these works be prolonged , that the book of Providence lie open continually for perusal . It had been easy for God to speak the heavens and the earth and all therein , into existence in a moment of time ; instantaneously to give form , fertility , and

    beauty to the earth , and matured perfectiou to the animal , mineral , and vegetable worlds . But God chose to lay open his works to inspection , that they might be examined piece by piece . It had been easy for God to have brought his Son to die a sacrifice for sin , immediately on the fall of man . But a thousand sublime purposes had then failed ; God ' s glory had been eclipsed , and man ' s redemption been another thing . Four thousand years should be filled up in preparation ; not a change or arevolution should transpire which was not tributary to the one great purpose . The Hand of God was all this time busy in well-directed efforts ; not an abortive movement , not a mistake , not a retrograde motion , did he make . All was onward , and onward as rapidly as the nature of the work permitted . There was neither hurry nor delay . "

    If that excuse were offered for a human legislator we know what would be said ! For ourselves we . think it rather hard upon humanity that four thousand years should be required for that which a moment might have accomplished , especially as so many thousand heretics are to be everlastingly damned for their share in the " preparation "—if we may believe the same gentlemen who know all about this and cognate matters . Seriously , we think works like the present are profoundly irreligious , and they cannot be too strongly reprobated . They are blasphemies against

    the Deity , and they distort the minds of simple and devout persons who always close their eyes whenever God is mentioned . It is owing to the unchallenged promulgation of such ignoble books as these that superstition still lingers amongst us . No one likes to discountenance them ; at least no clergyman or church-going reader ; because they are thought " useful in keeping up religious feeling . " When others , like ourselves , raise a word of protest , it is not accepted as a protest of sense against drivel , but as the " scoffing" of an " infidel . " May we ever be infidels to such a faith !

    Fm>. 1, 1851] C1)Tf %Vatftt. K>9

    Fm > . 1 , 1851 ] C 1 ) tf % Vatftt . K > 9

    Mackay's " Egeria." Egeria, Or The Spiri...

    MACKAY ' S " EGERIA . " Egeria , or the Spirit of Nature ; and Other Poems . By Charles Mackay . Bogue . In fulfilment of a promise made some time ago , during a pressure of other matters , we now return to this volume , then slightly mentioned . One of the main causes of the reawakening- of poetry in these latter days may be found in the fact that poets are more and more disposed to find in their art a solemn meaning and the responsibility of a divine commission . Men have ceased to content themselves with the petty belief that poetry

    is a mere affair of ornament and idle recreation . They have found that it is the voice of . their most jjassionate longings , much more than of theirlightest humours ; and that its commands can only be worthily fulfilled by him who has a reverent sense of thd awe and mystery of creation , and faith in the inajosty of the human heart . Greater than the priest , because more final and all-embracing , the poet of the present day has , nevertheless , assumed to himself something sacerdotal and Druid-like ; he preaches , as well as sings , out of the gloom of his oracular forests . But mark the difference :

    unlike the priests of any recognized and formal system of faith , he treats of the destiny of the whole human race , and of the march of the universe towards the millennium which shall bo for all , and of the sympathies which interfuse all things , making them one within the reposing- harmony of ( Jod , not of the egotistical pretensions of any sect , or the exclusivenesH of any book of traditions . It is this which has given to the poetry of the last thirty years its deeply and truly religious character , a character which has removed it equally from the two poles of barren scepticism and Pharisaical

    mjfotry . Mr . Muokay ' s writings have been particularly distinguished by this spirit . His poetry ban always " beaten twin pulses with humanity ; " and it has found its reward in the loving admiration of crowds of readers . He is deeply imbued with a sense of the utility , as well as beauty , of his art ; and has prefixed to Inn present volume of poems an . introductory CHsay , iu which lie argues that Poetry is

    not , as a living verse-writer has thoughtlessly called it , a thing of " shows and seems . " Mr . Mackay thinks that Bacon is in some measure responsible for the false idea of Poetry which has long prevailed , because that great philosopher , in his Essay on Truth , confounds all fiction with lying . This is certainly a great mistake , ; but Mr . Mackay should recollect that Bacon has , on another occasion , borne noble testimony to the divinity , and , therefore , necessarily to the truth , of the greatest of the arts . " Poesy , " he says , in the Advancement of Learning , " may seem deservedly to have some participation of divineness , because it doth raise the mind , and exalt the spirit with high raptures , by proportioning

    the shows of things to the desires of the mind , and not submitting the mind to things , as reason and history do . " Mr . Mackay ' s idea of Poetry is so universal that he would make it include even politics and science ; and we quite agree with him that whatever is interesting to the human soul comes properly within the sphere of verse ; but , with respect to politics ( though he disclaims partypolitics ) , we would warn him against too great a tendency to select his subjects from the passing events and agitations of the day . The Poet must deal with the spirit of man in its elemental aspects ; not in its temporary exigencies and manifestations .

    Egeria—the chief poem in the volume now before us—is in blank verse , and in five cantos . The first canto introduces us to two figures seated by the seashore ; one of whom , though " young and fair , " seems stupified by some unutterable grief . This is the hero of the poem—Julian the Misanthrope . He has been a philanthropist—a dreamer of magnificent dreams for the benefit of humanity y and for the extirpation of misery , disease , and crime ; and the world has laughed at and persecuted him

    till his heart becomes moody , and his faith m good is obscured , and he doubts all things except the universality of pain . His friend Montague , to whose sister Julian is betrothed , endeavours to rouse him from this state of mental cowardice ; and , failing by dint of rhetoric to effect that object , takes him to a certain grove haunted by the goddess Egeria , or the Spirit of Nature—she to whom the old Roman King , Nuraa Pompilius , repaired , when he was compiling his code of laws . In this forestwhere

    " A cool dim twilight , with perpetual haze , Crept through the intricate byways of the wood . And hung like vapour on the ancient trees . " Montague contrives , by certain mesmeric passes of the hand , to project the Spirit of Egeria into the brain of Julian , who at once stands before that mysterious presence , and is conscious of a larger universe , and of mightier meanings in the hearts of things than he had ever before suspected . He desires to know why there is any such principle as Evil , and Egeria does her best to enlighten him . But it must be confessed that this is the weakest

    part of the poem ; and we think Mr . Mackay had better have let it alone . The goddess takes vast trouble to inform her mortal questioner that the whole world teems with breathing , sentient life , and that all these manifold organizations of vitality are subject to pain and death ; all which he knew beforehand—that being the very thing which had made him hypochondriacal . She also tells him £ hat Good could not exist without the counteracting pole of Evil ; that we could not enjoy unless we also suffered . Hut we must beg leave to observe that this is a violent and arbitrary assumption

    which we do not think any human being has a right to make , and against which the most fervent desires of our nature protest . We are taught to expect a future state of being which shall not be stained by the least shadow of grief ; and somo of the wisest among us do not despair of the earth itself becoming in the lapse of time a Paradise like that which existed in the fabled Golden Age . Why , in the meanwhile , there should be this gigantic necessity for pain is a problem over which the mind

    reels impotently , and , after long meditating , loses its equilibrium . Misanthropy and distrust of the conquering spirit of llenefkence will not / help usnay , will do us infinite harm ; but tlm obstinate questionings of misanthropes find too deep an echo in our hoartu to bo pooh-poohed by feeble iterations of " It is ho , and it always must be ho . " Let us work in faith and hope , though in humbleness . ' It will bo a noble belief ( even if it prove an error ) that ; Evil is but a temporary development in our progress to the perfect world .

    Julian however , in cured of his melancholy , and resolves to lead a life of action rather than of indolent speculation . His love of tho world and of his

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 1, 1851, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01021851/page/13/