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Leader (1850-1860), 11th July 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 16

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      The New Number Of The Edinburgh Review O...

      The new number of the Edinburgh Review opens with an article on ' The Confraternity of La Salette , ' in which the clumsy theatrical imposture of the alleged Marian vision to the peasant children in the Holy Mountain is thoroughly exposed ; and the efforts made by Dr . Uxiathokne , Bishop of Birt in this country the

      mingham , and others , to advance its credit by circulaing Manual of the Confraternity / as ' calculated to promote piety and devotion , especially to the Motlier of God , ' severely and justly censured . The success of this imposture among English Catholics , after its barefaced mendacity has been , proved in the local courts of France , and denounced by the more honest amongst the resident priesthood , is another of the curious religious phenomena of the time , which seem to show that the extremes of knowledge and ignorance are almost equally favourable to the growth of superstition ; that the weak intellect , like the feeble eye , whether dazzled by the-light or grouping amidst the shadows , is alike unable to distinguish mere appearance from reality .

      The two literary articles of the number , * The License of Modern Novelists , and Goethe ' s Character and Moral Influence , ' are alike in spirit , stvle , and purpose . In both , the point of view is ethical rather than aesthetical , and the object moral censure rather than literary criticism . The style is naturally serious , not to say heavy , and the tone grave and judicial , in harmony with the general purpose of the writers , so that the papers read , respectively , very like a sentence and a sermon . In the first article , on the License of Modern Novelists , the writer takes his seat on the bench with the gravity of a judge , and proceeds in the most solemn manner to try the prisoners at the bar , Mr . Chahles Dickens and Mr . Charles Heajde , for the publication of certain libellous works , entitled Little Dorrit , and It is never too late to Mend . After having carefully examined the plea in justification that the libels were true , and their publication for the general welfare , and admitted evidence as to the excellent motives and previous good conduct of the writers , he feels

      it his painful duty , nevertheless , to condemn the unhappy culprits as guilty of the alleged offence ; and the sentence lie pronounces upon them is , that they be henceforth banished from the realms of reality into those of romance . They may still pursue their lawful calling as writers of fiction , but the fictions must not be founded on fact ; they may still publish romances , but are prohibited , under heavy penalties , from malting them matter-of-fact romances . We have ., however , but little complaint to make against the article , except on the score of its spirit and manner . The general purpose of the writer is good , but the tone he adopts is one of unwarrantable assumption ; and he treats the subject in a prosaic , pedantic way , intended , perhaps , to be impartial and effective , but which is really an injustice arid an offence . He seems , moreover , to have no sense of humour , and to be quite inaccessible to a joke . It is amusing to hear him censure Mr . Dickens ' s pleasant fiction of the Circumlocution Office in the most solemn tones , as though it were offered as a full and fair account of the whole science and art of government ; and scarcely less

      so to see with what pains he endeavours to convict Mr . Reade of error , ' by comparing his novel minutely with the Report and Evidence of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the charges against the Governor of Birmingham Gaol , and with the evidence on his trial . ' We by no means consider It is . never too late to Mend a faultless work of art , and agree with the writer , that many passages are bad enough both in taste and style ; but it is absurd to try to convict the writer of a grave moral offence , on the ground of some trivial discrepancies between his narrative and the official Report . The second article , starting from Mr . Lewes ' s ' Life' as a text , discourses of Goeihe ' s character and moral iniluonce in a grave and earnest manner , doing full justice to his intellectual greatness , but urging , on the usual grounds , his alleged want of moral sensibility . Though in somo parts too much like a mere homily , the paper is throughout scrupulously temperate in tone , the writer being evidently anxious to judge equitably one towards whom he feels not only high admiration , but on many grounds sincere gratitude and regard .

      Two Tjiographical articles on ' Marshal Marmont ' a Memoirs' and Sohcelcher ' s Life of Handel / are interesting , the latter particularly so , being written with enthusiasm and ability , and with full knowledge of the subjeot . Take , for example , the following account of Hansel ' s character , and his relation to the society in which he lived : — He was one of ( he strong men of the earth , who do what weaker men dream . With him the delight in this oxerciao of creative power was bright , fertile , ceaseless , and unhesitating enough to supersede that morbid solicitude i » 9 to results which belong to genius of a less robust order . In his day there was not so much talk about art , as art . The sifters , the analyzers , the arrangers of periods , the adjusters of ecstasies , the interpreters of what was never meant , had not , as yet , sprung into life , or at least

      blossomed into pen and ink . Enthusiasm was a little ignorant , and very well bred . Even Horace Walpolo—iman of wit as he was , preaoiont in taste , in his associations courageous , in his friendships real , however affected he might be in his dilettantism and finicalities of language—has scarcely left a word of judgment concerning painting or mueic worth reading . Domonichino was his divinity—Buononoini his prophet . Italian rn ' uaic was one of the curiosities to be looked for on the ' . grand tour' by tlio Englishman , supposing that ho was not nfrdid of being lashed for his effeminacy in caring for opera singers and ' their fine stuff . ' In the eighteenth century the nnoiont , practical « nd sympathetic Interest in Music , which had distinguished an curlier period of England ' s history , was almost extinct . Dilettantism had superseded honest love and participating knowledge : but it was a lisping , not a lecturing , dilettantism —a folly which minisJorod no real help to the creative artist , yet which was not

      strong enoug any , or specious counsels . The age of Handel was a bad time for a composer who stood in , need of sympatbv , but it was not a bad time for a monarch who felt within him the vigour of independence in despotism . There was no one for him to be compared with there was no one capable of calling him to account . The necessities of his position and of his nature impelled him to work ceaselessly , and if he failed in one directio n , to try in another ; if he had not time tp perfect his own wares he would lay hands on those of other men , and thrust them into his mosaic , as the first Christia ' if church - builders were glad to use fragments of Greek ornaments stripped from Pagan temples as Shakspeare permitted not patches , but passages , from Plutarch and Hollinshed to figure , almost in their literal baldness , in the midst of the diction of his own imagination . With such an artist as this , the day's -work becomes the uppermost object ; the means , a secondary one ; and the future fades into a distance too remote to excite immediate curiosity or trouble . Handel knew that he had an immortality within him : though deferred success sometimes made him peevish , or imperfect

      execution sometimes fretted his ear for a passing moment . He had rages , but they were health y * not morbid , fits of wrath . Betwixt such a grand , coarse , jovial , and stout nature as his , and the more sickly and sensitive organisations , the productions of which we are now perpetually invited to contemplate , compelled to pity , and forbidden by compassion to analyze , there is all the gulf that lies betwixt truth and seeming , betwixt life and disease , betwixt achievement and aspiration . He-was a strong , angry , inspired man , with more of the freebooter than of the martyr in his composition . He rated the court gentlemen and ladies if they talked while his music was going on , less enamoured of ' the full pieces ' than his royal patrons . He scolded professors who -wished to hear ' The Messiah , ' had been indifferent to ' Theodora . ' He swore at his singers , and yet would allow a prima donna to interpolate ' AngeUco splendor' and ' Corfedele' in the most sublime parts of his ' Israel , ' for the exhibition of her voice and the entertainment of fools of quality . On the whole , his life was too busy a one to leave time for much unhappiness , till Time cast over his eyes the cloud of blindness : and even then hi 3 memory and his mechanical dexterity stood him in

      stead . The two first articles in the current number of the Westminster are admirable , in matter and style . In the first , entitled ' Ancient Political Economy , the writer gives the results of ripe knowledge and keen reflective insight in a simple , graphic , unpretending way , and treats a dry subject in such a wise , liberal , and numane spirit , that the discussion becomes thoroughly interesting throughout . The paper abounds with ' wise saws and modern instances '—the wise saws being taken from the Hebrew Scriptures , from Aristotle ' s Politics , and Pxato ' s Republic , and the modern instances from Adah Smith , Mill , and other recent political economists . Here is a specimea : —

      Nor are many of the ideas which modern science has reduced to axioms and formulas so new as would at first appear , but are discoverable far back , f loating in the very"dawn of human thought . The famed modern axiom for instance , that ' capital is the result of labour , ' is simply an elaboration and paraphrase of this most ancient afid venerable admonition to . man , ' In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread : ' exertion only will create commodities or ' capital . ' The virtue of association , again , is foreshadowed in the dictum , It is not good for man to be alone ; ' the formation of the family being indeed the microcosm of all associations and the beginning of society . King Solomon even anticipated Fourier : / ' Two are better than one , because they have a good reward for their labour . '

      It is not many years since the Rev . Mr . Malthus startled the British nation not a little by his alarming arithmetical demonstration of ' the true law of population : * that population necessarily increased faster tban production ; that it is net in the power of nature to furnish a sufficient banquet for all the hungry guests ; and that , in short , unless some saving preventive check intervened , the world must ultimately come to an end by universal starvation . That was the Rev . Mr . Malthus ' s dismal discovery , which robbed Poor-Law Commissioners of their sleep , and tasked the inventive faculties of ingenious philanthropists to work out some cunning machinery for the ' prevention' of such dire destiny ! Well , the subject had been stated long before , though in a more qualified and less alarming form . 'When the goods increase , they increase also that eat them , ' said the ancient Hebrew Preacher three thousand years ago . And the Registrar-General and the new Preacher of The Times , with airs of superlative wisdom , do but enlarge upon it at recurring seasous , when the periodical returns of births ,

      marriages , and deaths , happen to show that prosperous trade is attended by shoals of new guests at the banquet of nature ; ' brisk Tom , ' made brisker by abundant wages , having taken ' smart Sally' to church , whereof numerous little Toms and Sallys are the inevitable result . Moreover , adds the ancient Preacher , asserting thus early the solidarity of the interests of all classes , ' moreover , the profit of the earth is for all ; the king himself is served by the field . ' The second paper , * On English Courts of Law , ' is well and vividly written , and abounds throughout with most important practical suggestions , evidently the result of experience and reflection , and a thorough knowledge of the whole subject . The article entitled ' Suioide in Life and Literature ' is a valuable contribution towards the fuller discussion of a most important but ill-undorstood subject . The practical part of the subject—Suioide in Life—appropriately receives the fullest attention , the writer giving the statistics on the subject that have been collected both in this country and in Franco , and discussing both physiologically and psychologically the causes which lead to

      self-destruction . We may bo able to give a specimen of these able papers in returning to the remaining reviews next week , In the 2 Vain , for this month , a particularly good number , Mr . Edmxtnd Yates continues his series of the ' Men of Mark' of the new generation , with a brief biography of the young days of John Everett Miixais , illustrated by a sketch from an admirable photograph by Herbert VTatkins .

      Moral Life In Prance. La Religion Niatnr...

      MORAL LIFE IN PRANCE . La Religion Niatnrelle . —Libertd de Conscience . Par Jules Simon . Paris : Hachotto-The two great works—for great works we may call them , both on account of their intrinsic merit and on account of the interest they have excited—¦ of M . Jules Simon on Natural Religion and Liberty of Conscience , are not interesting in a philosophical point of view nlono . The Natural Religion is indeed an excellent book , perhaps it is the best book that has been written on that subject , though its philosophical cogency is , to our mind , scarcely equal to tho elevation of its sentiments , and the eloquence of its language . The Liberty of Conscience js a memorable and irrefragable exposition of that , great principle of which all tho sacerdotal despotisms of Europe aro n standing violation , and for their violation of which , us well as for their -hostility to political justice and to political progress , they are all doomed in tho end to die . But tho main importance of these works seems to us to consist in

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 11, 1857, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11071857/page/16/