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November 13, 1852.] THE LEADER, 1093
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tiitx&mt.
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rvitics are not the legislators, but the...
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Juliet's innocent query as to the value ...
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In that queer and enormously fatiguing p...
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In the last number of the North British ...
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Among the novelties worthy of recognitio...
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OORGRI'S LIFfO AND ACTS \N JTTJNOAKY. Mj...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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November 13, 1852.] The Leader, 1093
November 13 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER , 1093
Tiitx&Mt.
tiitx & mt .
Rvitics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
rvitics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .
Juliet's Innocent Query As To The Value ...
Juliet ' s innocent query as to the value of a name , applied better to roses than to writers ; a rose , indeed , by any other name would smell as sweet , but would a novel by the eminent Jones command that instantaneous and ea ^ er attention certain to gather round a novel by Dickens ? A name , therefore , in Literature is a vested right . Who is there owning a name shared by others that has not wished those others in—a better world ? If you are a Smith , it is a privilege to be Sydney Smith or Albert Smith ; but if you are a Carlyle , and have managed finally to emerge from the confusion of Carlisle , and are known , as Thomas , not at all Richard ; think of the agreeable surprise on finding another CarlyleJ , another Thomas Carlyle , and a Thomas Carlyle writing on Germany , above all things ! This was the fate of Teufelsdrockh not long ago .
Caroline Norton has had a taste of the same dish of late ; to her just horror she sees announced a new novel by the Hon . Mrs . E . Norton — and a sharp skirmish in the Times has been the result . In the case of the two Carlyles there was simply an identity of name ; they were both named Thomas Carlyle ; but in Mrs . Norton ' s case there has been an obvious supercherie litteraire , the obscure lady ( or her publishers ) tradino- upon a " colourable pretext . " Mrs . Erskine Norton has no claim to the title of Honourable , and even were the claim conceded , a sense of delicacy should have suggested the avoidance of any subterfuge , by printing the name of Erskine in full , and not leading the whole public to suppose that the Hon . Mrs . Norton , the woman of genius , loved by the public , was the authoress of Mrs . Erskine Norton ' s novel .
In That Queer And Enormously Fatiguing P...
In that queer and enormously fatiguing publication , Postulates and Data , which is only relieved from the waste-paper fate by its revelations on the Ecclesiastical Courts ,, there is an article on Anagrams ( in No . 20 ) , containing some curious specimens of these literary curiosities . Thus , if you print the figures representing the numbers by whom Louis Napoleon was elected President , and the numbers who opposed him , separated by a line from each other 75592 ^ 61119000
and turn the paper to the light , the blank side being towards your eye , and your finger hiding the 000 as it holds the paper , the word Empereur will appear ; this is even better than He asserts a true claim , made from Charles James Stewart , or than Frantic Disturbers from Francis Burdett . The two best anagrams , however , are certainly the honor est a Nilo from Horatio Nelson ; and the reply evolved from Pilate ' s question of " What is Truth ? Quid est Veritas f The man who stands before you , —Vir est qui adest !"
In The Last Number Of The North British ...
In the last number of the North British Review there is a remarkable paper on Lavoisier , in which , while justice is done to the old Alchemists and metaphysical chemists , a clear and philosophic history of the evolution of chemical science is graphically narrated . In the article on Shaks-I'eare and Cornkille there are some good passages , but as a whole , it is extremel y unsatisfactory , and the portrait of Cobneille is featureless . From this paper we extract a passage needful to be borne in mind by authors and critics : —• "A ple ; i in behalf of ' the interesting' in literature scorns to us to be much needed nt the present time . We would lay it down as a canon that no book can he good that is not , ( in its kind , and in relation to those who arc intellectually competent to its matter ) interesting . This might seem a truism , were ifc not praetic .: dly denied every day by the timidity of our critical judgments . There arc
many books which pass as good ones , and are praised as deep , . solid , and what not , notwithstanding that they are—nay , in wimfi cases , possibly just because they are , triui . scendently uninteresting . If the style is dull ; if there are no glemns of light , no sallets , no brink allusions ; if the matter does not . standout above the surface in clear shape and relief , but , only peeps forth here and there , suggesting something amorphous underneath—then , forsooth , the book is a deep one , and the author is a man of heavy metal ! People ought to have courage to resist , this fashion , and never praise * a hook that , does not interest them . No one is entitled to praise i book Iliat does not , interest , him . True , on the other band , one is not entitled <<) f // . vpraise a book simply because it does not interest , him . Hut to the right kind of render no good hook is dull ; and < he right kind of reader being . supposed , —that is . a render intellectually competent , to the intrinsic matter of the book , whatever i ( is , then , if a hook is dull , it , is not a good one . Wo maintain that this canon will sweep the whole rawe of interesting books from Kant to ' Pickwick , and fail
no one case . " There is also one other article of great ability and learning on the subject of ' / ' /„ , Infallibility of the ttible and Recent Theories of Inspiration , wherein the writer first examines what is styled tlic " Natural Inspiration Theory , "— , ; .,.., u , e theory held by Pa it kick , Nkwman , ( ikkij , and others <> f tins spiritualist school , that Musks was inspired in the same sense as < 'ONi . ' u <; n , H or Sociiatk . s , or any other great Thinker may be called "' spired . After disposing of this theory more satisfactorily to himself "" m to us , the writer proceeds to examine the recent theories of orthodox "' inkers in ( , Yruumy , ( iciicva , and Kngland . Historically , the paper is
valuable i-rlfw-nllu , »<> » -,.,., ! \ t with stranire . almost sad feelings , as we valuable ; critically , we read it with strange , almost sad feelings , as we ll (» ted bow hopeless argument seems to be when once the mind bus crystallized in a peculiar form . Here is n niun , distinguished in many ways ,
who nevertheless holds the Bible to be the genuine and infallible word of God—and this not as a matter of faith , but of argument : — "We count it no shaitie , but a signal felicity and honour , with the evidence which lies before us , to hold up onr every-day Bible , beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation , as the genuine ond infallible Word of God . It is a cheap and easy thing to defend this belief , on the ground of mere tradition , and to repel every sceptical questioning of revelation , every insinuation against t he integrity of the canon of . Scripture , every suspicion of the infallible accuracy of our Biblical records , as in itself profane and blasphemous . Suoh a homage to the infallibility of the Bible would itself require a personal inspiration to redeem it from presumption and wilful blindness . "
He has gone through German and English criticism , and declares that it has not weakened any one point of the old doctrine of Infallibility . Such an instance as this—and there are many like it—ought to absolve every believer from the scorn which unbelief is apt to feel when its intense perception of absurdity is not shared at all ! The believers will say , that such cases are strong proofs of the Truth of their creed . They are welcome to the proof . To our minds , it is onty a psychological curiosity—a proof of the force of some dominant assumj'tion—a proof of the sarcasm uttered by Hobbes , that the axioms of geometry would be disputed , if men ' feelings
were wound up with them . In fact , except with the young , argument is , in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred , totally useless . When a man earnestly believes in the Bible , he finds no difficulty in " reconciling" anything in it . What to you seems an irresistible argument , passes by him " as the idle wind which he regards not . " Let us , as an example , quote a passage from this very article . If God has written a Book for the salvation of man , and that book is , from various causes , internal and external , npt accepted by Humanity , not believed in by millions , ordinary logic would conclude one of two things . First , That the Book must want the primary quality of an educational work—clearness in its propositions , and rigour in its demonstrations ; or , Second , That very imperfect means have been devised of securing the reader ' s attention . These two objections , which are summed up in Diderot ' s irresistible question , " If God lias spoken , why is not the universe convinced ? " have no sort of weight with any believer :
he is within the inner circle , and " bears a charmed life , " for logic reaches him not . If you object to the failure of the Bible in accomplishing its purpose , he , serenely smiling , tells you that very failure is a proof of its Divine origin I It was meant to convince mankind ; it has not done so : a human work might have succeeded , but divine works follow not the human course ; with divinity , failure is success , and success failure . That we are not exaggerating , you may read in the passage alluded to : — " The resistance of ages to this book , however , is , after all , its crowning legitimitationl The Bible is too good for the race it has come to bless ! It blesses them like an angel whose mission is peremptory , and it troubles too many waters in its work of healing to be left in peace . It is felt and feared by all the rulers of the darkness of this world . "
Among The Novelties Worthy Of Recognitio...
Among the novelties worthy of recognition , is the new Railway Library started by Chapman and IIali ,, under the serial title Reading for Travellers . The first work is most promising . It is Old Roads and New Roads , a charming volume of curious and learned gossip , such as would have rivctted Charles Lamd by its fine scholarly tone , and its discursive wealth . If the other volumes are up to this mark , the series will be by far the best of the mnnv which now make ! Literature the luxury of the poor .
Oorgri's Liffo And Acts \N Jttjnoaky. Mj...
OORGRI'S LIFfO AND ACTS \ N JTTJNOAKY . Mj / Life and Acts in Jfwu / arj / , m the l ' ddi-s IMS and JfiiO . By Arthur Gorgoi " Two vols . ' ' JJogiM A Refutation of ' some of the I ' nneipuf Mis .-itatements in Gorget ' s "Life and Acts . " By Georgo ' Kmety , ' late General in the Hungarian Army of Independence . ( JiinIi ( lute ( iilpin ) Hungary , the land in whoso behalf Matthew Corvinus displayed the wisdom and the virtues of ,-in Alfred , and IJethlen ( . labor performed the acts of a Cromwell ; where representative institutions grew and flourished , and local ^ overnment , struck its roots deeply in the soil ; wIktc life was held cheftj ) when its price was national liberty , where conscience accepted and sustained the 'Reformation , and Protestantism withstood the axe and
the dungeon ; the land which was the bulwark of Kuropn against , the fiery assaults of the children of Mahomet ,, —which had alternately defied and nnved the Austrian crown—delicti , when it , menaced liberty , and saved when its existence was menaced ; tins 11 unwary , whose constitutional laws are nearly as obi a . s our own , was lately traversed from Raab to ( ) rsova by the yoim /^ Kinprror of Austria , who thereby celebrated the triumph of arbitrary power and armed usurpation over constitutional law and national right—Mn / jflnnd idly looking on . Hungary bad resisted encroachments like ( . hone of ' 18 a . score <> l" limes . The house of llapsbur ^ h , in its hour of need , had promised obedience to instil lit ions which Hungarian sages bad established ; uid Hungarian swords upheld . Hut tJio hour of need having passed , the hour < > f treachery struck , and the house of
Hnpsburgh over strove by force or fraud to show that its promises wen ) worthless , and its guarantees a mockery . When A ustria , w as strong she trampled on . Hungary ; when A uslria was weak she implored Hungarian aid ; when outraged 11 unwary menaced the . 1 lapsbur ^ her in his imperial city ; the dastardly Hapsburgher hired the ; dien sword to conquer his too triipdin ^ Hungarians . The scenes uo saw in ISli ) -a , Russian army aiding an AuHlrian invasion , were not without parallel in history . With shame be it spoken , and there sceniH hoimc retribution in the fact , that , / oh / i Sobieski and his Poles jierformed , in tho- . seventeenth century , tho part which l \» . nkiewicz ; and Ins Ru .-siii . nH performed in the nineteenth . . Hut , through all . her glories and calamities , her heroic struggles and equally heroic defeats , w hile we rend I hat , Poles and Russians have fought
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1852, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13111852/page/17/
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