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Xmxntutt.
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n i >¦» are not the legislators, but the...
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It will be p leasant news to our readers...
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In the last Revue des Deux Mondes there ...
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Lamartine's sixth volume of the Histoire...
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Bkttina is once more perplexing Germany ...
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AN AMEltlCAN THIN KEIt.. lectures and Mi...
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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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Ar01706
Xmxntutt.
_Xmxntutt .
N I >¦» Are Not The Legislators, But The...
_n _i _>¦» are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not _makdlaws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh . Review .
It Will Be P Leasant News To Our Readers...
It will be p leasant news to our readers to hear that _Macaul-ay has finished two more volumes of his History , which may be expected early next season . A more restricted circle will also be glad to hear that Gervinus is busy with a new work , the History of the South American Republics .
In The Last Revue Des Deux Mondes There ...
In the last Revue des Deux Mondes there is an article on the French Fleet , said to be by the Prince de Joinville , assuredly not by M . de Mars ( who signs it ) j and following it there is a continuation of St . Marc Girardin _' s acute and agreeable study of Rousseau—this paper being devoted to the rhetorical sophism of Equality . St . Marc Girardin does not see where the fundamental error lies . He does not see that the declamations about equality are founded on a profound misconception of human nature , which misconception leads to the belief that governments and institutions can do everything , that the source of all evil lies there .
Equality of conditions is nonsense ; equality of rights is all that can be demanded . Why do not the flowers get up a cry of inegalite des conditions ? Nature who never repeats herself , who never makes two leaves precisely alike , does not make two men precisely alike ; and she having made them unequal , Philosophy , in the presumption of its rationalistic conception , fancies there is a way to rectify this inequality ! But it is written , you may expel Nature with a fork , and she reappears the next minute—you may decree the absolute equality of men , but the next minute Nature's decree will abrogate it !
Men want freedom , not equality . They want their own individuality respected , and not that individuality merged in the uniformity of the race . All they really ask for is that Brown , Jones , and Robinson , should have no prescriptive right to fill offices for which Nature has not fitted them ; should not , in a word , have privileges _^ beyond those ineffaceable privileges of superior organization . So far from there being a passion for equality among men , it is patent to every unbiassed mind that there is a passion for inequality—an instinct towards decisive individualism .
These questions will be revived by Proudhon ' s last work , La Revolution Sociale Demontree par le Coup d'Etat , which Louis Napoleon has permitted to appear though his ministers forbade it . In a few days we shall have the work ; and our readers may rely on being informed thereon . The mention of this redoubtable athlete of Socialism reminds us that a re-issue of Fourier ' s work on The Passions of the Human Soul , translated by Mr . Moebll , is about to appear in monthly parts , sixpence each .
Lamartine's Sixth Volume Of The Histoire...
Lamartine ' s sixth volume of the Histoire de la Restauration , though not the most interesting in matter , seems by far the most excellent in composition . It embraces the period from the execution of Ladedoyere to the death of Napoleon at St . Helena . The narrative is full yet rapid ; and the volume contains , among other things , a most curious and interesting paper hitherto unpublished , written by Louis XVIII ., giving a private history of the agitations of a change of Ministry .
Bkttina Is Once More Perplexing Germany ...
Bkttina is once more perplexing Germany with her calculated phantasies . Her Gesprdche mit Diimonen , just issued , is dedicated to her old friend , the King of Prussia , who will not be the least puzzled of her readers , if he reads it . What the book means , let him answer who can discover ! Bkttina naturally brings thc name of _Goetiik to all minds , and Noodlcdom will hear , with compassionate surprise , that Adolf St a nit has just written a book , WiaiMAit und Ikna , proving that this so-called " cold" and " unpatriotic" poet was as much to be admired for his noble , human , loving nature , as for his poetic genius . The fact of Adolf Staiir being an energetic democrat , gives greater force to his views in Germany , because there thc democratic party has incessantly reproached Goktiik with his want of their ardour . It is true he shared none of their chimerical
notions of equality . He insisted upon reverence for all superiority . " Real barbarism , " lie says somewhere , " consists in refusing to recognise the highest . " That which Cahlylk calls Hero-worship will he found , in a mitigated form , constantly expressed by Goktiik ; and with this Aristocracy , in the linest sense of thc word , every rational democrat will sympathize .
An Ameltlcan Thin Keit.. Lectures And Mi...
AN AMEltlCAN THIN KEIt .. lectures and Miscellanies . Uy Henry James . _Itexlfielel : New York . It is so rare to meet with a book of real indopchdont thought , that a reviewer has no more pleasing task than to announce tho discovery to all irionda . Wo do so now with Henry JameH _' _s Lectures and Miscellanies , a small volume of sterling worth , expressing with eloquent sincerit y thoughfH which will set other minds thinking . "When it is said that this writer is original , thc originality thereby indicated must-not be confounded with entire novelty , lie has thought thcHC thoughts lor himself , not merely repeated thorn irom others : higher praise one rarely has to give . J Tho Lectures aro on Democracy und its issues , Property as u Symbol , _Universality in Art , tho Old and Now Theology , and the Scientific Accord
An Ameltlcan Thin Keit.. Lectures And Mi...
of Natural and Revealed Religion . We will glance at their purport as briefly as we may . On Democracy , Mr . James , though an American , ( or , perhaps , because an American , and therefore capable of looking through the actual limitations and imperfections of political democracy , ) speaks with a wise appreciation of its purely negative , limited , and transitory , though necessary character . Instead of accepting it , as the mass of democratic politicians accept it , in the light of a final organization , he sees what we have so often expressed , that Liberty for Liberty ' s sake is anarchy , disease ,
dissolution ; he sees that Democracy has only strength as a protest ih the name of the Many against the government of the Few , a protest against Monarchy and Aristocracy ; he sees that it is necessary as a revolutionary phasis , but incompetent as a constructive doctrine . " Democracy is not so much a new form of political life as a dissolution or disorganization of the old forms . It is simply a resolution of government into the hands of the people , a taking down of that which has before existed , and a re-commitment of it to its original sources , but is by no means the substitution of anything else in its place . " In a word , he sees that the final solution of the social problem cannot possibly be apolitical one .
It must not be inferred tha , t he is insensible to the great part played by democracy , but " The positive or constructive results , then , which I anticipate from Democracy , are of a moral or social character , rather than political . The benefits which it heralds for humanity , will lie not in the increased external splendour of a nation , but in the increase of just , amicable , and humane relations amongst all its members . In short , I look upon Democracy as heralding the moral perfection of man , as inaugurating the existence of perfectly j ust relations between man and man , and as consequently preparing the way for the reign of infinite love .
" This hope or confidence in Democracy is justified , you will perceive , by the fundamental meaning of the word . For Democracy means nothing more than the self-government of the people . Now , a capacity of self-government supposes in its subject a wisdom proportioned to his needs , and Democracy , therefore , implicitly attributes such wisdom to humanity . It supposes that men are capable of so adjusting their relations to each other , as that they will need no police or external force to control them , but will spontaneously do the right thing in all places and at all times . Thus Democracy really does contemplate a time when all coercion and restraint shall be disused in the conduct of human affairs , aud when , consequently , every man will freely do unto others as he would have others do unto him . " And further on : —
" I am entirely persuaded that nothing but the persistent and ever enlarging operation of the Democratic principle , or what is the same thing , the destructive legislation now in progress , is requisite to inaugurate the divine life on earth , to bring about that great prophetic period to which all history from the beginning has tended , that everlasting Sabbath or rest which is to close in and glorify thc brief but toilsome week of man ' s past experience . I bave not the least hope in any constructive legislation towards this end . He who is familiar with the exquisite symbolism of the old Hebrew faith , knows with what formal sedulity every particular of the divine worship was prescribed , and how jealously every addition of human wisdom was barred and punished . This is but a type of the independence our true and God-given life bears to all legislation , to all outward prescription . It
is a life which descends from God out of heaven , the heaven of man ' s inward spirit . All its laws are summed up in the real presence of God in every individual soul . And as in Solomon ' s Temple , ' every stone wm um < lo roaAy Wfore it was brought there , so that there was no sound of hammer nor of axe beard in the bouse while it was building : ' so is it with this new life of man which is even now dawning upon thc earth . It will reject all noisy legislation or prescription . It will deny all outward authority . Being an inward life , flowing exclusively from within the subject , all it asks of the outward is to serve or obey it , by immediately ceasing to restrain or govern its outflow . Let this life finally become authenticated by society or tbe legislative power , it will soon shape the outward into the closest conformity with itself , making it teem with thc affluent satisfaction of every huniau want . "
That his thoughts point in the direction of No Government , whither Proudhon , Herbert Spencer , and others also tend , will startle only those unaccustomed to modern speculations . Everywhere the Police becomes less and less a faith with thinking men ; and tho necessity for " strong government" in the baser physical sense gets less recognition . " The current _scepticism in regard to tbe tendencies of human nature , proceeds upon the fallacy that a man ' s true wealth , the wealth he covets or prizes , is external to himself , consisting in the abundance of tho _things he possesses . The sceptic Hays that if you leave men free from police restraint , however well yem may educate them , tbere will be no security for property . Of course then he believes that man values these outward possessions which we call property , above all things . There is no sheerer fallacy current than this . For the undue value men set upon this sort of possession now , grows out of its scarcity , grows out of the fact that , so many are utterly destitute of it . "
Here wo have a bridge thrown across , whereon wo may enter fhe field of speculation opened by hia second lecture on Property lis a Symbol . A philosophic socialist , he docs not rail at property , but " sees in if a significant fact . It ia the symbol of man ' s power over Nature —the trophy ol his conquest . Hence tho respect it meets with . " Every one Iuiowh the domineering nature of the _Hcntiment of personal property . Even those who havo never owned an acre or a dollar unclaimed hy their _physical necessities , confess the truth by their aspirations as much an their more lucky fellows do by their experience . And we all alike equally confess it by the involuntary homage we pay to rich men . 1 admit , that I have been taught a great ileal
better . 1 admit , that I should be very much _ashamed < e > he * caught _foiielymg n rich man , and that 1 could nay things on the baseness of such conduct whie-h woulel really stir your blood . * Hut all this is dramatic . I inn _iie-ting a part , the part assigned me by public- opinion . For in private , I feel an instinctive rcspeet for property . It does in some mysterious but infallible' way embalm the possessor , ho that while my theory bids me defy him , 1 never come into bis presence but with 'bated breath , and differ from hiin with painful reluctance . The treachery is universal . 1 have heard sermons on this subject which left no doubt on my mind that tho preacher bad completely conquered his natural weakness : but no , you have only to observe his daily intercourse with his flock to discover that it was tho most
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 14, 1852, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14081852/page/17/
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