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MM.?& Jm&l .o-:< T?jH;E; ,Ji#A DEB; ; 4T...
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^ (Mties artfixop tlbe legislatora, bui ...
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Sliicfctheday*' 6# 'the Byzantine Empire...
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SIGNS OF THE TIMES. ' Signs of the Times...
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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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Mm.?& Jm&L .O-:< T?Jh;E; ,Ji#A Deb; ; 4t...
MM . ?& Jm & l . o-: < T ? jH ; E ; , Ji # A DEB ; ; 4 T ?
Ar01704
^ (Mties Artfixop Tlbe Legislatora, Bui ...
^ ( Mties artfixop tlbe legislatora , bui tb . e judges and police of literature . '; Th . ey do not " r make lawa—ttu ^ y ip-terpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .
Sliicfctheday*' 6# 'The Byzantine Empire...
Sliicfctheday * ' 6 # 'the Byzantine Empire there never was a period more offijtfnguished thai * thei present for theingenuity with which dead forms have been animated With Simulacra of life , and obsolete names ' rehabilitated ' into momentary renown . To restore the Past , historically , is a grand and Worthy " aini j atid "fclib ^ e men are real benefactors who , by throwing long lines of . light over th ' evd ^ t spaces of time , reveal to us that there has been no break in the continuity , but that we are united to the Past as children to pafetits , anA that our present advantages have been gained only because our ancestors struggle ^ manfully , as ? we now struggle for our descendants . ~ WWti this . historical tendency in our Literature , it is natural to find a luxuriance of paradox . Every one must be rehabilitated . All old opinions must be questioned ,, and , if possible , refuted , all reputations put to the bar . " It is . said that the dai'kest of coloured gentlemen is not so black as he is painted ; and we may expect to find him turn out of Christian whiteness in the dexterous defence of some ' restorer . ' Why not ? It is so easy to argue , when wejiave- the due latitude of supposition ; as every OU 1 Bailey advocate daily proves . All depends on the " point of view . " By ; placing yourself at a certain point of view the square tower is round ; the blotches disappear , or appear but as specks . ^ With this general indication of our opinion on the rehabilitating process , we may refer « very reader to a very able and boldly paradoxical article in the North British Review on " Plays and Puritans , '' the tone and diction bearing scarcely mistakeable traces of Mr . Kingsuett's hand . The purport of ithe essay is to prove that the Puritans did not spoil the taste of England , or affect its Art , and that they were fully justified in all , or almost all , their opinions on the subject . Is not this a good startling thesis to shake the drowsy reader into attention ? Yet a bold advocate , having chosen his t < r * rAn 4- r \ f uionr" vnair inalro miif » li rvF if . T ^ irsl : \ io > Tins t . Ti *> t \\ t * mtk w ! iir > 1 i m . uiif a ~*«« aaa &/ &?
knots , slashes * and , " trebly quadruple , daedalian rulfe * built up » iroji an ^ timber Ot tact ) , which have more arches in them for pride than London Bridge for use . " ' - " VV « . if we' met such a rufled and . ruffled worthy as used to swagger by hundreds ' up aiia down Paul ' s Walk , not knowing how to get a dinner , much less to pay his tailor ,: should look on him a * firstly a fool ,, and secondly a swindler ^ while , if . we met an old Puritan , we should consider him a mAn gracefully and picturesquel y : dres . t ,. but , withal in the most perfect sobriety of gopd taste . ; * " and when we discovered ( as" we probably should ) , over and above , 'tnat the barleijum cavalier had a box of salve and a pair of dice in one pockety a pack of cards and ; a few pawnbrokers' duplicate ' s m the other ; that his thoughts were altogether . of citizens' wivesr and their too easy virtuei ) and that he could not open his mouth . without a dozen oaths , we should consider the Puritan ( even though he did quote Scripture somewhat through his nose ) as the gentleman , and the courtier as a most offensive specimen of the " snob triumphant " glorying in his shame . The picture is not ours , nor even the Puritan ' s . It is Bishop Hall ' s , Bishop Earle ' s ,- —it is Beaumont ' s , Fletcher's , Jonson ' s , Shakspeare's ,- —the picture which every dramatist , as well as satirist , has dra , wn of % he " gallant" of the seventeenth century . No one can read those writers honestly without seeing that the Puritan , and not the Cavalier conception or what a British gentleman should be , Is the one accepted by the -whole nation at this day . To show the fallacy of this one-sided statement , we have only to attribute to Quakerism the influence here given to Puritanism , and the passage reads just as well . If Mr . KnrGSLET had cast his eye : over Europe he would have seen the same changes slowly operating in lands where no Puritanism ever distorted the national life j and this would have suggested to him that the connexion between Puritanism and these changes in England is incidental ^ not causal . " . ,- ' . ;' In his zeal for the Puritans Mr . Kingsley will have them to be great poets . One of them was indeed a mighty singer ; but if Puritans had been like Mii / ton " , Puritanism would have been as noble and elevating a doctrine as it is narrowing and debasing . In default of other poets , Mr . Kingslei will have it that the Puritans lived poems in lieu of writing them . > This may be so ; but it makes ^ nothing for the argument , against ; which he Combats , namely , that Puritan influence on Artwas and continues pernicious ; We must not , however , pause longer on this essay , which we , commend to the reader , trusting he will accept it as a clever paradox . We have onl y left ourselves space to mention an able article in the same Review ori Ghote ' s History of Greece , a correction of some inaccuracies in Macauxat , and an interesting paper on the " Weather . "
f i fin ^ m , ^ ^ A ^^ TV t ^ »« ^^ w ^*« ^^ * ^ v * - « - m « ¦<* v ^ - * ^^ aaw *^ v * - « ^^ w a ^^ s ^« ^ * w *_ a j »^ j * a Stephen Gosson , Prynnb , and Jeremy Coulier have at various times handled with great effect , namely , the undeniable licentiousness of the Plays . This pari of the argument is certain to be victorious . The plays were immoral , and no defence can alter the fact j Immoral as plays , arid gathering round them many objectionable-accessories . The fact of boys being trained to . perform the parts of profligate women justly scandalised Pkynne , and Mr- Kingsi / ey adds : — Let any man of common sense imagine to himself the effect on a young boy's mind which would be produced by representing shamelessly before a public audience , not merely the language , but the passions , of the most profligate women , of such characters-as occur in almost ev ^ ry play . - "We appeal to common sense—would any father allow his own children to personate , even in private , the basest of mankind ? And yiBt we must beg pardon ; for common sense , it is to be , supposed , has decided , against , us , as long as parents allow their sons to act yearly at Westminster the stupid low art of Terence , while grave and reverend prelates and divines look on approving . But we have too good reason to know that the Westminster play has had no very purifying influence on the minds of the young gentlemen who personate heathen damsels " of easy virtue . " Having proved this , the advocate has only to prove that the Puritans objected to plays because of their immorality , and his case is left to the Jury . But if the jury look a little closer into the matter they will see that the Puritans objected to plays because they were amusements quite us much as because they "were immoral . As JMacaulay wittily puts it , they interdicted
' * bearbaiting , not because it gave pain to the bear , but because it gave pleasure to the spectators . " We have Puritans enough in our own day to enable us to understand the hateful and unrighteous Puritanism which has darkened English history ; and while doing justice to the earnestness and conscientiousness of the sincere Puritans , we cannot help regarding the best dT'thein as miserably perverted in one direction , while the fierce egoistic passions of men fdund ample justification in their tcncliing—justification all the more terrible , because it enabled hateful vices to wear the aspect of virtues . It is very painful to us to see a man of genius setting himself to rehabilitate the Puritans out of sympathy for the one quality which makes Puritanism human—as if no other men possessed that quality 1 as if only Puritans were sincere ! Mr . Kingslky ' s mistake , as we conceive it , is that his eye rests only on the one-quality which he admires ; the others arc nob visible from his " point of v } ew ? ' It is thie which makes him , towards the close of his essay , attribute tbi ? urftan influence changes which a little rciloction will suggest have quite olW ^ auses jr— ' . ; - lBut in tiie matter of dress and of mannors , the Puritan triumph has boon complete . EWn their worst enemies have come over to their side , and " the whirligig of time ha 6 brought about its revenge . " ;! Ttt « lv ^ anons of taste h ave become those of-all England , and High Churchmen , wh . o . fftUl caU -them round-head ^ and ¦ cropped cars , go about rounder-headed and cjpara cropped than they over went . They held it moio rational to cut the hair to la comfortable length than , to wear effeminate curls down the buck . And we cut ours mfaffl shorter than thoy over did . Tuoy hold i , ( with the Spaniards , then the finest gehtlomen in the world ) , that sad , i . e . dark colours , alwvo all black , wore tlio fittest ftmatatoly and oarnoat guntlomen . Wo nil , from the- Tractarian to th « Anytfungjirifui , apoe jucaa . tty , p # , ( ho , . aaino , pinion ,, They 1 m > 1 <* that laco ,. perfiunea , ami , jewellery , , oa w , man- were marl ^ s of unmanly foppishness and vanity ; and no hold the ( hics {; gentleman InlEnglaAd ' now . ' They thought it equally absurd and sinful foi » a man tp carry Iflfl'lhcomo on hta back , and bodteen himself- ottfc in Vode , blues , and greens , ribbonri , . ... , 1 V , " . . ¦ . •¦ ' ,
Signs Of The Times. ' Signs Of The Times...
SIGNS OF THE TIMES . ' Signs of the Times : Letters to Ernst Aforitz Arndt on t ] ie Dangers to Religious Liberty in the Present State of the World . By C . C . J . Bunsen . Translated by Susannah Winkworth , Author of " The Life of Niebnhr . " ¦ Smith / Elder , and Co . The Chevafier Bunsen ; retiring from 'diplomatic activity , refusing the sin > frages of Berlin and Magdebdrg , has devoted the period of the Russian war to an investigation of the religious principles at work in the Christian " world : He discovers the central sign in Germany , but , traces , as far as modern politics extend , the action of priesthoods , associations , and secular deCr . eps enforcing spiritual dogmas . The . great problem of the time , he affirms , is—Whether faith and liberty are not sinking under Jesuit or ecclesiastical influence , or whether mankind are not passing under an eclipse , to reappear amid the lustre of a moral and social revolution . His argument , through which an unvarying eloquence breathes , is developed in an imposing range of epistles , based upon an experience of men and a knowledge of history possessed by few of his contemporaries , and illuminated by that clear and genev rous philosophy which all who know him attribute to Christian Charles Bunsen . Anticipations of a mighty struggle between the spirits of tho . Old and the New , foreboding bitterness and confusion on the earth , fill his early letters with gloom ; reliance on rig ht and truth inspire them at the close w , itu exultation and fervour . He rejects the despairing lyrics of . Leopard ! , thp abject sanctimony of Romieux , sees in the dilating power of the Hierarchy " not Hesperus ; but Phosphor , " believes , indeed , in freedom , and trusts to human virtue . ¦ >
touch , distilled lxom this body of essays , is the moral of Chevalier Jiunsen ' s present view . But by Sign he means Danger ^ for , if he be confident , it is only in the hope that Europe has not . been degraded intp scepticism , , qij apathy , or despair , or content ; has not been dazzled by Cjesarism , or con * ciliated to the service of immoral ! power . Great princi p les , the bases of systems , are arrayed face to face ; decisive conflicts are preparing ; a rieyf order of things will be born , amid the convulsions of the next century , fyht what will that new order be ? Chevalier Bunsen follows the inquiry With an assurance that mankind are , at least ; not indifferent ; that in free countries , or countries partially free , the general anxiety finds utterance , in a thousand ambiguous forms , and that , where , opinion is ailenced , nn / aspect of torpor conceals a hope and n , menace . Romieux , compares this condition of Europe to , that which prevailed under the empire of tho , Caesars , but ; , we have now many Coasars instead of one . A Sign of , £ ho age , then , is , that wherever there is not torpor there is eiccitemeht ; that nowhere exists ' a tranquil felicity of public reeling ; that where men do hot stand in attitude ^ of tragic expectation they repose upon irony , and thus await the transition . J Comparing ^ in a . strong historical light , the results of fourteen years' ex- i perienco in England' with his knowledge of Germany , Chevalier Buns ' en indicates as two universal and significant , charaptcristica of the agfc th « spontaneous and powerful developpien ^ of the spirit of associai ; ipn , and , jth ^ i evident iiicreaso of the power of the clergy or hierarchy . His illustrations ai'o taken from every point of view . The IJiitisUlndian empire , constructed ] in less than a ccntiiry by n company of traders ' and capitalists ; the Americoii republic founded by voluntary ' churches' and other English asabclatibnb ? Canada , in which ho prophesies u future Union ¦; the gigantic railway eyAtyin which , in twenty years , has sprung from a capital larger than tho re ^ enaen qf all the statea of the world ? and tlie now churches , cUapola , and oongre ^ AitjQns wImcIi , in England , havo surpassed all that governments or Uierarch ^ es have created Um'ing fou , r hundred years , aro among th « J witpe ^ sos , po ; tliis power of association . In England , aB early as the BOvente ^ ntJh . century , thfj 'Independent bod y enrolled itself , and defied tho persecution of two hostita state churches . Tho Baptists have not only gaincid a position in the British ' 1 ' ' 1
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 17, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17051856/page/17/
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