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590 THE
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Witttaiuxt
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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If any proof were needed of the almost i...
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Is a classical education desirable ? The...
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MRS. KOMEK'S FILIA DOLOROSA. Filia Dolor...
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
590 The
590 THE
Witttaiuxt
Witttaiuxt
Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not makela-ws—they interpret and try . to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
If Any Proof Were Needed Of The Almost I...
If any proof were needed of the almost inevitable misunderstanding which awaits all who treat of subjects intimately affecting the interests and passions of men * the history of our Journal would suffice . Toleration has been our animating principle : free speech and free thought our watchwords . Unfortunately , Tolerationis commonly understood like the Irishman ' s reciprocity , " all on one side . " Each section claims it for itself , and denies it to the rest . We , who claim it for ourselves and for others , incur t he suspicion of all .
It is assuredly arrogating nothing that any reader will refuse , if we say that our dogmatic convictions on the subject of Religion have been plainly , markedly , unequivocally expressed , over and over again ; so plainly , that although many may hesitate as to whether they clearly understand what our system is , at any rate they know that it is distinctly opposed to all forms of Orthodoxy . In our earlier days , while reviewing Newman and Poxton , we were reproached by the orthodox for our " infidelity ; " reproached by one class of freethinkers for our " sentimental religion . " Smith was in terror , Jones sneered at our want of " courage . " The sum total of the impression , however , was , that we were sufficiently free and liberal to deserve liberal support .
Then came the Catholic furor . True to our own principles , we took the lead , and unhesitatingly sided with the Catholics , claiming for them the right to their own Religion , and all the forms or measures they deemed necessary to its active operation . The consequence was curious : we were accused of " having gone over to the Church ; " plain hints of " Jesuits" reached our ears . To be suspected of Catholicism was more dangerous than to be accused of infidelity . Ilaving been classed as Catholics , we next found ourselves attacked for supporting the Church of England , because we sided with Archdeacon Denison in his call for Convocation . Hating compromise , abatement , weakness , of whatsoever kind , and ( since there was a Church believed in by Englishmen not without the ordinary indications of sanity ) wishing that Church to have its action unfettered , we claimed for it what we had claimed
for the Catholics , and the cry was , " Oh , the Leader has turned round ! So we went on , till the Patagonian Missionary defence drew down upon us the reproach of having abetted an absurdity , and having failed in our office in not attacking such an instance of superstition and fanaticism . This week we have received a letter , which has called forth the present remarks , and we print it to give an explanation to our friends of our supposed inconsistency : — Sir , —I have been a reader and warm supporter of the Leader from the veryfirst , on account of the liberal tone of its political and social sentiments ; and have often noticed , with surprise , the great amount of attention it pays to Church matters ; from which , and the language used , an inference is to he drawn that the Leader is a supporter of a State-paid church .
Of late , too , I have observed , with deep regret , that this extraordinary inconsistency in a liberal journal has assumed a more than usual marked appearance , which makes me fear for the stability and usefulness of almost the only really liberal and high-toned newspaper amongst the " Weeklies , " and of which I hud formed great hopes . I regret this , especially , because of your admirable views of foreign politics j and I write this to say that there are others besides myself , who think that some explanation of this singular circumstance is due to your Radical and free-thinking readers , who form , I suspect , the bulk of your supporters , few of whom , I imagine , are to bo found in the church you trouble yourself so much about . Yours respectfully , A . K .
To those friends who are in doubt we would simply say : The inconsistency with which we are reproached would have prima facie evidence to those who only read particular articles which from time to time appear ; and upon this evidence we may be convicted , of Catholicism , Patagonianism , Church-of-Englandism ; but no readers of the Leader , more especially on all topics where dogmatic differences come into question , can mistake our position . The only perplexity lies in our impartiality ; our consistency has the aspect of inconsistency , because , consistently with our own principles , we are frequently claiming liberty for doctrines , and forms inconsistent with all its liberali
each other . That form of " liberalism" which spends ty on its own sect , and claims toleration while insulting its antagonists , is not ours . That form of " freedom" which , not content with believing in its own sincerity , deems its self-assertion necessary to be accompanied by an insinuation that all who express contrary opinions are fools or hypocrites , is a Freedom so despotic in spirit that we protest against it . Freedom , as we conceive it , is liberty of thought , liberty of act ; therefore , whatever a man believes he imiy express , and express in whateycr way he finds fitting ; the only limitation being that he must not entrench on the liberty of others .
Is A Classical Education Desirable ? The...
Is a classical education desirable ? The question has been frequently and hotly debated , with the exaggeration customary in such party questions . Those whose interests and amour propre arc implicated in the study of tho Classics , of course abound in arguments to prove the utility of Greek and Latin ; those who have been deprived of , these pretended benefits , and yet do not greatly suffer from tho deficiency , aro eloquent and sarcastic against Greek and Latin : but both sides have exaggerated . It is not easy to make the uneducated perceive tho advantages of classical education , simply because
these advantages , though realy are not , for the most park substantial , and when they are , can be compensated from other sources . ^ Saving devoted laborious years to classic authors , we are not disposed to undervalue the result , and yet severe truth compels the avowal that . While we think it desirable an accurate knowledge of Greek and Latin should be preserved , it should be made a special study ( like Numismatics ) , not the basis of general education . . , / The question has , however , taken a new turn in France-lately . It has become complicated with the religious question . The newspapers are
discussing whether Religion is not injured by this basis of Pagan ^ earning Bishops and Cardinals enter the arena . The Bishop of Orleans is in favour of the ancients , the 'Cardinal Gousset and the Bishop of Montauban against them . It is amusing to read the absurdities put forth on both sides j but the assailants of classical education , to be consistent , should proclaim the dogma of the Caliph Omar , on » burning the Alexandrian Library— "AH books that contain anything contrary to the Bible to be burnt as false ; all books agreeing with the Bible to be burnt as superfluous . "
Mrs. Komek's Filia Dolorosa. Filia Dolor...
MRS . KOMEK'S FILIA DOLOROSA . Filia Dolorosa . Memoirs of Marie ThSrhse , Duchess of Angouleme , the Last of the DaupJtines . By Mrs * Komer , author of "A Pilgrimage to the Temples and Tombs of Egypt . " Two vols . Bentley Under the somewhat affected title of Filia Dolorosa , and in . a somewhat affected style—rose-pink style—these two volumes present an interesting picture of the career of that unfortunate Madame Roy ale , daughter of liouis XVI . and Marie Antoinette , who shared the captivity of her parents in Le Temple , who was thrice an exile , and who lived through the Eevolution of ' 89 , the two Restorations , and the devolution of ' 30 , buffeted about the world / and always a figure of pathetic interest . Those who
have read her memoirs in the Berville collection , or who have followed with any patience the history of France during the period , 1779-1830 , will in , all probability still find something in these volumes that has escaped their notice , and at any rate will not be sorry to find such a . mass of details thus gathered into one continuous narrative- while to the less instructed public the volumes will have the charm of novelty , no less than of biographical arrangement . Mrs . Romer began this work , but " severe indisposition" forced her to relinquish it into the hands of Dr . Doran . So much is stated in the preface ; but as no indication of authorship exists in the text , we are left undecided where the blame and where the praise should fall . That rosepink style , before alluded to , pervades the work ; so also does the ineffable commonplace of the penny-a-liner , which critics are bound to protest no-ainat . " When a man is hurriedly writing a report , to be printed almost
before the ink is dry , he may be allowed to talk of " beings wearing the form of man , " and to use similar stereotyped phrases ; but a writer preparing a work of Belles Lettres , in which style is of consequence , has no such excuse , and should have no pardon from those who care for the English language . The great characteristic of this style is its evasiveness : it always shirks the plain , direct phrase , without reaching any felicity of paraphrase . We see the effort of style , but not the style—e . g ., " There was a library for learned leisure therein to be luxurious , and it looked into laughing gardens wherein that same leisure might disport itself . ' The writer , doubtless , believed lie had delicately touched the right note there ; what say you , reader , to two volumes of such elegancies ? If the style might have been better , and the whole tone of thought less shallow and circulating libraryish , there is , nevertheless , sufficient praise nlniniftd bv tho intfirnatof the narrative . and the diligence with which it has
been compiled . The stories of the three pretenders are extremely curious , and we especially refer the reader to thorn as to striking examples Qt the passionate credulity manifested by the masses when their imagination is appealed to . Tor those who wish to see how the grossest imposture will be greedily accepted as sacred truth ; in defiance of all evidence but the believer ' s own proposspssions , these chapters aro unusually curious . Our space admits of no quotation from these chapters , and to abridge thorn would bo to destroy their interest . Wo will select , in preforence , a passage from the chapter on the first Restoration . had lett
" It was a brilliant May day that sjiw them enter Paris . The Duchess it secretly by night , a poor terrified girl , half distrusting the course she was compelled to take . Sho re-entered it on the 3 rd of May , 1814 , beneath a mid-day nun ; and triumph scorned to bo seated ovorywhere but on her own features , nor eyes wore yet red with weeping , and some observant republican , who witnessed nor entry , and who marked tho inflamed lids that covered the calm yet sad blue ana white of tho eyes beneath them , exultingly exclaimed that tho Duchess was a good republican after all , and that her very eyes bore tho old . tricolour . That she was moro popular with tho multitude than tho King himself , was rnado manifest by tho number of political squibs that were fired against tho monarch ovon on that day of his entry . Tho clergy distrusted him , as being more given to p hilosophy than religion ; while tho populace did not believo he was so free a thinker as Ins partisans declared him to beVarnhagen von Knso nays tho general feeling
to-. wards him was cold and suspicious ; oven tho Itoyalists , adds tho Gorman journalist , ' at lcswt tho most nrdont among them , had rather trust their affairs in tho hands of tho Count < l'Avfcoin and of tho Duchess of Angoulcmo than in tlwao ot ttio King . ' For tho moment , however , all went as merry as a marriage boll ; and Louis , Heated on tho right of his niece , in a royal carriage drawn by eight mUKwhito Hteods , passed on to Notro Dame , and bowed good-lmmourcdly to tho people from that seat from which gout and other innrmiticH would not permit him to ri « o . who loved to their master horaobcieka King wn
For a people seo snpremo on , cnnio in sparch of popularity could not havo boon Ichh externally fitted to lltia tlio which ho nought . Souted in tho tunic unrriiigo' wore tho Princo of Condo aim tu Duko do Bourbon ; on cither Hide rodo the Count d'Artois , as gallantly as tlwugn ho wuh still wearing his , youth in tho park of Versailles , and tho Duko do JJoin , whoso almost rudeness ofoharactor and lack of courtesy were little calculatou win tho iiilbctions of a then courteous people . It is confessed that tho popu shout of tho daywtts in honour of ' Madame' Tho pcoplo scorned anxious w
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 19, 1852, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19061852/page/18/
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