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No. 457 r December 24,1858.] THE LEADEB....
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THORNDALE. Thorndtile: or, the Conflict ...
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NEW PICTURES AND OLD PANELS. Neio Pictur...
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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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1iterart Chrootcle Of The Week. ¦ ¦ ¦ ?—...
sustaining principle by which everything oat of the Creator subsists , whether worlds , metals , minerals , trees , animals , mankind , angels , or devils , together with all thought or feeling . . And then he quotes , in confirmation ^ from Laon : — The life which works in our organised frame is but an exalted condition of the power which occasions the accretion of particles into this crystalline mass . The quickening force of nature through every form of being is the same .
Nosy , in one aspect , this becomes at a bound the veriest Pantheism .. We shall take the last sentence quoted from Laon , and endorsed by Mr . Grindon , as text , and ask these simple questions , " What does it mean ? " and , " What can it be madje to mean ?" When we answer the latter interrogatory by stating our conviction that it could , so vague is it , be uttered by three opmionists with views radically different , we at the same time indicate our inability to answer the former . " The quickening force or nature through every form of being is the same . " By this we understand , and we believe that Mr . Grindon understands too , that the active hand of God , powerful in preservation as He was
and is every day in creation ( for is not the growth of the leaves in next spring just as wondrous as the growth of the leaves in the first spring ?) ., upholds , as something above and separate from them , all matter and all spiritual existence . But what a different complexion is given to the doctrine when you adduce , from , such a writer as Mr . Herbert Spencer , this sentence : — " The characteristic which , manifested in a higher degree , we call Life , is a characteristic manifested only in a lower degree by socalled inanimate objects . " You have only to mix up a dash of the development theory , prate of inherent forces , animate generally nature with a
selfborn power of its own , after extending the range of life to every atom of the world , to enable you to dispense with God altogether , only keeping your ruler in reserve for dramatic and poetic purposes as aserviceable Deus ex ' machinal While we believe then that this doctrine of the universality of Life is really a minister to the veriest Pantheism , at the same time we gladly acknowledge that no belief is more repugnant to Mr . Grindon ' s mind ; his whole book recognises the unity , personality , and government of God . We believe , in fact , his error to havearisen from religious feeling ; he seems to have a nervous dread that if you limit the extension of
the term Life within its ordinarily received bounds , if you . confine it to those kinds of existence where there is the development and exercise of functions , vegetative , a nimal , and spiritual , you in . some mea > - sure make those kinds of created things act independently of Deity , and l ive and move by virtue of an inherent force ; and by establishing that inert inorganic matter has , or has had , the same life in it , he reduces , as it were , all kinds of creation to the same level as the rocks . This we give as a conjecture , and it must be measured by its own value . It may not be the correct hypothesis ; we maintain , at all events , that as an , hypothesis it is feasible and of
apposite application . ... There is no absurdity to which a pet and plnusible theory will not carry its author in maintaining it . We actually find ! fylr . Grindon citing , as confirmation of lii $ doctrine , those similitudes of the poets which enduo inanimate objects with life and personality . We are told that the papers announce that the basins at the Crystal Palace are to be " alive with fountains ana jets . " Madamo do Stael ' s testimony is adduced , when she speaks in Corinne of " the fount of Trevi , the life of that tranquil scene . " Virgil and Ovid easily afford flumine vivo and d vivis fontibus . And when Mr .
Grindon makes us sit with him , in the homo of tho nymphs , in the vivo sedilia sa . ro , ho only shows that ho entirely misunderstands , and fails to catch tho beauty of Virgil ' s figure , which makes tho damp slabs live by virtuo of tho living moss and seaweed that arc tangled around them , and move with the motion of tho winds and waves . So we might deal with the fanciful , and , to us , almost revolting , dootrino , whibh takes tho axiomatic philosophic ; law , that every known ollect must
have a duality of pauses , and manufactures it into a " sexuality of nature , " or " tho reciprocal action and roaotion of complomcntaries I" But deduction being made for such theories , not of very frequent occurrence , nor integrally affecting tho toxturo of the production , wo must estimate tho book us safe , accurate , and healthy , a mino of information and precept , and a charming lure to entice youth or ttgo into tlio study pf man , nil that surrounds him , and his deepest , holiest , and most mysterious relations .
No. 457 R December 24,1858.] The Leadeb....
No . 457 r December 24 , 1858 . ] THE LEADEB . 1411
Thorndale. Thorndtile: Or, The Conflict ...
THORNDALE . Thorndtile : or , the Conflict of Opinions . By ' William Smith . Second Edition . William Blackwood . and Sons . That a serious and earnest work , composed in a p hilosophical spirit , should attain a second edition is , in these days , a welcome and encouraging fact . The dialogue form , which Mr . W . Smith has adopted , is furnished with many conveniences .. The author can state many sides to a question without pledging himself to either . The reader is presentedwith a multitude of premises , but left to draw his own conclusion . This has been a favourite plan of
treating philosophy from the time of Plato to our own . It requires in the writer , however , some of that poetic and dramatic power which Plato possessed in so eminent a degree . Mr . W . Smith has already evinced the possession of both in specific works , such as Athelwold , Sir William Cfichton } and Guidore , and came armed with the facility that these labours had secured to the composition of his present work . Hence much of its grace , its beauty , and its charm . The author , moreover , has lived in a world . pf poetic associations ; if , indeed , the poets have not been the founts of his philosophical inspiration .
Shelley and Wordsworth have thrown then * magic colouring on his mind , and g iven him glimpses of truth , without involving him in the responsibility of a system . He likes , in their works , to find a line here , or a line there , that shall look like a Pythagorean golden verse , be infinitely suggestive , operate like a sudden revelation , but not necessarily connect itself with an acknowledged theory . A'truth must for him stand apart , by itself , " like a bright particular star , " alone , and not as a shining member of the-astral fellowship in the firmament of science . We have . said that the method of composition he
has adopted is favourable to such views as these . But we should mislead the reader should he suppose that the book before us was in the form of dialogue alone . Part of it is , in factj in the nature of a journal ; other parts partake of the biographical , and some portion is autobiographical . The concluding sections even aim at the completeness of a metaphysical essay . In a word , the author has varied his method with his mental mood . In this licentious manner of writing there is boundless liberty , and Mr . W . Smith has allowed himself a scope as wide as the universe .
The book is an ambitious book . It is , besides , confessedly Utopian . It treats of two futuritiesthe futurity of the individual , and the futurity of society . Mr . W . Smith is not only Utopian but eclectic . Unwilling to adopt the whole 01 any system he would take parts from all , and recombine without acknowledging it these parts into a new whole . He is not singular in this preference . Many great thinkers have done the same before him . Nevertheless , the plan is unsatisfactory . It wants p hilosophical integrity and a common origin ^ An antecedent unity is required , which the eclectic
unfortunately has neglected to state . There isj however , some pleasant tinting in the narrative portion of the ' work , which bespeaks the poet or dramatist rather than the psychologist . It is thus he paints for us his childhood and his student life . Here is a pleasant example : — How vividly I remember that daisied lawn , those tall white lilies , those growing peonies , those tulips which are nothing in the world unless you can peep close into their cups—cups full to tho brim with beauty . We men outgrow the flower . What arcades , what bowers , what triumphal nrchos they once reared for us ! loan
remember walking under tho scarlet and purp le blossoms of the fuchsia , and seeing the light fall on them through the green leaves above—I seo it now . How they glow in tliat greon and golden light which falls on them through tho leaves ! Wilton ' s angels never had half so much joy in their "jasper pavement and amaranthine flowera ! " Amaranthine ! that surely was « mistake of tho poet . It is tho porishablo blossom that is so preeminently beautiful . Amaranthine flowers ! It is very like eternal tf / iaeJ-r-noitlior death nor life . Wish for no amaranths 5 wish rathor to be a child again , and see tho blossoms of tho fuchsia , half of thorn beneath your feet and half of them just above your head .
Thorndalo declares himself to have been \ mfortunato iu lovo and friendship . His cousin Winifred , and his follow pupil Luxmore , tho companions of hia early lifc , woro separated' from him early in his progress . Much tender sentiment , much pleasant description , are devoted to both . Tho fmiU . of the ( roueral narrativo is that it is all skotohod in outfin 0 ; details aro nqt expanded , they are only hinted . This want of filling-up loaves too much to tho
reader ' s mind , - and he wearies of skipping from , point to point'without stopping by the way to rest and look about him . The author confesses to the study of Emanuel Kant , Lyell , Owen , and Faraday . From the » he has derived the materials of his eclecticism— -the separated segments of truth winch he would , incorporate into a new circle . It must not be imagined that they lit easily , or compose a perfect figure . What then ? The most accurate ever drawn was
far , very far , from being perfectl y correct . The microscopic eye would detect inequalities , like mountains on the globe of the earth , in proportion to its dimensions , both on the surface of the curve and in its general sweep . The union of labour with refinement would appear to be the purpose and end of Thorndale ' s practical scheme for the good of society in the future , and the basis of that Utopian . state which it was ever his desire to institute . Nor need we doubt that , in the development of the race , some such state may be approximated . Thorndale , however , does not . point out the means ! Pqrhaps he leaves
the result to the " conflict of opinions" and the energies of nature , and the laws by which both , are guided to a successful issue . Plainly enough , however , he perceives that from ; the Revolution of Hunger nothing is to be hoped . With hun g er , in fact , nothing is to be done but to feed it . The hope of the Utopian is fixed on . the classes that do not hunger . The first object , in his view , is to find all that is needful and expedient for the classes that cannot help themselves . Bid the world of the misery that besets the ignorant and incompetent : banish the-gross ' forms of Want and
wretchedness ; remove the uncouth and ugly from the path of vulgar life ; see that the labouring man has his decent cottage , and his children the properly furnished schoolroom ; and you will then ¦ withdraw the sight of the class immediately above from the the conditions of poverty to contemplate the more refined shortcomings which make their own way of life less beautiful " than it might be . New wants will arise in the middle order , will demand gratification , will receive it , will become the common-places of an improved generation ; and will serve as the germs of a still more extended reform in the fnture . In this manner Mr . Smith would appear to
project his remedies for the " social evils" that now proceed from the grosser wants , that have not yet been extirpated and substituted by the more subtle appetencies of a polished age . He will not , howv ever , himself undertake the responsibility of inaugurating the scheme that he has so elegantly sketched , but devolves it all upon a certain imaginary Clarence , who insists on tilling the blank pages of his friend ' s diary with ; a resume of the discussions they have had together . To him , it seems , Political Economy is the science of sciences . It is not the dry , hard , merely calculating study generally supposed . It is no enemy to enthusiasm ^ no foe to generous motives . His estimate of Adam
Smith is high . Wait awhile , Clarence tella us ; the future historian will have to report that the study of Political Economy , more than any other cause , is at present educating the people for the highest of all enthusiasms—r-desire for the public good . The progress of the world is the result of ideas ; these ideas in their operation are creativethey at once inspire the mind that receives them , and leaven the society tp which they are communicated . This theory of our author is at least hopeful , it touches on . chords in our being that vibrata in harmony with its inilucnce . On many points wo may differ , but with the nobler portions of the book most thinking men will readily agreo ,
New Pictures And Old Panels. Neio Pictur...
NEW PICTURES AND OLD PANELS . Neio Pictures anil Old Panda , By Dr-Donm . Bontley Dii . Douan is a wise man ; there is no dangerous originality about him ; his bosom is free from alj that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart ; he is not brilliant , but , what is for bolter , he is safe ; ho is light , amusing , ancoclol ictil , ami well-read ; he collects his material from ninny published sources , and ho works it up ngnin with a certain kmd of oraooj ho pnsses through tho ordeal of criticism Vmtouohod , becauso few blows are aimed at hun for fear of hittinir sonio ono clso ; ho is never above * the comprehension of his render , except when ho assum ' os him to possess a general knowledge of history ; mul wilb . some littlo wit , no humour , and muoh industry , ho is a very favourable specimen of tho existing literary man . . . Tho book before us oonsistsof some twenty lusto-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1858, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24121858/page/11/
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