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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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The Oxford Commemoration is the literary...
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To a very large circle of our readers, i...
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THE SCIENCE QF POLITICSJl Treatise on th...
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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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Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics 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 .
The Oxford Commemoration Is The Literary...
The Oxford Commemoration is the literary event of this week ; . ' although , except in its associationSj one cannot attach much literary importance to it . Oxford is , with all her faults , dear to England , and fills a large space in English History , although she retains too much of her mediaeval constitution , and still in some respect deserves the name Giordano Bruno wittily gave her , " la vedova di buohc lettere—the widow of sound learning . " Giordano had reason for his contempt . When , in 1583 , 'he .-was . there , holding public disputation with her doctors , her statutes set forth that the bachelors and Masters of Arts who did not faithfully follo \ v Aristotle , were liable to a fine of five shillings for every point of divergence , or for every fault committed against the Or a anon . Those were the days when
Pedantocracy was in the plenitude of its . power . Yet there is a noble aspect even to this , as indeed to every form of life , if we but contemplate it from the right side . Those days of learning-worship , the extravagancies of which may raise a smile , are not so unfavourably contrasted with pur days of cotton-worship . If Aristotle was rashly thought to have exhausted Scienpe , his aims , at least , were grander , and his wisdom more becoming " men . who strove with gods , " than the aims and wisdom of Mr . M'Crowdey Cotton , the great manufacturer . They " lionized" great men in those days , as in ours ; but they did not think that worship was best shownby
asking the great man " to break fast , " or by " getting-up a dinner at the club !" Apropos of this , we may place here the mot of our great sarcastic philosopher—the EzEKiEL of this age—to whom some one was uttering the commonplace * that if Christ were to appear again , again would he be crucified . " No , sir ; they would not crucify him . They would make a lion of him , and ask him to dinner . Fashionable London would have cards of invitation , To meet Our Saviour ! " There is terrible sarcasm in that wit . Though one might reasonably reply , " What then ? does this not show that we have become more humane and social ? J , ' Follies and fashions are straws that show the direction of the wind .
And the great satirist of pur follies and fashions—Thackeray—where is he ? In Italy . His novel is finished at last , and he is away to drink his " beaker full of the warm South : " a bit of gossip we hope you will be gratified for . Here are two other bits : a cheap edition of Alton Locke is about to appear , and with it a new romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne , a romance of our day , wherein the experiences of that illustrious little knot of Communists at Brook Farm will furnish materials . Dana , Curtis , and HaWthobnb , were of them ; Margaret Fuller and Emerson were more or less connected with them . Does that not excite your expectation ?
To A Very Large Circle Of Our Readers, I...
To a very large circle of our readers , it will be of intense interest to hear that Auguste Comte has just issued the second volume of his Politique Positive , embracing Social Statics . A mere indication of its chapters will suggest its importance : 1 st . General Theory of Religion , or the Positive Theory of Human Unity ; 2 nd . Sociological Appreciation of the Human Problem , from whence the Positive Theory of Property ; 3 rd . Positive Theory of the Family ; ' 4 th . Positive Theory of the Social Organism ; 5 th . Positive Theory of Language ; 6 th . Positive Theory of Social Existence systematized by the Priesthood ; 7 th . Positive Theory of the General Limits of Variation of which Order is susceptible .
Although it will be in vain to attempt a thorough appreciation of this volume without a previous preparation in the Positive Philosophy , yet no one can even carelessly glance at its contents without being struck with the largeness and elevation of his scheme . On that all-important point , Religion , we venture to say none but those who , on the one hand , permit no divergence from the dogmatic orthodoxy , nnd those who , on the other , permit no religious teaching at all , will rise from this work without being filled with gratitude to this great thinker . Comte clearly sees that lleligion is the fundamental all-embracing bond of human life ; and in his
scheme we see Science , Art , and Politics naturally range themselves in due order . If we set aside certain dogmas and their collateral applications , we shall find in this Positive Religion the essence of Christianity , both as regards this life and the future . What , indeed , is its wa t chword , Vipre en autrui , but another expression of St . John ' s , " Love one another ? " What is its subordination of the intellect to the heart , but the Christian predom inances of the moral and human point of view ? What is its tolerance and charity , and what its vindication of the true position of Woman , but Christianity os advancing civilization has gradually modified it ?
We point to these essential agreements for the sake of ' calling the attention of philosophic ; Christians to the harmony of Positivism with then ; own scheme so soon as the dogmatic and transcendental portions are eliminated ; and we point to them also as a striking illustration of tl » c Influence of Wqman—perhaps the most striking tlmf can be named . Here is a man , confessedly of jth q highest intellect , not a poet , not a rnnn wjiosc habits and tone of thought predisposed him to sentimental eccentricities ( which might by some be said of Petuaiioh nnd Dante ) , but a man of science , a severe thinker , whose whole life is modified , deepened , changed by the influence ofcmqnqijic woman . Her love opens to him ft nqw world . It expands his
nature till his nature is capable .-.. of- embracing not science alone , but thegrancjeur of Life . She elevates his ' inovalvbpingV ian 4 * 9 o ^ 0 ^^ ' ¥ ^ k & enabling him to complete his philosophy . She finds him a sayant , she leaves hiin a Prop het ! - ' ¦ : ¦ . "¦ ' . ¦• - ' ¦ . - " ' . : \ '' ;¦ .. '¦ v ; . ¦ ' , ¦'¦ ¦ ¦/ . ' "'
The Science Qf Politicsjl Treatise On Th...
THE SCIENCE QF POLITICSJl Treatise on the-Methods of Observation and Reasoning in Politics . * By Qeorge CornewoU Lewis . 2 yols . J . "VV " . Packer and Son . Mb . CoBNEWAXL Lewis has here" aimed at producing a companion to Stuart Mill's Logic . It is to Political Science very muchl what ;' . ' . Mill ' s work is to Philosophy in general . Without claiming any novelty , it seeks to extend to Politics thos 0 Methods of Observation and Reasoning which hitherto have been the only sure guides in physical investigation , which Comte was the first to declare indispensable to the pght investi gation of social phenomena . Mr . Cornewall Lewis does not here stand forth , as a political teacher , but as the teacher of certain logical canons necessary to the scientific treatment of politics .
" Our main object , then , being to distinguish between sound and unsound methods of reasoning in politics , and to obtain the proper instruments of inquiry for each , department of the subject ^ \ ve must first consider what value belongs to a , method of reasoning , and how much assistance a logical instalment affords in the conduct of intellectual processes , such as those which are required in political
dis-. , "A good logical method directs all our efforts to the -. right end , and furnishes a compendious and well-contrived mechanisin for tile attainment of that end . Hence it abridges mental labour , and renders an equal amount of exertion more productive . Thus , arithmetic is the scientific method of counting . Common sense , if left to itself , could only count unit by unit ; a process so tedious , that for large numbers it is , in general , iropracticabje . Arithmetic abridges the labour , by providing compendious methods , which dispense witli the necessity of individual numeration . Geometry , in like manner , is the scientific method of measuring . In cases
where actual measurement is laborious and difficult , geometry furnishes an indirect method of measuring without the physical application of the rod or the line . Scientific processes abridge intellectual labour to a far greater extent than mechanical processes abridge physical labour . Moreover , though more rapid and less wearisome , they tend to accuracy ^ and diminish the cliances of error : thus , au arithmetical process , where the data are certain , is more likely to be correct than a result obtained by counting ; while they sometimes , as in the measurement of the . heavenly spaces by geometrical methods , render it possible to arrive at results which , without theirassistance , would * be unattainable . "
He commences with an inquiry into the province of Politics , together with the necessary organic ^ fitness of Man to Society ; he then examines the Division of Politics into Departments , and into the Technical Language of Politics . These preliminaries settled , he begins to consider the Methods of Observation in Politics ; he reviews the nature of political facts , arid the means we have of observing them , viz . —historical records , scientific observation , positive and speculative , and observation , m practical politics . Then comes the question of Experiment in ^ Politics , the Treatment of Political History , Causation in Politics , the Determination the Determination of
of Positive Causes , the Assumption of False Causes , Hypothetical Causes , and the Determination of the Positive Effects of a Political Cause , as well as of the Hypothetical Effects . We have then chapters on Political Theory , and the Universality of Propositions ; on Partial Theories ; on Hypotheses , and on the Existence of a bcience of Politics ; followed by chapters on the Art of Politics , the Application ot Political Theories and Maxims , Practical Examples and Bea ][ . Models m Politics , Ideal Models , Political Conduct , Prediction in Politics , fallibility of Political Practice and its Causes and Securities , and finally , on
Political Progress . , ,, , We are thus minute in specifying the subjects treated , in . order tuat their great variety and importance may be appreciated ; for we nave no space to examine them in detail . The merit of the work lies there ; not in its philosophic insight , but in its laying out of the subject , and me suggestiveness consequent thereupon . Mr . Cornewall Lewis is ratner a philosophical reader than a philosophical thinker . His own remarks arc sensible , and sometimes valuable ; but the groat value of his book , alter all , lies in its indirect influence—in its suggestiveness and its erudition . The erudition is immense , and genuine . Tho foot-notes , indeed , wouia servo as a commonplace book , so ample and varied are the quotations . Tlnf nlflirmrrli flirtao mi / tfnt . inria nvo liV » fvnnllv AVfin fn . tiffuinfflv , brO
UgfldOrward , they have tho one excellent merit of not being second-hand cliapiuy . Varied as his reading is , it is not desultory or superficial . Therefore , we say , this Treatise will be a welcome addition to eveiy student ' s library ; first , as furnishing an excellent programme of 1 .. pnuco Logic ; nnd next , as furnishing , beyond many good ideas on the » n vr *' a variety of references and quotations facilitating access to other ^ J 1101 Although considerably bolow the standard of a Philosophic Treatise o tho Methods of Politics , it is a scholarly and important publication good book , not a groat book . ,. i in I t , would bo easy to fill columns with good extracts , but wo must wo sparing . Hero ia an admirable
DEFENCE OF ANTIQUARIAN LEARNING . " Facts , in tho physical sciences , either recur in definite cycles , ns tho p l * oiioinoii » of astronomy , of animnl and ' vegetable life , and of foliation und fruetilica «<>" ' thoy vcciu * at hidotorminute intervals , as the phenomena of mechanics , F 1 <; S ' . ^ nnd electricity . Tho latter are in umny cases rbprodluciblo at our volition , «• all cxporimontnl phonomonn . Historiciil l ' uctfi , on tho other hand , cannot Do rq ^ dm : cd . They lire not recurrent , either in fixed cycles , or at uncertain intoiv ^ but , linving once happened , nro not repeated . Thoy Hucceod eiioh other in tonninablo and porpotually varying Boi'ioH . . rt " Now it is truo that a physical fact is aH much a cbinploto nnd post even liiHfcoricnl fiiot . For example , tho iiict that at Borne , on tho ides of Miiroii , i - ^ yciir 4 < L ji . o ., tho sun appeared above the horizon in tho cast , at a wrtein wi ^ is us much au ovoiit puat and gone ns tho faet that , on t ) uit day , Julius ere ^ asBiiftnhmtea in tho aonato-houRO . ^ 3 u |; tho physical flict of th © sun b ri 91 " ff pefttcd . every dny ; whereRa the historical fact hm lievqr be « n / nor « nn ev « r P e » ve
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 26, 1852, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26061852/page/16/
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