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Leader (1850-1860), 27th January 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 17, We snatch the occasion of a vacant week ...

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      Jaottakt 27,185e.] The Leadeb, 89 -¦•-¦¦...

      Jaottakt 27 , 185 E . ] THE LEADEB , 89 - ¦• - ¦¦ ' - ¦ ¦ = ~ r ~ —» ^

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      Critics Are Not The Legislators, But Tli...

      Critics are not the legislators , but tlie judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

      We Snatch The Occasion Of A Vacant Week ...

      We snatch the occasion of a vacant week to say a word or two on some recent articles of our eminent contemporary , the Revue des Deux Mondes We may remark , by the way , how seldom this ablest and most successful of European reviews fails to surpass in strength , variety , and interest , the very best , we will not say the least heavy , of our own Quarterlies . Whether this superiority lie in the ability of the writers or in the sagacity of the Editors we do not pretend to decide ; certain it is , that for grasp of thought , for refinement of style , for diversity of topic , the Revue des Deux Mondes is very rarely equalled in London or in Edinburgh . Perhaps the existing regime in France has , by its very intolerance of discussion , ^ by the constant terror of suppression impending over all written thought , intensified all the intellectual life of the nation" in its highest organs , as by the perils of open speaking it has tortured into almost unnatural acuteness of reticence and allusion the brilliant suppleness of that chosen language of

      wit , of logic , of intrigue . France is still the brain of Europe , a little congested , it is true , politically , but , in every other direction , alert , vigorous , attentive . She almost atones for her humiliations by the freedom of her social life and the independence of her speculative thought ; in the form and fertility , if not in the substance of her passing literature , she commands the world . Even in bonds , intellectual France is often superior to the clumsy license of political essayists who , in their boldest moments , never fail to "love a lord" with liberal adoration ; and of philosophical inquirers , who , in their wildest heterodoxy , pause to count their beads to some theological Mrs . Grundy , who is supposed to be the bulwark of " bur institutions . "

      It is scarcely yet understood in France that on certain subjects there is less liberty of speaking and of writing in London than in Paris . Almost any number of the Revue proves this . Reviews are peculiarly an English form of literature : some of our noblest classics are the collected fragments of essayists ; how is it that we are beaten on our ground by Our friendly and glorious rivals in civilisation ? Let us seek an explanation which shall be neither too displeasing to the national vanity , nor too hopeless . Is it in the nature of the language ? Certainly , forJuminous . precision , for transparent clearness , for delicacy , flexibility , and , as it were , gradation of tone , there is no vocabuIaryJike t he French , in many respects so poor and so

      thin ,- For richness , harmony , abundance , energy , we may be content with the tongue of Shakspjbabe . Both are composite languages , both enriched by continual naturalisations , both illustrated and embellished by splendid monuments . No , it is not in the language so much as in the use of the language that we fail . It is not in the learning and the fulness of our writers , for in all the resources of intellectual culture we should be disposed to say that the average of English writers would be found superior to the average of French writers ; it is then , we conclude , chiefly if not entirely , in these two requirements that our failing is detected : in real freedom of thought , Tin : cultivation of style ; As to the first , it is-not ^ thatthe freedom of thought is wanting to the writer :. it is wanting to the readers ;

      an atmosphere of bigotry and prejudice acts and reacts upon the one and upon the other , and in the absence of an official censorship which makes every reader an accomplice with the writer in a conspiracy of reticences and allusions , the result is , not as in France excessive refinement and ingenuity , but narrowness and vulgarity . As to cultivation of style , we think it can scarcely be disputed that the mass of our best public writing is so insufferably ponderous and incorrect , it is enough to break a conscientious reader ' s heart . Of course there are brilliant exceptions enough to prove the rule ;

      but we think it may be affirmed that any ordinary French publicist with half the learning and the knowledge of his English contemporary , would at any moment produce a better article for intellectual consumption . He would be more readable , more lucid , more graceful . No doubt we may flatter ourselves with the patriotic assurance that our long habit of unlicensed printing has encouraged a certain unmeasured recklessness of writing : we can only regret that this unlimited freedom of the pen is not always acc ompanied by independence and depth of thought , nor redeemed from that vulgarity of form which is a positive injury to the literary sense of the nation by the

      strength and sincerity of the substance . But we have been diverted unawares from the purpose of our Summary , and we have now only space enough to name the articles in the last three publications of the Revue des Deux Mondes , to which we would invite special attention . First and foremost , wo would mention an article on " Channing and Unitarianism in America , " in the Revue of December 15 . This paper excited some considerable notice in the intellectual circles of Paris , not so much for its determined strength as for its marvellous subtlety . The name of the writer , M . Ernest Rknan , is not unfamiliar to the readers of the Debuts as a critic , always searching and strong , often profound ; he is known to the Academy as an Orientalist who may bo literally said to have the primaeval languages of the remotest East , and eve n their dialects and pat 6 is , at his fingera' ends ; ho is known to the Roman Church as a

      Seminarist who traversed the vestibule of the priesthood , and drew back in disgust at the rehearsal of an imposture he failed in courage to perform ; he is known to the world of thought and intelligence in Paris as a young man of extraordinary learning , of an intellect fully armed , always calm and self possessed , of an audacity tempered by severe discipline and a perfect mastery of the instruments of spiritual warfare . A very dangerous antagonist to encounter is M . Ernest . Kenan . The Church may well detest and dread the Seminarist , who , in the strength of his best years has come over to the camp of free thought .

      In this paper , taking as his text the admirable translation of Channing by M . Edouabd Laboulaye ( of the Institute ) , M . Eknest Renan has produced by far the most comprehensive Essay on the great American Unitarian we have met with . But the ' pith of the article is in its incidental references to the state of religion in France and in England . Having thus briefly introduced this remarkable Essay , we shall be content to fulfil the humble office of an interpreter to M . Renan on a future occasion . We may , however , glance at the one insuperable objection to the tendency of this article , which has been pointed out even by admirers : we mean , its inconclusiveness ; unless we can accept that worst of all forms of negation , acquiescent indifference as a substitute for faith . M . Reman , we believe , promises a conclusion . What seems inconclusiveness was the effect of fragmentary composition .

      The * second paper we desire to mention is one on Gallicanismin the Church and in the State ^ in the Revue of January 1 , an Essay of marked significance at the present time , when Papal absolutism has triumphed at Rome . This admirable survey of the Gallican Church may be summarised in a single extract : — " Once more , Gallicanism reduces itself to two capital points : complete independence of the civil power , as the basis of the relations of Church and State : return to the liberties of the primitive Church as the basis of religious reforms . " In the same number there is an article on the Science of Life in its relations with chemistry , by M . Lxttbe , which we recommend to the disciples of Positive Science : they will find all the amplitude and decision of the

      school of their choice . The latest number of the Revue contains an article by M . 3 > e Remusat on " Reform and Socialism in England , " for which Mr . Grey ' s Essays furnish a text , andJfoe existing government in France a rich opportunity of contrasts , ^ to the skilful and ingenious hand of the quasirepentant doctrinaire . M . db Remusat has been a careful and sympathetic student of English politics and institutions ; he may be pardoned for judging them too often from a librai-y point of view , too often from the dim sanctuary of his own political failures and regrets . M . de Viklcastbi * with the aid of Mr . Fobsyth , does justice at length to Sir Hudsox Lowm . He proves that no possible treatment could have made St . Helena endurable to such a captive as Napoleon ; and that from the first it was a systematic however

      policy of the caged Ergle and his followers to represent every act , harmless or well-intentioned , of a governor whose only fault was an excessive conscientiousness unrelieved by more liberal and genial qualities of nature , in the most arduous and detestable light . In a word , the system pursued by Napoleon , or rather by his suite , was a perpetual mise en scbie of martyrdom . As if the exile to that rock of a man who had held all Europe in his hand * were not enough -to wuvback thesympathies of Europe ! We can only find room at present to notice one more article in the lastnumber of the Revue . The subject is the " Plurality of Worlds : " the heroes of the article are those eminent " theologians , " as the writer , M . Babinet ( of the Institute ) rejoices to caU them , Dr . Whjbwj-xi . and Sir David

      Bbkw-This paper , in which logic and wit seem to vie for the mastery , while the science of the savant never disappears , is in the happiest vein of French pleasantry ; it is a smiling and temperate castigation of that most lamentable of all buffoone ries to which men of science can descend , and which is equally fatal to religion and philosophy ; the attempt to foist a creed upon a scientific hypothesis , not to say a dream , and to establish the Catechism—through a telescope ; the bestof the joke being that the two " Theologians" find their faith h

      confirmed , the one by looking through the big end , the other by looking throug the little end of the telescope . As men of science , they arrive at diametrically opposite conclusions : —as theologians , they shake hands over the sublime result . The absurdity and mischief of these incongruous alliances of science and religion have yet to be fully exposed . It is not by " proving , with Dr . Whewbix , that only our pin ' s point of a world is inhabited , or with Sir David Brewstbr , that there are more habitable worlds than one , that science is made orthodox , or orthodoxy scientific .

      Yesterday M. Bekrter Was To Be Presented...

      Yesterday M . Bekrter was to be presented to theFrench Academy . In a few days the P arliamentary chief of the Legitimist * , ' » ^~ Academician , will be officially presented to Louis Napo ^ on as Chief of the State , by M . Guizot , the last Minister of Louur PaiMX-P » -

      Italy, The Chosen Land Of Sorrow, Was Sa...

      Italy , the chosen land of sorrow , was said to have been endowedL with . the

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 27, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27011855/page/17/