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Leader (1850-1860), 29th January 1853, Edition Country of 2, Page 112, NEW LIGHTS ON SHAKSPEARE. Notes and Emen...

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      Tjih Itklkhon For Our Agk. Tnv Harmons O...

      love of God , though they knew it not ; though they denied it . No man ever has a complete and perfect intellectual consciousness of all his active nature ; something instinctive germinates in us , and grows under ground , as it were , before it bursts the sod and shoots into the light of self-consciousness . Sheathed in unconsciousness lies the bud , ere long to open a bright , consummate flower . Thesg philosophers , with-a real love of truth , and yet a scorn of the name of God , understand many things , perhaps not known to common men , but this portion of their nature has yet escaped their eye ; they have not made an exact and exhaustive inventory of the facts of their own nature . Such men have unconsciously much of the intellectual part of piety . "

      Most true ! They war on the arrogance of ignorance , they war on the false conceptions men frame of God , they war on the wickedness cloaked by his Dame—not on the feeling itself ! They feel God—feel his presence equally in the grander reaches of Science and in the impassioned depths of Love—in the Beauty that enchants them—in the Good that is done , and that they do . The presence of a Highest and Best is never unacknowledged by their souls in the strong heroism of a noble act , or in the gentleness of a kind one , although the ravings of one class and the absurdities of another may rouse a spirit of antagonism which , in denying the names , seems to deny the thing . They are driven into blasphemy by bigotry . It is Exeter Hall makes Atheists .

      Set aside Churches for awhile , and consider whether it be not truly said , Man when he loves truth , love , and justice , loves God under these special forms , and should unite them therefore in one total act of piety . In proportion as he loves these , he is religious . In proportion as he disregards them , he is practically atheistic , let his belief in " evidences" be of the strongest . For , truly , Christianity is a belief in Christ , not a belief in the " evidences" of his having lived , and done , and said , such and such things ; and a belief in Christ which undoubtingly accepts every word recorded in the Testament as God ' s truth , yet nevertheless practically disregards the plainest of its teachings , setting collaterals above essentials , orthodoxy above sincerity , is demonstrably irreligious : —

      " Nobody thinks it necessary or beautiful for the accomplished scholar to go back to his alphabet , and repeat it over , to return to his early arithmetic and paradigms of grammar , when he knows them all for this is not needful to keep an active mind in a normal condition , and perform the mental work of a mature man . Nobody sends a lumberer from the woods back to his nursery , or tells him he cannot keep his strength without daily or weekly sleeping in his little cradle , or exercising with a hoop , or top , or ball , which helped his babyhood . Because these little trifles helped him once , they cannot help him now . Man , reaching forward , forgets the things that are behind .

      " Now , the mischief is , that , in matters of religion , men demand that lie who has a mature and well-proportioned piety should always go back to the rude helps of his boyhood , to the A B C of religion and the nursery-books of piety . He is not bid to take his power of piety and apply that to the common works of life . The Newton of piety is sent back to the dame-school of religion , and told to keep counting his fingers , otherwise there is no health in him , and all piety is wiped out of his consciousness , and he hates God and God hates him . He must study the anicular lines on the school-dame ' s slate , not the diagrams of God writ on the heavens in points of fire . We are told that what once thus helped to form a religious character must be continually resorted to , and become the permanent form thereof .

      " This notion is exceedingly pernicious . It wastes the practical power of piety by directing it from its natural work ; it keeps the steam-engine always fanning and blowing itself , perpetually firing itself up , while it turns no wheels but its own , and does no work but feed and lire itself . This constant firing up of one ' s self is looked on as the natural work and only form of piety . Ask any popular minister , in one of the predominant sects , for the man most marked for piety , and ho will not show you the men with the power of business who do the work of life , —the upright mechanic , merchant , or farmer ; not the men with the power of thought , of justice , or of love ; not him whose whole life is one great act of fourfold piety . No , he will show you some men who are always a dawdling over their souls , going back to the baby-junipers and nursery-rhymes of their early days , and everlastingly coming to the church to fire themselven up , calling themselves ' miserable offenders , ' and saying , ' Save us , good Lord . ' If a man thinks himself a miserable offender , let him away with the offence , and he done with the complaint at once and for ever . It is dangerous to reiterate so sad a cry .

      " You see this mistake , on a large scale , in the zeal with which nations or sects cling to their religious institutions long after they are obsolete . Thus the Hebrew cleaves to his ancient ritual and ancient creed , refusing to share tho religious science which nninkiml lias brought , to light k ' hicc Moses and Samuel went homo to their ( lod . The two groat sects of Christendom exhibit the same thing in their adherence to ceremonies and opinions which once wcro the greatest helps and the highest expression of piety to mankind , l » ut which have long since lost all virtue except as relics . The same error is repented on a small nciile all about us , men trying to believe what Hcience proves ridiculous , and only succeeding by the destruction of reason . It wiw easy to make the mistake , but when made , it need not ho made perpetual . "

      In reference to this Pharisaic care for one ' s soul , and disregard for active piety , wo quoted u charming passage last week from Ruth , to which vfo beg to call tho reader ' s attention , it is a most pernicious habit . It coddles the mind into insincerity . It makes " seriousness" equivalent to religiousness ; whereas Truthfulness and . Lovo are real religioiiHnenH . Life is not a mood ; and tho rnind of man cimnot sincerely preserve one unvarying attitude . We may bo very frivolous without endangering our seriousness ; and to be serious on frivolous occasions m the worst frivolity . So that when we place Religion in " seriousness , " and not in active piety , we invariahly become hypocrites- —wo act a part , we do not live a life . Moreovor , as Parker says : —

      " Ihen thin method of procedure diRgusts well-educated and powerful men with piety itself , and with all that bears tho name of religion , 'do your ways , ' say they , ' and can t your canting as much hh you like , only come not near us with your giiimieo . ' Many a man k < h-s this mindiree . tion of piety , and the bigotry which «! iiv " « » t , and turna oil" from ruligion itwilf ; and will have nothing to do with if . Philosophers always huve hud a bad uuuic in relitriouH matters ; ninny of them have

      turned away in disgust from the folly which is taught in its name . Of all the great philosophers of this day , I think no one takes any interest in the popular forms of religion . Do we ever hear religion referred to in politics ? It is mentioned officially in proclamations and messages ; but in the parliamentary debates of Europe and America , in the state papers of the nations , you will find hardly a trace of the name or the fact . Honest men , and manly men , are ashamed ^ to refer to this , because it has been so connected with unmanly dawdling and niggardly turning back , —they dislike to mention the word . So religion has ceased to be one of the recognised forces of the state . I do not remember a good law passed in my time from an alleged religious motive . Capital punishment , and the laws forstatutebook for

      bidding work or play on Sunday , are the only things left on the - which a strictly religious motive is assigned . The annual thanksgivings and fastdays are mementoes of the political power of the popular religious opinions in otheT times . Men of great influence in America are commonly men of little apparent respect for religion ; it seems to have no influence on their public conduct , and , in many cases , none on their private character ; the class most eminent for intellectual culture is heedless of religion throughout all Christendom . The class of rich men have small esteem for it ; yet in all the great towns of America the most reputable churches have fallen under their control , with such results as we see . The life of the nation in its great flood passes by , and does not touch the churches , — the institutions of religion . ' Such fatal errors come from this mistake .

      112 The Leader. [Saturday,

      112 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

      "The Age Requires A Piety Most Eminent. ...

      " The age requires a piety most eminent . What was religion enough for the time of the Patriarchs , or the Prophets , or the Apostles , or the Reformers , or the Puritans , is not enough for the heightened consciousness of mankind to-day . When the world thinks in lightning , it is not proportionate to pray in lead . The old theologies , the philosophies of religion of ancient time , will not suffice us now . We want a religion of the intellect , of the conscience , of the affections , of the soul , —the natural religion of all the faculties of man . The form also must be natural and new . " We anticipate the response these passages will call forth from our readers , and close this first article with the following : —

      " We must possess all parts of this piety , —the intellectual , moral , affectional , — yea , total piety . This is not an age when men in religion ' s name can safely sneer at philosophy , call reason ' carnal , ' make mouths at immutable justice , and blast with their damnations the faces of mankind *! Priests have had their day , and in dull corners still aim to protract their favourite and most ancient night ; but the sun has risen with healing in his wings . Piety without goodness , without justice , without truth or love , is seen to be the pretence of the hypocrite . Can philosophy satisfy us without religion ? Even the head feels a coldness from the want of piety . The greatest intellect is ruled by the same integral laws with the least , and needs this fourfold love of God ; and the great intellects that scorn religion are ^ largest sufferers from their scorn . " ™

      New Lights On Shakspeare. Notes And Emen...

      NEW LIGHTS ON SHAKSPEARE . Notes and Emendations to the Text of Shahsjpeare ' s Flays . From early Manuscript corrections in a copy of the folio < yP 1632 . Forming a Supplemental Volume to tho Edition of Shakspeare . By J . Payne Collier , Esq . Whittaker & Co . If there be any approximation to truth in the current belief of a worship of Shakspeare on the part of reverent Englishmen , this volume will have a prodigious sale . Perhaps the reverent admirers will grow red at the mention of " sale" in any way affecting the question . Yet this vulgar consideration we find put forward in the preface to the first folio of Shakspeare . The editors beg the public " to censure" if the public pleases , but at any rate to buy . " That doth best commend a book , the stationer says . " We will not be more lofty than his loving editors . Sale or no sale , there can bo no dispute as to the value and interest of this volume , which forms not only a supplement to Mr . Collier ' s edition , but ought to stand on the shelf beside every other edition . To literary historians and critics better versed in Elizabethan lore than we can pretend to be , must be left the task of deciding on the age , position , and authority of the emendator . On such matters wo are but one of the public ; and as ono of the public we can only speak of the intrinsic value of these emendations , which is indubitable . The unknown emendator may have been one in authority , or merely a writer of conjectures liko those who succeeded him ; the simple fact remains , that his emendations are of irresistible plausibility in most cases , and that his stage directions are not to be despised . Ijet us first hear Mr . Collier narrate his story of the folio : —

      " I was tempted only by its cheapness to buy it , under the following circumstances : —In the spring of 1849 I happened to be in the shop of the late Mr . Rodd , of Great Newport-street , at tho time when a package of books arrived from tho country : my impression is that it came from Hertfordshire , but I am not at all certain upon u point which L looked upon us a matter of no importance . Ho opened the parcel in my presence , as he had often done before in tho course of my thirty or forty years' acquaintance with him , and looking at the backs and titlepages of several volumes , I saw that they were chiefly works of little interest to me . Two folios , however , attracted my attention , one of them gilt on the Hides

      and the other in rough calf : the first wiu an excellent copy of Florio ' s ' New World of Words , ' 1011 , with the name of Henry Oshorn ( whom I mistook at the moment for his celebrated namesake , Francis ) upon tho first leaf ; and the other a copy of the second folio of Shakespeare ' s I'lays , much cropped , the covert ) old and greasy , and , as I hiiw at a glance on opening them , imperfect at the beginning und end . Concluding hastily that the latter would complete another poor copy of the second folio , which I . had bought of tho siun « bookseller , and which 1 had had for somo years in my possession , and wanting the former for my Use , I bought them both , the Florio for twelve , jiml tho Shakespeare for thirly shillings .

      " Ah it turned out , I at first repented my bargain us regarded the Shakespeare , becuiiHO , when 1 took it homo , it appeared that two leaves which 1 wanted were unfit for my purpose , not merely by being too short , but damaged and defaced thus disappointed , 1 threw it by , and did not we i t again , until I made a selection of hooks T would take with me on quitting London . In the mean time , finding that I could not readily remedy the deficiencies in my other copy of the folio , J . fiiJ 2 , I had parted with it ; and when I removed into the country , with my family , in the spring of 1 H 5 () , in order that I mi ght nof , bo without some copy of the Hecond folio for tho purpose of reference , 1 took with me that which in thy foundation of the present work .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 29, 1853, page 112, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29011853/page/16/