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at other times he makes a boast such as this ; Having so wounded an elephant that it cannot escape , he resolves to devote a short time to contemplation of it bef , re he should lay it low ; accordingly he kindled a fire and put on the kettle , and in a very few minutes my coffee was prepared . There I sat in n y forest home coolly sipping my coffee , with one of the finest elephants in Africa awaiting my pleasure beside a neighbouring tree . " If a man must hunt wild animals , we suppose he cannot avoid inflicting a great amount of pain , inasmuch as they are not to be slaughtered by a single shot ; but , to keep an elephant wounded w hile you are coolly sipping your coffee is a perfectly gratuitous increase of cruelty . We shall dwell no longer on thia subject : the
author will meet his judgment from every unperverted mind . 3 Jet us add , however , that the book is considerably less amusing than such experience ought to have made it ; the greater part of its pages ate filled with idle details or wit * , uninteresting slaughter ; seldom , do we meet with any natural history , still seldomer any really absorbing adventure . Of the former we select these details on the King of Beasts : —
" One of the most striking things connected with the lion is his voice , which is extremely grand and peculiarly striking . It consists at times of a low , deep moaning , repeated five or six times , ending in faintly audible sighs ; at other times he startles the forest with loud , deep-toned , solemn roars , repeated five or six times in quick succession , each increasing in loudness to the third or fourth , when his voice dies away in five or six low , muffled sounds , very much resembling distant thunder . At times , and not unfrequently , a troop may he heard roaring in concert , one assuming the lead , and two , three , or four more regularly taking up their parts , like persons
singing a catch . Like our Scottish stags at the rutting season , they roar loudest in cold , frosty nights ; but on no occasions are their voices to be heard in such perfection , or so intensely powerful , as when two or three strange troops of lions approach a fountain to drink at the same time . When this occurs , every member of each troop sounds a bold roar of defiance at the opposite parties ; and when one roars , all roar together , and each seems to vie with his comrades in the intensity and power of his voice . The power and grandeur of these nocturnal forest concerts is inconceivably striking and pleasing to the hunter's ear . The effect , I may remark ,
is gr < at . ly enhanced when the hearer happens to be situated in the depths of the forest , at the dead hour of midnight , unaccompanied by any attendant , and ensconced within twenty yards of the fountain which the surrounding troops of lions are approaching . Such has been my situation many scores of times ; and though I am allowed to have a tolerably good taste for music , I consider the catches with which 1 was then regaled as the sweetest and most natural I ever heard . As a general rule , lions roar during the night ; their sighing moans commencing as the shades of evening envelop the forest , and continuing at . intervals throughout the night . In distant and
secluded regions , however , I have constantly heard them roaring loudly as late as nine and ten o ' clock on a bright sunny morning . In hazy and rainy weather they are to be heard at every hour in the day , but their roar is subdued . * * * * I remarked a fact connected with the lions' hour of drinking peculiar to themselves : they gfcrned unwilling to visit the fountains with good moonlight . Thus , when the rnoou rose early , the lions deferred their hour of watering until late in the morning ; and when the moon rose late , they drank at a very early hour in the night . Owing to the tawny colour of the coat with which nature has robed him , he is perfectly
invisible in the dark ; and although I have often heard them loudly lapping the water under my very nose , not twenty yards from me , I could not possibly make out so much us the outline of their forms . When a thirsty lion comes to water , he stretches out his massive arms , lies down on his breast to drink , and makes a loud lapping noise in drinking , not to be mistaken . He continues lapping up the water for a long while , and four or five times during the proceeding he pauses for half a minute as if to take breath ' . One thing conspicuous about them is their eyes , which , in a dark night , glow like two balls of fire . "
The elephant takes a long time killing , as wo know in Rngluud , having twice had to call in detachments of soldiers ; read this one extract from Mr . Cumming ' s book—it is very characteristic : — 41 1 blazed away at this elephant , until I began to think thiit he was proof nguinst my weapons . Having iircd thirty rive rounds with mv two-grooved rifle , I opened fire upon him with the Dutch six-pounder ; and when fvrty bullets had perforated his hide , he began for the first time to evince signs of a dilapidated constitution . Hi' took up a pohition ' in a grove ; and as the dogs kept bnrking round him he backed stern foremost among the trri's , which yielded before his gigantic strength . Poor old fellow ! he hud long braved my deadly shafts , but I
piunly saw that it wus now all over with him ; so I resalved to e . rjund no further ammunition , but hold him in view until In * died . Throughout the chase this elephant repeatedly eooied hia ponton with large quantities of water , which he ejected from his trunk over hia back and siu > H ; and just us the pangs of death camo over him , he tVKWSf | M . V i ! ri ? i ^ iolen Uy be 8 iuc » thorny tree , and kept >* " - " *> > y ¦ i- ? ? 7 ** ° *^ ° bloody mouth until ho died , when / % * 1 p&V y »? ° 4 < W > 4 H Niy forward , with the wholo weight of his / A »> ^• -OOTtfe ^ WS the points of his tusks . " wi ^ i' ^ V'v ) p ^^ .:, : / lM Hxav : * ' *
On the whole the book is wearisome ; partly , no doubt , because the mind becomes familiarized to the danger when we hear a man talk of " bagging " elephants , rhinocerosses , sea-cows , lions , leopards , &c , as a cockney does of partridges- —but mostly because it is impossible to feel any interest in the hunter himself , who here appears as a mere hunting machine .
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bushnell ' s three discourses . God in Christ . Three Discourses delivered at Newhaven , Gambridge , and Andover . With a Preliminary Dissertation on Jjahgukge . By Horace Bushnell . London : John Chapman , 142 Strand . . . . ( Second Notice . ) We now proceed to notice the " Discourses' * to which the preceding enquiry into the philosophy of language serves as an introduction . Of the first discourse , " On the Divinity of Christ " ( which is expressly addressed " ad clerum ,- ' and not " populum" ) , it is impossible to give a satisfactory and popular account within the limits at our disposal . The general views entertained by Mr . Bushnell on doctrinal subjects appear to be ( xf such a description of them does not involve a contradiction ) a kind of half philosophical and half mystical orthodoxy , He renounces formally no " doctrine" of the Scriptures ( not even the Trinity itself ) , but he considers that these doctrines appeal not to the logical faculties , or the reason—but to the emotional , imaginative , and purely sesthetic elements of our nature . We find this idea , or something very like it , in Morell ' s Philosophy of Religion . To the orthodox , who may complain of the want of distinctness in this kind of recognition of their dogmas ,
our author says , " the reality of language is not in the names or sounds , " but in " the significance that the Divine word has insensed into them . " Doubtless , to many minds , this mode of treating the primary principles of religion will appear the vaguest mysticism—but these belong not to the highest class of minds , nor are they essentially even a religious
class . The highest minds have a faith beyond all dogmatic expression , and deeper than logic plummets can sound . No intelligent Christian will deny either the idealism of Paul or the mysticism of John . Nay , is not religion itself in any and every sense essentially both idealistic and mystical to every human soul that has ever truly thirsted for the waters of life ?
In spite of these somewhat ultra-spiritualist tendencies , and regarding Christianity , as he does , as a " grand poem of salvation , " Mr . Bushnell appears to admit without qualification the genuineness , authenticity , and , in a certain sense , the inspiration of the Scriptures , and founds his arguments on the letter of the sacred volume . Taking the Scriptures as he finds them , he , however , believes that what we must be allowed to call a somewhat mystical interpretation of them , is necessary to avoid the anomalies arising out of a merely intellectual acceptance of
religious truth . He thinks , for instance , that there is no answer to Unitarians without the adoption of this mode of interpretation , as it is impossible logically to support the doctrine of the Trinity , which , in the popular form of it , is a mere jumble of contradic tions . Everywhere , in short , though admitting the truth of the letter , he seeks refuge in the spirit , and discovers a divine wisdom in the whole , which cannot be extorted by the keenest logic from isolated parts . Though strongly opposed , as we have seen , to all sorts of dogmatism , he ( somewhat
inconsistently ) appears almost indifferent to the pressure of creeds . He thinks we may harmlessly subscribe them all ( as they all contain elements of truth , seen from different points of view ) and allow them to correct one another . " It is just in this way , " he says , ** that the Scripture has its meaning filled out , qualified , fortified , secured against subsiding into falsity , or becoming a mere jingle of words . " ( Pago 73 . ) As the Divinity of Christ is , of course , involved in the Trinitarian question , Mr . Bushnell has chosen in this chapter to discuss the Trinity and incarnation in
connection with each other . The whole argument is far too refined and transcendental either for the laity or clergy as a body . Its influence will extend no farther than the closets of a few religious students who , with the author , may be prepared to unite an orthodox belief in the letter of Scripture with a philosophical indifference to the very natural deductions wrung from it by the vulgar . Such a class of thinkers must always be small , and always suspected by the mass of mankind . Mr . Bushnell will assuredly offend the Trinitarian body , without gaining the good will of their orthodox opponents , This
may be indifferent to him personally , but it is not unimportant to the success of his cause . The last discourse—that on " Dogma and Spirit" is , we confess , far more to our taste , as being infinitel y more intelligible , more practical , and more suited to the spiritual wants of the time . We are glad to meet . with the following recognition of a spirit existing on the other side of the Atlantic , which " he . who runs may read " in the literature and life of this country . " It is a hope cherished by many of the most thoughtful and earnest Christians of our time , that God is preparing the introduction at last of some new religious era . Here and there , in distant places and opposing sects , in private individuals and public bodies of disciples , we note the appearance of deep longing felt for some true renovation of the religious spirit . As yet the feeling is indefinite , as , probably , it will be till its ideal , or the gift for which it sighs , begins to shape itself to view under conditions of fact and actual manifestation . " i In speculating upon the probable conditions und er ; which a " revival of religion" is likely to take place , : Mr . Bushnell calls our attention to the circumstances . under which Christianity was first given to the world . " It fell , " he reminds us , ' * into the world ' s bosom : as a qu ickening power , as life and spirit from God . " " At the time when it appeared death and blindness i had enveloped the national religion . * * * The re-; ligion of faith , that which infuses life , and brings a soul into the light and freedom , of God was for the most part : a lost idea . The speculations of the Sadducees , and the ! interpretations of the Pharisees had developed so much of human light that the light of God in the soul was no longer wanted or thought of . Religion had been fairly interpreted away . Debates , traditions , opinions of doc-\ tors , and rescripts of schools , in a word , such an immense mass had been accumulated of what an apostle calls dogmas ( translated ' ordinances ' ) , and also commandments and doctrines of men that there was no longer any place for faith , and the light of faith in the world . " If history is regarded as " philosophy teaching by examples , " we shall be at no loss to find the exact parallel to the description here given us of the spiritual condition of the world when Christianity first " fell into its bosom , " in the actual religious life of the present time . Is there not deadness and blindness in our national religion ? Is not a want of faith in the spirit of religion the peculiar characteristic of the time , whilst the minds of men are eagerly engaged in frivolous contests about " words of no profit" ? Is not the simple wisdom of the Scriptures so overlaid with targum and commentary , with scholasticism and Church logic , that the ideal religion itself is fairly merged in Theology ? Are not " doctrines" at this moment systematically taught which actually tend to destroy the faith of man in the divinity of his own soul and the light of his own conscience , thus eating out the very heart of all vital religion r Are we not taught from ten thousand pulpits , by slim youths from our universities , by pompous pedants in lawn sleeves , and by lean and hungry fanatics from all platforms , with every variety of tone and gesture , of phrase and formula , that we are " unable of ourselves to help ourselves , " and that the everlasting God who ruleth the hearts of men , has deputed his authority to a Wesleyan Conference or a Bench of Bishops ? Are not " the ways of God to man " being daily expounded by hireling lawyers , labouriously exhuming divine truth from the charnel-house of monkish learning , whilst excited audiences " hang enamoured" on their accents ? In such a state of things as this to whom is the religious reformer to turn for encouragement and support but to the same despised and simple class of minds that firtt listened to the message of the Lord of life ? " He , " as Mr . Bushnell reminds us , "is obliged to separate himself from the doctrine and learning of his day , ( it is so perverse , so fortified , by numbers , by conceit , and the respect of the nation , as to be even hopeless , " ) and to turn to the simple . The early fortunes of Christianity sufficiently prove to us that when the right word is spoken , when a real appeal is made to the spirit of man , he is prepared to leave all and follow it . The first age of the Church accordingly was " an age of life of intense spiritual vivacity , not of dogmas or speculations , but of gifts , utterances , and mighty works , and , more than all , of inspiration , insight , freedom , and power . " The faithless and unbelieving world has long agreed to consider these wondrous manifestations of the power of faith as the work of supernatural agency , failing to find within themselves , nurtured in the dead forms of a ceremonial and dogmatic creed , the living spirit that produced them . Perhaps no true reformation of religion is possible until , by a higher intellectual and moral culture , and above all by the higher spiritual development to which it is the hand-
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Leader (1850-1860), July 27, 1850, page 424, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1848/page/16/
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