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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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comes , subdues earth and its children . Unitarianism chose to be a failure by shunning that holy madness as if shunning a pestilence . Atticus .
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THE "ONE IDEA . " [ Mr . Robert Cooper sends a letter in reply to the Reverend C . Kingsley which has been anticipated by the reply of P . G ., but from which we take a passage , regretting that we have not room for the citation of the eminent authorities who have identified themselves with the " One Idea . " ] « Sir , — I take it as indubitable that , if man has a free will , he could will any conviction or any feeling he thought proper at any time . Whence , then , the awful amount of misery and suffering which Mr . Kingsley so deeply deplores , and is labouring so laudably to remove ? "Why not will to feel happy and comfortable at once , without Mr . K . sacrificing his time and his means in
establishing Trade Associations , ' * Provision Stores , ' and other associative institutions ? The doctrine of ' Free will , ' if true , is the cheapest and speediest way to happiness imaginable . Emphatically is it the * royal road' to felicity . All the people have to do is to will pleasurable emotions at all times , and thus set the * sweating system ' and all other infernal circumstances at defiance . The doctrine that man is the creature of circumstances , which the reverend gentleman so vehemently asserts is the ( utter bane of Socialism / would thus be exploded by evidence more conclusive than an * ambiguous middle term ' or an 'ignoratio eienchi . ' The « petitio principii' would be entirely unnecessary , as the araumentum ad hominem would settle the question . "
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THE FUNCTION OF CIRCUMSTANCE . [ We select the following passage from a letter by J . O . F . The great number of communications we have received in reply to the Reverend Charles Kingsley and F . G ., compels us to take only extracts from letters which otherwise would demand to be given entire . ] " To say that circumstances are necessary to develope the mind of man , is to distinguish him from the brute , who requires them not , but is born with the necessary instinct to realize all the purposes of his mental being , without the power of ascent or degradation , but fairly set between definite limits , subordinate to , and capable of , being modified only by his utility to man . Within these
only , for an obvious design , can the instinct of the brute be at all modified or varied . Not so man . His noble powers , latent at birth , require development by circumstances , —by education , training , and material appliance ! in accord with a true moral and menial development So far is man the creature of education and circumstance , that , practically speaking , his moral and intellectual condition and character as a social being mainly depend on these . So far , then , is Mr . Owen ' s principle a practical reality . So far is society responsible to the individual for what it makes or unmakes in him—either by false educement or non-educement of his powers . So far as society neglects this responsibility , so far it negatives the responsibility of the individual , and throws this latter responsibility on its own shoulders . —J . O . F . "
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Responsibility of Action . —Sir , —The discussion which has arisen in your " Open Council" on Mr . Owen ' s fundamental principle is of great importance ; and if continued in the same tone and spirit cannot fail to promote truth . But 1 have not yet seen that any of your correspondents notice the inference which Mr . Owen draws from his principle , namely , that " as our convictions are independent of our wills , we are not , therefore , responsible for our actions . " It is here where the practical Htumbling-block is found in the system of Mr . Owen . Society can afford to allow great licence for opinions , hut it cannot do the same for actions . Our opinions do not hurt or injure our neighbours , but our actions may . It was not for their opinions that the Mormons were driven away from Nauvoo , but for actions . And if I am not greatly mistaken , so it must be under any form of social arrangement . Miciiakl Beal . Sheffield . Oct . 7 , 1830 .
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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 .
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In default of Home gossip you may not be disinclined to hear what is said of The Leader abroad . The many expressions of sympathy we have seen in the German papers , and , above all , that very practical kind of testimony shown in the translation of articles which appear in our columns , although they have gratified us , did not call for anv special acknowledgement , because they came from journals fighting the same cause as ourselves , or nearly so ; but a recent paper on The Leader in the Deutsche Zeitung calls for a remark , that journal being the well-known organ of Von Gagern . " Leader
is not only a liberal paper , it has even a Socialistic character ; but its Socialism is free from narrow partiality and onesidedness . It views Socialism as an idea of universal progress , aiming at the construction of a new basis for European society , such as may boldly defy the tempests menacing it on every side and from every direction , and at introducing a Policy not emanating from any one class ,
but from the People at large . It strives to render universal the idea that mankind forms one great fraternity , in the bosom of which reciprocal protection and assistance ought to replace the present rivalry and sefishness . We shall see whether such ideas ( with which we on the Continent are already more familiar ) will gain access to the minds of the English nation , thus securing a long life to The Leader . "
The Deutsche Zeitung may be informed that these ideas already have a much wider acceptation than it supposes j and , if there were no other evidence than the unvarying progress of our own sale , it would be sufficient to warrant such an assertion . We have frequently been urged by those who wish us well to record the fact of our steady progress , but a reluctance to blow our own trumpets—a reluctance which not even malevolent reports could overcome—has made us prefer silence to the appearance of boasting . If the fact , however , will gratify our steady friends , there it is for them .
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The vexatious meddling and absurd interpretation of the new press-law in France keep all the journals in a state of squabble , and to this English minds suggests strange reflections on the want of the true feeling of political liberty in France ; with all their adventurous daring in the illimitable fields of political speculation , the French are half a century behind the English in political action : and this it is which gives us that enormous superiority Frenchmen are so ready to admit , while they signally fail to account for it . Lamartine , for
example , has recently paid us a visit , and , returning to France , explains to his countrymen the secrets of our well-being . As usual , when a . Frenchman writes upon England , his account is ludicrously wide of the truth , both in the details and in the ensemble . Our prosperity he discovers residing in what he calls Conservative Socialism . He is staggered at the grandeur of our existence , dcrase by the splendour and the magnitude of our wealth , London is " a city of Kings . " He passed in company with one of
his English friends , " par la terrasse de Kinsmtjton , " through the " forests of the West-end " { les for / its int / irieurs de Vouest de la capitate ) , and emerged from these forests into Oxford-street , where the splendours of the Arabian Nights overoverpowered him . All this wealth , luxury , grandeur , and happiness astound him . Uc tries to account for it by the five or six great national acts which are our glory , viz ., the Income-tax , whereby the burden is taken from fhe poor to be laid on the
shoulders of the rich ( oh !)—the Recruiting Laws—Reform—Emancipation of the Catholics—Emancipation of Slaves—and Prison Discipline . Oh , wonderful nation that can so astonish a philosopher But even these great acts of self-sacrifice are nothing to the one principle of Charity which he finds so active here . This Charity , so boundless and so multiform—chronicled in the List of London Charities—perfectly amazes him : he calls it the Conservative Socialism—the Socialisme d ' en hnut .
Now , we suppose there is no person who refuses to acknowledge tlic magnitude and generosity of our Charities— ' public and' private—the good they effect , the misery they alleviate , the high motives which in the main support them ; but what is it which makes them so imperative ? What is it but the
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Under the title Etudes sur les Grands Hommes , an amusing volume of curiosities of literature has just appeared by Louis Nicolardot , crowded with piquant details , and so arranged as to have greater unity than other works of the kind . Beginning with Precocity and Maturity , he next considers men during the moment of Composition , and their aptitudes under the three heads of Facility , Difficulty , and Fecundity . A piquant chapter is that upon the Wives of Great Men , and another on their Children ; in short , from the nursery to the grave , the author accompanies the literary man , and furnishes much curious information .
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Our readers are fully possessed with our views on the absolute necessity of a radical Reform in the Church : a Reform which the least observant must be aware is imperatively called for by the wants of the age . Gladly , therefore , do we welcome the appearance of such authoritative adhesion to our views as may be read in the Reverend Thomas Wilson ' s first Discourse on Catholicity , Spiritual and Intellectual , wherein an orthodox Clergyman is seen explicitly announcing that " passing events tend more and more to prove the actual doctrinal position of the Anglican Church untenable , assailed
as it is , and is to be , on both sides at once , by forces rallying to one or other of the two hostile standards , hoisted as Roman or Rational . These two ensigns of the Past and the Future are dail y drawing round them from the pale of the Establishment some of the best and boldest spirits of the Land , in search of that rest for the soul which reality and consistency can alone afford , but neither of which they can henceforth find in the theory or practice of Compromise . ' * It is well for the Church when her Champions , standing forth from her own ranks , can dare to face the difficulties of her situation , and
strive to seek in the intellectual conditions of the age for a new and firmer basis than that which now supports it . Even the Morning" Post declares against the literal interpretation of antique formulas . In an article , last Wednesday , speaking of the necessity , for a convocation , it says : — " The Church is bound to tell us what the doctrines of Christianity are , and , if any doubt should arise respecting them , she ought to be provided with the means of
utterance , for the purpose of clearing that doubt . Many persons have thou «; itthat the truths of Christianity were sufficiently placed in a dogmatic form by the formularies of the Church , and that it would never be necessary for the Church ' s voice to be again heard on the subject . Those who had studied the history of the human mind must havo been aware that this could not be so . The relations in which a particular dor / ma stand to the mind are constantly varying , and speculative error must , consequently , assume new shajtes continually . "
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SINGLETON l'ONTENOY . Singleton Fontcnny , R . N , By . Tamos Hannay , Author ol Sketches in Ullra-inarino , &c . 3 vols . Colburn . This is certainly a remarkable work . It has the exuberance of youth and the promise of a ripe maturity . The prodigality of wit , fancy , illustration , and sarcasm in these volumes must attract attention ; but tho author seems to have been more solicitous to dazzle than to enptivate , more anxious to bring in his good , things" than to rely upon the art de confer for a lasting impression : the literary man predominates over the artist , the writer over the narrator . Instead of throwing his strength into the structure , he has expended Ms ingenuity in elaborate orna-
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enormous disproportion of the distribution of wealth ? Are they signs of a healthy or of a diseased condition ? Is this Socialisme d ' en haut anything more than an attempt to make injustice less intolerable , and would not a Socialisme d ' en bas be considerably more advantageous to the nation at large ? Jenkinson subscribes , let us say , three hundred pounds a-year in Charity , and pays his quota of the eight millions a-year Poor-rates : Jenkinson is a benevolent man , deserving our praise , for he might subscribe less , or nothing at all . But if we place
beside this Charity the thousands of miserable men starving in a country whose resources are impoverished by feudal laws , unable to get food while millions of acres lie in waste , if we place beside the poor-rates the fearful item of three millions five hundred thousand paupers dependent thereon , how does this " Conservative Socialism " look then ? Inevitable evils , you say ! But , how if they are not inevitable ? How , if the beneficence of Nature and the conquests of Civilization could be justly distributed among the whole nation , rather than gathered up into a few families ? Call it a dream , but see if the dream prefigure a reality !
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The letter of Tim , of Barrhead , is a very creditable production , and . only omitted for the rensons assigned above ; F . K . G . ' s letter requires to be taken as a whole , which its length precludes ; 0 . F . Nicholls , A Hunter after Truth , Aberdeen , and an Operative , Huddorsfield , furnish letters which do not admit of extract ; the letter of S . F . M ., Piss , Norfolk , we shall insert if space offer ; H . ll . Long Sutton , will oblige us by the results of his experiments .
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Tjir Jbwish Scuivtuiihs . —The Jewish scriptures are a miscellaneous collection of writings , some of thorn possibly the oldest now existing in the world . We would speak of them sis Christ spoke of them , with veneration and respect . They are valuable for the glimpses they alFord us of a distant past ; for the historical and other truths to be gleaned from them ; and all truth is the word of God : but we would receive them as Christ recrivid them , in a discriminating spirit , as writings of mixed authority ; and let us add another word or two on this part , of our subject , for when we see Leviticus quoted in the British Houses of Legislature as if it were part and parcel of the laws nt' a Christian country , it is obviously htyh time that the public should be taught to regard tho books of the Old Testament in their true li « ht—the light in which they were regarded by the founder of our religion . —From the Westminster llevicw , No . CVI .
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Oct . 12 , 1850 . ] SCf ) * & £ && * ¥ ? 089
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 12, 1850, page 689, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1856/page/17/
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