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idea of any providential interference . If , he says , science can predict the results which must follow , the notion of prayer becomes absurd . If Laws regulate p henomena , the Laws must be studied , and to pray for rain or fine weather is perfectly idle . Quite true . Let the battle , then , be frankly fought between Science and the Church . Let men declare whether they side with Newton or the Synod of Thurles . Let them answer this question : Does the Church or does modern Science give the truer explanation of the phenomena of this universe ? We are willing to abide by the result ; even in the face of the consequences thus pointed out : — "On the other hand , if once admitted , it seems the obvious and most legitimate consequence , that they thall be extended from the physical to the moral world : and that human events , the formation of character , the growth of nations , the course of history , shall be reaarded as matters in the direction of which God has no personal and active concern ; which we cannot attempt to influence by prayer , or other impetration , without ianorant superstition ; and which are the direct and fas one may say ) passive results of that human character , which God has impressed , once for all , at the beginning . Is this a result for which respectable and worthy Englishmen are prepared ? Andjf not , may it not be worthy a thoug ht whether the old-fashioned Catholic position , the prayers for rain and for fine weather , the deprecation of God ' s wrath during thunder , the regarding the cholera and other pestilences as messengers of God s wrath , may not be the safer and truer alternative to fallback upon ?"
Truly there is some pleasure in having to deal with the Catholics : they are logical , they are frank , they are explicit ; with the slippery Protestants the case is not so easy to argue ! No Protestant , we believe , would state the case so nakedly as in the foregoing passage ; yet in truth the alternative really lies there . Shall we listen to Science , or shall we choose the " safer , " the " old-fashioned' * position of deprecating God's wrath during thunder and cholera ? Decide .
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In France the dearth of new books is surprising , but the ever-active , ever-welcome Dumas is , of course , keeping up even with his insatiable readers ; they cannot outstrip him , read they never so fast . The story current about George Pkinck Regent James ( as the wicked Titmarsh called him ) making a bel with Cooper , that he , Darnley , would write twelve novels while he , Leatherstocking , was writing four , would be a triviality to Dumas—twelve novels ! we would back him for twenty , and every one twenty times better than those of the illustrious James . The matchless
Monte Christo is at this moment honourably paying the actors of the unfortunate Theatre Historique ( now closed ); and here , on our table , lies one of the draughts—a small one in two volumes only —called Dieu Dispose . Take it up , and you will not leave it . The easy , rapid movement , the art with which improbability is made more probable than , the truth itaelf in many writers , the gaiety with just a touch of poetry to season it , the
marvellous command of incident and dialogue—all are here . One hopes Dumas may always hare debts to pay , if thus he pays them ! Lying beside Dieu Dispose are three other novels—Brin < TAmour , by the son of Paul we Kock ; La Roche Tremblante , by EmeHerthet ; and Le Capitaine La Curie , by our immoral friend Le Marquis dc Foudras , whose Caprice d ' line grandc dame was so much run after . And that is all .
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HCIILOHSKK 8 IIISTORV OK THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUKY . A History of the Kiuhleenth Century and the Nineteenth , till the Overthrow of the French Umpire , with particular reference to Mental Cultivation and J ' ro < fte « s . Hy V . V . 8 i ; l » loas « r . Trurul . ilcd , with a rrctuc < : and Notx-a . By 1 > . Davldon . M . A . VoIb . 1 7- . Oiupinau and Hull . I ' m eighteenth century was the era of demolition . All the great insurgent minds of modern Europe were glorified in it , fostered in it , or created l > y it . That process of dissolution which Christian » iiid Feudal Europe had vainly struggled against Irom the thirteenth century downwards , a process Hccelerating with every generation—received its op « n and avowed consecration , in the eighteenth century . Hcraser Vinfame—to destroy superstition , to uproot dogmatic religion , to democratize Government , to rebel against class legislation , and
protest in all shapes and in all places against whatever was arbitrary , became the " mission" ( to use language now popular ) of all the remarkable men of that epoch . Viewed historically , as the culmination of negative philosophy , this epoch is great indeed ; viewed intrinsically , one must say that it was animated by a false and barren philosophy , as all mere negative thought must be , and that its great men were seldom comparable to the great men of other ages . Nevertheless for what it did ( its necessary work of destruction ) it remains an imperishable and inexhaustible subject of study and profit . The purpose which animated it was a noble one ; the doctrines it proclaimed were for the most part ignoble , because false . The historian could scarcely find a better subject to task his powers ; if Schlosser may not be ac ^ cepted as the man to do it full justice , he is undoubtedly deserving of the high reputation he has acquired , for sagacity , learning , and effective grouping . He has written a solid , an important book , vast in its requirements , and comprehensive in its scope . He has not the high philosophic power which can so group details that the lesson shall be plainly read by an ordinary mind ; nor has he that pictorial power which can re-create the past , and make it a living moving action . But he has vast knowledge , a clear head , a strong mind with strong prejudices , a sturdy independence of thought which refuses acquiescence in stereotyped estimates , and the requisite skill in massing his facts his countrymen seldom exhibit . It is a thoughtful and suggestive , if not a philosophic history . As a mere map of the subject the book is valuable . We have no other history of this period , and Schlosser's , therefore , becomes very important if only because it brings such a world of matter into compact and available shape . It is easier to find fault with it than to do without it . The same may be said of this translation which Messrs . Chapman and Hall have published , and for which the public ought to be very grateful . It is open to many objections , and yet , when we think of the advantage even to German readers , not to mention others , in possessing a translation of so bulky a work , we think lightly of them . Translations of works of art we hold to be mere expediences ; they are meant as substitutes , and should only be accepted by those ignorant of the original language . Philosophical works ngain suffer so materially from translation ( owing to the absence of real equivalents ) that they also must be accepted as substitutes . But works of information , such as history , lose little by translation , and that little is more than compensated by the rapidity with which they can be read . We would much rather have Mrs . Austin ' s Ranke than the German ; we would rather have this version of Schlosser than the original , although this version is neither elegant nor idiomatic . The earlier volumes swarm with faults . As he proceeds with his task , however , Mr . Davison acquires freedom ; and even in the earlier volumes the faults are no more than a set-off against the utility of his arrangement which brings all the literature together as the fitting peristyle of the whole . In case of a second edition there is one suggestion we would make . Beyond a rigorous revision of the style , which needs it excessively , the translator should get some well-informed literary man to correct his proofs , and not suffer errors like these : Thomas Paine is universally called Payne ¦ the disciple of Baumgarten is said to be Schulzcr instead of Sulzer ; and Paine ' s Common Sense is said " to have excited at the time almost the same attention as Die Worte eines Glaubigen ( words of a believer)—a sentence which will puzzle those who do not recal Lamennais' Paroles d ' un Croyant—by Schlosser , spoken of according to its ( ienrian title . Indeed , we may generally say that the translator's habit of giving English titles to the German books named by Schlosser is extremely miuleuding and purposeless : if the English be given tin ; German should be given at the same time ; if only one , the German . We have several times been at a loss to know what was the book spoken of , so completely does the English title disguise it . A mere survey of its contents will enable , any one to estimate the scope and importance of this work . Beginning with a review of literature and learning , to which two stout volumes are devoted , the remaining five are given to history , as commonly understood . The literature comprises all produced in England , Germany , and Franco that was remarkable , from Locke downwards . We shall have more to say on this portion hereafter ; meanwhile we must notice the incompleteness of a work on such a subject which erases Spain and
Italy altogether from the map . It is quite true that the French spirit animated Italian and Spanish literature ; but that must be said also of the German , and to a great extent of our own . If English nationality did manifest itself in defiance of French culture , not less so did the Italian nationality in Vico , Beccaria , Alfieri , and others . And it would have been a nice task for the historian to have shown the predominant influence of French thought , which was predominant not because it was French , but because it was the natural product of the centuries—an inevitable birth of time—a great phasis of humanity .
But quitting literature and descending into the arena of political history , let us see how Schlosser proceeds . First comes the great War of Succession in Spain with the oft-quoted Treaty of Utrecht . This is followed by the great Northern War and foundation of Russia as a power in Europe ; followed by the Austrian War of Succession and the Seven Years' War—those were fighting days , and their history is for the main part written in camps , though Schlosser has judiciously paid more attention to internal or political action . Then comes the important period from the end of the Seven Years' War to the American Revolution , with the Partition of Poland and the Fall of the Jesuits .
And then the great convulsion of the world named the French Revolution passes under review—two very large volumes ( VI . and VII . ) being occupied with it and Napoleon ' s career down to the Peace of Schonbrunn . The eighth volume—yet unpublished—will complete the work . Truly an important century , and crowded with historical matter ! There are four periods under which these masses of details naturally group themselves . The first period is that of the greatness of France , elevated upon the grinding degradation of the people , whose oppression was the source of the
magnificence of the court . This system , while its factitious splendour dazzled Europe , was so congenial to the tastes and predilections of the reigning classes that it soon became universal . Every crowned head aspired to be a Grand Monarque ; every courtier longed to form one of so magnificent a crowd . To this day men—especially literary and aristocratic men—look back with regret upon that " Augustan Age , " when " genius" was patronized , and when " elegance" was the apex of human
achievement ; the gay and thoughtless extravagance of a frivolous court brought with it so much " refinement , " that vice itself seemed to lose half its evil in losing all its grossness . Men are such children , and so prone to applaud all pageantry , that what wonder if the pageant magnificence of a court outblazoned all that was great and heroic in manhood , and if we , who gaze at it now , forget the sufferings of millions in this mummery of the few ? Who thinks of the dirty scene-shifter while wondering at the spectacle ?
The first period of the Eighteenth Century was what we may call The Courtier ' s epoch . The second period may be called the Epoch of Forcenot in the sense of Might being Right , and the Strongest for King—not in the sense of a Divine Right consecrating the crowned head—but in the sense of the Divine Might of Regiments and the power of corruption . England , no less than France , with her Regent Orleans and her Cardinal Dubois , thought that statesmanship consisted in gaining its own ends , without any regard to the means ; opponents were imprisoned or bought over . This is perhaps , on the whole , the most disgraceful and unheroic portion of modern history .
But , fostered in the first period , and rapidly encreasing in the second , we n : uy notice certain Principles which effectually overthrew all the calculations of both . The splendour of the court was greatly heightened by the congregation of all thnt genius and wit could furnish . The lance no longer graced the noble ' s hand ; the banners drooped heavily in old ancestral and deserted halls . The ancient sword of the Baron was hud aside . The Pen became a sword I Little did they who played with paradoxes and fostered wit , who were no
assiduous in the cultivation of tin ; intellect , and so careless as to morals—little did they suspect that their amusement was to become the destruction of their order ! Yet so it was . Thought waw emancipated : its temerity was hailed as genius ; it struck at the basis of society ; threw down all the old idols ; shuttered to pieces the notion of castes , and , by making intellect the great privilege of the human race , naturally brought forward quite a new character upon the stage of the great drama-- that character was Humanity in the abstract—the People not the Vew .
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Jan . 11 , 1851 . ] f t ) t leilllft . 39
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 11, 1851, page 39, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1865/page/15/
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