Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 27th September 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 923

Page 923
Page 15
15 of 24

On this page

  • Text (4)
  • Transcript

    • 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.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      about to issue an edition of her works at twopence a part , which will make the cost of the complete set only twenty shillings . Not long since we announced that the virtuous Leon Fauchbr had suspended the performance of Balzac ' s brilliant comedy Mercadet , until certain passages offensive to the susceptibility of virtuous politicians were removed . We have now read the comedy with unusual attention , and are perfectly bewildered as to what passages could have alarmed the Ministerial conscience . Poor Faucher , to be sunk so low as that ! Only last week he gave

      another specimen of his quality . In a one-act comedy , performed at the Odeon ( the Sadler's Wells of Paris ) , called Sous les Pampres , the word EmpSreur ( applied to C ^ sar ) is everywhere effaced , and dictateur substituted . Does the virtuous Faucher mean that Cssar was not an Emperor ? or does he think the word too august to be profaned by comic poets ? As Leon Faucher probably had once some " acquaintance with the classics , " let us remind him that Julius Caesar , like a

      veritable Emperor , when Catullus wrote a stinging epigram against him , did not believe that Rome was in danger , or that the poet ought to expiate his boldness in prison—he simply invited Catullus to supper ! Will the Hero of Strasburg open the Elysee to his satirists ?

      Untitled Article

      Donoso- Cortes , the Spanish publicist , in an essay on Catholicism , Liberalism , and Socialism , eloquently points out the present condition of Europe as having but two possible issues—either Catholicism or Socialism ; either the reestablishment of Absolute Authority , or the triumph of unlimited Liberty . Choose , he says , between the doctrine of original sin and necessity of evil , and the doctrine of the final disappearance of evil through the gradual perfectibility of man . If the first , you must be Catholic ; if the second , you must be Socialist . He sees no logical compromise ; nor do we . He is a stanch Catholic . Reason and

      Liberty are to him words of terror . They are firebrands ; they can do nothing unassisted , except prepare the triumph of Satan . The guidance must come from above . Beneath the shadow of the Church , menaced society may repose in safety ; there , and only there ! If the Church be the only capable monitress of nations—if Society can find refuge only within her fold—why has the Church suffered it to escape ? Why during three long centuries has the opposition been so deeply spread ?

      It is something , however , to hear Spain raise her voice even in defence of Catholicism , for the " moral pestilence" ( liberty of thought ) has penetrated even there , as we are reminded by our excellent comrade Ija Trlbuna del Pueblo , a Democratic : paper published in Madrid . This journal is established for a purpose which in Spanish has a strange accent to our ears : — " We come not to destroy but to propose ideas of reform ; we come not to implore pity , but to expound the doctrines accepted by thinking men ,

      that the People may see them , may meditate on them , and reject them as noxious , or accept them as beneficial . " That m the mission of La Tribuna del Pueblo , a paper which proclaims Liberty of thought as the greatest of modern conquests 1 In Spain ! in the land of the Inquisition ! We should add , however , that ; the journal lias been " suppressed " three times in the space of one fortnight ; but the fact is significant that freedom of opinion has its oman even there .

      1 hero , and beyond . Brazil , too , has its energetic People ' s party . The Apostolo do Norte , several numbers of which we have , looked over , hoists the Hag of "Cod and tin ; Republic : " Dens- e a Hepnblica Universal ; with this motto : — "The Apostle of the North holds no compromise with the inoiiarchial factions ( eom as fieeoes monui chias I ) it is the organ of Universal Republicanism — of Liberty and Order . " Our Brazilian confrere < 1 oc . h not mince phrases ; he is resolved to sweep away the " official anarch y" which distracts his country , and for that purpose he will preach

      Democracy in energetic language . Which he does . He quotes Burke , too ( though he will persist in calling him Burck and Burckb ) , and delares that all the monarchies in Europe are " off the rail " or dying ( desorientados e moribundos ) , and speaks of the Cabinet of St . James ' s being governed by jLord Palmerston , whom he does not admire as Foreign Minister .

      These facts may seem trifling ; but to those who reflect on the solidarity of nations ( an awkward word , but we want an equivalent ) every indication of the spread of Democratic principles is welcome . If Europe is to become Republican or Cossack , we must look out for such " signs of the times . "

      Untitled Article

      G . P . R . JAMES S LOUIS XIV . The Life and Times of Louis the Fourteenth . By G . P . B , James . Esq . Two vols . ( Bohn ' s Standard Library . ) H . G . Bohn . This work will prove an acceptable variety in the excellent series Mr . Bohn issues , although not by any means of equal importance with the majority of those published in the Standard Library . G . P . R . James has a reputation which will serve to fix attention on this history ; and the reign of Louis XIV . is so important , so varied , and so interesting , that no treatment can rebut the reader .

      We are of that class of quidnuncs who desire that History be treated in a grave conscientious manner ; for we look upon it as one of the noblest employments of literature , speaking as it does of the anterior existence of Humanity , and enabling us to connect this our transitory life with the life of the whole Past . But although our standard be high , we can accept works having humbler pretensions ; There must be gradations in literature . Hundreds who would throw aside a better , will read pleasantly such a book as this Life and Times

      of Louis XIV . Its aim is not ambitious . The careless " general reader" is addressed , not the historical student ; above all , not the philosopher . Mr . James , like Alexander Dumas and Lamartine , confines himself to telling the story over again in his own words ; and as little or no trouble is taken in sifting authorities and criticising statements , he deems it unnecessary to adduce in the footnotes the authorities upon which he relies . All this would be reprehensible in a more ambitious work ; it is quite justifiable in a history such as the present .

      Let our commendation , therefore , be distinctly understood as implying no more than that this Life and Times of Louis XIV . is a readable narrative of an eventful reign , treated anecdotically instead of historically , and making no demand upon the reader ' s thought as it probably made but little on the writer ' s . In all the higher requisites of a history—as we conceive it—the work is deficient . But if you remember the style of historical disquisition and characterization which prevails in Mr . James ' s novels you will form an accurate idea of the style of this book—its merits and demerits . Let us take a sample of its more ambitious pages to exhibit this : —

      " Could the astrologer Movin , who was concealed in the chumbcr of Anne of Austria at the moment when she was giving birth to Louis XIV ., have really foretold the late of the child who was at that instant ushered into being , how strange , how overpowering , would have been , the vision of the future which his eye beheld ! How astounding would it have been to huve looked forward upon the chungii which that one inan ' B life wrought upon the state of society in Europe : to have beheld in one glance the rise , tho triumph , and the fall of one destined to influence throughout existence not alone a king ! loin but a world . " Very sonorous and intcrjectional , is it not ? but if the meaning be impertinently sought , a certain disappointment will be inevitable . No doubt the astrologer would have been astonished could he have seen in one glance the " vision of the future "the crowded pageant of European progress embraced within the period of one long life ; but the remark is scarcely to be considered a . s cither novel or striking ; and it applies with the same force ; to the infant Jones as to the infant Louis Capet ;

      therefore , as the opening sentence of a history—as the key-note—we do not think it well chosen . At the worst , however , it \ n but a platitude . The next sentence , if it means what it Hsiys , implies a popular , but very false conception of social movement , viz ., that Louis himself , by his personal influence , wrought the great changes which were evolved during his reign ! The habit of rounding a sentence with indifference an to moaning , common enough in novelists , makeH Mr . James talk of "the

      rise , the triumph , and the fall" of Louis . It may be thought that we are microscop ic in our criticism ; but we have taken the opening passage , one evidently elaborated for effect , and we have taken it because it is a fair sample of the style . The book is a hasty production , meant for hasty reading . Hence , when you meet with passages like the one just quoted , you consider it as the music which accompanies and animates a march ; the rolling drums and blazing trumpets may not satisfy a musical

      connoisseur , but they cheer the weary soldier . So , when Mr . James in what he calls a sketch of society during the reign of Louis XIII ., weaves together a few not very significant anecdotes taken from memoirs of the time , you are not to suppose they really convey any adequate idea of the society , but are meant to " enliven " the gravity of facts by the piquancy of fiction . When he tells you that " female virtue was held as nought throughout the land" you accept it as the loose generalization of one who cares more for a well-turned sentence than

      for a precise expression . And after all , the sentences are but indifferently turned ! It is surely needless to protest against such a sweeping phrase as that on women being accepted literally . The state of female virtue in France was never an exemplar , but to suppose that libertinage was at any time universal is to misconceive the very nature of society—the dames galantes may have been more or less numerous ; but the mass of women were always virtuous . Bussy Rabutin , the dissolute dog , might write to his charming cousin , Madame de Sevigne , " Vous vous anmsez apres la

      vertu comrne si e ' etait une chose solide—you run after virtue as if it were a reality ; " but she , and thousands of others , knew better than Bussy . We will not enter into the discussion which might be opened by the subtle remark of the mother of the celebrated Duchesse de Longueville , that many are chaste with their persons , but who will answer for their thoughts ? Beaucoup de femmes sont vertueuses de la ceinture en bas ; mais de la ceinture en , haut qui pourrait en repondre ? Nor will we touch on

      those piquant instances of capitulations with conscience— -the union of devoutness with gallantrywhich abound in the anecdotical history of the time ; all of which may be summed up in this reproach , murmured by a woman celebrated for her gallantries , while caressing her lover , the Count de Fiesque : — " My little pet , I have a charge against you ... you do not pay your devotions to the Virgin ! Ah ! you neglect the Virgin ! that gives me extreme pain !" historians and

      It is usually forgotten by essayists that the virtuous women make no figure in the chronicles of the time , simply because they were virtuous . They realized the ideal of Thucydides that a woman should escape notice ! But some of them , by the very eminence of their positions , do force themselves upon our notice , and we would ask those who talk of the dissoluteness of women in France during the seventeenth century to remember the reliyieuses of Port Royal , the mother and daughter of Fouquet , the daughters of Colbert , Madame Pontchartrain , Marie Martinuzzi , the sisters of Arnauld and Pascal , Madame Guyon , and a whole list of virtuous women .

      But we are wandering from Mr . James and this edition of his book , which is in two compact volumes , with an index . Mr . Bohn cannot be too often thanked for the solicitude he exhibits to make his publications useful by appending indexes to them : works ten times as costly are constantly issued without an index ; and in some eases it would be worth the student ' s while to purchase an edition of any work in this Standard Library , if only for its index—that , is , assuming his own edition to be without one .

      Untitled Article

      I'KOUDIION ON ASSOCIATION . Idee ( initiate dr . lit Itr ' volution , < iu XIX ftirclc- Clioix d'EtudcM sur In I'latiquc Ufvolutionmiirt ' . ft Iiulunlriclle . Par . J ' . J . rioudlion . W . . /<¦(!« . ( Third Notice . ) Proijdiion has , from the first , been the most redoubted of the opponents of Communism , and all those schemes of Socialism , which have been , as wo must confess , ho prematurely and iinpliilosophicalry set down for the regulation of society . Thin opposition on Proudhon ' n part is not , as some idly assert , the Itihraadito tendency to destroy—the impatience at other men ' s systems ; it in fundamental , and issues from his very method , which we may remind the reader in that Method of Contradictions or Doctrine of Opposite * to be met with in various HcIiooIh of Philosophy : the icpo <; cx . W-qhcc ocvTiKtijAtvuv mynOevtc of theKleoticB ; the "Antinomies of Reason "

      Untitled Article

      Sept . , 1851 . ] gftg ftra&fr , 923

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1851, page 923, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1902/page/15/