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Worthy , perhaps , of a passing , mention in the literary gossip of the day , is the foundation of anew club , which anay end ^ as . so manybefore it have ended , in utter insignificance , but which may also grow into celebrity , and have a history of its own- ¦ We allude to the FiriLDiUrfc Club , the members of which , limited to fifty , are dratvnfrom various classes , — authors , artists , guardsmen , lawyers , actors , M . P . ' s , noblemen , and « ' clubable men , " as Johnson called Goldsmith , like the old clubs of Johnson ' s , day , this , is meant only as , a , meeting of wits . A weekly dinner and an evening ¦> lounge comprisej we . believe , the whole of its objects : it is for tlTose wtra ^ lke wit combats , not for bachelors in want of a luxurious home .
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The prospectus of a new literary journal is before us , Hie Scottish Atheyiaum , which is to make its appearance on the -1 st . of March , and % o continue every fortnight . Until the journal has , actually appeared , it may be idle to offer remarks upon its scope and purpose , yet we cannot refrain from making two friendly suggestions , to be weighed and treated according to their worth . The first suggestion's , that instead of imitating the Atherueilm , the new journal should depart as widely from it as possible , in construction , in purpose , and in tone . A journal should have its Own individuality ; the more it resembles another , the less need there is fqr its existence . If Scotland wants an Athenamm , there is an , excelled . paper , of that name ready to hand . Give Scotland a new journal , a ^ dithere , is
* ' ample room and verge enough" for as many as can be invented ; but we greatly doubt if new writers , without a new organ , will find a public Scotland is not , intellectually , so separated from England as to need an Athenaeum of its own , that shall be a copy of the English journal . One great and important feature we can at once indicate , as sufficient'to give a distinctive position to the new work , and our second suggestion lias reference to it . The Athenceum and Literary Gazette both eschew politics and religion , a limitation of the field of literature which seriously detracts from their value , although it gives them a distinctive position . Let our Scottish friends boldly resolve to open the arena of discussion ; let theth !) treat politics and religion in a high , serious , and abstract spirit , with generous
recognition of the diversities of parties , and tnagnaminous disregard of what is called " consistency , " - —notr tying down contributors to any programme of settled minutise , but allowing latitude to individual thought , and making the general tendencies of the journal sufficiently broad and coherent to counteract any special divergency;—then indeed they may stand a chance of creating a powerful organ . We anticipate the answer : Politics and Religion are too agitating for the calm amenities of Literature , —people who can come to no agreement on the two former , will shake hands over the latter ! That answer is specious , and not sound . You cannot separate literature from the two great and serious influences ; or , if you do so , Literature is a summer holiday ' s amusement , and no more .
The objection is sometimes made to us by sincere , but short-sighted well-wishers , who regret that the Leader should risk its success , by the introduction of religion . " Newspapers , " we are told , " are not the proper place for religion . " We presume to think otherwise . Wherever we cast our eyes , we see social life inextricably interwoyen with religion , which is everywhere an animating Impulse , or a formidable Obstacle . In Science , in Art , in Literature , in Morals , in Politics , we can sound the bottom nowhere without touching religion . At the three typical events of life—at birth , marriage , and death , —at the cradle , the altar , and the grave , we are confronted by this religion , which you would have us pass in silence ! If newspapers have not to treat that grave and all-embracing subject , their object is contemptible .
In the Rambler for . this month , there is an article by a French bishop , on the propriety of journalists treating religious questions . We have only to replace the word catholic by spiritualistic , and the following passage expresses our views :- *¦—"Ignorance in religious matters , and indifference , its inevitable result , are undoubtedly the two great plnpues of our day . Now it is certain that in the present Htate of things there is nothing better calculated , in the long-run , to remedy the evil in the masaos of the population than religious journalism . Without it , the greater number of catholic questions would no longer be even mooted in the world , whereas in consequence of its oxistenco they are necessarily studied ; in the first
instance luy the lay editorB , who may probably make a fow blunders nt starting , but who , needing as they do the countenance of tho clergy , will soon take care to make thomeelvea competently acquainted with such aubjeots ; they will be studied , in tho next place , by tho lay subscribers to thoBo journals , who , generally Hpeaking , would never havo tho resolution to open a theological work , but who will willingly give their attontion to some occasional theological discussion introduced jnto the columns of a journal ; tho ' y will oven bo studied by lay writers inimical to religion , who being Hoinetime » undor tho noooa « ity of engaging in dispute with the roligiouH periodicals , would expowo themselves to the mortification of making gross mistaken if they did not Btudy their adversaries * doctrines . "
If our objecting friends will consider the matter for awhile , they will nee that it is not our introduction of religion , so much as our introduction of religious views at variance with all shades of orthodoxy , which prompts their council . The Times , the Chronicle , the Standard , and the Nonconformist are not told to forbear from touching religious questions j then why should we forbear ?—because our beliefs are at variance with
established churches ? Caution might whisper such a thing , but Conviction disdains to lend * m eturto j it ! Other creeds ; have their organ ; the Leader is the organ of . & creed lyh ^ ch is , more , or less conscipusly , the creed of vast numbers ( w , e will , not s ^ thinking minds of Europe—a creed which , rejecting % tt the forms of revealed religion , is yet able , in a ) r sincerity , to respect Hiose forms , because of its cardinal principle . We hold that the religious sejntiinenfc is the same in all i men ( differing only in degree ) , and the intellectual forms , or dogmas , which that sentiment may ^ accept , are nothing more than the efforts of the Intellect to -explain the great iriysteries all ^ feeLand none can penetrate : this man accepts the Swede ii ^ riian' expl ^ tioii , ^ hafc ijian the M ^ ometan V thite
^ all , eachCik fprceil . in humility to Own that ; God is inscrutable j We , in the Leader , act upon ilmjl ; qpnyiction ; because -w ^ be % ye C ^ tic * jbe inscrutable , we distrust-alt itheplogies that pretend to be ? mor , e ithan the formulas of a faith which , though ineradicable * is notcapable 0 | f ' intellectual proof . We may , without vain boasting * appeal to our ^ treatment of janiagonists in proof Of the respect with which we view every cidnvicKbn , no matter how opposed to our own . A sarcasm may escape us now and theiij a phrase more bitter than becomes [ philosophy ma ^ sowetunes ; b ^ ^ ip \ g sit an absurdity ; for we haye no immunity from . error , a-nd % U short pf our own standard , like other men ? but on great occasions , and in the general conduet of discussion , we . appeal to . our . readers to decide whether we have not uniformly upheld and practised the principles of fuU religious liberty ? f
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I » l , a . TO tejfe us how , at tb ^ e grand banquet given inj-Qlyyapus m hanpur of th ^ birth erf Venus , the gu ^ woman , pale and wan withhunger * / who stretched forth * her ; hands ; imploringly for food . -Her name was Poverty . " ! Before 1 the birth of man she was ; arid— -if we are to" believe Job ' s " 'comforters ,-the v ed 6 noniists-Mhe will live tillthe end of time . That tbe " poor shall "' fidt' die lifat of the land" sterns : to . ^ any ia , consolatory crfeed , | anC their angryscorn ; pfthosewhp indulge the fond hope , of extirpating the evil of pauperism . That poverty and misery have always , accompanied man , is an historical ^ fact ; that ^ hey always and inevitably mustido . 'so , is a prophecy we refuse to accept 5 though M . 'G arne , in = an able article 'in -La'Bevue des Dettos Mondes , endeavoursto convirteeusof itstruth , declaring it to be a " fundamental law of human nature' * - — 'tis ¦ ¦ - ¦ .... ; ., ; i / .,, r .,, [; ¦;» I ,. - - ¦ _ ¦ .. ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦¦¦¦ : ¦¦ -v --: - ¦ ¦ . ' ¦ •/¦ - ¦ . ~ l ' i : ¦ - .:. ¦¦ : ' ¦ ' - ( ¦ ¦
. : f . I ^! tmy ; iftn # h | inflable , a 8-peath . " .:,.,. ; .. . ; ,, .: ;; ..-. . ; ,. Looking at human history as we do , the prbph ^ y ^« eemS singularly unwarrantable . That Want should have bhecqtietedtUe'ldt ( jf ljgnorpni man is conceivable enough ^ dpubtless th ^ chimpanzee , prowUnj ^ through the woods , is sometimes hard pushed for' / oo ^ , ijptl ^ i ^ e . ' . ' ^ op ^ grows ' -lean , and irritable upon insufficient nourishmen , t i but . ^ hfttj mau shpuld never bq able to control his destiny by forethought and ^ conquest ov « r iNatwre—that his science and care should not provide against famine , over-population , and the inequalities of fortune , that is what we Cannot believe i if it be Utopian to hold such Views , be it ours to deserve the name of Utdtiists !
Curious it is to notice the sophisms of optimism in tins matter . The fact of Want being a terrible , reality there is no gainsaying , has forced religious optimists to reconcile it with ., their ideas of beneyplence . But to them all reconcilements of that kind are facile , n St . Augustin wad one of the first j he escaped the difficulty toy a bold assertion * - * " God has willed that we should all bear bur burdens : the 1 'burd en 1 Of'the poor is want , the Wrden p f the rich is weajth . " This 1 s" one TVay of eqtializir ^ buMens , certainly . Tlie burden of wealth—^ wh'bsc back' is ioo weak to bear that ? Whom do we find anxious to , . unburtfeen himself of it ? ,
Something of the same intrepidity of sophism we find in a recent worK by a Dr . Duncan , called . God in Disease j or , the Manifestations . of Design in Morbid' Phenomena , —wherein he undertakes to point out the " contrivance" and the " Divine beneficence" of disease 1 That a man should ever have stood by the bedside of patients , shbuldhave walked the hospitals , aftd seen the lingering life-long sufferings cpniaequent upOn sonic accident resulting from no crime greater tjian tliat of st ^ pp ? ing on an ^ uuobserved piece of orange-peel , and then deliberately attribute ; these suftcringB to the contrivance' ? of a " Divine beneficence , " is , to our minds , a most painful evidence of the moral and mental perversion which current religious dogmas effect .
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HISTORY OF TIIK WHIGS . , History of the Whig Ministry o /> 1880 to the Passing of thaKrfw * Bil 1 ' By i S Arthur Roebuck , M . P . % vols . ; Jol * uW . Parker aud bon Anxious as wo arc to respond to the natural eagerness of curiosity on <¦> part of readers to know Vail a , bout" Mr . ltoebuok ' s now worJr , wi » seems to havo boon delayed , in order to appear at the very moment v . « " oxpoctation sits higli in tie air . " and public feeling , agitated bV j ' hopos ; fears , and scoriis su ^ gbMed by liord John / a now Bill , lends , to w volumes thointerest .. of q , pamphlet , —Anxious da wo are , yet tho * ett ™ £ faculty being limited , and the demands thereon almost wnlimitod ^ wo . v ^ not this wookvohtUro on an estimate of the History < tf the Wfaa J * f * ' & certain scruples—popularly discredited—about not havin g read tlie w
preventing us . Only two-thirds of the first volume have as yev » maRtered , and we must content ourselves this week with nn extract or ^ Tho History does not , as wo were given to understand , come . ^ g 2 , the present time ; it ceases with the passing of the Beform BlU frJ ^ 1 , J ^ e and the author only contemplates bringing it down to 1884 . 1 W
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156 ' THE LEADER . ^ Q SA ^ ADaY ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 14, 1852, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1922/page/16/
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