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Thomas Moore is dead . A long , active , successfuli happy life , closed nuietly and gently in its seventy-third spring . To the public he had been dead for many years , althpugh his Melodies arid pleasant verses lived in every house ; he had so completely withdrawn himself from the noisy current of our daily life , that his final withdrawal from life itself is scarcely an event , none but those immediately connected with him can consider it a loss . His place in our literature has long been definitely settled . Few dispute his position . His beauties are obvious , his pretensions moderate , his faults inoffensive . He was not a great poet , but he was , and will be ,
a great favourite ; and the secret of his success has been expressed , we think , in these felicitous words , taken from the finely-written essay in the Times of Monday : — te Most musical , most happy was his genius , and music and joyousness are careering in almost every syllable that he spoke . " This it is that makes even the fastidious pardon the tinsel which captivates the vulgar ey e with its glitter : under the tinsel a heart is beating ; the spangles and rouge , and false taste , and false sentiment , are worn with an air of irrepressible gaiety , of delicate sensibility , and of pervading pleasureableness . Tears and laughter—genuine both , though neither deeplie near the surface of his childlike nature . His verse had one great merit
—it went , straight as an arrow , to the common heart . This also is the great success of our great humorist , Dickens , who this month opens wide the doors of Bleak House , inviting us to enter . Before these lines reach you , you have read the whole number , —thought the desenption of the fog laboured , and not effective ; rubbed your hands , at the prospect of Dickens " working" the colossal nuisance of Chancery , recognised Sir Leicester Dedlock ' s British portrait , got a glimpse of the mystery lying beneath the calmness of his wife , enjoyed that " bit" of the small boy with his head through the railings , and the " person in pattens " who was " poking the child from below with a broom—I don't know with what object > and I don't think she did "—and thoroughly appreciated Mrs . Jellyby and her " telescopic philanthropy . " It is something to look forward to each " month , " with the Magazines . " ¦ ~ —; .
The Magazines this month are not peculiarly striking . Fraser opens with a review of Roebuck ' s History of the Whigs , fairly done , but too gentle on the book ' s pervading pettishness j . the admirable review of Sir James Stephen ' s Lectures is continued ; as also Digby Grand ' s amusing autobiography , and Kingsley ' s ambitious , but somewhat wearisome , Hypatia . The new series , under the title of Horcs Dramaticts , hy a renowned wit and scholar , will , we hope , better sustain his reputation in its succeeding papers : the drama he this month analyses has only the interest of curiosity . The notes on the ' State and Prospects of France are written by " one having authority , " and are very interesting .
Tait takes up the Sanitary Question" in its opening article , Preventible Deaths and the Law of Partnership in another article . The Letter to Lady Bulwer Lytton is right in spirit , but a little too harsh in form ; even her forgetfulness of her sex , and licence of expression , should not have tempted the writer into so angry a reply . From this article we learn that Lady Lytton is incensed against us , because an advertisement account was sent in from our publisher ' s to her for payment—a proceeding which she construes into an " insult . "
The third number of the British Journal exhibits decided improvement ; very pleasant is Mr . Cole ' s South African Incidents ; Angus-Beach assaults a Dozen Giants in truculent style ; Mrs . Cowden Clarke continues to discourse on Sympathy with Unknown People j and Frank Fairleigh continues his story . While touching upon periodicals , let us notice the ap pearance of The Scottish Athenteum , which contains a long poem by Alexander Smith , called The Page and the Lady , and niggard must be the lover of poetry who would not gladly give his threepence for that remarkable poem , as luxuriant in imagery as anything written by the young Keats .
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Louis Blanc ' s third volume of the Revolution Francaise , which promises to be his finest work , is out at last ; we shall notice it at length on some future occasion : meanwhile , we may direct attention to its new facts and new views , gathered in the course of patient research , especially in our invaluable collection of the British Museum . Loujs Blanc undertakes to prove that EgalitJq was not at the bottom of those conspiracies with which l > is name has been associated , but that the real culprit was the Comte de Provknck , afterwards Louis XVIII . de
BauANTK has . also published his third volume of the Ilis ^ oire la ' Conventio n Nationale , which comes down to the epoch of Carrier , at Nantes . 1 iurris Lbroux , who is now an exile in London , is about to deliver a course of lectures on the History of Socialism ; the interest of the subject , the curiosity felt for the man , and his own remarkable talent for exposition , will doubtless attract good audiences . Pierre Leroux has not only the necessary erudition for the task , he has also the prestige of having intimately known the modern Socialists .
Among the pleasant books recently published in Franco , let us mention AitsiaNE Houbsaye ' s volume of stories , Les Fillead * Eve , very piquant and Pencil iu its treatment ; and Leon Gozlan ' o history of a hundred and
thirty women , Le Niagara , wherein a Frenchman ' s knowledge of things EngUsh is illustrated as usual . ¦ : ¦¦ v
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An attempt is made , under vqry favourable auspices , to establish an incorporation of . the craft of authorship .: Such an incorporation as that set forth iu the prospectus among our advertisements , is needed , not for the cultivation of literature or art—corporations have never favoured either letters or art—but . for securing the personal welfare of men devoted to either . The agency is not invited in the desire for the growth of art , but in the desire to establish a means of personal benefit suited to the social condition . in which we live , and to the" relation which members of either
craft cannot avoid with trading operations . As it is , authors and artists are as helpless as any other of the working classes , who are busy , disunited , and not familiar with commercial transactions . The want of co-operation and organization is very generally felt . A literary man cannot sign a legal document without being reminded that he has no legal professional designation ; and probably he falls back upon the term " gentleman , " which has in law language a signification different from the herald ' s . In the Athenaeum Institute is an incorporation which would supply the desired professional status . The scheme also includes a provident fund for old age , a benefit fund for temporary need , an educational fund , a machinery
for protecting the interests of the profession , and a plan of insurance in connexion with an office already established and enjoying a high character By the project } the member would enjoy large benefits , certain or contingent , at a cost comparatively trifling . In the distance looms a common hall , with " chambers , " for the convenience of members ; in short , an Inn of Literature . The enterprise can be made certainly successful by the prompt co-operation of literary men and artists . It already is favoured with support from more than one distinguished man ; its pledged adherents belong to all parties- —or rather , in this brotherhood of the craft , to no party ; its success is promised in the excellent spirit with which it starts .
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SCIENCE AND SCEIPTUEE . The Relation oetweenjthe Holy Scriptures and some Parts of Geological Science . By John Pye Smith , B . D . Fifth Edition . With short Sketch of the Literary Life of the Author . By J . Hamilton Davies , B > A . ( Bohn ' $ Scientific Library . ) H . G-. Bohn . Science versus Scripture : the grand struggle of the world lies there ! For three centuries , with ever-increasing velocity , the minds of men have been irresistibly drawn to this conclusion j and since the discoveries of positive science carry with them the inestimable and convincing privilege
of demonstration , so that men in vain endeavour to resist them , the last refuge of theology has been to reconcile these discoveries with the precise language of Scripture . The march of science has been a rapid conquest ; and affrighted theology sees its most formidable enemy gradually assuming its place in men ' s minds . The fanatical theologian , thunders against science ; the theologian , whose candour and sagacity prevent his thus condemning human inquiry , and rejecting ascertained truths , tasks his ingenuity to reconcile to his own mind the palpable contradiction between Genesis and Lvell ' s ^ Elements . __ _ _
One of these candid and truly religious minds was Dr . Pye Smith , whose work on geology and Scripture , Mr . Bohn has recently issued in in his Scientific Library . Five editions testify to the popularity of this book . We should be glad to hear of five more , for it is an admirable treatise , handling a delicate and all-important topic , interesting in its details , and , above all , interesting for the candour , philosophy , and high moral tone it displays . We have read no such work on the orthodox sido . If we cannot but regard it as most de structive o £ that very orthodoxy ifc is written to support , the reason is , that no candid statement can , in our opinion , have any other tendency ; and this work is ' so candid , that we are content to let the cause be judged by its own showing . There are four distinct topics treated in this volume . I . A defence of the study of scienceand the acceptance of its conclusions—a defence
, rendered necessary by the vehement denunciations of theologians , whoso instinct told them truly when it told them to dread science as their merciless destroyer . II . A statement of the principal contradictions between the express language of Scripture and the irresistible conclusions of geology . III . A refutation of the various attempts to " reconcile those statements by declaring the language to bo metaphorical—e . g ., that a " day" means an epoch of thousands of years . IV . Dr . Smith s own proposal for adopting the statements ia Genesis to modern views . We leave the first-mentioned topic untouched . The other three shall
bo briefly examined . . Dr . Smith gives up the notion of Eden as a general centre ot creation : " It is not Geology merely , but other branches of Natural History , that arc contradicted by this interpretation of tho Scriptures . The fossil remains , whether animal or vegetable , which are found embedded in tho strata of different formations , aro in general spread over a large surface ; especially so , as wo go back to the earlier classes of rocks : but tho extent of surface is limited , in both latitude and longitude . This also is the case in the most striking manner , with respect to the present distribution of the earth ' s vegetable and animal tenantry ; tho condition to which the subject before ua precisely refers . Eden , tho region occupied
by tho first human pair , and tho aimpalti and . plants , associated with thorn , provided for their use , and subjected to their dominion , was in tho finest part of tho teinporato zone . The porsons who implicitly receive the opinion just-mentioned , hare perhaps never asked themselves how animals , which the Creator has formed with tho moot preciso and perfect adaptations to widely different conditions of habitation , could subsist , even for a fow days , in or around tho original paradise : or , if this difficulty ho evaded , by a presumptuous evocation of miracles , or some other arbitrary supposition , tho further inquiry prosonts itself , by what means tho respective races , whothor progenitors of descendants , could make their way to congenial clime *; eomo to the regions of fierce equatorial heat , othere to those of
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rviKes are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not uriw-ve . -j ^ i aws _ tEey interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Jteview .
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Btoca 6 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER ; & ®
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Leader (1850-1860), March 6, 1852, page 229, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1925/page/17/
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