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Literature.
literature .
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In default of literary gossip this week , we will say a word on Faraday ' s lecture , " On the Magnetic Forces , " at the Royal Institution ; a lecture which commanded the attention of the most crowded audience we remember within those walls . Faraday is still pursuing his researches , and has not yet arrived at any conclusion sufficiently definite to bring forward ; but he gave one of his admirable expositions of the Dature and objects of his search in determining magnetic force ; and called attention to a most remarkable and far-reaching discovery recently made , a discovery which , while it opens new tracks " In the shadowy thoroughfares of thought , "
well illustrates the value of all direct and accurate observation , even when the observation seems to have little practical application . It is this . A German astronomer has for many years been watching the spots on the sun , and daily recording the result . From year to year the groups of spots vary . They are sometimes very numerous , sometimes they are few . After awhile it became evident that the variation in number followed a descending scale through five years , and then an ascending scale through five
subsequent years , so that the periodicity of the variations became a visible fact . Now , of what use , asks the practical Jones , is this fact ? We know that every ten years there has been a cycle of variations ; what then ? What are these said spots , what do the groups mean , how do they affect us ? Jones sees nothing but astral twaddling in this patient observation . And in truth , so long as the fact remains an isolated fact , it is silent to us ; but connect it with some other fact , and it may discourse significantly . Can this be done ? There seems good hope it may .
While our German friend was busy with his groups of sun-spots , an Englishman was busy with the variations of the magnetic needle . He , too , was a patient recorder of patient observation . On comparing his tabular results with those of the German astronomer , he found that the variations of the magnetic needle corresponded with the variations of the sun-spots , — that the years when the groups were at their maximum , the variations of the needle were at their maximum , and so on through the series . This relation may be coincident . merely , or derivative ; if the latter , then do we connect astral and terrestrial magnetism , and new reaches of science are open to us !
How beautifully this illustrates the slow and certain conquests of Science , compared with the rapid and illusory usurpations of Metaphysics ! The facile method of a metaphysician would have been employed in vain upon these sunspots . The " depths of moral consciousness" might have been ransacked , and die Idee zu construiren—the construction of the true Idea would have been hopeless . Nature answers if we " interrogate ; " but only if we interrogate her , not if we interrogate ourselves . She will have nothing to say to the Idee als solches !
And yet on the other hand this discovery ( if it be one ) lends only partial countenance to the narrow dogmatism of the " fact men . " Observation was necessary ; it was the laborious Hodman toiling with a weight of bricks , not the great Architect , Avho shaped bricks into palaces and cathedrals . Without the facts no progress was possible , nor was it possible with them , if they were unaccompanied by " ' s large discourse of reason looking before and after . " Science is the synthesis of facts . It is the Temple built by the soul from the materials furnished by Nature , wherein the soul may fitly worship Nature ' s God ; and if Science has ever seemed irreligious , it is because the thinkers were not truly scientific .
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In answer to some queries about Spontaneous Combustion—a subject exciting interest just now—we repeat our intention of investigating the subject and bringing the results before our readers . We have not had the time to gather together the authorities cited by Chakl . ks Dickkns , and until we have done so , and carefully examined them , discussion must be in abeyance . Our columns arc open , however , to all opinions . Let correspondents furnish their evidence and arguments , they will meet with j ; hat attention uniformly accorded by us to differences of opinion .
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THE JtKLTG-TON FOR OUlt AUK . Ten Sermons on Religion , liy Theodore Parker . John Chapman . We seize on iho volumo Theodore Parker has just published , an an excellent opportunity for saying a few wordn in the more positive direction <>( our religious views . The accidents of position , the necessities of combat , make us often assume hore an antagonism which , though needful , is wearisome . Wo are constantly criticising , denying ; wo are Holdom affirming . A journal like ? ours must take its topics from the hour . I ' t must bo antagonistic whenever the adversary descends into the arena . It can only be positive on the raro occasions afforded by its own cause . A . series of negative articles wort ) writton on Butlers Analogy ; a series of positive articles may now appear on Parker ' s Sermons . Theodore Parker , us every reader probably knows , in a celebrated American preacher , who , having worked his way through all formal theology , and cjihI ; aside us fulse or obstructive everything but the central ideas of Christianity , speaks to the present generation with the boldness of conviction , and the warmth of a lofty passion , bidding it cease to quarrel over , and to ossify itself in the details and formulas which have from timo to time been sot up as the embodiments of the religious spirit , and
bidding it rather fix its devout eyes upon the real significance of Religion . For all religious men are tolerably agreed upon essentials ; they onlydispute over collaterals . In the hearts of all there is agreement ; in theories alone is there discord . That God is Truth , Love , Justice , Omnipotence , no one denies . That Religion is a binding together of all our faculties—the keystone of our being's arch . —no less than the binding together of all men into one humanity , the keystone of the social archthat to live a noble life , to live a happy life , it is imperative we should follow TruthLoveand Justice , which is the act of both—no man , be his
, , sect what it may , will for a moment deny . If no man reaches that ideal standard , all men have that standard as their aim . In the silent hours of serious thought it is clear to us all ¦ in the turmoil of daily needs it is more or less consciously operative . We fall away from it ! we lie , we hate , we err ! we think injustice , and act it too ! we are weary , and faint , and sad , but still the loosened keystone of the arch , though shaken , is never utterl y thrown down ; and over the crumbling mortar we mourn , as a soul in rums ever will mourn !
Now , if this agreement exists , by what short-sighted tyranny of opinion is it that men refuse to act on this agreement , and persist in quarrelling over details ? If Religion be love of God and love of Man , why do we start off from the proper culture of those emotions into sectarian disputes respectingtheformtheseshallassuine P Love is love , though spoken in Arabic differently from its language in English . We , of the Leader , have abundantly shown how perfectly we believe in the sincerity of the most diverse forms of belief ; and have only protested against them when they were to be imposed on those who rejected them , or when they seemed to obstruct the very aim they wished to reach . Let us see how Theodore Parker
understands the aim and scope of Religion . His first sermon is on the Relation of Piety to Manly Life . By a psychological distribution , which is very arbitrary and questionable , but which serves his purpose , he divides the faculties of the human spirit into four classes : the intellectual ( including the sesthetical ) , the moral , the affectional , and the religious , or Mind , Conscience , Heart , and Soul . This is not an acceptable classification , but it is only advanced for the sake of " convenience , " and we let it pass .
" I shall take it for granted that the great work of mankind on earth is to live a manly life , to use , develop , and enjoy every limb of the body , every faculty of the spirit , each in its just proportion , all in their proper place , duly co-ordinating what is merely personal , and for the present time , with what is universal and for ever . This being so , what place ought piety , the love of God , to hold in a manlylife ? It seems to me , that piety lies at the basis of all manly excellence . " He then undertakes to prove this proposition , by showing how the spirit of man is in proportion to its clearness and purity animated by this piety : —
" The Mind contemplates God as manifested , in truth ; for truth—in tlio wide meaning of the word including also a comprehension of the useful and the beautiful —is the universal category of intellectual cognition . To love God . witli the mind , is to love him as manifesting himself in the truth , or to the mind ; it is to love truth , not for its uses , but for itself , because it is true , absolutely beautiful , and . lovely to the mind . In finite things we read the infinite truth , the absolute object of the mind . " Love of truth is a great intellectual excellence ; but it is plain you must have the universal love of universal truth before you can have any special love for any particular truth whatsoever ; for in all intellectual affairs the universal is the logical condition of the special .
" Love of truth in general is the intellectual part of piety . We see at once that this lies at the basis of all intellectual excellence , —at love of truth in art , in science , in law , in common life . Without it you may love the convenience of truth in its various forms , useful or beautiful ; but that is quite different from loving irulh itself . You often find men who love the uses of truth , but not truth ; they wish to have truth on their side , but not to be on the side of truth . " In the same way Conscience contemplates God as Justice , or the love of right : — " The love of right is the moral part of piety . This lies at the basis of all moral excellence whatever . Without this you may love right for its uses ; but if only
so , it is not right you love , but only the convenience ib may bring you your Hellish schemes . None was so ready to draw the sword for Jesus , or look after tho money spent upon him , as the disciples who straightway denied and betrayed him . Many wish right on their . side , who take . small heed to be on the side of right . You shall find men enough who seem to love right in general , because they clamour for a specific , particular right ; but ere long it becomes plain they only love tho personal convenience they hope therefrom . The people of tho United States claim
to love the unnlienable right of man to life , liberty , and the pursuit of happiness . IJut the long-continued cry of three million slaves , groaning under tho American yoke , shows beyond question or c ;( Vil that it is not , the universal and unnlienablo right which they love , but , only the selfish advantage ; it affords them . If you lovo the right , us right ; , for itself , because it is absolutely beautiful to your conscience , then you will no more deprive another of it than . submit , yourself to be deprived thereof . Kven the robber will fight for his own . Tho man who knows no better rests in tho . selfish lovo of tho private use of 11 special right . "
The Heart and the Soul are similarl y considered , but with less hhccoss , in our opinion , because the psychology is inaccurate . Tho result , howeven-, of tho whole survey in to show how naturally tho human soul in its free energetic action shapes itself according to religious aims ; and that , deepl y considered , Religion is not , dependent on " orthodoxy , hut on sincerity—not on Tightness , but on uprightness : — " There may bo nn unconscious piety : l . h « man does not , know that ho loves universal truth , justice , love ; loves ( Jod- Ho only thinks of tho special truth * justice , and love ] which he prizes . JI « does not reflect upon it ; doe * not aim to . love ( iod in this way , yet does it , nevertheless . Many a philosopher ho » seemed ! without religion even to a careful observer ; sometimes has passed for an atheist . Some of them have , ( , <> themselves seemed without , any religion , and \ iavo denied )
that there was any God . Hut . all the while their nature was truer Uum their will ; their instinct , kept their personal wholeness better than they were aware . These men loved ulwoluto truth , not for its uses , but , for itself ; they laid down their lives for it , rather thim vioji » f » the integrity of tinny intelleoL . They had fchv iutcN ^ tual
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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 enforcethem . — Edinburgh Review .
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January 29 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . Ill
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 29, 1853, page 111, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1971/page/15/
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