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Leader (1850-1860), 21st June 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 593, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      A goop lesson in tlie real art of agitating difficult and delicate questions of Social Reform may be gained by following the procedure of tbat " Society for the Repeal of the Laws Relating to the Property of Married Women " to which , we have more than once alluded . Any attempt to interfere with

      marriage laws rouses the apprehensive opposition of husbands and wives ; no matter how unjust logic may prove the laws to be , " popular instinct "which too often means organized selfishness—revolts against a hint at reform . It is to be confessed , also , that our American friends and their Eng lish imitators have betrayed the cause they meant to defend ; and the woman question has incurred the double odium of being dangerous and ridiculous .

      Instead of" broad views" and somewhat hysterical eloquence , the Society now alluded to has confined itself to one simple , practical , and pressing question , viz ., that of -woman's right to her own earnings or her own property . To get this right legitimized in law would be a great step ; and the Society tries to secure this point , leaving to future legislators to alter at their will all other points . As the purpose is direct and practical , so have the means employed been simple and efficient . Instead of eloquence the Society has given a brief statement of the present law , and the proposed alteration ; instead of invective and troublesome public meetings , it has secured the cooperation of lawyers and grave politicians , and has drawn up a masterly Report , written , it is understood , by Sir Ekskink Pebbt , showing what is the

      condition of the law in England , America , France , and Germany . The whole thing is conducted in an earnest , business-like manner . What is the consequence ? The first consequence is that the movement counts among its avowed advocates such men as Lord Bbougham , Lord Denmau , Lord Stanley , Sir John Pakington , Sir Ekskike Pjebbt , Sir Lawrence Peel , Mr . Serjeant Manning . Mr . M . D . Hiu > , Mr . ^ MoNCKTON Milnes , &c , — men who will see that the measure be duly brought before the Legislature , and give it there the weight of their advocacy , so that -we may look forward

      to a reform of the law as certain at no distant time . Now compare this with the other procedure in which tirades are substituted for business-like propositions , and a " general agitation" substituted for agitation in detail . Parliament—in England at least—is to be influenced by a society having definite and not alarming -views set forth in a business-like way , and urged by men of authority—men who can be secured only by definite views—but Parliament has a quite mediocre respect for *• causes" which are agitated in all their abstractness , advocated in eloquence poured forth with feminine facility and grammar of the same sex .

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      irhe English language , so constantly maltreated by other writers than those alluded to in the closing sentence of the last paragraph , is , it must be confessed , in a somewhat lax condition , if not in respect of grammar , at teast in respect of orthography and pronunciation ; and even those writers to whom we look for something like authoritative guidance , are repeatedly at fault . Why , for example , does Mr . Trench write co-temporary and not nrtempt ? Why is cooperate deprived of the intercalated « , which would fill the hiatus between the two 0 ' s ? Reason there is none , that we know of , except thepeset norma loquendi " custom . " But if custom gives law , surely it is more correct to say contemporary !

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      If the reader is not utterly weary of hearing about Sp irit ltappings , we would ask him to sympathize with our affliction ( recently endured with ? d £ ne hilarity ) on a forced reading of Mr . Newton Cbossland ' s New Theory ) f ^ dpparitions 1 and three numbers of a monthly journal , The Spiritual Herald , footed to the Exposition of the Phenomena of Spirit Manifestations . Mr . CHossland , although sublimely contemptuous in his attitude towards Science , and not less so towards "flippant critics and philosophic buffoons , " apt specified , has a scientific theory of his own to announce , on reading wKch the reader will thoroughly understand Mr . CuossLANi / a scorn of Science . Mr . Cbossi . ani > is one of those men described by Madame dk tapK . as completemeitt de son avis . To doubt the reality of spirit manifestation is , he says , " as ridiculous and foolish as to doubt the existence of the

      bMt System . " , , , Mr . Ckossland tells us that Fahadat , when he crushed the spirit-rappers , " rendered himself the laughing stock of "—what does the reader think ?—lt of overy spiritual circle in England and America ! " But we must hasten to buoto Mr . Cbossi . ani >' b theory : — lie candid ghoat-secr , in relating hia experiences , ia baffled by the scoffing logician , » W exclaims— " I have no objection to believe in the apparition of the soul of your SriSamother , but don't tell mo that you really and literally saw the ghost of her r iflmto and apron ! Your dead uncle , too , whom you saw drowning ; ia hia pea-| aS Snaowed with an immortal Bpiri . t ? " Our creduloua friend » a pul led , and n « Mly acquleeces in the concluaion- " Wellpcrhapa it was all a deluaion

      , _ 1 ? meet thla difficulty , I venture to offer as a solution the following hypothesis " tofayery Bighlficant action of our lives—in the garments wo wear and in the attit # & and Btuturea of our humanity—is vitally photographed w dopicted in the spirit-* tM \ 2 nd that the angola , under God ' s direction , have tliojto totr qf e # htb « m

      spiritual sight , and who are intended to be influenced by the manifestations . These tableaux may represent still life , or they may be animated by certain spirits appointed for the purpose , or by the identical spirits of the persons whose forms are shown , when the apparitions are the images of those who have departed this world . The man who could believe in and print such a theory as that , may easily believe in spirit-rappings . Unhappily for Spiritualism , and for this explanation thereof , other professors are by no means content with images , whether " vitally photographed" or not . Indeed , the editor of the Spiritual Herald takes a correspondent to task for expressing ignorance of the tangibility and visibility of the spirits . " Our fair correspondent , " he says ( No . III ., p . 78 ) , " seems not to be aware that heads and entire forms of spirits have frequently , appeared - even spirit-hair has been handled and playf ully combed with the fingers "

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      We alluded , a week or two ago , to the hereditary instinct in Englishmen to make each other uncomfortable . One great engine employed is the interference by one portion of the community with the habits and enjoyments of the other . If I don't wear & beard you shall not ; if I don ' t like dancing * you shall not dance ; if I don't like candles lighted at the altar , or an organ pealing its solemn tones in a church , you shall not light the one or listen to . the other ; if smoking makes me uncomfortable it shall be no comfort to you . There is actually established in Manchester a " British Anti-tobacco Society , ' * and it has followed the old tack of getting Religion to countenance ita agitation , and Religion—at least that which in some circles passes under that name—is ever ready at the call to make people uncomfortable . Mr . Hugh Stoweix always shows great alacrity in such cases ; you cannot please him more than bj' giving him a pleasure to denounce , or a sin to create ;

      accordingly he joins this Anti-tobacco Society , and declares his principal reason to be that snufFand cigars , besides being expensive , tend "to produce selfishness and to deaden the benevolent feelings of the heart . " It may be so , we do not see how it can be so , but Mr . Stoweix is so gTeat a master of the secret ways of sin that his word must be taken . There is one thing , however , which we know produces intense selfishness and deadens all benevolence ; and we not only know that it is , but how it is ; and Mr . Stowjexl will not hear it for the first , nor the hundredth time , when he hears that it is his method of interpreting Christian doctrine . The smoke of the cigar way deaden the heart , but it will scarcely produce so much rancorous and hideous animosity , or so much triumphant selfishness as the smoke Mr . Stowell and his sect delight in contemplating , namely , the smoke of a certain " torment that goeth up for ever and ever . " Again we say , Happy happy , England , that has its Cummings , its Candlishes , and its Stoweias I

      Untitled Article

      CALDERON . Li fe ' s a Dream : The Great Theatre of the World . From the Spanish of Calderon With an Essau on his Life and Genius . By Richard Cheaovix Trench . . 9 * J . W . Parker and Son . This is a book written out of genuine love of the subject , and thereby carries with it a certain interest . Mr . Trench has written such agreeablebooks on " Proverbs , " and the "English Language , " that his volume on Calderon excited the pleasantest expectations in us ; but unhappily , although the range of his studies has given him many advantages in the execution of this task , the nature of his intellect unfits him for it . His grasp is feeble . Familiar as this volume shows him to be with the Spanish Drama , what he

      has written about it might have been written by one y liolly dependent on secondhand information . He seizes no characteristics . He places nothing definitely before you . Nor is be , properly speaking , of a critical disposition : and while his opinions on poetry are generally questionable , his opinions on dramatic poetry are those of one destitute of dramatic instinct . The volume is a long plaidoyer in defence of Calderon , the result of which will be to lower Calderon in the estimation of Mr . Trench ' s readers , and for this reason : not only does he abstain from justifying hia praises by direct citations of such typical passages as would curry some conviction to the reader ' s mind , but unhappily he has given a long analysis of " The Great Theatre of the World" 111 elucidation of his comments on Calderon s marvellous Autos Sacramentales , and this analysis will assuredly be considered by the majority of readers as evidence of a very superficial , and somewhat childish attempt to embody in poetic forms a philosophic conception . We rl * nm . mmomber a creator instance of self-defeat than this . After so grand

      an exordium so trivial a result is almost startling . Certain we are that n those who deny to Calderon the highest powers wanted evidence for their , opinion , the analysis given by Mr . Trench of what lie considera one of Calderon ' s highest productions would suffice . Calderon , however , was a greater poet than he appears under the enthusiastic treatment of his English expositor . Not we believe one of the great poets—not on the whole so remarkable as Lope do Vega , and immeasurably tower than Moliere , Goethe , or Shakspeare-he nevertheless has . his own striking and peculiar merits , which Birr . Trench appears to us to have , yerjr imperfectly seized , led away as ho has been by the desire to find m CalderQn something of that philosophic depth , and poetic grandeur , winch the £ chle-1 1 i ! * k ^ rAA wo ™ t . n hi > found in him . Mr . lrenon at uio

      * _ .. „ ,,. ,. m K ols tried to persuade worm were w uv <« " «« •» »» " - .. * . n £ unn « any rate avoids the narrow Protestant error of condemning the Catholic spirit of the Catholic poet ; although a Protestant di y irte , aa J ^ <* nnot ; but see elsewhere than on the title-page , Mr . Trench is too iUr-rf ^ ted to treat the Catholic poet from other than a Cathol c point of View , ft , is true , that , in one passage he assumes very questionable advances for Protcstabtism but he ^ uniformly just to Calderpri on thia head . ; $ he pasHage wo , allude to is the following : — , ... L , . . A A thoughtful man must , I think , I * of ten deeply , pWcfc * Hk the Immeasurable ad-

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      Citerutmt ,

      Untitled Article

      w Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not > ¦ ¦ :. make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review . "• ¦ ¦ ' ' ' ?— :

      Untitled Article

      JqNE 21 , 1853 , J THE LEADER : 593

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 21, 1856, page 593, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2146/page/17/