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    Untitled Article

    It is a serious evil that owing to the variety and contradictonness of the texts of Scripture , fools and knaves , bigots and men of stern uncharitableness are generally able to fortify themselves with a text , which they do in « M : « r indifference to the texts explicitly condemning what they uphold . No

    matter how rickety the foundation , a text can be found to buttress it . For observance of the Sabbath , for non-observance , for teetotalism and for vinous enjoyment , for intolerance and for tolerance , for rebellion and for submission , texts are equally ready . It is worthy of remark that the men who most vehemently insist on carrying into action the principle laid down in one text , are at the same time the most regardless of the other texts which limit or contradict it . The very fact of there being two contradictory statements , should make men aware that neither can he accepted as absolute , but that both express a limitation . In the North British Beview a very able and liberal writer has noticed the apparent contradiction in the

    language of Scripture on the subject of Missions : — Among the words of the same Divine Teacher , and in the same narrative of them , are contained , both an earnest exhortation to proselytize , and a denunciation , which sounds contemptuous of proselytism . Contrasts such as this are a characteristic of the Christian religion . Far from accounting these a "weakness or reproach , it possesses few more convincing proofs of its truth , or surer p ledges that it is to last for ever . In this very ' peculiarity consists , in a great degree , its superiority over the other religions of the world , and most of its own sects . Each of these seizes on truths singly , and develops them into action , unchecked by the necessary counterpoise by which each is , in its own nature , accompanied and controlled . The result of such a procedure is a coarse of religions efforts , vigorous and energetic even to the extreme of violence , but eccentric and ultimately self-destroying , such as we may imagine that of a planet in -which inertia had overpowered gravitation . Christianity , on the other hand , presents her truths to us , in their own true nature and connexion , each checked and balanced br an opposite .

    This writer , although his orthodoxy cannot be suspected , is fully abve to the onesidedness of the Missionary spirit , and he exposes the vices to which it leads . He courageously says : — Nothing is baser or more mischievous than mere proselytism . _ The missionary impulse of each is one , that has disdained to inquire , ¦ whether its spirit is one of pure or false zeal , and whether its mode of proceeding is always in strict conformity with the moral law . Hence , the history of these , as of most other proselytizing sects , has been a very chequered one . In each , we may read of acts of dauntless heroism and noblest self-denial . But these are balanced by enormous crimes , in which heroic and self-denying men are often found to have been the criminals . No ¦ wars have been more sanguinary or inhuman than * religious wars , whether in Christianity ox in Islam . No self-interest has ever produced so cold-blooded and calculating a cruelty as sincere unselfish religious persecution . No frauds or forgeries have been so cunningly devised or so perseveringly sustained , as those -which have been practised , within the ranks of sacerdotal Christianity , by self-devoted men , in behalf of the law of love and the gospel of truth .

    Hard words tKese , but true words , and worthy of being iterated . In commenting on the odious assumption that sprinkling babies in secret saves thousands of innocent souls which would otherwise perish everlastingly , the writer says : — Can this be mere ad captandum language , intended to draw contributions to the missionary societies ? If so , it ia very wicked . But if it be really genuine and sincere , how melancholy a fanaticism does it display ! We shudder at the accounts of devil-worship which come to us from so many mission-fields . We pity tne dreary delusion of the Manichees , who enthroned the Evil Principle in heaven . But if wo proclaim that God is indeed one , who could decree this more than Moloch sacrifice of the vast majority of his own creatures and children , for no fault or sin of theirs , we revive the error of the Manichee ; for the God , whom we preach as a destroyer of the guiltless , can be no God of justice , far less a God of love . Again , contrasting the Protestant appeals to the baser motives , made by missionaries with the Catholic appeals , he says : —

    We do not presume to promise our contributors payment in full in another world , for the money that they contribute here . But vo offer them an equivalent in this world . We furnish them with distinction and notoriety , and ample means for glorifying themselves . Thus we pay them , not , like the Pope , in paper , but , like honest tradesmen , in ready money . We give an unnecessary and very expensive prominence to the names of our subscribers , and so encourage Pharisaism ; nay , we infuse the evil spirit of religious self-display even into our children , and give them the very debaaing taste for seeing their charitable gifts in print . It would be a good deed if some of our missionary societies would remind Master John Smith and Miss Matilda

    Jones , the contents of whose money-boxes are chronicled in the annual report , that thoso reports are the veritable street-corners of the ninoteontli century , and that the solf-display of modern Pharisaism transcends that of its elder sister , in the proportion , in which the publicity of a work of 10 , 000 or 20 , 000 copies surpasses that of a village thoroughfare . Nor can we find much to admire in our great public meetings . They are often nothing but a snare to the actors , and a delusion to the audience . What flelf-display , what vapid oratory , what exaggerated statements , what distorted facts axe considered allowable la these assemblies of men associated together for the propagation of the truth !

    Incidentally the writer lashes the British public on another ground : — We « re standing , at this moment , in curious circumstances of close alliance , w ith the nation , wboge present state , and real aims , and traditional policy , are most oppo-8 ' * OJ *» OWP own . We , zealots for civil liberty , stand embracing , with a grand flourish of fraternisation , the nation that discredited it by its excesses , and then throw it away as a spoilt child might a play thing of a few days old , and cheering , as our moit faithful ally , from Dover even unto Aberdeen , the despot who , for his own selfish ends , trode it underfoot ; We , zealots for religious liberty , have united our forces with the only vigorous nation , which lends its strength to the support of the now decrepit PMtual despotism . The situation is a curious one , and soems unlikely to bo very aumble . A poor article on the " Literary Tendencies of Franco" follows ; it is

    mainly a panegyric on M . "Victor Cousiw , who has had the art of securing more ** favourable notices of the press" than any other contemporary . The next article , on " Holland and its Martyrs and Heroes , " begins with great spirit , but falls into ineffectuality towards the middle . People must be con . siderably wearied by Rogers , and articles on Rogers , by this time ; but the paper in the North British should not be left unread , for the sake of its graphic touches of the men and things amid which the poet ' s life was passed ; we can only spare space for this curious rapprochement . •—

    Any man who lives ninety-three years is remarkable , —much more a poet -who lives ninety-three yeaTs , —and more still , a poet who lives ninety-three years in the very centre of the social and literary activity of his country , and in possession of such means as enable him to be in cordial and even influential relations with all . Ninetythree years ! Why , it is no insignificant bit of the entire duration of the world ! Seventy Samuel Rogerses , at this rate , might shake hands in an unbroken chain up to Adam ; twenty would connect us with the commencement of the Christian era ; nine would take us back , with room to spare , to the date of the Norman conquest ; and three linked together would reach into the age of Shakspeare .

    The article on " Microscopes" needs no signature . It contains much information , and a somewhat insufferable display , on Sir David Bbbwster ' s part , of the inventions , discoveries , suggestions , and improvements of Sir David Brewsteb . Angry -with Dr . Carpenter for not mentioning his services with sufficient emphasis , he seems resolved on mentioning them himself . Blackwood opens with a lively , well-written paper on Macatjiay , not saying anything new , but saying well what it does say . The " Visit to Selborne" will interest all who have , as children or as men , delighted in White ' s popular work ; and those who have been to Ilfracombe will understand the enthusiasm of the writer of " Seaside Studies , " in which that lovely bit of the Devonshire coast is described , and the pleasures of the amateur

    naturalist are set forth in detail . " Tickler among the Thieves" is a continuation of the history of a stolen dog . The review of Aytoun ' s new poem opens with an emphatic disclaimer of the current notion that Professor Aytotjn is or was the editor of Blackwood . One of the miseries which we journalists and reviewers have to endure , is the conviction that if once a name gets known in connexion with any periodical , that name is at once credited with all the offences which any or all of the contributors may commit . N " o matter how individual your style , or tone of thought , the fact of your name being known is enough to cause all articles to be affiliated to you . Readers are singularly dull in detecting differences of style , or thought ; so that you have attributed to you opinions which all your

    published and private opinions disavow , and Brown , whose poem you have never seen , and never mean to read , hates you , with the deep and lasting hate of wounded vanity , for a review which you perhaps have never read . You may be abroad , known to be hundreds of miles away , but still the objectionable child is affiliated to you . And against this there is no remedy ; none , at least , but signature . In JFraser , as we have before noticed , the principle of signature is adopted , and with great advantage . Very often the signature is a guarantee ; Sometimes a warning . For example , it is probable that the majority of

    readers would have left unread the admirable story of " The Double House , had it not been signed by the author of " John Halifax , Gentleman * , " and in that case the majority of readers would have missed a real pleasure . We seldom venture on Magazine stories ; but the authoress attracted us to this , and will attract every one else . Besides this story Fraser has a " Peep into the Principalities , " an essay on " Dwarfs and Giants , " giving some biographical details of celebrated monsters ; a continuation of the dissection of Sir Archibald Ahson ; an amusing paper of " Life at the Watercurc ; " a very curious account of some " Contemporay Literature from the two Sicilies , " with other papers which wo have not space to notice .

    Untitled Article

    PRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION . On the State of Society in France before the Revolution of 1789 ; and on the Causes which led to that Event . By Aloxis do Tocquovillo . Translated by Henry Keevo . Murray . Fkw books have an immediate effect on public opinion ; but M . dc Tocqueville ' s is one of the few . Though it will not inform , except on points ot detail , those persons who hnve made the French Revolution a subject ot philosophical study , it presents for their use n , largo variety of testimonies and illustrations , arranged according to critical method , and enforced by profound and masterly reasonings . It had not been left , indeed , to M . do f ocqueville to discover the true theory of the unparalleled event of winch ho undertakes to explain the origin , but ho has demonstrated that theory

    in a manner in which it had never been demonstrated before , and we perceive already a conspicuous effect produced by his argument , at least u P ° ^ the English mind . All political students , however , whether prepared by their own inquiries to assume the promises established by this commentator on laws and manners , or forced to ncknowlcdgo that they hnvo hitherto misunderstood the Revolution , will take up M . do Tocquevillo ' s volume , arm read with interest , and with gratification , every page . It is a . specimen ot deep historical analysis , broad in scope , circumstantial in evidence , illuinuie'l by purely logical thought , and based upon purely reliable authorities . JVL do Tocqueville is a critic us well an a collector , and this , in addition to qualities of style , constitutes the difference between the compiler and the

    historian . M . do Tocqueville writes in contradiction of two errors which we have frequently pointed out , and which have become proverbial in England . The first is , that the French people are naturally addicted to change . | J calls them slaves of lmbit . The second is , that they are a gay people . *»

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    % T H E LEA PER . [ No . 333 , Saturday , I ** V --r == ^—— ^ ——————————¦—^——M——«—^—^—^^ Si ^— ^ ; , ;

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 9, 1856, page 760, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2153/page/16/