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September 13 , 1856 . ] TIE LEADER . 881
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• wood ' s' was the " sand magazine ; ' Fraser's' nearer approach to possibility of life -was the " mud magazine ; " a piece of road near by that marked some failed enterprize was the " grave of the last sixpence . " When too much praise of any genius annoyed him , he professed hugely- to admire the talent shown by his pig . He had spent much time and contrivance in confining the poor beast to on © enclosure in his pen , but pig , by great strokes of judgment , had found out how to let a board down , and had foiled him . For all that , he still thought man the most plastic little fellow in the planet , and be liked Nero ' s death , U Qualis artifesc jtereo / " better than most history . He worships a man that -will manifest any truth to him . At one time he had inquired and read , a good deal about America . Lanior'a principle was mere rebellion , and that he feared was the American principle . The best thing he knew of that country was ,. that in it a man can have meat for his labour . He had read in Stewart ' s took , that -when he inquired in a N " ew York hotel for the Boots , he had been shown across the street , and had found Kongo in his own house dining ok roast turkey . '
—and Charron also , which seemed lndiscriminating . He thought Degerando indebted to ' Lucas on Happiness' and ' Lucaso-a Holiness' 1 He pestered me with Southey ; but who is Southey ? He invited me to breakfast on Friday . On Friday I did not fail to go , and this time with . Greenough . He entertained us at . once with reciting half a dozen hexameter lines of Julius Cesar's!—from Donatus , le said . He glorified Lord Chesterfield more than was necessary , and undervalued Burke , and undervalued Socrates ; designated as three of the greatest of men , Washington , Phocion , and Timoleon ; much as our pomologists , in their lists , select tbe three or the six best pears ' for a small orchard ; ' and did not even omit to remark the similar termination of their names . " A great man , " he said , " should make great sacrifices , and kill his hundred
oxen , without knowing whether they would be consumed by gods and heroes , or whether the flies would eat them . " I had visited Professor Amici , who had shown me his microscopes , magnifying ( it was said ) two thousand diameters ; and I spoke of the uses to which they were applied . Landor despised entomology , yet ,, in the same breath , said , " The sublime was in a grain of dust . " I suppose I teased , him about recent writers , but he professed never to have leard of Herschel , not even by name . One room was full of pictures , -which he likes to show , especially one piece , standing before which , he said " he would give fifty guineas to the man that would , swear it Was a Domenichino . " I was more curious to se « bis library , tut Mr . H , one of the guests , told me that Mr . Landor gives away his books , and has never more than a dozen at a time in Ms house .
Mr . Xandor carries to its height the love of freak which the English delight to indulge , as if to signalize their commanding freedom . He has a wonderful brain , despotic , violent , and inexhaustible , meant for a . soldier , by Svlat chance converted to letters , in which there is not a style nor a tint not known to "him , yet with an English appetite for action and heroes .
COLERIDGE . From London , on the 5 th August , I went to Highgate , and wrote a note to Mr . Coleridge , requesting leave to pay my respects to him . It was near noon . Mr . Coleridge sent a verbal message that he was in bed , but if I would call after one o ' clock , he would see me . I returned at one , and ho appeared , a snort , thick old man , with bright blue eyes and fine clear complexion , leaning on his cane . He took snuff freely , which presently soiled his cravat and neat . black suit . He asked whether I knew Allston , and spoke warmly of his merits and doings when lie knew him in Rome ; what a master of the Titianesque hewas , &c ., &e . He spoke of Dr . Channing . Itwas an unspeakable misfortune that he should have turned out a "Unitarian after all . On this , he burst into a declamation on the folly and . ignorance of Unitarianism— its high unreasonableness ; and taking up Bishop Waterland ' s book , which lay on the table , he read with vehemence two or three pages written by himself on the fly-leavespassages , too , which , I believe , are printed in . the ' Aids to Reflection . ' When he
stopped to take breath , I interposed , that , ¦ " whilst I highly valued all his explanations , I was bound to tell him that I was bora and bread a Unitarian . " "Yes , " lie said , " I supposed so ; " and continued as before . " It was , a wonder , that after so many ages of unquestioning acquiescence in the doctrine of St . Paul , —the doctrine of the Trinity , which was also , according to Philo Judseus , the doctrine of the Jews before Christ , —this handful of Priestleians should take on themselves to deny it , &c , &c . He was very sorry that Dr . Charming , aw to whom he looked up—no , to say that he looked up to him would ba to speak falsely , but a man whom he looked atwith so much interest , should embrace such views . Whenhe saw Dr . Channing , he had hinted to him that he was afraid he loved Christianity for what was lovely and excellent—he loved the good in it , and not the true : and I tell you , sir , that I have
known ten persons -who loved the good for one person who loved the true ; but it is a far greater virtue to love the true for itself alone , than to love the good for itself alone . He ( Coleridge ) knew all about Unitarianism perfectly well , because he had once been a Unitarian , and knew what quackery it was . He had been called ' the rising star of Unitarianism . "' He went on . defining , or rather refining : " The Trinitarian doctrine was Realism ; the idea of God was not essential , but superessential ; " talked of tnnism and tetrakism , and much more , of which I only caught this , " that the will was that by which a person is a person ; because , if one should push me in the street , and so I should force the man next me into the kennel , I should at once exclaim , 'I did not do it , sir , ' meaning it . was not my will . " And this also , " that if you should insist on your faith here la England , and I on mine , mine would be the hotter side of the fagot . "
I took advantage of a pause to say , that he had many readers of all religious opinions in America , and I proceeded to inquire if the ' extract' from the Independent ' s pamphlet , in the third volume of the " Friend , " - were a veritable quotation . He replied , that it was really taken from a pamphlet in Us possession , entitled , ' A Protest of one of the Independents , ' or something to that effect . I told him how excellent I thought it , and how much I wished to see the entire work . " Yes , " he said , " the man was a chaos of truths , but lacked the knowledge that God was a God of order . Yet the passage would , no doubt strike you more in the quotation than in the original , for I have filtered it . " When I rose to go , ho said , " I do not kno-w whether you care about poetry , but I will repeat some verses I lately made on my baptismal anniversary , " and he recited with strong emphasis , standing , ten or twelve lines , beginning
" Born -unto God in Christ ——" • •• • .. . .. . . . . I was in his company for about an hour , but find it impossible to reeal the largest part of his discourse , which was often like so many printed paragraphs in his bookperhaps the samo—so readily did . he fall into certain commonplaces . As I might have foreseen , the visit was rather a spectacle than a conversation , of no use bej-oiicl the satisfaction of my curiosity . He was old and preoccupied , and could not bend to a new companion and think with him . This portrait , or sketch , of Coleridge , is unlike those moat familiar , to us ; but it is a photograph of the man in one aspect , tlow familiar is the sketch we lave of the great Carlyle , in his farm of Craigenputtock .- — CABIiYXE . It was a farm in Nithsdalo , in the parish of Dunscore , sixteen miles distant . No public coach passed near it , so t took n private carringo from the inn . I found the houso amid desolate heathery liills , wlicro the lonely scholar nourished his miglity heart . Carlylo was a man from his youth , a . n author who did not need to hido from nia readers , and as absolute a man of the world , unknown and exiled , on that lull farm , as if holding on . his own terms what ia best in London . lie was tall and gaunt , with a clifl-liko brow , sclf-posaessed , and holding his extraordinary powers of conversation in easy command ; clinging to his northorn accent with evident relish ; full of lively anecdote , and with a streaming humour , -wliich floated everything lie looked upon . His talk playfully exalting tlie familiar objects , put the companion at once into an acquaintance with liis Lars and Lemurs , and it was verj * pleasant to learn what was predestined to bo a pretty mythology . Fow were the objects and lonoly the man , ' not a person to' spea . lt to within sixteen miles except the minister of Dunscore ; so that books inevitably made his topics . Ho had names of his own for all the matters familiar to his discourse . '
Black-We talked of boobs . Plato lie does not read , and he disparaged Socrates ; and when pressed , persisted in making Mirabeau a hero . Gibbon he called the splendid bridge from the old world to the new . His own reading had fceen multifarious ' Tristram Shandy , ' was one of his first books after * Robinson Crusoe , ' ani Robertson ' s ' America , ' an early . favourite . Rousseau's ' Confessions'had discovered to him that he was not a dunce ; and it was now ten years since he had learned . German , by the advice of a man who told him he would find in that language what he wanted . He took despairing or satirical views of literature at this moment ; recounted the incredible sums paid , in one yeaT by the great booksellers for puffing . Hence it comes that no newspaper is trusted now , no books Are bought , and the booksellers ara on the eve of / bankruptcy .
He still returned -to English pauperism , the crowded country , the selfish abdication by public men of all that public persons should perform . " Government should direct poor men what to do . Poor Irish folk come wandering over these moors . My dame makes at a rule to give to every son of Adam bread to eat , and supplies his wants to the next house . But here are thousands of acres which might give them all meat and noliody to bid these poor Irish go to the moor and till it . They burned the stacks , and so found a way to force the rich people to attend to them . " We -went out to -walk over long hills , and looked at Criffel , then , without Ms cap , and down into " Wordsworth ' s country . There we sat down and talked of the immortality of the soul . It was not Garlyle ' s fault that we talked on that topic , for he had the natural disinclination of every nimble spirit to bruise itself against walls , and did not like , to place himself where no step caa be taken . But he was honest and true , and cognizant of tbe subtile links that bind ages together , and saw how every event affects all the future . " Christ died on the tree ; that built Dunscore kirk yonder ; that brought you and me together . Time las only a relative existence . " There is another glimpse of Carlyle in the visit to Stonehenge , and as of all living Englishmen Carlyle has the most impressed himself upon th « minds of his age , influencing even those who are diametrically opposed to him , we may be sure these little personal glimpses will be sought with great interest . Speaking of our earnestness , Emerson says : — They have ' . a horror of adventurers in or out of Parliament . The ruling passion of Englishmen in these days is a terror of humbug . In the same proportion they valua honesty , stoutness , and adherence to your own . They like a man committed to his objects . They hate the French , as frivolous ; they hate the Irish , as aimless ; they hate tlie Germans , as professors . In February , 1848 , they said , Look , the French king and his party fell for want of a shot j they had not conscience to shoot , so entirely was the pith and heart of monarchy eaten out .
They attack their own politicians every day , on the same grounds as adventurers . They love stoutness in standing for your right , in declining money or promotion that costs any concession . The barrister refuses the silk gown of Queen ' s Counsel , if his junior have it one day earlier . Lord Collingwood would not accept his rnedal for victory on the 14 tlx February , 1797 , if he did not receive one for victory on 1 st June , 1794 ; and the loag withholden medal was accorded . When Castlereagh dissuaded Lord "Wellington from going to the king ' s levee , until the unpopular Cintra . business had been explained , he replied , " You furnish me a reason for going . I -will go to this , or I will never go to a king ' s levee . " The radical mob at Oxford cried after the Tory Lord Eldon , " There ' s old Eldon ; cheer him ; he never Tatted . " They have given the parliamentary nickname of Trimmers to the timeservers , whom . English character does not love . And . he adds this note : — It is an unlucky moment to remember these sparkles of solitary virtue in the face of the honours lately paid in England to the Emperor Louis Napoleon . I am sure that no Englishman whom 1 had the happiness to know consented , when tlie aristocracy and the commons of London cringed like a Neapolitan ralble before & successful thief . But—hew to resist one step , though odious , in a linked aeries of state necessities ? Governments must always learn too late , that the use of dishonest agents is ns ruinous for nations as for single men . Of our constitutional melancholy , or our reputation for melancholy , he says : — I suppose , thcix gravity of demeanour and their few words have obtained this
reputation . As compared with the Americans , I think them cheerful and contented . Young people , in this country , are much more prone to melancholy . The English have a mild aspect , and a ringing , cheerful voice . They are large-nature < l , and not so easily amused , as the . southerners , and are among them as grown people among children , requiring war , or trade , or engineering , or science , instead of frivolous games . They are proud and private , and even if disposed to recreation , will avoid an open garden . They sported sadly ; Us s ' amvsaicnt tristement , scion la coutume dt leur pat / t , said Froissart ; and , I suppose , never nation built their p ' arty-vails so thick , or their garden-fences so high . Meat and wine produce no effect on them : they arc just as cold , quiet , and composed at the end as at the beginning of dinner .
TIiq reputation of taciturnity they have enjoyed for six or seven hundred years ; and a kind of pride in bad public speaking is noted in the Houso of Commons , as if they were willing to show tliat they did not live by their tongues , or thought they spolce well enough if they had the tone of gentlemen , The only chapter which can be called satirical is the ona on Religion , and it is difficult indeed to speak of religion in England without ridicule or indignation : — The curatea arc ill-paid , and the prelates arc overpaid . This abuse dra- \ vs into the Church the children of the nobility , and other unfit persons , who have a taste for cxpenae . Thus a "bishop is only a surpliced merchant . Through his lawn I can ace the bright buttons oi' the shopman ' s coat glitter . A wealth like that of Durliam makes almost a premium on felony . Brougham , in a speech in the House of Commons on the Irish elective franchise , said , " How will the reverend bishops of the other house bu able to express their duo abhorrence of the crime of perjury , who solemnly declara
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 13, 1856, page 881, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2158/page/17/
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