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    sustaining principle by which everything out of the Creator subsists , whether worlds , metals , minerals , trees , animals , mankind , angels , or devils , together with all thought or feeling . . And then lie quotes , in confirmation , from Laon : — The life wbieh works in our organised frame is but an exalted condition of the power which occasions the accretion of particles into this crystalline mass . The quickening force of nature through every form of being is the same .

    Now , in one aspect , this becomes at a bound the veriest Pantheism . We shall take the last sentence quoted from Laon , and endorsed by Mr . Grindon , as text , and ask these simple questions , " What does it mean ? " and , ¦ " What can it be made to mean ?" When we answer the latter interrogatory by stating our conviction that it could , so vague is it , be uttered by three opinionists with , views radically different , we at the same time indicate our inabilit y to answer the former . " The quickening force ot nature through every form of being is the same . " By this we understand , and we believe tliat Mr . Grindon understands too , that the active hand of God , powerful in preservation as He was

    and is every day in creation ( for is not the growth of the leaves in" next spring-just as wondrous as the growth of the leaves in the first spring ?) , upholds , as something above and separate from them , all matter and all spiritual existence . But what a different complexion is given to the doctrine when you adduce , from such ¦ a writer as Mr . Herbert Spencer , this sentence : — " The characteristic which , manifested in a higher degree , we call Life , is a characteristic manifested only in a lower degree by socalled inanimate objects . ' You have only to mix up a dash of the development theory , prate of inherent forces , animate generally nature with a selfborn power of its own , after extending the range of

    life to every atom of the world , to enable you to dispense with God altogether , only keeping your ruler in reserve for dramatic and poetic purposes as a serviceable Dens ex machind ! While we believe then that this doctrine of the universality of Life is really a minister to the veriest Pantheism , at the same time we gladlv acknowledge that , no belief is more repugnant to Mr . Grindon ' s mind ; his whole book recognises the unity , personality , and government of God . We believe , in fact , his error to have arisen from religious feeling ; he seems to have a nervous dread that if you limit the extension of the term Life within its ordinarily received bounds ,

    if you confine it to those kinds of existence where there is the development and exercise oi functions , vegetative , animal , and spiritual , you in some measure make those kinds of created thing's act independently of Deity , and live and move by virtue of an inherent force ; and by establishing that inert inorganic matter has , or has had , the same life in it , he reduces , as it were , all kinds of creation to the samo level as the rocks . This we give as a conjecture , and it must be measured by its own value . It may not be the correct hypothesis ; we maintain , at all events , that as an hypothesis it is feasible and of apposite application . There is no absurdity to which a pet and plausible theory will not carry its author in maintaining it . We actually find Mr . Grindon citing , as

    confirmation of his doctrine , thoso similitudes of the poets which endue inanimate objects with life and personality . We are told that the papers announce tliat the basins at the Crystal Palace are to be " alive with fountains and jots . " Mivdamc do Stool ' s testimony is adduced , when aho speaks in Corinno of " tho fount of Trevi , the life of that tranquil scene" Virgil and Ovid easily afford fluminc oivo and e vivis font { bus . A-nd when Mr . Grindon makes us sit with him , in the homo of tho nymphs , in tho vivo sedilia sa . ro , ho only shows that ho entirely misunderstands , and fnils to oatcli tho beauty of Virgil ' s figure , which makes tho damp slabs live by virtue of the giving moss and seaweed that are tangled around them , and move with tho motion of tho winds imd . waves .

    So we might deal with tho fanciful , mid , to us , almost revolting , doctrine , which tukos the axiomatic -philosophic- law , that every known effect must have a duality of causes , and manufactures it into a " sexuality of nature , " or " tho reciprocal action and reaction of complomontarios 1 " But doduction being made for such theories , not of very frequent ooourronce , nor intogrally affecting tho texture of "the production , wo must cstinmto tho book as safe , nocurato , aud healthy , a mine of information and proocpt , and a charming luro to cntico youth or age into the study of mini , nil that surrounds him , and his deepest , lioliost , and moat mysterious relations .

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    NEW PICTURES AND OLD PANELS . JSfe % o Pictures and Old Panels . By Dr . Doran . Bentley Dxi . Douan is a wise man ; there is no dangerous origiuaUty about him ; his bosom is free from all that perilous stuff which , weighs upon the uoart . j ho is not brilliant , but , what is far bettor , ho is safe , ; ho is light , amusing , anccdotical , and well-read } lift oolleots his material from many published sources , and he works it up again with a certain kind at craoo ; ho passes through the ordoal of criticism , untouched , because few blows are aimed at him for foarof hitting some one olso ; ho is never abov * the oomnrohonsion of his ¦ reader , except whon lift assumes him < o possess a general knowledge of history- and willi aomo little wit , no humour , ana much JuduBlry , he i » a very favourable specimen of tho existing lii-eniry man . ,,,, "' Tho book beforo us consists of somo twonty hlsto-

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    No . 457 , December 24 , 1858 . ] THE LEADER . 1411

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    THORNDALE . Thorndale : or , the Conflict of Opinions . By "William Smith . Second Edition . William Blackwood and Sons . That a serious and earnest work , composed in a p hilosophical spirit , should attain a second edition is , in these days , a welcome and encouraging fact . The dialogue form , which Mr . W . Smith has adopted , is furnished with many conveniences . The author can state many sides to a question without pledging himself to either . The reader is presented with a

    multitude of premises , but left to draw his ovra conclusion . This has been a favourite plan of treating philosophy from the time of Plato to our own . It requires in the writer , however , some of that poetic and dramatic power which Plato possessed in so eminent a degree . Mr . W . Smith has already evinced the possession of both in specific works , such as Athehcold , Sir William Crichton , and Guidore , and came armed with the facility that these labours had secured to the composition of his present work . Hence much , of its grace , its beauty , and its charm .

    reader ' s mind , and lie wearies of skipping from point to point without stopping by the way to rest and look about him . The author confesses to the study of Emanuel Kant , LyelL Owen , and Faraday . J ? rom these he has derived , the materials of his eclecticism—the separated segments of truth which he would incorpo-: rate into a new circle . It must not be imagined that they fit easily , or compose a perfect figure . What then ? The most accurate ever drawn was

    far , very far , from being perfectly correct . The micro scopic eye would detect inequalities , like mountains on the globe of the earth , in proportion to its dimensions , both on the surface of the curve and in its general sweep . The union of labour with , refinement would appear to be the purpose and end of Thorndale ' s practical scheme for the good of society in the future , and the basis of that Utopian state which it was ever liis desire to institute . Nor need we doubt that , in the development of the race , some suck state may be approximated . Thorndale , however ,

    does not point out the means ! Perhaps he leaves the result to the " conflict of opinions" and the energies of nature , and the laws by which , both , are guided to a successful issue . Piaiuly enough , however , he perceives that from the Revolution of Hunger nothing is to be hoped . With hunger , in fact , nothing is to be done but to feed it . The hope of the Utopian is fixed on the classes that do not hunger . . The first object , in his view , is to find all that is needful and expedient for the classes that cannot help themselves . Rid the world of the misery that besets the ignorant and

    incompetent ; banish the gross forms of want and wretchedness ; remove the uncouth and ugly from , the path of vulgar life ; . see that the labouring man has his decent cottage , and his children the properly furnished schoolroom ; and you will then , withdraw the sight of the class immediately above from the the conditions of poverty to contemplate the more refined shortcomings : which make their own way of life less beautiful than it might be . New wants will arise in . the middle order , will demand gratificaition , will receive it , will become the common-places of an improved generation ; and will serve as the

    germs of a still more extended reform in the future . In this manner Mr . Smith would appear to project his remedies for the " social evils" that now " proceed from the grosser wants , that have not yet been extirpated and substituted by the more subtle appetencies of a polished age . He will not , however , himself undertake the responsibility of i n * augurating the scheme that he has so elegantly sketched , but devolves it all upon a certain , imaginary Clarence , who insists on filling the blank pages of his friend's diary with a resume of the di scussions they have had together ., To him , it seems , Political Economy is the science of sciences . Tf le * n / % + fKa ^ li »« r Iioi

    XI Xi 3 AI \ J \ J H * V Wl J f JUU 1 * - *) i »* V ^* ^* J "Mg mv *» vmj generally supposed . It is no ' enemy to enthusiasm , no foe to generous motives . His estimate of Adam . Smith is high . Wait awhile , Clarence tells us 5 the future historian will have to report that the study of Political Economy , more than any othe £ cause , is at present educating tho people for tli # highest of all enthusiasms—desire for the public good . The progress of the world is the result of ideas ; these ideas iu their operation are creativethey at once inspire the mind that receives them * and leaven the society to which they are communi-: cated . This theory of our author is at least hope- « jul , it touches on chords in our being that vibrate in harmony with its innuouco . On many points we may differ , hut with the nobler portions of the book most thinking men will readily agree .

    The author , moreover , has lived in a world of poetic associations ; if , indeed , the poets have not been the founts of his philosophical inspiration , Shelley and Wordsworth have thrown their magic colourin g on his mind , and given him glimpses of truth , Without involving him in the responsibility of a system . - He likes , in their -works , to find a line here , or a line there , that shall look like a Pythagorean golden verse , be infinitely suggestive , operate like a sudden revelation , but not necessarily connect itself with an acknowledged theory . A truth must for him stand apart , by itself , " like a bright particular star , " alone , and not as a shining member of the astral fellowship in the firmament of science .

    We have said that the method of composition he has adopted is favourable to such views as these . But we should mislead the reader should he suppose that the book before us was in the form of dialogue alone . Part of it is , in fact , in the nature of a journal ; other parts partake of the biographical , and some portion is autobiographical . The concluding sections even aim at the completeness of a metaphysical essay . In a word , the author has varied his method with his mental mood . In this licentious manner of writing there is boundless liberty , and Mr . W . Smith has allowed himself a scope as wide as . the universe . The book is an ambitious book . It is , besides , confessedly Utopian . It treats of two futuritiesthe futurity of the individual , and the futurity of

    society . Mr . W . Smith is not only Utopian but eclectic . Unwilling to adopt the whole of any system he would take parts from all , and recombiue without acknowledging it these parts into a new whole . He is not singular in this preference . Many groat thinkers have done the same before him . Nevertheless , the plan is unsatisfactory . It wants philosophical integrity and a common origin . An antecedent unity is required , which the eclectic unfortunately has'neglected to state . There is , however , somo pleasant tinting in tho narrative portion of the work , which bespeaks the poet or dramatist rather than the psychologist . It is thus he paints for us his cluluhood and his student life . Here is a pleasant example , :-

    —How vividly I remember that daisied lawn , thoso trill white lilies , those growing peonies , thoso tulips which arc nothing in the world unless you enn poop close into their cups—cups full to the brim with beauty . We men outgrow tho tlowor . What arcades , what bowers , what triumphal « rch

    amaranths ; wish rather to bo a child again , and see the blossoins of tho fuchsia , half of them bonoath your feet and half of them just above your head . Thorndolo declares himself to have been unfortunate in love and friendship . His cousin Winifred , and his follow pupil Luxmore , tho companions of his early life , wore scparatod from him early in his progress . Much tender sentiment , much pleasant description , are devoted to both . The fault of the pronorul narrative is that it is all skotohed in outlino ; details aro not expanded , they are only hinted . This want of filling-up loaves too muoli to the

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1858, page 1411, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2274/page/11/