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COUNT CAVOUni.*
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REASON AND RELIGION*
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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bably only gain by the discovery of the rank , place , and-real name of the writer , a volume or so of tittle-tattle and gossip , the recent specirnens of which forbid us to hope for any addition of the kind .
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F ltOM the title-of this book it would not be easy to guess its object . The work is an elaborate attack on Christian doctrine , and especially on the Christian evidences . We can no more Question the , author's profound convictions than his ' . excellent intentions ; his absolute fairness and charitable spirit than his learning and ability . Every one who without arrogance , vanity , or fanaticism utters what 'he conceives to be the truth , deserves our respect , and as we discern nothing but noble motive in M . Disdier we applaud his courage and frankness . But we wholly disagree with him as to the matter in debate . We are familiar enough , from the arguments ' of the 'Unitarians and of other rationalistic sects , with the attempt to . demonstrate that in religion reason should be end b . _
the chief guide . But they who take it for chief guide y having no religion at all . It-was . Protestantism which first propounded the monstrous heresy in opposition to the principle of authority , that the empire of reason in religion should be unlimited and unconditional , and an exaggerated Protestantism preaches the heresy with such furious zeal that men rush back to -authoritj' to escape from the intolerable din . In truth , however , neither reason nor authority should have exclusive dominion in religion , or rather they ought to be banished therefrom altogether . Religion is the creation and the utterance of the heart , and of the phantasy ; its reign and its rapture are in those vast , wondrous , and mysterious recesses of the soul , whither reason and authority can never come . ¦ Religion spurns dogmas , and disclaims the so-called evidences which
are so ostentatiously paraded in its favour . Just so far then as the Christian religion accords with universal religion , just so far as it springs from and appeals to the heart and the phantasy , just so far and no further can it deniand our recognition , our homage . ^ As regards the supernatural and the lniraeulpus , the Christian doctrine occupies exactly the same ground of probability or improbability as any other religious doctrine . It is not always easy to ascertain what the Christian religion is . . If it means the life and the words of Christ , then arise those questions which Strauss and others have agitated . If it means the opinion of , an individual , the ci * eed of a sect , the decrees of a Church , we are bewildered in . the wearisome and boundless chaps . If it means humanity ' s highest attainable ideal , then it is convenient , but not correct , to designate that ideal
shipper were there . M . Disdier must be the most courageous of modern men to debate the credibility of the Christian religion i his brow hallowed , his prath irradiated by environments so stupendous . Let it not be said that we are appealing to a silly and shallow sentimentalism . In these days sentimentalism has very various meanings . It may mean thai yon read Dickens , and are a simpering ' , selfish fool j or it may mean that y ; on are one of Nature ' s conservatives . There is a sickly sympathy for the woes of the present—there is a chivalrous reverence for the deeds , the convictions , even the prejudices of the pasfc . Of the first , Dickens is the poet , the orator , the representative . Of the second , Scott ; wlur has a not unworthy successor in James Hannay . A real ; a lofty enthusiasm brushes sentimentality aside . It has a right , a vocation , old as the universe , from all the gods , to do so . But that which is the duty of enthusiasm , may be the impudence of criticism , and the blunder of controversy . In short , the sum of i-esuits which the world has conquered up to this hour , are nob the weeds rotting oh the soil , they are the soil itself . M . Disdier , though a good , an honest , a most estimable man , mistakes the weeds for the soil . We do not condemn him ; we pity him . Even if a man is neither acritic nora controversialist , he cannot be satisfied with the mode in which Christianity is now presented to mankind . We have a church , the richest in the world , and the poorest : the richest in only one sense , the poorest in every sense . We have Little Bethel yelling and kicking with impunity , the policeman having no right to interfere . We have Christ the self-sacrificing , the crucified , presented every Sunday as the safest and most profitable investment , Heaven being placed at the head of the Insurance Offices . We have Mr . Biiiney , and Mr . fcspurgeon , and Dr . iCummingri and hosts besides , who teach us never to trust God unless he can- ' bring the very best security . Leasing said , and it is more suggestive and salutary than clever sayings usually are ^ that the religion of-. Christ and the Christian religion are by no means the sarrie thing . May we not even say that they are the direct and deadly antagonisms of each other ? How seldom now is . Christianity anything-more than a conventionalism , a cant , a mask , theodour and . emphasis of a commercial cry , the ornament of a signpost , the embellishment of the Time ' s advertising columns . Men like M . Disdier point to the imposture : we point to the foundations of immensity , behind the imposture . That religion cannot long continue in its present state is obvious to every man of foresight , insight , fervour , piety . " When priests are not prophets , prophets turn priests . The idiotic imbecility which the Bishop of London , an old college companion of ours , lias , sprawling and sputtering , recently flung on the floor of the House of Lords , symbolises our Christianity , though it does not symbolisfr Christ , the Son of God , the Son of man . Humbug , though more leniently dealt with than hypocrisy , is worse than hypocrisy . In these days we are not Pharisees , but we tolerate the Pharisees . Are . we better than the Pharisees , my friends ? ' Verily , we are worse . Yet , hurling our most ferocious hate at humbug and hypocrisy , kneeling lowly to the Infinite and merciful God , \ vq tear ourselves in anger from the critics and the controversialists , and wish that the putspoken , unselfish . Henri Disdier were not one of them .
by theg-eiieral name of Christianity . Much of our modern culture , many of our grandest thoughts we have derived from the Greeks and Ronruins , and not from the Gospel ; and not a little which is attributed to the Gospel -belongs and has always belonged to human nature . Those are the best ChrWtians ^—indeed , wo believe them to bo the only Cln-istians worthy of Christ , who take the Gospel as food to ' the inner life , aiid who , dwelling in this inner life , shrink from controversy as a curse and a crime . They are pure and lofty beings , who would have been fervently and fruitfully pious , hveywy age , in every clime , and whatever the ritual or the faith . Now M . Disdier overlooks this class altogether . He wanders into the polemical , the theological region , and thinks that when he has put to flight the ghosts and slain the giants he meets there , that
he has gained a marvellous victory . But every religion is vindicated as long as it is spiritually . alive , morally potent and productive . So that if , by the most valiant and overwhelming lpgjc , you could show that it is supi'emely irrational , it will boldly defy you by the simple fact that ifc continues to exist . Men in the mass are supremely irrational , so that the supremely irrational is by itself not objectionable in their eyes . Passion , imagination , and custom influence and impel them infinitely more than Benson ' s / rigid and pedantic dictates , We would debar neither % 1 . Disdier nor any one from the critical , the controversial . ' If , however , thoir aim is to overthrow superstition , let them -war , not with its absurdities , but with its immoral resujts . Men may be induced to renounce the absurd , because it is the immoral , but never because it is the absurd . The critic and tho
controversialist attack the absurd-f-the prophet , in tho tnie sense of the word prophecy , attacks tho immoral . And this is how . religious revolutions , religious revelations , come . Religion , as tho doopost and diviuest of . realities , is entwined with every thing which a community is , and feels , and does . If , then , in the affairs of religion we n « iko vidioulo or logic a test , how are wo to sever what . js religious from what belongs to the very essence of the community ? Your logician is a very limited animal , though M . Diadier is unimpeachable ins a logician , M . Disdior its a Gonevoso advocate . Wo know , from long residence , more about Geneva than most Enylishuion . ^ Aa tho city of Calvin , as a bulwark of the Reformation , as tho
birthplace of Bousseiiu , ris the gorgeous centre of the sublhnest scenery in the world * as notable flrom literary associations as well as from the industrial energy of the people , Geneva would have enchanted US ) even if we had not dwelt thereat tho season of our young nnd wild romance . Now , intolloctual infidelity abounds at Geneva , for it is within n few miles of Forney , and it has the Voltairean taint as much as if Voltaire were still lord at Forney . Nevertheless religion is so . much an everlasting and ulmighty force , that while the whole idead of the Goneveso are sceptical their whole habits are religious . In no other Protestant land is religion ho gladly and serenely beautiful . 'JPne Lake , tho Saldro * tho Jura , tho far but forvonC purple of jlont Blanc ' s majesty , mnke a tonvplo , even if no worship or \ vor «
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ANY account of the hie-or the great burcuman Premier must he interesting at this time . Mr . Cooper , of the University of London , has hero compiled , from . " a continental source of unquestionably high authority , " as he states , a serviceable memoir * ' of one of the . most remarkable and successful of living constitutional statesmen . " That Count Cavour should merit such a name is rather singular , for the traditions and example of the patrician Jaiuily to which he belonged luy altogether in the opposite direction . His father had become indeed conspicuous for . immoderate stiffness and tenacious cleaving-, to the old state system . The-family is one of the oldest , and wealthiest , in . Piedmont , but it is believed came originally from Savoy . Count Camillo Bonso di Cavour was born at Turin on 10 th August , 1810 ; and ifc is said that a sister of the Emperor
Napoleon , tho Princess Maria Pauline Uorgheso , stood sponsor ior him at his baptism . He was educatud by the Abbe * Frezet ; and , as his second sou , was destined by his father to the military career , and trained accordingly in tho Royal Military Academy at Turin . He was recommended thence to the Court of Charles Felix aa a page , but proved too independent for the situation . He studied mathematics , and , was much encouraged , by Plana , ' the astronomer , but not by his family , who- regarded his studious habits as unfitting him for playing " a noble part in the , wo . rld , i . e .. at Court , or to »}> end an immense fortune in a way suitable to his rank . " Liylng alternately at tho capital and on tho landed estates of his family , the Count acquired a practical knowledge of agriculture , and was the first
1 unded proprietor in Piedmont who made trial of guano . At length ho determined oh a voyngo to London , and remained hero many years , and thus grow thoroughly acquainted with tho JEnjjHsh nobility and institutions . Ho vittited our most important rrmuufUoturing localities , nnd acquired an ample knowledge of tho internal economy of tho factories , and tho improvements mudo in machinery . He returnod to Turin in I 8 ' 12 , whore hesucceedod in establishing ft great ; Agricultural Society , which exists to this day as tho Sootota Agvaria , and in its Journal , down to the year 184 / 7 , reoorded tho improvements unido from tune to timo in MngHsh , husbandry , He also established a first-class political daily paper , XI JRisorfjirnontu , through " which tho nature or the Enyliah cunstitution acquired tho popularity which it had since enjoyed in Pitidmont .
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igQ The leader and Saturday \ Anal yst . [ Feb . 25 , I 860 .
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* OonoiliaUqn JtationoJlo < ln J ) tvU , et dn J ^ ovoir . —Vw Hnwax DispiuR , Two Vplum « s . Iiondon : John Ohftpman .
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«¦ Count Cavour . Hh Ztfo nnd 0 « roor . Uy Basiju II . Ooopub , B . A . ( Judd and Glass ) .
Count Cavouni.*
COUNT CAVOUin . *
Reason And Religion*
¦ REASON AND RELtGIdN * _ a *^ «^ K * A ^ ' . 4 Ms . V V « ¦ ^ - ¦ t
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 25, 1860, page 186, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2335/page/14/
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