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    COUNT CAVOUni.*

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    REASON AND RELIGION*

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    Untitled Article

    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

• Citation
  • 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/