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HAYES'S ARCTIC BOAT JOURNEY.*
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of the work to which we have adverted . "We shall , we believe , best discharge pur duty to our readers by giving a concise sketch of the plan and leading features of the book , pointing 1 out , where occasion seems to us to demand , special merit or- special shortcoming . Early in the introductory matter , Dr . Kurtz marks the leading lines of historical inquiry which he is to follow . Primarily , he will narrate the history of the Extension and Limitation of Christianity ; then the history of Ecclesiastical Constitution—this as obviously suggests tlie Development of Ecclesiastical Doctrine and Science ;
froih that , again , springs the History of Worship ; and lastly , the inmost kernel of all these concentric shields , the Hi . story of Christian Life . Under these , there are subdivisions—the History of Worship , for example—branching into the various aesthetical accompaniments to Church Service , akin to and connected with it , yet not its integral parts . And when the dawn of the Reformation comes to be traced , there are chapters on ? ' Humanism . " the secular awakening help of Bessari-on , Valla , Erasmus , and Buchanan , to the relisrious work of Savonarola , Luther , and Knox .
other and less mythical Boniface , the handsome Savoyard prelate , who bearded his king as valiantly as did De Montfort , who feared the Pope as little as did Wycliffe .
So much for the plan and method of the book . These concurrent , generally parallel , yet not always distinct lines , have each certain common " stages of changed development . The manual is thus 7 iistoricaily divided . The first and shortest epoch is the " Foundation of the Church by Christ : its Constitution in the Apostolic Age . " To some little extent—for the theory is not overstrained—this is regarded as the Oriental phase of Christian development . What Oriental character is marked as distinguishing early Christian teaching , is traced rather to the Judaism of the first Christian teachers , than to subsequent influences of the soil affecting the firstfounded Churches of the East .
The second section of the book , both chronologically and in respect of the space given to it , is the " Development of the Church in its Antique and Classical form . " The last and longest section of the book has to do with the " History of the Church in its Mediaeval and Germanic form of Development . Here . we have an important divergence from the ordinary plan of Church histories . Professor Kurtz sees what ultimately became the Protestantism of Wittem-Berg and Worms existing in germ in the first days , when Goth and Burgundian were baptized ,, either into Catholicity or Arianism . In entering , then , upon his third and—as . is natural to an orthodox Protestant and a German—his chief and most elaborate . section , he goes back to-the first Christianization of the Teuton family . He travels over all the centuries he .. ¦ .-had just left , When he hud done with the Church " Antique and Classical "—in other ¦ words , Roman . He gets back into the main . and full line of
narrative only , when , long after Charlemagne , modern composite nations were quite formed and fused , and - the a'scerio ' aney of tlie Teuton li / e over the dead classic ,, imperial form , which has giveii to the world its new forms of civilization , was becoming assured . This seems to us at once a most orderly and historically correct and , at the same time , a pleasing arrangement . There is perhaps ( but this is pardonable ) a little too much mere Germanism in the working out of this section . It certainly tries our faith in the theory when we see Hildebrand ' s name appearing in one of-the chapters of this section . The attempt , too , to credit the Sclavonic race and church jwith a large share in the development of the cbminon features of Christianity is altogether -untenable- arid inexcusable . This literary form of Russo-mania is , however , accountable ; for is not Dorpnt , the scene of the professor's prelections , which , in a condensed form , we arc now considering , a German colony far off in the heart of Muscovy ?
It is just to our author to state explicitly that his views of the development of Christian history , which our space has made us so meagrely summarise , have regard only to the accidents and externals of the faith . The concurrence of Plutonisni with Christianity , for instance , he traces as producing the thence accruing heresies of the times . But he does not believe that there is left any residuum in the recognised orthodox doctrine of our own days , from the matrimony effected at Alexandria between the dreamy and emasculate Christianity of Oriental proselytes and the lofty and soaring imaginings of him who wrote the Plupdo . Dr . Kurtz will not have it Unit Ought of the dogmatics which be teaches to his Dorpat disciples can be traced to what * Proclus or Plotinus wrote .
One great defect there is in ' , the book , very damnatory indeed of ilsvvorlh as translated into English for English readers . Our national services in the development and in the destruction of ecck'siasticiam and superstition are almost ignored . Only what could not , except by the veriest ignorance , have been omitted , is given . There are six pages devoted to Christianity in early Britain —• only six pages . Into these are , perforce , compressed all notice of the long vitality of the Saxon national Church after the Papacy had subjugated the continent ; nud of the longer vitality of primitive faith in Ireland , and in the isles of Ionu and Lirjdisfurne , where the Culdee preachers were truined to tench primitive truth , after
Iconoclastic and Monophysite controversies hud enlisted their wordy arid belligerent combatants ; " We haye about double as many pages ou . Wycliilb , the most of theso being 1 interpolated by the editor and translator . This is all the room , given to the English pre-Reformation Church by an autliov who dwells with Borne prolixity upon Chnznrn and Bulgarians as prominent agents in the duvolopment of Cliristiun doctrine mid worship I Had these men lens of Sclavonic leanings , leas of mere Germanism , more of Catholic TeutoniBin , naoro room might have beeu found fur the religious history of a people who refused to pay Peter's pence whan all Europe was ceding the tribute ; who , not to flpeulc of other named , sent one lion i luce to enrn his canonization in Rhinelnnd , and who warmly seconded that
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RCTIC literal lire , since Sir John Franklin ' s expedition , has grown -O- into a library of considerable dimensions , numbering , in fact , about 100 publications . The one now added to the list is supplementary to the Narrative of Dr . Kane , and gives a fuller account of the party of eight persons who left the brig Advance , then in Rensselaer Harbour , in order to reach Upernavik , in North Greenland , and after four months returned . A verbal report was made to Dr . Kane at the time of the journey ; but that being found too meagre for use , the present one has been written , ' containing fuller and minute details , and is now published as preliminary to another expedition towards the North Pole , proposed to be undertaken by the author . It is preceded by an introduction written by Dr . Norton Sluiw , from which it appears that Dr .. Kane , regardless of the instructions given to Sir John Franklin , adopted the Russian theorv of a " Polynia , " or Open Polar Water , to which he fancied
that the lost Franklin expedition must have penetrated , via Wellington Channel , and pursued his line of search under the most appalling difficulties . In his opinion , Greenland terminated at Cape Agassiz , in the great glacier named by him ¦ after Humboldr . This opinion , however , has been contested . Dr . Henry Rink , the Danish inspector for North Greenland , for instance , believes that the Humboldt glacier of Kane is not to be considered as the outlet of the great fluvial ice system of Greenland , but as one simply analogous to the other glaciers of that country , and looks upon these glaciers as pieces , which have been separated or " calved " from the masses , gradually advancing from the interior of the country towards the sea . Mr . Hayes ' s intended expedition is to be directed up Smith Sound , in which it is hoped that he will be more successful than Dr . Kane ; at any rate his proposed adventure is in accordance with the spirit of the age ..
There is , at the beginning of the present narrative , the record of a pedestrian excursion on the ice , which presents some exquisite points of description . It was not all rugged scenery ; for the party came on a more lively spot , where the outline of the hills became more even , and the valleys were picturesque ,, si oping down to river banks which were verdant and broad . " Patches of audromeda ,- —arctic type of Scotia ' s heather , — -its purple blossoms not yet nipped by the winter frosts , gave here and there a carpet to the feet , arid'fuiv riishedUs fuel for the cooking of a nieal . Beds of green lnfiss and turf , whose roots supplied pabulum to some festucine grasses on which Were browsing little herds ' of . reindeer , gave to the scene an air of enchantment , and brought to recollect ion the verdure of my
native Chester . These meadows often tempted us from our course , sometimes to steal a shot , at the deer . In the former purpose we were always amply successful , but in the latter we were frustrated by the timidity of the animals , who could not * with all our arts , be surprised , nor approached within rifle shot . The old buck who stood guard over the herd , gave the alarm by a significant snort ; and , —Ttngry-at-being-dii ^ turbed-i—led— away—his-char ^ e , _ -the _ wJioJe _ jLrxiQp _^ bounding off to the mountains . Thence , looking down over the lost the
clifls , they were seen watching us until they were among rocks , from which , in the distance , they could not be distinguished . " But we cannot linger with pictures such as these , beautiful as they are . There is sterner labour to go through . ^ It having been resolved , as above suggested , to make a southward journey in boats to Upernavik rather than to hazard a second winter in the ice , a leader of the enterprise had to bo chosen , and the election fell on Mr . Petersen , who had experience of twenty years in all the phases of arctic life and travel . Provisions , calculated to last four or five
weeks , were taken ; and they set forth to transport their cargo to the open water , but they approached the outer extremity of the cape without seeing anything but ice . The brig was ten miles behind them , and Upernavik more than a thousand miles before . What a wilderness intervened ! At length the floes giving way , the sea is left open to the south-west . Still they have to await the floodtide before the boat can be launched , and even then its way is impeded by pieces of heavy ice . Again they havo to try the il floes , " and encounter many serious accidents , which caused their courage to wane . Open water was seen in the distance , but could not be reached .
They had to make a passage by breaking through the ice ; and after going a little way , to pitch their tent again on an old Hoe . Ultimately , they succeeded in getting under suil , but noon found their lend closed . But again the movements of the ice-fields afforded an opening . More than once this happened ; until , lo , they found " no barrier at all ; and in an open sua , dotted only here and there by a floe , " they " were spinning down the coast at the rate of four knots an kour . "
Four hours' sail , and ngain the cry is " Ice nhead ! " They had run down into a bight , with a lee shore to tlie eiiat , " and ice to' the south and west . They must scud nwny irom the danger , and ultimately find harbour upon a floe . But only temporarily ; for , in a moment , the whole face of things was chunged . The ice had been in rapid motion ; there remained only a tongue , a few feet wide , to protect them from the surf , The bout , however , was hauled up in time to save her . For the description of the whole scene mid the
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546 The Leader and Saturday Atiali jst . [ June 9 , 1860 .
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* An ArcticBoatJourney in the Avtnnm of 1854 . By TsaaoJ . Ha YES , Surgeon of the Second Griniu'll Expedition . Edited , with an Introduction and Notes , by Dr . Norton Shaw . Richard Bontloy .
Hayes's Arctic Boat Journey.*
HAYES'S ARCTIC BOAT JOURNEY . *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 9, 1860, page 546, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2351/page/14/
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