The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-28 00:00:00

88 (which have caused such dismay . at Rome) about the facility with which Irish Roman Catholics conform to Protestantism in Eng land and America, we do not think that it is extravagant to look forward to the days when Ireland will be as - Protestant as its sister kingdoms. The very freedom of our laws will contr ib u te to that glorious result. Formerly a certain feeling of honour prevented Roman Catholics in Ireland from joining a religion with exclusive social advantages. But the age of official monopoly ha,s visaed by, and a loyal and learned Catholic can rise to the same elevation as those gained by his Protes tant fellow -subjects. This free participation of social honours will gradually generate freedom of opinion amongst the Catholics. It is doing so already, and, as one Plunket won oratorical renown iu advocating the political " emanci pation" of the Catholics, so his son, the Bishop of Tuani, has done marvels his dio cese tor their spiritual progress. We feel that for these bright moral and social prospects the Protestants of the empire are under vast obligations to Lord Derby. Nor is there any part of his defence of the Irish Church more to be admired than the cir cumstance that he never insulted the feelings of Roman Catholic adversaries by scoffing at their rites. Galling language about " the mummeries of superstition came from the same lips that twenty years before had talked of " appropriation." scouted the compact of the Act of Union , a n d suggested that of " Lichfield-house. The difference between the lines of policy and the styles of eloquence employed by these rival leaders can never be forgotten—by the Protestants who rejoice at the progress of their National Church, and by the Catholics who have writhed under the insults cast on their receding creed. Lord Derby did not truckle to them when they were powerful , Lord John Russell used them first, and abused them afterwards. In both instances the merit of sound principle, consistently up held, remained with the Conservative cham pion. Florence the Beautiful. By Alexander Baillie Cochrane, Esq., Author of " Lucille Bel mont," " Ernest Vane," &c. &e. Loudon: Hurst and Blaekett. Tins new work of fiction from Mr. Cochrane's pen exhibits his characterestic freshness of feeling and strong sense of the beauti ful. Looking at nature with the eye of a painter, he excels in sketching landscapes and depicting " interiors " with graphic fidelity of detail. Apt to eonfound sentitnent with pus• siou, he allows rather too much sway to his powers of description, while he does not suffi ciently elaborate the dramatic portions of his story. la minds constituted like his the vague sense of the beautiful ought to be balanced by cultivating the faculties required iu the por traiture of common life. Homely matter and every-day characters ought to be interspersed, for the sake of contrast, through the pages of the picturesque fictioniats—the class of novel ists in which Mr. Baillie Cochrane finds him self at home. In every chapter of " Florence the Beautiful" we are reminded that Mr. Cochrane's genius ought to excel with the pencil. Enjoying, with a painter's rapture, the charms of lovely scenery, he has selected the country of the Touraine as the subject on which he can best exhibit his descriptive powers. The banks of the Loire have never before been so vividly delineated. Readers who require incessant action and a plot swarming with characters will complain that " Florence the Beautiful" is too like a gallery of pictures, and that they lay down the volumes admiring the genius of the artiat rather than sympathising with his ideal beings. The story, also, being one of the domestic episodes in the French Revolu tion of 1791-3, is scarcely sufficiently novel in its subject. Abounding in tragic situations, • '- rather ielodramatic than ' sufficiently the tale. of the its treatment is rather melodramatic titan poetioul, and our attention is not sufficiently sonoeut * 1 o ri itei,witonages of the tale. The btu' z ft:,:a:.?description of the scene' . ,•• If whielt justifies to its assure " La Belle," it is assure ' . 1--, f from the cold sea f.• A, x(o • ' ll a iVA \k.7! THE PRESS. breezes of the east, surrounded on all aides by mountain ranges, the valley of the Loire presents at every turn pic tures of unsurpassed beauty and interest; nothing wore pleasing than to wander without guide or guide-book through this favoured country ; it is little known to the regular Madame Starke-ridden tourist, and this seclusion perhaps lends to it an additional charm. The iron rail traveress but has not invaded its repose, peaceful hamlets rest on the banks of the noble Loire, which rolls on its course with the Balinese of a strong and mighty spirit conscious of a great purpose. Here commerce recals to the happy, listless traveller, idling on the river banks, that, separate himself as he may from the world, there are links which cannot be broken, and that eventhe silent, un conscious river binds man to man, and nation to nation ; but here it is commerce in her most graceful form, such as artists love to paint and poets to describe her. Large rifts, like those on the Rhine, guided with admirable skill throagh shallows and over rapids, move along dreamlike on the bosom of the rolling waters. Slow creeping barges MALL down at times lazily and sluggishly; at others, when the reach of the river permits it, with their swarthy wide swelling sails set to catch the breeze. La Tonraine has been called, and not inappropriately so, " Le pays de rire et de rien faire; " where die soil is as light as the hearts of those who till it, and the harvest of corn and wine as abundant as man can desire. Each hamlet is in summer time frequented by admirers and artists, some, who truly travel Pori the sake of art, and others, by far the more agreeable ind, who make their pencil the excuse for travel ; but it is rarely that these tra vellers ever diverge far from the river-side, said there are to be found in general within a short distanceof every poet so many objects of varied interest, that the time devoted to excursions is nearly occupied iu examining these. And so it happens that the people of this district are rarely studied, for wherever many travellers are in the habit of passing national habits are speedily eradicated, but in the interior of the province, where the presence of a stranger is rare as it is welcome, the people retain all their primitive plat ties, and these, for the honour of La Totunine, may be said to be copied from its nature. Here all the tints are soft and mellowed ; distance blends into distance in un broken harmony ; here are no abnipt effects, no lofty mountain ranges to appal the awe-stricken traveller; all is soft, genial, and peaceful. Such is the character of the people, gentle, mild, and peaceful as the climate ; and to climate the character owes more than we at first think, for the severity of the northman and the gentle indolence of the eastern alike arise from the climate. Hospitable, as all primitive people are, the traveller is welcomed wherever he appears. Sad to say, that mistrust and suspicion arise from intercourse with the world, but here the people are unsuspecting, because they live secluded. Many a month may be passed pleasantly in visiting scenes of surpassing loveliness ; nor are objects of historic interest wanting on each side ; chateaux which rival any feudal remains in Europe frown over valleys, or lie buried abbeylike in their seclusion ; above all, summer, real, warm, glowing summer, smiles overthe scene ; the sun, not obscured by fog and damp as in our climate , here delighteth to run its course; men shade their eyes as they turn towards him, the colours of the distance are so blended by the haze that at midday the outline of forest and bill range can scarcely be distinguished, the veil of glory is cast over every object, softening their asperities and mingling their beauties. A variety of other passages, written with the same musical sweetness, are to be found in " Florence the Beautiful " The author is pe culiarly happy in his descriptions of old French castles, and in the skill with which he invokes their historical associations. From tnany specimens of his art we will select the following : But once within the long gallery of the chateau, the Comte de Levet forgot his sullies, Madame Itrinville her sorrows, Mademoiselle de Pompiere her illustrations, Florence her—no, she did not forget the impressions of her heart, for love is like a subtle atmosphere which pervades and Mends with every object presented to it. Still, if ever affection speaks in whispers, it is when we are gazing on the ruins and records of the affections of the past, when we see the memorials of loves and hopes, of which nothing but pale pictures remain of graceful and gallant figures, glowing charms. and stern manhood, of those who lived and died together, sustaining and sus tained, but the remembrance of whom is only perpetuated in musty chrtutieles and faded tapestries. At Chenonceatiz, by a noble instinct on the part of its princely possessors, even the trifling ornaments which are associated so deeply with the interest of the past remain untouched : all the old curiosities, which, when collected, were prized for their antiquity, remain as the collector placed them; there, all around, are the golden salamanders of Franiois, with the haughty motto; " Nutrio et eztinguo." Lech piece of tapestry has its tale, each admirable goblet its interest: a Medicis worked the one, Benvenuto Cellini modelled the other ; and there are the Ileurrdelis cariously wrought, and the I) and H intertwined in love-knots, which at each coiner tell the tale, more powerful than any language, of the loves of Henry 11. and Diane de Poitiers. Gaze on this long mirror, in the richly-decorated oak frame, placed at the end of the first room you enter, still hung with black, as it was for the death of Louise de Lorraine ; think you how many generations have passed before that mirror, how many vanities it has reflected, gentle hopes, and baneful triumphs. Heal those clays when Catherine de Medicia stood here, before she had marked the sign of the cross in blood upon her forehead, or Marie de Medicis, shortly before the dagger of Francois itavaillac deprived her, in her words," of the best husband in the world, albeit Sillery declared to the gentlemen of France, " Sirs, be calm, you know the kings of France never die." See passing in long array the proud line of kings, queens, mistresses, courtiers, and statesmen, decked SATURDAY, in nods and becks, and wreathed smiles, some D a, adorned with flowers se for a high festival, and others with earnest mien, as full of great and good purpose. The shadows have passed by, but the mirrorremains, and never did it reflect a more graceful form than when leletes ee stood before it. Each apartment at Chenonceaux possesses an interest so great that the most careless observer might pass h ome ignorant of the lapse of time. Enter the cabi net of Henry IL Here hangs the portrait of the Queen Regent, Marie de Medici', that sad violet velvet, such u ph imei ; wear in sorrow, embroidered with deep rich flounces e t lace, and the high ruff, in which costume she picturesque mourned the glory and the greatness of France; e a t ~e 1 fur distant stands her rival, the beautiful Mademoiselle l i e Montmorenci, sketched lightly as was betittiu g o w , lit she played in the masque, when she won the heart et penal as one of the nymphs of Diana. There is Madame de Longueville, of whom De la Rochefoncald remarked, she possessed such &drainages of person and mind, that it seemed eaters had is her resolved to show the perfection of which it was capable, and the graceful Charlotte de la Tremouille, formed w win the admiration of that age, even as the name is bouotwee and esteemed in our day. Long is the gallery, and m any would be the pages to record the charms of that melees age—the age of La Duchesse de Chevreuse, of lisYsis Montbazon, of Madame de liantefort, most united tapillet in life, and iu the history of the past. Beyond this room is th at of Cathe rine de Medici'; flute is the oratory she used to kneel in, the cross before whisk she bowed, the table on which the edict of persecution was peened ; and on the table by the bed is a box with the picture of that son united to her not less by worldly ties than by ties of blood. The darkness and gloom et It Bartholomew seem to pervade the apartment, the fmg but still exquisite tapestry of the bed is fast falling Salo decay, the star-spangled roof, once so brilliant in bile e a gold, is now dimmed by the damp of many centuries; hat even the leather stamped with the fleurselele" slay kap on the wall, while its sombre hue caste a darker Am& over the room. Those who like ourselves have loitered in early life along the banks of the Loire will read " Florence the Beautiful " with all the teelinge that result from " The Pleasures of Memory ; " and those who have not yet saun tered through Touraine will, upon the perusal of Mr. Cochrane's new fiction, be sure to enjoy the sensations of " The Pleasures of Hope." Man's Conception of Eternity. An Examination of Mr. Maurice's Theory of a Fixed State out of Time. By the Rev. H. L. Manse!, B.D. London : J. H. Parker. Tim essay, the work of a very clear and gorous thinker, upon one of the most abstruse question 3 of philosophy, is perhaps a little beyond our range. But we cannot bring our selves to throw aside anything from Mr. Man sel's able hand without a few words. As all our consciousness is linked insepara bly with the notions of time and of succession, we cannot, in the author's opinion, form any positive notion of a state of consciousness which is exempt from these conditions, i.e., of an eternal state. A negative notion is all that lies in our power. If the subject were philo sophical only, we might suspend our judgment and refuse to go further in a region unpro ductive of positive results : But in theology this suspension of judgment is oft* inadmissible. We are required to believe and to act ayes much that we cannot comprehend; and our belief nit practice must take such a form as is aaapted tothe mow tution of our own minds, even though it may also be relate& to a possible ultimate truth which our present famines nes unable to seize. Hence it is that ideas and images which do not represent Clod as He is may nevertheless leper/eta Him as it is oar duty to regard him. They are not in Mss' selves true ; but we must, nevertheless, believe told aot $e if they were true. A finite mind can form no conception of an infinite Being which shall be s p eculatively true; conception it must represent the infinite under finite forms : neva , timeless, a eonception which is speculatively untrue may be regulalively true. • • • • • • The existence of ideas which are specu latively negatve., and furnish no basis of dogmatic truth, is implied In the veryconception of Revelation as a communication** an infinite to a finite intelligence. A false religion !AI contain nothing but positive dogmas ; for its author, boil a mere man, addressing himself to minds similarly c"! i t. tuted to his own, need have nothing to communicate nines din transcends the limits of human consciousness. Nay, confines himself to a system fully communicable, he imoat needs contain himself within ordinary limits ; for minas° and all abnormal states are essentially incomm They must be either blindly accepted on the ipse Ole" the mystic ; or the disciple must, b y a distinct prose!, raise himself to the ecstatic condition of his master, al thus receive the same doctrines independently for hiTg7., But a true religion, while accommodated to the fatieleles, ° ' the receiver, is still an accommodation only, and to the existence of a higher form of truth in relation • ver higher intelligence. Many of ou r reli g ious controsies are at once a proof of the truth of the Christian revelation, and of the negative character o f some of its pnncipal nit*. ,e 1, se Le rs. ny !SS of let 10• sot To- See eat lea. ited ere hick bent IA ;fm ever.' ly be dive, elia frog oaf being Eh