The Press. — London, England, 1854-10-07 00:00:00

954 the kind of thing that suits me. There is such a great deal of trouble ! lam not equal to it." • • • • " I'll be hanged if I think it is a gentlemanly way of leaving one a property !" he said, with great warmth. " Why could he not have agents and stewards to whom one might apply, to know about the estates ? I can't make out what they bring in. If there were a good round sum in the bank, that might be very useful. Why could not he have his money in the funds ?—or in railroads !-1 can make out about the shares in the line ; though I don't suppose I shall turn them to much account, and it's not a good time for selling. At all events, they will fetch nnething. They must go if nothing else is forthcoming. There are those horrid iron-works ! What on earth can such a man as I am do with them ? and the woods have been cut for the fires till there is not a tree worth ten pounds among them. It's a perfect nuisance to come into such a property." The narrative is written in a quiet style, and the reader is commonly left to conjecture the romance of the story from the occurrence of ample incidents plainly told. We do not re• collect any novel since "Jane Eyre" more likely to grow upon the public than this tale of " Lewell Pastures," as it is very original and very attractive. PERIODICAL LITERATURE. THE London Quarterly opens with a powerfully written article upon the sceptical literature of the soi-diaant Spiritualists of the day, more particularly referring to the works of Francis Newman and Theodore Parker. A quiet hut able defence of Chris tianity introduces the subject of this new phi losophy : "By what name they would choose to be distinguished we cannot tell. No one would stigmatise them as Itation alists,' unless themselves should loudly insist upon the n true. They cannot be called ' Catholic,' for that term is not due to the professors of a heterogeneous jumble of all p )ssible and impossible mythologies,but is justly restricted to those who profess that Christian faith which is in itself cl .finite and consistent, but, in its adaptation to the nature aid necessities of all men, equal and universal. Nor are they strictly to be called eclectic,' for though their creed I ; a singular compound of all religions, philosophies, and i 'fidelities, it is certainly not put together on any known p inciple of reason or taste. The most prominent feature of this new form of infidelity is its assumption of religious a titude, and even a profession of Christianity itself. . In the twofold character of sceptic's and religionists they n Aurally seek a double refuge, that, when put to rout by Atheist or Christian, they may find appropriate shelter and defence. If the Materialist charges on the one hand with his secular philosophy, and challenges them to surrender the notion of a God and a future world as figments of superstition, those gentlemen put their hands upon their hearts and whine endlessly about the beautiful intuitions of the reli gious sentiment. If the Christian, hearing these admis sions of a spiritual world and moral sense, claims a hearing for the doctrines, miracles, and divinity of Christ, Viey throw back their heads with a slight action of scorn. an! beg to be considered as men of 'rational' ideas and clinmon sense. It is no use to remonstrate against such II grant inconsistency. They continue to abuse Christianity for its assertion of truths which reason alone was never able to demonstrate, and to assume, in spite of reason and without pretence to revelation, the existence of virtues and divinities of every kind, which the Materialist naturally holds up to laughter and derision." The principles and pretensions of this sceptical philosophy are met by the reviewer with earnest argument, though at this time of day Christianity can have nothing to fear from either the skilful so phistry of Mr. Newman, or the open scepticism of Mr. Parker. There never was a time when either had less chance of misleading the public, from the complete refutation which in numberless shapes has been given to the errors they attempt to revive. The scepticism which doubts everything may secure itself from defeat by ignoring all knowledge, even to prin ciples of reasoning land the " cogito, ergo sum " of Descartes ; but such scepticism as that professed by Mr. Newman is, as Mr. Rogers, in his eloquent " Eclipse of Faith " and " Defence"—both following in the track of " Butler's Analogy"—most elo qnently and convincingly shows, completely untenable. The history of the brothers Newman, both able and we are sure sincere—the one, to speak plainly, an infidel, and the other a monk—deserves, and no doubt hereafter will receive, special notice, if only as illustrating the vanity of intellectual specula Lion wan destitute of reverence and puffed up with an opinion of its own infallibility. The articles upon " Travels in Abyssinia," " Types of Mankind," "Jerome Cardan," and the "Methodist Episcopal Church in America," appear to be written with competent knowledge. The sixth article, upon the" Ne w Educational Measure for India," claims some - reviewer, misled by . Sir Charles Wood's received, is disposed to scheme confessedly the existing means of rest ebb, than in the nil machinery. The , through which instruc • what is to be gained by THE PRESS. teaching the natives their own languages, and encou raging them to study the superstitious lore of the Sanscrit, Persian, or Arabic languages, we cannot un derstand. Even the London Quarterly doubts the "political wisdom of such a plan," and admits "that " every English book a Hindu reads is an advance " on all he knew or thought before, tends toward " European modes of thinking, and so far is a pre " paration for future progress." Then why not en courage the study of English literature? But, so far from doing so, the present educational plan positively abolishes and reduces the various scholarships and exhibitions in the English colleges already existing in the country, compels instruction in the lower schools to be given in the vernacular tongue, though, to be sure, in the higher schools English may be used, but yet the preference is to be given to the ver nacular. We must remark upon the inconsistency of the reviewer, who at one page doubts the pont].- " cal wisdom of cultivating any other language, in a " country like India, than our own English," gives two or three pages of anecdote and proof in support of this view, and then remarks that the " Go " vernment, with a wisdom that cannot be too much " commended, is anxious to direct great attention to " the vernacular tongues that the English and " vernacular are the languages to teach when two can " be taught; when but one, the vernacular of course." If we wish to Europeanise the intellect of India, we can only do so by the establishment of our own lan guage through every branch of trade and professions. In a paper on " Recent Roman History " the reviewer considers that Providence has yet something in store for Italy : " History teaches us that political convulsions have always either preceded or accompanied great religious movements, and Italy will be no exception to the rule. Her recent internal throes are not only evidence of the deca dence of Papal influence upon the minds of the people; they are the wild struggles of a blinded giant towards the light Meantime the sympathies and prayers of Chris tians will attend their career—a country whose inhabitants possess in a pre-emineut degree some of the finest charac teristics of humanity, and whose history can claim the records of two civilisations, can never be viewed with in difference by the rest of the world." In the last article, on the Crystal Palace, the reviewer is strongly opposed to any Sunday opening : " The moment Sunday becomes a day of pleasure it ceases to be a day of rest. Let no man deceive himself or dupe the working classes. Before the Crystal Palace had been open seven years on Sunday the weekly rest of a London editor, reporter, clerk, shopmau, postman, or artisan, would not be worth more than that of his brethren in Paris. If one exhibition is good so is another. All sorts would rush in at the gap made by the Crystal Palace." This consideration is of great weight. All trade may, in one sense, be said to minister to amusement. Regent-street is pleasanter to walk in when all the shops are open and decked out with their merchan dise than when they are closed. We are strongly in clined to think that the working classes are, above all others, interested in keeping the Sunday as free as possible from the ordinary avocations of the week, even when they take the form of amusement. The first and most voluminous article in Black wood is the continuation of the notice upon the dis pute between Whewell and Sir David Brewster, as to whether other planets besides our own are inha bited or not. Wo have not space here to enter into the merits of the arguments produced on either side, but would observe with all humility to both Mr. Whewell and Sir David Brewster that no argument, no supposition, no inference, no conclusion that can possibly be drawn will, in the present state of' human knowledge, either prove or disprove the question. We cannot agree with the "plurality men " that, " wherever there is a sun there must be a planetary "system, and that wherever there is a planetary sys " tem there must be life and intelligence." These are but mere assumptions, not proofs : " And this is the way," remarks the reviewer, " in which it seems we worms of the earth feel ourselves at liberty to deal with our Almighty Creator. dogmatically insisting that every scene of existence in which He may have dis played His omnipotence is but a repetition of that parti cular one in which we have our allotted place ! As if He had but one pattern for universal creation! Only one scheme for the peopling and dealing with infinitude ! Oh! that the clay should thus think of Him that feshioneth it ! Forgetting, in an exulting moment of blindness and pre sumption, his own awful words, ' My thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" There is one thing to be remarked, that the first astronomers of the day do not dispute upon these points : they know that such things are neither easy, and perhaps not necessary, to be positively deter mined by mere inference. The other articles are rather solid than amusing, with the exception of the con cluding letter upon Spanish politics. Speaking of Christina's departure from Spain, " Vidette " is of opi nion that it was the best way to get rid of her, for they soon found in Madrid that,whatever probability there was of the Queen-Mother intriguing abroad, there was a certainty that she would be dangerous at home, for the palace was already becoming a focus of intrigue; SATURDAY, 1 and the reactionary party, having their old protec tress to lean upon, were so active that the Govern. ment were forced into thrusting her out of Madrid and of Spain at the same time, even at the risk of a revolt of the people, who thirsted for her punishment. Of the ultimate fate of Cuba " Vidette " has little doubt, unless England and France interfere. He is inclined to think that its sale to the United States would, on the whole, be an advantageous arrange ment for Spain. Colburn's New Monthly, among a number of plea sant papers, notices Dr. Veron's fourth volume of memoirs, which supplies some amusing anecdotic gossip about Rachel and Louis Philippe. Speaking of the King's remarkable condescension to the bourgeois of Paris, the writer observes that " Tallemant des Riau% relates that a Spaniard, seeing King Louis XIII. take off his hat to several persons who were in the court of the Louvre, said to the Archbishop of Rouen, who was by his side, What ! does your King take off his hat to his subjects? "Yes,' replied the archbishop, 'he is very civil.' Oh,' said des Reaux, ' the King my master knows much better how to keep his place : he only takes off his hat to the consecrated host, and that very much against his will.' " - - - - Dudley Costello's " Abduction of Lady Caroline Caper " is a laughable account of a fashionable elopement. The other articles afford agreeable light reading. The Dublin University Magazine has a varied table of contents. The " Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes" revive some characteristic incidents in connection with great names. A pilgrimage to the land of Leix and Ossory gives an absurd description of hotel-lodging as it is to be found at Lanark during fair time. In the present chapters of "Mosses upon Gravestones " we have a clever dissection of a " manage de convenance ;" and later there is a pas sage which displays an intimate knowledge of the nature of men : " There are some characters that love once, and only once. Others there are whose heart breaks by little bits; of such the last love is generally stronger than the first. Have you ever observed men, mature in thought and pas sion, over whose soul most of the great griefs of human life have already passed, suddenly, in their middle life, fall with a terrible earnestness in love with a mere schoolgirl, some child whose soul has yet scarcely begun to bud into consciousness ? And have you marvelled greatly that these grave gentlemen should be tripped up thus quaintly, after all their serious experience, by the tricksy blind boy-god? To me the wonder is intelligible enough. This passion is their last link to youth : if that snaps, they must fall back upon old age at once. No boy falls in love with a mere girl—rather will he waste his heart's first flower and fra grance upon some hackneyed woman of the world, that can help him in the difficulty of a first emotion. It is not so with these men. They love to reproduce their own youth in that of another, and taste once more, and for the last time, its old-remembered sweetness. The old sentiment comes back to them with all its delicious and tender ex travagance, and, gathering up the full sum and strength of manhood's ripened capacities, sheathes itself in the anguish and strange beauty of last hope." The passage is equally true of the love—for there is such a thing—of middle-aged women. There are several reviews in the number, one upon a late spas modic tragedy, and another on Milman's " Latin Christianity." The first paper of Fraser is on Sir B. Brodie's " Psychological Inquiries." Speaking of mental la bour, the writer instances Cuvier as having been usually engaged for seven hours daily in his scientific researches, these not having been of a nature to require continuous thought ; and Sir Walter Scott as having devoted about six hours daily to literary composition, and then his mind was in a state to enjoy lighter pursuits afterwards. When, however, after his mis fortunes, lie allowed himself no relaxation, there can be little doubt, as Eubulus observes, that his over-exertion contributed, as much as the moral suffering he endured, to the production of the disease of the brain which ulti mately caused his death. "One day, when he was thus exerting himself beyond his powers, Sir Walter said to Captain Basil Hall, who also suffered and died from disease in the brain, " How many hours can you work ?' " Six,' answered the captain. " ' But can't you put on the spurs ? ' "' If I do, the horse won't go.' "' So much the better for you,' said Scott, with a sigh. ' When I put on the spurs, the horse will go well enough ; but it is killing the horse.' " The fact is, it is as impossible to lay down rules for the management of the mind as for the manage ment of the body. In the paper on " The Turk and His Future" it is surmised that the Moslem's regeneration is not so easily to be ac complished as some believe. The Ottoman nation ality is religious as well as political, and so little moral improvement seems ever to accrue to those Turks who have had the advantage of a foreign educa tion that they appear but too frequently to lose their old virtues of truth and honesty for a questionable intellectuality. In a second paper on "The Russian Army " the writer displays much inner knowledge of the whole system and materiel of the Muscovite force, and demonstrates the bard facts that exist to prevent the marching of the half million of bayonets which it has been said the Government has always little notice at. our hands. The the interested approval which India education despatch has rec regard it favourably. But the oxisists more in the revision of tl education, which are at the low adoption of ant• new education • 'macular languages are those th Sion is to be conveyed; and who