The Press. — London, England, 1857-01-10 00:00:00

40 never a substitute of, the useful. You frustrate, he in►:ists, " the very principle of nature on " which ornamentation is rounded, when you " represent a natural form in a natural manner, " and yet apply it to uses with which it has in " nature no affinity whatever." As examples of this kind of vice, he engraves a gas jet pro ceeding from a flower—a cup supported on a stag's head, and a bell made of leaves. His argu mentis that every article made for use must have a certain size and character defined for it, by reason of its use, and that on this skeleton the designer must bring all his ornamental know ledge to bear. Having established principles of ornament, Mr. Wornum goes through each school that has prevailed, from the Egyptian to the Louis Quatorze, giving some striking examples of each. The illustrations are equally beautiful and instructive. The 112 pages of this handsome volume furnish a luminous introduction to both the study and the practice of ornamental art. In Fiction we have an historical tale, with Oliver Cromwell (10) as the hero. Most of the great personages of the time figure in the story, which commences with the Civil War, and terminates with the execution of Charles. The writer has fallen into a mistake, not un common with novelists. He has made history the groundwork of his tale, instead of using it only to aid and embellish his fiction. No composition can be more worthless than history in the shape of fiction. It is as bad as fiction in the shape of history. If Mr. Stewart had simply meant—as one would suppose by his long historical note—to give the public the benefit of his notions on the Civil War, an essay would have been pre ferable to this bastard style of composition. Great names are too often presented to us in masquerade. Some of Mr. Stewart's scenes are well imagined, and some of his descrip tions well written, but the vicious principle on which he has proceeded gives his tale little claim to be regarded as a legitimate fiction. We are sorry the author has not turned the abilities he possesses to better account. There is hot southern blood in the tale of "(ink Branchi " (11), which is said to be translated from the MS. of a Tuscan. The hero commences life as a poor Tuscan boy, and goes through many wild adventures cha racteristic of the clime and passion of Italy. As the translator says that he has taken some liberties with his original, he would have done well to omit the portion relating the conse quences of Giulo's intimacy with the lovely marchesa. The story has many striking pas sages, and is coloured by such passionate feeling as marks the life of the fiery Alfieri. To the book-buying public reprints of modern works which have obtained standard rank are usually extremely welcome, from their completeness and moderate price. Moore's " Epicurean " (14 the best of his tales, is issued in a well-printed volume, the type clear, and the size handy. The first volume of a cabinet edition of Lord Camp bell's " Lives of the Chancellors " (13) comes out with the recommendation that the author has employed the long vacation in carefully revising the work, which is now offered to the public in as perfect a state as he can hope it will ever attain. It is singular that a work which has deservedly obtained so much popu larity should in the first instance have been offered to several publishers, who declined the risk of publication. The first volume of a new edition of Carlyle's works is also issued this month. " The History of the French Revolu tion" (14) is commenced in it, and will be completed in a second volume. We wish the cabinet size had been adopted. Such unifor mity of size is very convenient for book shelves. The cabinet edition of Lord Brougham's works (15) continues to proceed. The last volume contains " The Historical and Political Dissertations of Lord Brougham." (10) Oliver Cromwell. fly C. I:. Stewart. Two Vols. Lon. don: smith and Elder, (11) (maw Bronchi. Troudated from the Italian MS. by Alfred I , lwes. I.ondon: Addey. (12) The Epicurean. By Thoutas More. London: Lon- mitns. _Ili) Lives el ilsc Lord Chancellors. Ily Lord Catapb.3l'.. Fourth f:dltion. Ten Voir. Vol.!. London: 14 ro• French Beree&then. Ily 'Mottle:. Carlyle. Two Vo6. V.l 1 . Lrud o u ( 1181.1111111 .ui•l 1 /41i. (Is) Wurka (I Lord fironehaws. Vol. VIII. Lowlgu: Grail and Co. THE PRESS. In the essay on "Foreign Relations" his lord ship expresses an opinion, which has now bo• come incorporated in our national policy, on the beneficial results of the Anglo-French alliance : The salutary influence of this amity and union be. tween those great powers is felt to the very ends of the earth ; it tends to the security, the improvement, the paci fication of the world. And he asserts : He would be a bold as well as a wicked Minister, in either country, who should attempt to revive the old hos tility between the two; but he would speedily be a de feated, and disgraced, and punished Minister. But how, if a public journal, with more influ ence than any Minister, were to labour for such an end ? Lord Brougham did not foresee the possibility of such danger, and has not touched on it. The History and Life of the Rev. Dr. John Tauler, with Twenty jive of his Sermons. (Temp. 1340). Translated from the German, with Additional Notioes of Tauler's Life and Times, by Susanna Winkworth. And a Preface by the Rev. Charles Kingsley. London : Smith and Elder. Tilts volume has several claims to notice. It is a biography of an eloquent Dominican preacher of the fourteenth century. It gives a history of a peculiar spiritual sect, the " Friends of God," with which he was con nected; it raises (particularly in Mr. Kings ley's preface) the question how far spiritual mysticism has a foundation in truth ; and in the fine sermons of Tauler the consideration is forced upon us how far an active pursuit of worldly concerns is compatible with that de votion of the heart to God which Christianity requires. The facts of Tattler's life are few. He was born at Strasburg, in 1290, and appears to have renounced the world and become a Dominican in 1308. His mind, naturally prone to mystical speculation, was much in. finenecd by Master Eckart, a brother of his own order, who, escaping the bonds of purely scholastic philosophy and Papal theology, be came eminent for his metaphysical teaching. It has been asserted that he was the founder of that school of German philosophy which has been developed by Hegel and his disci ples. He taught that all beings were a part of God, and that their whole striving was to be reunited to Him. His notion of hell was, that it consisted in deprivation of God : I say if God and those who iLre in the light of His countenance have aught of true blessedness which those have not who are separated from God, it is that same Not which tortures the souls that are in hell more than any fire or than self-will. His teaching was not likely to find favour with the Romish Church. He was accused of heresy, and his writings condemned by a Bull of the Pope. The manner of his death does not appear. Tauler himself never left the Roman Church ; but in the disputes between the Papal power and the Emperor Louis, Tauler sided with the Emperor throughout, and persisted in preaching in places which had been laid under the Papal interdict. In principle he belonged to what may perhaps be termed the Evangelical portion of his order. The division which arose among both the Franciscans and Dominicans is traced by the authoress of this memoir to certain inevitable causes : While the higher ecclesiastics, above all the Papal Court, were enormously wealthy—and with few exceptions absorbed in secular objects and pursuits—the parochial clergy, likewise often worldly and vicious—generally iglu). rant and inert—the wandering friars came among the neglected flocks, roused them from the sleep of sin— reclaimed the vicious—convinced the scoffer—brought hope to the wretched, consolation to the sick and dying; and, as a natural result, the people were eager to express their gratitude by placing their property in the hands of the order which had shown zeal for their souls. And tlins, though forbidden by their original constitution to hold property, in a few years the amount of wealth which they accumulated from the bequests of the dying was so large as to excite the jealousy of the regular clergy, already irritated by the friars' denunciation of worldliness and the tacit censure of themselves implied in the ascetic lives and burning zeal of their rivals. and they repeatedly dem an d e d the simpreasion of the two orders. lion within the orders themaelves had soon sprung up the old strife and division that seems to threaten the life of all spirituel organism i., na in the second generation, arising front the innate nntagonistu between the seltindulgence, prudence, and acquisflivene.,a inherent in !Inman nature, and the pure SATURDAY, but unreasoning spiritual impulses to which they have owed their existence. The borninicans, with their cha racteristic address, retained the conflicting elements within their own bosom, and equally availed themselves of fervent piety and worldly power. The Franciscans, more enthusiastic and less far.sighted, divided into two parties, those who consented to hold property in trust for the See of Rome, and those termed spiritual Franciscans, who ad hered rigidly to the literal interpretation of their rule of absolute poverty. Tauler saw clearly the vices of his Church, and preached boldly and faithfully the doc trine of renunciation of the world. It was in 1340 that, according to the tractate printed at the commencement of this volume—" The " History and Life of the Reverend Doctor " John Tauler,"—he became acquainted with Nicholas of Basle, the head of the sect the Friends of God. Until lately this tractate was supposed to be fictitious. The extensive re searches of Professor Schmidt tend to show its genuineness, though there are difficulties in the way of supposing that it literally relates occurrences in the life of Tauler. The history of this sect is one of the most interesting parts of Miss Winkworth's memoir:— To the name they adopted the text John iv. 15 seems to have given occasion ; for Tattler says, " Then said our Lord to his Disciples, ` From henceforth I call you not servants, but friends.' The henceforth' that he spoke was from the time when they had forsaken all things and followed Him. Then they were His friends, and not ser vants ; and therefore he who will be a true friend of God must leave all things and follow Him." The " History " purports that a layman, having heard Tauler preach, had much con versation with him, and gradually led bim to the perception of a much higher spiritual life than he had previously imagined. Thence forth, his preaching became more earnest, and produced far greater effect. But if the his tory is to be literally received, Tauter must have died about ten years after what is called his " Conversion," or about 1350, whereas he really lived till 1301. The " Friends " must have resembled in some respects the Friends of our own day—the Quakers. Their chiefs underwent great persecution ; and some of them—among others, Nicholas suffered martyrdom. It is not impossible that further research, seeing what has already been accom plished, may reveal new facts in the life of this remarkable man. It is principally, we presume, in relation to Tauler's connection with this sect, and the influence thus produced on his teaching, that Mr. Kingsley's preface on " the Mystics " is contributed. The passage front page xxix. to xl. is a most masterly defence of the essen tial principle of mysticism. He maintains that, after making all allowance for mental illusions and nervous fantasies, to which " mystics" or " saints " might have been subject There still remained in each and every one of them, and not to be explained away by auy theory of diseased body or mind, cue of the very loveliest and noblest human characters ; and on that discovery the question must have followed—Was that, too, the product of disease? And to that there, can be, I trust, but one answer from the many. If here and there a man shall be found daring enough to assert that the most exquisite developments of humanity are grounded on a lie ; that its seemingly loveliest flowers are but fungi bred of corruption ; then the general heart of mankind will give their eynieism the lie, and answer— `. Not so, this is too beautiful and too righteous to have been born of aught but Clod." He contends that "mystic raptures" or " beatific visions " should be received like other wonders, on the strength of the testi mony which attests them ; and that from th e very loneliness, anguish, and bereavement of the my sties may be drawn a strong presump tion that God would give more to these lonely suffer ers than to the many, because they needed more. He concludes . As for the impossibility of such a direct assurance, it is an assertion too silly to be seriously answered in the nine teenth century, which is weekly revealing wonders in the natural world which would have seemed impossible to our fathers. Shall the natural world at every step transcend our boldest dreams; and shall the spiritual world be limited by us to the merest commonplaces of every-day experience, especially when those very commonplaces are yet utterly unexplained and miraculous ? When will men open their eyes to the plain axiom, that nothirg is impos sible with God save that he should transgress His own nature by being unjust and unloving. If this doctrine of divine illumination, in connection with devout aseetism, is to be re ceived at all, wide limits must be accorded to it. Every faith has had its mystics who in their way have earnestly sought God, awl