The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-06-26 00:00:00

f SUPPLEMENT TO bt Riberami AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER, selves beneficial, implanted by an all-good Creator for the wisest and best purposes. Take two of these— ANGER AND ALARM. Throughout the whole course of animal life these emotions are deeply implanted. In the feeblest animal form, alarm is seen manifesting itself on the approach or the contact of any unknown object. And as we rise in the scale of being to man himself, the motive becomes, indeed, less obtrusive in its modes of operation, more refined and disguised in its character, but not less really present and powerful. It lives a silent yet watchful sentinel in every human bosom, conservative, not only of life, but of all that gives beauty an d dignity and happi ness to life. How vividly, for instance, does it reign in the mother for the care of her offspring ; in the householder for the care of his goods; in the citizen for the care of the com monwealth '• in the maiden for the care of her virtue ! It is everywhere the guardian of life and its treasures. Whenever life becomes intensified, fraught as with a deeper wealth and fulness of possession, then alarm, however demonstrative, stands a more vigilant guardian. And, did it not do so, — the soul not readily fluttered and put up when destruction threatened,—what an invaded and desecrated thing would life become ! Anger is in itself a righteous principle ; it is an indiomation against injustice and wrong ; it urges the strong to be the protector of the weak, the brave the supporter of the injured. It is only when this emotion degenerates, when it goes into excess, and changes into passion, that it becomes sinful and injurious. Pain and suffering are, if we rightly consider them, absolutely necessary for our very existence in a world like ours. Pain points out where disease is, and guides the physician to the cure : pain manifests where danger is, and warns us against it : a little pain is often the preventive against death. Again, what a warning voice there is in sorrow ! what a check on the first yielding to sin is it to reap the first crop of sorrow ! How often a little sorrow is a preventer of a load of future ills. But then neither sorrow nor pain are parts of our nature ; they are not, like pleasure and enjoyment, a part of our system : there is no part of our organism whose direct action is pain ; pleasure is : all the functions of our system tend directly to give pleasure and enjoyment in their proper use : pain is something which attacks the organism, and is superinduced upon it—pain is the exception—pleasure the rule. This is a very important consideration ; had it been otherwise, we do not see how we could meet the infidel's argu ment against the goodness of God, when he objects the existence of evil. As it is, the argument must be one ad kominem, or rather ad ignorantiam It is undeniable that, if God had so willed, there would have been no pain in the world; but we are by no means so sure of the conclusion implied in this—a very different con clusion seems quite likely. For is it not the very same con dition on which pain is contingent that yields pleasure in abundance ? Is it not the very same nervous sensibility, which gives forth, as its normal play, the sense of enjoyment that gives forth, as its abnormal play, the sense of pain ! Is it not the very same medinfn which overflows with gladness, that may be even invaded to madness ? Supposing the or ganism had been made incapable of pain, how do we know that it would have retained its capacity of pleasure ? Supposing it had been so constituted as to have absolutely excluded the force of disease, how do we know that it could have owed the spring, or felt the joy of health ? We put the question thus, because we really do not know, and cannot know. * * * A wholly different constitution placed in wholly different cir cumstances might have possessed one without the other. But this is an utterly idle question to entertain; for, after all, for Might we can tell, such a constitution, in such circumstances, might not have been nearly so good as the present. To theorise on such subjects is not only useless, but also positively mischievous. This is undoubtedly the only way of speaking of this matter : we are cognizant to one state of things, viz., the state we are in : we have a revelation respecting this state, and only this : we have faculties adapted for this state : we have not (at present at least) power to comprehend any other : "we see through a glass darkly." Explanation is out of the question : theorycan lead to nothing satisfactory. In like manner, the author treats the subject of the origin of evil ; he mentions the four modes of explana- A ARIGHT TO-MORROW. world bath ay e some t as t e o f woe . k„,, —lngle your with its pleasure, h and age too surely know O l e loss of earthly treasure. (8(' heart that beats with bounding joy O i th robs with wild delight, 41' 114 suff er soon f rom pa i n ' s alloy, But d aY turned into night. Icee D this ad age old in view— IC W ill ward the blows of sorrow— ,: dar kest day th e wor ld e ' er knew, Il .44 b right and g l or i ous morrow. call'd with worldly griefs to cope .41'heir s pirit damp falls round thee, :11 li ght the ca n dl e b r i g ht of hope CIA burst the bonds that bound thee. atill a bold and honest heart, %I,." i ng of truth and pride, u, t hen to n o bl y p l ay thy part, 4tigu ltte ver fate b e t i d e. ke ep this adage old in view— IC will ward the blows of sorrow— :darkest day the world e'er knew "ad it bright and gl orious morrow. If A, dais face should wear a frown .ttlkitlarigers thick beset thee, It:d ° r l t, too, on thee look down '1,41 earlier friends forget thee, 141 ea I. fairly, stoutly met lbebej',.totnpass fall, At 1,4 Zi'at sinks and struggles yet kee:ualleonquer all. mil :the adage old in d rke7a.rd the bl ows o f sorro l ls ew d on 131.7:ty the world lori e' er sm ki orrow.—J. W. 47 tizes 1, 51 Z Dq)ii 212 9f Reason and Nature to thean L k, 431 irtecenEt Essay. Edinburgh Being and be o ti , re i a ae d k'wood and Sons. Ilav e 1_ ers are probably aware that two N e i t h :ttelylven awarded for two essays on ° evi dences of the Christian religion. R l l e tl'en. at intervals of forty years during dl y 4l 4o4l.Li t erest of th e or i g i na l sum invested tOigkbt" and at the end of the forty years Bf. e. This year the first prize was ' ' O 4l There were above two t 4 er e k it 600. t , 4 5 4 . a ~° ll3. Among the unsuccessful, it is 4.h °,r ',, (11 •44",,'eve of the best writers of the day. needed to show the importance of Baer obi • head of this article, or the ability of 4 /1 4ett of I V a 411 '44, t he writer is to show, that, in the jag. er e teroent of the universe, we see the I!'V k let t te e'4l: l Th and in the continuance and 1 \ of e t ,lve see tit l, of the working of the laws of kta th? 0 (1. ,wle power, the goodness, the pro- Poaitr on e b very clearly . and beautifully . 44 4 geoi, 3' appealing to the discoveries q a ,,.ce eot:nore aki nnd natural - history—more . . el 7 4 ect ec i 2.gly in the higher branches ettaoci k : e lelar aa w t ?.th mental phenomena—exem 1, 11 4 t)le g i o le n of the Psalmist, " The and t rn,y,,, v l , of God, and the firmament hd b .: J l O sp e tt s t 4 4 ,." - ' l.l i: day unto day uttereth 4 4 1. ,ne t t ) night showeth knowledge. L„'Lle seal IV'gvage, where their voice is Ve, * ise th e „u - no tea the Lord is perfect, con k ktf i et e.part• of the Lord is sure, O h , or 14 , loularl y st x i x. kt!" -Nk that 7 sti gates th lll eic with that part in which 4Pt to tho sA el notional feelings of man, consider Passions or emotions which 48 naturally evil are in them- R YIE tion enumerated in Miller, and shows where they each fail ; the true one he considers to be beyond our know ledge, perhaps beyond our comprehension. This last part of the book is by far the most interest ingand beautiful: there is a reverent and modest feeling pervading the whole, yet the essayist clearly vindicates the moral government of God, the wisdom and fitness of present things for our present state. We can fully believe the report of the judges, who declared that this and the first prize essay were far beyond all others. No one can read through this, especially the fourth section, without having his doubts (if he ever had any) about the goodness of God being compatible with the existence of sin, at least set at rest, if not completely answered. The first prize essay we have not yet seen. A Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith. By his Daughter, Lady Holland. With a Selection from his Letters, edited by Mrs. Austin. London : Longman and Co. It is seldom that one meets, in this everyday work ing world of strife and labour—of real business and feigned enjoyment, with anything so redolent of life's sunshine as the pictures produced, in vast and prolific abundance, in the two volumes devoted to the life and letters of the Rev. Sydney Smith. These volumes owe their existence, in a great degree, if not entirely, to the conjugal affection of the widow, who, in surviving the late canon of St. Paul's, fondly cherished his memory, as she had during his life dearly loved, ardently admired, and duly honoured her lively, ready-witted, and amiable husband. That love and admiration being kindled and sustained by his worth and wisdom, and, as she herself wrote, her widowhood was cheered to -the last by a hope "of seeing that published of him, which to me far exceeded all th brilliancy of head that the world took cogni zance of, but which I least valued ; well-knowing, what the world knew not, the perfection of his heart, and his love of truth." Impressed with this desire, she sedulously cherished the mass of materials col lected by himself, and urged their arrangement and publication upon their mutual friend Mrs. Austin, who willingly undertook the task, which failing health prevented her from accomplishing, and which has ultimately devolved on Lady Holland, the wife of Sir Henry Holland, the physician, and daughter of the subject of the memoir. The, duty, though con siderably advanced,- was unfulfilled at the" time of Mrs. Smith's death, but it has been discharged with fidelity and tact, as well as judgment and delicacy. The memoir is written in such a manner as to give a clear idea of the moral character and intellectual vigour of her father, and portrays, in a striking manner, the vivacious good-humour, and strong common sense with which he sought to improve the circumstances, and combat the difficulties by which he was beset, particularly in the early period of his life ; in addition to the memoir Mrs. Austin contri butes a judiciously-compiled collection of his letters, introduced and explained by an excellent preface ; the joint labours of the authoress and editress forming two volumes of the most delightful and instructive reading. Sydney Smith, the subject of the memoir, was born in the year 1771, at Woodford, in Essex, his father, Robert Smith, of whom he was the second son, being a man of considerable eccentricity of manner, and of careless habits. Mrs. Smith, the mother of Sydney, was a woman of great beauty and rare accomplish ments, and engrafted upon sound judgment, great sweetness of temper, and lively but inoffensive wit. She was the daughter of M. Oriel, a French emigrant from Languedoc, and from her there seems little reason to doubt that Sydney inherited much of his playful good-nature and exuberant fancy ; while he also, it would seem, became heir to no inconsiderable portion of his father's eccentricity, without having in any degree imbibed his carelessness in respect to