The Press.
London, England, 1854-07-08 00:00:00

JULY 8, 1854,

of the water ; and presently, as the sailor, who had recovered
his treasure, was leisurely making his way back to the
ship, we observed the huge sea-pirate with his fin, as usual,
hoisted like a black banner, steering towards him. Half a•
dozen voices immediately gave the alarm, and the swimmer
coolly, without any apparent discomposure, threw his arm
out behind him, striking the water with the back of his
hand. In an instant the terrified fish darted off in a lateral
direction, leaving the man to pursue his way to the ship.
Again, however, after recovering himself, the enemy came
up with the chase ; again the warning was given, the
back stroke delivered, and the bully cowed. And this was
repeated at least four times, before we got the Dutchman
on board.
The sailors have a saying, " Tell that to the
marines," and we are afraid that some will
think the last anecdote smacks too much of
the wonderful. But we must not be too critical
in inspecting the quality of nautical " yarns,"
and some of those in Mr. Mant's memoirs are
calculated to while away an idle hour.

1. Sermons on National Subjects. By Charles
Kingsley, Rector of Eversley. London :
Griffin and Co.

2. The Light which Lighteth Every Man. By
A. E. Russell, late Curate of Hurstmoneeui.
London : Hope and Co.

Timis volumes of parish sermons are of
widely different character. In the first (in
opposition to the title of "National ffermons ")
that local and familiar tone is adopted which
may sometimes be suitable to a particular
congregation ; in the second, the common
heart and understanding of men are addressed,
and Gospel truths are put forward without
reference to distinction of persons.
1. Mr. Kingsley is well known to entertain
peculiar opinions. He is popularly regarded
as a Christian Chartist ; not that we mean to
say he advocates the " five points ;" but, while
we believe he has high notions of the authority
of the Church, he thinks that there is greater
inequality in our social state than ought to
prevail in a Christian community. Hence in
these sermons there seems occasionally a dis-
position to array class against class, and to
assume that the Gospel is not so much in
tended for every rank and condition of humanity
as for " the poor," as the labouring classes are
affectedly termed by him. In treating of the
first miracle of our Lord at Cana of Galilee,
Mr. Kingsley says
The poor need Him most, and therefore He began His
work with the poor in Cana, as He did in St. James's
time, when the poor of this world were rich in faith, and
the rich of this world were oppressors and taskmasters.
So He does in every age. Though no one else cares for
the poor, He cares for them. With their hearts He
begins His work, even as He did in England sixty years
ago by the preaching of Whitfield and Wesley. Do you
ish to know if anything is the Lord's work ? See if it is
a work among the poor. Do you wish to know whether
any preaching is the true Gospel of the Lord? See
whether it is a Gospel, a good news to the poor. I know
no other test than that.

This is dangerous doctrine. If there is
fear of corruption among the high, is there no
fear of delusion among the low ? Are we to
account Joe Smith a prophet, because the
poor and ignorant believed him ; awl is Mor-
monim, for the like reason, the truest form
of Christianity ? Surely Mr. Kingsley offends
equally against sense and piety when ho de-
grades the teaching of our Lord to a level with
the various forms of fanaticism which have
obtained temporary success among the "poor."
It is odd enough to find the rector of a quiet
Devonshire parish attempting to revive the
sansculottism of Camille Desmoulins.
Mr. Kingsley's more direct political allu-
sions are equally indiscreet. His sermons are
dated " Passion week, 1854." Was that a
proper time to print the following passage ?
Have we not close to us, in France, a fearful sign and
proof from God that without the fear of good no people
can be free? Three times in the last sixty years have the
French risen up against cruel tyrants, and driven them
out. And have they been the better for it? They are at
this very moment in utter slavery to a tyrant more cruel
and lawless than ever oppressed them before.
The colloquial style in which he indulges does
not seem to us well adapted even for a country
congregation. "So you see," and " Now, as I
" have often told you," are not necessary to
plain speech. Paley, a good authority, thought
that sermons should be adapted to the pecu-
liar character of a congregation. Undoubtedly
they may with advantage take colour from
local and temporary circumstances, but such
preaching requires great tact and caution.

WW--W.IrMIIMMI

THE PRESS.

Scolding on particular subjects seldom pro-
duces good effect ; and we are afraid that if
Mr. Kingsley had, as he intimates, some
poachers among his congregation, he did not
adopt the best mode of amending their lives
by telling them that he knew what went to
" the snaring of a hare, and the selling of a
" hare, and the spending of the ill-got price
" of a hare," as well as any one amongst them.
2. The author of the second volume presents
it "as a parting offering to those dear friends
" and brethren in English parishes " to whom
it has been his privilege to minister. He has
gone forth as a colonial missionary, and judg-
ing from the evidences of piety, zeal, and
ability presented by this book, we imagine
that few men have ever left our shores better
qualified for the labours he has voluntarily
undertaken. He is particularly earnest on
two subjects, both nearly connected with mis-
sionary enterprise; the first, that there is an
actual relation between God and man, which,
though broken by the fall, has been knit toge-
ther again by the atonement ; and the second,
that it is His will that all men should be called
to salvation. These doctrines find expression
in earnest and eloquent words, as in the fol-
lowing extract:—
When the idea of the race of man, as forming that great
society which Christ has redeemed from the curse, and all
whose members God would unite in one Holy Catholic
Church, has been lost, and men have sat down content with
the assurance of their own election to eternal life, or with
their own possession of those spiritual privileges which
help them to the attainment of it, then God has punished
them for their selfish use of His mercy to themselves—
ay, and punished them after the manner of their sin. For
while they have thus neglected to go forth to others in a
spirit of noble ardour and self-sacrifice, their religion has
dwindled down into a habit of sordid dreaming on the
things they are to have when the Lord brings them to His
heavenly kingdom ; and thus the very spirit of ardour has
died within them, and their own souls have become parched
and lifeless. Through the long, dull level of the dark ages,
when men had sunk down into this condition or into a con-
dition worse than this, we have abundant evidence of the
retribution with which God pursues this sin.
In many a touching passage we are reminded
of the nearness of our relation to God, and
particularly in the following :-
13e sure of this, that if you would do real good to yotir
fellow-creatures, to your neighbours, whethernearer or more
distant, the root and centre of this well-doing must be an
earnest faith in God—a belief that He is really present
amongst us—that when Christ said, " Lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the world," this was no figure of
speech but a solemn reality. And oh, if you could some-
times see the look He casts upon you, when, in your
unbelief of His nearness, you have done some unbrotherly
and heartless action, 1 think it would surely be with you as
it was with His apostle of old—you would be fain to go away
from His presence and " weep bitterly."
Mr. Russell, though often eloquent and
affecting, is always plain and practical. We
have been much pleased with his sermons, and
can recommend them for family reading as
among the very beat we have lately met with.
We may remdrk, however, that, in the pant
graphs contrasting the progressive character
of the discoveries of natural science with the
fixity of religious truth, the author does not
sufficiently take into account the fact that
our perception of religious like that of natural
or scientific truth may advance with know-
ledge and civilisation. Indeed, it is to be
supposed that,
.with every progress in that
best kind of knowledge which brings us
into closer communion with nature and our
selves, some scales of error will fall from our
eyes, and we shall be able more clearly to re-
cognise and more fully to appreciate the reality
of religion.

The Works of Oliver Goldsmith. Vols. 111. and
IV. Edited by Peter Cunningham. Lon
don : Murray.

THESE 'volumes complete the edition of Gold-
smith's works in " Murray's British Classics."
What we have said previously of the excel-
lence of the paper and print of this edition,
along with its remarkable cheapness, wo can
truthfully repeat. With respect, however, to
the editing of these latter volumes our com-
mendations must, to some extent, be qualified.
We think that Mr. Cunningham has printed a
quantity of matter which does no credit to the
name of Goldsmith, and which ought now to be
treated as obsolete and uninteresting. In the
third volume " The Bee " and Goldsmith's
" Essays " (collected by himself) occupy little
more than half of the space, while the

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641

last two hundred pages ate filled with " Unao-
knowledged Essays" and " Prefaces and In-
troductions." Turning to the fourth volume,
we find the fragmentary life of Voltaire, the
sketches of Bolingbroke and Parnell, the life
of Beau Nash, one hundred and fifty pages
of Goldstnith's reviews, including lengthened
extracts from the criticised works (!), excerpts
from his " History of the Earth," along with
some minor publications and his miscellaneous
letters. We must say that the true lovers of
Goldsmith could dispense with the reprint of
much that is here enumerated.
To the " Unacknowledged Essays " Mr.
Cunningham has prefixed the following edi-
torial note :

These essays, from the British Magazine, the Bury Body,
and other periodical publications, are attributed to Gold-
smith, on the authority of Isaac Reed, Thomas Percy,
Thomas Wright, a printer, and James l'rior, Esq. Of the
genuineness of some I have more than a suspicion. Those
on taste and poetry (Nos. 14 to 20 inclusive) contain an
appreciation of Scotch poets (Thomson, Armstrong, And
Blacklock), of blank verse and of new systems of versifica-
tion, very unlike the ascertained writings and known
opinions of Goldsmith. Others, however, have the weight
of bullion and mint-mark of Goldsmith himself.

This is an unsatisfactory introduction to a
reader when he finds how much of the volume
is taken up with matter of doubtful author-
ship ; and we think that the editor should
have used more care in sifting the question as
to Goldsmith's share in those papers. Mr.
Cunningham's critical estimate of various ex-
ercises of Goldsmith's pen cannot be im
plibitly trusted. He calls the " Life of Nash"
an "adrnirabk biography," though it would be
very difficult to cite from it three pages de-
serving such a term. He then refers in a dis-
paraging manner to the " Life of Bolingbroke "
—a piece of writing which has really some
remarkable features. It is compooed in a
philosophical temper, and separates, with cri-
tical precision (not since followed), the faults
and merits of Bolingbroke as a writer. Its
conclusion is worth quoting :
As a moralist, therefoh., Lord Bolingbroke, by having
endeavoured at too much, seems to have done nothing ;
but as a political writer few can equal, and none can ex-
ceed, him. As he was a practical politician, his writings
are less filled with those speculative illusions which are
the result of solitude and seclusion. Be wrote them with
a certainty of their being opposed, sifted, examined, and
reviled ; he therefore took care to build them up of such
materials as could not be easily overthrown : they prevailed
at the times in which they were written, they still con-
tinue to the admiration of the present age, and will
probably last for ever.
We lately found an essay of Southey in
which he assails the merits of Bolingbroke as
a political writer; but we could cite tributes
to his powers in composition from the pens of
Lorti Brougham, Lord John Russell, Mr. Dis-
raeli, and Sir Edward Lytton. It is true that
Goldsmith had no inner knowledge of Boling-
broke, but, in spite of want of special matter,
hie sketch of " the all-accomplished St. John "
is very readable. Mr. Cunningham is mistaken
in saying that the "amplest life of Boling-
broke ' is by G. W. Cooke. A much more
copious one was published some years since
in America.
The general character of Mr. Cunningham's
notes is influenced by too much reliance on
" Croker's Boswell Johnson" and " Walpole's
Letters." On particular portions of his sub-
ject Mr. Cunningham is thoroughly informed.
We are reminded often that he has compiled
the " Handbook of London," but where Gold-
smith's pen deviates into foreign or classical
subjects the editor does not elucidate his
author. When Goldsmith describes Voltaire's
passion for " Mlle. G—u," an English reader
would like a note telling that the charming
Gaussin was referred to, of whom Voltaire has,
in one of his dedications, drawn a picture that
has been quoted by more than one as appli-
cable to Miss O'Neill. So also, at p. 62 of the
" admirable " biography of Beau Nash, a very
curious anecdote is related about " the late
Earl of T—d," and the general reader would
wish to know that Goldsmith had referred to
Henry the eighth Earl of Thomond. We do not
want a long quotation from Crabbe's poem
(p. 232, vol. iii ), or to be told in a note (p. 233, idem)
that the words, "and Tenterden is a town of
taste," were " added in the second edition."
Mr. Cunningham seems to have laid down no
fixed rule about the exercise of his love for
minutia', which he often inconsistently grad-
fies, while he leaves some obscure passage's
wA
f• 5•5

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642

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unexplained. Thus, at the conclusion of
Goldsmith's letters, our " British Classics " are
enriched with the following immortal strokes
of genius :

XXXI.-TO MR. THOMAS CADF.T.L.•
Doctor Goldsmith's compliments to Mr. Cadet], and
desires a set of the History of England for correction, if
interleaved the better.
XXXII.+-TO MR. THOMAS CADELL.
Mr. Goldsmith's compliments to Mr. Cadell, begs for an
hour or two the use of " Millott's History," by Mrs.
Brooke.;
On which brilliant performances we are thus
treated to not less than three notes :
• The well.known publisher in the Strand, the apprentice
and successor of Andrew Millar. Died 27th December,
1800.
+ First printed in " Prior's Life," ii. 439.
; Mr. Forster was the first to publish (" Life and
Adventures," p. 703) a short note from Goldsmith to
James Dodsley, dated "Gray's-inn, 10th March, 1764,"
requesting the loan by bearer of ten guineas.
On the other hand, when the page would
demand illustration, like the essay on the
" Augustan Age of England," the editor is
often silent. When Goldsmith refers to Sprat,
Bishop of Rochester, we are treated to a quo-
tation from Macaulay's History of England,
praising Sprat as " a great master of our
language ;" but when, in the same essay,
he critically refers to the styles of Sir
Richard Fanshawe, Sir William Godolphin,
sad Lord Arlington, the reader must feel
surprise at the editor not giving him a single
line on these names.
But, taken as a whole, this edition can be
heartily commended, and it has the additional
merit of an excellent index. One of the best
fjatures is, that the works have been so ar-
ranged that it can be purchased in separate
volumes. Book-buyers can take it in portions
or altogether, which is a very convenient ar-
rangement when we recollect what a prodi-
gious number of " Goldsmiths " are already
on our shelves.

The Last of the Old Squires. A Sketch. By Cedric

Oldacre, Esq. London : Longmans.
SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY has been too long and
widely admired not to have met with some imitators.
" The Last of the Old Squires" treads diligently in
his footsteps, but his manners and notions scarcely
seem fitting to the period in which his life is sup-
posed to pass. A character fashioned by Tusser's
" Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry • and
Earle's " Microsmography " seems out of place in an
age of free-trade bustle and agricultural shows. He
should have gone out with Queen Anne, instead of
living to the reign of Queen Victoria. This moral
anachronism, running through the volume, partly
spoils the effect of a sketch designed with some
artistic skill, and enriched by quotations full of
wisdom and fancy happily introduced by old writers.
Apart from this object, the book, though evidencing
an accomplished mind, wants muscle. There is a
rattling of dry bones all through it. As a character,
the Old Squire is more a bundle of virtues than a
human being : he wants individuality, and seems
more like a piece of modern manufacture than a
real embodiment of past sentiment and manners.