The Press.
London, England, 1854-10-14 00:00:00

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

TuE Westminster Review continues to be marked by
the unity of plan and ratiocinative talent which have
distinguished it under its present management. As
an exponent of the sceptical philosophy of the day,
it shows a great advance on the sneering, scoffing
school of the last century : it has the good sense to
treat serious subjects with respect, if not with reve-
rence ; and discusses those profound topics of spiritual
inquiry, which have exercised and oaten perplexed
the highest intellects, in an earnest and thoughtful
spirit. The contributors are hard-working thinkers
—they are intent on the expression of their ideas—
and hence, quite apart from the opinions advocated,
those who like the reading which grapples with their
mind, and brings them into collision or companion-
ship with vigorous trains of thought, will estimate the
Review highly. To be sure, there is not much pa
bulum in it for merely practical men : it is a general
fault in the writers that they conceive it to be their
mission to create all things new, and to found sys-
tems of religion, morals, and politics on the basis of
reason alone. Their theories are argued with little
or no reference to the actual state of society,—this
word, society, being to them a stumbling-block, as
embodying the obstacles to the progress they desire.
But, nevertheless, persons most opposed to the ge-
neral principles of the Review must admit it to be an
advantage that an organ of independent inquiry exists
in which questions of a purely abstract nature are
stated and reasoned with so much temper, ability,
discrimination, and fairness. Though amusing
papers are not to be sought here, yet some of those
in the present number will please a wide circle of
readers. The first article is a popular sketch of the
" Odin-Religion," suggested by some recent German
books ; and the next, on " The Prospects of the Greek
People," gives a general survey of them in their in-
dividual, political, and ecclesiastical capacities, and
inquires what truth there may be in the theory—
opposed to all hope of the regeneration of the Greeks
—that no nation can culminate twice. " Once down,
" down for ever," exclaims Mr. W. S. Landor ; but
the reviewer thinks that "it is not easy to kill a
" people so full of a high and obstinate vitality as the
" Greeks;" and, as the best remedy for the disorders
of the Greek kingdom, apart from such wholesom,
.

influence as French and English intervention may passage signincant 01 LUel 0L1.1011.0 viitatia... v. ....v
effect, he would let the Government flounder on until advanced Liberal party at the position they now
fill :
the people gained political wisdom from dear-bought
England is growing old, and wise, and staid with sage
experience. A review of the career of Rajah Brooke
experience :—England knows now what life is, and for
does ample justice to his high qualities, and esti- what • • worth
it is while to li and she says to the nations:
mates him as There was a time when I was young. and dreamers tided
one of Nature's princes,—a man of genius to begin with, over me. I stooped to the caprices of a woman, and assisted N
and of that high order of genius which can act in any dim- subjects against their lawful rulers. Under Elizabeth I
tion ; that It( has the devout pertinacity of a Columbus, fought for freedom ;in Cromwell I said to a revolutionist,
grounded upon a similar sagacity; the gay magnanimity of Be my king. In my awakened manhood, I repent of my
a Raleigh : the adventurousness of a Cortez; the adminis• folly, and I will do so no more. I believed in God, but it
trative ability of a Penn; the joyful devotedness of a Pere was madness ;in truth and justice, and it was the enthn-
d'Estivan ; the moral courage and good sense of a Wel. siasm of a boy's imagination. We will make us a Golden
lington ; the domestic affections of a Collingwood; the Image, and we will make onr decree together, and it shall
robust purity of a hero whose energies are occupied with go forth over the earth, and all peoples, nations, and lan-
adequate aims; and the simplicity which is always sup- guages shall serve him.
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