The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-08 00:00:00

THE PRESS, MAY 8, 1858.

it by believing, with Plato, that Universals exist
in the Divine mind. He would not be satisfied
with their existing in that of M. Comte. lie
would look on the object of religious sentiment
held up to him by the philosopher with much
the same perplexity that a well-known popular
lecturer shows at his friend's "photograph of a
cathedral by night." Seeing nothing but a black
space, he is told, that as he would perceive
nothing if he were on the spot at the time sup-
posed, though the building would be really there,
so it is " really there" in the picture, though he
is equally unable to discern it. Logicians may
tell us of the abstract Humanity existing in all
human individuals; and when M. Comte "con-
denses" this airy nothing (the word has a slightly
materialistic sound), and calls upon us to kneel
before it, it may be there also, but we similarly
fail to perceive the intended object of our
adoration.

This difficulty of realization is surmounted in
the following manner. Each servant of
Humanity enjoys two forms of being,—the one
equivalent to mortal life in the common accepta-
tion of the word ; the other conunencing only
after death, and existing only in the minds of
other people. The former is transient and
conscious, the latter perpetual and unconscious.
But it is the latter which forms the aggregate
constituting " Humanity " in general. lo bring
ourselves into contact with it, the life of each
person while on earth is made susceptible of a
similar division into two phases,—the one " ob-
jective," governed by the conditions of the ex-
ternal world; the other " subjective," controlled
only by the laws of the affections. It is by
means of the latter that full play is attempted to
be given to the spiritual and sentimental portion
of our nature. The existence of the dead is at
once idealized, and they form the object of our
adoration and meditation. humanity itself, repre-
senting the dead, the living, and the unborn, will
in the great Positivist Temple be symbolized by
the figure of a woman of thirty years old with
her son in her arms. But, as it may be difficult
to rise at once to this grand conception of
Divinity, an intermediate stage is provided, in
the institution of "personal and domestic worship."
The deceased members of a family are to personify
Humanity for the individual citizen; and as the ex-
istence of this Supreme Being is founded entirely on
love, the "affective sex" is naturally its most perfect
representative. Thus mother, wife, and daughter
—typifying the Past, Present, and Future mem-
bers of the race—are to stand in the place of
deities, and after death to be regarded as
" guardian angels." Hence it follows, that no
second marriage can be allowed, since it would
occasion a subjective polygamy.
The worship of Humanity includes also nine
social sacraments—

Presentation, initiation, admission, destination, mar-
riage, maturity, retirement, transformation, and lastly in-
corporation. They succeei one another in an unbroken
aeriev, and form so many preparations by which, during
the whole of his Ojective life, the worthy servant of
Humanity proceeds, in a gradual course, to the subjective
eternity which is ultimately to constitute him in the strictest
sense an organ of the Divinity we worship.

After the four first of these have been explained,
M. Comte's fair interlocutrix observes :
I understand, my father, this series of consecrations
prior to marriage, itself to be followed by our four other
sacraments. As for marriage, the most important of them
all, and which alone gives completeness to the whole series
of man's preparation, I already know the main points of
the Positivist doctrine All these precious notions
had I made almost my own before I became 3our cate-
chumen.

Relatively to a Positivist, this may be consi-
dered positive humour. M. Comte no doubt
means to intimate that Humanitarian young
ladies study their marriage-service just as at-
tentively as Christian damsels turn over the
corresponding portion of their own liturgy. A
similar slyness is shown in his assigning the
additional day in Leap Year to the "general
festival of Holy Women."

There is a great deal more in the book after
the same fashion, such as the "Calendar," with
its three hundred and seventy-seven worthies,
from Moses and Promotheus down to Bichat and
Gall, and which forms as miscellaneous an
Olympus as the Groves of Blarney ; the "system
of sociolatry," embracing the worship of llu-
manity under all its aspects, in a series of eighty-
one festivals; and the " systematic view of the
soul," with its eighteen functions, an adaptation
of the principles of phrenology. But we have

4

said enough to attract to e wh
the volume those who
are curious on such subjects, and to warn off
those who are not. We do not profess to criti-
cize the system, because there is really no com-
mon ground between it and its opponents; but
from the specimens given, we think we are en-
titled to say that "what is new in it is not true,
and what is true is not new." There is a great
deal of pure morality in M. Comte, which, if it
could be made the rule of human life, would
doubtless be of vast benefit to society. But he
leaves the problem of moral evil just where he
finds it ; and, as long as human nature continues
what it is, it is impossible that an abstract entity
like that which is the keystone of the system can
become the object of religious feeling or worship.
When the adoration of the symbol typifying the
race, or even of guardian angels, shall become
the practice of any considerable portion of man-
kind, then, but not before, may M. Comte's dis-
ciples have some hope of superseding the Chris-
tianity from which he has so liberally and
ingeniously plagiarized. He himself is beyond
the reach of human praise or censure.

The Day after To-morrow; or, Fata Morgans.
Edited by William de Tyne. London : Rout-
ledge.
WE were attracted by the title of this book, and
moaf.hciicriThhogtieasilyiniej
ss
History
such speculative
fn oh tei volume, Own! uee man
nearly
Twenty-second
cheournndt
dl the
hundred
t fashionyu.eD ar,
expected. that it would prove a satirical novel, or
s
ago. But our surmises proved erroneous. The
book is a sort of rambling disquisition on politics,
religion, and society, and criticizes all the world
as it goes round. Mr. Sergeant Mallet, M.P. for
Brassborough, had a snug country place, where
he was surrounded by a clique that appeared to
love to hear him talk ; and the learned sergeant
was certainly very long-winded. This volume,
in fact, is a series of monologues from the lips of
the learned gentleman ; and it shows little inge-
nuity on the part of the author that he did not
break up his matter, and give it a more dramatic
form. The old plan of philosophical dialogues
was found tiresome and unreal, because it was
difficult to believe in characters talking like books;
but it was better than a series of dissertations, in
the mouth of a single speaker, occupying upwards
of four hundred pages.
The matter of the book is of a mixed character.
Some of it is good, much of it is prosy, and not a
little of it is mere commonplace. The author
forgets that he is entering into competition with
the daily and weekly political writers, and that
the same topics which he has taken up have
been almost worn threadbare. Yet there are
many pages of fresh and strong composition in
the volume ; and, judging its author to be inex-
perienced, we accept the volume as indicative of
promise. Carlyle and Emerson have influenced
his mind, although he does not copy the rugged-
ness of the author of " Sartor Resartus," nor
does he venture into the speculative boldness of
the American writer. We cannot, however, see
the germs of an original mind in this volume, and
the author is far more conventional than he sup-
poses himself to be. He has not yet thought out
thoroughly the complicated questions to which he
has addressed himself, and he is perhaps timid in
ascertaining how far his views on certain deep
problems are floating suppositions or the fixed
inductions of reflection.
It is as a mere writer, contradistinguished from
a thinker, that the author has most success. H. e
has facility as a moral sketcher, and can describe
classes of men with force. Although we differ
with many of the assertions in the chapter on
"The Church," yet we have read it with inte-
rest, and we shall give some examples of the
style of the book by citing some parts of his
preachment on things ecclesiastical. Ile breaks
forth thus:—
What is the nresent state of this English Church ? It
is ceasing to be nqtional. Dissent has preyeit upon it a.O
long, and with such tenacity, that in many parts them is
little left but the bare bones. Who shall once more Waite
life into these bones and bid them life? Who shall ?Y
" Arise ! take up thy bed and walk "? It is not the sick
only that love the bed. After the Revolution had esta il
fished toleration, the Church worthies consoled themselves
with the spoils of conquest, nd became drowsvaa t e
gGrged Alpine vultures. Thenremnant of the old Puritans
also became peaceable as Poundtext. They
respectfully.
declined the overtures of the Dutch deliverer for ream
ciliation ; for their leaders had arrived in the bay of
Content. Now and then they might be eloquent and

zealous ; but Comfort, with her armchair, her hot supper,
And her gentle peranAsion, prevailed over those who would
bare bent neither to Cromwell nor to Chalks. The State
was not very bright in the following days.

Then he rapidly sketches the history of the
Church in the following times, and takes rather
an exaggerated view of the defects of our eccle-
siastical system in England. We are not blind
to some of those defects, but let us not overlook
its great and enduring. merits. Religion was
infinitely purer in I,aigland in the last century
than in other countries. Infidelity endeavoured
to emerge from
.dark places, but it was argued
with, reasoned against, and preached down suc-
cessfully; while in France infidelity made fearful
strides, and destroyed society. But we pass on
to cite a sample of the graphic description of this
writer :

Let us step within the cathedral close and look at the
prebends. They have been sadly plucked since the Reform
Mt was made. But a few feathers are still left. The
close is not in reins like Palmyra. If it were so, men
might have moralized over the departed splendours of the
canons, as great in their sphere as the dead Caesars in
theirs. But the prebendal roofs are yet extant, the cellars
are still beneath, though the piled port is mostly gone.
The rosy old gentlemen, who occupied the vacant stalls,
have not left a drop behini them. Some of the houses
are occupied by singing-masters, schoolmasters, retired
tradesmen, and unretired spinsters, who still talk over their
punch about the grand days of the close. What could
such as these have done with prebendal port ? There they
stand, the old brick houses, thick and thin, like the shelved
hooks, hail-circling with their red arms the old cathedral—
the very types of their old tenants. Given the height,
depth, and width of a dwelling, and you might guess the
yearly income to a pound. You might tell at a glance the
houses of the dean, the great canon, and the minor or
small canon, whose dwelling is squeezed in between two
big prebends so remorselessly as to lead to the belief that
they will in time hug him into a thin leaf. I'oor man ! his
stall is small enough—but it is big enough for the forage.
At any rate, the glorious house of God towers over all, and
the canons, great and small, revered it as much as the
Moslem respects the holy stone of Meccs. Many a fat
rector lives in a better house in the parish than his master.
It is not so in the close. Thin rows of grass-blades are
now springing in the pavement. The old days ere gone.
The crows look dejected, as they think of the snug evening
dinner—the joyons, glossy, gentlemanly guests exchanging
delightful quotations from Virgil and Horace, enlarging
on the constancy of the ancient Christian martyrs, dis-
ceasing the old Arian and Pelagian heresies, the fall of
man, and the rise of the lucky,--sipping the Oporto
Falernian as daintily as the bees drink worn the heather-
bells—the quiet rubber, and the decorous departure. The
good old Protestant monks ! Who says that King Henry
the Bully destroyed monkery in England? He only
enabled them to marry. Married monks! Yes. Look
at those strong sons fresh from the cricket-field ; look at
those lovely young maidens, destined, all of them, some
day to gladden the fireside of many a country parson.
Well! is this not better than— Hush ! Go on. Ask
the dean fur a few lines from Ju►enal. At any rate, you
will get a smile and a pinch of snuff.

And so throughout. The same mixture of com-
monplace thinking, with a lively utterance, as
may be seen in that passage are to be found in
other places. Elsewhere, attacking the Church,
he Rays :
Oh ! gentlemen of the jury ! look at the books produced
before you! Ilas any deceased canon written the story of
the Church of Christ on any grander scale than a county
history? Has any learned dean written such a book as
that heretic Nathaniel Lerdner on the credibility of the
Gospel History, who wrote it on thirty pounds a year?
or as Hooker the judicious, the minor canon of Sarum,
on the Church Polity, robed in his coarse rectorial gown?
Have they worked like the poor German doctors and pro.
lessors, with no more luxury than their Rhenish and
l'anaster, mild as the new-mudo hay? or like the French
friars content with small soup, and a couch of hard hair?
Look at the books, I say again ! Is there enough for two
hundred and eighty-four thousand a year for so many years ?
I think not. It would be great gain if most of these books
were drowned a thousand fathoms deep in the Atlantic
brine, or tossed into a blast furnace. Is this like an
armoury for the Church militant? Are these the heroes
of the vanguard? No! gentlemen of the jury ! they have
been too jovial for that.
Warburton made short work of the Tolands,
Chubbs, Collinses, and Tindals of his time, and
his exposure of Lord Bolingbroke's false philo-
sophy was of prodigious benefit. Bishop Berke-
ley " Alciphron" is an exquisitely philosophic
Production, worthy of " The English Plato," and
contains some of the finest arguments in support
of Revelation. Did Paley and Watson do nothing
of masterly service in defence of " The Book" ?
Is Butler's " Analogy" of trifling value ? In
manly argument, and vigorous union of logic
and rhetoric we do not well see how any Church
could have made a stronger stand against the
infidelity of the last century than the Church of
England ; and it cannot be denied that the
( h. urch. had a clergy capable of valuing, and using
with skill in the pulpit, the works of the eminent
divines that we have mentioned. The literature

punchsseh as at bh oe
suet
ht
an ead
stand, the old brick
books, hail-circling
the very types of
depth, and width of
yearly income to a p
houses of the dean,
small canon, whose
big prebends so rem
they will in time hui
stall is small enougt
At any rate, the glor
the canons, great a
Moslem respects th
rector lives in a bett
It is not so in the
now springing in th
The crows look deje
dinner—the joyous,
delightful quotation
on the constancy a
visaing the old Ari
man, and the rise
Falernian as daintil
bells—the quiet rub
good old Protestant
the Bully destroys
enabled them to n
at those strong sons
those lovely -young
day to gladden the
Well! is this not 1
the dean for a few I
will get a smile and
And so throughc
monplace thinki
may be seen in I
other places. E:
he says :
Oh ! gentlemen of
before you! Has a
the Church of Chris
history? Has any
that heretic Nathai
Gospel History, wl
or as Hooker the
on the Church Polit
Have they worked l
lessors, with no rn
l'anaster, mild as tt
friars content with
Look at the books,
hundred and eighty-
I think not. It woi
were drowned a th
brine, or tossed it
armoury for the CI
of the vanguard?
been too jovial for t
Warburton mad
Chubbs, Co' llinsi
his exposure of
aophy was of prc
ley's " Alciphror
Production, wort
contains some of
of Revelation,
of masterly servi
is Butler's "Ai
manly argurnen
and rhetoric, we m
could have ad
infidelity of the
England ; and
( hurch had a ch
with skill in the
divines that we