The Express.
London, England, 1865-06-21 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EV

----s-----
/tory of the Rix and Influence of as Spirit of
aßaiOnaiiint us /furor. By IN. E. U. Luxe,
M.A. Longman.
In noticing a work of this kind with the
ita con-
desire
of conveying:some adequate impetrate' of
tents, there is a difficulty, arisiug from its multi-
farious character--the difficulty of choosing from
amongst the various point+ of view under which
it may be regarded. The author modestly apolo-
gises for what he calls the meagreness with which
he sketches out the importaut subjects of which he
treats, and disclaims all preteustou to the ability
and learning which a fuller treatment would re-
quire. But neither the disclaimer nor the apology
was needed. The reader's thought is more likely
to become confused with the embarrassment of
riches than to desire a greater abundance. The
ability of the writer is unquestionabluence His
e. lie is
gifted with a style of easy, natural eloq.
manner of dealing with each separate topic which
he brings under discussion is clear and masterly.
It is only in reviewing the entire work that a
per-
tain defect of order and arrangemeut will be
ceived, as though the author himself must have
felt that be had more material to dispose
of than he was able perfectly to manage. This
is the only point of importance in regard to which
this work compares uufavonrably with the great
work of another author now unhappily deceased,
the tradition of whose manner of thought and
writing Mr. Lecky manifestly and worthily
avoid
con-
tinues. In reading him it is impassible to
thinking of the law Mr. Henry Buckle, if ouly
because the labour of both writers has been em-
ployed over much of the same grouud and irected
to similar ends. The differences between them are
considerable, but there are marked features of like-
ness ; and it is uo discredit to the living writer to
say that his readers might very often imagine em-
selves to be studying certain added chapters of the
unfinished work of the great philosophic historian.
Be refers in the meet graceful wanner to his pre-
decessor as "s great writer, whose untimely death
has been one of the most serious misfortunes that
has ever befallen Euglieh literature, and
varied and whose
splendid genius, matured by the most
extensive scholarship, him cast a flood of light upon
many of the subjects" of the present work.
In regard to the principal subject of Mr. Lecky's
difference with Mr. Buckle, he is in agreem " Histo ent withry
Dr. Draper, another living writer, whose
of the Intellectual Development of Europe " goes
also over somewhat of the same ground, and mantici-
aybe
said in some important particulars to have
pated his conclusions. There is in both these
writers less of the purely sceptical element,, and
Mr. Lecky is laboriously candid in his judgments.
Re is not satisfied merely to describe or to denounce
the persecutions and superstitions of past ages, but
strives to enter into the mind of the time,
and gives full weight and consideration to
the circumstances which naturally produced
them. Ile thus makes what we regard
ceivable
as the
errors and brutalities of past ages con
according to their lower standards of civilisa-
tiersouson, while yet saving from utter condemnation the
p who fell into them, and we are taught to
be thankful for all modern enlightenment without
too proudly arrogating to ourselves a claim of per-
sonal superiority over the men that have lived
before us. It is an important point in Mr. Lecky'e
historical philosophy to make much of the spirit
of the successive past ages, of the " gene-
ral intellectual tendencies" which " modify the
character of the public mind." And though his
notion of what this spirit is may sometimes be
a little shadowy and vague, it yet enables him to ,
deal in a large-minded and charitable manner with I
many to ns monstrous anomalies in the mental and'
moral history of mankind.
It will be remembered that Mr. Buckle intro- 1
duoed his work with a metaphysical argument,
which gave rise to much discussion at the time,
directed against the doctrine of free will in human
actions, and aiming to reduce its apparent contin-
gencies to certain statistical laws. lie also uralndee-
valued, as many persons thought, the mo e
menu in man's constitution, considered as an active
civilising force. Mr. Lecky avoids these narrow ,
and extreme conclusious. He finds appropriate
place for the action of law in harmony with a juster
moral doctrine. Without formally opposing, or on
this occasion even naming Mr. Buckle, he acoepts
his statistical facts, but draws another inference I
from them. Just as it would be wrong to infer'
that the intellect has nothing to do with the forma,-
tMn of opinions simply because of the many indu- I
ences which combine, apart from logical reasoning, 1
to control the judgments of men, so " the fact," he I
says, "that there is an order and sequence to the
history of vice, and that influences altogether in-
dependent of human control contribute largely to 1
its course, in no degree destroys the freedom of I
will, and the conclusion of the historian is perfectly 1
reconcilable with the principles of the moralist." I
The power of struggle against desire possessed by
the virtuous will is one force ; the desires them-
selves are another ; and these may exist together in
all varieties of relative strength or weakness.
Therefore, the will may readily in the ordinary
mind lose ground in presence of any particular
causes which give strength to desire. But if the
moral element in human nature is almost the con-
stant
element which Mr. Buckle representedto it to '
be, and which Mr. Lecky is hardly prepared dis-
pute, yet, as he shows, its essential character re-
mains, which without freedom would be impossible.
lie has further proved, throughout this work, that
the moral element plays au important part in
the development of civilization. If the in-'
tellect is the nerve of motion, the moral '
sense is the nerve of feeling, without which the ut-
most activity would be spiritually lifeless, a play of ,
mind without the balance of motive, without design ,
or meaning. The growth of improvement in men's
moral condition the author finds to be very slow, I
and that " there are periods
atu taw when,
causes, certa
the task in des
oiresf
being strengthened by n
the will in opposing them is peculiarly arduous."
Hence, whoever writes the history of moral changes
is bound to take into account these deflecting cir-
cumstances. And the saute rule obtains in the study
of opinions.
No mild was ever altogether free from distorting in- ,
Samosa ; but in the 'Anne* between the woe and the
affection which leads to truth, as in the straggle between
the will and the desires which leads to virtue, every effort
is crowned with a measure of soccer,end innumerable gra-
&titan of pretreat ere manifested. AU that we can rightly
infer [from the easy bias with which prepossessioe or preju-
dice affects the jodgmeetl is, that the process of ramming
Is mach more diffi
cultthan is commonly supposed ; and
that to those who would investigate the causes ot existing
opinions, the study of predispeeitions is much more im- 1
portent than the study of arguments.
Thus the author clears the way for the theory
upon which his book is written, ' that the opinions
of a given period are mainly determined by the
intellectual condition of society, and that every
great change of opinion is the consequence of
general causes." No philosophy of history could be
constructed except upon some such basis. That
was Mr. Buckles idea, though his metaphysical
and statistical theory needlessly narrowed the
ground. Mr. Lecky's is the more difficult mode to
build upon, but the work will therefore stand the
onger. He secures what Mr. Buckle aimed at—a
method of law ; but without the disadvantage under
which that great man laboured, of being obliged by
his theory to ignore some of the moat important
i
elements n the problem. That Mr. Lecky has
complete hold of his own theory the reader will
sitate to believe. He states and restates, and
Ives to make it clear, but not al ways success-
ly. Instead of writing vaguely about the
spirit" of any given age, and its ' intellectual
odencies," as though the former were a kind of
imething infectious in the air, said the latter a
rat of contagious mania, he might have distinctly
ipecified the chief coaspeneuta of the mind and
iabit of each period, and accounted more or leas
for them all. To some extent he does this, but be
vould have done it better if he could have kept
leer of the barren illusive generalities referred to.
After the long darkness of six hundred years, be-
ginning, the author reckons, from the sixth century
of our era, in the twelfth the mind of Europe
began to awake. Only " some faint traces," how-
ever he can find of the spirit of rationalien "in
the ?teachings of Abased." nuns bad aeencred a

11

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revival of obfelithefe. studyiar.Buckle of Lat
modified the intellectual condition of Europe, _wild ,
so nesseraitated certain ultimate change, ib O i
idnatedlitethrileture'eajeldahninW
g
two centuries earlier, and thought that by the
twelfth century the light might be said to have be►
come general. Certainly by that time the sleep of
eatiscilie ortlsodosy was broken. The spirit of in-
quiry had begun to struggle with the
astnrictigocuriet:
clitiliwit sot aututtlir towardsawa
awakening was o_
sues ol twthe fourth cen-
tury from that period that Montaigne, the first
great rationalist, unconsciously founded • school of
thinkers which bas been ever since increasin
or g in
numbers aged in iufluence upon the 'lliad of the wld.
What the author says of him will aptly explain the
sense which the title of hia own work should bear.
The date of lidontaigne's work was 158 ft.
In an age which wu still spell-boned by the faesinations
of the past. he applied to every questa= • judgment en-
tirely unclouded by the imagiestioes of theologiaos, rad un-
shackled by the diatom of authority. His originality
epeeists. not so much in his definite opiaioesor in hi. ergo-
ruents, as in the gees& toes end character of his mind.
Be was the first French author who had Wifely emseci-
paled himself from the retrospective habits of thought that
hod so loog been universal ; who ventured to judge ell
questions by • Decoke standard, by the light of common
genes, by the measure of probability which is fur-
nished by daily experience. • • . . While oatbolial,
protestant', end deists were vying with each other in
their adoration of the put, while the ambition of every
scholar end of every theologian wu to form around his
mind an atmosphere of thought that bore no relat the
ion to the
world that was about him while knowledge was made
beadalave of credulity, sad those whose intellects were
most shackled by prejudice, were regarded as the wisest of
mankind, it was the merit of lioetaigne to rise, by the force
of his masculine geeing, into the Meer world of reality ; to
judge the opinions of his age with en intellectdto that was invi-
gorated, but not enslaved. by knowledge, so °maim-
plate the system of the put without being dazzled by the
reverence that had surrounded them. He looked down upon
the broad field of history, °pop its
dow oclashing enthusiasm
everchsegies
s, its
discordant systems, the ebb adf its
belief, and he drew from the contemplation • lesson widely
different from his 000tssuporarise• lie ion n
it is true,
fully recognise tboes moral pruciples which shine with an
unchaegiog spleodour above the fluctuations of speculative
°pintoes ; he did not discover the poetising of eternal
liniment which preside over and direct the progress of belief,
infuse order into the seeming chaos, and reveal in every ap-
pbarent aberration the traces of a euperiounpliog Y'rovideoes;
ut he at least obtained an intense and ruined perception
of the fallibility of the human intellect ; • keen sense of the
absurdity of so absolute deference to the put, sod of the
danger of punishing men with death on account of opinions
mummies which we can have so little assurance.
It may be remarked here that Mr. Lecky guards
himself from being misconceived, as Mr. Buckle
was, through his exclusive and peculiar use of the
term scepticism, to express the awakened action of
the human 'IAEA which accompanied the revival of
letters in Europe. He dues not hesitate to employ
the term proper occasion but his own term,
on
"the rationalistic spirit," while lees
provocative of
question, sufficiently expresses
what both authors
mean ; what also Dr. Draper understands by hi*
phrase " iutellectual development" For doubt and
unbelief, though, in relation to established errors,
they come out in history into glaring promiuenoe,
are not the only nor the most noteworthy charac- '
teristics of the true spirit of rationalism. It has
its own strong faiths to rest upon, its own positive
side of development, and especially what the author
finely calls its gravitation toward; the moral inter-
pretation of the facts of human life which the
laws of the conscience alike suggest and jus-
tify. If it denies certain opinious, it denies them
upon grounds of moral reasoning. It values
the love of truth more than correttnese of judg-
ment. In its frith it places the moral far above
the dogmatic, and it estimates mankind by the
dispositions displayed in their lives, and not
by
th e any
gauge of either creed or speculation. This is
tendency which the author finds to have steadily
but certaiuly advanced iu Europe from at least the
age of Descartes, two centuries and a half ago
which has already profoundly affected the courses
of theological opinion ; which has almost worked
itself into triumphant ascendancy in history and ill I
politics, is fast acquiring power iu the direction of
education and in the rules of social life, and must
inevitably issue in that final establishment of the
complete liberty of conscience which as yet we only
I,
hope for.
This work may be regarded as a series of disser-
tations, a form of writing in which the author
shows great skill, and a command of clear and
forcible expression. Thus he exhibits nut only
the struggle of rationalism with credulity, b
ut
the origin and growth of the opinion's w
which the sceptical spirit bad afterwards to con-
tend. If this method keeps his main argu-
ment often in suspense, and compels him sometimes
to reiterate the terms of it, and even to remind
himself by repetition of the proper aim of his whole
work, it is a method which greatly adds to its his-
toric value, and one which enables the writer to
manifest his power of historical appreciation, as
well as hie perfect freedom from any merely ue-
structive spirit. The two clueing chapters of the
I work are specially dissertational, and they treat of
cipation of governments from prieetly control and
influences. The other sets forth the powerful effect
of industrial developments in freeing the human
1 aovnaer'iisetuypoofatothpeicstsecouflaczastidioeuraobilepopliretzztthineteemresant.-
\ mind from the tyranny of exclusive and unenlight-
ened church systems. But the body of the work is
devoted to a more specific exhibition of the cor-
roding force of rationalism upon certain faiths and
forms of thought, which, though once universal,
have now almost ceased to exist in all circles and
countries where the modern culture prevails. The
belief in supernatural wonders as matters of common
experience and observation was anciently universal.
Sometimes they were 'satanic, sometimes celestial
visitations. Under both forms the tendency was
not to question and doubt, but to expect them.
Mr. Lecky calls this the prompt belief in the
miraculous. Anothar word would have as well
expressed it, and might have raised less discussion.
But the facts were as he has stated them, and he
has very fairly described the coutt of modern
opinion with the old belief. It rowan unloub
triumph of rationalism that 'Men no longer believe
in witchcraft, nor in any modern saintly miracles.
Moreover, the spirit of religious persecution is
clearly not in harmony with the public opinion of
any modern civilized community. Other changes
of no less importance Mr. Lecky presents in the
ideas, and moral estimates,
and habits of our time.
contrasted with those prevailing three centuries
since ; and so great in some of them appears
the
difference that the reader might scarcely theihow universally and how unhesitatingly certain
doctrines were once believed and acted
upon, if the author had not collected
factan
overwhelming amount of proofs of the .
Mr. Ledky notices as a remarkable circumstance
that altliongh for many ages after the sixth century
the belief Ittwitcheraft was stromg and universal,
penal inflictions on account of it were compara-
tively rare. The circumstance is accounted for by
the fact that throughout this period the terror of
magical influences was kept under by a correspond-
ing faith in the power of ecclesiastical charms. But
when heresies of various kinds arose, the reaction
upon the faith of the time produced in it a stern
ascetic and gloomy character, which was exhibited,
Mr. Lecky shows, even in its works of art. Europe
was also suffering from various political and social
I occurrences, under " a sense of insecurity which
engendered the dark imaginations and the wild and
rebelliousthe 14th century, that awful scourge, the " black
death," which is reputed to have cut off a fourth
part of the inhabitants of Europe, and which acted
with dreadful force upon the excited mind of the
time. During the next two centuries the terror
reached its climax. inthe meantime persons accused
of witchcraft had been executed by thousands in the
most systematic manner. Nor did the Reformation
allay the terror or the persecution. Until a com-
paratively late period people of all classes and of all
degrees of cultivation believed that tempests
might be raised by the satanic force of witchcraft,
that it could inflict diseases, that witches were pos-
sessed of the power of taking the shapes of animals,
and of transporting themselves through the air for
are
ethetrn paaleoessetlya, concomitants."
whichnoom ita in
ut a
c , Then superstitiouscaine, ate
luandreda of miles in a few miautes. To doubt all
this was atheism ; to reason against it blasphemy.
Luther, Erasmus, Jewel, Sir Thomas Browne,
More, Cudworth, and Bacon, were among the be-
fikeereirt *taw, andJantes I, paged sanguinary

theinss Bader with the nag:
lawslist& and all the teeding Areerippurit•irerd
to
an porticos fa Ole superst • eve. so
laik an authority igaJohn W ey d that
" the giving up wilidWelift is insiffect gvilesoitp,' the
Bible." Ot tihateepeara'a fallikea the stsh the
author says that we owe to it that me anoboly
picture of Joan of Arc,. which is, perhaps, the
darkest blot upon his gentile."
But perhaps the moat curious thing in con-
nesion with the belief in witches was, that one of
the latest considerable efforts to hold "
it was
it y made
by Glanvil, who by work o unp the Vanof
Dogmatising," had gained for himself an honourable
admission into the newly founded Royal Society.
Yet he was one of the few who saw than to
the inductive philosophy which was coming
into vogue, that it would certainly change the pre-
. railing modes of thought, and with these the tone
of the national theological belief ;
and that the church must either adapt itself to the
altered tone, or lose her influence over the English mind.
He saw that a theologr which rested ultimately on autho-
rity which branded doubt as criminal, and which
could is is the stroogest manner •every impartial investigation,
could not long 00-ezist with a philosophy that encouraged
the opposite habits of thought the vary bOgillofog of

asegiAm by appealing to the ,
„.
; beg la DIMS demential; and eon
wee in mime salvetioa ant
.. error. sU the first dawning
,1 toi ta the
.73;. • that rationalistic spi
Iwh regr=trines si as the vehicles of morel as
i 11.815, end whiter lie. greatly diminishes their vein
simplifies their character, sad lemmas their mumble.
That the spirit of any given period is not th
vague, inexplieshie thing which the author some
times represents he makes clear in the presethe
n,
instance, not only in his fully accounting for
seeming paradox of the persecuting practices of
Christian men, but in his further development of
1 the idea that the more tolerant doctrine of rational-
jell' was notwithstanding, chiefly originated through
the Reiormation. As Christianity destroyed the
ancient slavery, not by direct attack but by und
th-
mining the basis on which it rested, so did
Reformation produce in men a habit of thought and
of religions feeling which has successfully overborne
the hard and cruel logic of persecution for religious
beliefs. What remains of the practice has in these
days to be carried on in obscurity and under sophis-
tical disguises. It is rarely justified upon the old
theological grounds, but resort is made to the weak
and wicked device of involving the obnoxious par-
ties in some moral reprobation, a homage which the
bitter hypocrisy of modern sectarianism pays to the
more humane enlightenment of our time.

weeloni.
That such a man should undertake an argument
in favour of witchcraft seems almost incredible,
especially as it had become with so many of his
coutemporaries a mere subject of derisive scep-
ticism. Hr. Lecky shows that it was nut without
souse grounds of reason that be so acted, however
iudefeusible the cause proved to be. The sketch Yesterday a public meeting took place at Willie's
be gave, in another work, of "an ideal church con- Room, King-street, Bt. James's, for the purpose of further.
struoted to meet the wanta of an iutellectual and Mg the interests of self-supporting public boarding-schools
critical age may not be without even present mute-
rest. for 1,000 boys, in oconection with St. Nicholas College,
rest. It reads oddly from a defender of the belief Sussex, at a charge for board and education of 14 guineas
iu witchcraft, a year. The Archbishop of Catrrsairoar presided, and in
Its mud was to be framed on the most latitudioarian opening the proceeding stated that be had received letters
principles, because the doctrines that could be deleuded
from lion Granville, Lord Devon, Mr. Bamford Hope, and
with legitimate assurance were but few and simple. Is
ministers were to be mach lose anxious to accumulate the others, esprossiog their regret that circurnstapore b pre
triolitious of the past than to acquire " the felicity of clear vented them from being present on the occasion. Hadg
and distinct thinking," and " • large compass in their then called upon Mr. Gladstone, M.P., to propose the first
thoughts." They were to regard faith, not as the opposite luti and
of reason, but as nos
of its luanifestatious. Penetrated by re.° - ea ;
the uses of human weakness, they were to rebuke the The CRANCULOII of the Excusuusit roes and said
spirit of dogmatic confidence sod assertion, and were to that the task which devolved upon those who might .
teach men that, so far from doubt being criminal, it was undertake to address the meeting was • very
the duty of every man "to suspend his full and resolved , simple ow; brume if ever there was a cause I
uproot to the doctrines be had been taught, till he had irn- ii
which co aor to p
could ff d lead for itself, and d' 1
ispense I
partially considered and stamped them for himself." presence of those admirable advocates whose
The principles on which Glanvil reasoned iu I with the
mimes they had heard read, it was this. He appeared be-
favour of Satanic prodigien, the evidence of which ,
fore them for the purpose of bearing hearty testimony to
he thought to be amply conclusive, ought to have
led him to defend the catholic faith iu those cries- I the peat work goisg on in the midst of them, Rad which
he had been described in all the advertisements red
which
total wonders with which the lives of the early
vailuthoud were filled. But the protesthnt church ' th••• ithwa• It ha him written by Mr. Woodard
bad no temptation to accede to a belief which 'lon the forehead of his undertaking—it was, he
could not but be regarded by those who ; umlerateeds selfaupportiog education--aouad in all
held it as tending to the unquestioned It° branch") based upon the religion of the
church of England, for the middloclasses of this men.
credit of Itomaniem. Protestanta, therefore, have
(Hear, hear.) If they ventured to look back for half
always drawn a careful line between the miracles
i try.
', a century, in reference to the progress of education, they
would find that there was provision for the education of the
of the earlier and those of later sainta. Still, it
was not easy to say when the age of miracles ceased.
. higher classes he meant in those old schools which coast-.
At length, iu 1748, Dr. Mtddletou's " Free In-
-1 tuted perhaps not one of the least important of our national
quit), into the Miracles of the Primitive Church"
all Those public schools, both good and bad,
startled the faith of his time, and forced it to in tiultkmr•
, perforineu at times a great and important work. Far be it
retreat within the hues of sacreSrecord. And Mr. from him to dissemble their many faults sod shoresominp,
Lecky remarks how greatly changed iu its views of some of which undoubtedly remained to the present day.
probable extra-scriptural miracle the mind of . But, nevertheless, is their miginal idea and is their actual
capabilities they were • noble and a worthy provision for
Europe has become, siece at this day the prutestaut
the highest closes in this country. Hese hear.) No
doctrine even teuds to modify the couception of • doubt they might undoubtedly be said to haws' been at the
miracle in its interpretation of the Bible itself, tic" the oral provision of the kind worthy of this country.
while enlightened catholice make light of their an regard the lower glares, they had only the prior
church's teaching reap acting the later saintly pro- , rudimentary efforts of educatioo, and those in the most
i crude and defective forms. They passed from that
digies, and the tractariau movement in this country
time by a quarter of a century, mod then, under the
ignored the subject altogether. Nothing need here
auspices of the present archbishop's predecessor (L)r.
be said upon the author's reasoning a. to the nature Howley), a great and powerful sod well-organieed and
l and proper value of miraculous proof ; but since ' delibei ate movement was set on foot for the purpose of
I ,
I tim term rationaliatu is usually limited in this ' arranging a worthy system of popular and national educe-
country to represent the system of thought which lion.- before "id top not in dialmag'mrt °I those who had
I repud ates all miracle whatever, it may Le desirable gone
denied ioe7l ; buts
" Itl h. ehe
educationapps
Awl i /hat!: wiasennotwou
Ito state MeLecky's view of it considered under that ,vary partial in its cheracter, defective ing given was
I particular septet. defective in almost every point that constituted quality.
The same getteral unity may be found among the various The system for the education of the lower claws
I modifications of protestant rationalism. Its central con- wee, as he bad said, meet imperfect. Besides
the system of education for the higher classes, they had
II °option m the elevation of conscience into a position of system of education for the lower
supreme authority as the religious organ, a verifying faculty now also at work a
discriminating between truth and error. It regards daises of the community. But between the two wide-
p . spread organisations he had mentioned a great gulf remained,
1 Christianity as designed to peeside over the moral develo
meat of maokind, as • conception which was to become sod into that gulf Mr. Ward had thrown himself, like
the old Roman hero, battyth a better fate, for, self-
more and mote sublimated ands pintualised as the human
nned passed into new ph..., and was able to bear the destruction Mid not been the coosequerme ; and the re-
sult wee that be stood before the world enjoying the
splendour of a more unclouded light. Religion it believes
to be no exoeptioo to the general law of progress, but esteem and approval of his fellow-chnrclnen and fellow-
rather the highest form of ate manifestatioo, and its earlier countrymen. (Hear, hear.) They must not for a moment
forget that an extensive provision had been made in
systems bet the oeceesary 'tape( an imperfect development.
in its ern the mond element of Christianity is iii the inn ii, this country for the education which ought to be middle-
heaven and dogmatic systems are as the clouds that inter. clue education, he meant through the medium of the
grammar schools
bat still it might be observed
opt and: temper the exceeding brightness of its ray. The in- ancient
that the ancient grammar schools did not reach down so
sect whose existence is but for a moment might well
far as the efforts of Woodard were intended to reach down ;
imagine that these were indeed eternal, that their majestic
and there was this to be said, that although the grammar
columns could never fail, and that their luminous folds
schools bed been is many respects datingutshed through
were the very source sod centre of light. And vet they
the liberality of their endowment, and the energy of their
shift and vary with each changing breeze ; they blend mad teachers. they could not flitter themselves ilea they were
repave*. ; they assume new forms d exhibit new dimes.
in the most perfect 'Woof efficiency. These schoole might
an
dons ; as the sun that is above them wagon more glorious in
be said to have been among the first fruits of the Reforms-
its power, they are permeated and at last absorbed by its
were properly administered, they should not have to
increasing spleodour ; they recede, and wither, and die- tioo. It was sometimes remarked that if all school funds
appear, and the eve ranges far beyond the sphere they had
occupied into the infinity of glory that is above them.
,submit themselves to taxation in order to meet th
But
e de-
mands of philanthropic gentlemen like Mr Woodard.
Mr. Lecky observes and deplores the materialistic in this country it was an undoubted fact that all reform of
tendency which is at present predominating among ancient faui,detioca, ell attempt. to modify,
the rationalists. He regards it as " the shadow to reinvify, where the stiletto' state of things was iota.
all attempt. I
resting upon the otherwise brilliant picture" of the mats', and close mixed up, hand in hand with local feel
inp, and %of thei other
rpv hand with private
ins interests--ail
ew
history of their triumph, because he naturally sees iodeentely
that with utility as the ultimate principle of virtue, , Paton. gear, Lao They had seen within a very abort
the logical consequence of that doctrine, heroism( time a messurs adopted for a careful inquiry into the condi-
and enthusiasms must cease from among men. Ilia lion of those foundations, and doubtless the measure was a
prudent one: yet they must not be too sanguine sr
own hope rests in the return to Christian spirt- wise and
tualisin. Ito its early results. Even the labour of inquiry was great,
and after the inquiry had been nude • long time might
The history of !elf-sacrifice during the butt 1,800 years want. wore they °odd see the practical await (Hear,
They had recently seen in the case of their public
has been mainly the history of the action of Christianity he,',i.)
upon the world. Ignorance and error have, no doubt, schools an inquiry of the most 'eldest character, but even
ofteo directed the heroic spirit into wrong channels, and in that, although the report of the commissioners bad been
have sometimes even made it a cause of great evil to man* made public, no great practical result had yet followed,
kind ; but it is the moral type and beauty, the enlarged . no very great progress had yet been made towards definite
' legislatiou upon the subject. (Hear, hear.) It wee nowise,
conceptioos sod persuasive power of the Christian kith,
that have ebiefir called it into being, and it is by their In:mane,. t , rack., upon speedy result. ; and thanfaya is
influence alone that it can be permseently snot/tine& The Wen that Mr. Woodard deserved the greatest encoursge-
power of Christianity in this respect can only emu with meat it. his praiseworthy exertions. It was needless to
the annihilation of the moral nano* of Manilina. ; dilate in this country upon the vast importance of edam-
Believers iu Comte and Buchner, as Mr. Lecky of tiro to the middle clime*, because it war the fashion of
! the day, and perhaps he might venture to say the view of
course expects, will reclaim against these disparag-
i the deybttshwoiwthosutchisspoteioghmostidteog idoline.thecomaid.dle
ing estimates of their school, and especially as they
proceed from au author whq, is not prepared to i 011000 to the ideas of those who show distisetioneree v
between
follow their example in casting aside coutomp- ; the needless Mews of this count
to thry sod thel
other
capaciti classes
tuously the religious reverences of mankind. His ', of the country, in respect eir generaes to
I fill honourably the sphere in which Providence bad
utterances of warning will be painful to their self-
I pieced them. There wes no doubt that the existence of a
satisfaction. He should not grieve too heavily on 1 great and powerful middle dam had for meaty generations
that account. A man may be a believer, and yet b.,„ one of the principal ehanet„fsties of E,i I lb sooi,ty.
reverence the laws of reason ; and it simply cannot I and am of the principal means for securthe political
be the proper issue of ail research to shut up the ' and social equilibrium of the country. It was also, he ap-
mind within the narrow limita of material know- prehended, beyond doubt that, until a very recent period,
ledge. There are reasonable people who assure 11
trtreew:hienloittree utthirg, --purcP:l9l:rostatulttuhree
themselves that, once this phase of positivist i were, in any respect, behind the means wormed by other
dreaming over, the civilised mind will thirst classes, so as to place them is any degree of relative dire
again for the Wholesome refreshment of a superua- I ability. (Hear, hear.) But unquestioeably something
total faith conceived in a grand manner, cowards ;of the kind had appeared of late. A large and liberal
which the triumphant rationalism which this work ineVilibb Dad been aide hy seeemelee ge.rhmeete
for the purpose of promoting popular oollectele, and
celebrates is only now feeling its way. these means had ambled the most intelligene per-
The sectiou of this writ ooh treats of perse- lion of the labouring chums to place themselves
cution for religion is written with candour, force, is such a position that it might be said that they trod upon
the heels of the middle clams, snd if the middle classes
and completeness. The opening sentence illustrates were to keep their position it could only be done by means
the view in which this subject is considered : of new sod extended efforts such as that which their friend
When it is remembered that the Founder of Christianity hr. Wooderd had been the happy inatrasseet of neestab-
slimmed up human duties in the two precepts of love to lishiog. (Hear, bear.) It might have been supposed that
Gled sod love to MM. and illustrated the second precept by this class could take °arse, itself, bu :balkld be a nos-
a•parable represestisii the sentiment of a common hums- take, especially in the beginning of f this tied.
pity destroying all the animosities of sectarianism, the his. If they 'looked to the highest class they would sse that the
tory of persecution in the Christian church appears as Meer same observation would apply. It was not each parent in
Bog as it is painful. his sphere that had made provision for himself in respect to
Yet was perseoution, along with much besides of education. It bad been by mociatioss like that at Marl-
moral obliquity in church practioe, not without its litammigbadt,y.,Partice appeal, by t)raffotrht: prow
of b°°°T°ltealt. die-
! natural COMM and is
apparent justification in ...wed, ...a that with regime to the cuss which, of all
' certain doctrines which rue church maintained, ethos, might have been thought could most easily dispense
especially, as the author shows, in the doctrines of with it sod provide for themselves- I. the woe liberal
exclusive salvation, and of the moral guilt of tr. pniotttotiLlberpellsbeetn.t them
be
peePi:segiitioi "tred in
!I emneous belief. If the severe arm of the law be beyond the ma, ad bend of argument Then appeared
coins rescue souls from perdition by repressing emeteisg contagious in genuine humour sna en.
heresy, ita most cruel inflictions could even be made thulium, and enthuilasin sash as that which
Ito appear deeds of mercy. Protestants, so judging, bad been shows bY, Mr- Weed ought to rouse
' have therefore but too closely followed in this re- tittoldtwa the loftiest principle e • mit who bad been ma-
' spect the terrible example of the Church of Rome. tti„,a-T yet he bad ne
I It is the sputa evil of iatoleranoe that it entwines with its practical operations as represented try its financier
Itself around the holiest parts of our nature, and becomes —(hear, hear)—by the 1. s. d. It would be remarkable
I atfinelaalyt eosaidb,len.d..o6.6.oo.,ed with the sewhiliscehof
rast.o.duty, thate,vasouhasothbeenn amongstuithaeyphanilanuttdri:ictskineffgortewhorichthooemprzelat diati;uy, and
vice, becomes the ermeeter here." . . . Feestion. the notice of all wbo were interested in the important
our smog tbe early protestaate was a distioct sad subject of educating. (Loud applause.) The right hon.
definite doctrine, dated into elaborate treatiau, gentleman concluded by proposing the first resolution—
fob
indissolubly comeoted wtth a large parties of the received That the growth of intelligence among the lower
( teseleey, developed by thelliOn earightesed end faroeeing clams, owing to the impulse gives of late ears to
itesem, sod *pierced against the moat inoffensive as education. the establishment of public boarding solaria foe
against the most formidable pacts. It was the docti i.re of neap education of the lower middle °lessee, which may be
ttroesPelwhoesartedjanstlye ydesteePet:deftethenn.grealtegeweet of its leaden. Tbeaßeisdh7pll4ol°Powreirroann'eaci of
the eeetmotieeeli im,
which war
ac.'"
ilt was manifested mart clearly is them classes which were 'spooled by the Hey. Mr. Woodard, sod WIFYI to.
ly imbeed with its ASPIStic teach*. The Bpi,- fieeera Gem resolatices banm• bm
,mom generellyjagified it !gammas( to St. Augustan ; Ames& - - P.lBll the meeting

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER ON
IDDLE CLASS EDUCATION.

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