The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-13 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Essays upon History and P oldies. By J. E. Kebbel,
of the Inner Temple, barrister-at-law. Oae vol.
Pp. 403. Chapman and Hall.
Essays and reviews are now prominent features
in the literature of the day. Conspicuous among
many similar volumes now before us is this very
ably written work of Mr Kebbel's, which is prin-
cipally devoted to political subjects. The opening
paper is on Lord Macaulay, and the particular fea-
tures of his eloquent style are very happily de-
scribed and discriminated. While admitting, of
course, Macaulay's great Whig predelictions, Mr
Kebbel remarks that nature had intended him
for a Conservative, but accident
.had made him
a Whig, premising that " his (Macaulay's)
political principles were almost exactly the
same as Burke's." Very different is the
estimate of the Poet-historian of " St. Stephens"
when in his tribute to lard Macaulay he describes
him—

"ils unlike Burke as mind could be to mind,"

And then. alluding to his Wtiig predilections,
observes—

"Nor Burke nor Brougham to Whigs we wholly cede,
For Brougham has strayed from, Burke renounced their

creed ;
But this bright partisan was all their own,
His pomp of laurel in their soil was grown
To guard their strongholds he directs his toils,
And to their tombs ho dedicates his spoils."

As a specimen of Mr. Kebbel's very analyticll
criticism, let us take the following passage from
his article on Mr Gladstone—

It is a curious piece of inconsistency in Mr Gladstene's
character, that with all this mental perversity, ho is, if we
mistake not, a timid rather than a confident politician. Ho
sees principles with great distinctness, but wants the moral
firmness to act upon them. He is, like many very
logically-minded men, suspicious of his own intellect. He
is afraid to trust to it, and places himself in the hands of
other people in every way inferior to himself. His sword
is so sharp that he is afraid to use it for fear of cutting his
fingers. So he borrows, we suppose, the blunter weapons
of his friends. Metaphor apart, Air Gladstone evidently saw
clearly enough one time that it was his duty to join the
Conservative party under Lord Derby. But when that con-
clusion threatened to separate him from his friends, he
shunned the responsibility of acting upon it, He oould
not believe he could be right. All reason certainly was
for it. But were not people sometimes the dupes of reason ?
Was it possible that this plain and, straightforward course
of conduct was also the right course ? Was he not deceiv-
ing himself ? So the golden opportunity was lost. And
then Mr Gladstone did exactly the same thing over again,
only positively instead of negatively. As he had dis-
trusted his own confidence in Lord Derby, so he resolved
to distrust his own want of confidence in Lord Palmerston.
He had been heard to say he was the most unprincipled
Minister he had ever known. But still people must not
trust too much to their impressions. He preferred the im-
pressions of two other gentlemen, and if he did wrong in
joining the Cabinet, why then he persuaded himself that
they were to blame and not he.

Mr Gladstone's oratory is what we should expect from
his character. He is a true orator, and he therefore never
fails to persuade us he is in earnest. He is listened to with
pleasure, for he has all the graces and refinement of an 50'
complished English gentleman. He is brimful of those
allusions which the House of Commons still loves. He
elocution is nearly perfect; his argument, as mayspeaks with sufficient bonhomie and good-humour. His
be sup-
posed, is always admirable; and when tint subject suits
him, he can rise to a high pitch of eloquence, grave and
severe, extremely dignified and effective. But he does not
penetrate his audience. He is seldom interrupted by great
bursts of cheering. He never speaks with the weight of a
man who has a party at his back and he speaks as if he
felt this.

Mr Disraeli is also considered at some length, and
the =agent conditions of "Party" form the subject
of some very interesting lamado.

Dwellers on the Threshold ; or,
and Imposture. By Magic and
clans, with some Illustrations of Human Error
W.
H. Davenport Adams,
author of " Scenes from the Drama of liluropean
ll:story." Two vols. Maxwell and Co.
Mr Davenport Adams has selected a very attrac-
tive theme for his researches. The history of
human error and imposture--
" Beloved as Fable and believed as Truth"—
is a fruitful subject for the meditation of the wise
or the amusement of the curious, and Mr Adams
has taken a very comprehensive range, beginning
with the early magicians of Chaldea, giving ela-
borate histories of the great imposters, Parocelsus,
Cornelius Agrippa, and the rest, glancing at
witches, dreams, omens, and ordeals, down to
the theories of Mesmer and the curiosities of animal
Magnetism. Speaking of the earlier charlatans,
Mr Adams, very judiciously alluding to the latent
truths veiled beneath their mysteries, has
happily designated them " Dweliers on the
Threshold of Science," 'lune the very felicitous
title of the work.
Recognising
therefore "a soul of wisdom" in these semis
poetical follies, I have ventured to regard the medireval
philosophers as Dwellers on the Threshold of Science ;
admitted, indeed, to a glimpse of its woudere—confused
and perturbed with that delightful vision—but unable to
pass into the temple. In a time of darkness and ignorance
they were never faint oi heart; they suffered neither perses
cution to daunt, nor poverty to overwhelm them; but
pressed forward with resolute courage to gaze at wisdomfrom afar ifunhappily forbidden to enter the holy of holies.
It ill becomes us than, in an ago of fuller knowledge and
greater opportunities, to cast indiscriminate ridicule upon
the labours of those who so painfully toiled in what they
believed to be the path of truth. They were not only the
pioneers of science but too often its martyrs.
Among the curious historical facts with which these
fabulous records are illustrated, we may cite the
following, which will be surprising to many :
JUDICIAL COMBAT.
The appeal to judicial combat was only abolished in Eng-
land ce late as IXI9, although it had been practically oboo •