The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-08 00:00:00

*ETERA 7? uRE. --

The liidian BeligioAs : or Results of the Mysterious
Buddhism. By an Indian Missionary. Newby.
A remarkable work this would be from any one
—but most remarkable is it as the production of
an Indian Missionary. Turr' aXX occur is the
motto on the title page—the trite but grand ex-
clarrMion of Themistocles. Yet certainly if we
answer to the appeal by reading the book through
before pronouncing as to its merits or its charac-
teristics, onqsfain, after reading it; after "hearing"
its author's argument—to " strike" him out of the
catalogue of Christian Missionaries. In many parts
it might almost have been written, one could fancy,
by a genuine Buddhist. It is for the most part an
eloquent. rhapsody throughout. The writer has
evidently a lively fancyandan aspiring imagination.
He has absorbed into both much of the genius
of the -Indian Philosophy. His refit ctions are sa-
turated with his Asiatic researches. He has drawn
inspiration from the most diverse sources well
imaginable—from Albertus Magnus and Cornelius
Agrippa, from Plato and Aristotle, from Hobbes
and Berkeley, from Hume and Emerson, from
Bayle and Paracelsm, from Spinoza and Sweden-
borg. As to the style and significance of what is
here written ex. gr. the following

" Creatures are of that they eat. Aliment becomes
body ; becomes as much soul as that circumstantial
and eliminated soul can admit. We are of our
food, elaborated by the secret magnetic laws of nature ;
which, out of food, precipitates body, and, out of body,
extols mind—or all that we can know as mind. The higher
animals, in instinctive self-maintenance, scorn and abomi-
nate the offal which is the appropriate and natural pro-
ducer and soul-maker, so to speak, of the baser creatures.
Which are degenerate, even from dead dirt,' in being fur-
ther accursed and convict 'in life.' Living and walking
corruption, affirmative and risen up, defiant, against the
eternal Matterless :—the One Rest ; unformed ; knowing
neither Space, nor Time, nor Being. The Hindoo follows,
in fact, that which he finds in nature. Deep-buried in it,
he found eternal divisions in men. He leaves their conver-
sion—the use of the materials—in God's own hand."
Or yet again the subjoined :
" He shall not enforce or do the indignity to nature to
make consort with the fairy-fish, the slimy eel—cursed for
his glutted creeping, like the earliest snake, devil-circling
under the retributive heel of the convicting Angel ! He
shall not esteem the legless creepers, or the tribes of worms
or green glowing insects, or the hirsute, or monstrous, or
glutting children of the quickened desert, starting to ani-
mal alarms, or of the poisoned marsh whose clouds are
gnats—he shall not confound this obscene efflux with the
awe-exciting, the perfect individuality of the princely
panther, or the haughty terrors of the great eagle—impe-
rial among birds. For the creatures are of their feeding.
Their soul is of the blood and flesh which make it."

Some of the flights are far grander than this, how-
ever—and (what is be ter still) a trifle more within
the bounds of ordinary comprehension. In&ince
the musings upon Space and Eternity : as where it
is said (p. 121), "the universe is just the multipli-
cation of a sand-grain, or fire-particle"—echoing
the thought of Coleridge that " it is highly proba-
ble that this vast universe seems to God but as one
distinct rounded atom swimming in the viewless
ocean of the true Infinite." Meditations like these
cannot fail to better a man—to give him a livelier
sense of the majesty of the Omnipotent mid of his
own utter nothingness. For inasmuch as it is sug-
gestive of reveries such as these the book before us
is welcome, and as such we give it greeting accord-
ingly.

Philip Paternoster, a Tractarian Love Story. By

an ex-Puseyite. 2 vols. Bentley.
At the present time, when controversial disputes
are unhappily thrusting themselves upon public
attention, and when recent dissensions among
some members of the clergy and their followers,
have made especially conspicuous the opinions of
the Tractarians, as they are termed, a work with
the above title can hardly fail to attract attention
ainor's a larue class of readers. Whether the
method the author has alopted for displaying the
peculiarities of these opinions is in the best taste,
or is the most impressive may be questioned. Setting
aside the author's capabilities for tho undertaking,
the work leaves an uncomfortable feeling on the
reader's mind. There is too much familiarity in
the tone and manner of discussing solemn things
-a.. cr,ur ho at La _t as munli rtylided as the
opposite extreme of superstitious reverence.
The character of the hero, too, is so
weak that the author does not fairly represent
the strength of his opponents. Instead of the clas-
sical refinement, elaboration of argument, and all
the aids of imagination which one is wont to asso-
ciate with what is designated as the High Church
party, we are shown a weak and foolish young man
who has neither principles nor practice to support
his opinions. He carries his ideas of forms to an
extravagant extsnt, and sets out finally for Rome,
after behaving in a very discreditable manner in
England. From various causes he remains in Paris,
and finally, abandoning all his vagaries, he returns
to his first curacy and subsides into a sober, 'mar-
ried country clergyman. The society to which we
are introduced in his company is not much more
pleasing. Hebe Walford is the most captivating,
but her rival Henrietta is quite the reverse. She
and her brother Osborne appear frequently in the
tale, but their movements are complicated and
mysterious. The style is unequal, and there is a
mixture of the serious and the satirical
which jars upon the reader. Had the author writ-
ten a work simply expressing his opinions and ex-
perience, lie would have pleaded his cause better,
and displayed his abilities to far greater advantage.
His own impressions are evidently sincere, and
when treating of serious themes incidentally, be
writes with force and earnestness, as in the passages
on the simpl city of prayer and preaching. But
when be makes his characters speak for him, a
tinge of vulgarity mixes itself with the style. It
must be admitted that, however unattractive
the colours in which he has pourtrayed the Trac-
tarians, his work is free from all personal bitterness,
but he expressly denies that any important inci-
dent is entirely fictitious. Having been for seve-
ral years a sharer in the opinions he denounces, he
includes himself in his censures. However much
it may be desirable to treat with respect and tole-
rance the creed of those of another faith, no such
feeling need prevent our censuring such startling
innovations on the simplicity of our own. Many
will no doubt be attracted by the subject, and those
who are interested in polemical dissensions will be
highly gratified by its perusal.

The Journal of Psychological Medicine and Menta
Pathology. Edited by Forbes Winslow, M. D,
Churchill.

This valuable publication continues to collect all
statistics and other information connected with the
treatment of maladies of the mind. It treats, too,
of the higher branches of the subject, and turns
from the painful and melancholy result, to seek the
cause in some reckless disregard of natural and
moral laws, either by the sufferer himself, or those
to whose charge he was confided in early life.
Viewed in this light, such topics, however pain-
ful, are not without their lesson to those in the
full enjoyment of their faculties. They show how
every wilful sin against the laws of nature brings
its own punishment, slowly, it may be, but not
the less surely. That overtasking of the mind that
has so often shrouded in gloom the close of an emi-
nent career, has often been denounced by the
psychologist. But there are other evils not less
deadly. The want of mental action, an unbalanced
and undisciplined mind, and a general want of
proper mental contro', are amongthe causes cited as
leading to idiosy, insanity, and mental abberra-
tion. The paper on the causes of Idiscy will in-
terest the physiologist, and an article on the
Psychology of Kant will repay perusal. Those
who are engaged in the treatment or care of these
affliffted beings will find a considerable amount of
information, and the mere collection and de-
scription of peculiar cases renders the work
valuable to the student of mental pathology.