The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-17 00:00:00

REFIEWS OF BOOKS.

mers himself, was a singular instance of childlike
simplicity united to the highest intellectual gifts.
The comprehensiveness of his mind grasped with
facility the most abstruse mathematical subtleties,
or felicitously unravelled the mazes of metaphysical
inquiry. Born in a humble station of life, he, not
without difficulty, attained the usual resting-place
for the ambition of a Scottish clergyman, the
incumbency of a country pastorate. Such a position,
however tempting, by its undisturbed security and
seductive ease, was not the goal at which the genius
of Thomas Chalmers sought its wreath of victory ;
a wider field, and a more thorny path, invited him
to active usefulness, and he courted the strife of a
city incumbency, where his energies might have
full sway, in conflict with the vices and misery
incident to poverty and physical degradation. The
Tron Church, parish of Glasgow, was accorded to
him, and here he had his hands full of work in his
endeavours to sustain the backsliding, to reclaim
the wandering, and to confirm the virtuous among
the dense and not undegraded population of a large
manufacturing and commercial city. While attend-
ing to his pastoral duties, in this arduous sphere of
ministerial labour, he laid the foundation of that
critical and personal knowledge of social indigence
which found utterance in his admirable treatises
connected with poverty and the poor laws. Here
also, notwithstanding the most unflinching attend-
ance upon the duties of his spiritual calling, he
found leisure to compose, digest, and publish his
celebrated " Astronomical Discourses," a work
whose popularity was so great at the time of its
publication, that for a whole year it ran a neck-
and-neck race, in competition for public favour,
with one of the most popular novels written by the
world-renowned " Author of Waverley."

The History of the Decline and Fall of th.e
Boman Pmpire. By Edward Gibbon. Lon-
don : Henry G. Bohn.
A re-publication of the great historical work of
Gibbon at this time of day, and in the peculiar
temper of the times, may, to many, appear an un—
called-for, and to not a few a hazardous enterprise.
In opposition to the views of both the classes
referred to, Mr. Bohn has entered upon the under-
taking, and experience of his unflinching perse-
verance, added to the native sagacity which has
guided his career, fully warrants the conviction
that he will conduct it spiritedly to a successful
termination. No one knows better than he does
that, to attain success, it must be deserved, and,
in obedience to this dictum, he has set earnestly
about the work of obtaining success for his edition
of Gibbon by deserving it. To the author's text
he adds an extensive collection of variorum notes,
including, among others,- those of G-aizot, Wenek,
Schreiter, and Hugo ; while the whole is brought
out under the superintendent editorship of "An
English Churchman." The edition, with all its
notes, will be comprised in six handsome and
handy volumes, which will be published at a very
cheap rate. The first volume, which is now before
us, is prefaced by a lengthened preliminary essay
from the pen of M. Guizot, himself no mean
authority on historical subjects, while the acknow-
ledged soundness of his Protestant Christianity
affords sufficient guarantee for every care being
taken that the interests of' the Christian faith and
• Church are efficiently guarded from the latitudi-
narianism of Gibbon. Besides the prefatory essay
referred to, M. Guizot likewise contributes to the
volume a brief memoir of the life of Gibbon. In
his prefatory essay the learned French statesman
and historian says of the " Decline and Fall of the
Boman Empire,
CHARACTER OF GIBBON'S HISTORY.
The merits of the work are incontestably proved by
its success in an age which had produced Montesquieu ;
and which, at the time of the publication, still possessed
Hume, Robertson, and Voltaire : they are confirmed by
the subsequently undisturbed permanence of that success.
In the most enlightened countries of Europe, in England,
France, and Germany, Gibbon is always quoted as an
authority. Even those who have detected his inaccuracies,
or do not assent to some of his opinions, never point out
his mistakes nor contest his views, but with the respect
due to superior merit."
That M. Guizot is a great admirer of the acute
iudgment and subtle analytical powers of Gibbon
is manifested in many ways, but that admiration
is never permitted to carry him beyond reach of a
position on which he can readily supplement
opinion by reference to fact, and offer commen-
dation in strict conformity with justice. In the
memoir of Gibbon, this cautious, though admiring
biographer, sets out by reducing to the severity of
definition the attributes of which an historian
should be possessed, and by the application of
which his merits should be judged.
PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS OF AN HISTORIAN.
"It is among probabilities that the historian must find
and restore truth from the disfigurements of time. His
is the duty to judge the worth of his materials, and ours
the right to estimate his decision, according to the opinion
we form of the judge. In our idea of the requisites to
form an impartial historian, we place foremost a passion-
less temperament, habits of moderation, and that middle
station in life where ambition is dormant and the pressure
of want unknown. In this point of view, none could be
better fitted for the office than Gibbon."
After briefly discussing the probably disposing
causes which led to Gibbon's antagonistic attitude
to Christian doctrines and faith, which M. Guizot
attributes to the prejudices by which his mind was
biased in favour of ancient institutions, (which
view, by the way, is somewhat modified by the
editor in a foot note,) M. Guizot proceeds thus to
apologize for Gibbon. How far the apology is a
satisfactory one, or, indeed, to what extent at all,
it is to be admitted, must, in a great degree, be
judged by the reader for himself. The good faith
and liberality of the apologist will hardly, we
think, admit of question.
EFFECTS AND AGGRAVATIONS OF GIBBON'S PREJUDICES.
Where prejudice prevails, honesty cannot be perfectly
sound. There may be no fixed design to mislead others ;
but there is self-deceit. In this frame of mind, a writer,
to uphold what he considers to be truth, has recourse to
little liberties, which he either avows not to himself, or
professes to regard as unworthy of notice, and his passions
overcome his scruples by exaggerating the importance of
their victory. Thus it was, no doubt, that Gibbon found
nothing in the history of Christianity but what favoured
the opinions which he had formed before he had strictly
examined the facts. The alteration of some passages,
which he quoted, whether curtailed designedly, or neg-
ligently read, furnished arms to his adversaries, by giving
them reason to suspect him of dishonesty. The whole
sacredotal order was leagued against him. His most
active opponents were rewarded by dignities and favours ;
ironically he congratulated himself on having given " a
royal pension to Mr. Davies, and collated Dr. Apthorp to
an archiepiscopal living." The pleasure of thus bantering
adversaries who had, in almost every instance, attacked
him with more vehemence than discretion, compensated
the first vexation of their attacks, and, perhaps, caused
him to overlook the real wrongs, for which he had to re-
proach himself.
In the last few words we may read the sincere
declaration of one who knows the bitterness of party
opposition and misrepresentation. It is perfectly
true that a friend by remonstrance, and a gentle
demonstration of error, might have been ineffectual
in eradicating the prejudices, and correcting the
misrepresentations of Gibbon ; but every one in the
slightest degree conversant with the business of
life must be familiar with the baneful effect pro-
duced by dictation, and the obstinacy engendered
by attempted coercion. Gentleness will lead a
strong man as a child ; indiscreet vehemence and
abuse, by offending his self-love, will convert an
error which a man regarded with indifference into
a cherished dogma, surrounded by all the entrench-
ments which can be reared by wounded vanity and
offended pride. But to conclude our remarks on
the subject more legitimately before us; the present
edition of Gibbon, by the introduction of explana-
tory foot-notes, is well guarded from the chance of
propagating error, while the noble historical struc-
ture is retained in all the grandeur and beauty of
its proportions and details.

EXTRAORDINARY POPULARITY OF THE ASTRONOMICAL

Memoirs of Thomas Chalmers, D. D. t LL.D.
By the Rev. William Hanna, LL.D. Edinburgh :
Thomas Constable and Co.
This, the second quarterly part, of the cheap o
people's edition of these interesting memoirs, r
main-
tains in every respect the character for beauty and
comprehensiveness which had been suggested b th
first. In typography it is clear and legible ; theYtexte
is unabridged ; and the work is cheap even in these
(lays of miraculous cheapness in the literary market.
Of the memoirs themselves it will by most people
!_e_tte:emed sufficient commendation to say that they
11".'._literally and in truth an almost unadorned nar-
rative of
the
.life of that great man and eminent
Christian Pastor
tchoncerning whom they are written.
an unadorned narrative, we
must not be understood
as conveying even the
suspicion of carelessness or crudity m their compo-
sition ; on the contra
Zit, they are written with a
clearness and nnoste usngss of diction, yet
nervous delineation of facts,°
Hanna,
of incident,
which show at once that Dran a literary
artist, .has acquired the highest excellence in his
vocation. The subject of the memoirs, Dr. alai.

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR,—I was much interested by the discussion on Mon-
day, by the Literary and Philosophical Society, on the
able paper by Dr. Hume, ou English dialects. The Chair-
man on that occasion offered some sensible remarks on the
new words which are being constantly imported into our
language, but none of the speakers alluded to some of the
most palpable deficiencies,—deficiencies so great, that the
only wonder is that no one has endeavoured to supply
them. It is a singular fact that there are two races of
animals in this country, and yet we have no word in the
language to express either of them. We speak of a horse,
meaning one of that race whether male or female, old or
young ; the same by a sheep, leaving the distinctions of
sex or age to be particularised by those more immediately
interested in the breeding or rearing them, but by what
name can we express one of that race of which we call, the
male a bull or bullock, and the female a cow. It is true
that these names are intelligible, but they pre-suppose a
knowledge of the sex, and they are also applied to the
buffalo, the bison, and even the whale. Again with do-
mestic poultry, we speak of a turkey, a goose, or a duck,
without reference to sex, but for the most numerous race
we are obliged to content ourselves with the indefinite ex-
pressions of a cock or a hen, terms which equally apply to
any kind of bird, and even the word fowl, applies, as it is
used in Scripture, to all kinds of birds. I have simply
pointed out these two instances of glaring deficiencies in
the English language, notwithstanding its general com-
prehensiveness, and I am sure there are many of your in-
telligent readers, who could point to several other wants of
words which the ingenuity of modern writers might help
to supply. NEMO.
Liverpool, Jan. 14, 1854.

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