Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-12-01

most excellent number. We say this, too, des-
Pite the fact that Pisistratus Caxton still occu-
pies SO large space in its pages-which VIC
hope will not be the case with many more num-
bers "Pisistratus" is huge Lore, and he has
long since played havoc with our stock of pa
thence. But thanks to the good taste of the
editors there are other articles of a redeeming
kind in good quantity coupled with this serial
which sugar coat" it, and therefore we won't
enter serious complaint yet awhile.
The leading article is review of "Buckle's
history of civilization" which is ably written,
and has interested us highly. 1t opens out with
this interesting and instructive retrospect. In
speaking Of history in general, the review re-
marks:
'What different ideas does the common ex.
preston, The study Of history call up in vari-
Gus minds! For what different purposes is
history read with what different views is his.
tory written! The lawyer, at the very name of
English history, recalls his own constitutional
learning, and prepares to invest again the growth
OF that intricate system of pOlity in which he
lives and works, which he can never sufficiently
admire, and which he feels he shall never entire
ly comprehend. The divine sees pre-eminently
in history the development of religion, and more
especially of the Christian Church. Idler men
fix their eyes on kings and queens battles and
conquests; or they delight in the intrigues of
court, in learning how one minister tripped up
the heels OF his predecessor, and how another
was outwitted by some giddy mistress of the
king,-who was both the royal master and royal
puppet OF the scene. Some few are mainly in
quisitiVe about the manners, dress, and modes
OF living of that great nameless multitude which
occupies the background of the historical pic
ture, and on which the shadows generally fall.
Dear TO the sexagenarian is the memoir and the
contemporary history, full of the very passion
and spite of the times; the younger student may
prefer the pages of GuisOt, dealing with large
views with institutions, with epochs; but when
we come to our chair days we go back to our
Clarendon and our Burnet we like to hear
what the Bishop said of the Lord, and what
Lord Dartmouth thought of Bishop Burnett
LET the lawyer and the divine and the retired
politician still continue to study history, each
for his own especial purpose or pleasure; but
without doubt there is a philoSophic method
of pursuing this study, Which must take prcce-
dence over every other Here the progressive
manifestation of our multifariouS humanity is
the constant object of investigation. Here facts
are valued for the wide concentrations they au-
thOrise. Here individuals are studied that we
may better contemplate the giant steps of HUI
manity, stepping slowly, and pausing long, and
often apparently retracing its uncertain path
Here, in short, we study man; for what is all
history but the varied development of the hui
man mind? And he who would know what
creature man really is, or may probably become,
must extend his views over long periods of time,
and many regions of the earth"
The biographical review of Edward Irving, a
Scotch minister, is most moving sketch
Whenever we read such an one MS ishere spread
before us, we are filed with regret that our space
and the time and patience of the busy readers of
a news journal forbid its reproduction entire
We venture, however, to Gull this extract from
what, in the biographer's opinion, constitutes a
great preacher:
SIT is not easy to pronounce upon the kind
of qualities which make great preachers. They
have been, like other great men, OF different
character and different temperament through
out the different ages of the world. The ono
thing needfnl is that the speaker be possessed
to the utmost extent of his capacity with the
message which he bears to the world-that he
be too much absorbed in this to take time for
the small dshonesties of eloquence-that he
be beyond thought of effect, of reputation, of
prudence of the common barriers which limit
common men-but that with spontaneous
flood and overflow he give forth what is in him
in that unfailing confidence of response, sympa-
thy, and comprehension, which all great men
have It needs not that he should be wise or
always right-theSe are qualities of,quite nnoth-
er kind; perhaps it is even impossible that the
full swell of merely mortal voice should reach
its height of sound at any time without a certain
mixture of error; but it is certain that he who
stands fearing and trembling oven mis- words,
and hesitates to say what he thinks, will, right
or not, never be great preacher. The man
who is does not take time to think what style
of preaching his shall be-he does not make up
his mind to address the intellectual or the senti
mental, or the imaginative; and the secret of
his power is notin the first place. the manner
or the form, the diction or the argument, which
he uses-but the force and fulness with which
he pours forth irhat is in nina glorious storm
of reproof, of discomfort, of longing, of hope,
sorrow, rejoicing exultation,-the voice and
passion Of man, the praise and demonstration
Of God.
at is not the calm of the pulpit, heaven
,knows-the calm of the pulpit drives us asleep,
exasperates our everyday tolls and sufferings
with platitudes and placidities, coaxes super
fetal sympathies, appeals to our feelings-as if
men had time to have feelings in these hard Ia
boring days, when everybody runs to and fro,
and knowledge and sadness grow upon the bur-
dened world; but the great preacher ventures
to go into his pulpit complete man, with all
his natural griefs and loads upon him, not a
whit less or more than God has ladened him
withal, and under the yoke, like us all, speaks,
to US all, all that is in his heart tits thus alone
that one man rules over thousand, that the
Of md 1E1aV.