The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-20

prayer, do not see that they institute anything
worse than the genunexiops OF the kitualists or
the breast beating of the Roman Catholics. II,
finally one Is sometimes little puzzled when
he receives o letter from a Poslttvist friend
and finds 1t dated 18th Marcus Aurelius,' or
18th Auguste Comte,' instead OF July or
December, as the case may be, QUO must re-
member that there never yet was young
sect which did not delight in puzzing outsiders
by new and peculiar nomenclature. l never
heard anything worse charged against the
Positivists than that they worship woman,
touch their foreheads when they pray, and
arrange the calendar according to plan of
their own inventions except OF course, the
general charge of atheism; but as thatis made
in England against anybody whom ell his
neiehbors do not quite understand, hardly
think IL worth discussing in this particular in
stauce. We are all atheists in England in the
estimation of our neighbors whose political
opinions are different from our own
"lf were to set mp a typical PoslttYl6t, ~
order to make my American reader more readily
and completely familiar with the picture which
the word calls up in the minds of Londoners,
should do 1t in the following way:-I should
exhibit my mCdel Posltlvist as maO still
young for anything like prominence in English
public life, but not actually young in years-say
thirty-eight or forty. He has had training at
one oil the great historical Universities at all
events at the modern and popular University of
London. He is barrister, but does not practise
much and has probably modest competence
on which he can live without working for the
sake OF living, and can indulge his own tastes
in literature and politics. He has immense
earnestness and great self concelt. he has an
utter contempt for dull men and timid or half
measure men, and he scorns Wings even more
than 1ories. He deyotes much of his time
generously and patiently to the political aud
other Instruction of working men. he writes
in the FOrtnigbtIy ReytetC, and sometimes in
Mdc1n iudn, and sometimes in the Westminster
ReUle,c. He plunges into gallant and fearless
controversy with the Pau Mall Gazette, and he
is not easily worsted, for his pen is sharp and
his ink very acrid. Nevertheless, Is any great
question stirring, with serious principle or
deep human interest at the heart of it, he is
sure 10 be found on the right side. Where the
controversy is of a smaller kind and admits of
cIochet, then he is pretty sure to bring out
crOtchet of some KIND. He is perpetually
giving the Saturday ReUjeU an opportunity TO
ridicule him and abuse him, and he does not
care. He writes pamphlets and goes to i'm
meDse trouble to get up the facs, aud expense
TO give them to the world, aud he never
grudges trouble or money, where any cause
or even any crOtchet is to be served.
He is ready to stand up alone, AGAINST all the
world If needs be- for his opinions or bis friends.
Benevolent schemes which are of the nature OF
mere charity he never concerns himself about.
| lever heard OF him on platform with the
Earl OF Shattesbury, and fancy he has a con-
tempt tor all patronage of the poor or projects
OF an eleemosynarY character. He is for giving
men their political righ and educating them
If necessary compelling them to be educated; !;
and he has little faith in any other way OF doing
gCod. He has, of course, high admiration for
and aith in Mr.. Mil. His nature is not quite
reverential-n general he is lather inclined to
sit in the chair of the scorner; but if he reve-
reDced any living man 1t would be Mill. He
admires the manly, noble character OF Bright
and his calm, strong eloquence. do not think
he cares much about Gladstone - rather
fancy Positvist looks upon Gladstone
as somewhat weak and unsteady - and
with him to be weak is indeed to be
miserable. Disraei is to him an object of entire
scorn and detestation, for he can endure no
one who has not deeplyrooted principles of
some kind. He has crOtchet about Russia, a
about China. beside
self in his anger over the anonymous leading
articles OF the London press. He is not an
Enel,sh type OF man at all, IN the present and
conventional sense. He cares not rusn about
tradition, and mocks at the wisdom of our
ancestors. The bare fact that some custom,
or institution, or way OF thinking has been
ofusage, is in his eyes rather pri1nd facie
reason for despisiDg it than otherwise He is
pi,ilessly intoerant of all superstitions-save
his own-that is to say, he is intolerant in
words and logic and ridIcule, for the widest
superstition would find him It's defender, if it
once came to be practically oppressed or even
threatened. He is ever a fighter like one
OF Browning's heroes; he is the knight
errant, the QuiXote OF modern Eng-
lish politics. He admires George Eliot in litera.
ture, and, should say, he regards Charles
Dickens as a sort OF person who does very we'll
| to amuse idlers and ignorant people, 1 do not
hear of his going much to the theatre, and it is
| doubt to Inc If he has yet heard of the Grdads
| DucheSSe. Life with him Is very earnest
| sarcasm, which he uses as weapon OF ofense
aeaInst his enemies, ! cannot, with any effort
| of imagination, picture him to myself as in the
| act of making joke. small drawing-room
| would assuredly hold all the London Posltvsts
| who make themselves effective in English poll
| tics. Yet do not hesitate to say that they are
| becOmng-that they have already become-a
power which no one, calculating on the chances
ofany coming struggle, can afford to leave out
| of his consideration. Their public influence
| thus for has been wholly for good; and they set
up no propaganda that l have ever seen or
| heard Of, as regards either philosophy or reli-
| gion."
Edward Crapsey, under the title OF ''Will
| Murder Out ?n refers to the mysterious Rogers
| n urder recently in New York, and gives seve
| raj curious instances where murders have come
| out after long years. The iollo wing item is
worthy of notice:-
"Homicidal acts in the metropolis have
| always been unarlistic and hot blooded as is
| conciusiyely shown by the weapons used.
| These appear upon the record to have been
| firearms, Knives razOr@, sword canes, swords
blers, bricks, ire tOpg5, smoothing irons, axes,
| mailets, hammers, paving stones, glue pots,
| boot heels, and once the point OF an umbrella.
| 1t is remark able that only eight tunes IN these
| thirteen years has murder been arIsucally done
by poison aud more singular sull, that in five
| of these cases the criminals were detected
| potN itl standing the popular belief that this
| mCal est and stealthiest mode OF telo-
niouslY taking life Is also the safest
These facts make it apparent that while
the average 0i homIclues in New YoIk
has been a fraction over Que per week fol
| thirteen wears, there have been comparatively
few viii al and malicious murders 1t is tru,
that within the period examined thlrtY-thret
wives were SLAIN by tGeir husbands, but even il
neatly all OF these cases, the malice prepe nse,
which is the essential ingredient OF murder an(