The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-02-20

ha 80 f#bN
sIea. British 4- lpels.l~ SIS o1eg
hao. and ~o + ml~- seeing the articles
NiIat at"eaE sE.ln tae death UI ea9sr-
m writer's. 41 b-t s~fN Ur.ef
mention ~ the ce4eh. ri such r~G5t.
important authors q Lects the
50 gifted historian. IteG4eF the
a5Ie acute. independent LuSlsh
-tltls, the aIfiuent and interesting
scotch writer, George Macdonald.
ana Sir Leslie stephen. English
-!ltie u scholar know mot hov.
much MAS said II them. 81 what ~AS
s>Ia, but much might properly and
J~ppIeelatixely written " them. FOR in
-Aelf respective lines they Nere ~u-
peElol- ! do not be..ete That there IS
any historian liy,ne 81 an sourtrr
VINO Il the equal Of Lecky. one of
lle f~aIrtSt. abIest OF British his.o-
rians. His ~Histols 81 England in
tAe Eighteenth Century. IN light
large volumes. is Of unusual interest
and literary ability. and ,.4ust always
rank high mon the great historical
Writer'S OF h nineteenth century -
lar as / have seen the death IF these
four gifted authors has excited less
discussion and sympathy tina would
tile dtafh 81 a dancer a prize
n2hteI q society woman. or
n embezZIer. Blu how few men after
al. OF the tens Of thousands who have
written books are remembered some
Nely mcrltDrious Writcr>=meu uf
we'll nigh forgotten. VINO
READS jac great English poets Of the
sixteenth and seventeenth ANA eight
eellh now a few scholars.
I Few men of culture scattered here
ana there. Who reads Ben JonSon. or
Marlo%e or Chapman or any of the
great contemporaries Of shakespeare
VINO reads the iliuStriouS Bacon2 Who
reads beaumont and Fletcher or Mid
dleton or Webster? Who reads Milton
even or Jeremy Taylor, on Massinger2
reads Dryden. great lin poetry and
prose, or Addison. Swift. greatest of
prose satiristS and po!emics. or Col
Inns or Fielding or Sterne. or Johnson
or Hume or Goldsmith or Gibbon or
Boswell? Who reads Hazlitt or ole
or Leigh Hunt OF Sir Henry Tay-
or or John Sterling. or John WILSON,
Who reads Grote or ThirlWal or
lhomaS Arnold or Mrs. Browning or
or CoWper, or Bulwer or
Mark PattiSon. or Matthew Arnold or
E1uSkln Ever 50 great and once pop
it is asserted. BY all this | am
reminded of the complete disappear
8nce OF q writer who as late as 1870
on 1875, had a constituency in Great
Britain and the United states, and
was much reIished and praised.
The number was not large, but was
scholarly and appreciative. But now
who knows of Peter Rayne, and what
ne wrote, and his nationality? He was
4 Scotchman Of fine talents, and his
4SSays are particularly entertaining and
adifying. His Christian Life" is 4
work of decided merit. It is replete
With vigor of thought, animation Of
style and often rises into ~eloquence.
It's title would mislead. | had thought.
J.najin0 IL t1a+ - 40 ~ lrcn
sul, perhaps an able, practical wohk
Upon Christian experience and duty
something like Doddridge's
,nce famous Rise and Progress and
other works in which the plan of sal
tatiOn was carefully, was deliberately
presented. With all the needed incan-
ives to holy living that there might
)e holy dying: and all the necessary.
warnings, trials and encouragements,
uily given. whereby the Christian pill
rim might be the better enabled to
great usefulness and glorious
moral triumphs,' n to secure at last
blessed entrance into the Kingdom
f Heaven, without being SO sorely
and discounted by tempta-
and fiery trials. But its design
nd purpo are very different. 1t is
mastery effort to show the effects
f Christian faith and practice III daily
Ocial lie. He gives US very interesting
nd philosophical sketches of individ-
al character, in which the manifeSta-
and fruits of Christianity are
Iearly exhibited in their moulding and
eforming influences. Howard, Wilber-
orce, Bridget, John Foster. Thomas
.rnOld, and Thomas Chalmers are pre-
ented to the reader under their pei
uliar aspects. In the first three the
-orking of Christian influence is ex-
ibited for h purpose of establishing
he fact that so potential and all-per-,
aiding is Christianity hat it affects
lngularly and transforms accordingly
nose not of superior intellectual del
In the last three, tmenI,
f a high, commanding order of mind
is shown how Christian faith becameI
the pillar of character. only,
oWeyer. after these three intellectual
thletes had been more or Jess rocked
1 the wind Of doubt The book read
Y me now nearly forty years ago. i'm
ressed me as worthy Of the matured
When it is considered that
was the production of a writer who
not yet t~Wcnty-six years of age
~ admiration of the lifts of the au-ll
was increased. It really inn
ressed me as worthy of the metured
of the then best known living
mixers. MY recollection is that some
arts were indeed remarkably rich and :
But this fine work is not now
l suppose. | do not recall that
q quarter of a century or longer, / {
met with any reference to Peter {
or to his reflective. fascinating :
ork on 'Christian Life" Another
DIRK of his, in two volumes, is entitled
in Biography and Criticism. {
read it not long after the great war, t
nd have read il since within ten or {
yelve years. II so impressed me that 9
twenty-six or eight years ago. {
thought | would undertake q literary {
ork Of one or two volumes, bearing q
le same title. | suppose if | had i
lrried the idea out as best | could {
least one volume of 300 or 400 ,
ages would have appeared by 1880. It'll
we'll that l did not undertake such
task. Some fifty pages We're pub i
tina l think would have gone t
to the proposed volume. What a 5
planner l Axe been. and what "
miserable failure / have proved in I
,ecution! {
Mr.. Bayne. in his superior volumes q
'ferred to. showed himself. | think. q t
critic. He is surely one of the 7