wood had in view, neither her mind, nor her Vie piu che indarno da riva si parte, This is all extremely sensible and true, and moreover, has that freshness about it in spite of some formality of style that all individual thought has. The next from the same work is a specimen of her powers of assertion, and that privilege of sitting in judgment upon others, in which she so freely indulged, without, certainly, any real data to go upon, for the unhappy young ladies whose state is here so glibly pronounced upon-such as had come under Mrs. Sherwood's observation-were not likely in the presence and under the eye of so distinguished a person, to allow themselves in any open improprieties. She must have been guided by some self-chosen, unwarrantable test. Had her powers been more modestly directed, they might have done good service; for we are constantly surprised in her writings to meet with excellent practical good sense, side by side with arrogant and unfounded presumption and visionary allusions. When she wrote from her own experience, she constantly wrote well and usefully; when she trusted to her supposed deep insight into spiritual things, she But the greater part of young ladies in Engas constantly failed. An example of both land, even the daughters of religious families, styles will illustrate our meaning better than give no evidences of being converted, and are, I further explanation. Mrs. Sherwood was her- fear, only kept from open and flagrant offences self, we doubt not, a good and conscientious by motives of worldly prudence, family restraint, economist of time, and therefore from her own custom, and shame.-Ibid. vol. i. p. 269. practice and observation, she expresses herself wisely in the following passage. We extract from the first volume of the "Lady of the Manor:" sentence This is only one instance of many of the practical business-like nature of her mind, employing itself in the uncongenial field of From the time that the infant first draws its was alien to her mind; she could be in no speculation: anything like doubt or hesitation breath, until that awful period when the soul forsakes its breathless body, each flitting moment person's company without deciding on their brinigs with it a certain obligation to the perform-idea of being mistaken, nor see any reason for spiritual state; she could not entertain the ance of some particular exercise-some unhappy temper is to be restrained; some important lesson withholding her convictions from the world as to be learned; some new faculty to be acquired; soon as formed; and as in persons so in docor some latent power to be brought into use. trine, she decided upon these as easily, with as And they who daily endeavor to execute the pre- little deliberation, with as full conviction, (if sent task appointed by the all-wise Creator, look- we may misapply the term to this state of mind) ing up to him in simple dependance upon His with as free a condemnation of those who difpromised assistance, will seldom find that over- fered from her as she could whelming accumulation of duties, or that per- on a human soul for some act of conformity or pronounce plexing hurry of business of which so many complain; for the yoke of the Almighty in itself nonconformity contrary to her own judgment. And for a time, this habit gave her weight is easy, and his burden light; as all His faithful servants have found in all their generations. Our and influence. It all passed for bold and unduties are generally set before us one by one; and compromising assertion of the truth. While commonly speaking, the means of performing the graces and accomplishments of life, the rethese duties are supplied at the same time. Aceived customs of society, and what are called mother has seldom more than one child at a worldly amusements were her theme, however birth; and before her family becomes large, ignorantly and indiscriminately condemned, abundant leisure and space, and opportunity are given her to mould her first-born child with the persons, satisfied on the whole, did not think Divine blessing into a faithful and powerful instrument for the management of the rest, as well as into a lovely pattern by which its genius may be mutually and sweetly led forward from one degree of excellence to another. But the careless or indolent parent or housekeeper, she who has failed in youth to fit herself for future duties, and who in her early married state has neglected the performance of her little daily tasks of instruction and correction, or of personal labor and inspection, will certainly find herself at length plunged into an abyss of cares and troubles, from which she can never expect to be extricated till she has reached the close of a wretched and wearisome life.-Lady of the Manor, vol. i. p. 140. it their part to criticize her mode and style of attack, and much less when she acted with which they were opposed, and where she was them against certain views of doctrine to found an efficient auxiliary. It was only when this habit made such head against all restraints as to turn her round upon her own friends, that the mischief of this arrogant self-reliance was felt and acknowledged; and in the official organ of her party, she was admonished to humility, and told that "pride of intellect had gone before her fall."* * Christian Observer, 1837, p. 306. There is no reason to suppose that either ish minds. Her indiscriminate condemnation advice or admonition were of any avail; she of many practices in their nature indifferent, evidently, in the latter years of her life, considered herself lifted above the ordinary risks of humanity, and we find her thankful for having been preserved from self-conceit (p. 544), when we cannot but regard her as the real victim of that delusion. and, if not abused, blameless, tended to mystify the instincts of right and wrong; and people found, moreover, that after ever so careful and conscientious a perusal, reading all the didactic parts, and skipping nothing that was dull, what remained longest, and left the most real impressions from her books, was their strong appreciation and exaltation of beauty, wealth, rank, elegance, and all worldly advantages whatever. It is time, however, to draw our notice to a conclusion. If in her day she had influence, it may be considered passed, nor can her works, characterized by a trite and common style, ever revive to have real weight. Her Thus, years enable men to see the faults system of religious teaching has, we sus- and failures of books, characters, and institupect, been found on all hands to be a failure. tions in highest favor in their own day. ReHer perpetual repetitions of doctrine in the flections of this kind must be suggested to all same dull, prosy formula, were invariably thoughtful readers by the present work. Only passed over altogether, or if forced upon her let us recognize the redeeming element of young readers, read with weariness and dis- good intention, not wanting in even the most gust. Her unreal generalizations on the de- objectionable of Mrs. Sherwood's works, and, pravity of human nature were found ineffec- remembering the labors, charities, and kindtual preachers of humility; and even risked nesses which distinguish her active career, our deadening the conscience, thus taught to re- severest comments and harshest criticisms will gard sin simply as a condition of our being, not be given in an uncharitable spirit, nor and so scarcely to be guarded against, or re- without much genuine admiration and sympapented of. Her mystic notions of prophecy thy for the vigorous, cheerful, affectionate and the millennium, so far from producing spirit which has here been brought before us good, were felt to foster irreverence in child- in its more congenial sphere of life and action. GIGANTIC STATUES.-The human figure must A DROP OF OIL. Every man who lives in a ever be the modulus and rule by which we esti- house, especially if the house be his own, should mate the apparent dimensions of every surround-oil all the various parts of it once in two or three ing object. Whether the image is in the dimen- months. The house will last much longer, and sions of a giant or of a doll, it is always the hu- will be much more quiet to live in. Oil the man figure, varying from five feet to six feet, and locks, bolts and hinges of the street door, and it imposes a criterion of dimensions to all that sur-will shut gently, with luxurious case, and with rounds it. Thus the Egyptian Pharaoh, 60 feet the use of a small amount of force. A neglected in height (the great man signified by a great fig-lock requires great violence to cause it to shut and ure, seated in the court of his temple-palace) de- with so much violence that the whole house, its feated the work of the architect, rendering it in- doors, its windows, its very floors and joists, are significant in the comparison. Bulk may be a much shaken, and in time they get out of reconvenient escape from the labor of expression pair in all sorts of ways, to say nothing of the and of thought, but it ever betrays decline of art. dust that is dislodged every time the place is s0 The Colossus of Nero and that of Domitian, in shaken. The incessant banging of doors, scroopRome, are signal examples of this disregard of ing of locks, creaking and screaming of hinges, the laws regulating the associated arts on which is a great discomfort. Even the bell-wire cranks the Greeks insisted; and we must admit it is a should sometimes be oiled, and they will act bad symptom of our actual times. Artists of merit more certainly and with such gentle force that have fallen into this deplorable error. Thor- there will be little danger of breaking any part waldsen has sacrificed the palace at Stutgard to of them. The castors of tables and chairs should his ambition in his statue of Schiller; the be sometimes oiled, and they will move with such French sculptor, in the decoration of the bridge gentle impulse and so quietly that a sleeping of Louis XV. with the marshals of France on an child or old man is not awakened. A well-oiled enormous scale, had fallen into this abuse, but door-lock opens and shuts with hardly a whisper. was quickly so sensible of the disproportion, that Three pennyworth of oil used in a large house, the marshals were removed thence to Versailles, once a year, will save many shillings in locks and where, surrounding the vast space called Place other materials, and in the end will save many d'Armes, they still dwarf that mighty palace. pounds in even the substantial repairs of a house, Nor are our own sculptors exempt from this vice and an old wife living and sleeping in quiet rein nearly every modern instance, both in interior pose will enjoy many more years of even temand exterior statues of our great men. To the per and active usefulness. Housekeepers, pray architect this practice is most obnoxious, and do not forget the oil. A stitch in time saves ought to be visited with public reprobation.-nine, and a drop in time saves pounds.—The The Builder. Builder. From the Examiner, 14 Oct. THE CONGRESS OF OSTEND. already participated in her improvement and convalescence, the world is little likely to see Spain robbed of Cuba without a better reason than “we must have Cuba, sir.” THEIR Excellencies the United States Ministers accredited to the various govern- The value of Spain to Europe as a secondments of Europe, have this week, it is current-rate power well governed, is immense; and ly reported, accredited themselves on the af- the part which Cuba, unedr improved Spanish fairs of Cuba to a Congress of their own at administration, is calculated to play in restorOstend. Their meeting was originally proposed for Basle, and whether the motive for the change was Mr. Buchanan's unwillingness to go so far from London at this juncture, or the superior attraction of Ostend oysters, is not exactly known. Perhaps if the diplomatic travellers had known that the oysters of Ostend are after all natives of England, the agreeable little Belgian watering-place might have lost the chance of taking its place in history alongside of Verona, Toeplitz, and other famous seats of frustrated hopes and discomfited plans. ing the fortunes of Spain, at present associates Cuba to Spain in what is really an important European work. That, too, which Europe did not care much about when brigandage was supreme at Madrid, becomes of great moment when honesty and integrity are at the head of Spanish affairs. Europe cannot afford to have Spain despoiled and degraded at so hopeful a moment as this. In the course of events, now inscrutable, no doubt Cuba may be transferred to the United States, and in such a manner that Europe could offer no objection. But for such events we We cannot of course speak with any certain- counsel our republican friends to wait. To ty of the subject of their excellencies' delibe- assemble Congresses at Ostend, and to resolve rations, of the harmony or discord with which" we must have Cuba, sir," whether Europe they were conducted, or of the solemn deter- chooses it or not, is little likely to hasten the minations arrived at. It is quite possible that period for its acquisition. the discussions may have been confined to oysters and chablis ; but if they extended beyond, and such delicacies were only used to whet the appetite of democratic diplomacy, for "we must have Cuba, sir," this Congress might really confer a great favor on Europe by explaining to it why "we must." For that is what Europe cannot understand. Europe knows very well that Cuba is a tempting acquisition, that it commands the Gulf of Mexico, and that United States' enterprise would double its pecuniary value after United States' aggression had acquired it. But Cuba, it also knows, belongs to the Spanish crown, and is remarkable for its loyalty and fidelity to Spain. The Spanish government shows not the least desire to part with it, nor has Cuba evinced the smallest wish to separate from Spain. To say we must have Cuba, sir," because the United States knows its present value and could make it much more valuable, is simply to lay down the doctrine of robbery as a line of policy. Theft is not the less theft because unblushingly announced beforehand. 66 Neither England nor France has any design on Cuba. Both countries have offered the United States to join in a common obligation not to acquire it. Hitherto United States diplomacy has been obedient and respectful to Congressional policy, and the very last act of Congress was to refuse President Pierce any encouragement in designs on Cuba. But here we have United States diplomacy assembling at Ostend for purposes which the United States Congress has disproved of. This is a new and serious phase in the history of republican government; for not only does it set at naught the supreme authority of the country, but to some extent takes matters out of the hands of even the Washington Cabinet. And the diplomacy thus assembling at Ostend has not earned for itself any great distinction or high character in Europe. To say nothing of M. Soulé's scandalous escapade at Madrid, Mr. Sickles, secretary of legation in London, has lately denounced his own chief, Mr. Buchanan, for sanctioning with his presence at the Star and Garter, on the fourth of last July, a banquet of Americans at which portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert hung on the walls on either side of a potrait of Washington; for which offence in the eyes of this patriotic Secretary of Legation, and for joining in the enthusiasm of other Americans when the Queen's health was proposed-acts that stamped him as a gentleman in England-Mr. Buchanan, an able and enlightened man, has been compelled to publish a long and apolo Spain, no doubt, has been " sick " nigh unto death, but the gorge of the world out of the United States has just risen against the pro-getic defence in America. posed robbery and murder of a “sick_man,” If it be true, then, that "we must have Cuand now that Spain is in a fair way of recov- ba, sir," it is scarcely after this fashion, or by ery, and that Cuba will participate, nay, has hands like these, it can be worthily acquired. From The Examiner. of the most powerful as well as the most witty Terre et Ciel (Earth and Heaven). Par JEAN of his effusions. But now his sardonic humor, REYNAUD, Paris, 1854. instead of being directed against religion, is altogether devoted to the service and illustration of spiritualism. thinkers and writers of this school. Bred at the Ecole Polytechnique, and having passed with great distinction, Reynaud was the scientific scholar of the class to which Carnot and Leroux belonged. The friendship of these men with Madame Sand and with Lamennais is known, and they formed certainly the stran gest amalgam of philosophies and sentiments that could be conceived. OUR readers will be perhaps incredulous when we tell them that the literary mind in The work before us is the production of one France is suddenly taking a religious turn. of that band of writers who distinguished What principally had been heard of French themselves in the Revue Encyclopedique, and literature in this respect, of late years, was the who, the greater number of them, more or positive philosophy of M. Comte; but what-less, gave in to the illusion of St. Simonianism. ever impression the positive doctrine may have Jean Reynaud was one of the most positive made upon young England, not only young but old France has ordered its wings for a start in quite a different direction. At the last distribution of prizes at the Institute, it was remarkable to observe that the greater part of the works were of a religious tone and tendency, and M. Villemain, naming irreligious books by Madame D'Epinay and others which had formerly obtained prizes, congratulated the Institute and the country on the But Reynaud was looked upon as a man change. peculiarly destined for success in life and in Nor can it be said that it is merely the good-public affairs, rather than in that dreamy will of the members of the Institute which is world of letters and theology in which Lamenthus sought by flattering and conciliating the nais and Leroux lived. Therefore, when the Church. The Government may do this in revolution of 1848 occurred, and Carnot besome degree, but not the Institute, which is in came minister, Reynaud was appointed Secreflagrant opposition and antagonism to the Gov-tary of Public Instruction, was elected Depuernment. Neither can it be said that the ty, and launched himself into the full career Emperor or his ministers, however considerate of republican politics. As a school of politito the Church, show any disposition to encour-cians, however, the whole of this band of origage theology. inal writers and bold thinkers failed, as we well But indeed to name the writers who now know. They wanted many things, and chief forswear and scoff at the stupidity of material- of all they were utterly wanting in anything ism, and who have abandoned the study of like the habitude of affairs. The majority of Voltaire for that of the fathers and councils the country was against them, the wealthy of the Church, would sufficiently attest that this extraordinary change is not the result of servility or interested calculation, but really a voluntary and free impulse, a genuine appetite of the national mind, palled by the intellectual food with which it has heretofore been fed, and bent upon having better spiritual nourish ment. One of the most startling examples is that of George Sand, whose memoirs are now appearing in the shape of feuilletons. The read ers of these confessions looked no doubt for some fresh chapters of Consuelo or Mauprat. Instead of this they are treated to essays upon the nature of original sin, upon the eternity of punishment, upon the efficacy of grace. The last work of Henry Heine, too, the great living link between the French and German mind, shows the same direction, the same spirit. His Voltaireism has turned to Judaism, and nothing can be more beautiful or forcible than his recantation of Hegelianism, with its accompanying sketch of Hegel himself. Poor Heine, long confined to his bed by a disorder that was supposed to affect his intellect, has certainly disproved that suspicion by sending fresh from his sick room a series were naturally averse to their doctrines, and the poorer classes soon discovered that they dealt more in loud-sounding hopes than in realities. The republic of 1848 was a failure, and Jean Reynaud, as well as George Sand, has returned to philosophic speculation. This volume is the result, and a singular one it is. It professes to give an account of Heav en and Earth, and its first book is devoted to an astronomical account of the earth's positions and relations, which M. Reynaud deems a necessary basis to reason from, towards the great future of the human mind and race. It then proceeds to treat of the ages of the earth, and discusses the Scriptural theories, for which it maintains the greatest respect. M. Reynaud and his school profess the utmost reverence for authority. The mere fact of the prevalence of the Judaic doctrine, and its subsequent expansion into that which has become the universal creed of intelligent mankind, is held sufficient to warrant the main truth and reality of what it teaches, propounds and promises. The Church, Jewish in ante-Christian times, and represented by Councils since the era of Christ, symbolizes for M. Reynaud the most perfect character which it has pleased the di vinity to impart during those ages to the great a knowledge of drugs is a very small part of intellects and leading spirits of man. the physician's qualifications. A book knowledge of the stated symptoms, indeed, together what the medical man must know. It is the with therapeutics, does not form the half of is the true diagnosis of diseases; the striking power of discriminating similar symptoms that out, by a clearheaded inventive activity, an equation of the sum of all the symptoms, in conjunction with the patient's constitution and circumstances, that suggests the treatment. But this demands practised observation, habitual discrimination, and expertness, so to speak, in the algebra of medicine. There is no universal suffrage in medical government. It is indiscreet even for medical men to discuss Our author then plunges valiantly into the subject of man's fall, and the doctrine of original sin. Human perfectibility, regarded and reasoned out after the manner of Condorcet, and assuming all religious beliefs as likely to be set aside, has been the French view of the universe for the last half century, or at least the view of the liberal party; but we have now the school of Sand and Reynaud coming forward to deny that religious wants can be met by negation. On the other hand they boldly assert that mankind must either resolve into the doctrine of the Manichean, and deify their own first ideas in the unprofessional public the evil along with the good principle, or it journals. A most respectable physician has must admit and adopt Christianity, as handed heen prescribing castor oil for cholera, with an down to us, together with the old Testament, apparent success, but in a very limited experito be the only satisfactory explanation of the ence. Several others copy him; and at last the origin, existence, and future destiny of the hu- Board of Health puts the prescription to a more man race, and the only sound philosophy of rigid test. Out of 89 cases, the remedy proved good and evil. Reynaud adopts the Christian undecided in six still under treatment, successful view, and proceeds to state under what limit-in 15, fatal in 68. Was not the rash adoption of ation. He and his friends are ready to adopt Christianity on the condition of a lopping off or banishing from it certain doctrines which they consider to be excrescences and errors. Hell and the eternity of punishment are among the teachings that this school would expunge from Christianity, as contrary to the view of human perfectibility which they adopt, -not the merely mundane perfectibility of Condorcet, but the perfectibility of the soul by reason of a metempsychosis, or something very like it. tion? Does its consequence not amount to somethe drug the direct result of newspaper consultathing like manslaughter? If, in this formal inquiry, some portion of the sixty-eight patients died for their country's good, there have been others who have died for the curiosity-it was little better-of the gentlemen who adopted as a suggestion that which ought only to have been a question. Have not the sixty-eight and their companions in the grave some claim for damages upon those medical men who have used them as corpora" for experiment ?-Spectator. tal. A Parliamentary paper, recently printed, exhibits a remarkable distribution of railway-capi£366,770,000. Of that amount, £93,000,000 has The total is a few pounds short of not been raised at all; £65,000,000 has been raised by loan; £43,000,000 by "preference shares; and £165,000,000 by capital not entitled But any detailed development of their doctrine we must of course decline. Our simple purpose is to indicate their existence. They are well worthy of attracting the attention of that religious school amongst us which has sought to regenerate faith and piety on the basis of authority, and which would have been to receive preferential dividend or interest. Of far more wisely employed in strengthening the 366 millions, therefore, only 165 consist of the fabric of this very authority against the capital in the ordinary sense of the word. The terrible and trenchant criticism of the Ger- preferential shares partake of the nature of loans man. Here, however, are some of the ablest and sleeping partnerships; and the pure loans and most original spirits in France ready to exceed one-third of the actual capital. The figures show how much these great companies are adopt authority, regarding the learning of going upon tick." The entire annual receipts, Strauss in the same light as the wit of Voltaire, for last year, amounted to £18,000,000; so that and erecting a spiritualism of their own, it would take some years of revenue to clear the which may perhaps be little likely to swell in- companies of encumbrance. The revenue, howto any larger sect, but is certainly calculated ever, has increased faster than the railways. The to exert a singular and powerful effect upon miles open, in 1849, were 6,032; in 1853, 7,641; the wavering, unfixed, and imaginative mind the gross revenue has increased from £11,806,449, of our neighbors and friends the French. in 1849, to £18,035,880, in 1853. By far the greatest increase has taken place in the second and third class passengers, and goods. Two MEDICAL PRESCRIBING THROUGH THE NEWS- rather important questions immediately hang upPAPERS.-The newspaper is the worst of all me- on the railway-future: How far will their traffic diums for prescribing physic. We are surprised be diminished by the Beer-Act as a check upon that medical men should not see the perfect ab-Sunday-excursions? How much would the adsurdity of letting patients into their consulta-vance of passenger-traffic - at present increasing tions. Surely a man who can put "M. D." or less rapidly than goods-be expedited, if rail"M. R. C. S." after his name, should know that ways were rendered more safe? Spectator. |