Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

affected by the spectacle his poem presents to us. As the minor poems at the conclusion of the work breathe

the same spirit, suggest the same doubts, and employ the same language with the "Childe Harold,” we are compelled to recognise the author in the hero whom he has painted. In fact, the disclaimer, already noticed in the Preface, seems merely like one of those veils worn to draw attention to the face rather than

to baffle it and in the work before us we are forced to recognise a charac ter, which, since Rousseau gave his Confessions to the public, has scarcely ever, we think, darkened the horizon of letters. The reader of the "Confessions" is dismayed to find a man frankly avowing the most disgraceful vices; abandoning them, not upon principle, but merely because they have ceased to gratify; prepared to return to them if they promise to reward him better; without natural affection, neither loving nor beloved by any; with out peace, without hope, "without God in the world." When we search into the mysterious cause of this autobiographical phenomenon, we at once discover that Rousseau's immeasurable vanity betrayed him into a belief, that even his vices would vanish in the blaze of his excellencies; and that the world would worship him, as idolaters do their mishapen gods, in spite of their ugliness. The confessions of Lord Byron, we regret to say, bear something of an analogy to those of the philosopher of Geneva. Are they, then, to be traced to the same source? He plainly is far from indif ferent to the opinion of by-standers: can he, then, conceive that this peep into the window of his breast must not revolt every virtuous eye? Can he boldly proclaim his violations of decency and of sobriety; his common contempt for all modifications of religion; his monstrous belief in the universal rest or annihilation of man in a future state; and forget that he is one of those who

[blocks in formation]

as offend against all moral taste; as attempt to shake the very pillars of domestic happiness and of public security?

It is, however, a matter of congratulation, that his Lordship, in common with the republican Confessor, has not revealed his creed without very honestly displaying the influence of this creed upon his own mind. We should not, indeed, have credited a man of his sentíments, had he assured us he was such soils. But it is still better to happy happiness takes no root in have his own testimony to the unmixed misery of licentiousness and unbelief. It is almost comforting to be told, if we dared to draw comfort out of the well of another man's miseries, that

"Though gay companions o'er the bowl

Dispel awhile the sense of ill;
Though pleasure fires the maddening soul,

The heart-the heart is lonely still." It is consolatory also to contrast the peace and triumph of the dying Christian, with the awful uncertainty, or rather the sullen despair, which breathe in these verses. "Aye-but to die and go'-alas,

Where all have gone, and all must go; To be the nothing that I was,

Ere born to life and living woe. "Count o'er the joys thine hours have seen, Count o'er thy days from anguish free; And know, whatever thou hast been, 'Tis something better not to be." Nor can religion be more powerfully recommended than by the following avowal of an apostle of the opposite system.

"No, for myself, so dark my fate

Through every turn of life hath been, Man and the world I so much hate,

I care not when I quit the scene,'

But whilst, for the benefit of others, we thus avail ourselves of the antidote supplied by his Lordship to his own poison, we could wish also that he might feel the efficacy of it

himself. Could we hope that so humble a work as this would reach the lofty sphere in which he moves, we would solemnly say to him: "You are wretched, but will nothing make you happy? You hate all men; will nothing warm you with new feelings? You are (as you say) hated by all; will nothing make you an object of affection? Suppose yourself the victim of some disease, which resisted many ordinary applications; but that all who used one medicine uniformly pronounced themselves cured: would it be worthy of a philosopher not merely to neglect the remedy, but to traduce it? Such, however, my Lord, is the fatuity of your own conduct as to the religion of Christ. Thousands, as wretched as yourself, have found a Comforter' in Him; thousands, having stepped into these waters, have been healed of their disease; thousands, touching the hem of His garment, have found virtue go out of it.' Beggared then of every other resource, try this.Acquaint yourself with God, and be at peace."" His Lordship may designate this language by that expressive monosyllable, cant; and may possibly, before long, hunt us down, as a sort of mad March hare, with the blood-hounds of his angry muse. But we hope better things of him. We assure him, that, whatever may be true of others, we do not "hate him." As Christians, even he who professes to be unchristian, is dear to us. We regard the waste of his fine talents, and the laboured suppression and apparent extinction of his better feelings, with the deepest commiseration and sorrow. We long to see him escape from the thick cloud which, by what may fairly be called his "black art," he has conjured up around himself. We hope to know him as a future buttress of his shaken

country, and as a friend of his yet "unknown God." Should this change, by the mercy of God, take place, what pangs would many passages of his present work cost him! Happy should we be, could we persuade him, in the bare anticipation of such a change, even now to contrive for his future happiness, by expunging sentiments that would then so much embitter it. Should he never change; yet, such an act would prove, that, at least, he me ditated no cruel invasion upon the joys of others. Even Rousseau taught his child religion, as a delusion essential to happiness. The philosophic Tully also, if a belief in futurity were an error, deemed it one with which it was impossible to part. Let the author then, at all events, leave us in unmolested possession of our supposed privileges. He plainly knows no noble or

[ocr errors]

royal way" to happiness. We find in religion a bark that rides the waves in every storm; a sun that never goes down; a living fountain of waters. Religion is suffered to change its aspect and influence according to the eye and faith of the examiner. Like one side of the pillar of the wilderness, it may merely darken and perplex his Lordship's path: to millions it is like the opposite side of that pillar to the Israelites, the symbol of Deity; the pillar of hallowed flame, which lights, and guides, and cheers them as they toil onward through the pilgrimage of life. Could we hear any voice proclaim of him, as of one reclaimed from as inveterate, though more honest, prejudices, "behold, he prayeth;" we should hope that here also the scales would drop from the eyes, and his Lordship become the eloquent defender and promulgator of the religion which he now scorns.

[ocr errors]

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE,

GREAT BRITAIN.

&c. &c.

In the press: A small volume of Tales for the Fire-Side, by Dr. Lettice ;-Hints to the Protestants of Ireland, by the Rev. T. Lyon;-The Sixth Report of the Board of Directors of the African Institution.

Preparing for publication: A History of Bengal, from the earliest Period of authentic Antiquity to 1757, by Professor Stewart of Hertford College;-A statistical and political Account of Ireland, by Mr. E. Wakefield, in 2 vols. 4to.;-Origines Mythologica, by the Rev. G. Faber.

At Oxford, the Chancellor's prizes have been adjudged to the following gentlemen: Latin Essay-" Xenophontis res bellicas, quibus ipse interfuit, narrantis cum Cæsare comparatio," to Mr. John Keble, B. A. late scholar of Corpus Christi college, and now fellow of Oriel college. English Essay-" "On Translation from Dead Languages," to the same gentleman. Latin Verse-" Coloni ab Anglià ad Americam missi," to Mr. Henry Latham, undergraduate of Brasenose college. Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize: English Verse-" Apollo Belvidere," to Mr. Henry Milman, undergraduate of Brasenose college.

W. Frere, Esq. Serjeant at Law, bas been elected Master of Downing college, in the room of the late F. Annesley, Esq.

At the sale of Sir James Pulteney's fibrary, the Variorum Classics sold for unprecedented sums, and the rare volume of the Delphin Classics at the following proce -Cicero's Philosophical Works, 59. us. Prudentius, 16l. 5s. 6d.; and Statius, 54, 12s. At another sale, a small tract entitled Expositio Saniti Jeronimi in Symbolum Apostolorum ad Papam Laurenicum," purporting to be printed at Oxford in 1438, was sold for 911.

of the Shippers (1503), for 180l.; the Recuyeil of the History of Troye, by Raoule le Fevre (1473), to the Duke of Devonshire, for 1060. 10s.; Il Decameroni di Boccaccio, fol. M. C. edit. Venet (1471), to the Marquis of Blandford, for 22604 &c. &c.

A late Medical Journal contains a detailed case of the beneficial effects produced by smoaking stramonium in violent asthma.

Professor Leslie has succeeded in freez

ing quicksilver by his frigorific process. A wide thermometer tube, with a large bulb, was filled with mercury, and attached to a rod passing through a collar of leather, from the top of a cylindrical receiver. This receiver, which was seven inches wide, covered a deep flat basin of nearly the same width, and containing sulphuric acid, in the midst of which was placed an egg-cup half full of water. The enclosed air being reduced by the working of the pump to the 50th part, the bulb was repeatedly dipt in the water, and again exposed to evaporation, till it became encrusted with a coat of ice about the 20th of an inch thick. The cup, with its water still unfrozen, was then removed, and the apparatus replaced, the coated bulb being pushed down to less than an inch from the surface of the sulphuric acid. On exhausting the receiver again, and continuing the operation, the icy crust at length started into divided fissures, owing probably to its being more contracted by the intense cold than the glass which it invested; and the mercury, having gradually descended in the thermometer tube till it reached the point of congelation, suddenly sunk almost into the bulb, the gage standing at the 20th of an inch, and the included air being thus. rarefied about 600 times. After a few minutes, the apparatus being removed, and the bulb broken, the quicksilver appeared a solid mass which bore the stroke of a hammer.

At the sale of the Duke of Roxburgh's library, the Biblomania raged still more vio- A plant which grows in great abundance lently. A set of Sessions Papers from 1690 in every field, the Dog's Tongue, the Cyto 1803, sold for 3784.; a collection of half-noglossum Officinale of Linnæus, is said to penny Ballads and Garlands, pasted in 3 vols., for 478. 15s.; a collection of twopenny Portraits, chiefly of persous tried at the Old Bailey, for 941. 10s.; the Boke of St. Alban's (1486), for 1471.; the Mirrour of the World (1480), for 3511. 15s,; the Kalindayr

possess a very valuable quality. If gathered at the time when the sap is in its full vigour, bruised with a hammer, and laid in a house, barn, or granary, or any other place frequented by rats and mice, those destructive animals immediately shift their quarters.

The success of this method is said to be equally speedy and infallible.

A grand national library, the collection of which was begun by Catherine II. has been completed and opened at Petersburgh. It comprizes 250,000 printed volumes; 80,000 of which relate to theology; and 40,000 are duplicates. There are also 12,000 manuscripts.

Counsellor Graser las, by order of his Bavarian Majesty, made an experiment with the greatest success, on some young recruits, of his method of teaching children, or adults, to read and write in the course of

a month. Before the end of the month these young scholars, who before did not know a letter, learned to write correctly, and read every thing presented to them.

Count Rumford, in recent experiments on the nature of light, the existence of which in combustible bodies he disbelieves, has discovered, that a polyflame lamp, consisting of a number of burners, with wicks flat like a ribbon, and so placed, one by the side of another, that the air can pass between them, while they are duly supplied with oil, and covered with a large rising glass, yielded as much light as 20 candles.

LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

[blocks in formation]

the Rev. J. Newton. By the Rev. R. Cecil. Edited by J. Pratt. 8vo. 15s.

The Life, Character, and Remains, of the Rev. R. Cecil, M.A. By J. Pratt, 8vo. 15s. A Briefe Memoriall of the Lyfe and Death of Dr. J. Spottiswoode. 4to, 10s. 6d.

Sir J. Froissart's Chronicles of England, France, Spain, &c. &c. Translated from the French by J. Bourchier, Lord Berners, with Memoirs of the Translator. 2 vols. 4to. 71.75.

Anecdotes of British and Spanish Heroism, displayed at Tarifa, during the late memorable Siege of that place, and glorious Victory over the French. 3s. 6d.

A History of the Long Parliament, with plates. By J. May, Esq. 4to. 14. 11s. 6d.

Historic Anecdotes, and secret Memoirs of the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland. By Sir J. Barrington. Part IV. 4to. 21s.—or royal, 21. 2s.

A Practical Abridgment of the Laws of the Customs. By Charles Pope, Controlling Surveyor of the Warehouses in Bristol. 8vo. 14. 1s.

Essay on the Preservation of Shipwrecked Persons, with a descriptive Account of the Apparatus. By Capt. Manby. 8vo.

10s. 6d.

The Works complete of Adam Smith,LL.D. F.R.S. of London and Edinburgh. Containing his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations; Theory of Motal Sentiments, Essays, and Miscellaneous Pieces; with an Account of his Life and Writings, by Professor Dugald Stewart. 5 vols. 8vo. 31.

Of the Management of Light in Illumination; together with an Account of a new portable Lamp. By Benjamin, Count of Rumford, F.R.S. 8vo. 1s.

The Sufferings of the Primitive Martyrs; a Prize-poem. By Francis Wrangham, M.A. member of Trinity College, "Cambridge. 2s.

Account of the Life and Writings of J. B. Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux; by S. Butler. Crown 8vo. 7s.

Memoirs of the Public Life of John Horne Tooke, Esq.; by W. H. Reid. 12mo. 5s. Memoirs of Miss French, who died December 31, 1811. 1s.

Account of the Life and Writings of Lord Chancellor Somers; by I. Maddock. 4to. 31s. 6d.

The Barringtou School; being an Illustration of the Principles, Practices, and Ef-fects of the System of Instruction, in facilitating the religious and moral Instruction of the Poor; by Sir T. Barnard, Bart. 8vo. 4s. A General Atlas of the World; by James Wallis. The Maps coloured. Folio. 21. 25. half bound.

A Narrative of the most interesting Events in modern Irish History, from original Manuscripts and scarce Tracts; by the Rev. C. O'Conor, D.D.

A Legal Argument on the Statute 1st William and Mary, chap. 18, called the Act of Toleration. 25.

An Elementary Treatise on Plane Astronomy; by Robert Woodhouse, A.M. F.R.S. Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. 8vo. 15s.

Robertson's Medical Police; or, the

Causes of Disease, with the Means of Prevention. 2 vols. 8vo. 13s.

Cases of Apoplexy and Lethargy, with Observations upon the Comatose Diseases; by W. Cheyne. 8vo 8s.

Principles of Physiological and Physical Science, comprehending the Ends for which animated Beings were created; by W. Saumarez. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

An Essay on the Preservation of Shipwrecked Persons, with a descriptive Account of the Apparatus; by G. W. Manby, Esq. 10s. 6d.

The Circle of the Mechanical Arts; by T. Martin, Civil Engineer. l'art I. 3s. Grammar of the Malayan Language, with an Introduction and Praxis; by I. Marsden.

4to. 21s.

A Hebrew-English Lexicon; by the Rev. W. H. Bankes. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

A Dictionary of the Idioms of the French and English Languages. 12mo. 7s. bound.

A Greek Grammar, and Greek and English Scripture Lexicon, containing all the words which occur in the Septuagint and Apocrypha, as well as in the New Testament; by Greville Ewing. Royal 8vo. 15s.

[ocr errors]

n

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

ASSOCIATION FOR THE RELIEF AND BENE. FIT OF THE MANUFACTURING AND LABOURING POOR.

Ár a meeting of the nobility, clergy, gentry, bankers, merchants, and manufacturers, held on the 23d May, 1812, at Freemason's Hall, Great Queen Street, London, for the purpose of taking into consideration the distressed state of the labouring poor in certain of the manufacturing districts, his Royal Highness the Duke of York took the chair, supparted by his royal brothers, the Dukes of Kent and Cambridge, his Grace the Duke of Rutland, and others of the nobility, &c. &c.

At this meeting, it was resolved, That the distress of the labouring poor, in certain manufacturing districts, reuders it the duty of their fellow-subjects, in other parts of the kingdom, to contribute towards their - relief, in addition, to such assistance as can be locally afforded, during the present interruption of employment and high price of provisions,—A subscription was immediately, opened for these purposes, and a committee appointed, to consider and adopt the best means of carrying the benevolent intentions of the subscribers into effect.

The Committee, after stating the consideraCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 126.

[ocr errors]

tions which led to the formation of the present association, most anxiously recommend, as a measure of primary importance, the forming of local associations for the relief of the poor in the manufacturing towns and districts. In most of our great manufacturing towns such institutions have probably been already formed: but when once it becomes known that an association has been set on foot in the metropolis for aiding local efforts, local associations will probably take place in districts, in which, without the hope of some more effectual means of relief than they possess within themselves, the attempt might be deemed impracticable. At the same time it is evident, that, without such local associations, that in London, however liberally supported, could administer but a very limited measure of relief. But it is not merely by augmenting the funds of local institutions, that this association may be of use; it may be highly serviceable, by communicating useful information, and suggestions: while every distressed manufacturing district will know, that such an association has been formed, to which it may state its sufferings, and which will at least endeavour to lessen their amount. The Committee are of opinion, that an in3 E

« AnteriorContinuar »