1
10
9
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/35f7d97fdd8ad665615b22cd1721bd42.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=E5-azmkvWfbdEt1Y1dRNjRxAm-oQQFcjK-6ICXHHzxFNo5joge7KRUodsqeg%7ExxAAh%7EPRJxQ%7EtaTPCHQM1bV5%7Et2hFsuqTF04iOkG6%7EqX3PM0aUb4RCOv3WlAxzkQjWHE5XjZFtJRa1%7EUihjhDpPl4zdDlxn1iGz2ermz0WdCOgXnpe8hkVMffMKweqSeYM0UPCpTgq6JuT-NCr76mcDisCGpoyxzuCcE5rbw7Hy4HJV0OPZBT5vQICnCNj9lnRqUpwM84GQEbxBbcJiqB9a5Fld9XGyLoNCIYSUTeqSWIB6rbUGQtdC9hsSDrBfM7LHRSuWGIJJe0tZS9w2m%7Ejp1Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
848c43e616616d11b162512b9929c71a
PDF Text
Text
8 V2-5.2
bJ6 6 O
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
CHRISTIANITY:
H’S NATURE & INFLUENCE ON CIVILISATION.
A LECTURE
By
Charles
Watts, Secretary of
Secular Society.
the
National
It requires no profound knowledge of the human mind, to
enable us to recognise the fact that some persons indulge
in certain delusions, until such delusions become to the
persons who indulge them, apparent realities. A striking
illustration of the truth of this statement is furnished in the
two great assumptions, which are entertained extensively
throughout Christendom at the present time. First, it is
supposed that what is termed Christianity, is sufficiently effi
cacious to remove all the evils of life ; and in the second place,
it is stated that England enjoys a high state of civilisation
in consequence of the adoption of Christian principles.
Hitherto, it has been the habit of Christian advocates, not
only to ignore all in society that is evil and defective
as belonging to their system, but Also to credit Chris
tianity with all improvements which have taken place in
modern times. It matters not whether it be a steam
engine, an electric telegraph, a printing press, the repeal of
the stamp and paper duties, the establishment of working
men’s clubs, an industrial exhibition, or the co-operative
companies ; all are attributed by Christians to the influence
of their faith. All such steps of progress are regarded by
them as the gift of God to his creature man. While inquiring
into these pretensions, and ascertaining how far such allega
tions are correct, the investigation shall be two-fold. We
will endeavour to discover, if possible, to what extent the
blots and blemishes which remain upon our civilisation are
to be attributed to Christianity, and also, whether the pro
gress that has been made, is the result of Christian influ
ence; or whether, on the contrary, it is not the natural con
�sequence of the adoption of principles antagonistic to New
Testament principles.
As a rule, man is supposed to know himself better than
anyone else knows him. But there are many important in
stances, where other people can estimate a person more cor
rectly than he can estimate himself. They will take a more
dispassionate view of his character. They will be in a better
position to compare him with others, and thus judge more
accurately of his relations and comparative place in the scale
of humanity. As with individuals, so it is with systems, and
with generations. An age is incapable in many respects
of properly knowing itself. It has only one test by which
to estimate its merits and demerits. It cannot compare
itself with future ages, which lie in the womb of the un
known. It can only judge of itself by times gone by. And
as every age, even the darkest and most lethargic, is, in
some instances, more advanced than its predecessor, a survey
of itself is extremely apt to assume the form of self-gratulation.
Various designations have been given to the different
phases of Christianity. We have had descriptions of “ He
retical Christianity,” “ Muscular Christianity,” “ Objection
able Christianity,” “ Secular Christianity,” and “ Super
natural Christianity.” Now it may be necessary here to in
timate that Ido not coincide with those who consider that
what is termed “ Secular Christianity” is identical with
Freethought principles. Christianity appears to me to be
objectionable under whatever name it may be presented to
us. Of course there are many things taught in the New
Testament which are admirable and worthy of acceptation, but
then such beauties do not belong exclusively to Christianity.
The practical portion of the Sermon on the Mount was in
existence long before the time when Christ is supposed to have
taught in Galilee. The phrase “ Christianity” cannot be
consistently used without conveying in some degree the idea
of supernaturalism. The inspiration that induced Christ to
say and do what is ascribed to him in the Four Gospels,
was considered to have emanated from above. The power
that moves and regulates the whole system of Christianity
is designated by its believers as supernatural. The term
“ Secular Christianity” is therefore a misnomer. Christ
never uttered one word, or performed one action purely from
Secular motives, but thinking he was doing the will of his
�3
“ Father in Heaven,” he did it all for the 11 Glory of God.’’
It is important that this fact should be remembered, because
we live in an age perhaps unsurpassed in the history of the
world for the promulgation of systems, having for their professedobject the advancement of mankind. It becomes thereforea duty that we should be judicious as to the terms we use,
as well as the mode we adopt to secure the triumph of prin
ciples which we believe are essential to the permanent wel
fare of society. Many valuable systems are frequently de
prived of much of their vitality, and some of the best efforts of
men rendered comparatively useless through the lack of the ob
servance of this very necessary precaution. The temporary
success of bad and erroneous principles is often to be attri
buted to the fact that the manner in which they are pre
sented to the world is the result of careful study, and wellmatured thought.
In studying the nature of Christianity, we recognise one
or two features which are identical in all its different phases.
Reliance on a supernatural power, faith in Christ, belief in
the efficacy of prayer, and the immortality of the soul, are
tenets professed, more or less, by most Christian sects. In
addition to this, the New Testament distinctly teaches that
poverty is a virtue, that submission is a duty, and that love to
man should be subordinate to love to God. Now these prin
ciples, however consoling they may be to some, from their
nature have checked and must check the progress of civilisa
tion. The extent of their retarding influence depends upon the
degree of veneration in which they are held by their profes
sors. With Tbeists and Unitarians these theological notions
are less dangerous, because such Christians are less dogmatic
and less orthodox. But with a Wesleyan or a Baptist the
profession of such notions frequently leads to conduct anta
gonistic to general improvement. With these latter Chris
tians, Christ is “ all in all.” In vain do we look to their
teachings forthose principles that are necessary to a progres
sive civilisation. On the contrary, experience has proved that
as a rule, they have been injurious, and in proportion to their
adoption has the Secular welfare of mankind been retarded.
And we cannot expect aught else. The object of Christ was to
teach his followers how to die, rather than to instruct them
how to live. If therefore we press the question, “ What is
Christianity?” the answers given by the Christian world will
be as varied as they will be numerous. The reply lrom a mem-
�ber of the Church of England, would differ widely from the
answer given by a Latter-day Saint. The fact is, according to
the education of the individual, and the intelligence of the
nation, so are the notions entertained as to what constitutes
Christianity. For instance, religion with Mazzini is very
different to the religion of Archbishop Manning. The faith
cherished by Garibaldi, is not precisely the same article of
belief as that indulged in by the present ruler of France.
The Christianity of Professor Huxley is as different to the
doctrines taught by Richard Weaver, as is the religion of a
Maurice to that of C. H. Spurgeon. The same diversity
exists in reference to nations. In Spain religion, is cruel
oppression, in Scotland it is a gloomy nightmare, in Rome
it is priestly dominion, while in England it is simply.emo
tional pastime. All these different phases of Christianity
indicate that theological opinions depend on surrounding
circumstances, and cannot therefore be the cause of the civi
lisation of the world.
.
To test the power of Christianity in organising a civilised
state of society, it is only necessary to suppose a company
of men and women going to some uninhabited island, and
there attempting to form a constitution to meet the require
ments of modern society based upon the teachings of the
New Testament. First they must seek, the kingdom of
Heaver, and love not the world or the things of the world.
This would at once put an end to all human effort, because
if a person is not to love the world, his interest will be at
once gone from things below, and directed to things above.
It is impossible to get persons long to work.for anything
which they hate. Under a system of despotism, a certain
amount of labour may be ground out of serfs or slaves, but
once give a nation its freedom, and the inhabitants will only
strive in a cause which they love. Secondly, they must take
no thought for their bodies nor even their lives. This would
prevent them studying the laws of health. Sanitary reform
or physiological science would be deemed unnecessary. Hos
pitals would be superseded by a rapid increase of “ God’s
Peculiar People.” The recent unfortunate case of the two
persons who were committed for manslaughter because they
practically carried out New Testament teaching, is a. potent
answer to the alleged efficacy of Christianity for civilising
purposes. The “ Peculiar People ” relied upon faith and
prayer, instead of science and medicine, and, as a reward for
�5
their Christian devotion, death and imprisonment were the
results. Then Christians in this island must take no
thought for the morrow. Economy and a desire for the
future of this world would thus be entirely ignored. It would
be a crime to establish post office savings’ banks, inasmuch
as laying up treasures on earth is strictly forbidden. The
thought of a divorce must not be entertained for a moment,
because “ whosoever God has joined together, let no man put
asunder.” Those who are fortunate to be rich, must get rid
of their riches, as they are pronounced in the New Testament
to be a curse. If an enemy is cruel enough to invade this *
Christian island, the inhabitants dare not interfere, because
Christ told them to “ resist not evil.” Should the invading
powers succeed and establish themselves as governors of the
island, then the inhabitants must quietly submit, as “ the
powers that be are ordained of God.” If they are smitten on
the one cheek, they must offer the other to be operated upon
in a similar manner. Now, I submit, that a people living
under a constitution framed by these Christian rulers would
not be very progressive ; neither would they be very happy.
Apart from the menial dependent subjection in which they
would be placed, they would have to listen to the comforting
assurance that at the last day they will have to give an ac
count for every idle word spoken through life. Need we
wonder any longer that Christians are such “miserable sin
ners,” believing as they do that their final doom may depend
upon words spoken in the jubilant and joyous moments of
life?
But modern professors of Christianity will ask, if their
system is so unprogressive in its nature, how is it that men
of intellect, of determination, and of scientific culture have
accepted it as their faith ? And they further inquire how it
is that under the influence of Christianity, civilisation in
England has progressed so rapidly ? As these questions are
considered by the religious world as very important, it may be
necessary hero hriefly to examine them. Now the whole fal
lacy in coni/<fc&ton with the first question lies in the interpre
tation given the words “ their faith.” Any one acquainted
with the early history of Christianity will know that the faith
of Jesus as he preached it, and the faith of the Christiana
in 1868, are two entirely different things. Even if we
accept the alleged dates of Christian chronology to be
historically correct, Christianity began to alter and modify
�itself immediately after the death of Christ. Paul preached
a system of a philosophical character compared with that of
Jesus. The Christianity of Paul was widely different from
that of his “ divine Master.” The character of Christ
was submissive and servile; Paul’s was defiant and pugna
cious. We could no more conceive Christ fighting with
wild beasts at Ephesus, than we could suppose Paul sub
mitting without protest or resistance to those insults and
indignities which are alleged to have been heaped upon
Christ. . Neither could we for one moment imagine Paul ad
vising his disciples when anyone smote them on one cheek,
to offer them the other. Christ was an illiterate peasant;
Paul, when compared with his master, was a polished
philosopher. Paul introduced by his personal character
a certain amount of boldness and energy into the Chris
tian propaganda, and by the character of his mind he
largely. modified the Christian system. In fact, each
successive age has left its mark and impress upon Chris
tianity. No system was ever less rigid and more plastic.
It has certainly come up to the injunction of St. Paul,
“ to be all things to all men.” Persons of the most con
trary dispositions and the most opposite natures have been
its great illustrators, expounders, and living representatives.
It has found room for all temperaments : the ascetic and the
luxurious enjoyer of life; the man of action and the man of
contemplation; the monk and the king; the philanthropist
and the destroyer of his race : the iconoclastic hater of all
ceremonies, and the superstitious devotee; Cromwell and
Cowper; Lyell and Wesley; St. Augustine and Dr. Pusey;
John Milton and C. H. Spurgeon. All these and many
other similar opposites have found refuge within the pale
of Christianity. But let it be distinctly understood that
this heterogeneous family is by no means the result of any
all-embracing comprehensiveness in the system of Christ,
but rather the effects of a Theology characterised alike by
its indefinite, incomplete, and undecisive principles. No
man of action can possibly be a true and consistent believer
in Christianity, for many of its teachings are the very incar
nation and inculcation of forbearance and suffering. They
clearly and emphatically teach submission to physical evil,
tyranny, and oppression. They inculcate an unprogres
sive and retarding spirit; they draw the energies and desires
of men from the duties of this life, fixing them on an un—
�7
certain and unknown future. Until, therefore, Christians
can prove to us that their principles are capable of pro
ducing uniformity of character ; until it is satisfactorily ex
plained that the precepts, as propounded by Christ, contain
the elements of that greatness which has invariably charac
terised the lives of eminent statesmen, philosophers, and
poets of all ages ; until it can be shown by an appeal to
authority and experience that the principles as taught in
the New Testament are compatible with progress and
human advancement; until the course pursued by Christ
when on earth is adopted by his professed followers of to-day
and made to harmonise with reason and humanity—I say,
until these things are accomplished, Christianity will be
incapable of furnishing a code of morals by which all suc
ceeding generations shall be governed, and to which the
great intellects of the world shall finally succumb.
The notion entertained by many that the present civilised
condition of England is the result of Christian influence is
decidedly fallacious. The progress of a nation cannot be
attributed to any one thing or any one age, but rather to a
combination of circumstances which have been in operation
during many ages. For instance, had it not been for the
scientific discoveries of a Watt, Dalton, and Black of the
last century, the application of these sciences with which
their names are associated, would not have been so easily
applied to the ends of' human utility in this present age; had
it not been for the great French Revolution the name of
liberty, for it is but little more, would not exist to-day in
France; and had it not been for many attempts at revolu
tion in this country, many concessions to liberty which we
now enjoy, would never have been extorted. The Reform.
Bill of last year, incomplete as it is, would never have passed
the House of Commons but for the meetings in Trafalgar
Square, and the demonstrations in Hyde Park, Birmingham,
Leeds, and other places. Disraeli boasted that he had edu
cated his party; far be it from me to attempt to rob the
Premier of the laurels he won in going through that painful
operation, but it seems to me that the best lesson the Tories
received in the reform educational course was from the Re
form League and their co-workers. It is equally true that
for the partial freedom from religious intolerance which we
now enjoy we are as much indebted to the Franklins and
Paines of the past, as to any of their representatives of the
�present. But waiving this point, I ask, is it true that we
have a high state of civilisation? Notwithstanding an “Open
Bible,” and “ general dissemination of Gospel truths,” which
we have had in this country for the last 300 years, can it be
denied that the major portion of our rural population are
sunk in the deepest ignorance and the most depraved
wretchedness ? Is it not a reproach upon Christian influ
ence that, after three centuries of the rule, discipline, teach
ing, and. example of 20,000 clergymen and a host of Dissent
ing ministers, that the very classes of society which have
been most under their direction and control, should be the
greatest stigma upon our social condition ? Can it be alleged
that anything like an approach even to a proper adjustment
ef the relations between capital and labour has been arrived
at? Those who pride themselves on the present state of
Christian civilisation should ask themselves the question,
does labour receive anything like a fair quota of the results
of the wealth towards the production of which it contributes
more than the “ lion’s share ?” Can an age or a country
be considered civilised in which so large an amount of abject,
and, to all appearance, hopeless poverty prevails ? Have
we not ignorance, sickness, and sorrow existing on every
hand ? Are there not thousands who wake every morning
tortured with anxiety as to how they are to obtain food for
the day, and when the hour for sleep again returns, they
know not where to lay their heads ? Parade the glories of
Christian civilisation to those unfortunate creatures who are
driven to misery, shame, and madness by the want of the
necessaries of life. In noticing the deplorable condition of
“ Christian ’’ England, the Morning Star recently asked—
“When shall starvation die out of the land? When shall
we cease to hear that in one part of the country a man lies
dead of a debauch on roast goose, while in another a woman
perishes of sheer hunger, with her teeth locked in the flesh
of her own arm ? Must we wait till East London sits down
to this sickening meal ? Can Government, Whig or Tory,
do nothing ? Within two years, more than a million of human
beings under its care have died of starvation alone.” Witness
the fate of many of England’s daughters who, amidst Chris
tian civilisation, have either to drag out a wretched existence
by continual slavery, as pictured in the “ Song of the Shirt,”
or else to sink into utter ruin and hopeless degradation. It
is an insult and mockery to tell such victims of a misruleu
�9
world that their position is the result of their own conduct.
One of the principal causes of such calamities is to be found
in promulgating doctrines which destroy man’s energy in
worldly pursuits, rendering him a dependent, povertycheiished suppliant.
The history of Christianity is a glocmy illustration of its
influence and tendency to maintain those conditions which are
unfavourable to individual progress and national greatness.
Among other requisites to a civilised condition of society it is
necessary to have national wealth, the cultivation of the
sciences, the acquirement of knowledge, and freedom of
inquiry. Without these agencies, civilisation as we under
stand the term cannot exist. How far then has Christianity
encouraged these agencies ? Now it is certain that the Reli
gion of the New Testament is opposed to material wealth.
While poverty is there magnified as a virtue, riches are de
nounced as a vice. If those who had wealth were to sell
that which they had, and give it to the poor, as Christ com
manded them, and at the same time omit to accumulate any
more, individual and national bankruptcy would be the
result. The influence of religion on scientific pursuits is
well known to students of history. The great impediment
to the progress of scientific truth in the past, has been reli
gious bigotry. First, such sciences as geology were alleged
to be untrue; every fact demonstrated by early writers
was regarded as an instance of the insanity of the writer,
and every fossil wonder disclosed, was referred to the
limited explanation of the Noachian deluge. Finding that
threats and intimidation failed to check the advance of truth,
persecution and imprisonment were the weapons used by
Christian hands towards those whose crime consisted in in
vestigating the laws of nature, and making those laws
known to their fellow-creatures. Dr. Ferguson in his
“ Penalties of Greatness,” acknowledges that theology, as
embodied in the Christian church, was the first to extinguish
the light of reason. But truth existed in spite of the deadly
agencies which surrounded it. Not only did the church
employ means to prevent the least difference of opinion on
religious subjects, by the invention of the most finished in
struments of torture, but science itself became the object
of burning jealousy and persecution, and men were made to
deny the very laws of nature. The same spirit pervades to
& certain extent a portion of the Christian world at the pre
�10
sent day. Every scientific discovery, opposed as it is to
popular theology, is suspected with pious horror by orthodox
Christians. The Morning Advertiser and other orthodox
papers have denounced such men as Huxley, Darwin, and
Sir Charles Lyell as enemies to the welfare of mankind.
“ Real knowledge,” says Buckle, “ the knowledge on which
all civilisation is based, solely consists in an acquaintance
with the relations which things and ideas bear to each other
and to themselves ; in other words, in an acquaintance with
physical and mental laws.” The history of the Christian
religion proves that the object and aim of its advocates have
been too frequently to discourage and prevent the acquisi
tion and dissemination of this scientific knowledge.
Not only has Christian influence affected the acquirement
of scientific knowledge, but it has also interfered with the
progress of general education. Fortunately at the present
time, many professed Christians are advocating a national
system of education, but this advanced policy is not the re
sult of their faith, but a proof that the Secular aspirations in
man are less fettered by theological restriction, than they
were in the palmy days of Christianity. It has taken the
Christian world nearly eighteen hundred years to arrive at
the conclusion that the people ought to have adequate means
of education at their command. As recently as fifty years
ago, pamphlets were written by clergymen warning the nation
against the horrid democratic consequences of giving to the
labouring classes education. In our time it is Freethought
which has extorted, not the Church which has granted, Natio
nal Education. Dr. Johnson, the great lay pillar of the Church
in the last century, had the honesty to state that he objected
to education for the poor, because it would teach them politics.
He might have added with equal truth, that it would teach
them to think for themselves, instead of allowing the Church
to do it for them. At last, the hour of victory, partial though
it was, arrived. The educational Reformers had their triumph.
The legislature decreed that to some extent education should
be national. £20,000 were voted for that purpose. Then
it was that the Church again exerted her influence. Find
ing she could not resist the progressive stream, she sought
io pollute it and destroy its refreshing power. Failing
to prevent, she endeavoured to contaminate. And what
is the result ? National education is but half accomplished.
Thousands are growing up as monuments of imperfect edu
�11
cation. Believing that the “ wisdom of this world is foolish
ness with God,” the Christian governments, in the words of
Buckle, “ Where they have not openly forbidden the free
dissemination of knowledge, they have done all they could
to check it. On all the implements of knowledge and on all
the means by which it is diffused, such as papers, books, poli
tical journals, and the like, they have imposed duties so
heavy that they could hardly have done worse if they had
been the sworn advocates of popular ignorance. Indeed,
looking at what they have actually accomplished, it may be
emphatically said that they have taxed the human mind.”
Fortunately many of these impediments have been removed,
not, however, with the free consent of the Christian world.
This victory was achieved by the dauntless efforts and heroic
sufferings of Freeihought martyrs in the face of Christian
opposition and Christian persecution. Domestic loss, pecu
niary ruin, and the horrors of imprisonment, were the prices
paid for the removal of those hindrances to the people’s
educational advancement.
Doubtless the power of Christianity has been great upon
the civilisation of the world. Nothing influences the human
mind either for good or for evil more than the Christian’s
notion of supernaturalism. If a person is induced to have
absolute faith in the fatherhood and sovereignty of God, he
deems it his first duty to carry out that which he considers
the will of that God. Hence it is, that during intellectual
periods men’s notions of Deity have been refined and culti
vated ; and, as a consequence, oppression and persecution
for scepticism have been more rare. While on the other
hand, when the multitude held rude ideas of divinity, the
pure and chaste were sickened at the scenes of cruelty
and bloodshed which were enacted in accordance with
what was supposed to be the “ will of God.” If any
doubt existed upon this point, it would only be necessary
to study carefully Buckle’s “History of Civilisation.” In
that work ample proof is given of the contracting influence
of religion. Nothing tends more to limit progress than the
attempt to prevent freedom of opinion, and the enforcement
of penalties for the exercise of this right. “During,” says
Buckle, ‘‘ almost 150 years Europe was afflicted by religious
wars, religious massacres, and religious persecutions; not
one of which would have arisen, if the great truth had been
recognised that the state had no concern with the opinions
�1*4
of men, and no right to interfere, even in the slightest
degree, with the form of worship which they may choose t<.
adopt.” The same writer goes on to show that the increase oi
perjury and hypocrisy has been the result of the policy oi
the Christian governments, arriving at the conclusion that
it is folly to ascribe the civilisation of a nation to any
creed.
Unfortunately Christianity appeared at a very inoppor
tune period of history, just when there was no indication
that the world would throw off supernaturalism. The old
Pagan creed which Christianity supplanted, was by far the
better of the two, because it contained most promise for the
world. The Roman religion sat but lightly upon the Romans.
It was just a body of mythological tales, which perhaps was
useful in the world’s infancy, but which was certainly not re
quired in.its more matured age. The grand feature of the old
Pagan faith was its true tolerant spirit. Death for religious
belief was unknown to the Romans. They allowed every one
to worship according to his or her own conscience. Per.
secution for non-belief was reserved for Christianity. As
soon as the disciples of Christ possessed the power, the^
commenced by persecuting those who did not accept then
faith, and endeavoured to crush all systems that were anta
gonistic to their own. Instead of Christians talking sc
foolishly of the depravity of the ancients, it would be far
better if they endeavoured to emulate Pagan Rome in their
love of toleration. Even from the New Testament we learn
the extreme reluctance with which the Roman Gfovernor of
Judea signed the death-warrant of Christ. The Romans
were so tolerant—in other words, they were so little religious,
and therefore, so ripe for becoming converts to Secularistie
truth—that whenever they conquered a new territory, they
at once added to their own number of Gods those whom they
found to be worshipped by the inhabitants of their new con
quest. Now, if Queen Victoria, by royal mandate, were to
order to be added to the objects of English worship, all the
gods worshipped by her coloured subjects, all over the world;
if, whenever we achieved a new conquest, it became the
duty of the Archbishops and Bishops, the Spurgeons and
Cummings, to add a new batch of deities to the objects of
worship, what would be the result? Why religion would
fall rapidly into contempt, and mankind would see at once
its utter folly and absurdity. This is precisely what was
■
�id
fast happening amongst the Romans and all through their
empire, when Christianity came upon the scene, stopped the
progressive spirit, and deferred the reign of human happiness.
If we take a historical glance at countries where Chris
tianity was professed, and at one time, to a large extent,
acted upon, we shall at once recognise the influence it pos
sessed on national progress. First, we may take Scotland,
[n the most comprehensive sense of the word, Scotland at
no very remote period was strictly a religious nation, and
what were the fruits cf that religion ? The most miserable
and unprogressive state it is possible for a civilised people to
live in. And let it be distinctly understood that Mr. Buckle
in his “History of Civilisation,” attributes this non-progressive spirit, this lack of happiness, entirely to the fatal in
fluence of religion. And can we expect aught else? Here is a
country acting, as far as a people can possibly act, upon the
principles of Christianity. And what do we find ? “An entire
absence of all true toleration ; an aversion even to innocent
gaiety; a desire to limit the enjoyment of others, and a spirit
of bigotry and persecution ; yet in the midst of all this,” as
Buckle properly observes, “ there existed a gloomy and
austere creed. The churches were as crowded as they
were in the middle ages, and were filled with ignorant wor
shippers, who flocked to listen to opinions of which the
middle ages alone were worthy.” What effect has such
reaching had upon the Scotch mind ? Has it imparted to
the people any progressive aspirations ? If we read th6
history of Scotland during the seventeenth and part
of the eighteenth century, we shall find that Buckle
stated the truth, when he said that “ Some of the noblest
feelings of which our nature is capable, the feelings of love
and of gratitude, were set aside, and were replaced by the
dictates of a servile and ignominious fear.” But the sad
effects of Christianity were not confined to Scotland. If we
take England during wnat is Known as the “ dark ages,”
the brightest era of Christianity, then she had no rival:
assisted by kingcraft she ruled the civilised world through a
thousand years, without one ray of light, without any addi
tion whatever to the arts and sciences, and then bequeathed
to mankind a heritage of cruelty, bloodshed, and persecution.
In the middle ages there was a. great impetus given towards
science and philosophy. Some of the most splendid intellects
that ever appeared in the world, and that might, under more
�favourable conditions, have adorned humanity, enlightened
society, and held on progress, appeared in those days. But
their intellects were stifled and rendered comparatively useless
by the influence of Christianity. Those were the times when
Christianity was paramount, unrestrained, and untrammelled,
when the blood, the genius, and the chivalry of Europe were
all wasted in the mad and useless crusades, when in one
expedition alone, instigated by fanatical priests, no less than
560,000 persons were sacrificed to the superstition of the
cross. Do we require a proof of the legitimate effects
of Christianity ? Behold the history of the seven cru
sades, which will for ever remain a lasting monument of a
Wood-stained faith. For nearly 200 years did the followers
of Christ lay desolate one of the finest and most romantic
portions of the known world, and laid prostrate thousands of
human beings. Do we wish to know the sad influence of
religion ? Bead the history of the Christian Emperor Con
stantine, who with the sword in one hand and the cross in
the other, pursued his slaughtering and relentless career.
Go to the streets of Paris, when in the fifteenth century they
flowed with the blood of defenceless Protestants, and when
10,000 innocent persons were massacred by the believers in
a meek and lowly Jesus. Visit the valleys of Piedmont,
which were the scene of a most inhuman butchery, when
women were suffocated by hundreds in cofined caves by
the bearers of the cross. Study the history of the Inquisi
tion, to whose power three millions of lives were sacrificed
in one century. Peruse the records of the actions of a King
Henry the E'ghth, a Queen Mary, and a Queen Elizabeth,
in whose Christian reigns hundreds were either condemned
to die at the stake, or to endure revolting cruelties in loath
some dungeons, because they differed from the prevailing
faith of those times. These were the effects of religion when
it had absolute power. When Christianity exercised her
legitimate influence, the maxim was ‘‘ Philosophy is the
handmaid of Theology,” every philosopher, therefore, who
did not so philosophise as to bring up new arguments to
support some one of the absurd tenets of Christianity, had
either to submit to a life of seclusion and persecution, or to
an immediate death. But Christianity not only interfered
with the high intellects of the earth, she also influenced
every relation of life. The sum of almost all history for,
centuries after Christ may be compressed in a few sentences.
�Avery rascality that tings and nobles wished to perpetrate
they got the bishops and priests to consecrate and make
holy. Had it not been for the strong Christian notions of
those sovereigns, James I. and Charles I., in all probability we
should not have found such an abominably unpatriotic period
succeeding the splendid era of Queen Elizabeth, And how
lamentable it is to think that the noble-hearted English
puritans, with men like Falkland, Cromwell, and John
Milton at their head, lost all their chance of reforming the
nation and establishing those ameliorations which certainly
were so very necessary, through their unfortunate slavery
to Christianity. Never did men exist whose minds by
nature were more magnificently tolerant and truly secularisiic than those of Milton and Cromwell, if the religious
element had been kept apart. But unfortunately it mastered
Cromwell, or perhaps to do him justice, it mastered bis
contemporaries, and they mastered him, and. then he sick
ened the very country he had saved, by forcing upon them
a religion they were weary of. The fate of Christianity was
sealed in England the day that Cromwell died. Some writers
have made it the great reproach of the reign of Charles II.
that it was “ Godless,” yes, but its godlessness was the one
redeeming trait of that “ Merry Monarch’s” reign. Reckless
as he was, during his reign reforms were accomplished, the
results of which cannot be too highly appreciated,. It was
during his reign that a law was passed which deprived the
Dishops of the power to burn those who differed from them in
theological opinion. It was during his re gn that the clergy
were deprived of the privilege of taxing themselves, and were
compelled to submit to the ordinary mode of assessment.
It was during his reign that a law was passed, forbidding
bishops to administer the oath by which the church had
hitherto compelled suspected persons to criminate them
selves. It was during his reign that it was settled, that the
taxation of the people should be decided by their own repre
sentatives, and it was during-his reign that certain restrictions
on the press were removed, whereby knowledge had a better
opportunity of being disseminated among the masses of the
people. Notwithstanding the calamities occasioned by the
great Plague, and the great Fire of London, greater improve
ments, says Buckle, were effected, and more progress made
during this reign than had been accomplished during the
twelve previous centuries of English history. The o-ha-
�19
racier of Charles II. as a whole was one not to be
emulated; but living amidst a profligate court, venal
ministers, and constant conspiracies, he was enabled to
recognise two great obstacles to the nation’s welfare ;
these obstacles . were the spiritual tyranny of the priests’
and the territorial oppression of the nobles. Having
but little regard for theological dogmas, he was determined
that such Christian evils should be swept away.
If Christianity contained any real remedy for existing evils,
it would have displayed itself ere now. It has had every ad
vantage in its favour; the influence of the priests, the patron
age of kings, the alliance of the great and powerful, the use of
untold wealth, the command of the armies, first place among
the councillors of nations, the willing subjection of the
populace, the command of their affections, and the dominancy of their fears. Science, art, education have humbled
and enlisted themselves in its train. The brightest intellects
of humanity have laid their treasures at its feet. The ties
of domestic affection, the bonds of the social compact, the
political relations of ruler and ruled, all have surrendered
themselves to its influence. It has been absolute.monarch
of the world. Yet with all these advantages it has proved
unable to keep pace with a progressive civilisation.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Christianity : its nature & influence on civilisation; a lecture
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Watts, Charles [1836-1906]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 16 p. ; 20 cm.
Notes: Publication date from KVK (OCLC WorldCat). Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[s.n.]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1868]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
N660
Subject
The topic of the resource
Christianity
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Christianity : its nature & influence on civilisation; a lecture), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Christianity
Civilisation
NSS
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/7d0e8b77bdbc2259d592588db6f5a8fd.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=QElGwVy8eORj%7EsgJHFa-bEp%7EYYi1CzblSmkGdQF9xwVBqoT2WhHQDkfXPPKP5XepMCjPnCT4zQyC3GdaA5VYUiOOMapxUe2T0Gky-FeCH0SPA59GihFUqCW1p8FqvFe5x6qc36uHgDuZibGkbtAUiPC%7ElEExnqbzWYO%7E6zMqOX8h8C1ZwlNSj7H%7EZ4dbAjFOMwNYkBaQ5T0B%7E5DY6fDdrjqTy2z8-lIJiT5ocij-WewZ0z0Kll1HqQ21qgwWSKTWpbHCsoiKEyrTNpgFTjfwxIwNMCb9wNQi9DrIr5CMAqPCUyVcxqXEtvLmlIIBSzQNg2g2vMU-Sy8WsXkVPDy-TQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
c7885a4ec726c263675b38c1bd225ea3
PDF Text
Text
437
(fhnijrants in America.
BY EOBERT TOMES.
When New York, not many years ago, was “ a handy little town,”
as Irving used to say, “ when, if your friends did not live opposite,
they were sure to live round the corner,” the Battery was a smiling
expanse of verdure, shaded by groves of willow, hickory, and sycamore.
Though the space was small, there was room and verge enough for the
'
whole population of the then little town to congregate and breathe at
ease, the southern wind, as it came, bearing the fresh but soft and
soothing influence of tropical seas. Banned by the gentle breeze, lulled
by the whispering ripple of the waves, and looking through an atmos
phere of hazy indistinctness upon the calm bay, with its anchored fleet
■of great ships and skimming small craft, verdant isles and forest shores,
a past generation here enjoyed a dreamy repose of which its widek awake, restless, and over-busy successors can hardly form a conception.
The willows, sycamores, and hickories are fast disappearing, and
�438
Emigrants itt America*
the green grass has been long since trod by careless and bnsy feet into
bald spots of clay and gravel. The defiant fortress, first changed into
a resort of pleasure, known as the Castle Garden, and which echoed
not many years since with the melodious voice of Jenny Lind, has been
finally turned, by a still happier transformation, into a great hall of
reception for newly-arrived emigrants. Here the first welcome is
given to the thronging Germans, Irish, English, and other people of all
nations whom Europe is emptying into the broad embrace of America.
During the last twenty years nearly four millions of emigrants, about
the number of the combined populations of London and New York,
made their first landing on American ground at this place known as
the Castle Garden. Of these persons one million, four hundred and
eighty-five thousand, and one hundred (1,485,100) were from Ireland]
one million, three hundred and seventeen thousand, and sixty-nine
(1,317,069), from Germany; 435,171, from England; 86,890, from
Scotland ; 68,390, from Erance, and the rest from all the other parte
of the globe. China, during these twenty years, sent three hundred
and thirty-three of its natives, Greece eighty-seven, Turkey eighty-two,
Arabia eight, and Japan seven.
The largest number of arrivals during one year was 319,223, in
1854, and the smallest 65,539, in 1861. The emigrants from Ireland
formerly greatly preponderated, but now the Germans surpass them in
numbers. Of the 233,418 emigrants who arrived during the whole
of 1866, 106,716 were from Germany, 68,147 only from Ireland,
36,186 from England, and 22,469 from other countries.
The first aspect of Castle Garden is certainly not very cheering,
presenting, as it does, with is shabby wooden structures, a dismal con
trast to the bright and beautiful bay of New York. The old stone
fortress, once so picturesque an object, still exists, but its walls are now
hidden from external view by projecting roofs and contiguous build
ings of shingle and pine board, either painted or white-washed.
The scene is a busy one, both inside and out. Crowds are constantly
coming and going. The people are generally young and vigorouslooking, but here and there is an occasional decrepit old man or wo
man, or some more youthful person sapped by disease, showing that the
emigrant in coming to a new world, with all its bright hopes, has not
entirely thrown off the trials and responsibilities of the old. There is
a wonderful silence in all that great crowd and an expression of startled
wonder upon each face, as if all were subdued and even alarmed byJ-he
great event of recommencing life in an untried land.
�Emigrants tn America,
439
The emigrant may at first turn his eyes, filling with tears, away
from the shabby-looking Castle Garden and seemingly inhospitable
structure, and look over the smiling bay longingly towards the ocean
he has just crossed, which separates him from the land of his birth.
He, however, soon ceasing to indulge in sentimental and useless regrets,
and seeking for practical comfort, finds all that he can reasonably ask
for in that ugly but kindly building.
Nothing can be better adapted for the purpose designed than the
New York State Commission of Emigration. The legislature of New
York, in consequence of the impositions to which emigrants from
Europe to the United States were exposed in the course of their long
voyage by sea and by land, passed an Act for the appointment of Com
missioners, to watch over and protect their interests. Six of these Com
missioners are appointed by the Governor, with the consent of the
Senate. The Mayor of New York, the Mayor of Brooklyn, and the
Presidents of the German and Irish Emigrant Societies are ex-officio
members, and make up the full number of ten, who compose the board.
The services of these gentlemen are gratuitous, and they have been
always selected with an exclusive regard to the public welfare, and with
out any consideration of pecuniary or political advantage.
Before the organization of this Commission in 1847, about twenty
years ago, the emigrant was at the mercy of a band of plunderers,
who, scattered along the whole of his lengthened route, so robbed and
maltreated him that he was not only deprived of all his money and
health, but often of life. These highwaymen, disguised as shipping
merchants, boarding-house keepers, ticket-agents, and canal-boat cap
tains, but familiarly known as “ baggage-smashers,” “runners,” and
scalpers,” had in the course of time enriched themselves with the
spoils of the emigrant, and by means of their wealth acquired a corrupt
but vigorous political influence. They resisted with all their might the
appointment of Commissioners, and were only beaten at last after a long
Struggle. “ The warfare, however, did not end here,” says one* who
took a foremost and honourable part in it, “ the ticket-agents trans
ferred themselves to Europe, commencing and successfully carrying on
their depredations on the other side of the Atlantic. Thousands of
emigrants arrived with their rail-road tickets purchased abroad, for
which they had paid not only double and treble the regular fare, but
upon their arrival here [New York] they found themselves with bogus
tickets and bogus drafts. Innocent and unprotected girls came con* The Hon. Thurlow Weed, of New York.
�440
(Emigrants tn America,
signed to houses of prostitution.” These practices became unendurable,
and the Commissioners decided promptly to send to Europe an agent
who succeeded in obtaining the co-operation of its various governments,
and thus breaking up the foreign ticket agencies.
Ever since, the long passage of the emigrant from his old home to
his new destination, guarded by a beneficent care, has been of compa
rative safety, comfort, and enjoyment. He no sooner arrives in Ame
rican waters than he is brought under the protecting influence of the
Commissioners at New York.
Their agents, always on the alert,
board each vessel as it comes up the bay, and take immediate charge
of the poor emigrant passengers, with whom no one else is allowed to
have any intercourse lest their ignorance and inexperience should be
preyed upon by the designing.
As soon as the vessel has anchored and complied with the require
ments of the law, in regard to quarantine and the customs, great barges,
towed by little steamers, are sent to bring off the emigrants and their
luggage. These, on being landed at Castle Garden, are immediately
disposed of. Each article of luggage is “ checked,” that is, a leaden
check or token with a number is attached to it and a similar one given
to the owner, to be returned by him on reclaiming his property.
The emigrant himself, after his luggage has been thus checked and
stowed away in the great “ baggage room,” is ushered into an immense
circular reception hall, which is the eviscerated interior of the old fort,
the embrasures of whose walls, being but partly closed, are still appa
rent. In this large apartment there is always an immense throng of
newly-arrived men, women, and children of all nations, many of whom
find an immediate welcome from friends and relations who are here in
attendance. Here parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers
and sisters, lovers and sweethearts, who had parted in other worlds
with hardly a hope of seeing each other again, meet once more. The
imagination can picture such touching scenes as here daily arise.
In the centre of the great hall there is a circular enclosed
space, occupied by three or four brokers, who, licensed by the com
missioners, are ready to exchange all foreign into United States money;
. projecting from this central enclosure, there is a pulpit, ever and anon
occupied by an energetic speaker, who is listened to with eager atten
tion. His words have a greater effect than ever had the eloquence of
a Chatham or a Webster. He is announcing to his breathless audience
the names and addresses of inquiring friends and relatives in America.
Along the walls of the same circular hall are stretched long refresh*
�Emigrants in America*
441
meat bars, where coffee, tea, fresh milk, bread, pies, and cake, are
for sal®. The quality of the articles and their prices are regulated by
the Commissioners, and the poorest emigrant need hardly deprive him
self of a satisfying morsel or a refreshing drink, when a good large loaf
of bread can be bought for ten cents, and a cup of excellent coffee or
fresh milk for five cents in paper money. From the posts everywhere
hang directions, in all languages, for the guidance of the emigrant;
there are also baths and wash-rooms in convenient proximity.
If the emigrant is sought after and found by his friends, he leaves
with them whatever may be his destination; if not, and he has the
means and desire to go immediately to some place in the interior, he
finds at the receiving depot, where he at first disembarked, railway
agents ready to sell him tickets, and take him and his luggage at once
to the proper station. If the emigrant desires to remain awhile in New
York, he finds boarding-house keepers, licensed by the Commissioners
and wearing their badge, awaiting him, and he is advised to beware of
all others. If the new comer seeks immediate occupation, he will find
it by applying at the “ Labour Exchange,” where the demand for work
is almost always beyond the supply. If he wishes to commnnieate
with his distant friends, and is unable to write himself, he has only to
enter the letter-room, where there are writers prepared to do it for him.
If the emigrant, though passing muster at the quarantine, has some
disease requiring medical or surgical treatment, he is sent at once to
the Commissioners’ hospital on Ward’s Island, a structure which
Florence Nightingale pronounced to be “ an admirable building, and
much better than any civil hospital of the size in this country ” (Eng
land), and added, “ It is a noble thing to do, to build such a building
not for your poor, but for ours.”
If the friends of the expected or arrived emigrant want informa
tion of him, he will get it in what is called the “ Information Ofiice,”
where a register is kept of the names and addresses of the inquirers for
and inquired after.
These various departments supply some curious and interesting
statistics. While a few years ago most of the emigrants came to the
United States in sailing vessels, much the larger number now arrive
in steamers. During the last year, 1866, the latter brought 156,931
steerage passengers, and the former only 74,898. The more rapid
transit by steam produces a very sensible effect upon the mortality.
There were only 816 deaths out of the large number of those
arriving in steamers, and 851 of the comparatively small number who
�442
Emigrants in America,
camft in sailing vessels. The number of steamers arriving in the year
1866 was 401, and that of other craft 349. There were 668 vessels in
all sailing from eighteen different ports. The average number of pas
sengers in each was 345.
Of the whole number of emigrants who arrived in 1866, 97,607
reported their destination to be the State of New York; 32,751
Pennsylvania and New Jersey; 18,743 New England; 5,333 the
various Southern States ; 71,485 the Western States of Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and California; and
2932 Kansas, Nebraska, and Canada.
During the year 1866 there were 2754 letters written for newlyarrived passengers, and 1551 answers were received with remittances,
amounting to 24,383 dollars ; 57,350 dollars were sent by friends and
relations in the United States in advance, to await the arrival of
expected emigrants, and be placed at their disposal; 50,751 dollars in
addition were obtained from the German and Irish emigrant societies
and other sources, to be appropriated to the same purpose.
10,771 persons, of whom much the larger proportion were females,
were provided during the year 1866 with labour at the Castle Garden,
or by the agents of the Commissioners at Albany, Rochester, Buffalo,
and elsewhere in the interior.
In the same year 249 persons were sent back to Europe at their own
request, and 272 were forwarded into the interior, at the expense of
the Commission ; 8783 patients were admitted into the hospital at
Ward’s Island ; 109 lunatics into the insane asylum; and 179 into the
small-pox hospital.
The chief source of the large sums expended annually by the
Commissioners of Emigration, is what is called the commutation-tax.
This amounted in 1866 to 471,008 dollars. The consignee of each
vessel is obliged by law to pay 2 dollars 50 cents (formerly less) per
head for all passengers brought to New York, in lieu of executing a
bond as security against their becoming a burthen to the State,
during the five years subsequent to their arrival. This applies only
to the able-bodied ; for the sick and disabled, a special bond is exacted.
Though the larger proportion of emigrants hasten away immediately
on their arrival, to the interior, a great number remain permanently in
New York. It is thus that this city has such an immense foreign
population, which is now computed to amount to 600,000 inhabitants,
or 200,000 more than the native born.* The Germans count above
* The whole population of the city of New York is about 1,000,000.
�Emigrants in America,
443
300,000, and the Irish nearly the same number. New York is thus,
in fact, the third largest German city in the world, ranking next to
Berlin and Vienna, and the next largest Irish after Dublin.
This large foreign element, of course, reveals itself by its charac
teristic indications. There are, indeed, whole quarters of the city of
New York, and of its suburban towns, Brooklyn, Jersey City, and
Hoboken, almost exclusively inhabited by Germans. Here, with their
breweries and beer-houses, their gardens and dancing-saloons, their
peculiar churches and synagogues, their sauer kraut and sausage
shops, their theatres, music and gymnastic societies, they remain in
as full enjoyment of their Teutonic tastes as if they had never left their
Fatherland. They have as well German newspapers and German
schools, and German aidermen, German tax-receivers, and, in fact,
German representatives in every department of public life.
The Irish, who bating the brogue, speak the same language as the
native Americans, are of course more easily identified with them, but
even they, to some extent, retain certain national peculiarities. These
ar© chiefly manifested by the free use of whiskey and the shillalegh, and
by the Hibernian readiness for a fight or a row. The Irish too have
their newspapers, and their political and other representatives.
The foreign population holding the balance of power in the city of
New York, is much petted by the political demagogue. The Irish and
Germans become as rapidly as possible citizens of the United States ;
but in the State of New York* they cannot vote until five years after
they have declared their intention to become citizens, though in the
meantime they can hold real property and enjoy the other privileges
of citizenship. As most of these foreigners have not been properly
educated, either morally or intellectually for the exercise of the right
of suffrage, they become the leading instruments of the unscrupulous
demagogue. Thus political intriguers have obtained the control of the
municipal government of New York, and made it one of the most
corrupt ever known. They take care not to lose hold of the foreigner,
for upon him depends theix1 political existence. He is accordingly
flattered by petty officers, or bribed by profitable jobs and liberal grants
to the institutions of the religious sect to which he may belong, which
is generally the Roman Catholic,f and his vote thus secured.
* In other States the requirements are much less. In most of the Western
States the alien can become a citizen immediately.
t Of 150,000 dollars granted in one year, 2,500 dollars only were given to
Protestants.
�444
Emigrants in America.
The hereditary puritanism of the American, though he generally
agrees tolerably well with his Teutonic or Celtic neighbour, has brought
him into collision lately with his German fellow-citizens. A law was
passed by the State of Hew York prohibiting the sale of beer, wines,
and liquors of all kinds on the Sunday. This, the German who loves
his lager beer, and does not like to go to church, feels to be a great
hardship, and he is determined to do all in his power to get rid of the
obnoxious law. The Germans have, it is understood, resolved to withhold
all political support from those who refuse to strive to obtain its repeal.
De Tocqueville remarked that while the native Americans formed
the aristocracy of the United States, the foreigners were Vae prolétaires.
It is so ; the labouring portion of the community is almost exclusively
composed of German and Irish. They are the servants and journey
men. It is seldom that an American of mature age is ever seen in any
capacity below that of a master workman.
It must not be supposed, however, that foreigners do not thrive in
the United States. On the contrary, they are among the most success
ful and wealthy of its citizens. John Jacob Aster, who, at the time of
his death, w~as by far the richest person on the American continent,
was born in Germany, and did not leave his native Hesse-Cassel until
he was a full-grown man. Taking London on his way, where he had
a brother, a not very prosperous manufacturer of musical instruments,
he obtained from him, as a present, an old piano. On arriving at New
York this worn out and asthmatic instrument was his sole dependence,
but it became the foundation of his huge fortune. He died leaving
some ten millions of dollars ; his eldest son is supposed to possess nearly
treble that amount, and pays tax upon an income of about a million.*
Stewart, too, the great dry-goods merchant, or haberdasher, who
shows a ledger with one year’s profit of four millions of dollars, and
who pays an annual income-tax amounting to four hundred thousand
dollars, arrived in New York a poor Irish emigrant less than forty years
ago. He is now sixty years old.
Each Irish emigrant cannot expect to become a millionaire, or
rather billionaire like Stewart, but he may be sure of getting every
where in the United States a hearty meal of something more substantial
than potatoes, and what seemed so greatly to surprise Dickens, a whole
coat to his back.
* Another foreigner, Gerard, was long at the head of the rich men of the United
States.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Emigrants in America
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Tomes, Robert
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 437-444 p. : ill. (engravings) ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From Broadway 1 (1868). Attribution of journal title and date: Virginia Clark catalogue.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[s.n.]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1868]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5342
Subject
The topic of the resource
Migration
USA
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Emigrants in America), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Tracts
Emigration and Immigration-Moral and Ethical Aspects
United States of America
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/d24aa7b84cd60c734116cf90cbf0450e.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=pUc3SmH8IXwplj0B%7ECPj-zGbTb0RBGTiYajj1Wfvep-Upo656AU0JWj3pNNSNRkrLdSFdTdyUn8XoAAjRf0iTbaRFyzvOKqoaKsWcvdUfeuQmi4G7k9EON6oDH8NgKe32BVV7ZhnqiLijnz3r70DQ2xohRTDqsY1ahzvvv3D1Z6RaPoVbQw9t0aUyZgCfeaBLwHHmCPH1wzfBEQX6IAGqqqSY9%7EIFLxdfMzZgBUddFynlDW%7Ems0JGtjwPYmsi5al6m46heY%7EVq9QbJ0cHpK3t1Ui%7Eqxl3g-tBmNyRS%7E3s-lyM5CfuVjp-to-El75Tpoj92QKE7hH%7EVgRK710YpxJ2g__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
f5a3d3ae247ddd963b9b1378a1186dd4
PDF Text
Text
�“ They stood beside the coffin’s foot and head.
Both gazed in silence, with bowed faces—Grey
With bony chin pressed into bony throat.”
�/
449
BY WILLIAM M. ROSSETTI.
“ Perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart ; one of the
indivisible primary faculties or sentiments which give direction to the character of man.
—Edgar Poe.
Rain-washed for hours, the streets at last
were dried.
Profuse and pulpy sea-weed on the beach,
Pushed by the latest heavy tide some way
Across the jostled shingle, was too far
For washing back, now that the sea at ebb
Left an each time retreating track of foam.
There were the wonted tetchy and sidelong
crabs,
With fishes silvery in distended death.
No want of blue now in the upper sky:—
But also many piled-up flab grey clouds,
Threatening a stormy night-time; and the
sun
Sank, a red glare, between two lengthened
streaks,
Hot dun, that stretched to southward; and
at whiles
The wind over the water swept and swept.
The townspeople, and, more, the visitors,
Were passing to the sea-beach through the
streets,
To take advantage of the lull of rain.
The English “ Rainy weather” went from
mouth
To mouth, with “Very” answered, or a
shrug
Of shoulders, and a growl, and “Sure to bo!
Began the very day that we arrived.”
“ Yes,” answered one who met a travelling
friend;
“ I had forgotten that in England you
Must carry your umbrella every day.
An Englishman’s a centaur of his sort,
Man cross-bred with umbrella. All the same,
I say good-bye to France and Italy,
Now that I’m here again. Excuse me now,
As I was going up into the town
To feast my eyes on British tiles and slates.”
So on he walked, looking about him. Rows
Of houses were passed by, irregular ;
Many compacted of the shingle-stones,
Round, grey or white—with each its gar
den patch
VI.
Now as the outskirts neared; and down
the streets
Which crossed them he was catching
glimpses still
Of waves which whitening shattered out
at sea.
The road grew steep here, climbing up a
slope
Strewn with October leaves, which followed
him,
Or drifted edgeways on. The grey ad
vanced,
Half colour and half dusk, along the sky.
A dead leaf from a beech-tree loosed itself,
And touched across his forehead. As ho
raised
His eyes, they caught a window, and he
stopped—
An opened upper window of a house
With close-drawn blinds. A man was
settled there,
Eager in looking out, yet covertly.
He watched, nor moved his eyes from that
he watched.
The passenger drew close beside the rails,
Looking attentively. “ Why, Grey,” he
cried;
“ Can that be you, Grey ? I had thought
you’d been----- ”
The face turned sharply on him, and the
eyes
Glanced down, and both hands pulled the
window shut.
Pushing a wicket-gate, the other went
On to the door, expecting it to unclose.
The garden was but scantly stocked with
flowers,
And these were fading mostly, thinly leaved,
The earth-plots littered with the fall of
them.
Stately some dahlia-clusters yet delayed,
Crimson, alternating with flame-colour.
He stretched his fingers to the velvet bloom
Of one, and drew a petal ’twixt them. Then
29
�450
The plaited flower fell separate all to earth
By ring and ring; only the calyx stood
Upon its stalk. The autumn time was come.
Out of the bordering box stiff plantain
grew.
Scarce would the loose trees have afforded
shade,
So lessened was the bulk between their
boughs,
Had there been sun to cast it. In the grass
Bested the moisture of the recent rain.
No one seemed coming; so he walked some
steps
Backward, and peered: no sign of any one.
He knocked, and at the touch the door
unclosed.
“Don’t you remember, years ago, your
friend,
And correspondent since, John Harling ?”
“ Oh,
I know you, sir, of course—I did at once.”
“ Sir ! Why, how now ? Between old
friends like us ?
How many letters that begin ‘Dear John'
In your handwriting, I have asked after,
These eight years, in some scores of postesrestantes !
Too many, I should hope, for us to Sir
Each other now.
But only tell me,
Grey------”
Grey said, “ Come up, come up.”
There was a haste
About his words and manner, and he seemed
To half forget what first he meant to do.
He paused at the stairs’ foot; then, with a
glance
Thrown backward at his friend, who stayed
for him,
He mounted hurriedly, two steps at once.
They had not shaken hands yet. Harling
his
Had proffered with the words he uttered
first,
But Grey had not appeared to notice it.
Harling had caught the look of the other’s
face
Where twilight in the doorway glimmered
fresh,
And he had fancied it was pale and worn,
And anxious as with watchings through
the night.
But in the room the light no longer served
Eor one to see the other, how the weeks
Had changed him, and the months and
years. The room
Was dim between the window-blinds and
dusk.
Now seated—“As you see, John,” Grev
began,
“This is a bed-room. I have not had time
To trouble myself yet about the house.”
“ You are but just arrived, then ?”
“Yes, but just.”
He was about to say some more, but
stopped.
“ And now,” said Harling, “ you shall tell
me all
About yourself. And how and where’s
your wife ?
What is it brought you down here ? Have
you left
Oxford, in which your practice was so good?
Or are you here on holidays ? I come
Upon you by an unexpected chance.
There must be something to be learned, I
know;
Chances are not all chance-work. Tell me
all.”
His friend rose up at this; and Harling saw
His knuckles on his forehead, at his hair,
And thought his eyes grew larger through
the dark.
Grey touched him on the shoulder, draw
ing breath
To speak with, but he then again sat down.
“Why, first I ought to hear your news, I
think,”
At last he answered, swallowing the gasps
Which came into his mouth, and clipped
his words.
“ Though travellers have a vested right to
lie,
I’ll take it all on trust.” He forged a laugh.
Harling grew certain there was something
now
His friend had got to tell, and must, but
feared.
He knew how such a fear, by yielding
grows,
And would have had him speak it out at
once.
Nevertheless he answered, “ As you will.
And yeti have but little left to say
Since my last letter. But the whole is this.
But let us first have light before we talk,
That we may know each other once again.
I shall not flatter you if grizzled hairs
�ÎHrg; Wolmeg Æhqu
Prove to outnumber your original brown,
But tell you truth. Pou tell the truth of
me.
X am more than half a Frenchman, I be
lieve,
By this time. That’s no compliment, say I,
For a John Bull at heart, and I am one ;
Thank God, a Tory, and hang the Marseillaisel”
“No lights, no lights,” Grey answered,
moodily.
“ Can we not talk again as once we used,
Through twilight and through evening into
night,
Knowing, without a light, it was we two ?—
I little thought then it would come to this,”
He added, and his voice was only sad.
“ And it is well, too, that the light should
come,
jfor then perhaps you will hare made a
guess,
By seeing me, before I tell it you.
My dear old friend, it’s needless now to
attempt
To hide it. I am wretched—that’s the
word.
I am a fool not to have got the thing
Over already, for it has to come
At last. But there’s a minute’s respite still,
Ifor first you were to tell me of yourself;
So. Harling, you speak now. But first the
light.”
The other, leaning forward, took his hand,
And tried to speak some comfort; but the
words
Faltered between his lips. For he was sure
That, if he had already heard this grief,
He would not talk of comfort, but sit dumb.
The lights were come now, and each looked
on each.
The traveller’s face was bronzed, and his
hah’ crisp
And close, and his eyes steady—all himself
Compact and prompt to any chance. And
yet
He was essentially the same who went,
To find his level, forth eight years ago,
Unformed, florid - complexioncd, easytongued :
Travel and time had only mellowed him.
Grey was the same in feature, not in fact.
His face was paler that was always pale ;
The forehead something wrinkled, and the
lips
Aria and meagre, faded, marked with lines ;
The eyes had sunken further in the head,
451
With a dark ridge to each, and grizzled
brows ;
His hair, though as of old, was brown and
soft.
The difference was less, but more the
change.
Each looked on each some minutes : neither
spoke.
His friend was clothed in black, as Har
ling saw,
Who now resumed the thread of his dis
course.
“ As for my own adventures, they are few :
For, after I left Rome—the storm will
burst,
Be sure, at Rome, before the year is done—
I went straight back to Paris. Politics,
You know, I’ve stood aloof from all the
year ;
But even with me, ( oo, they have done
their work.
My poor Louise was dead—shot down, I
learned,
Upon the people’s barricades in June :
She turned up quite a Red Republican
After their twenty-fourth of February ;
And my successor in her graces fell
With her—both fighting and yelling side
by side.
I could not but curse at them through my
teeth
With her own sacré-Dieu's—the whole of
them
Who get up revolutions and revolts.
And then they swore I was an Orleanist,
An English spy, or something ; and indeed
I found myself, the scanty days I stopped,
A centre-piece for all the blackest looks.
At least I thought so. Many of my friends,
Besides, were gone, waiting for better times
When next they come to Paris. So I left
Disgusted, and crossed over. Why should I
Quit England and dear brother Tories?
still,
Although I do now think of settling here,
Perhaps, before another twelvemonth goes,
The South will tempt me back—sooner,
perhaps.
I must, I think, die travelling in the
South.”
He made an end of speaking. Grey looked
up.
“ Is there no more ?” he asked. He said,
“ No more.”
Grey’s face turned whiter, and his fingers
twitched.
�452
Mrs* Wohnes
“ It is my turn to speak, then” :—and he I Upon a prayer-book, open at the rite
rose,
I Of solemnizing holy matrimony.
Taking a candle: “ come this way v ith me.” Her marriage-ring was stitched into the
page.
They stepped aside into a neighbouring
room.
Grey stood a long while gazing. Then he
Grey walked with quiet footsteps, and he
set
turned
The candle on the ground, and on his knce3
So noiselessly the handle of the door
Close to her unringed shrouded hand, he
That Harling fancied some one lay asleep
prayed,
Inside. The hand recovered steadiness.
Silent. With eyes still dry, he rose un
changed.
The room was quite unfurnished, striking
chill.
They left the room again with heeded.steps.
A rent in the drawn window-blind betrayed On friendly Harling lay the awe of death
A sky unvaried, moonless, cloudless, black. And pity: he took his seat without a
Only two chairs were set against the wall,
sound.
And, not yet closed, a coffin placed on Some of the hackneyed phrases almost
them.
passed
Harling’s raised eyes inquired why he was His lips, but shamed him, and ho held his
peace.
brought
Hither, and should he still advance and “ Harling,” said Grey, after a pause, “ you
look.
think
“ It is my wife,” said Grey; “ look in her No doubt that this is all—her death is all.
face.”
Harling, when first I saw you in the street,
This in a whisper, holding Harling’s arm,
I feared you meant to come and speak
And tightened fingers clenched the whis
to me;
pering.
So hid myself and waited till you knocked ;
Darling could feel his forehead growing Waited behind the door until you knocked,
Longing that you, perhaps, would go.
moist,
When I
And sought in vain his friend's averted Had opened it, I think I called you Sir—
eyes.
Did you not chide me ? Do you know, it
Their steps, suppressed, creaked on the un
seemed
covered boards:
So strange to me that any one I knew
They stood beside the coffin’s foot and Before this happened should be here the
head.
same,
Both gazed in silence, with bowed faces— And know me for the same that once I was,
Grey
I could not quite imagine we were friends.
With bony chin pressed into bony throat.
It is not merely death would make one
feel
The woman’s limbs were straight inside her
Like this—no, there is something more
shroud.
behind
The death which brooded glazed upon her
Harder than death, more cruel. Let me
eyes
wait
Was hidden underneath the shapely lids ;
Some moments ; then no help but I must
But the mouth kept its anguish. Combed
tell.”
and rich
The hair, which caught the light within its lie gathered up his face into his hands
strings,
Brom chin to temples, only just to think
Golden about the temples, and as fine
And not be seen. He had not seated him,
And soft as any silk-web ; and the brows
But leaned against the chair. Nor Harling
A perfect arch, the forehead undisturbed ;
spoke.
B ut the mouth kept its anguish, and the
“ Two months are gone now,” Grey pur
lips,
sued. “We two
Closed after death, seemed half in act to
Lived lovingly. I had to come down here,
speak.
And here I met a surgeon of the town.
Covered the hands and feet; the head was
Hell only knows—I cannot tell you—why,
laid
�fHrs, Wolrnes
453
I asked him to return with me, and spend I So that would make her sad. I thought it
strange
A fortnight at our house. Perhaps I wrote
Th® whole of this to you when it occurred. She had not so informed me from the first.
Her cousin, when I named the point, ap
His name is Luton.”
peared
Here he chose to pause.
Surprised ; but then to recollect herself,
“Perhaps: I am not certain.” Harling And answered—I could see, a little piqued—
said.
She should not cry again because of her.
“ I think you might be certain,” answered “ These fits of tears continued. We were
Grey,
now
“If you’re my friend.” But then he Alone together, for the cousin went
checked himself,
Away soon after. Then I could not help
Adding : “ Forgive me. I am not, you see,
Seeing her health and strength were giving
Myself to-night—this night, nor many
way :
nights,
Her mind, too, seemed oppressed. She’d
Nor many nights to come. Well, he agreed.
hardly leave
Of course, he must agree; else I should At nights the chair she sat in, for she said
not
‘ This is the only place where I can sleep.’
Have been like this, disgraced, made al Yet her affection for me seemed to grow
most mad.”
A kind of pity for its tenderness.
Oh ! what is now become of her, that I,
At this he found his passion would be near
After to-morrow, shall not see her more,
To drive him to talk wildly : so he kept
Silence again some moments—then re But have to hide her always from my
sight ?”
sumed.
He took some steps, meaning to go again
“ How should I recollect the days we passed
Together ? There must surely have been And see her corpse; but, meeting Harling’s
eye,
enough
Turned and sat down.
To see, and yet I never saw it once.
Besides, my patients kept me out all day
“ Is it not,” he pursued,
Sometimes. It was in August, John, was
With fioorward gaze, “ hard on me I mustthis—
tell
The end of AuguBt, reaping just begun.
This business word by word, the whole of it,
We’ve had a splendid harvest, you’ll have While I can see it all before me there,
heard.”
And it is clear one word could tell it all ?
Can you not guess the rest, and spare inc
“ Indeed!” the other said, shifting the while
now ?”
His posture—and he knew not what to say.
“ I will not guess; but you,” said Harling,
“ Yes, you detect me,” Grey cried bitterly ;
“keep
“ You know I am afraid of what’s to come— All that remains unspoken ; for it wrings
A coward. Now I do hope I shall speak,
My heart, dear Grey, dear friend, to see
And tell you all of it without a stop.
you thus.”
There was a lady staying with us then,
“ No, it is better I should speak it out,
A cousin of my wife’s—but older, much;
For you would fancy something; and at
So that you understand how I could ask
least
This Luton down. Before his time was up,
You will not need to fancy w’hen you know.
He seemed to grow uneasy, and he left,-—■
She came to me one morning—(this was
Merely explaining, business called him
like
home.
A fortnight after he had gone away,.
_ I said I had not noticed anything
This Luton)—saying that she found it vain
Unusual; and yet I sometimes found
Attempting to compose her mind at home ;
Mary in tears, and could not gather why.
One day she told me when I questioned her That every place made her remember what
The baby had done or looked there, and
It was for thinking of our girl that died
ilie felt
Months back—for that her cousin would
Too weak for that, and meant to see -ier
begin
friends
Often to talk to her about her own;
�454
Mrs. Woltw
(That is, two sisters some few miles from
here).
She spoke more firmly than I had heard
her talk
A long time past—because I thought it
long—
And I believed she had determined right,
And so consented. But she only said
‘ I have made up my mind ’—thus waiving
all
Consent on my part—mere sick wilfulness
I took it for. She left the house. I might
Have told you she’d a lilac dress, and hair
Worn plain. And so I saw her the last
time—
The last time, God in heaven!” He seized
his fists
Together, and he clutched them toward his
throat.
“Many days passed. She had begged me,
feeling sure
It would excite her, not to write a line,
And said she would not write, nor let her
friends.
I think I did not tell you, though, how pale
Her cheeks were ; and, in saying this, she
sobbed,
For such a lengthened silence looked like
death.
“ Three weeks, or nearly that, had passed
away:
A letter on black-bordered paper came.
It was from Luton. Then I did not know
The hand, but shall now, if it comes again.
He wrote that I must go immediately,
That I was ‘to prepare myself’—some
trash :
He ‘ dared not trust his pen to tell me
more.’
“ On Thursday I arrived here. I cannot
Attempt to tell you all about it. When
You’ve read this, only call me, and I’ll
come;
But I will not be by you while you road.
On the first day I heard it all from him,
And loathe him for it. I am left alone,
And all through him.”
He took a newspaper
From underneath his pillow, and he showed
The place to read at. Then he left the
room ;
And Harling caught his footfall toward the
corpse,
And touching of his knees upon the boards.
And this is what ho feverishly perused:—
“ Coroner's Inquest—A Distressing Case.
An inquest was held yesterday, before
The County Coroner, into the cause
Of the decease of Mrs. Mary Grey,
A married lady. Public interest
Was widely excited.
“ When the Jury came
From viewing the corpse, in which are seen
remains
Of no small beauty, witnesses were called.
“ Mr. Holmes Grey, surgeon, deposed : ‘ I
live
In Oxford, where I practise, and deceased
Had been my wife for upwards of three
years.
About the middle of September, she
Was suffering much from weakness, and a
weight
Seemed on her mind. The symptoms had
begun
Nearly a month before, and still increased,
Until at last they gave me great alarm,
Of which we often spoke. On the eighteenth
She told me she would like to stay awhile
With two of her sisters, living on the coast,
At Barksedge House, not far from here.
She went
Next day. I cannot speak to any more.’
“ The Coroner: ‘ How were you first ap
prised
Of this most melancholy event ?’—‘ By
note
Addressed to me by Mr. Luton here.’
“A Juror : ‘ Could your scientific skill
Assign some cause for this debility ?’
‘No. I believed it was occasioned (so
She intimated) by a domestic grief
Quite unconnected with the present case.’
“The Coroner: ‘You’ll know how to ex
cuse
The question which I feel compelled to
put:
I have a public duty to perform.
Had you, before the period you described,
Any suspicions ever?’—‘ Never once :
There was no cause for any, I swear to
God.’
“ The witness had, throughout his testi
mony,
Preserved his calm—though clearly not
without
An effort, which augmented towards the
close.
�Wolmeg
455
“Jane Langley: ‘I keep lodgings in the The same thing happened ; but she spoke
town.
of love
On the nineteenth September the deceased
Now, and the very word half passed her lips.
Engaged a bed-room and a sitting-room.
Our talk ended abruptly. Mrs. Gwyllt
The name I knew her by was Mrs. Grange;
Came in, and by her face I saw she had
I saw but very little of her; she kept,
heard.
As much as that ■well could be, to herself,
“ ‘ This instance was the last we talked
And she would frequently leave home for
alone.
hours.
And I began to hear from -Mr. Grey
I cannot say I made any remark
His wife was far from well, and had the
Especially. I found a letter once—
tears
Just a few words, torn up. ‘ Holmes,’ it
Now often in her eyes. This made me feel
began.
Hampered and restless : so I took my leave
{ This letter is the last you ever will. . .’
After my first eleven days’ stay was gone,
No more, I think. I threw the bits away.
Saying I had affairs that could not wait.
That was, perhaps, four days before her
death.
“ £ Between the seventh of September, when
On that day, I suppose, as usual,
We parted, and the twenty-third, I saw
She left the house : I did not see her, though.
No more of the deceased. Towards seven
She was brought home quite dead.’
o’clock
That evening, I was told a lady wished
“ Upon the name
To speak with me. She entered : it was
Of the next witness being called, some stir
she—
Arose through persons pressing on to look.
Deceased. I can’t describe how pained I
After it had been silenced, and the oath
was
Duly administered, the evidence
At finding she had left her home like this.
Proceeded.
She said she loved me, and conjured me
“Mr. Edward Luton, surgeon :
much
‘ I lately here began for the first time
Not to desert her; that she loved me
In my profession. I was introduced
young;
To Mr. Grey in August. When he left
That, after we had ceased to meet, she
The seaside, he invited me to pass
knew
A fortnight at his house, and I agreed.
And married Mr. Grey. Also, that when
On seeing Mrs. Grey, I recognized
He wrote to her in August I should come,
In her a lady I had known before
Guessing who I must be, she thought it
Her marriage, a Miss Cbalsted. We had
well
met
To treat me as a stranger—dreading lest
In company, and, in particular,
Her love (so she assured me) should revive.
At some so-called “mesmeric evenings,”
All this through sobs and blushes. I could
held
not
At her remote connection’s house, the late
Make up my mind what conduct to pursue :
Dr. Duplatt. But now, as Mrs. Grey
I begged her to be calm, and wait awhile.
Allowed my presentation to pass off
And I would write. Sae left unnerved
Without a hint of knowing me, I left
and weak.
This point to her, and seemed a stranger :
till
“ ‘ I took five days, bewildered how to act.
We chanced, the sixth day, to be left alone.
But on the evening of the fifth, I saw,
I talked on just the same, but she was silent.
While looking out of window—(it was
At last she answered, and began to speak
dusk,
Familiarly of when she knew me first;
And almost nightfall)—Mrs. Grey, who
Without explaining—merely as one might
paced,
talk
Muffled in clothes, before my door. I knew
Changing the subject. But I let it pass.
By this how dangerous it must be to wait
And yet, when we were next in company,
For a day longer; so I wrote at once
Once more she acted new acquaintanceship.
She absolutely must return to her home.
Then, two days after, I believe—one time
Nothing was known as yet—all might be
Her cousin, Mrs. Gwyllt, was out by
well;
chance—
In time she would forget me ; and besides
�456
ÍBrsí. Colmes
I was engaged to marry, and must regard
Our intercourse as ended.
“ ‘ She returned
Next day, the twenty-ninth; and, falling
down
Upon her knees, she cried, with hardly a
word,
Some while, and kept her face between her
hands;
But at the last she swore she would not go,
But rather die here. It continued thus
Six days. For she would come and seat
herself,
When I was present, in my room, and sit,
An hour or near, quite silent; or break
out
Into a flood of words—and then, perhaps
Between two syllables, stop short, and turn
Round in her chair, and sob, and hide her
tears.
“ * The sixth day, after she had left the
house,
I had an intimation we were watched,
And certain persons bad begun to talk.
I thought it indispensable to write
Once more, and tell her she could not re
main—
I owed it to myself not to allow
This state of things to last; that I had
given
The servant orders to deny me, should
She still persist in calling.
“‘Towards mid-day
Of the sixth instant, the deceased once more
Was at my house, however;—darted
through
The door, which happened to be left ajar,
And flung herself right down before my feet.
This day she did not shed a single tear,
Nor talk at all at random, but was firm :
I mean, unalterably resolute
In purpose, and her passion more uncurbed
Than ever: swore it was impossible
She should return to live with Mr. Grey
Again ; that, were she at her latest hour,
She still would say so, and die saying so :
‘Because’ (I recollect her words) ‘this
flame
All eats me up while I am here with you;
I hate it, but it eats me—eats me up,
Till I have now no will to wish it quenched.’
I hope to be excused repeating ail
That I remember to have heard her say.
She bitterly upbraided me for what
I last had written to her, and declared
She hated me and loved me all at once
With perfect hate as well as burning love.
This must have lasted fully half an hour.
However fearful as to the results,
I told her simply I could not retract,
And she must go, or I immediately
Would write to Mr. Grey. I rose at this
To leave the room.
“ ‘ She staggered up as well.
And screamed, and caught about her with
her hands :
I think she could not see. I dreaded lest
She might be falling, and I held her arm,
Trying to guide her out. As I did so,
She, in a hurry, faced on me, and screamed
Aloud once more, and wanted, as I thought,
To speak, but, in a second, fell.
“ ‘ I raised
Her body in my arms, and found her dead.
I had her carried home without delay,
And a physician called, whose view con
curred
With mine—that instant death must have
ensued
Upon the rupture of a blood-vessel.’
“ This deposition had been listened to
Tn the most perfect silence. At its close
We understand a lady was removed
Fainting.
“ The Coroner: ‘You said just now
That, in your former letter to deceased,
You told her nothing yet was known. Was
not
Her absence traced, then, and suspicion
roused ?
Did she inform you ?’ ‘ She informed me
that
Would not be, for that Mr. Grey and she
Had mutually consented not to write.
I have forgotten why.’
“ The Coroner:
‘ Is Mr. Grey still present ?’ Mr. Grey ;
‘Yes, I am here.’ ‘You heard the last
reply;
Was such the case?’ ‘It was; we had
agreed
To exchange no letters, that her mind
might have
The benefit of more complete repose.’
“A J uror to the witness : ‘ Did no acts
Of familiarity occur between
Deceased and you ?’
“ Here Mr. Grey addressed
The Coroner, demurring to a reply.
“ The Coroner : ‘ It grieves me very much
�dMrs. Pointes
To pain your feelings; but I feel com
pelled
To say the question is a proper one.
It is the Jury’s duty to gain light
On this exceedingly distressing case ;
The public mind has to be satisfied;
I owe a duty to the public. Let
The witness answer.’
“ Witness: ‘ She would clasp
Her arms around me in speaking tenderly,
And kiss me. She has often kissed my
hands.
Not beyond that.’
“ The Juror: ‘ And did you
Respond----- ’ The Coroner; ‘The wit
ness should,
I think, be pressed no further. He has
given
His painful evidence most creditably.’
“The Juror: ‘Did deceased, in all these
days,
Not write to you at all ?’ ‘ She sent me this :
It is the only letter I received.’
“A letter here was handed in and read.
It ran as follows, and it bore the date
Of twenty-sixth September.
“ ‘ Dearest Friend,—
Where is your promise you would write me
»©on
My sentence, death or life ? This is the
third
Of three long days since last I saw you. Oh!
To press your hand again, and talk to you,
And see the moving of your lips and eyes !
lidward, I’m certain that you cannot know
How much I love you; you must not
decide
Until convinced of it----- But words are
dead.
That, Edward, is a love in very truth
Which can avail to overcome such shame
As kept me four whole days from seeing
you—
Four days after my coming quite resolved
To strive no more, but tell you all my heart.
As daylight passed, and night devoured the
dusk,
The first time, and the second, and the third,
I doubted whether I could ever wait
Till dawn—yet waited all the fourth day
too,
Staring upon myhands,andlooking strange;
Yes, and the fifth day’s twilight hastened
oa.
But love began then driving me about
457
Between my house and your house, to and
fro.
At last I could no more delay, but wept,
And prayed of Christ (for He discerns it
all),
That, if this thing were sinful unto death,
He would Himself be first to throw the
stone.
So then I came and saw you, and I spoke.
Did I not make you understand how I
Had loved you in the budding of my youth ;
And how, when we divided, all my hope
Went out from me for all the future days,
And how I married, just indifferent
To whom I took ? Perhaps I did not clear
This up enough, or cried and troubled
you.
Why did I ever see your face again ?
I had forgotten you; I lived content,
At peace. Forgotten you! that now ap
pears
Impossible, yet I believe I had.
Then see what now my life must be—con
sumed
With inner very fire, merely to think
Of you, and having lost my heartless peace.
How shall I dare to live except with you ?’
“ TheCoroner to Witness: ‘ Had you known
When you were first acquainted with
deceased,
Before her marriage, that she entertained
These feelings for you?’—‘Friends of mine
would talk
In a light way about it—nothing more—
And in especial as to mesmerism.
I knew that such a match could never be;
Her friends would have been sure to break
it off—
Our prospects were so very different.
I did not think about it seriously.’
‘“The letter says that you divided : how
Did that occur?’—‘I left the neighbour
hood
On account solely of my own affairs.’
“ ‘ You have deposed that you received a
hint
Your meetings with deceased had been
observed.
How did you learn this ?’—‘ Through the
brother-in-law
Of a young lady that’s engaged to me.’
“ The witness here retired. He looks about
The age of twenty-seven,—in person, tall
And elegant. His tone at times betrayed
Much feeling.
�458
holmes
“Mrs. Celia Frances Gwyllt:
‘ Deceased and I were cousins. In the
month
Of August last I spent a little time
With her and Mr. Grey. In the first
week
Of last month, I remember hearing her
Speak in a manner I considered wrong
To Mr. Luton, and she seemed confused
When she perceived me. Shortly after
wards,
I took occasion to inform her so.
This she at first made light of, and alleged
It was a mere flirtation. I replied,
I deemed it was my duty to acquaint
Her husband; when she begged that I
would not,
So that at length I yielded. Then came on
Some crying fits, which Mr. Grey was led
To ascribe to things I chanced to talk
about.
This and my pledge of silence vexed me
much,
And so, soon after that, I took my leave.’
“ Anne Gorman: ‘ I am Mr. Luton’s
servant.
On Tuesday wa3 the sixth I had to go
Out on an errand, with the door ajar,
When I remembered something I had left
Behind. On coming back, I saw deceased
Race through the lobby, and whisk into
the room.
I had been ordered not to let her in.’
“ The evidence of Dr. Wallinger
Ended the case. ‘ I was called in to see
The body of deceased upon the sixth :
Life then was quite extinct; the cause of
death,
Congestion and effusion of the ventricle.
Death would be instantaneous. Any strong
Emotion might have led to that result-.’
“ The Coroner, in course of summing up,
Commented on the evidence, and spoke
Of deceased’s conduct in appropriate terms;
Observing that the Jury would decide
Upon their verdict from the testimony
Of the professional witness—which was
clear,
And seemed to him conclusive. He could do
No less than note the awful suddenness
With which the loss of life had followed
such
A glaring sacrifice of duty’s claims.
“ The Jury gave their verdict in at once:
‘Died by the visitation of God.’
“ We learn
On good authority that the deceased
Belonged to a distinguished family.
Her husband’s scientific eminence
Is fully and most widely recognized.”
As Hurling finished reading this, he rose
To call his friend; but, shrinking at the
thought,
He read it all again and lingeringly.
But, after that, he called in undertone;
And he received the answer, “ Come in
here.”
He entered therefore.
Grey was huddled o’er
The coffin, looking hard iuto her face.
“ You know it now,” he said, but did not
move.
“ We long have been old friends,” Harling
replied.
“ Words are of no avail, and worse than
none.
I need not try to tell you what I feel.”
Grey now stood straight. “I am to bury her
The day after to-morrow : I alone
Shall see her covered in beneath the earth.
Maj' God be near her in the stead of men,
And let her rest. Yet there is with her that
Which she shall carry down into the grave;
Still in the dark her broken marriage-vow
Under her head: they shall remain together.
How can I talk like this ?” And he
broke off.
“ This is a crushing grief indeed, I know,”
Said Harling; “yet be brave against it.
When
This few days’ work is over, Grey, go home,
And mind to be so occupied as must
Prevent your dwelling on it. If you choose,
I will accompany and stay with you.”
But he replied: “ My home will now be
here;”
And all the angles of his visage thinned.
“He is here I mean to ruin. Shall he still
Be free to laugh me in his sleeve to scorn,
And show me pity—pity '.—when we meet ?
I have no means of harming him, you
think ?
There’s such a thing, though, as profes
sional fame,—
I have it. Where’s the name of Luton
known?
is is my home : I mean to ruin him.”
“Why, he,” objected Harling, “never did
�Wtfltw ©reg.
One hair’s-breadth wrong to you: his hands
are clean
Of all offence to you and yours-. For shame!
It was blind anguish spoke there—not
yourself.”
“ Ah! you can talk like that! But it is I
Who have to feel—I who can see his house
From here, and sometimes watch him out
and in,
And think she used to be with him inside.
And he could bear her coming day by day,
And see the sobs collecting in her throat,
And tresses out of order, as she fell
Before his feet, and made her prayers, and
wept!
He bore this! What a heart he must
have had!
Must I be grateful for it ? Bid he not
Admit inopportune eyes were watching
him?
He was engaged to marry—yes, and one
For whom he’s bound to keep himself in
check,
And crouch beneath her whims and
jealousy:—
Not that I ever saw her, but I’m sure.
Besides, he told me she would not be his
Unless he gains the standing deemed her
due,—
And I’ll take care of that.”
His friend was loath,
459
Seeing the burden of his agony,
To harass him with argument and blame ;
Yet would he not be by to hear him rave,
And said he now must go.
“ One moment more,”
Said Grey, and oped the window. Overhead
The sky was a black veil drawn close as
death;
The lamps gave all the light, prolonged in
rows:
And chill it blew upon them as they gazed,
Mixed with thin drops of rain, which
might not fall
Straight downward, but kept veering in
the wind.
There was a sounding of the sea from far.
Grey pointed. “ That beyond there is the
house,
Turning the street—that where a candle
burns
In the left casement of the upper three.
That is, no doubt, his shadow on the blind.
Often I get a glimpse of it from here,
As when you saw me first this afternoon.
Shall he not one day pay me down in full ?
John, I can wait ; but when the moment
comes . . .!”
He shut the sash. Harling had seen ths.
night,
Equal, unknown, and desolate of stars.
1849*
* The reader will observe the already remote date at which this poem was written.
Those were the days when the prge-Raphaelite movement in painting was first started. I,
who was as much mixed up and interested in it as any person not practically an artist
could well be, entertained the idea that the like principles might be carried out in
poetry; and that it would be possible, without losing the poetical, dramatic, or even
tragic tone and impression, to approach nearer to the actualities of dialogue and narration
tnan had ever yet been done. With an unpractised hand I tried the experiment; and
the. result is this blank-verse tale, which is now published, not indeed without some
revision, but without the least alteration in its general character and point of view.—
vv at t?
°
r
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Mrs. Holmes Greg
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rossetti, William Michael
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 452, 449-459 p. : ill. (engraving) ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From Broadway 1 (1868). Attribution of journal title and date: Virginia Clark catalogue. A poem in blank verse. The illustration, page number 452, is at the front of the poem. The first page of the verse is numbered 449.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[s.n.]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1868]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5343
Subject
The topic of the resource
Poetry
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Mrs. Holmes Greg), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Tracts
English Poetry
Poetry in English
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/94da67e72f0b64ee213cb649976d8cb0.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=Lf4Bs9CtSXEH5PF7CYTUeGxI%7EWik3WOsESCArvhz%7E74khPsxE3AdcUpRIk%7EJ%7EkenDRR7S5yOdjm3X%7EMBW6B1hwTUq5ctaYLCvxBXggswHc1u1xg-ClzS4Pv%7E7W%7Eh%7E7gCC75rcE5nzKVNhuNRmZVUqvwQwP-M4lHLVZgYf%7EY8djKn5HOQb8Qq2TdkanIOTRx2fFFZhcaP7NhRfcohAtRaox5%7EVEL%7EtvH8qB1cK01TXzyTY05il1DItgMM69mECNtn7RiGivSM1AuE3fW8wZWBwM1FehoFdorKBWOwVpapVGTF1xJ-mlcVaHb4fd384qcbEFVg-cMw4oyjEU1fkTxcow__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
4535bcc6f836061f508cfc7e97f8754d
PDF Text
Text
■j
■æ-
ff
��ON A CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC
TALISMAN.
By C. W. KING, M.A.
Few relics of antiquity combine in one so manyand so widely
differing points of interest, with respect to the material, the
strangely dissimilar uses to which the same object has been
applied in two opposite phases of the history of Man, and,
above all, the curious superstitions engendered by its peculiar
form, as does the stone brought under the notice of the
Institute by General Lefroy at the meeting of February
7th of the present year. The kindness of that gentleman
having afforded me full opportunity for the careful examina
tion of this interesting monument, I shall proceed, at the
request of some members of our Society, to embody in as
succinct a form as their multifarious nature will permit, the
observations suggested to me by that examination.
The subject, therefore, of this memoir is a small stone celt
of the common pattern, but of very uncommon material (in
the antique class), being made, not of flint, but of dark-green
jade or nephrite, 2 in. by 1-| in. in length and greatest width ;
and brought, there is reason to believe, from Egypt many
years ago, by Colonel Milner, aide-de-camp to Lord J.
Bathurst, during the English occupation of Sicily in 1812.
Each of its two faces is occupied by a Gnostic formula,
engraved with much neatness, considering the excessive
hardness of the material, in the somewhat debased Greek
character that was current at Alexandria during the third
and fourth centuries of our era.
The most important of these two formulae has been inge
niously forced to take the outline of a wreath composed of
broad leaves, in number fourteen (or the sacred seven dupli
cated), and doubtless intended for those of the “ Five Trees”
that figure so conspicuously in Gnostic symbolism; the ends
being tied together with four broad ribbons. This is a
design of which no other example has ever come to my
�%
CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.
knowledge amongst the innumerable and wondrously varied
devices excogitated by the prolific fancy of this religion of
mysteries. Upon the four ties are engraved in very minute
letters different combinations of the seven Greek vowels,
whilst each of the leaves is emblazoned with some “ Holy
Name,” of which many can be easily recognised as constantly
recurring in charms of this class ; others are disguised by a
novel orthography ; whilst a few, from the uncertain forms
of the lettering, defy all attempts at interpretation.
To the first series belong AB PACA, “ Abraxas,” properly
an epithet of the sun, but designating here the Supreme
Deity; IAWOYIE, “ Iao, Jehovah
ABAANA, “ Thou art
our Father!” TAM BP! HA, a curious mode of spelling
“ Gabriel,” that testifies to the difficulty ever felt by the
Greeks of expressing the sound of our B ; AKTNONBU),
which contains the Coptic form of Anubis; AAMNAMEN EYC, the sun’s name in the famous “ Ephesian Spell; ”
and, most interesting of all, HCANTAPEOC, who can be
no other than the IS'ANTA of the Pistis-Sophia? one of
the great TptSiW/xecs, a Power from whom is enthroned in
the planet Mars. To the uncertain belong COYMA, pro
bably for COYMA PT A, a name occurring elsewhere, and
perhaps cognate to the Hindoo Sumitri, XWNONIXAP
which may be intended for XAP-XNOYMIC, a common
epithet of the Agathodeemon Serpent; AEIWEHAANHC ;
NEIXAPOIIAHC ; the two last, spells unexplained but very
common ; MONAPXOC ; whilst AXAPCJC and the rest
appear here for the first time, if correctly so read.
The other face is covered with an inscription, cut in much
larger letters, and in eight lines. This number was certainly
not the result of chance, but of deep design, for if was
mystic in the highest degree, representing—so taught the
profoundest doctor of the Gnosis, Marcus—the divine Ogdoad,
which was the daughter of the Pythagorean Tetrad, the
mother of all creation.1 The lines 2, 4, 5, consist of Greek
2
1 Cap. 361. A work ascribed to Valen
tinus, and the only one of the numerous
Gnostic Gospels that has been preserved.
It professes to be the esoteric teaching of
Christ delivered during the eleven years
he abode on earth after his resurrection;
and written down by Philip : its system,
however, is pure Majianism veiled under
scriptural names. But, for that very
reason, it throws more light on the actual
Gnostic remains as to their types and
terminology, than do all the notices of
the religion to be found in other authori
ties collectively. The work was dis
covered in a Coptic MS. of the British
Museum, by Schwartze, and published
from his transcript, with a Latin version,
by Petermann, in 1853.
3 St. Hippolytus, Refut. Cm. Heeres.
vi. 50.
�Celt, or Ceraunia, of dark green jade, inscribed with Gnostic formulae,
with an enlarged representation of one of the inscribed faces.
��CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.
3
letters used as numerals, intermixed with sigl&, which, from
their constant occurrence upon monuments of a like nature,
are supposed, with good reason, to be symbols of the planets.
The numerals, on their part, probably denote various deities,
for the Alexandrian Gnosis was the true daughter of Magianism ; and in the old theology of Chaldea every god and
astral genius had a number of his own, and which often
stands instead of his proper name in dedicatory inscriptions.34
Thus, the number of Hoa (Neptune) was 40 ; of Ana (Pluto),
60 ; of Bel (Jupiter), 50 ; of the Sun, 20 ; of the Moon,
30 ; of the Air, 10 ; of Nergal (Mars), 12 ; &c.
A fragment of the Pistis-Sophia* supplied the “ spiritual
man” with a key to the right interpretation of similar steno
graphy in his own creed. “ These be the Names which I
will give unto thee, even from the Infinite One down
wards. Write the same with a sign (cypher), so that the
sons of God may manifest (understand V) them out of this
place. This is the name of the Immortal One, AAA (a)00CjO.5
And this is the name of the Voice whereby the Perfect Man
is moved, TH. These likewise be the interpretations of the
names of the Mysteries. The first is AAA, and the interpreta
tion thereof is
The second, which is MMM, or which is
WWW, the interpretation thereof is AAA.
The third is
S'4'S', the interpretation thereof is OOO.
The fourth is
the interpretation thereof is NNN. The fifth is AAA,
the interpretation thereof is AAA, the which is above the
throne of AAA. This is the interpretation of the second
AAAA, namely, AAAAAAAA ; the same is the interpreta
tion of the whole Name.”
Lines 7, 8, are made up of vowels, variously combined,
and shrouding from profane eyes the Ineffable Name I Ail ;
which, as we are informed by many authorities (the most
ancient and trustworthy being Diodorus Siculus),6 was the
name of the God of the Jews; meaning thereby their mode
of writing “ Jehovah” in Greek characters.
Line 3 consists of the seven vowels placed in their natural
order. This was the most potent of all the spells in the
Gnostic repertory; and its importance may justify the ex3 On this curious subject see Rawlinson’s Ancient Monarchies, iii. p. 466.
4 Cap. 125.
5 That is 1000 and 800 tripled. The
next numbers are 10000 tripled, and
so on.
6 Bibliotheca Historica, i 94.
�4
CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN,
tensiveness of the following extract from the grand text
book of this theosophy, which sets forth its hidden sense and
wondrous efficacy. The primary idea, however, was far
from abstruse, if we accept the statement of the writer “ On
Interpretations” that the Egyptians expressed the name of
the Supreme God by the seven vowels thus arranged—
IEHÍ1OYA.7 But this single mystery was soon refined upon,
and made the basis of other and infinitely deeper mysteries.
In an inscription found at Miletus (published by Montfaucon), the Holy lEOYAHHAEIOYil is besought “to pro
tect the city of Miletus and all the inhabitants of the same
a plain proof that this interminable combination only ex
pressed the name of some one divine being. Again, the
Pistis-Sophia perpetually brings in IEOY invariably accom
panied with the epithet of “ the Primal Man,” i. e., He after
whose image or type man was first created. But in the ful
ness of time the semi-Pythagorean, Marcus, had it revealed
unto him that the seven heavens in their revelation sounded
each one vowel, which, all combined together, formed a
single doxology, “ the sound whereof being carried down
to earth becomes the creator and parent of all things that
be on earth.”8
The Greek language has but one word for vowel and
voice; when, therefore, “ the seven thunders uttered their
voices,” the seven vowels, it is meant, echoed through the
vault of heaven, and composed that mystic utterance which
the sainted seer was forbidden to reveal unto mortals.
“Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered,
and write them not.”9 With the best reason, then, is the
formula inscribed on a talisman of the first class, for hear
what Valentinus himself delivers touching its potency.1
“After these things his disciples said again unto him,
Rabbi, reveal unto us the mysteries of the Light of thy
Father, forasmuch as we have heard thee saying that there
is another baptism of smoke, and another baptism of the
Spirit of Holy Light, and moreover an unction of the Spirit,
all which shall bring our souls into the treasurehouse of
Light. Declare therefore unto us the mysteries of these
” This is in fact a very correct repre
sentation, if we give each vowel its true
Greek sound, of the Hebrew pronuncia
tion of the word Jehovah.
8 Hippolytus, vi. 48.
9 Rev. x. 4.
1 Pistis-Sophia, cap. 378.
�CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.
5
things, so that we also may inherit the kingdom of thy
Father. Jesus said unto them, Do ye seek after these
mysteries ? No mystery is more excellent than they ; which
shall bring your souls unto the Light of Lights, unto the
place of Truth and Goodness, unto the place of the Holy
of holies, unto the place where is neither male nor female,
neither form in that place but Light, everlasting, not
to be uttered. Nothing therefore is more excellent than
the mysteries which ye seek after, saving only the mys
tery of the Seven Vowels and their forty and nine Powers,
and the numbers thereof. And no name is more excellent
than all these (Vowels),2 a Name wherein be contained all
Names and all Lights and all Powers. Knowing therefore
this Name, if a man shall have departed out of this body of
Matter, no smoke (of the bottomless pit), neither any dark
ness, nor Ruler of the Sphere of Fate,3 nor Angel, nor
Power, shall be able to hold back the soul that knoweth that
Name. But and if, after he shall have departed out of
this world, he shall utter that Name unto the fire, it shall
be quenched, and the darkness shall flee away. And if he
shall utter that Name unto the devils of the Outer Dark
ness, and to the Powers thereof, they shall all faint away,
and their flame shall blaze up, so that they shall cry aloud
‘ Thou art holy, thou art holy, 0 Holy One of all holies ! ’
And if he shall utter that Name unto the Takers-away for
condemnation, and their Authorities, and all their Powers,
nay, even unto Barbelo,4 and the Invisible God, and the
three Triple-powered Gods, so soon as he shall have uttered
that Name in those places, they shall all be shaken and
thrown one upon the other, so that they shall be ready to
melt away and perish, and shall cry aloud, ‘ 0 Light of all
lights that art in the Boundless Light 1 remember us also,
and purify us ! ’ ” After such a revelation as this, we need
seek no further for the reason of the frequent occurrence of
this formula upon talismans intended, when they had done
their duty in this world, to accompany their owner into the
tomb, continuing to exert there a protective influence of a
yet higher order than in life.
2 Evidently alluding to the collocation
of the vowels on our talisman.
3 The twelve JEons of the Zodiac, the
creators of the human soul, which they
eagerly seek to catch when released from
the body in which they have imprisoned
it.
4 The divine mother of the Saviour,
and one of the three “ Invisible Gods.”
Cap. 359.
�6
CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.
For the student of the mineralogy of the ancients this
celt has very great interest in point of material, as being the
only specimen of true jade, bearing indisputable marks of
either Greek or Roman workmanship, that, so far as my
knowledge extends, has ever yet been brought to light. This
ancient neglect of the material is truly difficult to explain,
if the statement of a very good authority, Corsi, be indeed
correct, that the sort showing the deepest green is found in
Egypt. The known predilection of the Romans for gems
of that colour, would, one should naturally expect, have led
them in that case to employ the stone largely in ornamen
tation, after the constant fashion of the Chinese, and to value
it as a harder species of the Smargadus. The circumstances
under which this relic was brought to England render it
more than probable that Egypt was the place where it was
found ; a supposition corroborated by the fine quality of the
stone exactly agreeing with what Corsi remarks of the Egyp
tian kind. That Alexandria was the place where the in
scription was added upon its surface can admit of little ques
tion ; the lettering being precisely that seen upon innume
rable other monuments which can with certainty be assigned
to the same grand focus of Gnosticism. In addition to this,
it is very doubtful whether in the third or fourth centuries a
lapidary could have been found elsewhere throughout the
whole Roman Empire capable of engraving with such skill
as the minute characters within the wreath evince, upon a
material of this, almost insuperable, obduracy. From the
times of the Ptolemies down to the Arab conquest, and even
later, Alexandria was the seat of the manufacture of vases
in rock crystal. This trade served to keep alive the expir
ing Glyptic art for the only purpose for which its productions
continued to be demanded—the manufacture of talismans,
consignments of which must have been regularly shipped
together with the crystal-ware,5 to Rome, and equally to the
other important cities of the empire.
The primitive Egyptians, like the early Chaldeans, used
stone in the place of metal for their cutting instruments,
and continued its use for making particular articles down
into historic times. Herodotus mentions the regular em
ployment of the “ Ethiopian stone ” sharpened, for a dissect0 Bum tibi Niliacus portat crystalla cataplus.”
Mart. xii. 72.
�CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.
7
ing-knife6 in the process of embalming, and similarly for
pointing the arrows7 carried by the contingent of the same
nation in the army of Xerxes. The Alexandrian citizen,
half-Jew half-Greek, who had the good fortune, to pick up
this primseval implement, doubtless rejoiced in the belief
that he had gotten a “ stone of virtue,” most potent alike
from substance, figure, and nature, and therefore proceeded
to do his prize due honour by making it the medium of his
most accredited spells—nay, more, by inventing a new for
mula of unusual complication and profundity whereby to
animate its inherent powers. As regards its substance, the
stone probably passed then for a smaragdus of exceptional
magnitude, and that gem, as Pliny records,8 was recom
mended by the magi as the proper material for a talisman
of prodigious efficacy, which, duly engraved, should baffle
witchcraft, give success at court, avert hailstorms, and much
more of like nature. The smaragdus of the ancients was
little more than a generic designation for all stones of a
green colour, and the entire Gnostic series strikingly demon
strates that this hue was deemed a primary requisite in a
talismanic gem—the almost exclusive material of the class
being the green jasper and the plasma.
Again, as regards figure, this celt offered in its triangular
outline, that most sacred of all emblems, the mystic Delta,
the form that signified maternity, and was the hieroglyph of
the moon. This belief is mentioned by Plutarch,9 and ex
plains why the triangle so often accompanies the figure of
the sacred baboon, Luna’s special attribute, on monuments,
where also it is sometimes displayed elevated upon a column
with that animal standing before it in the attitude of adora
tion.
Lastly, the supposed nature of this gift of Fortune was
not of Earth, inasmuch as it then passed for a holy thing
that “had fallen down from Jupiter,” being, in fact, nothing
less than one of that god’s own thunderbolts. A notion this
which will doubtless strike the modern mind as so strange,
or rather as so preposterous, that it necessitates my giving
at full length my reasons for making such an assertion.
6 ii. 86.
7 vii. 69.
8 xxxvii. 40.
9 “ De Iside et Osiride,” cap. 75. He
adds that the Pythagoreans called the
equilateral triangle “Athene”—a curious
confirmation of the tradition quoted by
Aristotle, that the Attic goddess was one
and the same with the Moon.
�8
CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.
And in truth the subject is well worth the trouble of investi
gation, seeing that the same superstition will be found to
extend from an early period of antiquity down into the popu
lar belief of our own times throughout a large extent of
Europe.
It is in accordance with this notion that I have designated
this celt a “ceraunia” (thunderbolt-stone), and it therefore
remains for me to adduce my reasons for giving it what must
appear to most people so unaccountable and highly inap
propriate an appellation, Sotacus, who is quoted elsewhere
by Pliny “ as one of the most ancient writers on minera
logy/’ is cited by him1 “ as making two other kinds of the
ceraunia, the black and the red, resembling axe-heads in
shape. Of these, such as be black and round are sacred
things ; towns and fleets can be captured by their instru
mentality. The latter are called Bcetyli, whilst the oblong
sort are the Ceraunice. Some make out another kind, in
mighty request in the practices of the magi, inasmuch as it
is only to be found in places that have been struck by light
ning.” One would have been utterly at a loss to understand
what the old Greek had been speaking about in the chapter
thus confusedly condensed by the later Roman naturalist,
or to discover any resemblance in form between the light
ning-flash and an axe-head, had it not been for the popular
superstition that has prevailed in Germany from time imme
morial to the present day, and of which full particulars are
given by Anselmus Boetius in his invaluable repertory of
mediaeval lore upon all such matters, written at the begin
ning of the 17th century.2
Under the popular names of “ Strahl-hammer,” “ Donnerpfeil,” “ Donner-keil,” “ Strahl-pfeil,” “ Strahl-keil” (lightning
hammer, thunder-arrow or club, lightning-arrow, &c.), and
the Italian “Sagitta,”3 he figures stone celts and hammers
of five different, but all common, types ; remarking that so
firm was the belief in these things being the “ actual arrow
of the lightning” (ipsa fulminis sagitta), that should any
1 xxxvii. 51.
2 Gem. et Lapid. Hist. ii. cap. 261.
. 3 “ Saetta ” (a vulgar Italian execra
tion), is now restricted to the lightning
missile, the archer’s shaft being expressed
by the Teutonic “freceia,” in accordance
with the genius of the language which
reserves the old Latin terms for the
things not of this world,—using those
of the lingua militaris for every day pur
poses. The flint arrow-heads found in
the terra mama of the primaeval Umbrian
towns, are believed by the peasantry to
have this celestial origin, and are highly
valued as portable “lightning-conduc
tors.”
�CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.
9
one attempt to controvert it, he would be taken for a mad
man. He however confesses with amusing simplicity that
the substance of these thunderbolts is exceedingly like the
common flint used for striking fire with ; nay, more, he
boldly declares he should agree with those few rationalists
who, on the strength of their resemblance in shape to the
tools in common use, pronounced these objects to be merely
ordinary iron implements that had got petrified by long con
tinuance in the earth, had it not been for the testimony
of the most respectable witnesses as to the fact of their
being discovered in places just seen to be struck with
lightning. Besides quoting some fully detailed instances
from Gesner, he adds that several persons had assured him
of having themselves seen these stones dug up in places
where the lightning had fallen. The natural philosophers of
the day accounted for the creation of such substances in the
atmosphere by supposing the existence of a vapour charged
with sulphureous and metallic particles, which rising above
a certain height became condensed through the extreme heat
of the sun, and assumed a wedgelike form in consequence of
the escape of their moisture, and the gravitation of the
heavier particles towards their lower end ! Notwithstanding
this celestial origin, the virtue of the production was not
then esteemed of a proportionally sublime order, extending
no further than to the prevention or the cure of ruptures
in children, if placed upon their cradles ; and also to the
procuring of sleep in the case of adults. In our own times
Justinus Kerner mentions4 the same names for stone celts as
universally popular amongst the German boors ; but they
are now chiefly valued for their efficacy in preserving cattle
from the murrain, and consequently the finders can seldom
be induced to part with them.
It must not, however, be supposed that Sotacus picked
up this strange notion from the Teutones of his own age,
whose very existence was probably unknown to him ; his
informants were unquestionably those magi cited at the con
clusion of Pliny’s extract. The Greek mineralogist had
lived “apud Begem,” that is, at the court of the King of
Persia, very probably in the capacity of royal physician, like
his countrymen Democedes and Ctesias. In that region
4 In his little treatise on Amulets.
�10
CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.
he had ample opportunities of seeing stone celts, for Raw
linson observes5 that flint axes and other implements, ex
actly identical with the European in workmanship, are com
mon in all the most ancient mounds of Chaldæa, those
sites of primæval cities. Such elevations above the dead
level of those interminable plains were necessarily the
most liable to be lightning-struck ; and hence probably
arose the idea that these weird-looking stones (all tradition
of whose proper destination had long since died out amongst
the iron-using Persians) were the actual fiery bolts which
had been seen to bury themselves in the clay. And again,
to revert to the German belief, it must be remembered that
Thor, the Northern Jupiter, is pictured as armed with a huge
hammer in the place of the classical thunderbolt. The type
of the god had been conceived in the far-remote ages when
the stone-hammer was as yet the most effective and formid
able of weapons, and was preserved unchanged out of
deference to antiquity, after the true meaning of the
attribute was entirely forgotten. Nevertheless, his worship
pers, accustomed to behold the hammer in the hand of the
god of thunder,—vx¡Hl3pcp.¿Tr]s Zev$,—-very naturally con
cluded that these strange objects, of unknown use, found
from time to time deep buried in the earth, were the actual
missiles that deity had discharged. It is a remarkable proof
of the wide diffusion of the same belief, that the late owner
of the relic under consideration, habitually spoke of it as a
“ thunderstone,”—a name he could only have learnt from
the Arabs from whom it was procured, seeing that no such
notion with respect to celts has ever been current in this
country. But every one whose memory reaches back forty
years or more, may recollect, that wheresoever in England
the fossil Belemnite is to be found, it was implicitly received
by all, except the few pioneers of Geology (a word then
almost synonymous with Atheism), as the veritable thunder
bolt shot from the clouds, and by that appellation was it
universally known. I, for one, can recollect stories, quite as
respectably attested as those Boetius quotes concerning the
Cerauniœ, told respecting the discovery of new fallen belemnites under precisely the same circumstances ; and, in truth,
the same author does in the preceding chapter treat at
length of the Belemnites, and his cuts show that the name
6 Ancient Monarchies, i. p. 120.
�CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.
11
meant then what it does at present; but he assigns to the
missile an infernal instead of a celestial source, giving the
vulgar title for it as “ Alp-schoss,” (elfin-shot,) which he
classically renders into “ dart of the Incubus,” stating fur
ther that it was esteemed (on the good old principle, “ similia
similibus curantur ”) of mighty efficacy to guard the sleeper
from the visits of that much dreaded nocturnal demon. The
Prussian, Saxon, and Spanish physicians employed it,
powdered, as equally efficacious with the lapis Judaicus,
in the treatment of the calculus. It was also believed a
specific for the pleurisy in virtue of its pointed figure,
which was analogous to the sharp pains of that disease,
for so taught the universally accepted “ Doctrine of Signa
tures.”
The CeraunicB of Sotacus, however, comprised, besides
these primitive manufactures of man, other substances, it is
hard to say whether meteorites or fossils ; the nature of
which remains to be discussed. Photius,6 after quoting the
paragraph, “ I beheld the B (stylus moving through the air,
and sometimes wrapped up in vestments, sometimes carried
in the hands of the ministers,” proceeds to give a summary
of the wondrous tale told by the discoverer of the prodigy—
one Eusebius of Emesa. He related how that being seized
one night with a sudden and unaccountable desire to visit a
very ancient temple of Minerva, situated upon a mountain at
some distance from the city, he started off, and arriving at
the foot, sat down to rest himself. Suddenly he beheld a
globe of fire fall down from heaven, and a monstrous lion
standing by the same, but who immediately vanished. Run
ning to pick it up as soon as the fire was extinguished, he
found this self-same Badyins. Inquiring of it to what god it
belonged, the thing made answer that it came from the
Noble One (so was called a figure of a lion standing in the
temple at Heliopolis). Eusebius thereupon ran home with
his prize, a distance of 210 stadia (26 miles), without once
stopping, being quite unable to control the impetus of the
stone ! He described it as “ of whitish colour, a perfect
sphere, a span in diameter, but sometimes assuming a purple 7
shade, and also expanding and contracting its dimensions,
and having letters painted on it in cinnabar, of which he
6 Bibliotheca, 1063, R.
7 The Greek purple included every shade from crimson to violet.
�12
CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN,
gave the interpretation.
The stone, likewise, if struck
against the wall, returned answers to consultors in a low
whistling voice.” The grain of truth in this huge heap of
lies is obviously enough the fact that Eusebius having had
the good fortune to witness the descent of a meteorite, and
to get possession of the same, told all these fables about it in
order to increase the credit of the oracular stone (which
doubtless brought him in many fees) amongst his credulous
townsfolk. Damascius8 (whose Life of Isidorus Photius
is here epitomising) adds, that this philosopher was of
opinion that the stone was the abode of a spirit, though not
one of the mischievous or unclean sort, nor yet one of a
perfectly immaterial nature. He furthermore states that
other bcetyli were known, dedicated to Saturn, Jupiter, and
the Sun ; and moreover that Isidorus and himself saw many
of such bcetyli or bcetylia upon Mount Libanus, near Helio
polis in Syria.
As for the derivation of bcetylus, the one proposed by the
Byzantine Hesychius, who makes it come from bcete, the
goatskin mantle, wherein Rhea wrapped up the stone she
gave old Saturn to swallow, instead of the new-born Jove,
cannot be considered much more satisfactory that Bochart’s,
who, like a sound divine, discovers in it a reminiscence of
the stone pillar which Jacob set up at Bethel, and piously
endeavours to force Sanconiathon, who speaks of the “ living”
stones, the baethylia,9 to confirm his interpretation by cor
recting his text into “ anointed.”
But this last bcetylus is beyond all question the same thing
with that described by the Pseudo-Orpheus,1 under the names
of Siderites, and the animated Orites, “ round, black, ponde
rous, and surrounded with deeply-graven furrows.” In the
first of these epithets may easily be recognised the ferruginous
character common to all meteorites [siderites being also
applied to the loadstone), whilst the second seems to indi
cate the locality where they most abounded viz., Mount
Lebanon.
Sotacus’ notice, indeed, of the efficacy of the bcetylus
in procuring success in seafights and sieges, is copiously
illustrated by the succeeding verses of the same mystic poet,
8 A stoic philosopher under Justinian.
9 “ Moreover the god Uranus devised
contriving stones that moved
as having life.”
1 AlSmo,, 355.
�CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.
13
who, it must be remembered, can claim a very high antiquity,
there being sufficient grounds for identifying him with Onomacritus, a contemporary of Pisistratus, in the 6*th century
before our era. The diviner Helenus, according to him, had
received this oracular stone from Apollo, and he describes
the rites, with great minuteness, for the guidance of all sub
sequent possessors of such a treasure, by means of which
the Trojan woke up the spirit within the “ vocal sphere.”
This was effected by dint of thrice seven days’ fasting and
continence, by incantations and sacrifices offered to the stone,
and by bathing, clothing, and nursing it like an infant.
Through its aid, when at length rendered instinct with
life, the traitorous seer declared to the Atridae the coming’
downfall of Troy ; the stone uttering its responses in a
voice resembling the feeble wail of an infant desiring the
breast. It is more than probable that Orpheus in describing
the Orites, had in view the Salagrama, or sacred stone of
Vishnu, still employed by the Brahmins in all propitiatory
rites, especially in those performed at the death-bed. Sonnerat describes it as “ a kind of ammonite, round or oval
in shape, black, and very ponderous.” The furrows cover
ing its surface were traced by Vishnu’s own finger; but when
found of a violet colour, it is looked upon with horror, as
representing a vindictive avatar of the god. The pos
sessor keeps it wrapped up in a linen garment like a
child, and often bathes and perfumes it—precisely the rites
prescribed by our poet for the due consultation of the
oracle of the Siderites.
From all this it may safely be deduced that the “ stone
of power,” whether bcetylus or orites, was in most cases
nothing more than a fossil; either a ferruginous nodule,
or an echinus filled with iron pyrites. Their being found
in abundance in one particular locality, precludes the idea
of these at least being meteorites, which latter, besides,
never assume any regular form, but look like mere fragments
of iron-slag. This explanation is strongly supported by the
drawings Boetius gives 2 of what was then called the “ Donner-stein,” or “ Wetter-stein,” (thunder, or storm-stone,) and
which he very plausibly identifies with Pliny’s Brontias
li that got into the head of the tortoise during thunder
storms,” and which is described in another place as the “ eye
2 ii. cap. 264.
�14
CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN,
of the Indian tortoise ” that conferred the gift of prophecy.
His carefully drawn figure of this Donner-stein (which also
passed for the “ gros Kroten-stein,” bigger toadstone),
shows it to be only a fossil echinus of a more oblate form
than the common sort. The regular toadstone, plentifully
to be seen in mediaeval rings, was, on the other hand, the
small hollow hemisphere, the fossil tooth of an extinct
fish, found in the greensand formation. In that age the
Donner-stein was held to possess all the many virtues of
the Toadstone, Belemnite, and Ovum Anguinum, in counter
acting poison, giving success in all enterprises, procuring
sleep, and protection against danger of lightning.
But
the old physician, so much in advance of his times, can
not help winding up the list of its virtues with the hint,
“ Fides saepe veritate major.”
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES ON CELTS AND OTHER IMPLEMENTS USED
AS TALISMANS OR VICTORY-STONES.
The axe-heads and hammer-heads of stone, known to us
by the general designation of celts, have, until recent ex
plorations, been regarded as comparatively of rare occur
rence amongst ancient relics obtained from Eastern lands
and from some other continental countries. Our information,
however, in regard to objects of this class has become greatly
extended. Mr. James Yates brought before us, in a former
volume of this Journal, examples of stone celts from Java ;
an interesting specimen obtained at Sardis is figured, vol. xv.
p. 178, and some others were found by Mr. Layard at
Nineveh. The occurrence of any ornament or inscription
upon such objects is very rare, but, amongst numerous stone
implements lately obtained in Greece, one is noticed by M.
de Mortillet (Matériaux pour l’Histoire primitive de l’Homme,
Jan. 1868, p. 9), of which he had received from Athens
a drawing and an estampage ; it is described as “ une hache
en pierre serpentineuse, sur une des faces de laquelle on a
gravé trois personnages et une inscription en caractères
Grecs. L’ancien outil a évidemment été, beaucoup plus tard,
quand on a eu complètement oublié son usage primitif, trans
formé en talisman ou pierre cabalistique.”
At the annual meeting of the Antiquaries of the North,
�CERAUNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.
15
21 March, 1853, under the presidency of the late King of
Denmark, several recent acquisitions were exhibited, ^ob
tained for his private collection at Frederiksborg. Amongst
these there was an axe-head of stone (length about 9| inches),
perforated with a hole for the handle, and remarkable as
bearing on one of its sides four Runic characters, that appear
to have been cut upon the stone at some period more recent
than the original use of the implement. It has been figured
in the Memoirs of the Society, 1850-1860, p. 28 ; see also
Antiquarisk Tidsskrift, 1852-1854, pp. 258-266. I am in
debted to a friend well skilled in Runes and Scandinavian
archaeology, Dr. Charlton, secretary of the Society of Anti
quaries of Newcastle, for the following observations on this
interesting relic.
“ The first letter is L, and, if we accept the idea that these
were Runes of Victory, it may stand for the initial of Loki;
the second is Th, and may stand for Thor; the third 0, for
Odin ; the fourth, Belgthor, with a T above it, may refer to
Belgthor’s friendship and alliance with Thor, and the T
stands for Tyr. We may imagine the names of the Northern
gods to have been cut on this stone axe to give it victory in
battle, just as the old Germans and Saxons cut mystic Runes
on their swords, a practice noticed by Haigh in his Conquest
of Britain by the Saxons, p. 28, pl. 1, where he has figured
amongst various examples of the Futhorc, or alphabet of
Runic characters, one inlaid on a sword or knife found in the
Thames, and now in the British Museum. At p. 51, ibid,
pl. iii. fig. 20, he has cited also the Runic inscription on the
silver pommel of a sword found at Gilton, Kent, formerly
in the collection of the late Mr. Rolfe of Sandwich, and
subsequently in the possession of Mr. Joseph Mayer. This
lelic is now in the precious museum bestowed by his generous
encouragement of arch geological science on the town of
Liverpool. The interpretation given in the latter instance
is as follows,—I eke victory to great deeds.3
“ There was another explanation given of the characters
on the Danish stone axe. It was read—luthr. o.—Ludr
owns, namely, the weapon thus inscribed?’
Archieologia vol. xxxii., p. 321. A
spear-headmscnbed with Runes is noticed,
Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., vol. xxm., p. 387.
1 here exist certain massive rings of metal
inscribed with Runes, that may have
been, as some antiquaries suggest, appended to sword-hilts as charms One o£
these rings, lately found at Carlisle, is in
possession of Mr. Robert Ferguson of
Morton, near that city.
�16
CERAITNIA OF JADE CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.
In the ancient Sagas, as remarked in Nilsson’s
Inhabitants of Scandinavia (translation by_ Sir
L
t
Bart n 214), mention occurs of amulets designated uie
stones'^victory-stones, &c„ which warriors carried about ^th
them in battle to secure victory. A curious relation is
from one of the Sagas, that King Nidung, when about; to ei
X irl conflict, perceived that he had neglected to bring a
precious heir-loom, a stone that possessed the virtue of en
suring victory. He offered the hand of his daughter, with a
thirdSpart of his kingdom, to him
Reived
talisman before the fight commenced ; and having receive
it he won the battle. In another narrative, the daughter: or
a Scanian warrior steals during his slumbers the) stone that
was hung on his neck, and gave it to her lover, who thus became the victor. Nilsson observes that stones are found in
museums, for instance, a hammer-stone with a loop, that
‘innear to have been worn thus as talismans m war.
P?tTs perhaps scarcely necessary to advert to certain axehniflq of stone in their general form similar to those with
w^iich we ^re familiar aslundin Europe ; uponi thesesdements are engraved rude designs, such as the human
visaje &c These objects, of which an example preserve
in a ’museum at Douai has been much cited, may be
“ victory-stones ” of an ancient ancl primitive people, but
L--.
¡nised as of Carib origin, and
thcy are now generally recog:
not European.
ALBERT WAY.
�1
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
On a ceraunia of jade converted into a gnostic talisman
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
King, Charles William
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 16 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Includes bibliographical references. 'Supplementary notes on Celts and other Implements used as Talismans or Victory-Stones' by Albert Way. Date of publication from KVK. Published in Archaeological Journal, vol. 25, no. 1 : 103-118.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[s.n.]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1868]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5556
Subject
The topic of the resource
Archaeology
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (On a ceraunia of jade converted into a gnostic talisman), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Tracts
Jade
Talismen
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/700398eb6126f5f25a209d8d492ec493.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=EkfzeWkbPBLTUqFDR5Jut6wccYO0v%7EmKVTE%7EBEYLhSBG6yztXf8ah4GVtFn-2ifiYO2%7EXtdvadhDDNKtjViZXhuNBHAxhL4L2PYhoNXVXlxgPDr2HjNVkv3iTlYZ61YbxJaSHnw2Z3iQX4lUtUyyNgPZzBJmjTs1OehILuKBKmR73VH6fi3o4aMQ44ix1vtaftPleTOCGlo-Q4S0zobCgMTx09Ns7xDu-jvkDAPtL4MPD7cftXMAF-5yX355mofbaW8MpgzI7esMBCc%7EyuW8OCZk5uuj-hMCjktoKzbp3tCjkBe-GyrltpoQepjdlGhF5TvtEcjDhORDcnzBTXL-wg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
680856c26dd5de6e1fa293c8e785491a
PDF Text
Text
��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Proceedings of the first annual meeting of the Free Religious Association held in Boston, May 28th and 29th, 1868
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Free Religious Association
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Boston, Mass.
Collation: 120 p. ; 24 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Contains a letter from Moncure Conway to Mr William J. Potter, Secretary of Free Religious Association of America, with regard to religious movements in England, p. 115-9.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Adams & Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1868]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5179
Subject
The topic of the resource
Free thought
Religion
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Proceedings of the first annual meeting of the Free Religious Association held in Boston, May 28th and 29th, 1868), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Tracts
Free Religious Association
Freedom of Religion
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/a1afc31304a6ca129e1daf40e680ffbf.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=aXBfv77t-qRwa1bvQTP%7EY51Q7rjK%7E3Pg%7ETcevYqNh9Co2ptD8c-AYjut%7EYSkDk3uVi297UmmAST-k1x-aYJ7TBnf6TELDKUT%7E1IiBt5N1Dezw8ElaTc9xvk%7EZOWv-fJQnQHmLt7Dl%7EhWXkIo1r0OLPuhgcnHR%7E1OfIYBHgTIqTshp1Fm4sdPgUbaSREPJyjhbMnMP3BYUeQIpzEyNNQ8z98zaEMjxcw45JGCzma4iMWxHYftAqkD7rcFx8ugH5sNh0INupWVakhDld6Jlecxl9RrmwLsQsTCg%7EOF1WrqSFhMW-s4cPg0SHUmHaABdqIDYNTR5vkSneLF9fUKsW7rBw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
55e86ba854373d8f3bed196d9897d363
PDF Text
Text
429
BY FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVB,
Late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.
PART I.
Monumental statues, common in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Italy,
were hardly known during the Gothic or Mediaeval period of Western
Europe ; and they first appear in England in connection with the Lord
Arundel who collected antique marbles. He caused the bronze eques
trian group of Charles I. at Charing Cross to be modelled in 1633 by
Hubert le Sueur, who is called a pupil of the Italian sculptor, John of
Bologna. Before it was put up, the monarchy had been abolished ;
and it is a well-known story, how a brazier, who read the signs of the
times better than the politicians of the Commonwealth, concealed the
group when its destruction was ordered. But it is probably little
remembered by those who now pass it, that the vacant spot was selected
for the scaffold of Major-General Harrison and four other patriots who
suffered under the Restoration. There is something vindictive and bar
barous in the choice of this site for the statue ; something that recalls
old frightful tales of human sacrifice and superstition. But people
gossiped in those days as in ours, and much discussion seems to have
accompanied the elevation of the statue to the pedestal, which was
then elaborately carved for it, perhaps from the design, if not by
the hands, of Grinling Gibbons.
What can be the mystery, why Charing Cross
This five months continues still muffled with board ?
Thus, about 1672, sang Andrew Marvell—a writer from whose ode
on Cromwell, one of the noblest and most stately poems in our lan
guage, a more serious strain might have been expected.
Anecdotes about artists have ordinarily little more to do with their
art and the merit of it than these; but, in case of the Charles I., it is
such historical associations that lend the group its main value. Placed
well for effect, but (like other statues to be hereafter noticed) too high
for convenient study as a work of art, it appears to be in a tame, at least a
timid style, which hardly rises above the common monumental sculpture
of that day; and in the age of Vandyck, one would have expected a
�430
public «Statues in 5Lontion>
more picturesque and effective likeness, especially since, when seen in
front, one traces a distinct reference to that great painter’s equestrian
portraits. The horse is fairly natural, though not free from indications
that the artist was thinking of the ill-modelled breed of the ancient
Roman sculptors; and the best thing we can say of the group, is that
it avoids the bad extravagant style, which had by 1633 corrupted
Italian sculpture, and of which, .John of Bologna was one of the most
brilliant representatives.*
Strange, as it may seem, London contains at least one public sta
tue, the subject of which is hardly less uncertain, than if it had been
dug up in Greece or Italy. Probably during the reign of Charles II.
when Soho Square was begun, a stone figure was placed there, which
has been assigned to the unhappy Duke of Monmouth, to James II.,
and to Charles himself. The last appears the most probable. It is
a standing figure, clothed in English armour, but with a robe twisted
behind; a wig surrounds the mutilated features.
Cromwell still waits for his statue; and he, in truth, should be a
very powerful and accomplished sculptor, whose hands could safely
attempt the difficult task of doing justice to the great man who stands
up like some huge rock among the petty figures of the Stuarts. But
unless we commemorate a prince or a general (and Cromwell was
something more than most princes and generals), English funds are
rarely forthcoming. Men even greater than the Protector are equally
unrepresented. Yet there are few methods by which a wealthy man
might more certainly or more honourably hand his name down to
future generations, than by a first-rate public monument to departed
genius.
James II., by Gibbons the wood-carver, apparently completed in
1687, stands behind Whitehall, and considering its age and exposed
position, is well-preserved. He is in full Roman armour, laurelcrowned, and a robe falling behind him ; the attitude, that of a man
giving some command, is rather too showy, yet is rendered with ease
and a certain dignity, and there is a considerable air of likeness in the
harsh but narrow-looking features. The modelling is fair in its con
ventional way, which reminds one rather of the Roman-antique style
than of nature ; and it deserves special praise that Gibbons has known
how to take advantage of his material, and has given his figure the
comparatively disengaged or “ open ” attitude of which bronze, from
* For some of the facts stated in this paper, the writer is indebted to Mr. 0.
Knight’s “London” (1843), and Mr. P. Cunningham’s “Handbook” (1849).
�public States in ^oiWon.
431
its superior tenacity, admits. The drapery, from the same reason, has
been kept light and flat in the folds. These may seem obvious
merits; but it will be found that sculptors of much greater pretension
and experience than Gibbons, have not felt the difference between
working in stone, and working in metal, and have made their bronze
figures dark and heavy, by a massive treatment, which only looks well
in its own appropriate and light-coloured material. The artist received
¿6500 for this work—a very large sum, the time and the size of the
figure considered, and a proof that ho must have obtained fashionable
recognition as a sculptor.
The great William, fated to learn in England, by a bitter and
pathetic experience,
The unwilling gratitude of base mankind,
has but one statue—that in the centre of St. James’s Square. So far
us its distance from the eye admits of a judgment, this group (it is
equestrian) though rather clever and lively, appears to be in a poor
style, imitating the French statues of Louis XIV., and has all the look
of a contemporary production. Yet it seems certain that the younger
Bacon not only placed this figure here in 1808, but modelled
it. He speaks of it as “my equestrian statue,” in a letter which
has been kindly pointed out to the writer by Mr. G. Scharf; and
a print of the Square, dated 1751, shows a basin and fountain where
the group now stands. Except upon such evidence (especially when
one considers how unlikely it was that anyone should go to the great
expense involved at the above date), it might have been conjectured
that a contemporary statue had been presented to the Square by one
of the great families who have houses about it, and might have been pro
vided with its pedestal and “put in order” by Bacon. Though wantingin
dignity and grace, this group has some truth to character* in its expres
sion of will and energy. The curious way in which the hair of the
tail is detached in little masses in the direction of the horse’s pro
gress, was probably intended to increase this effect. But there is
always a want of due stability and repose when a figure appears to be
rapidly moving off its pedestal. The pause of arrested motion, the
moment of suspended action, by the laws of the material, is almost
always the right instant for sculpture to express.
Anne figures thrice: before St. Paul’s, and in the two Queen’s
Squares named after her. Of these statues it will be enough to
describe one. That in Queen’s Square West (apparently Portland
�432
public Statues in Mention,
stone painted) represents her exactly as she might have looked in one
of the pictures of the time, in full court-robes, wearing a crown, and
rising up or walking forward ; whilst the right hand is extended over
a cushion resting on a twisted column. The features are pleasing, and
though the work is without any trace of proper style, the figure has a
ladylike and dignified air. The broken sceptre now lies upon the
cushion,—an emblem of her ill-fated family 1—The quiet Square, with
its solemn but not ungraceful houses around, some still preserving
fragments of contemporary carving, the trees and the untrodden grassplats, is a fit place for the monument of the last reigning Stuart.
A figure of George I., showy but effective, and infinitely better
designed for its position than the Duke of York and the Nelson by
two once fashionable Academicians, surmounts the picturesque cam
panile of St. George’s, Bloomsbury.
George II. (or George I.,—the point is disputed), in Leicester
Square, has been lately mutilated and ordered for removal; equal acts
of folly, for though the statue was, perhaps, not of greater merit in
art than several of our most recent figures presently to be noticed,
yet it had real interest for all who feel that to love their land is to
love its history, and are aware how much a past period is vivified
and realized by the sight of any actual monument which the men of
that day saw and handled.
A second statue of George II., perhaps by the same hand as the
one of his father, stands like a Roman warrior in Golden Square.
This, again, is a stone figure painted over (with the exquisitely absurd
English taste in these matters) to look, no doubt, more like stone!
The statue is of the ordinary monumental sort, though very elaborately
wrought in the drapery and armour, which, from unskilful arrangement,
give it a clumsy air. The warrior character may here be accepted as a
not undeserved, if pedantic, compliment to the king’s distinguished
personal courage and firmness in danger. He and his father, in com
parison with their Stuart. predecessors, have, in truth, been rather
harshly dealt with in our literature, which forgets their good points and
cannot forgive their imperfect English.
The Duke of Cumberland, an equestrian bronze, set up in 1777
within Cavendish Square, is the last and perhaps the worst public
statue in the primitive style which need be mentioned ; for a standing
figure of Sir H. Sloane, by Rysbrack, in the Apothecaries’ Gardens at
Chelsea, though noteworthy as the first extant memorial to a private
citizen of distinction, hardly falls within our subject. Awkwardly
�public Statues in &onUon.
433
huddled together in his robes, and seemingly desirous to ride off and
hide himself, the statue of the Duke almost justifies a criticism which
it drew from Sir J. Reynolds—that modern dress was radically unsuit
able for sculpture. But no powerful sculptors had proved then, as
David d’Angers in France, Rietschel in Germany, and Watson and
Woolner with us, have since proved, that the reverse of Sir Joshua’s
verdict is the truth. Indeed, it is obvious to common sense, that if
we cannot clothe our contemporaries as they were really clothed, we
had better leave monumental sculpture alone.
These figures all date before sculpture was studied as an art in
England—nay, before it was thought possible that genuine English
hands could produce anything worthy to be called sculpture. It is
worth while recalling this state of things, for the encouragement of our
race here or across the seas. During the first half of the last century
nearly the same scepticism existed also in regard to our capacity for
painting. These arts, at least in their highest form, were supposed by
some natural law of selection to be confined to Italy—a country which,
for more than a hundred years, had not only ceased to produce the
great things which have justly made her celebrated, but had fallen into
a degeneracy, in which tameness and extravagance, both alike almost
entirely forgetful of nature, contended for the mastery. Yet the super
stition that Italian taste necessarily meant something superior, from
which the French had freed themselves, survived in England, and we
find even Reynolds apologizing with his graceful good sense, for
placing Gainsborough on a level with the Roman picture-manufac
turers of the time, not one of whom, to judge by their works, would
have been qualified even to “ set his pallette ” for our great landscapepainter.
“ Sturdy Hogart,” as Swift called him, was the first artist of power
who spoke out, somewhat rudely no doubt, against this silly supersti
tion, and satirized our art-patronizing classes for wasting their money
on the Italian charlatans and sharks who then abounded, in terms
which have even now not lost all their applicability. Hogarth’s own
pictures were, however, his best argument; Reynolds, Gainsborough,
and Wilson followed; and the English school of painting, in oil ant!
water-colours, whatever deficiencies it may be justly charged with, has
at least proved that we stand on a level with any other civilized race in
capacity for these forms of art. If our sculpture has not emerged to
similar excellence, it has not been from want of men equal to the best
of those hitherto known in Christendom, but from the want of general
VI.
28
�434
«Statues in bonbon.
public knowledge and taste on the subject, which has prevented ability
from obtaining fair play, or impressing itself on the country.*
Some revolution, analogous to that initiated by Hogarth, from the
books and reviews which have reached the writer, appears to be required
in America. There, as in eighteenth-century England, in spite of a con
siderable activity and pleasure in art, an unreasoning reliance on
European taste seems to prevail; a half-unconscious distrust of native
power ; a disposition, at least, among artists or their patrons to think
that art is only to be learned abroad. This is particularly perceptible
in case of sculpture, towards which the American mind shows a marked
bias, which should in time produce good work. In the interests of this
noblest of the Fine Arts, may an Englishman be allowed to observe
that it is an injurious tendency which leads American sculptors, like
some English, to settle in Italy ? Attractive as the prospect may seem
in the pages of a sentimental novelist, ignorant of art, everything is
there really against them: ancient models, mostly indifferent when
compared with our fragments of genuine Greek art, and rarely useful
as guides for modern practice; renaissance models, mostly unsculptural in style, however beautiful or grand in their execution; a native
modern school detestable in taste, though seductive by its showy
cleverness; above all, coterie worship of the most ruinous kind; idle
and dilettante wealth seeking to flatter itself by patronizing art, and
blinded in its pursuit by the flattery which it receives, in turn, from the
interested artist. This sickly maZanu was near ruining Michael Angelo
himself. It is, hence, little wonder that Rome, to the present day, has
bred no great or sound sculptor for centuries: at best a Canova, a
Thorwaldsen, or a Gibson, to show how fatal a delusion it is, even for
men with some natural vocation for the art, to put their trust in con,»
noisseurship and fashion, museums and mythologies.
It is about a century since the efforts of Nollekens, Banks, and
others, began to lift sculpture above the church-figure fashion, or the
mere imitation of French and Roman models; and there is hence
forward some attempt at sculptural style, although often imperfectly
carried out, in the public statues of London. Henceforth we
also notice another change which, though promising well, has but
partially fulfilled its promise. The royal family has hitherto filled
our list of public statues; nor, considering the considerable place
which the heads of every state, even if not to their own credit,
* The writer may refer those who are curious for further details on this point
to his “ Essays on Art,” Macmillan and Co., 1866.
�public statues in 3Lonbotx+
435
must necessarily fill in its history, should we grudge any of their
images as superfluous. But the more liberally we concede , their
claims, the more' will a high-spirited nation demand similar recognition
of those citizens who have been born “nobles by nature.” All kinds
of private merit were, from a very early time, honoured among the
Greeks by monumental sculpture; their healthy minds and lively
intellects soon saw that a musician might be not less of a public
benefactor than a ruler or a general; but in England these honours
were long confined to the royal lineage, just as Rome reserved a
triumph for members of the privileged houses. This feeling broke
down with us after the French Revolution, and a more liberal order of
things began. So sculpture, like all the arts, images the politics of
a nation. But the plan has failed hitherto in several respects, which
it is worth while to notice as lessons for the future. In the first place,
whether because a man of action has more powerful or more united
friends flian a man of mind, or through what is now spoken of as the
“Philistinism” of the race, intellect and genius have been almost ex
cluded from these national honours, and every foreigner in England has
remarked that the statues of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon,
Newton, and others of “the blood of the gods,” are conspicuous in
London by their absence. And a second cause of failure, when any
thing in this way has been tried, has arisen from the low state, not
only of sculpture, but of taste and knowledge of the art among us,
already alluded to. Without personal disrespect to men who follow
the art as they have received it, and might have made more of natural
capacity under a better system, it may be said that the large majority
of our professors bear the same relation to sculptors, in the strict sense,
that the Holloways and Morrisons bear to a Cullen, a Holland, or a De
Mussy. They are unscientific. The large majority of our patrons or
committees of selection, again, have no more fitted themselves, by study
of the art, to decide on the merits of the respective artists than an
average Englishman is qualified to decide between Armstrong or Whit
worth ordnance. If they were qualified, their first discovery would
necessarily be that there is no art wherein excellence is rarer than
Sculpture ; and in place of falling in with the thoughtless practice of the
day, and encouraging monuments and statues to every politician or
general of note, they would resolutely determine to have none unless
they could have them by first-rate ability. That one or two sculptors
of such rank should be found in any country is the most that can be
looked for; there have been many periods when no genius in this
�436
public Statues tn SLonbon.
difficult art has existed anywhere ; but the man of trained taste would
make this his first rule—to have excellence in sculpture, or give up
the wish for it. There is no pleasure, or life, or honour in a mediocre
statue. Genius can only be duly commemorated by genius.
With the development of sculpture as an art in England the indivi
dual style of the artist becomes also conspicuous, and must hence
forward be carefully considered in any attempt to criticise our public
statues. It may, therefore, be convenient to class them under their
respective sculptors. The first example in which the art raised itself
above the primitive style with which we have been hitherto engaged
was given by Bacon, in the bronze group of George III., which stands
■within the quadrangle of Somerset House; and it still remains one of
the best works in London. We are so familiar with the appearance of
this king in his later years, that it is a surprise to see him here with
the delicate and almost girlish features of his youth, as he might have
looked, before his mind clouded into obstinacy, when he made love to
Lady Sarah Lennox, or gossiped respectfully with Dr. Johnson in the
palace library. The figure is treated in a half-classical style, in a robe
which follows and displays the form, hair bound with a fillet, legs and
arms bare. The limbs are rather timidly modelled, but the attitude
has a fair degree of animation, and the draperies are managed with
carefulness and grace. Bacon, though a sound, was not an imagina
tive artist, like his distinguished contemporary Banks; he is, hence,
not happy in the emblems with which he has grouped the King.
George holds a classical rudder, and a classical galley lies behind him,
balanced on his right side by a lion. In itself this Hon is much better
modelled than those in Trafalgar Square, to be presently described.
The back is particularly good; but through an absurd diminution of
natural size, the effect is altogether thrown away. Below the king
the Thames, figured in Roman fashion as an aged but vigorous man,
reclines, with a vase and an immense “ cornucopia,” which—reversing
the error committed in regard to the lion—is far too large. This
figure is ably and powerfully modelled, but misses the repose of ancient
art: it reveals something of the extravagant taste of the Roman
sculptor Bernini, or of Bacon’s own contemporary, Fuseli. Altogether,
however, this group (especially when its date in our school is con
sidered) ranks as a very creditable work, and teaches a lesson greatly
needed now ;—how much care and completeness may do for the art in
the absence of those high gifts of genius which are only given once
or twice in a century to the sculpture of any country.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Public statues in London. Part 1
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Palgrave, Francis Turner [1821-1893]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 429-436 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From Broadway 1 (1868). Attribution of journal title and date: Virginia Clark catalogue.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[s.n.]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1868]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5341
Subject
The topic of the resource
Legislation
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Public statues in London. Part 1), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Tracts
London
Sculpture
Statues
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/0f775b007fe48b61e5eb5ba660a21e6c.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=ciwrZ8jrbxK5eN64jdIJk3fa2IJclR-OXLIqZ0ApzrXIaCDtI5hL9cZIppASgK2h94r6Vdnn8OmgnqDBjKq1WL7GHkEwZMSrXpkeTf%7EQpwmDPs8SfLy35kNoakBu5OlY0gUXCPLHx5tQAvEzF7nnbYOl6dh1odkUmYqReGE-hpXxBggu8pGgesgBXfEDbg-Sd-1Db-X3EFotmcjaJV-CUH3k8CY7mHvCCPFFtoX5QosG5FAdeCqEQ8m7IjlYnG39zDP0JZSgVMA9QgeYZRFF%7ENhHMiyY-69qviquiSNVhCF%7EBXgIbY5FNTY7itNb5PCv1amhRXo1vYmJL3SJDVcO3Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
ecc5ee945eb4b57db30294994710cf8d
PDF Text
Text
THE CELEBRITIES OF THE CORPS
LEGISLATIF.
By George Makepeace Towle.
I.—ROUHER.
GLANCE at the portrait of M.
Rouher, the
AState, discovers Imperial Minister
of
a peculiarity not
common in Frenchmen. His features
are decidedly of an English type.
Their form and expression have neither
the sensitiveness nor the nervous exci
tability which we are accustomed to see
in the faces of his countrymen ; they
possess rather the fixedness, calmness,
and silent determination of the Eng
lishman. You are even more struck
with this when you see the man him
self, as he sits erect and tranquil on
the Ministerial bench at the Palais
Bourbon. Other French statesmen
are restless, impatient of opposition,
and may often be observed, when
they are being attacked byan opponent,
in so excited a state that they can
scarcely keep their places till he has
finished. Amid all the fierce storms
of the Chamber—and they are far
more frequent than those of the
House of Commons—Rouher alone
seems unmoved, and appears to ob
serve with a kind of cool and compla
cent contempt the efforts of his adver
saries to arouse him. He has all
that presence of mind, that quiet per
severance, that imperturbable self
control, which make up far more
often an English than a French tem
perament. And Rouher, though, like
an Englishman, slow to wrath—or at
least slow to evince it—is great when
he at last turns at bay. Proud, and
perhaps stubborn, he, for a French
man, shows a wonderful patience and
coolness of temper ; but when he is
once roused by an insufferable taunt
from Jules Favre, or an icily stinging
thrust from Emile Ollivier, he throws
himself into the contest with some
thing of that muscular impetuosity
which Fox displayed in his jousts
with Pitt, and which, later on, made
Brougham the terror of the opposite
benches in the House of Commons.
Thus, alike in feature, in manner, and
in character of an English type,
Rouher seems almost out of place in
the midst of his vivacious and easily
excited countrymen ; and perhaps it
has been owing, in some degree, to
his more English qualities, that he
has risen to his present high posi
tion.
It is interesting to sit in the dark
little gallery of the Corps Legislatif,
and note this singular contrast be
tween the Minister of State and his
colleagues.
After you have been
listening with admiration to the
superb "roaring and blowing” of
Favre, that refined and toned-down
Mirabeau ; after you have been wellnigh convinced by the incisive logic
of the veteran Thiers ; after you have
been amused by the fiery vagaries of
Pagds, the Nestor of the revolutionists;
your attention is at once fixed by the
tall and rigid form of the Emperor’s
most trusted counsellor, as he rises to
reply. His air is one of confidence
and command ; the half contemptuous
indifference of his countenance is
also betrayed in his very manner of
getting to his feet. He looks, every
inch of him, the prosperous, selfcomplacent, haughty, well-backed
official. Everything about him be-
���The Celebrities of the Corps Legislatif.
trays the bold minister of an absolute
dynastry. Until recently, Rouher
seemed to be in the lusty vigour of
manhood ; but of late his health has
become feeble» the cares of State have
weighed heavily upon him, and have
given him a much older and more
weary look. Still his countenance is
one of the most suggestive in the
Chamber.
He is taller than the
middle height, well-built, and holds
himself proudly erect. His head is
a remarkably fine one, round, and
well-shaped ; his soft, curly brown
hair is thinning above the broad
and well-curved forehead, over which
a curl is permitted to fall. His dull
gray eye is cold and almost listless,—
but now and then flashes with indig
nation, or in exultant triumph. On
one memorable occasion, years ago,
the momentary brilliancy of his whole
countenance is said to have attracted,
for the first time, the attention of
his colleagues in the Assembly, who
had previously thought him but a
dullish and hard-working official
drudge. In 1850, during his first
term of Minister of Justice, he was
arguing, from the tribune, in favour
of a law restricting the liberties of
the press» He had been interrupted
several times by the cries of that
extreme party which had assumed the
traditional title of the “Mountain”;
at last, one of his sneers at the press
Was greeted by a perfect roar of indig
nation. Turning suddenly to the side
[where the “ Mountain ” party sat,
and leaning over towards them, with
outstretched arms and flashing eyes,
Rouher shouted, “Your Revolution
of February was but a catastrophe !"
The Assembly was greatly excited by
an apostrophe of such import, coming
from a Minister of the President, and
from one who had himself been a
creature of the Revolution ; the say
ing became historical ; and the men
of that day, on hearing it, rightly
predicted that it foreshadowed the
establishment of a Second Empire.
But to return to Rouher, as he appears
on the floor of the Corps Legislatif.
A native of the genial climate of
Auvergne, his complexion is smooth
and sallow, and hardly ruffled by a
single wrinkle; his nose is gently
aquiline and very handsome—of a
pure aristocratic type ; his lips are
full, yet firm-set, his chin round and
somewhat prominent. As he begins
to speak, his voice is low and mono
tonous, his gestures and manner stiff
and formal. He seems to be, except
on rare occasions, almost indifferent
as to the effect he is about to produce,
and to speak less with the object of
persuading than of fulfilling an official
duty. Little desirous, apparently, of
popularity—for he seems to feel that
his strength lies in the unbounded
confidence of Napoleon—-he certainly
has failed to reap it, for no French
statesman is less generally liked. As
he continues to speak, the salient
traits of his character more and more
distinctly appear.
Never off his
guard—always possessing complete
control over his temper—quick to
answer by a short, curt repartee, a
sarcastic interruption—resuming with
ease the thread of his argument—
bold in the assertion of fact—and
subtle in getting over an awkward
point, he strikes you as precisely the
man to defend the policy and gloss
over the errors of a personal govern
ment. Neither his career as a states
man nor his manner as an orator im
presses one with his devotion to any
one great principle ; he seems to be
guided solely by expediency. He
indulges little in the flowers of
rhetoric, and proceeds directly with
his subject.
The close attention
which the Chamber bestows upon
his harangues must be attributed to
another cause than any great fascina
tion in his oratory, As the mouth
piece of the Emperor, he is an oracle.
Upon his lips hang peace or war;
his every word may be—often is—a
prophecy ; he seems to delight in
�74
The Celebrities of the Corps Legislatif
holding the Assembly in suspense,
playing with their curiosity or their
fears, and, after giving each one of
his hearers a sort of mental St. Vitus’s
dance, in coming out suddenly with
a short, bold, emphatic declaration.
For, with all his English-like sang
froid, he has the Frenchman’s love
for the dramatic, and when he finds
it necessary to be clear and definite,
he loves to fashion the scene so that
it shall have an éclatant denoue
ment. Such an episode was that of
last autumn, when the Pope was
making up his mind to be a martyr
to Garibaldian desecration, and was
disappointed by the timely interfer
ence of the Chassepót. Rouher had
been making one of those crafty
speeches which say much without
enlightening anybody, and had sat
down without exposing the intentions
of the Government in reference to
Rome. The crisis was a dangerous
one ; many of the Opposition—among
them Thiers and Berryer—had de
clared for the Pope’s sovereignty, and
the choice of the Emperor must be
given between the Ultramontanes and
the Democrats. The excitement of
the Chamber had reached its height ;
Berryer, Thiers, and the Imperialist
Catholics surrounded the Minister,
and besought him to declare which
side the Government would take.
The deputies watched the little group
with unconcealed anxiety ; the venera
ble Berryer gesticulated vehemently;
Thiers was red with excitement, and
talked rapidly ; Rouher’s features
were immovable, and he stood with
folded arms, looking down, appa
rently indifferent to the appeals made
to him from every side. Finally, his
face lit up as if with a sudden resolu
tion ; a slip of paper, containing a
telegram from the Tuileries, was
placed in his hand. With a quick
step and his head held high in air, he
mounted the steps, and appeared, for
once flushed and nervous, at the rail
of the tribune. The hall was as still
as if it were empty ; the deputies on
all sides leaned forward to catch every
word ; but there was no need of
that, for the speaker’s voice was this
time clear and ringing. " Italy shall
never possess Rome ! Never !” de
clared the Minister; and as he
descended, the Catholic deputies
greeted him with a deafening ovation
of applause.
Rouher seems to be quite wrapped
up in the arduous duties of that office
which has been wittily called, by a liv
ing French writer, the “Ministry of
speech-making.” Although obliged
to appear often in society, he is by no
means a brilliant society-man. He is
affable in private, but talks little, and
is always thoughtful and absent. As
you see him in his superb carriage,
rolling over the smooth asphalte pave
ment of the Rue de Rivoli, he seems
to be in deep reverie ; unmindful of
what is passing around him ; not
conscious, or too proud to seem so,
that all eyes are directed towards
him. Yet he is not wanting in wit;
at least, in that ironical humour
which has its best field in a legisla
tive assembly.
On one occasion,
during the Republic, when it was con
trary to law to speak of the ancient
noblesse by their former titles, Rouher
alluded to M. de Broglie as the Due
de Broglie ; and immediately, with a
fine sense of irony, asked pardon of
the Chamber for his infraction of the
Constitution, and with mock gravity
expressed the hope that his colleagues
would not impeach him for it. But
while at Paris he is the cold, haughty,
energetic Minister, in the warm and
lovely valleys of his native Auvergne
he unbends, and becomes almost
genial. It is a trait in singular con
trast with the character which he ex
hibits in public life, that he cherishes
an unusually strong affection for the
province of his birth. There, and
there only, is he popular ; and there,
and there only, he seems to forget
the cares of public life, and to relax
�The Celebrities of the Corps Legislatif.
the austerity of his bearing. The
citizens of Riom, his native town,
have named the street where he first
saw the light, by his name ; and the
news of his coming is always wel
comed with rejoicing and festivity.
When the Emperor and Empress
visited that part of France, not long
after the coup d'etat, Rouher hastened
on before them ; and, on reaching
Riom, was received by the Mayor,
and presented with an address. He
spoke to his compatriots in a tone so
much more cordial than he had ever
used at Paris, that it was everywhere
remarked ; and assured them that he
had come to “join the ranks of his
compatriots, rather as a private
citizen, in welcoming their Majesties
to his native province, than as a
Minister attendant on the Sovereigns.”
One of the most creditable features of
his public career has been his solici
tude for the welfare of Auvergne.
“I am never,” he said on one occa
sion, addressing his fellow-citizens,
“ far away from you in heart. I
always, with a pious and grateful
care, bring hither all my joys and
griefs, my family emotions, my poli
tical perplexities.”
Rouher is a hard, driving worker.
He is, perhaps, the best administra
tive officer in France. His forte is
said to be finance, and it is owing
to his ability in that department, com
bined with his ease and force as an
orator, that he is sometimes called
the “ Gladstone of France.” He is
early at his office, by no means
fashionably late, according to Pari
sian ideas, in his hour of getting to
work ; he is most careful in the pre
paration of his work, and especially of
his speeches, which are revised again
and again, and are especially replete
with information on the subject which
he treats. He is, as has been already
said, the Emperor’s most trusted
counsellor, and seems to have quite
superseded, in Napoleon’s good graces,
his former and more liberal favourites,
75
Count Walewski and the Due de
Persigny. Indeed, Rouher is believed
to be even less liberal in his opinions
than his chief, and to have been
loth to grant those recent laws on
the press and the right of public
meetings, the good effects of which
are already visible. His aristocratic
tendencies may be traced back to the
period of his youth. Before he was
heard of as a politician, he was a
small provincial advocate, with lofty
ideas, great ambition, and good con
nections. Had not good old patri
archal King Louis Philippe luckily
abolished the naval school of Angou
lême, the haughty Minister of State
might now have been serving as an
obscure lieutenant on board an Im
perial man-of-war, off the coast of
Algeria, or in Oriental seas. In sup
pressing the academy, the Orleans
monarch seems to have also sup
pressed Rouher’s early propensity
to a naval career. Back went the
would-be midshipman to his Auvergne
home ; and he next tried the paternal
and fraternal profession of drawing
deeds and instructing advocates. He
went up to Paris to complete his legal
education ; seems to have chafed
terribly under its dreary' and dusty
monotony ; yet plodded on, nursing
in secret a restless, ambitious soul.
His elder brother, impelled by illhealth, relinquished his practice to
Eugene; and the latter, about the
same time, made a fortunate matri
monial alliance with the daughter of
M. Couchon, Mayor of Clermont,
having admired and courted the future
Madame Rouher during his course of
studies there. Young Rouher’s na
turally conservative ideas, both social
and political, were doubtless intensi
fied by the attack which the canaille
of Clermont made upon his father-inlaw’s house during the uprising of
1842 ; driving the respectable Mayor
out at the back-door, and pillaging it
from cellar to garret.
Law seems to have been fonder of
�7&
The Celebrities of the Corps Legislatif.
him than he of law ; for he achieved a
rapid success at the bar, yet longed
to relinquish it and enter upon a
wider and more notorious career.
In 1846 (being then in his thirtysecond year) he had become so enter
prizing a politician that he had won
the countenance of Guizot, under
whose auspices he stood for the
Chamber of Deputies in his native
town of Riom. The good folk, his
neighbours, had not then learned his
value ; and unceremoniously chose
his antagonist. From that time till
the great “catastrophe” of 1848,
Rouher disappears from our view ;
but soon after the tempestuous days
of February have passed, and those
most uncomfortable disciples of uni
versal fraternity, the Provisional
Government, have installed them
selves at the Hotel de Ville, he again
emerges, now galvanized into an
ardent republican, and is triumphantly
elected deputy from Riom to the
Constituent Assembly. In that unruly
and pugnacious body, Rouher seems
to have been frightened, for the while,
out of his natural boldness.
He
found the task of achieving fame in
revolutionary politics a far harder
one than running after greffiers,
haranguing in a provincial Palace of
Justice, or having now and then a
tilt with the Procureur-General. He
sat long on the back-benches of the
Assembly without making any sign ;
spoke rarely, and did not shine as
orator or as practical legislator ;
and was, during several months a
very common-place, demure, neglected
young deputy. There was one of
his colleagues, however, who had
certain reasons for observing men
at that period, and upon whom the
infrequent speeches of young Rouher
made an impression ; and while the
latter was listened to with provoking
indifference by the greater part of the
Assembly, luckily for him, he was at
that time heard with deep attention
by the “ coming man.” Rouher owes
his eminence to the fact that with
him, in the Constituent Assembly, sat
the returned exile, now deputy for
Paris, Prince Louis Napoleon Bona
parte. His spirit, his perseverance,
his patience, his evident dislike of the
revolution, the care and ease with
which he spoke, were all qualities
likely to be needful to the Prince at a
time not far distant. After the coup
d’etat, Rouher reaped the reward of
long obscurity. He was at once
summoned to the Emperor’s councilboard, and henceforth, with few in
terruptions, basked in the sunshine ot
the Imperial favour.
From this brief sketch of the Min
ister’s not very striking career, it wil
be seen that he is emphatically what
the French call a “ new man.” To
his own qualities alone, and to the
happy accident of his sitting as a de
puty in the same assembly with the
future Emperor, is to be attributed
his success. He is thus a represent
ative man of the Second Empire ; for
that is essentially a régime of new
men. The old Bourbon nobility hold
aloof from it, because it is not Catho
lic enough, and because it is a con
stant refutation of the idea of “di
vine right ” : it is amusing to hear
these heirs of the ancient aristocracy
sneer at Napoleon, and call him an
“ upstart they fairly look down on
him, with that icy though polite con
tempt which is the peculiar privilege
of the blue-blooded descendant of the
Bourbon noblesse ; and when you
think how much the creature of an
upstart should be despised, you may
imagine with what feelings Rouher is
regarded by these fine old Bourbon
gentlemen. He is not less disliked
by the Republicans, who see in him,
as one of the most eloquent of them
once said in the Chamber, “ a recre
ant son of the Revolution.” Billault,
the predecessor of Rouher as Minister
of State, was also an ungrateful child
of the days of February ; but Billault
had a suaviter in modo, a conciliatory
�The Celebrities of the Corps Legislatif.
grace of manner, which Rouher lacks,
and which went far to win for him
the esteem of all parties, notwithstand
ing his desertion of the Republican
cause. Rouher has staked his for
tunes on the stability of the Imperial
throne, and will sink or swim with it.
He will do nothing to win the esteem
Or the support of his opponents. He
repays contempt with contempt, and
thrust with thrust. His vigour, and
the promptness of his ironical wit—
th® latter rather the result of practice
than a natural talent—enable him to
hold his own with the ablest of his
adversaries, and he apparently cares
for no more amiable triumph. He
does not hesitate to retort upon the
Opposition with their own weapons of
invective and irony ; he employs every
little art which the greatest orators
employ, and is an adept at that fo
rensic fencing—that thrusting and
parrying, slashing and throwing off
guard—for which the Corps Legislatif
is the most notable of arenas.
Rouher’s public life has been
marked by many changes in France.
It would be unjust to him not to at
tribute to his administration many of
those improvements and adornments
which the Empire has received within
the past ten years. Both Paris and
the departments have visibly changed
their aspect. The sumptuous metro
polis has been decorated and made
more spacious, and becomes every
year more splendid than before. In
the provinces, roads are being built,
Schools are multiplying, the condi
tion of the towns is becoming more
healthy, and all the benefits of a per
sonal régime are appearing. The po
lice system is a perfect machine in the
effectiveness with which it works. The
public offices are in a state of order
and efficiency before unknown.
But perhaps the greatest triumph of
Rouher’s career was the Commercial
Treaty with England. English in his
personal appearance, and in many
traits of his character, the Minister
77
of State is also a firm believer in
many English ideas, and an earnest
advocate of alliance and friendship
between England and France. The
reader may not have forgotten that he
came to England on the occasion of
the second Universal Exhibition of
London. He was cordially received
as a well-known friend of the alliance;
and in answer to the address by which
Earl Granville welcomed him, the
Minister replied: “Every invoice
which is signed to-day at Birming
ham and Manchester, at Mulhouse
and Rheims, is one more blow, aiding
to destroy whatever germs of hate
may yet exist between our two coun
tries. Each one is another guarantee
of that peace which is so necessary
to the progress of these two peoples,
and to the civilization of the world.”
It is hard for an Englishman to
imagine how fierce was the opposition
to free trade in France. To establish
it was nothing less than to risk another
revolution. Cobden’s noble task, with
a less courageous Minister,would have
been hopeless. But Rouher saw both
its commercial benefits to France, and
its importance as another bond of
amity between his own country and
England. The Emperor, resembling
Rouher in courage, in clear-sighted
ness, and in friendliness for England,
took his Minister’s advice : and Cob
den was able to return successful in
his mission. They bravely met the
storm which burst upon them from
every part of the Empire ; and the
result has proved that Napoleon III.
could have had no more sagacious ad
viser than his Minister of State. One
of the most successful and eloquent
speeches Rouher ever delivered—one
in which he showed more earnestness
than in almost any other he ever pro
nounced—was that, last spring, in
which he defended the Cobden
Treaty, and triumphantly refuted the
assertion that the distress of France
during the winter was owing to that
great measure.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The celebrities of the Corps Legislatif. 1: Rouher
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Towle, George Makepiece
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: [72] -75 p. : Ill. (port. with tissue guard) ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. The Corps législatif was a part of the French legislature during the French Revolution and beyond. Printed in double columns. From The Ocean Broadway. Date of publication from Virginia Clark's catalogue.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[n.d.]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1868]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5304
Subject
The topic of the resource
French Revolution
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The celebrities of the Corps Legislatif. 1: Rouher), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Tracts
Eugene Rouher
France-History-1789-1793
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/2b68de7643a3956982aa1680c761a8b7.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=EMgezTZAqn1I9Bs8VeN2uO-Iw67MmsQN3BO3hDufvRXb3IlG6fFd7-5EjXBZyioyOdTnDtmi0zmnTU8OTWgbYSxSFyHAE%7EtOiOJTy4rGIHVZPjodEpKN0XMbldKG6yJEP9W6MPP8QSRJBLi5OzkZJw%7EM0rg03aQbueAblAzs157J7RUam7ueRk%7Eq6cduorCKrqUzwygTfNbS%7ElKnKjYw7QkrsaBhELOY2tC1HGGCIWcIv8agDNOjN1z-E8wI5hf1KVqXxl-HSBi0dxjcfomCDnU2EyyUZXEWVM3HfPWZXn3t8GHWhNTSDfozR-Z4UW6X87V5T5uR-%7E0A59-2Zw4Ffg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
cf7ffd363df5d249e2057c4d25713aa9
PDF Text
Text
CHRISTIAN SCHEME OF REDEMPTION.
By Charles Watts, Secretary of the National
Secular Society.
It is taught by believers in orthodox Christianity that about
6,000 years ago Adam and Eve fell from a state of purity and
perfection by an act of transgression. That act, it is urged, in
volved all races of men throughout all time in depravity and
punishment. It was thought necessary, therefore, that some plan
should be devised whereby “ fallen humanity ” should be redeemed
from the consequences of the disobedience said to have been com
mitted in the garden of Eden, To obtain this redemption the
Christian scheme of salvation was originated. What this scheme
is has been variously explained by different schools of theologians,
all of whom, however, have professed to base their explanations on
Bible teachings. The Augustinian school held that mankind were
doomed to hell through the fall of Adam, and that Christ’s death
cancelled the sin committed, and thus saved them from being
utterly lost. The Calvinists believe that God foresaw that Adam
would fall, and that posterity would thereby be damned, and there
fore selected a few termed the elect, to be saved, while the many
will be lost. Before, however, this partial salvation could ob
tain, it was deemed necessary that Christ’s life should be sacri
ficed as a vicarious punishment for the misdoings of our “ first
parents.” This belief is so unjust and inhuman in its naked form,
that those who still retain it have to modify it considerably in
their advocacy. If it be true- that God foresaw that Adam would
fall, and that posterity would be damned, should he not as a bene
ficent, all-powerful being have prevented the calamity altogether ?
or, failing in this, have included the whole human race among the
“ elect ?” The Evangelical Christians suppose that the vicarious
sufferings of Christ obtained conditional pardon. In order, how
ever, for persons to partake of the advantages of those sufferings,
they must have faith that Christ died as a substitute, that is, that
the innocent was punished for the guilty. This is justice peculiar
to Christianity. The Roman Catholic, while teaching the fall of
man and his salvation through Christ, also teaches that none will
be saved unless they accept the authority of the Church and
observe her rites. This of course is priestcraft, but then what
religious sect is there which has not its priests p The difference
between Catholicism and Protestantism upon this point is, that
while the Catholic is honest and acknowledges the necessity of a
priesthood, the Protestant is dishonest in denying its right, and at
the same time practising its evils. The principle in both eases is
�the same, it differs only in degree. The Universalists consider
that no one is damned beyond his personal sin in this world. If
he be ever so vile, all evil at death departs, and he is ushered into
heaven, pure and spotless. It must be very gratifying to the
immoral and licentious hypocrite thus to believe that his career of
debauchery will be no barrier to his admission into the eelestial
city. The Unitarians, rejecting all the above theories, regard
the object of Christ’s life, rather than his death, to be the
reconciliation of man to God. Relying on such Biblical state
ments as “ Every man shall die for his own sin
“ To
punish the just is not good “ In burnt-offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure;” they consider the popuiar
views of the atonement fallacious. This diversity of opinion m
the Christian world as to the nature and object of the scheme of
redemption, indicates its perplexing character. Apart from sec
tarian interpretations, .the Bible plan of the atonement appears to
he that nearly 6,000 years ago, an all-wise, all-powerful, beneficent God created the world, and then set man in the midst of
a scene, surrounded bv temptations it was impossible for him to
withstand; God implanted in man’s breast certain desires which, as
God, he must have known would produce man’s ruin. A tree is then
placed by God near Adam, bearing the very fruit which God
must have been aware would meet those desires which he had
just planted in the mind of Adam. God, all good, then makes a
serpent of the worst possible kind, in order that it might be suc
cessful in tempting Adam to eat. After this, God commands
Adam not to eat of the fruit under the penalty of death, knowing
at the same time that Adam would eat of it and not die. God
allows the serpent to succeed in his plan, and then curses the very
ground for yielding the tree which he (God) had caused to grow.
Not content with this, the Almighty dooms both man and woman
to a life of pain and sorrow •, further, he assures them that their pos
terity shall feel the terrible effects of their doing what it was impos
sible for them to avoid. At length the unchangeable God change^
his mind, he will no longer commit wholesale injustice, tie determines to send his Son, who is as old as himeeli, and therefore
not his son, to die, but who is invested with immortality and
therefore cannot die, to atone for wrongs which had never been
committed, by people who had never been born, and who conse*
quently could not very conveniently commit anv error. As a
conclusion to the whole, this all-merciful being has prepared a
ma erial fire of brimstone, to burn the immaterial souls of ibose
who fail to see the necessity and justice of this jumble of cruelty
and ah.-urdity.
Such is the Cbrisitian scheme of redemption. And the first
objection to it is that it is opposed to the attributes Christians
ascribe to God. They believe, or think they believe, that the God
head is composed of three persons of one substance, power, and
�3
eternity. On this supposition, the first person could have no
virtue not possessed by the other two. Admitting, then, that
infinite justice demanded that an atonement should be made to
God rhe Father, a like plea could be urged for atonement to God
the Son, and atonement to God the Holy Ghost. For as the
three persons are indivisible, the‘‘transgression” was made against
all equally. But we do not read of any sacrifice being made to
the last two persons in the Trinity; the redemption is therefore
incomplete. Again, the three persons being one in substance,
could a part be wrathful and a part merciful? The Nev Testa
ment speaks of God’s wrath ; and it was from this that the atone
ment was to save us, according to the teachings of Christians, in
cluding sueh writers as Flavel, Wesley, and Dr. Watts. If God
and Christ, however, are not. distinct, the one eouid not be
vengeful and the other forgiving at the same time. Thus this
scheme robs the Trinity of the virtue of forgiveness. And really
this is so. The first person demands payment before granting
pardon ; the second exacts belief as the condition of salvation ; and
the third refuses forgiveness for sin against himself under any cir
cumstances. The same difficult’ is manifested in the dea'h of a
part of the indivisible Godhead. If Christ alone died and remained
lifeless in the grave for three days, he was not equal in eternity
to his father; if on the other hand the whole of the DGry expired,
then we have the spectacle of a dying and dead God, and the
world for a time subsisting without a God to govern it. To say
that it was only the manhood of Christ which suffered, is to advance
another difficulty by allying humanity with divinity, thus adding
a fourth part to the Trinity, and destroying the perfection of the
whole. For where the human element is, there cannot be perfec
tion. And, moreover, on the Christian theory, a mere human
death was not adequate to redeem all humanity; for this, the
suffering and death of a divine being were required.
It will be seen that there were two principal causes which
were supposed to render the scheme of redemption necessary.
First, the alleged sin on the part of Adam, and secondly the
enmity between God and man which is stated to have resulted
from the partaking of the fruit. Now, were these causes real?
Was there any sin in the case, and did enmiry exist ? Samuel
Taylor Coleridge says, " Sin must be a state origin ant in the will
of the actor, entirely independent of circumstances extrinsic of that
will.” Evidently there was no such sin as this on Adam’s part,
for the Bible shows that he was not independent of external
circumstances, but rather that it was by the force of those
circumstances that he was impelled to do what he did. Can it be
deemed sinful to do that which cannot be avoided ? As to enmity,
if God exists and he created man, he either created the enmity or
else man acquired it apart from him. God could not have created
it j for being infinitely good, how could he have implanted that
�4
which was bad in his children ? Man could not have acquired it
apart from God, inasmuch as there is nothing but what is from
God.
It may here be suggested that if this act of redemption was
necessary, it should have been made immediately after Adam’s
transgression, so as to have prevented a single generation going
to the grave with the curse of original sin unremoved. B it
according to Bible chronology, God was not disposed to show his
fatherly care too soon. He allowed 4,000 years to elapse, and
numbers of generations not only to live and die, but to run riot in
all descriptions of ignorance and iniquity, ere the tardy reparation
was made. Why was this ? Did it take God—to whom consi
deration of time is said to be as nothing - 4,000 years to dete. mine
how to get out of the difficulty which he himself had created?
This Cannot be, for according to the Bible, God had the whole
plan of the atonement arranged before Adam’s fall. Was it that
Christ hesitated to obey his Father’s decree ? If no man could
be saved except those who believed in Christ, what has become of
those millions of human beings who passed away prior to his
birth? and what will be the fate of those now living, who have
never heard and never will hear the name of Jesus of Nazareth ?
Were the former saved by anticipation, and will the latter be
excused on account of their ignorance? If so, where was the
necessity of the atonement at all ? If men could enter heaven
without the crucifixion, then Christ need not have suffered at any
period. His sorrow, agony, and bloody sweat, might all have been
avoided, and numbers of saints might have died quietly in their
beds, instead of enduring tortures at the stake or on the rack.
Besides, if ignorance of this scheme will save from damnation, is
it not useless and cruel to send missionaries to the heathens with
the “glad tidings?” Let them not know of it, and they cannot
be punished for rejecting it; inform them of it, and their eternal
happiness becomes at least doubtful, for their diversity of organi
sation and education ensures that not all can accept it as true. As
already stated, if the death of Christ was absolutely necessary to
redeem the world, it was unjust upon the part of God to permit
4,000 years to elapse before the people had the benefit of his
atoning blood. If on the other hand, the crucifixion of the Saviour
was not required to restore a lost race, then it was a most cruel
and unnatural act for a father to give his son to a rabble mob to
be tortured and executed, amidst the exultation of a disappointed
and fanatical people. Again, if it was desirable and praiseworthy
upon the part of God to send his Son to save the world from
eternal damnation, how is it that when he did arrive, so many
nations were kept in ignorance of his mission and purpose ? Even
the Jews, God’s peculiar people, had no knowledge whatever that
incarnate deity was about to expire on the cross. If the regenera
tion of the world was really the object of Christ, how much better
�5
would it have been if, instead of ascending to heaven to sit at the
right hand of his Father, he had remained on earth, preaching
practical truths, and showing by constant personal example how
the world could be rescued from that moral and intellectual
darkness and despair, to which 4,000 years of a corrupted theology
had reduced it. This would have been the true salvation, the best
redemption, and the only atonement necessary for the welfare and
progress of mankind.
The scheme of redemption is also objectionable, because of its
essential injustice in teaching that the innocent was made to suffer
for the guilty. Justice has been defined to “ consist in rendering
to every one according to his moral deserts; good if he be good,
and evil if evil; for the purpose of promoting goodness and dis
couraging guilt ” If Christ, therefore, was without sin, as stated
in the New Testament, was it not unjust to punish him for the
misdoings of others? Suppose a parent who has seven children,
six of whom are bad, and the seventh good. Would it be deemed
right on the part of this parent to punish his innocent child be
cause the other children were disobedient ? Such injustice would
ensure for its perpetrator emphatic condemnation. If a judge,
knowingly, were to sentence to death an innocent man as the sub8vitute for a criminal, his judicial position would be forfeited and
his conduct regarded with horror and detestation. No govern
ment would retain the confidence of the people of this country, if
it were to introduce a measure enacting that all priests should
die a lingering death in prison, simply because their predecessors,
in outbursts of religious fury, violated the law of right and equality,
and defiled the earth with human slaughter. Recognising this indig
nant condemnation by human nature of one of the leading principles
of the atonement doctrine, can we consist ently ascribe an act to
God which his creatures would blush to perform ? Besides, the
doctrine manifests cruelty in proclaiming that, although we had no
control over the deeds of Adam, still we are all “ born in siu and
shapened in iniquity.” The moment we enter this life, in our in
fantile helplessness, our childish simplicity, our youthful innocence,
we are the victims of the wrath of God. Granting that in the
earliest period of the world’s history a sin was committed, will that
justify a wrong being wrought upon us ? are we on that account
to be banished from eternal bliss, to be condemned to eternal
agony ? If so, the conduct of God to man is fiendishly cruel and
unjust; and we, though unable to resist his power, must rightly
scorn and detest his evil nature.
It is frequently asserted by defenders of the atonement doctrine,
that in this world, in the course of nature, the innocent suffer for
the guilty. As for instance, in the case of drunkards and debau
chees, who transmit disease and debility to their offspring. The
assertion, however, is groundless. The children referred to do not
suffer Jor, but through the vices of their parent^. Moreover, in
�6
such suffering, there is no punishment. The children of criminal
parents are not charged with guilt simply on account of their birth.
But, according to orthodoxy. Christ was punished for the sins of
the world, which were expressly imputed to him.
The inconsistency of this scheme of redemption is as palpable as
are its cruelty and injustice. We are told that the death of Christ
was ordained before the foundation of the world; and we are like
wise told that man was created perfect and immortal. The incon
sistency here is so glaring, that it is really marvellous how it can
pass undetected. If it was ordained that the Son of God should
die for the redemption of the world, the transgressions of Adam
and Eve were only a part of God’s plan, and certainly did not
merit any curse but rather a blessing. To urge that man had a
free will does not remove the difficulty. If man had any choice
in the matter, and supposing he had chosen differently, God’s plans
would have been thwarted. The scheme implies that man was so
made, that he could follow but one course, the course which should
ultimately lead to the sacrifice of Christ. Thus the fourth Gospel
tells us that Christ, knew from the beginning that Judas would
betray him. Further, if the mission of Christ on earth would have
been fruitless unless he was crucified, then, instead of denouncing
unfortunate Judas, he should be considered by Christians as a hero
worthy of having a monument erected to his memory. Now, if the
death of Christ was pre-ordained, so also was “ the fall of man ”
for the one depends upon the other. “ For as in Adam all died,
so in Christ shall all be made alive.” If this be true, it was im
possible for man to be created perfect. But the very fact of man’s
“ falling,” or giving way to temptation, must be a proof of his
imperfection. Again, notwithstanding that Christ is represented'
as having made a full and complete satisfaction for all sin, that we
may secure a share of what Christ died for, we are to lead a life of
sacrifice and penitence,whether it agrees with our honest opinion or
not. If Christ did pay the debt for our sin,why should we be called
upon to make a second payment ? Another inconsistency is to be
found between the statement that God sent his Son to save the whole
world, and the conduct of Christ while on earth. If universal
salvation was the object of Christ’s advent among men, his mission
has been a decided failure. Christ, however, never attempted to
achieve this result. While thousands were dying without the
knowledge of the Messiah, he, instead of going among the vast
heathen nations, imparting what information he had, remained
hurling bitter reproaches at the Pharisees in his own insignificant
country. But Christ did not come to save the whole world ; his
oyyn words clearly and unmistakably deny the supposition. His
mission was to the Jews and the Jews alone. And even among
them his labours were not crowned with success. Following Christ
to the close of his career, have we not a “sorry sight ” in behold
ing the culmination of inconsistency as manifested in the garden
�7
of Gethsemane p Here we see a man, who all his life had preached
•the utility of a faith, which it was said not only afforded consola
tion through life, but was also capable of robbing death of its
terrors; yet when the hour of death approached, when the period
had arrived for him to prove to the world the efficacy of this faith,
we find him tortured with agony and racked with fear. In that
acene, which was not only to rivet the attention of an amazed mul
titude, but also to consecrate a life of divinity—a scene which was
?»ot only to be the great climax to the scheme of redemption, but
was also to remain a lasting monument of love to a wondering
peapie ; at this moment when the hopes of his believers were about
to be sealed, when he should have maintained his position bravely
and nobly, we find him weak, vacillating, and in bitter despair
praying that the cup might pass from him. Where do we find
consistency in this doctrine of atonement ? Is it in the conduct
of its hero, who came to die for man, yet when about to fulfil his
destiny, implored to be allowed to evade the task ? Is it in the
assertion that finite man had committed an infinite offence against
an infinite God, and that therefore an infinite atonement was
necessary, while we nevertheless learn that it was only the
manhood of Christ that suffered ? If this be correct, it was after
all but a finite atonement. Is it in teaching 'hat. Christ came as a
voluntary sacrifice, yet was betrayed by man p Is it in condemn
ing the majority of mankind because they are fulfilling 'he decree
of their God ? Is it in beholding a God of love and kindness in
flicting unnecessary torture upon his sensitive Son? Is it in our
being informed by the voice of Christ that by asking he could
obtain any amount of assi.-tance from his rather, while yet we find
that his fervent supplications were unheeded and his dying prayers
unanswered p Finally, is it in contemplating the m^rcv of a God,
Who having placed his Son on a felon’s cross, allows that Son to
yield rjp a sorrowful life, after uttering unavailing reproaches in
those memorable words,l' My God 1 my God! why hast thou
forsaken me ?”
Of what use has the Christian scheme of Redemption been to
man ? Has it abolished the supposed effects of Adam’s fall p Has
it improved the condition of the people? Have we lesspain and
misery, less folly and ignorance, less crime and injustice through
the advent of Christ? Are Christians more valiant and virtuous
than were the ancient Romans ? Has the erec’ion of the Cross
frightened the miscreant or appalled the tyrant? Has the voice
from the height of Calvary reached the cap’ive, and set fhe slaye
free? Has it destroyed error and cemented truth? Has it de
throned wrong and established right ? In short, has it abolished
ignorance, crime, and oppression, and made knowledge, virtue, and
justice permanent ? Has it produce.) such conditions of society
as render it impossible for man t® be depraved or poor ? In
the powerful words of the great Frenchman: “Two thousand
�years have passed, during which entire nations have knelt before
a gibbet, adoring in the sufferer who gave himself up to death—
the Saviour of mankind. And yet what slavery still! What
lepers m our moral world! What unfortunate beings in the
visible and feeling world! What triumphant iniquity, what
tyranny enjoying at its ease the scandal of its own impunity I
The Saviour has come—whence comes salvation ?”
Once impress the minds of the people with the idea that this
scheme of Redemption is true, and they are then made ready
recipients for a gloomy faith. If we lament the poverty and
wretchedness we behold, we are told that Deity has pronounced
that “ the poor shall never cease out of the land.” If we seek to
remove the sorrow and despair existing around us, we are reminded
that they were “ appointed curses to the sons of Adam.” If we
work to improve our condition, we are taught that we should
learn to be content, to remain “ in that state of life in which it
has pleased God to call us.” When we endeavour to improve our
minds, to cultivate our intellects, we come in contact with the
statement, that we are of ourselves unable to do any good
thing.” If we seek to promote the happiness of others, we are
assured that faith in Christ is of more importance than labour
for man. Talk of redemption !—what can redeem us from all this
wrong, all this misappropriation, and all this folly? For nearlv
1 800 years have Christians preached “ Christ and him crucified ’’
to a misguided and wronged world. We of the nineteenth cen
tury have but a vague idea of the extent of the influence this
doctrine once exercised over the minds of its believers. Although
this erroneous faith is now giving way, there are still thousands
and myriads who, despite all its inconsistency and injustice, sin
cerely believe that man’s eternal happiness depends upon the
belief in the efficacy of the blood said to have been shed on Mount
Calvary. This is the doctrine which has so permeated the minds
of orthodox Christians, stifling their reason and perverting their
judgment, till they cherish the forlorn delusion that the reasonings
of philosophers, the enchantments of poets, and the struggles of
patriots, are all worse than useless unless purified by the “ atoning
blood of the Lamb.” It is against such delusions that we protest.
It is this doctrine which fosters the erroneous and retarding belief,
that every thought which does not aspire to the throne of Christ,
every action which is not sanctioned by his “ scheme of salvation,”
every motive which does not proceed from a love to the “ Saviour
of the world,” should be discouraged as antagonistic to our real
progress in life.
PRICE ONE PENNY.
London : Printed and Published by C . W A T T s, 17, Johnson’s
Court Fleet Street E.C,
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Christian scheme of redemption
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Watts, Charles [1836-1906]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 8 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Date of publication from KVK (OCLC WorldCat). Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[C. Watts]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1868]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
N659
Subject
The topic of the resource
Christianity
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The Christian scheme of redemption), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Christianity
NSS
Redemption
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/886b0dee9bfe1d02569e9288a73f0ec6.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=dgw1MybP7H%7EYFeQrGrlE6SDD0bqGX9je3-n6NTD1Sj8SSfE193K6Q1SniYGOo63-4-s-2pwCs0c9W%7EiNZz4K0S%7EYY%7EEB6KRSx-6Nm9LcbEN-U0z2psECq6Th5VpLaDSoNmS8kkYufzPiCOG78JX50NK7ADFSUka81iT6yKtF6WRWUJjLzUDat2ixzxDpR8gzFv-qBU18mT890aM1WLzcMfZrNy7Ih0ecB-QV5aZ68zloNJAAdwJ%7Etwg9VXqERt5O7hBliw-W5mDYVtx6mn3ZSRGoood2hEZV5VWey2eornAGTKr8puuGzwDvy%7EcsdOcc44cbHSJwkxJPt0QfboGiYA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
9722b50d4c5abe162a404b6d28b7fa54
PDF Text
Text
T 'JET K/
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
AT ITHACA, N. Y.
FIRST GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT.
TRUSTEES.
*His Excellency, REUBEN E. FENTON, Governor.
*His Honor STEWART L. WOODFORD, Lieutenant-Governor.
*Hon. WILLIAM HITCHMAN, Speaker.
*Hon. THOMAS H. FAILE, President State Agricultural Society
*Hon. VICTOR M. RICE, Superintendent of Public Instruction.
*Hon. EZRA CORNELL, Chairman of Board of Trustees.
*Hon. ANDREW D. WHITE, President of the University.
*FRANCIS M. FINCH, Esq., Librarian Cornell Public Libra/ry.
*ALONZO B. CORNELL, Esq., Ithaca.
Hon. HORACE GREELEY, New York.
Hon. EDWIN D. MORGAN, New York.
Hon. ERASTUS BROOKS,k New York.
Hon. WILLIAM KELLY, Rhinebeck.
Gen. J. MEREDITH READ, Albany.
Hon. GEORGE H. ANDREWS, Springfield, Otsego Co.
Hon. ABRAM B. WEAVER, Deerfield, Onf.tda Co.
Hon. CHARLES J. FOLGER, Geneva.
Hon. EDWIN B. MORGAN, Aurora.
Hon. JOHN M. PARKER, Owego.
*
HIRAM SIBLEY, Esq., Rochester.
Hon. JOSIAH B. WILLIAMS, Ithaca.
Hon. GEORGE W. SCHUYLER, Ithaca, Treas.ofthe University,
WILLIAM ANDRUS, Esq., Ithaca.
JOHN McGRAW, Esq., Ithaca.
* Trustees Ex Officio.
��RESIDENT PROFESSORS.
HON. ANDREW D. WHITE, EL. D.,
PRESIDENT AND PROP. OP HISTORY.
EVAN W. EVANS, M. A.,
PROP. OF MATHEMATICS.
WILLIAM CHANNING RUSSELL, M. A.,
PROP. OF SOUTH EUROPEAN LANGUAGES AND ASSOCIATE PROF. OF HISTORY.
ELI WHITNEY BLAKE, M. A., PH. D.,
PROF. OF PHYSICS AND INDUSTRIAL MECHANICS.
GEORGE C. CALDWELL, M. S., PH. D.,
PROF. OP AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.
JAMES M. CRAFTS, M. S., PH. D.t
PROF. OF GENERAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY.
BURT G. WILDER, M. D.,
PROF. OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY AND NATURAL HISTORY.
JOSEPH HARRIS,
PROF. OF PRACTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL AGRICULTURE.
Major JOSEPH H. WHITTLESEY (U. S. Army),
PROF. OF MILITARY SCIENCE.
LEBBEUS H. MITCHELL, B. A., PH. D.,
PROF. OF MINING AND METALLURGY.
DANIEL WILLARD FISKE, M. A., PH. D.,
PROF. OF NORTH EUROPEAN LANGUAGES AND LIBRARIAN.
The following are to be elected in July and September.
PROF. OF MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL PHILOSOPHY.
PROF. OF GENERAL, ECONOMIC AND AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY.
PROF. OF CIVIL ENGINEERING.
PROF. OF ANCIENT LANGUAGES.
*
�4
FACULTY.
PROF. OF BOTANY, HORTICULTURE AND ARBORICULTURE.
PROF. OF RHETORIC, ORATORY AND VOCAL CULTURE
NON-RESIDENT PROFESSORS AND LECTURERS.
LOUIS AGASSIZ, LL. D.,
prof, of natural history
.
(20 Lectures).
Hon. FREDERICK HOLBROOK, LL. D.,
PROF. OF MECHANICS APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE (12 Lectures)
JAMES HALL, LL. D.,
PROF. OF GENERAL GEOLOGY (12 Lectures).
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, M. A.,
PROF. OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
(12 Lectures).
Hon. GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS, M. A.,
PROF. OF RECENT LITERATURE
(12 Lectures).
Hon. THEODORE W. DWIGHT, LL. D.
PROF. OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND LECTURER ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED
states
(13 Lectures).
The following are to be elected at an early day.
PROF. OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.
PROF. OF RURAL ECONOMY AND ARCHITECTURE.
PROF. OF AMERICAN HISTORY.
PROF. OF VETERINARY SURGERY AND BREEDING OF ANIMALS.
PROF. OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY AND LECTURER ON INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION.
S
*
>
�CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
FIRST GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT.
The first term of the Cornell University, at Ithaca, N. Y.,
will open on the last Wednesday in September, 1868, with the
inauguration of’ the President and Professors.
The examination of candidates for admission will be con
ducted by the Professors elect in the several departments, on
the Monday and Tuesday preceding.
Though students can be received at a later period, it is
greatly desired that they appear on Monday and Tuesday as
above.
The organization of Divisions, Departments, Courses and
Classes will immediately follow the inauguration exercises, and
there will be no delay in the commencement of instruction.
All instruction at the University will be comprehended
under two Divisions.
I. The Division of Special Sciences and Arts.
II. The Division of Science, Literature, and the Arts in
GENERAL.
Departments and Courses, in these two Divisions, will be
organized as follows:
I. DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCIENCES AND ARTS.
1. The Department of Agriculture.
2.
“
“
The Mechanic Arts.
3.
“
“
Civil Engineering.
4.
“
“
Military Engineering and Tactics.
5.
“
“
Mining and Practical Geology.
6.
“
“
History, Social and Political Science.
�6
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
In all the instruction in these Departments a constant effort
will be made to educate men to speedily become practically
useful in developing the resources and in aiding in the general
progress of the country.
In the DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, science and
practice will go together, not to rear a body of amateur agri
culturists, but to bring scientific methods to bear in ordinary
agriculture, so that, tried by an economic test, the result shall be
to advance the prosperity of the country. Special attention
will be given to the education of young men, ambitious to
become instructors and professors in the numerous agricultural
colleges now rising in nearly all the States of the Union.
In the DEPARTMENT OF THE “ MECHANIC ARTS,”
science will also be applied to practice, fitting men to take
positions of influence and usefulness, in developing the manu
facturing and mechanical resources and interests of the country.
Special attention will be paid to the practical education of
those who wish to take charge of manufactories and work-shops
of various sorts.
In the DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING the
same idea of making thoroughly scientific men for speedy prac
tical use will be carried out.
The DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY ENGINEERING
AND TACTICS is placed under the supervision of graduates
of the National Academy at West Point.
The DEPARTMENT OF MINING AND PRACTICAL
GEOLOGY has for its aim the fitting of men to develop the
vast mineral resources of the nation. When it is considered
* what immense losses have been incurred under the manage
ment of unscientific or half-scientific men, the importance of
this Department will be recognized. Situated, as the Univer
sity is, near one of the greatest mining districts of the United
States, it presents special attractions to all students desiring
real preparation for work of the kind contemplated.
In the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, SOCIAL AND
POLITICAL SCIENCE, the need of the country for a higher
and more thorough education for the public service, will be
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
7
constantly kept in view. Principles, as thought out hy Econo
mists, Statesmen and Historians, will be constantly applied to
what has been actually wrought out in society. The trustees
will endeavor, in questions of Political Economy, upon which
good and able men differ, to have both sides ably presented and
discussed. No attempt will be made, however, to proselyte
students to any peculiar or partisan views.
II. DIVISION OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND TILE
ARTS IN GENERAL.
1. First General Course, or “Modern Course.”
This will extend through four years. To Modern Languages,
which have become so indispensable in a good education,
will be mainly assigned the place and labor usually given to
Ancient Languages. The course will be suited to the needs of
students, so far as possible, by the allowance of options-between
studies in the latter years of the course, on a plan somewhat
similar to that lately adopted at Harvard University.
2. “Modern Course Abridged.”
This course will extend through three years. This, as well
as the abridged courses which follow, are intended to meet the
needs of those students who have not time for a full general
course. It will give the main studies of the extended course,
the subordinate studies being omitted so as to decrease the time
one year.
3. Second General Course, or “ Combined Course.”
This course will extend through four years. In this the lan
guages studied will be Latin and German, the remainder of the
course being essentially the same as the “ General Course.” To
those who wish to make a thorough study of Modern Languages
this course will be valuable, as combining the most useful parts,
practically, of the courses usually pursued in Colleges, with a
broader course; giving the two sides of all the great Modern
Languages and literatures, including our own, and aiding the
�8
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
scientific student greatly in the literature and nomenclature of
science.
4. “ Combined Course Abridged.”
This wifi extend through three years.
character.
Its name explains its
5. Third General Course, or “ Classical Course.”
This will be mainly like the “First General Course,” with
the option of Ancient Languages for Modern. While making
full provision, in other courses, for Scientific instruction, full
attention will be given, in this course, to Classical instruction.
The aim will constantly be to provide a Classical Course, as
full and thorough as that of any College in the land—to make,
not smatterers, but sound classical scholars; to strengthen the
student, by giving him an insight into the great thoughts of
great thinkers—not to burden his mind with scraps of doubtful
philosophy and second-hand pedantry.
6. “ Scientific Course.”
This will extend through three years, affording a general
scientific preparation for either of the first four departments in
the “ First Division,” as named above. A special effort will be
made to bring this department fully up to the needs of the
times, both by the course adopted and by the professors elected
to maintain it.
7. Scientific Course Abridged.
This will extend through two years. Its name explains its
character.
8. Optional Course.
This is similar to that allowed American students in the
greater German Universities; also like the “Select Course” at
the University of Michigan ; and which, in both cases, has been
very successful. In this course the student, on consultation
with friends and the appropriate instructors, selects any three
studies for which he may be fitted, from the whole range of
studies pursued in .the entire University, follows them up to
*
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
9
such a point as may be agreed upon, and receives, from the
Governing Board of the University, at the completion of his
work, a certificate, showing the extent of the course he has
taken.
9. Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates.
Appropriate degrees, attested by diplomas or certificates, wiii
be conferred upon all students passing satisfactorily through
any of the above named departments or courses. But it is
thoroughly to be understood that no distinction will be made
between the courses extending through four years, as to the
name, character or value of the degree or diploma, and the
trustees pledge themselves to use every effort to prevent any
caste-spirit in any department or course as compared with
another. It is intended to confer the degree of A. B. (Bachelor
of Arts) on all students wTho shall have satisfactorily passed
either of the above courses, requiring four years of study.
It is intended to confer the degree of B. S. (Bachelor of Science)
on all students passing through the “ Scientific Course” (No. 6),
requiring three years of study.
REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION.
General Requirements. ’
All candidates for admission to any department or course
must present satisfactory evidences of good moral character.
All candidates for admission to any of the special depart
ments in the “First Division ” must be at least sixteen years
of age. All candidates for admission to any of the courses of
the “ Second Division ” must be at least fifteen years of age.
Candidates for advanced standing will be examined in the
previous studies of the course which they purpose to enter, and
if they come from another College or University will present
certificates of honorable dismission.
Entering the University will be considered a pledge to obey
its rules and regulations.
Candidates for admission to any department or course must
have received a good common English education, and be
2
�10
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
morally, mentally and physically qualified to pursue to advan
tage the course of study to which they purpose to give their
attention.*
Special Requirements.
Department oe Civil Engineering- and Archi
Military Engineering and Tactics, and Mining and
Practical Geology. In addition to the general requirements,
candidates will be examined in the whole of Elementary and
Plane Geometry.
2. For the “ Combined Course ” in the Second Division, in
which Latin is taken as an optional study in place of one of
the Modern Languages, in addition to the general require
ments the candidate will be examined in Caesar’s Commen
taries, Cicero’s Select Orations, six books of the EEneid and
forty-five exercises in Arnold’s Prose Composition, or in a
course equivalent to this.
3. For the “ Third General Course,” or “ Classical
Course,” an examination will be made similar to that for enter
ing the first year at the existing Colleges of a good grade.
1. In
the
tecture,
Of Candidates Imperfectly Prepared.
For candidates* found to be of good mental quality, but
defective in preparation, provision will be made for special pre
paratory instruction in a department separate and distinct, but
under the control and direction of the University Faculty,
until such students are fully competent to enter the University.
Students intending to enter are urged to give their main atten
tion, from the time of receiving this circular, to strengthening
themselves in a “sound, ordinary English education
such
as can be obtained in every good public school or academy.
Let their efforts be laid out in perfecting themselves in the
following course:
In English Grammar, the general practical principles, with
the strictest attention to exercises in Orthography. In En* The same qualifications as those named for the Lawrence Scientific School at Cam
bridge.
�THU CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
11
glisli composition each applicant should take pains to cultivate
skill and facility. To this end frequent and brief essays and
»imprCMnptu compositions, oral and written, are recommended.
In Geography, the leading facts of General Geography, with
special attention to the Geography of Europe and America, to
be learned, not by ‘"parroting” from text books, but by com
mon-sense study of any atlas, taking one map after another,
fastening into the mind the leading, physical and political
features in the Geography of each continent and of each
country, and finally grouping them mentally together. To
this end map drawing will be found of the greatest use. Three
weeks’ study, in this way, will do more than “ three years’ ”
study after the ordinary method. In Arithmetic, attention
should be especially directed to fundamental principles. These
should be clearly apprehended, and fairly fixed in the student’s
mind. In view of the course to be pursued in the University,
too much importance cannot be given to a thorough prelimi
nary drill in Mental Arithmetic.
Good health, good habits, and a good thorough education in
the common English branches, are then the simple requirements
for admission. Every failure in institutions for higher educa
tion may be traced to a defect in one of these respects. On
these, as a basis, the University pledges itself to build a good
superstructure.
Fees eor Tuition.
The fees for tuition to persons not exempt under the charter
as “ State Students,” are ten dollars for each term, or thirty
dollars for the year. Neither matriculation fees nor initiation
fees are required.
In special cases of students of decided merit, who are proven
to be in great need, a remission will be made, either wholly or
in part, of tuition fees, such remission being considered as a
loan, the student giving a note or promise to pay them so soon
as he shall become able after leaving the University. In all
other cases payment for each terra must be made in advance.
Students will be held responsible for any injury which mav be
done by them to the University property.
�12
* Payments
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
for
Materials
used in
Laboratory Practice.
Chemicals and other materials used in laboratory practice
will be charged to the student using them at actual cost price.
“ State Students.”
In the original act of incorporation of the University is the
following section:
“ § 9. The several departments of study in the said Univer
sity shall be open to applicants for admission thereto at the
lowest rates of expense consistent with its welfare and effi
ciency, and without distinction as to rank, class, previous
occupation or locality. But, with a view to equalize its advan
tages to all parts of the State, the institution shall annually
receive students, one from each Assembly District in the State,
to be selected as hereinafter provided, and shall give them
instruction in any or in all the prescribed branches of study in
any department of said institution, free of any tuition fee, or
of any incidental charges, to be paid to said University, unless
such incidental charges shall have been made to compensate
for damages needlessly or purposely done by the students to
the property of said University. The said free instruction shall
moreover be accorded to said students in consideration of their
superior ability, and as a reward for superior scholarship in the
academies and public schools of this State. Said students shall
be selected as the Legislature may, from time to time, direct,
and until otherwise ordered, as follows: The School Commis
sioner or Commissioners of each county, and the Board of
Education of each city, or those performing the duties of such
a board, shall select annually the best scholar from each acad
emy and each public school of their respective counties or
cities as candidates for the University scholarship. The candi
dates thus selected in each county or city shall meet at such
time and place in the year as the Board of Supervisors of the
county shall appoint, to be examined by a board consisting of
the School Commissioner or Commissioners of the county, or
by the said Board of Education of the cities, with such other
persons as the Supervisors shall appoint, who shall examine
said candidates and determine which of them are the best
scholars; and the Board of Supervisors shall then select there
from to the number of one for each assembly district in said
county or city, and furnish the candidates thus selected with a
certificate of such selection, which certificate shall entitle said
student to admission to said University, subject to the examina
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
13
tion and approval of the Faculty of said University. In
making these selections, preference shall be given (where other
qualifications are equal) to the sons of those who have died in
the military or naval service of the United States; considera
tion shall be had also of the physical ability of the candidate.
Whenever any student selected as above described shall have
been, from any cause, removed from the University before the
expiration of the time for which he was selected, then one of
the competitors to his place in the University from his district
may be elected to succeed him therein, as the School Commis
sioner or Commissioners of the county of his residence, or the
Board of Education of the city of his residence, may direct.”
Under this the Superintendent of Public Instruction will, at
an early day, issue a circular defining the duties of School
Commissioners regarding the examinations under this act, and
making suggestions as to the best manner of conducting them.
All students presenting themselves at the University with a
certificate, such as is contemplated in the section above cited,
showing that after an examination he has been adjudged the
“ best scholar,” will be admitted to any department or course
for which he is fitted, and continue for four years, or as long
as he shall profitably employ his time in the University, free
of all matriculation fees, term taxes, or any other payment for
tuition.
Booms.
Suites of rooms will be provided, in the College buildings
and near the grounds, sufficient for the accommodation of
about two hundred students. Each suite in the buildings con
sists of a study with bedrooms and closets adjoining. They
are large and convenient, with careful provision for heat and
ventilation, and no study or bedroom has been or will be con
structed without direct communication with the outer light
and air.
It is intended, at the expense of the University to provide
neat and durable furniture. The rent of rooms and furniture
will range from sixty cents to one dollar per week, according
to the occupation of the suite of rooms by two students or by
three. Rooms can also be obtained, at reasonable rates, with
families in the town.
�14
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
Board.
Board can be obtained in the village at moderate rates.
Probably good board could be secured, at a lower price, by the
formation of clubs among the students. The University stew
ard will be authorized, in such case, to aid clubs, by the pur
chase of stores for them at wholesale, and by securing rooms.
Fuel.
The direct communication with the neighboring coal mines
D
O
gives advantages in this respect. The University steward will
purchase coal at wholesale, and retail it to students at whole
sale prices.
OFFICERS AND EQUIPMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY.
Faculty.
A resident Faculty will be in readiness, which, it is believed,
will command the confidence of all friends of advanced and
extended education. In addition to these, it is intended to
secure, as non-resident professors, a number of gentlemen
especially distinguished to deliver courses of lectures in their
several departments. Several gentlemen of acknowledged
eminence in science, literature and the practical arts, have
already signified their willingness to accept such positions, and
it is intended to announce the names of the Faculty, resident
and non-resident, through the public prints, early in the summer
of 1868. The system recommended by the President in his
“Plan of Organization,” has been adopted, which is to “secure
for the resident professorships, for the hard work of building
up the University, active, energetic young men who have a
reputation to make and who can make it; and for the non
resident professors, men of the highest reputation, who will at
once elevate the whole tone of instruction and give us from the
outset a position which could not be attained in any other
manner.”
Buildings.
Two large stone buildings, four stories in height, have
already been erected; another of the same character is in prog
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
15
ress. In these, besides dormitories for over three hundred
students, are library, lecture and recitation rooms, over thirty
in number, and of various sizes.
Laboratories.
There will be two laboratories well equipped, one under the
'direction of the professor of agricultural chemistry, and the
other under the professor of general chemistry.
Collections.
The University already possesses the Jewett collection in
Palseontology and Geology, at a cost of ten thousand dollars,
and has received a donation from the State of a collection of
duplicates from the State geological collection, and has funds
now in hand to make large additional collections for illustration
in the different departments.
Libraries.
The trustees feel warranted in stating that the University
will commence with a scientific and general library sufficient
for the immediate wants of Faculty and Students, and constant
appropriations will be made for its increase.
Student Labor and Practical Instruction in Agriculture.
There is much labor to be done upon the farm attached to
the Agricultural department, and a large number of students
can be employed from one to three hours a day, at fair prices.
Shortly after the organization of the University, the University
steward will organize voluntary corps for systematized and
remunerated labor, unde” the direction of the Professors of
Agriculture and Engineering.
Student Labor and Practical Instruction in the
Mechanic Arts.
It is intended to erect workshops upon the University prop
erty where students, under proper direction, can have practical
instruction in Mechanic Arts. The first of these will be a
£
�16
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
workshop fitted with the proper machinery for working in
wood and iron, in which students can labor at fair prices
upon agricultural implements and machinery in general, and
upon models for the University collections of machinery and
apparatus.
Accomplished artisans will superintend this work, and the
attention of those young men who would qualify themselves,
by scientific study, for the most responsible and remunerative
positions as master mechanics and superintendents of work
shops, is invited to this feature in the course of practical
instruction.
Prizes.
The following prizes are offered by the Founder of the Uni
versity to aid meritorious students :
To the student of the Volunteer labor Corps in Agricul
ture, who, without neglecting his other University
duties, shall have shown himself most efficient,
practically and scientifically, upon the University
farm,............................................................................. $50
To the second in merit,..................................................... 20
To the third in merit,......................................................... 10
To the student of the Volunteer labor Corps in the
Mechanic Arts, who, without neglecting his other
University duties, shall have shown himself most
efficient, practically and scientifically, in the Uni
versity workshops,..................................................... 50
To the second in merit,..................................................
20
To the third in merit,............ '..............................
10
The above shall be known as the “ Founder’s prizes.”
00
00
00
00
00
00
The following prizes are offered by the President of the
University to aid meritorious students :
To the student showing the most satisfactory progress
in the “ Modern Course ” during the first year,... $50 00
To the second in merit,..................................................... 20 00
�17
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
7
To the student showing the most satisfactory progress
in the “ Combined Course ” during the first year,.
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the student showing the most satisfactory progress
in the “ Classical Course ” during the first year,...
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious student in General and Analytical Chemistry,.....................................................
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious student in Chemistry as ap
plied to Agriculture,................................................
To the second in merit,....................................................
To the most meritorious student in Practical Mechanics
and Physics,.................................................................
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious student in Civil Engineering,
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious student in General History,..
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious student in Modern History,..
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious student in Botany,..................
Tb the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious Report or Thesis upon an
original investigation in Agriculture,....................
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious Report or Thesis upon an
original investigation in Geology,..........................
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the writer of the best English Essay,......................
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the third in merit,.........................................................
To the student who, without neglecting his other duties
as a member of the University, shall make the
most satisfactory development in physical culture,
To the second in merit, .. <,...............................................
To the third in merit,........................................................
8
K
$50 00
20 00
50 00
20 00
50 00
20 00
50 00
20 00
50
20
50
20
50
20
50
20
50
20
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
50 00
20 00
50
20
50
20
10
00
00«
00
00
00
50 00
20 00
10 00
�18
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
The committees of examination reserve the right to withhold
a prize where the competition shows a standard not sufficiently
elevated.
*
The above shall be known as the “President’s prizes.”
ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITY.
The establishment of the Cornell University is due to the
combined bounty of the General Government and of the lion.
Ezra Cornell.
On the second of July, 1862, Congress passed an act grant
ing public lands to the several States and Territories which
may provide Colleges for the benefit of Agriculture and the
Mechanic Arts.
1
Under this act thirty thousand acres for each of its Sena
tors and Representatives in Congress were appropriated to each
State, and under this provision the share of the State of New
York was in land scrip representing 990,000 acres.
From the first, the State of New York determined to cease
the policy of scattering its educational resources, and to con
centrate this fund in a single institution worthy so great a
Commonwealth.
Common sense, with the very signal failure of the Sta>te
of Michigan in scattering such a fund, and her great success
after concentrating it were conclusive in favor of such a
policy.
Acting upon this idea, the State first appropriated the entire
amount of land scrip to the People’s College upon certain very
easy conditions. These conditions not being complied with,
the Legislature, by chapter 585, of the Laws of 1865, following
the same policy of concentration, against much opposition and
many attempts to scatter the fund, re-affirmed its old decision
to concentrate the fund, by overwhelming majorities in each
house, and gave the proceeds of the entire amount of scrip to
the Cornell University on certain conditions, of which the most
important were, that Ezra Cornell should give to the Institu
tion five hundred thousand dollars, and that one student should
annually be received and educated, free of all charge for tuition,
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
19
from each of the one hundred and twenty-eight Assembly Dis
tricts of the State, as a reward of merit for superior scholarship
in the public schools or academies. Such.student to be desig
nated by a competitive examination, to be conducted on a plan
laid down in the act.
At the first meeting of the trustees thereafter, Mr. Cornell
complied with the conditions of the charter by a gift of five
hundred thousand' dollars in due form. He then made the
additional gift of two hundred acres of excellent land, with
buildings, as a farm to be attached to the Agricultural Depart
ment ; the Jewett collection in Geology and Palaeontology,
which had cost him ten thousand dollars, and since that time
other gifts to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars.
Besides this, Mr. Cornell has expended about three hundred
thousand dollars in purchasing the land scrip anti locating the
lands for the University, and it is proper to state here, that, *
previous to all these gifts, he had erected in the village of
Ithaca, at a cost of nearly one hundred thousand dollars, a
free public library with large halls, and with lecture rooms
which will be exceedingly useful as affording supplementary
accommodations for the lectures and public exercises of the
University. Thus laying the foundation for a sure and a large
endowment, sufficient to enable the trustees to tender, as soon
as the fund shall suffice, free board as well as instruction to the
State Students.
Relations
oe the
University to the State.
The act organizing the Cornell University makes it an
organic part of the educational system of the State. The
Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State,. Superin
tendent of Public Instruction and Speaker of the House of
Assembly are ex officio trustees. • The President of the State
Agricultural Society is also ex officio a member of the board.
It’may be mentioned here, that the Board of Trustees are not
a body sitting for life, but that they are constantly renewed,
the term of office being five years ; three being selected every
year—one of them by the Alumni whenever they shall number
�20
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
fifty. This, it is hoped, will do much to insure vigor and
prevent the stagnation from which so many institutions of
learning have suffered.
Scope op the University.
The special department referred to above will be developed
conscientiously and as thoroughly as possible. The prominence
plainly given the first two by the Act of Congress will be loy
ally remembered. It must also be constantly recollected that
education is here to be made, not only scientific, but practical.
Military education will also be provided for. Moreover, the
trustees are also pledged to try fully and fairly the experiment
of allowing students in appropriate departments to do some
thing toward paying their way by organized manual labor,
under scientific direction. This, however, will be voluntary,
as the freedom of our University demands.
But beside these special departments, the trustees provide,
in accordance with the clearly expressed intent of the Congres
sional act, general instruction. Mr. Cornell’s gift is made in
order to round the whole institution into the proportions of an
University worthy of the State. He expressed plainly and
tersely the whole University theory when he said, “ I would
found an institution where any person can find instruction in
any study T
Features of the University.
First. Every effort will be made that the education given be
practically useful. The idea of doing a student’s mind some
vague general gofod by studies which do not interest him, will
not control. The constant policy will be to give mental disci
pline to every student by studies which take practical hold upon
the tastes, aspirations and work of his life.
Second. There is to be University liberty of choice. Several
courses carefully arranged will be presented, and the student,
aided by friends and instructors, can make his choice among
them.
When we consider that young men are constantly obliged to
make choice unaided in regard to matters of even more difii-
�*
THfi CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
21
culty and danger than courses of study, it will not be thought
so absolutely necessary that but one single course should be
allowed, and all men pf all minds forced to fit it.
Third. There will be no Fetichism in regard to any single
course of study. All good studies will be allowed their due
worth. While the beauty and worth of ancient classics will
not be denied, it is hoped to give the study of modern classics,
especially those of our own language, a far more important
place than they have hitherto held in our colleges. Special
attention will be paid to these.
Fourth. Historical studies and studies in Political and Social
science will be held in high honor, and will have more atten
tion than is usual in our higher institutions of learning.
Besides thorough regular courses, it is intended to present
special courses of lectures by non-resident professors of emi
nence.
Fifth. There will be no petty daily marking system, a pe
dantic device, which has eaten out from so many colleges all
capacity among students to seek knowledge for knowledge’s
sake. Those professors will be sought who can stir enthusiasm,
and who can thus cause students to do far more than under a
perfunctory piecemeal study.
Sixth. It enters into the plan adopted by the Board of the
Cornell University to bring about a closer and more manly
intercourse and sympathy between Faculty and students than
is usual in most of the colleges.
Seventh. The study of Human Anatomy, Physiology and
Hygiene, with exercises for physical training, will be most
carefully provided for.
Eighth. The Cornell University, as its highest aim, seeks to
promote Christian civilization. But it cannot be sectarian.
Established by a general government which recognizes no dis
tinctions in creed, and by a citizen who holds the same view,
it would be false to its trust were it to seek to promote any
creed or to exclude any.
The State of New York, in designating this institution as the
recipient of the bounty of the general government, has also
�2^
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
declared the same doctrine. By the terms of the charter, no
trustee, professor or student can be accepted or rejected on
account of any religious or political opinions which he may or
may not’hold.
”
*
The success of the University of Michigan, where the Faculty
comprises men of all religious sects and of all parties, is a suffi
cient refutation of those who assert that an institution of learn
ing must be sectarian to be successful.
Access
to the
University Town.
The Cornell University is established at Ithaca, Tompkins '
county, New York. From the south, east and west, the most
easy access is by the New York and Erie railway, leaving that
road at Owego and taking the cars for Ithaca.
From the north, east and west, access is easy by the New
York Central railroad, taking the “old road” between Roch
ester and Syracuse, and leaving it at Cayuga Bridge, whence
steamboats run directly to Ithaca.
Any additional information can be obtained of Francis M.
Finch, Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Ithaca, New York,
or of Andrew D. White, President of the University, Syracuse,
New*York.
'
'
REPORT.
To give in brief the latest exhibit of the affairs of the
University, the following report of the recent meeting of the
Trustees is appended, as published in the Albany Evening
Journal, of February 15th :
The meeting of the Trustees of the Cornell University, held
Thursday at the Agricultural Rooms, was one of the most
gratifying since the inception of that enterprise.
The reports presented by the various committees showed the
most satisfactory condition of the University in every respect.
The financial basis seems even better than the most sanguine
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
23
have hoped. Of the buildings, one large edifice in stone is
ready for students, and two more will be ready at the opening
of the University in September; giving excellent accommoda
tions for nearly four hundred students.
The Jewett Cabinet in Geology, etc., is all arranged ready
for use, and negotiations were ordered in relation to other
scientific collections, including that of Dr. Newcomb, of San
Francisco; which, with one or two exceptions, is the finest of
its kind in existence.
The report of the President showed that seven Professors
had already been appointed, as follows : .
President—Andrew D. White, LL. D., formerly Professor
of History in the State University of Michigan.
Professor of Mathematics—Evan W. Evans, A. M.
Professor of South European Languages and Associate
Professor of History—W. C. Russell, A. M.
Professor of Physics and Medicine—Eli W. Blake, Ph. D.
Professor of Chemistry—James M. Crafts.
Professor of Agricultural Chemistry—George C. Caldwell.
Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Natural History—
Burt G. Wilder, M. D.
•
The following Professors were elected Thursday:
Professor of Military Science—Major J. H. Whittlesey,
United States Army.
Professor of North European Languages and Librarian—
Daniel W. Fiske, A.M.
Professor of Mining and Metallurgy—J. II. Mitchell, A. B.
Also, the following as non-resident Professors:
Professor of Natural History—Louis Agassiz, LL. D.
Duties, twenty lectures each year.
Professor of Mechanics applied to Agriculture—Governor
Frederick Holbrook, of Vermont. Duties, twenty lectures
each year.
Professor of General Geology—James Hall, LL. D., State
Geologist of New York. Duties, twenty lectures each year.
Professor of English Literature—James Russell Lowell
Duties, twelve lectures each year.
�24
THE COKNELL UNIVERSITY.
Professor of Recent Literature—(jEorge Wm. Curtis.
Duties, tweive lectures.
Professor of Constitutional Law—Theodore W. Dwight,
LL. D. Duties, twelve lectures on the Constitution of the
United States.
All these gentlemen, with the exception of Governor Hol
brook, have already entered heartily into the plan, and will be
ready to give instruction at Ithaca during the first year, and it
is believed that Governor Holbrook will not hesitate to accept
this position. His election was the result of a vote taken in
the Executive Committee of the State Agricultural Society, at
the request’of the Cornell trustees.
It is intended to commence instruction on the third Wednes
day in September, with eighteen resident and about ten non
resident professors.
All the leading courses, general and special, will then be
opened, including modern course, scientific course, and classical
course, and special courses in agriculture, mechanic arts, civil
engineering, mining, military science, and history.
A gift was received from President White of one thousand
dollars to be distributed in premiums, to the most meritorious
students in the various departments, who jshall enter the first
year.
Another gift of three * hundred dollars was received from
another gentleman to be applied to the same purpose.
On motion of Hon. William Kelly, President White was
requested, during his approaching visits, to investigate the insti
tutions for Agricultural and Industrial Education in England,
France and Germany, and to report at his return. Also to
superintend purchases of bonks, apparatus, collections, etc.
The plan of general military instructions presented by Major
Whittlesey, was ably supported in its main features by Lieu
tenant-Governor Woodford, and adopted.
Much satisfaction was experienced regarding the elections
thus far for the Faculty.
The plan of organization of the President has been carried
out fully in this respect. That plan is “to have for the hard
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
25
work of building up the University mainly young and active
men—men who have a reputation to make, and who can make
it.” Great pains have been taken to secure the most promising
young men for this purpose, and the Committee have been
strongly aided by Professors Agassiz, Dana, Gibbs, Chandler,
President Alden, President Wilson, President McClintock
and others. With one exception, every one of these young
resident Professors "have had the best instruction, both in lead
ing American and European institutions.
Professor Evans, who graduated with the highest honors at
Yale, in 1851, was afterward acting Professor of Mathematics
at that institution, and then at Marietta College, Ohio, and in
both of these positions he distinguished himself as a teacher
and a writer. lie is the author of a mathematical text-book in
extensive use, and of papers in Silliman’s Journal. For the
last year he has been studying a second time in Europe.
Professor Russell graduated at Columbia College, N. Y.,
and won golden opinions as a Professor at Horace Mann’s Col
lege in Ohio. lie is now studying in Europe.
Professor Caldwell studied at the Agricultural College at
Cirencester, England, and afterward at the University of Got
tingen, Germany, and is now Vice-President of the State
Agricultural Society of Pennsylvania.
Professor Blake graduated at Yale, first in the classical and
afterward in the scientific school, then studied at Heidelberg,
Germany, four years. He has been Professor in the Uni
versity of Vermont, and is now acting Professor at Columbia
College.
Professor Crafts, after graduating at the Harvard Scientific
School, studied chemistry four years in France and Germany.
Though a young man, his original investigations were published
by the French Academy of Sciences and Silliman’s Journal.
He is now lecturing in the Cambridge Scientific School, where
he is Assistant Professor.
Professor Wilder is a graduate of the Lawrence Scientific
School, and now the First Assistant of Professor Agassiz.
Though one of the youngest of all he has distinguished himself
4
�26
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
as a lecturer, he having delivered a course of the “ Lowell Lec
tures” in Boston, and a course of University lectures at
Harvard. He is the author of sundry contributions to Silliman’s Journal and the Atlantic Monthly.
Professor Harris studied at the Agricultural College at
Cirencester, England; was afterward leading editor of the
Genesee Farmer, and lias succeeded in applying science to
agriculture in a common-sense way and in 'making it pay.
Professor' Whittlesey is a graduate of West Point, Major in
the regular army, and the estimation in which he is held is
shown by the fact that he was appointed by General Grant
expressly to draw up a national plan for military education to
meet the wants of the increased army, to be presented to
Congress.
Professor Fiske was formerly at Flamilton College, where
he attracted attention for his zeal in literature. lie afterward
studied at the University of Heidelberg, in Germany, and
Upsala, in Sweden. Returning to America, he contributed to
the New American Encyclopaedia, and did other excellent
literary work. Going abroad again, he was .for a time the
secretary and trusted friend of Motley, the historian, our min
ister at Vienna. Returning, he was made literary editor of
the Syracuse Daily Journal, where he gained the respect of a
large circle of friends.
He is now traveling in Egypt and the Holy Land as a cor
respondent of several leading journals. It should be mentioned
that while he was contributing to Appleton’s Encyclopaedia he
was assistant librarian at the Astor Library, where he gained
the experience which induced the Cornell authorities to make
him not merely a professor but also librarian of the University.
Professor Mitchell is a St. Lawrence county boy, who studied
engineering at Union College under the lamented Gillespie;
then was an engineer upon sundry railroads, then Principal of
the High School at Davenport, Iowa, where he organized the
whole school system and distinguished himself as an instructor;
thence to Harvard, where he graduated among the first in his
class; then into the army, where he did faithful service in the
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
27
Topographical Engineers; then to the Training Schools of Paris
and Frey berg.
It will be seen that these are “ live men,” and in selecting,
them the Committee have been guided by the fact, not merely
of their energy and ability, but also of nobleness of character.
The Committee have been mindful of the fact that a Professor
to succeed must be not only a scholar, but a man and a gentle
man, and it is believed that in the above selections such have
been secured.
Of the non-resident Professors it is unnecessary to speak.
The reputations of Agassiz, Governor Holbrook, James Rus
sell Lowell, James Hall, George William Curtis and Theo
dore W. Dwight, are part of American History.
ft was determined to have a joint meeting of Trustees and'
Faculty immediately after the return of President White early
in July, and to make at that time all final arrangements neces
sary for commencing active instructions in September.
��
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Cornell University at Ithaca, N.Y. : First general announcement
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Cornell University
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Ithaca, USA
Collation: 27 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1868]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5684
Subject
The topic of the resource
Education
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The Cornell University at Ithaca, N.Y. : First general announcement), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Tracts
Cornell University
Education-United States