1
10
199
-
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/25694c3645abf7e827c5d02f2cc4b099.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=ZAaw%7E%7Ef0cAeWub0K-jdwT5DIWzJvaoigh7HSHh--l7zd%7E4yG7bR9aEWmu9aboINULhRIGGTx4cmevHFFjth0ZjQ8TmNzkg%7EEXS5wiOM0YLLpUxnlHLZD8OR%7EcpfGMVH9pTyVYAKnEKdXoiJPwwUtq0O0V91NDb-BunnHPXvVy3EHfWNvS2VS0b3TSWUrkOJg8y1zEHAO4-Io0AuIE0k6GKIM0dOQqpbeqMoegHCPN7kj16tqUfyHmQarq6RQVuwuDYPxIjGv0Wb50X7R1mDiaoCDplYkQmaq5k0iPjmvSZxrP2YzX2MPVXG7BubUIbTPaF34axMi0eV78HXeb6JZ1w__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
a0f7cba0cdf5dff3905ded837bf4c02e
PDF Text
Text
�Margate.
Dear Gertrude,—
As you press me so earnestly, to tell you my thoughts
on religious and social questions, and as I think that some
of my ideas may console you in your deep, deep sorrow, and
even prove to you, perhaps, the source of returning joy and
strength, I will endeavour, as I best can, to comply with
your request. The task you have set me will be a delightful
one, I assure you, probably not only enabling me to see
more clearly what is at present but dim and shadowy, but,
perchance, opening the way to more light beyond; for the
logical expression of our ideas conducts ever to new ideas, as
the Seen is ever suggestive of the Unseen.
First among your inquiries is, what do I think of Mar
riage ? Do I believe it to be a great spiritual and eternal
reality, or merely a conventional contract, which death puts
an end to and the civil law can annul ?
t
“ Who would not see bridal rose
In the angel gardens ope ?
Who would not love deathlessly ?
Love is long,
Love is strong,
Heaven is Love’s eternity;
Love is wise,
Walks the skies,
Beautiful immortally.”
Dearest Gertrude, from my earliest girlhood I have ever
clung to the belief—wild, shadowy, and incomprehensible as
�6
it long appeared to me—that marriage is a spiritual reality,
a joy and a blessedness for ever.
But before proceeding further on this point, let me tell
you my thoughts of God, of the human soul, and of the
relationship which exists between them.
To borrow the expressions of Swedenborg, I conceive the
soul to consist of, as it were, two organs—“ the will ” and
“ the understanding ”—organs constantly in reception of
sentiments and ideas : of selfish sentiments and their corre
sponding erroneous ideas, arising upwards out of our animal
nature; and of disinterested sentiments and their corre
sponding true ideas, flowing in upon us from above, even
from the infinite love and the infinite intelligence of the
motherhood and the fatherhood of God.
God is the only being ; the soul is but a form, receptive
of divinity, and capable, through virtuous action, of rising
upwards, and ever upwards, through beatitude, towards the
eternally Unapproachable and Inexhaustible. God is the only
being. All spiritual creatures may be wise and loving, but
God alone is love and wisdom; all spiritual creatures may
be beautiful, but God alone is beauty. Oh I what is beauty?
Is it an existence or but a name ? It is the harmony of love
and wisdom. It is the marriage of God. It is the veil
before the Holy of Holies. It is the blissful medium of
Divinity for evolving love and light to angel and to man.
“ Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it,”
I have often spoken to you, dear Gertrude, of what I con
ceived to be the triune nature of God ; but a deeper study
of the subject has illumed and rearranged my views. Let
�7
me, therefore, explain, that although I am conscious, as for
merly, of three distinct yet inseparable sentiments and ideas
—the sentiment and idea of the good, the sentiment and idea
of the beautiful, and the sentiment and idea of the true—I
now perceive the sentiment and idea of the good, and the
sentiment and idea of the true, to be sentiments and ideas of
two divine elements or first principles of the one existence—
God; while the sentiment and idea of the beautiful I
perceive to be a sentiment and idea, not of a third divine
element or first principle, but of the Divine Marriage, or
eternal inseparability of divine goodness and divine truth;
as effect to cause, as ideal to real, so is beauty to love and
wisdom, even “ the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth.”
As to my ideas respecting Society—the relationship of man
to man—I find it most reasonable to believe there was but
one primal pair, as in this case the whole human race is indis
solubly linked together by the adamantine chains of consan
guinity and spiritual affinity, whose omnipotent influences
in the glorious future which, by the grace of Heaven, we
will win, will be most loyally asserted.
And as regards marriage, by which I would express the
spiritual union of one to one, and of one to one only and for
ever, conceiving it, as I do, to be a fact in God, I hold it to
be a fact also in every human soul. But, apart from argu
ments educed from the conception of marriage as a divine
feet, if God created but one man and one woman, does it not
follow indisputably that not only is one husband or wife at
a time of divine appointment, but that one husband or wife
ever is of divine appointment also ? For in case of the death
of either of our first parents, with whom could either of them
have been conjugally united, no one being in existence but
�their own children ? And, further, if God created hut one
man and one woman, does it seem at all unreasonable to
believe that for each man and each woman throughout
the world there is one divinely-ordained marriage, which true
love should seek after, and having once found should cherish
inviolate for ever ?
a No one is so accursed by fate,
No one so utterly desolate,
But some heart, though unknown,
Responds unto his own.
Responds as if, with unseen wings,
An angel touched its quivering strings;
And whispers, in its song,
‘Where hast thou stayed so long
As regards the spirituality, the divine guarantee of the
eternity of marriage, I believe woman to be the primal reci
pient of divine love, man of divine intelligence, and that the
celestial and eternal marriage which all should aspire after,
and which, when universal, will banish sorrow and suffering
from the earth for ever, consists in the ceaseless blending
and reciprocating between man and woman of these constant
inundations from on high.
I believe divine love and divine intelligence to be indis
soluble—that where one is not the other cannot be; so that
only in the degree that each woman opens her heart, or, in
other words, subdues hei’ will, to the celestial influences of
divine love, or to the holy spirit of disinterestedness, can an
irradiance of divine intelligence penetrate and illuminate the
understanding of him who is spiritually and eternally her
divinely-affianced husband, and through whose error-enfran
chised intellect is to emanate that supernal “ knowledge
�9
which is the wing on which together they shall soar
to God!”
Swayed by the scriptural assertion that “ in heaven there
is neither marriage nor giving in marriage,” there are those
who deny emphatically the sex of soul.
But imagine the recognition of two sexless souls beyond
the grave, who on this side had been man and woman. To
the soul who had been man how contemptible for past effemi
nacy must appear the soul who had been woman ; and to the
soul who had been woman how revolting for past masculinity
must appear the soul who had been man. But admit the
spirituality, and consequently the immortality, of sex, and,
lo ! where contempt would be, there is love ; where revolt,
worship!
Oh! who would relinquish for immortality the charming
contrast of sex ? Who would barter for heaven the bliss it
inspires ? Hear Milton sing a song of Eve’s in Paradise :—
‘ Sweet is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet,
With charm of earliest birds ; pleasant the sun,
When first on this delightful land he spreads
His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower
Glistening with dew; fragrant the fertile earth
After soft showers; and sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild; then silent night,
With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon,
And those the gems of Heaven, her starry train :
But neither breath of morn, when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds; nor rising sun
On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower
Glistening with dew; nor fragrance after showers;
Nor grateful evening mild; nor silent night,
With this her solemn bird ; nor walk by moon
Or glittering starlight, without Thee, is sweet.”
�10
Oh! no; it cannot be that sex is carnal only; it is of the
soul; not only is it human, but divine. And before its spi
rituality its carnality must wane, until divine love and divine
intelligence, its eternal prototypes, in harmonic affiance
throughout the spiritualised humanity of our sphere, shall
be its only sign “ on earth, as it is in heavenor, in the
language of the poet,—
“ ’Till oft converse with heavenly habitants,
Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,
And turn it by degrees to the soul’s essence,
Till all be made immortal. If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness,
And earth’s base built on stubble.”
Thus, you see, my dear Gertrude, how fully I must sym
pathise with all the deep affection of your true, womanly
nature; and how unwavering must be my faith, that yom'
mourning will ultimately be turned into joy. But even whilst
sorrow weighs upon you it is not altogether uncompensated,
filling a heart so true and pure as yours, for what says one
of our favourite poets ?—
“ Would’st thou see through the riddle of being
Further than others can ?
Sorrow shall give thine eyes new lustre
To simplify the plan.
And love of God and thy kind shall aid thee
To end what it began.
To Love and Sorrow all Nature speaketh ;
If the riddle be read,
They the best can see through darkness
Each divergent thread
Of its mazy texture, and discover
Whence the ravel spread.
�11
Love and sorrow are sympathetic
With the earth and skies;
Their touch from the harp of Nature hringeth
The hidden melodies.
To them the eternal cords for ever
Vibrate in harmonies! ”
But to return to my theme.
It. is still considered anopen question,I believe,concerning
free will and necessity. Now, according to my views, as you
may have perceived, all that can be said for free will is true
as regards woman, and all that can be said for necessity is
true as regards man. So there may be more allegorical truth
than Theists have been inclined to admit in the tale about
Eve and the apple. And does it not account altogether for
the seeming injustice current in the world of allowing the
immorality of man to pass with less censure than that of
woman ?
Unless admitting the pre-eminence of woman to man in
the matter of freedom of volition, she must be acknowledged
Becidedly his inferior, for he is undoubtedly her equal in
affection, and in intellect how incomparably her superior I
To all those women who know what it is really to love
there is nothing dissonant to their nature in admitting their
inferiority to those they love ; for, spiritually, their attitude
is one of worship and total abnegation of self. But in the
light of reason God is just, and He would not have created a
being physically and mentally so helpless as is woman in the
presence of man, without having endowed her with an inward
strength, a power which, in the presence of her consort, should
be her safeguard when in the right, and which would only
abandon her to his oppression or to his righteous displeasure
when in the wrong.
�12
All this being true, as I feel so very sure it is, what a
responsibility rests upon our sex—a responsibility which is at
once our glory and our shame I
In deepest sorrow and humiliation for all the evil our
unworthiness has wrought, may we evermore ceaselessly
aspire after those celestial influences whose immaculate pre
sence within our hearts will cause the dayspring of divine
truth to arise upon our race, kindling it into angelic loveliness,
and making earth scintillate with more than Eden’s beauty,
making it resonant of more than Eden’s ecstatic joy 1
“ Order is Heaven’s first law.”
I hold the order of humanity to be dual, in correspondence
with divine love and divine wisdom, the two first principles
or elements of Deity.
I, therefore, believe our First Mother to have given birth
to two sons and two daughters, and, as the incontrovertible
fact, that, through a necessity caused by God, brother
wedded sister, in the family of our first parents, proves
beyond the shadow of a doubt, that such marriage was
the holy one, the immaculate, and the true: I further
believe the immaculate marriage relationship to have been
marked by the divinely affianced wife and husband having
been twins.
Ilad man not fallen, these divinely-ordainedi
relationships would have been enduring, each pair at
divinely-appointed seasons giving existence to two pairs, in
immaculate and symmetrical succession.
What harmonic families, communities, and nationalities
unfurling everlastingly, individually, and collectively, and
generation after generation bearing aloft the immortal
banner of the divine duality in unity—the God-given symbol ■
of the beautiful, eternally emerging from and evolving the
�13
good and the true ! But man did fall; spirituality waned ;
the fabled serpent, sensuality, gained the ascendant, and
the divine marriage was violated—its laws desecrated and
forgotten—-until eventually all trace of it was lost amid the
discord, confusion, and chaos that ensued, and which
remains, alas! until this day.
But, dear, dear Gertrude, though desecrated, violated,
and forgotten, this marriage spiritually exists ; though pro
faned, it may become reconsecrated ; though lost, it may be
found ! Priests cannot make it; the law cannot annul it;
God alone is its author, and on His eternity doth it rest.
Must not Bessie Raynor Parkes have had a deep though
transient feeling of much of this when she wrote the
following lines, in her beautiful poem of “ Gabriel ”?
aDeep within my heart it slumbers,
All my verse will ne’er reveal;
I shall never sing in numbers
Half the passion that I feel.
Hidden in far founts of being,
The keen fire which thrills me lies,
Hidden, save for thy sweet seeing,
In the calmness of my eyes.
But it flows in subtle thrilling
Through my voice, and smile, and touch,
Gives a potence to my willing—
Wilt thou not confess as much ?
Eye to eye a moment linking
Drew thy nature into mine,
Lip to lip a moment drinking
Measures of ethereal wine ;
�14
Voice with voice in untranslated
Music sweeter than a rhyme,
Heart with heart a moment mated,
Crown’d a love unborn of time.
Did I truly live, my dearest,
Ere I saw thee—truly live ?
Yes, for thou no less wert nearest;
Time to us could only give
Outer tangible revealing
Of that love whereby we are;
So strikes light, the first faint feeling
Of a long-created star,
Shining with a silent beauty
Far in its appointed spot;
Swaying by inherent duty,
Us, although we knew it not.
Lo ! thou wert in every shadow
Cast at noon upon the sea;
Each green sunlight of the meadow
Trembled from thy heart to me;
Every pain was some dim shiver
Of thy spirit caught by mine—
Thou no less the sharer, giver,
Of my love and life divine;
Double-wing’d my prayer ascended,.
Double-thoughted strove my brain,
Soul to soul for ever tended—
Tell me if this kiss be gain!
If the deep heart’s inmost passion,
Leaping from my lip to thee,
Hath no subtler sign to fashion
Each apart and silently.”
�15
To the question, “ How shall I my true-love know from
many another one?” I reply, “Seek, and ye shall find.”
“ The eye, by long poring, comes to see even in the darkest
corner.” This I hold to be absolutely certain, that every
divinely-affianced wife and husband must bo of an exactly
equal age (for how can one exist without the other ?), and that
they must bear precisely the same individual characteristics
and mould of mind. “As each note in music echoes its
diapason,” so must each wife echo her husband’s thought—
each husband echo his wife’s feeling.
If each woman is virtually heart to her husband’s cor
responding mind, each man virtually mind to his wife’s
corresponding heart, each must indissolubly inhere within
the other; the seemingly two must be really one—one being,
one individual, one indivisible and inseparable soul.
As no two particles of matter, however near their
neighbourhood, ever touch, so no two human souls, however
close their relationship, ever mingle. In the conjugal
relationship alone is spiritual contact; for it is a relationship
within the soul, whilst all others are relationships with
out it.
To the end that each man may rationally and unmistak
ably recognise his wife, each woman hei' husband, it is of
first importance that all women as well as men should be
earnest and unfettered thinkers; for if, in the case of any
particular man, his divinely-affianced wife must be she
whose thoughts always exactly echo his thoughts; and in
the case of any particular woman, her divinely-affianced
husband must be he whose thoughts always prove themselves
to be the prototypes of her thoughts; how, in cases where
a woman’s thoughts are not her own, but the blindly ac
cepted thoughts of others, by this test can she recognise her
husband, or by him be recognised ?
$
�16
The feelings, as tests of conjugal relationship, can be only
infallible guides to the perfectly unselfish; for the disin
terested will always love the disinterested; but do the
selfish affect the selfish? Do they not rather seek, for selfish
purposes, alliance with those less selfish than themselves ?
But in a divinely-affianced pair the husband must necessarily
reflect the feelings of his wife—must be selfish or unselfish in
measure and manner as she.
Therefore, not only is disinterestedness a sine qua non
of conjugal recognition through the test of the affections,
but only in the degree in which we are disinterested will
alliance with the divinely-affianced one, when attained,
become to us the heaven we dream, whether here or in
the world beyond the grave.
Thus much, at present, towards the solution of this
momentous question. But I believe all physical science
to be overflowing with counties s beautiful analogies, which
wait but the glance of mind, fresh from the baptism of a
diviner chastity, humility, and love, to become divinely
eloquent of the science of humanity, and to resolve their
hieroglyphics into moral revelations from the Most High.
And it could not, surely, be very difficult, through the
combined efforts of the historian, the antiquary, and the
man of science, to classify all mankind dually in
families, and families of families, &c., &c., according to
relative predominant developments of the good and the
true; until, at length, the divine marriage relationship
should be, in every case, incontrovertibly proved, and the
laws that should govern it ascertained, through obedience to
which—lo 1 “ the Desire of all Nations ” would be universally
born into the world; and the emancipated earth, henceforth,
for evermore, from pole to pole, should reverberate with the
�17
angelic chant, “ Glory, glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace and good will towards men!”
It remains for Reason to verify what the Heart has felt;
for Fact to confirm on earth what Fancy has dreamed in
heaven. Therefore, in the stirring words of our favourite,
Charles Mackay, I would exclaim—
“ Men of thought, be up and stirring
Night and day!
Sow the seed—withdraw the curtain—
Clear the way!
Men of action, aid and cheer them,
As ye may!
There’s a fount about to stream,
There’s a light about to beam,
There’s a warmth about to glow,
There’s a flower about to blow,
There’s a midnight blackness changing
Into grey.
Men of thought and men of action,
Clear the way!
u Once the welcome light has broken,
Who shall say
What the unimagined glories
Of the day ?
What the evil that shall perish
In its ray ?
Aid the dawning tongue and pen;
Aid it, hopes of honest men ;
Aid it, paper; aid it, type—
Aid it, for the hour is ripe,
And our earnest must not slacken
Into play.
Men of thought and men of action,
Clear the way!
�18
.
“ Lo! a cloud’s about to vanish
From the day;
And a brazen wrong to crumble
Into clay.
Lo ! the Right’s about to conquer—
Clear the way!
With the Right shall maDy more
Enter smiling at the door ;
With the giant Wrong shall fall
Many others, great and small,
That for ages long have held us
For their prey.
Men of thought and men of action,
Clear the way! ”
<
Now, dearest Gertrude, feeling sure I must have given
you quite enough to think about for the present, let me
conclude this my first letter on the subjects you have so
urged me to write upon. If what I have said should make
you wishful for a second letter on the same subjects, you
have only to let me know; but in any case, that “the wilder
ness and the solitary place may be glad for you, and that
the desert may l’ejoice and blossom as the rose,” will be ever
the wish, the prayer, and the effort of
Yours ever affectionately,
gauffer of giongsius.
�
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
[Dear Gertrude...]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Daughter of Dionysius
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Margate
Collation: 18 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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
[n.d.]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5622
Subject
The topic of the resource
Women's rights
Marriage
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 ([Dear Gertrude...]), 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
Marriage
Women
Women's Rights
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/9eb800946ee539593de3989f700f5443.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=PsPBDT5wOX61o6EnbhgfqYoUob0KQ3ym-ZrAbunKDFu7vZ5FNmy-qNrd4wHgS2R1Xb3tezZdob2TumAlJNNJdE6l7EewDS7HMb8KAOhay5TH6cFvw2pkgYnFwTb2viWbLpifnlTGPUHiFxW10J8OFnxPOB9oAgYX7oEtdBogpQ2AsK7wnYb3iEVmP3ND61dW0SqSe-CfS%7EozZm3GcWL6MTUweetUCMj4ProMrOGhnkK17eAAQQEqsZBvj%7Eh3rDf-gIDtqx7T7FJaL1w3NwLCFgGUBWfh00OE5kZC6VDJHXnO26kOcrzbRnlUj8eKyKepEldV0oVg-7B%7Eq8Y8SUOeRw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
558239e8d47f0d8894988ea861c4aaca
PDF Text
Text
‘
RECENT MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.
441
we think, redeems Motley from all misconstruction, placing him in
the position of nn unjustly treated public servant.
This memoir is the simple expression of tender and fervid
friendship, not without fair discrimination, by one who loved its
subject for high and fine qualities, with which his own nature can
sympathize. The author calls it only an outline, which may be of
service to a future biographer. No other hand than his own should
venture to complete it.
Mr. Conway appends to his name on the title-page of “ Demon
ology and Devil-Lore ” his degree-mark of B. D. of Divinity Col
lege, Harvard University. He omits a motto. We suggest “Parcus deorum cultor et infrequens.” He would scornfully ask if it is
not plain on every page that he worships no false gods ? Perfectly
so, and equally plain, for all the pages show that he worships no
gods at all. Granted that he may have convinced himself that the
religion of our day is a “ creed outworn.” Then, if he attacks it, it
is his duty to commend a substitute. At least, let him not deal
bitterly or sneeringly with “the fair humanities of old religion.”
For millions these are still the breath of life. If the writer really
believes Christianity to be a superstition, he will not strive to scoff
men out of it any more than he would wish to frighten them into it.
The double title of the book denotes a distinction between its
subjects. Devils are not demons. They differ in age, demons
being the eldest creation of human fancy and fear. They differ in
character, the acts of demons being impelled by the necessity of
their nature, while devils work with a malignant will. As the au
thor states the distinction, the first personate the obstacles with
which men have had to contend in the struggle for existence, as
hunger, cold, destructive elements, darkness, disease. The latter
represent the history of the moral and religious struggles through
which churches and priesthoods have had to pass.
The idea of -a personal spirit of evil is the correlative of that of
a personal divinity. The primal thought of man that imaged the
last as a source of good must have been driven by the evil in nature
to shape the first as its cause.
One race copied or inherited the thought from another, and re
ligion followed religion in adapting it to its needs. This principle
of dualism is carefully traced out by the author through a varied
series of legends and impersonations. We look in vain, however,
for the ultimate statement of the matter, which is really this : The
origin of evil has nowadays almost ceased to be discussed. Evil is
�442
THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.
held either to be permitted by the Supreme Being as a discipline,
or, less theologically and more scientifically, to be the clinging taint
and weakness of the lower order of things out of which humanity
has emerged. In either case there is no need of a personal evil
spirit, and none the less need of a guiding divinity, for whom the
author seems to find no place.
The author traces the modern idea of an evil spirit to the con
flict of religions. Nothing is more normal, in ancient systems, he
says, than the belief that the gods of other nations are devils. When
the new religious system prevails, the old idol is treated with re
spect, and assigned some function in the new theologic regime.
The logic of this theory does not recommend it; but it is ingenious
ly carried out through speculations too subtile to be even summa
rized. In the course of them many traditions of our religion, now
conceded to be myths, are handled with the needless irreverence
and obtrusive contempt which weaken the author’s hold on the read
er’s convictions.
Ingenious, however, and elaborate, his book certainly is. Its
researches present the story of every kind of goblin, imp, specter,
dragon, and thing that walketh in darkness, that has made human
life piteous since it began. It is rich in curious legends and myths
of the darker sort, and it is a startling proof of the halting prog
ress of mankind, that some of the most ancient and horrible of
these superstitions, as the dread of the vampire and the were-wolf,
prevail at this day in certain parts of Europe.
Few women could employ the evening of a life in tracing the
remembrances of its early prime more agreeably than Mrs. Kemble
does. Her story ends abruptly, dramatically, with the words “1
was married at Philadelphia, on the 7th of June, 1834, to Mr.
Pierce Butler, of that city.” Scarcely more than a third of hex
conscious and active life is represented by those twenty-five years.
Yet there is nothing immature in this girlhood. It is filled with
little incidents, bright people, clever sayings. There is not much
sentiment, but plenty of honest, hearty family affection. The whole
memoir is so spirited, sunny, and confidential, that one reads it.
twenty pages at a time, with the kind of interest felt in reading a
piay.
The book is a record in substance as well as by its title. Soon
after her return to England from a French seminary, an acquaint
ance grew up between Miss Kemble and a Miss H----- S----- ,
which on their separation was continued by correspondence. Her
�
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
[Demonology and Devil-Lore]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [New York, NY]
Collation: 441-442 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. A review, by an unknown reviewer, of Moncure Conway's work 'Demonology and Devil-Lore' from North American Review,128, April 1879.
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
[1879]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5605
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
[Unknown]
Subject
The topic of the resource
Book reviews
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 ([Demonology and Devil-Lore]), 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
Book Reviews
Conway Tracts
Demonology
Moncure Conway
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/53f45e1bb02e35d62f9bf21108f6d588.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=OKWHfY9ou0V8tynA6sY11Dtm%7E1TmUV3loTDzRAP3%7EAb6UmmDyH1lJKWmmPd9FiMB0jyR-6d6CQtKo8uCj8uC%7EE98cKzc2UgMAr6wd1fj71PM6YKbdrKZYkAqGA47TmuiSvQ-KXYEpxa9lXP8jCVRhWvlnOwcpTf%7E95bYgXBKZnhy5z6LYdrJOo2e7R887WIN1CX6k6lxMm0hA18MhFHwlsHLj1ukNMYHa-q5bT-LRC5B-QAQGYXMphnjdhtrmsgbzwqlqtCFMlQUyDaWTrNS%7E5Weq2R5s84Dd9yyoIRBiPvmIOxxXSd63qBAhHvH-UfbuUwg6FfzopUvJ3WbCP3DTg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
849551f594c72c4d8caf5eb0bd1386ec
PDF Text
Text
383
P^Bi.mMSe god of wind and messenger of heaven, to ascertain th® cause of this indifference. Pavana returning, reports to the gods that the corruptions which had
crept into their religion and the rise of Christianity had weakened the old faith. Tn
a rage, the entire Pantheon sallies forth in battle array to attack the intruders, but is
confronted by a Seraph, who overwhelms the foe with a glance, informing the old
gods that—
“ Jehovah will no longer bear
Your lawless presence here;
For He’s sole King, must ever reign I
Hence to the abodes of night 1
Hence to the brimstone sod !
The land where darkness reigns unblest,
And weary spirits never rest;
Where sinners be, sinners away
From hallow'd ground far driven ;
Immortal life to ye belong,
Go taste immortal pains,
With sighs and wails and blasphemies,
Amid the funeral screams of hell.’’
Though not perfectly simplified or polished, this poem is conceived in a spirit of
sympathy and kindness, and will be liked by all who are truly religious withou*
being strictly critical. One could readily conceive that the “Vision of Sumeru,” and
many other of the smaller poems, might have been far better in Hindi : so much do
they seem like goo d work not very well translated.
We have received a valuable contribution to mythological literature in Demonology
ancl Devil-lore, by Moncure Daniel Conway (Chatto & Windus : 1879). Acomplete
history of the devil and all his angels, with that of all the lurid horrors and smoky
phantoms accompanying them, would, if written with the accuracy which even the
mob who read with ease now exact, be a tremendous task. It would be ahistory of
religion, of superstition, of occult philosophy, of half the popular legends known,
and would make deep inroads on poetry. As the reverend author admits, “any attempt
to catalogue the evil spectres which have haunted mankind were like trying to count
the shadows cast upon the earth by the rising sun.” The older demonographers,
such as Bodinus, and Bakker in his Monde Enchante, satisfied themselves by simply
giving all they could collect, and by entertaining the reader with interminable stories^
But in an age when even many soundly religious people havefgrave or quiet
misgivings as to a personal devil, these marvellous legends are simply regarded as
fairy-tales. As history and theories of evolution are becoming popular, the stories
lose, however, none of their interest, only the interest is transferred to another field,
that of explaining and illustrating change or progress. The thinking world is as
much interested as ever in the history of the diabolical idea, its tremendous influence
on mankind is still too apparent to be treated with indifference; but faith in the
details is now lost in examination of a leading fact, as belief in the Elohim became
absorbed in the unity of Yahveh. Such is the ground taken by Mr. Conway, an
honest and sincere Rationalist, yet one who is, like most of the Boston Unitarian
clergymen, too deeply penetrated by a conviction of what is good and pure in
Christianity to believe that God could ever allow man, in his helplessness, to be
tempted and tormented by a devil. His book is not an attempt to tell all that might
be told about Demonology, and herein lies its merit and its fault. Recognising the
impossibility of detailing the devil with all that is devilish, he has subordinated the
innumerable illustrations to a theory of development which is well enough conceived,
whatever other theorists may think of it; and it is this very fidelity to the principle
or theory which induced classification or method, which leads him to indulge in
many pages of disquisition, which some readers will wish had been devoted to
mere facts. On the other hand, it must be admitted that this disquisition never
degenerates into idle rhapsody or padding. Thousands of readers—and we may
well say thousands of a book of which three thousand copies have already been
sold—will prefer Mr. Conway's preaching to his facts ; others who do not, will be
of the class who are capable of drawing their own conclusions. In fact, there is
much good writing among these disquisitions, a vast fund of humanity, un
deniable earnestness, and a delicate sense of humour, all set forth in pure English.
It is much to say that we have found the nine hundred pages of these two large
volumes, without exception, interesting.
The early religions were generally without a devil. The Hindus, notwithstanding
�384
THE CONTEMP ORA W&REVIEW*
their Rakhshas and fiends, maintain that their vast Pantheon contains no su<
creature. The gods were both good and evil. There were punishing demon
demons of storms and of death, but no such quintessence of malignity, decei
anti-godness, cruelty and petty meanness, as is incarnate in the Christian Sata
In “The Sketch-Book of Meister Karl,” Satan is represented as vindicating his raise
d’etre on the ground that he represents the necessary suffering and pain atte
dant upon the destruction of the old, leading to higher beauty in the new,
creation. itself, but is promptly snubbed by the author, who informs him that j
is ^nothing of the kind, but “only the transitory ugliness of the ruins of t’
tempest and the pestilence.” The old religions represented the devil as he repi
sented himself to the writer: Christianity has made him an abstract of the revoltin
Mr. Conway, beginning with Dualism, proceeds to the degradation of divinities ai
ex-gods into devils, and then finds causes for the existence of others in hunger, het
cold, the elements and animals,in enemies and barrenness, obstacles,illusion,darknes
disease and death. From these he proceeds to a history of the decline of demo
and their generalization as shown in art and in the decay of mythologies. T
next step is of course an account of the principal types of demons or devils, such
the serpent and dragon. Hence we have connections and affinities with these—su
as Fate, Diabolism, or the direct connection of incarnate evil with demons, and h
tories of degraded powers, such as Ahriman, Elohim, Visramitra, the consuming fi
and others. The second volume is in part occupied with the numerous deductio
from these types through the Middle Ages down to the present day. The great me
of the work consists, not merely in great research and a shrewd selection of striki
examples and interesting illustrations, but in the clearness with which Mr. Conw
develops his ideas. Its demerit is an exaggerated susceptibility to simile, and
readiness to assume derivations and connections without proving them—the gre
sin of all symbolists from Creuzer, Godfrey Higgins, and Faber, down to Inms
Not that we would class Mr. Conway with these blunderers ; on the contrary, he h
tried hard to avoid their company, but he often unconsciously falls into their fault
the fault, it is true, of a poetic mind, but one to be guarded against when one is n
writing poetry. We* should do injustice to this work did we not mention th
1
Mr. Conway writes like a man without prejudice against aught save tyranr
Abstractly speaking, his freedom from bigotry is almost naively amusing. Had
been a Calvinist he would probably have prayed, as did the Scotch clergyman, for t
conversion of “ the puir deil.” As it is, he sets forth his own very broad faith in t
following words, with which he concludes his first volume :—
“It is too late for man to be interested in an ‘ Omnipotent’ Personality, who
power is mysteriously limited at the precise point when it is needed, and whose moi
government is another name for man’s own control of. nature. Nevertheless tl
Oriental pessimism is the Pauline theory of Matter, and is the speculative protoplas
out of which has been evolved in many shapes that personification which remai
for our consideration—the Devil.”
These be plain words, but we have thought it best to cite them, that the read'
whether heterodox or orthodox, may know exactly what he may expect in this i
teresting and singular work.
THE PROFESSIONAL STUDIES OF THE CLERGY.
To the Editor of the Contemporary Review.
Sir,—I have to acknowledge an error of some importance in my account of the varic
courses of theological study now pursued in the different Divinity Schools of England.
In describing the subjects for the Theological Tripos at Cambridge, I set down or
the variable portions, omitting the fixed and more important part of the course whim
make it fully equal in character and value to the Theological Honour Course at Oxfoi
I cannot charge myself entirely with the mistake, as I applied to Cambridge for t
list of subjects, and was furnished with no more than I set down. I have similarly
omitted to credit King’s College, London, with having lately added Logic or Moi
Philosophy to its ciu’riculum ; while I learn that Logic is also the alternative of t'
compulsory subjects at Lampeter.
I am glad to make these corrections, and trust that if I have done unintentiou
injustice elsewhere, that it may be brought to my notice.
Your obedient servant, R. F. Ltttledale.
1
J
j
J
I
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
[Demonology and Devil-Lore]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[188-]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5603
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 383-384 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. A review, by an unknown reviewer, of Moncure Conway's work 'Demonology and Devil-Lore from 'Contemporary Review' [Date and issue number unknown].
Subject
The topic of the resource
Book reviews
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
[Unknown]
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[s.n.]
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 ([Demonology and Devil-Lore]), 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
Book Reviews
Conway Tracts
Demonology
Moncure Conway
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/274926647c3dccbd7c8dffc0abb9a013.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=nOnCGr12oXKmpXkIMSv44-wETCDJu7SZEI-3elgq0VaW27LIU4w82ewUooGqbEjVK9-JWno7D5L34bMmqi9WiWRnlrDduNZwGwZmXQ3g6o4wcaUBvWrjiqj6Alv2eGpatLK0MSslU628TawBxbwHh7uTIvQRm0WFxfum9-nFdhDm51yu%7ECoh851Tu4Bb9pWLtmkcLXhHz06YPfwNFSICFGKHmdzwMb7TmOWr3F7Slxghjm9ifkILviqe-03JFC3l8L0YUi9g19Z2lT2NENriDP4zxd-VFGKlgovrnPSypOeIt86pz%7Edzge5U6F%7EOvbkmNKGu33OVDdrL3eXzAkYGtA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
0eb58decf35085523a9d273dd7411dfd
PDF Text
Text
If
K, Mn Moncure Conwayr the popular preacher of '
Wouth Place, Finsbury, has completed his great
book on “ Demonology «the Dark Science of the
Dark Ages.” It has cost the labour more or less of
tenWears, and has merits which may |3W^it at
i the head of all works of the class, as it includes all
that is known as the result of modern research.
His church having won many new adherents, a re
ception was held there by Mrs. Conway, that she
might become acquainted personally with the fresh
hearers. Carpet, floral, and other decorations lent
their gaieties to the scene. An unexpected pre
sentation of £350. was made to Mr. Conway as a
memorial of the pleasant reception, and perhaps
I of congratulation that he had at last laid the
demons—who in all times have given trouble.
The Nineteenth Century Club has been opened in
Brighton through the munificence of Mr. P. H.
Taylor, M.P., who takes upon himself to meet any
losses for the first two or three years in order to see
whether the members care to render it self-supporting. The building was once the famous KentI field Billiard Rooms, where in George IV.’s days
i all the noble gamblers of the time played. The
| building and alterations will have cost from £3,000.
to £4,000., including fittings, and a fine library.
ii The club without and within is a really handsome
place. Strange to say, Mr. Taylor’s condition,
that the library of the club should be open
| to non-members on Sundays, has been well
I accepted. It was thought that objections
; would be made thereto ; but the members
are a little nervous about recreation in the
• club—of billiards or chess—on Sunday. Mrs.
j Grundy is a good deal about in Brighton. The
I fresh air does her good; and at a meeting of mem
bers it is expected Mr. Taylor will be asked to see
the old lady. The object of the club is to enable
members of the working-class who may belong to it
to have the same freedom of innocent and moral
i enjoyment of any kind and on any day as gentle
men use in their clubs, never condescending to ask
permission of any one, never suffering the inter
ference of others with them. If, however, the comijmittee think that the majority of members are
I without the self-respect which would value this in■ dependence, or are wishful, from any scruple, to
prohibit this honourable freedom to their asso- i
’ dates, Mr. Taylor will be asked to consent that
for the first year all recreation on Sunday, save
. reading, lectures, and music, shall be suspended, fl
I; on the understanding that at the end of that time i
the question shall come up for reconsideration and I
adjustment. It is expected that Mr. Taylor will :
leave details of enjoyment to be determined by the j
members, the principle of the club being open on .
the Sunday being respected. Working people never |
had such a chance of a club as this.
��
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
[Demonology and Devil-Lore]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 1 leaf ; 19 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Mounted untitled cutting from an unidentified newspaper. An unnamed review of Moncure Conway's work 'Demonology and Devil-Lore'.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[s.n.]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5600
Subject
The topic of the resource
Book reviews
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
[Unknown]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[n.d.]
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 ([Demonology and Devil-Lore]), 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
Demonology
Moncure Conway
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/da5b3b0b8cbb172c9ae36cb11d6c2f6a.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=cv3Y4yNB0FesLCM4CvbtplMmahM%7E6FhdLxwV3nXw%7EhHRes1K6YVhN2wOaLHEwf5urE8lTlYUQubuPGCmBfbp%7EXnkNTYR0AY7myA34NZlHdcwK%7EEcHVpKvJJ4k9sRLPJAUnDZ0RAM-mcyrtAERjrB7DvPQNuc9wZWkT-vR9wbZ1VNWp7zaIM0fw9yjhR4M8ll6GXQM%7ERq3nj6Slq0DFXLaHHAogUwYGqvi%7EN7vYF%7EfEOozHlujR-fGhomI22tkvYHvTnoxoEIEUwg5A1zFrLKtQgP4%7EosKfPEnV7e9Mc1p4nQHYj%7EdrcI4OgqC4Mufi57ZOXOs1kgxiSQdFbD5-Dbcg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
7dcc723cbb6ace27db34a4cda7599935
PDF Text
Text
The sketch, of the character and temperament of St. Paul in his
relation to the doctrine of the resurrection is as important as it is
interesting. The spirit of the volumes is 'summed up in the follow
ing words, with the quotation of which we for the present earnestly
commend the book to the attention of our readers—
“Although we lose a faith which has long been our guide in the past,
we need not now fear to walk boldly with Truth in the future, and turning
away from fancied benefits to be derived from the virtue of His death, we
may find real help and guidance from more earnest contemplation of the
life and teaching of Jesus.”
N
We presume that the chapters in Mr. Conway’s work10 have been de
livered as lectures in South Place. No one could listen to them, few could
read them, without stimulus to thought, without being obliged to say, Do
I or do I not believe in the things which are- here so fiercely assailed as
merely old wives’ fables ? It is well to break idols—it is well often
to be full of scornful irony in the breaking—it is well to show, as Mr.
Conway is never tired of doing, the comparative mythology of religions ;
but the idol-breaker and the comparative mythologist perhaps lose
necessarily a something of reverential spirit that we should like to
find in all teachers, and a power of sympathy with what is true among
the felicities of the past.
One of the most striking lectures in the book is concerned with the
Ammergau miracle-play, in which he draws a very skilful contrast)
between the ideal Christ of the Church and the Christ as represented
in the Gospels ; but we cannot help thinking that his picture is ex
tremely overcharged from a desire of being original, and of differing,
not only from most Christians, but from most free-thinkers.
We are sure that few will agree with Mr. Conway’s estimate of the
manner in which Christ shrank from death, as put out by him in the
following passage—
“ Again and again had Christ tried to escape this danger (death), even
with dexterity, and on his trial he fenced with every art of speech and
silence. When he saw the coils of priestly hatred closing around him,
his soul was exceeding sorrowful. Death haunted him. When a woman
anointed him tenderly, the odour reminded him of death. i She embalms
me for burial,’ he cries, and his very words shudder. He meets his
disciples at supper ; but when he sees and tastes the red wine, that too
suggests death ; he recoils and cries, ‘ It’s my blood ! Drink it yourselves
—I’ll never taste it again ! ’ ”
In a hasty survey of the good and evils of Christianity, the same or
greater want of real sympathy and interest is shown. “ Idols and
Ideals” is a striking but extremely irritating book, attracting by its
brilliancy, repelling by its cold, metallic hardness.
The Hon. Albert Canning has written an essay 11 which, as its seems
to us, would be far more in place in the pages of a magazine than pub10 “ Idols and Ideals.” By Moncure D. Conway, M.A. London: Trubner&
Co. 1877.
11 “ The Political Progress of Christianity.” By the Honourable Albert S. G.
Canning. London: Smith, Elder, & Co. 1877.
�220
®
Bish pH as a substantial book. For it is too hasty, and is too m"ch
occupied with temporary judgments and modern newspaper litera
ture, to have any real and permanent value. It is an examination into
the comparative civilisation attained by Christian nations and those
under the sway of Islam ; and he considers it evident that, in modern
times, at least, no country except under Christian political rule has
attained to real civilisation. Mr. Canning has drawn carefully on all
authorities which tend to prove his point, but it is a one-sided and
argumentative rather than an exhaustive examination into the ques
tion. It is, however, worth reading as a statement of one side of the
v question.
“No task,” says Miss Whately,12 “ can well be undertaken by a
Christian writer more painful than that of controversy with fellowt Christians.” If such be the case, we can only say that almost every
V theological work ever written must have brought to its author many
terrible pangs ; for, with the rarest possible exceptions, every statement
of faith and doctrine in every language consists in large measure in
running down the faith and doctrines of somebody else. Miss Whately
gives herself the terrible pain of assailing, on evangelical grounds, the
doctrine and practices of the sect known as the Plymouth Brethren.
The whole controversy seems to us so very puerile, that we need only
draw attention to it as another indication of the intestine convulsions
that are shaking religious Protestantism to its foundations.
“ Scepticism and Social Justice ” 13 is an enlarged reprint of a little
work formerly published in Mr. Scott’s well-known series of tracts. It
contains a sketch of the aspect in which the controversy about the authen
ticity and the credibility of the Bible presents itself to an intelligent
layman who has no time to study the subject profoundly at first hand.
He challenges the clergy either to refute the attacks which have been
brought on the received theology and Scripture history, or else to allow
the sceptic to hold his own without placing him under a social stigma.
It is not enough, Mr. Bastard thinks, to say that in the large centres
of civilisation no social stigma attaches to the upholders of sceptical
opinions. He is writing in behalf of those who live in country neigh
bourhoods, where thinkers are few, and where orthodoxy and ecclesiasticism are still rampant. It is a temperate, well-written, though not
profound pamphlet, kindly and considerate to those from whom it asks,
but perhaps asks in vain, equal kindness and consideration.
Mr. Bacon 14 is an American living in Switzerland, who has contri
buted papers to various American periodicals for some time past. His
collected volume, dealing on questions connected with the Church on
the Continent, the Catholic reformation in Switzerland, the Old Catholic
Congress, on the temperance reformation, &c., are better worth reading
than are most volumes of connected essays.
12 “ Plymouth Brethrenism.” By E. J. Whately. London : Hatchards. 1877,.s
13 “ Scepticism and Social Justice.” By Thomas Horlock Bastard. , London :
Williams & Norgate. 1877.
„ n
14 “ Church Papers.” By Leonard Woolsey Bacon. London : Trubner & Lo.
1877.
\
‘‘ ’
•
'_i -
-
■ ,
J
7?^' *
�
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
[Idols and Ideals]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: p. 219 ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. A review, by an unknown reviewer, of Moncure Conway's work 'Idols and Ideals' from 'Theology'. Date and issue number unknown.
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
[n.d.]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5611
Subject
The topic of the resource
Book reviews
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
[Unknown]
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 ([Idols and Ideals]), 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
Conway Tracts
Moncure Conway
Religion
Superstition
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/c807220def282c8b12b7712453350b2a.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=AxrIPh2SjTkJc5z5MPhGLdU86XpZqzwHt9ylDBFWPIVv7udOm9ICjzjk%7Eff5N5EQZtnlkN4vuA7aZmrIZvm393zjrrjUENPllTsHxf9ICT7a1RCXRm7Kv-nUXyddoZ07D%7E%7E7Qg4HEiyQRupEubKl0DOXrjk4jQNkX5b-n7TvBol2Z%7EBQE2gQMYWc6W7QErnjN76JhyB-fF7AhcaFaMTXxFPy2eo78wNSEu13l5PDnzHTZJ8dZn30-UC8XLZNw9H5KXiuu6C0Odkcz9LUaOG4si3ErkkKTTwgcVVz%7EbDoUUlq0fl3XjoRx8Fo0EBG5BsfoyY%7E54c2iSrqjG9Hco5fWw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
74434459310745696387f7d2f234e01d
PDF Text
Text
as he was in earlier years one of ”
most civil engineers. The Read4__
"e®\’
■
Paris, he was able to assist a
nni’^ Frenchman who came to this country
tz
er an appointment from M. Thiers, then
minister of Public Works, to visit and study
minutely the public improvements, canals
and railroads, and the financial and bank
ing systems, both of the States and the Ge3 neral Government. Prom this period, 1833. 35, down to the day of his death, Michel
Chevalier was one of the warmest admirers I
of this country, and now his early friend,
Mr. Robinson, publishes this memoir, read
before the American Philosophical Society, J
in which he gives us a clear and in
structive account of the useful career
of M. Chevalier, and of the wide sphere
of his activity. His Letters on the
United "States were received with great ap
plause, and even now are well worth read
ing, and his thorough and exhaustive report
on our public works, although, oi course,
antiquated by the half century that has al
most passed, is a monument of the pains
taking diligence of the writer and of the
progress made by this young country in de
veloping its communications. What he
learned here and in subsequent visits of the
same kind to England led to his elaborate
Xvork on the Roads, Canals and Railroads of
France, and the adoption and execution of
many of his plans and suggestions may be
seen in the France of to-day, with its net
work of railroads, its thorough system of
high roads, and it§ chain of canals. Indeed,
the great schemes that are now being carried
out in France for supplying every part of
the country with local railroads connected
with the great through lines may be.deduced
from Chevalier’s lessons learned here.
So great Was the appreciation of his pre
eminent services and of the success of his
studies in finance as well as in engineering,
J that at thirty-five he was appointed Profes
sor of Political Economy at the College of
France, and that office he held down to his
death, although he was prominent in public
life, a Senator, and frequently occupied with
great public missions and commissions. His
sturdy independence in politics stayed by
him to the last, and he was the one man in
the Senate who, in 1870, voted against the
I German war, on which Napoleon the Third
entered with a high heart, only to lose his
: throne. The part taken by Chevalier in
; bringing about a commercial treaty with
’ England is fully described by Mr. Robinson,
■ who attributes to it and to the admirable
railroad system in France, devised by Che- j
valier, the rapid recovery of France from
the results of the Prussian war, and its ad
vance to a state of national prosperity
and individual welfare not equalled in
any other country of Europe. Free tra
der as he was in theory, he was,
>
•I
'
*
j
�
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
[Newscutting about] Michel Chevalier
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 1 leaf ; 19 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
[Unknown]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1870
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[s.n.]
Subject
The topic of the resource
Engineering
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 ([Newscutting about] Michel Chevalier), 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>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5741
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
Michel Chevalier
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/10a5a147bc9ed4bd4f2c68b8600c41e1.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=rgxxYDFQZ3QD6kgSY8QbOs3o%7EwTwoDZw4tTag63yClO0l2RtZtWDyoa1895dTQWZIfD7M1%7E0JhFDUuAJa7TFqqJqxGy9HWEt-9Mj9sYQM%7EaEQScs0fwT2n60Qi0sdbN1SeXk-CIXFJqqyfVD%7Eh1j-zckg5vTI-3A3FP-VXwWIRhuy9B-1oI%7EQv%7EkWv2iuIqjq6Gv54Sw%7EWKNoTiXYJR8V6d6rY57iNKHzYObZTZ4qaMTLSG3oECMTY4vMDG1v7d7YKV6yYYx5W2dIWUJpJ02fTyQMr%7EuAPkEhUoze3FzyUkes44Haku3aEWvZTrhpDW2vtg%7EtQfP31rQKwjNAg%7EveA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
abcadb4c3db5bef4921ad1551447cfcd
PDF Text
Text
8o
Notes.
Mr. Conway’s “ Earthward Pilgrimage ” seems to have produced a
strong impression on both friends and foes in England. In a recent
debate in the House of Commons, Mr. Bouverie, a conservative, spoke
of it as a work of remarkable ability, and quoted passages from it to
show that a revolutionary school of thought on social subjects is grow
ing to strength in Great Britain. “ The Theological Review ” says,
“The book is full of suggestive thoughts, poetically and pointedly
expressed: and though, to a thoughtful and judicious reader, he may
seem extravagant, one-sided and unfair in his statements and represen
tations, the general impression left by the whole is that it is the earnest
and healthy skepticism of a man of real genius.” “ The Academy ”
: peaks of Mr. Conway’s style as possessing “ high intellectual vitality,
the subtle, pointed, exquisite manner, the fertility in sparkling conceits,
striking analogies and similes, happy historical allusions and anec
dotes,” and his charges against the traditional religion, though violent,
as “ so refined and cultivated, so cool, disengaged, full of well-bred
restraint, as almost to persuade us of their moderation.”
“The New York Tribune” says of Mr. Weiss’s new book: “From
the specimens we have given of Mr. Weiss’s trains of thought, our readers
may obtain an idea, correct, although inadequate, of the main drift of this
remarkable volume, which we do not hesitate to pronounce one of the most
original and suggestive which have ever appeared in our native literature.”
“The Modern Epoch in Politics” is a new work by D. A. Wasson,
which will, when published, if we do not mistake, create a “ sensation ” of a
wholesome character.
“The Spiritual Annalist and Scientific Record” is the name of
a new magazine, edited by J. H. W. Toohey, and published in Boston by W.
F. Brown & Co. It is ably conducted.
We shall publish in our next number a carefully prepared paper on “ The
French Commune,” by W. J. Linton, who has had favorable opportunities
for an impartial review of the whole subject.
A friend sends us “ a few new subscribers to help the ‘ boiling pot.’ ”
We wish many others may be as thoughtful, and not forget us during this
“hot weather,” persuaded that the pot will boil itself.
�Notes.
79
and hear the voice of reason everywhere. Do you see Jesus walking
among men as himself only a man, and so lose your heaven-born
Lord? You are restored to your own birthright, and have the priv
ilege of being a son of God yourself. God becomes your present
source of supply, and is no longer “ a Hebrew tradition.” To this in
visible Well you may go and drink and thirst no more.
What then is the burden of all this protest and passion ? It is that
all those hindrances of Church and State which, under pretense of
mediating, are separating mankind from God, shall be removed. Men
claim the present and shining light of God to show them what they
may do for themselves and each other.
The questions of the moral or spiritual life are not affected by the
intellectual or moral stature of Jesus, and no Radical can take other
interest in the discussion than is prompted by the desire to rightly
estimate the characters of all who have lived on the earth and left
their fame to posterity. There seems to be no excuse, however, for
any to set him up, lawyer-like, and try him as a prosecuting attorney
would a criminal. His name has suffered enough from the treatment
of Orthodoxy. Radicals can afford, in all justice, to show him a little
personal sympathy, and especially since they do not propose to ride
into heaven on his back.
Father Taylor’s little prayer, as prayers go, is quite refreshing:
“Blessed Jesus, give us common sense, and let no man put blinkers on
us, that we can only see in a certain direction, for we want to look
around the horizon; yea, to the highest heavens and to the lowest
depths of the ocean.”
Robert Collyer finds a hearty welcome among the Unitarians of
England, in spite of the “ loose way ” of saying things to which he
is adicted. At their Festival he told them, “ I like to meet a company
of Unitarians that will speak out their convictions, and show, as we say
in the West, that they ‘ain’t nothing else, nohow.’” “We are no bet
ter for being Unitarians and at the same time tasting very strongly of
Orthodoxy. “You have a right to feed your hearts on the story of
the past. But I tell you it began to be a (Question whether Egypt was
going to live much longer, when she paid more attention to embalming
her grandfathers than she did to inspiring her children.” He rejoiced
that the Unitarians were not “going to tumble the cream back into
the blue milk.”
Are the signs as hopeful this side the water ?
�
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 Earthward Pilgrimage]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[c.1871]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5714
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: p. 80 ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. A review of Moncure Conway's work 'The Earthward Pilgrimage'.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
[Unknown]
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[s.n.]
Subject
The topic of the resource
Book reviews
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 Earthward Pilgrimage]), 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
Book Reviews
Conway Tracts
Moncure Conway
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/113e5526fefd2c2df142d87b194ee8dc.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=PQ5IZVUAdXv622nAyuUFY-Z9qwxzPA%7EOuv6jJ0ZIx-c-TYwKoqyBDlhuLBp7u%7EiNzgcFToefqLAcMO860Vq%7Eoh2IIEhzsswqW%7ESSs3OOqTXnyeLYrgo4kWpBO0gzDHNYxjPJRCVpf7bh4vA4FqEdL%7Ee2%7ESVEJeyJ0i1PH7hRzVcyr8mCg7otAlMrZ3i2BR5zv7GvSudx5PyWKFnFXHk5kEubKKunTz5W8%7E34p2LQEWf-9fVeJZuIu-BTW1RBhFVJpOvWkSivMhRKz-VAha4mbtszzd5FTeqt1BdWNtUzZ%7EKMFpMtwLLJo6uCJR%7EloyFwCXC2JlLChfLNTur1Lf8dDw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
d221407c1a46368984a1c3bf9b206a4a
PDF Text
Text
\ ~&
Q^¿
io^e/iiÆ Ot^dlvoí^^f-^
di. '(rw'k- d
Qldn*^íat ^ÍA^AhuiLa, QiZCejd^lC O~¿t e¿¿d&^
CA ¿n^e^JJL
Ç
<^‘Oi^jl^
^2/^x4/ín<Zt ^^2
'^r
¿
'fáñf d~
íaj-it^A)
c^
Mo~
e^^suL,
j
Jtdn^avL
p^&rvvv€^>^y ' ¿^Ax^zn^cÁ^ y
(y^'iyCt^cxJ-ßdzL j ,f
M^tydL
jl
far
cc^óC.
dj¿.
(yy^x^c^dd^
O^jdj^-o
XT^A^r
y
K"
<2¿<A^a.e¿C'i ¡JlcZeA. f d^2^^-y
frt^ídvr^ JLifa,M¿B*
ñ^n^dkt^
��— -- - — r
C^L^2^a MjL' Ú
ï
J^CC^CC^ * '. ¿)^&
J
3q
j £<22^fet ¿X?
j ^y^^izc^rz^?
CV^uí’ó
J ¿X
"7
¿2/uL
C^Cî^kl^jC
.C^lZ^^L
/
p
_^aJLOj2CÎ^^q?
¿j fâ&Zj2 <2^Y{/LCcdc? '
OTL^ /kc^ tkr^^C
'oaJI
j
¿n^t
Z
^Tec^f^
' I ?À6
c^J-^/^/- '^,
^CUU^t Crt^e^C
I
1/
rbut-¿~¿^
4ni^
I ?ew^t
un^t
Ta ¿
/^c^L
/ü-rùc^
fa/brt¿tnz
,
��
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 Sacred Anthology]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 2 leaves; 20 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Handwritten review by unknown hand of Moncure Conway's work 'The Sacred Anthology' from Pall Mall Gazette, February 17th 1874.
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
[1874?]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5596
Subject
The topic of the resource
Book reviews
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
[Unknown]
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 Sacred Anthology]), 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
Book Reviews
Conway Tracts
Oriental Literature
Sacred Books
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/73bcfbd0e4751be68253dcfaf273ce88.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=GiO0vQe8j40EJnJxt2jXvxMzhIdztSZ%7E3qPhVycXz-f5Vh9lG1hphQSrAJFWlncGxeFy-Y90EZ3yKe1nA93FfFs2m7DeoXdlVDYOWbi-VmbqBuPESH3eWK40f0%7EsvGbzculgm8mOvDAE7a1iWId818%7EuZfWdPkIi0JZD1GUd9aWlIfuyO%7E1MgFSBeuMYMonYQDiGqPUApxD4HnfRisNT1FlYc0aoi9GKhEzwcN65mtd9PfW6FyzCiEGkxdSMYQZe%7ESVMI5Rxsk6CYxw9Dar0o-92WQDC5tmgkuTJmBIoC1SVtOSzhgLQ1rLALtXMDp5uzGie0pBOAwwkdNDt%7EqWs9w__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
30b4899f46e2beee000586c2b158ac0e
PDF Text
Text
History and Biography.
bit 7 on AT I
3i( rn noil
oW .iM 1
^91 -diol I
Ewe sei sift I
fcfat di isdi 1
;irf; tadi ai '
iol ieasa n I
reaino |
Jh to iaift ]
O[£ . siioty
Iti ynsmf
)bi -■ bafij
is
aidM]
. nagal I
iifi ..iiqmjd
MHWJTOtno-*
sags 9di I
oitavonen
[^aatnoosd
sdteox) oi
bflSts insa
toaoirenft
aaiyhobnn
anenimoiq ,
Iffiisvroq
; yiirmamd |
ng edT
1
nwtoqnii 1
’77 vodljsT
rno? bsrl ’
'“7’100
lit
. :ibnl 15
mio®
IS
fflJ
■v eiilMl
to
■ nM
oiqoTB
sfl
no . . iso
riddfl
a
191
mifbsl
ioi.
wY I
c ->n e |
.1881
aa
t)
1H a . u n 1
oB. : oiiasIfB
269
Thucydides, against the modern “ temptation to read into an inscrip
tion more, than is really to be found in it.”
Mr. Moncure Conway, following up his invaluable elucidations of
Folk-lore, discusses in his new book the significance and the teaching of
the legend of the Wandering Jew.9 It is scarcely necessary to remark
that the book is full of interest. The main feature in the argument
is that this legend of the Wandering Jew is a notable example of that
“ sacerdotal sorcery which, for the lover of enemies, substituted a
curser of enemies in the earliest Christian theology.” We are told,
first of all, how the legend is recorded in Roger de Wendover’s “ Ilistoria Major,” and how the Wandering Jew himself appeared in Ger
many in 1547, and in various other European countries, with a clever
and wonderful knowledge of previous history, and so forth. From
this we are led on to a most instructive account of the more general
legend of “ the Undying Ones” and. of Curses. The ramifications and
amplifications of the Wandering Jew legend are portrayed with most
entertaining and instructive detail. And the story is carried through
the ages of popular ignorance and vivid beliefs to the more recent
renovation of the Ahasueres as a poetic ideal. The Eternal Jew
becomes the favourite “ subject” of great German poets from Schubert
to Goethe.
Edgar Quinet, Eugene Sue, and Grenier follow the
same lead in France. And we have an admirable account of the in
fluence of the legend on the English drama and on English poetry. But
underlying the whole, and gradually working its way in the end to
prominence, comes a powerful vindication of the Jewish race, and a
powerful exposition of the hoped-for approach of better times for
humanity at large.
The growing prosperity of India and its consequently increasing
importance to Englishmen of all classes ensure a welcome for Mr.
Talboy Wheeler’s “Tales from Indian History.”10 The author himself
had some misgivings concerning this title, and it is matter for regret
he did not allow these misgivings more influence; for the title fails
to convey to the ordinary mind an adequate idea of the character and
value of the book. It is, in short, an epitomized account of most things
Indian ; and he who has read it will have no bad idea of nearly every
point that Indian affairs present to English notice. The author in
this volume manages to communicate to the reader his own firm hope
in a great future for India—closer bound to the British empire by
representative and business connections; and his belief that the
English, having instituted law and order in India, are now offering
most favourable opportunities for the great native races to work out
their own advancement by assimilating the educational and science
achievements of Western civilization.
Yet another national history11 is put before the public, and it may
9 “The Wandering Jew.” By Moncure Conway. London: Chatto & Windus
1881.
10 “Tales from Indian History.” By J. Talboy Wheeler. London: W.
Thacker & Co. 1881.
11 “A History of the British Empire.” By Edgar Sanderson. London:
Blackie & Son. 1881.
�270
Contemporary Literature.
well be asked how it comes about that such a uever-ending issue can
“pay.” It will be observed that the title, “History of the British
Empire,” might lead us to expect more account than is usually given
of the oversea realms the nation has ruled from time to time. But
beyond a short chapter devoted to the history of the Indian Empire,
and three pages devoted to the growth of our Colonial Empire, the
book is merely a new version of the oft-told tale of the successions of
sovereigns and the wars of the English nation, rigidly confined to the
British Islands. Of its kind the work is good, and it has a very
complete accompaniment of tables, maps, plans, illustrations, and
index.
It would be well if the numerous class of reformers would carefully
study an admirable outline of the history of the English Constitution
now published by Messrs. Longman.* They would thus understand
12
the true story of the development in English history of self-govern
ment, and learn that kings and nobles, as well as the commons, have
each in turn assisted’ in the good work. The politician of to-day is
too apt to forget that the future will be worked out of the past. Our
land reformers will do well to bear in mind the result worked out in
the book, “All ownership in theory is tenancy; in practice all tenancy
is ownership.” And in regard to Ireland it is interesting to trace the
obstruction Celtic influence has always opposed to the spread of repre
sentative self-government. In Scotland the same influence delayed
this for some three hundred years after its introduction into England;
and in Ireland local Parliamentary government, inaugurated in 1300,
could only take root “within the pale” when English descent and
custom came to prevail. As a whole this little work is admirably
written. We would, however, point out that in its opening chapters
the Norse element in our population is altogether ignored, though
it is now proved to have largely modified our institutions and our
national character. Again, on the last page there is a very partial
account of the main principle of free-trade. It is described as
merely prescribing that ho import duty should be levied on necessary
food, and so securing the people “ from being overcharged for the
necessaries of life.” The utter inadequacy of such a description of
free-trade should be remedied in the future editions to which the
work is sure to run.
It has been termed a natural function of Women to provide for the
education of children ; and the compiling of schoolbooks for the special
use of children is a task by no means neglected by women. “A French
History for English Children” is a full, clearly-written account of historica^France suited to schoolroom capacities.13 It has no pretensions to
advanced erudition, and is a plain matter-of-fact account of persons and
events that young people are expected to be familiar with. The book
13 “ Historical Outline of the English Constitution, for Beginners.” By D. W.
Itannie. London : Longmans. 1881.
13 “French History for English Children.” By Sarah Brook. London: Mac
millan. 1881.
�
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 Wandering Jew]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 270 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. A review of Moncure Conway's 'The Wandering Jew' by an unknown reviewer in an unidentified journal. Includes bibliographical references.
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
[188-]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5604
Subject
The topic of the resource
Book reviews
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
[Unknown]
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 Wandering Jew]), 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
Book Reviews
Conway Tracts
Demonology
Folklore
Judaism
Moncure Conway