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Article EEVIEWS OF HEW BOOKS. ← Page 2 of 8 →
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Eeviews Of Hew Books.
Mrs-Grenville Murray ' s " Pride and Principle , " and Mrs . O . J ? . Owen ' s " Fatalities , " which story , from a singular Russian legend , maintains the reader ' s interest from beginning to the end . Mrs . Abdy ' s lines are , of course , excellent . That lady cannot write a bad one , if she tried ; but we miss one of her usual stories . What a relief it would have been , instead of the awful trash of Albert Smith ' s " Bedfordia . " Le Chevalier de Chatelain ' s translation of
" Auld Robin Cray " is as good as a translation can be , and we like Miss O'Hara ' s " Return . " By the way , the Rev . " Octavius P . Owen was " in the vein " when he wrote his stinging verses on society , entitled "Vulcan and Momus , or the Class Shutter , " in the . "
Keepsake , " where they serve the same purpose as vinegar and mustard to otherwise tame salad or vapid cold beef . The lines run treacherously easy , and we enjoy their bitter wit , until suddenly the joke turns upon ourselves , and their severe truth forces us to laugh " the wrong side of our mouths . "
The Alpha . By E . Demys . London : Clarke , Paternosterrow . —To deny singular genius to this extraordinary and erroneous book would be absurd , but , though the product of a powerful mind , it is by no means the offspring of a sound perception . Like Carlyle ' s pamphlets , it amuses but does not remedy , but , more metaphysical , it touches upon abstruse and subtle truths , to which it conjoins
utter fallacies . As logicians , it is astonishing how easily we may detect the error of the author ' s conclusions , although asserted with all the daring dogmatism which characterizes the usual claptrap of such productions . The mistake is—first , in the want of clear definition of terms , the latter being hurled about almost like
firebrands by madmen in sport ; next , the instant we test any argument by syllogistic rule we discover " an illicit process , " or false introduction of an extraneous point . To go deeper into the author ' s l | ook , we tell him boldly that we understand the spirit he is of , better than he does himself , that there is no new discovery in his book , but that all his pseudo-novelties are only old Joes in a fresh
dress ; he is hurling another wave at the imperturbable code of religion , which it dashes against , but cannot affect , and that , if he will take our counsel , he wdll be cautious as of his very life , not to endeavour to shake the faith of the weak believer by crude theories of his
own imperfect acquaintance with the truth , nor rob the poor traveller to another world of what , if taken from him , makes him poor indeed Religion is a spiritual life , to be felt and to be prayed for , not a mutable invention nor a man ' s device . With the heart man believes unto
righteousness , but the world , by fleshly wisdom , will never know God . If ever , therefore , a person err from the truth , the cause of the evil must be looked for in the will , in the heart ; and the reason men do not accept the evidences of truth is because they endeavour
to "Hud out the Almighty" by their own fallacious and puny understanding , instead of praying for Divine illuniination , that they may wish to come to Christ " and have life . " von it . . tf
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Eeviews Of Hew Books.
Mrs-Grenville Murray ' s " Pride and Principle , " and Mrs . O . J ? . Owen ' s " Fatalities , " which story , from a singular Russian legend , maintains the reader ' s interest from beginning to the end . Mrs . Abdy ' s lines are , of course , excellent . That lady cannot write a bad one , if she tried ; but we miss one of her usual stories . What a relief it would have been , instead of the awful trash of Albert Smith ' s " Bedfordia . " Le Chevalier de Chatelain ' s translation of
" Auld Robin Cray " is as good as a translation can be , and we like Miss O'Hara ' s " Return . " By the way , the Rev . " Octavius P . Owen was " in the vein " when he wrote his stinging verses on society , entitled "Vulcan and Momus , or the Class Shutter , " in the . "
Keepsake , " where they serve the same purpose as vinegar and mustard to otherwise tame salad or vapid cold beef . The lines run treacherously easy , and we enjoy their bitter wit , until suddenly the joke turns upon ourselves , and their severe truth forces us to laugh " the wrong side of our mouths . "
The Alpha . By E . Demys . London : Clarke , Paternosterrow . —To deny singular genius to this extraordinary and erroneous book would be absurd , but , though the product of a powerful mind , it is by no means the offspring of a sound perception . Like Carlyle ' s pamphlets , it amuses but does not remedy , but , more metaphysical , it touches upon abstruse and subtle truths , to which it conjoins
utter fallacies . As logicians , it is astonishing how easily we may detect the error of the author ' s conclusions , although asserted with all the daring dogmatism which characterizes the usual claptrap of such productions . The mistake is—first , in the want of clear definition of terms , the latter being hurled about almost like
firebrands by madmen in sport ; next , the instant we test any argument by syllogistic rule we discover " an illicit process , " or false introduction of an extraneous point . To go deeper into the author ' s l | ook , we tell him boldly that we understand the spirit he is of , better than he does himself , that there is no new discovery in his book , but that all his pseudo-novelties are only old Joes in a fresh
dress ; he is hurling another wave at the imperturbable code of religion , which it dashes against , but cannot affect , and that , if he will take our counsel , he wdll be cautious as of his very life , not to endeavour to shake the faith of the weak believer by crude theories of his
own imperfect acquaintance with the truth , nor rob the poor traveller to another world of what , if taken from him , makes him poor indeed Religion is a spiritual life , to be felt and to be prayed for , not a mutable invention nor a man ' s device . With the heart man believes unto
righteousness , but the world , by fleshly wisdom , will never know God . If ever , therefore , a person err from the truth , the cause of the evil must be looked for in the will , in the heart ; and the reason men do not accept the evidences of truth is because they endeavour
to "Hud out the Almighty" by their own fallacious and puny understanding , instead of praying for Divine illuniination , that they may wish to come to Christ " and have life . " von it . . tf