No. 1149. Fourth Series, No. 10. 9 June, 1866. ЕсCE HOмо; a Survey of the Life and Works of Jesus Christ. Boston: Roberts Brothers. An Essay on the Cause, Diffusion, Localization, Prevention, and Cure of the Asiatic Cholera and other Epidemics. By William Schmole, M. D. W. B. Zieber, Philadelphia. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY LITTELL, SON, & CO. BOSTON. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the Living Age will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. But we do not prepay postage on less than a year; nor where we have to pay a commission for forwarding the money. Price of the First Series, in Cloth, 36 volumes, 90 dollars. Second "" The Complete work 20 "6 50 "6 Any Volume Bound, 3 dollars; Unbound, 2 dollars. The sets, or volumes, will be sent at the expense of the publishers. CORRESPONDENCE. A Quaker Pepys may possibly disappoint some of our readers, as we confess has been our own experience; but who could resist such a title? We head this number with the article on Cant and Counter-cant, from a regard to the subject. We have been as much disgusted with the latter as with the former. Our readers will be glad to see Miss Bremer again. We were first introduced to her amid the dash and roar of the wildest rain-storm which has happened since Noah's time, in a very small company, which had braved it in order to hear a lecture in a country town from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Capt. Cameron's poetical epistle to W. Longfellow is a memorable incident in the lives of both parties. To be thought of under such circumstances is fame of no common kind. In a former number, we sufficiently indicated our opinion of the greatness of the objects of Prussia in the coming war. The proofs of it accumulate as the crisis approaches. The Bank of England stopped the panic very quickly, after the failure of Overend, Gurney, & Co. We have seen it stated, that, some years ago, this firm, having been excited by the refusal of the bank to discount some of its Bills of Exchange (in pursuance of the bank's intended discouragement of rival discounters), watched its opportunity when the stock of gold in the bank was low, and drew out at once two millions of gold. And it is said that the bank remembered this, and thought it better to let the private house perish out of its way. We say nothing of the theological article from the Contemporary Review; but our readers will "think the more." The Saturday Review is a naughty pa per; but we could not but be amused at its article on clergymen. " The effect of the sudden diminution of the circulating medium, by striking "checks' out of it, is clearly shown in the article from the Economist, upon a Panic. fice should be signalized by works such as have been productive of evil to Lincoln.-Athenaeum. KNOWING how much damage has been done to Cathedrals under promises of "restoring them, promises which in general are but undertakings to make old works look like new ones, and acceptable to people who hate the looks of age, we learn, not without apprehen- MR. PAYNE COLLIER has recently issued Nos. sion, that the process- let us for this case hope 19 and 20 of his specimens of "Old English Lit it may be conservation, not "restoration" is to erature," consisting of Hubbard's unique poem, be extended to the nave of Westminster Abbey. Ceyx and Alcione;' and the earliest piece of What constructional repairs that building needs prose autobiography in our language, Venard's we know not. We are certain no good can Apology for his Life,' and for his early dracome of attempts to restore," if that, as is matic entertainment produced in 1602, called usual, means recutting or replacing old archi-England's Joy.' Those who have sent to Mr. tectonic mouldings, carvings, and decorative sculptures. We credit our eyesight, and that of countless critics, for the belief that the fairest promises have often, nay, almost always, left what are really wrecks of Art with the semblances of new churches, to be lamented by a future better taught than the present. Very few of the great English and French cathedrals remain unravaged. The nave of Westminster Abbey is the least valuable part of the building; in it, however, is much that may suffer. We shall watch, and from time to time report the progress of these works. We cannot conceive it possible that Dr. Stanley's period of of Collier a continuation of their subscriptions will, of course, be entitled to these; the former subscription was rather more than exhausted by No. 18 of the Green Series, The Life and Death of Gamaliel Ratsey,' the famous highwayman of the early part of the reign of James the First In a few days Mr. Collier intends to circulate his exact reprint of our fourth poetical miscellany, The Phoenix Nest,' published in 1593. The History of Sir Placidus,' the early Christian martyr, written in verse, by John Partridge, in 1566, is now in the press, and will very shortly be issued, as No. 21 of Mr. Collier's current Green Series. Athenæum. From Macmillan's Magazine. ZADOC, so I am informed by my compendium of useful knowledge, was the founder of the Sadducees. The sect, I learn from the same authority, finally died out in the eighth century. Not holding myself to be an authority on ecclesiastical history, I am willing to accept both these statements as Gospel truth, but I must protest that the true Sadducean sect claims a far higher antiquity than the era of the disciple of Antigonus Socho, and possesses a vitality not bounded by any known limits of time. There were Sadducees in the days before the Deluge, who refused to believe then that everything was not on the whole for the best in the best possible of worlds; there have been adherents of the same creed ever since; and, as far as I can tell, there will be believers in the Sadducean faith till the end of the world. No doubt, the numbers and influence of this society have fluctuated greatly from time to time. At different epochs of the world's history, the Sadducean belief has suffered obloquy if not persecution; and its adherents have been compelled to affect a fictitious enthusiasm in order to place themselves in outward conformity with the spirit of the age. But for all that a faithful few have ever cherished within their heart of hearts the true Sadducean doctrine, trusting confidently that the day would come, as the world turned round, when that doctrine could be again avowed openly and fearlessly. And it has always been found that Sadducism has flourished most, has been most warmly espoused, most openly professed, in those periods and countries, where an old order of things is about to give place to a new, where systems political, social, religious, or otherwise which mankind have hitherto deemed perfect, are beginning to satisfy no longer the wants to which they owed their existence. Now it is not my purpose to declaim against the disciples of Zadoc. From my earliest days I have had a certain secret sympathy with this much maligned body. I cannot conceive the mental conditions under which I could ever have been a Pharisee; and a man must possess far deeper confidence in his own mental earnestness than I profess to hold, to feel very positive that, if he himself had lived in the land of Judah at the time when John the Baptist went forth into the wilderness, he would not have been one of those who remained sceptic and doubting to the end. Take it altogether, there must have been many phases of human existence far less tolerable than that of the Sadducee at the time when Pontius Pilate and Herod ruled in the Holy Land. The government of the Roman prefects was probably not a bad one for anybody whose patriotism was not of an ardent and fanatical description; property was safe; and high culture could be pursued without inconvenience; and speculative thought was very free; and life was easy and comfortable enough to those who had wherewithal to satisfy moderate desires. Scepticism as to the future adds somewhat to the enjoyment of the present; and a gentle cynicism is not incompatible with a keen zest for elegant luxury and refined enjoyment. Moreover the old Mosaic creed, as it existed in the latter non-militant period of its supremacy, could not have been an unsatisfactory one for men content to acquiesce in it without troubling themselves unnecessarily about its abstract theory of life. There was little in it that an educated Sadducee would find repugnant to his intellect, much to captivate the imaginative faculties, no great effort required to conform to its outward practice. Even Christianity itself, as a 'curious manifestation of human nature, must have afforded an interesting subject of contemplation for the well-regulated Sadducean mind. And so I can fancy, that the fellow disciples of Caiaphas and Ananias lived a not unpleasant life, in the days of Calvary and the Garden of Gethsemane. It was not their mission to reform the world; they took things as they found them, and found that everything was not so bad after all; they were not addicted to gross excesses, they were perfectly. contented with such moderate enjoyments as could be obtained without any strong exercise of energy or passion; they let the age wag as it liked; took part with no especial faction; discoursed philosophically concerning the respective merits of rival creeds and parties; passed by, like the Levite, on the other side when they saw that anybody or anything was in distress, but yet were not sorry to see that the Samaritan volunteered to help the sufferer out of his trouble; and, in fact, conducted themselves like well-bred and amiable Sadducees of all time and all countries. The name of Sadducee has died out except as a term of pulpit reproach; and the rules of the order have been so relaxed, that no formal initiation is now required into its ranks; but for all that the confra ternity was never more flourishing than at the present day. Ever since 1848, it has prospered greatly in England. Its muster roll comprises names eminent in every branch principles, and indulge in an active propaof science or letters or society; it has its ganda? If there are people in the world avowed organs in the press-its weekly unwise enough not to join the goodly comand daily journals; its professed teachers pany of Sadducees, but to engage instead and recognised apostles. I for one am not in the idle struggle against sin and poverty going to complain of the inevitable. In and misery, why should we interfere with days like ours, it is very difficult for any their hobbies? The world surely is wide thinking man to avoid falling into Stephen enough for us all; for those who labour and Blackpool's view concerning the way in those who look on. On the contrary, if we which the world is organized, and believing, knew our own creed thoroughly, we ought with the broken-down weaver of "Hard to derive a placid and philosophical enjoyTimes," that "it's all a muddle." And from ment from watching others engaged in a this belief or disbelief to the conclusion that Sysyphean labour-rolling up a stone it is not worth while to trouble ourselves which, as surely as it has reached the summit, much about disentangling a hopelessly will as surely roll down again. Why, this tangled skein, the transition is painfully very morning on which I write, in this town easy. I suppose myself, that as in the order of London, I witnessed a spectacle, the of the universe drones must be created for manner of observing and commenting on some beneficial purpose, so Sadducees sup- which appears to me to mark the difference ply some unforeseen necessity of nature. between the true and the spurious SadduIf I had to plead in their behalf, I could cee. I was going, as my wont is, to the make out a good case enough for them. If Gallio Club, and was going there, after my we do little good, I should urge, we do very wont also, in the most luxurious of manners. little harm; we cultivate the minor virtues, Looking idly for a conveyance, I observed we promote refinement, and decry vulgarity that every cab in turn was hailed by a as the most capital of sins; we check undue respectably dressed elderly woman running enthusiasm; and, in short, perform a part distractedly from side to side of the street. like the chorus of an ancient Greek play, My first impression was, as it always is with never interfering in the action of the great my brethren, when we see anybody taking world drama, but always on the whole ap- any unnecessary trouble about anything, plauding gently what is right and regret that the woman was a lunatic. It cannot ting decorously what is wrong, after right be a pleasant thing for a short-sighted lady or wrong have become accomplished facts. with spectacles to be perpetually dodging between the wheels of cabs, to be sworn at by drivers, who stop, thinking that she is a fare, and find their mistake; to be bespattered with mud; to be jeered at by a row of cabmen as she passes in turn from vehicle to vehicle along the stand; to be followed by a band of street urchins, and to incur a constant risk of being run over by every cab which refuses to stop at her beck; and to do all this, as she does, simply for the sake of shoving a tract on the observance of the Sabbath into the hands of every cabby she happens to see. Having watched her till the novelty of the spectacle was gone, I availed myself of the lady's assistance to stop a cab without any trouble on my part, and, as I rode along, finding my Sadducee Review less cynical, and therefore less attractive, than usual, speculated serenely on this quaint manifestation of the eccentrici ties of poor human nature. But the thought of censuring the conduct of this female Peter the Hermit of a crusade for the conversion of cabmen never entered my head. Yet I know perfectly well that many unworthy members of the Sadducee persuasion would forthwith have made this poor lady the subject for a declamation against Cant. I am ready to urge also that we Saddu<cees really do some positive good in the world. We throw cold water on exuberant ardour; we keep enthusiasm within due bounds; we delay all great reforms, all heroic crusades, till such time as they have proved their vitality by surviving the killing ordeal of cool criticism. But our misfortune is that we, as a body, never know the exact limits of our power; we grow in toxicated with success; by deserting our proper functions we rouse that popular fanaticism, that passion of enthusiasm which is always for the time fatal to our comfort, if not to our existence. Speaking always as a Sadducean advocate, I doubt whether in the whole course of our corporate life we have ever, in Yankee phrase, had a much better time of it than in these last few years in England. We are increasing daily in social influence, in numbers, and in general repute. The great tenet of our faith, that the world is not so much out of joint after all, and that at any rate we were not born to set it right, is becoming more and more generally acknowledged as the true Evangel. Why then I ask, in the name of common sense, must we be false to our They would have calculated the cost, labour, to be funny and humourous about Mrs. Jellaby and Borio-boolaagha; and moreover we have one unfailing argument with which we attack philanthropists. In obedience to the prejudices of mankind, we are bound to admit that love of your fellow-men, and a desire to do good to others, are estimable qualities in themselves. It is true that a powerful though erratic advocate of our creed has ventured to pour abuse on all philanthropy whatever; but the experiment has not proved successful. So we do wisely to content ourselves with lauding philanthropy in the abstract and reviling it in the concrete. Whenever we see anybody engaged in a work designed to raise the moral or religious or social position of any portion of the human race, we can always point out how much better his time and trouble and money might be employed in some other work of benevolence; we can always show to our own satisfaction, if not to that of the public, that in his exaggerated zeal for the object of his sympathies, he is neglecting duties far nearer and more important. Only the other week we had a brilliant fieldday about the Jamaica business. We exhausted all our vocabulary of abuse against the philanthropists who were foolish enough to wish to do good to Quashee. With an air of lofty superiority, we told the negrophilists that they had better look to the London Arabs, to the labouring poor of Dorsetshire, before they troubled themselves about a lot of black rascals, with whom they had no concern or connexion. We ridiculed the notion that any good had ever come of treating negroes with justice and kindness; we gloried in the assertion that the men who went out to labour in foreign lands for the absurd idea of saving black souls were in reality the chief instigators of blood thirsty massacres; we held up Exeter Hall to derision; and repeated once more our standard of faith, that anybody who tries to do good to his neighbours is always a fool, often a knave, and generally both together. Now against the system of warfare against Cant, of which the above may be taken as a fair example, I feel bound to raise my protest in behalf of the Sadducean order. If once we leave our high vantage-ground of impartiality and descend into the arena of discussion, we place ourselves in a false position. After all, we cannot expect the mass of mankind to belong to our fraternity. Unlike Freemasonry, our craft is virtually confined to one section of the community. The true Sadducee must be a man of culture and leisure and refinement: a man not engaged in a hard struggle for the necessaries of existence, but able always to enjoy its luxuries in moderation. Nor would it be desirable, even if it were possible, that the number of Zadoc's disciples should be more than a small minority of the whole community. With all our respect for drones, we ought still to recognise the fact, that it is well for everybody, even for our selves, that for one drone there should be a hundred of working bees. This consideration ought to convince us of the impolicy of our present crusade against Cant. We are and must be ex necessitate rei surrounded by a public whose views of life, modes of thought, and rules of conduct are different No doubt the opportunity was a tempting from, nay antagonistic to, our own. Our one. Negrophilism has always been the first duty, therefore, should be not to chal- special object of our antipathy. For many lenge unnecessary comparison between our-years our brethren across the Atlantic selves and active workers; and yet, in open defiance of all prudence, we keep perpetually calling on the world to see that we are not as other men are, not even as philanthropists and humanitarians. Now before we join in this cry, we ought to consider carefully how far our self-glorifieation is likely to commend itself to the uninitiate. Of course it is very easy for us sneered down every effort to improve the condition of the negro, and branded with ridicule and contempt any one wicked enough to protest in behalf of justice to an oppressed race. But they carried their crusade too far, until at last the reaction caused by their intemperance of language stirred up that abolition war, which, amongt other effects, has dealt the severest blow to |