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The Societies' Section.

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"THE ROUNDABOUT SOCIETY is a private literary and discussion association, which has been in existence now for about five years. It has but few members, as the rules and penalties are strict; and no person is admitted who is indisposed to be a hard worker, and who is not well recommended. Its business is conducted by a President, Secretary, and Treasurer, elected annually. There is also a Chairman of Discussions, who occupies the chair during the readings and discussions at ordinary meetings, but for one night only, his place being taken at the following ordinary meeting by the retiring essayist.

Discussions are led by the members in rotation; the essayist next in order opening the discussion.

The members assemble for ordinary meetings every lunar cycle, on a Wednesday, at the house of the respective readers, in rotation. They are invited to tea at seven o'clock, and commence business at eight o'clock. Extraordinary meetings are also occasionally held on intermediate Wednesdays (at eight o'clock and without tea), at which the magazine papers, as undermentioned, are discussed; and other topics as agreed upon from time to time. Special meetings are sometimes called for special purposes.

A particular feature of this society is the "Roundabout Magazines," two or three of which are constantly circulating amongst the members, each member retaining one seven days, and being bound under penalty to deliver it to the member next in order on the seventh day.

In these magazines all manner of topics are permitted; and every style of literary composition is pro

duced, reviews, poetry, romance, essays, political squibs, &c., &c.,— in fact, anything a man dare write, knowing that he writes under the scrutiny and impending criticism of every individual member, who is at liberty to criticise every point and detail connected with the whole composition.

These magazines occupy a very high place in the society's proceedings.

All matters connected with the society are considered strictly private and confidential, and a pledge is given by each member that no allusion to them shall, under any circumstances, be made to outsiders. No strangers are admitted to the society's meetings.

The officers and members are elected by ballot, which, in the latter case, must be unanimous. A ballot is also taken in respect of each member every alternate ordinary meeting, to see whether the members approve of his further connection with the society. A majority against any member compels him to withdraw.

Members withdrawing with the full confidence of the society are made honorary members, having the privilege of attending ordinary meetings, but they are not required to contribute papers, and are not liable to penalties, though they pay the annual subscription.

The following are amongst the subjects that have engaged the society's attention :

Alfred Tennyson-Secession of the Southern States-CromwellThe Sabbath-Lenses; their Nature and Uses-Longfellow's PoetryEducation-Edward III.- CoalOur National Constitution-Printing-Milton's Prose Works-The

Parsees of India-Continuity (phrenological)--The English People and their Governors-The True and the Good-Macbeth and Stage PlaysAlcohol-National Education-St. Paul-Steam Navigation-Religion and Secular Life-The Sun-The Deluge- Pagan Rome-BeautySaxon England-William I.-The Origin of Language -Electricity Immortality of the Soul, and Brutes -The Pulpit-Light-Philosophy of Life-Philosophy of Being-The Telegraph-Faith and Philosophy -The Higher Progress of the Intellect Indestructibility - The Apocalypse of St. John.-JOHN D. ROBINSON.

The Dublin Athenæum is no more. Founded almost exclusively for the benefit of mercantile young men, it presented many opportunities for improvement and enjoyment. The rooms were in a central position, close to our leading thoroughfares and great commercial establishments. The apartments were spacious, comfortable, and well furnished. There was a really excellent library, stored with the most valuable standard works, as well as supplied with the popular current literature of the day. Lectures were frequently delivered on the most interesting subjects by some of our most able men; and the institution was furnished with every accommodation and appliance suited to imparting sound information and rational amusement. The notion of establishing such an institution originated with one of our fellowcitizens, himself acquainted with the wants and aspirations of the young men of our city; and like many another enterprise which has had better fortune and success, the Dublin Athenæum was founded and fairly launched through the exertions and enthusiasm, of a single individual. To Mr. Joseph Harris

first occurred the idea of starting the Athenæum. This gentleman

devoted his leisure hours for weeks and months, snatched from the la borious duties of his office, to collecting the handsome sum of £1,000, freely and generously contributed for this purpose by the citizens of Dublin. The Athenæum had the great advantage, therefore, that when it opened it was quite free from debt. But like most other similar institutions, whether established in town or country, after the novelty and excitement attendant on its early operations had died away, the interest of the members began to flag, the reading-rooms, classes, and lectures were more and more thinly attended, until at last it became apparent that it was of little use to endeavour to sustain the institu tion. That is something like the history and fate of many associ ations. They have accomplished good, and much good, while in being. But our social instincts, and the desire for social enjoyments and free social intercourse, far exceed the desire of mere mental and intel

lectual improvement; and our young men, released from warehouses and offices, more readily and continuously betake themselves to the warm fire. side, the tea-table, and the family scene, than to pore over dry books, read learned essays, or listen to philosophical lectures within the unsympathizing walls of any public institution. A serious responsibility, therefore, devolves more and more upon the heads of houses that private homes and social circles may be scenes where virtue flourishes, where purity and morality are commended by precept and example, and where all that tends to elevate and ennoble our nature is cultivated and cherished. The his tory of the rise and fall of the Dub lin. Atheneum is therefore instrue: tive.

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Literary Notes.

FITZGREEVE HALLECK, born 1795, one of the earliest poetical writers of the present century, and who grew in fame beside Paulding, Dana, Bryant, &c., author of " Fanny (1819), "Alnwick Castle" (1827), &c., died 19th November.

Prof. John Tyndall is preparing for publication "Faraday as a Discoverer: a Memoir."

J. Ward, author of "The History of God," has in the press "Workmen and Wages at Home and Abroad," a work on the effects of strikes, combinations, and trades unions.

Susannah Winkworth has in course of translation the last work which Baron Bunsen lived to complete, "God in History; or, the Progress of Man's Faith in a Moral Order of the World."

The Rev. S. Davidson is preparing "An Introduction to the Study of the New Testament; Critical, Exegetical, and Theological," in two vols.

Messrs. Longman announce "two new works on Maritime and International Law."

To Macknight's lengthy biography of "Edmund Burke," there has recently been added John Morley's briefer memoir, and now Prof. Robertson has in the press "Lectures on the Life, Times, and Writings of Edmund Burke."

Napoleon III. is said to be preparing "Augustus" as a sequel to "Julius Cæsar."

A series of "English Reprints," in vols. at sixpence or a shilling, is to be commenced with John Milton's "Areopagitica," and continued monthly during 1868.

Prof. C. G. B. Danberry, author of an "Introduction to the Atomic Theory," 1831, "Lectures on Agriculture," 1841, and many papers on botany and geology, died 12th December, aged 72.

A "Caxton Society," to reproduce the works of the introducer of printing into England, is being projected.

Tuberville's songs and sonnets, 1597, have been reprinted by J. P. Collier.

"Essays on Robert Browning's Poetry" are promised from the pen of John T. Nettleship.

"A Dictionary of the Language of Shakspere," by the late Swynfen Jarvis, Esq., has been issued by J. R. Smith.

Prof. Selwyn has translated "Enoch Arden" into Latin verse.

Samuel Sharpe considers that "the book of Isaiah contains writings relating to at least six periods of Jewish history, necessarily written by four different authors, and probably, judging from the style, by six or seven.'

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"A New Geological Theory" is being ventilated in the columns of the Athenæum.

Charles Brunet, author of the "Manuel du Libraire," the best bibliographical work extant, died recently.

The author of "F. W. Robertson's Life and Letters," Rev. Stopford A. Brooke, has been appointed editor of the People's Magazine, in place of Elihu Rich, a learned writer on the "Occult Sciences."

R. M. Phillimore has translated Bishop Dupanloup's treatise on "Studious Women."

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Auguste Comte.

THE POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY.

AUGUSTE COMTE is the Messiah of Positivism. In Paris, on 1st January, 1868, for the eleventh time since the demise of the founder of the Universal Religion," the disciples of the Inaugurator of the Positive Philosophy assembled at a solemn celebration of the worship of humanity for the promotion and furtherance of the principles of love, order, progress, and social prosperity, which constitute the chief elements of the Positivist Evangel. In an upper chamber, i. e., on the second floor of the house No. 10, Rue Monsieur le Prince, near the garden of the Luxembourg-which the great master had sanctified by his residence, and whence he had ascended into "the aggregate of co-operative beings" which constitute "idealized humanity," and so became a part and portion of the one Supreme Being, to which the mind of the Comtist rises in worship-this annual solemnity was held. In these apartments— conserved, in accordance with his will, as it was when the great career of which it was the scene came to an end in it-the Comtists of France, to the number of about fifty, gathered themselves together under the auspices of M. Pierre Lafitte, director of Positivism, about two o'clock in the afternoon of New Year's day for spiritual communication, mutual encouragement, and "in sacred memory of the initiator of the worship of humanity. Director Lafitte-a learned and eloquent expounder of the doctrines of the Universal Religion, took his position under a bust of Auguste Comte, between the two windows of the chief apartment, behind a small round table, and thence discoursed in fluent and facile terms on positivism, and the duties of positivists; the hopefulness of their ultimate success, and the progress which their master's views were making among politicians and scientific men, in literature, and within the churches. He hoped the ceremonies of Positivism would, at no distant date, be celebrated in edifices suitable to such a worship-masterpieces of architecture, glowing and beautified with paintings, glorious with the sculptor's noblest achievements in bronze and marble, and periodically filled with the grandest efforts of music. He explained the Positivist Calendar, the monthly festivals in honour of marriage, parentage, filial affection, domesticity, labour, thought, &c., which the hagiology of positivism involved, the doctrine of prayer, of private devotion, of combined action in social worship as the systematic idealization

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of the ultimate sociability of mankind."

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Simultaneously with this first-day festival of Comtists in the home of the founder-a spot sacred to all Comte's disciples as that 1868.

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from which the light of positivist truth had issued for the enlightenment of the world-a similar meeting was held, under the directorate of Richard Congreve, M.A., in Bouverie Street, London; while in Bradford, Dr. J. H. Bridges presided over another assembly of positivists engaged in the celebration of the worship of humanity. Organizations of Comtists are thus taking their place among the agencies of intellectual activity, and form a testimony to the vitality of the thoughts of the founder of the Positive Society, and the systematizer of science, politics, and religion.

It has been suggested to us that the curiosity excited in many minds from the constant mention of positivism by all parties as an agency of power, might be usefully gratified, and be made the occasion of an instructive exposition of the elements of the positive philosophy; and more especially that at this time it might be useful to supply an abstract of the life-work of Comte, together with a criticism of its main positions and an estimate of its place in systematic philosophy.

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Among modern metaphysicians" it is impossible to place him, for he abjured metaphysics; to name him among "modern logicians" would be absurd, as he wished to dethrone logic and to set up mathematics in its stead; to number him among "epoch men would be premature, for his era of social science has not yet been visibly inaugurated. In the series of papers illustrative of "toiling upward" he might very fittingly have a place for the bravery of his pursuit of his speculations, in poverty, humbleness of station, and "with difficulties compassed round." But a view of the man without an exposition of his system would be pre-eminently unsatisfactory; for the positive philosophy is the grand outcome of his life, and the industry and hopefulness of the man was due to the lofty thoughts with which it sustained him. We purpose, therefore, to devote three papers to the rendering (1) of an account of the life of Auguste Comte, (2) of an exposition of the positive philosophy, and (3) of a critical estimate of the foundations, the main elements, and the results of the philosophical, political, and religious ideas of the founder of positivism.

In our first paper we shall confine our attention chiefly to circumstances, events, and incidents, and shall only notice opinions and books as efforts and works, without attempting to epitomize them, or to account for them any farther than is essential to our being able to furnish a connected narrative. In this we shall avail ourselves of all the help, English and French, which we have been able to accumulate; for we must owe our knowledge of facts to authorities, having had no opportunity-like John Stuart Mill, the friend and benefactor of Comte-of becoming acquainted with these at first hand and by personal connection. Our aim will be as

* At the end of this article (p. 99) will be found a note of the chief sources from which we have drawn the materials for this and the succeeding papers-arranged in such an order as may facilitate further study should our readers feel so inclined.

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