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particular line which he will take is of course dependent on accident. He may be an extreme Ritualist, or he may be ready to set up the worship of Humanity at a moment's notice. Youthful conceit is not a very heavy crime, and we may safely trust that it will wear off in a few years' practice; but just now it is rather more offensive than usual, and partly because the epithet of Philistine has given into the hands of ingenuous youth so ready a means of insulting the rest of the world. If the abounding self-confidence of the rising gen

pleasant has been said about him when he has been called a Philistine, though he may have the vaguest possible conception of its precise meaning. For some time indeed the majority of mankind had only the general impression that a Philistine was something different from Mr. Matthew Arnold, and therefore something very contemptible. But what were the precise merits which entitled him to be a child of light, and the absence of which consigned the rest of the world to the supreme contempt conveyed in the word Philistine, remained a mystery. And now that the name has met with con-eration should lead them to develop into a siderable acceptance, it is suffering in another way. It is used so vaguely by people who are themselves Philistines of the deepest dye that it is in danger of losing its meaning. The sharpness of the weapon is disappearing under frequent use, and in the hands of certain writers it is becoming merely a new term of abuse to throw at the heads of any one they dislike. By a gradual process of decay it will, it seems, become equivalent to little more than Tory.

more definite school, it will be desirable that the rest of the world should be furnished with some means of retort by the next inventor of nicknames.

From The London Review.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN WELSH
CHURCHES.

is a

THOSE Conversant with the affairs of misMeanwhile, we confess to feeling another sions must be struck with the efforts made want more pressingly. Mr. Matthew Ar- to supply heathen nations with native teachnold has described the antithesis to a Phil-ers. We are a charmingly consistent peoistine as being a child of light. But, with ple. On the other side of the Severn there all respect to him, we fear that the name is land of hills and valleys, woods and rather too complimentary for the mass of rivers, with a population of something over his own disciples. Certainly the persons a million speaking a language not our own. in whose mouths the name of Philistine is We have been anxious at all times to supmost frequent are not entirely exempt from ply them with religious instruction. There human weakness. When we come to ex- are a good many fat livings in that country, amine the light by which they walk, we and people pay tithes there as regularly as fancy that it is sometimes of the nature of a we do ourselves. So we have been very farthing candle of their own. At the oppo- anxious at all times to supply the Welsh site pole to Philistinism are the young gen- with religious instructions. The Welsh tlemen who, until they have bloomed suffi- people as a rule speak Welsh, of course. ciently to deserve a specific name from some Since the days of Walpole we have thereacute observer, must be ranked under the fore sent them well-born and well-educated, general title of prigs. As a rule, they are though somewhat hungry, Englishmen to fresh from the Universities, and, indeed, fill their benefices and sees and give them are closely allied in some respects to the religious instruction. The pastors spoke least agreeable variety of dons. It is a one tongue, the flocks another. The preachrather unfortunate peculiarity of Oxford ers preached and pocketed the tithes - of and Cambridge just now that the teaching course they did; the flocks listened and bodies are to a great extent composed of paid the tithes, and if they didn't feel the very young men. Of course, a gentleman better for the exercise, why, it was their who has taken his degree within a few years own fault. The pastors often preached in considers himself to be at the very focus of Welsh, as well as they were able. They the intellectual light of the country. He did their best, perhaps, and, according to naturally and pardonably looks upon all the old adage, angels could do no more. persons a few years above him in University Mistakes no doubt were made - we all standing to be old fogies, and persons who know the errors committed by persons while are not at the University at all are unwor- they learn French, and generally long after. th to do more than sit at his feet. Conse- The good Bishop Burgess, for instance, was ently, he comes out into the world pre- accustomed to bless the people after this red to set up as a ready-made prophet, fashion-"the peace of God which passeth id to apply an immediate and final solu- all vengeance" (dial for deall). A clergyon to all the problems of the day. The man at “ Capel Coleman," while speaking

of man's depravity, declared that "every
man is exceedingly tall by nature." The
little men in the congregation looked in as-
tonishment at each other, and seemed to
question-poor souls! -the truth of the
statement. At last, however, one parish-
ioner, clearer-sighted than the rest, discov-
ered that the preacher meant to assert that
"every man is exceedingly blind by nature."
The same preacher, on another occasion,
made 1
Hail, King of the Jews," to mean
-"An old cow of straw king of Ireland."
Another once gave a curious turn to the
clause, "but the righteous to life eternal,"
"but to some chickens the food of the
geese." A late dean in North Wales read
"Be Thou exalted, O God of heaven, above
the earth and firmament," as Arise, O
God, above the head of two hens, and the
crow's egg also." Another clergyman read-
ing "the whole head is sick, and the whole
heart faint," was understood to say "the
back parts are sick, and the middle of the

back faint."

66

in the north of Pembrokeshire. It was his first visit to that parish church, and the people naturally flocked to see him. They were all Welsh, but most of them had a little knowledge of English as well. The bishop addressed them in both languages; and subsequently declared himself delighted with the attention paid to his remarks. The vicar, however, afterwards interrogated some of his flock as to how they had liked his lordship's discourse. One answered for the rest, and the rest agreed to his reply, 'We liked the English part of the sermon very well, but we didn't understand the Welsh part at all."

A few years ago the Bishop of Bangor preached at Criccieth, in Carnarvonshire. How did you like the bishop's sermon ? " inquired a traveller of a publican's wife residing in the neighbouring village of Lianymstundwy. "I would not go to the other side of the road to hear him again,” significantly answered Peggy. A respectable Welsh clergyman residing in the immediate After all, there is a serious side to the neighbourhood of Criccieth says, "I should matter. Some of the errors of Anglo- have no objection to my Bishop (Bangor) Welsh clergymen are positively unfit for delivering an extempore and unprepared publication. Occasionally the English cler- address to my communicants, but I should gyman in Wales has been made the subject not like him to occupy my pulpit. To some of a hoax. There is a story related of one extent he is able to speak the vernacular to English clergyman still living, who em- the people, but his prepared sermons are ployed a native to prepare a sermon for in grammatical Welsh, which the people him. The Welshman was a wag, and took understand as much as they do Dutch.” for his text, "Nimrod was a mighty hunter Like pastor, like people, says the old provbefore the Lord." The sermon, gravely erb. Like bishop, like clergy also. Things delivered, proved to be a humorous de- are not in this respect so bad as they used scription of fox and hare-hunting, and kin- to be, but still numerous are the instances dred subjects. These things are true, not in which parishes with exclusively Welsh of the past merely, but of the present. For populations are in the charge of clergymen at this moment the four Welsh bishops, as whose only language is the English. In "well as a large number of the inferior former times all the best livings were given clergy in Welsh parishes, are in many cases to the relatives and personal friends of the total, in all cases comparative, strangers to bishops. The relations of the Bishop of St. the people, their language, their manners, Asaph forty years ago had £23,679, whilst and their customs. The Bishops of St. the general body of the clergy in the diocese David's, Llandaff, and Bangor are supposed received £18,391 per annum. The fortuto know something of the Welsh tongue, nate friends of a mitred chief were usually of course. Dr. Thirlwall, indeed, is well, absentees. In Anglesea, for instance, there few better, acquainted with the grammati- are seventy-five parishes. In 1832 there cal structure of the language. The Bishops were sixty-two parishes with non-resident of Llandaff and Bangor are more or less so incumbents, and fifty-five parishes without likewise. Still, even when they speak any resident clergyman of any kind, whilst Welsh, they speak one language, and the nineteen of these parishes were served by people still speak another; for the people only six curates. The effect was withering. as such may be said to be oblivious to the The clergy were strangers to the people, existence of a Welsh grammar. So the their language, manners, customs, and bishops speak grammatical Welsh, the peo- tastes. In hundreds of instances English ple talk the vernacular; and the bishops sermons were preached from the. pulpits. remain barbarians to the people, and the Fancy a Welsh sermon to a London congrepeople barbarians to the bishops. It is not gation! The bishops and clergy trampled very long since Dr. Thirlwall confirmed on every prejudice of the people. The a number of children in a pretty little church people were unable to benefit even by the

little instruction doled out to them here and there. The nation was divided into two parts. The clergy composed the one; the people the other. They were in all essentials perfect strangers. Assimilation was simply impossible. How could there be any assimilation under the circumstances? There are in the characters of different races certain differences that resist all attempts at perfect assimilation. The character of the first inhabitants of a country communicates itself to each new succession of colonists, and often survives every possible change of laws, language, and civilization. The modern Frenchman is only a reproduction of the primitive Gaul. Our Irishman is still the impulsive creature which Patrick found him to be. The Welsh of to-day are very much the same people that they were in the days of Giraldus, with the exception of a few favourable traits, the necessary results of Protestantism and a more tranquil state of society.

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THE DULNESS OF PLEASURE. Ir does not at all require the temper of a philosopher, or the disposition of a poet, or the stomach of a dyspeptic to find out that amusements are very often the most intolerable modes of enjoyment within the reach of men or women. At this moment there are thousands of people in London groaning under the distressing tax with which the customs of the season assess their physical and moral energies, while the No one who is tolerably acquainted with streets swarm with specimens of the counboth can help remarking how completely try cousin bearing upon their very faces and opposite are the Welsh and English charac- in their gait proofs that the time of holiday In dealing with Welsh religious mat- is a period of anything but unalloyed satisters, this should be kept constantly in view. faction. Evening parties at the best are The question is not whether, on social only happy reunions for those who are in grounds, it would be better or worse for love, or who think they are, which is the Wales to lose her language; but, what is same thing; and even to those simple creathe cause of the failure of the Establishment tures the fun of being parboiled in hot there? Now the admirable adaptation of rooms and regaled upon the confections the precepts of Christianity to all ages and and wines which prevail at those insticountries cannot be doubted, and yet it may tutions palls after a few weeks. In fact, be said that that religion itself cannot be the manner in which pleasure, as it is ironiimpressively taught and brought home to cally called, is taken in these days, converts the heart without the aid of that indefinable it into a penitential process which no one community of feeling which generally exists would willingly undergo if not impelled to between men of the same race. The fact do so by mere fashion. Take the Royal is we have tried to teach the Welsh people Academy, for instance. To say nothing of through the medium of a tongue they did what the Academicians have done to render not and do not understand. Of course the the galleries in Trafalgar-square trying to attempt was a failure. We have discov- the temper and the patience, the visitor will ered our error, and therefore now employ find that the whim which brings the young natives to teach the Gospel, in other coun- ladies of the West-end to the spot interferes tries. In Wales, the key to the hearts of with the chance of getting any enjoyment the people has been cast by the clergy into from the pictures. Whole droves of interthe hands of their opponents, and therefore esting creatures continue to pour into the it is that nine-tenths of the whole population rooms until each is as packed as a sheepare Dissenters. The result may have been washing pen, and the visitor, in despair, regood or bad—but the story is still a strange turns home with a determination not to one. At the Reformation, the contest was subject himself a second time to the inevitafor the Gospel in the "tongue understanded ble discomforts of the show. This is only of the people." The principle was applied mentioned as an example. Look into the equally to Wales. The Bible and the pit during the third act of a play, or of an Prayer-book were translated into Welsh; opera, and nine out of ten of the audience the Act of Uniformity at a later day enacted seem suffering as much mental distress as that in Wales, the services and the sermons if they were listening to the saws of a dull should be Welsh because the XXIV. Article sermon. Watch the London cads at Whitof the Church had declared that "it is a suntide following the instinct which forces thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God | them into the country or the penny steamboats

on this occasion. After the first excite- of interest in their attitudes or glances at ment is over, the fun begins rapidly to tell first, which gradually wears off, and leaves upon them. Exuberant leaders in a certain them blank, listless, and bored, but still paper perform delirious imitations of ex- faithful to their parts, or their chairs, stacy over the manner in which its patrons buoyed up with a queer distorted sense that -the people-pursue their pleasure, but there is a certain propriety in the situation, the representation is not true to nature. and that society demands the sacrifice from The working man has in nine cases out of them. Without going into the depths of ten to fight his wife, to carry the baby, and this question either, and very unpleasant to hunt his unruly children all during the depths we should find them, it may be said course of the few hours in which he goes to that it is to be regretted that young men enjoy himself at Kew or Greenwich. The should not be able to have a good surfeit shop-boys and shop-girls come home in of dissipation without permanent loss of stuffy third-class carriages wearied and moral strength. Of course we know such tired, and surrounded with the other fol- a thing to be impossible. Amusements lowers of recreation, who are tired and without vice are not popular with the youth wearied or drunk, or perhaps all three. of the period, and we doubt if they were They cannot expect to fare better than their with the youth of any period; but vice itsuperiors. The best-ordered lawn party self-the sort of vice which seems most atwill entail vexatious troubles and annoyance; tractive and fascinating—becomes, accorda picnic is often enough a grim business; ing to all accounts, as dull as virtue when while croquet matches, except to enthusi- pursued with a senseless perseverance. Inasts or to flirts, are wearisome in the ex-deed, satirists have written that men have treme. That this is really the case there is wooed the latter when sick of the former, no doubt whatever. It is only very young people who think otherwise-young in the way ofexperience. Ladies now often complain that they must almost drive the men to their houses or to the grass-plots. Many of the "golden youths" begin to protest against the pleasures of society as intolerable. Women bear those amusements easier and more gracefully. They regard them partly, perhaps, in a business light, but certainly not to the extent with which they are accredited by some of their censors. Still, it is a wonder they do not set their faces against the hurry and haste which utterly deprives a cultivated idleness of its luxury. To leave a ball at four o'clock, to attend the morning ride in the park, to assist at afternoon tea, to visit, to drive, to prepare for dinner, to go then to the opera or theatre, must, when pursued consecutively for some weeks, try the strongest constitution; yet numbers of girls are enduring this probation at present, and regarding it as pleasurable.

If you want to see thoroughly unhappy and discontented faces, look for them where well-dressed loungers congregate-where the men of pleasure have come to hunt the only thing they care for. The dulness of pleasure is upon them, and envelopes them. They suffer a constant ache for gratification-an ache which is as distinct and irritating as a pain from a bad tooth. The chairs in Hyde Park are daily tenanted by persons who labour under this complaint. It becomes aggravated in expression if they are by themselves, and have no one to speak to. You notice a slight expression

not from a pious instigation, but simply from a desire to change the modes of feelingto enjoy new sensations. Sterne, in one of his sermons, hints that Solomon's conversion arose from as degraded a motive. But the general effect of vice is to give its follower a false appetite, and to make him what the homilists designate "a slave to his passions." It must be said that the homilists have the evidence of physiognomy on their sides at least. You shall see your thoroughly dissipated men dreadfully out of sorts with themselves constantly. The master they serve pays them with scant wages.

Are intellectual pleasures free from weariness? It is hard to say that they are when we read the personal history of the most intellectual men from whom we derive those sources of enjoyment. It is hard to say whether melancholy or joyousness forms the note of true art, and of the two we are inclined to regard the former as the undertone which pervades every great artistic creation, whether of music, poetry, painting, sculpture, or architecture. This melancholy, or the consciousness of it, is not, however, necessarily displeasing, but still it jades the senses after a very short time. Art, too, renders us dull by dropping us once more on the ground after we have had our heads in the clouds. To a musical person there is an agitation of mind produced by certain emotional pieces which cause a pain and an excitement. This is followed by a reactionary stupor, and an awakening as from a pleasant dream. Even domestic pleasures-the most innocent of all, as we are informed

are they not dull, dull as ditch-water, | We might refer to other pleasures, which it oftener than fathers of families or mothers is even a burden and a distress to see others of children would like to confess? There suffering from. The unhappy young genis that venerable institution, the family fireside, where the head of the house is seated, surrounded with progeny. Intervals of happiness may streak the situation; but, as a rule, the whole lot are at heart protesting against it. The young men, if any, are longing to slip off to their club or cricket, or to anything that will bring them outside this family circle; the girls are reading novels, or are in imagination following the fortunes of heroes and heroines; the good man himself is thinking of business; and the presiding lady has her mind occupied with large or petty cares of some kind or another. There is either this or dulness.

tlemen who bowl and bat under the broiling sun, who fag and field with frantic dexterity, if they do not find the amusement dull, must certainly find it worse. The dulness of angling when the trout or the salmon refuse to rise need not be dwelt upon; the dulness of shooting when the birds cannot be found is intense. There is, then, but one mode of staving off this enemy, and that is by work, almost incessant work, which will prevent that relaxation of the faculties in which the complaint consists. To many persons this remedy would at first appear to be worse than the disease; but we would ask them to give it a trial. The work, however, should not take the form of pleasure, but should be a bracing industry from which definite results would follow. We are certain that, simple as this recipe appears, there are many to whom it never even occurred before.

From The Spectator, 27 June. GERMANY AND ENGLAND.

Without novelty or occupation dulness will creep in everywhere, and, on the whole, the men and women who are most free from it are those whose minds are engrossed completely in some particular pursuit or calling, and who have no room for thinking of mere pleasure. Those people, however, if not dull, are the cause of dulness in others, and their society is frequently remembered with mixed sentiments. Dulness must be taken to be the common lot of mortals. It is some satisfaction to feel, when it descends upon us, that it will COUNT VON MOLTKE's speech on the visit all alike. It is some gratification to "Ironclad Loan," made to the North Gerthose who have to exert themselves usefully man Parliament a few days since, deserves to know that those who can and do choose even more attention than it has received. to enjoy themselves will be pursued by this The Government of Berlin, which carries Nemesis. Poets are fond of alluding to its thrift into every department, had asked that epoch which is known amongst them as the Confederate Diet for the very moderate the morning of life, and at this vague pe- sum of 3,750,000l. for the purchase of riod it is understood that young persons ironclads, which, manned by Schleswigers, never dream of the dulness in store for Holsteiners, and men from the Baltic seathem. But this we do not believe. They board, will, it is believed, suffice to make have tasted it in some kind even at the of North Germany a respectable Naval powdawn of consciousness, and will continue to er. The Liberals, with a want of tact which taste it to the very end. This may be they too often display, resisted the demand, called only another way of turning the old on the ground that Parliament ought to advice as to the vanity of all things, the old have more control over the expenditure sermon with its metaphors of Dead Sea of the loan. The King's government fruit, and other rhetorical ornaments. Still or President's government, as it ought the truth of it is brought home to us with fresh to be called when the affair concerns all force when the weather becomes distress- North Germany-threatened to abandon ingly warm in town. The efforts of men and women at this season to escape their destiny is so notoriously frustrated that one turns to venerable causes to account for the effect, if only for the satisfaction of verifying the wisdom of our ancestors. We need not, like Mr. Swinburne, recapitulate the burdens which are the end of every man's desire. If we only confine ourselves to the burden of pleasure itself, to the burden of mere social pleasure, we shall find that it is a load heavy to bear at this particular time.

the fleet rather than yield the point; and
the public, aware that the Army has been
made what it is by executive absolutism,
aware also that stinginess, not extravagance,
is the vice of Berlin departments, and bit-
terly disappointed in its hopes of maritime
power, did not heartily support the Liberals,
who found it expedient to accept a compro-
mise. Parliament, as we understand a not
very clear arrangement, is to have as much
power over the naval as over the military
expenditure, but no more,
that is to say,

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