TO THE EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE. SIR,–We have all heard of a Society for the Promotion of Vice, of the Hell-Fire Club, etc. At Brighton, I think it was, that a Society was formed for the Suppression of Virtue. That society was itself suppressed–but I am sorry to say that another exists in London, of […]

DOCTOR NORTH: You are a liberal man: liberal in the true classical sense, not in the slang sense of modern politicians and education-mongers. Being so, I am sure that you will sympathize with my case. I am an ill-used man, Dr. North–particularly ill used; and, with your permission, I will briefly explain how. A black […]

[1839.] Hume’s argument against miracles is simply this:–Every possible event, however various in its degree of credibility, must, of necessity, be more credible when it rests upon a sufficient cause lying within the field of what is called nature, than when it does not: more credible when it obeys some mechanical cause, than when it […]

[1839.] PART I. It is remarkable, in the sense of being noticeable and interesting, but not in the sense of being surprising, that Casuistry has fallen into disrepute throughout all Protestant lands. This disrepute is a result partly due to the upright morality which usually follows in the train of the Protestant faith. So far […]

GREECE UNDER THE ROMANS.[Footnote: By George Finlae] [1844.] What is called Philosophical History we believe to be yet in its infancy. It is the profound remark of Mr. Finlay–profound as we ourselves understand it, i. e., in relation to this philosophical treatment, ‘That history will ever remain inexhaustible.’ How inexhaustible? Are the facts of history […]

[1851.] Lord Carlisle’s recent lecture upon Pope, addressed to an audience of artisans, drew the public attention first of all upon himself–that was inevitable. No man can depart conspicuously from the usages or the apparent sympathies of his own class, under whatsoever motive, but that of necessity he will awaken for the immediate and the […]

[1846.] FORCES, which are illimitable in their compass of effect, are often, for the same reason, obscure and untraceable in the steps of their movement. Growth, for instance, animal or vegetable, what eye can arrest its eternal increments? The hour-hand of a watch, who can detect the separate fluxions of its advance? Judging by the […]

PROTESTANTISM. [Footnote: A Vindication of Protestant Principles. By Phileleutheros Anglicanus. London: Parker. 1847.] [1847.] The work whose substance and theme are thus briefly abstracted is, at this moment, making a noise in the world. It is ascribed by report to two bishops–not jointly, but alternatively–in the sense that, if one did not write the book, […]

[1852.] Forty years ago (or, in all probability, a good deal more, for we have already completed thirty-seven years from Waterloo, and my remembrances upon this subject go back to a period lying much behind that great era), I used to be annoyed and irritated by the false interpretation given to the Greek word aion, […]

[1852.] Everything connected with our ordinary conceptions of this man, of his real purposes, and of his ultimate fate, apparently is erroneous. That neither any motive of his, nor any ruling impulse, was tainted with the vulgar treachery imputed to him, appears probable from the strength of his remorse. And this view of his case […]

[1844.] A great revolution has taken place in Scotland. A greater has been threatened. Nor is that danger even yet certainly gone by. Upon the accidents of such events as may arise for the next five years, whether fitted or not fitted to revive discussions in which many of the Non-seceders went in various degrees […]

EXHIBITED IN SIX SCENES. [1828.] [TO THE EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.] Sir,–Some years ago you published a translation of Bottiger’s ‘Sabina,’ a learned account of the Roman toilette. I here send you a companion to that work–not a direct translation, but a very minute abstract from a similar dissertation by Hartmann, (weeded of the wordiness […]

[FOOTNOTE: The History of Charlemagne; with a Sketch, and History of France from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Rise of the Carlovingian Dynasty. By G.P.R. JAMES, Esq. VOL. II.] [1832.] History is sometimes treated under the splendid conception of ‘philosophy teaching by example,’ and sometimes as an ‘old almanac;’ and, agreeably to […]

‘Journal of a Tour in Greece and the Ionian Islands.’By WILLIAM MURE, of Caldwell. [1842.] What are the nuisances, special to Greece, which repel tourists from that country? They are three;–robbers, fleas, and dogs. It is remarkable that all are, in one sense, respectable nuisances–they are ancient, and of classical descent. The monuments still existing […]

There is no great event in modern history, or perhaps it may be said more broadly, none in all history, from its earliest records, less generally known, or more striking to the imagination, than the flight eastwards of a principal Tartar nation across the boundless steppes of Asia in the latter half of the last […]