A MUSICIAN'S WISH EXCITED BY HERSCHEL'S TELESCOPE. SYMPATHY BETWEEN
PETER HOPKINS AND HIS PUPIL. INDIFFERENTISM USEFUL IN ORDINARY
POLITICS, BUT DANGEROUS IN RELIGION.
_Noi intendiamo parlare alle cose che utili sono alla umana vita,
quanto per nostro intendimento si potrà in questa parte comprendere; e
sopra quelle particelle che detto avemo di comporre._
BUSONE DA GUBBIO.
When Miller talked of his friend Herschel's good fortune, and of his
astronomical discoveries, and of his sister, Miss Caroline Herschel,
who, while in his absence she could get possession of his twenty-feet
reflector, amused herself with sweeping the sky, and searching for
comets in the neighbourhood of the sun, the warm-hearted and
musical-minded man used to wish that the science of acoustics had been
advanced in the same degree as that of optics, and that his old
friend, when he gave up music as a profession, had still retained it
as a pursuit; for, had he constructed auditory tubes of proportionate
power and magnitude to his great telescope, “who knows,” said Miller,
“but we might have been enabled to hear the music of the spheres!”
Pythagoras used to listen to that music, when he retired into the
depths of his own being; and, according to his disciples, to him alone
of all mortals has it been audible. But philosophers in modern times
have thought that the existence of this music is more than an
enthusiast's dream, a poet's fiction, or an impostor's fable. They say
it may be inferred as probable from some of Newton's discoveries; and
as a consequence of that principle of harmony which in some parts of
the system of nature is so clearly shown, and in others so
mysteriously indicated.
As for the Doctor, when Miller talked to him of Miss Herschel's
performances in sky-sweeping and comet-hunting, it reminded him of the
nursery song, and he quoted the lines,
Old woman, old woman whither so high?
I'm going to sweep cobwebs off the sky,
And I shall be back again by and bye:
not meaning, however, any disrespect to the lady, nor knowing any
thing of her age.
Herschel would have opened no new field of speculation for Peter
Hopkins, if Hopkins had lived till that day; but he would have
eradicated the last remains of his lurking belief in astrology, by
showing how little those who pretended to read the stars, had seen or
known of them. The old man would have parted with it easily, though he
delighted in obsolete knowledge, and took as much interest in making
himself acquainted with the freaks of the human mind, as with the
maladies of the human frame. He thought that they belonged to the same
study; and the affection which he had so soon contracted for his
pupil, was in no small degree occasioned by his perceiving in him a
kindred disposition. Mr. Danby says, “there is perhaps more of
instinct in our feelings than we are aware of, even in our esteem of
each other;” it is one of the many wise remarks of a thoughtful man.
This intellectual sympathy contributed much to the happiness of both,
and no little to the intellectual progress of the younger party. But
Hopkins's peculiar humour had rendered him indifferent upon some
points of great moment. It had served as a prophylactic against all
political endemics, and this had been a comfortable security for him
in times when such disorders were frequent and violent; and when
though far less malignant than those of the present age, they were far
more dangerous, in individual cases. The reader may perhaps remember
(and if not, he is now reminded of it), how, when he was first
introduced to Peter Hopkins, it was said that any king would have had
in him a quiet subject, and any church a contented conformist. He
troubled himself with no disputations in religion, and was troubled
with no doubts, but believed what he was taught to believe, because he
had been taught to believe it; and owing to the same facility of mind,
under any change of dynasty, or revolution of government that could
have befallen, he would have obeyed the ruling power. Such would
always be the politics of the many, if they were let alone; and such
would always be their religion. As regards the civil point this is the
best condition in which a people can be, both for themselves and their
rulers; and if the laws be good and well administered, the form of
government is good so far as it is causative of those effects, and so
far as it is not causative, it is a trifle for which none but fools
would contest. The proper end of all government being the general
good, provided that good be attained it is infinitesimally
insignificant by what means. That it can be equally attained under any
form, is not asserted here. The argument from the analogy of nature
which might seem to favour such an assertion cannot be maintained. The
Bees have their monarchy, and the Ants their republic; but when we are
told to go to the Ant and the Bee, and consider their ways, it is not
that we should borrow from them formic laws or apiarian policy. Under
the worst scheme of government the desired end would be in a great
degree attainable, if the people were trained up as they ought to be
in the knowledge of their Christian duties; and unless they are so
trained, it must ever be very imperfectly attained under the best.
Forms of government alone deserving to be so called of whatever kind,
are here intended, not those of savage or barbarous times and
countries. Indeed it is only in advanced stages of society that men
are left sufficiently to themselves to become reasonably contented;
and then they may be expected, like our friend Peter Hopkins, to be
better subjects than patriots. It is desirable that they should be so.
For good subjects promote the public good at all times, and it is only
in evil times that patriots are wanted,—such times as are usually
brought on by rash, or profligate and wicked men, who assume the name.
From this political plasticity, in his days and in his station, no
harm could arise either to himself or others. But the same temperament
in religion, though doubtless it may reach the degree of saving faith,
can hardly consist with an active and imaginative mind. It was
fortunate therefore for the Doctor, that he found a religious friend
in Mr. Bacon. While he was at Leyden his position in this respect had
not been favorable. Between the Dutch language and the Burgemeester's
daughter, St. Peter's Kirk had not been a scene of much devotion for
him. Perhaps many Churches in his own Country might have produced no
better effect upon him at that time of life; but the loose opinions
which Bayle had scattered were then afloat in Holland, and even these
were less dangerous to a disposition such as his, than the fierce
Calvinistic tenets by which they were opposed. The former might have
beguiled him into scepticism, the latter might have driven him into
unbelief, if the necessary attention to his professional studies, and
an appetite for general knowledge, which found full employment for all
leisure hours, had not happily prevented him from entering without a
guide upon a field of enquiry, where he would either have been
entangled among thorns, or beset with snares and pitfalls.
True indeed it is that nothing but the most injurious and inevitable
circumstances could have corrupted his natural piety, for it had been
fostered in him by his father's example, and by those domestic lessons
which make upon us the deepest and most enduring impressions. But he
was not armed, as it behoved him to be, against the errors of the age,
neither those which like the pestilence walked in noon day, nor those
which did their work insidiously and in darkness.
Methodism was then in its rampant stage; the founders themselves had
not yet sobered down; and their followers, though more decent than the
primitive Quakers, and far less offensive in their operations, ran,
nevertheless, into extravagancies which made ill-judging magistrates
slow in protecting them against the insults and outrages of the
rabble. The Dissenters were more engaged in controversy amongst
themselves than with the Establishment; their old leaven had at that
time no mass whereon to work, but it was carefully preserved. The
Nonjurors, of all sects (if they may be called a sect), the most
respectable in their origin, were almost extinct. The Roman Catholics
were quiet, in fear of the laws,—no toleration being then professed
for a Church which proclaimed, and every where acted upon, the
principle of absolute intolerance; but there were few populous parts
of the kingdom in which there was not some secular priest, or some
regular, not indeed
Black, white and grey with all their trumpery,
for neither the uniform nor the trumpery were allowed,—but Monk, or
Friar or Jesuit in lay-clothing, employed in secretly administering to
the then decreasing numbers of their own communion, and recruiting
them whenever they safely could; but more generally venturing no
farther than to insinuate doubts, and unsettle the belief, of unwary
and unlearned members of the established religion, for this could
always be done with impunity. And in this they aided, and were aided
by, those who in that age were known by the name, which they had
arrogated to themselves, of Free-thinkers.
There was among the higher classes in those days a fashion of
infidelity, imported from France; Shaftesbury and “the cankered
Bolingbroke” (as Sir Robert Walpole used justly to call that
profligate statesman), were beholden for their reputation more to
this, than to any solidity of talents, or grace of style. It had made
much less way in middle life than in the higher and lower ranks; for
men in middle life, being generally trained up when children in the
way they should go, were less likely to depart from it than those who
were either above or below them in station; indeed they were not
exposed to the same dangers. The principles which were veiled, but not
disguised, by Lord Chesterfield and Horace Walpole, and exposed in
their nakedness by Wilkes and his blasphemous associates at their
orgies, were discussed in the Robin Hood Society, by men who were upon
the same level with the holders-forth at the Rotunda in our own times,
but who differed from them in these respects, that they neither made a
trading profession of impiety, nor ventured into the treason-line.
Any man may graduate in the schools of Irreligion and Mispolicy, if he
have a glib tongue and a brazen forehead; with these qualities, and a
small portion of that talent which is producible on demand, he may
take a wrangler's degree. Such men were often met with in the common
walks of society, before they became audacious enough to show
themselves upon the public theatre, and aspire to form a party in the
state. Peter Hopkins could listen to them just with as much
indifference as he did to a Jacobite, a Nonjuror, or one to whom the
memory of Oliver and the Saints in buff was precious. The Doctor,
before he happily became acquainted with Mr. Bacon, held his peace
when in the presence of such people, but from a different cause: for
though his heart rose against their discourse, and he had an
instinctive assurance that it was equally pernicious and false, he had
not so stored himself with needful knowledge as to be able to confute
the common places of an infidel propagandist. But it has an ill effect
upon others, when a person of sounder judgment and more acquirements
than themselves, remains silent in the company of such talkers; for,
from whatever motive his silence may proceed, it is likely to be
considered, both by the assailants of the truth, and by the listeners,
as an admission of his inability to maintain the better cause. Great
evil has arisen to individuals, and to the community, from allowing
scoffers to go unrebuked in private life; and fallacies and falsehoods
to pass uncontradicted and unexposed in those channels through which
poison is conveyed to the public mind.