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couraged all discussion on the origin and explanation of evil, for example, and he held the dilemma in abhorrence. The latter savored of logic, which was a "dodge;" the former of metaphysics, the popular view of which he avowedly shared.

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His writings present the same char acteristics. They abound in close and pregnant observation of human nature, and in searching analysis of many familiar philosophical and theological phrases. But take him on some question, such as predestination and freewill, and you find that he supplies nothing more than a graceful and elegant amplification of several obvious and elementary propositions. "Man creature of habit-man is a creature of impulse-man is a creature of circumstances. Que voulez-vous?" he seems to ask. The de quo quæritur being precisely the relation of those truths to one another, and the possibility of their reconciliation, it is neither satisfactory nor stimulating to be told that they need no reconciliation at all, that everything is plain sailing, and that the difficulty of believing at once in an omnipotent and omniscient Deity and in man as a morally free agent is a silly invention of over-subtle divines. This ostrich-like attitude towards the primary

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beset difficulties which threshold of every religious system he was most resolute in maintaining. The most flagrant contradictions are explained away by a jaunty reference to the "modes of thought" of a particular age and country, while the explicit statements of a divinely inspired writer are cavalierly brushed aside or reduced to vagueness by the convenient sumption that the author spoke "in a figure."

Mr. Jowett's

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The more attitude towards religion is examined the more amazing will it seem. He was well enough aware that in his commentary on the Pauline Epistles, and later on in "Essays and Reviews," he was about to deliver an attack on the orthodox position. This is plain from his anxiety to pick his words, and to present his views in the "least repulsive manner."

To the very end he systematically inculcated a degree of "reserve in communicating religious knowledge" (from his own point of view) which would have struck poor Mr. Isaac Williams with horror. Yet he seems to have been genuinely surprised and hurt when the pleasant but thin disguise of language was instantly penetrated; when his adroit use of current religious phraseology and his unrivalled dexterity in adapting the words of Scripture to suit his own construction were proved to have availed him nothing; and when the true drift of his argument was mercilessly exposed. The truth is, that while from one point of view the premisses of the "Essay on the Interpretation of Scripture" are musty truisms, from another they are sufficient to explode not merely the orthodox conception of Christianity, but also the shapeless and indefinite residuum to which Jowett so piously adhered. As time went on, his scepticism grew bolder and more outspoken. He threw miracles overboard altogether, and it is not easy to say which, if any, of the cardinal doctrines of the faith he retained. Yet on the subject of prayer, for instance, he was as hopelessly irrational (on his own hypothesis) as the most superstitious of his fellow-creatures. He makes, indeed, the proviso that no one should pray for anything that may violate the “laws of nature," for with all his dislike of metaphysics he was an abject slave to that most tyrannous and exacting of metaphysical abstractions. None the less he exhorts a friend on his death-bed to pray that he may be spared a little longer; as though his recovery were not, on Jowett's postulates, as much a matter of "law" as the rising of the sun or the precession of the equinoxes. His aim was "to place religion on a rational basis." His method of procedure is to eliminate the vital constituents of religion, and then to find a justification for preserving its lifeless remains, to which it turns out that "reason" is absolutely repugnant. Such solicitude for the shadow when the substance has been destroyed may be very touching and pathetic; but one

From Temple Bar.

cannot wonder that it provoked the tion of posterity will be found to conpowerful invective and the trenchant sist not in his theological or philosophisarcasm of Mansel's Bampton Lectures. cal opinions, crude and ill-digested as The fact is, that the bent of Mr. they were, but in the fact that, in an Jowett's mind was neither scholarly age teeming with literary talent and nor speculative, but purely literary. activity, he above all others was imTextual criticism he openly contemned, bued with the peculiar genius, satuand he justly described the R.V. as a rated with the best traditions, and obe"monument of pedantry." He had a dient to the true canons of English correct and fastidious taste, an acute style. sensibility to style, a sharp ear for the rhythm and harmony of language. Like his hero Doctor Johnson, he read everything. All was fish that came to his net, from Aristophanes to Bunyan, from "Pride and Prejudice" to "David Grieve" (which he seems to have read without a murmur), from "“Adam Bede” (which he pronounced very good) to Comte (whom he pronounced very bad). The biography gives us an extraordinary picture of his industry, and in particular of the patience and assiduity with which he polished and repolished his own writings. The world that cares for such things is familiar with the effect; but the world was not before aware of the endless labor expended in perfecting that exquisitely easy yet dignified prose, full of charm and melody, so lucid yet so subtle, old-fashioned yet never archaic, adapting itself so nicely to the matter in hand, charged with indefinable reminiscences of the best models, yet ever characteristic, ever individual.

We have purposely refrained from discussing Mr. Jowett in private life; in the first place, because we desired to dwell on his public career; and, in the second, because to what his biographers say on that head there is little or nothing to be added. We venture to predict that his memory will long be cherished, both at Oxford and in the world, by thousands who were the recipients of his kindness; and to assert that those number not a few who, with strong propensities and temptations to sloth and indolence, will long be inspired by his example to industry and application. But when all who fell within the sphere of his personal influence have passed away we are equally confident that his claim to the recollec

A LAND OF DERELICTS. The Falkland Islands are not quite the place one would choose for a honeymoon trip, or for driving away depression; they have not many visitors beyond those whom duty calls. A peer and his friend did arrive there, on pleasure bent, some years ago, and were reported in the remoter settlements progressively as "a black yacht and a white prince," and "a white yacht and a black prince." The earl was left out, in spite of the Caucasian bond between him and the prince. Their stay was not long, and the history of it has not yet appeared.

The geographical position of the islands even is uncertain in some minds, even the more opinionated placing them occasionally on the wrong side of the south continent, in a Pacific neighborhood. The more literary-minded may recall their mention in a letter of Junius, or the fleeting allusion contained in the preface of "Barnaby Rudge," whilst readers of Darwin's travels will remember his unfortunate experience of the Falklands during a period of biting hail squalls, and will be prepared for their stormy characteristics; as Fitzroy observed of them, "a region more exposed to storms both in summer and winter it would be difficult to mention."

Frozen mutton, losing its identity amongst the vaster imports from New Zealand, and fleeces served up retail as "best suiting," and "heather mixture," do not appeal to the larger curiosity of man; and these, together with

tallow, are, commercially, the beginning side and the principal buildings on the and ending of the Falklands. With regard to the tallow, it is hinted that in these days of petroleum products it is no longer to reappear as candles, but as an edible substance, the sale of which has required a recent Act of Victoria for its legislation.

The Falkland group is made up of the East and West Falkland Islands, and of a large number of small islands, only a few of which are inhabited, and which, together with rocks and reefs, number over one hundred. Their general appearance is wild and desolate, but the distant heights are often grand in outline, and the sunset coloring of them, with the soft mauve and ochre peculiar to barren mountain regions, recalls the similar tinting of some Spanish scenery.

Of course nothing can atone for the want of that verdure which Great Britons admire so pre-eminently at home, or for the total absence of trees throughout the islands. "Our only tree," declared a colonist, "is the bulrush," and upon inquiry, even this was discovered to be an empty boast.

Much of the coast scenery is remarkable. Towering headlands rise from waves lashing fiercely at their base; columns of spray burst upwards, geyser-like, through fissures in the shelving rocks; beneath lie piled huge crags, hurled headlong in some out burst of incarcerated force, the interrupted strata at all angles to their surroundings-a scene of one of Dame Nature's mighty house-movings where no succeeding forest covers the confusion of her flight, but chaos reigns unveiled and staring.

As seen from the harbor, Stanley, the principal settlement, which is on the East Falkland, has much the appearance of a box of toys, or of the style of picture with which Caldecott made us familiar; such is the impression produced by the flat white surface of the painted houses and their cheerful colored roofs.

The settlement lies on the southern shore of the harbor, and a road runs the length of it, having the harbor on one

other. The buildings of the Falkland Islands' Company occupy a considerable part of the eastern end of the settlement. This company, which has an affinity, on a smaller scale, with the old Honorable East India Company, or with the Hudson Bay Company, was incorporated by royal charter in 1851, having acquired by purchase the rights of one Mr. Lafone to a large tract of country on the East Falkland, since known as Lafonia.

The company, in addition to other trading operations, have workshops and a staff of men employed for repairing the disabled vessels which may put in here the worse for their attempts to weather the Horn. Sometimes a ship, with coal cargo smouldering, will put in; and in 1893 one was in such straits that the crew could scarcely be persuaded to jettison the red-hot mass, and the presence of the captain's wife was necessary for their encouragement, whilst the thermometer burst in the cabin.

More recently, a Belfast barque was towed in in sorry plight. Her cargo had shifted in heavy weather off the Horn, and she had lain for many hours with half her main deck under water, until, by dint of trimming coal for eighteen hours on end, and cutting away her topmasts, she had been sufficiently righted to creep into Port William, outside Stanley Harbor, with a favoring wind. Here she would have ended on the rocks but for H.M.S. Acorn, which, happily, was visiting Stanley, and which started at once to the rescue, being sighted from afar by her commander, ashore with a shooting-party, who, amazed at seeing his "heart of oak,” steaming along full speed under a subordinate officer, started after her in his pinnace to know the reason why. The rescued ship was safely brought into Stanley Harbor, with extra glory for one of those employed, who performed the feat of cutting away under water a befouling towline.

From the extensive plant required for ship repairs, and the high wages current, it follows that the charges for

such work should be heavy. Indeed, that a ship should not attempt naviga

so large have they been in some instances, that it would have profited the owners and underwriters better to abandon the ship; and this has been done in several cases, and the hulks purchased by the Falkland Islands' Company as store-ships.

In a letter from Mrs. Carlyle to her husband, headed Liverpool, July 25th, 1845, she says: "I did the Great Britain. It is three hundred and twenty feet long and fifty feet broad, and all of iron, and has six sails, and one pays a shilling to see it, and it was not a good joy."

Here in Stanley Harbor, fifty years later, is moored the great hulk of Brunel's big vessel, now used as a receiving-ship for the wool coming in from the coast ports. A relic of her is incorporated in the ship Talisman, which was once repaired in Stanley, a new bowsprit being constructed for her out of the Great Britain's foreyard.

There are many fine natural harbors in the islands, though most of them are difficult of access, especially to sailing vessels. Port Edgar, on the West Falkland, is spoken of as the one which will be utilized should the Falklands become a naval station in the future. In most of these harbors are wrecks, generally of some local schooner; whilst on the unlighted coast many vessels have been lost with all hands, their identity often perishing with them.

It is said that there is only one sunken rock of any importance about the Falklands, which is not indicated by kelp growing upon it, and this exception is the "Uranie," on the east coast of the East Falkland, which was named from a hapless French frigate which foundered upon it in 1820.

All navigators and surveyors of these islands have noted the giant seaweed and its uses. As they point out, the presence of fixed kelp is a sign almost infallible of the presence of rocks; and although, in some instances, soundings may reveal a depth of even thirty or forty fathoms, through which the seaplant rises upwards from its rocky anchorage, yet it may be taken generally

tion amongst it. Indeed, one might, in a moment of recognition, attribute to Providence, besides the designing of the trade winds for his benefit, a special care for the interests of poor Jack in the danger signal of the kelp. The masses of weed, growing as they do outside Hill Cove on the West Falkland, for example, constitute a natural breakwater, destroying much of the energy of the incoming billows, which undulate crestshaven through the tanglement to vent a greatly diminished fury on the shore. Navigation about the islands is both intricate and startling. One of the smaller islands, Pebble Island, is approached by two narrow passes, socalled, the North-West and Tamar Pass. In the North-West Pass, at the best of times, a sailing vessel must be piloted on a five-knot current through kelp run under by the tide. Steam-power is not used about the Falklands, where coal is only available at sixty shillings a ton. Through Tamar Pass pours a still fiercer current; and in these boiling waters the schooner lone, losing her rudder, was dashed upon the rocks and wrecked, her crew and passengers escaping in the boat with some hazard and the loss of all their effects. It is said, by the by, that when the naming of the Falkland Islands' Company's new ship was under discussion in 1893, an official of the company, mindful of certain figure-heads of heathen nymphs under which he had served, proposed to add to their number by christening the new ship the Hebe. The managing director met this with stern refusal. "We have been told," he said, "already of the 'Black 'Awk' and the 'Sparrow'awk' in the islands, and I am not going to risk the ''Eab.'" That he had cause for his distrust of Falkland parlance may be allowed when one hears a hapless "orchid" converted into "orchard," whilst "Ione" is confidently affirmed to be "I-1," for "I saw it written, sir, with my own eyes;" and beyond "I-own," it has not even now advanced; whilst "I-rene" in two syllables is equally curtailed.

The curiosities of meteorology in

these islands would perhaps repay a leisured observer; they appear to baffle all experience; even the pilot of thirty years' standing will own to being completely taken aback by developments of weather. It generally blows hard for three days a week, whilst about Easter time a yearly hurricane justifies tradition, causing damage or even loss amongst the shipping in harbor.

The great Good Friday gale of 1893 drove every boat in Darwin Harbor, on the East Falkland, ashore, and ended the days of the Castalia, a coasting schooner belonging to the Falkland Islands' Company, and once a famous yacht. She was lying at anchor in Gull Harbor, Weddell Island, when this gale came down, as gales do in the Falklands, like a house falling on one, and caught her in this harbor, where the rarer gales from the south-east are felt in all their fury, and before chain could be given her, she had dragged too far for it to help her, and nothing remained for the crew but to scramble ashore over her bows as she piled herself up on a shelf of rocks off the settlement. That gale was curiously varied in its time of visitation to different parts of the islands. It is said to have commenced about 2.30 A.M. in Weddell Island.

That morning a local pilot was on board the trading barque Ruth Waldron in Port San Salvador, about a hundred miles east of Weddell. They had hove short the anchor before eight o'clock breakfast, intending to start directly afterwards, there being then and there no sign of anything extraordinary. After breakfast the captain, looking round on deck, observed a strange appearance in the sky, with a brilliant rainbow, and he and the pilot decided to wait and see what it meant. Soon after the gale fell upon him in all its fury. Even allowing for some undoubted irregularity in clock-keeping, the time of visitation furnished an interesting token of the peculiar path of the storm about the islands. It is not surprising that the settlers in such an "ultimate dim Thule" find it hard to keep their clocks and the sun together. VOL. XV. 747

LIVING AGE.

One morning a settler came off from shore to a newly anchored ship in one of the smaller islands. The skipper and his family were sitting at breakfast about 8.30 and thought him rather an early bird, but no more. The man who had accompanied him from the shore was not, however, of a similar opinion with regard to the ship's company. "Here's a pretty time for folks to be breakfasting aboard ship!" was his growling comment to the cook for'ard. Upon comparison with his perplexed hearer, it was discovered that the clocks ashore were two good hours ahead of the sun, hence his wrath at the sloth of an eleven o'clock breakfast. By help of the ship's chronometer and the sixty-first meridian, which passes through that particular settlement, this was all put right, the settler freely confiding in such measures, though at another settlement, where the skipper incautiously proffered an altitude for the purpose of righting disordered time-pieces, he was assured that there was no demand, as the correct time was always obtained by means of a certain scratch upon a windowpane, a method the inhabitants clearly considered as very superior to the operations of the sextant.

The writer had a considerable experience, a few years ago, of Falkland coasting, having visited most of the settlements on board the company's Thetis, which comes out annually from England with all manner of stores, and spends several months delivering the same round the islands, and taking the settlers' wool into Stanley for the mail steamers of the Kosmos Line to ship to England. The Thetis is a small steel barquentine of about three hundred and forty tons gross, and was built for the company in 1893, under Lloyd's special survey, by Messrs. Macmillan of Dumbarton; and, with especial regard to the dangerous navigation of the Falklands, she was constructed with a double bottom and intervening tanks for water ballast. Her decks throughout are of teak-wood, affording great stability, and no effort has been spared to make her deserving

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