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Oct. . 4, 1851.] gft* IHafrgt. 946 ^
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Hmtrittirt.
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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The greatest thinker of Antiquity, Arist...
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Fenimork Cooi'ek, the American novelist,...
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Social Reform. "Notes Of A Social (Econo...
is dedicated . Raphael is described as " past the flower of his age ; his face was tanned , he had a long beard , and his cloak was hanging carelessly about him ; " so that " I conclude he was a seaman . " But Peter tells him he is mistaken ; for he has not sailed as a seam an , but as a traveller , or philosopher ; not ignorant of the Latin tongue , and eminently learned in Greek—because he had given himself much to philosophy . " After a mutual embrace , they enter a garden , sit on a green bank , and entertain each other in discourse . Raphael relates the history of his travels and adfreeland
ventures , commenting also very y sarcastically on public affairs . Raphael begins by condemning princes that are more set on acquiring new kingdoms " than on governing those well that they have . " He denounces the avarice of the rich and noble , " that live as drones , " and complains of the swarm of idlers , flunkeys , and vagabonds , that ultimately become thieves : wherefore , if you do not remedy these evils , boast not of your justice—it is only a specious lie . You abandon thousands of children to a vicious and immoral education , whom you afterwards punish with Death , for crimes the
germ of which was sown in their mother ' s womb , or in their cradle . You breed robbers for the satisfaction of hanging them , twenty on a gibbet —like some ill masters , that are readier to chastise their scholars than to teach them . There are dreadful punishments for thieves ; but it were better to make provision , by which every man might be put in a method how to live , as those bred to idleness , and used to walk about with sword and buckler , are not fit for spade and mattock ; and as robbers prove sometimes gallant soldiers , soldiers prove often brave soldiers—* ' near an alliance is there between the two sorts of
life . " For the prospect of war , you maintain so many idle men as will always disturb you in time of peace . . In the mean time taxes lie heavy , and money goes out of the kingdom , and blood is shed for the king ' s glory , but the People is nothing the better for it—even in time of peace . In France there is yet a more pestiferous sort of people , for the whole country is full of soldiers in time of peace , " if such a state of nation can be called a peace . " But the necessity of stealing arises , not only from hence—there is another cause : " the increase of fortune , by which the
sheep may be said to devour men , and unpeople , not only villages but towns . For the nobility and gentry , even those holy men the abbots , not content with the old rents , stop the course of agriculture , inclose grounds , and destroy houses and towns , reserving only the churches , that they may lodye the sheep in them .- and as if forests and parks had swallowed up too little soil , these worthy countrymen turn the best-inhabited places into solitude ; for when any insatiable wretch who is a plague to his country , resolve to inclose many thousand ] acres of ground , the owners as well as the tenants are turned out of their possessions by tricks or by
main force , or being wearied out with ill usage , they are forced to sell them . So these miserable people , both men and women , married and unmarried , old and young , with their poor but . numerous families , are all forced to change their seats , not knowing whither to go ; and they must sell for almost nothing their household-stuff , which could not bring them much money , even though they might stay for a buyer . When that little money is at an end , for it will be soon spent , what is left them to do , but either to steal , and so be hanged ( God knows how justly ) , or to go about and beg ? and if they do this , they are put in prison as idle vagabonds . "
Raphael then suggests a plan for the reformation of inveterate beggars and thieves ; but remarks that this will not restrain vagabonds , or deliver you from all beggars , except you take care of the Friars , " for I know no vagabonds like them . " Raphael is also of opinion , that so long as the principle of individual property exists , and while gold and silver remain the standard of all other things , no nation can be governed , either justly or happily ; because all things will fall to the share of the worst , and be divided among a few " ( and even these are not in all respects happy ) , ( he rest being left to be absolutely miserable " —a Ktate of society which he contrasts very unfavourably with the Utopian .
in the second book we arc transported , by Raphael , to that distant island , 200 miles broad , m form not unlike a crescent , within the horns of winch the sea spreads Jitself into a great bay sheltered from the windy
Utopia is divided into 54 cities or townships , each of which is governed by the same constitution , manners , customs , and laws ; but the inhabitants consider themselves rather as tenants than proprietors of the soil . Farmhouses , furnished with every needful implement of husbandry , are scattered over the the country , whither the citizens migrate in bands of 20 , by rotation . No country family consists of less than 40 men and women , over which preside a master and mistress . Thirty of these families " choose " every year a magistrate orphilarch .- thephilarchs " choose" the Prince or Ademus ( elected for life ) , out of a list named by the people , ' * who give their voices secretly , so that it is not known for whom every one gives his suffrage . " The model capital , Amaurot , in which the supreme council assembles , is almost a square . Amaurot lies on the banks of the river Anidir , and a gushing stream of pure cold water runs through it , from which the houses are supplied in earthern pipes . The streets are wide and uniform , and in the rear of every house is a garden , in which vines and fruits and flowers are cultivated with the greatest care — " gardens both so fruitful and beautiful were never seen . " Idleness is unknown among the Utopians , who devote their lives to labour and instruction . The old men are honoured with a particular respect , and engage the younger in that free way of conversation , that so they may find out the force of every one ' s spirit and observe his temper . Of all pleasures they esteem those most that lie in the mind , " " arise out of true virtue and the witness of a good conscience . " They reckon that all our actions and even all our virtues terminate in pleasure , as in our chief end and greatest happiness . The infants in Utopia are placed in spacious halls , where fire , water , cradles , and everything favourable to the most scrupulous cleanliness is provided . The mothers nurse their own children ^ who are transferred to other apartments as soon as they are weaned . Divorce in certain cases , of " adultery or insufferable perversenes ? , " is permitted . But the life-endurance stamped by the Creatoi * upon the natural union of marriage , is sanctioned and confirmed by their laws . In the cities the " ancientest" of every family governs it . In every street there are halls , at equal distances from each other , marked by particular names : " in these they do all meet and eat . " without their towns are places appointed , near ome running water , for killing their beasts and washing away their filth . Raphael having thus described " particularly " the constitution " of the best commonwealth in the world—the only one that truly deserves that name , " finally asks what justice or equity is there jn this , that men who do nothing at all live in great luxury and splendour , while a mean man that works harder than the beasts , and is employed in labours & o necessary that no commonwealth could hold out a year without them , can yet earn so poor a livelihood out of it , and lead so miserable a life in it ? " Therefore I must say , that as I hope for mercy , 1 can have no other notion of all the governments that I see or know , than that they are a conspiracy of the richer sort , who , on pretence of managing the vuiblie , do only pursue their private ends . " To which pregnant observations Sir Thomas maketh answer , that indeed , though he " cannot perfectly agree to everything that was related by Raphael , yet there are many things in the commonwealth of Utopia that 1 rather wish than hope to see followed in our governments . ' * "Doctor . Not Ki > sick , my lord , Ah hIic ia troubled with thick-coming fancies , That k « 'ep her front her rest . "Macbeth . ( Jure her of that ? " Doctor . Therein the patient Muat niiniutcr to himself . " Such is the Utopian policy of Sir Thomas More , who sacrificed his life to his convictions , in resisting the claim of a sanguinary tyrant to lloyal supremacy in the professedly Apouiolic Church of Christ . "Nothing was wanting to the glory of his end except a better cause , more free from weakness and superstition ; but as he followed liis principles and sense of duty , however misguided , his constancy and integrity " are not less the object of our admiration . "f WlLLIAM CONINUHAM . * See Ueorgc Coombe ' H Moral Philosophy . t Hume's History of England .
Oct. . 4, 1851.] Gft* Ihafrgt. 946 ^
Oct . . 4 , 1851 . ] gft * IHafrgt . 946
Hmtrittirt.
Hmtrittirt .
Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
The Greatest Thinker Of Antiquity, Arist...
The greatest thinker of Antiquity , Aristotle , declared that certain races were eternally destined to slavery , because they wanted the superior qualities which distinguish freemen . And what were the races specified by him ? The Celts and the Scythians—the races which now lead the world The barbarians have overrun Greece and Rome , destroyed its Art , its Polity , its Culture , and its Religion , to found instead a more enduring and
more comprehensive social state . The humblest artisan has greater knowledge and greater comforts than Agamemnon , the King of Men . In the tent of that haughty " Shepherd of the People / ' there was no glass , no lock , no chimney , no clock , no engraving , no books , no newspaper , no sugar , no coffee , no tea , no tobacco;—he was innocent of shirts , of stockings , of handkerchiefs - , —if he broke his leg , he might perish in agony , for JEsculapius himself knew nothing of tying an artery .
But our present purpose is not to chant the hymn of industrial progress , and we must break off here . The allusion to Aristotle was meant to direct attention to the condition of the barbarian hordes of the Russian Empire , which the European philosopher may regard with something- of the contempt felt by Alexander ' s tutor for the Celts and Scythians . Are we not somewhat in the position of Greece and Rome , with the barbarians at our gates ? Is our boasted Civilization in no peril ? We make progress ; but what progress is made by the Slavonic races ? The solidarity of nations
( to which we last week referred ) renders this an intensely important question . Are we to become Republican or Cossack ? If Europe hastens its development and greatly outstrips Russia , it may fall a victim to its precocity ; for Humanity is slow in its movements , and any section of it too quickly developed , is in peril . Humanity grows ; we cannot force it . As Goethe says , Who can tell the Caterpillar creeping on the twig , of its future food ? Who can aid the chrysalis in bursting through its shell ? The time comes ; it loosens itself and flies into the rose ' s lap : —
" Wer kann der Raupe , die am Ztveige knecht , Von ihrem kiinft ' gen Putter sprechen ? Und wer der l ' uppe , die am Boden liegt , Die zarte Schale helfen durchzubrechen ? Es kommt die Zeit : sie diikngt sich selber Iop , Und eilt auf Fittigen der ltose in den Schoos . " [ t is perilous for Europe to become Republican
while Russia is Cossack ; but we are glad to say that in Russia herself the Republican doctrine hag its adherents , and among the announcements of new works considerable interest is excited by the Developernent des ldites Hevolutionnaites en Itussie , par A . Iscandku . Should this prove an important work , our readers will hear of it again .
Fenimork Cooi'ek, The American Novelist,...
Fenimork Cooi'ek , the American novelist , ia dead . The thousands who have read with delight his vivid pictures of Indian life , who remember the charmed hours spent over his early pages , will hear this with regret : — ' Morle villana . . . Di dolor madre antica . " O Death ! " Mother of Sorrow ! " ( as Dante calls her ) , who can hear of thy presence without a shadow falling upon the soul ?
" What is Death ? " asks a subtle writer in the last Westminster lit view ; and proceeds to examine the vexed question of Life and Immortality . To say that he arrives at any Hatiafactory conclusion would be saying what no one will believe ; but the tfreat subject is treated in a candid » i > irit of inquiry , such as must engage the sympathy even of opponents . In the same number then ; is a review of Mr . Nkwman ' h Political Economy , in which the somewhat feeble and inconsiderate arguments against Socialiam put forward by Mr . Newman , are quietly and with great superiority answered .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 4, 1851, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04101851/page/13/
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