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Jan. 21, I860.] The header and Saturday ...
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BASTIAT TRANSLATED.* MR. PATRICK JAMES S...
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MISOELLANIES.f EDUCATION"A.L books aboun...
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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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Necessity Of Earnestness In The Pursuit ...
naint- " at another , "to be a successful barrister , you must have a well-developed thorax ; " The fact is , that the given man must unite in himself every kind of perfection—health , strength , courage , self-denial , perseverance , in addition to ability- —to command success ; and even then how much can he command P Can any man possessing all these requirements make himself Archbishop of Canterbury ? Supposing all the previous difficulties overcome , can he will a favourable prime minister ? No more than by taking thought he can add a cubit to his stature . - * \ i • ¦* '¦ Mr . Smiles denies the theory of accident . Nothing is an accident
to the observing man . Thus : Newton ' s apple . Young ' s soapbubble ; the pendulum , derived from the swinging of the lamp , and the telescope from the fortuitous conjunction of two spectacle glasses , by Galileo ; the spider ' s suggestion of a suspension bridge , and the ship-worm ' s of a Thames Tunnel / are refused the designation of accidents . It may be that there is a proximate cause for every event ; but we say that many of the instances . Mr . Smiles adduces of scientific discoveries were the purest accidents , as the word is generally understood ; and the fact of their happening to observant persons makes them none the less accidental .
Mr . Smiles has little faith in genius ; " the qualities to ensure success , " says he , " are not at all extraordinary . They may be , for the most part , summed up in these two ^—common sense and perse' the least
verance ; " also , " the very greatest . men have been among believers in the power of genius , and as worldly wise and persevering as successful men of the commoner sort . Some have denned genius to be only common sense intensified . A distinguished teacher , and president of a college , spoke of it as tlie power of making efforts . John Forster held it to be the power of lighting one's own fire . Buff on said of genius , it is patience . " Again ; " It happens that the men who have most moved the world have not been so much , men of genius , strictly so called , as men of intense , mediocre abilities - —untiring workers , persevering , self-reliant , and indefatigable . " audience of hardfisted mechanics that
It is very well to tell an - perpetual labour and strength of will will enable them to do anything ; it is very agreeable to them to think so , and it is a subject of legitimate pride and pleasure to them to hear the names of those of their own order who have made their fame known to the world ; but if any one of them , relying upon Sir Joshua Reyriolds ' s dictum , fancies that by any amount of labour he can make himself a firstrate painter , the chances are that bitter disappointment and hope deferred will be his lot . .: But we will not be unfair to Mr . Smiles ; it is quite right and desirable that the standard of excellence ; set before us should be somewhat higher than every one can reach—in trying to attain it we shall at least raise ourselves , and the effort will be beneficial ; but it is riding one's hobby rather too hard , to hold out that even the unsuccessful effort is not to be accomplished without such a cheerless
existence sis to make us doubt whether it were not better not to be . Mr . Smiliis acknowledges , as we before observed , the necessity of physical education as a means to the better development of the intellect ; he regards it very much as a prize-fighter or a pedestrian does his training , as a disagreeable necessity : the words recreation and relaxation find no place in his book ; they are not in the index , they are not in the descriptive abridgments of the chapters ; if they ociuir in the work at all , it is only , we believe , in a negative sense , to show how little they were used . But is this the right y iew of the case ? Does not every physiologist know that recreation is so necessary to the vital powers , that men are compelled ( to use an apparent paradox ) to make it part of the business of their lives ? It is not enough for Mr . Smiles to d , evote part of a chapter to the desirability of exercise : relaxation is an item of such great importance in estimating tho elements of success that it deserves to be considered almost as a cause rather than as a mere aceessoiy .
Nevertheless Mr . Smiles ' s book is wise beyond the wisdom of any , but a very tow , books that we hove read ; the chapters on time and money are admirable ; for instance , hear him on time : — " Men of buainesB arc accustomed to quota the maxim that time is money , but it is much mere ; tho proper improvement of it is self-culture , selfiinprovement , anil growth of character . An hour wasted daily on trifles or ill indolence , would if devoted to self-improvement make an ignorant wan wise in a few years , and employed in good works would make his life fruitful and death a harvest of worthy deeds . Fifteen minutes a day devoted to self-improvement will be felt at the end of the year , * * * * An economical use of time is the true mode of securing leisure ; it enables us to get through business and carry it forward jnstoad of being driven by it . On tho other hand the miscalculation of time involves iis in perpetual hurry . coniuBion , and difficulties ; and life becomes a mere shuffle of expedients , usually followed by disaster . Nelson once said ' I owe all my succcbs in life to having been always a quarter of an hour before nay time . '" The chapter on tho use and nbnse of money we must commend to the roador ' s own perusal ; it is pregnant with practical wiadom , and contains besides some excellent remarks upon the improvidence of the working classes , and upon the evils entailed by tho pursuit of " respectability " among their so-called superiors . On tho whole " Self-Help" is one of the soundest , wisest , most instructive , mid most wholesome works we have opened for ft long * time ; ita honesty and earnestness of purpose carry away tho roader , and stamp tho author ' s doctrines on his mind ; if wo have complained of some of its teachings , it has onl y been with tho view of pointing" out in what respects Mr . Smiles -has oarriod his p hilosophy , in our opinion , too fur . It becomes a question whether it is desirable to magnify the difficulties ' of success in life . It is the weak that want onoourageinent , and we feel convinced that Mr . Smiles has no desire to bo guilty of a practice ho has twice donouncod , viss ., running to tho help of the strong . " Yet suoh we think is the tendency of | hia book *
Jan. 21, I860.] The Header And Saturday ...
Jan . 21 , I 860 . ] The header and Saturday Analyst . 69
Bastiat Translated.* Mr. Patrick James S...
BASTIAT TRANSLATED . * MR . PATRICK JAMES STIRLING has prefixed to this translation of the " Hai-mohies Economiques" which we announced last week ( and which we have since received ) a heat and , more extended biography of the great French economist than we have before met with . For this part of his work-,, and his just appreciation of the author , we tender him our grateful thanks . We miist also extend ottr eordial approbation to his design of diffusing the great Frenchman ' s thoughts and conclusions amongst our countryr men , too little disposed to find merit in the writings ) of foreign economists . In tliis the publisher shares , and he htis fulfilled his part of the business by sending forth a plain neat volume , good paper and clear type , suitable to the subject . Within this limited
circle our approbation is confined . The actual translation is very bad . Mr . Stirling says , "I have not aimed at giving a literal translation . . . . but the more important object I trust has been attained—of conveying fully , plainly , and intelligibly the author ' s meaning . " If this had been done , we should have , approved . We should , have made no objection had all the matter which concerns the controversies of the day—for all Basliat ' s works originated in controversy—been rejected , and the translation confined to the principles enunciated by him , and the consequences and illustrations of them . The translator , however , has given us all that the author published Oh the subject before his death , and given it in our language rudely and very imperfectly .
The very title of the translation is a mistake . " Harmonies of Political Economy "is neither a literal translation of the author ' s title , nor does it convey a correct idea of the original work . M . Bastiat repeatedly explains that his object is to trace the harmonies which prevail in tlie natural' as contradistinguished from the political order of society . Mr . Stirling-s title would make the world believe that the Work is limited to an explanation of the harmonies in the science o ? political economy as known and cultivated in Eno'lantl . Social economy and natural order are here in disi * eputej ' and he wished , perhaps , to smuggle under the notice-of our practical people a work not in conformity to the principles of their teachers . They are diligently impressed by many public orators with the superiority of political regulations , to those natural laws and their consequences which Bastiat expounds ; and Mi \ Stirlingmight cunningly "hope to pass along by hoisting the . practical ¦ flair . . ' ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ ' ¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ' - ' . ' ¦ .. ' '¦ ' ¦ '• •' . ¦ ¦ , ¦ ¦ '
"We are confirmed in this suspicion by . finding Bastiat s words , — " Les gouvernenients towjours , disposes a se persuader q ' ne . rien du bien ne se fait sans eux , se refusent a compreridre cette loi harmonique , " translated by the words , " Governments which persuade themselves that nothing good can be done but through their instru ? mentality , refuse to acknowledge this harmonic law . " Bastiat represents all governments as at all times disposed to persuade themselves to disregard natural laws ; Mr . Stirlintr limits the representation to those governments which are so disposed , aad thus destroys tlie sweeping generality of the doctrine . Tnis passage concerns the law of exchange , according to Bastiat the key-stone of the social edifice , or society itself . The translator may not have wished to misrepresent the author , but undoubtedly he has . He may prefer to be convicted of ignorance or inattention rather than of wilful misrepresentation , but from both he cannot escape .
We have , indeed , other examples of the former . Bastiat says , referring to the increase of trade , the consequence of opening new roads or . otherwise improving the mpans of communication between distant places— "Si les ne ' gociants baissenfc le prixdc leur concouivs , " which in the' translation is rendered " if the merchant- * ' profits are diminished . " Now , reducing the cost of ' their exertions , or the price of their services , which is what M . Bastiat means , and the reduction of their profits , are totally at variance . If the profits were diminisliecl the trade would be lessened ; but the price or cost of their services being lessened trade is increased , and the sum of profit is augmented . The form in which the words of Bustiat are rendered by the translator are" equally at variance . with , them and the sense of the whole passage .
Again , Baatiat flays , " Dana risolement les prosperity so nuisent , " meaning that the faculties which when men live in society aro more than sufficient to supply their wants , are wasted or annihilated when . they live isolated . The translator , however , ronderu the passage thus— "In a state of isolation the gain of ono njniy be the loss of another , " which is equally contrary also to the words used by the author and to common sense . How can an isolated being- gain from another , or cause loss to another P Wo cannot waste our own time and our readers' time by going more minutely and fully into this translation . It lias grievously disappointed us , and we havo said enough , we hope , to satiafy our readers that the translator has either wilfully misrepresented tho author , or is incompetent to translate his work . Wo have already described , in our notice last week , tho original work , ¦
Misoellanies.F Education"A.L Books Aboun...
MISOELLANIES . f EDUCATION " A . L books abound in this docile ago , and take all XU shapes . Like puffs , they are direct and indirect ; for people , groat or little , have to bo cheated into learning . There can ho no
I. I. , I ... - ~ I ' ' ' " ' ¦ ¦--— | |...
I . I . , I ... - ~ I ' ' ' " ' ¦ ¦ -- — | | ¦ I - . ¦ If Wi I * Harmonies of FolitiQQl JSooiwtnt / . By Frederick Basting Translated from tho Wrondh , with o , Notice of tho I 4 fo and Writingsi «> f tho Author . By Patrick James Stirling , JP . JA . S . L .., etc . London , John Murray . t lftitnon ' a Rhetorical Roador and ISjamkar . By Angus Maopiicraon . Glasgow : George Watson . . rt | . ,, Wataqn ' s Third Book ofJleadlw . By Angus Maonhorflon . Glasgow George Watson .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 21, 1860, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21011860/page/17/
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