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FIN THIS DEPARTMENT, AS ALL OPINIONS, HO...
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There is no learned man but -wall confes...
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OUR SCHOOLS. Oct. 22, 1850. Sir,—One ste...
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CLERICAL DEFINITION OF SOCIALISM. Oct. 2...
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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. Epistolie Obscurokum Viro...
disgusted or alarmed at the systems anfl their tendencies . The terror which thunders at Communism as " destructive of property , personality , and marriage ' —considering it the inauguration of anarchy and rapine—has always seemed to me utterly irrational , to use the mildest term , and excusable only because of the excessive complexity of social questions—a complexity which baffles even , the . wisest . . At the outset , one may say that nothing can be more irrationai than quitting the discussion of a principle ,
and rushing into rhetoric on the " consequences " supposed to issue from it . To estimate the actual results exhibited , e . g . —the evils produced by Competition—is a legitimate uee of diagnosis ,, yet even that requires caution ; but any : one can ! see the difference between an estimate of Actual results and an estimate of results * W ; hick we assume ioill happen * and upon that assumption to impiigfc a - principle which must operate in , a manner wholly ; incafculctble ¦
with so complex , a thingas society ; -I jdecline arguing with any mar ^ , who so persists in , violating all the conditions of philosophic speciilationv ' Far * observe , even granting that , the . preswrned * consequences wiil arrive , you pannot possibly predict t ] ie accompanying compensations * ¦ - Before sqciety could adopt the universal application of Apsociationy it would be so profoundly modified that much , now true of it would then be false . You do not . know
what society would be ; you cannot even approxi * mately conceive it ; and your , ' " inferences" are idle . , . . : I have but a poor opinion of the mind whose first prevision is an objection . It . was that class which predicted the evil consequences of railways , leaving out of sight the substantial benefits ; and the same class resisted gaslights , because , among other evils , it was " foreseen " that the innovation would bring with it a " destruction " of our whale fishery , and a consequent weakening of our navy—the bulwark of our isle ! Yet , we have gas ; our ruin is not complete ; and the whale fishery has declined—from deficiency of whales !
To those who foresee the destruction of property , personality , and marriage in the adoption of " Concert in the division of Employments , " I would suggest these considerations . Society , if I understand it at all , is a complex result growing out of our tendencies , convictions , and habits—we have desires , thoughts to guide us towards their attainment , and customs which keep us in a certain routiniary order . Hence it is that truths alone , however excellent , however indisputable , do not rule society , but only enlighten it . Now , let us grant that Association will destroy property , it is clear that the nation will not forego its present
strong desire for property unless a compensation be substituted which will equally content it . Let us suppose our personality destroyed ( a somewhat strange fear !) , it is clear that the destruction can only be effected by means of some moral development , which rendering it possible would render it desirable . Let us further suppose that marriage will be destroyed ; can any one , conversant with human nature , suppose this destruction to be possible with all that marriage has of holy , all it has of vital , all it has of social—that which always has been marriage and always will be ? Is it not obvious that the only destruction can be the destruction of our present laws which give a man a
right over his wife , and deny her that equality as a wife , which she has in virtue of her humanity ? To what , then , does this terror of " destruction' * amount ? Human nature will not be destroyed by the introduction of a new element into industrial production and distribution ; and so long as human nature remains , so long will our tendencies , convictions , and habits reign paramount over all schemes of legislation . Those who talk about ' * destruction" believe—by implication—the amazing absurdity that ; Property , Personality , and Marriage are derived from and identified with the existing laws ; whereas nothing is clearer than that they are derived from our tendencies , convictions , and
habits which find expression in laws . So lon # , therefore , as the tendencies , convictions , and habits of men are in favour of the present system so long will it continue ; when the dailycneroasing movement towards a change has acquired velocity and extension enough to be really the consensus of the whole People , then will Communism be realized . Not before ! And here , my dear Stnvros , note the influence of that prolixity in social movement 1 mentioned just now . A barricade may overturn a throne ; but no social change can be effected except by social means . Educate
men s desires and enlighten their thoughts up to the point you wish , and the change is there . - This , then , seems to me the part which Communism has to play : recognized as an Ideal , it will ennoble our struggles and strengthen our faltering hearts ; and at the same time serve us as a principle to be incessantly promulgated and applied , so that by teaching and the example of success we
may indoctrinate the nation * and make the change from old to . r ie \ v . both gradual and complete . ' It may be a . bugbear to many ; but—to use the noble words I afh fond of quoting from Giordano Bruno ^¦ con questafilos ' ojia Vahimo mi s ' aggrandisce e mi si magnijica Vintelletto—with this philosophy I enlarge my soul and dignify my thoughts . G . H . Lewjes .
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Fin This Department, As All Opinions, Ho...
FIN THIS DEPARTMENT , AS ALL OPINIONS , HOWEVER EXTREME , ARE ALLOWED AN EXPRESSION , THE EDITOR . NECESSARILY HOLDS HIMSfcW RESPONSIBLE FOR NONE . ]
There Is No Learned Man But -Wall Confes...
There is no learned man but -wall confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to -write . —Milton .
Our Schools. Oct. 22, 1850. Sir,—One Ste...
OUR SCHOOLS . Oct . 22 , 1850 . Sir , —One step towards recovering the frightful evils that Mr . Froude alludes to in your last number will be for everyone who can attest the truth of such statements to come forward and do so in the public press . Though I have never been at any of our public schools I have had many opportunities of ascertaining the system as it is in these institutions , and , having had upwards of fifteen years' experience as a tutor in private schools , I can state , -without fear of contradiction , that the moral atmosphere is quite as bad in the latter as in the former .
Before entering more particularly on the evils of private establishments , I will state one fact in respect to Eton which came under my own observation . About three years ago I had a boy under my instruction ( fourteen years old ) who had been sent to Eton by his parents , but , after enduring numerous indignities and persecutions , he was one day led to a public-house by some of the elder pupils , who tried to compel him to get drunk with them , and upon his refusal they threatened to beat him ; but he , firm to his purpose , -was not to be moved by their
threats" Justum ac tenacem propositi , " & c . Whereupon he was so severely punished by these little tyrants that he wrote to his father , who went down to Eton and took him away at once . I know many other similar cases , but for the present will content myself with , quoting Madame de Wahl ' s opinion from her little work on the Training of Girls , published a few years ago . In page Gl she says : —
' The time must come when the gross moral evils which by many are still upheld as necessary accompaniments—aye , even as necessary ingredients in a boy ' s education , will be scouted by the general voice of society , when public schools shall no longer be characterized by the amount of Latin and Greek imparted—the extent of flogging and fagging practised , and by the loathsome vices by winch the child is polluted long before manhood is attained . " That the accusation implied in the last sentence is strictly true in respect to private schools , I can bear the testimony of long and sad experience . How , indeed , can it be otherwise when we consider the system in general adoption at what are termed even the best schools ?
Once in bod ( generally about eight p . m . ) the poor creatures arc left without the least inspection , elder and younger boys in the same room ; and , so long as they are quiet , nobody cares -what they arc doing . Poison , in his Devil ' s Walk , has told us what that is . Certainly , their previous intellectual education could have been no guide to them in their conduct , for a knowledge of themselves , of their physical constitution , is tho last tiling ever thought of being given them ; and the time which might be devoted to this most important and interesting of all studies is
cmployed in poring over grammars and dictionaries of some dead or living language , or acquiring the art of committing words to memory , which studies deaden and pervert their minds , give them a distaste for all useful knowledge , and drive them to fly for relief from such drudgery to any excitement , in utter i gnorance of the consequences moral or physical . The cause , however , has been truly stated , that there is no system of moral training , no education , of character in the generality of schools ; in fact , the whole system of education ( where there is any ) is calculated to have an immoral effect upon the character of
boys ; and , where there is no system , it is frightful to contemplate the evils that result . The present generation is suffering from them in a thousand ways , and what a prospect for that which is now growing up , thus poisoned at its very sources , poisoned in its parents , poisoned in itself physically and morally . Are we not suffering even now from the effects of this system , in the selfish , unbelieving mammonism of the day , in the profligacy of our youth—in the effeminacy of some—in the brutality
of others , and in the prevailing contempt for all noble sentiments and aspirations ? But the whole body being diseased , all partial attempts at patching and mending must be ineffectual . The whole syRtem must be changed . Education must be viewed in an entirely different light fr 6 m what it has hitherto been . If the old institutions are hedged about with every obstacle to improvement , new institutions must be established for training the human being more in accordance with its nature and constitution , and
entrusted to persons who understand what that nature is , not to learned pedants , who are generally the most ignorant of men on the subject . So long , however , as parents are more anxious about the intellectual than the moral culture of their children , schoolmasters will promote the former to the neglect of the latter . But this is not the worst feature , for , in numerous instances that I could mention , parents look more to the mere present physical comfort of their children than anything else they get at school . The fact is , the more we investigate the causes of this frightful malady , the more we are appalled at its magnitude , and convinced that nothing short of a thoroughly radical change can produce any permanent good .
Should there be space in the columns of ysur " Open Council" I shall be happy to give you a fuller account of the state of our middle class schools , and throw out some hints for improving the system , or rather for introducing a better . J . E . S .
Clerical Definition Of Socialism. Oct. 2...
CLERICAL DEFINITION OF SOCIALISM . Oct . 20 , 1850 . Sir , —If we could disabuse the mind of the clergy of the erroneous idea they entertain with regard to the identity of Socialism with what is termed religious infidelity , we should , remove a formidable obstacle to the peaceful progress of cooperative principles . The position of the clergy of the Church of England gives that body a great influence over the thoughts and prejudices of a large section of the community . Thousands are entirely guided , by their " spiritual pastors and masters" as to what movement they shall or shall not patronize . They take their peculiar hue of thought from the minister whom they " sit under , " and many , whose serious convictions might be opposed to his doctrine , would , from various reasons , be afraid to express them . Any one who has lived in the neighbourhood of a popular parson must have witnessed the local influence of his pulpit . As an institution it is unquestionable that the Established Church has lost her hold of the affections and sympathies of the masses ; but , still , her power for good or evil is not to be despised , and to weaken her antagonism , if we do not gain her cordial adherence , to certain popular measures , is a work all reformers , political and social , should take in hand . Could we succeed in convincing a few of tho leading minds of the church that Socialism , is neither anarchy nor " infidelity , " it would soon come to be discussed in a more friendly spirit than heretofore . Anarchists and •? infidels" may be Socialists , or rather may choose to call themselves so , but Socialism is no more akin to religious unbelief than , astronomy or any other science . I have been led into these observations from a passage I lately met with in a book by the Reverend John A . Baxter , perpetual curate of Christ Church , Coseloy , entitled The Church History of England . At page GO 9 Mr . Baxter speaks of Socialism as " a form of infidelity which , abandoning revelation for the phrenological system of Gall and Spurzheim , as perverted by George Combe , went to release man of his responsibility , by resolving human actions into the necessary consequences of physical organization . " And this in a work ambitious of ranking as a standard authority for the clerical students of history ! As a definition of Socialism it is a falsehood—but I am willing to believe a falsehood the offspring of ignoranco not calumny . That wo have several sincere ministers of the church who are not ashamed to acknowledge themselves Socialists , is almost a sufficient answer to Mr . Baxter ' s ' definition . " If any of these will furnish the church " historian" -with a
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 26, 1850, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26101850/page/14/
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