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houses thickened again into a street , and I found myself , to my disappointment , in the midst of a town ! And then more villas and palings ; and then a Tillage;—when would they stop , those endless houses ? " At last they did stop . Gradually the people whom I passed began to look more and more rural , and more toilworn and ill-fed . The houses ended , cattle yards and farm buildings appeared ; and right and left , far away , spread the low rolling sheet of green meadows and corn fields . Oh , the joy ! The lawns with their high elms and firs , the green hedgerows , the delicate hue and scent of the fresh clover fields , the steep clay banks where I stopped to pick nosegays of wild flowers , and became again a child , —and then recollected my mother , and a walk with her on the river bank towards the Red House .
I hurried on again , but could not be unhappy , while my eyes ranged free , for the first time in my life , over the chequered squares of cultivation , over glittering brooks , and hills quivering in the green haze , while above hung the skylarks , pouring out their souls in melody . And chen , as the sun grew hot , and the larks dropped one by one into the growing corn , the new delight of the blessed silence ! I listened to the silence ; for noise had been my native element ; I had become in London quite unconscious of the ceaseless roar of the human sea , casting up mire and dirt . And now , for the first time in my life ,
the crushing , confusing hubbub had flowed away , and left my brain calm and free . How I felt at that moment a capability of clear , bright meditation , which was as new to me , as I believe it would have been to most Londoners in my position . I cannot help fancying that our unnatural atmosphere of excitement , physical as well as moral , is to blame for very much of the working men ' s restlessness and fierceness . As it was , I felt that every stpp forward , every breath of fresh air , gave me new life . I had gone fifteen miles before I recollected that , for the first time for many months , I had not coughed since I rose . "
A PATRIOT EDITOK . " Mr . O'Flynn , editor of the Weekly Warwhoop , whose white slave I now found myself , was , I am afraid , a pretty faithful specimen of that class , as it existed before the bitter lesson of the 10 th of April brought the Chartist working men and the Chartist press to their senses . Thereon sprang up a new race of papers , whose moral tone , whatever may be thought of their political or doctrinal opinions , was certainly not inferior to that of the Whig and Tory press . The Commonwealth , the Standard of Freedom , the Plain Speaker , were reprobates , if to be a Chartist is to be a reprobate ; but none except the most one-sided bigots could deny them the
praise of a stern morality and a lofty earnestness , a hatred of evil and a craving after good , which would often put to shame many a paper among the oracles of Belgravia and Exeter-hall . But those were the days of lubricity and O'Flynn . Not that the man was an unredeemed scoundrel . He was no more profligate , either in his literary or his private morals , than many a man who earns his hundreds , sometimes his thousands , a-year , by prophesying smooth things to Mammon , crying in daily leaders , ' Peace ! peace ! ' when there is no peace , and daubing the rotten walls of careless luxury and selfsatisfied covetousness with the untempered mortar of party statistics and garbled foreign news—till ' the storm
shall fall , and the breaking thereof cometh suddenly in an instant . ' Let those of the respectable press who are without sin , cast the first stone at the unrespectablc . Many of the latter class , who have been branded as traitors and villains , were single-minded , earnest , valiant men ; and , as for even O'Flynn , and those worse than him , what was really the matter with them was , that they were too honest—they spoke out too much of their whole minds . Bewildered , like Lear , amid the social storm , they had determined , like him , to become ' unsophisticated , ' to owe the wonn no silk , the cat no perfume' — seeing , indeed , that if they had , they could not have paid
for them ; so they tore off , of their own will , the peacock ' s feathers of gentility , the sheep ' s clothing of moderation , even the fig-leaves of decent reticence , and became just what they really were—just what hundreds more would become , who now sit in the high places of the earth , if it paid them as well to be unrespectable as it does to be respectable ; if the selfishness and covetousness , bigotry aiid ferocity , which are in them , and more or less in every man , had happened to enlist them a « ain ^ t existing evils , instead of for them . O'Flynn would have been gladly as respectable as they ; but , in the first place , he must have starved ; and , in the second place , he must have lied ; for he believed in his own radicalism with his whole soul .
There was a ribald sincerity , a franctic courage in the man , He always spoke the truth when it suited him , and very often when it did not . He did see , which is more- than all do , that oppression is oppression , and nunibii K , humbug . He had faced the gallows before now , without flinching . He had spouted rebellion in the Birmingham Bullring , and elsewhere , and taken the cona < quences like a man ; while his colleagues left their dupes to the tender mercies of broadswords and bayonets , ; ind decamped in the dtaguisr of sailors , old women , and dissenting preachers . He had sat three months in Lancaster Castle , the Bantile of England , one day
perhaps to fall like that Parisian one , for a libel which he never wrote , because he would not betray his cowardly contributor . He had twice pleaded his own cause , without the he Ip of an attorney , andshowed himstlf as practised in every law quibble and practical cheat as if he had been a rrgul . irly-ordainpd priest of the blue-ban ; and each time , when hunted at last into a corner , had turned valiantly to bay , with wild witty Irish eloquence , ' worthy , ' as the pre > R say of poor misguided Mitch * 11 , ' of a better cause . ' Altogether , a much enduring Ulyj-seB , unscrupulous , tou ^ h-hided , rrady to do and suffer anything fair or foul , for what he honestly believed—if a contused , virulent poskiveness be worthy of the name belief . '— -to be the true and righteous cause . "
IiAMABTINE ' S LITERATURE FOR THE PEOPLE . Geneviite . Par Alphonse de Lamartine . 2 Vols . W . Jeffs . IiAMABTiNE will not let us admire him thoroughly . His eloquence , his poetic power , his high aims , and generous sentiments captivate us , but he never suffers us to enjoy our admiration for any length of time ; he is sure to puzzle and perplex us with some coxcombry , some petitesse , something " so French "something which taste cannot accept in alliance with wh 3 t is elevated and imaginative . He attitudinizes . Willing as we are to admire , we like not to be authoritatively called upon to " walk up" and be
astonished . Genius becoming its own Showman , and calling upon the crowd to " walk up " is not a pleasant spectacle . If Lamartine could trust to his very remarkable powers , he would stand higher in universal estimation ; but he drapes himself before you , and asks you with a side-glance whether you do not think him graceful . This tendency , always painfully visible in his writings , has greatly increased of late ; and curiously enough this constant preoccupation of the figure he is to present has made his autobiography one of the most incredible books ever written ; we do " not mean that it abounds in palpable falsehoods , but a certain varnish of " effect" makes it all
seem unreal . The same unpleasant quality is observable in Genevieve , his last work . It professes to be the first of a series of books for the People—" books to take their place beside Robinson Crusoe and The Imitation of Jesus Christ . Now we need scarcely pause to argue how imperatively necessary it would be for all
such books to have no affectations , no coxcombries , no attitudinizings , if they are to go right to the universal heart . Indeed , of all men occupying a distinguished position , we know of none whose style less fits him for a writer for the People than Lamartine . But he has made the attempt , and in a long introduction—not a line of which do we believe—he relates how it was that this attempt
originated . Singulaily unpleasant is this narrative ; not in its substance but in manner , —in the vulgar dressing up of minute details for effect—in the eternal trick of the feuilletoniste . In substance , it is simply that a young sempstress called upon him to express her adoration of his genius ; he invited her to dine with him , and then conversed upon literature — every word of which conversation lie pretends to describe , together with the gestures and looks , however trivial , accompanying them . Her complaint is that there is no literature for the People . Authors write to the educated and not to the labourers . They
depict conditions of life which to the working classes are unknown ; they do not paint the everyday life of the masses . Te'lemaque , she admits , has its merits ; " but it talks of government , and that does not touch us ; besides , it was written for the grandson of a King—that is not our state . As to Paul et Viryinie , that is very touching ; it tells how one can love , how we cannot live away from those we love ; but , after all , Virginia is the daughter of a general (!) She has an aunt who wishes to make her a woman of quality ; and all those are scenes that do not affect us—we shall never see them in our families . " . . . With
due submission to Mademoiselle Heine this is a flat absurdity . In the first place , Paul and Virginia is a story which does delight the people . In the next place , the supposition that Virginia ' s being the daughter of a general could remove her from the sympathy of those who have little chance of becoming generals , U a supposition so ridiculous that Lamartine's accepting it may astonish us . We have little chance of becoming kings ; yet the corroding
melancholy of " Hamlet , " and the heaven-climbing rage of the maddened " Lear , " touch us nearly , more nearly perhaps than the melancholy of Mr ., Smith , or the insanity of Mr . Jones , though these are thoroughly respectable men , and belong to our circle . The idea that a liUrature for the people must occupy itself with depicting the daily life of the people , is one against which wo protest loudly . It misconceives the mission and the influence of literature .
That it proceeds from a misconception may be seen in the universal delight with which legends , fairy tales , ghost * toriip , and wild romances are listened to—these do not depict our daily life ! What are the popular books—tho books that form portions of national culture ? Pilgrim * a Progresa— Burns—Robinson Crusoe—would all bo thrown asido by Lamartine , because they do not depict the daily life of the working classes . We wish the nation joy of such a reformation !
Having run over the greatest names of each nation ' s literature , Lamartine finds them all , with one or two exceptions , wanting in the first requisite of popularity . But , to confine ourselves solely to his own countrymen , let us remark that it is somewhat singular , in such an enumeration and for such a purpose , he should omit all mention of the really popular writers of France ! What does he think of Lafontaine ? Is there anything unintelligible to the people there ? What does he say to Moliere , in spite of his learning and mockery of pedants ? What of Lesage ? What of
Beranger—the people ' s pride ? What of Geprgo Sand ? Not one word of Lafontaine , Lesage , Moliere , Beranger , and Sand ! Such omissions look wilful . Beranger , of all men , must have crossed his mind when thinking either of the great names for which France i 8 illustrious , or the great writers thoroughly popular . Is Madame Sand a writer to be ignored ? And could Lamartine have been ignorant that she has written exquisite stories in the very language of the people , and depicting their eyeryday condition— La Mare au Diable—Francois le Champi—and
La Petite Fadette The argument fails then in every way ; yet he has the intrepidity to tell us that the reflexions suggested by this argument " profoundly affected him . " But comfort was at hand . If the people had no literature , let us write a literature for them ! If the great names of France have failed because they addressed only the educated ( a condition usually believed to be
attendant upon books !) , let us see if we cannot touch the people ! We , homme de style et de ccettr , can we not publish volumes at an incredibly low price ? It shall be done . " Je n * y mettrai ni prevention de style , ni effort de talent , ni esprit de gysteme ; la nature , la nature , et encore la nature ! " If you know-French literature and Lamartine you will estimate the value of that programme !
But , now , about the contents ; we have settled price and style , we must now settle the subject . Reine assures him that the stories must be taken from the condition of the audience , otherwise they will say " Oh , that is above us . " They must be true , because the people not being imaginative care little for fictions ; they only interest themselves in the realla ve ' rite e ' est ndtre poe ' sie d nous . What , then , does she say to legends and fairy tales ? She further says , that they must be without incidents , and very simple , written as the people speak .
Is this theory of literature worth discussing ? We think not . To tell the truth , we suspect it to have been " got up " by way of preface aud justification of the novel it precedes . Only Lamartine ' s great reputation could have made us waste our space upon it .
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KAY ON NATIONAL EDUCATION . The Social Condition and Education of the People in England and Europe . By Joseph Kay , Esq ., M . A . 2 vols . Longman and Co . ( Third Notice . ) The whole of Mr . Kay's second volume is devoted to that vast subject , « National Education ; nor can we anywhere point to so comprehensive , luminous , and convincing o treatise as this . Eight years of travel on the Continent , expressly with a view to the thorough investigation of the subject , has saturated his mind with facts and principles , so that he is armed at all points against objections .
He notes the simple but important fact that throughout Prussia , Saxony , Bavaria , Bohemia , Wirternberg , Baden , Darmstadt , Casscl , Hanover , Denmark , Switzerland , Norway , and the Austrian empire , all the children are actually at this present time receiving instruction from trained teachers ! In Holland and the greater part of France all the children above six years old are daily acquiring instruction under the influence of teachers . Now , when we cast a glance at these countries we are at once made foicibly aware of tho strong religious differences which split the peoples into antagonistic sects ,
differences * surely no less intense than those which split England at the piesent moment , and the question naturally arises , How do they manage to merge theso differences in one general scheme ? How do they prevent the religious antagonism depriving them of national education , as it does here with us ? To this Mr . Kay ' s work affords an ample answer . We refer to his volumes ; but meanwhile heartily concur in his opinion , that the main reason why we in England have not done as much for education as other nations , why we havo not overcome this sectarian difficulty as they have overcome it , is , that we have hitherto wanted the deep interest in the ques-
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Aug . 31 , 1850 . ] © & « ZLtaHtV . & *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 31, 1850, page 545, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1851/page/17/
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