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lions of miles , after all the figure-work . But I can see it at once , on a clear night , as well as I shall ever see it . So much by way of a familiar illustration of the scope of the external senses . And now for something else . . I can shut my eyes , and see myself arrived at the star—living in it , or on it—swimming across one of its lakes of sapphire and gold , or seated at the foot of one of its v olcanoes , reading a book . I come to the conclusion , then , that , although the senses have a larger scope than the reason , the imagination has a larger scope than the senses . The unreality of my existence in the star does not affect the argument .
_ . , It may be said that the senses furnish this scope to the imagination , and that everything I describe , or can possibly describe , as having seen imaginatively in the star , has its palpable foundation in things I have actually seen down here . Of course that is a law of the life of mind ; but I can use the scope of the senses in conjunction with my faculties of mind , thus enhancing that scope . In brief , I can multiply that scope by my imagination . A high exercise of this faculty would alone supersede the ideas which lead to Pantheistic worship .
To a religious temperament , if I may so designate that feeling which is natural to all rightly constituted minds—that religion of the soul which cannot brook to be confined by the swaddling clothes of any dogmatic formulas , there is no quality which ministers such rich and ennobling food as the imagination ; Since it multiplies the scope of all the senses , so it can hear not only the " still , small voice" within , but the whispers of Infinity . Let me illustrate this last position by quoting another sentence , a little lower down , in your same letter .
" I hear the voice of the instinctive revelation , which tells me that there is a great region of the unknown , greater than the known , but not dissevered from it , since I imagine its existence . " Some of your readers will here ask- —would I have religion a matter of the imagination rather than of the reason ? I certainly would not . Neither would I have it an entire matter of pure reason—if such a thing were possible . This is not the time to discuss what people mean by pure reason ; I must therefore content myself simply by saying
that what is called pure reason is of necessity a mixed faculty , made up of ail our best knowledge , ( and our unconscious ignorance , too , ) of our judgment , and of our imagination . In like manner our imagination is made up of all our knowledge , and of our reasoning powers modified by the pleasure of the will and a sense of the ideal . I would not , therefore , ask that religion should be a question of this or that faculty of the mind or the instincts , but of all faculties—a sincere interpenetration of the whole being .
It is the free examination and public declaration of feelings and thoughts like those developed in your Letters on Social Reform which will eventually work out the redemption of Religion . The wretched condition of conflicting mysteries and worldly interests into which it has been brought , has long since attained a pitch that presents the spectacle of utter aberration of mind rather than the true worship of a divine attribute in auy conception of Deity , or in the magnificent and constant miracles of creation that surround us .
These subjects , my dear Thornton , you , and I , and Lewes , worked at with your father some twelve or thirteen years ago *—perhaps not altogether in vain—but certainly with no such audience as we now possess . The time was not ripe . It was the twilight of the morning " what time the breath of heaven is coldest , "—and the breath of earth and earth ' s sons colder still , and often far more bitter . But this is rapidly passing away now , and the great beams of the chariot-wheels of the sun are
already shooting broadly up from Life ' s unfathomable sea . The fleeting mists and vapours take many strange and threatening forms , but we know that if the Spirit of Truth moves constantly upon the face of the waters , they will be cleared of all these phantoms , and the lite of humanity become disenchanted , so that we can look up to God in the spirit , as revealed to us by Christ , without fear of the jealousy and vengeance of a terrific Hebrew personification , or the tyrannical intermeddling of our fello \ v-mun . 11 . II . IIORNE .
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POOR-LAWS AND THE LORDS' SELECT COMMITTEE . St . Austell , Cornwall , Sept . 4 , 1850 . Sir , —Of all the laws , Poor-laws are surrounded with more difficulties to legislate upon than any others . "We cannot lose sight of the fact that the sun , the moon , the stars , and the earth are not intelligences , but that the poor man is an intelligent being , and , like ourselves , he has to live now and for ever , and that , as a man , he is the special blessed creature on earth of our Creator ; therefore , it would be a fearful and dangerous thing to legislate against the benefit , interest , and happiness of such a fellow-creature , only and because he happens to he void of land or its substitute , money .
Having shown the importance of a poor man , we will take a cursory view of the rise and progress of the Poor-laws . Before and since the reign of Henry the Eighth , the noble barons , and the monasteries , and the convents kept open house for the poor , and many barons on their death-bed , in hopes of escaping purgatory , used to give to the monks land and wealth for them and the poor . Henry , having fallen out with the Pope , dispossessed the monks and the poor . In Elizabeth ' s days there used to be poor riots , now and then , about this bequeathed property to the poor , and Elizabeth insisted that something should bo done for her •« poore people ; " and then we had the first Poor-law , whereby overseers were to assess " every habitant and every occupier of 1 . »„ , 1 9 * /" * !« . « . « , a » . / 1 U 1-t /\ nc . o 1 i /\ Mnv " io inr \ ¥ TYionfirmorl in
the act ) , and with the funds to purchase materials to set the poor to work , and to bind the children out as apprentices ( giving education was not understood in those days ) ; thus establishing two great principles , viz ., to tax everybody that could pay , and give employ , and not relief . "Unfortunately , in those days the overseers knew nothing of the machinery of an income-tax , therefore they could not assess unseen or personal property ; and on that account , and that alone , the miseries of the poor commenced ; for land and houses got fixed with the whole assessment , and , against the intention of the act , all personal capital escaped , and that which was intended as a general law became a class-law — land and houses versus
the poor , whilst capital stood aioor , looiung on at this unequal conflict . After this act of Elizabeth ' s there have been numerous acts of Parliament and amendments thereof , all proving what a difficult thing it was to legislate upon Poor-laws , until we come down to the lust New Poor-law of 1833 , which was a settler , with a vengeance . The poor Englishman might exclaim , When my eyes first opened on the world , the light of day was showered on me as bounteously as if I had been a prince ; the blessed air of heaven cuine wooingly to fan my brow , and the music of woods and waters fell sweetly upon my ear as it arose to welcome the arrival of a new lord of the earth and coheir of immortality ; all things animate and inanimate proclaimed my freedom . It was a boon fiom God . " But this New Poor-law erects
monster prison-houses , and condemns the poor ireeborn Englishman , without judge or jury , to incarceration therein , because he is poor . And what is the excuse of this infamous proceeding of loan against man , in the absence of crime ? AVhy , economy ; to economize poor-rates are these expensive prisonhouses erected and supported . "What a cruel blunder ! To economize poor-rates , go back to the statute of Elizabeth , and follow out the principle of giving employ—employment on the soil , which will interfere with no trade , and let the poor , ia open free air , grow their own food .
It may be said that there area great many of the poor that are worthless , and will not labour to grow their own food ; but that is no reason why the old and young , able and willing , should be kept in confinement : give thorn liberty and a healthy locality . And , as to the worthless , offer them agricultural employ , which is
unexceptional labour , and , if they will not work , then , and not till then , do they become criminal . Then apply the same principle as the County Courts do to fraudulent debtors , and they will soon go to work , and there will be an end of all worthless poor The science of agriculture proves that the manure of paupers on . a farm is equivalent to their keep ( hence old and young are of value ) , and , if placed in conjunction , with cows and pigs , they would pay every expense and have a profit balance , as shown in a letter published in the Morning Post , "On Mutualsupporting farms , or Abolition of Poor-rates , " and in a pamphlet written on " The Redemption of the Poor-rates . " Then , why pay poor-rates to do an evil—to imprison and punish your fellow-creatures ,
when , by redeeming or borrowing money on poorrates , you could raise a capital to create mutualsupporting farms for the poor , instead of prisonhouses , and thus abolish poor-rates for ever , and all the difficulties of legislating on poor-laws ? Nothing shows more clearly the difficulty of legislating on poor-laws than the report of the select committee of the House of Lords , who report that " the relief of the poor is a national object , towards which every description of property ought to contribute . " This is coming hack to the principle of the statute of Elizabeth , and they seem to be in no better a situation than the overseers in Elizabeth ' s time ; for they say that " they cannot form an opinion as to the assessment of personal property in aid of the rates levied on real property . "
Let us only contemplate what millions of capital is out on mortgage on land , houses , and railways ! —what hundreds of millions funded !—what millions out on security by bankers !—what millions of capital in the hands of merchants and other capitalists Why , a mountain of wealth ! more than all the land and houses subject to their encumbrances are worth . And all this vast amount of capital is exempt from poor-rates , which shows how unjust these poor-laws are to landowners , ratepayers , and the poor . The committee also recommend the appointment of " two district surveyors—one to assist the magistrates , the other a committee of rate-payers . " Further expense still ; and then they will want a third as umpire
between the two surveyors . The committee also recommend that mines should be rated to the poor-rates . Mines have been exempt , that paupers might not be created . They also recommend that owners of cottages of £ 6 and under should pay the poor-rates . This will fall upon the industrious poor . In fact , their report will not give satisfaction . Therefore , the only way to dispel all difficulties with which , the poor-laws are surrounded is to do away with poorrates , and benefit the poor by creating these mutualsupportinij farms of patqycrs , cows , and pigs , and let us have no more legislation against the benefit , interest , and happiness of the unfortunate poor , for it will only recoil upon landowners , houseowners , and
ratepayeis . The Lords' report proves that money-capital is " touch-me-not , " and that real property must always be subject to these dead weights ; the result will be that money-capital will be the lord paramount , and that land will become its vassal . Then let landowners arouse themselves , and turn their attention to the true development of land , which these poor farms will show more than any other , independent of freeing it from rates . The growing of corn would , indeed , appear to be only in its infancy . A Frenchmode of his
man has lately discovered a doubling crops : and these " poor farms" ( from the fact that the best unadulterated guano only contains 18 per cent , of ammonia , whilst human manure on a farm , if the phlogisticated air be well secured , will give above 30 per cent ) will not be far behind the Frenchman ; consequently these " poor farms" are of importance , as proving the hidden wealth that still remains in the land , which will give it the ascendancy over capital , and keep up the dignity of the realm . —I remain , Sir , yours obediently , Joseph Wood .
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GENERAL HAYNAU . Great Yarmouth , Sept . 10 , 1850 . Sat , —The news of General Haynau ' visit to Messrs . Barclays' brewery , and the honest reception he met with having been read in a large company of tradesmen and artisans , called forth a burst of applnuse ; and considering that , if the General ( who has earned for himself , by his cruel atrocities , the appellation of " Austrian butcher" ) came to England officially from the Austrian despots , the treatment lie received was the best that could be given
him , it being most calculated to make a lasting - pression upon his memory , and by that means enable him to make a faithful report of the real sympathy of the English nation , manifested in the true John Bull style , for the Hungarian patriots : it was unanimously resolved that , should any of Messrs . Barclays' men bo victimized to appease the wrath oi despotism , they would drink no more of Messrs . Barclays' porter . — I am , Sir , yours obediently , on behalf of the meeting , , Ttios . Erbington .
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There is no learned man but' will 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 has adversary to -write . —Milton .
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• Ami Kj , 'ortou MYhbu—a genius , wIiobo youth hail run u ulilu and Itrilltaut cariM-r i > f lmruing and ncromplUlinu nts , and tvna snatched from us just an we were rejoicing lo see the power which we know , —though still known to few more , —making itself felt upon the world .
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590 titft ft £ * & $ ?? [ Saturday ,
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[ In this department , as all opinions , however extreme , ARE ALLOWED AN EXPRESSION , THE EDlTOtt NECESSARILY HOLDS HIMSELF RESPONSIBLE FOR NONE . j
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 14, 1850, page 590, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1853/page/14/
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