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ICtwrahm.
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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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Ictwrahm.
ICtwrahm .
Untitled Article
• We have on more than one occasion argued the question of classical learning and although the accidents of our own education may be supposed rather to bias our inclinations in favour of that which it has cost us so much labour to acquire , yet our impartial verdict is decidedly against allowing Greek and Latin to continue in the dominant position they have hitherto held . We believe that on many accounts it is desirable for a certain class to occupy itself with the dead languages , as it is desirable for a class to occupy itself with antiquities , conchology , or any other special subject of study ; but general education ought to dispense with them , as practically we see it dispense with them ; of the thousands who receive a " classical education , " only a few retain enough of their hard-earned knowledge to make any use of it . We are led to notice this topic by an article in the Daily News on the performance of the Westminster play , exposing the " inconsistency" of representing such indecencies as those in which Terence abounds , before the youth and women of moral England ; after alluding to the subject of
the Adelphi , the writer adds : — " And yet it is sucli a play as this , without either romance or sentiment to throw the thinnest of veils over its impurities , that youths of seventeen or eighteen act , and that their mothers and sisters witness . A crowd of elegantly dressed women , most of them doubtless in the upper ranks of society , were listening last jiiffht—we trust without understanding what they heard—at one time to the story of a rape , and at another to the screams of a female in the act of parturition . And this is an entertainment which good and learned men get up as a means of instruction to boys , and delight to their parents ! There is scarcely a greater anomaly in part of onr social system .
any . .. % - * . . 11 i-i' xi - * . „ ¦! , ^ . ; + t . 1 . 5 cm iii t . iiof . n . nsni'd clmsrins ? to " Does not , however , the whole thing take its rise in that absurd clinging to antiquity which is a distinguishing feature of modern English education ? And if so , is not the real evil in question far greater than that of the representation of an indecent play ? The world is marching on , and leaving English education behind it as a worn-out antique . When a man comes out of a public school into the world , and wishes to move along with society , he has really to ^ educate himself . If he has been to one of the first schools in the country , he lms learned just as much as would have fitted him for the society of Us ancestors three hundred years lack , lace inthe world Mattes
but scarce ! ,, anything that enables 7 dm to lake Ids p , advanced more in those three , hundred years than in fifteen centuries before that tune . He brings rusty implements to work with , whilst he finds that he can do nothing unless with modern tools . Why , then , it may be said , do so many still c-lin- to such relics of antiquity ? We believe that the reason will be lound in that class feeling which cuts up English society into sections , _ and draws broad lines of demarcation between hodies of men who ought to be united . A classical education' is valued by the great number , not on account of any proved value oj its oton , but because the poorer classes do not yet it . This feeling strikes at one root of our nationality . There can be no national education , while one class insist have
upon laying the foundation in a dead language which the other class nothing to do with The ideas of the two classes are taught to flow in different channels from their very earliest youth , and when they meet together in manhood , they have little common ground of educational sympathy . " The Westminster play is an example of this anomaly in its grossest form . Pious clergymen arc for months engaged in instructing ingenious youths how with point to enunciate gross impurities ; the only excuse being , that the immorality is expressed in unexceptionable Latin . Boys are brought to the consideration ot thoughts and deeds which , under any other shape , they would he told to flee from as from a pestilence . They are taug ht to laugh at actions which , irom the pulpit they arc told to avoid . The gross absurdity of punishing hoys for ranking use of expressions in the play -ground , which they are taught to deliver with unction on
the . stage , must , before long make itself evident . ' . There arc three points in these remarks to which we desire especial attention . —1 st . The conservatism \ vhich undoubtedly does underlie this absurd veneration for Antiquity , not as the common mother of us all , not as the lifqJVom which the Present was evolved , not m any high historic sense , but as the blind instinct of conservatism , ly hich dings to whatever lias been established , Ion p after its significance has passed away and leit it a mere tomb of the once living . 2 nd . The aristocratic feeling ot exclusiveness which it , fosters ; although that must only be accepted as one side ot the question . There iR another . The classics form not only a barrier excluding the people , but a common ground of thought , illustration , poetic feelingand historic association , to all within the barrier . A sentence irom
, lIoiiACK , a few words from Thu < : y »> ii ) KS , an allusion to Viucui ,, an illustration from Plato , although perhaps when translated appearing very insignificant to those without the barrier , will have significance , beauty , am ueiight ibr those within it . What the wayward 'Vivian chooses to call Imd is not unfrequently a jewel spurkling on the iin er of a tnond , and an emblem of his being one of the same community as ourselves . We do not sa y it is not sometimes the dull lend of pedantry ; we say it is not necessarily so . To make our meaning more apparent , let us refer to the days when Literature knew nothing of its present gigantic proportions ; before octavo * were dreamt of , and KaiKvuy Libraries would have been a viaum more fantastic than Atlantis or Utopia ; iu those days the common fund ol
literature was one in every family : it comprised the Legends ot Unvulry and the various works of a religious and moral cast , which m narrative or co mment endeavoured to complete the Kible . In those days one may notice a community of feeling ami of opinion very different from the anarchy of our own . This community in in some sort kept up by a classical
education ; whatever our differences of opinion , we have a common ground m the literature of Greece and Rome . And this it is , quite as much as me aristocratic notion of exclusiveness , which unconsciously makes many men defend the study of the classics . # j ? + 1 l-OA The third point we have to notice is that of the " inconsistency . To tftose who follow the teachings of clergymen with a commentary of practice notbing can be surprising in the way of inconsistency . Sometimes these inconsistencies are the instincts of virtue overthrowing dogmas ; sometimes they are fortunate
safety valves for an Working force , which if compressed would shatter the whole fabric to pieces : how often are inconsistencies the cracks by which Society is kept free to expand , without which it would explode Sometimes , again , -inconsistencies" are the revelations of the real spirit underlying profession . For example : the Protestant party—especially that section of it which arrogates the name of evangelical—is intensely bitter against the Catholic system and Papal Infallibility . The sacred lon
liberty of private judgment" has no more acrimonious advocates , so g as that private judgment is their own ; but no OtfhoK can manifest greater intolerance than these evangelicals against those who presume to question their infallibility . We have a specimen in the Manchester Courier . The disgraceful scene acted by Mr . Commissioner Phillips the week betore last in the Court of Bankruptcy was noticed by the Manchester Guardian—* paper of the highest standing , —a sort of Times of the North ; and noticed because it « unaccountably escaped comment from the London press , to whom it properly belongs" ( it escaped owing to the timidity of the press ) ; and after a narrative of the affair these remarks were added : — « So the scene terminated . The unfortunate sceptic ™ ejected out ofaconrt of justice like a thing too foul for human contact ; and the insolvent , in detault ot bail t back to prison lvf
, wen . __ _ . . - ™ . .,,. „„„ . v ,-, O . « " We do not undo r ake to say whether Mr . Commissioner Phillips was at liberty to re let the oath offered to him hy a person who declared that it was b ^ g on his conscience , though we know that the duty of a judge has b en d ^ ntly interpreted in similar cases ; and we entertain an » n P ^ ^ . ^ V ^ TnS ^ dto on this occasion . But we do protest against the tone m winch he w . pleased to pronounce his decision , and the unwarrantable comments wh . cn he , t . eked ^ to ^ :. If the la * forbad him to accept Mr . Holyoake ' s adjuration i . was for £ * * ° » J so calmly and dispassionately , and not , under protection of the judicial robe to insult an unoffending- man with Ins blatant orthodoxy . Mr . Holyoake rel . g ous peculiarities have as Rood a right to be treated with respqet as those of aQnaler , a Jew , a Hindoo , or any other witness who may come before a court of law . We need hardly sav that we diflfcr from him on almost ever , point respecting winch ' condition arid his
his opinionsare publicly known ; we consider his <*** £ " unenviable and distressing . But he has this claim on res pec , that he ha ^ ufterul deeply for his convictions , which is more than we are aware that Mr . Commissioner Phillips has done , and more t han we t hink he is likely to do . Upon this , the evangelicals are in arms . The Manchester Courier has an indignant article , full of all the sweetness of Christianity and the charily characteristic of the sect . << The undoubted respectability of our contemporary gives a kind of patent to the dissemination of infidel doctrines that renders the publication of the article infinitely dangerous , says the mild and Christian Courier . Again , — " Of the infidel character of our contemporary ' s remarks there can be no doubt . They have raised the blood' of some of the best men not only in Manchester , but in the towns
which surround us . " Unhappy men ! unhappy Courier . ' Can such drivel he , And not o ' ercomc us us a winter ' s cloud ? How beautifully en-aging these men make Christianity appear Directly a word of charity and tolerance is spoken , they cry out anathema ; but as they are fond of fixing others in the pillory , we will fix them in one , and they can scarcely object , * for it shall be built with their own hands . Here is the conclusion of the article : — .,
, " Thfl faet is , that the whole of our contemporary ' s remarks , and the too-evident rpiril which hns dictated them , combined with , what , we cannot help thinking , ih a more aiTfctaimn of ignorance of the law , to servo the purpose ot the moment , roHvincrstts that , that old Hocinian . spirit for which the Guardian , was notorious in days long passed , has downed to somclMny infinitely darker and more hideous . TliiTP i « really no true ' liberality' in attempting to loosen the bond * of religion and morality , " mid instead ofridieule and censure , we think that Mr Coinin . ssumcr Phillips deserves the very highest praise lor purifying the courts of this kingdom lit to be t them bMr
from ll . u stain of infidelity which was wug casupon y . George Jm-ob HolyoiuV , the preferred bail , who did not acknowledge the existence ol God We sav ( lod forbid that any person who denies the existeue « of the- l ^ ity should be hoard in any court of justice in ICgland . We . trust thai the moral and social responsibilities of . such a man , will , never he recof / niscd ; for ij they be , there can no longer bo ani , security for the well-being of society in this or any other country . II , is ii dowuriirht insult " to ' n Quaker , a . Jew , or a Hindoo , ' to place them in the sumo category with such a creature us Mr . Holyoake . And it is an insult to a CfliriHtiim community ( which we believe Manchester to be ) , that any journal should Lho Manchester
dare to pronounce , such opinions as are habitually pronounced by ( luardian , in the present day . " ' Pray notice the amiable ; and honest logic by which the writer is " convinced" that tin-. Guardian has deepened into a creed " infinitely more hideous- " than Soeinianism , and notice also the courageous imbecility of this disclaimer of social responsibilities . O nomen duke hbertatis ! 6 jus vximinm . noslm civitatis ! Well might Cickko apostrophise the sweet name of Liberty and the . sacred rights of citizenship , when both ore to be forfeited if men do not read through the same spectacles as those m authority .
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... are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not ^ make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —EdinburghBeview .
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December 18 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . , _ jjjj _
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Wk have spoken with undisguised contempt of the Cowru r , .. ml now contrast with it the tone of another religious paper , as superior to tlie
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 18, 1852, page 1211, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1965/page/15/
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