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? Thjb new number of the Edinburgh Review has a good article on ' Tom Brown ' s Schooldays . ' While doing full justice to its great and peculiar merits as a picture of life , the -writer points out its serious imperfections as a manual of doctrine . These defects have been too much overlooked in the general , and for the most part just , praise bestowed on the * Old Boy ' s' delightful story . As , however , the book is not simply a novel of the season , but the manifesto of a school , and is largely recommended and read for the sake of the moral as well as the story , it is the more important that its short-comings should be signalized . The main faults of the book are a misrepresentation of Dr . Abnoxd ' s character as a teacher , and an extravagant admiration of his system . This must be the
result of looking at the master and his work through the distorting medium of class sympathies , as we possess the most ample materials for forming a truthful and impartial estimate of both . Dr . Aknoij ) is represented by ' An Old Boy , if not directly , at-all events by imp li cation , as a simple , massive character , fond of athletic exercises , and full of impulsive energy and unconscious strength ; while in reality he was one of the most intensely conscious , scrupulous , delicateminded , and excitable of men . Then with regard to his system at Rugby , there is no doubt that , he directly raised the tone and amended the discipline of the school , and indirectl y improved , in the direction where it most needed improvement , the public-school teaching of the country . But his noble virtues were crossed by striking defects of character , and these defects were of a kind that peculiarly unfitted . him for giving boys a strong and healthy training at the most critical period of their lives . Take for example his total want of humour , and the undue importance he habitually attached to trifles , noted in the
following passage : — The great standing charge which Dr . Arnold brought against public school boys was the want of what he delighted to call ' moral thoughtfulness ; ' a phrase , which to those who remember its employment at the universities by the solemn array of Rugby prsepostors , is associated with a most ludicrous recollection of old heads set upon young shoulders , and completely puzzled by their position . Such , however , was far from being Dr . Arnold ' s estimate of this cardinal virtue . To make his boys morally thoughtful was for him the substance of the law and the prophets . The total want of humour which characterized him prevented him from seeing that much of what he considered * awful wickedness , ' was mere fun , and ^ that it was far less desirable than possible to turn boys into men before their time . It seems to have been his serious wish to bring boys to see a duty in every act of their lives , and to imitate his own habit of referring the most trifling matters to the most awful principles . There
is a class of persons on whom it is extremely easy to produce this result . An imaginative , sensitive boy of sixteen is more open te ± these than to almost any other impressions . When Dr . Arnold was himself of that age he was at college , amongst grown-up men , and he did not therefore know how boys at that time of life naturally feel upon such subjects . It is an age when sensibilities of all sorts want the bridle ar more than the spur ; for a lad is then first distinctly conscious of the degree in which his capacities will soon exceed the limits of the position in which he finds himself . Like a young horse who has no load and no rider , he begins , from mere wantonness , to rear , to kick , and to think that the stout cobs who carry middle-aged gentlemen , and the sleek horses who draw prosaic carriages so quietly along the smooth roads , do not show in their daily labour half so much strength or resource as he does when he flings out his heels or rolls on the grass . If a touch of melancholy ( as is so often the case ) mingles with this stirring of the blood , it often take 3 the form
of impatience at the puerility of school life . The lad wishes to make grand speeches in Parliament , to lead the storming party up a breach , to write poems which shall throw Shakspeare into the shade , to invent machines which shall supersede railroads and steamships . When a youth of this stamp hears from such a man as Arnold the sort of half truths which he communicated to his sixth form boys , he receives them as the very fulfilment of his dreams . He is told that the moral welfare here and hereafter of some four hundred boys depends , in a great degree , on his exertions . His master , the object of his idolatry , delegates to him the combined authority of the priest and the prophet . If there is evil in the house he is to hate it , to preach to it , and finally , to take a cane and thrash it in the name of the Lord—an exercise which gratifies the old Adam , while it gives a grim satisfaction to the new . All the nd
objects And incidents around him acquire a sort of new signification , a satisfy at once his love for theory , and his dread of seeing his theory confuted by facts . He never ties his shoes without asserting a principle ; when he puts on his hat he founds himself' on an eternal truth . How can arm * virumque be trivial ; how can football be puerile ; how can it be a vulgar incident to lick your fag for not toasting your sausages , when every motion of the tongue , hand , or foot involves the idea of the ir 4 \ if , and asserts the identity of the Christian Church with the Christian State ? Conversely , who can be so hardy as to deny the truth of the theory in the face of the fact ? Sceptics and quibblers can never disconnect the civil and religious functions of life , whilst members of parliament swear on the true faith of a Christian , and the prsBpostors of Rugby brandish their canes and cry Bilcncc .
It is curious to see how even now the ' Old Boy is under the charm . In any one but a Rugboean the importance which he attaches to the merest trifles would be quite unintelligible . He finds as many morals in a boxing match as Mr . Raskin does in the twist of a gurgoyle ' s tail , or the shape of a wallflower ' s root . It asserts the great troth , that life is all a battle , that it is our great business to fight , and so forth ; in short , it is one of a hundred excuses for taking up the cry—In the name of the prophet , Figs . ? Floreat pugilatus ' by all means , but leave the gloves to depend on . thelr-natural . charm 8 > , And-far-bo , tUe-day ^ who » Jbe 80 _ wiU ^ otJ > e _ en 9 UsU ., to . toachi , English' boys the final cause of their fists . ' Again , of the injurious tendency of such minute and morbid morality , he lays : —
In practice itis impossible and undesirable not to look upon a very large proportion of . human notions as indifferent . Men have only . a liniited amount'of time and ¦ fcnmffthiat their disposal . ' Life , ' It has been nobly said , Ms not long enough for * tarupl * f . ' We ought to direct our view to the weightier matters of the law , and leavo the mint and cummin to take care of themselves . An ingenious person may make his acceptance or refusal of an invitation depend upon his view of the source of moral obligation , but he had much bettor not , for ho will cither solve his problem wrongly after all , or olao he will waste upon it far moro tlmo than it is worth . Th «
temptation to act thus is particularly strong upon boys and unmarried women . They have nothing to do which is at once important and open to doubt . That a boy at school ought to learn his lesson , that a grown-up daughter ought to nurse her mother if she is ill , or teach her little brothers to read , or at any rate to dress as well aa she can , and play on the piano , are self-evident truths , and therefore there is no conscious effort to be good , ho assertion of a cherished principle in acting accord ingly ; and thus the craving after the exercise of an important discretion has to satisfy itself on trifles . Nothing is easier than to get up mock important business by linking small results to great principles . A praepostor ' s cane , which U a penny cane and nothing more , mav hit or miss , as it happens . Turn it into the sword of the Lord and of Gideon , and you may well argue for an hour about unsheathing it . Such practices are very unwholesome . They not only stimulate a diseased consciousness , but they are pretty sure to deaden the feelings of a bard nature , and to upset the balance of a soft one .
A full and eloquent sketch of the life and labours of Bosstjet , and a brief but instructive account of a most curious and unknown subject— 'The Hawkers' Literature of France / are the remaining literary articles of interest in the number . The current number of the Quarterly Review is solid and instructive , but dull and difficult to read . The elaborate description of ' Woolwich Arsenal and its Manufacturing Establishment , ' and of the * Difficulties of Railway Engineering , ' though interesting to the scientific , will most probably be passed over by the general reader . They are , however , about the best papers in the number . ' The Historic Peerage' may attract those who are fond of the noble science of heraldry , and have a passion for blue blood , but few besides will peruse faithfully to the end such a bewildering catalogue of noble names . The ' Sense of Pain in Man and Animals' is a diffuse and imperfect account of a
most interesting subject . It is marked , too , by a weak and morbid , almost maudlin tone , that is singularly out of harmony with the character and usual spirit of the Quarterly , the time-bound champion and representative of English sports and country life . " The sports of the field , " says the sensitive writer , " come distinctly under the denomination of cruelty when the creatures are neither destroyed because they are themselves destructive , nor because they are required for food . " He is still more intolerant of the ' gentle craft . ' "Whatever may be argued in favour of shooting , " he indignantly adds , " angling with a worm , or any species of live bait , is absolute atrocity . "
The two chief literary articles of the British Quarterly net 'John Grower and his Works , ' and ' De Foe . ' The former is a good account of a poet whose writings hold an important position in English Literature , and had a decided influence in the development of the language , but which are , and will remain to all but students , unknown . The writer says little of Gower's language , a most important subject in the discussion of his works . The number contains a very readable scientific paper ' On Meteoric Stars and Comets . ' The London Quarterly , in an article on ' Homer and his Translators , ' gives far higher praise to Professor Newman ' s recent attempt to render the sounding hexameters of the ' old man eloquent' into unrhymed English verse , or rather into unrhythmical English lines , than we should be disposed to endorse . Professor Newman , with a fine sense of the niceties of language , has no ear for music , at least , for the music of English verse , and is therefore unfitted for the task he has attempted . The ' Waldenses , ' ' Religion in Germany , ' are interesting articles , the latter giving some personal reminiscences of the recent Conference of the Evangelical Alliance at Berlin .
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THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OP ART . The Political Economy of Art . By John Ruskih , M . A . Smith , Elder , and Co . Mb . Ruskin is not a master of Political Economy , regarded strictl y as a science . He has read none of its text-books except that of Adam bmith , twenty years ago . This he explains in his preface , so that he stands clear from any charge of arrogant controversy . His views are his own , worked out apart from those of former writers . Therefore this book , incorporating the substance of two lectures delivered at Manchester , is so far empirical , in that it is the essay of an artist on a subject which he has deeply meditated without following its history , or seeking to evolve from known theories and disquisitions a new set of hypotheses . Mr . Ruskin does not here affect to be original ; he states hia opinions whether or not they resemble those of
men who have gone before him . The three treatises are suggestive , not canonical . Against a part of the doctrine announced the most fearless thinkers will protest ; by the least candid , many of the points moat omphaticnlly urged must be accepted . Mr . Ruskin , it is true , leaps into hia argument , after balancing himself upon a paradox ; but , with keen and forcible rhetoric , he has dignified the truth of the merest truism , and demonstrated , ao that no reader -can misunderstand it , the personal and essential interest which every individual in the commonwealth has in the study of political economy . We said he opened with a paradox— -this is , that poverty is contemptible . He does not mean the poverty which the wise and good have honoured , but ho seems to moan it , and his preamble is , therefore , a surprise . Perhaps it fascinated the attention of » Manchester audience , among whom Diogenea never had a reputation for virtue ; but Mr . Ruakin ia right , if we consider what it ia ho deopiaea as poverty , ana wh ^ hb ' veherat ^ Tis ^ ve ^^^ plementarv parajrranha , hia praise of the patriarchal principle . Iho idea
propounded ia one which was never more loudly enforced , and never ^ unlikely to become popular than at the preaont day . Society throughout the world is seeking ita release under an exactly opposite law . However , Mr . Ruskin does not linger among abstract dialectics ; he ramifiea speouuy into detail and illuatration , and through these paaangoa of practical pniloaophy we have followed him with scarcely mingled pleasure . At tunes , nia didactics have a tone ao peremptory that they would appear to rebuke the very doubta they suggest , and yet it may bo denied by political economists not leas devoted to the welfare of art and aocioty than
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• ?—Critics are not the legislators , butthe judges and police of literature . They do hot make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
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g THE LEADEU . [ No . 409 , January 23 , 1858 ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 23, 1858, page 88, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2227/page/16/
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