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- Florence , June 29 th 1859 . The deplorable events of Perugia have created a most painful sensation in this country , the more so as frequent appeals for assistance had reached Florence Tby telegraph up to the 20 th , after which time all communication became impossible , Jthe telegraph wires being destroyed . Fearful anxiety prevailed as to the result of the struggle with the Pontifical troops . An express was sent to Arezzo to learn further particulars , and the report brought back was so bad as to be scarcely credible .
Subsequent accounts have , however , confirmed the worst that could have been imagined . It would be useless as well as painful to narrate the atrocious stories which are current among the population and which call down bitter imprecations on priestly rule . In order to keep within the limits of truth , I . give an extract from' the JMTonitore Toscano , the official paper , of the 27 th instant : — " No sooner had the Tuscan Government obtained trustworthy information respecting the lamentable events of Perugia , than it hastened to publish a circumstantial narrative received
from eye witnesses , leaving readers to make their own comments and to form their , owrt judgment upon the facts related . As soon as the inhabitants ; of Perugia knew that the Pontifical troops were preparing to retake the city , which had proclaimed its adhesion to the national cause , and had constituted a Governtal giunta , they determined on offering resistance , their determination being con firmed by the rumoura of the intended sack of the town which had already reached their ears . On the morning of June 20 th the citizens were called to arms , and in
the course of a few hours 3 , 000 men , prepared to repel force by force , answered to the call , But the arms in the city were insufficient for so large a number . 450 munition guns were consigned to one portion of the combatants and 500 sporting guns to another ; the remainder had to wait for arms expected from without . There was some confusion during these hurried preparations , but it ceased on the arrival of three Italian officers to assume the direction of the defence . They stationed the armed citizens at the points most open to attack . Scarcely had these scanty precautions
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the duties of citizenship of more importance ^ tban the knowledge necessary to perform the duties of parentage—which , by the division pf labour , they get performed by others . And much to our surprise , after he has clearly pointed out the deference man pays , and must pay , to man , he takes no other notice of the knowledge required to direct this deference well than to deride it , and almost to treat with scorn all the education , such as teaching girls fashionable accomplishments , and boys Latin and -
Fore for the continuance of society . " Too momentous to be lef t to our blundering , Nature takes it into her own hands . " " Guidance , too , in preserving health and obtaining energy is in some measure ready supplied . " " By our various physical sensations and desires Nature has ensured a tolerable conformity to the chief requirements for health . " " Our sensations are our natural and trustworthy guides . " He recognises a natural " growth" and a " natural history of society , " finds a natural means of governing it in the struggles which , everywhere arise for superiority . " Governments grow
up in all circles , in which every man or woman strives to be king or queen , or a lesser dignity . " " By the accumulation of wealth , by style of living , by beauty of dress , by display , or knowledge , or intellect , each tries to subjugate others , andso aids in weaving that ramified net-work of restraints by which : society is kept in order . " Independently then of all instituted or institutional government , a natural order of society , according to this writer , accompanies its natural growth . The " natural consequences also of actions pleasurable or painful , " "in the ordained constitution of things , are rewards
and punishments ; " and " the evil results of disobedience to natural laws are inevitable . " He does not , therefore , like Mr . Mill , believe and assert , in favour of despotism and ignorant legislation , that " existence can only be made valuable to any one by the enforcement of restraints on the actions of others by law in the first place . " He sees very , clearly that all the much desired restraints , so far as they are beneficial to all , are naturally enforced ; and that the means of
enforcing them , they being , as both these writers admit ( naturally ) , tie great social need , is found s not in despotism and ignorant legislation , but in that universal deference of man . to man , and woman to woman , which we now call fasMon—which makes "the Orinoco Indian , though quite regardless oi bodily comfort , labour for a fortnight to purchase pigment wherewith to make himself admired , " and which continues to make , as in th ' ei . beginning of history , the utility of dress subordinate to decoration . This is a great improvement on the teaching
of Mr . Mill . With these great principles present to his mind the writer proceeds to point out the comparative worth or relative value of different kinds of knowledge , and justly states that this important subject has been very much neglected , not merely by scientific zealots who have paraded some one idol for the public to worship ^ , or b y routine teachers who take up that which is fashionable and pays , but by the masters of learning . To supply this deficiency—which , however , he overrates : —he sets about establishing a measure of knowledge . " How to live , not in the material sense only , but in the widest is tne essential uiis
sense , question . jls what we all require to learn . ? ' The general problem , which comprehends every special problem , is the right guiding of conduct in all directions , under all circumstances . " Every species of knowledge , therefore , is relatively more valuable , 1 st , as it ministers to self-preservation ; 2 nd , as it secures the necessaries of life—indirectly ministering to self-preservation ; 3 rd , as it helps to rear and discipline offspr ing ; 4 th , as it enables us to maintain proper social and political relations ; and , 5 th , as at ministers to the gratification of the tastes and feelings which are the enjoyment of the leisure part of life . That this is the true ( not complete ) _ ^^**^ 4 ^ V % fc ^ v # » # 1 *« ft ^^^ % «^ 4 « «^ A < 4 * i Atl Jtl ^ ^ v * r % rt * a 4 *^^*« nVk A « nn VVw ^>^^ V w ^ v .
Ing out the overriding necessity of the first . A man must , too , acquire , the- means of living ; and . self-maintenance precedes the power of maintaining offspring . As the state is only rendered possible by the pre-existence of families , the knowledge Which enables men to perform well the duties of parentage is of more value than that whioh enables them to perform well the duties of citizenship ; and this again is of much more importance than the knowledge which enables men to fill leisure hours with gratification . In our systems the last is placed first , so that by them teaching begins at the wrong end .
There are many qualifications of these abstract principles , but we agree with the author that this 18 something like the rational order of the subordination " of one speciefe of knowledge to another . He does not make sufficient allowance for division of labour , which is no state contrivance , but as natural and necessary as the difference of flex and age , from whioh it flows , and whioh makes for large classes the knowledge necessary to perform
it happens that our ordained school and university education is so much at variance with man ' s real wants—for ever teaching him what is of no use , or what he is continually compelled to unlearn—is due to the deference of the toiling multitude to the dazzling aristocracy—the same principle as makes the Orinoco Indian cover himself with pigment . A leisure class , or a class with special pursuits , which knows nothing of toiling industry and its wants , which imposes on the imagination by ? ' style of living , " " beauty of dress , " " accumulation of wealth , " or an . " assumption of knowledge , " frames and supports the system , or derives it from custom ;
and from deference , not from a conviction of its utility , it is maintained . What society might become , were all men fully possessed of all the knowledge which now partially subserves the preservation of all life to its natural termination in full vigour—the production of abundant subsistence and the enjoyment of Ieisure-r-we cannot imagine . But there is no condition reached by some men which may not be reached by all . And the present condition of instructed , industrious , independent middle-class Englishmen , may suggest a faint idea of what society will be when the world is filled with men knowing more than they know , and
living longer and happier than the best of them live . * The other articles in the periodical from which we have abridged these few general remarks " On what Knowledge is of most worth , " are all instructive . " Jowett and the Broad Church " makes us acquainted -with a new phasis of our waxing and waning State Christianity . " The Influence of Local Causes on National Character" illustrates an important element of civilisation . " The Life of a Conjuror , " Robert-Houdin , is pleasant reading . " The Government of India " treats of the revenue of that country and the appropriation of the land . In " The Recollections of Alexander von
Sternberg" we are supplied with a view of literary society in Germany . Articles on the " Roman Question" and on " Austrian Intervention , " with the usual excellent notice of contemporary literature , complete the number .
Greek , which have this deference for its sole object , though without it the former would get no husband and the latter no office . Passing by topics of difference thus lightly , it follows from the authors principles that we ought to learn first—and all education should be directed to this end—how to live happily by performing our duties as put down in the order above . It is scarcely necessary to add that our systems of education , private and national , at schools and universities , are quite at variance
with what the author requires . The fundamental education necessary to selfpreservation being so well cared for by Nature , we are only required not to place obstacles , as we very generally do—by over care of children and young persons—in the way of Nature ' s teaching . So it is , in the main , with the preservation of health ; but knowledge of the means of ensuring it has been perverted by the circumstances which have induced us to believe erroneously that the promptings of Nature are to be distrusted . Now it is of primary importance for all to acquire such a knowledge of physiology as conduces to the preservation of
health . The necessity of acquiring knowledge which facilitates the gaining-a livelihood is admitted by all ; hut , except reading , writing , and arithmetic , the-bulk of what is taught has no bearing on the industr ial activities . Of the great utility of mathematics , physics , and chemistry , in assisting production , which , no man has doubted since it was known that labour , hot the soil , is the source of wealth , the writer gives an elaborate and animated description . Our ordinary school courses , however , generally leave out , and till lately entirely left out , all instruction for these essential activities . " All
our industries would cease , " says the writer , " were it not for the information vyhich men begin to acquire as they best may after the education is said to be finished . And were it not for this information that has been from age to age accumulated and spread by unofficial means , these industries would never have existed . " All this information , too , as it is gradually acquired is gradually embodied in the skill of workmen , and sq is transmitted , for ever accumulating , from generation to generation , amongst thoso who are described by state quacks as knowing nothing and requiring instruction by a costly system , of which no benefit is
so certain , as that it provides for the teachers . For teaching parental duties to either sex , no public provision whatever is made . It is left to instinct , impulse , custom , and such knowledge as observation and time supply . They are probably , there < - fore , not the worse fulfilled . The preparations for filling the functions of citizenship are equally left to chance . Historic information , as now collected , is valueless for purposes of guidance . The great daily instructors of the people are unknown—for their . education to perform their special duties no provision is made—and for their fitness for their office there is no public test , '" Science or
methodised knowledge , which is important to preserve life , is not less necessary to' make it agreeable ; though here , too , we see the " vice of our educational system . " It neglects the-plant for the sake of the flower . " It approximates still to barbarism , and prefers decoration to usefulness , " elegance to substance . " " Science is equally necessary for production and . the appreciation of the fine arts , " and the writer gives one or two laughable examplos —and art abounds in them—of mistakes committed by celebrated artists , from their ignorance of
science . Music needs scientific aid , like other arts j and many modern ballads are scientifically as untrue as they are to the ear vapid and tedious . We have only touched some of the principles of this valuable essay . They are all illustrated by numerous examples , worth quoting j and the grand conclusion is that soienoo , or the methodised know * ledge of the , facts of the external world , is the only moans of teaching us « how to live . " Science ana religion , the author shows by several remarks and some authorities , are twin sisters . Science demonstrates " the invariable connexion of cause and consequence , " and " generates implicit faith in
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those uniform laws which underlie all things . " Howfton THE LEADER . F ^ o- 485 . July 9 , 1859 . •—¦—M^———¦—¦——^ i "— ^ —*""" MII " ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ¦ - ¦ ' ¦ " . i ., „ : / % »«« - « lo < ttra nrtii / Vh lifirioTliO Jill tinners . ** -How
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 9, 1859, page 820, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2302/page/16/
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