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    THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT.*

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    compared with the clean , clear sound of the original discharge : it is aimed gainst the formality of common- school teaching , and its effects . Here are the lines : —• tc With the same cement ever 1 sure to bind , ; Bring to the same dead level every mind , Then take it to develope , if you can ; . ¦ . . 7 hen hew the block off , and take out the man . " Who has not heard this expressed more or less loosely or mystically in lieu of meeting with the neat self-explaining metaphors of our great poet ? Undoubtedly there is less reason for the satire in our days than in his , and even in his it was less called for than in the olden times of trivia , quadivia andpentatala ; the difference between

    the two being , probably , that at the earlier period teachers were sounder and systems more limited and formal , and in the later the field was wider , but the guide more superficial and falteiing ; but in both the education was indifferent if it stood still where the master or professor left it , and all the distinguished men of the two periods were those whose real education was mainly self given . Our own times differ widely from both ; an average of better teachers , of more choice in study , more pathos open or began , more formative or suggesting influences pressing or pointing on all sides , and in all directions . . ...

    to point to the opposite pole , as if the ivory end of the needle were taken for the index ; the intellect , not merely regarding that opposite , but the will asserting its freedom by turning at it m conduct , and so good parents ¦ mourn over evil children , and the Dissenting father over the Puscyistical sou . Then , m England , comes the training in two schools , very often m three or niore , where even , though the same things are professedly taught , and professedly in the same manner , yet the master s influence is different in degree , different in mode of exertion , his tastes different , his modes of cbnveying information different ; his suggestions , his individual opinions , the stress which he lays on the comparative importance of various points , ctifferent . What real uniformity is here ? In matters of moralsin matters of expediency , or where

    , several considerations have to be taken into account , the conclusions will be different , and the natural temperament wdl modify even the aspects of truth , which , indeed , temperament often modifies even more than doctrine does , and prevents its appearing , m the words of Plato , " eternally one and single . " What education , self or other , shall strip us of this or overcome it ? For this , even Jesuits find it necessary to be elastic , and calculate upon it rather than control it . The same college , for aught we know the same school , produced a Newman , a Wilberforce , a Froude , a Whateley , and an Arnold ; pick out , if you can , five more different mem Is there any object to which five men , self-taught or taught uniformly , attach the f

    the same relative importance , or even absolutely same meaning Ainong-st the very virtues every nian has his idoL ' * I , ' says the last of those five /* ' should be disposed to worship truth and justice too much , for I should put mercy in the back-ground . " Convictions depend much upon accumulation of facts ; and facts , if not accumulated , are retained very much in accordance with temperament , which will influence the final intellectual pursuits , and the moral and social judgments . Whatever their education , we shall never fear too great uniformity , either in acquirement or opinion , at any rate in those Englishmen whose powers give perfection ^ to these acquirements , and whose character weight to their opinions ; for the rest , it is of small matter .

    We admit fully the value of self-education , in spite of the danger of the conceit which it may engender for want of rivalry and varied standards of measurement ; of its frequent ignorance of what has been done before / and , in consequence , its rethinking of old thoughts and re-inventing of old inventions . We admit readily that what is self-taught is often best taught , that often the truth arrived at by self-teaching , even though not a new one , has a life of its own , and a freshness in its very utterance which makes it nearly as good as new to those who hear it , and a root and vigour which is likely to make it last and live when transplanted into the minds of others , it introduced fresh from the mind to which it lias been native , and that science can carry the loving heart " With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs , ere With spur we beat an acre . "

    And this is said with the more convictiony "because though we have individually received our due modicum of blame and praise , cariings and prizes , from a regularly constituted statutory orbilius ; we have been conscious ; inour own case , of great difficulty in comprehending the oral explanations of others ; in spite , however , of all this we are inclined to hold hard by a regular formal education , and to secure an ample basis , even , though it should dwarf the statue to oe placed on it ; or almost make it invisible . Education is now wanted quite as muclf to steady as to elevate , for ballast than

    more than for gas , sails , or feathers ; to give humility , more create assurance . Vanity and insatiable unprofitable curiosity and love of dabbling has been a thousand times repressed genius , if accompanied by moral energy , has never been hide-bound by a regular and even sternly formal education , provided that education has been what could fairly be called , for the average mind , an useful one , Genius is inspired with wings , which scarcely ever fail to raise it from the lowest scales of life , and , if circumstances , ^ at first apparently almost hopeless in their charactei ' , cannot keep it down , education , certainly , if it constrains at all , is likely to do so usefully , sirirocTrm ^ tr ^ t 4 h-st 4 ^^

    till it can fix its eye , or sweep the horizon , arid then soar grandly and decisively to ¦' any .- quarter that invites it . Let your first education be merely that of others , your second and highest must be your own . , * . ' .-,. ' ¦ , v ' l > i Strange to say , whilst some have objected to scholastic ami academical training , the too great uniformity of their products , others have been scandalized at so much diversity as is found , actually to exist among them , looking for results as accurate and measurable as Plato might sigh after , or Lycurous effect , We mi «* ht slip away from between the two fires , and leave the opponents at the opposite sides of the circumference , to blaze away at each other ; however , the firing is heaviest from Pope ' s side of the and towards that

    question against the too great uniformity , we turn . Does a mischievous uniformity or a smooth sameness exist , or docs it not ? In certain cases , undoubtedly , and , to a certain extent- as , for instance , whero the school is one , the presiding influence one , the subject one ; as in a painting academy , a sameness of result may , to a certain extent , bo anticipated , though not even here to tho binding or crushing of a first rate mind : as some ^ great man said , " I am an ancestor , " so even the student ot a painting academy may , ere long , feel within himself and exclaim , " 1 , too , am a master . " So , again , in the case of a school of political economy , for instance , the same theories , tho same mode of thinking , may go on almost ad injtnitum , and perpetual guidance end in pmycrleasness and slavery , with , not only the same tram of thinking , but the same essence of thought ; many , who have been tho masters of others , have been the pupils of him who might

    " ' still have kopfc Tbojcaloxis key of TLVuth ' s eternal doors , ' ~ T ~ ' ^{^ do 6 hh . ^^^ apM ^ Tci& 3 rji 6 t'le ) ' iipt Xiko lightning out of durkneBs . " But tho walla of tho academy aro now less likely to shut out tho litrht when mastors are varied , , and subjects xnanifold : it we look more deeply—indeed , and this applies to all time , where is tho man who can bo said really to have reeoived ono uniform education P In Birito even of tho infiint schools of ancient Sparta and modern England , there is tho homo education , with its infinitely varied double influences of father und mother / and fnends ,-tho education of ffiiidanco for somo expositions , tho education of reaction for others , whoro every thing that is taught of truth or conduct scorns

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    A UTHGR . SHIP in England is regarded as the unpardonable J \ . sin . It appears to be 136 / and it is so . Property in his work is either denied , ot grudgingly restricted . It may be stolen with almost impunity . The thief is favoured by the law , or the state of the law , or the forms -of the Court , or the rules of the Bench ; and if he do not escape it isjpure accident . Against this condition of things , Jlr , Charles Keado has lifted up an eloquent and vehement -voice . He declaims like the angel of justice , ho writes like an orator , and he thinks and feels like an honest and honourable man . ... , „

    But not like an Englishnianjsome will say ; indeed , he himself spurns the notion of Anglo-Saxon relationship ; it being , as it were , the stupid instinct of the hard-headed Anglo-Saxon -to " pillage authors and murder their families . " Agamsfc this stupidity , this hard-headedness , this blind instinct of Anglo-Saxon ignorance , it is that he makes his forehead brass and his hand iron . He flashes his living sword in the face of it , that ^ m -H ; ht )~ glcnirr-ofH : htr ^ 'eapon % -lig hfcni « g—the- ^ ill-oy 6-naa , y _ catchglimpse of truth . Ho goes in for this desperate chance ; but Ins courage abates not , and he still flourishes his weapon , to command attention , if not to slay . And all this he does in the manliest style . Chivalric Reado ! we are protid of thee . Thou art , indeed , the champion of Truth , of Justice ; and we foresee , that thoro is a victory in reservo for thee , by the decree of tho ¦

    Watchers . .. ^ . . '¦ , „ . But , after all , what is tho contest about ? Is it not all in favour of thoso odious French plays with which the stago is flooded ? Oh , short-sighted and barbarous folly ! It is in favour of an oquitablo adjustment of property between tho English and French author , tho want of which now causes tho overflow ot foroign talent , and tho presence of which would so regulate tho market as to prevent native talent from being undersold . In a word , do justico to tho foreign author , and justico to tho native author follows of course ., So even-handed is Justioe . Nine or ton years ago this truth was partially soon by tho Lcgislaturo of England , which co-operated with that of Franco in aettliug tho question of dramatic copyright . ¦ Tho intention was good enough ; but interested parties wero suffered to have influcneo , and accordingly a proviso was added to tho statute , by which that intention was altogether dofoatod . Tho fatal proviso runs thus : —• " It is xmderstood that tho protection stipulated by tho

    prcsont articlo is not intended to prohibit fair imitations , or adaptations of dramatio works to tho stago in England and Franco respectively , but is only meant to provont piratical translations . Under cover of this proviso , things went on in tho old way , and tho treaty became a dead letter . But tho gallant Charles ltcado , jealous of lujrequntvy ' s honour , and willing to trado in French translations on fair and Honourablo terms , and not othorwiso , refused to believo that . "" ' nu Act that aimod at international justioo" could havo boon thus intontionally " degraded into a feat of partiality and international injustico . '' . Ho rcfusod , wo say , to boliovo it ; and ho forthwith proceeded to bring tho matter piaotioally to tho tost . Tho manner in which this was ultimately dono gavo riso to tho funniest series of transactions on record . A gentleman was brought into ooutaot with blackguards , and tho iuoidonts that

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    1 XS The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Aug . 11 , 1860 .

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    * The Eighth Commaiulmcnt . By Charmes Kbadb . TrUbner uml Co .

    The Eighth Commandment.*

    THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 11, 1860, page 718, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2360/page/6/