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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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Untitled Article
rapicj flow of ideas to men whose habitual state of consciousness k the oppressive feeling , as it were , of a mental stagnation . Nor is this all . The monotony and dulness of this life gives a craving for excitement . Hence , the adventures of crime , the risks and dangers which attend it , are often to such people a positive pleasure , and they are hurried to the more daring t
violations of the order of society , to escape from the sameness of a vacan mind . As few things are more remarkable than the many points of resemblance between the extreme classes , the hig hest and lowest of all , none of these points is more worthy of attention than that which we are now considering , the narrow circle of ideas and its effect upon morals . In the narrowness of the circle of ideas no class comes so near the lowest of all as the
highest . Few individuals in that class can endure books , or have profited by the ceremonies and forms of education through which they have passed . Being exempt from the cares of life , they have none of those ideas which the occupations of the middle classes force them to acquire . The circle of their ideas , therefore , is confined to their amusements and pleasures , the ceremonial of fashionable life , and the private history of a few scores of families which associate with one another only , which they call the world , and which in truth are the world to them , because they are acquainted with no other
part of it . Horses and dogs and wine and women form but a narrow circle of ideas , even when the trappings of state are combined with them . After a time the monotony of this life becomes intolerable , and more intense excitement is required . Noblemen take to the gaming table for relief from the anguish of a monotonous mind ; degraded workmen rob and steal . It is to a great degree from the same cause , that the chace becomes a passion to the one and poaching to the other .
With these convictions deeply stamped upon our minds , the reader will anticipate the opinion which we have formed of the projected institution for the higher branches of education in this metropolis . If this project be carried into execution as it may be , and as we think there is great reason to suppose that it will be , the foundation of the University of London will
constitute an era , not only in the history of England , but in that of human kind . There is hardly an event which we can contemplate of greater importance to the species at large , than the right education of the middle classes of Englishmen . From them as from a centre would radiate knowledge and civilization to the ends of the earth , and with a rapidity and efficacy which no other place as a centre could possibly bestow .
The situation of London is altogether , in this point of view , without a parallel . The immense population and immense wealth of this metropolis exhibit a greater amount of persons who may be considered in the middle rank of life , than is to be found assembled in any other spot on the face of the earth . If the middle rank of Englishmen be the rank on which the prosperity and glory of England more peculiarly depend , that portion of the middle rank who are assembled in London , and in whose hands the active business of the capital is placed , is the portion who exert the greatest influence on the rest , and from whom the character of the whole is to a great degree derived .
Hitherto the means of education provided for this the most important of all portions of the British population , have been most imperfect ; hardly more than sufficient to communicate those elementary acquirements which the lowest departments of business require . How much the country has suffered from this misfortune may be inferred from what we have already advanced . It is not possible to tell , nor easy to conceive , how far this nation would have
Untitled Article
168 Scientific Education ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1827, page 168, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1794/page/8/
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