On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
themselves a way to the possession , of ample knowledge and enlightened juriuciples . He is self-educated , and therefore well educated . Of the several pieces which lie has published , labouring with a zeal and perseverance truly admirable , the one befpre us , we think , excellent as are the others * by far ttie \ best . It is full of valuable truths and important suggestions , and written , as our readers
will see , from the extracts we shall give , in a manner superior to that of many of those who have spent their lives within the walls of a college . The writer begins his address by some remarks on the importance of knowledge in which he has happily relieved a hackpicd topic from triteness and tedium . Speedily quitting what is old , he ventures on
what is new , and important as new . Moral and political philosophy has been to a great extent . shunned in the instruction given to mechanics . This is wrong . Surely every man ought to know " the science of governing himself , and every citizen the science of governing nations . " ' * The power to do good through the medium of Mechanics' Institutions
Is incalculable , but at present that power is imperfectly developed . It is deficient in the principle which constitutes the key-stone to the social-arch * the direction of every species of knowledge , an * ! the application of the greatest quantity of mind , to the purposes of general happiness . " Mechanics' Institutions teach the workman to improve his skill ; but the perfecting of his work is one thing , and the securing to himself the possession of those comforts which his talent
and industry merit , another . Nor is the increased reward of the artisan a blessing to himself or to society , if at the same time he possess not sobriety of character : his higher wages tend only to enrich the publican ; and put the question , 1 intreat you , as one which is most important to the best interests of society , does the knowledge Jiitherto taught at
Mechanics' Institutions tend more to advance the ability of the workman or the character qf the man ? " < c livery one must ( eel assured that whatever teu ^ s to promote the increase of honesty , sobriety , and cleanliness , is a national fyle £ s 3 ng . But to whom shall these virtues be taught ?
To man alone ? Of whom is society composed ? Of man an 4 woman united . Is not knowledge and character essential to both ? Or wilV the knowledge and temperance of the one make ; up for the ignorance and inis-iuana-gcuifxit of the other ? What can be c $ pccfe 4 from the child of the slut , the gossip , and the
Untitled Article
dram-drinker , " ( characters unusually commou in the manufacturing districts , ) " the baneful influence of whose ignorance poisons the source of happiness at the very onset of life ? " -And wliat is the remedy ? Not the education of man alone ; . «' . it is a perversion qf the meana , and a criminal abandonment of the object , to bestow our attention upon the youth of one sex only . If it be essential to teach young men the principles of the
arts and sciences , is it not equally essential to the comfort of man , that young women should be taught" ( what in the manufacturing districts ; many know but little of ) " the , duties of housewifery ?
Or is the curse sfcll to chng to tlve poor man ' s daughter of having all to learn , when she ought to be .. practising ?" " Why should not aged and intelligent matrons be engaged in our Mechanics' Institutions to teach tfie poor man ' s ( laughter to knit and to sew , and to converse with her
Upon those duties which time will some day call upon her to perform ? " "It is admitted on all hands that the mechanic has a deep interest at stake ia the acquiring of kuowled ^ e , nod in its general dissemination among his feUpw ^ ope ra - tives . I will add that hihas a still
deeper interest at stake in the education of that class of females to which be must look for a partner through life . Is it of no moment to the workh > g-tt ) an that he should have a partner who has the ability to administer to his comforts and his wants with propriety and decency ? Is it of no moment that the few comforts which are still left him should
be served up with cleanliness ? If » instead of unseemly filth and brutality , he was welcomed by civility , kindness , awd a comfortable hearth ? Can friendship or happiness exist when churlish ness or brutality only are present ? Would not the public-bouse , think you , lose some oi its charms . if there were more graces at hpine ? Yet , how are they to be acquired ? Can we expect any thing bat
ignorance from those poor creatures who from almost ' infancy . to . marriage have been brought up in our factories ?" " Who so ignorant as not to perceive the influence of woman not ouiy upon the present but the future happiness of society , the future destinies of man ? With whotn are passed the first years of those who are to become the future parents of a future race ? From whom do they Jmbihe their earliest iinpressiou ^? from woman in the sacred character of
mother . But if that mother be Jgiiora . nl , brutish , and uncleanly , wjiat natu ra l hope have you that her children will
Untitled Article
710 Critical Notices . — Miscellaneous .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1830, page 710, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2589/page/54/
-