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Untitled Article
even on the brink of the grave . How and when begins this separation ? What is the history of man in the present state of society here ? He comes into life consecrated by the touch of the Creator . Among : those on whom he has just bestowed his highest gifts , there is no distinction of ranks . There is mockery in the very conception . Every child ' s spirit is for some time fed by the same influences , and the growth of its intellect provided for by the same means . The mother ' s voice is near in the mansion and in the cottage . The moon and stars shine through the lattice as well as
through painted windows . The turf is spread under foot for all , and the breezes of spring bear away the light laughter of all the little ones who love them without caring whence they come and whither they go . Eyes so young look in the faces of all alike wilh freedom and confidence . Hearts so young act upon impulses as yet unchecked by the dead weights which are soon to be arbitrarily imposed . Nature and man are as yet alike to all ,
except as far as they are made more or less beautiful and grand by constitutional varieties in the sensibilities . When the infant becomes the pupil , much of the equality remains , be the school in which he learns what it may . He is still divided between spontaneous and prompted action . Be he rich or poor , be he well or ill taught , he is alternately free and subject to controul . Mr . Godwin describes the schoolboy :
" In school our youth are employed about the thoughts , the acts , and suggestions of other men . This is all mimicry , and a sort of second-hand business . It resembles the proceeding of the fresh-listed soldier at drill ; he has ever his eye on his right-hand man , and does not raise his arm , nor advance his foot , nor move his finger , but as he sees another perform the same motion before him . It is when the schoolboy proceeds to the play-ground that he engages in real action and real discussion . It is then that he is an absolute human being and a genuine individual . The debates of schoolbovs , their
discussions what they shall do , and how it shall be done , are anticipations of the scenes of maturer life . They are the dawnings of committees , and vestries , and hundred-courts , and ward-motes , and folk-motes , and parliaments . When boys consult when and where their next cricket-match shall be played , it may be regarded as the embryo representation of a consult respecting a grave enterprize to be formed , or a colony to be planted And , when they inquire respecting * poetry and prose , and figures and tropes , and the dictates of taste , this happily prepares them for the investigations of prudence , and morals , and religious principles , and what is science , and what is truth .
" It is thus that the wit of man , to use the word in the old Saxon sense , begins to be cultivated . One boy gives utterance to an assertion ; and another joins issue with him , and retorts . The wheels of the engine of the brain are set in motion , and without force perform their healthful revolutions . The stripling feels himself called upon to exert his presence of mind , and becomes conscious of the necessity of an immediate reply . Like the unfledged
bird , he spreads his wings , and essays their powers . He does not answer , like a boy in his class , who tasks his understanding or not , as the whim of the moment shall prompt him , where one boy honestly performs to the extent of his ability , and others disdain the empire assumed over them , and get off as cheaply as they can . He is no longer under review , but is engaged in real action . The debate of the schoolboy is the combat of the intellectual gladiator , where he fences , and parries , and thrusts , with all the skill and judgment he possesses .
*• There is another way in which the schoolboy exercises his powers during the periods of leisure . He is often in society ; but he is ever and anon in solitude . At no period of human life are our reveries so free and untrammelled as at the period here spoken of . He climbs the mountain-cliff , and pene-
Untitled Article
406 Godwin ' s Thoughts on Man .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1831, page 436, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2599/page/4/
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