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Untitled Article
* " Because the vulgar / ' cried the objector , " spoil the works of art without improving by them ; waste that which they are not worthy to use V * u How long will they do that ? " she rejoined . " Only while they are vulgar ; which they must ever be if there is no attempt to make them otherwise . Afford to all proper means , and God has so gifted his creatures , that they will accomplish the right end . Cannot we
take a hint from the ancient philosophers ? Oral instruction , the most effective of any , is scarcely knovtfn among us . Are there no moral missionaries who will teach moral philosophy , without alarming the ignorant by saying it is such ? Cannot they give moral illustrations , simple and evident in their application , beautiful in their truth , and enforced with eloquence and benignity V * " Then you would have public walks , and peripatetic philosophers V
* " Yes ; I admire their doctrine and mode of teaching . " * " And how would you support the expense of all this V * ct By curtailing pensioned pomp—by annulling hereditary and unearned honours—by applying to real utility the wealth devoted to empty show . A great man has said , that he deserved well of his
country who made a blade of grass to grow where grass had never grown before . * How much more does he deserve that plants good feelings and useful ideas in the moral waste or wilderness of a barren or neglected mind—who teaches , without technical parade , or professional pomp , a knowledge of moral nature , of physical nature , of the gentle humanities , of all the most general and useful truths . " ' " And you imagine this would effect a happy change on the poorer classes V * * * ' Let it be tried . To what do the more cultivated classes owe their propriety of manner , discretion , and discrimination ? To the facility of . access to moral instruction , delicate amusement , and judicious association . Can no practical effort be made to give these to all the other grades of society ? Yes , easily . But no ; the grand aim is to increase wealth , not happiness . Large revenues are prized beyond an improved or contented people . Thus the vintner's gaudy palace every where seduces the poor man to drunkenness , but not one institution rises to invite him to rational amusement , and through
that medium to moral amelioration . The coffee-shops , where he can procure a cheap , unintoxicating beverage , and have at the same time access to a little literary knowledge , I hail as one step in the poor man ' s favour . " '—p . 32—37 , vol . ii . These volumes are well-timed ,, and it would not be amiss that those peers should read them who are yet deliberating on their legislative conduct towards our Jewish brethren . Not that they
will find any direct discussion of the policy of conceding civil rights to the children of Abraham , but they may learn some beautiful lessons of tolerance , for which both their heads and hearts will be all the better , and therefore their senatorial conduct more satisfactory . They may see , judiciously and touchingl y exhibited , how much we are all the creatures of circumstance , and how bad are the workings of the distinctions which have been set
Untitled Article
550 Character ; or , Jew and Gentile .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1833, page 550, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2620/page/38/
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