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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
any purpose , and it is a marvellous thing that they should , notwithstanding , be able to exercise influence over the proceedings of a great nation . It is as though the blind were set to lead the clear-sighted . Fourthly . —Parliament-men . —These are generally
understood as the legislative body , but the word has really a much wider , though less important signification . The real legislative body does not consist of M . P . ' s alone , but of all those who can influence public opinion . The word parliament implies " a public talking . " Now as public talkings happen generally to have a great dearth of matter amidst a great profusion of words , as well without as within the walls of the " House , " it
seems that the principal qualification of a Parliament-man is a profusion of unmeaning words . A Parliament-man , in general , is synonymous with " mob orator , " or one who seeks notoriety by speech-making . Mob orators are found at elections , at parish meetings , at Conservative dinner-parties , at public-house tap-rooms ; and on board vessels they are known by the name of sea lawyers . " They are in short a kind of people whose only happiness lies in notoriety , who prefer being popularly
notorious , but who would rather be unpopularly notorious than not notorious at all . Many of our violent patriots have been lost to the Conservative cause only because that cause offered them no distinction . Many of our education advocates also , such as the Penny Magazine people , who draw boundaries for knowledge , —who say to the poor " thus far shall ye know and no farther , " "— such people only seek notoriety , and when fluent of words , are true Parliament-men .
Fifthly . — Gentlemen . —This is a much abused word . In ordiuary parlance it means simply one who has the means of living witnout labour , and whocan therefore be an idle-man if he chooses . Such men are not uncommonly the opposite of gentle , for they are of rough and tyrannous natures , witness the
Conservative body , who would if they could , coerce the will of a whole nation for their own pleasure . Such men are not gentlemen , but the opposite of gentle-men—viz ., churls—for they grudge their fellow creatures the means of happiness . Gentle and churlish are the two adjectives which express high mind and low mind . The most perfect attribute of Inch mind is the
absence of selfishness , accompanied by the strong desire and power of improving the condition of humanity . The most perfect attribute of low mind is the utter absorption in selfishness , accompanied by entire indifference to human advancement . Now it is quite clear , upon this understanding , that a cobbler may be a gentleman and a lord a churl . And let it not be contended that a selfish lord may be refined , and au unselfish cobbler coarse , for true refinement ia ever the offspring of benevolence , while coar&ene&i is the offspring of
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* £ Q Social Clcutijication .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1836, page 290, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2657/page/26/
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