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820 THE LEADER [No. 485. July 9, 1859. _
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those uniform laws which underlie all th...
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Florence, June 29th 1859. The deplorable...
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* No. Jf.Kx.1, July, 2850.
fore for the continuance of society . " Too momentous to be left to our blundering , Nature takes it into her ovn hands . " " Guidance , too , in preserving health and obtaining energyvis in some measure ready supplied . " " By our various physical sensations and desires Nature has ensured a tolerable conformity to the chief requirements for health . " " Our sensations are our natural and' trustworthy guides . " He recognises a natural " growth" and a " natural history of society , " and finds a natural means of governing it in the struggles which everywhere arise for superiority . " Governments grow up in all circles , in which every man or woman
strives to be king or queen , or a lesser dignity . " ' By the accumulation of wealth ,, by style of living , by beauty of dress , by display , or knowledge , or intellect , each tries to subjugate others , and so aids in weaving that ramified network of restraints by ¦ which society is kept in order . " Independently then of all instituted or institutional government , a natural order of society , according to this writer , accompanies its natural growth . The " natural consequences also of actions pleasurable or painful , " in the ordained constitution of things , are rewards and punishments f" and " the evil results of
disthe duties of citizenship of more importance ^ than the knowledge necessary to perform the duties of parentage—which , by the division of labour , they get performed by others . And much to our surprise , after he has clearly pointed out the deference man pays , and must pay , to man , he takes no other notice of the knowledge required to direct this deference well than to deride it , and almost to treat with scorn all the education , such as teaching girls fashionable accomplishments , and boys Latin and
Greek , which have this deference for its sole object , though without it the former would get no husbarid ° and the latter no office . Passing by topics of difference thus lightly , it follows from the author ' s principles that we ought to learn first—and all education should be directed to this end—how to live happily by performing our duties as put down in the order above . It is scarcely necessary to add that our systems of education , private and national , at schools and universities , are quite at variance
with what the author requires . The fundamental education necessary to selfpreservation being so well cared for by Nature , we are only required not to place obstacles , as we very generall y do—by over care of children . and young persons—in the way of Nature's teaching . So it isjjn the main , with the preservation of health ; but knowledge of the means of ensuring it has been perverted by the circumstances which have induced us to believe erroneously that the promptings of Nature are to be distrusted . Now it is of primary importance for all to acquire such a knowledge of physiology as conduces to the preservation of
health . The necessity of acquiring knowledge which facilitates the gaining a livelihood is admitted by all ; but , except reading , -writing , and arithmetic , the bulk of what is taught has no bearing on the industrial activities . Of the great utility of mathematics , physics , and chemistry ; , in assisting production , which no man has doubted since it was known that labour , not the soil , is the source of wealth , the writer gives an elaborate and animated description . Our ordinary school courses , however , generally leave out , and till lately entirely left out , all instruction for these essential activities . "All
our industries would cease , " says the writer , " were it not for the information which men begin to acquire as they best may after the education is said to be finished . And were it not for this information that has been from age to age accumulated and spread by unofficial means , these industries would never have existed . " All this information , too , as it is gradually acquired is gradually embodied in the skill of workmen , and so is transmitted , for ever accumulating , from generation to generation , amongst those who are described by state quacks as knowing nothing and requiring
instruction by a costly system , of which no benefit is so certain as that it provides for the teachers . For teaching parental duties to either sex , no public provision whatever is made . It is left to instinct , impulse , custom , and such knowledge as observation and time supply . They are probably , therefore , not the worse fulfilled . The preparations for filling the functions of citizenship are equally left to chance . Historic information , as now collected , is valueless for purposes of guidance . The great dail instructors of the people are unknown—^ for their education to perform their special duties no provision is made— -and for their fitness for their
office there is no public test . Science or methodised knowledge , which is important to preserve life , is not less necessary to make it agreeable ; though here , too , we see the vice of our educational system . " It neglects the plant for the sake of the flower . " It approximates still to barbarism , and prefers decoration to usefulness , " elegance to substance . " " Science is equally necessary for production and the appreciation of the fine arts , " and the writer gives one or two laughable examples —and art abounds in them— -of mistakes committed by celebrated artists , from their ignoranoe of
ecience . Music needs scientific aid , ljko other arts ; and many modern ballads are scientifically as untrue as they are to the ear vapid and tedious . We have only touched soiwe of the principles of this valuable essay . They ore all illustrated by numerous examples , worth quoting ; and the grand conclusion is that science , or the methodised knowledge of the facts of the external world , - is the only means of teaching us " how to live . " Science ana religion , the author shows by several remarks and some Authorities , are twin sisters . Science demonstrates " the invariable connexion of cause and consequence , " and " generates implicit faith in
obedience to natural laws are inevitable . " He does not , therefore , like Mr . Mill , believe and assert , in favour of despotism and ignorant legislation , that " existence can only be made valuable . to any one by the enforcement of restraints on the actions of others by law in the first place- " He sees very clearly that all the much desired re- , straints , so far as they are beneficial to all ,: are naturally enforced ; and that . the means of enforc-. ing them , they , beingj as both these writers admit
( naturally ) v the great social needi , is found , not in despotism and ignorant legislation , but in that universal deference of man to man , and woman to woman , which we now call fashion ^— which kes " the Orinoco Indian , though quite regardless of bodily comfort , labour for a fortnight to purchase pigment wherewith to make himself admired , " and vrhich continues to make ,, as in the begiiinjjng of history , the utility of drfess subordinate to decoration . This is a great improvement on the teaching
of Mr . Mill . With these great princi p les present to his mind the writer proceeds to point out the comparative ivorth or relative value of different kinds of knowledge , and justly states that this important subject has been very much neglected , riot merely by scientific zealots who have paraded some one idol for the public to worship , or by routine teachers who take up that which is fashionable and pays , but by the masters of learning . To supply this deficiency- —¦ which , however , he overrates—he sets about establishing a measure of knowledge . "How
to live , not in the material sense only , but in the widest sense , is the essential question , " This is what we all require to learn . " The general problem ,- which comprehends every special problem , is the right guiding of conduct in all directions , under all circumstances . " Every species of knowledge , therefore ,, is relatively more valuable , 1 st , as it ministers to self-preservation ; 2 nd , as it secures the necessaries of life—indirectly ministering to self-preservation 5 3 rd , as it helps to rear and discipline offspring ; 4 th , as it enables us to ' maintain proper social and political relations ; and , 5 th , as at ministers to the gratification of the tastes and feelings which are the enjoyment of the leisure part of life . That this is the true ( not complete ) 3 Jk Ui UJUItllilUtJl bUO
> VM > V *< OUUUJ . WAlbtSA PJMVWD , MY j ^ Vlllliing out the overriding necessity of the first . A man must , too , acquire , the means of living ; and . self-maintenance precedes the power of maintaining offspring . As the state is only rendered possible by the pre-oxistencc of families , the knowledge which enables men to perform well the duties of parentage is of more value than that which enables them to perform well the duties of citizenship ; and this again is of much more importance than the knowledge . which enables men to fill leisure hours with gratification . In our systems the last is placed first , so that by them teaching begins at the wrong end . There ore many qualifications of these abstract principles , but we agree with the author that this is " something like the rational order of the subordination " of ons species of knowledge to another . He does not make sufficient allowance for division of labour , which is no state contrivance , but as natural and necessary as the difference of sex and » ge , from which it flows , and which makes for large classes the knowledge necessary to perform
820 The Leader [No. 485. July 9, 1859. _
820 THE LEADER [ No . 485 . July 9 , 1859 . _
Those Uniform Laws Which Underlie All Th...
those uniform laws which underlie all things * ' How it happens that our ordained school and university education is so much at variance with man ' s real wants—for ever teaching him what is of no use , or what he is continually compelled to unlearn—is due to the deference of the toiling multitude to the dazzling aristocracy—the same principle as makes the Orinoco Indian cover himself with pigment . A leisure class , or a class with , special pursuits , which knows nothing of toiling industry and its wants , which imposes on the imagination by " style , of living , " " beauty of dress , " " accumulation of wealth" or an " assumption of knowledge , " frames
, arid supports the system , or derives it from custom ; and from deference , not from a conviction of its utility , it is maintained . What society might become , were all men fully possessed of all the knowledge which now partially subserves the preservation of all life to its natural termination in full vio-our—the production of abundant subsistence and the enjoyment of leisure—we cannot imagine . But there is no condition reached by some men which may not be reached by all . And the present condition of instructed , industrious , independent middle-class Englishmen , may suggest a faint idea
of what society will be when the world is filled with men knowing more than they know , and ^ living longer and happier than the best of them live . The other articles in the periodical from which we have abridged these few general remarks " On what Knowledge is . of most worth , " are all instructive . " Jowett and the Broad Church " makes us acquainted with a new phasis of our waxing and waning State Christianity . " The Influence of Local Causes on National Character" illustrates an important element of civilisation . " The Life of a Conjuror , ' * Hobert-Houdin , is pleasant reading . " The Government of India " treats of the revenue
of that country arid the appropriation of the land . In " The Recollections of Alexander von Sternberg " we are supplied with a view of literary society in Germany . Articles on the " Roman Question" and on " Austrian Intervention , " with the usual excellent notice of contemporary literature , complete the number .
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Florence, June 29th 1859. The Deplorable...
Florence , June 29 th 1859 . The deplorable events of Perugia have created a most painful sensation in this country , the more so as frequent appeals for assistance had reached Florence oy ' telegraph up to the 20 th , after which time all communication became impossible , the telegraph wires being destroyed . Fearful anxiety prevailed as to the result of the struggle with the Pontifical troops . An express was sent to Arezzo to learn further particulars , and the report brought back was so bad as to be scarcely credible . Subsequent accounts have , however , confirmed the worst that could have been imagined . It would
be useless as well as painful to narrate the atrocious stories which are current among the population and which call down bitter imprecations on priestly rule . In order to keep within the limits of truth , I give an extract from the Monitore Toscano , the official aper , of the 27 th instant : — " No sooner had the Tuscan Government obtained trustworthy information respecting the lamentable events of Perugia , than it hastened to publish a circumstantial narrative received from eye witnesses , leaving readers to moke their own comments and to form their own judgment upon the facts related .
As soon as the inhabitants of Perugra knew that the Pontifical troops were preparing to retake the city , which had proclaimed its adhesion to the national cause , and had constituted a Governtal giwita , they determined on offering resistance , their determination being confirmod by the rumours of the intended sack of the town which had already reached their ears . On the morning of June 20 th the citizens wore called to arms , and in the course of a few hours 3 , 000 men , prepared to
repel force bv force , answered to the call . But the arms in the city wore insufficient for so large a number . 450 munition guns were consigned to one portion of the combatants and 6 " 0 O sporting guns to another ; the remainder had to wait for arms expected , from without . There waa some confusion during these hurried preparations , but it oeased on the arrival of three Italian officers to assume the direction of tbo defence . They stationed the armod citizens at the points moat open to attack . Scarcely had these scanty precautions
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 9, 1859, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09071859/page/16/
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