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Sept. 21, I860.] ®f> * 3LeabtV. 615
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TRUE REFORM. September 18,1850. Sik, — T...
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MODERN STONE DOLLS. Boyne Cottage, Sept,...
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When Rekeixton is Better than Obedience....
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Transcript
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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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The Same. September 10, 1859. Sin,—A Wri...
ness of action and faculty of self-control by which they are distinguished from the other powers around us , and for which I know no better name than , freedom . It is true that when , in the exercise of our capacity of reflection , we bring the operations of our own thoughts before ourselves as objects of thought , our actions assume the appearance of being the consequence of certain motives by which our wills are influenced . But this appearance is only the necessary result of the process of analysis . In order to make any subject of thought distinct to our thoughts we must separate it into distinct parts . But it does
not follow that the separation exists in reality . What we call motives , and distinguish from the will , as if they acted upon it from without , are in truth the internal movements of the will itself , as may be perceived by considering that if we take away all these so-called motives there will remain nothing to be moved ; the will upon which they are to act will have disappeared . I am by no means disposed to think lightly of the service which Mr . Owen and other social reformers have rendered by forcibly calling men ' s attention to the vast influence of the circumstances in which they are placedand , therefore , of the social institutions under
, which they live , upon the development of their character . But the true foundation of the Social Reform for which these writers so justly contend , is to be found , as I conceive , in the consideration of man as a being who can find his welfare only in the exercise of love and truth , and , therefore , in the necessity of so moulding his social institutions as to make them fit instruments for the exercise of these principles , and not in the proposition announced as the foundation of Mr . Owen ' s metaphysical and social theories . I have already intimated under what restrictions and in what sense I am willing to concur in that proposition . I
believe it to be true that the institutions under which men live exercise a most important influence upon their characters and wills . I believe that the social ills around us are an unmistakeable evidence of the false or defective principles upon which our social institutions are founded , and that the condition of substantial improvement is the introduction of institutions more truly expressing the principles on which men are formed to act . And I believe that men are daily awakening more and more to a perception of the great truth that the Divine government is no scheme of arbitrary injustice ; and that the wellbeing of mankind is as capable of being assured by with the lawof
arrangements formed in conformity s his nature , as is the increase of his flocks and herds , and the productiveness of his crops . But , in the sense in which Mr . Owen advances the proposition of the formation of human character for , and not by , man , I think it a one-sided exaggerated statement , hurtful to the cause which is rested upon it . The importance of that cause , the great cause of social amelioration , must be my excuse for occupying so much of your space with what will , I fear , be to many of your readers an uninteresting discussion . With good wishes for your success , I am , Sir , yours , EmvAitD Vansittaiit Neale .
Sept. 21, I860.] ®F> * 3leabtv. 615
Sept . 21 , I 860 . ] ® f > * 3 LeabtV . 615
True Reform. September 18,1850. Sik, — T...
TRUE REFORM . September 18 , 1850 . Sik , — The fearless , independent , and hitherto consistent tone of the Leader has greatly pleased me . Many journals have given more promises about their good intentions , but few have found it convenient to abide by such promises . And in this age , when puffing Is a trade , when promises like pie-crusts are made to be broken , it is refreshing to an earnest mind a mind not yet deadened by the mammonworship of the times—to find the public instructors of the press acting out a noble earnestness .
It is cheering to know that your struggles against the spirit of evil in society are not without fruit ; and what better guarantee can you have that your labour is not in vain , than the cheering consolation which history unfolds—that man , because of the earnestness of the few , is getting better and better , and it requires but more and more earnestness to bring about a happy state of society ? But , yet , much remains to be done ; and , as nearly every school of practical workers have had their say in your Open Council , will you allow me a short space to develop a plan which you and all your readers can at once make effective , and thereby test its merits , in your individual spheres ?
Dr . Smiles , in last week ' s Leader , indicated that he believed intoxicating drinks to be a great evil . In that opinion I most heartily agree , and hope , by a few details upon this society-deteriorating influence , to establish its claims for more serious consideration than it has hitherto received at your hands . These drinks are now demonstrated to be unnocessarv for ncrsons in health , and of very little
importance in sickness . The experience of millions attest the fact , and practical chemists and physiologists show that experience has only established what science could predict ; but the question is not left at this point . Their use is not only proved to be unnecessary , but it is proved to be inimical to health , character , and fortune . At present , leaving all other views of the subject , I mean , with your permission ,
to show that the use of alcoholic beverages is inimical to the prosperity of the people . In the report on the Beer Bill , presented to Parliament last session , I find a table of the quantity of these drinks entered for home consumption ; and by a fair calculation of the retail prices of the various items , I find that , in 1849 , the enormous sum of £ 78 , 000 , 000 sterling was spent by the people of this United Kingdom upon intoxicating drinks . Who individual ruin caused
can estimate the amount of by that ' fabulous" sum ? Xet us estimate it by the known rules of political and social ceconomy . Supply and demand regulate the markets of the world , the labour market included . Now , has the above £ 78 , 000 , 000 sterling done its duty in the labour market ? Let us see . Six pounds spent upon these drinks give to labour in production ( sale not included ) ten shillings , which is equal to the employment of 136 , 500 men at £ 50 per year .
JSix pounds spent upon the usual articles in demand by a sober population , such , as books and blankets , broad-cloth andsaucepans , give to labour in production £ 3 11 s ., which is equal to the employment of 983 , 000 men at the same rate of wages . Here , then , we have , by a simple transfer of our expenditure from pernicious beverages to domestic comforts , a power to give employment to 846 , 500 men at £ 50 per annum , a number equal to the whole male population of eight of the largest manufacturing towns of the kingdom . Add to this 8 , 000 , 000 quarters of the best grain England grows being saved from destruction , and brought into the food market of the world , and you have a reform before your eyes and at your command , which the great men of the day have not yet dreamed of in their philosophy .
The great demand of the age is , Give us something practical ! Well , Sir , you will surely agree with me that this reform is practical , it strikes at the root of our national disgrace—drunkenness , and upholds what is good in our national institutions , by raising up a sober population , and a sober population will at all times be found the best conservators of what is virtuous , and the greatest enemies to all vicious systems , whether governmental or religious . This reform is so practical that all may begin at once ; from without
it requires no monster meeting to press , nor parliamentary palaver to give effect within ; but it earnestly enjoins upon honest John the necessity of helping himself , and demands that he master a long-cherished appetite , and oppose customs that have too long associated drink and friendship . Perhaps in this very practicability lies John's contempt of the cold-water system ; he has so long fancied the duty of doing belonged to something out of himself that it is difficult to make him realize the fact , that all true reforms must from the inward develop
outwards . Hoping that you of the Leader entertain none of Friend Bull ' s prejudices , but , as your name indicates , are ready to lead in every good purpose , I most respectfully request your early adoption of total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks . And hoping the best , I am , Mr . Editor , in all good reforms , Yours truly , Hawenin .
Modern Stone Dolls. Boyne Cottage, Sept,...
MODERN STONE DOLLS . Boyne Cottage , Sept , 11 , 1800 . Sir , —Hitherto there has been little or no mention made of the fine arts by the contributors to your " Open Council . " It may be that the earnest and original thinkers who write for that department of your paper are too much occupied with the social , or Condition-of-England-Question , " painfully alive to the manifold wrongs and wants of the great mass of the people to have any heart or time to spare for the consideration of what they may deem to be the comparatively puerile topics of painting and sculpture . But , inasmuch as " art is man ' s nature , " since it has ever been most sedulously and successfully cultivated bythe most civilized nations ; since , in the memorable line of Keats ,
•• A thingof beauty is a joy for ever ;" and since there is no denying the fact that John Bull , so long a mere tyro in mutters relating to the elegancies of life , is just now making prodigious , if somewhat fuasy , efforts to become a man of taste , like his betters abroad , I am tempted to make an observation or two which may not be thought irrelevant or mistimed , respecting one department of the fine arts , which may be called the portrait statuary of the present day .
I believe it was Newton who , in reference to the Earl of Pembroke ' s collection of ancient marbles , wondered what that noble virtuoso could find to admire in " Stone Dolls . " How much more justly , had he been living now , might he have spoken in disparagement of our modern stone dolls , in their anomalous and unbecoming costume , characteristic of no people or period of the world , past , present , or , it is to be hoped , future ! If it be the angulnrity and unpicturesqueness of our present clothing which are made tho excuse for the adoption of the maki'shiit alluded to , I confess , for one , that I would infinitely rather see the difficulties of modern dress boldly grappled with , and made the best of , if not overcome ,
than behold the miserable and abortive attempts at escaping from them by the substitution of the tight drawers , dressing-gown , and slipper-work , varied by a little blanket-work , so fashionable with the sculptors of the day . It is enough to make a clever man " hide his talent in a napkin " lest he should become a celebrity and bo made " a Guy " of , like so many of the deceased poets , painters , and legislators of late years , not excluding Campbell , » The Last Man promoted to " Poet ' s Corner , " to judge from the sketch of Marshall ' s marble statue as it appeared m the Illustrated London Netos a few weeks ago . I know that it is not the end and aim of art to represent Nature literally . I have read much and thought somewhat of " the Ideal , " as it is called ; but I have not learnt that to idealize Nature is to misrepresent
it ; nor , in statuary , to " imitate humanity so abominably" as is done now-a-days . A man may be idealized , one would think , by giving expression to his face and dignity or grace to his figure , quite as well as by playing fantastic tricks with his costume . That the alleged defects of the modern style of clothing do not necessitate , in representation , an ineffective or disagreeable work of art , might perhaps be proved by the little bronze statuettes of Napoleon , so well known and so characteristic of the man . "Who would willingly exchange this figure for one more classically , as our artists might think , but less truthfully , treated ? I would fain believe , then , that a sculptor of genius could make a good statue and yet keep much more closely to the costume of the time than our artists are in the habit of doing .
Surely , it is something to hand down to posterity a likeness , more or less correct , of the men of the present . "When we behold a Grecian or Roman statue , we believe we witness a tolerably true representation of the men who lived and acted in those remote times . But what possible idea will posterity be able to form as to how men looked and lived in this first half of the nineteenth century—in Great Britain , at least—if they are to take their notions from the tight drawers , dressing-gown , and slipper portraiture deprecated above ?
I make these few remarks , not from the pleasure of finding fault , nor for the purpose of showing my own discernment , for I confess , and probably have betrayed , my ignorance , but in the hope of eliciting some information from more competent judges as to the possibility or impossibility of keeping closer to the costume of the day in portrait-sculpture than is the practice at present—a question that more
especially needs deciding at a time when there is almost a mania in the public for commemorating departed worth or greatness by the erection of statues . I hope it is possible ; for the modern mode of evading the difficulty by the substitution of a nondescript dress and drapery is far from satisfactory , and seems but little calculated to reflect credit upon the artistic talent of our time and country . I am , Sir , yours very truly , T . Noel .
When Rekeixton Is Better Than Obedience....
When Rekeixton is Better than Obedience . — I hear much of •* obedience , " how that and tho kindred virtues arc prescribed and exemplified by Jesuitism ; the truth of which and the merit of which far be it from me to deny . Obedience , a virtuo universally forgotten in these days , will have to become universally known again . Obedience is good and indispensable : but if it be obedience to what is wrong and false , —good heavens , there is no name for such a depth of human cowardice and calamity ; spurned everlastingly by tho nods . Loyalty ? Will you be loyal to Beelzebub ? Will you make a covenant with Death and Hell ? " 1 will not be loyal to B ? elzebub ; I will become a nomadic Choctaw rather , a barricading Sansculotte , a Conciliation-hall repealer ; anything and everything is venial to that . — Carlyle ' s Jesuitism .
Death-bud Repentances . —We hear a great deal about a deathbed being a trial of a man ' s faith , and of sickness buing the fit season to make a proper impression upon a man's mind of the importance of faith , and also of affliction being sent on purpose to open men ' s eyes to their sinful condition . Physiology , which teaches the dependence of sound thinking and feeling upon a healthy organism , and the origin of much depression and unxicty in the opposite state of disease , disclaims the propositionsand affirms that health is the Hcason in which a
, man ought to make up his opinions , fix his faith , and prepare to die ; and that the anxieties during illness of a man who has done so , are to be regarded merely as symptoms of his disease , and not as indications of his true state of mind . Mr . Ford , a divine , and an apparently pious man , has been led by experience to take precisely the same views , and candidly avows that he attaches little weight to the religious visitation of the sick . " A pastorate of nearly twenty years , " says he , " lias made me familiar with scenes of affliction . I can
hardly remember a case in which sickness did not dispose the mind to think seriously of rcliuion , especially when early associations led that way . But how ban it been with those who have returned to life again ? They have left their religion in the chamber of affliction , and not a vestige of piety has remained to attest tho genuineness of their conversion , * & c . ( p . 30 ) lie continues : — (< I have seen sinners brought to God amidst all the varieties of Christian experience : some by the terrors of the law , others by the attractions of the cross ; Rome by a long and almost imperceptible process , others comparatively in a moment ; but scarcely in a single instance have 1 found conversion , or even real awakening , dated from aMiction . "—From the Life of Andrew Combe .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 21, 1850, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21091850/page/15/
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