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Sritica are Jaat the legislators , but the j-adges and police of literature . They do not m * ke lawg—tb . ey interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
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j * one of the pleasant letters of 'the Sevignk of Antiquity , whom Romans lamed the younger ] Pmny , that old , excuse for not writing ( having nothing » say ) is rejected z " Write to me , then , to say that yoa have nothing to lay , " ad 3 $ the affectionate correspondent . Olinx nullas wihi epistolas mittis Npiilest f it } gpt 8 ygitod scribam . At hoc Apsum scribe , nihil ease quod scribos . Our readers demand the same attention from us . We have often to say thatrwe have nothing to say , when we cannot artfully disguise our poverty in paragraphs which seem to be full of news . At this moment Literature
is stagnant . There is not a book which occupies the town—there is not a bit of gossip in which Literature has any interest . If we could with safety ipVent ifews as they do in tie political world , ovx weekly task would be less onerous . But it is easier to bombard ^ Odessa and set B ucharest in flames ihan to annsuhce the completion of Qksa&i&h . Frederick ^ Macaula . y ' s new volumes , or Tbnntson ' s poem . There is no deficiency of new publications , ^ Vn ^ ; dabfo , ; are > rare at all times , and at the present do not exist . Tho best novelty , after all r seems among the old books . Dbiden , for example , whoso complete works are contained in the three pocket volumes ofPAB-1 EB&& Annotated Poets , is much newer , younger , fresher ^ ntbt to mention his greater worth , than any of ^ the " young poets , * ' whose echoes would fain attac ^ Mhe ear ; and IlonEBT Beix has taken care to supply us with actual
novelty in his editorial department . Then , again , the novels , Mary Barton . : ^^ phe ^ Blithedale Romance , which Chapman and HAi . it . have republished . In ^ retty volumes at two shillings , are surely more novel than the last new three volumesuncut upon bur . table . It is true we read Mary Barton and tihieEUifredale Romance some time ago ; but so also have we read those uncut ^ ydlumcs ^ iBiajiiy i& ^ i—and wEile . we feel that Mary Barton can be re--read with pleasure , terrible misgivings assail us respecting the ancient - novelty asjyet uncut . ; i .. ; ^ her ^ is , however , a novel announced which excites our hopes , and which . we betieye will be something new : Wilkxe Coxmns is to give us his story of Hide and SeeJL If he has but done himself justice there will be something ; to talk about .
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The foundation of a "Working Man ' s College would be' a great thing for England . It will come in . time . To hasten that time , and also to instruct the public on some preliminary points relative to such an establishment , seems to be the desire of -the Rev . Frederick Maubice in the Course of lectures hie is to > commence at Willis ' s Rooms , on Thursday , 8 th June . The jylfebus of the six lectures on Learning and Working is so suggestive , that we print it entire : — LECTURE . I . Occasion of these Lectures—Proposal to found a College for Working ijen—Questions
wnicn the proposal suggested—Jfrxmary question , Is it possible to do any good except to the risjpggener « ti <) n ? fr ^ Hojr the opiniqin that it is not , has / gained ground—Great attention to Primary Education since the latter end of the Eighteenth Century—Results of this attention- —Boys * Schools . Girls * Schools , Infant Schools , for different classes—The point at which they stop , and the' difficulty of passing beyond it—The question forced upon us on all sides , Can ire educate Children unless we educate Adults ?—This question affects all classes—How it bears on the recent Discussions in the Legislature respecting University Education—The evil which the Legislature is trying to meet by the new Bill;— -now connected with this subject—The Education * and Civilisation of Europe have not begun from children , but from adults—Illustrations of this point—Application of it to Female Education—General conclusion .
LECTURE II . Reference to the last Lecture—Attempt to reconcile the doctrine maintained in il with that which has been maintained by the supporters of Primary Education—Mistake of supposing that we are beginning to educate a man when we begin to teach him—What Education he has ieen receiving already—All our business is to consider how our teaching may fall in with what has been good in that education , and may counteract the « vil of it . Hence the an swer to another of the difficulties which the p lan of a . Working College has suggested , —la not actual hard work inconsistent with education ?—Great plausibility of that opinion—How experience refutes it—The craving for Industrial Schools in the poorer classes—The experience of young men at the Universities—Inferences from the History of Eminent Men of Letters—Application to Female Education—Conclusion : Work , not a hindrance to Education , but one of the great Instruments of Education .
LECTUBE IH . Manual work not an exception from the maxim laid down at the close of the last Lecture — -E-vidences of this fact—Nevertheless th « re are great apparent obstructions to education in the present conditions of work in , England—The first and most obvious obatruction is tliat from the Hours of Labour—This difficulty stated—How far it has been met already ; howit may he met—Early Closing movement—Evening Classes— -Mechanics' Institutes—Importance of this subject—Further difficulties from tlie uncertainty and hopelessness of tho work in which some Mechanics are engaged—This obstruction considered—How far it nppliea exclusively to one class—Wherever there is gambling , restlessness , want of sympathy , in workmen , rich or poor , there are hindrances to education—Application of tbe bubjoct to Female Education—( ieneral conclusion : The Hindrances to Education from the character of worlc are hindrances which must bo removed by somo means or other , if England is to continue a nation .
LECTL'KK IV . The next grout difficulty liaa reference to Education ilaelf—Can we provide Teaching which shall be suitable to Men who are actually at work?—The experiments for this purpose already in operation considered—Wliat valuable U-asons are suggested by eacli of tliom —Upon what different and Home-times opposing principles they have proceeded—Special instances in tho Secular , the Keli g ious . and the Hulf-religioiw schemes of Education — Becent Hints respecting tho teaching of common things—How it ia possible to profit by these different hint »—What the devisers nnd promoters of them are aiming at—What they warn um to do nnd not to do—How they encourage a iiopo that an education may be found at last which shall not be u . subatituto i ' work , or merely a nupplenient to it , but which ehall interpret it , and bo interpreted by it . UICTUttE V . The Hume subject continuotl—What Rules should bo adopted aji to the choosing or avoid-
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It is not necessary that you should have dissected turbots , or soles , in any more scientific spirit than that -which commences dinner , to be fully aware of the peculiar deformity of those agreeable specimens of the genus Pleuronectes , ihe only genus of vertebrate animals which has not a symmetrical form . These amiable fish , swim on . their side , instead of on their belly ; and their head is so twisted that both eyes are on one side—the side on which they do not swim . Naturalists have not been slow in speculating on this deformity , and have found in it a remarkable instance of adaptation to circumstances . The philosopher cannot refrain from asking whether this deformity is congenital or acquired—whether the fish in becoming fiat adapted themselves to circumstances , or whether they were originally created flat , with this specific organisation ?
According to the researches of Yam Bxickden , recently published , the fish are n ot born deformed . He dissected the turbot shortly after its exit from the egg . At this epoch the head is not twisted on the spinal column , the two eyes are in their right places , as in other fish , and the mouth is perfectly symmetrical . In a word , neither the head nor the rest of . the body presents any peculiarity—tie young turbot is a fish , but not yet one of the Pleuronectes . . This is a very useful fact for the upholders of the Development Hypothesis , for it suggests the great specific changes which may be acquired . The antagonists of that hypothesis may , however , plausibly argue that the fact only proves this change to be subsequent to birth , and that it is a transmitted peculiarity which the first Mat-fish brought with him into the waters . What a picture to the mind is that of the First Flat-fish !
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VOLTAIRE AND HIS TIMES . Voltaire and his Times . By L . F . Bungener . ( Authorised Translation . } Hamilton , Adams , and Co . In spite of the number of books written about Voltaire and his Times , the subject is so inexhaustible , and gives rise to such variety of appreciations , according to the talent and temper of tho critic , —presenting a thousand facettes to break the light into pr ismatic colours , —that provided only there be talent of some kind to appreciate , and conviction of some kind to render the judgment steady , this subject of Voltaire will always be a fertile one for writers . M . Bungener is certainly not the man from whom we should
expect a correct appreciation of Voltaire ; we say this not because he is a Christian minister , impelled by office and creed into perpetual antagonism with Voltaire ; for with such antagonism a clear , strong mind vrould nevertheless be capable of giving a very admirable portrait from the Christian paint of view . But M \ Bungener wants sincerity . We are not throwing a doubt upon the sincerity of his opinions , but we cannot see a clergyman writing like a Parisian journalist without doubts arising of his earnestness . The ulesiro
to startle , the search for epigram , the a . 1 captandum style of this book , would have been wearisome , even with the signature of a journalist ; but when signed by a minister whose avowed purpose is not epigram , anecdote , and Monday ' s feuilleton , but the serious purpose of dissecting the character of Voltaire , and thereby calling up before us the eighteenth century , it becomes more than tiresome , —it is an impertinence . The book is thoroughly French , not in acomplimentary sense . It is not history , it is not biography , it is not philosophy , it is not criticism ; it is a collection of feuilletons , with Voltaire for tlift excuse .
Injustice to M . Bungener , it should be added , that he is , in this English dress , very considerably despoiled of hi * French brilliancy und colour . It is a merciless translation , throwing the affectations out into sharp relief ; and sacriBcing the idiom of our liingungo with unrelenting fidelity to the idiom of the original . Every time tho French idiom " on" («• # - ) " penae , " or " on voit ' ) occurs , it is scrupulously rendered " one" (" one sees , " " one thinks"J . When Voltaire says of Rousseau , that l » e was
Diogenes , who sometimes wrote like Plato , the translator , finding in the original " e ' est DiogCwo , " with careful error renders it " it is Diogenes ; but he sometimes speaks like Pluto . " Tin ; translator has probably braird a coward culled a poulc ritouille ' e ; nevertheless , when the phraiso cornea before him , he does not hcuiti&tc to inform us thait Argenson died like a wet ekicken ! Here is a bit , "There are Jesuits impudent enough to say that M . de Montesquieu died an imbocile , and they arrocjtited to themselves tie r ' ujht to engage others to die the same . ' 1 '' One more specimen and we cease : — " This may hold in certain cases , fund specially , if one wiil have it , in pootry , bat poelnj herself no sooner takes , or allows to be given her , a part in social dissensions , than alio l 9 ses
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ing any subject for the Instruction of one class of men or another—rWhether it is necessary to make Education irregular and unmethodical for men who are at work—How it is possible to avoid those dangers—What subjects are really interesting to Working Men— -whether Politics most bp avoided in our education of them—How it is to be taught if it is taught—Ethical Studies—Logic—Language—Physical Studies—Arts—Amusements—What Studies belong as much to women as to men—Question whether Theology is to tini its place in Buch a Scheme of Education—Idleness of attempting to evade the question—The different answers to it considered .
XECTUBE VI . 1 Final difficulty : How men can . ever be found to agree in carrying out an Education of thia kind—rThe Difficulty a most real one—Hopelessness of expecting a Solution of it from the Legislature— -Hopelessness of Appeals to tho General Public—Each man has a Public of his own , —a circle in which he can act—How to form a College which shall coasist first © f Teachers—How th « y may act and work together—How they may look in time to . obtain Scholars—How there may be a number of , such ^ Colleges in all parts of the land —How the Maxims of one need not bind the rest—What different classes of men may take part in them—How , if each does his best , they mast work together—Plan of the College which it is proposed to establish in London . This syllabus "mil sufficiently inform our readers of Mr . Matohce ' s object ; and it -will suggest to reflective minds thoughts which -will aid in the discussion of the great subject .
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4 » 6 ^ THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), May 27, 1854, page 496, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2040/page/16/
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