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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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this mistake which has probably exposed Europe to the danger of being overrun once ¦ th dre ty the Gl-oths and Vandals who would destroy its arts and learning . No examiners , it may be said , really intend to exclude a knowledge of the world or of soldiering ; on the contrary , they desire to comprehend such knowledge , and seek to teach it through the medium of military history and the concentrated experience of books . But books teach only a knowledge of themselves , and no direct knowledge of the world or of active life . The man who knows something of society as it is , may greatly extend his knowledge with books , by finding recorded parallel experience in other times or other places which he has not had the opportunity of visiting . But , before he can understand the history of the world as it showed itself to the eyes of Demosthenes or Socbates , Cicebo or Julius Cjesab , Henry the Poubth or Fredebick the Gbeat , he must know something of what the world is made of—of the modes in which the more rough and ignorant classes develop their views and wishes , assert their claims , and exercise a certain influence in the world . He must see in active life how men are governed , —by what emotions , by what impulses ; and he must learn the extent to which passions will move them , in degree as well as in number . A few days spent in an election ; a year or two consumed in comparing the daily life of people in different countries ; a few years passed with soldiers , and devoted to watching the manner in which human nature can ^ 5 e drilled , the hardships it can endure , the exploits that it can perform , —these are studies which render the pages of master-minds intelligible to the reader . But without this experience they will be as unintelligible as descriptions of scenery to the man blind from birth , or a minute account of opera to the deaf . It is of little purpose for the administrative Gk > - vernment to know that under certain circumstances Xenophon or Julius Cjesab accomplished certain exploits , unless be can appreciate the steps taken by either one of those men to drill large masses of soldiers into discipline , and yet to keep them free , hopeful , and earnest . But the men who are bent upon acquiring the kind of knowledge that we have pointed out , are not those who will spend the whole days of their youth in voluminous perusals . Those who have ^ an appetite for learning by tasting a knowledge of the world are not given to consume the midnight lamp . Those who have been successful in the field have , with some striking exceptions , not been devoted to abstract pursuits . They are given to the exercise of their physical powers—of what we may call the physical powers of the mind . Clive could never have set himself down to the development of Newton ' s Principin , any more than Newton could have swayed India . But when we are selecting servants for the G-overnnient of India , we are not selecting administrators for Lord Rosse ' s telescope . When we want judges who can determine between the rude , almost brutal , litigants that come before an administrator of justice , we do not require a man learned in the Pandects ; because ho is not about to settle the constitution of law , but he ia appointed to determine the facts and justice of the case between rude and simple people . Again , when wo appoint a m » n to rule the affairs of Madras , with its semi-barbarous population , wo do not ; require n philoHopliornblo , likoOAitx , YLifi , to trace the morbid history of cominunitioH , uiid to account for events after they linvn tnkcn place ; but wo want a stutoismnn who kno . \ s at n glance what motivow have Probably arouaod an ignorant , not to say
degraded people , who can hit upon the right means of diverting or suppressing the irritation , and is prepared to direct the proper force to accomplish the immediate object . The men who rise in this kind of knowledge , will , we say , be men anxious to spend the larger proportion of their lives in the earlier years out of school , and not , therefore , prepared on the nail to answer the comprehensive , elaborate , minute questions propounded by a Stephens or a Temple . This does not imply that they should be without a schooling in the humanities or accomplishments . It is " gentlemen , " that is , accomplished men , who most excel in physical exercises , and best bear varied trials ; but a gentleman goes to three schools—the school of books , the school of physical exercises , which train the mind as well as the body , and the school of the world ; and time is needed for all these schools .
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pNTHIS DEPARTMENT , AS ALL OPINIONS , HOWEVKB EXTBEMB , ARE ALLOWED AN EXPBESSION , THK EDIIOB NECESSARILY HOLDS HIMSKLF RESPONSIBLE FOB NONE . 3
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September ft 18 tt&j E'Hff ! L E A D B R . 867
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There is no learned man "trat "wHl confess be hath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable foi him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for bis adversary to write . —Milton .
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AECHDEACON DENISON . ( 7 b the Editor of the Leader . ") Sir , —Archdeacon Denison has little claim on your generous sympathies . He is a man of thoroughly persecuting spirit , as he has shown on more than one occasion . He preached against the concession of political rights to members of other sects than his own not long ago in the cathedral of Wells . In this very matter he is the aggressor . He corruptly took advantage of his position as examining chaplain to the late Puseyite Bishop of Bath and Wells , to put an illegal party test to the poor curates whom he had to examine , and who were dependent on his sentence for their bread . The injustice was as great as if an examiner for the civil service appointments were to put party political tests to the examinees . The test he put was a contradiction in terms of one of the Articles , and you cannot much blame the other party for enforcing the law against him . Let him have fair play , but he is not entitled to fly to the sanctuary of toleration . The Puseyites , like the Ultramontanists , are always for liberty where they cannot play the tyrant : but where they can play the tyrant they always do . If they were in the ascendant you would not long have license to plead for liberty and speak the truth . Yours truly , Audi Alteram .
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THE REV . DR . WOLFF'S LETTER . ( 7 b the Editor of the Leader . ') Sir , —I see there are some words at the close of my letter most kindly published by you yesterday which are open to a misconception , which 1 should exceedingly regret , though I think that no one will suppose that I intended to give cause for it . I refer to the words in which the names of Hume , Tholuck , and Sidney Smith appear to be classed together . I should have written , " Hume on the one hand , and Tholuck and Sidney Smith on the other . " I urn sure that you will be kind enough to publish this explanation . Yours truly , Joseph Wolff . Isle-Brewors Vicarage , September 2 , 1855 .
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ITALY FOR THE ITALIANS . ( 7 b the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —I trust you will pardon me if I once more nsk permission to say a few words to " A Believer in Italy for the Italians , " which I would not have done but aa a further explanation of my former letter . What your correspondent snys about the disunion , distrust , and disaffection among the Italians , has , during the last six or seven yours , been repeated over and over again as the only explanation of the failure of Italians in procuring the freedom and independence of their country . I inn , therefore , not astonished to find this opinion onco more asserted , although , after seven years . I consider it to bo an idle repetition It may be mud that what him been ho unanimously Htated must be true , hut , Kir , 1 must repeat ,, with tho Hart conviction of speaking the truth , !'« . ' victis and va : vial is only . As an Italian , I thank your correspondent for his
good wishes for the regeneration of my country , and also for his encouraging belief that the task -will not be difficult to the genius , energy , and versatility of the Italian mind . This feeling individuals very often express towards us , and thus our position is similar to ., that of- a man sentenced to death by a council whose members had all assured him personally that they were favourable to his cause . Be that as it may , it appears to me that your correspondent means to infer that it was the absence of union alone which caused us to fail in 1848-49 , and that it is by our union and good understanding alone that we can now obtain our object . This may be the case , but we must not take a narrow view of the events that hare taken place in Italy , nor separate them from the actual condition of Europe . We live in an epoch when there exists an unfortunate connexion between the nations , or rather the rulers of the different states of Europe ; hence that which fifty or sixty years ago could have been easily done , and which was actually effected in the very centre of Europe , without the acquiescence or interference of any other power , could not now , without opposition , be accomplished in the remotest parts of Asia , Africa , or America . This , which is now the general condition of every country , has for more than three centuries been the special evil of Italy . Italy was too beautiful , too fertile , too important not to he coveted by those who aspired to dominate over the great basin of the Mediterranean , and the rich and magnificent Tegions by which it is surrounded . Religion , commerce , policy , and a thousand other reasons were urged as a pretext to make Italy a prey for conquerors and the battlefield of Europe . Thus , while the other states of Europe were left unobserved , freely to settle their own domestic quarrels , Italy was distracted by the clashing of the ancient rights and privileges of emperors and people with those of the new rulers . Popes , tyrants , and people , each divided by internal jealousies , and too weak to sufcdue the others , accepted or invoked foreign ' aid , and then could only get rid of their new oppressor by calling in another . By these long-continued evils every effort to unite the country had been frustrated , and several popes and princes who had entertained this idea were opposed at every step by those poisonous fruits whose seeds had been so widely scattered by their predecessors . It was through these antecedents , due principally to the papacy , that German , French , and Spanish armies so frequently found their way into Italy , and with a repetition of similar events we come to the year 1848 . As soon as rulers became aware of the strength of the people they were panic struck , and immediately condescended to grant constitutions . We then cried , "We are free , Guerra ai Tedeschil" Is it true that on account of our divided opinions we did not fight , that this division was our only fault , and that for a moment we held Italy in our hands and then suffered her to fall ? The nation ' s cry , " Guerra ai Tedeschi , " was not echoed by the Pope , nor by the Duke of Tuscany , nor truly responded to by the King of Naples . The two iormer fled for protection into the arms of the latter , who , having organised a reaction in hia capital , retired to the stronghold of Gaeta with his illustrious guests . The people of Rome and Florence , left without rulers , begged them to return , but they would not , for they hoped that the complication , anarchy and disunion , caused by internal questions , would prevent the prosecution of the war against Austria . The plan , in fact , succeeded ; the people in the first day of liberty had not strength to fight within and without at the same time . Charles Albert , unsupported , fell ; Florence formed a provisional government , which the people rejected ; Rome a republic , which was valiantly defended . Europe was not silenced by the sudden outbreak , and roused herself to the appeal of the Italian rulers . Russia concurred by liberating Austria from tho Hungarian patriots ; Austria , by sending troops into Italy ; France , Spain , and Naples , by armed intervention ; and England , by apathy , selfishness , and indifference . May not an object be sometimes obtained more easily by inactivity than by co-operation ? Everything which tended to diminish the Austrian power was regarded as a calamity , which threatened the balance of lOurope ; the treaties of 1815 must ho rospected in 1848 ; such was the law of Europe . Italy , regarded ns a wound to that system , an oliunce to those principles , an insubordination to tho established laws , must bo reduced to order—» nd ho she was . Her foes , each having different intoreats and different modes of oppression , cucli ¦ wieUlingjofuinite resources of men and money , were in the Norm , m the South , und in the-centra of tho P 0 " 11 . ""' ' / . ? . ' amid the scones of diniwlur which ensuo . J who no people were isruHlie . 1 by « ho bl . » vs of t ' " ^ " v ? J priors , we hear » voice of reproach mymg , ? ° * nitvo not been united . " . „„„„* nf eorniDWe arc , too well uw «« of ^^ Vl ^ XZ tion , hrutalMy , iH .. « ru .. j > nI ^ , n ( lomno < 1 lUo ; fflnKJl . ° Wo ov ' tnat tho system has for
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 8, 1855, page 867, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2105/page/15/
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