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¦ , . ;¦;/ . : , . / iasii « isnto Learning * md , ~ WiorMng . 8 ix . Lectures . Th& \ Bdigicm of Some , and iisr Influence on Modern Civilisation- By F .-J ) . * Maurice , ; ! B £ . A . Cambridge rMaemillan . THE ^ workiBg classes , are divided an to ci rcles no less than the more fortunate orders of society . They present * separately , or in various degrees of union , the ¦ political , the religious , the speculative element , the sceptical'and . the frivolous , the violent , theinoderate , the optimist and cynical . No single person represents them , as a . body . You may , indeed , hear men with noisy voices who . assume to declare the opinions of " the working classes , " but these : are > only sectional leaders , and often not leaders ^ at all . In America every set of political ideas is labelled with a name , distinctive if not expla-. uatory . Thus , in the State of Maine , there are Fusion Whigs , Anti-I ? usion Whigs , Fusion Democrats , Morill Temperance Democrats , Nebraska Wildcat Democrats , Anti-Nebraska Old Line Democrats , Anti-Morill Democrats , Fusion Free Soilers , Hook-and-Ladder Democrats , and the variety is not yet exhausted . We suspect , nevertheless , that London would supply as many shades and tints , from Toryism to the most vivid of the Radical creeds . Consequently , when Mr . Maurice established the Working Men ' s College , he was careful , to construct a polygon which should meet the tendencies of different minds , though even with this extended plan he could only cover a limited range of the industrious classes . The fanatics of suspicion , naturally , stood afar off , decrying the mystery of this middle-class plot . There were other incentives to distrust and jealousy which we will not now examine ; but an analysis of the small numbers who immediately responded to the invitation of Mr . Maurice illustrates the diverging tendencies to which we have alluded . During the first and second terms about a hundred and forty pupils entered the different classes * . The majority of these attended the lectures on Algebra , on Arithmetic , on English grammar , on Drawing , and on the Bible . A considerable proportion also frequented the class on Geometry . The Political , Geographical , Historical , and Practical Jurisprudence Classes attracted only few persons , and those of a very earnest and zealous cast of mind . French and Latin speedily became popular , as well as the more humble and essential instruction of adults in reading and writing . The system of the college is free from every taint of patronage , and from the dogmatic spirit of conventional philanthropy . Men are treated by the lecturers as men , and not as children—upon the ecclesiastical plan , or as criminals—upon the plan of the model lodgings-house . ^ The working classes , as a body , occupy a false position . They stand between two descriptions of teachers , both equally pernicious—the imitators of parental despotism , who expect canine docility in return for easy benevolence ; and the ministers of suspicion , whose ignoranee is concealed by a thin layer of reading—the native soil of declamation . Converse with untaught minds allows these agitators to be as superficial as they are violent , and their policy is to promise the industrious classes the millenium of a day when there shall be no legislators , orators , or writers , except working men . We have heard one of this class affirm that no individual had a right to sit in Parliament who had not worn a fustian jacket . Another lately told his readers that " professional authdrs" should be abolished , in order that " the pen might be driven by the hand of the labourer . " We thank Mr . Maurice , or any other gentleman who comes to the rescue of industrious Englishmen , and leads them from this field of thistles to pastures new . Mr . Maurice starts with a proposition -which applies even more forcibly to the-incidents of our times than to those which he had in view . When Louis Philippe reigned , and when : the entente cordiale was at its height , the servile journals and the lips of fluent speakers teemed with references to the material prosperity of France . The citizen king had his ovation . Public opinion worshipped' Mm as " the only man , " and no one daredj in polite society , to question the virtues of a ruler with whom Queen Victoria maintained—until the- Cabinets disagreed—an affectionate correspondence . From this fact Mr . Maurice argues for the superior worth of moral prosperity—the success of reason , ! the inviolability of public honour . No doubt Mr . Maurice asserts a personal theory which we do not expect , and do not desire , to see established among the majority of men . We have no faith m patriarchal authority— --if it implies a supreme representative—however it may contrast with that of the bee-embroidered robe . " Presbyter is but priest writ large , ' and the " divine fatherhood" to which Mr . Maurice points means only a spiritual control over nations , which no human beings are , or ever have been , fit to exercise , unless * indeed . it means no more than the general sense of religion . Still we commend the teachings to thinkers and students among the working classes . They have the tone of the Norman culturethe tone of Alfred , of Alcuin , in as far as they appeal to lAjjplaculties and thoughts of men ; and we hare little fear that when the worKIng-classes are as cultivated and as free from prejudice as < Mr . Maurice desires them to be , they will look for shepherds , or submit , their souls to vicarious fatherly authority . The pivot ot Mr . Maurice's sysfeem is the truth that Learning and Working are not incompatible . It is < the common complaint that activity leadsmen away from thought , deprives them , of the leisure for research , confuses the vision of philosophy . It is said , again , that deep speculations abstract them from Jthe practical duties of social life . The engineer ** has no time for poetry , " the artist for literature— -except he ^ hunt for subjects , aa Johnson read Paradise Lost for words;—the mechanic must sacrifice his tastes , the p rinter his opinions . By the experience of men in every class this fallacy is contradicted , Dante was immersed in practical politic ^ yet ho was " a profound schoolman and a divine poet ; " Bacon , a laborious lawyer and statesman , composed one philosophic treatise after another—not in his retirement only . The Benedictine monks , whose mantfal toil was woven into the tissue of their lives , explored the farthest recesses of learning , and Burns received inspiration between the stilts of the plough . But Mr . Maurice adds , with appropriate emphasis , that if a man be a restless bustler , he can : neither learn nor work . He may bo devoured by his material occupations and not fulfil them well . Every line of pursuit , from that of the agriculturist to that of the silver chaser , or the weaver of delicate fabrics , supposes a number of exact and successive processes , regulated by method , and proportioned to itho length of the day . Fortune ^ in some cases , forbids
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pli ^ c « roboteth * t th& ^ i »« ir&l !> fcldy i ^ £° stud y ing ifcaMjnrewni ^ inia-poptdarfo of comprehensive culture . And , yet ^ tliev-O din religion haa a strong attraction'beyond , list iB hilospphic interestas a . phase --in they development of the huni « m iSBBei ^ capricioas imagination , ^ spnie tinges of , pathos , and ^ eyen a vein- of humour . What is more grandly sasrage than the notion thaffithe feast of the Walhalla and the tendance of £ he ^ idkyriett ' < wer ^ battle , while the feeble beings who allowed peaceful death to overtake them must go down to < Jim Helheim ? W&afc more pathetic than the story of Sigune ' s devotion to heri iusbandJ the- malignant Loki- ^ -how sbes perpetually holds a vessel to catch'the ^ iri j ^ r ' s venomwhich -would else drop < on his face ? What more fantastic extravagance than the rope that binds the terrible wolf Fenris * made ^ amongst other materials , of aimaiden'sbeard : and the sound of a cat's tread ? To'tSe ^ majay excellent works through which the . student may makehim-« elf acquainted with the Northern Mythology , Menzel , the well-known historian , added , just before his recent death , an admirable monograph on Odinjiin ^ whieh he bas 'not only assembled all the myths relating directly or indireotly to Odin , but has treated the subject in that widely philosophic ^ md > historicalspirit which makes it far more than a study of Mythology . One of the points which he brings into due clearness and prominence , is the . unmoral character of the German as of the Greek Mythology . The highest . god , Odin , wastfey-no means the highest because he was good : the German was as iar irom holding any distinct Dualism as the Greek . The world was tp'hini ^^ tde ^ fi ^ iwletfe the law was death to the weak ; Odin was chiefly the pefsonification of warlike force , and to be " filled with the god" was to have that rage of the warrior which , the appalled Romans named the furor teutonicus . \ Menzel' 4 dso traces the reminiscences of Odin which still survive among-jtbe people- ~ travestied . in their course through twenty centuries ; and thia is not the least interesting part of his interesting book . Another vfield in tl » e < history of the German popular imagination is opened « p 4 o < us > ittv Panzer ' s diligent * work on the Legends and Customs of Bavaria . Catholicism not only absorbs into itself all Pagan legend , but retains the popular mind at that stage in . which it is the ever-teeming source of new legends ;¦ > and Bavaria is of all countries the most prolific in these often pretty weeds of an untilled soil . A significant-example of the state of popular culture in Bavaria is the following fact stated by Panzer : — Wh ^ n-in tire'ye ar 181 & a Bavarianregiment in Prance was on- the march , and it jaSned'irieessaatlyj ihesupeTstitious among the soldiers clenched theipfists against the heavy clouds , and threatened St . Peter , whom they regarded as causing the heavy rain in . order to make thedrmarch difficult . " If we had him , " said they , " we would make him aim the gauntlet ! " The . regimentmarched over a bridge on which stood the image » f St . John Nepomuck . A soldier hastily put the image under his cloak . When . the regiment , halted , several hundred men ran up a hill at a little distance , . bound theruaage to the back of- a comrade , made themselves into a wall on each side , and obliged St . John JSepomuck to run the gauntlet instead of Peter . Each soldier gave the . image a cut with his sharp sword until it was so hackedaway that the bearer began to . fear , for bis own back . We must find spacef too , for a legend which is a very amusing specimen of what < we may call the Apocryphal Gospel of Bavaria . Legend , while lavish in incident ^ is . of ten economical in personages , and loves to father all its marvels on a few principal heroes * Thus we find Christ and Peter engaged in the most unexpected adventures : — Christ and " . Peter passed by a smithy where they saw written up , "A Workman above all-WoitarnflSi . " Peter said to'tho Lord , " Master , I believe there is no greater workman than tlrou . " "Go , " answered the Lord , " and ask the smith why he has written -thiaaboveihis door ? " The smith . answered , " Because I am such ! " So the divine w « nderera-came to the smith , who boasted that he was . able to make everything speedily , « ad ordered him to make an iron lattice round his yard . Straightway the r&mith set-to work-with his journeymen , and in a short time there stood a beautiful Iron lattice round the whole yard . " Are you also smiths ? " asked the smith . " Tea , " answered the Lord , " and this , " pointing to Peter , "is my journeyman . " « ' Can you ajso make something ? " further asked the smith . " We can make young women out of did ones ' , " replied the Lord . ""Well ! then , make my old mother young , if you can ! " eald ' the smith , thinking to himself , ihat they certainly cannot dp . « Where is she ? " asked the Lord . " She is cutting grass cut there in the meadow , " answered the smith . " Bring her here ! " commanded the Lord . They brought a little old , black , hump ^ -bricked , withered , woman , who , readily consented when the Lord asked her whether jshe would bemade young again . The Lord went up to the little woman , blew upon her ; and she was dead . Then he and Peter laid her in the smith ' s furnace , with many coals , upon her ,, and Peter blew the bellows so hard that the furnace was glowing . Hereupon the Lord drew her out of the fire , laid her on the anvil , commanded Peter to take the largest hammer , and both hammered so bravely that fire and shreds flew from her Then the Lord laid the little woman again in the furnace , Peter blew the bellows , ' the Lord laid hw-ngain on the anvil , and they hammered out the . ( head ; body , bands , and feet all new . When that was done , tho Lord blew in the wotiaiin ' a mouth , and immediately , a beautiful maiden . stood there . They took but small payment ^ and went on their way . And now the women of the neighbourhood ran together and could not enough admire tho beauty of the maiden . " I would give a good deal of money , " said a rich old dame , "if I cpuld be so restored . " Said the smith : " I also can earn the money 5 I have learned the whole trick from the two travellers . " Immediately a beginning was made with the elderly dame . The smith blow upon her , but she remained alive . Said the smith : " If we once put her in the flre she Will ; be dead . " They made a , good flre , laid the dame living in the furnace with many coals upon-her , 'ieind ! the journeyman had to blow the bellows right well , but tho dame -was terribly burnt . 1 They laid her on the anvil and hammered her , so that she waa , beaten to pieces , and great pieces flew from her which they could not fasten , to again . And , they blew , into her . mouth , but all In vain . And when they saw no end ; to their trouble and fear , the smith told his journeyman to run aftex the travellers and beg them . to turn back . At first the Lord would give no ear to tho journeyman , but at last ho gave way to hia urgent prayer , and returned with Potor to . the smith . Herb tho " workman above all workmen" was almost in despair , and entreated the Lord in the humblest manner . Tho Lord saia : " Let us boo what is to be made of these shattered fragments . " They laid tho pieces tpgethor , put . tliern in the flre , then on the anvil , and began again to hammer . When they had welded together all the bits , the Lord blew into the mouth : —what did the thing now bwomc ? A ' allly * pe . « Nothing else , " said tho Lord , " cwi over be made of it . "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 22, 1855, page 918, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2107/page/18/
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