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tyi itt^f* J^ntlUlltfl* I - ¦ ——?——
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is ground continually to the same tune , and vituperates freedom of thought and liberty of speech , extolling the loving kindness of-pur-immaculate ' legislators and the great blessings we derive from their disinterested rule . It is a trick of the monopolizing classes to preach xip contentment , and those who undertake this inhuman office are invariably rewarded with patronage and approbation , and very often with , more substantial favours . la the literary world , indeed , there are found , a few ; bold pens , but the majority love to bespeak the applause of a commumtythoroughly steeped in Platitudes and wholly unconscious of independent thought : therefore do they truckle to this -wretched conservation and these cruel ethics . "Who are the iaen whom authority loves to promote to honour ? Are they men of genius or of heart ? are they minds of the finest temper ? Or rather , are they not trammelled men , who are pledged and bound to one side only ? Genius is too free and bold .
] No Archbishop of Canterbury was ever a genius , but many have been dolts ; but dolts can conserve better than others , and therefore are they chosen . If you seek for distinction you must affect a stolidity , even if you have it not ; otherwise you will be deemed incapable of preserving that solemn demeanour so essential to great ministers , or you-will be thought incapable of maintaining the imposture of your station . Be careful to implant Platitudes on every , occasion : the neglect of this has been the ruin of inany a greatman . Hence we get some inkling in the cause of great reputations attained by such contemptible men . This accounts , too , for the immense domination of fools and the triumph ofthe noble army of blockheads , by whom all society is officered . At first it somewhat perplexes a simple understanding to comprehend why all station and command should be invariably bestowed upon , the commonest minds , and why stupid men always succeed in . life . One
" 0 = 31 ¦ Kld ®© Hlra © i § i ( MGPH&iJ ., ¦ ¦ . . .. - ¦ .. ¦ . ¦ . ¦ : ¦ ¦ . ¦; : . . ; . - ¦ ¦ ¦ I . . . : ¦¦ , . ' - ' . . ' ¦ PLATITUDES . , T » e utility of Platitudes in the art of Government has been acknowledged from the earliest times , and a careful study of this form of cajolery has ever found favour in the eyes of statesmen and divines . By a Platitude is to be understood in its general sense , a false postulate so . speciously used as to resemble truth—the base coin passing current in society , in the House , in hireling reviews , in ethical dissertations , in the lectures delivered from Professors' chairs , especially of the historical order . As it is impossible to prove a self-evident proposition , so does the Platitude defy a formal contradiction perforce of its utter shallowness and superficial lucidity . It is as vain to
grapple with it , as to contend with a rnan who calls you ' infidel' or' disbeliever ' —and this form , of name-calling the Platitude very often takes : you cannot therefore gainsay the nickname your opponent uses ; nor will it avail aught to seriously disprove the bald , trashy truisms which are daily and hourly used for the justification of fraud / and the defence of the conventional tyrannies of society . And yet this countei'feit mode of reasoning , if such it can be termed , is generally triumphant , and prevails with the majority who give vote in favour of him who can deceive them in the most plausible way . That words are ;• ' the counters of wise men and the money of fools' we all know very well , but very few of us are aware of the astonishing impostures daily carried on under this guise : they swarm around us everywhere : they appeal to custom , to-respectability , to religion : there is not a rotten part of
the state which cannot be , and is not , defended by these Platitudes : there are men who live wholly upon them , whose -whole lives are consumed in multiplying words for the purposes of defending the ' bulwarks' of injustice and foul play . Surely , therefore , this art is worth studying . " VTords with out meaning , " says Home Tooke , " or of equivocal meaning , are the everlasting engines of fraud , " especially of old fraud , of the respectable vices and wrongs to ' winch men are accustomed , of the hereditary , semibarbarous wrongs daily inflicted upon society , and which we are told it is our ^ duty' to bear , or that it is ' notthe thing' to object to . Until we see through this slang , and can shoot this thing as it flies , there is no hope for the good cause of free opinion . If you desire explanation of any of the daily base consuetudes of life , you ai'e at once gagged with a Platitude : such
things ' always were so' we arc told , and we are better off than the nations on the Continent . The office of thus debauching the public mind is performed _ in the House by those worthy , solid-minded gentlemen-whose respectability is their whole guarantee , and out of it , by flunkey reviewers , who write up Church and State and maintain that tone of ' hcalthy-mimledness and ' right-and-proper' tone of feeling so essential to ' conserve society . ' But if we but study the values of words even so slightl }' , and if we come to close quarters , we shall find that these key-notes and catch-words are mere tricks and subterfuges used by the organs of the powerful and -wealthy in order to defraud the rest of mankind from their just inheritance upon God ' s earth . Underneath all this palaver of ' duty , ' and in the coro of these
goodly injunctions to contentment and peace , - \ ve find invariably the burden of the theme to be ' Better a plum for me than two figs for thee . ' This is Mammon ' s argument throughout , and in order to carry out this noble motive ^ proceeds , in true esoteric fashion , to console us with Platitudes . " The wind , " itsnyjs , "is always tempered to the shorn lamb ! " The inference of which is obvious , namely , that you shall endure the shearing patiently and let Mammon carry off the wool , while you , cold and deserted , shall trust to Providence ) to supply the deficiency . Mahomet once overheard one of his followers who was consoling himself in this way , "I will loose my camel , " said this victim of a platitude , " and commit it to God . " " Friend , " said the great Prophet , " tie up thy camel , and then commit it to God . "
By such means are the true interests of society evaded or neglected . By euoh means are men gulled and befooled to then * own confusion and to the glory of those plethoric dogs who live in mangers . By such means wealth , or the true interests of -virtue and . religion , ' which arc the mere synonyms of wealth , is sanctified and conserved . Talleyrand ( and Goldsmith ) said that words were given them to conceal their ideas : n hint worth while remembering when heai'ing a Parliamentary debate , or reading any organ devoted to the advocacy of ' sound' political principles , wherein you will perceive the power of Platitudes to the utmost . Ho is a bold man who would , vontuvo to address the House in any other language , so vernacular is this dialect to the cars of the administrative class , and the patrician order positively understands none other . And tho organ of l sound' principles
would naturally think that posts of importance and trtvst , and offices necessary for the general interest , would be filled by the best men of the day , and that a fine mind would naturally riseto its proper sphere and find acceptance there . Indeed ! Wealth is too morbidly jealous of its rights and too selfishly exclusive to give genius admittance within its gates . Out with it , Danciad J The petty authorities of society are mere beadles and flunkeys , placed there for their Conservative qualities rather than their breadth of views or force of character . We need not genius in a' doorkeeper . The great object is to obtain men who can maintain order and keep society in subjection . But to improve life and its opportunities , to bless us with the light of mind , jbo render existence less burdensome—this is no part of their duties . The literary police pursue the same course , and the clerical also . Their trade is to make men contented : to teach them to endure in silence
and to look pleasant . But this is pushing matters too far . Property has its rights , and can take very good care of itself without thus ' befooling the consciences of the community , or thrusting Platitudes down our throats in thia wholesale fashion . The rights of monax'chy were once thought to require the same rigorous enforcement , and every Moyal subject' was constantly expected to be mouthing laudations to the person , whether good or badj who happened to occupy . ¦ . the throne : and yet now , after the Crown has been shorn of this undue reverence , we find its real rights and influence in no danger of decline . It can do very well -without adventitious aid , as we have good reason to know at this present time , when . Court influence , and Prince influence , and Sutherland House influence play but too conspicuous and thrifty a game -with , the wives and liberties of honourable members , to tlie injui-y of the -whole- ' community , ¦ ¦ whose interests are too frequently sacrificed to some paltry patronage from those high quarters . Let Property confine itself to the same ' rights . ' Sooner or later it must . At present , however , with the jealousy of the Inquisition , it gags every mouth given to
speak the truth . It gives millions to missionaries and foreign schemes , while its own . kith and kin arc starving at home : and thus , having thrown tlie children ' s bread to the dogs , it hires priests and writers to guard itsf liberties : of course tiieir language is in keeping with their avocations . They have studied the Platitude in all its branches to some purpose , and know the full scope of this most recondite form of reasoning , which is applied to every pursuit of life , and infects the whole course of literature , ethics , religion , the stage ,-the-hustings , the court of justice , the very smalltalk of society . Solid , heavy , ' practical' natures—the staple and avorag-o of mankind—can understand nothing else than this jugglei y of words with its infinite variations and most plausible aspects . It stultifies and paralyses everything , and to siich a degree that the chivalrous tone of some free voice seems at first out of keeping , and exasperates us . We fear it because it sounds so strangely new : we start from the old lethargy and vent our displeasure upon this disturber of our accustomed tranquillity : we have eaten of the Lotus and would be let alone .
Mark well the chief characteristic of the Platitude , It always benumbs : it never rouses . It is always timid and cautious .- —Matters have gone on \ ery well upon the old p lan , why therefore change anything ? Our fathers and grandfathers lived well upon old principles , and let us do likewise . —It is always dead . It smothers and oppresses . It Js always negative and liates . newness , and very naturally allies itself with the hard-hearted selfishness of our natures . "Who can be expected to legislate for a future generation—for a ra . ee which may never be , and , according to a certain pulpit mountebank , which never will bo V But the new * race is here , is ever increasing our ranks : it comes naked and hungry , seeking its food and heritage : it comes pushing
the old occupants from their seats . Wo tell it , with many Platitudes , that it has no lot or part with vis : we preach up to it our vested rights , our laws of property , our proprieties and nice distinctions of rig ht and . wrong . It cares nothing , it heeds us not . It comes—a new creation from the hands of the great Maker—seeking its own . Appease the young Revolutionist . Ho too will grow old , and perhaps preach up these siunc old Platitudes to tho new generation of later times , but he will be merciful or hard-lieurted even us he is taught , and us we arc to him . He is now an infant and a , starveling . Let us give him food of our immense stock , for surely tlici-c is enough foAill . Wherefore this stint and meanness , this jealousy for wealth lest any tittle of our possessions should be filched ? And wherefore a servile adherence to this worn-out phraseology and wretched nomenclature ? X * JL *
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As a school-book , it is preferable to any irregular abridgment of Von Hammer . . A Popular History of British Lichens , comprising an Account of their Structure , Jteproduction , Uses , Dixtributiop , and Classification . By W . La . uder Lindsay , M . D . ( Reeve . )—Dr . Lindsay ' s volume is one of the best in the admirable series to which it belongs . It is , as the writer describes it , a familiar , natural history , touched with an occasional charm of fancy , and very delightful as the companion ofa hill ^ ramble . liBlaekicoodhas sent hundreds to the sea-side to imitate the studies of its contributors , Dr . Lindsay ' s enthusiasm will send others in pursuit of Lichenology , of Lecideas and Cladonias , and leathery ^ Umbilicarias , ' rich grey lichens broidered on the rocks . ' The illustrations , in tinted lithography ,. are as perfect in art as in science . It is high praise to say that the volume is really * a popular history '—deserving popularity .
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We'should do oxa utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . —Goethe .
Tyi Itt^F* J^Ntlulltfl* I - ¦ ——?——
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Septembeb 6 , 1856 . ] a THE LEADER . 859
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 6, 1856, page 859, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2157/page/19/
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