The Press. — London, England, 1855-04-07 00:00:00

334 consistence in his own mind, but it would very ill bear expression in fragments. To ordinary minds he was at that time much less intelligible than he is now ; and while we did him the justice to believe that he had a decided meaning, and was struggling to set it forth, we were often puzzled to discover what that meaning could be. Those who hold that character is visible in handwriting might find eminent support for their opinion in the example of Mr. Maurice. His letters were in parts utterly unreadable to an unpractised eye, nor have we ever been able to understand by what art his printers succeed in deciphering his " copy." With painful study words could be caught here and there, and with their aid a complete sentence might sometimes be made out. But rarely was there a page in which some gaps had not to be left. And so it was with his meaning even when presented in fair print. The chain of reasoning might be com plete, but some links of it would be involved in darkness. The mind had always to labour hard over his writing, and often was com pelled to interpret by conjecture, passages which seemed hopelessly obscure. But in the interval which has elapsed Mr. Maurice has made great progress in expres sion. His style appears to us now lucid in comparison with what it was then, and if his penmanship has undergone a similar change, the difficulty we supposed above would be in great part removed. Mr. Maurice has not, indeed, acquired the art of thinking clearly— we do not imagine that he ever will do so—but he is not obscure. We can understand his argument, though we could wish for more pre cision in its processes. That habit, however, which early struck us as characteristic of his mind clings to him still. His views are so much larger than his objects that there is always danger of the latter slipping through; and those views are so conscientiously held that he will not suffer them to be in any degree limited or modified. Hence, in spite of great talents and greater virtues, he will remain, we fear, to the end of the chapter an unpractical man, though with a heart set on practical objects. It is not that he undervalues common things, but that he will not consider them in the simple, natural aspect in which they appear to common people. His Working-Men s College is nothing more than a mechanic's institution, with instruction in theology added, for those who choose to avail themselves of it. To set forth the ad vantages of such an institution, Mr. Maurice, in his first lecture, argues that education should commence with the adult rather than with the juvenile population. " Schools," he says, " according to the original force of the " word, had not a direct application to child " ren. They were places for preserving and " expanding the studies which belong espe " chilly to men." He attempts to show how easily a people may be interested in intellec tual teaching by reference to the multitude of scholars who rushed to hear the teaching of Abelard, so that " all the country round did " not suffice to furnish them with dwellings " nor the soil with food." But does any one suppose that there can be any true analogy between the scholars of Abelard and the me chauics for whose instruction this Working- Men's College is designed ? In his second lecture it is Mr. Maurice's aim to show that the connection supposed to exist between learning and leisure is unfounded ; and here he is no doubt right, if by leisure we are to understand that mere command of time and means which many men possess to pursue whatever aims may please them. Nor are we at all disposed to deny that there is a natural affinity between learning and work, when the two are of a kindred kind, as in the cases given here of Milton, and Jeremy Taylor, and Samuel Johnson. It is sufficiently obvious that when a man has acquired the elements of a profession, whatever it be, he can in no way so well improve in it as by being forced to wrestle with its difficulties. Necessity is then an ad mirable instructor, and stimulates the faculties which might rust in leisure. But Mr. Maurice goes much farther than this, and intimates that in our busy day men, even down to the Ipw rank of mechanics and labourers, may, THE PRESS. from their very occupation, be favorably placed for study and improvement - - - Let us then thoroughly assure ourselves that there is nothing in industry itself of any kind, agricultural or manufacturing, nothing in the most steady, persevering, creative industry, to hinder steady, persevering, creative thought. He speaks of operatives who have made great progress in studying mathematics amidst the noise of wheels, with scarcely any external help, and he adduces some particular instances to show that the toil of the hands does not tend to detract from the energy of the mind. Cirnabue, though possessed of the taste and faculties of an artist, and blessed with every facility for pursuing the art he loved, could make no deep or lasting impres sion upon the arts in Italy till he had evoked the genius of the shepherd boy Giotto ; Dante was not rocked and dandled in poetry in the Court of Love, but was trained to the hard work of the camp, bred in the severest discipline of the schools, and immersed in the factions of Florence ; Hooker did not cultivate his facul ties in a cloister, but rocked his child's cradle, sheared sheep, and listened to the objurga tions of a very troublesome helpmate ; Spen ser's fairy-land was his common native earth, and it was in his battle for life that his Sir Guyons, and Artegalls, and Britomarts, and Arthurs, proved their laurels and won their swords; Lord Bacon's scientific pursuits did not interrupt his occupations as a lawyer and a statesman ; Shakspeare gained his wisdom, not in the closet, but in the world; and the genius of Burns burnt with its brightest and purest flame when he followed the plough. To these instances others might be added more immediately to the point. Giffard ac quired the elements of his learning as he bent over his " last," jealously watched by the brutal cobbler his master; Stephenson conceived the idea of railroads when a poor working boy in a coalpit ; and the author of the " Purgatory of Suicides" mastered languages and difficult authors when compelled to labour hard for daily bread. But do these instances, with all others that might be adduced, or even the rules of the Benedictines, which made study go hand in hand with bodily labour, support Mr. Maurice's theory that the life of our handicraftsmen is favorable to, or even compatible with, intellec tual pursuits ? We think not. For, in the first place, the case of men of rare and excep tional genius, such as most of those were, who acquired great eminence under circumstances more or less adverse, can prove nothing as to the general rule; nor are domestic cares to be regarded as a bar to study, in the same way that continuous toil for ten or twelve, or more, hours in the day is a bar to it. Even some of the instances quoted above show how intel lectual energy has been favoured by the pecu liar circumstances and occupation of the individual. Had Giotto been a factory boy, it is doubtful if he would ever have been a great artist. In tending sheep he had leisure for the observation of nature and the exercise of his hand. The natural genius of Burns had been fostered by decent education, and his mind bloomed betore its faculties could be crushed by the necessity for exhausting toil. But how ill the life of labour and the life of song agreed in his case is known to all who have read the biography of this most magnifi cently-endowed but most ill-starred poet. To be just, Mr. Maurice does not overlook facts which contradict his theory : And yet—there is no use in concealing it—facts seem to show that in this country the class of mechanics as a class are not disposed to connect study with work, even when the greatest pains are taken, and the most reason. able methods used, to point out the bond which there is between them. I will remind you of one or two experi ments which have been made for this end, and of the suc cess which has attended them. And then Mr. Maurice alludes to the history of mechanic's institutes in this country, and acknowledges that the class which Dr. Birk beck sought to help by these institutions has not in general been the one to benefit by them. " The tradesman has rather taken the place of " the mechanic." This circumstance is espe cially noticeable in the manufacturing districts at the present day. It was Lord Stanley, we think, who, addressing a large assemblage in the hull of a mechanic's institute in Lan caShire, the other day, said that he saw him- SATURDAY, self surrounded by representatives of every class except the class for which the institution was designed. And the like complaint is ge neral. Whence does it arise? Mr. Maurice thinks because the lectures in mechanic's institutes were too superficial in their cha racter. " They rather grazed firs surface of " men's minds than penetrated into them." The evening classes for young men avoid this error, he thinks, as in them the pupils learn, and do not merely listen. " But these classes " consist, I believe, almost exclusively of " clerks in offices and young men from shops." So that the classes most urgently in need of mental improvement are still not cared for, or not attracted. The kind of instruction which promises to fit men better for the practical duties they have to fulfil is not exactly the kind of intellectual improvement Mr. Maurice desires, though he may not despise it. His Working-Men's College embraces in struction, among other studies, in algebra, natural philosophy, geometry, French, Latin, and the animal form. In the " first term" about 140 pupils entered the different classes, and the entire number has not varied much in the second term : Classes on mechanics and astronomy had some pupils in the last term—none in this. . . . The lecturer on the human frame, who had no pupils in the first term, has three in this. This process is not very encouraging for one who aims so high as Mr. Maurice. But he adds : An evening adult school to prepare pupils for the college in reading, writing, and arithmetic, is increasing in num• hers every week. Compare this with the disparagement of mere reading, writing, and ciphering, shown in parts of these lectures (particularly at pages 35.6), and with the ridicule cast on the attempt to begin with men as with children, illustrated by the desire of Dominic Sampson to reform Harry Bertram's education, from the know ledge of English grammar upwards, and it will be seen how little the practice Mr. Maurice has been forced to adopt agrees with his high flown theories. We must break off for the present. The volume is sufficiently remarkable to deserve another article. PERIODICAL LITERATURE. THE lighter magazines of this month do not contain much good matter. Bentley has a tolerable article upon the question of " Peace or War ?" but this sub ject is completely disposed of by the heavy artillery of the Quarterlies. " The Asiatic Campaign" is an article which contains a great deal of information upon the state of the central tribes of Asia, and also upon the steps which Russia has been taking for years past—slow but constant in effect—to divert the commerce of the East from its present channels to a route through Russia, and to subjugate the whole of Central Asia by progressive expeditions through the valleys of the Oxus and Jaxartes. While upon this subject the writer explains the difference be tween the term Tatar and Tartar, the former being only applicable to Mongols, the latter to Caucasians. Of the remaining subjects in the magazine, the sketch of the "Campo Santo at Naples" is written with great feeling, and the " Matrimonial Speculation " a very laughable and well-told story, though with a most tragic termination. The New Monthly has an abundance of matter, some fifteen articles in all, of which " Ensign Pep "per's Letters from the Crimea" are clever and amusing satires upon the system of official routine which has hitherto reigned so triumphant at Bala klava. The stories told are all founded upon fact, if not the very facts themselves. The "Diary of • " First. Winter in Rome " gives us a lively description of the convents and their contents, and also of the private life of the illustrious Pope Pius IX. " Finland " and the Finlanders " contains a slight sketch of the habits of those rough uncivilised fishermen; and the " Plain Gold Ring " is about the best fiction in the present number. The reminiscences of the Emperor Nicholas are all remarkably stale ; we have been satiated with them in every provincial paper for the last month. Tait of this month is of the usual average. The article upon " The Cheap Press " is full of suggestive matter. The fifth number of the Martins of Cro' Martin sustains the interest of the story, and introduces some capital characters to the reader. Of Harry Coverdale's — Courtship, No. 6. we can only say that the hero appears to have married hastily, and to manage his wife very badly. The story, on the whole, is well told, but it wants more character. ' Om