The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-10-19 00:00:00

liii

MR. CHARLES KINGSLEY ON TRUE
CULTURE.

Noticing canon Kingsley': address last week, at the re-
opening of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, the Field
ernes : -
The ultimate conclusion that Mr. Kingsley arrives at
is that we are not as healthy or vigorous &people as we
once were. There is an inference to be drawn from the
points which the rev, lecturer made here, which he
seemed to forget, or rather to avoid with an air of hesi-
tation, that might, indeed, be pardoned, considering the
perilous nature of the discussion. We are quite with
him to the extent that a knowledge of the true value of
healthy habitations, of personal cleanliness, of pure air,
and unadulterated food, would be of infinite service, not
only to us, but to those who come after us. To use an elo
intent phraseof Mr. Kingsley, the salutary laws of nature
represent "the good will of God expressed in facts."
And the deduction isr that we are bound to aim uni-
versally at the into: sana in carp sre sant,. "Wherever
you have a population generally weakly, stunted,
scrofulous, y iu will find in them a corresponding type
of brain, which cannot be trusted to do good work. It
may be very active, it may be very quick in catching
up new and grand ideas, and all the more quick on ac-
count of its own secret malaise and discontent, but it
will be spasmodic, unstable, hysterical." We give Mr.
Kingsley's own words, which may seem startling and
almost fantastic, though they are only a variation
of the sense contained in the Shakespearian allusion to
the lean and hungry Cassius, in Napoleon's distmat sf
a thin general. Maases of people weakened and en-
feebled physically can be worked upon into mischief
by those who can excite in them " phenomena" the
results "of the sin or the ignorance of their forefathers."
Mr. Kingsley recognizes in support of his news the
history of Imperial Rome, of Alexandria, of a Paris
under our own observation.
It may be literally true that in our manufacturing
centres there is much of that discouraging decay in
race which we as well as Mr. Kingsley deplore. But
who would say, looking at the soldiers who figured at
the recent Autumn Manieuvres, the majority of them
bred and born as "common folk of the field," that our
population has sunk altogether out of the reach of the
compliment paid to us by Benvenuto Cellini ! Then,
again, it was scare quite fair or candid of
Mr. Kingsley to ignore the circumstance that, if
there are thousands of our people leading unhealthy
lives, there are thousands who have the leisure
to cultivate sport, the taste to cultivate athleticism,
thousands whose business, whose callings, bring them
in content, with elements for developing that hardness
which Mr. Kingsley sees in our old friend the savage.
At our public schools, in the hunting field, on the
moors, in the forest, at the rifle butts, at cricket
festivals, football matches, and the various other divi-
sions of healthy pastime and exercise which are duly
recorded and chronicled in The Field—in our still vital
and active love for travel and for danger, which may
occasionally degenerate even into recklessness—is there
not something for Mr. Kingsley to take account of ?
No one could speak better of these things than Mr.
Kingsley himself; butts) read his Birmingham address
we might imagine that hunting was a lost art, that
shooting or fishing were unpopular amusements, that
the Alpine Club was extinct, and our waters withont a
yacht sail, or our coast docks without a butterfly fleet
hybernating. To be sure Mr. Kingsley was speaking
to a special audience ; but his words, after a while,
glowed with a rhetoric which was evidently intended
to attract notice beyond the hall of the Midland Insti-
tute.
But it may be that he will follow up his discourse.
The sphere of interest which he has but glanced into is
practicably illimitable. We have social sermons
enough, hut they want that dexterity of thonght, that
vivid, incisive phraseology and modelling which the
the author of "Westward Ho •' can give to his
writings or his speeches. Not that he is always un-
exceptionably accurate or felicitous in his illustra-
tions. There, for instance, is his example of the savage
as the representative of hardihood. You might get a
dozen or score of Deal boatmen to-morrow, or northern
miners, who would stand 20 times the work of this
typical savage, an! who would make very short deal-
ing with him indeed in a wrestling match or a fight.
There is a great Jr al if truth in what Mr. Kingsley
lye, but it is the truth only written on one side of a
shield. If we were t take him as strictly coned, we
might indeed fall into dismal dolours and dumps upon
our national decay. But we shall still bear coin's:66,on
with any nation on the earth in this particular itf phy-
sical health. At the Fame time, that there are
causes in operation which may bring us to the level at
winch Mr. Kingsley has chosen to contemplate us now
ia so true, that a warning is not only justifiable, but
requisite and useful. It is, therefore, on the whole,
with sincere gratitude that we should listen to the
advice of Mr. Kingsley, and with a respect also due 1
the evident care with which he has approached the
matter. We only wiah he had been a little more
ample or inclusive in his discourse, so as to point cut
to his listeners the sources of strength an, well as of
weakness in the contemporary physione of the English.