The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-13 00:00:00

between our pure belief and the false systems which
it happily supplanted, the distinction, that above
every other, marks its infinite superiority, and pro-
claims its divine origin. The heathens, even the
wiser among them, took the same distinction be-
tween the various classes of the community which
the adversaries of popular improvement have been
wont to take among ourselves. Holding immorta-
lity in considerable doubt, of one thing they were
quite clear—that it would only be granted to souls
of a higher order—" Si quis priorummanibus locus ;
si ut sapientibus
.placet non cum corpore extingu-
unter magma animm"—says Tacitus. " But, no,"
says Cowper, the Christian poet and sage— "

" But no! the silver trumpet's heavenly call
Sounds for the poor—it sounds alike for all."

All such distinctions have been swept away by the
same Gospel which brought life and immortality to
light, and the soul of the meanest capacity, of the
humblest of His creatures, is as precious as that of
the exalted in the eyes of Him without whose will
a sparrow falls not to the ground. From all doubts
and all refinements of the caste, therefore, we are
now happily relieved, and the word having gone
forth irrevocable that the people shall be taught,
we are only left to consider what is the best, be-
cause the most effectual mode of teaching. The
course pursued with this object in view during the
last 30 or 40 years has been to regard self-education
as the great instrument, and therefore reading as
the principal means, of learning, with the help of
such oral instruction as can be obtained through
lectures. But, as individual or private reading
forms the bulk of the process, everything was ad-
mitted to depend upon affording easy access to works
of an instructive kind, and at the same time of a
nature to attract readers. When, 35 years ago, I
addressed the working classes and their employers
in a tract (of which the 23d edition lies before me),
pointing out the advantan•es as well as the duty of
extending their information, I announced the step
about to be taken of establishing an associa-
tion, of which the main objects should be the
preparing and publishing of works to help self-edu-
cation. The Useful Knowledge Society was accord-
ingly formed, and its labours were entirely success-
ful. The price of books, maps, and prints was
reduced exceedingly, and a plentiful supply was
provided of treatises upon all branches of science at
a very low price, and composed in a manner so
simple and clear as to convey the required instruc-
tion without the help of a teacher, to such as really
desired it, and would take the trouble of obtaining
it. But a variety of other works was like Wise pro-
duced, the object of which was to afford instruction
in an entertaining or amusing ' form • and the great
circulation immediately obtained by our works of
these kinds proved that our endeavours had been
attended with success. But we next saw that a
much wider scope could be given to our operations,
and that classes whom our larger publications did
not reach might be induced to improve themselves
by reading. Hence arose the Penny Magazine, the
happy suggestion of that eminent philanthropist
Mr. Hill, now Recorder of Birmingham and Com-
missioner in Bankruptcy. The low price, the admi-
rable woodcuts, the judicious selection of subjects,
at once instructive and entertaining, speedily ob-
tained for the paper a circulation till then unpre-
cedented; for at one time 220,000 were sold weekly.
The sale, indeed, may be supposed enormous when
60 guineas could be afforded for one plate, the im-
pression from which, with two or three others less
fine, and eight pages of letterpress, was sold for a
penny to the public, consequently much less to the
retail dealer. It remained for others engaged in the
same good work of promoting the improvement of
the people to carry this plan a step further, but a
most important step, by preparing cheap periodical
papers containing such proportion of works of fic-
tion as should attract persons wholly bent upon
entertainment, and reading without any direct view
to obtain useful knowledge. The society's works,
even the Penny Magazine, had never admitted writ-
ings of this description, except occasionally a few
lines of poetry. Now, it had been found to be cer-
tain that a vast proportion of readers regarded
narrative as alone interesting, and hence history,
and especially biography, had been largely intro-
duced into our publications ; but it became also ap-
parent that imaginary adventures, scenes rarely or
never exhibited in real life, lively descriptions of
both persons and things removed from common ob-
servation—in a word, stories, whether of a romantic
or of a mere ordinary character, would fix the atten-
tion which the most interesting realities had failed
to arrest, and that thousands would read tales whom
nothing else would tempt to take "up a book. Nor is
this taste confined to the humbler classes of the
community. Very many of their betters can with
difficulty be got to read any statement of facts
beyond a paragraph in a newspaper. But it is un-
deniable that the remark applies particularly to the
great numbers who have never acquired the habit
of reading, and who are most averse to any such
interruption of their other pursuits, or any interfe-
rence with their rest and relaxation. It is to this
class that such works as the Penny Magazine, and
also papers in part at least devoted to works of
fiction, are principally addressed,—to those who
from their vocations have but little spare time
which they can employ in reading, their hours of
relaxation being apt to be spent either in rest, or
in games, or in dissipation. It is to find employ-
ment in reading for these hours, and to provide
such works as may most powerfully interest, that
the greatest efforts have been .made; and expe-
rience has proved decisively, that a considerable
part of such works must consist of stories—accord-
ingly penny papers, published weekly, with good
cuts, have been supplied, one part of the letter-press
being stories, the rest historical or biographical
sketches, and information in a popular form upon
subjects of science and art. The greatest care is
taken to exclude from the narratives and the de-
scriptions everything that can by possibility either
inflame the passions, or trench in the least degree
upon religious and moral principles. But that is
only a negative merit. The object of the whole,
both narrative and descripiive, is to cheerish feel-
ings of a virtuous and amiable kind ; to inculcate
the purest moral principles, and to further a spirit
of piety and devotion, and more by the actions and
the scenes represented than by mere advice and
reflections. Of one individual, John Cassell, who
has taken a leading part—perhaps the most pro-
minent part—in these important proceedings, it is
fit to mention the name; because he was himself a
working man, who rose by his industry from a most
humble station, has constantly lived with the work-
ing classes, and has the most complete knowledge
of their habits and their tastes, from daily unre-
served intercourse with them. The variety of the
works which he has prepared and published is very
great, and their circulation extraordinary. The
prices which he gives to secure the best assistance
of literary men and of artists do the greatest credit
to his liberality, and also to his good sense, as his
remarkable success proves. He has indeed even
given considerable sums by way of premium for the
production of works by competition ; in some cases
as much as £lOO or £2OO. It would be endless to
enumerate the various works which he and several
others have brought out upon this plan. The most
widely circulated are the London Journal, which
sells 350,000 ; Cassell's Family Paper, illustrated,
285,000; Popular Historyof England, 100,000. One
very remarkable publication of this class is the
literature by working men, or essays on every
variety of subject, by working men, proving unde-
niably the benefits which they have derived from
their studies—and also proving that they have not
been distracted for an hour from their daily toil.
That these works have encouraged a taste for read-
ing among thousands who never before read, and
have -afforded thelndans of gratifying it, cannot be
denied. We used to reckon that the Penny Maga-
zine, at its highest circulation, had nearly 1,000,000
of readers. According to this estimate, some of these
weekly papers must have twice as many. An opinion
has, however, of late gone forth that all the labours
of the Useful Knowledge Society and their followers
and allies have ended in an entire failure; that no
success has attended their efforts to raise the cha-
racter and improve the habits of the people by in-
creasing the supply of their intellectual food, and
bettering its quality. Therefore, the grounds of this
opinion deserve to be examined. But it must be
premised that the patrons of this doctrine wear a
somewhat suspicious aspect, and look in some sort
as if they were the enemies in disguise of all pro-
gress. For, though they affect only to dislike the
means employed, confining to words their objections
to the execution of the works actually provided for
the people, it turns out that there is no pleasing
them, and if the works are ever so much changed
the same difficulty, the same disapproval recurs. So
that it should seem to be the end they dislike, not
the means ; and they really appear to be of the
class which we had hoped and believed was extinct,
and that we have fallen upon specimens of those
lost races which peopled a former world, the ancient
opponents of all popular progress, though wrapped
up in mere modern integuments. All we can do
for dispelling the delusion attempted to be propa-
gated is to consider both the fact of what has been
effected, and the manifest tendency of what is still
continuing to be done. The first objection which
meets us we must needs advert to, that it may at
once be removed ; for it stops the way, and obstrucs
all improvement. The information conveyed in the
manner before described is admittted to be of a
limited and imperfect kind ; the subjects treated on
or referred to cannot be fully handled; the instruc-
tions given must of necessity be partial or intro-
ductory only. Many readers will go no farther,
and therefore by them a very scanty knowledge is
acquired. Now, bestowing this is described by the
objectors as encouraging superficial acquirements,
and the old argument, not very correctly put for.
ward in a great poet's verse, is repeated in prose,
not much more incorrect, though less harmonious,