The Press. — 1855-04-07 (London, England)

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 impression 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 faculties in a cloister, but rocked his child's cradle, sheared sheep, and listened to the objurga tions of a very troublesome helpmate ; Spenser'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 acquired 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, intellectual pursuits ? We think not. For, in the first place, the case of men of rare and exceptional 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 intellectual energy has been favoured by the peculiar 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 magnificently-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 experiments which have been made for this end, and of the success 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. Birkbeck 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 especially 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 LancaShire, 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 general. Whence does it arise? Mr. Maurice thinks because the lectures in mechanic's institutes were too superficial in their character. " 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 instruction, 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 knowledge of English grammar upwards, and it will be seen how little the practice Mr. Maurice has been forced to adopt agrees with his highflown theories.  We must break off for the present. The volume is sufficiently remarkable to deserve another article.