,this e,book was produced by ,les ,bowler4 ,,cassell',s ,,national ,,library4 99 99 99 99 99 ,friends in ,council ,first ,series 99 99 99 99 99 ,,by ,,sir ,,arthur ,,helps4 ,picture3 ,decorative graphic ,,cassell ,,company1 ,limited3 ,,london1 ,,paris ,,melbourne4 #ahia4 ,,introduction4 ,,arthur ,,helps was born at ,streatham on the #ajth of ,july1 #ahac4 ,he went at the age of sixteen to ,eton1 thence to ,trinity ,college1 ,cambridge4 ,having graduated ,b4,a4 in #ahce1 he became private secretary to the ,hon4 ,t4 ,spring ,rice1 who was ,chancellor of the ,exchequer in ,lord ,melbourne's ,cabinet1 formed in ,april1 #ahce4 ,this was his position at the beginning of the present reign in ,june1 #ahcg4 ,in #ahci--;in which year he graduated ,m4,a4--,arthur ,helps was transferred to the service of ,lord ,morpeth1 who was ,irish ,secretary in the same ministry4 ,lord ,melbourne's ,ministry was succeeded by that of ,sir ,robert ,peel in ,september1 #ahda1 and ,helps then was appointed a ,commissioner of ,french1 ,danish1 and ,spanish ,claims4 ,in #ahda he published 8,essays ,written in the ,intervals of ,business40 ,their quiet thoughtfulness was in accord with the spirit that had given value to his services as private secretary to two ministers of ,state4 ,in #ahdd that little book was followed by another on 8,the ,claims of ,labour10 dealing with the relations of employers to employed4 ,there was the same scholarly simplicity and grace of style1 the same interest in things worth serious attention4 8,we say10 he wrote1 towards the close1 8that ,kings are ,god's ,vicegerents upon ,earth2 but almost every human being has1 at one time or other of his life1 a portion of the happiness of those around him in his power1 which might make him tremble1 if he did but see it in all its fulness40 ,to this book ,arthur ,helps added an essay 8,on the ,means of ,improving the ,health and ,increasing the ,comfort of the ,labouring ,classes40 ,his next book was this ,first ,series of 8,friends in ,council10 published in #ahdg1 and followed by other series in later years4 ,there were many other writings of his1 less popular than they would have been if the same abilities had been controlled by less good taste4 ,his 8,history of the ,conquest of the ,new ,world0 in #ahdh1 and of 8,the ,spanish ,conquest of ,america10 in four volumes1 from #ahee to #ahfa1 preceded his obtaining from his ,university1 in #ahfd1 the honorary degree of ,d4,c4,l4 ,in ,june1 #ahfj1 ,arthur ,helps was made ,clerk of the ,privy ,council1 and held that office of high trust until his death on the #gth of ,march1 #ahge4 ,he had become ,sir ,arthur in #ahgb4 ,h4 ,m4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,none but those who1 like myself1 have once lived in intellectual society1 and then have been deprived of it for years1 can appreciate the delight of finding it again4 ,not that ,i have any right to complain1 if ,i were fated to live as a recluse for ever4 ,i can add little1 or nothing1 to the pleasure of any company2 ,i like to listen rather than to talk2 and when anything apposite does occur to me1 it is generally the day after the conversation has taken place4 ,i do not1 however1 love good talk the less for these defects of mine2 and ,i console myself with thinking that ,i sustain the part of a judicious listener1 not always an easy one4 ,great1 then1 was my delight at hearing last year that my old pupil1 ,milverton1 had taken a house which had long been vacant in our neighbourhood4 ,to add to my pleasure1 his college friend1 ,ellesmere1 the great lawyer1 also an old pupil of mine1 came to us frequently in the course of the autumn4 ,milverton was at that time writing some essays which he occasionally read to ,ellesmere and myself4 ,the conversations which then took place ,i am proud to say that ,i have chronicled4 ,i think they must be interesting to the world in general1 though of course not so much so as to me4 ,milverton and ,ellesmere were my favourite pupils4 ,many is the heartache ,i have had at finding that those boys1 with all their abilities1 would do nothing at the ,university4 ,but it was in vain to urge them4 ,i grieve to say that neither of them had any ambition of the right kind4 ,once ,i thought ,i had stimulated ,ellesmere to the proper care and exertion2 when1 to my astonishment and vexation1 going into his rooms about a month before an examination1 ,i found that1 instead of getting up his subjects1 like a reasonable man1 he was absolutely endeavouring to invent some new method for proving something which had been proved before in a hundred ways4 ,over this he had wasted two days1 and from that moment ,i saw it was useless to waste any more of my time and patience in urging a scholar so indocile for the beaten path4 ,what tricks he and ,milverton used to play me1 pretending not to understand my demonstration of some mathematical problem1 inventing all manner of subtle difficulties1 and declaring they could not go on while these stumbling-blocks lay in their way6 ,but ,i am getting into college gossip1 which may in no way delight my readers4 ,and ,i am fancying1 too1 that ,milverton and ,ellesmere are the boys they were to me2 but ,i am now the child to them4 ,during the years that ,i have been quietly living here1 they have become versed in the ways of the busy world4 ,and though they never think of asserting their superiority1 ,i feel it1 and am glad to do so4 ,my readers would1 perhaps1 like one to tell them something of the characters of ,ellesmere and ,milverton2 but it would ill become me to give that insight into them1 which ,i1 their college friend and tutor1 imagine ,i have obtained4 ,their friendship ,i could never understand4 ,it was not on the surface very warm1 and their congeniality seemed to result more from one or two large common principles of thought than from any peculiar similarity of taste1 or from great affection on either side4 ,yet ,i should wrong their friendship if ,i were to represent it otherwise than a most true-hearted one2 more so1 perhaps1 than some of softer texture4 ,what needs be seen of them individually will be by their words1 which ,i hope ,i have in the main retained4 ,the place where we generally met in fine weather was on the lawn before ,milverton's house4 ,it was an eminence which commanded a series of valleys sloping towards the sea4 ,and1 as the sea was not more than nine miles off1 it was a matter of frequent speculation with us whether the landscape was bounded by air or water4 ,in the first valley was a little town of red brick houses1 with poplars coming up amongst them4 ,the ruins of a castle1 and some water which1 in olden times1 had been the lake in 8the pleasaunce10 were between us and the town4 ,the clang of an anvil1 or the clamour of a horn1 or busy wheelwright's sounds1 came faintly up to us when the wind was south4 ,i must not delay my readers longer with my gossip1 but bring them at once into the conversation that preceded our first reading4 99 99 99 99 99 ,milverton4 ,i tell you1 ,ellesmere1 these are the only heights ,i care to look down from1 the heights of natural scenery4 ,ellesmere4 ,pooh6 my dear ,milverton1 it is only because the particular mounds which the world calls heights1 you think you have found out to be but larger ant-heaps4 ,whenever you have cared about anything1 a man more fierce and unphilosophical in the pursuit of it ,i never saw4 ,to influence men's minds by writing for them1 is that no ambition8 ,milverton4 ,it may be1 but ,i have it not4 ,let any kind critic convince me that what ,i am now doing is useless1 or has been done before1 or that1 if ,i leave it undone1 some one else will do it to my mind2 and ,i should fold up my papers1 and watch the turnips grow in that field there1 with a placidity that would1 perhaps1 seem very spiritless to your now restless and ambitious nature1 ,ellesmere4 ,ellesmere4 ,if something were to happen which will not1 then--,o ,philosophy1 ,philosophy1 you1 too1 are a good old nurse1 and rattle your rattles for your little people1 as well as old ,dame ,world can do for hers4 ,but what are we to have to-day for our first reading8 ,milverton4 ,an ,essay on ,truth4 ,ellesmere4 ,well1 had ,i known this before1 it is not the novelty of the subject which would have dragged me up the hill to your house4 ,by the way1 philosophers ought not to live upon hills4 ,they are much more accessible1 and ,i think quite as reasonable1 when1 ,diogenes-like1 they live in tubs upon flat ground4 ,now for the essay4 ,,truth4 ,truth is a subject which men will not suffer to grow old4 ,each age has to fight with its own falsehoods3 each man with his love of saying to himself and those around him pleasant things and things serviceable for to-day1 rather than the things which are4 ,yet a child appreciates at once the divine necessity for truth2 never asks1 8,what harm is there in saying the thing that is not80 and an old man finds1 in his growing experience1 wider and wider applications of the great doctrine and discipline of truth4 ,truth needs the wisdom of the serpent as well as the simplicity of the dove4 ,he has gone but a little way in this matter who supposes that it is an easy thing for a man to speak the truth1 8the thing he troweth20 and that it is a casual function1 which may be fulfilled at once after any lapse of exercise4 ,but1 in the first place1 the man who would speak truth must know what he troweth4 ,to do that1 he must have an uncorrupted judgment4 ,by this is not meant a perfect judgment or even a wise one1 but one which1 however it may be biassed1 is not bought--is still a judgment4 ,but some people's judgments are so entirely gained over by vanity1 selfishness1 passion1 or inflated prejudices and fancies long indulged in2 or they have the habit of looking at everything so carelessly1 that they see nothing truly4 ,they cannot interpret the world of reality4 ,and this is the saddest form of lying1 8the lie that sinketh in10 as ,bacon says1 which becomes part of the character and goes on eating the rest away4 ,again1 to speak truth1 a man must not only have that martial courage which goes out1 with sound of drum and trumpet1 to do and suffer great things2 but that domestic courage which compels him to utter small sounding truths in spite of present inconvenience and outraged sensitiveness or sensibility4 ,then he must not be in any respect a slave to self-interest4 ,often it seems as if but a little misrepresentation would gain a great good for us2 or1 perhaps1 we have only to conceal some trifling thing1 which1 if told1 might hinder unreasonably1 as we think1 a profitable bargain4 ,the true man takes care to tell1 notwithstanding4 ,when we think that truth interferes at one time or another with all a man's likings1 hatings1 and wishes1 we must admit1 ,i think1 that it is the most comprehensive and varied form of self-denial4 ,then1 in addition to these great qualities1 truth-telling in its highest sense requires a well-balanced mind4 ,for instance1 much exaggeration1 perhaps the most1 is occasioned by an impatient and easily moved temperament which longs to convey its own vivid impressions to other minds1 and seeks by amplifying to gain the full measure of their sympathy4 ,but a true man does not think what his hearers are feeling1 but what he is saying4 ,more stress might be laid than has been on the intellectual requisites for truth1 which are probably the best part of intellectual cultivation2 and as much caused by truth as causing it4 #ab ,but1 putting the requisites for truth at the fewest1 see of how large a portion of the character truth is the resultant4 ,if you were to make a list of those persons accounted the religious men of their respective ages1 you would have a ludicrous combination of characters essentially dissimilar4 ,but true people are kindred4 ,mention the eminently true men1 and you will find that they are a brotherhood4 ,there is a family likeness throughout them4 99 99 99 99 99 ,if we consider the occasions of exercising truthfulness and descend to particulars1 we may divide the matter into the following heads3--truth to oneself--truth to mankind in general--truth in social relations--truth in business--truth in pleasure4 #a4 ,truth to oneself4 ,all men have a deep interest that each man should tell himself the truth4 ,not only will he become a better man1 but he will understand them better4 ,if men knew themselves1 they could not be intolerant to others4 ,it is scarcely necessary to say much about the advantage of a man knowing himself for himself4 ,to get at the truth of any history is good2 but a man's own history--when he reads that truly1 and1 without a mean and over-solicitous introspection1 knows what he is about and what he has been about1 it is a ,bible to him4 8,and ,david said unto ,nathan1 ,i have sinned before the ,lord40 ,david knew the truth about himself4 ,but truth to oneself is not merely truth about oneself4 ,it consists in maintaining an openness and justness of soul which brings a man into relation with all truth4 ,for this1 all the senses1 if you might so call them1 of the soul must be uninjured--that is1 the affections and the perceptions must be just4 ,for a man to speak the truth to himself comprehends all goodness2 and for us mortals can only be an aim4 #b4 ,truth to mankind in general4 ,this is a matter which1 as ,i read it1 concerns only the higher natures4 ,suffice it to say1 that the withholding large truths from the world may be a betrayal of the greatest trust4 #c4 ,truth in social relations4 ,under this head come the practices of making speech vary according to the person spoken to2 of pretending to agree with the world when you do not2 of not acting according to what is your deliberate and well-advised opinion because some mischief may be made of it by persons whose judgment in this matter you do not respect2 of maintaining a wrong course for the sake of consistency2 of encouraging the show of intimacy with those whom you never can be intimate with2 and many things of the same kind4 ,these practices have elements of charity and prudence as well as fear and meanness in them4 ,let those parts which correspond to fear and meanness be put aside4 ,charity and prudence are not parasitical plants which require boles of falsehood to climb up upon4 ,it is often extremely difficult in the mixed things of this world to act truly and kindly too2 but therein lies one of the great trials of man1 that his sincerity should have kindness in it1 and his kindness truth4 #d4 ,truth in business4 ,the more truth you can get into any business1 the better4 ,let the other side know the defects of yours1 let them know how you are to be satisfied1 let there be as little to be found as possible 7,i should say nothing71 and if your business be an honest one1 it will be best tended in this way4 ,the talking1 bargaining1 and delaying that would thus be needless1 the little that would then have to be done over again1 the anxiety that would be put aside1 would even in a worldly way be 8great gain40 ,it is not1 perhaps1 too much to say1 that the third part of men's lives is wasted by the effect1 direct or indirect1 of falsehoods4 ,still1 let us not be swift to imagine that lies are never of any service4 ,a recent ,prime ,minister said1 that he did not know about truth always prevailing and the like2 but lies had been very successful against his government4 ,and this was true enough4 ,every lie has its day4 ,there is no preternatural inefficacy in it by reason of its falseness4 ,and this is especially the case with those vague injurious reports which are no man's lies1 but all men's carelessness4 ,but even as regards special and unmistakable falsehood1 we must admit that it has its success4 ,a complete being might deceive with wonderful effect2 however1 as nature is always against a liar1 it is great odds in the case of ordinary mortals4 ,wolsey talks of 8,negligence ,fit for a fool to fall by10 when he gives ,henry the wrong packet2 but the ,cardinal was quite mistaken4 ,that kind of negligence was just the thing of which far-seeing and thoughtful men are capable2 and which1 if there were no higher motive1 should induce them to rely on truth alone4 ,a very close vulpine nature1 all eyes1 all ears1 may succeed better in deceit4 ,but it is a sleepless business4 ,yet1 strange to say1 it is had recourse to in the most spendthrift fashion1 as the first and easiest thing that comes to hand4 ,in connection with truth in business1 it may be observed that if you are a truthful man1 you should be watchful over those whom you employ2 for your subordinate agents are often fond of lying for your interests1 as they think4 ,show them at once that you do not think with them1 and that you will disconcert any of their inventions by breaking in with the truth4 ,if you suffer the fear of seeming unkind to prevent your thrusting well-meant inventions aside1 you may get as much pledged to falsehoods as if you had coined and uttered them yourself4 #e4 ,truth in pleasure4 ,men have been said to be sincere in their pleasures2 but this is only that the taste and habits of men are more easily discernible in pleasure than in business4 ,the want of truth is as great a hindrance to the one as to the other4 ,indeed1 there is so much insincerity and formality in the pleasurable department of human life1 especially in social pleasures1 that instead of a bloom there is a slime upon it1 which deadens and corrupts the thing4 ,one of the most comical sights to superior beings must be to see two human creatures with elaborate speech and gestures making each other exquisitely uncomfortable from civility3 the one pressing what he is most anxious that the other should not accept1 and the other accepting only from the fear of giving offence by refusal4 ,there is an element of charity in all this too2 and it will be the business of a just and refined nature to be sincere and considerate at the same time4 ,this will be better done by enlarging our sympathy1 so that more things and people are pleasant to us1 than by increasing the civil and conventional part of our nature1 so that we are able to do more seeming with greater skill and endurance4 ,of other false hindrances to pleasure1 such as ostentation and pretences of all kinds1 there is neither charity nor comfort in them4 ,they may be got rid of altogether1 and no moaning made over them4 ,truth1 which is one of the largest creatures1 opens out the way to the heights of enjoyment1 as well as to the depths of self-denial4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is difficult to think too highly of the merits and delights of truth2 but there is often in men's minds an exaggerated notion of some bit of truth1 which proves a great assistance to falsehood4 ,for instance1 the shame of some particular small falsehood1 exaggeration1 or insincerity1 becomes a bugbear which scares a man into a career of false dealing4 ,he has begun making a furrow a little out of the line1 and he ploughs on in it to try and give some consistency and meaning to it4 ,he wants almost to persuade himself that it was not wrong1 and entirely to hide the wrongness from others4 ,this is a tribute to the majesty of truth2 also to the world's opinion about truth4 ,it proceeds1 too1 upon the notion that all falsehoods are equal1 which is not the case2 or on some fond craving for a show of perfection1 which is sometimes very inimical to the reality4 ,the practical1 as well as the high-minded1 view in such cases1 is for a man to think how he can be true now4 ,to attain that1 it may1 even for this world1 be worth while for a man to admit that he is inconsistent1 and even that he has been untrue4 ,his hearers1 did they know anything of themselves1 would be fully aware that he was not singular1 except in the courage of owning his insincerity4 99 99 99 99 99 ,ellesmere4 ,that last part requires thinking about4 ,if you were to permit men1 without great loss of reputation1 to own that they had been insincere1 you might break down some of that majesty of truth you talk about4 ,and bad men might avail themselves of any facilities of owning insincerity1 to commit more of it4 ,i can imagine that the apprehension of this might restrain a man from making any such admission as you allude to1 even if he could make up his mind to do it otherwise4 ,milverton4 ,yes2 but can anything be worse than a man going on in a false course8 ,each man must look to his own truthfulness1 and keep that up as well as he can1 even at the risk of saying1 or doing1 something which may be turned to ill account by others4 ,we may think too much about this reflection of our external selves4 ,let the real self be right4 ,i am not so fanciful as to expect men to go about clamouring that they have been false2 but at no risk of letting people see that1 or of even being obliged to own it1 should they persevere in it4 ,dunsford4 ,milverton is right1 ,i think4 ,ellesmere4 ,do not imagine that ,i am behind either of you in a wish to hold up truth4 ,my only doubt was as to the mode4 ,for my own part1 ,i have such faith in truth that ,i take it mere concealment is in most cases a mischief4 ,and ,i should say1 for instance1 that a wise man would be sorry that his fellows should think better of him than he deserves4 ,by the way1 that is a reason why ,i should not like to be a writer of moral essays1 ,milverton--one should be supposed to be so very good4 ,milverton4 ,only by thoughtless people then4 ,there is a saying given to ,rousseau1 not that he ever did say it1 for ,i believe it was a misprint1 but it was a possible saying for him1 8,chaque homme qui pense est mchant40 ,now1 without going the length of this aphorism1 we may say that what has been well written has been well suffered4 8,he best can paint them who has felt them most40 ,and so1 though we should not exactly declare that writers who have had much moral influence have been wicked men1 yet we may admit that they have been amongst the most struggling1 which implies anything but serene self-possession and perfect spotlessness4 ,if you take the great ones1 ,luther1 ,shakespeare1 ,goethe1 you see this at once4 ,dunsford4 ,david1 ,st4 ,paul4 ,milverton4 ,such men are like great rocks on the seashore4 ,by their resistance1 terraces of level land are formed2 but the rocks themselves bear many scars and ugly indents1 while the sea of human difficulty presents the same unwrinkled appearance in all ages4 ,yet it has been driven back4 ,ellesmere4 ,but has it lost any of its bulk1 or only gone elsewhere8 ,one part of the resemblance certainly is that these same rocks1 which were bulwarks1 become1 in their turn1 dangers4 ,milverton4 ,yes1 there is always loss in that way4 ,it is seldom given to man to do unmixed good4 ,but it was not this aspect of the simile that ,i was thinking of3 it was the scarred appearance4 ,dunsford4 ,scars not always of defeat or flight2 scars in the front4 ,milverton4 ,ah1 it hardly does for us to talk of victory or defeat1 in these cases2 but we may look at the contest itself as something not bad1 terminate how it may4 ,we lament over a man's sorrows1 struggles1 disasters1 and shortcomings2 yet they were possessions too4 ,we talk of the origin of evil and the permission of evil4 ,but what is evil8 ,we mostly speak of sufferings and trials as good1 perhaps1 in their result2 but we hardly admit that they may be good in themselves4 ,yet they are knowledge--how else to be acquired1 unless by making men as gods1 enabling them to understand without experience4 ,all that men go through may be absolutely the best for them--no such thing as evil1 at least in our customary meaning of the word4 ,but1 you will say1 they might have been created different and higher4 ,see where this leads to4 ,any sentient being may set up the same claim3 a fly that it had not been made a man2 and so the end would be that each would complain of not being all4 ,ellesmere4 ,say it all over again1 my dear ,milverton3 it is rather hard4 ,milverton did so1 in nearly the same words4 ,i think ,i have heard it all before4 ,but you may have it as you please4 ,i do not say this irreverently1 but the truth is1 ,i am too old and too earthly to enter upon these subjects4 ,i think1 however1 that the view is a stout-hearted one4 ,it is somewhat in the same vein of thought that you see in ,carlyle's works about the contempt of happiness4 ,but in all these cases1 one is apt to think of the sage in 8,rasselas10 who is very wise about human misery till he loses his daughter4 ,your fly illustration has something in it4 ,certainly when men talk big about what might have been done for man1 they omit to think what might be said1 on similar grounds1 for each sentient creature in the universe4 ,but here have we been meandering off into origin of evil1 and uses of great men1 and wickedness of writers1 etc41 whereas ,i meant to have said something about the essay4 ,how would you answer what ,bacon maintains8 8,a mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure40 ,milverton4 ,he is not speaking of the lies of social life1 but of self-deception4 ,he goes on to class under that head 8vain opinions1 flattering hopes1 false valuations1 imaginations as one would40 ,these things are the sweetness of 8the lie that sinketh in40 ,many a man has a kind of mental kaleidoscope1 where the bits of broken glass are his own merits and fortunes1 and they fall into harmonious arrangements and delight him--often most mischievously and to his ultimate detriment1 but they are a present pleasure4 ,ellesmere4 ,well1 ,i am going to be true in my pleasures3 to take a long walk alone4 ,i have got a difficult case for an opinion1 which ,i must go and think over4 ,dunsford4 ,shall we have another reading tomorrow8 ,milverton4 ,yes1 if you are both in the humour for it4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,as the next day was fine1 we agreed to have our reading in the same spot that ,i have described before4 ,there was scarcely any conversation worth noting1 until after ,milverton had read us the following essay on ,conformity4 ,,conformity4 ,the conformity of men is often a far poorer thing than that which resembles it amongst the lower animals4 ,the monkey imitates from imitative skill and gamesomeness3 the sheep is gregarious1 having no sufficient will to form an independent project of its own4 ,but man often loathes what he imitates1 and conforms to what he knows to be wrong4 ,it will ever be one of the nicest problems for a man to solve how far he shall profit by the thoughts of other men1 and not be enslaved by them4 ,he comes into the world1 and finds swaddling clothes ready for his mind as well as his body4 ,there is a vast scheme of social machinery set up about him2 and he has to discern how he can make it work with him and for him1 without becoming part of the machinery himself4 ,in this lie the anguish and the struggle of the greatest minds4 ,most sad are they1 having mostly the deepest sympathies1 when they find themselves breaking off from communion with other minds4 ,they would go on1 if they could1 with the opinions around them4 ,but1 happily1 there is something to which a man owes a larger allegiance than to any human affection4 ,he would be content to go away from a false thing1 or quietly to protest against it2 but in spite of him the strife in his heart breaks into burning utterance by word or deed4 ,few1 however1 are those who venture1 even for the shortest time1 into that hazy world of independent thought1 where a man is not upheld by a crowd of other men's opinions1 but where he must find a footing of his own4 ,among the mass of men1 there is little or no resistance to conformity4 ,could the history of opinions be fully written1 it would be seen how large a part in human proceedings the love of conformity1 or rather the fear of non-conformity1 has occasioned4 ,it has triumphed over all other fears2 over love1 hate1 pity1 sloth1 anger1 truth1 pride1 comfort1 self-interest1 vanity1 and maternal love4 ,it has torn down the sense of beauty in the human soul1 and set up in its place little ugly idols which it compels us to worship with more than ,japanese devotion4 ,it has contradicted ,nature in the most obvious things1 and been listened to with abject submission4 ,its empire has been no less extensive than deep-seated4 ,the serf to custom points his finger at the slave to fashion--as if it signified whether it is an old or a new thing which is irrationally conformed to4 ,the man of letters despises both the slaves of fashion and of custom1 but often runs his narrow career of thought1 shut up1 though he sees it not1 within close walls which he does not venture even to peep over4 ,it is hard to say in what department of human thought and endeavour conformity has triumphed most4 ,religion comes to one's mind first2 and well it may when one thinks what men have conformed to in all ages in that matter4 ,if we pass to art1 or science1 we shall see there too the wondrous slavery which men have endured--from puny fetters1 moreover1 which one stirring thought would1 as we think1 have burst asunder4 ,the above1 however1 are matters not within every one's cognisance2 some of them are shut in by learning or the show of it2 and plain 8practical0 men would say1 they follow where they have no business but to follow4 ,but the way in which the human body shall be covered is not a thing for the scientific and the learned only3 and is allowed on all hands to concern1 in no small degree1 one half at least of the creation4 ,it is in such a simple thing as dress that each of us may form some estimate of the extent of conformity in the world4 ,a wise nation1 unsubdued by superstition1 with the collected experience of peaceful ages1 concludes that female feet are to be clothed by crushing them4 ,the still wiser nations of the west have adopted a swifter mode of destroying health1 and creating angularity1 by crushing the upper part of the female body4 ,in such matters nearly all people conform4 ,our brother man is seldom so bitter against us1 as when we refuse to adopt at once his notions of the infinite4 ,but even religious dissent were less dangerous and more respectable than dissent in dress4 ,if you want to see what men will do in the way of conformity1 take a ,european hat for your subject of meditation4 ,i dare say there are twenty-two millions of people at this minute each wearing one of these hats in order to please the rest4 ,as in the fine arts1 and in architecture1 especially1 so in dress1 something is often retained that was useful when something else was beside it4 ,to go to architecture for an instance1 a pinnacle is retained1 not that it is of any use where it is1 but in another kind of building it would have been4 ,that style of building1 as a whole1 has gone out of fashion1 but the pinnacle has somehow or other kept its ground and must be there1 no one insolently going back to first principles and asking what is the use and object of building pinnacles4 ,similar instances in dress will occur to my readers4 ,some of us are not skilled in such affairs2 but looking at old pictures we may sometimes see how modern clothes have attained their present pitch of frightfulness and inconvenience4 ,this matter of dress is one in which1 perhaps1 you might expect the wise to conform to the foolish2 and they have4 ,when we have once come to a right estimate of the strength of conformity1 we shall1 ,i think1 be more kindly disposed to eccentricity than we usually are4 ,even a wilful or an absurd eccentricity is some support against the weighty common-place conformity of the world4 ,if it were not for some singular people who persist in thinking for themselves1 in seeing for themselves1 and in being comfortable1 we should all collapse into a hideous uniformity4 ,it is worth while to analyse that influence of the world which is the right arm of conformity4 ,some persons bend to the world in all things1 from an innocent belief that what so many people think must be right4 ,others have a vague fear of the world as of some wild beast which may spring out upon them at any time4 ,tell them they are safe in their houses from this myriad-eyed creature3 they still are sure that they shall meet with it some day1 and would propitiate its favour at any sacrifice4 ,many men contract their idea of the world to their own circle1 and what they imagine to be said in that circle of friends and acquaintances is their idea of public opinion--8as if10 to use a saying of ,southey's1 8a number of worldlings made a world40 ,with some unfortunate people1 the much dreaded 8world0 shrinks into one person of more mental power than their own1 or perhaps merely of coarser nature2 and the fancy as to what this person will say about anything they do1 sits upon them like a nightmare4 ,happy the man who can embark his small adventure of deeds and thoughts upon the shallow waters round his home1 or send them afloat on the wide sea of humanity1 with no great anxiety in either case as to what reception they may meet with6 ,he would have them steer by the stars1 and take what wind may come to them4 ,a reasonable watchfulness against conformity will not lead a man to spurn the aid of other men1 still less to reject the accumulated mental capital of ages4 ,it does not compel us to dote upon the advantages of savage life4 ,we would not forego the hard-earned gains of civil society because there is something in most of them which tends to contract the natural powers1 although it vastly aids them4 ,we would not1 for instance1 return to the monosyllabic utterance of barbarous men1 because in any formed language there are a thousand snares for the understanding4 ,yet we must be most watchful of them4 ,and in all things1 a man must beware of so conforming himself as to crush his nature and forego the purpose of his being4 ,we must look to other standards than what men may say or think4 ,we must not abjectly bow down before rules and usages2 but must refer to principles and purposes4 ,in few words1 we must think1 not whom we are following1 but what we are doing4 ,if not1 why are we gifted with individual life at all8 ,uniformity does not consist with the higher forms of vitality4 ,even the leaves of the same tree are said to differ1 each one from all the rest4 ,and can it be good for the soul of a man 8with a biography of his own like to no one else's10 to subject itself without thought to the opinions and ways of others3 not to grow into symmetry1 but to be moulded down into conformity8 99 99 99 99 99 ,ellesmere4 ,well1 ,i rather like that essay4 ,i was afraid1 at first1 it was going to have more of the fault into which you essay writers generally fall1 of being a comment on the abuse of a thing1 and not on the thing itself4 ,there always seems to me to want another essay on the other side4 ,but ,i think1 at the end1 you protect yourself against misconstruction4 ,in the spirit of the essay1 you know1 of course1 that ,i quite agree with you4 ,indeed1 ,i differ from all the ordinary biographers of that independent gentleman1 ,don't ,care4 ,i believe ,don't ,care came to a good end4 ,at any rate he came to some end4 ,whereas numbers of people never have beginning1 or ending1 of their own4 ,an obscure dramatist1 ,milverton1 whom we know of1 makes one of his characters say1 in reply to some world-fearing wretch3 8,while you1 you think ,what others think1 or what you think they'll say1 ,shaping your course by something scarce more tangible ,than dreams1 at best the shadows on the stream ,of aspen leaves by flickering breezes swayed-- ,load me with irons1 drive me from morn till night1 ,i am not the utter slave which that man is ,whose sole word1 thought1 and deed are built on what ,the world may say of him40 ,milverton4 ,never mind the obscure dramatist4 ,but1 ,ellesmere1 you really are unreasonable1 if you suppose that1 in the limits of a short essay1 you can accurately distinguish all you write between the use and the abuse of a thing4 ,the question is1 will people misunderstand you--not1 is the language such as to be logically impregnable8 ,now1 in the present case1 no man will really suppose it is a wise and just conformity that ,i am inveighing against4 ,ellesmere4 ,i am not sure of that4 ,if everybody is to have independent thought1 would there not be a fearful instability and want of compactness8 ,another thing1 too--conformity often saves so much time and trouble4 ,milverton4 ,yes2 it has its uses4 ,i do not mean1 in the world of opinion and morality1 that it should be all elasticity and no gravitation2 but at least enough elasticity to preserve natural form and independent being4 ,ellesmere4 ,i think it would have been better if you had turned the essay another way1 and instead of making it on conformity1 had made it on interference4 ,that is the greater mischief and the greater folly1 ,i think4 ,why do people unreasonably conform8 ,because they feel unreasonable interference4 ,war1 ,i say1 is interference on a small scale compared with the interference of private life4 ,then the absurdity on which it proceeds2 that men are all alike1 or that it is desirable that they should be2 and that what is good for one is good for all4 ,dunsford4 ,i must say1 ,i think1 ,milverton1 you do not give enough credit for sympathy1 good-nature1 and humility as material elements in the conformity of the world4 ,ellesmere4 ,i am not afraid1 my dear ,dunsford1 of the essay doing much harm4 ,there is a power of sleepy conformity in the world4 ,you may just startle your conformists for a minute1 but they gravitate into their old way very soon4 ,you talk of their humility1 ,dunsford1 but ,i have heard people who have conformed to opinions1 without a pretence of investigation1 as arrogant and intolerant towards anybody who differed from them1 as if they stood upon a pinnacle of independent sagacity and research4 ,dunsford4 ,one never knows1 ,ellesmere1 on which side you are4 ,i thought you were on mine a minute or two ago2 and now you come down upon me with more than ,milverton's anti-conforming spirit4 ,ellesmere4 ,the greatest mischief1 as ,i take it1 of this slavish conformity1 is in the reticence it creates4 ,people will be1 what are called1 intimate friends1 and yet no real interchange of opinion takes place between them4 ,a man keeps his doubts1 his difficulties1 and his peculiar opinions to himself4 ,he is afraid of letting anybody know that he does not exactly agree with the world's theories on all points4 ,there is no telling the hindrance that this is to truth4 ,milverton4 ,a great cause of this1 ,ellesmere1 is in the little reliance you can have on any man's secrecy4 ,a man finds that what1 in the heat of discussion1 and in the perfect carelessness of friendship1 he has said to his friend1 is quoted to people whom he would never have said it to2 knowing that it would be sure to be misunderstood1 or half-understood1 by them4 ,and so he grows cautious2 and is very loth to communicate to anybody his more cherished opinions1 unless they fall in exactly with the stream4 ,added to which1 ,i think there is in these times less than there ever was of a proselytising spirit2 and people are content to keep their opinions to themselves--more perhaps from indifference than from fear4 ,ellesmere4 ,yes1 ,i agree with you4 ,by the way1 ,i think your taking dress as an illustration of extreme conformity is not bad4 ,really it is wonderful the degree of square and dull hideousness to which1 in the process of time and tailoring1 and by severe conformity1 the human creature's outward appearance has arrived4 ,look at a crowd of men from a height1 what an ugly set of ants they appear6 ,myself1 when ,i see an ,eastern man1 one of the people attached to their embassies1 sweeping by us in something flowing and stately1 ,i feel inclined to take off my hat to him 7only that ,i think the hat might frighten him71 and say1 ,here is a great1 unhatted1 uncravated1 bearded man1 not a creature clipt and twisted and tortured into tailorhood4 ,dunsford4 ,ellesmere broke in upon me just now1 so that ,i did not say all that ,i meant to say4 ,but1 ,milverton1 what would you admit that we are to conform to8 ,in silencing the general voice1 may we not give too much opportunity to our own headstrong suggestions1 and to wilful licence8 ,milverton4 ,yes3 to be somewhat deaf to the din of the world may be no gain1 even loss1 if then we only listen more to the worst part of ourselves2 but in itself it is a good thing to silence that din4 ,it is at least a beginning of good4 ,if anything good is then gained1 it is not a sheepish tendency1 but an independent resolve growing out of our nature4 ,and1 after all1 when we talk of non-conformity1 it may only be that we non-conform to the immediate sect of thought or action about us1 to conform to a much wider thing in human nature4 ,ellesmere4 ,ah me6 how one wants a moral essayist always at hand to enable one to make use of moral essays4 ,milverton4 ,your rules of law are grand things--the proverbs of justice2 yet has not each case its specialities1 requiring to be argued with much circumstance1 and capable of different interpretations8 ,words cannot be made into men4 ,dunsford4 ,i wonder you answer his sneers1 ,milverton4 ,ellesmere4 ,i must go and see whether words cannot be made into guineas3 and then guineas into men is an easy thing4 ,these trains will not wait even for critics1 so1 for the present1 good-bye4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,ellesmere soon wrote us word that he would be able to come down again2 and ,i agreed to be at ,worth-,ashton 7,milverton's house7 on the day of his arrival4 ,i had scarcely seated myself at our usual place of meeting before the friends entered1 and after greeting me1 the conversation thus began3 ,ellesmere4 ,upon my word1 you people who live in the country have a pleasant time of it4 ,as ,milverton was driving me from the station through ,durley ,wood1 there was such a rich smell of pines1 such a twittering of birds1 so much joy1 sunshine1 and beauty1 that ,i began to think1 if there were no such place as ,london1 it really would be very desirable to live in the country4 ,milverton4 ,what a climax6 ,but ,i am always very suspicious1 when ,ellesmere appears to be carried away by any enthusiasm1 that it will break off suddenly1 like the gallop of a post-horse4 ,dunsford4 ,well1 what are we to have for our essay6 ,milverton4 ,despair4 ,ellesmere4 ,i feel equal to anything just now1 and so1 if it must be read sometime or other1 let us have it now4 ,milverton4 ,you need not be afraid4 ,i want to take away1 not to add gloom4 ,shall ,i read8 ,we assented1 and he began4 ,,despair4 ,despair may be serviceable when it arises from a temporary prostration of spirits3 during which the mind is insensibly healing1 and her scattered power silently returning4 ,this is better than to be the sport of a teasing hope without reason4 ,but to indulge in despair as a habit is slothful1 cowardly1 short-sighted2 and manifestly tends against ,nature4 ,despair is then the paralysis of the soul4 ,these are the principal causes of despair--remorse1 the sorrows of the affections1 worldly trouble1 morbid views of religion1 native melancholy4 ,,remorse4 ,remorse does but add to the evil which bred it1 when it promotes1 not penitence1 but despair4 ,to have erred in one branch of our duties does not unfit us for the performance of all the rest1 unless we suffer the dark spot to spread over our whole nature1 which may happen almost unobserved in the torpor of despair4 ,this kind of despair is chiefly grounded on a foolish belief that individual words or actions constitute the whole life of man3 whereas they are often not fair representatives of portions even of that life4 ,the fragments of rock in a mountain stream may tell much of its history1 are in fact results of its doings1 but they are not the stream4 ,they were brought down when it was turbid2 it may now be clear3 they are as much the result of other circumstances as of the action of the stream2 their history is fitful3 they give us no sure intelligence of the future course of the stream1 or of the nature of its waters2 and may scarcely show more than that it has not been always as it is4 ,the actions of men are often but little better indications of the men themselves4 ,a prolonged despair arising from remorse is unreasonable at any age1 but if possible1 still more so when felt by the young4 ,to think1 for example1 that the great ,being who made us could have made eternal ruin and misery inevitable to a poor half-fledged creature of eighteen or nineteen6 ,and yet how often has the profoundest despair from remorse brooded over children of that age and eaten into their hearts4 ,there is frequently much selfishness about remorse4 ,put what has been done at the worst4 ,let a man see his own evil word1 or deed1 in full light1 and own it to be black as hell itself4 ,he is still here4 ,he cannot be isolated4 ,there still remain for him cares and duties2 and1 therefore1 hopes4 ,let him not in imagination link all creation to his fate4 ,let him yet live in the welfare of others1 and1 if it may be so1 work out his own in this way3 if not1 be content with theirs4 ,the saddest cause of remorseful despair is when a man does something expressly contrary to his character3 when an honourable man1 for instance1 slides into some dishonourable action2 or a tender-hearted man falls into cruelty from carelessness2 or1 as often happens1 a sensitive nature continues to give the greatest pain to others from temper1 feeling all the time1 perhaps1 more deeply than the persons aggrieved4 ,all these cases may be summed up in the words1 8,that which ,i would not that ,i do10 the saddest of all human confessions1 made by one of the greatest men4 ,however1 the evil cannot be mended by despair4 ,hope and humility are the only supports under this burden4 ,as ,mr4 ,carlyle says1 8,what are faults1 what are the outward details of a life2 if the inner secret of it1 the remorse1 temptations1 true1 often-baffled1 never-ended struggle of it1 be forgotten4 #8,it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps4' ,of all acts1 is not1 for a man1 repentance the most divine8 ,the deadliest sin1 ,i say1 were that same supercilious consciousness of no sin2 that is death3 the heart so conscious is divorced from sincerity1 humility1 and fact2 is dead3 it is #8pure' as dead dry sand is pure4 ,david's life and history1 as written for us in those ,psalms of his1 ,i consider to be the truest emblem ever given of a man's moral progress and warfare here below4 ,all earnest souls will ever discern in it the faithful struggle of an earnest human soul towards what is good and best4 ,struggle often baffled1 sore baffled1 down as into entire wreck2 yet a struggle never ended2 ever1 with tears1 repentance1 true unconquerable purpose1 begun anew4 ,poor human nature6 is not a man's walking1 in truth1 always that3 a #8succession of falls6' ,man can do no other4 ,in this wild element of a ,life1 he has to struggle onwards2 now fallen1 deep abased2 and ever1 with tears1 repentance1 with bleeding heart1 he has to rise again1 struggle again still onwards4 ,that his struggle be a faithful unconquerable one3 this is the question of questions40 ,,the ,,sorrows ,,of ,,the ,,affections4 ,the loss by death of those we love has the first place in these sorrows4 ,yet the feeling in this case1 even when carried to the highest1 is not exactly despair1 having too much warmth in it for that4 ,not much can be said in the way of comfort on this head4 ,queen ,elizabeth1 in her hard1 wise way1 writing to a mother who had lost her son1 tells her that she will be comforted in time2 and why should she not do for herself what the mere lapse of time will do for her8 ,brave words6 and the stern woman1 more earnest than the sage in 8,rasselas10 would have tried their virtue on herself4 ,but ,i fear they fell somewhat coldly on the mother's ear4 ,happily1 in these bereavements1 kind ,nature with her opiates1 day by day administered1 does more than all the skill of the physician moralists4 ,sir ,thomas ,browne says1 8,darkness and light divide the course of time1 and oblivion shares with memory a great part even of our living beings2 we slightly remember our felicities1 and the smartest strokes of affliction leave but short smart upon us4 ,sense endureth no extremities1 and sorrows destroy us or themselves4 ,to weep into stones are fables4 ,afflictions induce callosities1 miseries are slippery1 or fall like snow upon us1 which1 notwithstanding1 is no unhappy stupidity4 ,to be ignorant of evils to come1 and forgetful of evils past1 is a merciful provision in ,nature1 whereby we digest the mixture of our few and evil days1 and our delivered senses not relapsing into cutting remembrances1 our sorrows are not kept raw by the edge of repetitions40 ,the good knight thus makes much comfort out of our physical weakness4 ,but something may be done in a very different direction1 namely1 by spiritual strength4 ,by elevating and purifying the sorrow1 we may take it more out of matter1 as it were1 and so feel less the loss of what is material about it4 ,the other sorrows of the affections which may produce despair1 are those in which the affections are wounded1 as jealousy1 love unrequited1 friendship betrayed and the like4 ,as1 in despair from remorse1 the whole life seems to be involved in one action3 so in the despair we are now considering1 the whole life appears to be shut up in the one unpropitious affection4 ,yet human nature1 if fairly treated1 is too large a thing to be suppressed into despair by one affection1 however potent4 ,we might imagine that if there were anything that would rob life of its strength and favour1 it is domestic unhappiness4 ,and yet how numerous is the bond of those whom we know to have been eminently unhappy in some domestic relation1 but whose lives have been full of vigorous and kindly action4 ,indeed the culture of the world has been largely carried on by such men4 ,as long as there is life in the plant1 though it be sadly pent in1 it will grow towards any opening of light that is left for it4 ,,worldly ,,trouble4 ,this appears too mean a subject for despair1 or1 at least1 unworthy of having any remedy1 or soothing thought out of it4 ,whether a man lives in a large room or a small one1 rides or is obliged to walk1 gets a plenteous dinner every day1 or a sparing one1 do not seem matters for despair4 ,but the truth is1 that worldly trouble1 such for instance1 as loss of fortune1 is seldom the simple thing that poets would persuade us4 8,the little or the much she gave is quietly resigned2 ,content with poverty1 my soul ,i arm1 ,and virtue1 though in rags will keep me warm40 ,so sings ,dryden1 paraphrasing ,horace1 but each of them with their knowledge of the world1 cross-questioned in prose1 could have told us how the stings of fortune really are felt4 ,the truth is1 that fortune is not exactly a distinct isolated thing which can be taken away--8and there an end40 ,but much has to be severed1 with undoubted pain in the operation4 ,a man mostly feels that his reputation for sagacity1 often his honour1 the comfort1 too1 or supposed comfort1 of others are embarked in his fortunes4 ,mere stoicism1 and resolves about fitting fortune to oneself1 not oneself to fortune1 though good things enough in their way1 will not always meet the whole of the case4 ,and a man who could bear personal distress of any kind with ,spartan indifference1 may suffer himself to be overwhelmed by despair growing out of worldly trouble4 ,a frequent origin of such despair1 as indeed of all despair 7not by any means excluding despair from remorse71 is pride4 ,let a man say to himself1 8,i am not the perfect character ,i meant to be2 this is not the conduct ,i had imagined for myself2 these are not the fortunate circumstances ,i had always intended to be surrounded by40 ,let him at once admit that he is on a lower level than his ideal one2 and then see what is to be done there4 ,this seems the best way of treating all that part of worldly trouble which consists of self-reproval4 ,we scarcely know of any outward life continuously prosperous 7and a very dull one it would be73 why should we expect the inner life to be one course of unbroken self-improvement1 either in prudence1 or in virtue8 ,before a man gives way to excessive grief about the fortunes of his family being lost with his own1 he should think whether he really knows wherein lies the welfare of others4 ,give him some fairy power1 inexhaustible purses or magic lamps1 not1 however1 applying to the mind2 and see whether he could make those whom he would favour good or happy4 ,in the ,east1 they have a proverb of this kind1 ,happy are the children of those fathers who go to the ,evil ,one4 ,but for anything that our ,western experience shows1 the proverb might be reversed1 and1 instead of running thus1 ,happy are the sons of those who have got money anyhow1 it might be1 ,happy are the sons of those who have failed in getting money4 ,in fact1 there is no sound proverb to be made about it either way4 ,we know nothing about the matter4 ,our surest influence for good or evil over others is1 through themselves4 ,our ignorance of what is physically good for any man may surely prevent anything like despair with regard to that part of the fortunes of others dear to us1 which1 as we think1 is bound up with our own4 ,,morbid ,,views ,,of ,,religion4 ,as religion is the most engrossing subject that can be presented to us1 it will be considered in all states of mind and by all minds4 ,it is impossible but that the most hideous and perverted views of religion must arise4 ,to combat the particular views which may be supposed to cause religious despair1 would be too theological an undertaking for this essay4 ,one thing only occurs to me to say1 namely1 that the lives and the mode of speaking about themselves adopted by the founders of ,christianity1 afford the best contradiction to religious melancholy that ,i believe can be met with4 ,,native ,,melancholy4 ,there is such a thing4 ,jacques1 without the 8sundry contemplation0 of his travels1 or any 8simples0 to 8compound0 his melancholy form1 would have ever been wrapped in a 8most humorous sadness40 ,it was innate4 ,this melancholy may lay its votaries open to any other cause of despair1 but having mostly some touch of philosophy 7if it be not absolutely morbid71 it is not unlikely to preserve them from any extremity4 ,it is not acute1 but chronic4 ,it may be said in its favour that it tends to make men indifferent to their own fortunes4 ,but then the sorrow of the world presses more deeply upon them4 ,with large open hearts1 the untowardness of things present1 the miseries of the past1 the mischief1 stupidity1 and error which reign in the world1 at times almost crush your melancholy men4 ,still1 out of their sadness may come their strength1 or1 at least1 the best direction of it4 ,nothing1 perhaps1 is lost2 not even sin--much less sorrow4 ,ellesmere4 ,i am glad you have ended as you have3 for1 previously1 you seemed to make too much of getting rid of all distress of mind4 ,i always liked that passage in 8,philip van ,artevelde10 where ,father ,john says1 8,he that lacks time to mourn1 lacks time to mend4 ,eternity mourns that40 ,you have a better memory than ,i have3 how does it go on8 ,milverton4 8',tis an ill cure ,for life's worst ills1 to have no time to feel them4 ,where sorrow's held intrusive and turned out1 ,there wisdom will not enter1 nor true power1 ,nor aught that dignifies humanity40 ,still this does not justify despair1 which was what ,i was writing about4 ,ellesmere4 ,perhaps it was not a just criticism of mine4 ,one part of the subject you have certainly omitted4 ,you do not tell us how much there often is of physical disorder in despair4 ,i dare say you will think it a coarse and unromantic mode of looking at things2 but ,i must confess ,i agree with what ,leigh ,hunt has said somewhere1 that one can walk down distress of mind--even remorse1 perhaps4 ,milverton4 ,yes2 ,i am for the ,peripatetics against all other philosophers4 ,ellesmere4 ,by the way1 there is a passage in one of ,hazlitt's essays1 ,i thought of while you were reading1 about remorse and religious melancholy4 ,he speaks of mixing up religion and morality2 and then goes on to say1 that ,calvinistic notions have obscured and prevented self-knowledge4 #db ,give me the essay--there is a passage ,i want to look at4 ,this comparison of life to a mountain stream1 the rocks brought down by it being the actions1 is too much worked out4 ,when we speak of similes not going on four legs1 it implies1 ,i think1 that a simile is at best but a four-legged animal4 ,now this is almost a centipede of a simile4 ,i think ,i have had the same thought as yours here1 and ,i have compared the life of an individual to a curve4 ,you both smile4 ,now ,i thought that ,dunsford at any rate would be pleased with this reminiscence of college days4 ,but to proceed with my curve4 ,you may have numbers of the points through which it passes given1 and yet know nothing of the nature of the curve itself4 ,see1 now1 it shall pass through here and here1 but how it will go in the interval1 what is the law of its being1 we know not4 ,but this simile would be too mathematical1 ,i fear4 ,milverton4 ,i hold to the centipede4 ,ellesmere4 ,not a word has ,dunsford said all this time4 ,dunsford4 ,i like the essay4 ,i was not criticising as we went along1 but thinking that perhaps the greatest charm of books is1 that we see in them that other men have suffered what we have4 ,some souls we ever find who could have responded to all our agony1 be it what it may4 ,this at least robs misery of its loneliness4 ,ellesmere4 ,on the other hand1 the charm of intercourse with our fellows1 when we are in sadness1 is that they do not reflect it in any way4 ,each keeps his own trouble to himself1 and often pretending to think and care about other things1 comes to do so for the time4 ,dunsford4 ,well1 but you might choose books which would not reflect your troubles4 ,ellesmere4 ,but the fact of having to make a choice to do this1 does away1 perhaps1 with some part of the benefit3 whereas1 in intercourse with living men1 you take what you find1 and you find that neither your trouble1 nor any likeness of it1 is absorbing other people4 ,but this is not the whole reason3 the truth is1 the life and impulses of other men are catching2 you cannot explain exactly how it is that they take you out of yourself4 ,milverton4 ,no man is so confidential as when he is addressing the whole world4 ,you find1 therefore1 more comfort for sorrow in books than in social intercourse4 ,i mean more direct comfort2 for ,i agree with what ,ellesmere says about society4 ,ellesmere4 ,in comparing men and books1 one must always remember this important distinction--that one can put the books down at any time4 ,as ,macaulay says1 8,plato is never sullen4 ,cervantes is never petulant4 ,demosthenes never comes unseasonably4 ,dante never stays too long40 ,milverton4 ,besides1 one can manage to agree so well1 intellectually1 with a book2 and intellectual differences are the source of half the quarrels in the world4 ,ellesmere4 ,judicious shelving6 ,milverton4 ,judicious skipping will nearly do4 ,now when one's friend1 or oneself1 is crotchety1 dogmatic1 or disputatious1 one cannot turn over to another day4 ,ellesmere4 ,don't go1 ,dunsford4 ,here is a passage in the essay ,i meant to have said something about--8why should we expect the inner life to be one course of unbroken self-improvement10 etc4--,you recollect8 ,well1 it puts me in mind of a conversation between a complacent poplar and a grim old oak1 which ,i overheard the other day4 ,the poplar said that it grew up quite straight1 heavenwards1 that all its branches pointed the same way1 and always had done so4 ,turning to the oak1 which it had been talking at before for some time1 the poplar went on to remark1 that it did not wish to say anything unfriendly to a brother of the forest1 but those warped and twisted branches seemed to show strange struggles4 ,the tall thing concluded its oration by saying1 that it grew up very fast1 and that when it had done growing1 it did not suffer itself to be made into huge floating engines of destruction4 ,but different trees had different tastes4 ,there was then a sound from the old oak1 like an 8ah0 or a 8whew10 or1 perhaps1 it was only the wind amongst its resisting branches2 and the gaunt creature said that it had had ugly winds from without and cross-grained impulses from within2 that it knew it had thrown out awkwardly a branch here and a branch there1 which would never come quite right again it feared2 that men worked it up1 sometimes for good and sometimes for evil--but that at any rate it had not lived for nothing4 ,the poplar began again immediately1 for this kind of tree can talk for ever1 but ,i patted the old oak approvingly and went on4 ,milverton4 ,well1 your trees divide their discourse somewhat ,ellesmerically3 they do not talk with the simplicity ,la ,fontaine's would2 but there is a good deal in them4 ,they are not altogether sappy4 ,ellesmere4 ,i really thought of this fable of mine the other day1 as ,i was passing the poplar at the end of the valley1 and ,i determined to give it you on the first occasion4 ,dunsford4 ,i hope1 ,ellesmere1 you do not intend to put sarcastic notions into the sap of our trees hereabouts4 ,there's enough of sarcasm in you to season a whole forest4 ,ellesmere4 ,dunsford is afraid of what the trees may say to the country gentlemen1 and whether they will be able to answer them4 ,i will be careful not to make the trees too clever4 ,milverton4 ,let us go and try if we can hear any more forest talk4 ,the winds1 shaped into voices by the leaves1 say many things to us at all times4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,in the course of our walk ,milverton promised to read the following essay on ,recreation the next day4 ,i have no note of anything that was said before the reading4 ,,recreation4 ,this subject has not had the thought it merits4 ,it seems trivial4 ,it concerns some hours in the daily life of each of us2 but it is not connected with any subject of human grandeur1 and we are rather ashamed of it4 ,schiller has some wise1 but hard words that relate to it4 ,he perceives the pre-eminence of the ,greeks1 who could do many things4 ,he finds that modern men are units of great nations2 but not great units themselves4 ,and there is some room for this reasoning of his4 ,our modern system of division of labour divides wits also4 ,the more necessity there is1 therefore1 for funding in recreation something to expand men's intelligence4 ,there are intellectual pursuits almost as much divided as pin-making2 and many a man goes through some intellectual process1 for the greater part of his working hours1 which corresponds with the making of a pin's head4 ,must there not be some danger of a general contraction of mind from this convergence of attention upon something very small1 for so considerable a portion of a man's life8 ,what answer can civilisation give to this8 ,it can say that greater results are worked out by the modern system2 that though each man is doing less himself than he might have done in former days1 he sees greater and better things accomplished2 and that his thoughts1 not bound down by his petty occupation1 travel over the work of the human family4 ,there is a great deal1 doubtless1 in this argument2 but man is not altogether an intellectual recipient4 ,he is a constructive animal also4 ,it is not the knowledge that you can pour into him that will satisfy him1 or enable him to work out his nature4 ,he must see things for himself2 he must have bodily work and intellectual work different from his bread-getting work2 or he runs the danger of becoming a contracted pedant with a poor mind and a sickly body4 ,i have seen it quoted from ,aristotle1 that the end of labour is to gain leisure4 ,it is a great saying4 ,we have in modern times a totally wrong view of the matter4 ,noble work is a noble thing1 but not all work4 ,most people seem to think that any business is in itself something grand2 that to be intensely employed1 for instance1 about something which has no truth1 beauty1 or usefulness in it1 which makes no man happier or wiser1 is still the perfection of human endeavour1 so that the work be intense4 ,it is the intensity1 not the nature1 of the work that men praise4 ,you see the extent of this feeling in little things4 ,people are so ashamed of being caught for a moment idle1 that if you come upon the most industrious servants or workmen whilst they are standing looking at something which interests them1 or fairly resting1 they move off in a fright1 as if they were proved1 by a moment's relaxation1 to be neglectful of their work4 ,yet it is the result that they should mainly be judged by1 and to which they should appeal4 ,but amongst all classes1 the working itself1 incessant working1 is the thing deified4 ,now what is the end and object of most work8 ,to provide for animal wants4 ,not a contemptible thing by any means1 but still it is not all in all with man4 ,moreover1 in those cases where the pressure of bread-getting is fairly past1 we do not often find men's exertions lessened on that account4 ,there enter into their minds as motives1 ambition1 a love of hoarding1 or a fear of leisure--things which1 in moderation1 may be defended or even justified2 but which are not so peremptory1 and upon the face of them excellent1 that they at once dignify excessive labour4 ,the truth is1 that to work insatiably requires much less mind than to work judiciously1 and less courage than to refuse work that cannot be done honestly4 ,for a hundred men whose appetite for work can be driven on by vanity1 avarice1 ambition1 or a mistaken notion of advancing their families1 there is about one who is desirous of expanding his own nature and the nature of others in all directions1 of cultivating many pursuits1 of bringing himself and those around him in contact with the universe in many points1 of being a man and not a machine4 ,it may seem as if the preceding arguments were directed rather against excessive work than in favour of recreation4 ,but the first object in an essay of this kind should be to bring down the absurd estimate that is often formed of mere work4 ,what ritual is to the formalist1 or contemplation to the devotee1 business is to the man of the world4 ,he thinks he cannot be doing wrong as long as he is doing that4 ,no doubt hard work is a great police agent4 ,if everybody were worked from morning till night and then carefully locked up1 the register of crimes might be greatly diminished4 ,but what would become of human nature8 ,where would be the room for growth in such a system of things8 ,it is through sorrow and mirth1 plenty and need1 a variety of passions1 circumstances1 and temptations1 even through sin and misery1 that men's natures are developed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,again1 there are people who would say1 8,labour is not all2 we do not object to the cessation of labour--a mere provision for bodily ends2 but we fear the lightness and vanity of what you call recreation40 ,do these people take heed of the swiftness of thought--of the impatience of thought8 ,what will the great mass of men be thinking of1 if they are taught to shun amusements and the thoughts of amusement8 ,if any sensuality is left open to them1 they will think of that4 ,if not sensuality1 then avarice1 or ferocity for 8the cause of ,god10 as they would call it4 ,people who have had nothing else to amuse them have been very apt to indulge themselves in the excitement of persecuting their fellow creatures4 ,our nation1 the northern part of it especially1 is given to believe in the sovereign efficacy of dulness4 ,to be sure1 dulness and solid vice are apt to go hand in hand4 ,but then1 according to our notions1 dulness is in itself so good a thing--almost a religion4 ,now1 if ever a people required to be amused1 it is we sad-hearted ,anglo-,saxons4 ,heavy eaters1 hard thinkers1 often given up to a peculiar melancholy of our own1 with a climate that for months together would frown away mirth if it could--many of us with very gloomy thoughts about our hereafter--if ever there were a people who should avoid increasing their dulness by all work and no play1 we are that people4 8,they took their pleasure sadly10 says ,froissart1 8after their fashion40 ,we need not ask of what nation ,froissart was speaking4 ,there is a theory which has done singular mischief to the cause of recreation and of general cultivation4 ,it is that men cannot excel in more things than one2 and that if they can1 they had better be quiet about it4 8,avoid music1 do not cultivate art1 be not known to excel in any craft but your own10 says many a worldly parent1 thereby laying the foundation of a narrow1 greedy character1 and destroying means of happiness and of improvement which success1 or even real excellence1 in one profession only cannot give4 ,this is1 indeed1 a sacrifice of the end of living for the means4 ,another check to recreation is the narrow way in which people have hitherto been brought up at schools and colleges4 ,the classics are pre-eminent works4 ,to acquire an accurate knowledge of them is an admirable discipline4 ,still1 it would be well to give a youth but few of these great works1 and so leave time for various arts1 accomplishments1 and knowledge of external things exemplified by other means than books4 ,if this cannot be done but by over-working1 then it had better not be done2 for of all things1 that must be avoided4 ,but surely it can be done4 ,at present1 many a man who is versed in ,greek metre1 and afterwards full of law reports1 is childishly ignorant of ,nature4 ,let him walk with an intelligent child for a morning1 and the child will ask him a hundred questions about sun1 moon1 stars1 plants1 birds1 building1 farming1 and the like1 to which he can give very sorry answers1 if any2 or1 at the best1 he has but a second-hand acquaintance with ,nature4 ,men's conceits are his main knowledge4 ,whereas1 if he had any pursuits connected with ,nature1 all ,nature is in harmony with it1 is brought into his presence by it1 and it affords at once cultivation and recreation4 ,but1 independently of those cultivated pursuits which form a high order of recreation1 boyhood should never pass without the boy's learning several modes of recreation of the humbler kind4 ,a parent or teacher seldom does a kinder thing by the child under his care than when he instructs it in some manly exercise1 some pursuit connected with ,nature out of doors1 or even some domestic game4 ,in hours of fatigue1 anxiety1 sickness1 or worldly ferment1 such means of amusement may delight the grown-up man when other things would fail4 ,an indirect advantage1 but a very considerable one1 attendant upon various modes of recreation1 is1 that they provide opportunities of excelling in something to boys and men who are dull in things which form the staple of education4 ,a boy cannot see much difference between the nominative and the genitive cases--still less any occasion for aorists--but he is a good hand at some game or other2 and he keeps up his self-respect1 and the respect of others for him1 upon his prowess in that game4 ,he is better and happier on that account4 ,and it is well1 too1 that the little world around him should know that excellence is not all of one form4 ,there are no details about recreation in this essay1 the object here being mainly to show the worth of recreation1 and to defend it against objections from the over-busy and the over-strict4 ,the sense of the beautiful1 the desire for comprehending ,nature1 the love of personal skill and prowess1 are not things implanted in men merely to be absorbed in producing and distributing the objects of our most obvious animal wants4 ,if civilisation required this1 civilisation would be a failure4 ,still less should we fancy that we are serving the cause of godliness when we are discouraging recreation4 ,let us be hearty in our pleasures1 as in our work1 and not think that the gracious ,being ,who has made us so open-hearted to delight1 looks with dissatisfaction at our enjoyment1 as a hard taskmaster might1 who in the glee of his slaves could see only a hindrance to their profitable working4 ,and with reference to our individual cultivation1 we may remember that we are not here to promote incalculable quantities of law1 physic1 or manufactured goods1 but to become men--not narrow pedants1 but wide-seeing1 mind-travelled men4 ,who are the men of history to be admired most8 ,those whom most things became--who could be weighty in debate1 of much device in council1 considerate in a sick-room1 genial at a feast1 joyous at a festival1 capable of discourse with many minds1 large-souled1 not to be shrivelled up into any one form1 fashion1 or temperament4 ,their contemporaries would have told us that men might have various accomplishments and hearty enjoyments1 and not for that be the less effective in business1 or less active in benevolence4 ,i distrust the wisdom of asceticism as much as ,i do that of sensuality2 ,simeon ,stylites no less than ,sardanapalus4 99 99 99 99 99 ,ellesmere4 ,you alluded to ,schiller at the beginning of the essay3 can you show me his own words8 ,i have a lawyer's liking for the best evidence4 ,milverton4 ,when we go in1 ,i will show you some passages which bear me out in what ,i have made him say--at least1 if the translation is faithful4 #ec ,ellesmere4 ,i have had a great respect for ,schiller ever since ,i heard that saying of his about death1 8,death cannot be an evil1 for it is universal40 ,dunsford4 ,very noble and full of faith4 ,ellesmere4 ,touching the essay1 ,i like it well enough2 but1 perhaps1 people will expect to find more about recreation itself--not only about the good of it1 but what it is1 and how it is to be got4 ,milverton4 ,i do not incline to go into detail about the matter4 ,the object was to say something for the respectability of recreation1 not to write a chapter of a book of sports4 ,people must find out their own ways of amusing themselves4 ,ellesmere4 ,i will tell you what is the paramount thing to be attended to in all amusements--that they should be short4 ,moralists are always talking about 8short-lived0 pleasures3 would that they were6 ,dunsford4 ,hesiod told the world1 some two thousand years ago1 how much greater the half is than the whole4 ,ellesmere4 ,dinner-givers and managers of theatres should forthwith be made aware of that fact4 ,what a sacrifice of good things1 and of the patience and comfort of human beings1 a cumbrous modern dinner is6 ,i always long to get up and walk about4 ,dunsford4 ,do not talk of modern dinners4 ,think what a ,roman dinner must have been4 ,milverton4 ,very true4 ,it has always struck me that there is something quite military in the sensualism of the ,romans--an 8arbiter bibendi0 chosen1 and the whole feast moving on with fearful precision and apparatus of all kinds4 ,come1 come6 the world's improving1 ,ellesmere4 ,ellesmere4 ,had the ,romans public dinners8 ,answer me that4 ,imagine a ,roman1 whose theory1 at least1 of a dinner was that it was a thing for enjoyment1 whereas we often look on it as a continuation of the business of the day--,i say1 imagine a ,roman girding himself up1 literally girding himself up to make an after-dinner speech4 ,milverton4 ,i must allow that is rather a barbarous practice4 ,ellesmere4 ,if charity1 or politics1 cannot be done without such things1 ,i suppose they are useful in their way2 but let nobody ever imagine that they are a form of pleasure4 ,people smearing each other over with stupid flattery1 and most of the company being in dread of receiving some compliment which should oblige them to speak6 ,dunsford4 ,i should have thought1 now1 that you would always have had something to say1 and therefore that you would not be so bitter against after-dinner speaking4 ,ellesmere4 ,no2 when ,i have nothing to say1 ,i can say nothing4 ,milverton4 ,would it not be a pleasant thing if rich people would ask their friends sometimes to public amusements--order a play for them1 for instance--or at any rate1 provide some manifest amusement8 ,they might1 occasionally with great advantage1 abridge the expense of their dinners2 and throw it into other channels of hospitality4 ,ellesmere4 ,ah1 if they would have good acting at their houses1 that would be very delightful2 but ,i cannot say that the being taken to any place of public amusement would much delight me4 ,by the way1 ,milverton1 what do you say of theatres in the way of recreation8 ,this decline of the drama1 too1 is a thing you must have thought about3 let us hear your notions4 ,milverton4 ,i think one of the causes sometimes assigned1 that reading is more spread1 is a true and an important one2 but1 otherwise1 ,i fancy that the present decline of the drama depends upon very small things which might be remedied4 ,as to a love of the drama going out of the human heart1 that is all nonsense4 ,put it at the lowest1 what a great pleasure it is to hear a good play read4 ,and again1 as to serious pursuits unfitting men for dramatic entertainments1 it is quite the contrary4 ,a man1 wearied with care and business1 would find more change of ideas with less fatigue1 in seeing a good play1 than in almost any other way of amusing himself4 ,dunsford4 ,what are the causes then of the decline of the drama8 ,milverton4 ,in ,england1 or rather in ,london1--for ,london is ,england for dramatic purposes2 in ,london1 then1 theatrical arrangements seem to be framed to drive away people of sense4 ,the noisome atmosphere1 the difficult approach1 the over-size of the great theatres1 the intolerable length of performances4 ,ellesmere4 ,hear6 hear6 ,milverton4 ,the crowding together of theatres in one part of the town1 the lateness of the hours-- ,ellesmere4 ,the folly of the audience1 who always applaud in the wrong place-- ,dunsford4 ,there is no occasion to say any more2 ,i am quite convinced4 ,milverton4 ,but these annoyances need not be4 ,build a theatre of moderate dimensions2 give it great facility of approach2 take care that the performances never exceed three hours2 let lions and dwarfs pass by without any endeavour to get them within the walls2 lay aside all ambition of making stage waves which may almost equal real ,ramsgate waves to our cockney apprehensions4 ,of course there must be good players and good plays4 ,ellesmere4 ,now we come to the part of ,hamlet4 ,milverton4 ,good players and good plays are both to be had if there were good demand for them4 ,but1 ,i was going to say1 let there be all these things1 especially let there be complete ventilation1 and the theatre will have the most abundant success4 ,why1 that one thing alone1 the villainous atmosphere at most public places1 is enough to daunt any sensible man from going to them4 ,dunsford4 ,there should be such a choice of plays--not merely ,chamberlain-clipt--as any man or woman could go to4 ,milverton4 ,there should be certainly1 but how is such a choice to be made1 if the people who could regulate it1 for the most part1 stay away8 ,it is a dangerous thing1 the better classes leaving any great source of amusement and instruction wholly1 or greatly1 to the less refined classes4 ,dunsford4 ,yes1 ,i must confess it is4 ,great part of your arguments apply to musical as well as to theatrical entertainments4 ,do you find similar results with respect to them8 ,milverton4 ,why1 they are not attended by any means as they would be1 or made what they might be1 if the objections ,i mentioned were removed4 ,dunsford4 ,what do you say to the out-of-door entertainments for a town population8 ,milverton4 ,as ,i said before1 my dear ,dunsford1 ,i cannot give you a chapter of a 8,book of ,sports40 ,there ought1 of course1 to be parks for all quarters of the town3 and ,i confess it would please me better to see1 in holiday times and hours of leisure1 hearty games going on in these parks1 than a number of people sauntering about in uncomfortably new and unaccustomed clothes4 ,ellesmere4 ,do you not see1 ,dunsford1 that1 like a cautious official man1 he does not want to enter into small details1 which have always an air of ridicule8 ,he is not prepared to pledge himself to cricket1 golf1 football1 or prisoner's bars2 but in his heart he is manifestly a ,young ,englander--without the white waistcoat4 ,nothing would please him better than to see in large letters1 on one of those advertising vans1 8,great match6 ,victoria ,park66 ,eleven of ,fleet ,street against the ,eleven of ,saffron ,hill6660 ,milverton4 ,well1 there is a great deal in the spirit of ,young ,england that ,i like very much1 indeed that ,i respect4 ,ellesmere4 ,i should like the ,young ,england party better myself if ,i were quite sure there was no connection between them and a clan of sour1 pity-mongering people1 who wash one away with eternal talk about the contrast between riches and poverty2 with whom a poor man is always virtuous2 and who would1 if they could1 make him as envious and as discontented as possible4 ,milverton4 ,nothing can be more strikingly in contrast with such thinkers than ,young ,england4 ,young ,englanders1 according to the best of their theories1 ought to be men of warm sympathy with all classes4 ,there is no doubt of this1 that very seldom does any good thing arise1 but there comes an ugly phantom of a caricature of it1 which sidles up against the reality1 mouths its favourite words as a third-rate actor does a great part1 under-mimics its wisdom1 over-acts its folly1 is by half the world taken for it1 goes some way to suppress it in its own time1 and1 perhaps1 lives for it in history4 ,ellesmere4 ,well brought out1 that metaphor1 but ,i don't know that it means more than that the followers of a system do in general a good deal to corrupt it1 or that when a great principle is worked into human affairs1 a considerable accretion of human folly and falseness mostly grows round it3 which things some of us had a suspicion of before4 ,dunsford4 ,to go back to the subject4 ,what would you do for country amusements1 ,milverton8 ,that is what concerns me1 you know4 ,milverton4 ,athletic amusements go on naturally here3 do not require so much fostering as in towns4 ,the commons must be carefully kept3 ,i have quite a ,cobbettian fear of their being taken away from us under some plausible pretext or other4 ,well1 then1 it strikes me that a great deal might be done to promote the more refined pleasures of life among our rural population4 ,i hope we shall live to see many of ,hullah's pupils playing an important part in this way4 ,of course1 the foundation for these things may best be laid at schools2 and is being laid in some places1 ,i am happy to say4 ,ellesmere4 ,humph1 music1 sing-song6 ,milverton4 ,don't you observe1 ,dunsford1 that when ,ellesmere wants to attack us1 and does not exactly see how1 he mutters to himself sarcastically1 sneering himself up1 as it were1 to the attack4 ,ellesmere4 ,you and ,dunsford are both wild for music1 from barrel-organs upwards4 ,milverton4 ,i confess to liking the humblest attempts at melody4 ,dunsford4 ,i feel as ,sir ,thomas ,browne tells us he felt1 that 8even that vulgar and tavern music1 which makes one man merry1 another mad1 strikes in me a deep fit of devotion and a profound contemplation of the first composer4 ,there is something in it of divinity more than the ear discovers2 it is an hieroglyphical and shadowed lesson of the whole world and creatures of ,god3 such a melody to the ear as the whole world well understood1 would afford the understanding40 ,milverton4 ,apropos of music in country places1 when ,i was going about last year in the neighbouring county1 ,i saw such a pretty scene at one of the towns4 ,they had got up a band1 which played once a week in the evening4 ,it was a beautiful summer evening1 and the window of my room at the end overlooked the open space they had chosen for their performances4 ,there was the great man of the neighbourhood in his carriage looking as if he came partly on duty1 as well as for pleasure4 ,then there were burly tradesmen1 with an air of quiet satisfaction1 sauntering about1 or leaning against railings4 ,some were no doubt critical--thought that ,will ,miller did not play as well as usual this evening4 ,will's young wife1 who had come out to look again at him in his band dress 7for the band had a uniform71 thought differently4 ,little boys broke out into imaginary polkas1 having some distant reference to the music3 not without grace though4 ,the sweep was pre-eminent3 as if he would say1 8,dirty and sooty as ,i am ,i have a great deal of fun in me4 ,indeed1 what would ,may-day be but for me80 ,studious little boys of the free-school1 all green grasshopper-looking1 walked about as boys knowing something of ,latin4 ,here and there went a couple of them in childish loving way1 with their arms about each other's necks4 ,matrons and shy young maidens sat upon the door-steps near4 ,many a merry laugh filled up the interludes of music4 ,and when evening came softly down upon us1 the band finished with 8,god save the ,queen10 the little circle of those who would hear the last note moved off1 there was a clattering of shutters1 a shining of lights through casement-windows1 and soon the only sound to be heard was the rough voice of some villager1 who would have been too timid to adventure anything by daylight1 but now sang boldly out as he went homewards4 ,ellesmere4 ,very pretty1 but it sounds to me somewhat fabulous4 ,milverton4 ,i assure you-- ,ellesmere4 ,yes1 you were tired1 had a good dinner1 read a speech for or against the corn-laws1 fell asleep of course1 and had this ingenious dream1 which1 to this day1 you believe to have been a reality4 ,i understand it all4 ,milverton4 ,i wish ,i could have many more such dreams4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,,our last conversation broke off abruptly on the entrance of a visitor3 we forgot to name a time for our next meeting2 and when ,i came again1 ,i found ,milverton alone in his study4 ,he was reading ,count ,rumford's essays4 ,dunsford4 ,so you are reading ,count ,rumford4 ,what is it that interests you there8 ,milverton4 ,everything he writes about4 ,he is to me a delightful writer4 ,he throws so much life into all his writings4 ,whether they are about making the most of food or fuel1 or propounding the benefits of bathing1 or inveighing against smoke1 it is that he went and saw and did and experimented himself upon himself4 ,his proceedings at ,munich to feed the poor are more interesting than many a novel4 ,it is surprising1 too1 how far he was before the world in all the things he gave his mind to4 ,here ,ellesmere entered4 ,ellesmere4 ,i heard you were come1 ,dunsford3 ,i hope we shall have an essay to-day4 ,my critical faculties have been dormant for some days1 and want to be roused a little4 ,milverton was talking to you about ,count ,rumford when ,i came in1 was he not8 ,ah1 the ,count is a great favourite with ,milverton when he is down here2 but there is a book upstairs which is ,milverton's real favourite just now1 a portentous-looking book2 some relation to a blue-book1 something about sewerage1 or health of towns1 or public improvements1 over which said book our friend here goes into enthusiasms4 ,i am sure if it could be reduced to the size of that tatterdemalion ,horace that he carries about1 the poor little ,horace would be quite supplanted4 ,milverton4 ,now1 ,i must tell you1 ,dunsford1 that ,ellesmere himself took up this book he talks about1 and it was a long time before he put it down4 ,ellesmere4 ,yes1 there is something in real life1 even though it is in the unheroic part of it1 that interests one4 ,i mean to get through the book4 ,dunsford4 ,what are we to have to-day for our essay8 ,milverton4 ,let us adjourn to the garden1 and ,i will read you an essay on ,greatness1 if ,i can find it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we went to our favourite place1 and ,milverton read us the following essay4 ,,greatness4 ,you cannot substitute any epithet for great1 when you are talking of great men4 ,greatness is not general dexterity carried to any extent2 nor proficiency in any one subject of human endeavour4 ,there are great astronomers1 great scholars1 great painters1 even great poets who are very far from great men4 ,greatness can do without success and with it4 ,william is greater in his retreats than ,marlborough in his victories4 ,on the other hand1 the uniformity of ,csar's success does not dull his greatness4 ,greatness is not in the circumstances1 but in the man4 ,what does this greatness then consist in8 ,not in a nice balance of qualities1 purposes1 and powers4 ,that will make a man happy1 a successful man1 a man always in his right depth4 ,nor does it consist in absence of errors4 ,we need only glance back at any list that can be made of great men1 to be convinced of that4 ,neither does greatness consist in energy1 though often accompanied by it4 ,indeed1 it is rather the breadth of the waters than the force of the current that we look to1 to fulfil our idea of greatness4 ,there is no doubt that energy acting upon a nature endowed with the qualities that we sum up in the word cleverness1 and directed to a few clear purposes1 produces a great effect1 and may sometimes be mistaken for greatness4 ,if a man is mainly bent upon his own advancement1 it cuts many a difficult knot of policy for him1 and gives a force and distinctness to his mode of going on which looks grand4 ,the same happens if he has one pre-eminent idea of any kind1 even though it should be a narrow one4 ,indeed1 success in life is mostly gained by unity of purpose2 whereas greatness often fails by reason of its having manifold purposes1 but it does not cease to be greatness on that account4 ,if greatness can be shut up in qualities1 it will be found to consist in courage and in openness of mind and soul4 ,these qualities may not seem at first to be so potent4 ,but see what growth there is in them4 ,the education of a man of open mind is never ended4 ,then1 with openness of soul1 a man sees some way into all other souls that come near him1 feels with them1 has their experience1 is in himself a people4 ,sympathy is the universal solvent4 ,nothing is understood without it4 ,the capacity of a man1 at least for understanding1 may almost be said to vary according to his powers of sympathy4 ,again1 what is there that can counteract selfishness like sympathy8 ,selfishness may be hedged in by minute watchfulness and self-denial1 but it is counteracted by the nature being encouraged to grow out and fix its tendrils upon foreign objects4 ,the immense defect that want of sympathy is1 may be strikingly seen in the failure of the many attempts that have been made in all ages to construct the ,christian character1 omitting sympathy4 ,it has produced numbers of people walking up and down one narrow plank of self-restraint1 pondering over their own merits and demerits1 keeping out1 not the world exactly1 but their fellow-creatures from their hearts1 and caring only to drive their neighbours before them on this plank of theirs1 or to push them headlong4 ,thus1 with many virtues1 and much hard work at the formation of character1 we have had splendid bigots or censorious small people4 ,but sympathy is warmth and light too4 ,it is1 as it were1 the moral atmosphere connecting all animated natures4 ,putting aside1 for a moment1 the large differences that opinions1 language1 and education make between men1 look at the innate diversity of character4 ,natural philosophers were amazed when they thought they had found a new-created species4 ,but what is each man but a creature such as the world has not before seen8 ,then think how they pour forth in multitudinous masses1 from princes delicately nurtured to little boys on scrubby commons1 or in dark cellars4 ,how are these people to be understood1 to be taught to understand each other1 but by those who have the deepest sympathies with all8 ,there cannot be a great man without large sympathy4 ,there may be men who play loud-sounding parts in life without it1 as on the stage1 where kings and great people sometimes enter who are only characters of secondary import--deputy great men4 ,but the interest and the instruction lie with those who have to feel and suffer most4 99 99 99 99 99 ,add courage to this openness we have been considering1 and you have a man who can own himself in the wrong1 can forgive1 can trust1 can adventure1 can1 in short1 use all the means that insight and sympathy endow him with4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i see no other essential characteristics in the greatness of nations than there are in the greatness of individuals4 ,extraneous circumstances largely influence nations as individuals2 and make a larger part of the show of the former than of the latter2 as we are wont to consider no nation great that is not great in extent or resources1 as well as in character4 ,but of two nations1 equal in other respects1 the superiority must belong to the one which excels in courage and openness of mind and soul4 ,again1 in estimating the relative merits of different periods of the world1 we must employ the same tests of greatness that we use to individuals4 ,to compare1 for instance1 the present and the past4 ,what astounds us most in the past is the wonderful intolerance and cruelty3 a cruelty constantly turning upon the inventors3 an intolerance provoking ruin to the thing it would foster4 ,the most admirable precepts are thrown from time to time upon this cauldron of human affairs1 and oftentimes they only seem to make it blaze the higher4 ,we find men devoting the best part of their intellects to the invariable annoyance and persecution of their fellows4 ,you might think that the earth brought forth with more abundant fruitfulness in the past than now1 seeing that men found so much time for cruelty1 but that you read of famines and privations which these latter days cannot equal4 ,the recorded violent deaths amount to millions4 ,and this is but a small part of the matter4 ,consider the modes of justice2 the use of torture1 for instance4 ,what must have been the blinded state of the wise persons 7wise for their day7 who used torture8 ,did they ever think themselves1 8,what should we not say if we were subjected to this80 ,many times they must really have desired to get at the truth2 and such was their mode of doing it4 ,now1 at the risk of being thought 8a laudator0 of time present1 ,i would say1 here is the element of greatness we have made progress in4 ,we are more open in mind and soul4 ,we have arrived 7some of us at least7 at the conclusion that men may honestly differ without offence4 ,we have learned to pity each other more4 ,there is a greatness in modern toleration which our ancestors knew not4 ,then comes the other element of greatness1 courage4 ,have we made progress in that8 ,this is a much more dubious question4 ,the subjects of terror vary so much in different times that it is difficult to estimate the different degrees of courage shown in resisting them4 ,men fear public opinion now as they did in former times the ,star ,chamber2 and those awful goddesses1 ,appearances1 are to us what the ,fates were to the ,greeks4 ,it is hardly possible to measure the courage of a modern against that of an ancient2 but ,i am unwilling to believe but that enlightenment must strengthen courage4 ,the application of the tests of greatness1 as in the above instance1 is a matter of detail and of nice appreciation1 as to the results of which men must be expected to differ largely3 the tests themselves remain invariable--openness of nature to admit the light of love and reason1 and courage to pursue it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,ellesmere4 ,i agree to your theory1 as far as openness of nature is concerned2 but ,i do not much like to put that half-brute thing1 courage1 so high4 ,milverton4 ,well1 you cannot have greatness without it3 you may have well-intentioned people and far-seeing people2 but if they have no stoutness of heart1 they will only be shifty or remonstrant1 nothing like great4 ,ellesmere4 ,you mean will1 not courage4 ,without will1 your open-minded1 open-hearted man may be like a great1 rudderless vessel driven about by all winds3 not a small craft1 but a most uncertain one4 ,milverton4 ,no1 ,i mean both3 both will and courage4 ,courage is the body to will4 ,ellesmere4 ,i believe you are right in that2 but do not omit will4 ,it amused me to see how you brought in one of your old notions--that this age is not contemptible4 ,you scribbling people are generally on the other side4 ,milverton4 ,you malign us4 ,if ,i must give any account for my personal predilection for modern times1 it consists perhaps in this1 that we may now speak our mind4 ,what ,tennyson says of his own land1 8,the land where1 girt with friend or foe1 ,a man may say the thing he will10-- may be said1 in some measure1 of the age in which we live4 ,this is an inexpressible comfort4 ,this doubles life4 ,these things surely may be said in favour of the present age1 not with a view to puff it up1 but so far to encourage ourselves1 as we may by seeing that the world does not go on for nothing1 that all the misery1 blood1 and toil that have been spent1 were not poured out in vain4 ,could we have our ancestors again before us1 would they not rejoice at seeing what they had purchased for us3 would they think it any compliment to them to extol their times at the expense of the present1 and so to intimate that their efforts had led to nothing8 ,ellesmere4 8,i doubt10 as ,lord ,eldon would have said2 no1 upon second thoughts1 ,i do not doubt4 ,i feel assured that a good many of these said ancestors you are calling up would be much discomforted at finding that all their suffering had led to no sure basis of persecution of the other side4 ,dunsford4 ,i wonder1 ,ellesmere1 what you would have done in persecuting times4 ,what escape would your sarcasm have found for itself8 ,milverton4 ,some orthodox way1 ,i daresay4 ,i do not think he would have been particularly fond of martyrdom4 ,ellesmere4 ,no4 ,i have no taste for making torches for truth1 or being one3 ,i prefer humane darkness to such illumination4 ,at the same time one cannot tell lies2 and if one had been questioned about the incomprehensibilities which men in former days were so fierce upon1 one must have shown that one disagreed with all parties4 ,dunsford4 ,do not say 8one30 ,i should not have disagreed with the great ,protestant leaders in the ,reformation1 for instance4 ,ellesmere4 ,humph4 ,milverton4 ,if we get aground upon the ,reformation1 we shall never push off again--else would ,i say something far from complimentary to those ,protestant proceedings which we may rather hope were ,tudoresque than ,protestant4 ,ellesmere4 ,no1 that is not fair4 ,the ,tudors were a coarse1 fierce race2 but it will not do to lay the faults of their times upon them only4 ,look at ,elizabeth's ministers4 ,they had about as much notion of religious tolerance as they had of ,professor ,wheatstone's telegraph4 ,it was not a growth of that age4 ,milverton4 ,i do not know4 ,you have ,cardinal ,pole and the ,earl of ,essex1 both tolerant men in the midst of bigots4 ,ellesmere4 ,well1 as you said1 ,milverton1 we shall never push off1 if we once get aground on this subject4 ,dunsford4 ,i am in fault3 so ,i will take upon myself to bring you quite away from the ,reformation4 ,i have been thinking of that comparison in the essay of the present with the past4 ,such comparisons seem to me very useful1 as they best enable us to understand our own times4 ,and1 then1 when we have ascertained the state and tendency of our own age1 we ought to strive to enrich it with those qualities which are complementary to its own4 ,now with all this toleration1 which delights you so much1 dear ,milverton1 is it not an age rather deficient in caring about great matters8 ,milverton4 ,if you mean great speculative matters1 ,i might agree with you2 but if you mean what ,i should call the greatest matters1 such as charity1 humanity1 and the like1 ,i should venture to differ with you1 ,dunsford4 ,dunsford4 ,i do not like to see the world indifferent to great speculative matters4 ,i then fear shallowness and earthiness4 ,milverton4 ,it is very difficult to say what the world is thinking of now4 ,it is certainly wrong to suppose that this is a shallow age because it is not driven by one impulse4 ,as civilisation advances1 it becomes more difficult to estimate what is going on1 and we set it all down as confusion4 ,now there is not one 8great antique heart10 whose beatings we can count1 but many impulses1 many circles of thought in which men are moving many objects4 ,men are not all in the same state of progress1 so cannot be moved in masses as of old4 ,at one time chivalry urged all men1 then the ,church1 and the phenomena were few1 simple1 and broad1 or at least they seem so in history4 ,ellesmere4 ,very true2 still ,i agree somewhat with ,dunsford1 that men are not agitated as they used to be by the great speculative questions4 ,i account for it in this way1 that the material world has opened out before us1 and we cannot but look at that1 and must play with it and work at it4 ,i would say1 too1 that philosophy had been found out1 and there is something in that4 ,still1 ,i think if it were not for the interest now attaching to material things1 great intellectual questions1 not exactly of the old kind1 would arise and agitate the world4 ,milverton4 ,there is one thing in my mind that may confirm your view4 ,i cannot but think that the enlarged view we have of the universe must in some measure damp personal ambition4 ,what is it to be a ,king1 ,sheik1 ,tetrarch1 or ,emperor1 over a bit of a little bit8 ,macbeth's speech1 8we'd jump the life to come10 is a thing a man with modern lights1 however madly ambitious1 would hardly utter4 ,dunsford4 ,religious lights1 ,milverton4 ,milverton4 ,of course not1 if he had them2 but ,i meant scientific lights4 ,sway over our fellow-creatures1 at any rate anything but mental sway1 has shrunk into less proportions4 ,ellesmere4 ,i have been looking over the essay4 ,i think you may put in somewhere--that that age would probably be the greatest in which there was the least difference between great men and the people in general--when the former were only neglected1 not hunted down4 ,milverton4 ,yes4 ,ellesmere4 ,you are rather lengthy here about the cruelties to be found in history2 but we are apt to forget these matters4 ,milverton4 ,they always press upon my mind4 ,dunsford4 ,and on mine4 ,i do not like to read much of history for that very reason4 ,i get so sick at heart about it all4 ,milverton4 ,ah1 yes1 history is a stupendous thing4 ,to read it is like looking at the stars2 we turn away in awe and perplexity4 ,yet there is some method running through the little affairs of man as through the multitude of suns1 seemingly to us as confused as routed armies in full flight4 ,dunsford4 ,some law of love4 ,ellesmere4 ,i am afraid it is not in the past alone that we should be awestruck with horrors3 we1 who have a slave-trade still on earth4 ,but1 to go back to the essay1 ,i like what you say about the theory of constructing the ,christian character without geniality2 only you do not go far enough4 ,you are afraid4 ,people are for ever talking1 especially you philanthropical people1 about making others happy4 ,i do not know any way so sure of making others happy as of being so oneself1 to begin with4 ,i do not mean that people are to be self-absorbed2 but they are to drink in nature and life a little4 ,from a genial1 wisely-developed man good things radiate2 whereas you must allow1 ,milverton1 that benevolent people are very apt to be one-sided and fussy1 and not of the sweetest temper if others will not be good and happy in their way4 ,milverton4 ,that is really not fair4 ,of course1 acid1 small-minded people carry their narrow notions and their acidity into their benevolence4 ,benevolence is no abstract perfection4 ,men will express their benevolence according to their other gifts or want of gifts4 ,if it is strong1 it overcomes other things in the character which would be hindrances to it2 but it must speak in the language of the soul it is in4 ,ellesmere4 ,come1 let us go and see the pigs4 ,i hear them grunting over their dinners in the farmyard4 ,i like to see creatures who can be happy without a theory4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,the next time that ,i came over to ,worth-,ashton it was raining1 and ,i found my friends in the study4 8,well1 ,dunsford10 said ,ellesmere1 8is it not comfortable to have our sessions here for once1 and to be looking out on a good solid ,english wet day80 ,dunsford4 ,rather a fluid than a solid4 ,but ,i agree with you in thinking it is very comfortable here4 ,ellesmere4 ,i like to look upon the backs of books4 ,first ,i think how much of the owner's inner life and character is shown in his books2 then perhaps ,i wonder how he got such a book which seems so remote from all that ,i know of him-- ,milverton4 ,i shall turn my books the wrong side upwards when you come into the study4 ,ellesmere4 ,but what amuses me most is to see the odd way in which books get together1 especially in the library of a man who reads his books and puts them up again wherever there is room4 ,now here is a charming party3 8,a ,treatise on the ,steam-,engine0 between 8,locke on ,christianity0 and ,madame de ,stael's 8,corinne40 ,i wonder what they talk about at night when we are all asleep4 ,here is another happy juxtaposition3 old ,clarendon next to a modern metaphysician whom he would positively loathe4 ,here is ,sadler next to ,malthus1 and ,horsley next to ,priestley2 but this sort of thing happens most in the best regulated libraries4 ,it is a charming reflection for controversial writers1 that their works will be put together on the same shelves1 often between the same covers2 and that1 in the minds of educated men1 the name of one writer will be sure to recall the name of the other4 ,so they go down to posterity as a brotherhood4 ,milverton4 ,to complete ,ellesmere's theory1 we may say that all those injuries to books which we choose to throw upon some wretched worm1 are but the wounds from rival books4 ,ellesmere4 ,certainly4 ,but now let us proceed to polish up the weapons of another of these spiteful creatures4 ,dunsford4 ,yes4 ,what is to be our essay to-day1 ,milverton8 ,milverton4 ,fiction4 ,ellesmere4 ,now1 that is really unfortunate4 ,fiction is just the subject to be discussed--no1 not discussed1 talked over--out of doors on a hot day1 all of us lying about in easy attitudes on the grass1 ,dunsford with his gaiters forming a most picturesque and prominent figure4 ,but there is nothing complete in this life4 8,surgit amari aliquid30 and so we must listen to ,fiction in arm-chairs4 ,,fiction4 ,the influence of works of fiction is unbounded4 ,even the minds of well-informed people are often more stored with characters from acknowledged fiction than from history or biography1 or the real life around them4 ,we dispute about these characters as if they were realities4 ,their experience is our experience2 we adopt their feelings1 and imitate their acts4 ,and so there comes to be something traditional even in the management of the passions4 ,shakespeare's historical plays were the only history to the ,duke of ,marlborough4 ,thousands of ,greeks acted under the influence of what ,achilles or ,ulysses did1 in ,homer4 ,the poet sings of the deeds that shall be4 ,he imagines the past2 he forms the future4 ,yet how surpassingly interesting is real life when we get an insight into it4 ,occasionally a great genius lifts up the veil of history1 and we see men who once really were alive1 who did not always live only in history2 or1 amidst the dreary page of battles1 levies1 sieges1 and the sleep-inducing weavings and unweavings of political combination1 we come1 ourselves1 across some spoken or written words of the great actors of the time1 and are then fascinated by the life and reality of these things4 ,could you have the life of any man really portrayed to you1 sun-drawn as it were1 its hopes1 its fears1 its revolutions of opinion in each day1 its most anxious wishes attained1 and then1 perhaps1 crystallising into its blackest regrets--such a work would go far to contain all histories1 and be the greatest lesson of love1 humility1 and tolerance1 that men had ever read4 ,now fiction does attempt something like the above4 ,in history we are cramped by impertinent facts that must1 however1 be set down2 by theories that must be answered2 evidence that must be weighed2 views that must be taken4 ,our facts constantly break off just where we should wish to examine them most closely4 ,the writer of fiction follows his characters into the recesses of their hearts4 ,there are no closed doors for him4 ,his puppets have no secrets from their master4 ,he plagues you with no doubts1 no half-views1 no criticism4 ,thus they thought1 he tells you2 thus they looked1 thus they acted4 ,then1 with every opportunity for scenic arrangement 7for though his characters are confidential with him1 he is only as confidential with his reader as the interest of the story will allow71 it is not to be wondered at that the majority of readers should look upon history as a task1 but tales of fiction as a delight4 ,the greatest merit of fiction is the one so ably put forward by ,sir ,james ,mackintosh1 namely1 that it creates and nourishes sympathy4 ,it extends this sympathy1 too1 in directions where1 otherwise1 we hardly see when it would have come4 ,but it may be objected that this sympathy is indiscriminate1 and that we are in danger of mixing up virtue and vice1 and blurring both1 if we are led to sympathise with all manner of wrong-doers4 ,but1 in the first place1 virtue and vice are so mixed in real life1 that it is well to be somewhat prepared for that fact2 and1 moreover1 the sympathy is not wrongly directed4 ,who has not felt intense sympathy for ,macbeth8 ,yet could he be alive again1 with evil thoughts against 8the gracious ,duncan10 and could he see into all that has been felt for him1 would that be an encouragement to murder8 ,the intense pity of wise people for the crimes of others1 when rightly represented1 is one of the strongest antidotes against crime4 ,we have taken the extreme case of sympathy being directed towards bad men4 ,how often has fiction made us sympathise with obscure suffering and retiring greatness1 with the world-despised1 and especially with those mixed characters in whom we might otherwise see but one colour--with ,shylock and with ,hamlet1 with ,jeanie ,deans and with ,claverhouse1 with ,sancho ,panza as well as with ,don ,quixote4 99 99 99 99 99 ,on the other hand1 there is a danger of too much converse with fiction leading us into dream-land1 or rather into lubber-land4 ,of course this 8too much converse0 implies large converse with inferior writers4 ,such writers are too apt to make life as they would have it for themselves4 ,sometimes1 also1 they must make it to suit booksellers' rules4 ,having such power over their puppets they abuse it4 ,they can kill these puppets1 change their natures suddenly1 reward or punish them so easily1 that it is no wonder they are led to play fantastic tricks with them4 ,now1 if a sedulous reader of the works of such writers should form his notions of real life from them1 he would occasionally meet with rude shocks when he encountered the realities of that life4 99 99 99 99 99 ,for my own part1 notwithstanding all the charms of life in swiftly-written novels1 ,i prefer real life4 ,it is true that1 in the former1 everything breaks off round1 every little event tends to some great thing1 everybody one meets is to exercise some great influence for good or ill upon one's fate4 ,i take it for granted one fancies oneself the hero4 ,then all one's fancy is paid in ready money1 or at least one can draw upon it at the end of the third volume4 ,one leaps to remote wealth and honour by hairbreadth chances2 and one's uncle in ,india always dies opportunely4 ,to be sure the thought occurs1 that if this novel life could be turned into real life1 one might be the uncle in ,india and not the hero of the tale4 ,but that is a trifling matter1 for at any rate one should carry on with spirit somebody else's story4 ,on the whole1 however1 as ,i said before1 ,i prefer real life1 where nothing is tied up neatly1 but all in odds and ends2 where the doctrine of compensation enters largely1 where we are often most blamed when we least deserve it1 where there is no third volume to make things straight1 and where many an ,augustus marries many a ,belinda1 and1 instead of being happy ever afterwards1 finds that there is a growth of trials and troubles for each successive period of man's life4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in considering the subject of fiction1 the responsibility of the writers thereof is a matter worth pointing out4 ,we see clearly enough that historians are to be limited by facts and probabilities2 but we are apt to make a large allowance for the fancies of writers of fiction4 ,we must remember1 however1 that fiction is not falsehood4 ,if a writer puts abstract virtues into book-clothing1 and sends them upon stilts into the world1 he is a bad writer3 if he classifies men1 and attributes all virtue to one class and all vice to another1 he is a false writer4 ,then1 again1 if his ideal is so poor1 that he fancies man's welfare to consist in immediate happiness2 if he means to paint a great man and paints only a greedy one1 he is a mischievous writer and not the less so1 although by lamplight and amongst a juvenile audience1 his coarse scene-painting should be thought very grand4 ,he may be true to his own fancy1 but he is false to ,nature4 ,a writer1 of course1 cannot get beyond his own ideal3 but at least he should see that he works up to it3 and if it is a poor one1 he had better write histories of the utmost concentration of dulness1 than amuse us with unjust and untrue imaginings4 99 99 99 99 99 ,ellesmere4 ,i am glad you have kept to the obvious things about fiction4 ,it would have been a great nuisance to have had to follow you through intricate theories about what fiction consists in1 and what are its limits1 and so on4 ,then we should have got into questions touching the laws of representation generally1 and then into art1 of which1 between ourselves1 you know very little4 ,dunsford4 ,talking of representation1 what do you two1 who have now seen something of the world1 think about representative government8 ,ellesmere4 ,dunsford plumps down upon us sometimes with awful questions3 what do you think of all philosophy8 or what is your opinion of life in general8 ,could not you throw in a few small questions of that kind1 together with your representative one1 and we might try to answer them all at once4 ,dunsford is only laughing at us1 ,milverton4 ,milverton4 ,no1 ,i know what was in ,dunsford's mind when he asked that question4 ,he has had his doubts and misgivings1 when he has been reading a six nights' debate 7for the people in the country ,i daresay do read those things71 whether representative government is the most complete device the human mind could suggest for getting at wise rulers4 ,ellesmere4 ,it is a doubt which has crossed my mind4 ,milverton4 ,and mine2 but the doubt1 if it has ever been more than mere petulance1 has not had much practical weight with me4 ,look how the business of the world is managed4 ,there are a few people who think out things1 and a few who execute4 ,the former are not to be secured by any device4 ,they are gifts4 ,the latter may be well chosen1 have often been well chosen1 under other forms of government than the representative one4 ,i believe that the favourites of kings have been a superior race of men4 ,even a fool does not choose a fool for a favourite4 ,he knows better than that3 he must have something to lean against4 ,but between the thinkers and the doers 7if1 indeed1 we ought to make such a distinction71 what a number of useful links there are in a representative government on account of the much larger number of people admitted into some share of government4 ,what general cultivation must come from that1 and what security6 ,of course1 everything has its wrong side2 and from this number of people let in there comes declamation and claptrap and mob-service1 which is much the same thing as courtiership was in other times4 ,but then1 to make the comparison a fair one1 you must take the wrong side of any other form of government that has been devised4 ,dunsford4 ,well1 but so much power centring in the lower house of ,parliament1 and the getting into ,parliament being a thing which is not very inviting to the kind of people one would most like to see there1 do you not think that the ablest men are kept away8 ,milverton4 ,yes2 but if you make your governing body a unit or a ten1 or any small number1 how is this power1 unless it is ,argus-eyed1 and myriad-minded1 and right-minded too1 to choose the right men any better than they are found now8 ,the great danger1 as it appears to me1 of representative government is lest it should slide down from representative government to delegate government4 ,in my opinion1 the welfare of ,england1 in great measure1 depends upon what takes place at the hustings4 ,if1 in the majority of instances1 there were abject conduct there1 electors and elected would be alike debased2 upright public men could not be expected to arise from such beginnings2 and thoughtful persons would begin to consider whether some other form of government could not forthwith be made out4 ,ellesmere4 ,i have a supreme disgust for the man who at the hustings has no opinion beyond or above the clamour round him4 ,how such a fellow would have kissed the ground before a ,pompadour1 or waited for hours in a ,buckingham's antechamber1 only to catch the faintest beam of reflected light from royalty4 ,but ,i declare we have been just like schoolboys talking about forms of government and so on4 8,for forms of government let fools contest1 ,that which is worst administered is best10-- that is1 representative government4 ,milverton4 ,i should not like either of you to fancy1 from what ,i have been saying about representative government1 that ,i do not see the dangers and the evils of it4 ,in fact1 it is a frequent thought with me of what importance the ,house of ,lords is at present1 and of how much greater importance it might be made4 ,if there were ,peers for life1 and official members of the ,house of ,commons1 it would1 ,i think1 meet most of your objections1 ,dunsford4 ,dunsford4 ,i suppose ,i am becoming a little rusty and disposed to grumble1 as ,i grow old2 but there is a good deal in modern government which seems to me very rude and absurd4 ,there comes a clamour1 partly reasonable2 power is deaf to it1 overlooks it1 says there is no such thing2 then great clamour2 after a time1 power welcomes that1 takes it to its arms1 says that now it is loud it is very wise1 wishes it had always been clamour itself4 ,ellesmere4 ,how many acres do you farm1 ,dunsford8 ,how spiteful you are6 ,dunsford4 ,i am not thinking of ,corn ,laws alone1 as you fancy1 ,master ,ellesmere4 ,but to go to other things4 ,i quite agree1 ,milverton1 with what you were saying just now about the business of the world being carried on by few1 and the thinking few being in the nature of gifts to the world1 not elicited by ,king or ,kaiser4 ,milverton4 ,the mill-streams that turn the clappers of the world arise in solitary places4 ,ellesmere4 ,not a bad metaphor1 but untrue4 ,aristotle1 ,bacon-- ,milverton4 ,well1 ,i believe it would be much wiser to say1 that we cannot lay down rules about the highest work2 either when it is done1 where it will be done1 or how it can be made to be done4 ,it is too immaterial for our measurement2 for the highest part even of the mere business of the world is in dealing with ideas4 ,it is very amusing to observe the misconceptions of men on these points4 ,they call for what is outward--can understand that1 can praise it4 ,fussiness and the forms of activity in all ages get great praise4 ,imagine an active1 bustling little prtor under ,augustus1 how he probably pointed out ,horace to his sons as a moony kind of man1 whose ways were much to be avoided1 and told them it was a weakness in ,augustus to like such idle men about him instead of men of business4 ,ellesmere4 ,or fancy a bustling ,glasgow merchant of ,adam ,smith's day watching him4 ,how little would the merchant have dreamt what a number of vessels were to be floated away by the ink in the ,professor's inkstand2 and what crashing of axes1 and clearing of forests in distant lands1 the noise of his pen upon the paper portended4 ,milverton4 ,it is not only the effect of the still-working man that the busy man cannot anticipate1 but neither can he comprehend the present labour4 ,if ,horace had told my prtor that 8,abstinuit ,venere et vino1 sudavit et alsit10 8,what1 to write a few lines60 would his prtorship have cried out4 8,why1 ,i can live well and enjoy life2 and ,i flatter myself no one in ,rome does more business40 ,dunsford4 ,all of it only goes to show how little we know of each other1 and how tolerant we ought to be of others' efforts4 ,milverton4 ,the trials that there must be every day without any incident that even the most minute household chronicler could set down3 the labours without show or noise6 ,ellesmere4 ,the deep things that there are which1 with unthinking people1 pass for shallow things1 merely because they are clear as well as deep4 ,my fable of the other day1 for instance--which instead of producing any moral effect upon you two1 only seemed to make you both inclined to giggle4 ,milverton4 ,i am so glad you reminded me of that4 ,i1 too1 fired with a noble emulation1 have invented a fable since we last met which ,i want you to hear4 ,i assure you ,i did not mean to laugh at yours3 it was only that it came rather unexpectedly upon me4 ,you are not exactly the person from whom one should expect fables4 ,dunsford4 ,now for the fable4 ,milverton4 ,there was a gathering together of creatures hurtful and terrible to man1 to name their king4 ,blight1 mildew1 darkness1 mighty waves1 fierce winds1 ,will-o'-the-wisps1 and shadows of grim objects1 told fearfully their doings and preferred their claims1 none prevailing4 ,but when evening came on1 a thin mist curled up1 derisively1 amidst the assemblage1 and said1 8,i gather round a man going to his own home over paths made by his daily footsteps2 and he becomes at once helpless and tame as a child4 ,the lights meant to assist him1 then betray4 ,you find him wandering1 or need the aid of other ,terrors to subdue him4 ,i am1 alone1 confusion to him40 ,and all the assemblage bowed before the mist1 and made it king1 and set it on the brow of many a mountain1 where1 when it is not doing evil1 it may be often seen to this day4 ,dunsford4 ,well1 ,i like that fable3 only ,i am not quite clear about the meaning4 ,ellesmere4 ,you had no doubt about mine4 ,dunsford4 ,is the mist calumny1 ,milverton8 ,ellesmere4 ,no1 prejudice1 ,i am sure4 ,dunsford4 ,familiarity with the things around us1 obscuring knowledge8 ,milverton4 ,i would rather not explain4 ,each of you make your own fable of it4 ,dunsford4 ,well1 if ever ,i make a fable1 it shall be one of the old-fashioned sort1 with animals for the speakers1 and a good easy moral4 ,ellesmere4 ,not a thing requiring the notes of seven ,german metaphysicians4 ,i must go and talk a little to my friends the trees1 and see if ,i can get any explanation from them4 ,it is turning out a beautiful day after all1 notwithstanding my praise of its solidity4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,we met as usual at our old spot on the lawn for our next reading4 ,i forget what took place before reading1 except that ,ellesmere was very jocose about our reading 8,fiction0 in-doors1 and the following 8,november ,essay10 as he called it1 8under a jovial sun1 and with the power of getting up and walking away from each other to any extent40 ,,on ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,living ,,with ,,others4 ,the 8,iliad0 for war2 the 8,odyssey0 for wandering2 but where is the great domestic epic8 ,yet it is but commonplace to say1 that passions may rage round a tea-table1 which would not have misbecome men dashing at one another in war-chariots2 and evolutions of patience and temper are performed at the fireside1 worthy to be compared with the ,retreat of the ,ten ,thousand4 ,men have worshipped some fantastic being for living alone in a wilderness2 but social martyrdoms place no saints upon the calendar4 ,we may blind ourselves to it if we like1 but the hatreds and disgusts that there are behind friendship1 relationship1 service1 and1 indeed1 proximity of all kinds1 is one of the darkest spots upon earth4 ,the various relations of life1 which bring people together1 cannot1 as we know1 be perfectly fulfilled except in a state where there will1 perhaps1 be no occasion for any of them4 ,it is no harm1 however1 to endeavour to see whether there are any methods which may make these relations in the least degree more harmonious now4 ,in the first place1 if people are to live happily together1 they must not fancy1 because they are thrown together now1 that all their lives have been exactly similar up to the present time1 that they started exactly alike1 and that they are to be for the future of the same mind4 ,a thorough conviction of the difference of men is the great thing to be assured of in social knowledge3 it is to life what ,newton's law is to astronomy4 ,sometimes men have a knowledge of it with regard to the world in general3 they do not expect the outer world to agree with them in all points1 but are vexed at not being able to drive their own tastes and opinions into those they live with4 ,diversities distress them4 ,they will not see that there are many forms of virtue and wisdom4 ,yet we might as well say1 8,why all these stars2 why this difference2 why not all one star80 ,many of the rules for people living together in peace follow from the above4 ,for instance1 not to interfere unreasonably with others1 not to ridicule their tastes1 not to question and re-question their resolves1 not to indulge in perpetual comment on their proceedings1 and to delight in their having other pursuits than ours1 are all based upon a thorough perception of the simple fact that they are not we4 ,another rule for living happily with others is to avoid having stock subjects of disputation4 ,it mostly happens1 when people live much together1 that they come to have certain set topics1 around which1 from frequent dispute1 there is such a growth of angry words1 mortified vanity1 and the like1 that the original subject of difference becomes a standing subject for quarrel2 and there is a tendency in all minor disputes to drift down to it4 ,again1 if people wish to live well together1 they must not hold too much to logic1 and suppose that everything is to be settled by sufficient reason4 ,dr4 ,johnson saw this clearly with regard to married people1 when he said1 8,wretched would be the pair above all names of wretchedness1 who should be doomed to adjust by reason every morning all the minute detail of a domestic day40 ,but the application should be much more general than he made it4 ,there is no time for such reasonings1 and nothing that is worth them4 ,and when we recollect how two lawyers1 or two politicians1 can go on contending1 and that there is no end of one-sided reasoning on any subject1 we shall not be sure that such contention is the best mode for arriving at truth4 ,but certainly it is not the way to arrive at good temper4 ,if you would be loved as a companion1 avoid unnecessary criticism upon those with whom you live4 ,the number of people who have taken out judges' patents for themselves is very large in any society4 ,now it would be hard for a man to live with another who was always criticising his actions1 even if it were kindly and just criticism4 ,it would be like living between the glasses of a microscope4 ,but these self-elected judges1 like their prototypes1 are very apt to have the persons they judge brought before them in the guise of culprits4 ,one of the most provoking forms of the criticism above alluded to is that which may be called criticism over the shoulder4 8,had ,i been consulted10 8,had you listened to me10 8,but you always will10 and such short scraps of sentences may remind many of us of dissertations which we have suffered and inflicted1 and of which we cannot call to mind any soothing effect4 ,another rule is1 not to let familiarity swallow up all courtesy4 ,many of us have a habit of saying to those with whom we live such things as we say about strangers behind their backs4 ,there is no place1 however1 where real politeness is of more value than where we mostly think it would be superfluous4 ,you may say more truth1 or rather speak out more plainly1 to your associates1 but not less courteously than you do to strangers4 ,again1 we must not expect more from the society of our friends and companions than it can give1 and especially must not expect contrary things4 ,it is something arrogant to talk of travelling over other minds 7mind being1 for what we know1 infinite72 but still we become familiar with the upper views1 tastes1 and tempers of our associates4 ,and it is hardly in man to estimate justly what is familiar to him4 ,in travelling along at night1 as ,hazlitt says1 we catch a glimpse into cheerful-looking rooms with light blazing in them1 and we conclude involuntarily how happy the inmates must be4 ,yet there is heaven and hell in those rooms--the same heaven and hell that we have known in others4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there are two great classes of promoters of social happiness--cheerful people1 and people who have some reticence4 ,the latter are more secure benefits to society even than the former4 ,they are non-conductors of all the heats and animosities around them4 ,to have peace in a house1 or a family1 or any social circle1 the members of it must beware of passing on hasty and uncharitable speeches1 which1 the whole of the context seldom being told1 is often not conveying but creating mischief4 ,they must be very good people to avoid doing this2 for let ,human ,nature say what it will1 it likes sometimes to look on at a quarrel1 and that not altogether from ill-nature1 but from a love of excitement1 for the same reason that ,charles ,,ii4 liked to attend the debates in the ,lords1 because they were 8as good as a play40 99 99 99 99 99 ,we come now to the consideration of temper1 which might have been expected to be treated first4 ,but to cut off the means and causes of bad temper is1 perhaps1 of as much importance as any direct dealing with the temper itself4 ,besides1 it is probable that in small social circles there is more suffering from unkindness than ill-temper4 ,anger is a thing that those who live under us suffer more from than those who live with us4 ,but all the forms of ill-humour and sour-sensitiveness1 which especially belong to equal intimacy 7though indeed1 they are common to all71 are best to be met by impassiveness4 ,when two sensitive persons are shut up together1 they go on vexing each other with a reproductive irritability4 #ic ,but sensitive and hard people get on well together4 ,the supply of temper is not altogether out of the usual laws of supply and demand4 99 99 99 99 99 ,intimate friends and relations should be careful when they go out into the world together1 or admit others to their own circle1 that they do not make a bad use of the knowledge which they have gained of each other by their intimacy4 ,nothing is more common than this1 and did it not mostly proceed from mere carelessness1 it would be superlatively ungenerous4 ,you seldom need wait for the written life of a man to hear about his weaknesses1 or what are supposed to be such1 if you know his intimate friends1 or meet him in company with them4 99 99 99 99 99 ,lastly1 in conciliating those we live with1 it is most surely done1 not by consulting their interests1 nor by giving way to their opinions1 so much as by not offending their tastes4 ,the most refined part of us lies in this region of taste1 which is perhaps a result of our whole being rather than a part of our nature1 and1 at any rate1 is the region of our most subtle sympathies and antipathies4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it may be said that if the great principles of ,christianity were attended to1 all such rules1 suggestions1 and observations as the above would be needless4 ,true enough6 ,great principles are at the bottom of all things2 but to apply them to daily life1 many little rules1 precautions1 and insights are needed4 ,such things hold a middle place between real life and principles1 as form does between matter and spirit1 moulding the one and expressing the other4 99 99 99 99 99 ,ellesmere4 ,quite right that last part4 ,everybody must have known really good people1 with all ,christian temper1 but having so little ,christian prudence as to do a great deal of mischief in society4 ,dunsford4 ,there is one case1 my dear ,milverton1 which ,i do not think you have considered3 the case where people live unhappily together1 not from any bad relations between them1 but because they do not agree about the treatment of others4 ,a just person1 for instance1 who would bear anything for himself or herself1 must remonstrate1 at the hazard of any disagreement1 at injustice to others4 ,milverton4 ,yes4 ,that1 however1 is a case to be decided upon higher considerations than those ,i have been treating of4 ,a man must do his duty in the way of preventing injustice1 and take what comes of it4 ,ellesmere4 ,for people to live happily together1 the real secret is that they should not live too much together4 ,of course1 you cannot say that2 it would sound harsh1 and cut short the essay altogether4 ,again1 you talk about tastes and 8region of subtle sympathies10 and all that4 ,i have observed that if people's vanity is pleased1 they live well enough together4 ,offended vanity is the great separator4 ,you hear a man 7call him ,b7 saying that he is really not himself before ,so-and-so2 tell him that ,so-and-so admires him very much and is himself rather abashed before ,b1 and ,b is straightway comfortable1 and they get on harmoniously together1 and you hear no more about subtle sympathies or antipathies4 ,dunsford4 ,what a low view you do take of things sometimes1 ,ellesmere6 ,milverton4 ,i should not care how low it was1 but it is not fair--at least1 it does not contain the whole matter4 ,in the very case he has put1 there was a subtle embarrassment between ,b and ,so-and-so4 ,well1 now1 let these people not merely meet occasionally1 but be obliged to live together1 without any such explanation as ,ellesmere has imagined1 and they will be very uncomfortable from causes that you cannot impute to vanity4 ,it takes away much of the savour of life to live amongst those with whom one has not anything like one's fair value4 ,it may not be mortified vanity1 but unsatisfied sympathy1 which causes this discomfort4 ,b thinks that the other does not know him2 he feels that he has no place with the other4 ,when there is intense admiration on one side1 there is hardly a care in the mind of the admiring one as to what estimation he is held in4 ,but1 in ordinary cases1 some clearly defined respect and acknowledgment of worth is needed on both sides4 ,see how happy a man is in any office or service who is acknowledged to do something well4 ,how comfortable he is with his superiors6 ,he has his place4 ,it is not exactly a satisfaction of his vanity1 but an acknowledgment of his useful existence that contents him4 ,i do not mean to say that there are not innumerable claims for acknowledgment of merit and service made by rampant vanity and egotism1 which claims cannot be satisfied1 ought not to be satisfied1 and which1 being unsatisfied1 embitter people4 ,but ,i think your word ,vanity will not explain all the feelings we have been talking about4 ,ellesmere4 ,perhaps not4 ,dunsford4 ,certainly not4 ,ellesmere4 ,well1 at any rate1 you will admit that there is a class of dreadfully humble people who make immense claims at the very time that they are explaining that they have no claims4 ,they say they know they cannot be esteemed2 they are well aware that they are not wanted1 and so on1 all the while making it a sort of grievance and a claim that they are not what they know themselves not to be2 whereas1 if they did but fall back upon their humility1 and keep themselves quiet about their demerits1 they would be strong then1 and in their place and happy1 doing what they could4 ,milverton4 ,it must be confessed that these people do make their humility somewhat obnoxious4 ,yet1 after all1 you allow that they know their deficiencies1 and they only say1 8,i know ,i have not much to recommend me1 but ,i wish to be loved1 nevertheless40 ,ellesmere4 ,ah1 if they only said it a few times6 ,besides1 there is a little envy mixed up with the humility that ,i mean4 ,dunsford4 ,travelling is a great trial of people's ability to live together4 ,ellesmere4 ,yes4 ,lavater says that you do not know a man until you have divided an inheritance with him2 but ,i think a long journey with him will do4 ,milverton4 ,well1 and what is it in travelling that makes people disagree8 ,not direct selfishness1 but injudicious management2 stupid regrets1 for instance1 at things not being different from what they are1 or from what they might have been1 if 8the other route0 had been chosen2 fellow-travellers punishing each other with each other's tastes2 getting stock subjects of disputation2 laughing unseasonably at each other's vexations and discomforts2 and endeavouring to settle everything by the force of sufficient reason1 instead of by some authorised will1 or by tossing up4 ,thus1 in the short time of a journey1 almost all modes and causes of human disagreement are brought into action4 ,ellesmere4 ,my favourite one not being the least--over-much of each other's company4 ,for my part1 ,i think one of the greatest bores of companionship is1 not merely that people wish to fit tastes and notions on you just as they might the first pair of ready-made shoes they meet with1 a process amusing enough to the bystander1 but exquisitely uncomfortable to the person being ready-shod3 but that they bore you with never-ending talk about their pursuits1 even when they know that you do not work in the same groove with them1 and that they cannot hope to make you do so4 ,dunsford4 ,nobody can accuse you of that fault1 ,ellesmere3 ,i never heard you dilate much upon anything that interested you1 though ,i have known you have some pet subject1 and to be working at it for months4 ,but this comes of your coldness of nature4 ,ellesmere4 ,well1 it might bear a more favourable construction4 ,but to go back to the essay4 ,it only contemplates the fact of people living together as equals1 if we may so say2 but in general1 of course1 you must add some other relationship or connection than that of merely being together4 ,milverton4 ,i had not overlooked that2 but there are certain general rules in the matter that may be applied to nearly all relationship1 just as ,i have taken that one from ,johnson1 applied by him to married life1 about not endeavouring to settle all things by reasoning1 and have given it a general application which1 ,i believe1 it will bear4 ,ellesmere4 ,there is one thing that ,i should think must often make women very unreasonable and unpleasant companions4 ,oh1 you may both hold up your hands and eyes1 but ,i am not married1 and can say what ,i please4 ,of course you put on the proper official look of astonishment2 and ,i will duly report it4 ,but ,i was going to say that ,chivalry1 which has doubtless done a great deal of good1 has also done a great deal of harm4 ,women may talk the greatest unreason out of doors1 and nobody kindly informs them that it is unreason4 ,they do not talk much before clever men1 and when they do1 their words are humoured and dandled as children's sayings are4 ,now1 ,i should fancy--mind1 ,i do not want either of you to say that my fancy is otherwise than quite unreasonable--,i should fancy that when women have to hear reason at home it must sound odd to them4 ,the truth is1 you know1 we cannot pet anything much without doing it mischief4 ,you cannot pet the intellect1 any more than the will1 without injuring it4 ,well then1 again1 if you put people upon a pedestal and do a great deal of worship around them1 ,i cannot think but the will in such cases must become rather corrupted1 and that lessons of obedience must fall rather harshly-- ,dunsford4 ,why1 you ,mahometan1 you ,turk of a lawyer--would you do away with all the high things of courtesy1 tenderness for the weaker1 and-- ,milverton4 ,no1 ,i see what he means2 and there is something in it4 ,many a woman is brought up in unreason and self-will from these causes that he has given1 as many a man from other causes2 but there is one great corrective that he has omitted1 and which is1 that all forms1 fashions1 and outward things have a tendency to go down before realities when they come hand to hand together4 ,knowledge and judgment prevail4 ,governing is apt to fall to the right person in private as in public affairs4 ,ellesmere4 ,those who give way in public affairs1 and let the men who can do a thing do it1 are so far wise that they know what is to be done1 mostly4 ,but the very things ,i am arguing against are the unreason and self-will1 which being constantly pampered1 do not appreciate reason or just sway4 ,besides1 is there not a force in ill-humour and unreason to which you constantly see the wisest bend8 ,you will come round to my opinion some day4 ,i do not want1 though1 to convince you4 ,it is no business of mine4 ,milverton4 ,well1 ,i may be wrong1 but ,i think1 when we come to consider education1 ,i can show you how the dangers you fear may be greatly obviated1 without ,chivalry being obliged to put on a wig and gown1 and be wise4 ,dunsford4 ,meanwhile1 let us enjoy the delightful atmosphere of courtesy1 unreasonable sometimes1 if you like1 which saves many people being put down with the best arguments in the most convincing manner1 or being weighed1 estimated1 and given way to1 so as not to spoil them4 ,ellesmere4 ,do not tell1 either of you1 what ,i have been saying4 ,i shall always be poked up into some garret when ,i come to see you1 if you do4 ,dunsford4 ,i think the most curious thing1 as regards people living together1 is the intense ignorance they sometimes are in of each other4 ,many years ago1 one or other of you said something of this kind to me1 and ,i have often thought of it since4 ,milverton4 ,people fulfil a relation towards each other1 and they only know each other in that relation1 especially if it is badly managed by the superior one2 but any way the relationship involves some ignorance4 ,they perform orbits round each other1 each gyrating1 too1 upon his own axis1 and there are parts of the character of each which are never brought into view of the other4 ,ellesmere4 ,i should carry this notion of yours1 ,milverton1 farther than you do4 ,there is a peculiar mental relation soon constituted between associates of any kind1 which confines and prevents complete knowledge on both sides4 ,each man1 in some measure therefore1 knows others only through himself4 ,tennyson makes ,ulysses say1 8,i am a part of all that ,i have seen20 it might have run1 8,i am a part of all that ,i have heard40 ,dunsford4 ,ellesmere becoming metaphysical and transcendental6 ,ellesmere4 ,well1 well1 we will leave these heights1 and descend in little drops of criticism4 ,there are two or three things you might have pointed out1 ,milverton4 ,perhaps you would say that they are included in what you have said1 but ,i think not4 ,you talk of the mischief of much comment on each other amongst those who live together4 ,you might have shown1 ,i think1 that in the case of near friends and relations this comment also deepens into interference--at least it partakes of that nature4 ,friends and relations should1 therefore1 be especially careful to avoid needless comments on each other4 ,they do just the contrary4 ,that is one of the reasons why they often hate one another so much4 ,dunsford4 ,ellesmere6 ,ellesmere4 ,protest1 if you like1 my dear ,dunsford4 ,dissentient1 #a4 ,because ,i wish it were not so4 #b4 ,because ,i am sorry that it is4 7,signed7 ,,dunsford4 ,milverton4 8,hate0 is too strong a word1 ,ellesmere2 what you say would be true enough1 if you would put 8are not in sympathy with40 ,ellesmere4 8,have a quiet distaste for40 ,that is the proper medium4 ,now1 to go to another matter4 ,you have not put the case of over-managing people1 who are tremendous to live with4 ,milverton4 ,i have spoken about 8interfering unreasonably with others40 ,ellesmere4 ,that does not quite convey what ,i mean4 ,it is when the manager and the managee are both of the same mind as to the thing to be done2 but the former insists1 and instructs1 and suggests1 and foresees1 till the other feels that all free agency for him is gone4 ,milverton4 ,it is a sad thing to consider how much of their abilities people turn to tiresomeness4 ,you see a man who would be very agreeable if he were not so observant3 another who would be charming1 if he were deaf and dumb3 a third delightful1 if he did not vex all around him with superfluous criticism4 ,ellesmere4 ,a hit at me that last1 ,i suspect4 ,but ,i shall go on4 ,you have not1 ,i think1 made enough merit of independence in companionship4 ,if ,i were to put into an aphorism what ,i mean1 ,i should say1 ,those who depend wholly on companionship are the worst companions2 or thus3 ,those deserve companionship who can do without it4 ,there1 ,mr4 ,aphoriser ,general1 what do you say to that8 ,milverton4 ,very good1 but-- ,ellesmere4 ,of course a 8but0 to other people's aphorisms1 as if every aphorism had not buts innumerable4 ,we critics1 you know1 cannot abide criticism4 ,we do all the criticism that is needed ourselves4 ,i wonder at the presumption sometimes of you wretched authors4 ,but to proceed4 ,you have not said anything about the mischief of superfluous condolence amongst people who live together4 ,i flatter myself that ,i could condole anybody out of all peace of mind4 ,milverton4 ,all depends upon whether condolence goes with the grain1 or against the grain1 of vanity4 ,i know what you mean1 however3 ,for instance1 it is a very absurd thing to fret much over other people's courses1 not considering the knowledge and discipline that there is in any course that a man may take4 ,and it is still more absurd to be constantly showing the people fretted over that you are fretting over them4 ,i think a good deal of what you call superfluous condolence would come under the head of superfluous criticism4 ,ellesmere4 ,not altogether4 ,in companionship1 when an evil happens to one of the circle1 the others should simply attempt to share and lighten it1 not to expound it1 or dilate on it1 or make it the least darker4 ,the person afflicted generally apprehends all the blackness sufficiently4 ,now1 unjust abuse by the world is to me like the howling of the wind at night when one is warm within4 ,bring any draught of it into one's house though1 and it is not so pleasant4 ,dunsford4 ,talking of companionship1 do not you think there is often a peculiar feeling of home where age or infirmity is8 ,the arm-chair of the sick or the old is the centre of the house4 ,they think1 perhaps1 that they are unimportant2 but all the household hopes and cares flow to them and from them4 ,milverton4 ,i quite agree with you4 ,what you have just depicted is a beautiful sight1 especially when1 as you often see1 the age or infirmity is not in the least selfish or exacting4 ,ellesmere4 ,we have said a great deal about the companionship of human beings2 but1 upon my word1 we ought to have kept a few words for our dog friends4 ,rollo has been lolling out his great tongue1 and looking wistfully from face to face1 as we each began our talk4 ,a few minutes ago he was quite concerned1 thinking ,i was angry with you1 when ,i would not let you 8but0 my aphorism4 ,i am not sure which of the three ,i should rather go out walking with now3 ,dunsford1 ,rollo1 ,milverton4 ,the middle one is the safest companion4 ,i am sure not to get out of humour with him4 ,but ,i have no objection to try the whole three3 only ,i vote for much continuity of silence1 as we have had floods of discussion to-day4 ,dunsford4 ,agreed6 ,ellesmere4 ,come1 ,rollo1 you may bark now1 as you have been silent1 like a wise dog1 all the morning4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,it was arranged1 during our walk1 that ,ellesmere should come and stay a day or two with me1 and see the neighbouring cathedral1 which is nearer my house than ,milverton's4 ,the visit over1 ,i brought him back to ,worth-,ashton4 ,milverton saw us coming1 walked down the hill to meet us1 and after the usual greetings1 began to talk to ,ellesmere4 ,milverton4 ,so you have been to see our cathedral4 ,i say 8our10 for when a cathedral is within ten miles of us1 we feel a property in it1 and are ready to battle for its architectural merits4 ,ellesmere4 ,you know ,i am not a man to rave about cathedrals4 ,milverton4 ,i certainly do not expect you to do so4 ,to me a cathedral is mostly somewhat of a sad sight4 ,you have ,grecian monuments1 if anything so misplaced can be called ,grecian1 imbedded against and cutting into ,gothic pillars2 the doors shut for the greater part of the day2 only a little bit of the building used3 beadledom predominant2 the clink of money here and there2 white-wash in vigour2 the singing indifferent2 the sermons not indifferent but bad2 and some visitors from ,london forming1 perhaps1 the most important part of the audience2 in fact1 the thing having become a show4 ,we look about1 thinking when piety filled every corner1 and feel that the cathedral is too big for the ,religion which is a dried-up thing that rattles in this empty space4 ,ellesmere4 ,this is the boldest simile ,i have heard for a long time4 ,my theory about cathedrals is very different1 ,i must confess4 ,dunsford4 ,theory6 ,ellesmere4 ,well1 8theory0 is not the word ,i ought to have used--feeling then4 ,my feeling is1 how strong this creature was1 this worship1 how beautiful1 how alluring1 how complete2 but there was something stronger--truth4 ,milverton4 ,and more beautiful8 ,ellesmere4 ,yes1 and far more beautiful4 ,milverton4 ,doubtless1 to the free spirits who brought truth forward4 ,ellesmere4 ,you are only saying this1 ,milverton1 to try what ,i will say2 but1 despite of all sentimentalities1 you sympathise with any emancipation of the human mind1 as ,i do1 however much the meagreness of ,protestantism may be at times distasteful to you4 ,milverton4 ,i did not say ,i was anxious to go back4 ,certainly not4 ,but what says ,dunsford8 ,let us sit down on his stile and hear what he has to say4 ,dunsford4 ,i cannot talk to you about this subject4 ,if ,i tell you of all the merits 7as they seem to me7 of the ,church of ,england1 you will both pick what ,i say to pieces1 whereas if ,i leave you to fight on1 one or the other will avail himself of those arguments on which our ,church is based4 ,milverton4 ,well1 ,dunsford1 you are very candid1 and would make a complete diplomatist3 truth-telling being now pronounced 7rather late in the day7 the very acme of diplomacy4 ,but do you not own that our cathedrals are sadly misused8 ,dunsford4 ,now1 very likely1 if more were made of them1 you1 and men who think like you1 would begin to cry out 8superstition02 and would instantly turn round and inveigh against the uses which you now1 perhaps1 imagine for cathedrals4 ,milverton4 ,well1 one never can answer for oneself2 but at any rate1 ,i do not see what is the meaning of building new churches in neighbourhoods where there are already the noblest buildings suitable for the same purposes4 ,is there a church religion1 and is there a cathedral religion8 ,ellesmere4 ,you cannot make the present fill the garb of the past1 ,milverton1 any more than you could make the past fill that of the present4 ,now1 as regards the very thing you are about to discuss to-day1 if it be the same you told us in our last walk--,education3 if you are only going to give us some institution for it1 ,i daresay it may be very good for to-day1 or for this generation1 but it will have its sere and yellow leaf1 and there will be a time when future ,milvertons1 in sentimental mood1 will moan over it1 and wish they had it and all that has grown up to take its place at the same time4 ,but all this is what ,i have often heard you say yourself in other words4 ,dunsford4 ,this is very hard doctrine1 and not quite sound1 ,i think4 ,in getting the new gain1 we always sacrifice something1 and we should look with some pious regard to what was good in the things which are past4 ,that good is generally one which1 though it may not be equal to the present1 would make a most valuable supplement to it4 ,milverton4 ,i would try and work in the old good thing with the new1 not as patchwork though1 but making the new thing grow out in such a way as to embrace the old advantage4 ,ellesmere4 ,well1 we must have the essay before we branch out into our philosophy4 ,pleasure afterwards--,i will not say what comes first4 ,,education4 ,the word education is so large1 that one may almost as well put 8world10 or 8the end and object of being10 at the head of an essay4 ,it should1 therefore1 soon be declared what such a heading does mean4 ,the word education suggests chiefly to some minds what the ,state can do for those whom they consider its young people--the children of the poorer classes3 to others it presents the idea of all the training that can be got for money at schools and colleges1 and which can be fairly accomplished and shut in at the age of one-and-twenty4 ,this essay1 however1 will not be a treatise on government education1 or other school and college education1 but will only contain a few points in reference to the general subject1 which may escape more methodical and enlarged discussions4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the first place1 as regards government education1 it must be kept in mind that there is a danger of its being too interfering and formal1 of its overlying private enterprise1 insisting upon too much uniformity1 and injuring local connections and regards4 ,education1 even in the poorest acceptance of the word1 is a great thing3 but the harmonious intercourse of different ranks1 if not a greater1 is a more difficult one2 and we must not gain the former at any considerable sacrifice of the latter4 ,there is another point connected with this branch of the subject which requires1 perhaps1 to be noted4 ,if government provision is made in any case1 might it not be combined with private payment in other cases1 or enter in the way of rewards1 so as to do good throughout each step of the social ladder8 ,the lowest kind of school education is a power1 and it is desirable that the gradations of this power should correspond to other influences which we know to be good4 ,for instance1 a hard-working man saves something to educate his children2 if he can get a little better education for them than other parents of his own rank for theirs1 it is an incentive and a reward to him1 and the child's bringing up at home is a thing which will correspond to this better education at school4 ,in this there are the elements at once of stability and progress4 ,these views may possibly seem too refined1 but at any rate they require consideration4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the next branch of the subject is the ordinary education of young persons not of the poorest classes1 with which the ,state has hitherto had little or nothing to do4 ,this may be considered under four heads3 religious1 moral1 intellectual1 and physical education4 ,with regard to the first1 there is not much that can be put into rules about it4 ,parents and tutors will naturally be anxious to impress those under their charge with the religious opinions which they themselves hold4 ,in doing this1 however1 they should not omit to lay a foundation for charity towards people of other religious opinions4 ,for this purpose1 it may be requisite to give a child a notion that there are other creeds besides that in which it is brought up itself4 ,and especially1 let it not suppose that all good and wise people are of its church or chapel4 ,however desirable it may appear to the person teaching that there should be such a thing as unity of religion1 yet as the facts of the world are against his wishes1 and as this is the world which the child is to enter1 it is well that the child should in reasonable time be informed of these facts4 ,it may be said in reply that history sufficiently informs children on these points4 ,but the world of the young is the domestic circle2 all beyond is fabulous1 unless brought home to them by comment4 ,the fact1 therefore1 of different opinions in religious matters being held by good people should sometimes be dwelt upon1 instead of being shunned1 if we would secure a ground-work of tolerance in a child's mind4 ,,intellectual ,,education4 ,in the intellectual part of education there is the absolute knowledge to be acquired1 and the ways of acquiring knowledge to be gained4 ,the latter of course form the most important branch4 ,they can1 in some measure1 be taught4 ,give children little to do1 make much of its being accurately done4 ,this will give accuracy4 ,insist upon speed in learning1 with careful reference to the original powers of the pupil4 ,this speed gives the habit of concentrating attention1 one of the most valuable of mental habits4 ,then cultivate logic4 ,logic is not the hard matter that is fancied4 ,a young person1 especially after a little geometrical training1 may soon be taught to perceive where a fallacy exists1 and whether an argument is well sustained4 ,it is not1 however1 sufficient for him to be able to examine sharply and to pull to pieces4 ,he must learn how to build4 ,this is done by method4 ,the higher branches of method cannot be taught at first4 ,but you may begin by teaching orderliness of mind4 ,collecting1 classifying1 contrasting and weighing facts1 are some of the processes by which method is taught4 ,when these four things1 accuracy1 attention1 logic1 and method are attained1 the intellect is fairly furnished with its instruments4 ,as regards the things to be taught1 they will vary to some extent in each age4 ,the general course of education pursued at any particular time may not be the wisest by any means1 and greatness will overleap it and neglect it1 but the mass of men may go more safely and comfortably1 if not with the stream1 at least by the side of it4 ,in the choice of studies too much deference should not be paid to the bent of a young person's mind4 ,excellence in one or two things which may have taken the fancy of a youth 7or which really may suit his genius7 will ill compensate for a complete ignorance of those branches of study which are very repugnant to him2 and which are1 therefore1 not likely to be learnt when he has freedom in the choice of his studies4 ,amongst the first things to be aimed at in the intellectual part of education is variety of pursuit4 ,a human being1 like a tree1 if it is to attain to perfect symmetry1 must have light and air given to it from all quarters4 ,this may be done without making men superficial4 ,scientific method may be acquired without many sciences being learnt4 ,but one or two great branches of science must be accurately known4 ,so1 too1 the choice works of antiquity may be thoroughly appreciated without extensive reacting4 ,and passing on from mere learning of any kind1 a variety of pursuits1 even in what may be called accomplishments1 is eminently serviceable4 ,much may be said of the advantage of keeping a man to a few pursuits1 and of the great things done thereby in the making of pins and needles4 ,but in this matter we are not thinking of the things that are to be done1 but of the persons who are to do them4 ,not wealth but men4 ,a number of one-sided men may make a great nation1 though ,i much incline to doubt that2 but such a nation will not contain a number of great men4 ,the very advantage that flows from division of labour1 and the probable consequences that men's future bread-getting pursuits will be more and more sub-divided1 and therefore limited1 make it the more necessary that a man should begin life with a broad basis of interest in many things which may cultivate his faculties and develop his nature4 ,this multifariousness of pursuit is needed also in the education of the poor4 ,civilisation has made it easy for a man to brutalise himself3 how is this to be counteracted but by endowing him with many pursuits which may distract him from vice8 ,it is not that kind of education which leads to no employment in after-life that will do battle with vice4 ,but when education enlarges the field of life-long good pursuits1 it becomes formidable to the soul's worst enemies4 ,,moral ,,education4 ,in considering moral education we must recollect that there are three agents in this matter--the child himself1 the influence of his grown-up friends1 and that of his contemporaries4 ,all that his grown-up friends tell him in the way of experience goes for very little1 except in palpable matters4 ,they talk of abstractions which he cannot comprehend3 and the 8,arabian ,nights0 is a truer world to him than that they talk of4 ,still1 though they cannot furnish experience1 they can give motives4 ,indeed1 in their daily intercourse with the child1 they are always doing so4 ,for instance1 truth1 courage1 and kindness are the great moral qualities to be instilled4 ,take courage1 in its highest form--moral courage4 ,if a child perpetually hears such phrases 7and especially if they are applied to his own conduct71 as1 8,what people will say10 8,how they will look at you10 8,what they will think10 and the like1 it tends to destroy all just self-reliance in that child's mind1 and to set up instead an exaggerated notion of public opinion1 the greatest tyrant of these times4 ,people can see this in such an obvious thing as animal courage4 ,they will avoid over-cautioning children against physical dangers1 knowing that the danger they talk much about will become a bug-bear to the child which it may never get rid of4 ,but a similar peril lurks in the application of moral motives4 ,truth1 courage1 and kindness are likely to be learnt1 or not1 by children1 according as they hear and receive encouragement in the direction of these pre-eminent qualities4 ,when attempt is made to frighten a child with these worldly maxims1 8,what will be said of you80 8,are you like such a one80 and such things1 it is meant to draw him under the rule of grown-up respectability4 ,the last thing thought of by the parent or teacher is1 that such maxims will bring the child under the especial guidance of the most unscrupulous of his contemporaries4 ,they will use ridicule and appeal to their little world1 which will be his world1 and ask1 8,what will be said0 of him4 ,there should be some stuff in him of his own to meet these awful generalities4 ,,physical ,,education4 ,the physical education of children is a very simple matter1 too simple to be much attended to without great perseverance and resolution on the part of those who care for the children4 ,it consists1 as we all know1 in good air1 simple diet1 sufficient exercise1 and judicious clothing4 ,the first requisite is the most important1 and by far the most frequently neglected4 ,this neglect is not so unreasonable as it seems4 ,it arises from pure ignorance4 ,if the mass of mankind knew what scientific men know about the functions of the air1 they would be as careful in getting a good supply of it as of their other food4 ,all the people that ever were supposed to die of poison in the middle ages1 and that means nearly everybody whose death was worth speculating about1 are not so many as those who die poisoned by bad air in the course of any given year4 ,even a slightly noxious thing1 which is constant1 affecting us every moment of the day1 must have considerable influence2 but the air we breathe is not a thing that slightly affects us1 but one of the most important elements of life4 ,moreover1 children are the most affected by impurity of air4 ,we need not weary ourselves with much statistics to ascertain this4 ,one or two broad facts will assure us of it4 ,in ,nottingham there is a district called ,byron ,ward1 8the densest and worst-conditioned quarter of the town40 ,a table has been made by ,mr4 ,william ,hawksley of the mortality of equal populations in different parts of the town3 8,on comparing the diagram ,no4 #a1 relating to ,park ,ward1 with the diagram ,no4 #g1 relating to ,byron ,ward1 it will be seen that the heavier pressure of the causes of mortality occasions in the latter district such an undue destruction of early life1 that towards #ajj deaths1 however occurring1 ,byron ,ward contributes fifty per cent4 more of children under five years of age than the ,park ,ward1 for the former sends sixty children to an early grave1 while the latter sends only forty40 #aaf;a ,mr4 ,hawksley1 the former witness alluded to1 goes on to say-- 8,it has been long known that1 with increase of years1 up to that period of life which has been denominated the second childhood1 the human constitution becomes gradually more resistful1 and as it were slowly hardened against the repeated attacks of those more acute disorders1 incident to an inferior degree of sanitary civilisation1 by which large portions of an infant population are continually overcome and rapidly swept away4 ,from the operation of these and more extraneous influences of a disturbing character1 an infant population is almost entirely exempted2 and on this account it is considered that an infant population constitutes1 as it were1 a delicate barometer1 from which we may derive more early and more certain indications of the presence and comparative force of local causes of mortality and disease than can be obtained from the more general methods of investigation usually pursued40 ,the above evidence is confirmed by ,mr4 ,toynbee3-- 8,the disease of hydrocephalus1 of water in the brain1 so fatal to children1 ,i find associated with symptoms of scrofula1 and arising in abundance in these close rooms4 ,i believe water in the brain1 in the class of patients whom ,i visit1 to be almost wholly a scrofulous affection40 #aaf;b ,but supposing people aware of the necessity for good air1 and therefore for ventilation1 what is to be done8 ,in houses in great towns certainly1 and ,i should say in all houses1 some of the care and expense that are devoted to ornamental work1 which when done is often a care1 a trouble1 an eyesore1 and a mischief1 should be given to modes of ventilation1 #aag;a sound building1 abundant access of light1 largeness of sleeping-rooms1 and such useful things4 ,less ormolu and tinsel of all kinds in the drawing-rooms1 and sweeter air in the regions above4 ,similar things may be done for and by the poor4 #aag;b ,and it need hardly be said that those people who care for their children1 if of any enlightenment at all1 will care greatly for the sanitary condition of their neighbourhood generally4 ,at present you will find at many a rich man's door #aag;c a nuisance which is poisoning the atmosphere that his children are to breathe1 but which he could entirely cure for less than one day's ordinary expenses4 ,i am afraid that ventilation is very little attended to in school-rooms1 either for rich or poor4 ,now it may be deliberately said that there is very little learned in any school-room that can compensate for the mischief of its being learned in the midst of impure air4 ,this is a thing which parents must look to1 for the grown-up people in the school-rooms1 though suffering grievously themselves from insufficient ventilation1 will be unobservant of it4 #aah ,in every system of government inspection1 ventilation must occupy a prominent part4 ,the advantage of simple food for children is a thing that people have found out4 ,and as regards exercise1 children happily make great efforts to provide a sufficiency of this for themselves4 ,in clothing1 the folly and conformity of grown-up people enter again4 ,loving mothers1 in various parts of the world1 carry about at present1 ,i believe1 and certainly in times past1 carried their little children strapped to a board1 with nearly as little power of motion as the board itself4 ,could we get the returns of stunted miserable beings1 or of deaths1 from this cause1 they would be something portentous4 ,less in degree1 but not less fatally absurd in principle1 are many of the strappings1 bandages1 and incipient stays for children amongst us4 ,they are all mischievous4 ,allow children1 at any rate1 some freedom of limbs1 some opportunity of being graceful and healthy4 ,give ,nature--dear motherly1 much-abused ,nature--some chance of forming these little ones according to the beneficent intentions of ,providence1 and not according to the angular designs of ill-educated men and women4 ,i do not say that attention to the above matters of good air1 judicious clothing1 and freedom from bandages1 will absolutely secure health1 because these very things may have been so ill attended to in the parents or in the parental stock as to have introduced special maladies2 but at least they are the most important objects to be minded now2 and1 perhaps1 the more to be minded in the children of those who have suffered most from neglect in these particulars4 ,when we are considering the health of children1 it is imperative not to omit the importance of keeping their brains fallow1 as it were1 for several of the first years of their existence4 ,the mischief perpetrated by a contrary course in the shape of bad health1 peevish temper1 and developed vanity1 is incalculable4 ,it would not be just to attribute this altogether to the vanity of parents2 they are influenced by a natural fear lest their children should not have all the advantages of other children4 ,some infant prodigy which is a standard of mischief throughout its neighbourhood misleads them4 ,but parents may be assured that this early work is not by any means all gain1 even in the way of work4 ,i suspect it is a loss2 and that children who begin their education late1 as it would be called1 will rapidly overtake those who have been in harness long before them4 ,and what advantage can it be that the child knows more at six years old than its compeers1 especially if this is to be gained by a sacrifice of health which may never be regained8 ,there may be some excuse for this early book-work in the case of those children who are to live by manual labour4 ,it is worth while1 perhaps1 to run the risk of some physical injury to them1 having only their early years in which we can teach them book-knowledge4 ,the chance of mischief1 too1 will be less1 being more likely to be counteracted by their after-life4 ,but for a child who has to be at book-work for the first twenty-one years of its life1 what folly it is to exhaust in the least the mental energy1 which1 after all1 is its surest implement4 ,a similar course of argument applies to taking children early to church1 and to over-developing their minds in any way4 ,there is no knowing1 moreover1 the disgust and weariness that may grow up in the minds of young persons from their attention being prematurely claimed4 ,we are now1 however1 looking at early study as a matter of health2 and we may certainly put it down in the same class with impure air1 stimulating diet1 unnecessary bandages1 and other manifest physical disadvantages4 ,civilised life1 as it advances1 does not seem to have so much repose in it1 that we need begin early in exciting the mind1 for fear of the man being too lethargical hereafter4 ,,education ,,of ,,women4 ,it seems needful that something should be said specially about the education of women4 ,as regards their intellects they have been unkindly treated--too much flattered1 too little respected4 ,they are shut up in a world of conventionalities1 and naturally believe that to be the only world4 ,the theory of their education seems to be1 that they should not be made companions to men1 and some would say1 they certainly are not4 ,these critics1 however1 in the high imaginations they justly form of what women's society might be to men1 forget1 perhaps1 how excellent a thing it is already4 ,still the criticism is not by any means wholly unjust4 ,it appears rather as if there had been a falling off since the olden times in the education of women4 ,a writer of modern days1 arguing on the other side1 has said1 that though we may talk of the ,latin and ,greek of ,lady ,jane ,grey and ,queen ,elizabeth1 yet we are to consider that that was the only learning of the time1 and that many a modern lady may be far better instructed1 although she knew nothing of ,latin and ,greek4 ,certain it is1 she may know more facts1 have read more books3 but this does not assure us that she may not be less conversable1 less companionable4 ,wherein does the cultivated and thoughtful man differ from the common man8 ,in the method of his discourse4 ,his questions upon a subject in which he is ignorant are full of interest4 ,his talk has a groundwork of reason4 ,this rationality must not be supposed to be dulness4 ,folly is dull4 ,now1 would women be less charming if they had more power1 or at least more appreciation1 of reasoning8 ,their flatterers tell them that their intuition is such that they need not man's slow processes of thought4 ,one would be very sorry to have a grave question of law that concerned oneself decided upon by intuitive judges1 or a question of fact by intuitive jurymen4 ,and so of all human things that have to be canvassed1 it is better1 and more amusing too1 that they should be discussed according to reason4 ,moreover1 the exercise of the reasoning faculties gives much of the pleasure which there is in solid acquirements2 so that the obvious facts in life and history will hardly be acquired by those who are not in the habit of reasoning upon them4 ,hence it comes1 that women have less interest in great topics1 and less knowledge of them1 than they might have4 ,again1 if either sex requires logical education1 it is theirs4 ,the sharp practice of the world drives some logic into the most vague of men2 women are not so schooled4 ,but1 supposing the deficiency we have been considering to be admitted1 how is it to be remedied8 ,women's education must be made such as to ensure some accuracy and reasoning4 ,this may be done with any subject of education1 and is done with men1 whatever they learn1 because they are expected to produce and use their requirements4 ,but the greatest object of intellectual education1 the improvement of the mental powers1 is as needful for one sex as the other1 and requires the same means in both sexes4 ,the same accuracy1 attention1 logic1 and method that are attempted in the education of men should be aimed at in that of women4 ,this will never be sufficiently attended to1 as there are no immediate and obvious fruits from it4 ,and1 therefore1 as it is probable1 from the different career of women to that of men1 that whatever women study will not be studied with the same method and earnestness as it would be by men1 what a peculiar advantage there is in any study for them1 in which no proficiency whatever can be made without some use of most of the qualities we desire for them4 ,geometry1 for instance1 is such a study4 ,it may appear pedantic1 but ,i must confess that ,euclid seems to me a book for the young of both sexes4 ,the severe rules upon which the acquisition of the dead languages is built would of course be a great means for attaining the logical habits in question4 ,but ,latin and ,greek is a deeper pedantry for women than geometry1 and much less desirable on many accounts3 and geometry would1 perhaps1 suffice to teach them what reasoning is4 ,i daresay1 too1 there are accomplishments which might be taught scientifically2 and so even the prejudice against the manifest study of science by women be conciliated4 ,but the appreciation of reasoning must be got somehow4 ,it is a narrow view of things to suppose that a just cultivation of women's mental powers will take them out of their sphere3 it will only enlarge that sphere4 ,the most cultivated women perform their common duties best4 ,they see more in those duties4 ,they can do more4 ,lady ,jane ,grey would1 ,i daresay1 have bound up a wound1 or managed a household1 with any unlearned woman of her day4 ,queen ,elizabeth did manage a kingdom3 and we find no pedantry in her way of doing it4 ,people who advocate a better training for women must not1 necessarily1 be supposed to imagine that men and women are by education to be made alike1 and are intended to fulfil most of the same offices4 ,there seems reason for thinking that a boundary line exists between the intellects of men and women which1 perhaps1 cannot be passed over from either side4 ,but1 at any rate1 taking the whole nature of both sexes1 and the inevitable circumstances which cause them to differ1 there must be such a difference between men and women that the same intellectual training applied to both would produce most dissimilar results4 ,it has not1 however1 been proposed in these pages to adopt the same training3 and would have been still less likely to be proposed if it could be shown that such training would tend to make men and women unpleasantly similar to each other4 ,the utmost that has been thought of here is to make more of women's faculties1 not by any means to translate them into men's--if such a thing were possible1 which1 we may venture to say1 is not4 ,there are some things that are good for all trees--light1 air1 room--but no one expects by affording some similar advantages of this kind to an oak and a beech1 to find them assimilate1 though by such means the best of each may be produced4 ,moreover1 it should be recollected that the purpose of education is not always to foster natural gifts1 but sometimes to bring out faculties that might otherwise remain dormant2 and especially so far as to make the persons educated cognisant of excellence in those faculties in others4 ,a certain tact and refinement belong to women1 in which they have little to learn from the first3 men1 too1 who attain some portion of these qualities1 are greatly the better for them1 and ,i should imagine not less acceptable on that account to women4 ,so1 on the other side1 there may be an intellectual cultivation for women which may seem a little against the grain1 which would not1 however1 injure any of their peculiar gifts--would1 in fact1 carry those gifts to the highest1 and would increase withal1 both to men and women1 the pleasure of each other's society4 ,there is a branch of general education which is not thought at all necessary for women2 as regards which1 indeed1 it is well if they are not brought up to cultivate the opposite4 ,women are not taught to be courageous4 ,indeed1 to some persons courage may seem as unnecessary for women as ,latin and ,greek4 ,yet there are few things that would tend to make women happier in themselves1 and more acceptable to those with whom they live1 than courage4 ,there are many women of the present day1 sensible women in other things1 whose panic-terrors are a frequent source of discomfort to themselves and those around them4 ,now1 it is a great mistake to imagine that harshness must go with courage2 and that the bloom of gentleness and sympathy must all be rubbed off by that vigour of mind which gives presence of mind1 enables a person to be useful in peril1 and makes the desire to assist overcome that sickliness of sensibility which can only contemplate distress and difficulty4 ,so far from courage being unfeminine1 there is a peculiar grace and dignity in those beings who have little active power of attack or defence1 passing through danger with a moral courage which is equal to that of the strongest4 ,we see this in great things4 ,we perfectly appreciate the sweet and noble dignity of an ,anne ,bullen1 a ,mary ,queen of ,scots1 or a ,marie ,antoinette4 ,we see that it is grand for these delicately-bred1 high-nurtured1 helpless personages to meet ,death with a silence and a confidence like his own4 ,but there would be a similar dignity in women's bearing small terrors with fortitude4 ,there is no beauty in fear4 ,it is a mean1 ugly1 dishevelled creature4 ,no statue can be made of it that a woman would like to see herself like4 ,women are pre-eminent in steady endurance of tiresome suffering3 they need not be far behind men in a becoming courage to meet that which is sudden and sharp4 ,the dangers and the troubles1 too1 which we may venture to say they now start at unreasonably1 are many of them mere creatures of the imagination--such as1 in their way1 disturb high-mettled animals brought up to see too little1 and therefore frightened at any leaf blown across the road4 ,we may be quite sure that1 without losing any of the most delicate and refined of feminine graces1 women may be taught not to give way to unreasonable fears1 which should belong no more to the fragile than to the robust4 ,there is no doubt that courage may in some measure be taught4 ,we agree that the lower kinds of courage are matter of habit1 therefore of teaching3 and the same thing holds good to some extent of all courage4 ,courage is as contagious as fear4 ,the saying is1 that the brave are the sons and daughters of the brave2 but we might as truly say that they must be brought up by the brave4 ,the great novelist1 when he wants a coward descended from a valorous race1 does well to take him from his clan and bring him up in an unwarlike home4 #abf ,indeed1 the heroic example of other days is in great part the source of courage of each generation2 and men walk up composedly to the most perilous enterprises1 beckoned onwards by the shades of the brave that were4 ,in civil courage1 moral courage1 or courage shown in the minute circumstances of everyday life1 the same law is true4 ,courage may be taught by precept1 enforced by example1 and is good to be taught to men1 women1 and children4 ,,education ,,to ,,happiness4 ,it is a curious phenomenon in human affairs1 that some of those matters in which education is most potent should have been amongst the least thought of as branches of it4 ,what you teach a boy of ,latin and ,greek may be good2 but these things are with him but a little time of each day in his after-life4 ,what you teach him of direct moral precepts may be very good seed3 it may grow up1 especially if it have sufficient moisture from experience2 but then1 again1 a man is1 happily1 not doing obvious right or wrong all day long4 ,what you teach him of any bread-getting art may be of some import to him1 as to the quantity and quality of bread he will get2 but he is not always with his art4 ,with himself he is always4 ,how important1 then1 it is1 whether you have given him a happy or a morbid turn of mind2 whether the current of his life is a clear wholesome stream1 or bitter as ,marah4 ,the education to happiness is a possible thing--not to a happiness supposed to rest upon enjoyments of any kind1 but to one built upon content and resignation4 ,this is the best part of philosophy4 ,this enters into the 8wisdom0 spoken of in the ,scriptures4 ,now it can be taught4 ,the converse is taught every day and all day long4 ,to take an example4 ,a sensitive disposition may descend to a child2 but it is also very commonly increased1 and often created4 ,captiousness1 sensitiveness1 and a ,martha-like care for the things of this world1 are often the direct fruits of education4 ,all these faults of the character1 and they are amongst the greatest1 may be summed up in a disproportionate care for little things4 ,this is rather a growing evil4 ,the painful neatness and exactness of modern life foster it4 ,long peace favours it4 ,trifles become more important1 great evils being kept away4 ,and so1 the tide of small wishes and requirements gains upon us fully as fast as we can get out of its way by our improved means of satisfying them4 ,now the unwholesome concern that many parents and governors manifest as to small things must have a great influence on the governed4 ,you hear a child reprimanded about a point of dress1 or some trivial thing1 as if it had committed a treachery4 ,the criticisms1 too1 which it hears upon others are often of the same kind4 ,small omissions1 small commissions1 false shame1 little stumbling-blocks of offence1 trifling grievances of the kind that ,dr4 ,johnson1 who had known hunger1 stormed at ,mrs4 ,thrale for talking about1 are made much of2 general dissatisfaction is expressed that things are not complete1 and that everything in life is not turned out as neat as a ,long-,acre carriage2 commands are expected to be fulfilled by agents1 upon very rapid and incomplete orders1 exactly to the mind of the person ordering2--these ways1 to which children are very attentive1 teach them in their turn to be querulous1 sensitive1 and full of small cares and wishes4 ,and when you have made a child like this1 can you make a world for him that will satisfy him8 ,tax your civilisation to the uttermost3 a punctilious1 tiresome disposition expects more4 ,indeed1 ,nature1 with her vague and flowing ways1 cannot at all fit in with a right-angled person4 ,besides1 there are other precise1 angular creatures1 and these sharp-edged persons wound each other terribly4 ,of all the things which you can teach people1 after teaching them to trust in ,god1 the most important is1 to put out of their hearts any expectation of perfection1 according to their notions1 in this world4 ,this expectation is at the bottom of a great deal of the worldliness we hear so much reprehended1 and necessarily gives to little things a most irrational importance4 ,observe the effect of this disproportionate care for little things in the disputes of men4 ,a man who does so care1 has a garment embroidered with hooks which catch at everything that passes by4 ,he finds many more causes of offence than other men2 and each offence is a more bitter thing to him than to others4 ,he does not expect to be offended4 ,poor man6 ,he goes through life wondering that he is the subject of general attack1 and that the world is so quarrelsome4 ,the result of a bad education in developing undue care for trifles may be seen in its effect on domestic government and government in general4 ,if those in power have this fault1 they will make the persons under them miserable by petty1 constant blame2 or they will make them indifferent to all blame4 ,if this fault is in the governed1 they will captiously object to all the ways and plans of their superiors1 not knowing the difficulty of doing anything2 they will expect miracles of attention1 justice1 and temper1 which the rough-hewed ways of men do not admit of2 and they will repine and tease the life out of those in authority4 ,sometimes both superiors and inferiors1 governors and governed1 have this fault4 ,this must often happen in a family1 and is a fearful punishment to the elders of it4 ,scarcely any goodness of disposition1 and what are called great qualities1 can make such difficult materials work well together4 ,but ,i end with somewhat of the same argument as ,i began with1 namely1 that as a man lives more with himself than with art1 science1 or even with his fellows1 a wise teacher1 having before him the intent to make a happy-minded man of his pupil1 will try to lay a groundwork of divine contentment in him4 ,if he cannot make him easily pleased1 he will at least try and prevent him from being easily disconcerted4 ,why1 even the self-conceit that makes people indifferent to small things1 wrapping them in an atmosphere of self-satisfaction1 is welcome in a man compared to that querulousness which makes him an enemy to all around4 ,but most commendable is that easiness of mind which is easy because it is tolerant1 because it does not look to have everything its own way1 because it expects anything but smooth usage in its course here1 because it has resolved to manufacture as few miseries out of small evils as can be4 ,most of us know what it is to vex our minds because we cannot recall some name or trivial thing which has escaped our memory for the moment4 ,but then we think how foolish this is1 what little concern it is to us4 ,we are right in that2 yet any defect of memory is a great concern compared to many of the trifling niceties1 comforts1 offences1 and rectangularities which1 perhaps1 we do not think it an ignoble use of heart and time to waste ourselves upon4 ,it would be well enough to entertain the rabble of small troubles and offences1 if we could lay them aside with the delightful facility of children1 who1 after an agony of tears1 are soon found laughing or asleep4 ,but the chagrin and vexation of grown-up people are grown-up too2 and1 however childish in their origin1 are not to be laughed or danced or slept away in childlike simple-heartedness4 ,we must not imagine that too much stress can well be laid upon the importance of an education to contentment1 for it comes under the head of those things which are not adjuncts or acquisitions for a man1 but which form the texture of his being4 ,what a man has learnt is of importance2 but what he is1 what he can do1 what he will become1 are more significant things4 ,finally1 it may be remarked1 that1 to make education a great work1 we must have the educators great2 that book-learning is mainly good as it gives us a chance of coming into the company of greater and better minds than the average of men around us2 and that individual greatness and goodness are the things to be aimed at rather than the successful cultivation of those talents which go to form some eminent membership of society4 ,each man is a drama in himself--has to play all the parts in it2 is to be king and rebel1 successful and vanquished1 free and slave2 and needs a bringing-up fit for the universal creature that he is4 99 99 99 99 99 ,ellesmere4 ,you have been unexpectedly merciful to us4 ,the moment ,i heard the head of the essay given out1 there flitted before my frightened mind volumes of reports1 ,battersea schools1 ,bell1 ,wilderspin1 normal farms1 ,national ,society1 ,british ,schools1 interminable questions about how religion might be separated altogether from secular education1 or so much religion taught as all religious sects could agree in4 ,these are all very good things and people to discuss1 ,i daresay2 but1 to tell the truth1 the whole subject sits heavy on my soul4 ,i meet a man of inexhaustible dulness1 and he talks to me for three hours about some great subject--this very one of education1 for instance--till ,i sit entranced by stupidity1 thinking the while1 8,and this is what we are to become by education--to be like you40 ,then ,i see a man like ,d--1 a judicious1 reasonable1 conversable being1 knowing how to be silent too--a man to go through a campaign with--and ,i find he cannot read or write4 ,milverton4 ,this sort of contrast is just the thing to strike you1 ,ellesmere3 and yet you know as well as any of us that to bring forward such contrasts by way of depreciating education would be most unreasonable4 ,there are three things that go to make a man--the education that most people mean by education2 then the education that goes deeper1 the education of the soul2 and1 thirdly1 a man's gifts of ,nature4 ,i agree with all you say about ,d--2 he never says a foolish thing1 and does a great many judicious ones4 ,but look what a clever face he has4 ,there are gifts of ,nature for you4 ,then1 again1 although he cannot read or write1 he may have been most judiciously brought up in other respects4 ,he may have had two1 therefore1 out of the three elements of education4 ,what such instances would show1 ,i believe1 if narrowly looked into1 is the immense importance of the education of heart and temper4 ,i feel with you in some measure about the dulness of the subject of education4 ,but then it extends to all things of the institution kind4 ,men must have a great deal of pedantry1 routine1 and folly of all sorts1 in any large matter they undertake4 ,i had had this feeling for a long time 7you know the way in which you have a thing in your mind1 although you have never said it out exactly even to yourself7--well1 ,i came upon a passage of ,emerson's which ,i will try to quote1 and then ,i knew what it was that ,i had felt4 8,we are full of mechanical actions4 ,we must needs intermeddle1 and have things in our own way1 until the sacrifices and virtues of society are odious4 ,love should make joy2 but our benevolence is unhappy4 ,our ,sunday-schools1 and churches1 and pauper societies1 are yokes to the neck4 ,we pain ourselves to please nobody4 ,there are natural ways of arriving at the same ends at which these aim1 but do not arrive4 ,why should all virtue work in one and the same way80 4 4 4 8,and why drag this dead weight of a ,sunday-school over the whole of ,christendom8 ,it is natural and beautiful that childhood should inquire1 and maturity should teach2 but it is time enough to answer questions when they are asked4 ,do not shut up the young people against their will in a pew1 and force the children to ask them questions for an hour against their will40 ,now1 without agreeing with him in all points1 we may sympathise with him4 ,ellesmere4 ,i agree with him4 ,dunsford4 ,i knew you would4 ,you love an extreme4 ,milverton4 ,but look now4 ,it is well to say1 8,it is natural and beautiful that the young should ask and the old should teach02 but then the old should be capable of teaching1 which is not the case we have to deal with4 ,institutions are often only to meet individual failings4 ,let there be more instructed elders1 and the 8dead weight0 of ,sunday-schools would be less needed4 ,i think the result of our thoughts would be1 that there should be as much life1 joy1 and ,nature put into teaching as can be2 but ,i1 for one1 am not prepared to say that the most mechanical process is not better than none4 ,ellesmere4 ,well1 you have now shut up the subject1 according to your fashion1 in a rounded sentence2 and you think after that there is nothing more to be said4 ,but ,i say it goes to my heart-- ,dunsford4 ,what is that8 ,ellesmere4 ,to my heart to see the unmerciful quantity of instruction that little children go through on a ,sunday4 ,i suppose ,i am a very wicked man2 but ,i know how wearied ,i should have been1 at any time of my life1 if so much virtuous precept and good doctrine had been poured into me4 ,milverton4 ,well1 ,i will not fight certainly for anything that is to make ,sunday a wearisome day for children4 ,indeed1 what ,i meant by putting more joy and life into teaching was1 that in such a thing as this ,sunday-schooling1 for instance1 a judicious man1 far from being anxious to get a certain quantity of routine done about it1 would do with the least--would endeavour to connect it with something interesting--would1 in a word1 love children1 and not ,sunday-schools4 ,ellesmere4 ,ah1 we will have no more about ,sunday-schools4 ,i know we all agree in reality1 although ,dunsford has been looking very grave and has not said a word4 ,i wanted to tell you that ,i think you are quite right1 ,milverton1 in saying a good deal about multifariousness of pursuit4 ,you see a wretch of a pedant who knows all about tetrameters or statutes of uses1 but who1 as you hinted an essay or two ago1 can hardly answer his child a question as they walk about the garden together4 ,the man has never given a good thought or look to ,nature4 ,well then1 again1 what a stupid thing it is that we are not all taught music4 ,why learn the language of many portions of mankind1 and leave the universal language of the feelings1 as you would call it1 unlearnt8 ,milverton4 ,i quite agree with you2 but ,i thought you always set your face1 or rather your ears1 against music4 ,dunsford4 ,so did ,i4 ,ellesmere4 ,i should like to know all about it4 ,it is not to my mind that a cultivated man should be quite thrown out by any topic of conversation1 or that there should be any form of human endeavour or accomplishment which he has no conception of4 ,dunsford4 ,i liked what you said1 ,milverton1 about the philosophy of making light of many things1 and the way of looking at life that may thus be given to those we educate4 ,i rather doubted at first1 though1 whether you were not going to assign too much power to education in the modification of temper4 ,but1 certainly1 the mode of looking at the daily events of life1 little or great1 and the consequent habits of captiousness or magnanimity1 are just the matters which the young especially imitate their elders in4 ,milverton4 ,you see1 the very worst kind of tempers are established upon the fretting care for trifles that ,i want to make war upon in the essay4 ,a man is choleric4 ,well1 it is a very bad thing2 it tends to frighten those about him into falseness4 ,he has outrageous bursts of temper4 ,he is humble for days afterwards4 ,his dependants rather like him after all4 ,they know that 8his bark is worse than his bite40 ,then there is your gloomy man1 often a man who punishes himself most--perhaps a large-hearted1 humorous1 but sad man1 at the same time liveable with4 ,he does not care for trifles4 ,but it is your acid-sensitive 7,i must join words like ,mirabeau's ,grandison-,cromwell1 to get what ,i mean71 and your cold1 querulous people that need to have angels to live with them4 ,now education has often had a great deal to do with the making of these choice tempers4 ,they are somewhat artificial productions4 ,and they are the worst4 ,dunsford4 ,you know a saying attributed to the ,bishop of -- about temper4 ,no8 ,somebody1 ,i suppose1 was excusing something on the score of temper1 to which the ,bishop replied1 8,temper is nine-tenths of ,christianity40 ,milverton4 ,there is an appearance we see in ,nature1 not far from here1 by the way1 that has often put me in mind of the effect of temper upon men4 ,it is in the lowlands near the sea1 where1 when the tide is not up 7the man out of temper71 there is a slimy1 patchy1 diseased-looking surface of mud and sick seaweed4 ,you pass by in a few hours1 there is a beautiful lake1 water up to the green grass 7the man in temper again71 and the whole landscape brilliant with reflected light4 ,ellesmere4 ,and to complete the likeness1 the good temper and the full tide last about the same time--with some men at least4 ,it is so like you1 ,milverton1 to have that simile in your mind4 ,there is nothing you see in ,nature1 but you must instantly find a parallel for it in man4 ,sermons in stones you will not see1 else ,i am sure you might4 ,here is a good hard flint for you to see your next essay in4 ,milverton4 ,it will do very well1 as my next will be on the subject of population4 ,ellesmere4 ,what day are we to have it8 ,i think ,i have a particular engagement for that day4 ,milverton4 ,i must come upon you unawares4 ,ellesmere4 ,after the essay you certainly might4 ,let us decamp now and do something great in the way of education--teach ,rollo1 though he is but a short-haired dog1 to go into the water4 ,that will be a feat4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,ellesmere succeeded in persuading ,rollo to go into the water1 which proved more1 he said1 than the whole of ,milverton's essay1 how much might be done by judicious education4 ,before leaving my friends1 ,i promised to come over again to ,worth-,ashton in a day or two1 to hear another essay4 ,i came early and found them reading their letters4 99 99 99 99 99 8,you remember ,annesleigh at college10 said ,milverton1 8do you not1 ,dunsford80 ,dunsford4 ,yes4 ,milverton4 ,here is a long letter from him4 ,he is evidently vexed at the newspaper articles about his conduct in a matter of --1 and he writes to tell me that he is totally misrepresented4 ,dunsford4 ,why does he not explain this publicly8 ,milverton4 ,yes1 you naturally think so at first1 but such a mode of proceeding would never do for a man in office1 and rarely1 perhaps1 for any man4 ,at least1 so the most judicious people seem to think4 ,i have known a man in office bear patiently1 without attempting any answer1 a serious charge which a few lines would have entirely answered1 indeed1 turned the other way4 ,but then he thought1 ,i imagine1 that if you once begin answering1 there is no end to it1 and also1 which is more important1 that the public journals were not a tribunal which he was called to appear before4 ,he had his official superiors4 ,dunsford4 ,it should be widely known and acknowledged then1 that silence does not give consent in these cases4 ,milverton4 ,it is known1 though not1 perhaps1 sufficiently4 ,dunsford4 ,what a fearful power this anonymous journalism is6 ,milverton4 ,there is a great deal certainly that is mischievous in it2 but take it altogether1 it is a wonderful product of civilisation--morally too4 ,even as regards those qualities which would in general1 to use a phrase of ,bacon's1 8be noted as deficients0 in the press1 in courtesy and forbearance1 for example1 it makes a much better figure than might have been expected2 as any one would testify1 ,i suspect1 who had observed1 or himself experienced1 the temptations incident to writing on short notice1 without much opportunity of after-thought or correction1 upon subjects about which he had already expressed an opinion4 ,dunsford4 ,is the anonymousness absolutely necessary8 ,milverton4 ,i have often thought whether it is4 ,if the anonymousness were taken away1 the press would lose much of its power2 but then1 why should it not lose a portion of its power1 if that portion is only built upon some delusion8 ,ellesmere4 ,it is a question of expediency4 ,as government of all kinds becomes better managed1 there is less necessity for protection for the press4 ,it must be recollected1 however1 that this anonymousness 7to coin a word7 may not only be useful to protect us from any abuse of power1 but that at least it takes away that temptation to discuss things in an insufficient manner which arises from personal fear of giving offence4 ,then1 again1 there is an advantage in considering arguments without reference to persons4 ,if well-known authors wrote for the press and gave their signatures1 we should often pass by the arguments unfairly1 saying1 8,oh1 it is only so-and-so3 that is the way he always looks at things10 without seeing whether it is the right way for the occasion in question4 ,milverton4 ,but take the other side1 ,ellesmere4 ,what national dislikes are fostered by newspaper articles1 and-- ,ellesmere4 ,articles in reviews and by books4 ,milverton4 ,yes1 but somehow or other1 people imagine that newspapers speak the opinion of a much greater number of people-- ,ellesmere4 ,do not let us talk any more about it4 ,we may become wise enough and well-managed enough to do without this anonymousness3 we may not4 ,how it would astound an ardent ,whig or ,radical of the last generation if we could hear such a sentiment as this--as a toast we will say--8,the ,press3 and may we become so civilised as to be able to take away some of its liberty40 ,milverton4 ,it may be put another way3 8,may it become so civilised that we shall not want to take away any of its liberty40 ,but ,i see you are tired of this subject4 ,shall we go on the lawn and have our essay8 ,we assented1 and ,milverton read the following3-- ,,unreasonable ,,claims ,,in ,,social ,,affections ,,and ,,relations4 ,we are all apt to magnify the importance of whatever we are thinking about1 which is not to be wondered at2 for everything human has an outlet into infinity1 which we come to perceive on considering it4 ,but with a knowledge of this tendency1 ,i still venture to say that1 of all that concerns mankind1 this subject has1 perhaps1 been the least treated of in regard to its significance4 ,for once that unreasonable expectations of gratitude have been reproved1 ingratitude has been denounced a thousand times2 and the same may be said of inconstancy1 unkindness in friendship1 neglected merit and the like4 ,to begin with ingratitude4 ,human beings seldom have the demands upon each other which they imagine2 and for what they have done they frequently ask an impossible return4 ,moreover1 when people really have done others a service1 the persons benefited often do not understand it4 ,could they have understood it1 the benefactor1 perhaps1 would not have had to perform it4 ,you cannot expect gratitude from them in proportion to your enlightenment4 ,then1 again1 where the service is a palpable one1 thoroughly understood1 we often require that the gratitude for it should bear down all the rest of the man's character4 ,the dog is the very emblem of faithfulness2 yet ,i believe it is found that he will sometimes like the person who takes him out and amuses him more than the person who feeds him4 ,so1 amongst bipeds1 the most solid service must sometimes give way to the claims of congeniality4 ,human creatures are1 happily1 not to be swayed by self-interest alone3 they are many-sided creatures2 there are numberless modes of attaching their affections4 ,not only like likes like1 but unlike likes unlike4 ,to give an instance which must often occur4 ,two persons1 both of feeble will1 act together3 one as superior1 the other as inferior4 ,the superior is very kind2 the inferior is grateful4 ,circumstances occur to break this relation4 ,the inferior comes under a superior of strong will1 who is not1 however1 as tolerant and patient as his predecessor4 ,but this second superior soon acquires unbounded influence over the inferior3 if the first one looks on1 he may wonder at the alacrity and affection of his former subordinate towards the new man1 and talk much about ingratitude4 ,but the inferior has now found somebody to lean upon and to reverence4 ,and he cannot deny his nature and be otherwise than he is4 ,in this case it does not look like ingratitude1 except perhaps to the complaining person4 ,but there are doubtless numerous instances in which1 if we saw all the facts clearly1 we should no more confirm the charge of ingratitude than we do here4 ,then1 again1 we seldom make sufficient allowance for the burden which there is in obligation1 at least to all but great and good minds4 ,there are some people who can receive as heartily as they would give2 but the obligation of an ordinary person to an ordinary person is more apt to be brought to mind as a present sore than as a past delight4 ,amongst the unreasonable views of the affections1 the most absurd one has been the fancy that love entirely depends upon the will2 still more that the love of others for us is to be guided by the inducements which seem probable to us4 ,we have served them2 we think only of them2 we are their lovers1 or fathers1 or brothers3 we deserve and require to be loved and to have the love proved to us4 ,but love is not like property3 it has neither duties nor rights4 ,you argue for it in vain2 and there is no one who can give it you4 ,it is not his or hers to give4 ,millions of bribes and infinite arguments cannot prevail4 ,for it is not a substance1 but a relation4 ,there is no royal road4 ,we are loved as we are lovable to the person loving4 ,it is no answer to say that in some cases the love is based on no reality1 but is solely in the imagination--that is1 that we are loved not for what we are1 but for what we are fancied to be4 ,that will not bring it any more into the dominions of logic2 and love still remains the same untamable creature1 deaf to advocacy1 blind to other people's idea of merit1 and not a substance to be weighed or numbered at all4 ,then1 as to the complaints about broken friendship4 ,friendship is often outgrown2 and his former child's clothes will no more fit a man than some of his former friendships4 ,often a breach of friendship is supposed to occur when there is nothing of the kind4 ,people see one another seldom2 their courses in life are different2 they meet1 and their intercourse is constrained4 ,they fancy that their friendship is mightily cooled4 ,but imagine the dearest friends1 one coming home after a long sojourn1 the other going out to new lands3 the ships that carry these meet3 the friends talk together in a confused way not relevant at all to their friendship1 and1 if not well assured of their mutual regard1 might naturally fancy that it was much abated4 ,something like this occurs daily in the stream of the world4 ,then1 too1 unless people are very unreasonable1 they cannot expect that their friends will pass into new systems of thought and action without new ties of all kinds being created1 and some modification of the old ones taking place4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when we are talking of exorbitant claims made for the regard of others1 we must not omit those of what is called neglected merit4 ,a man feels that he has abilities or talents of a particular kind1 that he has shown them1 and still he is a neglected man4 ,i am far from saying that merit is sufficiently looked out for3 but a man may take the sting out of any neglect of his merits by thinking that at least it does not arise from malice prepense1 as he almost imagines in his anger4 ,neither the public1 nor individuals1 have the time1 or will1 resolutely to neglect anybody4 ,what pleases us1 we admire and further3 if a man in any profession1 calling1 or art1 does things which are beyond us1 we are as guiltless of neglecting him as the ,caffres are of neglecting the differential calculus4 ,milton sells his 8,paradise ,lost0 for ten pounds2 there is no record of ,shakespeare dining much with ,queen ,elizabeth4 ,and it is ,utopian to imagine that statues will be set up to right men in their day4 ,the same arguments which applied to the complaints of ingratitude1 apply to the complaints of neglected merit4 ,the merit is oftentimes not understood4 ,be it ever so manifest1 it cannot absorb men's attention4 ,when it is really great1 it has not been brought out by the hope of reward1 any more than the kindest services by the hope of gratitude4 ,in neither case is it becoming or rational to be clamorous about payment4 ,there is one thing that people hardly ever remember1 or1 indeed1 have imagination enough to conceive2 namely1 the effect of each man being shut up in his individuality4 ,take a long course of sayings and doings in which many persons have been engaged4 ,each one of them is in his own mind the centre of the web1 though1 perhaps1 he is at the edge of it4 ,we know that in our observations of the things of sense1 any difference in the points from which the observation is taken gives a different view of the same thing4 ,moreover1 in the world of sense1 the objects and the points of view are each indifferent to the rest2 but in life the points of views are centres of action that have had something to do with the making of the things looked at4 ,if we could calculate the moral parallax arising from these causes1 we should see1 by the mere aid of the intellect1 how unjust we often are in our complaints of ingratitude1 inconstancy1 and neglect4 ,but without these nice calculations1 such errors of view may be corrected at once by humility1 a more sure method than the most enlightened appreciation of the cause of error4 ,humility is the true cure for many a needless heartache4 ,it must not be supposed that in thus opposing unreasonable views of social affections1 anything is done to dissever such affections4 ,the ,duke of ,wellington1 writing to a man in a dubious position of authority1 says 8,the less you claim1 the more you will have40 ,this is remarkably true of the affections2 and there is scarcely anything that would make men happier than teaching them to watch against unreasonableness in their claims of regard and affection2 and which at the same time would be more likely to ensure their getting what may be their due4 99 99 99 99 99 ,ellesmere 7clapping his hands74 ,an essay after my heart3 worth tons of soft trash4 ,in general you are amplifying duties1 telling everybody that they are to be so good to every other body4 ,now it is as well to let every other body know that he is not to expect all he may fancy from everybody4 ,a man complains that his prosperous friends neglect him3 infinitely overrating1 in all probability1 his claims1 and his friends' power of doing anything for him4 ,well1 then1 you may think me very hard1 but ,i say that the most absurd claims are often put forth on the ground of relationship4 ,i do not deny that there is something in blood1 but it must not be made too much of4 ,near relations have great opportunities of attaching each other2 if they fail to use these1 ,i do not think it is well to let them imagine that mere relationship is to be the talisman of affection4 ,dunsford4 ,i do not see exactly how to answer all that you or ,milverton have said2 but ,i am not prepared1 as official people say1 to agree with you4 ,i especially disagree with what ,milverton has said about love4 ,he leaves much too little power to the will4 ,milverton4 ,i daresay ,i may have done so4 ,these are very deep matters1 and any one view about them does not exhaust them4 ,i remember ,c-- once saying to me that a man never utters anything without error4 ,he may even think of it rightly2 but he cannot bring it out rightly4 ,it turns a little false1 as it were1 when it quits the brain and comes into life4 ,ellesmere4 ,i thought you would soon go over to the soft side4 ,here1 ,rollo2 there's a good dog4 ,you do not form unreasonable expectations1 do you8 ,a very little petting puts you into an ecstasy1 and you are much wiser than many a biped who is full of his claims for gratitude1 and friendship1 and love1 and who is always longing for well-merited rewards to fall into his mouth4 ,down1 dog6 ,milverton4 ,poor animal6 it little knows that all this sudden notice is only by way of ridiculing us4 ,why ,i did not maintain my ground stoutly against ,dunsford is1 that ,i am always afraid of pushing moral conclusions too far4 ,since we have been talking1 ,i think ,i see more clearly than ,i did before what ,i mean to convey by the essay--namely1 that men fall into unreasonable views respecting the affections from imagining that the general laws of the mind are suspended for the sake of the affections4 ,dunsford4 ,that seems safer ground4 ,milverton4 ,now to illustrate what ,i mean by a very similar instance4 ,the mind is avid of new impressions4 ,it 8travels over10 or thinks it travels over1 another mind2 and1 though it may conceal its wish for 8fresh fields and pastures new10 it does so wish4 ,however harsh1 therefore1 and unromantic it may seem1 the best plan is to humour ,nature1 and not to exhaust by overfrequent presence the affection of those whom we would love1 or whom we would have to love us4 ,i would not say1 after the manner of ,rochefoucauld1 that the less we see of people the more we like them2 but there are certain limits of sociality2 and prudent reserve and absence may find a place in the management of the tenderest relations4 ,dunsford4 ,yes1 all this is true enough3 ,i do not see anything hard in this4 ,but then there is the other side4 ,custom is a great aid to affection4 ,milverton4 ,yes4 ,all ,i say is1 do not fancy that the general laws are suspended for the sake of any one affection4 ,dunsford4 ,still this does not go to the question whether there is not something more of will in affection than you make out4 ,you would speak of inducements and counter-inducements1 aids and hindrances2 but ,i cannot but think you are limiting the power of will1 and therefore limiting duty4 ,such views tend to make people easily discontented with each other1 and prevent their making efforts to get over offences1 and to find out what is lovable in those about them4 ,ellesmere4 ,here we are in the deep places again4 ,i see you are pondering1 ,milverton4 ,it is a question1 as a minister would say when ,parliament perplexes him1 that we must go to the country upon2 each man's heart will1 perhaps1 tell him best about it4 ,for my own part1 ,i think that the continuance of affection1 as the rise of it1 depends more on the taste being satisfied1 or at least not disgusted1 than upon any other single thing4 ,our hearts may be touched at our being loved by people essentially distasteful to us1 whose modes of talking and acting are a continual offence to us2 but whether we can love them in return is a question4 ,milverton4 ,yes1 we can1 ,i think4 ,i begin to see that it is a question of degree4 ,the word love includes many shades of meaning4 ,when it includes admiration1 of course we cannot be said to love those in whom we see nothing to admire4 ,but this seldom happens in the mixed characters of real life4 ,the upshot of it all seems to me to be1 that1 as ,guizot says of civilisation1 every impulse has room2 so in the affections1 every inducement and counter-inducement has its influence2 and the result is not a simple one1 which can be spoken of as if it were alike on all occasions and with all men4 ,dunsford4 ,i am still unanswered1 ,i think1 ,milverton4 ,what you say is still wholly built upon inducements1 and does not touch the power of will4 ,milverton4 ,no2 it does not4 ,ellesmere4 ,we must leave that alone4 ,infinite piles of books have not as yet lifted us up to a clear view of that matter4 ,dunsford4 ,well1 then1 we must leave it as a vexed question2 but let it be seen that there is such a question4 ,now1 as to another thing2 you speak1 ,milverton1 of men's not making allowance enough for the unpleasant weight of obligation4 ,i think that weight seems to have increased in modern times4 ,essex could give ,bacon a small estate1 and ,bacon could take it comfortably1 ,i have no doubt4 ,that is a much more wholesome state of things among friends than the present4 ,milverton4 ,yes1 undoubtedly4 ,an extreme notion about independence has made men much less generous in receiving4 ,dunsford4 ,it is a falling off1 then4 ,there was another comment ,i had to make4 ,i think1 when you speak about the exorbitant demands of neglected merit1 you should say more upon the neglect of the just demands of merit4 ,milverton4 ,i would have the ,government and the public in general try by all means to understand and reward merit1 especially in those matters wherein excellence cannot1 otherwise1 meet with large present reward4 ,but1 to say the truth1 ,i would have this done1 not with the view of fostering genius so much as of fulfilling duty3 ,i would say to a minister--it is becoming in you--it is well for the nation1 to reward1 as far as you can1 and dignify1 men of genius4 ,whether you will do them any good or bring forth more of them1 ,i do not know4 ,ellesmere4 ,men of great genius are often such a sensitive race1 so apt to be miserable in many other than pecuniary ways and want of public estimation1 that ,i am not sure that distress and neglect do not take their minds off worse discomforts4 ,it is a kind of grievance1 too1 that they like to have4 ,dunsford4 ,really1 ,ellesmere1 that is a most unfeeling speech4 ,milverton4 ,at any rate1 it is right for us to honour and serve a great man4 ,it is our nature to do so1 if we are worth anything4 ,we may put aside the question whether our honour will do him more good than our neglect4 ,that is a question for him to look to4 ,the world has not yet so largely honoured deserving men in their own time1 that we can exactly pronounce what effect it would have upon them4 ,ellesmere4 ,come1 ,rollo1 let us leave these men of sentiment4 ,oh1 you will not go1 as your master does not move4 ,look how he wags his tail1 and almost says1 8,i should clearly like to have a hunt after the water-rat we saw in the pond the other day1 but master is talking philosophy1 and requires an intelligent audience40 ,these dogs are dear creatures1 it must be owned4 ,come1 ,milverton1 let us have a walk4 ,,chapter ,x4 ,,after the reading in the last chapter1 my friends walked homewards with me as far as ,durley ,wood1 which is about half-way between ,worth-,ashton and my house4 ,as we rested here1 we bethought ourselves that it would be a pleasant spot for us to come to sometimes and read our essays4 ,so we agreed to name a day for meeting there4 ,the day was favourable1 we met as we had appointed1 and finding some beech logs lying very opportunely1 took possession of them for our council4 ,we seated ,ellesmere on one that we called the woolsack1 but which he said he felt himself unworthy to occupy in the presence of ,king ,log1 pointing to mine4 ,these nice points of etiquette being at last settled1 ,milverton drew out his papers and was about to begin reading1 when ,ellesmere thus interrupted him3-- ,ellesmere4 ,you were not in earnest1 ,milverton1 about giving us an essay on population8 ,because if so1 ,i think ,i shall leave this place to you and ,dunsford and the ants4 ,milverton4 ,i certainly have been meditating something of the sort2 but have not been able to make much of it4 ,ellesmere4 ,if ,i had been living in those days when it first beamed upon mankind that the earth was round1 ,i am sure ,i should have said1 8,we know now the bounds of the earth3 there are no interminable plains joined to the regions of the sun1 allowing of indefinite sketchy outlines at the edges of maps4 ,that little creature man will immediately begin to think that his world is too small for him40 ,milverton4 ,there has probably been as much folly uttered by political economy as against it1 which is saying something4 ,the danger as regards theories of political economy is the obvious one of their abstract conclusions being applied to concrete things4 ,ellesmere4 ,as if we were to expect mathematical lines to bear weights4 ,milverton4 ,something like that4 ,with a good system of logic pervading the public mind1 this danger would of course be avoided2 but such a state of mind is not likely to occur in any public that we or our grandchildren are likely to have to deal with4 ,as it is1 an ordinary man hears some conclusion of political economy1 showing some particular tendency of things1 which in real life meets with many counteractions of all kinds3 but he1 perhaps1 adopts the conclusion without the least abatement1 and would work it into life1 as if all went on there like a rule-of-three sum4 ,ellesmere4 ,after all1 this error arises from the man's not having enough political economy4 ,it is not that a theory is good on paper1 but unsound in real life4 ,it is only that in real life you cannot get at the simple state of things to which the theory would rightly apply4 ,you want many other theories and the just composition of them all to be able to work the whole problem4 ,that being done 7which1 however1 scarcely can be done71 the result on paper might be read off as applicable at once to life4 ,but now1 touching the essay2 since we are not to have population1 what is it to be8 ,milverton4 ,public improvements4 ,ellesmere4 ,nearly as bad2 but as this is a favourite subject of yours1 ,i suppose it will not be polite to go away4 ,milverton4 ,no2 you must listen4 ,,public ,,improvements4 ,what are possessions8 ,to an individual1 the stores of his own heart and mind pre-eminently4 ,his truth and valour are amongst the first4 ,his contentedness1 or his resignation may be put next4 ,then his sense of beauty1 surely a possession of great moment to him4 ,then all those mixed possessions which result from the social affections--great possessions1 unspeakable delights1 much greater than the gift last mentioned in the former class1 but held on more uncertain tenure4 ,lastly1 what are generally called possessions8 ,however often we have heard of the vanity1 uncertainty1 and vexation that beset these last1 we must not let this repetition deaden our minds to the fact4 ,now1 national possessions must be estimated by the same gradation that we have applied to individual possessions4 ,if we consider national luxury1 we shall see how small a part it may add to national happiness4 ,men of deserved renown1 and peerless women1 lived upon what we should now call the coarsest fare1 and paced the rushes in their rooms with as high1 or as contented thoughts1 as their better-fed and better-clothed descendants can boast of4 ,man is limited in this direction2 ,i mean1 in the things that concern his personal gratification2 but when you come to the higher enjoyments1 the expansive power both in him and them is greater4 ,as ,keats says1 8,a thing of beauty is a joy for ever2 ,its loveliness increases2 it will never ,pass into nothingness2 but still will keep ,a bower quiet for us1 and a sleep ,full of sweet dreams1 and health1 and quiet breathing40 ,what then are a nation's possessions8 ,the great words that have been said in it2 the great deeds that have been done in it2 the great buildings1 and the great works of art1 that have been made in it4 ,a man says a noble saying3 it is a possession1 first to his own race1 then to mankind4 ,a people get a noble building built for them3 it is an honour to them1 also a daily delight and instruction4 ,it perishes4 ,the remembrance of it is still a possession4 ,if it was indeed pre-eminent1 there will be more pleasure in thinking of it than in being with others of inferior order and design4 99 99 99 99 99 ,on the other hand1 a thing of ugliness is potent for evil4 ,it deforms the taste of the thoughtless3 it frets the man who knows how bad it is3 it is a disgrace to the nation who raised it2 an example and an occasion for more monstrosities4 ,if it is a great building in a great city1 thousands of people pass it daily1 and are the worse for it1 or at least not the better4 ,it must be done away with4 ,next to the folly of doing a bad thing is that of fearing to undo it4 ,we must not look at what it has cost1 but at what it is4 ,millions may be spent upon some foolish device which will not the more make it into a possession1 but only a more noticeable detriment4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it must not be supposed that works of art are the only1 or the chief1 public improvements needed in any country4 ,wherever men congregate1 the elements become scarce4 ,the supply of air1 light1 and water is then a matter of the highest public importance3 and the magnificent utilitarianism of the ,romans should precede the nice sense of beauty of the ,greeks4 ,or rather1 the former should be worked out in the latter4 ,sanitary improvements1 like most good works1 may be made to fulfil many of the best human objects4 ,charity1 social order1 conveniency of living1 and the love of the beautiful1 may all be furthered by such improvements4 ,a people is seldom so well employed as when1 not suffering their attention to be absorbed by foreign quarrels and domestic broils1 they bethink themselves of winning back those blessings of ,nature which assemblages of men mostly vitiate1 exclude1 or destroy4 99 99 99 99 99 ,public improvements are sometimes most difficult in free countries4 ,the origination of them is difficult there1 many diverse minds having to be persuaded4 ,the individual1 or class1 resistance to the public good is harder to conquer than in despotic states4 ,and1 what is most embarrassing1 perhaps1 individual progress in the same direction1 or individual doings in some other way1 form a great hindrance1 sometimes1 to public enterprise4 ,on the other hand1 the energy of a free people is a mine of public welfare2 and individual effort brings many good things to bear in much shorter time than any government could be expected to move in4 ,a judicious statesman considers these things2 and sets himself especially to overcome those peculiar obstacles to public improvement which belong to the institutions of his country4 ,adventure in a despotic state1 combined action in a free state1 are the objects which peculiarly demand his attention4 ,to return to works of art4 ,in this also the genius of the people is to be heeded4 ,there may have been1 there may be1 nations requiring to be diverted from the love of art to stern labour and industrial conquests4 ,but certainly it is not so with the ,anglo-,saxon race1 or with the ,northern races generally4 ,money may enslave them2 logic may enslave them2 art never will4 ,the chief men1 therefore1 in these races will do well sometimes to contend against the popular current1 and to convince their people that there are other sources of delight1 and other objects worthy of human endeavour1 than severe money-getting or more material successes of any kind4 ,in fine1 the substantial improvement1 and even the embellishment of towns1 is a work which both the central and local governing bodies in a country should keep a steady hand upon4 ,it especially concerns them4 ,what are they there for but to do that which individuals cannot do8 ,it concerns them1 too1 as it tells upon the health1 morals1 education1 and refined pleasures of the people they govern4 ,in doing it1 they should avoid pedantry1 parsimony1 and favouritism2 and their mode of action should be large1 considerate1 and foreseeing4 ,large2 inasmuch as they must not easily be contented with the second best in any of their projects4 ,considerate2 inasmuch as they have to think what their people need most1 not what will make most show4 ,and therefore1 they should be contented1 for instance1 at their work going on underground for a time1 or in byways1 if needful2 the best charity in public works1 as in private1 being often that which courts least notice4 ,lastly1 their work should be with foresight1 recollecting that cities grow up about us like young people1 before we are aware of it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,ellesmere4 ,another very merciful essay6 ,when we had once got upon the subject of sanitary improvements1 ,i thought we should soon be five fathom deep in blue-books1 reports1 interminable questions of sewerage1 and horrors of all kinds4 ,milverton4 ,i am glad you own that ,i have been very tender of your impatience in this essay4 ,people1 ,i trust1 are now so fully aware of the immense importance of sanitary improvements1 that we do not want the elementary talking about such things that was formerly necessary4 ,it is difficult1 though1 to say too much about sanitary matters1 that is1 if by saying much one could gain attention4 ,i am convinced that the most fruitful source of physical evil to mankind has been impure air1 arising from circumstances which might have been obviated4 ,plagues and pestilences of all kinds1 cretinism too1 and all scrofulous disorders1 are probably mere questions of ventilation4 ,a district may require ventilation as well as a house4 ,ellesmere4 ,seriously speaking1 ,i quite agree with you4 ,and what delights me in sanitary improvements is1 that they can hardly do harm4 ,give a poor man good air1 and you do not diminish his self-reliance4 ,you only add to his health and vigour--make more of a man of him4 ,but now that the public mind1 as it is facetiously called1 has got hold of the idea of these improvements1 everybody will be chattering about them4 ,milverton4 ,the very time when those who really do care for these matters should be watchful to make the most of the tide in their favour1 and should not suffer themselves to relax their efforts because there is no originality now about such things4 ,dunsford4 ,custom soon melts off the wings which ,novelty alone has lent to ,benevolence4 ,ellesmere4 ,and down comes the charitable ,icarus4 ,a very good simile1 my dear ,dunsford1 but rather of the ,latin-verse order4 ,i almost see it worked into an hexameter and pentameter1 and delighting the heart of an ,eton boy4 ,dunsford4 ,ellesmere is more than usually vicious to-day1 ,milverton4 ,a great 8public improvement0 would be to clip the tongues of some of these lawyers4 ,ellesmere4 ,possibly4 ,i have just been looking again at that part of the essay1 ,milverton1 where you talk of the little gained by national luxury4 ,i think with you4 ,there is an immensity of nonsense uttered about making people happy1 which is to be done1 according to happiness-mongers1 by quantities of sugar and tea1 and such-like things4 ,one knows the importance of food1 but there is no ,elysium to be got out of it4 ,milverton4 ,i know what you mean4 ,there is a kind of pity for the people now in vogue which is most effeminate4 ,it is a sugared sort of ,robespierre talk about 8,the poor but virtuous ,people40 ,to address such stuff to the people is not to give them anything1 but to take away what they have4 ,suppose you could give them oceans of tea and mountains of sugar1 and abundance of any luxury that you choose to imagine1 but at the same time you inserted a hungry1 envious spirit in them1 what have you done8 ,then1 again1 this envious spirit1 when it is turned to difference of station1 what good can it do8 ,can you give station according to merit8 ,is life long enough for it8 ,ellesmere4 ,of course we cannot always be weighing men with nicety1 and saying1 8,here is your place1 here yours40 ,milverton4 ,then1 again1 what happiness do you confer on men by teaching them to disrespect their superiors in rank1 by turning all the embellishments which adorn various stations wrong side out1 putting everything in its lowest form1 and then saying1 8,what do you see to admire here80 ,you do not know what injury you may do a man when you destroy all reverence in him4 ,it will be found out some day that men derive more pleasure and profit from having superiors than from having inferiors4 ,dunsford4 ,it is seldom that ,i bring you back to your subject1 but we are really a long way off at present2 and ,i want to know1 ,milverton1 what you would do specifically in the way of public improvements4 ,of course you cannot say in an essay what you would do in such matters1 but amongst ourselves4 ,in ,london1 for instance4 ,milverton4 ,the first thing for ,government to do1 ,dunsford1 in ,london1 or any other great town1 is to secure open spaces in it and about it4 ,trafalgar ,square may be dotted with hideous absurdities1 but it is an open space4 ,they may collect together there specimens of every variety of meanness and bad taste2 but they cannot prevent its being a better thing than if it were covered with houses4 ,public money is scarcely ever so well employed as in securing bits of waste ground and keeping them as open spaces4 ,then1 as under the most favourable circumstances1 we are likely to have too much carbon in the air of any town1 we should plant trees to restore the just proportions of the air as far as we can4 #afa ,trees are also what the heart and the eye desire most in towns4 ,the ,boulevards in ,paris show the excellent effect of trees against buildings4 ,there are many parts of ,london where rows of trees might be planted along the streets4 ,the weighty dulness of ,portland ,place1 for instance1 might be thus relieved4 ,of course1 in any scheme of public improvements1 the getting rid of smoke is one of the first objects4 ,ellesmere4 ,yes1 smoke is a great abuse2 but then there is something ludicrous about it1 just as there is about sewerage4 ,i believe1 myself1 that for one person that the ,corn ,laws have injured1 a dozen have had their lives shortened and their happiness abridged in every way by these less palpable nuisances4 ,but there is no grandeur in opposing them--no 8good cry0 to be raised4 ,and so1 as abuses cannot be met in our days but by agitation--a committee1 secretaries1 clerks1 newspapers1 and a review--and as agitation in this case holds out fewer inducements than usual1 we have gone on year after year being poisoned by these various nuisances1 at an incalculable expense of life and money4 ,milverton4 ,there is something in what you say1 ,i think1 but you press it too far2 for of late these sanitary subjects have worked themselves into notice1 as you yourself admit4 ,ellesmere4 ,late indeed4 ,milverton4 ,well1 but to go on with schemes for improving ,london4 ,open spaces1 trees--then comes the supply of water4 ,this is one of the first things to be done4 ,philadelphia has given an example which all towns ought to imitate4 ,it is a matter requiring great thought1 and the various plans should be thoroughly canvassed before the choice is made4 ,great beauty and the highest utility may be combined in supplying a town like ,london with water4 ,by the way1 how much water do you think ,london requires daily8 ,ellesmere4 ,as much as the ,serpentine and the water in ,st4 ,james's ,park4 ,milverton4 ,you are not so far out4 ,well1 then1 having gone through the largest things that must be attended to1 we come to minor matters4 ,it is a great pity that the system of building upon leases should be so commonly adopted4 ,nobody expects to live out the leasehold term which he takes to build upon4 ,but things would be better done if people were more averse to having anything to do with leasehold property4 ,c4 always says that the modern lath-and-plaster system is a wickedness1 and upon my word ,i think he is right4 ,it is inconceivable to me how a man can make up his mind to build1 or to do anything else1 in a temporary1 slight1 insincere fashion4 ,what has a man to say for himself who must sum up the doings of his life in this way1 8,i chiefly employed myself in making or selling things which seemed to be good and were not1 and nobody has occasion to bless me for anything ,i have done40 ,ellesmere4 ,humph6 you put it mildly4 ,but the man has made perhaps seven per cent4 off his money2 or1 if he has made no per cent41 has ruined several men of his own trade1 which is not to go for nothing when a man is taking stock of his good deeds4 ,milverton4 ,there is one thing ,i forgot to say1 that we want more individual will in building1 ,i think4 ,as it is at present1 a great builder takes a plot of ground and turns out innumerable houses1 all alike1 the same faults and merits running through each1 thus adding to the general dulness of things4 ,ellesmere4 ,lady ,mary ,wortley ,montagu1 when she came from abroad1 remarked that all her friends seemed to have got into drawing-rooms which were like a grand piano1 first a large square or oblong room1 and then a small one4 ,quite ,georgian1 this style of architecture4 ,but now ,i think we are improving immensely--at any rate in the outside of houses4 ,by the way1 ,milverton1 ,i want to ask you one thing3 ,how is it that ,governments and ,committees1 and the bodies that manage matters of taste1 seem to be more tasteless than the average run of people8 ,i will wager anything that the cabmen round ,trafalgar ,square would have made a better thing of it than it is4 ,if you had put before them several prints of fountains1 they would not have chosen those4 ,milverton4 ,i think with you1 but ,i have no theory to account for it4 ,i suppose that these committees are frequently hampered by other considerations than those which come before the public when they are looking at the work done2 and this may be some excuse4 ,there was a custom which ,i have heard prevailed in former days in some of the ,italian cities1 of making large models of the works of art that were to adorn the city1 and putting them up in the places intended for the works when finished1 and then inviting criticism4 ,it would really be a very good plan in some cases4 ,ellesmere4 ,now1 ,milverton1 would you not forthwith pull down such things as ,buckingham ,palace and the ,national ,gallery8 ,dunsford looks at me as if ,i were going to pull down the ,constitution4 ,milverton4 ,i would pull them down to a certainty1 or some parts of them at any rate2 but whether 8forthwith0 is another question4 ,there are greater things1 perhaps1 to be done first4 ,we must consider1 too1 8,that eternal want of pence ,which vexes public men40 ,still1 ,i think we ought always to look upon such buildings as temporary arrangements1 and they vex one less then4 ,the ,palace ought to be in the higher part of the ,park1 perhaps on that slope opposite ,piccadilly4 ,dunsford4 ,well1 it does amuse me the way in which you youngsters go on1 pulling down1 in your industrious imaginations1 palaces and national galleries1 building aqueducts and cloac maxim1 forming parks1 destroying smoke 7so large a part of every ,londoner's diet71 and abridging plaster1 without fear of ,chancellors of the ,exchequer1 and the resistance of mankind in general4 ,milverton4 ,we must begin by thinking boldly about things4 ,that is a larger part of any undertaking than it seems1 perhaps4 ,dunsford4 ,we must1 ,i am afraid1 break off our pleasant employment of projecting public improvements1 unless we mean to be dinnerless4 ,ellesmere4 ,a frequent fate of great projectors1 ,i fear4 ,milverton4 ,now then1 homewards4 ,,chapter ,,xi4 ,,my readers will1 perhaps1 agree with me in being sorry to find that we are coming to the end of our present series4 ,i say1 8my readers10 though ,i have so little part in purveying for them1 that ,i mostly consider myself one of them4 ,it is no light task1 however1 to give a good account of a conversation2 and ,i say this1 and would wish people to try whether ,i am not right in saying so1 not to call attention to my labour in the matter1 but because it may be well to notice how difficult it is to report anything truly4 ,were this better known1 it might be an aid to charity1 and prevent some of those feuds which grow out of the poverty of man's power to express1 to apprehend1 to represent1 rather than out of any malignant part of his nature4 ,but ,i must not go on moralising4 ,i almost feel that ,ellesmere is looking over my shoulder1 and breaking into my discourse with sharp words2 which ,i have lately been so much accustomed to4 ,i had expected that we should have many more readings this summer1 as ,i knew that ,milverton had prepared more essays for us4 ,but finding1 as he said1 that the other subjects he had in hand were larger than he had anticipated1 or was prepared for1 he would not read even to us what he had written4 ,though ,i was very sorry for this--for ,i may not be the chronicler in another year--,i could not but say he was right4 ,indeed1 my ideas of literature1 nourished as they have been in much solitude1 and by the reading1 if ,i may say so1 mainly of our classical authors1 are very high placed1 though ,i hope not fantastical4 ,and1 therefore1 ,i would not discourage anyone in expending whatever thought and labour might be in him upon any literary work4 ,in fine1 then1 ,i did not attempt to dissuade ,milverton from his purpose of postponing our readings3 and we agreed that there should only be one more for the present4 ,i wished it to be at our favourite place on the lawn1 which had become endeared to me as the spot of many of our friendly councils4 ,it was later than usual when ,i came over to ,worth-,ashton for this reading2 and as ,i gained the brow of the hill1 some few clouds tinged with red were just grouping together to form the accustomed pomp upon the exit of the setting sun4 ,i believe ,i mentioned in the introduction to our first conversation that the ruins of an old castle could be seen from our place of meeting4 ,milverton and ,ellesmere were talking about it as ,i joined them4 ,milverton4 ,yes1 ,ellesmere1 many a man has looked out of those windows upon a sunset like this1 with some of the thoughts that must come into the minds of all men on seeing this great emblem1 the setting sun--has felt1 in looking at it1 his coming end1 or the closing of his greatness4 ,those old walls must have been witness to every kind of human emotion4 ,henry the ,second was there2 ,john1 ,i think2 ,margaret of ,anjou and ,cardinal ,beaufort2 ,william of ,wykeham2 ,henry the ,eighth's ,cromwell2 and many others who have made some stir in the world4 ,ellesmere4 ,and1 perhaps1 the greatest there were those who made no stir4 8,the world knows nothing of its greatest men40 ,milverton4 ,i am slow to believe that4 ,i cannot well reconcile myself to the idea that great capacities are given for nothing4 ,they bud out in some way or other4 ,ellesmere4 ,yes1 but it may not be in a noisy way4 ,milverton4 ,there is one thing that always strikes me very much in looking at the lives of men3 how soon1 as it were1 their course seems to be determined4 ,they say1 or do1 or think1 something which gives a bias at once to the whole of their career4 ,dunsford4 ,you may go farther back than that1 and speak of the impulses they got from their ancestors4 ,ellesmere4 ,or the nets around them of other people's ways and wishes4 ,there are many things1 you see1 that go to make men puppets4 ,milverton4 ,i was only noticing the circumstance that there was such a thing1 as it appeared to me1 as this early direction4 ,but1 if it has been ever so unfortunate1 a man's folding his hands over it in a melancholy mood1 and suffering himself to be made a puppet by it1 is a sadly weak proceeding4 ,most thoughtful men have probably some dark fountains in their souls1 by the side of which1 if there were time1 and it were decorous1 they could let their thoughts sit down and wail indefinitely4 ,that long ,byron wail fascinated men for a time2 because there is that in ,human ,nature4 ,luckily1 a great deal besides4 ,ellesmere4 ,i delight in the helpful and hopeful men4 ,milverton4 ,a man that ,i admire very much1 and have met with occasionally1 is one who is always of use in any matter he is mixed up with1 simply because he wishes that the best should be got out of the thing that is possible4 ,there does not seem much in the description of such a character2 but only see it in contrast with that of a brilliant man1 for instance1 who does not ever fully care about the matter in hand4 ,dunsford4 ,i can thoroughly imagine the difference4 ,milverton4 ,the human race may be bound up together in some mysterious way1 each of us having a profound interest in the fortunes of the whole1 and so1 to some extent1 of every portion of it4 ,such a man as ,i have described acts as though he had an intuitive perception of that relation1 and therefore a sort of family feeling for mankind1 which gives him satisfaction in making the best out of any human affair he has to do with4 ,but we really must have the essay1 and not talk any more4 ,it is on ,history4 ,,history4 ,among the fathomless things that are about us and within us1 is the continuity of time4 ,this gives to life one of its most solemn aspects4 ,we may think to ourselves3 ,would there could be some halting-place in life1 where we could stay1 collecting our minds1 and see the world drift by us4 ,but no3 even while you read this1 you are not pausing to read it4 ,as one of the great ,french preachers1 ,i think1 says1 ,we are embarked upon a stream1 each in his own little boat1 which must move uniformly onwards1 till it ceases to move at all4 ,it is a stream that knows 8no haste1 no rest02 a boat that knows no haven but one4 ,this unbated continuity suggests the past as well as the future4 ,we would know what mighty empires this stream of time has flowed through1 by what battle-fields it has been tinged1 how it has been employed towards fertility1 and what beautiful shadows on its surface have been seized by art1 or science1 or great words1 and held in time-lasting1 if not in everlasting1 beauty4 ,this is what history tells us4 ,often in a faltering1 confused1 be-darkened way1 like the deed it chronicles4 ,but it is what we have1 and we must make the best of it4 ,the subject of this essay may be thus divided3 ,why history should be read--how it should be read--by whom it should be written--how it should be written--and how good writers of history should be called forth1 aided1 and rewarded4 ,i4 ,,why ,,history ,,should ,,be ,,read4 ,it takes us out of too much care for the present2 it extends our sympathies2 it shows us that other men have had their sufferings and their grievances2 it enriches discourse1 it enlightens travel4 ,so does fiction4 ,but the effect of history is more lasting and suggestive4 ,if we see a place which fiction has treated of1 we feel that it has some interest for us2 but show us a spot where remarkable deeds have been done1 or remarkable people have lived1 and our thoughts cling to it4 ,we employ our own imagination about it3 we invent the fiction for ourselves4 ,again1 history is at least the conventional account of things3 that which men agree to receive as the right account1 and which they discuss as true4 ,to understand their talk1 we must know what they are talking about4 ,again1 there is something in history which can seldom be got from the study of the lives of individual men2 namely1 the movements of men collectively1 and for long periods--of man1 in fact1 not of men4 ,in history1 the composition of the forces that move the world has to be analysed4 ,we must have before us the law of the progress of opinion1 the interruptions to it of individual character1 the principles on which men act in the main1 the trade winds1 as we may say1 in human affairs1 and the recurrent storms which one man's life does not tell us of4 ,again1 by the study of history1 we have a chance of becoming tolerant travelling over the ways of many nations and many periods2 and we may also acquire that historic tact by which we collect upon one point of human affairs the light of many ages4 ,we may judge of the benefit of historical studies by observing what great defects are incident to the moral and political writers who know nothing of history4 ,a present grievance1 or what seems such1 swallows up in their minds all other considerations2 their little bottle of oil is to still the raging waves of the whole human ocean2 their system1 a thing that the historian has seen before1 perhaps1 in many ages1 is to reconcile all diversities4 ,then they would persuade you that this class of men is wholly good1 that wholly bad2 or that there is no difference between good and bad4 ,they may be shrewd men1 considering what they have seen1 but would be much shrewder if they could know how small a part that is of life4 ,we may all refer to our boyhood1 and recollect the time when we thought the things about us were the type of all things everywhere4 ,that was1 perhaps1 after all no silly princess who was for feeding the famishing people on cakes4 ,history takes us out of this confined circle of child-like thought2 and shows us what are the perennial aims1 struggles1 and distractions of mankind4 ,history has always been set down as the especial study for statesmen1 and for men who take an interest in public affairs4 ,for history is to nations what biography is to individual men4 ,history is the chart and compass for national endeavour4 ,our early voyagers are dead3 not a plank remains of the old ships that first essayed unknown waters2 the sea retains no track2 and were it not for the history of these voyages contained in charts1 in chronicles1 in hoarded lore of all kinds1 each voyager1 though he were to start with all the aids of advanced civilisation 7if you could imagine such a thing without history71 would need the boldness of the first voyager4 ,and so it would be with the statesman1 were the civil history of mankind unknown4 ,we live to some extent in peace and comfort upon the results obtained for us by the chronicles of our forefathers4 ,we do not see this without some reflection4 ,but imagine what a full-grown nation would be if it knew no history--like a full-grown man with only a child's experience4 ,the present is an age of remarkable experiences4 ,vast improvements have been made in several of the outward things that concern life nearly1 from intercourse rapid as lightning to surgical operation without pain4 ,we accept them all2 still1 the difficulties of government1 the management of ourselves1 our relations with others1 and many of the prime difficulties of life remain but little subdued4 ,history still claims our interest1 is still wanted to make us think and act with any breadth of wisdom4 ,at the same time1 however1 that we claim for history great powers of instruction1 we must not imagine that the examples which it furnishes will enable its readers to anticipate the experience of life4 ,an experienced man reads that ,csar did this or that1 but he says to himself1 8,i am not ,csar40 ,or1 indeed1 as is most probable1 the reader has not to reject the application of the example to himself3 for from first to last he sees nothing but experience for ,csar in what ,csar was doing4 ,i think it may be observed1 too1 that general maxims about life gain the ear of the inexperienced1 in preference to historical examples4 ,but neither wise sayings nor historical examples can be understood without experience4 ,words are only symbols4 ,who can know anything soundly with respect to the complicated affections and struggles of life1 unless he has experienced some of them8 ,all knowledge of humanity spreads from within4 ,so in studying history1 the lessons it teaches must have something to grow round in the heart they teach4 ,our own trials1 misfortunes1 and enterprises are the best lights by which we can read history4 ,hence it is that many an historian may see far less into the depths of the very history he has himself written than a man who1 having acted and suffered1 reads the history in question with all the wisdom that comes from action and suffering4 ,sir ,robert ,walpole might naturally exclaim1 8,do not read history to me1 for that1 ,i know1 must be false40 ,but if he had read it1 ,i do not doubt that he would have seen through the film of false and insufficient narrative into the depth of the matter narrated1 in a way that men of great experience can alone attain to4 ,,ii4 ,,how ,,history ,,should ,,be ,,read4 ,i suppose that many who now connect the very word history with the idea of dulness1 would have been fond and diligent students of history if it had had fair access to their minds4 ,but they were set down to read histories which were not fitted to be read continuously1 or by any but practised students4 ,some such works are mere framework1 a name which the author of the ,statesman applies to them2 very good things1 perhaps1 for their purpose1 but that is not to invite readers to history4 ,you might almost as well read dictionaries with a hope of getting a succinct and clear view of language4 ,when1 in any narration1 there is a constant heaping up of facts1 made about equally significant by the way of telling them1 a hasty delineation of characters1 and all the incidents moving on as in the fifth act of a confused tragedy1 the mind and memory refuse to be so treated2 and the reading ends in nothing but a very slight and inaccurate acquaintance with the mere husk of the history4 ,you cannot epitomise the knowledge that it would take years to acquire into a few volumes that may be read in as many weeks4 ,the most likely way of attracting men's attention to historical subjects will be by presenting them with small portions of history1 of great interest1 thoroughly examined4 ,this may give them the habit of applying thought and criticism to historical matters4 ,for1 as it is1 how are people interested in history8 and how do they master its multitudinous assemblage of facts8 ,mostly1 perhaps1 in this way4 ,a man cares about some one thing1 or person1 or event1 and plunges into its history1 really wishing to master it4 ,this pursuit extends3 other points of research are taken up by him at other times4 ,his researches begin to intersect4 ,he finds a connection in things4 ,the texture of his historic acquisitions gradually attains some substance and colour2 and so at last he begins to have some dim notions of the myriads of men who came1 and saw1 and did not conquer--only struggled on as they best might1 some of them--and are not4 ,when we are considering how history should be read1 the main thing perhaps is1 that the person reading should desire to know what he is reading about1 not merely to have read the books that tell of it4 ,the most elaborate and careful historian must omit1 or pass lightly over1 many points of his subject4 ,he writes for all readers1 and cannot indulge private fancies4 ,but history has its particular aspect for each man3 there must be portions which he may be expected to dwell upon4 ,and everywhere1 even where the history is most laboured1 the reader should have something of the spirit of research which was needful for the writer3 if only so much as to ponder well the words of the writer4 ,that man reads history1 or anything else1 at great peril of being thoroughly misled1 who has no perception of any truthfulness except that which can be fully ascertained by reference to facts2 who does not in the least perceive the truth1 or the reverse1 of a writer's style1 of his epithets1 of his reasoning1 of his mode of narration4 ,in life1 our faith in any narration is much influenced by the personal appearance1 voice1 and gesture of the person narrating4 ,there is some part of all these things in his writing2 and you must look into that well before you can know what faith to give him4 ,one man may make mistakes in names1 and dates1 and references1 and yet have a real substance of truthfulness in him1 a wish to enlighten himself and then you4 ,another may not be wrong in his facts1 but have a declamatory or sophistical vein in him1 much to be guarded against4 ,a third may be both inaccurate and untruthful1 caring not so much for anything as to write his book4 ,and if the reader cares only to read it1 sad work they make between them of the memories of former days4 ,in studying history1 it must be borne in mind that a knowledge is necessary of the state of manners1 customs1 wealth1 arts1 and science at the different periods treated of4 ,the text of civil history requires a context of this knowledge in the mind of the reader4 ,for the same reason1 some of the main facts of the geography of the countries in question should be present to him4 ,if we are ignorant of these aids to history1 all history is apt to seem alike to us4 ,it becomes merely a narrative of men of our own time1 in our own country2 and then we are prone to expect the same views and conduct from them that we do from our contemporaries4 ,it is true that the heroes of antiquity have been represented on the stage in bag-wigs1 and the rest of the costume of our grandfathers3 but it was the great events of their lives that were thus told--the crisis of their passions--and when we are contemplating the representation of great passions and their consequences1 all minor imagery is of little moment4 ,in a long-drawn narrative1 however1 the more we have in our minds of what concerned the daily life of the people we read about1 the better4 ,and in general it may be said that history1 like travelling1 gives a return in proportion to the knowledge that a man brings to it4 ,,iii4 ,,by ,,whom ,,history ,,should ,,be ,,written4 ,before entering directly on this part of the subject1 it is desirable to consider a little the difficulties in the way of writing history4 ,we all know the difficulty of getting at the truth of a matter which happened yesterday1 and about which we can examine the living actors upon oath4 ,but in history the most significant things may lack the most important part of their evidence4 ,the people who were making history were not thinking of the convenience of future writers of history4 ,often the historian must contrive to get his insight into matters from evidence of men and things which is like bad pictures of them4 ,the contemporary1 if he knew the man1 said of the picture1 8,i should have known it1 but it has very little of him in it40 ,the poor historian1 with no original before him1 has to see through the bad picture into the man4 ,then1 supposing our historian rich in well-selected evidence--,i say well-selected1 because1 as students tell us1 for many an historian one authority is of the same weight as another1 provided they are both of the same age2 still1 how difficult is narration even to the man who is rich in well-selected evidence4 ,what a tendency there is to round off a narrative into falsehood2 or else by parenthesis to destroy its pith and continuity4 ,again1 the historian knows the end of many of the transactions he narrates4 ,if he did not1 how differently often he would narrate them4 ,it would be a most instructive thing to give a man the materials for the account of a great transaction1 stopping short of the end1 and then see how different would be his account from the ordinary ones4 ,fools have been hardly dealt with in the saying that the event is their master 78eventus stultorum magister071 seeing how it rules us all4 ,and in nothing more than in history4 ,the event is always present to our minds2 along the pathways to it1 the historian and the moralist have walked till they are beaten pathways1 and we imagine that they were so to the men who first went along them4 ,indeed1 we almost fancy that these ancestors of ours1 looking along the beaten path1 foresaw the event as we do2 whereas1 they mostly stumbled upon it suddenly in the forest4 ,this knowledge of the end we must1 therefore1 put down as one of the most dangerous pitfalls which beset the writers of history4 ,then consider the difficulty in the 8composition10 to use an artist's word1 of our historian's picture4 ,before both the artist and the historian lies ,nature as far as the horizon2 how shall they choose that portion of it which has some unity and which shall represent the rest8 ,what method is needful in the grouping of facts2 what learning1 what patience1 what accuracy6 ,by whom1 then1 should history be written8 ,in the first place1 by men of some experience in real life2 who have acted and suffered2 who have been in crowds1 and seen1 perhaps felt1 how madly men can care about nothings2 who have observed how much is done in the world in an uncertain manner1 upon sudden impulses and very little reason2 and who1 therefore1 do not think themselves bound to have a deep-laid theory for all things4 ,they should be men who have studied the laws of the affections1 who know how much men's opinions depend on the time in which they live1 how they vary with their age and their position4 ,to make themselves historians1 they should also have considered the combinations amongst men and the laws that govern such things2 for there are laws4 ,moreover our historians1 like most men who do great things1 must combine in themselves qualities which are held to belong to opposite natures2 must at the same time be patient in research and vigorous in imagination1 energetic and calm1 cautious and enterprising4 ,such historians1 wise1 as we may suppose they will be1 about the affair of other men1 may1 let us hope1 be sufficiently wise about their own affairs to understand that no great work can be done without great labour1 that no great labour ought to look for its reward4 ,but my readers will exclaim as ,rasselas to ,imlac on hearing the requisites for a poet1 8,enough6 thou hast convinced me that no human being can ever be an historian4 ,proceed with thy narration40 ,,iv4 ,,how ,,history ,,should ,,be ,,written4 ,one of the first things in writing history is for the historian to recollect that it is history he is writing4 ,the narrative must not be oppressed by reflections1 even by wise ones4 ,least of all should the historian suffer himself to become entangled by a theory or a system4 ,if he does1 each fact is taken up by him in a particular way3 those facts that cannot be so handled cease to be his facts1 and those that offer themselves conveniently are received too fondly by him4 ,then1 although our historian must not be mastered by system1 he must have some way of taking up his facts and of classifying them4 ,they must not be mere isolated units in his eyes1 else he is mobbed by them4 ,and a man in the midst of a crowd1 though he may know the names and nature of all the crowd1 cannot give an account of their doings4 ,those who look down from the housetop must do that4 ,but1 above all things1 the historian must get out of his own age into the time in which he is writing4 ,imagination is as much needed for the historian as the poet4 ,you may combine bits of books with other bits of books1 and so make some new combinations1 and this may be done accurately1 and1 in general1 much of the subordinate preparation for history may be accomplished without any great effort of imagination4 ,but to write history in any large sense of the words1 you must be able to comprehend other times4 ,you must know that there is a right and wrong which is not your right and wrong1 but yet stands upon the right and wrong of all ages and all hearts4 ,you must also appreciate the outward life and colours of the period you write about4 ,try to think how the men you are telling of would have spent a day1 what were their leading ideas1 what they cared about4 ,grasp the body of the time1 and give it to us4 ,if not1 and these men could look at your history1 they would say1 8,this is all very well2 we daresay some of these things did happen2 but we were not thinking of these things all day long4 ,it does not represent us40 ,after enlarging upon this great requisite1 imagination1 it seems somewhat prosaic to come down to saying that history requires accuracy4 ,but ,i think ,i hear the sighs1 and sounds more harsh than sighing1 of those who have ever investigated anything1 and found by dire experience the deplorable inaccuracy which prevails in the world4 ,and1 therefore1 ,i would say to the historian almost as the first suggestion1 8,be accurate2 do not make false references1 do not mis-state3 and men1 if they get no light from you1 will not execrate you4 ,you will not stand in the way1 and have to be explained and got rid of40 ,another most important matter in writing history1 and that indeed in which the art lies1 is the method of narrating4 ,this is a thing almost beyond rules1 like the actual execution in music or painting4 ,a man might have fairness1 accuracy1 an insight into other times1 great knowledge of facts1 some power even of arranging them1 and yet make a narrative out of it all1 so protracted here1 so huddled together there1 the purpose so buried or confused1 that men would agree to acknowledge the merit of the book and leave it unread4 ,there must be a natural line of associations for the narrative to run along4 ,the separate threads of the narrative must be treated separately1 and yet the subject not be dealt with sectionally1 for that is not the way in which the things occurred4 ,the historian must1 therefore1 beware that those divisions of the subject which he makes for our ease and convenience1 do not induce him to treat his subject in a flimsy manner4 ,he must not make his story easy where it is not so4 ,after all1 it is not by rule that a great history is to be written4 ,most thinkers agree that the main object for the historian is to get an insight into the things which he tells of1 and then to tell them with the modesty of a man who is in the presence of great events2 and must speak about them carefully1 simply1 and with but little of himself or of his affections thrown into the narration4 ,v4 ,,how ,,good ,,writers ,,of ,,history ,,should ,,be ,,called ,,forth1 ,,aided1 ,,and ,,rewarded4 ,mainly by history being properly read4 ,the direct ways of commanding excellence of any kind are very few1 if any4 ,when a ,state has found out its notable men1 it should reward them1 and will show its worthiness by its measure and mode of reward4 ,but it cannot purchase them4 ,it may do something in the way of aiding them4 ,in history1 for instance1 the records of a nation may be discreetly managed1 and some of the minor work1 therefore1 done to the hand of the historian4 ,but the most likely method to ensure good historians is to have a fit audience for them4 ,and this is a very difficult matter4 ,in works of general literature1 the circle of persons capable of judging is large2 even in works of science or philosophy it is considerable3 but in history1 it is a very confined circle4 ,to the general body of readers1 whether the history they read is true or not is in no way perceptible4 ,it is quite as amusing to them when it is told in one way as in another4 ,there is always mischief in error3 but in this case the mischief is remote1 or seems so4 ,for men of ordinary culture1 even if of much intelligence1 the difficulty of discerning what is true or false in the histories they read makes it a matter of the highest duty for those few persons who can give us criticism on historical works1 at least to save us from insolent and mendacious carelessness in historical writers1 if not by just encouragement to secure for nations some results not altogether unworthy of the great enterprise which the writing of history holds out itself to be4 8,hujus enim fidei exempla majorum1 vicissitudines rerum1 fundamenta prudenti civilis1 hominum denique nomen et fama commissa sunt40 #ahc ,ellesmere4 ,just wait a minute for me1 and do not talk about the essay till ,i come back4 ,i am going for ,anster's ,faust4 ,dunsford4 ,what has ,ellesmere got in his head8 ,milverton4 ,i see4 ,there is a passage where ,faust1 in his most discontented mood1 falls foul of history--in his talk to ,wagner1 if ,i am not mistaken4 ,dunsford4 ,how beautiful it is this evening6 ,look at that yellow-green near the sunset4 ,milverton4 ,the very words that ,coleridge uses4 ,i always think of them when ,i see that tint4 ,dunsford4 ,i daresay his words were in my mind1 but ,i have forgotten what you allude to4 ,milverton4 8,o ,lady6 in this wan and heartless mood1 ,to other thoughts by yonder throstle woo'd1 ,all this long eve1 so balmy and serene1 ,have ,i been gazing on the western sky1 ,and its peculiar tint of yellow-green3 ,and still ,i gaze--and with how blank an eye6 ,and those thin clouds above1 in flakes and bars1 ,that give away their motion to the stars2 ,those stars that glide behind them or between1 ,now sparkling1 now bedimmed1 but always seen3 ,yon crescent ,moon as fixed as if it grew ,in its own cloudless1 starless lake of blue2 ,i see them all so excellently fair1 ,i see1 not feel how beautiful they are40 ,dunsford4 ,admirable6 ,in the ,ode to ,dejection1 is it not8 where1 too1 there are those lines1 8,o ,lady6 we receive but what we give1 ,and in our life alone does ,nature live40 ,milverton4 ,but here comes ,ellesmere with triumphant look4 ,you look as jovial1 my dear ,ellesmere1 as if you were a ,bentley that had found a false quantity in a ,boyle4 ,ellesmere4 ,listen and perpend1 my historical friends4 8,to us1 my friend1 the times that are gone by ,are a mysterious book1 sealed with seven seals3 ,that which you call the spirit of ages past ,is but1 in truth1 the spirit of some few authors ,in which those ages are beheld reflected1 ,with what distortion strange heaven only knows4 ,oh6 often1 what a toilsome thing it is ,this study of thine--at the first glance we fly it4 ,a mass of things confusedly heaped together2 ,a lumber-room of dusty documents1 ,furnished with all approved court-precedents ,and old traditional maxims6 ,history6 ,facts dramatised say rather--action--plot-- ,sentiment1 everything the writer's own1 ,as it bests fits the web-work of his story1 ,with here and there a solitary fact ,of consequence1 by those grave chroniclers1 ,pointed with many a moral apophthegm1 ,and wise old saws1 learned at the puppet-shows40 ,milverton4 ,yes2 admirable lines2 they describe to the life the very faults we have been considering as the faults of badly-written histories4 ,i do not see that they do much more4 ,ellesmere4 8,to us1 my friend1 the times that are gone by ,are a mysterious book40-- ,milverton4 ,those two first lines are the full expression of ,faust's discontent--unmeasured as in the presence of a weak man who could not check him4 ,but1 if you come to look at the matter closely1 you will see that the time present is also in some sense a sealed book to us4 ,men that we live with daily we often think as little of as we do of ,julius ,csar1 ,i was going to say--but we know much less of them than of him4 ,ellesmere4 ,i did not mean to say that ,faust spoke my sentiments about history in general4 ,still1 there are periods of history which we have very few authors to tell us about1 and ,i daresay in some of those cases the colouring of their particular minds gives us a false idea of the whole age they lived in4 ,dunsford4 ,this may have happened1 certainly4 ,milverton4 ,we must be careful not to expect too much from the history of past ages1 as a means of understanding the present age4 ,there is something wanted besides the preceding history to understand each age4 ,each individual life may have a problem of its own1 which all other biography accurately set down for us might not enable us to work out4 ,so of each age4 ,it has something in it not known before1 and tends to a result which is not down in any books4 ,dunsford4 ,yet history must be of greatest use in discerning this tendency4 ,ellesmere4 ,yes2 but the ,wagner sort of pedant would get entangled in his round of history--in his historical resemblances4 ,dunsford4 ,now1 ,milverton1 if you were called upon to say what are the peculiar characteristics of this age1 what should you say8 ,ellesmere4 ,one of ,dunsford's questions this1 requiring a stout quarto volume with notes in answer4 ,milverton4 ,i would rather wait till ,i was called upon4 ,i am apt to feel1 after ,i have left off describing the character of any individual man1 as if ,i had only just begun4 ,and ,i do not see the extent of discourse that would be needful in attempting to give the characteristics of an age4 ,ellesmere4 ,i think you are prudent to avoid answering ,dunsford's question4 ,for my own part1 ,i should prefer giving an account of the age we live in after we have come to the end of it--in the true historical fashion4 ,and so1 ,dunsford1 you must wait for my notions4 ,dunsford4 ,i am afraid1 ,milverton1 if you were to write history1 you would never make up your mind to condemn anybody4 ,milverton4 ,i hope ,i should not be so inconclusive4 ,i certainly do dislike to see any character1 whether of a living or a dead person1 disposed of in a summary way4 ,ellesmere4 ,for once ,i will come to the rescue of ,milverton4 ,i really do not see that a man's belief in the extent and variety of human character1 and in the difficulty of appreciating the circumstances of life1 should prevent him from writing history--from coming to some conclusions4 ,of course such a man is not likely to write a long course of history2 but that ,i hold has been a frequent error in historians--that they have taken up subjects too large for them4 ,milverton4 ,if there is as much to be said about men's character and conduct as ,i think there mostly is1 why should we be content with shallow views of them8 ,take the outward form of these hills and valleys before us4 ,when we have seen them a few times1 we think we know them1 but are quite mistaken4 ,approaching from another quarter1 it is almost new ground to us4 ,it is a long time before you master the outward form and semblance of any small piece of country that has much life and diversity in it4 ,i often think of this1 applying it to our little knowledge of men4 ,now1 look there a moment3 you see that house2 close behind it is apparently a barren tract4 ,in reality there is nothing of the kind there4 ,a fertile valley with a great river in it1 as you know1 is between that house and the moors4 ,but the plane of those moors and of the house is coincident from our present point of view4 ,had we not1 as educated men1 some distrust of the conclusions of our senses1 we should be ready to swear that there was a lonely house on the border of the moors4 ,it is the same in judging of men4 ,we see a man connected with a train of action which is really not near him1 absolutely foreign to him1 perhaps1 but in our eyes that is what he is always connected with4 ,if there were not a ,being who understands us immeasurably better than other men can1 immeasurably better than we do ourselves1 we should be badly off4 ,such precautionary thoughts as these must be useful1 ,i contend4 ,they need not make us indifferent to character1 or prevent us from forming judgments where we must form them1 but they show us what a wide thing we are talking about when we are judging the life and nature of a man4 ,ellesmere4 ,i am sure1 ,dunsford1 you are already convinced3 you seldom want more than a slight pretext for going over to the charitable side of things4 ,you are only afraid of not dealing stoutly enough with bad things and people4 ,do not be afraid though4 ,as long as you have me to abuse1 you will say many unjust things against me1 you know1 so that you may waste yourself in good thoughts about the rest of the world1 past and present4 ,do you know the lawyer's story ,i had in my mind then8 8,many times when ,i have had a good case10 he said1 8,i have failed2 but then ,i have often succeeded with bad cases4 ,and so justice is done40 ,milverton4 ,to return to the subject4 ,it is not a sort of equalising want of thought about men that ,i desire2 only not to be rash in a matter that requires all our care and prudence4 ,dunsford4 ,well1 ,i believe ,i am won over4 ,but now to another point4 ,i think1 ,milverton1 that you have said hardly anything about the use of history as an incentive to good deeds and a discouragement to evil ones4 ,milverton4 ,i ought to have done so4 ,bolingbroke gives in his 8,letters on ,history10 talking of this point1 a passage from ,tacitus1 8,prcipuum munus annalium10--can you go on with it1 ,dunsford8 ,dunsford4 ,yes1 ,i think ,i can4 ,it is a passage ,i have often seen quoted4 8,prcipuum munus annalium1 reor1 ne virtutes sileantur2 utque pravis dictis factisque ex posteritate et infami metus sit40 ,ellesmere4 ,well done2 ,dunsford may have invented it1 though1 for aught that we know1 ,milverton1 and be passing himself off upon us for ,tacitus4 ,milverton4 ,then ,bolingbroke goes on to say 7,i wish ,i could give you his own flowing words71 that the great duty of history is to form a tribunal like that amongst the ,egyptians which ,diodorus tells of1 where both common men and princes were tried after their deaths1 and received appropriate honour or disgrace4 ,the sentence was pronounced1 he says1 too late to correct or to recompense2 but it was pronounced in time to render examples of general instruction to mankind4 ,now1 what ,i was going to remark upon this is1 that ,bolingbroke understates his case4 ,history well written is a present correction1 and a foretaste of recompense1 to the man who is now struggling with difficulties and temptations1 now overcast by calumny and cloudy misrepresentation4 ,ellesmere4 ,yes2 many a man makes an appeal to posterity which will never come before the court2 but if there were no such court of appeal-- ,milverton4 ,a man's conviction that justice will be done to him in history is a secondary motive1 and not one which1 of itself1 will compel him to do just and great things2 but1 at any rate1 it forms one of the benefits that flow from history1 and it becomes stronger as histories are better written4 ,much may be said against care for fame2 much also against care for present repute4 ,there is a diviner impulse than either at the doing of any actions that are much worth doing4 ,as a correction1 however1 this anticipation of the judgment of history may really be very powerful4 ,it is a great enlightenment of conscience to read the opinions of men on deeds similar to those we are engaged in or meditating4 ,dunsford4 ,i think ,bolingbroke's idea1 which ,i imagine was more general than yours1 is more important3 namely1 that this judicial proceeding1 mentioned by ,diodorus ,siculus1 gave significant lessons to all people1 not merely to those who had any chance of having their names in history4 ,milverton4 ,certainly3 for this is one of ,bolingbroke's chief points1 if ,i recollect rightly4 ,ellesmere4 ,our conversations are much better things than your essays1 ,milverton4 ,milverton4 ,of course1 ,i am bound to say so3 but what made you think of that now8 ,ellesmere4 ,why1 ,i was thinking how in talk we can know exactly where we agree or differ4 ,but ,i never like to interrupt the essay4 ,i never know when it would come to an end if ,i did4 ,and so it swims on like a sermon1 having all its own way3 one cannot put in an awkward question in a weak part1 and get things looked at in various ways4 ,dunsford4 ,i suppose1 then1 ,ellesmere1 you would like to interrupt sermons4 ,ellesmere4 ,why1 yes1 sometimes--do not throw sticks at me1 ,dunsford4 ,dunsford4 ,well1 it is absurd to be angry with you2 because if you long to interrupt ,milverton with his captious perhapses and probablys1 of course you will be impatient with discourses which do1 to a certain extent1 assume that the preacher and the hearers are in unison upon great matters4 ,ellesmere4 ,i am afraid to say anything about sermons1 for fear of the argumentum baculinum from ,dunsford2 for many essay writers1 like ,milverton1 delight to wind up their paragraphs with complete little aphorisms--shutting up something certainly1 but shutting out something too4 ,i could generally pause upon them a little4 ,milverton4 ,of course one may err1 ,ellesmere1 in too much aphorising as in too much of anything4 ,but your argument goes against all expression of opinion1 which must be incomplete1 especially when dealing with matters that cannot be circumscribed by exact definitions4 ,otherwise1 a code of wisdom might be made which the fool might apply as well as the wisest man4 ,even the best proverb1 though often the expression of the widest experience in the choicest language1 can be thoroughly misapplied4 ,it cannot embrace the whole of the subject1 and apply in all cases like a mathematical formula4 ,its wisdom lies in the ear of the hearer4 ,ellesmere4 ,well1 ,i not know that there is anything more to say about the essay4 ,i suppose you are aware1 ,dunsford1 that ,milverton does not intend to give us any more essays for some time4 ,he is distressing his mind about some facts which he wants to ascertain before he will read any more to us4 ,i imagine we are to have something historical next4 ,milverton4 ,something in which historical records are useful4 ,ellesmere4 ,really it is wonderful to see how beautifully human nature accommodates itself to anything1 even to the listening to essays4 ,i shall miss them4 ,milverton4 ,you may miss the talk before and after4 ,ellesmere4 ,well1 there is no knowing how much of that is provoked 7provoked is a good word1 is it not87 by the essays4 ,dunsford4 ,then1 for the present1 we have come to an end of our readings4 ,milverton4 ,yes1 but ,i trust at no distant time to have something more to try your critical powers and patience upon4 ,i hope that that old tower will yet see us meet together here on many a sunny day1 discussing various things in friendly council4 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,printed by ,cassell and ,company1 ,limited1 ,la ,belle ,sauvage1 ,london1 ,e4,c4 #ab--cia ,,footnotes4 #ab ,see ,statesman1 p4 #cj4 #db ,the passage which must have been alluded to is this3 8,the stricter tenets of ,calvinism1 which allow no medium between grace and reprobation1 and doom man to eternal punishment for every breach of the moral law1 as an equal offence against ,infinite truth and justice1 proceed 7like the paradoxical doctrine of the ,stoics71 from taking a half-view of this subject1 and considering man as amenable only to the dictates of his understanding and his conscience1 and not excusable from the temptations and frailty of human ignorance and passion4 ,the mixing up of religion and morality together1 or the making us accountable for every word1 thought1 or action1 under no less a responsibility than our everlasting future welfare or misery1 has also added incalculably to the difficulties of self-knowledge1 has superinduced a violent and spurious state of feeling1 and made it almost impossible to distinguish the boundaries between the true and false1 in judging of human conduct and motives4 ,a religious man is afraid of looking into the state of his soul1 lest at the same time he should reveal it to heaven2 and tries to persuade himself that by shutting his eyes to his true character and feelings1 they will remain a profound secret1 both here and hereafter40 #ec ,this was one of the passages which ,milverton afterwards read to us3-- 8,thus1 however much may be gained for the world as a whole by this fragmentary cultivation1 it is not to be denied that the individuals whom it befalls are cursed for the benefit of the world4 ,an athletic frame1 it is true1 is fashioned by gymnastic exercises2 but a form of beauty only by free and uniform action4 ,just so the exertions of single talents can create extraordinary men indeed2 but happy and perfect men only by their uniform temperature4 ,and in what relation should we stand1 then1 to the past and coming ages1 if the cultivation of human nature made necessary such a sacrifice8 ,we should have been the slaves of humanity1 and drudged for her century after century1 and stamped upon our mutilated natures the humiliating traces of our bondage--that the coming race might nurse its moral healthfulness in blissful leisure1 and unfold the free growth of its humanity6 8,but can it be intended that man should neglect himself for any particular design8 ,ought ,nature to deprive us1 by its design1 of a perfection which ,reason1 by its own1 prescribes to us8 ,then it must be false that the development of single faculties makes the sacrifice of totality necessary2 or1 if indeed the law of ,nature presses thus heavily1 it becomes us to restore1 by a higher art1 this totality in our nature which art has destroyed40--,the ,philosophical and sthetical ,letters and ,essays of ,,schiller1 ,translated by ,j4 ,,weiss1 pp4 #gd1 #ge4 #ic ,madame ,necker de ,saussure's maxim about firmness with children has suggested the above4 8,ce que plie ne peut servir d'appui1 et l'enfant veut tre appuy4 ,non-seulement il en a besoin1 mais il le dsire1 mais sa tendresse la plus constante n'est qu' ce prix4 ,si vous lui faites l'effet d'un autre enfant1 si vous partagez ses passions1 ses vacillations continuelles1 si vous lui rendez tous ses mouvements en les augmentant1 soit par la contrarit1 soit par un excs de complaisance1 il pourra se servir de vous comme d'un jouet1 mais non tre heureux en votre prsence2 il pleurera1 se mutinera1 et bientt le souvenir d'un temps de dsordre et d'humeur se liera avec votre ide4 ,vous n'avez pas t le soutien de votre enfant1 vous ne l'avez pas prserv de cette fluctuation perptuelle de la volont1 maladie des tres faibles et livrs une imagination vive2 vous n'avez assur ni sa paix1 ni sa sagesse1 ni son bonheur1 pourquoi vous croirait-il sa mre40--,l',education ,progressive1 vol4 i41 p4 #bbh4 #aaf;a ,see ,health of ,towns ,report1 vol4 i41 p4 #ccf4 ,a similar result may be deduced from a similar table made by the ,rev4 ,j4 ,clay1 of ,preston4 ,see the same ,report and vol41 p4 #age4 #aaf;b ,see ,health of ,towns ,report1 vol4 i41 p4 #ge4 #aag;a ,see ,dr4 ,arnott's letter1 ,claims of ,labour1 p4 #bhb4 #aag;b ,by zinc ventilators1 for instance1 in the windows and openings into the flues at the top of the rooms4 ,see ,health of ,towns ,report1 #ahdd1 vol4 i41 pp4 #gf1 #gg4 ,mr4 ,coulhart's evidence4--,ibid41 pp4 #cjg1 #cjh4 #aag;c ,there are several thousand gratings to sewers and drains which are utterly useless on account of their position1 and positively injurious from their emanations4--,mr4 ,guthrie's evidence4--,ibid41 vol4 ii41 p4 #bee4 #aah ,mr4 ,wood states that the masters and mistresses were generally ignorant of the depressing and unhealthy effects of the atmosphere which surrounded them1 and he mentions the case of the mistress of a dame-school who replied1 when he pointed out this to her1 8that the children thrived best in dirt60--,health of ,towns ,report1 vol4 i41 pp4 #adf1 #adg4 #abf ,see 8,the ,fair ,maid of ,perth40 #afa ,see 8,health of ,towns ,report10 #ahdd1 vol4 i41 p4 #dd4 #ahc ,bacon1 de ,augmentis ,scientiarum4