{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_54703/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_54703","id":"gutenberg_54703","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54703","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Encyclopedias and dictionaries"],"text":"THINGS\n\n TO BE REMEMBERED\n\n IN DAILY LIFE.\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n LONDON:\n\n PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN,\n\n Great New Street and Fetter Lane.\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n THINGS\n TO BE REMEMBERED\n In Daily Life.\n\n WITH PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND RECOLLECTIONS.\n\n\n By JOHN TIMBS, F.S.A.,\n AUTHOR OF THINGS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN, CURIOSITIES OF LONDON, ETC.\n\n [Illustration: Sundial with children around base]\n\n LONDON:\n W. KENT AND CO., PATERNOSTER-ROW.\n\n MDCCCLXIII.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n TO THE READER.\n\n --------------\n\nTIME and Human Life are the staple subjects of the following pages.\nThese are great matters for so small a book, and may remind you of the\nphilosophical scheme of compressing the world into a nutshell. Now,\nalthough we have as yet no means of determining exactly what relation\nthis latter idea has to truth,\u2014it is certain that the rapid\nmultiplication of books incessantly presses upon us, that \u201ccondensation\nis the result of time and experience, which reject what is no longer\nessential.\u201d Such is the treatment adopted in the present volume, in\nwhich, by _focusing_ great truths from the Living and the Dead, is\nsought to be exemplified the moral couplet:\n\n\n Honour and shame from no condition rise;\n Act well your part\u2014there all the honour lies.\n\nAs a companion volume to _Things not Generally Known_, it is hoped that\n_Things to be Remembered_ may be as popularly received as its\npredecessor. To render the present work more directly of practical\napplication, the sketches of character which it contains have been drawn\nin great measure from our own time, so as to give the book a current\ninterest. Meanwhile, historic gossip has not been eschewed; but its\npiquancy has been sparingly used.\n\nThe present is, in many respects, a more reflective volume than its\npredecessor: for it is scarcely possible to illustrate the Ages of Man\nwithout\n\n Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.\n\nThis is one of the byways of the book: its highway lies through the\ncrowded city, and upon \u201cthe full tide of human affairs;\u201d and the\nExperiences here set down are, in common parlance, _original_, and have\nbeen chiefly garnered throughout a long life, in which truthful\nobservation has been the cardinal aim.\n\nWith these few words of introduction, I commend to your indulgence this\nvolume of _Things to be Remembered in Daily Life_, in the hope that its\ncontents may be considered worthy of the reminiscence.\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0_London, March 1863._\n\n\n\n\n --------------\n\n\n ERRATUM.\n\nPage 20. The Terrace, New Palace-yard, Westminster, was taken down in\nthe spring of 1863; the Sun-dial had previously been removed.\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS.\n\n --------------\n\n\n Time.\n\n PAGE\n POETRY OF TIME 1\n WHAT IS TIME? 3\n TIME\u2019S BEGUILINGS 5\n TIME\u2019S GARLAND 6\n TIME\u2019S MUTATIONS 7\n SIR H. DAVY ON TIME 8\n TIME, PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE 9\n MEASUREMENT OF TIME 12\n PERIODS OF REST 15\n RECKONING DISTANCE BY TIME 16\n SUN-DIALS 17\n THE HOUR-GLASS 27\n CLOCKS AND WATCHES 29\n EARLY RISING 41\n ART OF EMPLOYING TIME 52\n TIME AND ETERNITY 64\n\n\n Life, and Length of Days.\n\n LIFE A RIVER 65\n THE SPRING-TIME OF LIFE 66\n THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS OF LIFE 67\n PASSING GENERATIONS 68\n AVERAGE DURATION OF LIFE 71\n PASTIMES OF CHILDHOOD RECREATIVE TO MAN 72\n PLEASURES OF THE IMAGINATION LATE IN LIFE 73\n WHAT IS MEMORY? 75\n CONSOLATION IN GROWING OLD 76\n LENGTH OF DAYS 79\n HISTORIC TRADITIONS THROUGH FEW LINKS 82\n LONGEVITY IN FAMILIES 87\n FEMALE LONGEVITY 88\n LONGEVITY AND DIET 92\n LONGEVITY AND LOCALITIES 96\n LONGEVITY OF CLASSES 102\n GREAT AGES 111\n THE HAPPY OLD MAN 114\n PREPARATORY TO DEATH 115\n DEATH BEFORE ADAM 116\n FUTURE EARTHLY EXISTENCE OF THE HUMAN RACE 117\n\n\n The School of Life.\n\n WHAT IS EDUCATION? 119\n TEACHING YOUNG CHILDREN 120\n EDUCATION AT HOME 121\n TENDERNESS OF YOUTH 122\n BUSINESS OF EDUCATION 123\n THE CLASSICS 124\n LIBERAL EDUCATION 126\n DR. ARNOLD\u2019S SCHOOL REFORM 127\n SCHOOL INDULGENCE 128\n UNSOUND TEACHING 128\n SELF-FORMATION 131\n PRACTICAL DISCIPLINE 132\n CRAMMING 132\n MATHEMATICS 133\n ARISTOTLE 134\n GEOLOGY IN EDUCATION 135\n THE BEST EDUCATION 137\n ADVICE TO THE STUDENT 138\n KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM 139\n EDUCATION ALARMISTS 140\n YORKSHIRE SCHOOLS 141\n BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG 141\n THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 142\n WHAT IS ARGUMENT? 144\n HANDWRITING 145\n ENGLISH STYLE 147\n ART OF WRITING 149\n\n\n Business-Life.\n\n WANT OF A PURSUIT 152\n THE ENGLISH CHARACTER 153\n WORTH OF ENERGY 154\n TEST OF GREATNESS 156\n CHOICE OF A PROFESSION 157\n OFFICIAL LIFE 161\n OFFICIAL QUALIFICATIONS 164\n PUBLIC SPEAKING 166\n OPPORTUNITY 174\n MEN OF BUSINESS 174\n CHARACTER THE BEST SECURITY 176\n ENGINEERS AND MECHANICIANS 177\n SCIENTIFIC FARMING 187\n LARGE FORTUNES 188\n CIVIC WORTHIES 199\n WORKING AUTHORS AND ARTISTS 204\n WEAR AND TEAR OF PUBLIC LIFE 217\n\n\n Home Traits.\n\n LOVE OF HOME 218\n FAMILY PORTRAITS 219\n HOW TO KEEP FRIENDS 220\n SMALL COURTESIES 221\n LASTING FRIENDSHIPS 221\n TRUE TONE OF POLITE WRITING 223\n PRIDE AND MEANNESS 224\n HOME THOUGHTS 225\n\n\n The Spirit of the Age.\n\n PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE 227\n SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS 229\n TIME AND IMPROVEMENT 231\n EVIL INFLUENCES 232\n WORLDLY MORALITY 233\n SPEAKING THE TRUTH 234\n RESTLESSNESS AND ENTERPRISE 235\n THE PRESENT AND THE PAST 238\n CIRCUMSTANCES AND GENIUS 238\n OUR UNIMAGINATIVE AGE 239\n MARVELS OF THE UNIVERSE 240\n PHYSIOGNOMY 242\n TRADE AND PHILANTHROPY 243\n\n\n World-Knowledge.\n\n MISCELLANEA 244\n PREDICTIONS OF SUCCESS 247\n\n\n Conclusion.\n\n EASE OF MIND 250\n THE LIFE OF MAN 251\n THE GOOD MAN\u2019S LIFE 253\n PREDICTIONS OF FLOWERS 255\n THE WORLD\u2019S CYCLES 256\n DEATH ALL-ELOQUENT 256\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED.\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n Time.\n\nTHE conventional personification of Time, with which every one is\nfamiliar, is the figure of Saturn, god of Time, represented as an old\nman, holding a scythe in his hand, and a serpent with its tail in its\nmouth, emblematical of the revolutions of the year: sometimes he carries\nan hour-glass, occasionally winged; to him is attributed the invention\nof the scythe. He is bald, except a lock on the forehead; hence Swift\nsays: \u201cTime is painted with a lock before, and bald behind, signifying\nthereby that we must take him (as we say) by the forelock; for when it\nis once passed, there is no recalling it.\u201d\n\nThe scythe occurs in Shirley\u2019s lines, written early in the seventeenth\ncentury:\n\n The glories of our blood and state\n Are shadows, not substantial things;\n There is no armour against fate;\n Death lays his icy hand on kings.\n Sceptre and crown\n Must tumble down,\n And in the dust be equal made\n With the poor crooked scythe and spade.\n\nShakspeare prefers the scythe:\n\n Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,\n And delves the parallels in beauty\u2019s brow,\n Feeds on the rarities of nature\u2019s truth,\n And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow.\n\nThe stealthiness of his flight is also told by Shakspeare:\n\n Let\u2019s take the instant by the forward top;\n For we are old, and our quick\u2019st decrees\n The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time\n Steals ere we can effect them.\n\nMayne thus quaintly describes his flight:\n\n Time is the feather\u2019d thing,\n And whilst I praise\n The sparklings of thy locks, and call them rays,\n Takes wing\u2014\n Leaving behind him, as he flies,\n An unperceived dimness in thine eyes.\n\nGascoigne also thus paints the flight:\n\n The heavens on high perpetually do move;\n By minutes\u2019 meal the hour doth steal away,\n By hours the days, by days the months remove,\n And then by months the years as fast decay;\n Yea, Virgil\u2019s verse and Tully\u2019s truth do say,\n That Time flieth, and never clasps her wings;\n But rides on clouds, and forward still she flings.\n\nShakspeare pictures him as the fell destroyer:\n\n Misshapen time, copesmate of ugly night;\n Swift subtle post, carrier of grisly care;\n Eater of youth, false slave to false delight,\n Base watch of woes, sin\u2019s pack-horse, virtue\u2019s snare:\n Thou nursest all, and murderest all that are.\n\nAnd Spenser brands him as\n\n Wicked Time, that all good thoughts doth waste,\n And workes of noblest wits to naught outweare.\n\nThe present section partakes much of the aphoristic character, which has\nits recommendatory advantages.\u2014Bacon says: \u201cAphorisms representing a\nknowledge broken do invite men to inquire further; whereas methods,\ncarrying the show of a total, do secure men as if they were at\nfarthest.\u201d Again: \u201cNor do apophthegms only serve for ornament and\ndelight, but also for action and civil use, as being the edge-tools of\nspeech, which cut and penetrate the knots of business and affairs.\u201d\n\nColeridge is of opinion that, exclusively of the Abstract Sciences, the\nlargest and worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of Aphorisms;\nand the greatest and best of men is but an Aphorism.\n\n\u201cTruths, of all others the most awful and interesting, are too often\nconsidered as so true, that they lose all the power of truth, and lie\nbedridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most\ndespised and exploded errors.\n\n\u201cThere is one way of giving freshness and importance to the most\ncommonplace maxims,\u2014that of reflecting on them in direct reference to\nour own state and conduct, to our own past and future being.\u201d\n\nMature and sedate wisdom has been fond of summing up the results of its\nexperience in weighty sentences. Solomon did so; the wise men of India\nand Greece did so; Bacon did so; Goethe in his old age took delight in\ndoing so.\n\nLucretius has his philosophical view of Time, which Creech has thus\nEnglished:\n\n Time of itself is nothing, but from Thought\n Receives its rise, by lab\u2019ring fancy wrought\n From things consider\u2019d, while we think on some\n As present, some as past, or yet to come.\n No thought can think on Time,\n But thinks on things in motion or at rest.\n\nOvid has some illustrations, which Dryden has thus translated:\n\n Nature knows\n No steadfast motion, but or ebbs or flows.\n Ever in motion, she destroys her old,\n And casts new figures in another mould.\n Even times are in perpetual flux, and run,\n Like rivers from their fountains rolling on.\n For Time, no more than streams, is at a stay,\u2014\n The flying hour is ever on her way;\n And as the fountain still supplies her store,\n The wave behind impels the wave before;\n Thus in successive course the minutes run,\n And urge their predecessor minutes on,\n Still moving, ever anew; for former things\n Are set aside, like abdicated kings;\n And every moment alters what is done,\n And innovates some act till then unknown.\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\n Time is th\u2019 effect of motion, born a twin,\n And with the worlds did equally begin:\n Time, like a stream that hastens from the shore,\n Flies to an ocean where \u2019tis known no more:\n All must be swallow\u2019d in this endless deep,\n And motion rest in everlasting sleep.\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\n Time glides along with undiscover\u2019d haste,\n The future but a length behind the past,\n So swift are years.\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\n Thy teeth, devouring Time! thine, envious Age!\n On things below still exercise your rage;\n With venom\u2019d grinders you corrupt your meat,\n And then, at ling\u2019ring meals, the morsels eat.\n\nThe comparison to a river is more amply developed by a modern poet:\n\n The lapse of time and rivers is the same:\n Both speed their journey with a restless stream;\n The silent pace with which they steal away,\n No wealth can bribe, no prayers persuade to stay:\n Alike irrevocable both when past,\n And a wide ocean swallows both at last.\n Though each resembles each in every part,\n A difference strikes, at length, the musing heart:\n Streams never flow in vain; where streams abound,\n How laughs the land with various plenty crown\u2019d!\n But time, that should enrich the nobler mind,\n Neglected, leaves a dreary waste behind.\n\nAn old playwright makes him a fisher by the stream:\n\n Nay, dally not with time, the wise man\u2019s treasure,\n Though fools are lavish on\u2019t\u2014the fatal fisher\n Hooks souls, while we waste moments.\n\nHorace has some lines, thus paraphrased by Oldham:\n\n Alas! dear friend, alas! time hastes away,\n Nor is it in your power to bribe its stay;\n The rolling years with constant motion run,\n Lo! while I speak, the present minute\u2019s gone,\n And following hours still urge the foregoing on.\n \u2019Tis not thy wealth, \u2019tis not thy power,\n \u2019Tis not thy piety can thee secure;\n They\u2019re all too feeble to withstand\n Gray hairs, approaching age, and thy avoidless end.\n When once thy glass is run,\n When once thy utmost thread is spun,\n \u2018Twill then be fruitless to expect reprieve;\n Could\u2019st thou ten thousand kingdoms give\n In purchase for each hour of longer life,\n They would not buy one gasp of breath,\n Nor move one jot inexorable death.\n\nPerhaps there is no illustration in our language more impressive than\nYoung\u2019s noble apostrophe, commencing:\n\n The bell strikes one. _We take no note of time\n But from its loss_: to give it, then, a tongue\n Is wise in man. As if an angel spoke,\n I feel the solemn sound. If heard aright,\n It is the knell of my departed hours.\n Where are they? With the years beyond the flood.\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\n O time! than gold more sacred; more a load\n Than lead to fools, and fools reputed wise.\n What moment granted man without account?\n What years are squandered, wisdom\u2019s debt unpaid!\n Our wealth in days all due to that discharge.\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\n Youth, is not rich in time; it may be poor;\n Part with it as with money, sparing; pay\n No moment, but in purchase of its worth;\n And what\u2019s it worth, ask death-beds; they can tell.\n Part with it as with life, reluctant; big\n With holy hope of nobler time to come.\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\n But why on time so lavish is my song?\n On this great theme kind Nature keeps a school\n To teach her sons herself. Each night we die\u2014\n Each morn are born anew; each day a life;\n And shall we kill each day? If trifling kills,\n Sure vice must butcher. Oh, what heaps of slain\n Cry out for vengeance on us; time destroyed\n Is suicide, where more than blood is spilt.\n\n Throw years away!\n Throw empires, and be blameless: moments seize;\n Heaven\u2019s on their wing: a moment we may wish,\n When worlds want wealth to buy. Bid day stand still,\n Bid him drive back his car, and re-impart\n The period past, regive the given hour.\n O for yesterdays to come!\n\nHow exquisite is this beguiling of time in _Paradise Lost_.\n\n With thee conversing I forget all time;\n All seasons, and their change, all please alike.\n\nHow beautifully has Burns alluded to these influences, in his \u201cLines to\nMary in Heaven:\u201d\n\n Time but the impression deeper makes,\n As streams their channels deeper wear.\n\nThe Hon. W. R. H. Spencer has something akin to this in his \u201cLines to\nLady A. Hamilton:\u201d\n\n Too late I stay\u2019d; forgive the crime;\n Unheeded flew the hours;\n How noiseless falls the foot of Time\n That only treads on flow\u2019rs!\n\nEdward Moore, in one of his pleasing Songs, thus points to these\ncharming influences:\n\n Time still, as he flies, adds increase to her truth,\n And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth.\n\nThe best lessons of life are to be learnt in his school:\n\n Taught by time, my heart has learn\u2019d to glow\n For others\u2019 good, and melt at others\u2019 woe.\n\nHow well has Shakspeare expressed this work of the great reconciler:\n\n Time\u2019s glory is to calm contending kings,\n To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light,\n To stamp its seal on aged things,\n To wake the morn, and sentinel the night,\n To wrong the wronger, till he render right.\n\nElsewhere Shakspeare paints him as the universal balm:\n\n Cease to lament for that thou can\u2019st not help,\n And study help for that which thou lament\u2019st.\n Time is the nurse and breeder of all good.\n\nIt is notorious to philosophers, that joy and grief can hasten and delay\ntime. Locke is of opinion that a man in great misery may so far lose his\nmeasure, as to think a minute an hour; or in joy make an hour a minute.\nShakspeare\u2019s \u201cdivers paces\u201d of Time is too familiar for quotation here.\n\nTime\u2019s Garland is one of the beauties of Drayton\u2019s \u201cElysium of the\nMuses:\u201d\n\n The garland long ago was worn\n As Time pleased to bestow it:\n The Laurel only to adorn\n The conqueror and the poet.\n\n The Palm his due who, uncontroll\u2019d,\n On danger looking gravely,\n When fate had done the worst it could,\n Who bore his fortunes bravely.\n\n Most worthy of the Oaken wreath\n The ancients him esteemed,\n Who in a battle had from death\n Some man of worth redeemed.\n\n About his temples grave they tie,\n Himself that so behaved,\n In some strong siege by th\u2019 enemy,\n A city that hath saved.\n\n A wreath of Vervains heralds wear,\n Amongst our garlands named,\n Being sent that dreadful news to bear,\n Offensive war proclaimed.\n\n The sign of peace who first displays,\n The Olive wreath possesses;\n The lover with the Myrtle sprays\n Adorns his crisped tresses.\n\n In love the sad forsaken wight\n The Willow garland weareth;\n The funeral man, befitting night,\n The baleful Cypress beareth.\n\n To Pan we dedicate the Pine,\n Whose slips the shepherd graceth;\n Again the Ivy and the Vine\n On his front Bacchus placeth.\n\nThey who so stanchly oppose innovations, should remember Bacon\u2019s words:\n\u201cEvery medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new\nremedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator; and\nif time of course alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel\nshall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?\u201d\n\nHow much time has to do with our successes is thus solemnly told by the\nPreacher: \u201cThe race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,\nneither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding,\nnor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them\nall.\u201d\u2014_Ecclesiastes_ ix. 11.\n\nHow truthfully has Dr. Johnson said: \u201cSo little do we accustom ourselves\nto consider the effects of time, that things necessary and certain often\nsurprise us like unexpected contingencies. We leave the beauty in her\nbloom, and, after an absence of twenty years, wonder, at our return, to\nfind her faded. We meet those whom we left children, and can scarcely\npersuade ourselves to treat them as men. The traveller visits in age\nthose countries through which he rambled in his youth, and hopes for\nmerriment in the old place. The man of business, wearied with\nunsatisfactory prosperity, retires to the town of his nativity, and\nexpects to play away the last years with the companions of his\nchildhood, and recover youth in the fields where he once was young.\u201d\n\nDr. Armstrong, the friend of Thomson, has left this solemn apostrophe on\nthe Wrecks and Mutations of Time:\n\n What does not fade? the tower that long had stood\n The crush of thunder and the warring winds,\n Shook by the slow but sure destroyer Time,\n Now hangs in doubtful ruins o\u2019er its base,\n And flinty pyramids and walls of brass\n Descend. The Babylonian spires are sunk;\n Achaia, Rome, and Egypt moulder down.\n Time shakes the stable tyranny of thrones,\n And tottering empires rush by their own weight.\n This huge rotundity we tread grows old,\n And all these worlds that roll around the sun;\n The sun himself shall die, and ancient night\n Again involve the desolate abyss,\n Till the Great Father, through the lifeless gloom,\n Extend his arm to light another world,\n And bid new planets roll by other laws.\n\nWe remember a piece of stage sentiment, beginning\n\n \u201cTime! Time! Time! why ponder o\u2019er thy glass,\n And count the dull sands as they pass?\u201d &c.\n\nIt was touchingly sung, but had too much of gloom and despondency for\nthe theatre: possibly it may have reminded some of its hearers of their\nown delinquency.\n\nWith what solemnity has our great Dramatic Bard foreshadowed Time\u2019s\nwaning:\n\n To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,\n Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,\n To the last syllable of recorded time;\n And all our yesterdays have lighted fools\n The way to dusty death.\n\nHis departure is again sketched in _Troilus and Cressida:_\n\n Time is like a fashionable host,\n That slightly shakes his parting guest by th\u2019 hand,\n But with his arms outstretch\u2019d, as he would fly,\n Grasps the incomer.\n\nSir Walter Scott thus paints Time\u2019s evanescence:\n\n Time rolls his ceaseless course.\u2014The race of yore,\n Who danced our infancy upon their knee,\n And told our marvelling boyhood legends store\n Of their strange \u2019ventures happ\u2019d by land or sea,\n How are they blotted from the things that be!\n\nCowley has this significant couplet:\n\n To things immortal Time can do no wrong,\n And that which never is to die for ever must be young.\n\nYet, what a treasure is this:\n\n My inheritance! how wide and fair!\n Time is my estate; to Time I\u2019m heir.\n _Wilhelm Meister:_ Carlyle.\n\n\u201cTime is almost a human word, and change entirely a human idea: in the\nsystem of nature we should rather say progress than change. The sun\nappears to sink in the ocean in darkness, but rises in another\nhemisphere; the ruins of a city fall, but they are often used to form\nmore magnificent structures, as at Rome; but even when they are\ndestroyed, so as to produce only dust, nature asserts her empire over\nthem, and the vegetable world rises in constant youth, and in a period\nof annual successions, by the labours of man, providing food, vitality,\nand beauty upon the wreck of monuments which were once raised for\npurposes of glory, but which are now applied to objects of utility.\u201d\n\nAs this beautiful passage was written by Sir Humphry Davy nearly\nthree-and-thirty years since, the above use of the word _progress_ had\nnothing to do with the semi-political sense in which it is now commonly\nemployed. Nevertheless, there occur in the writings of our great\nchemical philosopher occasional views of the advancement of the world in\nknowledge, and its real authors, with which the progressists of the\npresent day fraternise.\n\nAt the above distance, Davy wrote in the following vein: \u201cIn the common\nhistory of the world, as compiled by authors in general, almost all the\ngreat changes of nations are confounded with changes in their dynasties;\nand events are usually referred either to sovereigns, chiefs, heroes, or\ntheir armies, which do, in fact, originate entirely from different\ncauses, either of an intellectual or moral nature. Governments depend\nfar more than is generally supposed upon the opinion of the people and\nthe spirit of the age and nation. It sometimes happens that a gigantic\nmind possesses supreme power, and rises superior to the age in which he\nis born: such was Alfred in England, and Peter in Russia. Such instances\nare, however, very rare; and in general it is neither amongst sovereigns\nnor the higher classes of society that the great improvers and\nbenefactors of mankind are to be found.\u201d\u2014_Consolations in Travel_, pp.\n34, 35.\n\nBrilliant as was Davy\u2019s own career, it had its life-struggles: his last\ndays were embittered with sufferings, mental as well as physical; and in\nthese moments he may have written these somewhat querulous remarks.\n\n\n TIME: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.\n\nHarris, in his _Hermes_, in his disquisition on Time, gives the\ndistinction between the grammatical or conventional phrase, \u201cPresent\nTime,\u201d and the more philosophical and abstract \u201cNow,\u201d or \u201cInstant.\u201d\nQuoting Nicephorus Blemmides, Harris would define the former as follows:\n\u201cPresent Time is that which adjoins to the Real Now, or Instant, on\neither side being a limited time made up of Past and Future; and from\nits vicinity to that Real Now, said to be Now also itself.\u201d Whilst upon\nthe latter term he remarks: \u201cAs every Now or Instant always exists in\nTime, and without being Time is Time\u2019s bound; the Bound of Completion to\nthe Past, and the Bound of Commencement to the Future; and from hence we\nmay conceive its nature or end, which is to be the medium of continuity\nbetween the Past and the Future, so as to render Time, through all its\nparts, one Intire and Perfect Whole.\u201d\n\nThus, logically, \u201cTime Present\u201d must be regarded as a mathematical\npoint, having no parts or magnitude, being simply the end of the Past,\nand the beginning of the Future. Thus, perishing in action and eluding\nthe grasp of thought, it is a nonentity, of which, at best, an\nintangible and shadowy existence can be predicated:\n\n Dum loquimur fugerit invida\n \u00c6tas.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0_Hor._\n\nAnd we may ask of it, with its _carpe diem_, its manifold attributes,\nand imputed influences, as the poet Young does of the King of Terrors:\n\n Why start at Death? Where is he? Death _arrived_\n Is _past;_ not _come_, or _gone_, he\u2019s never _here_.\n _Night Thoughts_, iv.\n\nIt is, however, in the more conventional sense that the phrase \u201cPresent\nTime\u201d is generally made use of in writing and conversation. So Johnson,\nin his well-known passage: \u201cWhatever withdraws us from the power of our\nsenses, whatever makes the _past_, the _distant_, or the _future_,\npredominate over the _present_, advances us in the dignity of thinking\nbeings,\u201d &c. Here we have \u201cthe Present\u201d invested with the dignity of\nindividual existence, and compared with the Past and the Future, as\nhaving duration or extension with these; as if we should speak of a\nseries of numbers, ascending on each side of nothing to infinity, as\nbeing divisible into negative, zero, and positive.\n\nAmong coincident forms of expression, on the part of writers who have\nspoken of the \u201cPresent Time\u201d in its more precise and philosophical\nsense, is the following by Cowley, in a note to one of his \u201cPindarique\nOdes:\u201d \u201cThere are two sorts of Eternity; from the Present backwards to\nEternity, and from the present forwards, called by the Schoolmen\n_\u00c6ternitas \u00e0 parte ante_, and _\u00c6ternitas \u00e0 parte post_. These two make\nup the whole circle of Eternity, which _Present Time_ cuts like a\n_Diameter_.\u201d\n\nCarlyle, in his _Essays_ (\u201cSigns of the Times\u201d), has this knowledgeful\npassage: \u201cWe admit that the present is an important time; as all present\ntime necessarily is. _The poorest day that passes over us is the conflux\nof two Eternities_, and is made up of currents that issue from the\nremotest Past, and flow onwards into the remotest Future. We were wise,\nindeed, could we discover truly the signs of our own times; and, by\nknowledge of its wants and advantages, wisely adjust our own position in\nit. Let us, then, instead of gazing idly into the obscure distance, look\ncalmly around us for a little on the perplexed scene where we stand.\nPerhaps, on a more serious inspection, something of its perplexity may\ndisappear, some of its distinctive characters and deeper tendencies more\nclearly reveal themselves; whereby our own relations to it, our own true\naims and endeavours in it, may also become clearer.\u201d[1]\n\nLord Strangford has left these pathetic stanzas:\n\n Time was\u2014when all was fresh, and fair, and bright,\n My heart was bounding with delight,\n It knew no pain, it felt no aching:\n But o\u2019er it all its airy woes\n As lightly passed, or briefly staid,\n Like the fleet summer-cloud which throws\n On sunny lands a moment\u2019s shade,\n A momentary darkness making.\n\n Time is\u2014when all is drear, and dim, and wild,\n And that gay sunny scene which smiled\n With darkest clouds is gloomed and saddened;\n When tempest-toss\u2019d on passion\u2019s tide\n Reason\u2019s frail bark is madly driven,\n Nor gleams one ray its course to guide\n From yon o\u2019ercast and frowning heaven,\n Till peace is wreck\u2019d and reason maddened.\n\n Time come\u2014but will it e\u2019er restore\n The peace my bosom felt before,\n And soothe again my aching, tortured breast?\n It will, for there is One above\n Who bends on all a Father\u2019s eye;\n Who hears with all a Father\u2019s love\n The broken heart\u2019s repentant sigh,\n Calms the vexed heart, and bids the spirit rest.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 1:\n\n Abridged from an excellent Communication, by William Bates, to _Notes\n and Queries_, 2d series, vol. x. p. 245.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n MEASUREMENT OF TIME.\n\nSir Thomas Browne, treating of Errors regarding Numbers, observes: \u201cTrue\nit is that God made all things in number, weight, and measure; yet\nnothing by them, or through the efficacy of either. Indeed, our days,\nactions, and motions being measured by time (which is but _motion\nmeasured_), whatever is observable in any, falls under the account of\nsome number; which, notwithstanding, cannot be denominated the cause of\nthese events. So do we unjustly assign the power of action even unto\ntime itself; nor do they speak properly who say that time consumeth all\nthings; for time is not effective, nor are bodies destroyed by it, but\nfrom the action and passion of their elements in it; whose account it\nonly affordeth, and, measuring out their motion, informs us in the\nperiods and terms of their duration, rather than effecteth or physically\nproduceth the same.\u201d[2]\n\nTime can only be measured by motion: were all things inanimate or fixed,\ntime could not be measured. A body cannot be in two places at the same\ninstant; and if the motion of any body from one point to another were\nregular and equal, the divisions and subdivisions of the space thus\nmarked over would mark portions of time.\n\nThe sun and the moon have served to divide portions of time in all ages.\nThe rising and setting of the sun, the shortening and lengthening of the\nshadows of trees, and even the shadow of man himself, have marked the\nflight of time. The phases of the moon were used to indicate greater\nportions; and a certain number of full moons supplied us with the means\nof giving historical dates.\n\nFifteen geographical miles, east or west, make one minute of time. The\nearth turning on its axis produces the alternate succession of day and\nnight, and in this revolution marks the smallest division of time by\ndistances on its surface.\n\nIf each of the 360 degrees into which the circumference of the earth is\ndivided, be subdivided into twenty-four hours, it will be found that 15\ndegrees pass under the sun during each hour, which proves that 15\ndegrees of longitude mark one hour of time: thus, as Berlin is nearly 15\ndegrees east of London, it is almost one o\u2019clock when it is twelve at\nLondon.\n\nTime, like bodies, is divisible nearly _ad infinitum_. A second (a mere\npulsation) is divided into four or five parts, marked by the vibrations\nof a watch-balance; and each of these divisions is frequently required\nto be lessened an exact 2880th part of its momentary duration. It is,\nhowever, impossible to see this; for Mr. Babbage, speaking of a piece of\nmechanism which indicated the 300th part of a second, tells us that both\nhimself and friend endeavoured to stop it twenty times successively at\nthe same point, but could not be confident of even the 20th part of a\nsecond.\n\nIt has been said that many simple operations would astonish us, did we\nbut know enough to be so; and this remark may not be inapplicable to\nthose who, having a watch losing half a minute per day, wish it\ncorrected, though they may not reflect that as half a minute is the\n2880th part of 24 hours, each vibration of the balance, which is only\nthe fifth part of a second, must be accelerated the 2880th part of its\ninstantaneous duration; while to make a watch, losing one minute per\nweek, go correctly, each vibration must be accelerated the 1008th part\nof its duration, or the 50,400th part of a second.[3]\n\nAmong the early methods of measuring Time, we must not omit to notice\nAlfred\u2019s \u201cTime-Candles,\u201d as they have been called. His reputed\nbiographer, Asser, tells us that Alfred caused six tapers to be made for\nhis daily use: each taper, containing twelve pennyweights of wax, was\ntwelve inches long, and of proportionate breadth. The whole length was\ndivided into twelve parts, or inches, of which three would burn for one\nhour, so that each taper would be consumed in four hours; and the six\ntapers, being lighted one after the other, lasted twenty-four hours. But\nthe wind blowing through the windows and doors and chinks of the walls\nof the chapel, or through the cloth of his tent, in which they were\nburning, wasted these tapers, and consequently they burnt with no\nregularity; he therefore designed a lantern made of ox or cow horn, cut\ninto thin plates, in which he enclosed the tapers; and thus protecting\nthem from the wind, the period of their burning became a matter of\ncertainty. But the genuineness of Asser\u2019s work is doubted,\u2014so the story\nis discredited. Nevertheless, there is nothing very questionable in\nAlfred\u2019s reputed method; and it is curious to see that an \u201cimprovement\u201d\nwas patented so recently as 1859, which consists in graduating the\nexterior of candles, either by indentation or colouring at intervals,\nand equal distances apart, according to the size of the candles. The\nmarks are to consist of hours, half-hours, and, if necessary,\nquarter-hours; the distance to be determined by the kind of candle used.\n\nBishop Wilkins, in his _Mathematical Magic_, in the chapter relating to\n\u201csuch engines as did receive a regular and lasting motion from something\nbelonging to their own frame, whether weights or springs, &c.,\u201d quotes\nPancirollus, \u201ctaken from that experiment in the multiplication of wheels\nmentioned in Vitruvius, where he speaks of an instrument whereby a man\nmay know how many miles or paces he doth go in any space of time,\nwhether or no he pass by water in a boat or ship, or by land in a\nchariot or coach. They have been contrived also into little pocket\ninstruments, by which, after a man hath walked a whole day together, he\nmay easily know how many steps he hath taken.\u201d More curious is \u201cthe\nalarum, mentioned by Walchius, which, though it were but two or three\ninches big, yet would both wake a man and of itself light a candle for\nhim at any set hour of the night. And those great springs, which are of\nso great force as to turn a mill (as some have contrived), may be easily\napplied to more various and difficult labours.\u201d\n\nOccasionally, in these old curiosities, we trace anticipations of some\nof the scientific marvels of the present day. Thus, when the Grand Duke\nof Tuscany, in 1669, visited the Royal Society at Arundel House, he was\nshown \u201ca clock, whose movements are derived from the vicinity of a\nloadstone; and it is so adjusted as to discover the distance of\ncountries, at sea, by the longitude.\u201d The analogy between this clock and\nthe electrical clock of the present day is not a little remarkable. The\nJournal-book of the Society for 1669 contains many allusions to \u201cHook\u2019s\nmagnetic watch going slower or faster according to the greater or less\ndistance of the loadstone, and so moving regularly in every posture.\u201d On\nthe occasion of the visit of illustrious strangers, this clock and\nHook\u2019s magnetic watches were always exhibited as great curiosities.[4]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 2:\n\n _Vulgar and Common Errors_, book iv. chap. xii.\n\nFootnote 3:\n\n _Time and Timekeepers._ By Adam Thomson, 1842.\n\nFootnote 4:\n\n See Weld\u2019s _History of the Royal Society_, vol. i. pp. 220, 221.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n PERIODS OF REST.\n\nThe terrestrial day, and consequently the length of the cycle of light\nand darkness, being what it is, we find various parts of the\nconstitution both of animals and vegetables which have a periodical\ncharacter in their functions, corresponding to the diurnal succession of\nexternal conditions; and we find that the length of the period, as it\nexists in their constitution, coincides with the length of the natural\nday.\n\nMan, in all nations and ages, takes his principal rest once in\ntwenty-four hours; and the regularity of this practice seems most\nsuitable to his health, though the duration of the time allotted to\nrepose is extremely different in different cases. So far as we can\njudge, this period is of a length beneficial to the human frame,\nindependently of the effect of external agents. In the voyages made into\nhigh northern latitudes, where the sun did not rise for three months,\nthe crews of the ships were made to adhere, with the utmost punctuality,\nto the habit of retiring to rest at nine, and rising a quarter before\nsix; and they enjoyed, under circumstances apparently the most trying, a\nstate of salubrity quite remarkable. This shows that, according to the\ncommon constitution of such men, the cycle of twenty-fours is very\ncommodious, though not imposed on them by external circumstances.\n\nThe succession of exertion and repose in the muscular system, of excited\nand dormant sensibility in the nervous, appears to be fundamentally\nconnected with the muscular and nervous powers, whatever the nature of\nthese may be. The necessity of these alternations is one of the measures\nof the intensity of these vital energies; and it would seem that we\ncannot, without assuming the human powers to be altered, suppose the\nintervals of tranquillity which they require to be much changed. This\nview agrees with the opinion of the most eminent physiologists. Thus,\nCabanis notices the periodical and isochronous character of the desire\nof sleep, as well as of other appetites. He states that sleep is more\neasy and more salutary, in proportion as we go to rest and rise every\nday at the same hours; and observes that this periodicity seems to have\na reference to the motions of the solar system.\n\nNow, how should such a reference be at first established in the\nconstitution of man, animals, and plants, and transmitted from one\ngeneration of them to another? If we suppose a wise and benevolent\nCreator, by whom all the parts of nature were fitted to their uses and\nto each other, this is what we might expect and understand. On any other\nsupposition, such a fact appears altogether incredible and\ninconceivable.[5]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 5:\n\n Abridged from Whewell\u2019s _Bridgwater Treatise_.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n RECKONING DISTANCE BY TIME.\n\nIn Oriental countries, it has been the custom from the earliest ages to\nreckon distances by _time_, rather than by any direct reference to a\nstandard of measure, as is commonly reckoned in the present day. In the\nScriptures we find distances described by \u201ca day\u2019s journey,\u201d \u201cthree\ndays\u2019 journey,\u201d and other similar expressions. A day\u2019s journey is\nsupposed to have been equal to about thirty-three British statute miles,\nand denoted the distance that could be performed without any\nextraordinary fatigue by a foot-passenger; \u201ca Sabbath day\u2019s journey\u201d was\npeculiar to the Jews, being equal to rather less than one statute mile.\nIt may not be in exact accordance with our habits of thought, and usual\nforms of expression, thus to describe distances by time; yet it seems to\npossess some advantages. A man knowing nothing of the linear standards\nof measure employed in foreign countries, would receive no satisfactory\ninformation on being told that a particular city, or town, was distant\nfrom another a certain number of miles[6] or leagues,[7] as the case\nmight happen to be. But if he were told that such city or town was\ndistant from another a certain number of _hours_ or _days_, there would\nbe something in the account that would commend itself to his\nunderstanding. A sea-voyage is oftener described by reference to time\nthan to _distance_. We frequently hear persons inquire how many _weeks_\nor _months_ it will occupy to proceed to distant parts of the world, but\nthey rarely manifest any great anxiety about the number of _miles_. This\nmode of computation seems especially applicable to steam navigation: a\nvoyage by a steam-packet, under ordinary circumstances, being performed\nwith such surprising regularity, that it might, with greater propriety,\nbe described by minutes, or hours, or days, than by miles.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 6:\n\n In Holland a _mile_ is nearly equal to three and three-quarters; in\n Germany it is rather more than four and a half; and in Switzerland it\n is about equal to five and three-quarters British miles.\n\nFootnote 7:\n\n A _league_ in France is equal to two and three-quarters; in Spain to\n four; in Denmark to four and three-quarters; in Switzerland to five\n and a half; and in Sweden to six and three-quarters British miles.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n SUN-DIALS.\n\nSun-dials are little regarded but as curiosities in these days; although\nthe science of constructing Sun-dials, under the name of Gnomonics, was,\nup to a comparatively recent period, part of a mathematical course. As\nlong as watches were scarce, and clocks not very common, the dial was an\nactual time-keeper. Of the mathematical works of the seventeenth century\nwhich are found on book-stalls, none are so common as those on Dialling.\n\nEach of the old dials usually had its monitory inscription; and although\nthe former have mostly disappeared, the mottoes have been preserved, so\nthat all their good is not lost.\n\nThe stately city of Oxford, which Waagen declared it was worth a special\njourney from Germany to see, has, upon its churches and colleges, and in\ntheir lovely gardens, several dials. Christopher Wren, when a boy of\nfifteen at Wadham College, designed on the ceiling of a room a\nreflecting dial, embellished with various devices and two figures,\nAstronomy and Geometry, with accessories, tastefully drawn with a pen,\nand bearing a Latin inscription; but his more elaborate work is the\nlarge and costly dial which he erected at All Souls\u2019 College, of which\nhe was a Fellow.\n\nThe Rev. W. Lisle Bowles was a sincere respecter of dials. In the garden\nof his parsonage at Bremhill he placed a Sun-dial\u2014a small antique\ntwisted column, gray with age, and believed to have been the dial of the\nabbot of Malmesbury, and counted his hours at the adjoining lodge; for\nit was taken from the garden of the farmhouse, which had originally been\nthe summer retirement of this mitred lord: it is of monastic character,\nbut a more ornate capital has been added, which bears the date of 1688;\nit has the following inscription by the venerable Canon:\n\n To count the brief and unreturning hours,\n This Sun-dial was placed among the flowers,\n Which came forth in their beauty\u2014smiled and died,\n Blooming and withering round its ancient side.\n Mortal, thy day is passing\u2014see that Flower,\n And think upon the Shadow and the Hour.\n\nFrom beneath a venerable yew, which has seen the persecution of the\nloyal English clergy, you look into the adjoining churchyard of\nBremhill, on an old Sun-dial, once a cross. Bowles tells us: \u201cThe\n_cross_ was found broken at its foot, probably by the country\niconoclasts of the day. I have brought the interesting fragment again\ninto light, and placed it conspicuously opposite to an old Scotch fir in\nthe churchyard, which I think it not unlikely was planted by Townson on\nhis restoration. The accumulation of the soil of centuries had covered\nan ascent of four steps at the bottom of this record of silent hours.\nThese steps have been worn in places, from the act of frequent\nprostration or kneeling by the forefathers of the hamlet, perhaps before\nthe church existed.\u201d Upon this old dial Bowles wrote one of his most\ntouching poems, of which these are the opening verses:\n\n So passes silent o\u2019er the dead thy shade,\n Brief Time! and hour by hour, and day by day,\n The pleasing pictures of the present fade,\n And like a summer-vapour steal away.\n\n And have not they, who here forgotten lie\n (Say, hoary chronicler of ages past),\n Once more the shadow with delighted eye,\n Nor thought it fled,\u2014how certain and how fast?\n\n Since thou hast stood, and thus thy vigil kept,\n Noting each hour, o\u2019er mould\u2019ring stones beneath,\n The Pastor and his flock alike have slept,\n And \u201cdust to dust\u201d proclaim\u2019d the stride of death.\n\nAny thing that reminds us of the lapse of time should remind us also of\nthe right employment of time in doing whatever business is required to\nbe done.\n\nA similar lesson is solemnly conveyed in the Scripture motto to a\nSun-dial: \u201cThe night cometh, when no man can work.\u201d Another solemn\ninjunction is conveyed in the motto to a Sun-dial erected by Bishop\nCopleston in a village near which he resided: \u201cLet not the sun go down\nupon your wrath\u201d (_Ephesians_ iv. 26).\n\nA more subtle motto is, \u201cSeptem sine horis;\u201d signifying that there are\nin the longest day seven hours (and a trifle over) during which the\nSun-dial is useless.\n\nUpon the public buildings and in the pleasure-grounds of Old London the\nSun-dial was placed as a silent monitor to those who were sailing on the\nbusy stream of time through its crowded haunts and thoroughfares, or\nseeking meditation in quiet nooks and plaisances of its river mansions\nand garden-houses. Upon churches the dial commonly preceded the clock:\nWren especially introduced the dial in his churches.\n\nSovereigns and statesmen may have reflected beside the palace-dials upon\nthe fleetingness of life, and thus have learned to take better note of\ntime. Whitehall was famous for its Sun-dials. In Privy Garden was a dial\nset up by Edward Gunter, professor of astronomy at Gresham College (and\nof which he published a description), by command of James I., in 1624. A\nlarge stone pedestal bore four dials at the four corners, and \u201cthe great\nhorizontal concave\u201d in the centre; besides east, west, north, and south\ndials at the sides. In the reign of Charles II. this dial was defaced by\nan intoxicated nobleman of the Court; upon which Marvell wrote:\n\n This place for a dial was too unsecure,\n Since a guard and a garden could not defend;\n For so near to the Court they will never endure\n Any witness to show how their time they misspend.\n\nIn the court-yard facing the Banqueting-house was another curious dial,\nset up in 1669 by order of Charles II. It was invented by one Francis\nHall, _alias_ Lyne, a Jesuit, and professor of mathematics at Li\u00e8ge.\nThis dial consisted of five stages rising in a pyramidal form, and\nbearing several vertical and reclining dials, globes cut into planes,\nand glass bowls; showing, \u201cbesides the houres of all kinds,\u201d \u201cmany\nthings also belonging to geography, astrology, and astronomy, by the\nsun\u2019s shadow made visible to the eye.\u201d Among the pictures were portraits\nof the king, the two queens, the Duke of York, and Prince Rupert. Father\nLyne published a description of this dial, which consists of\nseventy-three parts: it is illustrated with seventeen plates: the\ndetails are condensed in No. 400 of the _Mirror_. About 1710, William\nAllingham, a mathematician in Canon-row, asked 500_l._ to repair this\ndial: it was last seen by Vertue, the artist and antiquary, at\nBuckingham House.\n\nThe bricky towers of St. James\u2019s palace had their Sun-dials; and in the\ngardens of Kensington palace and Hampton Court palace are to this day\nsuperb dials.\n\nUpon a house-front in the Terrace, New Palace Yard, Westminster, is a\nSun-dial, having the motto from Virgil, \u201cDiscite justitiam, moniti,\u201d\nwhich had probably been inscribed upon the old clock-tower of the\npalace, in reference to its having been built with a fine that had been\nlevied on the Chief Justice of the King\u2019s Bench for altering a record.\n\nThe Inns of Court, where time runs its golden sand, have retained a few\nof their Sun-dials. In Lincoln\u2019s Inn, on two of the old gables, are: 1.\nA southern dial, restored in 1840, which shows the hours by its gnomon,\nfrom 6 A.M. to 4 P.M., and is inscribed, \u201cEx hoc monumento pendet\n\u00e6ternitas.\u201d 2. A western dial, restored in 1794 and 1848, from the\ndifferent situation of its plane, only shows the hours from noon till\nnight: inscription, \u201cQuam redit nescitis horam.\u201d And in Serle\u2019s-court\n(now New-square), on the west side, was a dial inscribed, \u201cPublica\nprivatis secernite, sacra prophanis.\u201d\n\nGray\u2019s Inn has lost its Sun-dials: but in the gardens was a dial,\nopposite Verulam Buildings, not far from Bacon\u2019s summer-house; and the\nturret of the great Hall had formerly a southern declining dial, with\nthis motto, \u201cLux diei, lex Dei.\u201d\n\nFurnival\u2019s Inn had its garden and dial, which disappeared when the old\nInn buildings were taken down in 1818, and the Inn rebuilt.\n\nStaple Inn had upon its Hall a well-kept dial, above a luxuriant\nfig-tree.\n\nClement\u2019s Inn had, in its small garden, a kneeling figure supporting a\ndial,\u2014one of the leaden garden embellishments common in the last\ncentury. In New Inn, adjoining, the Hall has a large vertical Sun-dial,\nmotto: \u201cTime and Tide tarry for no man.\u201d\n\nLyon\u2019s Inn, which had been an Inn \u201csince 1420, or sooner,\u201d had, in 1828,\nan old Sun-dial, which had lost its gnomon and most of its figures.\n\nThe Temple garden, Inner and Middle, has each a large pillar Sun-dial;\nthe latter very handsome. There are vertical dials in various courts;\nbut the old dial of Inner Temple terrace, with its \u201cBegone about your\nbusiness,\u201d\u2014in reality the reply of a testy bencher to the painter who\nteased him for an inscription,\u2014disappeared in the year 1828. There\nremain three dials with mottoes: Temple-lane, \u201cPereunt et imputantur;\u201d\nEssex-court, \u201cVestigia nulla retrorsum;\u201d Brick-court, \u201cTime and tide\ntarry for no man;\u201d and in Pump-court and Garden-court are two dials\nwithout mottoes. Charles Lamb has this charmingly reflective passage,\nsuggested by the Temple dials:\n\n What an antique air had the now almost effaced sun-dials, with their\n moral inscriptions, seeming coevals with that Time which they\n measured, and to take their revelations of its flight immediately\n from heaven, holding correspondence with the fountain of light! How\n could the dark line steal imperceptibly on, watched by the eye of\n childhood, eager to detect its movement, never catched, nice as an\n evanescent cloud, or the first arrests of sleep!\n\n And yet doth beauty like a dial-hand\n Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived!\n\n What a dead thing is a clock, with its ponderous embowelments of\n lead and brass, its pert or solemn dulness of communication,\n compared with the simple altar-like structure and silent\n heart-language of the old dial! It stood as the garden god of\n Christian gardens. Why is it almost every where vanished? If its\n business be superseded by more elaborate inventions, its moral uses,\n its beauty, might have pleaded for its continuance. It spoke of\n moderate labours, of pleasures not protracted after sunset, of\n temperance and good hours. It was the primitive clock, the horologe\n of the first world. Adam could scarce have missed it in Paradise. It\n was the measure appropriate for sweet plants and flowers to spring\n by, for the birds to apportion their silver warblings by, for flocks\n to pasture and be led to fold by. The shepherd \u2018carved it out\n quaintly in the sun,\u2019 and, turning philosopher by the very\n occupation, provided it with mottoes more touching than tombstones.\n It was a pretty device of the gardener, recorded by Marvell, who, in\n the days of artificial gardening, made a dial out of herbs and\n flowers:\n\n How well the skilful gardener drew,\n Of herbs and flowers, this dial new!\n Where from above, the milder sun\n Does through a fragrant zodiac run:\n And, as it works, the industrious bee\n Computes its time as well as we.\n How could such sweet and wholesome hours\n Be reckon\u2019d, but with herbs and flowers?\n _From \u201cThe Garden.\u201d_\n\nAnother noted dial gave name to a locality of the metropolis, which has\nknown many mutations, viz. Seven Dials, built in the time of Charles II.\nfor wealthy tenants. Evelyn notes, 1694: \u201cI went to see the building\nnear St. Giles\u2019s, where Seven Dials make a star from a Doric pillar\nplaced in the middle of a circular area, said to be by Mr. Neale (the\nintroducer of the late lotteries), in imitation of Venice, now set up\nhere for himself twice, and once for the state.\u201d\n\n Where famed St. Giles\u2019s ancient limits spread,\n An in-rail\u2019d column rears its lofty head:\n Here to seven streets seven dials count their day,\n And from each other catch the circling ray:\n Here oft the peasant, with inquiring face,\n Bewilder\u2019d trudges on from place to place;\n He dwells on every sign with stupid gaze,\n Enters the narrow alleys\u2019 doubtful maze,\n Tries every winding court and street in vain,\n And doubles o\u2019er his weary steps again.\n Gay\u2019s _Trivia_, book ii.\n\nThe seven streets were Great and Little Earl, Great and Little White\nLion, Great and Little St. Andrew\u2019s, and Queen; though the dial-stone\nhad but six faces, two of the streets opening into one angle. The column\nand dials were removed in June 1773, to search for a treasure said to be\nconcealed beneath the base. They were never replaced; but in 1822 were\npurchased of a stone-mason, and the column was surmounted with a ducal\ncoronet, and set up on Weybridge Green as a memorial to the late Duchess\nof York, who died at Oatlands in 1820. The dial-stone is now a\nstepping-stone at the adjoining Ship inn.[8]\n\nThe Sun-dial was also formerly used with a compass. The Hon. Robert\nBoyle relates, \u201cthat a Boatman one day took out of his pocket a little\nSun-dial, furnished with an excited needle to direct how to set it, such\ndials being used among mariners, not only to show them the hour of the\nday, but to inform them from what quarter the wind blows.\u201d\n\nA Cape Town Correspondent of _Notes and Queries_ describes a Sun-dial\nand compass in his possession, made by \u201cJohann Willebrand, in Augsburg,\n1848:\u201d it has a curious perpetual calendar attached, and is of highly\nfinished work in silver, parcel-gilt. Another Sun-dial and compass is\nmentioned as made by Butterfield, at Paris: it is small, of silver, and\nhorizontal; upon its face are engraved dials for several latitudes, and\nat the back a table of principal cities; it is set by a compass, and the\ngnomon adjusted by a divided arc. The N. point of the compass-box is\n_fixed_ in a position to allow for variation, probably at Paris; and,\njudging from this, it would appear to have been made about 1716.[9]\n\nWe should also notice the pocket ring-dial, such as that which gave\noccasion to the Fool in the Forest of Arden to \u201cmoral on the time:\u201d\n\n And then he drew a dial from his poke,\n And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,\n Says, very wisely, \u201cIt is ten o\u2019clock.\u201d\n\nThis is a ring of brass, much like a miniature dog-collar, and has,\nmoving in a groove in its circumference, a narrower ring with a boss,\npierced by a small hole to admit a ray of light. The latter ring is made\nmovable, to allow for the varying declination of the sun in the several\nmonths of the year, and the initials of these are marked in the\nascending and descending scale on the larger ring, which bears also the\nmotto:\n\n Set me right, and use me well,\n And I y^e time to you will tell.\n\nThe hours are lined and numbered on the opposite concavity. When the\nboss of the sliding ring is set, and the ring is suspended by the ring\ndirectly towards the sun, a ray of light passing through the hole in the\nboss impinges on the concave surface, and the hour is told with fair\naccuracy. Mr. Thomas Q. Couch, of Bodmin, thus describes this Dial in\n_Notes and Queries_, 3d series, No. 36. Mr. Charles Knight, in his\n_Pictorial Shakspeare_, has engraved a dial of this kind, as an\nillustration of _As you like it_.\n\nMr. Redmond, of Liverpool, describes the old pocket ring-dial as common\nin the county of Wexford some twenty-five years ago: there was hardly a\nfarm-house where one could not be had. The same Correspondent of _Notes\nand Queries_, 3d series, No. 39, describes a door-sill marked with the\nhour for every day in the year: the sill had a full southern aspect, so\nthat when the sun shone, the time could be read as correctly as by any\nwatch.\n\nAnother Correspondent of _Notes and Queries_, 2d series, No. 38, has an\ningenious pocket-dial, sold by one T. Clarke: it is merely a card, with\na small plummet hanging by a thread, and a gnomon, which lies flat on\nthe card, but, when lifted up, casts the shadow to indicate the hour of\nthe day, and also the hours of sunrise and sunset.\n\nIn the United Service Museum, Whitehall, is a Sun-dial, with a\nburning-glass arranged to fire a small gun at noon; also a large\nUniversal Dial, with a circle showing minutes; and another large\nUniversal Dial, with horizontal plate and spirit-level.\n\nSuppose we collect a few of the monitory inscriptions on dials in\nvarious places. Hazlitt, in a graceful paper \u201cOn a Sun-dial,\u201d tells us\nthat\n\n Horas non numero nisi serenas\n\nis the motto of a Sun-dial near Venice; and the same line is painted in\nhuge letters over the Sun-dial in front of an old farmhouse near\nFarnworth, in Lancashire.\n\nAt Hebden Bridge, in Yorkshire, is this quaint motto:\n\n Quod petis, umbra est.\n\nCanon Bowles, in his love of the solemn subject, prescribed the\nfollowing, with paraphrastic translations:\n\n _Morning Sun._\u2014Tempus volat.\n Oh! early passenger, look up\u2014be wise,\n And think how, night and day, _time onward flies_.\n\n _Noon._\u2014Dum tempus habemus, operemur bonum.\n Life steals away\u2014this hour, oh! man, is lent thee.\n Patient to work the work of Him who sent thee.\n\n _Setting Sun._\u2014Redibo, tu nunquam.\n Haste, traveller, the sun is sinking now:\n He shall return again, but never thou.\n\nOver the Sun-dial on an old house in Rye:\n\n Tempus edax rerum.[10]\n\nUnderneath it:\n\n That solar shadow,\n As it measures life, it life resembles too.\n\nIn Brading churchyard, Isle of Wight, on a Sun-dial fixed to what\nappears originally to have been part of a churchyard cross, is the\nmotto:\n\n Hora pars vit\u00e6.\n\nNear the porch of Milton church, Berks, is:\n\n Our Life\u2019s a flying Shadow; God\u2019s the Pole,\n Death, the Horizon, where our sun is set;\n The Index, pointing at him, is our Soul,\n Which will, through Christ, a Resurrection get.\n\nButler has this couplet:\n\n True as the dial to the sun,\n Although it be not shin\u2019d upon.\n _Hudibras_, part iii. canto 2.\n\nUpon this Dr. Nash notes: \u201cAs the dial is invariable, and always open to\nthe sun whenever its rays can show the time of day, though the weather\nis often cloudy, and obscures its lustre: so true loyalty is always\nready to serve its king and country, though it often suffers great\nafflictions and distresses.\u201d\n\nThere cannot be a more faithful indicator, according to Barton Booth\u2019s\nsong:\n\n True as the needle to the pole,\n Or as the dial to the sun.\n\nAfter all, the _sun_-dial is but an occasional timekeeper; a defect\nwhich the pious Bishop Hall ingeniously illustrates in the following\nbeautiful Meditation \u201cOn the Sight of a Dial:\u201d \u201cIf the sun did not shine\nupon this dial, nobody would look at it: in a cloudy day it stands like\nan useless post, unheeded, unregarded; but, when once those beams break\nforth, every passenger runs to it, and gazes on it.\n\n\u201cO God, while thou hidest thy countenance from me, methinks all thy\ncreatures pass by me with a willing neglect. Indeed, what am I without\nthee? And if thou have drawn in me some lines and notes of able\nendowments; yet, if I be not actuated by thy grace, all is, in respect\nof use, no better than nothing; but when thou renewest the light of thy\nloving countenance upon me, I find a sensible and happy change of\ncondition: methinks all things look upon me with such cheer and\nobservance, as if they meant to make good that word of thine, _Those\nthat honour me, I will honour:_ now, every line and figure, which it\nhath pleased thee to work in me, serve for useful and profitable\ndirection. O Lord, all the glory is thine. Give thou me light: I will\ngive others information: both of us shall give thee praise.\u201d\n\nThe Pyramids of Egypt, the most ancient and the most colossal structures\non the earth,\u2014the purpose and appropriation of which has been much\ncontroverted by antiquaries and men of science,\u2014have been considered by\nsome to have served as Sun-dials. Sir Gardner Wilkinson does not pretend\nto explain the real object for which these stupendous monuments were\nconstructed, but feels persuaded that they have served for tombs, and\nhave also been intended for astronomical purposes. \u201cThe form of the\nexterior might lead to many useful calculations. They stand exactly due\nnorth and south; and while the direction of the faces to the east and\nwest might serve to fix the return of a certain period of the year, the\nshadow cast by the sun, or the time of its coinciding with their slope,\nmight be observed for a similar purpose.\u201d\n\nThere is an interesting association of the Great Pyramid with the\nambitious dream of one of the world\u2019s celebrities, which may be noticed\nhere. When Napoleon I. was in Egypt, in 1799, he rode on a camel to the\nGreat Pyramid and the Sphinx, that relic of mystic grandeur. Karl\nGirardet has painted this impressive visit; and the picture has been\nengraved by Gautier, and inscribed, \u201cForty Centuries look down upon\nhim.\u201d\n\nCharles Mackay has written a graceful poem as a pendent to this print;\nin which the poet makes the young Napoleon thus invoke the colossal\nmonuments:\n\n Ye haughty Pyramids!\n Thou Sphinx, whose eyeless lids\n On my presumptuous youth seem bent in scorn!\n What though thou\u2019st stood\n Coeval with the flood,\n Of all earth\u2019s monuments the earliest born,\n And I so mean and small,\n With armies at my call,\n Am recent in thy sight as grass of yestermorn!\n\n Yet in this soul of mine\n Is strength as great as thine,\n O dull-eyed Sphinx that wouldst despise me now;\n Is grandeur like thine own,\n O melancholy stone,\n With forty centuries furrow\u2019d on thy brow;\n Deep in my heart I feel\n What time shall yet reveal,\n That I shall tower o\u2019er men, as o\u2019er these deserts thou.\n\nThe dreamer of empire proceeds, bespeaking:\n\n Nations yet to be,\n Surging from Time\u2019s deep sea,\n Shall teach their babes the name of great Napoleon.\n\nBut hear the reply of the decaying oracle:\n\n Over the mighty chief\n There came a shadow of grief.\n The lips gigantic seemed to move and say,\n \u201cKnow\u2019st thou his name that bid\n Arise yon Pyramid?\n Know\u2019st thou who placed me where I stand to-day?\n Thy deeds are but as sand\n Strewn on the heedless land:\n Think, little mortal, think, and pass upon thy way!\n\n Pass, little mortal, pass!\n Grow like the vernal grass\u2014\n The autumn sickle shall destroy thy prime.\n But nations shout the word\n Which ne\u2019er before they heard,\n The name of glory, fearful yet sublime.\n The Pharaohs are forgot,\n Their works confess them not:\n Pass, hero! pass,\u2014poor straw upon the gulf of Time!\u201d\n\nIt will be remembered how Napoleon\u2019s disastrous Egyptian campaign ended;\nand how he secretly embarked for France, and read during his passage\nboth the Bible and the Koran with great assiduity.\n\nAmong the interesting memorials of Mary Queen of Scots at Holyrood\nPalace, Edinburgh, there remains the Sun-dial placed in the centre of\nthe palace-garden, and usually denominated \u201cQueen Mary\u2019s Dial.\u201d\n\n It is the apex of a richly-ornamented pedestal, which rests upon a\n hexagonal base, consisting of three steps. The form of the\n \u2018horologe\u2019 is multangular; for though its principal sections are\n pentagonal, yet from their terminating in pyramidal points, and\n being diametrically opposed to each other, again connected by\n triangular interspaces, it presents no fewer than twenty sides, on\n which are placed twenty-two dials, inserted into circular,\n semicircular, and triangular cavities. Between the dials are the\n royal arms of Scotland, with the initials M. R., St. Andrew, St.\n George, _fleurs-de-lis_, and other emblems. This memorial carries us\n back nearly three centuries, when Holyrood was a palace\n\n Where \u201cMary of Scotland\u201d kept her court.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 8:\n\n The _Town and Country Magazine_, edited by Albert Smith.\n\nFootnote 9:\n\n N. T. Heineken; _Notes and Queries_, 3d series.\n\nFootnote 10:\n\n We remember this motto for many years beneath a large figure of Time,\n executed in Coade and Seeley\u2019s composition, and placed at the corner\n of the lane leading from Westminster Bridge Road to Pedlar\u2019s Acre.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE HOUR-GLASS.\n\nThe use of the Hour-glass can be traced to ancient Greece. In Christie\u2019s\nGreek Vases, one is engraved from a scarab\u00e6us of sardonyx, in the\nTowneley collection: it is exactly like the modern hour-glass. The first\nmention of it occurs in a Greek tragedian named Bato. On a bas-relief of\nthe Mattei Palace, of the marriage of Thetis and Peleus, Morpheus holds\nan hour-glass; and from Athen\u00e6us it appears that persons, when going\nout, carried it about with them, as we do a watch. In a woodcut in\nHawkins\u2019s _History of Music_, the frame is more solid, and the glass\nprobably slipped in and out. There is another cut of one in Boissard,\nheld by Death, precisely of the modern form.\n\nThe hour or sand-glass is liable to the objection, that it requires a\nhorary attendant, as is intimated in the glee:\n\n Five times by the taper\u2019s light\n The hour-glass we have turned to-night.\n\nBut the Hour-glass is a better measurer of time than is generally\nimagined. The flow of the sand from one bulb to another is perfectly\nequable, whatever may be the quantity of sand above the aperture. The\nstream flows no faster when the upper bulb is almost full than when it\nis almost empty; the lower heap not being influenced by the pressure of\nthe heap above.[11] Bloomfield, in one of his rural tales, \u201cThe Widow to\nher Hour-glass,\u201d sings:\n\n I\u2019ve often watched thy streaming sand,\n And seen the growing mountain rise,\n And often found life\u2019s hope to stand\n On props as weak in wisdom\u2019s eyes:\n Its conic crown\n Still sliding down,\n Again heaped up, then down again:\n The sand above more hollow grew,\n Like days and years still filtering through,\n And mingling joy and pain.\n\nFord, contemporary with Massinger, has this impressive picture of the\nprimitive time-keeper:\n\n Minutes are number\u2019d by the fall of sands,\n As, by an hour-glass, the span of time\n Doth waste us to our graves; and we look on it.\n An age of pleasures, revell\u2019d out, comes home\n At last, and ends in sorrow: but the life,\n Weary of riot, numbers every sand,\n Wailing in sighs, until the last drop down;\n So to conclude calamity in rest: numbering wasted life.\n\nHow cleverly the old dramatist, Shirley, illustrates this philosopher in\nglass:\n\n Let princes gather\n My dust into a glass, and learn to spend\n Their hour of state, that\u2019s all they have; for when\n That\u2019s out, Time never turns the glass again.\n\nThe Hour-glass has almost entirely given place to the more useful,\nbecause to a greater extent self-acting, instrument; and it is now\nseldom seen except upon the table of the lecturer or private teacher, in\nthe study of the philosopher, in the cottage of the peasant, or in the\nhand of the old emblematic figure of Time.[12] We still sometimes see it\nin the workshop of the cork-cutter. The half-minute glass is still\nemployed on board ship; and the two and a half or three minute glass for\nboiling an egg with exactness.\n\n Preaching by the Hour-glass was formerly common; and public speakers\n are _timed_, in the present day, by the same means. In the\n church-wardens\u2019 books of St. Helen\u2019s, Abingdon, date 1599, is a\n charge of fourpence for an hour-glass for the pulpit; in 1564, we\n find in the books of St. Katherine\u2019s, Christ Church, Aldgate, \u201cpaid\n for an hour-glass that hangeth by the pulpit when the preacher doth\n make a sermon, that he may know how the hour passeth away\u2014one\n shilling;\u201d and in the books of St. Mary\u2019s, Lambeth, 1579 and 1615,\n are similar entries. Butler, in _Hudibras_, alludes to pulpit\n hour-glasses having been used by the Puritans: the preacher having\n named the text, turned up the glass; and if the sermon did not last\n till the sand was out, it was said by the congregation that the\n preacher was lazy; but if, on the other hand, he continued much\n longer, they would yawn and stretch till the discourse was finished.\n At the old church of St. Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet-street, was a\n large hour-glass in a silver frame, of which latter, when the\n instrument was taken down, in 1723, two heads were made for the\n parish staves. Hogarth, in his \u201cSleepy Congregation,\u201d has introduced\n an hour-glass on the west side of the pulpit. A very perfect\n hour-glass is preserved in the church of St. Alban, Wood-street,\n Cheapside; it is placed on the right of the reading-desk within a\n frame of twisted columns and arches, supported on a spiral column:\n the four sides have angels sounding trumpets; and each end has a\n line of crosses _pat\u00e9es_ and fleurs-de-lis, somewhat resembling the\n imperial crown.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 11:\n\n Le Jeune has painted two children watching with wonder the sand\n flowing in the hour-glass.\n\nFootnote 12:\n\n The Hour-glass is the sign of Calvert\u2019s Brewery, in Upper\n Thames-street.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n CLOCKS AND WATCHES.\n\nThe clock was also the horologe of our old poets, from the Latin\n_horologium:_\n\n He\u2019ll watch the horologe a double set,\n If drink rock not his cradle.\u2014_Othello_, act ii. sc. 3.\n\nDrayton calls the cock the country horologe.\n\nRabelais thus capriciously ridicules the use of the clock: \u201cThe greatest\nloss of time that I know, is to count the hours. What good comes of it?\nNor can there be any greater dotage in the world, than for one to guide\nand direct his course by the sound of a bell, and not by his own\njudgment and discretion.\u201d In similar exuberance has this gay satirist\nsaid: \u201cThere is only one quarter of an hour in human life passed ill,\nand that is between the calling for the reckoning and paying it.\u201d\n\nWith more serious purpose has Sir Walter Scott, in his \u201cLay of the\nImprisoned Huntsman,\u201d thus anathematised the clock and the dial:\n\n I hate to learn the ebb of time\n From yon dull steeple\u2019s drowsy chime,\n Or mark it as the sunbeams crawl\n Inch after inch along the wall.\n\nRichard II., in the dungeon of Pomfret Castle, soliloquises more\nsolemnly:\n\n Now hath Time made me his numb\u2019ring clock:\n My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jade\n Their watches on to mine eyes, the outward watch\n Whereto my finger, like a dial\u2019s point,\n Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.\n Now, sir, the sound that tells what hour it is,\n Are clamorous groans, that strike upon my heart,\n Which is the bell: so sighs, and tears, and groans\n Show minutes, times, and hours.\n\nLucian, who died A.D. 180, refers to an instrument, mechanically\nconstructed with water, which reported the hours by a bell. \u201cBefore the\ntime of Jerome\u201d (born A.D. 332), says Browne, \u201cthere were horologies\nthat measured the hours, not only by drops of water in glasses, called\n_clepsydra_, but also by sand in glasses, called _clepsummia_.\u201d It was\nthe clepsydra to which Lucian alludes. When the water, which was\nconstantly dripping out of the vessel, reached a certain level, it drew\naway, by means of a rope connected with the piston in the water-vessel,\nthe ledge on which a weight rested; and the falling of this weight,\nwhich was attached to a bell, caused it to strike. This, perhaps, was\nthe earliest kind of striking clock.\n\nA public striking clock may well be termed the regulator of society: it\nreminds us of our engagements, and announces the hours for exertion or\nrepose; and in the silence of night it tells us of the hours that are\npast, and how many remain before day.\n\nThe earliest public clock set up in England was that with three bells,\nwhich was placed in the clochard or bell-tower of the Palace at\nWestminster, built by Edward III. in 1365-6: the palace was then the\nmost frequent residence of the king and his family; and the three bells\nwere \u201cusually rung at Coronations, Triumphs, Funeralls of Princes, and\ntheir Obits.\u201d[13] This bell-tower stood very near to the site of the\ngreat clock-tower of the new palace; the gilding of the exterior of\nwhich cost no less than 1500_l._\n\nA public clock is a public monitor; and the dimensions of its dial, and\nworks, and striking-bell add much to the solemnity of its proclaiming\nthe march of time. The great clocks in the International Exhibition of\n1862 were among its colossal marvels.\n\nThe clocks of St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral, Westminster Palace, and the Royal\nExchange, are three of the largest clocks in London. The St. Paul\u2019s\nhour-hands are the height of a tall man; the hour struck by this clock\nhas been heard at midnight on the terrace of Windsor Castle; and from\nthe telegraph station on Putney-heath the hour has been read by the St.\nPaul\u2019s clock-face without the aid of a telescope: the hour-numerals are\n2 feet 2\u00bd inches in height. This clock once struck thirteen, which being\nheard by a sentinel, accused of being asleep at his post at that hour,\nwas the means of saving his life; this striking thirteen was caused by\nthe lifting-piece holding on too long.\n\nThe former church of St. Paul, Covent Garden, built by Inigo Jones,\ncontained within the pediment a pendulum-clock, made by Richard Harris\nin 1641, and stated by an inscription in the vestry to be the first\npendulum-clock made.[14]\n\nThe Horse Guards Clock is properly described by Mr. Denison as \u201ca\nsuperstitiously venerated and bad clock;\u201d it is minutely described by\nMr. B. L. Vulliamy in the _Curiosities of London_, pp. 378-380.\n\nSt. James\u2019s Palace Clock, made by Clay, clockmaker to George II.,\nstrikes the hours and quarters upon three bells; it requires to be wound\nup every day, and originally had but one hand. We were told by the late\nMr. B. L. Vulliamy, that when the gatehouse was repaired in 1831, the\nclock was removed, and not put up again, on account of the roof being\nreported unsafe to carry the weight. The inhabitants of the\nneighbourhood then memorialised William IV. for the replacement of the\ntimekeeper: the King, having ascertained its weight, shrewdly inquired\nhow, if the tower-roof was not strong enough to carry the clock, it was\nsafe for the number of persons occasionally seen upon it to witness\nprocessions, &c. The clock was forthwith replaced, and a minute-hand was\nadded, with new dials: the original dials were of wainscot, in a great\nnumber of very small pieces curiously dovetailed together.\n\nTrinity College, Cambridge, has a double-striking clock, put up by the\nfamous Dr. Bentley; striking, as it used to be said, once for Trinity\nand once for his former college, St. John\u2019s, which had no clock.\n\nThe clock of St. Clement\u2019s Danes, in the Strand, strikes twice; the hour\nbeing first struck on a larger bell, and then repeated on a smaller one;\nso that if the first has been miscounted, the second may be more\ncorrectly observed.\n\nWren has introduced the gilt projecting dial in several of the City\nchurches: that at St. Magnus, London Bridge, was the gift of Sir Charles\nDuncomb, who, it is related, when a poor boy, had once to wait upon\nLondon Bridge a considerable time for his master, whom he missed through\nnot knowing the hour; he then vowed that if ever he became successful in\nthe world, he would give to St. Magnus a public clock, that passengers\nmight see the time; and this dial proves the fulfilment of his vow. It\nwas originally ornamented with several richly gilded figures: upon a\nsmall metal shield inside the clock are engraven the donor\u2019s arms, with\nthis inscription: \u201cThe gift of Sir Charles Duncomb, Knight, Lord Major,\nand Alderman of this ward; Langley Bradley fecit, 1709.\u201d\n\nThe former church of St. Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet-street, within\nmemory possessed one of London\u2019s wonders: it had a large gilt dial\noverhanging the street, and above it two figures of savages, life-size,\ncarved in wood, and standing beneath a pediment, each having in his\nright hand a club, with which he struck the quarters upon a suspended\nbell, moving his head at the same time. To see the men strike was\nconsidered very attractive; and opposite St. Dunstan\u2019s was a famous\nfield for pickpockets, who took advantage of the gaping crowd. So it had\nlong been; for Ned Ward, in his _London Spy_, says: \u201cWe added to the\nnumber of fools, and stood a little, making our ears do penance to\nplease our eyes, with the conceited notion of their (the puppets\u2019) heads\nand hands, which moved to and fro with as much deliberate stiffness as\nthe two wooden horologists at St. Dunstan\u2019s when they strike the\nquarters.\u201d Cowper thus describes them in his _Table-Talk:_\n\n When labour and when dulness, club in hand,\n Like the two figures at St. Dunstan\u2019s, stand,\n Beating alternately, in measur\u2019d time,\n The clockwork tintinnabulum of rhyme,\n Exact and regular the sounds will be,\n But such mere quarter-strokes are not for me.\n\nThese figures and the clock were put up in 1671. Among those who were\nstruck by their oddity was the third Marquis of Hertford, born in 1777:\n\u201cWhen a child, and a good child, his nurse, to reward him, would take\nhim to see _the giants_ at St. Dunstan\u2019s; and he used to say that when\nhe grew to be a man _he would buy those giants_\u201d (Cunningham\u2019s _Handbook\nof London_). Many a child of rich parents may have used the same words;\nbut in the present case the Marquis kept his word. When the old church\nof St. Dunstan was taken down, in 1830, Lord Hertford attended the\nsecond auction-sale of the materials, and purchased the clock, bells,\nand figures for 200_l.;_ he had them placed at the entrance to the\ngrounds of his villa in the Regent\u2019s Park, thence called St. Dunstan\u2019s\nVilla; and here the figures do duty to the present day.\n\nThese automata remind us of the Minute-Jacks in Shakspeare\u2019s _Timon of\nAthens_, generally interpreted as Jacks of the Clock-house:\n\n You fools of fortune, trencher friends, time\u2019s flies,\n Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks.\n\nStill, the Minute-Jacks only struck hours and quarters; and the term is\nrather thought to mean \u201cfellows that watch their minutes to make their\nadvantage, time-servers.\u201d There is no doubt that by the \u201cJack that keeps\nthe stroke,\u201d in _Richard III._, is meant the Jack of the\nClock-house.[15]\n\nA much more noteworthy sight than the Fleet-street clock-figures is\npossessed by the Londoners of the present day in the Time-ball Signal\nupon the roof of the Electric Telegraph Office, No. 448 West Strand.\n\n The signal consists of a zinc ball, 6 feet in diameter, supported by\n a rod, which passes down the centre of a column, and carries at the\n base a piston, which, in its descent, plunges into a cast-iron\n air-cylinder; the escape of the air being regulated so as at\n pleasure to check the momentum of the ball, and prevent concussion.\n The raising of the ball, half-mast high, takes place daily at 10\n minutes to 1 o\u2019clock; at 5 minutes to 1 it is raised to the full\n height; and at 1 precisely, and simultaneously with the fall of the\n Time-ball at Greenwich Observatory (by which navigators correct\n their chronometers), it is liberated by the galvanic current sent\n from the Observatory, through a wire laid for that purpose. The same\n galvanic current which liberates the Ball in the Strand moves a\n needle upon the transit-clock of the Observatory, the time occupied\n by the transition being about 1-3000th part of a second; and by the\n unloosing of the machinery which supports the ball, less than\n one-fifth part of a second. The true moment of one o\u2019clock is\n therefore indicated by the first appearance of the line of light\n between the dark cross over the ball and the body of the ball\n itself. There is a similar Time-ball upon the roof of a clockmaker\u2019s\n in Cornhill.\n\nAt Edinburgh, also, is a Time-ball connected with a Time-gun signal,\nconsisting of a large iron cannon, in the Half-moon Battery, at the\nCastle; which cannon, having been duly loaded and primed some time\nbetween twelve and one o\u2019clock, is fired off precisely at the latter\nhour by an electric influence from the corrected Mean-time of the Royal\nObservatory, at a distance of three-quarters of a mile; which, however,\nfirst passes to another clock close to the gun, and thus affords a short\nfraction of a second _before_ one o\u2019clock for the train of processes; so\nthat the actual final flash of the exploding gun in the Castle occurs\nabsolutely coincidently with the tick of the sixtieth second of the\ncorrected mean-time clock in the Royal Observatory. The whole is well\ndescribed by Professor Piazzi Smith, Astronomer-Royal for Scotland, in\n_Good Words_, 1862, part iv.\n\nWe now return to the details of the great London Clocks. Mr. Dent\nundertook the construction of the Royal Exchange Clock in 1843: it was\nrequired to be superior to any public clock in England, and to satisfy\ncertain conditions proposed for the first time by the Astronomer-Royal,\nand such as could not be satisfied by any clock of the common\nconstruction. Mr. Dent had then no factory of his own for making large\nclocks, and he could not get the clock made for him; \u201cbut with the\nenergy and genius by which that remarkable man raised himself from a\ntallow-chandler\u2019s apprentice to the position of the first horologist in\nthe world, he set up a factory for himself at a great expense, and made\nthe clock there; and of this, the first turret-clock he had ever made,\nthe Astronomer-Royal certified, in 1845, that it not only satisfied his\nconditions, but that Mr. Dent had made some judicious improvements upon\nhis suggestions, and that he had no doubt it was the best public clock\nin the world.\u201d[16] It is true to a second of time, and has a\ncompensation-pendulum.\n\nThe Westminster Palace Clock, designed by Mr. Denison, has four dials,\neach 22\u00bd feet wide: they are not the largest in the world, being\nconsiderably less than the dial at Mechlin; but there is no other clock\nin the world which has to work four dials of such great width,\nespecially a clock going 8\u00bd days. St. Paul\u2019s Clock has only two 17-feet\ndials, and is wound up every day, which makes a vast difference in the\npower and strength required. Each pair of hands weighs above 2 cwt.:\nthey are made of gun-metal, instead of sheet-iron or copper. The\nhour-sockets are iron tubes, 5 inches in diameter; the dials are of\ncast-iron framework, filled with opal glass, and stand out 5 feet from\nthe main walls.\n\nThe size of public dials is often very inadequate to their height, and\nthe distance at which they are intended to be seen. They ought to be at\nleast one foot in diameter for every ten feet of height above the\nground, and in many cases more, whenever the dial will be seen far off.\nNow, the clock-dials of St. Pancras, Euston-square, are but 6\u00bd feet in\ndiameter, though at the height of 100 feet, and therefore are much too\nsmall.\n\nThe Clock, of silver-gilt, presented by Henry VIII. to Anne Boleyn on\nthe morning of their marriage, is one of the earliest chamber-clocks in\nthe kingdom: the case is richly chased and engraved, and on the weights\nare the initial letters of Henry and Anne, with true-lovers\u2019 knots. This\nclock was purchased at the Strawberry Hill sale in the year 1842, for\n110_l._, and is now in the collection of Queen Victoria.\n\nWe may here mention that the late Duke of Sussex possessed, at\nKensington Palace, an invaluable collection of the early as well as the\nmost perfect specimens of Time-keepers, among which was \u201cHarrison\u2019s\nfirst Clock, the forerunner of that invaluable machine, without which\nthe compass itself would be but an imperfect guide to the mariner.\u201d[17]\n\n John Harrison received for his improved chronometers, in 1749, the\n Copley Medal; and, thus encouraged by the Royal Society, and by the\n hope of sharing the reward of 20,000_l._ offered by Parliament for\n the discovery of the longitude, Harrison produced in 1758 a\n time-keeper, which was sent for trial on a voyage to Jamaica. After\n 161 days, the error of the instrument was only one minute five\n seconds, and the maker received from the nation 5000_l._ For other\n chronometers, subjected, with perfect success, to a trial in a\n voyage to Barbadoes, Harrison received 10,000_l._ more. Dr. Stukeley\n writes of this ingenious man: \u201cI passed by Mr. Harrison\u2019s house at\n Barrow, that excellent genius of clock-making, who bids fair for the\n golden prize for the discovery of the longitude. I saw his famous\n clock last winter at Mr. George Graham\u2019s: the sweetness of its\n motion, the contrivances to take off friction, to defeat the\n lengthening and shortening of the pendulum through heat and cold,\n and to prevent the disturbance of motion by that of the ship, cannot\n be sufficiently admired.\u201d\u2014_Ms. Journal._[18]\n\nAn exact measure of time is of the utmost importance to many of the\nsciences. Horology is indispensable to astronomy, in which the variation\neven of two or three seconds is of the greatest consequence. By means of\na clock the Danish astronomer, Roemer, was enabled to discover that the\neclipses of Jupiter\u2019s satellites took place a few seconds later than he\nhad calculated, when the earth was in that part of its orbit the\nfarthest from Jupiter. Speculating on the cause of this phenomenon, he\ncalculated that light was not propagated instantaneously, but took time\nto reach us; and, from calculations founded on this theory, light has\nbeen discovered to dart through space with a velocity of about 192,000\nmiles in a second: thus, the light of the sun takes eight minutes to\nreach the earth.\n\nHorology has also enabled us to discover that when the wind passes one\nmile per hour, it is scarcely perceptible; while at the rate of one\nhundred miles per hour it acquires sufficient force to tear up trees,\nand destroy the produce of the earth. And, without the aid of a\nseconds-clock, it would have been scarcely possible to ascertain that a\ncannon-ball flies at the rate of 600 feet in a second.\n\nThe use of Chronometers in geography and navigation is well known; since\nit is only necessary to ascertain the exact difference in time between\ntwo places, to determine their distance east or west of each other.\n\nGraham applied the motion of a Clock showing sidereal time to make a\ntelescope point in the direction of any particular star, even when\nbefore the horizon.\n\nAlexander Cummins made a Clock for George III. which registered the\nheight of the barometer during every day throughout the year. This was\neffected by a circular card, of about 2 feet in diameter, being made to\nturn round once in a year. The card was divided by radii lines into 365\ndivisions, the months and days of the month being marked round the edge,\nwhile the usual range of the barometer was indicated in inches and\ntenths by circular lines described from the centre. A pencil with a fine\npoint pressed on the card by a spring, and, held by an upright rod\nfloating on the mercury, faithfully marked the state of the barometer;\nthe card, being carried forward by the clock, brought each day to the\npencil. Wren proposed to have a clock constructed on a similar\nprinciple, to register the position and force of the wind; which idea\nhas been adopted.\n\nIn the Armoury of George IV. was a model of a small cannon, with a clock\nattached to the lock in such a manner that the trigger could be\ndischarged at any desired time by setting the clock as an alarum.\n\nBreguet contrived a Clock to set a Watch to time. This clock is of the\nsize of a chamber-clock, and has a fork and support on a top to carry\nthe watch. When the clock strikes twelve, a piece of steel like a needle\nrises, and entering a hole in the rim of the watch-case, comes in\ncontact with a piece which carries the minute-hand, and by pressure\nmakes the hand of the watch correspond with that of the clock, provided\nthe difference be not more than twenty minutes.\n\nThe same artist constructed for George IV. a Chronometer which had two\npendulums, one making the machine show mean time, the other to make it\nact as a metronome by beating the time for music. This pendulum was\nmerely a small ball attached to a slight chain carried round a pulley,\non the centre of which was an index, which, when brought to any of the\nmusical measures engraved on the scale, shortened or lengthened the\nchain, so as to cause the pendulum to perform its oscillations in the\ntime required, and a hammer struck on a bell the beats contained in each\nbar; these would be silently struck by placing a piece of wood between\nthe hammer and the bell; the musical time was also indicated by the\nseconds-hand of the clock.\n\nA certain dynamical theory of chemistry has been propounded, founded\nupon precipitations and decompositions taking place in a definite space.\nTime forms, too, the very key by which alone we can be admitted to a\nproper view of the archives of the ancient world. Want of time for the\ndue development of the geological periods, for a long season, hindered\nmen\u2019s conceptions upon this subject from taking a sharp, clear cast of\nthought. Linn\u00e6us constructed a _Clock of Flora_\u2014a dial of flowers, each\nopening and shutting at an appointed time.[19]\n\nBy a series of comparisons with Pendulums placed at the surface and the\ninterior of the earth, the Astronomer-Royal has ascertained the\nvariation of gravity in descending to the bottom of a deep mine, as the\nHarton coal-pit, near South Shields. By calculations from these\nexperiments, he has found the mean density of the earth to be 6\u00b7566, the\nspecific gravity of water being represented by unity. In other words, it\nhas been ascertained by these experiments that if the earth\u2019s mass\npossessed every where its average density, it would weigh, bulk for\nbulk, 6\u00b7566 times as much as water. The immediate result of the\ncomputations of the Astronomer-Royal is: supposing a clock adjusted to\ngo true time at the top of the mine, it would gain 2\u00bc seconds per day at\nthe bottom. Or it may be stated thus: that gravity is greater at the\nbottom of a mine than at the top by 1/19190th part.[20]\n\nThe Electric Clock is an invention of our own time. An ordinary clock\nconsists essentially of a series of wheels acting on each other, and\ncarrying round, as they revolve, the hands which mark the seconds,\nminutes, and hours. The wheels are moved by the falling of a weight, or\nthe unwinding of a spring; and the rate at which they revolve is\ndetermined by the length of a pendulum made to oscillate by the wheels.\nIn electric or (as they should rather be called) electro-magnetic\nclocks, there are neither weights nor springs; so that they never run\ndown, and never require to be wound up. To produce motion, electricity\nis employed alternately to make and remake an electro-magnet, or\nalternately to reverse the poles of a permanent magnet, which, by\nlifting up and letting fall, or attracting and repelling a lever, moves\nthe wheels.\n\nM. Bouilly endeavoured to show that character was much influenced by\nTime-keepers. He describes two young persons who were allowed to select\nWatches for themselves: one chose a plain watch, being told that its\nperformance could be depended on; the other, attracted by the elegance\nof a case, decided upon one of inferior construction. The possessor of\nthe good Watch became remarkable for punctuality; while the other,\nalthough always in a hurry, was never in time, and discovered that, next\nto being too late, there is nothing worse than being too early.\n\nThe choice of a good Watch is, however, a difficult matter: none but a\ngood workman is capable of forming a correct opinion; and a Watch must\nbe bad indeed for an inexperienced eye to detect the errors either of\nthe principle or its construction; even a trial of a year or two is no\nproof, for wear seldom takes place within that time; and while a good\nWatch can but go well, a bad one, by chance, may occasionally do so.\n\nA Watch must not only be well constructed, and on a good principle, but\nthe brass must be hard, and the steel properly tempered. The several\nparts must be in exact proportion, and well finished, so as to continue\nin motion with the least possible wear. It must also be so made that,\nwhen taken to pieces, all its parts may be replaced as firmly as before.\n\nA bad Watch is one in which no more attention has been paid to the\nproportion of the parts, or durability of the material, than was\nnecessary to make it perform for a time: it is either the production of\ninefficient workmen, or of those who, being limited in price, are unable\nto give sufficient time to perfect the work. In some instances these\nWatches will go well for a time; but as they wear, from friction, they\nrequire frequent repair, which cannot be effectually done.\n\nThe most useful lesson is, that low price is not exactly another word\nfor cheapness. If you wish to possess a good Watch, apply to a maker of\nknown honesty and ability in the art he professes, and who, therefore,\nshould be implicitly trusted.\n\nIt has been said, that \u201cno man ever made a true circle, or a straight\nline, except by chance;\u201d and the same may be said of any machine which\nmeasured time exactly; indeed, positive accuracy can never be attained\nuntil an unchangeable material is discovered, of which the works may be\nconstructed. These practical instructions are by Mr. Adam Thomson.\n\nHow beautifully has Lord Herbert of Cherbury sung \u201cto his Watch when he\ncould not sleep:\u201d\n\n Uncessant minutes, whilst you move you tell\n The time that tells our life, which though it run\n Never so fast or far, your new begun\n Short steps shall overtake: for though life well\n May \u2019scape his own account, it shall not yours.\n You are Death\u2019s auditors, that both divide\n And sum whate\u2019er that life inspir\u2019d endures,\n Past a beginning; and through you we bide\n The doom of fate, whose unrecall\u2019d decree\n You date, bring, execute; making what\u2019s new,\n Ill, and good, old; for as we die in you,\n You die in time, time in eternity.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 13:\n\n _Arch\u00e6ologia_, vol. xxxvii.\n\nFootnote 14:\n\n Cunningham\u2019s _Handbook_, 2d edit. p. 386. If this inscription be\n correct, it negatives the claim of Huyghens to having first applied\n the pendulum to the clock, about 1657; although Justus Bergen,\n mechanician to the Emperor Rodolphus, who reigned from 1576 to 1612,\n is said to have attached one to a clock used by Tycho Brahe. Inigo\n Jones, the architect of St. Paul\u2019s, having been in Italy during the\n time of Galileo, it is probable that he communicated what he heard of\n the pendulum to Harris. Huyghens, however, violently contested for the\n priority; while others claimed it for the younger Galileo, who, they\n asserted, had, at his father\u2019s suggestion, applied the pendulum to a\n clock in Venice which was finished in 1649.\u2014Adam Thomson\u2019s _Time and\n Timekeepers_, pp. 67, 68.\n\nFootnote 15:\n\n Nares\u2019s _Glossary_.\n\nFootnote 16:\n\n _Denison on Clocks._\n\nFootnote 17:\n\n _Adam Thomson._\n\nFootnote 18:\n\n There is an odd traditionary story told of a Watch at Somerset House.\n A little above the entrance-door to the Stamps and Taxes is a white\n watch-face,\u2014of which it is told, that when the wall was being built, a\n workman had the misfortune to fall from the scaffolding, and was only\n saved from destruction by the ribbon of his watch, which caught in a\n piece of projecting work. In thankful remembrance of his wonderful\n preservation, he is said to have inserted his watch into the face of\n the wall. Such is the popular belief, and hundreds of persons go to\n Somerset House to see this fancied memento, and hear the above tale.\n But the watch-face was placed in its present position many years ago\n by the Royal Society, as a meridian mark for a portable transit\n instrument in one of the windows of the anteroom. Captain Smyth\n assisted in mounting the instrument, and perfectly recollects the\n watch-face placed against the opposite wall.\n\nFootnote 19:\n\n _The Relations of Science_, by J. M. Ashley.\n\nFootnote 20:\n\n _Letter to James Mather, Esq., South Shields._ See also _Professor\n Airy\u2019s Lecture_, 1854. Baily approximately weighed the earth by\n another contrivance, described and illustrated in _Things not\n generally Known_, First Series, which see.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n EARLY RISING.\n\n Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see\n The dew-bespangling herb and tree;\n Each flower has wept and bowed towards th\u2019 east\n Above an hour since, yet you are not drest;\n Nay, not so much as out of bed,\n When all the birds have matins said,\n And sung their thankful hymns.\u2014_Herrick._\n\n\u201cUp with the sun\u201d implies, in common parlance, very early habits, of\ndifficult attainment. But, \u201cwe rise with the sun at Christmas: it were\nbut continuing to do so till the middle of April, and without any\nperceptible change we should find ourselves then rising at five o\u2019clock;\nat which hour we might continue till September, and then accommodate\nourselves again to the change of season, regulating always the time of\nretiring in the same proportion. They who require eight hours sleep\nwould, upon such a system, go to bed at nine during four months.\u201d\n\nThus wrote Southey, in his loved sojourn upon the Derwent, of which he\nsays:\n\n Hither I came in manhood\u2019s active prime,\n And here my head hath felt the touch of time.\n\nIn our great Public Schools, Early Rising appears to have been practised\nfrom very remote periods. A manuscript document, showing the system at\nEton College about the year 1560, records that the boys rose at five to\nthe loud call of \u201cSurgite;\u201d they repeated a prayer in alternate verses\nas they dressed themselves, and then made their beds, and each swept the\npart of the chamber close to his bed. They then went in a row to wash,\nand then to the school, where the under-master read prayers at six; then\nthe pr\u00e6positor noted absentees, and one examined the students\u2019 faces and\nhands, and reported any boys that came unwashed.\n\nThe great Lord Burghley, when at St. John\u2019s College, Cambridge, was\ndistinguished by the regularity of his conduct, and the intensity of his\napplication: that he might early devote several hours to study, without\nany hazard of interruption, he was called up by the bell-ringer every\nmorning at four o\u2019clock. Such was the educational basis upon which Cecil\nlaid the foundation of his brilliant but sound reputation; and by which\nmeans, conjoined with the strong natural gift of sagacity, and a mind\ntinctured with piety, he acquired the esteem and confidence successively\nof three sovereigns, and held the situation of prime minister of England\nfor upwards of half a century.\n\nOf Sir Edward Coke\u2019s laborious course of study at the Inner Temple, we\nhave some interesting records. Every morning at three, in the winter\nseason lighting his own fire, he read Bracton, Littleton, the Year\nBooks, and the folio Abridgments of the Law, till the courts met at\neight. He then went by water to Westminster, and heard cases argued till\ntwelve, when pleas ceased for dinner. After a short repast in the Inner\nTemple Hall, he attended \u201creadings\u201d or lectures in the afternoon, and\nthen resumed his private studies till five, or supper-time. This meal\nbeing ended, the _moots_ took place, when difficult questions of law\nwere proposed and discussed,\u2014if the weather was fine, in the garden by\nthe river-side; if it rained, in the covered walks near the Temple\nChurch. Finally, he shut himself up in his chamber, and worked at his\ncommon-place book, in which he inserted, under the proper heads, all the\nlegal information he had collected during the day. When nine o\u2019clock\nstruck, he retired to bed, that he might have an equal portion of sleep\nbefore and after midnight.[21]\n\nBishop Ken, when a scholar at William of Wykeham\u2019s College at\nWinchester, in the words of his fellow Wykehamist, the Rev. W. Lisle\nBowles, on the glimmering and cold wintry mornings, would perhaps repeat\nto himself\u2014watching the slow morning through the grated window\u2014one of\nthe beautiful ancient hymns composed for the scholars on the foundation:\n\n Jam lucis ordo sydere\n Deum precemur supplices,\n Ut in diurnis actibus\n Nos servet a nocentibus.\n\n Now the star of morning light\n Rises on the rear of night;\n Suppliant to our God we pray,\n From ills to guard us through this day.\n\nRising before the others, he had little to do except apply a candle to a\nlarge fagot, in winter, which had been already laid.\n\nKen composed a devotional Manual for the use of the Winchester scholars;\nbut his most interesting compositions are those affecting and beautiful\nhymns which were sung by himself, and written to be sung in the chambers\nof the boys, before chapel in the morning, and before they lay down on\ntheir small boarded beds at night. Of Ken\u2019s own custom of singing his\nhymn to the Creator at the earliest dawn, Hawkins, his biographer,\nrelates, \u201cthat neither his (Ken\u2019s) study might be the aggressor on his\nhours of instruction, nor what he judged duty prevent his improvement,\nhe strictly accustomed himself to but one hour\u2019s sleep, which obliged\nhim to rise at one or two o\u2019clock in the morning, or sometimes earlier;\nand he seemed to go to rest with no other purpose than the refreshing\nand enabling him with more vigour and cheerfulness to sing his Morning\nHymn, as he used to do, to his lute, before he put on his clothes.\u201d When\nhe composed those delicious hymns, he was in the fresh morn of life; and\nwho does not feel his heart in unison with that delightful season, when\nsuch a strain as this is heard?\n\n Awake, my soul, and with the sun\n Thy daily stage of duty run;\n Shake off dull sloth, and early rise\n To pay thy morning sacrifice.\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\n Lord, I my vows to thee renew;\n Disperse my sins as morning dew.\n\nMay we not also say that when the evening hymn is heard, like the sounds\nthat bid farewell to evening\u2019s parting plaint, it fills the silent heart\nwith devotion and repose?\n\n All praise to thee, my God, this night\n For all the blessings of the light;\n Keep me, oh, keep me, King of kings,\n Under thine own almighty wings.\n\n Forgive me, Lord, for thy dear Son,\n The ills that I this day have done;\n That with the world, myself, and thee,\n I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.\n\nKen died, Bishop of Bath and Wells, in 1711, in his 74th year, and was\ncarried to his grave, in Frome churchyard, by six of the poorest men of\nthe parish, and buried under the eastern window of the church, at\n_sunrise_, in reference to the words of his Morning Hymn:\n\n\n Awake, my soul, and _with the sun_.\n\nThe same words are sung, to the same tune, every Sunday, by the parish\nchildren, in the church of Frome, and over the grave of him who composed\nthe words, and sung them himself, to the same air, nearly two centuries\nsince.\n\nRubens, the consummate painter, enlightened scholar, skilful\ndiplomatist, and accomplished man of the world, was in the habit of\nrising very early,\u2014in summer at four o\u2019clock; and he made it a law of\nhis life to begin the day by prayer. After this he went to work, and\nbefore his first meal made those beautiful sketches known by the name of\n_breakfast sketches_. While painting, he habitually employed a person to\nread to him from one of the classical authors (his favourites being\nLivy, Plutarch, Cicero, Seneca), or from some eminent poet. This was the\ntime when he generally received his visitors, with whom he entered\nwillingly into conversation on a variety of topics in the most animated\nand agreeable manner. An hour before dinner was always devoted to\nrecreation; which consisted either in allowing his thoughts to dwell, as\nthey listed, on subjects connected with science or politics,\u2014which\nlatter interested him deeply,\u2014or in contemplating his treasures of art.\nAs work was his great happiness, he indulged but sparingly in the\npleasures of the table, and drank but little wine. After working again\ntill the evening, he usually mounted a spirited Andalusian horse, and\nrode for an hour or two. On his return home, he customarily received a\nfew friends, principally men of learning, or artists, to partake of a\nfrugal supper, and passed the evening in conversation. This active and\nregular mode of life could alone have enabled Rubens to satisfy all the\ndemands which were made upon him as an artist; for, including copies,\nthe engravings from works of Rubens amount to more than 1500; and the\nastonishing number of his works, the genuineness of which is beyond all\ndoubt, can only be accounted for by his union of extraordinary diligence\nwith the acknowledged fertility of his productive powers.\n\nJohn Wesley, at an early age, was sent to the Charter-house, where he\nsuffered under the tyranny which the elder boys were permitted to\nexercise. The boys of the higher forms were then in the practice of\ntaking their portion of meat from the younger ones, by the law of the\nstrongest; and during great part of the time that Wesley remained there,\na small daily portion of bread was his only food. He strictly performed\nan injunction of his father\u2019s, that he should run round the\nCharter-house playing-green, of three acres, three times every morning;\nand to this early practice he attributed his great length of days.\n\nWesley satisfied himself of the expediency of rising early by\nexperiment, which he describes thus:\n\n I waked every night about twelve or one, and lay awake for some\n time. I readily concluded that this arose from my being longer in\n bed than nature required. To be satisfied, I procured an alarum,\n which waked me the next morning at seven (near an hour earlier than\n I rose the day before), yet I lay awake again at night. The second\n morning I rose at six; notwithstanding this I lay awake the second\n night. The third morning I rose at five; nevertheless I lay awake\n the third night. The fourth morning I rose at four, as I have done\n ever since; and I lay awake no more. And I do not now lie awake,\n taking the year round, a quarter of an hour together in a month. By\n the same experiment, rising earlier and earlier every morning, may\n one find out how much sleep he really wants.\n\nBut Wesley\u2019s moderation in sleep, and his rigid constancy in rising\nearly, admit of explanation. Mr. Bradburn, who travelled with him almost\nconstantly for years, said that Wesley generally slept several hours in\nthe course of the day; that he had himself seen him sleep three hours\ntogether often enough. This was chiefly in his carriage, in which he\naccustomed himself to sleep on his journeys as regularly, as easily, and\nas soundly, as if he had gone to bed.\n\nWhen at Oxford, he formed for himself a scheme of studies: Mondays and\nTuesdays were allotted for the Classics; Wednesdays to logic and ethics;\nThursdays to Hebrew and Arabic; Fridays to metaphysics and natural\nphilosophy; Saturdays to oratory and poetry, but chiefly to composition\nin those arts; and the Sabbath to divinity. It appears by his diary,\nalso, that he gave great attention to mathematics. Full of business as\nhe now was, he found time for writing by rising an hour earlier in the\nmorning, and going into company an hour later in the evening: he had\ngenerally from ten to twelve hours in the day which he could devote to\nstudy: and thus he became alike familiar with the literature of his day,\nas well as with that of past ages.\n\nDr. Philip Doddridge attributes the production of his various writings\nto his rising early; adding, \u201cthe difference between rising at five and\nseven o\u2019clock in the morning for the space of forty years, supposing a\nman to go to bed at the same hour at night, is nearly equivalent to the\naddition of ten years to his life.\u201d\n\nThrough life, Gibbon the historian was a very early riser. Before the\nfirst volume of his _Decline and Fall_ had given him celebrity, six\no\u2019clock was his usual hour of rising: fashionable parties and the House\nof Commons brought him down to eight.\n\nThe day of the profound German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, was begun\nearly. Precisely at five minutes before five o\u2019clock, winter or summer,\nLampe, Kant\u2019s servant, who had formerly served in the army, marched into\nhis master\u2019s room with the air of a sentinel on duty, and cried aloud in\na military tone, \u201cMr. Professor, the time is come.\u201d This summons Kant\ninvariably obeyed without one moment\u2019s delay, as a soldier does the word\nof command\u2014never, under any circumstances, allowing himself a respite,\nnot even under the rare accident of having passed a sleepless night. As\nthe clock struck five, Kant was seated at the breakfast-table, where he\ndrank what he called _one_ cup of tea, and no doubt he thought it such;\nbut the fact was, that, in part from his habit of reverie, and in part\nalso for the purpose of refreshing its warmth, he filled up his cup so\noften, that in general he is supposed to have drunk two, three, or some\nunknown number. Immediately after, he smoked a pipe of tobacco; during\nwhich operation he thought over his arrangements for the day, as he had\ndone the evening before during the twilight.\n\nThomson, who has advocated early rising more eloquently than any other\nwriter, was himself an indolent man; he usually lay in bed till noon,\nand his principal time for composition was midnight. One of his early\npictures is:\n\n When from the opening chambers of the east,\n The morning springs, in thousand liveries drest,\n The early larks their morning tribute pay,\n And in shrill notes salute the blooming day.\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\n The crowing cock and chattering hen awakes\n Dull sleepy clowns, who know the morning breaks.\n In his Golden Age of Innocence\u2014\n The first fresh dawn then waked the gladdened race\n Of uncorrupted man, nor blushed to see\n The sluggard sleep beneath its sacred beam,\n Then, his charming Summer morn:\n Falsely luxurious, will not man awake,\n And, springing from the bed of sloth, enjoy\n The cool, the fragrant, and the silent hour,\n To meditation due, and sacred song?\n For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise?\n To lie in dead oblivion, losing half\n The fleeting moments of too short a life,\u2014\n Total extinction of the enlightened soul!\n Or else to feverish vanity alive,\n Wildered, and tossing through distempered dreams!\n Who would in such a gloomy state remain\n Longer than Nature craves; when every muse\n And every blooming pleasure wait without,\n To bless the wildly devious morning walk?\n\nLord Chatham, writing to his nephew, January 12, 1754, says: _Vitanda\nest improba Syren, Desidia_, I desire may be affixed to the curtains of\nyour bedchamber. If you do not rise early, you can never make any\nprogress worth mentioning. If you do not set apart your hours of\nreading, if you suffer yourself or any one else to break in upon them,\nyour days will slip through your hands unprofitably and frivolously,\nunpraised by all you wish to please, and really unenjoyed by yourself.\n\nHarford relates of Dr. Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury:\n\n Of his literary labours and self-denying life, writes a clergyman,\n \u201cfew can have any conception. I was frequently admitted to see him\n on business, even as early as six in the morning, when, rather than\n detain me, he has seen me in his dressing-room. Often he kindly\n remarked, \u2018Your time is not your own, and is as precious to you as\n mine; scruple not to send to me when you really want to see me.\u2019 On\n one of my early morning visits, about eight o\u2019clock, in the winter,\n I found him seated in his greatcoat and hat, writing at a table, in\n a room without a carpet, the floor covered with old folios, and his\n candles only just extinguished. \u2018I have been writing and reading,\u2019\n he said, \u2019since five o\u2019clock.\u2019 At another time I breakfasted with\n him one morning, by appointment, at his hotel in town; and found him\n at eight o\u2019clock, about Christmas, writing by candlelight; the whole\n room being strewed with old books, collected from various places in\n the metropolis. The untiring perseverance with which he prosecuted\n his researches for evidence on any particular subject is\n inconceivable.\u201d\n\nSir Astley Cooper, in one of his Lectures to his pupils, used to say:\n\u201cThe means by which I preserve my own health are: temperance, early\nrising, and sponging my body every morning with cold water,\u2014a practice I\nhave pursued for thirty years; and though I go from this heated theatre\ninto the squares of the Hospital in the severest winter-nights, with\nmerely silk stockings on my legs, yet I scarcely ever have a cold. An\nold Scotch physician, for whom I had a great respect, and whom I\nfrequently met professionally in the City, used to say, as we were\nentering the patient\u2019s room, \u2018Weel, Mister Cooper, we ha\u2019 only twa\nthings to keep in meend, and they\u2019ll sarve us for here and herea\u2019ter:\none is always to have the fear of the Laird before our ees, that \u2019ill do\nfor herea\u2019ter; and the t\u2019other is to keep your booels open, and that\nwill do for here.\u2019\u201d\n\nWilliam Cobbett, who had great contempt for conventionalities, was an\nearly riser from his boyhood,\u2014when his first occupation was driving the\nsmall birds from the turnip-seed and the rooks from the peas; when he\ntrudged with his wooden bottle and his satchel, and was hardly able to\nclimb the gates and stiles; when he weeded wheat, and had a single horse\nat harrowing barley; drove the team, or held the plough\u2014which\nemployments he apostrophises as \u201cHonest pride, and happy days!\u201d He tells\nus that to the husbanding well of his time he owed his extraordinary\npromotion in the army. He says: \u201cI was always ready: if I had to mount\nguard at ten, I was ready at nine; never did any man or any thing wait\none moment for me. Being at an age under twenty years, raised from\nCorporal to Sergeant-Major at once, over the heads of thirty Sergeants,\nI naturally should have been an object of envy and hatred; but the habit\nof early rising really subdued these passions; because every one felt\nthat what I did he had never done, and never could do. Before my\npromotion, a clerk was wanted to make out the morning report of the\nregiment. I rendered the clerk unnecessary; and long before any other\nman was dressed for the parade, my work for the morning was all done,\nand I myself was on the parade, walking, in fine weather, for an hour\nperhaps. My custom was this: to get up in summer at daylight, and in\nwinter at four o\u2019clock; shave, dress, and even to the putting of the\nsword-belt over my shoulder, and having the sword lying on the table\nbefore me, ready to hang by my side. Then I ate a bit of cheese, or\npork, and bread. Then I prepared my report, which was filled up as fast\nas the companies brought me in the materials. After this I had an hour\nor two to read, before the time came for my duty out of doors, unless\nwhen the regiment, or part of it, went out to exercise in the morning.\nWhen this was the case, and the matter was left to me, I always had it\non the ground in such time as that the bayonets glistened in the rising\nsun; a sight which gave me delight, of which I often think, but which I\nshould in vain endeavour to describe. When I was commander, the men had\na long day of leisure before them: they could ramble into the town or\ninto the woods; go to get raspberries, to catch birds, to catch fish, or\nto pursue any other recreation; and such of them as chose and were\nqualified, to work at their trades. So that here, arising solely from\nthe early habits of one very young man, were pleasant and happy days\ngiven to hundreds.\u201d\n\nElsewhere Cobbett addresses this advice \u201cto a lover:\u201d \u201cEarly rising is a\nmark of industry; and though, in the higher situations of life, it may\nbe of no importance in a mere pecuniary point of view, it is, even\nthere, of importance in other respects: for it is, I should imagine,\npretty difficult to keep love alive towards a woman who never sees the\ndew, never beholds the rising sun, and who constantly comes directly\nfrom a reeking bed to the breakfast-table, and there chews about without\nappetite the choicest morsels of human food. A man might, perhaps,\nendure this for a month or two without being disgusted; but that is\nample allowance of time. And as to people in the middle rank of life,\nwhere a living and a provision for children is to be sought by labour of\nsome sort or other, late rising in the wife is certain ruin; and never\nwas there yet an early-rising wife who had been a late-rising girl. If\nbrought up to late rising, she will like it; it will be her habit; she\nwill, when married, never want excuses for indulging in the habit: at\nfirst she will be indulged without bounds; to make change afterwards\nwill be difficult; it will be deemed a wrong done to her; she will\nascribe it to diminished affection; a quarrel must ensue, or the husband\nmust submit to be ruined, or, at the very least, to see half the fruit\nof his labour snored and lounged away. And is this being rigid? is it\nbeing harsh? is it being hard upon women? Is it the offspring of the\nfrigid severity of the age? It is none of these: it arises from an\nardent desire to promote the happiness, and to add to the natural,\nlegitimate, and salutary influence of the female sex. The tendency of\nthis advice is to promote the preservation of their health; to prolong\nthe duration of their beauty; to cause them to be beloved to the last\nday of their lives; and to give them, during the whole of their lives,\nweight and consequence, of which laziness would render them wholly\nunworthy.\u201d\n\nWhen Cobbett had become a public writer, he constantly inveighed against\nthose who\n\n O\u2019er books consumed the midnight oil.\n\nIn country or in town, at Barn Elms, in Bolt-court, or at Kensington, he\nwrote his Registers early in the morning: these, it must be admitted,\nhad force enough; for he said truly, \u201cThough I never attempt to put\nforth that sort of stuff which the intense people on the other side of\nthe Channel call _eloquence_, I bring out strings of very interesting\nfacts; I use pretty powerful arguments; and I hammer them down so\nclosely upon the mind, that they seldom fail to produce a lasting\nimpression.\u201d This he owed, doubtless, to his industry, early rising, and\nmethodical habits.\n\nDaniel Webster, the famous American statesman, unlike most men of his\nday, usually went to bed by nine o\u2019clock, and rose very early in the\nmorning. General Lynian had heard Webster say, that while in Washington,\nthere were periods when he shaved and dressed himself for six months\ntogether by candlelight. The morning was his time for study, writing,\nthinking, and all kinds of mental labour: from the moment when the first\nstreak of dawn was seen in the east, till nine or ten o\u2019clock in the\nforenoon, scarcely a moment was lost; and it was then that his work was\nprincipally done. Persons who occasionally called upon him as early as\nten in the morning, and found him ready to converse with them, wondered\nwhen he did his work; for they knew that he did work, yet they rarely,\nif ever, found him, like other men of business, engaged. The truth was,\nthat when their day\u2019s work began, his ended; and while they were\nindulging in their morning dreams, Webster was up, looking \u201cquite\nthrough the deeds of men.\u201d This habit, followed from his youth, enabled\nhim to make those remarkable acquisitions of knowledge on all subjects,\nand afforded him so much leisure to devote to his friends.\n\nThe college-life of Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria, presents\nus with some of the beneficial results of the habit of early rising. The\npeople of England were not a little surprised, at first, to hear that\nthe Queen and the royal Consort were seen walking together at a very\nearly hour on the morning of the very day after their marriage. But,\nwhile at Bonn, Prince Albert was particularly distinguished from the\nother students of the same rank for the salutary habit of getting up\nearly, one which he had uniformly persevered in from his boyhood:\ntherefore, it is very natural that he should have adhered to it after he\nhad come of age, whether in England or in any other country, and be\nlikely to do so all the days of his life. At Bonn, the prince generally\nrose about half-past five o\u2019clock in the morning, and never prolonged\nhis repose after six. From that hour up to seven in the evening, he\nassiduously devoted his whole time to his studies, with the exception of\nan interval of three hours, which he allowed himself for dinner and\nrecreation. At seven he usually went out, and paid visits to those\nindividuals or families who were honoured with his acquaintance.[22]\n\nTo these instances of the remarkable labours which have been\naccomplished by rising early, it can scarcely be considered necessary to\nadd any thing to enforce the benefits to be derived from the practice.\nNevertheless, something has been said on the other side. An able\nessayist has urged that most people who get up unusually early find that\nthere is nothing to do when they are dressed. There are comparatively\nfew mornings in the year when it is pleasant to take an hour\u2019s walk\nbefore breakfast in the country. Then, if the early riser stays within\ndoors, the sitting-rooms are not ready for his reception. Among the\nphysical inconveniences, this writer shows that the early riser, if not\ntormented with a consequent headache, is often troubled with a feeling\nof sleepiness and heaviness through the latter part of the day; and, as\nfar as time goes, he is apt to lose afterwards much more, while he in\nsome way or other compensates himself for his activity, than he gained\nby the extra hour we are supposing him to have had early in the morning.\nThen, the moral effect on the early riser, it is said, is to cause in\nhim an exuberant feeling of conscious goodness: he has performed a feat\nwhich raises him, by his moral self-approval, above ordinary people, who\nmerely come down to breakfast. There is some truth in all this, which,\nhowever, we think to be the exception rather than the rule; for if early\nrising be the general practice in a house, these minor inconveniences\nwill soon disappear. The above writer is inclined to allow that the\nobjections to early rising may too exclusively rest on exceptional\ncases. He admits, with great fairness, in favour of the practice, that\n\u201cif the spare hour can be turned to serious profit, so much the better.\nComing at the beginning of the day, it finds the mind tranquil,\nsanguine, and fresh. The time it gives is likely to be free from\ninterruptions; and the good effect of the study will tell more\npowerfully than when it has, as it were, the whole day in its grasp,\nthan if it were merely slipt in among the other thoughts and occupations\nof busier hours. Health, too, is said to profit by early rising; and so\nmany people have stated this as a fact, that it may perhaps be taken for\ngranted.\u201d[23]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 21:\n\n See _School-days of Eminent Men_, by the Author of the present volume.\n Second edition, 1862.\n\nFootnote 22:\n\n _History of the University of Bonn._\n\nFootnote 23:\n\n _Saturday Review_, March 26, 1859.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE ART OF EMPLOYING TIME.\n\nThe Aristotelian philosopher has well expressed its value by saying,\n\u201cNothing is more precious than time; and those who misspend it are the\ngreatest of all prodigals.\u201d\n\nAgain:\n\n The time of life is short:\n To spend that shortness basely, were too long\n If life did ride upon a dial\u2019s point,\n Still ending at the arrival of an hour.\n\nFuller has this quaint instruction upon our present topic: \u201cLay down\nsuch rules to thyself, of observing stated hours for study and business,\nas no man shall be able to persuade thee to recede from. For when thy\nresolutions are once known, as no man of ingenuity will disturb thee, so\nthou wilt find this method will become not only more practicable, but of\nsingular benefit in abundance of things.\n\n\u201cHe that loseth his morning studies, gives an ill precedent to the\nafternoon, and makes such a hole in the beginning of the day, that all\nthe winged hours will be in danger of flying out thereat: think how much\nwork is behind; how slow thou hast wrought in thy time that is past; and\nwhat a reckoning thou shouldst make, if thy Master should call thee this\nday to thine account.\n\n\u201cThere is no man so miserable as he that is at a loss how to spend his\ntime. He is restless in his thoughts, unsteady in his counsels,\ndissatisfied with the present, solicitous for the future.\n\n\u201cBe always employed; thou wilt never be better pleased than when thou\nhast something to do. For business, by its motion, brings heat and life\nto the spirits; but idleness corrupts them like standing water.\n\n\u201cMake use of time, if thou valuest eternity. Yesterday cannot be\nrecalled; to-morrow cannot be assured; to-day only is thine, which if\nthou procrastinatest, thou losest; which loss is lost for ever.\u201d\n\nDr. South, in one of his nervous Discourses, speaking of the uncertainty\nof the present, says: \u201cThe sun shines in his full brightness but the\nvery moment before he passes under a cloud. Who knows what a day, what\nan hour may bring forth? He who builds upon the present, builds upon the\nnarrow compass of a point; and where the foundation is so narrow, the\nsuperstructure cannot be high and strong too.\u201d\n\nSir William Jones, the profound scholar, of whom it was said that if he\nwere left naked and friendless on Salisbury-plain he would nevertheless\nfind the road to fame and riches, left among his manuscripts the\nfollowing lines on the management of his time, which he had written in\nIndia, on a small piece of paper:\n\n _Sir Edward Coke:_\n\n Six hours in sleep, in law\u2019s great study six;\n Four spend in prayer\u2014the rest on nature fix.\n\n _Rather:_\n\n Seven hours to law, to soothing slumbers seven;\n Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.\n\nDr. Johnson has moralised on Money and Time as \u201cthe heaviest burdens of\nlife;\u201d adding, \u201cthe unhappiest of mortals are those who have more of\neither than they know how to use. To set himself free from these\nincumbrances, one hurries to Newmarket; another travels over Europe; one\npulls down his house, and calls architects about him; another buys a\nseat in the country, and follows his hounds over hedges and through\nrivers; one makes collections of shells; and another searches the world\nfor tulips and carnations.\u201d\n\nElsewhere Johnson has these pertinent remarks: \u201cAmong those who have\ncontributed to the advancement of learning, many have risen to eminence\nin opposition to all the obstacles which external circumstances could\nplace in their way,\u2014amidst the tumults of business, the distresses of\npoverty, or the dissipation of a wandering and unsettled state. A great\npart of the life of Erasmus was one continued peregrination: ill\nsupplied with the gifts of fortune, and led from city to city and from\nkingdom to kingdom by the hopes of patrons and preferment, hopes which\nalways flattered and always deceived him, he yet found means, by\nunshaken constancy and a vigilant improvement of those hours which in\nthe midst of the most restless activity will remain unengaged, to write\nmore than another in the same condition could have hoped to read.\nCompelled by want to attendance and solicitation, and so much versed in\ncommon life that he has transmitted to us the most perfect delineation\nof the manners of his age, he joined to his knowledge of the world such\napplication to books, that he will stand for ever in the first rank of\nliterary heroes. Now, this proficiency he sufficiently discovers, by\ninforming us that the _Praise of Folly_, one of his most celebrated\nperformances, was composed by him on the road to Italy, lest the hours\nwhich he was obliged to spend on horseback should be tattled away,\nwithout regard to literature.\u201d\n\nThese are two memorable instances of the employment of minute portions\nof time. We are told of Queen Elizabeth, that, except when engaged by\npublic or domestic affairs, and the exercises necessary for the\npreservation of her health and spirits, she was always employed in\neither reading or writing, in translating from other authors, or in\ncompositions of her own; and that, notwithstanding she spent much of her\ntime in reading the best writings of her own and former ages, yet she by\nno means neglected that best of books, the Bible; for proof of which,\ntake the Queen\u2019s own words: \u201cI walk many times in the pleasant fields of\nthe Holy Scriptures, where I pluck up the godlisome herbs of sentences\nby pruning, eat them by reading, digest them by musing, and lay them up\nat length in the high seat of memory by gathering them together; that\nso, having tasted their sweetness, I may the less perceive the\nbitterness of life.\u201d Her piety and great good sense were undeniable.\n\nThe Chancellor of France, D\u2019Aguesseau, finding that his wife always kept\nhim waiting a quarter of an hour after the dinner-bell had rung,\nresolved to devote the time to writing a book on jurisprudence; and\nputting the subject in execution, in course of time produced a work in\nfour quarto volumes. His literary tastes greatly distinguished him from\nthe mass of mere lawyers.\n\nHe whose mind the world wholly occupies imagines that no time can be\nspared for divine duties. But many circumstances in the lives of good\nmen inform him that he is mistaken. The wise statesman, the sound\nlawyer, the eminent merchant, the skilful physician, the most profound\nmathematician, astronomer, or general student, will rise up in judgment\nagainst the man who endeavours to excuse the observance of his religious\nduties under the plea of learned or professional employment. Addison,\nHale, Thornton, Boerhaave, Bacon, Boyle, Newton, Locke, and many others,\nprove that while the most important of worldly studies and occupations\nemployed their outward attention, _God rested at their hearts_. The\nEthiopian treasurer read Isaiah in his chariot, and Isaac meditated in\nthe fields. The friends of the good Hooker, when they went to visit him\nat his parsonage, found him with a book in his hand, tending his own\nsheep. In short, the true Christian will neither want place nor\nopportunity for devotion, nor for the cultivation of those useful and\ngeneral talents which may contribute to the benefit or happiness of man.\n\nLord Woodhouselee, in his _Life of Lord Kames_, has well remarked, that\nthe professional occupations of the best-employed lawyer or the most\ndistinguished judge cannot fill up every interval of his time. The\nuseful respite of vacation, the hours of sickness, the surcease of\nemployment from the infirmities of age,\u2014all necessarily induce seasons\nof languor, against which a wise man would do well to provide a store in\nreserve, and an antidote and cordial to cheer and support his spirits.\nIn this light the pursuits of science and literature afford an unbounded\nfield and endless variety of useful occupations; and even in the latest\nhours of life the reflection on the time thus spent, and the\nanticipation of an honourable memorial in after ages, are sources of\nconsolation of which every ingenuous mind must fully feel the value. How\nmelancholy was the reflection uttered on his deathbed by one of the\nablest lawyers and judges of the last age, but whose mental stores were\nwholly limited to the ideas connected with his profession, \u201c_My life has\nbeen a chaos of nothing!_\u201d\n\nSir Matthew Hale, one of the most upright judges that ever sat upon the\nEnglish bench, was of a benevolent and devout, as well as righteous\ndisposition; and in addition to his great legal works, found time to\nwrite several volumes on natural philosophy and divinity. His\n_Contemplations Moral and Divine_, written two centuries since, retain\ntheir popularity to this day. Bishop Burnet, his biographer, tells us\nthat \u201chis whole life was nothing else but a continual course of labour\nand industry; and when he could borrow any time from the public service,\nit was wholly employed either in philosophical or divine meditation.\u201d\n... \u201cHe that considers the active part of his life, and with what\nunwearied diligence and application of mind he despatched all men\u2019s\nbusiness that came under his care, will wonder how he could find time\nfor contemplation; he that considers, again, the various studies he\npassed through, and the many collections and observations he made, may\nas justly wonder how he could find any time for action. But no man can\nwonder at the exemplary piety and innocence of such a life so spent as\nthis was, wherein, as he was careful to avoid every evil word, so it is\nmanifest _he never spent an idle day_.\u201d\n\nAt every turn we are defeated through want of due regard to this\npreciousness of time. \u201cIn early life we lay long plans of conduct. After\na considerable interval, we find most of our plans unexecuted; we then\nbegin to reflect that if they _are_ to be accomplished, a far smaller\nportion of our time than we had originally allotted to them can be\nemployed in their execution, and, what is perhaps more fatal to our\nschemes, that portion is uncertain. An awful thought for those who have\nin their possession many of the chief blessings of life, and are\napproaching, by a rapid progress, that mortal bourn from whence no\ntraveller returns.\u201d[24]\n\nHow much of our time would be saved by the cultivation of the habit of\nbeing content to be ignorant of certain subjects! Nothing can be more\nbeneficial to the mind than this habit; since it has thereby a more free\nand open access to matters of the highest importance.\n\nHow much of our time is wasted in paying visits of insincerity! Boileau\nbeing one day visited by an indolent person of rank, who reproached him\nwith not having returned his former call; \u201cYou and I,\u201d replied the\nsatirist, \u201care upon unequal terms: I lose my time when I pay you a\nvisit; you only get rid of yours when you pay me one.\u201d\n\nOne of the most familiar methods of taking note of time is by what are\nusually termed family parties. When these are given on public holidays,\nthe effect is doubtless beneficial. Southey has well remarked:\n\u201cFestivals, when duly observed, attach men to the civil and religious\ninstitutions of their country: it is an evil, therefore, when they fall\ninto disuse.\u201d They do more,\u2014in reminding us of the fewer anniversaries\nwe have to witness.\n\nBoyle has these wholesome reflections upon _profuse talkers_: he tells\nus \u201cthat easiness of admitting all Kind of Company, provided men have\nboldness enough to intrude into ours, is one of the uneasiest Hardships\n(not to say Martyrdoms) to which Custom has expos\u2019d us, and does really\ndo more Mischief than most Men take notice of; since it does not only\nkeep impertinent Fools in countenance, but encourages them to be very\ntroublesome to Wise Men. The World is pester\u2019d with a certain sort of\nPraters, who make up in Loudness what their Discourses want in Sense;\nand because Men are so easie natur\u2019d as to allow the hearing to their\nImpertinencies, they presently presume that the things they speak are\nnone; and most Men are so little able to discern in Discourse betwixt\nConfidence and Wit, that to any that will but talk loud enough they will\nbe sure to afford answers. And (which is worse) this readiness to hazard\nour Patience, and certainly lose our Time, and thereby incourage others\nto multiply idle words, of which the Scripture seems to speak\nthreateningly, is made by Custom an Expression, if not a Duty, of\nCivility; and so even a Virtue is made accessory to a Fault.\n\n\u201cFor my part, though I think these Talkative people worse publick\nGrievances than many of those for whose prevention or redress\nParliaments are wont to be assembled and Laws to be enacted; and though\nI think their Robbing us of our time a much worse Mischief than those\npetty Thefts for which Judges condemn Men, as a little Money is a less\nvaluable good than that precious Time, which no sum of it can either\npurchase or redeem; yet I confess I think that our great Lords and\nLadies, that can admit this sort of Company, deserve it: For if such\nPersons have but minds in any measure suited to their Qualities, they\nmay safely, by their Discountenance, banish such pitiful Creatures, and\nsecure their Quiet, not only without injuring the Reputation of their\nCivility, but by advancing that of their Judgment.\u201d\n\nSir John Harrington, the epigrammatic poet in the reign of Elizabeth,\nand a dangler at her court, appears, by the following confession, from\nhis _Breefe Notes and Remembrances_, to have been a disappointed man: \u201cI\nhave spente my time, my fortune, and almost my honestie, to buy false\nhope, false friends, and shallow praise;\u2014and be it remembered, that he\nwho casteth up this reckoning of a courtlie minnion, will sette his\nsumme like a foole at the ende, for not being a knave at the beginninge.\nOh, that I could boaste, with chaunter David, _In te speravi Domine!_\u201d\n\nMany ill-regulated persons thoughtlessly waste their own time\nsimultaneously with that of others. Lord Sandwich, when he presided at\nthe Board of Admiralty, paid no attention to any memorial that extended\nbeyond a single page. \u201cIf any man,\u201d he said, \u201cwill draw up his case, and\nwill put his name to the bottom of the first page, I will give him an\nimmediate reply: where he compels me to turn over the page, he must wait\nmy pleasure.\u201d\n\nGeorge III., though always willing and ready for business, disliked (as\nwho does not?) long speeches out of season; and grievously lamented the\nwell-informed but verbose and ill-timed eloquence of his minister,\nGrenville. \u201cWhen,\u201d such were the King\u2019s own words to Lord Bute, \u201che has\nwearied me for two hours, he looks at his watch to see if he may not\ntire me for one hour more.\u201d\n\nPaley had an ingenious mode of economising his time, and keeping off\nthese time-wasters. The Earl of Ellenborough is in possession of the\nonly original portrait of the Doctor, which was painted for the earl\u2019s\nfather by Romney. Paley was painted with the fishing-rod, by his own\nparticular desire; not because he cared much about fishing, but because\nwhile he was so occupied he could keep intruders at a distance, and give\nhis mind to uninterrupted thought. He kept people away, not because they\ndisturbed the fish, but because they disturbed him. _He composed his\nworks while he seemed to fish._[25]\n\nSterne, in one of his fascinating Letters, writes: \u201cTime wastes too\nfast: every letter I trace tells me with what rapidity life follows my\npen: the days and hours of it more precious, my dear Jenny, than the\nrubies about thy neck, are flying over our heads like light clouds of a\nwindy day, never to return more. Every thing presses on; whilst thou art\ntwisting that lock,\u2014see, it grows gray; and every time I kiss thy hand\nto bid adieu, and every absence which follows it, are preludes to that\neternal separation which we are shortly to make.\u201d\n\nThomson\u2019s habit of composition while he lay in bed has been mentioned.\nWe knew a reverend vicar who usually composed his sermon in bed, and\ncommitted it to paper next morning. Dr. Wallis, who nearly two centuries\nago was professor of geometry at Oxford, attained the power of making\narithmetical calculations \u201cwithout the assistance of pen and ink, or\naught equivalent thereunto,\u201d to such an extent, that he extracted the\nsquare root of three down to twenty places of decimals. We must indeed\nsuppose him to have had originally some peculiar aptitude for such\ncalculations; but he describes himself to have acquired it by practising\nat night and in the dark, when there was nothing to be seen, and nothing\nto be heard, that would disturb his attention. It is in such\nuninterrupted intervals that we best learn to think; and Sir Benjamin\nBrodie[26] acknowledges that in these ways he had not unfrequently\nderived ample compensation for the wearisome hours of a sleepless night.\n\nDivision of time is the grand secret of successful industry. Lockhart,\nin his _Life of Scott_, shows how effectually the illustrious subject of\nhis memoir found opportunity for unequalled literary labour, even while\nenjoying all the amusements of a man of leisure. \u201cSir Walter rose by\nfive o\u2019clock, lit his own fire when the season required one, and shaved\nand dressed with great deliberation; for,\u201d says his biographer, \u201che was\na very martinet as to all but the mere coxcombries of the toilet, not\nabhorring effeminate dandyism itself so cordially as the slightest\napproach to personal slovenliness, or even those \u2018bed-gown and slipper\ntricks,\u2019 as he called them, in which literary men are so apt to indulge.\nArrayed in his shooting-jacket, or whatever dress he meant to use till\ndinner-time, he was seated at his desk by six o\u2019clock, all his papers\narranged before him in the most accurate order, and his books of\nreference marshalled around him on the floor, while at least one\nfavourite dog lay watching his eye just beyond the line of\ncircumvallation. Thus, by the time the family assembled for breakfast,\nbetween nine and ten, he had done enough (in his own language) \u2018to break\nthe neck of the day\u2019s work.\u2019 After breakfast a couple of hours more were\ngiven to his solitary tasks, and by noon he was, as he used to say, \u2018his\nown man.\u2019 When the weather was bad, he would labour incessantly all the\nmorning; but the general rule was to be out and on horseback by one\no\u2019clock at the latest; while, if any more distant excursion had been\nproposed overnight, he was ready to start on it by ten; his occasional\nrainy days of unintermitted study forming, as he said, a fund in his\nfavour, out of which he was entitled to draw for accommodation whenever\nthe sun shone with special brightness.\u201d\n\nSir Walter Scott, writing to a friend who had obtained a situation, gave\nhim this excellent practical advice: \u201cYou must be aware of stumbling\nover a propensity, which easily besets you from the habit of not having\nyour time fully employed; I mean what the women very expressively call\n_dawdling_. Your motto must be _Hoc age_. Do instantly whatever is to be\ndone, and take the hours of recreation after business, and never before\nit. When a regiment is under march, the rear is often thrown into\nconfusion because the front does not move steadily and without\ninterruption. It is the same thing with business. If that which is first\nin hand is not instantly, steadily, and readily despatched, other things\naccumulate behind, till affairs begin to press all at once, and no human\nbrain can stand the confusion. Pray mind this: this is a habit of mind\nwhich is very apt to beset men of intellect and talent, especially when\ntheir time is not regularly filled up, and left at their own\narrangement. But it is like the ivy round the oak, and ends by limiting,\nif it does not destroy, the power of manly and necessary exertion. I\nmust love a man so well, to whom I offer such a word of advice, that I\nwill not apologise for it, but expect to hear you are become as regular\nas a Dutch clock,\u2014hours, quarters, minutes, all marked and appropriated.\nThis is a great cast in life, and must be played with all skill and\ncaution.\u201d\n\nColeridge observes: \u201cIt would, indeed, be superfluous to attempt a proof\nof the importance of Method in the business and economy of active or\ndomestic life. From the cotter\u2019s hearth, or the workshop of the artisan,\nto the palace or the arsenal, the first merit, that which admits neither\nsubstitute nor equivalent, is, that _every thing is in its place_. Where\nthis charm is wanting, every other merit loses its name, or becomes an\nadditional ground of accusation and regret. Of one by whom it is\neminently possessed, we say proverbially, he is like clockwork. The\nresemblance extends beyond the point of regularity, and yet falls short\nof the truth. Both do, indeed, at once divide and announce the silent\nand otherwise undistinguishable lapse of time. But the man of methodical\nindustry and honourable pursuits does more: he realises its ideal\ndivisions, and gives a character and individuality to its moments. If\nthe idle are described as killing time, he may be justly said to call it\ninto life and moral being, while he makes it the distinct object not\nonly of the consciousness, but of the conscience. He organises the\nhours, and gives them a soul; and that the very essence of which is to\nfleet away, and ever more _to have been_, he takes up into his own\npermanence, and communicates to it the imperishableness of a spiritual\nnature. Of the good and faithful servant, whose energies, thus directed,\nare thus methodised, it is less truly affirmed, that he lives in time,\nand that time lives in him. His days, months, and years, as the stops\nand punctual marks in the records of duties performed, will survive the\nwreck of worlds, and remain extant when time itself shall be no\nmore.\u201d[27] This is admirable reasoning.\n\nA great deal has been said against routine and red tape, or rather the\nabuse of the latter; but its proper use has much to do with success.\nCurran, when Master of the Rolls, once said to Grattan, \u201cYou would be\nthe greatest man of your age, Grattan, if you would buy a few yards of\nred tape, and tie up your bills and papers;\u201d though another version of\nthe anecdote has, \u201c_tie up your thoughts_.\u201d This was the fault and\nmisfortune of Sir James Mackintosh: he never knew the use of red tape,\nand was utterly unfit for the common business of life. That a guinea\nrepresented a quantity of shillings, and that it would barter for a\nquantity of cloth, he was well aware; but the accurate number of the\nbaser coin, or the just measurement of the manufactured articles to\nwhich he was entitled for his gold, he could never learn, and it was\nimpossible to teach him. Hence his life was often an example of the\nancient and melancholy struggle of genius with the difficulties of\nexistence.\n\nThe tying-up thoughts corresponds with Fuller\u2019s aphorism, \u201cMarshall thy\nthoughts into a handsome method. One will carry twice more weight\ntrussed and perched up in bundles, than when it lies untoward, flapping\nand hanging about his shoulders. Things orderly fardled up under heads\nare most portable.\u201d This is the plan adopted by lawyers upon their\ntables. The Duke of Wellington had a table upon which his papers were\nthus arranged; and, during his absence for any length of time, a sort of\nlid was placed upon the table and locked, so as to secure the papers\nwithout disturbing their arrangement.\n\nThe Duke of Wellington is also known to have been an early riser; the\nadvantages of which were illustrated throughout his long life. His\nservice of the Sovereigns and the public of this country for more than\nhalf a century,\u2014in diplomatic situations and in councils, as well as in\nthe army,\u2014has scarcely a parallel in British history. His Despatches are\nthe best evidence of his well-regulated mind in education. No letters\ncould ever be more temperately or more perspicuously expressed than\nthose famous documents. They show what immense results in the aggregate\nwere obtained by the Duke, solely in virtue of habits which he had\nsedulously cultivated from his boyhood\u2014early rising, strict attention to\ndetails, taking nothing ascertainable for granted, unflagging industry,\nand silence, except when speech was necessary, or certainly harmless.\nHis early habit of punctuality is pleasingly illustrated in the\nfollowing anecdote: \u201cI will take care to be punctual at five to-morrow\nmorning,\u201d said the engineer of New London Bridge, in acceptance of the\nDuke\u2019s request that he would meet him at that hour the following\nmorning. \u201cSay a quarter before five,\u201d replied the Duke, with a quiet\nsmile; \u201cI owe all I have achieved to being ready a quarter of an hour\nbefore it was deemed necessary to be so; and I learned that lesson when\na boy.\u201d\n\nWhoever has seen \u201cthe Duke\u2019s bedroom\u201d at Apsley-house, and its plain\nappointments, will not regard it as a chamber of indolence. It was, a\nfew years since, narrow, shapeless, and ill-lighted; the bedstead small,\nprovided only with a mattress and bolster, and scantily curtained with\ngreen silk; the only ornaments of the walls were an unfinished sketch,\ntwo cheap prints of military men, and a small portrait in oil: yet here\nslept the Great Duke, whose \u201ceightieth year was by.\u201d In the grounds and\nshrubbery he took daily walking exercise, where with the garden-engine\nhe was wont to enjoy exertion; reminding one of General Bonaparte at St.\nHelena, \u201camusing himself with the pipe of the fire-engine, spouting\nwater on the trees and flowers in his favourite garden.\u201d\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 24:\n\n Brewster\u2019s _Meditations for the Aged_.\n\nFootnote 25:\n\n Communication to _Notes and Queries_, 3d series, No. 47.\n\nFootnote 26:\n\n _Psychological Inquiries_, part ii. 1862. The Author died in the\n autumn of 1862, at his beautiful retreat, Broome Park (formerly\n Tranquil Dale), at the foot of the fine range of the Betchworth Hills,\n in Surrey. In the _Inquiries_ are some interesting traces of the work\n having been written in the tranquillity of Broome, and its picturesque\n characteristics of noble cedars, elms, and chestnuts, stream and sheet\n of water, and mineral spring. In the opening pages, \u201cthe fresh air and\n quiet of his residence in the country\u201d evidently refers to Broome; and\n throughout the volume are occasional references to the geniality of\n the place for the group of philosophers who keep up the mode of\n dialogue. Sir Benjamin Brodie was some time President of the Royal\n Society; and it may be worthy of notice, that his two volumes of\n \u201cInquiries,\u201d in their thoughtful tone and reflective colour, bear some\n resemblance to the two volumes produced in the retirement of his\n illustrious predecessor in the Chair of the Royal Society\u2014Sir Humphry\n Davy; but with this difference,\u2014that Sir Benjamin Brodie\u2019s Researches\n are of more practical application than the speculative Dialogues of\n our great chemical philosopher, Davy.\n\nFootnote 27:\n\n Coleridge, however, was a better preacher than practitioner of what he\n so urgently recommends. When in his younger days he was offered a\n share in the _London Journal_, by which he could have made two\n thousand pounds a year, provided he would devote his time seriously to\n the interest of the work, he declined,\u2014making the reply, so often\n praised for its disinterestedness, \u201cI will not give up the country,\n and the lazy reading of old folios, for two thousand times two\n thousand pounds; in short, beyond three hundred and fifty pounds a\n year, I consider money a real evil.\u201d The \u201clazy reading of old folios\u201d\n led to laziness, the indolent gratification of mind and sense.\n Degenerating into an opium-eater, and a mere purposeless theoriser,\n Coleridge wasted time, talents, and health; came to depend, in old\n age, on the charity of others; and died at last, with every one\n regretting, even his friends, that he had done nothing worthy of his\n genius. The world is full of men having Coleridge\u2019s faults, without\n Coleridge\u2019s abilities; men who cannot, or will not, see beyond the\n present; who are too lazy to work for more than a temporary\n subsistence, and who squander, in pleasure or idleness, energy and\n health, which ought to lay up a capital for old age.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n TIME AND ETERNITY.\n\nSir Thomas More, when a youth, painted for his father\u2019s house in London\na hanging with nine pageants, with verses over each. There were\nChildhood, Manhood, Venus and Cupid, Age, Death, and Fame. In the sixth\npageant was painted the image of Time, and under his feet was lying the\npicture of Fame that was in the sixth pageant. And over this seventh\npageant was (spelling modernised):\n\n TIME.\n\n I whom thou seest with horologe in hand\n Am named Time, the lord of every hour:\n I shall in space destroy both sea and land.\n O simple Fame, how darest thou man honour,\n Promising of his name an endless flower!\n Who may in the world have a name eternal,\n When I shall in process destroy the world and all?\n\nIn the eighth pageant was pictured the image of Lady Eternity, sitting\nin a chair under a sumptuous cloth of state, crowned with an imperial\ncrown. And under her feet lay the picture of Time that was in the\nseventh pageant. And above this eighth pageant was written as follows:\n\n ETERNITY.\n\n Me needeth not to boast: I am Eternity,\n The very name signifieth well\n That mine empire infinite shall be.\n Thou mortal Time, every man can tell,\n Art nothing else but the mobility\n Of sun and moon changing in every degree;\n When they shall leave their course, thou shalt be brought,\n For all thy pride and boasting, unto naught.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n Life, and Length of Days.\n\n\n ---------------------\n\n\n LIFE\u2014A RIVER.\n\nPLINY has compared a River to Human Life; and Sir Humphry Davy was a\nhundred times struck with the analogy, particularly among mountain\nscenery. A full and clear River is the most poetical object in nature;\nand contemplating this, Davy wrote: \u201cThe river, small and clear in its\norigin, gushes forth from rocks, falls into deep glens, and wantons and\nmeanders through a wild and picturesque country, nourishing only the\nuncultivated tree or flower by its dew or spray. In this, its state of\ninfancy and youth, it may be compared to the human mind, in which fancy\nand strength of imagination are predominant; it is more beautiful than\nuseful. When the different rills or torrents join, and descend into the\nplain, it becomes slow and stately in its motions; it is applied to move\nmachinery, to irrigate meadows, and to bear upon its bosom the stately\nbarge;\u2014in this mature state, it is deep, strong, and useful. As it flows\non towards the sea, it loses its force and its motion; and at last, as\nit were, becomes lost and mingled with the mighty abyss of waters.\u201d\n\nAgain, Life is often compared to a River, because one year follows\nanother, and vanishes like the ripples on its surface. A flood, without\nebb, bears us onward; \u201cwe can never cast anchor in the river of life,\u201d\nas Bernardin de St. Pierre finely and profoundly observes.\n\nBut the comparison can be still further developed. \u201cIt is taking a false\nidea of life,\u201d says Cuvier, \u201cto consider it as a single link, which\nbinds the elements of the living body together, since, on the contrary,\nit is a power which moves and sustains them unceasingly. These\nelements,\u201d he adds, \u201cdo not for an instant preserve the same relations\nand connexions; or, in other words, the living body does not for an\ninstant keep the same state and composition.\u201d\n\nBut this is only the new enunciation of a very old idea in science. Long\nbefore Cuvier, Leibnitz said, \u201cOur body is in a perpetual flux, like a\nriver; particles enter and leave it continually.\u201d And long before\nLeibnitz, physiologists had compared the human body to the famous ship\nof Theseus, which was always the same ship, although, from having been\nso often repaired, it had not a single piece with which it was\noriginally constructed. The truth is, that the idea of the continued\nrenovation of our organs[28] has always existed in science; but it is\nalso true that it has always been disputed.\n\nM. Flourens has proved by direct experiment that the mechanism of the\ndevelopment of the bones consists essentially in a continual irritation\nof all the parts composing them. But it is the change of _material_; for\nits _form_ changes very little. Cuvier has further developed this fine\nidea:\n\n In living bodies no molecule remains in its place; all enter and\n leave it successively: life is a continued whirlpool, the direction\n of which, complicated as it is, remains always constant, as well as\n the species of molecules which are drawn into it, but not the\n individual molecules themselves; on the contrary, the actual\n material of the living body will soon be no longer in it; and yet it\n is the depository of the force which will constrain the future\n material in the same direction as itself. So that the form of these\n bodies is more essential to them than the material, since this\n latter changes unceasingly, while the other is maintained.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 28:\n\n One may well say of a given individual, that he lives and is the same,\n and is spoken of as an identical being from his earliest infancy to\n old age, without reflecting that he does not contain the same\n particles, which are produced and renewed unceasingly, and die also in\n the old state, in the hair and in the flesh, in the bone and in the\n blood,\u2014in a word, in the whole body.\u2014_Plato; The Banquet._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE SPRING-TIME OF LIFE.\n\nThe Spring-time of Life,\u2014the meeting-point of the child and the man,\u2014the\nbrief interval which separates restraint from liberty,\u2014has a warmth of\nlife, which Dr. Temple thus pictures with glowing eloquence. \u201cTo almost\nall men this period is a bright spot to which the memory ever afterwards\nloves to recur; and even those who can remember nothing but\nfolly,\u2014folly, of which they have repented, and relinquished,\u2014yet find a\nnameless charm in recalling such folly as that. For indeed even folly at\nthat age is sometimes the cup out of which men quaff the richest\nblessings of our nature,\u2014simplicity, generosity, affection. This is the\nseed-time of the soul\u2019s harvest, and contains the promise of the year.\nIt is the time for love and marriage, the time for forming life-long\nfriendships. The after-life may be more contented, but can rarely be so\nglad and joyous. Two things we need to crown its blessings,\u2014one is, that\nthe friends whom we then learn to love, and the opinions which we then\nlearn to cherish, may stand the test of time, and deserve the esteem and\napproval of calmer thoughts and wider experience; the other, that our\nhearts may have depth enough to drink largely of that which God is\nholding to our lips, and never again to lose the fire and spirit of the\ndraught. There is nothing more beautiful than a manhood surrounded by\nthe friends, upholding the principles, and filled with the energy of the\nspring-time of life. But even if these highest blessings be denied, if\nwe have been compelled to change opinions and to give up friends, and\nthe cold experience of the world has extinguished the heat of youth,\nstill the heart will instinctively recur to that happy time, to explain\nto itself what is meant by love and what by happiness.\u201d[29]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 29:\n\n _Education of the World._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS OF LIFE.\n\nIt is a saying of Southey\u2019s, \u201cthat, live as long as you may, the first\ntwenty years are the longest half of your life. They appear so while\nthey are passing; they seem to have been so when we look back to them;\nand they take up more room in our memory than all the years that succeed\nthem.\u201d\n\nBut in how strong a light has this been placed by the American teacher,\nJacob Abbott, whose writings have obtained so wide a circulation in\nEngland. \u201cLife,\u201d he says, \u201cif you understand by it the season of\npreparation for eternity, is more than half gone; life, so far as it\npresents opportunities and facilities for penitence and pardon,\u2014so far\nas it bears on the formation of character, and is to be considered as a\nperiod of probation,\u2014is unquestionably more than half gone to those who\nare between fifteen and twenty. In a vast number of cases it is more\nthan half gone even _in duration_; and if we consider the thousand\ninfluences which crowd around the years of childhood and youth, winning\nus to religion, and making a surrender of ourselves to Jehovah easy and\npleasant,\u2014and, on the other hand, look forward beyond the years of\nmaturity, and see these influences losing all their power, and the heart\nbecoming harder and harder under the deadening effects of continuance in\nsin,\u2014we shall not doubt a moment that the years of immaturity make a far\nmore important part of our time of probation than all those that\nfollow.\u201d\n\nThat pious man, who, while he lived, was the Honourable Charles How, and\nmight properly now be called the honoured, says, that \u201ctwenty years\nmight be deducted for education from the threescore and ten, which are\nthe allotted sum of human life; this portion,\u201d he adds, \u201cis a time of\ndiscipline and restraint, and young people are never easy till they are\ngot over it.\u201d\n\nThere is indeed during those years much of restraint, of weariness, of\nhope, and of impatience; all which feelings lengthen the apparent\nduration of time. Sufferings are not included here; but with a large\nportion of the human race, in all Christian countries (to our shame be\nit spoken), it makes a large item in the account; there is no other\nstage of life in which so much gratuitous suffering is endured,\u2014so much\nthat might have been spared,\u2014so much that is a mere wanton, wicked\naddition to the sum of human misery, arising solely and directly from\nwant of feeling in others, their obduracy, their caprice, their\nstupidity, their malignity, their cupidity, and their cruelty.[30]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 30:\n\n _The Doctor._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n PASSING GENERATIONS.\n\n\u201cThe deaths of some, and the marriages of others,\u201d says Cowper, \u201cmake a\nnew world of it every thirty years. Within that space of time the\nmajority are displaced, and a new generation has succeeded. Here and\nthere one is permitted to stay longer, that there may not be wanting a\nfew grave dons like myself to make the observation.\u201d\n\n Man is a self-survivor every year;\n Man, like a stream, is in perpetual flow.\n Death\u2019s a destroyer of quotidian prey:\n My youth, my noontide his, my yesterday;\n The bold invader shares the present hour,\n Each moment on the former shuts the grave.\n While man is growing, life is in decrease,\n And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb.\n Our birth is nothing but our death begun,\n As tapers waste that instant they take fire.\u2014_Young._\n\nYet, infinitely short as the term of human life is when compared with\ntime to come, it is not so in relation to time past. A hundred and forty\nof our own generations carry us back to the Deluge, and nine more of\nantediluvian measure to the Creation,\u2014which to us is the beginning of\ntime; \u201cfor time itself is but a novelty, a late and upstart thing in\nrespect of the ancient of days.\u201d[31] They who remember their\ngrandfather, and see their grandchildren, have seen persons belonging to\nfive out of that number; and he who attains the age of threescore, has\nseen two generations pass away. \u201cThe created world,\u201d says Sir Thomas\nBrowne, \u201cis but a small parenthesis in eternity, and a short\ninterposition, for a time, between such a state of duration as was\nbefore it, and may be after it.\u201d There is no time of life, after we\nbecome capable of reflection, in which the world to come must not to any\nconsiderate mind appear of more importance to us than this; no time in\nwhich we have not a greater stake there. When we reach the threshold of\nold age, all objects of our early affections have gone before us, and in\nthe common course of mortality a great proportion of the later. Not\nwithout reason did the wise compilers of our admirable Liturgy place\nnext in order after the form of Matrimony, the services for the\nVisitation and Communion of the Sick, and for the Burial of the\nDead.[32]\n\nA home-tourist, halting in the quiet churchyard of Mortlake, in Surrey,\nabout half a century since, fell into the following reflective train of\ncalculation of generations:\n\n\u201cI reflected that, as it is now more than four hundred years since this\nground became the depository of the dead, some of its earliest occupants\nmight, without an hyperbole, have been ancestors of the whole\ncontemporary English nation. If we suppose that a man was buried in this\nchurchyard 420 years ago, who left six children, each of whom had three\nchildren, who again had, on an average, the same number in every\ngeneration of thirty years; then, in 420 years, or fourteen generations,\nhis descendants might be multiplied as under:\n\n 1st generation 6\n 2d \u201d 18\n 3d \u201d 54\n 4th \u201d 162\n 5th \u201d 486\n 6th \u201d 1458\n 7th \u201d 4374\n 8th \u201d 13,122\n 9th \u201d 39,366\n 10th \u201d 118,098\n 11th \u201d 354,274\n 12th \u201d 1,062,812\n 13th \u201d 3,188,436\n 14th \u201d 9,565,308\n\nThat is to say, nine millions and a half of persons; or, as nearly as\npossible, the exact population might at this day be descended in a\ndirect line from any individual buried in this or any other churchyard\nin the year 1395, who left six children, each of whose descendants have\nhad on the average three children! And, by the same law, every\nindividual who has six children may be the root of as many descendants\nwithin 420 years, provided they increase on the low average of only\nthree in every branch. His descendants would represent an inverted\ntriangle, of which he would constitute the lower angle.\n\n\u201cTo place the same position in another point of view, I calculated also\nthat every individual now living must have had for his ancestor every\nparent in Britain living in the year 1125, the age of Henry I., taking\nthe population of that period at 8,000,000. Thus, as every individual\nmust have had a father and mother, or two progenitors, each of whom had\na father and mother, or four progenitors, each generation would double\nits progenitors every thirty years. Every person living may, therefore,\nbe considered as the apex of a triangle, of which the base would\nrepresent the whole population of a remote age.\n\n 1815. Living individual 1\n 1785. His father and mother 2\n 1755. Their fathers and mothers 4\n 1725. \u201d \u201d 8\n 1695. \u201d \u201d 16\n 1665. \u201d \u201d 32\n 1635. \u201d \u201d 64\n 1605. \u201d \u201d 128\n 1575. \u201d \u201d 256\n 1545. \u201d \u201d 512\n 1515. \u201d \u201d 1,024\n 1485. \u201d \u201d 2,048\n 1455. \u201d \u201d 4,096\n 1425. \u201d \u201d 8,192\n 1395. \u201d \u201d 16,384\n 1365. \u201d \u201d 32,768\n 1335. \u201d \u201d 65,536\n 1305. \u201d \u201d 131,072\n 1275. \u201d \u201d 262,144\n 1245. \u201d \u201d 524,288\n 1215. \u201d \u201d 1,048,576\n 1185. \u201d \u201d 2,097,152\n 1155. \u201d \u201d 4,194,304\n 1125. \u201d \u201d 8,388,608\n\nThat is to say, if there have been a regular co-mixture of marriages,\nevery individual of the living race must of necessity be descended from\nparents who lived in Britain in 1125. Some districts or clans may\nrequire a longer period for the co-mixture, and different circumstances\nmay cut off some families, and expand others; but, in general, the lines\nof families would cross each other, and become interwoven, _like the\nlines of lattice-work_. A single intermixture, however remote, would\nunite all the subsequent branches in common ancestry, rendering the\ncontemporaries of every nation members of one expanded family, after the\nlapse of an ascertainable number of generations.\u201d[33]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 31:\n\n Dr. Johnson.\n\nFootnote 32:\n\n _The Doctor._\n\nFootnote 33:\n\n Sir Richard Phillips\u2019s _Morning\u2019s Walk from London to Kew_.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n AVERAGE DURATION OF LIFE.\n\nThe Assurance of Lives has often been regarded, by weak-minded persons,\nas an interference with the ways of Providence, which is highly\nreprehensible. But it can be shown that calculation of lives can be\naveraged with certainty. Mr. Babbage, in his work on the Assurance of\nLives, observes: \u201cNothing is more proverbially uncertain than the\nduration of human life, where the maxim is applied to an individual; yet\nthere are few things less subject to fluctuation than the average\nduration of a multitude of individuals. The number of deaths happening\namongst persons of our own acquaintance is frequently very different in\ndifferent years; and it is not an uncommon event that this number shall\nbe double, treble, or even many times larger in one year than in the\nnext succeeding. If we consider larger societies of individuals, as the\ninhabitants of a village or small town, the number of deaths is more\nuniform; and in still larger bodies, as among the inhabitants of a\nkingdom, the uniformity is such, that the excess of deaths in any year\nabove the average number seldom exceeds a small fractional part of the\nwhole. In the two periods, each of fifteen years, beginning at 1780, the\nnumber of deaths occurring in England and Wales in any year did not fall\nshort of, or exceed, the average number one-thirteenth part of the\nwhole; nor did the number dying in any year differ from the number of\nthose dying in the next by a tenth part.\u201d\n\nIn a paper on Life Assurance, in the _Edinburgh Review_, the Average\nMortality of Europe is thus stated: \u201cIn England 1 person dies annually\nin every 45; in France, 1 in every 42; in Prussia, 1 in every 38; in\nAustria, 1 in every 33; in Russia, 1 in every 28. Thus England exhibits\nthe lowest mortality; and the state of the public health is so improved,\nthat the present duration of existence may be regarded (in contrast to\nwhat it was a hundred years ago) as, in round numbers, _four to three_.\u201d\n\nThe Registrar-General gives the following statistical results: \u201cThe\naverage age of life is 33\u2153 years. One-fourth of the born die before they\nreach the age of seven years, and the half before the seventeenth year.\nOut of 100 persons, only six reach the age of 60 years and upwards,\nwhile only 1 in 1000 reaches the age of 100 years. Out of 500, only 1\nattains 80 years. Out of the thousand million living persons,\n330,000,000 die annually, 91,000 daily, 3730 every hour, 60 every\nminute, consequently 1 every second. The loss is, however, balanced by\nthe gain in new births. Tall men are supposed to live longer than short\nones. Women are generally stronger than men until their fiftieth year,\nafterwards less so. Marriages are in proportion to single life\n(bachelors and spinsters) as 100:75. Both births and deaths are more\nfrequent in the night than in the day.\u201d\n\n\n PASTIMES OF CHILDHOOD RECREATIVE TO MAN.\n\nPaley regarded the pleasure which the amusements of childhood afford as\na striking instance of the beneficence of the Deity. We have several\ninstances of great men descending from the more austere pursuits to\nthese simple but innocent pastimes. The Persian ambassadors found\nAgesilaus, the Laced\u00e6monian monarch, riding on a stick. The ambassadors\nfound Henry the Fourth playing on the carpet with his children; and it\nis said that Domitian, after he had possessed himself of the Roman\nempire, amused himself by catching flies. Socrates, if tradition speaks\ntruly, was partial to the recreation of riding on a wooden horse; for\nwhich, as Valerius Maximus tells us, his pupil Alcibiades laughed at\nhim. (Is not this the origin of our rocking-horse?) Did not Archytas,\n\n He who could scan the earth and ocean\u2019s bound,\n And tell the countless sands that strew the shore,\n\nas Horace says, invent the children\u2019s rattle? Toys have served to unbend\nthe wise, to occupy the idle, to exercise the sedentary, and to instruct\nthe ignorant. To come to our own times: we have heard of a\nLord-Lieutenant of Ireland, a man of grave years and thoughts, being\nsurprised playing at leap-frog with his young nephews.\n\nThe same desire to unstring the bow, as old \u00c6sop taught, impels sturdy\nworkmen, let loose from their toil, to seek diversion in the amusements\nof boyhood. Often have we seen scores of men break forth from a factory\nor printing-office for their dinner-hour, and in great measure disport\nthemselves like schoolboys in a playground.\n\n\n PLEASURES OF THE IMAGINATION LATE IN LIFE.\n\nDugald Stewart, in his _Essay on the Cultivation of Intellectual\nHabits_, predicates, in persons of mature age, what may be termed the\nenjoyment of a second season of enjoyments far more refined than the\nfirst. Thus he says: \u201cInstances have frequently occurred of individuals\nin whom the power of imagination has, at an advanced period of life,\nbeen found susceptible of culture to a wonderful degree. In such men,\nwhat an accession is gained to their most refined pleasures! What\nenchantments are added to their most ordinary perceptions! The mind,\nawakening, as if from a trance, to a new existence, becomes habituated\nto the most interesting aspects of life and of nature; the intellectual\neye is \u2018purged of its film;\u2019 and things the most familiar and unnoticed\ndisclose charms invisible before. The same objects and events which were\nlately beheld with indifference occupy now all the powers and capacities\nof the soul, the contrast between the present and the past serving only\nto enhance and to endear so unlooked-for an acquisition. What Gray has\nso finely said of _the pleasures of vicissitude_ conveys but a faint\nimage of what is experienced by the man who, after having lost in vulgar\noccupations and vulgar amusements his earliest and most precious years,\nis thus introduced at last to a new heaven and a new earth:\n\n The meanest floweret of the vale,\n The simplest note that swells the gale,\n The common sun, the air, the skies,\n To him are op\u2019ning Paradise.\n\nNothing can be more deplorable than a man who has outlived the likings,\nand perchance the innocence, of his early life; which is by no means\nrare, if they have not grown out of the study and love of nature, for\nthis clings to the heart in all the vicissitudes of life,\u2014in adversity\nas well as in prosperity; in sickness as well as in health; even to\nextreme old age, when almost every other worldly source of pleasure is\ndried up. Hear the testimony of Hannah More, at the age of eighty-two:\n\u201cThe only one of my youthful fond attachments,\u201d says she, \u201cwhich exists\nstill in full force, is a passion for scenery, raising flowers, and\nlandscape gardening.\u201d Well indeed will it be for the young if they\nfollow the example of this venerable woman, and early acquire a passion\nfor scenery and flowers. For as they pass through life, they will find\nthe world often frowning upon them, but the flowers will always smile.\nAnd it is sweet, in the day of adversity, to be met with a smile.\n\nWe remember a touching instance of the love of flowers lighting up the\nlast hours of a botanist who had wooed nature in the picturesque vale of\nMickleham, in Surrey. A few short hours before his death, he turned to\nhis niece and said: \u201cMary, it is a fine morning; go and see if _Scilla\nverna_ is come in flower.\u201d\n\n\n WHAT IS MEMORY?\n\nMan possesses a nervous system pervaded by a nervous force, the\nmodification of which manifests itself to our consciousness in the\nvaried phenomena of what we call Sensation. From Sensation, the next\nstep is to Perception. Sensation, we know, as such, dies away from the\nconsciousness, or rather is obliterated by fresh impressions upon the\nsensorium. We cannot retain a feeling in perpetuity. But when a definite\nsensation has been excited, or a distinct experience has been acquired,\nsomething remains behind; and upon these _residua_, left in the\nstructure of the nerves, or the cerebral tissues, or the animating soul,\nand on the permanence of these _residua_, rests the whole possibility of\nreminiscence. Upon this blending and organisation round the centre of\nmind-life follows the faculty of Memory, or that power which the mind\npossesses of making a peculiar representation of an object for itself,\nof creating a special idea of it by giving greater prominence to some\nfeatures, and letting others sink away unthought of, till there remains\nan image, the product of its own free activity, which it can mentally\nconnect with other trains of ideas, and thus multiply, as it were, the\nbridges by which it can return to it at any period.[34]\n\nByron has beautifully personified this paramount image:\n\n She was a form of life and light,\n That seen became a part of sight;\n And rose, where\u2019er I turned mine eye,\n The Morning-star of Memory!\n\n\u201cMere abstraction, or what is called absence of mind, is often\nattributed, very unphilosophically, to a want of memory. La Fontaine, in\na dreaming mood, forgot his own child, and, after warmly commending him,\nobserved how proud he should be to have such a son. In this kind of\nabstraction external things are either only dimly seen, or are utterly\noverlooked; but the memory is not necessarily asleep. In fact, its too\nintense activity is frequently the cause of the abstraction. This\nfaculty is usually the strongest when the other faculties are in their\nprime, and fades in old age, when there is a general decay of mind and\nbody. Old men, indeed, are proverbially narrative; and from this\ncircumstance it sometimes appears as if the memory preserves a certain\nportion of its early acquisitions to the last, though in the general\nfailure of the intellect it loses its active energy. It receives no new\nimpressions, but old ones are confirmed. The brain seems to grow harder.\nOld images become fixtures. It is recorded of Pascal, that, till the\ndecay of his health had impaired his memory, he forgot nothing of what\nhe had done, read, or thought in any part of his rational age. The\nAdmirable Crichton could repeat backwards any speech he had made.\nMagliabecchi, the Florentine librarian, could recollect whole volumes;\nand once supplied an author from memory with a copy of his own work, of\nwhich the original was lost. Pope has observed that Bolingbroke had so\ngreat a memory, that if he was alone and without books he could refer to\na particular subject in them, and write as fully on it as another man\nwould with all his books about him. Woodfall\u2019s extraordinary power of\nreporting the debates in the House of Commons without the aid of written\nmemoranda is well known. During a debate he used to close his eyes and\nlean with both hands upon his stick, resolutely excluding all extraneous\nassociations. The accuracy and precision of his reports brought his\nnewspaper into great repute. He would retain a full recollection of a\nparticular debate a fortnight after it had occurred, and during the\nintervention of other debates. He used to say that it was put by in a\ncorner of his mind for future reference.\u201d[35]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 34:\n\n See an admirable paper on Dr. Morell\u2019s _Introduction to Mental\n Philosophy_, in _Saturday Review_; also _Mysteries of Life, Death, and\n Futurity_, for the following articles: \u201cWhat is Memory?\u201d \u201cHow the\n Function of Memory takes place;\u201d \u201cPersistence of Impressions;\u201d \u201cValue\n of Memory;\u201d \u201cRegistration;\u201d and \u201cDecay of Memory;\u201d pp. 69-75.\n\nFootnote 35:\n\n _Literary Leaves_, by D. L. Richardson.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n CONSOLATION IN GROWING OLD.\n\nMontaigne said of Cicero _On Old Age_, \u201cIt gives one an appetite for old\nage.\u201d Its persuasive eloquence is the inspiration of an elevated\nphilosophy. Flourens has cleverly said, \u201cThe moral aspect of old age is\nits best side. We cannot grow old without losing our _physique_, nor\nalso without our _morale_ gaining by it. This is a noble compensation.\u201d\n\nM. Reveill\u00e9-Parise says: \u201cIn a green old age, when from fifty-five to\nseventy-five years, and sometimes more, the life of the mind has a\nscope, a consistence, and remarkable solidity, man having then truly\nattained to the height of his faculties.\u201d\n\nPatience is the privilege of age. A great advantage to the man who has\nlived is, that he knows how to wait. Again, experience is an old man\u2019s\nmemory.\n\nBuffon was seventy years of age (this was young for Buffon, he lived to\neighty-one) when he wrote _The Epochs of Nature_, in which he calls old\nage a prejudice. Without our arithmetic we should not, according to\nBuffon, know that we were old. \u201cAnimals,\u201d he says, \u201cdo not know it; it\nis only by our arithmetic that we judge otherwise.\u201d\n\n Buffon having settled on his estate at Montbard, in Burgundy, there\n pursued his studies with such regularity that the history of one day\n seems to have been that of all the others through a period of fifty\n years. After he was dressed, he dictated letters, and regulated his\n domestic affairs; and at six o\u2019clock he retired to his studies in a\n pavilion in his garden, about a furlong from the house. This\n pavilion was only furnished with a large wooden secretary and an\n arm-chair; and within it was another cabinet, ornamented with\n drawings of birds and beasts. Prince Henry of Prussia called it the\n cradle of natural history; and Rousseau, before he entered it, used\n to fall on his knees, and kiss the threshold. Here Buffon composed\n the greater number of his works. At nine o\u2019clock he usually took an\n hour\u2019s rest; and his breakfast, a piece of bread and two glasses of\n wine, was brought to him. When he had written two hours after\n breakfast, he returned to the house. At dinner he enjoyed the\n gaieties and trifles of the table. After dinner he slept an hour in\n his room; took a solitary walk; and during the rest of the evening\n he either conversed with his family or guests, or examined his\n papers at his desk. At nine o\u2019clock he went to bed, to prepare\n himself for the same routine of judgment and pleasure. He had a most\n fervid imagination; and his anxious solicitude for a literary\n immortality, \u201cthat last infirmity of noble minds,\u201d continually\n betrayed him to be a vain man.\n\n\u201cEvery day that I rise in good health,\u201d said Buffon to a conceited young\nman, \u201chave I not the enjoyment of this day as fully as you? If I conform\nmy actions, my appetites, my desires, to the strict impulses of wise\nnature, am I not as wise and happy as you are? And the view of the past,\nwhich causes so much regret to old fools, does it not afford me, on the\ncontrary, the pleasures of memory, agreeable pictures of precious\nimages, which are equal to your objects of pleasure? For these images\nare sweet; they are pure; they leave upon the mind only pleasing\nremembrances; the uneasiness, the disappointments, the sorrowful troop\nwhich accompanies your youthful pleasures, disappear from the picture\nwhich presents them to me. Regrets must disappear also; they are the\nlast sparks of that foolish vanity that never grows old.\n\n\u201cSome one asked Fontenelle, when ninety-five years old, which were the\ntwenty years of his life he most regretted. He replied that he had\nlittle to regret; but the age at which he had been most happy was that\nfrom forty-five to seventy-five. He made this avowal in sincerity, and\nhe proved what he said by natural and consoling truths. At forty-five,\nfortune is established; reputation made; consideration obtained; the\ncondition of life established; dreams vanished or fulfilled; projects\nmiscarried or matured; most of the passions calmed, or at least cooled;\nthe career in the work that every man owes to society nearly completed;\nenemies, or rather the enemies, are fewer, because the counterpoise of\nmerit is known by the public voice,\u201d &c.\n\nGalen, speaking of Hippocrates, and wishing to represent in one word the\nman who, in his eyes, constitutes the most perfect type of slowly\nmatured wisdom and profound experience, simply calls him _the old man_.\n\nThe first rule of the Art of Preserving Life is to know how to be old.\n\u201cFew men know how to be old,\u201d said La Rochefoucauld. Voltaire has\u2014\n\n Qui n\u2019a pas l\u2019esprit de son \u00e2ge,\n De son \u00e2ge a tous les malheurs.\n\nThe first rule is more philosophic than medical, but is perhaps none the\nless valuable.\n\nThe second rule is to know yourself well; which is also a philosophical\nprecept applied to medicine.\n\nThe third rule is properly to conform to regular habits. Old men, who\nspend one day like another, with the same moderation, the same\nappetites, live always. \u201cMy miracle is existence,\u201d said Voltaire; and if\nthat foolish vanity which never grows old had not induced him, when\neighty-four years of age, to make a ridiculous journey to Paris, his\nmiracle would have continued a century, as was the case with Fontenelle.\n\n\u201cFew would believe,\u201d said M. Reveill\u00e9-Parise, \u201chow far a little health,\nwell managed, may be made to go.\u201d And Cicero said: \u201cTo use what we have,\nand to act in every thing according to our strength,\u2014such is the rule of\nthe sage.\u201d\n\nMost men die of disease, very few die of mere age. Man has made for\nhimself a sort of artificial life, in which the moral is often worse\nthan the physical; and the physical itself often worse than it would be\nwith habits more serene and calm, more regularly and judiciously\nexercised.\n\nHaller, the physiologist, says: \u201cMan should be placed among the animals\nthat live the longest: how very unjust, then, are our complaints of the\nbrevity of life!\u201d He then inquires what can be the extreme limit of the\nlife of man; and he gives it as his opinion that man might live not less\nthan two centuries. M. Flourens,[36] however, decides on a century of\nordinary life; and at least half a century of extraordinary life is the\nprospect science holds out to man. Still, as these inferences are drawn\nfrom the exceptions of Jenkins and Parr, the opinions must be received\naccordingly.\n\nHaller, who has collected a great number of examples of Longevity, says\nthat he has found more than\n\n 1000 who have lived from 100 to 110 years\n 60\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201d 110 to 120\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201d\n 29\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201d 120 to 130\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201d\n 15\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201d 130 to 140\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201d\n 6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201d 140 to 160\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201d\n\nand one who reached the astonishing age of 169 years.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 36:\n\n _Human Longevity and the Amount of Life upon the Globe._ By P.\n Flourens, Perpetual Secretary to the Academy of Sciences, Paris, 1855.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n LENGTH OF DAYS.\n\nThere are few records so generally interesting as those of human\nexistence being protracted beyond \u201cthreescore years and ten,\u201d and the\nPsalmist\u2019s limit of \u201cfourscore years.\u201d It is natural to expect every\nman, woman, and child to take a kindred interest in such matters: the\ngirl or boy reads with wonder the dates upon the tombstones of very aged\npersons; and old men and women approach these memorials with awe, in\nproportion to their fancied distance from the same earthly bourn. All\ncannot alike read the story of the pictured urn, or the mysteries of the\ninverted torch or the winged mundus; but the uneducated young and old\nare sensible of the solemnity of the line, \u201cAged 102 years;\u201d whilst the\nmore pretentious \u201cHic jacet\u201d only teaches the comparatively few that\n\n The paths of glory lead but to the grave.\n\nWe are not, therefore, surprised at the implicit belief in such records\nin times gone by, when no populous village in England was without a man\nor woman of fourscore years old. It has, however, become of late a\nmatter of some moment to inquire into the authority on which statements\nof extreme old age have usually rested; and the result has been to shake\nthe testimony of many recorded cases of great longevity.\n\nLord Bacon, in his _History of Life and Death_, quotes as a fact\nunquestioned, that a few years before he wrote, a morris-dance was\nperformed in Herefordshire, at the May-games, by eight men, whose ages\nin the aggregate amounted to eight hundred years! In the seventeenth\ncentury, some time after Bacon wrote, two Englishmen are reported to\nhave died at ages greater than almost any of those which have been\nattained in other nations. According to statements which are printed in\nthe _Philosophical Transactions_ of the Royal Society, as well as his\nepitaph in Westminster Abbey, Thomas Parr lived 152 years and 9 months;\nHenry Jenkins, 169 years. The testimony in these extraordinary instances\nis, however, considered by the Registrar-General by no means conclusive,\nas it evidently rests on uncertain tradition, and on the very fallible\nmemories of illiterate old men; for there is no mention of documentary\nevidence in Parr\u2019s case, and the births date back to a period (1538)\nbefore the parish registers were instituted by Cromwell.\n\nYet parish registers are sometimes astounding; for in that of\nEvercreech, in Somersetshire, occurs this entry: \u201c1588, 20th Dec., Jane\nBritton, of Evercriche, a Maidden, as she afirmed, of the age of 200\nyears, was buried.\u201d\n\nHere is a difficulty of belief cleared up. In the register of the parish\nof St. Leonard, Shoreditch, is entered, among the \u201cBurialles, Thomas\nCam, y^e 22d inst. of January 1588 (curiously enough the date of the\nSomersetshire entry), Aged 207 years, Holywell-street. George Garrow,\nparish clerk.\u201d In a newspaper paragraph of 1848, this entry is stated to\nadd: \u201che was born in the year 1381, in the reign of King Richard II.,\nand lived in the reigns of twelve kings and queens.\u201d These words are\nnot, however, in the register; and it is evident that some mischievous\nperson has altered the figure 1 into 2. Sir Henry Ellis, in his _History\nof Shoreditch_, gives the entry correctly as follows: \u201cThomas Cam, aged\n107, 28 January 1588.\u201d\n\nAnother instance, less known, but better authenticated, is that of Sir\nRalph Vernon, of Shipbrooke, who was born some time in the thirteenth\ncentury, died at the great age of 150; and is said to have been\nsucceeded by his descendant in the sixth generation; he was called \u201cOld\nSir Ralph,\u201d or Sir R. \u201cthe long-liver.\u201d A deed of settlement by him was\nthe cause of long litigation; and it is said that the papers respecting\nthis law-suit still exist, to prove the fact of the old knight\u2019s\npatriarchal age.[37]\n\nIn Conway churchyard is the tombstone of Lowry Owens, stated to have\ndied \u201cMay the 1st, 1766, aged 192;\u201d but the inscription has evidently\nbeen recut, and, it is presumed, with a difference, especially as the\nround of the \u201c9\u201d is above the date-line.\n\nIn the church of Abbey Dore, Herefordshire, is a slab to the memory of\nElizabeth Lewis, who died \u201caged 141 years,\u201d which is stated to be\nconfirmed by the parish register.\n\nIn the churchyard of Cheve Prior, Worcestershire, is a record of a man\nwho died at the age of 309; doubtless meant for 39, the blundering\nstonecutter having put the 30 first and 9 afterwards.\n\nIn these and similar cases our belief should be in proportion to the\ntrustworthiness of the record, allowance being made for the imperfect\nstate of documents of times when writing was a comparatively rare\naccomplishment. It is curious to contrast this state of things with the\nchronicle of our times, when, occasionally, one day\u2019s newspaper records\nseveral instances of longevity:\n\n In the _Morning Post_, January 30th, 1858, out of thirty-five deaths\n recorded, with the ages, there were five upwards of 60 and under 70;\n 70 and under 80, seven; in 80th year and upwards, nine; one female,\n 95; and Mrs. E. Miles, of Bishop Lidyard, near Taunton, 112.\n\n In the obituary of the _Times_, February 20th, 1862, were recorded\n the deaths of persons who had attained the following ages: one of\n 103, one of 94, two of 90, one of 85, one of 84, one of 82, and\n eight of 70 years and upwards. And, on April 20th of the same year,\n were recorded the deaths of ten persons, whose united ages amount to\n 828 years, or an average of nearly 83. They comprise one of 100 and\n one of 99.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 37:\n\n See Burke\u2019s _Peerage and Baronetage_, ed. 1848.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n HISTORIC TRADITIONS THROUGH FEW LINKS.\n\nOf late years considerable interest has been added to the attraction of\nrecords of Longevity, by showing through how few individuals may be\ntraced the evidence of far-distant events and incidents in our history.\n\nMr. Sidney Gibson, F.S.A., relates some curious instances of this class.\nA person living in 1847, then aged about 61, was frequently assured by\nhis father that, in 1786, he repeatedly saw one Peter Garden, who died\nin that year at the age of 127 years; and who, when a boy, heard Henry\nJenkins give evidence in a court of justice at York, to the effect that,\nwhen a boy, he was employed in carrying arrows up the hill before the\nbattle of Flodden Field.\n\n This battle was fought in 1513\n\n Henry Jenkins died in 1670,\n\n at the age of 169\n\n Deduct for his age at the time of\n\n the battle of Flodden Field 12\n\n \u2014\u2014\u2014 157\n\n Peter Garden, the man who heard\n\n Jenkins give his evidence, died at 127\n\n Deduct for his age when he saw 11\n Jenkins\n\n \u2014\u2014\u2014 116\n\n The person whose father knew Peter\n\n Garden was born shortly before\n 1786,\n\n or seventy years since 70\n\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n A.D. 1856\n\nSo that a person living in 1786 conversed with a man that fought at\nFlodden Field.\n\nMr. Gibson then passes on to some remarkable instances of longevity from\nthe Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, the record of the celebrated cause in the\nreign of Richard II., when, among the noble and knightly deponents who\ngave evidence in the following year, 1386, were:\n\nSir John Sully, Knight of the Garter and a distinguished soldier of the\ncross, who had served for eighty years, was then, by his own account,\n105 years of age, and who is supposed to have died in his 108th year.\n\nBut, more remarkable, John Thirlwall, an esquire of an ancient\nNorthumbrian house, deposes to what he heard from his father, who died\nforty-four years before, at the age of 145.\n\nNot far from Thirlwall Castle, at Irthington, Mr. B. Gibson has seen the\nregister of the burial of Robert Bowman, one of the most remarkable of\nthe long-lived yeomen of that parish, who died in the year 1823, at the\nage of 118.\n\nMr. John Bruce, F.S.A., has also illustrated our subject by the\nfollowing curious evidence. Lettice, Countess of Leicester, was born in\n1539 or \u201940, and was consequently 7 years old at the death of Henry\nVIII. She may very well have had a recollection of the bluff monarch,\nwho cut off the head of her great-aunt, Anne Boleyn. She was thrice\nmarried, and had seen six English sovereigns, or seven if Philip be\ncounted; her faculties were unimpaired at 85; and until a year or two of\nher death, on Christmas-day 1634, at the age of 94, she \u201ccould yet walk\na mile of a morning.\u201d Lettice was one of a long-lived race: her father\nlived till 1596; two of her brothers attained the ages of 86 and 99.\n\nThere is nothing (says Mr. Bruce) incredible, or even very\nextraordinary, in Lettice\u2019s age; but even her years will produce curious\nresults if applied to the subject of possible transmission of knowledge\nthrough few links. I will give one example: \u201cDr. Johnson, who was born\nin 1709, might have known a person who had seen the Countess Lettice. If\nthere are not now (1857), there were amongst us within the last three or\nfour years, persons who knew Dr. Johnson. There might, therefore, be\nonly two links between ourselves and the Countess Lettice, who saw Henry\nVIII.\u201d[38]\n\nMr. John Pavin Philips writes from Haverfordwest: \u201cA friend of mine, now\n(1857) in his 80th year, knew an old woman resident in his parish who\nremembered her grandmother, who saw Cromwell when he was in\nPembrokeshire, in 1648. I myself, when a student in Edinburgh in 1837,\nknew a centenarian lady, named Butler, who well recollected being taken\nby her mother to witness the public entry of Prince Charles Edward into\nthe city in 1745.\u201d And in Haverfordwest might be seen daily walking, in\n1857, in perfect health, a man who was born four years previous to the\ndeath of George II.[39]\n\nMary Yates, of Shiffnal, Salop, who died 1776, aged 128, well remembered\nwalking to view the ruins of the Great Fire of London, 1666.\n\nIn the _News Letter_ of June 1st, 1724, Bodl. Mss., Rawl. C., it is\nrelated, that on the King\u2019s birthday, as the nobility and others of\ndistinction passed through Pall Mall to Court at St. James\u2019s, there sat\nin the street one Elinor Stuart, being 124 years old. She had kept a\nlinen-shop at Kendal, and had nine children living at the time King\nCharles I. was beheaded, and was undone by adhering to the royal cause.\n\u201cShe is reckoned,\u201d says the account (Jane Skrimshaw, who was now dead,\nbeing 128), \u201cthe oldest woman in London.\u201d[40]\n\nMargaret Mapps, of Eaton, near Leominster, who died in 1800, aged 109,\nhad so retentive a memory, that to her last hours she could relate many\nincidents which she had witnessed in the reign of Queen Anne.\n\nIn 1858 died Mrs. Milward, of Blackheath, at the age of 102. She was,\nconsequently, born four years previous to the accession of George III.;\nshe saw the separation of the American colonies from the mother country;\nthe three French revolutions, and the great war with France; she well\nremembered the London riots of 1780, and was placed in some jeopardy in\nHyde-park in one of the incidents.\n\nJane Forrester, of Cumberland, is stated in the _Public Advertiser_,\nMarch 9th, 1766, as then living in her 138th year: she remembered\nCromwell\u2019s siege of Carlisle, in 1646; and in 1762 she gave evidence in\na Chancery-suit of an estate having been enjoyed by the ancestors of the\nthen heir 101 years.\n\nOne Evans, of Spitalfields, who died 1780, is stated to have reached the\nage of 139 years: he remembered the execution of Charles I., at which\ntime he was 7 years old.\n\nIn the London newspapers of November 7th, 1788, is recorded the\ncelebration of the centenary of the Revolution, at which was present a\nperson who remembered that glorious event; he was 112 years old, and\nbelonged to the French Hospital, Old Street-road, where were then ten\npersons whose ages together were 1000 years.\n\nIn 1826 there died at Corby, near Carlisle, aged 102, one Joseph Liddle,\na shoemaker, who was at work in his shop, in the market-place of\nCarlisle, when the Scotch rebels entered the town, in 1745; he was very\nfond of horticulture, and, with little help, kept in order a large\ngarden nearly until the day of his death.\n\nSamuel Rogers, the banker-poet, who died on December 18th, 1855, aged\n96, among many accomplishments possessed a most retentive memory; and\nhis sweep of recollections was very wide.\n\n He remembered when one of the Rebels\u2019 heads remained on Temple Bar;\n when schoolboys chased butterflies in the fields in cocked hats;\n when gentlemen universally wore wigs and swords; when Ranelagh was\n in all its glory, and ladies going thither had head-dresses so\n preposterously high that they had to sit on stools placed in the\n bottom of the coach; when Garrick crowded the theatre, Reynolds\n crowded the lecture-room, and Johnson crowded the club; he had heard\n the Duke of York relate how he and his brother George, when young\n men, were robbed by footpads on Hay-hill, Berkeley-street; he had\n shaken hands with John Wilkes, dined with Lafayette, Condorcet, &c.\n at Paris, before the great Revolution began, and been present at\n Warren Hastings\u2019 trial in Westminster Hall; he had seen Lady\n Hamilton go through her \u201cattitudes\u201d before the Prince of Wales, and\n Lord Nelson spin a teetotum with his _one_ hand for the amusement of\n children.\u2014_R. Carruthers._\n\n Mr. Peter Cunningham noted, a few days after the death of our Poet:\n \u201cWhen Rogers made his appearance as a poet, Lord Byron was\n unborn\u2014and Byron has been dead thirty-one years! When Percy Bysshe\n Shelley was born, Rogers was in his 30th year\u2014and Shelley has been\n dead nearly thirty-four years! When Keats was born, _The Pleasures\n of Memory_ was looked upon as a standard poem\u2014and Keats has been\n dead thirty-five years! When this century commenced, the man who\n died but yesterday, and in the latter half too of the century, had\n already numbered as many years as Burns and Byron had numbered when\n they died. Mr. Rogers was born before the following English poets:\n Scott, Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Moore, Campbell,\n Bloomfield, Cunningham, Hogg, James Montgomery, Shelley, Keats,\n Wilson, Tom Hood, Kirk White, Lamb, Joanna Baillie, Felicia Hemans,\n L. E. L.; and he outlived them all.\u201d\n\nOn April 24th, 1858, died Mr. James Nolan, at Auchindrane, Carlow,\nIreland, aged 115 years and 9 months. There is something more\ninteresting than his being the oldest subject of her Majesty, who had\nlived in the reigns of five sovereigns of England; and no doubt it is\ncurious to be carried back by two lives\u2014Mr. Nolan and his father\u2014to the\nreign of Charles II., and almost to the time of Cromwell.\n\nHere is a remarkable instance: Commander Pickernell, R.N., who died\nApril 20th, 1859, aged 87, knew well in his youth a man who was a\nsoldier encamped on Hounslowheath at the time of the Revolution in 1688.\nThis same man played an instrument in the band at Queen Anne\u2019s\ncoronation, and served through Marlborough\u2019s wars; in his old age he\nreturned to the neighbourhood of his native place, Whitby, where he\ndied, considerably over a century, when Commander Pickernell was a boy\nabout 7 or 8 years old.[41]\n\nThe venerable President of Magdalen College, Oxford, Dr. Routh, who died\n1855, in his hundredth year, brought up old memories of times and men\nlong passed away. Dr. Routh had known Dr. Theophilus Lee, the\ncontemporary of Addison; had seen Dr. Johnson \u201cin his brown wig\nscrambling up the steps of University College;\u201d and had been told by a\nlady of her aunt who had been present when Charles II. walked round the\nparks at Oxford.\n\nDr. Routh had maintained an immediate and personal connexion with the\nUniversity of Oxford for upwards of 80 years; and his long life supplied\nmany instructive links between the present and the past. He was born in\nthe reign of King George II., before the beginning of the Seven Years\u2019\nWar; before India was conquered by Clive, or Canada by Wolfe; before the\nUnited States ever dreamt of independence; and before Pitt had impressed\nthe greatness of his own character on the policy of Britain. The life of\nthis college student comprehended three most important periods in the\nhistory of the world. Martin Routh saw the last years of the old state\nof society which introduced the political deluge; he saw the deluge\nitself\u2014the great French Revolution, with all its catastrophes of thrones\nand opinions; and he lived to see the more stirring but not less\nstriking changes which forty years of peace had engendered. It is\ntherefore not a little curious to read of such a man, that the times on\nwhich his thoughts chiefly dwelt were those of the Stuarts; which is\nnot, however, altogether surprising, as he might himself have shaken\nhands with the Pretender. This Prince did not die till young Routh was\nten years of age; so that, if accident had put the chance in his way, he\nmight easily have had an interview with the representative of James\nII.[42] What an interval was there between this epoch and Dr. Routh\nsitting for a photograph on his hundredth birthday!\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 38:\n\n See _Notes and Queries_, 2d series, Nos. 51 and 53.\n\nFootnote 39:\n\n Ibid. No. 58.\n\nFootnote 40:\n\n W. D. Macray; _Notes and Queries_, 2d series, No. 23.\n\nFootnote 41:\n\n _Notes and Queries_, 2d series, No. 169.\n\nFootnote 42:\n\n Condensed from the _Times_ journal.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n LONGEVITY IN FAMILIES.\n\nThe long life of different members of the same family is remarkable. In\n1836, Mrs. H. P., residing near the Edgeware-road, attained her 103d\nyear: she had three sisters,\u2014one 107, another 105; and the other, who\ndied about 1834, 100.\n\nMr. Bailey records the death of Widow Stephenson, of Wolverton, Durham,\nin 1816, aged 104: her mother lived to be 106, two sisters 106 and 107,\nand a brother 97; making an aggregate of 519 years as the age of these\nfive relatives.\n\nEdward Simon, 81 years a dock-labourer in Liverpool, died 1821, aged\n101: his mother lived to 103; his father 101; and a brother 104.\n\nGilbert Wakefield states that his wife\u2019s great-grandfather and\ngreat-grandmother\u2019s matrimonial connexion lasted seventy-five years:\nthey died nearly at the same time, she at the age of 98, he at the age\nof 108. He was out hunting a short time before his death. His portrait\nis in the hall of Mr. Legh, of Lyme.\n\nMary Tench, of Cromlin, Ireland, who died 1790, aged 100, was of aged\nparents; her father attained 104, and her mother 96; her uncle reached\n110 and she left two sisters, whose aggregate ages made 170.\n\nIn the year 1811, within four miles of the house at Alderbury formerly\noccupied by Parr, there died, in the month of September, four persons,\nwhose ages were 97, 80, 96, and 97. There were then living in the\nneighbourhood a man aged 100, and two others of 90.\n\nThe Costello family, county Kilkenny, lived to very great ages. On June\n12, 1824, died Mary Costello, aged 102; her mother died at precisely the\nsame age; her grandmother at 120; her great-grandmother exceeded 125:\nlong before her death, she had to be rocked in a cradle, like an infant.\nMary Costello\u2019s brother lived beyond 100 years; and when 90, cut down\nhalf an acre of grass in a day.[43]\n\nIn Appleby churchyard is a tombstone in memory of three persons named\nHall: the grandfather died in 1716, aged 109, and the father aged 86;\nand the son died in 1821, aged 106. \u201cSo that the father had seen a man\n(his father) who saw James I., and also a man (his son) who saw me, or\nmight have done so.\u201d[44]\n\nThe Countess of Mornington, who died in 1831, attained the age of 90:\nher eldest son, the Marquis Wellesley, ennobled for his administration\nin India, reached 82; his brother, Lord Maryborough, 83; Lady\nMaryborough, 91; and their brother, the Great Duke of Wellington, 83. We\npossess a small portrait of Lady Mary Irvine, aunt to Lady Maryborough,\npainted in her 82d year; the face is without a wrinkle, but of _riant_\nbeauty.\n\nThe London bankers, Joseph and William Joseph Denison, exceeded 80; and\nthe sister of the latter, Dowager Marchioness of Conyngham, 90.\n\nLady Blakiston, died, November 1862, in her 102d year; and her eldest\nson, Sir Matthew Blakiston, died December following, in his 82d year.\n\n\u201cOn 8th April 1860, Mr. S. Cronesberry died at Farmer\u2019s Bridge, aged 99.\nHis grandfather died in 97th year; his father died in 97th year; his\nmother in 98th year.\u201d[45]\n\nArchibald, 9th Earl of Dundonald, died 1831, aged 83; and his son, 10th\nEarl, 1860, reached 82: both in the naval service, and distinguished by\ntheir scientific attainments.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 43:\n\n _Dublin Warder_, 1824.\n\nFootnote 44:\n\n Letter of Baron Alderson, in his _Life_, by his Son, date Feb. 19,\n 1833.\n\nFootnote 45:\n\n _Kilkenny Moderator._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n FEMALE LONGEVITY.\n\nOne of the most celebrated personages in the history of Female Longevity\nis the Countess of Desmond, who is usually said to have died early in\nthe 17th century, aged 140 years. Bacon, in his _Natural History_,\ndescribes her as \u201cthe old Countess of Desmond, who lived till she was\nsevenscore years old, that she did _dentire_ (produce teeth) twice or\nthrice.\u201d Sir Walter Raleigh, in his _History of the World_, says: \u201cI\nmyself _knew_ the old Countess of Desmond of Inchiquin, in Munster, who\nlived in the year 1589, and many years since, who was married in Edward\nIV.\u2019s time, and held her jointure from all the Earls of Desmond since\nthen: and that this is true, all the noblemen and gentlemen in Munster\ncan witness.\u201d[46] Sir William Temple was told by Robert Earl of\nLeicester of the Countess married in Edward IV.\u2019s time, \u201cand who lived\nfar in King James\u2019s reign, and was counted to have died some years above\n140.\u201d There has been much controversy respecting the portraits of this\nlady which are said to exist: that in the possession of the Knight of\nKerry, and engraved in 1806, is reputed authentic; and after much\ndiscussion, the Countess has been identified as Katharine, second wife\nof Thomas 12th Earl of Desmond, who died in 1534. Fynes Morrison, the\ntraveller, who was in Ireland from 1599 to 1603, tells of the Countess\nliving to the age of about 140 years; of her walking four or five miles\nweekly to the market-town in her last years; and of her death by falling\nout of a tree which she had climbed to gather nuts. There is a tradition\nwhich might be true, of her having danced at Court with the Duke of\nGloucester (Richard III.), of whom she affirmed that he was the\nhandsomest man in the room, except his brother Edward, and was very well\nmade.[47]\n\nOf Margaret Patten, stated to have died 136 and 138 years old, a curious\nportrait was found at Glasgow, amongst some family papers, in 1853. She\nwas born in the parish of Locknugh, near Paisley, in Scotland, and is\ndescribed beneath the portrait as \u201cnow living in the workhouse of St.\nMargaret\u2019s, Westminster, aged 138.\u201d And in the Boardroom of St.\nMargaret\u2019s workhouse is another portrait of Margaret (there stated to be\n136), the gift of the overseers of the parish in 1737. The old woman was\nburied in the burial-ground of the Broadway church, now Christ-church,\nWestminster, where a stone is inscribed, \u201cNear this place lieth Margaret\nPatten, who died June 26, 1739, in the Parish Workhouse, aged 136.\u201d \u201cShe\nwas brought to England to prepare Scotch broth for King James II.; but\nowing to the abdication of that monarch, fell into poverty, and died in\nSt. Margaret\u2019s workhouse. Her body was followed to the grave by the\nparochial authorities and many of the principal inhabitants, while the\nchildren sung a hymn before it reached its last resting-place.\u201d[48]\n\nIn the Dublin Exhibition of 1853 was a print with this inscription:\n\u201cMary Gore, born at Cottonwith in Yorkshire, A.D. 1582; lived upwards of\none hundred years in Ireland, and died in Dublin, aged 145 years. This\nprint was done from a picture _taken_ (the word is torn off) when she\nwas one hundred and forty-three. Vanluych _pinxit_, T. Chambers\n_del._\u201d[49]\n\nThe following instances of long widowhoods are interesting: the widow of\nThomas, second Lord Lyttleton, who died in 1779, survived his lordship\nin a state of widowhood sixty-one years, dying in 1840, aged 97.\n\nThe widow of David Garrick died in 1822, in the same house, on the\nAdelphi-terrace, wherein her celebrated husband died forty-three years\npreviously. We remember a small etching of the old lady appearing in the\nprint-shops just after her death, portraying her characteristic\ndignified deportment. Among the legacies bequeathed to her husband\u2019s\nfamily was a service of pewter used by him when a bachelor, and having\nthe name of Garrick engraven on it.\n\nThe widow of Charles James Fox, the statesman, died in 1842, aged 96,\nhaving survived her husband thirty-six years.\n\nAmelia Opie, the amiable novelist, died in 1853, in her 85th year,\nhaving survived her husband, the painter, forty-six years. He painted a\nremarkable picture of Mrs. Opie,\u2014two portraits, full-face and profile,\nupon the same canvas; they are said to be faithful likenesses.\n\nSome years since, writes the editor of the _Quarterly Review_, \u201cwe\nbeheld the strange sight of an old woman, aged 102, bent double,\ncrooning over the fire, and nursing in her lap an infant a few days old.\nThe infant was the grandchild of the old woman\u2019s grandchild. The only\nremarkable circumstance in the veteran\u2019s history was, that she had\nnursed Wordsworth in his infancy. She had lived the greater part of her\nlife in Westmoreland, near the poet\u2019s residence, and there her\ndescendants had been chiefly born and lived.\u201d\n\nHere are a few instances of women of remarkable talent attaining great\nages:\n\nCaroline Lucretia Herschel, who discovered seven comets, and passed\nyears of nights as amanuensis to her brother, Sir William Herschel, in\nhis astronomical labours, attained the age of 97, with her intellect\nclear, and princes and philosophers alike striving to do her honour.\n\nMiss Linwood, whose Needlework Pictures were exhibited nearly sixty\nyears, died in 1844, at the age of 90. No needlework of ancient or\nmodern times has ever surpassed these productions. The collection\nconsisted of sixty-four pictures, mostly of large or gallery size; the\nfinest work, from the \u201cSalvator Mundi,\u201d by Carlo Dolci, was bequeathed\nby Miss Linwood to Queen Victoria; for this picture 3000 guineas had\nbeen refused.\n\nDr. Webster, F.R.S., who takes great interest in records of Longevity,\nin 1860 contributed to the _Athen\u00e6um_ a copy of the certificate of birth\nof a lady in her 100th year, living at Hampstead, namely, the surviving\nsister of the authoress Miss Joanna Baillie, who died 1851, aged 89.\nThis document is as follows:\n\n Copy of an entry in a separate register of the Presbytery of\n Hamilton, under the head \u201cShotts.\u201d\u2014That Mr. James Baillie had a\n daughter named Agnes, born 24th September 1760, attested and signed\n at Hamilton the 25th day of November 1760, in presence of the\n Presbytery.\u2014Signed, James Baillie; John Kirk, Clerk; Patrick\n Maxwell, Moderator.\n\nIn the same year, 1859, died Lady Morgan, the novelist, at 76; Leigh\nHunt, the poet and _litt\u00e9rateur_, at 75; Washington Irving, at 77; and\nThomas de Quincey, at 76.\n\nLady Charlotte Bury, the novelist, attained the age of 88, retaining her\nbeauty and conversational accomplishments to the last; she died 1861.\n\nThe Dowager Countess of Hardwicke, who died in 1858, in her long life\nbrought points of time together which, at first, seem separated by\nimpassable spaces. She was born in 1763, and was consequently 95 years\nof age; but her father, the Earl of Balcarres, having been advanced in\nyears at the time of her birth, their two lives extend back to before\nthe beginning of the eighteenth century; and it was strange to hear, in\n1858, that a person just dead could speak of her father as having been\n\u201cout in the Fifteen\u201d (1715) with Lord Derwentwater and Forster, and\nhaving been begged off by the great Duke of Marlborough. Yet such was\nthe fact; and not only so, but having been born in 1649, the three lives\nof grandfather, son, and granddaughter stretched over a period of 200\nyears; and, when her grandmother was married, Charles II. gave away the\nbride! When this venerable lady was born, Pitt the younger was 4 years\nold; Fox, a lad of 14; and Sheridan of 12,\u2014so that they were strictly\nher contemporaries; Burke was turned of 30; she was 21 years old when\nDr. Johnson died, and a well-grown girl when Goldsmith died, so that she\nmight have known them both; and Sir Joshua Reynolds may have painted\nher, as she was near 30 when he died. All the literature of this\ncentury, running back to the birth of Scott and Wordsworth, eight or\nnine years after her own, was as much hers as ours. She was married and\n26 before the French Revolution began; and the whole of the American\nRevolution must have been within her personal recollection.\n\nThen there was Viscountess Keith, who died at about the same age, 95,\nand who had been \u201cthe plaything often, when a child,\u201d of Johnson, and\nwho received his last blessing on his death-bed. She was the daughter of\nMrs. Thrale, and was a link that directly connected us with the Literary\nClub at its foundation, all the members of which she must have seen, and\nmost of whom she was old enough to know well as a grown-up young lady.\n\nLady Louisa Stuart, the daughter of the Marquess of Bute, actually\nremembered her grandmother, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, who died in\n1762. She herself died 1851, aged 94, and was the intimate friend of\nScott, and one of the few original depositaries of the Waverley secret.\n\nAnd Mary Berry, aged 89, and her sister Agnes, 88, both died in 1852,\nhaving lived in the best of London society for sixty years. For the\namusement of these ladies, Horace Walpole wrote his most delightful\n_Reminiscences_.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 46:\n\n _History of the World_, book i. chap. 5.\n\nFootnote 47:\n\n Chambers\u2019s _Book of Days_, vol. i.\n\nFootnote 48:\n\n Walcott\u2019s _Westminster_, p. 238.\n\nFootnote 49:\n\n Eironnach; _Notes and Queries_, No. 215.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n LONGEVITY AND DIET.\n\nIt may now be as well to glance at the modes of living of a few of the\npatriarchal folks. Cornaro, who is one of the _penates_ of healthful\nlongevity, was born at Venice in 1464, of a noble family. In early life\nhe injured his health by intemperance, and by indulging his propensity\nto anger; but he succeeded in acquiring such a command over himself, and\nin adopting such a system of temperance, as to recover his health and\nvigour, and to enjoy life to an extreme old age. At 83 he wrote a comedy\n\u201cabounding with innocent mirth and pleasant jests.\u201d At 86 he wrote: \u201cI\ncontrive to spend every hour with the greatest delight and pleasure.\u201d He\nwas fond of literature and the conversation of men of sense and good\nmanners, and his principal delight was to be of service to others. Every\nyear he travelled, visited architects, painters, sculptors, musicians,\nand husbandmen; and he was especially fond of natural scenery. \u201cBeing\nfreed, by God\u2019s grace, from the perturbations of the mind and the\ninfirmities of the body,\u201d he no longer experienced any of those contrary\nemotions which torment a number of young men, and many old ones\ndestitute of strength and health, and every other blessing. His diet\nconsisted of bread, meat, eggs, and soup, not exceeding in the day\nthree-quarters of a pound of food, and a pint of new wine. He passed\nwith health and comfort beyond his hundredth year; and at Padua, in\n1566, sitting in his arm-chair, he died, as he had lived for his last\nthreescore years, exempt from pain and suffering.\n\nThomas Parr[50] was an early riser. Taylor, the Water-poet, quaintly\nsings of his mode of living:\n\n Good wholesome labour was his exercise,\n Down with the lamb, and with the lark would rise;\n In wise and toiling sweat he spent the day,\n And to his team he whistled time away;\n The cock his night-clock, and till day was done,\n His watch and chief sun-dial was the sun.\n He was of old Pythagoras\u2019 opinion,\n That new cheese was most wholesome with an onion;\n Coarse meslin bread; and for his daily swig,\n Milk, butter-milk, and water, whey and whig;\n Sometimes metheglin, and, by fortune happy,\n He sometimes sipped a cup of ale most nappy,\n Cider or perry, when he did repair\n To a Whitson ale, wake, wedding, or a fair,\n Or when in Christmas-time he was a guest,\n At his good landlord\u2019s house among the rest;\n Else he had little leisure-time to waste,\n Or at the alehouse buff-cup ale to taste;\n His physic was good butter, which the soil\n Of Salop yields, more sweet than Candy-oil;\n And garlic he esteemed above the rate\n Of Venice treacle, or best mithridate;\n He entertained no gout, no ache he felt,\n The air was good and temperate where he dwelt;\n Thus living within bounds of Nature\u2019s laws,\n Of his long-lasting life may be some cause.\n\nTaylor thus describes the person of Parr:\n\n From head to heel, his body had all over\n A quick-set, thick-set, natural hairy cover.\n\nThe Vegetarians maintain that their system of living conduces highly to\nlongevity. We find in the _Gentleman\u2019s Magazine_, 1774, this recorded\ninstance: \u201cAt Brussels, Elizabeth de Val, aged 103, who was remarkable\nfor never having eaten a bit of meat in her life.\u201d\n\nAn advocate of vegetable diet adduces the Norwegian and Russian\npeasantry as the most remarkable instances of extreme longevity: \u201cThe\nlast returns of the Greek Church population of the Russian empire give\n(in the table of the deaths of the male sex) more than one thousand\nabove 100 years of age, many between 140 and 150.... Slaves in the West\nIndies are recorded from 130 to 150 years of age.\u201d Widow Rogers, of\nPenzance, Cornwall, who died 1779, aged 118, for the last sixty years\nlived entirely on vegetable diet.\n\nAmong the Pythagoreans of our time should be mentioned Sir Richard\nPhillips, who from his twelfth year conceived an abhorrence of the\nslaughter of animals for food; and from that period to his death, at the\nage of 72, he lived entirely on vegetable products, enjoying such robust\nhealth that no stranger could have suspected his studious and sedentary\nhabits.[51] Sometimes this Pythagorean principle was strongly\nenunciated; as, when about to take his seat at a supper-party,\nperceiving a lobster on the table, he loudly denounced the cruelty of\nhis friends\u2019 sitting down to eat a creature which had been boiled alive!\nand the offensive dish had to be removed. Sir Richard often published\nhis Reasons for not eating Animal Food; his abstinence drew upon him the\nharmless ridicule of a writer in the _Quarterly Review_, observing that,\nalthough he would not eat meat, he was addicted to gravy over his\npotatoes.\n\nOne Wilson, of Worlingworth, Suffolk, who died 1782, aged 116, for the\nlast forty years of his life supped off roasted turnips, to which he\nascribed his long life.\n\nThe Hon. Mrs. Watkins, of Glamorganshire, who died 1790, aged 110, for\nher last thirty years lived principally on potatoes. The year before her\ndeath she came from Glamorgan to London to see Mrs. Siddons play, and\nattended the theatre nine nights; and one morning she mounted to the\nWhispering-gallery of St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral.\n\nIt is rarely that table-wits attain such longevity as did Captain\nMorris, the Anacreon of the Beef-steak Club, who wrote lyrics at the age\nof 90. He died three years afterwards. He was of short stature, and\nusually wore a buff waistcoat, such as he apostrophised in one of his\nlatest lyrics, \u201cThe old Whig Poet to his old Buff Waistcoat.\u201d He lies in\nthe churchyard of Betchworth, Surrey,\u2014his grave simply marked by a head\nand foot stone, 1838.\n\nCivic annals present few such instances of long life as that of Richard\nClark, Chamberlain of London, who died 1831, in his 92d year. He was one\nof the latest of the contemporaries of Dr. Johnson, whom he had known\nfrom his 15th year: when sheriff, he took the Doctor to a \u201cJudges\u2019\nDinner\u201d at the Old Bailey, the judges being Blackstone and Eyre.\n\nIn the autumn of 1831 died the Rev. Dr. Shaw, aged 83, of Chesley,\nSomerset, said to have been the last surviving friend of Dr. Johnson.\n\nFew persons addicted to riotous living attain great ages. A remarkable\nexception is recorded of George Kirton, Esq., of Oxcrop Hall, Yorkshire,\nwho died in 1762, aged 125. He was a stanch foxhunter, and hunted till\nafter he was 80; thenceforth, till his hundredth year, he attended the\n\u201cbreaking cover\u201d in his single chair. He was a heavy drinker till within\na few years of his death.\n\nThomas Whittington, who died at Hillingdon, Middlesex, in 1804, aged\n104, retained his faculties to the last, and could walk two or three\nmiles; yet he was a great drinker, gin being the only fluid he took into\nhis stomach, and of this a pint and a half daily, until a fortnight of\nhis death. He remembered William III. and Queen Anne; and in 1745 he\nconveyed troops and baggage from Uxbridge to London. His father died at\nexactly the same age (104) as the son, and both lie in Hillingdon\nchurchyard.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 50:\n\n In the Ashmolean Collection at Oxford is a portrait of Old Parr,\n presumed to have been painted from the life, and, we believe, not\n engraved. The portrait by Rubens is well known.\n\nFootnote 51:\n\n The portrait of Sir Richard Phillips as Sheriff, painted by Saxon,\n shows him as above described. The picture is of gallery size, and in\n the possession of his grandson and representative, Mr. Bacon Phillips,\n M.R.C.S., of Brighton. The bust of Sir Richard, by Turnerelli, conveys\n a similar _personnel_.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n LONGEVITY AND LOCALITIES.\n\nWith respect to the atmosphere most favourable to health and longevity,\nSir John Sinclair says, \u201cMore depends upon a current of pure air than\nmere elevation. There is no place in Scotland, proportionably with its\npopulation, where a greater number of aged people are to be found than\nin the neighbourhood of Loch Lomond.\u201d The purest atmosphere, Sir John\nmaintains, is in the neighbourhood of a small stream running over a\nrocky or pebbly bottom.\n\nMr. Thomas Bailey, in his _Records of Longevity_, states that\n\u201cNottinghamshire has the driest atmosphere of any district in England,\nthe depth of rain which falls there being something like 50 per cent\nbelow what falls in Lancashire, Devonshire, and one or two of the\nnorthern counties;\u201d yet the records show that it enjoys no superiority,\nin point of the longevity of its inhabitants, over those moister\ndistricts. Hence it is concluded that moderately moist air is most\nconducive to great age. The reason Hufeland assigns for this is, that\nmoist air, being in part already saturated, has less attractive power\nover bodies,\u2014that is to say, consumes them less. Besides, in a moist\natmosphere there is always more uniformity of temperature, fewer rapid\nrevolutions of heat being possible than in a dry atmosphere. Lastly, an\natmosphere somewhat moist keeps the muscular tissue of the body longer\npliable, whereas that which is dry or arid brings on much sooner\nrigidity of the muscles and vessels of the body, and all the\ncharacteristics of old age. It is this very dry air, joined with the\nheat of the sun, which gives to the dried and shrivelled skin of the\nface of some old men, in the felicitous humour of Charles Dickens, \u201cthe\nappearance of a walnut-shell.\u201d\n\nWe now proceed to cite instances of Long Life from various localities.\nOn the fly-leaves of a book named _Long Livers_, published in 1722, were\nwritten the following notes of several old persons in Yorkshire: Ursula\nChicken, at Holderness, 120 years in 1718, and she lived some years\nlater. In Firbeck churchyard were buried a brother and son, one 113 and\nthe other 109 years old, both of whom had lived in caves at Roche Abbey.\nMr. Philip, of Thorner, born in Cleveland (the birthplace of Old\nJenkins), had his picture taken when he was 116 years old, with all his\nsenses perfect. Thomas Rudyard, Vicar of Everton, in Bedfordshire, died\nin King Charles\u2019s time, aged 140 years, as appears by the parish\nregister. Early in June 1768 died, at Burythorpe, near Malton, Francis\nConsit, aged 150 years. A few years previously there were three women,\neach 100 years old, or upwards, who lived in and about Whitwell, met at\nthat town and danced a Yorkshire reel. About 1758 a woman died at Sutton\n107 years old. \u201cOld Robinson\u2019s father, at Boltby, lived to 108,\u201d and he\nhimself beyond 98.[52]\n\nThe register of Middleton Tyas, adjoining, contains, in sixteen years,\nentries of 230 persons buried, of whom seventy-six had reached the age\nof 70 years or upwards. In 1813, of fifteen deceased, three were 90, 91,\nand 92; in 1815 a person died 97; and thirty-three of the number\nspecified were 80 years old and upwards; and in the churchyard are\nburied two persons of 103 and 101 years. But within the last thirty-five\nyears instances of longevity in this parish, once so common, form the\nexception.\n\nMr. Durrant Cooper, F.S.A., has communicated to _Notes and Queries_, No.\n212, these interesting records from the burial register of\nSkelton-in-Cleveland, in the North Riding of Yorkshire:\n\n Out of 799 persons buried between 1813 and 1852, no less than 263,\n or nearly one-third, attained the age of 70. Of these, two were\n respectively 101. Nineteen others were 90 years of age and upwards,\n viz. one 97, one 96, one 95, four 94, one 93, five 92, three 91, and\n three 90. Between the ages of 80 and 90 there died 109; and between\n 70 and 80 there died 133. In one page of the register, containing\n eight names, six were above 80, and in another five were above 70.\n\n In the parish of Skelton there was then living a man named Moon, 104\n years old, who was blind, but managed a small farm till nearly or\n quite 100; and a blacksmith, named Robinson Cook, aged 98, who\n worked at his trade until within six months of this age.\n\n In the chapelry of Brotton, adjoining Skelton township, the\n longevity was even more remarkable. Out of 346 persons buried since\n the new register came into force in 1813, down to Oct. 1, 1853, more\n than one-third attained the age of 70. One Betty Thompson, who died\n in 1834, was 101; nineteen were more than 90, of whom one was 98,\n two 97, three 95, one 93, four 92, five 91, and three 90; forty-four\n died between 80 and 90 years old, and fifty-seven between 70 and 80,\n of whom thirty-one were 75 and upwards. That celibacy did not lessen\n the chance of life was proved by a bachelor named Simpson, who died\n at 82, and his maiden sister at 91.\n\nGilling, in Richmondshire, shows also a very great length of life, and\nin persons above 90 years of age a larger proportion even than in the\nCleveland parishes. Between 1813 and 1853, of 701 persons buried, 207,\nor rather more than one-third, attained the age of 70 and upwards. Three\nwere 100, or upwards; between 90 and 100, twenty-one; one 96, 95, and\n94; two 92, six 91, and ten 90. Between 80 and 90 there died 87; between\n70 and 80, ninety-six.\n\nGeorge Stephenson, a farm-labourer, of Runald-Kirk, near Barnard-Castle,\nDurham, who died 1812, aged 105, was a very early riser; he used to\nreprove (for lying a-bed) his daughter and her husband, both about 70\nyears of age, but who rose before six o\u2019clock in the morning,\u2014George\nsaying, \u201cif they would not work while they were _young_, what would they\ndo when they became old?\u201d\n\nMr. Carruthers, of Inverness, whose evidence is entitled to respect,\nwrote in 1836, that \u201cthe patriarchs of the glen of Strathcarron have\nbeen gathered to their fathers. The primitive manners of the olden time\nare disappearing even in that remote corner, and human life is dwindling\ndown to its ordinary brief limits.\u201d This experience is the converse of\nthe opinion that civilisation and refinement tend to lengthen life.\n\nThe Western Isles of Scotland have long been noted for persons of great\nage. Martin describes a male native of Jura, who had kept 180 Christmas\nfestivals in his own house, and this marvellous account was confirmed to\nPennant; but the evidence is not given, and the man died fifty years\nbefore Martin\u2019s visit. Buchanan, in his _History of Shetland_, gives an\naccount of one Laurence, a Shetlander, who lived to 140; Dr. Derham, in\nhis _Physico-Theology_, confirms this, and Martin received from\nLaurence\u2019s family particulars of his fishing to the last year of his\nlife. At Orkney Martin heard of a man aged 112; and that one William\nMuir, of Westra, lived to be near 140. Tarquis M\u2019Leod, near Stornoway,\nin the island of Lewis, died in 1787, aged 113; he had fought at\nKilliecrankie, Sheriffmuir, and Culloden, under the Stuarts.\n\nIn the _Aberdeen Journal_ we find this evidence: Died, at Strichen,\nWidow Reid, aged 81; and in the following fortnight, Christian Grant,\naged 97 years. The surviving resident paupers number only twenty-five,\nand among them there are seven individuals whose respective ages are 92,\n90, 88, 86, 83, 82, and 80 years\u2014making a total of 601 years, and an\naverage of nearly 86 years to each. These statistics, in a parish\ncontaining a population of only 947, are perhaps unparalleled in\nScotland.\n\nA well-authenticated instance is that of Mrs. Elizabeth Gray, who died\nat Edinburgh on the 2d of April 1856, at the age of 108, having been\nborn in May 1748, as chronicled in the register of her father\u2019s parish.\nHer mother attained 96, and two of her sisters died at 94 and 96\nrespectively. In 1808 died the Hon. Mrs. Hay Mackenzie, of Cromartie, at\nthe age of 103. The well-known Countess Dowager of Cork died in 1840,\nhaving just completed her 94th year; she was to the last accustomed to\ndine out every day when she had not company at home. Mr. Francis\nBrokesby, in 1711, wrote of a woman then living near the Tower of\nLondon, aged about 130, and who remembered Queen Elizabeth; to the last\nthere was not a gray hair on her head, and she never lost memory or\njudgment. Mr. Brokesby also records the death, about 1660, of the wife\nof a labouring man at Hedgerow, in Cheshire; she is said to have\nattained the age of 140.[53]\n\nReflecting upon this record, Mr. Robert Chambers observes, with poetic\nfeeling, \u201cWhen we think of such things, the ordinary laws of nature seem\nto have undergone some partial relaxation; and the dust of ancient times\nalmost becomes living flesh before our eyes.\u201d We confess to the weakness\nof being occasionally depressed in the society of some very aged\npersons. We remember Louis Pouch\u00e9e to have died about twenty years\nsince, considerably above 100 years old: his voice was a childish\ntreble, and there was at last a sort of forced gaiety in his manner\nwhich was any thing but cheerful; his piping of \u201cI\u2019ve kissed and I\u2019ve\nprattled with fifty fair maids\u201d was a lugubrious rendering of that\nlively lyric.\n\nIn White\u2019s _Suffolk Directory_ for 1844, the following living instances\nare recorded. \u201cW. A. Shuldham, Esq., resides at the Hall, in which, on\nJuly 18, 1843, he celebrated the hundredth anniversary of his birthday.\nMrs. Susan Godbold, who was born at Flixton, has resided at Metfield\neighty years, and walked round the village on her 104th birthday, Sept.\n13, 1843. Thomas Morse, Esq., of Lound, is now in his 99th year.\u201d Dr.\nSmith, residing at Bawdsea, a few years since completed his 109th; when,\nin the fulness of his spirits, he expressed a belief that he should live\nfor some years to come.\n\nHere is an instance of remarkable memory. George Kelson (\u201dthe Woodman,\u201d\nin illustration of Cowper\u2019s poem) died near Bath in 1820, aged 101; he\ngave evidence before the Commissioners of Public Charities, deposing,\nwith great clearness, to facts which had occurred ninety years before\nhis examination.\n\nThe parish register of Bremhill, Wiltshire, records: \u201cBuried, September\nthe 29th, 1696, Edith Goldie, Grace Young, Elizabeth Wiltshire. Their\nunited ages make 300 years.\u201d[54]\n\nTwo centuries ago, the now sleepy town of Woodstock, Oxon., was\nproverbial for its long livers. The Rev. John Ward, Vicar of\nStratford-upon-Avon, in his Diary, 1648-9, records: \u201cOld Bryan, of\nWoodstock, a taylor by profession, and a fiddler by present practice, of\nage 90, yet very lively, and will travail well. George Green and Cripps,\neach 90, very hard labourers. Thomas Cock, _alias_ Hawkins, 112 years of\nage when he died. Woodstock men frequently long lived. Goody Jones, of\nWoodstock, and old Bryan, two such old people as it is thought England\ndoes not afford, nor two such travailors of their age.\u201d\n\nIn 1637 there was living in Blackboy-lane, Oxford, \u201cMother George,\u201d who,\nalthough 120 years of age, could thread a fine needle without the help\nof spectacles.[55]\n\nBetween February and May 1767, there died in Oxford seven persons whose\nages together amount to 616, viz. 88, 93, 86, 87, 90, 82, and 90. In the\nsame year is recorded the death of Francis Ange, in Maryland, aged 130;\nhe was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, remembered the death of King Charles\nI., and left England soon after.[56]\n\nThe heads of Colleges in Oxford have frequently attained great ages: we\nhave mentioned Dr. Routh, President of Magdalen, who died in his 100th\nyear. There are generally very old people living in Oxford; and at\nIffley the ages recorded in the churchyard commonly exceed 70.\n\nMidhurst, in Sussex, must be a healthy locality; for, according to the\n_Dublin Chronicle_, December 2, 1788, the town, then containing only 140\nhouses and cottages, had seventy-eight inhabitants whose ages were above\n70; thirty-two were 80 and upwards; and five were between 90 and 100;\nand the seventy-eight persons, except four, were in some business or\noccupation.\n\nWye, near Ashford, Kent, is another noted locality for long life; the\nages of 70, 80, and even 90, being by no means rare in the parish\nregister.\n\nIn 1800 twenty-two men died in England and Wales who had reached or\npassed the age of 100, and forty-seven women. The oldest woman, 111\nyears of age, died in Glamorganshire. With the men there was a tie: a\nman aged 107 died in Hampshire, and another of the same age in\nPembrokeshire. Four of the centenarians died in London, two others at\nCamberwell, one also at Greenwich, and one at Lewisham. More men died in\nthe year than women; but of the 595 persons who had reached the age of\n95 or upwards before they died, nearly two-thirds were women.\n\nGreat longevity is attained in some of the murky streets, lanes, and\nalleys of London. In 1767 died Widow Prossen, of Oxford-road, in her\n102d year, having passed nearly her whole life among old clothes in a\npawnbroker\u2019s shop, accumulating a large fortune. In the same year died\nher neighbour, Benjamin Perryn, aged 103.\n\nIn 1767 also we find Widow Waters, of Saffron-hill, dying at the age of\n103; and one Wood, of Markam-court, Chandos-street, at 100.\n\nIn 1846 there died in grimy Holywell-street, Strand, one Harris, a Jew\nclothesman, who had lived in the same street more than seventy years:\nhis wife died a few years before him, at the age of 93; and his eldest\nson was 73 at the time of his father\u2019s death. In 1780 there died in St.\nMartin\u2019s workhouse Widow Pettit, aged 114; and next year, Widow Parker,\nof White-Hart-yard, Drury-lane, aged 108, with all her faculties\nunimpaired.\n\nIn 1788 there died at Hoxton, aged 121, a widow, who, up to a very\nadvanced period, cried gray peas for sale about the streets of London;\nand was well remembered by many aged persons as a woman apparently\nbeyond the middle stage of life, full twenty years before the time of\nher decease.[57]\n\nOccasionally we find very old persons almost _growing to the spot_ on\nwhich they were born. In 1780 died at Englefield, Hants, James Hopper,\nan agricultural labourer, aged 108, who had never quitted his native\nEnglefield even for a few miles. And in 1799 died Mr. Humphries, a\ncarpenter, born at Newington, Surrey, aged 102, and who would never go\nmore than two or three miles from the house in which he was born. One\nTrundle, a farmer of Rotherhithe, who died 1766, aged 100, had lived in\nthe same house eighty-two years. Sometimes this takes the turn of\nmisanthropic seclusion: Christopher Tarran, of Sutton, near Richmond,\nYorkshire, who died 1827, aged 93, shut himself up in his chamber, from\nwhich he never stirred during the last twenty years of his life, and\nonly twice admitted any one into the room. In 1811 there died at\nDesford, Leicestershire, one John Upton, aged 100; he had been a worsted\nframework-knitter for one firm in Leicester for ninety-three years.\n\nWidow Richardson, of Holwell, Leicestershire, who died 1806, aged 97,\nkept school in the parish 75 years, and was never five miles from home\nduring her long life.\n\nWe remember two stalwart millers, brothers, Joseph and John Saunders,\naged 79 and 73, born at Pixham-mill, and then of Pixham-house, hard by,\nnear the foot of Boxhill, Surrey, where they died, at the above ages.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 52:\n\n Edward Hailstone, Horton Hall; _Notes and Queries_, 2d series, No.\n 230.\n\nFootnote 53:\n\n Condensed from Chambers\u2019s _Book of Days_, vol. i.\n\nFootnote 54:\n\n Britton\u2019s _Wilts_. vol. iii.\n\nFootnote 55:\n\n _Walks in Oxford_, 1817.\n\nFootnote 56:\n\n _Select. Gent. Mag._ iv.\n\nFootnote 57:\n\n Bailey\u2019s _Records of Longevity_, p. 249.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n LONGEVITY OF CLASSES.\n\nDeep-thinking philosophers have at all times been distinguished by their\ngreat age, especially when their philosophy was occupied in the study of\nNature, and afforded them the divine pleasure of discovering new and\nimportant truths,\u2014the purest enjoyment; a beneficial exaltation of\nourselves, and a kind of restoration which may be ranked among the\nprincipal means of prolonging the life of a perfect being. The most\nancient instances are to be found among the Stoics and the Pythagoreans,\naccording to whose ideas subduing the passions and sensibility, with the\nobservation of strict regimen, were the most essential duties of a\nphilosopher. Thus, we have the examples of a Plato and an Isocrates.\nApollonius of Tyana, an accomplished man, endowed with extraordinary\npowers both of body and mind, who by the Christians was considered as a\nmagician, and by the Greeks and Romans as a messenger of the gods, in\nhis regimen a follower of Pythagoras, and a friend to travelling, was\nabove 100 years of age. Xenophilus, a Pythagorean also, lived 106 years.\nThe philosopher Demonax, a man of the most severe manners and uncommon\nstoical apathy, lived likewise 100. Even in modern times philosophers\nseem to have obtained this pre\u00ebminence; and the deepest thinkers appear\nin that respect to have enjoyed, in a higher degree, the fruits of their\nmental tranquillity. Kepler and Bacon both attained to a great age; and\nNewton, who found all his happiness and pleasure in the higher spheres,\nattained to the age of 84. Euler, a man of incredible industry, whose\nworks on the most abstruse subjects amount to above three hundred,\napproached near to the same age; and Kant, who reached the age of 80,\nshowed that philosophy not only can preserve life, but that it is the\nmost faithful companion of the greatest age, and an inexhaustible source\nof happiness to one\u2019s self and to others. Academicians, in this respect,\nhave been particularly distinguished. We need only mention the venerable\nFontenelle,[58] who wanted but one year of a hundred, and that Nestor,\nFormey; both perpetual secretaries, the former of the French, and the\nlatter of the Berlin Academy.\n\nWe find also many instances of long life among schoolmasters, so that\none might almost believe that continual intercourse with youth may\ncontribute something towards our renovation and support. But poets and\nartists, in short all those fortunate mortals whose principal occupation\nleads them to be conversant with the sports of fancy and self-created\nworlds, and whose whole life, in the properest sense, is an agreeable\ndream, have a particular claim to a place in the history of longevity.\nAnacreon, Sophocles, and Pindar attained a great age. Young, Voltaire,\nBodmer, Haller, Metastasio, Gleim, Utz, and Oeser, all lived to be very\nold; and Wieland, the prince of German poets, lived to the age of 80.\n(See _Wilson on Longevity_.)\n\nAmong the clergy are several remarkable instances. The venerable Bishop\nHough, the Cato of Sir Thomas Bernard\u2019s _Comforts of Old Age_, through\nan extraordinary degree of health of body and mind, attained the age of\n92. \u201cBlessed be God for his great mercies to me! I have to-day entered\nmy ninetieth year, with less infirmity than I could have presumed to\nhope, and certainly with a degree of calmness and tranquillity of mind,\nwhich is gradually increasing as I daily approach the end of my\npilgrimage. I think, indeed, that my life must now be but of short\nduration; and, I thank God, the thought gives me no uneasiness.\u201d[59]\n\nSancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, after he had been deprived and\nejected from Lambeth, for refusing to take any new oaths to William and\nMary, retired to his paternal estate, of 50_l._ a year, at Fresingfield,\nin Suffolk, his birthplace. He was then approaching fourscore; and here\nhe was visited by Bishop Hough, in 1693.\n\n I found him (says the Bishop) working in his garden, and taking\n advantage of a shower of rain which had fallen to transplant some\n lettuces. I was struck with the profusion of his vegetables, the\n beauty and luxuriance of his fruit-trees, and the richness and\n fragrance of his flowers, and noticed the taste which had directed\n every thing. \u201cYou must not compliment too hastily (says he) on the\n _directions_ which I have given. Almost all you see is the work of\n my own hands. My old woman does the weeding, and John mows my turf\n and digs for me; but all the nicer work,\u2014the sowing, grafting,\n budding, transplanting, and the like,\u2014I trust to no other hand but\n my own; so long, at least, as my health will allow me to enjoy so\n pleasing an occupation. And in good sooth (added he) the fruits here\n taste more sweet, and the flowers have a richer perfume, than they\n had at Lambeth.\u201d I looked up to our deprived metropolitan with more\n respect, and thought his gardening-dress shed more splendour over\n him, than ever his robes and lawn-sleeves could have done when he\n was the first subject in this great kingdom.[60]\n\nThe Rev. Mr. Sampson, Incumbent of Keyham, Leicestershire, who died\n1655, is stated by Thoresby to have held the living of his parish 92\nyears; so that he could scarcely be less than 116 years old.\n\nThe Rev. R. Lufkin, Rector of Ufford, Suffolk, died September 1678, aged\n110, having preached the Sunday before he died.\n\nMorton, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, who died 1695, aged 95,\nconstantly rose at four o\u2019clock to his studies when he was 80 years old;\nhe usually lay upon a straw bed, and seldom exceeded one meal a day.\n\nHere are two lengthy incumbencies: \u201c1753, December 22. Rev. Mr.\nBraithwaite, of Carlisle, [died] aged 110. He had been 100 years in the\ncathedral, having commenced singing-boy in the year 1652.\u201d \u201c1763. Rev.\nPeter Alley (Rector of Donamow, Ireland, 73 years), [died] in the 111th\nyear of his age. He did his own duty till within a few days of his\ndeath; he was twice married, and had thirty-three children.\u201d[61]\n\nThe Rev. John Bedwell, Rector of Odstock, near Salisbury, according to\nthe Bishop\u2019s registry, held that benefice 73 years; and, by the parish\nregister, died at the age of 108.\n\nThe Rev. S. W. Warneford, the munificent benefactor to colleges and\nschools, died 1855, aged 92; and Maltby, Bishop of Durham, 1859, at 90.\n\nSoldiers who survive the chances of war are proverbial for long life:\nthere are several instances recorded in the Chelsea Hospital\nburial-ground. The lists of the survivors of England\u2019s great battles\npresent instances ranging from 100 to 120 years.[62] The oldest General\nof our time was Marshal Count Joseph Radetzsky, who died January 5,\n1858, in his 92d year.\n\n\u201cHistory only mentions a single man who, at such an advanced age,\ncommanded an army in the field; and that was Dandolo, the Doge of\nVenice, who was 95 years of age, and almost blind, when he commanded the\nVenetians in the great Crusade, and who was the first to enter\nConstantinople at the time of the assault on it in 1203. Talbot, Earl of\nShrewsbury, was 83 years old when he commanded in Guienne, in 1453; but\nhe was killed in the same year at the battle of Chatillon. Fuentes,\nGeneral of the Spanish troops at the battle of Rocroy, in 1643, was 82;\nbut he was gouty, and was carried in an arm-chair. He fell in that\nbattle, and with him disappeared the glory of the Spanish arms. The\nPrussian Field-Marshal Mollendorf was present, in his 82d year, at the\ndefeat of Auerstadt, but not as commander-in-chief. One octogenarian of\nmodern times has been more fortunate than the preceding, and that is\nMarshal de Villars, who, in his 81st year, undertook the campaign of\n1712, crowned by the victory of Denain, which saved the French\nmonarchy.\u201d[63]\n\nQuakers attain great ages. In the Obituary of the _Friend_ Magazine,\n1860, we find the following ages of some deceased members of the Society\nof Friends: 84, 84, 85, 85, 85, 86, 86, 87, 87, 88, 88, 89, 89, 89, 91,\n91, 91, 91, 91, 91, 92, 92, 93, 93\u2014making a total of 2128 years, with an\naverage for each life of rather more than 88\u00bd years. Fifty lives in the\nsame period give 4258 years, with an average of 85 per life. The average\nduration of life in the Society of Friends during 1860 was 58 years and\n6 months; but one girl died under 6 months old; five girls and thirteen\nboys\u2014in all eighteen out of the 324, or 5\u00bd per cent\u2014did not reach the\nage of one year.\n\nHard-workers are often long livers. Hobson, the noted Cambridge carrier,\ndied on New-year\u2019s Day, 1630-1, it is said in his 86th year. His visits\nto London were suspended on account of the Plague, and during this\ncessation he died; whereupon Milton remarked that Death would never have\nhit him had he continued dodging it backwards and forwards between\nCambridge and the Bull Inn, Bishopsgate.\n\nOne John King, of Nokes, Oxon, died in 1766, at the age of 130: he was a\nfarm-labourer, and at the age of 128 walked to and from the market at\nOxford\u2014twelve miles. One Wilks, a farm-labourer, of Stourbridge,\nWorcestershire, who died 1777, aged 109, was suspected by his ignorant\nneighbours of having purchased the secret of long life from a witch with\nwhom he had become acquainted.\n\nAn Irish fisherman, Jonas Warren, who died 1787, Mr. Bailey states, at\n167, had for ninety-five years drawn his subsistence from the ocean.\nAnother fisherman, Worrell, of Dunwich, Suffolk, died 1789, aged 119,\nhaving fished till he was 107.\n\nOn June 3, 1862, there died at his farm, Tullyskerra, near\nCastleblayney, Gilbert Hand, at the advanced age of 105 years. Two days\nbefore his death deceased travelled round his farm, apparently taking\nhis last farewell of the fields in which he so often toiled.\n\nOf Ephraim Pratt, who was living at Shaftesbury, U.S., in 1803, aged 116\nyears, the Rev. Timothy Dwight relates that he had mown grass 101 years\nsuccessively. He drank large quantities of milk, and in his latter years\nit was almost his sole sustenance. His descendants, to the fifth\ngeneration, it was publicly stated, numbered more than 1500 persons.\n\nMargaret Woods, of Great Waltham, who died 1797, aged 100, had, with her\nancestors, lived in the service of one Essex family for 400 years.\n\nHere is well-authenticated evidence of long service from Sussex. At\nBattle is the gravestone of Isaac Ingoll, who died April 2, 1798, aged\n120 years; his register is to be seen in the parish, and he lived 101\nyears in the service of the Webster family, of Battle Abbey, having\nentered it at the age of 19.[64]\n\nPhilip Palfreman, who had been box-keeper at the first Covent Garden\nTheatre in Garrick\u2019s time, died in 1768, aged 100: he almost lived in\nthe theatre, and by his thrift saved a fortune of 10,000_l._ In 1845\ndied William Ward, aged 98, of the Sun Fire Office, London, where he had\nfilled a situation seventy years.\n\nJockeys, from the severe effects of training, are proverbially\nshort-lived; yet John Scott, of Brighton, once a jockey, reached the age\nof 96.\n\nGreat pedestrian feats have been performed by very old men. Mr. M\u2019Leod,\nof Inverness, who died 1790, aged 102, two years previously walked from\nInverness to London (five hundred miles) in nineteen days: he had served\nin Marlborough\u2019s wars.\n\nOn May 28, 1802, a lunatic named James Coyle, 47 years old, was admitted\na patient into St. Patrick\u2019s (Swift\u2019s) Hospital, Dublin: he continued\nthere upwards of fifty-eight years, and eventually died July 17, 1860,\nat the age of 105. There can surely be no mistake as to this great age.\n\nPeter Breman, of Dyott-street, St. Giles\u2019s, London, is one of the few\ninstances on record of long life attained by tall men: he stood 6 feet 6\ninches high, and was in the army from the age of 18 nearly until his\ndecease, in 1769, at the age of 104 years. Another tall man, Edmund\nBarry, of Watergrass-hill, Ireland, died 1822, aged 113: he was 6 feet 2\ninches in height, and walked well to the last.\n\nOne John Minniken, of Maryport, Cumberland, who died 1793, aged 112, was\nremarkable for the fast growth and profusion of his hair, which he sold,\nin successive croppings, to a hairdresser of the town, for a penny a\nday, during the remainder of his life; and more than seventy wigs were\nmade of Minniken\u2019s hair.\n\nAmong aged persons of diminutive stature was Mary Jones, of Wem, Salop,\nwho died 1773, aged 100: she was only 2 feet 8 inches in height. Elspeth\nWatson, of Perth, who died 1800, aged 115, did not exceed 2 feet 9\ninches in height, but was bulky in person.\n\nOld age can rarely withstand intense grief. John Tice, of Hagley,\nWorcestershire, having recovered from a fall out of a tree when he was\n80 years old, and from being much burned when he was 100, after the\ndeath of his patron, Lord Lyttleton, became so depressed in spirits,\nthat he took to his bed and died. Sir Francis Burdett had withstood the\nstorms and tumults of political life for more than half a century, and\nhad reached the age of 74, when his dear wife died, Jan. 10, 1844: from\nthat instant Sir Francis refused food or nourishment of any kind, and he\ndied of intense grief on the 23d of the same month: both were buried in\nthe same vault, in the same hour, on the same day, in the church of\nRamsbury, Wilts.\n\nCardinal Fleury, the great French minister, who died in 1743, had\nattained the age of 90. For fourteen years he essentially contributed to\nthe peace and prosperity of France; but the three last years of his\nadministration were unfortunate. On the death of the Emperor Charles\nXI., in 1740, without male issue, a war ensued respecting the imperial\nsuccession, the calamitous events of which preyed on the Cardinal\u2019s mind\nand occasioned his death.\n\nSir John Floyer, Physician to Queen Anne, seems to have found the golden\nmean of happiness. He died in 1734; four years previous to which he\nvisited Bishop Hough, at Hartlebury. \u201cSir John Floyer (writes the Bishop\nto a friend) has been with me some weeks; and all my neighbours are\nsurprised to see a man of eighty-five, who has his memory,\nunderstanding, and all his senses good; and seems to labour under no\ninfirmity. _He is of a happy temper, not to be moved with what he cannot\nremedy;_ which I really believe has, in a great measure, helped to\npreserve his health and prolong his days.\u201d This is the grand secret. Sir\nJohn wrote a curious Essay on Cold Bathing, among the benefits of which\nhe does not omit long life.\n\nDr. Cheyne, the Scottish physician, of this period, in his well-known\nEssay, advocates strict regimen for preventing and curing diseases: by\nmilk and vegetable diet he reduced himself from thirty-two stone weight\nalmost a third, recovered his strength, activity, and cheerfulness, and\nattained the good age of 72.\n\nJeremy Bentham, the eminent philosophical jurist and writer on\nlegislation, died in 1832, in Queen-square-place, Westminster, where he\nhad resided nearly half a century, in his 85th year. Up to extreme old\nage he retained much of the intellectual power of the prime of manhood,\nthe simplicity and freshness of early youth; and even in the last\nmoments of his existence the serenity and cheerfulness of his mind did\nnot desert him. \u201cHe was capable,\u201d says Dr. Southwood Smith, to whom he\nbequeathed his body for purposes of anatomical science, in the lecture\ndelivered over his remains, \u201cof great severity and continuity of mental\nlabour. For upwards of half a century he devoted seldom less than eight,\noften ten, and occasionally twelve hours of every day to intense study.\nThis was the more remarkable as his physical constitution was by no\nmeans strong. His health during the periods of childhood, youth, and\nadolescence was infirm; it was not until the age of manhood that it\nacquired some degree of vigour; but that vigour increased with advancing\nage, so that during the space of sixty years he never laboured under any\nserious malady, and rarely suffered even from slight indisposition; and\nat the age of 84 he looked no older, and constitutionally was not older,\nthan most men are at 60; thus adding another illustrious name to the\nsplendid catalogue which establishes the fact, that severe and constant\nmental labour is not incompatible with health and longevity, but\nconducive to both, provided the mind be unanxious and the habits\ntemperate.\n\n\u201cHe was a great economist of time. He knew the value of minutes. The\ndisposal of his hours, both of labour and of repose, was a matter of\nsystematic arrangement; and the arrangement was determined on the\nprinciple that it is a calamity to lose the smallest portion of time. He\ndid not deem it sufficient to provide against the loss of a day or an\nhour; he took effectual means to prevent the occurrence of any such\ncalamity to him. But he did more: he was careful to provide against the\nloss of even a single minute; and there is on record no example of a\nhuman being who lived more habitually under the practical consciousness\nthat his days are numbered, and that \u2018the night cometh in which no man\ncan work.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt should, however, be added, that Mr. Bentham\u2019s lot in life was a happy\none. Even though he did not enjoy a widely diffused reputation in his\nown country, and his peculiar views exposed him to the attacks of\ncontemporary writers, his easy circumstances and excellent health\nenabled him to devote his whole time and energies to those pursuits\nwhich exercised his highest faculties, and were to him a rich and\nunfailing source of the most delightful excitement. His retired habits\nlikewise preserved him from personal contact with any but those who\nvalued his acquaintance; and as for the writers who spoke of him with\nridicule and contempt, he never read them, and therefore they never\ndisturbed the serenity of his mind, or ruffled the tranquil surface of\nhis contemplative and happy life.\n\nIt would be well for public writers if they possessed more of such\nequanimity as Mr. Bentham\u2019s, to shield them from the venom of adverse\ncriticism and the attacks of those dishonest critics who abuse every\nindication of success which they conceive to stand in the way of their\nown advancement. We have something of the old leaven of Grub-street in\nour times, though the name is blotted out from our metropolitan\nstreetology. It is true that the patronage of great men is no longer\nvalued by men of letters,\u2014it is but as dust in the balance against the\nweight of public opinion,\u2014but something of the old trade of factious\ncriticism which Swift, Pope, and Warburton so mercilessly exposed, has\nsurvived even to our days.\n\nMr. Thackeray, to our thinking one of the most masculine and unaffected\nwriters of his day, has well described the Grub-street association of\n\u201cauthor and rags\u2014author and dirt\u2014author and gin,\u201d such as were the\nliterary hacks of the reign of George II.; but literature now takes its\nrank with other learned professions.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 58:\n\n Fontenelle attributed his longevity to a good course of strawberry\n eating every season: his only ailment was fever in the spring; when he\n used to say, \u201cIf I can only hold out till strawberries come in, I\n shall get well.\u201d His long life may, however, rather be attributed to\n his insensibility, of which he himself boasted: he was rarely known to\n laugh or cry.\n\nFootnote 59:\n\n Bishop Hough; _Comforts of Old Age_.\n\nFootnote 60:\n\n Ibid.\n\nFootnote 61:\n\n _Selections Gent. Mag._ vol. iv. p. 299.\n\nFootnote 62:\n\n See _Choice Notes_ (History), pp. 170-177; and Military Centenarians,\n _Notes and Queries_, 2d series, No. 232, pp. 238, 239, for several\n well-authenticated records.\n\nFootnote 63:\n\n _Morning Advertiser._\n\nFootnote 64:\n\n _Notes and Queries_, 2d series, No. 250.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n Great Ages\n\nTo return to Longevity. The following additional instances are mostly of\nour own time:\n\n Among Lawyers, Francis Maseres, fifty years Cursitor-Baron of the\n Court of Exchequer, died 1824, at the age of 93: he was a ripe\n classical scholar, and one of the ablest mathematicians of his day.\n The Eldon family present three noteworthy examples: Mr. Scott, the\n Newcastle merchant, father of Lord Stowell and the Earl of Eldon,\n died 1800, at the age of 92: the two eminent sons, Stowell, 1836, at\n 91, and Eldon, 1838, at 87. Lord Plunket, the statesman and lawyer,\n who died 1854, had reached 90. Lord Chancellor Campbell, who in his\n busy law-life wrote many volumes of biography, attained the age of\n 81.\n\n Sir William Blizard, the Surgeon, who died in 1835, in his 94th\n year, rose to eminence under many disadvantages. With all his\n activity and industry, except a fever caught by working night and\n day in the dissecting-room, his health never failed him till the\n last; he was temperate; and the only wine he drank was Cape. Sir\n William Burnett, the physician and scientific inventor, reached 82.\n\n In 1862 two eminent Mathematicians died within a month of each\n other: Jean Baptiste Biot, aged 88; and Peter Barlow, 86. Prof.\n Narrien, of Sandhurst, died 1860, at 77; and, same year and age,\n Finlaison, the actuary.\n\n Francis Place, the Westminster Politician, who died 1854, had\n reached 82. The Duc de Pasquier, the celebrated French statesman,\n attained the great age of 96: he died 1862, and was the oldest\n statesman of our time. Talleyrand, next to Napoleon the most\n extraordinary man of the revolutionary period of France, died 1838,\n aged 84.\n\n The oldest Poets of our time were W. L. Bowles, 1850, aged 88; same\n year, Wordsworth, poet-laureate, 80; James Montgomery, 1854, at 82;\n Samuel Rogers, 1855, aged 96; Arndt, the German poet, 1860, at 91;\n and Dr. Croly, the poet and divine, 86.\n\n Mitscherlich, the German Philologist, died 1854, at 94; same\n year, Gresnall, biographer, 89, and Faber, theologian, 80.\n Hamner-Purgstall, the Oriental historian, who died 1856, had\n attained 87; 1857, Hincks, the Orientalist, 90.\n\n Sir John Stoddart, the Newspaper editor, who died 1855, had reached\n 85,\u2014a rare age for a public journalist. John Sharpe, the tasteful\n _litt\u00e9rateur_, who died 1860, reached 83.\n\n Dr. Lingard, the Historian, died 1851, aged 82. In 1859, Hallam, the\n historian; same year, Elphinstone, the historian of India, aged 81.\n\n John Britton, the Topographer and antiquary, who died 1857, had\n reached 86: he was cheerful and chirping almost to the end. His\n brother topographer, Brayley, died 1854, aged 85. John Adey Repton,\n the architect and arch\u00e6ologist, died 1860, aged 86; Joseph Hunter,\n arch\u00e6ologist, 1861, 78.\n\n Kirby, the Entomologist, who died 1860, had reached 91. Professor\n Jameson, the naturalist, died 1854, aged 81. Brunel, the engineer of\n the Thames Tunnel, died 1849, aged 81. Captain Manby, who invented\n apparatus for saving shipwrecked persons, and who died 1854, had\n reached 89. Sir John Ross, the Arctic navigator, died 1856, at 79.\n The chemists, Andrew Ure, at 79, and Thenard, at 80, died 1857.\n Baron Humboldt, who died 1859, reached 92; same year, Sir G.\n Staunton, the Chinese scholar, at 79. Colonel Leake, the geographer,\n 1860, at 83; and in the same year Carl Ritter, the geographer, 81;\n and Bishop Rigaud, astronomer, 85.\n\n In 1858 died an unusually large number of Men of Science and\n Letters, and Artists, at great ages. Count Radetzsky, at 92;\n Creuzer, the German antiquary, 87; Thomas Tooke, political\n economist, 85; three musical composers, Neukomm, 80; J. B. Cramer,\n 88; and Horsley, 84;\u2014Esenbach, botanist, 82; Aim\u00e9 de Bonpland, 85;\n Robert Brown, botanist, 84; Bunting, Wesleyan preacher, 80; Mrs.\n Marcet, educational writer, 89; Edward Pease, \u201cthe Father of\n Railways,\u201d 92; Robert Owen, socialist, 87; Richard Taylor, of the\n _Philosophical Magazine_, 77.\n\n In 1860 we lost the following eminent Engineers: Vicat (France),\n aged 75; General Pasley, 80; Eaton Hodgkinson, 72; Sir Howard\n Douglas, 86. In 1862 there died General Tulloch, at 72; and James\n Walker, at 81; and in 1860, Jesse Hartley, 80.\n\n Charles Macklin, the oldest English Actor and playwright, who died\n 1797, had reached the age of 107: for his last twenty years he never\n took off his clothes, except to change them, or to be rubbed over\n with warm brandy or gin; he ate, drank, and slept without regard to\n set times, but according to his inclination.\n\n M. Delphat, the French Musician, who died 1855, had reached 99; and\n in the same year died Robert Linley, the violoncellist, at 83. John\n Braham lived far beyond the usual age of singers, namely, to his 82d\n year: he died February 17, 1856; he first sung in public when ten\n years old. Ludwig Spohr, the German composer, died 1859, at 80.\n\n Some aged persons have literally fallen asleep in death. Sir\n Christopher Wren passed his latter years at Hampton Court, and his\n townhouse in St. James\u2019s-street. He caught cold, and this hastened\n his death. He was in town; he was accustomed to sleep a short time\n after dinner; and on February 25, 1723, his servant, thinking his\n master had slept longer than usual, went into his room, and found\n Wren dead in his chair; he was in his 91st year. James Elmes, who\n wrote Wren\u2019s life, died 1862, aged 80.\n\n Copley, the Painter, died 1815, aged 78; his son, Lord Lyndhurst, in\n 1863, attained his 91st year: his mother lived to see her son a\n second time Lord High Chancellor. Stothard, for several months\n before his decease, though his bodily infirmities prevented his\n attending to his labours as an artist, would not relinquish his\n attendance at the meetings and lectures of the Royal Academy and in\n the library, notwithstanding extreme deafness prevented his hearing\n what was passing. Mr. Constable, in a letter to a friend, written in\n 1838, says: \u201cI passed an hour or two with Mr. Stothard on Sunday\n evening. Poor man! the only elysium he has in this world he finds in\n his own enchanting works. His daughter does all in her power to make\n him happy and comfortable.\u201d Leslie remarks that Stothard must have\n possessed great constitutional serenity of mind; he was also, no\n doubt, much supported by his art. His easel, indeed, bore evidence\n of the many years he had passed before it; the lower bar, on which\n his foot rested, being nearly worn through. He died April 27, 1834,\n in his 80th year, at his house in Newman-street, where he had\n resided more than forty years.\n\n Sir M. A. Shee, Painter, P.R.A., died 1850, at the age of 80. J. M.\n W. Turner, the greatest landscape painter, R.A., 1851, at 77; and\n 1854, Geo. Clint, painter of humour, 82; Wachter, the famous\n historical painter, who died 1852, reached 90. Two aged Frenchmen\n died 1853: Fontaine, the architect, 90; and Renouard, bibliographer,\n 98. James Ward, the animal painter, who died 1859, reached 91;\n Alfred Chalon, 1860, at 80; and in 1859, David Cox, founder of our\n Water-Colour School, 76.\n\n In 1850 died Schadow, the Hungarian Sculptor, 86. In 1856, Sir R.\n Westmacott, the sculptor, R.A.; and next year, Christian Rauch, the\n German sculptor, at 80.\n\n Matthew Cotes Wyatt, the Sculptor of the colossal Wellington statue,\n died 1862, at 86. The oldest engraver of the above period was John\n Landseer, who died 1852, aged 90.\n\n Sir John Soane, R.A., the Architect, died 1837, having reached the\n age of 84, bequeathing his museum, in Lincoln\u2019s-inn Fields, to the\n nation. Sir John was the son of a Berkshire bricklayer, and by his\n own energy rose to eminence as an architect: he designed a greater\n number of public edifices than any contemporary. His last work\n (1833), the State-Paper Office, in St. James\u2019s-park, was very unlike\n any other of his designs; it was taken down in 1862.\n\n Foster, the Artist, of Derby, celebrated the hundredth anniversary\n of his birthday on November 8, 1862, when he was entertained by his\n friends in the county hall. Mr. Foster served under Abercrombie in\n Egypt, and left the army on the day on which Nelson died. He has\n been five times married; and his youngest child, born sixty-eight\n years after his eldest, is now (1862) only ten years of age.\n\nThe great ages in the following records must be considered very\nremarkable:\n\n Mr. Henry H. Breen, writing from St. Lucia, states that Louis Mutal,\n a Negro, died in the island in 1851, at the age of 135 years. Mutal\n was a native of Macouba, in the island of Martinique, and about 1785\n settled in St. Lucia as a dealer in trade; after his death was found\n among his papers his marriage contract with his slave, Marie\n Catherine, in 1771, which establishes the fact of his being then 55\n years of age, and consequently of his having been born in 1716. This\n is followed by a certificate, showing that the marriage contract was\n published and recorded in 1772. The date of his death in the parish\n register has been carefully verified by Mr. Breen, who adds: \u201cThere\n are now living in this island several persons of the age of 90, or\n upwards,\u201d in a population of about 26,000 souls. The particulars\n are:\n\n Madame Toraille, coloured aged 90\n Madame Morel, coloured \u201d 90\n Madame Jacob, coloured \u201d 92\n Madame St. Philip, white \u201d 92\n Madame Guy de Mareil, white \u201d 93\n Mademoiselle Vitalis, white \u201d 96\n Madame Anne, black \u201d 102\n Madame Coudrey, coloured \u201d 106\n Madame Baudoin, white \u201d 106 [65]\n\n Another Correspondent, writing from Malta in 1855, states that Tony\n Proctor, a free coloured man, died at Tallahassee, Florida, June 16,\n 1854, aged 112. He was at the battle of Quebec, as the servant of an\n English officer, in 1759; and he was at the beginning of the\n revolutionary war in the vicinity of Boston, at the time the tea was\n thrown overboard; and was afterwards present at the battle of\n Lexington.[66]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 65:\n\n Communicated to _Notes and Queries_, August 4, 1855.\n\nFootnote 66:\n\n _Notes and Queries_, September 8, 1855.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE HAPPY OLD MAN.\n\nThe wisest and best productions of the human intellect, says Dr.\nMoore,[67] have proceeded from those who have lived through the bustling\nmorning and meridian periods of their day, and calmly sat down to think\nand instruct others in the meditative evening of life. Even when the\nbrilliancy of reason\u2019s sunset yields to the advancing gloom, there is an\nindescribable beauty haunting the old man still, if in youth and vigour\nhis soul was conversant with truth; and even when the chill of night is\nupon him, his eye seems to rest upon the glories for awhile departed; or\nhe looks off into the stars, and reads in them his destiny with a\ngladness as quiet and as holy as their light.\n\nHow instructive is the usual state of memory and hope in advanced life!\nAs the senses become dull, the nervous system slow, and the whole body\nunfit for active uses, the old man necessarily falls into constant\nabstraction. Like all debilitated persons, he feels his unfitness for\naction, and, of course, becomes querulous if improperly excited.\nPeacefulness, gentle exercise among flowers and trees, unstimulating\ndiet, and the quiet company of books and philosophic toys, are suitable\nfor him. With such helps his heart will beat kindly, and his intellect,\nhowever childlike, will maintain a beautiful power to the last. Objects\nof affection occasionally move him with more than their accustomed\nforce. Young children are especially agreeable to him. When approaching\nhim with the gentle love and reverence which unspoiled childhood is so\napt to exhibit, his heart seems suddenly to kindle as the little fingers\nwander over his shrivelled hand and wrinkled brow. He smiles, and at\nonce goes back in spirit to his childhood, and finds a world of fun,\nfrolic, and liveliness before him; and he has tales of joy and beauty,\nwhich children and age and holy beings can best appreciate. Next to the\nchildren of his children, the old man, whose thoughts have been directed\nby the Bible, loves the society of persons of holy habits; and as he\nfinds these more frequently among females, such are generally his\nassociates. But all aged and infirm persons he deems fit company,\nbecause they, like himself, are busied in reviewing past impressions,\nrather than planning or plotting for a livelihood, or reasoning about\nways and means. The past is his own, and he cons it over like a puzzling\nbut at least an interesting lesson. If his soul have been trained to\ndelight in truth, his will becomes weaned from this world of effort in\nproportion as he feels the weakness that disqualifies him from\nstruggling on in it. Yet _in our ashes live their wonted fires:_ he\nfeels an internal, a spiritual energy, awakening in a new manner the\nsympathies that belong to his being, and he feels as if his affections\nhad been laid by to ripen into an intensity out of keeping with the\nusages and objects about him. He realises most fully the facts of a\ncoming life, and even now lives apart from the present; and if his\nhabits of reflection be not distracted, and his heart broken by hard and\nignorant treatment, and if his soul have not been wedded to care by a\nlove of gold without the possibility of divorce, and mammon have not\nbranded his spirit with indelible misery, then is the old man ready to\nenter on a purely spiritual existence with alacrity and joy.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 67:\n\n _The Use of the Body to the Mind._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n PREPARATORY TO DEATH.\n\nJeremy Taylor, in his _Holy Dying_ (General Considerations Preparatory\nto Death), has this memorable passage, in which he illustrates the daily\nexperiences of every thoughtful mind:\n\n And because this consideration is of great usefulness and of great\n necessity to many purposes of wisdom and the spirit, all the\n succession of time, all the changes in nature, all the varieties of\n light and darkness, the thousand thousands of accidents in the\n world, and every contingency to every man and to every creature,\n doth preach our funeral sermon, and calls us to look and see how the\n old sexton Time throws up the earth and digs a grave where we must\n lay our sins or our sorrows, and sow our bodies till they rise again\n in a fair or in an intolerable eternity. Every revolution which the\n sun makes about the world divides between life and death; and death\n possesses both those portions by the next morrow, and we are dead to\n all those months which we have already lived, and we shall never\n live them over again: and still God makes little periods of our age.\n First we change our world, when we come from the womb to feel the\n warmth of the sun. Then we sleep and enter into the image of death,\n in which state we are unconcerned in all the changes of the world\n [who hath not felt this when stretched upon his bed at the close of\n day?]: and if our mothers or our nurses die, or a wild boar destroy\n our vineyards, or our king be sick, we regard it not, but during\n that state are as disinterested as if our eyes were closed with the\n clay that weeps in the bowels of the earth. At the end of seven\n years our teeth fall and die before us, representing a formal\n prologue to the tragedy; and still every seven years it is odds but\n we shall finish the last scene: and when nature, or chance, or vice,\n takes our bodies in pieces, weakening some parts and loosing others,\n we _taste the grave_ and the solemnities of our own funerals, first\n in those parts that ministered to vice, and next in them that served\n for ornament; and in a short time even they that served for\n necessity become useless, and entangled like the wheels of a broken\n clock. _Baldness_ is but a dressing to our funerals, the proper\n ornament of mourning, and of a person entered very far into the\n regions and possession of death: and we have many more of the same\n signification: gray hairs, rotten teeth, dim eyes, trembling joints,\n short breath, stiff limbs, wrinkled skin, short memory, decayed\n appetite. Every day\u2019s necessity calls for a reparation of that\n portion which death fed on all night when we lay in his lap and\n slept in his outer chambers. The very spirits of a man prey upon the\n daily portion of bread and flesh, and every meal is a rescue from\n one death, and lays up for another: and while we think a thought we\n die; and the clock strikes, and reckons on our portion of eternity;\n we form our words with the breath of our nostrils, we have the less\n to live upon for every word we speak.\n\n Thus nature calls us to meditate of death by those things which are\n the instruments of acting it: and God by all the variety of his\n Providence makes us see death every where, in all variety of\n circumstances, and dressed up for all the fancies and the\n expectation of every single person.\n\n Nature hath given us one harvest every year, but death hath two: and\n the spring and the autumn sends throngs of men and women to\n charnel-houses; and all the summer long men are recovering from\n their evils of the spring, till the dog-days come, and then the\n Syrian star makes the summer deadly; and the fruits of autumn are\n laid up for all the year\u2019s provision, and the man that gathers them\n eats and surfeits, and dies and needs them not, and himself is laid\n up for eternity; and he that escapes till the winter only stays for\n another opportunity, which the distempers of that quarter minister\n to him with great variety. Thus death reigns in all the portions of\n our time. The autumn with its fruits provides disorders for us, and\n the winter\u2019s cold turns them into sharp diseases, and the spring\n brings flowers to strew our hearse, and the summer gives green turf\n and brambles to bind upon our graves. Calentures and surfeit, cold\n and agues, are the four quarters of the year, and all minister to\n death; and you can go no whither but you tread upon a dead man\u2019s\n bones.\n\n\n DEATH BEFORE ADAM.\n\nTwo hundred years ago, long before the science of Geology called for the\nbelief that mortality had been stamped on creation, and had manifested\nits proofs in the animal races previously to Adam\u2019s appearance, Jeremy\nTaylor could write as follows regarding Adam himself before the Fall. He\nconsiders him to have been created mortal; not merely liable to become\nmortal, but actually mortal.\n\n\u201cFor \u2018flesh and blood,\u2019 that is, whatsoever is born of Adam, \u2018cannot\ninherit the kingdom of God.\u2019 And they are injurious to Christ who think\nthat from Adam we might have inherited immortality. Christ was the giver\nand preacher of it; \u2018he brought life and immortality to light through\nthe Gospel.\u2019\u201d\n\nAgain: \u201cFor that Adam was made mortal in his nature is infinitely\ncertain, and proved by his very eating and drinking, his sleep and\nrecreation, &c.\u201d\n\nAnd in another passage, quoted by Professor Hitchcock: \u201cThat death which\nGod threatened to Adam, and which passed upon his posterity, is not the\ngoing out of this world, but the manner of going. If he had stayed in\ninnocence, he should have gone placidly and fairly, without vexatious\nand affective circumstances; he should not have died by sickness,\ndefect, misfortune, or unwillingness.\u201d These sentiments Archdeacon\nPratt[68] quotes, not as necessarily approving them, but to show that so\ngood and learned a man as Jeremy Taylor had a view regarding death and\nmortality no less unusual than that which Geology demands.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 68:\n\n _Science and Scripture not at Variance_, 2d ed. 1858.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n FUTURE EARTHLY EXISTENCE OF THE HUMAN RACE.\n\nRegarding Man, independently of any revealed knowledge of his future\ndestiny, but simply with reference to his relations with the physical\nworld about him, Mr. Hopkins, the able geologist, asks: \u201cDo we see in\nhis character and position here any indication that this earth is his\ndestined abiding place for indefinite periods of time? We conceive that\na negative answer to the question is suggested at least by the fact that\nthe extent of the earth\u2019s surface and its powers of production are\n_finite_, whereas the tendency in human population to increase is\nunlimited. It is undoubtedly easy to conceive this tendency to be\narrested, but not probably by causes consistent with the moral and\nphysical well-being of the race. Whether human population may have\nincreased or not during the last two thousand years, is a matter of\nlittle import, we conceive, to the question before us. We know that it\nis now spreading itself over many parts of the globe, under influences\nfar different from those under which it has heretofore extended,\u2014the\ninfluence of Christianity, and of that higher civilisation which must\nattend the pure doctrines of our religion. We believe that this\nextension and increase of the civilised races of mankind will continue;\nand, however it may be temporarily checked by the hardships and evils to\nwhich man is subject, we can hardly understand how this tendency can be\neffectively and finally arrested before the population of the globe\nshall have approximated to that limit which must be necessarily imposed\nupon it by the finite dimensions of man\u2019s dwelling-place. We know not\nwhat might be the views of political economists on this ultimate\ncondition of human population; but we feel it difficult to conceive its\nexistence, under merely human influences, independently of physical\nwant, and possibly of that moral debasement which so frequently attends\nit. In fact, those who regard man simply in his human character and in\nhis relations to _nature_, and not in his relations to God, must find in\nhis earthly future the most insoluble problem which can offer itself to\nthe speculative philosopher. It would seem equally difficult to assign\nto the human race an indefinite term of existence, or to sweep it away\nby natural causes from the face of the earth. But it is in such\nquestions as this that a steady faith in man\u2019s Creator and Redeemer\naffords to the embarrassed mind a calm and welcome resting-place. Those\nwho believe man\u2019s introduction on the earth to have been a direct act of\nhis Almighty Creator, will not think it necessary to look for his final\nearthly destiny in the operation of merely secondary causes, but will\nrefer it to the same Divine Agency as that to which he refers the origin\nof the race.\u201d[69]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 69:\n\n _Geology_, by William Hopkins, M.A., F.R.S.; _Cambridge Essays_, 1857.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n The School of Life.\n\n\n WHAT IS EDUCATION?\n\nBISHOP BURNET seems to have given the reply in the fewest words when he\nobserves: \u201cThe education of youth is the foundation of all that can be\nperformed for bettering the next age.\u201d\n\n\u201cEducation,\u201d says Paley, \u201cin the most extensive sense of the word, may\ncomprehend every preparation that is madef in our youth for the sequel\nof our lives; and in this sense I use it. Some such preparation is\nnecessary for all conditions, because without it they must be miserable,\nand probably will be vicious, when they grow up, either from the want of\nthe means of subsistence, or from want of rational and inoffensive\noccupation. In civilised life, every thing is affected by art and skill.\nWhence a person who is provided with neither (and neither can be\nacquired without exercise and instruction) will be useless, and he that\nis useless will generally be at the same time mischievous, to the\ncommunity. So that to send an uneducated child into the world is\ninjurious to the rest of mankind; it is little better than to turn out a\nmad dog or a wild-beast into the streets.\u201d\n\nWho are the uneducated? is a question not easily to be answered in a\ntime when books have come to be household furniture in every habitation\nof the civilised world. All that men have contrived, discovered, done,\nfelt, or imagined, is recorded in books; wherein whoso has learned to\nspell printed letters may find such knowledge, and turn it to\nadvantageous account.\n\nD\u2019Israeli the younger, in one of his politico-economic speeches,\nremarks: \u201cAs civilisation has gradually progressed, it has equalised the\nphysical qualities of man. Instead of the strong arm, it is now the\nstrong head that is the moving principle of society. You have\ndisenthroned Force, and placed on her high seat Intelligence; and the\nnecessary consequence of this great revolution is, that it has become\nthe duty and the delight equally of every citizen to cultivate his\nfaculties.\u201d\n\n\n TEACHING YOUNG CHILDREN.\n\nColeridge relates that Thelwall thought it very unfair to influence a\nchild\u2019s mind by inculcating any opinions before it should have come to\nyears of discretion, and be able to choose for itself. \u201cI showed him my\ngarden,\u201d says Coleridge, \u201cand told him it was my botanical garden.\u201d \u201cHow\nso?\u201d said he; \u201cit is covered with weeds.\u201d \u201cOh!\u201d I replied, \u201cthat is only\nbecause it has not yet come to its age of discretion and choice. The\nweeds you see have taken the liberty to grow, and I thought it unfair in\nme to prejudice the soil towards roses and strawberries.\u201d\n\nMadame de Lambert, in her work _Sur l\u2019Education d\u2019une jeune Demoiselle_,\nsays: \u201cThe greatest enemy that we have to combat in the education of\nchildren is self-love; and to this enemy we cannot give attention too\nearly. Our business is to weaken it, and we must be careful not to\nstrengthen it by indiscriminate praise. Frequent praise encourages\npride, induces a child to value herself as superior to her companions,\nand renders her unable to bear any reproach or objection however mild.\nWe should be cautious, even in the expression of affection, not to lead\nchildren to suppose that we are constantly occupied with them. Timid\nchildren may be encouraged by praise; but it must be judiciously\nbestowed, and for their good conduct, not for personal graces. Above all\nthings, it is necessary to inspire them with a love of truth; to teach\nthem to practise it at their own expense; and to impress it upon their\nminds that there is nothing so truly great as the frank acknowledgment,\n\u2018I am wrong.\u2019\u201d\n\nHarriet Martineau observes: \u201cIt is a matter of course that no mother\nwill allow any ignorant person to have access to her child who will\nfrighten it with goblin stories or threats of the old black man. She\nmight as well throw up her charge at once, and leave off thinking of\nhousehold education altogether, as permit her child to be exposed to\nsuch maddening inhumanity as this. The instances are not few of idiotcy\nor death from terror so caused.\u201d\n\nChildren should not be hedged-in with any great number of rules and\nregulations. Such as are necessary to be established, they should be\nrequired implicitly to observe. But there should be none that are\nsuperfluous. It is only in rich families, where there is a plentiful\nattendance of governors and nurses, that many rules can be enforced; and\nit is believed that the constant attention of governors and nurses is\none of the greatest moral disadvantages to which the children of the\nrich are exposed.\n\nColeridge has well said: \u201cThe most graceful objects in nature are little\nchildren\u2014before they have learned to dance.\u201d\n\n\u201cGrace,\u201d says Archbishop Whately, \u201cis in a great measure a natural gift;\nelegance implies cultivation, or something of more artificial character.\nA rustic, uneducated girl may be graceful, but an elegant woman must be\naccomplished and well trained. It is the same with things as with\npersons; we talk of a graceful tree, but of an elegant house or other\nbuilding. Animals may be graceful, but they cannot be elegant. The\nmovements of a kitten or a young fawn are full of grace; but to call\nthem \u2018elegant\u2019 animals would be absurd. Lastly, \u2018elegant\u2019 may be applied\nto mental qualifications, which \u2018graceful\u2019 never can. Elegance must\nalways imply something that is made or invented by man. An imitation of\nnature is not so; therefore we do not speak of an \u2018elegant picture,\u2019\nthough we do of an elegant pattern for a gown, an elegant piece of work.\nThe general rule is, that elegance is the characteristic of art, and\ngrace of nature.\u201d\n\n\n EDUCATION AT HOME.\n\nEducation at Home has been thus aptly illustrated: History and Geography\nshould begin at home. If we want a boy to know some day the families of\nthe Herods and the C\u00e6sars, let him start by learning who was his own\ngrandfather. The Church Catechism rightly commences by making the child\ntell his own name; it would be in many cases almost puzzling, but in all\ncases and senses a most proper question, to ask him, further, the names\nof his godfathers and godmothers; and so carrying him gradually onward,\nhe would know, what seldom happens, the kings of England before he\nattempts those of Israel and Judah. This principle holds as true of\nplaces as of persons. The things that touch us nearest interest us most.\nGeography should begin from the school-walls: \u201cWhich side of this room\ndoes the sun rise on?\u201d \u201cDoes Church-lane run west or north?\u201d \u201cWhither\ndoes the brook flow that rises on Squash-hill?\u201d In this way the young\nscholar would in time be brought to comprehend the round world and his\nown position on it, and probably with some clearer perception of the\ntruth and relation of things than if he had begun by rote: \u201cThe earth is\na terraqueous globe, depressed at the poles, consisting of,\u201d &c. But we\nare all taught on the contrary plan. We begin at the wrong end; for, in\nthe ladder of learning, _Ego_, not Adam, is the true No. 1. We start\nfrom the equator instead of High-street, and the result is the\nlamentable fact, that even educated men are strangers in their own\ncountry, and thousands die within the sound of Bow-bells who have never\nseen the inside of St. Paul\u2019s. Topography, then, should precede\ngeography. Yet perhaps there is not a schoolroom in England where a\ncounty map is to be found hung up on the wall. Frightened by the\nremembrance of having been once the deluded subscriber to a\nTopographical Dictionary, even students have a horror of the word; and\nthe subject is consigned, in expensive folios, to a few professed\nantiquaries, or to some eccentric member of a county family, who emerges\nevery third or fourth generation to preserve a provincial dignity which\nhe would not willingly let die.[70]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 70:\n\n _Quarterly Review._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n TENDERNESS OF YOUTH.\n\nLeaving home the first time, for school, has been thus pathetically\ndescribed by Southey: \u201cThe pain which is felt when we are first\ntransplanted from our native soil, when the living branch is cut from\nthe parent tree, is one of the most poignant griefs which we have to\nendure through life. There are after-griefs which wound more deeply,\nwhich leave behind them scars never to be effaced, which bruise the\nspirit, and sometimes break the heart: but never do we feel so keenly\nthe want of love, the necessity of being loved, and the utter sense of\ndesertion, as when we first leave the haven of home, and are, as it\nwere, pushed off upon the stream of life.\u201d Nelson, when he was sent a\nboy first to rough it out at sea, felt this loneliness most acutely: he\npaced the deck most of the day without being noticed by any one; and it\nwas not till the second day that somebody, as he expresses it, \u201ctook\ncompassion on him.\u201d Nelson had a feeble body and an affectionate heart,\nand he remembered through life his first days of wretchedness in the\nservice.\n\nHumanity to animals has been thus eloquently enjoined upon children by\nDr. Parr: \u201cHe that can look with rapture upon the agonies of an\nunoffending and unresisting animal, will soon learn to view the\nsufferings of a fellow-creature with indifference: and in time he will\nacquire the power of viewing them with triumph, if that fellow-creature\nshould become the victim of his resentment, be it just or unjust. But\nthe minds of children are open to impressions of every sort, and indeed\nwonderful is the facility with which a judicious instructor may\nhabituate them to tender emotions. I have therefore always considered\nmercy to beings of an inferior species as a virtue which children are\nvery capable of learning, but which is most difficult to be taught if\nthe heart has been once familiarised to spectacles of distress, and has\nbeen permitted either to behold the pangs of any living creature with\ncold insensibility, or to inflict them with wanton barbarity.\u201d\n\n\n BUSINESS OF EDUCATION.\n\nAmong the many recommendations which will always attach to a public\nsystem of education, the value of early emulation, the force of example,\nthe abandonment of sulky and selfish habits, and the acquirement of\ngenerous, manly dispositions, are not to be overlooked. To begin at the\nbeginning is the only royal road to learning; and this is only to be\nreached by attention to elementary truths. Yet this is difficult, even\nfor cultivated men. \u201cIn reality,\u201d says Dr. Temple, \u201celementary truths\nare the hardest of all to learn, unless we pass our childhood in an\natmosphere thoroughly impregnated with them; and then we imbibe them\nunconsciously, and find it difficult to perceive their difficulty.\u201d[71]\nYet how few children have this advantage: so many false impressions are\nreceived in childhood, that the first business of education proper is to\n_unlearn_.\n\nThe superior influence of example over precept is thus eloquently\nillustrated by Carlyle: \u201cIs not love, from of old, known to be the\nbeginning of all things? And what is admiration of the great but love of\nthe truly lovable? The first product of love is imitation, that\nall-important peculiar gift of man, whereby mankind is not only held\nsocially together in the present time, but connected in like union with\nthe past and future; so that the attainment of the innumerable departed\ncan be conveyed down to the living, and transmitted with increase to the\nunborn. Now, great men, in particular spiritually great men (for all men\nhave a spirit to guide, though all have not kingdoms to govern and\nbattles to fight), are the men universally imitated and learned of, the\nglass in which whole generations survey and shape themselves.\u201d\n\nLord Jeffrey has remarked upon the necessity of early restraint, that\n\n Young people who have been habitually gratified in all their desires\n will not only more indulge in capricious desires, but will\n infallibly take it more amiss when the feelings or happiness of\n others require that they should be thwarted, than those who have\n been practically trained to the habit of subduing and restraining\n them; and consequently will in general sacrifice the happiness of\n others to their own selfish indulgence. To what else is the\n selfishness of princes and other great people to be attributed? It\n is in vain to think of cultivating principles of generosity and\n beneficence by mere exhortation and reasoning. Nothing but the\n _practical habit_ of overcoming our own selfishness, and of\n familiarly encountering privations and discomfort on account of\n others, will ever enable us to do it when required. And therefore I\n am firmly persuaded that indulgence infallibly produces selfishness\n and hardness of heart, and that nothing but a pretty severe\n discipline and control can lay the foundation of a magnanimous\n character.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 71:\n\n _Education of the World._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE CLASSICS.\n\nEspecially was Dr. Arnold an orthodox Oxonian in his belief of the\nindispensable usefulness of Classical Learning, not only as an important\nbranch of knowledge, but as the substantial basis of education itself,\nthe importance of which he thus forcibly illustrates: \u201cThe study of\nGreek and Latin, considered as mere languages, is of importance mainly\nas it enables us to understand and employ well that language in which we\ncommonly think and speak and write. It does this because Greek and Latin\nare specimens of language at once highly perfect and incapable of being\nunderstood without long and minute attention: the study of them,\ntherefore, naturally involves that of the general principles of grammar;\nwhile their peculiar excellences illustrate the points which render\nlanguage clear and forcible and beautiful. But our _application_ of this\ngeneral knowledge must naturally be to our own language: to show us what\nare its peculiarities, what its beauties, what its defects; to teach us,\nby the patterns or the analogies offered by other languages, how the\neffect we admire in them may be produced with a somewhat different\ninstrument. Every lesson in Greek or Latin may and ought to be made a\nlesson in English; the translation of every sentence in Demosthenes or\nTacitus is properly an extemporaneous English composition; a problem,\nhow to express with equal brevity, clearness, and force, in our own\nlanguage, the thought which the original author has so admirably\nexpressed in his.\u201d\n\nIn other words, Dr. Arnold was the first English commentator who gave\nlife to the study of the Classics, by bringing the facts and manners\nwhich they disclose to the test of real life.\n\nMr. Buckle, siding with the anti-classicists, remarks that, \u201cWith the\nsingle exception of Porson, not one of the great English scholars has\nshown an appreciation of the beauties of his native language; and many\nof them, such as Parr (in all his works) and Bentley (in his mad edition\nof Milton) have done every thing in their power to corrupt it. And there\ncan be little doubt that the principal reason why well-educated women\nwrite and converse in a purer style than well-educated men, is because\nthey have not formed their taste according to those ancient classical\nstandards, which, admirable as they are in themselves, should never be\nintroduced into a state of society unfitted for them. To this may be\nadded, that Cobbett, the most racy and idiomatic of all our writers, and\nErskine, by far the greatest of our forensic orators, knew little or\nnothing of any ancient language; and the same observation applies to\nShakspeare.\u201d[72]\n\nOur author has been just to Porson, to whom chiefly English scholarship\nowes its accuracy and its certainty; and this as a branch of\neducation\u2014as a substratum on which to rest other branches of knowledge\noften infinitely more useful in themselves\u2014really takes as high a rank\nas any of those studies which can contribute to form the character of a\nwell-educated English gentleman.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 72:\n\n _History of Civilisation in England._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n LIBERAL EDUCATION.\n\nDean Hook has written the following able defence of a Liberal Education,\nas distinguished from the special training for a profession:\n\n A Liberal Education is to the present time the characteristic of\n what is called a University Education. By a liberal education is\n meant a non-professional education. By a non-professional education\n is meant an education conducted without reference to the future\n profession, or calling, or special pursuit for which the person\n under education is designed. It is an education which is regarded\n not merely as a means, but as something which is in itself an end.\n The end proposed is not the formation of the divine, or the\n physician, or the lawyer, or the statesman, or the soldier, or the\n man of business, or the botanist, or the chemist, or the man of\n science, or even the scholar; but simply of the thinker.\n\n It is admitted that the highest eminence can only be attained by the\n concentration of the mind, with a piercing intensity and singleness\n of view, upon one field of action. In order to excel, each mind must\n have its specific end. A man may know many things well, but there is\n only one thing upon which he will be pre\u00ebminently learned, and\n become an authority. The professional man may be compared to one\n whose eye is fixed upon a microscope. The rest of the world is\n abstracted from his field of vision, and the eye, though narrowed to\n a scarcely perceptible hole, is able to see what is indiscernible by\n others. When he observes accurately, he becomes, in his department,\n a learned man; and when he reveals his observations, he is a\n benefactor of his kind. All that the university system does is to\n delay the professional education as long as possible; it would apply\n to the training of the mind a discipline analogous to that which\n common sense suggests in what relates to bodily exercise. A father,\n ambitious for his son that he might win the prize at the Olympian\n games or in the Pythian fields, devoted his first attention not to\n the technicalities of the game, but to the general condition and\n morals of the youth. The success of the athlete depended upon his\n first becoming a healthy man. So the university system trains the\n man, and defers the professional education as long as circumstances\n will permit. It makes provision, before the eye is narrowed to the\n microscope, that the eye itself shall be in a healthy condition; it\n expands the mind before contracting it; it would educate mind as\n such before bending it down to the professional point; it does not\n regard the mind as an animal to be fattened for the market, by\n cramming it with food before it has acquired the power of digestion,\n but treats it rather as an instrument to be tuned, as a metal to be\n refined, as a weapon to be sharpened.\n\n This is the system which the old universities of Europe have\n inherited.\n\n Philology, logic, and mathematics are still the instruments employed\n for the discipline of the mind, which is the end and object of a\n Liberal Education.[73]\n\nThe best education has been thus bodied forth: \u201cLet a man\u2019s pride be to\nbe a gentleman: furnish him with elegant and refined pleasures, imbue\nhim with the love of intellectual pursuits, and you have a better\nsecurity for his turning out a good citizen and a good Christian, than\nif you have confined him by the strictest moral and religious\ndiscipline, kept him in innocent and unsuspecting ignorance of all the\nvices of youth, and in the mechanical and orderly routine of the\nseverest system of education.\u201d[74]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 73:\n\n _Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury._\n\nFootnote 74:\n\n _Quarterly Review_, No. 103.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n DR. ARNOLD\u2019S SCHOOL REFORM.\n\nDr. Arnold, from his entering upon the head-mastership of Rugby, threw\nhimself into the great work of school reform, based upon the\nassociations of his boyhood, and the convictions of his more mature\nexperience. \u201cTo do his duty was the height of his ambition,\u2014those truly\nEnglish sentiments by which Nelson and Wellington were inspired; and,\nlike them, he was crowned with victory; for soon were verified the\npredictions of the Provost of Oriel, that _he would change the face of\neducation through the public schools of England_. He was minded,\n_virtute officii_, to combine the care of souls with that of the\nintellects of the rising generation, and to realise the Scripture in\nprinciple and practice, without making an English school a college of\nJesuits. His principles were few: the fear of God was the beginning of\nhis wisdom; and his object was not so much to teach knowledge, as the\nmeans of acquiring it; to furnish, in a word, the key to the temple. He\ndesired to awaken the intellect of each individual boy, and contended\nthat the main movement must come from within and not from without the\npupil; and that all that could be, should be _done by_ him and not _for_\nhim. In a word, his scheme was to call forth in the little world of\nschool those capabilities which best befitted the boy for his career in\nthe great one.\u201d[75]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 75:\n\n _Quarterly Review_, No. 204. In the latter sentence is conveyed the\n advantage which education in a large school has over education at\n home.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n SCHOOL INDULGENCE.\n\nNothing is more prejudicial to after-success in life than indulgence to\nyouth when at school. Sir James Mackintosh felt and acknowledged this\nerror. He tells us that when he left school he could only imperfectly\nconstrue a small part of Virgil, Horace, and Sallust: he adds, \u201cWhatever\nI have done beyond, has been since added by my own irregular reading.\nBut no subsequent circumstance could make up for that invaluable habit\nof vigorous and methodical industry which the indulgence and\nirregularity of my school-life prevented me from acquiring, and of which\nI have painfully felt the want in every part of my life.\u201d\n\nAnother mistake is a profuse allowance of Pocket-money at School: we\nonce heard an old Westminster declare that to his unlimited supply of\nmoney when at the college he attributed over-indulgence in luxuries\nwhich had injured his health, and often rendered him the dupe of mean\nand designing persons\u2014full-grown parasites\u2014mischievous as the plants of\nthat name, which bear down the trees they attack, and rob them of the\nfood intended for their own leaves and fruit.\n\n\n UNSOUND TEACHING.\n\nThe general unsoundness of what is termed an English education is, to a\ngreat extent, accounted for by the little attention paid in the\nUniversities, Colleges, and Schools to teaching our native language, and\nespecially to the proper teaching of English in schools for the people.\nThe results of this neglect of the mother-tongue are multitudinous. \u201cThe\nmass of our population, in spite of all that has been done, must be\nconsidered densely ignorant. Millions never open a book. Nearly fifteen\nmillions never enter church or chapel. Other causes may operate, but the\nwant of a knowledge of language is a potent one. People whose vocabulary\nis limited to about three hundred words cannot follow a sermon, and\nclergymen who have never been taught the value of plain Saxon English\ncannot preach one. Then, amongst the middle and upper classes, how\nsuperficial is the knowledge of English. How few can write a common\nletter without faults in grammar, choice of words, or spelling.\nPunctuation is absolutely ignored by many. What are the speeches at\npublic meetings, or rather, how would they appear in print but for the\ntalent of the reporters, who bring order out of chaos? The results of\nthe Civil-Service Examinations abundantly prove the justice of these\nstrictures; and the fruits of University training, or rather\nnon-training, are too patent to require illustration. Our clergy often\ncarry into the prayer-desk and pulpit all the defects of early life,\u2014the\nprovincial accent, the sing-song tone, the nasal twang, the lisp, or\nburr, or stammer; indistinct utterance, inaudible reading and\nvociferation, wrong emphasis, undue stress on enclitics, and many other\nfaults. Good sermons are the exception rather than the rule; for if\nsound in doctrine and full of zeal, the style is often obscure or\npedantic or inflated, and the delivery monotonous and soporific. In the\nSenate, though most of the Members are University men, there are but few\nreally effective speakers. Were our senators trained to speak well\u2014that\nis, to the point\u2014much time would be saved, and public business\ndespatched more rapidly.\u201d\n\nThe remedies suggested by the Rev. Dr. D\u2019Orsey are:\n\n 1. Training-schools for nursery governesses, who, without knowing or\n pretending to know French and Italian, should speak English without\n vulgarisms. 2. Greater attention in our present training colleges\n for schoolmasters to due instruction in English, especially in\n correct and fluent speaking. 3. More encouragement to men of talent\n and education to become and to remain schoolmasters, by holding out\n the prospect of honourable offices to distinguished teachers. Why\n should Inspectorships of Schools be always given to clergymen and\n barristers, to the exclusion of the schoolmaster? 4. The appointment\n of a thoroughly accomplished scholar as English Master in every\n great public school, of equal rank with the other masters. 5. The\n endowment of at least one Professorship in every University. 6. The\n recognition of English as a subject in every examination not\n strictly scientific, and rewarding distinction in composition or\n oratory in the same substantial manner as eminence in classics or\n mathematics.\n\nSir John Coleridge relates the following inefficient examples of\nschool-teaching which have come under his observation: \u201cAn Examiner was\nabout, and he had a class before him\u2014the first class in arithmetic. They\nwere able to answer questions; they had gone through all the higher\nbranches of arithmetic, and were prepared to answer any thing. But he\nsaid, \u2018I will give you a sum in simple addition.\u2019 He accordingly\ndictated a sum, and cautiously interspersed a good many ciphers.\nSuppose, for instance, he said, \u2018a thousand and forty-nine.\u2019 He found\nthere was not one in the class who was able to put down that sum in\nsimple addition; they could not make count of the ciphers. That showed\nhim the boys had been suffered to pass over far too quickly the\nelementary parts of arithmetic. The examiner took them in grammar, and\nquoted a few lines from Cowper\u2014\n\n I am monarch of all I survey,\n My right there is none to dispute.\n\n\u2018What governs right?\u2019 There was not a boy could say, till it was put to\nthem, \u2018none to dispute my right.\u2019\n\n\u201cLet me impress upon you that the best motto you can take for yourselves\nin this respect is that which was taken by a most eminent man who made\nhis way from a hair-dresser\u2019s shop to be Chief Justice Tenterden. What\nwas his motto? When a man is made a judge, he is made a serjeant; and as\nserjeant he gives rings to some of the great officers of State, with a\nmotto upon each. His motto was \u2018Labore.\u2019 He did not refer to his own\ntalents. It was not \u2018Invita Minerva.\u2019 To his immortal honour be it\nsaid\u2014from the hair-dresser\u2019s shop in Canterbury to the Free School in\nCanterbury; from the Free School in Canterbury to Corpus Christi\nCollege; from Corpus Christi College to the bar; from the bar to the\nbench; from the bench to the peerage\u2014he achieved all with unimpeachable\nhonour, and always practising that which was his motto at last. One of\nthe most gratifying scenes I have ever witnessed was when that man went\nup to the House of Peers in his robes for the first time, attended by\nthe whole bar of England.\u201d\n\n\n SELF-FORMATION.\n\nThe one great object\u2014the finality\u2014of rational Education is\nSelf-instruction. In mind as well as body we are children at first, only\nthat we may afterwards become men; dependent upon others, in order that\nwe may learn from them such lessons as may tend eventually to our\nedification on an independent basis of our own. The knowledge of facts,\nor what is generally called learning, however much we may possess of it,\nis useful so far only as we erect its materials into a mental framework;\nbut useless, utterly, as long as we suffer it to lie in a heap, inert\nand without form. The instruction of others, compared with\nself-instruction, is like the law compared with faith; a discipline of\npreparation, beggarly elements, a schoolmaster to lead us on to a state\nof greater worthiness, and there give up the charge of us.\n\n\u201cEvery man,\u201d says Gibbon, \u201cwho rises above the common level, receives\ntwo educations\u2014the first from his instructors; the second, the most\npersonal and important, from himself.\u201d Almost all Lord Eldon\u2019s legal\neducation was from himself, without even the ordinary helps, which he\ndisdainfully flung from him; and of no one could it be more truly\npredicated, that he was not \u201crocked and dandled\u201d into a lawyer.\n\nThe Rev. Sydney Smith has thus sketched a scheme, in which he deems it\nof the highest importance that the education of a British youth were\ndirected to the true principles of legislation: what effect laws can\nproduce upon opinions, and opinions upon laws; what subjects are fit for\nlegislative interference, and when men may be left to the management of\ntheir own interests. The mischief occasioned by bad laws, and the\nperplexity which arises from a multiplicity of laws; the causes of\nnational wealth; the relations of foreign trade; the encouragement of\nagricultures and manufactures; the fictitious wealth occasioned by\npaper-credit; the use and abuse of monopoly; the theory of taxation; the\nconsequences of the public debt: these are some of the subjects and some\nof the branches of civil education, to which we would turn the minds of\nfuture judges, future senators, and future noblemen. After the first\nperiod of life had been given up to the cultivation of the classics, and\nthe remaining powers were beginning to evolve themselves, these are some\nof the propensities in study which we would endeavour to inspire.\n\n\n PRACTICAL DISCIPLINE.\n\nThe want of Practical Discipline has been thus put by a writer in\n_Blackwood\u2019s Magazine_: \u201cWhat is the use of battering a man\u2019s brains\nfull of Greek and Latin pothooks, that he forgets before he doffs his\nlast round-jacket or puts on his first long-tailed blue, if ye don\u2019t\nteach him the old Spartan virtue of obedience, hard living, early\nrising, and them sort of classics? Where\u2019s the use of instructing him in\nhexameters or pentameters, if you would leave him in ignorance of the\nvalue of a pennypiece? What height of stupidity it is to be fillin\u2019 a\nboy\u2019s brains with the wisdom of the ancients, and then turn him out like\nan _omadhaum_, to pick up his victuals among the moderns!\u201d\n\nWith equal truth, but finer humour, has Sydney Smith, at his own\nexpense, exposed this neglect of the practical as a fair indication of\nthe mode of English education. He is writing to his publisher, whom he\ntells: \u201cI have twice endeavoured to write the word _skipping_\u2014\u2018_skipping\nspirit_.\u2019 Your printer first printed it \u2019stripling,\u2019 and then altered it\ninto _stripping_. The fault is entirely mine. I was fifteen years at\nschool and college\u2014I know something about the Romans and the Athenians,\nand have read a good deal about the pr\u00e6ter-perfect tense\u2014but I cannot do\na sum in simple addition, or _write a handwriting which any body can\nread_.\u201d\n\n\n \u201cCRAMMING.\u201d\n\nCramming, which in our time was a cant term in the Universities for the\nart of preparing a student to pass an examination by furnishing him\nbeforehand with the requisite answers, has travelled far beyond the\ntether of Oxford or Cambridge. Its abuse is well described by Watts: \u201cAs\na man may be eating all day, and for want of digestion is never\nnourished, so these endless readers may cram themselves in vain with\nintellectual food.\u201d It reminds one also of the Baconian saw\u2014of those who\ncan pack the cards, yet know not how to play them.\n\nA president Examiner of articled clerks at the Law Institution has\nobserved upon this forcing system:\n\n I for one, and I am glad of the opportunity of expressing it, abhor\n all Cramming; and I hold very cheaply the system of Competitive\n Examination, which is nowadays begun almost in the nursery, and\n thought so highly of in some quarters as a test. It is not to be\n expected, without inverting the natural order of things, that a\n youth of twenty or twenty-one should have exhausted those stores of\n learning which Coke speaks of as requiring not less than the\n _lucubrationes viginti annorum_; and remember that those twenty\n years would begin at that period of life on which most of you are\n now but entering. In this view the papers before you have been\n prepared, and our aim as examiners has been to set such questions as\n will prove you to possess the elements of a liberal education; and\n that you have so far acquired the principles of common law, equity,\n conveyancing, criminal law, and bankruptcy, that you are entitled to\n enter upon the practice of your profession, leaving its complete\n mastery to that experience which time alone can supply. I need not\n remind you of the men who, beginning as attorneys, have attained to\n high positions in the State. The portrait of Lord Chancellor Truro\n hangs before you on these walls. I had the privilege of knowing him\n personally; his example may well stimulate your ambition, and\n animate your exertions, for never man won high place with more\n unremitting labour than he did; not, however, at the expense of his\n childhood or of his youth, not by the sacrifice of all else for mere\n mental culture, but by the full-grown energies, by the well-directed\n vigour and power of the man, for he was between thirty and forty\n years of age before he was called to the bar.\n\n\n MATHEMATICS.\n\nMathematics drew from Edmund Gurney the odd definition, that \u201ca\nmathematician is like one that goes to market to buy an axe to break an\negg.\u201d\n\nBacon complains that men do not sufficiently understand the excellent\nuse of the Pure Mathematics, in that they do remedy and cure many\ndefects in the wit and faculties intellectual. For if the wit be too\ndull, they sharpen it; if too wandering, they fix it; if too inherent in\nthe sense, they abstract it. So that as tennis is a game of no use in\nitself, but of great use in respect it maketh a quick eye, and a body\nready to put itself into any postures; so in the mathematics, that use\nwhich is collateral and intervenient is no less worthy than that which\nis principal and intended. And as for the Mixed Mathematics, I only make\nthis prediction, that there cannot fail to be more kinds of them, as\nnature grows further disclosed;\u201d thus foretelling the advance of Natural\nPhilosophy.\n\nHowever, the understanding of Applied Mathematics is not unattainable\nunder ordinary circumstances. Lord Rosse has observed that, without any\nspecial mathematical knowledge, a well-informed man may often, in the\nresults announced, and from the observations elicited, obtain very\ninteresting glimpses of the nature of mathematical processes, and some\ngeneral idea as to the progress making in that direction. In applied\nmathematics there is much more of general interest, and the results are\noften perfectly intelligible without special education. In proof of this\nLord Rosse adduces, that \u201cat the meeting of the British Association at\nOxford, the general results of a very abstruse investigation in applied\nmathematics in physical astronomy were made very interesting. The\nsubject was so brought forward as to rivet the attention of the whole\nsection, and there were many ladies present. The paper was given in by\nM. Leverrier, and the subject was the identification of a comet. How\nwonderful from its origin has been the progress of mathematical science!\nBeginning perhaps three thousand years ago almost from nothing\u2014one\nsimple relation of magnitude suggesting another, and those relations\ngradually becoming more complicated, more interesting, I may add more\nimportant, till at length in our day it has expanded into a science\nwhich enables us to _weigh the planets_, and, more wonderful still, to\ncalculate the course they will take when acted continually upon by\nforces varying in magnitude and direction.\u201d\n\nWe trace in Porson\u2019s habits of thought the influence which the study of\nmathematics had upon him.[76] He was to his dying day fond of these\nstudies. There are still preserved many papers of his scribbled over\nwith mathematical calculations; and when the fit seized him in the\nstreet which caused his death, an equation was found in his pocket.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 76:\n\n In enabling him to give to English scholarship its accuracy and\n certainty,\u2014as a substratum on which to rest other branches of\n knowledge often more useful in themselves. See Mr. Luard\u2019s able\n _Cambridge Essay_.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n ARISTOTLE.\n\nAristotle\u2019s Philosophy, from its being upheld by the Roman Catholic\ntheology, was lowered in a corresponding degree by the Reformation.\nHence it fell into undeserved neglect during the latter part of the\nseventeenth and the whole of the eighteenth century. Of late years,\nhowever, the true worth of his writings has been more fully appreciated,\nand the study of his best treatises has been much revived. Dr. Holland\nremarks: \u201cThe whole of Aristotle\u2019s writings on Sleep, and other\ncollateral topics, deserve much more frequent perusal than is given to\nthem in the present day.\u201d The geological theory of Lyell, viz. that the\ncauses which produce geological phenomena are in constant and gradual\noperation, is the theory of Aristotle and John Ray brought down to our\npresent state of knowledge.\n\nIt has been well said that Solomon, Aristotle, and Bacon are the only\nthree men, since our race appeared on earth, who would have been\njustified in saying that \u201cthey took all knowledge for their province.\u201d\n\n\n GEOLOGY IN EDUCATION.\n\nThe genius of Werner, of De Saussure, and of Cuvier, laid the\nfoundations on which Geology now rests. They gave us the first glimpse\nof the fauna and flora of the earlier ages of our planet. Professor\nJameson soon saw that these investigations would also lead to much\ncurious information in regard to the former physical and geographical\ndistribution of plants and animals; and to the changes which the\nanimated world in general, and particular genera and species, have\nundergone, and probably are still undergoing; and he would naturally be\nled to speculate on the changes that must have taken place in the\nclimate of the globe during these various changes and revolutions. The\nwritings of Blumenbach, Von Hoff, Cuvier, Brongniart, Steffens, and\nother naturalists, are proofs of what has been done by following up the\nviews of Werner. Ami Bou\u00e9, speaking of the services Professor Jameson\nhas rendered to science, says: \u201cHe has spread valuable working pupils\nall over the world, and he was the electric spark which originated the\nbeginning of true geology in Great Britain.\u201d\n\n It is not much more than seventy years since Bishop Watson, a man of\n no mean abilities and of no slight distinction, turned the science\n of geology into open ridicule. He said that the geologists who\n attempted to speculate on the internal formation of the globe\n reminded him only of a gnat which might be perched upon the\n shoulders of an elephant, and might, by the reach of its tiny\n puncture, affect to tell him what was the whole internal structure\n of the majestic animal below.[77] Listen now to the language of an\n eminent man of the present day, Sir David Brewster, on the same\n great subject: \u201cHow interesting must it be to study such\n phenomena\u2014to escape for a while from the works of man\u2014to go back to\n primeval times, and learn how its Maker moulded the earth\u2014how He\n wore down the primitive mass into the strata of its present\n surface\u2014how He deposited the precious metals in its bowels\u2014how He\n filled it with races of living animals, and again buried them in its\n depths, to chronicle the steps of creative power\u2014how He covered its\n surface with its fruit-bearing soil, and spread out the waters of\n the deep as the great highway of nations, to unite into one\n brotherhood the different races of his creatures, and to bless them\n by the interchange of their produce and their affections!\u201d And\n again, referring to the discoveries of the great Cuvier in connexion\n with geology, he says: \u201cIn thus deciphering the handwriting of\n nature on her tablets of stone, the same distinguished naturalist\n discovered that all organised beings were not created at the same\n period. In the commissariat of Providence the stores were provided\n before the arrival of the host that was to devour them. Plants were\n created before animals, the molluscous fishes next appeared, then\n the reptiles, and last of all the mammiferous quadrupeds completed\n the scale of animal life.\u201d Such are the terms in which able men now\n refer to geological science.[78]\n\nFortunately, the science of Geology is an eminently popular one. The\narguments which go to establish its leading doctrines require no long\ncourse of previous study to make them intelligible, and its professors,\nin this country at least, have been no way disposed to confine their\nteaching to the sanctuaries of learning. Wherever an audience can be\ngathered together, some eminent geologist is always ready to discourse\nfor the benefit of the gentiles of science, who have rewarded their\ninstructors by a larger share of popularity than is generally bestowed\non the professors of other branches of physical knowledge. The\nconsequence is, that a smattering of Geology is now very generally\ndiffused amongst the upper and middle classes in this country\u2014an\nexcellent thing in itself, since even a smattering of natural science\nhelps to enlarge and elevate the mind, but sometimes inconvenient,\nbecause few learn enough to get a correct idea of the extent of their\nown ignorance as compared with the smallness of their knowledge. In the\ninterest of science, the main point to be gained is that, out of the\nlarge number who approach the threshold, a sufficient number should be\ninduced to enter into her service, and that each of these should find\nwork fit for his strength and his special faculties. Measured in this\nway, the progress of Geology seems to be sufficiently satisfactory.[79]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 77:\n\n Mr. Watson, among other qualities, which certainly contributed to his\n advancement in life, possessed a happy confidence in himself, and an\n opinion of his own fitness for any situation to which he should think\n proper to aspire, though totally destitute at the time of every\n qualification requisite to the discharge of its functions. On the 19th\n of November 1764, he informs us, \u201cI was unanimously elected by the\n Senate, assembled in full congregation, Professor of Chemistry. At the\n time this honour was conferred upon me _I knew nothing at all of\n chemistry_; had never read a syllable on the subject, nor seen a\n single experiment in it.\u201d\u2014_Quarterly Review_, vol. xviii. p. 233.\n\nFootnote 78:\n\n Sir John Pakington, M.P.\n\nFootnote 79:\n\n _Saturday Review._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE BEST EDUCATION.\n\nPhilip de Mornay enjoins: \u201cThe best thing to be instilled into the minds\nof children, is to fear God. This is the beginning, the middle, and the\nend, of wisdom. Next, they ought to be induced to be kind one to\nanother. Great care ought to be taken to guard against speaking on\nimproper subjects in their presence, since lasting impressions are made\nat a very early age; on the contrary, our conversation ought to be on\ngood and instructive topics. Imperceptibly to themselves or others, they\nderive great benefit from such discourse; for it is quite certain that\nchildren take the tinge either of good or evil, without the process\nbeing discovered.\u201d\n\nTrue excellence is only to be arrived at by the true Education; for in\nEducation, as in all the rest of life, there are two ways of acting.\n\u201cThe one way, when the learner looks upon his powers as his own, and\nworks them in a self-confident, hard spirit; which is by far the\nquickest way to temporary success. The other, when the learner, looking\nupon all his powers as given to him, works humbly in a tentative spirit,\ndistrusting self, keeping the heart open to improvement, thinking that\nevery body and every thing can teach him something; putting himself, in\nfact, in God\u2019s hand, as a learner, not as a judge. To such a spirit\nbelongs the promise that he shall be led into all truth. Directly we\nimagine we know a thing, we close our stores, and shut the gates against\nfresh treasures; but whilst laying up truth, still think that all is\nincomplete, still humbly think, however broad and firm and deep the\nfoundation we have laid may be, that eternity shall not suffice for the\nsuperstructure; in fact, still hold the vessel to be filled, and God\nwill ever fill it; still use that fulness in His service, and at the\nright time the right thing shall come. Nothing but pride shuts out\nknowledge. Who is not conscious, taking only the merest intellectual\nwork, how little really depends on himself, how many thoughts are direct\ngifts, how much precious material _comes_ into his hands, is given\u2014is\ngiven\u2014not his own; who will not admit, if nothing more, that a headache,\na qualm, may destroy his cherished hopes, so little can he rely on\nself?\u201d[80]\n\nThe late Baron Alderson, writing to his son, says: \u201cI have sent you to\nEton that you may be taught your duties as an English young gentleman.\nThe first duty of such a person is to be a good and religious Christian;\nthe next is to be a good scholar; and the third is to be accomplished in\nall manly exercises and games, such as rowing, swimming, jumping,\ncricket, and the like. Most boys, I fear, begin at the wrong end, and\ntake the last first; and, what is still worse, never arrive at either of\nthe other two at all. I hope, however, better things of you; and to hear\nfirst that you are a good, truthful, honest boy, and then that you are\none of the hardest workers in your class; and after that, I confess I\nshall be by no means sorry to hear that you can show the idle boys that\nan industrious one can be a good cricketer, and jump as wide a ditch, or\nclear as high a hedge, as any of them.\u201d\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 80:\n\n Thring\u2019s _Sermons delivered at Uppingham School_.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n ADVICE TO THE STUDENT.\n\nDr. Arnold has given this sound counsel: \u201cPreserve proportion in your\nreading, keep your view of men and things extensive, and, _depend upon\nit, a mixed knowledge is not a superficial one;_ as far as it goes, the\nviews that it gives are true; but he who reads deeply in one class of\nwriters only, gets views which are almost sure to be perverted, and\nwhich are not only narrow but false.\u201d\n\nIt is a great mistake to suppose that full employment shuts out leisure.\nThe secret of leisure is to have eight hours a day entirely devoted to\nbusiness, and you will then find you have time for other pursuits; this\nfor some time to come will seem to you a paradox; but you will one day\nbe convinced of the truth, that the man who is the most engaged has\nalways the most leisure.\n\n\n KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM.\n\nThat Knowledge is not True Wisdom cannot be too strongly urged upon\nyouth. \u201cThere is a heaping up of knowledge just as amenable to this\ncensure as the ignorance of the unlearned, not indeed so censured by\nman, but equally worthy of it in a true judgment. The intellectual fool,\nfull of knowledge but without wisdom, whose way is right in his own\neyes, is no less a fool, nay, more so, than the ignorant fool, and as\nfar from true wisdom. For knowledge is a very different thing from\nwisdom; knowledge is but the collecting together of a mass of material\nat best, whilst wisdom is the right perception and right use leading to\nfurther riches. The mere heaper-up of knowledge digs, as it were, ore\nout of the earth, working underground in darkness; whereas the wise man\nfashions all his knowledge into use and beauty, praising and blessing\nGod with it, and receiving from Him a fuller measure in consequence.\nWisdom is knowledge applied to life and to the praise of God,\u2014a thing of\nthe heart, the heart controlling and using all the head gathers;\nknowledge by itself is a mere barren store of the head, quite separable\nfrom goodness and love,\u2014a thing capable of being possessed by devils.\nFor this we must mark, the humblest good heart which loves God alone can\nattain to the knowledge of God. No mere intellectual power and pride can\ndo that. And hence we may see why the man whose way is right in his own\neyes is a fool.\u201d[81]\n\nMontaigne thus points out an educational error, common in our time as\nwell as in that of this charming writer, whom a gentleman is ashamed not\nto have read:\n\n The care and expense our parents are at have no other aim but to\n furnish our heads with knowledge, but not a word of judgment and\n virtue. Cry out of one that passes by to our people, \u201cOh, what a\n learned man is that!\u201d and of another, \u201cOh, what a good man is that!\u201d\n they will not fail to turn their eyes and pay their respects to the\n former. There should then be a third man to cry out, \u201cOh, what\n blockheads they are!\u201d Men are ready to ask, \u201cDoes he understand\n Greek or Latin\u2014is he a poet or prose-writer?\u201d But whether he is the\n better or more discreet man, though it is the main question, is the\n last; for the inquiry should be, who has the best learning, not who\n has the most. We only take pains to stuff the memory, and leave the\n understanding and conscience quite unfurnished. Of what service is\n it to us to have a bellyful of meat, if it does not digest\u2014if it\n does not change its form in our bodies\u2014and if it does not nourish\n and strengthen us? We suffer ourselves to lean so much upon the arms\n of others, that our strength is of no use to us. Would I fortify\n myself against the fear of death, I do it at the expense of Seneca;\n would I extract consolation for myself or my friend, I borrow it\n from Cicero; whereas I might have found it in myself, if I had been\n trained up in the exercise of my own reason. I do not fancy the\n acquiescence in second-hand hearsay knowledge; for though we may be\n learned by the help of another\u2019s knowledge, we can never be wise but\n by our own wisdom. Agesilaus being asked what he thought most proper\n for boys to learn, replied: What they ought to do when they come to\n be men.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 81:\n\n Thring\u2019s _Sermons delivered at Uppingham School_.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n EDUCATION ALARMISTS.\n\nThat a little learning is a dangerous thing, is an old saying, which has\nbeen fearfully repeated in these days; but a little learning every one\nwill have, and the only way of averting the danger is, by providing the\npeople with all facilities for acquiring more.\n\nLord Stowell was no admirer of the prevailing rage for universal\neducation, and made a remark with which Lord Sidmouth was much struck:\n\u201cIf you provide,\u201d he said, \u201ca larger amount of cultivated talent than\nthere is a demand for, the surplus is very likely to turn sour.\u201d\n\nSir John Coleridge, in expressing his high sense of the obligations of\nthe country to the University of Oxford for their recent aids to\nMiddle-Class Education, says: \u201cIf the lower orders are to be raised in\npolitical power in this country, to make that a blessing you must\ncultivate the lower orders for discharging the duties to be thrown upon\nthem. Therefore it is that I think the University of Oxford conferred\nthe largest benefit that it had in its power to confer upon this country\nat large, when, passing simply from the education of the higher orders\nand those who were destined for the Church, it spread out its hands in a\nfrank and liberal spirit to all classes of society, and offered to\nconnect every body with itself, in a certain measure, who would only fit\nhimself for it by proper application.\u201d\n\n\n YORKSHIRE SCHOOLS.\n\nThe disappearance from our newspapers of strings of \u201cEducation\u201d\nadvertisements of Schools with low tariffs in Yorkshire, shows the\neffect of satiric humour in correcting abuses of our own time. The\ndietary of a school in Yorkshire, barmecide breakfasts and dinners, was\noften held up _in terrorem_ to refractory boys, who heard the threat of\n\u201cI\u2019ll send you to Yorkshire,\u201d with fear and trembling. Mr. Dickens gives\nan admirable exposure of this Spartan system in his tale of _Nicholas\nNickleby_, in the preface to which he says:\n\n I cannot call to mind now how I came to hear about Yorkshire\n schools, when I was not a very robust child, sitting in bye places,\n near Rochester Castle, with a head full of Partridge, Strap, Tom\n Pipes, and Sancho Panza; but I know that my first impressions of\n them were picked up at that time, and that they were, somehow or\n other, connected with a suppurated abscess that some boy had come\n home with in consequence of his Yorkshire guide, philosopher, and\n friend having ripped it open with an inky penknife.\n\nBefore the book was written, Mr. Dickens went into Yorkshire to look for\na school in which the imaginary boy of an imaginary widow might be put\naway until the thawing of a tardy compassion in that widow\u2019s imaginary\nfriends. Then some stern realities were seen; and we are told also, in\nthe preface, of a supper with a real John Browdie, whose answer as to\nthe search for a cheap Yorkshire schoolmaster was, \u201cDom\u2019d if ar can gang\nto bed and not tellee, for weedur\u2019s sak\u2019, to keep the lattle boy from a\u2019\nsike scoundrels, while there\u2019s a harse to hoold in a\u2019 London, or a\ngoother to lie asleep in!\u201d\n\n\n BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.\n\nGreat mistakes have been made in writing books for children. When Sir\nWalter Scott was about to write his _Tales of a Grandfather_, he\nremarked: \u201cI am persuaded both children and the lower class of readers\nhate books which are written _down_ to their capacity, and love those\nthat are composed for their elders and betters. I will make, if\npossible, a book that a child shall understand, yet a man should feel\nsome temptation to peruse should he chance to take it up.... The grand\nand interesting consists in ideas, not in words.\u201d Again, \u201cthe problem of\nnarrating history is at once to excite and gratify the curiosity of\nyouth, and please and instruct the wisest of mature minds.\u201d[82]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 82:\n\n Lockhart\u2019s _Life of Scott_.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.\n\nThe treasures of our tongue, says Dr. Richardson, the lexicographer, are\nspread over continents, and cultivated among islands in the northern and\nthe southern hemisphere, from \u201cthe unformed Occident to the strange\nshores of unknowing nations in the East.\u201d The sun, indeed, now never\nsets upon the empire of Great Britain. Not one hour of the twenty-four\nin which the earth completes her diurnal revolution, not one round of\nthe minute-hand of the dial, is allowed to pass, in which, on some\nportion of the surface of the globe, the air is not filled with \u201caccents\nthat are ours.\u201d They are heard in the ordinary transactions of life, or\nin the administration of law, or in the deliberations of the\nsenate-house or council-chamber, or in the offices of private devotion,\nor in the public observance of the rites and duties of a common faith.\n\nDr. Richardson\u2019s _Dictionary of the English Language_, the foremost work\nof its class, we owe greatly to the judicious energy of Mr. Pickering,\nthe publisher, who laid out two thousand pounds in books, specially for\nthis great labour, before it was commenced. If publishers would imitate\nMr. Pickering\u2019s liberality oftener than is done, there would be fewer\nincomplete and abortive compilations than are yearly issued from the\npress. Dr. Richardson acknowledges this valuable aid in his Preface,\nwhere he justly makes his boast of bringing within the circle of his\nreading a large number of books which had never been employed for\nlexicographical purposes before; and Dean Trench acknowledges that the\nvirgin soil which Richardson has tilled has often yielded him large and\nrich returns.\n\nOf the uselessness of our legions of words to be found in dictionaries,\na writer of the day observes:\n\n Dictionary English is something very different not only from common\n colloquial English, but even from that of ordinary written\n composition. Instead of about 40,000 words, there is probably no\n single author in the language from whose works, however voluminous,\n so many as 10,000 words could be collected. Of the 40,000 words\n there are certainly many more than one-half that are only employed,\n if they are ever employed at all, on the rarest occasions. We should\n any of us be surprised to find, if we counted them, with how small a\n number of words we manage to express all that we have to say either\n with our lips or even with the pen. Our common literary English\n probably hardly extends to 10,000 words, our common spoken English\n hardly to 5000. And the proportion of native or home-grown words is\n undoubtedly very much higher in both the 5000 and the 10,000 than it\n is in the 40,000. Perhaps of the 30,000 words, or thereabouts,\n standing in the dictionaries, that are very rarely or never used,\n even in writing, between 20,000 and 25,000 may be free of French or\n Latin extraction. If we assume 22,500 to be so, that will leave 5000\n Teutonic words in common use; and in our literary English, taken at\n 10,000 words, those that are non-Roman will thus amount to about\n one-half. Of that half 4000 words may be current in our spoken\n language, which will therefore be genuine English for four-fifths of\n its entire extent. It will consist of about 4000 Gothic and 1000\n Roman words.[83]\n\nThe Rev. Dr. D\u2019Orsey has shown, by coloured charts and elaborate tables,\nthe proportion of the Teutonic and Romanic elements in the spoken\nlanguage of England, and in the writings of our great authors. Thus, out\nof 100,000 words, at least 60,000 were Teutonic, 30,000 Romanic, and\n10,000 from all other sources.\n\nIt would be almost impossible to compose a sentence of moderate length\nconsisting solely of words of Latin derivation. But there are many which\ncan be rendered wholly in Anglo-Saxon. It would be easy to make the\nLord\u2019s Prayer entirely, as it is in present use almost entirely,\nAnglo-Saxon. It consists of sixty words, and six of these only have a\nLatin root. But for each of them, except one, we have an exact Saxon\nequivalent. For \u201ctrespasses\u201d we may substitute \u201csins;\u201d for \u201ctemptation,\u201d\n\u201ctrials;\u201d for \u201cdeliver,\u201d \u201cfree;\u201d and for \u201cpower,\u201d \u201cmight.\u201d Dr. Trench\nproposes for \u201cglory,\u201d \u201cbrightness;\u201d but this we think is not a good\nsubstitute.\n\nThe gradual changes in language are very remarkable. Dean Trench, in one\nof his popular manuals, observes: \u201cHow few aged persons, let them retain\nthe fullest possession of their faculties, are conscious of any\ndifference between the spoken language of their early youth and that of\ntheir old age; that words, and ways of using words, are obsolete now\nwhich were usual then; that many words are current now which had no\nexistence at that time. And yet it is certain that so it must be. A man\nmay fairly be supposed to remember clearly and well for sixty years\nback; and it needs less than five of these sixties to bring us to the\nperiod of Spenser, and not more than eight to set us in the time of\nChaucer and Wiclif. How great a change, how vast a difference in our\nlanguage, within eight memories! No one, overlooking this whole term,\nwill deny the greatness of the change. For all this, we may be tolerably\nsure that, had it been possible to interrogate a series of eight\npersons, such as together had filled up this time, intelligent men, but\nmen whose attention had not been especially roused on this subject, each\nin his turn would have denied that there had been any change at all\nduring his lifetime. And yet, having regard to the multitude of words\nwhich have fallen into disuse during these four or five hundred years,\nwe are sure that there must have been some lives in this chain which saw\nthose words in use at their commencement, and out of use before their\nclose. And so, too, of the multitude of words which have come into being\nwithin the limits of each of these lives.\u201d\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 83:\n\n _Dublin University Magazine._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n WHAT IS \u201cARGUMENT\u201d?\n\nThe origin and proper value of the word \u201cArgument\u201d has been thus\nexplained by the Rev. Dr. Donaldson, in a paper read to the Cambridge\nPhilosophical Society:\n\nThe author first investigated the etymology and meaning of the Latin\nverb _arguo_, and its participle _argutus_. He showed that _arguo_ was a\ncorruption of _argruo_ = _ad gruo_; that _gruo_ (in _argruo_, _ingruo_,\n_congruo_) ought to be compared with \u03ba\u03c1\u03bf\u03cd\u03c9, which means \u201cto dash one\nthing against another,\u201d especially for the purpose of making a shrill,\nringing noise; that _arguo_ means \u201cto knock something for the purpose of\nmaking it ring, or testing its soundness,\u201d hence \u201cto test, examine, and\nprove any thing;\u201d and that _argutus_ signifies \u201cmade to ring,\u201d hence\n\u201cmaking a distinct, shrill noise,\u201d or \u201ctested and put to the proof.\u201d\nAccordingly _argumentum_ means _id quod arguit_, \u201cthat which makes a\nsubstance ring, which sounds, examines, tests, and proves it.\u201d\n\nIt was then shown that these meanings were not only borne out by the\nclassical usage of the word, but also by the technical application of\n\u201cargument\u201d as a logical term. For it is not equivalent to\n\u201cargumentation,\u201d or the process of reasoning; it does not even denote a\ncomplete syllogism; though Dr. Whately and some other writers on logic\nhad fallen into this vague use of the word, and though it was so\nunderstood in the disputations of the Cambridge schools. The proper use\nof the word \u201cargument\u201d in logic is to denote \u201cthe middle term,\u201d _i. e._\n\u201cthe term used for proof.\u201d In a sense similar to this the word is\nemployed by mathematicians; and there can be no doubt that the oldest\nand best logicians confine the word to this, which is still its most\ncommon signification.\n\nThe author shows, by a collection of examples from the best English\npoets, that the established meanings of the word \u201cargument\u201d are\nreducible to three: (1) a proof, or means of proving; (2) a process of\nreasoning, or controversy, made up of such proofs; (3) the\nsubject-matter of any discourse, writing, or picture. He maintains that\nthe second of these meanings should be excluded from scientific\nlanguage.\n\nBy this we are reminded of Swift\u2019s dictum, of much wider\napplication\u2014that \u201cArgument, as generally managed, is the worst sort of\nconversation; as it is generally in books the worst sort of reading.\u201d\n\n\n HANDWRITING.\n\nThe characters of writing have followed the genius of the barbarous\nages: they are well or ill formed, in proportion as the sciences have\nflourished more or less. Antiquaries remark that the medals struck\nduring the consulship of Fabius Pictor, 250 years before Augustus, have\nthe letters better formed than those of the older date. Those of the\ntime of Augustus, and the following age, show characters of perfect\nbeauty. Those of Diocletian and Maximian are worse formed than those of\nthe Antonines; and again, those of the Justins and Justinians degenerate\ninto a Gothic taste. But it is not to medals only that these remarks are\napplicable: we see the same inferiority of written characters generally\nfollowing in the train of barbarism and ignorance. During the first race\nof the French kings, we find no writing which is not a mixture of Roman\nand other characters. Under the empire of Charlemagne and of Louis le\nD\u00e9bonnaire, the characters returned almost to the same point of\nperfection which distinguished them in the time of Augustus, but in the\nfollowing age there was a relapse to the former barbarism; so that for\nfour or five centuries we find only the Gothic characters in\nmanuscripts; for it is not worth while making an exception for short\nperiods which were somewhat more polished, and when there was less\ninelegance in the formation of the letters.\n\nThe being _able to write_ has been taken by our statists as the best\nevidence of the progress of education. Thus, twenty years ago, only 67\nin every 100 men who married in England signed their names upon the\nregister, and 51 in every 100 women, and thirteen years later the\npercentage was but 69\u00b76 of the men and 56\u00b71 of the women; but in the\nlast seven years, a period which probably shows in its marriages the\nresult chiefly of the education of the years 1840-45 or thereabouts, the\nadvance has been much greater, and the Registrar-General reports that in\n1860 the proportion of men writing their names had risen to 74\u00b75, and of\nwomen to 63\u00b78. In the whole twenty years the proportion of men who write\nhas risen from being only two-thirds to be three-fourths, and of women\nfrom being a half to be nearly two-thirds, which may be expressed with\ntolerable accuracy by saying that where four persons had to \u201cmake their\nmark\u201d then, only three do so now. This is for all England; but the rate\nof progress has not been the same in every part of the kingdom.\n\nIn the reign of George III., when education had become more general, the\ncrosses of those who could not write lost the distinction and artistic\ncharacter of older times, and the large bold round-hand corresponds in\nstyle with the buildings and furniture then in use. This writing,\nalthough without much beauty, has, notwithstanding, the merit of\ndistinctness. In these railway times, with the exception of book-keepers\nin banks and clerks in merchants\u2019 offices, few seem to have time to trim\ntheir letters. Few artists write a good hand. Physicians\u2019 prescriptions\nare often as difficult to decipher as ancient hieroglyphics; and it must\nbe confessed that writers for the press are not generally remarkable for\neither the distinctness or beauty of their manuscript. As regards\nartists, the practice of handling the brush and pencil is not favourable\nto graceful penmanship; and in respect of the literary profession, it is\ngenerally difficult for the pen to keep pace with the thoughts, to say\nnothing of the fact, that time often presses.[84]\n\nShort-Hand is of great antiquity; for Seneca tells us that in his time\nreporting had been carried to such perfection, that a writer could keep\npace in his report with the most rapid speaker.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 84:\n\n Communicated to _The Builder_.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n ENGLISH STYLE.\n\nStyle in writing has been well defined by Swift as \u201cproper words in\nproper places.\u201d However, this is rarely seen.\n\nTo the unsettled state of our language, and owing to the want of proper\ntraining in composition, may be attributed the general corruption of\nEnglish Style, which has scarcely ceased since Southey, in his\n_Colloquies_, wrote the following vigorous condemnation of it:\n\n More lasting effect was produced by translators, who, in later\n times, have corrupted our idiom as much as, in early ones, they\n enriched our vocabulary; and to this injury the Scotch have greatly\n contributed; for, composing in a language which is not their mother\n tongue, they necessarily acquired an artificial and formal style,\n which, not so much through the merit of a few, as owing to the\n perseverance of others, who for half a century seated themselves on\n the bench of criticism, has almost superseded the vernacular English\n of Addison and Swift. Our journals, indeed, have been the great\n corrupters of our style, and continue to be so; and not for this\n reason only. Men who write in newspapers, and magazines, and\n reviews, write for present effect; in most cases, this is as much\n their natural and proper aim, as it would be in public speaking; but\n when it is so, they consider, like public speakers, not so much what\n is accurate or just, either in matter or manner, as what will be\n acceptable to those whom they address. Writing also under the\n excitement of emulation and rivalry, they seek, by all the artifices\n and efforts of an ambitious style, to dazzle their readers; and they\n are wise in their generation, experience having shown that common\n minds are taken by glittering faults, both in prose and verse, as\n larks are with looking-glasses.\n\n In this school it is that most writers are now trained; and after\n such training, any thing like an easy and natural movement is as\n little to be looked for in their compositions as in the step of a\n dancing-master. To the views of style, which are thus generated,\n there must be added the inaccuracies inevitably arising from haste,\n when a certain quantity of matter is to be supplied for a daily or\n weekly publication, which allows of no delay,\u2014the slovenliness that\n confidence as well as fatigue and inattention will produce,\u2014and the\n barbarisms which are the effect of ignorance, or that smattering of\n knowledge which serves only to render ignorance presumptuous. These\n are the causes of corruption in our current style; and when these\n are considered, there would be ground for apprehending that the best\n writings of the last century might become as obsolete as ours in the\n like process of time, if we had not in our Liturgy and our Bible a\n standard from which it will not be possible wholly to depart.\n\nThe days of sentences of one word, and of others without a verb, had not\nthen arrived; nor had the spasmodic and sensation style been introduced.\nSouthey\u2019s own style, whether for narrative, for exposition, or for\nanimated argumentation, was perhaps the most effective English style of\nthe time. It combines in a remarkable degree a somewhat lofty dignity\nwith ease and idiomatic vigour. He was the most hard-working writer of\nhis time, and left about 12,000_l._ in money, besides a valuable\nlibrary.\n\nSir Thomas Browne satirises the strenuous advocacy of the classical\nstyle by saying: \u201cWe are now forced to study Latin, in order to\nunderstand English.\u201d And Pope ridicules that\n\n Easy Ciceronian style,\n So Latin, yet so English all the while.\n\nIt is no paradox to say that the perfection of style is to have none,\nbut to let the words be suggested by the sentiments, unchecked by the\nmonotony of a manner, and untainted by affectation.\n\nHow striking is this short passage in a speech of Edward IV. to his\nParliament! \u201cThe injuries that I have received are known every where,\nand the eyes of the world are fixed upon me to see with what countenance\nI suffer.\u201d If actual events could often be related in this way, there\nwould be more books in circulating libraries than romances and novels.\n\nThis lively and graphic style is plainly the best, though now and then\nthe historian\u2019s criticism is wanted to support a startling fact, or to\nexplain a confused transaction. Thus, the learned Rudbeck, in his\n_Atlantica_, four volumes folio, ascribing an ancient temple in Sweden\nto one of Noah\u2019s sons, warily adds, \u201c\u2019Twas probably the youngest.\u201d\n\nA more practical definition of style may be gathered from what Fox said\nof his great antagonist, Pitt,\u2014and therefore the more to be\ntrusted,\u2014that he always used _the_ word; and each word had its own\nplace, not regulated by chance, but by law.\n\nTo write a good Letter is a rare accomplishment. It is owing to the want\nof proper training in the laws of composition that so few persons in\nEngland can write even a common letter correctly. We will give a\nfamiliar instance of a very frequent solecism which occurs in one of the\nmost common acts of every-day life\u2014the answer to a dinner invitation;\nand it is one in which, we are sorry to say, well-educated ladies are\ntoo often caught tripping. When \u201cMr. A. and Mrs. A. request the pleasure\nof Mr. and Mrs. B.\u2019s company at dinner,\u201d the reply usually is, \u201cMr. and\nMrs. B. _will_ have the pleasure of accepting\u201d the invitation. But the\nacceptance is already _un fait accompli_ by the very act of writing\nit,\u2014it is a present, not a future event; and the answer of course ought\nto be either \u201cMr. and Mrs. B. _have_ the pleasure of accepting,\u201d or \u201cMr.\nand Mrs. B. _will have_ the pleasure of _dining_.\u201d[85]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 85:\n\n _Fraser\u2019s Magazine._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n ART OF WRITING.\n\n\u201cHe that would write well,\u201d says Roger Ascham, \u201cmust follow the advice\nof Aristotle, to speak as the common people speak, and to think as the\nwise think.\u201d\n\nColeridge says: \u201cTo write or talk concerning any subject, without having\npreviously taken the pains to understand it, is a breach of the duty\nwhich we owe to ourselves, though it may be no offence against the law\nof the land. The privilege of talking, and even publishing, nonsense, is\nnecessary in a free state; but the more sparingly we make use of it, the\nbetter.\u201d[86]\n\nMuch reading and good company are supposed to be the best methods of\ngetting at the niceties and elegancies of a language; but this road is\nlong and irksome. The great point is to acquire our most usual\nAnglicisms; all those phrases and peculiarities which form the\ncharacteristics of our language. Nearly eighty years since, Mr. Sharp\ntook upon himself to say that we had no grammar capable of teaching a\nforeigner to read our authors; adding, \u201cbut of this I am sure, that we\nhave none by which he can be enabled to understand our conversation.\u201d\n\nWhat an annoyance are long speakers, long talkers, and long\nwriters\u2014people who will not take time to think, or are not capable of\nthinking accurately! Once when Dr. South had preached before Queen Anne,\nher majesty observed to him, \u201cYou have given me a most excellent\ndiscourse, Dr. South; but I wish you had had time to make it longer.\u201d\n\u201cNay, madam,\u201d replied the doctor, \u201cif I had had time, I should have made\nit shorter.\u201d\n\nMethod in treating your subject is of great importance. Southey has well\nillustrated the absence of this quality. A Quaker, by name Benjamin Lay\n(who was a little cracked in the head, though sound at the heart), took\none of his compositions to Benjamin Franklin, that it might be printed\nand published. Franklin, having looked over the manuscript, observed\nthat it was deficient in arrangement: \u201cIt is no matter,\u201d replied the\nauthor; \u201cprint any part thou pleaseth first.\u201d Many are the speeches, and\nthe sermons, and the treatises, and the poems, and the volumes, which\nare like Benjamin Lay\u2019s book: the head might serve for the tail, and the\ntail for the body, and the body for the head; either end for the middle,\nand the middle for either end; nay, if you could turn them inside out,\nlike a polypus or a glove, they would be no worse for the operation.[87]\n\n * * * * *\n\nFree Translation is a rare accomplishment. Sir John Denham, who is\ndeclared by Johnson \u201cto have been one of the first that understood the\nnecessity of emancipating translation from the drudgery of counting\nlines and interpreting single words,\u201d gives the same praise to Sir\nRichard Fanshawe, whom he addresses thus:\n\n That servile path thou nobly dost decline,\n Of tracing word by word and line by line;\n A new and nobler way thou dost pursue,\n To make translations and translators too:\n They but preserve the ashes, thou the flame,\n True to his sense, but truer to his fame.\n\nDryden said, all the translations of the old school \u201cwant to be\ntranslated into English;\u201d and verbal translation he compares to \u201cdancing\non ropes with fettered legs.\u201d Education cannot do all that Helvetius\nsupposes, but it can do much. _Elle fait danser l\u2019ours_,\u2014It makes a bear\ndance. It is said that some insects take the colour of the leaf that\nthey feed upon. \u201cI was common clay till roses were planted in me,\u201d says\nsome aromatic earth, in an eastern fable.\n\nTo unlearn is harder than to learn, and the Grecian flute-player was\nright in requiring double fees from those pupils who had been taught by\nanother master. \u201cI am rubbing their father out of my children as fast as\nI can,\u201d said a clever widow of rank and fashion.\n\nThe Education of princes, or indeed the spoilt children of rich and\ndistinguished parents, must be the _experimentum crucis_ of teaching.\n\u201cIf F\u00e9nelon did succeed, as it is recorded he did, in educating the\nDauphin, his success was little less than a miracle. How can any man,\nthough of advanced age and of high reputation, perhaps also of a sacred\nprofession and of elevated station, be expected to preserve any useful\nauthority over a child (probably a wayward little animal), if he, the\ntutor, must always address the pupil by his title, or at least must\nnever forget that he is heir to a throne?\u201d\n\nThere is some truth in the following remarks by a writer in _Blackwood\u2019s\nMagazine_, upon information overmuch:\n\n We deal largely in general knowledge\u2014an excellent article, no doubt;\n but one may have too much of it. Sometimes ignorance is really\n bliss. It has not added to my personal comfort to know to a decimal\n fraction what proportion of red earth I may expect to find in my\n cocoa every morning; to have become knowingly conscious that my\n coffee is mixed with ground liver and litmus, instead of honest\n chicory; and that bisulphuret of mercury forms the basis of my\n cayenne. It was once my fate to have a friend staying in my house\n who was one of these minute philosophers. He used to amuse himself\n after breakfast by a careful analysis and diagnosis of the contents\n of the teapot, laid out as a kind of _hortus siccus_ on his plate.\n \u201cThis leaf, now,\u201d he would say, \u201cis fuchsia; observe the serrated\n edges: that\u2019s no tea-leaf\u2014positively poisonous. This now, again, is\n blackthorn, or privet\u2014yes, privet; you may know it by the divisions\n in the panicles: that\u2019s no tea-leaf.\u201d A most uncomfortable guest he\n was; and though not a bad companion in many respects, I felt my\n appetite improved the first time I sat down to dinner without him.\n It won\u2019t do to look into all your meals with a microscope. Of course\n there is a medium between these over-curious investigations and an\n implicit faith in every thing that is set before you.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 86:\n\n One fine morning, a stalwart anti-Newtonian, properly accredited,\n presented himself to Baron Maseres, in the library of his mansion at\n Reigate: \u201cI am come to talk over my favourite subject,\u201d he said (it\n was, to overturn the universe!). \u201cI am happy to see you,\u201d replied the\n Baron; \u201cbut before we commence, I must ask you if you consider\n yourself proficient in mathematics?\u201d The anti-Newtonian was\n dumbfounded. \u201cThen,\u201d rejoined the Baron, \u201cit would be unprofitable for\n us to begin;\u201d and he passed on to a more genial topic.\n\nFootnote 87:\n\n _The Doctor._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n Business-Life.\n\n\n\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n WANT OF A PURSUIT.\n\nSuch is the complicated constitution of human nature, that a man without\na predominant inclination is not likely to be either useful or happy.\n\nHe who is every thing is nothing, is as true of our sensitive as of our\nintellectual nature. He is rather a bundle of little likings, than a\ncompact and energetic individual. A strong desire soon subdues the\nweaker, and rules us with the united force of all that it subjugates.\n\nSuch being the force of human feelings, it must embitter our daily lives\nif our employments are unsuited to our talents and our wishes; yet how\nfew, alas, are so fortunate as to be gaining either wealth or fame while\ngratifying an inclination!\n\nIn the best of all arts, the art of living, the greatest skill is not to\nwait; but, as you run along, snatch at every fruit and every flower\ngrowing within your reach; for, after all that can be said, youth, the\nage of hope and admiration, and manhood, the age of business and of\ninfluence, are to be preferred to the period of extinguished passions\nand languid curiosity. At that season, our hopes and wishes must have\nbeen too long dropping, leaf by leaf, away. The last scenes of the fifth\nact are seldom the most interesting, either in a tragedy or a comedy.\nYet many compensations arise as our sensibility decays:\n\n Time steals away the rose, \u2019tis true;\n But then the thorn is blunted too.[88]\n\nLife, without some necessity for exertion (says Mr. Walker[89]), must\never lack real interest. That state is capable of the greatest enjoyment\nwhere necessity urges, but not painfully; where effort is required, but\nas much as possible without anxiety; where the spring and summer of life\nare preparatory to the harvest of autumn and the repose of winter. Then\nis every season sweet, and, in a well-spent life, the last the best\u2014the\nseason of calm enjoyment, the richest in recollections, the brightest in\nhope. Good training and a fair start constitute a more desirable\npatrimony than wealth; and those parents who study their children\u2019s\nwelfare rather than the gratification of their own avarice or vanity,\nwould do well to think of this. Is it better to run a successful race,\nor to begin and end at the goal?\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 88:\n\n Richard Sharp.\n\nFootnote 89:\n\n In _The Original_, a series of Periodical Papers, published in 1835,\n by Thomas Walker, M.A., one of the Police Magistrates of the\n Metropolis.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE ENGLISH CHARACTER.\n\nFour and thirty years since, Sir Humphry Davy wrote:\u201cThe English as a\nnation are pre\u00ebminently active, and the natives of no other country\nfollow their objects with so much force, fire, and constancy. And as\nhuman powers are limited, there are few examples of very distinguished\nmen living in this country to old age: they usually fail, droop, and\ndie, before they have attained the period naturally marked out for the\nend of human existence. The lives of our statesmen, warriors, poets, and\neven philosophers, offer abundant proofs of the truth of this opinion:\nwhatever burns, consumes; ashes remain. Before the period of youth is\npassed, gray hairs usually cover those brows which are adorned with the\ncivic oak or the laurel; and in the luxurious and exciting life of the\nmen of pleasure, their tints are not even preserved by the myrtle wreath\nor the garland of roses from the premature winter of time.\u201d If these\ncharacteristics were applicable to English life a third of a century\nsince, how much has their fitness been strengthened by the rapidity of\naction, the excitement, and want of repose adding to the wear and tear\nof existence, since that period.\n\nThat the Englishman is one of the most noble species of the genus to\nwhich he belongs, seems to be generally conceded. The poet Southey\nexpressed the opinion of more thinkers than himself when he said that\nthe Englishman is the model or pattern man, at least of all the species\nat present existing. But even those who are most thoroughly convinced of\nthis must admit that he has his peculiarities\u2014foremost among which is\nhis nationality; and one of the most striking peculiarities of that\nnationality is pride. Another potent element in the English character is\nits practical worth,\u2014this word \u201cpractical\u201d being the shibboleth by which\nwe love to recognise ourselves; as the Greeks delighted to picture\nthemselves as more wise, the French as more polite, than other nations.\n\nOur genius has a most real, concrete, and altogether terrestrial\ntendency: there seems to be a considerable majority of Sadducees among\nus, or, as Plato calls them, \u201cuninitiated persons, who believe in\nnothing but what they can lay hold of with their hands. These men will\nmake railways, telegraphs, and tunnels, and build crystal palaces, and\ncollect mechanical products from the ends of the earth, and exhibit in\nevery possible shape and variety the sublime of what is mechanical and\nmaterial; but for the supersensual ideas, they will have none of\nthem.\u201d[90]\n\nNevertheless, if we look through the history of the world\u2019s genius, we\nshall find its greatest successes to lie in the practical. Homer begged;\nTasso begged in a different way; Galileo was racked; De Witt\nassassinated,\u2014and all for wishing to improve their species. At the same\ntime, Raffaelle, Michel Angelo, Zeuxis, Apelles, Rubens, Reynolds,\nTitian, Shakspeare, were rich and happy. Why? because with their genius\nthey combined practical prudence. This is the grand secret of success.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 90:\n\n Professor Blackie; _Edinburgh Essays_, 1856.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n WORTH OF ENERGY.\n\nA man with knowledge but without energy is a home furnished but not\ninhabited; a man with energy but no knowledge, a house dwelt in but\nunfurnished.\n\nMr. Sharp[91] counsels us: \u201cPrefer a life of energy to a life of\ninaction. There are always kind friends enough ready to preach up\ncaution and delay, &c. Yet it is impossible to lay down any general rule\nof a prudential kind. Every one must be judged of after a careful review\nof all its circumstances; for if one, only one, be overlooked, the\ndecision may be injurious or fatal. Thus, there will ever be many\nconflicting reasons for and against a spirit of enterprise and a habit\nof caution.\n\n\u201cThose who advise others to withstand the temptations of hope will\nalways appear to be wiser than they really are, for how often can it be\nmade certain that the rejected and untried hazard would have been\nsuccessful? Besides, those who dissuade us from action have corrupt but\npowerful allies in our indolence, irresolution, and cowardice. To\ndespond is very easy, but it requires works as well as faith to engage\nsuccessfully in a difficult undertaking.\n\n\u201cThere are, however, few difficulties that hold out against real\nattacks: they fly, like the visible horizon, before those who advance. A\npassionate desire and an unwearied will can perform impossibilities, or\nwhat seem to be so to the cold and the feeble. If we do but go on, some\nunseen path will open among the hills.\n\n\u201cWe must not allow ourselves to be discouraged by the apparent\ndisproportion between the result of single efforts and the magnitude of\nthe obstacles to be encountered. Nothing great or good is to be obtained\nwithout courage and industry; but courage and industry must have sunk in\ndespair, and the world must have remained unornamented and unimproved,\nif men had nicely compared the effect of a single stroke of the chisel\nwith the pyramid to be raised, or of a single impression of the spade\nwith the mountain to be levelled.\n\n * * * * *\n\n\u201cEfforts, it must not be forgotten, are as indispensable as desires. The\nglobe is not to be circumnavigated by one wind. \u2018It is better to wear\nout than to rust,\u2019 says Bishop Cumberland. \u2018There will be time enough\nfor repose in the grave,\u2019 said Nicole to Pascal. In truth, the proper\nrest for man is change of occupation.\n\n\u201cThe toils as well as risks of an active life are commonly overrated, so\nmuch may be done by the diligent use of ordinary opportunities; but they\nmust not always be waited for. We must not only strike the iron while it\nis hot, but strike it till \u2018it is made hot.\u2019 Herschel, the great\nastronomer, declares that 90 or 100 hours, clear enough for observation,\ncannot be called an unproductive year.\n\n\u201cThe lazy, the dissipated, and the fearful, should patiently see the\nactive and the bold pass them in the course. They must bring down their\npretensions to the level of their talents. Those who have not energy to\nwork must learn to be humble, and should not vainly hope to unite the\nincompatible enjoyments of indolence and enterprise, of ambition and\nself-indulgence.\u201d\n\nThese lines of fair encouragement are the advice of a man of the world,\nbut whose feelings had not become blunted by his intercourse with the\nworld: he was one of the most cheerful, amiable, and happy beings it\never fell to our lot to know; his joyous manner was the true index to\nhis large and sound heart.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 91:\n\n Mr. Richard Sharp, F.R.S., and some time M.P. for Port-Arlington, in\n Ireland. He was celebrated for his conversational talents, and hence\n was known as \u201cConversation Sharp.\u201d At Fridley-farm, Sir James\n Macintosh, and other distinguished men of his day, were frequently Mr.\n Sharp\u2019s guests. Of his volume of _Letters, Essays, and Poems_, a third\n edition appeared in 1834.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n TEST OF GREATNESS.\n\nThe true test of a great man (says Lord Brougham),\u2014that at least which\nmust secure his place among the highest order of great men,\u2014is his\nhaving been in advance of his age. This it is which decides whether or\nnot he has carried forward the grand plan of human improvement; has\nconformed his views and adapted his conduct to the existing\ncircumstances of society, or changed those so as to better its\ncondition; has been one of the lights of the world, or only reflected\nthe borrowed rays of former luminaries, and sat in the same shade with\nthe rest of his generation at the same twilight or the same dawn.\n\nNature seldom invests great men with any outward signs, from which their\ngreatness may be known or foretold; and yet (says Lord Dudley) I own I\nshare fully in that curiosity of the vulgar, which induces them to\nfollow after and to gaze eagerly upon the mere bodily presence of\npersons that have raised themselves high above the common level.\n\nAlmost all great men who have performed, or who are destined to perform,\ngreat things, are sparing of words. Their communing is with themselves\nrather than with others. They feed upon their own thoughts, and in these\ninward musings brace those intellectual and active energies, the\ndevelopment of which constitutes the great character. Napoleon became a\nbabbler only when his fate was accomplished, and his fortune was on the\ndecline.\n\nBoyle has this pertinent reflection: \u201cThere is such a kind of difference\nbetween vertue shaded by a private, and shining forth in a publick life,\nas there is betwixt a candle carri\u2019d aloft in the open air, and inclosed\nin a lanthorn; in the former place it gives more light, but in the\nlatter \u2019tis in less danger to be blown out.\u201d[92]\n\nThe real test of greatness is courage and respect for truth, generally\nthe earliest precept of childhood, yet of comparatively rare observance\nthrough life. \u201cWithout courage,\u201d says Sir Walter Scott, \u201cthere cannot be\ntruth; and without truth there can be no other virtue.\u201d And how nobly\ndid Scott illustrate this in his own life-practice!\n\nTruth was the redeeming virtue of one of the favoured men of our\npolitical history. The qualities which raised Fox high as a party leader\nwere not merely his eloquence, his wit, his genius, but also his\nengaging warmth of heart and kindliness of temper. To these a strong\ntestimony may be found in the memoirs of a great historian by no means\nblind to his faults, and by no means attached to his principles. On\nsumming up his character, many years afterwards, Gibbon writes of Fox as\nfollows: \u201cPerhaps no human being was ever more perfectly exempt from the\ntaint of malevolence, vanity, or falsehood.\u201d\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 92:\n\n _Occasional Reflections._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n CHOICE OF A PROFESSION.\n\n Keep not standing fix\u2019d and rooted,\n Briskly venture, briskly roam!\n Hand and heart, where\u2019er thou foot it,\n And stout heart are still at home.\n In each land the sun does visit\n We are gay, whate\u2019er betide;\n To give space for wand\u2019ring is it\n That the world was made so wide.\n _Wilhelm Meister:_ Carlyle.\n\nWe know of no more fertile source of crime than Idleness. It is the want\nof a due impression of the importance and legitimate employment of time,\nwhich is one of the main occasions of the luxury and profligacy of one\norder of society; and it is the same cause which vitiates and defiles\nthe manners of another, and a subordinate rank, in the scale. It is\ninquired by an ancient poet, who was a keen and accurate observer of\nhuman character, why \u00c6gisthus so grievously and wantonly deviated from\nthe path of virtue? and he immediately rejoins the reply, \u201cThe cause is\nobvious,\u2014he was idle!\u201d And it is a circumstance worthy of remark, that\nwhen Hogarth wished to give a portrait of a veteran criminal, he made\nhim commence his career as a boy lolling on the tombstones of the\nchurchyard on a Sunday.\n\nMr. Ruskin has written these beautiful words of encouragement: \u201cGod\nappoints to every one of His creatures a separate mission; and if they\ndischarge it honourably\u2014if they quit themselves like men, and faithfully\nfollow that light which is in them, withdrawing from it all cold and\nquenching influence\u2014there will assuredly come of it such burning as, in\nits appointed mode and measure, shall shine before men, and be of\nservice, constant and holy. Degrees infinite of lustre there must always\nbe; but the weakest among us has a gift, however seemingly trivial,\nwhich is peculiar to him, and which, worthily used, will be a gift also\nto his race for ever.\u201d\n\n\u2018Know thyself\u2019 is an old precept; yet it is surprising how few are\nsufficiently acquainted with themselves to see distinctly what their own\nmotives actually are. It is a rare thing, as well as a great advantage,\nfor a man to know his own mind.\n\nWere but a tithe of the time and the thought usually spent in learning\nthe commonest accomplishments bestowed upon regulating our lives, how\nmany evils would be avoided or lessened; how many pleasures would be\ncreated or increased!\n\nIn one of Steele\u2019s papers, No. 173 of the _Tatler_, are some admirable\nremarks upon the time lost by boys in learning that which, in\nafter-life, is of little service to them. \u201cThe truth of it is,\u201d says\nSteele, \u201cthe first rudiments of education are given very indiscreetly by\nmost parents. Whatever children are designed for, and whatever prospects\nthe fortune or interest of their parents may give them in their future\nlives, they are all promiscuously instructed in the same way; and Horace\nand Virgil must be thumbed by a boy as well before he goes to an\napprenticeship as to the university.... This is the natural effect of a\ncertain vanity in the minds of parents, who are wonderfully delighted\nwith the thought of breeding their children to accomplishments, which\nthey believe nothing but the want of the same care in their own fathers\nprevented them being masters of. Thus it is that the part of life most\nfit for improvement is generally employed against the bent of nature;\nand a lad of such parts as are fit for an occupation where there can be\nno calls out of the beaten path, is two or three years of his time\nwholly taken up in knowing how well Ovid\u2019s mistress became such a dress,\n&c.... However, still the humour goes on from one generation to another;\nand the pastrycook here in the lane, the other night, told me \u2018he would\nnot take away his son from his learning; but has resolved, as soon as he\nhas had a little smattering in the Greek, to put him apprentice to a\nsoap-boiler.\u2019 These wrong beginnings determine our success in the world;\nand when our thoughts are originally falsely biassed, their agility and\nforce do but carry us the farther out of our way, in proportion to our\nspeed. But we are half-way on our journey when we have got into the\nright road. If all our ways were usefully employed, and we did not set\nout impertinently, we should not have so many grotesque professors in\nall the arts of life; but every man would be in a proper and becoming\nmethod of distinguishing or entertaining himself, suitably to what\nnature designed him. As they go on now, our parents do not only force\nupon us what is against our talents, but our teachers are also as\ninjudicious in what they put us to learn.\u201d\n\nThe practice of the irresolute in deliberating without deciding is\nanother parlous error. \u201cWhat I cannot resolve upon in half an hour,\u201d\nsaid the Duc de Guise, \u201cI cannot resolve upon at all.\u201d\n\nBacon has well described this irresolution in his complaint, \u201cthat some\nmen object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too\nsoon, and seldom drive business home.\u201d\n\nThe strongest incentive to decision is self-dependence. Mr. Sharp writes\nto a young friend at college:\n\n I have confidence in your capacity. However, my favourable\n anticipations arise chiefly from your being aware that your station\n in society must depend entirely on your own exertions. Luckily, you\n have not to overcome the disadvantage of expecting to inherit from\n your father an income equal to your reasonable desires; for, though\n it may have the air of a paradox, yet it is truly a serious\n disadvantage when a young man going to the bar is sufficiently\n provided for.\n\n Vitam facit beatiorem\n Res non parta, sed relicta,\n\n says Martial, but not wisely; and no young man should believe him.\n\n The necessity for instant decision in life renders it often prudent\n to take the chance of being right or wrong, without waiting to\n balance reasons very nicely. In such cases, and sometimes even in\n speculation, this kind of credulity is more philosophical than\n scepticism; though authority in abstruse investigations should\n usually do little more than excite attention, while in practice it\n must guide our conduct.\n\n It is unfortunate when a man\u2019s intellectual and his moral character\n are not suited to each other. The horses in a carriage should go the\n same pace and draw in the same direction, or the motion will be\n neither pleasant nor safe.\n\n Bonaparte has remarked of one of his marshals, that \u201che had a\n military genius, but had not intrepidity enough in the field to\n execute his own plans;\u201d and of another he said, \u201che is as brave as\n his sword, but he wants judgment and resources: neither,\u201d he added,\n \u201cis to be trusted with a great command.\u201d\n\n This want of harmony between the talents and the temperament is\n often found in private life; and, wherever found, is the fruitful\n source of faults and sufferings. Perhaps there are few less happy\n than those who are ambitious without industry; who pant for the\n prize, but will not run the race; who thirst for truth, but are too\n slothful to draw it up from the well.\n\n Now this defect, whether arising from indolence or from timidity, is\n far from being incurable. It may, at least in part, be remedied by\n frequently reflecting on the endless encouragements to exertion held\n out by our own experience and by example:\n\n C\u2019est des difficult\u00e9s que naissent les miracles.\n\n It is not every calamity that is a curse, and _early_ adversity\n especially is often a blessing. Perhaps Madame de Maintenon would\n never have mounted a throne had not her cradle been rocked in a\n prison. Surmounted obstacles not only teach, but hearten us in our\n future struggles; for virtue must be learnt, though unfortunately\n some of the vices come, as it were, by inspiration. The austerities\n of our northern climate are thought to be the cause of our abundant\n comforts; as our wintry nights and our stormy seas have given us a\n race of seamen perhaps unequalled, and certainly not surpassed, by\n any in the world.\n\n \u201cMother,\u201d said a Spartan lad going to battle, \u201cmy sword is too\n short.\u201d \u201cAdd a step to it,\u201d she replied; but it must be owned that\n this advice was to be given only to a Spartan boy. They should not\n be thrown into the water who cannot swim: I know your buoyancy, and\n I have no fears of your being drowned.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n OFFICIAL LIFE.\n\nThe grand scramble for place was thus vividly painted by Mr. Sharp some\neighty years since: \u201cThe young people of this country, in every rank,\nfrom a peer\u2019s son to a street-sweeper\u2019s, are drawn aside from a\npraiseworthy exertion in honest callings, by having their eyes directed\ntowards the public treasury. The rewards of persevering industry are too\nslow for them, too small, and too insipid. They fondly trust to the\ngreat lottery, although the wheel contains so many blanks and so few\nprizes; hoping that their ticket may be drawn a place, a pension, or a\ncontract; a living, or a stall; a ship, or a regiment; a seat on the\nbench, or the great seal.\n\n\u201cIt is, indeed, most humiliating to witness the indecent scramble that\nis always going on for these prizes, the highest born and best educated\nrolling in the dirt to pick them up, just as the lowest of the mob do\nfor the shillings or the pence thrown among them by a successful\ncandidate at a contested election.\u201d\n\nIn this rush there must always be a host of genius and talent neglected\nor overlooked; and this from various causes, some of which have been\nthus sketched by a living novelist, accustomed to see far beyond most of\nhis literary brethren:\n\n In all men who have devoted themselves to any study, or any art,\n with sufficient pains to attain a certain degree of excellence,\n there must be a fund of energy immeasurably above that of the\n ordinary herd. Usually, this energy is concentred on the objects of\n their professional ambition, and leaves them, therefore, apathetic\n to the other pursuits of men. But where those objects are denied,\n where the stream has not its legitimate vent, the energy, irritated\n and aroused, possesses the whole being; and if not wasted on\n desultory schemes, or if not purified by conscience and principle,\n becomes a dangerous and destructive element in the social system,\n through which it wanders in riot and disorder. Hence, in all wise\n monarchies\u2014nay, in all well-constituted states\u2014the peculiar care\n with which channels are opened for every art and every science;\n hence the honour paid to their cultivators by subtle and thoughtful\n statesmen, who, perhaps, for themselves, see nothing in a picture\n but coloured canvas\u2014nothing in a problem but an ingenious puzzle. No\n state is ever more in danger than when the talent which should be\n consecrated to peace has no occupation but political intrigue or\n personal advancement. Talent unhonoured is talent at war with\n men.[93]\n\nReliance upon family influence with persons in high stations is but a\npoor dependence.[94] We happen to know a large family of sons unprovided\nfor, who have been calculating for years upon the influence of a\nmaid-of-honour with her relative, the Premier. But ministers who have\nthe good things to give away are often so pressed by their political\nsupporters, that their own connexions are made to yield. The late Lord\nMelbourne was proverbially a good-natured man; but in a case of the\nabove kind he acted with a sense of duty more stringent than might have\nbeen expected. It appears that Lord John Russell had applied to Lord\nMelbourne for some provision for one of the sons of the poet Moore; and\nhere is the Premier\u2019s reply:\n\n \u201cMy dear John,\u2014I return you Moore\u2019s letter. I shall be ready to do\n what you like about it when we have the means. I think whatever is\n done should be done for Moore himself. This is more distinct,\n direct, and intelligible. Making a small provision for young men is\n hardly justifiable; and it is of all things the most prejudicial to\n themselves. They think what they have much larger than it really is;\n and they make no exertion. The young should never hear any language\n but this: \u2018You have your own way to make, and it depends upon your\n own exertions whether you starve or not.\u2019\u2014Believe me,\n &c.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0MELBOURNE.\u201d[95]\n\nThe foundation of the Sidmouth Peerage is traceable to one of those\nfortunate turns which have much to do with worldly success. It is\nrelated that while Lord Chatham was residing at Hayes, in Kent, his\nfirst coachman being taken ill, the postillion was sent for the family\ndoctor; but not finding him, the messenger returned, bringing with him\nMr. Addington, then a practitioner in the place, who, by permission of\nLord Chatham, saw the coachman, and reported his ailment. His lordship\nwas so pleased with Mr. Addington, that he employed him as apothecary\nfor the servants, and then for himself; and, Lady Hester Stanhope tells\nus, \u201cfinding he spoke good sense on medicine, and then on politics, he\nat last made him his physician.\u201d Dr. Addington subsequently practised in\nthe metropolis, then retired to Reading, and there married; and in 1757\nwas born his eldest son, Henry Addington, who was educated at Winchester\nand Oxford, and called to the Bar in 1784. Through his father\u2019s\nconnexion with the family of Lord Chatham, an intimacy had grown up\nbetween young Addington and William Pitt when they were boys. Pitt was\nnow First Minister of the Crown, and through his influence Addington\nentered upon his long political career, and became in very few years\nPrime Minister of England: his administration was brief; but he was\nraised to the Peerage in 1805, and held various offices until 1824, when\nhe retired. Lord Sidmouth was an unpopular minister, and not a man of\nstriking talent; but his aptitude for official business was great. He\nsurvived until 1844, when he was succeeded by his eldest son, the\npresent Viscount, in holy orders.\n\nThe origin of Lord Liverpool is scarcely less striking. The father of\nthis statesman was Mr. Robert Jenkinson, a man of no patrimony, but who,\nby his application and aptitude for State affairs, gave lustre to his\nname. In 1778 he succeeded Lord Barrington as Secretary-at-War: he rose\nat last to be Earl of Liverpool; and his son, the second Earl, to be\nfifteen years First Lord of the Treasury.\n\nAnother instance of successful integrity in Official Life is presented\nby the Right Hon. George Rose, one of the most valuable public servants\nwhich this country has known,\u2014\u201can able, clear-headed, straightforward\nman of business, whose steady industry, devoted for years to the service\nof the State, won for him, and most deservedly, not only political\nimportance, but the personal regard of his sovereign, and indeed of all\nwho knew him.\u201d[96] He was, in early life, purser of a ship-of-war, where\nhis abilities became known to the Earl of Sandwich, by whom he was\nrecommended to Lord North, who gave him an appointment in the Treasury:\nhe was a man of frugal habits, and often ate his mutton-chop at the Cat\nand Bagpipes tavern, at the corner of Downing-street; _pari passu_, he\nwas one of the early encouragers of Savings-Banks. He was the sincere\nand devoted friend of Pitt, whose personal character and administrative\nzeal are nobly vindicated by the recent publication of Mr. Rose\u2019s\nDiaries and Correspondence. In 1777 he superintended the publication of\nthe Journals of the House of Lords, in thirty-one folio volumes, from\nwhich time he rarely failed to be employed in a public capacity by\nsuccessive administrations. In the intervals of his heavy official\nduties, he was enabled to write several works upon political and\nadministrative questions of importance.\n\nJohn Barrow, born in a lowly cottage at Dragley Beck, in Lancashire,\nrose, by his own earnest industry, to the responsible post of a\nSecretary to the Admiralty, for forty years, under thirteen\nadministrations. When sixteen years old, he made a voyage in a whaler to\nGreenland; he next taught mathematics in a school at Greenwich. He\nattended Lord Macartney in his celebrated embassy to China, and took\ncharge of the philosophical instruments carried out as presents to the\nEmperor of China; of this journey Barrow subsequently published an\naccount in a quarto volume. He was next appointed Secretary to Lord\nMacartney, Governor of the Cape of Good Hope; and during his leisure Mr.\nBarrow, in various journeys, collected materials for a volume of\n_Travels in South Africa_, which he published on his return to England.\nThroughout his Admiralty secretaryship he was indefatigable in promoting\nthe progress of geographical or scientific knowledge, especially in\nrecommending to the governments under which he served various voyages to\nthe Arctic Regions. He was a man of untiring industry, and devoted his\nleisure to literature and scientific pursuits: he published various\nworks; contributed 195 articles to the _Quarterly Review_; and at the\nage of eighty-three (one year before his death) wrote his Autobiography.\nHis public services had been rewarded by a baronetcy in 1835; and\nshortly after his death, in 1848, upon the lofty Hill of Hoad, near to\nthe humble cottage in which Sir John Barrow was born, there was erected,\nby public subscription, to his memory, a sea-mark tower, as a record of\nwhat noble distinction may be earned in this happy country by\nwell-directed energy and strictly moral worth.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 93:\n\n Sir E. L. Bulwer Lytton\u2019s _Zanoni_.\n\nFootnote 94:\n\n Family reputation is generally considered but an insecure stock to\n begin the world with: nevertheless there is much truth in the\n experience of Lord Mahon (now Earl Stanhope), who says: \u201cIn public\n life I have seen full as many men promoted for their father\u2019s talents\n as for their own.\u201d\n\nFootnote 95:\n\n This letter is quoted in Mr. Smiles\u2019s _Self-Help_.\n\nFootnote 96:\n\n _Notes and Queries._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n OFFICIAL QUALIFICATIONS.\n\nSwift\u2019s happy illustration of a frequent cause of failure, drawn in the\nreign of Queen Anne,\u2014whose administrators were principally eminent\nscholars,\u2014is scarcely so applicable in our time. Men of great parts are\noften unfortunate in the management of public business, because they are\napt to go out of the common road by the quickness of their imagination.\nThis Swift once said to Lord Bolingbroke, and desired he would observe\nthat the clerk in his office used a sort of ivory knife with a blunt\nedge to divide a sheet of paper, which never failed to cut it even, only\nrequiring a steady hand; whereas, if they should make use of a sharp\npenknife, the sharpness would make it go often out of the crease, and\ndisfigure the paper.\n\nA model Court-letter has been preserved by singular accident. When Swift\nwas looking out for the prebend and sinecure of Dr. South, who was then\nvery infirm, he received the following letter from Lord Halifax, to whom\nAddison had communicated Swift\u2019s expectations:\n\n \u201c_October 6, 1709._\n\n \u201cSir,\u2014Our friend Mr. Addison telling me that he was to write to you\n to-night, I could not let his packet go away without letting you\n know how much I am concerned to find them returned without you. I am\n quite ashamed, for myself and my friends, to see you left in a place\n so incapable of testing you; and to see so much merit, and so great\n qualities, unrewarded by those who are sensible of them. Mr. Addison\n and I are entered into a new confederacy, never to give over the\n pursuit, nor to cease reminding those who can serve you, till your\n worth is placed in that light it ought to shine in. Dr. South holds\n out still, but he cannot be immortal. The situation of his prebend\n would make me doubly concerned in serving you; and upon all\n occasions that shall offer, I will be your constant solicitor, your\n sincere admirer, and your unalterable friend.\u2014I am your most humble\n and obedient servant,\n\n HALIFAX.\u201d\n\nSir W. Scott notes: \u201cThis letter from Lord Halifax, the celebrated and\nalmost professed patron of learning, is a curiosity in its way, being a\nperfect model of a courtier\u2019s correspondence with a man of\nletters\u2014condescending, obliging, and probably utterly unmeaning. Dr.\nSwift wrote thus on the back of the letter: \u2018_I kept this letter as a\ntrue original of courtiers and court promises;_\u2019 and, on the first leaf\nof a small printed book, entitled _Po\u00e9sies Chr\u00e9tiennes de Mons.\nJollivet_, he wrote these words: \u2018Given me by my Lord Halifax, May 3,\n1709. I begged it of him, and desired him to remember it was the only\n_favour_ I ever received from him or his party.\u2019\u201d Dr. South, it should\nbe added, survived until 1716, and then died, aged 83.\n\nDiplomatic Handwriting has been a point of some moment with ministers,\nbut has been tested in some strange varieties. Lord Palmerston, who was\nso long Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was very particular as\nto hand-writing, and the style in use in the Foreign-office is\nattributable chiefly to him, but partly to Mr. Canning, who laid down\nthe rule that not more than ten lines should be put into a page of\nfoolscap. The handwriting of the Foreign-office is peculiar: the letters\nare to be formed in a particular way, the writing to be large and\nupright, and the words well apart, so as to be easily legible; it is not\nwhat a writing-master would teach as a good hand, and a clerk has to\nacquire it in the Office. The Foreign-office has been able to boast of\nthe best handwriting in the public service; but it is not so good as it\nwas formerly, owing to the great pressure for quick writing in order to\nprepare papers that come down in the afternoon to go abroad the same\nevening. A question put by Mr. Layard implied that he had heard of\ndespatches received from some of our ministers abroad so ill-written\nthat the originals could not be sent to her Majesty, and copies had to\nbe made for the purpose. Mr. Hammond, of the Foreign office, states that\nthis could certainly not have occurred of late years; but he has known\ntwo ambassadors of ours whose handwriting was the most difficult to read\nthat it is possible to conceive.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n PUBLIC SPEAKING.\n\nThe art of speaking well is unquestionably one of the showiest\nqualifications for public life; although the drawback of unsoundness may\nbe as common now as when it was classically expressed: _Satis\neloquenti\u00e6, sapienti\u00e6 parum_. Little or no attention has been bestowed\nin modern times on oratory as a separate branch of study; and eloquence\nhas come to be more admired as one of the rare gifts of nature, than\nsought after as one of the fruits of art. The diffusion of opinions and\narguments by means of the press has perhaps contributed in some degree\nto the present neglect of oratory; for a speaker is mainly known to the\npublic through the press, and it is often more important to him to be\n_read_ than to be _heard:_ the eloquence of the newspaper\u2014that is, the\naccomplishment of reporting\u2014is the best oratory of our times; but the\nfollowing experiences may be useful.\n\nFirst, of one of the greatest orators of antiquity\u2014Demosthenes. Those\nwho expect to find in his style of oratory the fervid and impassioned\nlanguage of a man carried away by his feelings to the prejudice of his\njudgment, will be disappointed. He is said not to have been a ready\nspeaker, and to have required preparation. All his orations bear the\nmarks of an effort to convince the understanding rather than to work on\nthe passions of his hearers. And this is the highest praise. Men may be\n_persuaded_ by splendid imagery, well-chosen words, and appeals to their\npassions; but to convince by a calm and clear address, when the speaker\nhas no unfair advantage of person or of manner, and calls to his aid\nnone of the tricks of rhetoric,\u2014this is what Cicero calls the Oratory of\nDemosthenes, the ideal model of true eloquence.[97]\n\nDemosthenes laboured under great physical disadvantages: he was\nnaturally of a weak constitution, had a feeble voice, an indistinct\narticulation, and a shortness of breath. To remedy these defects, he\nclimbed up hills with pebbles in his mouth, he declaimed on the\nsea-shore, or with a sword hung so as to strike his shoulders when he\nmade an uncouth gesture. He is also said to have shut himself up at\ntimes in a cave underground for study\u2019s sake, and this for months\ntogether.\n\nNext, of a great master of eloquence in our own times\u2014Charles James Fox,\nwhom Lord Ossory describes as \u201cone of the most extraordinary men that\never existed.\u201d He was very young when his father, Henry, Lord Holland,\nfinished his political career; but hearing from his childhood a constant\nconversation upon political subjects and the occurrences in the House of\nCommons, he was, both by nature and education, formed for a statesman.\n\u201cHis father delighted to cultivate his talents by argumentation and\nreasoning with him upon all subjects. He took his seat in the House of\nCommons before he was twenty-one, and very shortly began to show the\ndawn of those prodigious talents which he has since displayed. He was\nmuch caressed by the then Ministry, and appointed a Lord of the\nAdmiralty, and soon promoted to the Treasury. Lord North (which he must\never since have repented) was inclined to turn him out upon some trivial\noccasion or difference; and soon afterwards the fatal quarrel with\nAmerica commenced, Mr. Fox constantly opposing the absurd measures of\nadministration, and rising by degrees to be the first man the House of\nCommons ever saw. His opposition continued from 1773 to 1782, when the\nAdministration was fairly overturned by his powers; for even the great\nweight of ability, property, and influence that composed the Opposition,\ncould never have effected that great work, if he had not acquired the\nabsolute possession and influence of the House of Commons. He certainly\ndeserved their confidence; for his political conduct had been fair,\nopen, honest, and decided, against the system so fatally adopted by the\nCourt. He resisted every temptation to be brought over by that system,\nhowever flattering to his ambition; for he must soon have been at the\nhead of every thing. But I do not know whether his abilities were not\nthe least extraordinary part about him. Perhaps that is saying too much;\nbut he was full of good nature, good temper, and facility of\ndisposition, disinterestedness with regard to himself, at the same time\nthat his mind was fraught with the most noble sentiments and ideas upon\nall possible subjects. His understanding had the greatest scope I can\nform an idea of, his memory the most wonderful, his judgment the most\ntrue, his reasoning the most profound and acute, his eloquence the most\nrapid and persuasive.\u201d\n\nScarcely any person has ever become a great debater without long\npractice and many failures. It was by slow degrees, as Burke said, that\nFox became the most brilliant and powerful debater that ever lived. Fox\nhimself attributed his own success to the resolution which he formed\nwhen very young, of speaking, well or ill, at least once every night.\n\u201cDuring five whole sessions,\u201d he used to say, \u201cI spoke every night but\none; and I regret only that I did not speak that night too.\u201d\n\nThe model of a debate is that given by Milton in the opening of the\nsecond book of _Paradise Lost_.\n\nMr. Sharp tells of the first meetings of a society at a public school,\nin which two or three evenings were consumed in debating whether the\nfloor should be covered with a sail-cloth or a carpet; and better\npractice was gained in these unimportant discussions than in those that\nsoon followed,\u2014on liberty, slavery, passive obedience, and tyrannicide.\nIt has been truly said, that nothing is so unlike a battle as a review.\n\nSir E. Bulwer Lytton has well illustrated a defect even in great\norators, namely, nervousness; he says: \u201cI doubt whether there has been\nany public speaker of the highest order of eloquence who has not felt an\nanxiety or apprehension, more or less actually painful, before rising to\naddress an audience upon any very important subject on which he has\nmeditated beforehand. This nervousness will, indeed, probably be\nproportioned to the amount of previous preparation, even though the\nnecessities of reply, or the changeful temperament which characterises\npublic assemblies, may compel the orator to modify, alter, perhaps\nwholly reject, what, in previous preparation, he had designed to say.\nThe fact of preparation itself had impressed him with the dignity of the\nsubject\u2014with the responsibilities that devolve on an advocate from whom\nmuch is expected, on whose individual utterance results affecting the\ninterests of many may depend. His imagination had been roused and\nwarmed, and there is no imagination where there is no sensibility. Thus\nthe orator had mentally surveyed, as it were, at a distance, the\nloftiest height of his argument; and now, when he is about to ascend to\nit, the awe of the altitude is felt.\u201d\n\nThe late Marquis of Lansdowne one day remarked to Thomas Moore, that he\nhardly ever spoke in the House of Lords without feeling the approaches\nof some loss of self-possession, and found that the only way to surmount\nit was to talk on at all hazards. He added, what appears highly\nprobable, that those _commonplaces_ which most men accustomed to public\nspeaking have ready cut and dry, to bring in on all occasions, were, he\nthought, in general used by them as a mode of getting out of those blank\nintervals, when they do not know _what_ to say next, but, in the mean\ntime, must say _something_.\n\nMr. John Scott Russell, the eminent engineer, gives the following\npractical hints: \u201cIn a large room, nearly square, the best place to\nspeak from is near one corner, with the voice directed diagonally to the\nopposite corner. In all rooms of common forms, the lowest pitch of voice\nthat will reach across the room will be most audible. In all such rooms,\nit is better to speak along the length of the room than across it; and a\nlow ceiling will, _c\u00e6teris paribus_, convey the sound better than a high\none. It is better, generally, to speak from pretty near a wall or\npillar, than far away from it. It is desirable that the speaker should\nspeak in the key-note of the room, and evenly, but not loud.\u201d\n\nTo be well acquainted with the subject is of prime importance. Malone\nrelates an amusing instance of failure in this respect in one of our\ngreatest orators. Lord Chatham, when Mr. Pitt, on some occasion made a\nvery long and able speech in the Privy Council relative to some naval\nmatter. Every one present was struck by the force of his eloquence. Lord\nAnson, who was by no means eloquent, being then at the head of the\nAdmiralty, and differing entirely in opinion from Mr. Pitt, got up, and\nonly said these words: \u201cMy Lords, Mr. Secretary is very eloquent, and\nhas stated his own opinion very plausibly. I am no orator; and all I\nshall say is, that he knows nothing at all of what he has been talking\nabout.\u201d\n\nMr. Flood, the Irish orator, being told that he seemed to argue with\nsomewhat less of his usual vigour when engaged on the wrong side of the\nquestion, happily replied that he \u201ccould not escape from the force of\nhis own understanding.\u201d This must be the origin of the shrewd\nobservation, that some clever persons are \u201ceducated beyond their own\nunderstanding.\u201d\n\nMr. Brougham, writing to the father of Thomas Babington Macaulay when\nthe latter was at Cambridge University, urged the following, with a view\nto the great promise for public speaking which Macaulay then possessed,\nand of which Lord Grey had spoken in terms of the highest praise. \u201cHe\ntakes his accounts from his son,\u201d says Mr. Brougham; \u201cbut from all I\nknow, and have learnt in other quarters, I doubt not that his judgment\nis well formed. Now, of course, you destine him for the Bar; and,\nassuming that this, and the public objects incidental to it, are in his\nviews, I would fain impress upon you (and through you, upon him) a truth\nor two which experience has made me aware of, and which I would have\ngiven a great deal to have been acquainted with earlier in life from the\nexperience of others.\n\n\u201c1. The beginning of the art is to acquire a habit of _easy speaking_;\nand in whatever way this can be had (which individual inclination or\naccident will generally direct, and may safely be allowed to do so), it\nmust be had. Now, I differ from all other doctors of rhetoric in this: I\nsay, let him first of all learn to speak safely and fluently; as well\nand as sensibly as he can, no doubt, but at any rate let him learn to\nspeak. This is to eloquence or good speaking what the being able to talk\nin a child is to correct grammatical speech. It is the requisite\nfoundation, and on it you must build. Moreover, it can only be acquired\nyoung: therefore, let it by all means, and at any sacrifice, be gotten\nhold of forthwith. But in acquiring it, every sort of slovenly error\nwill also be acquired. It must be got by a habit of easy writing\u2014which,\nas Wyndham said, proved hard reading; by a custom of talking much in\ncompany; by debating in speaking societies, with little attention to\nrule, and more love of saying something at any rate, than of saying any\nthing well. I can even suppose that more attention is paid to the matter\nin such discussions than to the manner of saying it; yet still to say it\neasily, _ad libitum_, to say what you choose, and what you have to say,\nthis is the first requisite; to acquire which every thing else must for\nthe present be sacrificed.\n\n\u201c2. The next step is the grand one: to convert this style of easy\nspeaking into chaste eloquence. And here there is but one rule. I do\nearnestly entreat your son to set daily and nightly before him the Greek\nmodels. First of all, he may look to the best modern speeches (as\nprobably he has already); but he must by no means stop here; if he would\nbe a great orator, he must go at once to the fountain-head, and be\nfamiliar with every one of the great orations of Demosthenes. I take for\ngranted that he knows those of Cicero by heart; they are very beautiful,\nbut not very useful, except, perhaps, the _Milo, pro Ligario_, and one\nor two more: but the Greek must positively be the model; and merely\nreading it, as boys do, won\u2019t do at all; he must enter into the spirit\nof each speech, thoroughly know the positions of the parties, follow\neach turn of the argument, and make the absolutely perfect and most\nchaste and severe composition familiar in his mind. His taste will\nimprove every time he reads and repeats to himself (for he should have\nthe fine passages by heart); and he will learn how much may be done by\nthe skilful use of a few words, and a vigorous rejection of all\nsuperfluities. In this view I hold a familiar knowledge of Dante as\nbeing next to Demosthenes. It is in vain to say that imitation of these\nmodels won\u2019t do for our times. First, I do not counsel any imitation,\nbut only an imbibing of the same spirit. Secondly, I know from\nexperience that nothing is half so successful in these times (bad though\nthey be) as what had been formed on the Greek models. I use a very poor\ninstance in giving my own experience; but I do assure you, that both in\ncourts of law and Parliament, and even in mobs, I have never made so\nmuch play (to use a very modern phrase) as when I was almost translating\nfrom the Greek. I composed the peroration of my speech for the Queen in\nthe Lords, after reading and repeating Demosthenes for three or four\nweeks, and I composed it over twenty times at least; and it certainly\nsucceeded in a very extraordinary degree, and far above any merits of\nits own. This leads me to remark, that though speaking with writing\nbeforehand is very well until the habit of any speech is acquired, yet,\nafter that, he can never write too much: this is quite clear. It is\nlaborious, no doubt, and it is more difficult beyond comparison than\nspeaking offhand; but it is necessary to perfect oratory, and at any\nrate it is necessary to acquire the habit of correct diction. But I go\nfurther, and say, even to the end of a man\u2019s life, he must prepare word\nfor word most of his fine passages. Now, would he be a great orator or\nno? In other words, would he have almost absolute power of doing good to\nmankind in a free country or no? So he wills this, he must follow these\nrules.\u2014Believe me truly yours,\n\n H. BROUGHAM.\u201d\n\nA contemporary journalist[98] has well observed of the oratory of the\npresent day: \u201cWith all its great defects, which are perceptible enough\nto any cultivated hearer, Public Speaking is one of the greatest treats\nyou can provide for the middle and higher population of one of our\ntowns. The extempore oration is of course often a rough production; it\ndoes not at all come up to our ideas of the perfection of language, but\nit fascinates and fetters attention as being extempore,\u2014as displaying\nthe energy of an actual creation on the spot. Lord Derby\u2019s is perhaps\nthe best oratorical language we have,\u2014we mean when he speaks his best;\nit is properly different from book-language, and yet does not run into\nthe technical inflation, and conventional bombast, and professional\nphraseology, which are the dangers of oratory. Mr. Gladstone\u2019s is\nParliamentary English\u2014a very surprising and brilliant creation, but one\nthat has gone through a medium of technicality or conventionalism, and\ndoes not come straight from the fount of language. The Bishop of\nOxford\u2019s oratory is open to the criticism that it is overstrained, and\nproduces vivid pictorial effects at the cost of simplicity. This is no\nvery severe or invidious criticism, because in nine cases out of ten an\norator who selects an exaggerated phrase selects it because a simpler\none does not come to hand. A ready and inexhaustible command of the\nsimplest and truest words is, of course, the very triumph of oratory,\nand a most rare triumph. Still, with all its defects, oratory is\noratory: it is an uncommon exhibition of power; it creates interest, and\nsustains attention as such; and we are not sorry that our provincial\ntowns have now the opportunity of hearing most of our leading public\nspeakers.\u201d\n\nAkin to the present subject is the art of presiding over a festive\ncompany, for which Sir Walter Scott has left these few simple practical\nrules:\n\n 1st. Always hurry the bottle round for five or six rounds, without\n prosing yourself, or permitting others to prose. A slight fillip of\n wine inclines people to be pleased, and removes the nervousness\n which prevents men from speaking\u2014disposes them, in short, to be\n amusing, and to be amused.\n\n 2d. Push on, keep moving! as young Rapid says. Do not think of\n saying fine things\u2014nobody cares for them any more than for fine\n music, which is often too liberally bestowed on such occasions.\n Speak at all ventures, and attempt the _mot pour rire_. You will\n find people satisfied with wonderfully indifferent jokes, if you can\n but hit the taste of the company, which depends much on its\n character. Even a very high party, primed with all the cold irony\n and _non est tanti_ feelings, or no feelings of fashionable folks,\n may be stormed by a jovial, rough, round, and ready pr\u00e6ses. Choose\n your text with discretion\u2014the sermon may be as you like. Should a\n drunkard or an ass break in with any thing out of joint, if you can\n parry it with a jest, good and well; if not, do not exert your\n serious authority, unless it is something very bad. The authority\n even of a chairman ought to be very cautiously exercised. With\n patience, you will have the support of every one.\n\n 3d. When you have drunk a few glasses to play the good fellow and\n banish modesty (if you are unlucky enough to have such a troublesome\n companion), then beware of the cup too much. Nothing is so\n ridiculous as a drunken preses.\n\n Lastly, always speak short, and _Skeoch doch na skiel_\u2014cut a tale\n with a drink.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 97:\n\n _Orat._ c. 7.\n\nFootnote 98:\n\n The _Times_.\n\n ----------------------------\n ----------------------------\n\n\n OPPORTUNITY.\n\nTo _bide the time_ is often the means, though slow, of reaping success.\nLate in the last century, a printseller settled in a leading street of\nthe artistic locality of Soho: during the first six weeks he kept shop,\nhis receipts were not as many pence; nevertheless he was civil and\nobliging to all callers and inquirers, to whom, in the printselling\nbusiness, customers are a very small proportion. This obliging\ndisposition was his main investment, and his shop grew to be the resort\nof print-collectors of all grades\u2014from the rich duke to the hard-working\nengraver; he became wealthy, and died bequeathing to his family a\nconsiderable fortune, and the finest stock of prints in the metropolis.\n\nExtraordinary instances have occurred of latent genius having been\ndiscovered by some lucky accident, and fostered to high position. Isaac\nWare, the architect and editor of _Palladio_, was originally a\nchimney-sweeper, and, when a boy, was seated one day in front of\nWhitehall-palace, upon the pavement, whereon he had drawn in chalk the\nelevation of a building. This attracted the notice of a gentleman in\npassing, and led him to inquire who had chalked out the building. The\nboy replied, it was his own work; the unknown patron then took the lad\nto the master-sweeper to whom he was apprenticed, purchased his\nindenture, and forthwith had little Ware educated: he rose to be one of\nthe leading architects of his day, and among other edifices he built\nChesterfield-house, in South Audley-street, one of the handsomest\nmansions in the metropolis. Ware died in 1766; and, it is said, retained\nthe stain of _soot_ in his face to the day of his death.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n MEN OF BUSINESS.\n\nOur forefathers appear to have conveyed much of their instructions in\nBusiness Life by way of apophthegm. In the _Spectator_, No. 109, it is\nobserved that \u201cthe man proper for the business of money and the\nadvancement of gain, speaking in the general, is of a sedate, plain,\ngood understanding, not apt to go out of his way, but so behaving\nhimself at home that business may come to him. Sir William Turner, that\nvaluable citizen, has left behind him a most excellent rule, and couched\nit in a very few words, suited to the meanest capacity. He would say,\n\u2018Keep your shop, and your shop will keep you.\u2019\u201d [Alderman Thomas, the\nmercer in Paternoster-row, made this one of the mottoes of his shop.]\n\u201cIt must be confessed, that if a man of a great genius could add\nsteadiness to his vivacities, or substitute slower men of fidelity to\ntransact the methodical part of his affairs, such an one would outstrip\nthe rest of the world: but business and trade are not to be managed by\nthe same heads which write poetry and make plans for the conduct of life\nin general.\u201d\n\nHowever, Bacon thought otherwise. \u201cLet no man,\u201d he says, \u201cfear lest\nlearning should expulse business; nay, rather, it will keep and defend\nthe possessions of the mind against idleness and pleasure, which\notherwise, at unawares, may enter to the prejudice both of business and\npleasure.\u201d\n\nThe proper time\u2014\u201c_rerum est omnium primum_.\u201d \u201cTo choose time,\u201d says\nBacon, \u201cis to save time; and an unseasonable motion is but beating the\nair. There be three parts of business: the preparation; the debate, or\nexamination; and the perfection; whereof, if you look for despatch, let\nthe middle only be the work of many, and the first and last the work of\nfew.\u201d\n\nSir Robert Walpole had in his mind a man not apt to go out of his way,\nwhen he described Henry Legge, his Chancellor of the Exchequer, as\nhaving \u201cvery little rubbish in his head;\u201d meaning that he was a\npractical, useful man of business.\n\nThere are few persons who have not met with cases of hypochondriacs who\nhave been relieved and made more happy by useful and disinterested\noccupation in promoting the welfare of others. Dr. Heberden used to\nrelate a striking case of this kind. Captain Blake was a hypochondriac\nfor several years, and during that time every week or two he consulted\nthe Doctor, who had not only prescribed all the medicines likely to\ncorrect disease arising from bodily infirmity, but every argument which\nhumanity and good sense could suggest for the comfort of his mind; but\nin vain. At length Dr. Heberden heard no more of his patient, till after\na considerable interval he found that Captain Blake had formed a project\nfor conveying fish to London, from some of the seaports in the west, by\nmeans of light carts adapted for expeditious land-carriage. The\narrangement and various occupations of the mind in carrying out this\nobject entirely superseded all sense of his former malady, which from\nthat time never returned.\n\nInnumerable are the instances of men retiring from business in middle\nlife, yet yearning to return to it,\u2014so strong is the habit of\noccupation. We all remember the story of the city tallow-chandler, who\nretired into the suburbs, having sold his business, with the proviso\nthat he should come to town on a melting-day. One of the partners of a\nlarge publishing house, some years since, retired into Wales; but did\nnot long survive the change, to enjoy his well-earned fortune. Another\ninstance occurs: a tradesman retired from business with a fortune, and\ntravelled for some time to divert _ennui_; but this not succeeding, he\nreturned to active life in manufacturing and patenting lamps and\nkettles, night-lights and potato-saucepans, and, in such small\ningenuities, finds himself happy again.\n\nThe late Mr. Charles Tilt, the well-known publisher in Fleet-street,\nretired from business in middle life; travelled many years in each\nquarter of the world; and wrote a pleasant little book, entitled _The\nBoat and the Caravan_. He had been articled to Longman and Co.; then\nlived with Mr. Hatchard, in Piccadilly; and next established himself\nwith great success. Notwithstanding his long retirement, his business\nhabits never forsook him: he generously acted as trustee in the\nsettlement of the affairs of his late partner, Mr. David Bogue, who had\nsucceeded to the entire concern in Fleet-street; and he next officiated\nas executor to the estate of the late Mr. Hatchard, with whom he had\nformerly lived. Mr. Tilt died in 1862, leaving the large property of\n180,000_l._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n\n\nCHARACTER THE BEST SECURITY.\n\n\u201cI owe my success in business chiefly to you,\u201d said a stationer to a\npaper-maker, as they were settling a large account; \u201cbut let me ask how\na man of your caution came to give credit so freely to a beginner with\nmy slender means?\u201d \u201cBecause,\u201d replied the paper-maker, \u201cat whatever hour\nin the morning I passed to my business, I always observed you without\nyour coat at yours.\u201d Upon this Mr. Walker, the police-magistrate,\nobserves: \u201cI knew both parties. Different men will have different\ndegrees of success, and every man must expect to experience ebbs and\nflows; but I fully believe that no one in this country, of whatever\ncondition, who is really attentive, and, what is of great importance,\nwho lets it appear that he is so, can fail in the long-run. Pretence is\never bad; but there are many who obscure their good qualities by a\ncertain carelessness, or even an affected indifference, which deprives\nthem of the advantages they would otherwise infallibly reap, and then\nthey complain of the injustice of the world. The man who conceals or\ndisguises his merit might as well expect to be thought clean in his\nperson if he chose to go covered with filthy rags. The world will not,\nand cannot in great measure, judge but by appearances; and worth must\nstamp itself, if it hopes to pass current, even against baser metal:\n\n Worth makes the man, want of it the fellow;\n The rest is all but leather or prunello.\u2014_Pope._\u201d\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n ENGINEERS AND MECHANICIANS.\n\n\u201cNo man can look back on the last twenty or thirty years without feeling\nthat it has been _the age of Engineers and Mechanicians_. The profession\nhas, in that period of time, done much to change the aspect of human\naffairs; for what agency during that period, single or combined, can be\ncompared in its effects, or in its tendency towards the amelioration of\nthe condition of mankind, with the establishment of railroads, of the\nelectric telegraph, and to the improvement in steam navigation?\u201d\n\n \u201cThe wide range of the profession of an Engineer requires the\n assistance of many departments of science and art, and must call\n into employment important branches of manufacture. He can perform no\n great work without the aid of a great variety of workmen; and it is\n on their strength and skill, as well as on their scientific\n direction, that the perfection of his work will depend. The personal\n experience of one individual cannot fit him for the exigencies of a\n profession which is ever extending its range of subjects, and is\n constantly dealing with new and complex phenomena,\u2014phenomena which\n are all the more difficult to deal with from the fact, that they are\n generally surrounded by such variable circumstances as render them\n incapable of being submitted to precise measurement and calculation,\n or of being made amenable to the deductions of exact science.\n Consequently, nothing is more certain than that he who wishes to\n reach the perfection of his art must avail himself of the experience\n of others as well as his own, and that he will not unfrequently find\n the sum of the whole little enough to guide him. And let no\n inventive genius suppose that his own tendencies or capabilities\n relieve him from this necessity.\n\n \u201cThere is no such thing as discovery and invention, in the sense\n which is sometimes attached to the words. Men do not suddenly\n discover new worlds, or invent new machines, or find new metals.\n Some indeed may be, and are, better fitted than others for such\n purposes; but the progress of discovery is, and always has been,\n much the same. _There is nothing really worth having that man has\n obtained that has not been the result of a combined and gradual\n progress of investigation._ A gifted individual comes across some\n old footmark, and stumbles on a chain of previous research and\n inquiry. He meets, for instance, with a machine, the result of much\n previous labour; he modifies it, pulls it to pieces, constructs and\n reconstructs it, and, by further trial and experiment, he arrives at\n the long-sought-for result.\u201d\n\nSuch were the emphatic words of Mr. Hawkshaw, F.R.S., in opening his\nAddress on his election as President of the Institution of Civil\nEngineers, session 1861-62. It would not be difficult to illustrate the\nPresident\u2019s data by many bright instances of their truth. But we\nremember too well the sad story of Myddleton bringing the New River to\nour metropolis, a very early engineering labour, who, although he died\nnot so poor as is usually represented, yet his family fell into decay.\nAlmost equally familiar is the story of the life of George Stephenson,\nthe maturer of the locomotive engine; and the career of his son, Robert\nStephenson, the constructor of the London and Birmingham Railway, and\nsecond only to his father as a railway engineer. George learned to read\nand write at night-schools, and \u201cfiguring\u201d by the engine-fires. As\nRobert grew up, his father was enabled to send him to Edinburgh\nUniversity, where he acquired some knowledge in mathematics and geology:\nthese acquisitions afforded subjects for comment and discussion between\nhim and his father, and were of valuable use to both in their future\njoint avocations; and when the father had retired, in the sphere of\nrailways Robert was recognised as the foremost man, the safest guide,\nand the most active worker. In the great railway mania of 1844, he was\nengineer for thirty-three new schemes; and his income was large, beyond\nany previous instance of engineering gain. His other great railway\nachievements were, the High-level Bridge at Newcastle; the Chester and\nHolyhead line; he constructed the Britannia and Conway tubular bridges,\nand designed the tubular bridges for Canada and Egypt. These intense\nlabours brought him to his grave in his fifty-sixth year. It has been\ntruly said of Robert Stephenson:\n\n \u201cHe almost worshiped his father\u2019s memory, and said he owed all to\n his father\u2019s training, his example, and his character; and he\n declared in public: \u2018It is my great pride to remember that, whatever\n may have been done, and however extensive may have been my own\n connexion in the railway development, all I owe, and all I have done\n is primarily due, to the parent whose memory I cherish and revere.\u2019\n Like his father, he was eminently practical, and yet always open to\n the influence and guidance of correct theory.\n\n \u201cIn society Robert Stephenson was simple, unobtrusive, and modest;\n but charming, and even fascinating, in an eminent degree. Sir John\n Lawrence has said of him, that he was, of all others, the man he\n most delighted to meet in England, he was so manly, yet gentle, and\n withal so great.\n\n \u201cHis great wealth enabled him to perform many generous acts in a\n right noble and yet modest manner, not letting his right hand know\n what his left hand did.\u201d[99]\n\nIn the life of Thomas Telford, we have another striking instance of a\nman who, by the force of natural talent, unaided save by uprightness and\npersevering industry, raised himself from low estate to take his stand\namong the master-spirits of the age. He was born in 1757, in\nDumfriesshire, sent to the parish-school, and employed as a\nshepherd-boy; in his leisure, delighted to read the books lent him by\nhis village friends. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a\nstone-mason, and for several years worked on bridges and\nstone-buildings, village-churches, and manses, in his native district.\nIn 1780 he went to Edinburgh, and for two years closely attended to\narchitecture and drawing. He then removed to London, and worked upon the\nquadrangle of Somerset House, under Sir William Chambers, as architect.\nHis next practice was in the construction of graving-docks, wharf-walls,\nand similar engineering works; and he built above forty bridges in\nShropshire. His greatest works are, the Ellesmere Canal, 103 miles in\nlength, with its wonderful aqueduct-bridges; the Caledonian Canal, which\ncost a million of money; the Bedford Level, and other important drainage\nworks; 1000 miles of Highland roads and 1200 bridges; St. Katherine\u2019s\nDocks, London, constructed with unexampled rapidity; and the great road\nfrom London to Holyhead, and the works connected with it. The Menai\nSuspension Bridge is a noble example of his boldness in designing, and\npractical skill in executing a novel and difficult work; and it is\nrelated of him that, just previous to the fixing of the last bar, he\nknelt in private prayer to the Giver of all good for the successful\ncompletion of the great work. Telford left an account of his labours of\nmore than half a century; yet he found time to teach himself Latin,\nFrench, Italian, and German. He was the first president of the\nInstitution of Civil Engineers, in whose theatre is a noble portrait of\nhim; and in Westminster Abbey, where he is interred, is a marble statue\nof the Eskdale shepherd-boy, whose works, in number, magnitude, and\nusefulness, are unrivalled.\n\nJohn Rennie, who designed three of the noblest bridges in the world, in\naddition to other great engineering works, was born in 1761, in the\ncounty of East Lothian. He learned his first lessons in mechanics in the\nworkshop of a millwright; before he was eleven years old he had\nconstructed a windmill, a pile-engine, and a steam-engine; he next\nlearned elementary mathematics and mechanics, and drawing machinery and\narchitecture, and attended lectures on mechanical philosophy and\nchemistry. His greatest works are the Plymouth Breakwater; Waterloo,\nSouthwark, and London bridges; the London, East and West India Docks;\nand great steam-engines; his principal undertakings having cost forty\nmillions sterling. He was rarely occupied in business less than twelve\nhours a day; he seldom illustrated his information with any other\ninstrument than a two-foot rule, which he always carried in his pocket.\nHe owed his good fortune to talent, industry, prudence, perseverance,\nboldness of conception, soundness of judgment, and habits of untiring\napplication: his works were indeed executed for posterity.\n\nSir Edward Banks, who built Rennie\u2019s three stupendous bridges, was a\nlabourer at Chipstead on the Merstham railway, some sixty years since:\nby his own natural abilities, which had not been cultivated to any\nextent, and by his integrity and perseverance, he became contractor for\npublic works, and acquired great wealth: and it shows the simplicity of\nhis nature, that, struck with the retired picturesqueness of Chipstead\nchurchyard, he chose it for the depository of his remains, where the\ntablet to his memory bears his bust, and an arch and the three great\nbridges,\u2014the goal of his remarkable career.\n\nThe history of the life of the elder Brunel is strangely tinged with\nromance. He was born in Normandy in 1769, was early intended for the\npriesthood; but when at the college of Gisors, he would steal away to\nthe village carpenter\u2019s shop, and draw faces and plans, and learn to\nhandle tools; and one day, seeing a new tool in a cutler\u2019s window, he\npawned his hat to purchase it. He was next sent to the ecclesiastical\nseminary of St. Nicaise at Rouen; there, in his play-hours, he loved to\nwatch the ships along the quay; and seeing some large iron castings\nlanded from an English ship, he inquired, Where had they come from? and\non being told from England, the boy exclaimed, \u201cAh, when I am a man, I\nwill go and see the country where such grand machines are made.\u201d On his\nreturn home, he continued his mechanical recreations; made musical\ninstruments; and invented a nightcap-making machine, which is still used\nby the peasantry in that part of Normandy. His father now gave up all\nhope of his son for the priesthood, and had him qualified to enter the\nnavy, and at seventeen he was nominated to a royal corvette; but while\nserving there he continued his mechanical pursuits, and made for himself\na quadrant in ebony. His ship having been paid off in 1792, Brunel went\nto Paris, where he nearly fell a victim to the fury of the Revolution;\nbut he escaped to Rouen, and thence fled to the United States, where he\nlanded in 1793. While at New York, the idea of his block-machinery\noccurred to him. He now executed canal surveys, and designed the Park\nTheatre, and superintended its erection; he was next appointed chief\nengineer for New York, and there erected a cannon-foundry, with novel\ncontrivances for casting and boring guns. He left New York in January\n1799, and landed at Falmouth in the following March: there he met his\nearly love, Sophia Kingdom, and the pair were shortly after united for\nlife.\n\nBrunel brought with him to England a duplicate writing and drawing\nmachine; a machine for twisting cotton-thread and forming it into balls;\na machine for trimmings and borders for muslins, lawns, and cambrics.\nThe famous block-machinery was Brunel\u2019s next invention; then various\nwood-working machinery, and machines for manufacturing shoes; and next\nthe Battersea saw-mills; but the failure of the two latter speculations\nbrought Brunel into difficulties, from which he was extricated by a\ngovernment grant of 5000_l._, in consideration of the savings by the use\nof his block-machinery. He then improved the stocking-knitting machine\nand steam-engine; metallic paper and crystallised tinfoil; improvements\nin stereotyping and the treadmill. In engineering, he designed\nsuspension, swing, and other bridges, and machines for boring cannon. He\nnext experimented with a boat on the Thames, fitted with a double-action\nengine, and made his first voyage in it to Margate in 1814, when he\nnarrowly escaped personal violence from the proprietors of the\nsailing-boats. Marine engines and paddle-wheels were next improved by\nBrunel; and these were followed by his carbonic-acid gas engine, which\nproved too costly a machine. Then came the crowning event of his life,\nthe construction of the Thames Tunnel, taking the idea of his\nexcavating-machine from the boring operations of the _Teredo navalis_.\nIn this formidable work he was assisted by his son, Isambard Kingdom\nBrunel, then only nineteen years of age; and after most perilous\noperations, the tunnel was completed, and opened March 25th, 1843. This\nwas the engineer\u2019s last work: as a commercial adventure it proved\ndisastrous, which preyed on the mind of Brunel; though he lived six\nyears longer, until he had attained his 81st year.\n\nThe younger Brunel\u2019s first great work was the Clifton Suspension\nBridge, followed by docks at Bristol and Sunderland, and several\ncolliery tramways. In 1835, he was appointed engineer of the Great\nWestern Railway, being then only about twenty-eight years of age, but\nskilful and ingenious, and anxious to strike out an entirely new\ncourse in railway engineering. He adopted the broad-gauge, then a\ngreat and novel enterprise, but now ascertained to be unnecessary: the\nworks were unusually costly, and so novel that the line was called the\nGrand Experimental Railway; while it rendered Brunel famous as a\nrailway engineer. He next attempted the atmospheric principle; but\nthis proved unsuccessful, and the loss exceeded half a million of\nmoney. His last and greatest railway engineering achievements were his\n\u201cbowstring-girder\u201d bridges at Chepstow and Saltash: the latter has two\nwrought-iron tubes, each weighing upwards of 1000 tons, and the\nviaduct and bridge are nearly half a mile, or 300 feet longer than the\nBritannia bridge. The central Saltash pier foundations, upon solid\nrock, 90 feet below the surface of the river, were laid within a\nwrought-iron cylinder 37 feet in diameter and 100 feet high, and the\nwhole work involved six years\u2019 toil, anxiety, and peril.\n\nNext, Brunel devised an iron-plated armed ship capable of withstanding\nthe fire of the Sebastopol forts; but his grand triumphs as a naval\nengineer were, the _Great Western_, steam-ship, propelled by\npaddle-wheels; and the _Great Britain_, propelled by a screw; but these\nwere thrown into the shade by his _Great Eastern_, combining the powers\nof the paddle-wheel and the screw; and which, with the aid of Mr. Scott\nRussell, its builder, was completed and launched,\u2014the largest ship that\nhas ever floated. But this stupendous labour had undermined Mr. Brunel\u2019s\nhealth; he was seized with paralysis, and died at the comparatively\nearly age of fifty-three.[100]\n\nOf Brunel\u2019s great engineering skill there can be no question; he loved\ndifficulties and engineering perils: he has been styled \u201cthe Michael\nAngelo of Railways;\u201d and his victory in \u201cthe Battle of the Gauges\u201d\ngained him extraordinary prominence in the railway world. His ruling\npassion was magnitude, without regard to cost: \u201che was the very Napoleon\nof engineers, thinking more of glory than of profit, and of victory than\nof dividends.\u201d Capitalists subscribed to his projects freely, and he put\nhis own savings into the same risks; if shareholders suffered, he\nsuffered with them; and it must be conceded that both railway travelling\nand steam navigation have been greatly advanced by the speculative\nability of Mr. Brunel\u2019s Titanic labours.\n\nThe career of Joseph Locke, civil engineer, though less brilliant than\nthat of Brunel, was one of more sterling worth. He was born in\nYorkshire, in 1805, the son of a fellow-workman with George Stephenson\nat the pit. Locke had little schooling, and failing in two or three\nhumble services, at the age of nineteen he became George Stephenson\u2019s\npupil, and then his assistant, taking charge of the survey of railway\nlines; he was appointed engineer-in-chief of the Grand Junction and\nSouth-Western lines; and next initiated the Continental Railway system,\npromoting the rapid communication between London and Paris. He was made\na chevalier and officer of the Legion of Honour, and sat in the British\nParliament for Honiton. He died at the early age of fifty-five, leaving\ngreat wealth to his widow (a daughter of Mr. M\u2018Creery, the literary\nprinter), to form in the North a public park, and found a scholarship.\n\n The high celebrity of Mr. Locke was not due to the fact of his\n making railways. It was, that he made them within the estimated\n cost,\u2014an achievement which would sooner or later have been attained\n by the ordinary operations of capital. The Grand Junction Railway\n was eventually constructed for a sum within the estimate, and at an\n average cost of less than 15,000_l._ a mile. The heavy works on the\n Caledonian line were completed at less than 16,000_l._ a mile. This\n economical success was in a great measure owing to the adoption of a\n bold system of steep gradients\u2014an expedient which Stephenson, it\n appears, disliked to the last, and which was a prevailing feature in\n his active rival\u2019s designs. Locke hated a tunnel, and with\n embankments and inclines would encounter any difficulty.[101]\n\nThomas Cubitt, the great metropolitan builder and contractor, was\nanother remarkable man of this class. He was born at Buxton, near\nNorwich, in 1788. At the time of his father\u2019s death he was nineteen\nyears old, and working as a journeyman carpenter. He next took a voyage\nto India and back, as captain\u2019s joiner; and, on his return to the\nmetropolis, with his savings began business as a master-carpenter.\nWithin six years he erected large workshops in Gray\u2019s-inn-road. One of\nhis earliest works was building the London Institution in Moorfields.\nAbout 1824, he began to build Tavistock-square, Gordon-square,\nWoburn-place, and the adjoining streets; and next engaged to cover with\nhouses large portions of the Five Fields, Chelsea, of which engagement\nBelgrave-square, Lowndes-square, and Chesham-place are the results.[102]\nHe subsequently contracted to build over the large open district between\nEaton-square and the Thames, now known as South Belgravia. He had\ncompleted most of his large engagements, and had just built for himself\na mansion at Denbies, where he died in his sixty-seventh year, possessed\nof great wealth. Through life he constantly promoted the intellectual\nand moral improvement of his work-people. One of his brothers, and\npartner in business, is Mr. William Cubitt, M.P., who has twice served\nthe office of Lord Mayor, and was, like his relative, originally a\nship\u2019s carpenter.\n\nThomas Brassey, the railway contractor, is another remarkable instance\nof colossal labour. Born at Buerton in 1805, and educated at Chester, he\ncommenced life as a surveyor at Birkenhead; and his first railway work\nwas a contract to supply the stone for a viaduct of the Liverpool and\nManchester line. From this period to the present hour, he has\nconstructed, upon his own responsibility and credit, many hundred miles\nof railway in England, Scotland, France, Spain, and Canada, at the cost\nof millions of money. A striking instance of his energy and enterprise\noccurred in one of his French contracts. When the Barentine viaduct, of\ntwenty arches, on the Rouen and Havre Railway, was nearly completed, the\nwork gave way, and the casualty involved a loss of 30,000_l._ Mr.\nBrassey was neither morally nor legally responsible\u2014he had repeatedly\nprotested against the material used in the structure; but the viaduct\nwas rebuilt entirely at Mr. Brassey\u2019s cost.\n\nMr. George Bidder, the engineer, presents one of the few examples of\nearly habits of calculation being matured to advantage. When about six\nyears of age, he was first introduced to the science of figures. His\nfather was a working man; his elder brother commenced instructing him\nto count up to 10, then to 100, and there he stopped. He repeated the\nprocess, and found that by stopping at 10, and repeating that every\ntime, he counted up to 100 much quicker than by going straight through\nthe series: he counted up to ten, then ten again = 20, 3 times 10 =\n30, 4 times = 40, and so on. At this time he did not know one written\nor printed figure from another, nor did he know there was such a word\nas \u201cmultiply;\u201d but, having acquired the power of counting up to 100 by\nten and by 5, he set about, in his own way, to acquire the\nmultiplication-table: he got a small bag of shot, which he arranged\ninto squares of 8 on each side, and then, on counting them, found they\namounted to 64; which fact once established, remained undisturbed in\nMr. Bidder\u2019s mind until this day; and in this way he acquired the\nwhole multiplication-table up to 10 times 10, which was all he needed.\nIn a house opposite his father\u2019s lived an aged blacksmith, who allowed\nyoung Bidder to run about his workshop and blow the bellows for him,\nand on winter-evenings to listen to the old man\u2019s stories by the\nforge-hearth. By practice his powers of numeration were drawn forth,\nhe was rewarded with halfpence, and thus he became more attached to\narithmetic. The \u201cCalculating Boy\u201d has now matured as an eminent\nengineer; the process of reasoning, or action of the mind, by which,\nwhen a boy, he trained himself in Mental Arithmetic, having laid the\nbasis of sound professional skill, which he has most beneficially\nexercised in various great engineering works.\n\nJames Walker, civil engineer, who died in 1862, aged eighty-one, was the\noldest member of the profession. He was one of the earliest members of\nthe Institution of Civil Engineers, succeeded Telford as President, and\nfilled the chair fourteen years. Mr. Walker, through his long life, was\nassociated with many of the greatest hydraulic works in England and\nScotland, including lighthouses, harbours, bridges, embankments, and\ndrainage. He had accumulated in personalty 300,000_l._, which he took\ngreat pains to distribute by his will; for he was a kind-hearted,\ngenerous man, and considerate and liberal to those associated with him\nin his profession.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 99:\n\n Smiles\u2019s _Lives of the Engineers_, vol. iii.\n\nFootnote 100:\n\n He had more perilous escapes from violent death than fall to the lot\n of most men. He had two narrow escapes from drowning by the river\n suddenly bursting in upon the Thames-Tunnel works. During the Great\n Western Railway inspection, he was one day riding a pony rapidly down\n Boxhill, when the animal stumbled and fell, pitching the engineer on\n his head; he was taken up for dead, but eventually recovered. One day,\n when driving an engine through the Box-tunnel, he discerned some light\n object standing on the same line of road along which his engine was\n travelling; he turned on the full steam and dashed the object (a\n contractor\u2019s truck) into a thousand pieces. When on board the _Great\n Western_ steam-ship, he fell down a hatchway into the hold, and was\n nearly killed. But the most extraordinary accident which befel him\n was, in showing a sleight-of-hand trick to his children, his\n swallowing a half-sovereign, which dropped into his windpipe, remained\n there for six weeks, when it was removed through an incision in the\n windpipe, by Sir Benjamin Brodie and Mr. Key; his body was inverted,\n and after a few coughs, the coin dropped into his mouth. Mr. Brunel\n used afterwards to say, that the moment when he heard the gold piece\n strike against his upper front teeth was perhaps the most exquisite in\n his whole life.\u2014Abridged from the _Quarterly Review_, No. 223.\n\nFootnote 101:\n\n _Saturday Review._\n\nFootnote 102:\n\n This district was originally a clayey swamp; but Mr. Cubitt finding\n the strata to consist of gravel and clay of inconsiderable depth, the\n clay he removed and burned into bricks; and by building upon the\n substratum of gravel, he converted this spot from one of the most\n unhealthy to one of the most healthy\u2014a singular adaptation of the\n means to the end.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n SCIENTIFIC FARMING.\n\nSouthey, in _The Doctor_, remarks: \u201cIt is a fact not unworthy of notice,\nthat the most intelligent farmers in the neighbourhood of London are\npersons who have taken to farming as a business, because of their strong\ninclination for rural employments: one of the very best in Middlesex,\nwhen the Survey of that county was published by the Board of\nAgriculture, had been a tailor.\u201d\n\nScientific farming has of late years largely multiplied these amateur\nfarmers; but, long before rural economy had taken this turn, we remember\na curious instance. Some five-and-forty years since, when Davy\u2019s\n_Agricultural Chemistry_ was the only work of its class, there lived in\na town of Surrey a gentleman-tradesman, who loved to relieve the\nmonotony of his own business by flying off to experimental pursuits. In\npolitics he was a disciple of Cobbett, and year after year foretold a\nrevolution in England,\u2014an alarm which he raised throughout his\nhousehold. He took extreme interest in new mechanical projects; and kept\na chronological record of the progress of the Thames Tunnel. In\nwine-making he was a very experimentalist, and knew by heart every line\nof Macculloch on Wine from unripe fruit. Next, he turned over every inch\nof his garden, analysed the soil _\u00e0 la Davy_, and _salted_ all his\ngrowing crops, as well as the soil. But he soon flew from horticultural\nchemistry to real farming; and about the same time took to road-making\nand macadamisation, and became surveyor of the highways. He next bought\nthe lease of a house in the neighbourhood for the sake of the large\ngarden attached to it; and here he passed much of his time in its\nexperimental culture. Had he lived to the days of Liebig, how he would\nhave revelled in his theories!\n\nWe have a strong confirmation of Southey\u2019s remark in the present day in\nthe case of Alderman Mechi, who has become a memorable man in this kind\nof experimental agriculture, and has transferred the _magic_ of his\nRazor-Strop (by the sale of which, in ten years he realised a handsome\nfortune) to the barren heath-land of Essex. In 1840 he commenced his\nbucolic experiments by purchasing a small unproductive farm at\nTiptree-heath; and here he tried what could be effected by deep drainage\nand the application of steam-power. The Essex farmers laughed at him as\nan enthusiast, and the country gentlemen kept aloof from him. Mechi,\nhowever, persevered, and brought his farm into such high productiveness\nthat he realises annually an average handsome profit. We have seen his\nbalance-sheet impugned: however, if public opinion is worth any thing,\nhe has rendered great service to agricultural science by the exhibition\nof processes upon his model farm, Tiptree, which is known all over the\nEuropean continent; for the Alderman has been presented with a 500_l._\ntestimonial of plate by noblemen and gentlemen interested in science and\nagriculture at home and abroad.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n LARGE FORTUNES.\n\nNo single class can be pointed to in the present day as the first\nfavourite of fortune. The loan-monger is still powerful, and so is the\nspeculator; but bankers accumulate fortunes like those of the highest\nnobles, and a linen-draper left the other day cash which would purchase\nthe fee-simple of the Woburn estates. The rate of fortunes has\nenormously increased. Pitt thought it useless to tax fortunes above a\nmillion, and now men die every day whose heirs chuckle over the saving\nproduced by this want of foresight. A \u201cplum\u201d has ceased to be even a\ncitizen\u2019s goal, and there are tradesmen in London whose incomes while in\ntrade exceed \u201ca great fortune\u201d of the time of the second George. Very\nenormous realised fortunes, properties that are producing 50,000_l._\na-year, are, however, still very scarce. Only fifty-seven are returned\nto the English income-tax; and though that is a palpably erroneous\naccount, it may be doubted if there are a dozen individuals with that\namount in the world. There are none in France or Italy beyond a few\nworking capitalists, a few remaining in Germany, a considerable number\nin Russia, and perhaps thirty individuals in America. There are perhaps\nten private incomes in India of that amount, as many in South America,\nand a few officials in the Eastern world accumulate very considerable\nsums; but there the list ends.[103] Yet, how often are large fortunes\nwrecked by those who succeed to them!\n\nMany a Londoner past middle age may recollect Thomas Clark, \u201cthe King of\nExeter \u2019Change,\u201d who was long one of the most singular characters in the\nmetropolis. He took a stall in the \u2019Change in 1765, with 100_l._ lent\nhim by a stranger. By parsimony and perseverance he so extended his\nbusiness as to occupy nearly one-half of the entire building with the\nsale of cutlery, turnery, &c. He grew rich, and once returned his income\nat 6000_l._ a-year. He was penurious in his habits: he dined with his\nplate on the bare board, and his meal, with a pint of porter, never cost\nhim a shilling; after dinner he took a glass of spirits-and-water at the\npublic-house opposite the end of the \u2019Change, and then returned to his\nbusiness. He resided in Belgrave-place, Pimlico; and morning and evening\nsaw him on his old horse, riding into town and home again\u2014and thus he\nfigured in the print-shops. He died in 1817, in his eightieth year, and\nleft nearly half a million of money. His daughter was married to Hamlet,\nthe celebrated goldsmith of Coventry-street who, however, met with sad\nreverses; and, among other unsuccessful speculations, built the Bazaar\nand the Princess\u2019s Theatre in Oxford-street.\n\nThe wealth of the celebrated Mr. Beckford, the son of the demagogue\nAlderman, and Lord Chatham\u2019s god-child, proved the shoal upon which his\nhappiness was wrecked. He succeeded to his father\u2019s enormous fortune at\nten years of age. He was educated at home: he was quick and lively, and\nhad literary tastes; he had a great passion for genealogy and heraldry;\nstudied Oriental literature: in his seventeenth year he wrote a history\nof extraordinary painters. His father had left him, principally in\nJamaica estates, a property which, on the conclusion of his minority,\nfurnished him with a million of ready money and an income of 100,000_l._\na-year. He travelled and resided abroad until his twenty-second year,\nwhen he wrote _Vathek_, a work of startling beauty. At twenty-four he\nmarried; but the lady died in three years. He passed many years in\ntravelling, principally in Spain and Portugal, before he got\nsufficiently settled in mind to return to his family-seat, Fonthill in\nWiltshire. He began to reside there in 1796, and immediately commenced\nthe great squandering of his money. He had always a hundred, and often\ntwo hundred, workmen engaged in carrying out his wayward fancies. But he\nwas haughty and reserved; and because some of his neighbours followed\ngame into his grounds, he had a wall, twelve feet high and seven miles\nlong, built round his home-estate, in order to shut out the world. He\nthen began the third house at Fonthill, considering the second too near\na piece of water. The new house was built in a sham monastic style, was\ncalled the Abbey, and cost a quarter of a million; but never put to any\nuse, except on one occasion, to receive Lord Nelson. While Beckford was\nindulging these gigantic follies, he lost, by an adverse decision in a\nChancery-suit, a considerable portion of his Jamaica property; he was\nalso cheated out of large sums of money, and in the end was obliged to\nsell Fonthill; the purchaser was Mr. Farquhar, a rich but penurious\nmerchant. In a few years the lofty tower of the Abbey fell down. The\nestate is now the property of the Marquis of Westminster. Mr. Beckford\nremoved to Bath, and there built, on Lansdowne Hill, an Italian villa,\nwith a lofty prospect-tower. While residing here he wrote an account of\nthe travels which he had made half a century before; and having got\nthrough large sums of money in planting and building, he died in 1844,\nin his eighty-fourth year; and upon his tomb a passage from _Vathek_ is\ninscribed.\n\nMr. Beckford was unquestionably a man of genius and rare\naccomplishments. \u201cBut his abilities were overpowered, and his character\ntainted, by the possession of wealth so enormous. At every stage of life\nhis money was like a millstone round his neck. He had taste and\nknowledge; but the selfishness of wealth tempted him to let these gifts\nof the mind run to seed in the gratification of extravagant freaks. He\nreally enjoyed travelling and scenery, but he felt it incumbent on him,\nas a millionnaire, to take a French cook with him wherever he went; and\nhe found that the Spanish grandees and ecclesiastical dignitaries who\nwelcomed him so cordially valued him as the man whose cook could make\nsuch wonderful omelettes. From the day when Chatham\u2019s proxy stood for\nhim at the font till the day when he was laid in his pink granite\nsarcophagus, he was the victim of riches. Had he had only 5000_l._ a\nyear, and been sent to Eton, he might have been one of the foremost men\nof his time, and have been as useful in his generation as, under his\nunhappy circumstances, he was useless.\u201d[104] It may be added, that he\nwas worse: for he so threw about his money at Fonthill as to corrupt and\ndemoralise the simple country-people. We remember three of his London\nresidences: one on the Terrace, Piccadilly, on the site of the\nnewly-built mansion of Baron Rothschild; another of Beckford\u2019s town\nresidences was No. 1 Devonshire-place, New-road; and the third, No. 27\nCharles-street, May Fair, a very small house, looking over the garden of\nChesterfield-house.\n\nThe vanity of wealth is exemplified in the following anecdote, which\nMrs. Richard Trench had from an ear-witness:\n\n The late Duke of Queensberry, leaning over the balcony of his\n beautiful villa near Richmond, where every pleasure was collected\n which wealth could purchase or luxury devise, he followed with his\n eyes the majestic Thames, winding through groves and buildings of\n various loveliness, and exclaimed, \u201cOh, that wearisome river! Will\n it never cease running, running, and I so tired of it?\u201d To me this\n anecdote conveys a strong moral lesson, connected with the\n well-known character of the speaker, a professed voluptuary, who\n passed his youth in pursuit of selfish pleasures, and his age in\n vain attempts to elude the relentless grasp of _ennui_.\n\nNow let us turn to some better uses of wealth earned by well-directed\nindustry. Old Mr. Strahan, the printer (the founder of the typarchical\ndynasty), said to Dr. Johnson, that \u201cthere are few ways in which a man\ncan be more innocently employed than getting money;\u201d and he added, that\n\u201cthe more one thinks of this, the juster it will appear.\u201d Johnson agreed\nwith him. Boswell also relates that Mr. Strahan once talked of launching\ninto the great ocean of London, in order to have a chance of rising into\neminence; and observing that many men were kept back from trying their\nfortunes there because they had been born to a competency, said, \u201cSmall\ncertainties are the bane of men of talents;\u201d which Johnson confirmed.\n\nMr. Strahan had taken a poor boy from the country as an apprentice, upon\nJohnson\u2019s recommendation. Johnson, having inquired after him, said, \u201cMr.\nStrahan, let me have five guineas on account, and I\u2019ll give this boy\none. Nay, if a man recommends a boy, and does nothing for him, it\u2019s sad\nwork. Call him down.\u201d Boswell followed Johnson into the courtyard behind\nMr. Strahan\u2019s house, and there he heard this conversation:\n\n\u201cWell, my boy, how do you go on?\u201d \u201cPretty well, sir; but they\u2019re afraid\nI a\u2019n\u2019t strong enough for some parts of the business.\u201d _Johnson._ \u201cWhy,\nI shall be sorry for it; for, when you consider with how little mental\npower and corporeal labour a printer can get a guinea a week, it is a\nvery desirable occupation for you. Do you hear; take all the pains you\ncan; and if this does not do, we must think of some other way of life\nfor you. There\u2019s a guinea.\u201d\n\nHere was one of the many instances of Johnson\u2019s active benevolence. At\nthe same time, says Boswell, the slow and sonorous solemnity with which,\nwhile he bent himself down, he addressed a little thick short-legged\nboy, contrasted with the boy\u2019s awkwardness and awe, could not but excite\nsome ludicrous emotions.\n\nJohnson appears to have been generally alive to the policy of getting\nmoney: we all remember when, as one of the executors of Mr. Thrale, he\nwas assisting in taking stock of the brewery in Southwark, how its\nvastness impressed the doctor with \u201cthe potentiality of growing rich.\u201d\n\nWilliam Strahan, a native of Edinburgh, came to London when a very young\nman, and worked as a journeyman printer, having Dr. Franklin for one of\nhis fellow-workmen. Strahan, industrious and thrifty, prospered, and\npurchased, in 1770, a share of the patent for King\u2019s printer; and he\nobtained considerable property in the copyrights of the works of the\nmost celebrated authors of the time. He was a great friend to Johnson,\nand kept up his intimacy with Franklin. He died rich, bequeathing\nmunificent legacies. He was succeeded in his business by his third son,\nAndrew Strahan, who inherited his father\u2019s excellent qualities, and died\nin 1831, aged eighty-three, leaving property to the amount of more than\na million of money. Among his many generous acts, he presented to James\nSmith, one of the authors of the _Rejected Addresses_, the munificent\ngift of 1000_l._\n\nThe vicissitudes of the Buckinghams, political as well as fiscal, can be\ntraced through the long lapse of eight centuries. In our own times, two\ndukes have fallen from their high estate into neglect and poverty.\nRichard, first Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, lived at Stowe, with\nprincely magnificence: his expenditure in rare books and works of art\nwas enormous; and his entertainment of the Royal Family of France and\ntheir numerous retinues, upon one of his estates, not only drained his\nexchequer, but burdened him with debt. Neither Louis XVIII. nor Charles\nX., however, took the slightest notice of the obligation they had\nincurred,\u2014apparently regarding such imprudent generosity as the natural\nacknowledgment of their exceeding merit. The Duke was, in 1827,\ncompelled to shut up his house and go abroad, till his large estates\ncould be nursed, so as to meet the heaviest and most pressing\ndemands.[105] While abroad, he had a dream, which he has recorded in his\n_Private Diary_, published in 1862. He dreamed that he was at Stowe, his\ndear and regretted home: all was deserted\u2014not a soul appeared to receive\nhim. His good dog met him, licked his hand, and accompanied him through\nall the apartments, which were desolate and solitary,\u2014every room as he\nhad left it. He met his wife, who told him all his family were gone, and\nshe alone was left. He awoke with the distress of the moment, and slept\nno more that night.\n\nMr. Rumsey Forster, in his piquant historical notice of Stowe, prefixed\nto the _Priced and Annotated Catalogue_, relates that, Louis Philippe\nbeing present when the Royal Family of France were enjoying the\nhospitality of the Marquis of Buckingham at Stowe, as they were seated\ntogether in the library, the conversation turned on events then enacting\non the other side of the Channel; upon which Louis Philippe,\nrecollecting his own position with the Revolutionists, threw himself\nupon his knees, and begged pardon of his royal uncle for having ever\nworn the tricoloured cockade. The anecdote is curious, when the\nsubsequent career of the ex-monarch is borne in mind.\n\nThe Duke died Jan. 17, 1839, and was succeeded by his only son, Richard\nPlantagenet, who, though crippled in fortune by the paternal tastes,\ncelebrated the coming of age of his son with profuse hospitality at\nStowe, in 1844; and in 1845, entertained Queen Victoria and the Prince\nAlbert with great sumptuousness. The mansion at Stowe was partly\nrefurnished for the occasion, when the cost of the new carpets was\n5000_l._ In 1848, the dream of the first Duke was strangely realised by\nthe dismantling of Stowe, and the compulsory dispersion of the whole of\nthe costly contents; the sale occupying forty days, and realising\n75,562_l._ 4_s._ 6_d._ The Duke subsequently resided in the\nneighbourhood; and he often indulged his sadness at his fallen fortunes\nby walking to Stowe; and there, in one of the superb saloons in which\nkings and princes had held courts and been feasted with regal\nmagnificence,\u2014seated in a chair before a small table\u2014the only furniture\nin the room\u2014would Richard Plantagenet pass many an hour of \u201cbitter\nfancy.\u201d He died July 30, 1861, at the age of sixty-four. Sir Bernard\nBurke, Ulster, writes of the Duke\u2019s lineage: \u201cOf all native-born British\nsubjects, his Grace was, after the present reigning family, the senior\nrepresentative of the Royal Houses of Tudor and Plantagenet.\u201d[106]\n\n\u201cDay and Martin\u2019s Blacking,\u201d one of the inventions of the present\ncentury, realised a large fortune, which was mostly appropriated to\nbeneficent purposes. Day is related to have been originally a\nhair-dresser; and, as the story goes, one morning a soldier entered his\nshop, representing that he had a long march before him to reach his\nregiment; that his money was gone, and nothing but sickness, fatigue,\nand punishment awaited him unless he could get a lift on a coach. The\nworthy barber, who, with his small means, was a generous man, presented\nhim with a guinea, when the grateful soldier exclaimed, \u201cGod bless you,\nsir! how can I ever repay you this? I have nothing in this world except\u201d\n(pulling a dirty piece of paper from his pocket) \u201ca receipt for\nblacking: it is the best ever was seen; many a half-guinea have I had\nfor it from the officers, and many bottles have I sold.\u201d Mr. Day, who\nwas a shrewd man, inquired into the truth of the story, tried the\nblacking, and finding it good, commenced the manufacture and sale of it,\nand realised the immense fortune of which he died possessed in 1836;\nbequeathing 100,000_l._ for the benefit of persons who, like himself,\nsuffered the deprivation of sight. The rebuilding of the Blacking\nFactory, in High Holborn, cost 12,000_l._\n\nPianoforte-making has led to great money-making results. About the year\n1776, Becker, a German, undertook to apply the pianoforte mechanism to\nthe harpsichord, assisted by John Broadwood and Robert Stodart, then\nworkmen in the employ of Burckhardt Tschudi, of Great Pulteney-street,\nLondon. After many experiments, the grand-pianoforte mechanism was\ncontrived by these three. Messrs. Broadwood, from 1824 to 1850, made on\nan average 2236 pianofortes per annum; and employed in their manufactory\n573 workmen, besides persons working for them at home. In 1862 died the\nhead of the firm, Mr. Thomas Broadwood, sen., at the age of\nseventy-five, leaving 350,000_l._ personal property, besides realty.\n\nJames Morison, who styled himself \u201cthe Hygeist,\u201d and was noted for his\n\u201cVegetable Medicines,\u201d was a Scotchman, and a gentleman by birth and\neducation. His family was of the landed gentry of Aberdeenshire, his\nbrother being \u201cMorison of Bognie,\u201d an estate worth about 4000_l._ a\nyear. In 1816 James Morison, having sold his commission, for he was an\nofficer in the army, lived in No. 17 Silver-street, Aberdeen, a house\nbelonging to Mr. Reid, of Souter and Reid, druggists. He obtained the\nuse of their pill-machine, with which he made in their back-shop as many\npills as filled two large casks. The ingredients of these pills, however\nhe may have modified them afterwards, were chiefly oatmeal and bitter\naloes. With these two great \u201cmeal bowies\u201d filled with pills, he started\nfor London; with the fag-end of his fortune advertised them far and\nwide, and ultimately amassed 500,000_l._\n\nSuch is the statement of a Correspondent of the _Athen\u00e6um_. Morison\u2019s\nown story was, that his own sufferings from ill-health, and the cure he\nat length effected upon himself by \u201cvegetable pills,\u201d made him a\ndisseminator of the latter article. He had found the pills to be \u201cthe\nonly rational purifiers of the blood;\u201d of these he took two or three at\nbedtime, and a glass of lemonade in the morning, and thus regained sound\nsleep and high spirits, and feared neither heat nor cold, dryness nor\nhumidity. The duty on the pills produced a revenue of 60,000_l._ to\nGovernment during the first ten years. Morison died at Paris, in 1840,\naged seventy.\n\nThe Denisons, father and son, accumulated two of the largest fortunes of\nour time. About 120 years ago, Joseph Denison, who was the son of a\nwoollen-cloth merchant at Leeds, anxious to seek his fortune in London,\ntravelled thither in a wagon, being attended on his departure by his\nfriends, who took a solemn leave of him, as the distance was then\nthought so great that they might never see him again. He at first\naccepted a subordinate situation; but being industrious, parsimonious,\nand fortunate, he speedily advanced himself in the confidence and esteem\nof his employers, bankers in St. Mary Axe, and married successively two\nwives with property. He continued to prosper; and by joining the\nHeywoods, eminent bankers of Liverpool, his wealth rapidly increased. In\n1787 he purchased the estate of Denbies, near Dorking in Surrey. By his\nsecond wife he had one son, William Joseph Denison; and two\ndaughters\u2014Elizabeth, married, in 1794, to Henry, first Marquis\nConyngham; and Maria, married, in 1793, to Sir Robert Lawley, Bart.,\ncreated, in 1831, Baron Wenlock.\n\nMr. Denison died in 1806; his son, succeeding to the banking business,\ncontinued to accumulate; and, at his death in his seventy-ninth year, in\nAugust 1849, left two millions and a half of money. He had sat in\nParliament for Surrey from 1818. He was a man of cultivated tastes,\npossessed a knowledge of art and elegant literature; he feared to be\nthought ostentatious, and could with difficulty be prevailed on to have\na lodge erected at the entrance to a new road which he had just formed\non his estate, near Dorking. The Marchioness Conyngham was left a widow\nin 1832; she died in 1861, having attained the venerable age of\nninety-two, and lived to see both her sons peers of the realm,\u2014the one\nin succession to his father; the second, Albert Denison, as heir to her\nown brother\u2019s great fortune and estates, with the title of Baron\nLondesborough.\n\nThe career of George Hudson, ridiculously styled \u201cthe Railway King,\u201d was\none of the _ignes fatui_ of the railway mania. He was born in a lowly\nhouse in College-street, York, in 1800; here he served his\napprenticeship to a linendraper, and subsequently carried on the\nbusiness as principal, amassing considerable wealth. His fortune was\nnext increased by a bequest from a distant relative, which sum he\ninvested in North-Midland Railway shares; and, under his chairmanship,\nthey gradually rose from 70_l._ discount to 120_l._ premium. This led to\nthe creation of new shares in branch and extension lines, often\nworthless, which were issued at a premium also: Hudson soon found\nhimself chairman of 600 miles of railway, extending from Rugby to\nNewcastle; and he is stated in a single day to have cleared 100,000_l._\nHe was also elected M.P. for Sunderland; and served twice Lord Mayor of\nYork. The sum of 16,000_l._ was subscribed and presented to him as a\npublic testimonial; with which he purchased a mansion at Albert-gate,\nHyde-park; here he lived sumptuously, and went his round of visits among\nthe peerage. But the speculation of 1845 was followed by a sudden\nreaction: shares fell, the holders sold to avoid payment of calls, and\nmany were ruined; then followed the unkingship of Hudson, who was hurled\ndown like the molten calf, and he lost a vast fortune in the general\nwreck of the railway bubbles.\n\nThe most beneficial fortunes made in business are those by which, at the\nsame time, permanent advantages are secured to the public. Henry\nColburn, the well-known publisher, \u201cwas a man of much ability and\nextraordinary enterprise. His public career connected him intimately\nwith the literature of the present century, and few are the\ndistinguished writers, during the last forty years, whose names were not\nassociated with that of Mr. Colburn. In one of Mr. Disraeli\u2019s novels a\nhandsome tribute is paid to his acuteness of judgment and generosity of\ndealing. The publication of the Diaries of Pepys and Evelyn will rank\namong many sterling contributions to literature due in the first\ninstance to his enterprise. He originated those weekly literary reviews\nwhich have since been so successful; he established more than one\nnewspaper, and conducted for a great many years the Magazine which still\nbears his name; and was the original publisher of Sir Bernard Burke\u2019s\n_Peerage_. In private life he was known as a friendly, hospitable, kind\nman, and acts of the greatest liberality marked his course through\nlife.\u201d[107] He died at an advanced age.\n\nMr. James Morrison, the wealthy warehouseman of Cripplegate, started in\nlife as foreman to Mr. Todd, whose daughter he married; and succeeding\nto his large property, distinguished himself as a sound political\neconomist, and for some years sat in Parliament. He obtained, by\npurchase, the fine estates of Basilden, in Berkshire, and Fonthill, in\nWiltshire: at Basilden, in 1846, the Lord Mayor and Corporation, upon\nthe View of the Thames, were entertained by Mr. Morrison, who then\nreferred with much gratification to his having been brought up in the\nCity of London, \u201cconnected with it in a mercantile point of view, and\nhaving, by his own industry, obtained every thing he could desire.\u201d He\nwas a man of high commercial character; to which Mr. Edwin Chadwick, at\nthe Meeting of the British Association at Cambridge, in 1862, bore this\ninteresting testimony: \u201cI had the pleasure,\u201d said Mr. Chadwick, \u201cof the\nacquaintance of perhaps the most wealthy and successful merchant of the\nlast half-century,\u2014a distinguished member of our political economy club,\nthe late Mr. James Morrison,\u2014who assured me, that the leading principles\nto which he owed his success in life, and which he vindicated as sound\nelements of economical science, were\u2014always to consult the interests of\nthe consumer, and not, as is the common maxim, to buy cheap and sell\ndear, but to sell cheap as well as to buy cheap; it being to his\ninterest to widen the area of consumption, and to sell quickly and to\nthe many. The next maxim is involved in the first principle\u2014always to\ntell the truth, to have no shams: a rule which he confessed he found it\nmost difficult to get his common sellers to adhere to in its integrity,\nyet most important for success, it being to his interest as a merchant\nthat any ship-captain might come into his warehouse and fill his ship\nwith goods of which he had no technical knowledge, but of which he well\nknew that only a small profit was charged upon a close ready-money\npurchasing price, and that go where he would he would find nothing\ncheaper; it being, moreover, to the merchant\u2019s interest that his bill of\nprices should be every where received from experience as a truth, and\ntrustworthy evidence so far of a fair market-value. I might cite\nextensive testimony of the like character to show that the very labour\nand risks of continued deceits, however common, are detrimental to the\nsuccessful operation of economic principles, and that sound economy is\nevery where concurrent with high public morality.\u201d\n\nWith this brilliant exception before us, we must, however, admit the\ngeneral truth of this experience: \u201cThe nobility of trade usually ends\nwith the second generation. A thrifty and persevering man falls into a\nline of business by which he accumulates a large fortune, preserving\nthrough life the habits, manners, and connexions of his trade; but his\nchildren, brought up with expectations of enjoying his property,\nunderstand only the art of spending. Hence, when deprived of fortune,\nwithout industry or resources, they die in beggary, leaving a third\ngeneration to the same chances of life as those with which their\ngrandfather began his career fourscore years before.\u201d[108]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 103:\n\n _Spectator_ newspaper, 1862.\n\nFootnote 104:\n\n _Saturday Review._\n\nFootnote 105:\n\n When the Duke and Duchess, in taking farewell of Stowe, had reached\n the flower-garden, they both burst into a violent fit of tears. They\n went through the two gardens, and left them in silent sorrow: as he\n passed along, the Duke gave the Duchess a rose, which she treasured as\n the last gift.\n\nFootnote 106:\n\n See Ulster\u2019s _Vicissitudes of Families_, in three volumes, for many\n impressive narratives of the same class as the above.\n\nFootnote 107:\n\n The _Examiner_.\n\nFootnote 108:\n\n _Golden Rules of Social Philosophy_, by Sir Richard Phillips.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n CIVIC WORTHIES.\n\nThe state and dignity of the office of Chief Magistrate of the City of\nLondon have, during nearly centuries of its existence, pointed many a\nmoral,\u2014from the nursery-tale of Whittington to the accessories of\nHogarth\u2019s pictures and a homelier illustration of our own days:\n\n Our Lord Mayor and his golden coach, and his gold-covered footmen\n and coachman, and his golden chain, and his chaplain, and great\n sword of state, please the people, and particularly the women and\n girls; and when they are pleased, the men and boys are pleased: and\n many a young fellow has been more industrious and attentive from his\n hope of one day riding in that golden coach.\u2014_Cobbett._\n\nThis is, however, but the bright side of the picture. Civic office is\noften a costly honour; not only by large expenditure, but by neglect of\nprivate business to attend to the public duties of the station.\n\nAll that we propose to do here is to record a few noteworthy Mayoralties\nof the _present century_, to show that the office continues to be filled\nby men of high character and moral worth.\n\nAmong the worthy citizens should be mentioned Sir James Shaw, born in\n1764, in the humblest circumstances, and educated at the grammar-school\nof Kilmarnock. He settled in London as a merchant, by his own\nperseverance and integrity amassed a fortune, served as Lord Mayor\n1805-6, sat in three parliaments for the City, and was subsequently\nChamberlain. He was unostentatiously charitable, encouraged industrious\npoor men, and succoured the indigent, because he remembered his own\nunpromising infancy; and he was one of the first to assist the helpless\nchildren of Robert Burns. In commemoration of these estimable qualities,\na marble statue of Sir James Shaw was erected by public subscription at\nKilmarnock in 1848.\n\nSir Matthew Wood, Bart., the most popular Lord Mayor in the present\ncentury, began life as a druggist\u2019s traveller, and then settled in\nLondon in the ward of Cripplegate, for which he rose to be alderman: he\nserved as Lord Mayor two successive years, and represented the City in\nnine parliaments; his baronetcy was the first title conferred by Queen\nVictoria shortly after her accession. He gained much popularity as the\nadviser of the ill-fated Queen Caroline; for which, and his general\npolitical conduct, a princely legacy was bequeathed to him by the\nwealthy banker of Gloucester of the same name. He died in his 75th year:\nhis eldest son, the present baronet, is in holy orders; and his second\nson, Sir William Page Wood, is a sound equity lawyer and a\nVice-Chancellor.\n\nAlderman Birch, Lord Mayor in 1815, received a liberal education, and at\nan early age wrote some poems of considerable merit: he succeeded his\nfather in business, as a cook and confectioner, in Cornhill. He produced\nseveral dramatic pieces, of which the _Adopted Child_ is a stock\nfavourite: he was a sound scholar, and wrote the inscription for the\nstatue of George III. in the Council-chamber at the Guildhall, and took\nan active part in founding the London Institution.[109]\n\nRobert Waithman, Lord Mayor in 1823-24, was born of parents in humble\nlife, in 1764, and, when a boy, was adopted by his uncle, a linendraper\nat Bath, and sent to a school where the boys were taught public and\nextemporaneous speaking. He was taken into his uncle\u2019s business, and\nsubsequently came to London, and opened a shop at the south end of\nFleet-market. In 1794 he began to take an active part in City politics,\nand was next elected into the Common Council, where his speeches,\nresolutions, petitions, and addresses, would fill a large volume. He sat\nin five parliaments for the City, made a popular Sheriff and Lord Mayor;\nand after his death, in 1833, his friends and fellow-citizens erected to\nhis memory a granite obelisk upon the site whereon he commenced\nbusiness. A memorial tablet was also placed in St. Bride\u2019s church,\nstating that \u201cit was his happiness to see that great cause triumphant,\nof which he had been the intrepid advocate from youth to age.\u201d Curiously\nenough, this tablet is placed in the vestibule of the church, directly\nopposite a similar memorial to Mr. Blades, of Ludgate-hill, who was a\nfine old Tory, and a stanch opponent to Waithman throughout his stormy\npolitical life: as in life, so in death the great leveller has laid them\nhere.\n\nWaithman made his first political speech at Founders\u2019 Hall, \u201cthe caldron\nof sedition,\u201d when he and his fellow-orators were routed by constables\nsent by the Lord Mayor, Sanderson, to disperse the meeting. When\nSheriff, in 1821, Waithman, in endeavouring to quell a tumult at\nKnightsbridge, had a carbine presented at him by a lifeguardsman; and,\nat the funeral of Queen Caroline, a bullet passed through the Sheriff\u2019s\ncarriage, in the procession through Hyde-park. Latterly, the alderman\ngrew too moderate for his Farringdon-ward friends, and he was defeated\nof being elected Chamberlain; he then withdrew to a farm near Reigate,\nand in this bucolic retirement passed away. He was an intrepid, upright\nman, but had been sparsely educated; and many of the Resolutions on the\nWar with France, by which he gained political notoriety, were written by\nhis friend and neighbour, Sir Richard Phillips.\n\nIn early life Waithman showed considerable genius for acting; and we\nonce heard him relate that his success in the character of Macbeth led\nhis friends to press upon him the stage as a profession; but he chose\nanother sphere. He was uncle to John Reeve, the clever comic actor.\n\nAlderman Kelly, Lord Mayor at the accession of her Majesty in 1837, was\nhorn at Chevening, in Kent, and lived, when a youth, with Alexander\nHogg, the publisher, in Paternoster-row, for 10_l._ a year wages. He\nslept under the shop-counter for the security of the premises; but was\nreported to his master to be \u201ctoo slow\u201d for the situation: Mr. Hogg,\nhowever, thought him \u201ca biddable boy,\u201d and he remained: this incident\nshows _upon what apparently trifling circumstances a man\u2019s future\nprospects in life depend_. Kelly succeeded Mr. Hogg in the business,\nbecame alderman of the ward, and lived upon the spot sixty years: he\ndied in his eighty-fourth year.[110] He was a man of active benevolence,\nand reminded one of the pious Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Abney.\n\nSir Chapman Marshall, Lord Mayor 1839-40, was also of humble origin, as\nhe narrated in 1831, when Sheriff, in replying to the toast of his\nhealth: \u201cMy Lord Mayor and gentlemen, you now see before you a humble\nindividual who has been educated in a parochial school. I came to London\nin 1803, without a shilling\u2014without a friend. I have not had the\nadvantage of a classical education; therefore you will excuse my defects\nof language. But this I will say, my Lord Mayor and gentlemen, that you\nwitness in me what may be done by the earnest application of honest\nindustry; and I trust my example may induce others to aspire, by the\nsame means, to the distinguished situation which I now have the honour\nto fill.\u201d Here is a similar instance.\n\nSir John Pirie, Lord Mayor 1841-2, received his baronetcy on the\nchristening of the Prince of Wales: at his inauguration dinner Sir John\nsaid: \u201cI little thought, forty years ago, when I came to the City of\nLondon, a poor lad from the banks of the Tweed, that I should ever\narrive at so great a distinction.\u201d\n\nAlderman Wire, Lord Mayor 1858-9, was born 1801, and was one of the\nlarge family of a tradesman at Colchester; yet he had the advantage of a\nliberal education. He came to London and articled himself to a City\nsolicitor, and by his intelligence and industry was advanced to be\npartner in the business, and ultimately became the head of the firm. He\nwas elected Alderman of his Ward (Walbrook), served Sheriff in 1853, and\nthen Lord Mayor. Early in his year of office he was afflicted with\nparalysis, of which he recovered; but died on Lord-Mayor\u2019s-day 1860! He\nwas an active advocate of sanitary and educational movements, a liberal\npolitician, and a man of cultivated taste, and made an able chief\nmagistrate.\n\nAlderman Mechi deserves a niche among these civic worthies, by the\nsuperior enterprise of his career. He is the son of a citizen of\nBologna, was brought to England by his father, and, obtaining a\nclerkship in a house in the Newfoundland trade, he remained there eleven\nyears. Whilst in this service, he turned the hour allowed for dinner to\nprofitable account by selling, among his friends and acquaintance in the\nCity, a small and inexpensive article, of which he had bought the\npatent. Mainly by these exertions, when in his twenty-fifth year, he\ncommenced business as a cutler, with the success we have already\nintimated. He then studied how to remedy the defects of English farming\nby scientific processes; rose to be Sheriff and an Alderman; took an\nactive part in the affairs of the Society of Arts, and was specially\nsent by her Majesty\u2019s Government to the Industrial Exhibition at Paris\nin 1854.\n\nAddison, we know, says, \u201cthe City has always been the province for\nsatire; and the wits of King Charles\u2019s time jested upon nothing else\nduring his whole reign.\u201d Nevertheless, \u201cthe Merry Monarch\u201d dined with\nthe citizens no fewer than nine times in their Guildhall. Here also\nWhittington had feasted Henry V. and his Queen, when he threw the King\u2019s\nbonds for 60,000_l._ into a fire of spice-wood. But a still more\nmemorable feast was that in 1497, when at the table of the Lord Mayor,\nWilliam Purchase, Erasmus first met Sir Thomas More; whence sprung one\nof the most interesting friendships in literary history.\n\nIt has been well said that a dinner lubricates business; and it does\nmore\u2014it fosters charity and good works. The annual banquet on\nLord-Mayor\u2019s-day, in the Guildhall, is mostly to be viewed as a festival\nof civic state: \u201cthe loving-cup and the barons of beef carrying the mind\nback to medieval times and manners.\u201d[111] The banquets at the Mansion\nHouse\u2014one of the most palatial edifices in the kingdom\u2014are of a like\nstately description; and for the more direct benefits of civic festivity\nwe must look to the Ward dinners, and the meetings of public officers at\ntable, when they forget the cares and heartburnings incident to every\ngrade of office, and enjoy with the feast the higher luxury of doing\ngood.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 109:\n\n Birch excelled in his art; and his _cuisine_ was unrivalled in the\n City. Kitchiner immortalised his soups in print, and the Mansion-House\n banquets and Court dinners of the Companies attested the alderman\u2019s\n practical skill in his business. The shop in Cornhill was established\n in the reign of King George I. by Horton, who was succeeded by the\n father of Alderman Birch, whose successors, in 1836, were the present\n proprietors, Ring and Brymer. The premises present a curious specimen\n of the decorated shop-front of the early part of the last century.\n\nFootnote 110:\n\n See _Life of Alderman Kelly_, by the Rev. R. C. Fell. 1856.\n\nFootnote 111:\n\n Cunningham.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n WORKING AUTHORS AND ARTISTS.\n\nGodwin, the novelist and political writer, used to say that an author\nshould have two heads,\u2014one for his books, the other for worldly matters.\nAnd Holcroft, Godwin\u2019s contemporary, made a similar remark on\nactors,\u2014that they were so often filling other characters as to forget\ntheir own. These observations are, happily, of rare application in the\ncases of the present day.\n\nWe, however, remember the phrase of _Grub-street_ in occasional use, and\nwe find \u201cthe poor devil of an author\u201d in one of Washington Irving\u2019s\nearly works. But this species is now extinct; and authors build villas,\ngive large parties, and keep carriages, like other successful\nprofessional men. Nor must it be forgotten that they do not receive\ntheir money for corrupt services, as did the hacks of former days; and a\nGrub-street Author would be now almost as great a rarity as a living\ngorilla.\n\nWe remember a specimen of \u201cauthor and rags\u2014author and dirt\u2014author and\ngin,\u201d\u2014of forty years since. He lived in a garret,[112] in an old house\nat the top of Red Lion-court, Fleet-street: in one corner of the room,\nupon the floor, lay the bed; near the fire-place was an old chair; a box\nplaced endwise served for a table; and these, with an almost spoutless\ncoffee-pot, a maimed cup and saucer, a bottle for a candlestick, and an\nold chest, nearly completed the contents of the miserable apartment. The\ninmate was an old man turned of seventy, with shrunk shanks and\nloosely-fitting coat and breeches, and the conventional\nauthor\u2019s-nightcap; his scratchwig being placed upon one of the uprights\nof his chair, which served as a block. Every portion of the room bore\nevidence of the _dirt;_ and the atmosphere was redolent of _gin_. He\nwrote a large black, sermon-like hand, upon paper of all sorts and\nsizes: his matter was as antiquated as his manner; his very talk was\nscholastic pedantry, and the room was strewed with scraps and shreds of\nhis learning: but he lived within the classic shade of Valpy\u2019s\nprinting-office. With all his labour and learning, whatever he wrote was\nnot half so serviceable or so interesting as a short-hand report of an\noccurrence of yesterday.\n\nAnother humble practitioner of authorship had been driven to it by\nfailure in business; and an undecided Chancery-suit had made him a\npitiable, puling fellow; far less cheerful than the evergreen \u201cTom\nHill,\u201d who, failing as a drysalter at unlettered Queenhithe, betook\nhimself to the editorship of the _Monthly Mirror_, but had to part with\na collection of book-rarities (chiefly English poetry), which he began\nto make in early life as some relief to drysalting, which was any thing\nbut Attic work!\n\nThe life of this \u201cmerry bachelor\u201d exemplified one venerable proverb, and\ndisproved another: born in 1760, and dying in 1840, he was \u201cas old as\nthe Hills,\u201d having led a long life and a merry one. He was a remarkably\nearly riser; but that which contributed more to his longevity was his\ngaiety of heart, and his being merry and wise: he had his cares and\ncrosses, but when nearly ruined by an adverse speculation in indigo, he\nretired with the remains of his property to chambers in the Adelphi. His\nbooks were valued at 6000_l._ He had been a Mec\u00e6nas in his time, and had\npatronised two friendless poets, Bloomfield and Kirke White. He was the\nHull of his friend Theodore Hook\u2019s _Gilbert Gurney_, and suggested some\nof the eccentricities of Paul Pry.\n\nAuthorship and Trade are thought to be \u201cwide as the poles asunder,\u201d\nthough sometimes attempered by circumstances. David Booth, who wrote the\n_Analytical Dictionary_ and a critical work on English Composition, was\noriginally a brewer, then a man of letters; and late in life he realised\nmuch money by imparting to brewers the secret of preventing\nAcidification in Brewing.\n\nAmong the strange successes of authorship may be mentioned the\npopularity of works published anonymously, which their authors have not\ncared to claim. The accomplished Dr. William Maginn wrote the tragic\nstory of the Polstead murder, in 1827, in the form of a novel, entitled\nthe _Red Barn_, the sale of which extended to many thousand copies; yet\nno one suspected it to be the work of an elegant scholar, critic, and\npoet.\n\nLiterary Fame, Lord Byron affected to despise, in the following entry in\nhis entertaining _Ravenna Journal_, January 4th, 1821:\n\n I was out of spirits\u2014read the papers\u2014thought what _fame_ was, on\n reading in a case of murder that Mr. Wych, grocer, at Tunbridge,\n sold some bacon, flour, cheese, and, it is believed, some plums, to\n some gipsy woman accused. He had on his counter (I quote faithfully)\n a book, the _Life of Pamela_, which he was _tearing_ for _waste_\n paper, &c. &c. In the cheese was found, &c., and a _leaf_ of _Pamela\n wrapped round the bacon_. What would Richardson, the vainest and\n luckiest of _living_ authors (_i. e._ while alive)\u2014he who, with\n Aaron Hill, used to prophesy and chuckle over the presumed fall of\n Fielding (the prose Homer of human nature), and of Pope (the most\n beautiful of poets)\u2014what would he have said could he have traced his\n pages from their place on the French prince\u2019s toilets (see Boswell\u2019s\n _Johnson_) to the grocer\u2019s counter and the gipsy murderess\u2019s bacon?\n What would he have said\u2014what can any body say\u2014save what Solomon said\n long before us. After all, it is but passing from one counter to\n another\u2014from the bookseller\u2019s to the other tradesman\u2019s, grocer or\n pastry-cook. For my part, I have met with most poetry upon trunks;\n so that I am apt to consider the trunk-maker as the sexton of\n authorship.\n\nThe Letters of Southey afford some of the most truthful experiences of\nan author to be found in any record of human life and character. At the\nage of thirty, when struggling with the world, he wrote thus\nreverentially:\n\n No man was ever more contented with his lot than I am; for few have\n ever had more enjoyments, and none had ever better or worthier\n hopes. Life, therefore, is sufficiently dear to me, and long life\n desirable, that I may accomplish all which I design. But yet, I\n could be well content that the next century were over, and my part\n fairly at an end, having been gone well through. Just as at school\n one wished the school-days over, though we were happy enough there,\n because we expected more happiness and more liberty when we were to\n be our own masters, might lie as much later in the morning as we\n pleased, have no bounds, and do no exercise,\u2014just so do I wish that\n my exercises were over, that that ugly chrysalis state were passed\n through to which we must all come, and that I had fairly burst my\n shell, and got into the new world, with wings upon my shoulders, or\n some inherent power like the wishing-cap, which should annihilate\n all the inconveniences of space.\n\nHow lifelike also is the following passage upon Southey\u2019s meeting his\nfriend and schoolfellow, Combe! \u201cIt is about six years since I saw him.\nBoth he and I have grown into men with as little change as possible in\neither; and yet, after a few minutes, there was a dead weight upon me\nwhich was not to be shaken off. We met with the heartiness of old and\nthorough familiarity,\u2014something like a family feeling,\u2014but it was\nnecessary to go back to school; for the moment we ceased to be\nschoolboys there was nothing in common between us. We had no common\nacquaintance or pursuit; and I feel that of all things in the world\nthere is nothing more mortifying than to meet an old friend from whom\nyou have had no weaning, and to find your friendship cut through at the\nroot.\u201d\n\nThe life of John Britton, the topographer and antiquary, presents a\nremarkable instance of a man born to trouble, yet so successfully\nstruggling with difficulties of all kinds, as to attain a respectable\nposition in life, and to be honoured in his declining years with a\npublic testimonial of esteem. He was born at Kington, Wilts, in 1771:\nhis father, through failure in trade, became insane; the boy learnt his\nletters from a hornbook, but received little further schooling. He came\nto London, and, until manhood, worked hard in wine-cellars; but his\nhealth breaking down in this employment, he engaged himself at fifteen\nshillings a week as clerk to an attorney. He had grown fond of reading,\nbut could only get snatches at book-stalls from books, having no money\nto buy them. However, he at length succeeded in getting a few, read\nearly and late, and made some attempts at authorship, which led him to\nan enterprise that may be said to have indicated his future fortune. He\nprojected publishing a description of his native county, Wiltshire, and\nwith this view waited upon the Marquis of Lansdowne, at Bowood, to\nsolicit his patronage.[113] He had neither card nor prospectus; but he\ntold his early struggles and his love of reading so artlessly, that the\nkind-hearted nobleman directed his librarian to provide young Britton\nwith books and maps; to allot him a bedroom; and depute a person to show\nhim over the house and pleasure-grounds. He remained at Bowood four\ndays, much of which time he passed in the well-stored library. All this\nkindness[114] Mr. Britton gratefully acknowledges in his Autobiography,\nadding that, had he been coldly repulsed by Lord Lansdowne, \u201cit is\nprobable that the _Beauties of Wiltshire_ would never have appeared\nbefore the public, nor its author become known in literature.\u201d He wrote,\nedited, and published nearly one hundred works, and in this way laboured\nfor some sixty years. This success we attribute to his great energy of\ncharacter, nurtured by the kindness with which he was received at\nBowood; and aided in after-life by qualities which we rarely see\nassociated in the same individual. Mr. Britton was not only industrious\nand persevering, but cheerful under defeat; his evenness of temper was\nvery remarkable; yet he was not cold in his attachments. He tells us\nthat from his boyhood he was ambitious to be in the company of his\nelders and superiors in knowledge: we can testify that he was\nwell-behaved, though not obsequious; well-ordered and accurate in\nbusiness and money-matters; always living within his means, from youth,\nwhen he read books in bed to save the expense of fire,\u2014to his green old\nage of comfort in his quiet and elegant home in Burton-street: \u201cyears\nhad not blunted his sympathies, but to the last his heart overflowed\nwith genial kindness and benevolence;\u201d and he passed away peacefully and\nresignedly in his eighty-sixth year, on New-Year\u2019s-day, 1857. It will\nthus be seen that John Britton possessed qualities which, if less\nstriking than his industry, were equally essential to his success in\nlife, although they were but fully known to his more immediate circle of\nfriends and acquaintance.\n\nThe career of Mr. Britton\u2019s friend and neighbour, Francis Baily, the\nastronomer, presents a memorable instance of a well-spent life, although\ncommenced with a mistake. He was apprenticed to a London tradesman; but\ndisliking the business, at the expiration of the term, his taste for\nscience having already been developed, at the age of one-and-twenty he\nmade a very remarkable tour in the unsettled parts of North America.\nReturning to England, he became a member of the Stock Exchange, wrote\nsome important papers upon subjects connected with commercial affairs,\nand applied himself to astronomy in his leisure-hours. In 1820 he took a\nconspicuous part in the foundation of the Astronomical Society. After\nrealising a competent fortune, he retired from business, and devoted\nhimself to his favourite pursuits. He died in 1844, in his seventieth\nyear, after performing a vast amount of valuable work, of which his\nlabours in the remodelling of the _Nautical Almanac;_ in the fixation of\nthe standard of length, involving more than 1200 hours\u2019 watching the\noscillations of the pendulum; in the determination of the density of the\nearth; and in the revision of catalogues of the stars,\u2014were only a part.\nHe passed away with these memorable words almost upon his lips: \u201cMy life\nis nearly closed. I leave life with the same tranquillity and equanimity\nwhich I have generally felt and acted on in my personal intercourse with\nfriends and strangers. I have been blessed with uninterrupted health. In\nshort, I have had more than my share of terrestrial happiness, and leave\nit, as fulfilling an inscrutable law of animal nature, with thankfulness\nand resignation.\u201d \u201cAmong Mr. Baily\u2019s friends,\u201d says Prof. de Morgan,\n\u201cthere is surely not one who will venture to say positively that he ever\nknew _a better or a happier man_.\u201d\n\nThe rise of Chantrey, the sculptor, from peasant-life was nobly earned.\nHe was born in the village of Norton, Derbyshire, in 1781, of parents in\nhumble circumstances. When a boy carrying milk to the next town, he\nwould stop to form grotesque figures of the yellow clay; and he moulded\nhis mother\u2019s butter on churning-days into various forms. From his\nfondness for drawing and modelling he was apprenticed to a carver and\ngilder at Sheffield. Thence he came to London, and began to work at\ncarving in stone, not having received a single lesson from any sculptor;\nand he laboured for eight years without earning 5_l._ in his profession.\nAt length, a single bust brought him 12,000_l._-worth of commissions,\nand he rose to be the first sculptor of his day. He died in 1841, and\nwas buried in a tomb which he had built for himself in the churchyard of\nhis native village, where a granite obelisk has been raised to his\nmemory. He was ever mindful of his lowly origin; for when he had become\nfamous, and had received knighthood, at a party given by his patron, Mr.\nThomas Hope, Sir Francis Chantrey was observed to notice a piece of\ncarved furniture; on being asked the reason, he replied, \u201cThis was my\nfirst work.\u201d\n\nIt is scarcely possible to name Chantrey without being reminded of his\nfriend, \u201chonest Allan Cunningham,\u201d who, born in the county of Dumfries,\nin 1784, received but scanty education, and at the age of eleven was\napprenticed to a mason. In the intervals of his laborious occupation,\n\u201che sought knowledge wherever he could obtain it,\u201d and drew his earliest\npoetic inspiration from the dear country of Burns\u2014the wilds of\nNithsdale, and the lone banks of the Solway. Here he earned his daily\nbread as a common stonemason until his twenty-sixth year, when he came\nto London, wavering between labour and literature. He chose the latter,\nin reporting for the newspapers; but, soon tired of its perplexities, he\nresumed his first calling, and by a fortunate opportunity, to which his\nown excellent character recommended him, he became foreman of the works\nof Chantrey, in which honourable employment he remained until the\nsculptor\u2019s death, in 1841. In his intervals of business, by untiring\nindustry, Allan Cunningham produced a succession of works noteworthy in\nthe poetry and general literature of his day. His first poetry was\nprinted in 1807: he also wrote stirring romances; and in collecting\nTradition Tales of the Scottish Peasantry, by the light of an evening\nfire, he sweetened many an hour of remission from daily labour. Later in\nlife he became a critic of the Fine Arts, and wrote with amiable\nfeeling, honesty, and candour, and mature and liberal taste: it was well\nobserved of him in his lifetime: \u201cHe needs no testimony either to his\nintellectual accomplishments or his moral worth; nor, thanks to his own\nvirtuous diligence, does he need any patronage.\u201d His genius and artistic\njudgment have been inherited by his third son, Peter Cunningham, the\nwell-known critic, topographer, and antiquary.[115]\n\nThe greatest author of the present century, whether we regard the\nbeneficial influence of his writings, or its extent, is Sir Walter\nScott. We have already spoken of his diligence and economy of time; his\ncharacteristics as an author have been ably sketched as follows:\n\n With far less classical learning, fewer images derived from\n travelling, inferior information on many historical subjects, and a\n mind of a less impassioned and energetic cast than other writers of\n his time, Sir Walter is far more deeply read in that book which is\n ever the same\u2014the human heart. This is his unequalled excellence:\n there he stands, without a rival since the days of Shakspeare. It is\n to this cause that his astonishing success has been owing. We feel\n in his characters that it is not romance, but real life, which is\n represented. Every word that is said, especially in the Scotch\n novels, is nature itself. Homer, Cervantes, Shakspeare, and Scott,\n alone have penetrated to the deep substratum of character, which,\n however disguised by the varieties of climate and government, is at\n bottom every where the same; and thence they have found a responsive\n echo in every human heart. Every man who reads these admirable\n works, from the North Cape to Cape Horn, feels that what the\n characters they contain are made to say, is just what would have\n occurred to themselves, or what they have heard said by others as\n long as they lived. Nor is it only in the delineation of character,\n and the knowledge of human nature, that the Scottish novelist, like\n his great predecessors, is but for them without a rival. Powerful in\n the pathetic, admirable in dialogue, unmatched in description, his\n writings captivate the mind as much by the varied excellences which\n they exhibit, as by the powerful interest which they maintain. He\n has carried romance out of the region of imagination and sensibility\n into the walks of actual life.[116]\n\nIsaac Disraeli, who died in 1848, at the age of eighty-two, was \u201ca\ncomplete literary character, a man who really passed his life in his\nlibrary. Even marriage produced no change in these habits: he rose to\nenter the chamber where he lived alone with his books, and at night his\nlamp was ever lit within the same walls.\u201d His father destined him for\nbusiness; but this he opposed so strongly as to compose a long poem\nagainst commerce, which he attempted to get published. In spite of all\nhis father could say or do, young Disraeli determined to become a\nliterary man. His first efforts were in poetry and romance; but he soon\nfound out that his true destiny was literary history; and in 1790 he\npublished anonymously _Curiosities of Literature_, the success of which\nled him to devote the remainder of his long life to literary and\nhistorical researches, which he prosecuted partly in the British Museum,\nwhere he was a constant visitor when the _readers_ were not more than\nhalf a dozen daily: he also worked in his own library, which was very\nextensive. His _Curiosities_ reached eleven editions; and in\nacknowledgment of his _Life and Reign of Charles I._ he was made D.C.,\n&c. by the University of Oxford. He is thus personally described by his\ngifted son:\n\n He was fair, with a Bourbon nose, and brown eyes of extraordinary\n beauty and lustre. He wore a small black-velvet cap, but his white\n hair latterly touched his shoulders in curls almost as flowing as in\n his boyhood. His extremities were delicate and well formed, and his\n leg, at his last hour, as shapely as in his youth, which showed the\n vigour of his frame. Latterly he had become corpulent. He did not\n excel in conversation, though in his domestic circle he was\n garrulous. Every thing interested him; and blind, and eighty-two, he\n was still as susceptible as a child. One of his last acts was to\n compose some verses of gay gratitude to his daughter-in-law, who was\n his London correspondent, and to whose lively pen his last years\n were indebted for constant amusement. He had by nature a singular\n volatility, which never deserted him. His feelings, though always\n amiable, were not painfully deep, and amid joy or sorrow the\n philosophic vein was ever evident. He more resembled Goldsmith than\n any man that I can compare him to: in his conversation his apparent\n confusion of ideas ending with some felicitous phrase of genius, his\n _na\u00efvet\u00e9_, his simplicity not untouched with a dash of sarcasm\n affecting innocence\u2014one was often reminded of the gifted and\n interesting friend of Burke and Johnson. There was, however, one\n trait in which my father did not resemble Goldsmith: he had no\n vanity. Indeed, one of his few infirmities was rather a deficiency\n of self-esteem.\n\nMr. Disraeli had the pride and happiness to see the writer of the above,\nBenjamin Disraeli, not only achieve high distinction in literature, but\nbecome a minister of the Crown. We remember him in his twenty-fifth\nyear. \u201cWho is that gentleman with a profusion of hair, whom I so often\nsee here?\u201d was our inquiry of a publisher in Oxford-street. \u201cThat is\nyoung Disraeli,\u201d was the publisher\u2019s reply; \u201cand he would be glad to\nexecute any literary work for a guinea or two.\u201d He had already produced\na piece of piquant satire, an _Account of the Great World_,[117] with a\nVocabulary; and shortly after there was announced for publication a\nperiodical to be called _The Star-Chamber_, to have been edited by Mr.\nDisraeli. He published his first novel, _Vivian Grey_, in 1825;\n_Coningsby_, a work of fiction and political history, he wrote chiefly\nat Deepdene, in Surrey, the seat of his friend, Mr. H. T. Hope. Mr.\nDisraeli entered Parliament in 1837: he succeeded Lord George Bentinck\nas the Conservative leader; was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord\nDerby\u2019s administrations of 1852 and 1858-9; thus exemplifying that the\nhighest political honours are attainable in this country by intellectual\nqualification for public life.\n\nLord Macaulay, the brilliant essayist, historian, and orator,\nexemplifies in his successful career how genius may be most profitably\nnurtured by systematic education. Of quick perception and great power of\nmemory, when a boy he would tell long stories from the _Arabian Nights_\nand Scott\u2019s novels; but the familiar books of his home were the Bible,\n_Pilgrim\u2019s Progress_, and a few Cameronian divines; and he was fond of\nScripture phraseology throughout his writings. He appears to have been a\ngreat favourite of Hannah More, who thought him a little prodigy of\nacquisition, and wrote of him, when on a visit to her in his boyhood:\n\n The quantity of reading that Tom has poured in, and the quantity of\n writing he has poured out, is astonishing. We have poetry for\n breakfast, dinner, and supper. He recited all _Palestine_ (Bishop\n Heber\u2019s poem), while we breakfasted, to our pious friend, Mr.\n Whalley, at my desire, and did it incomparably.... I sometimes fancy\n I observe a daily progress in the growth of his mental powers. His\n fine promise of mind, too, expands more and more; and, what is\n extraordinary, he has as much accuracy in his expression as spirit\n and vivacity in his imagination. I like, too, that he takes a lively\n interest in all passing events, and that _the child_ is still\n preserved; I like to see him as boyish as he is studious, and that\n he is as much amused with making a pat of butter as a poem. Though\n loquacious, he is very docile; and I don\u2019t remember a single\n instance in which he has persisted in doing any thing when he saw we\n did not approve it. Several men of sense and learning have been\n struck with the union of gaiety and rationality in his conversation.\n\nMore remarkable was the prevoyance of Macaulay\u2019s power as a writer,\nwhich Hannah More almost literally predicted: he cherished a warm\nrecollection of his obligations to her, and the influence she had in\ndirecting his reading. He received his peerage in honour of his valuable\nservices to literature: he will long be remembered by his grasp of mind,\ndescriptive picturesqueness, strong feeling and vivid fancy, life-like\nportraiture, and marvellous scenic skill. In his mastery of the art of\nwriting he was unrivalled.\n\nIt may take the reader by surprise to be told that, astounding as the\ncareer of Lord Brougham has been, the rise of this distinguished man to\nthe highest honour of the realm appears to have been predicted thirty\nyears before its attainment. At the Social Science dinner at the Crystal\nPalace, Sydenham, on June 14th, 1862, at which Lord Brougham presided,\nMr. J. W. Napier, Ex-Chancellor of Ireland, related that he remembered,\nsome years previously, meeting an old and respected lady in the north of\nEngland, who was present at a party when the first writers in the\n_Edinburgh Review_, including Henry Brougham, dined together at\nEdinburgh, after the publication of the Second Number of the Review (in\n1802). On that occasion, the lady\u2019s husband, Mr. Fletcher, remarked that\nthe writer of a certain paper in the Review, of which he knew not the\nauthor, was fit to be any thing. Mr. Brougham hearing this, observed,\n\u201cWhat! do you think he is fit to be Lord Chancellor?\u201d The reply was,\n\u201cYes; and I tell you more: he will be Lord Chancellor;\u201d and the old lady\nhad the happiness to live thirty years after this, and to see her friend\nLord Chancellor of England. Lord Brougham well remembered old Mrs.\nFletcher, and corroborated the accuracy of Mr. Napier\u2019s anecdote. Mr.\nNapier then proposed, in an affectionate manner, the health of Lord\nBrougham, whose answer was, as he said, but a repetition of words he had\nspoken thirty years ago elsewhere. But on the present occasion they were\nperhaps even more appropriate, and in themselves singularly beautiful:\n\u201cWhen I cease from my labours, the cause of freedom, peace, and progress\nwill lose a friend, and no man living will lose an enemy.\u201d The noble\nlord was much affected, and it is needless to tell of the applause which\nfollowed the sentiment.\n\nHenry Brougham was born in Edinburgh in 1779: his father was no\nextraordinary man, but his mother is described as a woman of talent and\ndelightful character. The son was educated in Edinburgh, which, in 1857,\nhe declared in public he looked upon as a very great benefit conferred\non him by Providence. He was _dux_ of the Rector\u2019s class at the\nEdinburgh University in 1791; and he was pre\u00ebminent in mathematics and\nnatural philosophy, in law, metaphysics, and political science. When not\nmore than seventeen, he contributed to the Royal Society a paper on the\nInflection and Reflection of Light; and next, a paper of Porisms in the\nHigher Geometry. He chose the Scottish Bar as his profession; and, with\nHorner, Jeffrey, and other Scottish Whigs, joined the renowned\nSpeculative Society for the sake of extemporaneous debate. He for some\ntime edited the _Edinburgh Review_, and was for five-and-twenty years\nthe most industrious and versatile of the contributors. In 1808 he was\ncalled to the Bar at Lincoln\u2019s Inn, and began to practise as an English\nbarrister. In 1810 he entered Parliament, and soon distinguished himself\non all the great questions of the day. His application to law,\nliterature, and science was alike intense. Sir Samuel Romilly said, he\nseemed to have time for every thing; and Sydney Smith once recommended\nhim to confine himself to only the transaction of so much business as\nthree strong men could get through. Hazlitt, in a portrait-sketch taken\nabout 1825, says:\n\n Mr. Brougham writes almost as well as he speaks. In the midst of an\n election contest he comes out to address the populace, and goes back\n to his study to finish an article for the _Edinburgh Review_,\n sometimes indeed wedging three or four articles in the shape of\n _rifacimenti_ of his own pamphlets or speeches in Parliament in a\n single Number. Such indeed is the activity of his mind, that it\n appears to require neither repose nor any other stimulus than a\n delight in its own exercise. He can turn his hand to any thing, but\n he cannot be idle. He is, in fact, a striking instance of the\n versatility and strength of the human mind, and also, in one sense,\n of the length of human life: _if we make good use of our time, there\n is room enough to crowd almost every art and science into it_.\n\nIt is now nearly forty years since this was written, and it is almost as\napplicable as ever. In 1828, in a debate in Parliament, Mr. Brougham\nused the memorable words, \u201cThe schoolmaster is abroad.\u201d He next, in a\nspeech of six hours\u2019 delivery, moved for an inquiry into the state of\nthe Law; the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, Catholic\nEmancipation, and the Charities Commission, were next advocated by him;\nand then, Parliamentary Reform, the Abolition of Punishment of Forgery\nby Death, Local Courts, and the Abolition of Slavery. In 1830 he was\nraised to the high office of Lord Chancellor. Mechanics\u2019 Institutes, and\nthe foundation of University College, and the Diffusion of Useful\nKnowledge, were next advocated by Lord Brougham. His Chancellorship was\nbrief. But he continued to labour for the next thirty years in Law\nReform and Social Science, and in aiding the progress of liberal\nopinion.\n\nThe universal energy which has marked Lord Brougham was thus ably summed\nup, on the publication of his volume of scientific Tracts, in 1860:\n\n If the fact of his scientific researches were less well known, there\n would be something quite startling in the announcement of a volume\n of mathematical tracts from the hand of a man who has had half a\n score of other occupations, each sufficient to engross the whole\n mind of an ordinarily constituted mortal. To be great as a circuit\n leader, all-powerful as a popular chief, triumphant as a reforming\n Chancellor\u2014to be the prominent figure in the Anti-Slavery movement,\n the promoter of education, the concocter of law-reforming statutes\n almost without number\u2014the statesman of all parties, the citizen of\n two countries, and the orator of a thousand platforms\u2014might have\n sufficed most ambitions, without the renown of literary success and\n scientific effort. But, not content with the public achievements of\n his life, or the obscure glory of anonymous literature, Lord\n Brougham has striven to reproduce in an English dress the eloquence\n of Demosthenes, and to correct the real or supposed errors of no\n less a philosopher than Newton himself.... Philosophical theories\n may survive Lord Brougham\u2019s attacks, and _savans_ may forget his\n speculations; but generations of Englishmen will long remember the\n career of a man who has exhibited in a thousand forms an amount of\n mental vitality which it would be difficult to parallel in the\n history of the most restless and eager aspirants to the glory of\n universal genius.\n\nIt is impossible to reflect upon the politico-legal position of Lord\nBrougham when he sat upon the woolsack, without remembering that\nBrougham and Denman, at the trial of Queen Caroline, attacked with\nvirulence, then generally condemned, the Prince from whose hands, as\nsovereign, ten years later, both received high legal office. This change\nin feeling is alike creditable to all.\n\nOne of the most remarkable men of our day was Professor Wilson, the\nEditor of _Blackwood\u2019s Magazine_, in the pages of which he is thus\ncharacterised, from his bust in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham: he was\nborn at Paisley, in Scotland, in 1785; and died at Edinburgh, in 1854.\n\n The head tells the story of the whole man. It is the head of an\n athlete, but an athlete possessing a soul, the grace of Apollo\n sitting on the thews of Hercules. Such a man, you would say at once,\n was none of your sedentary _litterati_, who appear to have the cramp\n in their limbs whenever they move abroad, but one who could, like\n the Greeks of old, ride, run, wrestle, box, dive, or throw the\n discus at need, or put the stone like Ulysses himself, or one who\n could do the same things, and in addition to them steer, pull an\n oar, shoot, fish, follow hounds, or make a good score at cricket,\n like a true Briton of modern times, in spite of all our physical and\n intellectual degeneracy, about which, indeed, we have a right to be\n sceptical, when we know that such an unmistakable man as Wilson was\n living in the reign of Queen Victoria. It is an honour to Scotland\n that she produced such a critic on Homer, only second to that which\n is hers in having produced that poet who, of all the moderns, has\n composed poetry the most Homeric\u2014even Walter Scott.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 112:\n\n Such a room as Mr. Egg has painted in his masterly picture of \u201cThe\n Death of Chatterton;\u201d and, curiously enough, the house above referred\n to was nearly upon the same spot.\n\nFootnote 113:\n\n This was William, first Marquis of Lansdowne, who, as Earl of\n Shelburne, was Prime Minister in 1782; the date of Mr. Britton\u2019s visit\n was 1798. By the Marquis\u2019s kindness, he tells us that he left Bowood\n for Chippenham loaded with books, and a copy of a large Survey of\n Wiltshire, in eighteen folio sheets. The Marquis was a liberal patron\n of Art, and commenced at Bowood and Shelburne House the formation of a\n gallery of modern art; and his fine taste was amply inherited by his\n son Henry, the third Marquis, who died at Bowood in January 1863.\n\nFootnote 114:\n\n We remember a similarly gratifying incident in early life. We had\n scarcely reached twenty-one, when we had occasion to wait upon Mr.\n Chamberlain Clark, to request of him some particulars of the house of\n Cowley the poet, at Chertsey, which was then in Mr. Clark\u2019s tenancy.\n The bland old Chamberlain inquired if we had ever written a book; to\n which the reply was, that we had a volume of topography in the press.\n \u201cThen please to put down my name for a copy,\u201d kindly rejoined the\n Chamberlain, although the work was merely of local interest. What\n kindness in one who was the chastener of refractory apprentices and\n the terror of evil-doers!\n\nFootnote 115:\n\n Mr. P. Cunningham, in the _Builder_, Feb. 14, 1863, writes as follows:\n\n \u201cChantrey died so suddenly that an inquest was held upon his body. I\n was present. It was a solemn sight, not to be effaced whilst\n unimpaired remembrance reigns. In an exquisite little gallery built\n for him by Sir John Soane, lay (seen by many lighted tapers) the\n breathless body and torpid hand that had given life to helpless clay\n and shapeless stone. Around the body in its windingsheet were ranged\n some of the finest casts from the antique that money and taste could\n procure. Calm and solemn was the scene. My father kissed the cold\n forehead of his friend with these words: \u201cMy dear master.\u201d I looked\n into his eyes as we left together; they were full of tears.\u201d\u2014_New\n Materials for the Life of Chantrey._\n\nFootnote 116:\n\n Sir Archibald Alison.\n\nFootnote 117:\n\n Published by Ridgway, Piccadilly, 1829.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n WEAR AND TEAR OF PUBLIC LIFE.\n\nThe sudden death of Lord George Bentinck, the political leader, in 1848,\nin his forty-seventh year, showed how the most ardent intellect and the\nnoblest frame are alike broken down by the turmoil of public life. After\na late debate in Parliament he would travel by rail many miles to hunt,\nand return in time to attend the sittings of the House in the evening;\nthrowing a wrapper over his scarlet hunting-coat, and exercising\nindefatigably the office of \u201cwhipper-in\u201d in the House, and subsequently\nleader of \u201cthe country party.\u201d He had during these political avocations\ncontinued his attention to racing and race-horses, declaring on one\noccasion that the winning of the Derby was the \u201cblue-ribbon\u201d of the\nturf. In August 1848 he retired to Welbeck Abbey for relaxation; he,\nhowever, attended Doncaster races four times in one week, at which a\nhorse of his own breeding won the St. Leger stakes, to his great\ngratification. On September 21st he left Welbeck on foot, soon after\nfour o\u2019clock in the afternoon, to visit Earl Manvers, at Thoresby-park,\nand sent his servants to meet him with a carriage at an appointed place.\nHe appeared not; the servants became alarmed; search was made for him;\nbut it was not till eleven at night that he was found quite dead, lying\non a footpath in a meadow about a mile from the house: his death having\nbeen caused by spasms of the heart. In Cavendish-square has been set up\na colossal statue of this remarkable man: the pedestal simply bears his\nname; his political and sporting celebrity has \u201cwaned with time; had the\nawful circumstances of his death been inscribed upon the memorial, it\nwould have been a constant monition\u2014a \u201csiste viator\u201d\u2014of far greater\nvalue than a political monument.\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n Home Traits.\n\n\n LOVE OF HOME.\n\nENGLAND is, above all other countries, favourable to individual\nindustry, and that energy of character which, developed and well\ndirected, succeeds in the world. Still, failure neither is nor ever has\nbeen rare; and private munificence and public benevolence have provided\n\u201cmany happy ports and havens\u201d for those whose evening of life is clouded\nwith storm. We have visited not a few of these sacred places\u2014these\npalaces of philanthropy; we have gone about their buildings\u2014their noble\nhalls glowing with comfort, and their tables beaming with good cheer. We\nhave for a brief hour enjoyed the quiet of these retreats, and thought\nhow their decayed brethren, jaded with adversity and buffeted with\nmisfortune, may find here that consolation and repose which the outside\nworld has denied them. These may be found in the fellowship of the\ndining-hall, the social walk in the garden, and the assembling for\nworship in the chapel. All this, however, is but the bright side of this\nmode of life; and when the time arrives for the brethren to retire, each\nto his solitary chamber, then comes the pang of isolation from the\nworld\u2014even the ungrateful world! And, perchance, they look from the\ncasement upon the larger foundation-buildings, and are by them still\nmore forcibly reminded that this noble place is _not their own_\u2014in\nshort, that it presents not the joys nor the delights which are conveyed\nto the sensitive heart by that brief but touching word\u2014HOME!\n\nIt is scarcely possible to overrate the importance of this love of home\nin our scheme of earthly happiness. Southey has well observed: \u201cWhatever\nstrengthens our local attachments is favourable both to individual and\nnational character. Our home, our birthplace, our native land; think,\nfor a while, what the virtues are which rise out of the feelings\nconnected with these words.\u201d\n\nThen, how is man, in the loneliness we have referred to, parted from the\nsweet solace he most needs in his hour of woe! Such consolation has been\nthus picturesquely bodied forth by one of our happiest writers on\ndomestic life: \u201cAs the vine, which has long twined its graceful foliage\nabout the oak, and been lifted by it into sunshine, will, when the hardy\nplant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its caressing\ntendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs; so it is beautifully ordered\nby Providence, that woman, who is the mere dependent and ornament of man\nin his happier hours, should be his stay and solace when smitten with\nsudden calamity; winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature,\ntenderly supporting the drooping head, and binding up the broken\nheart.\u201d[118]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 118:\n\n Washington Irving.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n FAMILY PORTRAITS.\n\nWe remember reading a humorous sketch entitled, \u201cThe late Mr. Smith,\u201d\nwhose portrait after his death was removed by his widow to the\nlumber-room, lest it should be displeasing to her second husband:\noccasionally the children would bring out the portrait, and with a rusty\nfoil run \u201cthe ugly old man\u201d through the eyes.\n\nHere we have one of the reasons why family portraits are so often thrust\naside; but there are several others. The Rev. Mr. Eagles relates the\nfollowing, in _Blackwood\u2019s Magazine:_ \u201cI remember, when a boy, walking\nwith an elderly gentleman, and passing a broker\u2019s stall, there was the\nportrait of a fine florid gentleman in regimentals. He stopped to look\nat it\u2014he might have bought it for a few shillings. After he had gone\naway\u2014\u2018That,\u2019 said he, \u2018is the portrait of my wife\u2019s great uncle\u2014member\nfor the county, and colonel of militia: you see how he is degraded to\nthese steps.\u2019 \u2018Why do you not rescue him?\u2019 said I. \u2018Because he left me\nnothing,\u2019 was the reply. A relative of mine, an old lady, hit upon a\nhappy device; the example is worth following. Her husband was the last\nof his race, for she had no children. She took all the family portraits\nout of their frames, rolled up all the pictures, and put them in the\ncoffin with the deceased.\u201d\n\nSheridan has turned an incident of this class to admirable account, in\nhis _School for Scandal_, in the reservation of Uncle Oliver\u2019s portrait\nfrom sale.\n\nSometimes a good picture has unpleasant associations. \u201cThat is an\nexcellent portrait of Ireland, the Shakspeare forger,\u201d said a collector\nto a picture-dealer in Wardour-street; whose ready reply was, \u201cWill you\nbuy it, sir? it is but half a guinea.\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d answered the other; \u201cit\nwould seem either that I admired Ireland\u2019s dishonest ingenuity, or that\nI had been his friend.\u201d\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n HOW TO KEEP FRIENDS.\n\nWhen Goldsmith once talked to Johnson of the difficulty of living on\nvery intimate terms with any one with whom you differed on an important\ntopic, Johnson replied: \u201cWhy, sir, _you must shun the subject as to\nwhich you disagree_. For instance, I can live very well with Burke; I\nlove his knowledge, his genius, his diffusion, and effulgence of\nconversation; but I would not talk to him of the Rockingham party.\u201d\n\nMr. Helps, in his admirable work, _Friends in Council_, well observes:\n\u201cA rule for living happily with others is to avoid having stock subjects\nof disputation. It mostly happens, when people live much together, that\nthey come to have certain set topics, around which, from frequent\ndispute, there is such a growth of angry words, mortified vanity, and\nthe like, that the original difference becomes a standing subject for\nquarrel; and there is a tendency in all minor disputes to drift down to\nit. Again: if people wish to live well together, they must not hold too\nmuch to logic, and supposing every thing is to be settled by sufficient\nreason. Dr. Johnson saw this clearly with regard to married people when\nhe said, \u2018Wretched would be the pair, above all names of wretchedness,\nwho should be doomed to adjust by reason every morning all the minute\ndetail of a domestic day.\u2019 But the application should be much more\ngeneral than he made it. There is no time for such reasonings, and\nnothing that is worth them. And when we recollect how two lawyers, or\ntwo politicians, can go on contending, and that there is no end of\none-sided reasoning on any subject, we shall not be sure that such\ncontention is the best mode for arriving at truth. But certainly it is\nnot the way to arrive at good temper.\u201d\n\nThe most gifted men are least addicted to depreciate either friends or\nfoes. Dr. Johnson, Mr. Burke, and Mr. Fox were always more inclined to\noverrate them; your shrewd, sly, evil-speaking fellow is generally a\nshallow person; and frequently he is as venomous, as false when he\nflatters as when he reviles. He seldom praises John but to vex Thomas.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n SMALL COURTESIES.\n\nHow much politeness and winning of the affections exist in small\ncourtesies, is well exemplified in the following anecdote related by a\nlady of a gentleman who had been the politest man of his generation. On\nreturning once from school for the holidays, she had been put under his\ncharge for the journey. They stopped for the night at a Cornish inn.\nSupper was ordered, and soon there appeared a dainty dish of woodcocks.\nHer cavalier led her to the board with the air of a Grandison, and then\nproceeded to place all the legs of the birds on her plate. At first,\nwith her school-girl prejudices in favour of wings and in disfavour of\nlegs and drumsticks, she felt rather angered at having these (as she\nsupposed) uninviting and least delicate parts imposed upon her; but in\nafter years, when gastronomic light had beamed on her, and the\nexperience of many suppers brought true appreciation, she did full\njustice to the memory of the man who could sacrifice such _morceaux_ as\nwoodcocks\u2019 thighs to the crude appetite of a girl, and who could thus\nshow his innate deference for womanhood even in such budding form.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n LASTING FRIENDSHIPS.\n\nThe man who ill-naturedly said that the church would not hold his\nacquaintance, but the pulpit would contain his friends, cannot be\ncongratulated upon the disproportion.\n\n\u201cWho is your friend?\u201d is an every-day question, probably never better\nanswered than in the following forcible and eloquent rebuke by a modern\nwriter:\n\n Concerning the man you call your friend, tell me, will he weep with\n you in the hour of distress? Will he faithfully reprove to your\n face, for actions which others are ridiculing or censuring behind\n your back? Will he dare to stand forth in your defence, when\n detraction is secretly aiming its deadly weapons at your reputation?\n Will he acknowledge you with the same cordiality, and behave to you\n with the same friendly attention, in the company of your superiors\n in rank and fortune, as when the claims of pride or vanity do not\n interfere with those of friendship? If misfortune and losses should\n oblige you to retire into a walk of life in which you cannot appear\n with the same distinction, or entertain your friends with the same\n liberality as formerly, will he still think himself happy in your\n society, and, instead of withdrawing himself from an unprofitable\n connexion, take pleasure in professing himself your friend, and\n cheerfully assist you to support the burden of your afflictions?\n When sickness shall call you to retire from the gay and busy scenes\n of the world, will he follow you into your gloomy retreat, listen\n with attention to your \u201ctale of symptoms,\u201d and minister the balm of\n consolation to your fainting spirits? And lastly, when death shall\n burst asunder every earthly tie, will he shed a tear upon your\n grave, and lodge the dear remembrance of your mutual friendship in\n his heart, as a treasure never to be resigned? The man who will\n _not_ do all this may be your companion,\u2014your flatterer,\u2014but, depend\n upon it, _he is not your friend_.\n\nSouthey has left this charming picture of Friendship which ceases but\nwith existence:\n\n It may safely be affirmed that generous minds, when they have once\n known each other, never can be alienated as long as both retain the\n characteristics which brought them into union. No distance of place\n or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are\n thoroughly persuaded of each other\u2019s worth. There are even some\n broken attachments in friendship, as well as in love, which nothing\n can destroy, and it sometimes happens that we are not conscious of\n their strength till after the disruption. There are a few persons\n known to me in years long past, but with whom I lived in no\n particular intimacy then, and have held no correspondence since,\n whom I could not now meet without an emotion of pleasure deep enough\n to partake of pain, and who, I doubt not, entertain for me feelings\n of the same kind and degree\u2014whose eyes sparkle when they hear, and\n glisten sometimes when they speak of me, and who think of me, as I\n do of them, with an affection that increases as we advance in years.\n This is because our moral and intellectual sympathies have\n strengthened, and because, though far asunder, we know that we are\n travelling the same road towards our resting-place in heaven. \u201cThere\n is such a pleasure as this,\u201d says Cowper, \u201cwhich would want\n explanation to some folks, being perhaps a mystery to those whose\n hearts are a mere muscle, and serve only for the purpose of an even\n circulation.\u201d[119]\n\nAnd Professor Wilson has written these words of sweet consolation for\nthe loss of friends:\n\n Friends are lost to us by removal\u2014for then even the dearest are\n often utterly forgotten. But let something that once was theirs\n suddenly meet our eyes, and in a moment, returning from the region\n of the rising or the setting sun, the friend of our youth seems at\n our side, unchanged his voice and his smile; or dearer to our eyes\n than ever, because of some affecting change wrought on face and\n figure by climate and by years. Let it be but his name written with\n his own hand on the title-page of a book; or a few syllables on the\n margin of a favourite passage which long ago we may have read\n together, \u201cwhen life itself was new,\u201d and poetry overflowed the\n whole world; or a lock of _her_ hair in whose eyes we first knew the\n meaning of the word \u201cdepth.\u201d And if death hath stretched out the\n absence into the dim arms of eternity, and removed the distance away\n into that bourne from which no traveller returns\u2014the absence and the\n distance of her on whose forehead once hung the relic we adore\u2014what\n heart may abide the beauty of the ghost that doth sometimes at\n midnight appear at our sleepless bed, and with pale uplifted arms\n waft over us at once a blessing and a farewell!\n\nIt rarely happens that broken friendships can be repaired or renewed.\nMrs. Richard Trench, in her Journal, relates this remarkable instance of\na failure:\n\n At last, after an interval of twenty-four years, which succeeded a\n tolerably intimate acquaintance of seven weeks, I saw Count M\u00fcnster\n of Hanover again. We met like two ghosts that ought to have been\n laid long since. I witnessed the whole process of the difficulty of\n persuading him that I was I; and I thought him as much changed in\n his degree as he could have found me. When we conversed, all the\n persons we referred to were dead and gone; and our interview added\n another link in my mind to the chain of proofs that, after a very,\n very long interval, neither friends nor acquaintance ought to meet\n in this world. He was kindly anxious to renew our acquaintance, and\n visited me next day; but still it seemed as if seeing me had renewed\n some painful associations.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 119:\n\n _The Doctor._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n TRUE TONE OF POLITE WRITING.\n\nSir James Mackintosh, who has sometimes been unfairly characterised as a\nwriter of drawing-room essays, has left the following able view of what\nmay be termed \u201cthe True Tone of Polite Writing,\u201d\u2014a rare accomplishment\neven in these days of assumed facility and literary pretension:\n\n When a woman of feeling, fancy, and accomplishment has learned to\n converse with ease and grace, from long intercourse with the most\n polished society, and when she writes as she speaks, she must write\n letters as they ought to be written, if she has acquired just as\n much habitual correctness as is reconcilable with the air of\n negligence. A moment of enthusiasm, a burst of feeling, a flash of\n eloquence, may be allowed; but the intercourse of society, either in\n conversation or in letters, allows no more. Though interdicted from\n the long-continued use of elevated language, they are not without a\n resource. There is a part of language which is disdained by the\n pedant or the declaimer, and which both, if they knew its\n difficulty, would approach with dread; it is formed of the most\n familiar phrases and turns in daily use by the generality of men,\n and is full of energy and vivacity, bearing upon it the marks of\n those keen feelings and strong passions from which it springs. It is\n the employment of such phrases which produces what may be called\n colloquial eloquence. Conversation and letters may be thus raised to\n any degree of animation, without departing from their character. Any\n thing may be said, if it be spoken in the tone of society. The\n highest guests are welcome if they come in the easy undress of the\n club: the strongest metaphor appears without violence, if it is\n _familiarly_ expressed; and we the more easily catch the warmest\n feeling, if we perceive that it is intentionally lowered in\n expression, out of condescension to our calmer temper. It is thus\n that harangues and declamations, the last proof of bad taste and bad\n manners in conversation, are avoided, while the fancy and the heart\n find the means of pouring forth all their stores. To meet this\n despised part of language in a polished dress, and producing all the\n effects of wit and eloquence, is a constant source of agreeable\n surprise. This is increased, when a few bolder and higher words are\n happily wrought into the texture of this familiar eloquence. To find\n what seems so unlike author-craft in a book raises the pleasing\n astonishment to its highest degree. I once thought of illustrating\n my notions by numerous examples from \u201cLa Sevign\u00e9.\u201d And I must, some\n day or other, do so; though I think it the resource of a bungler who\n is not enough master of language to convey his conceptions into the\n minds of others. The style of Madame de Sevign\u00e9 is evidently copied,\n not only by her worshiper, Walpole, but even by Gray; who,\n notwithstanding the extraordinary merits of his matter, has the\n double stiffness of an imitator and of a college recluse.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n PRIDE AND MEANNESS.\n\nRousseau has well described this association of Pride and Stinginess,\nwhich is very common: \u201cWe take from nature, from real pleasures, nay,\nfrom the stock of necessaries, what we lavish upon opinion. One man\nadorns his palace at the expense of his kitchen; another prefers a fine\nservice of plate to a good dinner; a third makes a sumptuous\nentertainment, and starves himself the rest of the year. When I see a\nsideboard richly decorated, I expect the wine to be very indifferent.\nHow often in the country, when we breathe the fresh morning air, are we\nnot tempted by the prospect of a fine garden! We rise early, and by\nwalking gain a keen appetite, which makes us wish for breakfast. Perhaps\nthe domestic is out of the way, or provisions are wanting, or the lady\nhas not given her orders, and you are tired to death with waiting.\nSometimes people prevent your desires, or make you a very pompous offer\nof every thing, upon condition that you accept of nothing. You must fast\ntill three o\u2019clock, or breakfast with the tulips. I remember to have\nwalked in a very beautiful park, which belonged to a lady who, though\nextremely fond of coffee, never drank any but when at a very low price;\nyet she liberally allowed her gardener a salary of a thousand crowns.\nFor my part, I should choose to have tulips less finely variegated, and\nto drink coffee whenever my appetite called for it.\u201d\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n HOME THOUGHTS.\n\nThere is much to be learned from domestic annals. Southey has well\nobserved: \u201cThe history of any private family, however humble, could it\nbe fairly related for five or six generations, would illustrate the\nstate and progress of society better than could be done by the most\nelaborate historian.\u201d\n\nCheerfulness and a festival spirit fills the soul full of harmony; it\ncomposes music for churches and hearts; it makes and publishes\nglorifications of God; it produces thankfulness, and serves the ends of\ncharity; and when the oil of gladness runs over, it makes bright and\ntall emissions of holy fires, reaching up to a cloud, and making joy\nround about: and therefore, since it is so innocent, and may be so\npious, and full of holy advantage, whatever can minister to this holy\njoy does set forward the work of religion and charity.[120]\n\nIn how delightful a strain has the same writer said: \u201cThere is some\nvirtue or other to be exercised, whatever happens, either patience or\nthanksgiving, love or fear, moderation or humility, charity or\ncontentedness; and they are, every one of them, equally in order to his\ngreat end and immortal felicity: and beauty is not made by white or red,\nby black eyes and a round face, by a straight body and a smooth skin,\nbut by a proportion to the fancy. Whatever we talk, things are as they\nare; not as we grant, dispute, or hope, depending on neither our\naffirmative nor negative; but upon the rate and value which God sets\nupon things.\u201d\n\nLord Macaulay, too, has left us this touching picture:\n\n Children, look in those eyes, listen to that dear voice, notice the\n feeling of even a single touch that is bestowed upon you by that\n gentle hand! Make much of it while yet you have that most precious\n of all good gifts\u2014a loving mother. Read the unfathomable love of\n those eyes; the kind anxiety of that tone and look, however slight\n your pain. In after-life you may have friends\u2014fond, dear, kind\n friends\u2014but never will you have again the inexpressible love and\n gentleness lavished upon you which none but a mother bestows. Often\n do I sigh in my struggles with the hard, uncaring world, for the\n sweet, deep security I felt when, of an evening, nestling to her\n bosom, I listened to some quiet tale, suitable to my age, read in\n her tender and untiring voice. Never can I forget her sweet glances\n cast upon me when I appeared asleep; never her kiss of peace at\n night. Years have passed away since we laid her beside my father in\n the old churchyard; yet still her voice whispers from the grave, and\n her eye watches over me as I visit spots long since hallowed to the\n memory of my mother.\n\nWe pass from these traits of sweet simplicity to a lesson for riper age,\nby a living writer of sterling humour:\n\n It is better for you to pass an evening once or twice a week in a\n lady\u2019s drawing-room, even though the conversation is slow, and you\n know the girl\u2019s song by heart, than in a club, tavern, or the pit of\n a theatre. All amusements of youth to which virtuous women are not\n admitted, rely on it, are deleterious to their nature. All men who\n avoid female society have dull perceptions and are stupid, or have\n gross tastes and revolt against what is pure. Your club-swaggerers,\n who are sucking the butts of billiard-cues all night, call female\n society insipid. Poetry is uninspiring to a yokel; beauty has no\n charms for a blind man; music does not please a poor beast who does\n not know one tune from another; but as a true epicure is hardly ever\n tired of water, sancey, and brown bread and butter, I protest I can\n sit for a whole night talking to a well-regulated, kindly woman\n about her girl Fanny or her boy Frank, and like the evening\u2019s\n entertainment. One of the great benefits a man may derive from\n woman\u2019s society is, that he is bound to be respectful to her. The\n habit is of great good to your moral men, depend upon it. Our\n education makes of use the most eminently selfish men in the world.\n We fight for ourselves, we push for ourselves, we yawn for\n ourselves, we light our pipes and say we won\u2019t go out, we prefer\n ourselves and our ease; and the greatest that comes to a man from a\n woman\u2019s society is, that he has to think of somebody to whom he is\n bound to be constantly attentive and respectful.\u2014_Thackeray._\n\nEvery virtue enjoined by Christianity as a virtue, is recommended by\npoliteness as an accomplishment. Gentleness, humility, deference,\naffability, and a readiness to assist and serve on all occasions, are as\nnecessary in the composition of a true Christian as in that of a\nwell-bred man. Passion, moroseness, peevishness, and supercilious\nself-sufficiency, are equally repugnant to the characters of both, who\ndiffer in this only, that the true Christian really is what the\nwell-bred man pretends to be, and would still be better bred if he\nwas.\u2014_Soame Jenyns._\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 120:\n\n Jeremy Taylor.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n The Spirit of the Age.\n\n\n\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE.\n\nTHE zeal which Albert, Prince Consort, evinced in furthering good\nworks,\u2014his sympathy with the wants of the poor, their bodily health and\ncomfort, and their intellectual and moral culture,\u2014will long endear his\nmemory to the grateful people of the country of his adoption.\n\nIt was a characteristic of his genius that he would never consent to\ntake the lead in any movement until he had, as far as possible,\nsatisfied himself of its proper object and practicability. That he fully\nunderstood and appreciated the requirements of the age, is evident from\nthe following passage in one of his manly Addresses:\n\n\u201cWhilst formerly the greatest mental energies strove at universal\nknowledge, and that knowledge was confined to the few, now they are\ndirected on specialities, and in these again even to the minutest\npoints; but the knowledge acquired becomes at once the property of the\ncommunity at large; for, whilst formerly discovery was wrapped in\nsecrecy, the publicity of the present day causes, that no sooner is a\ndiscovery or invention made, than it is already improved upon and\nsurpassed by competing efforts. The products of all quarters of the\nglobe are placed at our disposal, and we have only to choose which is\nthe best and the cheapest for our purposes, and the powers of production\nare intrusted to the stimulus of competition and capital. So man is\napproaching a more complete fulfilment of that great and sacred mission\nwhich he has to perform in this world. His reason being created after\nthe image of God, he has to use it to discover the laws by which the\nAlmighty governs His creation, and, by making these laws his standard of\naction, to conquer nature to his use; himself a Divine instrument.\nScience discovers these laws of power, motion, and transformation;\nindustry applies them to the raw matter, which the earth yields us in\nabundance, but which become valuable only by knowledge. Art teaches us\nthe immutable laws of beauty and symmetry, and gives to our productions\nforms in accordance to them.\u201d Again: \u201cTo the human mind nothing is so\nfascinating as progress. It is not what we have long had that we most\nprize. We highly prize new accessions; but we enjoy almost unconsciously\ngifts, of far more value, we have long been in possession of. This is\nour nature; thus we are constituted. It is not surprising, therefore,\nthat we should have a peculiar relish for new discoveries. The interest\nof discovery, however, is not permanent. For a time we are dazzled by\nits brilliancy; but gradually the impression fades away, and at last is\nlost entirely in the splendour of some fresh discovery which carries\nwith it the charm of novelty. When we reflect upon this, we cannot help\nperceiving in how very different a state the world would be from what it\nis if mankind in the beginning had been in the possession of all the\nknowledge we now have, and there had been no progress ever since.\u201d\n\nThere is no royal death within memory of the present generation which\nhas caused such grave and regretful reflection as the sudden manner in\nwhich the Prince Consort was taken from our beloved Sovereign and her\nfamily, at the close of the year 1861. The nearest approach to the\npublic sorrow upon this melancholy occasion was the universal sympathy\nexpressed on the loss of the Princess Charlotte, in 1817, when the\nmother and offspring were at once swept by the hand of death into the\nsame grave! Put widespread as was the lamentation of the people for\ntheir hopes being thus crushed, it differed in this respect from the\nsorrow for the Prince Consort,\u2014that in the one case expectation was\nblighted, but in the other realisation was extinguished when the fruits\nof superior intelligence were fast ripening into the maturity of true\ngreatness.\n\nSince the death of the Prince the country has learned the full extent of\nits loss by this sad event. Yet it was plainly asserted in the _Leader_\nnewspaper, ten years ago, that the Prince was \u201cbecoming the most popular\nman in England;\u201d and the reader was assured that the above paper was\nwritten to put the Prince\u2019s \u201cposition and his services in the point of\nview in which we may comprehend him, and be grateful to him.\u201d This\nstatement was unheeded at the time it was made; but, in the year\nfollowing, other journalists had discovered that the Prince had some\nvoice in English foreign policy,\u2014a charge which was admitted to be true\nby Ministers in Parliament. Public attention was then turned in an\nentirely different direction, and the Prince resumed his powerful\npopular position. Yet his weighty influence, as we have said, was not\nfully made known until recently. We have seen but one acknowledgment of\nthe service of the well-informed and far-seeing writer in the _Leader_,\nand to this was not attached his name. We therefore add, in justice to\nthe memory of a man of rare talent, and the right spirit of\nindependence, which is the best characteristic of a public journalist,\nthat the writer in question was the late Mr. E. M. Whitty, who reprinted\nthe above in _The Governing Classes of Great Britain_.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n SPECIAL PROVIDENCE IN SCIENCE.\n\nThe records of science furnish us with examples in which complicated\ncauses have operated through vast periods of duration anterior to man\u2019s\nexistence, or even anterior to that of the existence of any of the more\nperfect animals, in order to provide for the wants and happiness of\nthose animals, especially of man. Laws, apparently conflicting and\nirregular in their action, have been so controlled and directed, and\nmade to conspire, as to provide for the wants of civilised life untold\nages before man\u2019s existence. In those early times, vast forests, for\ninstance, might have been growing along the shores of estuaries; and\nthese dying, were buried deep in the mud, there to accumulate thick beds\nof vegetable matter over huge areas; and this, by a long series of\nchanges, was at length converted into coal. This could be of no use\nwhatever till man\u2019s existence, nor even then, till civilisation had\ntaught him to employ the substance for his comfort, and for a great\nvariety of useful arts.\n\nDr. Hitchcock illustrates this position as follows: Look, for instance,\nat the small island of Great Britain. At this day 15,000 steam-engines\nare driven by means of coal, with a power equal to that of 2,000,000 of\nmen; and thus is put into operation machinery equalling the unaided\npower of 300,000,000 or 400,000,000 of men. The influence thence\nemanating reaches the remotest portions of the globe, and tends mightily\nto the civilisation and happiness of the race. And is all this an\naccidental effect of nature\u2019s laws? Is it not rather a striking example\nof special protective providence? What else but divine power, intent\nupon a specific purpose, could have so directed the countless agencies\nemployed through so many ages as to bring about such marvellous\nresults?[121]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 121:\n\n _Religious Truth illustrated from Science._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS.\n\nSchool-learning is, undoubtedly, the best foundation: \u201cIn all industrial\npursuits connected with the natural sciences, in fact in all pursuits\nnot simply dependent on manual dexterity, the development of the\nintellectual faculties, by what may be termed \u2019school-learning,\u2019\nconstitutes the basis and chief condition of progress and of every\nimprovement. A young man with a mind well stored with solid scientific\nacquirements will, without difficulty or effort, master the technical\npart of an industrial pursuit; whereas, in general, an individual who\nmay be thoroughly master of the technical part is altogether incapable\nof seizing upon any new fact that has not previously presented itself to\nhim, or of comprehending a scientific principle and its application.\u201d\n\nLord Stanhope has thus strikingly illustrated the subject:\n\n See how the field of human knowledge is extended. Within the last\n fifty years there is scarce a branch of knowledge, even in those\n which have been explored for hundreds of years\u2014classical learning,\n for example\u2014which has not received some new and important additions.\n But not only this; it may be said that new sciences have been\n discovered. Who, seventy or eighty years ago, thought or heard of\n the name of geology, or of men like Cuvier, who by their genius have\n brought back to us the forms of long-extinct animals, and the state\n of the earth as it must have existed thousands of years ago? Who\n could have imagined that in art such vast resources should have been\n opened up to us, as, for instance, the now-familiar science of\n photography supplies? Who would have imagined that railways, which\n have enabled us at so quick a rate to have communication with all\n parts of the country, would become a study of well-regulated\n curiosity; or that the instantaneous power of transmission which we\n possess in the electric telegraph should be imparted to the whole of\n the people who now crowd these busy shores?\n\nSome of the noblest triumphs of science, however, do but show the\nshortsightedness of man, and seem to dictate to him that great results\ncan only be obtained by gradual and patient labour, as if to keep in\ncheck his overweening conceit. This is illustrated in the discovery of\nVoltaism. \u201cWhen Galvani,\u201d says Lord Brougham, in his powerful manner,\n\u201cobserved the contortions of the muscle in a dead frog, or even when\nVolta gave an explanation of them, how little could it be foreseen that\nthe discovery would lead not only to the decomposition of bodies which\nhad resisted all attempts to ascertain their constituent parts, and\nbring us acquainted with substances wholly unlike any before known, as\nmetals that floated in water and took fire on exposure to the air; but,\nafter having thus changed the face of chemical science, should also\nimpress a new character upon the moral, judicial, and political world!\nYet this has undeniably been the result of the discovery made by Volta.\u201d\n\nThe histories of invention present many instances of \u201cthe slip between\nthe cup and the lip.\u201d New modes of lighting have been very productive of\nsuch disappointments. About thirty years since was patented a light by\nthe admixture of the vapour of hydrocarbons with atmospheric air, so as\nto produce an illumination equal in brilliancy to that of the purest\ngas; the power of light from a ten-hole burner equalling that of\n22-1/8th wax-candles. This invention had been a long and costly labour;\na single set of experiments having cost 500_l._ At length the patent was\nsold to a company for the large sum of 28,000_l._; a plant was\nestablished, licenses were advertised for sale, and, among the confident\npromises, it was held out that the gas-pipes and mains of the existing\ncompanies might be bought up for the requirements of this new light! But\nthe working of the invention did not succeed in detail (indeed, it had\nbeen purchased with the knowledge that it was incomplete); and the\nentire capital invested, some 40,000_l._ or 50,000_l._, was lost!\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n TIME AND IMPROVEMENT.\n\nThe Rev. Dr. Temple, in his glowing Essay, \u201cEducation of the World,\u201d\nthus maintains that all human improvement is the result of the\naccumulations of Time:\n\n To the spirit all things that exist must have a purpose, and nothing\n can pass away till that purpose be fulfilled. The lapse of time is\n no exception to this demand. Each moment of time, as it passes, is\n taken up in the shape of permanent results into the time that\n follows, and only perishes by being converted into something more\n substantial than itself. Thus, each successive age incorporates into\n itself the substance of the preceding,\u2014the power whereby the present\n ever gathers itself into the past, transforms the human race into a\n colossal man, whose life reaches from the Creation to the Day of\n Judgment. The successive generations of men are days in this man\u2019s\n life. The discoveries and inventions which characterise the\n different epochs of the world\u2019s history are his works. The creeds\n and doctrines, the opinions and principles of the successive ages,\n are his thoughts. The states of society at different times are his\n manners. He grows in knowledge, in self-control, in visible size,\n just as we do. And his education is in the same way, and for the\n same reason, precisely similar to ours. All this is no figure, but\n only a compendious statement of a very comprehensive fact.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n EVIL INFLUENCES.\n\nIt has been asked by a great author, \u201cWhat does it signify whether you\ndeny a God or speak ill of Him?\u201d\u2014a question well answered by another\nsage, when he declares, \u201cI would rather men should say that there never\nwas such a man as Plutarch, than that Plutarch was an ill-natured,\nmischievous fellow.\u201d\n\nNearly eighty years ago Mr. Sharp wrote, \u201cThere can be no reasonable\ndoubt that it is better to believe too much than too little; since, as\nBoswell observes (most probably in Johnson\u2019s words), \u2018A man may breathe\nin foul air, but he must die in an exhausted receiver.\u2019\u201d\n\nMuch of the scepticism that we meet with is necessarily affectation or\nconceit; for it is as likely that the ignorant, weak, and indolent\nshould become mathematicians as reasoning unbelievers. Patient study and\nperfect impartiality must precede rational conviction, whether ending in\nfaith or doubt. Need it be asked, how many are capable of such an\nexamination? But whether they come honestly by their opinions or not, it\nis much more advisable to refute than to burn, or even to scorch them.\n\nIt has been shrewdly remarked by a contemporary:\n\n All the voices which have any real influence with an Englishman in\n easy circumstances combine to stimulate a low form of energy, which\n stifles every high one. The newspapers extol his wisdom by assuming\n that the average intelligence which he represents is, under the name\n of public opinion, the ultimate and irresponsible ruler of the\n nation. The novels which he and his family devour with insatiable\n greediness have no tendency to rouse his imagination, to say nothing\n of his mind. They are pictures of the every-day life to which he has\n always been accustomed,\u2014sarcastic, sentimental, or ludicrous, as the\n case may be,\u2014but never rising to any thing which could ever suggest\n the existence of tragic dignity or ideal beauty. The human mind has\n made considerable advances in the last three-and-twenty centuries;\n but the thousands of Greeks who could enjoy not only Euripides, but\n Homer and \u00c6schylus, were superior, in some important points, to the\n millions of Englishmen who in their inmost hearts prefer Pickwick to\n Shakspeare. Even the religion of the present day is made to suit the\n level of commonplace Englishmen. There was a time when Christianity\n meant the embodiment of all truth and holiness in the midst of a\n world lying in wickedness. It afterwards included law, liberty, and\n knowledge, as opposed to the energetic ignorance of the northern\n barbarians. It now too often means philanthropic societies\u2014excellent\n things as far as they go, but rather small. Any doctrine now is\n given up if it either seems uncomfortable or likely to make a\n disturbance. It is almost universally assumed that the truth of an\n opinion is tested by its consistency with cheerful views of life and\n nature. Unpleasant doctrines are only preached under incredible\n forms, and thus serve to spice the enjoyments which they would\n otherwise destroy.[122]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 122:\n\n _Cornhill Magazine._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n WORLDLY MORALITY.\n\nProfessor Blackie, in his eloquent Edinburgh Essay, has these stringent\nremarks upon the lax morality of the day:\n\n There is in the world always a respectable sort of surface\n morality,\u2014and nowhere more than in this British world at the present\n hour,\u2014a morality of convenience and utility, which pays respect to\n the principles of right and wrong when generally formalised, but\n which recognises them practically only in so far as local customs\n and decencies, proprieties, etiquettes, and the round of certain\n \u201cinevitable charities,\u201d are willing to recognise them. This morality\n many a consumer of beefsteaks and swiller of porter in this lusty\n and material land accepts, after eighteen hundred years of Gospel\n preaching, as quite sufficient for all the purposes of a respectable\n English life. But the perverse maxims and vicious practices with\n which our British society is rank, make it evident to the most\n superficial glance how far the current morality of our trades and\n parties is from seeking to accommodate itself to the principles of\n extreme moral purity laid down in every page of the New Testament. A\n sermon may be a very proper thing as Sunday work, and may help to\n bridge the way to heaven, when a bridge shall be required; but on\n Monday a man must attend to his business, and act according to the\n maxims of his trade, of his party, of his corporation, of his\n vestry. Then the respectable sporting-man will stake his last\n thousand on the leg of a race-horse, and think it quite like a\n Christian gentleman to allow his tailor\u2019s bill to be unpaid for\n another year; then the respectable Highland proprietor will refuse\n to renew the lease to the industrious poor cotter on his estate,\n that the people, for whom he cares nothing, may make way for the\n red-deer, which it is his only passion to stalk; then the\n respectable brewer, instead of preparing wholesome drink from\n wholesome grain, will infect his brewst with deleterious drugs in\n order to excite a factitious thirst in the stomach of his customers,\n and increase the amount of drinking; then a respectable corporation,\n to maintain their own \u201cvested rights,\u201d will move heaven and earth to\n prevent the national parliament from acting on the plainest rules of\n justice and common sense in a matter seriously affecting the public\n well-being; and the respectable members of society shall flutter\n round the gilded wax-lights of aristocracy, and perform worship at\n Hudson\u2019s statue, and have respect to men with gold rings and goodly\n apparel, and do every thing that is expressly forbidden in the\n second chapter of the Epistle of James, which they profess to\n receive as a divine rule of conduct. These are only one or two of\n the more glaring points in which our commonly-received maxims and\n practice of respectable British life run directly in the face of\n that highest morality, which the most religious and church-going\n Englishman professes to acknowledge as his rule of conduct.\n\nProfessor Blackie concludes with the gospel text, \u201cWhat shall it profit\na man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?\u201d which the\nProfessor applies in the plain practical question: \u201cWhat will it profit\nEngland to spin more cotton, to pile more money-bags, to set more\nsteam-coaches a-going, if Mammon is to be worshiped every where, rather\nthan virtue and wisdom?\u201d &c.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n SPEAKING THE TRUTH.\n\nOne of the sublimest things in the world is plain Truth. Indeed it is so\nsublime as to be entirely out of the reach of many people.\n\nThe ancients said many fine things of Truth; but nothing to exceed in\npractical worth the love of Truth shown by the great Duke of Wellington\nin every phase of his wonderful career, of which the majority of us have\nbeen, more or less, contemporary witnesses.\n\n\u201cThe foundation of all justice,\u201d said this truly great man, \u201cis Truth;\nand the mode of discovering truth has always been to administer an oath,\nin order that the witness may give his depositions under a high\nsanction.\u201d\n\nElsewhere he said, when advocating the cause of the Church of England,\n\u201cI am resolved to tell plainly and honestly what I think, quite\nregardless of the odium I may incur from those whose prejudices my\ncandour and sincerity may offend. I am here to speak the truth, and not\nto flatter the prejudices of any man. In speaking the truth, I shall\nutter it in the language that truth itself most naturally suggests. It\nis upon her native strength\u2014upon her own truth\u2014it is upon her spiritual\ncharacter, and upon the purity of her doctrines, that the Church of\nEngland rests.\u201d\n\nWhen, upon the death of Sir Robert Peel, the Duke of Wellington sought\nto express what seemed to him most admirable in the character of his\nfriend, he said that he was _the truest man he had ever known;_ adding:\n\u201cI was long connected with him in public life. We were both in the\ncouncils of our sovereign together, and I had long the honour to enjoy\nhis private friendship. In all the course of my acquaintance with Sir\nRobert Peel, I never knew a man in whose truth and justice I had a more\nlively confidence, or in whom I saw a more invariable desire to promote\nthe public service. In the whole course of my communication with him I\nnever knew an instance in which he did not show the strongest attachment\nto truth; and I never saw, in the whole course of my life, the smallest\nreason for suspecting that he stated any thing which he did not firmly\nbelieve to be the fact.\u201d\n\nIt was the instinct of a man, himself as true as he was great, thus to\nplace the regard for truth in the front rank of human qualities. On that\nsimple and noble basis his own nature rested. Wellington could not\nvapour, or even utter a lie in a bulletin. Every thing with him was\nsimple, direct, straightforward, and went to the heart of its purpose,\nif any thing could. In all that has singled out England from the\nnations, and given her the front place in the history of the world, the\nDuke of Wellington was emphatically an Englishman. His patience, his\nprobity, his punctuality in the smallest things, in every thing the\npractical fidelity and reliability of his character, we rejoice to\nregard as the type of that which has made us the great people that we\nare. It has indeed been well said that the Duke\u2019s whole existence was a\npractical refutation of all falsehood.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n RESTLESSNESS AND ENTERPRISE.\n\nAn anxious, restless temper, that runs to meet care on its way, that\nregrets lost opportunities too much, and that is over-painstaking in\ncontrivances for happiness, is foolish, and should not be indulged.[123]\nIf you cannot be happy in one way, be happy in another; and this\nfacility of disposition wants but little aid from philosophy, for health\nand good-humour are almost the whole affair. Many run about after\nfelicity, like an absent man hunting for his hat while it is on his head\nor in his hand. Though sometimes small evils, like invisible insects,\ninflict great pain, yet the chief secret of comfort lies in not\nsuffering trifles to vex one, and in prudently cultivating an\nundergrowth of small pleasures, since very few great ones, alas, are let\non long leases.\n\nNothing will justify, or even excuse, dejection. Untoward accidents will\nsometimes happen; but, after many years\u2019 experience (writes Mr. Sharp),\nI can truly say, that nearly all those who began life with me have\nsucceeded, or failed, as they deserved:\n\n Faber quisque fortun\u00e6 propri\u00e6.\n\nThough you may look to your understanding for amusement, it is to the\naffections that we must trust for happiness, These imply a spirit of\nself-sacrifice; and often our virtues, like our children, are endeared\nto us by what we suffer for them. Conscience, even when it fails to\ngovern our conduct, can disturb our peace of mind. Yes, it is neither\nparadoxical nor merely poetical to say:\n\n That seeking others\u2019 good, we find our own.\n\nThis solid yet romantic maxim is found in no less a writer than Plato;\nwho, it has been well observed, sometimes in his moral lessons, as well\nas in his theological, is almost, though not altogether, a Christian.\n\nThe passion for enterprise and adventure is the shoal upon which high\nhopes are constantly being wrecked. We remember, some thirty years\nsince, a merchant of London, who inherited a princely fortune, which he\nembarked in speculations of almost astounding magnitude. He was a\nlarge-minded and generous man; and among other instances of his\nliberality, was his aid to scientific explorations, in acknowledgment of\nwhich he received an honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society. He\npublished upon political economy and monetary questions; and with that\nfatality which often attends those who aspire to public business, our\nmerchant, in some measure, out-ventured his own. Before the\nproblematical economy of vast steam-ships had been settled, he invested\nlarge sums in this class of speculation. He was rather athirst for fresh\nfields than for the gold itself; and with this view he and his family\nceded to a chartered company a group of islands discovered some forty\nyears previously through their enterprise, and which the Government had\ngranted them in consideration for their services in more recent\ndiscoveries of the southern continent. It was then resolved to colonise\nthe islands as the head-station of the southern whale-fishery; our\nmerchant receiving the appointment of lieutenant-governor. Troops of\nfriends and well-wishers attended the leave-taking; the voyage out was\nfair and auspicious, and the governor and his little staff planted their\nbare emblem of authority upon the islands.\n\nThe scheme was reasonable; for whale-fishing was rife in the\nneighbouring seas, and sperm-whales even came into the anchorage. The\ncountry is luxuriantly wooded, the flowering plants abound; and the\nclimate is mild, temperate, and salubrious. But the fishery failed, and\nthe horizon soon grew dark with gathering clouds of discontent among the\ncolonists; and there arose cabals, the usual consequence of defeated\nhopes: as success brightly colours all things in life, so failures\ndarken them. After many months of suffering from indignities heaped upon\nhim by exasperated adventurers, and the confusion which follows such\nmischances, the governor\u2019s brief authority was respected only by _two_\nindividuals among the six-score colonists. Such heartless desertion in a\nland upon whose storm-beaten shores human foot had rarely set, would\nhave made many a stout heart quail: not so our almost friendless\nrepresentative of authority; and at length the many closed their cruel\nindignities by determining that he should leave the islands by the first\nship which should touch there. This stern resolve was carried into\neffect; and our merchant-prince, solitary in all respects save hope,\nreturned to the home which he had left amid a choir of aspirations. He\nmemorialised the Government for redress, and besought parliament-men to\nassert his wrongs; but the only result was the usual official coldness\nand disinclination to interfere in troublesome matters; although the\nenterprise was, at the commencement, fully recognised by the colonial\nauthorities at home.\n\nThis is a painful story of a few years\u2019 misadventure and wrecked\nfortune, and ingratitude to a man whose honour and integrity, in the\nface of misfortune, should at least have shielded him from insult. Yet\nhow forcibly does it illustrate the perils which so often beset the\nrestless spirit!\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 123:\n\n Such a person knows as much of what true felicity consists as did\n Horace Walpole\u2019s gardener, who thought it \u201csomething of a bulbous\n root.\u201d\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE PRESENT AND THE PAST.\n\nSharon Turner, a man of sound, practical sense, as well as a reverential\nand reflective writer of history, has these pertinent remarks upon the\ntendency of historians to magnify the Present at the expense of the\nPast:\n\n Nothing is a greater reproach, to the reasoning intellect of any age\n than a splenetic censoriousness on the manners and characters of our\n ancestors. It is but common justice for us to bear in mind that in\n those times we should have been as they were, as they in ours would\n have resembled ourselves. Both are but the same men, acting under\n different circumstances, wearing different dresses, and pursuing\n different objects; but neither inferior to the other in talent,\n industry, or intellectual worth. The more we study biography, we\n shall perceive more evidence of this truth.\n\n Disregarding what satire might, without being cynical, lash in our\n own costumes, we are apt to look proudly back on those who have gone\n before us, and to regale our self-complacency with comparisons of\n their deficiencies, and of our greater merit. The retrospect is\n pleasing, but it offers no ground for exultation. We are superior,\n and we have in many things better taste and sounder judgment and\n wiser habits than they possessed. And why? Because we have had means\n of superiority by which they were not assisted. But a merit which\n owes its origin merely to our having followed, instead of preceding,\n in existence, gives us no right to depreciate those over whom our\n only advantage has been the better fortune of a later chronology. We\n may therefore allow those who have gone before us to have been\n amused with what would weary or dissatisfy us, without either\n sarcasms on their absurdities, or contemptuous wonder at their\n stately childishness and pompous inanities.\n\nOne of our most popular historians indulges to excess in these brilliant\nantitheses, which in his pages remind one of poppies in corn.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n CIRCUMSTANCES AND GENIUS.\n\nThis episode in man\u2019s history,\u2014this stage in the great struggle of\nlife,\u2014has been thus powerfully painted by a contemporary:\n\n We presume there can be little doubt that circumstances have an\n effect upon the lives and characters of men; to say any thing else\n would be to contradict flatly the ordinary opinion of the world.\n Notwithstanding, if one will but look at one\u2019s private experience\n among the most ordinary and obscure actors in the life-drama, how\n wonderfully, one must allow, character, temper, heart, and spirit,\n assert themselves beyond the reach of all external powers! How\n triumphantly the poor prodigal, to whom Providence has given the\n fairest prospects, and whose steps are guarded by love and kindness,\n can vindicate his own instincts against all the virtuous force of\n circumstance surrounding him, and go to destruction in its very\n face! Who needs to be taught that ever-recurring lesson? Who can be\n ignorant that scarcely a great career has ever been made in this\n world otherwise than in the face of circumstances\u2014in strenuous\n defiance of all that external elements could do to overcome the\n unconquerable soul? In the face of such examples, what are we to say\n to the theory that adverse circumstances can excuse a man born with\n all the compensations of genius for an unlovely and ignoble life, a\n bitter and discontented heart, a course of vulgar vice and sordid\n meanness? Never was genius more wickedly disparaged. That celestial\n gift to which God has given capacities of enjoyment beyond the reach\n of the crowd, is of itself an armour against circumstance more proof\n than steel, and continually holds open to its possessor a refuge\n against the affronts of the world, a shelter from its contumelies,\n which is denied to other men. He who reckons of this endowment as of\n something which gives only a more exquisite egotism, a finer touch\n of selfishness, a sublimation of envy and self-assertion, and\n dependence upon the applause of the crowd, forms a mean estimate,\n against which it is the duty of every man who knows better to\n protest. Outside circumstances, disappointment, neglect, dark want\n and misery, have plagued the souls and disturbed the temper of great\n men before now, but have never, so far as we are aware, polluted a\n pure heart, or made a noble mind despicable. The bitter soreness of\n unappreciated genius belongs proverbially to those whose gift is of\n the smallest; and the man who excuses a bad life by the pretence\n that this divine lymph contained within it has been soured by\n popular neglect and turned to gall, speaks sacrilege and\n profanity.[124]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 124:\n\n _Quarterly Review._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n OUR UNIMAGINATIVE AGE.\n\nWe have now no great poets; and our poverty in this respect is not\ncompensated by the fact, that we once had them, and that we may, and do,\nread their works. The movement has gone by; the charm is broken; the\nbond of union, though not cancelled, is seriously weakened. Hence our\nage, great as it is, and in nearly all respects greater than any the\nworld has yet seen, has, notwithstanding its large and generous\nsentiments, its unexampled toleration, its love of liberty, and its\nprofuse and almost reckless charity, a certain material, unimaginative,\nand unheroic character, which has made several observers tremble for the\nfuture.... That something has been lost is unquestionable.\n\nWe have lost much of that imagination which, though in practical life it\noften misleads, is, in speculative life, one of the highest of all\nqualities, being suggestive as well as creative. Even practically we\nshould cherish it, because the commerce of the affections mainly depends\non it. It is, however, declining; while, at the same time, the\nincreasing refinement of society accustoms us more and more to suppress\nour emotions, lest they be disagreeable to others. And as the play of\nthe emotions is the chief study of the poet, we see in this circumstance\nanother reason which makes it difficult to rival that great body of\npoetry which our ancestors possessed. We quote the above from the second\nvolume of Mr. Buckle\u2019s _History of Civilization_. We would add, that the\nsuppression of emotions to which the author refers is one great cause of\nthe difficulty of getting persons to speak the truth in the present day:\nthey are ever disguising their feelings, until hypocritical caution\nbecomes habit, and it requires a stronger light than the old cynic\npossessed to find honest men. The low standard of commercial morality,\nand the time-serving expediency which so greatly regulates the actions\nof our rulers and those who make the laws, is traceable to this\nover-refinement.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n MARVELS OF THE UNIVERSE.\n\nNothing is more startling, or more likely to be received with\nincredulity by minds unprepared for their reception, than what are, in\ncommon parlance, termed the Marvels of the Universe. The philosophical\nwriters of our day have strikingly illustrated this fact, which should\nbe taken into account in writing of the _impedimenta_ to the progress of\nscience even in our own day. Sir John Herschel has thus forcibly stated\nthe case:\n\n What mere assertion will make any one believe that in one second of\n time, in one beat of the pendulum of a clock, a ray of light travels\n over 192,000 miles, and would therefore perform the tour of the\n world in about the same time that it requires to wink with our\n eyelids, and in much less than a swift runner occupies in taking a\n single stride? What mortal can be made to believe, without\n demonstration, that the sun is almost a million times larger than\n the earth? and that, although so remote from us that a cannon-ball\n shot directly towards it, and maintaining its full speed, would be\n twenty years in reaching it, yet it affects the earth by its\n attraction in an appreciable instant of time? Who would not ask for\n demonstration, when told that a gnat\u2019s wing, in its ordinary flight,\n beats many hundred times in a second; or that there exists animated\n and regularly-organised beings, many thousands of whose bodies laid\n close together would not extend an inch? But what are these to the\n astonishing truths which modern optical inquiries have disclosed,\n which teach us that every point of a medium through which a ray of\n light passes, is affected with a succession of periodical movements,\n regularly recurring at equal intervals, no less than five hundred\n millions of millions of times in a single second! That it is by such\n movements communicated to the nerves of our eyes that we see; nay,\n more, that it is the difference in the frequency of their recurrence\n which affects us with the sense of the diversity of colour. That,\n for instance, in acquiring the sensation of redness, our eyes are\n affected four hundred and eighty-two millions of millions of times;\n of yellowness, five hundred and forty-two millions of millions of\n times; and of violet, seven hundred and seven millions of millions\n of times per second. Do not such things sound more like the ravings\n of madmen than the sober conclusions of people in their waking\n senses? They are, nevertheless, conclusions to which any one may\n most certainly arrive who will only be at the trouble of examining\n the chain of reasoning by which they have been obtained.\n\nProfessor Airy, however, considers this difficulty to be over-estimated.\nHe observes, that \u201cpersons who take great interest in Astronomy appear\nto regard the determination of measures, like those of the distance of\nthe sun and moon, as mysteries beyond ordinary comprehension, based\nperhaps upon principles which it is impossible to present to common\nminds with the smallest probability that they will be understood; if\nthey accept these measures at all, they adopt them only upon loose\npersonal credit; in any case, the impression which the statement makes\non the mind is very different from that created by a record of the\ndistance in miles between two towns, or the number of acres in a field.\u201d\n\nNow, the measure of the moon\u2019s distance involves no principle more\nabstruse than the measure of the distance of a tree on the opposite bank\nof a river; and the Professor shows that the methods used for measuring\nastronomical distances are, in some applications, absolutely the same as\nthe methods of ordinary theodolite surveying, and are in other\napplications equivalent to them; and that, in fact, there is nothing in\ntheir principles which will present the smallest difficulty to a person\nwho has attempted the common practice of plotting from angular\nmeasures.[125]\n\nThe habit of beholding the spectacle of the sun gradually sinking, to\ndisappear after a time below the level of the sea,\u2014this habit, we say,\nand our astronomical knowledge, have long since familiarised us with the\nphenomenon which, undoubtedly, would appear inexplicable were we to\nwitness it for the first time, and without being prepared. Who has not\nin childhood felt this wonder? The ancients were far from being able to\naccount for it: some Greek philosophers regarded the sun as an inflamed\nmass, which plunged itself every night into the waters of the sea; and\nthey pretended to have heard a hissing noise! We have found the same\nidea lingering among the credulous peasantry of Sussex. We remember our\nfirst nurse, a native of Battle, used to relate that, from the cliffs at\nEastbourne, she had seen the comet of 1769 dip its tail into the sea,\nand that she had distinctly heard the \u201chissing noise.\u201d Such is the\npersistence of certain impressions, which, monstrous as they are, can\nonly be explained away by reasoning.[126]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 125:\n\n See Prof. Airy\u2019s _Six Lectures on Astronomy_.\n\nFootnote 126:\n\n See _Things not Generally Known_, First Series, p. 11.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n PHYSIOGNOMY.\n\nSir David Brewster, in his introductory Address to the University of\nEdinburgh, 1862-3, remarked that one of the characteristics of the age\nin which we live was its love of the mysterious and marvellous.\n\n I refer (said Sir David) to the so-called science of physiognomy,\n but more especially to that morbid expansion of it called the\n physiognomy of the human form, which has been elaborated in Germany,\n and is now likely to obtain possession of the English mind. In want\n of any other arguments, our physiognomists assert that it is simply\n probable that the outer form would be designed on purpose to\n represent the mental character, and on this ground they dogmatically\n declare that the expressions of rage, or grief, or fear have been\n \u201cdivinely designed on purpose that the inner mind may be known to\n those who watch the outer man.\u201d The persons who use such arguments\n and have recourse to such assumptions never propose to make any\n inductive comparison of a certain number of well-measured forms with\n the well-ascertained mental phases with which they are associated.\n Were such experiments made, they would yield no result. No two\n physiognomists, acting separately, would agree in measuring and\n characterising the forms and indications of the head, the features,\n the hands, and the feet of the patient; and no two men\u2014neither the\n sagacious judge on the bench, nor the shrewd counsel at the\n bar\u2014could determine his real character were they to conjure with all\n the events of his life. In this new physiognomy, a head large in the\n mid region indicates a predominance of the feelings over the other\n faculties; a proneness to superstition and fanaticism is shown by a\n little increase in the elevation; and a head large behind evinces\n practical ability; and, as Dr. Carus says, characterises a race\n which will give birth to great historic names! Small heads, however,\n are not to be despised. They indicate talent, but not genius; while\n very small ones belong, he says, to the excitable class, from whom\n \u201ca great part of the misery of society arises.\u201d In the varying\n expressions of the human face physiognomists find a better support\n for their views. That the emotions of the past and the present leave\n permanent traces on the human countenance is doubtless true, and to\n this extent we are all physiognomists, often very presumptuous ones,\n and, excepting accidental coincidences, always in the wrong, when we\n infer from any external appearance the character and disposition of\n our neighbour. In every class of society we encounter faces which we\n instinctively shun, and others to which we as instinctively cling.\n But how frequently have we found our estimates to be false! The\n repulsive aspect has proved to be the result of physical suffering,\n of domestic disquiet, or of ruined fortunes; and under the bland and\n smiling countenance a heart deceitful and vindictive, and\n \u201cdesperately wicked,\u201d has often been found concealed.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n TRADE AND PHILANTHROPY.\n\nIn the Memoirs of Bulstrode Whitlocke, the following anecdote is told as\nillustrative of the erroneous notions formerly entertained as to the\nEmployment of Machinery for purposes of economy. \u201cThe advantage of free\ncompetition, and the inexhaustible resources of new inventions,\ncontrivances, and appliances were,\u201d it is observed by the editor at that\ntime (1658), \u201cutterly ignored. The Swedish ambassador\u201d (to the court of\nOliver Cromwell) \u201cseems to have had a gleam of the truth, a dawning\nconsciousness of how desirable it was to economise human labour by\nintroducing machinery whenever practicable. He told a pleasant story of\nthe Czar and a Dutchman; and how the latter, observing the boats passing\nupon the Volga to be manned with three hundred men in each boat, who, in\na storm and high wind, held the bottom of the sails down with their\nhands, offered to the former a mode of manning each boat quite as\nefficiently with thirty men instead of the three hundred, by which the\ncost of transport would be lessened. But the Emperor called him a knave;\nand asked him if a boat that now went with three hundred men should be\nbrought to go as well with thirty only, how were the other two hundred\nand seventy men to get their living?\u201d\n\nCromwell, it will be remembered, protected by Act of Parliament a\nsawmill erected in his time, it is imagined, on the site of the\nBelvidere-road, Lambeth; in which locality at this day there is probably\nmore sawing by machinery than in any other part of England.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n World-Knowledge.\n\n\n\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n MISCELLANEA.\n\nENERGY and force of character are among the first requisites essential\nto success in business. A man may possess a high degree of refinement,\nlarge stores of knowledge, and even a well-disciplined mind; but if he\nis destitute of this one principle, which may be termed resolution of\nsoul, he is like a watch without a mainspring\u2014beautiful, but\ninefficient, and unfit for service.\n\nNever do too much at a time, is a good practical maxim. Sir Edward\nBulwer Lytton gives the following history of his literary habits: Many\npersons, seeing me so much engaged in active life, and as much about the\nworld as if I had never been a student, have said to me, \u201cWhen do you\nget time to write all your books? How on earth do you contrive to do so\nmuch work?\u201d I shall surprise you by the answer I make. The answer is\nthis: \u201cI contrive to do so much by never doing too much at a time. A\nman, to get through work well, must not overwork himself; or, if he do\ntoo much to-day, the reaction of fatigue will come, and he will be\nobliged to do too little to-morrow. Now, since I began really and\nearnestly to study, which was not till I had left college, and was\nactually in the world, I may perhaps say I have gone through as large a\ncourse of general reading as most men of my time. I have travelled much,\nand I have seen much; I have mixed much in politics, and the various\nbusiness of life; and, in addition to all this, I have published\nsomewhere about sixty volumes, some upon subjects requiring much\nresearch. And what time, do you think, as a general rule, I have devoted\nto study\u2014to reading and writing? Not more than three hours a day; and\nwhen Parliament is sitting, not always that. But then, during those\nhours, I have given my whole attention to what I was about.\u201d\n\nSir Benjamin Brodie says that \u201chumility leads to the highest\ndistinction, because it leads to self-improvement.\u201d He adds\u2014and the\nadvice cannot be too often repeated\u2014\u201dstudy your own characters;\nendeavour to learn and supply your own deficiencies; never assume to\nyourself qualities which you do not possess; combine all this with\nenergy and activity, and you cannot predicate of yourselves, nor can\nothers predicate of you, at what point you may arrive at last.\u201d\n\nAmong the empiric arts of gaining notoriety, that by engraved portraits\nhas led to some curious results. When the late John Harrison Curtis, the\naurist, came to town to seek his fortune, he had his portrait engraved\nin large handsome style, and offered the same to a printseller to\npublish. He demurred, as the original was unknown; but recommended\nCurtis to leave his prints at the different printshops \u201con sale, or\nreturn.\u201d The sudden appearance in the shop-windows of a large portrait\nof the great unknown led to the question, \u201cWho is _this_ Mr. Curtis?\u201d\nThe repeated inquiries laid the foundation of his fortune, and led to\nhis living in good style for many years in Soho-square, and numbering\nroyalty and nobility among his patients; but he outlived his\nprofessional reputation, and died in reduced circumstances.\n\nSilence, says Boyle, discovers Wisdom and conceals Ignorance; and \u2019tis a\nproperty that is so much belonging to Wise Men, that even a Fool, when\nhe holdeth his peace, may pass for one of that sort.\n\nIt is one thing to see that a line is crooked, and another thing to be\nable to draw a straight one. It is not quite so easy to do a good thing\nas those imagine who never try.\n\nOne of Sir Thomas Wyat\u2019s common sayings was, that there were three\nthings which should always be strictly observed: \u201cNever to play with any\nman\u2019s unhappiness or deformity, for that is inhuman; nor on superiors,\nfor that is saucy and undutiful; nor on holy matters, for that is\nirreligious.\u201d\n\nA little grain of the romance is no ill ingredient to preserve and exalt\nthe dignity of human nature, without which it is apt to degenerate into\neverything that is sordid, vicious, and low.[127]\n\nOne very common error misleads the opinion of mankind,\u2014that,\nuniversally, authority is pleasant, submission painful. In the general\ncourse of human affairs, the very reverse of this is nearer the truth.\nCommand is anxiety; obedience, ease.[128]\n\nLamartine has well observed: \u201cTravelling is summing up a long life in a\nfew years; it is one of the strongest exercises a man can give his heart\nand his mind. The philosopher, the politician, the poet, should all have\ntravelled much. Changing the moral horizon is to change thought.\u201d\n\n\u201cBegin at the Beginning\u201d is an excellent maxim. The laborious pursuit of\nfirst principles brings its own reward. To begin at the beginning in the\nsciences, as well as in matters of fact, is the nearest and safest road\nto the end. Even sensible men are too commonly satisfied with tracing\ntheir thoughts a little way backwards, and they are, of course, soon\nperplexed by a profounder adversary. In this respect, most people\u2019s\nminds are too like a child\u2019s garden, where the flowers are planted\nwithout their roots. It may be said of morals and of literature, as\ntruly as of sculpture and painting, that, to understand the outside of\nhuman nature, we should be well acquainted with the inside.\n\nSuch is the Waywardness of Fate, that one man sucks an orange, and is\nchoked by a pip; another swallows a penknife, and lives: one runs a\nthorn into his hand, and no skill can save him (a fact of recent date);\nanother has a shaft of a gig passed completely through his body, and\nrecovers: one is overturned on a smooth common, and breaks his neck;\nanother is tossed out of a gig over Brighton cliff, and survives: one\nwalks on a windy day, and meets death by a brickbat; another is blown up\ninto the air, like Lord Hatton, in Guernsey Castle, and comes down\nuninjured. The escape of this nobleman was indeed a miracle. An\nexplosion of gunpowder, which killed his mother, wife, some of his\nchildren, and many other persons, and blew up the whole fabric of the\ncastle, lodged him and his bed on a wall overhanging a tremendous\nprecipice. Perceiving a mighty disorder (as he might expect), he was\ngoing to step out of his bed to know what was the matter, which, if he\nhad done, he would have been irrecoverably lost; but, in the instant of\nthis moving, a flash of lightning came and showed him the precipice,\nwhereupon he lay still till people came and took him down.[129]\n\nThere is an almost prophetic meaning in the following passage from\nBerkeley\u2019s \u201cEssay towards Preventing the Ruin of Great Britain,\u201d written\nsoon after the affair of the South-Sea Scheme: \u201cAll projects for growing\nrich by sudden extraordinary methods, as they operate violently on the\npassions of men, and encourage them to despise the slow moderate gains\nthat are to be made by an honest industry, must be ruinous to the\npublic; and even the winners themselves will at length be involved in\nthe public ruin.\u201d\n\nTheodore Hook was one of the most experienced exponents of the Town Life\nof his day: in habits, a bachelor, notwithstanding his industry as a man\nof letters, he saw more of the outside world than the majority of idle\nmen. He has left many of these experiences in his novels, which, as\npictures of life, are valuable.\n\nThus, in _Gilbert Gurney_, he gives this admirable bit of club\ncriticism: \u201cPeople who are conscious of what is due to themselves never\ndisplay irritability or impetuosity; their manners insure civility\u2014their\nown civility secures respect: but the blockhead or the coxcomb, fully\naware that something more than ordinary is necessary to produce an\neffect, is sure, whether in clubs or coffee-houses, to be the most\nfastidious and factious of the community, the most overbearing in his\nmanners towards his inferiors, the most restless and irritable among his\nequals, the most cringing and subservient before his superiors.\u201d No man\ncould utter such criticism with more complete safety from being answered\nwith a _Tu quoque_.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 127:\n\n Swift.\n\nFootnote 128:\n\n Paley.\n\nFootnote 129:\n\n _New Monthly Magazine._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n PREDICTIONS OF SUCCESS.\n\nA few noteworthy incidents have occurred in the early lives of great\nmen, which have singularly accorded with their success in after-life.\n\nThe first notice of Lord Chancellor Somers as a boy is exceedingly\ncurious. In Cooksey\u2019s _Life and Character of Lord Somers_, the following\nis stated to be well authenticated. It is to the effect that the boy was\nwalking with one of his aunts, under whose care he was placed at the\ntime, when \u201ca beautiful roost-cock flew upon his curly head, and while\nperched there crowed three times very loudly.\u201d The occurrence was\ninstantly viewed as an omen of his future greatness.\n\nPope, writing to Lord Orrery, after first witnessing Garrick\u2019s\nperformance of Richard III., said, \u201cThat young man never had his equal\nas an actor, and will never have a rival.\u201d As yet the prophecy is\nunshaken.\n\nA few weeks before Lord Chatham died, Lord Camden paid him a visit.\nChatham\u2019s son, William Pitt, left the room on Lord Camden\u2019s coming in.\n\u201cYou see that young man,\u201d said the old lord; \u201cwhat I now say, be\nassured, is not the fond partiality of a parent, but grounded on a very\naccurate examination. Rely upon it, that young man will be more\ndistinguished in this country than ever his father was.\u201d His prophecy\nwas in part accomplished. At the age of twenty-four he was Chancellor of\nthe Exchequer; and before he had attained his twenty-fifth year, had\nbeen offered, and refused, the place of First Minister.\n\nWhen Horatio Nelson was a weakly child, he gave proofs of that resolute\nheart and nobleness of mind which, during his whole career of labour and\nof glory, so eminently distinguished him. When a mere boy, he strayed a\nbird\u2019s-nesting from his grandmother\u2019s house, in company with a cow-boy;\nthe dinner-hour elapsed, he was absent, and could not be found; the\nalarm of the family then became very great, for they apprehended that he\nmight have been carried off by gipsies. At length, after search had been\nmade for him in various directions, he was discovered alone, sitting\ncomposedly by the side of a brook which he could not get over. \u201cI\nwonder, child,\u201d said the old lady when she saw him, \u201cthat hunger and\nfear did not drive you home.\u201d \u201cFear! grandmamma,\u201d replied the future\nhero; \u201cI never saw fear\u2014what is it?\u201d\n\nArthur Wellesley, when at school at Chelsea, was a boy of indolent and\ncareless manner, and rather than join in the amusements of the\nplayground delighted to lean against a large tree, observing his\nschoolfellows when playing around him. If any boy played unfairly,\nArthur quickly apprised those engaged in the game: on the delinquent\nbeing turned out, it was generally wished that he should supply his\nplace; but nothing could induce him to do so: when beset by a party of\nfive or six, he would fight with the utmost courage and determination\nuntil he freed himself from their grasp; he would then retire again to\nhis tree, and look about him, as observant as before. Such was the love\nof fair play in the boy who became the great Duke of Wellington.\n\nAn incident in the life of Parry, the intrepid Arctic navigator, may\nalso be related here. He left Bath, accompanied by an old and faithful\nservant of the family, with whom he travelled to Plymouth, and who did\nnot leave him till he saw him finally settled in the _Ville de Paris_\nman-of-war. To Parry all was new. He had never before beheld the sea,\nand his experience of naval matters had been confined to the small craft\non the river Avon. He seemed almost struck dumb with astonishment at his\nfirst sight of the ocean and of a line-of-battle ship; but, after a\nwhile recovering himself, he began eagerly to examine every thing around\nhim, and to ask numberless questions of all who were inclined to listen.\nWhile so engaged, he saw one of the sailors descending the rigging from\naloft; and in a moment, before the astonished servant knew what Parry\nwas about, he sprang forward, and, with his wonted agility, clambered up\nto the mast-head, from which giddy elevation he waved his cap in triumph\nto those whom he had left below. When he regained the deck, the sailors,\nwho had witnessed the feat, gathered round him and commended his spirit,\ntelling him he was \u201ca fine fellow, and a true sailor every inch of him.\u201d\nWe can well imagine with what gratification the various members of his\nfamily would receive the account of this and every other incident\nconnected with his first entry on his new career, and how eagerly they\nwould hail his conduct on this occasion as a happy omen of future\nsuccess.[130]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 130:\n\n _Memoirs of Sir E. W. Parry._\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n Conclusion.\n\n\n\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n EASE OF MIND.\n\nIN order to enjoy Ease of Mind in our intercourse with the world, we\nshould introduce into our habits of business punctuality, decision, the\npractice of being beforehand, despatch, and exactness; in our pleasures,\nharmlessness and moderation; and in all our dealings, perfect integrity\nand love of truth. Without these observances we are never secure of\nease, nor indeed taste it in its highest state. As in most other things,\nso here, people in general do not aim at more than mediocrity of\nattainment, and of course usually fall below their standard; whilst many\nare so busy in running after what should procure them ease, that they\ntotally overlook the thing itself.\n\nEase of mind has the most beneficial effect upon the body, and it is\nonly during its existence that the complicated physical functions are\nperformed with the accuracy and facility which nature designed. It is,\nconsequently, a great preventive of disease, and one of the secret means\nof effecting a cure when disease has occurred; without it, in many\ncases, no cure can take place. By ease of mind many people have survived\nserious accidents, from which nothing else could have saved them, and in\nevery instance is much retarded by the absence of it. Its effect upon\nthe appearance is no less remarkable. It prevents and repairs the\nravages of time in a singular degree, and is the best preservative of\nstrength and beauty. It often depends greatly upon health, but health\nalways depends greatly upon it. The torments of a mind ill at ease seem\nto be less endurable than those of the body; for it scarcely ever\nhappens that suicide is committed from bodily suffering. As far as the\ncountenance is an index, \u201cthe vultures of the mind\u201d appear to turn it\nmore mercilessly than any physical pain; and no doubt there have been\nmany who would willingly have exchanged their mental agony for the most\nwretched existence that penury could produce. From remorse there is no\nescape. In aggravated cases probably there is no instant, sleeping or\nwaking, in which its influence is totally unfelt. Remorse is the extreme\none way; the opposite is that cleanliness of mind which has never been\nrecommended any where to the same extent that it is by the precepts of\nthe Christian religion, and which alone constitutes \u201cperfect freedom.\u201d\nIt would be curious if we could see what effect such purity would have\nupon the appearance and actions of a human being\u2014a being who lived, as\nPope expresses it, in the \u201ceternal sunshine of the spotless mind.\u201d\nGoldsmith has beautifully said:\n\n How small of all that human hearts endure,\n That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!\n Still to ourselves in every place consign\u2019d,\n Our own felicity we make or find.\n\nShakspeare observes: \u201cThere is nothing either good or bad but thinking\nmakes it so.\u201d[131]\n\nCharles James Fox, who was, from infancy, a spoiled child, would spend\nnight after night in gambling, and wasting his sweet nature in the\norgies of Bacchus. Then he would flee away to the delightful scenery and\nrefreshing air of St. Anne\u2019s Hill, and there betake himself to\ngardening, in a blue apron; or to the learned leisure of his study, in\nthe bosom of conjugal felicity and friendship.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 131:\n\n _The Original._ By Thomas Walker, M.A.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE LIFE OF MAN.\n\nIt is impossible to say what analogy exists between the race and the\nindividual, and attempts to explain the history of the one by the stages\nwhich mark the life of the other are at best more ingenious than\nsatisfactory; but almost every fact with which we are acquainted seems\nto suggest that some such analogy exists, though its particulars are\naltogether unknown, and though we cannot even say whether mankind ought\nto be compared to one individual or to several. It may, however, be\nallowable, in dealing with a subject which, after all, appeals rather to\nthe feelings and to the imagination than to the reason, to point out the\nfact that the cessation of human society would present a striking\nanalogy to the death of individuals; and that there would be the same\ncontradictory mixture of completeness and incompleteness about a society\neternally renewed, as there would be about a human being who never died.\nThat the life of a man forms a moral whole, is a conviction which is so\nthoroughly worked into our minds and our very language, that no one\ndoubts it. That it is a mysterious and utterly contradictory thing at\nits best estate, is the experience of every person who has even ordinary\npowers of reflection. It is hard to imagine the degree in which these\nmysteries and contradictions would be heightened if man were immortal.\nIf, after arriving at that average degree of prudence and self-restraint\nwhich almost every one attains comparatively early in life, people lived\non and on for centuries and millenniums, carrying on the same sort of\ntransactions, settling the same difficulties, enjoying the same\npleasures, and suffering from the same vexations, the question why they\never were sent into the world at all (which is even now sufficiently\nperplexing) would become altogether overwhelming; and the faith which\npeople at present maintain in the Divine government of the world would\nhave to be based on entirely different grounds, if it survived at all.\nIt is perhaps not merely fanciful to suggest that a somewhat similar\ndifficulty would exist if human society, after a long and laborious\neducation, were to attain to a stationary state, and were then to go on\nindefinitely enjoying itself. Such a heaven on earth would be at best a\nsort of high life below stairs.\n\nThe celebration of the triumphs of civilisation, which is at present in\nfull bloom, produces on many minds an effect not unlike that which\nRobespierre\u2019s feasts to the Supreme Being produced on his colleagues.\n\u201cYou and your nineteenth century are beginning to be a bore,\u201d is the\nsalutation which many a philosopher would receive in these days from a\nsincere audience. Weigh and measure and classify as we will, we are but\npoor creatures, when all is said and done. It would be a relief to think\nthat a day was coming when the world, whether more comfortable or not,\nwould at least see and know itself as it is, and when the real gist and\nbearing of all the work, good and evil, that is done under the sun,\nshould at last be made plain. Till then, knowledge, science, and power\nare, after all, little more than shadows in a troubled dream\u2014a dream\nwhich will soon pass away from each of us, if it does not pass away at\nonce from all.[132]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 132:\n\n _Saturday Review._\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE GOOD MAN\u2019s LIFE.\n\nSome are called _at age_ at fourteen, some at one-and-twenty, some\nnever; but all men late enough, for the life of a man comes upon him\nslowly and insensibly. But as when the sun approaching towards the gates\nof the morning, he first opens a little the eye of heaven, and sends\naway the spirits of darkness, and gives light to a cock, and calls up\nthe lark to matins, and by and by gilds the fringes of a cloud, and\npeeps over the eastern hills, thrusting out his golden horns, like those\nwhich decked the brows of Moses when he was forced to wear a veil,\nbecause himself had seen the face of God; and still while a man tells\nthe story, the sun gets up higher, till he shows a fair face and a full\nlight, and then he shines one whole day, under a cloud often, and\nsometimes weeping great and little showers, and sets quickly: so is\nman\u2019s reason and his life. He first begins to perceive himself to see or\ntaste, making little reflections upon his actions of sense, and can\ndiscourse of flies and dogs, shells and play, horses and liberty; but\nwhen he is strong enough to enter into arts and little institutions, he\nis at first entertained with trifles and impertinent things, not because\nhe needs them, but because his understanding is no bigger, and little\nimages of things are laid before him, like a cockboat to a whale, only\nto play withal: but before a man comes to be wise, he is half-dead with\ngouts and consumption, with catarrhs and aches, with sore eyes and a\nworn-out body. So that if we must not reckon the life of a man but by\nthe amounts of his reason, he is long before his soul be dressed; and he\nis not to be called a man without a wise and an adorned soul, a soul at\nleast furnished with what is necessary towards his well-being: but by\nthat time his soul is thus furnished, his body is decayed; and then you\ncan hardly reckon him to be alive, when his body is possessed by so many\ndegrees of death.\n\n * * * * *\n\nBut if I shall describe a living man, a man that hath that life which\ndistinguishes him from a fool or a bird, that which gives him a capacity\nnext to angels, we shall find that even a good man lives not long;\nbecause it is long before he is born to this life, and longer yet before\nhe hath a man\u2019s growth. \u201cHe that can look upon death, and see its face\nwith the same countenance with which he hears its story; he that can\nendure all the labours of his life with his soul supporting his body;\nthat can equally despise riches when he hath them, and when he hath them\nnot; that is not sadder if they lie in his neighbour\u2019s trunks, nor more\nbrag if they shine round about his own walls; he that is neither moved\nwith good fortune coming to him, nor going from him; that can look upon\nanother man\u2019s lands evenly and pleasantly as if they were his own, and\nyet look upon his own, and use them too, just as if they were another\nman\u2019s; that neither spends his goods prodigally and like a fool, nor yet\nkeeps them avariciously and like a wretch; that weighs not benefits by\nweight and number, but by the mind and circumstances of him that gives\nthem; that never thinks his charity expensive if a worthy person be the\nreceiver; he that does nothing for opinion sake, but every thing for\nconscience, being as curious of his thoughts as of his actings in\nmarkets and theatres, and is as much in awe of himself as of a whole\nassembly; he that knows God looks on, and contrives his secret affairs\nas if in the presence of God and his holy angels; that eats and drinks\nbecause he needs it, not that he may serve a lust or load his belly; he\nthat is bountiful and cheerful to his friends, and charitable and apt to\nforgive his enemies; that loves his country, and obeys his prince, and\ndesires and endeavours nothing more than that they may do honour to\nGod:\u201d[133] this person may reckon his life to be the life of a man, and\ncompute his months not by the course of the sun, but the zodiac and\ncircle of his virtues; because these are such things which fools and\nchildren and birds and beasts cannot have; these are therefore the\nactions of life, because they are the seeds of immortality. That day in\nwhich we have done some excellent thing, we may as truly reckon to be\nadded to our life, as were the fifteen years to the days of\nHezekiah.[134]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 133:\n\n Seneca, _De Vita Beata_.\n\nFootnote 134:\n\n Jeremy Taylor\u2019s _Holy Dying_.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n PREDICTIONS OF FLOWERS.\n\nTo what excellent account have our thoughtful old writers turned these\nprophetic indications of changeful flowers! Bishop Hall, in his\n_Occasional Meditations_, has the following \u201cOn the Light of Tulips, and\nMarigolds, &c. in his Garden:\u201d \u201cThese flowers are the true clients of\nthe sun; how observant they are of his motion and influence! At even,\nthey shut up, as mourning for his departure, without whom they neither\ncan see nor flourish; in the morning, they welcome his rising with a\ncheerful openness; and at noon, are fully displayed in a free\nacknowledgment of his bounty.\n\n\u201cThus doth the good heart turn unto God. \u2018_When thou turnedst away thy\nface, I was troubled_,\u2019 saith the man after God\u2019s own heart. \u2018_In thy\npresence is life; yea, the fulness of joy._\u2019 Thus doth the carnal heart\nto the world: when that withdraws its favours, he is dejected; and\nrevives with a smile. All is in our choice. Whatsoever is our sun will\nthus carry us.\n\n\u201cO God, be Thou to me such as Thou art in Thyself: Thou shalt be\nmerciful in drawing me; I shall be happy in following thee.\u201d\n\nThe use of Perfumes in the last century exceeded that in the present\nday. Possibly the old notion that they were employed to mask the\nexhalations from diseased persons may have driven perfumes out of\nfashion in our day; we recollect _musk_ to have been specially so\nconsidered. Bishop Hall, in his _Occasional Meditations_, adverts to\nthis use of perfumes in a meditation illustrative of a custom which is\nassociated with the symbolic character of \u201cflowers and redolent plants,\njust emblems of the life of man, which has been compared in Holy\nScriptures to those fading beauties, whose roots, being buried in\ndishonour, rise again in glory.\u201d[135] The Bishop\u2019s meditation is \u201cOn the\nSight of a Coffin stuck with Flowers:\u201d\n\n\u201cToo fair in appearance is never free from just suspicion. While there\nwas nothing but wood, no flower was to be seen here; now that this wood\nis lined with an unsavoury corpse, it is adorned with this sweet\nvariety. The fir, whereof that coffin is made, yields a natural\nredolence alone; now that it is stuffed thus noisomely, all helps are\ntoo little to countervail that scent of corruption.[136]\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 135:\n\n Evelyn.\n\nFootnote 136:\n\n See \u201cFlowers on Graves,\u201d in _Mysteries of Life, Death, and Futurity_.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n THE WORLD\u2019S CYCLES.\n\nThere is a Revolution of History as of Knowledge: who does not remember\nhow often the same succession of events has happened in his memory! Dr.\nNewman has well expressed this truth in a poem in the _Lyra Apostolica_,\nentitled \u201cFaith against Sight,\u201d with the motto, \u201cAs it was in the days\nof Lot, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man:\u201d\n\n The World has Cycles in its course, when all\n That once has been, is acted o\u2019er again:\n Not by some fatal law which need appal\n Our faith, or binds our deeds as with a chain;\n But by men\u2019s separate sins, which blended still\n The same bad round fulfil.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n DEATH ALL-ELOQUENT.\n\n Death and I have met in full, close contact;\n And parted, knowing we should meet again;\n Therefore, come when he may, we\u2019ve looked upon\n Each other far too narrowly for me\n To fear the hour when we shall be so join\u2019d,\n That all eternity shall never sever us.\u2014_F. Kemble._\n\nWhat solemnity is there in the following passage, with which Sir Walter\nRaleigh concludes his _Marrow of Historie!_ \u201cO eloquent, just, and\nmighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none\nhave dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world have flattered, thou\nonly hast cast out of the world and despised: thou hast drawn together\nall the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of\nman, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, HIC JACET.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n Finis.\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n APPENDIX.\n\n\n _Generations (page 71)._\n\n MR. HATSELL TO LORD AUCKLAND.\n\n Morden Park, Sunday, Nov. 23, 1813.\n\n MY DEAR LORD,\u2014I must correct the conclusion of your last letter,\n \"and so the world goes on,\" to \"and so the world goes off.\" In the\n same Marlborough family I have lived to see eight[137] generations:\n\n 1. Sarah Duchess of Marlborough.\n 2. Lady Sunderland.\n 3. Jack Spencer.\n 4. The first Lord Spencer.\n 5. The present Lord Spencer.\n 6. The Duchess of Devonshire.\n 7. Lady Morpeth.\n 8. Her children (the present Lord Carlisle and Duchess of\n Sutherland).\n\n I saw Sarah in Lincoln\u2019s-inn consulting Mr. Fazakerly, who stood\n close to her Grace\u2019s chair; so, you see, I beat history out and\n out.[138]...\u2014From the _Auckland Correspondence_, vol. iv. p. 401.\n\n ---------------------\nFootnote 137:\n\n Only seven; the name of the second Lord Spencer ought to be omitted.\n\nFootnote 138:\n\n Mr. Hatsell died 1820.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n _Memory_ (_page_ 75).\n\n Professor Faraday, at the close of a Lecture on Gas Glass-house\n Furnaces, delivered at the Royal Institution in 1862, alluded, in an\n affecting manner, to his increasing loss of memory. There was a\n time, he observed, when he inclined to think that Memory was a\n faculty of secondary order; but he now feels its great importance;\n and the deficiency of that power, he said, would prevent him from\n again bringing before them any thing that was new; for he was often\n unable to recollect even his own precious researches, and he could\n no longer trust himself to lecture without notes.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n _Great Ages_ (_page_ 114).\n\n An old woman who died in 1858 in St. Patrick-street, Dublin, at the\n age of 110 years, distinctly remembered and described the appearance\n of Dean Swift, and added, that he never went outside the\n Deanery-house that he was not attended through the streets by a vast\n crowd of washed and unwashed admirers.\n\n Mrs. Keith, of Newnham, Gloucestershire, who died in 1772, aged 133,\n left three daughters, aged 111, 110, and 100.\n\n In 1862, a lady residing at Cheltenham received a second donation of\n 5_l._ from her Majesty the Queen, for an old man of 107 years of\n age, named William Purser, a native of Redmarley, but living in\n Cheltenham.\u2014_Worcestershire Chronicle._\n\n In 1862, a curious fact occurred at Downton, showing how few\n individuals are required to connect distant periods of history with\n the present time. A man was buried in this parish whose father was\n born in the reign of William III., and that father lived in three\n centuries, having been born in 1698 and died in 1801.\u2014_Salisbury\n Journal._\n\n In 1853, the Irish newspapers announced the death of Mrs. Mary\n Power, aunt of the celebrated Mr. Shiel, at the Ursuline Convent,\n Cork, at the age of 116 years; but this statement lacks legal\n evidence to prove it.\n\n The obituary of the _Times_ of January 21, 1863, records the decease\n of persons who had attained the following advanced ages, viz.: 92,\n 90, 82, 82, 82, 80, 78, 78, 76, 74, 72, 72, 72, and 70 years\n respectively.\n\n Dr. Mead, grandfather of the celebrated physician and antiquary,\n died at Ware, in Hertfordshire, 1652, aged 148.\n\n In Scawen\u2019s _Dissertation on the Cornish Tongue_, written in the\n reign of Charles II., is mentioned a woman recently deceased, who\n was \"164 years old, of good memory, and healthful at her age; living\n in the parish of Gwithian. She married a second husband after she\n was 80, and buried him after he was 80 years of age.\"\n\n A Philadelphia Correspondent of _Notes and Queries_, No. 213, 1853,\n records the death of \"Aunt Polly\" (Mary Simondson), near\n Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, at the age of 126 years.\n\n Among the legacies bequeathed to the Middlesex Hospital in 1863, was\n one which is deserving of special notice, inasmuch as the donor, Mr.\n Cropper, exhibited a singular instance of rigid economy in his\n personal expenditure, combined with a bountiful and almost princely\n benevolence towards the poor. Mr. Cropper, who was 90 years old when\n he died, had, it appears, survived all his relations. He was a\n barrister-at-law, and lived in the most frugal manner in his\n chambers at Gray\u2019s-inn. The amount of his property at the time of\n his decease is estimated at about 4000_l._ per annum, and 10,000_l._\n in money, the whole of which he has bestowed on London charities,\n selecting Middlesex Hospital as his residuary legatee.\n\n In the _Express_ of February 11, 1863, it is recorded: Two\n octogenarians, named Joseph and John Fitzwalter, brothers, lived\n together with their sister in a house in Parliament street for a\n great number of years. The brothers had been brought up to the\n business of lace-designing, and the sister had acted in the capacity\n of housekeeper. Joseph, the elder one, was a short time ago attacked\n with bronchitis, under which he lingered for some time in much pain.\n On Wednesday last (February 4), however, he died, at the ripe old\n age of 84 years. The brother and sister of the deceased were much\n affected by his death, the brother showing excessive signs of grief.\n His grieving, however, was not long, for he expired in one hour\n after his brother. The death of two brothers, to whom she was\n devoutly attached, was a shock which the sister was unable to\n withstand; and on the morning fixed for their interment she also\n expired, at the age of 88 years.\n\n ----------------------------\n\n\n _Baron Maseres_ (_page_ 149).\n\n Baron Maseres long resided at Reigate, in a fine old brick mansion,\n about midway between the church and town. His remains rest in a\n vault in the churchyard towards the north-east; upon the tomb over\n which Dr. Fellowes has inscribed an epitaph in elegant Latinity,\n terminating thus: \"Vale, vir optime! amice, vale, carissime; et\n siqua rerum humanarum tibi sit adhuc conscientia, monimentum, quod\n in tui memoriam, tui etiam in mortuis observantissimus Robertus\n Fellowes ponendum curavit, solit\u00e2 benevolenti\u00e2 tuearis.\"\n\n On Sundays the Baron, bent with age, might be seen advancing up the\n nave of Reigate church; for he was a sound churchman, and testified\n his sincerity by making an Endowment for an Afternoon Sermon to be\n preached on Sundays, with this proviso, that, in case of\n non-observance of the bequest, the endowment should be given in\n bread to the poor. The chancels, with their faded pomp of effigied\n monuments, hatchments, and armorial glass, have little attraction\n compared with this interesting memorial of practical piety.\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n INDEX.\n\n Adam, Death before, 117.\n Advice to the Student, 138.\n Age, our Unimaginative, 239.\n Ages, great, 81, 82.\n Airy, Prof., 241.\n Alarum, ancient, 14.\n Albert, Prince Consort, Death of, 228.\n Albert, Prince Consort, on the Progress of Knowledge, 227.\n Alderson, Baron, on Education, 138.\n Alfred\u2019s Time-Candles, 13.\n Antiquaries, long-lived, 111.\n Aphorisms on Time, 2.\n Archbishop Sancroft, 104.\n Architects, aged, 113.\n Argument, What is it? 144.\n Aristotle\u2019s Philosophy, 134.\n Artists, aged, 112, 113.\n Authors and Artists, Working, 204.\n Average of Life, 71.\n\n Babbage, Mr., on Life Assurance, 71.\n Bacon, Francis, on Longevity, 80.\n Bailey\u2019s _Records of Longevity_, 96.\n Baily, Francis, 208.\n Banks, Sir Edward, 182.\n Barrow, Sir John, 164.\n Beckford, William, 189.\n \"Begin at the Beginning,\" 246.\n Bentham, Jeremy, Age of, 109, 110.\n Bentinck, Lord George, 217.\n Berry, the Misses, 92.\n Bidder, George, the engineer, 186.\n Birch, Alderman, 200.\n Blake, Captain, 174.\n Books for the Young, 141.\n Booth, David, 205.\n Brassey, Thomas, 185.\n Britton, John, Rise of, 207, 208.\n Brodie, Sir Benjamin, _note_, 59, 60.\n Brougham, Lord, 214, 215, 216.\n Brougham, Lord, on Oratory, 170.\n Bruce, John, on Longevity, 83.\n Brunel, I. K., 182, 183.\n Brunel, Sir I. M., 181.\n Buckingham Family, the, 193, 194.\n Buffon, on growing Old, 77.\n Burke, Oratory of, 169.\n BUSINESS-LIFE, 152-217.\n Business, Men of, 174.\n Byron, Lord, 206.\n\n Carlyle\u2019s Signs of the Times, 11.\n Centenarians in 1800, 101.\n Chambers, Robt., on Old Age, 99.\n Chantrey the Sculptor, 209.\n Character the best Security, 176.\n Chatham, Lord, 170.\n Cheyne, Dr., on Old Age, 109.\n Childhood\u2019s Pastimes, 72.\n Children, Young, Teaching, 120.\n Circumstances and Genius, 238.\n Civic Hospitalities, 203.\n Civic Worthies, 199.\n Clark, \"King of Exeter \u2019Change,\" 189.\n Clark, Chamberlain, 95, 208.\n Classics, Dr. Arnold on, 124.\n Clergy, Great ages of, 104, 105.\n CLOCKS AND WATCHES:\n Anne Boleyn\u2019s Clock, 35;\n Cannon Clock, 37;\n Chronometers, 37;\n Clocks striking twice, 32;\n Electric Clocks, 39;\n Harrison\u2019s improvements, 36;\n Horologe, 29;\n Horse-Guards Clock, 31;\n Kensington-palace, 36;\n Minute-Jacks, 33;\n Pendulum Experiments, 38;\n Rabelais on, 29;\n St. Dunstan\u2019s Clock, 32, 33;\n St. James\u2019s-palace Clock, 31;\n St. Magnus Clock, 32;\n St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral Clock, 31, 35;\n St. Paul\u2019s, Covent-garden, Clock, 31;\n Scott and Shakspeare on, 30;\n Watch, to choose, 39;\n Watch, Lord Herbert to his, 40;\n Watch-face at Somerset-house, 36;\n Water-clocks, 30;\n Westminster-palace Clock, 30, 35.\n Colburn, Henry, 197.\n Coleridge, _note_, 62.\n Coleridge, Sir John, on Education, 130, 140.\n CONCLUSION, 250-256.\n Consolation in growing Old, 76.\n Cooper, Durrant, on great ages in Yorkshire, 97.\n Cornaro, Great age of, 92.\n Court letter, Model, 165.\n Courtesies, Small, 221.\n \"Cramming,\" 132.\n Cubitt, Thomas and William, 185, 186.\n Cunningham, Allan, 210.\n Cuvier on Life, 65.\n\n Davy, Sir H., on Time, 8, 9.\n Day and Martin\u2019s Blacking, 194.\n Death before Adam, 116.\n Death, Eloquent, 256.\n Death, Preparatory to, 115.\n Debating Society, 169.\n Demosthenes\u2019 Oratory, 166, 167.\n Denisons, the, 196.\n Desmond, Old Countess of, 88.\n Dials: see Sun-Dials.\n Dickens, Charles, and Yorkshire Schools, 141.\n Diplomatic Handwriting, 166.\n Discipline, Practical, 132.\n Disraeli, Isaac and Benjamin, 211, 212.\n Distance reckoned by Time, 16.\n\n Early Rising:\n Albert, Prince Consort, 51;\n Burgess, Bishop, 47;\n Burghley, Lord, 41;\n Cambridge University, 41;\n Chatham, Lord, 47;\n Cobbett, William, 48, 49, 50;\n Coke, Sir Edward, 42;\n Cooper, Sir Astley, 47;\n Doddridge, 45;\n Eton College, 41;\n Gibbon, 46;\n Kant, 46;\n Ken, Bishop, 42, 43;\n Rubens, 44;\n Thomson, the poet, 46;\n Webster, Daniel, 50;\n Wesley, John, 44, 45.\n Earthly existence, Future of the Human Race, 117.\n Ease of Mind, 250.\n Education Alarmists, 140.\n\n Education, the best, 137.\n Education, Business of, 123.\n Education at Home, 121.\n Education, Liberal, 126.\n Education, Unsound, 128.\n Education, What is it? 119.\n Educations, Two, 131.\n Energy, Worth of, 154.\n Engineers, aged, 112.\n Engineers and Mechanicians, eminent, 177.\n English Character, the, 153.\n\n Family Portraits, 219.\n Farming, Scientific, 187.\n Fate, Waywardness of, 246.\n Flood, Mr., Oratory of, 170.\n Flourens, M., on Longevity, 79.\n Floyer, Sir John, his age, 108.\n Fontenelle, on growing Old, 78, 103.\n Fortunes, Large, 188.\n Fox, C. J., 249.\n Fox, C. J., Oratory of, 167.\n Friends, How to Keep, 220.\n Friendships, Lasting, 221.\n\n Garrick\u2019s Talent predicted, 248.\n Generations, Passing, 68-71.\n Geology in Education, 135.\n Gibson, Sidney, on Longevity, 82.\n Good Man\u2019s Life, the, 253.\n Grace, Dr. Whately on, 121.\n Greatness, Test of, 156.\n Grief and old Age, 108.\n Growing to the spot, 103.\n Grub-street and Criticism, 110.\n\n Haller on Age, 79.\n Handwriting, Character in, 145.\n Hardwicke, Dowager Countess of, 91.\n Hard workers long livers, 106.\n Herschel, Caroline Lucretia, 90.\n Herschel, Sir John, 240.\n Hill, Thomas, 205.\n Historians, long-lived, 111.\n Historic Traditions through few Links, 82.\n History and Geography, Teaching at Home, 121.\n Home, Love of, 218.\n Home Thoughts, 225.\n HOME TRAITS, 218-226.\n Hook, Theodore, 247.\n Hooke\u2019s Magnetic Watch, 14.\n Hour-glass, the, 27, 28, 29.\n How, Hon. Chas., on Life, 68.\n Hudson, \"the Railway King,\" 196.\n Humanity to Animals, 123.\n Humility and Self-Improvement, 244.\n\n Journalists, Ages of, 111.\n\n Keith, Viscountess, Great age of, 92.\n Kelly, Alderman, 202.\n Ken, Bishop, and Early Rising, 42, 43.\n Knowledge, too much, 151.\n Knowledge and Wisdom, 139.\n\n Lansdowne, the late Lord, on Public Speaking, 169.\n Lawyers, aged, 111.\n Length of Days, 80, 97.\n Letter-writing, 148.\n Life of Man, 251.\n Life\u2014a River, 65.\n Linwood, Miss, her great age, 91.\n Liverpool, Lord, Origin of, 163.\n Locke, Joseph, the engineer, 184.\n London, long life in, 101.\n Long Livers, noted, 96.\n Long Services, 107.\n Longevity and Diet, 92-95.\n Longevity, Female, 88-92.\n Longevity and Localities, 96-102.\n Lord Mayors of London, 199.\n Lytton, Sir Bulwer, on Office, 161.\n Lytton, Sir Bulwer, on Oratory, 169.\n\n Macaulay, Lord, 213, 226.\n Marshall, Sir Chapman, 202.\n Marvels of the Universe, 240.\n Maseres, Baron, and Anti-Newtonian, _note_, 149, 258.\n Mathematics, Lord Rosse on, 133, 134.\n Mechi, Alderman, 187, 203.\n Memory, What is it? 75.\n Method in Books, 150.\n Midhurst, Great ages at, 101.\n Misadventure, Colonial, 235.\n Montaigne on Education, 139.\n More, Hannah, 74.\n Morison, James, 195.\n Morris, Capt., Great age of, 95.\n Morrison, James, M.P., 198.\n Musical Composers, aged, 112.\n\n Negroes, aged, 113, 114.\n Nelson, his boyhood, 248.\n\n Official Life, 161.\n Official Qualifications, 164.\n Old Man, the Happy, 114.\n Opportunity, 174.\n Oxford, Great ages in, 100.\n\n Painters, aged, 112.\n Parr, Old, Diet of, 93.\n Parry, the Arctic Navigator, 249.\n Patten, Margaret, great age of, 89.\n Peel, Sir Robert, 235.\n Periods of Rest, 15.\n Phillips, John Pavin, on Longevity, 83.\n Phillips, Sir Richard, the Vegetarian, 69, 94.\n Philosophers, Great ages of, 102, 103.\n Physiognomy, Sir David Brewster on, 242.\n Pianoforte-making, Fortune by, 195.\n Pirie, Alderman Sir John, 202.\n Pitt, his political Life predicted, 248.\n Pleasures of the Imagination late in Life, 73.\n Poets, aged, 111.\n Poetry of Time, 1-8.\n Polite Writing, True Tone of, 223.\n Predictions of Flowers, 255.\n Present and the Past, 238.\n Pride and Meanness, 224.\n Profession, Choice of, 157.\n Progress of Knowledge, 227, 229.\n Public Speaking, 166.\n Pursuit, Want of, 152.\n\n Quakers, Great ages of, 106.\n\n Red Tape, 62.\n Rennie, John, the Engineer, 180.\n Rest, Periods of, 15.\n Restlessness and Enterprise, 235.\n Restraint, Early, 124.\n Rogers, Samuel, Age of, 85.\n Room, the best to speak in, 169.\n Rose, Rt. Hon. George, 163.\n Routh, Dr., Great age of, 86.\n\n School-Indulgence, 128.\n School-Reform, Arnold\u2019s, 127.\n Scientific Men, aged, 112.\n Scientific Progress, 229.\n Scotland, Longevity in, 98, 99.\n Scott, Sir Walter, 211.\n Scott, Sir W., on Presidency, 173.\n Sculptors, aged, 113.\n Self-dependence, Mr. Sharp on, 159.\n Self-formation, 131.\n Shaw, Sir James, 200.\n Shoreditch, St. Leonard\u2019s, and Longevity, 80.\n Short-hand, Antiquity of, 147.\n Sidmouth Peerage, the, 162.\n Sinclair, Sir John, on Long Life, 96.\n Smith, Sidney, on Education, 131.\n Soldiers, Great ages of, 105.\n Somers, Lord, Omen to, 247.\n Southey, on English Style, 147.\n Southey, Letters of, 206.\n SPIRIT OF THE AGE, 227-243.\n Spring-time of Life, 66.\n Stanhope, Lord, on the Progress of Knowledge, 230.\n Statesmen, aged, 111.\n Steele, on the Choice of a Profession, 158.\n Stephenson, George and Robert, 178, 179.\n Stothard, the Painter, 112.\n Strahan, William and Andrew, the Printers, 191, 192.\n Strangford, Lord, on Time, 11.\n Style, English, 147.\n Suffolk, Great ages in, 99.\n SUN-DIALS:\n Bowles, Canon, on, 17, 18, 24;\n Boyle, Robert, on, 22;\n Bremhill, 17, 18;\n Hall, Bishop, on, 25;\n Lamb, Charles, on, 21;\n London, Inns of Court, 20;\n Mackay, Charles, Lines by, 26;\n Mottoes for Dials, 24;\n Mary Queen of Scots\u2019 Dial, 27;\n Oxford, 17;\n Pyramids of Egypt, 25;\n Ring Dials, 23;\n Seven Dials, 21, 22;\n Temple, 21;\n Whitehall, 19.\n Surgeons, aged, 111.\n\n Talkers, Profuse, 57.\n Teaching, Unsound, 128.\n Telford, the engineer, 179.\n Thackeray, W. M., 226.\n Tilt, the late Charles, 176.\n TIME, ART OF EMPLOYING:\n Aguesseau, 55;\n Boyle, Robert, 58;\n Brodie, Sir Benjamin, 59;\n\n Coke, Sir Edward, 53;\n Coleridge, 61;\n Curran and Grattan, 62;\n Elizabeth, Queen, 55;\n Erasmus, 54;\n Fuller, 52;\n George III., 58;\n Hale, Sir Matthew, 56;\n Harrington, Sir John, 58;\n Johnson, Dr., 53;\n Jones, Sir W., 53;\n More, Sir Thomas, 64;\n Paley, 59; Sandwich, Lord, 58;\n Scott, Sir Walter, 61;\n South, Dr., 53;\n Sterne, 59;\n Thomson, the poet, 59;\n Wellington, Duke of, 63;\n Woodhouselee, Lord, 55.\n Time\u2019s Garland, by Drayton, 6.\n Time and Eternity, 64.\n Time and Improvement, 231.\n Time, Management of, 244.\n Time, Measurement of, 12-15.\n Time, painted by the Poets, 1-8.\n Time, Past, Present, and Future, 9.\n Time-balls, London and Edinburgh, 34.\n Time-wasters, 57.\n Trade, the nobility of, 189.\n Trade and Philanthropy, 243.\n Translation, Free, 150.\n Truth, Speaking the, 234.\n Twenty Years, First, of Life, 67.\n Tying-up Thoughts, 62, 63.\n\n Vegetarians and Long Life, 94.\n\n Waithman, Alderman, 201.\n Walker, Jas., the Engineer, 186.\n Ware, the Architect, 174.\n Watson, Bishop, _note_, 136.\n Wear and Tear of Public Life, 217.\n Webster, Dr., on Longevity, 91.\n Wellington, Duke of, his boyhood, 248.\n Wellington, Duke of, 63, 64, 234, 235.\n Widows, aged, 90.\n Wilson, Professor, 216.\n Wire, Alderman, 203.\n Wood, Sir Matthew, 200.\n Woodstock, Great ages in, 100.\n World\u2019s Cycles, 256.\n WORLD-KNOWLEDGE, 244-249.\n Wrecks of Time, 7.\n Writing, Art of, 149.\n Writing, Learning, 147.\n\n Yorkshire Schools, 141.\n Youth, Tenderness of, 122.\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n_By the Author of the present Work, with a Coloured Title, 5s. cloth,\npp._ 320,\n\n\n SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY;\n\n AND\n\n A GARLAND FOR THE YEAR.\n\n BY JOHN TIMBS, F.S.A.\n\n\nCONTENTS: Memorable Days of the Year; its Fasts and Festivals and\nPicturesque Events.\u2014Recollections of Brambletye.\u2014Domestic Arts\nand Customs.\u2014Glories of a Garden.\u2014Early Gardeners.\u2014Bacon,\nEvelyn, and Temple.\u2014A Day at Hatfield.\u2014London Gardens.\u2014Pope at\nTwickenham.\u2014Celebrated Gardens.\u2014Curiosities of Bees, &c.\n\n CRITICAL OPINIONS.\n\n\"This volume is likely to meet with as good a reception as any of its\npredecessors, for no one can open it without finding something in it\nthat is at once amusing and instructive. All the information which it\ncontains is modestly and pleasantly given.... It will be seen that this\nvolume abounds with diverting and suggestive extracts. It seems to us\nparticularly well adapted for parochial lending-libraries.\"\u2014_Saturday\nReview._\n\n\"Full of odd, quaint, out-of-the-way bits of information upon all\nimaginable subjects is this amusing volume, wherein Mr. Timbs discourses\nupon domestic, rural, metropolitan, and social life; interesting nooks\nof English localities; time-honoured customs, and old-world observances;\nand, we need hardly add, Mr. Timbs discourses well and pleasantly upon\nall.\"\u2014_Notes and Queries._\n\n\"This is another of those curious repertories of out-of-the-way facts,\nto the compilation of which Mr. Timbs appears to have a prescriptive\nright. The reader must be at once very well-informed and very difficult\nto please who fails to find in _Something for Everybody_ ample materials\nboth for instruction and amusement.\"\u2014_Spectator._\n\n\"A collection made by a diligent scholar in a long life of literature,\nand imparting information in such a manner as to be pleasing to the\nyoung and welcome to the old. Mr. Timbs has published many good books,\nbut none better or more deserving of popularity than that to which he\nhas given the appropriate title of _Something for Everybody_.\"\u2014_London\nReview._\n\n\"In this volume the author certainly maintains the position which he has\nwon for himself as a most indefatigable collector and compiler of useful\ninformation, in a form at once clear, accurate, and vastly\nentertaining.\"\u2014_English Churchman._\n\n\"A very entertaining volume, full of varied information.\"\u2014_Builder._\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n THINGS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN\n\n Familiarly Explained.\n\n _In Six Vols. fcap., price 15s. cloth;_\n _Or sold in separate volumes, price 2s. 6d. each, viz.:_\n\nGENERAL INFORMATION. FIRST AND SECOND SERIES. 2 vols.\n\n\"A remarkably pleasant and instructive little book; a book as full of\ninformation as a pomegranate is full of seed.\"\u2014_Punch._\n\nCURIOSITIES OF SCIENCE. FIRST AND SECOND SERIES. 2 vols.\n\n\"There is not a man of science who would not be arrested by this\nbook, on matters which he never knew, and on matters which he had\nforgotten. At the same time there is not any man out of science who\nwould find Mr. Timbs\u2019s phalanx of extracts uninteresting or\nunintelligible.\"\u2014_Athen\u00e6um._\n\nCURIOSITIES OF HISTORY. 1 vol.\n\n\"We can conceive no more amusing book for the drawing-room, or one more\nuseful for the school-room.\"\u2014_Art-Journal._\n\nPOPULAR ERRORS EXPLAINED. 1 vol.\n\n\"A work which ninety-nine persons out of every hundred would take up\nwhenever it came in their way, and would always learn something\nfrom.\"\u2014_English Churchman._\n\n ---------------------\n\n LOCKWOOD AND CO., STATIONERS\u2019 HALL-COURT.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n The Mystic World.\n\n --------------\n\n This day, with a Frontispiece, 5_s._ cloth,\n\n PREDICTIONS REALIZED\n IN MODERN TIMES.\n\n NOW FIRST COLLECTED\n\n BY HORACE WELBY.\n\nCONTENTS: Days and Numbers.\u2014Prophesying Almanacs.\u2014Omens.\u2014Historical\nPredictions.-Predictions of the French Revolution.\u2014The Bonaparte\nFamily.\u2014Discoveries and Inventions anticipated.\u2014Scriptural Prophecies,\n&c.\n\n LITERARY OPINIONS.\n\n\"This is an odd but attractive volume, compiled from various and often\nlittle-known sources, and is full of amusing reading.\"\u2014_The Critic._\n\n\"A volume containing a variety of curious and startling narratives on\nmany points of supernaturalism, well calculated to gratify that love of\nthe marvellous which is more or less inherent in us all.\"\u2014_Notes and\nQueries._\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n _By the same Author, with an Emblematic Frontispiece, 5s. cloth,_\n\n MYSTERIES\n\n OF\n\n LIFE, DEATH, AND FUTURITY;\n\n ILLUSTRATED FROM THE BEST AND LATEST AUTHORITIES.\n\n\n CONTENTS.\n\n LIFE AND TIME.\n NATURE OF THE SOUL.\n SPIRITUAL LIFE.\n MENTAL OPERATIONS.\n BELIEF AND SCEPTICISM.\n PREMATURE INTERMENT.\n PHENOMENA OF DEATH.\n SIN AND PUNISHMENT.\n THE CRUCIFIXION OF OUR LORD.\n MAN AFTER DEATH.\n THE INTERMEDIATE STATE.\n RECOGNITION OF THE BLESSED.\n THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.\n THE FUTURE STATES, ETC.\n\n\"It is a great deal to be able to say in favour of this book that we\nhave discovered nothing in it which can annoy or offend a member of any\nChristian denomination; and that many of the quotations are not only\nvaluable in themselves, but have been collected from sources not easily\naccessible to the general reader. Not a few of the chapters are,\nhowever, Mr. Welby\u2019s own composition; and these are, for the most part,\nthoughtfully and carefully written.\"\u2014_The Critic._\n\n\"The author and compiler of this work is evidently a largely-read and\ndeeply-thinking man. For its plentiful suggestiveness alone it should\nmeet with a kindly and grateful acceptance. It is a pleasant, dreamy,\ncharming, startling little volume, every page of which sparkles like a\ngem in an antique setting.\"\u2014_Weekly Dispatch._\n\n\"This book is the result of extensive reading and careful noting; it is\nsuch a commonplace book as some thoughtful divine or physician might\nhave compiled, gathering together a vast variety of opinions and\nspeculations bearing on physiology, the phenomena of life, and the\nnature and future existence of the soul. With these are blended facts,\nanecdotes, personal traits of character, and well-grounded arguments,\nwith the one guiding intention of strengthening the Christian\u2019s faith\nwith the thoughts and conclusions of the great and good of the earth.\nMr. Horace Welby has brought together a mass of matter that might be\nsought in vain through the most extensive library; and we know of no\nwork that so strongly compels reflection, and so well assists\nit.\"\u2014_Lond. Review._\n\n ---------------------\n\nW. KENT AND CO., PATERNOSTER-ROW.\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Notes\n\nItalic text in the original is delimited by _underscores_. Bold and\nspaced-text in the original is delimited by =equal signs=. A caret [^]\nhas been used to indicate that the following number is an exponent\u2014i.e.\nraised above the base line.\n\n 1. Copyright notice was provided as in the original printed text\u2014this\n e-text is public domain in the country of publication.\n\n 2. Obvious typographical errors were silently corrected; non-standard\n spellings and dialect were retained.\n\n 3. On page 23, an \u201ci\u201d was changed to an \u201cI\u201d where the meaning was first\n person singular, nominative case.\n\n 4. Typo on page 23: \u201cHabden\u201d was changed to \u201cHebden\u201d.\n\n 5. A section header was added for any section listed in the Table of\n Contents which didn\u2019t show in the text (other than as a page header).\n\n 6. In the first pararaph on page 98 there is an arithmetical error which\n has been left uncorrected.\n\n 7. On p. 126, the first paragraph of quotation, \u201cnon-professional\n educational\u201d was changed to \u201cnon-professional education\u201d to be\n parallel to previous sentence.\n\n 8. On p. 173, both of the spellings, \u201cpreses\u201d and \u201cpr\u00e6ses\u201d, were used.\n Neither is considered wrong. (It means President of a college.)","title":"Things to be Remembered in Daily Life: With Personal Experiences and Recollections","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":107735}