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Leader (1850-1860), 6th September 1856, Edition 2 of 2, Page 19

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    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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      A Batch Of Books. Jl Cyclopaedia Of Geog...

      As a school-book , it is preferable to any irregular abridgment of Von Hammer . A Popular History of British Lichens , comprising cm Account of their Structure , Reproduction , Uses , Distribution , and Classification-. By W . Lauder Lindsay , M . D . ( Reeve . )—Dr . Lindsay ' s volume is one of the best in the iidniirable series to which it belongs . It is , as the writer describes it , a iamiliai ' , natural history , touched with an occasional charm of fancy , and very delightful as the companion of a . hill ramble . If Blackwood has sent hundreds io the sea-sjde to imitate the studies of its contributors , Dr . Lindsay ' s enihusiasm will send others in pursuit of Lichenology , of Lecideas and Cla-< lonias , and leathery Umbilicarias , ' rich grey licliens broidered on the rocks . ' The ^ illustrations , in tinted lithography , are as perfect in art as in science . It is high praise to say that tlie volume is really ' a popular his * tory ' : —deserving popularity .

      September 6, 1856.] T H E X. E Ad E K, 8...

      September 6 , 1856 . ] T H E X . E AD E K , 859

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      t ^ ttrttolto . ; ; ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ' . —?— - ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ . .

      ... .... ; V ¦ Vc Should Do Our Utmost T...

      ... .... ; V ¦ Vc should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the TJseful encourages j -tstlf : —Goethe .

      ¦¦ .... . ¦ •. ¦ -? . ¦ . ¦ . U J-Jis Lr...

      ¦¦ .... . ¦ . ¦ - ? . ¦ . ¦ . U j-Jis Lru a J 2 ? via us Inl H ) via \ Jr l £ \ Xr Is Ira © a ¦ - ¦ ' ' . . ' I . ,. . -. ¦ ¦ . '¦ . ; ¦ ¦ : ' ¦ - . - ¦ ; ¦ ' . . . PLATITUDES . The utility of Platitudes in the art of Government has been acknowledged from the earliest times , and . a'careful study of this form of cajolery has ever found favour in the eyes of statesmen and divines . By a Platitude is to be understood in its general sense , a false postulate so speciously used as to resemble truth—the base coin passing current in society , in the House , in hireling-reviews , in ethical dissertations , in the lectures delivered from Professors' chairs , especially of the historical order . As it is impossible to prove a self-evident proposition , so does the Platitude defy a formal contradiction perforce of its utter shallowness and superficial lucidity . It is as vain to

      grapple with it 3 as to contend with a man who calls you 'infidel' or ' disbeliever ' —and this form of name-calling the Platitude very often takes : you cannot therefore gainsay the nickname your opponent uses ; nor will it avail aught to seriously disprove the bald , trashy truisms wliich are daily and hoarly used for the justification of fraud , and . the defence of the conventional tyrannies of society . And yet this counterfeit mode of reasoning , if such it can be termed , is generally triumphant , and prevails with the majority who give vote in favour of him who can deceive them in the most plausible way . That words are ' the counters of wise men and the money of fools'we all know very well , but very few of us are aware of the astonishing impostures < laily earned on under this guise : they swarm around us every where : they « ppeal to custom , to respectability , to religion : there is not a rotten part of

      • the state which cannot be , aiidis not , defended by these Platitudes : there are men who live wholly upon them , whose whole Jives are consumed in multiplying words for the purposes of defending the ' bulwai'ks' of injustice and to ul play . Surely , therefore , this art is -worth studying . "Words without meaning , " says Home Tooke , " or of equivocal meaning , are the everlasting engines of fraud , " especially of old fraud , of the respectable vices and wrongs to which men are accustomed , of the hereditary , semibarbarous wrongs daily inflicted upon society , and which we are told it is our ' duty' to bear , or that it is ' not the thing' to object to . Until we see through this slang , and can shoot this thing as it ilics , " there is no hope for the good cause of free opinion . If you desire explanation of any of the daily base consuetudes of life , you arc at once gagged with a Platitude : such things ' always were so' we are told , and we are better off than the nations

      on the Continent . The office of thus debauching the public mind is performed in the House by those worthy , solid-minded gentlemen whose respectability is their whole guarantee , and out of it , by flunkey reviewers , who write up Church and State and maintain that tone of ' healtl ^' -mindeduess ' and ' right-and-proper' tone of feeling so essential'to ' conserve society . ' But if we but study the values of words even so slightly , and if we come to close quarters , we shall find tliat these key-notes and catch-words are mere tricks and subterfuges used by the organs of the powerful and wealthy in order to defraud the rest of mankind from their just inheritance upon God ' s earth . _ Underneath all this palaver of ' duty , ' and in the core of these goodly ixij unctions to contentment and peace , we find invariably the burden of the themo to be ' Better a plum for me than two figs for thee . ' This is Mammon ' s argument throughout , and in order to-carry out tins noble motive

      it proceeds , in true esoteric fashion , to console us with Platitudes . " The wind , " it says , "is always tempered to the shorn lamb ! " The inference of which is obvious , namely , tluit you shall endure , the shearing patiently and let Mammon carry off the wool , while you , cold and deserted , shall trust to Providence to supply the deficiency . Mahomet once overheard one of his followers who was consoling himself ia this way , " I will loose my camel , " said this victim of a platitude , " and commit it to God . " " Friend , " said the great Prophet , " tie up thy camel , and then commit it to God /' By such means ai'C the true interests of society evaded or neglected . By such means are men gulled and befooled to their own confusion and to the

      glory of those plethoric dogs who live in manners . By such means wealth , or ' the true interests of virtue and religion , ' which are the mere synonyms of wealth , is sanctified and conserved . Talleyrand ( and Goldsmith ) said that words Y given them to conceal their ideas : ft hint worth while renicmbering when licai'ing a Parliamentary debate , or residing any organ devoted to the advoency of * sound' political principles , wherein you will perceive the power of Platitudes to the utmost . lie is a bold man who would venture to address tho House in any other language , so vernacular is this dialect to the ears of the administrative , class , and the patrician order positively understands none other . And the organ of ' sound' principles

      is ground continually to the ^ -same tune , and vituperates freedom of thought and liberty of speech , extolling the loving kindness of our immaculate legislators and the great blessings we derive from their disinterested rule . It is a trick of the monopolizing classes to preach " up contentment , and those who undertake this inhuman office are invariably rewarded with patronage and approbation , and very often with more substantial favours . In the literary world , indeed , there are found a few bold pens , but the majority love to bespeak the applause of a community thoroughly steeped in Platitudes and wholly unconscious of independent thought : therefore do they truckle to this wretched conservation and these cruel ethics . Who are the men whom authority loves to promote to honour ? Are they men of genius or of heart ?—are they minds of the finest temper ? Or rather , are they not trammelled men , who are pledged and bound to one side only ? Genius is too free and "bold .

      No Archbishop of Canterbury was ever a genius , t > ut many have been dolts ; but dolts can conserve better than others , and therefore are they chosen . If you seek for distinction you rnust affect a stolidity , even if you have it not ; otherwise you will be deemed incapable of preserving that solemn demeanour so essential . to great ministers , or you will be thought incapable of maintaining the imposture of your station . Be careful to implant Platitudes on every occasion : the neglect of this has been the ruin of many a great man . Hence we get some inkling in the cause of great reputations attained by such contemptible men . This accounts , too , for the immense domination of fools and tbe triumph of the noble army of blockheads , by whom all society is officered . At first it somewhat perplexes a simple understanding to comprehend why all station and command should be invariably bestowed upon the commonest minds , and why stupid men always succeed in life . One

      would naturally think that posts of importance and trust , and offices necessnry for the general interest , would be filled by the best men of the day , and that a fine mind would naturally rise to its proper sphere and find acceptance there . Indeed ! Wealth is too morbidly jealous of its rights and too selfishly exclusive to give genius admittance within its gates . Out with it , Duneiad ! The petty authorities of society are mere beadles and flunkeys , placed there for their Conservative qualities rather than their breadth of views or force of character . We need not genius in a doorkeeper . The great object is to obtain men who can maintain order and keep society in subjection . But to improve life and its opportunities , to bless us with the light of mind , to render existence less burdensome—this is no pai * t of their duties . The literary police pursue the same course , and the clerical also . Their trade is to inake men contented : to teacli them to endure in silence and to look pleasant . But this is pushing matters too far . Property lias its

      rights , and can take very good care of itself without thus befooling the consciences of the community , or thrusting Platitudes doTvn our throats in this wholesale fashion . The rights of monarchy were once thought to require the same rigorous enforcement , and every ' loyal subject ' was constantly expected to be mouthing laudations to the person , whether good or bad , -who happened ' . to occupy the throne : and yet now , after the CroTra has been shorn of this undue reverence , we find its real rights and influence in no danger of decline . It can do very well without adventitious aid , as we have good reason to know at this present time , when Court influence , and Prince influence , and Sutherland House influence play but too conspicuous and thrifty a game with the wives and liberties of honourable members , to the injury of the whole community , whose interests are too frequently sacrificed to some paltry patronage from those high quarters . Let Property confine itself to the same ' rights . ' Sooner or later it must . At present , however , with the jealousy of the Inquisition , it gags every mouth given to i millions to missionaries and forei

      speak the truths It gves gn schemes , while its own kith and kin are starving at home : and thus , having thrown the children ' s bread to the dogs , it hires priests and writers to guard its liberties : of course their language is in keeping with their avocations . They have studied the Platitude in alL its brandies to some purpose , and know the full scope of this most recondite form of reasoning , which is appliedrto every pursuit of life , and infects the "whole course of literature , ethics , religion , the stage , the hustings , the court of justice , the very smalltalk of society . Solid , heavy , ' practical' natures—the staple and average of mankind—can understand nothing else than this jugglery of words with its infinite variations and most plausible aspects . It stultifies and paralyses everything , and to such a degree that the chivalrous tone of some free voice seems at first out of keeping , and exasperates-us . We fear it because it sounds so strangely new : we start from the old lethargy and vent our displeasure upon this disturber of our accustomed tranquillity : we have eaten of the Lotus and would be let alone .

      Mliirk well the chief characteristic of the Platitude . It always benumbs : it never l'ouses . It is always timid and cautious . —Matters have gone ori very well upon the old plan , why therefore change anything ? Our fathers and grandfathers lived well upon old principles , and let us do likewise . —It is always dead . It smothers and oppresses . It is always negative and hates newness , and very naturally allies itself with the hard-hearted selfishness of our natures . . "Who can bo expected to legislate for a future generation—for « a race which may never be , and , according to a certain pulpit mountebank , which never will be ? But tho new race is here , is ever increasing our ranks : it comes naked and hungry , seeking its food and heritage : it comes pushing

      tho old occupants from their seats . We tell it , with many Platitudes , that it has no lot or part with us : we preach up to it our vested rig hts , our laws of property , our proprieties and nice distinctions of right and wrong . It cares nothing , it heeds us not . It comes- —a new creation from tho hands of tho great Mnlccr— . socking its own . Appease tho young Revolutionist . He too will grow old , and perhaps preach up these same old Platitudes to the new generation of later times , but lie will be merciful or hard-hearted oven as he is taught , and us we arc to him . lie is now an infant and a starveling . Let us give him food of our immense slock , for suroly there is enough foiMill . Wherefore this stint and meanness , this jealousy for Avcalth lest tiny tittle of oiir possessions should bo filched ? And wherefore a servile adherence to tliis worn-out phraseology and wretched nomenclature ? IT .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 6, 1856, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06091856/page/19/