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    BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. Outlines of Physical...

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    Ifontfnlh.

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    We should do our utmost to oncourugo the...

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    S K E T CUES FROM LI E E. B v IIauuikt M...

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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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    Defence Of Ignorance. A Defence Of Ignor...

    illustrated It , however , as they went along with clever cuts , and gave them a proper feeling of the passive form , I am struck , I have been struck , and so on . Delectus they were taught to find a choice of evils and the Anabasis a going down into some lower deep . They had learned to wish that JHomer ' s works were in a single copy , and so fell into their claws ; they knew what they would do , though they eot flossed for it . They are now translating

    Philoctetes , wondering when ( Jlysses will be done with , for they are reading about him also with the French usher in Telemaque . As for the son of Poias the M elian , all they can niake out is a connection between his sore foot and their sore hands . To this extent perhaps they recognise his claim to sympathy on their part , and also they can understand his hatred of Ulysses . Philoctetes agrees with the . boys thoroughly about that , for Ulysses is the

    man" ' Whom of all other Greeks he would desire To lay his fist upon . ' " The Greeks fight a hard battle , and retire to suck their wounds . Theirs is a daily Marathon , in as far as Williams , their enemy , is concerned ; for he has as much right as Isfundear ever bad to be called Xerxes , and to be represented by his consonants as doubly cross , with a dog ' s growl and a goose ' s hiss . " Btjho . Fiddlededee , sir ! But I call this wholesome discipline .

    " Civetta . Wholesome ! Invigorating , bracing , the true tonic , my dear sir . I send four of my sons to Euclid Hall . The Greeks go down to suck their wounds , while they translate a passage of Shakspeare , " The quality of mercy , " & c , into catalectic tetrameters . Before the awful desk their place is taken by a small herd of wild boys , who have been hunted out of the fields of arithmetic , and over the hills of algebra , into the jungle of trigonometry . Here they are confused with sines and cosines , and abused with complements , tripped over tangents , nevertheless they must on , on through a ditch of logarithms , breaking fences of parabolas , until they are lodged safely in the pitfalls of the differential calculus . " Binns Minimus now suffers torment . In a bald

    book of geography , which is little more than a bad index to the contents of the world political , Binns Minimus has sinned with many an imperfect lesson . He called a well-known Isthmus , yesterday , to the dismay of the English master , Suet . As a mild punishment he was ordered to learn his duty to . man by nine o ' clock on the succeeding morning , What is my duty to man ; where is it ? asked little Binns ? but Mr . Thunderbpmb was silent . This morning the young gentleman is ignorant of his duty to his -fellow-creatures , —not having remembered that it was to be found in the catechism , —the Doctor knows his duty to a boy , and so Binns Minimus now suffers torment . " Or the following peep into the cranium of a gentlemen who has received a—

    XIBERAI , EDUCATION . " Brown is a decent man , you will experience no 6 hock . He is taking stock of all his information : Greek , there ' a a dual number , and a tense called aorist , and one verb in the grammar is rvnrreo , t here's iEschylus , and there ' s Herodotus , and there ' s a war called Peloponnesian and Xerxes . Latin , I know some , —let me see— ' bis dat qui cito dat , ' ' ingenuas didicisse , ' & c , and there's ' post hoc non propter hoc , ' and there ' s ' sic vos non vobis , ' which goes on melliki—something , but it is not usual to quote the rest , eo it don ' t matter my not knowing it . I know a whole line , by the by , ' O fortunati

    minimum sua Bi bona norint . ' Come , that would fetch something in the House of Commons . I think it ' s from Ovid . There ' s the Augustan age and C'orio-JanufK Brutus goes with liberty and Tarquin ' s ravishing strides , —a verb agrees with its nominative case . English history , there ' s Arthur—round table —Alfred burnt oatcakes—Henry VIII . had a * number of wives , was the son of Queen Elizabeth , who wore a stiff frill and didn't marry . George \ il . had two prime ministers , Horace Walpolo and Mr . Pitt . 1 'lie Duke of Wellington and Napoleon , and Waterloo , also Trafalgar and Kulo Britannia—Oh , and there ' s Aristotle , shone in a number of things , generally safe to mention . Plato and friendly attachment-Mem , avoid mentioning Plato , there ' s something about a republic , on which I don ' t feel safe when

    it 8 occasionally mentioned . Botany : Bap , the blood ot trees—the leaves of flowers are called petals—also parts called pihtils , which I could make n pun upon " I knew what they were—cosines in algebra , the suine , which would make play with cousins—plus ftnd minus , more and less—there's u word rationale , don ' t know whether French or Latin , but . extremely good to use—foreign politics I don't make much of , not understanding history of foreign countries . O « rroans , I know , dreamy , K'lopstock—know his name , « nd think ho was a drummer , ( lerter was grout . And I think there's an Emperor BurbaroHsa , but , Mem ., bo cautious , for 1 ' m not sure whether thac 'h not the name qf an animal . Understand anirnnls , "aviny been twice to the Zoological Gardens . Have *« ad Shakspenre—not Milton , but its safo to praleo «» n . Eino , a good epithet to apply to him . "

    But it will need much satire and much experience to shake the solid fabric of prejudice in favour of the old routine . As the author elsewhere says : — " Aziola . I don ' t like hats , do you ? nobody does Is it not odd that we have persevered in wearing hats until beavers—which , to the mere naturalist , are peculiarly interesting—have almost become extinct—and this in deference to habit , every man against his own conviction . Well , sir , if custom be so powerful in ordering the furniture outside our heads , in . spite of us , it will prevail no less in maintaining' those internal fittings to which men have been for centuries accustomed , and with which we are content . "

    The only effective way to get rid of . the old hat is for men resolutely to wear the new ; a certain number of good schools on rational principles will have more effect than libraries of ridicule . As a sample of the gravity which lies underneath the smile of our author , take this on

    the—UTILITY OP IGNOKANCE . " Sckebch . That the ignorance of the middle classes is in a sound and safe state for the present we can see by the bitterness of party , and the durability of all manner of misunderstanding . Misunderstandings are the stones which macadamise the road of life ; our way without them -would be tedious from the excess of softness . Now , I have seen reason to suspect that Knowledge impresses on its victims a belief that nobody is all wrong or all right . That opposite lines of belief or conduct may run over the land of truth , and that it it honest for a man to travel upon either ; that so a man going to Birmingham need not necessarily spit at a man going to Bath . The victims of knowledge may at last be brought

    • into a state of such great wickedness , that they doubt the entire depravity of man . They almost doubt whether any human being would fail to get the sympathy of another who should be cognisant of all his thoughts and all his springs of action . They say that nine tenths of the quarrels they have witnessed would have dropped immediately if each party had seen , nakedly the other ' s mind , and either have resulted in , absolute unanimity or friendly opposition of opinion . They say that if there were no ignorance , there would be no party heat , and if there were no party heat , there would be no ignorance . This is a pretty argument , you cannot catch it by the tail ; like the snake of eternity , its tail is in its mouth , it is a perfect circle .

    Books On Our Table. Outlines Of Physical...

    BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Outlines of Physical Geography . For Families and Schools . By Itosina M . Zornlin . J . W . Parker . This is one of . Parker ' s School Series of Outlines . Miss Zornlin is a practised writer of popular science , and contrives to make Physical Geography intelligible to children . Handbook of JVatural Pliilosophy and Astronomy . B y Dion ysius Lardner , JD . C . L . First Course : Mechanics—Hydrostatics—Hydraulics—Pneumatics—Sound—Optics . Taylor , Walton , and Maberley . Dr . Lardncr has produced a manual of admirable clearness , simplicity , and brevity . The six branches of Natural Philosophy treated of in this stout volume are Mechanics , Hydrostatics , Hydraulics , Pneumatics , Sound , and Optics . They are set forth in brief sections , and illustrated by more than four hundred engravings . Keeping in view the object of a manual , Or . Lardner has juBtly confined himself to the statement of principles in a popular form , with the addition of such examples as may be necessary to render them intelligible . Anything like scientific discussion , or the Betting forth of philosophical views , he wisely keeps back . The volume is meant for use and for reference .

    jtrtv 12 , 1851 . ] ® % e &* a & ret + 6 ex

    Ifontfnlh.

    Ifontfnlh .

    We Should Do Our Utmost To Oncourugo The...

    We should do our utmost to oncourugo the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . —Gokiiik .

    S K E T Cues From Li E E. B V Iiauuikt M...

    S K E T CUES FROM LI E E . B v IIauuikt Majitineau . £ 1 I . —T H K S T O C ; K F A It M K It . ( Concluded from No . 67 , p . C : 58 . ) " The Duke has built you a barn to your house ?" said Bill ; " and noxt , he must build you a house to suit your barn . They don't look suitable at pro , sent . " " One must not mind the look , " -said the farmer , " I could not pay more rent , for th © sake of any house . I pay altogether too much rent . " " l > o you tell the Duke ho ? "

    " Why , —it i . s only a third of the land that is the Duke ' s ; and 1 feel it even more with regard to the other landlord . " "Well , —do y Ol , complain to your other landlord ? " '

    "Where ' s the user It would do no good ; and I don't want to get into trouble with him . " Tom came close to his uncle , with a confidential gaae , and said , " You see , we didn ' t want the cornlaws done nothing to . " . His uncle nodded , and then studied the cowstalls , . and the drainage from the stables . " Very good I" said he , in contemplating the gutters , " Now , where do you collect the manure" ?

    Tom stretched his foolish mouth to a laugh , as he answered , that they didn ' t want to keep any manure ; it was getting rid of such stuff that they thought about . It was actually the practice of the farm to poke away the manure aa far as possible , and never look after it again . " But how do you make the land yield ? " asked the uncle . Tom said there was seldom more than five inches of soil above the sand ; and the manure would only go and poison the sand if it was laid on . " No , no ; no manure for them !"

    " What do you do with your land , then i Do you grow no grain at all ? t > o you grow no oats , even ?" Tom answered , that they tried oats now and then ; but he doubted whether they should any more . There were very few things that there was any use in growing , on account of the game . " What game ? " "Why , all the game round about ; rabbits especially /' " Rabbits are not game . "

    Tom ' s eyes opened so wide at this , that his uncle went on to tell him some more wonderful things Tom did not know before ; and his father was tnuch troubled that he learned it now , that a tenant has a right , unless there is an agreement to the contrary with his landlord , to kill all game that he may find on his land . The old farmer was annoyed with his brother for having revealed this truth . He foresaw that his sons would be disturbing the game in his fields , and bringing on him the displeasure of the Duke ' s steward and gamekeeper .

    " Well , but , " inquired the uncle , " What do you grow ? Roots ? " " Potatoes and turnips , " said Tom . " We yield to none there . " " Ay ; the soil suits , I suppose . But , I don ' t know , it seems hardly like farming , for all your great barn . It appears to me very odd . " " You see , " said Tom , sagely , " we didn ' t want

    the corn-laws done nothing to . " His uncle was less sure about this matter than he had once been . He saw that his brother ' s real business was the rearing of stock ; and that his large farm yielded so much Jess cattle-food than it should do , or was ever likely to do in his hands , that the importation of cheap cattle-food from abroad might be a great advantage .

    And now , for the stock . There was still light enough to look round near the house . The sound of a cracking whip was heard from the garden ; and there they found the stout servant girl , doing what she liked to do a dozen times a-day ;—whipping the piga out of the garden . They got in through a place which might have been stopped up in three minutes ; but it had been left open for three years ; and when any one remarked that it was a pity that the pigs should so lay waste the garden , the girl answered that it did not signify , as the fowls scrabbled up everything so 1 It appeared , indeed , that the fowls had their own way , —in the and

    garden everywhere else . No place had hitherto been appropriated to them ; and Rosa was far too busy to think about the eggs , except when a neighbour was going to the market , once a week . Then Rosa and the girl turned out with sticks , and looked about for what they could find . They beat about in the pea haulm , and the tall hemlock and nettlc 3 that choked up the kitchen garden , and in hedges and ditches , and under stacks . Sometimes they brought in a very large basket of egg »; but then , the provoking thing wa « , that so many of them were had . As for the other days of the week ,- —if anybody wanted an egg , it took almost as long to find one as it woujd take in a town to go and buy

    one . " Well , I never saw tmoh pigs 1 " ' exclaimed Bill " What can you do with them ?" " Well , I don't know . It is a had season for pigs . Every morning I expect to hear they are all dead . They are in a thorough bad way , you « e « : and floinotiineN I think we had bettor put them out of the way j for I don't believe they can make good pork , any time between this and Christmas . " I never saw anything- bo horrid . "

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 12, 1851, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12071851/page/17/