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Leader (1850-1860), 12th July 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 661, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      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 Homer ' s wdrks were in a single copy , and so fell into their claws ; they knew what they would do , though they got flogged for it . They are now translating

      Philoctetes , wondering when Ulysses will begone with , for they are reading about him also with the French usher in Te'lemaque . As for the son of Poias the Melian , all they can make 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 bis hatred of Ulysses . Philoctetes agrees with the boys oroughly 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 had to be called Xerxes , and to be represented by his consonants as doubly cross , with a dog ' s growl and a goose's hiss . " Buho . 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 gunishment he was ordered to learn his duty to man y nine o'clock on the succeeding morning , What is my duty to man ; where is it ? asked little Binns ? but Mr . Thunderbomb 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—XinEKAL EDUCATION . " Brown is a decent man , j-ou will experience no shock . He is taking stock of all his information : Greek , there ' a a dual number , and a tense called aorist , and one vjerb in the grammar is Tviira , t here ' s JEschylus , and there ' s Herodotus , and there ' s a . war called Peloponnesian and Xerxes . Latin , I know some , — let me see— ' bia dat qui tito dat , ' ' ingenuas didicisse , ' &c , and there's ' post hoc non propter hoc , ' and there ' s ' sic vos non vobia , ' which goes on melliki—something , but it is not usual to quote the rest , bo it don ' t matter my not knowing it . I know a whole line , by the by , ' O fortunati

      minimum , sua si bona norint . Come , that would fetch something in the House of Commons . I think it ' s from Ovid . There ' s the Augustan ago and Coriolanus . Brutus goes with liberty and Tnrquin'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 III . had two prime ministers , Horace Walpolo and Mr . Pitt . The Duke of Wellington and Napoleon , and Waterloo , also Trafalgar and Jtule Britannia—Oh , and there ' s Aristotle , shone in a number of tilings , generally safe to mention . Plato and friendly attachment-Mem , avoid mentioning Plato , there ' h something about a republic , on which I . don ' t feel safo when

      it a occasionally mentioned . Botany : nap , the blood of trees—the leaves of flowers are called petals—also parts called pistils , which I could make u pun upon if I know what they were—cosines in algebra , the same , which would inako play with cousins—phiH and minus , more ami less—there's a 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 , ( lermans , 1 know , dreamy , Klop . stock — know his numc , and think he \ ran a drummer . ( Jerter was great . And I think there's an Emperor Harharossu , but , Mem ., bo cautious , for I 'm not sure whether that ' a not the name of an animal . Understand animals , having been twice to the Zoological Gardens . Have read Shakspenre—not Milton , but its sale to prulse him . Pino , 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 . Wellr 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—TJTIXITY OF IGNORANCE . " Screech . 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 Wv . uldhavedropped 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 . "

      Untitled Article

      BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Outlines of Physical Geography . I'or Families and Schools . By Rosina 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 JVuturul Philosophy and A&lronomy . liy Dionysius . Liirdiit ' r , D . C . I ; . First Course : JUi-ehunics—Hydrostatics—Hydraulics—I ' no lunatics—Sound—Optics . Taylor , Walton , and Maberley . Dr . Lardner lias 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 , Dr . Lardner has justly 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 setting forth of philosophical views , ho wisely keeps back . The volume is meant for use and for Tftlfirnncft .

      Untitled Article

      S K E T C II K S !• ' R () M . L I F E . By Hailuikt Maktjksjuau . X I 1 . —T II K S TO C K FA K M F . It . (( , ' oncCuded from No . <> 7 , p . OI 58 . ) " The Duke has built ; you a burn to your hou . se ?" . said Hill ; "; in < l next , he must , build you u hoii . se to suit your barn . They don't look suitable at pie-K «« llt "

      One miiKt not mind the look , " said the farmer " 1 could not pay more rent , for tin ; nuke of any house . 1 pay altogether too much rent . " " Do you tell the Duke ko ?" " Why , —it is only a third of the land that is the Duke ' s ; and 1 feel it even moru with regard to the other landlord . " " Well—do you complain to your other landlord ?"

      " Where ' s the use ? It would do no good . j I don't want to get into trouble with him . " Tom came close to his uncle , with a confidential gate , 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 1 " said he , in contemplating the gutters , " Now , where di > 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 as 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 ! "

      u What do you do with your land , then ? Do you grow no grain at all ? Do 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 uncJe went on to tell him some more wonderful things Tom did not know before ; and his father was much 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 , lie saw that his brother ' s real

      business was the rearing- of stock ; and that his large farm yielded so much less 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 pigs out of the garden . They cot 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 ho lay waste the garden , the girl answered that it did not signify , as the fowls scrabbled up everything ho ! It appeared , indeed , that the fowls had their own way , —in the garden and 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 nettles that choked up the kitchen garden , and in hedges and ditches , and under stacks . Sometimes they brought in a very largo basket of eggs ; but then , the provoking thing was , that ho many of them were bad . Ah for the other days of tho week , —if anybody wanted an egg , it took almost as long to find one us it would take in a town to vo and buy find one us it would take in a town to go and buy

      one . " Well , I never saw such pigs ! " exclaimed f Jill , " What can you do with them ?" " Well , 1 don ' t know . It is a bad / season for pigf ) . Kvmy morning I expect to he / ir they are all dead . They are in a thoroug h bud way , you see : and sometimes I think wo had better put them out of the way ; for I don't bcl ' mro they can make good pork , any time between thifi and Christmas . " I never euw anything so liorjid . "

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      Untitled Article

      We should do our uhmonh to oiif : our ; if ; c t . ho neaifl . iful , for Lhc Uueful oncournijea it , uelf ' . —Goicthk .

      Untitled Article

      July 42 , 1851 . ] © ft * fLlftfret * 661

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 12, 1851, page 661, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1891/page/17/