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    THE POSTMAN'S KXOCK.

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    Untitled Article

    jfo . the respectable man is he who plumed himself so hugely on having accused and procured the trial of Soceates . This man , by naine Anytus , we are toldj ^ e eame quite elated with his imaginary importance , ' " as if , " said the sage , \ vhp , going barefooted , was of course-not regarded by his ' accuser as a reputable .-character , "he liad done some great thing in procuring my death . Had the sag e not , indeed , declared against the mode of education , and the usual means by which citizens acquired respect and riches ; and in his own person and manners showed his contempt of botli ? Had he not thereby proved himself a public enemy P Above all , had he not

    stated truths beyond the comprehension of respectable dullness r Anytus could not understand Sockates , and naturally hated him , as an alien to the narrow sphere of his own intellect , and as one who spoke a foreign tongue . What did Soceates mean by objecting to Anytus bringing his son up as a leather dresser ? Was not the calling an honest road to wealth ? Was it not better than idleness ? Was it not better than walking barefoot through Athens , and putting puzzling questions to the people in their shops , and withdrawing their ' attention from the needful pursuits of trade ? He had cafled ifc a servile occupation ; but no occupation is servile that lends to fortune , and a leather dresser in Athens might rise to the highest

    offices in the city . _ As it was in Athens , so ifc is in England ; and Anytvs here and now will favourably contrast himself , in his pride and power of wealth , with the poor teacher of truth , who neglects to secure the means of decent subsistence . And Respectability is so far in the right , as such negligence is criminal , or even censurable j -for no man can be just to others who is net in the first instance just to himself . The war between them is one of extremes , and extremes are alwavs in the wrong .

    In England , where the pursuit of wealth is the business of all and the passion of many , little regard is paid to one of these extremes : while the other operates as a general example , and by the force of numbers is preserved from singularity . Our 'leatherdressers , so- to speak , are all respectable men ; and their respectability is ' esteemed iu-proportion ¦ to- their supposed wealth . In all senses , they are men of repute . Their real wealth is not so much , nor reckoned for so much in the market , as their imagined wealth . They-have to exaggerate appearances , and he who best preserves them drives the hardest bargain . It is still , as Mr . Teohas Caelyle writes , and as a witness on the . TfipKTKLi , trial thought , . that he is the respectable man who keeps a gig . We recollect well reading the passage referred to aloud in the presence of a well-to-do publican . " All ! " said the respectable victuallerj soinewliat offended ~ by the remark , but recognising its truth ;— " ah ! if we wish ordinary people to think differently-, they should be differently educated . "

    Anytus , ' says Xenophon , " though no longer alive , has still a bad name for having brought up his son so ill . " The respectable Mammon , then , is not , after all , a trustworthy divinity . ' * Man cannot , live by bread alone . " He has other appetites to satisfy than ' the mere greed " of" gold ; and , accordingly , we find , as in the cases we have alluded to , that the gold men have obtained by fraud or successful speculation , and on the credit of which they take their place in the respectable ranks of society , is nearly always expended in the excessive pursuit of those ot / iei' appetites . Sometimes , these are of a laudable character , and have a legitimate career in the honourable paths of ambition ; but more frequently , alas ! they are of a low and depraved kind , and make a wreck of soul , body , and reputation . The only remedy , we find , is

    the better education of youth . But what is Education ? It is not mere school or nursery training :, but the combination of all the circumstances that modify the development of individual character . Mis-education is due to the general false tune of society . The world forms its own criminals , and the individuals are not so guilty as the mass . Puxlingek evidently thinks / that the Union Bank , notwithstanding the enormous amount of his frauds , has dealt unjustly with him . He dares to complain of their want of Christian charity . " If , ' * said the prisoner to the . Judge , " what I have stated { should be considered by j r our lordship to afford any ground for mitigating the horrors of my imprisonment , I shall be-deeply grateful ; buc if your lordship , like the Bank , should feel that you . can show me no mercy , I shall still bow cheerfully to your decision . " Cheerfully , indeed ! Yes—because he hud , for the , moment , an opportunity of showing : his natural hatred for the parties he had injured , and whom for five years he had treated as his natural enemies , « md had

    systematically despoiled of their possessions . But were they . not all alike engaged in the pursuit of Mammon ? Had not they , and such as they , concurred in the sore of education that had . made him what he is ? Were not they , on their own principles , more faulty than himself ? How could they excuse the carelessness , on their part , which had been his temptation ? Were these the men who could rightly show " no mercy ? " All this is implied in PcbliNger ' s appeal ; and Society at large , not the Union Bank alone , must submit-to the impeachment . The requisite education , therefore , enlarges its sphere of operation . It comprises tkevvlule , not merely an individual . Snub education is not , in this country , we are happy to say , utterly impossible . In great part , it ni-usf be an affair .-of " Development . But in . the existence of a free _ press we possess an engine for the-enlightenment of the public conscience , and we may reasonably hope that , through its agency , better principles may obtain , and the rising generation be brought up under more wholesome influences .

    secured , the good to come being always some purpose of ¦ self-interest . And the respectable world sympathizes with this view of the case . Without any special preference for literature , it will admire the popular author , and join in the chorus of his praise , because it thinks that ho is making a great deal of money .- It praises-Dickkns , Thackehay , and Taylor , because they are understood to be making or increasing their fortunes . Letters sue -respectable when they produce large incomes ; tho merit they imply is ignored , the result is alone- considered . It is that which gives the men u standing in society , and enables them to hold up their heads among tho sons of Mammon . iuannnon .

    But while all are engaged in the practice of the common idolatry , and each encourages the other , conscience in the bosom of individuals condemns it on the score of its inevitable immorality . _ Experience , moreover , continually demonstrates that tho whole is false in principle , and loads , sooner or later , to individual ruin . Mammon bus never had it all his own way ; tho other gods have always interfered in an -awkward manner . Tho poor votary bus bean umniiskud , unrobed , disgraced . The Sucratic principle has' at last proved its superiority , aud tho practice of Anytus has resulted in failure . Evon in tho . moment of his exultation the siigo convicted his enemy of blindness in not having Been that of two competitors , "ha is tho conqueror whose good deeds last for ever . " Tho leather-dressing' speculation did not turn o \ it well in the end ; for tho eon of Anytub hud cortnin powers of mind which were incompatible with louther-droasing , and so ho left his intended pursuit for -T-none at all . Having- no serious business in life , he loll , wo are told , " tinder the sway of low desires , and so far in evil courses . Tho youth took to drinking , and drank night and day . And

    Of the real , point in dispute thus hit by honest instinct we make too little account . Respectability , in these days , is , for the moment , at a discount on account of the number of criminals she has recently produced ., The source of their criminality is doubtless traceable to their iniseducation . The guilt of the Puixingejrs , the REDrAXUS ,. the Robsons , the ¦ Watts ' , was bub the fruit of seeds long since deposited in their infant souls . They had been directly or indirectly instructed in the principles of a one-sided respectability , of which" H ( imruon = wWship- ~ waTr ^ lrer ' basisr- —Marry—a-thne—had— t-J ieyheard in childhood , in boyhood , in early manhood , that in England poverty was the only crime . The honourable poverty to which tho sage and scholar often willingly submits , they had constantly heard treated with contempt . One of these had , indeed , literary aspirations ; but it was not for the sake of self-development , that he cultivated his supposed gifts , but for the ultimate .-fame and-protit . He was willing to purchase , and acquire by favour , rather than by right , a niche in the temple of Reputation . It was all a means to an end ; and so the end was obtained , the means were indifferent . For Mammon is a most unscrupulous god , and his service , like that of all sunerstition , permits « vil to be perpetrated that good maybe

    Untitled Article

    I > AT-TAT ! What , a ' welcome sound is that at all times ! How ifc ^ calls up a flutter of expectation in the human breast , that breast which is-. ever'hoping for something—news ' from home , a love-letter , a . post-oUiec order , an invitation to dinner , tickets for the opera , tidings of the death of some superannuated distant relation , who is to leave us all his money , and what not . besides . Winr-drresr-TTOir- ^^ clr- ^ ttd ^ i ^ rat-tat wakes up the echoes of the hall , is it not a race between Miss Laujia . from the drawing-room and Jemima from tho kitchen who will get- first to the door ? And are papa in the countinghouse and mannna in the parlour , revolving questions of money and bread and honey , less stirred Ity that welcome sound ? Say , O Miss -Lauiia , how often in the days of Thkodoke ' s satin waistcoats and iinpas ' fioncd' four-sheet notes you were awake with the dawn , listening for the rat-tat of that red-coated Mekcury from the court of Cupid ? And when Jemima stopped on-the stairs to raid her own letter from that young man in the Coldstreams , supposed , to bo her cousin , have you not rushed on the wings of impatience in your deshabille , all as " you were , to listen for her coming on the mat and in the cold outside your bedroom door ? And have you not from that proxaie first floor lattice watched that man in red as he enmo

    up tho street , your heart beating faster and faster as the sound ot his knocks became louder with his approach ? What a thrill when lie passes next door and advances towards yours ! Do kni , ck , dear postman , you must have a letter lor me . He passes by . There mu ^ t be some mistake , ho has overlooked the letter . You aro sure that you caught a glimpse of Theouoke ' s " bold Roman " on that outside one in the straw-coloured envelope ; ho will retrace his steps presently , when ho discovers tho omission . No ! he has gone down inid down , and now he is round the corner . Cruel , cruel postman 1 Jemima ' s young man in tho Ooklstreums does not write exactly a Konmn hand , and ho spells Jumima with a small j and n superiluitv of m's , and comes hopping , and hopes Jkmuia is well , as this and

    leaves him at . present ,-and ban no more to say at present , Jemima is obliged to get tho man nt tho nig and bottle shop to read those burning words for her ; but , for all that , those two hearts , which will bo pictorially triinsfixod with Curii / B dart on St . Vai / kntikk ' s Duy , aro us throbbingly responsive to tho postman ' s knock as thine . And when tho postman'comes to toll us ot dour ones recalled from tho jaws of death to life , doe . s ho not bring now lil ' o to us ? Tho city merchant is a hard muir , with very littlb room for sentiment in his heart ; but even ho will boxtowa thanklul thought upon tho postman who brings him tidings ot that despaircd-of argosy . What functionary who ministers to our wants , or render * us servico , is such u universal favourite » s the postman ? Tho butcher , tho baker , tho iiiillcrnnii , tho cata' -moat man , nu < l the purveyor of hearthstones , aro all tho declared enenuos ot ouu

    Untitled Article

    Mat 19 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 471

    The Postman's Kxock.

    THE POSTMAN'S KXOCK .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1860, page 471, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2348/page/11/