latter-day pamphlets-第34部分
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general quagmire; the lowest point of all; and hateful even to M'Croudy; must our main drain begin: steadily prosecuting that; tearing that along with Herculean labor and divine fidelity; we shall gradually drain the entire Stygian swamp; and make it all once more a fruitful field!
For the State; I perceive; looking out with right sacred earnestness for persons able to command; will straightway also come upon the question: 〃What kind of schools and seminaries; and teaching and also preaching establishments have I; for the training of young souls to take command and to yield obedience? Wise command; wise obedience: the capability of these two is the net measure of culture; and human virtue; in every man; all good lies in the possession of these two capabilities; all evil; wretchedness and ill…success in the want of these。 He is a good man that can command and obey; he that cannot is a bad。 If my teachers and my preachers; with their seminaries; high schools and cathedrals; do train men to these gifts; the thing they are teaching and preaching must be true; if they do not; not true!〃
The State; once brought to its veracities by the thumb…screw in this manner; what will it think of these same seminaries and cathedrals! I foresee that our Etons and Oxfords with their nonsense…verses; college…logics; and broken crumbs of mere _speech_;which is not even English or Teutonic speech; but old Grecian and Italian speech; dead and buried and much lying out of our way these two thousand years last past;will be found a most astonishing seminary for the training of young English souls to take command in human Industries; and act a valiant part under the sun! The State does not want vocables; but manly wisdoms and virtues: the State; does it want parliamentary orators; first of all; and men capable of writing books? What a rag…fair of extinct monkeries; high…piled here in the very shrine of our existence; fit to smite the generations with atrophy and beggarly paralysis;as we see it do! The Minister of Education will not want for work; I think; in the New Downing Street!
How it will go with Souls'…Overseers; and what the _new_ kind will be; we do not prophesy just now。 Clear it is; however; that the last finish of the State's efforts; in this operation of regimenting; will be to get the _true_ Souls'…Overseers set over men's souls; to regiment; as the consummate flower of all; and constitute into some Sacred Corporation; bearing authority and dignity in their generation; the Chosen of the Wise; of the Spiritual and Devout…minded; the Reverent who deserve reverence; who are as the Salt of the Earth;that not till this is done can the State consider its edifice to have reached the first story; to be safe for a moment; to be other than an arch without the keystones; and supported hitherto on mere wood。 How will this be done? Ask not; let the second or the third generation after this begin to ask!Alas; wise men do exist; born duly into the world in every current generation; but the getting of _them_ regimented is the highest pitch of human Polity; and the feat of all feats in political engineering:impossible for us; in this poor age; as the building of St。 Paul's would be for Canadian Beavers; acquainted only with the architecture of fish…dams; and with no trowel but their tail。
Literature; the strange entity so called;that indeed is here。 If Literature continue to be the haven of expatriated spiritualisms; and have its Johnsons; Goethes and _true_ Archbishops of the World; to show for itself as heretofore; there may be hope in Literature。 If Literature dwindle; as is probable; into mere merry…andrewism; windy twaddle; and feats of spiritual legerdemain; analogous to rope…dancing; opera…dancing; and street…fiddling with a hat carried round for halfpence; or for guineas; there will be no hope in Literature。 What if our next set of Souls'…Overseers were to be _silent_ ones very mainly?Alas; alas; why gaze into the blessed continents and delectable mountains of a Future based on _truth_; while as yet we struggle far down; nigh suffocated in a slough of lies; uncertain whether or how we shall be able to climb at all!
Who will begin the long steep journey with us; who of living statesmen will snatch the standard; and say; like a hero on the forlorn…hope for his country; Forward! Or is there none; no one that can and dare? And our lot too; then; is Anarchy by barricade or ballot…box; and Social Death?We will not think so。
Whether Sir Robert Peel will undertake the Reform of Downing Street for us; or any Ministry or Reform farther; is not known。 He; they say; is getting old; does himself recoil from it; and shudder at it; which is possible enough。 The clubs and coteries appear to have settled that he surely will not; that this melancholy wriggling seesaw of red…tape Trojans and Protectionist Greeks must continue its course tillwhat _can_ happen; my friends; if this go on continuing?
And yet; perhaps; England has by no means so settled it。 Quit the clubs and coteries; you do not hear two rational men speak long together upon politics; without pointing their inquiries towards this man。 A Minister that will attack the Augeas Stable of Downing Street; and begin producing a real Management; no longer an imaginary one; of our affairs; _he_; or else in few years Chartist Parliament and the Deluge come: that seems the alternative。 As I read the omens; there was no man in my time more authentically called to a post of difficulty; of danger; and of honor than this man。 The enterprise is ready for him; if he is ready for it。 He has but to lift his finger in this enterprise; and whatsoever is wise and manful in England will rally round him。 If the faculty and heart for it be in him; he; strangely and almost tragically if we look upon his history; is to have leave to try it; he now; at the eleventh hour; has the opportunity for such a feat in reform as has not; in these late generations; been attempted by all our reformers put together。
As for Protectionist jargon; who in these earnest days would occupy many moments of his time with that? 〃A Costermonger in this street;〃 says Crabbe; 〃finding lately that his rope of onions; which he hoped would have brought a shilling; was to go for only sevenpence henceforth; burst forth into lamentation; execration and the most pathetic tears。 Throwing up the window; I perceived the other costermongers preparing impatiently to pack this one out of their company as a disgrace to it; if he would not hold his peace and take the market…rate for his onions。 I looked better at this Costermonger。 To my astonished imagination; a star…and…garter dawned upon the dim figure of the man; and I perceived that here was no Costermonger to be expelled with ignominy; but a sublime goddess…born Ducal Individual; whom I forbear to name at this moment! What an omen;nay to my astonished imagination; there dawned still fataler omens。 Surely; of all human trades ever heard of; the trade of Owning Land in England ought _not_ to bully us for drinkmoney just now!〃
〃Hansard's Debates;〃 continues Crabbe farther on; 〃present many inconsistencies of speech; lamentable unveracities uttered in Parliament; by one and indeed by all; in which sad list Sir Robert Peel stands for his share among others。 Unveracities not a few were spoken in Parliament: in fact; to one with a sense of what is called God's truth; it seemed all one unveracity; a talking from the teeth outward; not as the convictions but as the expediencies and inward astucities directed; and; in the sense of God's _truth_; I have heard no true word uttered in Parliament at all。 Most lamentable unveracities continually _spoken_ in Parliament; by almost every one that had to open his mouth there。 But the largest veracity ever _done_ in Parliament in our time; as we all know; was of this man's doing;and that; you will find; is a very considerable item in the calculation!〃
Yes; and I believe England in her dumb way remembers that too。 And 〃the Traitor Peel〃 can very well afford to let innumerable Ducal Costermongers; parliamentary Adventurers; and lineal representatives of the Impenitent Thief; say all their say about him; and do all their do。 With a virtual England at his back; and an actual eternal sky above him; there is not much in the total net…amount of that。 When the master of the horse rides abroad; many dogs in the village bark; but he pursues his journey all the same。
'May 1; 1850。' No。 V。 STUMP…ORATOR。
It lies deep in our habits; confirmed by all manner of educational and other arrangements for several centuries back; to consider human talent as best of all evincing itself by the faculty of eloquent speech。 Our earliest schoolmasters teach us; as the one gift of culture they have; the art of spelling and pronouncing; the rules of correct speech; rhetorics; logics follow; sublime mysteries of grammar; whereby we may not only speak but write。 And onward to the last of our schoolmasters in the highest university; it is still intrinsically grammar; under various figures grammar。 To speak in various languages; on various things; but on all of them to speak; and appropriately deliver ourselves by tongue or pen;this is the sublime goal towards which all manner of beneficent preceptors and learned professors; from the lowest hornbook upwards; are continually urging and guiding us。 Preceptor or professor; looking over his miraculous seedplot; seminary as he well calls it; or crop of young human souls; watches with attentive view one organ of his delightful little seedlings growing to be men;the tongue。 He hopes we shall all get to speak yet; if it please Heaven。 〃Some of you shall be book…writers; eloquent review…writers; and astonish mankind; my young friends: others in white neckcloths shall do sermons by Blair and Lindley Murray; nay by Jeremy Taylor and judicious Hooker; and be priests to guide men heavenward by skilfully brandished handkerchief and the torch of rhetoric。 For others there is Parliament and the election beer…barrel; and a course that leads men very high indeed; these shall shake the senate…house; the Morning Newspapers; shake the very spheres; and by dexterous wagging of the tongue disenthrall mankind; and lead our