Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 3 of 3) Essay 1: On Popular Culture

John Morley

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pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. Dr. Arnold's saying about history 'traced backwards

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• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 27 septembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819924562
• Langue: English

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CRITICAL
MISCELLANIES
BY
JOHN MORLEY
VOL. III.
Essay 1: On Popular Culture
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1904
ON POPULAR CULTURE
PAGE
Introduction
1
Importance of provincial centres
2
Report of the Midland Institute
4
Success of the French classes
5
Less success of English history
6
Value of a short comprehensive course
8
Dr. Arnold's saying about history 'tracedbackwards'
9
Value of a short course of general history
10
Value of a sound notion of Evidence
16
Text-books of scientific logic not adequate forpopular objects
21
A new instrument suggested
21
An incidental advantage of it
23
General knowledge not necessarily superficial
25
Popular culture and academic organisation
25
Some of the great commonplaces of study
29
Conclusion
34
ON POPULAR CULTURE
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE TOWN HALL,BIRMINGHAM (OCTOBER 5, 1876), BY THE WRITER, AS PRESIDENT OF THEMIDLAND INSTITUTE.
The proceedings which have now been broughtsatisfactorily to an end are of a kind which nobody who hassensibility as well as sense can take a part in without someemotion. An illustrious French philosopher who happened to be anexaminer of candidates for admission to the Polytechnic School,once confessed that, when a youth came before him eager to do hisbest, competently taught, and of an apt intelligence, he needed allhis self-control to press back the tears from his eyes. Well, whenwe think how much industry, patience, and intelligent discipline;how many hard hours of self-denying toil; how many temptations toworthless pleasures resisted; how much steadfast feeling for thingsthat are honest and true and of good report— are all represented bythe young men and young women to whom I have had the honour ofgiving your prizes to-night, we must all feel our hearts warmed andgladdened in generous sympathy with so much excellence, so manygood hopes, and so honourable a display of those qualities whichmake life better worth having for ourselves, and are so likely tomake the world better worth living in for those who are to comeafter us.
If a prize-giving is always an occasion of livelysatisfaction, my own satisfaction is all the greater at thismoment, because your Institute, which is doing such good work inthe world, and is in every respect so prosperous and soflourishing, is the creation of the people of your own district,without subsidy and without direction either from London, or fromOxford, or from Cambridge, or from any other centre whatever.Nobody in this town at any rate needs any argument of mine topersuade him that we can only be sure of advancing all kinds ofknowledge, and developing our national life in all its plenitudeand variety, on condition of multiplying these local centres bothof secondary and higher education, and encouraging each of them tofight its own battle, and do its work in its own way. For my ownpart I look with the utmost dismay at the concentration, not onlyof population, but of the treasures of instruction, in our vastcity on the banks of the Thames. At Birmingham, as I am informed,one has not far to look for an example of this. One of the branchesof your multifarious trades in this town is the manufacture ofjewellery. Some of it is said commonly to be wanting in taste,elegance, skill; though some of it also— if I am not misinformed—is good enough to be passed off at Rome and at Paris, even toconnoisseurs, as of Roman or French production. Now the nationpossesses a most superb collection of all that is excellent andbeautiful in jewellers' work. When I say that the nation possessesit, I mean that London possesses it. The University of Oxford, bythe way, has also purchased a portion, but that is not at presentaccessible. If one of your craftsmen in that kind wants to profitby these admirable models, he must go to London. What happens isthat he goes to the capital and stays there. Its superficialattractions are too strong for him. You lose a clever workman and acitizen, and he adds one more atom to that huge, overgrown, andunwieldy community. Now, why, in the name of common sense, shouldnot a portion of the Castellani collection pass six months of theyear in Birmingham, the very place of all others where it is mostlikely to be of real service, and to make an effective mark on thenational taste? [1]
To pass on to the more general remarks which you areaccustomed to expect from the President of the Institute on thisoccasion. When I consulted one of your townsmen as to the subjectwhich he thought would be most useful and most interesting to you,he said: 'Pray talk about anything you please, if it is only notEducation. ' There is a saying that there are two kinds of foolishpeople in the world, those who give advice, and those who do nottake it. My friend and I in this matter represent these twointeresting divisions of the race, for in spite of what he said, itis upon Education after all that I propose to offer you some shortobservations. You will believe it no affectation on my part, when Isay that I shall do so with the sincerest willingness to becorrected by those of wider practical experience in teaching. I amwell aware, too, that I have very little that is new to say, buteducation is one of those matters on which much that has alreadybeen said will long bear saying over and over again.
I have been looking through the Report of yourclasses, and two things have rather struck me, which I willmention. One of them is the very large attendance in the Frenchclasses. This appears a singularly satisfactory thing, because youcould scarcely do a hard-working man of whatever class a greaterservice than to give him easy access to French literature.Montesquieu used to say that he had never known a pain or adistress which he could not soothe by half an hour of a good book;and perhaps it is no more of an exaggeration to say that a man whocan read French with comfort need never have a dull hour. Our ownliterature has assuredly many a kingly name.