"There,eloquent friend,see in silence if there be any redeeming deed in thee;of blasphemous wind-eloquence,at least,we shall have more!"How many pretty men have gone this road,escorted by the beautifulest marching music from all the "public organs;"and have found at last that it ended--where?It is the broad road,that leads direct to Limbo and the Kingdom of the Inane.Gifted men,and once valiant nations,and as it were the whole world with one accord,are marching thither,in melodious triumph,all the drums and hautboys giving out their cheerfulest Ca-ira .It is the universal humor of the world just .My friends,I am very sure you will arrive ,unless you halt!--Considered as the last finish of education,or of human culture,worth and acquirement,the art of speech is le,and even divine;it is like the kindling of a Heaven's light to show us what a glorious world exists,and has perfected itself,in a man.But if world exist in the man;if hing but continents of empty vapor,of greedy self-conceits,common-place hearsays,and indistinct loomings of a sordid chaos exist in him,what will be the use of "light"to show us that?Better a thousand times that such a man do speak;but keep his empty vapor and his sordid chaos to himself,hidden to the utmost from all beholders.To look on that,can be good for human beholder;to look away from that,must be good.And if,by delusive semblances of rhetoric,logic,first-class degrees,and the aid of elocution-masters and parliamentary reporters,the poor proprietor of said chaos should be led to persuade himself,and get others persuaded,--which it is the nature of his sad task to do,and which,in certain eras of the world,it is fatally possible to do,--that this is a cosmos which he owns;that he ,being so perfect in tongue-exercise and full of college-hos,is an "educated"man,and pearl of great price in his generation;that round him,and his parliament emulously listening to him,as round some divine apple of gold set in a picture of silver,all the world should gather to adore:what is likely to become of him and the gathering world?An apple of Sodom set in the clusters of Gomorrah:that,little as he suspects it,is the definition of the poor chaotically eloquent man,with his emulous parliament and miserable adoring world!--Considered as the whole of education,or human culture,which it is in our modern manners;all apprenticeship except to mere handicraft having fallen obsolete,and the "educated man"being with us emphatically and exclusively the man that can speak well with tongue or pen,and astonish men by the quantities of speech he has heard ("tremendous reader ,""walking encyclopaedia,"and such like),--the Art of Speech is probably definable in that case as the short summary of all the Black Arts put together.
But the Schoolmaster is secondary,an effect rather than a cause in this matter:what the Schoolmaster with his universities shall manage or attempt to teach will be ruled by what the Society with its practical industries is continually demanding that men should learn.We spoke once of vital lungs for Society:and in fact this question always rises as the alpha and omega of social questions,What methods the Society has of summoning aloft into the high places,for its help and governance,the wisdom that is born to it in all places,and of course is born chiefly in the more populous or lower places?For this,if you will consider it,expresses the ultimate available result,and net sum-total,of all the efforts,struggles and confused activities that go on in the Society;and determines whether they are true and wise efforts,certain to be victorious,or false and foolish,certain to be futile,and to fall captive and caitiff.How do men rise in your Society?In all Societies,Turkey included,and I suppose Dahomey included,men do rise;but the question of questions always is,What kind of men?Men of le gifts,or men of igle?It is the one or the other;and a life-and-death inquiry which!For in all places and all times,little as you may heed it,Nature most silently but most inexorably demands that it be the one and the other.And you need try to palm an igle sham upon her,and call it le;for she is a judge.
And her penalties,as quiet as she looks,are terrible:amounting to world-earthquakes,to anarchy and death everlasting;and admit of appeal!--Surely England still flatters herself that she has lungs;that she can still breathe a little?Or is it that the poor creature,driven into mere blind industrialisms;and as it were,gone pearl-diving this long while many fathoms deep,and tearing up the oyster-beds so as never creature did before,hardly ks,--so busy in the belly of the oyster chaos,where is thought of "breathing,"--whether she has lungs or ?Nations of a robust habit,and fine deep chest,can sometimes take in a deal of breath before diving;and live long,in the muddy deeps,without new breath:but they too come to need it at last,and will die if they can get it!
