Transcriber's note:
Spelling and punctuation are sometimes erratic. A few obvious
misprints have been corrected, but in general the original spelling
and typesetting conventions have been retained. Accents in foreign
language phrases are inconsistent, and have not been standardised.
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
NO. CCCXCI. MAY, 1848. VOL. LXIII.
CONTENTS.
THE CAXTONS. Part II. 525
EDUCATION IN WALES 540
THE SILVER CROSS 564
HEIGH-HO! 572
REPUBLICAN PARIS--(March, April, 1848,) 573
THE SPANIARD IN SICILY 589
CRIMES AND REMARKABLE TRIALS IN SCOTLAND.
KIDNAPPING--PETER WILLIAMSON'S CASE 607
THE REPEALER'S WISH GRANTED 627
THE LAST WALK. BY B. SIMMONS 629
MAN IS A FEATHERLESS BIPED 631
THE REVOLUTIONS IN EUROPE 638
EDINBURGH:
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; AND 37,
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
_To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._
SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
THE CAXTONS.--PART II.
CHAPTER VII.
When I had reached the age of twelve, I had got to the head of the
preparatory school to which I had been sent. And having thus exhausted
all the oxygen of learning in that little receiver, my parents looked
out for a wider range for my inspirations. During the last two years
in which I had been at school, my love for study had returned; but it
was a vigorous, wakeful, undreamy love, stimulated by competition, and
animated by the practical desire to excel.
My father no longer sought to curb my intellectual aspirings. He had
too great a reverence for scholarship not to wish me to become a
scholar if possible; though he more than once said to me somewhat
sadly, "Master books, but do not let them master you. Read to live,
not live to read. One slave of the lamp is enough for a household; my
servitude must not be a hereditary bondage."
My father looked round for a suitable academy; and the fame of Dr
Herman's "Philhellenic Institute" came to his ears.
Now, this Dr Herman was the son of a German music-master, who had
settled in England. He had completed his own education at the
university of Bonn; but, finding learning too common a drug in that
market to bring the high price at which he valued his own, and having
some theories as to political freedom which attached him to England,
he resolved upon setting up a school, which he designed as an "era in
the history of the human mind." Dr Herman was one of the earliest of
those new-fashioned authorities in education, who have, more lately,
spread pretty numerously amongst us, and would have given, perhaps, a
dangerous shake to the foundations of our great classical seminaries,
if those last had not very wisely, though very cautiously, borrowed
some of the more sensible principles which lay mixed and adulterated
amongst the crotchets and chimeras of their innovating rivals and
assailants.
Dr Herman had written a great many learned works against every
pre-existing method of instruction: that which had made the greatest
noise was upon the infamous fiction of SPELLING-BOOKS: "A more lying,
roundabout, puzzle-headed delusion than that by which we CONFUSE the
clear instincts of truth in our accursed systems of spelling, was
never concocted by the father of falsehood." Such was the exordium of
this famous treatise. "For instance, take the monosyllable CAT. What
brazen forehead you must have, when you say to an infant C, A,
T,--spell CAT: that is, three sounds, forming a totally opposite
compound--opposite in every detail, opposite in the whole--compose a
poor little monosyllable, which, if you would but say the simple
truth, the child will learn to spell merely by looking at it! How can
three sounds, which run thus to the ear, _see_--_eh_--_tee_, compose
the sound _cat_? Don't they rather compose the sound _see-eh-té_, or
_ceaty_? How can a system of education flourish that begins by so
monstrous a falsehood, which the sense of hearing suffices to
contradict? No wonder that the horn-book is the despair of mothers!"
From this instance, the reader will perceive that Dr Herman, in his
theory of education, began at the beginning!--he took the bull fairly
by the horns. As for the rest, upon a broad principle of eclecticism,
he had combined together every new patent invention for youthful
idea-shooting. He had taken his trigger from Hofwyl; he had bought his
wadding from Hamilton; he had got his copper-caps from Bell and
Lancaster. The youthful idea! he had rammed it tight! he had rammed it
loose! he had rammed it with pictorial illustrations! he had rammed it
with the monitorial system! he had rammed in every conceivable way,
and with every imaginable ramrod; but I have mournful doubts whether
he shot the youthful idea an inch farther than it did under the old
mechanism of flint and steel! Nevertheless, as Dr Herman really did
teach a great many things too much neglected at schools; as, besides
Latin and Greek, he taught a vast variety in that vague complexity
now-a-days called "useful knowledge;" as he engaged lecturers on
chemistry, engineering, and natural history; as arithmetic and the
elements of physical science were enforced with zeal and care; as all
sorts of gymnastics were intermingled with the sports of the
play-ground;--so the youthful idea, if it did not go farther, spread
its shots in a wider direction; and a boy could not stay there five
years without learning _something_, which is more than can be said of
all schools! He learned at least to use his eyes, and his ears, and
his limbs; order, cleanliness, exercise, grew into habits; and the
school pleased the ladies, and satisfied the gentlemen; in a word, it
thrived: and Dr Herman, at the time I speak of, numbered more than one
hundred pupils. Now, when the worthy man first commenced the task of
tuition, he had proclaimed the humanest abhorrence to the barbarous
system of corporeal punishment. But, alas! as his school increased in
numbers, he had proportionately recanted these honourable and
antibirchen ideas. He had, reluctantly, perhaps,--honestly, no doubt,
but with full determination,--come to the conclusion, that there are
secret springs which can only be discovered by the twigs of the
divining-rod; and having discovered with what comparative ease the
whole mechanism of his little government, by the admission of the
birch-regulator, could be carried on, so, as he grew richer, and
lazier, and fatter, the Philhellenic Institute spun along as glibly as
a top kept in vivacious movement by the perpetual application of the
lash.
I believe that the school did not suffer in reputation from this sad
apostacy on the part of the head master; on the contrary, it seemed
more natural and English,--less outlandish and heretical. And it was
at the zenith of its renown, when, one bright morning, with all my
clothes nicely mended, and a large plumcake in my box, I was deposited
at its hospitable gates.
Amongst Dr Herman's various whimsicalities, there was one to which he
had adhered with more fidelity than to the anti-corporeal punishment
articles of his creed; and, in fact, it was upon this that he had
caused those imposing words, "Philhellenic Institute," to blaze in
gilt capitals in front of his academy. He belonged to that illustrious
class of scholars who are now waging war on our popular mythologies,
and upsetting all the associations which the Etonians and Harrovians
connect with the household names of ancient history. In a word, he
sought to restore to scholastic purity the mutilated orthography of
Greek appellatives. He was extremely indignant that little boys should
be brought up to confound Zeus with Jupiter, Ares with Mars, Artemis
with Diana--the Greek deities with the Roman; and so rigidly did he
inculcate the doctrine that these two sets of personages were to be
kept constantly contradistinguished from each other, that his
cross-examinations kept us in eternal confusion.
"Vat," he would exclaim to some new boy fresh from some grammar-school
on the Etonian system--"Vat do you mean by dranslating _Zeus_
Jupiter? Is dat amatory, irascible, cloud-compelling god of Olympus,
vid his eagle and his ægis, in the smallest degree resembling de
grave, formal, moral Jupiter Optimus Maximus of the Roman Capitol?--a
god, Master Simpkins, who would have been perfectly shocked at the
idea of running after innocent Fraulein dressed up as a swan or a
bull! I put dat question to you vonce for all, Master Simpkins."
Master Simpkins took care to agree with the Doctor. "And how could
you," resumed Dr Herman majestically, turning to some other criminal
alumnus--"how could you presume to dranslate de _Ares_ of Homer, sir,
by de audacious vulgarism Mars? _Ares_, Master Jones, who roared as
loud as ten thousand men when he was hurt, or as you vill roar if I
catch you calling him Mars again! _Ares_ who covered seven plectra of
ground; _Ares_, the man-slayer, with the Mars or Mavors whom de Romans
stole from de Sabines! Mars, de solemn and calm protector of Rome!
Master Jones, Master Jones, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!"--and
then waxing enthusiastic, and warming more and more into German
gutturals and pronunciation, the good Doctor would lift up his hands,
with two great rings on his thumbs, and exclaim--"Und Du! and dou,
_Aphroditè_; dou, whose bert de Seasons velcomed! dou, who didst put
Atonis into a coffer, and den tid durn him into an anemone; dou to be
called _Venus_ by dat snivel-nosed little Master Budderfield! Venus,
who presided over Baumgartens and funerals, and nasty tinking sewers!
Venus Cloacina,--O mein Gott! Come here, Master Budderfield; I must a
flog you for dat; I must indeed, liddle boy!" As our Philhellenic
preceptor carried his archæological purism into all Greek proper
names, it was not likely that my unhappy baptismal would escape. The
first time I signed my exercise, I wrote "Pisistratus Caxton" in my
best round-hand. "And dey call your baba a scholar!" said the Doctor
contemptuously. "Your name, sir, is Greek; and, as Greek, you vill be
dood enough to write it, vith vat you call an _e_ and an _o_--P, E, I,
S, I, S, T, R, A, T, O, S; and you vill alway put de accent over de
_i_. Vat can you expect for to come to, Master Caxton, if you don't
pay de care dat is proper to your own dood name--de _e_, and de _o_,
and de accent? Ach! let me see no more of your vile corruptions! Mein
Gott! Pi! ven de name is Pei!"
The next time I wrote home to my father, modestly implying that I was
short of cash, that a trap-bat would be acceptable, and that the
favourite goddess amongst the boys (whether Greek or Roman was very
immaterial) was _Diva Moneta_, I felt a glow of classical pride in
signing myself, "your affectionate Peísistratos." The next post
brought a sad damper to my scholastic exultation. The letter ran thus:
"MY DEAR SON,--I prefer my old acquaintances Thucydides and
Pisistratus to Thoukudídes and Peísistratos. Horace is
familiar to me, but Horatius is only known to me as Cocles.
Pisistratus can play at trap-ball; but I find no authority
in pure Greek to allow me to suppose that that game was
known to Peísistratos. I should be too happy to send you a
drachma or so, but I have no coins in my possession current
at Athens at the time when Pisistratus was spelt
Peísistratos. Your affectionate father,
"A. CAXTON."
Verily, here indeed was the first practical embarrassment produced by
that melancholy anachronism which my father had so prophetically
deplored. However, nothing like experience to prove the value of
compromise in this world! Peísistratos continued to write exercises,
and a second letter from Pisistratus was followed by the trap-bat.