DOI Heft:
December 15, 1866
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16878#0250
TRUE POLITENESS.
Conductor. “ Fare, Miss ? Don’t mention it ! ”
MEMENTO TO MISLEADERS.
Insinuate that mine’s a drunken lot,
I ’ll soberly disprove the imputation.
But talk to me as though I were a sot
Myself, and you ’ll excite my indignation.
Who calls me fool offends me not so much
As he who shows me that he thinks me such.
Say we ’re impulsive, and I little care.
That charge my smiling calmness shall refute.
But much you will insult me if you dare
Attempt to play on me as on a flute.
To agitate me with false eloquence,
Meant to create sensation, not strike sense.
Don’t go to work me up with gross appeals
To purblind passion and stupidity,
Which declamation, void of truth, reveals
That you attribute in your heart, to me,
Whilst with your tongue, that much your mind belies,
You tell me I am all that’s good and wise.
Don’t extol me, don’t butter me, don’t soap.
Don’t flatter me. I’m neither king nor fool.
Don’t think to wield me at your will; don’t hope
Me with the vapour of your mouth to rule.
A working man a thinking man may be.
Sway, Demagogue, the mob—but 1 ’ll be free.
Ritualists.
The Ritualists now lay great stress upon the point of their close
resemblance to the Early Church. The Roman Catholic Oratorians at
Brompton are, after all, nearer than these mock turtles, as they have
their first service at 5'30 or G a.m., which is Early Church enough in
all conscience.
THE CULTIVATION OF ANAKIM.
The language which has been employed by Me. Bright in his
speeches on Reform may be strong, but is not nearly so revolutionary
as that employed by Sir David Brewster in delivering a lecture to
the Edinburgh Royal Society, “On Light as a Sanitary Agent.” The
learned Professor is reported to have expressed himself as follows:—
“ If, then, the light of day contributed to the development of the human form
and lent its aid to art and nature in the cure of disease, it became a personal and
national duty to construct our dwelling-houses, our schools, workshops, factories,
churches, villages, towns, and cities, upon such principles and in such styles of
architecture as would allow the life-giving element to have its fullest and freest
entrance, and to chase from every crypt, and cell, and corner, the elements of
uncleanness and corruption which had a vested interest in darkness.”
Who can doubt the soundness of scientific reasoning advanced on
such authority as that of Sir David Brewster F If accepted and
acted on it will, however, effect a complete revolution in our domestic
architecture. Our houses will be as conservatories and greenhouses,
our cottages as melon-beds and cucumber-frames. Who can fix any
limit to the dimensions which the human form may attain to if
Posterity is grown under glass ? The British people may wax great
indeed when it comes to be raised in this way. England’s Royal
Palaces will be all Crystal Palaces; and then what great Kings
and Queens and Princes will spring up ! Morality will rise to a high
degree when the actions of all the inmates of every abode become
visible to their neighbours. There will be no more any street Arabs,
or any other mischievous boys to break windows ; because there will,
on the one hand be no windows to break, and, on the other, of course
those who live in glass houses will not throw stones.
Explanatory.
The Compositors, it appears, declined to join the Trades’ Reform
Procession. Probably they thought that if there was any crowding or
crushing in their division, people would say it was the letter-press.
But printers can hardly be classed with working-men, they more
resemble the Bourgeois type.
Conductor. “ Fare, Miss ? Don’t mention it ! ”
MEMENTO TO MISLEADERS.
Insinuate that mine’s a drunken lot,
I ’ll soberly disprove the imputation.
But talk to me as though I were a sot
Myself, and you ’ll excite my indignation.
Who calls me fool offends me not so much
As he who shows me that he thinks me such.
Say we ’re impulsive, and I little care.
That charge my smiling calmness shall refute.
But much you will insult me if you dare
Attempt to play on me as on a flute.
To agitate me with false eloquence,
Meant to create sensation, not strike sense.
Don’t go to work me up with gross appeals
To purblind passion and stupidity,
Which declamation, void of truth, reveals
That you attribute in your heart, to me,
Whilst with your tongue, that much your mind belies,
You tell me I am all that’s good and wise.
Don’t extol me, don’t butter me, don’t soap.
Don’t flatter me. I’m neither king nor fool.
Don’t think to wield me at your will; don’t hope
Me with the vapour of your mouth to rule.
A working man a thinking man may be.
Sway, Demagogue, the mob—but 1 ’ll be free.
Ritualists.
The Ritualists now lay great stress upon the point of their close
resemblance to the Early Church. The Roman Catholic Oratorians at
Brompton are, after all, nearer than these mock turtles, as they have
their first service at 5'30 or G a.m., which is Early Church enough in
all conscience.
THE CULTIVATION OF ANAKIM.
The language which has been employed by Me. Bright in his
speeches on Reform may be strong, but is not nearly so revolutionary
as that employed by Sir David Brewster in delivering a lecture to
the Edinburgh Royal Society, “On Light as a Sanitary Agent.” The
learned Professor is reported to have expressed himself as follows:—
“ If, then, the light of day contributed to the development of the human form
and lent its aid to art and nature in the cure of disease, it became a personal and
national duty to construct our dwelling-houses, our schools, workshops, factories,
churches, villages, towns, and cities, upon such principles and in such styles of
architecture as would allow the life-giving element to have its fullest and freest
entrance, and to chase from every crypt, and cell, and corner, the elements of
uncleanness and corruption which had a vested interest in darkness.”
Who can doubt the soundness of scientific reasoning advanced on
such authority as that of Sir David Brewster F If accepted and
acted on it will, however, effect a complete revolution in our domestic
architecture. Our houses will be as conservatories and greenhouses,
our cottages as melon-beds and cucumber-frames. Who can fix any
limit to the dimensions which the human form may attain to if
Posterity is grown under glass ? The British people may wax great
indeed when it comes to be raised in this way. England’s Royal
Palaces will be all Crystal Palaces; and then what great Kings
and Queens and Princes will spring up ! Morality will rise to a high
degree when the actions of all the inmates of every abode become
visible to their neighbours. There will be no more any street Arabs,
or any other mischievous boys to break windows ; because there will,
on the one hand be no windows to break, and, on the other, of course
those who live in glass houses will not throw stones.
Explanatory.
The Compositors, it appears, declined to join the Trades’ Reform
Procession. Probably they thought that if there was any crowding or
crushing in their division, people would say it was the letter-press.
But printers can hardly be classed with working-men, they more
resemble the Bourgeois type.