Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The False Learning Of The Present Age.
oral instruction and learned communications ; a circumstance of twofold advantage , calculated at once , by a reflective force , to infix in the mind of the speaker bis own acquisitions , and to press conviction on the hearer , by the weight of present authority . Since the sera of printing , it seems as if a flood t f learning has been progressively spreading over the human mindchecking its wholesome productions
, , and nourishing the growth of a worthless vegetation ; but in the simpler ages of antiquity , it dropped from the mouth at intervals in gentle showers , fertilising wherever it fell , sinking deep into the pores of the soil , and rising again in genial juices and vegetable life .. Itis not unpleasant to remark , as this supposititious learning'diffuses itselfthe manner in which it operates upon the new provinces
, of life on which it encroaches ; how soon it accommodates itself to a new range of subjects , elevates the low , amplifies the little , and decorates the vulgar . There is now no occupation so mean , into which it has not found its way , and whose consequence it has not raised , from the maker of geometrical breeches , to the mere manufacturer of manuscript sermons . We all begin to exalt our tones and
pretensions , arid adopt a prouder language . Mr . Powell , the fire-eater , is a singular genius ; and Mendoza has more science than Johnson . I have heard of hieroglyphica ! buckles ; so that our very shoes will want decyphering , and the Coptic language must soon make part of the education of our Birmingham buckle-makers . Alphabetical buckles are become common ; insomuch that , in teaching ourselves to talk with our fingerswe may begin with learning to spell with
, our toes . Our wigs ate made upon principles , which used to be made upon blocks . Our chimneys are cured of smoking by professors ; and a dancing-master engages to teach you the . Nine Orders of the Graces , and , if you take forty lessons , will throw you in an eleemosynary hornpipe . Our servants are beginning , as my corre- ' spondent tells meto read behind bur carriages ; and the Bond-street
, lounger , with his breeches cut by a problem , has as much of the language at least of learning , as any servitor in black logics at Oxford This wide spirit of accommodation , so characteristic of modern learning , has opened ways to the attainment of literary honours' that were barred for ages before . There is scarcely a mind in which nature has drawn its line of demarcation between the rational and
the brute ; scarcely a creatine that walks erect and inhales the breeze , but may find some employment in the provinces of literature level to its powers . If you cannot compose , you may scrape together ; if you cannot build sentiment , you may rake anecdote ; if you cannot write a poem , you may sew together an opera ; if you cannot write your name , you may edit a horn-book with historical engravings .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The False Learning Of The Present Age.
oral instruction and learned communications ; a circumstance of twofold advantage , calculated at once , by a reflective force , to infix in the mind of the speaker bis own acquisitions , and to press conviction on the hearer , by the weight of present authority . Since the sera of printing , it seems as if a flood t f learning has been progressively spreading over the human mindchecking its wholesome productions
, , and nourishing the growth of a worthless vegetation ; but in the simpler ages of antiquity , it dropped from the mouth at intervals in gentle showers , fertilising wherever it fell , sinking deep into the pores of the soil , and rising again in genial juices and vegetable life .. Itis not unpleasant to remark , as this supposititious learning'diffuses itselfthe manner in which it operates upon the new provinces
, of life on which it encroaches ; how soon it accommodates itself to a new range of subjects , elevates the low , amplifies the little , and decorates the vulgar . There is now no occupation so mean , into which it has not found its way , and whose consequence it has not raised , from the maker of geometrical breeches , to the mere manufacturer of manuscript sermons . We all begin to exalt our tones and
pretensions , arid adopt a prouder language . Mr . Powell , the fire-eater , is a singular genius ; and Mendoza has more science than Johnson . I have heard of hieroglyphica ! buckles ; so that our very shoes will want decyphering , and the Coptic language must soon make part of the education of our Birmingham buckle-makers . Alphabetical buckles are become common ; insomuch that , in teaching ourselves to talk with our fingerswe may begin with learning to spell with
, our toes . Our wigs ate made upon principles , which used to be made upon blocks . Our chimneys are cured of smoking by professors ; and a dancing-master engages to teach you the . Nine Orders of the Graces , and , if you take forty lessons , will throw you in an eleemosynary hornpipe . Our servants are beginning , as my corre- ' spondent tells meto read behind bur carriages ; and the Bond-street
, lounger , with his breeches cut by a problem , has as much of the language at least of learning , as any servitor in black logics at Oxford This wide spirit of accommodation , so characteristic of modern learning , has opened ways to the attainment of literary honours' that were barred for ages before . There is scarcely a mind in which nature has drawn its line of demarcation between the rational and
the brute ; scarcely a creatine that walks erect and inhales the breeze , but may find some employment in the provinces of literature level to its powers . If you cannot compose , you may scrape together ; if you cannot build sentiment , you may rake anecdote ; if you cannot write a poem , you may sew together an opera ; if you cannot write your name , you may edit a horn-book with historical engravings .