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Article . THE SiaNS OF ENGLAND; ← Page 2 of 5 →
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. The Sians Of England;
tone;—that there is a certain disdain of political knowledge implied of any manner in which it could have been acquired independent of itself , It is frequently flippant . It contradicteth a person to his very face , upon the very strength of its knowledge of its own power and
authority . It snaps you up . It already anticipates the open mouth and the fixed eye . It trades precisely upon the weakness of its readers—upon the simplicity of its , beforehand , more than half-believing partisans . It is a conjurer whose steady gaze upon you , and prestidigitation , are complete . Its hanky-panky ' , and Jiey-cocTcalorum , are the most eye-bewildering imaginable .
A paper with enormous influence could not exist in a community that was less of a nation than this aggregate of two millions and a half of us good silly people in London . From the crowds and masses which fill this gigantic metropolis , and who may be said , literally , to bury in its depths all judgment and common sense and feeling , it is impossible that there can be a general opinion , or any means of
arriving at it . The people themselves rise in the morning and go to bed at night , and we trust , also , eat their dinners ; but they never care how others rise , or when and where they lie down , or whether they have sufficient of the supply of nature ' s wants , or no supply at all—a dinner or no dinner , a bed or no bed . It is , therefore , from the broad fact of there being such a multitude in London that there
never can be a general correspondence , because we never have opportunities of seeing or speaking with one another- Therefore we run to seek , in the Newspaper , for those opinions which each man would express if he could . And we should really know nothing of what is publicly occurring about us , if we did not look in the paper for it .
Another , and perhaps the principal reason of all , that men to so deplorable an extent surrender their judgment and unconsciously trot along , with their heads to the ground , in . the harness of this great charioteer of the press , arises from the fact that folks are too busy to think . There is so grand a race in our scramble for money , that people cannot stop to look at objects by the roadside : they take
other folks' word for them . Will much virtue , or charity , or continued pondering , put money in the pocket ? Nay , thinking will rather prevent good shillings from dropping into the pocket ; thought , in all ages , having been the faculty the most unproductive , and paralyzing as far as the great object of life—getting on in the world—is concerned . In a civilized country like England , and in a model metropolis like London , so restlessly engaged in the universal aim , —that of bartering life for the means to live , — -thought should be
left to the professional thinkers- — -that is , to the beggars ; or , if not to them , it ought to be committed to men . who have not exclusively to occupy their minds with their shop or counting-house , nor to exercise their ingenuity in the discovery of means whereby they may undersell Mr . So-and-So , or , indeed , live at all ! The most exact conclusions as to public measures will not buy us anything . No knowledge of political affairs can we offer for our rent , nor will tho Voii . ix . 3 i >
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
. The Sians Of England;
tone;—that there is a certain disdain of political knowledge implied of any manner in which it could have been acquired independent of itself , It is frequently flippant . It contradicteth a person to his very face , upon the very strength of its knowledge of its own power and
authority . It snaps you up . It already anticipates the open mouth and the fixed eye . It trades precisely upon the weakness of its readers—upon the simplicity of its , beforehand , more than half-believing partisans . It is a conjurer whose steady gaze upon you , and prestidigitation , are complete . Its hanky-panky ' , and Jiey-cocTcalorum , are the most eye-bewildering imaginable .
A paper with enormous influence could not exist in a community that was less of a nation than this aggregate of two millions and a half of us good silly people in London . From the crowds and masses which fill this gigantic metropolis , and who may be said , literally , to bury in its depths all judgment and common sense and feeling , it is impossible that there can be a general opinion , or any means of
arriving at it . The people themselves rise in the morning and go to bed at night , and we trust , also , eat their dinners ; but they never care how others rise , or when and where they lie down , or whether they have sufficient of the supply of nature ' s wants , or no supply at all—a dinner or no dinner , a bed or no bed . It is , therefore , from the broad fact of there being such a multitude in London that there
never can be a general correspondence , because we never have opportunities of seeing or speaking with one another- Therefore we run to seek , in the Newspaper , for those opinions which each man would express if he could . And we should really know nothing of what is publicly occurring about us , if we did not look in the paper for it .
Another , and perhaps the principal reason of all , that men to so deplorable an extent surrender their judgment and unconsciously trot along , with their heads to the ground , in . the harness of this great charioteer of the press , arises from the fact that folks are too busy to think . There is so grand a race in our scramble for money , that people cannot stop to look at objects by the roadside : they take
other folks' word for them . Will much virtue , or charity , or continued pondering , put money in the pocket ? Nay , thinking will rather prevent good shillings from dropping into the pocket ; thought , in all ages , having been the faculty the most unproductive , and paralyzing as far as the great object of life—getting on in the world—is concerned . In a civilized country like England , and in a model metropolis like London , so restlessly engaged in the universal aim , —that of bartering life for the means to live , — -thought should be
left to the professional thinkers- — -that is , to the beggars ; or , if not to them , it ought to be committed to men . who have not exclusively to occupy their minds with their shop or counting-house , nor to exercise their ingenuity in the discovery of means whereby they may undersell Mr . So-and-So , or , indeed , live at all ! The most exact conclusions as to public measures will not buy us anything . No knowledge of political affairs can we offer for our rent , nor will tho Voii . ix . 3 i >