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  • Aug. 1, 1855
  • Page 5
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, Aug. 1, 1855: Page 5

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Page 5

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Untitled Article

now ? Our literature is choked up by plagiaries , who first exclude all talent from publicity , and next copy and doctor up old authors well j- and , in every department promotion is given out , like the fountains at the Crystal Palace , with studious care that , however plentifully thrown , not a drop be lost , but all fall bach into the private

cistern . If we are asked where such lights neglected m the intellectual hemisphere are to be found , we reply , generally in the darkest sky : if young , in the stunted growth of our factories ; if middle-aged or old , in our clerks , who now and then drop off , after having served Messrs ; Skinflint and G-rindall thirty years— " favourite servants , " whose widows and orphans find precarious subsistence between "

refuges " and " charities ! " If uneducated , we may discover these wild plants of mental excellence amongst all classes , for genius selects no clime nor colour ; if educated , we shall recognize them plentiful as blackberries , in our hack-authors ^ whose only blessing is that their Pegasus requires little corn , but is used to work on an empty stomach . More numerously still , they abound in our oppressed clergy

who—having starved upon a pittance of 120 Z . a year ( for ecclesiastical commissions for bishops' palaces absorb public grants to the wretched ) , diminished by the claims of six children , and the purchase of books to concoct some masterly work which astounds the world , and enables a future publisher to pilfer the widow and orphan , —escape , —the

soul being severed from the body , it may be , by the shears of some malady caught at a pauper ' s bed!—beyond this scene of grey hairs and falsity , to a world , which , in its utter antithesis of purity , to the collection of courtiers , tricksters , princes , simpletons , parasites , and buffoons composing this sphere , may indeed be truly called " an outcast empire !"

Life And Its Machinery.

LIFE AND ITS MACHINBEY .

What is life ? In what does the mystic principle consist ? We leave the study of these abstractions to the musings of the philosopher . Our present business is with life as we see it around us on the face of this busy earth ; and lest any reader should feel disposed to grumble at our shirking the question , What is life ? we will devote a few words , not to the metaphysical , but to the popular merits of

the question . Of the essence of life we know nothing . It has been defined , " inherent activity : " but if this be correct , Mount Vesuvius must be a huge animal , distinguished indeed from other mammoths by taking long naps , but yet not deficient iff activity when disposed for a gambol . The great physiologist , Uicheraud , defines

life , " An aggregate of phenomena taking place for a limited time in organized bodies , and at a period of average duration terminating in death ; " a good sample this of the ease with which words may be wasted without anybody being the wiser . Who does not know that life terminates sooner or later , and that we call the termination death ?

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1855-08-01, Page 5” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 24 June 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/mmr_01081855/page/5/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
VOICES FROM DEAD NATIONS. Article 15
TRAVELS BY A FREEMASON. Article 11
ANASTATIC INK. Article 28
THE OUTCAST EMPIRE. Article 1
MASONIC SONGS.-N0. 2. Article 29
REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS. Article 30
A GREEK FUNERAL. Article 39
FEMALE EDUCATION. Article 40
CORRESPONDENCE Article 41
NOTES ON ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCH. Article 21
ANSWER TO ENIGMA IN LAST NUMBER. Article 36
MUSIC. Article 37
A CORSICAN DIRGE. Article 38
TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS MONTHLY MAGAZINE. Article 42
MADAME DE POMPADOUR AT HOME. Article 43
NOTES AND QUERIES. Article 44
MASONIC INTELLIGENCE. Article 46
MASONIC CHARITIES. Article 46
METROPOLITAN. Article 47
PROVINCIAL. Article 50
LIFE AND ITS MACHINERY. Article 5
COLONIAL Article 60
LONDON BON-ACCORD MARK MASTERS' LODGE. Article 60
SURREY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Article 61
Obituary Article 63
NOTICE. Article 63
TO MASONIC TRAVELLERS. Article 63
TO CORRESPONDENTS. Article 63
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Untitled Article

now ? Our literature is choked up by plagiaries , who first exclude all talent from publicity , and next copy and doctor up old authors well j- and , in every department promotion is given out , like the fountains at the Crystal Palace , with studious care that , however plentifully thrown , not a drop be lost , but all fall bach into the private

cistern . If we are asked where such lights neglected m the intellectual hemisphere are to be found , we reply , generally in the darkest sky : if young , in the stunted growth of our factories ; if middle-aged or old , in our clerks , who now and then drop off , after having served Messrs ; Skinflint and G-rindall thirty years— " favourite servants , " whose widows and orphans find precarious subsistence between "

refuges " and " charities ! " If uneducated , we may discover these wild plants of mental excellence amongst all classes , for genius selects no clime nor colour ; if educated , we shall recognize them plentiful as blackberries , in our hack-authors ^ whose only blessing is that their Pegasus requires little corn , but is used to work on an empty stomach . More numerously still , they abound in our oppressed clergy

who—having starved upon a pittance of 120 Z . a year ( for ecclesiastical commissions for bishops' palaces absorb public grants to the wretched ) , diminished by the claims of six children , and the purchase of books to concoct some masterly work which astounds the world , and enables a future publisher to pilfer the widow and orphan , —escape , —the

soul being severed from the body , it may be , by the shears of some malady caught at a pauper ' s bed!—beyond this scene of grey hairs and falsity , to a world , which , in its utter antithesis of purity , to the collection of courtiers , tricksters , princes , simpletons , parasites , and buffoons composing this sphere , may indeed be truly called " an outcast empire !"

Life And Its Machinery.

LIFE AND ITS MACHINBEY .

What is life ? In what does the mystic principle consist ? We leave the study of these abstractions to the musings of the philosopher . Our present business is with life as we see it around us on the face of this busy earth ; and lest any reader should feel disposed to grumble at our shirking the question , What is life ? we will devote a few words , not to the metaphysical , but to the popular merits of

the question . Of the essence of life we know nothing . It has been defined , " inherent activity : " but if this be correct , Mount Vesuvius must be a huge animal , distinguished indeed from other mammoths by taking long naps , but yet not deficient iff activity when disposed for a gambol . The great physiologist , Uicheraud , defines

life , " An aggregate of phenomena taking place for a limited time in organized bodies , and at a period of average duration terminating in death ; " a good sample this of the ease with which words may be wasted without anybody being the wiser . Who does not know that life terminates sooner or later , and that we call the termination death ?

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