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  • July 1, 1856
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, July 1, 1856: Page 10

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    Article . THE SiaNS OF ENGLAND; ← Page 3 of 5 →
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

. The Sians Of England;

finest social principles or the greatest philosophic acumen be taken in satisfaction of our taxes . Men think ( and very sensibly think ) that the operations of life are confined to the earning bread for their wives and families . These cannot live on politics ; and , in regard to these , there is no truth so triumphant as that the public weal must yield to the private necessity—patriotism and public justice to pabulum .

It is , then , this universal selfishness , this sad , this dreary necessity that we should each take care of ourself , —it is this compelled holding on and clutching at the main chance , which hardens our hearts and dulls our understandings . We have no real political blood in us : we are made up of mechanical muscles , and with a heart-case stuffed with paper . Our eyes are of glass , and our vital pulses are clockwork . We are mere machines , in fact ; darting in

and out of our places of business and walking about the streets . The show is ghastly ! We are as the automata of some commercial Magus—some Cobden , or apostle of expediency—some aristocratic or successful spouter , with a mouth of wood , rattling fine words like peas , and a dry nut , full of dust , for a political heart . We are scarcely freemen . We are prepared—in our commercial frights—to yield our opinions , as Sancho his soul , in mortal terror , to the first Newspaper that asks them of us . And since the Newspaper

has grown as the rug to our hearth—the glass in which every man trims his beard in the morning—we believe in it , and yearn towards it—count it as one of our household gods—decline into its arms as our political Dalilah—and permit our mind to take its tone from its felicitations ; nay , from the reveries that linger about it , and are as a sort of atmosphere that we carry about us .

Nor is this all . Every man feels so the money-pressure upon him that he cannot convert himself into a politician . This his extremity becomes therefore the Journal ' s opportunity ; and it readily avails itself of it , by pouring its own views into the minds of its readers as into cups . From his commercial dependence , in such innumerable instances , a man cannot afford to have an independent opinion in England ; and for this reason we verv rarely hear any independent

view of things expressed . Of a political system whose utilities every moment convince us lie so remote from us , we can little care . What are Lords and Commons to us ? We must live . Our smallcorner light , in the great battle of life , is to be found in our shop , our warehouse , or our office . We suppose that , somehow , public affairs will be carried on . We imagine that if a man is knocked down , somebody will be taken up for it : there is that great public

functionary , the policeman , to see to all this . We look out upon the world , and the first tiring we find is , that fine feelings are Quixotic ; that they stand dreadfully in the way of a man ' s advance ; that it " you would secure a forward place in the procession , you must not stop by the way to pity those unfortunate passengers that sit or lie groaning , with their hurts on their foreheads , by the side of the road . Every morning that we open our eyes , we see that the world

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1856-07-01, Page 10” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 7 July 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/frm_01071856/page/10/.
  • List
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Title Category Page
ON THE MYSTERIES OF THE EARLY AGES AS CONNECTED WITH RELIGION. Article 1
PRINTERS' ASYLUM. Article 5
AN INCIDENT OF THE ST. LEGER FAMILY. Article 6
THE SIGNS OF ENGLAND; Article 8
MASONRY: Article 12
REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS. Article 13
ST. ANN'S SCHOOLS, FLORAL FETE, CREMORNE. Article 14
« PASSE." Article 15
MUSIC. Article 16
CORRESPONDENCE. Article 18
THE " MARK " DEGREE. Article 28
THE CHRISTIANITY OF MASONRY. Article 28
THE MASONIC MIRROR. Article 29
GRAND LODGE. Article 32
ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, GRAY'SINN ROAD. Article 36
METROPOLITAN. Article 39
INSTRUCTION. Article 41
PROVINCIAL. Article 43
ROYAL ARCH. Article 58
KNIGHTS TEMPI AE. Article 60
SCOTLAND. Article 61
IRELAND. Article 62
INDIA. Article 63
AMERICA. Article 64
HOLLAND. Article 65
SUMMARY OF NEWS FOR JUNE. Article 65
Obituary. Article 70
NOTICE. Article 72
TO COEEESPONDENTS. Article 72
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

. The Sians Of England;

finest social principles or the greatest philosophic acumen be taken in satisfaction of our taxes . Men think ( and very sensibly think ) that the operations of life are confined to the earning bread for their wives and families . These cannot live on politics ; and , in regard to these , there is no truth so triumphant as that the public weal must yield to the private necessity—patriotism and public justice to pabulum .

It is , then , this universal selfishness , this sad , this dreary necessity that we should each take care of ourself , —it is this compelled holding on and clutching at the main chance , which hardens our hearts and dulls our understandings . We have no real political blood in us : we are made up of mechanical muscles , and with a heart-case stuffed with paper . Our eyes are of glass , and our vital pulses are clockwork . We are mere machines , in fact ; darting in

and out of our places of business and walking about the streets . The show is ghastly ! We are as the automata of some commercial Magus—some Cobden , or apostle of expediency—some aristocratic or successful spouter , with a mouth of wood , rattling fine words like peas , and a dry nut , full of dust , for a political heart . We are scarcely freemen . We are prepared—in our commercial frights—to yield our opinions , as Sancho his soul , in mortal terror , to the first Newspaper that asks them of us . And since the Newspaper

has grown as the rug to our hearth—the glass in which every man trims his beard in the morning—we believe in it , and yearn towards it—count it as one of our household gods—decline into its arms as our political Dalilah—and permit our mind to take its tone from its felicitations ; nay , from the reveries that linger about it , and are as a sort of atmosphere that we carry about us .

Nor is this all . Every man feels so the money-pressure upon him that he cannot convert himself into a politician . This his extremity becomes therefore the Journal ' s opportunity ; and it readily avails itself of it , by pouring its own views into the minds of its readers as into cups . From his commercial dependence , in such innumerable instances , a man cannot afford to have an independent opinion in England ; and for this reason we verv rarely hear any independent

view of things expressed . Of a political system whose utilities every moment convince us lie so remote from us , we can little care . What are Lords and Commons to us ? We must live . Our smallcorner light , in the great battle of life , is to be found in our shop , our warehouse , or our office . We suppose that , somehow , public affairs will be carried on . We imagine that if a man is knocked down , somebody will be taken up for it : there is that great public

functionary , the policeman , to see to all this . We look out upon the world , and the first tiring we find is , that fine feelings are Quixotic ; that they stand dreadfully in the way of a man ' s advance ; that it " you would secure a forward place in the procession , you must not stop by the way to pity those unfortunate passengers that sit or lie groaning , with their hurts on their foreheads , by the side of the road . Every morning that we open our eyes , we see that the world

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