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numbers are daily thinning to supply mind to the exhausted and inane intellect of a bygone age , represented very generally by the highest ranks , so that it is impossible almost to point out any great discoverer ¦ of science , statesman , legislator , or astute prelate , who is not sprung from a recently plebeian family . If the channels for this
migration from lower class to upper are facile and open , nothing but good must result , for the admission of new power and energy into influential eminence gives increased vitality to the mental circulation of a people ; but with increased education is indissolubly united a desire for its exhibition , as the vigour induced by training involves the craving for exercise ; any impediment , therefore , to this development ,
beyond a proper discipline to test its real excellence , is detrimental . In this respect , again , mind resembles steam ; it may be generated by education , diffused throughout myriads , condensed or applied by proper restrictions to work the most powerful machinery , but if compressed , and not allowed some valve for its superfluous expenditure , it infers , from its nature , an explosion . Now , when these explosions occur
popularly , they are styled revolutions or reformations , both beginning from the same source , namely , a general cognizance of and disgust at abuses , but terminating in the different issues of national improvement or deterioration , according as they are directed by a predominant mind , itself ruled by moral motive . Had Cromwell been Sobespierre ,
the revolution m England would have been protracted into greater bloodshed and terminated in national disgrace ; had William III . not exhibited the strictest sense of justice to two nations , and swayed both with equal intellect , he would have found himself unsupported at the battle of the Boyne , even if he had been welcomed at all , upon the shores of his father-in-law ' s kingdom .
This , then , appears the peculiar characteristic of the present crisis . We have educated the myriads , who are upturning the soil below us , like Titan under Etna , striving to assume the dynasty of rank and power ; whilst the craving for honest and just competition is thwarted and madly opposed , to their own injury , by the selfishness of men in office . The social safeguard of England has ever been found in her
middle class , wherein consist essentially her chief elements of national vigour . In all times of peril or disaster this portion of the community has served to right the vessel of the State , by placing its weight either against monarchical tyranny , aristocratic exclusiveness , or popular tumult . At present , the draft of superior mind from the lowest to the middle class appears sufficiently open , and the communication easy , from the extension of commercial enterprise , which
necessitates continual variations in social position ; but the channel of entrance from the middle to the highest ranks is impeded and rendered narrow by exclusive patronage . It is one of the generous glories (!) of our humanity to render that path most difficult to others by which we ourselves have ascended ; and the peculiar gratification to men in power , at the present day , appears to be niggardliness in diffusing patronage ; so that hence arises the fountain or spring of ail our present social disturbance . England has taught her middle
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
numbers are daily thinning to supply mind to the exhausted and inane intellect of a bygone age , represented very generally by the highest ranks , so that it is impossible almost to point out any great discoverer ¦ of science , statesman , legislator , or astute prelate , who is not sprung from a recently plebeian family . If the channels for this
migration from lower class to upper are facile and open , nothing but good must result , for the admission of new power and energy into influential eminence gives increased vitality to the mental circulation of a people ; but with increased education is indissolubly united a desire for its exhibition , as the vigour induced by training involves the craving for exercise ; any impediment , therefore , to this development ,
beyond a proper discipline to test its real excellence , is detrimental . In this respect , again , mind resembles steam ; it may be generated by education , diffused throughout myriads , condensed or applied by proper restrictions to work the most powerful machinery , but if compressed , and not allowed some valve for its superfluous expenditure , it infers , from its nature , an explosion . Now , when these explosions occur
popularly , they are styled revolutions or reformations , both beginning from the same source , namely , a general cognizance of and disgust at abuses , but terminating in the different issues of national improvement or deterioration , according as they are directed by a predominant mind , itself ruled by moral motive . Had Cromwell been Sobespierre ,
the revolution m England would have been protracted into greater bloodshed and terminated in national disgrace ; had William III . not exhibited the strictest sense of justice to two nations , and swayed both with equal intellect , he would have found himself unsupported at the battle of the Boyne , even if he had been welcomed at all , upon the shores of his father-in-law ' s kingdom .
This , then , appears the peculiar characteristic of the present crisis . We have educated the myriads , who are upturning the soil below us , like Titan under Etna , striving to assume the dynasty of rank and power ; whilst the craving for honest and just competition is thwarted and madly opposed , to their own injury , by the selfishness of men in office . The social safeguard of England has ever been found in her
middle class , wherein consist essentially her chief elements of national vigour . In all times of peril or disaster this portion of the community has served to right the vessel of the State , by placing its weight either against monarchical tyranny , aristocratic exclusiveness , or popular tumult . At present , the draft of superior mind from the lowest to the middle class appears sufficiently open , and the communication easy , from the extension of commercial enterprise , which
necessitates continual variations in social position ; but the channel of entrance from the middle to the highest ranks is impeded and rendered narrow by exclusive patronage . It is one of the generous glories (!) of our humanity to render that path most difficult to others by which we ourselves have ascended ; and the peculiar gratification to men in power , at the present day , appears to be niggardliness in diffusing patronage ; so that hence arises the fountain or spring of ail our present social disturbance . England has taught her middle