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Article Untitled Article ← Page 5 of 5 Article LIFE AND ITS MACHINERY. Page 1 of 7 →
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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 ?
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 ?