NORWICH

THE

MAGAZINE.

NUMBER XII.] DECEMBER 1, 1835. [VOLUME I.

ARTIFICIAL LEARNING AND TRUE
KNOWLEDGE.

THAT the world is beginning to be conscious of having long taken too much for granted, on the authority of those who have pretended to be its instructors, is a fact which becomes every day more clearly apparent. It is almost impossible to fix upon a portion of ancient history, which, when thoroughly investigated, we can satisfactorily declare that we believe, in the form in which. it has been transmitted to us. Even those events which we have been accustomed to regard as most indubitable, have been so disguised by fable, and so coloured either by national pride or party prejudice, that, without the nicest discrimination, their genuine and undistorted features can never be ascertained. The modern teachers of mankind have given the name of classics to a certain set of old books, which they have agreed to exalt as standards of perfect excellence; they have made them the basis of all knowledge, and the mere ability to read them the sum of a good education. Erroneous as many of the statements in these works must necessarily be from their very nature, and questionable as they are rendered, either by the circumstances under which they were originally drawn up, or by the manner in which they have been handed down to later times, still they have been generally admitted, not only without hesitation, but even with religious acquiescence, as credible and trust-worthy records. So much indeed has this been looked upon as matter of course, that rarely has there been found a preceptor, who deemed it necessary to point out to his disciples the fallacies, the incongruities, and the contradictions of the narratives which he placed in their hands. Cri

tical inquiry into the facts detailed was held to be superfluous; the active fancy and ardent enthusiasm of youth were left to expatiate amongst them, undirected and unrestrained; a classical quotation, like a text of holy writ, confirmed, elucidated, sanctioned every thing; and if at any time philosophical reflections were indulged, implicit faith in the transactions described was the preliminary ground on which they invariably proceeded. Religion alone could set bounds to this credulity. No manifestations of supernatural power can of course be admitted ever to have taken place, except for the establishment, the defence, and the glory of the true church. Hence there arose an obvious necessity for utterly denying the miracles of heathenism, or at least for giving the character of natural occurrences to all the legendary exploits of its deified heroes and immortal gods. Yet so powerfully has the force of habit, or the influence of education, prevailed in some minds, that there have not been wanting instances of Christian writers, who are still regarded as learned men and eminent divines, who have gravely argued for the truth of some even of these miracles, and have maintained that on such occasions the Supreme Being has actually interfered, in order to vindicate for the sake of true religion, even the violated sanctity of pagan rites.1 With this exception the evidence of classical authors upon matters of fact has been generally received without distrust; and so little room have their works been supposed to afford for doubt, investigation, or dispute, that by far the most frequent use made of them has been-merely to acquire a knowledge of the languages in which they are written. To this end were the labours of public schools long exclusively directed. Greek and Latin were studied for themselves alone. Parsing and scanning, genders and quantities, were the momentous subjects that engrossed the scholar's mind. The pages of Herodotus and Livy were conned over, not for the purpose of deriving

1 A remarkable assertion of this doctrine closes Dr. Prideaux's account of the destruction of the Gauls who attacked the Delphian temple. "Thus was God pleased," he says, "in a very extraordinary manner, to execute his vengeance upon these sacrilegious wretches, for the sake of religion in general, how false and idolatrous soever that particular religion was, for which that temple at Delphos was erected. For to believe a religion true, and offer sacrilegious violence to the places consecrated to the devotions of that religion, is absolute impiety, and a sin against all religion; and there are many instances of very signal judgments, with which God hath punished it, even amongst the worst of heathens and infidels."Prideaux's Connection, vol. ii, p. 21.

from them clear ideas of the events narrated, but for that of noticing some variety of dialect, some rule of grammar, some peculiarity of style; and when the aching eye has carried its toilsome search through the double columns of closely printed notes that accompany the text, it has often found enumerated there only the various readings of different editions, and contests about accents, letters, and tenses, any of which might be adopted, without materially affecting the meaning of the passages where they belong. A few only of these works having been selected by the caprice of taste, as models of composition, and the rest being thrown into the shade and neglected, not only was the student not trained to the habit of comparing the opposite statements of different historians, but his mind was early imbued with a prejudice, the lasting influence of which was always subversive of impartiality, and fatal to an honest estimate of conflicting authorities. Purity of style has been preferred to weight of matter; and thus, instead of regarding languages only as keys to the information stored in books, books have only been used as necessary implements in fabricating a competent knowledge of the languages in which they are clothed. And this was called classical education! These were the materials long supplied by pædagogic rule, for transmitting from generation to generation established doctrines, and perpetuating the leaden sway of an artificial, dull, unprofitable learning. Crammed by the potent aid of birch and Duke Humphrey, with daily rations of this inflating, unsubstantial food, the sleek and pampered bantling of the schools was at last handed over to his university tutor. Fixed in the mathematical go-cart, he learned to strut with imposing gravity his measured steps along the beaten track. All his previous acquirements, all his intellectual faculties, were carefully cramped and squared by the Procrustian mould of orthodoxy into a strict conformity with ancient precedent. Priories and abbacies, cardinal's caps and pontificates, fellowships and canonries, rich livings and prebendal stalls, deaneries, bishoprics and archbishoprics, were the rewards of passive, docile pupils; while the terrors of the inquisition, or awful denunciations against schismatics, heretics, deists, and atheists, quelled at once the incipient struggles of refractory talent; and at length, fashioned by this discipline, the dignified pedant of the college became, with little change, the pedantic dignitary of the church.

The fruits matured by this course of training have been— spiritual pride, domineering sophistry, and substantial ignorance, shallow conceptions of all that regards the past history of our race, and the universal dogmatism of artificial principles in taste, literature, science, and art. Genius was tied down by arbitrary laws to a servile imitation of antique models. Imagination was held in constant leading-strings, and forbidden to deviate from the well-tracked road. Reason was cased in a panoply of buckram, that gave her indeed an aspect of mock stateliness, but served only to encumber all her movements and impede her own progress. The cold affectation and stage-trick quackery of a nerveless erudition predominated in every species of writing. Stiff, old-fashioned images, unnatural similes, and worn-out allegories composed the charm of poetry. Tedious declamation and formal unities constituted the only legitimate drama. History was made up either of dull repetition or absurd invention. degenerated into set phraseology and turgid bombast. Philosophy vapoured in the unmeaning distinctions of a fine-spun casuistry; and theology dilated into folio tomes of paraphrastic commentaries, verbose hum-drum, and rhapsodical cant. All passion was calmly studied-all feeling deliberately assumed-all grace demurely spiritless-and all expression constrained and insincere.

Rhetoric

Against this artificial system nature and truth have for some time waged an arduous contest, with slow, but still with progressive success. For the honour of our own country let it be said, that, although a large part of her institutions, many of her habits, and most of her prejudices, were from the beginning enlisted, and are yet arrayed in defence of these errors, still it is here that the struggle against them first commenced, and has been prosecuted with the greatest vigour. The native spirit and energy of the Gothic character, self-taught and self-sustained, were displayed in the earliest compositions of our Saxon ancestors; and from that source we imbibed an originality of thought, which was never wholly extinct amongst us. Repressed during long ages by the overbearing influence of Papal Rome, it was only at distant intervals, and by fitful gleams, that the smothered fire betrayed its unwilling and "grim repose." The national resolve to shake off that intolerable yoke was its first decided and successful effort. Overweening power was thus effectually restrained and checked in the last and widest stretch of the most arrogant pretensions

which it ever put forth; and the public mind of England, released from a worse than Babylonian captivity, learned the important lessons, that tyranny is not omnipotent, and that resistance is no crime. The contemplation of so great and novel a victory led to reflections on the means by which it had been achieved. Individual talent began to measure the depth, and the strength, and the copiousness of its own resources, against those capricious regulations, by which opinionated censors had presumed to limit the scope of its exertions; and conscious ability, disdaining obedience to usurped authority, resolutely passed the barriers of the untried and forbidden world. Shakspeare, either through happy ignorance, or with bold contempt, broke through the frigid laws of the artificial school, and gave expression to the honest warmth of excited feeling in the plain and glowing language of the heart. Bacon, with a keen and courageous sagacity, detected the systematic fallacies, by which reason had been long bewildered; and taught mankind, by following the simple light of nature, to deduce from substantial realities the sound and vigorous philosophy of fact. The impulse of these examples was slowly felt; but wherever the new principles which they inculcated were once admitted, they made an indelible impression. The impulse was given, and could not be recalled; the conflict was begun—but the established doctrines had gained too complete an ascendancy -had ruled with too long and too absolute a dominion to be easily dethroned. They had blended so intimately with the whole existing frame of society—they had insinuated themselves so deeply into the general habits of every class-they wielded so tremendous a power over the hopes and fears, the interests and consciences of all-that it would have been impossible to compass their sudden overthrow, without involving in confusion and ruin the entire fabric of which they seemed to form an essential and integral part. But as generations pass away, opinions are modified, errors insensibly lose their ground, and truth by degrees prevails. The study of physics necessarily advanced, on account of its practical tendency to increase the comforts and refine the enjoyments of man. The more generally the stores of creation were known and understood, the more various were the purposes of common utility to which they were found applicable; and in proportion to the increase of attention bestowed upon these pursuits, the artificial system was shaken and impaired.