It is difficult to point out a direct practical remedy for much that is injurious in our cheapest popular literature; and especially any remedy that could be supplied by the State. We cannot cure folly1 by enactments2, however we may try to repress crime. "These things will be, and must be; but how they shall be least hurtful, how least enticing3, herein consists the grave and governing wisdom of a State. To sequester4 out of the world into Atlantic and Utopian policies, which never can be drawn5 into use, will not mend our condition, but to ordain6 wisely as in this world of evil, in the midst whereof God hath placed us unavoidably."
This noble sentence, from Milton's 'Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing,' suggests some remarks which, however painful to utter, no one who thinks honestly upon the subject of popular enlightenment can disguise. There is no "grave and governing wisdom" in the English State—there is no desire "to ordain wisely"—in any matter connected with the educational advancement7 of the people. The greatest discouragement in the first stage,—the most niggardly8 support in the second,—have been given to the education of the {304} young. With the exception of Schools of Design, which, however useful, have a very limited object, the education of the adult has been retarded9 by every possible legislative10 effort, direct or indirect. In 1849 a select Committee of the House of Commons, to inquire into "the best means of extending the establishment of libraries, freely open to the public, especially in large towns, in Great Britain and Ireland," came to the unanimous resolution that "our present inferior position is unworthy of the power, the liberality, and the literature of the country." An Act had been passed in 1845, by which Town Councils, in Municipal Boroughs11 having 10,000 inhabitants and upwards12, in England and Wales, were empowered to establish Museums at their own discretion13. In 1850, seconding the Report of the Committee of 1849, a Bill was brought in "for enabling Town Councils to establish Public Libraries and Museums," in towns of the like large population. The proposal was damaged by the device of requiring that a poll of the burgesses should first have been duly taken on the question, and that a rate of one halfpenny in the pound should be the maximum to be levied14 by a majority of votes. The consequence was obvious. Those of the rate-payers who had the low shopkeeping jealousy15 of extending knowledge to those they presumed to call beneath them, rejected the proposition for establishing Free Libraries at Birmingham and at Exeter. In the mean time the difficulties have been surmounted16 in four great Lancashire {305} towns, Manchester, Liverpool, Salford, Bolton, where 50,000l. have been raised, chiefly by voluntary subscription17, for Free Libraries and Museums; and 60,000 volumes have been purchased for the open and unrestricted use, in the libraries and at home, of every member of the community, from the highest to the humblest. The experiment has been completely successful. One of the most satisfactory results has been that, amidst the hardest worked population in the world—those who come from their factories with the honourable18 stain of labour on their hands and brows—the most exemplary care has been taken of the books borrowed. If Free Libraries are good for the greatest marts of industry, are they not good for the smaller? Mr. Ewart, the unwearied mover in this object, brings in a Bill in the Session of 1854, to extend the Act of 1850 to towns of less population and to the metropolitan19 boroughs; and, further, to remedy a great defect in the former Bill, that the money raised by the halfpenny rate might be applied20 to purchase books as well as to provide buildings. On the 5th of April the House of Commons throws out this Bill, under the most frivolous21 pretexts22; the real object being to truckle to the prejudices of those who in all times have systematically23 opposed the progress of knowledge, when there is a chance of extending it to the people universally.
"Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee."
It is in connexion with all we have said in the {306} preceding pages, about the character and tendency of cheap popular literature, that we have looked forward with hope to the general establishment of Free Libraries in town and country. Mechanics' Institutes, and Literary and Scientific Institutions, valuable as they have been, do not embrace the class for which they were originally intended. According to returns prepared by Dr. Hudson, Secretary of the Manchester Athen?um, in 1851, there were 720 such institutions, with 120,000 members, and they possessed24 815,000 volumes of books. But the same zealous25 person honestly tells us that the majority of Literary Institutions comprise professional men, the higher shopkeepers, and the managers of large firms; that the clerk and the shopman will not go where they have a chance of being looked coldly on by their employers or superiors in service, and resort to Mechanics' Institutes, where their presence effectually drives out the fustian26 jackets. To remedy this was one of the especial objects of Free Libraries, where books should be liberally provided for all, whether for reference or home reading. A large majority of the borrowers of books from the Manchester Free Library belong to the operative class. Is it not of some importance that the warehousemen, packers, artisans, machinists, mill-hands male and female, assistants in shops male and female, dressmakers,—should have access to the standard works of English literature, and the current books of the modern press? Is there no great beneficial effect {307} to be produced by the 77,232 volumes that in the first year were issued from the same Manchester Free Library, comprising—in theology, 1130; philosophy, 845; history, 22,837; law, politics, and commerce, 839; sciences and arts, 4319; and general literature, including poetry, fiction, essays, and periodicals, 47,262? Is it of no importance that, in the same period, 61,080 volumes have been used in the reference department? How long are those who are apt to think that
"The wealthiest man among us is the best,"
to influence the better thoughts, and control the higher impulses, of those who have no vain fears that knowledge, however widely extended, may produce evil to society? The object of the general diffusion27 of knowledge is not to render men discontented with their lot—to make the peasant yearn28 to become an artisan, or the artisan dream of the honours and riches of a profession—but to give the means of content to those who, for the most part, must necessarily remain in that station which requires great self-denial and great endurance; but which is capable of becoming not only a condition of comfort, but of enjoyment29, through the exercise of these very virtues30, in connexion with a desire for that improvement of the understanding which, to a large extent, is independent of rank and riches. It is a most fortunate circumstance, and one which seems especially ordained31 by Him who wills the happiness of his creatures, {308} that the highest, and the purest, and the most lasting32 sources of enjoyment are the most accessible to all. The great distinction that has hitherto prevailed in the world is this,—that those who have the command of riches and of leisure have alone been able, in any considerable degree, to cultivate the tastes that open these common sources of enjoyment. The first desire of every man is, no doubt, to secure a sufficiency for the supply of the physical necessities of our nature; but in the equal dispensations of Providence33 it is not any especial portion of the condition even of the humblest among us who labours with his hands to earn his daily bread, that his mind should be shut out from the gratifications which belong to the exercise of our observing and reflecting faculties34. View the agricultural labourer as we have been too long accustomed to see him—a rude untutored hind35. His most ordinary occupations place him amongst scenes highly favourable36 to the cultivation37 of some of the purest and most peaceful thoughts. The general introduction of agricultural machinery38 and agricultural chemistry has an inevitable39 tendency to demand a race of skilled labourers, instead of unintellectual serfs. But how do we deal with the labourer and his family? We educate the boys and girls up to a certain point; we give them the rudiments40 of knowledge; we are now asked to go further, and to teach them "common things," by which we understand, chiefly, the practical applications of science. But, once off the school-form, the rural {309} boy is to find his evening amusement in the beershop, and the girl to make her way to the next town, in search of some gaiety that ends fatally. Home has no charms for these. Books might be some attraction, but how are they to be got? There are books which well-meaning people will lend—but they are for the most part of an exclusively serious character. None of the fair features of knowledge are presented to them; no "perpetual feast of nectared sweets." They are offered the Sunday sermon without the Sunday holiday. It is clear that this system will not do; and the most sensible in the country have abandoned it. We have before us a catalogue of the 'Windsor Park Library, under the patronage41 of His Royal Highness the Ranger42.' This Park Library, established by Prince Albert, is for the use of all those in the local employ of the Crown. These comprise a population of about 300, of which 100 are subscribers to this library, at sixpence a quarter. It is self-governed, with the assistance of the curate of the Park, who has the right of approval of the books given or purchased. Here is an agricultural population of a mixed character—keepers, bailiffs, woodmen, ploughmen, and field and forest lads. This hard-working and comfortable population is not crammed43 with "harsh and crabbed44" knowledge. There are good books in the library—divinity, history, biography, natural history—but there is abundance of poetry and fiction. The result is that the library is most popular; that it has a visible influence {310} on the families of the subscribers; that the population thus intellectually raised, in the power of happily employing their small leisure, are a consented home-keeping population. There are, no doubt, peculiar45 advantages in their position; but the intelligence which is thus cultivated amongst their dependants46 by the highest in the land would ultimately raise every rural population, if the obvious means were not too commonly neglected.
We have spoken strongly about the indifference47 of the State to the establishment of Free Libraries in populous48 towns. But even those who have most strenuously49 urged this measure have said nothing about such institutions in rural districts. We ask, why not? The necessity is as great, perhaps greater. A ready access to instructive books, and amusing books, is the desire which most naturally suggests itself to the young people who have left the schools which the State recognizes, however imperfectly. The desire cannot be gratified except through some occasional benevolence50. Thus the neglected mind first grows listless—then corrupt51. Dangerous excitement begins the career which ends in habitual52 degradation53. There could be nothing easier that to make the National School a Free Library also. The room is vacant after the hours of work; the schoolmaster is the ready librarian. It would be the truest economy in parishes to provide such Free Libraries out of the ordinary rates, if Parliament were to give them an enabling power. Gratuitous54 vaccination55, {311} preventive measures against contagion56, are cheerfully paid for. Why not a payment of the most limited amount—a farthing on each pound of rental—to keep the people sober, to render them domestic, to raise them gradually but surely to the capacity of discharging those labours with skill which have been formerly57 intrusted to mere58 animal power? It would be well, we think, to make the experiment.
In thus advocating the general establishment of Free Libraries, we believe that we are pointing out the only practicable course for counteracting59 the tendencies of cheap periodical literature. The principle which is now carried, as we have endeavoured to show, to a dangerous and ridiculous excess, is to give the greatest possible quantity at the lowest possible price. The principle is destructive to the employment of the highest class of literary labour. It involves the natural mediocrity or positive baseness of that quality which is not visible on the surface. The counteracting principle is to make the best books accessible to all; and not to imagine that the evil is not counteracted60 if those who have access to the best books prefer the entertaining to the severe. One of the most eminent61 cultivators of the highest knowledge, Sir John Herschel, has told us a great truth in this matter, which ought never to be forgotten. Defending what he calls "the invaluable62 habit of resorting to books for pleasure," as the main desire of those who "have grown up in a want of instruction, {312} and in a carelessness of their own improvement," he says—"If we would generate a taste for reading, we must, as our only chance of success, begin by pleasing.... In the higher and better class of works of fiction and imagination, duly circulated, you possess all you require to strike your grappling-iron into their souls, and chain them, willing followers63, to the car of advancing civilization."
We have said that cheap literature has got beyond its scurrilous64, indecent, profane65, and seditious stages. Six years ago it exhibited every one of these qualities. We think it will not return to them. But there is an element of danger which, if not so revolting, is far more formidable. It is that element which has for its materials the disputes between labour and capital. There is ignorance on both sides of this question. There is indifference on the part of the State. A period of great and increasing commercial prosperity has softened66 down many of the coarser and fiercer aspects of these disputes; but in no case have they been reduced to an intelligible67 philosophy on the part of employers or of workmen. Let the prosperity of trade be interrupted by war; let our markets be narrowed; let profits necessarily fall, and wages with them; and what lessons, we may ask, have been acquired of mutual68 dependence69 and mutual interests, of conciliation70 and of brotherhood71, in the season which was favourable to instruction? Political economy has been too long taught in a onesided {313} spirit; but, nevertheless, its great truths remain unaltered. Are the people unwilling72 to search them out? Practically, are they reluctant to apply them? They know, right well, that profits and wages are distinct matters; that one belongs to capital and the other to labour; that if they are to have both they must become capitalists. They try, upon the smallest, and therefore the most hazardous73 scale, to unite labour and capital by cooperation. They cannot try the principle upon a larger scale, through the evil agency of our laws of partnership74. The Legislature inquires into the matter, and there leaves it. The Legislature complains that strikes are ruinous to all concerned, and does nothing to bring about that union—a union of feelings as well as interests—which would destroy strikes. The Legislature says that the people have no economical or historical knowledge, and forbids Free Libraries. Sixty years ago, Burke calculated that there were eighty thousand readers in this country. If Burke had lived in times when there are fourteen hundred thousand buyers of cheap weekly sheets, whose readers probably amount to five millions, would his great philosophical75 mind have said, as modern legislation says, Do whatever you can to prevent this reading going in a right direction; you cannot stop reading, but you can keep the cheap literature debased, by denying the people access to the great original thinkers who would lift them out of their intellectual twilight76 into a brighter day? Would Edmund {314} Burke have given such counsel? Would he have shrunk from admitting the people to the safe and enduring equality of a participation77 in the common property of mind? He would have said, as he said in 1770—"All the solemn plausibilities of the world have lost their reverence78 and effect." He would now have added—Build your future authority and your respect, not upon ignorance, but upon knowledge.
For the proper supply of such Free Libraries, we have a new class of Books rising fast into importance—Books of established value, carefully edited—the Poets, the Historians, the Critical and Philosophical Writers. The great Divines will not be neglected in this good work. There cannot be cheaper books of this class than Mr. Murray's 'British Classics,' than Mr. Bohn's various series, than several Collections of the Poets now in course of publication. We rejoice to see well-printed books for the Library appear at half the old prices; and to know that there is some chance of the eyes of a generation not prematurely79 perishing under the inflictions of a typography inferior to the ordinary newspaper. Free Libraries would create a large and certain demand for such works. With the majority, the fame of our great writers is little more than the scrolls80 upon their tombs. Let our glorious Literature no longer be, for the People,
"The Monument of banish'd Minds."
THE END.
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1
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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enactments
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| n.演出( enactment的名词复数 )；展现；规定；通过 | |
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enticing
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| adj.迷人的；诱人的 | |
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sequester
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| vt.使退隐，使隔绝 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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ordain
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| vi.颁发命令；vt.命令，授以圣职，注定，任命 | |
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advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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niggardly
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| adj.吝啬的，很少的 | |
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retarded
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| a.智力迟钝的，智力发育迟缓的 | |
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legislative
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| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
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boroughs
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| （尤指大伦敦的）行政区( borough的名词复数 )； 议会中有代表的市镇 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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levied
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| 征（兵）( levy的过去式和过去分词 )； 索取； 发动（战争）； 征税 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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metropolitan
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| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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pretexts
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| n.借口，托辞( pretext的名词复数 ) | |
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systematically
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| adv.有系统地 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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fustian
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| n.浮夸的；厚粗棉布 | |
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diffusion
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| n.流布；普及；散漫 | |
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yearn
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| v.想念；怀念；渴望 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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ordained
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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rudiments
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| n.基础知识，入门 | |
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patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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ranger
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| n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员 | |
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crammed
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| adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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crabbed
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| adj.脾气坏的；易怒的；（指字迹）难辨认的；（字迹等）难辨认的v.捕蟹( crab的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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dependants
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| 受赡养者，受扶养的家属( dependant的名词复数 ) | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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strenuously
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| adv.奋发地，费力地 | |
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benevolence
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| n.慈悲，捐助 | |
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corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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gratuitous
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| adj.无偿的，免费的；无缘无故的，不必要的 | |
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vaccination
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| n.接种疫苗，种痘 | |
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contagion
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| n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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counteracting
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| 对抗，抵消( counteract的现在分词 ) | |
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counteracted
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| 对抗，抵消( counteract的过去式 ) | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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invaluable
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| adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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scurrilous
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| adj.下流的，恶意诽谤的 | |
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profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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dependence
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| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
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conciliation
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| n.调解，调停 | |
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71
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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72
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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hazardous
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| adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的 | |
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partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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participation
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| n.参与，参加，分享 | |
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78
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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prematurely
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| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
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80
scrolls
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| n.（常用于录写正式文件的）纸卷( scroll的名词复数 )；卷轴；涡卷形（装饰）；卷形花纹v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的第三人称单数 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕 | |
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