Previous: XXI. Bird song
Were one to look at the literary journals only, and thereafter judge of the time, it would be easy to persuade oneself that civilization had indeed made great and solid progress, and that the world stood at a very hopeful stage of enlightenment. Week after week, I glance over these pages of crowded advertisement; I see a great many publishing-houses zealously active in putting forth every kind of book, new and old; I see names innumerable of workers in every branch of literature. Much that is announced declares itself at once of merely ephemeral import, or even of no import at all; but what masses of print which invite the attention of thoughtful or studious folk! To the multitude is offered a long succession of classic authors, in beautiful form, at a minimum cost; never were such treasures so cheaply and so gracefully set before all who can prize them... Here is exhibited the learning of the whole world and of all the ages; be a man’s study what it will, in these columns, at one time or another he shall find that which appeals to him. Here are labours of the erudite, exercised on every subject that falls within learning’s scope. Science brings forth its newest discoveries in earth and heaven; it speaks to the philosopher in his solitude, and to the crowd in the market-place. Curious pursuits of the mind at leisure are represented in publications numberless; trifles and oddities of intellectual savour; gatherings from every byway of human interest...
With these pages before one’s eyes, must one not needs believe that things of the mind are a prime concern of our day? Who are the purchasers of these volumes ever pouring from the press? How is it possible for so great a commerce to flourish save as a consequence of national eagerness in this intellectual domain? ...
Two things must be remembered. However considerable this literary traffic, regarded by itself, it is relatively of small extent. And, in the second place, literary activity is by no means an invariable proof of that mental attitude which marks the truly civilized man.
... No, the public which reads, in any sense of the word worth considering, is very, very small; the public which would feel no lack if all book-printing ceased to-morrow, is enormous. These announcements of learned works which strike one as so encouraging, are addressed, as a matter of fact, to a few thousand persons, scattered all over the english-speaking world. Many of the most valuable books slowly achieve the sale of a few hundred copies...
... Experience offers proof on every hand that vigorous mental life may be but one side of a personality, of which the other is moral barbarism. A man may be a fine archaeologist, and yet have no sympathy with human ideals. The historian, the biographer, even the poet, may be a money-market gambler, a social toady, a clamorous Chauvinist, or an unscrupulous wire-puller... The reading-public -- oh, the reading-public! Hardly will a prudent statistician venture to declare that one in every score of those who actually read sterling books do so with comprehension of their author... Remember those who purchase to follow fashion, to impose upon their neighbor, or even to flatter themselves; think of those who wish to make cheap presents, and those who are merely pleased by the outer aspect of the volume. Above all, bear in mind that busy throng whose zeal is according neither to knowledge nor to conviction, the host of the half-educated, characteristic and peril of our time...
I am told that their semi-education will be integrated. We are in a transitional stage, between the bad old time when only a few had academic privileges, and that happy future which will see all be liberally instructed. Unfortunately for this argument, education is a thing of which only the few are capable; teach as you will, only a small percentage will profit by your most zealous energy. On an ungenerous soil it is vain to look for rich crops. Your average mortal will be your average mortal still: and if he grow conscious of power, if he becomes vocal and self-assertive, if he get into his hands all the material resources of the country, why, you have a state of things such as at present looms menacingly before every Englishman blessed -- or cursed -- with an unpopular spirit.
Alpha.
Things are far worse now than they were over a hundred years ago, and much of the doom he here predicts has come to pass. U.S. election results for the past several decades are all you need in the way of proof for this.
I rather suspect Ryecroft would lump me in with the “half-educated,” and I wouldn’t argue with him as mostly “self-educated” really comes to the same thing. The reason people with a Classical Education studied the Athenian Demos and the Roman Republic, for all the good it did them, was so that they could learn from the experience of a thousand years of aristocratic, democratic, and republican government. When the 2nd Bush administration announced its plan to invade Iraq all I could think of was Athens and its disastrous (and equally needless) invasion of Syracuse. It’s hard to say which body politic comes off worse: the Athenians for being so venial; or the Americans for being so easily lead by their fears. But it's worth noting that then, as now, it is the few who lead the many astray, who use the many against their own personal enemies and for their own personal power. An important lesson of the history of those Classical times is that both the Athenians and Romans were fooled into giving up their popular rule... and it’s hard to say, given the poor job they were doing at the time, that giving up was a mistake.
The Iraq invasion also reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from Aeschylus:
Who can escape the sin ordained by God?
-Aeschylus - Seven Against Thebes
-Aeschylus - Seven Against Thebes
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