But though we are happy in instrumental performers, we frequently send to Italy for singers, and that at no small expense; to remedy which I humbly propose that the governors of Christ's Hospital will show their public spirit, by forming an academy of music on their foundation, after this or the like manner. That out of their great number of children, thirty boys be selected of good ears and propensity to music. That these boys be divided into three classes, viz., six for wind instruments, such as the hautboy, bassoon, and German flute. That sixteen others be selected for string instruments, or at least the most useful, viz., the violin and bass-violin. That the remaining eight be particularly chosen for voice, and organ, or harpsichord. That all in due time be taught composition. The boys thus chosen, three masters should be elected, each most excellent in his way; that is to say, one for the wind instrument, another for the stringed, and a third for the voice and organ, &c. Handsome salaries should be allowed these masters, to engage their constant attendance every day from eight till twelve in the morning; and I think 1007. per annum for each would be sufficient, which will be a trifle to so wealthy a body. The multiplicity of holidays should be abridged, and only a few kept; there cannot be too few, considering what a hindrance they are to juvenile studies. It is a vulgar error that has too long prevailed all over England to the great detriment of learning, and many boys have been made blockheads in complaisance to kings and saints dead for many ages past. The morning employed in music, the boys should go in the afternoon, or so many hours, to the reading and writing school, and in the evening should practise, at least two hours before bed-time, and two before the master comes in the morning. This course held for seven or eight years, will make them fine proficients; but that they should not go too raw or young out of the academy, it is proper that at the stated age of apprenticeship, they be bound to the hospital, to engage their greater application, and make them thorough masters, before they launch out into the world; for one great hinderance to many performers is, that they begin to teach too soon, and obstruct their genius. What will not such a design pro luce in a few years? Will they not be able to perform a concert, choir, or opera, or all three, among themselves, and overpay the charge, as shall hereafter be specified? For example, we will suppose such a design to be continued for ten years, we shall find an orchestra of forty hands, and a choir or opera of twenty voices, or admitting that of those twenty only five prove capital singers, it will answer the intent. For the greater variety they may, if they think fit, take in two or more of their girls, where they find a promising genius, but this may be further con sidered of. Now, when they are enabled to exhibit an opera, will they not gain considerably when their voices and hands cost them only a college subsistence? and it is but reasonable the profits accruing from operas, concerts, or otherwise, should go to the hospital, to make good all former and future expenses, and enable them to extend the design to a greater length and grandeur; so that instead of 1,500l. per annum, the price of one Italian singer, we shall for 3001. once in ten years, have sixty English musicians regularly educated, and enabled to live by their science. There ought, moreover, to be annual probations, and proper prizes or premiums allotted, to excite emulation in the youths, and give life to their studies. They have already a music school, as they call it, but the allowance is too poor for this design, and the attendance too small. It must be every day, or not at all. This will be an academy, indeed, and in process of time they will have even their masters among themselves; and what is the charge, compared with the profits, or their abilities? Cheap Sunday Concerts. One thing I had like to have forgot, which is, that with permission of the right reverend the lords spiritual, some performance in music, suitable to the solemnity of the day, be exhibited every Sunday after divine service. Sacred poesy and rhetoric may be likewise introduced to make it an entertainment suitable to a Christian and polite audience; and indeed we seem to want some such commendable employment for the better sort; for we see the public walks and taverns crowded, and rather than be idle, they will go to Newport market. That such an entertainment would be much preferable to drinking, gaming, or profane discourse, none can deny; and till it is proved to be prejudicial, I shall always imagine it necessary. The hall at the hospital will contain few less than seven hundred people, conveniently seated, which at so small a price as one shilling per head, will amount to 351. per week; and if the performance deserve it, as no doubt it will in time, they may make it half a crown, or more, which must considerably increase the income of the hospital. When they are able to make an opera, the profits will be yet more considerable, nor will they reap much less from what the youths bring in during their apprenticeship, when employed at concerts, theatres, or other public entertainments. ILLITERACY, LEARNING, AND PEDANTRY. Defoe had frequent occasion to notice the imputation of illiteracy-made because he was not a graduate of either of the universities-and yet he has no occasion to be ashamed of his ability or his arguments when brought face to face with his antagonist. Even Swift must have felt the rudeness of his assaults in the Examiner, when the author of the Review retorts in this vein: I have been in my time pretty well master of five languages, and have not lost them yet, though I write no bill over my door, nor set Latin quotations on the front of the Review. But, to my irreparable loss, I was bred only by halves; for my father, forgetting Juno's Royal Academy, left the language of Billingsgate quite out of my education. Hence, I am perfectly illiterate in the police style of the street, and am not fit to converse with the porters and carmen of quality, who grace their diction with the beauties of calling names, and cursing their neighbor with a bonne grace. I have had the honor to fight a rascal, but never could master the eloquence of calling a man so; nor am I yet arrived at the dignity of being laureated at her Majesty's beargarden. I have also, illiterate as I am, made a little progress in science. I read Euclid's Elements, and yet never found the mathematical description of a scurrilous gentleman. I have read logic, but could never see a syllogism formed upon the notion of it. I went some length in physics, or natural philosophy, and could never find between the two ends of nature, generation and corruption, one species out of which such a creature could be formed. I thought myself master of geography, and to possess sufficient skill in astronomy to have set up for a country almanac-maker, yet could, in neither of the globes, find either in what part of the world such a heterogeneous creature lives, nor under the influence of what heavenly body he can be produced. From whence I conclude very frankly, that either there is no such creature in the world, or that, according to Mr. Examiner, I am a stupid idiot, and a very illiterate fellow. Many years later, in a communication to Mist's Journal (Oct. 30, 1725), he writes under the head of Learning: I observe with some concern a great stir made among mankind about the word Learning, and many disputes, of very little consequence, are raised upon the very word itself; nor is it yet determined among the learned world, what we are to understand by Learning. Nay, to tell the truth, there is some difficulty to find out who they are we ought to call the learned world. I must own to you, I do not judge of it as some, that would have themselves a part of the learned world, do. I remember an author in the world some years ago who was generally upbraided with ignorance, and called an “illiterate fellow" by some of the beau-monde of the last age. He was run down in this manner by some that upon inquiry had a much clearer title to the character of a blockhead, by a great deal, than himself; but his enemies were noisy, and the man was negligent in his own defence. Nay, he would frequently own he was no scholar, and be perfectly unconcerned at the calumny of being thought to be illiterate. I happened to come into this person's study once, and I found him busy translating a description of the course of the river Boristhenes out of Bleau's Geography, written in Spanish. Another time I found him translating some Latin paragraphs out of Leubinitz Theatri Cometici, being a learned discourse upon comets; and that I might see whether it was genuine, I looked on some part of it that he had finished, and found by it that he understood the Latin very well, and had perfectly taken the sense of that difficult author. In short, I found he understood the Latin, the Spanish, the Italian, and could read the Greek, and I knew before that he spoke French fluently,-yet this man was no scholar. As to science, on another occasion, I heard him dispute (in such a manner as surprised me) upon the motions of the heavenly bodies, the distance, magnitude, revolutions, and especially the influences of the planets, the nature and probable revolutions of comets, the excellency of the new philosophy, and the like; but this man was no scholar. In geography and history he had all the world at his fingers' ends. He talked of the most distant countries with an inimitable exactness; and changing from one place to another, the company thought of every place or country he named that certainly he must have been born there. He knew not only where everything was, but what everybody did in every part of the world; I mean what business, what trade, what manufacture was carrying on in every part of the world; and had the history of almost all the nations of the world in his head, yet this man was no scholar. This put me upon wondering, even so long ago, what this strange thing called a man of learning was, and what is it that constitutes a scholar? For, said I, here's a man speaks five languages, and reads the sixth, is a master of astronomy, geography, history, and abundance of other useful knowledge, (which I do not mention, that you may not guess at the man, who is too modest to desire it,) and yet, they say, this man is no scholar. What then will become of me, said I, who know nothing but a little mere Greek and Latin? What must I do to preserve the name of a scholar, for such I pass for now; but certainly must quickly forget and disown it, nay the very name of it, if such as these pass for men of no learning? But meeting with a brisk, pretty fellow, at White's Chocolate House, the other day, whom I took to be a little in my class, for we had studied, that is, fooled a little time away together, at the University formerly, and as Í thought were classic dunces together; I say, meeting with him one day, I made my grievance known to him, and asked him what I must do. "Phoo!" says he, "you are all wrong, and the thing is right; the fellow you speak of, was a mere blockhead, for as the world has a different taste of learning now from what it had in former days, so if you will pass for a scholar you must take up a new method." In a subsequent number (Nov. 6) he illustrates what Learning is by the character of a Pedant: In my last, I gave you an example of a person within the compass of my own knowledge, who could speak five languages, and could read six, who was a mester of science, who discoursed of the stars and the regions above as if he had been born there, who had the history of the world all in his head, the geography of it at his fingers' ends, and understood the interests of all nations as if he had lived among them; but all this would not reach it, this man would by no means pass for a scholar. I went some years under the amusement of this cramp question, who was a scholar? When, after some time, I had occasion to put my son to a grammar school, and inquiring after a proper person, I had a friend, who hearing of it recommended a man to me; and among all the rest of his qualifications, he told me he was a great man, a profound scholar, that he had been eight years fellow of a college in Cambridge, that he had written a book upon the pointings of the Hebrew, and had made some learned amendments to the Greek Grammar; that he spoke the Latin better than the English; and, in short, he was known and valued for a man of extraordinary learning. Upon which you may be sure I put my son to school to him most readily. Having committed my son to his care for erudition, I had frequent occasions to converse with this great scholar; and, as near as I can, you shall have his just character. He was, in the first place, of a sour, cynical, surly, retired temper; this I suppose, though some of it came from mere nature, yet had grown upon him by time, being the consequence of poring upon his book. In the next place, if he performed anything as a scholar, it came from him by the violent labor of his head, violent mortifying application, and with not only twice the labor, but twice the time that other men ordinarily took for such things. At the same time that he was a critic in the Greek and Hebrew, he hardly could, or at least did not, spell his mother tongue, English. His style was all rough laconics, thronged with colons and full-points; and he seldom made his paragraphs above a line and a half. He was in Orders, and sometimes read a sermon or two; but preached away all his hearers, not being able to suit his discourse to his auditory. He mado his ordinary sermons the same as if he had becn to preach ad clerum, or to the heads of the University. Writing a letter to me once upon a disaster which had befallen one of his scholars, he wrote that there was a sad accidence fallen out in his school; and when I showed it him, and would have mentioned it as a mistake of his pen, he began to be warm, would needs justify the orthography of it, and began to talk of the etymology and derivation of the words. He knew no more of the world abroad than if he had never seen a map, or read the least description of things. He could give no more account of Africa or America than if they had never been discovered; only, that he knew St. Cyprian and St. Augustine, but not whereabouts they lived, or whether Africa was divided from America by water or by land. He understood not a word of French, Dutch, Spanish, or Italian. He had read the Roman histories, and the Church histories, and had the names of all the great cities and kingdoms in the Grecian, Persian, and Assyrian Monarchies by heart; but could not tell in what part of the globe they were to be found. He had Horace and Virgil in his head, and was as good as an index verborum to Juvenal and Persius. As for the Bible, give him his due, he was a walking Concordance, and had a local memory for chapter and verse; but when he preached, he was all exposition, without either inference or application. Take him among his books, everything that was ancient, crabbed, and critical, suited; everything modern, smooth, eloquent, and polite, provoked him to wrath. He had learning enough to find fault, but not good humor enough to mend; he liked nothing, and nothing he performed could be liked. His mere learning must be buried with him, for 'tis like a great crowd pressing out at a little door: not being able to come out all at once, it cannot come at allIn a word, he knows letters, and perhaps could read half the Polyglot Bible, but knows nothing of the world,-has neither read men nor things; and this, they say, is a scholar. Why, then, that SCHOLAR IS A LEARNED FOOL. DEFOE'S ESSAY UPON PROJECTS. This Essay of Defoe was the first work of his publication which attained the dignity of a volume-"An Essay upon Projects. London. Printed by R. R. for Thomas Cockerill, at the corner of Warwick Lane, near Paternoster Row. 1697." It consists of 350 pages, and might rather be called a series of Essays upon important public improvements suggested by the author. After an Introduction, and a short History of Projects and Projectors, the first scheme he recommends is a Royal or National Bank, with affiliated Provincial Establishments. The next relates to Public Highways, and their improvement in construction, repair, and management. Then follows a proposa of Assurances, under which he includes insurance against shipwreck, fires, titles of lands, etc., but singularly says, he cannot admire insuring of life. In recommending friendly societies, which, he says, "is in short a number of people entering into a mutual compact to help one another, in case any disaster or distress fall upon them," he has many excellent suggestions, showing that the principle admits of great extension; instancing assistance of seamen, and support of destitute widows. He then proposes a pension office in every county, for the reception of deposits from the poor for their relief in sickness and old age; this was an anticipation of the modern institution of Savings Banks, combined with the still more recent provision for conversion into annuities. Under the head "Of Fools," he urges the erection of an institution for the care and maintenance of idiots; whom he calls "a particular rentcharge on the great family of mankind." For the benefit of trade, and honest but unfortunate traders, ho next projects a commission of enquiry into bankruptcy. In the true spirit of improvement, our author suggests the formation of Academies to supply some neglected branches of education. One of these was the refinement and correction of the English language, and suppression of profane swearing and vulgarisms. Another important recommendation, that he esteemed the most noble and useful in his book, was an academy for military studies. Supplementary thereto, he proposes an academy for military exercises. Under this head he has also a project for an academy for women. The last scheme in the series is one for the registration of all the seamen of the United Kingdom; which was attempted soon after by Act of Parliament. ACADEMIES. We have in England fewer of these than in any part of the world, at least where learning is in so much esteem. But to make amends, the two great seminaries we have are without comparison the greatest, I won't say the best, in the world; and though much might be said here concerning Universities in general, and Foreign Academies in particular, I content myself with noting that part in which we seem defective An Academy of English Philology. The French, who justly value themselves upon erecting the most celebrated academy of Europe, owe the lustre of it very much to the great encouragement the kings of France have given to it. And one of the members making a speech at his entrance, tells you, That 'tis not the least of the glories of their Invincible Monarch, lo have engrossed all the learning of the world in that sublime body. The peculiar study of the Academy of Paris has been to refine and correct their own language; which they have done to that happy degree that we see it now spoken in all the courts of Christendom, as the language allowed to be most universal. I had the honor once to be a member of a small society, who seemed to offer at this noble design in England. But the greatness of the work, and the modesty of the gentlemen concerned, prevailed with them to desist an enterprise which appeared too great for private hands to undertake. We want indeed a Richlieu to commence such a work: for I am persuaded, were there such a genius in our kingdom to lead the way, there would not want capacities who could carry on the work to a glory equal to all that has gone before them. The English tongue is a subject not at all less worthy the labor of such a society than the French, and capable of a much greater perfection. The learned among the French will own, that the comprehensiveness of expression is a glory in which the English tongue not only equals but excels its neighbors; Rapin, St. Evremont, and the most eminent French authors have acknowledged it: And my Lord Roscommon, who is allowed to be a good judge of English, because he wrote it as exactly as any ever did, expresses what I mean in these lines: For who did ever in French authors see Drawn to Freach wire would through whole p ges shi e.' The work of this society should be to encourage polite learning, to polish and refine the English tongue, and advance the so-much-neglected faculty of correct language; also to establish purity and propriety of style, and to purge it from all the irregular additions that ignorance and affectation have introduced; and from all those innovations of speech, if I may call them such, which some dogmatic writers have the confidence to foster upon their native language, as if their authority were sufficient to make their own fancy legitimate. Into this society should be admitted none but persons eminent for learning, and yet none, or but very few, whose business or trade was learning; for I may be allowed, I suppose, to say, We have seen many great scholars, mere learned men, and graduates in the last degree of study, whose English has been far from polite, full of stiffness and affectation, hard words, and long unusual coupling of syllables and sentences, which sound harsh and untunable to the ear, and shock the reader both in expression and understanding. In his plan of operations, Defoe includes the extirpation of the absurd and unprofitable practice of swearing-by force of example. 'If the gentlemen of England would drop this most nonsensical as well as vicious practice, it would soon grow odious and out of fashion-for there is neither pleasure or profit in it.' |
