The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 547, May 19, 1832Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 547, May 19, 1832
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
There can be as little fear that London will ever want any of the
elements of an enlightened and well-constituted community, as that it
will not be large enough. It is very different with the provinces. The
capital offers so many real, and still more, so many plausible
attractions to all that is active and refined, as well as to all that is
idle and selfish in human nature, that a long list of supernumaries and
expectants is sure, in every case, always to be at hand. It is the
lottery into which the credulous are eager to put in;--it is the theatre
on whose stage ambition and vanity are impatient to appear;--it is the
land of Cockayne, in whose crowded mazes the selfish escape from every
duty, and reduce their intercourse with their fellow-creatures to the
sympathies of visiting and of shopping. It is the seat also of liberal
society, and independent existence, among the friends and occupations of
one's choice. Lord Falkland, the love of his age, admitted, that
quitting London was the only thing which he was not sufficiently master
of himself ever to manage without a struggle. In this state of things,
it is plain that nobody can be of such consequence there but that he is
easily spared. The death of a town wit is handsomely celebrated, if it
furnishes five minutes' conversation for the table where he dined the
day before. He is replaced with the same regularity and indifference as
fresh snuff is put into a snuff-box, or fresh flowers are set out upon
the epergne. Nobody misses him. The machine goes on without perceiving
that the blue-bottle or the gnat has fallen from its wheel.
The vastness and multiplicity and complexity of the organization by
which the movements of the capital proceed, as it were mechanically, do
not act merely by diminishing the general importance of individuals to
the system. Except in the case of very happy, and universal, and flowing
natures, or under the influence of accidental counteractions, a personal
risk, between extreme vagueness and extreme narrowness of character, is
incurred by the individual himself. In respect of employment, the
division of intellectual labour is so complete, that most persons in
such a situation are tempted to do their own piece of work, and no
more;--to rest satisfied with manufacturing the pin's head which happens
to have fallen to their share. Does a London life tend to quicken the
moral pulse and expand the heart? The forms of society are thrown into
too large a scale, and its pace is too rapid, to afford an opportunity
for the sort of intercourse by which alone a real acquaintance with,
understanding of, and affection for, each other can be obtained. No
means exist of getting there at any thing further than talents in men,
and beauty or accomplishments in women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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