WHAT WOULD ENGLAND BE WITHOUT HER CHURCH? 199 to be the friends of the people, and anxious, above all things, to promote their education. What would mighty England be without her Church? Tickler. Her mind had not been a "thing so majestical," but for her glorious army of martyrs and apostles-in long array, the succession of her philosophic divines. Shepherd. Oh! dear me! what wad I no gie the noo for a what!1 (Enter MR AMBROSE with a Board of Oysters-the Council of Five Hundred-and TAPPYTOORIE, with Ale and Porter, bottled and draught.) Tickler. Clear decks. North. The Circular! [The What is deposited, with all its Paraphernalia, on the Circular. Shepherd. Awmrose, ma man, I'm thrusty-yill." Tickler. Ditto-Ambrose. North. Mr Ambrose-ditto. Shepherd (after a long draught). That is yill. Tickler (after a longer). Consummate! North (at last). Superb! Omnes. Giles, or Berwick ?3 Ambrose. Neither, gentlemen. 'Tis a sample sent me, in free gift, by Messrs Maitland and Davison Tickler. Of St Anne's Brewery, Croftangry? Ambrose. Yes, Southside. Shepherd. Croftangry? Isna that a name in the Chronicles o' the Canongate? Our freen's brewery's quite classical. North. Nothing in this world can beat Berwick. Tickler. Nor bang Giles Shepherd. I could hae taen my Bible oath it was Berwick. Tickler. And I could have sworn upon that old almanac, history, that it was Giles. North. I had my suspicions. There is in Berwick a ripe, a racy, and a reamy richness, unknown to any other malt that ever felt the power of barm, whose influence, gradual as the genial growth of spring, laps the soul in Elysium, till the coruscations of fancy play far and wide over a Noctes, like the Aurora Borealis ; while in Giles there is a pure spirit of unadulterated strength, that, as it raises the soul to the height 1 What-whet. 2 Fill-ale. 3 Brewers. 200 ALES AND OYSTERS. of heroic emotion, breathing deliberate colour, so beneath its power has many a cit and soldier "Bow'd his anointed head as low as death." Maitland and Davison-again-has inspired my being with a new feeling, for which no language I am acquainted with can supply an adequate name. That feeling impels me to say these simple words on behalf of the Spirit of Ale in general -speaking through me its organ― Ale loquitur — "If not suffered by Fate to fix my abode in barrels of Berwick or Giles, where I have long reigned alternate years, in all my glory, scarcely should I feel myself privileged to blame my stars, were I ordered for a while to sojourn in one of Maitland -and Davison!" Shepherd. What poo'r' it has gien the pallet ower the inmost flavour o' the eisters! Tickler. Shrimps. Shepherd. Nae such shrimps, sir; but they melt like snawflakes,― "A moment white, then gone for ever!" North. Already are they decimated. Shepherd. Weel-nigh decimated, indeed for out o' the Coonsel o' Five Hundred, there's no fowre-score noo on the brodd. my Tickler. "With speedy gleams the darkness swallowed." North. From labours I thus fall back in dignified repose. Shepherd. I never was sae sune stawed wi' eisters in a' my life. Tickler. What! Have you pulled up, already, James? Shepherd. That's the manners ane. She's a sair temptation, wi' that bonny plump bosom o' hers; but I'm ower muckle o' a gentleman to tak advantage o' her unprotected singleness, sae we'll let her be. North. Affecting subject for an elegy-The last Oyster! Shepherd. I canna thole to look at it. Tickler, pu' the bell. (Enter AMBROSE and KING PEPIN to remove the Board.) Shepherd (in continuation). Pippy-she's yours. [KING PEPIN, with a bunch of empty Pots in each handstoops his Mouth to the Board, and sucks the lonely Damsel into his vortex. 1 Poo'r-power. 2 See ante, vol. ii. p. 108. A MERELY INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION 201 Tickler. Let us resume our philosophical conversation. Shepherd. Wi' a' my heart. My stamach's no fu'er the noo o' eisters than my head is o' ideas. Opium! what's opium to yill? Opium dazes-yill dazzles-opium carries a man intil the cluds-yill raises him to the sky. Tickler. We were speaking, sir, of education. North. Education! what manner of man is he whom we wish to have produced? Who in civil and private life will be "the happy warrior?" Must he not be high-mindedly courageous-generous in his intercourse with all his fellowcreatures-full of deep and tender affections, which are the support and happiness of those nearest and dearest to himcapable of sympathy with all joy and all suffering—with an imagination, not only the source of enjoyment to himself, but aiding to make all the aspects of things, serious, solemn, religious, to his spirit, Shepherd. Nae grandeur o' national character, sir, you say weel, without imagination. But, nooadays, a' her records are accoonted auld wives' tales, and the speerit o' Poetry is driven out o'edication sought to be imposed on the people, as if it were the plague. The verra claes o' a callant noo that has been found porin ower an auld ballad, maun be fumigated afore he is suffered to re-enter the school, -he maun perform quaranteen, sir, like a ship frae Constantinople or Smyrna, afore the passengers are alloo'd to land on our untainted shores. Is this an impreuvment, think ye, sirs, on the wusdom o' our forefathers? If this plan be persisted in, after twathree generations, what will be the Spirit o' the Age? A barren spirit, and a' aneath it bare as broon bent in summerdrought, without ony drappin o' the sweet heaven-dews. Milton weel says, that in the sowl are many lesser faculties— Reason the chief-but what sort o' a chief will Reason be without his tail? Without his clan, noo a' sickly or extinck, ance poo'rfu' alike in peace and in war, to preserve or destroy, to build up and to pu' doun, beautifyin wi' perpetual renovation and decay the haill face o' the earth. O sirs! in anither century or less, 'twill be a maist monstrous warld, fit only for your Utilitawrians and in less nor a second century, no fit even for them. North. Intellectual all-in-alls, who will perish of hunger and thirst, destitute of the bread of life, and of its living waters. Shepherd. I really believe, sirs, that were I lang to habi 202 DOES NOT CULTIVATE THE FEELINGS. tuate mysel to this Glasgow rum, it would drive out the Glenlivet-except for caulkers. Only pree this het tummler o' toddy. North (sipping). A Christmas box, James, from my valued friend, the Modern Pythagorean.' Quite a nosegay. 2 Shepherd. Ma smell's gane-and sae maun yours, wi' a' that snuffin, man; Prince's Mixtur, Prince's Mixtur, unce" efter unce, I wunner ye but what for do ye aye dinna snivel; keep thoom-thoomin at it in the shell-it's an ugly custom. What's this I was gaun to say? Hae ye read the Modern Pythagorean's wark on Sleep? North. Several times entirely-and often by snatches. It is admirable. Tickler. Come, I must keep you, Kit, to the subject in hand. That treatise deserves a separate article from your own pen. North. And sooner or later-it shall have it. Keep, then, to the subject in hand. What was it? Tickler. A thousand powers, each bringing its own blessing, spring up by feeling, and in feeling have their own justification-which such an education never can give, but which it will deaden or destroy. Shepherd. Eh? Tickler. They are justified, James, by the idea which they themselves bring of themselves, in the mind which produces and harbours them; they bear witness for themselves; the man has felt them good-sua bona novit—and he clings to them unto the death. Who taught you patriotism? Shepherd. Mysel. Tickler. Not the Schoolmaster, who is now abroad 3— at Botany Bay, perhaps, for forgery-but the Schoolmaster at home-your own heart, James-teaching itself the task it conned on the side of the sunny brae, or the ingle of your father's hut Shepherd. What ken you about my edication, sir? Yet the lang-legged chiel's no far wrang, efter a'. Tickler. What kind of a nation, my dear Shepherd, does your heart rejoice in? 1 Dr Macnish. See ante, p. 108. 2 Unce-ounce. 3 "The Schoolmaster is abroad" was a popular phrase at this time, intended to express the general diffusion of education, and the desire felt for it. IMPORTANCE OF THE FEELINGS. Shepherd. In the British-especially the Scotch. 203 Tickler. Are they better now, in any one sense whatever, than of old? Shepherd. In a few things, better-in a hantle, waur. Tickler. What do we want in a nation? Not a quantity of reasonable contented-steady-sober-industrious inhabi tants-mere ChinesesShepherd. Chineses? Tickler. And nothing more- -but you want men, who, if they are invaded, will spring up as one man-loving their ancestors, who cannot do anything for them Shepherd. That's truth-but wha hae dune for them incalculable and inappreciable things Tickler. And doing everything for their posterity, who have done and can do nothing for them Shepherd. True again. Tickler. Men among whom crime is restrained, not by a vigilant police, but by an awful sense of right and wrong. Shepherd. Existing naewhere but in minds deeply imbued wi' religion. Tickler. Who love their soil, though unable to analyse it- Tickler. To whom poverty and its scanty hard-wrung pittances are the gift of God-who are sustained and animated in this life by the operation on their minds of their belief in another-a people in whose vigorous spirit joy is strong under all sorts of external pressure and difficulty Shepherd. That's no easy-neither is't impossible. Tickler. I speak, James, of a country naturally poor-such as Scotland Shepherd. Scotland's no puir-she's rich, if no in the sile o' the yerth, in the sile o' the sowl Tickler. Were I to speak of England Shepherd. Shut his mouth, Mr North, on England, for he's England-mad Tickler. Well, then, James, I sink England, and say, that Honesty depends also upon Feeling, as a principle of action opposed to mere intellect—and that this is not known to many of our popular, and preaching, and itinerant Educationists. True, that "Honesty is the best Policy;" but Policy without |