THERE is nothing with which the adversaries of improvement are more wont to make themselves merry than with what is termed "the march of intellect; " and I confess that I think, as far as the phrase goes, they are in the right. It is a very absurd, because a very incorrect, expression. It is little calculated to describe the operation in question. It does not suggest an image at all resembling the proceedings of the true friends of mankind. It much more resembles the progress of the enemy of all improvement. The conqueror moves in a march. He stalks onward with "the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war" -banners flying, shouts rending the air, guns thundering, and martial music pealing, to drown the shrieks of the wounded, and the lamentations for the slain.
Not thus the schoolmaster, in his peaceful vocation. He meditates and prepares in secret the plans which are to bless mankind; he slowly gathers around him those who are to further their execution; he quietly, though firmly, advances in his humble path, labouring steadily, but calmly, till he has opened to the light all the recesses of ignorance, and torn up by the roots the weeds of vice. His is a progress not to be compared with anything like a march; but it leads to a far more brilliant triumph, and to laurels more imperishable than the destroyer of his species, the scourge of the world, ever won.
Such men-men deserving the glorious title of teachers of mankind-I have found, labouring conscientiously, though perhaps obscurely, in their blessed vocation, wherever I have gone. I have found them, and shared their fellowship, among the daring, the ambitious, the ardent, the indomitably activeFrench; I have found them among the persevering, resolute, industrious Swiss; I have found them among the laborious, the warm-hearted, the enthusiastic Germans; I have found them among the high-minded Italians; and in our own country, thank Heaven, they everywhere abound, and their number is every day increasing.
Their calling is high and holy; their fame is the property of nations; their renown will fill the Earth in after ages, in proportion as it sounds not far off in their own times. Each one of those great teachers of the world, possessing his soul in patience, performs his appointed work; awaits in faith the fulfilment of the promises; and, resting from his labours, bequeaths his memory to the generation whom his works have blessed, and sleeps under the humble but not inglorious epitaph, commemorating "one in whom mankind lost a friend, and no man got rid of an enemy."- LORD BROUGHAM (1778-1868)WORDSadversaries, enemies. bequeaths, hands down. calculated, fitted. commemorating, celebrating. conscientiously, faithfully. enthusiastic, ardent.
epitaph, inion on a tomb-stone. fulfilment, performance. imperishable, undying.
incorrect, inaccurate. indomitably, invincibly. industrious, laborious. lamentations, wailings. obscurely, humbly. persevering, persistent. property, possession. shrieks, cries.
vocation, calling.
