File:Little journeys to the homes of great reformers (1907) (14763596411).jpg

Identifier: cu31924032409280 (find matches)
Title: Little journeys to the homes of great reformers ..
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915
Subjects: Reformers
Publisher: East Aurora, N.Y., The Royrofters
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
W UT of blunder and bitternesscomes wisdom S<^ Men aretaught through reaction, andall experience that does notkill you is good.When the father of RichardCobden gave up hope and ac.--knowledged defeat, the familyof a full dozen were farmed.out among relatives. The kindikinsman vi^ho volunteered tolook after the frail and sensi-tive Richard, evaded responsibility by placing the ladin a boys boarding school ^ Here he remained fromhis tenth until his sixteenth year. Once a year he wasallowed to write a letter home to his mother, butduring the five years he saw her but once.Hunger and heartache have their uses. Richard Cob-den lived to strike the boarding school fallacy many ajolting blow, but it required Charles Dickens to com-plete the work by ridicule, just as Robert Ingersolllaughed the devil out of church. ^Ve fight for every- 117
Text Appearing After Image:
GREAT REFORMERS—Richard Cobden thing, until the world regards it as ridiculous, thenwe abandon it. As long as war is regarded as heroicwe will fight for it; when it becomes absurd it will die.0(Said Richard Cobden in a speech in the House ofCommons: Of all the pathetic fallacies perpetuatednone seems to me more cruelly absurd than the Eng-lish Boarding School for boys. The plan of taking thechild of seven, eight or ten years, away from hisparents, and giving him into the keeping of personswho have only a commercial interest in him, andcornpellinghim to fight for his life among little savagesas unhappy as himself, or sink into miserable submis-sion, seems too horrible to contemplate. Yet thisplan of so-called education continued up to about fiftyyears ago and was upheld and supported by the bestsociety of England, including the clergy, who wereusually directly particeps criminis in the business.Logic and reason failed to dislodge the folly, andfinally it was left to a stripling repor

Note About Images