How to Observe. Morals and Manners

Front matter

HOW TO OBSERVE. MORALS AND MANNERS. BY HARRIET MARTINEAU. " Helas . oil done chercher, oil trouver le bonheur ? — — Nulle part tout entier, partout avec mesure." Voltaire. ' Opening my journal-book, and dipping my pen in my ink horn, I determined, as far as I could, to justify myself and my countrymen in wandering over the face of the earth." Rogers. LONDON: CHARLES KNIGHT AND CO. 21, LUDGATE STREET 1838. LONDON : P1UNTED BV SAMIEL BENTLEV, Dorset Street, Fleet Street.

ADVERTISEMENT.

. " The best mode of exciting the love of observa tion is by teaching ' How to Observe.1 With this end it was originally intended to produce, in one or two volumes, a series of hints for travellers and students, calling their attention to the points necessary for inquiry 01 observation in the different branches of Geology, Natural History, Agriculture, the Fine Arts, General Statistics, and Social Manners. On consideration, however, it was determined somewhat to extend the plan, and to separate the great divisions of the field of observation, so that those whose tastes led them to one particular branch of inquiry might not be en cumbered with other parts in which they do not feel an equal interest." The preceding passage is contained in the notice accompanying the first work in this series — Geology, by Mr. De la Beche, published in 1835.

Introduction

TO CONCHOLOGY ; or, Elements of the Natural History of Molluscous Animals. By George Johnston, M.D., LL.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. 8vo., 102 Illustrations, 21s. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ANIMALS. By Professor T. Rymer Jones, F.R.S., F.Z.S. Two vols., with 209 Illustrations, post Svo., 12s each. ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES IN SUSSEX. By A. E. Knox, M.A., F.L.S. Post 8vo., with four Lithographic Views, 7s. 6d. Second Edition. Also by Mr. Knox, — GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL: their Friends and their Foes. With Illustrations by Wolf. Post 8vo., price 9s. A FAMILIAR

INTRODUCTION.

TO THE HISTORY OF IN- SECTS. With numerous Hlustrations. By Edward Newman, F.L.S. One vol. 8vo., 12s. A MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. By F. A. Pai.ey, M.A. Second Edition, Illustrated by nearly 600 Examples. 8vo. 7s. 6d. BAPTISMAL FONTS. A Series of 125 Engravings, Examples of the different Periods, accompanied with Descriptions ; and with an Introductory Essay by Mr. Paley. 8vo., 11. Is. DOMESTIC SCENES IN GREENLAND AND ICELAND. 16mo., Illustrated, 2s. 6d. Second Edition. THE POOR ARTIST ; or, Seven Eye-Sights and One Object. Fcap. 8vo., 5s. GOLDSMITH'S VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. With 32 Hlustrations, by William Mulready, R.A. ; engraved by John Thompson. Square 8vo., 11. Is., or 36s. in morocco. WATT'S DIVINE AND MORAL SONGS. With 30 Illustrations, by C. W. Cope, R.A. ; engraved by John Thompson. Square 8vo., 7s. 6d,, or 21s. in morocco.

JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLES. Ttiis Series of Works is Illustrated by many Hundred Engravings; every Special hat been Draitm and Engraved under tlic immediate inspection of the Authors; tlie best Artists have been employed, and no care or expense has been spared. A few copies have been printed on larger paper, royal Svo. THE QUADRUPEDS, by Phofessor Bell. A new Edition preparing. THE BIRDS, by Mr. Yarrell. Second Edit., 3 vols. il. Us. 6d. COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE EGGS OF BIRDS, by Mr. Hewitson. 2 vols. il. 10s. THE REPTILES, by Professor Bell. Second Edition, 12s. THE FISHES, by Mr. Yarrell. Second Edition, 2 vols. 31.* THE CRUSTACEA, by Professor Bell. Now in Course of Publication, in Parts at 2s 6d. THE STAR-FISHES, by Professor Edward Forbes. 15s. THE ZOOPHYTES, by Dr. Johnston.

Second Edition, 2 vols. 21. 2s. THE MOLLUSCOUS ANIMALS AND THEIR SHELLS, by Professor Ed. Forbes and Mr. Hanley. Now in Course of Publication, in Parts at 2s. 6d ; or Large Paper, with the Plates Coloured, 5s. THE FOREST TREES, by Mr. Selby. 28s. THE FERNS, by Mr. Newman. Third Edition. Now in the Press. THE FOSSIL MAMMALS AND BIRDS, by Professor Owen, 11. 11s. 6d. A GENERAL OUTLINE OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM, by Professor T. Rymer Jones. 8vo. A new Edition preparing. "This book ought lo be largely circulated, not only on account of its scientific merits — though these, us we ha\e in p:irt shown, are great and signal— but because it is popularly written throughout, and therefore likely to excite general attention to a subject which ought to be held as one of primary importance. Every one is interested about fishes — the political economist, the epicure, the merchant, the man of science, the angler, the poor, the rich.

We hail the appearance of this book as the dawn of a new era in the Natural History of England."— Quarterly Review, No. 116. JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW. CONTENTS.

Part I

Requisites for Observation. Page

INTRODUCTION.

.. . 1 CHAP. I. Philosophical Requisites. Section I. . 11 Section II. . . 14 Section III. . 21 Section IV. . 27 CHAP. II. Moral Requisites . . .40 CHAP. III. Mechanical Requisites . . .51

Part II

What to Observe . . 61 CHAP. I. Religion . . 68 Churches . .80 Clergy ... 84 Superstitions . 90 Suicide . . .94 vi CONTENTS. Page CHAr. II. General Moral Notions . . 101 Epitaphs . . .108 Love of Kindred and Birth-place . . Ill Talk of Aged and Children 1 1 3 Character of prevalent Pride . . 114 Character of popular Idols . . 118 Epochs of Society . . .122 Treatment of the Guilty . . 124 >' Testimony of Criminals . . . 129 Popular Songs - . . .132 Literature and Philosophy . .137 CHAP. III. Domestic State . . . 144 Soil and Aspect of the Country . . 153 Markets . . . .154 Agricultural Class . .155 Manufacturing Class . . . 157 Commercial Class . . . 158 Health . . . .161 Marriage and Woman . . . 167 Children . . . . 181 CHAP. IV. Idea of Liberty . . . .183 Police . . . .184 Legislation . . . .

CONTKNTS. vii CHAP. IV. continued. Page Classes in Society . . .190 Servants . . . .192 Imitation of the Metropolis . . 196 Newspapers . . . .197 Schools . . .198 Objects and Form of Persecution . 203 CHAP. V. Progress . . . .206 Conditions of Progress . . 209 Charity . . . .213 Arts and Inventions . . 216 Multiplicity of Objects . . . 218 CHAP. VI. Discourse . . .221

Part III

Mechanical Methohs . HOW TO OBSERVE. MORALS AND MANNERS.

Part I. Requisites For Observation. Introduction

. " Inest sua gratia parvis." " Les petites choses n'ont de valeur que de la part de ceux qui peuvent s'elever aux grandes." — De Jouy. There is no department of inquiry in -which it is not full as easy to miss truth as to find it, even when the materials from which truth is to be drawn are actually present to our senses. A child does not catch a gold fish in water at the first trial, however good his eyes may be, and however clear the water ; knowledge and method are necessary to enable him to take what is actually before his eyes and under his hand. So it is with all who fish in a strange element for the truth which is living and moving there : the powers of observation must be trained, and habits of method in arranging the materials presented to the eye must be acquired before the student possesses the requisites for under standing what he contemplates. a

INTRODUCTION.

. The observer of Men and Manners stands as much in need of intellectual preparation as any other student. This is not, indeed, generally supposed, and a multitude of travellers act as if it were not true. Of the large number of tourists who annually sail from our ports, there is probably not one who would dream of pretending to make observations on any subject of phy sical inquiry, of which he did not understand even the principles. If, on his return from the Mediterranean, the unprepared traveller was questioned about the geo logy of Corsica, or the public buildings of Palermo, he would reply, " Oh, I can tell you nothing about that — I never studied geology ; I know nothing about archi tecture." But few, or none, make the same avowal about the morals and manners of a nation. Every man seems to imagine that he can understand men at a glance ; he supposes that it is enough to be among them to know what they are doing ; he thinks that eyes, ears, and memory are enough for morals, though they would not qualify him for botanical or statistical observation ; he pronounces confidently upon the merits and social condition of the nations among whom he has travelled ; no misgiving ever prompts him to say, " I can give you little general information about the people I have been seeing ; I have not studied the principles of morals ; I am no judge of national manners."

There would be nothing to be ashamed of in such an avowal. No wise man blushes at being ignorant of any science which it has not suited his purposes to study, or which it has not been in his power to attain. No linguist wrings his hands when astronomical discoveries are talked of in his presence ; no political economist ■i

INTRODUCTION.

. covers his face when shown a shell or a plant which he cannot class ; still less should the artist, the natural philosopher, the commercial traveller, or the classical scholar, be ashamed to own himself unacquainted with the science which, of all the sciences which have yet opened upon men, is, perhaps, the least cultivated, the least definite, the least ascertained in itself, and the most difficult in its application. In this last characteristic of the science of Morals lies the excuse of as many travellers as may decline pro nouncing on the social condition of any people. Even if the generality of travellers were as enlightened as they are at present ignorant about the principles of Morals, the difficulty of putting those principles to interpretative uses would deter the wise from making the hasty decisions, and uttering the large judgments, in which travellers have hitherto been wont to indulge.

In proportion as men become sensible how infinite are the diversities in man, how incalculable the varieties and influences of circumstances, rashness of pretension and decision will abate, and the great work of classifying the moral manifestations of society will be confided to the philosophers, who bear the same relation to the science of society as Herschel does to astronomy, and Beaufort to hydrography. Of all the tourists who utter their decisions upon foreigners, how many have begun their researches at home ? Which of them would venture upon giving an account of the morals and manners of London, though he may have lived in it all his life ? Would any one of them escape errors as gross as those of the Frenchman who published it as a general fact that peob

INTRODUCTION.

. pie in London always have, at dinner parties, soup on each side, and fish at four corners ? Which of us would undertake to classify the morals and manners of any hamlet in England, after spending the summer in it ? What sensible man seriously generalizes upon the man ners of a street, even though it be Houndsditch or Cranbourn-Alley ? Who pretends to explain all the proceedings of his next-door neighbour ? Who is able to account for all that is said and done by the dweller in the same house, — by parent, child, brother, or domestic ? If such judgments were attempted, would they not be as various as those who make them ? And would they not, after all, if closely looked into, reveal more of the mind of the observer than of the observed ? If it be thus with us at home, amidst all the general resemblances, the prevalent influences which furnish an interpretation to a large number of facts, what hope of a trustworthy judgment remains for the foreign tourist, however good may be his method of travelling, and however long his absence from home ?

He looks at all the people along his line of road, and converses with a few individuals from among them. If he diverges, from time to time, from the high road, — if he winds about among villages, and crosses mountains, to dip into the hamlets of the valleys, — he still pursues only a line, and does not command the expanse ; he is furnished, at best, with no more than a sample of the people ; and whether they be indeed a sample, must remain a con jecture which he has no means of verifying. He con verses, more or less, with, perhaps, one man in ten thousand of those he sees ; and of the few with whom

INTRODUCTION.

. 5 he converses, no two are alike in powers and in training, or perfectly agree in their views on any one of the great subjects which the traveller professes to observe; the information afforded by one is contradicted by another ; the fact of one day is proved error by the next ; the wearied mind soon finds itself overwhelmed by the multitude of unconnected or contradictory par ticulars, and lies passive to be run over by the crowd. The tourist is no more likely to learn, in this way, the social state of a nation, than his valet would be qualified to speak of the meteorology of the country from the number of times the umbrellas were wanted in the course of two months. His children might as well undertake to exhibit the geological formation of the country from the pebbles they picked up in a day's ride.

I remember some striking words addressed to me, be fore I set out on my travels, by a wise man, since dead. " You are going to spend two years in the United States," said he. " Now just tell me, — do you expect to understand the Americans by the time you come back ? You do not : that is well. I lived five-and-twenty years in Scotland, and I fancied I understood the Scotch; then I came to England, and supposed I should soon understand the English. I have now lived five-and-twenty years here, and 1 begin to think I un derstand neither the Scotch nor the English." What is to be done ? Let us first settle what is not to be done. The traveller must deny himself all indulgence of peremptory decision, not only in public on his return, but in his journal, and in his most superficial

INTRODUCTION.

. thoughts. The experienced and conscientious traveller would word the condition differently. Finding peremptory decision more trying to his conscience than agreeable to his laziness, he would call it not indul gence, but anxiety; he enjoys the employment of col lecting materials, but would shrink from the responsi bility of judging a community. The traveller must not generalize on the spot, how ever true may be his apprehension — however firm his grasp, of one or more facts. A raw English traveller in China was entertained by a host who was intoxicated, and a hostess who was red-haired ; he immediately made a note of the fact that all the men in China were drunkards, and all the women red-haired. A raw Chinese traveller in England was landed by a Thames waterman who had a wooden leg. The stranger saw that the wooden leg was used to stand in the water with, while the other was high and dry.

The apparent economy of the fact struck the Chinese ; he saw in it strong evidence of design, and wrote home that in Eng land one-legged men are kept for watermen, to the saving of all injury to health, shoe, and stocking, from standing in the river. These anecdotes exhibit but a slight exaggeration of the generalizing tendencies of many modern travellers. They are not so much worse than some recent tourists1 tales, as they are better than the old narratives of " men whose heads do grow be neath their shoulders." Natural philosophers do not dream of generalizing with any such speed as that used by the observers of men ; yet they might do it with more safety, at the risk of an incalculably smaller mischief. The geologist and

INTRODUCTION.

. 7 the chemist make a large collection of particular appearances, before they commit themselves to propound a principle drawn from them, though their subject mat ter is far less diversified than the human subject, and nothing of so much importance as human emotions, — love and dislike, reverence and contempt, depends upon their judgment. If a student in natural philosophy is in too great haste to classify and interpret, he mis leads, for a while, his fellow-students (not a very large class) ; he vitiates the observations of a few successors ; his error is discovered and exposed ; he is mortified, and his too docile followers are ridiculed, and there is an end ; but if a traveller gives any quality which he may have observed in a ftvy injtttaals as a characteristic of a nation, the evil is itp^Speedily or easily remediable.

Abject thinkers, passive readers, adopt his words ; parents repeat them to their children ; and townspeople spread the judgment into the villages and hamlets — the strongholds of prejudice ; future travel lers see according to the prepossessions given them, and add their testimony to the error, till it becomes the work of a century to reverse a hasty generalization. It was a great mistake of a geologist to assign a wrong level to the Caspian Sea ; and it is vexatious that much time and energy should have been devoted to account for an appearance which, after all, does not exist. It is provoking to geologists that they should have wasted a great deal of ingenuity in finding reasons for these waters being at a different level from what it is now found that they have ; but the evil is over; the "pish!" and the "pshaw!" are said; the explanatory and apologetical notes are duly inserted in

INTRODUCTION.

. new editions of geological works, and nothing more can come of the mistake. But it is difficult to foresee when the British public will believe that the Americans are a mirthful nation, or even that the French are not almost all cooks or dancing-masters. A century hence, pro bably, the Americans will continue to believe that all the English make a regular study of the art of conversation ; and the lower orders of French will be still telling their children that half the people in England hang or drown themselves every November. As long as travellers generalize on morals and manners as hastily as they do, it will probably be impossible to establish a general conviction that no civilized nation is ascer tainably better or worse than any other on this side barbarism, the whole field of morals being taken into the view.

As long as travellers continue to neglect the safe means of generalization which are within the reach of all, and build theories upon the manifestations of individual minds, there is little hope of inspiring men ■with that spirit of impartiality, mutual deference, and love, which are the best enlighteners of the eyes and rectifiers of the understanding. Above all things, the traveller must not despair of good results from his observations. Because he cannot establish true conclusions by imperfect means, he is not to desist from doing anything at all. Because he can not safely generalize in one way, it does not follow that there is no other way. There are methods of safe generalization of which I shall speak by-and-by. But, if there were not such within his reach, if his only ma terials were the discourse, the opinions, the feelings, the way of life, the looks, dress, and manners of individuals,

INTRODUCTION.

. he might still afford important contributions to science by his observations on as wide a variety of these as he can bring within his mental grasp. The experience of a large number of observers would in time yield materials from which a cautious philosopher might draw conclusions. It is a safe rule, in morals as in physics, that no fact is without its use. Every observer and recorder is fulfilling a function ; and no one observer or recorder ought to feel discouragement, as long as he desires to be useful rather than shining ; to be the servant rather than the lord of science, and a friend to the home-stayers rather than their dictator. One of the wisest men living writes to me, " No books are so little to be trusted as travels. All tra vellers do and must generalize too rapidly. Most, if not all, take a fact for a principle, or the exception for the rule, more or less ; and the quickest minds, which love to reason and explain more than to observe with patience, go most astray.

My faith in travels received a mortal wound when I travelled. I read, as I went along, the books of those who had preceded me, and found that we did not see with the same eyes>. Even descriptions of nature proved false. The traveller had viewed the prospect at a different season, or in a different light, and substituted the transient for the fixed. Still I think travels useful. Different accounts give means of approximation to truth ; and by-and-by what is fixed and essential in a people wiil be brought out." It ought to be an animating thought to a traveller that, even if it be not in his power to settle any one point respecting the morals and manners of an empire, b INTRODUCTION'. he can infallibly aid in supplying means of approximation to truth, and of bringing out " w-hat is fixed and essential in a people." This should be sufficient to stimulate his exertions and satisfy his ambition.

Chapter I

philosophical requisites. " Only I believe that this is not a bow for every man to shoot in that counts himself a teacher, but will require sinews almost equal to those which Homer gave Ulysses ; yet I am withal per suaded that it may prove much more easy in the essay than it now seems at a distance." — Milton. There are two parties to the work of observation on Morals and Manners — the observer and the observed. This is an important fact which the traveller seldom dwells upon as he ought ; yet a moment's consideration shows that the mind of the observer — the instru ment by which the work is done, is as essential as the material to be wrought. If the instrument be in bad order, it will furnish a bad product, be the material what it may. In this chapter I shall point out what requisites the traveller ought to make sure that he is possessed of before he undertakes to offer observations on the Morals and Manners of a people.

Section I

He must have made up his mind as to what it is that he wants to know. In physical science, great results may be obtained by hap-hazard experiments ; but this is not the case in Morals. A chemist can hardly fail of learning something by putting any sub stances together, under new circumstances, and seeing what will arise out of the combination ; and some striking discoveries happened in this way, in the infancy of the science ; though no one doubts that more know ledge may be gained by the chemist who has an aim in his mind, and who conducts his experiment on some principle. In Morals, the latter method is the only one which promises any useful results. In the work ings of the social system, all the agents are known in the gross — all are determined. It is not their nature, but the proportions in which they are combined, which have to be ascertained.

What does the traveller want to know ? He is aware that, wherever he goes, he will find men, women, and children ; strong men and weak men ; just men and selfish men. He knows that he will everywhere find a necessity for food, clothing, and shelter ; and every where some mode of general agreement how to live together. He knows that he will everywhere find birth, marriage, and death ; and therefore domestic affections. What results from all these elements of social life does he mean to look for ? For want of settling this question, one traveller sees nothing truly, because the state of things is not con sistent with his speculations as to how human beings ought to live together ; another views the whole with prejudice, because it is not like what he has been accus tomed to see at home ; yet each of these would shrink from the recognition of his folly, if it were fully placed before him.

The first would be ashamed of having tried any existing community by an arbitrary standard of his own — an act much like going forth into the wilderness to see kings1 houses full of men in soft raiment ; and the other would perceive that different nations may go on judging one another by them selves till doomsday, without in any way improving the chance of self-advancement and mutual understanding. Going out with the disadvantage of a habit of mind uncounteracted by an intellectual aim, will never do. The traveller may as well stay at home, for anything he will gain in the way of social knowledge. The two considerations just mentioned must be sub ordinated to the grand one, — the only general one, — of the relative amount of human happiness. Every ele ment of social life derives its importance from this great consideration.

The external conveniences of men, their internal emotions and affections, their social arrangements, graduate in importance precisely in pro portion as they affect the general happiness of the sec tion of the race among whom they exist. Here then is the wise traveller's aim, — to be kept in view to the exclusion of prejudice, both philosophical and national. He must not allow himself to be perplexed or dis gusted by seeing the great ends of human association pursued by means which he could never have devised, and to the practice of which lie could not reconcile himself. He is not to conclude unfavourably about the diet of the multitude because he sees them swallowing blubber, or scooping out water-melons, instead of re galing themselves with beef and beer. He is not to suppose their social meetings a failure because they eat with their fingers instead of with silver forks, or touch foreheads instead of making a bow.

He is not to con clude against domestic morals, on account of a diversity of methods of entering upon marriage. He might as well judge of the minute transactions of manners all over the world by what he sees in his native village. There, to leave the door open or to shut it bears no relation to morals, and but little to manners ; whereas, to shut the door is as cruel an act in a Hindoo hut as to leave it open in a Greenland cabin. In short, he is to prepare himself to bring whatever he may observe to the test of some high and broad principle, and not to that of a low comparative practice. To test one people by another, is to argue within a very small segment of a circle ; and the observer can only pass backwards and forwards at an equal distance from the point of truth. To test the morals and manners of a nation by a reference to the essentials of human happiness, is to strike at once to the centre, and to see things as they are.

Section II

Being provided with a conviction of what it is that he wants to know, the traveller must be furthermore furnished with the means of gaining the knowledge he wants. When he was a child, he was probably taught that eyes, ears, and understanding are all-sufficient to gain for him as much knowledge as he will have time to acquire ; but his self-education has been a poor one, if he has not become convinced that something more is needful — the enlightenment and discipline of the understanding, as well as its immediate use. It is not enough for a traveller to have an active understanding, equal to an accurate perception of individual facts in themselves ; he must also be in possession of prin ciples which may serve as a rallying point for his observations, and without which he cannot determine their bearings, or be secure of putting a right interpretation upon them.

A traveller may do better without eyes, or without ears, than without such principles, as there is evidence to prove. Holman, the blind traveller, gains a wonderful amount of information, though he is shut out from the evidence yielded by the human coun tenance, by way-side groups, by the aspect of cities, and the varying phenomena of country regions. In his motto, he indicates something of his method. " Sightless to see, and judge thro' judgment's eyes, To make four senses do the work of five, To arm the mind for hopeful enterprise, Are lights to him who doth in darkness live." In order to " judge through judgment's eyes," those eyes must be made strong and clear ; and a traveller may gain more without the bodily organ than with an un trained understanding. The case of the Deaf Traveller* leads us to say the same about the other great avenue of knowledge.