THERE can scarcely be a more practical measure of the advance which a people has made in its progress towards a complete civilisation than is afforded by the number and prosperity of the professors of the humane and liberal arts among them. The noble savage running wild in the woods was under no obligation to professional men; he had no lawyer to fleece, him or to prevent him from being fleeced; no doctors to cure him or to kill him; no music masters to teach him the gamut; no Terpsichorean sage to educate his bare toes and induct him into the mysterious mazes of the waltz or polka. If he was ill he had to get well or get worse and die as it might happen. If he broke a limb, he remained a cripple for life, and when pestilence assailed his tribe, it mowed them down and they perished miserably because there was none to help. The first professors, there can be little doubt, were those of the art of healing, seeing that sickness and wounds must have been the first grievous calamities of suffering humanity. That this was so there is sufficient evidence in ancient records, for we read of learned leeches and physicians, skilled to heal as existing in times when, beyond the hateful art of war, none of the arts were known, at least as they are known now, and have been known and practised for centuries. When the bonds of society became closely knit together, when property had become to be held sacred and vested interests were respected, then the clever, the cunning, the unscrupulous, and the industrious grow rich; wealth, the parent of so much else, was the parent of luxury, and luxury in course of time took so many and various forms and became so exacting in its demands that the business of satisfying its claims was found to be among the most remunerative that persons of special talent could engage in. But if the demands of luxury gave birth to many of the professions, the necessities of industry have originated at least as many more. It is all very well to say as some have said that Science and Industry walk hand in hand – they do not – probably they would if they could, but Science is a head and shoulders too tall to be a yoke fellow with Industry, who would fail to keep pace with him at all but for the interference of a middleman, who is generally found to be a professor of some sort, and who translates the dicta of the man of science into the language of the workshop, and thus practically brings the two together for the general benefit.
David Rothkopf on Berlusconi: Literally the worst leader of a major nation?
What is going on with Arizona? What are the most insane little Arizona towns? We should read the local papers.
Alicublog continues its work documenting madness, making us wish Speak You’re Branes were more frequently update.
Good time to be shedding local jobs all around.
This seems to be a survival-horror game set in Rick Perry’s Texas.
Ah, good old fashioned Republicanism! How far the party has fallen.
While some argue that the internet is ruing brains, MentallyEel.org is committed to genuinely understanding and remaining part of the problem.
Clearly we just gotta cut wages more until people start hiring.
Tags: art, berlusconi, industry, Leisure hour, professions, Proper Noun's Place, science, some argue, survival horror