Character and Conduct
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Character and Conduct’
George Stephenson won the admiration of French navvies by showing them how a Geordie works a shovel.
George Stephenson was arguably history’s most influential engineer, yet he never really gave up being a Northumberland miner. He always retained his Geordie ordinariness, and was never happier than when he was among his fellow working men.
Emma tries to reconcile her father to the unaccountable tastes of his nearest and dearest.
Mild Mr Woodhouse cannot quite forgive Mr John Knightley for carrying off his daughter Isabella as bride, even though he dotes on his little grandchildren Henry and John. It is left to Isabella’s sister Emma to calm his fear that the boys’ father is altogether too rough-and-tumble with them.
Sir Walter Scott warned that schoolchildren must not expect to be entertained all the time.
The hero of Walter Scott’s historical novel Waverley, published in 1814, is Edward Waverley, a delicate child plucked from London’s fogs and taken to his father’s country estate for his health. There, the boy was allowed to direct his own education. He had curiosity, which was good, but no staying power; and Scott took a moment to reflect on how fashionable educational theory was not much help in this regard.
Pauline de Meulan’s magazine Publiciste was close to going out of business when an anonymous contributor stepped in.
François Guizot (1787-1874) was the 17th Prime Minister of France, and a historian with a particular affection for England. ‘If he was treated with harshness by his political enemies,’ wrote Samuel Smiles, ‘his consolation was in the tender affection which filled his home with sunshine.’
A literary man tries to trick Samuel Johnson into an honest opinion, which was neither necessary nor very rewarding.
James Macpherson published two poems, ‘Fingal’ in 1762 and ‘Temora’ a year later, which he said were translations of Irish oral tradition. He attributed them to Ossian, the legendary 3rd century Irish bard, who told of the ‘endless battles and unhappy loves’ of his father Fingal and son Oscar. Dr Johnson was, like most modern scholars, unconvinced.
For Jane Austen, the best education a father can give to his child is to befriend her.
Sir Thomas Bertram has lost both his daughters to unhappy marriages, and now has the unwelcome leisure to reflect on where he went wrong. He gave them a progressive education, he laid down the law; but what he should have done was to get to know them, and to win their trust.