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2014_5THE TWOandFOUR MERGER:

Humanism and Its Nineteenth Century Elevated, Middling, Humble
Versions (Versions of Modern Idealism in the Cultural Mentality of the
Victorian Age)
In studying the pros and cons for democracy, in the previous lecture, we moved
between paradigms: models, mentalities. John Stuart Mills principles and his
understanding of modern democracy as the ideal for achieving social harmony (civic
happiness) represented the dominant model of life or mentality in the utilitarian
Victorian age. Carlyles mistrust of democracy, on the other hand, came from an
older, humanistic model of life, which is worth examining because it explains the
structure of mentalities and models, and the relationships between them up to the
present day. 1The nineteenth century cultural mentality was inspired by the old
liberal paradigm, which believed that learning can perfect the individuals soul.
Before it settled in a middling position, the nineteenth century mentality oscillated,
like a pendulum, between elevated and humble conceptions about the way to
achieve perfection assisted by learning.
1. The Elevated Register: the principles of the old liberal paradigm were
presented in John Henry Newmans ideal education outlined in The Idea of a
University (1853); earlier, in 1841 Thomas Carlyle had proposed the model of the
Man of Letters as a modern hero an intellectual/a scholar who lives modestly but
leaves behind a great work. In his 1841 series of lectures On Heroes, Hero-Worship
and the Heroic in History, lecture V, he set the example of Dr Samuel Johnson, the
author of the first lexicon a complete dictionary of the English language)
1

See Raymond Williamss text Dominant, Residual, Emergent, in Surdulescu, R and

Stefanescu, B Reader in Contemporary Critical Theories. Bucharest: the English Department
of the University of Bucharest. 1999, p.150seq
The complexity of a culture is to be found not only in its variable processes and their social
definitions - traditions, institutions, and formations - but also in the dynamic interrelations, at
every point in the process, of historically varied and variable elements.() By residual I
mean something different from the archaic, though in practice these are often very difficult
to distinguish. Any culture includes available elements of its past, but their place in the
contemporary cultural process is profoundly variable.// By emergent I mean ()elements
of some new phase of the dominant culture () and those which are substantially
alternative or oppositional to it; emergent in the strict sense, rather than merely novel//. The
area of effective penetration of the dominant order into the whole social and cultural process
is thus now significantly greater.NOW REFERS TO CAPITALISM, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
in advanced capitalism, because of changes in the character of labour, in the social
character of communications, and in the social character of decision-making, the dominant
culture reaches much further than ever before in capitalist society into hitherto reserved or
resigned areas of experience and practice and meaning.

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The old liberal paradigm had been set up in the first universities of the Middle Ages,
where liberal education was another name for classical humanism (humanism
inspired by the classics), as distinct from the other and main subject taught in the
universities of the Middle Ages, theology. Whereas theology regarded man in his
relationship to the God-created universe, humanism was meant to develop mans
inherent capacities in a liberal (free) manner, by practicing the seven liberal arts
(grammar, rhetoric, and logic, which represented the Trivium, a sine qua non core
of knowledge, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, arithmetic, geometry,
music, and astronomy, which included the study of astrology, too (the so called
Quadrivium) . 2
The essence of the old system of education was that it saw education as being
pursued for its own sake, free from practical purposes.
capable of being its own end, not a preliminary of certain arts () because that alone is
liberal knowledge which stands on its own pretensions, which is independent of sequel, expects
no complement, refuses to be informed (as it is called) by an end, or absorbed into any end, or
in order to present itself to our contemplation. The most ordinary pursuits have this specific
character, if they are self-sufficient and complete; the highest lose it, when they minister to
something beyond them. (PEV, p. 342, The Idea of a University)
John Henry Newman also explains, in The Idea of a University, that the aim of
liberal education is to produce a virtuous, knowledgeable, and articulate person.
it is more correct, as well as more usual, to speak of a University as a place of education,
than of instruction, though, when knowledge is concerned , instruction would at first sight have
seemed the more appropriate word. We are instructed, for instance, in manual exercises, in the
fine and useful arts, in trades, and in ways of business; for these are methods, which have little
or no effect upon the mind itself, are confined in rules committed to memory, to tradition or to
use, and bear upon an end external to themselves. But education is a higher word; it implies an
action upon our mental nature, and the formation of a character; it is something individual and
permanent, and is commonly spoken of in connection with religion and virtue
The place to acquire virtue through education is a university, where one can
apprehend/discern the fact that: All Knowledge is a whole and the separate Sciences
parts of one
A seat of learning, considered as a place of education. An assemblage of learned men, zealous for their
own sciences, and rivals of each other, are brought, by familiar intercourse and for the sake of intellectual
peace to adjust together the claims and relations of their respective subjects of investigation. Thus is
created a pure and clear atmosphere of thought, which each student also breathes, though in his own
case he can only pursue a few sciences out of the multitude. He profits by an intellectual tradition, which
is independent of particular teachers, which guides him in his choice of subjects. () He apprehends the
great outlines of knowledge, the principles on which it rests, the scale of its parts, its lights and its shades,
its great points and its little as he otherwise cannot apprehend them. Hence it is that his education is
2

In the course of time, liberal education shifted towards liberal thinking (rationalism for its
own sake, freed from theological reasoning so far as to be at the other extreme from
theology), and the meaning of liberal, when this adjective was attached to persons, came
to be free thinker (liber cugetator see the explanations about agnosticism in a following
lecture).

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called liberal. A habit of mind is formed which lasts throughout life, of which the attributes are, freedom,
equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom. (PEV I, p. 337).

Newmans model for the general education of mankind was that of religion (see The
Tamworth Reading Room, 1841)
Faith [was] once the soul of social union Once, indeed, it was a living power,
kindling hearts, leavening them with one idea, moulding them on one model,
developing them into one polity (PEV II, p. 320)
Why, we are so constituted that Faith not Knowledge or Argument is our principle of
action ( PEV II, p. 327) and independent of all other considerations, the greatest
difference in practical light, between the object of Christianity and of heathen
belief, is this that glory, science, knowledge, and whatever other fine names we
use, never healed a wounded heart, nor changed a sinful one; but the Divine Word
is with power (PEV II, p. 313).: The old bond, continues Newman, was Religion; Lord
Broughams is Knowledge.

2.The Model of Puritanical Modesty in Thomas Carlyles Sartor Resartus and

Charlotte Bronts Jane Eyre
In the Everlasting Yea, speaking as a puritan ( a person who adheres to strict moral
or religious principles Collins English Dictionary),Thomas Carlyle recommended
Renunciation (Entsagen) as the highest virtue to aim for in order to achieve
blessedness (not happiness, as the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers).
Make thy claim of wages a zero, then; thou hast the world under thy feet. Well did the Wisest of
our time write: It is only with Renunciation (Entsagen) that Life, properly speaking, can be said
to begin This is the virtue towards which Jane Eyre grows in Charlotte Brontes novel
Jane Eyre. When read as an example of someones growth towards this virtue, and
an example of the effects of someones acquiring this virtue, this is what can be
said about Jane Eyre. ThestagesintheacquisitionofvirtueinJaneEyrecorrespondtotheplaces(the
socialmilieu)whereshelives,whichrepresentstagesofvirtuousacquisitionorvictoriesshescoresin
becomingamodelhumanbeing:atGateshead,shemanifestshersenseofjusticebecausesheiskeptoutofthe
gate(i.e.,thehouseholdinwhichsheisanoutsider)andbecomesheadstrong(obstinate)inresponsetoher
relativesabuses(sheislikeable,angrychild);atLowoodSchoolshelearnsthevirtueofdeliberatehumility
andtolerancefromMissTempleandHelenBurns3;atThornfieldHall,thegenteelmiddleclassmanorwhich
lacksamistressbutacquiresinJaneEyremorethanagovernessfortheorphanedgirlAdleanda
housekeeper,likeMrs.Fairfax.Janesradiantmaturityandsweetnesswinsovereverybodyincludingthe
3

See the exchange between Jane Eyre and Helen Burns in the Section with illustrations from
the literary texts

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master,Mr.EdwardRochester,whofallsinlovewithJaneandproposestoher,althoughhewasalready
marriedandhiscrazywife,BerthaMasonwaslockedupintheatticatThornfieldHall.Janemanagestoavoid
thethornsoftemptation,withoutbecomingthewrongmistressatThornfieldHallandrunsaway,preserving
hervirtue,herbalanceandselfrespect.Aftercrossingakindofdesert,likethatoftheBiblicalpeopleledby
MosestothelandofCanaan4,JanesurvivesbyarrivingatMoorHouse,anothergenteelhousehold,more
balancedthanThornfieldHall.WhatJaneachieveshereisdiscretion(discernama^nt):sherejectsanother
mansproposalthatdidnotsuither:SaintJohnRiverss.Janerealizesthatwithoutlovingeachother,their
marriageanddeparturetoanotherlifeasChristiansmissionarieswasaformofnobleselfdeceitratherthan
virtue.Afterallherdearlypaidvictories,,atthebooksend,JaneEyreisrewardedwithahappylifein
marriagetoEdwardRochesteratFerndeanManor.Shecansharehervirtuewithhis.

For further associations with the Biblical text as a source of inspiration in the interpretation
of Charlotte Bronts novel, see Ioana Zirra, Contributions of the Nineteenth Century the
Victorian Age - to the History of Literature and Ideas, vol. I, Bucuresti: Editura Universitati
the lecture on Jane Eyre.