When I've been researching Thomas Annan what strikes me is the religiosity of the times, which led to moral decisions overriding financial concerns. The writings of someone like Thomas Carlyle, who was incredibly popular then, seem so incredibly alien from our current outlook.
I would love to read and reflect on his writings. I think the point you make is true and worth exploring. I did hint last time about the intellectual and moral atmosphere was thick with ideas from Athens and Jerusalem. The innovation and artistic vision came from that air, one that fizzed with evangelical revival in Scotland and the UK. What I found most surprising, however, was how much of the practical side of things had remained same. I found it refreshing and hoped others might too.
He's quite a struggle, but this is good representative passage from his Past and Present (1843):
"So many hundred thousands sit in workhouses: and other hundred thousands have not yet got even workhouses; and in thrifty Scotland itself, in Glasgow or Edinburgh City, in their dark lanes, hidden from all but the eye of God, and of rare Benevolence the minister of God, there are scenes of woe and destitution and desolation, such as, one may hope, the Sun never saw before in the most barbarous regions where men dwelt. Competent witnesses, the brave and humane Dr. Alison, who speaks what he knows, whose noble Healing Art in his charitable hands becomes once more a truly sacred one, report these things for us: these things are not of this year, or of last year, have no reference to our present state of commercial stagnation, but only to the common state. Not in sharp fever-fits, but in chronic gangrene of this kind is Scotland suffering. A Poor-law, any and every Poor-law, it may be observed, is but a temporary measure; an anodyne, not a remedy: Rich and Poor, when once the naked facts of their condition have come into collision, cannot long subsist together on a mere Poor-law. True enough:- and yet, human beings cannot be left to die! Scotland too, till something better come, must have a Poor-law, if Scotland is not to be a byword among the nations. O, what a waste is there; of noble and thrice-noble national virtues; peasant Stoicisms, Heroisms; valiant manful habits, soul of a Nation's worth, - which all the metal of Potosi cannot purchase back; to which the metal of Potosi, and all you can buy with it, is dross and dust!"
Wow, yeah, they take it to 11. Seeing the awfulness of life in technicolour overflowed into their words. I look forward to your distilled highlights that my feeble modern mind to bear;-) Next month's freebie is on another contemporary character (of that time) from them which delves a little more into their worldview.
How about the differences?
When I've been researching Thomas Annan what strikes me is the religiosity of the times, which led to moral decisions overriding financial concerns. The writings of someone like Thomas Carlyle, who was incredibly popular then, seem so incredibly alien from our current outlook.
I would love to read and reflect on his writings. I think the point you make is true and worth exploring. I did hint last time about the intellectual and moral atmosphere was thick with ideas from Athens and Jerusalem. The innovation and artistic vision came from that air, one that fizzed with evangelical revival in Scotland and the UK. What I found most surprising, however, was how much of the practical side of things had remained same. I found it refreshing and hoped others might too.
He's quite a struggle, but this is good representative passage from his Past and Present (1843):
"So many hundred thousands sit in workhouses: and other hundred thousands have not yet got even workhouses; and in thrifty Scotland itself, in Glasgow or Edinburgh City, in their dark lanes, hidden from all but the eye of God, and of rare Benevolence the minister of God, there are scenes of woe and destitution and desolation, such as, one may hope, the Sun never saw before in the most barbarous regions where men dwelt. Competent witnesses, the brave and humane Dr. Alison, who speaks what he knows, whose noble Healing Art in his charitable hands becomes once more a truly sacred one, report these things for us: these things are not of this year, or of last year, have no reference to our present state of commercial stagnation, but only to the common state. Not in sharp fever-fits, but in chronic gangrene of this kind is Scotland suffering. A Poor-law, any and every Poor-law, it may be observed, is but a temporary measure; an anodyne, not a remedy: Rich and Poor, when once the naked facts of their condition have come into collision, cannot long subsist together on a mere Poor-law. True enough:- and yet, human beings cannot be left to die! Scotland too, till something better come, must have a Poor-law, if Scotland is not to be a byword among the nations. O, what a waste is there; of noble and thrice-noble national virtues; peasant Stoicisms, Heroisms; valiant manful habits, soul of a Nation's worth, - which all the metal of Potosi cannot purchase back; to which the metal of Potosi, and all you can buy with it, is dross and dust!"
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26159/pg26159.txt
Wow, yeah, they take it to 11. Seeing the awfulness of life in technicolour overflowed into their words. I look forward to your distilled highlights that my feeble modern mind to bear;-) Next month's freebie is on another contemporary character (of that time) from them which delves a little more into their worldview.
Ooh, sounds good.
Was sent in this direction by Sara Stevenson's Annan research https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs562kX2B7w ....
Interestingly, Andrew O'Hagan's next novel is going to be set in this period and features Annan as a character.