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APPENDIX A

THE WORKING TAILORS' ASSOCIATION, LONDON.

A Chapter Towards The Associative History, by Gerald Massey.

Preliminary Remarks

The oak is contained in the acorn, the universal in the individual, and even as the history and experience of one man's life may be a matter of national interest, so may the history and experience, the origin, rise, errors, and successes of one Association contain a warning, a stern lesson, and a wholesome example for all Associations that follow after.  It is an old saying, 'that a fool may profit by his own experience, but a wise man profits by the experience of others.'  Pioneers are usually sent in advance to clear away obstructions and unveil the pitfalls, and so in this cause, we should reap advantage from those who have gone before us.  Why should we eternally repeat their errors and blunders?  They have erected signposts to mark the spots, let us read them.  Their failures in the Past we should make the stepping-stones for our success in the Future.  With this view, I propose to jot down a few facts relating to the 'Working Tailors' Association,' which claims to be the Standard-bearer of the present Co-operative Movement.  It is pre-eminent among the London Associations, as being the first in starting, first in success, and, certainly, first in blundering.  Its history has yet to be written; the present editor of the Journal of Association, wrote a sketch of it in the earliest part of its career; and Walter Cooper also contributed a portion of its history to the Christian Socialist, but the public can have no definite idea of the matter, as such a mass of misrepresentation has been circulated, and innumerable conflicting statements made respecting it.  This Association does not assume to be the Moses of the nineteenth century, missioned to lead the people out of their worse than Egyptian bondage, but it does assume to aim a blow at that Moses of this century, who is leading and crushing them into that deeper and bitterer slavery - Moses of the 'Mart,' whose customers are martyrs.  Moreover, though not the first English Association established on the Cooperative principle, it is the first that purposes devoting one third of its profits to assist the establishment of other Associations upon the same principle.  It also, of all others, claims to have made Association a veritable, practical, living fact.  And that is worth much in this age of theories and palaver-panaceas.  It is worth more than preaching.  It has very forcibly illustrated what working men may do in spite of all present difficulties, if they will but unite and direct their own industrial energies with their own intelligence for their mutual benefit.  Work for each other instead of working against each other and competing with each other in a hand-to-throat strife for the means of living; even while they permit the capitalists to stand like the Croupier at the head of the gaming board and take up all the wealth, which they, poor gamblers, for life and death have toiled, and hungered, and suffered, to produce. We, the advocates and exponents of the associative principle can now say to its opponents, combat association in theory and on paper as much as you please, and as successfully as you may, this association in practice is a far different thing; now combat that.  You have said that working men did not possess business tact necessary to the carrying on of business on their own account.  You have said that working men would never sufficiently conquer their mutual jealousies, and vanquish their mutual distrust, and work together in fraternal unity.  We can now reply - come see how signally your taunts and assertions have been defeated.  We have replied to you by silently working out our maligned, but glorious principles, and now we are triumphantly successful.  I do not write about this experiment because it is arrogated that a few tailors assembled in Castle Street, for their mutual, mental, moral, and monetary profit will save the world.  Nothing of the kind.  But their rise and progress has been anxiously marked by deeply interested thousands, and the name of association has become a magic word of talismanic influence.  It has been a rallying sign for those who have long waited in doubt and darkness, looking for a sign.  Day by day has new strength been added to our movement, not only in town and city, but in the obscure nooks of village and hamlet.  This is a success which cannot be contravened.  These co-operative associations and stores may yet go down, but the lesson learned by those who have worked in them can never be forgotten; the insight obtained into the practical working of self-government can never be effaced.  They will have learned that the man who is a slave in his own heart, and a tyrant in his own household, would be a slave and tyrant still, even though social and political thraldom were abolished tomorrow - an experience which can never be lost, while the fact of such associative success, in the face of such difficulties, must live on as a matter of history, leaving proud testimony to the truth and vitality of our principles.

    Nor was it anticipated that all would be smooth and serene, - we expected the storm and strife.  We have against us mighty monopolies of capital, law and government; and not only have we to fight these, but, worst of all, we shall have to bear with, and to live down the jealousies and prejudices of our own class, which will be excited against us; for so fatally have want and misery done their daunting work on thousands.  In turning our attention to self government on a small scale - in humbly endeavouring to realise the republic in our workshops - in clubbing our little monies for the purpose of carrying on production and distribution on our own account, we might not have expected to be indiscriminately and virulently maligned and attacked by the professed friends and representatives of the working classes.  Nor did we deserve to be taunted as being the recipients of 'demoralising charity,' who paid four percent interest for the capital worked with.  Again, as working men, we anticipated being frequently found illustrating that peculiar fraternity so often existing between brothers, a kind of chartered right to quarrel; and, as associates, we arrogated to ourselves a kind of associative prerogative to pitch into each others productions and proceedings; but we did not trade in it, nor did we extend such co-operative privilege to those who did.

The Experiment

Much of the sympathy called forth for the forlorn Seamstresses and 'Sweated' Tailors, - indeed the mission of Mayhew himself in that good work of his, may be traced to the effect wrought by poor Tom Hood's 'Song of the Shirt.'  A greater Sartor Resartus, or Clothes Philosophy, was contained in that than in Carlyle's work of that name.  It burst like a thunder clap upon startled society, which began to tremble, and so investigate the appalling truth.  And it was discovered that human beings, tender females, were toiling and starving, and stitching their lives into their work for twopence-halfpenny per day!  That whole families were toiling worse than the slaves in Egypt, in foodless and fireless garrets for a few shillings a week to subsist on!  It was discovered that side-by-side with all our boasted wealth and magnificence was the most hideous poverty and the most squalid wretchedness.  Pictures of horror and terror were graphically portrayed of the scenes wherein the children of labour, born in tears and reared in misery were ending their dark and damning destiny with the pauper's grave.  The Tailoring trade called special attention.  Meetings were held, and the poor slop workers themselves gave their terrible experiences to the world.  It was shown that even where a tolerably fair price was given in the first place for the making of garments, the intermediate 'sweaters' were reaping rare profits out of it, and the work was absolutely done for nothing.  Thus, if Nicol - one of the most respectable rascals - wanted a hundred Paletots made, he would give them out to some contractor to have them done, say for 7s 6d. each.  This fellow would transfer the clothes to some other of the tribe, to be made for 5s each, and in turn would visit the slop workers in their dirty dens, and get them made for 3s., or 2s 6d. each.  It was thought that the best remedy for this would be in setting the workers up in business upon their own account, and upon the associative principle.  It would at least conserve to the workers the profits of those middle-men.  On this ground many support Association who would not support it did they foresee its ultimate tendencies.  It does more - it conserves to the men all the profits of capital and previous cost of mastership, which in most cases amounts to more than labour gets out of its own produce.  Walter Cooper chanced to be a tailor by trade, and an Association was determined upon under his management.  And now, to my thinking, the first error was committed.  It was in promising too much - in raising expectation too high.  We did not rightly estimate what we had to do.  We spoke of gain continually, instead of demanding sacrifice; and self-interest is not one of the best elements for a true bond of unity.  We did not calculate the difficulties that lay ahead, the mighty monopolies of Capital and Law that were against us, the plots that would be formed to thwart us, and the opposition we should receive from our own class.  That it would need the united energies of men prepared to do and suffer, rather than men who came merely to get what they could, to carry such an experiment to success, and work out Association.  Again, in starting in such a cause, it is a most fatal thing to bring in personal friends with you; like most others, the Associative Cause has been more cursed in its friends than its enemies.  So Walter Cooper has found it.  He gathered around him some personal friends to start with in this experiment - men he was solemnly warned of, and assured that he could not work with.  But Walter Cooper thought that the millenium, at least, had dawned, and the reign of fraternity begun.  He would waive all differences of opinion and, like the magnanimous French people after the struggle of February on launching their young Republic, he had neither suspicion nor fear.  Therefore he took no precaution and, like them, he found himself deceived.  On the 11th of February 1850, commodious workshops and premises having been taken in Castle Street East, twelve men, called together promiscuously, were set to work, and before the expiration of that first week their number had increased to twenty.  Work came in thick and fast, for the promoters had organised a valuable custom - almost calculated to keep a considerable business going - among their own immediate friends and circle of connection.  And to see the anomalous classes of supporters which thronged to that Association, any man as sanguine as Walter Cooper might reasonably have thought it personified the millenium, and the most clashing and conflicting interests became mutual in supporting that Association.  Lords, bishops, duchesses, clergymen, mechanics and labourers were chronicled in its list of customers and, for a time, 'all went merry as a marriage ball.'  It was proposed that the men should work together for three months on probation, to test each others social and working qualities, and their mutual fitness for entering upon the life in association.  Meanwhile they were to discuss a code of laws which they would agree to work under when the Association was formed.  And here was perpetrated the greatest error at starting. Instead of the promoters drawing up a code of laws and presenting it to the men, asking whether they would be willing to form an association and work together on such and such terms, at least until the borrowed capital had been repaid, a set of laws translated from the French by M. Le Chevalier was given to them to discuss, which suited them admirably for, mark you, these were the laws of an Association which had found its own capital and, consequently, was its own master.  Therefore they were in no-wise applicable to an association which had not found its own capital, and which was to be governed not by a manager of its own choosing, but by one who was placed over it to represent that capital, and for which he was held solely responsible. Here began the struggle between manager and men.

The Cause of Quarrel

The moment we differ how easy it is to attribute bad motives and evil intentions which, most probably have no existence, but were purposely conjured up by the feeling which we nurture, evil begetting evil.  I believe there can be no general progression for humanity until we have an identity of interests, which would develop men by attraction; whereas this terrible competition or antagonism of interests develops man by repulsion.  And it also shows how easy it was for Walter Cooper and the men to differ and suspect each others motives on their first cause of quarrel.  I have mentioned that the laws which had been translated for the men at Castle Street were the laws of an association which had found its own capital, and therefore had a right to make its own laws.  These the men claimed. Walter Cooper objected.  These laws would have given the men the power of introducing new members and of discharging others, without the veto of the manager.  Now this would have been perfectly just if the men had provided their own capital, but here the capital was lent to the manager, who was held solely responsible.  These men assumed to be Democrats, and yet they would have legislated as they pleased with other people's money, and because they were not permitted to do so, they branded as a tyrant the man who thwarted them, and who was responsible for the money.  It appears to me that all the men had to do, or could reasonably expect, was to make the best terms compatible with their relative positions, and make all haste in paying the borrowed capital and escaping from the 'tyrrany' which it imposed.  But the great reason for this struggle and the maligning of the manager as a 'tyrant' was this - certain of the probationers had got an inkling that the manager had found them out, and could not work with them, and that they, therefore, stood but little chance of becoming associates.  They talked to the men of 'Democracy,' 'Tyrrany,' and 'Slavery,' irritated them, aroused their pride and bound them to stand by them in their dictatorship, and back them in their demands.  So determined was the principal man in this affair not to leave the Association, but to have a hand in it and oust the manager, that he proposed to buy the concern, or rather sell it out of the hands of the Promoters, and offered to borrow £200 as his part towards it.  This was dangerous talk for a young Association (indeed, it was not yet an Association) struggling with difficulties and surrounded with battling enmities.  Was it not an imperative necessity to be rid of such men, and where was the tyrrany in excluding them? Walter Cooper would have been a traitor to his order, and a traitor to the principle of Co-operation, not to have done so.  Honour to him, say we, for daring to act in the manner he did!  For he knew that it was the sacrifice of his reputation with hundreds of working men, who are so easy to catch at, and believe any calumny or lie spoken against one of themselves, especially if he is represented as a tyrant.  The Association was formed, when seventeen out of twenty were elected to become associates.  The excluded boasted that they had left a faction behind which would yet break up the Association, in revenge for their dismissal.  They continued to agitate until it became a matter of stern necessity to send others away.  After this, things went on calmly for some months, though it was felt the calm was an ominous one.  There were continual indications of smouldering disquiet and discontent, yet the Association was successful in a pecuniary sense.  Never was an effort of working men for their mutual betterance more eminently prosperous and never was a cause more bedevilled by those engaged in it.  Why, we had our balance sheet made out by an accountant for the first quarter, and divided some £40 in profit, when it was afterwards discovered that more than that amount had been spent, without the invoices having been entered, which if entered, would have left no profit at all to divide.  Yet we always balanced our cash!  Of course such a state of things was a fair ground of complaint on the part of the men, only they made the fatal mistake (that is, the faction left behind) of making it the medium of their revenge and over-reached themselves.  The books of the Association were always open to the men and to the customers and, at the expiration of nine months, they were given up to those appointed to examine them.  There were blunders and mistakes enough in all conscience to have satisfied the most hungry mistake mongers, but they lay on both sides, and about outset each other, this demonstrating that there had been no 'cooking' of accounts, with all our ignorance of business routine.  But the appointed examiners only looked for mistakes on one side, and that of course against the management, and thus defeated their own aims.  Fifty four of the alleged mistakes were reduced to four.  Still, the blundering and misrepresentation of these men caused great irritation amongst the rest of the associates, and we went from bad to worse.  Finally, the promoters of the experiment were called in to make a binding decision.  This was given - printed in the Christian Socialist and in Notes to the People - that the Association should be dissolved, and a new one formed.  The basis should consist of the Manager, the Cutter, and two men out of the shop, whom the promoters specified.  It was stipulated that these four should elect a fifth, the five should choose a sixth, and so on.  The promoters had no voice in the non re-election of certain members and the men took the opportunity to sift the Association of all bad and indifferent workers.  This was a painful day, because a man might be an indifferent worker, and yet a 'jolly good fellow,' but it was resolved to sacrifice friendship at the shrine of principle.  Altogether, nine of the old associates were not re-elected; but these were not robbed of the fruit of their accumulated labour.  Each man had his fair share of the net profits, earned while he was an associate, as estimated by a competent accountant.

Conclusion

The Cooper-haters - for I cannot call them Co-operators - never let slip an opportunity of reviling the Association, especially its Manager.  Some few of them held together and formed a new Association, appointing the leader of them to be their Manager - poor fellow!  One could not have prayed a worse punishment for him.  They did not cling together long, but broke up, calling each other sorry names; and poor Benny! he was denounced worse than Cooper.  Many false statements were circulated regarding their leaving the Working Tailors' Association, none more damaging than the one averring that they had been robbed of the fruits of their accumulated labour, which was simply a lie!  Seeing that each man received his full share of the profits earned while he was a member, over and above his weekly earnings, leaving the Association worth about as much as its liabilities amounted to!  Various statements of this kind were sent to the press; among other journals I may mention the Leader, the Northern Star, Eliza Cook's Journal, etc. These were received with caution.  The various Editors applied to us at the Association for our report of the affair, which we furnished, so that they had both versions to judge by; in each case, save one, this had the effect of determining them not to publish it.  The one illustrious exception was Mr. Ernest Jones.  At this time he had began to manifest his strange, unwarranted, and suicidal opposition to the Co-operative Movement.  Without consulting Walter Cooper, or any other parties connected with the Associations - without knowing anything of the quarrel or the men, save from a Mr. Harris, one of the ejected, Mr. E. Jones inserted in his journal Notes to the People all the atrocious lies and dastardly insinuations which that worthy had furnished him with, without enquiring as to their veracity.  Because we did not think it worth while to reply, Mr. Jones endorsed them, and proclaimed them to be true.  So it followed that any infamous statement made in his paper which might be thought too vile and contemptible for denial in the columns of the Christian Socialist, must inevitably be true.  And why were Mr. Harris's statements not replied to?  Because, at Castle Street, he was known for a drunken and disreputable person.  In one place Mr. Jones asserts, 'I always averred that the very spirit of incarnate selfishness was in your plan of Cooperation.'  Yet the Central Agency divides profits with its customers and in the Associations they have always shared equally, whether they were associates or auxiliaries.  One of our laws provides that when we have repaid the borrowed Capital, one third of our net profits shall go to the general Associative Fund to assist others.  Another, that if the Association be broken up from any other cause than insolvency, four-fifths of the whole property shall be given up to the general fund.  This is a check against grasping selfishness which might break up the Association for its profits.  I cannot glean from the writings of Mr. Jones that he has any honest and tangible complaint to substantiate against this Cooperative Movement - no earnest desire to set it right wherein it may have been wrong, nor any competent plan for doing so.  Old Chartists and Socialists, farther-seeing, farther-reaching than Mr. Jones are to be found in the present movement.  Indeed, the very flower and chivalry of English Democratic workmen, not yet fossilised in the political stagnation are there, grasping the means within their more immediate reach, for the enfranchisement of their class.  And so far from their not seeing the utility of Political Reform, I dare aver, that they best comprehend the value and necessity of such Reform in effecting the Social Revolution they are engaged in.  We are at a loss to lay our hand on the incentive to Mr. Jones' opposition.  At the end of the first year, the Castle Street Association had done business to the amount of four thousand pounds and upwards, and at the end of the second year it had doubled that amount.  The average weekly wage of the London tailors, according to the last census taken, was 14s 6d.  The average of the men in Castle Street has been 23s., which, with the inestimable benefit of clean and healthy workshops, demonstrates the immense superiority of Co-operation over Competition.  Looking then upon what has been done, we cannot join with those who assert that nothing can be done until the political Revolution be first accomplished.  Doubtless, that would be the greatest leverage the people could obtain for the working out of the Social Revolution, if they knew what they wanted, and possessed sufficient unity to accomplish it.  But let us not decry any honest attempt to emancipate even the few from the grinding tyranny of Capital - any such movement is better than apathetic suffering and deadly starvation.

Star of Freedom, Apr., May, Jun., 1852.
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APPENDIX B

A PROPHET OF ILL: GERALD MASSEY UPON THE LABOUR
QUESTIONS OF THE DAY.

Dangers from Dynamite - Men Who Fail to Do Their Duty -
A Remedy for Threatened Anarchy in America.

    Gerald Massey, the English poet, lecturer, philosopher and theorist, is at present in this city.  A child of poverty and reared in the midst of squalor, Mr. Massey has built for himself a niche in the temple of fame, for he is honored among men as a high example of the possibilities of mental growth under the circumstances of the most disadvantageous nature.  A prominent advocate of the laboring classes, and a co-organiser with Professor Morris, Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hughes of the co-operative system that has already gained such a foothold in Great Britain, Mr. Massey's views upon the relative duties of labor and capital are held as valuable and most worthy of study.  He is at present on route to Australia, and tarries with us for the purpose of giving two of his quaint lectures that have aroused so much attention in England and in this country.  A representative of THE CALL met him yesterday and requested an interview upon the labor in this country and the probable outcome of our system of popular government.  Mr. Massey's remarks may be premised by the statement that Mr. Massey has visited America several times, and that this latest sojourn here has already extended over eight months.  "My belief is still strong," said he, "in the probable benefits of

CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION

Between labor and capital, although the results have fallen far short of what I had hoped to see before this time.  So far as I can see, the only means of securing the peace and prosperity of a nation will be found in the unity of capital and labor.  The workingman revolts against what he believes to be an unjust division of profits and the unhealthy accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few to the despoiling of the many.  In this he is certainly to a great  extent right, although it is difficult to say exactly where the line shall be drawn between reason and groundless assertion.  It is questionable that the present system is working serious harm to all classes of society, and it must result sooner or later, in a condition of government and commercial anarchy.  Everything tends to force this conclusion upon the mind of a thoughtful man, and to fill him with astonishment at the blindness of the powers that be.    It did seems at one time as though the difficulty would be solved through the help of co-operation, but unfortunately, the moneyed classes did not recognize the value of this remedial agent, and as little good could be accomplished without their aid the principle has found small chance of development.  With co-operation there would be an end to strikes, while with strikes there can be only one result, and that is horrible to think of.  In this country more than anywhere else in the world, the danger is imminent, for you have more liberty here than you know what to do with and you erect no safeguards against the unbridled passions of the people.  In this land crude individuality is rampant, for each man is, to an alarming extent, a law unto himself, and takes but little heed of anything that is not connected with his own immediate interests.  Your men of labor, of brains, and of business experience

AVOID THE PATHS OF PUBLIC LIFE,

And devote themselves exclusively to the amassing of fortunes and the gratifying of their personal whims.  Look at the condition of your jury system, see how your party representatives are selected, study the history of your ballot-box, scan the digests of your laws, and then tell me if your best citizens do their duty to their fellow-men and to themselves.  To your land are drawn the aggressive elements of labor from the crowded centres of Europe, and here they are allowed to gather together in your large cities and hatch out rebellion in whatever shape most please them.  Many of these people are common enemies of mankind, for their only aim is to plunder, and their only joy destruction; yet your leaders blindly pass them by and take no measures to prevent what must come if there be no prevention used.  This frightful amount of combustible material in your cities will take flame one day, and then who knows when the incendiary torch can be quenched, or in what form of anarchy or despotism the revolt of the masses may end.  You may think this is all unfounded speculation, but I tell you, the history of the world points to this conclusion, and it is accentuated by the supineness of your government and the criminal indifference of those who should be your mental leaders.  Although nominally so intended, do you really believe all this dynamite business will be confined to Europe?  In view of the widespread dissatisfaction among your people, such an idea cannot possibly be true.  Are you not on the eve of a social explosion?  What else can these well-organized and constantly recurring strikes mean; these

DAILY INSTANCES OF MOB VENGEANCE

Against those who should be only subject to the law, these riots in Pittsburg among the railwaymen, among the miners, and especially this last one in Cincinnati?  And yet in the light of these warnings, your government allows the dynamiters to foster their plans unchecked.  In Brooklyn I found a Russian, one Professor Mezzerow, openly training large classes of dangerous men in the art of preparing and handling dynamite.  The time may come, and perhaps ere long, when some of these pupils will use their dangerous knowledge for other purposes than those at present avowed, and right here in your midst.  Everything moves faster in America than elsewhere, for your people are progressive in all things, except the regulating of government, and if dynamite outrages once begin here, their horrors will be multiplied with unparalleled rapidity. When that time comes, when riot, bloodshed and rapine are devastating the country, your better men will come to the front, and will perhaps succeed in quelling the passions of the mob - but why should they wait until then?  There is probably yet time to avoid these evils if prompt measures be taken by those who appreciate the need, and who will take sufficient time from their daily vocations to study out and put in force the proper remedies.  Through long centuries labour has been oppressed and ill-paid, and now, when the working classes are just learning the great strength of their power, is the time when their movements should be guided by those who can appreciate their rights and who can secure them without the employment of undue force.

INFLAMMATORY LEADERS

Should be set aside and their places taken in each community by men of acknowledged worth.  The labourer has grasped the crude idea that capital makes all the laws of usury and feeds upon the substance of the poor.  Let him find that the honest men of the better educated classes are determined he shall no longer be treated as a machine, and he will gratefully accept their guidance, to the bettering of himself and his country.  If such a course be adopted, you will find that the communistic spirit will die out more rapidly than it has grown, for you Americans strike me as a kindly and longsuffering class, and therefore as a people who have been slowly driven to the verge of excess, but who could be easily turned away from their wrath by judicious and kindly treatment.  The agitators who now play so prominent a part in the embittering of public sentiment, would be discarded at once, and sink into utter insignificance, if those who were born to be leaders of the popular thought would only assert themselves and perform their duty by the Government they profess to cherish, but which they really ignore.  I honestly think the adoption of such a course is your only chance to avoid a far more terrible state of affairs even than the one that is now threatened in Great Britain.  Here, anarchy would find supporters in every city in the Union, while there, the labouring classes have almost ceased to think of their own grievances, so overwhelmed are they with indignation over the later phases of the Irish question."

    After this the conversation turned upon light topics, and finally the journalist took his leave, most pleasantly impressed with the versatile thought and conversational powers of Mr. Gerald Massey.

Cincinnati Call, 24 Jun., 1884.
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APPENDIX C

ASPECTS OF PERSONALITY

A reader of any biography should be able to discern the active constituents of the main character's personality.  From publications in books and periodicals, correspondence and second-hand anecdotes, a structure is built to compose both positive and negative aspects.  More, of course can be revealed should the person still be living, with close friends and acquaintances adding other, perhaps more complex perspectives to those already adduced.  But if the subject has been dead for some hundred years, material upon which a more accurate portrait can be built may be non-existent.  Despite this there are methods, one of which has proven aspects of scientific validity, that are able to suggest possible motivating aspects to the personality structure.  It must be noted that the development of any structure has always to include the effect of early environment.

    In the case of Gerald Massey, literary remains including correspondence, primary and secondary material in periodicals, together with photographs now provide the sole source for this information.  From these, he can be judged as extraversive, with a friendly, restless, 'bright and breezy' personality.  Idealistically goal-orientated to excess, there was an ambitious, demonstrative, but capable desire for self-advancement.  Those factors together with impatience and sensitivity produced stress-related tension, at times inducing physical symptoms, and he developed a forceful reactive opposition to external conditions.  Positively, and early in life this was a protest against social injustice, but it developed later into sharp responses against criticism of his ideas.  When lecturing he never had any apprehension, saying that he felt barely conscious of the audience, as if he were 'isolated' or 'insulated' from them.  Humane and fond of animals, he considered that the practice of vivisection, which he opposed, was due to the pernicious religious doctrine still promulgated by some theologians today, that animals have no souls and cannot therefore join the elect Homo Sapiens in Heaven.  Most recently, an American creationist (Intelligent Design movement), stated that one of the reasons why humans and chimpanzees cannot share a common ancestor is that humans have immortal souls and chimps do not (New Scientist, 9 July 2005, p.12).  Although bronchitis precluded him from smoking, he was not completely teetotal and the family in later years made the usual homemade wine.

    In considering some other methods of personality assessment, no published time of birth has been traced, so the much disputed use of astrology cannot be applied.  Another such subject is phrenology, which had a very popular vogue in the 1800s and early 1900s.  Hypothesized by Drs Francois Gall and Johann Spurzheim in the late 1700s, with support given also by Sir G. S. Mackenzie FRS, it developed via medical practitioners who demonstrated brain pathology.[1]

    The concept of localisation, duplicated in each hemisphere of the brain, divided forty-one areas of mental function in the cerebrum and one in the cerebellum into seven functional groups.  Those areas had their locations featured outwardly by degrees of protuberation on the outer surface of the skull.  The groups, such as Literary-Observing-Knowing, and Selfish Propensities, included the faculties of Form, Size, Colour, Time, Language, Executive or Aggressive energy, Acquisitiveness, and Secretiveness.  Each of the faculties was localised to a specific brain area.  In analysis, account was made of the degree of dominance of a faculty, together with the blending effect of combinations of several.  Due to continued research into neuropathology, and the findings that areas were less defined than previously made out, the subject declined, and the last Phrenological Society was disbanded in 1967.  Since then, contemporary research publications have related some areas in more general terms to phrenological groupings, thus returning to some localisation of various faculties.  The frontal lobes now associated with language, picture design and arrangement, were assigned by phrenology to perceptives, such as size, weight, colour and order.  Arithmetic and abstraction are parietal, whereas the phrenologists assigned arithmetic (as calculation) to the frontal orbital area, as part of the perceptives.  Abstraction in the parietal had, for the phrenologists, areas of veneration, benevolence, hope, and spirituality.  There must be also correlation between colour and sound, as in synesthesia, where sound in some persons induces visualisation of a certain colour.  It is probable that in the future, there will be a redefining of the groups together with some of the areas, but in terms not completely aligned with the original interpretations.[2]  Although research into area imaging of visual and emotional impressions is progressing with the aid of Positron Emission Tomography and magneto-encephalography, abstract mental processes are more structurally complex.[3]  In any case, the outward bony manifestations of the functions essential to the claims of popular phrenologists is also disputed; either the skull prominences grow to match the convolutions of the brain, or the convolutions grow to match the prominences and depressions.[4]

    A very brief, generalised, and therefore not truly representative phrenological reading from a photograph of Massey was given in an American journal, using the now out of date terminology of the period:

The face indicates a high order of temperament and organic development.  It is a refined character.  That mold of face, did one know ought of the man, would impress him with a sense of its origin from the highest sources.  There is nothing in it which furnishes a clue to the fact that its derivation should be sought among the low and untutored.  In saying this we treat the subject from the point of view of the people generally, not from the point of view of the physiological scientist, leaving entirely out of sight those germinal principles which so strangely relate to the ante-natal life of man.  The intellect of Mr. Massey is evidently clear, sharp, comprehensive and esthetical.  The upper portion of the brain is developed somewhat more than the lower, hence he is much given to the investigation of abstract subjects, considering questions chiefly in connection with their moral aspects.  He belongs to the type of thinkers who urge radical measures of reform, who would break down entirely a system or institution, although it might be constructively useful in its practical application to every-day affairs, if it were, nevertheless, based upon error.  Yet he is broad and liberal in moral thought, prone to discuss religious questions, not shirking a declaration of his own views when called upon. In regard to the consideration of moral and economic affairs he is, in the main, scientific.  While a Tyndall - whom he somewhat resembles - or a Youmans would investigate physical matters, searching out their underlying causes and defining their resultant consequences, Mr. Massey is found looking into the underlying causes of moral movements, and tracing them in their influences and results. His temperament is highly sanguine, its influence being to quicken, energize, and warm up the intellectual activities.  He is a hopeful, cheerful spirit as well as earnest and progressive - an enthusiast in most senses of the term, and, like enthusiasts, given to over-endeavour through the fullness and depth of his sincerity.  His errors are chiefly on the side of excessive action or thought.[5]

    Based on firmer ground, although not without opposition, is handwriting analysis, the origins of which date to the 17th century.  Extensive and continuing research from the early 1900s received an impetus from Professor Rudolph Pophal (1893-1966) who held the Chair of Graphology at the University of Hamburg.  He confirmed that the physiological basis of handwriting movements are related to brain and muscle structures.  As an expressive dynamic movement combining factors of three dimensional tension and release, handwriting was ideal for the development of clinical handwriting psychology.  Emotions, personal relations, integrated and disintegrated states of personality in relationship to handwriting were studied, particularly in Universities in Europe.  The results assured accreditation for the inclusion of handwriting analysis in the psychology syllabus of a number of European universities.  These included Munich, Freiburg, Berlin, Urbino, Madrid and Salamanca, as well as the Institute for Applied Psychology, Zurich, and the School of Forensic Medicine, Valencia.  In addition to Dr Rudolph Pophal's appointment, Dr Lutz Wagner was appointed Professor of Graphology, University of Munich, from 1955-1975.  While increasing popularity in the subject has ensured continuing research, in common with all disciplines that gain a certain acceptance, this also breeds commercialism which leads too often to superficiality.  Critics then accuse the subject of generality and lacking depth.  However, analytical notes of serial samples of Massey's handwriting appear to provide a greater insight into the motivation that acted both positively and negatively in the development of his personality.

    The small samples illustrated show the development of his handwriting over a period of forty years.  The first sample at the age of 18 was written specifically for a manuscript journal, and demonstrates his slow, careful and originally learned virtually copy-book style.  In terms of psychology, out of the four functions described by Jung, thinking, sensation, intuition and feeling, his primary function was that of sensation.  This gives strong reality orientation, with details and affairs of the moment perceived as standing apart from and being of greater importance than the overall context.  His over-descriptive poetry and early prose works show this in operation.  The secondary function was thinking, which seeks to understand the world and to adjust to it by logical inferences.  Both functions were extraversive, giving immediate sociable spontaneity, adaptability and interest in the spirit of the times.  Due to his puritanical and hard childhood his emotional life had not evolved normally, his moral code developing as a performance-image - nothing can be achieved except through hard work.  At the age of 26 he presents a developed positive inferiority complex giving him a strong and effective drive towards creative skills.  However, this came with suppressed aggression giving restlessness, over-compensated by strong idealism, bluff behaviour and a desire for dominance in personal contacts.  His feelings of inferiority were probably enforced physically by his short stature, which he attempted to offset through the presentation of a distinctive personal appearance with much facial hair.  Whilst security was sought through activity and a high social profile and he felt relaxed within group contacts, relationships at a more personal level, apart from family and close friends, gave him unease, making him appear at times rather cold and detached.  His inferiority complex made him also at times sensitive to criticism.  At the age of 32, a time of poverty and misfortune, the writing sample indicates his open depression and chaotic emotions.  There is neurotic uncertainty that conflicted with his desire for positive progress.

    From the sample at age 41, now requiring less security and wishing for greater freedom and independence, his inferiority shows over-compensation by exaggerated displays of self-confidence, despite hidden depression that he defends by exaggerated extraversion.  A further defence is his aesthetic image, which received expression at that time in his poetic work, A Tale of Eternity.

    At age 45, just prior to leaving England for his first American tour, his writing shows considerable fear for the unknown; he realised that failure of the tour would mean financial disaster.  He defended his anxiety by using emotional control and over-planning to ensure that nothing could go wrong, yet at the same time fearing that it would.

    The last sample at age 58 indicates continued restlessness with over exaggerated self-demonstration.  High ideals combined with anxiety for security gave him poor self-control, and even increased literary activity did not provide any help.

    Overall, his main direction in life was dictated by strong mental intensity concentrated solely towards ideals, since all else he tended to find as lacking in satisfaction. Nevertheless, as in the personalities of Goethe, Jack London and Hermann Hesse, sound feeling for surroundings developed actively and creatively through his lyric and aesthetic guiding image.

    These comments have been kindly provided by John Beck, President of The Graphology Society, London, and Dr Christian Dettweiler, Internationale Gesellschaft für Dynamische und Klinische Schriftpsychologie, Stuttgart.  See also Nevo, B. (ed.) Scientific Aspects of Graphology (Springfield, Charles Thomas, 1986).

NOTES
 to Appendix C

1.

Mackenzie, Sir G.S., Illustrations of Phrenology (London, Constable, 1820) gives the Orders and Genus of brain correspondences according to Spurzheim and Gall.

2.

Hedderly, Frances, Phrenology. A Study of Mind (London, Fowler, 1970).  McFie, John, 'Recent Advances in Phrenology' in the Lancet, 12 Aug. 1961, 360-3.  Jerison, Harry, 'Should Phrenology be Rediscovered?' in Current Anthropology, 18, (Dec. 1977), 744-6.  Clarke, E., Dewhurst, K. An Illustrated History of Brain Function (Oxford, Sandford, 1972).

3.

See John McCrone's article 'Maps of the Mind' in the New Scientist, 145, (7 Jan. 1995), 30-34.

4.

Dr Bernard Hollander, in his Scientific Phrenology (London, Grant Richards, 1902) considered the 'bump-theory' a misrepresentation of the subject.  The actual mental functions were denoted by the relative development of different regions in the brain.  He attributed intellect and moral sense to the frontal lobes, propensities to the temporal and parietal lobes, and affections to the occipital lobe.

There appears to be more evidence concerning localisation.  In BBC News online (Sci/Tech) 17 June 2002 it was reported that professional musicians have more grey matter in a part of the brain involved in processing music.  This finding was made by a team at the University of Heidelburg.  The region in the brain is Heschl's (transverse temporal) gyrus, part of the auditory cortex situated in the Sylvan fissure, and it was found to be some 130% larger in professional musicians.  Rhythm and pitch tend to be processed in the left-hand side of the brain, while timbre and melody is dealt with on the right.  See also (briefly) New Scientist 22 June 2002 p. 25.  This specified area appears to be close to the Phrenological area allocated to 'Tune'.  A further example can be cited from University College London, following the results of research concerning the navigation ability of London Taxi drivers.  MRI brain scans showed slightly enlarged areas that processed orientation, within the Hippocampus. (Proc. Nat. Academy of Sciences 97, 8, Apr.11, 2000, pp 4398-403). Ongoing research (Scientific American Special Edition 2004, vol. 14, 1, 24-31) into specialised brain functions has noted that music is processed in various areas of the brain.  Simple rhythmic relations in a melody are processed (with some other areas) in sections of the parietal lobe in the left hemisphere.   More complex relations such as between meter and rhythms are dealt with mainly in the frontal lobe and right upper temporal lobe regions in the right hemisphere.   This equates in some degree with the Phrenologists areas of Tune and Time, situated in the second frontal convolution, and in the third frontal convolution, below the temporal ridge. See Frances Hedderly's Phrenology (London, Fowler, 1970).  It should be noted that the Phrenologists had assumed that brain faculties were duplicated in both hemispheres of the brain, and were far less complex than is now realised.'

5.

The Phrenological Journal and Life Illustrated (New York), 58, (Jan. 1874),6-7.

___________________________

 
APPENDIX D

The "MILTONIC EPITAPH"
— a debate concerning an unpublished poem ascribed to
John Milton.

The Times for July 16, 1868, published a letter by Henry Morley, Professor of English Literature at University College, London.  In the letter Morley stated that he had found a poem, entitled 'An Epitaph,' in Milton's handwriting, on a blank page in the 1645 volume of Poems both English and Latin.  This book was in the British Museum's King's Library, formed by George III, the poem being written on the reverse of the blank end page.  The poem consisted of 54 lines, packed into the size of a piece of notepaper, with a signature appearing to be 'J.M., O^ber, 1647.'  A British Museum stamp partly covered the signature.  The poem, with modernised spelling as published, is shown below. The lines have been numbered throughout to aid reference.

    Comments and criticisms were quick to follow in The Times and in other principal papers.  A leader in the Daily Telegraph the following day applauded the discovery, stating that, "A careful perusal and reperusal of the literary windfall, will corroborate the belief that it really is a piece of John Milton's work..."  However,  in a letter to The Times, Lord Winchilsea (George Finch-Hatton) firmly disagreed, referencing a number of incongruities, one being the rhyming of Line 35: 

"Even", he said, "granting its authenticity, Milton must have been very old and very ill when he commenced this poem, but towards the end he must have certainly gone, what is vulgarly called, 'off his head.'  Upon no other principle could the most careful, the most learned, the most rhythmical, and the most Christian of our great poets have concluded what Mr. Morley would have us suppose he intended for his epitaph with such a jumble from Bedlam as the last ten lines."

    Further doubt as to the poem's authenticity was given at the same time by W.B. Rye, Assistant-Keeper of the Department of Printed Books at the British Museum, who stated, "....I am induced to make it known that the poem is subscribed with the initials 'P.M.,' and not 'J.M.,' as represented by Mr. Morley; and that, moreover, the handwriting is not Milton's.  In this opinion I am confirmed by Mr. Bond, the Keeper of the Department of MSS."

    The letters now became personal.  One author commented that, "....Whether the poem be by Milton or not, it is at least as good as any of the verses with which Lord Winchilsea has favoured an unappreciative public..."  With this remark he was probably referring to Free-Trade Hexameters and Abd-el-Kader published under the name of Viscount Maidstone that were reviewed in the Athenæum of June 8 1850 and July 5 1851 respectively.

    Another writer, in the Morning Star of July 20, ended his letter thus: "Lord Winchilsea has proved nothing but his own astonishing self-conceit, and his absolute ignorance of the subject on which he was at once so funnily dogmatic and so dismally facetious."

    An anonymous letter published in the Pall Mall Gazette noted again that the signature was considered by the British Museum to be "P.M.," and not "J.M.," and not in Milton's handwriting.  The writer asked how could it be, as the writing is "P.M.'s" and not Milton's?  "Who P.M. was nobody knows, and in the words of the old stave, nobody cares, for we judge from the poem which Mr. Morley has exhumed, our literature is not considerably indebted to him.  When 'P.M.' 'tuned his quills,' it was not to the melody of the author of 'Il Penseroso,' and it is to be hoped that no one else will find any more of his precious remains."

    Amongst the personal attacks, there were some who cared more for semantics than abuse.  'T.C.' in The Times quoted line 14: "Make their own tears their Helicon," and commented, "Surely Milton, with his accurate learning, would have known that Helicon is a mountain, and not a streamlet.  He would not have confounded it, as the author of these verses apparently does, with Hippocrene."

    On the 21 July David Masson joined the debate.  Masson, Professor of English Literature at Edinburgh University, was later to publish an analysis of Milton's poetical works (1874) but was then at work on his Life of Milton, a complete history and critical analysis in 7 volumes, which appeared between 1859 and 1894.  Always polite, Masson wrote that he had seen the lines in the volume mentioned by Morley and had written a note at the time that in his opinion the handwriting was contemporary and not Milton's.  However, he could not be sure — especially when so good an authority as Morley had formed a contrary opinion — and asked that a comparison be made with further examples of Milton's handwriting.  He also thought the internal evidence was rather against, there being nothing especially Miltonic in the whole — if, indeed, there were not minute dissonances to an experienced ear.  Furthermore, the lines under debate do not appear in the second edition of Milton's poems published in 1673 (the year before Milton's death), which included pieces not in the first edition.

    The debate continued.  Another correspondent referring to line 14 — "Make their own tears their Helicon" — noted that there were two fountains on this — Aganippe and Hippocrene — for which Helicon itself could be substituted by a figure of speech.

    On the 24 July, commenting further on the issue David Masson wondered why he had not previously noted that the word 'its' occurs three times in the poem:—

'its' being an utterly un-Miltonic word, occurring only three times in the whole body of Milton's poetry.  In every other case where we should use its, Milton in the original editions used the form his or the substitute her.  In ordinary modern editions its has crept into the text, sometimes through ignorant printing.  Masson considered this fatal to the controversy.

    Correspondence on the subject continued.  Contrary to the general trend of opinion, Hepworth Dixon, writing in The Times and in the Athenæum, made further pro-Milton semantic criticisms while Henry Morley remained convinced that the poem was Milton's.

    On the 10 August, Massey, a fervent admirer of Milton, entered the lists.  In publishing his letter the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette hoped to remove any lingering doubts about the real character of the epitaph "so absurdly ascribed to Milton" — Massey's thorough analysis and typically uncompromising conclusion appears to have achieved that end.......

To the EDITOR of the PALL MALL GAZETTE.

    Sir,—Will you permit me a word on this subject, although I am late in the field ?  From the first I did not, could not, feel that the lines ascribed to Milton were really his.  I saw no sign of the master's hand ; felt no thrill of his mental presence.  I did not believe that that he would have made such a dramatic blunder as we have in the confusion of the first and third person.  I could not fancy the hater of "like endings" who spoke of rhymes as jingle, writing these two lines :—

Nor could I feel that I was marching with Milton through the other lines to so lame and impotent a conclusion.  But I felt no immediate necessity for rushing into the controversy, and thrusting my private opinion upon the public.  However, an echo of something familiar in the lines would continue to haunt me, and the other day, as I was wondering afresh whose voice it was I seemed to hear, it suddenly struck me the likeness must be Crashawe's.  "Blubbering rills," I thought; surely that is very like Crashawe !  I turned to his poems.  First, I came upon "blubbered face" (p. 17, Nichol's ed.) ; then I found—

Which sounded rather like the idea of the Heliconian hill becoming a stream as it does in the epitaph.

    Curiously enough, Crashawe persistently makes Helicon a stream, and not the hill, e.g. :—

As I went on likeness after likeness became apparent.  These are the first three lines of the now famous epitaph :—

    The first line of one of Crashawe's (he wrote several) begins thus :—

Dear reliques of a dislodged soul.—P. 88.

Five of Crashawe's poems were written on the death of Mr. Herrys, of Pembroke Hall, a friend of the poet's ; of whom he says :—

    Of its subject the epitaph sings :—

    The epitaph runs—

    Crashawe has it—

    Again, the epitaph says :—

    And here is the whole of Crashawe's "Epitaph upon Dr. Brook:"—

    Here we have the idea of the Muses leaving the "two-topped mount divine" to dwell on the banks of this new Helicon, which is supplied by their own tears.  And here, I fancy, may be found the reason why Helicon in the epitaph is turned into a stream.  In both cases it is a stream of tears.  Next let us take some other instances :—

    And to make assurance doubly sure let me point out that the "little bed incurtained round" is also Crashawe's.  Most readers of poetry know his "Epitaph upon Husband and Wife who died and were buried together."  In this they will fine these lines :—

    Again, the epitaph runs thus :—

    Crashawe writes—

    Other plagiarisms might be noted, but I do not think that I have left much of the poem for Milton.  The poems of Crashawe from whom I quote were first published in 1646, the year before the date assigned to Milton's supposed poem, so that Crashawe could not copy from the epitaph.  Is it to be supposed, then, that Milton, in his thirty-ninth year, would vamp up such a thing as that, and rifle Crashawe's poems of almost every idea for so poor a purpose ?  So far as internal evidence can go, I for one think this conclusive, and the most bigoted in favour of the Miltonic authorship must surely admit that it affords fresh cause for doubt.

    Do I, then, imagine that Crashawe wrote the epitaph in question ?  Assuredly not.  Poets do not steal from themselves in that way, whether consciously or unconsciously ; nor would Crashawe, a man of fertile, quick fancy, have scattered a dozen ideas over half a dozen poems, and then collected them again to twist them into one poem precisely of the same nature.  If the handwriting of the epitaph be really like Milton's and the initials "J.M.," I should be very much tempted to conclude that the plagiarist is also the forger.—Yours

Gerald Massey.

August 10, 1868.

    [We have waived our decision not to insert any more correspondence on this subject in favour of Mr. Massey's letter, in the hope that it may remove any lingering doubts of the real character of the epitaph so absurdly ascribed to Milton, and put an end to a childish controversy.]

    A scrapbook kept by Morley containing cuttings of the correspondence together with his handwritten marginalia is in the British Library, Shelfmark 11826.k.16

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