Education and Harmonization

In volume four, we are introduced to the aging sailor Griffith, who, as it turns out, fathered the irascible Mrs. Blagden. The point, however, that Robinson seems to make with this character is that, at least from Walshingham's point of view, he is depicted as something of an answer to what the quintessential well-educated, ideal man is, as discussed in the very beginning of the novel with Mr. Hanbury. In terms of sympathy/sensibility, Griffith is effusive almost to a fault... almost. As Walsingham describes, "I desired him to cover his head -- he bowed, and obeyed my orders; not as if to gratify his own convenience, but with that graced complacency which seems to experience pleasure in harmonizing the feelings of others" (382-3). Harmony, I think, is key here. Having too much sensibility, being too sympathetic might by injurious to one's wellbeing, sycophantic and doting. But here, Griffith seems to have somehow mastered it. How exactly he achieved this harmonization of sensibility isn't exactly given, although the secret might be as simple as when Griffith puts it here, "There is no remedy but submission to the will of Heaven" (384). This is a kind of religious education not born out of teaching or instruction but out of something learned on one's own; an acceptance, it seems on a spiritual level, something which the boarding schools, such as attended by Isabella, seem to lack. This is in contrast to such gentrified characters as the literary group, Lady Aubrey, and later Lord Kencarth, who, although they have had educations that only privilege of their sort can afford, don't seem to know what to do with them. This is exemplified best in the case of the masquerade and the irony of the masks. A certain kind of religious devotion and faith, perhaps, might be the secret to the true education that Robinson's primary characters are in search of. Although this is all just speculation, this kind of harmonization reminds me of a passage in Plato's Republic in which Socrates concludes that the definition of justice is a well-ordered soul. Food for thought.