Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11), Herbert Spencer [historical books to read .txt] 📗

Over This Rock A Glacier Slid

A Million Years Ago? The   Truth Is, That Those Who Have Never Entered

Part 1 Chapter 1 (What Knowledge Is Of Most Worth?) Pg 19

Upon Scientific Pursuits Are Blind To Most Of    The   Poetry By Which They

Are Surrounded. Whoever Has Not In Youth Collected Plants And Insects,

Knows Not Half The   Halo Of    Interest Which Lanes And Hedge-Rows Can

Assume. Whoever Has Not Sought For Fossils, Has Little Idea Of    The

Poetical Associations That Surround The   Places Where Imbedded Treasures

Were Found. Whoever At The   Sea-Side Has Not Had A Microscope And

Aquarium, Has Yet To Learn What The   Highest Pleasures Of    The   Sea-Side

Are. Sad, Indeed, Is It To See How Men Occupy Themselves With

Trivialities, And Are Indifferent To The   Grandest Phenomena--Care Not To

Understand The   Architecture Of    The   Heavens, But Are Deeply Interested In

Some Contemptible Controversy About The   Intrigues Of    Mary Queen Of

Scots!--Are Learnedly Critical Over A Greek Ode, And Pass By Without A

Glance That Grand Epic Written By The   Finger Of    God Upon The   Strata Of

The Earth!

 

 

 

We Find, Then, That Even For This Remaining Division Of    Human

Activities, Scientific Culture Is The   Proper Preparation. We Find That

Aesthetics In General Are Necessarily Based Upon Scientific Principles;

And Can Be Pursued With Complete Success Only Through An Acquaintance

With These Principles. We Find That For The   Criticism And Due

Appreciation Of    Works Of    Art, A Knowledge Of    The   Constitution Of    Things,

Or In Other Words, A Knowledge Of    Science, Is Requisite. And We Not Only

Find That Science Is The   Handmaid To All Forms Of    Art And Poetry, But

That, Rightly Regarded, Science Is Itself Poetic.

 

 

Thus Far Our Question Has Been, The   Worth Of    Knowledge Of    This Or That

Kind For Purposes Of    Guidance. We Have Now To Judge The   Relative Value

Of Different Kinds Of    Knowledge For Purposes Of    Discipline. This

Division Of    Our Subject We Are Obliged To Treat With Comparative

Brevity; And Happily, No Very Lengthened Treatment Of    It Is Needed.

Having Found What Is Best For The   One End, We Have By Implication Found

What Is Best For The   Other. We May Be Quite Sure That The   Acquirement Of

Those Classes Of    Facts Which Are Most Useful For Regulating Conduct,

Involves A Mental Exercise Best Fitted For Strengthening The   Faculties.

It Would Be Utterly Contrary To The   Beautiful Economy Of    Nature, If One

Kind Of    Culture Were Needed For The   Gaining Of    Information And Another

Kind Were Needed As A Mental Gymnastic. Everywhere Throughout Creation

We Find Faculties Developed Through The   Performance Of    Those Functions

Which It Is Their Office To Perform; Not Through The   Performance Of

Artificial Exercises Devised To Fit Them For Those Functions. The   Red

Indian Acquires The   Swiftness And Agility Which Make Him A Successful

Hunter, By The   Actual Pursuit Of    Animals; And Through The   Miscellaneous

Activities Of    His Life, He Gains A Better Balance Of    Physical Powers

Than Gymnastics Ever Give. That Skill In Tracking Enemies And Prey Which

He Had Reached After Long Practice, Implies A Subtlety Of    Perception Far

Exceeding Anything Produced By Artificial Training. And Similarly In All

Cases. From The   Bushman Whose Eye, Habitually Employed In Identifying

Distant Objects That Are To Be Pursued Or Fled From, Has Acquired A

Telescopic Range, To The   Accountant Whose Daily Practice Enables Him To

Add Up Several Columns Of    Figures Simultaneously; We Find That The

Highest Power Of    A Faculty Results From The   Discharge Of    Those Duties

Which The   Conditions Of    Life Require It To Discharge. And We May Be

Certain, _À Priori_, That The   Same Law Holds Throughout Education. The

Education Of    Most Value For Guidance, Must At The   Same Time Be The

Education Of    Most Value For Discipline. Let Us Consider The   Evidence.

 

 

 

One Advantage Claimed For That Devotion To Language-Learning Which Forms

So Prominent A Feature In The   Ordinary _Curriculum_, Is, That The   Memory

Is Thereby Strengthened. This Is Assumed To Be An Advantage Peculiar To

The Study Of    Words. But The   Truth Is, That The   Sciences Afford Far Wider

Fields For The   Exercise Of    Memory. It Is No Slight Task To Remember

Everything About Our Solar System; Much More To Remember All That Is

Known Concerning The   Structure Of    Our Galaxy. The   Number Of    Compound

Substances, To Which Chemistry Daily Adds, Is So Great That Few, Save

Professors, Can Enumerate Them; And To Recollect The   Atomic

Constitutions And Affinities Of    All These Compounds, Is Scarcely

Possible Without Making Chemistry The   Occupation Of    Life. In The

Enormous Mass Of    Phenomena Presented By The   Earth's Crust, And In The

Still More Enormous Mass Of    Phenomena Presented By The   Fossils It

Contains, There Is Matter Which It Takes The   Geological Student Years Of

Application To Master. Each Leading Division Of    Physics--Sound, Heat,

Light, Electricity--Includes Facts Numerous Enough To Alarm Any One

Proposing To Learn Them All. And When We Pass To The   Organic Sciences,

The Effort Of    Memory Required Becomes Still Greater. In Human Anatomy

Alone, The   Quantity Of    Detail Is So Great, That The   Young Surgeon Has

Commonly To Get It Up Half-A-Dozen Times Before He Can Permanently

Retain It. The   Number Of    Species Of    Plants Which Botanists Distinguish,

Amounts To Some 320,000; While The   Varied Forms Of    Animal Life With

Which The   Zoologist Deals, Are Estimated At Some 2,000,000. So Vast Is

The Accumulation Of    Facts Which Men Of    Science Have Before Them, That

Only By Dividing And Subdividing Their Labours Can They Deal With It. To

A Detailed Knowledge Of    His Own Division, Each Adds But A General

Knowledge Of    The   Allied Ones; Joined Perhaps To A Rudimentary

Acquaintance With Some Others. Surely, Then, Science, Cultivated Even To

A Very Moderate Extent, Affords Adequate Exercise For Memory. To Say The

Very Least, It Involves Quite As Good A Discipline For This Faculty As

Language Does.

 

 

 

But Now Mark That While, For The   Training Of    Mere Memory, Science Is As

Good As, If Not Better Than, Language; It Has An Immense Superiority In

The Kind Of    Memory It Trains. In The   Acquirement Of    A Language, The

Connections Of    Ideas To Be Established In The   Mind Correspond To Facts

That Are In Great Measure Accidental; Whereas, In The   Acquirement Of

Science, The   Connections Of    Ideas To Be Established In The   Mind

Correspond To Facts That Are Mostly Necessary. It Is True That The

Relations Of    Words To Their Meanings Are In One Sense Natural; That The

Genesis Of    These Relations May Be Traced Back A Certain Distance, Though

Rarely To The   Beginning; And That The   Laws Of    This Genesis Form A Branch

Of Mental Science--The Science Of    Philology. But Since It Will Not Be

Contended That In The   Acquisition Of    Languages, As Ordinarily Carried

On, These Natural Relations Between Words And Their Meanings Are

Habitually Traced, And Their Laws Explained; It Must Be Admitted That

They Are Commonly Learned As Fortuitous Relations. On The   Other Hand,

The Relations Which Science Presents Are Causal Relations; And, When

Properly Taught, Are Understood As Such. While Language Familiarises

With Non-Rational Relations, Science Familiarises With Rational

Relations. While The   One Exercises Memory Only, The   Other Exercises Both

Memory And Understanding.

Part 1 Chapter 1 (What Knowledge Is Of Most Worth?) Pg 20

Observe Next, That A Great Superiority Of    Science Over Language As A

Means Of    Discipline, Is, That It Cultivates The   Judgment. As, In A

Lecture On Mental Education Delivered At The   Royal Institution,

Professor Faraday Well Remarks, The   Most Common Intellectual Fault Is

Deficiency Of    Judgment. "Society, Speaking Generally," He Says, "Is Not

Only Ignorant As Respects Education Of    The   Judgment, But It Is Also

Ignorant Of    Its Ignorance." And The   Cause To Which He Ascribes This

State, Is Want Of    Scientific Culture. The   Truth Of    His Conclusion Is

Obvious. Correct Judgment With Regard To Surrounding Objects, Events,

And Consequences, Becomes Possible Only Through Knowledge Of    The   Way In

Which Surrounding Phenomena Depend On Each Other. No Extent Of

Acquaintance With The   Meanings Of    Words, Will Guarantee Correct

Inferences Respecting Causes And Effects. The   Habit Of    Drawing

Conclusions From Data, And Then Of    Verifying Those Conclusions By

Observation And Experiment, Can Alone Give The   Power Of    Judging

Correctly. And That It Necessitates This Habit Is One Of    The   Immense

Advantages Of    Science.

 

 

 

Not Only, However, For Intellectual Discipline Is Science The   Best; But

Also For _Moral_ Discipline. The   Learning Of    Languages Tends, If

Anything, Further To Increase The   Already Undue Respect For Authority.

Such And Such Are The   Meanings Of    These Words, Says The   Teacher Of    The

Dictionary. So And So Is The   Rule In This Case, Says The   Grammar. By The

Pupil These Dicta Are Received As Unquestionable. His Constant Attitude

Of Mind Is That Of    Submission To Dogmatic Teaching. And A Necessary

Result Is A Tendency To Accept Without Inquiry Whatever Is Established.

Quite Opposite Is The   Mental Tone Generated By The   Cultivation Of

Science. Science Makes Constant Appeal To Individual Reason. Its Truths

Are Not Accepted On Authority Alone; But All Are At Liberty To Test

Them--Nay, In Many Cases, The   Pupil Is Required To Think Out His Own

Conclusions. Every Step In A Scientific Investigation Is Submitted To

His Judgment. He Is Not Asked To Admit It Without Seeing It To Be True.

And The   Trust In His Own Powers Thus Produced Is Further Increased By

The Uniformity With Which Nature Justifies His Inferences When They Are

Correctly Drawn. From All Which There Flows That Independence Which Is A

Most Valuable Element In Character. Nor Is This The   Only Moral Benefit

Bequeathed By Scientific Culture. When Carried On, As It Should Always

Be, As Much As Possible Under The   Form Of    Original Research, It

Exercises Perseverance And Sincerity. As Says Professor Tyndall Of

Inductive Inquiry, "It Requires Patient Industry, And An Humble And

Conscientious Acceptance Of    What Nature Reveals. The   First Condition Of

Success Is An Honest Receptivity And A Willingness To Abandon All

Preconceived Notions, However Cherished, If They Be Found To Contradict

The Truth. Believe Me, A Self-Renunciation Which Has Something Noble In

It, And Of    Which The   World Never Hears, Is Often Enacted In The   Private

Experience Of    The   True Votary Of    Science."

 

 

 

Lastly We Have To Assert--And The   Assertion Will, We Doubt Not, Cause

Extreme Surprise--That The   Discipline Of    Science Is Superior To That Of

Our Ordinary Education, Because Of    The   _Religious_ Culture That It

Gives. Of    Course We Do Not Here Use The   Words Scientific And Religious

In Their Ordinary Limited Acceptations; But In Their Widest And Highest

Acceptations. Doubtless, To The   Superstitions That Pass Under The   Name

Of Religion, Science Is Antagonistic; But Not To The   Essential Religion

Which These Superstitions Merely Hide. Doubtless, Too, In Much Of    The

Science That Is Current, There Is A Pervading Spirit Of    Irreligion; But

Not In That True Science Which Had Passed Beyond The   Superficial Into

The Profound.

 

 

 

     "True Science And True Religion," Says Professor Huxley At The

     Close Of    A Recent Course Of    Lectures, "Are Twin-Sisters, And The

     Separation Of    Either From The   Other Is Sure To Prove The   Death Of

     Both. Science Prospers Exactly In Proportion As It Is Religious;

     And Religion Flourishes In Exact Proportion To The   Scientific Depth

     And Firmness Of    Its Basis. The   Great Deeds Of    Philosophers Have

     Been Less The   Fruit Of    Their Intellect Than Of    The   Direction Of

     That Intellect By An Eminently Religious Tone Of    Mind. Truth Has

     Yielded Herself Rather To Their Patience, Their Love, Their

     Single-Heartedness, And Their Self-Denial,