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

These Various Things, As There Are Almost Sure To Do, The

Weapon-Maker Will Take From Each One The   Thing Which That One Excels In

Making: He Will Exchange For Mats With Him Whose Mats Are Superior, And

Will Bargain For The   Fishing Gear Of    Whoever Has The   Best. But He Who

Has Bartered Away His Mats Or His Fishing Gear, Must Make Other Mats Or

Fishing Gear For Himself; And In So Doing Must, In Some Degree, Further

Develop His Aptitude. Thus It Results That The   Small Specialities Of

Faculty Possessed By Various Members Of    The   Tribe, Will Tend To Grow

More Decided. If Such Transactions Are From Time To Time Repeated, These

Specialisations May Become Appreciable. And Whether Or Not There Ensue

Distinct Differentiations Of    Other Individuals Into Makers Of    Particular

Articles, It Is Clear That Incipient Differentiations Take Place

Throughout The   Tribe: The   One Original Cause Produces Not Only The   First

Dual Effect, But A Number Of    Secondary Dual Effects, Like In Kind, But

Minor In Degree. This Process, Of    Which Traces May Be Seen Among Groups

Of Schoolboys, Cannot Well Produce Any Lasting Effects In An Unsettled

Tribe; But Where There Grows Up A Fixed And Multiplying Community, These

Differentiations Become Permanent, And Increase With Each Generation. A

Larger Population, Involving A Greater Demand For Every Commodity,

Intensifies The   Functional Activity Of    Each Specialised Person Or Class;

And This Renders The   Specialisation More Definite Where It Already

Exists, And Establishes It Where It Is Nascent. By Increasing The

Pressure On The   Means Of    Subsistence, A Larger Population Again Augments

These Results; Seeing That Each Person Is Forced More And More To

Confine Himself To That Which He Can Do Best, And By Which He Can Gain

Most. This Industrial Progress, By Aiding Future Production, Opens The

Way For A Further Growth Of    Population, Which Reacts As Before: In All

Which The   Multiplication Of    Effects Is Manifest. Presently, Under These

Same Stimuli, New Occupations Arise. Competing Workers, Ever Aiming To

Produce Improved Articles, Occasionally Discover Better Processes Or Raw

Materials. In Weapons And Cutting Tools, The   Substitution Of    Bronze For

Stone Entails Upon Him Who First Makes It A Great Increase Of    Demand--So

Great An Increase That He Presently Finds All His Time Occupied In

Making The   Bronze For The   Articles He Sells, And Is Obliged To Depute

The Fashioning Of    These To Others: And, Eventually, The   Making Of

Bronze, Thus Gradually Differentiated From A Pre-Existing Occupation,

Becomes An Occupation By Itself.

 

Part 2 Chapter 1 (Progress Its Law And Cause) Pg 78

 

But Now Mark The   Ramified Changes Which Follow This Change. Bronze Soon

Replaces Stone, Not Only In The   Articles It Was First Used For, But In

Many Others--In Arms, Tools, And Utensils Of    Various Kinds; And So

Affects The   Manufacture Of    These Things. Further, It Affects The

Processes Which These Utensils Subserve, And The   Resulting

Products--Modifies Buildings, Carvings, Dress, Personal Decorations. Yet

Again, It Sets Going Sundry Manufactures Which Were Before Impossible,

From Lack Of    A Material Fit For The   Requisite Tools. And All These

Changes React On The   People--Increase Their Manipulative Skill, Their

Intelligence, Their Comfort,--Refine Their Habits And Tastes. Thus The

Evolution Of    A Homogeneous Society Into A Heterogeneous One, Is Clearly

Consequent On The   General Principle, That Many Effects Are Produced By

One Cause.

 

 

 

Our Limits Will Not Allow Us To Follow Out This Process In Its Higher

Complications: Else Might We Show How The   Localisation Of    Special

Industries In Special Parts Of    A Kingdom, As Well As The   Minute

Subdivision Of    Labour In The   Making Of    Each Commodity, Are Similarly

Determined. Or, Turning To A Somewhat Different Order Of    Illustrations,

We Might Dwell On The   Multitudinous Changes--Material, Intellectual,

Moral--Caused By Printing; Or The   Further Extensive Series Of    Changes

Wrought By Gunpowder. But Leaving The   Intermediate Phases Of    Social

Development, Let Us Take A Few Illustrations From Its Most Recent And

Its Passing Phases. To Trace The   Effects Of    Steam-Power, In Its Manifold

Applications To Mining, Navigation, And Manufactures Of    All Kinds, Would

Carry Us Into Unmanageable Detail. Let Us Confine Ourselves To The

Latest Embodiment Of    Steam-Power--The Locomotive Engine.

 

 

 

This, As The   Proximate Cause Of    Our Railway System, Has Changed The   Face

Of The   Country, The   Course Of    Trade, And The   Habits Of    The   People.

Consider, First, The   Complicated Sets Of    Changes That Precede The   Making

Of Every Railway--The Provisional Arrangements, The   Meetings, The

Registration, The   Trial Section, The   Parliamentary Survey, The

Lithographed Plans, The   Books Of    Reference, The   Local Deposits And

Notices, The   Application To Parliament, The   Passing Standing-Orders

Committee, The   First, Second, And Third Readings: Each Of    Which Brief

Heads Indicates A Multiplicity Of    Transactions, And The   Development Of

Sundry Occupations--As Those Of    Engineers, Surveyors, Lithographers,

Parliamentary Agents, Share-Brokers; And The   Creation Of    Sundry

Others--As Those Of    Traffic-Takers, Reference-Takers. Consider, Next,

The Yet More Marked Changes Implied In Railway Construction--The

Cuttings, Embankings, Tunnellings, Diversions Of    Roads; The   Building Of

Bridges, And Stations; The   Laying Down Of    Ballast, Sleepers, And Rails;

The Making Of    Engines, Tenders, Carriages, And Waggons: Which Processes,

Acting Upon Numerous Trades, Increase The   Importation Of    Timber, The

Quarrying Of    Stone, The   Manufacture Of    Iron, The   Mining Of    Coal, The

Burning Of    Bricks: Institute A Variety Of    Special Manufactures Weekly

Advertised In The   _Railway Times_; And, Finally, Open The   Way To Sundry

New Occupations, As Those Of    Drivers, Stokers, Cleaners, Plate-Layers,

Etc., Etc. And Then Consider The   Changes, More Numerous And Involved

Still, Which Railways In Action Produce On The   Community At Large. The

Organisation Of    Every Business Is More Or Less Modified: Ease Of

Communication Makes It Better To Do Directly What Was Before Done By

Proxy; Agencies Are Established Where Previously They Would Not Have

Paid; Goods Are Obtained From Remote Wholesale Houses Instead Of    Near

Retail Ones; And Commodities Are Used Which Distance Once Rendered

Inaccessible. Again, The   Rapidity And Small Cost Of    Carriage Tend To

Specialise More Than Ever The   Industries Of    Different Districts--To

Confine Each Manufacture To The   Parts In Which, From Local Advantages,

It Can Be Best Carried On. Further, The   Diminished Cost Of    Carriage,

Facilitating Distribution, Equalises Prices, And Also, On The   Average,

Lowers Prices: Thus Bringing Divers Articles Within The   Means Of    Those

Before Unable To Buy Them, And So Increasing Their Comforts And

Improving Their Habits. At The   Same Time The   Practice Of    Travelling Is

Immensely Extended. Classes Who Never Before Thought Of    It, Take Annual

Trips To The   Sea; Visit Their Distant Relations; Make Tours; And So We

Are Benefited In Body, Feelings, And Intellect. Moreover, The   More

Prompt Transmission Of    Letters And Of    News Produces Further

Changes--Makes The   Pulse Of    The   Nation Faster. Yet More, There Arises A

Wide Dissemination Of    Cheap Literature Through Railway Book-Stalls, And

Of Advertisements In Railway Carriages: Both Of    Them Aiding Ulterior

Progress.

 

 

 

And All The   Innumerable Changes Here Briefly Indicated Are Consequent On

The Invention Of    The   Locomotive Engine. The   Social Organism Has Been

Rendered More Heterogeneous In Virtue Of    The   Many New Occupations

Introduced, And The   Many Old Ones Further Specialised; Prices In Every

Place Have Been Altered; Each Trader Has, More Or Less, Modified His Way

Of Doing Business; And Almost Every Person Has Been Affected In His

Actions, Thoughts, Emotions.

 

 

 

Illustrations To The   Same Effect Might Be Indefinitely Accumulated. That

Every Influence Brought To Bear Upon Society Works Multiplied Effects;

And That Increase Of    Heterogeneity Is Due To This Multiplication Of

Effects; May Be Seen In The   History Of    Every Trade, Every Custom, Every

Belief. But It Is Needless To Give Additional Evidence Of    This. The   Only

Further Fact Demanding Notice, Is, That We Here See Still More Clearly

Than Ever, The   Truth Before Pointed Out, That In Proportion As The   Area

On Which Any Force Expends Itself Becomes Heterogeneous, The   Results Are

In A Yet Higher Degree Multiplied In Number And Kind. While Among The

Primitive Tribes To Whom It Was First Known, Caoutchouc Caused But A Few

Changes, Among Ourselves The   Changes Have Been So Many And Varied That

The History Of    Them Occupies A Volume.[4] Upon The   Small, Homogeneous

Community Inhabiting One Of    The   Hebrides, The   Electric Telegraph Would

Produce, Were It Used, Scarcely Any Results; But In England The   Results

It Produces Are Multitudinous. The   Comparatively Simple Organisation

Under Which Our Ancestors Lived Five Centuries Ago, Could Have Undergone

But Few Modifications From An Event Like The   Recent One At Canton; But

Now The   Legislative Decision Respecting It Sets Up Many Hundreds Of

Complex Modifications, Each Of    Which Will Be The   Parent Of    Numerous

Future Ones.

 

 

 

Space Permitting, We Could Willingly Have Pursued The   Argument In

Relation To All The   Subtler Results Of    Civilisation. As Before, We

Showed That The   Law Of    Progress To Which The   Organic And Inorganic

Worlds Conform, Is Also Conformed To By Language, Sculpture, Music,

Etc.; So Might We Here Show That The   Cause Which We Have Hitherto Found

To Determine Progress Holds In These Cases Also. We Might Demonstrate In

Detail How, In Science, An Advance Of    One Division Presently Advances

Other Divisions--How Astronomy Has Been Immensely Forwarded By

Discoveries In Optics, While Other Optical Discoveries Have Initiated

Part 2 Chapter 1 (Progress Its Law And Cause) Pg 79

Microscopic Anatomy, And Greatly Aided The   Growth Of    Physiology--How

Chemistry Has Indirectly Increased Our Knowledge Of    Electricity,

Magnetism, Biology, Geology--How Electricity Has Reacted On Chemistry

And Magnetism, Developed Our Views Of    Light And Heat, And Disclosed

Sundry Laws Of    Nervous Action.

 

 

 

In Literature The   Same Truth Might Be Exhibited In The   Manifold Effects

Of The   Primitive Mystery-Play, Not Only As Originating The   Modern Drama,

But As Affecting Through It Other Kinds Of    Poetry And Fiction; Or In The

Still Multiplying Forms Of    Periodical Literature That Have Descended

From The   First Newspaper, And Which Have Severally Acted And Reacted On

Other Forms Of    Literature And On Each Other. The   Influence Which A New

School Of    Painting--As That Of    The   Pre-Raffaelites--Exercises Upon Other

Schools; The   Hints Which All Kinds Of    Pictorial Art Are Deriving From

Photography; The   Complex Results Of    New Critical Doctrines, As Those Of

Mr. Ruskin, Might Severally Be Dwelt Upon As Displaying The   Like

Multiplication Of    Effects. But It Would Needlessly Tax The   Reader's

Patience To Pursue, In Their Many Ramifications, These Various Changes:

Here Become So Involved And Subtle As To Be Followed With Some

Difficulty.

 

 

 

Without Further Evidence, We Venture To Think Our Case Is Made Out. The

Imperfections Of    Statement Which Brevity Has Necessitated, Do Not, We

Believe, Militate Against The   Propositions Laid Down. The   Qualifications

Here And There Demanded Would Not, If Made, Affect The   Inferences.

Though In One Instance, Where Sufficient Evidence Is Not Attainable, We

Have Been Unable To Show That The   Law Of    Progress Applies; Yet There Is

High Probability That The   Same Generalisation Holds Which Holds

Throughout The   Rest Of    Creation. Though, In Tracing The   Genesis Of

Progress, We Have Frequently Spoken Of    Complex Causes As If They Were

Simple Ones; It Still Remains True That Such Causes Are Far Less Complex

Than Their Results. Detailed Criticisms Cannot Affect Our Main Position.

Endless Facts Go To Show That Every Kind Of    Progress Is From The

Homogeneous To The   Heterogeneous; And That It Is So Because Each Change

Is Followed By Many Changes. And It Is Significant That Where The   Facts

Are Most Accessible And Abundant, There Are These Truths Most Manifest.

 

 

 

However, To Avoid Committing Ourselves To More Than Is Yet Proved, We

Must Be Content With Saying That Such Are The   Law And The   Cause Of    All

Progress That Is Known To Us. Should The   Nebular Hypothesis Ever Be

Established, Then