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

Respecting The

Fabled Labours Of    A Fabled Demi-God, Show Not The   Slightest Shame In

Confessing That They Do Not Know Where The   Eustachian Tubes Are, What

Are The   Actions Of    The   Spinal Cord, What Is The   Normal Rate Of

Pulsation, Or How The   Lungs Are Inflated. While Anxious That Their Sons

Should Be Well Up In The   Superstitions Of    Two Thousand Years Ago, They

Care Not That They Should Be Taught Anything About The   Structure And

Functions Of    Their Own Bodies--Nay, Even Wish Them Not To Be So Taught.

So Overwhelming Is The   Influence Of    Established Routine! So Terribly In

Our Education Does The   Ornamental Over-Ride The   Useful!

 

 

Part 1 Chapter 1 (What Knowledge Is Of Most Worth?) Pg 11

 

We Need Not Insist On The   Value Of    That Knowledge Which Aids Indirect

Self-Preservation By Facilitating The   Gaining Of    A Livelihood. This Is

Admitted By All; And, Indeed, By The   Mass Is Perhaps Too Exclusively

Regarded As The   End Of    Education. But While Every One Is Ready To

Endorse The   Abstract Proposition That Instruction Fitting Youths For The

Business Of    Life Is Of    High Importance, Or Even To Consider It Of

Supreme Importance; Yet Scarcely Any Inquire What Instruction Will So

Fit Them. It Is True That Reading, Writing, And Arithmetic Are Taught

With An Intelligent Appreciation Of    Their Uses. But When We Have Said

This We Have Said Nearly All. While The   Great Bulk Of    What Else Is

Acquired Has No Bearing On The   Industrial Activities, An Immensity Of

Information That Has A Direct Bearing On The   Industrial Activities Is

Entirely Passed Over.

 

 

 

For, Leaving Out Only Some Very Small Classes, What Are All Men Employed

In? They Are Employed In The   Production, Preparation, And Distribution

Of Commodities. And On What Does Efficiency In The   Production,

Preparation, And Distribution Of    Commodities Depend? It Depends On The

Use Of    Methods Fitted To The   Respective Natures Of    These Commodities; It

Depends On An Adequate Acquaintance With Their Physical, Chemical, Or

Vital Properties, As The   Case May Be; That Is, It Depends On Science.

This Order Of    Knowledge Which Is In Great Part Ignored In Our

School-Courses, Is The   Order Of    Knowledge Underlying The   Right

Performance Of    Those Processes By Which Civilised Life Is Made Possible.

Undeniable As Is This Truth, There Seems To Be No Living Consciousness

Of It: Its Very Familiarity Makes It Unregarded. To Give Due Weight To

Our Argument, We Must, Therefore, Realise This Truth To The   Reader By A

Rapid Review Of    The   Facts.

 

 

 

Passing Over The   Most Abstract Science, Logic, On The   Due Guidance By

Which, However, The   Large Producer Or Distributor Depends, Knowingly Or

Unknowingly, For Success In His Business-Forecasts, We Come First To

Mathematics. Of    This, The   Most General Division, Dealing With Number,

Guides All Industrial Activities; Be They Those By Which Processes Are

Adjusted, Or Estimates Framed, Or Commodities Bought And Sold, Or

Accounts Kept. No One Needs To Have The   Value Of    This Division Of

Abstract Science Insisted Upon.

 

 

 

For The   Higher Arts Of    Construction, Some Acquaintance With The   More

Special Division Of    Mathematics Is Indispensable. The   Village Carpenter,

Who Lays Out His Work By Empirical Rules, Equally With The   Builder Of    A

Britannia Bridge, Makes Hourly Reference To The   Laws Of    Space-Relations.

The Surveyor Who Measures The   Land Purchased; The   Architect In Designing

A Mansion To Be Built On It; The   Builder When Laying Out The

Foundations; The   Masons In Cutting The   Stones; And The   Various Artizans

Who Put Up The   Fittings; Are All Guided By Geometrical Truths.

Railway-Making Is Regulated From Beginning To End By Geometry: Alike In

The Preparation Of    Plans And Sections; In Staking Out The   Line; In The

Mensuration Of    Cuttings And Embankments; In The   Designing And Building

Of Bridges, Culverts, Viaducts, Tunnels, Stations. Similarly With The

Harbours, Docks, Piers, And Various Engineering And Architectural Works

That Fringe The   Coasts And Overspread The   Country, As Well As The   Mines

That Run Underneath It. And Now-A-Days, Even The   Farmer, For The   Correct

Laying-Out Of    His Drains, Has Recourse To The   Level--That Is, To

Geometrical Principles.

 

 

 

Turn Next To The   Abstract-Concrete Sciences. On The   Application Of    The

Simplest Of    These, Mechanics, Depends The   Success Of    Modern

Manufactures. The   Properties Of    The   Lever, The   Wheel-And-Axle, Etc., Are

Recognised In Every Machine, And To Machinery In These Times We Owe All

Production. Trace The   History Of    The   Breakfast-Roll. The   Soil Out Of

Which It Came Was Drained With Machine-Made Tiles; The   Surface Was

Turned Over By A Machine; The   Wheat Was Reaped, Thrashed, And Winnowed

By Machines; By Machinery It Was Ground And Bolted; And Had The   Flour

Been Sent To Gosport, It Might Have Been Made Into Biscuits By A

Machine. Look Round The   Room In Which You Sit. If Modern, Probably The

Bricks In Its Walls Were Machine-Made; And By Machinery The   Flooring Was

Sawn And Planed, The   Mantel-Shelf Sawn And Polished, The   Paper-Hangings

Made And Printed. The   Veneer On The   Table, The   Turned Legs Of    The

Chairs, The   Carpet, The   Curtains, Are All Products Of    Machinery. Your

Clothing--Plain, Figured, Or Printed--Is It Not Wholly Woven, Nay,

Perhaps Even Sewed, By Machinery? And The   Volume You Are Reading--Are

Not Its Leaves Fabricated By One Machine And Covered With These Words By

Another? Add To Which That For The   Means Of    Distribution Over Both Land

And Sea, We Are Similarly Indebted. And Then Observe That According As

Knowledge Of    Mechanics Is Well Or Ill Applied To These Ends, Comes

Success Or Failure. The   Engineer Who Miscalculates The   Strength Of

Materials, Builds A Bridge That Breaks Down. The   Manufacturer Who Uses A

Bad Machine Cannot Compete With Another Whose Machine Wastes Less In

Friction And Inertia. The   Ship-Builder Adhering To The   Old Model Is

Out-Sailed By One Who Builds On The   Mechanically-Justified Wave-Line

Principle. And As The   Ability Of    A Nation To Hold Its Own Against Other

Nations, Depends On The   Skilled Activity Of    Its Units, We See That On

Mechanical Knowledge May Turn The   National Fate.

 

 

 

On Ascending From The   Divisions Of    Abstract-Concrete Science Dealing

With Molar Forces, To Those Divisions Of    It Which Deal With Molecular

Forces, We Come To Another Vast Series Of    Applications. To This Group Of

Sciences Joined With The   Preceding Groups We Owe The   Steam-Engine, Which

Does The   Work Of    Millions Of    Labourers. That Section Of    Physics Which

Formulates The   Laws Of    Heat, Has Taught Us How To Economise Fuel In

Various Industries; How To Increase The   Produce Of    Smelting Furnaces By

Substituting The   Hot For The   Cold Blast; How To Ventilate Mines; How To

Prevent Explosions By Using The   Safety-Lamp; And, Through The

Thermometer, How To Regulate Innumerable Processes. That Section Which

Has The   Phenomena Of    Light For Its Subject, Gives Eyes To The   Old And

The Myopic; Aids Through The   Microscope In Detecting Diseases And

Adulterations; And, By Improved Lighthouses, Prevents Shipwrecks.

Researches In Electricity And Magnetism Have Saved Innumerable Lives And

Incalculable Property Through The   Compass; Have Subserved Many Arts By

The Electrotype; And Now, In The   Telegraph, Have Supplied Us With An

Agency By Which For The   Future, Mercantile Transactions Will Be

Regulated And Political Intercourse Carried On. While In The   Details Of

In-Door Life, From The   Improved Kitchen-Range Up To The   Stereoscope On

The Drawing-Room Table, The   Applications Of    Advanced Physics Underlie

Our Comforts And Gratifications.

 

 

Part 1 Chapter 1 (What Knowledge Is Of Most Worth?) Pg 12

 

Still More Numerous Are The   Applications Of    Chemistry. The   Bleacher, The

Dyer, The   Calico-Printer, Are Severally Occupied In Processes That Are

Well Or Ill Done According As They Do Or Do Not Conform To Chemical

Laws. Smelting Of    Copper, Tin, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Iron, Must Be Guided

By Chemistry. Sugar-Refining, Gas-Making, Soap-Boiling,

Gunpowder-Manufacture, Are Operations All Partly Chemical; As Are

Likewise Those Which Produce Glass And Porcelain. Whether The

Distiller's Wort Stops At The   Alcoholic Fermentation Or Passes Into The

Acetous, Is A Chemical Question On Which Hangs His Profit Or Loss; And

The Brewer, If His Business Is Extensive, Finds It Pay To Keep A Chemist

On His Premises. Indeed, There Is Now Scarcely Any Manufacture Over Some

Part Of    Which Chemistry Does Not Preside. Nay, In These Times Even

Agriculture, To Be Profitably Carried On, Must Have Like Guidance. The

Analysis Of    Manures And Soils; The   Disclosure Of    Their Respective

Adaptations; The   Use Of    Gypsum Or Other Substance For Fixing Ammonia;

The Utilisation Of    Coprolites; The   Production Of    Artificial Manures--All

These Are Boons Of    Chemistry Which It Behoves The   Farmer To Acquaint

Himself With. Be It In The   Lucifer Match, Or In Disinfected Sewage, Or

In Photographs--In Bread Made Without Fermentation, Or Perfumes

Extracted From Refuse, We May Perceive That Chemistry Affects All Our

Industries; And That, Therefore, Knowledge Of    It Concerns Every One Who

Is Directly Or Indirectly Connected With Our Industries.

 

 

 

Of The   Concrete Sciences, We Come First To Astronomy. Out Of    This Has

Grown That Art Of    Navigation Which Has Made Possible The   Enormous

Foreign Commerce That Supports A Large Part Of    Our Population, While

Supplying Us With Many Necessaries And Most Of    Our Luxuries.

 

 

 

Geology, Again, Is A Science Knowledge Of    Which Greatly Aids Industrial

Success. Now That Iron Ores Are So Large A Source Of    Wealth; Now That

The Duration Of    Our Coal-Supply Has Become A Question Of    Great Interest;

Now That We Have A College Of    Mines And A Geological Survey; It Is

Scarcely Needful To Enlarge On The   Truth That The   Study Of    The   Earth's

Crust Is Important To Our Material Welfare.

 

 

 

And Then The   Science Of    Life--Biology: Does Not This, Too, Bear

Fundamentally On These Processes Of    Indirect Self-Preservation? With

What We Ordinarily Call Manufactures, It Has, Indeed, Little Connection;

But With The   All-Essential Manufacture--That Of    Food--It Is Inseparably

Connected. As Agriculture Must Conform Its Methods To The   Phenomena Of

Vegetal And Animal Life, It Follows That The   Science Of    These Phenomena

Is The   Rational Basis Of    Agriculture. Various Biological Truths Have

Indeed Been Empirically Established And Acted Upon By Farmers, While Yet

There Has Been No Conception Of    Them As Science; Such As That Particular

Manures Are Suited To Particular Plants; That Crops Of    Certain Kinds

Unfit The   Soil For Other Crops; That Horses Cannot Do Good Work On Poor

Food; That Such And Such Diseases Of    Cattle And Sheep Are Caused By Such

And Such Conditions. These, And The   Every-Day Knowledge Which The

Agriculturist Gains By Experience Respecting The   Management Of    Plants

And Animals, Constitute His Stock Of    Biological Facts; On The   Largeness

Of Which Greatly Depends His Success. And As These Biological Facts,

Scanty, Indefinite, Rudimentary, Though They Are, Aid Him So

Essentially; Judge What Must Be The   Value To Him Of    Such Facts When They

Become Positive, Definite, And Exhaustive. Indeed, Even Now We May See

The Benefits That Rational Biology Is Conferring On Him. The   Truth That

The Production Of    Animal Heat Implies Waste Of    Substance, And That,

Therefore, Preventing Loss Of    Heat Prevents The   Need For Extra Food--A

Purely Theoretical Conclusion--Now Guides The   Fattening Of    Cattle: It Is

Found That By Keeping Cattle Warm, Fodder Is Saved. Similarly With

Respect To Variety Of    Food. The   Experiments Of    Physiologists Have Shown

That Not Only Is Change Of    Diet Beneficial, But That Digestion Is

Facilitated By A Mixture Of    Ingredients In Each Meal. The   Discovery That

A Disorder Known As "The Staggers," Of    Which Many Thousands Of    Sheep

Have Died Annually, Is Caused By An Entozoon Which Presses On The   Brain,

And That If The   Creature Is Extracted Through The   Softened Place In The

Skull Which Marks Its Position, The   Sheep Usually Recovers,