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

Is Another

Debt Which Agriculture Owes To Biology.

 

 

 

Yet One More Science Have We To Note As Bearing Directly On Industrial

Success--The Science Of    Society. Men Who Daily Look At The   State Of    The

Money-Market Glance Over Prices Current; Discuss The   Probable Crops Of

Corn, Cotton, Sugar, Wool, Silk; Weigh The   Chances Of    War; And From

These Data Decide On Their Mercantile Operations; Are Students Of    Social

Science: Empirical And Blundering Students It May Be; But Still,

Students Who Gain The   Prizes Or Are Plucked Of    Their Profits, According

As They Do Or Do Not Reach The   Right Conclusion. Not Only The

Manufacturer And The   Merchant Must Guide Their Transactions By

Calculations Of    Supply And Demand, Based On Numerous Facts, And Tacitly

Recognising Sundry General Principles Of    Social Action; But Even The

Retailer Must Do The   Like: His Prosperity Very Greatly Depending Upon

The Correctness Of    His Judgments Respecting The   Future Wholesale Prices

And The   Future Rates Of    Consumption. Manifestly, Whoever Takes Part In

The Entangled Commercial Activities Of    A Community, Is Vitally

Interested In Understanding The   Laws According To Which Those Activities

Vary.

 

 

 

Thus, To All Such As Are Occupied In The   Production, Exchange, Or

Distribution Of    Commodities, Acquaintance With Science In Some Of    Its

Departments, Is Of    Fundamental Importance. Each Man Who Is Immediately

Or Remotely Implicated In Any Form Of    Industry (And Few Are Not) Has In

Some Way To Deal With The   Mathematical, Physical, And Chemical

Properties Of    Things; Perhaps, Also, Has A Direct Interest In Biology;

And Certainly Has In Sociology. Whether He Does Or Does Not Succeed Well

In That Indirect Self-Preservation Which We Call Getting A Good

Livelihood, Depends In A Great Degree On His Knowledge Of    One Or More Of

These Sciences: Not, It May Be, A Rational Knowledge; But Still A

Knowledge, Though Empirical. For What We Call Learning A Business,

Really Implies Learning The   Science Involved In It; Though Not Perhaps

Under The   Name Of    Science. And Hence A Grounding In Science Is Of    Great

Importance, Both Because It Prepares For All This, And Because Rational

Knowledge Has An Immense Superiority Over Empirical Knowledge. Moreover,

Not Only Is Scientific Culture Requisite For Each, That He May

Understand The   _How_ And The   _Why_ Of    The   Things And Processes With

Which He Is Concerned As Maker Or Distributor; But It Is Often Of    Much

Moment That He Should Understand The   _How_ And The   _Why_ Of    Various

Other Things And Processes. In This Age Of    Joint-Stock Undertakings,

Nearly Every Man Above The   Labourer Is Interested As Capitalist In Some

Other Occupation Than His Own; And, As Thus Interested, His Profit Or

Loss Often Depends On His Knowledge Of    The   Sciences Bearing On This

Other Occupation. Here Is A Mine, In The   Sinking Of    Which Many

Shareholders Ruined Themselves, From Not Knowing That A Certain Fossil

Belonged To The   Old Red Sandstone, Below Which No Coal Is Found.

Part 1 Chapter 1 (What Knowledge Is Of Most Worth?) Pg 13

Numerous Attempts Have Been Made To Construct Electromagnetic Engines,

In The   Hope Of    Superseding Steam; But Had Those Who Supplied The   Money

Understood The   General Law Of    The   Correlation And Equivalence Of

Forces, They Might Have Had Better Balances At Their Bankers. Daily Are

Men Induced To Aid In Carrying Out Inventions Which A Mere Tyro In

Science Could Show To Be Futile. Scarcely A Locality But Has Its History

Of Fortunes Thrown Away Over Some Impossible Project.

 

 

 

And If Already The   Loss From Want Of    Science Is So Frequent And So

Great, Still Greater And More Frequent Will It Be To Those Who Hereafter

Lack Science. Just As Fast As Productive Processes Become More

Scientific, Which Competition Will Inevitably Make Them Do; And Just As

Fast As Joint-Stock Undertakings Spread, Which They Certainly Will; So

Fast Must Scientific Knowledge Grow Necessary To Every One.

 

 

 

That Which Our School-Courses Leave Almost Entirely Out, We Thus Find To

Be That Which Most Nearly Concerns The   Business Of    Life. Our Industries

Would Cease, Were It Not For The   Information Which Men Begin To Acquire,

As They Best May, After Their Education Is Said To Be Finished. And Were

It Not For This Information, From Age To Age Accumulated And Spread By

Unofficial Means, These Industries Would Never Have Existed. Had There

Been No Teaching But Such As Goes On In Our Public Schools, England

Would Now Be What It Was In Feudal Times. That Increasing Acquaintance

With The   Laws Of    Phenomena, Which Has Through Successive Ages Enabled Us

To Subjugate Nature To Our Needs, And In These Days Gives The   Common

Labourer Comforts Which A Few Centuries Ago Kings Could Not Purchase, Is

Scarcely In Any Degree Owed To The   Appointed Means Of    Instructing Our

Youth. The   Vital Knowledge--That By Which We Have Grown As A Nation To

What We Are, And Which Now Underlies Our Whole Existence, Is A Knowledge

That Has Got Itself Taught In Nooks And Corners; While The   Ordained

Agencies For Teaching Have Been Mumbling Little Else But Dead Formulas.

 

 

We Come Now To The   Third Great Division Of    Human Activities--A Division

For Which No Preparation Whatever Is Made. If By Some Strange Chance Not

A Vestige Of    Us Descended To The   Remote Future Save A Pile Of    Our

School-Books Or Some College Examination Papers, We May Imagine How

Puzzled An Antiquary Of    The   Period Would Be On Finding In Them No Sign

That The   Learners Were Ever Likely To Be Parents. "This Must Have Been

The _Curriculum_ For Their Celibates," We May Fancy Him Concluding. "I

Perceive Here An Elaborate Preparation For Many Things; Especially For

Reading The   Books Of    Extinct Nations And Of    Co-Existing Nations (From

Which Indeed It Seems Clear That These People Had Very Little Worth

Reading In Their Own Tongue); But I Find No Reference Whatever To The

Bringing Up Of    Children. They Could Not Have Been So Absurd As To Omit

All Training For This Gravest Of    Responsibilities. Evidently Then, This

Was The   School-Course Of    One Of    Their Monastic Orders."

 

 

 

Seriously, Is It Not An Astonishing Fact, That Though On The   Treatment

Of Offspring Depend Their Lives Or Deaths, And Their Moral Welfare Or

Ruin; Yet Not One Word Of    Instruction On The   Treatment Of    Offspring Is

Ever Given To Those Who Will By And By Be Parents? Is It Not Monstrous

That The   Fate Of    A New Generation Should Be Left To The   Chances Of

Unreasoning Custom, Impulse, Fancy--Joined With The   Suggestions Of

Ignorant Nurses And The   Prejudiced Counsel Of    Grandmothers? If A

Merchant Commenced Business Without Any Knowledge Of    Arithmetic And

Book-Keeping, We Should Exclaim At His Folly, And Look For Disastrous

Consequences. Or If, Before Studying Anatomy, A Man Set Up As A Surgical

Operator, We Should Wonder At His Audacity And Pity His Patients. But

That Parents Should Begin The   Difficult Task Of    Rearing Children,

Without Ever Having Given A Thought To The   Principles--Physical, Moral,

Or Intellectual--Which Ought To Guide Them, Excites Neither Surprise At

The Actors Nor Pity For Their Victims.

 

 

 

To Tens Of    Thousands That Are Killed, Add Hundreds Of    Thousand That

Survive With Feeble Constitutions, And Millions That Grow Up With

Constitutions Not So Strong As They Should Be; And You Will Have Some

Idea Of    The   Curse Inflicted On Their Offspring By Parents Ignorant Of

The Laws Of    Life. Do But Consider For A Moment That The   Regimen To Which

Children Are Subject, Is Hourly Telling Upon Them To Their Life-Long

Injury Or Benefit; And That There Are Twenty Ways Of    Going Wrong To One

Way Of    Going Right; And You Will Get Some Idea Of    The   Enormous Mischief

That Is Almost Everywhere Inflicted By The   Thoughtless, Haphazard System

In Common Use. Is It Decided That A Boy Shall Be Clothed In Some Flimsy

Short Dress, And Be Allowed To Go Playing About With Limbs Reddened By

Cold? The   Decision Will Tell On His Whole Future Existence--Either In

Illnesses; Or In Stunted Growth; Or In Deficient Energy; Or In A

Maturity Less Vigorous Than It Ought To Have Been, And In Consequent

Hindrances To Success And Happiness. Are Children Doomed To A Monotonous

Dietary, Or A Dietary That Is Deficient In Nutritiveness? Their Ultimate

Physical Power, And Their Efficiency As Men And Women, Will Inevitably

Be More Or Less Diminished By It. Are They Forbidden Vociferous Play, Or

(Being Too Ill-Clothed To Bear Exposure) Are They Kept Indoors In Cold

Weather? They Are Certain To Fall Below That Measure Of    Health And

Strength To Which They Would Else Have Attained. When Sons And Daughters

Grow Up Sickly And Feeble, Parents Commonly Regard The   Event As A

Misfortune--As A Visitation Of    Providence. Thinking After The   Prevalent

Chaotic Fashion, They Assume That These Evils Come Without Causes; Or

That The   Causes Are Supernatural. Nothing Of    The   Kind. In Some Cases The

Causes Are Doubtless Inherited; But In Most Cases Foolish Regulations

Are The   Causes. Very Generally, Parents Themselves Are Responsible For

All This Pain, This Debility, This Depression, This Misery. They Have

Undertaken To Control The   Lives Of    Their Offspring From Hour To Hour;

With Cruel Carelessness They Have Neglected To Learn Anything About

These Vital Processes Which They Are Unceasingly Affecting By Their

Commands And Prohibitions; In Utter Ignorance Of    The   Simplest

Physiologic Laws, They Have Been Year By Year Undermining The

Constitutions Of    Their Children; And Have So Inflicted Disease And

Premature Death, Not Only On Them But On Their Descendants.

 

 

 

Equally Great Are The   Ignorance And The   Consequent Injury, When We Turn

From Physical Training To Moral Training. Consider The   Young Mother And

Her Nursery-Legislation. But A Few Years Ago She Was At School, Where

Her Memory Was Crammed With Words, And Names, And Dates, And Her

Reflective Faculties Scarcely In The   Slightest Degree Exercised--Where

Not One Idea Was Given Her Respecting The   Methods Of    Dealing With The

Opening Mind Of    Childhood; And Where Her Discipline Did Not In The   Least

Fit Her For Thinking Out Methods Of    Her Own. The   Intervening Years Have

 

Part 1 Chapter 1 (What Knowledge Is Of Most Worth?) Pg 14

Been Passed In Practising Music, In Fancy-Work, In Novel-Reading, And In

Party-Going: No Thought Having Yet Been Given To The   Grave

Responsibilities Of    Maternity; And Scarcely Any Of    That Solid

Intellectual Culture Obtained Which Would Be Some Preparation For Such

Responsibilities. And Now See Her With An Unfolding Human Character

Committed To Her Charge--See Her Profoundly Ignorant Of    The   Phenomena

With Which She Has To Deal, Undertaking To Do That Which Can Be Done But

Imperfectly Even With The   Aid Of    The   Profoundest Knowledge. She Knows

Nothing About The   Nature Of    The   Emotions, Their Order Of    Evolution,

Their Functions, Or Where Use Ends And Abuse Begins. She Is Under The

Impression That Some Of    The   Feelings Are Wholly Bad, Which Is Not True

Of Any One Of    Them; And That Others Are Good However Far They May Be

Carried, Which Is Also Not True Of    Any One Of    Them. And Then, Ignorant

As She Is Of    The   Structure She Has To Deal With, She Is Equally

Ignorant Of    The   Effects Produced On It By This Or That Treatment. What

Can Be More Inevitable Than The   Disastrous Results We See Hourly

Arising? Lacking Knowledge Of    Mental Phenomena, With Their Cause And

Consequences, Her Interference Is Frequently More Mischievous Than

Absolute Passivity Would Have Been. This And That Kind Of    Action, Which

Are Quite Normal And Beneficial, She Perpetually Thwarts; And So

Diminishes The   Child's Happiness And Profit, Injures Its Temper