[67] “The History of England,” Vol. II., p. 83. By Harriet Martineau. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates.
[68] “The History of England,” Vol. II., p. 85. By Harriet Martineau. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates.
The cause of these failures—of mercantile ventures, of justice, and of legislation—is this: Subjective mental processes are automatic, and hence they neither generate power nor promote rectitude; they enfeeble rather than energize the brain. Men whose characters are formed by such educational processes never originate anything. They become selfish, they venerate the past, their eyes are turned backward; hence, if they sometimes make a feeble effort to move forward they stumble. The lawyer, the judge, and the legislator are examples of this class. Their guide-books are musty folios in a dead language; they look for “precedents” in an age whose civilization perished with its language, and whose maxims and rules of life were long ago exploded. Such men can be compelled to move forward only by the lash of public opinion. Buckle, speaking of the reforms extorted from the legislators of England, says,
“But it is a mere matter of history that our legislators, even to the last moment, were so terrified by the idea of innovation that they refused every reform until the voice of the people rose high enough to awe them into submission, and forced them to grant what without such pressure they would by no means have conceded.”[69]
[69] “History of Civilization,” Vol. I., p. 361. By Henry Thomas Buckle. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1864.
On the other hand, the inventor, the discoverer, and the artisan are always in the advance, and always moving forward. They never look back except to catch the vital principle of the invention or discovery of yesterday for utilization in the improved machine of to-day. Their acts are never repealed because they never become odious. They never become odious because they contain the germs of imperishable truth. They are never false; they are suitable to their time and the stage of development; they constitute links in the chain of progress. While the legislator is horrified at the thought of innovation, the inventor, the discoverer, and the artisan are electrified by the discovery of a new principle in physics, and delighted at its application in a new invention, and its practical operation in a new and useful machine.
The difference in effects upon the mental and moral nature, between purely mental training and mental and manual training combined, is susceptible of logical explanation. It is only in things that the truth stands clearly revealed, and only in things that the false is sure of exposure.[70] Hence exclusively mental training stops far short of the objective point of true education. For if it be true that the last analysis of education is art, progress can find expression only in things—in the work of men’s hands. And it is true; for ideas are mere vain speculations until they are embodied in things. Nor is this materialism unless all civilization is material; for the prime difference between barbarism and civilization consists in the presence, in a state of civilization, of more things of use and beauty than are found in a state of barbarism. To exalt things is not materialistic; they are both the source and issue of ideas, and the measure of civilization. Ideas and things are hence indissolubly connected; and it follows that any system of education which separates them is radically defective.[71] Exclusively mental training does not produce a symmetrical character, because at best it merely teaches the student how to think, and the complement of thinking is acting. Before thoughts can have any influence whatever upon the world of mind and matter external to the mind originating them they must be expressed. They may be expressed feebly, through the voice, in words; more durably, and therefore more forcibly, with the pen, on paper; more forcibly still in drawing—pictures of things; and, with the superlative degree of force, in real things.
[70] “To know the truth it is necessary to do the truth.”...
“We rightly seek the meaning of the abstract in the concrete, because we cannot act in relation to the abstract, which is only a representative sign; we must give it a concrete form in order to make it a clear and distinct idea; until we have done so we do not know that we really believe—only believe that we believe it. A truth is best certified to be a truth when we live it and have ceased to talk about it.”—“Body and Will,” p. 49. By Henry Maudsley, M.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1884.
[71] “Prof. Huxley seems to hold that zoology cannot be learned with any degree of sufficiency unless the student practises dissection. In support of this position there are strong reasons. In the first place, the impression made on the mind by the actual objects, as seen, handled, and operated upon, is far beyond the efficacy of words or description. And not only is it greater, but it is more faithful to the fact. While diagrams have a special value in bringing out links of connection that are disguised in the actual objects, they can never show the things exactly as they appear to our senses; and this full and precise conception of actuality is the most desirable form of knowledge; it is truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Moreover, it enables the student to exercise a free and independent judgment upon the dicta of the teacher.”—“Education as a Science,” p. 303. By Alexander Bain, LL.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1884.