FOOTNOTES:
[177] Discours préliminaire sur la grammaire, in the Œuvres complètes of Condillac, Tome VI. p. 264.
[178] This is also the main principle in Mr. Spencer’s educational philosophy. “The education of the child must accord both in mode and arrangement with the education of mankind as considered historically; or, in other words, the genesis of knowledge in the individual must follow the same course as the genesis of knowledge in the race.”—Education, p. 122. (P.)
[179] The general law of human progress is inheritance supplemented by individual acquisition. Using the symbols i (inheritance) and a (acquisition), the progress of the race from its origin upwards, through successive generations, may be exhibited by this series: i; i + a; i (2a) + a; i (3a) + a; i (4a) + a. If the factor of inheritance could be eliminated, as Condillac and Spencer recommend, the series would take this form: a′; a″; a‴; aiv; av: the successive increments in acquisition being due to successive increments in power gained through heredity. But, happily, the law of inheritance cannot be abrogated, and so philosophers write books in order to save succeeding generations from the fate of Sisyphus. (P.)
[180] Cours d’études, Tome X. Introduction.
[181] See Œuvres complètes of Diderot. Edited by Tourneux, 1876-77. Tomes II. and III.
[182] Œuvres, Tome III. p. 459.
[183] For Comte’s classification of the sciences, see Spencer’s Illustrations of Universal Progress, Chap. III. (P.)
[184] See note, p. 131.
[185] This thought will bear extension as in the following quotation: “The reasoning that I oppose starts from the low and false assumption that instruction serves only for the practical use that is made of it; for example, that he who, by his social position, does not make use of his intellectual culture, has no need of that culture. Literature, from this point of view, is useful only to the man of letters, science only to the scientist, good manners and fine bearing only to men of the world. The poor man should be ignorant, for education and knowledge are useless to him. Blasphemy, Gentlemen! The culture of the mind and the culture of the soul are duties for every man. They are not simple ornaments; they are things as sacred as religion” (Renan, Famille et État, p. 3). This is a sufficient answer to Mr. Spencer’s assumption (Education, p. 84), that the studies that are best for guidance are at the same time the best for discipline. See also Dugald Stewart (Elements, p. 12). (P.)