This day has not yet come, and Herbert Spencer, who is the first to recognize the fact, modestly presents his work only as an essay. But if it does not yet contain a perfect and fully worked out theory of education, the essay of the English philosopher is at least a vigorous effort, and a notable step towards a rational pedagogy, towards the science of education, which, as Virchow expresses it, “ought forever to proscribe the gropings of an ignorant education whose experiments are ever to be gone over anew.”
633. Plan of the Work.—Every system of education supposes at the same time an ethics,—I mean a certain conception of life and of human destiny, and a psychology,—that is, a knowledge more or less exact of our faculties and of the laws which preside over their development. There are, in fact, in education, two essential questions: 1. What are the subjects of study and instruction, proper to create the qualities, the aggregate of which constitutes the type of the well-educated man? 2. By what methods shall we teach the child rapidly and well that which it is proper for him to learn? There are, in other terms, the question of end and the question of means. Ethics is necessary to resolve the first, and psychology, to illustrate the second.
It is in accordance with this plan that Mr. Spencer has arranged the different parts of his work. The first chapter, entitled What Knowledge is of Most Worth? is in substance but a series of reflections on the final purpose, on the different forms, of human activity, and, consequently, on the relative importance, on the rank, which should be assigned to the studies which go to compose a complete education.
In the three other chapters, Intellectual, Moral, and Physical Education, the author examines the methods which are deemed the best for instructing the intelligence, perfecting the moral character, and fortifying the body.
634. Definition of Education.—Herbert Spencer begins with a definition of education:—
“Education,” he says, “is all that we do for ourselves, and all that others do for us, for the purpose of bringing us nearer the perfection of our nature.... The ideal of education would be to furnish man with a complete preparation for life as a whole.... Do not attempt to give an exclusive development of one order of knowledge at the expense of the rest, however important it may be. Let us distribute our attention over the whole, and justly proportion our efforts to their relative value.... In general, the object of education ought to be to acquire as completely as possible the knowledge that is best adapted to develop individual and social life under all its aspects, and to do no more than glance at the subjects which contribute the least to this development.”[280]
This definition is wrong in being a little pretentious and in not adapting itself to all the forms of education. It is true, perhaps, if it is a question of the ideal to be attained in a complete instruction, accessible to a few privileged men, but it could not be applied to popular education. It soars too high above human conditions and social realities.
635. Human Destiny.—The conception of human destiny, as Mr. Spencer outlines it in the opening of his book, has very marked utilitarian tendencies. His first complaint against the current education is that it sacrifices the useful to the agreeable; that as matters now go, everything which pertains to mental adornment and display has precedence over the knowledge which might increase our well-being and assure our happiness. As in the history of dress, with savages for example, it is proved that the ornamental in dress precedes the useful; so in instruction, ornamental studies are preferred to useful studies. This is especially the case with women, who have a decided preference for the qualities of pure decoration.[281]
In his rather vigorous reaction against the luxuries which in classical instruction would wrongly substitute themselves for more necessary studies, Mr. Spencer goes so far as to say:—