Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) by Herbert Spencer (best fiction novels to read TXT) 📕

Self-Defeating. The   Strong Will And Untiring Activity Due To Abundant

Animal Vigour, Go Far To Compensate Even Great Defects Of    Education; And

When Joined With That Quite Adequate Education Which May Be Obtained

Without Sacrificing Health, They Ensure An Easy Victory Over Competitors

Enfeebled By Excessive Study: Prodigies Of    Learning Though They May Be.

A Comparatively Small And Ill-Made Engine, Worked At High Pressure, Will

Do More Than A Large And Well-Finished One Worked At Low-Pressure. What

Folly Is It, Then, While Finishing The   Engine, So To Damage The   Boiler

That It Will Not Generate Steam! Once More, The   System Is A Mistake, As

Involving A False Estimate Of    Welfare In Life. Even Supposing It Were A

Means To Worldly Success, Instead Of    A Means To Worldly Failure, Yet, In

The Entailed Ill-Health, It Would Inflict A More Than Equivalent Curse.

What Boots It To Have Attained Wealth, If The   Wealth Is Accompanied By

Ceaseless Ailments? What Is The   Worth Of    Distinction, If It Has Brought

Hypochondria With It? Surely No One Needs Telling That A Good Digestion,

A Bounding Pulse, And High Spirits, Are Elements Of    Happiness Which No

External Advantages Can Out-Balance. Chronic Bodily Disorder Casts A

Gloom Over The   Brightest Prospects; While The   Vivacity Of    Strong Health

Gilds Even Misfortune. We Contend, Then, That This Over-Education Is

Vicious In Every Way--Vicious, As Giving Knowledge That Will Soon Be

Forgotten; Vicious, As Producing A Disgust For Knowledge; Vicious, As

Neglecting That Organisation Of    Knowledge Which Is More Important Than

Its Acquisition; Vicious, As Weakening Or Destroying That Energy Without

Which A Trained Intellect Is Useless; Vicious, As Entailing That

Ill-Health For Which Even Success Would Not Compensate, And Which Makes

Failure Doubly Bitter. On Women The   Effects Of    This Forcing System Are,

If Possible, Even More Injurious Than On Men. Being In Great Measure

Debarred From Those Vigorous And Enjoyable Exercises Of    Body By Which

Boys Mitigate The   Evils Of    Excessive Study, Girls Feel These Evils In

Their Full Intensity. Hence, The   Much Smaller Proportion Of    Them Who

Grow Up Well-Made And Healthy. In The   Pale, Angular, Flat-Chested Young

Ladies, So Abundant In London Drawing-Rooms, We See The   Effect Of

Merciless Application, Unrelieved By Youthful Sports; And This Physical

Degeneracy Hinders Their Welfare Far More Than Their Many

Accomplishments Aid It. Mammas Anxious To Make Their Daughters

Attractive, Could Scarcely Choose A Course More Fatal Than This, Which

Sacrifices The   Body To The   Mind. Either They Disregard The   Tastes Of    The

Opposite Sex, Or Else Their Conception Of    Those Tastes Is Erroneous. Men

Care Little For Erudition In Women; But Very Much For Physical Beauty,

Good Nature, And Sound Sense. How Many Conquests Does The   Blue-Stocking

Make Through Her Extensive Knowledge Of    History? What Man Ever Fell In

Love With A Woman Because She Understood Italian? Where Is The   Edwin Who

Was Brought To Angelina's Feet By Her German? But Rosy Cheeks And

Laughing Eyes Are Great Attractions. A Finely Rounded Figure Draws

Admiring Glances. The   Liveliness And Good Humour That Overflowing Health

Produces, Go A Great Way Towards Establishing Attachments. Every One

Knows Cases Where Bodily Perfections, In The   Absence Of    All Other

Recommendations, Have Incited A Passion That Carried All Before It; But

Scarcely Any One Can Point To A Case Where Intellectual Acquirements,

Apart From Moral Or Physical Attributes, Have Aroused Such A Feeling.

The Truth Is That, Out Of    The   Many Elements Uniting In Various

Proportions To Produce In A Man's Breast The   Complex Emotion We Call

Love, The   Strongest Are Those Produced By Physical Attractions; The   Next

In Order Of    Strength Are Those Produced By Moral Attractions; The

Weakest Are Those Produced By Intellectual Attractions; And Even These

Are Dependent Less On Acquired Knowledge Than On Natural

Faculty--Quickness, Wit, Insight. If Any Think The   Assertion A

Derogatory One, And Inveigh Against The   Masculine Character For Being

Thus Swayed; We Reply That They Little Know What They Say When They Thus

Call In Question The   Divine Ordinations. Even Were There No Obvious

Meaning In The   Arrangement, We Might Be Sure That Some Important End Was

Subserved. But The   Meaning Is Quite Obvious To Those Who Examine. When

We Remember That One Of    Nature's Ends, Or Rather Her Supreme End, Is The

Welfare Of    Posterity; Further That, In So Far As Posterity Are

Concerned, A Cultivated Intelligence Based On A Bad _Physique_ Is Of

Little Worth, Since Its Descendants Will Die Out In A Generation Or Two;

And Conversely That A Good _Physique_, However Poor The   Accompanying

Mental Endowments, Is Worth Preserving, Because, Throughout Future

Generations, The   Mental Endowments May Be Indefinitely Developed; We

Perceive How Important Is The   Balance Of    Instincts Above Described. But,

Advantage Apart, The   Instincts Being Thus Balanced, It Is Folly To

Persist In A System Which Undermines A Girl's Constitution That It May

Overload Her Memory. Educate As Highly As Possible--The Higher The

Better--Providing No Bodily Injury Is Entailed (And We May Remark, In

Passing, That A Sufficiently High Standard Might Be Reached Were The

Parrot-Faculty Cultivated Less, And The   Human Faculty More, And Were The

Discipline Extended Over That Now Wasted Period Between Leaving School

And Being Married). But To Educate In Such Manner, Or To Such Extent, As

To Produce Physical Degeneracy, Is To Defeat The   Chief End For Which The

Toil And Cost And Anxiety Are Submitted To. By Subjecting Their

Daughters To This High-Pressure System, Parents Frequently Ruin Their

Prospects In Life. Besides Inflicting On Them Enfeebled Health, With All

Its Pains And Disabilities And Gloom; They Not Unfrequently Doom Them To

Celibacy.

The Physical Education Of    Children Is Thus, In Various Ways, Seriously

Faulty. It Errs In Deficient Feeding; In Deficient Clothing; In

Deficient Exercise (Among Girls At Least); And In Excessive Mental

Application. Considering The   Regime As A Whole, Its Tendency Is Too

Exacting: It Asks Too Much And Gives Too Little. In The   Extent To Which

It Taxes The   Vital Energies, It Makes The   Juvenile Life Far More Like

The Adult Life Than It Should Be. It Overlooks The   Truth That, As In The

Foetus The   Entire Vitality Is Expended In Growth--As In The   Infant,

The Expenditure Of    Vitality In Growth Is So Great As To Leave Extremely

Little For Either Physical Or Mental Action; So Throughout Childhood And

Youth, Growth Is The   Dominant Requirement To Which All Others Must Be

Subordinated: A Requirement Which Dictates The   Giving Of    Much And The

Taking Away Of    Little--A Requirement Which, Therefore, Restricts The

Exertion Of    Body And Mind In Proportion To The   Rapidity Of    Growth--A

Requirement Which Permits The   Mental And Physical Activities To Increase

Only As Fast As The   Rate Of    Growth Diminishes.

The _Rationale_ Of    This High-Pressure Education Is That It Results From

Our Passing Phase Of    Civilisation. In Primitive Times, When Aggression

And Defence Were The   Leading Social Activities, Bodily Vigour With Its

Accompanying Courage Were The   Desiderata; And Then Education Was Almost

Wholly Physical: Mental Cultivation Was Little Cared For, And Indeed, As

In Feudal Ages, Was Often Treated With Contempt. But Now That Our State

Is Relatively Peaceful--Now That Muscular Power Is Of    Use For Little

Else Than Manual Labour, While Social Success Of    Nearly Every Kind

Depends Very Much On Mental Power; Our Education Has Become Almost

Exclusively Mental. Instead Of    Respecting The   Body And Ignoring The

Mind, We Now Respect The   Mind And Ignore The   Body. Both These Attitudes

Are Wrong. We Do Not Yet Realise The   Truth That As, In This Life Of

Ours, The   Physical Underlies The   Mental, The   Mental Must Not Be

Developed At The   Expense Of    The   Physical. The   Ancient And Modern

Conceptions Must Be Combined.

Perhaps Nothing Will So Much Hasten The   Time When Body And Mind Will

Both Be Adequately Cared For, As A Diffusion Of    The   Belief That The

Preservation Of    Health Is A _Duty_. Few Seem Conscious That There Is

Such A Thing As Physical Morality. Men's Habitual Words And Acts Imply

The Idea That They Are At Liberty To Treat Their Bodies As They Please.

Disorders Entailed By Disobedience To Nature's Dictates, They Regard

Simply As Grievances: Not As The   Effects Of    A Conduct More Or Less

Flagitious. Though The   Evil Consequences Inflicted On Their Dependents,

And On Future Generations, Are Often As Great As Those Caused By Crime;

Yet They Do Not Think Themselves In Any Degree Criminal. It Is True

That, In The   Case Of    Drunkenness, The   Viciousness Of    A Bodily

Transgression Is Recognised; But None Appear To Infer That, If This

Bodily Transgression Is Vicious, So Too Is Every Bodily Transgression.

The Fact Is, That All Breaches Of    The   Laws Of    Health Are _Physical

Sins_. When This Is Generally Seen, Then, And Perhaps Not Till Then,

Will The   Physical Training Of    The   Young Receive The   Attention It

Deserves.

[1] _Cyclopædia Of    Practical Medicine._

[2] _Cyclopædia Of    Practical Medicine._

[3] _Cyclopædia Of    Anatomy And Physiology._

[4] Morton's _Cyclopædia Of    Agriculture_.

[5] Morton's _Cyclopædia Of    Agriculture_.

[6] It Is Needful To Remark That Children Whose Legs And Arms Have Been

From The   Beginning Habitually Without Covering, Cease To Be Conscious

That The   Exposed Surfaces Are Cold; Just As By Use We Have All Ceased To

Be Conscious That Our Faces Are Cold, Even When Out Of    Doors. But Though

In Such Children The   Sensations No Longer Protest, It Does Not Follow

That The   System Escapes Injury, Any More Than It Follows That The

Fuegian Is Undamaged By Exposure, Because He Bears With Indifference The

Melting Of    The   Falling Snow On His Naked Body.

[7] We Are Not Certain That The   Propagation Of    Subdued Forms Of

Constitutional Disease Through The   Agency Of    Vaccination Is Not A Part

Cause. Sundry Facts In Pathology Suggest The   Inference, That When The

System Of    A Vaccinated Child Is Excreting The   Vaccine Virus By Means Of

Pustules, It Will Tend Also To Excrete Through Such Pustules Other

Morbific Matters; Especially If These Morbific Matters Are Of    A Kind

Ordinarily Got Rid Of    By The   Skin, As Are Some Of    The   Worst Of    Them.

Hence It Is Very Possible--Probable Even--That A Child With A

Constitutional Taint, Too Slight To Show Itself In Visible Disease, May,

Through The   Medium Of    Vitiated Vaccine Lymph Taken From It, Convey A

Like Constitutional Taint To Other Children, And These To Others.

[8] _Cyclopædia Of    Practical Medicine_, Vol. I. Pp. 697, 698.

The Current Conception Of    Progress Is Somewhat Shifting And Indefinite.

Sometimes It Comprehends Little More Than Simple Growth--As Of    A Nation

In The   Number Of    Its Members And The   Extent Of    Territory Over Which It

Has Spread. Sometimes It Has Reference To Quantity Of    Material

Products--As When The   Advance Of    Agriculture And Manufactures Is The

Topic. Sometimes The   Superior Quality Of    These Products Is Contemplated:

And Sometimes The   New Or Improved Appliances By Which They Are Produced.

When, Again, We Speak Of    Moral Or Intellectual Progress, We Refer To The

State Of    The   Individual Or People Exhibiting It; While, When The

Progress Of    Knowledge, Of    Science, Of    Art, Is Commented Upon, We Have In

View Certain Abstract Results Of    Human Thought And Action. Not Only,

However, Is The   Current Conception Of    Progress More Or Less Vague, But

It Is In Great Measure Erroneous. It Takes In Not So Much The   Reality Of

Progress As Its Accompaniments--Not So Much The   Substance As The   Shadow.

That Progress In Intelligence Seen During The   Growth Of    The   Child Into

The Man, Or The