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

Like Every Organism, Was Once Homogeneous; That As A Whole, And In Every

Detail, It Has Unceasingly Advanced Towards Greater Heterogeneity; And

That Its Heterogeneity Is Still Increasing. It Will Be Seen That As In

Each Event Of    To-Day, So From The   Beginning, The   Decomposition Of    Every

Expended Force Into Several Forces Has Been Perpetually Producing A

Higher Complication; That The   Increase Of    Heterogeneity So Brought About

Is Still Going On, And Must Continue To Go On; And That Thus Progress Is

Not An Accident, Not A Thing Within Human Control, But A Beneficent

Necessity.

A Few Words Must Be Added On The   Ontological Bearings Of    Our Argument.

Probably Not A Few Will Conclude That Here Is An Attempted Solution Of

The Great Questions With Which Philosophy In All Ages Has Perplexed

Itself. Let None Thus Deceive Themselves. Only Such As Know Not The

Scope And The   Limits Of    Science Can Fall Into So Grave An Error. The

Foregoing Generalisations Apply, Not To The   Genesis Of    Things In

Themselves, But To Their Genesis As Manifested To The   Human

Consciousness. After All That Has Been Said, The   Ultimate Mystery

Remains Just As It Was. The   Explanation Of    That Which Is Explicable,

Does But Bring Out Into Greater Clearness The   Inexplicableness Of    That

Which Remains Behind. However We May Succeed In Reducing The   Equation To

Its Lowest Terms, We Are Not Thereby Enabled To Determine The   Unknown

Quantity: On The   Contrary, It Only Becomes More Manifest That The

Unknown Quantity Can Never Be Found.

Little As It Seems To Do So, Fearless Inquiry Tends Continually To Give

A Firmer Basis To All True Religion. The   Timid Sectarian, Alarmed At The

Progress Of    Knowledge, Obliged To Abandon One By One The   Superstitions

Of His Ancestors, And Daily Finding His Cherished Beliefs More And More

Shaken, Secretly Fears That All Things May Some Day Be Explained; And

Has A Corresponding Dread Of    Science: Thus Evincing The   Profoundest Of

All Infidelity--The Fear Lest The   Truth Be Bad. On The   Other Hand, The

Sincere Man Of    Science, Content To Follow Wherever The   Evidence Leads

Him, Becomes By Each New Inquiry More Profoundly Convinced That The

Universe Is An Insoluble Problem. Alike In The   External And The   Internal

Worlds, He Sees Himself In The   Midst Of    Perpetual Changes, Of    Which He

Can Discover Neither The   Beginning Nor The   End. If, Tracing Back The

Evolution Of    Things, He Allows Himself To Entertain The   Hypothesis That

All Matter Once Existed In A Diffused Form, He Finds It Utterly

Impossible To Conceive How This Came To Be So; And Equally, If He

Speculates On The   Future, He Can Assign No Limit To The   Grand Succession

Of Phenomena Ever Unfolding Themselves Before Him. On The   Other Hand, If

He Looks Inward, He Perceives That Both Terminations Of    The   Thread Of

Consciousness Are Beyond His Grasp: He Cannot Remember When Or How

Consciousness Commenced, And He Cannot Examine The   Consciousness That At

Any Moment Exists; For Only A State Of    Consciousness That Is Already

Past Can Become The   Object Of    Thought, And Never One Which Is Passing.

When, Again, He Turns From The   Succession Of    Phenomena, External Or

Internal, To Their Essential Nature, He Is Equally At Fault. Though He

May Succeed In Resolving All Properties Of    Objects Into Manifestations

Of Force, He Is Not Thereby Enabled To Realise What Force Is; But Finds,

On The   Contrary, That The   More He Thinks About It, The   More He Is

Baffled. Similarly, Though Analysis Of    Mental Actions May Finally Bring

Him Down To Sensations As The   Original Materials Out Of    Which All

Thought Is Woven, He Is None The   Forwarder; For He Cannot In The   Least

Comprehend Sensation--Cannot Even Conceive How Sensation Is Possible.

Inward And Outward Things He Thus Discovers To Be Alike Inscrutable In

Their Ultimate Genesis And Nature. He Sees That The   Materialist And

Spiritualist Controversy Is A Mere War Of    Words; The   Disputants Being

Equally Absurd--Each Believing He Understands That Which It Is

Impossible For Any Man To Understand. In All Directions His

Investigations Eventually Bring Him Face To Face With The   Unknowable;

And He Ever More Clearly Perceives It To Be The   Unknowable. He Learns At

Once The   Greatness And The   Littleness Of    Human Intellect--Its Power In

Dealing With All That Comes Within The   Range Of    Experience; Its

Impotence In Dealing With All That Transcends Experience. He Feels, With

A Vividness Which No Others Can, The   Utter Incomprehensibleness Of    The

Simplest Fact, Considered In Itself. He Alone Truly _Sees_ That Absolute

Knowledge Is Impossible. He Alone _Knows_ That Under All Things There

Lies An Impenetrable Mystery.

[1] _Westminster Review_, April 1857.

[2] For Detailed Proof Of    These Assertions See Essay On "Manners And

Fashion."

[3] The   Idea That The   Nebular Hypothesis Has Been Disproved Because What

Were Thought To Be Existing Nebulæ Have Been Resolved Into Clusters Of

Stars Is Almost Beneath Notice. _A Priori_ It Was Highly Improbable, If

Not Impossible, That Nebulous Masses Should Still Remain Uncondensed,

While Others Have Been Condensed Millions Of    Years Ago.

[4] _Personal Narrative Of    The   Origin Of    The   Caoutchouc, Or India-Rubber

Manufacture In England._ By Thomas Hancock.

Whoever Has Studied The   Physiognomy Of    Political Meetings, Cannot Fail

To Have Remarked A Connection Between Democratic Opinions And

Peculiarities Of    Costume. At A Chartist Demonstration, A Lecture On

Socialism, Or A _Soirée_ Of    The   Friends Of    Italy, There Will Be Seen

Many Among The   Audience, And A Still Larger Ratio Among The   Speakers,

Who Get Themselves Up In A Style More Or Less Unusual. One Gentleman On

The Platform Divides His Hair Down The   Centre, Instead Of    On One Side;

Another Brushes It Back Off The   Forehead, In The   Fashion Known As

"Bringing Out The   Intellect;" A Third Has So Long Forsworn The   Scissors,

That His Locks Sweep His Shoulders. A Considerable Sprinkling Of

Moustaches May Be Observed; Here And There An Imperial; And Occasionally

Some Courageous Breaker Of    Conventions Exhibits A Full-Grown Beard.[2]

This Nonconformity In Hair Is Countenanced By Various Nonconformities In

Dress, Shown By Others Of    The   Assemblage. Bare Necks, Shirt-Collars _À

La_ Byron, Waistcoats Cut Quaker Fashion, Wonderfully Shaggy Great

Coats, Numerous Oddities In Form And Colour, Destroy The   Monotony Usual

In Crowds. Even Those Exhibiting No Conspicuous Peculiarity, Frequently

Indicate By Something In The   Pattern Or Make-Up Of    Their Clothes, That

They Pay Small Regard To What Their Tailors Tell Them About The

Prevailing Taste. And When The   Gathering Breaks Up, The   Varieties Of

Head-Gear Displayed--The Number Of    Caps, And The   Abundance Of    Felt

Hats--Suffice To Prove That Were The   World At Large Like-Minded, The

Black Cylinders Which Tyrannise Over Us Would Soon Be Deposed.

The Foreign Correspondence Of    Our Daily Press Shows That This

Relationship Between Political Discontent And The   Disregard Of    Customs

Exists On The   Continent Also. Red Republicanism Has Always Been

Distinguished By Its Hirsuteness. The   Authorities Of    Prussia, Austria,

And Italy, Alike Recognise Certain Forms Of    Hat As Indicative Of

Disaffection, And Fulminate Against Them Accordingly. In Some Places The

Wearer Of    A Blouse Runs A Risk Of    Being Classed Among The   _Suspects_;

And In Others, He Who Would Avoid The   Bureau Of    Police, Must Beware How

He Goes Out In Any But The   Ordinary Colours. Thus, Democracy Abroad, As

At Home, Tends Towards Personal Singularity.

Nor Is This Association Of    Characteristics Peculiar To Modern Times, Or

To Reformers Of    The   State. It Has Always Existed; And It Has Been

Manifested As Much In Religious Agitations As In Political Ones. Along

With Dissent From The   Chief Established Opinions And Arrangements, There

Has Ever Been Some Dissent From The   Customary Social Practices. The

Puritans, Disapproving Of    The   Long Curls Of    The   Cavaliers, As Of    Their

Principles, Cut Their Own Hair Short, And So Gained The   Name Of

"Roundheads." The   Marked Religious Nonconformity Of    The   Quakers Was

Accompanied By An Equally-Marked Nonconformity Of    Manners--In Attire, In

Speech, In Salutation. The   Early Moravians Not Only Believed

Differently, But At The   Same Time Dressed Differently, And Lived

Differently, From Their Fellow Christians.

That The   Association Between Political Independence And Independence Of

Personal Conduct, Is Not A Phenomenon Of    To-Day Only, We May See Alike

In The   Appearance Of    Franklin At The   French Court In Plain Clothes, And

In The   White Hats Worn By The   Last Generation Of    Radicals. Originality

Of Nature Is Sure To Show Itself In More Ways Than One. The   Mention Of

George Fox's Suit Of    Leather, Or Pestalozzi's School Name, "Harry

Oddity," Will At Once Suggest The   Remembrance That Men Who Have In Great

Things Diverged From The   Beaten Track, Have Frequently Done So In Small

Things Likewise. Minor Illustrations Of    This Truth May Be Gathered In

Almost Every Circle. We Believe That Whoever Will Number Up His

Reforming And Rationalist Acquaintances, Will Find Among Them More Than

The Usual Proportion Of    Those Who In Dress Or Behaviour Exhibit Some

Degree Of    What The   World Calls Eccentricity.

If It Be A Fact That Men Of    Revolutionary Aims In Politics Or Religion,

Are Commonly Revolutionists In Custom Also, It Is Not Less A Fact That

Those Whose Office It Is To Uphold Established Arrangements In State And

Church, Are Also Those Who Most Adhere To The   Social Forms And

Observances Bequeathed To Us By Past Generations. Practices Elsewhere

Extinct Still Linger About The   Headquarters Of    Government. The   Monarch

Still Gives Assent To Acts Of    Parliament In The   Old French Of    The

Normans; And Norman French Terms Are Still Used In Law. Wigs, Such As

Those We See Depicted In Old Portraits, May Yet Be Found On The   Heads Of

Judges And Barristers. The   Beefeaters At The   Tower Wear The   Costume Of

Henry Viith's Bodyguard. The   University Dress Of    The   Present Year Varies

But Little From That Worn Soon After The   Reformation. The

Claret-Coloured Coat, Knee-Breeches, Lace Shirt Frills, Ruffles, White

Silk Stockings, And Buckled Shoes, Which Once Formed The   Usual Attire Of

A Gentleman, Still Survive As The   Court-Dress. And It Need Scarcely Be

Said That At _Levées_ And Drawing-Rooms, The   Ceremonies Are Prescribed

With An Exactness, And Enforced With A Rigour, Not Elsewhere To Be

Found.

Can We Consider These Two Series Of    Coincidences As Accidental And

Unmeaning? Must We Not Rather Conclude That Some Necessary Relationship

Obtains Between Them? Are There Not Such Things As A Constitutional

Conservatism, And A Constitutional Tendency To Change? Is There Not A

Class Which Clings To The   Old In All Things; And Another Class So In

Love With Progress As Often To Mistake Novelty For Improvement?