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

More Readily Altered; And That It Has, From Time To Time, Been Quietly

Ameliorated. Nevertheless, We Shall Find That The   Analogy Holds

Substantially Good. For In This Case, As In The   Others, The   Essential

Revolution Is Not The   Substituting Of    Any One Set Of    Restraints For Any

Other, But The   Limiting Or Abolishing The   Authority Which Prescribes

Restraints. Just As The   Fundamental Change Inaugurated By The

Reformation Was Not A Superseding Of    One Creed By Another, But An

Ignoring Of    The   Arbiter Who Before Dictated Creeds--Just As The

Fundamental Change Which Democracy Long Ago Commenced, Was Not From This

Particular Law To That, But From The   Despotism Of    One To The   Freedom Of

All; So, The   Parallel Change Yet To Be Wrought Out In This Supplementary

Government Of    Which We Are Treating, Is Not The   Replacing Of    Absurd

Usages By Sensible Ones, But The   Dethronement Of    That Secret,

Irresponsible Power Which Now Imposes Our Usages, And The   Assertion Of

The Right Of    All Individuals To Choose Their Own Usages. In Rules Of

Living, A West-End Clique Is Our Pope; And We Are All Papists, With But

A Mere Sprinkling Of    Heretics. On All Who Decisively Rebel, Comes Down

The Penalty Of    Excommunication, With Its Long Catalogue Of    Disagreeable

And, Indeed, Serious Consequences.

The Liberty Of    The   Subject Asserted In Our Constitution, And Ever On The

Increase, Has Yet To Be Wrested From This Subtler Tyranny. The   Right Of

Private Judgment, Which Our Ancestors Wrung From The   Church, Remains To

Be Claimed From This Dictator Of    Our Habits. Or, As Before Said, To Free

Us From These Idolatries And Superstitious Conformities, There Has Still

To Come A Protestanism In Social Usages. Parallel, Therefore, As Is The

Change To Be Wrought Out, It Seems Not Improbable That It May Be Wrought

Out In An Analogous Way. That Influence Which Solitary Dissentients Fail

To Gain, And That Perseverance Which They Lack, May Come Into Existence

When They Unite. That Persecution Which The   World Now Visits Upon Them

From Mistaking Their Nonconformity For Ignorance Or Disrespect, May

Diminish When It Is Seen To Result From Principle. The   Penalty Which

Exclusion Now Entails May Disappear When They Become Numerous Enough To

Form Visiting Circles Of    Their Own. And When A Successful Stand Has Been

Made, And The   Brunt Of    The   Opposition Has Passed, That Large Amount Of

Secret Dislike To Our Observances Which Now Pervades Society, May

Manifest Itself With Sufficient Power To Effect The   Desired

Emancipation.

Whether Such Will Be The   Process, Time Alone Can Decide. That Community

Of Origin, Growth, Supremacy, And Decadence, Which We Have Found Among

All Kinds Of    Government, Suggests A Community In Modes Of    Change Also.

On The   Other Hand, Nature Often Performs Substantially Similar

Operations, In Ways Apparently Different. Hence These Details Can Never

Be Foretold.

Meanwhile, Let Us Glance At The   Conclusions That Have Been Reached. On

The One Side, Government, Originally One, And Afterwards Subdivided For

The Better Fulfilment Of    Its Function, Must Be Considered As Having Ever

Been, In All Its Branches--Political, Religious, And

Ceremonial--Beneficial; And, Indeed, Absolutely Necessary. On The   Other

Side, Government, Under All Its Forms, Must Be Regarded As Subserving A

Temporary Office, Made Needful By The   Unfitness Of    Aboriginal Humanity

For Social Life; And The   Successive Diminutions Of    Its Coerciveness In

State, In Church, And In Custom, Must Be Looked Upon As Steps Towards

Its Final Disappearance. To Complete The   Conception, There Requires To

Be Borne In Mind The   Third Fact, That The   Genesis, The   Maintenance, And

The Decline Of    All Governments, However Named, Are Alike Brought About

By The   Humanity To Be Controlled: From Which May Be Drawn The   Inference

That, On The   Average, Restrictions Of    Every Kind Cannot Last Much Longer

Than They Are Wanted, And Cannot Be Destroyed Much Faster Than They

Ought To Be.

Society, In All Its Developments, Undergoes The   Process Of    Exuviation.

These Old Forms Which It Successively Throws Off, Have All Been Once

Vitally United With It--Have Severally Served As The   Protective

Envelopes Within Which A Higher Humanity Was Being Evolved. They Are

Cast Aside Only When They Become Hindrances--Only When Some Inner And

Better Envelope Has Been Formed; And They Bequeath To Us All That There

Was In Them Good. The   Periodical Abolitions Of    Tyrannical Laws Have Left

The Administration Of    Justice Not Only Uninjured, But Purified. Dead And

Buried Creeds Have Not Carried With Them The   Essential Morality They

Contained, Which Still Exists, Uncontaminated By The   Sloughs Of

Superstition. And All That There Is Of    Justice And Kindness And Beauty,

Embodied In Our Cumbrous Forms Of    Etiquette, Will Live Perennially When

The Forms Themselves Have Been Forgotten.

[1] _Westminster Review_, April 1854.

[2] This Was Written Before Moustaches And Beards Had Become Common.

There Has Ever Prevailed Among Men A Vague Notion That Scientific

Knowledge Differs In Nature From Ordinary Knowledge. By The   Greeks, With

Whom Mathematics--Literally _Things Learnt_--Was Alone Considered As

Knowledge Proper, The   Distinction Must Have Been Strongly Felt; And It

Has Ever Since Maintained Itself In The   General Mind. Though,

Considering The   Contrast Between The   Achievements Of    Science And Those

Of Daily Unmethodic Thinking, It Is Not Surprising That Such A

Distinction Has Been Assumed; Yet It Needs But To Rise A Little Above

The Common Point Of    View, To See That No Such Distinction Can Really

Exist: Or That At Best, It Is But A Superficial Distinction. The   Same

Faculties Are Employed In Both Cases; And In Both Cases Their Mode Of

Operation Is Fundamentally The   Same.

If We Say That Science Is Organised Knowledge, We Are Met By The   Truth

That All Knowledge Is Organised In A Greater Or Less Degree--That The

Commonest Actions Of    The   Household And The   Field Presuppose Facts

Colligated, Inferences Drawn, Results Expected; And That The   General

Success Of    These Actions Proves The   Data By Which They Were Guided To

Have Been Correctly Put Together. If, Again, We Say That Science Is

Prevision--Is A Seeing Beforehand--Is A Knowing In What Times, Places,

Combinations, Or Sequences, Specified Phenomena Will Be Found; We Are

Yet Obliged To Confess That The   Definition Includes Much That Is Utterly

Foreign To Science In Its Ordinary Acceptation. For Example, A Child's

Knowledge Of    An Apple. This, As Far As It Goes, Consists In Previsions.

When A Child Sees A Certain Form And Colours, It Knows That If It Puts

Out Its Hand It Will Have Certain Impressions Of    Resistance, And

Roundness, And Smoothness; And If It Bites, A Certain Taste. And

Manifestly Its General Acquaintance With Surrounding Objects Is Of    Like

Nature--Is Made Up Of    Facts Concerning Them, So Grouped As That Any Part

Of A Group Being Perceived, The   Existence Of    The   Other Facts Included In

It Is Foreseen.

If, Once More, We Say That Science Is _Exact_ Prevision, We Still Fail

To Establish The   Supposed Difference. Not Only Do We Find That Much Of

What We Call Science Is Not Exact, And That Some Of    It, As Physiology,

Can Never Become Exact; But We Find Further, That Many Of    The   Previsions

Constituting The   Common Stock Alike Of    Wise And Ignorant, _Are_ Exact.

That An Unsupported Body Will Fall; That A Lighted Candle Will Go Out

When Immersed In Water; That Ice Will Melt When Thrown On The

Fire--These, And Many Like Predictions Relating To The   Familiar

Properties Of    Things Have As High A Degree Of    Accuracy As Predictions

Are Capable Of. It Is True That The   Results Predicated Are Of    A Very

General Character; But It Is None The   Less True That They Are Rigorously

Correct As Far As They Go: And This Is All That Is Requisite To Fulfil

The Definition. There Is Perfect Accordance Between The   Anticipated

Phenomena And The   Actual Ones; And No More Than This Can Be Said Of    The

Highest Achievements Of    The   Sciences Specially Characterised As Exact.

Seeing Thus That The   Assumed Distinction Between Scientific Knowledge

And Common Knowledge Is Not Logically Justifiable; And Yet Feeling, As

We Must, That However Impossible It May Be To Draw A Line Between Them,

The Two Are Not Practically Identical; There Arises The   Question--What

Is The   Relationship That Exists Between Them? A Partial Answer To This

Question May Be Drawn From The   Illustrations Just Given. On

Reconsidering Them, It Will Be Observed That Those Portions Of    Ordinary

Knowledge Which Are Identical In Character With Scientific Knowledge,

Comprehend Only Such Combinations Of    Phenomena As Are Directly

Cognisable By The   Senses, And Are Of    Simple, Invariable Nature. That The

Smoke From A Fire Which She Is Lighting Will Ascend, And That The   Fire

Will Presently Boil Water, Are Previsions Which The   Servant-Girl Makes

Equally Well With The   Most Learned Physicist; They Are Equally Certain,

Equally Exact With His; But They Are Previsions Concerning Phenomena In

Constant And Direct Relation--Phenomena That Follow Visibly And

Immediately After Their Antecedents--Phenomena Of    Which The   Causation Is

Neither Remote Nor Obscure--Phenomena Which May Be Predicted By The

Simplest Possible Act Of    Reasoning.

If, Now, We Pass To The   Previsions Constituting What Is Commonly Known

As Science--That An Eclipse Of    The   Moon Will Happen At A Specified Time;

And When A Barometer Is Taken To The   Top Of    A Mountain Of    Known Height,

The Mercurial Column Will Descend A Stated Number Of    Inches; That The

Poles Of    A Galvanic Battery Immersed In Water Will Give Off, The   One An

Inflammable And The   Other An Inflaming Gas, In Definite Ratio--We

Perceive That The   Relations Involved Are Not Of    A Kind Habitually

Presented To Our Senses; That They Depend, Some Of    Them, Upon Special

Combinations Of    Causes; And That In Some Of    Them The   Connection Between

Antecedents And Consequents Is Established Only By An Elaborate Series

Of Inferences. The   Broad Distinction, Therefore, Between The   Two Orders

Of Knowledge, Is Not In Their Nature, But In Their Remoteness From

Perception.

If We Regard The   Cases In Their Most General Aspect, We See That The

Labourer, Who, On Hearing Certain Notes In The   Adjacent Hedge, Can

Describe The   Particular Form And Colours Of    The   Bird Making Them; And

The Astronomer, Who, Having Calculated A Transit Of    Venus, Can Delineate

The Black Spot Entering On The   Sun's Disc, As It Will Appear Through The

Telescope, At A Specified Hour; Do Essentially The   Same Thing. Each

Knows That On Fulfilling The   Requisite Conditions, He Shall Have A

Preconceived Impression--That After A Definite Series Of    Actions Will

Come A Group Of    Sensations Of    A Foreknown Kind. The   Difference, Then, Is

Not In The   Fundamental Character Of    The   Mental