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

No Practical Moment; And, We Doubt Not, That Many Will Think It Of    Very

Little Consequence What Theory Respecting The   Genesis Of    Science May Be

Entertained. But The   Value Of    Truths Is Often Great, In Proportion As

Their Generality Is Wide. Remote As They Seem From Practical

Application, The   Highest Generalisations Are Not Unfrequently The   Most

Potent In Their Effects, In Virtue Of    Their Influence On All Those

Subordinate Generalisations Which Regulate Practice. And It Must Be So

Here. Whenever Established, A Correct Theory Of    The   Historical

Development Of    The   Sciences Must Have An Immense Effect Upon Education;

And, Through Education, Upon Civilisation. Greatly As We Differ From Him

In Other Respects, We Agree With M. Comte In The   Belief That, Rightly

Conducted, The   Education Of    The   Individual Must Have A Certain

Correspondence With The   Evolution Of    The   Race.

No One Can Contemplate The   Facts We Have Cited In Illustration Of    The

Early Stages Of    Science, Without Recognising The   _Necessity_ Of    The

Processes Through Which Those Stages Were Reached--A Necessity Which, In

Respect To The   Leading Truths, May Likewise Be Traced In All After

Stages. This Necessity, Originating In The   Very Nature Of    The   Phenomena

To Be Analysed And The   Faculties To Be Employed, More Or Less Fully

Applies To The   Mind Of    The   Child As To That Of    The   Savage. We Say More

Or Less Fully, Because The   Correspondence Is Not Special But General

Only. Were The   _Environment_ The   Same In Both Cases, The   Correspondence

Would Be Complete. But Though The   Surrounding Material Out Of    Which

Science Is To Be Organised, Is, In Many Cases, The   Same To The   Juvenile

Mind And The   Aboriginal Mind, It Is Not So Throughout; As, For Instance,

In The   Case Of    Chemistry, The   Phenomena Of    Which Are Accessible To The

One, But Were Inaccessible To The   Other. Hence, In Proportion As The

Environment Differs, The   Course Of    Evolution Must Differ. After

Admitting Sundry Exceptions, However, There Remains A Substantial

Parallelism; And, If So, It Becomes Of    Great Moment To Ascertain What

Really Has Been The   Process Of    Scientific Evolution. The   Establishment

Of An Erroneous Theory Must Be Disastrous In Its Educational Results;

While The   Establishments Of    A True One Must Eventually Be Fertile In

School-Reforms And Consequent Social Benefits.

[1] _British Quarterly Review_, July 1854.

[2] It Is Somewhat Curious That The   Author Of    _The Plurality Of    Worlds_,

With Quite Other Aims, Should Have Persuaded Himself Into Similar

Conclusions.

Why Do We Smile When A Child Puts On A Man's Hat? Or What Induces Us To

Laugh On Reading That The   Corpulent Gibbon Was Unable To Rise From His

Knees After Making A Tender Declaration? The   Usual Reply To Such

Questions Is, That Laughter Results From A Perception Of    Incongruity.

Even Were There Not On This Reply The   Obvious Criticism That Laughter

Often Occurs From Extreme Pleasure Or From Mere Vivacity, There Would

Still Remain The   Real Problem--How Comes A Sense Of    The   Incongruous To

Be Followed By These Peculiar Bodily Actions? Some Have Alleged That

Laughter Is Due To The   Pleasure Of    A Relative Self-Elevation, Which We

Feel On Seeing The   Humiliation Of    Others. But This Theory, Whatever

Portion Of    Truth It May Contain, Is, In The   First Place, Open To The

Fatal Objection, That There Are Various Humiliations To Others Which

Produce In Us Anything But Laughter; And, In The   Second Place, It Does

Not Apply To The   Many Instances In Which No One's Dignity Is Implicated:

As When We Laugh At A Good Pun. Moreover, Like The   Other, It Is Merely A

Generalisation Of    Certain Conditions To Laughter; And Not An Explanation

Of The   Odd Movements Which Occur Under These Conditions. Why, When

Greatly Delighted, Or Impressed With Certain Unexpected Contrasts Of

Ideas, Should There Be A Contraction Of    Particular Facial Muscles, And

Particular Muscles Of    The   Chest And Abdomen? Such Answer To This

Question As May Be Possible Can Be Rendered Only By Physiology.

Every Child Has Made The   Attempt To Hold The   Foot Still While It Is

Tickled, And Has Failed; And Probably There Is Scarcely Any One Who Has

Not Vainly Tried To Avoid Winking, When A Hand Has Been Suddenly Passed

Before The   Eyes. These Examples Of    Muscular Movements Which Occur

Independently Of    The   Will, Or In Spite Of    It, Illustrate What

Physiologists Call Reflex-Action; As Likewise Do Sneezing And Coughing.

To This Class Of    Cases, In Which Involuntary Motions Are Accompanied By

Sensations, Has To Be Added Another Class Of    Cases, In Which Involuntary

Motions Are Unaccompanied By Sensations:--Instance The   Pulsations Of    The

Heart; The   Contractions Of    The   Stomach During Digestion. Further, The

Great Mass Of    Seemingly-Voluntary Acts In Such Creatures As Insects,

Worms, Molluscs, Are Considered By Physiologists To Be As Purely

Automatic As Is The   Dilatation Or Closure Of    The   Iris Under Variations

In Quantity Of    Light; And Similarly Exemplify The   Law, That An

Impression On The   End Of    An Afferent Nerve Is Conveyed To Some

Ganglionic Centre, And Is Thence Usually Reflected Along An Efferent

Nerve To One Or More Muscles Which It Causes To Contract.

In A Modified Form This Principle Holds With Voluntary Acts. Nervous

Excitation Always _Tends_ To Beget Muscular Motion; And When It Rises To

A Certain Intensity, Always Does Beget It. Not Only In Reflex Actions,

Whether With Or Without Sensation, Do We See That Special Nerves, When

Raised To A State Of    Tension, Discharge Themselves On Special Muscles

With Which They Are Indirectly Connected; But Those External Actions

Through Which We Read The   Feelings Of    Others, Show Us That Under Any

Considerable Tension, The   Nervous System In General Discharges Itself On

The Muscular System In General: Either With Or Without The   Guidance Of

The Will. The   Shivering Produced By Cold, Implies Irregular Muscular

Contractions, Which, Though At First Only Partly Involuntary, Become,

When The   Cold Is Extreme, Almost Wholly Involuntary. When You Have

Severely Burnt Your Finger, It Is Very Difficult To Preserve A Dignified

Composure: Contortion Of    Face, Or Movement Of    Limb, Is Pretty Sure To

Follow. If A Man Receives Good News With Neither Change Of    Feature Nor

Bodily Motion, It Is Inferred That He Is Not Much Pleased, Or That He

Has Extraordinary Self-Control--Either Inference Implying That Joy

Almost Universally Produces Contraction Of    The   Muscles; And So, Alters

The Expression, Or Attitude, Or Both. And When We Hear Of    The   Feats Of

Strength Which Men Have Performed When Their Lives Were At Stake--When

We Read How, In The   Energy Of    Despair, Even Paralytic Patients Have

Regained For A Time The   Use Of    Their Limbs, We See Still More Clearly

The Relations Between Nervous And Muscular Excitements. It Becomes

Manifest Both That Emotions And Sensations Tend To Generate Bodily

Movements And That The   Movements Are Vehement In Proportion As The

Emotions Or Sensations Are Intense.[2]

This, However, Is Not The   Sole Direction In Which Nervous Excitement

Expends Itself. Viscera As Well As Muscles May Receive The   Discharge.

That The   Heart And Blood-Vessels (Which, Indeed, Being All Contractile,

May In A Restricted Sense Be Classed With The   Muscular System) Are

Quickly Affected By Pleasures And Pains, We Have Daily Proved To Us.

Every Sensation Of    Any Acuteness Accelerates The   Pulse; And How

Sensitive The   Heart Is To Emotions, Is Testified By The   Familiar

Expressions Which Use Heart And Feeling As Convertible Terms. Similarly

With The   Digestive Organs. Without Detailing The   Various Ways In Which

These May Be Influenced By Our Mental States, It Suffices To Mention The

Marked Benefits Derived By Dyspeptics, As Well As Other Invalids, From

Cheerful Society, Welcome News, Change Of    Scene, To Show How Pleasurable

Feeling Stimulates The   Viscera In General Into Greater Activity.

There Is Still Another Direction In Which Any Excited Portion Of    The

Nervous System May Discharge Itself; And A Direction In Which It Usually

Does Discharge Itself When The   Excitement Is Not Strong. It May Pass On

The Stimulus To Some Other Portion Of    The   Nervous System. This Is What

Occurs In Quiet Thinking And Feeling. The   Successive States Which

Constitute Consciousness, Result From This. Sensations Excite Ideas And

Emotions; These In Their Turns Arouse Other Ideas And Emotions; And So,

Continuously. That Is To Say, The   Tension Existing In Particular Nerves,

Or Groups Of    Nerves, When They Yield Us Certain Sensations, Ideas, Or

Emotions, Generates An Equivalent Tension In Some Other Nerves, Or

Groups Of    Nerves, With Which There Is A Connection: The   Flow Of    Energy

Passing On, The   One Idea Or Feeling Dies In Producing The   Next.

Thus, Then, While We Are Totally Unable To Comprehend How The   Excitement

Of Certain Nerves Should Generate Feeling--While, In The   Production Of

Consciousness By Physical Agents Acting On Physical Structure, We Come

To An Absolute Mystery Never To Be Solved; It Is Yet Quite Possible For

Us To Know By Observation What Are The   Successive Forms Which This

Absolute Mystery May Take. We See That There Are Three Channels Along

Which Nerves In A State Of    Tension May Discharge Themselves; Or Rather,

I Should Say, Three Classes Of    Channels. They May Pass On The   Excitement

To Other Nerves That Have No Direct Connections With The   Bodily Members,

And May So Cause Other Feelings And Ideas; Or They May Pass On The

Excitement To One Or More Motor Nerves, And So Cause Muscular

Contractions; Or They May Pass On The   Excitement To Nerves Which Supply

The Viscera, And May So Stimulate One Or More Of    These.

For Simplicity's Sake, I Have Described These As Alternative Routes, One

Or Other Of    Which Any Current Of    Nerve-Force Must Take; Thereby, As It

May Be Thought, Implying That Such Current Will Be Exclusively Confined

To Some One Of    Them. But This Is By No Means The   Case. Rarely, If Ever,

Does It Happen That A State Of    Nervous Tension, Present To Consciousness

As A Feeling, Expends Itself In One Direction Only. Very Generally It

May Be Observed To Expend Itself In Two; And It Is Probable That The

Discharge Is Never Absolutely Absent From Any One Of    The   Three. There

Is, However, Variety In The   _Proportions_ In Which The   Discharge Is

Divided Among These Different Channels Under Different Circumstances. In

A Man Whose Fear Impels Him To Run, The   Mental Tension Generated Is Only

In Part Transformed Into A Muscular Stimulus: There Is A Surplus Which

Causes A Rapid Current Of    Ideas. An Agreeable State Of    Feeling Produced,

Say By Praise, Is Not Wholly Used Up In Arousing The   Succeeding