Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) - Herbert Spencer (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Herbert Spencer
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Posteriori_, By The Experience Of Every One. Every One Knows, For
Instance, That The Digestion Of A Heavy Meal Makes Such A Demand On The
System As To Produce Lassitude Of Mind And Body, Frequently Ending In
Sleep. Every One Knows, Too, That Excess Of Bodily Exercise Diminishes
The Power Of Thought--That The Temporary Prostration Following Any
Sudden Exertion, Or The Fatigue Produced By A Thirty Miles' Walk, Is
Accompanied By A Disinclination To Mental Effort; That, After A Month's
Pedestrian Tour, The Mental Inertia Is Such That Some Days Are Required
To Overcome It; And That In Peasants Who Spend Their Lives In Muscular
Labour The Activity Of Mind Is Very Small. Again, It Is A Familiar Truth
That During Those Fits Of Rapid Growth Which Sometimes Occur In
Childhood, The Great Abstraction Of Energy Is Shown In An Attendant
Prostration, Bodily And Mental. Once More, The Facts That Violent
Muscular Exertion After Eating, Will Stop Digestion; And That Children
Who Are Early Put To Hard Labour Become Stunted; Similarly Exhibit The
Antagonism--Similarly Imply That Excess Of Activity In One Direction
Involves Deficiency Of It In Other Directions. Now, The Law Which Is
Thus Manifest In Extreme Cases, Holds In All Cases. These Injurious
Abstractions Of Energy As Certainly Take Place When The Undue Demands
Are Slight And Constant, As When They Are Great And Sudden. Hence, If
During Youth The Expenditure In Mental Labour Exceeds That Which Nature
Part 1 Chapter 4 (Physical Education) Pg 61Has Provided For; The Expenditure For Other Purposes Falls Below What It
Should Have Been; And Evils Of One Kind Or Other Are Inevitably
Entailed. Let Us Briefly Consider These Evils.
Supposing The Over-Activity Of Brain To Exceed The Normal Activity Only
In A Moderate Degree, There Will Be Nothing More Than Some Slight
Reaction On The Development Of The Body: The Stature Falling A Little
Below That Which It Would Else Have Reached; Or The Bulk Being Less Than
It Would Have Been; Or The Quality Of Tissue Not Being So Good. One Or
More Of These Effects Must Necessarily Occur. The Extra Quantity Of
Blood Supplied To The Brain During Mental Exertion, And During The
Subsequent Period In Which The Waste Of Cerebral Substance Is Being Made
Good, Is Blood That Would Else Have Been Circulating Through The Limbs
And Viscera; And The Growth Or Repair For Which That Blood Would Have
Supplied Materials, Is Lost. The Physical Reaction Being Certain, The
Question Is, Whether The Gain Resulting From The Extra Culture Is
Equivalent To The Loss?--Whether Defect Of Bodily Growth, Or The Want Of
That Structural Perfection Which Gives Vigour And Endurance, Is
Compensated By The Additional Knowledge Acquired?
When The Excess Of Mental Exertion Is Greater, There Follow Results Far
More Serious; Telling Not Only Against Bodily Perfection, But Against
The Perfection Of The Brain Itself. It Is A Physiological Law, First
Pointed Out By M. Isidore St. Hilaire, And To Which Attention Has Been
Drawn By Mr. Lewes In His Essay On "Dwarfs And Giants," That There Is An
Antagonism Between _Growth_ And _Development_. By Growth, As Used In
This Antithetical Sense, Is To Be Understood _Increase Of Size_; By
Development, _Increase Of Structure_. And The Law Is, That Great
Activity In Either Of These Processes Involves Retardation Or Arrest Of
The Other. A Familiar Example Is Furnished By The Cases Of The
Caterpillar And The Chrysalis. In The Caterpillar There Is Extremely
Rapid Augmentation Of Bulk; But The Structure Is Scarcely At All More
Complex When The Caterpillar Is Full-Grown Than When It Is Small. In The
Chrysalis The Bulk Does Not Increase; On The Contrary, Weight Is Lost
During This Stage Of The Creature's Life; But The Elaboration Of A More
Complex Structure Goes On With Great Activity. The Antagonism, Here So
Clear, Is Less Traceable In Higher Creatures, Because The Two Processes
Are Carried On Together. But We See It Pretty Well Illustrated Among
Ourselves When We Contrast The Sexes. A Girl Develops In Body And Mind
Rapidly, And Ceases To Grow Comparatively Early. A Boy's Bodily And
Mental Development Is Slower, And His Growth Greater. At The Age When
The One Is Mature, Finished, And Having All Faculties In Full Play, The
Other, Whose Vital Energies Have Been More Directed Towards Increase Of
Size, Is Relatively Incomplete In Structure; And Shows It In A
Comparative Awkwardness, Bodily And Mental. Now This Law Is True Of Each
Separate Part Of The Organism, As Well As Of The Whole. The Abnormally
Rapid Advance Of Any Organ In Respect Of Structure, Involves Premature
Arrest Of Its Growth; And This Happens With The Organ Of The Mind As
Certainly As With Any Other Organ. The Brain, Which During Early Years
Is Relatively Large In Mass But Imperfect In Structure, Will, If
Required To Perform Its Functions With Undue Activity, Undergo A
Structural Advance Greater Than Is Appropriate To Its Age; But The
Ultimate Effect Will Be A Falling Short Of The Size And Power That Would
Else Have Been Attained. And This Is A Part-Cause--Probably The Chief
Cause--Why Precocious Children, And Youths Who Up To A Certain Time Were
Carrying All Before Them, So Often Stop Short And Disappoint The High
Hopes Of Their Parents.
But These Results Of Over-Education, Disastrous As They Are, Are Perhaps
Less Disastrous Than The Effects Produced On The Health--The Undermined
Constitution, The Enfeebled Energies, The Morbid Feelings. Recent
Discoveries In Physiology Have Shown How Immense Is The Influence Of The
Brain Over The Functions Of The Body. Digestion, Circulation, And
Through These All Other Organic Processes, Are Profoundly Affected By
Cerebral Excitement. Whoever Has Seen Repeated, As We Have, The
Experiment First Performed By Weber, Showing The Consequence Of
Irritating The _Vagus_ Nerve, Which Connects The Brain With The
Viscera--Whoever Has Seen The Action Of The Heart Suddenly Arrested By
Irritating This Nerve; Slowly Recommencing When The Irritation Is
Suspended; And Again Arrested The Moment It Is Renewed; Will Have A
Vivid Conception Of The Depressing Influence Which An Over-Wrought Brain
Exercises On The Body. The Effects Thus Physiologically Explained, Are
Indeed Exemplified In Ordinary Experience. There Is No One But Has Felt
The Palpitation Accompanying Hope, Fear, Anger, Joy--No One But Has
Observed How Laboured Becomes The Action Of The Heart When These
Feelings Are Violent. And Though There Are Many Who Have Never Suffered
That Extreme Emotional Excitement Which Is Followed By Arrest Of The
Heart's Action And Fainting; Yet Every One Knows These To Be Cause And
Effect. It Is A Familiar Fact, Too, That Disturbance Of The Stomach
Results From Mental Excitement Exceeding A Certain Intensity. Loss Of
Appetite Is A Common Consequence Alike Of Very Pleasurable And Very
Painful States Of Mind. When The Event Producing A Pleasurable Or
Painful State Of Mind Occurs Shortly After A Meal, It Not Unfrequently
Happens Either That The Stomach Rejects What Has Been Eaten, Or Digests
It With Great Difficulty And Under Protest. And As Every One Who Taxes
His Brain Much Can Testify, Even Purely Intellectual Action Will, When
Excessive, Produce Analogous Effects. Now The Relation Between Brain And
Body Which Is So Manifest In These Extreme Cases, Holds Equally In
Ordinary, Less-Marked Cases. Just As These Violent But Temporary
Cerebral Excitements Produce Violent But Temporary Disturbances Of The
Viscera; So Do The Less Violent But Chronic Cerebral Excitements Produce
Less Violent But Chronic Visceral Disturbances. This Is Not Simply An
Inference:--It Is A Truth To Which Every Medical Man Can Bear Witness;
And It Is One To Which A Long And Sad Experience Enables Us To Give
Personal Testimony. Various Degrees And Forms Of Bodily Derangement,
Often Taking Years Of Enforced Idleness To Set Partially Right, Result
From This Prolonged Over-Exertion Of Mind. Sometimes The Heart Is
Chiefly Affected: Habitual Palpitations; A Pulse Much Enfeebled; And
Very Generally A Diminution In The Number Of Beats From Seventy-Two To
Sixty, Or Even Fewer. Sometimes The Conspicuous Disorder Is Of The
Stomach: A Dyspepsia Which Makes Life A Burden, And Is Amenable To No
Remedy But Time. In Many Cases Both Heart And Stomach Are Implicated.
Mostly The Sleep Is Short And Broken. And Very Generally There Is More
Or Less Mental Depression.
Consider, Then, How Great Must Be The Damage Inflicted By Undue Mental
Excitement On Children And Youths. More Or Less Of This Constitutional
Disturbance Will Inevitably Follow An Exertion Of Brain Beyond The
Normal Amount; And When Not So Excessive As To Produce Absolute Illness,
Is Sure To Entail A Slowly Accumulating Degeneracy Of _Physique_. With A
Small And Fastidious Appetite, An Imperfect Digestion, And An Enfeebled
Circulation, How Can The Developing Body Flourish? The Due Performance
Of Every Vital Process Depends On An Adequate Supply Of Good Blood.
Without Enough Good Blood, No Gland Can Secrete Properly, No Viscus Can
Fully Discharge Its Office. Without Enough Good Blood, No Nerve, Muscle,
Part 1 Chapter 4 (Physical Education) Pg 62Membrane, Or Other Tissue Can Be Efficiently Repaired. Without Enough
Good Blood, Growth Will Neither Be Sound Nor Sufficient. Judge, Then,
How Bad Must Be The Consequences When To A Growing Body The Weakened
Stomach Supplies Blood That Is Deficient In Quantity And Poor In
Quality; While The Debilitated Heart Propels This Poor And Scanty Blood
With Unnatural Slowness.
And If, As All Who Investigate The Matter Must Admit, Physical
Degeneracy Is A Consequence Of Excessive Study, How Grave Is The
Condemnation To Be Passed On This Cramming-System Above Exemplified. It
Is A Terrible Mistake, From Whatever Point Of View Regarded. It Is A
Mistake In So Far As The Mere Acquirement Of Knowledge Is Concerned. For
The Mind, Like The Body, Cannot Assimilate Beyond A Certain Rate; And If
You Ply It With Facts Faster Than It Can Assimilate Them, They Are Soon
Rejected Again: Instead Of Being Built Into The Intellectual Fabric,
They Fall Out Of Recollection After The Passing Of The Examination For
Which They Were Got Up. It Is A Mistake, Too, Because It Tends To Make
Study Distasteful. Either Through The Painful Associations Produced By
Ceaseless Mental Toil, Or Through The Abnormal State Of Brain It Leaves
Behind, It Often Generates An Aversion To Books; And, Instead Of That
Subsequent Self-Culture Induced By Rational Education, There Comes
Continued Retrogression. It Is A Mistake, Also, Inasmuch As It Assumes
That The Acquisition Of Knowledge Is Everything; And Forgets That A Much
More Important Thing Is The Organisation Of Knowledge, For Which Time
And Spontaneous Thinking Are Requisite. As Humboldt Remarks Respecting
The Progress Of Intelligence In General, That "The Interpretation Of
Nature Is Obscured When The Description Languishes Under Too Great An
Accumulation Of Insulated Facts;" So, It May Be Remarked Respecting The
Progress Of Individual Intelligence, That The Mind Is Over-Burdened And
Hampered By An Excess Of Ill-Digested Information. It Is Not The
Knowledge Stored Up As Intellectual Fat Which Is Of Value; But That
Which Is Turned Into Intellectual Muscle. The Mistake Goes Still Deeper
However. Even Were The System Good As Producing Intellectual Efficiency,
Which It Is Not, It Would Still Be Bad, Because, As We Have Shown, It Is
Fatal To That Vigour Of _Physique_ Needful To Make Intellectual Training
Available In The Struggle Of Life. Those Who, In Eagerness To Cultivate
Their Pupils' Minds, Are Reckless Of Their Bodies, Do Not Remember That
Success In The World Depends More On Energy Than On Information; And
That A Policy Which In Cramming
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