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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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
Part 2 Chapter 1 (Progress Its Law And Cause) Pg 80Lies 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.
Part 2 Chapter 2 (On Manners And Fashion) Pg 81
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
Part 2 Chapter 2 (On Manners And Fashion) Pg 82Found.
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?
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