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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Superiority, And Age With Nearness In Blood To "The Powerful One;" That
So There Naturally Arose That Domination Of The Eldest Which
Characterises All History, And That Theory Of Human Degeneracy Which
Even Yet Survives.
We Might Further Dwell On The Facts, That _Lord_ Signifies High-Born,
Or, As The Same Root Gives A Word Meaning Heaven, Possibly Heaven-Born;
That, Before It Became Common, _Sir_ Or _Sire_, As Well As _Father_, Was
The Distinction Of A Priest; That _Worship_, Originally Worth-Ship--A
Term Of Respect That Has Been Used Commonly, As Well As To
Magistrates--Is Also Our Term For The Act Of Attributing Greatness Or
Worth To The Deity; So That To Ascribe Worth-Ship To A Man Is To Worship
Him. We Might Make Much Of The Evidence That All Early Governments Are
More Or Less Distinctly Theocratic; And That Among Ancient Eastern
Nations Even The Commonest Forms And Customs Appear To Have Been
Influenced By Religion. We Might Enforce Our Argument Respecting The
Derivation Of Ceremonies, By Tracing Out The Aboriginal Obeisance Made
By Putting Dust On The Head, Which Probably Symbolises Putting The Head
In The Dust: By Affiliating The Practice Prevailing Among Certain
Tribes, Of Doing Another Honour By Presenting Him With A Portion Of Hair
Torn From The Head--An Act Which Seems Tantamount To Saying, "I Am Your
Slave;" By Investigating The Oriental Custom Of Giving To A Visitor Any
Object He Speaks Of Admiringly, Which Is Pretty Clearly A Carrying Out
Of The Compliment, "All I Have Is Yours."
Without Enlarging, However, On These And Many Minor Facts, We Venture To
Think That The Evidence Already Assigned Is Sufficient To Justify Our
Position. Had The Proofs Been Few Or Of One Kind, Little Faith Could
Have Been Placed In The Inference. But Numerous As They Are, Alike In
The Case Of Titles, In That Of Complimentary Phrases, And In That Of
Salutes--Similar And Simultaneous, Too, As The Process Of Depreciation
Has Been In All Of These; The Evidences Become Strong By Mutual
Confirmation. And When We Recollect, Also, That Not Only Have The
Results Of This Process Been Visible In Various Nations And In All
Times, But That They Are Occurring Among Ourselves At The Present
Moment, And That The Causes Assigned For Previous Depreciations May Be
Seen Daily Working Out Other Ones--When We Recollect This, It Becomes
Scarcely Possible To Doubt That The Process Has Been As Alleged; And
That Our Ordinary Words, Acts, And Phrases Of Civility Were Originally
Acknowledgments Of Submission To Another's Omnipotence.
Thus The General Doctrine, That All Kinds Of Government Exercised Over
Men Were At First One Government--That The Political, The Religious, And
The Ceremonial Forms Of Control Are Divergent Branches Of A General And
Once Indivisible Control--Begins To Look Tenable. When, With The Above
Facts Fresh In Mind, We Read Primitive Records, And Find That "There
Were Giants In Those Days"--When We Remember That In Eastern Traditions
Nimrod, Among Others, Figures In All The Characters Of Giant King, And
Divinity--When We Turn To The Sculptures Exhumed By Mr. Layard, And
Contemplating In Them The Effigies Of Kings Driving Over Enemies,
Trampling On Prisoners, And Adored By Prostrate Slaves, Then Observe How
Their Actions Correspond To The Primitive Names For The Divinity, "The
Strong," "The Destroyer," "The Powerful One"--When We Find That The
Earliest Temples Were Also The Residences Of The Kings--And When,
Lastly, We Discover That Among Races Of Men Still Living There Are
Current Superstitions Analogous To Those Which Old Records And Old
Buildings Indicate; We Begin To Realise The Probability Of The
Hypothesis That Has Been Set Forth.
Going Back, In Imagination, To The Remote Era When Men's Theories Of
Things Were Yet Unformed; And Conceiving To Ourselves The Conquering
Chief As Dimly Figured In Ancient Myths, And Poems, And Ruins; We May
See That All Rules Of Conduct Whatever Spring From His Will. Alike
Legislator And Judge, All Quarrels Among His Subjects Are Decided By
Him; And His Words Become The Law. Awe Of Him Is The Incipient Religion;
And His Maxims Furnish Its First Precepts. Submission Is Made To Him In
The Forms He Prescribes; And These Give Birth To Manners. From The
First, Time Develops Political Allegiance And The Administration Of
Justice; From The Second, The Worship Of A Being Whose Personality
Becomes Ever More Vague, And The Inculcation Of Precepts Ever More
Abstract; From The Third, Forms Of Honour And The Rules Of Etiquette.
In Conformity With The Law Of Evolution Of All Organised Bodies, That
General Functions Are Gradually Separated Into The Special Functions
Constituting Them, There Have Grown Up In The Social Organism For The
Better Performance Of The Governmental Office, An Apparatus Of
Law-Courts, Judges, And Barristers; A National Church, With Its Bishops
And Priests; And A System Of Caste, Titles, And Ceremonies, Administered
By Society At Large. By The First, Overt Aggressions Are Cognised And
Punished; By The Second, The Disposition To Commit Such Aggressions Is
In Some Degree Checked; By The Third, Those Minor Breaches Of Good
Conduct, Which The Others Do Not Notice, Are Denounced And Chastised.
Law And Religion Control Behaviour In Its Essentials: Manners Control It
In Its Details. For Regulating Those Daily Actions Which Are Too
Numerous And Too Unimportant To Be Officially Directed, There Comes Into
Play This Subtler Set Of Restraints. And When We Consider What These
Restraints Are--When We Analyse The Words, And Phrases, And Salutes
Employed, We See That In Origin As In Effect, The System Is A Setting Up
Of Temporary Governments Between All Men Who Come In Contact, For The
Purpose Of Better Managing The Intercourse Between Them.
From The Proposition, That These Several Kinds Of Government Are
Essentially One, Both In Genesis And Function, May Be Deduced Several
Important Corollaries, Directly Bearing On Our Special Topic.
Let Us First Notice, That There Is Not Only A Common Origin And Office
For All Forms Of Rule, But A Common Necessity For Them. The Aboriginal
Man, Coming Fresh From The Killing Of Bears And From Lying In Ambush For
His Enemy, Has, By The Necessities Of His Condition, A Nature Requiring
To Be Curbed In Its Every Impulse. Alike In War And In The Chase, His
Daily Discipline Has Been That Of Sacrificing Other Creatures To His Own
Needs And Passions. His Character, Bequeathed To Him By Ancestors Who
Led Similar Lives, Is Moulded By This Discipline--Is Fitted To This
Existence. The Unlimited Selfishness, The Love Of Inflicting Pain, The
Blood-Thirstiness, Thus Kept Active, He Brings With Him Into The Social
Part 2 Chapter 2 (On Manners And Fashion) Pg 88State. These Dispositions Put Him In Constant Danger Of Conflict With
His Equally Savage Neighbour. In Small Things As In Great, In Words As
In Deeds, He Is Aggressive; And Is Hourly Liable To The Aggressions Of
Others Like Natured. Only, Therefore, By The Most Rigorous Control
Exercised Over All Actions, Can The Primitive Unions Of Men Be
Maintained. There Must Be A Ruler Strong, Remorseless, And Of
Indomitable Will; There Must Be A Creed Terrible In Its Threats To The
Disobedient; And There Must Be The Most Servile Submission Of All
Inferiors To Superiors. The Law Must Be Cruel; The Religion Must Be
Stern; The Ceremonies Must Be Strict.
The Co-Ordinate Necessity For These Several Kinds Of Restraint Might Be
Largely Illustrated From History Were There Space. Suffice It To Point
Out, That Where The Civil Power Has Been Weak, The Multiplication Of
Thieves, Assassins, And Banditti, Has Indicated The Approach Of Social
Dissolution; That When, From The Corruptness Of Its Ministry, Religion
Has Lost Its Influence, As It Did Just Before The Flagellants Appeared,
The State Has Been Endangered; And That The Disregard Of Established
Social Observances Has Ever Been An Accompaniment Of Political
Revolutions. Whoever Doubts The Necessity For A Government Of Manners
Proportionate In Strength To The Co-Existing Political And Religious
Governments, Will Be Convinced On Calling To Mind That Until Recently
Even Elaborate Codes Of Behaviour Failed To Keep Gentlemen From
Quarrelling In The Streets And Fighting Duels In Taverns; And On
Remembering Further, That Even Now People Exhibit At The Doors Of A
Theatre, Where There Is No Ceremonial Law To Rule Them, A Degree Of
Aggressiveness Which Would Produce Confusion If Carried Into Social
Intercourse.
As Might Be Expected, We Find That, Having A Common Origin And Like
General Functions, These Several Controlling Agencies Act During Each
Era With Similar Degrees Of Vigour. Under The Chinese Despotism,
Stringent And Multitudinous In Its Edicts And Harsh In The Enforcement
Of Them, And Associated With Which There Is An Equally Stern Domestic
Despotism Exercised By The Eldest Surviving Male Of The Family, There
Exists A System Of Observances Alike Complicated And Rigid. There Is A
Tribunal Of Ceremonies. Previous To Presentation At Court, Ambassadors
Pass Many Days In Practising The Required Forms. Social Intercourse Is
Cumbered By Endless Compliments And Obeisances. Class Distinctions Are
Strongly Marked By Badges. The Chief Regret On Losing An Only Son Is,
That There Will Be No One To Perform The Sepulchral Rites. And If There
Wants A Definite Measure Of The Respect Paid To Social Ordinances, We
Have It In The Torture To Which Ladies Submit In Having Their Feet
Crushed. In India, And Indeed Throughout The East, There Exists A Like
Connection Between The Pitiless Tyranny Of Rulers, The Dread Terrors Of
Immemorial Creeds, And The Rigid Restraint Of Unchangeable Customs: The
Caste Regulations Continue Still Unalterable; The Fashions Of Clothes
And Furniture Have Remained The Same For Ages; Suttees Are So Ancient As
To Be Mentioned By Strabo And Diodorus Siculus; Justice Is Still
Administered At The Palace-Gates As Of Old; In Short, "Every Usage Is A
Precept Of Religion And A Maxim Of Jurisprudence."
A Similar Relationship Of Phenomena Was Exhibited In Europe During The
Middle Ages. While All Its Governments Were Autocratic, While Feudalism
Held Sway, While The Church Was Unshorn Of Its Power, While The Criminal
Code Was Full Of Horrors And The Hell Of The Popular Creed Full Of
Terrors, The Rules Of Behaviour Were Both More Numerous And More
Carefully Conformed To Than Now. Differences Of Dress Marked Divisions
Of Rank. Men Were Limited By Law To A Certain Width Of Shoe-Toes; And No
One Below A Specified Degree Might Wear A Cloak Less Than So Many Inches
Long. The Symbols On Banners And Shields Were Carefully Attended To.
Heraldry Was An Important Branch Of Knowledge. Precedence Was Strictly
Insisted On. And Those Various Salutes Of Which We Now Use The
Abridgments Were Gone Through In Full. Even During Our Own Last Century,
With Its Corrupt House Of Commons And Little-Curbed Monarchs, We May
Mark A Correspondence Of Social Formalities. Gentlemen Were Still
Distinguished From Lower Classes By Dress; People Sacrificed Themselves
To Inconvenient Requirements--As Powder, Hooped Petticoats, And Towering
Head-Dresses; And Children Addressed Their Parents As _Sir_ And
_Madam_.
A Further Corollary Naturally Following This Last, And Almost, Indeed,
Forming Part Of It, Is, That These Several Kinds Of Government Decrease
In Stringency At The Same Rate. Simultaneously With The Decline In The
Influence Of Priesthoods, And In The Fear Of Eternal
Torments--Simultaneously With The Mitigation Of Political Tyranny, The
Growth Of Popular Power, And The Amelioration Of Criminal Codes; Has
Taken Place That Diminution Of Formalities And That Fading Of
Distinctive Marks, Now So Observable. Looking At Home, We May Note That
There Is Less Attention To Precedence Than There Used To Be. No One In
Our Day Ends An Interview With The Phrase "Your Humble Servant." The
Employment Of The Word _Sir_, Once General In Social Intercourse, Is At
Present Considered Bad Breeding; And On The Occasions Calling For Them,
It Is Held Vulgar To Use The Words "Your Majesty," Or "Your Royal
Highness," More Than Once In A Conversation. People No Longer Formally
Drink Each Other's Healths; And Even The Taking Wine With Each Other At
Dinner Has Ceased To Be Fashionable. The Taking-Off Of Hats Between
Gentlemen Has Been Gradually Falling Into Disuse. Even When The Hat Is
Removed, It Is No Longer Swept Out At Arm's Length, But Is Simply
Lifted. Hence The Remark Made Upon Us By Foreigners, That We Take Off
Our Hats Less Than Any
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