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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Coupled With The Other, That We Are The Freest Nation In Europe.
As Already Implied, This Association Of Facts Is Not Accidental. These
Titles Of Address And Modes Of Salutation, Bearing About Them, As They
All Do, Something Of That Servility Which Marks Their Origin, Become
Distasteful In Proportion As Men Become More Independent Themselves, And
Sympathise More With The Independence Of Others. The Feeling Which Makes
The Modern Gentleman Tell The Labourer Standing Bareheaded Before Him To
Put On His Hat--The Feeling Which Gives Us A Dislike To Those Who Cringe
And Fawn--The Feeling Which Makes Us Alike Assert Our Own Dignity And
Respect That Of Others--The Feeling Which Thus Leads Us More And More To
Discountenance All Forms And Names Which Confess Inferiority And
Submission; Is The Same Feeling Which Resists Despotic Power And
Inaugurates Popular Government, Denies The Authority Of The Church And
Establishes The Right Of Private Judgment.
A Fourth Fact, Akin To The Foregoing, Is, That These Several Kinds Of
Government Not Only Decline Together, But Corrupt Together. By The Same
Process That A Court Of Chancery Becomes A Place Not For The
Administration Of Justice, But For The Withholding Of It--By The Same
Part 2 Chapter 2 (On Manners And Fashion) Pg 89Process That A National Church, From Being An Agency For Moral Control,
Comes To Be Merely A Thing Of Formulas And Tithes And Bishoprics--By
This Same Process Do Titles And Ceremonies That Once Had A Meaning And A
Power Become Empty Forms.
Coats Of Arms Which Served To Distinguish Men In Battle, Now Figure On
The Carriage Panels Of Retired Grocers. Once A Badge Of High Military
Rank, The Shoulder-Knot Has Become, On The Modern Footman, A Mark Of
Servitude. The Name Banneret, Which Once Marked A Partially-Created
Baron--A Baron Who Had Passed His Military "Little Go"--Is Now, Under
The Modification Of Baronet, Applicable To Any One Favoured By Wealth Or
Interest Or Party Feeling. Knighthood Has So Far Ceased To Be An Honour,
That Men Now Honour Themselves By Declining It. The Military Dignity
_Escuyer_ Has, In The Modern Esquire, Become A Wholly Unmilitary Affix.
Not Only Do Titles, And Phrases, And Salutes Cease To Fulfil Their
Original Functions, But The Whole Apparatus Of Social Forms Tends To
Become Useless For Its Original Purpose--The Facilitation Of Social
Intercourse. Those Most Learned In Ceremonies, And Most Precise In The
Observance Of Them, Are Not Always The Best Behaved; As Those Deepest
Read In Creeds And Scriptures Are Not Therefore The Most Religious; Nor
Those Who Have The Clearest Notions Of Legality And Illegality, The Most
Honest. Just As Lawyers Are Of All Men The Least Noted For Probity; As
Cathedral Towns Have A Lower Moral Character Than Most Others; So, If
Swift Is To Be Believed, Courtiers Are "The Most Insignificant Race Of
People That The Island Can Afford, And With The Smallest Tincture Of
Good Manners."
But Perhaps It Is In That Class Of Social Observances Comprehended Under
The Term Fashion, Which We Must Here Discuss Parenthetically, That This
Process Of Corruption Is Seen With The Greatest Distinctness. As
Contrasted With Manners, Which Dictate Our Minor Acts In Relation To
Other Persons, Fashion Dictates Our Minor Acts In Relation To Ourselves.
While The One Prescribes That Part Of Our Deportment Which Directly
Affects Our Neighbours; The Other Prescribes That Part Of Our Deportment
Which Is Primarily Personal, And In Which Our Neighbours Are Concerned
Only As Spectators. Thus Distinguished As They Are, However, The Two
Have A Common Source. For While, As We Have Shown, Manners Originate By
Imitation Of The Behaviour Pursued _Towards_ The Great; Fashion
Originates By Imitation _Of_ The Behaviour Of The Great. While The One
Has Its Derivation In The Titles, Phrases, And Salutes Used _To_ Those
In Power; The Other Is Derived From The Habits And Appearances Exhibited
_By_ Those In Power.
The Carrib Mother Who Squeezes Her Child's Head Into A Shape Like That
Of The Chief; The Young Savage Who Makes Marks On Himself Similar To The
Scars Carried By The Warriors Of His Tribe (Which Is Probably The Origin
Of Tattooing); The Highlander Who Adopts The Plaid Worn By The Head Of
His Clan; The Courtiers Who Affect Greyness, Or Limp, Or Cover Their
Necks, In Imitation Of Their King; And The People Who Ape The Courtiers;
Are Alike Acting Under A Kind Of Government Connate With That Of
Manners, And, Like It Too, Primarily Beneficial. For Notwithstanding The
Numberless Absurdities Into Which This Copyism Has Led The People, From
Nose-Rings To Ear-Rings, From Painted Faces To Beauty-Spots, From Shaven
Heads To Powdered Wigs, From Filed Teeth And Stained Nails To
Bell-Girdles, Peaked Shoes, And Breeches Stuffed With Bran,--It Must Yet
Be Concluded, That As The Strong Men, The Successful Men, The Men Of
Will, Intelligence, And Originality, Who Have Got To The Top, Are, On
The Average, More Likely To Show Judgment In Their Habits And Tastes
Than The Mass, The Imitation Of Such Is Advantageous.
By And By, However, Fashion, Corrupting Like These Other Forms Of Rule,
Almost Wholly Ceases To Be An Imitation Of The Best, And Becomes An
Imitation Of Quite Other Than The Best. As Those Who Take Orders Are Not
Those Having A Special Fitness For The Priestly Office, But Those Who
See Their Way To A Living By It; As Legislators And Public Functionaries
Do Not Become Such By Virtue Of Their Political Insight And Power To
Rule, But By Virtue Of Birth, Acreage, And Class Influence; So, The
Self-Elected Clique Who Set The Fashion, Gain This Prerogative, Not By
Their Force Of Nature, Their Intellect, Their Higher Worth Or Better
Taste, But Gain It Solely By Their Unchecked Assumption. Among The
Initiated Are To Be Found Neither The Noblest In Rank, The Chief In
Power, The Best Cultured, The Most Refined, Nor Those Of Greatest
Genius, Wit, Or Beauty; And Their Reunions, So Far From Being Superior
To Others, Are Noted For Their Inanity. Yet, By The Example Of These
Sham Great, And Not By That Of The Truly Great, Does Society At Large
Now Regulate Its Goings And Comings, Its Hours, Its Dress, Its Small
Usages. As A Natural Consequence, These Have Generally Little Or None Of
That Suitableness Which The Theory Of Fashion Implies They Should Have.
But Instead Of A Continual Progress Towards Greater Elegance And
Convenience, Which Might Be Expected To Occur Did People Copy The Ways
Of The Really Best, Or Follow Their Own Ideas Of Propriety, We Have A
Reign Of Mere Whim, Of Unreason, Of Change For The Sake Of Change, Of
Wanton Oscillations From Either Extreme To The Other--A Reign Of Usages
Without Meaning, Times Without Fitness, Dress Without Taste. And Thus
Life _À La Mode_, Instead Of Being Life Conducted In The Most Rational
Manner, Is Life Regulated By Spendthrifts And Idlers, Milliners And
Tailors, Dandies And Silly Women.
To These Several Corollaries--That The Various Orders Of Control
Exercised Over Men Have A Common Origin And A Common Function, Are
Called Out By Co-Ordinate Necessities And Co-Exist In Like Stringency,
Decline Together And Corrupt Together--It Now Only Remains To Add That
They Become Needless Together. Consequent As All Kinds Of Government Are
Upon The Unfitness Of The Aboriginal Man For Social Life; And
Diminishing In Coerciveness As They All Do In Proportion As This
Unfitness Diminishes; They Must One And All Come To An End As Humanity
Acquires Complete Adaptation To Its New Conditions. That Discipline Of
Circumstances Which Has Already Wrought Out Such Great Changes In Us,
Must Go On Eventually To Work Out Yet Greater Ones. That Daily Curbing
Of The Lower Nature And Culture Of The Higher, Which Out Of Cannibals
And Devil Worshippers Has Evolved Philanthropists, Lovers Of Peace, And
Haters Of Superstition, Cannot Fail To Evolve Out Of These, Men As Much
Superior To Them As They Are To Their Progenitors. The Causes That Have
Produced Past Modifications Are Still In Action; Must Continue In Action
As Long As There Exists Any Incongruity Between Man's Desires And The
Requirements Of The Social State; And Must Eventually Make Him
Organically Fit For The Social State. As It Is Now Needless To Forbid
Man-Eating And Fetishism, So Will It Ultimately Become Needless To
Forbid Murder, Theft, And The Minor Offences Of Our Criminal Code. When
Human Nature Has Grown Into Conformity With The Moral Law, There Will
Need No Judges And Statute-Books; When It Spontaneously Takes The Right
Course In All Things, As In Some Things It Does Already, Prospects Of
Future Reward Or Punishment Will Not Be Wanted As Incentives; And When
Part 2 Chapter 2 (On Manners And Fashion) Pg 90Fit Behaviour Has Become Instinctive, There Will Need No Code Of
Ceremonies To Say How Behaviour Shall Be Regulated.
Thus, Then, May Be Recognised The Meaning, The Naturalness, The
Necessity Of Those Various Eccentricities Of Reformers Which We Set Out
By Describing. They Are Not Accidental; They Are Not Mere Personal
Caprices, As People Are Apt To Suppose. On The Contrary, They Are
Inevitable Results Of The Law Of Relationship Above Illustrated. That
Community Of Genesis, Function, And Decay Which All Forms Of Restraint
Exhibit, Is Simply The Obverse Of The Fact At First Pointed Out, That
They Have In Two Sentiments Of Human Nature A Common Preserver And A
Common Destroyer. Awe Of Power Originates And Cherishes Them All: Love
Of Freedom Undermines And Periodically Weakens Them All. The One Defends
Despotism And Asserts The Supremacy Of Laws, Adheres To Old Creeds And
Supports Ecclesiastical Authority, Pays Respect To Titles And Conserves
Forms; The Other, Putting Rectitude Above Legality, Achieves Periodical
Instalments Of Political Liberty, Inaugurates Protestantism And Works
Out Its Consequences, Ignores The Senseless Dictates Of Fashion And
Emancipates Men From Dead Customs.
To The True Reformer No Institution Is Sacred, No Belief Above
Criticism. Everything Shall Conform Itself To Equity And Reason; Nothing
Shall Be Saved By Its Prestige. Conceding To Each Man Liberty To Pursue
His Own Ends And Satisfy His Own Tastes, He Demands For Himself Like
Liberty; And Consents To No Restrictions On This, Save Those Which Other
Men's Equal Claims Involve. No Matter Whether It Be An Ordinance Of One
Man, Or An Ordinance Of All Men, If It Trenches On His Legitimate Sphere
Of Action, He Denies Its Validity. The Tyranny That Would Impose On Him
A Particular Style Of Dress And A Set Mode Of Behaviour, He Resists
Equally With The Tyranny That Would Limit His Buyings And Sellings, Or
Dictate His Creed. Whether The Regulation Be Formally Made By A
Legislature, Or Informally Made By Society At Large--Whether The Penalty
For Disobedience Be Imprisonment, Or Frowns And Social Ostracism, He
Sees To Be A Question Of No Moment. He Will Utter His Belief
Notwithstanding The Threatened Punishment; He Will Break Conventions
Spite Of The Petty Persecutions That Will Be Visited On Him. Show Him
That His Actions Are Inimical To His Fellow-Men, And He Will Pause.
Prove That He Is Disregarding Their Legitimate Claims--That He Is Doing
What In The Nature Of Things Must Produce Unhappiness; And He Will Alter
His Course. But Until You Do This--Until You Demonstrate That His
Proceedings Are Essentially Inconvenient Or Inelegant, Essentially
Irrational, Unjust, Or Ungenerous, He Will Persevere.
Some, Indeed, Argue That His Conduct _Is_ Unjust And Ungenerous. They
Say That He Has No Right To Annoy Other People By His Whims; That The
Gentleman
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