Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, October 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899Various
Philosophy
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, October 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
So much the science of education, when it is fairly established, may
reasonably be expected to do. It will deal with the mind upon true
hygienic principles. There remains the more serious question how such
a moral atmosphere can be created as will incline the young to take a
right view of knowledge and its uses. Knowledge, it is hardly
necessary to say, is power, just as money is power; and it is quite as
needful that the idea of social service should be associated with the
one as with the other. The best social service which, perhaps,
any man can render is to give to the world the example of high
disinterestedness and general nobility of character; and knowledge
should be valued not as conferring individual distinction, but
according as it expands and liberalizes the mind. The poet Coleridge
has said with some truth that
"Fancy is the power
That first unsensualizes the dark mind,
Giving it new delights; and bids it swell
With wild activity; and peopling air,
By obscure fears of beings invisible,
Emancipates it from the grosser thrall
Of the present impulse, teaching self-control,
Till Superstition with unconscious hand
Seat Reason on her throne."
The mind having been "unsensualized," the next step is to moralize
and humanize it, otherwise Reason on her throne may act not much more
wisely than other monarchs have done. The classic example of the
worship of reason is not reassuring as to the infallibility of the
goddess. The question, then, as to how intellectual education and the
education of the moral sentiments may go hand in hand is one that
comes home to every member of the community. We all help to make the
moral atmosphere and create the moral ideals of our time; and there is
no use in looking for high standards in our colleges and other
institutions of learning if we have low standards in our homes. The
youth who hears nothing talked of at home but money is not likely to
take much interest in instruction that does not bear directly on the
question of making money. The youth who hears money spoken of in the
home circle simply as a means of personal enjoyment and glorification
will need something more than a few lectures on political or social
economy to make him take a different view of it. We may employ
excellent men and women as teachers, but their success from a moral
point of view will always be limited by the general tone of the
community.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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