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
These and similar congenital differences in men's intellectual
constitutions might be illustrated indefinitely if it were necessary.
A further remark of Bacon's must, however, be quoted, for it goes
deeper in mental analysis and touches a less obvious point. "There is
one principal and, as it were, radical distinction between different
minds in respect of philosophy and the sciences, which is this: that
some minds are stronger and apter to mark the differences of things,
others to mark their resemblances. The steady and acute mind can fix
its contemplations and dwell and fasten on the subtlest distinctions;
the lofty and discursive mind recognizes and puts together the finest
and most general resemblances." Men belonging to the former class we
should call logical and critical; those belonging to the latter,
imaginative and constructive. Each class tends to the excesses of its
own predominant powers, and in each case excess interferes with calm
reasoning and sound judgment.
To correct the personal equation it is imperative that we should study
ourselves conscientiously, consider dispassionately the natural
tendencies of our birth, early surroundings, education, associations,
and interests, and do our utmost to conquer, or at least to make
allowance for, every individual peculiarity, temperamental or
acquired, likely to turn the mind aside from the straight line of
thought. Such self-discipline every one must strenuously undertake on
his own account if he would wish to see things as they really are.
Stated in more general terms, our aim must be to rise above all kinds
of provincialism and personal prejudice, and to overcome our natural
proneness to rest content in our own particular point of view. Bacon
quotes with approval the words of Heraclitus: "Men look for sciences
in their own lesser worlds, and not in the greater or common world."
We must strive to escape from our own lesser world, and to make
ourselves citizens of the greater, common world. For this we need the
widest and most generous culture--the culture that is to be found in
books, in travel, in intercourse with men of all classes and every
shade of opinion. Left to ourselves we only too sedulously cultivate
our own insularity; we mingle simply with the people who agree with
us, belong to our own caste, and share our own prejudices; we read
only the papers of our own party, the literature of our own sect; we
allow our own special interests in life to absorb our energies, color
all our thoughts, and narrow our horizon. In this way the Phantoms of
the Cave secure daily and yearly more despotic sway over our minds.
Self-detachment, disinterestedness, the power of provisional sympathy
with alien modes of thought and feeling, must be our ideal. "Let every
student of Nature," says Bacon, "take this as a rule, that whatever
his mind seizes and dwells on with particular satisfaction is to be
held in suspicion, and that so much the more care is to be taken in
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