Means and Ends of EducationSpalding, John Lancaster
Philosophy
Means and Ends of Education
Spalding, John Lancaster
Culture; Education
To know a thing is to be conscious of its relation to the mind. We
know it, not in itself, but in and through this relation. Our
knowledge of God, who is the absolute, is not absolute knowledge, but a
knowledge of Him in so far as He is related to the mind of man. Since,
however, mind is reason and not unreason, there is harmony between it
and things, between it and God; and hence to be conscious of its
relation to God and the universe is to be conscious of a real relation,
in which both the thinker and his thought are in truth what they seem
to be. The ultimate reality is inferred, not directly perceived. It
reveals itself to the purest faith and love, and may be hidden from one
who knows all the sciences.
As man's relations to his fellows make him a social and political
being, so his relations to the unseen power behind and within the
visible world, of whose presence he is always, however dimly,
conscious, and to whom he refers whatever touches the senses, as well
as the principle of life itself, make him a religious being.
In identifying what seem to be our particular interests with the
interests of all, we make escape from narrowness and isolation into the
general life of humanity; and when we come to understand that not only
mankind but all nature is a Unity in the Consciousness of the Infinite
and Eternal, bound together by thought and love, we enter into the
glorious liberty of the Sons of God, and feel that nor height nor depth
nor things past nor things to come shall separate us from the divine
charity. We are akin to all that may become part of our life; and
whatever we know or love or admire is spiritualized and made human. To
understand the things of the spirit we must have spiritual experience.
The intuitions of time and space, as well as the principle of
causality, are given in the constitution of the mind. So is the idea
of being, of perfection, of beauty, of eternity, of infinity, of duty.
To think implies being, to perceive things as existing in time and
space implies consciousness of eternity and infinity. To know the
imperfect is possible only in the light of the perfect. Subject is
itself object, the first known and best understood, and the laws of
mind are laws of being. If the constitution of mind makes the
revelation of the material world possible only under the forms of time
and space, intelligible only as sequence of cause and effect, the
reason is to be found in the nature of things. If the constitution of
mind postulates one who knows and shapes, in a world in which whatever
is, is intelligible, in which there is order, proportion, and purpose,
it is because such an One is given in the nature of things, and He is
God. However living our faith, it is faith and not knowledge; and
should it become knowledge, it would cease to be faith.
There are three kinds of authors,--those who impart knowledge, those
who give delight, and those who strengthen and inspire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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