The Portland daily press., 1867-11-07


evil. There are three great spheres of human
thought, Nature, Man, and God. My obiec-
ton to the demand under consideration is
that In effect it acknowledges only the first OF
these and allows no proportion of attention
to the other two. Thus 1t tends always to
the tatal doctrine that the knowledge of mat
Ter ana OF physical force is the only knowledge
useful or possible to man.
First, in claiming that the KNOWLEDGE of
these branches Is pre-eminently useful know :
edge, an inadequate idea of utility is involved.
If that only is useful which aids in FEEDING
clothing and shetering man, then indeed the
knowledge of natural science is the only use
ful knowledge; then all useful knowledge NAV
be included under the German designation
Brod acissenschatt, which may be translated
Bread and butter science;" and the tenden-
cy to materlalism becomes inevitable and r-
resistible.
But the highest prodnct of the earth is not
corn and cotton, but man. The highest end
OF education is to elevate and develop man
The true utility consists in promoting this
high end.
Ii so, then the natural sciences have no ex
elusive or even pre- eminent claim to be usefu
knowledge, or tr be the exclusive or even the
pref eminent studies in education. Ii man i
the highest product of the earth, ii his devel
opment is the grandest end, then the study o
man must be equal in dignity and importanc,
to the study OF that which merely minister
to his existing wants: and We may re-asser
in this century what was a truism in the last
The proper study of mankind is man." Or
the ground Of utility alone claim the higher
place for the study of man himself; those
studies fifty called "the humanities;' the
great courses of human thought; the qucs.
tions which have occupied the human mind
the products of human genius; the progress
and characteristics Of civilization; the con-
ditiOns and laws OF individual action and of
the constitution and welfare of society.
And If SO, then the knowledge of human
languages and literature is prominently use
ful knowledge; tor. it is pre-emnently the
knowledge OF man. Comparative philoogy
is sort OF geology of human thought. In
the study of languages the student digs
through the strata in which the opinions. the
religion, the politics, the social customs of
the past have been deposited. Single words
are petrified thoughts, fossils perpetuating
some peculiar formation in the ltc of a dis
tant aye. Why is not this knowledge
as useful as the knowledge OF the
deposition of sand and gravel in the
ages before human history began? Lit
erature Is the consummate flower and fruit of
the human mind, the product of the greatest
geniuses which have made the history of the
race lllustrous. In these studies, also. a STU
dent best masters his own language, and ac-
quires the power of expressing his own
thoughts.
The language and literature of Greece and
Rome are by universal consent among the
most important. In them we come in con-
tact with the human mind in its most forma-
tive anu influential periods. The civilization
OF Greece and Rome have been determinant
iorees III the formation of our modern civili-
zatlon; and with the civilization of the He
brews, fused together under the power OF
Christianity mightier than all three, still pen
citrate our civilization as they do our Ian
Sqage, with elements of an abiding power
what blank would be made in the mind OF
any highly educated person, il there were
struck out at dash all the know ledge, the
culture, ihe refinement of thought, the in
tellectual strength acquired from contact with
the Greek and Roman mind.
Herbert Spencer objects, / know, that the
dead facts OF human history are useless. L
reply that all facts are useless, except as their
sl2nlfcanee Is seen through their relation to
some ptineip,e, law- on end They lie Like
the mind OF the architect constructs them in
to temple; till the Orphic muse of a masters
thought makes them move and range them
selves harmoniously in the grand and be auti-
ful whole. SO the facts of meteorology lie ac-
cumulated in huge volumes of recorded OBJ
servations, meaningless as the incongruous
images OF Nebuchadnezzars dream, waiting
the Daniel who shall tell us their significance.
But this is no more true of the facts OF hu-
man than OF natural history. A dead man
is no more than a dead dog. Ii we must
compare the value OF mere facts, why Is not
the knowledge that Cesar crossed the Rubi-
con as useful as the knowledge of the average
weight OF the human brain? The knowl-
edge OF the mgrations of men and the found
ing oil empires as useful as the knowledge OF
the movements of great glaciers IN an i'm.
measurably distant geological epoch? Why
are we not as much benefited by knowins
the names of Aristidesand Socrates, OF Ca
to and Brutus, as by learning to call certain
nsh no longer clam, but Mya Arendria
Ana why Is not knowledge OF mythology
which Spencer especially ridicules. beipo NJ,
knowledge of the action of the human mini
on the great subject of religion, as capable Of
use as the knowledge OF the monstrous shapes
and names of Pentacrinite, Ichthyosaurus
Megalosaurus, and all the "ch;m@ras dire OF
geology?
accept then, the test of utility. 1 agree
with Milton,
That not to know at large of things remote
From use, obscure and subtle; but 10 know
That which before US lies in daily life,
Is the prime wisdom"
Yet insist that man Is himself the highest
product OF the earth; that his development
is the highest end of education that the utili-
ty which consists in satisfying existing wants
is inferior and subordinate to the prime utili-
ty which consists In developing, purifying and
ennobling the man; and that in any view OF
the subject knowledge OF the languages, his
| tory and literature OF man is at least as use
full as knowledge OF nature. %
1t may be argued in reply that even for the
anil Of al.
the more effective. Admitting that the utii
ty OF knowledge is to be tested, not merely by
It's bearing on the supply of existing wants
Dui on the development, publication and en-
nobling OF man, 1t may be cOntended that the
knowledge of nature is still pre-eminently the
useful knowledge; 1t rectifes the one-sided
and inadequate view OF utility, which consti-
tutes fallacy in the argument ard Lecessi-
tates tendency to materialism. When the
question is thus put, the same correct test OF
utility being appealed to ON each side, the re-
spective claims Of the different departments OF
knowledge can be adjudicated. will only
throw out single thought bearing on this adj
judication. The facts of History disproye
Comtes theory that the progress of the
human mind has always been successive steps
from Theology to Metaphysics and thence to
Natural Science; for these have always been
eo-existent factors of civilization. But histo-
ry uOeS uefnOStfate tnat IN the earlier periods
liberalization, romance and poetry, aesthetics
and literature, rhetoric, logic, and language
ethics and politics, metaphysics and theology.
were much larger factors in the education OF
the race than natural science; and that the
same continued to be the fact up to the most
recent centuries. And the civilization which
produced Homer anG Virgil, Socrates, Plato,
snd Aristotle, Pericles. and Julius C@slr, has
something to say for itself as to ITS capacity to
developman. Confessedly the natural sciences
have become prominent factors in The education
of the race only in the last period OF its prog
ress. Even during the last two centuries as
much OF human thought has been expended
on the study of man and God as ON the study
of nature; education in the schools has con-
tinued to this day to be principally in those
studies; and the most eminent naturalists
owe their own discipline and training first to
them.
The STAGE. = Miss Olive Logan, in a re-
cent article on Ballet Girls, in the Galaxy
has the following - If the stage could bnt
be rid OF the Mazeppa scourge, there is no
reason why 1t should not form as good n che N.
mel for gifted and intelligent yonDo wonan
to gain livelihood by honest exertiop no anx
other. Openings for women are few enon@b
as governesses and schoolmistresses md shirt.
makers, and hoop-skirt drudges. will testify.
But worse slavery than any Of these, or even