IX.

HERBERT SPENCER.

I ONCE heard it said by a teacher of great ability that no one without practical acquaintance with the subject could write anything worth reading on Education. My own opinion differs very widely from this. I am not, indeed, prepared to agree with another authority, much given to paradox, that the actual work of education unfits a man for forming enlightened views about it, but I think that the outsider, coming fresh to the subject, and unincumbered by tradition and prejudice, may hit upon truths which the teacher, whose attention is too much engrossed with practical difficulties, would fail to perceive without assistance, and that, consequently, the theories of intelligent men, unconnected with the work of education, deserve our careful, and, if possible, our impartial consideration.

One of the most important works of this kind which has lately appeared, is the treatise of Mr. Herbert Spencer. So eminent a writer has every claim to be listened to with respect, and in this book he speaks with more than his individual authority. The views he has very vigorously propounded are shared by a number of distinguished scientific men; and not a few of the unscientific believe that in them is shadowed forth the education of the future.

It is perhaps to be regretted that Mr. Spencer has not kept the tone of one who investigates the truth in a subject of great difficulty, but lays about him right and left, after the manner of a spirited controversialist. This, no doubt, makes his book much more entertaining reading than such treatises usually are, but, on the other hand, it has the disadvantage of arousing the antagonism of those whom he would most wish to influence. When the man who has no practical acquaintance with education, lays down the law ex cathedra, garnished with sarcasm at all that is now going on, the schoolmaster, offended by the assumed tone of authority, sets himself to show where these theories would not work, instead of examining what basis of truth there is in them, and how far they should influence his own practice.

I shall proceed to examine Mr. Spencer's proposals with all the impartiality I am master of.

The great question, whether the teaching which gives the most valuable knowledge is the same as that which best disciplines the faculties of the mind, Mr. Spencer dismisses briefly. "It would be utterly contrary to the beautiful economy of nature," he says, "if one kind of culture were needed for the gaining of information, and another kind were needed as a mental gymnastic." But it seems to me that different subjects must be used to train the faculties at different stages of development. The processes of science, which form the staple of education in Mr. Spencer's system, can not be grasped by the intellect of a child. "The scientific discoverer does the work, and when it is done the schoolboy is called in to witness the result, to learn its chief features by heart, and

TRAINING OF THE MIND.

229

to repeat them when called upon, just as he is called on to name the mothers of the patriarchs, or to give an account of the Eastern campaigns of Alexander the Great." (Pall Mall Gazette, Feb. 8, 1867.) This, however, affords but scanty training for the mind. We want to draw out the child's interests, and to direct them to worthy objects. We want not only to teach him, but to enable and encourage him to teach himself; and, if following Mr. Spencer's advice, we make him get up the species of plants, "which amount to some 320,000," and the varied forms of animal life, which are "estimated at some 2,000,000," we may, as Mr. Spencer tells us, have strengthened his memory as effectually as by teaching him languages; but the pupil will, perhaps, have no great reason to rejoice over his escape from the horrors of the "As in Præsenti," and "Propria quæ Maribus." The consequences will be the same in both cases. We shall disgust the great majority of our scholars with the acquisition of knowledge, and with the use of the powers of their mind. Whether, therefore, we adopt or reject Mr. Spencer's conclusion, that there is one sort of knowledge which is universally the most valuable, I think we must deny that there is one sort of knowledge which is universally, and at every stage in education, the best adapted to develop the intellectual faculties. Mr. Spencer himself acknowledges this elsewhere. "There is," says he, "a certain sequence in which the faculties spontaneously develop, and a certain kind of knowledge, which each requires during its development. It is for us to ascertain this sequence, and supply this knowledge."

Mr. Spencer discusses more fully "the relative

value of knowledges," and this is a subject which has hitherto not met with the attention it deserves. It is not sufficient for us to prove of any subject taught in our schools that the knowledge or the learning of it is valuable. We must also show that the knowledge or the learning of it is of at least as great value as that of anything else that might be taught in the same time. "Had we time to master all subjects we need not be particular. To quote the old song

Could a man be secure

That his life would endure,

As of old for a thousand long years,

What things he might know!

What deeds he might do!

And all without hurry or care!

But we that have but span-long lives must ever bear in mind our limited time for acquisition."

To test the value of the learning imparted in education we must look to the end of education. This Mr. Spencer defines as follows: "To prepare us for complete living, is the function which education has to discharge, and the only rational mode of judging of an educational course is to judge in what degree it discharges such function." For complete living we must know "in what way to treat the body; in what way to treat the mind; in what way to manage our affairs; in what way to bring up a family; in what way to behave as a citizen; in what way to utilize those sources of happiness which nature supplieshow to use all our faculties to the greatest advantage of ourselves and others." There are a number of sciences, says Mr. Spencer, which throw light on these

WHAT SHOULD BE TAUGHT?

231

subjects. It should, therefore, be the business of education to impart these sciences.

But, if there were (which is far from being the case) a well-defined and well-established science in each of these departments, those sciences would not be understandable by children, nor would any individual have time to master the whole of them, or even "a due proportion of each." The utmost that could be attempted would be to give young people some knowledge of the results of such sciences and the rules derived from them. But to this Mr. Spencer would object that it would tend, like the learning of languages," to increase the already undue respect for authority."

To consider Mr. Spencer's divisions in detail, we come first to knowledge that leads to self-preservation :

"Happily, that all-important part of education which goes to secure direct self-preservation, is, in part, already provided for. Too momentous to be left to our blundering, Nature takes it into her own hands." But Mr. Spencer warns us against such thwartings of Nature as that by which "stupid schoolmistresses commonly prevent the girls in their charge from the spontaneous physical activities they would indulge in, and so render them comparatively incapable of taking care of themselves in circumstances of peril."

Indirect self-preservation, Mr. Spencer believes, may be much assisted by a knowledge of physiology. "Diseases are often contracted, our members are often injured, by causes which superior knowledge would avoid." I believe these are not the only grounds on which the advocates of physiology urge