It has been truly remarked that, in order of time, decoration precedes
dress. Among people who submit to great physical suffering that they
may have themselves handsomely tattooed, extremes of temperature are
borne with but little attempt at mitigation. Humboldt tells us that an
Orinoco Indian, tho quite regardless of bodily comfort, will yet labor
for a fortnight to purchase pigment wherewith to make himself admired;
and that the same woman who would not hesitate to leave her hut
without a fragment of clothing on, would not dare to commit such a
breach of decorum as to go out unpainted. Voyagers uniformly find that
colored beads and trinkets are much more prized by wild tribes than
are calicoes or broadcloths. And the anecdotes we have of the ways in
which, when shirts and coats are given, they turn them to some
ludicrous display, show how completely the idea of ornament
predominates over that of use. Nay, there are still more extreme
illustrations: witness the fact narrated by Captain Speke[49] of his
African attendants, who strutted about in their goatskin mantles when
the weather was fine, but when it was wet, took them off, folded them
up, and went about naked, shivering in the rain! Indeed, the facts of
aboriginal life seem to indicate that dress is developed out of
decorations. And when we remember that even among ourselves most think
more about the fineness of the fabric than its warmth, and more about
the cut than the convenience--when we see that the function is still
in great measure subordinated to the appearance, we have further
reason for inferring such an origin.
[Footnote 48: From "Education, Intellectual, Moral and Physical." By
permission of D. Appleton & Co.]
[Footnote 49: John H. Speke, who, in company with Sir Richard Burton,
visited the lakes of Central Africa in 1850, and crossed the
continent, discovering the Victoria Nyanza and the main source of the
Nile in 1860-63.]
It is not a little curious that the like relations hold with the mind.
Among mental as among bodily acquisitions, the ornamental comes before
the useful. Not only in times past, but almost as much in our own era,
that knowledge which conduces to personal well-being has been
postponed to that which brings applause. In the Greek schools, music,
poetry, rhetoric, and a philosophy which, until Socrates taught, had
but little bearing upon action, were the dominant subjects; while
knowledge, aiding the arts of life, had a very subordinate place. And
in our own universities and schools at the present moment the like
antithesis holds. We are guilty of something like a platitude when we
say that throughout his after career a boy, in nine cases out of ten,
applies his Latin and Greek to no practical purposes. The remark is
trite that in his shop, or his office, in managing his estate or his
family, in playing his part as director of a bank or a railway, he is
very little aided by this knowledge he took so many years to
acquire,--so little, that generally the greater part of it drops out
of his memory; and if he occasionally vents a Latin quotation or
alludes to some Greek myth, it is less to throw light on the topic in
hand than for the sake of effect. If we inquire what is the real
motive for giving boys a classical education, we find it to be simply
conformity to public opinion. Men dress their children's minds as they
do their bodies, in the prevailing fashion. As the Orinoco Indian puts
on his paint before leaving his hut, not with a view to any direct
benefit, but because he would be ashamed to be seen without it, so a
boy's drilling in Latin and Greek is insisted on, not because of their
intrinsic value, but that he may not be disgraced by being found
ignorant of them--that he may have "the education of a gentleman"--the
badge marking a certain social position, and bringing a consequent
respect.
This parallel is still more clearly displayed in the case of the other
sex. In the treatment of both mind and body, the decorative element
has continued to predominate in a greater degree among women than
among men. Originally personal adornment occupied the attention of
both sexes equally. In these latter days of civilization, however, we
see that in the dress of men the regard for appearance has, in a
considerable degree, yielded to the regard for comfort; while in their
education the useful has of late been trenching on the ornamental. In
neither direction has this change gone so far with women. The wearing
of earrings, finger-rings, bracelets; the elaborate dressings of the
hair; the still occasional use of paint; the immense labor bestowed in
making habiliments sufficiently attractive; and the great discomfort
that will be submitted to for the sake of conformity; show how
greatly, in the attiring of women, the desire of approbation overrides
the desire for warmth and convenience. And similarly in their
education, the immense preponderance of "accomplishments" proves how
here, too, use is subordinated to display. Dancing, deportment, the
piano, singing, drawing---what a large space do these occupy! If you
ask why Italian and German are learned, you will find that, under all
the sham reasons given, the real reason is, that a knowledge of those
tongues is thought ladylike. It is not that the books written in them
may be utilized, which they scarcely ever are, but that Italian and
German songs may be sung, and that the extent of attainment may bring
whispered admiration. The births, deaths, and marriages of kings, and
other like historic trivialities, are committed to memory, not because
of any direct benefits that can possibly result from knowing them, but
because society considers them parts of a good education--because the
absence of such knowledge may bring the contempt of others. When we
have named reading, writing, spelling, grammar, arithmetic, and
sewing, we have named about all the things a girl is taught with a
view to their direct uses in life; and even some of these have more
reference to the good opinion of others than to immediate personal
welfare.
Thoroughly to realize the truth that with the mind as with the body
the ornamental precedes the useful, it is needful to glance at its
rationale. This lies in the fact that, from the far past down even to
the present, social needs have subordinated individual needs, and that
the chief social need has been the control of individuals. It is not,
as we commonly suppose, that there are no governments but those of
monarchs, and parliaments, and constituted authorities. These
acknowledged governments are supplemented by other unacknowledged
ones, that grow up in all circles, in which every man or woman strives
to be king or queen or lesser dignitary. To get above some and be
reverenced by them, and to propitiate those who are above us, is the
universal struggle in which the chief energies of life are expended.
By the accumulation of wealth, by style of living, by beauty of dress,
by display of knowledge or intellect, each tries to subjugate others,
and so aids in weaving that ramified network of restraints by which
society is kept in order. It is not the savage chief only who, in
formidable war paint, with scalps at his belt, aims to strike awe into
his inferiors; it is not only the belle who, by elaborate toilet,
polished manners, and numerous accomplishments, strives to "make
conquests"; but the scholar, the historian, the philosopher, use their
acquirements to the same end. We are none of us content with quietly
unfolding our own individualities to the full in all directions, but
have a restless craving to impress our individualities upon others,
and in some way subordinate them. And this it is which determines the
character of our education. Not what knowledge is of most real worth
is the consideration, but what will bring most applause, honor,
respect--what will most conduce to social position and influence--what
will be most imposing. As throughout life not what we are, but what we
shall be thought, is the question; so in education the question is
not the intrinsic value of knowledge so much as its extrinsic effects
on others. And this being our dominant idea, direct utility is
scarcely more regarded than by the barbarian when filing his teeth and
staining his nails.