HOW TO EXPECT.
Whatever method parents may choose for educating a child, they must have
some idea in their minds of what they would have him turn out. Even if
they set before them the highest aim of all--exercising and training all
his powers--still they must have some thoughts and wishes, some hopes
and fears, as to what the issue will prove to be.
In all states of society, the generality of parents have wished that
their children should turn out such as the opinion of their own time and
country should approve. There is a law of opinion in every society as to
what people should be. We have seen something of what this opinion was
among the Patriarchs of old, the Spartans, the Jews, and others. In our
own day, we find wide differences among neighbouring nations, civilised,
and so-called, christianised. The French have a greater value for
kindness and cheerfulness of temper and manners than the English, and a
less value for truth. The Russians have a greater value for social order
and obedience, and less for honesty. The Americans have a greater value
for activity of mind and pursuits, and less for peace and comfort. In
these and all other countries, parents in general will naturally desire
that their children should turn out that which is taken for granted to
be most valuable.
An ordinary English parent of our time, who had not given much thought
to the subject, would wish that his son should turn out as follows. He
would wish that the child should be docile and obedient, clever enough
to make teaching him an easy matter, and to afford promise of his being
a distinguished man; truthful, affectionate, and spirited; that as a man
he should be upright and amiable, sufficiently religious to preserve his
tranquillity of mind and integrity of conduct: steady in his business
and prudent in his marriage, so far as to be prosperous in his affairs.
Now, this looks all very well to a careless eye: but it will not satisfy
a thoughtful mind. In all the ages and societies we have spoken of,
there have been a few men wiser than the average, who have seen that the
human being might and ought to be something better than the law of
Opinion required that he should be. There are certainly Hindoos now
living and meditating who do not consider that men are so good as they
might be, while they think no harm of lying and stealing, and who are
sorry for the superstition which makes it an unpardonable crime to hurt
a cow. There are men among the Americans who see virtue in repose of
mind, and moderation of desires to which the majority of their
countrymen are insensible. And so it is in our country. We are all
agreed, from end to end of society, that Truthfulness, Integrity,
Courage, Purity, Industry, Benevolence, and a spirit of Reverence for
sacred things are inexpressibly desirable and excellent. But when it
comes to the question of the degree of these good things which it is
desirable to attain, we find the difference between the opinion of the
many and that of the higher few. A being who had these qualities in the
highest degree could not get on in our existing society without coming
into conflict with our law of Opinion at almost every step. If he were
perfectly truthful, he must say and do things in the course of his
business which would make him wondered at and disliked; he might be
unable to take an oath, or enter into any sort of vow, or sell his goods
prosperously, or keep on good terms with bad neighbours. If he were
perfectly honourable and generous, he might find it impossible to trade
or labour on the competitive principle, and might thus find himself
helpless and despised among a busy and wealth-gathering society. If he
were perfectly courageous, he might find himself spurned for cowardice
in declining to go to war or fight a duel. If he were perfectly pure, he
might find himself rebuked and pitied for avoiding a mercenary marriage,
and entering upon one which brings with it no advantage of connexion or
money. If the same purity should lead him to see that though the virtue
of chastity cannot be overrated, it has, for low purposes, been made so
prominent as to interfere with others quite as important: if he should
see how thus a large proportion of the girlhood of England is plunged
into sin and shame, and then excluded from all justice and mercy; if,
seeing this, he is just and merciful to the fallen, it is probable that
his own respectability will be impeached, and that some stain of
impurity will be upon his name. If he is perfectly industrious,
strenuously employing his various faculties upon important objects, he
will be called an idler in comparison with those who work in only one
narrow track; as an eminent author of our time was accused by the
housemaid, who was for ever dusting the house, of "wasting his time
a-writing and reading so much." Just so the majority of men who have one
sort of work to do accuse him of idleness who has more directions for
his industry than they can comprehend. If he is perfectly benevolent, he
cannot hope to be considered a prudent, orderly, quiet member of
society. He will be either incessantly spreading himself abroad, and
spending himself in the service of all about him, or maturing in
retirement some plan of rectification which will be troublesome to
existing interests. If he be perfectly reverent in soul, looking up to
the loftiest subjects of human contemplation with an awe too deep and
true to admit any mixture of either levity or superstition, he will
probably be called an infidel; or at least, a dangerous person, for not
passively accepting the sayings of men instead of searching out the
truth by the faithful use of his own powers.
Thus we see how in our own, as in every other society, the law of
Opinion as to what men should be agrees in the large, general points of
character with the ideas of the wisest, while there are great
differences in the practical management of men's lives. The perplexity
to many thoughtful parents is what to wish and aim at.
Now, it must never be forgotten that it is a good thing that there must
everywhere be such a law of Opinion on this subject, though it
necessarily falls below the estimate of the wisest. Some rule and method
in the rearing of human beings there must be; and if some are dwarfed
under it, many more have a better chance than they would have if it were
not a settled matter that truth, courage, benevolence, &c., are good
things. Till the constitution and training of the human being are better
and more extensively understood than they are, the general rule is
something to go by, as the product of a general instinct; and it will
work upon nearly all those who are born under it, so as to bring them
into something like order. In our country, there is, I suppose, scarcely
a den so dark as that its inhabitants really think no harm whatever of
lying and stealing, or consider them merits, as is the case in some
parts of the world. While we have among us far too many who thieve and
cheat, and quarrel, and drink, we can scarcely meet with any who do not
think these things wrong, or have not thought so before they were too
far gone in them. On the whole, the law of Opinion, though far below
what the wise see it might be, is a great benefit, and a thing worthy of
serious regard in fixing our educational aims.
This prevalent opinion being a good thing as far as it goes, having its
origin in nature, there can be no doubt that a good education, having
also its origin in nature, would issue in a sufficient accordance with
it for purposes of social happiness. As human beings are born with limbs
and senses whose thorough exercise brings them out in a high state of
bodily perfection, they are born with powers of the brain which,
thoroughly exercised, would, in like manner, bring them out as great,
mentally and morally, as their constitution enables them to be. There
must ever be innumerable varieties, as no two infants could ever be said
to be born perfectly alike; and perhaps no two adults could be found who
had precisely the same powers of limb and sense: but out of this
infinite variety must come such an amount of evidence as to what is best
in human character as would constitute a law of Opinion, higher than the
present, but agreeing with it in its main points. Let us conceive of a
county of England where every inhabitant should be not only saved from
ignorance, but having every power of body and mind made the very most
of. The variety would appear much greater than anything we now see.
There would be more people decidedly musical, or decidedly mechanical,
or decidedly scientific: more who would occupy their lives with works of
benevolence, or of art, or of ingenuity: more who would speculate
boldly, speak eloquently, and show openly their high opinion of
themselves, or their anxiety for the good opinion of others. The more
variety and the greater strength of powers, the clearer would be the
evidence before all eyes of what is really the most to be desired for
men. It would come out more plainly than now that it is a bad and
unhappy thing for men to have immoderate desires for money, or luxury,
or fame, or to have quarrelsome tendencies, or to be subject to distrust
and jealousy of others, or to be afraid of pain of body or mind. It
would be more plain than ever that there is a soulfelt charm and
nobleness and happiness in a spirit of reverence, of justice, of
charity, of domestic attachment, and of devotion to truth. Thus, in such
a society, there would be an agreement, more clear and strong than now,
in all the best points of our present law of Opinion, while there would
be fuller scope for carrying up the highest qualities of the human being
to their perfection.
Moreover, as men are made every where with a general likeness of the
powers of the mind, as with the same number of limbs and senses, there
must come out of a thorough exercise of their faculties a sufficient
agreement as to what is best to generate a universal idea of duty or
moral good. No varieties of endowment can interfere essentially with
this result. The Hindoo has slender arms, with soft muscles, and cannot
do the hard work which suits the German peasant: yet both agree as to
what arms are for, and how they are to be used. The Red Indian can see,
hear, smell, and taste twice as well as factory children or plough-boys;
yet all will agree that it is a good thing to have perfect sight and
hearing. And, in the same way, the African may have less power of
thought than the Englishman; and the Englishman may have less genius for
music than the African: but not only is the African able to think, more
or less, and the Englishman to enjoy music, but they will agree that it
is a good thing to have the highest power of thought, and the greatest
genius for music. In the same manner, again, one race, as well as one
individual, may have more power of reverence, another of love, another
of self-reliance; but all will agree that all these are inestimably
good.
It follows from this, that parents must be safe in aiming at thoroughly
exercising and training all the powers of a child. If it would be safest
for all to do so, in the certainty that the result would be in
accordance with the best points of the law of Opinion, it must be a
safe practice for individuals; and they may proceed in the faith that
their work (if they do it well) will turn out a noble one in the eyes of
the men of their own day, while they are doing their best to help on a
clearer and brighter day, when the law of Opinion will itself be greatly
ennobled.
Here I must end my chapter. But I must just say a word to guard against
any hasty supposition that when I speak of exercising (as well as
training) all the human powers thoroughly, I contemplate any indulgence
of strong passions or of evil inclinations. It cannot be too carefully
remembered that what I am speaking of is human POWERS or Faculties; and
that every power which a human being possesses may be exercised to good,
and is actually necessary to make him perfect.
It will be my business hereafter to show what this exercise and training
should be.