UPON EDUCATION: A FEW REFLECTIONS.
In our Illustrious and Central Kingdom, from times long before the
Barbarians beyond the great Seas existed, or, at any rate, had any name
or place in the earliest records, it has been the established rule that
Learning (Li-te-su) should be the fountain of honour--that there is no
nobility of birth. Under the Illustrious, the Son of Heaven, all were
equal subjects--children--and that which made one more distinguished
than another was _Wisdom_. This Wisdom, a knowledge of men and things;
of the proper maxims [ri-te-es] of morality and government, and their
proper application to human affairs. The _Central idea was to know
oneself_, and thus to know others--to add to this, technical knowledge,
and the knowledge of our Illustrious annals and customs.
The mandarins, great officers of our Illustrious, have no rights of
birth. According to their class in the Schools of Examination, they
are selected to advise, to administer, to govern in the Provinces,
and order the forces for the keeping of due order. They rank in the
degree of the excellency of their registration in the great Schools of
Examination.
But it is very different with the Western Barbarians, where _birth_
gives a right to exalted place in Government! Power, among the
English, is wholly in the hands of this hereditary class--called
_Nobility_--elsewhere called Aristocracy [Fo-hi]. Thus, learning has
been unimportant, unless as a sort of accomplishment; and been mostly
confined to Priests. With them, it was a means of increased influence,
and added to the effect of the Superstitious pretensions. Force and
fraud being the main agents of Government and sources of distinction,
learning was not merely disregarded, but held in contempt by the
High-Caste. What learning there was (chiefly confined to the Priests),
busied itself with the Superstition, and with the ancient tongues;
because with these Superstition had its _literary roots_.
Still, some grew more inquisitive, especially outside the Priestly
order, and learning made some progress. Gradually, there emerged from
the Halls of Learning, rules, which (countenanced by some Sovereigns),
began to influence Society. For Sovereigns, and the High-Caste, had
begun, in some measure, to affect a liking for learning--confined,
however, almost wholly to the narrow range referred to. These _rules_
were in fact DEGREES; which conferred upon the possessor a Literary
distinction.
The _Halls of Learning_, which had been in good measure established
by Sovereigns, out of plunder, upon the orders of Priests (who
would obtain the money through the Ruler's dread of the devil, when
apprehending or near to death); these, alone, could confer the degrees.
No power accompanied them. They, merely, became requisite to any one
who wished to enter upon, what is called, the _Learned professions_.
These are of the _Superstition_, of the _Law_, and of _Medicine_. Soon,
in these employments, the degrees became quite _Cabalistic_; and made
these callings mysteries to the rest of the world.
What was intended to be evidence of fitness, was soon perverted to be a
form of _initiation_ into an exclusive Society; whose members insisted,
not upon fitness, but upon compliance with arbitrary rules. This was
made especially the case with the Law, and with Medicine. The _degree_
was supposed to refer to proper qualifications for the practice of Law,
and knowledge of Medicine, with its proper use in the healing art. It
did nothing of the sort. It gave a _presumption_ (but by no means a
true one) that its holder knew something of the ancient Roman and Greek
languages: not any presumption that, in the case of Medicine, there was
any knowledge of the articles of Medicine, nor of their proper use;
or of the human body to which they were to be administered. Nor any,
that in the Law, there was any knowledge of the Statutes, laws and
customs of the Realm, nor even of its Common annals! Medicine and Law
suffered from this _Sham_; because men naturally used what little they
did know; and, as to the Roman tongue, _some_, and the Greek, _less_,
were in their heads; and the whole practice of Medicine and Law was in
their ignorant hands; what could follow, but to muddle _these_ with the
useless obscurity and jargon of the unknown forms!
The Priests had also thrown around the Superstition the same jargon,
and kept up the requisition for a _degree_--as if any true morality
and worship were necessarily connected with a _literature_, denounced
by themselves as impure and _pagan_! Notwithstanding these ignorant
and selfish abuses, it was impossible to make the acquisition of
even such narrow learning wholly useless. It was narrow, and even
hurtful, by being perverted to selfish ends, and preventing honest and
independent research. Still, it did work upon some minds to better
use; and it gradually evolved a better learning, when the Ancient
Literature really worked in free and broader channels. The High-Castes
are less indifferent to literary attainments; and learning, in a
more comprehensive sense, is becoming more esteemed. It is no longer
limited to verbal knowledge; to ancient, dead forms--though these
are still so paramount that, if a man were to be the wisest and most
learned of mankind, and was deficient in these, he could not receive a
_Degree_--he would be unlearned!
Useful, true and honest knowledge, outside the great Halls of Learning,
is making some advance; though _in them_, the old, pedantic, and
superstitious notions yet prevail. The new _Literati_, founders of
a larger and truer teaching, endeavour with difficulty to get some
respect and honour to attach to the _degrees_ which they timidly
register. The High-Caste, in general, disregard this better knowledge,
and adhere to the old Superstitions and traditions--regarding that
man only as learned who has the ancient badge; though, to any useful
purpose, a fool.
The High-Caste also stupidly support the old preparatory schools; and
will not, if they can help it, suffer any of the Lower-Caste to enter
them.
In these, the barbarous customs continue; if one goes into them, he is
at once carried backwards into the _dark ages_ (as even the Barbarians
call them); ages, when the Priests had all the Learning--wretched as
it was--and when the _Superstition_ coloured and directed everything.
Here, the dead tongues are the chief studies, with something of
the ancient _puzzles_ as to Lines and Points--for the most part
useless--with a style of administration fitted to the savage brutality
of those times. The only part of the training cared for by the youths,
is that which developes the forces of the body. The disgusting _Ring
Fight_, referred to elsewhere, is a common pastime; and the lad is a
milksop [kou-ad] who really avoids the rude crowd, and wishes to study.
To be respected he must fight his way, and be feared. If, by chance,
some lad of the Lower-Caste be entered, by the foolish wish of the
father to bring the son into the _polished_ circle of the High-Caste,
he will be _polished off_ (as these young Barbarians say), in a manner
never dreamed of. The poor lad will be beaten, humiliated, and driven
from the School; unless, indeed, he be strong enough to bully and beat
his tormentors!
Very comically, in one part of these brutal fights, when one has got
his antagonist completely in his power, and can bruise him as he
pleases, the position is called _being in Chancery_! One of the fittest
illustrations possible, of the universality of the judgment which
places that Court among things the most repulsive!
The younger in these schools are the _Slaves_, for the time being, to
the older and stronger; in fact, the whole effect of the training is
really to make these youths selfish, quick of quarrel, hardy of body,
and barbarous; to prepare them for the lives of predatory exploit,
upon which fortune and all the best honours depend--learning being
subordinate, and disregarded, unless it further the main purpose.
Force is still the god of these Barbarians, and _Jah_ is worshipped
because he, in this, fits them. The intellect is improved only that
Force may be developed and disciplined to its most effective use.
One sees this everywhere. To invent the most destructive engines of
war for the wholesale slaughter of the human species, to add to the
swiftness of movement, to the durability and weight of action, to the
means of assault and of defence, to bend the mind to uses based upon
the idea that the normal condition of man is that of _a tiger with
man's intellect_, to make the beast something inexpressibly dreadful!
The greater portion of the people remain sunk in the grossest
ignorance--scarcely knowing (the most of them) much even of the
Superstition, other than crude notions of Hell and the Devil. In
this, probably, they are not much to be pitied; though in losing the
precepts of Christ, and seeing around them the conduct of Christ-god
worshippers, they are to be commiserated. They look with the contempt
of ignorance upon foreigners, and call the people of distant seas
_Heathen_, only fit for the Hell! As I have said, in another place,
some attempts are being made to give this degraded populace, at
least, the rudiments of learning. The task is hard, and made nearly
impracticable by the stolid indifference of the Low-Castes, and their
positive hostility to anything which interferes with their habits.
They are very English, not different from their betters, and resent
any sort of change as an interference with their individual freedom
of action. To make these degraded beings _slaves_, you must not seize
the individual--you must act upon them as a class--and they resent the
attempt to teach them. Compulsion will be resorted to. The English
Barbarians have a proverb [li-tze], "One may lead a horse to the water,
but who can make him drink?" These people may be forced to the springs
of learning, but who shall make them drink--unless _beer_? (This is the
common drink, very muddling; used to an astonishing quantity.)
The women are not admitted to the Halls of Learning, though they are
to be seen everywhere. Men do not wish them to be educated in those
things admired by men--it would, as they think, make brutes of them.
In this they are right; yet there is no consistency of idea in the
general treatment of the sex, as will easily be gathered from these
_observations_.
A learned woman--that is, one who has acquired the sort of education
recognised by the _Literati_--is disliked by her own sex as well as by
the men. The men will not marry her, unless she can buy a husband. This
she may be able to do if she have money in abundance.
The things which may make them attractive and entertaining to the
men, and be likely to secure a desirable husband, are the only things
cared for. Some music, some drawing, a little acquaintance with the
language of the chief tribe on the main parts, reading and writing,
are the intellectual studies. But the engrossing pursuits are those
which are supposed to add to female attractiveness. To DRESS, so as
to enhance the delight of form; to cover, and yet to show with added
suggestion; to move with grace; to carry the head; to use with tender,
or arch, or modest, or haughty expression, the eyes; to turn the feet
and arrange the limbs; to make the shoulders beautiful, and the neck
and bust charming; to torture the hair and ornament the whole body;
the ear-tips, the fingers, the eyebrows and lashes--to do these, and
innumerable other things by which the sex shall be made _irresistible_
[Kou-ket], these are the real cares. _Dancing_ [ma-d-wo] is among the
most admired of all accomplishments, and the game of _Waltzing_ its
most perfect development. In this art of dancing both sexes take part,
and I may merely say to our Flowery Land, that we have nothing like it,
and what little we have in any degree to represent it is confined to
_licensed_ girls, without, even with them, permitting men to take part!
In this dancing the utmost female art (_blandishment_) is permitted,
and it is the one by which, and in the intricacies of which the male is
most surely expected to be ensnared!
Women are, also, particularly among the High-Caste, taught in riding on
horses, in driving them attached to carriages; in running and walking;
and even in swimming. Also in rowing in boats, in the use of bows and
arrows, and many other things, which are very strange to us. But the
sex like passionately the outdoor sports of men; and, in truth, show
the barbarous instinct quite as clearly as do the males. They are
attached to dogs, cats, and other creatures, which they fondle and
_dandle_ in the most disgusting manner.
The women of the Low-Castes, to the best of their ability, follow
the example of their superiors; and make such copy as they can. They
imitate the dress, the gait, the _airs and graces_ of the High-Caste,
often with a ludicrous effect! When they dance, they may not dance with
the elegant _abandon_ [lan-gu-tze] of the lazy and rich, but they can
contrive to be quite as _effective_! The male of the Low-Caste feels
but cannot escape the snare!
_Accomplishments_, directed to the one object of finding a desirable
man, who will take them at the least cost off the hands of their
relatives, are the things which occupy the time of women; the lower
orders, in so far as possible, giving to the poor imitations that time
which ought to go to useful objects. A poor and obscure girl prefers to
be _something like_ a lady (that is, a bad copy in dress and bearing),
than to be really instructed in letters: because she sees herself more
admired by the male, and more likely to dispose of herself to a husband.
The great pursuit among High-Caste families is man--a man who may
be bought, and whom it is desirable to buy, to be a husband for a
daughter, or relative. All domestic art and diplomacy are bent to
this end; and, as men do not like learned women, whom they nick-name
_strong-minded_, women do not wish to be learned. If from exceptional
circumstances a young woman be well educated, and wish to marry, she
carefully conceals her knowledge, and displays her accomplishments,
and all "the power of her charms" (as the English poets have it). An
educated female had better appear to be an _accomplished_ fool, than a
wise and learned woman--if she wish to buy a husband. For she must have
a large sum, indeed, if she be known to be learned!--a _Blue-stocking_
[Zu-re-to].
There are some women who have acquired knowledge, and look with disdain
upon the _arts_, _airs_, and _graces_ of their "weak Sisters." They
appear in public Halls of debate (as talking-places are called); and,
mixing with men, assume an equality of mental force and culture. They
interest themselves like men, in all matters of general concern. They
take in hand, or endeavour to take in hand, _the care of Women_; and
demand an enlarged sphere for her action, and a reformed and proper
recognition of her _rights_. Hence, these women are called, besides
strong-minded, _Women's rights_ women. They are nearly always old,
ugly, and wholly and hopelessly incapacitated from longer pursuing men;
even, in their inordinate vanity, _that_ pursuit is abandoned.
There are some trifling exceptions--of women who like to astonish,
and of others who, in _talking_, find a means of living--to whom all
personal comeliness is not yet a tradition. But for these, the _Women's
rights_ movement would dwindle away; these sometimes commanding an
influence either of money or family, draw into their circle a few
men--remarkable, in general, for eccentricity of some kind, or led very
often completely by a woman of the order.
The whole thing is inexplicable to our social usages; but is not an
excrescence--only a natural outgrowth upon a diseased system. The
position of women in the Barbarian Society is a feature very striking
and very anomalous, and may receive attention in another place.
On the whole, one may see that education in its true and exalted sense
is scarcely comprehended among the Barbarians. The moral function
and the mind subordinate to that, and the body--its passions, its
greed, its brutality, wholly subordinate to the morally trained
mind--education, grounded upon this _central idea_, has but feeble
recognition.