Sociology and Education. an Analysis of the Theories of Spencer and Ward 9780231890878

Table of contents :
Foreword
Contents
Introduction
I. The Social-Educational Milieu of Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903
II. Spencer’s Theories of Education
III. The Sources and Results of Spencer’s Educational Theories
IV. The Socio-educational Milieu of Lester Frank Ward, 1841-1913
V. Ward’s Educational Theories
VI. The Sources and Results of Ward’s Educational Theories
VII. Spencer and Ward Contrasted
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS A N D PUBLIC LAW Edited by the FACULTY O F POLITICAL SCIENCE O F COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

N U M B E R 369

SOCIOLOGY AND EDUCATION AN ANALYSIS OF THE THEORIES OF SPENCER AND WARD BY

ELSA P E V E R L Y

KIMBALL

SOCIOLOGY AND EDUCATION AN ANALYSIS OF THE THEORIES OF SPENCER AND WARD

BY

ELSA PEVERLY KIMBALL, PH.D. ¿••'ami-time Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Sociology ot Smith College Lecturer in Sociology University Extension, Columbia University

NEW YORK

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS Lour on : P. S. Kikg & Son, Ltd

1932

COPYRIGHT

1932

BY

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

PRINTED

IN

THE

UNITED

PRESS

STATES

OF

AMERICA

ŒN M Y LOYAL FKIF.ND OF M A N Y Y E A R S

EDITH WELD PECK MASTER OF JURISPRUDENCE

FOREWORD

IN presenting this study on Spencer and Ward I wish to express my thanks to Professor Alvan A. Tenney, not only for his constant generosity of time and effort as a teacher and adviser, but for revealing with quiet enthusiasm the possibilities of sociology as a science and for his constructive criticism. The early study of Spencer and Ward required in Professor Tenney's advanced seminar led to a deep interest in their works. I was particularly impressed with the vitality of their theories of education. After a conversation with Professor Giddings, I resolved to write, sometime in the future, an essay on Spencer and Ward, showing the contrast between their educational theories and the relation of these theories to their philosophies. This monograph has been the result. It has been interesting in pursuance of this plan to discover how many great minds, aside from Spencer and Ward, have been occupied with educational theory. Among them are Plato, Aristotle, Quintilian, Montaigne, Bacon, Milton, Locke, Rousseau, Kant and many others. In 1926 I was matriculated under Professor Giddings. Like numbers of other Columbia University students I am in many ways under deep obligation to him. Returning to Columbia University four years later it was my good fortune to become acquainted with the distinguished leadership of Professor Robert M. Maclver and his scholarly contributions. I am especially pleased to have this opportunity to express my warm appreciation for his cordial response to my interest in sociology and education, for his valuable advice and for his careful reading of this manuscript. 7

8

FOREWORD

I am pleased to acknowledge the kindness and courtesy of Dr. H. B. Van Hoesen, Librarian at Brown University, and of my friend and classmate, Dr. Bernhard Stern, for making it possible for me to read the unpublished work on education by Lester Frank Ward. I wish also to thank my friend, Miss Roberta Newell for assistance with the manuscript. For permission to reprint the copy of the portrait painted by Mr. J. B. Burgess of Herbert Spencer in 1872 I am indebted to the National Portrait Gallery in London. My thanks are due to G. P. Putnam's Sons, publishers of Glimpses of the Cosmos, for consent to use the photograph of Lester Frank Ward which appears in the second volume of that work. E. P. K. FEBRUARY 2 7 , 1932, NEW

YORK

CITY.

CONTENTS FOREWORD

7

T A B L E OF C O N T E N T S

G

INTRODUCTION

N

CHAPTER I The Social-educational Milieu of Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903 . . .

19

C H A P T E R II Spencer's Theories of Education

76

C H A P T E R III The Sources and Results of Spencer's Educational Theories. . . . 125 CHAPTER IV The Socio-educational Milieu of Lester Frank Ward, 1841-1913 . . 153 CHAPTER V Ward's Educational Theories

185

CHAPTER VI The Sources and Results of Ward's Educational Theories

252

CHAPTER VII Spencer and Ward Contrasted

284

BIBLIOGRAPHY

315

INDEX

319

9

INTRODUCTION IT may be thought superfluous to add anything to the voluminous literature already existing on the works of Herbert Spencer or those of Lester Frank Ward. The fame of these two men as pathfinders and explorers in the realm of social science is secure. Spencer has, moreover, always been a recognized force in education. Sociologists and educators alike, however, have apparently failed to appreciate in any adequate manner the relation of the educational doctrines of Spencer and W a r d to their sociological theories. Hence this monograph. Spencer's four essays published between the years 1854 and 1859 in periodical form, and which later appeared, first in America in 1861, under the title Education are well known to the educational world. Scarcely a book is written on education in America without giving consideration to the views set forth in Spencer's famous little volume. The relation of Spencer's educational theories to the chief tenets of his philosophy, however, seems to have received very little attention. Furthermore, little notice appears to have been given to Spencer's theories of education as expressed elsewhere in his other writings and less to their sources or to the implication of his principles. Education is not an active agent in Spencer's scheme of evolution, yet this subject occupied a prominent place in his thought and writings. In the philosophical writings of Ward, on the other hand, education is a leading theme and is regarded in his system of sociology as the chief means to progress. Y e t , by the educational writers of America, his works have been scantily recognized by a few, unknown to the many. A m o n g several 11

12

INTRODUCTION

exceptions was his personal friend, United States Commissioner of Education, William T. Harris. Nevertheless, the drift of the whole nineteenth century in education has been in the direction of Ward's emphasis on the universalization and democratization of knowledge. Again, with regard to Ward, since not only have his general educational principles in the main been neglected by educators in most quarters, but unknown in others, and since his more specific views in detail have been practically unknown to all, the relationship between his educational theories and his sociological system has naturally, in great part, been unobserved. Furthermore, in neither instance has the influence of early personal experiences in the lives of these two sociologists been evaluated, contrasted or brought together in any adequate or comprehensive way to show the probable effects of those experiences upon the educational and sociological systems of the two men.1 Yet the details of Spencer's life and of his own education are easy of access. These facts are recorded in the two volumes of his Autobiography and in the Life, and Letters of Herbert Spencer, by David Duncan, his secretary. In the case of Ward, on the other hand, the known intimate details of his life are comparatively few. He left no autobiography, and no adequate biography has been published. However, the chief facts concerning the struggle for education which he made as the tenth child of poor pioneer parents in the new West can be gleaned from passages here and there in his works and from such material as he chose to give to a few of his literary friends. Therefore, since the facts of his early life have not been widely known, and his specific educational theories have not, as a whole, been appraised, the relationship between them has 1

Professor Josiah Royce, however, was one of those who perceived, after reading Spencer's Autobiography, a relationship between Spencer's early training and his educational doctrines. See his Herbert Spencer.

INTRODUCTION

13

not been set forth. Neither have the effects of his early environment and experiences been related to his general philosophical principles. It is not the purpose of this monograph to criticize extensively the main tenets of the philosophies of Spencer and Ward. As far as is possible Spencer and W a r d will be allowed to speak for themselves in their own words. Little will be said, for example, concerning the validity of Spencer's concept of society as an organism or as a growth, of Ward's theory of society as a mechanism or as a manufacture or of his theory of the social forces. No extended criticism of the theories of the two writers in the fields of biology and of psychology will be attempted. Rather, it will be the aim of this study to make clear the relationships just indicated that have not yet received thorough discussion in the extant literature on Spencer and Ward. That this may be accomplished it will be necessary not only to draw together scattered and hitherto little noticed material on education in the works of Spencer and W a r d but also to review certain phases of their better known educational principles in order to bring out relationships to their sociological theories. It will also be necessary for the purposes stated to contrast the sources of the educational theories o f the two writers, to contrast the theories themselves and, as far as may be possible, to show the relations existing between and among the sources, the educational theories, the sociological doctrines and the philosophies of both men. In spite of the small amount of attention hitherto paid to it, the connection between Spencer's and Ward's educational doctrines and their sociological principles is unmistakable. Likewise, the notion that a relationship existed between their early experiences and their educational theories appears to be more than a plausible hypothesis. One sometimes wonders whether Spencer's educational views were not in

I 4

INTRODUCTION

part, at least, a defense, intentional or unintentional, of the type of education practiced in his family for three generations, and whether, also, W a r d ' s theories of education were not to some extent the expression of a life-long protest against the educational poverty of his childhood and youth as the tenth child of " moving-frontier " parents. In neither case do the educational theories of Spencer and W a r d appear to have been primarily the results of much, if any, inductive or experimental work. Perhaps their youthful experiences made them, to some extent, select, more or less unconsciously, facts to substantiate their respective points of view, not only in their educational ideas, but to some extent, in their sociological and philosophical doctrines. If so, we may here find a partial explanation of the consistency between the general systems and educational theories of each man taken separately and the contrasts that exist between their various ideas when compared. Examination of the works of Spencer and W a r d appears to lead to the following conclusions relevant to our main interest: 1. That Spencer's system of sociology emphasized social statics, whereas, W a r d ' s system dealt mainly with social dynamics. Spencer stressed passive adaptation. Ward emphasized active adaptation. T o Spencer, society was and should be a growth. T o Ward, although society in the past has been largely a matter of growth, from henceforth it should be a manufacture. T o Spencer, progress proceeds according to the laws of evolution. T o Ward, progress should henceforth be ideological. 2. That Spencer believed that social improvement could come about only through the increase of sympathy, by the progressive adaptation of the characters of men. This adaptation depends directly on the slow processes of evolution which affect men by the exercise of their faculties

INTRODUCTION

15

through the inheritance of acquired characteristics (or direct equilibration), and, to a less extent, through natural selection (or indirect equilibration). In W a r d ' s system, social improvement depends only indirectly on the inheritance of acquired characteristics and natural selection. Direct dependence is placed on opportunity and the social environment. In W a r d ' s opinion, it is not the increase of intellect that is immediately needed but an increase of knowledge, or, more directly, an equable and universal socialization of such knowledge as society now possesses. The biological equipment, is, in W a r d ' s concept, sufficient to guide the direction of social evolution if extant knowledge can be universalized and equal opportunity can be extended to all. 3. That in Spencer's system, education plays a passive and indirect role in social evolution, while in that of Ward, education plays a direct and dynamic role. It is the initial means to progress. In Spencer's view the function of the State is negative, whereas, in Ward's view the function of the State is positive. 4. That Spencer's plan of education is an individualistic one. Education is to be provided by the initiative and foresight of private individuals and is to be regulated by the laws of supply and demand, whereas, W a r d ' s concept is a social one. Education is not subject to the laws of supply and demand and must be provided by society through state control. Education is the chief method of improvement of society. It is the first duty and prime object of society to provide universal education. In Spencer's theory the unit determines the mass, whereas in W a r d ' s theory the mass more or less (and cultural achievement) determines the unit. 5. That the early experiences of Spencer as the only remaining child of nine children, as a boy, tutored, for the most part, at home and by a family of teachers marked for generations by extreme individualism and non-conformity,

16

INTRODUCTION

may have had considerable effect upon his later educational views and the general tendency of his philosophy. That, likewise, in the case of Ward, as he, himself, partly realized, his early striving for an education in a meager socio-educational environment on the open plains of the West gave a strong impetus, not only to his educational theories but to his doctrines of democracy, social meliorism and social evolution. The attitude of the writer of this monograph is that Spencer's view that education is a preparation for the life of the individual and Ward's view that education is for the improvement of society must be regarded as supplementary since one aims to accomplish with least friction an inevitable adaptation of man to various phases of the environment, while the other would adapt the environment to man wherever possible. The plan of this study has been to state in chapter one the early background and the early influences brought to bear on Spencer together with a delineation of his chief traits, interests and experiences. Chapter two presents, without comment, Spencer's theories of education, while chapter three attempts to trace the sources of these theories and to give an evaluation of his contributions to education. The same procedure is followed with regard to Ward in chapters four, five and six except that in the biographical chapter I have also attempted to select typical examples of American political, social and literary activity during Ward's boyhood, in order to give a glimpse of the general cultural level of his immediate surroundings. This was not done with regard to Spencer as it was thought that the general caliber and reputation of his friends whose names frequently appear in connection with his work would recall sufficiently to the reader the high tide of the great Victorian age within which Spencer himself was so strong a force. For the sake of

INTRODUCTION

17

guidance to the reader, yet at the risk of weariness from repetition, a series of statements of the underlying ideas of each system of education have been formulated and placed immediately at the beginning of chapters two and five. Chapter seven presents a contrast of the lives, the sources and the chief tenets of the educational philosophies of Spencer and W a r d and also a recapitulation of the former chapters. This study, it is hoped, will serve to recall to the present generation of social scientists the keen and abiding interest that the older sociologists had in the social process of education. I f this reminder should, by chance, stimulate further sociological study in this universal process the author will be well pleased.

HERBERT

SPENCER

AT T H E

AGE

OF

FIFTY-TWO

PAINTED BY J O H N BAGNOL1) BURGESS IN" L8~2 REPRINTED BY P E R M I S S I O N OF T H E N A T I O N A L PORTRAIT GALLERY,

L0N110N

CHAPTER

I

T H E S O C I O - E D U C A T I O N A L M I L I E U OF H E R B E R T

SPENCER

1820-1903 APRIL 20, 1820, at 12 Exeter Row, Derby, in the same Derbyshire which had witnessed, only the year before, the " Peterloo " Massacre 1 and four years before the " Derbyshire Insurrection," Herbert Spencer was born, 2 the eldest of nine children. The eight younger children all died in infancy, so that except for the association of a few months 1 Rioters in Derbyshire in 1819 had gathered to demand a reform in Parliament. They were quelled for a time by a repressive policy of the government. The event is known as the " Peterloo " Massacre. 2 Spencer was born on the eve of a great period especially in science, political reform, mechanical invention and industrial change. T h e middle and lower classes were beginning to develop a consciousness of their own position and needs, a consciousness which grew throughout the century.

George I V was crowned in 1821. In 1819, the Princess Alexandrina Victoria was born. Adam Smith (1723-1790) as well as Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) were becoming powerful through their writings. The famous Essay on Population of Thomas Malthus had appeared in 1798, the year of the appearance of the Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge. The works of Hannah More and Mary Wollstonecraft presaged the coming of the feminist movement. Charles Lyell (1797-1875) was preparing his epoch-making theory of geological change. T h e famous free-trader, William Huskisson, President of the Board of Trade, was active in modifying the operation of the Navigation Laws. The A c t of 1815 had given rise to a dispute between those who favored protection and those who advocated free-trade, a controversy which was to have a long history. Not until 1846, after much heated manifestation on both sides, were the Corn L a w s repealed. George Canning (17701827) was powerful at this period in the House of Commons. George Stephenson (1781-1848) ran his first locomotive at the rate of three miles an hour and became the first engineer on the Stockdale and Darlington Railway in 1825. Cross, History of England and Greater Britain ( N e w Y o r k , 1915). Chapter xlviii.

19

20

SOCIOLOGY

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EDUCATION

with his sister Louisa, he lacked the companionship of brothers and sisters. For generations on both sides the family had been nonconformists and among the earliest of Wesley's followers; two members at least having been Wesleyan preachers. Spencer's paternal grandmother, Catherine (Taylor) Spencer, at the time of her death in 1843, w a s the oldest member of the Wesleyan connection in Derby. 3 The family for generations had been characterized as a whole by pugnacity, caution, prudence, tenacity, independence and disregard for authority. Since for two generations several members of the family had not only been teachers, but had conducted schools, Spencer, from his earliest years was not only reared in a non-conformist atmosphere but also in an educational one marked by discussion and controversy concerning social, political and ethical questions. His grandfather, Matthew Spencer, had indeed maintained one of the best schools in Derby and was also the master of the Derby grammar school where, since he was not a classical scholar, he supervised the commercial department. Spencer mentions his grandfather as a melancholy-looking old gentleman sitting beside the fire, and he notes that his expression resembled that of the great teacher, Pestalozzi, whose photograph he has seen in Dr. Biber's work on Pestalozzi. 4 Spencer's uncles often came to the home where many discussions were carried on. He speaks in his autobiography of his uncle, Henry Spencer, who was so non-conformist that he chided his brother, Thomas Spencer, for entering the church. He remembered listening to his denunciation of the poor laws as bad in principle. His Uncle John, a lawyer, Spencer seems not to have 3

Spencer, Autobiography

4

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 18.

(New York, 1904), vol. i, p. 21.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

21

admired, because of his egotism and self-assertiveness which he thought at times approached cruelty. For trivial reasons, John Spencer seceded from the orthodox Wesleyans, after which he raised funds for a large chapel in Babington Lane and preached for a few years until, with his family, he migrated to America. Thomas Spencer, another uncle, a man of unflagging energy, became the best known of the brothers to the public. Part of his youth was spent as a teacher in Quorn School near Derby. At St. John's College, Cambridge, as ninth wrangler, he received honors. He became curate at Amner in Norfolk " where he was at the same time tutor to the squire's son and after that he held, for a while, the collegeliving at Stapleford near Cambridge ". H e was a reformer in Church and State and kept up steady opposition to the administration of the Old Poor Laws. Before even the temperance societies had been formed he was an agitator for temperance. He was the leader in the evangelical movement in Cambridge. An ascetic in regard to amusement, he once said, in answer to an inquiry of his hostess at a party as to why his nephew Herbert did not join the young people who were waltzing, 5 " No, Spencer never dances." 6 Public amusements also met with his disapproval. All his life he was active in liberal politics in speech and in writing and he preached and lectured without ceasing. For more than twenty years he was a clergyman in Hinton. Thence he went to Bath and later to London. The youngest uncle, William Spencer, carried on his father's school after the latter had ceased to teach. At one time Herbert was one of his pupils. Like the other brothers, William had an independent, self-assertive nature. He was original, generous and amiable and not so radical a nonconformist. 5

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 29.

6

Ibid., p. 31.

SOCIOLOGY

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AND

EDUCATION

Spencer's father, William George, 7 was a teacher most of his life and a pronounced W h i g and non-conformist. Disliking all class distinctions and honors, " he would never take off his hat to anyone, no matter of what rank " and " could not be induced to address anyone as 'Esquire' or 'Reverend': all his letters were addressed ' Mr.'. . . . H e never would put on any sign of mourning even for father or mother." George Spencer, born in 1790, was an unusually handsome man, six feet tall,8 well-built, dignified and graceful in carriage. H e was inventive by nature and was the author of Lucid Shorthand and Inventional Geometry which last work was widely used in America. 9 W h e n a boy, he began his career as a teacher, commencing no doubt in his father's school, and besides gave private lessons. A t seventeen he began teaching " in the family of the leading physician, Dr. F o x , when he was but a little older than the young Foxes." 10 Here he began his method of teaching of non-coercion and self-help combined with the attitude of a friend. Absolute punctuality, great firmness, calmness and patience, and sympathy for those of lower position were said to be among his traits. Generosity was a distinguishing characteristic. He was intellectual, with unusual keenness of the senses and with marked skill of hand. A s a sculptor or as an experimental investigator he would, no doubt, have achieved success. "Improvement was his watchword always and everywhere." H e was not only constantly improving the diction of books which he read and of his own writings, but the letters of his son. H e had a great " passion for reforming the world ". He was altruistically inclined, which . showed in the solicitude for his tenants. " A l w a y s he would 7

Spencer's father was, however, known as George Spencer.

8

Spencer, Autobiography,

9

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 54.

w Ibid., p. 56.

vol. i, pp. 53, 59.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

23

step out of his way to kick a stone off the pavement lest someone should trip over it. If he saw boys quarreling he stopped to expostulate; and he could never pass a man who was ill-treating his horse without trying to make him behave better." 1 1 Before marriage, George Spencer carried on a school and also for seven years gave private lessons, chiefly in two families, the Foxes and Mozleys. H e was besides, as a young man, honorary secretary to the Derby Philosophical Society. H e early over-worked himself, which was a chief cause of his severe headaches and a break in health a few years after marriage. " He had accumulated a good deal; as was shown by the fact that he purchased thirteen small houses belonging to his father-in-law, and had still a considerable amount of spare capital remaining." 12 Before marriage he had saved enough to buy several small houses and to advance money to enable his brother Thomas to go to Cambridge. Spencer thinks his father was not always kind to Mrs. Spencer. His manner was exacting and he was inconsiderate in small matters in the home. Although when she was ill, he was tender and thoughtful and during his closing years anxiety over her health added to his depression, yet generally his sympathy was habitually repressed. Spencer believed that his father was disappointed at not receiving more intellectual companionship from his wife, and Spencer adds, in conformity with his theory of individuation and genesis, " he was not aware that intellectual activity in women is liable to diminish after marirage by that antagonism between individuation and reproduction everywhere operative throughout the organic world." That it was diminished, regardless of this theory, is likely when it is recalled that " Ibid., p. 58. 12

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 74.

SOCIOLOGY

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the young wife had borne nine children, endured the grief of losing eight, and lived with an irritable, energetic husband. Another cause for his father's attitude, Spencer thought, "was that chronic irritability consequent on his nervous disorder which set in some two or three years after marriage and continued during the rest of his life." 13 The family was a devoted one. It was a common occurrence for the uncles to meet, and the young observant Herbert was, no doubt, early influenced by serious conversations and disputes marked by non-conformity and free thinking in both politics and ecclesiasticism. The Spencers were always terribly in earnest. He says: They habitually criticized current views respecting manners and customs. Among negative traits . . . I may name one—a comparatively small interest in gossip. A s a boy I rarely heard among them any talk about royal personages, court doings, or anything concerning bishops and deans or any agents of the ruling powers. Their conversation ever tended towards the impersonal . . . there was no considerable leaning towards literature. Their discussions never referred to poetry, or fiction or the drama. Nor was the reading of history carried to any extent by them. And though in early life they were all musical, the aesthetics in general had no great attractions. It was rather the scientific and moral aspects of things which occupied their thoughts.14 All of them indulged an " unrestrained display of their sentiments and opinions; more especially in respect to political, social, religious and ethical matters." 15 Spencer was thus from tender years always consorting with grownups of marked individuality and did not learn the co-operative influences of the usual associations of childhood in face to face groups with those of his own age. 13

Ibid., p. 62.

14

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 47.

"

Ibid.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

25

William George Spencer w a s said to be the " flower of the flock " and possessed faculties " in common with the rest (except the humor of H e n r y and the linguistic ability of T h o m a s ) " . I n addition he showed inventive ability and decided artistic perception and, in some respects, w a s the moral superior of his brothers and, probably in emotional qualities, of his son. 1 6 Spencer's mother, H a r r i e t Holmes, born in 1 7 9 4 , w a s brought up a Wesleyan. S h e w a s not critical in her j u d g ments and w a s constitutionally averse to change. S h e w a s attractive in f a c e and f o r m , amiable, sweet and patient. A l w a y s generously g i v i n g all her energies and time to her f a m i l y , she w a s a devoted w i f e and mother. Benevolent in feeling and generally submissive and not combatively opinionated, she w a s yet utterly lacking in tact. A s i d e f r o m the deep devotion to her home she w a s an active member of the Dorcas Society all her l i f e and took active part in " getting up " petitions during the A n t i - S l a v e r y agitation. H e r sense of duty appeared to match that of her husband and her judgment perhaps surpassed his. T h o u g h actively cherishing every detail of her son's career, she showed no interest in the subject-matter of his works and probably read but little of his writings. Spencer says she w a s not plastic in mental development like his f a t h e r ; that she w a s of ordinary intelligence but that she w a s facile in writing pleasing, cogent E n g l i s h , and possessed a high moral nature. It a l w a y s troubled him much in later years that she w a s not " s u f ficiently prized " and that she was allowed to exhaust her energies so completely on her f a m i l y . H e says she belonged with those w h o deserve much and get little. Spencer w a s born in a new house which f o r m e d " one 16 Ibid., p. 48. Spencer himself says, " save in certain faculties, specially adapting me to my work, inherited from him with increase, I consider myself as in many ways falling short of him both intellectually, and emotionally as well as physically."

26

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member of a street partially built on one side only."

A

small garden w a s separated by a meadow f r o m the river Derwent.

T h e child's early home environment w a s

pressing as early letters of the father show. 1 7

In

de1825

George Spencer wrote to his brother: This appears an important crisis in my life. I shall either from this time be tolerably comfortable in my circumstances and health or else I shall soon be reduced by ill-health to a state of wretchedness bordering on insanity. ( I n January 1824) I am still more convinced than ever that I shall never continue healthy with my present employment—the stooping, the confinement, the sameness, the trial of temper and patience that it constantly affords, have a bad effect. . . . O u r children were well when we got home. Harriet appears much more happy now that I am better. She is very kind—and I don't sufficiently return i t — it appears to be my temper to expect too much. A n o t h e r cause of the serious, depressing atmosphere in the early life of the boy was, no doubt, the death of eight small children one a f t e r the other as well as the nervous health o f the father.

T h e Spencers remained at E x e t e r Street until

Herbert w a s f o u r years old. A f t e r George Spencer's health had become precarious he was compelled to g i v e up teaching f o r a time.

H e moved to

N e w R a d f o r d near N o t t i n g h a m in the suburb of Side adjacent to a tract of wild land. remaining part of his childhood here.

Forest

Spencer spent the H e writes of the l i f e

at R a d f o r d : I have still vivid recollections of the delight of rambling among the gorse bushes, which at that early age towered above my head. There was a certain charm of adventure in exploring the turfcovered tracks running hither and thither into all their nooks, and now and then coming out in unexpected places or being stopped by a deep sandy chasm made by carts going to the sand 17

Duncan, Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer (London, 1908), p. 8.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

27

pits. There were the blue-bells to be picked from among prickly branches which were here and there flecked with fragments of wool left by passing sheep.13 On going to Nottingham, George Spencer abandoned teaching and took up lace manufacturing. A t this time there was a mania for lace-making. A reaction to the boom soon set in and the profits falling greatly, Mr. Spencer lost considerable money. A f t e r three years, recovering his health somewhat, the family abandoned the lace business and Mr. Spencer took up teaching once more, going back and forth to Derby where he gave private lessons. W h e n Herbert was about seven years old the family moved back to Derby on Wilmot Street. Here the home remained until the death of Mrs. Spencer in 1867. A t this place there was plenty of open space and the boy could gather flowers and catkins of the hazel, catch minnows in the little stream, gather blackberries and mushrooms, work in the garden, throw stones at the birds and watch the larvae of gnats. Generally speaking, he knew little of out-of-door sports until in manhood his health began to fail. He did skate however, as a boy and made a very graceful figure, his friend Lott says. O f his pleasures through life, he perhaps most enjoyed fishing, which he began in the near-by canals and in the river Derwent. He became skillful in making fishing apparatus, floats and hair-tackles. H e used often to visit a wealthy farmer and his family, Mr. and Mrs. Ordish. Spencer was a fair-haired, light-complexioned boy, with pale blue eyes. He was graceful in carriage, long of limb and fleet at running. N o doubt, the loss of so many children caused the Spencer family to be unusually solicitous of their only remaining child, and he must have heard the question of health discussed frequently, which may have unduly interested him in this subject. A t any rate, the nervous school18

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 76.

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AND

EDUCATION

teacher father did not subject the one remaining child to the rigors of school discipline at an early age. Herbert seems always to have had a great repugnance to rote-learning or to anything that savoured of repetition. This dislike caused him even to be annoyed at the recurring refrain of ballads. Monotony of any sort, even of food always irritated him, and his comments on food in his essays on education reflect his own dislikes. 19 His father encouraged him to collect insects, and not only to study and to collect them, but to make life drawings of them and at different stages of development. The boy got so enthusiastic that he would rise at six in the morning to collect specimens. In drawing and modelling he possessed considerable skill as did his father before him. Spencer showed early a fondness for castle-building and thinking long on one subject. 20 H e did not read well until he was over seven years old. His father disapproved of fiction and looked coldly on all works of the imagination with the exception of poetry. But Herbert outwitted him in this respect and read a great deal of fiction by candle-light after he went to bed. He was a decidedly peaceful, calm boy with great disregard of authority. In a small way he was disobedient much of the time, his father being too nervous and preoccupied to follow up his own commands. His mother seems not to have had much control over him as a boy. Thus his natural individualism was furthered by his surroundings, and he early set authority at naught. H e could not endure cruelty or to see animals killed. Indeed, for fourteen years 19

Spencer, Education

(New York, 1873), pp. 241-242.

George Spencer recorded in his memoranda about his son, the following : " One day when a very little child, I noticed as he was sitting by the fire side, a sudden titter. On saying, Herbert, what are you laughing at, he said, I was thinking how it would have been if there had been nothing besides myself." Spencer, Autobiography, vol. i, pp. 76-77. 20

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

29

111 young manhood, he desisted from fishing because of cruelty to the fish. For a few months he became a vegetarian. Smarting under any tyranny which he might experience himself, he always felt keenly any injustice to others and was, throughout his life, quick to think that highhandedness had been practiced by those in authority. He often heard from his uncle Thomas the notion that success was due to one's own efforts and that poverty and misfortune were usually the results of individual inefficiency, a belief which Thomas Spencer altered somewhat when misfortune later beset him. Mr. Spencer, being unable to look after his son's education and not being a classical scholar, sent his son to Mr. Mather's day school where he studied for about three years. He disliked Latin grammar and complained that it lacked system. In 1830, his uncle William, having inherited the grandfather's school, resumed teaching, and Herbert became one of his select number of pupils. Drawing was encouraged, and teaching which led to some knowledge of the mechanical process was given, also experiments with pulleys and levers as well as some causes of their properties. He made excellent maps from memory, but he showed no particular excellence in Greek, perhaps because he had imbibed a notion that it was not worth while. Being very quick to gather miscellaneous information, he learned much as a listener to conversations in the home. His father had an electrical machine and an air pump, and he frequently went with his father's pupils to see pneumatic and electrical phenomena, besides often being asked to make preparations for the experiments and to aid in the demonstration of them. He very early then, gained some knowledge of physics. Incidentally, too, he was led into chemistry and used to prepare hydrogen for his father to fill an electric pistol. This study led to the crystallization of salts

30

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

and to other chemical experiments which his father always encouraged. He even disregarded the damage to the boy's clothes from the acids. Herbert's interest in chemistry grew deeper and he read with delight a small book on chemistry by an itinerant lecturer named Murray. 2 1 Moreover, he saw a large amount of miscellaneous literature from circulating libraries. His father had been Honorary Secretary of the Derby Philosophical Society which had been founded by Dr. Darwin a generation before, and many magazines from the circulating library of a scientific character came into the home. Besides books of travel there were magazines like the Lancet, British and Foreign Medical Reviews and the Medico-chirurgical Review. From the Methodist Library came The Athenaeum, the Mechanic's Magazine, Chambers' Journal and others. Then his father allowed him to subscribe to a literary institution which gave lectures and formed a library. Here he found considerable historical reading. H e read the whole of Rollin's Ancient History, also Gibbon. A t the age of thirteen, a " little mechanical, medical, anatomical and physiological information had been gathered; as also a good deal of information about the various parts of the world and their inhabitants," some Greek and Latin, a moderate amount of arithmetic, no English History or English grammar, no biography, a little ancient history, but considerable clearness of physical principles and their processes, with " sundry special phenomena of physics and chemistry." His father always carried out the principle of self-help. A constant question to Herbert was, " I wonder what is the cause of so and so," or " Can you tell me the cause of this? " His tendency always was to regard everything as naturally caused. There was never "any suggestion of the miraculous", or reference to anything as being " explicable by supernatural agency," and " never any appeal to authority as a reason for accepting a belief." 22 21

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 97.

22

Italics mine.

Ibid., p. 101.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

31

In June, 1833, the Spencers drove to Hinton Charterhouse near Bath to pay a visit to Thomas Spencer. There the boy was delighted with all the novelties about him, unfamiliar flowers, butterflies and insects. T o his disgust after a few days he was " set down to the first proposition in Euclid.' But he took to this study well. His uncle condemned his manner of reading but remarked upon his extensive acquaintance with words which he had gained by reading many kinds of literature and by hearing the conversations around him. A f t e r he had been at Hinton a few weeks he was much disturbed to find that a plan had been made without consulting him. Uncle Thomas and his wife had decided to keep him for several years to educate him, while their nephew, Uncle Henry's son, was to return with Herbert's parents to Derby. All seemed to go well for awhile; but Herbert soon grew so argumentative with a fellow pupil that Thomas Spencer decided the boys should study at separate hours in their own rooms. Against this Herbert secretly rebelled although he said little. One morning he rose early and with only a few cents in money started to walk home. He wept as he ran. The first day he completed forty-eight miles, the second forty-seven and the third day twenty miles when he got " a l i f t " the rest of the way. He was in a worn, pitiable condition, weak from fatigue and lack of food, not knowing what was to become of him, so great seemed his sin of disobedience, thoughtless discourtesy to his aunt and uncle, and his self-assertiveness. " His mother was ' ashamed and mortified at Herbert's misconduct ' and his father passed the ' whole of the night without sleep ruminating on the character and prospects' of his untoward son." 23 In his distraction the boy pled that his misery was so great that he could not help it. His parents, 23

Duncan, op. cit., p. 13.

32

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

in spite of their worry at his disobedience, were deeply moved at this proof of his love for home and his almost incredible efforts to reach it and wrote to Thomas Spencer and his wife to be lenient with him. A f t e r two weeks he returned to Hinton having " suffered the natural consequences " of his acts, in a way at least. But he was not asked to study alone any more. Spencer's disregard for authority of the printed word even at the age of thirteen is typified in the instance when he was reading aloud to his uncle from Dr. Arnott's work on Physics. The boy opposed the statement that there was a vis inertia, that inertia was a positive force, and would not accept this view of Arnott's even after arguments with his uncle.24 H e remained at Hinton for nearly three years up to the time he was sixteen years old. His uncle " had been in the habit of taking resident pupils, generally to prepare them for college " so that during this period Herbert had some companionship with boys of his own age, but unfortunately they were mentally inferior to him, a fact that gave him no healthy offset for his own rather assertive good-feeling for his own attainments. A t no time in his youth did he have the influence of a large group of children and never the salutary effects of association with girls. H e expressed sorrow over the loss of his little sister Louisa and wrote home, " I should be much delighted to have had a little sister to amuse when I came home." 25 During the three years Spencer was with his uncle he had little social intercourse of any sort and very little recreation. Relaxation in Thomas Spencer's home usually consisted in merely turning one's energies to something else. Herbert got into disgrace when it became known that he had been 24

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. Ii6.

25

Duncan, op. cit., p. 19.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

33

using an old musket for shooting small birds about the place and leading a young fellow employed as a groom and gardener into such idleness with him. When not studying, the boy either worked in the garden or took a walk. Occasionally he played chess of which he was very fond. He studied Euclid, Latin and Algebra. His early aversion to linguistic studies remained, but he soon became proficient in mathematics and grew very self-confident in this field, particularly in physics. He wrote to his father concerning his arithmetic, " I am principally deficient in the rudimental parts; and as it will be a great inconvenience to me if ever I become a teacher26 to be deficient in those parts I intend to practise these when I have convenient opportunities." 27 H e studied French Grammar, Greek and trigonometry. W i t h the latter he was delighted. He was proud to study Newton. He enjoyed Miss Martineau's Tales of Political Economy and kept up much interest in chemistry. Strange to say, although Herbert was frequently admonished to develop a correct, clear and forcible style of expression, little stress was laid by either father or uncle on general reading. All the while he was hearing conversations concerning the N e w Poor Laws and other political problems to which he was a close listener. A t this time began his tendency to sketch and from which he derived much pleasure and satisfaction. The drawings reproduced in his works show considerable skill as does a bust of his uncle Thomas which he modelled. All through life he kept up much interest in painting and, as seen in his writings, liked to criticize them, especially works of the old masters, and usually adversely. He commenced perspective under his father's instruction. For more than thirty years father and son kept up a close correspondence, writing intimately of 28

Italics mine.

27

Duncan, op. cit., p. 14.

34

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

intellectual ideas, interests and plans mostly of a scientific character. Indeed, his father in a few years was often hard pushed to keep up with his son's questions. Concerning his religious views his father could get no satisfactory expression. Herbert was very confident of his own judgments and was dictatorial in his tone towards others of his age although he claims that he did not try to tyrannize. Never having been in a large group of young people he had little chance to rub off the angles of his growing dominant individuality or to find suitable critical opponents of his own achievements. A t each new accomplishment he wrote home with much satisfaction. His father's salutary remark was needed: " Y o u r faults arise from too high an opinion of your own attainments." 28 The unusually close fellowship between father and son, revealed in their many years of correspondence, must have been a great factor in Spencer's development and one not to be over-looked in understanding Spencer's education. T o his mother too, although he knew she was not in accord with his ideas, he wrote often, sympathetically admonishing her and, indeed, suggesting to both parents ways for preserving their health, also advising about pecuniary matters and details of the home. Throughout their life time he always sent them letters and documents from others pertaining to himself. Thus he affectionately entered very closely with his parents into all matters concerning the family members and their mutual welfare. That he thought he got so little from Latin, French and Greek he attributed to his ingrained aversion to everything purely dogmatic, a point upon which he never failed to congratulate himself. In fact he seemed to enjoy mentioning the deficiencies in his general education and to point out the drawbacks to a university education. July 3, 1840 his 28

Duncan, op. cit., p. 17.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

35

father wrote: " I am glad you find your inventive powers are beginning to develop themselves. Indulge a grateful feeling for it. Recollect, also, the never-ending pains taken with you on that point in early life." Concerning this letter Spencer adds, " The last sentence is quoted not only in justice to my father, but also as conveying a lesson to educators. . . . Culture of the humdrum sort . . . would have left the faculty undeveloped." 29 While writing this passage in his Autobiography in 1892, Spencer adds a footnote quoting from an article of Mr. Poulteney Bigelow in The Speaker for April 1892, concerning an interview with Mr. Edison. Obtaining justification for his own course of education and his own views of it, Spencer quotes with much satisfaction: To my questions to where he [Edison] found the best young men to train as his assistants, he answered emphatically—' The college-bred ones are not worth a . I don't know why, but they don't seem able to begin at the beginning and give their whole heart to their work.' Mr. Edison did not conceal his contempt for the college training of the present day in so far as it failed to make boys practical and fit them to earn their own living.30 With this opinion [Spencer adds] may be joined two startling facts; the one that Mr. Edison, probably the most remarkable inventor who ever lived, is himself a self-trained man; and the other that Sir Benjamin Baker, the designer and constructor of the Forth Bridge, the grandest and most original bridge in the world received no regular engineering training.31 That Spencer cared so little for reading is probably partly 29

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 190.

Italics not in original.

W a s Edison's view of college-bred persons connected in any w a y with his own lack of training? In the opinion of some, Edison wasted a great deal of time and remarkable talent in fumbling by the trial and error method even in well known matters of science. A c c o r d i n g to the argument of Lester F . W a r d , such a man could have given even more to society had his great " intellect" been trained in the principles of science and invention. 30

31

Spencer, ibid.

36

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

due to his indifference to the views of others, and not to constitutional idleness, as he maintained. " A l l my life long," he writes, " I have been a thinker, and not a reader, being able to say with Hobbes that if I had read as much as other men I should have known as little." 32 H e under-estimated the influence of the periodicals that were always at hand and through which he almost daily looked, especially at the club. He had as intimate friends critics by training and intellect capable of judging well both his views and his writings. In one sense he needed less than any other man to read the great English works of the nineteenth century as their authors were always at his elbow. H e completely overlooked the influence of the Zeitgeist on his own thinking and failed to evaluate the point of view that the group makes the individual. This shows in his emphatic denial, sincere, to be sure, of his indebtedness to French thought, in particular to Comte and to Rousseau, simply because he had not read their works in any detail, if at all. Y e t Mill, George Eliot and Lewes, his close friends, were steeped in Comtean thought; his educator grandfather, father and uncles could not have escaped influences from Rousseau's philosophy of education. In his merely " glancing through ", as he so often said, he was absorbing more than he knew, and his extraordinary mental powers did more than look facts straight in the face through his own eyes with no background from other thinkers, as he claimed when he wrote Social Statics.33 W i t h the remarkable intellectual grasp, such as he possessed, and his genius for synthesis and analysis, a mere glance sufficed for him to seize at once, almost un32

Duncan, op. cit., p. 490.

Ibid., p. 418. " A l l along I have looked at things through my o w n eyes and not through the eyes of others. I believe that it is in some measure because I have gone direct to Nature, and have escaped the warping influences of traditional beliefs, that I have reached the views I have reached." Letter to Leslie Stephen, 1899. 33

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

37

consciously, the underlying principles beyond which he seemed to need nothing. Y e t no genuine admirer of Spencer can help regretting that he did not read more carefully and widely. H a d he read more he would have no doubt, written less and with more humility. He seems to have been more proficient in languages than he professed. A t any rate he acquired a Latinized style. He read several books in French even though perhaps not well. Besides his studies as a boy, a bill which he later found, shows, when he was twenty-one years old, that for a half year, he took French lessons and later for a short time. H e occasionally read French papers in a French reading room on the Strand. 34 On one occasion he was able to make himself understood as an interpreter. The fact is, he under-estimated his knowledge and ability in linguistic fields perhaps because his environment had not been such as to make him like or respect languages, and because he could see so little value in them. It pained him to think how much they had been studied to the neglect of science. W h e n Spencer was sixteen years old, he contributed in secret to the first number of The Bath Magazine an article in the form of a letter describing the formation of certain salt crystals. His pleasure was so great that he astonished his aunt and uncle by shouting and capering wildly about the room on the receipt of the magazine bearing his first word in print. In August, 1835, he went back to Derby. Altogether he had profited much by his uncle's firm hand and strict discipline. H e says: Education at Hinton was not wide in its range. No history was read, there was no culture in general literature; nor had the concrete sciences any place in our course. Poetry and fiction were left out entirely . . . one of the defects in my uncle's 34

S p e n c e r , op. cit., v o l . 1, p. 340.

3«

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

training was due to the asceticism in which he had been brought up. This prevented him from adequately recognizing the need for positive amusement.35 While a child and youth, Spencer was admonished and advised about every detail of life either by letter or word of mouth. A great deal was expected of so young a boy. His father tried to get him to write, while he was at Hinton, as to the state of his soul but this the boy was not able to do. When Spencer was between the ages of ten and thirteen, his father having tired of the Wesleyan ministers in one capacity and another, took him to Quaker meeting each Sunday morning, while in the evening he went with his mother to the Methodist chapel. 36 His father came to see that his son's apparent lack of response to religion was not due to an irreligious nature and he wrote in i860: " It appears to me that the laws of nature are to him what revealed religion is to us, and that any wilful infraction of those laws is to him as much a sin, as to us is disbelief in what is revealed." 37 He gave his fealty to principles but not to personal authority. He sympathized with his father's " repugnance to priestly rule and priestly ceremonies " and this together with the fact that he had tired as a child of much church-going and other reasons gave rise to his distaste for ordinary forms of worship. Spencer writes: T o many . . . religious worship yields a species of pleasure. T o me it never did so; unless I count as such the emotion produced by sacred music. A sense of grandeur and sweetness excited by an anthem, with organ and cathedral architecture to suggest the idea of power, was then and always has been, strong in me—as strong, probably as in most—stronger than in many.38 35

Ibid., pp. 131-132.

36

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 94.

37

Duncan, op. cit., p. 491.

38

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 171.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

39

W h e n he was a w a y f r o m home and l e f t to himself he spent S u n d a y s either reading or in country walks. N o t long a f t e r Spencer's return home f r o m Hinton, his father sent him " over to K i r k - I r e t o n to make a survey of the small property there belonging to him . . . t w o

fields

and three c o t t a g e s : a property which had been in the family f o r several generations."

39

H e k n e w nothing of surveying,

but his father concluded rightly that his geometrical knowledge would serve him. back.

T h e next day he brought the survey

A t this time he became interested in architecture and

made sketches f o r a country house.

T h e s e showed consider-

able aptitude as a draughtsman, he himself stated. T h e question w a s naturally in the minds of the whole f a m i l y as to what profession the boy would follow.

Spencer

writes: M y father had formed a high estimate of the dignity of his profession. H e held, and rightly held, that there are f e w functions higher than that of the educator. . . . It was because his ideal of education was so much higher than that commonly entertained, that my father differed from most persons so widely in the rank he assigned to the teacher's office. . . . H e saw the need for adjusting the course of instruction to the successive stages through which the mind passes . . . that carried on as it should be, the educator's function is one which calls for intellectual powers of the highest order, and perpetually taxes them to the full. . . . Thus estimating so highly his profession as one inferior to f e w in order of natural rank, my father evidently desired that I should adopt it. H e never, however, definitely expressed his desire. 40 In July 1837, when Spencer w a s sixteen years old his father suggested, as M r . Mather, under w h o m Spencer had once been a pupil f o r three years, had lost his assistant that he should take his place until a new assistant could be found. 39

Ibid., p. 134.

40

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 136-138.

SOCIOLOGY

40 This

position

he

filled

AND for

EDUCATION

three

months

with

complete

harmony and satisfaction. T h r o u g h o u t his y o u t h Spencer h a d combined w i t h m u c h optimism, in r e g a r d t o his m a n y plans, the habit o f castleb u i l d i n g a n d this habit remained w i t h h i m until late mature life.

in

Spencer says o f his c a s t l e - b u i l d i n g :

O n e of these o f t e n dwelt upon not very many years ago, was that of founding an educational institute, including higher and lower schools, in which I should be able to carry out m y own plans, alike for intellectual culture, moral discipline and physical training. T h e detailed arrangements to be made in these respective departments, often occupied my thoughts during leisure hours; and I think it not improbable, had I been put in possession of the needful means, and furnished with a sufficient staff of adequately intelligent assistants, I might have done something towards exemplifying a better system of education. 41 T h e d r e a m w a s d e f e r r e d f o r a while, h o w e v e r , since early in N o v e m b e r , 1 8 3 7 , his uncle W i l l i a m h a d obtained a post f o r h i m under a n old pupil o f G e o r g e Spencer, M r . C h a r l e s F o x , permanent resident engineer o f the L o n d o n on the L o n d o n a n d B i r m i n g h a m R a i l w a y .

division

A l r e a d y the pro-

f e s s i o n o f C i v i l E n g i n e e r h a d been n a m e d as appropriate f o r h i m and he at once took u p his duties under the impetus of

the

rapidly

increasing

railroad

construction.

For

a

y o u t h o f seventeen a b e g i n n i n g s a l a r y o f e i g h t y pounds a y e a r w i t h the prospect o f a n increase to one hundred a n d fifty

seemed attractive.

A s an engineer on several roads,

w o r k i n g in the office as secretary, d r a u g h t i n g plans, designing, leveling, c o n s t r u c t i n g bridges, directing g a n g s of w o r k men a n d so on, he remained until 1 8 4 1 .

I n 1842 he took up

e n g i n e e r i n g f o r a short time and a g a i n in 1 8 4 4

an

d 1845.

D u r i n g three a n d a half y e a r s o f e n g i n e e r i n g w o r k he s h o w e d himself t o be original, confident, fearless o f those 41

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 140.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

41

much older and more experienced than himself, argumentative and critical, but withal well liked and always respected. Captain Moorsom spoke favorably of " his domestic and gentlemanly habits " . Mrs. Moorsom seems to have been his first woman friend and he soon won her friendship through his affectionate attention to her children. He became interested in geology through reading Lyell and, in particular, the chapter in which Lyell attempted to refute Lamarck. Spencer accepted Lamarck's point of view and became profoundly influenced through this work. The specimens he found in the road-beds added to his interest in geology. H e carried on many plans for invention, studied mathematics more closely, and in spare time did some modeling. His position coming to an end, he refused a permanent appointment without inquiring what it was. " Got the sack—very glad," he wrote in his diary. He desired to change his work for several reasons, one being that his mind was filled with schemes for invention by which he hoped confidently to make money and another reason was that he might further his purpose by preparation in mathematics. His father, also of an inventive turn of mind, kept, through his correspondence, these plans for invention active to the boiling point. Being very saving, Spencer had much of his salary left and was anxious to return to Derby to carry out with his father plans for an engine utilizing electro-magnetic energy. Within a month after his return to Derby he saw that his plan for an electro-magnetic engine was a mere phantom and would have to be abandoned. F o r awhile he studied differential calculus in response to the need he felt for more knowledge of mathematics. At this time his interest had been fired by seeing a beautiful herbarium. Thereupon he proceeded to construct a pressing-frame in his father's shop and to gather material for a better one. The knowledge of

42

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

vegetal structures thus learned at first hand he found useful in later years when biology became a subject of methodical study. H e carried on his interest in architecture which had been stimulated by drawings for stations, offices, enginehouses and bridges. In his mind, too, he was revolving other problems. In April 1840, in a letter to his father from Powick, where he had been engineering under Captain Moorsom, Spencer had written, " I was thinking the other day that I should like to make public some of my ideas upon the state of the world and religion, together with a few remarks on education ".i2 He was not quite twenty years old at this time. " The few remarks which he wished to make public, referred, probably, to the scope and aim of education rather than to its machinery; but the increase in the Education Grant and the formation of the Committee of the P r i v y Council turned his attention to the relation of education to the State." 43 In 1842, when Spencer went to visit his aunt and uncle at Hinton where he had not been since he was sixteen, he practised modeling once more and modeled a bust of his uncle, a photograph of which appears in volume one of his autobiography. A t this time too, he was absorbed in writing letters to The Nonconformist a newspaper which had recently been established as an organ of the advanced Dissenters, edited by Mr. Edward Miall. Spirited conversations with his uncle led to the suggestion of contributing to the Nonconformist in the form of twelve letters. Early drifts of his later mature thought are in them revealed, among them being his view of a " self-adjusting principle " in society, that the function of government is to maintain order, " to defend the natural rights of M e n — t o protect 42

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 179.

43

Duncan, op. cit., p. 29.

Italics not in original.

MILIEU

OF

HERBERT

SPENCER

43

person and property — to prevent the aggression of the powerful upon the w e a k — i n a word to administer justice." 44 The letters were devoted to Commercial Restrictions, a National Church, W a r , Government-Colonization, National Education and Sanitary Administration. 45 " The purpose of each letter was to show that while the various Stateactivities implied are excluded by the definition of Stateduties, there are various reasons for otherwise concluding they are injurious." 46 H e stated that the business of government was to keep " everything in equilibrium ", 47 Of this period, he writes: " In 1842 while but two and twenty, the predominant interest I displayed, apart from interests bearing on civil engineering, was an interest in the politicoethical question. . . . ' W h a t are the duties of the state and what are not its duties? ' " 48 In these essays he set forth the view that " natural evils will rectify themselves by virtue o f a self-adjusting principle." 49 Spencer attributed much importance to these letters which later appeared under " The Proper Sphere of Government". " H a d they never been written, Social Statics which originated from them, would never have been thought o f . " 50 In this period Spencer actually thought of writing a to be entitled " The Angel of Truth ". He left off writing about fifty lines. " The verse-making disorder did not last long." 51 But it was followed by a plan

poem after . . . of a

4 4 Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 239. A t twenty he had defined government as " a national institution f o r preventing one man f r o m infringing upon the rights of another." Ibid., p. 225. 45

Italics not in original.

46

Spencer, ibid., p. 239.

47

Ibid., p. 241.

48

Spencer, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 321.

49

Ibid., vol. i, p. 239.

50

Ibid., p. 242.

51

Ibid., p. 260.

44

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

drama to be named " The Rebel ". This idea he finally gave up also. After trying in vain for three months in 1843 to obtain a literary engagement, once more for a short time, he took up engineering, this time for the West India Mail Steam Packet Company. Activity in the Complete Suffrage Union had led to correspondence with Mr. Joseph Sturge, president of the union. It was deemed advisable to start a more radical newspaper than then existed in Birmingham. Spencer was asked to be sub-editor under the Rev. Dr. James Wilson of this organ called The Pilot. This proved to be a short engagement and he soon broke it to survey and level on an engineering job of a few weeks which extended, however to several months. In 1845, again he entered the field of engineering for a time, " becoming general superintendent of the parties employed in getting up plans of several lines of railway." 52 The affair proved a failure for the companies and, save for a few weeks in 1847 taking " check levels " in preparation for opposing the Central Cornish Railway, his career as a civil engineer was ended. This experience during his formative years had much effect on his future thinking. He secured first-hand knowledge for his inventive faculties ; he became acquainted with the management of men, learned business technique and a fair knowledge of engineering. His powers of expression as secretary, received training, and he obtained a vast amount of practical information which he used as illustrative material in all his later work in great abundance and with remarkable facility. All his future writings were deeply influenced by his early experience as an engineer. All this time Spencer was, as usual, thinking of invention and moreover now, he was contemplating a book which should set forth his evolutionary views in political ethics. =2 Ibid., p. 334.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

45

During the early months of 1846 he commenced a course of reading in furtherance of his project. This effort resulted in Social Statics which appeared in 1850 when Spencer was thirty years old. It gave him further confidence as an author and established his reputation as a young writer. In several respects this is perhaps his most important book. It contains the germ of many of his ideas which he elaborated and refined in mature life. In fact, his later works may, in a sense, be said to be exemplifications and proofs for his own contentions formed early in life. Professor Giddings speaks of Social Statics as " The first strictly sociological treatise " and adds: " It may be at once acknowledged that the Social Statics challenges comparison to an extent that perhaps no other writing does, with both The Republic of Plato and the Politics of Aristotle ". 53 The doctrine of evolution had not yet appeared. It preceded Darwin's Origin of Species by nine years. In 1852 in his essay, " A Theory of Population " he had said that " among human beings the survival of those who are select of their generation is a cause of development ", thus coming surprisingly close to Darwin's views based on inductive studies which were published in 1859. Before Social Statics had appeared, Spencer's mind had wavered between many plans of earning a living, one of his schemes being emigration to New Zealand. " Another thought which arose was that of reverting to the ancestral profession. A dozen or more years previously, a Dr. Heldenmaier had set up, somewhere to the north of Derby . . . a school conducted on the Pestalozzian principle—a kind of English H o f w y l . " 54 Thus the suggestion came that perhaps he and his father could do something similar 53

Giddings, Studies in the Theory 1922), p. h i . 54

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 371.

of Human Society

(New York,

46

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

" to initiate an advanced form of education." The linguistics might be taught by employing masters while the Spencers would teach the sciences, mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy and so on. Spencer and his father were in accord on educational matters. Both could interest pupils; both had unusual powers of exposition. Correspondence with his Uncle Thomas was carried on concerning the location of a school somewhere at Bath or somewhere between Bath and Bristol in a place accessible to both. 55 More inquiries during a visit to Hinton gave a discouraging outlook for a school in that vicinity and the plan was given up. In 1848 Spencer wrote to his Uncle Thomas asking whether he thought there was room at Bath for a mathematical teacher but nothing favorable was found. In later years, in 1858 he made an application for a post under the Education Commission but nothing seems to have come from this plan either. 56 The years of no steady occupation were drifting by, and after more effort and suspense concerning a permanent livlihood he became, November 1848, sub-editor under James Wilson, M . P . on The Economist which had been established by the Anti-Corn L a w League as a propagandist organ. The experience at journalistic duties led finally step by step to the main work of his life. While his book was still revolving in his mind he came in contact with Mr. Thomas Hodgskin, his coadjutor, who wrote the reviews of the leading articles. W i t h him occasionally he spent an evening. Hodgskin was an anti-Benthamite Radical. Like Godwin, he believed in the natural rights of humanity, at which Bentham had scoffed. He extended to politics as well as to economics, the doctrine of laissez-faire . . . Society, Hodgskin held, was a natural phenomenon, with natural laws assigned to it by the universal spirit, a supreme moral force. . . . The function of Ibid. 16

Duncan, op. cit., p. 88.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

47

government was exceedingly negative; it extended only to the securing of a free field for the operation of natural laws. . . . The ultimate goal and Utopia of the future was thus a state of anarchy in which government had disappeared, and the sentiments of each were automatically adjusted in a spontaneous harmony with those of a l l " . . . . It would appear that it was in his early Radical environment . . . and more particularly, in his contact with Hodgskin, that Spencer found the primary and main source of the political creed which he always championed. 57 Concerning the time he w a s sub-editor f o r The

Economist

Spencer, himself s a y s : " I think I m a y say that the character of m y later career w a s mainly determined by the conceptions which were initiated, and the friendships which were formed, between the times at which my connection with ' T h e E c o n omist ' began and ended."

58

D u r i n g this period too, b e f o r e Social Statics had appeared, Spencer states that he had read " ' Coleridge's Idea of L i f e ', the substance of which w a s said to have been borrowed f r o m Schelling.

T h e doctrine of individuation struck m e : and

. . . entered as a factor into m y thinking." Statics

59

In

Social

in which he maintained that happiness is the object

of human endeavor and that " all evil results f r o m the nonadaptation of constitution to conditions " 6 0 he had included a chapter on " T h e R i g h t s of Children " as well as one on " State Education " .

T h e latter w a s republished f o r the

" Congregational B o a r d of Education " as " State Educa5 7 Barker, Political Thought in England Present Day ( N e w Y o r k ) , p. 87. 58

from

Herbert

Spencer

to the

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 491.

Ibid., p. 403. Coleridge w r o t e : " I define life as the principle of individuation, or the power which unites a given all into a whole that is presupposed by all its parts. T h e link that combines the two, and acts throughout both, will, of course, be defined by the tendency to individuation." See Shedd, The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( N e w Y o r k , 1884), vol. i, Appendix C entitled " T h e o r y of L i f e . " 59

60

Spencer, Social Statics

( N e w Y o r k , 1870), p. 73.

48

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

tion Self-Defeating ". " The interpretation of the paradox was that any intellectual improvement gained is more than counter-balanced by the moral deterioration caused by absolving parents from a part of their responsibilities." In 1853, Spencer began to think seriously of writing a book on psychology for which he had begun to read as early as 1852, but as he had several writing engagements for essays, among them being the subject of education, he could only work on the psychology intermittently. This work on psychology, which he had thought might rank with Newton's Principia, was published in 1855 after some of the essays on education had appeared. Previous to writing the essays, his uncle, Thomas Spencer, died in 1853 from the effects of over-work leaving Spencer co-executor of his estate and five hundred pounds in money. This sum being ample for present needs, Spencer resigned from the sub-editorship of The Economist in his usual optimistic way, and through George Henry Lewes and David Masson established relations with The British Quarterly Review and The North British Review. In The Nonconformist of August 2, 1853, appeared an article entitled " Mr. Hume and National E d u c a t i o n " in which " H e opposed the doctrine ' that it is the duty of the State to educate the people' ". 6 1 The previous year, while visiting at Earl Soham Lodge, he had been preparing an article for The Edinburgh Review on "Method in Education" which ultimately appeared however, in the North British Review as the " A r t of Education," the underlying idea being that " method in education must correspond with method in organization." 82 Education, he thought, should be a pleasurable process of self-instruction. " Moral Discipline of Children " was published in The British Quarterly Review 61

Duncan, op. cit., p. 40.

62

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 507.

MILIEU

OF

HERBERT

SPENCER

49

in April 1858, with the theme " that there shall habitually be experienced the natural reaction consequent on each action ", 6 3 In April 1859, i n the same journal, " Physical Education " exposed the bad results of under-feeding, underclothing and over-education. 64 The method of nature is emphasized. " W h a t Knowledge is of Most W o r t h ", perhaps his most famous essay on education, appeared July 1859, The Westminster Review. Much controversy arose through the years over the views herein set forth in which he maintained that " the teaching of classics should give place to the teaching of science." In 1861, these four essays were published together in one volume under the title, Education and is the work widely known as bearing Spencer's views on this subject. However, these essays read apart from a general knowledge of his philosophy and other remarks on education are not always comprehended in their full significance. Initial ideas of the doctrine of evolution pervade them showing the beginnings of his future evolved views of the subject. H e had become deeply impressed with the idea of development as a change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous 65 and as an advance from the indefinite to the definite. His later idea of progress is inherent in these essays as is also the idea of growing integration. " A s the course of mental development is from the simple to the complex, and from the indefinite to the definite, educational methods must be adjusted to this course of development." 66 B y 1852 the development hypothesis had become dominant in his thinking, and in the essays which followed in the next few years there was a steady growth of this idea with its 63

Ibid., vol. ii, p. 21.

64

Ibid., pp. 22-23.

F o r m , but not the idea obtained f r o m V o n Baer. op. cit., vol. ii, p. 9. 65

66

Ibid., p. 11.

See

Spencer,

SOCIOLOGY

50

AND

EDUCATION

manifold implications until a consolidated system of thought was reached and the evolutionary ideas lying apart in his mind were unified. The essays on education, with others, mark the stage in which Spencer was about to formulate the system for his Synthetic Philosophy. As he himself says, " the advance towards a complete conception of evolution was in itself a process of evolution." 67 With regard to the beginning of his interest in the mental processes, one finds that as a boy he had had his attention called to phrenology, thus illustrating once more in Spencer's life, Lester F. Ward's belief in the potency of early environmental influences. When Spencer was about ten years old, Spurzheim, a disciple of Gall, came to Derby and lectured on phrenology.68 Since faith was strong and skepticism weak at that age, even in a Herbert Spencer, the lad was deeply impressed and remained a believer for many years. In 1842, Mr. J. J . Rumball came to Derby " to give lectures and examine heads." Spencer had such an examination made and was given a full list of his characteristics. Among other qualities, Rumball stated that Spencer was possessed of much firmness, self-esteem, conscientiousness, construc67 68

Ibid., p. 13.

The major premise of the doctrine of the phrenologists is the belief that all nature is governed by law and that there is a close relationship between the physical and the psychical; its minor premise, that many mental functions have localized brain centers. Both are accepted by present science. Modern investigators have, however, rejected its conclusion that any mental trait is proportionate in strength to the size of a given identified portion of the brain organism and that this importance is indicated by external conformations/ of the skull. That it was no charlatanism in its day is indicated by the men who were prominent leaders in the movement and by its educational influence. Lavater and Spurzheim in Germany, George Combe in England, Horace Mann and Fowler in the United States, were its chief exponents. . . . As the " science of mental faculties " it was an extremely empirical and practical psychology that appealed to many men with little scientific training. Monroe, A Text-Book in the History of Education (New York, 1905, 1929). P- 597.

MILIEU

OF

HERBERT

SPENCER

51

tiveness and a moderate degree of amativeness. 6 9

T h i s ex-

perience w a s the cause of much animated discussion a m o n g his intimate friends and affected Spencer himself to the extent that he w a s always a keen observer of heads. 1844, he wrote in The Zoist

In

a brief article " O n the Situa-

tion of the O r g a n of Amativeness " and another article, " A Theory

Concerning the O r g a n

of

Wonder".

For

this

journal he wrote also on the theory of " Benevolence and Imitation."

In speaking of first meeting M i s s

Heyworth

( M r s . P o t t e r ) w h o m he admired, he wrote to his friend Lott

in

1844

about

her

independence

of

thought

feminine, g r a c e f u l , refined manners and a d d s : " T o

and the

phrenologist, however, the singularity of the character is obvious.

( H e r e f o l l o w s a profile outline of her head and a

set of i n f e r e n c e s ) . "

C o n c e r n i n g M r . P o t t e r : " T h e perfect

agreement between his head and face is remarkable: the features are Grecian and their expression is what a phrenologist would anticipate."

70

O f his intimate friend, George

Eliot, w h o m he met in 1 8 5 1 , he mentions that " the head, too, w a s larger than is usual in women, . . .

its contour

w a s very regular . . . usually heads have here and there either flat places or slight hollows but her head w a s everywhere c o n v e x . "

71

O n another occasion, on being introduced

to a beautiful woman, he could only say a f t e r w a r d s that he did not quite like her head, not mentioning her beauty at all. In later years he discarded his f o r m a l belief in phrenology, but his interest in head shapes remained, and it is likely that his interest in phrenology led him later to studies of the mental processes. Throughout

like

his

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 298. H e became a great friend of and Mrs. Potter and later of their children and grandchildren.

Mr.

09

his

life

Spencer

was

interested,

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 228 et seq.

70

" Ibid., p. 458.

52

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

father, in invention, hoping at one time in his youthful enthusiasm, as has been noted, to make a living thereby. With his father he had intended to invent an electro-magnetic engine about which he had said there was " little to lose and a great prospect of a great gain." He invented a binding pin for papers for which he received a good recompense for a time. During his mother's illness he perfected an excellent invalid's bed, but he never patented it. He thought out a plan for a cephalograph for the use of physical anthropologists in measuring skulls and heads. Needing an instrument in engineering he made a leveling appliance. A scale of equivalents he devised but did not publish. A velocimeter for calculating velocities on railways was discussed in The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal as well as a simpler method for obtaining spiral curves in the drawing of skew arches and an article on a geometric theorem. In 1840, he had a contrivance called the Dynamometer for measuring the tractive force of an engine. Later he spent a little time making drawings for an improved form of printing-press and much more attention in devising a machine to make type by compression instead of by casting. He even tried to find a capitalist for furthering this plan. 72 He constructed a watch " with a view to greater flatness " which " worked with great regularity." 73 A smoke-consuming fire-place occupied him for some time, and he devised a pair of skates made wholly of steel and iron . . . the result being to give a greater power over the edge of the skate." 74 Another one of his schemes of which he was most sanguine, was a plan of using a steel plate for the soles of boots and shoes, also a type-composing machine 73 and a 72

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 279 et seq.

73

Ibid., pp. 279 et seq.

74

Duncan, op. cit., p. 51.

73

Ibid., pp. 46 et seq.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

53

machine f o r planing wood by the substitution of a circular revolving cutting blade f o r the straight fixed cutting blade then used in such machines. Spencer proposed a new plan of stitching. He devised a duodecimal system of numeration. " A design f o r an improved goods-wagon was not registered because", he says, " I saw Charles F o x the last time I called, and he told me that my invention was not new." 76 While engineering in 1 8 3 9 he invented a cyclograph but found later it had already been invented. T h e next year he wrote, " I have got an improvement in the apparatus f o r giving and receiving mail-bags f r o m railway trains." 77 Later he simplified it but he did nothing with it. Someone else re-devised it and it later came into use. H i s most ambitious attempt was perhaps, a proposed patent f o r quasi-aerial locomotion not a ' flying machine ' properly so-called but something uniting terrestrial traction with aerial suspension. . . . Adopting the general idea of an inclined plane moving at a high velocity, and supported by the upward pressure of the air reflected from its under surface, my scheme . . . was to attach the ends of the inclined plane, by iron-wire cords, to an endless wire-rope passing over ' sheaves ' . . . such as were then used on various lines of railway and are still on some tramways . . . there should be two inclined planes meeting in the middle, as do the lateral faces of a properly made kite. Theoretically, such a structure might be drawn through the air at a velocity such that the upward pressure would support it, and support also the weight of seated passengers on its upper surface; and the questions were— whether by stationary engines, running the endless rope, such velocity could be given, and whether fit arrangements for starting and alighting could be devised.78 76

Ibid., p. 43.

77

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 169.

78

Spencer, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 346 et scq.

SOCIOLOGY

54

AND

EDUCATION

In 1846 he interested his friend, Mr. Potter, in this scheme but, after some months study, he decided the cost would be too great and later that the plan was impracticable. Among his several other inventions he thought out a scheme for facilitating a " mode of specifying varieties of tints with definiteness which would be of assistance in a r t " , and a similar plan for " a systematic manufacture of designs for textile fabrics, printed or woven as well as for paperhangings and the like." He also devised methods by which a universal language might be formed as he thought a time would come when an artificial language to be universally used would be agreed upon.79 These varied plans for invention covering many years reveal once more Spencer's marvelous fertility of mind and the fact that his thinking powers seldom were allowed to rest. It is scarcely surprising, when one views the whole circumstances of his life, that he suffered a breakdown. While fishing, he began to doubt the power of discrimination of fish for certain flies. Thereupon, to test the observational capacities of fish and the validity of the current belief of anglers, he made his own flies and found that he had the same success at fishing. Thus he had added data as to the intelligence of fish and the superstitions of fishermen, even university-bred ones. This led George Eliot to remark that Spencer even fished with a generalization. This pastime too, induced him to invent, in 1 8 7 1 , a new type of fishing-rod with an improved joint. 80 Fishing, alas! when he was only thirty-six years old in ill-health, showed him to what a pass his illness had brought his self-control. His line got into a tangle and he could not unravel it. Losing all patience, he " vented an oath ", and he says: " I had never before been betrayed into intemperate speech of such kind; thus making me more fully 79

Ibid., p. 247.

80

Spencer, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 250.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

55

a w a r e t h a n b e f o r e o f the irritability produced by m y nervous disorder."

81

I n appearance S p e n c e r was rather

distinguished-looking.

H e was inclined t o be slender, seldom w e i g h i n g m o r e than one hundred a n d fifty pounds, and was about five feet ten inches in height, lithe, g r a c e f u l and easy in c a r r i a g e .

The

quality o f his rich, deep voice, P r o f e s s o r Giddings said, was unusually pleasing.

The

brow

h e a v y and dark, the h a i r black.

was

high,

the

eye-brows

M r . Collier, one o f

his

secretaries, says o f h i m : H i s nose was aquiline and strong, the upper lip (inherited from his mother) was long and gave his face an expression at once of honesty and also of a certain common placeness that over-lay his originality. T h e passionless thin lips told of a total absence of sensuality and the light blue eyes betrayed a lack of emotional depth. . . . T h e tinge of color on the cheek bones spoke of an incorruptness of nature; . . . he paled when he was angry as formidable men are said to do. 8 2 M r s . S i d n e y W e b b in r e m e m b e r i n g h i m writes : Memory recalls a finely sculptured head, prematurely bald, long stiff upper lip and powerful chin, obstinately compressed mouth, small sparkling grey eyes, set close together, with a prominent R o m a n nose— 8 3 altogether a remarkable headpiece dominating a tall, spare, well-articulated figure, tapering off into 81 83

Ibid., vol. i, p. 570.

Collier's " Reminiscences of Herbert S p e n c e r " in Josiah Herbert Spencer ( N e w York, 1904), p. 188. 83

Royce's

Spencer objected to the too aquiline appearance of his nose in the portrait painting done by Mr. Herkomer. H e says of it, " the aquiline outline of the nose is somewhat too prominent . . . the nose is not quite the same shape when seen from the two sides. . . . The secret of it is that when a mere child my nose was cut with a carving knife by a little sister. . . . I do not like the acquiline outline. . . . If I had seen the photograph earlier I should have suggested a slight alteration." Duncan, op. cit., p. 391.

56

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

diminutive and well-formed hands and feet. Always clad in primly neat but quaintly unconventional garments, there was a dictinction, even a certain elegance, in the philosopher's manners and precise and lucid speech.84 His hands, unusually small, slender, graceful and expressive, bespoke his sensitive nature even in photographs. Spencer gives this as one example of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. The sedentary lives of his father and grandfather together with his own mode of life resulted, he thought, in small hands. H e says, " I may fitly set down these instances of modifications, mental and bodily, resulting from specialities of habit in ancestors." 85 First, he cites the unusual facility of exposition together with intellectual sympathy which he possessed with his father and grandfather; second, his great tendency to criticism ( H a l f a teacher's time is spent in criticism, he said), third, disregard of authority; and fourth, the absence of moral fear; fifth, a physical trait, the small hands previously mentioned. Spencer was never a Darwinian although he came to see that there might be two ways of inheritance, direct and indirect equilibration, as he called them. But these examples, given in the last years of his life, of the inheritance of acquired characters, show how little he evaluated the influence of early experience or conditioning, and how much he attributed to germ plasm carrying the effects of use and disuse. H e did not stop to think that in his own case it was easier than not to fall into the mannerisms of the " ancestral profession." Spencer was always calm and placid in his pleasures and never knew the vehemence and exalting enthusiasms of emotion in any part of his nature as did his younger American contemporary, Lester F . W a r d . " A great truth " seems 84

Webb, op. cit., p. 24.

85

Spencer, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 511 et seq.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

57

never to have " choked " him or even to wrinkle his brow. 86 H i s thoughts came calmly piling out, not one by one, but, as a friend remarked, in platoons. T o George Eliot, he said : I am never puzzled . . . It has never been my way to set before myself a problem and puzzle out an answer. The conclusions at which I have from time to time arrived have not been arrived at as solutions of questions raised but have been arrived at unawares—each as the ultimate outcome of a body of thoughts which slowly grew from a germ. . . . Apt as I thus was to lay hold of cardinal truths, it would happen occasionally that one, most likely brought to mind by an illustration, and gaining from the illustration fresh distinctiveness, would be contemplated by me for awhile, and its bearings observed . . . thus little by little, in unobtrusive ways, without conscious intention or appreciable effort there would grow up a coherent and organized theory . . . determined effort causes perversion of thought. 87 H i s sensitivity to beauty and his aesthetic interests were perhaps deeper and wider than is generally supposed, although at all times he was critical and reflective and never failed to see some fault. H e had a good bass voice. H e took singing lessons for a time, and part-singing was for years one of his chief pleasures. On many occasions he sang glees and madrigals and he enjoyed social singing. H e deplored the fact that it was not more fashionable. Mr. Carnegie had given him a beautiful piano, and in his closing years, Spencer engaged someone to play for him occasionally when he was not too weary. " Music was a great pleasure to him (Miss Killick writes) and his taste in the matter of composers good. . . . But in music, as in everything else, he had his own ideas how certain passages should be rendered, 86 Cape, Mrs. Emily Palmer, Lester F. Ward, A Personal Sketch (New York, 1922), " I can scarcely utter a great truth without choking with emotion." 87

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 462 ci seq.

58

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

and they were as a rule contrary to the prescribed methods." 88 W i t h George Eliot, whom he probably enjoyed not only for her femininity, domestic virtues and intellectual attainments more than any other woman, he often attended the theatre and the opera. He occasionally visited art galleries and was a keen observer of pictures, but declared that fashion again beclouded the judgment even of the great masters. " The world is always wrong in its estimate of conspicuous men," he said.89 Miss Killick who lived with him in his last days said: " H e could thoroughly enjoy a good story and his powers of relating one were splendid. I have heard him repeat a poem of considerable length—' The Northern Lights ' — g i v i n g it in the Lancashire dialect with great charm. H e enjoyed the humor of it so much that the tears streamed down his face." 00 Spencer was deeply fond of the sea and liked the singing of birds. In his last days at Brighton, unable to move farther than the garden, the birds were his chief amusement, yet for the other animals, he seems never to have shown any interest. Although always loving the country, he did not as a boy, indulge in out-of-door sports, but after his health failed he saw the necessity of them and at first, though taking them up as an aid to his health, he grew to be fond of them. That his observation of the effects of lack of suitable outdoor pleasures in himself and others, together with his profound interest in health caused him to express himself forcibly on the value of leisure and exercise is seen in his essay on " Physical Education " and in his speech to the Americans at the Delmonico dinner in New Y o r k . Lacking inhibitions in giving advice, he often admonished, though sympathetically, his family and friends 88

Duncan, op. cit., p. 505.

89

Spencer, op. cit., p. 270.

90

Duncan, ibid., p. 497.

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

59

about overwork with insufficient rest. " He disciplines himself to amusements", wrote Dr. E. L . Youmans in 1 8 7 1 . Spencer not only fished extensively, but he enjoyed walking, rowing, yachting, rackets, billiards and chess. He was active and lithe, and, until late in life, often ran up stairs two at a time. He enjoyed poetry in a way, but he felt that " an indispensable trait in fine poetry is strong emotion." 91 Much that passed for poetry, he claimed, was too weak and thin. As a young man he keenly enjoyed Shelley and bought his works for himself. " His Prometheus Unbound,", he wrote his dear friend Lott in 1845, " is the most beautiful thing I ever read by far." 92 Emerson he mentioned many times. In later life, after a visit to the Nile, and after preparing studies for the Descriptive Sociology, he grew more tolerant of history and realized that he had not duly appreciated or valued the ancient civilizations. Although never a man of means he was always a man of leisure. In spite of ill-health, with indomitable will and persistency in pursuing his life aim, he accomplished almost a superhuman task to be sure, yet his life was filled with short trips and excursions. In particular, he liked walking and fishing trips and picnics. For many years he gave annually a picnic at his own expense. He made two trips to Switzerland, one to Italy, one to Egypt, one to America and numberless short trips in the British Isles and France. In no sense was Spencer a woman-hater. He always enjoyed the society of women and complained of the absence of their society if he were away from them long. He was never happy for any period away from his friends. He did not make friends easily but once he had won them he wished them near, even if not in his immediate presence. Always, 91

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 301.

»2 Ibid., p. 308.

6o

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

when in good health, he entered with zest into amusements of the domestic circle. Early in life he noticed the bad effects of insufficient society. H e invariably grew low in spirits and in health away from his friends, and, as the years went by, he clung to friendships more and more. In fact he thought that the therapeutic value of friendship had never been sufficiently recognized. It was a deep satisfaction to Spencer to know that his feelings of affection were reciprocated. Among his several close women friends were George Eliot and Mrs. Potter and her daughters. Miss Beatrice Potter, to whom he was devoted even from her infancy, he wished to have present at his death bed. Indeed he chose her to write his biography after his death and to be his literary executor. This plan he changed with deep regret when she married the Fabian Socialist, Mr. Sidney Webb. H e did not wish his name to be associated with socialism, fearing some misinterpretation might arise. His intimate friend, Mr. Lott, liked in particular, Spencer's " open sincerity " and thought it was one reason why women liked him. 93 As Duncan writes, it would seem that Spencer was far from being all intellect and no feeling. Not until he was a young engineer away from home did he have any opportunity for expressing his fondness for children. At Powick he became a great favorite with Captain Moorsom's children. He mentioned in a letter to his father the delight of the Potter children over a swing and a vivarium he had made for them. 94 "I take some little time", he said, "in establishing relations with children; because in the treatment of them, I ever feel inclined to respect their individualities." 95 H e entertained definite ideas concerning all stages of their development and expressed these ideas freely to his 93

Duncan, op. cit., p. 55.

94

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 563.

95

Ibid., p. 583-

MILIEU

OF HERBERT

SPENCER

61

friends who had children and in his essays on education as well as in various parts of his other works. Mrs. Beatrice Potter W e b b says, " T o the children of the household the philosopher always appeared in the guise of a liberator." The attempts the great philosopher made to put his ideas into practice in the home where he visited sometimes led to ludicrous situations. Lady Courtney, one of the nine daughters of his devoted friends, the Potters, tells of his advice when she was a child concerning the governess and the disconcerting experiences he had when f o r a few times he took charge of the Potter bevy of girls. 9 6 On one such occasion when he took the children walking his hat was taken away f r o m him. Beatrice Potter Webb writes, the philosopher found himself presently in a neighboring beechwood pinned down in leaf-filled hollow by little demons, all legs, arms, grins and dancing dark eyes, whilst the elder and more discreet tormentors pelted him with decaying beech leaves. ' Your children are r-r-rude children ' exclaimed the Man versus the State as he stalked into my mother's boudoir. But for the most part he and we were firm friends; we agreed with his denunciation of the 'current curriculum,' history, foreign languages, music and drawing, and his preference for ' science ' a term which meant, in practice, scouring the countryside in his company for fossils, flowers and water-beasties which, alive, mutiliated or dead found their way into hastily improvised aquariums, cabinets and scrap books—all alike discarded when his visit was over.97 Spencer says while in homes with children that " the family afforded facilities f o r observations and experiments which a f t e r w a r d s proved useful when treating of education." Nothing about them escaped his observing eye and all that he saw served to illustrate or confirm his theories. Indeed, he 96

Duncan, op. cit., p. 509.

97

Beatrice Webb, My Apprenticeship

( N e w York, 1926), pp. 25 et seq.

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grew steadily fonder of children as the years went by and, craving their companionship, he induced his friends on several occasions to lend him " a pair of children" for weeks at a time. H e was, in particular, fond of little girls and said he was sure that he would be partial to them had he a family of his own. Lady Courtney says of him: " In spite of his great intellect, Mr. Spencer always seemed to me to have a strong element of the feminine in his character: an element which manifested itself in the weaknesses, as well as in the attractive qualities, of his personality." 98 It is quite certain that Spencer was never in love and in spite of all his rationalizing about the subject, this is undoubtedly the real reason he never married. Consequently, he could always see the drawbacks of marriage for a man of small means. H e disliked what he called masculine women as well as women with small mentality. Y e t could he have found and won a domestic mate fairly intellectual with sufficient beauty and good health (and the right head shape) his health would in many ways unquestionably have been better. H a d he had someone else's circulation, someone else's temperature and peculiar head sensations to ponder over, someone else to prescribe for, he would have had less time for his own too intimate analysis of himself. A few night's walks with teething babies would certainly have claimed his immediate attention. The loneliness which he fought with the oncoming years, and the accumulating peculiarities of bachelorhood would not have been such foes to his peace of mind. He had, it is true, many years when his finances were low. In fact, once as a young man of twenty-three in the lean years when he was wooing illusive literature and was away from home, he had to send home for money, and he wrote to his father that his wardrobe was so shabby that he had been unable to appear outside on Sun98

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 583.

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63

days." But on every occasion in his life when financial crisis was just around the corner something favorable always happened. On one such occasion a small legacy came from his Uncle Thomas, then from Uncle William a more substantial sum, and finally one from his father. His staunch American friend, Dr. E. L. Youmans, stood by him in arousing interest in America in his writings. Unknown persons 100 offered him assistance and more could have been had if Spencer had accepted it and actually needed it. Seven thousand dollars from this side were invested in his name in American securities. 101 He was a very difficult man to assist and often brought embarrassment to his friends in their plans for him. His friend, John Stuart Mill, offered assistance but his plans brightening, Spencer declined. He would undoubtedly have been able to have a family had his desire been great enough. He was fearful lest he might become a drudge if he married. The peculiar malady from which he suffered for many years has never been thoroughly understood. Professor Royce thinks that eye-strain played a prominent part in his trouble. Even as a young man in satisfactory physical condition his state of health occupied his mind more than is usual. In his thirties, he suffered a nervous breakdown from which he never fully recovered. For eighteen months he tried in his misery one cure after another. " By far the best exercise ", he writes, " I have found yet is grubbing up 99

Duncan, op. cit., p. 44.

100

Spencer, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 440. In 1882, Spencer writes: " I received from America, from a naturalized German named Hegeler, one of the firm of Mattheson and Hegeler, Zinc Manufacturers, of L a Salle, Illinois, a long letter including a bill of exchange for two hundred and odd pounds. . . . H e seems, by his account of himself, to have been active in the endeavor to propagate advanced ideas." Spencer returned this gift. M r . Edwin W . Bryant of St. Louis offered five hundred pounds to further Spencer's work. See Duncan, op. cit., p. 174. 101

Spencer, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 600.

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tree-stumps and splitting them into pieces f o r burning.

It

is not simply exhausting exercise, but it is interesting, and fully occupies the attention ", 1 0 2 . T h e trouble m a y have been brought on by over-exertion in Switzerland, together w i t h the many months w h e n he w a s thinking all the time in his lonely quarters whether at his desk or on walks.

H e never

was free f r o m his thoughts which he later put into writing. H e claimed his breakdown was not due to overwork. Still his mind was ceaselessly active under a calm exterior. A l t h o u g h he indulged in some exercise, yet there were v e r y f e w occasions when his mind w a s not actively w o r k i n g .

H a v i n g no

brothers or sisters and no near y o u n g relatives, not

fre-

quenting the society of women, and indulging in no f r i v o lities as a y o u n g man, his life w a s too ascetic f o r the needs of his emotional l i f e and the activity of his mind. M r s . Potter and others, a m o n g them C o m t e and H u x l e y , urged marriage and the exercise of the emotions, particularly the religious emotions.

T o M r s . Potter in 1856 he w r o t e :

Y o u are doubtless perfectly right in attributing my present state to an exclusively intellectual l i f e : and in prescribing exercise of the affections as the best remedy. No one is more thoroughly convinced than I am, that bachelorhood is an unnatural and very injurious state. E v e r since I was a boy (when I was unfortunate in having no brothers or sisters) I have been longing to have my affections called out. I have been in the habit of considering myself but half alive; and have often said that I hoped to begin to live some day." 103 . . . [ T o Mr. Potter] " I labor under the double difficulty that my choice is limited and that I am not easy to please. Moral and intellectual beauties do not by themselves suffice to attract m e ; and owing to the stupidity of our educational system.10* it is rare to find them united to a good physique. . . . If I married I should soon have to kill myself to get a living. 102

Duncan, op. cit., p. 80.

103

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 560.

104

Italics not in original.

Ibid., p. 559.

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S o lukewarm was he really on this subject that it did not dawn on him that his affections might by chance fall on one with some means of her own or the possibility that better health might ensue, thereby enabling him to work longer hours. H e thought that his bad head sensations and sleeplessness might be due to lack of circulation to the head and had to resort to wet packs to induce circulation and sleep. F o r the greater part of his life his sleep was much broken. He would play rackets for half an hour, then dictate to his secretary. Sometimes he took his writing out-of-doors and would row from time to time, hoping for beneficial effects. Y e t in spite of the great discomfort and necessary withdrawal from social excitements, he suffered little pain, and his industry and persistence in writing continued almost down to the period of his death even though he could write or dictate but a few minutes at a time. Reading at length, always distasteful to him (except for the daily papers and journals), became in his old age a painful process. In later years conversation tired him and when he could not easily withdraw from a group he used ear-stoppers to keep out the sound of the voices. 105 Y e t Spencer carried his years well and always seemed several years younger than he was. A t the age of eighty-one his portrait shows an amazing alertness of eye and keeness of sensibilities. In his last years his loneliness increased, and he appears not to have been happy, but it must be remembered that he lived to the age of eighty-three. " O f literary distinction," he said, " as of so many other things which men pursue, it may be truly said, that the game is not worth the candle . . . the satisfaction which final recognition gives proves to be relatively trivial." 108 Toward the end, he said to Mrs. 105

Ibid., vol. ii, p. 529.

106

Beatrice Webb, op. cit., pp. 29 et seq.

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Webb, " I f pessimism means that you would rather not have lived, then I am a pessimist." Y e t even on that day and again he talked of the future of society. In her diary Mrs. Webb had written at that time: There is a look of sad resignation on Herbert Spencer's face as if he fully realized his position and waited patiently for the end, to him absolutely final. T o me there is a comic pathos in his elaborate search after pleasurable ' sensations' as if sensation can ever take the place of emotion; and alas! in his consciousness there hardly exists an ' exciting cause' for emotional feeling. And yet there is a capacity for deep feeling, a capacity which has lain dormant and is now covered up with crotchety ideas presenting a hedgehog's coat to the outer world, a surface hardly inviting contact! 107 Mrs. Webb thinks he possessed not a " ray of humility ". She believed that his last twenty years were poisoned by morphia and self-absorption and that his irritation and superficial egotisms were brought about by poisonous foods and drugs. Y e t she adds, " there remained the singlehearted persistent seeker after truth . . . the implicit assumption that he must live for the future of the human race, not for his own comfort, pleasure or success." 108 A s is well-known, Spencer was always of a very critical turn of mind and he found it almost impossible not to express his views. H e felt it almost a duty to do so when he saw that others were misinformed. Yet, in spite of this trait and an absence of tact, and his " lack of quick perception of the motives and actions of others " of which he complained, he was well liked. H e was always sincere. His optimism through many years was very great notwithIbid., p. 36. Mrs. Webb states: " There is indeed no limit to what I owe to my thirty or forty years intimacy with this unique l i f e ; unique as I came to see no less as a warning than as a model." 108

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67

standing many set-backs. H e was exceedingly self-confident as has been seen, and he was always seeing, in his opinion, chances for improvement in conformity with his theoretical views, whether the subject at hand was the conduct of governesses, the shapes and uses of salt cellars, milk-pitchers, the planning of menus or the painting of pictures. A s a member of the Athenaeum Club he carried on an active part in its administration. Scarcely ever missing a meeting, he gave individual attention to its management whether of domestic arrangements or elective duties. " H e had an extraordinary acquaintance with facts of practical value, and loved to discuss the art of tea-making and kitchen administration on philosophical principles." 109 Mr. Francis Galton was one of three of a committee with him when the dining-room management of the club was bad and there was much discontent. Spencer was chairman. Galton writes: A more comically ineffective committee than ours I never sat upon. Spencer insisted in treating the pettiest questions as matters of serious import, whose principles had to be fully argued and understood before action should be taken. . . . Many funny scenes took place, one was with the butcher who had supplied tough meat. Spencer enlarged to us on the subject of toughness in the same elaborate and imposing language with which his writings abound, and when the butcher appeared he severely charged him with supplying meat that contained an undue proportion of connective tissue. The butcher was wholly non-plussed, being unable to understand the charge and conscious, as I suspect, of some secret misdoing to which the accusation might refer. 110 Lady Courtney s a y s : 1 1 1 109

Duncan, op. cit., p. 495.

110

Duncan, op. cit., p. 509.

111

Lady Courtney was, before her marriage, Miss Kate Potter.

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Mr. Spencer certainly had a keener desire than most men to get other people to adopt and carry out his views, even on quite trifling subjects: such as how to light a fire, or revive it when it was low, the hanging of pictures, the colours in a carpet or the flowers on a dinner table, the proper shape of an inkstand, and a thousand other matters; and he allowed what he thought our unreasonable way of doing these things, even when they had nothing to do with himself, to unduly disturb his peace.112 The following The Principles of tional powers and living, over what to attractiveness.

passage found in the second volume of Ethics 113 reveals Spencer's close observahis irritation, even in small details of daily he called the subordination of usefulness

For these many years I have wished to write an essay on Aesthetic Vices and have accumulated illustrations of the way in which life is vitiated by making attractiveness of appearance a primary end, instead of a secondary end to be thought of only in subordination to usefulness. Here are a few out of multitudinous illustrations of the ways in which comfort and health are alike perpetually trenched on to achieve some real or fancied beauty in a thing which should make no pretentions to beauty. You take up a poker to break a lump of coal, and find that the ornamented brass handle, screwed on to the steel shaft, is loose, making the poker rickety; and you further find that the filagree work of this brass handle hurts your hand if you give the lump a blow. Observing that the fire is low you turn to the coalscuttle, and perceiving it to be empty, ring for more coal; and then, because the elegant coal-scuttle, decorated perhaps with a photograph surrounded by elaborate gilding, may not be damaged in the cellar, you are obliged to hear the noise of pouring in coal from a black scuttle outside the door, accompanied by the making of dust and probably the scattering of bits; all of 112

Duncan, op. cit., p. 510.

113

Pp. 403-404-

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which you are expected to be content with for the sake of the photograph and the gilding. Then, when you sit down, after having put the fire in order, some discomfort at the back of your head draws your attention to a modern antimacassar, made of string which is hardened by starch: the beauty of its pattern being supposed to serve you as a compensation for the irritation of your scalp. So is it with a meal. At breakfast you are served with toast made from bread of an undesirable quality, but which has the advantage that its slices can be cut into triangles, much admired for their neatness. I f you take a poached egg you discover that, for the sake of looking pretty, it has been cooked in shallow water; with the effect that while the displayed yolk in the centre is only half done, the surrounding white is over-done and reduced to a leathery consistence. Should the meal be a more elaborate one you meet with more numerous illustrations. T o name the sweets only, you observe that here is a tart of which the crust is bad, because the time that should have been devoted to making it has been devoted to making the filagree work decorating its outside; and here is another of which the paste, covered with a sugared glaze, has been made close and indigestible by the consequent keeping in of the steam. At one end of the table is a jelly which, that it may keep the shape of the elegant mould it was cast in (which the proper material often fails to do) is artificially stiffened; so that if you are unwise enough to take a mouthful, it suggests the idea of soluble India-rubber. And then at the other end, you see the passion for appearance carried to the extent that to make a shaped cream attractive, it is colored with the crimson juice of a creature which, when alive, looks like a corpulent bug. Such is the experience all through the day, from the first thing in the morning, when while standing dripping wet, you have to separate the pretty fringes of the bath-towel which are entangled with one another, to the last thing at night, when the boot-jack, which, not being an ornamental object is put out of sight, has to be sought for. Spencer was skeptical regarding the value o f

trained

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AND

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nurses and even in old age rebelled at putting himself in the hands of another. H e had to know all the reasons for various treatments and the properties and effects of medicines and if their use did not conform with his theories he ignored them. 114 Yet despite his peculiarities and whimsies he was considered a model club man. He invariably showed delicacy and good-feeling . . . in his manners and bearing he showed plenty of that tactful good nature in which he thought himself deficient . . . he was always punctilious in adhering to the small unwritten laws upon which so much of the comfort of club life depends. . . . Perhaps it was a certain brusquerie of manner and speech, joined with his emotional coldness that prevented people, on first acquaintance, feeling quite at ease in his presence.115 H e was always sympathetic to his friends and relatives and members of his household and increasingly generous as his means increased. At all periods of his life he was quick to respond to the needs of others. Miss Killick writes: When he was living in the country for a few months, a young woman had been engaged to assist in his household, and, observing her pallor and general lassitude, he gave her strengthening medicine, which, however, proved of small assistance, and she had to discontinue work and return to her home. Mr. Spencer himself drove over one afternoon to see her, and gave her a donation; and on hearing that her bedroom was practically unfurnished sent furniture for it anonymously.116 H e was exceedingly methodical in his personal habits as well as in his thinking. H e could not easily adapt himself to the ways or views of other people and was fidgety and irritable when things were not done as he thought they 114

Duncan, op. cit., p. 469.

115

Duncan, op. cit., p. 499.

116

Ibid., p. 500.

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71

should be. Yet, although he was not easy to get on with, his general likeableness and unimpeachable integrity made people overlook his foibles. He lived with the same hostess at Queen's Gardens for about twenty-five years. 1 1 7 His meticulousness and confidence in his own views were not only due to his family heritage but in no small measure to his individual education, and to the fact that he was, in a sense, an only child, and to his bachelor existence. Circumstances which usually rub down the angles of one's personality such as life in a large school or university or in a large domestic circle were never his. Spencer's life covered practically the period of Queen Victoria. She was born in 1 8 1 9 , he in 1820. Her death occurred in 1901 and his in 1903. The events of this great period of change in nearly every line of human endeavor were thus common to both. He was, circumstances show, extremely well-favored by his intellectual environment. He was seldom out of an educated circle. Achieving notice fairly early in life he became not only an acquaintance of nearly all the great minds of England of the nineteenth century, but an intimate friend of many. Among his close friends of greatest distinction were George H. Lewes, George Eliot, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Huxley, David Masson, Henry Thomas Buckle, John Tyndall, Alexander Bain, Sir J . D. Hooker, Dr. E . L. Youmans, Grant Allen, Sir John Lubbock and Mrs. Sidney Webb. Many other prominant figures of his time he knew and occasionally met. He was much gratified when in 1868 at the age of fortyeight he was elected to the Athenaeum Club which for years afforded him much pleasure. He was one of those who formed the famous " X " Club, an association of nine made up of himself, Huxley, Tyndall, Hooker, Lubbock, Frankland, Busk, Hirst, and Mr. W . Spottiswoode. Even Carlyle 117

Ibid., p. 507.

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SOCIOLOGY AND

he had visited several congenial as Spencer dogmas in silence . . him " which ended in

EDUCATION

times with Lewes, but they were not either had to " listen to his absurd . or get into fierce argument with their glaring at each other. 1 1 8

Spencer had an extraordinary scent for an important fact or principle besides possessing a wealth o f illustrative material drawn f r o m experience. A s has been noted, it must be emphasized that he picked up f a r more than he ever realized both f r o m discussion and f r o m contact all his life with scientific and philosophical magazines which he found at home, in the homes of his friends or at the clubs and libraries. B u t it is to be emphasized too, that his main ideas were formulated early in life and that he changed them very little through the years. Mostly he elaborated them or found new evidence for their justification. H e was very sensitive as to the originality o f his ideas and did not take criticism well. H e usually stated, if he replied at all, that he had been " misrepresented " or " misunderstood " . Mrs. W e b b writes: But the sharpest imprint on my youthful mind was the transformation scene from the placid beneficence of an unwrinkled brow, an aspect habitual towards children and all weak things, to an attitude of tremulous exasperation, angry eyes and voice almost shrewish in its shrillness—when he ' opined' that his or any one else's personal rights were being infringed. 119 H e had no interest in any writings with which he was not in sympathy and would not finish them once he discerned that he did not agree. Royce says that his ear-stoppers typify his attitude toward the work of others differing f r o m him. M r . Francis Galton, who often met him at the Atheneum Club, writes o f S p e n c e r : Mr. Herbert Spencer's magnificent intellect was governed by Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 440. 119 Webb, op. cit., p. 25. 118

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a very peculiar character. It was full of whimsies that unduly affected the opinion of those who did not appreciate its depth and purpose. His disposition was acknowledged by himself to be contentious; I would venture to consider it also as being sometimes a little perverse. . . . He loved to dogmatise from a priori axioms, and to criticize, and I soon found that the best way to get the best from him was to be patient and not to oppose. He was very thin-skinned under criticism, and shrank from argument; it excited him overmuch, and was really bad for his health. His common practice when pressed in a difficult position was to finger his pulse, and saying, ' I must not talk any more,' to abruptly leave the discussion unfinished. Of course wicked people put a more wicked interpretation on this habit than it should in fairness bear. Anyhow, when Spencer forsook the Club, as he did some years ago to seek greater quiet elsewhere, I was conscious of a void which has never since been filled.120 In spite of Spencer's aversion to criticism and argument he was absolutely faithful to his convictions and his allegiance to truth as he saw it never faltered. Purely impersonal attacks on his theories seldom disturbed him. His autobiography shows that he frequently enjoyed a joke at his expense. In 1858, when Spencer was thirty-eight years old, he drew up a rough plan for a System of Philosophy and, in i860, when his own ideas had undergone considerable evolution, he began his life task, stupendous and comprehensive enough to stagger one in the best of health. The aim underlying his great plan from the beginning of his literary career and from which he never swerved, had been to lay the foundations for scientific ethics. Already the Principles of Psychology had appeared, and a number of essays, and his first book, Social Statics. H e calculated that he should finish the undertaking by the time he was sixty years old even though he could count on no more than three hours 120 Duncan, op. cit., p. 501.

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daily work. The volumes on the principles of inorganic evolution had to be omitted for lack of time. T h e Principles of Biology, he completed in 1867 and The Study of Sociology, perhaps his most popular book in some respects aside from Education, especially in America, was published in 1873. Fearing that he might not live to complete his aim, he paused in the work on The Principles of Sociology to write The Principles of Ethics which appeared in 1893. He finished the work on Sociology in 1896, completing the Synthetic Philosophy at the age of seventy-six. Thus after thirty-eight years of persistent effort, the goal he had set himself in 1858, had been reached. 121 The vast work entitled Descriptive Society had given him much worry and trouble but he had practically completed it in 1881. T h e Autobiography had been ready in 1889 but four years later he added a chapter entitled " Reflections ". A s he had intended, it did not appear until after his death. Even to the last the great intellect burned with ideas. In 1902 appeared his last book, Facts and Comments. In this year were published four articles, one being " The Education Bill " in The Derby News of April 8. A l w a y s hating war, both on principle and from feeling and contending as he did, that it marked a lower stage of civilization, at the close of life he was much concerned over the Boer W a r . His secretary, Mr. David Duncan, says: " Probably no political event in the whole course of his life moved him so profoundly." 122 1 2 1 Mr. Troughton, his secretary, says of this occasion, " Rising slowly from bis seat . . . his face beaming with joy, he extended his hand across the table, and we shook hands on the auspicious event. ' I have finished the task I have lived for,' was all he said, and then he resumed his seat. The elation was only momentary and his features quickly resumed their customary composure." Duncan, op. cit., p. 380.

Professor W . B. Pillsbury in History of Psychology ( N e w York, 1929), p. 190 says of the Synthetic Philosophy: " T h e entire ten volumes . . . . constitutes one of the most complete coordinated systems of philosophy in existence, although opinions vary as to its permanent value." 122

Duncan, op. cit., p. 449.

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Even at late as October, 1902, Spencer wrote to General Louis Botha expressing his annoyance at the manner in which the Boer Relief Fund had been handled. One of his latest interests, as had been one of his earliest, was that of education, and in 1904 as a periodical entitled School was to be established, he wrote to Mr. Laurie Magnus, October 12, 1903: " A periodical which is to adopt the conception of education I have so long entertained, and which is everywhere implied in my writings at large, cannot fail to have my hearty good wishes." 123 In this letter he once more mentioned that it was not the function of the State to mould children into good citizens and he added that if this idea were not omitted from the scheme he would be unable to endorse it. It has been seen that Spencer conceived his idea of evolution several years before Darwin's work on The Origin of Species appeared. He applied it not only to the organic world but to the inorganic and also to what he called the superorganic—in a word to the whole cosmos. A t the height of his fame he was thought by many to be the greatest thinker of his age if not of all time. A t his death in his own home at Brighton, December 8, 1903, his prestige had begun to diminish as the political and scientific drift was in other directions from his own views. This fact saddened him. Nevertheless, Herbert Spencer marks an epoch, and, regardless of his educational limitations or of his future rank as a philosopher, the quality of his mental powers has never been decried. Indeed, the grandeur of Spencer's conceptions, his amazing grasp of causality, his surpassing ability in synthesis as well as in analysis, his loftiness of moral character, and his undying devotion to his life's ideal will always be remembered with profound admiration. Save Aristotle, perhaps no other thinker in as many diverse channels has so challenged the mind of man. 123

Ibid., p. 474.

CHAPTER

II

S P E N C E R ' S T H E O R I E S OF E D U C A T I O N

BEFORE presenting Spencer's educational theories in detail it may be clarifying first to state, in general, his chief tenets of education. They appear to be: 1. Since the law of evolution is universal, it applies to the development of mind as elsewhere. It proceeds from a vague homogeneous sentiency to the differentiated mentality of mature man. The mind is a growth in the individual and in the race. It is not a manufacture, hence education should proceed according to the law of evolution in the order in which it has been operative in all organic life, from the indefinite to the definite, from the simple to the complex. 2. Since knowledge is an integration of relevant ideas, the laws of association must be regarded. 3. Since social improvement can come about only as the characters of men improve, through the slow process of general evolution, education is not a dynamic factor in progress or in social amelioration. 4. Since the aim of education is preparation for life, the curriculum must be organized to provide for this aim. 5. Since knowledge of the sciences is of most worth in preparing for the activities of life, and equally good as the classics for the training of the memory and for discipline, and better, for religio-moral training, the sciences should have first place in the development of the individual and in the curriculum. 6. Since the moral faculties, like the other faculties, grow only by exercise, moral discipline can only be taught by having children habitually experience the true consequences 76

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77

of their conduct, and by their perceiving the inevitable relation between cause and effect. 7. Since the proximate end of individual and of social life is happiness, and since all evil and unhappiness arise from mal-adaptation, the teacher should train the child in accordance with the order of biological, psychological and social evolution that he may adapt his conduct to the inexorable laws of existence. 8. Since Nature and her laws are the best judges of the welfare of the individual, interest and pleasure should accompany all forms of education. Parents should observe Nature's promptings and respect them in regard to the selection of food, clothing, physical exercise as well as in mental work. 9. Since the intellectual faculties grow through experience and exercise, instruction by self-help should be followed as much as possible, and primarily from things and only secondarily from books and from the authority of the instructor. The proceeding should be from the concrete to the abstract in accordance with the development of the mental processes. 10. Since man is primarily an animal, and since there is a direct relation between the health of the mind and the body, physical training in the form of all sorts of out-of-door games and sports should be stressed, and as much in the education of girls as of boys. Formal gymnastics, since they lack the spontaneous pleasure element and tend to overdevelopment of certain organs to the under-development of others, are not satisfactory substitutes for games or play. 1 1 . Since the desire for play is of biological origin, having its genesis in surplus energy, and is indulged in for pleasure and for the satisfaction of the egoistic feelings which find for the moment no other sphere, it should not be suppressed.

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12. Since genesis of knowledge in the individual must follow the same course as the genesis of knowledge in the race, education should be a repetition of civilization in little. 13. Since society is by analogy an organism, the state (meaning the government)

being an organ, has but one

function, that of administering justice, and therefore should not provide or control education.

T h e law of equal free-

dom holds in education as in every other phase of

life.

Hence national education is precluded. 14. Since education is not the function of the state but of parents, it depends upon the strength of the parental instincts, and the laws of supply and demand. It will be the purpose of this chapter to show Spencer's application of these principles in more specific detail. T h e four essays well known to the educational world in the volume entitled Education/ were first published in periodicals, and appeared between M a y , 1854 and July, 1859. B y the time the last essay was published, " W h a t K n o w l e d g e is of M o s t W o r t h " , Spencer was thirty-nine years old and had become fairly well known to the public as a writer on political and scientific subjects. H e had published t w o books, Social Statics, in 1850, and Principles of Psychology, in 1855. A b o u t f i f t y - t w o articles had appeared, not mentioning the twelve letters on " T h e Proper Sphere of Government," which were first published in The Nonconformist and later were embodied in Social Statics. A m o n g these articles are f o u n d : M r . H u m e and National Education U s e and Beauty T h e Development Hypothesis A T h e o r y of Population T h e Philosophy of Style 1

First published in America in 1861.

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF EDUCATION

79

Over-Legislation The Universal Postulate Manners and Customs Progress: Its L a w and Cause Representative Government The L a w of Organic Form The Morals of Trade Spencer had collected a number of these essays and had published them in 1857 under the title: Essays: Scientific, Political and Speculative, First Series. A s has been seen in the preceding biographical chapter, Spencer had become in boyhood possessed by the idea of causation with no consideration for the view of the supernatural as an interpretive factor. Gradually, he had given up the early religious teachings of his youth. A s the development hypothesis was in the air, this theory, together with his own bent of mind and experience, led him insensibly to accept in full the naturalism of science and a belief that all existing things have evolved. He says, " The first pronounced convictions on these matters were . . . due to the reading of Lyell's Principles of Geology when I was twenty: his arguments against Lamarck producing in me a partial acceptance of Lamarck's views." 2 Thus with the development hypothesis he had accepted the theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. In Social Statics he had revealed a belief that the phenomena of both individual life and social life conform to law, as well as a conviction in the progressive adaptation of constitution to conditions. In the chapter on " The Divine I d e a , " 3 although theism is implied, naturalism is the 2

Spencer, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 7.

Derived f r o m a cursory reading about 1849 of Coleridge's " Idea of L i f e , " " the substance of which he was said to have borrowed f r o m Schelling. ' T h e doctrine of individuation struck m e ; ' says Spencer, ' and, as was presently shown, entered as a factor into my t h i n k i n g . ' " Ibid., vol. i, p. 403. See Barker, op. cit., pp. 88 et seq. 3

8o

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

dominant note. Everything in inanimate and animate life was explained by the unvarying course of causation. " The Divine Idea," he later replaced by the idea of force. Continuous adaptation is shown in all organisms and in the mental faculties as well as of the bodily. " The ideal moral state was identified with complete adjustment of constitution to conditions." His concept of the social organism had appeared. Spencer's future conception of progress was here fore-shadowed and, soon after the appearance of Social Statics, he openly avowed his idea of progress in the essay, " The Development Hypothesis ". In " A Theory of Population" he evolved his theory of individuation and genesis. In 1851, when reviewing Carpenter's Principles of Physiology he was struck with V o n Baer's statement that the development of every organism is a change from homogeneity to heterogeneity. This principle he extended further than V o n Baer, and applied it not only to the law of evolution of each individual organism but to certain phenomena of the super-organic class. This enlarged view he set forth in the close of the essay on " The Philosophy of Style " in 1852. In the essay on " Manners and Fashion," April 1854, he had stressed the idea of the advance from lower to higher as characterized by increasing multiformity. In " The Universal Postulate ", October 1853, he expressed a " belief that fundamental intuitions of which the negatives are inconceivable, are products of organized and inherited effects of experience," thus fore-shadowing an evolutionary psychology. Further elaborations of the same ideas appeared in " The Genesis of Science " and " The A r t of Education ", 4 From writing the former arose the thought of writing the Principles of Psychology which should trace " the genesis of mind in all its forms, sub-human and human as produced 4

Spencer's essay on "Intellectual E d u c a t i o n " in edition of 1861.

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF

EDUCATION

8l

by the organized and inherited effects of mental action " . . . . Progressive adaptation became increasing adjustment of inner subjective relations to outer objective relations—increasing correspondence between the two ". 5 Soon he was led by his thinking to perceive that the law of progress is everywhere one and the same and that it was inherent in the inorganic, organic and superoganic world. H e rapidly arrived at the idea that the ever present changes from the simple to the complex and increasing heterogeneity were due to the multiplications of effects. The question of causes and effects now reduced itself to the problem of molar and molecular forces and energies, of " the never ending redistribution of matter and motion." Finally, since the scientific world of his time was becoming more and more absorbed with the doctrine of the " Conservation of Force " , he saw that all his hitherto somewhat scattered ideas could be unified. " The instability of the homogeneous and the multiplication of effects must be those ultimate laws of force similarly traced throughout all order of existence ". Not until Spencer had practically reached his full mental development and had projected the plan of his Synthetic Philosophy did he learn of the contents of the papers of Darwin and Wallace on the Origin of Species. These papers gave him satisfaction, he said, furnishing in his opinion, as they did, more or less corroboration and justification of his own belief in the theory of organic evolution. The law of natural selection as revealed by Darwin and Wallace he subsumed under his theory of indirect equilibration. 6 Spencer, 5

Spencer, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 12.

" U p to the time at which the papers of M r . D a r w i n and M r . W a l l a c e . . . . had become known to me, I held that the sole cause of organic evolution is the inheritance of functionally-produced modifications. T h e Origin of Species made it clear to me that I w a s w r o n g ; and that the larger part of the facts cannot be due to any such cause." Autobiography, vol. ii, p. 57. Spencer never felt that natural selection was adequate as an explanation of all inheritance. 6

82

SOCIOLOGY

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EDUCATION

himself, had very nearly reached the same idea in 1852 in his essay " A Theory of Population." Thus at the time Spencer had published the last of the four essays in 1859 which made up the published volume entitled Education of 1861 he was at the very apex of his intellectual powers. In 1858, he had unified in his mind, and had briefly sketched the entire plan for his future life's work. These essays on education had marked a culminating state in his own mental evolution. They were written, to be sure, in the early part of his career, yet not before the main ideas of his life had been formulated. Although Spencer's reputation as the most outstanding writer on education in England in the nineteenth century rests largely on these four essays labeled as education, it would be a great mistake to suppose that he had nothing further to say on the matter. Surrounded as he had been by a family of educators of two generations, it was natural that education should be a subject of great import to him. Consequently, an examination of Spencer's entire works will show that he wrote and thought a great deal on this subject. Perhaps the most living portion of his system is found in those parts which deal directly or indirectly with education and the teaching profession. In studying Spencer's works his fully-developed definition of evolution should be kept in mind. It is, he said, " an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes from a relatively, indefinite incoherent homogeneity to a relatively definite coherent heterogeneity; and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation." Since increasing integration is the key to his system, we shall find that in psychology the increasing complexity of the nervous system proceeds pari passu with an increasing diversity and complexity in the forms of association and in

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF EDUCATION

83

the types of experience. 7 Psychological and biological development move together harmoniously through the integrating process of association. Although adumbrations of his theory had been previously expressed, his is the honor first to set forth clearly the view that the mind, as we know it, has been produced through continuous adaptation to the exigencies of environment. Increasing multiplicity and complexity of experiences and of behavior are characteristics of adaptation. A study of the mind led Spencer to think that the ultimate unit of consciousness is a nervous shock. " The subjective effect or feeling is composed of rapidly-recurring mental shocks . . . [which] corresponds with the objective cause—the rapidly recurring shocks of molecular change." 8 Higher forms of consciousness, as higher forms of matter, are produced by compounding and recompounding, so bringing about " increased multiplicity, variety and complexity." Transformation and combination continually go on in both orders. Nevertheless, even could we succeed in proving that Mind consists of homogeneous units of feeling of the value specified, we should be unable to say what Mind is; just as we should be unable to say what Matter is could we succeed in decomposing it into those ultimate homogeneous units of which it is not improbably composed.9 W a v e s of molecular motion are propagated through nerves and nerve centers, but the oscillating of a molecule cannot be represented side by side with a nervous shock, and the two be recognized as one. " A unit of feeling has nothing ' Spencer defined l i f e as, " the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations." 8 Spencer, Principles ct seq.

»Ibid.

of Psychology

( N e w Y o r k , 1899), vol. i, pp. 51

84

SOCIOLOGY

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EDUCATION

in common with a unit of motion." preted in terms of matter.

M i n d cannot be inter-

Matter, motion and mind are

" symbols of some f o r m of P o w e r absolutely and forever u n k n o w n to us."

T h i s point of view shows that Spencer

w a s not actually a parallelist or a materialist since he insists that mind in its last analysis, as well as matter, is unknowable.

" O u r only course is constantly to recognize

our symbols as symbols only."

10

T h e proximate components of Mind are . . . Feelings and the Relations between Feelings. . . . Each feeling . . . is any portion of consciousness which occupies a place sufficiently large to give it a perceivable individuality; which has its individuality marked off from adjacent portions of consciousness by qualitative contrasts; and which when introspectively contemplated, appears to be homogeneous. . . . A relation between feelings is, on the contrary, characterized by occupying no appreciable part of consciousness." If the terms it unites are taken away, it disappears, " having no independent place—no individuality of its own. 1 1 B u t w e must recognize that this distinction cannot be absolute. Just as a relation can have no existence apart from the feelings which form its terms, so a feeling can exist only by relations to other feelings which limit it in space or time or both . . . a relational feeling is a portion of consciousness inseparable into parts . . . [whereas] a feeling ordinarily so-called, is a portion of consciousness that admits imaginary division into like parts which are related to one another in sequence or co-existence. A feeling proper is either made up of like parts that occupy time, or it is made up of like parts that occupy space, or both. In any case a feeling proper is an aggregate or related like parts, while a relational feeling is undecomposable. A n d this is exactly the 10

Ibid., p. 162.

11

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 163 et seq.

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF EDUCATION

85

contrast between the two which must result if, as we have inferred, feelings are composed of units of feeling or shocks. . . , 12 By composition of the relations, and ideas of relations, intelligence arises. B y composition of the feelings and ideas of feelings emotion arises. And, other things equal, the evolution of either is great in proportion as the composition is great. One of the necessary implications is that cognition becomes higher in proportion as it is remote from reflex action; while emotion becomes higher in proportion as it is remote from sensation. 13 Feelings m a y be divided into those that are centrally initiated, the emotions, and those that are peripherally initiated, the sensations.

Sensations are relatively simple, the emo-

tions extremely compound.

Sensations are integrated series

of nervous shocks or units of feeling.

Sensations m a y be

called Presentative feelings while the emotions are Presentative-Representative feelings.

In contrast to the primary or

real feelings are the secondary or ideal feelings.

The two

classes differ greatly in intensity, the f o r m e r being vivid, the latter relatively faint.

T h e sensations m a y be divided

into those that arise on the exterior of the body, and those that arise on its interior.

Clusters of feelings combine and

by integration and association make up mind as w e k n o w it. " T h e method of composition remains the same throughout the entire fabric of mind, f r o m the f o r m a t i o n of

those

immense and complex aggregates of feelings which characterize its highest developments " , 1 4

Quality of

changes

and

when

the

molecular

waves

feeling

corresponding

units of feeling recur with a different rapidity.

" M i n d is

constituted only when each sensation is assimilated to the faint f o r m s of antecedent like sensations " . 1 5 T h e evolution of mind through ascending stages of com12

Ibid., p. 165.

13

Spencer, The Principles of Ethics

14

Spencer, Principles

«Ibid.,

p. 185.

of Psychology,

(New York, 1896), vol. i, p. 104. vol. i, p. 184.

86

SOCIOLOGY

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EDUCATION

position c o n f o r m s in every particular evolution

in general.

with the laws

T h i s must be remembered

w h o w o u l d educate the y o u n g .

by

of all

M i n d and intelligence are

not equivalents. Mind is not wholly or even mainly intelligence. . . . It consists largely, and in one sense entirely, of Feelings. . . . Feelings are in all cases the materials out of which, in the superior tracts of consciousness, intellect is evolved by structural combination. . . . Feeling is the substance. . . . Intellect is the form. . . . Intellect comprehends only the relational elements of mind; and to omit Feelings is to omit the terms between which the relations exist. 16 Every relation then, like every feeling, on being presented to consciousness, associates itself with like predecessors . . all intelligence proceeds by the establishment of relations of likeness and unlikeness . . . the primordial element of all intelligence is change. 18 From the first to the last its growth is due to the repetition of experiences, the effects of which are assimilated, organized and inherited. . . . Knowing a relation, as well as knowing a feeling is the assimilation of it to its past kindred exactly like it. 19 Ideas are formed by the j o i n i n g together o f v i v i d feelings with faint feelings which have resulted f r o m f o r e g o i n g v i v i d feelings.

A n idea is the unit of knowledge.

is an aggregate of ideas.

Knowledge

T h e greater the knowledge the

greater the aggregates brought together b y the associative processes. The more frequently states of consciousness are made to follow one another in a certain order, the stronger becomes their tendency to suggest one another in that order. . . ,20 Hence 16

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 192.

"Ibid.,

p. 267.

18

Ibid., vol. ii, p. 292.

19

Ibid., vol. i, p. 267.

20

Ibid., p. 421.

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF EDUCATION

87

the growth of intelligence at large depends on the law that when any two psychical states occur in immediate succession an effect is produced such that if the first subsequently recurs there is a certain tendency for the second to follow it . . . a manifest corollary from the law is that the psychical relation in any organism, will correspond best to those physical relations it comes most in contact with. 21 A s for instinct, Spencer defines it as compound reflex action. Reflex actions pass by degrees from the simple to the complex. A s development of the human being proceeds by the law of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, experiences of the race gradually become more complex in their effects on the nervous system and are passed down through heredity. H e says: Though reflex and instinctive sequences are determined by the experiences of the individual organism manifesting them, yet the experiences of the race of organisms forming its ancestry may have determined them. Hereditary transmission applies to psychical peculiarities as well as to physical peculiarities.22 . . . In the progress of life at large, as in the progress of the individual, the adjustment of inner tendencies to outer persistences, must begin with the simple and advance to the complex ; seeing that both within and without, complex relations, being made up of simple ones, cannot be established before simple ones have been established.23 This follows Spencer's theory that he who would teach must regard the laws of association, and present to the child relevant factors which will integrate into knowledge. The mind, he shows, is a growth and will integrate experience into knowledge. It is not a manufacture. Spencer discussed educational method in the essay of 21

Ibid., p. 425.

22

Spencer, op. cit., vol. i, p. 422.

23

Ibid., p. 426.

88

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

1854 now known as the essay on " Intellectual Education " . He noted that there is by necessity a correspondence " between the successive systems of education and the successive social status with which they have co-existed ". When there has been belief in authority in the realm of religion and in politics, education is authoritative. When asceticism is the dominant note in social life the greatest-misery principle will hold in education and subjects will be valued according to their difficulty. When uniformity and unity prevail in social thought it will likewise obtain in teaching. In the freetrade era in which Spencer lived he noted that there was more freedom and variety in teaching, even dissent, from old methods than formerly. When the development hypothesis becomes a part of the social heritage it will be perceived in teaching " that there is a natural process of mental evolution which is not to be disturbed without injury " ; that we may not force on the unfolding mind our artificial forms. Spencer, thus at the outset, takes the view that education must conform to the natural form of mental evolution and that the faculties spontaneously develop in a certain order. Therefore from the beginning, the senses should be employed, the observation trained by first-hand experience. Object lessons and the laboratory method should precede knowledge from books. The concrete must come before the abstract. This is the method suggested by common sense and by knowledge of evolution. It is the method the child himself uses if left to his own nature as is seen in his treatment of flowers and toys—with all objects with which he comes in contact. The infant tests objects in every way possible by biting, tasting, smelling, throwing and so on. If the suitable assimilative method is not followed, Nature will rebel and the child will be filled with disgust or apathy. Thus Spencer has no use for rote-teaching or the presentation of rules before the object. The mind develops by ex-

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF EDUCATION

89

ercise. It passes from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, from the indefinite to the definite. Furthemore, the " genesis of knowledge in the individual must follow the same course as the genesis of knowledge in the race." F o r this particular parallelism Spencer expresses thanks to M. Comte and the reason he accepts it is because of the law of hereditary transmission. " If there be an order in which the human race has mastered its various kinds of knowledge there will arise in every child an apptitude to acquire these kinds of knowledge in the same order." 24 Thus " education should be a repetition of civilization in little " as the course of history was in the main a necessary one " and the causes which determined it apply to the child as to the race. . . . The relationship between mind and phenomena is such as to prevent this knowledge from being reached by any other route." Thus the method of civilization is a guide in method in education. This being so, then, instruction should proceed from the empirical to the rational as Spencer himself had experienced it at the hand of his father. 25 Experimental instruction comes before books or rules but only after a considerable amount of observations have been assimilated. " The process of self-development should be encouraged to the uttermost." This is the way humanity has progressed. The child should be told little but he should discover much. Like Pestalozzi, Spencer believed the neighboring surroundings of the home or school would hold all that was necessary for this experimental observation. Occasionally wider trips and excursions for specimens should be made. Interest and delight will follow at the hand of a sympa24

Education

(New York, 1873), p. 123.

In botany and in entomology he collected specimens and grew them. He drew them from nature. He followed the experimental method in physics and chemistry. 25

SOCIOLOGY

9°

thetic instructor.

No

AND

EDUCATION

mental indigestion or the morbid

effects of stuffing and cramming, at which nature rebels, will ensue.

T o follow the discipline of nature should be the

procedure.

I f learning does not create pleasurable excite-

ment, Spencer says, as Pestalozzi had said before him, something is wrong.

Education should begin f r o m the cradle.

T h e developing organs should be supplied with materials and always with patient, sympathetic understanding.

Children

show in all their w a y s a craving f o r intellectual sympathy as is revealed in their delight at finding new objects, or at drawing

and

their

expressed

achievements or discoveries. is not self-instruction.

desire

for

showing

their

T o tell first and to show next

Throughout youth, observation and

experiment should be followed " as insensibly to merge into the investigations of the naturalist and the man of science." Botanical, entomological and mineral collections should be accompanied by analysis and drawing.

Colors should be

used first and pencil and pen afterwards.

In evolution color

precedes form.

Drawing

f r o m color, of

course, is con-

tinued even after outline with pen or pencil is studied.

The

use of scissors and implements to build should be supplied. Empirical geometry should be continued with other studies for years by these methods.

These practices, conducive to

pleasure, increase vividness and permanency which play such a part in the association of ideas.

" H u m a n beings are at

the mercy of their associated ideas."

I f the t w o principles

of self-instruction (observation and experiment), are followed, accompanied

with pleasurable mental

action

then

there is little likelihood that self-instruction will cease when school days are over. T h e second of the essays on education to appear w a s " Moral Discipline of Children "

in 1 8 5 8 .

I t is directed

chiefly to parents in the early training of the young. T h e greatest defect Spencer finds in our curriculum is

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF

EDUCATION

suitable training for the position of parenthood and the management of the family. The defect is as glaring in the education of girls as of boys. Parenthood is the most difficult of all the functions of an adult. The complexity of this subject causes it to be the one subject of all others in which self-instruction is least likely to succeed. A stranger from another planet might well suppose that our educational programs were designed for celibates. No rational plea can be put forward for leaving the Art of Education out of our curriculum. . . . A s physical maturity is marked by the ability to produce offspring, so mental maturity is marked by the ability to train offspring. The subject which involves all other subjects, and therefore the subject in which education should culminate, is the Theory and Art of Education.26 Parents seldom give the subject a thought, but depend upon impulse from hour to hour. A s with national government, so with family government, the virtues are thought to be with the rulers and the vices with the ruled." A s a matter of fact, a candid study of the facts will show that " parents are not good enough . . . the defects of children mirror the defects of their parents." If we admit that education has, as " its proximate aim, to prepare a child for the business of l i f e — t o produce a citizen who, while he is well conducted, is also able to make his way in the world," this implies a certain fitness for the world as it now is. A n ideal human being would find the present state of the world intolerable. There is much reason for thinking " that as in a nation, so in a family, the kind of government is, on the whole, about as good as the general state of human nature permits it to be." 27 In other words, 26

Spencer, op. cit., pp. 162 et seq.

"Ibid., p. 169.

92

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EDUCATION

" the average character of the people determines the control exercised." T o improve the system one must improve the character of the individual. Improvement in domestic government must proceed parallel with other reforms. 28 W i t h these preliminary statements, Spencer proceeds to show what right methods of parental behavior should be from hour to hour. T h e child, like any other organism, seeks pleasure and avoids pain or discomfiture. Nature punishes those who transgress her laws. Parents should see to it that children habitually experience the true consequences of their conduct. They should at once perceive the relation between cause and effect. A wrong is done if artificial consequences are put in place of natural reactions. A child should experience that fire burns, that ice chills. If he leaves his playthings about, he should pick them up. If he is late for a walk he should be left behind. O f course, with very small children this method cannot be strictly followed as in the case, for instance, of an infant handling an open razor. Parents, it is true, in a period of social transition are hampered by a lag between theories and methods that hang over from the old and battle with the new. Thus parents, in clinging to old dogmas fitted for another period, inflict on their children unnatural reactions. The most important discipline is not parental approbation or disapprobation (although these, under certain conditions, may play a part), but the 28 Spencer, in a foot-note in Education, page 170, gives the idea, that, for a moment, he believed there was some relation between education and progress. A t this time he was thirty-eight years old. He writes, " Instead of being an aid to human progress, which all culture should be, the culture of our public schools, by accustoming boys to a despotic form of government and an intercourse regulated by brute force, tends to fit them for a lower state of society than that which exists. And chiefly recruited as our legislature is from among those who are brought up at these schools, this barbarizing influence becomes a serious hindrance to national progress."

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF

EDUCATION

natural results which flow from personal conduct. T o o soon the lesson cannot be learned that " pleasures are rightly only to be obtained by labour." 29 Through the laws of association, frequent and consistent experiences cannot help but lead to right concepts of causation. A great advantage of the natural system of discipline is that it is based on justice. It follows that the discipline of natural consequences cannot be inculcated by authority. If a relation is not set up between acts and parental displeasure but between acts and their natural consequences then a happier and more influential relationship will exist between parents and child. T h e parent must never stand in the guise of an enemy. " The error we have been combating," he says, " is that of substituting parental displeasure and its artificial penalties for the penalties which nature has established." T h e reactions of nature are unswerving and persistent, not arbitrary and fickle. Following the reactions of nature does not preclude the parent warning and advising the child, however. From such education the child will be better equipped to face the outside word and can depend upon self-guidance when no longer under the parental roof. The usual mental chaos of a youth who has leaned upon parental authority and suddenly finds himself thrown on his own judgment will be avoided. Spencer closes this essay by a few maxims and rules derived from his principles. " D o not expect from a child any great amount of moral goodness." This is not in conformity with the recapitulation of characters which the child reveals in the course of his mental and physical development. Moral and intellectual factors develop late in evolution. " D o not . . . seek to behave as an utterly passionless instrument," but remember that artificial penalties should not be substituted for Nature's penalties. " Be 29

Spencer, op. cit., p. 182.

SOCIOLOGY

94

AND

EDUCATION

sparing of commands." The right parents, like Spencer's own parents, will try to coerce as little as possible. Consider that one of the worst errors in education is inconsistency. Nature takes no excuse. The aim of parental discipline should be to produce a self-governing being, not one to be subjected by others. O f course, in infancy, a certain amount of absolutism is necessary where there is risk of broken limbs and serious bodily injury. T h e history of domestic rule should follow the history of political rule, from absolutism to self-government. Furthermore, " D o not regret the exhibition of considerable self-will on the part of your children " . This is a quality which is expected from the children of free men. Lastly, always remember " that to educate rightly is not a simple and easy thing, but a complex and extremely difficult thing: the hardest task which devolves upon adult life." Parents must carry on their own higher education at the same time that they are educating their children. " It is a truth yet remaining to be recognized, that the last stage in the mental development of each man and woman is to be reached only through the discharge of parental duties . . . a good system is twice blessed—it blesses him that trains and him that's trained." 30 In Spencer's third essay entitled, " Physical Education ", published in 1859, he proposes to show how the physical education of both boys and girls is seriously out of kilter in that " i t errs in deficient feeding; deficient clothing; deficient exercise (among girls, at least) ; and in excessive mental application." 31 Spencer perceives, he thinks, that men are not properly interested in the problems pertaining to children and do not assume their full share in the intricate problem of rearing the y o u n g ; nay, more, they do not even feel proper respect 30

Spencer, op. cit., p. 217.

31

Ibid., p. 281.

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF

EDUCATION

95

for this most important task. H e notes that men of all classes take plenty of interest, as shown by their conversation, in horse-breeding and pedigrees, in pig-styes and the relative merits of cattle or sheep. The stable, the hogshed, the sheep-pen, the kennel are favorite topics. But how often does one hear gentlemen after dinner discuss the rearing of children? H o w few books on their library shelves deal with children, yet how many with farming, and history, with soils and manures ? Even the voice, should the nursery be mentioned, would show a tone of contempt, implying that the subject was worthy only of mothers or nurses. The father forgets that he, too, is a parent as well as his wife, and that he too, should assume definite responsibilities towards his children. A n examination into the diets of children of the well-to-do will show a tendency to under-feeding which is worse than over-feeding. Spencer maintained that the appetites of infants, of invalids and of men are good guides as to what the system needs if it be not already damaged by caprice. The craving children have for sugar, fruit and meat represents a real bodily need which chemistry will reveal. A t the first opportunity, having been cruelly and ignorantly denied, children will over-indulge themselves. T h e child, perhaps more than the adult, needs nourishing food since it has the burden not only of replacing waste but of building the growing body. Children of the meat-eating classes display more mental and physical vivacity than the bread-eating classes. Contrast the sluggish vegetable-eating cow with the liveliness of the flesh-eating dog. Furthermore, monotony of diet is to be shunned. Spencer himself hated monotony in food as in everything else and could speak with feeling concerning the tasteless diets of porridge, bread and tea that are so often served to children on the ground that such food is better for them. A m o n g the

SOCIOLOGY

g6

AND

EDUCATION

poorer classes such an argument is probably due to a desire of the parents to reserve the better food for themselves. A mixture of food should be taken at each meal. But the change from a poor diet should not be made too rapidly. His conclusions are " that the food for children should be highly nutritive; that it should be varied at each meal and at successive meals; and that it should be a b u n d a n t " . 3 2 In children's clothing too, we see again an ascetic viewpoint and a tendency to scantiness, or else a bad distribution of clothing. Little or no obedience is given to the sensations. " T h e common notion about 'hardening' is a grievous delusion. Not a few children are ' hardened' out of the world ". 3 3 In strong children who can bear it hardening is produced at the expense of growth. Witness the stunted Laplander and the Esquimeau and the Tierra Del Fuegean. See the effects of weather on Shetland ponies. Moreover an undue strain is put upon the heart if the body is insufficiently clad. Fashion is truly a cruel master. " W h a t father, we ask, would think it salutary to go about with bare legs, bare arms and bare n e c k ? " F o r " e v e r y ounce of nutriment needlessly expended for the maintenance of temperature, is so much deducted from the nutriment going to build up the frame and maintain the energies." 34 Clothing for children should be warm enough to prevent any general feeling of cold, and should be made of some good non-conductor such as coarse woolen cloth, strong enough to allow hard wear and of such a color that it can stand use and exposure. Spencer speaks very strongly against the current theory that girls must be ladies and must not shout or romp in boisterous play. Boys learn how to be gentlemen when the time comes. Their rough play does not prevent it. Like32

Spencer, op. cit., p. 244.

33

Ibid., p. 245.

34

Spencer, op. cit., p. 249.

John Locke believed in the hardening process.

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF EDUCATION

gy

wise with girls, the womanly instincts will assert themselves in due season.

Sport and play are f a r better than g y m -

nastics and, besides, produce pleasurable mental excitement. Girls are to be parents as well as boys, and their part in reproduction is greater.

H o w much then, does this subject

need more consideration?

Furthermore, everywhere

y o u n g are subject to too much study.

the

T h e y suffer under a

merciless school regimen of long hours with little time provided f o r recreation. olescence.

T h i s is particularly the case in ad-

Forced development of intelligence is always

disastrous either mentally or physically f o r " Nature is a strict accountant. . . . There

is an antagonism

g r o w t h and development. . . . 3 5 A

between

girl develops in mind

and body rapidly and ceases to g r o w comparatively early." In this connection it may be mentioned that Spencer's theory of Individuation and Genesis is foreshadowed here.

He

believed that because of this antagonism we cannot expect the mental powers of a rapidly-growing adolescent to be as acute as at other times of growth.

In the case of a g r o w i n g

girl in her adolescent years, or of a child-bearing woman, the mental powers are less, since energy and vitality must go out in other channels than the intellectual.

Hence undue school

pressure at this time would be inadvisable, nay, even harmful.

Lack of exercise, and over-education, in girls, produce

pale, angular day.

flat-chested

y o u n g ladies so common in his

Spencer feared that they and their doting mammas

disregard the tastes of the opposite sex.

" Men care little

f o r erudition in w o m e n ; but very much for physical beauty, good nature and sound sense."

M e n are most drawn by

physical attractions and secondly by moral attractions. Since the supreme end of Nature is the welfare of posterity, it 35Ibid., p. 271. " I t is a physiological law, first pointed out by M . Isidore St. Hilaire, and to which attention has been drawn by M r . L e w e s in his essays on Dwarfs and Giants, that there is an antagonism between growth and development."

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behooves us to educate as highly as possible to be sure, so long as bodily injury does not ensue, but to take care that we do not so maim and ruin our children that we shall " doom them to celibacy." W e must seek to promulgate the " belief that the preservation of health is a duty. . . . There is such a thing as physical morality." Let us not be guilty of physical sins towards ourselves and our posterity. The last, and perhaps the most famous of the four essays on education is entitled, " W h a t Knowledge is of Most W o r t h . " 36 Spencer pointed out that as with bodily acquisitions, so with mental acquisitions, the ornamental had preceded the useful. The real motive in insisting on classical studies, so dominant in Spencer's time, is undoubtedly due, he says, to a desire to conform to social opinion. W i t h women also, much education of the past has been of such subjects as will bring applause, such as dancing, deportment, the piano, singing, drawing and the languages. This acquisition of the ornamental, in the last analysis, is a method to obtain subjugation over others. W e have a great desire to impress our individualities upon others and in some way to subjugate them. U p to now, Spencer says, no standard of relative values has been agreed upon. The paramount question should be, not what is of value, but what is of relative value. This is the question of questions. W e must, in the phraseology of Bacon " determine the relative values of knowledges ". We must find out how to live in the widest and fullest sense and how to live completely. " T o prepare for complete living is the function which education has to discharge." O n this basis then, Spencer proposes the following classification in the order of importance of the leading kinds of activity which constitute human l i f e : 36 Appeared separately in 1859. of 1861.

It was placed first in the collection

SPENCER'S

1. Those activities preservation.

THEORIES

that

OF

directly

EDUCATION

administer

to

self-

2. Those activities which by securing the necessaries of life, indirectly minister to self-preservation. 3. Those activities which have for their end the rearing and discipline of offspring. 4. Those activities which are involved in the maintenance of proper social and political relations. 5. Those miscellaneous activities which fill up the leisure part of life devoted to the tastes and feelings. The ideal of education is, of course, complete preparation in all these aspects, but since this probably cannot be attained, " the aim should be to maintain a due proportion between the degrees of preparation in each." Attention should be given to a l l , — " greatest when the value is greatest, less where the value is less, least where the value is least." 37 There is knowledge of intrinsic value, of quasi-intrinsic value, and knowledge of conventional value. Furthermore, acquirement of such kind has two values, one as knowledge, the other as discipline. W i t h regard to knowledge which will directly minister to self-preservation, Nature takes charge from the moment of birth and from hour to hour. Through experience, the individual is acquiring such knowledge. It is the place of parents and educators to see that opportunity for these experiences is not thwarted. Spontaneous physical activities in which children delight is often denied, particularly to girls, thus rendering them incapable of adequately protecting themselves. This should not be. Moreover, there must be instruction to guard against disease and death which follow the committing of physical sins or indiscretions. The principles of physiology should be taught to every child that he 37

Spencer, op. cit., pp. 33-35.

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may not spoil his eyes, indulge in too violent physical feats, disregard his sensations and so on. While knowledge alone cannot accomplish everything, the desires of men being factors to cope with, yet a step has been made if physiological information is known. Man is, before all else, an animal. It behooves him to be a healthy animal. Since man must make a living before he attempts anything else, his next most important field is, after acquiring the use of the tools, reading, writing and arithmetic, to acquire a knowledge of industrial activities. This must be a knowledge of the production, preparation and distribution of commodities with their physical, chemical and vital properties. These depend upon Science. This too is the order of knowledge which is so greatly overlooked in the schoolroom, but which, all too often, the individual must pick up for himself. A knowledge of mathematics is of prime importance, particularly of geometry, whether it be in making hedges, railways, culverts, tunnels, stations, docks, architecture or even farm drains. " On the application of rational mechanics depends the success of nearly all modern manufacture. The properties of the lever, the wheel and axle, etc., are involved in every machine—every machine is a solidified mechanical theorem; and to machinery in these times we owe nearly all production." Again, it is needful to know physics. " Joined with mathematics it has given us the steam engine ". The physics of heat has led us to the economizing of fuel, the smelting of ores, and the ventilation of mines. Researches in electricity and magnetism have given the compass, the electrotype, the telegraph, the kitchenrange, the stereoscope and many other comforts of life. The applications of chemistry as well as of physics are manifold. The bleacher, the dyer and the calico-printer employ chemistry as well as those who smelt copper, tin, zinc, silver and iron. Sugar refining, soap making and

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF

EDUCATION

gun-powder manufacture are partly chemical. W e may carry this knowledge into the field of the distiller, even into agriculture, which must analyze soils and manures. Of the concrete sciences, Astronomy and Geology are of great importance to material welfare. 3 8 The science of biology bears directly on the processes of indirect self-preservation. The agriculturalist, the physiologist, and the dietician have need of this knowledge. Furthermore, a good understanding of the Science of Society is of inestimable importance to industrial success. In fact, " that which our school courses leave almost entirely out we thus find to be that which most nearly concerns the business of life." Our most vital knowledge has been left to be taught in nooks and corners while the recognized educators have been mostly teaching dead formulas to the neglect of science. N o preparation is made at all in our curricula for those activities which have for their end the rearing and discipline of offspring. N o reference to the bringing up of children is made, with the consequence that tens of thousands are killed and hundreds of thousands survive with feeble constitutions. Parents know next to nothing of " the nature of emotions, their order of evolution, their functions or where use ends and abuse begins." There is a notion that some of the feelings are bad, whereas none of them are bad. The discipline of natural consequences is not regarded, and little knowledge of the relation between cause and effect is given. Then as to the culture of the intellect a great ignorance of psychology abounds. Parents as well as tutors imagine knowledge comes from books and therefore thrust readers into the hands of infants only to do them lasting injury. W h y should there be such eagerness for second-hand facts when first-hand ones may be had ? Spencer tells in much detail, and with enthusiasm, the multifold products of the various sciences and of their benefits to mankind. 88

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There is little reference to the laws of mental development or of the necessity of intellectual progress from the concrete to the abstract. Usually an abnormal order is followed. In each realm of the physical, moral and intellectual we find a woeful deficiency of knowledge. An understanding of the laws of life is of paramount importance and yet they are to a very great extent disregarded, not even known, in the majority of cases. Spencer now passes to a consideration of the education which is suitable for the maintenance of proper social and political relations. This knowledge, he finds, is not entirely over-looked inasmuch as social studies purport to give this training, one being the study of history which occupies a prominent place in the curriculum. His examination leads him to the conclusion that the historical information given is valueless for the purpose of guidance. Such studies, as are now given, offer little to show the student the right principles of political or social action. They throw no light on the science of society. The causes of national progress are neglected; but court intrigues, plots, usurpations, court gossip, manoeuvers of armies, the fall and death of generals, the number of pitched battles are studied in great detail. Facts, to be sure, but what is their value? From them no conclusions can be drawn. They are unorganizable facts. What we really need to know is the natural history of society, how society has originated, grown and organized itself. We need to know about central governments, local and ecclesiastical governments; also social control as exercised by class over class, the social observances, the superstitions, a deliniation of the industrial system and the industrial arts. Furthermore, a knowledge of the intellectual and physical conditions of the laboring classes and of aesthetic culture is needed. In fact, Spencer declares that " the only history that is of practical value is what may be

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF

EDUCATION

called Descriptive Sociology, and the highest office which the historian can discharge is that of so narrating the lives of nations, as to furnish materials for a comparative Sociology; and for the subsequent determination of the ultimate laws to which social phenomena conform." But we must know the key, and that is Science. Social phenomena can not be properly interpreted without the generalizations of biology, psychology, and of economics. " Society is made up of individuals; all that is done in society is done by the combined action of individuals; and therefore in individual actions only can we find the solutions of social phenomena." 39 T o know social life and phenomena we need to know the laws of life, in short, Science. The teaching of the social sciences and, in particular, sociology, probably interested Spencer more than any other educational subject. In fact, he devoted a whole book to the subject, 40 and in various parts of his works he refers, sometimes scathingly, to the woeful lack of civic knowledge and the enormous inadequacy of history. His chapter on " Perverted History " 41 may be mentioned. Ordinary history as taught, is worthless, he said. In Social Statics he observed that historians " chuckle like children " over their glittering, trifling highly-colored acquisitions entirely neglectful of " those masses of rich ore, that should have been dug out, and from which golden truths might have been smelted," but which " are left unthought of and unsought." 42 A s for that fifth division of knowledge which has to do with " those miscellaneous activities which fill up the leisure part of life, devoted to the gratifications of the tastes and feelings " it must be said that without aesthetic culture and 39

Spencer, op. cit., pp. 69-70.

40

Spencer, The Study of Sociology

(New York, 1874).

41

Spencer, Facts and Comments (New York, 1902), pp. 274-279.

42

Spencer, Social Statics

(New York, 1870), p. 63.

104

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

its pleasures life would lose half its charm. They are highly important and will come, Spencer thought, to occupy a much larger share of human life than now. And rightly. In that day there will be a great increase of spare time and the beautiful will fill a larger share in the minds of all men. Yet we must not mistake the flower for the root. The latter, the florist knows, is of intrinsically more importance. But our present educational systems are guilty of neglecting " the plant for the sake of the flower." "As these aesthetic pleasures occupy the leisure part of life so should they occupy the leisure part of education." Such cultivation should be subsidiary. Yet Spencer would not by any means neglect the literary. From early infancy he would have the child hear and know nursery rhymes, fairy tales and choral songs. Nevertheless, the highest Art of every kind is based on Science and those who wish to prepare for sculpture should first learn the uses of bones and muscles and their articulations and movements. This is a part of science. Likewise with painting, the student should study light, and the varying aspects of things under different conditions. In music and poetry we need to study psychology and the effects of emotion. The maxims of every artist lead inevitably to psychological principles. " Only when Genius is married to Science can the highest results be produced." Science is the handmaid of all forms of art and poetry. Yet not for a moment would Spencer claim that Science alone will make an artist. Natural perception must be present. Not only the poet, but the artist of every type is born and not made. Nevertheless " innate faculty alone will not suffice " without the aid of organized knowledge. Spencer, now having considered the value of certain knowledge for guidance, turned to the problem of mental discipline. " It would be utterly contrary to the beautiful

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF

EDUCATION

economy of Nature if one kind of culture were needed for the gaining of information and another were needed as a mental gymnastic." 43 H e states that of all the studies, contrary to opinion, science is vastly more valuable for discipline than other subjects. In the first place, science offers a wider field for the exercise of memory, and a superiority in the kind of memory it trains. The relations which science offers are causal relations and are not fortuitous. The classics train memory only, while science exercises both memory and understanding. Moreover, science cultivates the judgment. Again, the intellectual discipline of science is also moral discipline, since language tends to give undue respect to authority, whereas science appeals to individual reason. Independence is cultivated by science. Most surprising of all perhaps, is Spencer's belief that science is superior to ordinary teaching in the religious culture it gives. Spencer refers to essential religion and not to the dogmas that pass for religion. It is the neglect of science that is irreligious. " Devotion to science is a tacit worship—a tacit recognition of worth in the things studied; and by implication, in the Cause. The student sees that not caprice prevails, but that "the laws to which we must submit are both inexorable and beneficent ". Science alone can give us true conceptions of ourselves and our relation to the mysteries of existence. It teaches us a true pride and a true humility in the knowable and the unknowable respectivity. Spencer is led to conclude then, " that for discipline as well as for guidance, science is of chiefest value . . . learning the meanings of things is indefinitely better than learning the meanings of words." Therefore, on all scores, Spencer shows that Science is the knowledge of most worth for guidance in carrying on the five great activities for life, and for mental and religious discipline. T o science we owe 43

Spencer, Education, p. 84.

106

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

our civilization. " A n d y e t " , he adds, " the knowledge which is of transcendant value is that which in our age of boasted education receives the least attention." But the time will come when Science will be " proclaimed as highest alike in worth and beauty and will reign supreme." 44 In " Parliamentary R e f o r m ", chapter ten of a work entitled Essays, Moral, Political and Aesthetic,45 Spencer points out most emphatically what education is of the right sort for the exercise of political power. The study of the social sciences, judging by the amount of writing he devoted to it, is his favorite theme in education. 46 The ordinary schooltraining is not a preparation, in fact, instead of being a safeguard to government, it is actually a danger. This is true in its application to the working classes, who were in his time, being gradually raised in power. The current faith in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, as fitting men for citizenship seems . . . quite unwarranted . . . nor is it proved that smatterings of mensuration, astronomy or geography fit men for estimating the characters and motives of Parliamentary candidates. . . . Why do we expect fitness for citizenship to be reproduced by a discipline which has no relation to the duties of the citizens ? Even the books the average person finds to read are full of error. Even higher education as given at the universities gives no valuable study of Social science. Profound ignorance prevails. Look at the young members of Parliament, he says, fresh from O x f o r d or Cambridge. They may Spencer, op. cit., pp. 93-95. 45 N e w Y o r k , 11864 edition. 44

46«ivfy interest all along has been mainly in the science of L i f e , physical, mental and social. I hold that the study of the science of L i f e under all its aspects, is the true preparation f o r a teacher of Ethics." Letter to Leslie Stephen, 1899. Duncan, Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer, p. 419.

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF EDUCATION

ioy

know Aristotle or Thucidides, but of what avail to the citizen? The agitation concerning Free Trade abounds in mistakes. Adam Smith, who did not devote himself to the approved studies, was the one who pointed the right way. Yet those who were supposed to have had the best education of the prescribed studies were the bitterest opponents, whereas it was sponsored by those supposedly deficient in the current education. " The right preparation for political power is political cultivation." 47 Not technical and miscellaneous information, but Social Science is the crying need among the lower classes and the upper classes. If the lower classes get control, as they are bound to do, it is to the self-preservation of the powers that now rule to see to it that social science is known. Only by such knowledge can be prevented more crude legislation which meddles with the relation between capital and labor, with employers and the employed, and among the better classes of the nation as a whole. This can only be done by spreading broadcast the knowledge and the reasons that there are " certain comparatively narrow limits to the function of the State; and that these limits ought on no account to be transgressed." 48 In the first edition of the Social Statics, Spencer has a chapter on " The Rights of Women and one on the " Rights of Children ", 49 The rights of both emanate from the same law as those of men, the law of equal freedom, the right to exercise such faculties as one possesses. " Equity knows no difference of sex or of age. If rights were based upon mentality we should only increase our difficulties, since some women have higher mentality than most men, and such a 47 Spencer, Essays, pp. 374 et seq.

Moral, Political

48

Spencer, op. cit., p. 376.

49

Spencer, Social Statics,

and Aesthetic

pp. 173-213.

(New York, 1875),

io8

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

law would have to apply between man and man. A person should have the right to exercise the faculties he has. T h e status of a nation can be judged by the status of its women. Despotism in the state is associated with despotism in the family according to the laws of social evolution. Barbarisms to-day are remnants of the barbarisms of the past. They will, by the necessity of evolution, gradually be sloughed off. T o the question of women having political freedom, Spencer replied: " O f course they must; and why not ? " 50 All her rights rise or fall with those of man, " derived as they are from the same authority; involved in the same axiom; demonstrated by the same argument." Likewise, children have their rights, and this being so, there is no place for coercive education. A s democratic feeling grows so will the treatment of children change. The biography of the race shows us this truth. Education is coercive when coercion abounds in the political system. In this chapter Spencer states that " Education has for its first object the formation of character. T o curb restive propensities, to awaken dormant sentiments, to strengthen the perceptions and cultivate the tastes . . . to develop the child into a man of well-proportioned and harmonious nature." 51 If a child is erring, it is his character that is to be changed. Mere prohibition of his conduct for somebody's convenience gives him no sound training. If he is selfish, it is his sympathy that must be aroused. It can only be strengthened by exercise. " Not by authority is your sway to be obtained; neither by reasoning; but by inducement." Gain a child's trust. The physical-force system tends to unfit a child for life in a democracy. H i s future should be that of an independent individual, not of a cringing underling. By so Ibid., p. 188. 51

Spencer, op, cit., p. 201.

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF

EDUCATION

109

adaptation, man is formed for the perfect social state, and coercion can only be a hindrance to such adaptation. Shall the child have political rights? Spencer slides out of this dilemma by saying, that in a perfect state when the moral law is universally obeyed, government will not exist and consequently, if government did not exist, the moral law could not dictate political enfranchisement for any one, much less children. However, as Spencer grew older, he modified these strictly logical views concerning the rights of women and children.52 His general principles of education remained unaltered, but he concluded, when the woman question became more and more prominent in the nineteenth century, that the complete political enfranchisement of women, apart from local politics, must wait until the appearance of the more perfect state. Women as they now are, have too much regard for authority and this is not a good quality in a democracy. 53 Thus the law of equal freedom seems to be brushed aside. Seemingly forgetful of the greater hazards to life of the birth-chamber as contrasted with those on the field of battle, or the indispensability of the war aid of non-combatants, he says that to give women political rights would give them more rights than men since they are not liable to serve in war. But in that day of the more perfect equilibrium, and of the perfect moral man, when universal peace shall obtain and there shall be no more wars, when governmental activities, as we know them, shall cease to be, then women may be given the same political rights as men. This was no satisfactory shift of position to John Stuart Mill who had published his essay " On the Subjection of Women " or to Miss Helen Taylor who had 52 Revised edition of Social 71-88.

Statics,

Williams and Norgate, 1902, pp.

53 Spencer said, " I had no conception that the question would be raised in our time, but had in thought a distant future."

no

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

been led by Spencer's early edition of Social Statics to expect sympathy and aid in the woman movement. Y e t to do Spencer justice, it must be added, that he did consider even in the time of a near better day, political rights, particularly in local governments, might be extended to women with men. 54 But this view was not strictly in conformity with his theory of natural rights, as he had so forcibly expressed it, in the first edition of Social Statics.55 A s for children, he came to believe, as shown in his later writings, that since the race must be preserved, parents must provide for them, as they are not capable of carrying on social activities. Family ethics, instead of being based as State Ethics on rigorous justice, are based on the principle that benefits must be given out of all proportion to desert. The child's rights have greatly diminished from the time of the original essay. They now have not rights but " claims," claims to food, clothing and shelter and other aids to development. Y e t children have not rights to that self-direction which is the normal accompaniment of self-sustentation. Nevertheless, as the individual grows to be respected in the State so will the individual in the parental home, as the course of history shows. T h e essay entitled, " T h e Philosophy of Style", forty-seven pages in length, appeared in 1852. 56 H e had become interested in this subject when he was about twenty-three years old, his father having himself made style a subject of study. 54 Spencer, Justice, pt. iv, Principles pp. 156-166.

of Ethics

( N e w York,

1896),

In his controversy with Henry George over Land Nationalization he had likewise changed his position from that expressed in his Social Statics of 1850. 65

56 Title given by Spencer was " Force of Expression." It was changed by the editor. It is found to-day in Essays, Moral, Political and Aesthetic (New York, 1875). In Facts and Comments, Spencer has a chapter on " Style."

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF EDUCATION

m

In this essay, Spencer was of the opinion that good style and good composition are probably more dependent on practice and natural aptitude than upon a study of its laws. " A clear head, a quick imagination and a sensitive ear will go far towards making all rhetorical principles needless." Therefore, he would recommend the reading and hearing of good composition as the best method of acquiring good style. " Nevertheless, some practical result may be expected from familiarity with the principles of style." He complained about there being no general theory of expression, no organized body of knowledge on this subject. The maxims in rhetorics and compositions are inadequate and are mostly dogmas. He believed the clue or law of good style is to be found in the importance of economizing the reader's attention. " Regarding language, . . . the more simple and the better arranged are its parts, the greater will be the effect produced." Language, in a way is a hindrance to thought. Gestures and facial movements are often more expressive of actual psychological states than words. In word language we first find that Saxon English, or rather non-Latin English, is more forcible because of its economy. " A child's vocabulary is almost wholly Saxon. He says, I have, not I possess—I wish, not I desire; he does not reflect, he thinks". Furthermore, Saxon English is superior because of its brevity. However, sometimes a long word may express more emotion than a short one, as magnificent rather than grand, disgusting than nasty. With this one exception in usage, Spencer prefers the Saxon. Specific words are superior to generic words as a saving of effort in the translating of words into thoughts. In the sequence of words likewise there is a best order. To tell what is the best sequence one must inquire into the mental acts by which the meaning of a series of words is apprehended. "As the predicate determines the aspect under which

112

SOCIOLOGY

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the subject is to be conceived, it should be placed first." H e illustrates this in the line " Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Throughout the study of style should be emphasized the need for regarding the economy of the recipient's attention. The direct form is superior to the indirect form. The capacity of the person addressed however, gives the key to the style one should employ. In the case of figures of speech, again economy of attention is the criterion. At considerable length Spencer examines the characteristics of figures of speech, " The general principle . . . is that other things equal, the force of all verbal forms and arrangements is great, in proportion as the time and mental effort they demand from the recipient is small . . . the relative goodness of any two modes of expressing an idea may be determined by observing which requires the shortest process of thought for its comprehension." 57 But Spencer noted that " the English idiom does not commonly permit the order which theory dictates." In quoting from Ossian he approved of the order as follows; " The simile comes before the qualified image, the adjectives before the substantives, the predicate and copula before the subject, and their respective complements before them ". It may be bombastic but what is " bombast but a force of expression too great for the magnitude of the ideas embodied? " In description, say little but suggest much. There is a psychological reason. Mental excitement prompts the very expressions which are the most effective. Association of relevant ideas, though only suggested, is of great aid. Poetry employs this method. Instinct and analysis proves its effectiveness. Poetry obeys all the laws of powerful speech. Rhythm adds to its potency as the natural language of strong emotion is more or less rhythmical. Besides the economy of the mental energies should be considered the economy of the 57

Spencer, op. cit., p. 33.

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

OF

EDUCATION

mental sensibilities. That is, we must watch that the senses do not become too quickly exhausted by the same law that a flower held to the nose for a long time seems to lose its perfume. Action in any realm exhausts. Thus we see the value of climax, of antithesis, of change, of brief relief, or brief mental recuperation, to the powers of attention. " The sensitiveness of the faculties must be continuously bombarded." Man in the early history of the race had only nouns and verbs for the conveyance of ideas. A s man has progressed he has developed from the homogeneous simple type of expression to a heterogeneous and diverse one with all its richness and variety in shade of meaning. In " all highlyorganized products, both of man and of nature it will be, not a series of like parts simply placed in juxtaposition, but one which made up of unlike parts that are mutually dependent." 58 Spencer's theory of the genesis of play came to him as a result of reading from a German author, (possibly Schiller), that the aesthetic sentiments originate from the play-impulse. Play arises from a surplus of energy, Spencer says. No ultimate ends are served in play. T h e immediate end is the only one even though it may be admitted that an increase in the faculties may come about through pleasurable exercise and the body as a whole benefited. In the animals like the kitten or the dog " we see that the whole sport is a dramatizing of the pursuit of prey — an ideal satisfaction for the destructive instincts in the absence of real satisfaction for them." 69 Likewise in children playing with dolls, giving teas, taking prisoner, we see the dramatizing of adult activities or gratifying in a partial way the various instincts. The love of conquest in them all is dominant. Even in wit58

Spencer, op. cit., p. 47.

59

Spencer, Principles of Psychology,

vol. ii, pp. 627-632.

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combat there is an attempt for supremacy. An examination will show that the bodily organs being repaired during rest tend to become more excitable and to " pass into ideal action in the absence of real action." In society a growing surplus of energy will tend more and more to express itself in pleasurable exercise of the simpler faculties and will make more appeal to the higher emotions than now. 60 Spencer's other essays on education and his autobiography show, as has been cited, that he valued play as a mental stimulus, and as an aid to emotional balance and general health. So much did he value relaxation in sports that in his own mature life he sought to overcome the lack in his own youth. But to formal gymnastics or extreme athletic training Spencer was strongly averse. In his last work to appear, a collection of essays, Facts and Comments, Spencer states that it is his opinion that the widespread belief in gymnastics embodies several grave errors. The belief that the mere ability to " lift great weights, jump great heights, or run a great distance " is good preparation for standing the strains of hard work and unfavorable conditions is not well sustained. An increase of muscular power and an increase of general vigor are not necessarily related. There are physiological reasons which led him to expect the reverse. That athletes die young, Spencer pointed out, is well known. Such abnormal powers must be at the expense of the constitution. Again, taking his former stand, he insists that pleasure is a necessary concomitant for the greatest benefit in any exercise. Teachers err in not regarding this. There is no benefit to be obtained from disagreeable strain as most teachers have supposed. Even though coercion is not so prevalent as formerly, still the leading idea in the student's mind continues to be fulfillment of the master's will rather 60

Spencer implies that play is partly imitative and instinctive as well as partly due to surplus energy.

SPENCER'S

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than acquisition of knowledge and intellectual growth. War originated gymnastics. W i t h a militant type of society will go on belief in formal gymnastics. Strength of limb is not in a peaceful society the chief criterion of the citizen. So once again Spencer reiterates, " In place of artificial appliances for bodily development come the natural appliances furnished by joy and pleasure." In his last collection of essays, 61 Spencer discussed the success of teaching presence of mind. Although he believed that it is one of the faculties which will increase little by education, he thought it worth trying and would have the parent and teacher use such devices as would quicken the powers of rapid and complete observation in children, such devices to be akin to games. H e suggested objects and figures to be shown and then quickly concealed by the use of a curtain. Simple combinations could be increased to greater complexity. 82 Then he suggested quick answers to such questions as " what would you do in case of a comrade's clothing catching fire or in case a friend fainted," and so on. He says, repeated exercises of this kind will stock the memory with ways of proceeding which may serve when actual accidents occur. This idea seems to be a forerunner of certain intelligence tests and first-aid courses of to-day. Facility will depend, he says, upon the nature of the child, but " practice in rapidity of observation and fertility of resources must benefit all, whatever natures they may have." Such instruction might well take the place of many worthless lessons so often given. In another essay " Feeling versus Intellect" 03 Spencer deplores that educators have usually identified mind with 61

Spencer, Facts

and Comments

( N e w Y o r k , 1902), pp. 225-230.

Such methods have been used in our own day to some extent and with surprising results. 62

63

Spencer, op. cit., pp. 35-46.

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intelligence. This is an enormous error as " the chief component of mind is feeling ". . . all parts of consciousness are parts of mind. The sensations and the emotions are overlooked in current teaching. A s the weather varies so will the emotions; as the general tone of the social situation varies so will the emotions. Great fear or aversion or brooding anxiety may throw the intellectual process out of gear. " The emotions are the masters, the intellect the servant." Those are generally best fit for life whose altruistic sentiments predominate. Intellect alone may show egotism and disregard for fellow-men. " A n over-valuation of teaching (as given) is necessarily a concomitant of this erroneous interpretation of mind. Everywhere the cry i s — Educate, educate, educate! " 64 But men do not do right simply from teaching. Everyday observation shows this. Rather must we remember that " each faculty is strengthened by exercise of it—intellectual power by intellectual action, and moral power by moral action ". In America nobody seems to see any relation between the rising crime rate and the current education, yet in that country it is believed that mere instruction is a means to morality. W h a t better evidence could we see than that after two thousand years of Christian exhortation " pagan ideas and sentiments remain rampant from emperors down to scamps? " Theory is forgotten in practice. Blood, war, revenge, not forgiveness, is the method with the civilized as with the savage. Teachers must then get rid of their erroneous conceptions of mind, and train both the masters as well as the servants of the mind. In the teaching of art the great philosopher once more says the education mania which shouts " Enlightenment, Information, Instruction" in its teaching of art shows the 64

Ibid., p. 41.

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same fallacy concerning the mind. 65 Art is not for instruction; it is for pleasure. One who applauds music as being scientific holds a perverted belief. Intellectual interpretation, of course, adds to the pleasure of a composition " but the primary purpose of music is neither instruction nor culture but pleasure; and this is an all sufficient purpose." In order to prevent young people from growing into adults who persist in exaggeration and mis-statements, Spencer suggests some training that might be effective. 66 He would inflict certain punishments on the young for these traits, punishments relevant to the offenses. He suggests as fitting, the writing out of " a correct definition of the mis-used word, followed by some examples of its appropriate use." It would thus teach the child the meaning of the word and provide exercise in definition and frequent discipline in exact thinking. This discipline is now ignored in teaching. Students might also note mis-statements they hear in private and public conversations. Exaggerations lead to random thought. When facts are intended they should be correctly expressed. When amusement is the aim then exaggeration would be heightened by contrast with the usual, exact expression. This carelessness of exaggeration and mis-statement and the lack of suspicion of how greatly it exists shows itself in newspapers and journals. Spencer specifically attacks this in his chapter, " Perverted History "J87 Particular examples which irritated him were the opinions currently expressed in the newspapers and by word of mouth on the supposed hostile attitude of England in the American Civil W a r and the opinions of the general English public during the Boar War. Bias prevents from detecting exaggeration when it is favorable to our own view points. 65 e6

Spencer, op. cit., " Purpose of A r t , " pp. 44-48.

lbid.,

67

"Exaggerations and Mis-Statements," pp. 145-156.

Spencer, op. cit., pp. 274-279.

n 8

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Spencer had a word to say about examinations. 68 Too frequently examinations are faulty, he said, because they are made of questions which test acquisition of information rather than mental power. It is not quantity of knowledge that a person may pour out again that is needed, but the ability to use this knowledge in thinking. Spencer would ask questions which would test the capacity for original thinking and which would cause the candidate to reflect upon what he had learned. The answers should not be found in any books. F o r a biological student, Spencer gave the following question as an example of what he meant. " W h a t are the characteristics of the Aloe which are related to the long delay profitable to the species ? " Spencer was in the habit of asking similar questions of the young people and ladies with whom he went riding daily in the summers of the later part of his life. T o be sure they were put to check their continuous conversations which he could not well bear in his ill health. 69 T h e following questions illustrate the same methods he would use with candidates at examinations: " H o w is it that a bull-bog is able to retain his hold for a longer period than other dogs ? " " W h a t is the reason that in hilly districts the roads are deep down below the level of the field; whereas in flat districts they are on a level with the fields? " In the answers which he received, he says, " the noteworthy fact has been the undeveloped idea of causation implied." They gave no conception of a relevant cause. Spencer was strongly of the opinion that if examinations could be framed so as to test the thinking power " they would serve to single out the few who were something more than mere recipients of book-knowledge and professional teaching." 68

Spencer, Various Fragments

69

Spencer, Facts and Comments, pp. 49-52.

(New York, 1898), pp. 99-101.

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119

The Study of Sociology, one of the most widely-read books of Spencer for many years in America, aside from the Education, may be said to be a treatise on the teaching of the study of sociology. The importance of the teaching of the science of society he mentioned again and again throughout his works. The Study of Sociology is extremely pertinent and suggestive to one who would teach or study any branch of the social sciences. It shows our need of sociology, what its nature is, and what its difficulties are to the student and teacher. These difficulties are classed as objective and subjective. The former have to do with the vitiation of evidence and testimony of the written word, the subjective states of witnesses, and the distribution of facts in time; and further, the lack of knowledge of cause and effect of successive and co-existing phenomena. The subjective difficulties are the intellectual and emotional characteristics with which we approach the science. It is found that the mind of the student is hampered from making correct analysis or the ability to look with unprejudiced eye at social phenomena because of various biases which come out of the social milieu. These are the educational, the patriotic, the class, the political and the theological bias. These must be cleared away. In order to do this intelligently, the student must have a grounding in the chief facts of biology and psychology. Spencer, like his father, held the teaching profession as second to none in importance. T h e teacher increases life by information given and discipline enforced. H e enables students to live more effectively and at the same time opens avenues to him of various special gratifications. 70 How keenly he felt the necessity of educators and parents knowing the development of the mind may be judged from the following: Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Norgate edition, London, 1906.) 70

vol. iii, p. 180.

(Williams and

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It needs but to observe what unfit methods are used by teachers, to be convinced that even among the disciplined the power to frame thoughts which are widely unlike their own, is very small. We see the juvenile mind plied with generalities before it has any of the concrete facts to which they refer—when we see mathematics introduced under the purely rational form, instead of under that empirical form with which it should be commenced by the child, as it was commenced by the race—when we see a subject so abstract as grammar put among the first instead of among the last, and see it taught analytically instead of synthetically; we have ample evidence of the prevailing inability to conceive the ideas of undeveloped minds.71 The knowledge necessary for a teacher 72 who has the important task of preparing individuals for life may be found not only in Spencer's writings labeled " Education " , but in his Synthetic Philosophy and other works. In them may be found the fundamentals of biology, psychology, sociology and ethics from the standpoint of evolution. He has clearly stated the general principles which the elementary teacher and parent should follow in training the units of society. Furthermore, in his own works, he provided, he thought, a thorough background for the advanced teacher of the social sciences and for the teacher of ethics. In a chapter entitled " Teacher " 7 3 Spencer traces the profession of teaching in social evolution. It had its genesis in the priestly class who at first gave instruction in sacred matters to those who later were to become priests. In a militant society education is not greatly prized. Only in recent years has it become secularized. Y e t there are traces of its origin seen in our practice to-day, he says, in that insistence on religious training still prevails. There is a 71

Ibid., vol. i, p. 97.

72

In Spencer's opinion and scheme of education.

73

Spencer, op. cit., vol. iii, pt. vii, pp. 270-281.

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predominance of those who have taken sacred orders among educators. The clerical garb of the scholar is a remnant of the time when education was entirely in the hands of the priestly class. There is a tendency for teachers to mark themselves off into a class. They have a growing body of books and periodicals to consolidate and further the profession. Thus we see that the history of teaching " is no exception to the segregation and consolidation which accompany differentiation; though partly because of the more recent separation of the teaching class from the clerical class, this change has not been so conspicuous." N o w the great question arises, who shall provide education and where shall educational guidance have its source? The answer is that the laws of supply and demand must regulate it. Its impetus must come from the parental instincts. It must be left in private hands and not in those of the state which has no right to educate. 74 Society is by analogy, an organism. Each organ, must, to be efficient, perform but one function. In fact, it can only preform one. The function of the state is to see that the law of equal freedom prevails, that each individual has the right to use his faculties so long as he does not interfere with a like right of others, that is, that the state has, as its duty, the administration of justice. This position on education which he stated in Social Statics in 1850, he maintained on the whole until his death in 1903, in spite of the difficulties it led him into. If the state attempts to educate children it interferes with the development of the family, in that the parental instincts are deprived of a part of their function and through lack of exercise these necessary attributes are diminished through disuse. Since social evolution has its source in individuals, in the characters of men, such usurpation by the state, in the long run, hinders social progress 74

Spencer, Social Statics, chapter on " National Education," pp. 360-390.

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instead of hastening it. Such a procedure can do no good but much harm. The morality of beneficence must not be tampered with. N o harm can be so great as a breach of the law of equal freedom. The child has no right to education since he can express his faculties without it. Parents do have the right to buy commodities and should be unhampered by state-meddling to purchase education for their children if they so desire. The interest and judgment of the consumer is sufficient security for the goodness of the commodity. 75 If the government educates children it will educate them for its own uses. It will determine the type of citizen. Since the spirit of all governments tends to be conservative, progress will be hindered. If parents lack love and selfrestraint enough to educate their children so much the worse for society, for parental instincts are the only dependable source for the improvement of society. Social improvement may be a slow process, but society is a growth and not a manufacture. The competence of the masses is certainly growing in distinguishing good instruction from bad and, if unhampered, will continue to grow with experience. It is childish impatience to attempt to force evolution, or to suppose that artificial means can remedy what are thought to be nature's failures. W h a t is a day or even a generation or a century in the life of humanity? W e are too prone to call the voluntary system a failure because we can not immediately see its results. It is contended that National Education will diminish crime. This belief may be disputed. . . . Ignorance and crime are not cause and effect; they are coincident results of the same cause . . . crime is incurable, save by that gradual process of adaptation to the social state which humanity is undergoing. Crime is the continual breaking out of the old unadapted nature—the 75

Spencer, op. cit., p. 370 (1870 edition).

SPENCER'S

THEORIES

index of a character unfitted as the unfitness diminishes moral benefit can be effected education which is emotional

OF

EDUCATION

to its condition—and only as fast can crime diminish. Whatever by education, must be effected by rather than perceptive.78

A child must be made to feel that a thing is wrong. It must be made to love virtue and to loathe vice. Right behaviour must be natural, spontaneous, instinctive. Mulling over moral codes and catechisms will never do it. The appropriate emotions must be continually awakened. New ideas awakened by the intellect are not enough. Furthermore, a government can not truly educate at all, " but can only educate some by uneducating others. . . . The discipline of daily duty is far more valuable than the discipline of the teacher." Of all the qualities most needed by the masses, self-restraint is the one. Only sharp experience can bring out self-restraint. Parental responsibility brings out self-restraint more than any other factor. If the government educates, it by so much diminishes this restraint, and this is what is meant by saying that the state actually uneducates at the same time that it would be educating. The unit of society, the individual, would thus become more immature and more ineffectual through this usurpation of family duties by the state. 77 Furthermore, no self-respecting parents would like to feel that their children are being educated through the aid of money of others, the unmarried and the childless. The latter classes will likewise resent this intrusion of their rights by having money taken from their pockets to educate the children, many times of the 76 77

Spencer, op. cit., pp. 378-384.

Spencer, op. cit., p. 388, also Principles of Sociology (1906), vol. i, pp. 705-707. On page 759 of the same volume, Spencer says, " I have given reasons for thinking that the powers and functions of parents have been too far assumed by the State; and that probably a re-integration of the family will follow its undue disintegration."

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improvident. 78 Such state-meddlings would only tend to increase the birth-rate and would, by the same argument, lead to state-help in the matter of food, clothing and housing. In fact, there could be no logical end to such artificial props. Thus we see on every count that Spencer condemns National Education. This chapter has attempted to present Spencer's educational principles which were in every case, in his opinion, in conformity with his philosophical principles. 79 It has been found that he had much to say about education throughout his entire life-time and that his views are not confined to the volume entitled, Education. It will be shown in subsequent chapters where Spencer may have derived his educational ideas, and what influence his contributions may have had in contrast with those of his younger American contemporary, Lester F . Ward. 78

Ibid., vol. ii, p. 658.

The inconsistencies noted on page 170 of Education and in Social Statics with regard to women and children will be recalled. 79

C H A P T E R III T H E SOURCES AND R E S U L T S OF SPENCER'S EDUCATIONAL THEORIES

So many of Spencer's educational theories have become embodied in our school systems that it may have seemed too commonplace and too self-evident to have presented a detailed review of them. It is necessary therefore, for the reader to keep in mind the status of the natural and social sciences in the mid-nineteenth century, to recall the current educational ideas and school practices of Spencer's time in order to realize the great importance and significance of his theories to American and British society of seventy-five years ago. An examination of Spencer's life and works shows that he derived his chief educational ideas, first, from his father's and uncle's practice and theory as he himself, had experienced them; second, from his training in mechanical science as a young student and engineer; and third, from the Lamarckian development hypothesis and the association psychology of his time. With these theories he combined his own evolved principles of cosmic philosophy, particularly of evolutionary biology, psychology and ethics. To Bacon, to Locke, to Rousseau and to Pestalozzi, he undoubtedly is indebted either directly or indirectly. Of Bacon's works he had read only the essays. Somewhere he had read portions of Locke's writings. H e knew Dr. Biber's work on Henry Pestalozzi. It was in the Spencer home. What he derived from Rousseau, if anything, probably came unconsciously from his educator relatives, from Pestalozzi's works, and from mis125

126

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cellaneous literature which reflected the ideas of Rousseau and his followers. It will be recalled that Spencer prided himself on his originality and that he under-estimated the influence of the great amount of casual reading and conversations he carried on. Reading few books on philosophy and science, he honestly thought the greater part of his ideas were original with him. Nevertheless, Spencer did not claim originality for most of his educational views, but only for their unification and justification by the principles of his evolutionary philosophy, and for the evaluation of the relative worth of various forms of knowledge. He made a new whole out of old materials. H e was a great vehicle, as it were, for the best ideas of the past, clarified and unified by the alchemy of his own mind. B y so doing, he became the most outstanding writer on education in England of the nineteenth century, wielding great influence in both England and America as well as on the continent. Although Spencer dreamed of founding an educational institute, and with his father actually set on foot some plans for a school, he made no educational experiments himself. H e never taught except for a few months as a young man. H e was therefore a theorist, but gave as had not been given before, the exact reasons for his educational theories in the terms of the law of evolution. Pestalozzi had said, " I propose to psychologize education," but unfortunately there was no sound psychology upon which to base his work except as he watched the developing child-mind himself. Spencer attempted to supply this lack, and further, to show that the psychological development of man is a part of cosmic evolution. H e used the association psychology and the Lamarckian theory of development of his time as an inherent part of his educational system. Education is a preparation for life of the unit of society,

ANALYSIS

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127

namely, the individual. Since society is composed of units, the proper unfolding of the latent capabilities of these units will thus further the growth of society. Society, like the individual, grows. Like the vegetal organisms, it cannot be forced. The roots are more important than the flower. The studies of the curriculum, then, must be arranged in accordance with their relative worths, and in conformity with the growth and needs of the growing units which make up society. Like Rousseau, like Pestalozzi, like his father, Spencer would begin teaching with the natural objects of the environment. But his father had added a new element to that of Pestalozzi's scheme, that of causation. " W h a t is the cause of this, H e r b e r t ? " , his father would ask. The rational powers were to be developed along with the observational. W h a t Spencer proposed for elementary education is the natural, experimental method of science which he received as a small child and through youth at the hand of his father, and later, from his uncle. The education which Herbert Spencer himself had was to be the sort all children should have. It deals with objects first and with principles and books afterwards. It is self-instruction as far as possible, from the collection, study and drawing of insects, flowers and minerals. It deals with air-pumps, levers, and with physical and chemical experiments. It has little to do with literature or the languages. It flees from the classics. It proceeds from the simple to the complex. It is accompanied by intellectual sympathy from the instructor and by interest and pleasure by the learner. It has nothing to do with the supernatural as an explanation. Y e t Spencer himself had suffered one lack, namely, insufficient recreation. H e would add to instruction, therefore, more spontaneous games and sports than he himself had enjoyed. He would emphasize physical training.

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T o insure the general method, so successful in his own case, he would see that teachers were fully equipped in biology, psychology, sociology, history (as descriptive sociology), ethics and the art of teaching and rearing the young. That he himself had been kept from the worthless history teaching of his own period was probably, in his opinion, a blessing. But in the future there would be history of the sort he discussed so ably in his writings. Girls should in no way be denied educational training. Like boys they would be limited only by the laws of physiological growth. They too, are units of society. They too, will be parents. Above all, they must be healthy animals, and schooled in the art of rearing the young. Spencer, thus is more than a theorist of elementary education. H e carried his principles further than Rousseau or Pestalozzi. They apply through all stages of education. He presents and explains the scientific attitude that teachers should possess for instruction in music, sculpture, painting and composition as well as for the sciences. His engineering training corroborated and strengthened his admiration and approval of the education, largely experimental, which he had received from his father and partly from his uncle. This engineering experience had great effect also in the formulating of the " First Principle," the persistence of force, 1 and would appear to have had much influence upon his conception of evolution as stated in his famous definition. His training as an engineer undoubtedly deepened his opinion of the importance of science. Spencer's theories of education resemble those of Sir Francis Bacon ( 1 5 6 1 - 1 6 2 6 ) , in several respects. Bacon would have education consist largely of scientific knowledge 1 In the early editions of Social Statics, Spencer had used the term " T h e Divine I d e a " as the ultimate cause. L a t e r he substituted f o r c e as the ultimate cause as f a r as we can know it.

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rather than of literary knowledge. H e would derive this knowledge from the phenomena of nature, but, in addition, from the experience of civilization, (which, is, of course, a part of nature, to Spencer). It was a form of sense realism. Spencer would, in general, agree with Bacon's statement: Man is but the servant and the interpreter of nature; what he does and what he knows is only what he has observed of nature's order in fact or in thought; beyond this he knows nothing and can do nothing. For the chain of causes cannot by any force be loosed or broken, nor can nature be commanded except by being obeyed. And so those twin subjects, human knowledge and human Power do really meet in one; and it is from ignorance of cause that operation fails. Spencer would apply Bacon's general method of science to education, although it might be said that he did not always follow it himself. This is the method given by observation, and not by authority. It is primarily the inductive method and secondarily the deductive method. Both are valuable and necessary. T o gain power or knowledge of nature, Bacon had said it is necessary to observe, to investigate and to experiment. The "idols" of Bacon, which hinder the use of the proper method in the discovery of knowledge, the idols of the tribe, the den, the market-place and of the theatre are not unlike the biases which Spencer regards as such great obstacles in the teaching of the social sciences. 2 He had spoken of Bacon approvingly in his essay on " Intellectual Education " and wrote, " the saying of Bacon, that physics is the mother of sciences, has come to have a meaning in education," 3 and again, " to use a word of Bacon's now unfortunately obsolete — we must determine the relative values of knowledges." 4 2 Spencer, The Study of Sociology 11, 12. 3

Spencer, Education, p. 106.

* Ibid., p. 29.

(New Y o r k , 1874), chs. 8, 9, 10,

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It would be inconceivable that Spencer was in no way influenced by John Locke (1632-1704), one of the most eminent writers on education in England. Y e t it would be difficult to say just how or in what way he was affected. Spencer says : " A l l through my life Locke's Essay had been before me on my father's shelves, but I had never taken it down, or at any rate, I have no recollection of having ever read a page of it." 5 In another passage he writes, " during all my life up to the time Social Statics was written, there had been a copy of Locke on my father's shelves which I never r e a d — I am not certain that I ever took it down." 6 Y e t he must have read Locke's work, Some Thoughts Concerning Education or portions of it somewhere, since he quotes a passage relative to the unwisdom of severe chastisement of children in his work on " Education ", 7 Like Locke, Spencer believed that the aim of all intellectual effort was the attainment of truth. W i t h him, he maintained that a good physical condition was of primary importance. Both devoted many pages to this subject. Spencer however, unlike Locke, was opposed to the hardening process to attain health and sturdiness of body. 8 W i t h Bacon, Locke thought that all knowledge comes f r o m the senses, that is, from experience. T h e latter believed that at birth the mind was a blank. Spencer also agreed in the prime importance of sense-training through observation and first-hand experience, but he also believed that the mental 5

Spencer, Autobiography,

vol. i, p. 288.

Duncan, Life and Letters of Herbert to Leslie Stephen, July 2, 1899. 6

Spencer, pp. 417-418.

7 Spencer, Education, pp. 204-205. See Locke, Some Thoughts cerning Education (Cambridge, England, 1913).

Letter Con-

8 L o c k e , op. cit., p. 1. " A sound mind in a sound Body is a short, but full Description of a happy State in this World." Locke would, for instance, recommend leaky shoes for children, to harden against catching cold from accidental wetting of the feet later in life.

ANALYSIS

OF SPENCER'S

THEORIES

experience of the race had been handed down heredity.

through

T h e hardening process, Locke applied to the intellectual as well as to the physical life. The desires and impulses must be held in check by the reason. Education was for discipline in both realms. Spencer only partly subscribed to education as a means of discipline. Not only was the process by which one learned important but what was learned. Y e t the acquirement of the scientific method of thinking in his scheme assumes far more importance than the acquisition o f knowledge as information. Growth in the power of doing as well as in thinking was of deep interest to him. T h e instincts to Spencer, are not bad. They need direction but not suppression. W i t h Locke, development comes from within, and through discipline are formed permanent habits. Locke made a clear distinction between instruction and education. But both are for discipline. It is the way things are learned that is of significance. Books are not the beginning and end of education. Not only by reading and study does one become an educated person but by travel, meditation and reflection. Spencer's student learns by observation and experimentation. Meditation and reflection Spencer does not discuss except as he describes his own mental process of arriving at truth, a process of which he never showed disapproval. Locke's three aims of education, physical health, virtue and knowledge, are agreeable to Spencer, but they must always be related to the development of character and the needs of life as it is to be lived. Locke's emphasis on authority 9 in educational methodology, the authority of the 9 Locke, op. cit., p. 27. " I imagine everyone will judge it reasonable, that their children, when little, should look upon their Parents as their Lords, their absolute Governors, and as such stand in awe of them; and that when they come to riper years, they should look on them as their best, as their only sure Friends, and as such love and reverence them."

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parents and of the tutor is incompatible with Spencer's views. Locke, however, did not respect authority in arriving at truth. T h e only authority to which he would give allegiance in seeking truth was the authority of reason. But even in the method of teaching, Spencer would teach cause and the relation between cause and effect with no recourse to the authority of parent or tutor. H e could tolerate nothing which repressed the individual and the natural faculties of man. 10 Although Locke exalted reason, he saw that habit is often more effective. H e says: " Habits working more constantly, and with greater Facility, than Reason, which, when we have most need of it, is seldom fairly consulted, and more rarely obey'd." 1 1 Both Locke and Spencer maintained that early education should be a training in the senses, that the educative process should be pleasurable to the pupil, and that cruelty had no place. 12 Both believed in proceeding from the simple to the complex, from the known to the unknown. The natural curiosity of children should be utilized and character will be 1 0 Professor W . H. Hudson, in his book, An Introduction to the Philosophy of Herbert Spencer (London, 1911) traces Spencer's dislike of classical training to fear of authority. H e writes: " Spencer's pronounced opposition to the ordinary classical curriculum is one of the most widely-known characteristics of his general teaching. Systematically expressed in his Education, it will be found cropping up in unexpected forms and places in almost all his other writings. It should be noted that it is largely based upon his belief that the common scholastic routine, with its superstitious veneration of the past, and entire devotion to merely bookish learning, inevitably leads to intellectual subjection; and that it is, therefore, one aspect of his general revolt against tyranny of authority." P. 14. 11

Locke, op. cit., p. 91.

" Great severity of punishment does but very little good, nay, great harm, in education; and I believe it will be found caeteris paribus that children who have been most chastised seldom make the best men." Locke, op. cit., p. 29. Quoted with approval by Spencer, "Education," pp. 204-205. 12

ANALYSIS

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developed as well as the intellectual processes by compelling children as far as possible to suffer the natural consequences of their own acts. Locke looked with disfavor on the stultifying methods of teaching the classics, but he was not so extreme as Spencer on this point, since Spencer not only decried the method of teaching the classics but their subject-matter as well. Locke said little of the natural sciences, and in this respect was at variance with both Bacon and Spencer. Locke's work, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, was primarily written in the form of letters of advice to a friend with regard to the rearing and education of his son. It thus treats of a particular situation. Locke's treatise must be read with this in mind and should not be considered apart from his other writings, especially from the Essay Concerning Human Understanding. There are some resemblances between the views of Spencer and Rousseau ( 1 7 1 2 - 1 7 7 8 ) , 1 3 but no evidence that Spencer was directly influenced by him. In fact, he resented the suggestion, since he had never read the Smile and said that he owed none of his ideas on education to it. 14 In passing, it may be remarked, that the question of influence is a very illusive one, and that too much confidence has been shown in many works purporting to show influences. A reader or a conversationalist, even though a casual one, over a wide range of subjects, such as Spencer was, might have been deeply influenced—conditioned—by Rousseau's views though expressed by someone else. Again, he might not have been influenced at all, even had he read Rousseau's educational treatise which he had not. Furthermore, there is such a thing as original thinking. Nevertheless, it is true that the methods followed by his grandfather and father and uncles 13

Rousseau w a s influenced by Locke.

14

Duncan, op. cit., p. 465.

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may have been in part suggested directly or indirectly by Rousseau's ideas. The ideas of Rousseau certainly had enormously wide currency and influence and flew here and there often unlabeled. To be safe, one can but notice the resemblances and note, since we know no more, that they were widely known at that time. Spencer, like Rousseau, was interested in the original nature of man. Both men denounced the erroneous teaching of the past. Like the great fore-runner in education, Spencer believed, in a sense, in unfolding the native instincts and capacities. But he generally used the word development rather than unfolding. Education is a natural process. The mind grows. But with Spencer, it does not grow from within, but through coping with, and adapting itself to, the external environment. He continued the psychological tendency which Rousseau began. Educational data should come, as with Bacon and Rousseau, from nature and her laws. Thus he carried on the scientific tendency. Both theorists stressed individualism, an individualism which should be the basis of a better society. To Rousseau, education is life, but to Spencer education is more than an unfolding of the latent capabilities; it is a preparation for life. Thus Spencer clearly expressed the sociological tendency, perhaps in certain ways, even more strongly than did Rousseau. In more detail as to their theories, it will be noted that both men believed in teaching first by objects in the near-by environment. The concrete should come before the abstract. Books are only supplementary, and are sources of indirect knowledge. But in Spencer's scheme, the child would come to know books much sooner than in the system of Rousseau. To both, physical health is necessary before all else. The discipline of natural consequences would be observed. But since Smile does not reason until late, he could not be expected to notice the relation between cause and efifect which

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Spencer stressed so much all along the way. T h e ideas of Rousseau and Spencer with regard to the value of drawing and the inefficacy of rote-learning were the same. Spencer, however, did not divide the life of the child into the distinct epochs for education which Rousseau had done. Although there are many resemblances between the ideas of the two thinkers, it may be said that Spencer's theories comprise a far more comprehensive scheme than those of Rousseau, not so contradictory, neither so full of fire and ardor, nor so charmingly expressed. They cover a wider scope. Rousseau would teach a child to be a man first and a citizen afterwards. Spencer would carry on the two processes together. Spencer deals with a more definite system of knowledge related to evolution and the science of society. H e had the advantage of Rousseau by a century. W i t h regard to Pestalozzi's 15 contributions, it is certain that Spencer knew them as did his father. Spencer approved of the principles as expressed at Stanz, at Burgdorf and at Yverdon, although he did not always approve of Pestalozzi's practice. Spencer and his father had thought of forming an institute on the new methods as put into practice by Pestalozzi and his followers, together with ideas they had evolved themselves. In his essay on " Intellectual Education ", he mentions Pestalozzi at least twelve times and also quotes from Fellenberg. 16 Like Pestalozzi, Spencer would psychologize education but he would do more. He would show the biological, historical and ethical basis as well as the psychological in terms of a cosmic evolutionary philosophy. 15

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827), Swiss reformer in education.

Emanuel von Fellenberg (1771-1844), co.-worker with Pestalozzi. A t Yverdon he carried on the philanthropic aspect of the work. " A t H o f w y l , near Burgdorf, Fellenberg conducted most successfully f r o m 1806 to 1844, a school that was pronounced by so competent an authority as D r . Barnard to have been the most influential school that ever existed." Monroe, op. cit., p. 723. 16

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To " Father Pestalozzi" belongs the credit of being more than a theorist. He turned schoolmaster. He trained infants in arms and prescribed methods to be used from birth up to manhood. He had a training school for teachers. He continually experimented, and changed his methods as he, himself, grew mentally, and as his trial and error methods led him. " He it was who first made clear and forced upon the public the position that the whole problem of education was to be considered from the point of view of the developing mind of the child . . . he first made the school-room world conscious of its importance." 17 But Pestalozzi aimed to improve society. Spencer aimed to develop the individual, the unit of society. Both believed in pleasurable self-instruction and in sense training. Spencer disagreed with the Mother's Manual which Pestalozzi himself later discarded. But in the training of natural objects first and in the necessity of physical training both men were at one. Again, Spencer had an elaborated theory of all knowledge, whereas Pestalozzi was weak and inarticulate as to theory but strong in practice. Spencer had the superb analytic, synthetic mind. " Father Pestalozzi " had the loving, understanding mind, the naive spirit of great simplicity and faith which could come close to the heart of a child and bring industry and happy contentment even to the dreariest of school-rooms. Pestalozzi applied the theory that education is the natural harmonious development of all the powers and capacities of the individual. He would unfold the innate powers given by nature. With this theory Spencer was in full accord, although to him, these powers were developed by coping with the invironment. His aim was not so sociological or so humanitarian as that of Pestalozzi. In the social aspect, Pestalozzi's aim more nearly resembles that of Lester Frank Ward. Pestalozzi was among the first to insist that educa17

Monroe, op. cit., p. 598.

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tional method must be based on the natural order of the development of the child's capacities as well as the first to attempt, as a teacher in the school-room, to find the psychological way. Some of the probable sources of Spencer's ideas of education have been mentioned. It now remains to speak of the subject-matter which he especially emphasized to be of educational value. It may be said that all that Spencer advocated with regard to subjects has been accepted, but some additions have been made in the aesthetic and classical fields. In reality, however, many of these so-called additions are subjects which have been allowed to remain over from the old curricula against which Spencer was protesting. In accordance, however, with Spencer's views, increased attention has been paid to physiology and hygiene. Indeed, his tenets of physical education have steadily met with adoption and usually with approval, which has been sometimes ahead of practice, it is true. In our best schools girls are now about as well trained as boys in matters of health. Nothing is denied them in the way of sports or exercise. Unfortunately, children, of the well-to-do in particular, are still to be seen undergoing the " hardening " process with knees and lower limbs exposed in response to fashion. Many children still suffer from under-nourishment or malnutrition. Yet the public conscience is very much aroused. The science of foods and balanced diets is receiving increasing attention. H o w much of this is due to the influence of Spencer it would be hard to say, although his essay on this subject is known to most educators. Spencer pointed out the necessity of, what would be called to-day, sex education, social hygiene and training for family life. H e felt that such training should be for both sexes. Gradually the taboo against this knowledge is being lifted. The prevention of disease among animals and plants still

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receives by our governmental officials perhaps more attention and larger appropriations than the diseases and diets and welfare of children. Y e t the Children's Bureau, the Child Welfare Commissions and other similar organizations show the general trend of interest. Courses and even schools in home economics have steadily multiplied. T h e study of the family is receiving wider consideration, not only in women's colleges in the department of sociology, but in at least a few men's colleges. Perhaps Spencer's hope that men might realize the need for parental and family education will sometime be fully realized. The Swedish writer, Miss Ellen K e y , who was much impressed by Spencer's educational views, has in fact, proclaimed this to be The Century of the Child. Certainly the art of education in the rearing of the young has been growing since Spencer's day, not only among parents, but in the whole teaching profession. First-aid courses, which he suggested, and recreation centers are now found in most large cities. But although it is believed that citizens should know the general principles of physiology and the bodily needs as Spencer advocated, we, in America, have increasingly depended upon experts. Spencer was disinclined, in his extreme individualism, to give prominence enough to the place of the experts. A knowledge by the individual of the location of " the Eustachian tubes " , for instance, or the " effects of numbness ", or the uses of antiseptics which he mentioned, are not enough, in the opinion of the modern American, to insure healthful living. In addition to desiring information concerning bodily functions we are accustomed to go to the clinic, to the specialist and to the hospital. A l l that Spencer has to say of the worthlessness of unorganizable facts of history can only be applauded. His denunciation of the history writing and teaching of the past has had inestimable influence, so much so, that history is

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being consciously influenced more and more by descriptive and comparative sociology. F e w writers on the teaching of history have failed to weigh Spencer's views. I n the study of biography, however, which he largely ignored, the tendency has been against him. Biography is increasingly conceded to be of value in arousing an interest in history to say nothing of the literary tastes and emulative impulses it stimulates. The power o f example to the young who are natural hero-worshipers, Spencer failed to see. He overlooked in this field the strengthening o f the associative powers which biography might increase in the teaching o f history or the influence of the great individual in periods of inertia or of change. H e had little to say of those who " break the cake of custom " . Spencer's comments on painting, poetry and sculpture, although still of interest and of some value to the teacher, have probably had little effect, even though his ideas as far as they went were generally accepted. H e admitted that science would not make an artist of any kind, but that knowledge o f science would add to the appreciative powers of the average individual or of the connoisseur of the arts or of the artist himself. T h e artist must arrive at these principles either dircetly or indirectly. Spencer's theories in this field are interesting but have had no dynamic influence. It is probable that he valued aesthetics more than is generally thought. His autobiography leads one to this opinion. H e seemed to know that his own emotional powers were weak. An approach to the arts, such as he suggested, would satisfy only those who are incipient Herbert Spencers. Y e t he said these subjects should be carried on with the sciences in due proportion. That a man must eat and survive before he paints pictures, writes song or drama is evident, but most peoples, even the most primitive, find life greatly enhanced by the adoption of some

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form of aesthetics even before they know the best methods of survival. For a child of strong literary or artistic tendencies, Spencer's method would be decidedly bad and inadequate. The principles enunciated in his essay, " The Philosophy of Style ", are useful today, especially to writers and teachers of business English and of secretarial courses. Indeed a recent popular work quotes his principles for guidance several times. 18 Science, as Spencer defines it, was, up to his era, certainly neglected in conventional education and relegated to the nooks and corners of time outside the curriculum. It, obviously, is the most important subject in its scope, as he meant it, for the mass of mankind. No one today would gainsay his emphasis on biology, psychology, sociology, ethics, and the sciences of physics and chemistry. However, it probably would be conceded that scientific method as gained from the knowledge of one or two sciences is far better adapted to the curriculum, life being the brief span that it is. Spencer himself merely meant, however, that general principles of all should be known; and it must be remembered that he wrote at a time when the classics dominated the curriculum and that science, as a school or university subject was, in most branches, scorned. In this field his dictum has borne fruit. His emphasis on the need of the study of sociology and the correlative subject of citizenship has met with increasing response. His influence in social science, in America, particularly, has been very great. His work on the Study of Sociology is as fresh and potent today as when he wrote it, even though the particular sociology he advocated has only in part held with time. 18

Sarah Augusta Taintor, Training York, third edition, 1932).

for

Secretarial

Practice

(New

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Spencer's theory concerning moral training and the teaching of ethics to children is a moot question. His views on these subjects have undoubtedly had much consideration and much influence among writers. In one respect he foreshadowed the present views of the psychiatrist, namely, that home life should be such that, when the young person leaves home, he will not find the transition to the world and more or less independence, too great a strain emotionally. A youth, more or less accustomed to understand cause and effect, and not made a weakling by parental authority, would the more easily meet the crisis of leaving home and familiar surroundings. Spencer's method of teaching morals by experience is fundamentally sound and much is to be said in favor of it even though he presented but a limited treatment. It is quite true, as he suggests, that children follow the mores of the group by exercise of the appropriate faculties, rather than by precept, authority, or coercive legislation. But the teaching of morals to suggestible youth may be supplemented by example and biography. The Romans understood this. As a part of the education of their sons they were accustomed to take them to the Forum to hear of the deeds of the great living and dead. The discipline of natural consequences is of great value but only within limits. Spencer failed to see the influence of heroes or of the power of suggestion. His method was intended not merely, however, to produce proper conduct, but to strengthen the reasoning powers and to develop independence as well. His would be an expensive method to follow at all times, in view of the fact, that in our society, we deem it almost prohibitive for children of the masses to be educated in the home or by tutors. Yet nothing can be of more value than for the individual to perceive and to experience the relation between cause and effect. Among children and youths such a course certainly tends, as Spencer said, to lessen friction between

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the guide and the guided. However, it may be lacking somewhat in sympathetic guidance. Still the parent or teacher undoubtedly profits when he drops the authoritative method. Spencer suggests a method not easy f o r the crude or the irresponsible. But he does not expect perfection. Furthermore, he claims that his method may be used as a supplement to others which are based on such psychological principles as are in conformity with the development and disposition of parents and children. In his discussion of crime, modern research would hardly agree. I n fact, his idea that crime is due to the remains of the old crude nature of a more primitive organism would be challenged. However, that in many cases it is due to mal-adaptation arising f r o m a mixture of cultures and f r o m a rapidly changing social pattern, as he implied, would be accepted. But psychologists are inclined today to place much significance on early environment, early conditioning and habit-formation in the young. Suggestion is deemed important to the plastic and impressionable mind of the child. W i t h Spencer, experts would agree that book-learning is probably no preventive of crime but, as he said, the child must be made to feel the difference between right and wrong. As has been suggested, Spencer did not show how this emotional education can be given and, in this respect, his educational theory is defective. Furthermore, the child is not taught in Spencer's scheme, sufficiently to regard the feelings of others. Spencer's method of teaching science, not original with him, as has been seen, is in accordance with the principles of psychology as he knew them. Observation, experimentation and verification were his methods. The object first, principles and books afterwards. Likewise, his ideas on the teaching of language first and grammar later receive acceptance to-day. The doctrine of self-instruction, modern edu-

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cators feel, is the surest way to produce that pleasurable excitement Spencer thought so necessary. And rightly. A sense of power and accomplishment gives pleasure as Pestalozzi before him proved. T o follow the course of the unfolding capabilities is, no doubt, sound psychology. But the problem has ever been to discern just what that course is. W e have come to realize that it varies not only among those who may enjoy science but among those who have decided leanings for literature, the classics and the arts. In fact, Spencer's methods and the arrangement of his subjectmatter do not sufficiently regard individual differences. That Spencer aimed to substitute principles for rules, after the observational powers had been well trained as a preparation for the more developed rational powers, shows his kinship to modern educators and to those of the pioneers who, like himself, revolted from old methods. His repugnance to rote-learning and monotony in every realm of learning has come to be felt by the majority of teachers. No one favors stereotyped learning any longer, although in certain quarters there is a growing feeling that we may have been too neglectful in recent years in the training of memory. The sample questions he offered for examinations show how little Spencer regarded the mere acquisition of knowledge and how much the thinking powers. They are admirable for what he intended, but it is unfortunate that he limited them only to science, and that he made no suggestions for examinations in history or the arts. Spencer's theory of object-lessons and the exercising of the perceptions by the handling, testing and drawing of objects, in a word, sense training, has been welcomed by the best educators for many years before and since his time. He observed that from birth onward the infant learns a vast amount by self-experimentation. This is nature's way. As parents must provide food for the body to grow, so must they provide suitable food for the mind to develop.

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By the theory that education should be " civilization in little," Spencer meant that education should be as much as possible a process of self-evolution and that it should be pleasurable as knowledge has always been to the race when acquired naturally, in its normal order, guided by the natural interest and capabilities with no surfeiting by abnormal methods. The recapitulation, or the culture epoch theory, in its extreme form, has suffered an eclipse in late years although it still exerts some influence. However, in a general way the method is still followed, since the race, like the individual, has proceeded from the simple to the complex. But recent findings in anthropology and culture history have shown that mankind has not everywhere passed through the same successive cultural epochs. There is no necessity for such order, except in a very loose sense as Spencer and others supposed. He, like others of his era, had to depend upon defective data. Through different contacts and borrowings it is found that peoples may pass from a certain cultural stage to another, out of the supposed normal order, with comparative ease. Witness the Japanese and the Turks or the American negroes. Neither do we find that all the simple peoples have passed through identical successive cycles of existence. That the past social pattern, limited by different geographical environments determines very much future adoptions and borrowings has been well shown by Professor Sumner in his famous study of the folkways. In educational thinking, the rigid adherence to the culture epoch theory, made popular in America by G. Stanley Hall, has passed away. Spencer's theory of individuation and genesis, as applied to educational! practices, has never been proved in spite of the wide attention it has received and the controversy aroused. It seems reasonable to suppose that during periods of rapid growth the mental powers will be more sluggish. Educators

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tend to believe this. But that the amount of study the average student does has any effect on his reproductive powers is a disputed question. As an academic subject this theory has interest, but has little popular interest to-day, inasmuch as the capacity for reproduction appears to be far greater than social needs demand in view of the great desire to maintain high standards of living. It is true that in Europe and America the birth-rate in the higher economic classes has steadily declined and among the college-bred in America so much so as to cause alarm. But studies that have been made indicate that the decline is more of economic than of biological origin. The serious break-down of many adolescents seems, in the opinion of experts, to be due not to excessive mental work in the school or university, but to emotional difficulties, and the distractions and increasing complexity of social life in a machine age. Many factors delay marriage in the higher economic classes, and it still remains to be proved that the reproductive capacity is in any way diminished biologically by our educational regimen. Even should it be proved, the capacity of reproduction would still exceed the social and economic needs of to-day, gauged as they are by our ideas of standards of living. This hypothesis of individuation and genesis enunciated by Spencer was in conformity with his theory of equilibration based on his studies of mechanical balance. It is hardly fair to call Spencer's theory of education a bread-and-butter theory as it has been designated, or a purely utilitarian one. It is to prepare for complete living, and, to develop character, but he claims that he yields to no one the value of aesthetics. The aim of all life is proximate happiness. T o be happy to the full, one must be a good animal, to be sure, but this is not all. Neither is ability " to replenish the still and fill the larder " sufficient. He says:

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But if there is a more worthy aim for us than to be drudges—if there are other uses in the things around us than their power to bring money—if there are higher faculties to be exercised than acquisitive and sensual ones—if the pleasures which poetry and art and science and philosophy can bring, are of any moment— then is it desirable that the instinctive inclination which every child shows to observe natural beauties and investigate natural phenomena should be encouraged.1® The development of the character of the individual will thus elevate society. It is a slow method in that it follows the universal laws of evolution, of adaptation, of the elimination of the least fit. " Generations must pass before any great amelioration . . . can be expected." Society is improved through the inheritance of acquired characteristics and natural selection. The evils that society suffers come from non-adaptation of constitution to conditions and from impediments of the psychological and social relics of the past. Spencer perceived " social lag " although he did not use that phrase. W e are moving from a military to an industrial pattern, he says, where the individual will be free to use his own faculties limited only by the like freedom of others. This ideal of a perfect equilibrium is, of course, logically one of anarchy and of complete control of the individual by the individual. Spencer, unlike Ward, did not welcome the thought of social control. He dreaded the thought of " the coming slavery " which such control would bring. In his scheme, it is impossible for society to control the course of social evolution. It is hard to see, assuming the theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, why Spencer did not believe education could be a more dynamic factor in social evolution than he did. Spencer believed that the ancestral occupation of teaching in his family, through the inheritance 19

Spencer, Education, p. 139.

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o f the effects o f use and disuse, had affected him both mentally and physically.

H e listed four mental traits and one

physical trait thus inherited.

H e also believed that parents

by using their parental impulses through self-sacrifice and foresight for their children in providing education for them by the free action o f the laws of supply and demand would likewide affect coming generations and society as a whole by the same law of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. B u t he stopped short of recognizing that the effects o f universal state education could, by the same law, in any way improve mankind.

Nay, more, it would be a detriment.

Accepting his stand on the law o f the inheritance of acquired characteristics and also his law of equal freedom it would appear that in this instance Spencer deliberately preferred to accept his theory of liberty and increasing individuation and to ignore his analogy of the social organism.

I n thi?

case the incompatibility of some of his leading tenets is seen.

On this point at issue, however, Spencer would reply

that the effects gained by biological inheritance, if the State provided universal, compulsory education, would not offset the loss sustained over a period of generations if parents did not exercise completely their natural instincts and emotions through the individual initiative, self-restraint and stability o f character necessary to provide education themselves for their children.

In other words, granting that the effects o f

education, however conferred, can be inherited, such effects would not compensate for the deterioration produced by the State assisting the weak to survive and at the same time causing the parental instincts of the strong to weaken through disuse.

T h e State must under no circumstances and for no

excuse usurp family functions.

Spencer, however, did admit

as a young man on one occasion, that culture could be an aid to human progress, and conversely, that the " barbarizing " influence in our schools may " become a serious hindrance to

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national progress ". 20 But in his scheme there must be a moving equilibrium and men cannot, by hastening overdevelopment in one direction, do anything but diminish it in another; in other words, man can only disturb the balance. His aim of education as a preparation for life, in so far as this aim considers the individual alone, is not in full accord with the foremost thinking of to-day. That individuals, in the logical sense, (if considered as isolated units like cannon balls in a configuration), determine society is seen clearly enough. But in actuality it is more and more realized that society makes the individual, and that from the moment of birth, man is conditioned in multitudinous ways, and that there is no escape from the pattern of society. Moreover, one person may be a member of many groups. In Spencer's emphasis on the individual in the social configuration, he shows a more psychological than a sociological tendency; both, however, being reverse sides of the same coin. His aim of education, as measured by what he has said on subject-matter, would not sufficiently train the desires and emotions or other regarding impulses. The success of Spencer's own personal education was so great and so satisfactory to him that he utterly failed to appreciate other types. He himself, suffered acutely, one could easily argue, from an inadequate emotional and aesthetic life which, of course, might have been as much the result of heredity as of education. Seldom having associated with school or play groups, he overlooked somewhat, the need for developing a love and ability in the young of cooperating with others in group activities. T h e education he proposed is defective in the social aspect. It is too individualistic. The child would not experience enough the pleasures of comradeship, of gang life, of cooperation or of spontaneous leadership. His father 20

Spencer, op. cit., p. 170, footnote.

conformity with his general system.

T h i s idea was not, however, in

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held up to him the ideal of becoming a worthy member of society. Spencer thought too much of the unit, the individual, and not enough of the socius, or of the group in his educational theories. He never regretted missing a university training, thinking almost entirely, as he did, of the defective curricula of universities and nothing of social values or of intellectual cooperation. He failed to comprehend what a good university career might accomplish, although he had many friends whom he admired who had been trained at a university. Spencer's early disapproval of National or State education was never modified. His reasons are elsewhere cited. Groupcontrolled education he could countenance if it arose from the spontaneous interest and beneficence of individuals composing the group itself. But the moment education becomes imposed from without, then the development of the parental feelings and instincts are checked, thereby retarding social evolution which can only arise from the characters of men, through exercise and not from artificial support. The state, too, by neglecting its one specific function of maintaining justice, is weakened through a scattering of energies. This theory of the non-interference of the state in education has steadily lost ground. Compulsory state-education has increased more and more. Education in the home, such as Spencer had experienced, has diminished. The functions carried on for ages in the home have everywhere lessened in number, whether for good or for ill only time will reveal. In fact, already a few are decrying the increase of what seems paternalism by the government or what Spencer would call, in the case of education, a usurpation of family ethics by the state. The movement for universal compulsory education had gained much momentum before Spencer's death. 21 2 1 Spencer foresaw what he called " The Man Versus the State.

Coming Slavery."

See

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Increasing social control by the state in any form, anathema to him, embittered his last years. He did not foresee that private groups through great monopolies and concentration of wealth and power, made possible by rapid communication, could throttle, perhaps more effectively than any democratic state-control could throttle, the development of those individual activities and characteristics which he so prized as the fountainhead of social evolution. This point, Lester F . W a r d saw, and in this respect, having twenty-one years the advantage of Spencer, his denunciation of genetic evolution only, and of laisses faire and his ardent advocacy of social control was more in harmony with the Zeitgeist, whereas Spencer harked back to a past era. Social control through governmental agencies was incompatible with Spencer's system. Y e t with all of Spencer's misconceptions, as we from our changed social pattern view them, many of his educational theories were sound, considered in the light of our knowledge to-day, particularly as to method. A s to subject-matter they were valid as far as they went. The association psychology, as a dominant school, ceased about the middle of the nineteenth century. In fact, Spencer has been called the last of the associationists and the first of the evolutionists.22 The theory of the inheritance of functionally-produced characters has been practically discarded. W e have, in practice, given homage to science as the queen of knowledge as Spencer predicted. He was interested to know how knowledge is acquired and how it is produced and made practical to man and to society, uniting both the subjective and the objective processes. H e continued, and united in his system, the psychological, the scientific and, to a certain extent, the sociological tendencies which had begun long 22

Murphy, An Historical

York, 1929), P- 113-

Introduction

to Modem

Psychology

(New

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before his time.23 He did not expect too much of education. He had no superstitions or undue expectations of it. It was not for him " The Great Panacea ", 2 i He would say a reform in education must move pari passu with other reforms. B y no means could it be construed as the lever to all other reforms. Education must study nature's ways and simply systematize the natural process of learning and thus, if not aid, at least not hinder, the process of evolution. Spencer gave, as no one before him had given, a complete philosophy as a basis for his specific ideas of education. He unified in a logical whole the best currents of the past and of his own era which have flowed on with power and fertilizing influences ever since. H e gave a compelling classification of the relative values of " knowledges" in accordance with the activities of life which most men must pursue. That he emphasized educational principles with more clarity than had been done before will not be denied. He spoke, as always, as one having authority. Regarded as the most influential Anglo-Saxon writer on education in the nineteenth century, 25 Spencer hold§ a prominent and permanent place in the history of education. 23

Monroe, op. ext., chs. xiii, xiv.

Lester F . W a r d ' s original title f o r Dynamic ferred to education. 24

Sociology

which re-

2 5 Compayre, Gabriel, Herbert Spencer and Scientific Education (New Y o r k , 1907), p. 3. " W e willingly subscribe to the judgment of a distinguished teacher, W . H . Payne, now professor in the University of Michigan, w h o wrote, in 1886: ' T h e most useful and profound book which has been written on education since the Smile of J. J. Rousseau is certainly Herbert Spencer's e s s a y . ' " Compayre adds: " O f all the author's w o r k s it [Education] is perhaps, this which has the greatest chance of surviving," p. 5. Compayre notes that in spite of the great value of the book it does not contain many wholly new ideas and states: " Thanks to an amazing g i f t of expression, he clothes the ideas of others magnificently; but as to education it is possibly just to say that the book contains very f e w really new ideas," p. 108.

E x - P r e s i d e n t Charles W . Eliot of H a r v a r d University writes of the

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four essays: " Their tone was aggressive and their proposals revolutionary ; although all the doctrines—with one important exception—had already been vigorously preached by earlier writers on education, as Spencer himself was at pains to point out. The doctrine which was comparatively new ran through all four essays; but was most amply stated in the essay first published in 1859 under the title ' What Knowledge is of Most W o r t h ? ' " Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects by Herbert Spencer, Everyman's Library, 1910 (New York, 1 9 1 1 ) , p. vii.

L E S T E R F. W A R D FROM A P H O T O G R A P H T A K E N

W H E N 3 6 Y E A R S OF AGE

From Ward, Glimpses of the Cosmos, vol. ii COURTESY OF G. P. P U T N A M ' S

S O N S . P U B L I S H E R S , N E W Y O R K A N D LONDON

CHAPTER

IV

T H E SOCIO-EDUCATIONAL M I L I E U OF LESTER F R A N K W A R D ,

1841-1913 IN 1841, when the population of our twenty-one states numbered about 17,000,000 and Chicago was a town of a few more than 5000, the restless sons of "Manifest Destiny", impelled by their hunger for land and conquest, had begun to turn their dreams into action by claiming to the west all the land through the neighboring territory of Mexico to the Pacific. A s to possible boundaries to the south imagination had no limit. " Remember the Alamo " had already become a shibboleth. Texas, swarming with Southern slave-holders, and ranchers and farmers from the North, bulwarked by Texas land scrip, Texas bonds and notes held all over the states, had declared its independence. Annexation to the United States followed in 1845 a n d was sealed by the triumph of arms in Mexico City in 1847. The opportunity was seized at this time to claim the vast territory of California and Arizona and New Mexico. In this period also the Oregon controversy with Great Britain was settled. 1 Only four years earlier, Morse had attained his patent to the telegraph which was to bind the four corners of the nation more closely together. H o w e had just invented the sewing machine. General William Henry Harrison, hero of Tippicanoe, 1 Beard and Beard, The Rise of American Civilization 1930), ch. xiii.

(New York, 153

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had, in this year of 1841, taken the presidential chair under the banner of hard cider and the log cabin, only to be taken away by death and to be succeeded by John Tyler. Daniel Webster, as Secretary of State, was in the cabinet concluding the boundary dispute with England over Maine and New Brunswick. After Webster had been frozen out of the cabinet by President Tyler because of his views on the annexation of Texas, his eloquent adversary, Senator John C. Calhoun, the " great nullifier " from South Carolina, ultimately became Secretary of State in 1844. Anti-slavery societies in the North were increasing so rapidly that the South was beginning to be not only irritated but alarmed. Dr. Channing and Wendell Phillips, Whittier and Theodore Parker were among those throwing their influence to the cause of abolition. The youthful Henry Ward Beecher was preaching in Indianapolis, a town sixty miles from any other center, inaccessible except through deep mud and floating corduroy roads. In this year he was constrained to excommunicate in public a church-woman, the first convert of his own to his congregation, for breaking the seventh commandment.2 In Brahmin Boston, in 1840, Margaret Fuller had become first editor of The Dial. In its pages there runs a grave argument as to the moral permissibility of attending ballets and other artistic entertainments without being concerned or disturbed as to the private character of the performers. 3 The " distinguished and highly cultivated talent " of Fanny Elssler, a famous ballet dancer of the period, was justified and much praised by " The Great Pythoness " herself and her Transcendental philosopher friend, Emerson. It is said that they exercised their moral and aesthetic rights by 2 Hrbben, Henry 1927), p. 106. 3

Ward

Beecher,

an American

Portrait

" The Dial," vol. iii, July, 1842, no. 1, pp. 63-72.

(New

York,

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attending together their first ballet, and the story runs that after a period of serene silence Emerson remarked, " Margaret, this is poetry." " No, W a l d o she replied, " it is not poetry, it is religion." 4 Supported by Transcendental sympathizers and writers of The Dial the ideal community of Brook Farm was established in 1841. A m o n g the philosophers whose views most affected this community of would-be farming intellectuals were those of Fourier. Unlike most attempts of its kind its entire existence up to 1848 was unmarked by scandal. In the forties may be said to have begun for America the first conscious efforts of what is known as the " Woman's M o v e m e n t " . Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, the first institution of higher learning for women, was established in South Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1837. Friend Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others shocked American society in 1848 by ultra-democratic doctrines put forth at the first Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York. Their forces were soon joined by a plain school teacher, Miss Susan B. Anthony, the direct effects of whose influence culminated in 1919 in the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution. Godey's Ladies Book established in 1830 was in its heydey. McGuffey's Readers were inculcating in the young, kindness to animals and a knowledge of the dangers of transgressing the moral code, and were introducing them to snatches of prose and poetry from the masters. Joseph Smith, a Vermont Yankee, had received his message from on high and had read the wisdom of the golden plates. Already he had received into his fold a large following, but Brigham Y o u n g , his stalwart Vermont successor, was not to make his epochal flight to the far west until 1847. Wendell, Barrett, A Literary History of America (New York, 1901), PP. 305-308. 4

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The great migration westward already begun, was to be greatly accelerated both by land and by sea by the discovery of gold in California in 1848. The swelling tide of fortune seekers was not to be checked either by the dangers of sea travel in leaky vessels, the horrors of alkaline deserts, the perils of snow-bound mountains, hostile tribes of Indians or claims of foreign countries, until the Stars and Stripes should reach the coast. Neither could they rest until, in spite of intolerable hardships, the intervening land had been staked out and occupied by sons and daughters of the " Great Race ". In the beginning of the " fabulous forties " Justus W a r d and his wife, Silence Rolph, were among those who had turned their faces westward. From New Y o r k they migrated with their children to Joliet, Indiana. Here, amid stirring scenes of the daily toil and moil of the makeshift life of frontiersmen, was born their ninth child, Erastus, and their tenth, Lester Frank, June eighteenth, 1841. Ward's mother was the daughter of a clergyman and her mother belonged to the well-known Loomis family. O n the paternal side was a long line of Connecticut Yankees. Justus W a r d was a mechanic and, in particular, a mill-wright; in general, he was an inventive Jack-of-all-trades. H e was musical, and during the war of 1812 he had served in the Battle of Buffalo as a fife-major. For his services as a soldier he had obtained a land warrant for one hundred and sixty acres of land in Iowa. Like the typical frontiersman, he was led by fortune from place to place. He sought a millsite in northern Illinois, first on the Dupage River and later on the Des Plaines River. A s the great Drainage Canal was being cut through to connect Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River, he secured the contract to build many of the locks. There being fine beds of freestone at Joliet he bought a quarry to furnish stone for his project. Justus

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Ward's next contract was to build a long tow-path bridge ten miles long over the swamps of the Des Plaines River at a place now known as Cass. Purchasing a farm near-by, he built a house and, with the aid of his older sons, erected a saw-mill. Lester F. W a r d says: It was at this place, in this new-built house on this stream and farm that I first came to consciousness, and here are stamped on my memory all the scenes of my earliest boyhood. Here we lived until I was nine years old, and here I first went to school in the school house a mile north of the Cass farm. My recollections of every detail, and of the precise topography of the whole region over which I so freely roamed, is exceedingly vivid. 5 A t school, with the children of other frontiersmen, he learned to know Saunders' Readers and Olney's Geographies. H e says he delighted to see the poor boys succeed in contests with those in better circumstances. A great part of his education also came from contact with nature and in observing and assisting in the humble tasks about the mill and farm. In 1852, the Wards moved again; this time to St. Charles on the F o x River in Kane County. Here the parents found more religious and social opportunities. Erastus and Lester could go to school again. They learned the rudiments of education and gained a great many ideas from McGuffey's Readers. In fact, it is quite probable that from these famous readers W a r d developed his intense love of poetry and literature as have many other prominent Americans. 6 5

W a r d , Glimpses

of the Cosmos

( N e w Y o r k , 1913), vol. i, p. l x x .

See M a r k Sullivan's Our Times ( N e w Y o r k , 1927), vol. ii, pp. 10-48. Sullivan says the readers aimed " to obtain as wide a range of leading authors as possible, to represent the best specimens of style, t o insure interest in the subject, to impart information and to exert a healthful 6

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T w o miles north of the village the father once again moved where he purchased a mill and a large tract of land. For three years more the family struggled with nature, and the boys " had to work both in the village and at the mill ". In leisure hours they played and wandered in the open spaces of which there was no lack. They learned to skate and swim and fish. They now abandoned their bows and arrows, their cross-bows, and by selling nuts they earned enough money to buy a shot gun to be used in common. They took turns at shooting. A s the large game had already been exterminated, the interest of the boys turned to birds and small game. Lester, though three and a half years younger than Erastus,.was larger, and soon could handle him in wrestling. They were very congenial. Erastus preferred mathematics while Lester preferred languages. Both boys were very fond of nature. Thus very early, we see that Lester knew and loved close companionship and came face-to-face with Nature and simple, homely toil in all its aspects. H e saw moral influence." They were " for many average Americans, the only reading of poetry or classic prose they ever had." Mr. McGuffey included also stories and aphorisms " indigenous to America, lessons learned by pioneer contact with the frontier of a new country, experience with the Indians and wild animals. . . . He imparted a love of good reading to a multitude of Americans, at least to such happy souls as could take it in." Sullivan mentions among the prominent Americans who have testified in one way or another to the influence of McGuffey's readers the following: Governor Lowden of Illinois, Justice John H. Clarke, Ida M. Tarbell, Senator Simeon D. Fess, Frank L. Greene, E x Senator Albert J. Beveridge, Henry Ford, Herbert Quick and Senator Thomas J. Walsh. Mr. Louis M. Dillman, President of the American Book Company, in a letter to Mark Sullivan, estimated " the combined sales of McGuffey's Readers, Primers, and Spelling-book between 1836 and 1920 at 122,000,000." Sullivan tried to determine the area of McGuffey's influence. He says, " I find that apparently it had never reached any of New England except the one small south-western corner close to New Y o r k City. Elsewhere, McGuffey's was almost universal."

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the streams harnessed, the flora and fauna turned to the pleasure and use of man. Nature, he saw, could be directed and controlled. In 1855, Justus Ward was " on the move " again, and once more he was on the long trek westward. So he sold the Norton's Mill property and, travelling with his family, betook himself with his worldly goods to the quarter section of land in Iowa which had been granted him for military service in the war of 1 8 1 2 . They traveled in a small covered-wagon in which the parents slept by night while Lester and Erastus slept on the ground. Thus the long journey was made across the state of Illinois to Galena; then across the Mississippi to Dubuque. Thence they took a northwest course to the Maquoketa Creek, through Dubuque and Delaware Counties to Buchanan County. This extended experience in the open took two months, and was one of the most memorable and enjoyable events of Ward's life. Each boy had a gun for his own use now. They shot water fowl and other birds, some rabbits and an occasional d'ick. The family lived on the game all the way. Thus was whetted a passion for adventure which lasted all through life. T w o summers and two winters only were spent in the new home, years of work to be sure, but with some adventure over the endless prairies with the guns for sport and nature for admiration. The boys, having had no instruction in botany, not even knowing there was such a subject, made up names for the flowers they found on their rambles. These out-of-door experiences in wind and rain, snow and sunshine, made Ward realize his intense love of nature, a love which grew with the years. All his life, his desire for recreation, hampered by a meager pocket-book, found expression in long walking trips and jaunts into the open country. Speaking of these experiences, he says: " I believe I was

i6o

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born a naturalist, but the opportunity to be scientific was meager—no teacher, no books." 7 And again, in discussing the impossibility of choosing a profession if one has had no opportunity to know that such exist, he writes: As Professor Cooley says: " A man can hardly fix his ambition upon a literary career when he is perfectly unaware as millions are, that such a thing as a literary career exists." It is the same with a scientific career. I know this from experience. Roaming wildly over the boundless prairies of Iowa in the fifties, interested in every animal, bird, insect and flower I saw but not knowing what science was, scarcely having ever heard of zoology, ornithology, entomology, or botany, without a single book on any of those subjects and not knowing a person in the world who could give me the slightest information with regard to them, what chance was there of my becoming a naturalist? It was twenty years before I found my opportunity, and then it was almost too late. A clear view of a congenial field is the c^e fundamental circumstance in any one's career 8 The pioneer life in Iowa was changed by the death of Justus Ward. No longer wishing to live in Iowa, Mrs. Ward left the estate in the hands of her eldest son, Lorenzo, and with her two younger sons, Erastus and Lester, returned to Illinois. The journey back was made partly by rail, so quickly had the West been penetrated by thousands of Easterners bringing their inventions with them. Mrs. W a r d preferred not to live on the St. Charles farm but with her only daughter in Geneva two miles below on the F o x River. The two boys could not find work together, so Erastus worked in a machine shop and Lester on a farm near Lodi ten miles west of St. Charles. His farmer employer had lived in Canada and spoke Canadian French. Lester, thereupon, found a little French book and studied it evenings on 7

Ward, op. cit., vol. i, p. lxxiii.

8

Ward, Applied

Sociology

(New York, 1906), pp. 275-276.

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the farm with the aid of the farmer. In later years, the French pronunciation had all to be learned over again, In the fall the boys, still thirsting for an education, occupied the house at St. Charles and went to a sort of grammar school where they could study algebra, geometry, grammar and some other branches they had not been able to study without a teacher. The two boys studied hard and kept house alone together. They found time to read also. They devoured stories in the New York Ledger that winter and " a good deal of the ' yellow covered' literature, including blood-curdling tales of crime and murder." 9 After reading such stories Lester would write stories himself. One, " The Spaniard's Revenge " he chanced to get printed in the " St. Charles Argus." It is presented in the first volume of Ward's mental autobiography, Glimpses of the Cosmos.10 In 1858, when Lester was about seventeen years old, he left St. Charles with Erastus to join an older brother, Cyrenus Osborn, in Meyersburg, Bradford County, Pennsylvania. Here Cyrenus had set up a wagon-hub factory and wished Lester to be the engineer. In spare time as Jackof-all-trades he went through Ollendorff's Greek Grammar and studied Loomis' Physiology and several other text books. Meanwhile he was also acquiring French, German and Latin. The business failed and the boys were paid only in wagon hubs which they could not sell. Lester's next adventure was to teach school during the winter of 1860-1861 after which he entered the Susquehanna Collegiate Institute at Towanda. Here he was surprised to find that, in Greek and Latin at least, he had out-distanced the foremost students in the school. Thus he advanced to Livy and Herodotus. The Anabasis and the Aeneid he took home for history and poetry. The love of literature and poetry never left him, 9 10

Ward, Glimpses of the Cosmos, vol. i, p. lxxiv. Ibid., pp. 2-15.

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although he seldom read for pleasure apart from furthering his knowledge. H i s literary tastes are revealed in his frequent comments on philology and in the care which he gave to the embellishments at the heads of his chapters over which he spent many hours. 11 His letters to Mrs. Emily Palmer Cape indicate his appreciation of her literary knowledge and his gratitude for her valuable assistance in finding suitable selections from literature for illustrative purposes. The recognition of his linguistic ability is attested by the fact that he was one of the collaborators of the Century Dictionary and of one of the supplements to Webster's International Dictionary,12 A f t e r having taught four periods at the Susquehanna Collegiate Institute at Towanda, interspersed by intervals of earning money at haying and harvesting, he prepared to go to Lafayette College. A l l this was suddenly to be changed by the events of the Civil W a r . Answering President Lincoln's call for 300,000 more men, W a r d hastened his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Caroline V o u g h t and went off to war with his brother Erastus. H e remained for twentyseven months in the army. H e was wounded twice at Chancellorsville. O n November 18, 1864, he was discharged from the army because of incapacity from three gunshot wounds. Although W a r d was almost inordinately interested in his mental autobiography, and the history of the development 1 1 Ward, op. cit., p. li." In two of my books I had introduced the feature which I call ' embellishment'. These are The Psychic Factors of Civilisation and Applied Sociology. . . . Although difficult of accomplishment and little appreciated by readers, I lay great store by tjhis feature, as I greatly admire it when I see it in the works of others. These glimpses of truth dropped along the wayside of time impress me as nothing else can with the continuity of human thought and the universal striving of mind after unity." 1 2 Odum, American Masters of Social Science Chapter by Professor James Q. Dealey, p. 63.

( N e w York, 1927).

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of his mind, he was singularly disinterested and disinclined to give even the usual details of his genealogy and the facts of his family life. 1 3 He was very reticent, even to the point of shyness; but his affections, in contrast with those of Spencer, were deep and passionate, as was shown in his courtship and early marriage. His poor financial condition did not deter him from establishing a home. His warm nature is revealed in many portions of his writings and correspondence. Yet in spite of his unusual reticence in several respects, many personal traits are clearly evident in his work; among them being, for instance, his love and admiration and belief in the innate capacities of women. It is certain that he was happily married in 1862. Like Ward's mother, his wife, Elizabeth C. Vought, was said to be refined and to possess literary interests. She cooperated with him in all his literary studies after his return from the war. They studied French, and for practice, and perhaps for privacy, wrote their love letters in French. Elizabeth lived but ten years, having borne one son who died in infancy. In 1873, Ward married Rosamond Asenath Simons who survived him a few months, dying in 1 9 1 3 . Ward gives instances here and there in the Glimpses of The Cosmos of the interest and assistance she gave him in his work. On May 8, 1865, having settled in Washington with his young wife, Ward entered the Civil Service. Here he remained in the service of the government in various capacities 13 In his personal sketch which he prepared, he failed to give the names or the fortunes of his brothers and sisters. He did not mention the death of his mother, of his first w i f e or of his only child, a son. This apparent lack of interest in offering to the public biographical data is in striking contrast with Spencer. This material was probably given in his diaries over which he spent much time and care and which covered a period of many years. The originals were to have been presented by Mrs. Cape, after she had written his biography with their aid, to the Congressional Library at Washington.

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for over forty years, until in 1906, he accepted the chair of Sociology at Brown University at the age of sixty-five. The same self-education which he had begun as a frontiersman on the prairies of the West he continued nearly all his life, even during the last twenty-four years which he spent in scientific research for the government. His position at Washington brought him near libraries and during his evenings and spare time he studied for the A . B . degree which he received in 1869 from Columbian University (now George Washington University) at the age of twenty-eight. In 1871 he was there granted the L L . B . degree. In the same year he was admitted to the bar with the right to practice before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. In 1872 he was given the A . M . degree. During his residence in Washington he also received a diploma in medicine, but he " jokingly remarked that his conscience would not permit him to practice either law or medicine." 14 That W a r d was always concerned with the deeper problems of nature and of man, and in particular, with the causes for the differences in the social status of men, is evident in his biographical writings and in his written works. Some time in his twenties he resolved to begin some systematic written work as soon as his first degree was conferred. H e gave expression to this desire in his diary and wrote: Perhaps the most vivid impression that my experience left on my mind was of the difference between an uneducated and an educated person. I had had much to do with both these kinds of people, especially with the uneducated, and I could not believe that the chasm between these educated people was due to any great extent to their nature.15 W a r d often, as a youth, debated the question of genius 140dum, 15

op. cit. ( D e a l e y ) , p. 64.

W a r d , op. cit., vol. iii, pp. 147-148.

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versus environment and always took the stand that education made most of the difference. He was usually defeated in the decision of the judges. " But I remained unconvinced," he says, " and the influence of education and environmental conditions took an even stronger hold of me." 16 In 1866, when he was twenty-five years old, he delivered an oration before a literary club, the Concordia Lyceum, entitled, " The Importance of Intellectual Culture," in which he set forth his long-standing view that culture or education is everything. From this time his ambition, he states, was to expand this idea into a book. In 1869, in fact, he drew up a rough plan, and later, outlines, tables of contents and synopses for a work which he called, The Great Panacea. Book I was entitled, " Influence of Education," another book, " Modes of Acquiring Knowledge," and Book Last, " Results Which Will Flow from Increased Intelligence." Thus we see that his first as well as his last interest was in education, or the universalization of knowledge as a means to progress. 17 Soon after his twenty-eighth birthday, his A . B . degree was conferred. Thereafter, such time as he could find late at night and before breakfast in the morning, he spent in writing. U p to about 1878 he was making jottings of his thoughts concerning education and progress. In later years referring to his writing of 1871, W a r d says: " I was now prepared to enter upon what I regarded as the real subject of the work, viz., Education ", 1 8 Although meeting interruptions as editor of The Iconoclast, work in the government, and home duties, he managed to find time to read the writings of Bacon, Whateley, Lyell, Comte, Haeckel and the early works of Spencer. This scientific 16

Ward, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 148.

17

Ibid., pp. 150-154.

18

Ibid., p. 164.

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reading caused him to decide to lay a scientific foundation for his projected book and also to write an historical part. About 1876 he realized the trend of his work. " I had begun to see that what I was writing was sociology he said.19 Ward was not aiming at the sociology of Comte; and Spencer's sociology was not yet published, although his Study of Sociology had been running in the Popular Science Monthly. This work Ward read. After some deliberation, in 1876 he decided upon the title, Social Dynamics or Dynamic Sociology. He was not aware that Comte had used the term Dynamic Sociology, as he did not read the Politique Positive until 1894. The outline, which he had originally made, as well as the title, The Great Panacea, were thus changed, but the underlying idea was the same, and grew into the two-volume work now known as Ward's Dynamic Sociology. The belief he had held early in youth of the significance of the democratization of knowledge remained as the core of his sociological writings. Professor Paul Monroe in his A Text-book in the History of Education, seven hundred and fifty-nine pages in length, says, in speaking of Ward: " His Dynamic Sociology, which though a much neglected work, is, in fact, the most elaborate treatise on education published by an American." But Professor Monroe devotes only two and a half pages to his work.20 This seems significant, for if Ward had been a recognized influence in education in any of his writings or activities, Professor Monroe would have recorded that fact. During his many years of residence in Washington, Ward was a personal friend of Dr. William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education. Harris was one of the 19 20

Ibid., p. 172.

Monroe, op. cit., p. 716. Ward states in Dynamic Sociology, vol. i, p. xiv, " It is due Dr. Small to say that he was the first educationalist to call attention to the work."

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company who met on the first day of the twentieth century to consider Ward's plan for a system of sociology. At this meeting, " it was decided that the system should consist of two volumes as far as possible independent of each other." The first, they agreed, should be called Pure Sociology with the sub-title, A Treatise on the Origin and Spontaneous Development of Society, and the second volume of the system to be called Applied Sociology, bearing the sub-title, A Treatise on the Conscious Improvement of Society by Society.21 When Ward attended the Paris Exposition in 1900, Commissioner of Education Harris asked him, in consideration of an honorarium of two hundred and fifty dollars, to prepare for his annual report on education, " a chapter of not less than 25,000 words on the subject of sociology or social science, as presented not only at the Congress entirely devoted to that subject, but also as it appears in its relation to education and other subjects in special papers offered at the other Congresses." Ward prepared this report on his return from Paris for the Bureau of Education. The article was considered by both Ward and Harris of such import that it was expanded to 100,000 words and was given in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1899-1900. 22 Commissioner Harris was warmly interested in sociology and its significance in relation to the schools and the curricula. In fact, Dr. Harris further reveals in his articles, an appreciation of the importance of sociology. In 1893, he says in the Educational Review, " But no philosophy of education is fundamental until it is based on sociology— not on physiology nor even psychology, but on sociology." 23 21

Ward, Pure Sociology

22

Ward, Glimpses of the Cosmos, vol. vi, pp. 121-126.

23

Educational Review, vol. vi, p. 84.

(New York, 1903), p. vii.

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In 1896 again, " It has been a motto of my theory of education for a good many years that education is founded on sociology." 24 Harris had three great educational purposes, one of which was " to establish faith in the school as an institution having sociological functions." 25 Ward was first temporarily appointed in the Treasury Department in 1865, and when the Bureau of Statistics was established in 1867 he was transferred to it. He compiled early statistics on immigration, the first, in fact, which had been published in any form accessible to the public. Later he became librarian of the bureau. For awhile he worked under General Francis A . Walker. In 1861 he was assistant geologist of the United States Geological Survey. Then attaining the standing of a paleobotanist, he became Honorary Curator of Fossil Plants, and finally chief of this division in the United States National Museum. In 18891890 he served as president of the Biological Society of Washington. T w o years later he completed the Outlines of Sociology and went to the congress at Paris for United States Commissioner of Education, Harris. A s president of L'lnstitute Internationale de Sociologie in 1900 for the next congress at Paris in 1903, he met M. Tarde and M. René Worms. On this trip he met Gumplowicz at Graz. A warm friendship sprang up between the two which was continued by correspondence until the death of Gumplowicz. In 1905 he resigned from the Civil Service as paleontologist and the following year he accepted the newly-created chair of sociology at Brown University. This year, too, he 24

N. E. A. Proceedings, 1896, p. 196. " On the appearance of Spencer's First Principles in 1862, Harris wrote a review, but unable to find a magazine to accept it, he founded and edited from 1867 to 1893 the Journal of Speculative philosophy, at the time the most important enterprise in philosophy ever undertaken in America." Quoted from Monroe, A Cyclopedia of Education, vol. iii (New York, 191-1), p. 219. 25 Ibid.

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became the first president of the American Sociological Society.26 All his life W a r d was ceaselessly active. His enthusiasm for learning new information and knowledge is apparent throughout his works. It will be remembered that, although Ward's fame rests largely on his sociological writings, social science was in a way but his avocation. He studied and wrote may articles and reviews besides his five sociological works and his six-volume Glmpses of the Cosmos. This latter work reveals his untiring energy as a botanist, paleobotanist and geologist as well as a sociologist. He took many trips while in the service of the government making geological surveys. H e often was occupied with plant phenomena. 27 A list of titles of his writings, as Professor E. A. Ross has said, would make a good-sized pamphlet. From his researches and field work he derived several concepts which he applied to society, among them being the influence of environment, fortuitous variation, social innovation, sympodial development, and some basis for his theory of the gynaecocracy, or the priority of the female sex throughout nature. Perhaps his most important and arresting theories are those of synergy (the constructive principle of nature), creative synthesis, sympodial development and telesis or anthropoteleology. Ward himself, would give high rank to his theory of the natural origin of the mind, both of feeling and of intellect, an idea he treated at 26 With regard to the preliminary meetings preparatory to the functions of this society Ward wrote: " Professor Giddings was the leading figure in the meetings and I supposed of course he would be the first president and was prepared to support him and vote for him. And when the next night the committee on officers presented my name, I never was so much taken aback in my life as I tried to say in my stammering speech, after being led to the chair." Glimpses of the Cosmos, vol. vi, p. 260. 27

" I am free to confess that I studied botany chiefly for the purpose of trying to arrive at the laws and principles of vegetable life, and with little interest in plant forms as such." Pure Sociology, p. 241.

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length in Dynamic Sociology and expanded more fully, so important did he deem it, into a book, The Psychic Factors of Civilisation. A favorite analogy of his was to compare the mind to soil rather than to a blank sheet of paper as Locke did. What grew depended, not only on the seed but, on the quality of the soil and the competition of other growths. H e exemplified the theory of fortuitous variation by the Genus Eupatorium and used illustrations which he made from a large series of specimens collected and carefully observed. Concerning his theory, he said: Every organic element may be contemplated as occupying the center of a sphere, toward the periphery of which, in all directions alike, it seeks to expand and would expand but for physical obstructions which present themselves. The forms which have succeeded in surviving are those, and only those, that were possible under existing conditions; that is, they have been developed along the lines of least resistance, pressure along all other lines having resulted in failure. Now, the various forms of vegetable and animal life represent the latest expression of this law, the many possible, and the only possible results of this universal nisus of organic being. The different forms of Eupatorium, or of any other plant or animal, that are found co-existing under identical conditions merely show that there were many lines along which the resistance was not sufficient to prevent development. They are the successes of nature. I disclaim any desire to discredit or impair in any way the great law of natural selection. The most important variations, those which lead up to higher types of structure, are the result of that law, which therefore really explains organic evolution; but the comprehension and acceptance of both natural selection and evolution are retarded instead of being advanced by claiming for the former more than it can explain, and it might as well be recognized first as last, that a great part—numerically by far the greater part—of the variety and multiplicity, as well

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as the interest and charm of Nature, is due to another and quite different law, which, with the above qualifications, may perhaps be appropriately called " the law of fortuitous variation." 28 W a r d states that the biologist, M r . G e o r g e J. R o m a n e s , w a s interested in this t h e o r y a n d a d v i s e d h i m to f o l l o w it u p w i t h e x p e r i m e n t a t i o n w h i c h , h o w e v e r , he w a s unable t o do. R o m a n e s presented this idea b e f o r e the B i o l o g i c a l

Section

o f the B r i t i s h A s s o c i a t i o n f o r the A d v a n c e m e n t o f

Science

in 1 8 8 9 since it w a s related to his doctrines of " physiological selection " or " u n u s e f u l " or " non-utilitarian " A s P r e s i d e n t o f the B i o l o g i c a l S o c i e t y o f

characters.

Washington,

W a r d dwelt o n this subject in an address in 1890.

A t this

time he s a i d : H e r e then, w e have the solution of by far the worst difficulty in the way of natural selection. T h e beneficial effect . . . need not be felt until well-formed varieties have been developed without regard to any advantage in the particular differences which they present. T h e r e seems to be no flaw in this mode of solving this paramount problem, and if it is objected that it amounts to a new explanation of the origin of species, I am ready to admit it, and I believe that more species are produced by fortuitous variation than by natural selection. Natural selection is not primarily the cause of the origin of species; its mission is far higher. It is the cause of the origin of types of structure. . . ,29 T h e chief cause of organic variation . . . is sex. . . . B u t it is evident that for any developed organism with a long phylogeny the number of atavistic stirps must be next to infinite, and as any of these are liable to lie latent during many generations and crop out at any time, the possibilities of fortuitous variation are enormous. T h i s is the inner explanation of fortuitous variation, and is the way in which nature fills every crack, chink, and cranny into which it is possible f o r life to be thrust. 28

Ward, op. ext., pp. 241-242.

29

Ward, op. cit., p. 242.

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From plant life also he deduced his principle of innovation which he thought due to bathmism or the growth force (in man, psychic exuberance) which, pushing from a surplus of energy, creates variation and new forms. In society, this dynamic principle of social innovation is much the same, W a r d believed, as what Tarde had termed invention, Patten, impulse, and Veblen, the instinct of workmanship. W a r d contended that the new botany should not only give the natural history of plants but also their geological history. Through such a study himself, he arrived at the concept of sympodial development which, inferentially, he believed to be true also of animal life. Monopodial development had been well understood as implying a main trunk from which, at intervals, subordinate branches appear. But, besides this type, he perceived that in certain forms, the main trunk gives off a branch into which the majority of the fibro-vascular bundles enter so that the branch eventually becomes the trunk and the original trunk or remaining portion diminishes to a twig and may finally disappear. The first branch undergoes a similar course and so on until the whole growth is of a zig-zag pattern. Grape vines, the linden trees, several herbs of to-day, much resemble this ancient form which he discovered from paleobotany. It is his contention that evolution is really sympodial and not monopodial. This idea is carried over into social life. One example is cited, that of England, the branches of which in her various colonization have become larger and possessed of more vitality than the original trunk. W a r d was always interested in sex, its significance and possibilities. This interest was naturally enhanced by the study of plant and animal forms. He termed the ancient theory that the male sex is primary and the female secondary, whose chief function was for reproduction, the androcentric theory. This almost universal belief he was led to

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reject not only from studies of plants and animals but from the current anthropology of his time which found evidence to indicate a true Mutterrecht. He considered, the truth actually to be " that the female sex is primary and the male secondary in the organic scheme, that originally and normally all things center, as it were, about the female; and that the male, though not necessary in carrying out the scheme, was developed under the operation of the principle of advantage to secure organic progress through the crossing of strains." 30 The present superiority of the males is no part of the scheme of nature. He drew many of his facts to indicate female superiority from insect and plant life. The female is the race, he said. It may be said in passing that the evidence upon which W a r d based this theory seems to be sound for lower forms of life. The largest part of reproduction in organic life is asexual. However, the theory of the matriarchate as implying political rule is not well substantiated. W a r d contended that men, i f restricted as women had been through long periods of history, would have presented a similarly poor record. 31 It must be added, however, that woman's inferiority in social life has always been measured by man's achievements. Her own particular contributions have been often over-looked and ignored by historians. The 3 0 W a r d , op. cit., theory.

p. 296.

W a r d calls this view the

gynaecocentric

3 1 W a r d , Applied Sociology, p. 232. " T h e universal prevalence of the androcentric world view, shared by men and women alike, acts as a wet blanket on all the genial fire of the female sex. L e t this once be removed and woman's true relation to society be generally perceived, and all this w i l l be changed. W e have no conception of the real amount of talent or of genius possessed by women . . . the gain in developing it would be greater than that of merely doubling the number of social agents, f o r women will strike out according to their natural inclinations and cultivate fields that men never would have cultivated. T h e y w i l l add to the breadth, even if they do not add to the depth, of the world's progress."

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fact that when artificial barriers have been removed (as they have been in different civilizations for certain periods), women's records have compared favorably with those of men, seems to indicate that there was much in Ward's contention that similar opportunity would produce similar results. As for the assumption of superiority, whatever the facts may be among plants and animals, it seems improbable, in the light of recent biology and psychology, that either sex in the human species is primary or ascendant. In accordance with his studies, Ward pointed out that the prime purpose of sex was for variation and not for reproduction. The principles of synergy and telesis are discussed in another chapter. Since it is not the purpose of this study to discuss Ward's whole system it will suffice to list the ideas he thought were original with him. It will be observed that one concept only can be said to come from physics, that of the maintenance of the difference of potential, and possibly his theory of the nature of motility as the transition from molecular to molar activity. Occasionally he referred to society as a mechanism, somewhat in contradiction to his concept of achievement as the data of sociology. It will be seen that he drew also from the science of chemistry, especially in the theory of universal chemism. In the main, however, his original ideas as considered by him, are primarily derived from biology, the grandmother, as it were, in his scheme of the filiation of the sciences.32 The list 33 W a r d presents is not arranged in either logical or chronological order. It is as follows: i. Synergy; [energy and mutuality] the constructive principle of nature. 32 Although his concepts appear to have been derived largely from biology it is perhaps his new departure in emphasizing the psychic factors of social life and social progress which is most striking in Ward's works. 33 Ward, Glimpses of the Cosmos, vol. i, p. lxxxi.

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2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

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Creation in general, including recompounding. Creative synthesis. Wundt's idea expanded by me. The nisus of nature as universal creative energy. The continuity of nature resulting in the ascending series of synthetic creations. The natural storage of energy. Sympodial development. The nature of motility, or the transition from molecular to molar activity. The maintenance of difference of potential. Fortuitous variation. The natural origin of mind, both of feeling and of intellect. Telesis, or anthropoteleology. Innovation, as a dynamic principle. Conation, especially in society. The biological imperative. Gynaecocracy, or the priority and superiority of the female sex throughout nature. The group sentiment of safety, or primordial social plasm. [Social Imperative]. The elimination of the wayward as the essential function of religion.

It may be mentioned that Ward drew inspiration and knowledge from both Lamarck and from Darwin and somewhat from Weissmann and Hugo de Vries. He accepted none of their theories completely but added and subtracted according to his own opinions. He received much from Comte and was a great admirer of Spencer even though he could accept only a part of his system. He was warmly interested in Tarde. He was influenced by Kant, Schopenhauer, Wundt, von Hartmann and Gumplowicz. Through the Polish scholar he became interested in race conflict. In his later works he mentioned benefits which might accrue

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from war through the cross-fertilization of cultures. He was familiar with the works of Lombroso and Becarria. From the French, aside from Helvetius, Comte and Tarde, he was a student of the works of Alphonse de Candolle, M. Jacoby, Guillaume de Greef, Durkheim, René Worms and Alfred Odin. This is to name but a few of those with whose writings W a r d was well acquainted. From Odin, Ward received, what appeared to him, convincing proof of the universality of latent intellect. It may be said that no American, and few scholars of any period, were better versed in social scientific literature than Ward. Through his own energy and industry he became, in several lines, superbly equipped for the task of a philosopher and sociologist. No one has written more enthusiastically of progress, more comprehensively and emphatically on behalf of universal education. His constant espousal of the cause of women can only be compared with that of John Stuart Mill, yet it may be said that with W a r d its scope was far wider than claims of justice or political enfranchisement. Toward the end of his life, while teaching at Brown University, W a r d was much occupied with collecting data for Glimpses of the Cosmos, a literary biography which should fill sixteen volumes, 34 consisting of all his writings (excluding the five works on sociology) good, bad and indifferent. This plan had lain dormant in his mind for a long time. It was made active through the persuasion of his devoted friend, Mrs. Emily Palmer Cape, a woman of means, leisure and culture, being not only accomplished as an author, W a r d states, but as a student of " Browning, Emerson, and other philosopher poets as well as of Vedantic literature ". Indeed, without her almost incredible painsReduced to twelve volumes and then later after Ward's death to six because of expense. Mrs. Ward's niece, Miss Sarah Simons, assisted in the publication of this work and wrote the prefatory note.

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taking labor as co-editor and without the support of her intellectual sympathy, it is scarcely likely that W a r d could have carried this plan as far as he did. 35 Mrs. Cape was to have written a biography with the assistance of his diaries and other material. However, since several of the valuable diaries were apparently destroyed after his death, Mrs. Cape was handicapped to the extent that she could present only a small volume. This work, fortunately, gives in addition to a brief summary of his philosophical system, some idea of W a r d ' s tastes, his more intimate daily life, his capacity for great friendships and his craving for affectionate understanding. Although W a r d was always willing to assist in projects connected with his interests, he refused many of the honors that were offered to him. 36 Y e t he appreciated attention and tokens of esteem and regard from other scholars. One o f the greatest pleasures of his life occurred in 1911 when he accepted an invitation from Haeckel, with whom he had been in correspondence for years, to attend the International Congress of Monists at Hamburg. However, among the many honors offered him as one of the eminent sociologists of the world, he prized in particular, an invitation from Dr. E . L . Youmans to attend a complimentary dinner to Herbert Spencer given November 9, 1882, at Delmonico's, N e w Y o r k . A t this time W a r d was in financial straits, a note coming due which he did not know how to meet. The dinner was twelve dollars a plate, and the railroad fare was a problem, but he suddenly resolved to go and leave the financial difficulties for the future. H e took a letter of appreciation to be given in the proceedings concern3 5 Mrs. Cape, co-editor of Glimpses of the Cosmos, actually counted all the words of Ward's writings exclusive of his works on sociology. They numbered considerably over a million. 3 6 In 1897, however, the honorary degree of L L . D . was conferred upon him.

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ing Spencer's amazing grasp of causality. It is rather ironical that W a r d did not have a chance to speak because of the many other speakers chosen, 37 among them being the great divine, Henry W a r d Beecher, who delivered the greatest speech, Henry Holt records, that he had ever heard. " Beecher's face got so flushed as to make one think of apoplexy." 38 Spencer however, seems not to have been unduly impressed by the great apostle of love. " O f the proceedings which followed ", he wrote in his diary, " I need only say that they were somewhat trying to sit through." 39 In appearance, W a r d was a man six feet in stature, large framed, broad-shouldered and full-chested. One might have guessed his excellent health from the strong face, the short neck and the magnificent muscular body. A s a young man, his hair was thick and brown, his eyes bluish-grey and straight-forward, his complexion blonde and deeply tanned. The nose was large but Greecian in effect, the teeth strong and regular. Something about his large mobile mouth and beautiful strong j a w and chin betrayed his sensitive nature. From his photographs one gets the suggestion of quiet strength, of great earnestness, of a contemplative and rich nature. In later life he walked with a slight stoop. Mrs. Cape describes him, as, when she knew him, a distinguished-looking man who usually appeared in a long black coat and a soft slouching hat. His constitution remained rugged almost to the end. Until his last illness he scarcely knew a sick day and, even in his sixties, Professor Dealey says, he could walk without appar37 Ward, op. cit., vol. vi, p. 164. " I was invited to speak but owing to the fact that Henry Ward Beecher and several others monopolized so much of the time with their remarks, myself, Prof. Youmans and a number of other men of science were denied the opportunity." 38 Quoted from Hibben's Henry Ward Beecher p. 33789

Spencer, Autobiography, vol. ii, p. 479.

(New York, 1927),

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FRANK

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WARD

ent fatigue fifteen to twenty miles on a stretch. H e loved storms, the lightning and rain. W h e n at sea the last time he went abroad, he wrote, " T h e immensity of space, the tremendous waves and the sublime, starry heavens impress me with a sense of cosmic unity that fills me with life and infinite j o y . " 40 In his habits W a r d was temperate. He smoked moderately and only rarely drank. " H e had a Puritan sense of duty, particularly in fulfilling his promises and engagements." 41 H e was modest by nature, simple, childlike and magnanimous. 42 He was willing to concede quite simply that he was perhaps a genius. A t times he was almost bashful and always he was retiring. H e spoke fluently and easily, yet he did not care for small talk. Unlike Spencer, his bodily mechanisms and internal workings concerned him not at all. Although he appears to have been reticent about giving details of his family life and genealogical data to the public, still his mental development and what he wrote and thought were of never-ending interest to him. This is clearly shown in his stupendous plan for the " Glimpses of the Cosmos ". Reared in poverty, his income always meager, he never knew freedom from the necessity of earning a living. At his death he left an estate of but small value. 43 H e was a prodigious worker. In 1910, he wrote to Mrs. Cape: " I 40 Cape, Emily Palmer, Lester York, 1922), p. so. 41

F. Ward, a Personal

Sketch

(New

Dealey in Odum, op. cit., p. 65.

Professor Giddings says: " Mrs. Cape rightly describes him as childlike in his attitude towards the world. There is, however, more than one kind of childlikeness, and Ward's was that of a child who has never been frightened, and therefore meets the world more than half way, sincerely and frankly. Retiring and thoughtful, and a little shy, he nevertheless had no concealments from his friends, and his revelations of himself to them were always those of one who has not so much as thought of caution, surely never has studied it." 42

43

Odum op. cit. (Dealey), p. 62.

i8o

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EDUCATION

like to work. It has been the chief source of all my happiness in life. It yields the intellectual pleasure as domestic life does the emotional." From the time he was nineteen until his death, Ward had painstakingly kept a diary which no doubt contained all his thoughts, ideas and details of his daily life. This material he intended to be available for biographical purposes. In fact he spoke of this data the last time he saw Mrs. Cape a short time before his death, but as has been noted, many of his diaries have apparently been destroyed. The records, catalogues and files of all his own reading and writing which he left behind him, and the carefully written plans for the Glimpses of the Cosmos found in that work, bear witness to his extreme love of detail. He even mentions the number and type of pencils which he used.44 His natural dignity kept him from being a hail-fellowwell-met sort of man. He was not one with whom to take liberties. He says that even his family called him Mr. Ward. " It is only Dr. Ross who says ' Uncle Lester '." 45 That Ward had a deep, loving, even a passionate nature, hidden under his gentle reserved manner is shown in the close companionship and mental sympathy and understanding he enjoyed with his brother Erastus, with Elizabeth C. Vought, the mate of his youth, with Major J . W. Powell and others.46 Even at seventy years he revealed all his 44

Ward, Glimpses

of the Cosmos, vol. i, p. xxxix.

45

Cape, op. cit., p. 99. Dr. E. A. Ross married Mrs. Ward's niece, Miss Rosamond Simons, 1892. 46 Professor Dealey says of Ward's tender nature: " He had a deeply emotional nature, but suppressed by his close devotion to intellectual pursuits, yet when the news of his wife's serious illness came to him, he wept like a child in my home in telling me of her condition. This same tenderheartedness was shown in his almost bashful fondness of children, and in his sympathy with sorrowing friends." See Cape, op. cit., pp. 13-14.

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x8l

thoughts, intellectual and fanciful to his intimate friend, Mrs. Emily Palmer Cape, with the simplicity and delight of a boy. Although he had many friends and acquaintances, most of them like himself were busy; and in his last years, due to Mrs. Ward's invalidism in Washington, he missed the domestic life of which he was most fond, and in a sense, it may be said that he led a lonely life. 47 W a r d was, as would be expected, passionately democratic, irrespective of race, sex or status. Preferring to ride in a day coach and to carry his own luggage, he revealed a man who was accustomed and who liked to do things for himself. Yet he sometimes wished that he had means sufficient to enable him to possess a spacious, well-equipped home in which his distinguished friends might gather about him. 48 " H e loved the humble and those desirous of knowledge." 49 Since he believed that little evidence could be shown that there are innate intellectual differences between the races, he looked forward to the assimilation of all peoples. H e was confident " that there is no race and no class of human beings who are incapable of assimilating the social achievement of mankind and of profitably employing the social heritage." 50 All plant life, and flowers in particular, he loved, but only natural flowers. H e hated " double flowers ", because " the sexual organs are destroyed. . . . I love the little wild roses better than all the Marshal Niels and Jacqueminots Entertaining the loftiest conceptions of sex-life, he longed for the time when the love life should be viewed with the same open unabashed joy as are the feelings now aroused 47

Odum, op. cit. (Dealey), p. 67.

48

Cape, op. cit., p. 60.

49

Ibid., p. 49.

co Ward, Applied 51

Sociology,

Cape, op. cit., p. 94.

p. n o .

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by sight and sound. That the world should be freed from the incubus of sex taboo was his constant hope. His analysis of love in the fourteenth chapter of Pure Sociology has become almost a classic on this subject among sociologists. In his seventieth year he wrote to a friend: " I have profound contempt for that life of mere animal existence which does not reflect on the glories of love, but takes them as simple passing waves to be satisfied and gotten rid of as early as possible as something rather bad in themselves. It is part of that slavery to function which belongs to a pain economy." 62 Like Spencer, W a r d " hated fighting for the sake of fighting and disliked all sports that had the least tinge of cruelty or pain." 63 A s a boy he loved the farm animals and tells of naming the sheep after Spanish and South American heroes. 64 Even as an elderly man, " i f he found a young bird fallen from its nest, he would stoop, pick it up and gently replace it." 65 Though a religious man in a wide sense, W a r d was not a dogmatist for any sect. H e considered himself completely emancipated. A s a young man in 1869 he helped to form the National Liberal R e f o r m League in Washington and became editor of its organ, The Iconoclast, which appeared March, 1870, and continued for eighteen months. H e not only edited it but contributed much more than half its contents. Most of his articles are scathing and ironical criticisms against the religious views and superstitions of religious dogmatism. 58 Those who consider many of the writings of the present day extreme should read these early articles of W a r d . However, W a r d finally refrained from 52

Ibid., p. 93.

53

Ibid., p. 45.

54

Ibid., p. 113.

55

Ibid., p. 45.

56

W a r d , Glimpses

of the Cosmos,

vol. i.

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expressing his intense radical views and anti-ecclesiastical attitude and from openly combating error. H e became convinced that the more successful way was the substitution of scientific truth incompatible with it. Thereafter his open opposition to the religious errors of his time ceased. This position was in accordance with his belief that progress could be accelerated by a wider diffusion of knowledge. A s has been noted, Ward, as a young man, had some experience as a teacher in the lower schools. A f t e r he had become known as a sociologist, he taught at several institutions during the summer sessions. His teaching included lectures at the School of Sociology of the Hartford Society for Education Extension, two years as an instructor of Botany at Columbian University where later he gave lectures in sociology, summer sessions at Chicago University, Leland Stanford University, University of West Virginia, the University of Wisconsin and at Columbia University. He was a professor at Brown University from 1906 until his death in 1913. " In the class-room," Professor Dealey says, " he was not inspirational in type, but his age, dignity and thorough knowledge became a sort of inspiration to his students who revered him and personally liked him." 57 It became the accepted thing at Brown to have at least one course with Professor Ward. O f his five courses, one was " The Sociological Aspects of Education." Throughout his lectures, he maintained open hostility to the laisses faire philosophers and " emphasized a monistic and synthetic explanation of the field of knowledge." 58 Ward, though not seeking personal popularity, was very appreciative of attention, and he records that at the summer session at the University of Chicago in 1897 his students presented him with a gold-headed cane. A t the summer 57

Odum, op. cit. (Dealey), p. 68.

58

Ibid., p. 61.

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session of the University of West Virginia in 1898, a "beautiful testimonial", he says, was read and handed to him signed by all the students in his classes. During the summer of 1899 at Leland Stanford, his classes presented him with a handsome valise. A t B r o w n University, where he gave five courses to advanced classes composed of several teachers and graduates, he was much touched and surprised, after the first examination, to be given a beautiful loving cup.59 O n March 25, 1913, because of his increasing ill health, Professor W a r d was obliged to leave Brown University. H e joined his invalid wife at their home in Washington, D. C., where he died April 18, 1913. O n the evening before his death, the first volume of Glimpses of the Cosmos reached him, and thus was completed his fifty years of intellectual effort. T h e last two essays found in the sixth and last volume of this work, " Definition du Progres Social", and "Eugenics, Euthenics and Eudemics," appeared posthumously. Such was the background of the man who all his life attempted to make up by self-education for the crippling effects of his lack of early training. Such was the environment of one considered by many to be the greatest American thinker of his time, who believed that the course of social evolution could be directed by man, guided by his intellect, driven by his feelings. F r o m meagre circumstances in the rural life of the moving frontier arose this materialistic monist, staunch believer in the potentialities of the common man, defender of democracy, ardent promoter of the cause of women, advocate of progress as achievement, champion of the universalization of knowledge. 69

Ward, op. cit., p. lxi.

CHAPTER

V

WARD'S EDUCATIONAL THEORIES

T o W a r d as a young man education was " the great panacea " ; as a mature sociologist it was the crown and capsheaf of his social system. 1 The chief characteristics of his theory of education may be summarized in the following statements: 1. The ultimate end of all human striving is happiness, defined as the satisfaction of desire. Therefore, the loftiest flight of inventive art is that of organizing a systematic, predetermined and successful scheme for the organization of happiness. Only indirectly may happiness be attained. In order that this state may more nearly be reached, the primary object of society must be education, defined as the equal distribution of the extant knowledge of the world. 2. The object of education is social improvement or the means to meliorism, the science of improvement. 3. The intellectual, inventive or indirect procedure which marks the ideological method, is distinguished by its economy and rapidity from the emotional, muscular, direct procedure or what may be termed the genetic method 2 by which hitherto progress has been made. 4. The means at arriving at the ultimate goal of happiness 1 " T h e whole tenor of Dynamic Sociology, its leading thesis and paramount contention, is the necessity for universal education as the one clear, overshadowing and immediate social duty to which all others are subordinate." Statement by W a r d in the preface to the second edition of Dynamic Sociology, p. xvii. 2

This is the term W a r d would apply to Spencer's method of progress.

185

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are education, knowledge, dynamic opinion, dynamic action and progress. 5. Education is an active factor in dynamic sociology, and is a corollary from the doctrine of evolution in general which rests upon the power of the environment to mould the organism. 6. Mind is made up of two branches, the subjective or the feelings; the objective or the intellect. T o speak more truly, the intellect is a sympode arising from the main trunk, the feelings. 7. The intellect is the power of cognition, the capacity to acquire knowledge of objects. Intelligence is intellect plus knowledge. Talent is intermediate between genius and intelligence. It conveys more strongly the notion of intellectual power than quantity of knowledge. Genius denotes a special application of intellect; it is specialized power in certain directions. Wisdom involves both intellect and knowledge. It places more stress on the possession and proper application of knowledge. 8. There are two ways by which society may direct its efforts to improve itself; one is to increase the amount of intellect, or natural capacity; the other is to increase the amount of knowledge. Since intellect (one component of intelligence), is f a r in excess of knowledge (the other component of intelligence), the best way at present to increase the amount of intelligence is by the distribution of knowledge. It is in the relative amount of knowledge that nearly all superiority exists. 9. Although there are individual differences, there are no class differences in intellect. The lower classes of society are equals in intellect of the upper classes. A group of individuals, picked at random among the lower and middle classes, would reveal as much intellect, or native capacity, as the same number picked at random among the upper

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187

classes. It is probable that there are no differences in intellect between the races and certainly none between the sexes. The difference in persons is in what they know, which depends upon knowledge and opportunity. But this theory does not imply that all men are equal intellectually. It only insists that inequality in intellect is common to all classes. 10. Talent cannot be created artificially, but opportunities to a great extent can be so created. 1 1 . There are five types of education; that of experience, of discipline, of culture, of research and of information. It is upon the education of information that the ideological method depends. It confines itself exclusively to imparting discovered knowledge to those who do not possess it. 12. The education of information devotes itself exclusively to the contents of the mind and entirely disregards its capacity. It must be a social function, universal, compulsory, and in the hands of the state. 1 3 . The "matter of education" constitutes the most extant knowledge which is knowledge of the environment, or science, and literature. There are two principles in the guidance of selection: First, that of generality; second, that of practicality. 14. The principles of all knowledge should be taught in three curricula: The first should deal with the widest generalizations progressively diminishing in generality; the second should continue the reduction of generality and allow some freedom for the teacher, in view of the particular talents of students, to select and to emphasize certain branches; the third should be a continuation for specializations and electives. These may be defined as the general, the special and the technical. 15. Teaching should not be in the hands of men only. From the lowest to the highest ranks of the entire teaching profession, as well as in the administrative functions, women should take an active part.

SOCIOLOGY

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16. The general method of education, as of all social activities should be teleological. 17. There should be methods for determining mental fitness by what would to-day be called intelligence tests and performance tests. 18. The culture epoch method of education is not wellfounded in theory and is wasteful in practice. 19. The chief means of education are reading, writing and calculating. They are the tools. But education is to be conferred by the school, by literature and by objects. 20. While observation and experimentation, and the teaching of the concrete before the abstract, are very important, books and scientific treatises are of inestimable value in education. Translations of foreign books may justifiably be used in the schools. 21. Methods and principles of invention should be taught. 22. T h e sciences should be taught in the order of nature, which is one of filiation among them, and in which creative synthesis, or the principle of synergy, explains the creation of the more specific sciences from the more general ones. T h e order is : Astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology and sociology. 23. N o longer should society allow any youth to have to choose between a trade and an education. It should see that he has a trade and an education. 24. There should be formulated by educational experts a uniform system of grading for the entire country, varied, perhaps, to a slight degree, by the particular circumstances of localities. 25. A n approved treatise on the matter and method of educational procedure should be formulated and published at public expense and made available to all. 26. There should be a national university. 27. The teleological method utilizes the feelings and the

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189

intellect of all persons including women, regardless of race or status, by extending knowledge and opportunity to them. Such differences as then remain will be natural differences and not artificial differences. 28. The teleological state will employ the principle of attraction through social engineers who will direct the social forces by the law of parsimony, analogous to the civil engineers, who guide the physical forces into channels least affected by friction and obstruction. These social engineers and legislators will be guided by sociological experts in the field of pure and applied sociology. 29. The aim of the state will be to see that each person is engaged in what he is best fitted by nature and equipped by a full knowledge of the scope of science and art to do. Consequently, he will be freed to do what he prefers and enjoys. Before examining W a r d ' s educational theories in detail it will be instructive to know his theory of sociology, his interpretation of life, his meaning of mind and intelligence and other relevant concepts. W a r d considered himself to be a materialistic monist. H e reduced " all forms of energy to modes of motion in matter. . . . Matter is what it seems to be Spirit and matter 5 are one. Matter is infinitely divisible but can never be reduced to nothingness. Force must be conceived as molecular impact. " It is simply the effect which matter in its motion through space exerts upon other matter with which it comes in contact . . . everything which is not matter is some relation between discrete parts of matter. The only reality is matter." 6 Like Spencer, W a r d conceived that * Ward, Dynamic Sociology (New York, 1910), vol. i, pp. 221-223. " It is not matter but collision that constitutes the only cause." See Ward's Pure Sociology, p. 136. 5

Ward, Applied Sociology

6

Ward, Dynamic Sociology, vol. i, pp. 230-231.

( N e w York, 1906), p. 89.

igo

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matter originally existed in a wholly unaggregated and homogeneous state. It is endowed with indestructible motion which obeys the two laws of gravitant and radiant forces. Through the instability of the homogeneous certain types and degrees of aggregations of matter will take place and heterogeneity will result. Cosmical changes are between states of greater aggregation and states of less aggregation. 7 The function of science is to study natural aggregates in their compounding and recompounding, whether it be of molecules or of societies. There is no more mystery about life 8 than of other aggregates. It " is the result of chemical or molecular aggregation. . . . [ L i f e ] is a property of a particular substance called protoplasm, which is as truly chemical as is water or lime." 8 Under the law of aggregation, W a r d discussed primary aggregation, or cosmogeny, the genesis o f matter; secondary aggregation, or biogeny, psychogeny and anthropogeny. Biogeny has to do with the genesis of organic forms; psychogeny with the genesis of mind and anthropogeny with the genesis of man and human relations. Last of all is tertiary aggregation, or sociogeny, which treats of the genesis of society and social relations. The principle by which the process of aggregation is explained, W a r d elucidated, twenty years after the appearance of Dynamic Sociology.10 This universal principle operates " in every department of nature and at every stage in evolution, which is conservative, creative and constructive." It is synergy which expresses the " t w o - f o l d character of energy and mutuality or the systematic and organic workingtogether o f the antithetical forces of nature. . . . Synergy 7

Ibid., pp. 232-233.

Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 318-320. " Life is the result of the aggregation of matter... L i f e is a property of matter." 8

9

Ward, op. cit., vol. i, p. 355.

Dynamic Sociology appeared in 1883. The theory of synergy is elaborated in Pure Sociology which was published in 1903, New York. 10

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is a synthesis of work or synthetic work, and this is what is everywhere taking place. . . . Synergy is the principle that explains all organization and creates all structures." 1 1 It applies in the realm of physics and chemistry as well as in that of psychology and sociology. " It consists in the ultimate union of the opposing elements and their continuation and assimilation." 12 F r o m Wundt, W a r d borrowed the term Creative Synthesis to denominate the process resulting from the operation of the principle of Synergy. H e quotes from W u n d t : " There is absolutely no form which in the meaning and value of its contents is not something more than the mere sum of its factors or than the mere mechanical resultant of its components." 13 W a r d states that his theory of universal aggregation or recompounding explains how new products are created from simpler elements. This principle of creative synthesis, W a r d applied to the filiation of the sciences which follows the order of Comte with some additions. Thus he explains that each science in the series grows out of the lower although each science is dependent upon it. Sociology . . . is a science, new in two senses, viz., those of being newly created and newly discovered. It is the product of recompounding of the simpler sciences. The sociological units are compounds of psychological units, but differ as much from their components as corrosive sublimate differs from chlorine or mercury. This principle also explains the relation of sociology to the special social sciences. It is not quite enough to say that it is a synthesis of them all. It is the new compound which their synthesis creates. It is not any of them and it is not all of them. It is that science which they spontaneously generate. The special social sciences are the units of aggrega11

Ward, Pure Sociology,

12

Ward, in American Journal of Sociology, vol. xii, p. 585.

pp. 171-176.

13

Ward, Pure Sociology, pp. 79-85.

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tion that organically combine to create sociology, but they lose their individuality as completely as do chemical units, and the resultant product is wholly unlike any of them and is of a higher order. All this is true of any of the complex sciences, but sociology, standing at the head of the entire series, is enriched by all the truths of nature and embraces all truth. It is the scientia scientiarum. . . .14 The subject matter of sociology is human achievement,1B It is not what men are but what they do. It is not the structure but the function. . . . Structures and organs are only means. Function is the end . . . sociology is concerned with social activities. . . . There is a radical difference between organic and social evolution. The formula that expresses this distinction is that the •environment transforms the animal while man transforms the environment. Now it is exactly this transformation that constitutes achievement.16 Like many of the modern American ethnologists of today, W a r d believed that " there has been no important organic change in man during the historic period. . . . The most advanced of any age stand on the shoulders, as it were, of those of the preceding age ". 1T However, one must not assume that the products of achievement are wealth, or material goods. These are only ends. The real products of achievements are means " and this implies the permanent and the eternal, while " material goods are all perishable." [By achievement is meant] methods, ways, principles, devices, arts, systems, institutions. In a word they are inventions. Achievement consists in invention in the Tardean sense. It is anything and everything that rises above mere imitation or repetition. Every such increment to civilization is a permanent gain, because it is initiated, repeated, perpetuated and never lost. 14

Ward, op. cit., pp. 90-91.

Ward, Applied Sociology, p. 6. " Achievement is individual, improvement is social. . . . Improvement is social achievement." 15

16

Ward, Pure Sociology, p. 16.

17

Ibid., pp. 16-17.

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It is chiefly mental or psychical, but it may be physical in the sense of skill.18 W a r d cites, as examples of man's achievement, language, literature, philosophy, science, mechanical invention, notation, calculus, the industrial arts and human institutions. They possess one fundamental condition and that is social continuity. The life of the individual is short, but that of the race is long. Species may become extinct, but genera or families are carried on. We find certain forms in existence. . . . The theory is, that the bathmic force is omnipresent and pushing in every direction, as from the center of a sphere towards every other part of its periphery. . . The essential characteristic of all achievement is some form of knowledge. . . . The process by which achievement is handed down may aptly be called social heredity.20 Pure sociology studies achievement; applied sociology studies improvement. Sociology, like every true science has a static and a dynamic department. Social statics is defined as social forces in equilibrium. It deals with social organization and order. Since social synergy, like all other forms of energy, is essentially constructive, social statics, in a sense, may be called constructive sociology.21 All the phenomena [of social statics are] controlled by a single principle, that of social synergy, under which social energy is equilibrated and social structures are formed. . . .22 A 18

Ward, op. cit., p. 25. Ibid., pp. 31. Ward differentiates the general social force by the modalities of chemism, bathmism, zoism and psychism. There is a complete filiation throughout the series. Bathmism was a term he borrowed from Cope. See Ward, op. cit., pp. 118-119. 19

20

Ibid., p. 34-

21

Ibid., p. 184.

22

Ibid., p. 231.

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moment's inspection shows that the social forces do not always and universally result in movement, that they conflict and collide with one another, that they choke one another, and are constantly tending to bring about a cessation of motion, i. e., they tend towards the state of equilibrium. The larger masses (social groups) are first brought to rest, but within these masses there goes on a sort of molecular activity by which free paths are opened for the performance of minor operations. The general result may be called a social structure. In a wider sense, these social structures may be called institutions. As examples of social structures proper may be mentioned the family, the clan, the tribe, the state, the church and each and all of the innumerable voluntary associations of society. As examples of institutions may be instanced marriage, government, language, customs, ethical and conventional codes, religion, art and even literature and science. Society itself . . . may be regarded as a great structure in which the social forces have to a certain extent been brought into a state of equilibrium. . . . In general, it may be said that society as a whole, including all its structures and institutions both general and special, constitutes a mechanism,23 The function of society, the mechanism, is for the protection of its members. Society has not risen from man as a social being but from the intellect which, before any groups now existing, perceived the utility in banding together. " Social statics, like biological statics, is a theoretical science. It assumes the fixity of human institutions in order to study them, abstracts for the moment the idea of movement or change, and deals with society at a given point of time." 24 Its problems are the natural progress or movement of society, the causes, origin and genesis of its leading institutions and purely spontaneous changes it has under23

Ward, Outlines of Sociology

24

Ward, Pure Sociology, p. 224.

(New York, 1923), pp. 168-170.

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gone. 25 It studies the condition or status of society at any particular time either past or present.. " It is like an instantaneous photograph of society." But the study of social statics does not imply that there is actually a statical condition of society, nor that there is a state of stagnation, neither a stationary condition actually. It includes preservation and perpetuation as well as growth and multiplication. " Simple perfectionment of structure is statical so long as it does not involve the least change in the nature of structure." 2 8 Dynamics consists in some change in the principle or nature of the structure. " It is precisely this distinction that separates the dynamic from the statical, whether in artificial or natural structures. . . .27 A s social statics has to do with the creation of an equilibrium among the forces of human society . . . so social dynamics must have to do with some manner of disturbance in the social equilibrium." 28 Regressive tendencies may be dynamic as well as progressive ones. Dynamic sociology seeks through intelligence and scientific prevision to secure artificial or teleological control over the phenomena of society analogous to the method by which science controls physical phenomena. It consists in applying the indirect method to the control of the social forces. 29 Feeling is the dynamic agent. Desire is the social force. " In all departments of nature where the statical condition is represented by structure, the dynamic condition consists in some change in the type of such structure." 30 W h e n a structure, whether it be of the cosmic, organic or social 25

Ward, Dynamic Sociology,

26

Ward, Pure Sociology,

vol. i, p. 456.

p. 182.

27 Ibid., p. 183. 28

Ibid., p. 221.

29

Ward, Dynamic Sociology, vol. ii, p. 161.

so Ward, Pure Sociology,

p. 221.

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realm, undergoes some change in its type whereby its relation to the environment becomes different from that previously sustained, we have dynamic conditions. In its narrowest sense, "dynamic" refers to movement, and Ward, when he is not speaking of the dynamic agent, means it to refer to movement producing a gradual change in the type of structures. The process by which structures are produced is not a dynamic process. Structures represent a condition of equilibrium and are the normal result of the equilibrium of conflicting forces. But no dynamic phenomena can take place until structures are produced. . . . Dynamic movements are confined to changes in the type of structures already formed, and, as stated, consist in changes in the type of these structures. . . . The change of type must be brought about without destroying or injuring the structure. It is a differential process and takes place by infinitesimal increments or changes. . . .31 [In social dynamics there are three leading dynamic principles.] These are, first, difference of potential manifested chiefly in the crossing of cultures, and by which the equilibrium of social structures is disturbed, converting stability into lability; second, innovation, due to psychic exuberance, through which the monotonous repetition of social heredity is interrupted, and new vistas gained; and third, conation, or social effort, by which the social energy is applied to material things resulting in poesis and achievement. All these principles are unconscious social agencies working for social progress.32 W a r d disclaimed all pretentions of attempting to treat of static sociology. His interest lay in the movement of society. He epitomizes his whole philosophy of human progress or dynamic sociology in the following words: The desire to be happy is the fundamental stimulus which underlies all social movements, and has carried on all past moral and 31

Ward, op. cit., p. 222.

32

Ibid., pp. 231-232.

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religious systems. These have been established in obedience to the deepest conviction and belief that they were able to accomplish the amelioration of the condition of mankind. They failed because misdirected, owing to the ignorance of man respecting nature, upon which alone all successful effort must be expended. . . . The problem is, to guide these vast and acknowledged forces in a progressive instead of a non-progressive direction. To do this, something analogous to these past non-progressive systems must be established. There must be a set of principles, doctrines, or articles to which, as a creed, the world shall give its adhesion. These principles must be true, and be founded on the natural, and not false. . . . The fundamental principle or first article of this new creed is, that all progress is the result of the utilisation of the materials and forces which exist in nature. The second is, that the true and only way of carrying out the first is the universal diffusion and thorough co-ordination of the knowledge now existing in the world respecting the materials and forces of nature—in short, the scientific education of all the members of society.33 It has been mentioned that the dynamic agent resides in the feelings, the affective department of the mind. It shows itself in the multitude of desires of man or what may be called the general will. Ward published The Psychic Factors of Civilisation in 1892 nearly ten years after the Dynamic Sociology that he might further elaborate his views on the social forces and " to determine the precise role that mind plays in social phenomena." 34 He felt that he was alone in insisting upon the reality and importance of the following principles: 1. The theory of the Social Forces and the fundamental antithesis which they imply between Feeling and Function. 33

Dynamic Sociology, vol. i, pp. 24-25. The title of Ward's first work was Dynamic Sociology or Applied Social Science as Based upon Statical Sociology and the Less Complex Sciences. 34

Ward, The Psychic Factors of Civilisation (Boston, 1 9 0 1 ) , p. vi.

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2. T h e contrast between these true Social Forces and the guiding influence of the Intellect, embodying the application of the Indirect Method of Conation and the essential nature of Invention, of Art, and of Dynamic Action. 3. T h e superiority of Artificial, or Teleological, Processes over Natural or Genetic, Processes. 35 W a r d considered that the mind is composed o f t w o main roots, " the one begins w i t h sensation and ends with sentiment ; the other begins with perception and ends w i t h reason. T h e one constitutes the feelings, the other, the intellect."

86

T h e study of the f o r m e r m a y be called subjective psychology, and the latter, objective psychology.

T h e phenomena under

subjective psychology had been much neglected, he felt, by the m a j o r i t y o f psychologists and philosophers. 3 7

Y e t they

are o f the greatest significance in that f r o m them arise the social forces.

T h e elements o f

mind, are sensations.

consciousness, or of

the

Sensations m a y be of t w o classes,

the intensive, w h i c h m a y be pleasurable o r p a i n f u l ; the indifferent, which m a y be conscious or unconscious.

Sub-

jective psychology deals with intensive sensations and their related phenomena, while objective psychology studies indifferent sensations.

W a r d states :

Besides the five external senses, there is a sixth or internal sense called the emotional sense. L i k e the sense of touch and unlike the other four, it is diffused throughout the body, having 3= Ibid. 36

Ward, Dynamic Sociology,

vol. ii, p. 123.

Ward, The Psychic Factors of Civilisation, p. 3. In Outlines of Sociology, p. 201, Ward states: " W h i l e the philosophers were ignoring one-half of mind—the feelings—the economists were ignoring the other half — the intellect — and both of these great movements were limping along in this fashion. It has remained for sociology, whether calling itself by that name or not, to recognize the psychologic basis of human activities and to found a science upon all the faculties of the mind." 37

WARD'S

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no single local seat, but having, nevertheless, a number of regions of special sensibility due to extensive nerve-plexuses. . . . The emotional sense . . . receives its impressions only through nerve currents transmitted by the brain. T h e objects producing sensations are therefore chiefly psychologic, . . . Such action is sometimes called ideation, and their products ideas. It is these ideas which produce emotional sensations. This sense and this class of sensations are of primary moment to subjective psychology although they depend upon the phenomena of objective psychology. . . .3S T h e remembrance of an agreeable sensation and its attendant circumstances gave rise to the representation of pleasure not presently experienced. This mental state reacted upon the emotional sense producing a special form of sensation, intensive, and essentially painful in its nature, but unlike the primary form of pain. This sensation is called desire. . . . Desire is prurient in its nature, and this pruriency is satisfied by the attainment of an appropriate object which is to yield the pleasurable sensation represented. [Desire is] developed pari passu with the organ whose function it is to generate ideas, viz., the cortical layers or central hemispheres. Hence cephalization had for its earliest result the development and increase of conscious desires. . . . T h e leading desires were for nutrition, protection and reproduction. 39 W i t h the increase of desire came an increase in animal world activity which activity became a t r a n s f o r m i n g agency.

This

t r a n s f o r m i n g agency was composed o f the activities which resulted f r o m the efforts put f o r t h b y the organism to attain certain ends.

" T h e y have marked great epochs in evolution

or general organic progress."

40

W i t h regard to the general subject o f desire, W a r d states that the object of N a t u r e is Function, the object of organism is Pleasure,

while the object of

38

Ward, The Psychic Factors of Civilisation,

39

Ibid., p. 128.

40

Ward, op. ext., p. 129.

Evolution

pp. 126-127.

the is

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Activity. In the human stage, W a r d believed that the object of Nature is Function, the object of Man is Happiness, while the object of Society is Action. 4 1 Desire, from which arise the social forces, is the essential foundation of all action and is, therefore, " the true force in the sentient world." 42 In the Outlines of Sociology as well as in Pure Sociology,43 W a r d presented a classification of the social forces which is as follows: I. Physical Forces (Functions, bodily) A . Ontogenetic Forces 1. Positive, attractive, (seeking pleasure) 2. Negative, protective (avoiding pain) B. Phylogenetic Forces (Function, Psychic) 1. Direct, sexual 2. Indirect, consanguinal II. Spiritual Forces (Function, Psychic) A . Sociogenetic Forces 1. Moral (seeking the safe and good) 2. Esthetic (seeking the beautiful) 3. Intellectual (seeking the useful and true) W a r d points out that as peoples advance, the lower satisfactions become more subordinate, and an increasingly greater effort is expended on activities which, though not essential to self-preservation or race continuance, possess, for the highly developed, a far greater value. It has been seen that W a r d divides the study of the mind into the subjective faculties and the objective faculties, or the affective and the perceptive, respectively. W i t h Spencer, he agrees that " the proximate components of Mind are of two «Ibid. 42

Dynamic Sociology, vol. i, p. 469.

*3

See page 261.

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broadly contrasted kinds—Feelings and the relations between Feelings ". B y feeling, W a r d means something that furnishes an interest which implies an agreeableness or its opposite. " Feeling cannot be indifferent or disinterested. It must be intensive." 44 It involves a capacity for pleasure and pain. W a r d tries to avoid the word consciousness but he characterized it as a property of protoplasm. B y feeling, the plastic organism was able to save itself from destruction and to develop. It was more a question, however, of advancement than of survival. U p to the time that interest was created, " the products of creative synthesis had been passive." 45 W a r d considered the development of interest a real sympode and that it soon became all-important in that it marked the dawn of mind in the world. From this time onward there was animate nature. " Mind therefore was an accident, an incidental consequence of other necessities — an epiphenomenon." 46 T h e new differential attribute is marked by its subjectivity. " It recognizes only qualities not properties. These are psychic phenomena, but they are only subjectively psychic. They belong to the science of psychology, but constitute a department of that science which is properly called subjective psychology." 47 Out of this subjective aspect grows the objective in the sense that feeling grew out of life and life out of chemism, that is, by creative synthesis. W i t h Kant, he divided mind into Sinnlichkeit and Verstand. Heretofore, these two aspects of the mind, he believed, had been confused by the scholars. But the subjective or affective side of mind is the only one in which the interest in life resides, and in its varied manifesta44

Ward, Pure Sociology, p. 122.

45

Ibid,., p. 127.

48

Ibid., p. 128.

« Ibid.

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tions it constitutes the individual's only object in life. Feeling, which was created as a means, and has remained the most potent of the means to Nature's end, became the sole end of the sentient being and constituted the moral world.48 The dynamic agent exists in the subjective faculties of mind, while the directive agent, or intellect, is found exclusively in the objective faculties. F r o m the objective faculties of the mind come what W a r d calls the indifferent sensations from which, by the process of evolution, arises the intellectual side of mind. " Indifferent sensation constitutes the primary source of all knowledge; i.e., knowledge of properties as distinguished from qualities." 49 A n indifferent sensation consists of distinct awareness but has no intensive quality. " It arouses no interest and therefore prompts no action. This stage, however, is certainly subjective—it is a feeling. In an intensive sensation, which is psychologically coordinate with indifferent sensation, there is no such disposition. It is exactly here that the two great departments of mind diverge." 5 0 F r o m the indifferent sensations arise notions of the properties of objects or what may be called perception. Thus the objective faculties of the mind may be called perceptive while those of the subjective faculties may be called affective. Out of perception develops conception, judgment and reason. " The two great agents or agencies of society are the dynamic and the directive," 51 but an agent does not necessarily imply a force. A s a matter of fact, the directive agent, or the intellect, is not a force. But the dynamic agent is a force and seeks its end directly, while the directive agent moves indirectly. Social energy has been controlled in two 48

Ibid., p. 129.

49

Ward, op. cit., p. 460.

so Ibid. 51

Ibid., p. 462.

WARD'S

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THEORIES

ways, one unconsciously, by a process comparable to that of organic evolution, the other consciously, which may be called the telic method or social telesis. Not until the telic or directive agent was added was much real progress achieved. W h a t has been achieved may be called the genetic method in contradistinction to the telic method. " A l l art is telic." The difference between the two methods may be said to be that between growth and manufacture. W a r d differentiates between efficient causes and the final cause. Genetic phenomena are produced by efficient causes only. Under an efficient cause " a force acts upon a body and impels it in the direction in which the force acts ". However, since there is a multiplicity of forces possessing different intensities acting in different directions and, since the body impressed has a motion of its own producing relations upon the impinging forces, most examples are compound. " There must be contact, impact, collision, pressure and always a vis a tergo. If we call the effect the end, then, in genetic phenomena the effect is always in immediate contact with the cause ", 52 But the final cause, on the other hand, is " always more or less remote from its effect or end ". The final cause is not a force. It always implies that the end is known by the mind. Therefore, since the telic agent always knows " the nature of the natural force and the relations subsisting between the subject, the object, the force and the end ", the final cause must consist in knowledge. " The three steps are knowledge, adjustment, natural force." 53 Telesis thus becomes the adjustment of means to ends. It is this which largely distinguishes civilization itself. The effect and the cause are equivalent in efficient causes, while in final causes the effect is usually greater than the cause. In final causes, man compels the natural forces to 52

Ward, op. ext., p. 466.

53

Ibid., p. 467.

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serve him. There is no limit to the extent by which man through telesis may not subjugate nature to his uses. Thus it is seen that the method of mind, or telesis, is the precise opposite of genesis, or the method of nature. Nature, through a method of trial and error, aims at success. But she is always uneconomical, whereas, the only true economy is telic. Man, through the telic method, accomplishes in a short time what nature could accomplish by the genetic method only through countless ages. It is to be noted, that it is in the utilization of means to an end by the final cause that indirection is always involved. This may take the form of ruse, deception, cunning, exploitation, strategy, or diplomacy. In dealing with materials, indirection is always employed in the telic method. Man possesses, in common with all sentient beings, two sources of feeling, the internal and the external. But in rational beings many ideas are derived from knowledge which arouses feelings and inspires to action. Such feelings may be called idea forces." Ward maintains that intellect as well as the feelings is of biologic origin. It " is primarily an advantageous faculty and comes into existence through the action of natural selection or the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence." In his contention that mind, in both aspects, is of biological origin, Ward believed that he was unique, especially in his treatment of the subjective side of mind. Although he had spoken of the two great branches of the mind, he came to believe that it would be more correct " to regard the objective faculties as a branch or sympode of the subjective faculties considered as the main trunk." Like Schopenhauer, he maintained that the intellect is a relatively modern product. Besides the advantageous faculties, Ward thinks there are non-advantageous faculties which he includes under the term M

Ward, op. ext., pp. 472-474-

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genius. Genius is an end in itself since it does not have preservation or reproduction for its end. He mentions inventive genius and philosophic genius. " The idea that everything organic must necessarily be useful in the struggle for existence is one of those extremes to which the doctrine of natural selection at first led naturalists, and which has had to be combated with a large amount of evidence." 55 W a r d thus contends that there are variations which, though not disadvantageous, are non-advantageous. He supplemented the theory of natural selection with the principles of cross-fertilization, of atavism, of innovation and mutation. In the social world, the artificial emancipation of mankind from the restraints of the environment have released psychic energy so that an increasingly large surplus can be expended in biologically non-advantageous channels. These have proved to be sociologically advantageous and have hastened progress and concomitant pleasure. It must be repeated that " all desires are blind. The social forces are all blind forces," but they can be directed by the intellect. By such direction, progress in any realm can be greatly accelerated. This constitutes artificial progress which is active or previsional. All progress is either passive or consensual or active or previsional. The former is a growth; the latter is a manufacture. In manufacture the end is remote from the means. " The only means by which the condition of mankind ever has been or ever can be improved, is the utilization of the materials and the forces that exist in nature." 56 Blind adaptation is obtained through natural selection, while purposive achievement proceeds from artificial selection. The process of artificial selection is telesis while its product is teleological or anthropo-teleological progress. 55

Ward, op. cit., p. 501.

56

Ward, Dynamic

Sociology,

vol. i, p. 18.

2O6

SOCIOLOGY

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And when I assert that all the control that can ever be exerted over mankind must, in the future as in the past, emanate from the side of feeling and not of intellect, and promise a mitigation of the hardships of existence, at the same time, I unqualifiedly maintain that all the true progress, which has in fact taken place in the world, has come from the side of intellect and not of feeling. And herein lies a second parodox. This finds its explanation in the fact that all the real progress that has been made in the world has been the result of accident or, at least, of the operation of the uncontrolled and unknown laws of nature. . . . His [man's] progress has been the progress of nature, a secular and cosmical movement, not the progress of art, the result of foresight and intelligent direction. In short, man has not yet ceased to be an animal, and is still under the control of external nature and not under the control of his own mind. It is natural selection that has created intellect; it is natural selection that has developed it to its present condition, and it is intellect as a product of natural selection that has guided man up to his present position. The principle of artificial selection which he has been taught by nature, and has applied to other creatures, more as an art than as a science, to his immense advantage, he has not yet thought of applying to himself. Not until he does this can he claim any true distinction from the other animals.57 The effort which is needed in human society is teleological and the data of sociology is human achievement. In Dynamic Sociology, W a r d employs the word conation " to represent the efforts which organisms put forth in seeking the satisfaction of their desires, and the ends thus sought will be designated as the ends of conation." 68 Conation as characteristic of the genetic process is direct, while conation secured by means of the intellect is indirect. W a r d presents six definitions and six theorems of Dynamic Sociology: 59 57

Ward, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 15-16.

58

Ibid., vol. ii, p. 93.

«• Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 108-109.

WARD'S

A. B. C. D. E. F.

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

Six Definitions of Dynamic Sociology Happiness. Excess of pleasure or enjoyment, over pain, or discomfort. Progress. Success in harmonizing natural phenomena with human advantage. Dynamic Action. Employment of the intellectual, inventive or indirect method of conation. Dynamic Opinion. Correct views of the relations of man to the universe. Knowledge. Acquaintance with the environment. Education. Universal distribution of extant knowledge.

Six Theorems of Dynamic Sociology A. Happiness is the ultimate end of conation. B. Progress is the direct means to Happiness. It is therefore, the proximate end of conation, or primary means to the ultimate end. C. Dynamic Action is the direct means to Progress; it is, therefore, the second proximate end of conation, or secondary means to the ultimate end. D. Dynamic Opinion is the direct means to Dynamic Action; it is, therefore, the third proximate end of conation, or tertiary means to the ultimate end. E. Knowledge is the direct means to Dynamic Opinion; it is, therefore, the fourth proximate end of conation, or fourth means to the ultimate end. F. Education is the direct means to Knowledge; it is, therefore, the fifth proximate end of conation, and is the fifth and initial means to the ultimate end. It has been seen that W a r d considered that the genetic forces are physical, while the teleological forces are psychical. In order that society may progress most economically towards its goal of happiness, knowledge must be universally distributed. It is distributed by dynamic opinion which is based on knowledge. In this connection, it is important to recall Ward's views of the various aspects of education.

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Mankind progresses by " appropriate human actions dictated by rational thoughts," and the efficacy of thought depends upon the quality and quantity of intelligence. Intelligence is not mind, however. T h e latter is composed of the feelings and the intellect. Intellect is engaged with external objects. Once an object is cognized, it becomes an intellectual product. Intelligence, therefore, implies not only the degree of intellectual power employed, but the amount of labor actually performed by this power; it is intellect plus knowledge. . . . [There are two fundamental popular errors which tend to retard progress.] These are: i, Over-valuation of intellect, coupled with undervaluation of knowledge; and 2, over-valuation of the origination, coupled with undervaluation of the distribution, of knowledge. . . . The natural mind is the crude intellect unprovided with facts and truths—intellect without knowledge. The artificial mind is the intellect stored with natural truths and real facts—intellect with knowledge. . . . Only one ultimate criterion, exists, viz., the test of advantage.60 There are two methods by which society may consciously attempt to improve itself: ( i ) to increase the amount of intellect; ( 2 ) to increase the amount of knowledge. W e are faced with having to decide whether it is more profitable to exert our efforts in trying to increase intellect or knowledge. Ethnology leads us to conclude that the " capacity for knowledge is far in advance of the knowledge possessed." 61 W a r d believed that " an equal number, selected wholly at random [among the European races] from among the lower, middle and higher classes, would, if placed under like conditions, evince equal average native ability for acquiring knowledge." 62 But the intellect of different classes reveals great eo W a r d , op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 471-473. 61

Ibid., p. 475.

62

Ibid.

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

qualitative differences but no perceptible quantitative differences. Social position accounts for the differences in intelligence. For instance, cities produce more intelligence, he thought, than rural districts, because of wider contacts and a greater variety of experience. We, ourselves, have more intelligence than the ancients but no more intellect. While it is probably true, Ward states, that the brain has certain local specialized areas, it is, in its entirety, a unit. Through natural selection, plastic organisms, unequipped with powerful means of defense or with knowledge, have developed a " degree of native capacity . . . far in excess of the necessity and still remains so, if by necessity we consider only the practical end of nature — preservation of life." 93 Everywhere it is seen through the study of history and comparative ethnology that " the chief differences in nations, in local areas, in communities, and in individuals are in what they know, and not in what they are capable of knowing. It is intelligence which so greatly varies, and not intellect, the deficiencies of backward regions are deficiencies in knowledge; the chief errors of the world, as well as its chief evils, have a common origin in ignorance." 64 Since intellect is far in excess of knowledge (the two components of intelligence), and since the psychic progress of man in the historic age has been due to the increment of intelligence, it seems clear that not more intellect, but more knowledge is needed to obtain the end which is intelligence. This is the easier method, inasmuch as it is easier to increase knowledge than it is to increase intellect. [All evidence goes to prove that no] " appreciable alteration in the quantity or quality of the psychic substratum can be effected within the limits of an individual's lifetime . . . all change in 63 Ward, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 480. Ibid., p. 481.

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the intellect proper must be due to corresponding change in the brain. . . . There are only two ways in which intellect may be really developed, though the results can only appear in the course of successive generations. One of these is by the practical observance of the law of heredity, or, in other words, by rational selection of the parents of each generation. The other is by an intelligent modification of the environment of individuals, such as to cause an increment of variation in each generation in the direction desired.65 The easiest method, though not the most rapid, W a r d considered to be the substitution of a new and different class of experiences, that is, by direct equilibrium, which implies the theory that an organ is strengthened by use. " T h e only present practical mode of contributing anything to the development of intellect, is that of supplying it with knowledge " 86 and letting it thereby be strengthened with its natural food which is truth and fact. Only a few minds have given society all its knowledge. Thus the task of increasing knowledge implies the origination of it as well as its distribution. The distribution of knowledge depends upon the law, " that whatever is presented to the mind, if there be no rebutting evidence or testimony, will be accepted." 67 T h e mass of knowledge which anyone can possess is second-hand and must remain so. W h a t is augmented by any one person is always small. The extant knowledge must be distributed if telic progress is to be obtained. The means of verification should freely be left open for the use of them who doubt. The increase of knowledge means change of experience. The first way of augmenting it is to render experience reliable. Inferences must be correctly made. This does not 65

Ibid., pp. 482-483.

66

Ward, op. ext., vol. ii, p. 484.

« Ibid., 486.

WARD'S

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211

depend upon intellect except to a small degree. Man's real success has been due not so much to his power of interpretation in the past, as to " his stock of information." His power of comprehending and interpreting has increased more rapidly by the use he could make of knowlege than by the actual development of the brain. Modern science has speeded progress not by an increase of intellect but by the " superior facilities which it afforded for the correct interpretation of valuable experience, and not at all by any sudden rise in the native capacity of the race for such interpretation." 68 It is to be assumed that systematic verification of experiences is to be relied upon. This alone is the known, and it distinguishes the scientific from the unscientific. The quantitative mode of increasing knowledge is employed by the mind which has acquired the largest proportion of verified knowledges. But there is also a qualitative method. T w o criteria may be applied to test the knowledge of most worth. The first is that of relative generality, and the second, that of relative practicality. It is not isolated facts which are important but the relations between classes of fact, of general laws or principles. Truths should be inculcated which are as comprehensive as possible. Thus the foundation for the correlation and co-ordination of further knowledge is made possible. " T h e general principle upon which practicality rests is that of correspondence, which runs through all the kingdoms of life. Nature is extremely practical though not what men call economical." 69 Nature's method is genetic. She never errs but she often wastes. " T h e kind of knowledge he [man] most needs now . . . is that which will preserve him and strengthen his hold upon existence both as an individual and as a race." 70 It is knowledge of environ68

W a r d , op, cit., p. 490.

69

Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 493-494.

70

Ibid., p. 494.

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ment which can bring amelioration. Man seeks happiness in positive form and is not content with mere protection and preservation only, which are negative forms of happiness. This knowledge of environment is simply Science. " The only useful knowledge is that which furnishes relations." 71 Isolated facts are of very little use. Science furnishes relations. Furthermore, science is dynamic. Education up to now has largely been directed to the mere efflorescence of things and not to their roots or fundamentals. What knowledge has been used has too often been diluted and has tended more and more to the pampering of the mental system. This diminishing in value of verified primary knowledge W a r d terms attenuation. Dynamic knowledge is of two classes, potential and actual. Many experiments yield knowledge, the significance of which may not be seen at once. Such experiments are often carried on for their own sake and without the discoverer being aware of its future utility. Such an example is seen in " Galvani's experiments with frogs' legs which may be regarded as the fundamental principle underlying the invention of the electric telegraph ". Such experiments, even though possessing no dynamic value, may have great ethical value. The field of actual dynamic knowledge is found in the more simple and positive sciences where the ends can more easily be foreseen. This method produces invention of the well-known kind everywhere seen in our civilization. The capacity for receiving truth and its actual possession is not the same thing. Natural objects possess certain qualities which appeal to the senses and by which the senses become aware of them. When recognized by the intellect, knowledge has been attained. " Judgment . . . is the power by which the mind detects the same quality in different objects " J 2 A comparison of the sensations produced by 71

Ibid., p. 497.

72

Ward, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 5 1 1 .

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

the objects is made. " Reason is only that faculty of the intellect by which special truths are deduced from general ones '\ 7 3 Ideas or relations are its data. All knowledge may be either absolute or probable and each may be either positive or negative. Absolute knowledge is confined to conclusions drawn from premises. Though the method is infallible the truth or conclusion is conditional. Absolute knowledge therefore, is confined to a small field. W e can know certain facts absolutely if we know certain other conditions to be true. Examples of positive knowledge may be found in logic and mathematics. " Probable knowledge . . . [is] of various degrees of certainty, according to the faculty of the intellect by which it is apprehended, the highest degree being found to be the original conceptions resulting immediately from the impressions of the senses." 74 Repetition of these conceptions makes experience and, through such repetition, the mind establishes laws and principles. These laws are discovered by induction. Ward contends that the doctrine of innate or intuitive knowledge is untenable. 75 " The senses, in fact . . . furnish the materials of all knowledge, and, but for them, no truth could be apprehended." 78 Judgment and reason rest upon the primary perceptions which arise from the senses. All knowledge rests absolutely upon experience. A judgment is expressed by a proposition. . . . No important proposition should be deemed to have been satisfactorily established until it has been subjected to the test of a thorough scientific analysis and found to be based upon either some 73

Ibid., pp. 511-512.

71

Ward, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 531.

75

Spencer thought the experience of the race was inherited. Originally, even with this theory, intuitive ideas were ultimately derived from experience. 76

Ward, Dynamic

Sociology,

vol. ii, p. 518.

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tangible material thing or subject, cognizable by the senses, or upon some real fact or physical change, actually known by sensual demonstration to have taken place in such matter by the operation of such laws. 77 W a r d agrees emphatically with Bacon that " knowledge is power ". It is intellectual superiority that has always been the basis o f power. Intellect alone cannot do this. Intelligence has, through the ages, increased more rapidly than intellect, and it is " in the relative amount of knowledge possessed that nearly all superiority consists." 7 8 Since average capacity is everywhere the same, it follows that those who have the most knowledge have the most intelligence and are in a superior position to attain the objects of their desire. In the past, intelligence has been a growth. Through teleology it will become a manufacture. " The knowledge of experience is, so to speak, a genetic product; that of education is a teleological product." 79 F r o m henceforth the origination and distribution of knowledge must be increased and controlled by society by artificial methods as have the supplies of food and other products of material achievement. The inequalities now existent are unnatural. In that day when there shall be equal distribution of knowledge, with accompanying equal opportunity, such inequalities of condition as exist will be only those due to differences in native capacity. The differences will then be natural differences such as exist among animals. It has been pointed out that the ultimate end of all sentient beings is the increase of happiness. It therefore behooves an intelligent society, cognizant of the efficacy of artificial means to put forth every effort to devise a " systematic, predetermined, and successful scheme for the organization of happiness." 80 " Ibid., pp. 521-52778

Pp. 537-

79

Ward, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 539.

80

Ibid., vol. ii, p. 541.

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

The intellectual, inventive way employs the indirect method. It minimizes the waste attendant on the emotional, muscular or direct method. Through knowledge of cause and effect, success can only be achieved by action based on a discernment of the true means to be employed. " T o seize the means, is true generalization; to apply them, is true organization. 81 Dynamic Sociology has, as its final object, the organization of happiness. It is to be attained by teleological progress directed by dynamic action which in turn is based on dynamic opinion. The way to dynamic opinion is through knowledge. The direct means to knowledge is education. " This must be regarded as the initial term, and also as the point d'appui of the system." 82 The proximate means to happiness, dynamic opinion, dynamic action, and progress may be left to take care of themselves, as well as the increase of intellectual capacity and the origination of knowledge. They will follow by necessity once the initial means be applied, viz., the distribution of the already known. Neither happiness nor progress can be attained directly by the individual or society. They come as products, as it were, from the pursuit of the indirect, inventive method of collective telesis. True views can be as easily inculcated as false ones. One current view of education may be termed " a systematic process for the manufacture of correct opinions." 83 A n artificial system must be devised by which true impressions are substituted for false ones. Knowledge of the environment produces progressive ideas and increased capacity. Through the inheritance of acquired characters the intellect will be strengthened by knowledge. Truth is a brain builder. Natural selection, or the law of indirect equilibration, is too slow a way. B y artificial modification 81

Ibid., p. 542.

s2 Ibid. 83

Ibid., p. 548.

2l6

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of the environment reacting upon the biological organism through direct equilibration, intellect may be increased as well as intelligence which, as has been noted, is a compound of intellect plus knowledge. " To employ the means is to secure the end." 84 As to the question of the supply of knowledge, W a r d replies : " Just as the acquisition of knowledge constitutes the only present practical means of developing the intellect, so the distribution of knowledge constitutes the amply sufficient means to its further origination." 85 If knowledge were more universally distributed a great incentive would arise for further origination of it. But this matter will take care of itself once there is a universal diffusion of the already known. " Education is the mainspring of all progress. It is the piston of civilization." 86 W a r d realized that the word education was very inadequate to convey his full meaning as it had been used to imply so many different concepts in the past. Yet he had to remain satisfied with it, since he could find none better. H e opposed the notion that education means a drawing out. Before anything can be drawn out something must be put in. The stomach cannot digest if it be empty; neither can the mind be effective on nothingness. Its food is experience and knowledge. Neither did W a r d believe that all an education can do is to prepare the mind for future acquisitions. To those who advocate education as preparation he says: " Let me simply say that, for one, I repudiate utterly the notion that education is but a preparation for real life. In condemning the education of discipline, I also condemn the education of preparation." 87 In his opinion neither disci84

Ibid., p. 551.

85

Ward, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 552.

86

Ward, Unpublished

87

Ibid., p. 649.

Manuscript

on Education,

p. 3 1 1 .

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

217

pline nor preparation are aims. They are only incidents of all scholastic instruction. Education had been used by some authorities to mean ornament, culture and erudition, none of which W a r d means. H e agrees with Spencer that most of the education of the past has meant culture without knowledge. Education, then, to W a r d means knowledge of the already known. H e classifies the prevailing ideas of education very roughly under the following headings :88 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Education Education Education Education Education

of of of of of

experience discipline culture research information

The education of experience has been thought by many thinkers to be all that is necessary. W a r d considered the trial and error method which it employs, wasteful. Success, if it comes at all, may come too late. " Experience costs." 89 It furnishes knowledge, to be sure, but he believed that there could be a substitute for experience in many cases which would greatly short-curcuit the way to the goal of success. Education by experience has always been slow and wasteful. H e proposes the teleological method which is economical of effort and time. L a w s and principles must be applied to practical life. This, the education of information is aimed to accomplish. A l l social actions are controlled by laws. It behooves mankind to discover them and to apply them. In discussing the education of discipline " it either means," W a r d states, " the modification of brain tissue or it means the supply of the mind with the data of thought." He has already said that no appreciable quantity or quality of the psychic substratum can be affected within the limits of an 88 Ward, Dynamic Sociology, vol. ii, p. 559. 89

Ibid., p. 561.

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individual's life-time. The advocates of the education of discipline would deny that it means the supply of the mind with the data of thought. Although there is a line between physiology and psychology yet the latter has its roots in the former. " All mental action is the product of physiological action that renders real brain-development possible." 90 Discipline can only be obtained by organizing mental states through systematic knowledge which shall give rise to useful action. Discipline and character which involves morality is implied in his definition of the education of information. These ends will take care of themselves, as in the case of many others, once the means have been put into operation. The education of culture gives pleasure and therefore can only be approved. The fault lies in making such knowledge primary and of. making it the sole knowledge. One must assume that Ward considered such education to be largely a private matter and not for the universal curriculum provided by the state except in a secondary way since he did not give it special attention and yet was himself personally receptive to it. Ward contends that those who advocate the education of research and maintain that truth originated will naturally diffuse itself, are not revealing the facts. Society is not yet so educated as to receive new truths adequately. It can only be made receptive to new knowledge when the extant knowledge has been distributed and is in the possession of all, in other words, assimilated. Very little of the real knowledge of the world has been utilized. It is hid away in the minds of a few or in libraries. Thus the few dominate the many, or, in some cases, the many ostracize and persecute the few because of ignorance and fear of what others possess. The evils of society cannot be cured by further research at this point or by the origination of more unassimilable knowledge. so W a r d , op. cit., vol. ii, p. 564.

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219

The education of information, which W a r d always passionately defended, first proceeds artificially and ideologically to confer knowledge; second, it pays no special attention to the formation of intellectual faculties or of character, assuming that these must necessarily follow from the possession of knowledge; third, it makes the education of the ornamental secondary, and the useful primary, in that it promulgates a knowledge of the most practical truths of nature and life followed by principles; fourth, it leaves research to follow as a matter of necessity by devoting the education of information " exclusively to imparting existing knowledge to those who do not possess it." Education then, in dynamic sociology, is a system by which the most important extant knowledge of the world shall be extended to all its members. This system is based on the principle that it shall devote itself exclusively to the contents of the mind and disregard entirely its capacity. It aims to store the mind with a careful organization of the most useful and important known truths. If any brain increment should occur eventually so much the better. 91 Ward, like Spencer, believed that there is a fallacy in the idea that the brain can be over-crammed, over-tasked and worn out by knowledge. T h e damage that is done is from ill-assorted knowledge which is always distasteful and repugnant. The leading-out process often does this sort of damage. There is a spontaneous craving for the right sort of knowledge which can easily be aroused. Only ignorance has prevented education from proceeding in the right way. Broad comprehensive principles always appeal to the youthful mind. It is over-work due to bad teaching and to badly arranged text-books which wearies and dulls the interest of pupils. It is detail, unrelated particulars, repetition that develops repulsion. Interest should be the key-note to all teaching. Youth 91

W a r d , op. cit., vol. ii, p. 568.

22 O

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is always asking eagerly why and what for. Teachers and text-books should satisfy these inquiries. W a r d adds: The object is to fill the mind with truth; not to cram it, nor to force it, but to store it in such a systematic way with knowledge that it may make use of its stores in the production of rational thought. . . . It requires no greater effort to know something important than to know something unimportant. It is not the quantity of knowledge, but the quality, not the number of truths but their value, which should be chiefly considered, and the ability of the mind to acquire them forms no part of the problem.92 In Applied Sociology under a section entitled " T h e Pain of Circumstances ", W a r d deplores the view held by Galton and others that circumstances have no power to modify the body and hence assumes that this applies to the influence of education. W a r d states clearly that he thinks of the mind as distinct from the brain, a part of the body. There is a fallacy " in supposing that the mind is nothing but the brain, it would be all true of brain, for the brain is only a part of the body, and whatever is true of the whole body is true of the parts. But it is not true of the mind, because the mind is something besides the brain. It is also something more than intellect. I have defined intelligence as intellect plus knowledge. The mind, as we have been treating it, is the whole of intelligence with all the moral (affective) attributes added. It is the working force of society. The intellect, or the brain, if any one prefers, is a sort of receptacle, and knowledge is its contents. Let us suppose there to exist hundred of boxes, made after a sort of common pattern as regards size and shape, but differing enormously both in the materials of which they are made and the workmanship displayed in making them. Some of them are made of the finest mahogany or rosewood and are beautifully 82

W a r d , op. cit., vol. ii, p. 571.

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

carved, polished, paneled, and veneered, or exquisitely carved without and inlaid with gold or precious stones. Others are made of very coarse materials not even dressed. Some may even be made of straw paper, incapable of resisting any strain whatever. Between these extremes there are all conceivable degrees of difference in both respects, but all except the very poorest are constructed of substantial materials and firmly put together. Let us next suppose all these boxes to be filled with something—filled with every thinkable kind of objects—the contents to differ in value far more than do the boxes themselves. Some are filled with silver or gold or with pearls of great price or large diamonds of the first water. Others are filled with common pebbles gathered on the beach, or with rough angular stones of the gravel-pit, with impure sand, or even with sawdust. And between these extremes again there are all conceivable degrees in the value of the contents of the boxes. Now the boxes typify the brain or the intellect, the preefficients of intelligence or of mind. The contents, on the contrary, typify the acquired qualities, experience, education, training, study, and meditation, in a word, knowledge . . . the possessions of the mind . . . everything that has been added to the original substratum. All except the very poorest strawboard intellects (idiots) are capable, like the boxes, however rudely made, of holding any of the things that are put into them and of preserving them secure'y. Just as the coarse boxes, made of undressed lumber, will hold the pearls and diamonds as well and safely as the most highly wrought rosewood boxes, so the common intellects of all but the congenitally feeble-minded will hold the greatest truths that have ever been discovered; and just as the rough boxes are capable of being smoothed off, and when made of firm and fine-grained lumber, may even take a high polish, so the cruder intellects may be cultivated, refined, and polished. According to this figure the mind is represented by boxes and their contents, and it can be readily seen contents may be of vastly greater value than the box. put sawdust into mahogany boxes and diamonds into

both the that the One can those of

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rude oak. In fact, this is what is constantly happening with the minds of men. It is only when pearls find their way into rosewood boxes that true genius comes forth. The so-called scientific view above mentioned, that no external influences have any power to affect the mind, relates entirely to the boxes and ignores their contents altogether. . . . Over the contents society has complete control, however fixed may be the receptacle. Why is it not just as scientific to deal with the contents as with the receptacle? It certainly is not scientific to pretend to be dealing with the mind and ignore the contents of the mind. A s a matter of fact, there is not such an essential difference between intellects as to prevent most sane persons from storing their minds with useful knowledge and making good use of such stores when possessed, and almost all the difference that exists among minds are due to differences in their contents. This in turn is due to differences in the experience that different persons have.93 It has been seen that the first cardinal principle, upon which W a r d ' s system of education rests, is that it shall devote itself exclusively to the contents of the mind and shall disregard its capacity. His second cardinal principle is that education shall be the exclusive work of society. In our social organization this means the government. Education is to be the task of the state. W a r d is willing to see many of the objections to state education, but he says there is no alternative in view of his aim. H e states that government always administers better than it legislates, the reason being that there is more time for ample deliberation. Laissez faire and competition are always wasteful. These " represent the wasteful, genetic method ". In any enterprise the state has undertaken, he maintains, it has done better than have private enterprises judged from the welfare of society and not private gain. Private organizations have not let the truth be known, and public opinion is based on error 83

Ward, Applied Sociology, pp. 267-269.

WARD'S

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which has been encouraged by those interested. One striking example is that of the railroads. Whatever the state does is done better and in many cases more economically. W a r d himself was in the government service, for many years, as a scientific investigator in several departments. H e says: " Whatever scientific undertakings have been entrusted to the government have almost invariably been ably and thoroughly prosecuted." When the public shall be imbued with the principles of universal knowledge, the government will be an ever better realm for the work of scientific men who are always more or less " peculiarly adapted to faithful service in situations where great practical interests are involved ". But " science is ill-adapted for the competition and feverish methods and sentiments that obtain in nearly all departments of private life. Success in science depends upon the ability to await results. Science cannot be hurried." 94 The competitive system is not adapted to education inasmuch as " there exists no natural desire for education." Those who are to be educated have no natural craving for it. The laws of supply and demand do not apply here. In private education, parents must be pleased. Patrons must not be lost. Furthermore, private education all considered, " is worse than n o n e " in that it tends to widen the gulf between those who have and those who have not. It increases the existing inequalities in intelligence. Society, however, " desires what is really needed. The object of education is social improvement." 95 This cannot be fully attained if society must carry a large uneducated class. To do this is most expensive. From these classes progress never ensues. " The secret of the superiority of state over private education lies in the fact that in the former the teacher is responsible solely to society." 98 For 94

Ward, Dynamic

95

Ward, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 589.

Sociology,

vol. ii, pp. 583-584. 96

Ibid.

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the sake of the pupil himself state education is better. Rank under state education is accorded to ability and not to birth or station. In a democracy the contacts with high and low are of inestimable importance and benefit. Each finds his own level. Success comes to him with power. The character has a better chance to be molded correctly than with direct moral training. Furthermore, state education is infinitely better for society. It diffuses knowledge which cannot be left to parents or individuals. W h e n society realizes the impetus given to progress through the teleological method it will esteem the distribution of knowledge as its one great function. A l l its efforts will be directed to this initial means and dynamic opinion, dynamic action and progress will follow. Discipline, culture, and origination as arises, should take second place after the distribution of knowledge. 97 The third cardinal principle of W a r d ' s system is that education must be universal. Otherwise, the aim cannot be attained. A more progressive civilization itself will be due to a better educational system. T h e differences between peoples is largely in what they know, that is, to differences in achievement. Lack of opportunity and education greatly increase the criminal and dependent, submerged classes. Ignorance in the midst of intelligence is worse than a generally low state of intelligence. The crude drag down the refined. Each is a danger to the other. Progress is neutralized. One group tends to encroach upon the other to the detriment of the whole. " T h e end of life is enjoyment, not intelligence. The latter is only the means to the end." 98 Present attempts of socialists and others are to attain progress and happiness 97 Ward wishes it to be understood that his remarks on state education imply "ideal state education." 88

Ward, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 596.

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directly without utilizing the necessary means. Hence failure is certain. Capital and labor have become symbols of intelligence and ignorance, and will continue to be so as long as inequalities of education persist. W a r d replies to those who claim that the inequality in natural capacity is so great that even with the distribution of knowledge, inequalities would exist and that it would result in one inequality being substituted for another. First, he says, even though differences in native capacity may be great they are small compared to the differences of information. Common sense exists in every class. There are all grades of intellect to be sure, but those who fall below a certain average standard are few as well as those who rise above it. That is, he has the Gaussian curve in mind. Those who succeed, often do so, not because of superior intellect, but because of emotional force, great ambition and perseverance and will. But the " really best minds are not the ones that accomplish most . . . the best minds require to have opportunity brought to them." 99 Such are too critical, too conscious and too sensitive to defects and often lack the emotion and ambition which so often accompany average talents. If true merit is to be developed where latent, opportunity must be equalized. Then society will profit by all the intellect it possesses. While mediocrity is usual and brilliancy the exception, the " real need is to devise the means necessary to render mediocrity such as it is, more comfortable." 100 The differences which now exist are largely due to artificial differences and only slightly to intellect. Secondly, W a r d replies, that although differences would exist, if knowledge were universally distributed, practically no harm would follow. They would be wholly due to merit and not to accident or chance. Differences would still be 99

Ibid., p. 599. 100 Ward, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 6oo.

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great enough to provide each vocation with laborers. " The adaptation must necessarily be more complete than now, when sages do menial service and fools rule empires. The fitness of things will then reach its highest stage of completeness, and servants as well as poets, will be born not made." 101 The economic gap which now exists between different classes in our population due to ignorance is the worst obstacle and evil we have. The great number must serve the powerful few. Power is always used for selfaggrandizement. Power can only be equalized when advantages are more equalized. The few mold and direct public opinion as they please through control of the organs of public opinion. As a young man, he said: " With distinctions of rank or birth or nationality, I am done. Such considerations are wholly arbitrary and artificial and offer nothing upon which the rational mind can lay hold." 102 When Ward wrote Dynamic Sociology, he was unacquainted with what he calls the literature of opportunity, although he knew the opinions of Helvetius with whose views he partly agreed. From youth, Ward had believed that the great work of society was to increase the efficiency of mankind and, great as had been actual achievement, it was small as compared with potential achievement. He maintained that there was latent intellect in the proletariat. He thought, as a youth, as has been noted, that intellect is not confined to class. Great was his pleasure in after years to find in the statistical work on the genesis of great men by M. Alfred Odin, professor in the University of Sofia, an objective study, corroborating his own personal opinions based on observation.103 An examination of Odin's study with others com101

Ibid., pp. 601-602. 102 Ward, Unpublished

Manuscript

on Education,

p. 158.

103 Ward, Applied Sociology, p. 300. " The work of Odin opens up the field and shows how strictly social questions may be reduced to a

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

prises a large part of Ward's Applied Sociology. H e believed he was justified then, through this study, to maintain that although genius is a constant factor and is hereditary, that opportunity, being a variable factor, can be so universalized that all genius can be discovered and developed for the uses and improvement of society. From this study, which included women as well as men, W a r d believed that he saw what the real environmental factors of civilization are and that they had been for the most part neglected.104 The resources of society hidden in men and women without opportunity he likens to the mineral resources which lie hidden in the earth. It needs universal education to discover them. Universal education of course means compulsory education. Nevertheless, W a r d sees no obstacles in the way to it. All classes of people, if the appropriate means are used, may be attracted rather than coerced to education. This can be accomplished by what he terms attractive legislation. Parents and guardians should be induced to patronize the public school. No one knows what progress might result from the utilization of the intellect now latent in society. The thoughtful observer is led to reflect upon the probability that there exist throughout society minds fully capable of matching the most brilliant examples which the race has produced, but which, for want of opportunity, never shed a single ray of light from the fire that smoulders within them. . . . But talent cannot be created artificially, while opportunities, to a great extent, can be so created.105 W a r d considered that the mother of circumstances is knowlrigidly scientific treatment. But the gratifying part of this analytic study has been that it at once and completely confirms the conclusions at which I arrived synthetically." 104 Ibid., p. 224. Discussed more fully in this study in chapter six. 105 Ward, Dynamic Sociology, vol. ii, pp. 612-613.

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edge that certain fields of knowledge exist. Without this knowledge, talent cannot find its own realm of activity. W a r d , himself, as a boy, suffered from not knowing that there were studies of botany, zoology, geology and others, although his interest had been keen and sensitive to the raw materials of such sciences. 106 Universal education would have prevented the existence of such ignorance, he thought. In his system of universal education, Ward, of course, meant to include women and all races. H e felt that such education could be defended on its own merits, to say nothing of the effect the release of latent intellect might have on the progress of men and women and ultimately on society. The reason, he believed, that women in realms of so-called men's work have achieved so little, is lack of opportunity. Such faculties as they have possessed have been languishing from poor mental food. H e felt that men would have had a similar record if they had been reared under the same circumstances and socially deprived all along the way. He considered that the minds of women differ from those of men only in emotional quality, but that intellect is one and the same everywhere. In women, as well as in men, the proper mental nourishment is truth. Education then, W a r d reiterates, is to be conferred upon everybody. The only limitation is mental capacity. W h e n W a r d began his work more than sixty years ago there were very few institutions of higher learning for women. Consequently the great majority of women were uneducated. In fact, education was considered mentally and physically harmful for them and in many quarters sinful and unwomanly. In this connection W a r d wrote, before he had published his first w o r k : A s to the education of women there is but one thing to be ascertained. That is whether women have minds. The true educationalist knows no sex any more than he knows rank, color or 106 W a r d , Pure

Sociology,

pp. 189-190.

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

stature. He sees only mind. This is his material. . . . Show that men have a right to knowledge and you have shown that women have the same right. . . . Those qualities which are termed feminine are as useful in their place as those termed masculine. . . . Mental qualities are inherited from both parents and . . . by leaving one sex uncultivated one half of the benefit flowing from this source is lost. . . . If we look at the question in a purely utilitarian aspect, and consider only the happiness of men alone, every principle of reason and common sense would dictate the equal education of both sexes. It is only then that they can be companions of each other. What companionship can an illiterate woman afford to a cultivated man? . . . The education of woman! this immense subject has so long weighed upon me that I am happy to seize an opportunity even incidentally and briefly to raise my voice in its earnest advocacy. I am tired of this one-sided civilization, of this halfbuilt society, of this false chivalry, this mock-modesty, this pretended regard which one sex assumes for the other, while loads of putrid prejudice hang upon woman's neck. Away with it all and let the broad shield of equality be the protecting aegis of humanity. 107 A comprehensive treatise on education would include subject matter, means and method. W a r d did not propose to write on pedagogy. H e was interested in creating a demand. Nevertheless, he did make a few pedagogical suggestions. A proper system of education " should confer the maximum amount of the most important knowledge upon all members of society." H e believed that the most important knowledge is guided by two principles, first generality, second practicality. But the general is not the abstract, which is difficult to grasp, while general truths are not. They deal with phenomena and are concrete. T o acquire the general facts of science no higher intellectual powers are required than are used in ordinary every-day life. 107 Ward, Unpublished Manuscript on Education, pp. 163-180.

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A s regards practicality, W a r d does not wish it to be confused with technical knowledge. " The education of information deals wholly with knowledge of things (objects, phenomena, laws), not with knowledge of ways of doing things, which is the subject of technological and artistic education." 108 H e suggested three distinct educational curricula, " the first to be strictly universal and invariable and to be restricted to such general and practical knowledge, within the certain comprehension of all intellects, as is clearly of the highest value to all without any distinction whatever." N o one in society should remain ignorant of this primary curriculum. " The second curriculum, while dealing in the main with truths of greater depth and difficultness, should also adhere to the principle of greatest generality and practicality. This curriculum should also, like the first, be universal in its application, but should differ from it in the one particular of embracing many interchangeable branches." In this curriculum, as in the above, there should be no electives by the students. Society alone, " should possess the means o f judging which ones [studies] are best adapted to the intellectual character of each. . . , 109 The third curriculum should be adapted only for those who have successfully passed the first and second." The student may elect studies with the aid and advice of teachers which will probably be best adapted to his life interests. " It should embrace truths of greater speciality and detail, as pointing to some one great class of practical labor or another, to be undertaken after the preparation shall have been completed which it should be the object of education to furnish." 110 There should be one ruling principle of classification. " Everything that has been known by man should be made ios Ward, Dynamic Sociology, vol. ii, p. 620. 109

Ibid., vol. ii, p. 621.

n o Ibid., p. 622.

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

known to all men." This implies general laws but not every object, fact or detail of nature. The primary curriculum should deal with the widest generalizations progressively diminishing in generality; the secondary simply continues the reduction of this generality and leaves the teacher to judge at what point certain coordinate branches of the system are to be dropped and more attention paid to others, and which ones these shall be; the third curriculum still further continues these processes of specialization and election for special ends. 111 The teacher will see that concrete data precede generalization and induction. Abstraction should be taught last not first. Those who wish to pursue branches not included in these curricula should be allowed to do so after the three curricula are completed. " N o danger from inequality of intelligence could then result since it is not special and technical knowledge, but general and practical knowledge that chiefly confer intelligence and power upon men." Origination of knowledge and technical education would be merely " differentia of the general truths already obtained." 1 1 2 In accordance with his views concerning a universal curriculum upon which later might be built specialization of any sort W a r d believed that educational experts should formulate a uniform system of grading for the entire country which might, however, be varied slightly to meet the peculiar circumstance of local conditions. Moreover, these authorities should compile at public expense a treatise on the subject matter and method of education in conformity with the aims of social telesis. This treatise for the guidance and enlightment on educational procedure and purposes should be available to all. 111

Ibid.

112

Ibid., p. 623.

SOCIOLOGY

232

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W a r d seems to have anticipated the intelligence tests and careful educational records of our time. He stated that one of " the most important objects of education . . . should be to determine the natural characteristics of individual minds. 113 H e believed the output of human progress could be doubled with no more energy expended if each person could early find the work he is best fitted to perform. He says education should be conducted on scientific principles which implies a record of observations and performance. The mental aptitudes of students vary. These variations should be observed and recorded so that the individual may be advised as to what he is likely to be best adapted. H e believed that a fairly safe guide could be instituted if this work were systematically and regularly carried out. " The school records, if carefully kept with a view to this object, would show, at the close of the universal course, the exact character of each pupil's mind. Their second or special course could thus be definitely determined. This course should be conducted along such channels as the mind most naturally would run in. . . , 1 1 4 This too explains the necessity of leaving it entirely to the teacher to determine which branches of the second curriculum should be omitted and which pursued, the teacher being in turn absolutely confined to the data furnished by the record." 1 1 5 In his early unpublished manuscript on education W a r d stated: The truth is that every man's calling should be made the subject of close scientific observation and experiment. Precisely the same method should be adopted to discover what a human being is and what qualities he possesses as would be to discover the nature and proportions of an unknown substance or an un1» Ibid. 111

Ward, Unpublished Manuscript on Education, p. 379.

115

Dynamic Sociology,

vol. ii, p. 624.

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

known force. Experimental tests, multiplied repetition, varied adjustment, minute inspection, careful recording; these are the means which all science employs, and without these nothing valuable can be known. Apply these to the human mind and wring out of it its exact character and qualities, and then develop and expand it along the line which nature has marked out; thus only will you succeed in economizing mental forces and securing full return for the labor of education. 116 W i t h regard to methods of education and teacher training, W a r d says that teachers and methods of instruction have usually been as good as the demand. H e claims that it is a narrow, impolitic system to have women, who seem by nature as a whole, to possess teaching ability to confine their instruction to the lower and more laborious branches. N a y more, it is ungallant of men thus to limit them. H e adds: If woman can teach children and rudimentary principles better than men, she can certainly teach adults and advanced principles as well. Trial would probably prove that her superiority to man as an instructor is not limited by the age of the pupil or the degree of study. As long as the higher schools, colleges and universities are closed to women and they have never been allowed to compare their powers of acquirement with those of their brothers, no greater indignity could be offered them by the latter than to taunt them with an inferiority which they are forbidden to disprove. . . . But as a general thing it is not because the subjects are so abstruse that they are not comprehended by any but superior minds. It is far more commonly because they are miserably taught, both by the text-book and by the teacher. In both these respects radical reform is needed, and perhaps the establishment of female professorships in the colleges may be one step in the right direction. 117 While W a r d believed that the student should become a 116 117

Ward, Unpublished Manuscript on Education, p. 381. Ward, op. cit., p. 178.

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t h o r o u g h master o f the particular field w h i c h he eventually chooses, he w a s v e r y m u c h a v e r s e t o constant drill a n d s t u d y u p o n particulars.

H e felt that f r o m a n abhorence o f

so-

called superficiality the principle o f t h o r o u g h n e s s h a d been over-emphasized.

N o one can become a t h o r o u g h m a s t e r o f

all k n o w l e d g e but o n e can attain a n acquaintance w i t h the general principles o f all k n o w l e d g e thereby not only p r o v i d i n g a pleasure t h r o u g h o u t l i f e , but a g u a r d a g a i n s t imposition f r o m t h e unscrupulous a n d f r o m the p i t f a l l o f w i l d schemes not f o u n d e d o n f a c t .

F o r discipline a n d f o r m o r a l i t y W a r d

considered that general truths rather t h a n details are m o r e efficacious.

He says:

It cannot be consistently urged that the prolonged and exhaustive study of subordinate facts constitutes a better discipline f o r the mind than the study of general truths. T h e r e is no discipline so effective in force or so valuable in quality as that afforded by the reception into the mind of comprehensive truths. W h i l e they act like all other knowledge upon the various faculties of the mind, they possess the additional merit, difficult duly to estimate, of enlarging the general capacity of the intellect and extending the mental outlook so as to, in fact, elevate the mind. Great stress should be laid upon the purely ethical value of extensive general knowledge. N o t only do professional success and business prosperity depend greatly upon the collateral influence of general knowledge but the entire conduct of the man is profoundly influenced by the same causes. It is not only for each individual's own good that he possess a broad and comprehensive acquaintance with the chief cardinal truths of human knowledge. It is equally f o r the good of others, f o r the interest of society, f o r the preservation of a sound morality that he should do so. Conduct, w e have seen, depends upon intelligence. Intelligence implies the storing of the intellect with useful knowledge. 1 1 8 S i n c e the education f o r w h i c h W a r d stood is w h a t he u s Ward, op. cit., p. 522.

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

termed artificial education, all special methods must follow one general method, that of the teleological. This departure marks the " education of information," and its distinction from the education of experience. W a r d had no patience with those who advocate the " method of nature " or what he termed the genetic method. He believed to convert " education into a sort of social ontogenesis is false in principle, and is not supported by any proper interpretation of the teachings of science." 119 Education must come largely from instruction and not from experience which, as has been stated, is too wasteful and costly. It must not be forgotten that a system of education to be worthy the name, must be framed for the great proletariat. Most systems of education seem designed exclusively for the sons of the wealthy gentry. . . . But the great mass, too, need educating. They need the real, solid meat of education in the most concentrated form assimilable. They have strong mental stomachs, and little time. . . . Culture they can get along without. Failures are dead losses. For them every step should count.120 W a r d predicted that there would some time in the future be a National University. It should be distinctively national. " To this end it should be located at the seat of government and should be exclusively the product of the federal government." Not only should it be in the fullest sense representative like the government itself, but its scholarships should be held by Americans and be " distributed with local uniformity throughout the United States ". The faculty should be chosen by a commission composed of the most eminent scholars of the country and without regard to political or personal bias. Since every university has one leading scholastic aim, at the National University " the lead119 Ward, Dynamic Sociology, 12

Ibid., p. 630.

vol. ii, p. 629.

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EDUCATION

ing feature . . . should be its course of instruction in the science and art of government." There should be, in addition to the foundation in political and social science, " a thorough and exhaustive course in the practical working of government itself." In conclusion W a r d states: " The administrative offices of the government should be filled as soon as possible from graduates of the university, so that at length the civil service force of the United States should consist exclusively of persons who have had a thorough training in the theory and practice of government." 121 With regard to the curriculum, W a r d said that the tools of education are reading, writing and calculating. In his early manuscript he had stated that education is to be conferred by W a r d nowhere the school, by literature and by objects. seems to have clearly defined or classified schools. He merely says: " The school must be regarded as the groove through which all the true agencies of education are to move. It is the machine, the organized mechanism which is to carry them on." 122 The school would appear to be those public institutions deemed necessary to confer the general principles of all knowledge and, presumably, would include the lower schools and the college. H e claimed that no more time need be spent than is now given to attaining a good education. W a r d believed that a true university was not merely a school for the training of a vast number of young people. Rather " is it an institution in which the most perfect appliances for original research may be brought together; and where a few who are able to avail themselves may have an opportunity to do so." 123 Unlike Spencer, it is clearly evident that W a r d personally loved languages. H e spared himself no effort all through 121 Ward, Glimpses of the Cosmos, vol. iv, pp. 324-325. 122

Ward, Unpublished

Manuscript

on Education,

123 Ward, Glimpses of the Cosmos, vol. iv, p. 21.

p. 310.

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

his l i f e to make himself acquainted w i t h them.

H e had an

unquenchable thirst f o r k n o w l e d g e and i n f o r m a t i o n of all sorts and read and studied without ceasing to the end of his days.

H e became master of the chief ancient and modern

European languages.

H e delighted to quote f r o m them as

is seen in the quotations b e f o r e his chapters and f r o m his copious references to literary writers of all time as well as f r o m science and philosophy.

In his early manuscript on

education of six hundred and fifty pages W a r d devoted to literature, ninety-seven pages, and to " objects and seven.

one hundred

B y literature at this time W a r d appears to have

meant to include all w r i t i n g s of a descriptive, explanatory or interpretative nature.

H e states:

Much as I value scientific methods, superior and essential as I deem the actual contact with things, and loudly as I demand the general introduction of this method into schools and protest against its exclusion, I still assert and stoutly maintain the dignity, the inestimable value, the undiminished and undiminishable glory of the great civilizer and educator, literature. The three greatest events of human civilization, if precise epochs could be fixed for them, were, when man learned to talk, when he learned to write, and when he learned to print. His three greatest discoveries have been language, literature and the printing press, the three great means of communicating knowledge. . . - 124 There are unmistakable indications from certain quarters to under-rate literature's true functions and importance and to recommend an education of observation and experience exclusively, a tendency to reject books and book-learning entirely and live to enjoy and feel without the labor of reading and study. . . . 125 A s the vehicle which must convey the great body of the truths of education to the great body of the people, it has deserved and demanded the first and most attentive hearing among the agencies of education. I have undertaken its 124

Ward, Unpublished Manuscript on Education, p. 206.

125 ibid., p. 208.

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SOCIOLOGY

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EDUCATION

defence and elogium and if I have succeeded in impressing more strongly upon the minds of any the conception of its majesty and its importance as a means of education my duty has been done. . . , 126 Let it be remembered then, that the vehicle of education is literature. It is the grand promoter and conservator of knowledge. By means of it must the great mass of mankind receive all the truth they obtain beyond the narrow sphere of their own personal experience and the somewhat larger but vague and shadowy penumbra of hearsay evidence.127 A s to language, W a r d believed that it had been demonstrated that a thorough acquaintance with the Greek and Roman classics is not essential to a good education nor even to a perfect command of a modern tongue. Since the great object of the " education of information " is utility, time must not be wasted on non-essentials. Such matters may be left for personal study and investigation after school-life is over. Nevertheless language studied in relation to philology should form a part of the universal curriculum. Studied in this manner it has great value for anthropology and for history. Indeed, " it takes us back of all history ". H e was much in favor of pictorial literature and would recommend that a work including copies of all the great art productions o f the world should be compiled with explana tory material and made available to all persons. W a r d recalls that as a child he was much affected by a picture he saw in a book which purported to show the brutality of a Georgia plantation owner to his negro slaves. H e was not certain that his response to Lincoln's call for volunteers in 1862 was not directly traceable to the impressions received from this picture. 128 In later years W a r d clarified his thinking as to the 126 Ward, op. cit., p. 303. 127

Ibid., p. 294.

128

Ibid., p. 292.

W a r d saw the picture in one of Olney's

Geographies.

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

divisions of knowledge and seems to have defined literature not as reading matter but in the sense of artistic writing. He felt that among some educators such artistic writings had become a fetish. In 1883 he wrote: Literature is not valued as a vehicle of ideas, but as a pleasing phantasy. The wildest rhapsody, if pleasing to the ear, is preferred to sober truth, however well couched. What is called polite and classic literature of the world consists in adroit ways of saying nothing. Putting that of all languages together, there is not truth enough in it all to have kept civilization from perishing if it had depended solely upon it for its stock of information. Valuable for other purposes,129 it is comparatively valueless for that of keeping man acquainted with his environment.130 This passage may show the temporary influence of Spencer. A t any rate, it strikes one as somewhat off-key and not in harmony with the tenor of his entire works and with his own delight in classical and polite literature in the original as well as in translation. Again it is possible that he had grown to see the greater importance of science in its widest sense, or that he merely had no interest in the slogan of art for art's sake. Twenty-three years later, through the influence of the criticisms of Mrs. Johanna Odenwald U n g e r ; 1 3 1 concerning certain passages in his works pertaining to the fine arts, Ward acknowledged himself a convert to her views. He says: There is an important sociological law . . . that very many forms of culture begin as ends and end as means. A large class of these are at first in the nature of fine arts and are gradually 129 Nevertheless Ward always believed that those things which yield enjoyment are of value. 130 Ward, Dynamic Sociology, vol. ii, p. 500. ably written before 1883. 131

I907-

This passage was prob-

Mrs. Unger translated Ward's Pure Sociology into German, 1903-

240

SOCIOLOGY

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transformed into useful arts. All of them begin by appealing to the aesthetic sense and ultimately come to appeal to the moral sense. . . . The most striking example of this law is found in that more modern form of written language which goes by the name of literature. Literature down to the end of the eighteenth century was simply a fine art. Its sole object was to please by a display of elegant diction. It is now almost wholly transformed into a vehicle for the conveyance of thought From an aesthetic factor literature has become a dynamic factor. The great literary productions of the last century, and especially of the last half century are those that have moved to action and wrought social reform. . . . Viewed in this light it is obvious that the fine arts not only may become, but in a great degree have already become, a dynamic factor in society.132 In the teaching of grammar W a r d believed that a synthetic view of this subject, or what he called the code of laws of the language, should be taught. Like Spencer, he looked forward to the time when the world should adopt a universal rational language. Although W a r d would not devote education entirely to the study of books, when objects and first-hand experience could be easily obtained, he yet believed them to be of tremendous importance and he had a strong bias in favor of them. " Those scientific investigators who profess to hold them in such contempt give the lie to their professions by continually making more." 133 Ward, himself was a man who studied geology and botany from nature as well as from books, yet he seems to have had almost a passion for the printed word. H e knew what it was to be without books on the plains of the west. " A busy short-lived race demands the constant application of practical economies to the entire 132 W a r d ,

Glimpses

of

the

Cosmos,

written, 1907. 133 W a r d , Dynamic

Sociology,

p. 630.

vol. vi, pp. 267-268.

Passage

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

educational system." 134 T h e few books W a r d saw in his childhood, it has been seen, made a very vivid impression on his mind. H e says: " There is a juvenile school-book which contains a story entitled, "Read and You Will K n o w " . H o w many like myself, in whose ears this sentence has always been ringing for years, perhaps through mere force of euphony and iteration have, a f t e r having read much themselves, learned duly to estimate this mighty truth." 135 I n f u r t h e r praise of books, W a r d writes: The question then remains what is the great vehicle for the conveyance to the millions of the knowledge of the truths established by the few. I answer, letters. . . . It is all very well to draw information from the objects about us. It is the true method of acquiring original knowledge. All knowledge must have been first thus acquired. All new truths must be thus first discovered. But however fundamental, however pleasant, it requires both time and opportunity. Years may be necessary to learn from nature what books will teach in a few hours. It may not be quite so satisfactory, it may not be quite as deeply impressed, but the truth is learned, the knowledge is imbibed and it only remains to put it into practice. . . . Literature is a guide to observation. It organizes experience. . . . How utterly impossible, for example, it would have been, without the aid of letters to have obtained any kind of systematic classification of the myriad plants found on the earth's surface! and how equally impossible to teach botany without books! Where would the amateur botanist be without his manual, his glossary, his key? Where would the experienced one be without his Linnaean Translations ? It is the same with natural history, with geology. 138 134

Ibid., p. 631. 135 Ward, Unpublished Manuscript on Education, p. 239. In the light of Ward's own life-long habit of intensive reading and in the light of his great emphasis on the use of books this incident seems particularlysignificant. 136

Ibid., pp. 207-209.

242

SOCIOLOGY

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W a r d had originally said that education which is not conferred by literature is to be conferred by objects. " B y objects, I mean . . . the contact of the senses with the material circumstances of whatever character, form or consistency, which the student meets with in the world." He believed that in the last analysis the aim of all education is to attain to a knowledge of objects. It should be termed experiential knowledge and not empirical since the latter is too emotional and personal. Knowledge derived from objects is a rival of literature. Both are . . . necessary and indispensable, and equally so. . . . They will be found to be mutually dependent upon each other and will prove to be the natural supports each of the other. I class them therefore, together and endow them with attributes, co-ordinate in rank, and equal in power, though wholly dissimilar both in methods and the quality of their effects. Observation and experiment, constitute the growth and manufacture of knowledge, while letters represent the world's commerce of ideas. . . . Literature is the great leveler, science the great leader, the former embraces the toiling millions, the latter inspires the heroic f e w ; the one labors for the immediate present, the other for the distant future. 137 This passage shows once again that W a r d was thinking of descriptive, explanatory and interpretative writings rather than of literature as a fine art. A s Ward's thinking became more mature, it will be recalled that he was much in favor of Comte's classification of the sciences. H e found, on analysis, that Comte's was truly a serial arrangement while Spencer's, which followed in general that of Comte, was merely a logical arrangement. F o r this reason, he felt that they in no way conflicted. H e says: Now what concerns the sociologist is primarily the serial order 137

Ward, op. cit., pp. 411-414.

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

of phenomena. The several groups of phenomena constituting the true ' hierarchy' of the sciences, not only stand in the relation of diminishing generality with increasing complexity, but they stand in the relation of parent to offspring, i. e., of filiation. The more complex sciences grow out of the simpler ones by a process of differentiation. The more general phenomena of the simpler sciences are elaborated into more complex forms. They are the raw material which is worked up into more finished products, much as pig iron is worked up into tools, machinery, cutlery and watchsprings. The simpler sciences contain all that is in the more complex, but it is more homogeneous, and the process of evolution, as we know, is a passage from the homogeneous, to the heterogeneous. A serial classification is based on the principle of natural differentiation and the resulting filiation.138 The serial order is the order of nature, therefore, it is the natural arrangement of the sciences. T h e complex sciences are dependent upon the more general ones. Since this is so, W a r d felt very strongly that the educational program in his system should follow the serial arrangement. A knowledge of nature would then be acquired in the order in which natural phenomena and natural things have developed. This should be the primary rule of pedagogy. Unless this principle is followed and that of the procedure which accompanies the truth that the most general knowledge is the most practical there is no hope of attaining the end. 139 If this one principle be followed the perception of causality will be strengthened and, because it is natural, delight of the student will be an accompaniment. Learning will not be distasteful " But the pleasure of following up a logical chain of causally connected truths plows its little groove in the plastic young brain, which abides, perhaps forever." 140 138

W a r d , Pure Sociology,

139 W a r d , Applied 140

Ibid., p. 303.

Sociology,

pp. 65-71. pp. 302-305.

SOCIOLOGY

244

AND

EDUCATION

W a r d believed that in the teaching of natural science the concrete should come before the abstract. First-hand experience should be employed wherever possible. Specimens, collections and museums should be utilized. But he was opposed to original research in the general curriculum. Its place is elsewhere and for another time. Furthermore, to experiment or to search for what is already known is a waste of time. Demonstration and the use of all the various instruments and a knowledge of their properties should be a part of the teaching of the sciences. He relied much on demonstration, a point which would have no interest for Spencer unless the student had a direct and active part in it—practically the whole part—when it would cease to be demonstration. Physiology and anatomy and hygiene should be a part of the instruction for both sexes. It is of particular value for girls. Matters pertaining to marriage and the home should also be taught. W a r d opposed learning a mass of particulars and details at the beginning of any subject. Both induction and deduction should be employed. H e did not personally like mathematics. With regard to logic, and mathematics (arithmetic, algebra, trignometry and calculus) he said: They are methods, tools, instruments, arts, not sciences. . . ,141 Nothing could be more false than that the study of mathematics strengthens the reasoning faculties. Mathematicians are poor reasoners. I mean those who have studied pure mathematics only. Mathematics, too exclusively pursued, destroys both the reason and the judgment. This is because it consists in prolonged thinking about nothing. A ' point' has neither length nor breadth nor thickness. It is nothing.1*2 Ward objected to the fact that the student is taught to 141

Ward, Applied Sociology, p. 307.

142

Ibid., p. 311.

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

manipulate numbers with no knowledge of their significance. I n this connection he says: But at the very threshold of arithmetic and of mathematics there is an important series of facts and principles which are wholly left out of all text-books and never introduced as oral instruction. The whole system of numeration and notation adopted by the most advanced nations is reduced to a few arbitrary canons and compressed into half a dozen pages. No systematic explanation of what these sciences mean, of what they are founded upon, of how they came into use, of whether they are natural, artificial or revealed, or whether any or what others exist or ever have existed. I do not say that such a treatise would be suitable to introduce into an elementary work for children, though I believe that any mind capable of performing ordinary arithmetical operations might be greatly aided and might experience much relief from perplexity by a brief and simple historical explanation of the system of numeration. But that this explanation and a more extended philosophical treatise on numbers, the very subject of the work, should be left out of all the large university works, is perhaps as strong proof as could be desired that there is need of reform in the direction of the inculcation of cardinal truths. . . . This lack of a comparative historical outlook over all the sciences and all artificial systems and institutions is the cause of a narrow adhesion to awkward and clumsy methods, as is aboundingly illustrated by the systems of coinage, weights and measures, as well as of orthography, musical notation etc. in various countries and languages. . . . An absolute ignorance of the great role these and other systems have played in human calculation is as unpardonable as it is unnecessary. . . ,143 Strike out at one stroke one half the time devoted to the mathematics. Add one fourth of this to an explanation of their nature, history and uses.144 I n stressing his belief that the historical account of the 143 W a r d , 144

Unpublished Manuscript on Education,

Ibid., p. 591.

p.

585.

246

SOCIOLOGY AND EDUCATION

growth, meaning and place of the various branches of science and mathematics should be presented and not confined to the preface, W a r d cites many subjects specifically, among them being astronomy, algebra, physics, chemistry, ethics logic and others. Specialization in school years and work confined to a narrow compass produces narrowness of outlook and is a danger to society. Specialists too often feel that their judgments are good in other fields even though they be practically ignorant of them. Society likewise is apt to deem their judgments good. The education W a r d advocated, he believed, would remove to a great extent this danger. Relative to this point he says: " The same principle which makes the special student arrogant, makes the general student humble. But this same humility, f a r f r o m deterring him f r o m making a proper use of his knowledge, aids him in doing so and prevents him f r o m making an improper use of it." 145 W a r d insists that all subject matter should be carefully classified in such a way that the underlying principles shall be perceived and related in their proper sequence. W h e r e circumstances and time will permit, demonstration, criticism and proof with the use of concrete data must be employed. " All other methods are second-hand." The direct method is always preferable to the indirect, but nothing should be taught for discipline alone. Discipline should never be an aim. It is merely a product of all good work. But it is to be repeated that time should not be spent in proving the already known. H e says it is not the investigation of things that he is advocating, but rather the examination of them. It is the function of the school to examine and to inculcate knowledge, not to carry on original research and investigation. Nevertheless all schools should have laboratories. H e advocated among the subjects to be taught in relation to 145

Ibid., p. 554.

WARD'S EDUCATIONAL THEORIES natural history that of taxidermy. But " no questions should be introduced under any rule or principle which involve any other idea than the simple illustration and familiarization of that rule or principle. Anything beyond this is a snare and discouragement to the pupil." 146 In every case " to know the whys and wherefores is worth more than to be able to demonstrate properties." 147 W a r d ' s heart and mind are with those who live in isolated rural regions far f r o m centers of learning. " Their only means of education are books." 148 Every workman in W a r d ' s scheme would have a trade and an education. H e would bring intelligence to his work. H e would be a person acquainted with books and theory as well as with his art. W a r d states: I see no adequate reason why a mechanic, as a carpenter, a plumber, a tinner, or a mason should not be provided with an adequate preparation in schools, not in technology only, but of instruction in the knowledge of the principles which underlie his craft, as well as the book-keeper, the physician, the lawyer or the clergyman. Indeed I see daily evidence of the great need of this kind of preparation. . . .149 The time is coming when it will no longer be a disgrace to labor, when every order of intellect will perform mechanical operations, when the mechanic and the fanner will be cultivated men, when labor will be recreation instead of drudgery, when at the lathe and the plow will be digested and organized the ideas which will be received from the library and the lecture hall, when mind and body will share alike the working hours, when the hands and the head will neither be over-tasked, neither neglected.150 ««/&«*., p. 589.

•¡•"Ibid., p. 594148 Ibid., p. 294. 1«Ibid., p. 386. Ibid., p. 158.

248

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

I t is seen that W a r d greatly valued the history of all subjects. " W e feel little wiser," he says, " f o r k n o w i n g that a thing is so unless we k n o w h o w it came so." 151 Yet history as taught in the schools of his time, he thought, did not t r a i n the j u d g m e n t . I t can only strengthen memory. I t is a kind of l u x u r y or amusement. " T h e only kind of history that could exercise the reason and j u d g m e n t would be that which studies the conditions underlying social phenomena and their relations of co-existence and sequence—in a word, their causal relations. But this is sociology." 152 A l t h o u g h W a r d believed t h a t ethics should be a p a r t of public education he did not believe in the direct teaching of morals. T h e teaching of morals as such sometimes tends to diminish them. " I t is wisdom that makes morality." 153 W a r d was deeply interested in invention, not only in its relation to social advancement but as a school subject. T h e agents of civilization, he says, are men. T h o s e who originate a n d discover are the proper agents of civilization. They are the élite. T h e number of inventions has been comparatively small. H e believed that the number could be increased by the best equipped universities and polytechnic institutes. U p to n o w these institutions have not realized their opportunities. H e advocated a text-book on invention dealing in general with principles and methods. " I t would seem that if invention could be recognized as a science or as a profession a n d thoroughly t a u g h t as such, the perception of utilities would be much m o r e general a m o n g the educated public, and the a w k w a r d mechanical conditions u n d e r which society labors would be greatly improved." 154 The unsystematic method has produced m u c h ; what m i g h t not a systematic endeavor by society produce ? 151

Ibid., p. 91. 152 Ward, Applied Sociology, p. 312. 153 Ward, Unpublished Manuscript on Education, p. 66. 154 Ward, Pure Sociology, pp. 494-495.

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

I n all that W a r d has to say of education he stresses quality rather than quantity. A n educated person is not one who possesses an acquaintance with a certain number of truths. One may be acquainted with a very large number of truths without possessing much knowledge. . . . The difference is in the quality of the ideas received. . . . 165 If I must say, then, what kind of knowledge universal education should confer, I shall say, general knowledge, important knowledge, knowledge of the broad, and the deep, and the fundamental truths which form the substratum and the basis of all human knowledge. . . .156 Dispel the illusion. Eradicate the false idea that to live in a civilized country is to be civilized, that the culture of a few will answer for the masses. Recognize that civilization is a personal, not a national or a territorial condition. 157 Ward adds: The doctrine that education is an active factor in Dynamic Sociology is simply a collorary from the doctrine of evolution in general, which rests upon the power of the environment to mold the organism. For what is education but a quality of the environment? . . ,158 The problem of education . . . is in short reduced to this . . . whether the social system shall always be left to Nature, always be genetic and spontaneous, and be allowed to drift listlessly on, intrusted to the by no means always progressive influences which have developed it and brought it to its present condition, or whether it shall be regarded as a proper subject of art, treated as other natural products have been treated by human intelligence, and made as much superior to nature, in this only proper sense of the word, as other artificial productions are superior to natural ones.159 155 W a r d , Unpublished 156

Ibid., p. 630.

157

Ibid., p. 143.

158 W a r d , Dynamic

Manuscript

Sociology,

on Education,

vol. ii, p. 631.

159 W a r d , op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 632-633.

p. 556.

250

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

It will be recalled once more that W a r d considered happiness to be the ultimate end of human striving. Education, knowledge, dynamic opinion, dynamic action and progress are the five means to happiness. T h e " education of information " is the initial means to the ultimate end. T o attain these ends the teleological method, in contra-distinction to the old genetic method, must be followed. This whole system may be called one of meliorism which is the science of human improvement. This is not an ethical but a dynamic principle. It uses cold calculation and employs the indirect means, and not impulse or sentiment guided by the direct method. It is not interested in alleviating human suffering, but in creating such conditions that human suffering will be reduced to a minimum. 160 It utilizes the social forces as does the civil engineer the physical forces. It employs the law of parsimony. This idea leads W a r d to the elaboration of the principle of attraction. H e believed that sociology is as much a true science as those sciences which follow the Newtonian laws. Through respect to law, friction is all but eliminated. A l l experimentation and all invention are based on this principle. The social forces, he repeats, reside in the affective or subjective faculties. B y utilizing the social forces man can devise ways to make labor attractive as well as the other functions necessary in a teleological system. W i t h increasing intelligence society will better choose its agents. When the people become so intelligent that they know how to choose as their representatives persons of decided ability, who know something of human nature, who recognize that there are social forces, and that their duty is to devise ways and means for scientifically controlling those forces on exactly the same principles that an experimenter or an inventor controls the forces of physical nature, then we may look for scientific legislation.161 Ibid., pp. 468-469. lei Ward, Applied, Sociology, pp. 338. 160

WARD'S

EDUCATIONAL

THEORIES

251

The attractive legislation carried on by intelligent agents will not be performed in open sessions of legislative bodies. The vote of such bodies will formally sanction " decisions that have been carefully worked out in what may be called the sociological laboratory. Legislation will consist in a series of exhaustive experiments on the part of true scientific sociologists and sociological inventors working out the problems of social physics from the practical point of view." 162 These scientists will show the way to legislative working that shall be as much as possible without friction or compulsion. The goal . . . would be a state of society in which no one should be obliged to do anything that is in any way distasteful to him, and in which every act should be so agreeable that he will do it from personal preference. . . ,163 The two-fold end [is that] of increasing the sum total of social efficiency and social improvement. . . . Until there is movement there can be no achievement. Movement is the condition to achievement and achievement is the means to improvement. . . . Improvement cannot be secured through the increase of knowledge, but only through its socialization . . . therefore the real and practical problem of applied sociology still remains the distribution of the intellectual heritage bequeathed to all equally by the genius of mankind.164 « 2 Ibid., p. 339«a Ibid. 164

Ibid., pp. iii-iv.

CHAPTER

VI

T H E S O U R C E S A N D R E S U L T S OF W A R D ' S E D U C A T I O N A L THEORIES

WARD very early in life became impressed with the fact that intellect is not confined to class or to those who have money or wear good clothes. H e w r o t e : I can vividly recall that when myself a pupil in the public schools of my own village there were some boys in attendance who belonged to the lowest classes. They were poorly clad and their parents were day-laborers living in remote, little frequented quarters of the town. There were also in attendance some of the sons of the wealthy men of the place. All were placed on a common level in the school, and the only test of merit was ability to recite the lessons. And I remember the genuine satisfaction that it afforded me frequently to see the poor boys ' b e a t ' the rich ones and ' go to the h e a d a n d I began to see even at that tender age that all was not gold that glittered. 1 H e realized that he himself, his brothers, and many of the pioneer men and women about him merely lacked opportunity, information, education to be of f a r more use in the world and to attain a higher social status. H e perceived that there was latent intellect. There are hints here and there in W a r d ' s writings of the intellectual poverty of his early environment. H e writes: I can illustrate from my own experience when a child with my intense desire to know the names of such things as flowers, insects, birds, fish, and other animals, that my companions could 1

Ward, op. cit., p. 106. 252

SOURCES

AND

RESULTS

OF WARD'S

THEORIES

253

not give me names for. If I met any one who would offer a name I would instantly seize upon it and never let it go. . . . I even coined names from analogy, resemblance, and association, which my brother and I freely used and by which we were able to talk about such plants. These names which I never forgot, seemed silly and stupid when, as a botanist, I learned the right names of those plants. 2 It has been mentioned that W a r d o f t e n debated the question of nature versus nurture, 3 and that he always took the latter side.

H e said:

T h e central idea is one that dates farther back in my personal history than any other of the leading ideas of my general philosophy. In the debating societies of which I had been a member in my academic days the question of the relative claims of genius and circumstances, as the zealous students with whom I associated usually preferred to express it, was frequently discussed, and I always volunteered to take the weak side, partly because it was found difficult to secure disputants willing to combat the claims of genius, and partly because I instinctively felt that these claims were usually exaggerated and those of the environment underestimated. In writing the article, however, in which I formulated the law of biological statics and the universal growth force of nature, I only faintly perceived the connection between the principle there laid down and that which I had always defended on the human plane. A n d yet the substantial identity of the two ideals is plain. The essential thing in both is latent power, suppressed energy, lost labor, waste, caused by obstructions to normal activities. . . . That new gospel, therefore, to which I found myself committed was liberation.4 Ward,

in

accordance

with

his

youthful

speculations,

formulated a plan at the beginning of his career to write a 2

Ward, Pure Sociology,

p. 189.

Mentioned in Chapter iv of this work. Cosmos, vol. iii, p. 148. 8

4

Ward, Applied Sociology,

pp. 127-128.

See Ward, Glimpses of the Italics not in original.

254

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

book to be entitled The Great Panacea which was to be a treatise to show the necessity and value to social progress of the education of information or what he sometimes called the education of knowledge. This work, as has been seen, grew into the Dynamic Sociology. O f it, he says, when discussing the literature of opportunity: I am constrained to put my own humble contributions into this series in their chronological place, which is here, because, although I was wholly unacquainted with the foregoing literature when I wrote Dynamic Sociology (1883) still, as I have intimated before, the subject was one that had engaged my attention from my earliest recollection, and in that work I went deeply into it, the whole of the second volume being practically devoted to it. That work was written for a definite purpose. It was clear to me from the first that the great desideratum was to increase the efficiency of mankind. I saw that the number that contributed to civilization was very limited (see p. 175 of that volume). The problem was how this number could be increased. In maintaining that ' there is such a thing as latent intellect' (P. 611), I may be said to have had a thesis, and I do not deny that this was the case.5 W a r d ' s later studies merely serve to strengthen and deepen his early conviction as well as to broaden its significence. W a r d ' s chief sources then, for his educational theories and their intimate relation to social progress came from his early experiences as the son of a poor pioneer on the plains of the middle west far from the centers of culture and learning. They came from contact with men of the soil who, under W a r d ' s very eyes, conquered nature by their achievements. It is quite possible, indeed it seems quite evident to the careful reader of Ward, that his system for the universalization of knowledge, always fervently expressed, iterated and reiterated with power and emphasis such as no other writer 5

Ward, op. cit., p. 141.

SOURCES

AND

RESULTS

OF WARD'S

THEORIES

255

has ever done, is in reality a protest, a "gospel of liberation ". It seems to be a protest against the barren, educational and cultural environment in which he himself was compelled to pass his youth and in which he saw others subjected to a like fate. Y e a r s of waste they were to him, years of frustrated longings and hopes, years of delay in the great game of life. He cried o u t : " W h a t chance was there of my becoming a naturalist? It was twenty years before I found my opportunity, and then it was almost too late. A clear view of a congenial field is the one fundamental circumstance in any one's career." The system he would propose would liberate such persons as himself, his brothers and sisters and comrades of the open plains and remote areas. Possessed of an encyclopaedic mind and a tremendous avidity for knowledge all his life, as his works show, he read the chief sources of education in many languages as well as in English, many of them to approve, many to disapprove. A s he grew older he came to know Spencer's work intimately as well as Galton's study entitled Hereditary Genius. Ward felt that genius, which he defined as intellect plus will, 8 was to all intents and purposes a fixed quantity which cannot be affected by any artificial devices that man can adopt. 7 It is analogous to electricity in that man can only attempt to find the most effective way of utilizing it. " Great men, then, are the mentally endowed who have had a chance to use their talents." 8 W i t h Galton, he therefore agreed that mental qualities are hereditary. " In this idea of increasing 6 Ward says of w i l l : " There is really nothing in the will except the simple fact that one of the desires prevails over the other, and the action is performed at the behest of the prevailing impulse or desire." See Dynamic Sociology, vol. i, p. 397. " Will is the active expression of the soul's meaning The will is that which asserts itself," Pure Sociology,

P. 1427

Ward, Applied Sociology, p. 129.

8

Ibid., p. 133.

256

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

the efficiency of the human race," he says, " I was at one with Galton." 9 But he challenged the idea that mental qualities alone are all-powerful and will prevail over all obstacles. W a r d felt that Galton denied the existence of a latent or potential element. Therefore his [Galton's] method of increasing the number or the efficiency of the agents of civilization must be purely physiological. I, on the contrary, [Ward says], convinced of the existence of a large latent contingent, proceeded by a method which was strictly sociological. I did not overlook his method, . . . but I had and still have little faith in it, while that of bringing out the latent power of society seemed and still seems to be a thoroughly practical and feasible one. The great difficulty was then and still is to bring about a general recognition on the part of society of the existence of such a latent power.10 W a r d knew the work of Lombroso, but he felt that the exposition was very faulty and full of weakness. W i t h Locke he was in sympathy. Yet he did not entirely agree with him. The comparison of the new-born mind to a blank sheet of paper is not, therefore, wholly exact. Like most comparisons, it limps. Still it has been of great service, and the truth it contains constitutes the foundation of modern scientific psychology. Perhaps there is a still better comparison. Suppose we liken the wholly inexperienced brain to soil in which no seeds or germs of any kind as yet exist. The quality of this soil then represents heredity or the pre-efficients of the mind. It may be very poor, devoid of salts, and nitrogeneous constituents, and therefore incapable of yielding any rich products, or it may have any degree of richness, and thus be capable of raising all grades of crops. If very rich it contains all the elements of true genius.11 9

Ibid., p. 141.

10

Ward, op. cit., pp. 141-142.

11

Ibid., pp. 236-237.

SOURCES

AND

RESULTS

OF WARD'S

THEORIES

257

W h a t it produces will depend upon the seed and the tillage as well as the soil.

" T h i s is nurture and represents a f a v o r -

able educational environment.

W h e r e careful nurture is

applied to a rich soil we have the conditions of talent or even of genius."

12

W a r d w a s much impressed w i t h the w o r k of A d r i e n Helvetius entitled De l'Homme lectuelles

et de son Éducation

des ses Facultés

Claude intel-

( 1 7 7 3 ) in which he maintained

that " all men are intellectually equal in the sense that, in persons taken at random f r o m different social classes, the chances f o r talent or ability are the same f o r each class " . T h i s contradicts the doctrine that mental superiority resides alone in the leisure and f a v o r e d classes.

W a r d continues :

T h e Helvetian doctrine must therefore be understood to refer only to the capacity for development, and not to the actual state of development at any given time. It would not be true now, and still less was it true when Helvetius wrote nearly a century and a half ago. But thus qualified I would accept it, and it is then only necessary for society to do for the less favored classes what nature long ago did for the more favored ones—give them opportunity for development. This leaves all natural differences among men untouched, and deals only with the artificial differences due to social inequalities. 13 W a r d w a s pleased with an article by P r o f e s s o r Charles H . Cooley, entitled, " Genius, F a m e and the Comparison o f R a c e s , " in which is found a reply to Galton's point of view. W a r d quoted a portion o f Cooley's essay which concludes with these w o r d s : W e know that a race has once produced a large amount of natural genius in a short time, just as we know that the river has a large volume in some places. W e see, also, that the 12 13

Ibid. Pure Sociology,

pp. 447-448.

258

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

number of eminent men seems to dwindle and then disappear ; but we have good reason to think that social conditions can cause genius to remain hidden, just as we have good reason to think that a river may find its way through an underground channel. Must we not conclude, in the one case as in the other, that what is not seen does not cease to be, that genius is present though fame is not ? 1 4 W a r d was in sympathy with the writings of Alphonse De Candolle with whom he was in correspondence for several years. Like Ward, he was much interested in botany, and in their letters they spoke of the problems of heredity and environment. W a r d , it will be recalled, drew many of his conclusions concerning society and environmental influences from plant life. De Candolle wrote to Ward, July 7, 1891, saying : " M y researches show that nurture is more important than nature. There are nineteen causes that favor the production of men of science in any country, and heredity is only one of these causes." 15 W a r d believed that De Candolle's general thesis was true, but he questioned whether all of his list would apply outside of France and indeed, whether the classification was a logical one. H e himself would favor a more general classification. In fact he suggested the following factors that would affect talent or genius coming to light: " ( 1 ) the physical environment; ( 2 ) the ethnological environment; ( 3 ) the religious environment; ( 4 ) the local environment; ( 5 ) the economic environment ; ( 6 ) the social environment; ( 7 ) the educational environment." 16 W a r d made several references to M . Paul Jacoby's work of 1881 entitled Êdudes sur le Sélection dans ses Rapports avec l'Hérédité chez l'Hommes, in which he discussed " the question of selection in man in its relations to heredity." 14

Quoted from Cooley by Ward in Applied Sociology,

15

Ward, Applied Sociology,

16

Ibid., p. 147.

p. 145.

p. 144.

SOURCES

AND

RESULTS

OF WARD'S

THEORIES

259

His thesis was that density of population is the chief factor in the production of talent. " He believed," says Ward, " that the frequency of remarkable personages is in direct ratio to the density of population and to the proportion of urban population . . . that these two conditions are in direct ratio with each other, and asks the question whether we may not conclude that they should be regarded the one as a function of the other." 17 While W a r d believed that there was potent influence in the density of population he did not subscribe to this theory and moreover, found many fallacies in Jacoby's statistical work. However, he found that the statistical work of M. Alfred Odin, Genèse des Grands Hommes, gave him objective data to corroberate the opinion he, himself, had held from youth. Of his work W a r d thoroughly approved, although he regretted that M. Odin had not dealt with persons of science as well as with those great in letters. However, M. Odin's study, of French persons of letters covering a period of five hundred years, is perhaps more conclusive than if he had confined himself to persons of science, since that field was of a later and shorter development, speaking in the modern sense of the word science. Besides including France in his study he also included the strictly French portions of Switzerland, Belgium and Alsace-Lorraine. W a r d had felt dissatisfied with all other studies of great men, since the authors of them had meant by great men military chieftains, diplomatists and statesmen. " These are not the true agents of civilization," he says. " Moreover, of them it is largely true, as it is not of really great men, that they are the products of their time, and the mere instrument of society in the accomplishment of its aims." This applies also to studies of public functionaries. Ward objected to the inclusion of judges in Galton's study. 17

Ward, op. cit., p. 179.

SOCIOLOGY

2ÔO

AND

EDUCATION

Their ' greatness ' is due almost wholly to their position [but W a r d does admit that] some public officers are men of genius, and although they p e r f o r m their official duties, their assured positions and surplus energy constitute their opportunity to achieve in fields quite independent of their routine and usually simple duties . . . the governmental environment is a factor in the production of the agents of civilization. 1 8 T u r n i n g to O d i n , W a r d says : " H e is the only one a m o n g the n u m e r o u s a u t h o r s w h o h a s adopted a r i g i d l y

logical

s y s t e m a n d supported it b y a n adequate n u m b e r o f f a c t s . "

19

M . O d i n w a s able to s t u d y 6382 g r e a t persons o f letters a n d to a n a l y z e t h e m c a r e f u l l y f r o m several d i f f e r e n t points o f view.

W a r d states:

This number was obtained by successive eliminations f r o m a list of between 12,000 and 13,000 and the retention of none but such as were more or less distinguished, or as he expresses it, of recognized merit. H e makes a further classification of these and finds 1136 whom he designates as persons of talent. Even this last number he examines and finds 144 whom he entitles persons of genius. . . . H e gives the complete list in chronological order of their birth. 20 T h i s study g a v e between five a n d s i x persons o f distinction per 100,000. Cities e x e r t e d o n a n a v e r a g e about thirteen times the influence o f rural r e g i o n s f o r the same n u m b e r o f inhabitants a n d P a r i s e x e r t e d about t h i r t y - f i v e times that o f the rural regions. 2 1 greater. 18

M. Odin

I n c h â t e a u x the p r o p o r t i o n w a s e v e n first

studied the influence o f

physical

W a r d , op. cit., pp. 134-135.

Ibid., p. 147. 20 Ibid., p. 148.

19

2 1 W a r d thought a f t e r a study of this w o r k and of Galton's that f o r all classes of distinction in France the number would be about ten per one hundred thousand. T h e s e he compared to mineral sources hidden in the earth.

SOURCES

AND RESULTS

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environment by the statistical method. Although France has a considerable diversity of climate and geographical conditions, he could find nothing that would indicate influence of these factors in persons of distinction. He had studied this problem first by provinces. He checked this material by studying departments and regions. But he found no appreciable influence. He does not claim that such factors are nil. They may have considerable influence, but he felt they certainly had not been preponderant. T o find his answer he next studied the influence of race. France seems to be inhabited by five racial classifications. By comparing his maps and figures, Odin was disappointed to find no marked differences attributable to race influences. He studied regions of France where a language other than French is spoken, although French is the prevailing language in spite of racial differences. The results show no influence of race. His next question was concerning the influence of religion. It was difficult to apply the statistical method here because of the limited information given in biographies. He found that the Catholic ecclesiastics remained for almost all the periods studied behind the Protestant clergy. It seemed that Protestantism was more favorable than Catholicism to the culture of letters for the period he was studying. Odin says: " W e will admit then that religion has exerted a perceptible action upon the quality (richesse) of literature without being able, however, to determine exactly what this action has been." 22 Thus, from the study of the physical, the ethnological and the religious environment, M. Odin had not found a satisfactory answer. He felt that his material gave hints of some undiscovered factor. He then turned to Jacoby's theory of the density of population which included only French territory of the eighteenth century. Like Ward, he found too many errors in Jacoby's work to accept it. He 22

Quoted by Ward, Applied Sociology, p. 169.

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therefore studied this aspect from his own data not only by cities but by châteaux. " With a single exception, and that the one that yielded the smallest number, the cities of every province yielded a larger number of men of letters than the country. In most cases it is more than double." 23 Although the châteaux contained only a small part of the population, he found that of the 6382 persons of distinction that 117, from a literary point of view, or two per cent of all of them, were born in châteaux. He then studied the problem of departments. Ward took this arrangement of Odin which was in geographical order, and rearranged it " i n the descending order of the number per 100,000 inhabitants born in cities, and where this order is the same for two or more departments, then in the same order for those born in the country." He found " that on an average the cities of France have produced nearly thirteen times as many eminent authors for the same number of inhabitants as the rural districts. The average of the former is 77 and of the latter 6 for all departments per 100,000 population." 24 M. Odin found however, that the number of eminent persons of letters did not depend on the sise of the cities, and Ward triumphantly adds : It is evident that the dynamic density is something very different from the material density. . . . The dynamic influence is not density'at all. It is not the friction of mind upon mind. It is rather the contact of mind with things, with the kind of things that tend to sharpen it, such as some cities afford and others do not.25 M. Odin in discussing this table, says : " If now we examine closely the cities that figure in our table, especially those that are distinguished by an especially high fecundity, [of persons of distinction] we recognize that they are for the most 23

Ibid., p. 183.

24

Ward, op. cit., p. 187.

25

Ibid., p. 193.

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part localities which differ f r o m the others less by their size than by a group of properties of which the following appear to be the chief : 1. Usually these cities have been centers of political, ecclesiastical or judiciary administration, which confirms what we have previously stated relative to the influence exerted by the political and administrative environment. 2. These cities have furnished particularly numerous opportunities f o r cultivating the acquaintance of intelligent and scholarly men owing to the presence of writers, savants, distinguished artists, a numerous educated clergy, a wealthy nobility devoted to letters, etc. 3. T h e y have afforded important public resources, such as higher institutions of learning, libraries, museums, book-stores, publishing houses, etc. 4. Finally they have presented, relatively to the other cities, a larger amount of wealth, or at least a greater proportion of wealthy or well-to-do families." 28 C o n c e r n i n g the persons o f eminence in c h â t e a u x ,

Ward

considers that a château m a y be t h o u g h t o f as a diminuitive city. " T h e density is v e r y s m a l l . " T h e numbers o f cultured persons are v e r y f e w , yet j u d g i n g f r o m O d i n ' s

figures,

they

produced persons o f merit a n d o f talent at about the rate o f 200 or 3 0 0 — p e r h a p s 1000 per 100,000.

W a r d adds :

This astonishing result, is due to the fact that a château, especially one in the suburbs of Paris, affords nearly every conceivable opportunity for its inmates to distinguish themselves. Its productivity is limited only by the conditions of heredity, i. e., by the actual amount of genius possessed by its occupants. This would realize Galton's idea that the only geniuses in the world are those who have actually attained eminence, i. e., of the identity of fame and genius. W h e r e all possible opportunity accompanies genius this theory is true, and the number of eminent persons is a just measure of the amount of genius 26

Quoted by Ward, Applied Sociology, pp. 193-194.

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actually existing. But the present case clearly shows how enormously this would exceed the actual condition of things. It simply indicates what the factor opportunity is.27 M. Odin's study also corroberated W a r d ' s views concerning the latent intellect of women which should be released by opportunity. Odin says: The proportion of women of letters coming from each class of localities corresponds exactly to the chances that the women had to acquire a higher education. It is evident that the chances were relatively great in the châteaux, and, to a less degree in Paris, while they vary greatly in other cities and are practically nil at other localities.28 It was found that 29 per cent of the persons eminent in the histrionic art were women and that they furnished about 20 per cent of the prose writers of distinction. " Paris produced 23.5 of the men of letters of France, but it produced 42.1 of the the women of letters of France." The châteaux proved even superior to Paris. They produced less than 2 per cent of the men of letters of France, but over 5 per cent of the talented women. 29 W a r d says : " It was because only in these places did women find anything like a congenial environment." Odin did not believe that women were inferior to men intellectually. " Other things equal," he says, " there is no reason to suppose, a priori, that woman is inferior to man in any branch of literature." 30 It is opportunity that is lacking. W a r d contended that " M . Odin is the only one who has seen that the true cause of the small literary fecundity of women has been their almost complete lack of opportunity." 31 27

Ward, op. cit., p. 194.

28

Quoted by Ward from M. Odin, Applied Sociology,

29

Ibid., pp. 231-232.

30

Ibid., p. 196.

31

Ibid., p. 231.

p. 195.

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W a r d believed that much that might be true of France might not be true in many details for other countries. But nothing definite could be said since no comparable studies had been made so far as he knew. M . Odin however, did make several studies in Spain, England and Germany concerning persons of acknowledged genius. H e came to the same conclusion as in his study of France that great persons come in greater proportions from cities than from the country. M. Odin pursued his studies further and examined, in addition to the physical, ethnological, religious and local environments, also the economic, social and educational environments. It is particularly difficult, W a r d points out, to study the economic environment of eminent persons because, while biographers extol and always mention a humble environment, they usually pass over the details of others where presumably conditions were favorable. M . Odin, in this aspect of his study, had to confine himself to persons of talent. Here data were so meager concerning economic conditions that he could with certainty treat of but 619 persons of letters of talent. H e found only the eleventh part of this group of persons of letters who passed their youth under difficult economic conditions. This means that by the sole fact of the economic conditions in the midst of which they grew up, the children of families in easy circumstances had at least forty to fifty more chances of making themselves a name in letters than those who belonged to poor families or to families of insecure economic position. . . . Genius is in things, not in man.32 T h e social and economic environments are so woven together that it is difficult to untangle them, if, indeed, ever possible. It will be remembered that M . Odin listed first among his influences those cities with the greatest fecundity 32

Quoted by Ward (from Odin), Applied Sociology, p. 204.

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of great persons of letters which had long been centers of political, ecclesiastical or judiciary administration. These in themselves give social standing to such as have time aside from their duties to engage in agreeable activities. Here again M. Odin confined himself to persons of talent and was able to study 636 cases where he had determined the social position and occupation of parents. His figures show " that considerably more than three quarters of the talented men of France have sprung from the nobility, government officials and the liberal professions. The business class furnished less than 12 per cent and the laboring class less than 10." 33 Odin's table does not continue after 1825, a time before the lower classes had emerged very much. H e says: A s regards the social environment, we have seen that certain strata of the population have been much more fruitful than others in remarkable literary men. Confining ourselves to the five social strata—nobility, administration, liberal professions, bourgeoisie, working men—we have ascertained that the literary fecundity of each of them was in inverse ratio to its numerical importance. What is specially striking is the prodigious superiority of the first three classes over the last two, and especially of the nobility over the hand-workmen, the first having had at least two hundred times as many chances as the second to give birth to men of letters of talent.34 Odin pursued this study in Spain, England and in Germany confining himself in those countries to persons of genius. There are some differences but the general result is the same. O f the educational environment, W a r d quotes O d i n : " I f we take all this into consideration, far from insisting upon unavoidable exceptions we shall be astonished at the extraordinary fecundity [of literary persons] which those cities 33

Ward, op. cit., p. 207.

Ibid., pp. 209-210. 1895), pp. 546-547. 34

Also Odin, Genese dcs Grand Hommes

(Paris,

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s h o w that h a v e been d u r i n g the last centuries the seat o f h i g h e r educational institutions " , 3 5

T h u s W a r d , with much

s a t i s f a c t i o n , s a y s that O d i n ' s s t u d y reveals h o w slight is the influence o f physical, ethnological a n d religious e n v i r o n m e n t s as well as the density o f population in p r o d u c i n g genius, a n d h o w potent is the educational f a c t o r . S o obvious is it that this is the chief factor and that the influence of centers of population, of cities, etc., in stimulating genius is great precisely in proportion as it is educational, using that term in its broadest sense. . . . T h e local environment does, indeed, narrow itself down chiefly to the influence of large cities, but only because it is these that furnish opportunity to genius to unfold. It need not necessarily be cities, as w e have seen in the case of chateau, and the cities need not necessarily be great, provided they furnish these opportunities. T h e quantity of population has nothing to do with it, but the quality of the population is a factor. T h e great factor, however is the material, social and educational conditions that make it possible f o r the man of genius surrounded by them to realize his i d e a l s . . . , 36 In one sense, [ W a r d adds], the local, economic and social environments are all educational environments, and their influence on the production of men of letters, of science, of art, and of distinction generally depends entirely on the extent to which they are educational. T h e y all combine and converge to this end and practically constitute the educational environment. 3 7 W a r d deplores the f a c t that b i o g r a p h e r s seldom tell w h e t h e r or not the education o f an eminent person w a s neglected or fostered.

T h i s is probably due to the belief, he says, that

education has little influence.

H e cites the case o f H e r b e r t

Spencer a m o n g m a n y others, w h o really w a s c a r e f u l l y educated, current opinion t o the c o n t r a r y .

B y education, W a r d ,

o f course, is not c o n f i n i n g himself to attendance a t school 35

Ward, op. cit., p. 212.

36

Ibid., p. 212-213.

Odin, op. cit., p. 516. si Ibid., p. 215.

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or the mere recitation of lessons. H e means any and all influences which supply knowledge and furnish chances for expression of talent and natural capacities. H e says a person of genius born in rural regions will gravitate to the city if possible. If he does not, in most cases, he will never be known. If statistics . . . had been based on the place where men have done their work instead of simply on their place of birth, all would have been shown to belong to the cities. It is impossible for a man of genius to attain eminence and remain all his life in the country. The facilities that the city affords are not only aids to his development, but they are the indispensable conditions to any and all progress beyond mediocrity.38 W a r d rested satisfied in his own opinion based on his observations and experience; and this study of Odin showing that genius is a constant factor, and opportunity a variable and chiefly artificial character, served but to confirm his own personal conviction. H e was satisfied too with M. Odin to believe that " the true cause of the small literary fecundity of women has been their almost complete lack of opportunity ". 39 If women as well as men are educated, much latent talent will be released for the benefit of society. Common school education, however is not enough. Precisely as in the case of the inhabitants of backward provinces, or districts, precisely as in the case of the poor and disinherited, precisely as in the case of the working classes and proletariat, talent and genius are distributed throughout the ranks of the uneducated in the same numerical proportion as among the cityborn, the opulent, the nobility, and the academicians. But we saw that centers of population, wealth, and social rank were conducive to greatness and achievement only in so far as they were 38

Ward, op. cit., p. 220.

39

Ibid., p. 231.

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substitutes f o r an educational environment. education possible. 40

THEORIES

269

T h e y make self-

T h u s it is seen t h a t W a r d w h o said that all the achievem e n t o f the w o r l d is done b y educated persons w a s peculiarly gratified to discover the w o r k o f M . O d i n .

It is n o w easy

to discern w h y he could so confidently enumerate the f o l l o w ing f o u r environmental factors o f civilization: ( 1 ) Centers of population containing special intellectual stimuli and facilities; ( 2 ) ample material means insuring freedom f r o m care, economic security, leisure and the wherewithal to supply the apparatus of research; ( 3 ) a social position such as is capable of producing a sense of self-respect, dignity, and reserve power which alone can inspire confidence in one's worth and in one's right to enter the lists for the great prizes of l i f e ; ( 4 ) careful and prolonged intellectual training during youth, whereby all the fields of achievement become familiar and a choice of them possible in harmony with intellectual proclivities and tastes. 41 I t remains to consider the validity o f W a r d ' s v i e w s in the light o f our present-day k n o w l e d g e a n d opinion.

It has been

seen that one o f t h e cardinal principles o f W a r d ' s educational s y s t e m w a s that it should d i s r e g a r d entirely the capacity o f the m i n d a n d should consider the contents only.

T h i s is rather a

s w e e p i n g statement t o o u r ears in these d a y s o f concern o v e r problems o f m o r o n s a n d intellectual levels, yet it is quite certain that under such a s y s t e m as W a r d proposed, w i t h the three curricula, that t h o s e w h o could not assimilate " s t r o n g m e a t " o f k n o w l e d g e w o u l d be easily H i s system allowed

the

discovered.

f o r individual differences, in a

way,

t h r o u g h his plan o f records a n d o b s e r v a t i o n s t o be

filed

c o n c e r n i n g each pupil. 40

Ward, op. cit., p. 230.

41

Ibid., p. 224.

For

early psychological

tests

he

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made no provision, but this was hardly to be expected in 1883. In this connection it may be said that Ward's comparison of the mind to a box limped as badly as he claimed Locke's comparison to a blank sheet of paper limped. It was a striking analogy to drive Ward's point home, that in many ways it is as easy to fill the mind with gold as with dross, and in that way it was useful. But Ward failed to see, in line with recent psychology,42 that the box has more to do with what goes into it than he intimated. The mind selects. Early conditionings, habits, and tastes have a way of choosing and selecting what shall go into the mind or mental experiences once these are formed. As Professor James pointed out long ago, habits once formed will inhibit or check others. Ward's comparison of the mind to soil was a more fortunate analogy in that the soil takes account of nature or heredity while its tillage and cultivation take account of environment. Concerning Ward's theory of latent intellect, there is brought to mind a picture of the men and women of the Western frontier and the poorer economic classes of his era. For such as these Ward dreamed of education and opportunity which should result in intelligence and achievement.48 It is evident that he, himself, and many others were living examples of what intellect plus opportunity could do. That he was hampered all his life, in spite of all his efforts, 42 43

See the works of Freud, Watson, Allport and others.

In connection with Ward's thesis the following statements made in 1930 are of interest. Out of each 1,000,000 without schooling, only 6 attain distinction. Out of each 1,000,000 with elementary schooling, 24 attain distinction. Out of each 1,000,000 with high-school education, 622 attain distinction. Out of each 1,000,000 with college education, 5768 attain distinction. So it seems that for all their faults, and their faults are many, the schools are a good investment.—President Frank, University of Wisconsin, in the Journal of Education.

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by lack of certain knowledge, his books show. The recent progress of women reveals that there was more latent intellect among them than had been commonly supposed. Moreover, one must remember that up to about i860 in America most people had to be born in rural surroundings. That a vast number of people came to distinction after going to the city cannot be questioned. A s he says, it would be more to the point to find out how long they had remained in rural regions during formative years and how many actually did their work in the country or cities. I f W a r d could have made a study of American persons of distinction he would undoubtedly have found, contrary to what M . Odin found in France, that the majority were born in the country but later migrated to large centers. Therefore, Europe may present a truer picture of conditions in a civilization of long standing than the America of W a r d ' s time. There has been a selective process going on for centuries, particularly in the Occident. Persons of talent tend to mingle and marry in about the same social status, and it is questionable whether W a r d ' s enthusiastic acceptance of the Helvetian doctrine, even though modified, can be wholly approved. It yet remains to be conclusively proved that an equal number of persons chosen at random from all classes would yield the same amount of natural capacity as the more favored classes, even though it be admitted that a large number of well-endowed persons by nature remain hidden by unfavorable circumstances. Yet, granting there be not an equal number but a large number, W a r d ' s plan to equalize opportunity so that such minds as do exist of worth and intellect can be discovered and utilized would be worthwhile in view of his aim. His general thesis would not be upset even though absolute equality of intellect does not exist between the classes. It seems hardly necessary to add that W a r d fully believed in individual differences. Indeed, his

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view in this respect is very like to that of Professor Franz Boaz and his school of anthropology. Galton's study, as W a r d pointed out, is open to much question and Ward's conclusions seem to be well founded. It is to be strongly emphasized that W a r d did not deny the influence of heredity. T o do him full justice it must be stressed that he was not biassed in this respect like some environmentalists. But to depend upon heredity solely, or to borrow Spencer's term, as he did, upon indirect equilibration, was to him too slow a method of hastening progress and it did not appropriate sufficiently latent talent or genius. He simply wished to emphasize what seemed to him a neglected factor and to utilize both nature and nurture to their full power. It will be remembered that W a r d iterated and reiterated that there was more intellect present than had been utilized and more knowledge than had been universally distributed. T o remedy this situation was in his opinion the first step. It was W a r d ' s aim to bring the two together so that such inequalities as must exist should be those of natural differences rather than artificial ones. Regardless of the worth of M. Odin's study, it was indeed valuable for W a r d ' s thesis, inasmuch as he himself had made no objective studies to prove it. The conclusions seem to be in line with much current thinking of to-day, particularly with that of many representatives of the American ethnological school who believe that neither geography nor race are dynamic factors in the production of achievement. 44 That religion seemed to be of some influence even though slight, may be of some significance, particularly in regard to Bagehot's theory of the breaking of the cake of custom, but this factor can be included under the social factors which were found to be of great influence. T o test completely the validity of Odin's work, further studies 44

Boaz, Goldenweiser, L o w i e and others.

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should be made in other fields of distinction not only in France but in other countries. 45 It seems probable that it is not density of population that counts most heavily but rather the quality of the population and the quality of the social environment. Neither intellect, as natural capacity, nor social environment can be completely separated. Both factors must exist together. T o say how great or important each factor is can probably never be satisfactorily decided. It is about as futile as to consider which is more important, air or water. But that as much opportunity as can be provided by society should be an aim no one can gainsay. That W a r d emphasized this factor can only be praised. A t the time he wrote, it was a necessary point of view to balance the extreme biological position of that period. W e have seen that the three cardinal principles of education in W a r d ' s system are that, first, education should disregard the capacity of the mind and consider only its contents, second, that it should be universal and third, that it should be compulsory. W e have come, generally speaking, to accept all three principles. W e have been making some headway since his time in determining the intellectually and morally incompetent and irresponsible. W e have universal and compulsory education although it is uneven in content of subject matter and of method. Some competent authorities 4 5 A study by Edwin Leavitt Clarke, American Men of Letters, Their Nature and Nurture (New York, 1916), substantially corroborates Odin's theory. Clarke says in chapter iv: " Apparently Odin's belief that the educational opportunities found in cities largely account for the superior literary fecundity of centers of population was borne out by this study. . . . Thus the social environment was seen to have been one of the most potent influences affecting the development of Amrican letters." Clarke felt that although Galton was not justified in considering nurture an almost negligible quantity neither could Ward's theory that nature is a negligible quantity be accepted. It is not the opinion of the writer of this study on Spencer and Ward, however, that Ward did consider nature to be a negligible quantity. He was maintaining that " there is latent intellect" which can only be discovered by educational opportunity.

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are discouraged with the results of our present type of universal education. They doubt the merits of " t h e mighty medicine ". But this does not prove that Ward's system was inadequate, because, in the first place, the extant principles of knowledge have not yet been universalized and socialized in the thorough-going fashion which he suggested, one reason being that we have never been able to reach general agreement as to just what education should be or the method by which it should be conferred. Again, not time enough has elapsed to prove what the results of such education has been, and neither have we any adequate studies on this subject to indicate its effects. In the case of women some remarkable results could be shown as well as in the case of our colored citizens to vindicate partly Ward's thesis. The masses, it would seem to many authorities, are still exploited because of ignorance. The late war revealed what enormous ignorance and illiteracy still abounds. W a r d viewed with pleasure and hope the rise and development of public education throughout the states of the Union to include, in many places, even high schools and state universities. He would be pleased at the advancement of the college attainments of women, of the existence of the few women professors and their entrance into public life in general. H e would be impatient to see still so many women teachers in the lower schools and so many men in the higher schools and, particularly, in the administrative positions. Workers' and adult education have developed since his day. He struck a vital and controversial point when he said that a person seeking to learn a trade should seek to possess also an education. His plan of the universality of the principles of knowledge would certainly make a great common ground of understanding in these days of the specialist. So keenly have scholars felt the lack of common bonds of knowledge, as in former centuries when the classics formed a bond be-

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275

tween all educated persons, that some universities have formulated courses which all entrants must study. Ward's plan had great possibilities for social understanding. Some might fear that it would produce a dull mediocrity and crush out individuality, but a careful examination of Ward's writings inclines one to think that, with individual differences always existing, and with full allowance for specialization after all necessary fundamentals had been acquired, W a r d could present a very good argument in refutation of such fears. W a r d would highly approve of the attempts which have been made to grade and to unify the schools of the country in such fashion that a pupil might move from one state to another without much loss of time or effort. But the great diversities still existing would elicit from him a plea for more reform in this direction. In recent years, in view of the great cityward movements of population, there has been some earnest consideration as to whether the curricula fitted for the children of large cities and for children of rural regions should not be differentiated and fitted for local needs. This has been in the minds of those who would keep rural children on the farms. But Ward would be very suspicious of such arguments as he was ever fearful lest the children of rural regions be denied those factors which reveal to them the existence and possibilities of all knowledge. Had he been an advocate of education as discipline he would not have entertained this fear. The increasing number of public libraries, art museums and of technological museums, such as are seen at Niiremburg and Munich and such as the proposed Rosenwald Industrial Museum to be erected at Chicago, would meet his warm approbation. It has been seen that W a r d was in accord with Jefferson in many particulars concerning education, and that he like-

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wise approved of a National University. Both were advocates of such an institution. In Ward's estimation it should carry on scientific research, especially in social and political science and, more particularly, in the practical problems of government. Unquestionably such a university, if it could be kept free from political intrigue, would tend to raise the intellectual acumen and practical understanding of those elected and appointed to governmental positions. Ward, himself, a successful research scholar for the government covering a period of many years, and unhampered by politics, felt the plan entirely feasible. It is quite possible that Ward's belief in government efficiency in matters that vitally concern the public was due to his own observation of scholars who, like himself, could succeed under various administrations by faithful work in spite of the vast amount of politics and intrigue of so-called politicians. H e saw that the steady work of the government went on in hands such as his without fame or notoriety. As for the three curricula which he suggested, it is impossible to criticise them thoroughly since W a r d did not feel it within his province to discuss them in detail. That students spend several, or even many years of study, with little adequate knowledge of the great underlying principles or generalizations of science is too true and frequent. 46 This situation certainly could be remedied, not only by a comprehensive plan of education but, probably, as he suggested, by better teaching and a better arrangement of textbooks. Nevertheless, one could argue with some point, that students with a decided talent in a particular direction might revolt, be disgusted with years of the two curricula before any specialization or original work could be attempted. In46 See the confessions of such lack of training in The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams and also in the memoirs of Mrs. Florence Kelley.

SOURCES

AND

RESULTS

OF WARD'S

THEORIES

077

deed, certain such rare students might be lost. But for the rank and file, the great proletariat, in whom Ward was most interested, perhaps little harm would be done and, in many respects, his system might be a great improvement over our present curricula. Nevertheless, it is somewhat difficult to vizualize, in many instances, how these generalizations would be very vital or meaningful. Not many of us possess the mind and natural craving for knowledge of a Lester Frank Ward. Again, he would reply, as would Spencer, that lack of interest in a normal youth is due to bad teaching. And, in justice to Ward, it would seem that if educators could agree on an aim and seriously attempt to teach fundamentals and vital truths of science—or of all knowledge, as Ward expressed it—a good foundation unquestionably would be laid for further social advancement. Ward's great emphasis on the value of books, no doubt, has its explanation in the poverty of his own youth on the frontier where books and manuals were scarce and precious. He owed his own education largely to reading and to books although he was a constant student of nature at first hand and made many original studies in geology and botany. But he reiterated in many variations that the observations of nature would have been of little use without the guidance of books. On reflection, it would seem that Ward's emphasis that students be instructed in the history, significance, purpose and value of subjects was well placed. It is a common occurrence for high school and college students to complain of the lack of the practicality of their education and to perplex and embarrass their teachers and parents with the questions: What good is it? What is it all about? How will it help me? Ward anticipated modern educational thinking in his repudiation of the culture epoch method of teaching in spite of its popularity under the aegis of Herbert Spencer and

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G. Stanley Hall and others of his time. H i s advocacy of the teaching of the sciences in the order of development and filiation—the order of nature, as it may be called—came perilously near the recapitulation theory and the " order of nature " in Spencer's scheme which W a r d repudiated. But it must be said in justice to W a r d , that it was the method of " civilization in little " through personal experience, and not the natural order of the sciences, that he opposed. It must be recalled again that W a r d ' s aim was not f o r discipline or f o r preparation f o r life as such. H e utterly repudiated both concepts again and again. A l t h o u g h his aim was social, in the sense that it was f o r the progress and happiness of society, it was not social in the sense of D e w e y and his followers and others of our time. Indeed, when W a r d was a boy it was no unusual thing f o r a family to consist of ten or twelve children, brought up in close companionship with parents, grandparents and an occasional maiden aunt or bachelor uncle. Consequently there was little need to w o r r y about children not learning to cooperate in work and play. T h e limitation of the size of families was not a problem at the time he wrote. H e did not need to be troubled about the only child in restricted apartmenthouse life. Remembering this condition we can hardly criticize him f o r not stressing the need f o r socializing the child. It was the socialization of education that interested him. H i s aim for the public school system, it will be remembered, was to supply knowledge. H i s methods are necessarily entirely related to his aim. T h e great underlying method, it has been seen, was ideological. T h e goal of social progress — social amelioration — must not be forgotten. A s to specific method it is clear that W a r d was ahead of his time in advocating what we should call a form of educational tests, vocational guidance and the careful recording

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of each pupil's aptitudes and abilities, but in many cases, under his system, such data, if alone relied upon, might come too late. His idea that each person should be given every possible opportunity to find his field of interest and a place where his talents could best express themselves must be warmly approved. It can reasonably be supposed, in the light of modern psychiatry, that Ward's aim of happiness could be more nearly approached, as he contended, if a larger number of persons could be placed in positions that are neither beyond their abilities nor below them. It is Plato's theory in a new guise. Mediocrity, he admitted, was the usual status of man. How to make this state more tolerable and more effective was his interest. In the long run, he felt eugenics might do much; well and good. In the short run, improvement in the social environment would do more; so much the better. Ward's deep interest in invention strikes a responsive chord in our machine age. His plea that more could be accomplished to hasten progress by stimulating this interest is of significance in view of the thesis of sociology as achievement. 47 Outside of scientific foundations, a few of which we already have, a more orderly procedure could be instituted by which the principles of mechanical invention might be taught in our school systems. The rise of institutes of mechanic arts and engineering colleges is in accordance with Ward's point of view. The world war revealed that speed along this line is possible, as well as does the record of Germany since the war. Pursuing one of Ward's favorite subjects, it might be said that if girls were not kept by convention and social taboo from the manipulation and uses of tools and machines in childhood and youth, 47 Achievement in Ward's sense, loosely speaking, is comparable to the super-organic of Spencer and to immaterial culture among the anthropologists.

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more inventions and discoveries might come from this source. A t least we might get some answer to the question whether there are sex differences in the capacity to invent. Even as it is, where conditions have not been too unfavorable, a few women have achieved in this field in spite of the opposition of hostile public feeling. 48 Decidedly more could be done in conditioning the young in science and mechanical arts for both sexes, perhaps, in the home at least, after the manner of William George Spencer in the training of his son Herbert. Moreover, a more intelligent population, schooled in the principles of invention would, by producing a more responsive and sympathetic public, encourage and stimulate those with marked talent or genius for discovery or invention. In this way social lag or social inertia, which Spencer, Tarde, Ogburn and others have observed, might be decreased. Many educators of science would believe that W a r d depended too much on the printed page and demonstration in the teaching of science. But a careful reading of his unpublished manuscript on education and his later references to science will reveal that W a r d was fully cognizant of the value of experiment and the inductive method. His plan of a publicly supported school-system did not allow time for original research but only for investigation and examination. Research, he valued highly in its proper place, as is seen in various statements and in his emphasis on invention. It may be conceded that he did not believe as strongly in the efficacy of mere manipulation of instruments or of the properties of objects, or of scientific training and specialization in the public school system as do many educators of the present. That is, he believed in the short cut whenever 48 See records concerning Maria Mitchell, Caroline Herschel, Mine. Curie and others. Also Mason, Woman's Share in Primitive Culture (New York, 1894).

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possible. Indeed to-day there are slight indications among a few that the dangers of specialization are recognized. Already many scientists are asking for the synthesizer, for one who can explain in some philosophical system the meaning of all the research that has been accomplished. It would seem that Ward neglected the tremendous value of social psychology to citizens in a democracy who should live and practice self-government by the law of parsimony and of attractive legislation, although, of course, the use of attractive legislation implies a knowledge by some one of the way men are moved and are induced to act. Would citizens be so willing to be attracted if they knew the rules of the game even though they could perceive the ultimate gain? That we have tardily followed in the foot-steps of Ward in many ways is apparent. That we have perceived his beckoning hand is not so clear. It is to be remembered that he has been little recognized by the educational 49 world and also that many ideas similar to his were in the minds of certain leaders. But no one had written so comprehensively or with so long a vision or with so definite a goal. The fate he deplored of much knowledge being hid in libraries and in the minds of a few befell his own works viewed from the standpoint of education. The question continually in the mind, as one reads Ward's works, is whether he did not over-estimate the dynamic power of the education of information. However, we have never been agreed as to the final goal of all education. We have been fearful of social control, of social telesis. We cling more or less to the old theory of " rugged individualism " . We believe in the value of individualism and experimentation even in school systems. Ward's emphasis on the 49 Professor John Dewey gave a rather favorable report of The Psychic Factors of Civilization in the Psychological Review, July, 1894 but seldom mentions Ward in his works.

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teleological method is peculiarly challenging at this time in our history when it seems to many that in the larger sense we have come to the end of an era. Does the ailing world need larger and more constant doses of " the great panacea," education? Has " t h e mighty medicine" not been mighty enough or has it not been made of the right ingredients? That there should be some unanimity of opinion as to the aim of education is all too evident. It looks, however, as if it would be a long time before there would be enough agreement among educators and sociologists, and those who rule, to employ the teleological method. Y e t a better distribution of knowledge and a more enlightened public opinion would, no doubt, make the electors more sympathetically responsive to the use of social experts. T h e genetic process, wasteful and slow as it is, will probably be the general way of progress, unfortunately, for a long time to come, although there are hopeful signs here and there for the coming of a more enlightened social control. F o r the state to see that each person is in his own proper niche implies greater wisdom than we now possess. But it is a valid and worthwhile ideal, in fact, one of the legitimate ideals in a democracy. T o return to the thesis of state education it is seen that W a r d admitted that there were many objections, but he pointed out that there was no alternative in view of his aim, since education is not subject to the laws of supply and demand and must be provided for society by society. Indeed, he predicted that the twentieth century would see the complete socialization of education throughout the civilized world. In this particular W a r d expressed the spirit and confidence of his era in democracy, education and progress. Imbued with abounding faith in the possibilities of social progress he was passionately hopeful of the potentialities of the children of men. Ever a man of lofty vision, looking forward to the long future, possessing a mind of extra-

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ordinary fertility, he was ahead of his time in many ways. Yet, on the whole, it may be said that in him converged, as in a powerful current, the streamlets and rivulets of the thought of the Zeitgeist.so W i t h his big-hearted, expansive optimism and faith in man and his power of achievement he caught the spirit of the age in a remarkable way and perceived the potency and significance in seemingly small drifts and eddies. 50 Ward, Dynamic Sociology, vol. i, p. vii. " That my own contribution was simply a product of the Zeitgeist, I have never pretended to question; that it had any effect in determining the events that so quickly followed, beyond the natural reciprocal action of diverse minds upon one another, is not at all probable." Written about 1896. In later years Ward appears to have changed his mind somewhat on this point. He states that many writers put forth his ideas again as if they had not been stated before. He says they are not generally plagiarisms, however. " They may often emanate from m e . . . as my ideas are slowly making their way in the world and getting ' in the a i r ' and as the world becomes ripe for them they are seized upon by bright minds who imagine they have an original thought. Much of it, however, is due to the Zeitgeist itself, which is at last tardily overtaking me." He claimed that the admirers of Bergson, for instance, had failed to notice that he, himself, had shown that evolution is not only creative but how it is creative. He stated that Bergson " seems to know nothing of creative synthesis, and to be wholly unacquainted with Wundt. But I am the only one who has attempted to show what an all-embracing cosmical principle creative synthesis is." It might be added too, that in our time the theory of " emergent evolution" seems to be strangely familiar to the student of Ward. In Germany, Ward found that many of his ideas had been expressed by others after his writings had appeared and adds: " But claims to originality, except f r o m . . . new view points, are uniformly unfounded, and the principles themselves are not new. The greater part of them are to be found in my works dating back ten, twenty, or even thirty years." Written by Ward about 1912. See Glimpses of the Cosmos, vol. i, pp. lxxxii et seq. The fact that Ward's new theories and plans occurred to him almost simultaneously (or somewhat before) with like ones of some of his contemporaries illustrates what Dr. Dorothy Thomas and Professor William Ogburn found in their study of inventions, namely, that, in many cases, two or more inventions of the saine thing occurred independently and approximately at the same time, or within a short period of time, of each other. See Ogburn, Social Change (New York, 1922).

CHAPTER S P E N C E R AND W A R D

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IN examining the lives and the early experiences of Spencer and Ward, we have found marked differences. Spencer was the only living child of a well-settled, educated, non-conformist family. Spencer's health, education and development were the constant care and critical devotion of his parents, particularly of his father, for many years, even into manhood. H e had few playmates, little criticism or rebuff or competition from his youthful contemporaries. Being tutored for years at home by his father and at Hinton by his uncle, attending for a short period only a small private school, he never mingled with large groups of children. H e listened much to the conversation of adults and competed with them in argument. His early educational impressions were of social reform, political theory and of mechanical science. Books were easily accessible. H e had little recreation. Even his gun was often denied him. The only positions he held as a youth and as a young man were in engineering aside from a three months' period of teaching. Ward, on the other hand, twenty-one years younger, was the tenth child of "rolling stone" frontier parents. H e was reared in poverty, far from centers of learning. H e attended the public schools with children of all ages. He always knew the companionship of boys and girls. He saw mills constructed, dams made, bridges erected, and streams harnessed and turned. H e knew how to farm, to tend sheep and other farm animals. H e knew how to handle a gun and where to look for unnamed plants and shrubs and flowers. 284

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H e trekked the plains by foot as a boy and knew what it was to sleep by night rolled up in a blanket on the ground under the open sky. A s a youth he made wagon hubs when he was not farming. Though books were rare and public libraries practically unknown, such printed matter as came to his hand, he read and studied in spare hours from haying and harvesting or work at the saw-mill. He had experienced with his brother Erastus what it was to scrimp food to save money for education. H e saw the face of nature changed by man's purposive achievements. Before his very eyes during his own life he beheld most of the Western United States changed from a wilderness to the home of millions of men and women living in flourishing towns and great cities. Nothing but lack of planning and foresight and effort seemed to stand in the way of the progress of the West. A m o n g the plain, rough-clad, calloused-handed men and women about him, he discovered keen intellects, though unpolished and unrefined by books and art and science. H e beheld the stumbling-block of lack of education to the ideals and plans of men. The pioneer woman appeared to him of no less excellence and worth than her husband or brothers. She suffered from the same privations, physical and mental. H e saw with delight even the poorest clad, most uncouth children occasionally go to the top of their classes. A t twenty-one W a r d went to war, although he had to tear himself away from his bride. A t twenty-six he entered the service of the government where he remained in various capacities until he was sixty-four years old. A t twentyeight he began writing The Great Panacea which should show that " culture or education is everything." It became Dynamic Sociology in 1883 when W a r d was fortytwo years old. Spencer, at twenty years of age, had written his father that he would like to make public his views on education

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and religion. A t twenty-two, well versed in engineering, he began his famous series of letters to The Nonconformist on " T h e Proper Sphere of Government " which became Social Statics in 1850 when he was thirty years of age. Spencer, it will be seen, began what was to prove his life work a number of years earlier than did W a r d . This was due to his earlier education and opportunity to discover his leading interests. W a r d , on the other hand, had always to earn his living and to support a family. Spencer, though for years not well-to-do, fell heir fairly early in his career, to three small legacies and while a young man could borrow from his father. Ward, from the moment he was born, saw the results of cooperation among men. He saw how little could be accomplished single-handed. From the age of twenty-one until he was sixty-four and became a professor, he was in some way connected with the government, and beheld at first hand what governmental and state agencies could accomplish as against the individual efforts of men not only in the country at large but in the new west. In spite of all the draw-backs and bungling mediocrity he saw about him, he never lost faith in cooperation or in social control. T h e very bungling of men as well as the inferior position of women seemed to be due to ignorance and lack of opportunity. T o Spencer, the inefficiency and inanities he saw about him among men and women were due to their undeveloped natures and to everlasting hampering from above. Spencer, as a boy had to cope with authority, the vacillating control of his mother and father and grandfather, and that of his various other relatives in the home. Later he experienced the firm hand of his uncle Thomas. He saw his father's plans as a land-owner and renter of houses hampered by state meddling into affairs of sanitation and so on, making matters worse than before, it seemed to him. Thanks to the

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aid of his critical and disputative relatives, he saw the effects of governmental interference on all sides. H e perceived that his uncle, the Reverend Thomas Spencer was controlled by ecclesiastical authority. Freedom and individual liberty meant everything to the one frail slip of a boy among so many elders and later, to the tall, graceful, disputative, selfconfident young man. As a youth he saw the remarkable effects of individual initiative in the rapid expansion of the railroads. His mother, he observed, was over-religious, submissive, retiring, obedient to authority, and not very intellectual. Until he was grown up he knew very few women aside from his mother and aunts. It may be asked where Spencer got his ideas of extreme individualism. It is perhaps only necessary to mention the circumstances under which occurred his early conditioning. Ward seems never to have suffered from undue authority. There were too many young ones in the home and community, too many other things to attend to, for much concern to be given to the training of children. Freedom abounded. Little could be accomplished single-handed. But there were untold benefits from cooperation in mill, harvest field and plain, benefits also from governmental grants and concessions and appropriations. The only obstacle was lack of knowledge and information and equipment. Where, in turn, it may be asked, did W a r d derive his intense belief in democracy, absolute equality of sex, race and creed? What led him to think the subject-matter of sociology is purposive achievement, to believe in meliorism or the science of human improvement? W h y did he say it is not what men are but what they do? What led him to defend to the last ditch the universal distribution of knowledge and the teleological method? An answer may be suggested once more in the early conditioning of the pioneer child and youth.

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W a r d was always a great lover, a lover of men and women. Although he knew the worst in men he also knew their best. H e was a lover of nature, of rocks and ledges, of weeds, of flowers and even petrified plant life. H e loved storms and the sea. H e liked the farm animals. H e loved science and literature, in fact, all knowledge. H e loved work. H e loved friendship and he loved love. A l l pain and all pleasure come from the desires, he said. The desires are the social forces. They move society. A l l his private pleasures came from two sources, the domestic affections and knowledge. U p to his death these two factors gave him intense joy such as most persons experience only in youth. In no sense can Spencer be called a lover. His joys were always calm and intellectual. H e never moved or thought without inquiring the underlying cause. H e even pondered on the cause for a single oath, or the alacrity arising from a glass of spirits. Although a man of warm affection, great tenderness and a prodigious worker, staining his vast system, as it were, with his life's blood, he never acted from impulse or emotion. 1 His life and his own words bear witness to the fact that he was not a man of intense enthusiasms. Y e t his interests were unswerving, deep and constant. In spite of his calm he was an irritable man if crossed and could never stand argument on either small subjects or large. Answer me yes or no, he said in substance, to his domestics, but do not argue or explain. 2 The nearest he came to love was in his regard and delight in children. 3 T o speak 1 Webb, op. cit., p. 24. Mr. Potter said to his daughter Beatrice: " Spencer's intellect is like a machine racing along without raw material; it is wearing out his body. Poor Spencer, he lacks instinct, my dear, he lacks instinct... you will discover that instinct is as important as intellect." 2

Duncan, op. cit., p. 327.

Webb, op. cit., pp. 28-29. Mrs. Webb says in speaking of her childhood : " It was the philosopher on the hearth who, alone among my 3

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loosely, Spencer was gregarious but not social. He wished his friends near at hand, but in his old age, not without his ear-stoppers. One explanation for the personal differences of these two great men lies in their physical constitutions. W a r d was rugged and in abounding good health. Spencer was highly strung and delicate. Various circumstances of his youth, his bereaved parents, his father's ill health, his uncle's breakdown and subsequent death and his own mysterious malady caused him to be unduly introspective with regard to his physical being. Yet his constitution seems always to have been sound and he showed his age very little. His intellectual drive was steady and sustained. His mind, seldom, if ever, stopped working. His emotional drive was weak. In his own terms it was a matter of equilibration. Such energy as he had was drained off into the synthetic philosophy, but it left him wifeless and childless, dyspeptic and nervous. Ward knew men and women of the common rank and file unlike Spencer, whose friends were of a high social class. Ward had learned to do for himself. H e never knew the luxury of leisure or of servants. H e earned his living as a public functionary and wrote sociology as an avocation. His paleontological researches were done under the auspices, for the most part, of the government. Spencer was a leisurely English gentleman, a habitué of clubs, and a close friend and confidante of the intellectual élite of nineteenthcentury England. For a time he was himself the intellectual elders, was concerned about my chronic ill-health, and was constantlysuggesting this or that remedy for my ailments; who encouraged me in my lonely studies ; who heard patiently and criticized kindly my untutored scribblings about Greek and German philosophers ; who delighted and stimulated me with the remark that I was a ' born metaphysician and that I ' reminded him of George Eliot ' ; who was always pressing me to become a scientific worker, and who eventually arranged with Knowles of the Nineteenth Century for the immediate publication of my first essay in social investigation."

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apex of the remarkable Victorian age. H e was the great philosopher of the world. Ward, on the other hand, was not well known and never has been. Among a small circle of American and European scholars he finally became recognized and honored and was considered by these few to be one of the great minds of the age. Had his frontier home been a Derbyshire, or Washington a London; had his family had good connections in the world of science or education, his contacts and his fame would have been quite otherwise. Neither Spencer nor Ward seems to have been possessed of much sense of humor. Galton's comments and those of Lady Courtney reveal that Spencer little realized the humorous situations he created from time to time with his lofty and high-sounding language pertaining to small affairs of daily life. Ward's writings as editor and chief contributor to The Iconoclast show his success at sarcasm but, in spite of his efforts, they can scarcely be called humorous. Ward never had the opportunity for leisure that Spencer enjoyed nor for the frequent intimate social intercourse. Yet he was an omnivorous and systematic reader and was always a student. Spencer dipped into books and periodicals a great deal but, unfortunately, he never read systematically, thoroughly or widely.4 This fact, in a sense, makes his works more astonishing. His ideas he derived from the use of his extraordinary mind and conversations with the great of his age. One striking characteristic was his inventiveness covering a period of many years. The list of his inventions and plans for inventions is remarkable. They reveal the activity * Had Spencer read more widely he would have realized, perhaps, the limitations of his own works more clearly. He would have understood his critics better and in his own criticisms of others he would not have made so many mistakes nor answered so harshly and rashly as he sometimes did.

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of his mind which seemed, under a calm exterior, never to be at rest. W a r d appears to have shown no inventive talent in machinery, yet it was W a r d who advocated instruction in the principles of invention. Both men refused most of the honors that were offered them in their advanced years. In religion, Spencer and W a r d practically agreed. Neither was a sectarian of any sort. Spencer was an agnostic, but like Ward, 5 perhaps to a greater degree, he was respectful, though critical of the religious views of others. A s he grew older he came to be more sympathetic with those who differed widely from him in religious beliefs and was always anxious to avoid giving pain. W a r d knew what it was to experience reverence whereas to Spencer reverence was almost unknown. Neither took much active part in politics or current reform. In this respect Spencer perhaps possessed more natural aptitude for public life than did Ward. Spencer's health and the demands of his life work, in fact, prevented him from following his natural bent and capacity in this field. In spite of these obstacles what he did was considerably more than could reasonably have been expected. He retained his interest in current affairs to the end as is seen in his attitude toward educational programs, the Boer W a r and the Japanese social revolution. Both men had a thesis to prove and each proved it to his own satisfaction. N o matter how far afield each started, or how diverse the subject, sooner or later each always came back to his chief tenets. In the case of Spencer, the chief tenets were his formula of evolution, his belief in laissez faire and the law of equal f r e e d o m ; 6 in the case of Ward, the chief 5 W i t h years, W a r d ' s attitude changed and he, too, became more tolerant and came to believe that truth would gradually be substituted f o r error and superstition. 6 T h i s law was fundamental in all of Spencer's w o r k . In Social Statics, p. 121, he says, in deriving his first principle: "Every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man."

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tenet was teleological progress by means of education. This frequent emphasis on fundamentals gives to the reader, or one who would attempt to explain their works, a sense of repetition, particularly in the works of W a r d . Each man created a system of social philosophy, Spencer's being far more comprehensive, especially as to origins. It occupied many more years of his life and was his one great interest and preoccupation. H e directed the greater part of his work to the creating of a scientific foundation for his principles of ethics. This was the aim of his many years of labor. W a r d ' s life work was two-fold. He was a paleontologist and a sociologist. A s a sociologist he directed all his efforts to the creating of a demand for social telesis in the interest of social meliorism. H e looked always to the future. He read carefully all of Spencer's works, which compliment was not reciprocated. 7 He accepted with enthusiasm a large part of Spencer's evolutionary philosophy, but unlike him, W a r d offered an explanation of the bridge from the inorganic to the organic. Y e t social telesis interested him more than genesis and he laid no claim to having treated exhaustively of statics. Both philosophers were hedonists, but with Spencer, happiness would come from growth and adaptation, whereas, with Ward, although up to now it had largely been the Spencer, on the receipt of Dynamic Sociology glanced it over and wrote W a r d a courteous letter. H e grasped its significance at once. H e said: " I infer that you have a good deal more f a i t h in the effects of right theory upon social practice than I have. T h e time may come when scientific conclusions w i l l sway men's social conduct in a considerable degree. B u t as y o u are probably aware, and as, in fact, I said very emphatically when in America, I regard social progress as mainly a question of character, and not of knowledge or enlightenment. T h e inherited and organized natures of individuals, only little modifiable in the life of a generation, essentially determine f o r the time-being the type of social organization, in spite of any teaching, in spite even of bitter experience." W r i t t e n by Spencer, July, 1883. See Glimpses of the Cosmos, vol. iii, p. 213. 7

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result of growth, from henceforth it should be a manufacture. Progress, by means of purposive achievement would come through forsight and artificial selection, not, as according to Spencer, through blind adaptation by natural selection. Spencer has sometimes been classed as a materialist and W a r d is always so classed.8 W a r d was glad to admit that he was a materialist. Spencer denied it, as he was, in the strictest sense, justified in doing, since to him, phenomena, in the last analysis, are the reflection of something else, but beyond the realm of science.9 However, what was the Unknowable or the Neumenon, was no integral part of Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy. T o Ward, matter is what it seems to be. H e resolved everything to modes of motion in matter. W i t h Spencer, everything knowable is resolvable to force. Things have came to be what they are through the integration of matter and the concomitant dissipation of motion. From aggregate to aggregate is the procedure. His formula of evolution was applied to all that is knowable. " L i f e is the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations. . . . S o that that maintenance of a correspondence between the inner and the outer relations . . . and the perfection of which is the perfection of L i f e , answers completely to that state of organic moving equilibrium which we saw arises in the course of Evolution, and tends ever to become more complete." 10 W a r d accounted for the world as it now is through universal chemism, compounding and recom8 Royce, The Spirit of Modern Philosophy ( N e w Y o r k , 1892), p. 298. " In M r . Spencer's doctrine it is our knowledge of the outer world which is to be ' u n i f i e d ' ; and yet this outer as such cannot truly be known save as to the bare fact of its existence. T h e union of the knowable and unknowable in M r . Spencer's system is thus a painfully corrupt one." 9 10

Spencer, principles Ibid., p. 93.

of Biology,

vol. i, p. 80.

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pounding. The underlying principle is creative synthesis or synergy. Life is a property of protoplasm and is itself the result of synergy, the systematic working together of the antithetical forces of nature. This is the principle operating from the smallest particle in nature up to society, man's highest product. Progress, to Spencer, is not a man-made phenomenon. It is the same as his definition of evolution. Man cannot hasten the evolutionary process. All that he can do is to see that the law of equal freedom prevails. Thereby, his various faculties will have scope to exercise and to grow and his nature will be adapted concomitantly with the other aspects of the universe. The whole is a moving equilibrium. There must be more or less balance. Lack of progress and the existence of human suffering is due to non-adaptation. The process of human adaptation depends upon the inheritance of acquired characteristics. W a r d defined social progress as anything which promotes human welfare and happiness. H e accepted Spencer's dictum for progress but considered it only genetic progress. H e felt that Spencer had neglected dynamic progress. Man can hasten the process, he believed, through dynamic opinion, based on knowledge. Collective telesis is his slogan. Coming later than Spencer, he was not such a thorough Lamarckian. Ward had a bias for Lamarck's theory of inheritance but it was not essential to his system. Being twenty-one years younger, he was naturally more of a Darwinian than Spencer. H e was mildly interested in eugenics. He expressed his approval of what is termed today " birth-control." Neither accepted Weissmann's theory, although both seriously pondered over it, and even went to the effort of publishing their views on this theory. Spencer, a thorough individualist and laisses faire advocate, was, if followed to the logical conclusion, a philosophical

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anarchist. Government has no other function than to maintain justice, the law of equal freedom. His system is based on natural rights. W a r d always denounced the laissez faire doctrine and the theory of natural rights. M a n was not, in the beginning, social. Society is the product of man's intellect and it alone can, through collective telesis, best and most rapidly control and hasten progress. Since society is man's creation, man's cold intellect should be the guide to its improvement. T h e social forces will furnish the fuel for the social engineer. Social intelligence will be its pilot. Ward, in contending that Spencer's system never got beyond the static and genetic explanation, believed that what was needed was a theory of social dynamics. H e felt that he had supplied it. Dynamic Sociology consists in applying the indirect method to the control of the social forces. . . -11 Thus while impulsive and all statical actions are the more universal and natural, and while they serve the ends of natural utility, viz., the preservation of human life, rational dynamic actions are artificial and serve the great end of individuality utility, viz., increase of happiness.12 Although it is not the purpose of this study to discuss the entire system of each philosopher, it may be mentioned in passing that the anthropology of each suffered from the pioneer state of the anthropology of their time. However, in one respect W a r d was in practical agreement with the Boaz School of anthropology, namely in his belief that the differences in intellect among races, so far as we have proof, are practically negligible and, that such differences as are found in cultural achievement are due to opportunities of various kinds. Spencer, too, understood well what, in modern terminology, is meant by culture, as is seen in his analysis 11

Ward, Dynamic Sociology, vol. ii, p. 161.

12

Ibid., vol. ii, p. 383.

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of what he called the superorganic. However Spencer, particularly in anthropology, depended too much on unauthenticated material. 13 His method of analysis also was faulty. The psychology of Spencer holds an honorable place in the history of psychology. Ward's system of psychology, on 13

Spencer's method of collecting and utilizing data may be discovered in the anthropological sections of his Synthetic Philosophy, in the Descriptive Sociology and from comments in his Autobiography. Mrs. Sidney Webb gives her youthful experience with Spencer in this regard. She writes: " I do not suggest that ' some direct observations of facts or some fact met with in reading' did not precede the formulation of his principles;... But by the time I became his companion these First Principles had ceased to be hypotheses; they had become a highly developed dogmatic creed with regard to the evolution of life. What remained to be done was to prove by innumerable illustrations how these principles or ' laws' explained the whole of the processes of nature, from the formation of a crystal to the working of the party system within a democratic state. Herbert Spencer was, in fact, engaged in the art of casuistry, and it was in this art that for a time I became his apprentice, or was it his accomplice ? Partly in order to gain his approbation and partly out of sheer curiosity about the working of his mind, I started out to discover, and where observation failed, to invent, illustrations of such scraps of theory as I understood. What I learned from this game with his intellect was not, it is needless to remark, how to observe —for he was the most gullible of mortals and never scrutinized the accuracy of my tales—but whether the simple facts I brought him came within the ' l a w ' he wished to illustrate. It was indeed the training required for an English lawyer dealing with cases, rather than that of a scientific worker seeking to discover and describe new forms of life. What he taught me to discern was not the truth, but the relevance of facts; a gift said to be rare in a woman and of untold importance to the social investigator confronted with masses of data, whether in documents or in the observed behavior of men-—ascertained facts significant and insignificant, relevant and irrelevant." Mrs. Webb also quotes from Huxley the following: " H e [Spencer] elaborated his theory from his inner consciousness. He is the most original of thinkers, though he has never invented a new thought. He never reads: merely picks up what will help him illustrate his theories. He is a great constructor; the form he has given his gigantic system is entirely original: not one of the component factors is new, but he has not borrowed them." Webb, op. cit., pp. 26-27.

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the other hand, while containing much that is to-day taken for granted, appears not to have attracted much attention from the psychologists. It is, in some respects, open to question. The place of his theory of desire and the social forces in sociology has been frequently disputed by sociologists. In recent years, however, there has been much interest, among psychologists in particular, in the study of the emotions, of drives and urges, the wishes, suppressed desires and so on—to what Ward would call the subjective aspect of the mind, the real trunk of the sympodial system. We have as a result, the new science of psychiatry with its increasing application in individual and social life. In literature, too, particularly in the novel and in biography, much emphasis has been given to the emotional substratum of the personality. Ward repeatedly called attention to the power of the emotions, the feelings in society. " Feeling is the dynamic agent." In this respect Ward was decidedly a forerunner. Concerning the relation of Spencer's educational theories to his sociological principles, it will be remembered that the four essays, later published in the little volume Education in 1861 (although written after Social Statics), were, with other essays, influential in helping him to evolve and amplify more fully his philosophical principles as set forth later in the Synthetic Philosophy and in several essays pertaining to education as well as in his work, The Study of Sociology. All of Spencer's educational views, with very few exceptions, are in conformity with his philosophical principles, expressed either in earlier or later years of his career. His leading philosophical principles, it will be recalled, were largely formed, even if not fully developed in every case, early in life. In accordance with his dependence upon the processes of evolution as the only true means to progress, Spencer be-

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lieved that education could not directly hasten progress. Education, if provided by the efforts of private individuals, would exercise and strengthen the instincts and the emotional faculties. Only through the improvement of character, which improvement would be transmitted in time by the inheritance of acquired characteristics, can mankind evolve to a higher stage. The State should not, therefore, usurp the place of family ethics or duties any more than it should usurp the right to provide whatever else seems advisable to individuals. The law of equal freedom as enunciated and exemplified in Social Statics and First Principles must apply in education as elsewhere. Also the laws of supply and demand must meet with no interference. There must be no State-meddling. Since the individual is the unit of society all activities, except those for maintaining justice, must be carried on by individuals. However, a school system arising from the initiative of one or more persons would be in harmony with Spencer's philosophical principles. But authority and control in such circumstances must reside with these private persons alone. Only as the units develop through the laws of evolution can the mass be advanced or elevated. A l l evil arises from non-adaptation; all good arises from adaptation of constitution to conditions. Since education is a preparation for life that is to be lived, education is indirectly a means of preserving equilibrium with the other elements of the environment. Man's education must be in relation to the conditions he must face. A perfectly educated man or a perfectly ethical man would not be fitted for life as it is now. Those persons with not enough sympathy (positive beneficence), or parental feeling will not properly educate their children, if at all. Nevertheless, society must not interfere. T h e rights of children have not been infringed upon. They have no rights to education. They still are free to exercise such faculties as they have. If

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they are unadapted for life, the laws of evolution will settle the problem in the interests of society. Cruel as this may seem to the unthinking and the sentimental, it is more humane in the end that the unfit should perish. Nature's ways must be respected and followed. Society is a growth. Unnatural means like State education will retard evolutionary development by bolstering up the weak and unfit and weakening the steady development of character. It will disturb the equilibrium of forces. The theory of the antagonism between growth and development, 14 a theory closely related to Spencer's theory of individuation and genesis, has a direct application for educators and parents, particularly in their care and training of adolescents. Moreover, the principle of balance and of a moving equilibrium of forces will show the folly of overphysical development and excessive training, especially in athletics and gymnastics. The history of the course of the evolution of mankind shows also the order by which school subjects should be presented by teachers to the young. The biological and the psychological principle that the organism develops by exercise and the integration of experiences gives validity to the direct method of science and to experiment and self-help. The organism grows by doing, acting, experiencing. The law that all evolution proceeds from the simple to the complex offers guidance to teachers in the method of presentation of school subjects. The evolutionary la AT of development from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous is revealed in the history of the teaching profession as well as in the history of science and languages as of other 1 1 Spencer, Education, p. 271. Spencer in discussing the physiological l a w first pointed out by M . Isidore St. Hilaire and to which attention was drawn by M r . L e w e s s a y s : " B y growth, as used in this antithetical sense, is to be understood increase of size; by development, increase of structure. A n d the law is, that great activity in either of these processes involves retardation or arrest of the other."

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institutions. It applies to the superorganic just as it does to the inorganic and the organic parts of the cosmos. In any phase of teaching, the laws of evolution, the dictates of nature, give the only true guide for the nurture and training of the young whether it be in the matter of feeding or dressing the very young or in that of the most complex moral and social problems of the grown man. Ward, on the other hand, stressed universal education in accordance with his democratic theories and, in accordance too, with his doctrine of anthropoteleology. Achievement is the subject matter of sociology. Achievement consists primarily of mental products. These products increase with education. Genetic evolution has provided mankind with intellect far in advance of his knowledge. One component of intelligence is knowledge. The education of information which teaches the extant knowledge to every one thus will increase intelligence. Man progresses as his achievements increase, but more particularly, as they are universalized. Latent genius and talent are discovered and utilized according to the cultural environment. Education plays a direct and dynamic role in progress. It is the initial means to the goal of happiness. The mass of mankind, in Ward's opinion, must be elevated together and this can only be accomplished when opportunity is provided and available to all. The laws of supply and demand do not apply in education. Laisses faire methods are always wasteful. The State, therefore, and not the individual, must provide the foundations of education as exemplified in Ward's three curricula. Indeed, to provide universal education is the first duty and prime object of society. In Ward's system the environment must be adapted to man. Through knowledge man makes the environment serve him. Science and the literature of all achievement give him the power to adapt the environment to his needs.

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The principle of the filiation of the sciences and the theory of creative synthesis show the general method to be employed in education. Since the theory of gynaecocracy reveals that the female is the primary and superior sex in all organic life, women should no longer be denied educational and social opportunities. The latent intellect of women and their superior emotional powers, must be released and turned into useful channels for the sake of progress. The progress of mankind has been retarded by stifling the powers of women. Through the lack of development of their capacities, women, as a sex, have fallen to an inferior plane. Thereby both sexes through the inheritance of the effects of use and disuse have failed to advance as they might. The present superiority of the male is not due to any innate superiority, but is due to superior opportunity. Since there are no appreciable differences of intellect between the races, no race or group of people should be denied any educational advantage. Universal education will reveal what natural differences there are which, Ward believed, would be individual differences only and not class or race differences. " It is not what men are but what they do." But men must know what possibilities there are for achievement before they can proceed wisely and with economy. Ward's theory of fortuitous variation, derived from a study of plant life, reveals that the growth of organisms is determined by the way they are able to utilize the environment. The better the environment the better they flourish. In man the education of information not only shows how the environment can be transformed but the knowledge obtained is itself dynamic. " Education is the mainspring of all progress. It is the piston of civilization." The theory of sympodial development, derived from his study of paleobotany, revealed to W a r d that, by analogy, the intellect was really a sympode of the main trunk of the mind, the feelings.

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Feeling as the dynamic agent gives the propelling force to the guide, the intellect. Intellect plus knowledge ( o r the education of i n f o r m a t i o n ) together with the aid of the desires (the social forces) will hasten m a n towards his goal. Dynamic opinion and dynamic action, both factors in attaining social meliorism, are governed by the amount and quality of knowledge which the mass of mankind possesses. Attractive legislation, based on the law of parsimony, and guided by sociological experts and social engineers, can only be brought about and made effective when citizens have been made intelligent by means of universal education. Then the necessity f o r teleological progress and the way to happiness will be perceived by all. The facts previously reviewed show that Spencer's educational views were in conformity with his leading philosophical principles. T h e connection between W a r d ' s chief philosophical principles and his educational doctrines appears to be direct and inseparable. W i t h regard to the underlying sociological and philosophical principles which are related to the chief educational theories of Spencer and W a r d marked differences have been found. I n the main their educational principles differ f r o m each other for the most part, as their philosophical and sociological principles differ. It remains to speak of the differences of Spencer's and W a r d ' s more detailed and specific views of educational theory and practice. It has been indicated that a knowledge of education and its art in Spencer's mind is the first duty of parents, 15 and that it is of supreme importance and requires the best training and equipment possible. H e delineated with care what should be taught to the young and how and why. All his 15 Ward, unlike Spencer, wrote nothing for parents or of child training in the home. Youth of both sexes were to be taught knowledge pertaining to sex and family life in the schools. The duties of parents appear not to have interested him so deeply as they did Spencer.

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life he was an observer and a student of children. Education was one of his first interests and one of his last. The function of the teacher he held second to none. Y e t education was not an integral part of the Synthetic Philosophy or a direct means to progress. 16 T o W a r d , on the other hand education was the vital essence of his system. It was not only the first interest in his literary life but a constant one. All his sociological works gravitate about it. T o provide education is one of the chief functions of society. Although W a r d had taught in the lower schools and in universities for several years it is Spencer and not W a r d who is known as a writer of pedagogy and child and teacher training within the home as well as in the schoolroom. It has been noted that Spencer treated specifically of the curriculum subject by subject. W a r d never published a detailed treatise on education entitled as such, although he had prepared a long manuscript 1 7 on this subject treating in considerable detail various aspects of education and of school subjects. A summary of his educational views he presented in Dynamic Sociology, his first work on sociology, originally thought of as a work on education and to be entitled The Great Panacea. Neither had he planned, so far as is known, 1 8 B r i s t o l in Social Adaptation (Cambridge, Mass., 1921), p. 38, says: In Spencer's Education... we have his only important contribution to the doctrine of active adaptation.... Y e t even in this treatise which has been one of the most potent factors in the modern movement for an education which fits for success in life, the main emphasis is in passive adaptation as shown in his discussion of 'punishment', in his insistence that education is to fit the child for the world as he finds it rather than for an ideal social order, and in his repeated dictum ' follow nature' without making clear that nature includes men and social groups with power to react on it purposefully and in the interest of the largest possible individual and social life." 1 7 This manuscript, about five hundred and fifty pages in length, closely written in long hand, is in the Brown University Library. Ward looked it over shortly before his death and felt that with careful editing and with several omissions of the personal element it was worthy of publication.

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as did Spencer on several occasions, to found an educational institute to be carried on under his direction. Spencer kept to his work as an inventive, self-confident young engineer only a few years, while W a r d worked for the government for the most of his life and probably would have continued to do so until the end, had he not been offered a university chair in sociology at Brown University when he was sixty-four years old. Spencer's was an aristocratic, private, more or less tutorial scheme of education, while Ward's was for all the children of all the people. It was to teach the principles of the extant knowledge of the world. Although both men decried mere ornamental education, W a r d was interested in a far richer field than Spencer, the reason being that W a r d loved books and all that enhanced the emotional life. Both agreed, however, that science was of most worth. W a r d also stressed equally with science what might be called the literature of science and the history of thought. H e would, moreover, teach the principles of invention and utilize the science of statistics in school administration and social legislation. H e urged the use and wide distribution of books on all subjects, a point to which Spencer gave no thought, and would have disagreed to this plan if he had, unless it arose entirely from the initiative of private persons. In method, both saw the limitations of education as discipline. As an aim they both repudiated it. Spencer believed in following the dictates of Nature and her procedure. Therefore, he espoused more or less the culture epoch theory. Education should be " civilization in little." This W a r d scorned. Nature is wasteful, he said. Only man economizes. Man must proceed by art or what he termed the artificial method. The nearest he came to Spencer's idea of the " order of nature " in education was in the order of the filiation of the sciences. Spencer extolled the direct,

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experimental, inductive method in the teaching of science. Ward, also a staunch advocate of the teaching of science, was however, less ardent in his insistence upon direct experience in obtaining knowledge. To Ward, education is not a drawing out. It is a putting in of food for the purpose of growth and action. It consists not only of science (knowledge of the environment) but of such knowledge as adds to human enjoyment. Spencer's aim, it has been observed, was an individualistic one; Ward's a social one. Yet neither thought of education in the sense of socializing the individual, although, widely construed, Spencer's doctrine of education as a preparation for life would include it. Spencer would teach the unit of society how to think, how to live completely, how to be adjusted to the conditions of life. W a r d aimed to store the mind with knowledge, that men might see to foresee, and that they might thereby move society onward to social happiness. The mass must move together. Compulsory, universal, state education was incompatible with Spencer's system. A national university such as W a r d proposed, would violate Spencer's every feeling. Education to Spencer, it is evident, is not a direct agent in progress or social evolution. However, it would seem with so firm a belief in the inheritance of acquired characteristics as he held, that it was somewhat inconsistent of him to postulate so passive a role for education in regard to progress. To him, education is only an agent of passive adaptation; to Ward, it is an agent of active adaptation, indeed the initial means. The chief factors in the early education and social backgrounds of these two philosophers have been previously reviewed. Can it be stated why Spencer despised public instruction and had no respect for university training? Certainly no dogmatic answer can be given. But it may be

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noted that Spencer had, for the most part, always worked and achieved as an individual. His family for generations had done so in religion, in politics and in the professions more or less. His entire life shows that he was well satisfied and confident concerning all that he thought, possessed and accomplished. There is hardly a case, if any, of a great writer of science or philosophy being so sensitive to criticism. 18 He also seemed, at times, to be contra-suggestive, to use a term of Tarde. He formed strong opinions and he seldom reconsidered them. He was not readily adaptable. 19 He was proud of his father, he was proud of his uncle, he was proud of himself. He seldom, if ever, repudiated any principles that he had once held, although he might modify them or add to them from time to time, as in the case of his adding natural selection to his system under the term, indirect equilibration, though it never became an essential part of his system. He held obstinately to his youthful belief in the law of equal freedom, for instance, although he could not always consistently stand by it, as is seen in his experience with Henry George over the land question and with John Stuart Mill and his wife's daughter, Miss Helen Taylor, over equal suffrage. He not only always held, in his major statements, to the law of equal freedom and increasing individuation but, at the same time, to the analogy of society as an organism even though, in spite of all his efforts, they could not be reconciled with each other. The educational system he later set forth 18 W a r d also appears to have been somewhat sensitive to criticism, according to Professor Albion Small, who adds that W a r d had a " pontifical estimate of his own conclusions." See American Journal of' Sociology, vol. xxi, 1 9 1 5 - 1 9 1 6 , p. 7 5 1 . 19 Spencer was not interested in those who differed widely with him in fundamentals. In fact, he would not finish a book once begun if he discovered that he disagreed with the author. F o r this reason he would not finish Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.

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corroborated all his early views on this subject. 20 Spencer always defended his lack of university training. He delighted to point out poor intellectual specimens who had been university-trained. H e was pleased that Edison had said that university-trained men were for his purposes not worth a damn. H e mentioned this fact twice in his autobiography. He never tired of telling how little he had read. He would often refer to the fact that he had " glanced " at this or the other writing or book. Spencer may have been, in fact, it seems quite likely, defending and justifying his own type of education as practised by his family for three generations and with whose efforts he was well pleased. It was their means of livelihood. W a r d , it may be hazarded, was protesting against the ignorant, ill-schooled, impoverished conditions which he endured for many years. H e was hampered too, but not by authority. H e saw thousands undergoing the same privations which he himself had experienced, largely due to ignorance and lack of equipment. H e realized that it was only by chance that his own intellect had not been submerged. H e longed to see men liberated. This desire was the essence of his preachment as he, himself, said. Shall we say that in reality, then, one system of education was a defense or a justification, the other a protest? Spencer looked with satisfaction to the gradual processes of cosmic evolution or to " passive adaptation " ; W a r d looked forward impatiently to the future for " active adaptation " by means of social telesis. In the case of both thinkers it would seem that their educational views were influenced by early conviction and 20 P r o f e s s o r Josiah Royce suggested that there was a relation between Spencer's theory of education and " his o w n personal character and early training." Royce, Herbert Spencer, an Estimate and Review ( N e w Y o r k , 1904).

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observation. They were not originally the results of long years of inductive study and experiment as was the case with Darwin. On the contrary, it would seem that each began with a conviction and proceeded to elaborate and to justify it. But this is not to say that their works do not possess scientific value. Ward, with constant study and research and writing grew steadily with the years, but he built his sociological system about his early convictions concerning education, culture, opportunity and progress. Not blind nor dogmatic, neither denying the influence of nature and heredity, he yet expounded with all his energy the place and importance of nurture. Spencer's philosophical system, as well as his educational theory, was also formulated early in life. The former is a combination of the nebular hypothesis and the Lamarckian biology. 21 It is grafted to a mind already set by non-conformity and his belief in natural rights and laisse2 faire. His statement of evolution was formulated early and Spencer grew little afterwards. Written by one of the most superb minds of the world, his later works, remarkable, even amazing in scope and penetration as they are, are nevertheless encompassed within the narrow bounds of this formula. H e adhered to it dogmatically and rigidly. The written words of Spencer and W a r d and the events of their lives lead then, to the conclusion that not only in education but in philosophy 22 several of their underlying principles have their origins in the experiences and the beliefs of youth. As to their entire systems, let it be repeated that Spencer knew machines from a boy. W a r d knew the struggling pioneers 21 On the appearance of the work of Darwin and Wallace he adopted the Darwinian hypothesis but never gave up the Lamarckian theory. 22

As Ward himself developed he evolved many of his principles, as for instance, creative synthesis, sympodial development and others. But the theories concerning teleological progress, education, equality and so on, he had held from youth.

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of the West until he was a man grown. For forty years or more he lived in daily contact with the workings of the government and with many trained officials. Influenced by his early nonconformist training and by the spectacle of authority many times pointed out to him in his youth, Spencer demanded freedom in education, obedience to the laws of supply and demand, preparation for life of man, the individual unit of society. From his early experiences with machines and mechanical science and invention together with ideas gleaned from reading, conversation and contemplation he was led to evolve his theory of the persistence of force, the equilibration of forces and his formula of evolution. From his boyhood consciousness on the educationally barren frontier, Ward, on the other hand, cried out for knowledge, achievement, improvement, dynamic progress. From his experience as a government employee as well as a former citizen of the West, he pled for control, collective telesis. T h e similiarities and the divergences of these two writers on educational theory have been stated. It remains to consider what their probable influence in education has been. In the case of Spencer, it has been enormous and immeasureable. This influence, however, has emanated chiefly from the four famous essays written early in his career. His influence in education has been both direct and indirect. The influence of Ward, however, probably has not been marked, and has on the whole, been indirect. Spencer, one of the best known men of his era, a man speaking with authority, wrote not only of the philosophy of education, but specifically of method and of school subjects. His word carried weight. 23 The portion of his works which he labeled Education and published separately in 1861 are known by every educator 2 3 " It is probably no exaggeration to say that Spencer laid out the broad highway over which American thought traveled in the later years of the century." Parrington, L. V., Main Currents in American Thought (New York, 1927-1930), vol. iii, p. 198.

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and probably few, if any, graduates of normal schools or of colleges for teachers have escaped it. This book marks an epoch. He wrote, moreover, for parents as well as for teachers. Scarcely a pedagogy or general book on education can be found that has not mentioned this famous volume on education. Indeed it is usual to find his theories treated at length. Many of his ideas have been adopted. Others are still matters of controversy. His influence on the writing and teaching of history has been incalculable. He has been and still is, a remarkably fertilizing and provocative influence.24 A s has been stated earlier in this study, his educational writings altogether are perhaps the most vital portions of his work to-day. 25 However, those portions on education, considerable in amount, lying in his Synthetic Philosophy and in his other works (and to a much less extent his book on The Study of Sociology) have been for the most part neglected by educators. The relation of his educational theories to his philosophy has been little noted and, consequently, the implication of his philosophical principles with regard to education has been largely unobserved and has called forth little discussion. His law of equal freedom and the resultant dependence upon the laws of supply and demand in education with its implication for private education have been almost ignored or swept aside. The tide of affairs has been all in the other direction. The recognition of the prime importance of science which both Spencer and Ward so staunchly advocated has become a part of the mores in America. It is doing its work. 24

As late as 1910 President Charles Eliot of Harvard University wrote an introduction to a new edition of Spencer's Education by Everyman's library. 25 Sir J. Arthur Thomson in Herbert Spencer (London and New York, 1906), p. 259, writes: "Furthermore, his Education is the best known of all his works, and many of his suggestions are now realized in everyday practice."

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W a r d published no work bearing the title " education ". Y e t all his sociological works are saturated with this subject. One may ask what his fame among educators would have been had he used the word " education " in the titles of some of his works as, for instance, in Dynamic Sociology, or if he had published his manuscript on education. Americans have certainly accepted his theory of the universal, compulsory distribution of knowledge 26 although not as thoroughly or as systematically as he would wish. But one can scarcely prove that this trend has been because of Ward. He appears, as has been noted, not to have been widely known to educators ; 2 7 and to teachers of the rank and file hardly at all. H e 26 This idea was not new to the American people. In 1778, Thomas Jefferson presented in the Assembly of Virginia a bill designed to establish in that state public schools, academies or colleges and a university. He was interested in establishing a national school-system and public libraries. In 1786 he wrote to George Washington: " I t is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too, of the people with a certain degree of instruction." Public education was one of his chief interests and he extended this interest to Europe where he was in correspondance and communication with those who sympathized in this reform. He was active in founding the University of Virginia. 27 Professor E. Thorndike read W a r d ' s Applied Sociology and at least parts of Pure Sociology. He reviewed Applied Sociology in The Bookman, November, 1906, under the title " A Sociologist's Theory of Education". Thorndike believed that it is " not the equalisation of knowledge that is the desirable blessing but its increase." He states also that Ward throughout neglected " the environment's selective activities amongst individuals," and he believed that Ward expected too much of education and that he overestimated the influence of nurture. In conclusion Thorndike says: " On the whole, though the administrators of education will profit greatly from a careful consideration of Professor Ward's defense of intellectual communism, the profit will come from the realisation of problems rather than from the acceptance of the particular solution which he offers. Life and education are so complex and individual differences in the human beings who are to be managed are so many and so great that any one single doctrine that is clear and unqualified is likely to be wrong. This seems to be the case with the doctrine that the one chief efficient means of social improvement which

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was a prophet of the Zeitgeist, yet not one crying in a wilderness. We have followed so closely in the foot-steps of Ward and taken over so many of his educational theories so willingly and so half-unconsciously that we scarcely notice them, much less their chief proclaimer. Public education has steadily increased as well as scientific foundations, public libraries, technological museums, scientific magazines and schemes for workers' and adult education. Many findings, however, are still hidden in monographs, libraries and laboratories. We have begun to use statistics28 in the social sciences and in legislation. We have almost provided for the equal education and opportunities of women although much social taboo remains. We have not a national university or a national academy, to be sure, and our curricula are far from being as comprehensive as Ward advocated. There are those with us still who look askance at the discussion of the principles of reproduction and of sex life. Still the obstacles are giving way. We have made much headway in the devising of school records, intelligence tests and personnel work. There have been attempts to see that each person learning a trade should have an education also. However, is susceptible of social control is the equal distribution of knowledge. Right or wrong in its main contentions, the Applied Sociology is, together with appropriate parts of Pure Sociology, the most impressive treatment of the general principles of education since Spencer's. Those who, like the writer, are puzzled to fit the facts to its doctrine and those who heartily accept it will equally enjoy it and equally admire it as a further example of the author's great gift as a thinker and writer," pp. 290-294. 28 It will be recalled that Ward, himself was a statistician for the government at Washington soon after the Civil War. He was among the first to emphasize the value of statistics in scientific legislation. Indeed this position was taken publicly in 1877, several years before Jevons' exposition of the subject in The State in Relation to Labor. See article in Glimpses of the Cosmos, vol. ii, pp. 168-171, entitled " The Way to Scientific Lawmaking."

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few think or know of the " most elaborate treatise on education published by an American." The one direct influence of W a r d on education has been noted in a previous chapter, his close connection with United States Commissioner of Education, William T . Harris. This friendship between the two government officials appears to have revealed to Dr. Harris the significance of sociology for educational theory. It might be mentioned that W a r d had some connection also with Professor W . B. Powell, Superintendent of Schools in Washington, at the time W a r d wrote an article on manual training in which he stressed again his view " that the inventive faculty can and should be regularly cultivated as an essential part of education." 29 Undoubtedly Ward's decided and open stand for the education and advancement of women, not only for those directly concerned but as an aid in hastening social progress, was a considerable factor in the " emancipation" of women. 30 His views on this subject seem to have been fairly well disseminated and he was personally acquainted with several leaders of the woman's movement. Ward's influence on sociology and its promotion, as well as that of Spencer, was unquestionably very great. It may be added, however, that in neither case is a satisfactory explanation given why men are social or live in groups and cooperate. The social, psychological aspect from this point of view is not sufficiently treated. It remained for Professor Giddings to put the " social " into sociology. 29 Ward, Glimpses of the Cosmos, vol. iv, p. 96. Ward, of course, had many friends who were educators or connected with educational affairs, but the extent of his influence cannot be determined. If it were to be judged in America by the amount of attention given to his educational theories in treatises on education, it would be very small. 30 Ward's theories much influenced Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. See her work, The Man-made World or Our Androcentric Culture (New York, 1911). Ward occasionally lectured on the freedom of women and allied subjects.

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Our educators have taken Ward's stand that all normal persons can profit from educational opportunities. They have acted on Ward's belief that there is latent intellect. Birth-control has been steadily gaining headway also, and a deaf ear has been turned to Spencer's theory of allowing the weak and unfit to be eliminated by the laws of evolution. Whether the lower classes possess as much intellectual capacity as W a r d maintained is not definitely known. Sociologists and social engineers have not yet been consulted for social guidance to the extent that he advocated. But the future looks fairly bright with promise. It is unquestionably true that the theories of Spencer and W a r d as to practice in education are necessary and complementary. Society can not exist without the individual nor the well-developed individual without society. Man must learn not only how to adapt himself to his environment but he must also learn how to adapt the environment to himself. Whether man can control his progress or not, whether human nature is evolving or not, it is absolutely necessary in a democracy that opportunity to exercise and to develop such capacity as is possessed should be provided. Both nature and nurture must be fostered. Sociology cannot afford to over-look the greatest social process, education, construed in its widest sense, which has ever been operative from the simplest tribes of men to the great social aggregations of today. This subject has engaged the attention of most of the great social thinkers from Plato to Ward. It would seem that, as sociologists, we are neglecting in recent years, a part of our realm by not studying more thoroughly and more extensively this process which binds the generations together and which possibly may be the chief factor in progress after all.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Adams, H., The Education of Henry Adams (Boston, 1918). Adams, J., The Evolution of Educational Theory (London, 1912). Bacon, F., Novum Organum (London). Barker, E., Political Thought in England from Herbert Spencer to the Present Day (New York). Beard, C. and Beard, M., The Rise of American Civilisation (NewYork, 1930). Biber, G., Henry Pestalozzi and his Plan of Education (London, 1831). Boas, F., The Mind of Primitive Man (New York, 1911). Bogardus, E., History of Social Thought (Los Angeles, 1922). Briffault, R., The Mothers (New York, 1927). Bristol, L., Social Adaptation (Cambridge, Mass., 1915). Ca.pe, Mrs. E., Lester F. Ward, A Personal Sketch (New York, 1922). Clarke, E., American Men of Letters (New York, 1916). Collins, H., Epitome of the Synthetic Philosophy (London, 1894). Coleridge, S., " Theory of Life " (In Shedd, The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge in seven volumes, vol. i, New York, 1884). Compayré, G., Herbert Spencer (New York, 1907). Cross, A., History of England and Greater Britain (New York, 1915). Cubberley, E., The History of Education (New York, 1920). Davis, M., Psychological Interpretations of Society New York, 1909). Dealey, J., Sociology, Its Development and Applications (New York, 1920). Dewey, Joseph, The Physical and Metaphysical Works of Lord Bacon (London, 1858). Dewey, John, Democracy and Education (New York, 1916, 1921). Dorr, Mrs. R., Susan B. Anthony (New York, 1928). Duncan, D., Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer (London, 1908). Dunning, W., A History of Political Theories from Rousseau to Spencer (New York, 1928). Fielding, W., The Caveman Within Us (New York, 1922). Galton, F., Hereditary Genius (Third Edition, London, 1892). George, H., A Perplexed Philosopher (New York, 1898). Giddings, F., Studies in the Theory of Human Society (New York, 1922). Gilman, Mrs. C., The Man-Made World or Our Androcentric Culture (New York, 1911). Goldenweiser, A., Early Civilization (New York, 1922). 31S

3i6

SELECTED

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Graves, F., A History of Education in Modern Times (New York, 1913). Helvetius, C., De l'Homme, de Ses Facultés Intellectuelles et de son Éducation (London, 1773). Har, K., Social Laws (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1930). Hibben, P., Henry Ward Beecher (New York, 1927). Hudson, W., An Introduction to the Philosophy of Herbert Spencer (London, 1911). , Herbert Spencer (London, 1916). Lichtenberger, J., Development of Social Theory (New York, 1923). Locke, J., An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Oxford). , Some Thoughts Concerning Education. Lowie, R., Primitive Society (New York, 1920). , Culture and Ethnology (New York, 1917). Lundiberg, Anderson Bain, et al., Trends in American Sociology (New York, 1929). Lyell, C., Principles of Geology (London, 1837). MacPherson, H., Herbert Spencer, the Man and his Work (London, 1900). Mason, O., Woman's Share in Primitive Culture (New York, 1894). Mill, J., The Subjection of Women (Third Edition, London, 1870). Monroe, P., Text-Book in the History of Education (New York, 1905, 1929). , Cyclopedia of Education (New York, 1911-1913). Monroe, W., History of the Pestalossian Movement in the United States (Syracuse, 1907). Morgan, C., Emergent Evolution (New York, 1925). Murphy, G., An Historical Introduction to Modem Psychology (New York, 1929). Odin, A., Genèse des Grands Hommes (Paris, 1895). Odum, H., American Masters of Social Science (New York, 1927). Ogburn, W., Social Change (New York, 1922). Parrington, L., Main Currents in American Thought (New York, 1927-30). Pestalozzi, J., How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. , Leonard and Gertrude. Pillsbury, W., The History of Psychology (New York, 1929). Quick, H., Essays on Educational Reformers (New York, 1901). Randall, J., Jr., The Making of the Modern Mind (New York, 1926). Riley, W., American Thought (New York, 1915). Robertson, J., Modem Humanists (London, 1891). Rogers, A., English and American Philosophy from 1800 (New York, 1923)Ross, E., Foundations of Sociology (New York, 1905). Rousseau, J., Êmile or Education.

SELECTED

BIBLIOGRAPHY

317

Royce, J., Herbert Spencer, an Estimate and Review (New York, 1904). , The Spirit of Modern philosophy (Boston, 1892). Seldes, G., The Stammering Century (New York, 1928). Small, A., General Sociology (Chicago, 1905). Sorokin, P., Contemporary Sociological Theories (New York, 1928). Spencer, H., Social Statics (1850. Revised and Abridged Edition, 1892). , Principles of Psychology (First Edition 1855. Fourth Edition, 1899). , Education (New York, i860). , First Principles (1862; Sixth Edition and finally revised, 1900). , Principles of Biology (1864-67. Revised and Enlarged Edition, 1898-1899). , Recent Discussions in Science, Philosophy and Morals (New York, 1873). , Essays, Moral, Political and Aesthetic (New York, 1875). , Descriptive Sociology (1873-1881). , The Study of Sociology (1873). , Principles of Sociology (1876-1896). , Principles of Ethics (1879-1893). , Various Fragments (New York, 1897. Enlarged Edition, 1900). , Facts and Comments (New York, 1902). , Autobiography (New York, 1904). Sullivan, M., Our Times, vol. ii (New York, 1927). Taintor, Miss S., Training for Secretarial Practice (New York, Revised Edition, 1932). Thomson, Sir J., Herbert Spencer (New York, 1906). Todd, A., Theories of Social Progress (New York, 1918). Ward, L., Education (An Unpublished Manuscript at Brown University Library, 1871-1873). , Dynamic Sociology (New York, 1883). , The Psychic Factors of Civilisation (Boston, 1892). , Outlines of Sociology (New York, 1897). , Pure Sociology (New York, 1903). , Applied Sociology (New York, 1906). , Glimpses of the Cosmos (New York, 1913-1918). Webb, Mrs. B., My Apprenticeship (New York, 1926). Wendell, B., A Literary History of America (New York, 1901). Werner, M., Brigham Young (New York, 1925). Wingfield-Stratford, E., The History of British Civilisation (London, 1928). Wissler, C., Man and Culture (New York, 1923).

318

SELECTED

BIBLIOGRAPHY ARTICLES

American Journal of Sociology, vol. xix, July 1913, " Lester Frank W a r d " (Tributes from leading sociologists). Barnes, H., " T w o Representative Contributions to Political Theory. The Doctrines of William Graham Sumner and Lester Frank Ward," American Journal of Sociology, vol. xxv, September, 1919. Bodenhofer, W., " The Comparative Role of the Group Concept in Ward's Dynamic Sociology and Contemporary American Sociology," American Journal of Sociology, vol. xxvi, November 1920-May 1921. Cooley, C., " Reflections upon the Sociology of Herbert Spencer," American Journal of Sociology, vol. xxvi, September, 1920. Dewey, J., " A Review of Ward's, The Psychic Factors of Civilization," The Psychological Review, vol. i, no. 4, July, 1894. Ford, H., " Pretentions of Sociology," American Journal of Sociology, vol. xv, July, 1909, also " The Claims of Sociology Examined," September, 1909. Gillette, J., " Critical Points in Ward's Pure Sociology," American Journal of Sociology, vol. x x , July, 1914. Harris, W., Reviews: Educational Review, vol. vi, 1893. , N. E. A. Proceedings, 1896. Hayes, E., " The Social Forces Error," American Journal of Sociology, vol. xvi, March, 1911. Howard, E., " A Review of Ward's Applied Sociology," American Journal of Sociology, vol. xii. Patten, S., " The Theory of the Social Forces," Supplement to the Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. vii, no. 1, Philadelphia, 1896. Small, A., " F i f t y Years of Sociology," American Journal of Sociology, vol. xxi, 1915-1916. Thorndike, E., " A Sociologist's Theory of Education," Bookman, November, 1906-1907, no. 24 (a review of Ward's Applied Sociology).

INDEX Achievement, 192, 193, 285, 300 Aesthetic vices, 68, 69 Aesthetics, 104 Adolescence, 97 A g g r e g a t i o n , 190 Allen, G „ 71 A m e r i c a n Sociological Society, 169 Anarchist, 295 Anthony, S., 155 Anthropology, 295 Anthropoteleology, 169 Anthropogeny, 190 Antagonism between g r o w t h and development, 97, 299 Anti-slavery, 154 Appearance, Spencer's, 55-56. W a r d ' s , 178 Applied Sociology, 193. Ward's, 258-271 Aristotle, 75 A r t , Spencer's interest in, 57, 58 Association, 76. L a w s o f , 87, 93. Psychology o f , 125, 126, 127 Athenaeum Club, 67, 71, 72, 73 Athletics, 114 A t t r a c t i v e legislation, 250-251, 302 Authority, 287. Spencer's disregard o f , 28, 32 Autobiography, Spencer's, 74 Bacon, F., 125, 128-130, 214 Bagehot, W . , 272 Bain, A., 71 Barker, E., 47 Bathmism, 172 Becarria, 176 Beecher, H., 154, 178 Beliefs, 308 Bergson, H., 283 Biber, Dr., 125 Bigelow, P., 35 Biogeny, 190 Biology, 101. Principles o f , 74 Biological imperative, 175 Biography, 139 Birth-control, 294, 314

Boer W a r , 74 Books, 240-241 Boston, 154 Botha, General, 75 Brighton, 75 Brook F a r m , 155 B r o w n University, 164, 168, 176 Buckle, T . , 71 Bull-dog, 118 Busk, Mr., 71 Butcher, 67 Cape, E., 162, 176, 177,178, 180, 181 Carlyle, T., 71 Carnegie, A . , 57 Carpenter, 80 Castle-building, Spencer's, 28, 40 Catholicism, 261 Causes, efficient, 203. Final, 203 Causation, 127 Chancellorsville, 162 Character, 108, 146 Chateaux, 264 Chemistry, 30 Chemism, universal, 174 Children, Spencer's love for, 60-62. Rights o f , 107, 298 Chicago, 153 Cities, Influence o f , 262, 267 " Civilization in Little," theory o f , 78, 144, 304 Civil Service, 163 Civil W a r , 162 Clothing, 96 Coleridge, S., 47, 79 College-bred persons, Spencer's views of, 35 Conation, 175-176 Columbian University, 164 Cooley, C., 160, 257 Courtney, Lady, 62, 67 Comte, A . , 36, 89, 166, 175, 242 Confidence, Spencer's, 34 Consciousness, 83, 198 Compayre, G., 151 Cooperation, 286 319

320

INDEX

Cramming, 90, 219 Creative synthesis, 175, 197 Crime, 142 Criticism, 73 Crystallization of salts, 29 Cross-fertilization of cultures, 176 Culture epoch theory, 188, 277 Curricula, 187 Curriculum, 76. Universal, 230, 231-32 Darwin, 75, 81 Darwinism, 56 Dealey, J., 178 Death of Spencer, 75. Of W a r d , 184 de Candolle, A., 176, 258 Deduction, 244 de Greef, 176 Delmonico's, 177 Democracy, 289 Derby, 19, 37, 50. News, 74 Derbyshire, 19 Derwent River, 27 Desire, 199-200, 205 Development hypothesis, 49, 80 de Vries, 175 diet, 95-96 Difference of potential, 175 Directive agent, 203 Discipline, 90, 304 Disobedience of Spencer, 31 Divine Idea, 79, 80 Dolls, 113 Drawing, 28, 29, 33, 90 Drill, 234 Duncan, D., 60, 74 Durkheim, E., 176 Dynamic agent, 202 Ear-stoppers, 65, 72, 289 Economist, The, 46, 47, 48 Editorship, 44, 182 Edison, 35, 302 Education, 74, 78, 82. Bureau of, 167. Compulsory, 227. Essays on, by Spencer, 48, 49. Of I n f o r mation, 250. State, 149-150, 299. Cardinal Principles of, 222-224. Physical, 96-97. National, 122, 123, 124. Types of, W a r d ' s , 217. Tools of, 236. Universal, 227, 228. F o r Women, 228, 229 Educational Institute, Spencer's plans for, 40, 45

Eliot, C., 151 Eliot, G., 36, 51, 54, 57, 58, 77 Emerson, R., 154 Emigration, 45 Emotions, 116 Engineering, 40, 42, 44 Environment, 258, 300 Equilibration, Direct, 210, 216. Indirect, 272 Equal freedom, L a w of, 298, 310 Essays, Spencer's, 279 Ethics, Principles of, by Spencer, 68, 79. Family, n o . State, n o Eugenics, 184 Eupatorium, Genus of, 170 Evil, 298 Examinations, 118 Experiments, 29 Facts and Comments, Spencer's, 74, 114 Farming, 285 Feelings, 84, 85, 86, 201 Fellenberg, 135 Filiation of the Sciences, 174, 301, 304 Fishing, 27, 29, 54 Flying machine, Spencer's, 53 Force, 189. Conservation of, 81 Forces, 13, 205, 297 Fortuitous variation, 301 Frankland, 71 French, study of, 37, 160 Friends, Spencer's, 71, 59 Fuller, M., 154 Galton, F., 67, 72, 220, 255-256, 290 Genealogy, 163 Genius, 186, 255, 257, 260 George, H., 306 Giddings, F., 55, 313 Girls, 128, 279 Glimpses of the Cosmos, W a r d ' s , 161, 176 Government, 78, 109, n o , 122, 276 Grammar, 240 Grandfather, Spencer's, 20 Great Panacea, The, W a r d ' s , 151, 254, 285 Greek, 29 Gumplowicz, 168, 175 Gymnastics, 77, 97 Gynaecocracy, 75, 169 Haeckel, E., 165, 177 Habits, W a r d ' s , 179

INDEX Hall, G., 144, 278 Happiness, 185, 214, 250 Hamburg, 177 Harris, W . , 166, 167-168, 313 Harrison, W . , 153 Health, Spencer's, 59, 60, 62, 6365, 289; Ward's, 178 Hedonism, 292 Helvetius, C., 176, 226, 257 Herkemer, painting of Spencer, 55 Heyworth. Miss, 51 Hinton, 31, 32, 37, 46, 28j Hirst, 71 History, 102, 103, 138, 248. Perverted, 117 Hodgskin, T., 46, 47 Hooker, J., 71 Holt, H., 178 Howe, 158 Humor, 290 Huxley, T., 77, 296 Iconoclast, The, 165, 182 Illiteracy, 274 Improvement, 185, 186, 227, 250, 287 Individuation, 30, 47. And genesis, 144, 145 Induction, 244 Inductive method, 305 Information, education of, 187, 217, 219 Inheritance, biological, 147. Of acquired characteristics, 294. E x amples of, 56 Innovation, 172, 175 Instinct, 87 Integration, 82 Intellect, 186, 209, 270. Latent, 252, 270 Intelligence, 186. Tests, 232 Invention. 44, 52, 53, 54, 188, 248, 279. O f Spencer, 2Q0 Iowa, 159, 160 Jacoby, P., 176, 212, 213, 258, 261 James, W „ 270 Jefferson, T., 275, 311 Joliet, 156 Kant, E., 175, 201 Key, E., 138 Killick, Miss, 57, 70 Knowledge, 86, 187, 209-214, 216. Increase of, 186. Dynamic, 212 Laboratory, 88 Lace-manufacturing, 27

321

Lafayette College, 162 Laissez faire, 291, 294-295 Language, HI, 112, 161, 236-237. Classical, 238 Lamarck, 126 Life, definition of, 83, 293 Lincoln, A., 162 Literature, 40, 237-238, 239 Locke, J., 125, 130 et seq., 256-270 Lombroso, 176, 256 Loneliness of Spencer, 62, 65 Lover, 288 Legacies, 286 Lessons, Spencer's, 33, 34 Lewes, G., 29, 36, 72, 77 Lubbock, J., 71 Lyell, C., 79 Machines, 308-309 Magnus, L., 75 Malady, Spencer's, 63, 64, 65 Marriage, 244. Spencer's views o f , 62-65 Masson, D., 71 Mathematics, 100, 244-245 Materialism, 293 Matter, 83, 189, 293 Maxims, Spencer's, 93 McGuffey's Readers, 155, 157 Medicine, 164 Meliorism, 185, 250, 287 Method, Teleological, 185. Genetic, 185 Mexico, 153 Mill, J., 36, 71, 109, 176, 306 Mind, 83, 84, 186, 198 Mis-statements, 117 Modelling, 33, 42 Monist, 184, 189 Monopodia! development, 172 Monroe, P., 166 Morals, 123-141 Mores, 310 Morse, 153 Morphia, 66 Miitterecht, 173 Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, 155 National University, 188, 235, 276, 305 Naturalism, 79 Natural science, 244 Natural selection, 306 Nature versus nurture. 253 Nebular hypothesis, 308

322

INDEX

N e w R a d f o r d , 26 N e w York, 177 Non-adaptation, 298 Nonconformist, The, 42, 48, 286 Non-conformists, 20 Nottingham, 26 Nile, Spencer's visit, 59 Nisus of Nature, 170, 171, 175 Nurses, Spencer's aversion to, 70 Oath, Spencer's, 54, 288 Object-lessons, 143 Odin, A., 176, 226, 259-269, 272 Optimism, Spencer's, 66 O r d e r of Nature, 243, 304 Originality, Spencer's, 72, 126 Paleontologist, 292 Parents, 302 Parenthood, 91, 92, 94 Parsimony, L a w of, 250, 302 P a r i s Exposition, 167 Patten, S., 172 Pedagogy, 303, 310 Pestalozzi, H., 20, 89, 90, 125, 126, 135, 136 Personalitv, Spencer's, 56-75. Ward's," 178-181 Pessimism, 66 Phrenology, 50-52 Philosophy, Synthetic, Spencer's, 50, 74 Pillsbury, 74 Pioneer, 254, 308 Plato, 314 Play, 77, 1 1 3 Pleasures, Spencer's, 59 Population, T h e o r y of, 80, 82 Potter, Mr., 51. Mrs., 64. Beatrice, 60 Powell, J., 180 Powell, W., 313 P r o f e s s o r , W a r d as, 286 Progress, 293, 300 Protestantism, 261 Psychogeny, 190 Psychic Factors of Civilization, W a r d ' s , 197 Psychology, 48. Spencer's, 296. Principles of, Spencer's, 73, 80 Pulleys, 29 P u r e Sociology. W a r d ' s , 167 Queen's Gardens, 71 Race, 261, 301 Records, Educational, 232

Recreation, 32, 58 Religion, 175. W a r d ' s , 182, Spencer's, 38 Research, 218, 244 Reverence, 291 Rights, National, 308 Rolph, Silence, 156 Romanes, 171 Romans, 141, 171 Ross, E., 169, 180 Rousseau, J., 125, 133 ct seq. Royce, J., 72, 307 Rumball, J., 50 Schiller, 1 1 3 Schopenhauer, 175, 204 Science, Value of, 105, 106 School, 75 Sensations, 198 Self-restaint, 123 Sex, 171, 172, 181, 182. Education of, 137 Shock, Nervous, 83 Singing, Spencer's, 57 Simons, R., 163 Sister, Spencer's, 20, 32 Sketching, 39, 42 Slavery, 146 Smith, A., 109 Social Dynamics, 196, 197 Social Forces, The, 197-198 Social, Imperative, 175. Physics, 2 5 1 ; Statics, 33, 43, 44, 45, 47, 194; Spencer's, 79, 80, 107, n o , 121. Telesis, 307. Organism, 80 Sociogeny, 190 Sociology, definition of, 191. Descriptive Spencer's, 74. Study o f . Spencer's, 119 Socialization, 305 Spencer, H a r r i e t , Holmes, 25-26. Thomas, 21, 31. William George, 22-25 Sports, 114, 137 Spottiswoode, Mr., 71 Spurzheim, 50 Stanz, 135 State, 147, 298. Meddling, 29S. Education, 282 Sturge, J., 44 Style, Philosophy of, 110-111 Sub-editorship, 44, 46 Subjection of W o m e n , Mill's, 109 Supply and Demand, L a w s of, 310

INDEX Sumner, W., 144 Surveying, 39 Susquehanna Collegiate Institute, 161, 162 Sympathy, 298 Sympode, 204 Sympodial development, 169, 172, I7S Synergy, 169, 174, 190-191, 294 Synthetic Philosophy, Spencer's, 50, 74. 81, 120 System of Philosophy, Spencer's, 71 Tact, 66 Taintor, S., 140 Talent, 186, 266 Tarde, G., 168, 172, 175 Taylor, Helen, 306 Teaching, 26, 27, 119. 126, 187. Spencer's, 39-40. Ward's, 83 Teacher, 1 1 9 Telesis, 175. Social, 203, 307 Texas, 153 Theism, 79 Thorndike, E., 3 1 1 Travels, Spencer's, 59 Troughton, 74 Tyler, J., 154 Tyndall, J., 71 Uncles, Spencer's, 20-22 Unknowable, The, 293 University Training, 305, 307 Univcrsalization of knowledge, 184

323

Variation, Fortuitous, 170 Victoria, 71 Vehlen, T., 172 Von Baer, 80 Von Hartmann, 175 Vought, E., 162-163, 180 Wagon-hubs, 285; factorv, 161 Walker, F., 168 Wallace, A., 81 Ward, Erastus, 158, 161. Justus, 156. Mrs., 181 Washington, 163, 164, 3 1 3 Webb, B., 55, 65, 66, 71, 72, 296 Webster, D., 154 Weismann, 294, 175 Wesleyans, 20 Whately, 165 Wilson, James, 46. Rev. Dr. James, 44 Woman's Movement, 155 Women, 187, 189, 301. Pioneer, 285. Rights of, 107, 108, 109, 274. Of Letters, 264. A s teachers, 233 Worms, R „ 186, 176 Wundt, W.. 175, 191 X Club, 71 Youmans. Dr. E., 59, 63, 71, 177 Young, B., 15s Yverdon, 135 Zeitgeist, The, 36, 283, 3 1 3