Education and the philosophical ideal

Front matter

Chap. Copyriglit A'O,

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

BV

Preface

THE doctrine of this book is not put forward as a mere theory of education. In its pages education passes imperceptibly into life, and life becomes philosophical. Its theory is therefore rather an appeal to all that is noblest in life than a detailed educational scheme. The main thesis is that life itself is educational, that the individual possesses instincts which, if freely followed, lead the way to fullest self-expression and the service of humanity. Books, education, and experience furnish the occasion, put the soul in self-command ; the soul is the consequential factor. All life should therefore be adapted with the spiritual ideal in view. Self-knowledge, self-discipline, and self-mastery are of more importance than any knowledge which the teacher can give. To these the soul should be free to add such educational opportunities as it demands. Thus to choose and thus to help, every soul, every teacher, must understand life philosophically, must dedicate his life to the Spirit. The educational ideal is thereby absorbed into the larger ideal of the spiritual life. Thus considering it, I have ventured even to include immortality as essential to this broader point of view. The value iv Preface

found in this book will accordingly depend far more upon the reader's philosophical ability and spiritual experience than upon the knowledge of conventional theories and methods of education.

It is always difficult to classify those who are on the move. But if after reading deeply in Chapters XI. and XII. the reader still persists in classifying this book, let him put it down as the work of an independent philosophical student who writes because he must. Yet the spiritual ideal for which the book was chiefly written appears least in these philosophical chapters. The deeper doctrine is stated in its most philosophical form in Chapter XIII. But the reader will be glad to turn from this more technical discussion to the chapter on immortality, in which the spiritual ideal is given its broadest and most human expression. With the exception of the last chapter, and portions of a few others, the book is wholly new, scarcely a page having appeared in print in its present form. The book occupies an independent position, and, although a logical outgrowth of them, is not to be judged by previous volumes, or by reference to any particular doctrine of which the author is thought to be an exponent. What is true, is true in its own right ; and because an author reveals leanings, it does not follow that he accepts all the tenets of a sect with which he is sometimes classed.

Boston, July, 1900.

Contents

Introduction I. The New Point of View II. Educational Ideals

III. Equanimity

IV. The Subconscious Mind .

Introduction

Every ultimate fact is the first of a new series. — Emerson.

IT is seldom that the general reader is treated to a more genuine surprise than in meeting for the first time a statement like the following from Emerson's essay on Plato ^ : ** No power of genius has ever yet had the smallest success in explaining existence. The perfect enigma remains." These words are surprising because, until one thinks deeply, one confidently believes that the mystery of life has been solved, at least by the wise men; and when the wisest seer of our times declares that existence is still an enigma, it is naturally very startling.

Yet the wisest philosophers are the first to confess that ** Here we are," and that is the utmost we can say when we undertake to settle the ultimate of ultimates. Why we exist we do not fully know. How the world came to be, we know not ; we know only

^ Representative Men.

what evolution has told us concerning its later history. We have theories, but they are only theories, and a new hypothesis is no sooner propounded than fatally serious objections are raised.

We know that the universe is a law-governed system, and science has advanced wonderfully since Emerson declared life to be still enigmatical. We long ago learned that every effect has a cause, and reason assures us that anterior to all causes must be the Uncaused, since something could not have sprung from nothing. But why the Uncaused should have manifested itself — if indeed the world ever had a beginning — we do not know. All we can say is, that it is probably its nature to manifest itself. Why the Uncaused should exist with such a nature is no less a mystery. We may say it was a necessity, but that is concealing ignorance behind a word. Our sincerest statement is simply, the universe exists and we live in it. If we had a beginning, it is lost in the dim lights and shades of our obscurest dream memories, and no attempt to recall our history has thus far led to the discovery of what we most eagerly long to know.

However, we are here. It is a delight to live and to try to solve the mystery. It is endlessly amusing to listen to those who believe they have solved it, and are eager to describe God and rehearse all his motives. It is a far greater delight, having confessed our ignorance, to settle down to the wisest occupation in life, namely, to cultivate ourselves to the full, that we may learn what may be made out of life through the pursuit of truth, virtue, beauty, and the service of our fellowmen.

After all, it would be annoyingly prosaic to solve the mystery. It would be stultifying to become perfect, to walk the golden streets day after day and find no change. The zest of pursuit, the novelty of ever-mutative days and months and years keeps the mind perpetually young. Life can never become a burden to those who, in all the freshness and enthusiasm of healthy thought, awaken each morning to look out upon another day, eager to know what new mystery it holds. For a mind alert and active, life could not be better constituted than it is. The greater the enigma the better, if only it be so great that it can never be solved.

Life, therefore, is through and through an experiment, and we the experimenters seek to make of it what we can, always remembering that what we make to-day may be outdone or discarded by what we make to-morrow. For no one knows what man is yet to be, how he is to live, and what powers are to be his — possibly on other planets. Every ideal is relative to the condition of mind of the seer who proclaims it. What is called *' the Absolute " is a pleasing conceit of speculative fancy. Forward is the only ultimate word. Every new summit is sure to reveal a novel and enticing landscape beyond.

It would seem as though we might sometime complete the circuit. Then what ? Drearily repeat it ? No, then were the universe a deceit indeed, and only a machine after all. Rather say that two identically similar situations never occur. The novelty, the surprise sometimes even outbalances the familiar, the known. Every circumstance is a new combination. To the end, and that means that there is no end, life for the wide-awake soul is an experiment, and at any time new factors are likely to be discovered in our problem.

This being so, it is wisdom to adjust ourselves at the beginning, and make up our minds that education will never cease. It is impossible nowadays " to prepare " for a science or profession, and thereby become masters of all that is known. Even Euclid's geometry, the authority for ages, now has a rival in the field.

Once adopted, the attitude of constant readjustment is far from unpleasant. It is a healthy state of mind, this holding of all problems in solution. It immediately lifts one above time and place and the mind grows young with the ages. It does away with all the dogmatism, conceit, intolerance, and intellectual aristocracy which have encumbered human progress. It insists upon entire democracy of spirit, and the newest experimenter is welcomed as at any time likely to upset our profoundest theories. What a reformation this attitude would make if it were universal the mind can hardly conceive, since so few have as yet attained it.

Of course the critic will immediately declare that this is a very extreme point of view, that there really is nothing new under the sun, and all this talk about readjustment is uncalled for. The disciple of progress is at once prepared to meet this objection by admitting that what is truest is old, and that the new always supplements and assimilates the old. But the critic's attitude is not the state of mind of the one who most keenly appreciates the spirit of his age. One would not think of going to him for instruction. Even the old must be studied in new form, and it is not the conservative who teaches that. Let us rather follow those who err on the other side, and hereafter devote more of our time to the cultivation of the spirit of progress than to the preservation of what is hoary and reverend.

If the reader accepts this point of view as applied to education, he will probably follow the clue even unto immortality. For if anything be experimental, it is the future life. This statement does not imply that the existence of a future life is in doubt, for there is abundant moral and spiritual evidence for immortality; but that each soul will enter the future as into the most enticingly novel experiment. It is only one step more to the premise that the universe itself is an experiment : it is given us by the Father to see w^hat development it will produce in us. Not that the universe is in any sense chaotic or inharmonious. Not that its continued existence is at all uncertain, or its goodness at all problematical. So far as its law-governed, wonderfully exact, wisely adapted, and nobly beautiful system is concerned, the universe is no experiment ; it is far from being an enigma. Mathematically and universally it may be depended upon to return action for action. But each man learns its laws experimentally, and no man as yet knows all of these. For each it is also an experiment because certain of its materials are plastic. For each it is virtually what each man's enlightenment makes it. Thus the experiment enlarges as the soul unfolds. Meanwhile the Father watches, and, watching, unifies the contributions of finite souls, not into the form of hard-and-fast fatalism, but into the plastic life which for ever makes anew for organic perfection. The eternal beauty presides over the becoming as well as over the remaining. Ever the Spirit whispers its word of promise as, pausing, it perennially passes onward, onward and upward for ever. The great secret of life is to feel that passing touch, to reveal its beauty to men. Words fail, yet suggest the indescribable. The Spirit will see to it that sometime all shall know the grandeurs and beauties, the peace and tenderness of that progressive vision. Thus, for better or worse, our point of view is progressive, and the reader may expect it to shift even while he turns from chapter to chapter. For there is no consistency possible to the growing mind, except harmony with the inner Spirit as it wells afresh into the inspirations of the new moment. Forms come and go. Terms, methods, and systems have their day. It is the Spirit that abides, and the Spirit dwells ever in the advancing life. It may again and again declare the same message, but what it reveals to-day is of supreme worth, not what it manifested in the past. For the gospel of the past is true to-day only in so far as it bears the new emphasis of our time. Each day may reveal the same great laws and teach the same great lesson. But its meaning is apprehended in its fullest sense only when interpreted in the light of the new aspects which the progressive chemistry of our experiment reveals — ever crystallising, yet ever surprising the observer with new combinations.

Lest the reader fear that our point of view be founded on quicksand, let us, however, supplement what at one time threatened to be mere agnosticism by turning from the experimental or human side to a brief statement of the system by which, starting with existence as given, the universe is to be interpreted in this volume.

1. The fundamental principle is that within and behind all that comes and goes, all that appears so enigmatical but is in deepest truth the product of wisest foresight, the great All-Father exists, the supreme Spirit, eternal, omnipresent ; the immanent source of all life, all power, all beings and forms, holding them, holding all experiments together as one harmonious system.

2. The second great principle is the existence of the human soul, or the real, permanent, spiritual self in each of us, differing in each, in each having some spiritual meaning as related to the contests and triumphs of our personal and social evolution.

3. The universe, visible and invisible, is the expression or embodiment of Spirit, progressively revealing itself as system, reason, beauty, unity in variety, activity, repose, involution and evolution, power, peace, love, wisdom, the divine fatherhood and motherhood.

4. Since Spirit is progressively revealed, human life is progressive and should be studied in the making. It is comprehensible only in the light of the advancing whole.

The soul is born in ignorance of these great facts that it may through individual experience, contrast, experiment, struggle, pain, victory over physical sensation, and triumph over selfishness, through self-knowledge, self-control, and self-help, not only learn the value of the spiritual life, but uplift its fellows, and contribute to the glory and beauty of the spiritual universe.

Thus evil springs from selfishness, which in turn is due to ignorance. Disease is disproportion, ugliness, neglect of the beautiful law of harmony which decrees that in no direction shall there be excess.

Freedom from pain, evil, and their consequences comes not merely through soundness of physical life, through self-enlightenment, self-control, and poise, but through the dedication of self in all-round adjustment to the promptings of the creative Spirit.

5. Within each of us there is a purposive instinct, a divine guidance, which, if faithfully followed, will lead into all truth. But as man is many-sided, physical, intellectual, moral, social, and spiritual, the laws of all these sides must be obeyed. Each prompting of the resident creative energy must be understood on its own plane.

6. The great lesson of life is harmonious adjustment to the immanent Spirit, unceasingly welling up into manifestation as beauty of form and nobility of life, guiding the soul in the development of originality of thought and strength of character, through the power of love and the sense of duty.

7. The prime essential is therefore to awaken to spiritual consciousness, to knowledge of the fact that each of us is a social member of eternity in the republic of the Spirit. For as all life is in reality spiritual, and the soul is by birthright a master, all conduct should be guided by the ideals of creative activity and spiritual service. Here and now, the soul dwells in an eternal spiritual world whence it may draw wisdom, life, and power at need. Here and now, it may transcend the bondages of space and time, so that death itself shall lose its terrors, and all experiences shall be understood from the point of view of progressively higher and higher planes.

Man awakens to his full dignity as an individual soul only when thus viewing his life from the point of view of the whole, when educating himself as an eternal, universal being. He is first of all a creative agent, building as no man ever built before. Through him the great universe reproduces itself afresh, through him the All-Father beholds himself anew.

Chapter I

The consummate product of a world of evolution is the character that creates happiness, that is replete with dynamic possibilities of fresh life and activity in directions for ever new. — John Fiske.

THE remarkable transition period in which we live is witnessing a noteworthy change of attitude in regard to that persistently fascinating thing which we call human life. Instead of the old complaint at the existing order of things, a complaint which uttered its dying word in Mr. Moody's last sermon, ** Sin is the most real thing in the world," there is a growing belief, inspired by a sound philosophy of evolution, in the inherent goodness of man, the glorious possibility that every characteristic in man may sometime serve the Spirit. Instead of the old theory of a divine providence and a disjointed world, torn asunder by a persistently threatening adversary, we now have as a practical faith the knowledge which modern science has so long and so nobly inculcated, the knowledge that the world-process is a unit. Formerly, the crying question was, What shall we do to be saved ? Now, the problem is, Granted life, how may we make it

lO better ? What is the meaning of life as it exists to-day, and what may it become by co-operative social and ethical activity ?

Would-be reformers still unsparingly condemn the present social order, it is true, and urge upon us their artificial Utopian schemes. Many exceedingly earnest people spend their lives whetting discontent among the labouring classes. But every deeply thoughtful person now knows that all reform begins within and with the individual, and spreads, through gradual evolution, out of to-day into to-morrow. Consequently, the progressive life of our time may be said to inspire those only who voice this new belief in the unity of the cosmos and the solidarity of the race.

Although this change of attitude is already so marked in its effect upon theology and upon methods of reform, few people as yet realise its radical influence upon the details of daily life. The majority know only that the old order is disappearing and that a new is coming, ushering in changes so great that no one is far-sighted enough to prophesy the result. It is well, then, before we consider the specific problems of this book, to examine this reformation in detail — that is, so far as we are able to detect its scope and meaning.

Many causes are assignable for the growth of this new spirit. Some would no doubt attribute it to the spreading of what may be called the new democracy. In a sense, it is the direct outgrowth of the principles of liberty and equality on which the American republic is founded. But, undoubtedly, the one factor without which all this development would have been impossible, is the rise and wide-spread acceptance of the doctrine of evolution. Many secondary causes have played their part, but it was the contributions of Darwin, Wallace, Spencer, and their immediate predecessors and followers in the scientific world, which furnished the new background on which these other issues could be displayed to advantage.

Philosophy had long ago prepared the way for belief in the unity of the world-process: it was modern science which supplied the evidence or proof, by showing that all forces are so many diverse forms of one ultimate energy. The evidence once at hand, philosophers could place it in its true light, could carry out their doctrine more in detail ; and, beginning where science paused, show what this one energy is, how the whole great scheme of divine self-manifestation is realised in the wonderful processes which science had so graphically described.

The cosmic process accepted as a unit, the second great advance was made through the discovery of the evolutionary origin of evil. What had before been either an absolute mystery, or the subject to which theology claimed exclusive right, now began to be very clear and to become generally understood. For when man's kinship with and indebtedness to the lower animals was established, it at once became evident whence came those tendencies and powers which had heretofore been deemed the outgrowths and penalties of original sin.

The origin of evil accounted for, it was an easy step to the conclusion that, if the race is a unit, making for perfection, every faculty and power of man may be turned to good. Therefore, instead of condemning man's lower nature and calling it " bad," it henceforth became simply the lower as contrasted with the higher, not in itself evil, but simply undeveloped. Thus was swept away the very foundation on which the entire orthodox theological structure rested. And although many people do not yet realise it, there was not the slightest reason left for belief in either the fall of man or a propitiatory saviour.

Thus Jehovah was left without an occupation. His ofifice of miraculous creator had been taken from him by the discovery that the universe is eternal, and all new genera and species the product of untold ages of evolution. And now he was deprived of his right not only as an interfering providence, but as an angry father whose son must be slain in order to assuage the terrible power of his burning wrath.

But what a marvellously warm, loving, tender substitute modern science, with the help of philosophy, has provided ! Life is now known to be a unit because all its processes and forces reveal one immanent, omnipresent Spirit, ever manifesting wisdom, love, power, through the infinitely beautiful system in which he perpetually resides. It is safe to say that never in the history of thought has any revelation equalled in depth and grandeur this discovery of the immanent God, whose presence modern science has declared. Few people in our day will realise the stupendous importance of this great revelation.

It has followed as a natural consequence of these new beliefs that, as the old pessimism disappeared and a sound meliorism took its place, all emphasis should be placed on the good, the ideal, or positive side, that the constructive spirit should displace the old intolerance and despair. The new attitude towards the world means implicit faith in the world, belief in men, hope for every darksome problem and for every crying issue. Hence our modern philanthropy, and the better part of what is called socialism, is the logical consequence of this determination to help man, instead of trying to save him (in case he chooses to accept your creed). The larger sympathy of the age very beautifully voices this faith in the integrity of the race, and the earnest zeal which once spent itself in anxious prayers for the lost has now become the practical endeavour which prompts the new democracy.

There are social problems enough to be solved to employ all the energy of these earnest men and women who are trying to make life better. There is even more demand for conscientious zeal, for we now know the magnitude of our problem. But we also know the law which governs all reform, and so we can calmly and patiently adjust ourselves in conformity with the methods of evolution.

Again, there is boundless inspiration in the modern belief in the dignity and worth of the individual. This faith in the right of every human soul to exist is an indissoluble part of the new belief in society as a democratic organism. We all know nowadays that, however the social problem is solved, it must take equal account of the individual as such and the individual as member of a social whole. Each man must have every possible opportunity to make what he can of himself, yet each is expected to contribute his share to the general development. Thus the individual is not the pitiable personage who might possibly have a chance under the old regime in case his sins were forgiven. He has the right to hold his head up and be a man in his own sphere. He is regarded as through and through free, — that is, potentially, — and as capable of mastering any unfavourable circumstance in which he may be placed.

This belief in individual freedom is, of course, much older than the modern doctrine of evolution. It began far back in the Middle Ages when the doctrines of Abelard, and others who believed in the rights of individual reason, spread in France and Italy ; and, combining with the spirit of the Renaissance, prepared the way for the Protestant Reformation. Without this great movement and the reform instituted by Martin Luther and his contemporaries, the great scientific development of our century would have been impossible. For it was not until man was free to think for himself that the remarkable reaction from theology changed the balance of power from the authority of the Church to the authority of natural law. Yet it was not until this individualistic growth began to take the particular shape which Darwin and Spencer gave it that the change of attitude became complete.

He who understands the new point of view must follow the guidance of the historical spirit, for the change is intelligible only in the light of all the causes which produced it, although coming to a climax with the acceptance of the doctrine of evolution. And he who would intelligently choose his place in this great modern movement must take into account these its many sides, already briefly suggested. The new movement is both a new individualism and a new democracy, an entirely different idea of God and salvation, and a thoroughly altered conception of the oneness of life. The reaction began not only with the revolt of reason, but with the struggle between the popes and the states for supremacy. The ancient theological hierarchy was gradually overthrown, and the impetus then given did not cease until the world became not a papal but a secular unit, not a theological but a scientific scheme. And now, in these modern days, when everyone is becoming free in all respects, we look back upon the impressive ages wherein man struggled for the freedom we now enjoy, with profound satisfaction that at last we are unifying in one great system of evolutionary idealism all that was noble, all that was sacred, all that was true, in each of these branches of knowledge which separated themselves from the parent theological unity.

Thus the new point of view is synthetic in a sense which no one will fully appreciate until society shall have advanced a few stages further. Then mankind will awaken to knowledge of the fact that there is a profound harmony not only between the processes of natural evolution, the activities of individual and social life, but between all these phases of development and that which we call the spiritual, that in reality the entire process is spiritual. Until then there is every reason to specialise in each of these departments, so that physical, individual, ethical, social, and religious evolution may be carried to the full, unconsciously contributing — while seeming to be struggling for separate existence — to the coming unity in the higher social state of the Spirit, in which all hostile differences shall be dissolved.

Chapter II

Education consists in leading man, as a thinking, intelligent being, growing into self-consciousness, to a pure and unsullied, conscious, and free representation of the inner law of divine unity. — Froebel.

WITH every new discovery made by the human mind a need is felt for the reconstruction of our terminology and the rewriting of our text-books. The great discoveries of Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton, of Columbus and the navigators who succeeded him, are instances in point. This was pre-eminently the case with the publication and wide-spread acceptance of the doctrine of evolution whose profound influence we have considered in the foregoing chapter. Indeed, the acceptance of this doctrine meant so much that histories, scientific works, and philosophical text-books written previous to the development of the new historical spirit are almost of no value except as curiosities. And the time will come when every treatise on theology or religion will be out of date unless it be rewritten in the light of the latest researches in comparative religion and the higher or historical criticism.

In these modern days of unprecedented interest 18 and development, when new discoveries are made more rapidly than even the scholar can take cognisance of them, there is special need for the reconstruction of all theories of education. Many important discoveries have been made of which education has not taken proper account. This is due to the fact that the world in general has not given these discoveries the recognition which they deserve, and because education is still largely in subjection to influences which have not yet responded to the most advanced thought of our time.

I refer not merely to the contributions of evolution, as already considered, but to discoveries in regard to the higher or spiritual nature of man, studies which, because of their deep significance, demand a reformation in many of our standards. Historically speaking, these discoveries, like those of scientific evolutionists, are not wholly new. They date far back to ancient India; they were made and remade in Palestine ; there have been seers in all ages and in all civilised lands who understood their transcendent importance. But it has remained for our own age to realise the practical value of these great revelations, and to place them on a basis where, in connection with the philosophy of evolution, they may become potent factors in all future education.

What these discoveries are we shall consider from chapter to chapter, since they will appear in our discussion in their proper places as practical factors in daily life. Suffice it at this point that in general they relate to the soul as the highest centre of all evolution, the home of individuality and the fundamental reality in all thought, our life in mind, our closest communion with each other. These discoveries therefore bear an intimate relation to the great doctrine of the immanent Spirit. They are candidates for a yet higher point of view than that of mere evolution, namely, the attempt to trace evolution to its source in that spiritual involution which is the very life and cause of the stupendous variety of the visible world.