Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) by Herbert Spencer (best mobile ebook reader TXT) 📖

Other Nation In Europe--A Remark That Should Be

Coupled With The   Other, That We Are The   Freest Nation In Europe.

 

 

 

As Already Implied, This Association Of    Facts Is Not Accidental. These

Titles Of    Address And Modes Of    Salutation, Bearing About Them, As They

All Do, Something Of    That Servility Which Marks Their Origin, Become

Distasteful In Proportion As Men Become More Independent Themselves, And

Sympathise More With The   Independence Of    Others. The   Feeling Which Makes

The Modern Gentleman Tell The   Labourer Standing Bareheaded Before Him To

Put On His Hat--The Feeling Which Gives Us A Dislike To Those Who Cringe

And Fawn--The Feeling Which Makes Us Alike Assert Our Own Dignity And

Respect That Of    Others--The Feeling Which Thus Leads Us More And More To

Discountenance All Forms And Names Which Confess Inferiority And

Submission; Is The   Same Feeling Which Resists Despotic Power And

Inaugurates Popular Government, Denies The   Authority Of    The   Church And

Establishes The   Right Of    Private Judgment.

 

 

 

A Fourth Fact, Akin To The   Foregoing, Is, That These Several Kinds Of

Government Not Only Decline Together, But Corrupt Together. By The   Same

Process That A Court Of    Chancery Becomes A Place Not For The

Administration Of    Justice, But For The   Withholding Of    It--By The   Same

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Process That A National Church, From Being An Agency For Moral Control,

Comes To Be Merely A Thing Of    Formulas And Tithes And Bishoprics--By

This Same Process Do Titles And Ceremonies That Once Had A Meaning And A

Power Become Empty Forms.

 

 

 

Coats Of    Arms Which Served To Distinguish Men In Battle, Now Figure On

The Carriage Panels Of    Retired Grocers. Once A Badge Of    High Military

Rank, The   Shoulder-Knot Has Become, On The   Modern Footman, A Mark Of

Servitude. The   Name Banneret, Which Once Marked A Partially-Created

Baron--A Baron Who Had Passed His Military "Little Go"--Is Now, Under

The Modification Of    Baronet, Applicable To Any One Favoured By Wealth Or

Interest Or Party Feeling. Knighthood Has So Far Ceased To Be An Honour,

That Men Now Honour Themselves By Declining It. The   Military Dignity

_Escuyer_ Has, In The   Modern Esquire, Become A Wholly Unmilitary Affix.

Not Only Do Titles, And Phrases, And Salutes Cease To Fulfil Their

Original Functions, But The   Whole Apparatus Of    Social Forms Tends To

Become Useless For Its Original Purpose--The Facilitation Of    Social

Intercourse. Those Most Learned In Ceremonies, And Most Precise In The

Observance Of    Them, Are Not Always The   Best Behaved; As Those Deepest

Read In Creeds And Scriptures Are Not Therefore The   Most Religious; Nor

Those Who Have The   Clearest Notions Of    Legality And Illegality, The   Most

Honest. Just As Lawyers Are Of    All Men The   Least Noted For Probity; As

Cathedral Towns Have A Lower Moral Character Than Most Others; So, If

Swift Is To Be Believed, Courtiers Are "The Most Insignificant Race Of

People That The   Island Can Afford, And With The   Smallest Tincture Of

Good Manners."

 

 

 

But Perhaps It Is In That Class Of    Social Observances Comprehended Under

The Term Fashion, Which We Must Here Discuss Parenthetically, That This

Process Of    Corruption Is Seen With The   Greatest Distinctness. As

Contrasted With Manners, Which Dictate Our Minor Acts In Relation To

Other Persons, Fashion Dictates Our Minor Acts In Relation To Ourselves.

While The   One Prescribes That Part Of    Our Deportment Which Directly

Affects Our Neighbours; The   Other Prescribes That Part Of    Our Deportment

Which Is Primarily Personal, And In Which Our Neighbours Are Concerned

Only As Spectators. Thus Distinguished As They Are, However, The   Two

Have A Common Source. For While, As We Have Shown, Manners Originate By

Imitation Of    The   Behaviour Pursued _Towards_ The   Great; Fashion

Originates By Imitation _Of_ The   Behaviour Of    The   Great. While The   One

Has Its Derivation In The   Titles, Phrases, And Salutes Used _To_ Those

In Power; The   Other Is Derived From The   Habits And Appearances Exhibited

_By_ Those In Power.

 

 

 

The Carrib Mother Who Squeezes Her Child's Head Into A Shape Like That

Of The   Chief; The   Young Savage Who Makes Marks On Himself Similar To The

Scars Carried By The   Warriors Of    His Tribe (Which Is Probably The   Origin

Of Tattooing); The   Highlander Who Adopts The   Plaid Worn By The   Head Of

His Clan; The   Courtiers Who Affect Greyness, Or Limp, Or Cover Their

Necks, In Imitation Of    Their King; And The   People Who Ape The   Courtiers;

Are Alike Acting Under A Kind Of    Government Connate With That Of

Manners, And, Like It Too, Primarily Beneficial. For Notwithstanding The

Numberless Absurdities Into Which This Copyism Has Led The   People, From

Nose-Rings To Ear-Rings, From Painted Faces To Beauty-Spots, From Shaven

Heads To Powdered Wigs, From Filed Teeth And Stained Nails To

Bell-Girdles, Peaked Shoes, And Breeches Stuffed With Bran,--It Must Yet

Be Concluded, That As The   Strong Men, The   Successful Men, The   Men Of

Will, Intelligence, And Originality, Who Have Got To The   Top, Are, On

The Average, More Likely To Show Judgment In Their Habits And Tastes

Than The   Mass, The   Imitation Of    Such Is Advantageous.

 

 

 

By And By, However, Fashion, Corrupting Like These Other Forms Of    Rule,

Almost Wholly Ceases To Be An Imitation Of    The   Best, And Becomes An

Imitation Of    Quite Other Than The   Best. As Those Who Take Orders Are Not

Those Having A Special Fitness For The   Priestly Office, But Those Who

See Their Way To A Living By It; As Legislators And Public Functionaries

Do Not Become Such By Virtue Of    Their Political Insight And Power To

Rule, But By Virtue Of    Birth, Acreage, And Class Influence; So, The

Self-Elected Clique Who Set The   Fashion, Gain This Prerogative, Not By

Their Force Of    Nature, Their Intellect, Their Higher Worth Or Better

Taste, But Gain It Solely By Their Unchecked Assumption. Among The

Initiated Are To Be Found Neither The   Noblest In Rank, The   Chief In

Power, The   Best Cultured, The   Most Refined, Nor Those Of    Greatest

Genius, Wit, Or Beauty; And Their Reunions, So Far From Being Superior

To Others, Are Noted For Their Inanity. Yet, By The   Example Of    These

Sham Great, And Not By That Of    The   Truly Great, Does Society At Large

Now Regulate Its Goings And Comings, Its Hours, Its Dress, Its Small

Usages. As A Natural Consequence, These Have Generally Little Or None Of

That Suitableness Which The   Theory Of    Fashion Implies They Should Have.

But Instead Of    A Continual Progress Towards Greater Elegance And

Convenience, Which Might Be Expected To Occur Did People Copy The   Ways

Of The   Really Best, Or Follow Their Own Ideas Of    Propriety, We Have A

Reign Of    Mere Whim, Of    Unreason, Of    Change For The   Sake Of    Change, Of

Wanton Oscillations From Either Extreme To The   Other--A Reign Of    Usages

Without Meaning, Times Without Fitness, Dress Without Taste. And Thus

Life _À La Mode_, Instead Of    Being Life Conducted In The   Most Rational

Manner, Is Life Regulated By Spendthrifts And Idlers, Milliners And

Tailors, Dandies And Silly Women.

 

 

 

To These Several Corollaries--That The   Various Orders Of    Control

Exercised Over Men Have A Common Origin And A Common Function, Are

Called Out By Co-Ordinate Necessities And Co-Exist In Like Stringency,

Decline Together And Corrupt Together--It Now Only Remains To Add That

They Become Needless Together. Consequent As All Kinds Of    Government Are

Upon The   Unfitness Of    The   Aboriginal Man For Social Life; And

Diminishing In Coerciveness As They All Do In Proportion As This

Unfitness Diminishes; They Must One And All Come To An End As Humanity

Acquires Complete Adaptation To Its New Conditions. That Discipline Of

Circumstances Which Has Already Wrought Out Such Great Changes In Us,

Must Go On Eventually To Work Out Yet Greater Ones. That Daily Curbing

Of The   Lower Nature And Culture Of    The   Higher, Which Out Of    Cannibals

And Devil Worshippers Has Evolved Philanthropists, Lovers Of    Peace, And

Haters Of    Superstition, Cannot Fail To Evolve Out Of    These, Men As Much

Superior To Them As They Are To Their Progenitors. The   Causes That Have

Produced Past Modifications Are Still In Action; Must Continue In Action

As Long As There Exists Any Incongruity Between Man's Desires And The

Requirements Of    The   Social State; And Must Eventually Make Him

Organically Fit For The   Social State. As It Is Now Needless To Forbid

Man-Eating And Fetishism, So Will It Ultimately Become Needless To

Forbid Murder, Theft, And The   Minor Offences Of    Our Criminal Code. When

Human Nature Has Grown Into Conformity With The   Moral Law, There Will

Need No Judges And Statute-Books; When It Spontaneously Takes The   Right

Course In All Things, As In Some Things It Does Already, Prospects Of

Future Reward Or Punishment Will Not Be Wanted As Incentives; And When

Part 2 Chapter 2 (On Manners And Fashion) Pg 90

Fit Behaviour Has Become Instinctive, There Will Need No Code Of

Ceremonies To Say How Behaviour Shall Be Regulated.

 

 

 

Thus, Then, May Be Recognised The   Meaning, The   Naturalness, The

Necessity Of    Those Various Eccentricities Of    Reformers Which We Set Out

By Describing. They Are Not Accidental; They Are Not Mere Personal

Caprices, As People Are Apt To Suppose. On The   Contrary, They Are

Inevitable Results Of    The   Law Of    Relationship Above Illustrated. That

Community Of    Genesis, Function, And Decay Which All Forms Of    Restraint

Exhibit, Is Simply The   Obverse Of    The   Fact At First Pointed Out, That

They Have In Two Sentiments Of    Human Nature A Common Preserver And A

Common Destroyer. Awe Of    Power Originates And Cherishes Them All: Love

Of Freedom Undermines And Periodically Weakens Them All. The   One Defends

Despotism And Asserts The   Supremacy Of    Laws, Adheres To Old Creeds And

Supports Ecclesiastical Authority, Pays Respect To Titles And Conserves

Forms; The   Other, Putting Rectitude Above Legality, Achieves Periodical

Instalments Of    Political Liberty, Inaugurates Protestantism And Works

Out Its Consequences, Ignores The   Senseless Dictates Of    Fashion And

Emancipates Men From Dead Customs.

 

 

 

To The   True Reformer No Institution Is Sacred, No Belief Above

Criticism. Everything Shall Conform Itself To Equity And Reason; Nothing

Shall Be Saved By Its Prestige. Conceding To Each Man Liberty To Pursue

His Own Ends And Satisfy His Own Tastes, He Demands For Himself Like

Liberty; And Consents To No Restrictions On This, Save Those Which Other

Men's Equal Claims Involve. No Matter Whether It Be An Ordinance Of    One

Man, Or An Ordinance Of    All Men, If It Trenches On His Legitimate Sphere

Of Action, He Denies Its Validity. The   Tyranny That Would Impose On Him

A Particular Style Of    Dress And A Set Mode Of    Behaviour, He Resists

Equally With The   Tyranny That Would Limit His Buyings And Sellings, Or

Dictate His Creed. Whether The   Regulation Be Formally Made By A

Legislature, Or Informally Made By Society At Large--Whether The   Penalty

For Disobedience Be Imprisonment, Or Frowns And Social Ostracism, He

Sees To Be A Question Of    No Moment. He Will Utter His Belief

Notwithstanding The   Threatened Punishment; He Will Break Conventions

Spite Of    The   Petty Persecutions That Will Be Visited On Him. Show Him

That His Actions Are Inimical To His Fellow-Men, And He Will Pause.

Prove That He Is Disregarding Their Legitimate Claims--That He Is Doing

What In The   Nature Of    Things Must Produce Unhappiness; And He Will Alter

His Course. But Until You Do This--Until You Demonstrate That His

Proceedings Are Essentially Inconvenient Or Inelegant, Essentially

Irrational, Unjust, Or Ungenerous, He Will Persevere.

 

 

 

Some, Indeed, Argue That His Conduct _Is_ Unjust And Ungenerous. They

Say That He Has No Right To Annoy Other People By His Whims; That The

Gentleman