登陆注册
4710300000134

第134章

The old English rule was, `All summer in the field, and all winter in the study.' And it seems as if a man should learn to plant, or to fish, or to hunt, that he might secure his subsistence at all events, and not be painful to his friends and fellow men. The lessons of science should be experimental also. The sight of the planet through a telescope, is worth all the course on astronomy: the shock of the electric spark in the elbow, out-values all the theories; the taste of the nitrous oxide, the firing of an artificial volcano, are better than volumes of chemistry. One of the traits of the new spirit, is the inquisition it fixed on our scholastic devotion to the dead languages. The ancient languages, with great beauty of structure, contain wonderful remains of genius, which draw, and always will draw, certain likeminded men, -- Greek men, and Roman men, in all countries, to their study; but by a wonderful drowsiness of usage, they had exacted the study of _all_ men. Once (say two centuries ago), Latin and Greek had a strict relation to all the science and culture there was in Europe, and the Mathematics had a momentary importance at some era of activity in physical science. These things became stereotyped as _education,_ as the manner of men is. But the Good Spirit never cared for the colleges, and though all men and boys were now drilled in Latin, Greek, and Mathematics, it had quite left these shells high and dry on the beach, and was now creating and feeding other matters at other ends of the world. But in a hundred high schools and colleges, this warfare against common sense still goes on. Four, or six, or ten years, the pupil is parsing Greek and Latin, and as soon as he leaves the University, as it is ludicrously called, he shuts those books for the last time. Some thousands of young men are graduated at our colleges in this country every year, and the persons who, at forty years, still read Greek, can all be counted on your hand. I never met with ten. Four or five persons I have seen who read Plato. But is not this absurd, that the whole liberal talent of this country should be directed in its best years on studies which lead to nothing? What was the consequence? Some intelligent persons said or thought; `Is that Greek and Latin some spell to conjure with, and not words of reason? If the physician, the lawyer, the divine, never use it to come at their ends, I need never learn it to come at mine. Conjuring is gone out of fashion, and I will omit this conjugating, and go straight to affairs.' So they jumped the Greek and Latin, and read law, medicine, or sermons, without it. To the astonishment of all, the self-made men took even ground at once with the oldest of the regular graduates, and in a few months the most conservative circles of Boston and New York had quite forgotten who of their gownsmen was college-bred, and who was not.

One tendency appears alike in the philosophical speculation, and in the rudest democratical movements, through all the petulance and all the puerility, the wish, namely, to cast aside the superfluous, and arrive at short methods, urged, as I suppose, by an intuition that the human spirit is equal to all emergencies, alone, and that man is more often injured than helped by the means he uses. I conceive this gradual casting off of material aids, and the indication of growing trust in the private, self-supplied powers of the individual, to be the affirmative principle of the recent philosophy: and that it is feeling its own profound truth, and is reaching forward at this very hour to the happiest conclusions. I readily concede that in this, as in every period of intellectual activity, there has been a noise of denial and protest; much was to be resisted, much was to be got rid of by those who were reared in the old, before they could begin to affirm and to construct. Many a reformer perishes in his removal of rubbish, -- and that makes the offensiveness of the class. They are partial; they are not equal to the work they pretend. They lose their way; in the assault on the kingdom of darkness, they expend all their energy on some accidental evil, and lose their sanity and power of benefit. It is of little moment that one or two, or twenty errors of our social system be corrected, but of much that the man be in his senses. The criticism and attack on institutions which we have witnessed, has made one thing plain, that society gains nothing whilst a man, not himself renovated, attempts to renovate things around him: he has become tediously good in some particular, but negligent or narrow in the rest; and hypocrisy and vanity are often the disgusting result. It is handsomer to remain in the establishment better than the establishment, and conduct that in the best manner, than to make a sally against evil by some single improvement, without supporting it by a total regeneration. Do not be so vain of your one objection. Do you think there is only one?

Alas! my good friend, there is no part of society or of life better than any other part. All our things are right and wrong together.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 柳边纪略

    柳边纪略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 在清华听的12堂修心课

    在清华听的12堂修心课

    本书介绍了在清华大学,有很多发人深省的修心讲座,无数知名学者和专家教授都在这里讲解过修心的要诀,让我们跟随他们的步伐,聆听他们的声音,进行一场简单而又不平凡的修心之旅。
  • 艺术综合真题解析

    艺术综合真题解析

    本书是艺术类研究生入学考试参考用书的其中一本《艺术综合》的配套习题集,由姚杰主编,全书版面字数约18万字。本配套习题集,内容包括“答题技巧”;“历年真题”;“真题解析”;“模拟试题”四大部分。第一部分“答题技巧”主要涉及填空题、名词解释、论述题、简答题的答题技巧;第二部分“历年真题”部分选取历年来考试真题,但只有真题没有解析,请同学们先自己做题;第三部分“真题解析”对第二编的真题分别做解析,并予以了点评和拓展等工作,拓展部分告诉同学们这题衍生开来还需要注意那些方面;第四篇“模拟试题”是自编的一些模拟试题可供同学们在临考前进行模拟考试。
  • 聪明女人一定要知道的66个法律常识

    聪明女人一定要知道的66个法律常识

    本书以中华人民共和国之最新法律法规为您解答生活中应该了解的法律知识。恋爱中的花销属于债务吗?感情不和分居两年可判离婚吗?离婚时两周岁以下的孩子一般可随母亲吗?怀孕或刚分娩后男方可以提出离婚吗?为公婆欠的钱,离婚时也要偿还吗?为什么要与用人单位签订《劳动合同》?试用期超过6个月违法吗?企业不签合同可获双倍赔偿吗?业主被盗物业要赔偿损失吗?景点逛少了,旅行社要赔钱吗?产品质量诉讼时效是多久?不给发票可以不埋单吗?网上证据公证保全才有效吗?婚纱照丢失,可获精神损失赔偿吗?实物与说明书不符可获赔双倍吗?赠品有问题也能获赔吗?
  • The Secret Sharer

    The Secret Sharer

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 妖狼变

    妖狼变

    在远古时期,难道学会直立行走的只有我们人类吗?乌邦大陆一个具有千万年历史文明,同样古老的的空间。上古时期妖兽肆虐横行,人类及其他种族生存空间面临威胁。这时炎美尔大帝耀空现世,和他的仆从们带领人类成功驱赶进丛林深处,炎美尔和他的八名仆从们和九兽战斗使用的武器被公认九大神器。现今唯一一个被成功唤醒成狼人的叶天明,为找回不告而别的朋友,借道狼族穿越时空来到这里。乌邦大陆千万年来,与妖兽生存间的厮杀早已形成不可化解的种族仇恨。每逢月圆之夜深受狼毒之苦的天明,要时刻保持清明不唤醒狼人,避免被认作妖兽被满世界追杀。两个平行宇宙具有千丝万缕的联系,当地球人类找到打开钥匙究竟是宝箱还是魔盒?叶天明一个有些自卑逗比的主角典型的吃货,乌邦大陆一个魔幻魔法世界,却并不是每个人都有成为魔法师的天赋,天明告诉你斗师一样可以屹立世界之巅……
  • 关于“子孙违犯教令”的历史考察:一个微观法史学的尝试

    关于“子孙违犯教令”的历史考察:一个微观法史学的尝试

    在晚清社会转型的大背景下,中华法律艰难开启了法律现代化的进程。随着法律改革逐渐深入,在起草制定新刑律过程中,围绕“子孙违犯教令”等条款的存废问题,引发了一场规模空前的法律讨论。百余年后,回眸视之,其间成败利钝,颇值玩味。本书尝试以“微观法史学”的崭新视角,围绕“子孙违犯教令”条款及其所涉权利义务关系、立法司法实践,进行全方位解读,追溯其文本沿革,探究其司法观念,深度分析该条款在中华旧律体系下的丰富表现,希望能对传统中华法系多一份同情之理解,为未来中国相关法律问题之解决提供历史鉴戒,并从学科方法论上进行反省,但愿能为中国法史学研究开辟一条蹊径。
  • 玛雅文明探寻

    玛雅文明探寻

    在世界远古文明中,玛雅无疑最富有浪漫色彩。古代玛雅人制造了哥伦布之前美洲大陆上最引人惊奇的文明之一:它在气候并不宜人的热带雨林环境中萌芽、兴盛然后消亡,历经千载,遗留下数以百计的大型废墟,激起后人的惊叹和注意。
  • 念佛三昧

    念佛三昧

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 天才宝宝律师妈

    天才宝宝律师妈

    毕业旅行的第一站萧莫就被人下药送进了邵驿的房里,却在药物的催化下让她与同样被人下药的洛锦谦疯狂缠绵一夜。本是一次意外雁过无痕,她不知他是谁。却没想到他们还会再有交集。六年后,一此擦肩而过,一场暗杀,让他再难对她放手。而她却是一副“有子万事足”的样子,他威逼利诱终于让她成为了他的法律顾问。宝宝们各自有着自己心目中的爸爸人选,一个是国际知名的大律师,另一个是跨国集团年轻的CEO。洛锦谦这个正牌老爸又该如何力挽狂澜,获得宝宝们的心?明知他的出身,想要保持距离。可是一次次的危机获救的不仅仅是身体,还有那颗淡然的心,面对洛锦谦的深情,萧莫又要何去何从?片段一:“你应该知道我是谁吧?”一副小大人样子的萧逸寒抱着双臂,冷冷的看向对面的洛锦谦。“小子,你是不是应该叫我一声爸爸?”洛锦谦也环抱着双臂,一大一小不仅动作相似,就连动作和表情都如出一辙。“我这次来可不是认亲的!我问你,你爱我妈咪吗?”男孩一脸的认真。“我不知道。”洛锦谦如实回答,并没有因为对面的是个孩子,就敷衍了事。“那你就离她远一点吧!我已经有更好的爸爸人选了。”盯着洛锦谦冷冽如冰的眼睛,萧逸寒神情自若的侃侃而谈。“而你……实在太不合格!”片段二:走了那么久回到家里萧莫就直接将自己摔进了沙发,抬起脚对洛锦谦微笑,意思很明显。洛锦谦无奈单膝跪地,将她的一只脚放在自己腿上,然后小心的脱下鞋子。“这鞋看上去不错。”心情好看什么都好。“自己买的?”“别人送的。”萧莫打了个哈欠,慵懒的回答。只听“啪”的一声,鞋子被扔到了门前。萧莫嗔怪道:“你小心点,三千八一双呢!”洛锦谦一边给她不轻不重的揉着脚,一面愤愤的说:“这鞋就是太大了,一看就知道不合适。”这话有点一语双关,然后危险的问:“谁送的?”故意忽略了某人漆黑的俊脸,心里笑的内伤。很无辜的回答:“你儿子!”片段三:“总裁,这个案子不用上法庭这么严重吧?”秘书手里拿着一份资料,小心的询问。“夫人最近闲的慌,给她找点事做她会开心的。”洛锦谦好心情的解释。“可是夫人看过材料说如果这种小case都要上法庭解决,那她还有什么脸在律师界抬头。”秘书将夫人的原话转达。“既然这样,直接把这家公司收购了吧!另外限你三天内给夫人制造出一个有挑战性的案子。”洛锦谦头都没抬,果断的命令。