Philosophy. CAN HIGH EDUCATION COUNTERACT THE AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-I. THERE can be no doubt at all that high education, "by employing the mind and developing the character, counteracts the eagerness of the senses." We read of Newton neglecting the rare indulgences which were open to him for the divine and precious delights of study. We know that men have foregone pleasures of every sort for the higher gratifications of intellectual culture. How many men in the ardour of high and bracing thought have secluded themselves from all the common and ordinary allurements of the world, and devoted themselves sedulously to the attainment of the joy which high education gives when it "unfurls the bannered victory of mind." The very senses become deadened, and cold, and pure, and unindued before the power of a great idea. Hot blood may course in the veins, and the senses may urge their imperious suits with the energy of sword and spur, but the might and obstinacy of the mind keep the mastery, and the spirit labours to noble ends. The senses are but the servants of the thinker. It is in the man who is all sensation that the blood runs riot, and the claims of the passions become irresistible; not in the heart of the lonely student pouring over his books, engaged in the high problems of science, or sounding the depths of philosophy. We do not mean to affirm that the lives of all scholars are pure and untainted, that there is no access at any time of a craving for the indulgences the world supplies, but we do mean to say that the mind which is honestly and zealously absorbed in high thought, and in the task of leading out his mind and all its powers to the investigation and conquest of some field of knowledge, has not only less time, but also less inclination, for the debasing pursuits of sensualism. He who knows little must be more exposed to the tempta tions and allurements which beset the vacant mind, while the man who has absorbing engagements on lofty themes cannot but be less open to the assaults of the suggestions to evil with which the world abounds for the one has his whole nature ready to be touched to vile pursuits, has no pre-engagements to restrain and restrict his yielding to the enchantments of the senses, while the other has a source of joy ready to flush his soul, and cleanse it from the enticement of the tempter. It is clear that the mere fact of education having widened the area of experience, must have caused the power of the impressions made on the senses to be less strongly felt. That which impresses an extended surface is less : intense than that which is concentrated; hence impressions made on the senses of a person whose capacity for experience has been widened by education must have less power than similar impres sions made on a mind which has only the senses to be impressed, and nothing else to restrain or to distract the mind. It is a fact, too, that occupation is by far the best human security against sin. To keep the mind alert on other topics, and to have the power of turning to some other form of delight, must have this advantage at least, that we have an opportunity of being amongst those"That live according to the sober laws, And holy dictates of spare Temperance;" for we have other and more delicate pleasures available than those of sense and sin. But the man who has no other occupation for his hours of ease, relaxation, and enjoyment than the merely animal nature he possesses supplies, must be more exposed than the educated man to yield to the allurements of vice and the sophistries of Pleasure, when she promises that— "One sip of this Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight It is true that in one sense education will refine and render the senses more delicate, and capable of keener delight, and rarer sorts of pleasure, but that is, if education be applied to them. The painter's educated eye sees more in the forms and colours of nature than we do; the sculptor from the pure colourless form derives more rapture than we can conceive; the poet in his "fine frenzy" beholds a brighter and glandsomer world than we know till he becomes the revealer of it. The mechanic acquires a greater dexterity of touch by culture, and the epicure can distinguish and divide between taste and taste more acutely and accurately than we can. The notes which float along the air in music fill the ear of the trained and cultured scholar of harmony with a much more subtle delicacy than we can fancy, but this surely is not matter of dispute, it cannot be that this is in question-else why are we not all skilled in arts, acute in perception, thrilled with similar power and subtlety? We conclude therefore that our idea is that which is meant, that the query is one having moral and philosophical bearings, and that it really signifies. Are educated men more likely to be more moral than their neighbours ? I am not here going to make a point which is quite open to me, namely, what is meant by "high education." It cannot, we might argue, be intended by this phrase, that the education given should be debasing, but if education does not protect men against the eagerness of the senses, but rather inclines them to find indulgence pleasant, it must be debasing; that cannot be high education which not only does not elevate, but actually touches the balance to the lower side. I shall accept the phrase "high education" in the usual and obvious sense, as that sort of training which is given at school and college, which enables a man to enjoy with some relish the graces of letters, and the activities and results of thought; and this, I maintain, aids men to be moral. I need only in the meantime,, as a support to my argument, to note that men have in general regarded education as a preservative against many evils, that it is always spoken of and written about as a something requisite for man's moral elevation. In fact, culture has come almost to signify not only education, but the refinement and moral amiability it produces. To this let me add but one other fact. Whenever any offence against society, or in opposition to the general duties of man to man is committed; whenever any one sinks into a sensualist, a drunkard, or a debauchee, it is considered an aggravation of the offence to say-and yet "he is a man of culture, a fine scholar, a person of a good education." It seems to be plain, then, that if we have understood the ques tion properly, education has the tendency to make men conquerors over sense and the vices of sense, to fortify them against temptation by occupation, and to strengthen them for self-restraint. It overcomes the eagerness of the senses, by exciting a taste for higher and nobler pleasures, and by making a man less dependent on the B. L. K. senses for his pleasures. NEGATIVE ARTICLE.-I. PHILOSOPHICAL questions in general are very vague in their form; but the topic announced under the head of Philosophy for debate during the "present half" is surely more vague than ordinary. It is not to be doubted that the subject is not only arguable but important. The main difficulty seems to be to get a common starting point, where so many words, each requiring accurate definition, are employed. "High education," for instance, is a phrase which is capable of being tortured into a great many meanings, according to the view taken of "education" itself, and of what may be denoted by "high." "Counteract," again, may signify things so opposite, as "countervail, or destroy the effect of," or "form a just equivalent for." "The Eagerness of the Senses is a round about form, it may be, of saying "man's addiction to sensuality," or, it may imply the much more harmless idea of man's "acuteness in using the ordinary powers of sensation with which he is endowed." Altogether, while we do not see very well how it would be possible to express the same idea in other terms, we may safely affirm that a great number of different ideas may be formed about the topic of discussion, each having some justification in the vagueness of phrase with which the subject is stated. We shall endeavour to fix upon one which may be usefully debated, if fairly engaged in. Before doing so, however, we may be allowed to lay before ourselves for guidance, and our readers for its suggestiveness, the following quotation: "In framing a definition, the principal question to be considered is always a question of fact. The person who defines gives, or ought to give, not his own view of the subject which he defines, but the nearest approach that he can obtain to an account of what is passing in the minds of his neighbours. The art of constructing a definition consists in finding a sufficiently large and well-marked class of facts answering pretty correctly to a word in popular use, and in appropriating the word for the future to that class of facts apart from all others. It is thus obvious that, to construct a definition of common popular phrases, is a very different thing from enunciating a complete theory of the subject to which the definition refers." The above paragraph should put us on our guard against supposing that any very recondite and mysterious question is couched under the phraseology which stands at the top of this debate. I dare say the common matter-of-fact question would resolve itself into this-Does high, classical, literary, and intellectual training hinder men from falling into the vices which prevail among men ? The philosophical question before us would thus contain in itself such topics of practical morality as these-Does education tend to the diminishing of crime? Is education the best remedy against drunkenness? Does education control passion, and enable men more strongly than without it to resist the temptations to which human life is subject? Looked on as involving the grounds or reasons for answering these questions affirmatively or negatively, the philosophical considerations which may be brought before the mind may be very interesting and valuable. Taking the question in this light, I must confess that I am bound by the law of honesty to say that I do not think it will be found true as a fact of experience, or probable as a matter of theory, that "high education can counteract the eagerness of the senses.' " The chief of our temptations probably come to us from or through the senses. We find joy in the gratifications they afford, and we readily yield ourselves to those indulgences to which they entice. When we give ourselves up too fondly and immoderately to the gratifications of the senses, we are said to be vicious; the eagerness of our senses has overbalanced our minds, and we prefer following ur inclinations to giving devoted attention to duty; we are unwilling to ponder the path of our feet, to consider our ways and be wise, to restrain ourselves within the limits, sometimes of human, sometimes of divine law. We note, in the first place, as affording ground for believing that high education cannot counteract the eagerness of the senses, that certain vices are almost wholly characteristic of the higher classes, those, therefore, who have had all the chances and advantages of high education. Nay, so much is this the fact that they have come to be known as the fashionable vices. It would perhaps be unwise, just at the present stage of the debate, to specify these in all their fulness. Those who know the vices which are popularly denomi "Essays by a Barrister," p. 298; reprinted from the Saturday Review. nated fashionable, will at once agree that high education has not tended to lessen the frequency of these. We may instance gaming and habitual drinking only as specimens. It is certain that, though drunkenness in all its grossness may not so largely prevail in the social life of the upper classes, the consumption of intoxicating drinks has not diminished. The habitual use of them has enabled the drinkers to disguise the fact better, and the constancy of habit has enabled them to bear, as it is called, their liquor more bravely, but education has not counteracted the eagerness of the senses for them, nor lessened their use. There are other vices, which fashionable people gild and refine as to their concomitants, but in which they indulge as profusely as their uneducated fellows, who are compelled to take them under the rude form in which they are catalogued as the "brutal vices;" indeed it may fairly be alleged that the highly educated roués of society are the purveyors for the "brute masses of those who are their victims, and the tempters of those who, in the eagerness of enticed senses, follow the better educated classes to do evil. " It is one thing to refine vice and palm it off in the guise of honourable life, and another to withdraw from it and abstain from its indulgence. It is a well-known fact that vices of several classes, and crimes of some heinousness, and sins of a most flagrant nature, are habitually indulged in by those who have had high education and the severest polish training could effect. But the spreading of a thin veneer of respectability over certain sins does not abolish them, or transform them into virtues. It is in their unpolished state that they "to be hated need but to be seen." The palliatory environments with which they are surrounded make them more deadly to the soul and more contaminating in their effects. The prevalence of gluttony, epicurism, love of finery, sexual sins, and personal indulgence in the use of liquors, tobacco, snuff, &c., among the educated classes is undeniable evidence that education does not dull the appetite or stale the greed of sensuality that stirs the frame which has not been subjected to the governing restraint of conscientious motives and been brought under the sanctifying influences of a renewed nature. High education, too, very frequently adds the charm of the association of old legendary mythology, gracefully expressive classical poetry, and the glitter of felicitous phrase round the indulgences of sense. Memories of Hebe, and Venus, and Bacchus, and Jove, quotations from Horace, Catullus, and Juvenal, incidents from the classical drama, and ideas derived from the statues of the olden or the paintings of the modern time. These, while they conceal the sinfulness under a cloak of seeming virtue, increase the eagerness of the senses for the Circean cup of pleasure, till indul. gence, "unmoulding Reason's mintage charactered in the face," brings the polished and educated sinner down to the level of his less trained and humbler imitator. No, education does not coun. teract, it often intensifies, the eagerness of the senses. G. P. |