EDITOR'S TABLE. 



557 



derstand its true principles, we should 

 try to apply them. One of the first of 

 these principles is not to teach too 

 much, not to congest the mind, not to 

 overtax its powers. Our effort should 

 be to whet curiosity, awaken a cer- 

 tain variety of interests, develop the 

 natural powers of the mind, and leave 

 room for the imagination to work. It 

 is the spontaneous effort of the mind, 

 not its forced labor, that yields the best 

 results. Hitherto we have been fight- 

 ing ignorance so hard, and have been so 

 afraid of it, that the idea of knowledge 

 in any degree being dangerous has sel- 

 dom occurred to us. But knowledge 

 may be as dangerous as food, if given 

 in wrong quantities and under wrong 

 conditions. "When we realize this as 

 fully as we have heretofore realized the 

 danger of ignorance, a new era in edu- 

 cation will have dawned. 



INDIVID UALISM. 



The discussion on the land question 

 in the London " Times," a further in- 

 stallment of which is given in our pres- 

 ent issue, will have, we may hope, one 

 or two good results. It will tend to 

 produce in the public mind a more vivid 

 sense of the difficulty of dealing with 

 the land question on any abstract prin- 

 ciples, and it will help, perhaps, to bring 

 home the lesson that social progress is 

 more a matter of individual improve- 

 ment than of political reconstruction. 

 Mr. Auberon Herbert, in the letter 

 which we print this month, calls at- 

 tention to the fact that the whole drift 

 of Mr. Spencer's philosophy is toward 

 individualism, and suggests that the so- 

 cial dangers of the present time arise 

 precisely from the fatal disposition of 

 men to invoke state action as a remedy 

 for all evils. It is indeed a serious 

 fact that so few of those who seek to 

 catch the public ear lay any emphasis 

 on the need for individual reform, or 

 have anything to say about individual 

 responsibility. Institutions are wrong, 



laws are wrong, social organization is 

 wrong all general forces and agencies 

 are wrong; but rarely does any one 

 discover that this or tbat man is wrong. 

 Such a discovery, if made, would per- 

 haps not be thought worth announcing, 

 or perhaps might not be considered safe 

 to announce. It is more popular to 

 abuse institutions at large than to at- 

 tempt to fix the responsibility for their 

 defects; and no prudent orator would 

 think of suggesting to his audience that 

 the true starting-point of reform would 

 be in the habits and dispositions of just 

 such people as themselves. 



Mr. Frederick Greenwood's letter, 

 published by us last month, furnishes a 

 striking illustration of the readiness 

 with which the principle of personal 

 responsibility is overlooked by even 

 thoughtful writers. Mr. Greenwood 

 reads a lesson to Mr. Spencer for hav- 

 ing, as he considers, put forward certain 

 radical theories as to land tenure with- 

 out sufficient qualification, and so given 

 occasion to men like Mr. Laidler to 

 quote him in support of their revolu- 

 tionary schemes. The true view of the 

 matter, however, is that Mr. Spencer 

 acquitted himself of his duty to society 

 by giving expression to the opinions 

 which, at the time, commended them- 

 selves to his acceptance. He did not 

 force them upon the world, or upon any 

 one. He did not offer them as infallibly 

 inspired ; he gave them simply as the 

 views of Herbert Spencer, guaranteeing 

 nothing, even by implication, save their 

 sincerity. What was the nature, then, 

 of his responsibility in the matter ? "We 

 answer that he staked, to a certain ex- 

 tent, such literary or philosophical repu- 

 tation as he had, at the time, acquired, 

 and made himself a mark for the criti- 

 cism of all who differed from him in 

 opinion. On the other hand, he did not 

 render himself responsible for all who 

 might adopt his views simply because 

 they were his, or for those who, under 

 any circumstances, accepted them with- 

 out sufficient examination, possibly with- 



