EDITOR'S TABLE. 



121 



of social duty throughout the commu- 

 nity, and, above all, a livelier sense of 

 parental responsibility. Let us have 

 these things, and the republic will be 

 safe, and education will begin to be 

 truly humanizing and truly progres- 

 sive. 



A TEST OF PHILOSOPHY. 



Theee is now a pretty decided agree- 

 ment among the intelligent and unpreju- 

 diced that Herbert Spencer takes rank 

 as the first philosopher of England, and 

 G. H. Lewes many years ago declared 

 him to be the only English thinker who 

 has originated a philosophy. How much 

 this may mean is well intimated by the 

 remark of Mr. Lester F. Ward, that, 

 " when we have reached England's 

 greatest in any achievement of mind, 

 we have usually also reached the 

 world's greatest." 



But there is still room to regard the 

 compliment as equivocal, for the ques- 

 tion remains, What is it to be " the first 

 philosopher " ? To be first and alone 

 in a department of thought obviously 

 means little or much, according to the 

 grade of intellectual work involved. 

 Philosophy is a vague term, and, as ex- 

 perience shows, may imply the lowest 

 as well as the highest exercise of the 

 mind. As applied to systems of specu- 

 lation in pre-scientific ages, it no doubt 

 represented the best mental effort then 

 possible. But as applied in these times 

 to similar speculations, with little refer- 

 ence to the rise of modern knowledge, 

 it is not the highest kind of intellectual 

 performance. True philosophy the 

 deepest and largest understanding of 

 things must be so far scientific in 

 spirit and method as to place facts first, 

 and work in subordination to them. 

 The philosophy that is typified by the 

 Concord school, which is most inter- 

 ested in the transcendental, which 

 gives imagination the lead, leaves vul- 

 gar facts to the Gradgrinds, and is as 

 jealous of science as theology, is not 

 a very exalted form of mental exertion, 



and to be first in it is no great compli- 

 ment. Philosophy, to achieve its high- 

 est objects, must now begin with the 

 patient study of long-contemned reali- 

 ties ; must discipline the imagination, 

 must work in subordination to estab- 

 lished knowledge, and aim to bring 

 out profounder truth for the practical 

 guidance of man in ordering the course 

 of his life. 



To be the first philosopher of the 

 foremost nation of the world from this 

 point of view is exalted praise, and this 

 is the position that Mr. Spencer has 

 undoubtedly won. His philosophy is 

 based upon Nature, is limited to Na- 

 ture, is subordinated to science, and is 

 such a presentation of the laws and 

 order of the world as bears imme- 

 diately upon questions of human con- 

 duct. It is synthesis of the principles 

 which become all-determining rules in 

 the practical sphere of human action. 

 It bears upon religion, upon politics, 

 upon education, and upon social and 

 domestic experience, with the authority 

 of science and the full power of a veri- 

 fied system of natural laws. It was 

 long a reproach to Spencer that he un- 

 dertook to deal with so many subjects, 

 but it is now perceived that this was 

 but the inevitable consequence of that 

 comprehensive method which the ad- 

 vance of modern knowledge had made 

 possible and imperative. 



We have been led to these remarks 

 by a circumstance, not in itself of much 

 importance, but which is yet significant 

 as giving a new attestation of the worth 

 of Spencer's philosophy in its practical 

 bearings. Mr. Spencer has applied his 

 philosophical views to the subject of 

 education, and his little treatise upon 

 the subject has been rendered into all 

 the languages of the civilized world. 

 And now, by an appeal made to the 

 judgment of English teachers, the ver- 

 dict has been rendered that the first of 

 English philosophers is also the first of 

 English educators. We see, by the Lon- 

 don " Journal of Education," that an 

 extra prize was offered for the best list 



