642 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the proper guidance is to be found only in 

 science. For that interpretation of national 

 life, past and present, without which the 

 citizen cannot regulate his conduct, the in- 

 dispensable key is science. Alike for the 

 most perfect production and highest enjoy- 

 ment of art in all its forms, the needful 

 preparation is still science. The question 

 which at first seemed so perplexed has be- 

 come, in the course of our inquiry, compar- 

 atively simple. We have not to estimate 

 the degrees of importance of different orders 

 of human activity and different studies as 

 severally fitting us for them ; since we find 

 that the study of science, in its most com- 

 prehensive meaning, is the best preparation 

 for all these orders of activity. We have 

 not to decide between the claims of knowl- 

 edge of great though conventional value, and 

 knowledge of less though intrinsic value ; 

 seeing that the knowledge which we find to 

 be of most value in all other respects is in- 

 trinsically most valuable ; its worth is not 

 dependent upon opinion, but is as fixed as 

 is the relation of man to the surrounding 

 world. Necessary and eternal as are its 

 truths, all science concerns all mankind for 

 all time. Equally at present, and in the re- 

 motest future, must it be of incalculable im- 

 portance for the regulation of their conduct, 

 that men should understand the science of 

 life, physical, mental, and social : and that 

 they should understand all other science as 

 a key to the science of life." 



CLASSICS AS A PREPARATION FOR 

 ENGLISH. 



The readers of the Monthly may 

 recollect that, in his article in the April 

 number, Mr. Spencer criticised the po- 

 sition taken by Matthew Arnold in re- 

 gard to the needs of English culture. 

 Mr. Arnold is a great admirer of the 

 French Academy, which, he says, was 

 established " to work, with all the care 

 and all the diligence possible, at giving 

 sure rules to our (the French) language, 

 and rendering it pure, eloquent, and ca- 

 pable of treating the arts and sciences," 

 and he thinks something of the kind 

 would be of great service in England. 

 Mr. Spencer pinted out the inefficiency 

 and absurdity of such an attempt at 

 supervision, and prepared a note to the 

 article, which was not printed with it. 



"We insert it here, as it has both a per- 

 sonal interest and a significance in re- 

 lation to classical studies, as a prepara- 

 tion for English : 



"Before leaving the question of 

 Academies and their influences, let me 

 call attention to & fact which makes me 

 doubt whether as a judge of style, con- 

 sidered simply as correct or incorrect, 

 an Academy is to be trusted. Mr. Ar- 

 nold, insisting on propriety of expres- 

 sion, and giving instances of bad taste 

 among our writers, due, as he thinks, 

 to absence of Academic control, tacitly 

 asserts than an Academy, if we had 

 one, would condemn the passages he 

 quotes as deserving condemnation, and, 

 by implication, would approve the pas- 

 sages he quotes as worthy of approval. 

 Let us see to what Mr. Arnold awards 

 his praise. He says: 



' To illustrate what I mean by an ex- 

 ample. Addison, writing as a moralist on 

 fixedness in religious faith, says : 



" Those who delight in reading books of 

 controversy do very seldom arrive at a fixed 

 and settled habit of faith. The doubt which 

 was laid revives again, and shows itself in 

 new difficulties ; and that generally for this 

 reason because the mind, which is perpet- 

 ually tossed in controversies and disputes, 

 is apt to forget the reasons which had once 

 set it at rest, and to be disquieted with any 

 former perplexity when it appears in a new 

 shape, or is started by a different hand." 



' It may be said, that is classical English, 

 perfect in lucidity, measure, and propriety. 

 I make no objection ; but in my turn, I say 

 that the idea expressed is perfectly trite and 

 barren,' etc., etc. 



"In Mr. Arnold's estimate of Ad- 

 dison's thought I coincide entirely; 

 but I cannot join him in applauding 

 the ' classical English ' conveying the 

 thought. Indeed, I am not a little as- 

 tonished that one whose taste in style 

 is proved by his own writing to be so 

 good, and who to his poems especially 

 gives a sculpturesque finish, should 

 have quoted, not simply without con- 

 demnation but with tacit eulogy, a pas- 

 sage full of faults. Let us examine it 

 critically, part by part. 



