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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



any definite channel, or impressed with 

 any distinct character. The culture of 

 the mind, like the culture of a field, 

 must have an object. We cultivate the 

 field that we may get better crops from 

 it ; we cultivate the mind that it too 

 may yield better fruits. Nature in its 

 spontaneous workings gives us the start- 

 ing-point in both cases. She supplies 

 the wild varieties of grain and other 

 vegetable food, and man by bis art im- 

 proves her gifts, rendering them more 

 adapted to his own special needs. In 

 like manner the mind spontaneously 

 working, without any thought of cult- 

 ure or training, lays hold of the facts 

 which Nature presents to the senses 

 and interprets them from its own stand- 

 point. As the interpretation becomes 

 wider through experience, new facts 

 come into view, and knowledge and 

 thought increase with even step. The 

 object of all culture is, therefore, or 

 should be, to give the power of broadly 

 interpreting the data of sense, to place 

 the individual in the most advantageous 

 position possible for understanding the 

 world in which he lives, and exerting a 

 useful action upon some part of it. A 

 culture that is severed from all ideas of 

 utility is something altogether empty 

 and nebulous; we may go further and 

 say that it is something that tends to 

 corruption. What does the decay of 

 societies through luxury that staple 

 and by no means unreal theme of mor- 

 alizing historians mean, if not the cor- 

 ruption that comes of divorcing cult- 

 ure from service? Knowledge grows, 

 art develops, wealth increases ; and men 

 forget that these should have a social 

 destination and not merely be made 

 ministers to pride and vanity and lust. 

 For want of a healthy outlet for these 

 forces a process of social decomposition 

 sets in, and another page of history 

 draws to a close. 



Every man and woman, therefore, 

 who seeks culture should seek it with 



reference to some definite aim in life, 

 and not to make it serve as mere intel- 

 lectual finery. The time has not yet 

 come when we can safely intermit our 

 efforts for the improvement of the social 

 state ; and all gifts and accomplish- 

 ments can be pressed into the service of 

 mankind, if only the motive for so em- 

 ploying them be present. It is when 

 we consider our talents or our knowl- 

 edge as serving only for our own glori- 

 fication that they spoil on our hands. 

 What more pitiful can be imagined than 

 the small jealousy which is often found 

 animating literary, artistic, and even 

 scientific circles ? It is hard to say 

 whether the mutual admiration or the 

 mutual depreciation of certain devotees 

 of culture is the more ridiculous. All 

 this comes of the " culture for its own 

 sake" theory. Give culture an ulterior 

 end, and it is at once ennobled and jus- 

 tified. The scholar, the man of science, 

 the poet, the painter, the sculptor, the 

 musician, will pursue their several tasks 

 with no less devotion or success for 

 thinking that, however little their work 

 may be comprehended by the world at 

 large, there is that in it in which even the 

 world at large has a practical interest. 

 If a man can not think this that is to 

 say, can not think it truly then his 

 work does net make for culture and 

 might profitably be abandoned. Man 

 lives by his faculties; culture is the en- 

 largement or improvement of faculty in 

 one direction or another, and makes 

 thus for fuller life and deeper corre- 

 spondence between the individual and 

 the world. Governed by a social mo- 

 tive, it will seek to extend its benefits 

 to all as an ultimate aim and will 

 thus be kept fresh, vigorous, and pure. 

 Governed by a selfish motive, it will 

 degenerate into mere self-pleasing, af- 

 fectation, and insincerity, and will never 

 be far removed from moral corruption. 

 The distinction is easily seized, and may 

 profitably be taken to heart. 



