SHOULD THESE THINGS BE TAUGHT? 121 



Granted that it is true and intelligible, there 

 needs only to prove that it is important, and the 

 case for teaching it is surely made good. If, then, 

 we analyse our idea of importance and (accepting 

 the usual silly terminology since it conveys the 

 required meaning) ask whether the theory of organic 

 evolution is of importance apart from " mere utility," 

 or is merely of " utilitarian " importance, there 

 can be no hesitation in answering both sections 

 of the question affirmatively. I have repeatedly, in 

 print — not in one place but in many — attempted 

 to provoke some reader to a defence of " history " 

 (falsely so-called) as of superior educative value 

 than that majestic history with which the study of 

 organic evolution is concerned. Hitherto no one, 

 though the provocation has been extreme, has 

 ventured to maintain the proposition that the con- 

 temptible gossip " about persons of no intrinsic 

 worth living or dead," the alliances, the (occasionally 

 accurate) dates, the endless tale of wars about 

 unintelligible dogmas or unintelligent persons, and 

 all the rest of the rubbish-heap of unappreciated 

 or inappreciable facts — misnamed history — can be 

 recommended as a means of culture or an avenue 

 to wisdom, superior to those momentous truths 

 which the past hundred } r ears have revealed to us ; 

 and the discovery of which is the one outstanding 

 event that the wise historian of the distant future will 

 record as the " history " of the nineteenth century. 



As to " practical utility," which some think the 

 only justification for the teaching of anything, 

 whilst others think that it brands a subject as " not 

 fit for a gentleman " — the previous chapters have 



