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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12359-0.txt b/12359-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0baac69 --- /dev/null +++ b/12359-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,945 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12359 *** + +Riverside Educational Monographs + +EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO + +PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON +SEATTLE, WASHINGTON + + + +THE MEANING OF INFANCY + +BY + +JOHN FISKE + + + + +1883 + + + +CONTENTS + +INTRODUCTION + +I. THE MEANING OF INFANCY + From "Excursions of an Evolutionist" + +II. THE PART PLAYED BY INFANCY IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAN + From "A Century of Science" + +OUTLINE + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +The new significance of education + +The last century has witnessed an unprecedented development in the +significance of education. One direct consequence has been an +increased reverence for childhood. In this movement which has +increased the dignity of children and schools, two large forces +have been at work,--one social and the other scientific. The +growth of the democratic spirit among men and institutions has made +the education of children a public necessity, and lifted the school +to a position of high social importance. The application of the +theory of evolution to man and his life has revealed human infancy +as one of the largest factors making for the superiority of man in +the struggle for existence, and given to childhood a vast +biological importance. The necessities of democracy and the truths +of science, acting more or less independently of each other, have +given to education a breadth of meaning which it did not possess +before. They have shown that infancy is the largest opportunity +and education the most powerful instrument for the conscious +adjustment of man to the physical and social world in which he +lives. + + + +_Democracy changes the function of schools_ + +It was the attempt of democracy to educate all of its children +which was the initial and important event that provoked large +changes in our notions of the social function of education. As +long as the school was for the few, and such it was in the less +liberal periods of history, the school tended to be an +authoritative institution with more or less rigid methods of +procedure. With fixed ideas of truth and the means of acquiring +truth, it was to a considerable degree unbending in its attitude +toward youth. Even if freedom from economic toil and social +regulation permitted, only the type of mind that could fit the +school's established institutional ways could endure its discipline +and achieve its rewards. Other types of mentality it would not +receive or retain as students. Under such an organization the +school was selective of a special kind of talent. It was not an +instrument, so adjustable in its methods of appeal and instruction, +that every manner of child could gain considerable of the wisdom of +the world. But when a more democratic order was established, the +function of the school underwent a considerable change. Democracy +granted to all men freedom in manhood; to safeguard its privileges, +it had to educate all men in childhood. The school for selected +scholars had to be transformed into a school for every variety of +citizen. With every child sent to school by order of the state, +the teacher had to forego his traditional aloofness, and to adjust +his methods of teaching so that every member of the enlarged school +community could come into a knowledge of the civilization in which +he lived. With the inclusion of the blind, the deaf, the slow of +mind, and the restless of spirit,--individuals left out of the old +scheme of education and now reverently educated by the new +democratic order in spite of all their defects,--the school becomes +more flexible and variable in its methods of transmitting truth. +More of the knowledge of human life is brought within the +comprehension of children; more men are brought into a large and +sympathetic participation in the activities of our civilization. +In the truest sense the school becomes an instrument of adjustment +between childhood and society. + + + +_Evolutionary thought interprets childhood_ + +If the democratic movement emphasized the factor of social +adjustment in the school's function, it was the scientific movement +of the last half-century which drew attention to infancy as a +superior opportunity for biological adjustment Among all the +contributions of modern evolutionary science to educational +thought, none is, more striking or more far-reaching in its +implications than that special group of generalizations which +states the biological function of a prolonged infancy in man. +Interpreting this period, of helplessness and dependence as one of +plasticity and opportunity, it has shown that the greater power of +man in adjusting himself to the complex conditions of life is due +to his educability, which in turn is the outcome of his lengthened +childhood. This "doctrine of the meaning of infancy," for such it +has been called, is perhaps best known to the teaching profession +through those enlargements and applications of the doctrine which +have been made by Mr. Nicholas Murray Butler in his exposition of +"the meaning of education." As a belief, it is at least as old as +the period of the ancient Greek philosopher, Anaximander. As a +doctrine in our modern thought, it owes its influential +reappearance to certain evolutionary hypotheses of Mr. Alfred +Russel Wallace, which in turn stimulated Mr. John Fiske to that +further inquiry which resulted in those first cogent and extended +statements of the doctrine which have been the basis of so many +subsequent educational applications. + + + +_Mr. Fiske's presentation of the meaning of infancy_ + +Because of the fundamental importance of Mr. Fiske's presentation +of "the doctrine of the meaning of infancy," his views are here +reprinted in detail. The material consists of an essay and an +address. The first of these, "The Meaning of Infancy," is a brief +and simplified restatement of those theories of man's origin and +destiny as first suggested in his lectures at Harvard University in +1871, and later developed more fully in the "Outlines of Cosmic +Philosophy," part II, chapters xvi, xxi, and xxii. The second of +these, "The Part played by Infancy in the Evolution of Man," is an +address delivered by Mr. Fiske as the guest of honor at a dinner at +the Aldine Club, New York, May 13, 1895. Together these two papers +constitute the most detailed and valuable elucidation of the +doctrine that we possess. In offering them to the teaching +profession and the reading public in this form, it is with the +sincere hope that this biological interpretation of childhood and +education will lend a new spiritual dignity to the whole +institution of education. It must certainly be gratifying to those +who are profound believers in the efficacy of education, to note +that its significance is wider than its service to particular +persons and states; that education is, in truth, the conscious and +latest mode of that wider world-evolution which has been in +progress since the beginning of time. + + + + +I + +THE MEANING OF INFANCY + +What is the Meaning of Infancy? What is the meaning of the fact +that man is born into the world more helpless than any other +creature, and needs for a much longer season than any other living +thing the tender care and wise counsel of his elders? It is one of +the most familiar of facts that man alone among animals, exhibits a +capacity for progress. That man is widely different from other +animals in the length of his adolescence and the utter helplessness +of his babyhood, is an equally familiar fact. Now between these +two commonplace facts is there any connection? Is it a mere +accident that the creature which is distinguished as progressive +should also be distinguished as coming slowly to maturity, or is +there a reason lying deep down in the nature of things why this +should be so? I think it can be shown, with very few words, that +between these two facts there is a connection that is deeply +in-wrought with the processes by which life has been evolved upon +the earth. It can be shown that man's progressiveness and the +length of his infancy are but two sides of one and the same fact; +and in showing this, still more will appear. It will appear that +it was the lengthening of infancy which ages ago gradually +converted our forefathers from brute creatures into human +creatures. It is babyhood that has made man what he is. The +simple unaided operation of natural selection could never have +resulted in the origination of the human race. Natural selection +might have gone on forever improving the breed of the highest +animal in many ways, but it could never _unaided_ have started the +process of civilization or have given to man those peculiar +attributes in virtue of which it has been well said that the +difference between him and the highest of apes immeasurably +transcends in value the difference between an ape and a blade of +grass. In order to bring about that wonderful event, the Creation +of Man, natural selection had to call in the aid of other agencies, +and the chief of these agencies was the gradual lengthening of +babyhood. + +Such is the point which I wish to illustrate in few words, and to +indicate some of its bearings on the history of human progress. +Let us first observe what it was then lengthened the infancy of the +highest animal, for then we shall be the better able to understand +the character of the prodigious effects which this infancy has +wrought. A few familiar facts concerning the method in which men +learn how to do things will help us here. + +When we begin to learn to play the piano, we have to devote much +time and thought to the adjustment and movement of our fingers and +to the interpretation of the vast and complicated multitude of +symbols which make up the printed page of music that stands before +us. For a long time, therefore, our attempts are feeble and +stammering and they require the full concentrated power of the +mind. Yet a trained pianist will play a new piece of music at +sight, and perhaps have so much attention to spare that he can talk +with you at the same time. What an enormous number of mental +acquisitions have in this case become almost instinctive or +automatic! It is just so in learning a foreign language, and it +was just the same when in childhood we learned to walk, to talk, +and to write. It is just the same, too, in learning to think about +abstruse subjects. What at first strains the attention to the +utmost, and often wearies us, comes at last to be done without +effort and almost unconsciously. Great minds thus travel over vast +fields of thought with an ease of which they are themselves +unaware. Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch once said that in translating the +"Mecanique Celeste," he had come upon formulas which Laplace +introduced with the word "obviously," where it took nevertheless +many days of hard study to supply the intermediate steps through +which that transcendent mind had passed with one huge leap of +inference. At some time in his youth no doubt Laplace had to think +of these things, just as Rubinstein had once to think how his +fingers should be placed on the keys of the piano; but what was +once the object of conscious attention comes at last to be +well-nigh automatic, while the night of the conscious mind goes on +ever to higher and vaster themes. + +Let us now take a long leap from the highest level of human +intelligence to the mental life of a turtle or a codfish. In what +does the mental life of such creatures consist? It consists of a +few simple acts mostly concerned with the securing of food and the +avoiding of danger, and these few simple acts are repeated with +unvarying monotony during the whole lifetime of these creatures. +Consequently these acts are performed with great ease and are +attended with very little consciousness, and moreover the capacity +to perform them is transmitted from parent to offspring as +completely as the capacity of the stomach to digest food is +transmitted. In all animals the new-born stomach needs but the +contact with food in order to begin digesting, and the new-born +lungs need but the contact with air in order to begin to breathe. +The capacity for performing these perpetually repeated visceral +actions is transmitted in perfection. All the requisite nervous +connections are fully established during the brief embryonic +existence of each creature. In the case of lower animals it is +almost as much so with the few simple actions which make up the +creature's mental life. The bird known as the fly-catcher no +sooner breaks the egg than it will snap at and catch a fly. This +action is not so very simple, but because it is something the bird +is always doing, being indeed one out of the very few things that +this bird ever does, the nervous connections needful for doing it +are all established before birth, and nothing but the presence of +the fly is required to set the operation going. + +With such creatures as the codfish, the turtle, or the fly-catcher, +there is accordingly nothing that can properly be called infancy. +With them the sphere of education is extremely limited. They get +their education before they are born. In other words, heredity +does everything for them, education nothing. The career of the +individual is predetermined by the careers of his ancestors, and he +can do almost nothing to vary it. The life of such creatures is +conservatism cut and dried, and there is nothing progressive about +them. + +In what I just said I left an "almost." There is a great deal of +saving virtue in that little adverb. Doubtless even animals low in +the scale possess some faint traces of educability; but they are so +very slight that it takes geologic ages to produce an appreciable +result. In all the innumerable wanderings, fights, upturnings and +cataclysms of the earth's stupendous career, each creature has been +summoned under penalty of death to use what little wit he may have +had, and the slightest trace of mental flexibility is of such +priceless value in the struggle for existence that natural +selection must always have seized upon it, and sedulously hoarded +and transmitted it for coming generations to strengthen and +increase. With the lapse of geologic time the upper grades of +animal intelligence have doubtless been raised higher and higher +through natural selection. The warm-blooded mammals and birds of +to-day no doubt surpass the cold-blooded dinosaurs of the Jurassic +age in mental qualities as they surpass them in physical structure. +From the codfish and turtle of ancient family to the modern lion, +dog, and monkey, it is a very long step upward. The mental life of +a warm-blooded animal is a very different affair from that of +reptiles and fishes. A squirrel or a bear does a good many things +in the course of his life. He meets various vicissitudes in +various ways; he has adventures. The actions he performs are so +complex and so numerous that they are severally performed with less +frequency than the few actions performed by the codfish. The +requisite nervous connections are accordingly not fully established +before birth. There is not time enough. The nervous connections +needed for the visceral movements and for the few simple +instinctive actions get organized, and then the creature is born +before he has learned how to do all the things his parents could +do. A good many of his nervous connections are not yet formed, +they are only formable. Accordingly he is not quite able to take +care of himself; he must for a time be watched and nursed. All +mammals and most birds have thus a period of babyhood that is not +very long, but is on the whole longest with the most intelligent +creatures. It is especially long with the higher monkeys, and +among the man-like apes it becomes so long as to be strikingly +suggestive. An infant orang-outang, captured by Mr. Wallace, was +still a helpless baby at the age of three months, unable to feed +itself, to walk without aid, or to grasp objects with precision. + +But this period of helplessness has to be viewed under another +aspect. It is a period of plasticity. The creature's career is no +longer exclusively determined by heredity. There is a period after +birth when its character can be slightly modified by what happens +to it after birth, that is, by its experience as an individual. It +becomes educable. It is no longer necessary for each generation to +be exactly like that which has preceded. A door is opened through +which the capacity for progress can enter. Horses and dogs, bears +and elephants, parrots and monkeys, are all teachable to some +extent, and we have even heard of a learned pig. Of learned asses +there has been no lack in the world. + +But this educability of the higher mammals and birds is after all +quite limited. By the beginnings of infancy the door for +progressiveness was set ajar, but it was not all at once thrown +wide open. Conservatism stilt continued in fashion. One +generation of cattle is much like another. It would be easy for +foxes to learn to climb frees, and many a fox might have saved his +life by doing so; yet quickwitted as he is, this obvious device +never seems to have occurred to Reynard. Among slightly teachable +mammals, however, there is one group more teachable than the rest. +Monkeys, with their greater power of handling things, have also +more inquisitiveness and more capacity for sustained attention than +any other mammals; and the higher apes are fertile in varied +resources. The orang-outang and gorilla are for this reason +dreaded by other animals, and roam the undisputed lords of their +native forests. They have probably approached the critical point +where variations in intelligence, always important, have come to be +supremely important, so as to be seized by natural selection in +preference to variations in physical constitution. At some remote +epoch of the past--we cannot say just when or how--our half-human +forefathers reached and passed this critical point, and forthwith +their varied struggles began age after age to result in the +preservation of bigger and better brains, while the rest of their +bodies changed but little. This particular work of natural +selection must have gone on for an enormous length of time, and as +its result we see that while man remains anatomically much like an +ape, be has acquired a vastly greater brain with all that this +implies. Zoologically the distance is small between man and the +chimpanzee; psychologically it has become so great as to be +immeasurable. + +But this steady increase of intelligence, as our forefathers began +to become human, carried with it a steady prolongation of infancy. +As mental life became more complex and various, as the things to be +learned kept ever multiplying, less and less could be done before +birth, more and more must be left to be done in the earlier years +of life. So instead of being born with a few simple capacities +thoroughly organized, man came at last to be born with the germs of +many complex capacities which were reserved to be unfolded and +enhanced or checked and stifled by the incidents of personal +experience in each individual. In this simple yet wonderful way +there has been provided for man a long period during which his mind +is plastic and malleable, and the length of this period has +increased with civilization until it now covers nearly one third of +our lives. It is not that our inherited tendencies and aptitudes +are not still the main thing. It is only that we have at last +acquired great power to modify them by training, so that progress +may go on with ever-increasing sureness and rapidity. + +In thus pointing out the causes of infancy, we have at the same +time witnessed some of its effects. One effect, of stupendous +importance, remains to be pointed out. As helpless babyhood came +more and more to depend on parental care, the correlated feelings +were developed on the part of parents, and the fleeting sexual +relations established among mammals in general were gradually +exchanged for permanent relations. A cow feels strong maternal +affection for her nursing calf, but after the calf is fully grown, +though doubtless she distinguishes it from other members of the +herd, it is not clear that she entertains for it any parental +feeling. But with our half-human forefathers it is not difficult +to see how infancy extending over several years must have tended +gradually to strengthen the relations of the children to the +mother, and eventually to both parents, and thus give rise to the +permanent organization of the family. When this step was +accomplished we may say that the Creation of Man had been achieved. +For through the organization of the family has arisen that of the +clan or tribe, which has formed, as it were, the cellular tissue +out of which the most complex human society has come to be +constructed. And out of that subordination of individual desires +to the common interest, which first received a definite direction +when the family was formed, there grew the rude beginnings of human +morality. + +It was thus through the lengthening of his infancy that the highest +of animals came to be Man,--a creature with definite social +relationships and with an element of plasticity in his organization +such as has come at last to make his difference from all other +animals a difference in kind. Here at last there had come upon the +scene a creature endowed with the capacity for progress, and a new +chapter was thus opened in the history of creation. But it was not +to be expected that man should all at once learn how to take +advantage of this capacity. Nature, which is said to make no +jumps, surely did not jump here. The whole history of +civilization, indeed, is largely the history of man's awkward and +stumbling efforts to avail himself of this flexibility of mental +constitution with which God has endowed him. For many a weary age +the progress men achieved was feeble and halting. Though it had +ceased to be physically necessary for each generation to tread +exactly in the steps of its predecessor, yet the circumstances of +primitive society long made it very difficult for any deviation to +be effected. For the tribes of primitive men were perpetually at +war with each other, and their methods of tribal discipline were +military methods. To allow much freedom of thought would be +perilous, and the whole tribe was supposed to be responsible for +the words and deeds of each of its members. The tribes most +rigorous in this stern discipline were those which killed out +tribes more loosely organized, and thus survived to hand down to +coming generations their ideas and their methods. From this state +of things an intense social conservatism was begotten,--a strong +disposition on the part of society to destroy the flexible-minded +individual who dares to think and behave differently from his +fellows. During the past three thousand years much has been done +to weaken this conservatism by putting an end to the state of +things which produced it. As great and strong societies have +arisen, as the sphere of warfare has diminished while the sphere of +industry has enlarged, the need for absolute conformity has ceased +to be felt, while the advantages of freedom and variety come to be +ever more clearly apparent. At a late stage of civilization, the +flexible or plastic society acquires even a military advantage over +the society that is more rigid, as in the struggle between French +and English civilization for primacy in the world. In our own +country, the political birth of which dates from the triumph of +England in that mighty struggle, the element of plasticity in man's +nature is more thoroughly heeded, more fully taken account of, than +in any other community known to history; and herein lies the chief +potency of our promise for the future. We have come to the point +where we are beginning to see that we may safely depart from +unreasoning routine, and, with perfect freedom of thinking in +science and in religion, with new methods of education that shall +train our children to think for themselves while they interrogate +Nature with a courage and an insight that shall grow ever bolder +and keener, we may ere long be able fully to avail ourselves of the +fact that we come into the world as little children with +undeveloped powers wherein lie latent all the boundless +possibilities of a higher and grander Humanity than has yet been +seen upon the earth. + + + + +II + +THE PART PLAYED BY INFANCY IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAN + +The remarks which my friend Mr. Clark has made with reference to +the reconciling of science and religion seem to carry me back to +the days when I first became acquainted with the fact that there +were such things afloat in the world as speculations about the +origin of man from lower forms of life; and I can recall step by +step various stages in which that old question has come to have a +different look from what it had thirty years ago. One of the +commonest objections we used to hear, from the mouths of persons +who could not very well give voice to any other objection, was that +anybody, whether he knows much or little about evolution, must have +the feeling that there is something degrading about being allied +with lower forms of life. That was, I suppose, owing to the +survival of the old feeling that a dignified product of creation +ought to have been produced in some exceptional way. That which +was done in the ordinary way, that which was done through ordinary +processes of causation, seemed to be cheapened and to lose its +value. It was a remnant of the old state of feeling which took +pleasure in miracles, which seemed to think that the object of +thought was more dignified if you could connect it with something +supernatural; that state of culture in which there was an +altogether inadequate appreciation of the amount of grandeur that +there might be in the slow creative work that goes on noiselessly +by little minute increments, even as the dropping of the water that +wears away the stone. The general progress of familiarity with the +conception of evolution has done a great deal to change that state +of mind. Even persons who have not much acquaintance with science +have at length caught something of its lesson,--that the infinitely +cumulative action of small causes like those which we know is +capable of producing results of the grandest and most thrilling +importance, and that the disposition to recur to the cataclysmic +and miraculous is only a tendency of the childish mind which we are +outgrowing with wider experience. + +The whole doctrine of evolution, and in fact the whole advance of +modern science from the days of Copernicus down to the present day, +have consisted in the substitution of processes which are familiar +and the application of those processes, showing how they produce +great results. + +When Darwin's "Origin of Species" was first published, when it gave +us that wonderful explanation of the origin of forms of life from +allied forms through the operation of natural selection, it must +have been like a mental illumination to every person who +comprehended it. But after all it left a great many questions +unexplained, as was natural. It accounted for the phenomena of +organic development in general with wonderful success, but it must +have left a great many minds with the feeling: If man has been +produced in this way, if the mere operation of natural selection +has produced the human race, wherein is the human race anyway +essentially different from lower races? Is not man really +dethroned, taken down from that exceptional position in which we +have been accustomed to place him, and might it not be possible, in +the course of the future, for other beings to come upon the earth +as far superior to man as man is superior to the fossilized dragons +of Jurassic antiquity? + +Such questions used to be asked, and when they were asked, although +one might have a very strong feeling that it was not so, at the +same time one could not exactly say why. One could not then find +any scientific argument for objections to that point of view. But +with the further development of the question the whole subject +began gradually to wear a different appearance; and I am going to +give you a little bit of autobiography, because I think it may be +of some interest in this connection. I am going to mention two or +three of the successive stages which the whole question took in my +own mind as one thing came up after another, and how from time to +time it began to dawn upon me that I had up to that point been +looking at the problem from not exactly the right point of view. + +When Darwin's "Descent of Man" was published in 1871, it was of +course a book characterized by all his immense learning, his +wonderful fairness of spirit and fertility of suggestion. Still, +one could not but feel that it did not solve the question of the +origin of man. There was one great contrast between that book and +his "Origin of Species." In the earlier treatise he undertook to +point out a _vera causa_ of the origin of species, and he did it. +In his "Descent of Man" he brought together a great many minor +generalizations which facilitated the understanding of man's +origin. But he did not come at all near to solving the central +problem, nor did he anywhere show clearly why natural selection +might not have gone on forever producing one set of beings after +another distinguishable chiefly by physical differences. But +Darwin's co-discoverer, Alfred Russel Wallace, at an early stage in +his researches, struck out a most brilliant and pregnant +suggestion. In that one respect Wallace went further than ever +Darwin did. It was a point of which, indeed, Darwin admitted the +importance. It was a point of which nobody could fail to +understand the importance, that in the course of the evolution of a +very highly organized animal, if there came a point at which it was +of more advantage to that animal to have variations in his +intelligence seized upon and improved by natural selection than to +have physical changes seized upon, then natural selection would +begin working almost exclusively upon that creature's intelligence, +and he would develop in intelligence to a great extent, while his +physical organism would change but slightly. Now, that of course +applied to the case of man, who is changed physically but very +slightly from the apes, while he has traversed intellectually such +a stupendous chasm. + +As soon as this statement was made by Wallace, it seemed to me to +open up an entirely new world of speculation. There was this +enormous antiquity of man, during the greater part of which he did +not know enough to make history. We see man existing here on the +earth, no one can say how long, but surely many hundreds of +thousands of years, yet only during just the last little fringe of +four or five thousand years has he arrived at the point where he +makes history. Before that, something was going on, a great many +things were going on, while his ancestors were slowly growing up to +that point of intelligence where it began to make itself felt in +the recording of events. This agrees with Wallace's suggestion of +a long period of psychical change, accompanied by slight physical +change. + +Well, in the spring of 1871, when Darwin's "Descent of Man" came +out, just about the same time I happened to be reading Wallace's +account of his experiences in the Malay Archipelago, and how at one +time he caught a female orang-outang with a new-born baby, and the +mother died, and Wallace brought up the baby orang-outang by hand; +and this baby orang-outang had a kind of infancy which was a great +deal longer than that of a cow or a sheep, but it was nothing +compared to human infancy in length. This little orang-outang +could not get up and march around, as mammals of less intelligence +do, when he was first born, or within three or four days; but after +three or four weeks or so he would get up, and begin taking hold of +something and pushing it around, just as children push a chair; and +he went through a period of staring at his hands, as human babies +do, and altogether was a good deal slower in getting to the point +where he could take care of himself. And while I was reading of +that I thought, Dear me! if there is any one thing in which the +human race is signally distinguished from other mammals, it is in +the enormous duration of their infancy; but it is a point that I do +not recollect ever seeing any naturalist so much as allude to. + +It happened at just that time that I was making researches in +psychology about the organization of experiences, the way in which +conscious intelligent action can pass down into quasi-automatic +action, the generation of instincts, and various allied questions; +and I thought, Can it be that the increase of intelligence in an +animal, if carried beyond a certain point, must necessarily result +in prolongation of the period of infancy,--must necessarily result +in the birth of the mammal at a less developed stage, leaving +something to be done, leaving a good deal to be done, after birth? +And then the argument seemed to come along very naturally, that for +every action of life, every adjustment which a creature makes in +life, whether a muscular adjustment or an intelligent adjustment, +there has got to be some registration effected in the nervous +system, some line of transit worn for nervous force to follow; +there has got to be a connection between certain nerve-centres +before the thing can be done, whether it is the acts of the viscera +or the acts of the limbs, or anything of that sort; and of course +it is obvious that if the creature has not many things to register +in his nervous system, if he has a life which is very simple, +consisting of few actions that are performed with great frequency, +that animal becomes almost automatic in his whole life; and all the +nervous connections that need to be made to enable him to carry on +life get made during the foetal period or during the egg period, +and when he comes to be born, he comes all ready to go to work. As +one result of this, he does not learn from individual experience, +but one generation is like the preceding generations, with here and +there some slight modifications. But when you get the creature +that has arrived at the point where his experience has become +varied, he has got to do a good many things, and there is more or +less individuality about them; and many of them are not performed +with the same minuteness and regularity, so that there does not +begin to be that automatism within the period during which he is +being developed and his form is taking on its outlines. During +prenatal life there is not time enough for all these nervous +registrations, and so by degrees it comes about that he is born +with his nervous system perfectly capable only of making him +breathe and digest food,--of making him do the things absolutely +requisite for supporting life; instead of being born with a certain +number of definite developed capacities, he has a number of +potentialities which have got to be roused according to his own +individual experience. Pursuing that line of thought, it began +after a while to seem clear to me that the infancy of the animal in +a very undeveloped condition, with the larger part of his faculties +in potentiality rather than in actuality, was a direct result of +the increase of intelligence, and I began to see that now we have +two steps: first, natural selection goes on increasing the +intelligence; and secondly, when the intelligence goes far enough, +it makes a longer infancy, a creature is born less developed, and +therefore there comes this plastic period during which he is more +teachable. The capacity for progress begins to come in, and you +begin to get at one of the great points in which man is +distinguished from the lower animals, for one of those points is +undoubtedly his progressiveness; and I think that any one will say, +with very little hesitation, that if it were not for our period of +infancy we should not be progressive. If we came into the world +with our capacities all cut and dried, one generation would be very +much like another. + +Then, looking round to see what are the other points which are most +important in which man differs from the lower animals, there comes +that matter of the family. The family has adumbrations and +foreshadowings among the lower animals, but in general it may be +said that while mammals lower than man are gregarious, in man have +become established those peculiar relationships which constitute +what we know as the family; and it is easy to see how the existence +of helpless infants would bring about just that state of things. +The necessity of caring for the infants would prolong the period of +maternal affection, and would tend to keep the father and mother +and children together, but it would tend especially to keep the +mother and children together. This business of the marital +relations was not really a thing that became adjusted in the +primitive ages of man, but it has become adjusted in the course of +civilization. Real monogamy, real faithfulness of the male parent, +belongs to a comparatively advanced stage; but in the early stages +the knitting together of permanent relations between mother and +infant, and the approximation toward steady relations on the part +of the male parent, came to bring about the family, and gradually +to knit those organizations which we know as clans. + +Here we come to another stage, another step forward. The instant +society becomes organized in clans, natural selection cannot let +these clans be broken up and die out,--the clan becomes the chief +object or care of natural selection, because if you destroy it you +retrograde again, you lose all you have gained; consequently, those +clans in which the primeval selfish instincts were so modified that +the individual conduct would be subordinated to some extent to the +needs of the clan,--those are the ones which would prevail in the +struggle for life. In this way you gradually get an external +standard to which man has to conform his conduct, and you get the +germs of altruism and morality; and in the prolonged affectionate +relation between the mother and the infant you get the opportunity +for that development of altruistic feeling which, once started in +those relations, comes into play in the more general relations, and +makes more feasible and more workable the bonds which keep society +together, and enable it to unite on wider and wider terms. + +So it seems that from a very small beginning we are reaching a very +considerable result. I had got these facts pretty clearly worked +out, and carried them around with me some years, before a, fresh +conclusion came over me one day with a feeling of surprise. In the +old days before the Copernican astronomy was promulgated, man +regarded himself as the centre of the universe. He used to +entertain theological systems which conformed to his limited +knowledge of nature. The universe seemed to be made for his uses, +the earth seemed to have been fitted up for his dwelling place, he +occupied the centre of creation, the sun was made to give him +light, etc. When Copernicus overthrew that view, the effect upon +theology was certainly tremendous. I do not believe that justice +has ever been done to the shock that it gave to man when he was +made to realize that he occupied a kind of miserable little clod of +dirt in the universe, and that there were so many other worlds +greater than this. It was one of the first great shocks involved +in the change from ancient to modern scientific views, and I do not +doubt it was responsible for a great deal of the pessimistic +philosophizing that came in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries. + +Now, it flashed upon me a dozen years or so ago--after thinking +about this manner in which man originated--that man occupies +certainly just as exceptional a position as before, if he is the +terminal in a long series of evolutionary events. If at the end of +the long history of evolution comes man, if this whole secular +process has been going on to produce this supreme object, it does +not much matter what kind of a cosmical body he lives on. He is +put back into the old position of theological importance, and in a +much more intelligent way than in the old days when he was supposed +to occupy the centre of the universe. We are enabled to say that +while there is no doubt of the evolutionary process going on +throughout countless ages which we know nothing about, yet in the +one case where it is brought home to us we spell out an +intelligible story, and we do find things working along up to man +as a terminal fact in the whole process. This is indeed a +consistent conclusion from Wallace's suggestion that natural +selection, in working toward the genesis of man, began to follow a +new path and make psychical changes instead of physical changes. +Obviously, here you are started upon a new chapter in the history +of the universe. It is no longer going to be necessary to shape +new limbs, and to thicken the skin and make new growths of hair, +when man has learned how to build a fire, when he can take some +other animal's hide and make it into clothes. You have got to a +new state of things. + +After I had put together all these additional circumstances with +regard to the origination of human society and the development of +altruism, I began to see a little further into the matter. It then +began to appear that not only is man the terminal factor in a long +process of evolution, but in the origination of man there began the +development of the higher psychical attributes, and those +attributes are coming to play a greater and greater part in the +development of the human race. Just take this mere matter of +"altruism," as we call it. It is not a pretty word, but must serve +for want of a better. In the development of altruism from the low +point, where there was scarcely enough to hold the clan together, +up to the point reached at the present day, there has been a +notable progress, but there is still room for an enormous amount of +improvement. The progress has been all in the direction of +bringing out what we call the higher spiritual attributes. The +feeling was now more strongly impressed upon me than ever, that all +these things tended to set the whole doctrine of evolution into +harmony with religion; that if the past through which man had +originated was such as has been described, then religion was a fit +and worthy occupation for man, and some of the assumptions which +underlie every system of religion must be true. For example, with +regard to the assumption that what we see of the present life is +not the whole thing; that there is a spiritual side of the question +beside the material side; that, in short, there is for man a life +eternal. When I wrote the "Destiny of Man," all that I ventured to +say was, that it did not seem quite compatible with ordinary common +sense to suppose that so much pains would have been taken to +produce a merely ephemeral result. But since then another argument +has occurred to me: that just at the time when the human race was +beginning to come upon the scene, when the germs of morality were +coming in with the family, when society was taking its first start, +there came into the human mind--how one can hardly say, but there +did come--the beginnings of a groping after something that lies +outside and beyond the world of sense. That groping after a +spiritual world has been going on here for much more than a hundred +thousand years, and it has played an enormous part in the history +of mankind, in the whole development of human society. Nobody can +imagine what mankind would have been without it up to the present +time. Either all religion has been a reaching out for a phantom +that does not exist, or a reaching out after something that does +exist, but of which man, with his limited intelligence, has only +been able to gain a crude idea. And the latter seems a far more +probable conclusion, because, if it is not so, it constitutes a +unique exception to all the operations of evolution we know about. +As a general thing in the whole history of evolution, when you see +any internal adjustment reaching out toward something, it is in +order to adapt itself to something that really exists; and if the +religious cravings of man constitute an exception, they are the one +thing in the whole process of evolution that is exceptional and +different from all the rest. And this is surely an argument of +stupendous and resistless weight. + +I take this autobiographical way of referring to these things, in +the order in which they came before my mind, for the sake of +illustration. The net result of the whole is to put evolution in +harmony with religious thought,--not necessarily in harmony with +particular religious dogmas or theories, but in harmony with the +great religious drift, so that the antagonism which used to appear +to exist between religion and science is likely to disappear. So I +think it will before a great while. If you take the case of some +evolutionist like Professor Haeckel, who is perfectly sure that +materialism accounts for everything (he has got it all cut and +dried and settled; he knows all about it, so that there is really +no need of discussing the subject!); if you ask the question +whether it was his scientific study of evolution that really led +him to such a dogmatic conclusion, or whether it was that he +started from some purely arbitrary assumption, like the French +materialists of the eighteenth century, I have no doubt the latter +would be the true explanation. There are a good many people who +start on their theories of evolution with these ultimate questions +all settled to begin with. It was the most natural thing in the +world that after the first assaults of science upon old beliefs, +after a certain number of Bible stories and a certain number of +church doctrines had been discredited, there should be a school of +men who in sheer weariness should settle down to scientific +researches, and say, "We content ourselves with what we can prove +by the methods of physical science, and we will throw everything +else overboard." That was very much the state of mind of the +famous French atheists of the last century. But only think how +chaotic nature was to their minds compared to what she is to our +minds to-day. Just think how we have in the present century +arrived where we can see the bearings of one set of facts in nature +as collated with another set of facts, and contrast it with the +view which even the greatest of those scientific French +materialists could take. Consider how fragmentary and how lacking +in arrangement was the universe they saw compared with the universe +we can see to-day, and it is not strange that to them it could be +an atheistic world. That hostility between science and religion +continued as long as religion was linked hand in hand with the +ancient doctrine of special creation. But now that the religious +world has unmoored itself, now that it is beginning to see the +truth and beauty of natural science and to look with friendship +upon conceptions of evolution, I suspect that this temporary +antagonism, which we have fallen into a careless way of regarding +as an everlasting antagonism, will come to an end perhaps quicker +than we realize. + +There is one point that is of great interest in this connection, +although I can only hint at it. Among the things that happened in +that dim past when man was coming into existence was the increase +of his powers of manipulation; and that was a factor of immense +importance. Anaxagoras, it is said, wrote a treatise in which he +maintained that the human race would never have become human if it +had not been for the hand. I do not know that there was so very +much exaggeration about that. It was certainly of great +significance that the particular race of mammals whose intelligence +increased far enough to make it worth while for natural selection +to work upon intelligence alone was the race which had developed +hands and could manipulate things. It was a wonderful era in the +history of creation when that creature could take a club and use it +for a hammer, or could pry up a stone with a stake, thus adding one +more lever to the levers that made up his arm. From that day to +this, the career of man has been that of a person who has operated +upon his environment in a different way from any animal before him. +An era of similar importance came probably somewhat later, when man +learned how to build a fire and cook his food; thus initiating that +course of culinary development of which we have seen the climax in +our dainty dinner this evening. Here was another means of acting +upon the environment. Here was the beginning of the working of +endless physical and chemical changes through the application of +heat, just as the first use of the club or the crowbar was the +beginning of an enormous development in the mechanical arts. + +Now, at the same time, to go back once more into that dim past, +when ethics and religion, manual art and scientific thought, found +expression in the crudest form of myths, the aesthetic sense was +germinating likewise. Away back in the glacial period you find +pictures drawn and scratched upon the reindeer's antler, +portraitures of mammoths and primitive pictures of the chase; you +see the trinkets, the personal decorations, proving beyond question +that the aesthetic sense was there. There has been an immense +aesthetic development since then. And I believe that in the future +it is going to mean far more to us than we have yet begun to +realize. I refer to the kind of training that comes to mankind +through direct operation upon his environment, the incarnation of +his thought, the putting of his ideas into new material relations. +This is going to exert powerful effects of a civilizing kind. +There is something strongly educational and disciplinary in the +mere dealing with matter, whether it be in the manual training +school, whether it be in carpentry, in overcoming the inherent and +total depravity of inanimate things, shaping them to your will, and +also in learning to subject yourself to their will (for sometimes +you must do that in order to achieve your conquests; in other +words, you must humour their habits and proclivities). In all this +there is a priceless discipline, moral as well as mental, let alone +the fact that, in whatever kind of artistic work a man does, he is +doing that which in the very working has in it an element of +something outside of egoism; even if he is doing it for motives not +very altruistic, he is working toward a result the end of which is +the gratification or the benefit of other persons than himself; he +is working toward some result which in a measure depends upon their +approval, and to that extent tends to bring him into closer +relations to his fellow man. + +In the future, to an even greater extent than in the recent past, +crude labour will be replaced by mechanical contrivances. The kind +of labour which can command its price is the kind which has trained +intelligence behind it. One of the great needs of our time is the +multiplication of skilled and special labour. The demand for the +products of intelligence is far greater than that for mere crude +products of labour, and it will be more and more so. For there +comes a time when the latter products have satisfied the limit to +which a man can consume food and drink and shelter,--those things +which merely keep the animal alive. But to those things which +minister to the requirements of the spiritual side of a man, there +is almost no limit. The demand one can conceive is well-nigh +infinite. One of the philosophical things that have been said, in +discriminating man from the lower animals, is that he is the one +creature who is never satisfied. It is well for him that he is so, +that there is always something more for which he craves. To my +mind, this fact most strongly hints that man is infinitely more +than a mere animate machine. + + + + + OUTLINE + + I. THE MEANING OF INFANCY + + 1. The relation between progress and infancy + 2. Man's method of learning + 3. The mental inheritance of animals + 4. Infancy and educability of animals + 5. Infancy is a period of plasticity + 6. Educability varies widely in different creatures + 7. Increased intelligence means prolonged infancy + 8. The socializing effects of infancy + 9. The use of this capacity for progress in the past + + + II. THE PART PLAYED BY INFANCY IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAN + + 1. The grandeur of natural causation + 2. The problem of man's ascendancy + 3. Natural selection seizes on intelligence + 4. A long infancy characteristic of man + 5. A complex life requires a longer infancy + 6. Infancy fosters sociability and the family + 7. Group life increases the social and moral bonds + 8. Spiritual man is evolution's terminal factor + 9. Man marks a development along new lines + 10. Hand-work in the evolution of intelligence + 11. The educational value of aesthetic effort + 12. Man's spirituality is prophetic of his destiny + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Meaning of Infancy, by John Fiske + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12359 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..691e90c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12359 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12359) diff --git a/old/12359.txt b/old/12359.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e16df0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12359.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1363 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Meaning of Infancy, by John Fiske + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Meaning of Infancy + +Author: John Fiske + +Release Date: May 15, 2004 [EBook #12359] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEANING OF INFANCY *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + +Riverside Educational Monographs + +EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO + +PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON +SEATTLE, WASHINGTON + + + +THE MEANING OF INFANCY + +BY + +JOHN FISKE + + + + +1883 + + + +CONTENTS + +INTRODUCTION + +I. THE MEANING OF INFANCY + From "Excursions of an Evolutionist" + +II. THE PART PLAYED BY INFANCY IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAN + From "A Century of Science" + +OUTLINE + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +The new significance of education + +The last century has witnessed an unprecedented development in the +significance of education. One direct consequence has been an +increased reverence for childhood. In this movement which has +increased the dignity of children and schools, two large forces +have been at work,--one social and the other scientific. The +growth of the democratic spirit among men and institutions has made +the education of children a public necessity, and lifted the school +to a position of high social importance. The application of the +theory of evolution to man and his life has revealed human infancy +as one of the largest factors making for the superiority of man in +the struggle for existence, and given to childhood a vast +biological importance. The necessities of democracy and the truths +of science, acting more or less independently of each other, have +given to education a breadth of meaning which it did not possess +before. They have shown that infancy is the largest opportunity +and education the most powerful instrument for the conscious +adjustment of man to the physical and social world in which he +lives. + + + +_Democracy changes the function of schools_ + +It was the attempt of democracy to educate all of its children +which was the initial and important event that provoked large +changes in our notions of the social function of education. As +long as the school was for the few, and such it was in the less +liberal periods of history, the school tended to be an +authoritative institution with more or less rigid methods of +procedure. With fixed ideas of truth and the means of acquiring +truth, it was to a considerable degree unbending in its attitude +toward youth. Even if freedom from economic toil and social +regulation permitted, only the type of mind that could fit the +school's established institutional ways could endure its discipline +and achieve its rewards. Other types of mentality it would not +receive or retain as students. Under such an organization the +school was selective of a special kind of talent. It was not an +instrument, so adjustable in its methods of appeal and instruction, +that every manner of child could gain considerable of the wisdom of +the world. But when a more democratic order was established, the +function of the school underwent a considerable change. Democracy +granted to all men freedom in manhood; to safeguard its privileges, +it had to educate all men in childhood. The school for selected +scholars had to be transformed into a school for every variety of +citizen. With every child sent to school by order of the state, +the teacher had to forego his traditional aloofness, and to adjust +his methods of teaching so that every member of the enlarged school +community could come into a knowledge of the civilization in which +he lived. With the inclusion of the blind, the deaf, the slow of +mind, and the restless of spirit,--individuals left out of the old +scheme of education and now reverently educated by the new +democratic order in spite of all their defects,--the school becomes +more flexible and variable in its methods of transmitting truth. +More of the knowledge of human life is brought within the +comprehension of children; more men are brought into a large and +sympathetic participation in the activities of our civilization. +In the truest sense the school becomes an instrument of adjustment +between childhood and society. + + + +_Evolutionary thought interprets childhood_ + +If the democratic movement emphasized the factor of social +adjustment in the school's function, it was the scientific movement +of the last half-century which drew attention to infancy as a +superior opportunity for biological adjustment Among all the +contributions of modern evolutionary science to educational +thought, none is, more striking or more far-reaching in its +implications than that special group of generalizations which +states the biological function of a prolonged infancy in man. +Interpreting this period, of helplessness and dependence as one of +plasticity and opportunity, it has shown that the greater power of +man in adjusting himself to the complex conditions of life is due +to his educability, which in turn is the outcome of his lengthened +childhood. This "doctrine of the meaning of infancy," for such it +has been called, is perhaps best known to the teaching profession +through those enlargements and applications of the doctrine which +have been made by Mr. Nicholas Murray Butler in his exposition of +"the meaning of education." As a belief, it is at least as old as +the period of the ancient Greek philosopher, Anaximander. As a +doctrine in our modern thought, it owes its influential +reappearance to certain evolutionary hypotheses of Mr. Alfred +Russel Wallace, which in turn stimulated Mr. John Fiske to that +further inquiry which resulted in those first cogent and extended +statements of the doctrine which have been the basis of so many +subsequent educational applications. + + + +_Mr. Fiske's presentation of the meaning of infancy_ + +Because of the fundamental importance of Mr. Fiske's presentation +of "the doctrine of the meaning of infancy," his views are here +reprinted in detail. The material consists of an essay and an +address. The first of these, "The Meaning of Infancy," is a brief +and simplified restatement of those theories of man's origin and +destiny as first suggested in his lectures at Harvard University in +1871, and later developed more fully in the "Outlines of Cosmic +Philosophy," part II, chapters xvi, xxi, and xxii. The second of +these, "The Part played by Infancy in the Evolution of Man," is an +address delivered by Mr. Fiske as the guest of honor at a dinner at +the Aldine Club, New York, May 13, 1895. Together these two papers +constitute the most detailed and valuable elucidation of the +doctrine that we possess. In offering them to the teaching +profession and the reading public in this form, it is with the +sincere hope that this biological interpretation of childhood and +education will lend a new spiritual dignity to the whole +institution of education. It must certainly be gratifying to those +who are profound believers in the efficacy of education, to note +that its significance is wider than its service to particular +persons and states; that education is, in truth, the conscious and +latest mode of that wider world-evolution which has been in +progress since the beginning of time. + + + + +I + +THE MEANING OF INFANCY + +What is the Meaning of Infancy? What is the meaning of the fact +that man is born into the world more helpless than any other +creature, and needs for a much longer season than any other living +thing the tender care and wise counsel of his elders? It is one of +the most familiar of facts that man alone among animals, exhibits a +capacity for progress. That man is widely different from other +animals in the length of his adolescence and the utter helplessness +of his babyhood, is an equally familiar fact. Now between these +two commonplace facts is there any connection? Is it a mere +accident that the creature which is distinguished as progressive +should also be distinguished as coming slowly to maturity, or is +there a reason lying deep down in the nature of things why this +should be so? I think it can be shown, with very few words, that +between these two facts there is a connection that is deeply +in-wrought with the processes by which life has been evolved upon +the earth. It can be shown that man's progressiveness and the +length of his infancy are but two sides of one and the same fact; +and in showing this, still more will appear. It will appear that +it was the lengthening of infancy which ages ago gradually +converted our forefathers from brute creatures into human +creatures. It is babyhood that has made man what he is. The +simple unaided operation of natural selection could never have +resulted in the origination of the human race. Natural selection +might have gone on forever improving the breed of the highest +animal in many ways, but it could never _unaided_ have started the +process of civilization or have given to man those peculiar +attributes in virtue of which it has been well said that the +difference between him and the highest of apes immeasurably +transcends in value the difference between an ape and a blade of +grass. In order to bring about that wonderful event, the Creation +of Man, natural selection had to call in the aid of other agencies, +and the chief of these agencies was the gradual lengthening of +babyhood. + +Such is the point which I wish to illustrate in few words, and to +indicate some of its bearings on the history of human progress. +Let us first observe what it was then lengthened the infancy of the +highest animal, for then we shall be the better able to understand +the character of the prodigious effects which this infancy has +wrought. A few familiar facts concerning the method in which men +learn how to do things will help us here. + +When we begin to learn to play the piano, we have to devote much +time and thought to the adjustment and movement of our fingers and +to the interpretation of the vast and complicated multitude of +symbols which make up the printed page of music that stands before +us. For a long time, therefore, our attempts are feeble and +stammering and they require the full concentrated power of the +mind. Yet a trained pianist will play a new piece of music at +sight, and perhaps have so much attention to spare that he can talk +with you at the same time. What an enormous number of mental +acquisitions have in this case become almost instinctive or +automatic! It is just so in learning a foreign language, and it +was just the same when in childhood we learned to walk, to talk, +and to write. It is just the same, too, in learning to think about +abstruse subjects. What at first strains the attention to the +utmost, and often wearies us, comes at last to be done without +effort and almost unconsciously. Great minds thus travel over vast +fields of thought with an ease of which they are themselves +unaware. Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch once said that in translating the +"Mecanique Celeste," he had come upon formulas which Laplace +introduced with the word "obviously," where it took nevertheless +many days of hard study to supply the intermediate steps through +which that transcendent mind had passed with one huge leap of +inference. At some time in his youth no doubt Laplace had to think +of these things, just as Rubinstein had once to think how his +fingers should be placed on the keys of the piano; but what was +once the object of conscious attention comes at last to be +well-nigh automatic, while the night of the conscious mind goes on +ever to higher and vaster themes. + +Let us now take a long leap from the highest level of human +intelligence to the mental life of a turtle or a codfish. In what +does the mental life of such creatures consist? It consists of a +few simple acts mostly concerned with the securing of food and the +avoiding of danger, and these few simple acts are repeated with +unvarying monotony during the whole lifetime of these creatures. +Consequently these acts are performed with great ease and are +attended with very little consciousness, and moreover the capacity +to perform them is transmitted from parent to offspring as +completely as the capacity of the stomach to digest food is +transmitted. In all animals the new-born stomach needs but the +contact with food in order to begin digesting, and the new-born +lungs need but the contact with air in order to begin to breathe. +The capacity for performing these perpetually repeated visceral +actions is transmitted in perfection. All the requisite nervous +connections are fully established during the brief embryonic +existence of each creature. In the case of lower animals it is +almost as much so with the few simple actions which make up the +creature's mental life. The bird known as the fly-catcher no +sooner breaks the egg than it will snap at and catch a fly. This +action is not so very simple, but because it is something the bird +is always doing, being indeed one out of the very few things that +this bird ever does, the nervous connections needful for doing it +are all established before birth, and nothing but the presence of +the fly is required to set the operation going. + +With such creatures as the codfish, the turtle, or the fly-catcher, +there is accordingly nothing that can properly be called infancy. +With them the sphere of education is extremely limited. They get +their education before they are born. In other words, heredity +does everything for them, education nothing. The career of the +individual is predetermined by the careers of his ancestors, and he +can do almost nothing to vary it. The life of such creatures is +conservatism cut and dried, and there is nothing progressive about +them. + +In what I just said I left an "almost." There is a great deal of +saving virtue in that little adverb. Doubtless even animals low in +the scale possess some faint traces of educability; but they are so +very slight that it takes geologic ages to produce an appreciable +result. In all the innumerable wanderings, fights, upturnings and +cataclysms of the earth's stupendous career, each creature has been +summoned under penalty of death to use what little wit he may have +had, and the slightest trace of mental flexibility is of such +priceless value in the struggle for existence that natural +selection must always have seized upon it, and sedulously hoarded +and transmitted it for coming generations to strengthen and +increase. With the lapse of geologic time the upper grades of +animal intelligence have doubtless been raised higher and higher +through natural selection. The warm-blooded mammals and birds of +to-day no doubt surpass the cold-blooded dinosaurs of the Jurassic +age in mental qualities as they surpass them in physical structure. +From the codfish and turtle of ancient family to the modern lion, +dog, and monkey, it is a very long step upward. The mental life of +a warm-blooded animal is a very different affair from that of +reptiles and fishes. A squirrel or a bear does a good many things +in the course of his life. He meets various vicissitudes in +various ways; he has adventures. The actions he performs are so +complex and so numerous that they are severally performed with less +frequency than the few actions performed by the codfish. The +requisite nervous connections are accordingly not fully established +before birth. There is not time enough. The nervous connections +needed for the visceral movements and for the few simple +instinctive actions get organized, and then the creature is born +before he has learned how to do all the things his parents could +do. A good many of his nervous connections are not yet formed, +they are only formable. Accordingly he is not quite able to take +care of himself; he must for a time be watched and nursed. All +mammals and most birds have thus a period of babyhood that is not +very long, but is on the whole longest with the most intelligent +creatures. It is especially long with the higher monkeys, and +among the man-like apes it becomes so long as to be strikingly +suggestive. An infant orang-outang, captured by Mr. Wallace, was +still a helpless baby at the age of three months, unable to feed +itself, to walk without aid, or to grasp objects with precision. + +But this period of helplessness has to be viewed under another +aspect. It is a period of plasticity. The creature's career is no +longer exclusively determined by heredity. There is a period after +birth when its character can be slightly modified by what happens +to it after birth, that is, by its experience as an individual. It +becomes educable. It is no longer necessary for each generation to +be exactly like that which has preceded. A door is opened through +which the capacity for progress can enter. Horses and dogs, bears +and elephants, parrots and monkeys, are all teachable to some +extent, and we have even heard of a learned pig. Of learned asses +there has been no lack in the world. + +But this educability of the higher mammals and birds is after all +quite limited. By the beginnings of infancy the door for +progressiveness was set ajar, but it was not all at once thrown +wide open. Conservatism stilt continued in fashion. One +generation of cattle is much like another. It would be easy for +foxes to learn to climb frees, and many a fox might have saved his +life by doing so; yet quickwitted as he is, this obvious device +never seems to have occurred to Reynard. Among slightly teachable +mammals, however, there is one group more teachable than the rest. +Monkeys, with their greater power of handling things, have also +more inquisitiveness and more capacity for sustained attention than +any other mammals; and the higher apes are fertile in varied +resources. The orang-outang and gorilla are for this reason +dreaded by other animals, and roam the undisputed lords of their +native forests. They have probably approached the critical point +where variations in intelligence, always important, have come to be +supremely important, so as to be seized by natural selection in +preference to variations in physical constitution. At some remote +epoch of the past--we cannot say just when or how--our half-human +forefathers reached and passed this critical point, and forthwith +their varied struggles began age after age to result in the +preservation of bigger and better brains, while the rest of their +bodies changed but little. This particular work of natural +selection must have gone on for an enormous length of time, and as +its result we see that while man remains anatomically much like an +ape, be has acquired a vastly greater brain with all that this +implies. Zoologically the distance is small between man and the +chimpanzee; psychologically it has become so great as to be +immeasurable. + +But this steady increase of intelligence, as our forefathers began +to become human, carried with it a steady prolongation of infancy. +As mental life became more complex and various, as the things to be +learned kept ever multiplying, less and less could be done before +birth, more and more must be left to be done in the earlier years +of life. So instead of being born with a few simple capacities +thoroughly organized, man came at last to be born with the germs of +many complex capacities which were reserved to be unfolded and +enhanced or checked and stifled by the incidents of personal +experience in each individual. In this simple yet wonderful way +there has been provided for man a long period during which his mind +is plastic and malleable, and the length of this period has +increased with civilization until it now covers nearly one third of +our lives. It is not that our inherited tendencies and aptitudes +are not still the main thing. It is only that we have at last +acquired great power to modify them by training, so that progress +may go on with ever-increasing sureness and rapidity. + +In thus pointing out the causes of infancy, we have at the same +time witnessed some of its effects. One effect, of stupendous +importance, remains to be pointed out. As helpless babyhood came +more and more to depend on parental care, the correlated feelings +were developed on the part of parents, and the fleeting sexual +relations established among mammals in general were gradually +exchanged for permanent relations. A cow feels strong maternal +affection for her nursing calf, but after the calf is fully grown, +though doubtless she distinguishes it from other members of the +herd, it is not clear that she entertains for it any parental +feeling. But with our half-human forefathers it is not difficult +to see how infancy extending over several years must have tended +gradually to strengthen the relations of the children to the +mother, and eventually to both parents, and thus give rise to the +permanent organization of the family. When this step was +accomplished we may say that the Creation of Man had been achieved. +For through the organization of the family has arisen that of the +clan or tribe, which has formed, as it were, the cellular tissue +out of which the most complex human society has come to be +constructed. And out of that subordination of individual desires +to the common interest, which first received a definite direction +when the family was formed, there grew the rude beginnings of human +morality. + +It was thus through the lengthening of his infancy that the highest +of animals came to be Man,--a creature with definite social +relationships and with an element of plasticity in his organization +such as has come at last to make his difference from all other +animals a difference in kind. Here at last there had come upon the +scene a creature endowed with the capacity for progress, and a new +chapter was thus opened in the history of creation. But it was not +to be expected that man should all at once learn how to take +advantage of this capacity. Nature, which is said to make no +jumps, surely did not jump here. The whole history of +civilization, indeed, is largely the history of man's awkward and +stumbling efforts to avail himself of this flexibility of mental +constitution with which God has endowed him. For many a weary age +the progress men achieved was feeble and halting. Though it had +ceased to be physically necessary for each generation to tread +exactly in the steps of its predecessor, yet the circumstances of +primitive society long made it very difficult for any deviation to +be effected. For the tribes of primitive men were perpetually at +war with each other, and their methods of tribal discipline were +military methods. To allow much freedom of thought would be +perilous, and the whole tribe was supposed to be responsible for +the words and deeds of each of its members. The tribes most +rigorous in this stern discipline were those which killed out +tribes more loosely organized, and thus survived to hand down to +coming generations their ideas and their methods. From this state +of things an intense social conservatism was begotten,--a strong +disposition on the part of society to destroy the flexible-minded +individual who dares to think and behave differently from his +fellows. During the past three thousand years much has been done +to weaken this conservatism by putting an end to the state of +things which produced it. As great and strong societies have +arisen, as the sphere of warfare has diminished while the sphere of +industry has enlarged, the need for absolute conformity has ceased +to be felt, while the advantages of freedom and variety come to be +ever more clearly apparent. At a late stage of civilization, the +flexible or plastic society acquires even a military advantage over +the society that is more rigid, as in the struggle between French +and English civilization for primacy in the world. In our own +country, the political birth of which dates from the triumph of +England in that mighty struggle, the element of plasticity in man's +nature is more thoroughly heeded, more fully taken account of, than +in any other community known to history; and herein lies the chief +potency of our promise for the future. We have come to the point +where we are beginning to see that we may safely depart from +unreasoning routine, and, with perfect freedom of thinking in +science and in religion, with new methods of education that shall +train our children to think for themselves while they interrogate +Nature with a courage and an insight that shall grow ever bolder +and keener, we may ere long be able fully to avail ourselves of the +fact that we come into the world as little children with +undeveloped powers wherein lie latent all the boundless +possibilities of a higher and grander Humanity than has yet been +seen upon the earth. + + + + +II + +THE PART PLAYED BY INFANCY IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAN + +The remarks which my friend Mr. Clark has made with reference to +the reconciling of science and religion seem to carry me back to +the days when I first became acquainted with the fact that there +were such things afloat in the world as speculations about the +origin of man from lower forms of life; and I can recall step by +step various stages in which that old question has come to have a +different look from what it had thirty years ago. One of the +commonest objections we used to hear, from the mouths of persons +who could not very well give voice to any other objection, was that +anybody, whether he knows much or little about evolution, must have +the feeling that there is something degrading about being allied +with lower forms of life. That was, I suppose, owing to the +survival of the old feeling that a dignified product of creation +ought to have been produced in some exceptional way. That which +was done in the ordinary way, that which was done through ordinary +processes of causation, seemed to be cheapened and to lose its +value. It was a remnant of the old state of feeling which took +pleasure in miracles, which seemed to think that the object of +thought was more dignified if you could connect it with something +supernatural; that state of culture in which there was an +altogether inadequate appreciation of the amount of grandeur that +there might be in the slow creative work that goes on noiselessly +by little minute increments, even as the dropping of the water that +wears away the stone. The general progress of familiarity with the +conception of evolution has done a great deal to change that state +of mind. Even persons who have not much acquaintance with science +have at length caught something of its lesson,--that the infinitely +cumulative action of small causes like those which we know is +capable of producing results of the grandest and most thrilling +importance, and that the disposition to recur to the cataclysmic +and miraculous is only a tendency of the childish mind which we are +outgrowing with wider experience. + +The whole doctrine of evolution, and in fact the whole advance of +modern science from the days of Copernicus down to the present day, +have consisted in the substitution of processes which are familiar +and the application of those processes, showing how they produce +great results. + +When Darwin's "Origin of Species" was first published, when it gave +us that wonderful explanation of the origin of forms of life from +allied forms through the operation of natural selection, it must +have been like a mental illumination to every person who +comprehended it. But after all it left a great many questions +unexplained, as was natural. It accounted for the phenomena of +organic development in general with wonderful success, but it must +have left a great many minds with the feeling: If man has been +produced in this way, if the mere operation of natural selection +has produced the human race, wherein is the human race anyway +essentially different from lower races? Is not man really +dethroned, taken down from that exceptional position in which we +have been accustomed to place him, and might it not be possible, in +the course of the future, for other beings to come upon the earth +as far superior to man as man is superior to the fossilized dragons +of Jurassic antiquity? + +Such questions used to be asked, and when they were asked, although +one might have a very strong feeling that it was not so, at the +same time one could not exactly say why. One could not then find +any scientific argument for objections to that point of view. But +with the further development of the question the whole subject +began gradually to wear a different appearance; and I am going to +give you a little bit of autobiography, because I think it may be +of some interest in this connection. I am going to mention two or +three of the successive stages which the whole question took in my +own mind as one thing came up after another, and how from time to +time it began to dawn upon me that I had up to that point been +looking at the problem from not exactly the right point of view. + +When Darwin's "Descent of Man" was published in 1871, it was of +course a book characterized by all his immense learning, his +wonderful fairness of spirit and fertility of suggestion. Still, +one could not but feel that it did not solve the question of the +origin of man. There was one great contrast between that book and +his "Origin of Species." In the earlier treatise he undertook to +point out a _vera causa_ of the origin of species, and he did it. +In his "Descent of Man" he brought together a great many minor +generalizations which facilitated the understanding of man's +origin. But he did not come at all near to solving the central +problem, nor did he anywhere show clearly why natural selection +might not have gone on forever producing one set of beings after +another distinguishable chiefly by physical differences. But +Darwin's co-discoverer, Alfred Russel Wallace, at an early stage in +his researches, struck out a most brilliant and pregnant +suggestion. In that one respect Wallace went further than ever +Darwin did. It was a point of which, indeed, Darwin admitted the +importance. It was a point of which nobody could fail to +understand the importance, that in the course of the evolution of a +very highly organized animal, if there came a point at which it was +of more advantage to that animal to have variations in his +intelligence seized upon and improved by natural selection than to +have physical changes seized upon, then natural selection would +begin working almost exclusively upon that creature's intelligence, +and he would develop in intelligence to a great extent, while his +physical organism would change but slightly. Now, that of course +applied to the case of man, who is changed physically but very +slightly from the apes, while he has traversed intellectually such +a stupendous chasm. + +As soon as this statement was made by Wallace, it seemed to me to +open up an entirely new world of speculation. There was this +enormous antiquity of man, during the greater part of which he did +not know enough to make history. We see man existing here on the +earth, no one can say how long, but surely many hundreds of +thousands of years, yet only during just the last little fringe of +four or five thousand years has he arrived at the point where he +makes history. Before that, something was going on, a great many +things were going on, while his ancestors were slowly growing up to +that point of intelligence where it began to make itself felt in +the recording of events. This agrees with Wallace's suggestion of +a long period of psychical change, accompanied by slight physical +change. + +Well, in the spring of 1871, when Darwin's "Descent of Man" came +out, just about the same time I happened to be reading Wallace's +account of his experiences in the Malay Archipelago, and how at one +time he caught a female orang-outang with a new-born baby, and the +mother died, and Wallace brought up the baby orang-outang by hand; +and this baby orang-outang had a kind of infancy which was a great +deal longer than that of a cow or a sheep, but it was nothing +compared to human infancy in length. This little orang-outang +could not get up and march around, as mammals of less intelligence +do, when he was first born, or within three or four days; but after +three or four weeks or so he would get up, and begin taking hold of +something and pushing it around, just as children push a chair; and +he went through a period of staring at his hands, as human babies +do, and altogether was a good deal slower in getting to the point +where he could take care of himself. And while I was reading of +that I thought, Dear me! if there is any one thing in which the +human race is signally distinguished from other mammals, it is in +the enormous duration of their infancy; but it is a point that I do +not recollect ever seeing any naturalist so much as allude to. + +It happened at just that time that I was making researches in +psychology about the organization of experiences, the way in which +conscious intelligent action can pass down into quasi-automatic +action, the generation of instincts, and various allied questions; +and I thought, Can it be that the increase of intelligence in an +animal, if carried beyond a certain point, must necessarily result +in prolongation of the period of infancy,--must necessarily result +in the birth of the mammal at a less developed stage, leaving +something to be done, leaving a good deal to be done, after birth? +And then the argument seemed to come along very naturally, that for +every action of life, every adjustment which a creature makes in +life, whether a muscular adjustment or an intelligent adjustment, +there has got to be some registration effected in the nervous +system, some line of transit worn for nervous force to follow; +there has got to be a connection between certain nerve-centres +before the thing can be done, whether it is the acts of the viscera +or the acts of the limbs, or anything of that sort; and of course +it is obvious that if the creature has not many things to register +in his nervous system, if he has a life which is very simple, +consisting of few actions that are performed with great frequency, +that animal becomes almost automatic in his whole life; and all the +nervous connections that need to be made to enable him to carry on +life get made during the foetal period or during the egg period, +and when he comes to be born, he comes all ready to go to work. As +one result of this, he does not learn from individual experience, +but one generation is like the preceding generations, with here and +there some slight modifications. But when you get the creature +that has arrived at the point where his experience has become +varied, he has got to do a good many things, and there is more or +less individuality about them; and many of them are not performed +with the same minuteness and regularity, so that there does not +begin to be that automatism within the period during which he is +being developed and his form is taking on its outlines. During +prenatal life there is not time enough for all these nervous +registrations, and so by degrees it comes about that he is born +with his nervous system perfectly capable only of making him +breathe and digest food,--of making him do the things absolutely +requisite for supporting life; instead of being born with a certain +number of definite developed capacities, he has a number of +potentialities which have got to be roused according to his own +individual experience. Pursuing that line of thought, it began +after a while to seem clear to me that the infancy of the animal in +a very undeveloped condition, with the larger part of his faculties +in potentiality rather than in actuality, was a direct result of +the increase of intelligence, and I began to see that now we have +two steps: first, natural selection goes on increasing the +intelligence; and secondly, when the intelligence goes far enough, +it makes a longer infancy, a creature is born less developed, and +therefore there comes this plastic period during which he is more +teachable. The capacity for progress begins to come in, and you +begin to get at one of the great points in which man is +distinguished from the lower animals, for one of those points is +undoubtedly his progressiveness; and I think that any one will say, +with very little hesitation, that if it were not for our period of +infancy we should not be progressive. If we came into the world +with our capacities all cut and dried, one generation would be very +much like another. + +Then, looking round to see what are the other points which are most +important in which man differs from the lower animals, there comes +that matter of the family. The family has adumbrations and +foreshadowings among the lower animals, but in general it may be +said that while mammals lower than man are gregarious, in man have +become established those peculiar relationships which constitute +what we know as the family; and it is easy to see how the existence +of helpless infants would bring about just that state of things. +The necessity of caring for the infants would prolong the period of +maternal affection, and would tend to keep the father and mother +and children together, but it would tend especially to keep the +mother and children together. This business of the marital +relations was not really a thing that became adjusted in the +primitive ages of man, but it has become adjusted in the course of +civilization. Real monogamy, real faithfulness of the male parent, +belongs to a comparatively advanced stage; but in the early stages +the knitting together of permanent relations between mother and +infant, and the approximation toward steady relations on the part +of the male parent, came to bring about the family, and gradually +to knit those organizations which we know as clans. + +Here we come to another stage, another step forward. The instant +society becomes organized in clans, natural selection cannot let +these clans be broken up and die out,--the clan becomes the chief +object or care of natural selection, because if you destroy it you +retrograde again, you lose all you have gained; consequently, those +clans in which the primeval selfish instincts were so modified that +the individual conduct would be subordinated to some extent to the +needs of the clan,--those are the ones which would prevail in the +struggle for life. In this way you gradually get an external +standard to which man has to conform his conduct, and you get the +germs of altruism and morality; and in the prolonged affectionate +relation between the mother and the infant you get the opportunity +for that development of altruistic feeling which, once started in +those relations, comes into play in the more general relations, and +makes more feasible and more workable the bonds which keep society +together, and enable it to unite on wider and wider terms. + +So it seems that from a very small beginning we are reaching a very +considerable result. I had got these facts pretty clearly worked +out, and carried them around with me some years, before a, fresh +conclusion came over me one day with a feeling of surprise. In the +old days before the Copernican astronomy was promulgated, man +regarded himself as the centre of the universe. He used to +entertain theological systems which conformed to his limited +knowledge of nature. The universe seemed to be made for his uses, +the earth seemed to have been fitted up for his dwelling place, he +occupied the centre of creation, the sun was made to give him +light, etc. When Copernicus overthrew that view, the effect upon +theology was certainly tremendous. I do not believe that justice +has ever been done to the shock that it gave to man when he was +made to realize that he occupied a kind of miserable little clod of +dirt in the universe, and that there were so many other worlds +greater than this. It was one of the first great shocks involved +in the change from ancient to modern scientific views, and I do not +doubt it was responsible for a great deal of the pessimistic +philosophizing that came in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries. + +Now, it flashed upon me a dozen years or so ago--after thinking +about this manner in which man originated--that man occupies +certainly just as exceptional a position as before, if he is the +terminal in a long series of evolutionary events. If at the end of +the long history of evolution comes man, if this whole secular +process has been going on to produce this supreme object, it does +not much matter what kind of a cosmical body he lives on. He is +put back into the old position of theological importance, and in a +much more intelligent way than in the old days when he was supposed +to occupy the centre of the universe. We are enabled to say that +while there is no doubt of the evolutionary process going on +throughout countless ages which we know nothing about, yet in the +one case where it is brought home to us we spell out an +intelligible story, and we do find things working along up to man +as a terminal fact in the whole process. This is indeed a +consistent conclusion from Wallace's suggestion that natural +selection, in working toward the genesis of man, began to follow a +new path and make psychical changes instead of physical changes. +Obviously, here you are started upon a new chapter in the history +of the universe. It is no longer going to be necessary to shape +new limbs, and to thicken the skin and make new growths of hair, +when man has learned how to build a fire, when he can take some +other animal's hide and make it into clothes. You have got to a +new state of things. + +After I had put together all these additional circumstances with +regard to the origination of human society and the development of +altruism, I began to see a little further into the matter. It then +began to appear that not only is man the terminal factor in a long +process of evolution, but in the origination of man there began the +development of the higher psychical attributes, and those +attributes are coming to play a greater and greater part in the +development of the human race. Just take this mere matter of +"altruism," as we call it. It is not a pretty word, but must serve +for want of a better. In the development of altruism from the low +point, where there was scarcely enough to hold the clan together, +up to the point reached at the present day, there has been a +notable progress, but there is still room for an enormous amount of +improvement. The progress has been all in the direction of +bringing out what we call the higher spiritual attributes. The +feeling was now more strongly impressed upon me than ever, that all +these things tended to set the whole doctrine of evolution into +harmony with religion; that if the past through which man had +originated was such as has been described, then religion was a fit +and worthy occupation for man, and some of the assumptions which +underlie every system of religion must be true. For example, with +regard to the assumption that what we see of the present life is +not the whole thing; that there is a spiritual side of the question +beside the material side; that, in short, there is for man a life +eternal. When I wrote the "Destiny of Man," all that I ventured to +say was, that it did not seem quite compatible with ordinary common +sense to suppose that so much pains would have been taken to +produce a merely ephemeral result. But since then another argument +has occurred to me: that just at the time when the human race was +beginning to come upon the scene, when the germs of morality were +coming in with the family, when society was taking its first start, +there came into the human mind--how one can hardly say, but there +did come--the beginnings of a groping after something that lies +outside and beyond the world of sense. That groping after a +spiritual world has been going on here for much more than a hundred +thousand years, and it has played an enormous part in the history +of mankind, in the whole development of human society. Nobody can +imagine what mankind would have been without it up to the present +time. Either all religion has been a reaching out for a phantom +that does not exist, or a reaching out after something that does +exist, but of which man, with his limited intelligence, has only +been able to gain a crude idea. And the latter seems a far more +probable conclusion, because, if it is not so, it constitutes a +unique exception to all the operations of evolution we know about. +As a general thing in the whole history of evolution, when you see +any internal adjustment reaching out toward something, it is in +order to adapt itself to something that really exists; and if the +religious cravings of man constitute an exception, they are the one +thing in the whole process of evolution that is exceptional and +different from all the rest. And this is surely an argument of +stupendous and resistless weight. + +I take this autobiographical way of referring to these things, in +the order in which they came before my mind, for the sake of +illustration. The net result of the whole is to put evolution in +harmony with religious thought,--not necessarily in harmony with +particular religious dogmas or theories, but in harmony with the +great religious drift, so that the antagonism which used to appear +to exist between religion and science is likely to disappear. So I +think it will before a great while. If you take the case of some +evolutionist like Professor Haeckel, who is perfectly sure that +materialism accounts for everything (he has got it all cut and +dried and settled; he knows all about it, so that there is really +no need of discussing the subject!); if you ask the question +whether it was his scientific study of evolution that really led +him to such a dogmatic conclusion, or whether it was that he +started from some purely arbitrary assumption, like the French +materialists of the eighteenth century, I have no doubt the latter +would be the true explanation. There are a good many people who +start on their theories of evolution with these ultimate questions +all settled to begin with. It was the most natural thing in the +world that after the first assaults of science upon old beliefs, +after a certain number of Bible stories and a certain number of +church doctrines had been discredited, there should be a school of +men who in sheer weariness should settle down to scientific +researches, and say, "We content ourselves with what we can prove +by the methods of physical science, and we will throw everything +else overboard." That was very much the state of mind of the +famous French atheists of the last century. But only think how +chaotic nature was to their minds compared to what she is to our +minds to-day. Just think how we have in the present century +arrived where we can see the bearings of one set of facts in nature +as collated with another set of facts, and contrast it with the +view which even the greatest of those scientific French +materialists could take. Consider how fragmentary and how lacking +in arrangement was the universe they saw compared with the universe +we can see to-day, and it is not strange that to them it could be +an atheistic world. That hostility between science and religion +continued as long as religion was linked hand in hand with the +ancient doctrine of special creation. But now that the religious +world has unmoored itself, now that it is beginning to see the +truth and beauty of natural science and to look with friendship +upon conceptions of evolution, I suspect that this temporary +antagonism, which we have fallen into a careless way of regarding +as an everlasting antagonism, will come to an end perhaps quicker +than we realize. + +There is one point that is of great interest in this connection, +although I can only hint at it. Among the things that happened in +that dim past when man was coming into existence was the increase +of his powers of manipulation; and that was a factor of immense +importance. Anaxagoras, it is said, wrote a treatise in which he +maintained that the human race would never have become human if it +had not been for the hand. I do not know that there was so very +much exaggeration about that. It was certainly of great +significance that the particular race of mammals whose intelligence +increased far enough to make it worth while for natural selection +to work upon intelligence alone was the race which had developed +hands and could manipulate things. It was a wonderful era in the +history of creation when that creature could take a club and use it +for a hammer, or could pry up a stone with a stake, thus adding one +more lever to the levers that made up his arm. From that day to +this, the career of man has been that of a person who has operated +upon his environment in a different way from any animal before him. +An era of similar importance came probably somewhat later, when man +learned how to build a fire and cook his food; thus initiating that +course of culinary development of which we have seen the climax in +our dainty dinner this evening. Here was another means of acting +upon the environment. Here was the beginning of the working of +endless physical and chemical changes through the application of +heat, just as the first use of the club or the crowbar was the +beginning of an enormous development in the mechanical arts. + +Now, at the same time, to go back once more into that dim past, +when ethics and religion, manual art and scientific thought, found +expression in the crudest form of myths, the aesthetic sense was +germinating likewise. Away back in the glacial period you find +pictures drawn and scratched upon the reindeer's antler, +portraitures of mammoths and primitive pictures of the chase; you +see the trinkets, the personal decorations, proving beyond question +that the aesthetic sense was there. There has been an immense +aesthetic development since then. And I believe that in the future +it is going to mean far more to us than we have yet begun to +realize. I refer to the kind of training that comes to mankind +through direct operation upon his environment, the incarnation of +his thought, the putting of his ideas into new material relations. +This is going to exert powerful effects of a civilizing kind. +There is something strongly educational and disciplinary in the +mere dealing with matter, whether it be in the manual training +school, whether it be in carpentry, in overcoming the inherent and +total depravity of inanimate things, shaping them to your will, and +also in learning to subject yourself to their will (for sometimes +you must do that in order to achieve your conquests; in other +words, you must humour their habits and proclivities). In all this +there is a priceless discipline, moral as well as mental, let alone +the fact that, in whatever kind of artistic work a man does, he is +doing that which in the very working has in it an element of +something outside of egoism; even if he is doing it for motives not +very altruistic, he is working toward a result the end of which is +the gratification or the benefit of other persons than himself; he +is working toward some result which in a measure depends upon their +approval, and to that extent tends to bring him into closer +relations to his fellow man. + +In the future, to an even greater extent than in the recent past, +crude labour will be replaced by mechanical contrivances. The kind +of labour which can command its price is the kind which has trained +intelligence behind it. One of the great needs of our time is the +multiplication of skilled and special labour. The demand for the +products of intelligence is far greater than that for mere crude +products of labour, and it will be more and more so. For there +comes a time when the latter products have satisfied the limit to +which a man can consume food and drink and shelter,--those things +which merely keep the animal alive. But to those things which +minister to the requirements of the spiritual side of a man, there +is almost no limit. The demand one can conceive is well-nigh +infinite. One of the philosophical things that have been said, in +discriminating man from the lower animals, is that he is the one +creature who is never satisfied. It is well for him that he is so, +that there is always something more for which he craves. To my +mind, this fact most strongly hints that man is infinitely more +than a mere animate machine. + + + + + OUTLINE + + I. THE MEANING OF INFANCY + + 1. The relation between progress and infancy + 2. Man's method of learning + 3. The mental inheritance of animals + 4. Infancy and educability of animals + 5. Infancy is a period of plasticity + 6. Educability varies widely in different creatures + 7. Increased intelligence means prolonged infancy + 8. The socializing effects of infancy + 9. The use of this capacity for progress in the past + + + II. THE PART PLAYED BY INFANCY IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAN + + 1. The grandeur of natural causation + 2. The problem of man's ascendancy + 3. Natural selection seizes on intelligence + 4. A long infancy characteristic of man + 5. A complex life requires a longer infancy + 6. Infancy fosters sociability and the family + 7. Group life increases the social and moral bonds + 8. Spiritual man is evolution's terminal factor + 9. Man marks a development along new lines + 10. Hand-work in the evolution of intelligence + 11. The educational value of aesthetic effort + 12. Man's spirituality is prophetic of his destiny + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Meaning of Infancy, by John Fiske + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEANING OF INFANCY *** + +***** This file should be named 12359.txt or 12359.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/3/5/12359/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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