第 22 节
作者:匆匆      更新:2024-04-07 11:54      字数:9321
  only a few of our illustrious writersI say; if he cannot get it
  out of those writers he cannot get it out of anything; and I would
  assuredly devote a very large portion of the time of every English
  child to the careful study of the models of English writing of such
  varied and wonderful kind as we possess; and; what is still more
  important and still more neglected; the habit of using that language
  with precision; with force; and with art。  I fancy we are almost the
  only nation in the world who seem to think that composition comes
  by nature。  The French attend to their own language; the Germans
  study theirs; but Englishmen do not seem to think it is worth their
  while。  Nor would I fail to include; in the course of study I am
  sketching; translations of all the best works of antiquity; or of
  the modern world。  It is a very desirable thing to read Homer in
  Greek; but if you don't happen to know Greek; the next best thing
  we can do is to read as good a translation of it as we have
  recently been furnished with in prose。'83'  You won't get all you
  would get from the original; but you may get a great deal; and to
  refuse to know this great deal because you cannot get all; seems to
  be as sensible as for a hungry man to refuse bread because he cannot
  get partridge。  Finally; I would add instruction in either music or
  painting; or; if the child should be so unhappy; as sometimes
  happens; as to have no faculty for either of those; and no
  possibility of doing anything in any artistic sense with them; then
  I would see what could be done with literature alone; but I would
  provide; in the fullest sense; for the development of the aesthetic
  side of the mind。  In my judgment; those are all the essentials of
  education for an English child。  With that outfit; such as it might
  be made in the time given to education which is within the reach of
  nine…tenths of the populationwith that outfit; an Englishman;
  within the limits of English life; is fitted to go anywhere; to
  occupy the highest positions; to fill the highest offices of the
  State; and to become distinguished in practical pursuits; in
  science; or in art。  For; if he have the opportunity to learn all
  those things; and have his mind disciplined in the various
  directions the teaching of those topics would have necessitated;
  then; assuredly; he will be able to pick up; on his road through
  life; all the rest of the intellectual baggage he wants。
  If the educational time at our disposition were sufficient; there
  are one or two things I would add to those I have just now called
  the essentials; and perhaps you will be surprised to hear; though I
  hope you will not; that I should add; not more science; but one;
  or; if possible; two languages。  The knowledge of some other
  language than one's own is; in fact; of singular intellectual
  value。  Many of the faults and mistakes of the ancient philosophers
  are traceable to the fact that they knew no language but their own;
  and were often led into confusing the symbol with the thought which
  it embodied。  I think it is Locke '84' who says that one…half of the
  mistakes of philosophers have arisen from questions about words;
  and one of the safest ways of delivering yourself from the bondage
  of words is; to know how ideas look in words to which you are not
  accustomed。  That is one reason for the study of language; another
  reason is; that it opens new fields in art and in science。  Another
  is the practical value of such knowledge; and yet another is this;
  that if your languages are properly chosen; from the time of
  learning the additional languages you will know your own language
  better than ever you did。  So; I say; if the time given to
  education permits; add Latin and German。  Latin; because it is the
  key to nearly one…half of English and to all the Romance languages;
  and German; because it is the key to almost all the remainder of
  English; and helps you to understand a race from whom most of us
  have sprung; and who have a character and a literature of a fateful
  force in the history of the world; such as probably has been
  allotted to those of no other people; except the Jews; the Greeks;
  and ourselves。  Beyond these; the essential and the eminently
  desirable elements of all education; let each man take up his
  special linethe historian devote himself to his history; the man
  of science to his science; the man of letters to his culture of
  that kind; and the artist to his special pursuit。
  Bacon has prefaced some of his works with no more than this:
  Franciscus Bacon sic cogitavit;'85' let 〃sic cogitavi〃 be the
  epilogue to what I have ventured to address to you to…night。
  THE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION '86'
  The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the
  expression of the necessary mode of working of the human mind。  It
  is simply the mode at which all phenomena are reasoned about;
  rendered precise and exact。  There is no more difference; but there
  is just the same kind of difference; between the mental operations
  of a man of science and those of an ordinary person; as there is
  between the operations and methods of a baker or of a butcher
  weighing out his goods in common scales; and the operations of a
  chemist in performing a difficult and complex analysis by means of
  his balance and finely graduated weights。  It is not that the
  action of the scales in the one case; and the balance in the other;
  differ in the principles of their construction or manner of
  working; but the beam of one is set on an infinitely finer axis
  than the other; and of course turns by the addition of a much
  smaller weight。
  You will understand this better; perhaps; if I give you some
  familiar example。  You have all heard it repeated; I dare say; that
  men of science work by means of induction and deduction; and that
  by the help of these operations; they; in a sort of sense; wring
  from Nature certain other things; which are called natural laws;
  and causes; and that out of these; by some cunning skill of their
  own; they build up hypotheses and theories。  And it is imagined by
  many; that the operations of the common mind can be by no means
  compared with these processes; and that they have to be acquired by
  a sort of special apprenticeship to the craft。  To hear all these
  large words; you would think that the mind of a man of science must
  be constituted differently from that of his fellow men; but if you
  will not be frightened by terms; you will discover that you are
  quite wrong; and that all these terrible apparatus '87' are being
  used by yourselves every day and every hour of your lives。
  There is a well…known incident in one of Moliere's plays;'88'
  where the author makes the hero express unbounded delight on being
  told that he had been talking prose during the whole of his life。
  In the same way; I trust; that you will take comfort; and be delighted
  with yourselves; on the discovery that you have been acting on the
  principles of inductive and deductive philosophy during the same
  period。  Probably there is not one here who has not in the course
  of the day had occasion to set in motion a complex train of
  reasoning; of the very same kind; though differing of course in
  degree; as that which a scientific man goes through in tracing the
  causes of natural phenomena。
  A very trivial circumstance will serve to exemplify this。  Suppose
  you go into a fruiterer's shop; wanting an apple;you take up one;
  and; on biting it; you find it is sour; you look at it; and see
  that it is hard and green。  You take up another one; and that too
  is hard; green; and sour。  The shopman offers you a third; but;
  before biting it; you examine it; and find that it is hard and
  green; and you immediately say that you will not have it; as it
  must be sour; like those that you have already tried。
  Nothing can be more simple than that; you think; but if you will
  take the trouble to analyse and trace out into its logical elements
  what has been done by the mind; you will be greatly surprised。  In
  the first place you have performed the operation of induction。  You
  found that; in two experiences; hardness and greenness in apples
  went together with sourness。  It was so in the first case; and it
  was confirmed by the second。  True; it is a very small basis; but
  still it is enough to make an induction from; you generalise the
  facts; and you expect to find sourness in apples where you get
  hardness and greenness。  You found upon that a general law that all
  hard and green apples are sour; and that; so far as it goes; is a
  perfect induction。  Well; having got your natural law in this way;
  when you are offered another apple which you find is hard and
  green; you say; 〃All hard and green apples are sour; this apple is
  hard and green; therefore this apple is sour。〃  That train of
  reasoning is what logicians call a syllogism; and has all its
  various parts and terms;its major premiss; its minor premiss and