CHAPTER IV.
UPON EDUCATION: A FEW REFLECTIONS.
In our Illustrious and Central Kingdom, from times long before the Barbarians beyond the great Seas existed, or, at any rate, had any name or place in the earliest records, it has been the established rule that Learning (Li-te-su) should be the fountain of honour--that there is no nobility of birth. Under the Illustrious, the Son of Heaven, all were equal subjects--children--and that which made one more distinguished than another was _Wisdom_. This Wisdom, a knowledge of men and things; of the proper maxims [ri-te-es] of morality and government, and their proper application to human affairs. The _Central idea was to know oneself_, and thus to know others--to add to this, technical knowledge, and the knowledge of our Illustrious annals and customs.
The mandarins, great officers of our Illustrious, have no rights of birth. According to their class in the Schools of Examination, they are selected to advise, to administer, to govern in the Provinces, and order the forces for the keeping of due order. They rank in the degree of the excellency of their registration in the great Schools of Examination.
But it is very different with the Western Barbarians, where _birth_ gives a right to exalted place in Government! Power, among the English, is wholly in the hands of this hereditary class--called _Nobility_--elsewhere called Aristocracy [Fo-hi]. Thus, learning has been unimportant, unless as a sort of accomplishment; and been mostly confined to Priests. With them, it was a means of increased influence, and added to the effect of the Superstitious pretensions. Force and fraud being the main agents of Government and sources of distinction, learning was not merely disregarded, but held in contempt by the High-Caste. What learning there was (chiefly confined to the Priests), busied itself with the Superstition, and with the ancient tongues; because with these Superstition had its _literary roots_.
Still, some grew more inquisitive, especially outside the Priestly order, and learning made some progress. Gradually, there emerged from the Halls of Learning, rules, which (countenanced by some Sovereigns), began to influence Society. For Sovereigns, and the High-Caste, had begun, in some measure, to affect a liking for learning--confined, however, almost wholly to the narrow range referred to. These _rules_ were in fact DEGREES; which conferred upon the possessor a Literary distinction.
The _Halls of Learning_, which had been in good measure established by Sovereigns, out of plunder, upon the orders of Priests (who would obtain the money through the Ruler's dread of the devil, when apprehending or near to death); these, alone, could confer the degrees. No power accompanied them. They, merely, became requisite to any one who wished to enter upon, what is called, the _Learned professions_. These are of the _Superstition_, of the _Law_, and of _Medicine_. Soon, in these employments, the degrees became quite _Cabalistic_; and made these callings mysteries to the rest of the world.
What was intended to be evidence of fitness, was soon perverted to be a form of _initiation_ into an exclusive Society; whose members insisted, not upon fitness, but upon compliance with arbitrary rules. This was made especially the case with the Law, and with Medicine. The _degree_ was supposed to refer to proper qualifications for the practice of Law, and knowledge of Medicine, with its proper use in the healing art. It did nothing of the sort. It gave a _presumption_ (but by no means a true one) that its holder knew something of the ancient Roman and Greek languages: not any presumption that, in the case of Medicine, there was any knowledge of the articles of Medicine, nor of their proper use; or of the human body to which they were to be administered. Nor any, that in the Law, there was any knowledge of the Statutes, laws and customs of the Realm, nor even of its Common annals! Medicine and Law suffered from this _Sham_; because men naturally used what little they did know; and, as to the Roman tongue, _some_, and the Greek, _less_, were in their heads; and the whole practice of Medicine and Law was in their ignorant hands; what could follow, but to muddle _these_ with the useless obscurity and jargon of the unknown forms!
The Priests had also thrown around the Superstition the same jargon, and kept up the requisition for a _degree_--as if any true morality and worship were necessarily connected with a _literature_, denounced by themselves as impure and _pagan_! Notwithstanding these ignorant and selfish abuses, it was impossible to make the acquisition of even such narrow learning wholly useless. It was narrow, and even hurtful, by being perverted to selfish ends, and preventing honest and independent research. Still, it did work upon some minds to better use; and it gradually evolved a better learning, when the Ancient Literature really worked in free and broader channels. The High-Castes are less indifferent to literary attainments; and learning, in a more comprehensive sense, is becoming more esteemed. It is no longer limited to verbal knowledge; to ancient, dead forms--though these are still so paramount that, if a man were to be the wisest and most learned of mankind, and was deficient in these, he could not receive a _Degree_--he would be unlearned!
Useful, true and honest knowledge, outside the great Halls of Learning, is making some advance; though _in them_, the old, pedantic, and superstitious notions yet prevail. The new _Literati_, founders of a larger and truer teaching, endeavour with difficulty to get some respect and honour to attach to the _degrees_ which they timidly register. The High-Caste, in general, disregard this better knowledge, and adhere to the old Superstitions and traditions--regarding that man only as learned who has the ancient badge; though, to any useful purpose, a fool.
The High-Caste also stupidly support the old preparatory schools; and will not, if they can help it, suffer any of the Lower-Caste to enter them.
In these, the barbarous customs continue; if one goes into them, he is at once carried backwards into the _dark ages_ (as even the Barbarians call them); ages, when the Priests had all the Learning--wretched as it was--and when the _Superstition_ coloured and directed everything. Here, the dead tongues are the chief studies, with something of the ancient _puzzles_ as to Lines and Points--for the most part useless--with a style of administration fitted to the savage brutality of those times. The only part of the training cared for by the youths, is that which developes the forces of the body. The disgusting _Ring Fight_, referred to elsewhere, is a common pastime; and the lad is a milksop [kou-ad] who really avoids the rude crowd, and wishes to study. To be respected he must fight his way, and be feared. If, by chance, some lad of the Lower-Caste be entered, by the foolish wish of the father to bring the son into the _polished_ circle of the High-Caste, he will be _polished off_ (as these young Barbarians say), in a manner never dreamed of. The poor lad will be beaten, humiliated, and driven from the School; unless, indeed, he be strong enough to bully and beat his tormentors!
Very comically, in one part of these brutal fights, when one has got his antagonist completely in his power, and can bruise him as he pleases, the position is called _being in Chancery_! One of the fittest illustrations possible, of the universality of the judgment which places that Court among things the most repulsive!
The younger in these schools are the _Slaves_, for the time being, to the older and stronger; in fact, the whole effect of the training is really to make these youths selfish, quick of quarrel, hardy of body, and barbarous; to prepare them for the lives of predatory exploit, upon which fortune and all the best honours depend--learning being subordinate, and disregarded, unless it further the main purpose.
Force is still the god of these Barbarians, and _Jah_ is worshipped because he, in this, fits them. The intellect is improved only that Force may be developed and disciplined to its most effective use.
One sees this everywhere. To invent the most destructive engines of war for the wholesale slaughter of the human species, to add to the swiftness of movement, to the durability and weight of action, to the means of assault and of defence, to bend the mind to uses based upon the idea that the normal condition of man is that of _a tiger with man's intellect_, to make the beast something inexpressibly dreadful!
The greater portion of the people remain sunk in the grossest ignorance--scarcely knowing (the most of them) much even of the Superstition, other than crude notions of Hell and the Devil. In this, probably, they are not much to be pitied; though in losing the precepts of Christ, and seeing around them the conduct of Christ-god worshippers, they are to be commiserated. They look with the contempt of ignorance upon foreigners, and call the people of distant seas _Heathen_, only fit for the Hell! As I have said, in another place, some attempts are being made to give this degraded populace, at least, the rudiments of learning. The task is hard, and made nearly impracticable by the stolid indifference of the Low-Castes, and their positive hostility to anything which interferes with their habits. They are very English, not different from their betters, and resent any sort of change as an interference with their individual freedom of action. To make these degraded beings _slaves_, you must not seize the individual--you must act upon them as a class--and they resent the attempt to teach them. Compulsion will be resorted to. The English Barbarians have a proverb [li-tze], "One may lead a horse to the water, but who can make him drink?" These people may be forced to the springs of learning, but who shall make them drink--unless _beer_? (This is the common drink, very muddling; used to an astonishing quantity.)
The women are not admitted to the Halls of Learning, though they are to be seen everywhere. Men do not wish them to be educated in those things admired by men--it would, as they think, make brutes of them. In this they are right; yet there is no consistency of idea in the general treatment of the sex, as will easily be gathered from these _observations_.
A learned woman--that is, one who has acquired the sort of education recognised by the _Literati_--is disliked by her own sex as well as by the men. The men will not marry her, unless she can buy a husband. This she may be able to do if she have money in abundance.
The things which may make them attractive and entertaining to the men, and be likely to secure a desirable husband, are the only things cared for. Some music, some drawing, a little acquaintance with the language of the chief tribe on the main parts, reading and writing, are the intellectual studies. But the engrossing pursuits are those which are supposed to add to female attractiveness. To DRESS, so as to enhance the delight of form; to cover, and yet to show with added suggestion; to move with grace; to carry the head; to use with tender, or arch, or modest, or haughty expression, the eyes; to turn the feet and arrange the limbs; to make the shoulders beautiful, and the neck and bust charming; to torture the hair and ornament the whole body; the ear-tips, the fingers, the eyebrows and lashes--to do these, and innumerable other things by which the sex shall be made _irresistible_ [Kou-ket], these are the real cares. _Dancing_ [ma-d-wo] is among the most admired of all accomplishments, and the game of _Waltzing_ its most perfect development. In this art of dancing both sexes take part, and I may merely say to our Flowery Land, that we have nothing like it, and what little we have in any degree to represent it is confined to _licensed_ girls, without, even with them, permitting men to take part! In this dancing the utmost female art (_blandishment_) is permitted, and it is the one by which, and in the intricacies of which the male is most surely expected to be ensnared!
Women are, also, particularly among the High-Caste, taught in riding on horses, in driving them attached to carriages; in running and walking; and even in swimming. Also in rowing in boats, in the use of bows and arrows, and many other things, which are very strange to us. But the sex like passionately the outdoor sports of men; and, in truth, show the barbarous instinct quite as clearly as do the males. They are attached to dogs, cats, and other creatures, which they fondle and _dandle_ in the most disgusting manner.
The women of the Low-Castes, to the best of their ability, follow the example of their superiors; and make such copy as they can. They imitate the dress, the gait, the _airs and graces_ of the High-Caste, often with a ludicrous effect! When they dance, they may not dance with the elegant _abandon_ [lan-gu-tze] of the lazy and rich, but they can contrive to be quite as _effective_! The male of the Low-Caste feels but cannot escape the snare!
_Accomplishments_, directed to the one object of finding a desirable man, who will take them at the least cost off the hands of their relatives, are the things which occupy the time of women; the lower orders, in so far as possible, giving to the poor imitations that time which ought to go to useful objects. A poor and obscure girl prefers to be _something like_ a lady (that is, a bad copy in dress and bearing), than to be really instructed in letters: because she sees herself more admired by the male, and more likely to dispose of herself to a husband.
The great pursuit among High-Caste families is man--a man who may be bought, and whom it is desirable to buy, to be a husband for a daughter, or relative. All domestic art and diplomacy are bent to this end; and, as men do not like learned women, whom they nick-name _strong-minded_, women do not wish to be learned. If from exceptional circumstances a young woman be well educated, and wish to marry, she carefully conceals her knowledge, and displays her accomplishments, and all "the power of her charms" (as the English poets have it). An educated female had better appear to be an _accomplished_ fool, than a wise and learned woman--if she wish to buy a husband. For she must have a large sum, indeed, if she be known to be learned!--a _Blue-stocking_ [Zu-re-to].
There are some women who have acquired knowledge, and look with disdain upon the _arts_, _airs_, and _graces_ of their "weak Sisters." They appear in public Halls of debate (as talking-places are called); and, mixing with men, assume an equality of mental force and culture. They interest themselves like men, in all matters of general concern. They take in hand, or endeavour to take in hand, _the care of Women_; and demand an enlarged sphere for her action, and a reformed and proper recognition of her _rights_. Hence, these women are called, besides strong-minded, _Women's rights_ women. They are nearly always old, ugly, and wholly and hopelessly incapacitated from longer pursuing men; even, in their inordinate vanity, _that_ pursuit is abandoned.
There are some trifling exceptions--of women who like to astonish, and of others who, in _talking_, find a means of living--to whom all personal comeliness is not yet a tradition. But for these, the _Women's rights_ movement would dwindle away; these sometimes commanding an influence either of money or family, draw into their circle a few men--remarkable, in general, for eccentricity of some kind, or led very often completely by a woman of the order.
The whole thing is inexplicable to our social usages; but is not an excrescence--only a natural outgrowth upon a diseased system. The position of women in the Barbarian Society is a feature very striking and very anomalous, and may receive attention in another place.
On the whole, one may see that education in its true and exalted sense is scarcely comprehended among the Barbarians. The moral function and the mind subordinate to that, and the body--its passions, its greed, its brutality, wholly subordinate to the morally trained mind--education, grounded upon this _central idea_, has but feeble recognition.