Part 32 (1/2)

[7] ”As, then, in philosophy the first step is to begin by doubting everything, so, in social philosophy, the first step is to throw aside all supposed absolute rights.”--JEVONS.

The public library is destined to play an important part, to exercise an incalculable influence in the solution of the social problems of to-day, and through this on the future of the nation and the race. The wisdom needed for this task is not to be obtained from schools or colleges, but from the higher education of mature minds--the ma.s.ses of the people--which the public library alone can give. The preparation for this higher education of the ma.s.ses devolves on the schools and colleges. Their curricula should be so arranged as to arouse ”historic consciousness” in the youngest child, to awaken social consciousness, and to provide for its continuous development by starting every boy and girl on a career of self-culture--by matriculating every child in the People's University, the Public Library. In affairs that concern society as a whole, it is better to trust the well-informed common-sense of the people than the learning of the schoolmen.

It is not knowledge of mathematics or physics, or Greek and Latin, or modern languages; it is not the study--academic study--of history, or philosophy, or even political economy, that will solve the great social problems that now confront us. These will help in various degrees, directly or indirectly, some more, some less, some, perhaps, not at all.

A knowledge of the general course of history is essential; some acquaintance with philosophy is useful; dogmatic theology serves only to confuse, but the true religion that lies in a vital acceptance of Christ's two commandments as a summary of the law and the prophets--that is the greatest aid of all. Such, however, is the influence of established order on men's minds that no investigation will avail without a determination to take nothing for granted, to re-examine what have been considered basic principles, to accept no postulates that do not square with reason and justice. This cannot be done by confining our reading to the accepted standards of a generation or a century ago. We must keep abreast of the thought of the time; we must keep our eyes and ears, and still more our minds, open; we must scorn no aids to enlightenment; but we must do our own thinking; we must consider the idea, not the source from which it came, remembering that good may come out of Nazareth; we must live up to the motto; ”Truth for authority, not authority for truth,” and we must ”lend a hand.”

My faith in the efficacy of the education offered by the public library is not without foundation. In more than one case I have seen a course of lectures or the reading of a single book lead to a course of reading in economics and sociology, which has entirely changed points of view. New ideals, higher standards, have made new men with higher lines of action.

Their natures have not been changed, but their visions have been clarified.

One of the stock arguments which conservatism always brings out to give a final quietus to any proposal for social reform, is--”Oh, that's impossible; you'd have to change human nature!” This mental att.i.tude, which, I am sorry to say, is the prevailing one with the great majority of mankind, is admirable satirized in some verses which I had great pleasure in printing in the April number of the St. Louis Public Library Magazine:

There was once a Neolithic Man, an enterprising wight, Who made his simple instruments unusually bright, Unusually clever he, unusually brave.

And he sketched delightful mammoths on the border of his cave, To his Neolithic neighbors who were startled and surprised, Said he: ”My friends, in course of time we shall be civilized!

We are going to live in cities and build churches and make laws!

We are going to eat three times a day without the natural cause!

We're going to turn life upside down about a thing called Gold!

We're going to want the earth, and take as much as we can hold!

We are going to wear a pile of stuff outside our proper skins; We're going to have Diseases! and Accomplishments!! and Sins!!!

Then they all rose up in fury against this boastful friend For prehistoric patience comes quickly to an end.

Said one, ”This is chimerical! Uptopian! Absurd!”