Was Locke a utilitarian ?

On the Continent classical learning has never been associated with the character of an accomplished gentleman; and, as far as I know, the conception that the highest type of excellence is found in the union of "the scholar and the gentleman" is peculiar to this country. In the society of Locke's day this union does not seem to have beeti recognized, and Locke observes: "A great part of the learning now in fashion in the schools of Europe, and that goes ordinarily into the round of education, a gentleman may in a good measure be unfurnished with, without any great disparagement to himself or prejudice to his affairs." (Thoughts, 94, p. 74.) So Locke sought as the true § P. essential for the young gentleman "prudence and good breeding." He puts his requisites in the following order of importance:-1, virtue; 2, wisdom; 3, manners; 4, learning; and so "places learning last and least." Here he shews himself far ahead of those who still held to the learned ideal; but his notions of development were cramped by his thinking only of the gentleman and what was requisite for him.

§ 19. II. Was Locke a utilitarian in education? It is the fashion (and in history as in other things fashion is a powerful force), it is the fashion to treat of Locke as a great champion of utilitarianism. We might expect this in the ordinary historians, for "when they do agree their unanimity is" not perhaps very wonderful. But there is one great English authority quite uninfluenced by them who has said

advantageous studies for persons of your quality; the other are fitter for schoolmen and people that must live by their learning, though a little insight and taste of them will be no burthen or inconvenience to you, especially Natural Philosophy.' Advice to a young Lord written by his father, 1691, p. 29.

Utilitarianism defined.

the same thing, viz.—Cardinal Newman. The Cardinal, as the champion of authority, is perhaps prejudiced against Locke, who holds that "the faculty of reasoning seldom or never deceived those who trusted to it." Be this as it may, Newman asserts that "the tone of Locke's remarks is condemnatory of any teaching which tends to the general cultivation of the mind." (Idea of a University. Discourse vij., § 4; see also § 6.) A very interesting point for us to consider is then, Is this reputation of Locke's for utilitarianism well deserved?

§ 20. First let us be quite certain of our definition.

In learning anything there are two points to be considered; 1st, the advantage we shall find from knowing that subject or having that skill, and 2nd, the effect which the study of that subject or practising for that skill will have on the mind or the body.

These two points are in themselves distinct, though it is open to anyone to maintain that they need not be considered separately. Nature has provided that the bodies of most animals should get the exercise best for them in procuring food. So Mr. Herbert Spencer has come to the conclusion that it would be contrary to "the economy of nature" if one set of occupations were needed as gymnastics and another for utility. In other words he considers that it is in learning the most useful things we get the best training.

The utilitarian view of instruction is that we should teach thir gs useful in themselves and either neglect the result on the mind and body of the learner or assume Mr. Spencer's law of "the economy of nature."

Again, when the subjects are settled the utilitarian thinks how the knowledge or skill may be most speedily acquired,

L. not utilitarian in education.

and not how this method or that method of acquisition will affect the faculties.

§ 21. This being utilitarianism in education the ques tion is how far was Locke the utilitarian he is generally considered?

If we take by itself what he says under the head of "Learning" in the Thoughts concerning Education no doubt we should pronounce him a utilitarian. He considers each subject of instruction and pronounces for or against it according as it seems likely or unlikely to be useful to a gentleman. And in the methods he suggests he simply points out the quickest route, as if the knowledge were the only thing to be thought of. Hence his utilitarian reputation.

But two very important considerations have been lost sight of.

Ist. Learning is with him "the last and least part" in education.

2nd. Intellectual education was not for childhood but for the age when we can teach ourselves. "When a man has got an entrance into any of the sciences," says he, "it will be time then to depend on himself and rely upon his own understanding and exercise his own faculties, which is the only way to improvement and mastery." (L. to Peterborough, quoted in Camb. edition of Thoughts, p. 229.) "So," he says, "the business of education is not, as I think, to make the young perfect in any one of the sciences but so to open and dispose their minds as may best make them capable of any when they shall apply themselves to it." The studies he proposes in the Conduct of the Understanding (which is his treatise on intellectual education) have for their object 'an increase of the powers and activity of the

Locke's Pisgah Vision.

mind, not an enlargement of its possessions" (C. of U. § 19, ad f.).

Thus strange to say the supposed leader of the Utilitarians has actually propounded in so many words the doctrine of their opponents.

§ 22. When Locke is more studied it will be found that the Thoughts are misleading if we neglect his other works, more particularly the Conduct of the Understanding.

§ 23. Towards the end of his days, Locke was conscious of gleams of the "untravelled world" which lay before the generations to come. With great pathos he writes to a friend: "When I consider how much of my life has been trifled away in beaten tracks where I vamped on with others only to follow those who went before me, I cannot but think I have just as much reason to be proud as if I had travelled all England and, if you will, all France too, only to acquaint myself with the roads, and be able to tell how the highways lie wherein those of equipage, and even the common herd too, travel. Now, methinks-and these are often old men's dreams-I see openings to truth and direct paths leading to it, wherein a little application and industry would settle one's mind with satisfaction and leave no darkness or doubt. But this is the end of my day when my sun is setting and though the prospect it has given me be what I would not for anything be without-there is so much truth, beauty, and consistency in it—yet it is for one of your age, I think I ought to say for yourself, to set about" (L. to Bolde, quoted by Fowler, Locke, p. 120). But another 200 years have not sufficed to put us in possession of the Promised Land of which Locke had these Pisgah visions. We still " vamp on," following those who went before us and getting small help from expounders of " Edu

:

Science for education. Names of books.

cation as a Science." But as it would seem the days of vamping on blindly in the beaten track are drawing to a close. We cannot doubt that if Locke had known the wonderful advance which various sciences have made since his day he would have seen in them "openings to truth and direct paths leading to it" for many purposes, certainly for education. It is for our age and ages to come to set about applying our scientific knowledge to the bringing up of children; and thinkers such as Froebel will shew us how.

Locke's Thoughts concerning Education and his Conduct of the Understanding should be in the hands of all students of education who know the English language. I have therefore not attempted to epitomise what he has said, but have endeavoured to get at the main thoughts which are, so to speak, the taproot of his system. Of the Thoughts there is an edition published by the National Society and another by the Pitt Press, Cambridge. The Cambridge edition gives from FoxBourne's Life Locke's scheme of "Working Schools" and from Lord King's the essay "Of Study." Of the Conduct there is an edition published by the Clarendon Press. "F.B." in the references above stands

for Fox-Bourne's Life of Locke.

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In the above essay I have not treated of Locke as a methodizer; but he advocated teaching foreign languages without grammar, and he published Æsop's Fables in English and Latin, interlineary. For the benefit of those, who not having a master would learn either of these Tongues." When I edited the Thoughts for Pitt Press I did not know of this book or I should have mentioned it.