The first point is the personnel of the Indian Civil Service, which holds all important offices in India, forms the Government, and fills most of the places on the Indian Council at home.
It depends, as I have said, for its success not upon the ability, but on the personality of its members. India was achieved by personality and successfully governed by personality. It is personality alone that humanises rule and makes it tolerable, that stands between the people and rigid2 law, and can create that sentiment which alone binds3 ruler and ruled together.
How can that necessary personality be restored to it?
That this lack of personality does not affect only the Indian Civil Service is a matter of notoriety. It is exactly what our generals deplored4 after the Boer War—that the ordinary officer had no personality. It is a matter of common remark nowadays how exactly alike all the young men are, echoing sentiments that are not theirs. It is what the Germans say of us and the Americans, who especially admire and try to cultivate personality. We once stood before the world as a nation of personalities5. We do so no longer.
To what is this due? Not to natural deficiency, because all children abound6 in personality. It is due to what is called "education." That too is no new discovery of mine, but a matter of common knowledge and publicity7. Read, for instance, Harold Gorst's The Curse of Education. In Paine's Life of Mark Twain, systematic8 training is called "a blight9." Neither is it a new thing. The Duke of Wellington said Waterloo was won in the playing-fields of Eton—not in the schools, be it noted10. Yet in those days education was nothing like so rigid as it is now. Then take the notable Englishmen of the last fifty years; how few have been University men—many not public school men. Cobden and Bright, Chamberlain, Beaconsfield, Dickens and Kipling, Stanley, Captain Scott, and other pioneers of Empire, Huxley and Kelvin, all the great captains of industry. The two most prominent members of the Government to-day are not University men. Even where notable men were University men they did not attain11 their stature12 till they had thrown off its bonds. Gladstone was, for instance, the hope of the stern, unbending Tories till he had achieved his liberty, when he could think for himself. Yet even then he only achieved political, and never spiritual, freedom. Cecil Rhodes said that University dons were as children in some matters; meaning, however, ignorant and not ready to learn, which is not a child's attitude.
Therefore the fault lies with the "education."
What is Education?
There are two things that go to the proper upbringing of a child, and though they overlap13 in places they are distinct and even sometimes contradictory14; one is Instruction, and the other is Education.
Reading and writing, arithmetic, and all information obtained from books or lectures or teachers is instruction; the bringing out of the powers of the child's own mind is education. The object of instruction is to enable the child to better his education. In itself it has no value. The mere15 acquirements of reading and writing—the mere accumulation of book knowledge—are in themselves worthless. "The learned fool is the biggest fool." They are only good insomuch as they help education.
What is education? It is the drawing out of a child's mind so that it can see life as it is, not a mere mass of phenomena16, but a consequence of underlying17 causes; it is the exercising of his faculties18 of right judgment19 to meet events as they arise; it is an ability to gauge20 himself and others. Education is the cultivation21 of personality. It is to the child what careful gardening is to the tree—a help to growth so that it can develop its potentiality. The gardener helps each tree to put forth22 that essential quality of its own that differentiates23 it from all other trees and makes it a thing of use and beauty to the world. It is not a reduction to a common type or the standardisation of growth, because while the tree must harmonise with the rest of the garden it must have an individuality of its own.
That is education, and that alone is education. Instruction is simply providing the necessary food for growth, or giving the necessary weapons or implements24 to obtain that food. All instruction that does not directly tend to nourish personality is worse than waste—it occupies nerve and energy that are wanted for better things.
This is simple enough, yet the world is full of fallacies on the subject. Here is one from a well-known writer: "How can you draw out of a child a love for clean collars, Greek accents, the date of Bannockburn, or how to eat asparagus."
Well, you can only draw out a child's love for these things by helping25 him to see that the acquisition of them is a step towards a result the child desires to reach. Now Greek accents are only useful to a child who wishes to become a Greek tutor, and the date of Bannockburn is useful to no one because it can always be looked up if necessary; therefore no children have a taste for the latter, and not one in a thousand for the former. They are not education at all, and even as instruction they are worthless. A love of clean collars and how to eat asparagus can be drawn26 out of children by simply making them realise that unless they have their love for these things they will expose themselves to ridicule27 or contempt for no good purpose. For be it noted that until you do awaken28 this self-respect you will not get a child to put on clean collars enthusiastically, or be careful about asparagus. Instruction in such matters is useless—you must have education.
The man or woman properly educated will desire the right things, and will seek the right way of attaining29 these things. His actions will spring from a real living force within him. But if you teach him to do things because he is told or because it is the custom, you injure his personality; and as there is no driving force in a law or a custom, which are bonds, you confine him, whereas you should free him. It is an admission that he must not or cannot think for himself, but must blindly follow custom. It is true that he must, not only in boyhood but all through his life, yield obedience30 in act to persons, governments, or rules; but he must not do so blindly. It is a principal part of education to make the boy see for himself that such subordination of act is necessary to the progress of the world, because as individuals we can accomplish no great thing; then he will do it willingly, knowing its necessity. But it is equally necessary that the boy never subordinate his judgment to others, because any rule made absolute is death to progress, and there is no authority, nor rule, nor convention that should not be broken sometimes; and as time goes on all must be modified, changed, and relaxed; the ideal of education being that all authority will become unnecessary, as people will desire what is right, and do it proprio moto. The truth will have made them free.
Now seeing this difference, how much education is there in school or college? In the classrooms there is none. All that is given in classes is instruction, which may be useful or detrimental31 inasmuch as it helps personality or not. Usually it is detrimental, because it substitutes "authority" for insight. The child must accept something, not because he is helped to see that it is true, but because "somebody says so." Thus his personality is destroyed.
The only education he gets is in the playing-fields. There he learns to keep his temper, play the game, and co-operate, of his volition32, with others to a desired end.
That is a valuable training, but it does not go very far. He is never taught to see life as it is for himself. On the contrary, he is forbidden to do so.
And this continues now till the age of twenty-two or twenty-three, so that by the time it is over the most receptive period of life is past. Bacon went to the University at thirteen, and left it at sixteen as he found it had no more to teach him.
Further, until some thirty or forty years ago a father considered that he owed some duty to his son—to help him, to lead him, to initiate33 him into life.
No one can do this but a father. No one can understand his son like a father and know what it is necessary for him to learn; to no one will the son listen, or confide34 in, as his father. But nowadays I notice that fathers have abdicated35. They consider their duty fulfilled if they pay for the boy's schooling36, and everything is left to the schoolmaster. Many fathers that I know are quite stranger to their sons. Mothers, on the contrary, strive more and more to obtain influence over their sons and bring them up in the principles of women. But a man must be a man or be nothing.
There is another and very considerable difference between schools now and the schools of sixty years ago and before. In the earlier period the schoolmasters were rarely clergymen; now they are practically always so; and not only that, but boys nowadays are far more under control and influence of their masters than they were.
Now whatever good points may be claimed for Church teaching by those who believe in it, there will, I think, be no difficulty about the admission that the frame of mind, the outlook on the world, of ecclesiastics38 is not suitable for men who have to lead an active life. It is, in fact, the very reverse of what a man requires whose first duty it is to understand the world and to lead the world. For to the ecclesiastic37 the world is a bad place, it has to be borne as best it can, to be condemned39 not understood, and all effort is directed not to this world but to some other. Moreover, the habit of thought of ecclesiastics is fixed40. They believe that not only is truth absolute, but that they possess it or some of it; the very foundation-rock of their belief is authority, and freedom of thought is disliked by them as subversive41 of their tenets. Their principal qualities are those of submission42, patience and obedience, not merely in act but in thought.
Now boys are apt to imitate their masters, and however secular43 a course of education may be, if it be given by ecclesiastics the boys are certain to be a great deal influenced by their master's outlook on life. That accounts for much of the pessimism44 that is observable, for the "unnatural45 mildness" of the modern young man. If you keep a boy under ecclesiastical habits of thought till he is twenty-three, how can he ever escape into the fresh air of free inquiry46? How will he ever love the world instead of despising it? And no good work was ever done except by men who loved the world; and love comes from understanding, not from aloofness47.
A boy's education should be directed from an early age towards the work he is to perform in life. What department of the public service is now held to be the best served? Is it not the Navy? And naval48 officers are caught young and trained ad hoc; not a narrow professional training, but none the less a training with an object. The present training of Indian civilians50 up till twenty-three is objectless, and therefore inefficient51. That in the Army the special training is begun much later may account for the complaints of army officers wanting personality compared with naval officers.
With engineers and all specialised work the training begins young.
But the Indian civilian49 is ecclesiastically trained till he is twenty-three. Then he has to learn his work. Could there be a greater absurdity52?
What then should be done?
In the first place he should be caught young. The work of the Indian civilian is as important to England as that of the sailor; it is even more specialised and difficult. He should be trained for it from fourteen or thereabouts, not from twenty-three.
It should be determined53 what special qualities are necessary for a good Indian civilian. I think some of them are obvious enough.
A good physique and a liking54 for sport.
Good manners and a knowledge of etiquette55.
Discipline in act.
Freedom and courage in thought.
Knowledge of life and humanity as they are round him.
Let us consider these.
That physical fitness is the first necessity all will allow. The climate is severe and takes a great deal out of him, especially in the hot weather; there must be exposure in the districts; the work is hard and difficult, and makes great demands upon the physique. Therefore the physique must be good.
And a medical certificate of soundness is no guarantee of this. A man may be medically quite sound and yet so prostrated56 by the heat as to find his temper and his work affected57. His physique lies at the base of all his work, and must be good. Nothing is now done to secure this; no investigation58 has ever been made as to the type that endures heat the best. Yet undoubtedly59 there is such a type. In that extraordinary book, A Modern Legionary, it is pointed60 out that in Tonquin, amongst the men of the Legion, a certain type stood the climate better than the others. Whenever any special service had to be performed it was men of a certain sanguine61 type that were chosen. Not that they were physically62 stronger or braver than the others, but because even in the greatest heat they retained a certain buoyancy of temperament63 which the darker types lost.
I have myself noticed something of the sort in Burma and India. Of course mere personal observation of this sort proves nothing, but the subject seems to deserve investigation. That all people do not bear heat and cold alike is undoubted. In the Russian campaign of 1812 it was the Italians who stood the cold best of all Napoleon's troops.
Anyhow, the cadet should have not merely a sound physique but a buoyant physique, and that cannot be ensured under the present system.
Then he should be made a good sportsman; for the Indian civilian no training is more necessary than this. I do not mean only a cricketer or football player; neither of these games is of much use out in the East. I mean a rider who is also fond of horses; a shot who is also interested in birds and animals.
There is in all sportsmen of this kind a quality which no one else has. I cannot define it. It comes, I think, from association with people out of his own rank in one pursuit, from having to go to them for knowledge he has not got himself and thereby64 recognising their value, from a subtle sympathy with nature as not apart from man, nor a setting for man, but another manifestation65 of the same Life that is in man. Nothing is more valuable in enabling a District Officer to keep his mind sweet. Official work is all concerned with the faults and shortcomings of others, wherein you are judge and they are culprits. Official work divides; it insensibly leads you to believe that all men are liars66 and robbers, and are trying to deceive you. Throw it aside, and go out to shoot, stopping in the villages talking of sport and village affairs, and the whole aspect of life changes. You wash off your priggishness; you cease to imagine yourself first cousin to the Deity67; you return to your humanity, and with the first snipe you miss to your extreme fallibility.
Then there is ability at languages. Now although some men may develop an excess of ability to learn languages, all people have that ability to a certain extent when young or they could not learn their own language.
But it is an ability that quickly departs unless kept alive. The way Greek and Latin are taught is a sure way to destroy any ability for learning a language a boy may retain. Grammar should never be taught. No child learns its own language by grammar, and, in fact, grammar only applies to dead languages, not to living. That has to some extent dawned on modern educators, but I see that French grammar and regular and irregular verbs are taught to those learning French. Did Loti and Maupassant learn French grammar? I wonder. If not, why should anyone else? But schoolmasters are a hard lot, and there is no one who so absolutely refuses to learn as he who makes a profession of teaching. Why should not Hindustani be made the school language for Indian cadets?
Then come good manners. I do not mean only good English manners—those manners which enable you to pass in a meeting of cultivated English men and women—but much better manners than those. They are concerned with your conduct to your equals; but the only good manners that will be of much use to you in the East are those deeper manners which are equal to all occasions and can show an equal courtesy to a ploughman as to a peer, to an old Subadar hero of a hundred fights, to a headman and to a coolie. Some of it is, of course, convention and must be learned, like the right thing to do when an old soldier offers you the hilt of his sword, or a Burman lady brings you some fruit; but most of it, I think, simply comes from a frame of mind. If you recognise that the common humanity that binds you is eternal and that the difference of rank or race or age is a temporary difference that will pass, I do not think you will quite want for good manners. Orientals are particular about manners, and they do not respect a man who has none, or who has his own and not theirs.
Discipline in act is, I think, enough taught now, but freedom of thought is woefully to seek. It is banned by theology, and ecclesiastics naturally do not teach it.
As to knowledge of life, that can only come in the living. But it will not come unless you find the world worth studying and your own life worth living. If this world is bad, then it is not worth study, and if the only object of your life here is to fit you or unfit you for life in some spirit world, then you will not care much to fit yourself for this world.
Finally, it would appear too as if civilians should go out to India much younger than they do now. Twenty-three is far too old to begin a totally new life. For it must be remembered that life in India is a totally new life to which men have to get accustomed. No matter how you are trained in England, nothing will enable you to know India but being in India. The real education cannot begin until the student lands in the country in which he is to do his life's work. Everything he may learn at home is preliminary only. Language, people, work have all to be learned after arriving. However good the material provided may be, it is, when it lands, simply so much raw material. It has to learn everything. I do not think the age of twenty is at all too young to begin such a training; in fact I think nineteen would be better.
But we are now come to what should be done after arrival in India, and that will require a new chapter.
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regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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binds
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| v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕 | |
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deplored
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| v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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personalities
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| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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overlap
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| v.重叠，与…交叠；n.重叠 | |
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contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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gauge
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| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
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cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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differentiates
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| 区分，区别，辨别( differentiate的第三人称单数 )； 区别对待； 表明…间的差别，构成…间差别的特征 | |
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implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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attaining
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的现在分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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detrimental
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| adj.损害的，造成伤害的 | |
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volition
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| n.意志；决意 | |
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initiate
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| vt.开始，创始，发动；启蒙，使入门；引入 | |
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confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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abdicated
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| 放弃（职责、权力等）( abdicate的过去式和过去分词 )； 退位，逊位 | |
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schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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ecclesiastic
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| n.教士，基督教会；adj.神职者的，牧师的，教会的 | |
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ecclesiastics
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| n.神职者，教会，牧师( ecclesiastic的名词复数 ) | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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subversive
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| adj.颠覆性的，破坏性的；n.破坏份子，危险份子 | |
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submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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secular
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| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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pessimism
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| n.悲观者，悲观主义者，厌世者 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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aloofness
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| 超然态度 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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civilians
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| 平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓 | |
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inefficient
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| adj.效率低的，无效的 | |
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absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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prostrated
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| v.使俯伏，使拜倒( prostrate的过去式和过去分词 )；（指疾病、天气等）使某人无能为力 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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sanguine
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| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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63
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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64
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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65
manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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66
liars
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| 说谎者( liar的名词复数 ) | |
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67
deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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