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第31章

a treatise on parents and children(父母与子女专题研究)-第31章


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uneducated by art。         All the wholesome conditions which art imposes on 

appetite are waived:         instead of cultivated men and women restrained by 

a thousand delicacies; repelled by ugliness; chilled by vulgarity; horrified 

by    coarseness;     deeply    and   sweetly    moved     by   the   graces   that   art  has 

revealed   to   them   and   nursed   in   them;   we   get   indiscrimmate   rapacity   in 

pursuit of pleasure and a parade of the grossest stimulations in catering for 

it。   We have a continual clamor for goodness; beauty; virtue; and sanctity; 

with such an appalling inability to recognize it or love it when it arrives 

that   it   is   more   dangerous   to   be   a   great   prophet   or   poet   than   to   promote 

twenty companies for swindling simple folk out of their savings。                     Do not 

for   a   moment   suppose that uncultivated people   are   merely  indifferent   to 

high    and   noble    qualities。   They   hate     them   malignantly。      At   best;  such 

qualities   are   like   rare   and   beautiful birds:   when   they  appear   the   whole 

country takes down its guns; but the birds receive the statuary tribute of 

having their corpses stuffed。 

     And   it   really   all   comes   from   the   habit   of   preventing   children   from 

being   troublesome。        You   are   so   careful   of   your   boy's   morals;   knowing 

how troublesome they may be; that you keep him away from the Venus of 

Milo only to find him in the arms of the scullery maid or someone much 

worse。      You   decide   that   the   Hermes   of   Praxiteles   and   Wagner's   Tristan 

are    not  suited    for  young    girls;   and   your   daughter     marries    somebody 

appallingly   unlike   either   Hermes   or   Tristan   solely   to   escape   from   your 

parental protection。        You have not stifled a single passion nor averted a 

single   danger:      you   have   depraved   the   passions   by   starving   them;   and 

broken down all the defences which so effectively protect children brought 

up in freedom。       You have men who imagine themselves to be ministers of 

religion openly declaring that when they pass through the streets they have 

to keep out in the wheeled traffic to avoid the temptations of the pavement。 

You   have   them   organizing   hunts   of   the   women   who   tempt   thempoor 

creatures     whom      no  artist  would     touch   without     a  shudderand      wildly 

clamoring for more clothes to disguise and conceal the body; and for the 



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                        A TREATISE ON PARENTS AND CHILDREN 



abolition of pictures; statues; theatres; and pretty colors。                 And incredible 

as   it   seems;   these   unhappy   lunatics   are   left   at   large;   unrebuked;   even 

admired   and   revered;   whilst   artists   have   to   struggle   for   toleration。       To 

them an undraped human body is the most monstrous; the most blighting; 

the most obscene; the most unbearable spectacle in the universe。                        To an 

artist it   is;   at its best;   the   most   admirable   spectacle in nature;   and;   at its 

average; an object of indifference。             If every rag of clothing miraculously 

dropped      from   the    inhabitants    of   London     at  noon    tomorrow      (say   as   a 

preliminary  to   the  Great   Judgment);  the  artistic  people   would not   turn   a 

hair;   but   the   artless   people   would   go   mad   and   call   on   the   mountains   to 

hide them。       I submit that this indicates a thoroughly healthy state on the 

part of the artists; and a thoroughly morbid one on the part of the artless。 

And   the   healthy   state   is   attainable   in   a   cold   country   like   ours   only   by 

familiarity with the undraped figure acquired through pictures; statues; and 

theatrical representations in which an illusion of natural clotheslessness is 

produced and made poetic。 

     In short; we all grow up stupid and mad to just the extent to which we 

have not been artistically educated; and the fact that this taint of stupidity 

and madness has to be tolerated because it is general; and is even boasted 

of   as   characteristically  English;   makes   the   situation   all   the   worse。      It   is 

becoming exceedingly grave at present; because the last ray of art is being 

cut off from our schools by the discontinuance of religious education。 



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                       A TREATISE ON PARENTS AND CHILDREN 



              The Impossibility of Secular 

                                 Education 



     Now     children    must    be   taught    some    sort   of   religion。    Secular 

education is an impossibility。        Secular education comes to this:           that the 

only reason for ceasing to do evil and learning to do well is that if you do 

not you will be caned。        This is worse than being taught in a church school 

that if you become a dissenter you will go to hell; for hell is presented as 

the instrument of something eternal; divine; and inevitable:                you cannot 

evade it   the   moment   the   schoolmaster's   back is turned。        What   confuses 

this issue and leads even highly intelligent religious persons to advocate 

secular education as a means of rescuing children from the strife of rival 

proselytizers     is  the  failure  to  distinguish    between    the  child's   personal 

subjective need for a religion and its right to an impartially communicated 

historical objective knowledge of all the creeds and Churches。                 Just as a 

child; no matter what its race and color may be; should know that there are 

black    men    and   brown    men   and   yellow    men;   and;   no  matter    what   its 

political convictions may be; that there are Monarchists and Republicans 

and   Positivists;   Socialists   and   Unsocialists;   so   it   should   know   that   there 

are Christians and Mahometans and Buddhists and Shintoists and so forth; 

and that they are on the average just as honest and well…behaved as its own 

father。    For example; it should not be told that Allah is a false god set up 

by the Turks and Arabs; who will all be damned for taking that liberty; but 

it should be told that many English people think so; and that many Turks 

and Arabs think the converse about English people。                 It should be taught 

that Allah is simply the name by which God is known to Turks and Arabs; 

who are just as eligible for salvation as any Christian。              Further; that the 

practical   reason   why   a   Turkish   child   should   pray   in   a   mosque   and   an 

English   child   in   a   church   is   that   as   worship   is   organized   in   Turkey   in 

mosques in the name of Mahomet and in England in churches in the name 

of   Christ;   a   Turkish   child   joining   the   Church   of   England   or   an   English 

child following Mahomet will find that it has no place for its worship and 

no organization of its religion within its reach。          Any other teaching of the 



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history   and   present   facts   of   religion   is   false   teaching;   and   is   politically 

extremely dangerous in an empire in which a huge majority of the fellow 

subjects of the governing island do not profess the religion of that island。 

     But   this   objectivity;   though   intellectually   honest;   tells   the   child   only 

what other people believe。            What it should itself believe is quite another 

matter。     The sort of Rationalism which says to a child 〃You must suspend 

your     judgment      until  you    are  old   enough     to   choos

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