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About The Hesperian / (Lincoln, Neb.) 1885-1899 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 1890)
THE HESPERIAN. let our frats consider the interests of the University, and let us enter the state contest with man that will win. LITERARY. The "good old times" have furnished, and perhaps al ways will furnish a pleasant theme for those who love to con trast the hazy outlines of the past with the hard realities of the present. The institutions of the past, however inadequate for the bettering of humanity; the customs of bygone ages, however degrading they may have been, acquire in the course of centuries a certain romantic charm which age alone can give them, and which no amount of human reasoning can divest them of. This Tcvcrence for the past is universal. It leads nations in their age to regard with fondness the crude experience of their youth. Yet more, it causes the man of four score to lament the innovations his lifetime has witnessed and brings instructively to his lips the complaint, uttered sometimes with an assumption of ill concealed superiority, but oftcner with mourniul regret, "things are not as they weic when I was young." The Nineteenth century is noted for the advance it has witnessed in all departments f activity. It is therefore not remarkable if the rapidly moving tide of improvement has left stranded many a one for whom innovation came too fast. In the industrial world the last hundred years has seen a re markable revolution. It has seen multitudes of workmen, hitherto living apart from each other, brought into great es tablishments, where each has been assigned a task different from the others the labor of all being utilised in the com pletion of a single finished product. From this concentration of industry products have resulted greater in quantity and better in quality than before. Were this the only result of this industrial revolution, men could find no fault with it; for it has'marvelously bettered the means of supplying human wants. But it is unnecessary to say, there are objections to be brought against the new order of things, and the evil ef fect on the individual workmen, caused in great part by lack of the former diversity of occupation, is not the least worthy of attention. In the educational world, on the other hand, essentially the same revolution has been fleeted. Repeatedly the daily press is called upon to deplore the death of some Professor , who had been in his latter days "one of the few surviv ing representatives of the culture of the age which preceded the present highly specialists era." Indeed, the tendency in fvery branch of learning ib luwnrd specialization. The time is perhaps not far distant when each line of study will be pursued in its own institution. But against this tendency, in the educational as in the industrial world, objections are offered. Here, as in manual labor, the total product, if one may so style it, is increased and is of better quality, with out peradventure. But it is alleged that specialization in the educational field as in the industrial field is detrimental to the harmoniuns development of the faculties of the in dividual worker. This objection appears plausible on its fare. And many enamored of everything that savors of the past, readily assent to any statement not absolutely puerile that justifies going on inlhe beaten track. But it is true that the specialist of today is less liberally educated than his ominscicnt predecessors? Are specialists less practital men of the -world than they should be? ! ': Specialism and specialists come by a natural process of development. When in primitive times the bulk of learning is very small it is conceivable that one master mind may grasp the essentials of all human knowledge. But the aggre gate of knowledge is vastly increased in every century, and it is soon physically as well as intellectually impossible for any one man to cover the whole field. And in the present age, when mankind in Europe and America has attained such a high degree of culture, when, moreover, almost every moot ed point in history, in language, and in natural science, has its own special literture, thorough acquaintance with any one of these subjects is the reward only of a lifetime of assiduous toil. Hence it is manifestly proper to declare that if the future is to be intellectually as advanced as the present, there must be specialists, must be division of labor in the educational world, just as of necessity it exists in the industrial. The specialist is said to be in danger of becoming narrow in his views by reason of his absorption in his special line of work. But on comparing specialists with those who vaunt their smattering acquaintance with manifold, widely distin guished subjects, it will be apparent, the writer takes it, that the evil of narrow-mindedness in specialists is much more formidable in appearance than in reality. In the first place, all specialists are or should be deeply engrossed in their work, and should be untiring in their investigations. For they have at best an arduous task to perform, one which or dinarily will not bring so much applause from the populace as did the work of the ecclesiastical scholars of former times, whose hours were chiefly spent in sloth or in parading their celestial qualities and intellectual acquisitions before a rev erent, awe struck world. Furthermore, any special line of investigation, if worthy of being pursued at all, usually bears more or less directly on some phase of actual life. It is, again, to be noted that the increase in the number of specialists has gone hand in hand with the abandoi.ment of a priori methods, for careful investigation of actual facts. If one would seek today for those who are advancing all branches of learning, and bringing them more into accord with practical utility, one will find them onlv in thr rnnks of those who have not been frittering away their time on a thousand and one topics, but have concentrated their efforts on a lew closely related subjects. But it is alleged that in certain lines of research special ization is being carried too far; that there is a noticeable lack of those capable of grouping great masses of fact in continuous narrative; that, to take a specific illustration, history is be coming too microscopical. This may be true. But is it not necessary that minute work be done before a comprehensive treatment is attempted? Tt is certain that the cuiiipicliemtv treatment when effected will not suffer, if the author is mas ter of his materials, from the merciless dissection to which the subject matter has been exposed. Specialization, then, is imperative if the bounds of knowl edge are to be extended. While it may be carried too far, and in consequence waste force on trivial matters, its general effect has not been to narrow the minds of men or to make them oblivious to their duty as citizens. Hence the conclu sion is in the main justified, that the evils resulting from specialization arc much more than offset by the attendant good effects. In the "Sub Rosa" column of the Omaha ExctJdor, No vember a, 1890, appears the following remarkable item: "The jawbone of a young man eating shark, which has been exhibited with all its eight rows of teeth in the window of this office this week, has attracted a constant crowd." At
