Note 185 — Chapter XIV · THE PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.—CONDILLAC, DIDEROT, HELVETIUS, AND KANT.

This thought will bear extension as in the following quotation: “The reasoning that I oppose starts from the low and false assumption that instruction serves only for the practical use that is made of it; for example, that he who, by his social position, does not make use of his intellectual culture, has no need of that culture. Literature, from this point of view, is useful only to the man of letters, science only to the scientist, good manners and fine bearing only to men of the world. The poor man should be ignorant, for education and knowledge are useless to him. Blasphemy, Gentlemen! The culture of the mind and the culture of the soul are duties for every man. They are not simple ornaments; they are things as sacred as religion” (Renan, Famille et État, p. 3). This is a sufficient answer to Mr. Spencer’s assumption (Education, p. 84), that the studies that are best for guidance are at the same time the best for discipline. See also Dugald Stewart (Elements, p. 12). (P.)