One of the
Necessary Missing-links in the
Evolution of Human
Thought and Institutions
Helena P. Blavatsky
Joseph R. Buchanan (1814-1899) and
Helena P. Blavatsky (1831-1891)
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Editorial Note:
The following
article is reproduced from
“The Theosophist”,
India, December 1883,
p. 101. It is also published at the “Collected
Writings” of H. P.
B., TPH, vol. VI, pp. 45-48.
Long paragraphs
have been divided in shorter ones.
Joseph Rodes
Buchanan’s book on Moral
Education is available at the associated websites.
(CCA)
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It affords us real
pleasure to give an old and respected friend a greeting through the new edition
of his valuable work [1] - Professor
Buchanan’s latest thoughts on a complete scheme of education.
This learned gentleman, as our readers may recollect,
is the discoverer in the western world of that mysterious power latent in man,
which has been further enlarged upon by Prof. Denton in his “Soul of Things”.
It is Professor Buchanan who is the real founder of the Science of Psychometry.
The present work shows more than ever that like a few
other spiritually wise men, the Professor does not feel himself at ease in the
broad seat of modern civilization; he seems to have lost his way in the jungle
of western materialism, but his brave spirit is struggling hard for the welfare
of his race, who seem to be even unconscious of their degradation. He has hit
upon the real source of danger which is so gloomily overhanging the Western
world and threatening it with moral and spiritual ruin.
The cultivation of mere intellect, as the means of
material advancement, leaving out the higher nature of man to grow to seed, utterly
untended and uncared for. The whole system of modern education is entirely at
fault and the result is the production of ill-shapen monstrosities. Education
is the attempt to realize the harmony between nature and man. It is to find out
the real aim and object of life and when found to render them an unswerving and
life-long devotion. Education is the acquirement of the capacity of enjoying
life to its fullest extent, its want is suicide, partial or complete. Professor
Buchanan’s ideal lies in the same direction as our own.
“A satisfactory knowledge”, says the author, “of the
psychic and physiological functions of life and their definite association with
the brain and body and laws of interaction would necessarily indicate the laws
of their development. That development is education.” [2]
In this present juncture when a commission is embarked
on a perilous voyage for the discovery of a new and sounder basis for education
in this country, Prof. Buchanan’s work possesses a peculiar value and interest.
Before the mould is prepared [3] upon
the western model for casting the minds of our future men and women, it is
profitable to consider what competent experts declare as to the value of that
model. Prof. Buchanan after half a century’s experience delivers his opinion
thus: -
“There seems to be nothing in existence at present on
a large scale in the leading institutions which can be properly called a liberal education, for that which makes
the most imposing claims to be recognised as liberal education in the
universities appears, when viewed from the stand point of anthropology, not
only lame, feeble, and defective in the most essential elements of a liberal
education, but positively illiberal
in its contractile influence upon the intellect and soul, as well as its
degenerative influence upon the body.” [4]
The eminent Italian Professor, Signor Angelo de
Gubernatis bears his testimony to the same effect: -
“Under the present system the university is too widely
estranged from everyday life, and too indifferent to it. Where vital force
should be most felt it is wholly lacking. Students enter the universities and
issue therefrom in much the same manner as did the prophet Jonah enter and come
forth from the gloomy recesses of the whale. They go there to learn the
mysteries of science, but of the science of life, by far the most important of
all, they come away ignorant. One student studies four years, another five,
another six; but they are all equally ignorant of the art of living. The
university should properly be the mother
of genius and of character; it is instead merely the censor for a certain
number of years of a crowd of boys, who are forced to cheat at the examinations
in order to rise from grade to grade till the desired doctor’s vote is
obtained. Then they are all obliged to feed together like sheep in a pasture;
the examinations are the same for all; votes are cast with the same judgment,
or rather lack of judgment, since the
best parrot of the class can pass the most brilliant examination, and
consequently gain the vote, while the greatest genius may perhaps lose the
contest, disheartened by the trying formalities of the proceedings. It is never
taken into account that one student might perhaps merit the title of doctor
after only a month of trial, while another might fail to deserve it even at the
expiration of twenty years. Should there be a few intellects more active than
those around them, this discipline speedily brings them to the common level
(….). At present there is almost no intercourse between the university and the
world without, and while from within it appears to be a great institution,
outside its walls its influence is unfelt.” [5]
It is needless to multiply instances. Every thoughtful
observer has found that the present pernicious system of pampering the
intellect to the utter starvation of the other faculties can lead to no good
result - not even lead the much favoured one to the highest pitch of
development it is capable of attaining. Professor Buchanan, a student of the
true science of man, has put forward a system of education which is as
scientific as beneficial. Education naturally admits of division into five
classes, in accordance with the different classes of faculties to be dealt
with.
(1) Physiological development, aiming [at] the formation
of the manly, healthy constitution capable of lasting a hundred years and
competent to enjoy life and make it a source of benefit to humanity.
(2) Industrial Education, which alone can lead to the
disappearance of those unproductive classes, now preying upon the life-blood of
society like vampires.
(3) Medical Education, supplying the people with means to
stamp out diseases at their first approach and eradicate our splendid heritage
of diseases.
(4) Moral or Religious Education, whereby the life
secured by the other three kinds of education, is made worth living.
(5) And lastly comes Intellectual Education, which now
holds its revels on the ruin and degradation of man.
The scheme is complete but it is likely to provoke a
sneering smile on the self-satisfied dogmatic lip, as being quite utopian. Life
is not long enough, it may be urged, for such elaborate training. But the utter
silliness of such objection has been conclusively shown by the learned
Professor. The first eighteen years of life after the first dawn of
intelligence is quite enough for the whole curriculum being gone through. We
heartily commend this able and original work to our readers. Let it not be
taken as unforgivable sin that the book has come into the world a little too
soon. It will be at all events one of the necessary missing-links in the
evolution of human thought and institutions.
NOTES:
[1] NOTE BY HPB:
“Moral Education: Its laws and methods”. Governments, Churches and Colleges for
many thousand and years have striven in vain to conquer crime, disease and
misery - A new method must therefore be adopted - if that method can be found
in this volume, does it not indicate a better future for humanity? By Joseph
Rodes Buchanan, M.D., New York.
[2] See the Introduction of the book,
p. VI. (CCA)
[3] At this point we follow Boris
de Zirkoff’s version of the article in the “Collected Writings” of HPB. He
corrects a proof-reading mistake in the original edition of “The Theosophist”.
(CCA)
[4] See Chapter I, pp. 2-3. (CCA)
[5] HPB took this quotation from
pages 19-20 of Moral Education: Its Laws and Methods. (CCA)
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The article “Moral Education, by Prof. Buchanan”, by
HPB, was published in the associated websites on 18 August 2019.
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See the book Moral Education: Its Laws and Methods.
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Examine the text “Kohlberg and the Stages of Moral Development”.
Take a look at the
books “Raja Yoga or Mental Development”,
“The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali” and
“The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali”.
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