PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS
It is, to be sure, a matter of no small difficulty to teach philosophy with some definite aim in view. The infant, the boy, the youth, the man, has each a philosophy of his own. What luck when different ages and different years play into one another’s hands! If one generation turned out cog-wheels, another springs, and yet another dial-plates, a fourth would no doubt make a clock of it. If every individual lived on a separate planet, what would philosophy be then? Why, it would be no different from what it is now: an epitome of his opinions—that is what a man’s philosophy is. But who would be the man’s cobbler? who his builder? If you put him among a community, he would no doubt get someone else to make his shoes; but his opinions? —that is the awkward part of the business. If I knock opinions together for myself, or buy a pair of well-made ones that do not fit me, it may mean breaking my neck. The question, Ought one to philosophize for oneself, should, I fancy, be answered in the same way as the parallel question, Ought a man to shave himself? Were I to be consulted on this point my answer would be:—“If you can do it properly,
it is an excellent thing.” I always think that one should try to learn to shave oneself, but
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