Lecture Six.

THEORY AND PRACTICE.

False Ideas of Theory and Practice-The True Origin of Theory-Theory is Built up from Practice-History contains the Germs of Philosophy-Theory is Sublimated Labor-Present Theories have been Developed from the PastPhrenology-Christianity-Practice goes before Theory-Confucius-PlatoSocrates and Aristotle-Many can Practice, Few Theorize-Right Practice Natural and Easy-Truth and Falsehood in Life-Every Man should have a Theory of Life-Theory and Practice should go together-Spirit of the Age-To do Right is easy-False Ideas on this Point-Theory and Practice compared.

"IT is one thing to preach and another, to practice," is an old proverb. It expresses the idea, that Theory is much easier than Practice. But it is a question whether philosophy would be willing to concede this point.

The proverb is old, and its origin may be easily traced. It was born of humble parentage; it grew up among the common people; it was the pupil's retort to the teacher when a hard problem was presented for his solution; the subject's reply to his king when strict laws were to be enforced; the people's response to the philosopher when the theory of a true moral life was presented to them. Times are changing. Things are not exactly as they were. The difference between the high and low of men, the learned and unlearned, the teacher and the student, is not so great as it was. The two extremes of humanity are approach

FALSE IDEAS OF THEORY AND PRACTICE.

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ing each other; and when, they meet the proverb will be changed, and Theory will be considered harder than 、 Practice.

When the world's teachers were few and its students many, when philosophers were scarce and the multitude ignorant and base, that multitude looked upon philosophy as something easy of attainment-looked upon the precepts of wisdom as costing only the opening of the mouth and a little pleasant use of the tongue-looked on sage advice as costing only a few breaths of common air; and the best theories of life and practice as being the delightful day-dreams of ease-loving men, who lived upon the hard labors of the many. Science cost nothing, they thought. Learning was a sort of God-given vision, which a lucky turn of fortune gave to some favored sons of men. Eloquence was a divine gift, denied the many. Genius was of the gods. All rare powers of mind were divine endowments, costing the possessor nothing. Such was the common view. Hence, when from the lips of eloquence, or the storehouse of learning, or the genius of philosophy, were issued the precepts of morality, the rules of correct living, or the religion of human duty, the common people, who could scarcely believe such a practice possible, exclaimed, by way of retort and excuse for their non-performance, "It's one thing to preach, but quite another to practice. It is very easy for you to sit up there in your easy chairs and theorize, but just come down here into every-day life, and you will learn the difference between Theory and Practice."

66 HISTORY CONTAINS THE GERMS OF PHILOSOPHY.

The proverb ignores the true origin of Theory, the nighttoils of genius; and the hard, slow, weary, up-hill road to learning. Theory is born in hard travail; it is a child. of long and painful labor; it is made in brain-sweat and toil; it is beat out on the anvil of thought. Vulcan never hammered half so hard for his iron instruments of torture and profit, as the true theorist for his plan of moral life.

Theory is the philosophy of things obtained chiefly from the crucible of experience, ay, and the experience of ages, too. Theory is built up on Practice-on accidental, spontaneous, natural practice-the practice of all men in all times. Men have always been doing right and wrong. They have strewn all through the march of human existence the elements of the true theory. The Hebrews, the Chinese, the multitudes of India, the Egyptians, Scandinavians, Tartars, Persians, Grecians, Romans, Northmen, Britons, the feudal men, and those of modern times, have been strewing the elements of Theory all through their long existences. Their histories contain the seeds of all moral philosophy. Who would gather up those seeds and plant them in the garden of thought, and combine, arrange, and cultivate them till they produce the true philosophy of life, must labor. Then, the life of all these nations, and all their hordes of men, is but one man's life lived under little different circumstances. The experience of the world is all compassed in the experience of one full-lifed man. The material universe, multiformed and myriad-like as it appears, is all reducible to a few simple substances, probably not twenty. So human expe

THEORY IS SUBLIMATED LABOR.

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rience, varied and million-fold as it appears, spread out on the wide map of the past, is reducible to a single life. To study oneself is to read the book of the race. To reduce the lives of mankind to a single unity, and to extract from that unity the essence of the whole; to obtain there from a simple formula that will solve the moral problems of humanity, is not the task of a moment, nor of an idle mind. It is not a small labor, simple as may appear the result. It is a great work of reason. To study oneself in connection with the race; to systematize and generalize the facts of all history; to compare government with government, action with action, nation with nation, code with code, principle with principle, and from the great chaotic whole to draw out one perfect, simple, sublime theory of right, and have that theory accord with one's own-life experience, is no small task.

Το go into the grand Pandora's box of

the world and put it all in order, is more than ease-loving minds like to do. Theory is indeed sublimated labor. It is not the labor of one man, but of thousands. The best minds of all ages have been gathering the facts and evolving the principles upon which every correct theory of moral life is established. Each age of philosophers has taken the work of the last where they left it. Thinkers have succeeded each other in generations. Learning has had its successive schools. Thought has traveled from mind to mind. The true theory of moral life is the work of nearly six thousand years of human progress, and of millions of years of individual thinkers. Our age has not risen up of itself. It has grown out of the past. It is the

68

PRACTICE GOES BEFORE THEORY.

last step in the world's progress. And its correct theories are not the growth of a day in the world's calendar, but of all its days. Phrenology is a theory of the last ages; but it has been growing through all time. Its seed was planted in Eden. It did not bear fruit till the later ages poured upon it their ripening sunlight. The theory of the material universe which philosophy now receives, is the growth of the ages. The theory of electrical agency is apparently of this age; but it took all past periods and powers to perfect minds capable of its development. The theory of republicanism, which we deem just and right, is modern in its development, but world-old in its growth. The theory of morality and religion spread out in the Gospel is not even yet comprehended but by a few of the highest minds of earth. Many have practiced very near to it; but few have risen to a clear conception of the sublime theory itself.

And it will be ages before Christianity as a theory will be comprehended by the masses of mankind. They are approaching that sublime period of attainment; but they are far below it yet. Its Practice must be greatly improved before its Theory can be understood. No man can understand Christianity till he practices it. Its very theory is so interwoven with personal experience, and so ingrained with spirituality, that a practice of its precepts and an experience of its spirit are necessary to its intellectual comprehension.

Practice goes before Theory, just as fact goes before reasoning. Experience is the mother of Theory, and rea