mechanical
process, and in tangible fruit; but it also may fall back upon that Reason
which informs it, and resolve itself into Philosophy. In one case it is
called Useful Knowledge, in the other Liberal. The same person may
cultivate it in both ways at once; but this again is a matter foreign to
my subject; here I do but say that there are two ways of using Knowledge,
and in matter of fact those who use it in one way are not likely to use it
in the other, or at least in a very limited measure. You see, then, here
are two methods of Education; the end of the one is to be philosophical,
of the other to be mechanical; the one rises towards general ideas, the
other is exhausted upon what is particular and external. Let me not be
thought to deny the necessity, or to decry the benefit, of such attention
to what is particular and practical, as belongs to the useful or
mechanical arts; life could not go on without them; we owe our daily
welfare to them; their exercise is the duty of the many, and we owe to the
many a debt of gratitude for fulfilling that duty. I only say that
Knowledge, in proportion as it tends more and more to be particular,
ceases to be Knowledge. It is a question whether Knowledge can in any
proper sense be predicated of the brute creation; without pretending to
metaphysical exactness of phraseology, which would be unsuitable to an
occasion like this, I say, it seems to me improper to call that passive
sensation, or perception of things, which brutes seem to possess, by the
name of Knowledge. When I speak of Knowledge, I mean something
intellectual, something which grasps what it perceives through the senses;
something which takes a view of things; which sees more than the senses
convey; which reasons upon what it sees, and while it sees; which invests
it with an idea. It expresses itself, not in a mere enunciation, but by an
enthymeme: it is of the nature of science from the first, and in this
consists its dignity. The principle of real dignity in Knowledge, its
worth, its desirableness, considered irrespectively of its results, is
this germ within it of a scientific or a philosophical process. This is
how it comes to be an end in itself; this is why it admits of being called
Liberal. Not to know the relative disposition of things is the state of
slaves or children; to have mapped out the Universe is the boast, or at
least the ambition, of Philosophy.

Moreover, such knowledge is not a mere extrinsic or a