For the purpose in hand, canons of taste
are race habits, acquired through a more or less protracted
habituation to the approval or disapproval of the kind of things
upon which a favorable or unfavorable judgment of taste is
passed. Other things being equal, the longer and more unbroken
the habituation, the more legitimate is the canon of taste in
question. All this seems to be even truer of judgments regarding
worth or honor than of judgments of taste generally.
But whatever may be the aesthetic legitimacy of the derogatory
judgment passed on the newer learning by the spokesmen of the
humanities, and however substantial may be the merits of the
contention that the classic lore is worthier and results in a
more truly human culture and character, it does not concern the
question in hand. The question in hand is as to how far these
branches of learning, and the point of view for which they stand
in the educational system, help or hinder an efficient collective
life under modern industrial circumstances -- how far they
further a more facile adaptation to the economic situation of
today. The question is an economic, not an aesthetic one; and the
leisure-class standards of learning which find expression in the
deprecatory attitude of the higher schools towards matter-of-fact
knowledge are, for the present purpose, to be valued from this
point of view only.
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