METHODS OF INSTRUCTION THAT PART OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION WHICH TREATS OF THE NATURE OF THE SEVERAL BRANCHES OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE METHODS OF TEACHING THEM ACCORDING TO THAT NATURE. BY JAMES PYLE WICKERSHAM, A.M., PRINCIPAL OF THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, MILLERSVILLK, PENNSYLVANIA; AND AUTHOR OF "SCHOOL ECONOMY." "The method of nature is the archetype of all methods." — Marcel. "Man cannot propose a higher and holier ohject for his study, than education, and all that appertains to education." — Cousin's Plato. PHILADELPHIA : J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 1865. .W.7 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by JAMES PYLE WICKERSHAM, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. '^fw %^ a Sfililjut([ 0f %t%i^ni To the men and loomen noiv constituting the Teachers* Profession in America, characterized as they are hy learning, worth, and devotion to a work among the most noble that human effort ever aspired to accomplish — the right education of the whole people of the nation — who for their heavy labors receive small recom- pense save the con- sciousness of doing good, Whose desire it has been to be worthy of a place as a co-worker among them, whose hope it is to aid in elevating and dignifying the Pro- fession to which he and they belong, and whose reward it will be to have secured their approval of his work, begs leave to dedicate this book, (iii) ' PREFACE The author of this volume published, about a year ago, a book entitled " School Economy." In the Pre- face to it, the statement was made that other volumes were contemplated, but that their publication depended very much upon the reception of the one then offered to the Profession and the public. The commendations of that book were so numerous and hearty, and its sale so rapid, that the obligation was soon imposed upon the author of redeeming his implied promise, by print- ing the volume on " Methods of Instruction," which was then announced as being almost ready for the Press. The present work, like the former one, is based upon lectures delivered to classes of students preparing them- selves for teachers, but much additional matter is intro- duced here, that was not contained in the original lectures, for the purpose of rounding out the whole into a more perfect system, and making the book more acceptable to all classes of teachers. As it now stands 1* (y) Vi PREFACE. it is hoped that it will be found to embodj^ principles well worthy the attention of the Philosopher as well as of the Educator, and that its merit may be such as to make it a standard work in the profession whose interests mainly it is designed to serve. It will be observed that the word Teaching is used to designate all that belongs to the profession, whose aim it is to educate mankind. The words Law and Medicine have a similar relation to those professions whose objects it is, respectively, to preserve social order, and to cure the sick. Pedagogy, is the term generally employed by the Germans to express what I now call Teaching, but this word has an unpleasant association in this country, which unfits it for that pur- pose. Teaching was divided in the Preface to the " School Economy," into four divisions, viz. : School Economy, which treats of the preparation for, and the organization of, the school, and the conditions of its efficient working; Methods of Instruction, which treats of the nature of knowledge, and the methods of im- parting it ; Methods of Culture, which treats of the nature of man, aild the methods of educing from it all possible perfection ; and the Histor}^ of Education. To the matter composing the first three divisions I have sometimes thought shorter, but, perhaps, not more expressive, names might be applied, as follows : Scho- lastics, instead of School Economy ; Didactics, instead of Methods of Instruction ; and Humanics, instead of Methods of Culture. The first is, perhaps, objectionable PKEFACE. Vll because it has already been appropriated, though not much used ; the second is very expressive, and is now- applied somewhat indefinitely to Teaching in general ; and the third, in a slightly different form, has associa- tions of long standing, w-hich render it a fit term to express the object-matter proposed to be embraced by Methods of Culture. Throughout this work, how-ever, the forms of expression first chosen will continue to be used. The labor expended in the preparation of this book w^as very great. It formed a daily subject of thought for the past ten years, and much of it was w^ritten over three or four times. This is hardly the place to confess how often the task w^as about to be abandoned from the disproportion felt to exist between its magnitude and the limited powers that could be summoned to execute it ; but it w^as as often resumed, and is now completed — completed, but not perfected, for it is not presumed that nothing erroneous or imperfect w411 be found in the work. It would have been easy to fill five hundred pages with matter concerning the methods of teaching the several branches of knowledge considered independ- ently ; but in that case the book would have been a mere collection of fragments, and not at all a scientific treatise. It might, indeed, have been more popular, but it w^ould have been unfaithful to the great theme discussed ; so at the risk of losing readers, patient effort was made to grapple with the subject in its broadest relations. Great difficulty w^as met in condensing the via PREFACE. materials. It would have been much easier to write several volumes on the subject than one. The thinking reader will appreciate this labor. Criticism is anticipated from those who would mea- sure all knowledge by the standard of utility, or confine it to the few branches which seem to impart most skill in transacting the world's affairs, but this will be borne with patience, if what is written shall secure the appro- bation of those who see in education the means of developing all the powers of the human soul, and fur- nishing it with that instruction which is not only pro- fitable on earth, but which leads up towards the world of light and love. Teachers of the most limited scholarship will find much matter in the book that they can readily make use of in the every day work of their schools; but some such teachers will likely complain that they meet with things which they cannot understand. This, perhaps, will not be the fault of the book. The doctrine of education cannot be discussed as a Philosophy without using philosophical principles and philosophical lan- guage. Works on Law and Medicine rise to the level of the subjects of which they treat, and lift the earnest student up with them. Teachers must adopt a higher standard of learning. They must acquaint themselves with the fundamental principles of Teaching. They must learn to think. And, besides, this book was not written for the babes of the profession, but for the men — not for those who are satisfied to tramp forever the PREFACE. IX tread-mill of routine and get no farther and rise no higher, but for those who aspire to gain broader and clearer views of the Philosophy of Education and to guide the work of teaching by their light. Teaching, when rightly done, is not a mere process of imitation or a piece of guess-work. Its rules and precepts are not even the generalizations of successful practice, but they are founded upon the universal and necessary laws which condition matter and govern mind. As a preparation for the successful study of this book, it is necessary to understand the several bran- ches of knowledge of the methods of teaching which it treats; and also to be versed in the sciences which directly appertain to mind — the Psychological Sciences. In the broadest sense it requires the whole of Science to constitute the basis upon which Teaching must rest. The solution of the problem of man necessitates the solution of the problem of nature, for to under- stand him all else must be understood. And yet this conception is so far above the practice of the profes- sion, so much beyond the reach of many who are called good teachers that I scarcely venture to present it. When I think of the low ends we aim at in education, and the unworthy means and imperfect methods we use to accomplish them, I tremble to think we are teaching and know so little. God, forgive us if we mar thy noblest work. We are ignorant, and would be humble. Thou alone canst know the difficulties that surround our task. X PREFACE. The i^lan of this book was formed during the year 1855. To fill out the plan much reading as well as much thinking has been done; but to tell to-day what was obtained by the first process and what by the second is an impossibility. Wishing to do justice to everybody, no claim that may be fairly made to any idea in it will be disputed ; and it is hoped that some- thing may be left even when all claims are satisfied. Nothing, however, has been taken from others and used without digestion. All the facts and principles found in the book, come whence they may, have been fused into a common whole. This whole — this collect- ing and uniting of the scattered fragments of thought concerning education — this system^ is what the author asks credit for, if credit be deemed his due. The question is a disputed one as to whether Teach- ing is a science or an art. The settlement of this question depends wholly upon the definitions of sci- ence and art. Teaching seeks an end without itself, and this is a characteristic of art. It comprehends many scientific principles which admit systematic ar- rangement, and this is a characteristic of science. It applies those principles in the form of rules or precepts in the accomplishment of its ends, and this again ex- hibits its relationship to the arts. All the principles of Teaching come to it second-hand. They are first found in the material or mental sciences, and are used in Teaching to furnish a ground for its methods of pro- cedure. But as a body of truths they are among the PREFACE. xi broadest and noblest that the human mind can contem^ plate, and consequently place Teaching side by side, as the peer of the proudest professions known to men. Teaching has the same claims to be considered a science as Jurisprudence, Medicine, or practical Ethics; for all these are constructed in a manner precisely like Teaching. All of them borrow their principles, and all of them use these principles in the eifort to attain their respective ends. Perhaps, as Mill following Comte suggests, "There ought to be a set of intermediate scientific truths, derived from the higher generalities of science, and destined to serve as the generalia, or first principles, of the various arts." Some such gene- ralia relating to Teaching are given in this book under the head of Conditioning Principles. These and other principles like them constitute the claim Teaching has to be called a Science. If the claim is not well founded with respect to Teaching, it cannot be well founded with respect to any other profession. I am quite willino- to consider Teaching an art, but it is an art based upon scientific principles that should always guide its prac- tice. Let teachers forever discard the degrading idea that the highest and holiest work in which men can engage on earth, the right education of the human soul, is a mere mechanical employment that can be learned by imitation — is a thing so easy that no special preparation is required to do it. Let them hold to the truth, though their pearls be trampled on by vulgar feet, that Teaching lays under contribution all science and all art in working out the grandest end that Xll PREFACE. human conception ever realized — the perfection of the race. , With grateful thanks for the kind reception accorded to his first volume, the author now hopefully trusts his second to the same generous hands. J. P. W. State Normal School, January, 1865. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. TEACHERS REQUIRE SPECIAL PREPARATION. First Class of Reasons. page 1. The teacher must understand the true object of educa- tion 26 2. The teacher must understand that upon which he operates 27 3. The teacher must understand that with which he operates 28 4. The teacher must understand how to conduct the operation 28 5. The teacher must know how to manage and govern the school 30 Second Class of Reasons. 1. Special preparation on the part of teachers is necessary to constitute Teaching a profession 30 2. Special preparation on the part of teachers is necessary to make Teaching a permanent business 31 3. Efforts for the special preparation of teachers have been attended with satisfactory results. CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 32 I. Principles inferable from the Nature of Mind 37 1. The intellectual faculties can receive culture by judi- cious exercise 37 2 (xiii) XIV CONTENTS. PACB 2. The human intellect embraces a number of distinct faculties each of which requires a diflFerent kind of culture 38 3. Human beings have been created with different tastes and talents to fit them for performing different duties or for occupying different spheres in life 39 4. The Perceptive powers are stronger and more active in youth than the other intellectual faculties and thus furnish a basis for the superstructure of knowledge 40 5. Commencing with the Perceptive Powers, the various intellectual faculties increase in relative strength in the following order : Memory, Recollection, Imagina- tion, Understanding, Reason 41 6. The hviman mind possesses two sources of knowledge, the Senses and the Reason, the products of which differ in kind 44 7. In acquiring knowledge, the mind first distinguishes its objects in kind, then in quantity, and afterwards in their relations 45 8. The ratiocinative faculty in elaborating systems of science, proceeds inductively or deductively, analyti- cally or synthetically 46 9. The acquisitive powers of the mind in getting knowledge operate according to certain laws of suggestion 48 10. The reproductive powers of the mind by means of laws of association enable it to recall its knowledge, and to hold it up in vivid pictures before it 49 11. The productive powers of the mind enable it. to make new discoveries and new inventions 50 12. The human intellect grows only by its own inherent energies 51 13. The acts of men do not derive their moral quality from the intellect 51 14. The intellect of man has limits which no extent of educa- tion can enable it to pass 52 II. Principles inferable from the Nature of Knowledge 64 1. The several branches of knowledge can be made to fur- nish the intellectual faculties with exercise proper in kind and quantity 54 2. Educational means can be found adapted to give culture to every capability of mind 56 CONTENTS. XV 3. No God-constituted difference of mental constitution is ^^^^ left unprovided for in the wealth of means which the Creator intended to be used for the purposes of education g^ 4. Nature presents to the inquirer, first the concrete and then the abstract ; first things and then words, or signs for things; first facts and phenomena and then laws and principles; first wholes and then parts and collections of wholes ; thus indicating to the teacher the propriety of confining his elemen- tary instruction mainly to lessona on objects whose properties can be directly perceived, for the purpose of making the experience of the young as extensive as possible eg 5. Nature opens up her truth in a certain order, and that order must be followed in investigation and study... 60 6. The Empirical and the Rational Sciences require dif- ferent methods of instruction 62 7 The first form of instruction must be qualitative, next quantitative, and, then, a comparison of relations... 64 8. As conditioned by the relations of the object-matter of knowledge, methods of teaching must be induc- tive or deductive, analytical or synthetical 66 9. The object-matter of knowledge as it exists in nature is so connected and arranged as to facilitate its acqui- sition • po 10. The matter of knowledge as it lies in the memory has connections and relations which increase its avail- ability gg 11. New discoveries in science and new inventions in the arts are still possible, and methods of instruction should prompt the young to make them 70 12. Nature everywhere courts investigation by a system of attractions wLich enlist the attention, and induce increased activity in the powers by which we re- member, reflect, reason, and philosophize, and there- fore methods of teaching should be suggestive 72 13. The study of science does not in itself lead to virtue.... 75 14. What we can know is everywhere bounded by what must remain unknown 7(5 XVI CONTENTS. PAGB BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. I. The Classification of Knowledge 80 First Class — the Elements of Knowledge 83 Second Class — Language 85 Third Class — the Formal Sciences 86 Fourth Class — the Empirical Sciences 86 Fifth Class — the Rational Sciences 86 Sixth Class — the Historical Sciences 87 Seventh Class — the Arts 87 II. The Genesis of Knowledge 88 The Genesis of our knowledge of Language 88 The Genesis of our knowledge of the Formal Sciences 90 The Genesis of our knowledge of the Empirical Sciences, ,. 93 The Genesis of our knowledge of the Ptational Sciences 96 The Genesis of our knowledge of the Historical Sciences... 98 The Genesis of our knowledge of the Arts 99 Educational generalizations 103 III. The Order of Study 109 First Period — Infancy 110 Second Period — Childhood 113 Third Period— Fom^^ 117 Fourth Period — Manhood 120 CHAPTER I. INSTRUCTION IN THE ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE. 1. Informal Instruction in the Elements of Knowledge 124 1. Children should be allowed ample opportunities for ex- ercising their Senses 124 2. Children should be instructed in learning to talk 127 3. Children should have their appetite for knowledge grati- fied 130 4. Children should be furnished occasions for applying their powers of knowing what is true, beautiful, and good 135 5. Children should be allowed facilities for practice in the elements of the Arts 138 CONTENTS. XVll PAGE II. Formal Instruction in the Elements of Knowledge 140 1. The Design of Object. Lessons 141 2. The Matter of Object Lessons 144 3. The Preparation for imparting Object Lessons 150 4. The Method of conducting Object Lessons 154 6. The Dangers to which the Object Lesson System is exposed 15G CHAPTER 11. INSTRUCTION IN LANGUAGE. Instruction in our Mother-Tongue 161 Advantages to be derived from the Study of the Eng- lish Language 165 Learning to Read our Mother-Tongue 165 The Alphabet 165 1. The A B C Method 168 The Manner of teaching the Alphabet with a Book.... 168 The Manner of teaching the Alphabet with Cards 169 The Manner of teaching the Alphabet with a Slate or Blackboard ^ 179 The Manner of teaching the Alphabet with Letter- Blocks 173 2. The Word Method 175 Lessons upon the N.imes of Pictures 175 Lessons upon the Names of Words 176 Lessons upon the Names of Letters 176 Pronunciation 179 1. The Synthetic Method 179 The Alphabetic Method ISO The Phonic Method 182 The Phonetic Method ., 187 2. The Associative Method 188 3. The Eclectic Method 191 Orthography 195 1. The Auricular Method 196 2. The Ocular Method 197 XVIU CONTENTS. PAGE Exercises in Spelling. Spelling Exercises for Beginners 200 Oral Exercises in Spelling 201 Method of using Slates in a Spelling Recitation 202 Method of using the Blackboard in a Spelling Recita- tion 204 False Orthography as an Exercise in Spelling 205 Dictation Exercises 205 Reading 208 1. Method of teaching Readiiig as a Vocal Art 208 Quantity, including Force, Emphasis, Slur, Stress, and Accent 210 Compass, including Pitch and Inflection 214 Movement, including Rate and Pause 216 Quality 218 2. Method of teaching Reading as a Mental Operation 220 Reading as related to the Intellect 220 Reading as related to the Emotions 224 3. Method of teaching Delivery '. 227 ' Expression 227 Posture 231 Gesture a 232 II. Learning to Understand our Mother-Tongue 234 Lexicology 235 1. The meaning of words may be learned by direct in- tuition .' 236 2. The meaning of words may be learned by concrete ex- planations 237 3. The meaning of words may be learned by the use of sipaplified expressions 238 4. The meaning of words may be learned by observing their signification as used in sentences 239 5. The meaning of words may be learned by the study of foreign languages 241 6. The meaning of words may be learned by an acquaint- ance with Etymology 241 7. The meaning of words may be learned by scientific defi- nitions 244 Grammar 245 1. Etymological Exercises 247 Nouns 248 CONTENTS. XIX PAGE Kinds of Nouns 248 Properties of Nouns 249 Verbs 249 Kinds of Verbs 250 Properties of Verbs 251 Exercises on the other Parts of Speech 252 2. Grammar as a Science 252 The Subject 253 The Predicate 254 Kinds of Subjects 255 Kinds of Predicates 255 Adjective Elements 256 Adverbial Elements 257 General Principles relating to teaching Grammar 258 Rhetoric 259 1. Kinds of Discourse 260 2. Qualities which characterize well constructed Dis- course „ 261 3. Arrangement and Style of Discourse 262 Philology 265 The Nature of Philology 265 III. Learning to Compose in our Mother-Tongue 266 1. Elementary Composition 267 Classes of Exercises 268 2. Higher Composition 270 Composition in connection with Grammar and Rhetoric. 271 Directions for conducting Special Exercises in Compo- sition 272 II. Instruction in the Dead Languages 275 1. Uses of the Study of Latin and Greek 277 The study of Latin and Greek assists in the study of our own language 277 The study of Latin and Greek assists in understand- ing the character of the people who spoke them 277 The study of Latin and Greek assists in obtaining a knowledge of the history of the Romans and Greeks 278 The study of Latin and Greek furnishes very good in- tellectual discipline 278 XX CONTENTS. PAQB * The study of Latin and Greek furnishes fine aesthetic culture 279 2. Methods of teaching Latiii and Greek 280 « The Method that commences by teaching Pupils to speak Latin and Greek 282 The Method that commences by teaching Pupils to read Latin and Greek 283 The Method that commences by teaching the Latin and Greek Grammar 285 3. General directioyis for conducting a recitation in the reading of a classical author 287 III. Instruction in Living Foreign Languages 289 CHAPTER III. INSTRUCTION IN THE FORMAL SCIENCES. I. The Formal Sciences in General 295 1. Definitions and Axioms 206 2. Deductions and Demonstrations 299 3. Applications 302 II. Mathematics 303 1. The Value of Mathematical Studies in themselves. ....w 304 2. The Value of Mathematical Studies in their objective Relations 305 3. The Value of Mathematical Studies in their EflFects upon the Mind 306 Arithmetic 312 The Ends for which Arithmetic is studied 313 The Conditions necessary to the Attainment of these Ends 314 1. Exercises in counting 315 2. Exercises in adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing orally 316 3. Exercises in combining these Processes 316 4. Exercises in learning the written Symbols for Num- bers 316 5. Exercises in Numeration and Notation 316 CON'TENTS. XXI PAQK 6. Exercises in Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division 319 7. Exercises in the Solution of practical Examples in- volving the four Fundamental Rules 321 8. Exercises in imparting the Id^a of a Fraction 321 9. Exercises in adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing Fractions orally 322 10. Exercises in teaching Fractional Expressions 323 11. Exercises in the Addition, Subtraction, Multiplica- tion, and Division of Fractions, and their Ap- plications 323 12. Exercises in Decimal Fractions 323 13. Exercises in Compound Numbers 324 14. Exercises in Proportion, and Involution and Evolu- tion 325 15. Exercises in Arithmetical Applications 325 Algebra 326 Algebraic Symbols 328 The Algebraic Idea 328 Adding, Subtracting, Multiplying, and dividing Alge- braic Quantities «... 329 Algebraic Equations 329 Geometry 331 Geometry for young Children 332 Geometrical Demonstrations 334 III. Logic 336 1. The Utility of Logic as a Study 336 Logic is a useful study in itself 337 Logic is a useful study on account of its objective re- lations 337 Logic is a useful study because it disciplines the Un- derstanding 337 2. Methods of Teaching Logic 338 Its definitions 338 Its Deductions and Demonstrations 339 Its Applications , 340 Xxii CONTENTS. CHAPTER ly. INSTRUCTION IN THE EMPIRICAL SCIENCES. PAGE The Uses of the Empirical Sciences 343 I. The Empirical Sciences in General 346 1. The Order in which the Empirical Sciences must he taught... 346 The Exhibition of Objects 346 The Pointing out of particular Facts 350 The Classification of Facts 353 The Derivation of Laws controlling Facts 354 The Bringing of new Facts under ascertained Laws... 357 The Recognition of universal and necessary Principles on which all Empirical Laws depend 358 2. The Stages of Growth exhibited by the Empirical Sciences.... 360 The Poetic Stage 360 The Mystic Stage 361 The Observational Stage 362 The Classificatory Stage 362 The Inductive Stage 363 The Demonstrative Stage 363 The Philosophic Stage 365 The Esthetic Stage 365 The Religiovis Stage 366 II. Geography 367 1. Lessons on Objects relating to Geography which Pupils can observe for themselves 370 2. Lessons on similar Objects which can be found only in Localities distant from the School 372 3. Lessons on the Topography of the Neighborhood about the School 373 4. Lessons on the Explanations of common Geographical Terms 376 5. Lessons on Detailed Geography 379 6. Lessons on the Classification of Geographical Facts 385 7. Lessons on.the general Laws which govern Geographical Facts 387 CONTENTS. xxiii CHAPTER V. INSTRUCTION IN THE RATIONAL SCIENCES. PAGK I. The Nature of the Rational Sciences 389 II. The Value of the Rational Sciences as Studies 394 1. The Value of the Rational Sciences in Themselves 394 2. The Value of the Rational Sciences in their Relations to other Sciences 396 3. The Value of Rational Sciences as Means of Discipline. 397 4. The Value of the Rational Sciences in preparing the Mind to accept Revealed Truth 398 III. The Ohject-Matter of the Rational Sciences 399 1. Primary Ideas 400 2. The Criteria 403 3. Axiomatic Truths 404 4. Deductions and Demonstrations 404 5. Applications 405 IV. The Methods of Teaching the Rational Sciences 406 CHAPTER YI. INSTRUCTION IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES. I. The Facts of History 414 1. The Nature of the Facts of History 415 2. The peculiar Difficulties which are encountered in the Study of the Facts of History 416 3. A Course of Study in the Facts of History 418 4. General Suggestions in Regard to teaching the Facts of History 421 II. The Philosophy of History 426 1. The Materialistic Theory 428 2. The Spiritualistic Theory 434 3. The Theistic Theory 442 Method in teaching the Piiilosophy of History 447 XXIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER YIL INSTRUCTION IN THE ARTS. PAGE I. Writing 451 1. Lessons designed to teach the Coricepiion of the Forms of the Letters 452 2. Lessons designed to give Culture to the Muscles used in WritiJig 455 General Suggestions in Regard to teaching Writing.... 456 II. Drawing 459 1. The Abstract Method 460 Classes of Exercises 461 2. The Concrete 3Ielhod 463 Classes of Exercises 464 3. Shading, Shadow, and Perspective 466 III. Vocal Music 468 Advantages of a knowledge of Vocal Music 468 1. The Training of the Vocal Organs 471 2. The Culture of the Musical Taste 477 3. Musical Execution 479 IV. The Arts in General 480 The Nature of the Arts 480 1. Insiructioti in the Empirical Arts 483 Their End 483 Their Means 486 Their Modes of Execution 488 2. Instruction in the Rational Arts 489 Their End 400 Their Means 491 Their Modes of Execution 492 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. I^N'TRODUCTIOiT. TEACHERS REQUIRE SPECIAL PREPARATION. Education as a science comprehends the laws of the physical and mental constitution of man, and its relations to those means by which he can receive instruction and culture. Education as an art consists in selecting and applying the means used for imparting instruction and culture. Like other sciences, education can be studied; and, as in other arts, acquired skill as well as native talent is essential to success. To attain a knowledofe of the science and proficiency in the art of educa- tion, it seems evident at a glance that special prepa- ration is necessary ; but as this position has been questioned, it is considered advisable to introduce the following work by some considerations in its favor. Until within a few years, the common schools of this country were taught almost exclusively by persons who had never studied professionally, who, indeed, were generally ignorant that any preparation could be made or was needed to enable them to dis- 3 (25) 26 INTRODUCTIOIT. charge their duty in the work of teaching. Acade- mies and colleges were not. much better off in this respect; for, though those who taught in them possessed a higher degree of scholarship than the teachers of common schools, they could justly claim little more professional knowledge. The public seem to have been satisfied with this kind of guess- work teaching. Instructors of youth were allowed to enter upon their business without having served even that period of apprenticeship deemed necessary for those who make hats or coats, build houses, or shoe horses. They were everywhere employed with little regard to their literary, and less to their pro- fessional, qualifications. These strictures are not so applicable to the present condition of our educational affairs as to their condition a few years ago ; but notwithstanding schools for the traiiiing of teachers exist in most of the Free States, and other means of obtaining knowledge appertaining to teaching are readily accessible, the great body of American schools are still taught by persons who have neither attended ISTormal Schools nor availed themselves of any other means of professional improvement. That special preparation is necessary for teachers will appear from the considerations which follow : 1. The Teacher must understand the true object OF Education. — The lowest idea of the object of an education embraces only its advantages in acquiring that knowledge which may be used in obtaining food, clothing, shelter, protection, or in carrying on some kind of business. An idea of the object of education to this extent may be obtained, perhaps, TEACHERS REQUIRE SPECIAL PREPARATION. 27 without any special preparation, it may result from the pressure of circumstances ; but education has an object far higher — an object that is not limited by the mere necessities of life. The great end of edu- cation is to perfect man, physically, mentally, morally, religiooisly. To do this truth must be sought and loved for its own sake, discipline must be valued for the permanent strength it imparts to the soul, longings for the high and 'the holy must be made to spring up in the heart, and all his powers must be so directed as to attain true manhood for man. To realize all this even in thought is diffi- cult, to realize it in life is the great problem which it is our mission on earth to solve. 'No teacher can work effectively without a well-defined object, and no teacher can fully conceive the highest object of edu- cation without long and careful thought. To do so, he must study with profound attention the nature of man physically and mentally, and his relations to the world in which he lives, to his fellow-men, and to God. 2. The Teacher must understand that upon WHICH he operates. — No man can operate skilfully upon a thing the nature of w^hich he does not under- stand. The farmer must understand the nature of the soil he cultivates ; the blacksmith, the iron he fashions ; the potter, the clay he moulds, before either can produce the most advantageous results. The human mind is certainly not less easy to compre- hend than are soils, iron, or clay, that the teacher can be safely relieved from the special professional labor and study required of farmers, blacksmiths, 28 INTEODUCTION. and potters. True, like them, he may work like a machine, or work by imitating others, but such blind methods of procedure, unworthy of a man in any avocation of life, become almost criminal when applied to the education of human beings whose success in this world and happiness in the world to come he may jeopardize. 3. The Teacher must understand that with WHICH he operates. — The subject-matter of know- ledge comprehends the world of matter and the world of mind. The teacher has all created things from which to select means to be used in the work of education. 'Eo man can make a judicious selec- tion of these means, and be prepared to present them in their proper order and proportion without long and careful study. The physician spends much time and thought in selecting and compound- ing his medicines for the body ; it is not more easy to prepare those which are designed to be adminis- tered to the mind. Indeed, the selection of the best course of study for a child is a problem as difficult as any with which the human mind ever tried to grapple. 4. The Teacher must understand how to con- duct the operation. — A man may understand the nature of the thing upon which he intends to ope- rate, he may understand the means with which the operation is to be performed, and still want a know- ledge of the method of performing the operation. It is the teacher's duty to train and instruct children, and he can have no intelligent method of doing this TEACHEKS REQUIEE SPECIAL PREPARATION-. 29 without making special preparation. He can no more dispense with a knowledge of the method of operating than can the man who navigates a ship or builds a railroad. If methods of teaching were merely mechanical, founded upon no fixed princi- ples (and this is not the case), they could not be suc- cessfully imitated without special preparation; for such is the law with this whole class of operations. Besides, facts show that the possession of knowledge does not imply ability to impart it. It is self-evi- dent that one person* cannot impart to another what he does not know himself, but it is maintained here that good scholars do not always succeed in becom- ing good teachers. Persons who have been well taught must have learned something concerning the methods by which they were taught, but they can- not intelligently follow these methods in their own practice unless they have carefully studied all their details, and the principles upon which they are founded. Like passengers on board of a rail-car or steamship, pupils may make swift speed toward their journey's end without noticing the way along which they travel. Methods of teaching cannot be well studied incidentally; they have a philosophy of their own, and should be made a definite object of study. Skill in teaching, it is true, may be acquired by school-room experience without special instruction beforehand ; but this is always done at much risk to the teacher, and with much loss to the pupils. 1^0 man has more need to profit by the experience of others than the teacher, for no man's mistakes are less easily remedied. Teaching talent may seem in some inborn, but this is true also in 30 INTEODUCTION. respect to particular individuals in all professions, and cannot be fairly adduced as an argument against special preparation for those not so highly favored by nature. 5. The Teacher must know how to Manage and Govern a School. — Discipline gives power. One hundred well-drilled soldiers are worth more on a battle-field than several hundred raw recruits. The captain of a vessel, the superintendent of a factory, the commander of an army, mu^t acquire professional skill by discipline ; knowledge of the principles of school-management and school-government, and skill in applying them, must be acquired in the same way. Progress can be hoped for in teaching only as teachers make use of the experience of their predecessors as a starting-post for their own inves- tigations. "Where wise and good men tell us how to avoid falling into errors, it is great folly to shut our ears to their advice. ISTor can natural aptitude for managing and governing a school be relied upon, any more than natural aptitude for practicing medi- cine or law can be relied upon in those professions. Some additional reasons will be given in favor of special preparation for teachers. They belong to a different class from the preceding, but are scarcely less convincing: 1. Special Preparation on the part of Teachers IS necessary to constitute Teaching a Profession. — • If scholarship is the only requisite for the teacher, then all scholars are teachers, or may properly become such whenever the prospects of success in Teachers require special preparation. 31 more desirable fields of efi:brt become discouraging. Teaching would thus be a kind of common ground open to all, and admitting the limitation of no pro- fessional lines. As a consequence, teachers would attach little importance to, and have little interest in, their work ; there would be little unity of efibrt among them, and a general w^ant of that class feel- ing, or esprit du corps, which is always essential to the building up of any profession, and without which teaching can neither attain the rank among the professions hoped for by teachers, nor meet in the value of its results the reasonable expectations of the public. 2. Special Preparation on the part of Teachers IS necessary to make Teaching a Permanent Busi- ness. — At present no other kind of business is sub- ject to so many changes as teaching. It is certain that of those who have charge of our Common Schools one year, not more than two-thirds, in some places not more than one-half, remain to take charge of them the succeeding year. Such fre- quent changes do not take place in any other pur- suit, and they are partly, at least, accounted for in the teachers' profession by the opinion which is held by many that "anybody" can teach. The* consequence of this opinion is that thousands are still found occupying the position of teacher who never intend to become permanent teachers, but who teach merely to replenish their exhausted funds, to enjoy opportunities for self-improvement, to put in time while waiting to engage in some other kind of business, and are restless under the 82 ^ IN-TRODUCTION". irksome necessity that confines them to the school- room. A well-taoght school by any of these classes of persons must be an exception to the rule. They have made no special ^preparation to become teachers, and they do not intend that either their livelihood or their reputation shall depend upon their success as such; and actuated by none of the usual motives that prompt to earnest effort, they cannot be expected to evince much interest or exhibit great skill in teaching. In proportion as men expend time, labor, and money in fitting them- selves for a particular kind of business w^ill be their indisposition to abandon it, and never until the public recognize the truth that teachers require special preparation, will communities be freed from the evils consequent upon the frequent change of teachers, and the profession of teaching relieved of the horde of intruders who now disgrace it and reduce to a very low amount the remuneration it affords. 3. Efforts for the Special Preparation of Teachers have been attended with satisfactory RESULTS. — Prussia has tried the experiment of train- ing teachers upon a large scale, and both government -and people think it has been successful. Austria, France, and England have their schools for teachers, and find them essential to the well-working of their systems of education. Such men as Dinter, Cousin and Brougham have advocated the establishment of I^ormal Schools. These schools have also been established in many of our American States ; and though they have encountered much opposition, TEACHERS REQUIRE SPECIAL PREPARATION. 33 they have everywhere met with signal success. The public have seen teachers who have made special preparation at l!Tormal Schools work by the side of those who have not made such preparation ; with the shrewdness characteristic of our people a com- parison of their respective merits has been made, and the conclusion is best expressed in the liberal patronage which such schools receive and the hun- dreds of thousands of dollars which are annually expended for their support. The reasons just stated are sufficient to show that teachers require special preparation, and their state- ment seems appropriately to introduce a work on Teaching which aims to aid in that preparation. If any teacher, or any one who designs to become a teacher feels the want of the preparation which it has been shown teachers need, he is invited to study the subject as presented in the following pages; and it is hoped he will not only find that which will increase his ability to discharge the duties incum- bent upon the teacher, but that which will elevate his idea of the importance and dignity of the teachers' profession. CONDITIONII^G PEIISTCIPLES. ' Human perfection is the grand aim of all well directed education. The teacher has ever present with him his ideal man whose perfections he would realize in the children committed to his care, as the sculptor would realize the pure forms of his imagina- tion in the rough marhle that lies unchiseled hefore him. Embraced in this great end of education there are several subordinate ends, that of gaining know- ledge, that of attaining discipline, that of lifting up the mind to the contemplation of pure beauty, truth, and excellence, and that of fitting ourselves to per- form in the best manner possible all our duties to man and to God. Granted, that this is a true conception of the end of all education, and the object-matter which must form the foundation for a system of teaching, will comprehend : 1st. The nature of the thing to be operated upon, or educational capabilities ; 2d. The nature of the instrumentalities which may be used in operating upon it, or educational means ; 3d. The manner of performing the operation, or educational methods. A system of agriculture is likewise divis- ible into three parts ; that which treats of the soil, that which treats of the m^ans of fertilizing or work- ing it, and that which treats of the methods of applying the means to the desired end. A system (34) • CONDITIONINa PRINCIPLES. ' 35 of Medicine, too, consists essentially of the sciences of Anatomy and Physiology, Pharmacy, and the Practice of Medicine. In a system of teaching, the thing to he operated upon is man ; the means wherewith to operate are found in everything that can be made to bear an ob- jective relation to man ; and the methods according to which the operation must be performed can have a basis nowhere but in the relations the mind and body sustain to each other and to the great universe. The whole subject admits treatment from two stand-points : 1st. The nature of man and the methods of edueating him according to the laws of that nature ; 2d. The nature of the several hraiiches of knowledge and the methods of teaching them according to the laivs of that nature. Proceeding from the first of these stand-points, we commence with the study of man, learn his educational necessities and capabilities, and conclude with an exposition of the methods by which he can best be educated. Proceeding from tbe second stand-point, we commence by an examination of the means which may be made use of in the work of education, the several branches of knowledge ; in- quire into their relations and conditions, and close the investigation by presenting the methods by which knowledge can be best imparted. The whole subject of teaching may therefore be divided into two great parts, appropriately called Methods of Culture and Methods of Instruction. If the two classes of methods thus arrived at are found to har- monize, no further verification of their truthfulness is needed. 86 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. The subject of Methods of Culture may be treated of hereafter, but, in the present volume, it is my intention to consider only Methods of Instruction. Care will be taken, however, to verify conclusions in all open ways before announcing them. The methods adopted in the work of teaching may be right or they may be wrong. Just so the hor- ticulturist can stimulate his plants to a more active growth or he may destroy them, the lawyer may gain or lose his cause, the physician may cure or kill his patient ; and even the mechanic may operate upon his wood, or clay, or iron by skilful or unskil- ful processes. Immortal minds are committed to the teacher's charge. If he adopt right methods of teaching he can make those minds bear an image worthy of their heavenly origin and destiny and of Him who created them ; but if he pursue wrong methods they may be marred and debased until they become the most lamentable of all spectacles, wrecked and ruined human souls. Starting with the obvious fact that there may be right and wrong methods of teaching, I proceed to take the first step in the search for those that are right by stating some of the principles which all such methods must observe, and which have been denominated Conditioning Principles. Methods of intellectual education must be condi- tioned on the one hand by the nature of mind, and ' on the other by the iTature of knowledge ; the sub- ject, therefore, will be considered in two sections. The first will embrace a statement of principles that belong rather to Methods of Culture, but whose guiding light cannot well be dispensed with in the CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 37 department of education now under consideration. Upon an examination of these principles, it will be seen that the two sources from which they are drawn yield the same fruit — one set of principles corresponding w^ith the other — and a basis for the science of teaching is found either in mind or in nature, is both Psychological and Cosmological. In order that the student may better appreciate the beautiful correlation existing between the two sets of principles, the corresponding propositions will be numbered alike. This classification of principles, it ought to be remarked, is intended to embrace only the most important of those which appertain to intellectual education — it is not exhaustive. I. Principles Inferable from the Nature of Mind. The nature of a thing acted upon always gov- erns in some measure the methods of acting upon it. If soils were differently constituted, farmers would be under the necessity of changing their modes of cultivation ; if the diseased human body was unlike it now is, a corresponding modification would be necessary in systems of medical practice. The same process that will put in motion particles ^of air or water will not separate those of quartz or granite. "Wood and iron cannot be w^orked in the same manner nor with the same tool^. ^lence educational principles are inferable from the iiature of mind, and among them are those w^hich follow : — 1. The Intellectual Faculties can receive Cpl- 4 38 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. TURE ONLY BY JuDicious ExERCiSE. — No means are known whereby the faculties of the mind can be developed but by exercising them. By the potent spell of the magic word Exercise, is evoked all human power. The proof of this proposition is found in multi- tudes of facts. The senses grow more acute by using them. The memory is improved by remem- bering, the reason by reasoning, the imagination by imagining. All these powers, too, become weak if not used. These facts may be learned from each person's own experience, or from observation upon others. The law inferred from them is fixed and universal. Exercise, however, in order to strengthen must be judicious. Too much or improper exercise will weaken the mind's powers instead of giving them strength. 2. The Human Intellect eimbraces a number of Distinct Faculties each of which requires a dif- ferent KIND OF Culture. — It is acknowledged that the body may be made strong without giving strength to the mind, that our intellectual, emotional, and executive faculties can, as classes, receive an independent culture. This law holds good of the distinctive faculties that make up the human intel- lect. It requires one mode of culture to educate the senses and the perceptive powers, another to strengthen tlie memory, and still others to develop the powers of recollection, imagination, comparison, and reason. Each intellectual power difiers from the others in its nature, in its mode of operation, CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 89 and modes of culture must adapt themselves to these differences. He would be like a blind man leading a blind man who should attempt to teach, ignorant of this great law. 3. Human Beings have been created with dif- ferent Tastes and Talents to fit them for perform- ing different Duties or for occupying different Spheres in Life. — That children differ in tastes and talents every parent and every teacher is agreed. The Bible intimates the same fact. The reason pro- bably is that, as in nature's system each necessary office was designed to be filled by a qualified officer, men differ because their social duties or their spheres in life are different. But, whatever the reason, the fact is certain, and is of great significance to the educa- tor. It teaches him that he must plan his system of Teaching with reference to the peculiar tastes and talents of children. Doubtless, certain kinds of general knowledge and certain kinds of mental discipline may be considered indispensable for all ; but, in addition, every true teacher should consider it a privilege to furnish each one of his pupils an opportunity for the de- velopment of his special powers. The aim of edu- cation is not to make all men move in the same plane — to create a social dead-level. Protestations have been made against the prescribed, unvaried course of instruction in institutions of learning, and not alwa^^s without reason. Such men as Lord Byron, Hugh Miller, and Dr. Kane were restless while made to pursue those branches of study in which they felt little interest, and indulged by 40 METHODS OF IN-STRUCTION". stealtli those special talents which God had given them. Educate together from their youth up such men as Plato and Aristotle, Kant and Goethe, New- ton and Biirns, La Place and Lamartine, Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry, and they might be made more alike, but would the world profit so much by their genius ? A wise system of education aims to render available all the mental force of the world. The mechanic may contrive and the mer- chant make his ventures, the farmer watch his harvests and the statesman promulgate his laws, the naturalist search and the philosopher speculate, the poet kindle the fires of genius upon their intended altars, and the prophet pluck down manna from Heaven to feed soul-hungry mortals — the world needs them all, and teachers must not attempt to thwart what God seems to have designed. But in all this it must be remembered that special talent may result from education as well as be the gift of nature, l^o fact is more open to the notice of an observer of the phenomena of mind than that mental force may be directed artificially to certain faculties which grow strong by use, while others are dwarfed for want of exercise. 4. The Perceptive Powers are Stronger and MORE Active in Youth than the other intellec- tual FACULTIES AND THUS FURNISH A BASIS FOR THE SUPERSTRUCTURE OF KNOWLEDGE. — A child is merely an animal until there is awakened in him the power of self-consciousness. After this I can find no time when all his faculties are not active in some degree ; but his perceptive powers are the strongest and most COXDITIO:^IN"G PRINCIPLES. 41 active during the whole period of childhood and youth. Any one who will observe children can scarcely doubt this fact. They like to see and hear things. What is new or strange attracts them. How rapidly they learn the form, color, size, and other qualities of things ! What an immense num- ber of facts they acquaint themselves with as they play in garden or yard, walk through field or meadow, or pass along street or highway ! We do not, as some have taught, derive all our knowledge from experience ; but no psychological truth is more obvious than that we cannot know anything without experience. For the attainment of certain necessary, regulative truths, experience may furnish only the occasion; but its necessity to the knowing process is not less real when it stands directly as the source of our knowing than when it stands indirectly as the occasion of it — when it determines the limit of our knowledge than when our knowledge transcends its limits. Experience therefore may be said to form the basis of know- leds^e. Conyincing reasons may be found in what has now been said, in favor of enlarging experience as much as possible by taking advantage in the work of education of the strong and active perceptive powers of the young. Let teachers make them ac- quainted with things, facts, phenomena, that they may have a broad basis upon which to erect the superstructure of 'knowledge. ^ 5. COMMENCIXG WITH THE PERCEPTIVE PoWERS, THE VARIOUS INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES INCREASE IN 4* 42 methods of instruction". Eelative Strength in the following order : Memory, Recollection, Imagination, Under- standing, Reason. — It must not be understood that the first named of these faculties attains maturity while the others remain in a state of inactivity. Probably, a child in the simple act of refusing to put its hand against a hot stove to-day because yester- day it vras burned in doing it, makes use of all the faculties it ever will possess. Still these faculties are relatively stronger at some periods of life than at others, and this fact cannot be overlooked in teaching. As used -here, Memory is the power of retaining knowledge ; Recollection is the power by which we awaken what lies dormant in the mind; Imagina- tion is the power the mind has of holding up vividly before itself the thoughts which it has recalled into consciousness ; Understanding is the power by which we judge of relations ; and Reason is the power that gives birth to those necessary and universal princi- ples which control all thinking. It is proper to remark that this classification is essentially Hamil- ton's, and the definitions are, in part, his. It is evident that knowledge must be retained before it can be recalled, that it must be recalled before it can be held up for contemplation, that it must be held up before the mind before its relations can be judged of, and that the whole thinking pro- cess must go on before it can be controlled or regu- lated. Logically, therefore, the activities of the several faculties do follow an order of succession, but practically the whole goes on simultaneously. CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 43 Still, as before stated, these activities differ relatively in degree during the different periods of life. l^ext to the Perceptive powers the Memory is the most vigorous intellectual faculty possessed by the young. It is the granary of the mind. Let it be well filled while it can be, as from its stores all the other faculties must take their materials. A little later the faculties of Recollection and Imagination are developed in full strength. Both are engaged in lifting up the elements of knowledge from the depths of the Memory and placing them in vivid pictures before the mind. The forms of the Imagination are, however, at first rude and fanciful, being yet unchastened by the higher powers of Judgment and Reason. The Understanding is the working power of the mind. It studies the relations of wholes to parts, parts to wholes, and things to one another. It classifies, generalizes, reasons. This power, al- though manifesting itself in a little child, does not attain maturity until the age of manhood. The Reason rules the mind. As soon as a child is conscious of the identity or difference of two objects, he must use his Reason; nor can he take a single step in any intellectual process w^ithout its aid. But, while this is true. Reason can never assume full sway until all the other intellectual faculties perform their work. A commanding general can- not wield the whole power of his army unless every subordinate officer and every private does his duty. Kone but a man intellectually full-grown can make a right use of his Reason, and the most difficult of all Philosophies is the Philosophy of Reason itself. 44 methods of instruction. 6. The Human Mind Possesses two Soukces of Knowledge, the Senses and the Season, the Pro- ducts OF WHICH Differ in Kind. — That we derive knowledge through the senses, no one doubts. It consists, in the first place of facts, which, however, may be -elaborated into systems of science. Know- ledge thus derived may be called empirical know- ledge, because its source is experience. That we possess knowledge which we do not derive through the senses must be evident to all who will consider the matter. Our idea of space, for example, is not merely the sum of all the spaces embraced in our experience, but it transcends all possible experience. So of the idea of time. We can acquaint ourselves with things that are very great in extent — the earth, the distances of the heavenly bodies, the profound abysses penetrated by the telescope, but still we know that all these are limited, finite, and we cannot help believing that there is something more, the unlimited, the infinite. i^o experience can show us that two straight lines cannot enclose a space, or that two parallel lines will never meet, and yet we know that such is the case. We may, indeed, have no adequate concep- tion of' the absolute or the infinite, of a creation, of God, or of immortality ; but certainly we have ground for thinking that there is something un- caused, something unlimited, that the universe had a beginning, that God is, and the human spirit is immortal. In every direction the intuitions of the Reason overleap the boundaries of experience, and furnish, at least, a ground for enlightened faith. As the Reason is the source of the kind of know- CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 45 ledge now referred to, it may be called rational knowledge. Empirical knowledge includes all that concerns the qualities and quantities of things, the relations of substances and attributes, and causes and effects, and systems of inductive science. Rational know- ledge includes the universal and necessary princi- ples which condition the whole of the mind's opera- tions, which form the foundation of all Philosophy, properly so called, and upon which must rest all firm faith in ''things unseen." The value of what has just been said will be appreciated by the man}^ thinking teachers who lament the materialistic tendencies of some of our modern systems of education. All the knowledge that can be gained through the senses may be, but why should we close up that other fountain of the soul from which comes knowledge richer and purer? It will do us good to remember that "Man cannot live by bread alone." 7. In ACQUIRING Knowledge the mind first dis- tinguishes ITS objects in kind, then in quantity, AND afterwards IN THEIR RELATIONS. — Perhaps the distinguishing of an object in kind involves some- what of the processes of distinguishing it in quan- tity, and in its relations ; but the arrangement as expressed is as correct as any serial arrangement of mental phenomena can be, and will be found to have much practical value in the work of education. A child first noticing objects, retains only that general impression of them which enables him to recognize them among other objects. Long after- 46 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION". wards, it may be, he attends to them more closely, makes accurate measurements of the qualities he observes, or determines their quantities. Still later he learns to inquire into causes,' to look for ends, to estimate uses. Our investigations concerning what is new to us follow the same order. Take a crystal : we first dis- tinguish it from other things; then count its faces, measure its angles, test its structure ; and afterwards search for the causes which may have been opera- tive in its formation. Take heat : we bring it under observation as a distinct object; we invent thermom- eters to measure it, and then busy ourselves in find- ing a theory that will account for its facts. The genesis of science is in accordance with the same principle. Astronomy, in its beginnings, con- sisted of the loose observations ignorant men could make with the unaided vision. In course of time observations became more numerous and more exact until measurements were attempted ; and finally the speculations of Copernicus and Galileo, and the great discoveries of Kepler and Newton made the study of the stars, a science. Some facts, belonging to the science of chemistry, must have been possessed by the most ignorant savages ; these greatly multiplied would naturally attract the atten- tion of men in more highly civilized communities, who would set about determining their nature, their quantity ; and, by-and-by, laws would be discovered and a science begin to emerge from the confused mass of materials. The other sciences have grown up in the same way. 8. The Katiocinative Faculty in ELABOKATiNa CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 47 Systems of Science proceeds inductively or deduc- tively, AJ^ALYTICALLY OR SYNTHETICALLY. — I USe the expression ratiocinative faculty to designate a specific application of the faculty of the Understanding; Starting out with the products of the Senses and the Reason, two modes of dealing with them are possible. We can commence with particular phe- nomena, and proceed to find the general laws which comprehend them. This is Induction. It is a process of involution. We can commence with general or universal truths, and proceed to find the particular truths which are embodied in them. This is Deduction. It is a process of evolution. All reasoning must be either inductive or deduc- tive. We can take wholes and unfold their parts, or we can take parts and unite them into wholes, but all thinking in judgments must assume one or the other of these forms. Logicians use but two kinds of syllogism, the inductive and the deductive. Analysis and synthesis are the servants of induc- tion and deduction. Analysis is the separation of a whole into the elements which compose it. Syn- thesis is the composition of a whole from the parts which belong to it. An observer noticing a phe- nomenon which he wishes to understand, simplifies it by division, and then infers the law that controls it. Thus his power of induction is aided by analysis. Or he may have discovered a number of difierent laws relating to phenomena and desire to combine them all into a system of science, and this can be done only by the process of multiplication. Thus Ms power of induction is aided by synthesis. The 48 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. general or universal principles with which deduction begins imply in their very names the existence of special or conditioned principles, from which they can be discriminated only by a process of analysis. Thus analysis aids deduction. A deductive science like Geometry is made up of a system of truths de- pending upon axioms^ definitions, and preceding demonstrations, and is a work of synthesis. Thus synthesis aids deduction. Systems of science, therefore, must be elaborated by the methods of induction and deduction aided by those of analysis and synthesis, and the methods used in constructing systems of science must also be used in teaching them. 9. The Acquisitive Powers of the Mind in get- ting Knowledge operate according to certain Laws of Suggestion. — The laws of suggestion are operative in the search for original knowledge. We begin to make observations upon a particular object, directly it ^Dresents itself in another point of view, and then in still another ; and thus we are led for- ward in a series of successive steps. Or from one object, we may pass to another, and then to others, neglecting many but selecting some, which upon an examination of the train will be found to follow one another according to some principle of sugges- tion. Series of experiments, too, are mostly carried on in the same way, the first suggesting the second, and the second the third, and so to the end. That the mind thus proceeds in getting knowledge by means of observation and experiment there can be no doubt. Suggestion of a different kind may lead CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 49 it on from one set of reasonings to anotlier, but still this higher work of the mind may be considered as proceeding according to the same law. The laws of suggestion are operative in the study of acquired knowledge. It is associated facts that most attract children and most engage their atten- tion. Present them as isolated statements and they will be forgotten, weave them into a narrative or story, and they impress themselves on the memory forever. The advance in study is most rapid where the facts to be learned are systematically arranged, when all the parts of the sciences under considera- tion follow one another in a logical order. It follows from what has been said that teachers should understand the laws of suggestion, and take advantage of them in imparting knowledge. 10. The Eeproductive Powers of the Mind by MEANS OF Laws of Association enable it to recall ITS Knowledge and to hold it up in vivid Pictures before it. — Every one is aware that his thoughts are not isolated, but that each is a link in a chain. It is proper to speak of a train of thought. Some cir- cumstance suggests a thought, that suggests another, and so on in a ceaseless flow. Or we can hold up before the mind one conception or element of thought, and immediately other conceptions or elements of thought crowd about it and appear in connected or related clusters. Sir William Hamilton says that '' thoughts are associated, or able to excite each other; 1st, if co- existent, or immediately successive in time ; 2d, if their objects are conterminous, or adjoining in space ; 5 50 METHODS OF INSTEUCTION. 3d, if they hold the dependence to each other of cause and effect, or of mean and end, or of whole and part ; 4th, if they stand in a relation either of contrast or of similarity ; 5th, if they are the opera- tions of the same power, or of different powers con- versant about the same object; 6th, if their objects are the sign and the thing signified ; or 7th, even if their objects are accidentally denoted by the same sound. These laws may be reduced in number, but they seem more easily applied as stated. They must condition the whole work of imparting knowledge. Questions cannot be asked by a teacher, nor can answers be given by pupils skilfully without ob- serving them. They determine the order of arrange- ment in both science and art. 11. The Productive Powers of the Mind enable it to make neay discoveries and new inventions. Pacts disprove the doctrine of those w^ho maintain that there is nothing new, that what seems new is but the revival of the old which had been forgotten. Ideas may not be innate, but we have innate powers of mental production. There can be originality in this sense, that one man may think something that no other man ever thought. Apparent chance may present a fact, or occasion a circumstance, which a thousand men will pass by unheeding, but at last one comes that way to whom its language is intelli- gible, and the world is blessed with a new discovery, or a new invention — a law of gravitation or a steam- engine. The mind has productive powers. It is not like a mirror reflecting back only what is pre- sented before it. It is an active principle, capable CONDITIOXI^'G PRINCIPLES. 51 of guiding its own exertions, capable of making plans, capable of searching for truth and of apply- ing it to new uses, and expressing it in new forms. Such powers ought not to rust away in inactivity. 12. The Human Intellect Grows only by its OWN Inherent Energies. — All true education is a growth. The mind is not a mere capacity to be filled like a granary, it is a power to be developed. It is no tabula rasa — no blank sheet of paper to be written upon, but it has innate activities which prompt it towards its end, and cause it to modify all with which it comes in contact. The horticulturist puts his seed in good soil, surrounds the plants with circumstances most favorable to their growth (a j)roper degree of heat, light, and moisture), protects them from injuries, and expects his crop. He knows that the life-principle which God placed in the seed needs but opportunity to grow. The mind must re- ceive a like culture. When the human body needs food the healthy appetite craves it, and if taken into the stomach without such craving, it is apt to clog the system rather than to nourish it. IS'either can the mind be forced to digest its food. Even an unprofessional diagnosis reveals the fact that there are many cases of mental dyspepsia in our schools. A desire to know is the mental appetite, and the gratification of this desire must be a primary condi- tion for all normal growth of the intellect. 13. The Acts of Men do not derive their Moral Quality from the Intellect. — The best fruit of the intellect is science, and the principles of science 52 METHODS OF INSTEUCTION. cannot be said to be rigbt or wrong — they are simply truths. The intellect, indeed, enables us to com- prehend moral as well as other truths, but, in the mere comprehension of a moral truth, I can detect no moral element. It must not be inferred, however, that intellectual culture has no relation to moral and religious cul- ture. It is intellectual culture that renders moral and religious culture possible. The intellect is the eye of the soul, and all our seeing earthward and heavenward is done by it. It is the intellect that reveals God in His works, in His Word, and in the human soul. A man may be pious and know little of the principles of science, but he must have sources of light Avithin himself. The culture of the intellect must precede all other culture. We must acquaint ourselves with acts before we can judge whether they are right or wrong. We must know that God is, before we can love him. A knowledge of the important Psycho- logical fact, that the intellectual capacity of the mind acts of itself in the presence of its objects, and that the emotive and executive capacities await the action of the intellect, would have enabled mis- sionaries to understand, long before they found it out by costly experience, that schools must precede churches in heathen countries in order to make their labors most effectual. The principle is applicable everywhere. 14. The Intellect of Man has Limits which no Extent of Education can enable it to pass. — In all human reasoning something has to be taken for CONDITIONING PEINCIPLES. 53 granted. The most profound logic can neither take us back to a beginning nor lead us forward to an end. Looking backward, successions in nature seem like an endless chain of effects and causes, and, looking forward, they seem like an endless chain of causes and effects. We can think successive periods in time or points in space uiitil the imagination grows weary with the vast summation, but still there is more beyond. We can mount the great ladder of successive causes until our heads grow dizzy, and yet we fail to form an adequate conception of the absolute. Finite ourselves we cannot measure the infinite. All that is said in the preceding paragraph is true, and yet it does not express the exact limita- tions of human thought. We cannot measure the infinite, but toe can think in all directio7is beyond the finite. Our idea of space is not filled by the sum of all experienced spaces, nor our idea of time by the sum of all experienced times. We feel thiit there are more links in the chain of causation than can be counted. We cannot indeed by searching- find out God, but we can know that He exists. "A Deity understood" says Sir William Hamilton, "would be no Deity at all." The highest effort of reason is to furnish a ground for faith. We have a clear view up to the boundaries of the finite and the relative, and then we are permitted — glorious privi- lege ! — to know that the infinite and the absolute, the unconditioned — lie beyond. The conviction that we have power in thought to overleap the con- ditioned, results from no mere blind consciousness, as some have said, but it is certain 'knowledge. We 5^ 54 METHODS OF INSTEUCTION. see the light but we cannot approach or analyze it. Our reason gives us a firm ground for belief in the existence of God, but here we must be content with an imperfect knowledge of Him. II. Principles Inferable from the Nature of Knowledge. I mean by knowledge the means made use of in the work of education. These means exist both in the form of ascertained and unascertained truth. A teacher may content himself in making his pupils acquainted with what knowledge he finds in books and what he knows himself, or he, may lead them to try their strength in wrenching new truth from nature ; but whether ascertained truth be taught or unascertained truth be sought for, the nature of the truth employed will vary the methods of imparting it. The principle that the methods of operating upon a thing are modified by the means used in the operation, is susceptible of many illustrations. The farmer considers the nature of his fertilizers before he adopts a method of applying them upon his fields, the physician regards the properties of his medicines in his . methods of administering them, and the mechanic handles his jack-plane in one way and his hand-saw in another. That the teacher must perform his work in obedience to the same principle will be abundantly proven to one who will consider the propositions which follow. 1. The several branches oe Knowledge can be made to furnish the intellectual faculties with CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 55 Exercise proper in jcind and quantity. — The intel- lectual faculties grow only by exercising them, and bountiful provision is made for sucli exercise. It is furnished by noting the vast multitude of facts and phenomena with which we become aquainted our- selves or of which we learn from others, and by the study of N^atural Science, Language, Mathematics, Metaphysics, History. In this manner the Senses, Perception, Memory, Recollection, Imagination, Un- derstanding and Reason can all receive due exercise. All this will be clear to any one who will analyze a branch of knowledge, and learn how its several parts adapt themselves to the different intellectual facul- ties. The intellectual faculties, however, will not grow stronger without effort. A merely passive state of mind weakens it. We must knock at the door of knowledge before it will be opened. We must smite heavily the rock of truth before its fountains will gush forth their waters for the thirsting spirit. Mature everywhere ignores the indolent. She eats away their strength as rust destroys iron. I^or will it do to look on while others work. 'No Sedan chairs can be used for carrying passengers along the paths that lead to the temple of knowledge. Labor is the inexorable condition of success in study. Knowledge, too, is easy or difficult and thus adapts itself both to the weak and the strong. Many of nature's facts and phenomena appear openly to the senses, but more require careful searching to find them. She allows some truths to lie loosely upon the surface, but others she conceals deep down in her very heart. Both a child and a philosopher may- observe an apple fall from a tree, or a soap-bubble 06 METHODS OF IXSTKUCTION. float away in the sunliglit, and each iind suitable intellectual exercise in so doing. The great is every- where found in the little, and the little in the great, that the intellect in its several stages of growth may have exercise proper in kind and quantity. 2. Educational Means can be found adapted to GIVE Culture to every Capability of Mind. — A plant is beautifully adapted to the circumstances that surround its growth. It needs mineral ele- ments, and its little rootlets seek and find them in the soil. It feeds on gases, and millions of minute pore-mouths suck them in. It needs moisture, and the rain falls about it. It needs heat and light, and the sunshine warms its roots and plays among its branches. So, too, an adaptation exists be- tween our intellectual wants and the means of supplying them. Each distinct intellectual faculty requires a difl:erent kind of culture, but educational means are as diversified as the wants they are intended to supply. We have senses, and there are things to be seen, and heard, and handled. We have perception, and there are objects and phenomena that constantly, and on' every hand, attract observation and court examination. We have memory, and the world is full of things to be remembered — the object-matter of science and art, the words of language, the facts of history, the products of all that the mind does. We have recollection and imagination, and the stores of the memory must be brought forth, held up for contemplation, and represented in new forms. We have Understanding, and the whole work of CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 57 elaborating systems of science — forming classes, making generalizations, and demonstrating princi- ples, must be done. We have reason, and we know there is something beyond the conditioned, universal, and necessary principles, and a Being with infinite perfections, God. If any intellectual power lacks in discipline, it is not because means are wanting adapted to the purpose. 3. No GOD-CONSTITUTED DIFFERENCE OF MeNTAL CON- STITUTION IS LEFT UNPROVIDED FOR IN THE WeALTH OF Means which the Creator intended to be used for THE Purposes of Education. — All men are not naturally alike in taste or talent. To discharge the various duties of life different kinds of ability are required. Unity in diversity seems to be E'ature's greatest maxim. If God made men unlike, did He provide means for preserving the difterence ? It cannot be doubted that some men are peculiarly fitted to observe and investigate the works of nature, and to build up systems of natural science ; and is not their field of labor boundless ? There are men who seem spe- cially endowed with a talent for Mathematics, can they ever exhaust the laws which may be evolved from number and form ? There are men whose penetrating glance can pierce the shifting phe- nomena of sense, and perceive the very foundations and ends of things. Philosophers — and surely things have foundations and ends. Are there no materials left out of which Poetry and Music can be made ? none that the artist can express on canvass or in 58 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. marble ? Has God so fully revealed Himself that prophecies are no longer possible ? The answer to all these questions is easy. The creation is infinite in all directions. E'o one man can explore the whole of it. ~^o one man can per- form all the world's work. If all men were simi- larly endowed with talents, or gifted with tastes, there must come a time when all progress would cease. Divide labor, let each do what he can do best, give all employment, and this field of life will bring forth its most abundant harvests. With such an arrangement need any one be idle ? ITot until the finite becomes the infinite. Much is said in w^orks on education in regard to the harmonious culture of our mental faculties. If it is merely meant that all our faculties should receive due culture, the sentiment is faultless ; but if it is meant that each individual should receive an even culture, that the powers of his mind should be balanced, that the chief business of education consists in suppressing talents where talents have been given, and attempting to create talents where talents have been denied, I must be permitted to enter my protest against the doctrine. The interests of science and the duties of life no less than our diversity of gifts forbid it. What is above said applies to the difference re- quired in the education of the sexes. Individuals may learn wdiatever they are capable of learning. The tastes and talents God gave to women they may use as well as men ; and just so far as their tastes and talents differ from those of men should their education differ. It need scarcely be added that all CONDITIONING PEINCIPLES. 59 women can find fit food for tlieir mental appetites as well as all men. 4. ISTature presents to the Inquirer, first the CbNCRETE, AND THEN THE ABSTRACT ; FIRST ThINGS, AND THEN Words or Signs for Things ; first Facts and Phenomena, and then Laws and Principles; first Wholes, and then Parts and Collections of Wholes — thus indicating to the Teacher the propriety of confining his Elementary Instruction mainly to Lessons on Objects whose properties can be directly perceived, for the purpose of making the Experience of the Young as extensive as possi- ble. — The perceptive are relatively tlie strongest intellectual faculties possessed by the young, and they are the first to be made use of in the search for knowledge. l^ature presents to the inquirer first the concrete and then the abstract. This is true of course with respect to all objects of i^Tatural History ; but it is also true of the so-called abstract sciences. The first step in Arithmetic was counting the fingers or counting something else. The first step in Geometry was the measurement of land. The first Music was the song of birds or the tones of the human voice. K'ature presents first things and then words or sisrns for thinsrs. All that we know of the oris^in of language goes to confirm this view. Many corres- pondences are found in the primitive languages, and some in all languages, between the sounds of words and the things signified by them. Qualities were noticed and then names applied. The Bible 60 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION". tells US, too, that animals were brought before Adam to see what he would call them. ISTature presents first facts and phenomena, and then laws and principles. The genesis of all science is confirmatory of this statement. It is true that when a science reaches a certain stage of advance- ment and its laws and principles become well- established, they can be applied to new facts and phenomena; but science in its earlier stages of growth is now alone in question. Nature presents first wholes and then parts and collections of wholes. The whole of an object must be observed before it can be analyzed into parts ; and the mind must pass from one individual whole to others before it can make a synthesis of the collection. If these statements are true, they must have an important bearing upon elementary education. JSTa- ture plainly indicates the first steps in learning. To attempt to teach in contravention of her plan is to damage the intellect under training, and to lay a foundation upon which science can never rest securely. The great aim of elementary education should be to communicate the elements of know- ledge — to make more extensive the experience of the young. 5. E"ature opens up her Truths in a certain order and that order must be followed in investi- GATION AND Study. — The elements of all knowledge are cotemporary in origin. A child may begin the study of all branches of science, for in their begin- nings all seem equally simple. Progress in science CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 61 is from a united base to divided brandies, or from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous. The ob- servations a child may make as he stands in a garden or walks throusch a meadow will serve as the first steps in all kinds of learning. From this root several trunks spring, and divide and subdivide like the branches of a tree. The object-matter of knowledge is arranged like successive strata, that beneath not being approacha- able except by passing through that above. First, we find qualities and facts disconnected and frag- mentary. They lie upon the surface. Deeper down we find other facts and other qualities. Second, we notice the likeness and unlikeness of things. They appear to us in clusters or classes. Those we notice first are very apparent, but identity and difiFerence extend down to the very heart of things. Third, we begin to see that particulars can be reduced to generals, that individuals belong to classes, and species to genera, that many phenomena are the result of a single law. 'No limits can be fixed to this work. Fourth, seeing efifects, we search for causes, We . inquire why ? and wherefore ? We construct syllogisms and carry on processes of rea- soning. No end can be found to the chain of causa- tive. Fifth, we realize that something exists that no process of reasoning can reach — that we can think things that we could never know by experience ; that we can catch glimpses, at least, of. the infinite, the pure, and the perfect. Here we find God, and our work is done. I cannot claim that what has just been said is an accurate expression of the order in which the mind 6 62 METHODS OF INSTEUCTIOK. proceeds in acquainting itself Avitli the object-matter of knowledge, for I well know that more or fewer steps may be made ; but I think it will convey to the mind of the reader with sufficient clearness the great educational truth under consideration. The contents of a text-book must be arranged in accordance with the law now stated. In commenc- ing the study of a branch of learning, it is clear that there is a first step which should be taken, a second that ought to follow, and this introduces a third; and so a whole subject, to be properly studied, must be made up of a series of logically connected parts. A pupil enters school knowing something. The teacher must acquaint himself with what his pupil knows, and then detach from what is unknown to him appropriate matter, and link the known and the unknown together. 6. The Empirical and the Rational Sciences REQUIRE Different Methods of Instruction. — Knowledge has two sources, the Senses and the Keason. All science based upon the evidence of experience may be call Empirical sci-ence, and all science based upon the intuitions of the Reason may be called Rational science. Methods of teaching these two classes of sciences are different. An Empirical science differs from a Rational science in its data^ in its end^ and in its j^roc^sses of reasoning. The data of an Empirical science are facts ; its end is the attainment of general laws, and its processes of reasoning are inductive. The data of a Rational science are necessary and universal princi- ples or ideas; its end is the attainment of particular CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 63 principles, or less general ideas, and its processes of reasoning are deductive. Chemistry is an Empirical science, and Geometry, including its axioms and definitions, has the form of a Rational science; to those acquainted with the nature of both no further exposition is necessary. There are two modes by which an Empirical science may be taught. By the first, facts are pre- sented, and then the laws that may be inferred from them. By the second, an hypothesis may be assumed, and afterwards search may be made for the facts by which it can be tested ; or laws, fully established, may be stated to the unlearned in the form of propositions, and the facts upon which they rest adduced to prove them. In the more advanced stages of an Empirical science, it is possible to an- ticipate the existence of unascertained facts from a knowledge of the general laws which must control them. In the first mode there are given facts to find laws, and in the second there are given laws, either ascertained or hypothecated, to find facts. There are likewise two modes of teachino^ a Rational science. The necessary and universal prin- ciples which form the data of such a science may be first communicated, and this may be followed by the demonstration of the particular truths contained in them. This is the first mode. A particular truth or principle may be assumed, and the proof of it be sought for in the necessary and universal princi- ples of which it is a part. This is the second mode. The first mode consists in the evolution of the con- tents of axioms, definitions, intuitions of the reason ; the second consists in demonstrating particular 64 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. truths, by showing their conformity with universal and necessary truth. The two modes of teaching an Empirical science differ from the two modes of teaching a Rational science. Take the modes first named with reference to each, and compare them. The source of our knowledge of facts is the Senses, the source of our knowledge of universal and necessary principles is the Reason. When we infer general laws from par- ticular facts we proceed in one way, inductively; but when we attempt to analyze the pure products of the Reason we proceed in quite another, deduc- tively. The conclusion in one case is but the gen- eralization of experience and cannot extend beyond the facts observed, while in, the other the conclusion is exact and positive knowledge. The same differences will appear if we compare the two modes last mentioned. Starting out with an hypothesis or an ascertained law in Empirical Science may be the same as commencing with the assumption of a particular trath in a Rational Science, but here the similarity between the two modes of procedure ends, for proving a principle by facts differs very materially from demonstrating it by reasoning. 7. The First Form of Instruction must be Qualitative, next Quantitative, and then a Com- parison OF Relations. — Things are known only by their qualities. They are the Alphabet of nature. They are the medium of introduction between that which is to know and that which is to be known. The first form of instruction must be qualitative. CONDITIOJnXG PRINCIPLES. 65 Mark liow a child learns. He perceives that things are hard or soft, large or small, few or many, long or short, tough or brittle, hot or cold, white or black, red or yellow, heavy or light, sweet or sour, w^ithout at all stopping to measure their several degrees. He distinguishes objects from one another by their kind of qualities. He will learn for instance to distinguish a horse from a cow before he can dis- tinguish horses or cows from one another. The same thing may be inferred from the language of a child, as his first speech is made up of words which stand for man. dog, clock, cat, &c., &c. He even uses pa and ma in a general sense. All this goes to prove the truth that stands at the head of this paragraph, and suggests lessons on objects, lessons on form, consistency, color, and the qualities of things gen- erally. The second form which instruction should take is quantitative. After having observed a quality we soon begin to limit it — to limit it in space, in time, and in degree. We inquire how large or how small? how long or how short? how much or how little ? We invent weights, measures, coins. It is evident that to learn quantities requires closer, more precise, better defined thought than to observe quali- ties ; and such thought is necessary to build up a science. When children have learned the qualities of objects, let them be made to attend to them more closely, to quantify them. They should not merely name the form of an object, but tell its length, breadth and thickness ; not merely say that a thing is large or small but state how large or how small ; they should be taught to measure in ounces and 6* 66 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. pounds, in pints and quarts, in shades, in degrees, and in numbers. After instruction lias passed tlirougli the qualita- tive and quantitative stages, its further progress must be by a comparison of relations. "We discri- minate qualities and measure quantities by compari- son, but this kind of comparison is not a comparison of relations. We employ such a comparison when we compare causes and effects, means and ends, and the inherent identities and differences of things ; and such a comparison is only possible when we are in possession of the qualities and quantities used as data in our reasoning. All works of science, properly so called, are the results of a comparison of relations, and the teacher has, therefore, ample material for impart- ing the kind of instruction implied in the premises. 8. As CONDITIONED BY THE EeLATIONS OF THE Object-matter of Knowledge, Methods or Teach- ing MUST BE Inductive or Deductive, Analytical OR Synthetical. — The whole objective world is made up of existences and the laws which control them. Science is made up of such of these as men have been able to observe and find out. Induction means ascending from facts to principles, and this method may be adopted in teaching. When in the possession of the generalizations of induction, we can use them in the interpretation of new facts and phenomena, and this process is some- times called deduction, but it is rather a part of induction and is so considered here. 'No science can be well taught without its use. It has been shown that the intuitions of the Reason CONDITIONING PEINCIPLES. 67 enable us to apprehend certain necessary and uni- versal principles and that these contain other prin- ciples embodied in them. Deduction, as I under- stand it, is the evolution of particular principles from necessary and universal principles, and as such must be the method of study in all the Eational Sciences. Properly there is no induction in Mathe- matics or Logic, and surely there is none in Ethics or Esthetics. As the inductive is the only method applicable to the Empirical Sciences, and the deductive is the only method applicable to the Rational Sciences, and as all science may be included in these classes, it follows that methods of teaching must be either inductive or deductive. Apart from mere perception or intuition, every operation we are capable of performing upon the object-matter of knowledge maybe generalized into the processes of multiplication and division. In our investigations of nature, she never presents herself to us in her minutest subdivisions. With solvents, dissecting-knives, and microscopes we must search for these. Earth, water, air, animal and vegetable organisms are made to yield up their hidden ele- ments. This is the process of division or analysis. I^ature does not anywhere, to our view, complete herself. She ignores fractions. We see a number of her animals, her plants, her rocks, her stars, and infer the rest. We laboriously search out laws and truths and combine what we discover into systems of science ; but, at best, we know little in com- parison with what remains unknown. Science grows ; every day adds something to the world's 68 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION". stock of knowledge. Tins is the process of multi- plication, or synthesis. All knowledge, as presented in books for study, is a synthesis. The materials of which such know- ledge is made up, howeyer, must haye been obtained mainly by means of analysis. If in teaching a science we follow the method by which it grew up, the process must be synthetical, but if we take it as it is, and diyide and subdiyide it into parts until we find the elements upon which it is based, the process is analytical. Both processes are equally legitimate, and both should be used in almost eyery lesson. Authors of text-books are accustomed to apply the terms analytical and synthetical to their works with yery little judgment. Both analysis and synthesis must be made use of in writing a text-book on any subject, and in teaching it, and no other methods haying the same aim are possible. 9. The Object-Matter of Knowledge, as it EXISTS IN IN'aTURE, IS SO CONNECTED AND ARRANGED AS TO Facilitate its Acquisition. — The suggestive powers of the mind and the connections of matter correlate. We can imagine a world with its parts confused, disjointed, fragmentary. In ours complete isolation is unknown. TJie motto E plurihus unum could nowhere be so well applied as to the uniyerse. It is the connections and relations of natural objects that render science possible. Surely there is a foundation in the things themselyes for the for- mation of classes, genera, and species. If a student makes the acquaintance of one fact, that will intro- duce him to another, and so on in endless succession. CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 69 ITature is arranged like a suit of rooms, each with a door opening to the next, A student in sympathy with nature hears voices caUing him, and sees hands beckoning him on at every step in his progress, and before him ever floats "the banner with the strange device, excelsior.'' If the object-matter of knowledge, as it exists in nature, is so connected and arranged as to facilitate its acquisition, so may it be in text-books. A text- book ought to present a subject in its natural order and connections. One point, or one topic, or one lesson ought to suggest the next. It may be well in teaching sometimes to put questions concerning things apart from their connections, but it is best to first teach them in their connections. 10. The Matter of Knowledoe, as it lies in the Memory, has Connections and Relations which Increase its Availability. — If the connections and relations of knowledge are observed in acquiring it, it will preserve these connections and relations as it lies in the memory, and the same conditions that rendered its acquisition more easy, will also aid in making it available. In addition, however, there are other laws which apply to acquired knowledge that do not apply to the objective realities from which it was derived. Things originally discon- nected or unrelated, may have been learned at the same time, or in such way as to link them together in the memory. Besides, the laws of association seem constantly operative in assorting the materials of knowledge as they exist in the mind. They bring like things together, and separate things that are 70 METHODS OF I^TSTRUCTION. unlike. A well disciplined memory has a place for everything, and keeps everything in its place. If the object-matter of knowledge, as it lies in the memory, has such connections and relations as have now been pointed out, they must make it more available. A man of business can settle an account in a few moments, it may be, if all the papers relat- ing to it are kept together, but, if they are scattered about, hours may be occupied in doing the same work, and even then it may be done inaccurately. It is just so with the materials of knowledge as they lie in the memory. These materials are too vast to be dealt with as individual things, they can only be made available to the powers which recall and hold them up for contemplation, by forming them into trains, arranging them in clusters, uniting them in series, or associating them in classes. Teachers, who would not see much of their labor lost, must conduct their work mindful of these facts. 11. New Discoveries in Science and ]^ew Inven- tions IN the Arts are still possible, and Methods OF Instruction should prompt the Young to make them. — Discoveries are constantly being made in all departments of science. ITever before was the progress of science so rapid. The harvest seems ripe, and every reaper is blessed with a share of fruit. And still all that has been done is little in comparison with what remains to be done. What is true in the field of science is true also in the field of art. It may be that the same rapid progress is not apparent with respect to the Fine Arts, but it is especially manifest in all departments CONDITIONING PEINCIPLES. 71 of the Mechanic and Useful Arts ; and still every day human ingenuity brings to light some new invention. I take it that education means something more than merely conning the facts and repeating the reasonings of text-hooks. If properly instructed, pupils will desire to look beyond what they have been taught, or what they have simply learned. They will feel that work has been left for them to do, and they will desire to do it. The highest aim of teaching is not to store the mind with the ac- cumulated knowledge of ages, but to arm it with energy and skill ; not to enable pupils merely to solve problems in Mathematics, construe sentences in Grammar, or answer questions in Philosophy, but to inspire them with a love of study, to awaken in their minds an animating, life-giving power, that does not rest satisfied with present attainments but is ever striving to open up new truths, to express new beauty, or to contrive new ways of lessening labor or eftecting good. Few, if any, great thinkers were* ever made by books. A mathematician very inferior to IN'ewton or La Place can follow the reasoning of the Principia or the Mecanique Celeste. Bacon and Locke are read by school-boys who talk flippantly of the In- ductive Philosophy and the doctrine of Innate Ideas. When once conquered, nature's noblest truths grow comparatively tame. To secure the best mental discipline, we teach too much at second-hand. We rely too much upon books. We sufler the mind's productive powers to lie too nearly dormant. We follow too closely in the paths beaten by others to 72 METHODS OF INSTKUCTION. gain the advantage of that vigorous self- thinking, which is necessary to wrench new truth from nature. Those methods of teaching should be adopted which would throw pupils most upon their own resources, which would call out all the originality that they may possess, which would lead them to repeat the experiments and verify the conclusions of others, and urge them on to add their mite to the sum of human knowledge and human ingenuity. 12. ISTature everywhere courts Investigation by A System of Attractions which enlist the Atten- tion, AND induce Increased Activity in the Powers BY which we Remember, Reflect, Reason and Philosophize ; and, therefore. Methods of Teaching SHOULD BE Suggestive. — Pupils should not be made mere passive recipients of knowledge. Many teachers tell too much. They communicate facts, answer questions, solve problems, and their pupils receive their instruction in blank wonder or stupid indiffer- ence. "With such teaching knowledge is merely received like grain into a granary or freight into the hold. of a ship. Such teachers are like apothe- caries or grocers, and simply deal out their stock in trade to their waiting customers. At the best they can only store the memory with facts which must lie there, cumbrous, undigested, and useless. The search for knowledge should not be charac- terized by a blind activity on the part of the pupil. "We have just seen that a teacher may aid his pupils too much, it is just as true that he may aid them too little. A due regard to the economy of the mental forces will not admit of their useless expendi- CONDITIOXIXG PRINCIPLES. 73 ture. Pupils T\'itliout direction as to what or how to study may waste their time in fruitless efforts. A traveller in a strange city without a guide may easily lose his strength in ill-directed efforts to find his way, so a timely hint from a teacher may relieve a pupil from a difficulty that is wearing away his time and wear^dng his patience without conducing to any useful end. The teacher can guide his pupil without carrying him along, he can direct his work without performing it, he can pilot his hark without doing all the rowing. Progress in study should not be merely mechani- cal. It is easily possible for pupils to go over studies without learning them. Their progress is measured too often by the quantity of the work looked at, rather than the quality of the work done. Some teachers are at great pains to relieve their pupils from the trouble of thinking. They are constantly watchful to remove every difficulty from their path- way, and, by leading questions, make them seem to know that of which in reality they are ignorant. If learning could be obtained in this way, the road to * it would be a "royal" one — a kind of rail-road, ready-graded and well provided with cars and mo- tive power, to transport swiftly along those who are in search of Iviiowledge, and who meanwhile can sit or sleep. In opposition to those methods of teaching which make the condition of the learner one of passive reception, one of blind activity, or one of mechanical progression, we say that methods of teaching should be suggestive — should prompt pupils to earnest self- exertion. Facts should be communicated in such a 74 METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. manner as to suggest other facts; one eiFort in reasoning, stimulate to other eftbrts ; one trial of strength, induce other trials; one difficulty over- come, excite an ambition to triumph over other difficulties. The teacher should create interest in study, incite curiosity, promote inquiry, prompt in- vestigation, inspire self-confidence, give hints, make suggestions, tempt pupils on to try their strength and test their skill. ITature teaches according to the suggestive method. The phenomena of animal and vegetable organisms of earth, and air, and sky, are so many hints to in- duce man to investigate her mysteries. Grecian artists take a hint from plants and trees, and Doric alid Corinthian columns adorn their country's proud- est cities ; Kewton takes a hint from a falling apple, and the ponderous planets roll in harmonious gran- deur about the universe, in obedience to his law of gravitation ; Watt takes a hint from ^ hissing tea- urn, and we have the steam-engine; Hugh Miller takes a hint from the curious fossils which his boyish pranks exhumed, and the Old Red Sandstone of his loved Scotland spreads forth its treasures in a voice so eloquent that the whole world listens. * Nature teaches according to the suggestive method. She has her picture galleries, and her galleries of statues, her stupendous architecture, her rich mu- seums, and her immense zoological and botanic gardens; to all the enjoyments of which she invites men eagerly, freely, without money and without price. Nature teaches according to the suggestive method. She excites curiosity, courts investigation, asks to CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 75 have lier riddles read ; sometimes, silently persuad- ing the willing to examine her treasures, and some- times compelling the indolent to study her laws by making obedience to them essential to their well- being. One of my best lessons in teaching was taught me by a robin. It was in my garden, and the mother- robin was teaching her young brood to fly. A little robin sat upon the nest and seemed afraid to move. The m.other-bird came and stood by its side, stroked it with her bill, and then hopped to a neighboring twig and stood awhile as if to induce the little bird to follow. Again and again she repeated her caresses, and then hopped nimbly to the same twig. At length the little bird gained courage, and to the great joy of its mother, shook its weak wings, started and stood by her side. Another more distant twig was now selected, and further effort brought the little bird to it also. And so the process was re- peated many times, until the timid fledgling now grown quite bold could sail away with its mother over woodlands, fields, and meadows. 13. The Study of the Sciences does not in itself LEAD TO Virtue. — Virtue may be defined as con- formity of conduct to the rule of right, and a virtu- ous man is one who conforms his conduct to the rule of right. But the rule of right cannot be found to inhere in things — neither in their fitness, their harmony, nor their relations, ^o study of the sciences, however profound, can reveal it, although such study may prepare the way for its full appre- ciation. 76 METHODS OF IN-STRUCTION. Looking to the same conclusion is the fact that many great scholars have heen bacl men, and many good men have been poor scholars. But while no searching among the sciences will discover the rule of right, we intuitively conceive an ideal of the • perfection and worth of the human spirit. That there is a real thing corresponding to this ideal conception is most certain, although it cannot he made an object of scientific investigation. The right is to add perfection and worth to the human spirit, and study when pursued with this end in view is virtuous. Those means are virtuous which are legitimately used to attain virtuous ends. In the light of what has been said it is easy to • define the relation of intellectual education to wrong- doing or crime. The moral value of an intellectual education depends upon the end for which it is sought. It is bad if sought for selfish or wicked purposes. It is good if sought for the purpose of benefiting mankind, of dignifying the human character, or of honoring God ; if sought to gain knowledge, to attain discipline — ends within itself, ^ although among its gettings one will not find wisdom, yet its tendencies must be indirectly on virtue's side. 14. "What we can Know is everywhere Bounded BY WHAT MUST REMAIN UNKNOWN. — An apple falls from a tree in a garden. A wise man, watching it, is moved to search for the cause. He observes many similar phenomena, and ascertains that all of them are controlled by a. common law. He calls it the law of gravitation, and finds, after careful investiga- CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES. 77 tiou, that its influence extends to the heavenly bodies and keeps the planets in their orbits. But can any one tell us what the law of gravitation is in itself? or what may be its cause ? A Geologist may trace with indefatigable labor the changes through which our earth has passed ; he may ascend from the present condition of things to that which imme- diately preceded it, and from that to the next, and so on until he finds the earth at first to have been w^ithout form and void, and with darkness resting on tUe face of the deep, or until it appears as a vast nebulous mass of fluid-matter floating in space, and yet be compelled to leave the whole mystery of creation unsolved. Who can define space ? Who can measure time ? Who can mount up to the beginning of things, or fathom their end ? Who, indeed, can take up the ends of the thread of his own consciousness ? What we can know is everywhere bounded by what must remain unknown. But what can we know ? We can know all that is finite and relative, although we cannot number the years it will take the race to do it. We can do more, we can know that there is an iTfftmte, an absolute, a Crod, but what they are it is beyond our power to find out. Phi- losophy, mis-called so, has never been able to exclude from the human consciousness the idea that there is something that extends beyond all possible expe- rience, that back of all phenomena there is some actuality in which they inhere, or from which they spring, that there must be a great First Cause. The human consciousness is right. This idea must be answered by a reality. It is impossible not to be- 78 METHODS OF INSTKUCTION. lieve it. It must be or nothing can be. But while we have firm ground for faith in such a reality, we can construct no science of the unconditioned. What we know must be derived from Revelation. We see with human vision, but cannot understand without supernatural assistance. If these views are true they will prevent an over- estimate of the extent and value of scientific attain- ments. They show that the knowable has limits ; and they show, too, that even the basis of the knowable is faith. Science will thus learn to walk in the humble sphere God designed for her. They will also furnish a ground upon which to establish the doctrines of Religion. They are equally at variance with Atheism on the one hand, and Pantheism on the other. They make certain our knowledge of the existence of God, but in limit- ing our knowledge of Him to this fact, they neces- sitate a Revelation, and leave room for the most exalted faith. BUILDIN-Q THE FOU:tTDATIO]S". The I^aturalist finds classification necessary to enable him to handle the immense number of facts which observation brings to light in any one branch of science. It will surprise no one, then, that in a discussion concerning Methods of Instruction, which requires the whole object-matter of knowledge to be kept in view, some systematic arrangement of the various branches of knowledge is necessary as a preliminary condition. A certain amount of knowledge is now in the possession of mankind. If we could determine the process by which it was obtained, or how it grew up in the mind, a great step would be taken in the way of ascertaining a correct method of teaching, for knowledge must be imparted in the manner it can best be learned. If History tells anything on this point, it ought to be consulted. It is not a matter of indifierence as to what kind of knowledge is first imparted. There is much which a child can understand, and much that can only be comprehended by full-grown men. In any particular branch of knowledge some things depend upon other things, and thus necessitate a series of connected steps in teaching. In building a foundation for our proposed Methods of Instruction, it may be well to consider: (79) 80 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION". I. The Classification of Knowledge. II. The Genesis of Knowledge. III. The Order of Study. The close attention of the student is- invited to the discussion of each of these topics, as he will find therein a key to much that follows : I. The Classification of Knowledge. A classification of knowledge is possible from two stand-points. Its object-matter consists of the uni- versal whole of things. The w^iole of things has its divisions and subdivisions — its kingdoms, classes, orders, genera, and species. It is for Philosophy to find the trunk, and trace out the branches of the tree of knowledge ; or it is for Philosophy to find a principle of classification, and apply it. This stand-point is that of the objective relations of knowledge. Laws control all our mental operations. Science could not result from lawless thought. If we could mark the point at which the thinking process begins and measure the successive stages of its unfolding, we might be able to classify knoAvledge from the order in w^hich its several parts are evolved. This stand-point is that of the subjective laws of thought. To a mind with infinite powers a classification of knowledge is possible, both from the relations of things and from the laws of thought; but the results of one mode would be the same as of the other. When men attempt to classif}^ knowledge, they must proceed in the same way ; but their imperfect understanding of the relations of things THE CLASSIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 81 on the one hand, and of the laws of thought on the other must always render their results incomplete, if it does not cause them to be erroneous. Since knowledge is the product of the mind within upon the world without, it would seem that there could be formed a classification of knowledge founded upon its historical development, which would be sufficient at least for practical purposes, combining, as it might, the advantages of both the preceding methods; but even here there is little agreement among those who have attempted it. Before any systematic discussion respecting Meth- ods of Instruction can take place, some scheme for the classification of knowledge must be adopted; and, seeing this, diligent search has been made to find one suited to the purpose. Many have been examined, but all of them seemed open to serious objection. Comte's is the best known classification of the sciences, made with respect to the matter of which they are composed. His classification is as follows : Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics, Chem- istry, Physiology, Social Physics. The principle which determines the order of the series is the relative degree of simplicity in their subject-matter. Without naming the several objections that may be made to this classification of the sciences as such, it is enough to show its want of adaptation to the pur- poses of teaching to say that the mental nature of no child will admit his being first taught Mathe- matics, next Astronomy, and so on to the end of the series. Hegel may be taken as the ablest repre- sentative of the class of Philosophers who classify the sciences with respect to the laws of thought by 82 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. which they are evolved. But he begins with Logic, or the science of pure ideas — a science he has scarcely made clear to the wisest men, to say nothing of children. Herbert Spencer's classification of the sciences, founded upon the relative degree of abstractness in the matter of the various classes comprised in it, is more exhaustive, and, I think, more philosophical than that of Comte, but it can- not be used to any more advantage in teaching, as his first class comprises what is most abstract, while the work of instruction must commence with what is wholl}^ concrete. Our own countryman, Rev. Dr. Hill, President of Harvard University, has arranged and expounded with great ability a classification of the sciences based upon the order in which the several sciences are developed; but, as has been already intimated, and as will be more fully shown hereafter, the elements of all the sciences are so nearly cotemporaneous in origin that it is practi- cally impossible to fix their position in an order of time. A course of study, therefore, must com- mence with the elements of all the sciences, and not as Dr. Hill states in the order of his classes, Alathe- sis. Physics, History, Psychology, and Theology. It ought to be added, however, that, somewhat in violation of his own theory, as it seems to me, Dr. Hill advocates in practice the simultaneous study of the different branches of knowledge. Failing to find in any of the schemes of classifica- tion known to me, those requisites which the dis- cussion contemplated seems to demand, I will group into several great classes the matter taught in our schools, trusting to the Philosopher of a future day THE CLASSIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 83 to accomplisli what I now feel myself unable to do. These classes have been formed with special refer- ence to teaching. They differ most in the elements they contain capable of modifying 3fethods of Instruc- tion. Still, branches of knowledge have not been thrown together independent of what is considered to be their essential relationships, nor in the gen- eral arrangement is all reference to the order of growth in which knowledge is built up in the mind overlooked. It will be perceived, however, that these classes of studies often involve one another. From the nature of the case, it is impossible to form a classification to which this may not be made an objection. The principles of the various branches of knowledge necessarily overlap and interlace, for there is in reality but one science. Nature is a whole, and one science must be involved in all other sciences. It ought to be remarked further that the elements of all the sciences are, in their beginnings, equally simple. Kor can one science ever attain perfection without help from the other sciences. The simplest fact that can be observed must have a connection with the most profound truths. There is no proper hierarchy of the sciences. The classes it is thought proper to make, are the following : First Class. — The Elements of Knowledge. — The elements of knowledge are the perceptions of the sense and the intuitions of the reason. Upon these, as a basis, all knowledge is built up. By perceptions of the sense is meant whatever can be seen, heard, felt, or directly known by the 84 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. senses — facts and phenomena. Included in this class are the color, form, size, weight, and number of objects; such qualities as hardness and softness, smoothness and roughness, sweetness and sourness, loudness and softness; and such phenomena as appear to the senses in the world about us. By intuitions of the reason are meant those regu- lative principles of the human mind which render all experience possible. A child may be wholly unconscious of them, it may be a long time before he can give them verbal expression, but they are ever operative, universal, and necessary. It cannot be supposed that any mental operation, even the simplest act of perception, tak^s place without the control of law; and a careful analysis of such acts will reveal the fact that they involve certain uni- versal and necessary principles which admit of statement. A very young child, for example, knows its mother, but the law of identity and difference, by which it does so, cannot, of course, be under- stood. A boy who has his ball in his pocket is quite sure it cannot be in the pocket of another boy, although he may not be able to appreciate the axiom that " A thing cannot be in different places at the same time." He knows, too, that a whole pie is equal to the sum of all the pieces into which it is cut, if he can find no fit expression for the principle that enables him to know it. Pages of illustrations might be given, but these are sufiicient to show that the principles upon which the profoundest Philoso- phy must rest are found operative in the minds of children, and must be considered among the ele- ments of knowledge. THE CLASSIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 85 All science must rest upon the basis now pointed out, but the arts have science itself for a basis ; and soon after a child is in possession of the elements of the sciences, he begins to operate with, or upon, them in such a way as to produce what may be called the elements of the arts. He imitates sounds ; he carves sticks, and moulds clay; he paints his face or clothes with berries ; he builds houses with stones or blocks ; he makes figures in the sand ; indeed, it is not difficult to trace in the plays of children the rude beginnings of many of the arts which have now, in civilized countries, reached such a high degree of perfection. The first of our classes then includes the elements of knowledge, the elements of the sciences, and the elements of the arts. The discussion of each class of knowledge might embrace the elements upon which it rests ; but as teaching must begin by im- parting a knowledge of the elements of knowledge in general, without regard to the class to which they belong, the plan adopted is considered the best. Second Class. — Language. — Language might be classed among the arts, since, like them, it is in part, at least, the product of human skill. It might be classed with the Empirical sciences, since, like them, many of the laws which govern it have been derived from observation and experiment. And, again, it might be classed with the Formal Sciences, since its laws are often identical with the laws of thought. Its great importance, in an educational point of view, however, determines me to consider it by itself. 8 86 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. The class is intended to embrace all those branches of instruction which relate to the acquisition of skill in the use of language, or which treat of language as a science. Third Class. — The Formal Sciences. — Two sciences are desiarned to be included in this class -^ Mathe- matics and Logic. Mathematics gives precise ex- pression to the relations of forms and numbers, and Logic gives precise expression to the laws of thought. Matter could not exist but for Mathematical condi- tions, and thought is known to us only under Logical conditions. Logic is the more general of the two sciences, for Mathematical reasoning itself is subject to its forms; but their relationship is sufficiently obvious. Fourth Class. — The Empirical Sciences, — Laws learned by induction are called Empirical laws, and the sciences composed of systems of these laws have received the name of Empirical sciences. ■ Or, the Empirical sciences are the sciences which are made up of that knowledge of which experience is the source. Among these sciences are Geography, 'Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Physiology, Zool- ogy, Botany, Geology, Astronomy, Psychology, &c. Fifth Class. — The Rational Sciences. — The basis of the Rational sciences is the self-evident, neces- sary, and universal principles which can be directly apprehended by the reason without the intervention of any discursive process. Or, the Rational sciences are the sciences which are evolved from those ideas THE CLASSIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 87 of which experience is the occasion, but not the source. The term Metaphysics might be applied to the whole class ; and of its subdivisions I will name but three: Philosophy, or the science of The True ; Esthetics, or the science of The Beautiful; and Ethics, or the science of The Good. Sixth Class. — The Historical Sciences. — History collects the facts relating to the life of man upon the earth, and presents them in systematic narra- tions. In its higher departments it essays to solve the problem of man's condition and destiny. Into all calculations respecting the Historical sciences, the elements of a free-will and a superintending Providence enter, and these render it necessary to place the Historical sciences in a class by themselves. Events cannot be recorded or accounted for before they have occurred, and hence History complements all other sciences, and cannot be finished until all the future becomes the past. Seventh Class. — The Arts. — Art in its beginnings may precede science, but in its more advanced stages it must always follow it. Says Mill, "Art neces- sarily presupposes knowledge; art, in any but its infant state, presupposes scientific knowledge; and if every art does not bear the name of the science upon which it rests, it is only because several sciences are often necessary to form the ground- work of a single art." This explains sufficiently well the place occupied by " The Arts" in our classi- fication of knowledge. The class will be divided into the Empirical arts and the Rational arts. 88 BUILDIN-Q THE FOUNDATION". 11. The Genesis of Knowledge. It is proposed to inquire how the human race came into possession of the knowledge they now have? Volumes would he required to push the inquiry to its limits ; hut it is hoped that enough concerning the subject may he stated in a few pages to throw considerable light upon Methods of Instruction. The growth of knowledge in the individual mind must correspond to its historic growth in the mind of the race. Sufficient has already been said, or will he said in other connections, concerning the genesis of the "Elements of knowledge," and hence this topic will be omitted in the present discussion. The order followed in the discussion of the other topics under this head will be that of the preceding classification. The Genesis of our Knowledge of Language. — Several theories of the origin of language have been proven fallacious. It is now acknowledged that no ready-formed vocabulary could have been the gift of God. While some words, in all languages, are imitations of sounds heard in nature, the vast ma- jority of them cannot be accounted for by any system of Onomatopoeia. Interjections are, doubt- less, found in all languages, but that all other parts of speech are derived from these has never been proven, and is past belief. The most profound of modern Philologists have reached the conclusion that man was endowed by his Creator with the power of naming, and that he exercises this power in the same way as a bird sings. Multitudes of words were produced in the early ages which perished, but THE GENESIS OF KNOWLEDGE. 89 certain root-word?, four or five liunclred in number, survived the "struggle for life," and now form the basis of all languages'. These root- words are the generous parents of whole tribes of other words, which, b}'' being modified in meaning, compounded and inflected, swell the number of words in some languages to eighty or a hundred thousand. But a teacher is not so directly interested in ques- tions concerning the origin of language as he is in those concerning the manner in which children, in ordinary circumstances, acquaint themselves with human speech. I do not doubt that the same speech-forming instinct or faculty exists now as in the early ages of the world's history, and that if the race were to lose all knowledge of the words they now use they would produce new ones. But children do not create a new language, they merely acquire the power to use one already in existence. How do they acquire it? First, they notice objects or actions. Then they hear certain verbal sounds associated with them, and finally learn to imitate these sounds. They are aided in the whole process by an innate desire to know and to speak. An English child learns English because he hears English words and English forms of expression. Other languages are learned in the same way. The words a child first learns are those that stand for objects or actions which are most prominently presented to him, or in which he feels most interest. Of this class are pa, ma, puss, dog, horse, door, hat, dock, bell, &c., &c., or ru7i, walk, ride, burn, bark, sing, &c., &c. The same principle holds good with regard to the manner in which the ability 8* 90 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. to use forms of expression consisting of two or more words is acquired. The parts of speech a child generally uses first are the noun and the verb, and those he next uses are the adjective and the adverb ; and it requires much practice before he constructs whole sentences in talking. It may be fairly inferred from what has been said that the best mode of teaching young children the use of language is to make their acquaintance with things as extensive as possible, and to allow them full opportunity of hearing things talked about, and of talkino; about them themselves. The Genesis of our Knowledge of the Formal Sciences. — There can be no doubt that Mathematics arose from very humble beginnings. I am not aware that any savage tribe has yet been found who had not some idea of number, but some are known to exist who cannot count beyond five. Pressed by necessity, primitive men began to enumerate present objects. Afterwards they desired to count absent objects, but finding the mental effort too great they resorted to counting their fingers as children do now, hence the application of the word, digit,, to a num- ber less than ten. When they did not count their fingers, they may have used pebbles, as is indicated by the word calculus, or sticks, or leaves, or grains of corn. Some nations were found to use five as the basis of their scale of notation, probably because five is the number of fingers on one hand; and many use ten, probably because that is the number of fingers on both hands. Weights and measures, too, arose in the same way. No one can be mistaken in the THE GEN'ESIS OF KNOWLEDGE. 91 significance of words like grain, pennyweight, carat, barleycorn, foot, span, hand, day, month, kc, &c. It is clear that the art of numbering must have, for a long time, consisted in performmg the simplest operations upon objects — must have been wholly concrete. By and by, however, the ability to use larger numbers was acquired, abstractions were performed, symbols were invented representing, at first, perhaps, only lines or strokes, or combinations of lines or strokes, more difficult calculations were made, and Arith- metic began to assume something of its present form. The annual overflowings of the river Nile, in Egypt, rendered it difiicult to preserve the bounda- ries of the lands owned by particular individuals, and it is said that Geometry was first used for the purpose of measuring land in that country, and hence derived its name. Doubtless the land was measured in Egypt, and the circumstance alluded to may have rendered it necessary to measure it with more than usual accuracy; but it is evident that some of the principles of Geometry must have been applied from the earliest dawn of the human intellect. They were used in constructing dwellings, in making domestic utensils, articles of clothing, and weapons of warfare, in overcoming resistances, and in calculating distances. Indeed, the idea of form must be cotemporary in origin with the idea of number, if it does not precede it, and both come into the mind at a very early age. The arts now referred to had probably made considerable advance- ment before any particular notice was taken of the Geometrical principles involved in them, but, by and by, their further progress rendered such notice 92 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. necessary, and Geometrical truths began to be recog- nized. Other truths were found by demonstration to be contained in these, and a mass of loose Geo- metrical knowledge floated about in the minds of men, until such Philosophers as Thales, Pythagoras, Plato and Euclid reduced the whole to systematic order, and found fit expression for the universal and necessary principles upon which it is based. Sir William Hamilton defines Logic as the "Sci- ence of the necessary Form of Thought." Abstract as is the conception of this science in the minds of Philosophers like Hamilton, and lofty as are now its claims, it is probable that its beginnings consisted in the simplest reasonings. Children reason now almost from infancy, and we may well suppose that men did so from the earliest times. The circum- stances by which they were surrounded compelled them to think. They must be protected from cold and heat, they must have food, they must defend themselves from animals and from enemies of their own species, and all this required the exercise of reason. Doubtless, it was soon observed that some reasoned well, made safe calculations, managed skil- fully. These were considered wise men, and often became trusted rulers. In the course of time many observations were made upon reasonings, their cor- rect forms were in a measure determined, and sources of error were pointed out. If the History of Logic could be written, such fragments would be found among all people who have attained any considerable degree of civilization. They existed in ancient India, in Egypt, in Greece, and most likely in other countries of antiquity. It remained for the giant THE GENESIS OF KNOWLEDGE. 93 mind of Aristotle to collect them, and construct of them a system that has won the admiration of the world. From what has been said, it seems likely that Logic at first consisted of descriptions of certain disconnected forms of thinking which men made use of in carrying on the common affairs of life ; that afterwards these forms were compared and simplified ; and that eventually they became entirely abstracted from the matter which had filled them, and Logic took its place along side of Mathematics as a Pure science. The Genesis of our Knowledge of the Empiri- cal Sciences. — Efforts have been made to discover the origin of the sciences belonging to this class, and to write their history. Such efforts have been suc- cessful in accumulating a vast amount of valuable knowledge, but no one has ever been able to point out the time at which men first began to observe the facts upon which they are based. When well considered, this is not at all wonderful, since the very earliest inhabitants of the earth must have observed some of the phenomena of nature, and these obser- vations of which no record could be kept became the basis of all knowledge. Our American savages have among them no such thing as science, and yet they are in possession of many of the elements of the sciences. They have marked the places of some of the stars, and can calculate the lapse of time and the change of seasons. They can find their way through the forests, and have learned much concerning the properties of 94 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION". trees and plants and the habits of animals. They are familiar with the forms and motions of the clouds and the phenomena of rain, hail, snow, &c. They are acquainted with the^^ processes of fermentation and distillation, and have noted those of growth and decay. Indeed, they are remarkably close ob- servers of nature, and I do not believe that any science can be named of whose fundamental facts they do not know something. What is true of these untutored Indians is true of all tribes or nations of uncivilized men. Among them there is needed but the ability to colligate and generalize to commence the evolution of the sciences. Children, too, become acquainted with a vast number of facts — facts belonging technically to all the sciences, especially the Empirical sciences ; and these they can be taught when older to arrange into systems of science. The history of science and the condition of the knowledge in the possession of uncivilized men and of children indicate that the Empirical sciences are merely the extension by means of reasoning of the accumulated facts which experience has made known. Common knowledge becomes scientific knowledge by classification and generalization. A common man becomes a philospher by learning to reason. For the purpose of illustrating the position now taken, a few facts will be stated in the histoiy of a single science. Botany. " In the accounts of rudest tribes," says "Whewell, "in the earliest legends, poetry, and literature of nations, pines and oaks, roses and violets, the olive and the vine, and the- THE GENESIS OF KNOVrLEDGE. 95 thousand other productions of the earth, have a place, and are spoken of in a manner which assumes that, in such kinds of natural objects, permanent and infallible distinctions had been observed and univer- sally recognized." In the early stages of man's career, however, plants and parts of plants received names as individuals and of course were not care- fully noticed in their connections and relations. Then came a time when much inconvenience was felt from the use of loose and ambiguous terms and from the multitudes of objects which required nam- ing, and men resorted to classification as a relief. The first classifications of plants were very vague and unscientific. Among them were that which divided plants info trees^ shrubs, and Jierhs ; that of Theophrastus which divided them according to size, use, place of growth, lactescence, and generation ; and that of Dioscorides, which arranged them according to their qualities, as aromatic, alimentary, medicinal, and vinous. It is easy to see in all these classifica- tions, and in others like them, the attempt to system- atize the results attained by the superficial observa- tions of men. The work was rendered more difiicult by the m.any qualities which an active fancy and a love of the marvellous had attributed to plants. The kind of classifications just named was gradually displaced by others more systematic. The fanciful gave way before the real. Step by step, closer investigations revealed new facts, until, at last, such ^Naturalists as Linnaeus and Jussieu were enabled to place the science of Botany upon the firm basis of the inherent resemblances and differences existing in the vegetable world. 96 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION". The Genesis of our knowledge of the Empirical sciences generally, is believed to be fairly exem- plified by the Genesis of our knowledge of Botany. The Genesis of our Knowledge of the Eational Sciences. — We observe facts in the material world; upon investigation these facts are found to have certain relations which, when properly expressed, are called laws — the law^s of matter. We observe, by means of our consciousness, facts in the world of mind; these, too, have their relations which can be expressed in the form of laws — the laws of mind. Thus are constituted the Empirical sciences. All such, laws, however, are dependent, contingent, and subject to modification or limitation. This is not the place to enter upon a lengthy dis- cussion in order to show that we are in the posses- sion of principles wholly unlike those which make up the Empirical sciences, and which, indeed, may be made to form the basis of a class of sciences by themselves; but among these principles I w^ould place — Certain Primary Ideas. — '^o one will maintain that our idea of space or time corresponds with our con- ception of the sum of our experienced spaces and times. Our conception of the infinite and the abso- lute is, at least, beyond our knowledge of the finite and the relative. The ideas which we have of the true, the beautiful, and the good, greatly transcend the perfections of any object which our senses have made known to us. We think of God, not merely as a projection of our own personality with all its THE GENESIS OF KNOWLEDGE. 97 human frailties, but as a Being endowed with all possible virtues, without spot or blemish. And Certain Creneralized Intuitions, — I mean by Generalized Intuitions, the axioms of Mathematics and Logic, the maxims of Philosophy, Esthetics, and Ethics, and the foundation principles of all other sciences. I call them "Intuitions," because they are perceived by the mind directly, without the intervention of any discursive process. They are without doubt, an outgrowth of our Primary Ideas. I describe them by the word "Generalized," since, as it seems to me, they are not fotmd, or do not come into the mind, except upon the presentation, or representation, of an object or a succession of objects, either material or mental. I distinguish them from Empirical laws because they transcend experience and are self-evident, universal, and neces- sary. Take the axiom — two straight lines cannot enclose a space, and its truth is perceived at once ; but, although felt to be self-evident, universal, and necessary, such a truth would never have occurred to a mind wholly unacquainted with straight lines. The Rational Sciences, then, are the sciences which treat of those Ideas which are the primary sources of knowledge, and those Intuitions which may be generalized into principles that are self- evident, universal, and necessarj^ What has been their manner of growth ? Primary Ideas, as previously stated, come into the mind upon the presentation or representation of some object. They are not innate in the sense in which power of remembering or reasoning is innate ; but they necessarily attend the function of cognition. ya BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. These Ideas do not comprehend the infinite or the absolute, although a belief in the infinite and absolute is founded upon them. They are things of degree, widening as experience widens, but always trans- cending experience. Children and savages have ideas of space and time, of the true, the beautiful, and the good, which all the matter of their experi- ence cannot fill ; but they cannot fully realize these ideas or find expression for them. As men ad- vance in knowledge their Primar}^ Ideas become more clear and more comprehensive, and finally attract attention, and find articulate expression. Once held up before the mind as objects of study, philosophers evolve their contents and arrange them iu scientific order, deduce from them certain defini- tions, axioms, maxims, and fundamental truths, and construct upon this foundation, as I suppose, all the branches of Metaphysics. It will be noticed that I base these sciences upon such ideas as we can form of the object-matter now under consideration. I do not maintain that a " PJdlosophy of the Uncondi- tioned" is possible, but I do maintain that a Phi- losophy of such of our knowledge as transcends experience is possible, and I think I have shown how it orio'inates. o The Genesis of our Knowledge of the Histori- cal Sciences. — History is an account of what man has done, and how, and why he has done it. History may consist in a narration of facts, and in that case the Genesis of our knowledge of it is very obvious. All tribes of uncivilized men have their traditions. They are related by parents to their THE GENESIS OF KNOWLEDGE. 99 children, and by the old to the young. They con- tam some truth intermixed, doubtless, with much that is fabulous. When a people become a little more advanced in civilization, these traditions, in the form of myths or legends, are frequently sung or recited in verse by individuals who make a profession of it. They are sometimes commemorated by rude figures cut upon the surface of rocks, or by rough piles of stone. After having learned to write, it is not long till men begin to compose History; at first full of fancy and fiction, by and by it 'becomes more truth- ful, and assumes its proper place in Literature. Thus, the simple stories that may be told in the cabins or around the council-fires of a tribe of savages, become, in the course of centuries, the basis of the great tomes written by a thousand pens, which narrate in choice words and polished style the teeming events of the past.^ History may be the exposition of a Philosophy, and then our study of it can only properly begin after we have acquired much other knowledge upon which it depends. The Philosophy of History is the Philosophy of man ; and as he was the last of created things — the crowning glory of the whole, to .understand him all else must be understood. A knowledge of him, indeed, is necessary to complete all other knowledge ; but, in the order of things, we must approach the study of mind through the Btudy of matter. The Genesis of our Knowledge of the Arts. — Man undoubtedly was created with the power of making things. He was an artificer from the be- 100 BUILDIN^G THE FOUNDATION. ginning. Birds build nests, beavers make dams, bees construct combs in which to store their honey, and the most primitive races of men were endowed with similar but higher mechanical powers. It is not possible to account for the origin and growth of the Arts without admitting that this inventive^ crea- ting instinct is the foundation upon which they are based. This power was probably stimulated into exercise by necessity. Food, clothing, protection from the elements and from wild beasts, were, at least, needed by the earliest inhabitants of the earth, and such wants must be supplied; and, doubtless, under their pressure the first rude Arts made their appearance. The kinds of food first used were nuts, berries and other fruits, and sometimes roots. Flesh did not come into use until later, and then it was eaten raw. ^o cooking was done in these early times. The primitive inhabitants of the earth clothed themselves witli the leaves of trees or the skins of animals. Caves and hollow trees were the first houses, and clubs and stones the first imple- ments of warfare. With these to start with, the human race commenced that career of progress which excites the wonder of all who contemplate it, but which can be illustrated here by only a few- examples. The Greeks classed Drawing, Writing, and Paint- ing together, as having a common basis, and applied to them the common name y^a(pixYj, or Graphics. It is to be presumed that men would early endeavor to represent the strange forms which they saw about them. The first written communications with one another were probably of this nature. As a matter THE GEXESIS OF KNOWLEDGE. 101 of fact a kind of picture-writing or picture-drawing, has been found to exist among a number of tribes low down in the scale of civilization. These rude drawings were sometimes colored, and thus came the first attempts at Painting. The colors, however, were put on with little skill, just as savages paint their faces or children daub pictures on paper. It was not till influenced by the fine scenery and polished culture of Greece that this difiicult art assumed any thing like perfection. As Drawing, in the course of time, branched ofiiMnto Paintino^, so ' CD' also it was the source from which "Writing was developed. Things were first represented by pic- tures, and as these, where frequentl}^ used, became very familiar, their forms were very much changed and greatly abreviated to render theni more easily and quickly made. By and by, some of them be- came symbolical, as a picture of a circle represented eternity, and one of a fox, cunniug. Then the same characters, or the same characters somewhat modi- fied, were used to represent monosyllabic words, and when these were compounded, syllables of these words. At last they were made to stand for sounds, and the Alphabet was invented. Thanks to some old Egyptian king, whose vanity built the Pyramids and inscribed them all over with hieroglyphics, for these same hieroglyphics tell, in unequivocal lan- guage, the story just related. Champollion and others seem to have found among them pictures representing things in every state of transition until they became letters representing sounds ; that is, they found the same characters to be ideographic, verbal, syllabic, and phonetic. 9* 102 BUILDIISrG THE FOUNDATION. Even in the most polished styles of Architecture it is thought the influence of the primitive abodes of men may he traced. The Egyptian style re- sembles caves ; the Chinese, tents ; the Grrecian, huts ; and the Gothic, hollow trees, or trees themselves, pine or fir. Trees driven into the earth in rows to sup- port a covering may represent columns wider in diameter below and narrower above as trees are. The bases of columns may have been suggested by blocks of stone placed under wooden pillars to keep them from dampness, and the capitals by boards laid on the tops of such pillars to broaden the place of support for the structure which rested upon them. Sculpture in its beginnings had a close relation to Architecture. Stone, without doubt, was early quarried and cut for the purpose of building. Carv- ings for ornament on rocks and the walls of caves, succeeded carvings intended to preserve the memory of real forms or interesting events. These carvings were at first slight indentations merely presenting the outlines of the figures, afterwards they were cut out more fully and assumed the form of bas-relief, and finally we may reasonably suppose whole statues were chiseled out. Piles of stone were the first monuments, then came plain monuments cut from solid rocks in place, and these among the Greeks assumed the form of highly beautified sculpture representing gods and men. Poetry and Music, closely related as they are, probably had a cotemporary origin. 'No tribe of savasres has ever been found who had not forms of measured words and who did not indulge in singing them. The Poetry is often barbarous, and the Music. THE GENESIS OF KNOWLEDGE. 103 a succession of discordant sounds ; but they are the first rude beginnings of arts that have done much to elevate mankind. The first musical instruments were probably made of metals, as the Chinese gongs; of the skins of animals, whence our drums ; of reeds or the bark of small trees, whence our pipes and flutes ; and of strings, whence lyres and harps, pianos and organs. Agriculture must have been practiced very early, but the implements used for loosening the soil were at first sharpen-ed sticks, next came implements of stone, and after long ages those of iron. Some trade was probably carried on by all uncivilized nations, but it consisted merely in exchanges of articles used for food, clothing, or protection. Rivers were at first navigated on logs, which afterwards were hol- lowed out into canoes. A few of the properties of vegetables seem to have been discovered at an early day, and certain of them used for medicines among all primitive people. Sufiicient has now been said concerning the Genesis of our Knowledge to warrant a few general- izations which have an important educational sig- nificance : First, Knowledge as a ivliole seems to have been de- veloped from the commoji observations of men stimulated by animal or sjnritual ivants. — In the early history of the race, the pressure of animal wants seems to have done most to promote science and art; but in all times, and especially in highly civilized nations, men have been moved to the attainment of know- ledge by the wants of their spiritual nature. This 104 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. is the case whenever knowledge is sought for its own sake or with the end in view of making more perfect him who seeks it. In addition to what has already been said in sup- port of the main proposition, the opinion of the learned Philologist, Max MuUer, may be quoted. He says, '' However humiliating it may sound, every one of our sciences, however grand their titles, can be traced back to the most humble and homely occupations of half-savage tribes. It was not the true, the good, and the beautiful, which spurred the early philosophers to deep researches and bold dis- coveries. The foundation-stone of the most glorious structures of human ingenuity in ages to come, was supplied by the pressing wants of a patriarchal and semi-barbarous society." I know indeed that it is argued by some, that Adam and his immediate descendents must have received knowledge as a gift from the Divine hand, inasmuch as no savage nation has ever been known to civilize itself. But this theory does not account for the fact that new discoveries and new inventions have been made, and surely all that is known con- cerning the evolution of the sciences and arts is against it. The correct theory probably is that God endowed the first naen with the power of gaining knowledge^ that he has continued so to endow man, and that all progress in learning and skill is owing to the operation of this power moved by causes in the condition and circumstances of men, and prompted at times, doubtiess, by the direct agency of the spirit of God. It seems clear to me that the problem of human civilization is impossible of solu- THE GENESIS OF KNOWLEDGE. 105 tion without, an acknowledgment of the direct inter- position of Deity in the affairs of men. Second. A Course of Instruction should commence with the General Elements of Knowledge. — Children evince their knowledge-acquiring power by noticing objects, and learning their qualities and phenomena. They evince their art-producing power by changing the places of objects, and forming them into new combinations ; by piling up blocks, building play- houses, cutting figures from paper, and imitating the words and actions of those about them. What has been said concerning the Genesis of our 'Know- ledge goes to show that, as children acquire know- ledge now, so men acquired it in the infancy of the race. It is, therefore, clear that instruction must begin with the elements of knowledge. These elements should be made to comprehend as much as possible — should not be confined to a few particular branches, but be general. It is a great mistake to push children into the higher parts of any one study until they have learned the ele- ments of many studies. For example, the principles of Grammar and Arithmetic are studied by many who ought to be studying the elements of the !N^atu- ral Sciences, or other branches adapted to their mental condition. Thousands of children are thus mentally surfeited every year, and the result is a mental dyspepsia in early youth that entails, during their whole life-time, sad consequences upon its poor victims. Third. The second great step in a Course of Instruc- 106 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. tion should he to acquaint pupils with Particular Branches of Knowledge. — A cliild learns facts and phenomena as they present themselves. He may, in a single day, learn such as belong technically to twenty different sciences and arts. At its base all science is united, has only one trunk ; but it soon begins to divide and subdivide into numerous branches. The homogeneous be- comes the heterogeneous by a wonderful process of differentiation. The undefined elements of general science become the well-defined elements of par- ticular sciences. And as is the o:rowth of the sci- ences so must they be studied. Branching from the same trunk, the sciences never lose their reciprocal relationship, and always shed mutual light upon one another, yet they are sufficiently distinct to admit of independent study. Beyond the elements, therefore, the several branches of science maybe pursued, each by itself, all together, or a few at a time. Educational institutions almost universally have what is called a Course of Study. Each pupil studies a few branches at a time, and when he is thought to have completed these to the extent desired, he commences others, and thus goes on until he has mastered the prescribed course. "What u^e has thus sanctioned will generally be found the best policy. If a pupil enjoy an opportunity of pursuing a course of study wisely arranged according to this plan, it will be well for him to follow it through Common School, High School, and College, and, afterward, if the desire exist, and the way open, he THE GENESIS OF KNOWLEDGE. 107 may apply himself to some particular science or department of science. Considerable general know- ledge must be possessed, and a good degree of mental discipline be attained, before fresh investigators can push their inquiries beyond the present limits of some existing science, or make discoveries worthy the name of a new one ; and a life-time is too short to accomplish much in a wider, unexplored Held of research than a single science affords. In fewer words, the plan proposed is this : teach, first, the elements of the sciences in general ; next, teach in detail the most important principles of the several sciences composing a carefully arranged course of study ; and last, let those who can, make themselves masters of some special branch of science, and push their inquiries beyond what is known respecting it. This is essentially the plan adopted in countries where learning has made the greatest progress ; and it is the only f)lan which can secure to the stu- dent general scholarship under the greatest advan- tages, and, at the same time, afford him opportunity, with the fairest prospects of success, of fathoming the depths of some special science, and adding, in that direction, something to the sum of human knowledge. Fourth, A Course of Instruction should End hy Teaching the Relatioyiship and Harmony of all Knoiu- ledge. — It would be a difficult thing to determine the lines which separate one science or one art from another. Knowledge is not composed of indepen- dent facts and principles, all its parts belong to one whole ; and the Philosopher is always distinguished 108 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. from the mere Scholar by his broad, comprehensive generalizations which mark the unity of created things and from which may be inferred the iinit}^ of the creating Mind. 1^0 course of study can be considered complete until the logical relations of all its parts have been exhibited. Pupils pursuing different studies, treated of in different works by different authors, and some- times taught by different teachers, are apt to over- look their relationship and harmony. Each branch becomes isolated, and pupils are required to study the details of particular sciences when they ought to be engaged in learning the principles of general science. It is hardly possible in school, for example, to teach, in full detail, any one of the Natural Sciences, but it is possible to teach the great, leading principles of all of them. The specific study of the sciences should, therefore, be followed by the general study of science. A course of study should not end in a number of points but in a centre. The skill of an architect cannot be fully appreciated while his work lies scattered in disjointed fragments, so the value of science is much lessened and its beauty much obscured to him whose study ends in contem- plating disconnected facts, broken sj-stems, and inharmonious expressions. Comte says : " The present exclusive speciality of our pursuits, and the consequent isolation of the sciences, spoil our teach- ing. If any student desires to form an idea of ]N'a- tural Philosophy, as a whole, he is compelled to go through each department as it is now taught, as if he were to be only an Astronomer, or only a Chemist ; so that, be his intellect what it may, his training THE ORDER OF STUDY. 109 must remain very imperfect. And yet his object requires that he should obtain general positive con- ceptions of all the classes of natural phenomena. It is such an aggregate of conceptions of all classes, whether on a great or on a small scale, v^hich must henceforth be the permanent basis of all human combinations. It will constitute the mind of future generations. In order to this regeneration of our intellectual system, it is necesssary that the sciences, considered as branches from one trunk, should yield us, as a whole, their chief methods and their most important results. The specialities of science can be pursued by those whose vocation lies in that direction. They are indispensable, and they are not likely to be neglected, but they can never of themselves renovate our system of Education." in. The Order of Study. It was previously stated that the sciences do not admit of a serial arrangement. In their primary elements, all of them are equally simple, and in their ultimate principles all of them are equally difficult. They can be cultivated simultaneously, or they can be cultivated as they grew up, first, in the form of general elements ; second, in the form of special sciences ; and, last, in the form of the philosophy of science. Upon these points, however, sufficient has already been said. In the discussion which is to follow, concernine: methods of teaching the several branches of study, much care will be taken to point out the order in which the several parts of each branch should be 10 110 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. taught, and this will render unnecessary an investi- gation of the same subject in this place. It is de- signed here to show what different studies or parts of different studies can be profitably pursued simul- taneously. Our aim will not be to name these studies so much with reference to their logical rela- tions among themselves as with respect to their adaptation to the mental condition of pupils when they engage in their study. Constant reference will be had to the Classification of Knowledge already presented. Our education should never end, but that portion of our days which we appropriately devote almost exclusively to obtaining an education, may be called the school-time of life. Our school-time of life may be divided into four periods ; the first embracing the time from birth to the age of five years ; the second, from the age of five to ten ; the third, from ten to sixteen ; and the fourth, from sixteen to twenty-one. The first of these periods may be called Infancy; the second, CMldJwod; the third, Youth; iindtheionrth,3Ianhood. This classification will be of much practical value, but from the nature of the case it is a very loose one. The task we undertake is to name the branches of learning or the kind of study suitable for each period. A general statement is all that is practicable, and each teacher must work out the details for himself with the aid furnished him in subsequent chapters. First Period. — Lifaney. — The first care of a mother is to preserve her infant's health. The THE OEDER OF STUDY. Ill large number of deaths which occur during infancy proves such care to be necessary. 'Not less important than the preservation of their health is the formation of the character of young children. Those traits of character which distin- guish a child at five years of age are most likely to distinguish him through life. Much influence may be allowed to the laws of hereditary descent, their due weight may be given to the circumstances of the school and of general society, and it will still be true that whether an individual possess the virtues of industry, perseverance, honesty, manliness, bravery, kindness, piety, and the like, or otherwise, will de- pend mainly upon the home instruction, or rather hoine-impressions, which children receive during the first five years of life. But w^e are at present con- cerned only with the intellectual acquisitions which a child can make during the period of Infancy. These intellectual acquisitions have been expressed by the terms Elements of Knowledge, and are con- sidered to form the bases of all we know. Such knowledge comes from an experience with objects, and is best learned, as will be shown hereafter, in series of lessons given without much regard to the scientific arrangement of their subject-matter. All classes of knowledge may be profitably embraced in a single lesson. Here, however, it may be best to point out what a child may learn during the period of Infancy concerning the elementary facts, phenomena, and forms of the great classes into which it has been deemed expedient to divide our knowledsje. An infant learns to speak. It is a wonderful pro- 112 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. cess, and requires the guiding care of parents. The speaking instinct must be encouraged to manifest itself with the utmost freedom. The sounds of the language must be correctly uttered and proper forms of expression must be furnished, and the child's faltering tongue be taught to imitate them. If a child listen to good language, he will know no other. All bad habits of speech should be carefully corrected. E"umber is an idea which we obtain very early. Before the age of live, a child may be taught to count objects, and to add and subtract small num- bers by their means. He must be able to conceive forms in order to tell one object from another. He reasons, too, and should have his opportunities 'of so doing multiplied. Before a child can speak, objects may be given to him, and he will learn many of their properties in play- ing with them. Well-selected toys may be made to furnish valuable information. Th^ more he is allowed to hear and see, the sharper will be his senses and the more he will remember. It can hardly be said with sufficient emphasis that the kind of instruction most suitable for Infancy is that wdiich is addressed to the senses and the powers of perception — that w^hich can be best imparted by the direct presenta- tion of objects and their phenomena or vivid pic- tures of them. The intense curiosity of children prompts them to seek what is new, but they notice things as individuals, not in their connections, and nature on the surface so presents them. The Em- pirical sciences are based upon the facts of expe- rience, and, if allowed fit opportunity, a little child THE ORDER OF STUDY. 113 will become acquaiuted with mnltitucles of these facts. During the period now referred to, the principles of the Eational sciences cannot be made the direct object of instruction ; but it is very evident that they are operative in the minds of children. They recog- nize the truth of such axioms as " A whole is greater than any of its parts" in relation to particular things, although they do not generalize them or understand their verbal expression. They also can be trained in a degree to discriminate between truth and false- hood, beauty and deformity, and right and wrong. No part of elementary education can be of greater importance than that of teaching the young to make these recognitions and discriminations, but there is no part of it more neglected. Nothing delights a child more than stories, narra- tives, and personal incidents, if related or read in language which he can understand. Good fruit could be produced by instruction of this kind. Children can learn to sing almost as soon as they can learn to talk. At the age of three or four, they wdll draw figures on a slate or blackboartl, cut paper, mould clay, build play-houses, and imitate many simple, mechanical contrivances. Such educators as Pestalozzi and De Fellenberg understood this want of children and provided for it. Secoxd Period. — Childhood. — If during the period of his life between the ages of five and ten years, a child does not learn to speak well, it is scarcely likely that he will ever do so. Pure models should be furnished him ; and he may be taught to speak 10*. 114 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. foreign languages as well as his mother-tongue. Exercises in Pronouncing, Spelling, Reading and Composing, may be commenced and prosecuted during this period. The meaning of a great number of words may be learned if properly illustrated and explained. Lessons on classes of words may be given, but Grammar proper is a study too difficult for children under the age of ten. During this period children can be readily taught to read and write numbers, and to perform the Mathematical operations of Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division, both of Integers and Fractions. These operations should be performed at first with objects, and both the mental and written forms of solution ought to be practiced. They may engage with great profit in the solution of simple problems involving these fundamental rules, but they cannot make much progress in reasoning about the relations of numbers. Pupils of this age, too, may be made acquainted with Geometrical figures and their properties so far as they can be exhibited to the eye by diagrams or blocks. Any except the simplest attempts at demonstration would be out of place. 'No generalization of the reasoning process can be understood by a child of ten years of age, and, therefore, theoretical Logic is beyond his reach. He can reason, however, and should be encouraged to use his powers in this respect. His questions should be answered, and he should be led to seek for the causes of things. From five to ten years of age, the powers of the mind which are predominantly active are the senses, the perceptive faculties, the memory, and the fancy ; THE ORDER OF STUDY. 115 and these fit the mind for making observations and storing away facts. It cannot be doubted, therefore, that much time during this period should be spent in the study of the elements of the Empirical sciences. A child may be made familiar with thousands of in- terestins: facts, and learn the names of thousands of interesting objects. He may thus be made acquainted with the elements of Geography, Botany, Zoology, Astronomy, Katural Philosophy, Physiology, and other sciences like them. The simple facts of this class of sciences seem to be particularly adapted to the capacity of children between the ages of ^ve and ten, and peculiarly pleasing to their tastes. They are keenly alive to all that is new, or strange, or curious. Before the age of ten, however, it should be remembered, a child is not prepared to appreciate generalizations, abstractions, systems, or theories, and it is folly to attempt" to teach them to him. Children cannot be made philosophers ; but the condition of their mental nature admirably fits them for learning the names and more obvious properties of the multitudes of objects which the bountiful hand of God has scattered all about us as if His purpose was to furnish means of pleasing and instructing little children. Rational science is beyond the capacity of children of ten years of age ; but the principles upon which such sciences are founded, as previously stated, may be made operative in their minds. They operate, indeed, in the minds of all persons, however young or ignorant ; but by a studied presentation of occa- sions calculated to call them into activity, the mind receives that discipline which eventually prepares it 116 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. for their apprehension and systematic elaboration. The kind of instruction, therefore, that was con> sidered proper up to the age of five must be con- tinued to the age of ten and longer. Any attempt to teach a child of this age to account for principles which are to him simply instincts that guide his life, or to make him comprehend eyen the first steps of a systematically arranged Kational science, would proye a fruitless labor. As inductions from par- ticular facts, such principles can be understood by a child ; but as abstract principles, independent of facts but conditioning them, they can be compre- hended only by mature minds. To open the minds of his pupils to the comprehension of these princi- ples in the only form in which they can be under- stood, as a preparation for understanding them in that higher form in which they become our main reliance in solving the greatest problems of life, is the highest duty of the educator. History, when presented in a form suited to their capacity, has great attractions for children. They like the play of life — like to read accounts of voyages, travels, and past events, and they do not forget what they read. They are especially fond of the novel and the marvelous. Fiction might be made highly useful in the work of education. A Fiction may be a faithful portraiture of life, and as such to be commended. The strong appetite which the young manifest for this kind of literature is not without its meaning. With judicious management it can be gratified without harm, and in due time will give place to other mental appetites, for which it is, in part, a preparation. THE ORDER OF STUDY. 117 In the Arts, at this age, a pupil can be learning to draw and write. His Drawing ought to be confined to copying pictures, drawing simple objects from nature, and inventing easy j)atterns. He ought to learn to work, to imitate models, and to handle tools. It will do him good to visit shops and manu- factories. He should be taught to sing, and may begin to take lessons upon some musical instrument. Pictures will delight him, but not those which re- present some abstract idea, but those rather which exhibit life. Third Period. — Youth. — With respect to Lan- guage, instruction, during this period, should be continued in all that relates to Reading and Com- position. The pupil's vocabulary of words should be enlarged by careful study. The Grammar of the English language may be commenced at ten, and, if other languages are to be studied, they may be commenced at the same age. Some progress may be made in speaking, reading, and writing our own and other languages before this age; but their formal study cannot profitably commence earlier. A course of reading in both prose and poetry should be con- tinued through the whole period of youth. In Mathematics, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Alge- bra can be completed by the time a pupil is sixteen years, of age, at least so far as these subjects are treated of in our ordinary text-books. During this period, pupils must be carefully trained to habits of correct reasoning — they must be taught to observe the laws of Logic in their thinking. The higher generalizations of abstract Logic may be beyond 118 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION-. their reach, but they can be made acquainted with the most useful forms of syllogism, and with the modes of discovering truth and exposing error. Competent to classify and generalize, the youth of fi'om ten to sixteen years of age may study the properties and phenomena of objects in connection with the laws that govern their relations. To do this he must not only observe, but he must search and make experiments ; and he should be so taught that he may rise gradually from the sphere of scat- tered facts to the sphere of united systems. During this period great progress ought to be made in sciences like Geography, Physiology, ;N"atural Phi- losophy, Chemistry, Botany, and Astronomy. The facts relating fo them should be classified, inferences should be drawn, and a general preparation should be made for the full discussion of their highest principles. The time for the study of the Pational sciences does not come to many before the age of sixteen. Instruction relating to them should, therefore, be continued in the spirit of that described as appro- priate for the period of childhood. In addition, however, at about the age of sixteen, pupils may be taught the distinction between universal, necessary, and self-evident truths and such as are empirical. Forms of expression may be given to some of the grand maxims which constitute the basis of all science, and pupils be taught to realize their truth. Undefined standards of truth, beauty, and goodness can be applied with great profit. Progress can be made in the arts which depend upon the principles THE ORDER OF STUDY. 119 of the Rational sciences long before these principles themselves can be made an object of thought. During the period of youth, History should occupy a prominent place among the studies of every pupil who desires a liberal education, or who desires to guide his own life by the lamp of past experience. First in importance is the History of one's own country, then that of other countries most closely related to it, or that of those which have played the most important part in the world's affairs. Biographies of the good and great will be read with avidity, and are well calculated to exert a favorable influence upon the young. The historical development of the several sciences will furnish matter of much interest. From these sources, vast stores of facts can be collected, and will furnish a basis for the generalizations which belong to the Philosophy of History. Sufficient skill for the ordinary purposes of life may be acquired in Writing and Drawing during this period. Instruction in Yocal Music should continue, and if proficiency in Instrumental Music, Painting, or any other branch of an ornamental education be desirable, it can be most rapidly at- tained during the years between ten and sixteen. I think the Formal and the Empirical Sciences can be most effectually taught in connection with the ap- plication of their principles to the arts of which they are the bases. Sciences like Arithmetic, Chemistry, and Astronomy, excite much more interest in the minds of students when they see that they can be made practical — when they see their use in the arts. When the young exhibit special mechanical 120 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. talent, or special talent in an art of any kind, that talent should receive special culture. Fourth Period. — Manhood. — At the termination of this period, the scholastic course of study is supposed to be completed. Suitable studies in language are Rhetoric, Criti- cism, Literature, and foreign languages, both an- cient and modern. Studies in the Formal Sciences should embrace the higher Mathematics and Logic. Their relations to other sciences should be pointed out, and an application of their principles should be made. The more abstruse principles of the Empirical Sciences studied during this period, can be mas- tered ; and such principles, and the relations of these sciences to one another, are proper objects of study for minds approaching maturity. Pupils may be encouraged to select some one of the sciences, and to prosecute original investigations with respect to it. The ambition to add something to the sum of human knowledge is a w^orthy one. This period should be characterized by the study of the Rational Sciences, furnishing as they do the noblest themes for human thought, and the best means of mental discipline. It will be fouiid, too, that their principles underlie all other sciences, and are necessary to their full comprehension. That teacher deserves the name of wise man, who, taking his pupils through many sciences, leads them at last to the firm conviction that faith is the only sure basis of all philosophy ; and this, when well under- stood, is the spirit of all Metaphysical study. THE ORDER OF STUDY. 121 Plistory must now embrace the History of science and the History of philosophy, as well as reveal the principles that have ever worked changes in the affairs of men. Its highest province is to embrace all science and all art in its comprehensive narra- tions, and to trace out the causes and effects of human actions, and thus solve the problem of human life. If it is thought proper to continue the study of Drawing through any part of this period, it may include the principles of Shading and Perspective. Mechanical and Architectural Drawing might, in som^ cases, be taught. The time to be devoted to Music must depend upon other circumstances than those which arise from its nature. This, too, is the case with other arts, such as Painting, whicn are considered more ornamental than useful. From the age of sixteen to twenty-one, the realities of life begin to press themselves upon the attention of the young man or the young woman. They select a profession, or seek to prepare themselves for some kind of business. They feel the need of a profes- sional education ; and such an education aims not to impart knowledge of the sciences, but skill in the arts. The highest of all arts is the art of living ivell, and to this art all science contributes. Excep- tions apparently to the common order of things are the gifted sons of Genius — the great Artists of the world. To them we are indebted for the noblest creations of the human mind ; and, though but one such person — poet or prophet — appear in a century, a broad system of education cannot be unmindful of the great fact. 11 122 BUILDING THE FOUNDATION. What has now been written is intended to intro- duce a discussion of those detailed methods of instruction of which it is the special object of this work to treat. In accordance with the classifica- tion of studies already made, the remaining part of the volume will be divided into seven chapters as follows : I. Instruction in the Elements or Knowledge. II. Instruction in Language. III. Instruction in the Formal Sciences. ly. Instruction in the Empirical Sciences. Y. Instruction in the Kational Sciences. YI. Instruction in the Historical Sciences. YII. Instruction in the Arts. CHAPTER 1. INSTRUCTION IN THE ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE. What is meant by the elements of knowledge has already been explained. The elements of each branch of knowledge, or of each class of branches, might be treated of in connection with the discus- sion of the methods of teaching that branch or that class of branches ; but practically these elements are not separated but combined in early education. A child cannot study the sciences, but he can study the general facts which form their bases. The w^hole subject will be discussed in two sec- tions as follows : I. Informal Instruction in the Elements of Knowledge. II. Formal Instruction in the Elements of Knowledge. Under the first head it is intended to speak of that instruction in the elements of knowledo-e which a child acquires from parents, companions, and the circumstances that surround him, without any special teacher or any set lessons. Under the second the design is to discuss that kind of instruction which is now generally known by the name of Object Lessons. (123) 124 ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE. I. Informal Instruction in the Elements of Knowledge. — How interesting to the educator is the infant soul in its efforts to attain freedom ! "Wrapt in sleep, how softly it awakens to a state of conscious existence ! Closely folded within the depths whence it comes, how gently its tender germs seek the light! An angel sent from God, with what seeming hesitation it sets its delicate feet upon the rough earth ! We know not what impressions a child may have received before that time, but the beginning of its instruction may be dated from the moment it knows itself — from the moment it shows, by looks or actions, that it recognizes something apart from its own being. Commencing at this tender age, a child must receive instruction suited in kind and method to its capacity. Children exhibit in their mental manifestations and predilections the kind of instruc- tion and training which they need. There are internal impulses which prompt them to satisfy their mental cravings. By carefully watching the outward play of these impulses, we may be guided in selecting the most appropriate means and methods of educating the young. "Follow the indications of nature," said Rousseau. In order to make the subject as definite as possible, the most important educational inferences which can be derived in this way, will be expressed in a series of propositions : 1. Children should be Allowed ample Oppor- tunities FOR Exercising their Senses. — A child can exercise the senses of touching, tasting, and smelling before it can see and hear. Of the two INFORMAL INSTEUCTION-. 125 last named senses I am not sure which is first awak- ened, that of seeing or hearing ; but when a few weeks okl an infant will look at bright colors and seem pleased with certain sounds. When a little older, it will follow with its gaze the motions of objects which attract its attention, and smile at the sound of voices or of music. Soon after it learns to hold and handle things, and to play with them, and all the senses begin to develop themselves rapidly. The maternal instincts of mothers generally teach them how to supply the intellectual wants of their young children. They sufier them to gaze at the lamp, or the open fire, at the sunlight as passing through openings in the window-blinds it plays upon the floor or about the curtains, at the bright colors of flowers, buttons, or clothing. They allow them to look through the casement at what they can see in yard, garden, street, or field. They amuse them with talking and singing, with rattles, little bells, or gingling keys. They place in their hands numerous playthings difi:ering in size, shape, texture, and color. They let them look at animals in motion, vehicles passing on the highway, and trees moved by the wind. 'No better mode of awakening the slumbering intellect of a child than this could be pointed out. It needs but to be applied with more intelligence. Mothers might place before their infants a great variety of objects presenting marked contrasts in color and sound; they might select and change their playthings with more judgment, and make more attractive the world of nature about them. The mental growth of a child from the time it 11* 126 ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE. becomes conscious of the existence of objects around it until the time it can walk is truly wonderful. Its power of discriminating colors, sounds, and consist- encies is greatly increased. Its senses are rapidly developed. It becomes alive to all that is passing, around it, and exhibits a strong inclination to touch and handle all objects within its reach. It learns to walk, and then commences the active exercise of its newly found powers. Drawers are opened, baskets upset, cupboards and closets explored, flowers plucked. The child seeks objects about the kitchen, parlor, shop, yard, garden, and, if allowed, on the highway or in the street. It is wide awake, and knowledge seems to be taken in through every pore. This is a precious season in which to sow the seeds of knowledge. Mothers especially at this time enjoy opportunities of pouring instruction into the opening mind. Says Harriet Martineau, "If the mother is at work, and the children are running in and out of the garden, it is only saying to the little toddler, ' ^ow bring me a blue flower ; now bring me a yellow flower; now bring me a green leaf.' At another time she will ask for a round stone ; or a thick stick ; or a thin stick. And sometimes she will blow a feather, and let it fall again ; or she will blow a dandelion-head all to pieces, and quite away. If she is wise she will let the child alone, to try its own little experiments, and learn for itself what is hard, and what is soft; what is heavy, and light; hot, and cold ; and what it can do with its little limbs and quick senses. Taking care, of course, that it does not injure itself, and that it has objects within INFORMAL INSTRUCTION. 127 reacli in sufficient variety, she can do no better, at this season of its life, than to let it be busy in its own way. I saw a little fellow, one day, intently occupied for a whole breakfast- time, and some time afterwards, in trying to put the key of the house- door into the key-hole of the tea-caddy. "When he gave the matter up, and not before, his mother helped him to see why he could not do it. If she had taken the door-key from him at first, he would have missed a valuable lesson. At this period of existence, the children of rich and poor have, or may have, about equal advantages, under the care of sensible parents. They can be busy about aliy thing. There is nothing that cannot be made a plaything of, and a certain means of knowledge, if the faculties be awake. If the child be dull, it must, of course, be tempted to play. If the faculties be in their natural state of liveliness, the mother has only to be aware that the little creature must be busy while it is awake, and to see that it has variety enough of things (the sim- pler the better) to handle, and look at, and listen to, and experiment upon." 2. Children should be Instructed in Learning to Talk. — Children are characterized by talkativeness. They possess a wonderful capacity to learn words and to form them into sentences. When five years of age, children have been known to speak with considerable fluency five difierent languages. The use of language renders the acquirement of knowledge more easy and rapid, if it is not essential to it ; and in this, probably, may be found the rea- son why children are endowed with the remarkable 128 ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE. power just referred to. A child likes to know the names of all he sees, and is constantly asking, '' What's this?" and "What's that?" He prattles all day with father, mother, brother, sister, servant, playmate ; and, when no one will listen, he talks to his cat, bird, dog, toys, or to himself. It is just as natural for him to do this as it is for a plant to grow, or a bird to sing ; and his nature could not indicate more clearly that it is the duty of parents or teachers to instruct him in learning to talk. A child in learning to talk performs two distinct operations : the first, one of association ; the second, one of imitation. He first associates certain verbal utterances with particular things or thoughts, and afterwards learns to imitate them. In learning a word, therefore, a child must hear it correctly ut- tered, and then learn to utter it correctly himself. Instruction in learning to talk can be given to a child in two ways : first, indirectly, by good ex- ample ; second, directly, by correcting his errors and presenting him proper models for imitation. Parents should be careful, as far as practicable, to sufier their children to listen to none but pure and proper language, for they will imitate the language to which they listen. If the words they hear spoken are bad words, or the sentences uttered in their presence are inelegant or ungrammatical, no care in after life can completely correct the improper habits of speech thus formed. In order to prevent their children from forming such habits, parents should use good language in talking with them or in their presence, and be careful in the selection of servants, governesses, and others with whom they come in IN-FORMAL INSTRUCTION". 129 contact. Especially should tins care be exercised in the choice of companions and playmates. A single afternoon spent in play with those who use them, will serve to introduce into a child's vocab- ulary quite a list of bad words and uncouth ex- pressions. His taste is thus blunted, and his heart may be poisoned. The Gracchi, it is said, were indebted to their mother's conversation for their eloquence ; and Alexander could never get rid of the defects of manner, gait, and speech which he con- tracted in his infancy from his instructor, Leonidas. Every one, indeed, must have noticed the difference in the language of children whose parents and asso- ciates exhibited good taste in their speech, and that of those who did not possess this characteristic. The scanty vocabulary and the rough forms of speech which characterize the poor peasant-child, whose parents are ignorant, contrast strongly with the full flow of words and finely formed sentences which distinguish the child whose parents are educated and refined. In addition to this indirect but most effective teaching by example, parents should take advantage of their capability of learning words so readily to impart to their children more directly certain kinds of instruction in language. It may be done by attentively noticing their articulation and their im- proper forms of expression, and carefully correcting them. For this time and patience will be required. The corrections should be made more in the manner of play than of formal instruction. The child could not appreciate reasons if given. The parent, noticing the fault, should present the correct model, and 130 ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE. playfully induce the child to imitate it, once, twice, or as many times as may be necessary, until the difficulty shall be overcome. At two years of age, a child will understand little stories, if related or read to him in simple language, and such exercises furnish valuable lessons. After receiving them, children immediately exhibit in their conversation the forms of expression thus acquired. I cannot recommend these exercises of conversing and reading with children too highly. They should be engaged in every day. Those mis- pronunciations and misconstructions, called "baby- talk," however, are generally both hurtful to the child and unbecoming to the parent. Children can be taught to speak in learning to sing or in hearing others sing. They are nearly always fond of music, and will gladly commit little songs and hymns, and thus improve their speech while they cheer the household with their joyful melodies. 3. Children should have their Appetite for Knowledge gratified. — It has already been shown that children should be allowed to exercise their senses, and it will now be made equally evident that their appetite for knowledge should be grati- fied. They should not only be encouraged to use their senses for the purpose of using them, but for the purpose of gaining knowledge. "With very young children the discipline of the senses is the principal end aimed at, but in a short time the attainment of knowledge assumes greater impor- tance. INFORMAL INSTRUCTION". 131 Children exhibit great curiosity. They like to see things, to handle and examine them. They stand in raptures when papa opens his watch, or mamma her drawers, for them. All their waking hours are devoted to looking at things, playing with them, or tearing them to pieces. These rest- less inner promptings are natural to children, and indicate an educational want which ought not to be overlooked. The searching curiosity goes out through the active senses and returns laden with rich stores for the capacious memory. A beautiful correlation exists between the functions of the curiosity which prompts, the senses which are the instruments, and the memory which receives and retains, and the order of their development. This whole mental apparatus seems nicely adjusted to bring about the end of collecting multitudes of facts, and storing them away in the memory to be eventually classified, and made to constitute the data for scientific generalizations. The appetite children have for knowledge can be gratified by conversing with them. The names and qualities of things can be talked about — their color, size, form, weight, number, uses. Children ask many questions, and these, whenever possible, should be answered. Parents often rebuke their children for asking them questions, but this is to do them great wrong, since it serves to check the growth of the intellect, and may stop it altogether. If parents would spend a short time each day in conversation w^ith their children much valuable information could be imparted to them. The best method of presenting knowledge on such occasions 132 ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE. is that of relating incidents, describing objects, or telling stories. Children will listen to such narra- tions with breathless attention, and receive from them lasting impressions. Quite similar to conver- sations of this kind is the practice of reading suit- able books to children. This practice may com- mence some time before the children themselves can read. Parents may read, and afterwards make what they have read a topic of conversation. If the selections be appropriate, and the conversations be judiciously conducted, parents can have the satis- faction of seeing the minds of their children expand like opening buds. 'Not the least important good derived from such exercises is their influence upon the character and opinions of children. The appetite children have for knowledge can be gratified by showing them interesting objects in nature and art. They may be made familiar with many minerals, flowers, trees, birds, reptiles, insects. "What valuable lessons they could learn about bees, ants, spiders, beetles, frogs ! "With what interest they would examine an ant-hill, an old hornet's nest, a spider's web, or the chrysalis of a butterfly ! How much knowledge they could gather in walks over fields, through woods, along streams ! Let there be pointed out to them, growing plants and ripening- fruit, birds building their nests, fishes sporting in the water, animals caring for their young, the shift- ing clouds, the many-colored rainbow, the dew-drops as they ghsten upon leaves and flowers in the morn- ing sunlight. No suitable opportunity should be lost of taking them to mills, factories, workshops, menageries, and museums. The Stereoscope and INFORMAL INSTRUCTION. 133 the Magic Lantern may be used with much profit in exhibiting to them the scenery of distant countries, their cities, buildings, manners, and customs. En- gravings, too, may be made a most valuable means of instruction. Children love pictures, and nothing pleases them better than to be allowed the privilege of examining a picture-book. There is no mode probably in which a child can be taught so much in the same time as by means of pictures. The best pictures for the purpose are those which represent animated nature — scenes of life among animals or among men. Opportunities of pointing out the form, number, color, and other properties of the things they see should not be overlooked. Much valuable instruction of this kind can be imparted incidentally. The appetite children have for knowledge can be gratified by furnishing them with proper toys and playthings. A child needs play as much as he needs food. He must have it, and this disposition can be turned to good account mentally as well as physically. Whenever possible, a suitable apartment should be arranged in every house in which there are children, for a play-room where they might be allowed to run, jump, and play without danger to themselves or disturbance to others. This play-room ought to be provided with swings, hobby-horses, little wagons, jumping-ropes, balls, blocks of many shapes and sizes, and some w^ith prints of animals, letters, &c., upon them, wheels, beads of different colors arranged on strings, blackboards and chalk — anything indeed of which an interesting play can be made. To make these plays most valuable, some older person must assist in planning the plays and superintend the 12 134 ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE. children in playing. In fine weather the plays may take place in the open air. A yard with a sward of grass is the best place for them. The Infant Schools of Europe have gardens or yards attached to them in which the children sing, and dance, and play, under the constant care and direction of teachers whose presence is no restraint upon the fun, but who seize the fit opportunity to intermingle instruc- tion with it. In writing what has just been said, I have had in mind quite young children. Some additional playthings may be provided for those who are older. Among these toy-towns with difierent kinds of buildings, people and animals walking in the streets, vehicles passing along, &c. ; slates and pencils ; cup-and-ball ; paper for cutting pictures out of; clay for modeling figures ; tea-sets and house- furniture in miniature ; letters and maps cut into sections ; the Chinese puzzle ; blocks of great variety and shape, with which stools, chairs, tables, houses, monuments, towers, castles, churches, bridges, &c., could be made. For amusement out-of-doors, balls, kites, hoops, bows and arrows, carts, wheelbarrows, garden tools, quoits, and other things of the same kind are proper. It must not be supposed that it is expected that any one family will i^rocure all the articles mentioned, the design is only to name those out of which selections may be made. Toys and playthings should be kept under lock and key, and children be allowed at one time only those articles which they may choose or which may be considered proper for them. Frequent changes will keep them ever new. Besides, children should be allowed to exercise their own ingenuity in inventing means of INFORMAL INSTRUCTION". 135 enjoymeut. It will be observed that our list of toys and playthings includes only those which may be made use of for the purposes of instruction and discipline, and these are the only kinds I would permit children to handle. Space need not be taken up in describing in detail the manner of mingling instruction with play, for after what has already been said the instincts of those who sympathize w^ith children will guide them correctly. 4. Children should be furnished occasions for APPLYING their POWERS OF KNOWING WHAT IS TrUE, Beautiful, and Good. — Truth has been defined as the correspondence betw^een thought and its objects. There are diiierent kinds of truth, but no classifica- tion of them is needed here. The truths w^ith which a child becomes first familiar may be called truths of perception. He learns by means of his senses that iron is hard, that ice is cold, that roses are red, that birds sing, that plants grow green in the sun- shine, that animals need food, that water seeks a level, that the whole is equal to all its parts ; and every eftbrt should be made to widen his experience, for this will fix in his mind the correspondence be- tween thought and thing. The stories children are so apt to tell arise mainly from defective observa- tion or from the mistake they sometimes make of supposing that the pictures of their fancy are the per- ceptions of their senses. A child that comes to his mother and says that he saw a cow in the field that has five legs, or that he talked with his grandfather who is a hundred miles away, does nothing at which a parent should be alarmed. Habits of correct ob- 136 ELEMEIS^TS OF KN"OWLEDGE. servation will make it all right. A judicious mother would take her child by the hand and go and look at the cow, or ask him to find the place where he met his grandfather, and a good lesson would be taught him. Always set a child right when he says a thing that is wrong, and never fail to give him every chance of learning what is true. A very young child can recognize the difference between truth and falsehood. If his brother tell him that his ball has rolled behind the door and he does not find it there, or that a bright penny is in one hand when he finds it in the other, he shows by his looks that he understands the deception that has been practiced upon him. I am firmly convinced that it is in great measure owing to the deceptions of w^hich he is the witness on the part of servants, play- mates, brothers and sisters, and even parents, that a child learns to tell falsehoods. How can he remain pure and innocent wdiile he beholds constantly about him those who practice exaggeration, deception, and falsehood ? Let all conduct in the presence of a child be open and shicere, let all words spoken be- fore him be honest and truthful ; and, furnished with such occasions, he will not only learn w^hat is true but be truthful. One who is himself truthful will trust others, and this is the ground upon which rests our earliest and purest faith. Children appreciate the beautiful in objects at a much earlier age than is generally supposed. I have noticed well-marked evidences of such appre- ciation at the age of two years. This taste for the beautiful, like the early buddings of a tender plant, requires careful culture. The attention of children INFOEMAL IXSTRUCTIOX. 137 may be easil}^ called to beautiful flowers, trees and birds ; to the rippling brook, the towering moun- tain, the rising or the setting sun ; to pattering rain-drops, falling snow-flakes, and drifting clouds. Nature is everywhere full of beauty, and it may l)e used with an unsparing hand to make glad the hearts of children. Art, too, has beauties which are attractive to the young. Of course, they cannot ap- preciate a fine painting or piece of statuary ; but they are keenly alive to what might be called sur- face beauty — that which depends upon color, form, proportion, motion, and like qualities. Let their thirsty spirit drink at these fountains until they come to find purer draughts deeper down. If every child could have a bed of flowers to plant and cultivate, or a pet bird or rabbit to care for, it would do much to improve his taste and awaken feelings of ten- derness and love. Clearly there is a power within us which God de- signed to enable us to distinguish between right and wrong. We may not make good use of it and accept error for truth, but that does not invalidate the certainty of the great fact that the faculty- exists. Young children can discriminate between good acts and bad acts, and this power they seem ready to apply when proper occasions are presented. If the good is constantly exemplified in the conduct of those who surround a child and whom he loves, his sense of right and wrong must be quickened by the exercise it would receive. Would that all parents felt the great importance of this fact ! Besides, pains can be taken to point out good acts to a child — acts of honesty, justice, kindness, mercy, gratitude, pa- 12 * 138 ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE. triotism. Life in every neighborhood has incidents of this kind, and history is full of them. Let his conscience be kept active by frequent appeals to it, and the child will grow daily in virtue. What is said in the preceding paragraphs is predi- cated upon the assumption that the human mind has the power in itself to determine what is true, beautiful, and good, and that the duty of the in- structor consists only in multiplying occasions for its exercise. But to arrange these occasions so as to answer their end is a work so delicate and difficult that none but the most accomplished teachers can perform it skilfully. Something, however, may be done by all who love children and sincerely desire to have them become virtuous and happy themselves and a blessing to mankind. 5. Children should be allowed pacilities for PRACTICE IN THE ELEMENTS OF THE ARTS.^The men- tal nature of children is characterized by vigorous imitative powers and a lively fancy. This leads them to imitate and contrive things, and gives zest to many kinds of play in which they delight. A slate and pencil or blackboard and chalk may be made very useful for the purpose of preparing children to write and draw. At first, a child might be allowed to make such marks as his fancy prompted or he might be encouraged to imitate simple figures of various shapes and sizes. If any one desires to see how much a child is interested in this kind of work, let him draw while the child looks on, the picture of a cat, a dog, a house, a stage-coach, and witness the cifort he will make to imitate it. ' If a little INFOEMAL INSTRUCTION. 139 judicious help be given, a child will spend willingly an hour or more every day at such exercises. Like instruction may be derived from other em- ployments in which children greatly delight, such as coloring pictures or cutting them from paper or pasteboard; moulding various kinds of objects from terra cotta, such as animals, flowers, fruit, dishes, boats, &c. ; building with suitable blocks, houses, castles, bridges, &c., or making of them tables, chairs, bedsteads, &c.; dressing dolls and arranging doll- honses; imitating the several varieties of work which they see going on in the kitchen, in the shop, and on the farin ; and I recommend them all as means of instruction which may be made very valu- able by judicious management. Much information can be furnished children likewise, by allowing them to visit shops and manufactories and to see machinery in operation. Every father who has young sons would find it much to their advantage to provide a shop in which they could work, and supply it with suitable tools. Sets of children's tools can be bought for a few dollars, and their value in making boys more inge- nious and active can scarcely be calculated. Girls can derive similar benefit from needle-work, crochet- work, and embroidery. Whatever may be their cir- cumstances, children should learn to work. Ability to handle tools will not prove amiss in any sphere of life. AVithout such instruction as that now indicated, the productive powers of children would remain undeveloped, and all thinking persons must acknow- ledge that this would be a grave educational error. 1-10 ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE. II. Formal Instruction in the Elements of Knowledge. — The preceding section has given hints as to the kind of instruction children ought to receive in their younger years, and as to the methods by which it should be imparted. This informal or inci- dental instruction must be continued as the child advances in years and acquirements, but in addition he must receive other instruction more formal and systematic. He must be trained to more regular habits of study. He must learn to work as well as play. Knowledge should not merely be presented to him in disconnected fragments but in regular lessons. Thinking men accustomed to observe the mental nature of children were long ago convinced that the dry and tedious methods of hearing them give the names of letters, and spell and pronounce words, as usually practiced in Primary Schools, could not be the best to awaken interest in study or develop the powers of the mind. Children have a natural appetite for knowledge, but it must be presented in such a form as adapts it to the condition of their mental digestive-apparatus, or it will cloy that appe- tite instead of satisfying it. As we have seen, a child's first intellectual lessons are learned wholly in connection with objects. "When older, if allowed to follow his instinctive promptings, objects will still engage his attention and supply the object-matter about which he thinks; and it is obviously unwise to divert his intellectual faculties from their natural course in obtaining knowledge. The lessons constructed in view of this theory are generally known by the name of FORMAL IN-STRUCTIOX. l-il Object Lessons ; and Object Lessons may be defined as lessons designed to teaeh the Elements of Knowledge hy the use of objects. It is proposed to consider : 1. The Design of Object Lessons. 2. The Matter of Object Lessons. 3. The Preparation for imparting Object Lessons. 4. The Method of conducting Object Lessons. 5. The Dangers to which the Object-Lesson System is exposed. 1. The Design of Object Lessons. — The general design of Object Lessons is made sufficiently plain in the definition just given, but it may be well to state it a little more in detail. Object Lessons supply a want in elementary in- struction. 1^0 one can be mistaken as to the lessons of which children are most fond. Their intense curiosity, their active senses, their capacious memo- ries, and their great loquacity indicate very clearly the direction in Avhich they can be best educated. Little is done, however, in most schools to take advantage of these vigorous rcTanifestations of certain mental faculties. Pupils in our Primary Schools are made to sit down, shut themselves away from the world of objects in which they might find so much to interest and delight them, and engage in the dull work of learning to read, write, and cipher — dull, because abstract. Reading, writing, and arithmetic must be learned, and may be learned to 142 ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE. some extent in the Primary School ; but neither of these branches, nor others like them, can meet the pressing educational wants of children. The true philosophy of education teaches that advantage should be taken of all mental capabilities at the time, in the manner, and with respect to the degree, in which they manifest themselves. This wise mental economy is much disregarded in the common methods of teaching; and the quick perceptive powers of children, their strong memory, and their lively fancy are made much less use of than they might be in imparting knowledge, and are suffered to remain almost altogether without systematic dis- cipline. Children might learn much more and learn it in a much more grateful manner, they might receive much more mental discipline and receive it much more in accordance with the nature of their minds, if a well-devised system of Object Lessons were substituted for the usual course of elementary instruction. A child is a germ put into the hands of the educator, and it is his duty to supply the con- ditions necessary to its full development. No poten- tiality of its nature should be allowed to lie dormant, no talent should be buried, and unjust will be the steward who violates his trust. Object Lessons impart valuable knowledge in a form best suited to the capacity of children. Object Lessons teach things, facts, phenomena, words, in short, the elements of knowledge — the foundation upon which the whole superstructure of learning must rest. Children have strong impulses prompt- ing them to learn. They are constantly obtaining knowledge without a teacher. ligature teaches FORMAL INSTRUCTION. 143 them, and they enjoy her teachings. Object Lessons are intended to lead the child methodically in the way nature indicates that he should be taught. At first, they present to him things which are simple, and afterwards those which are less easily discerned or less easily comprehended. A characteristic feature of the object method of teaching is that the matter presented to the pupil may be greatly varied. It is a common practice in our schools to confi.ne young children to one or two special branches of study; and of these they soon grow weary, and consequently misspend much of their time. A variety of objects must be presented to children in order to enlist their attention, and gratify their appetite for knowledge. A child may learn lessons in the elements of all the sciences as he walks through field or meadow. E'ature has not separated one class of things from another, but presents all in rich profusion. The teacher should learn from her. Object Lessons furnish the best discipline for the young mind. By the ordinary methods of teaching a child his letters, to spell, and to read, he receives very little mental discipline. The same is true of the process of committing to memory and repeating forms of words which are not understood and are soon forgotten. But let a child use his senses in observing and noting the qualities of interesting objects, and it will soon be perceived that his whole intellectual nature is developing itself. One might as well deprive a plant of light or heat, and expect it to grow, as to endeavor to impart healthy mental discipline to a child without the presence of objects. 144 ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE The concrete should precede the abstract in the work of education. 2. The Matter of Object Lessons. — The field from which the objects themselves may be chosen is as boundless as nature. It may embrace multitudes of things in the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds, and multitudes of events in the history of mankind. Writers upon Object Lessons have given long lists of such objects, and it is quite unnecessary to repeat them here. It is of much more impor- tance to determine the principles which ought to guide the teacher, not merely in the selection of proper objects for his lessons, but in the disposition of the matter connected with those objects with which he would make his pupils acquainted. The princi- ples about to be stated will be better appreciated if the reader will keep in view the fact that Object Lessons are designed to teach the elements of know- ledge, and that the expression, elements of know- ledge, is here intended to comprehend the elements of all the sciences and arts. The matter of Object Lessons must be adapted to give exercise in their early growth to all the mental faculties. In the simple perception of an object and its discrimination from other objects, a child, probably, calls into requisition every faculty of his mental nature. It is a psychological error to sup- pose that any of his mental powers are dormant. Some manifest themselves more activety or more obviously than others, but all act, and all should be furnished an opportunity of gaining strength. Teachers have been accustomed to consider Object FORMAL INSTRUCTION". 145 Lessons simpl}^ as designed to give culture to the perceptive powers ; but this is a very narrow view of the subject. As the perceptive powers are more active in youth than any others of our mental facul- ties, they are more capable of receiving culture, and Object Lessons are peculiarly adapted to impart it; but it should not be imparted to them to the neglect of any other faculty of the mind. The matter of an Object Lesson, in addition to what it contains that can be known by the senses, may present something to be retained in the memory, something to excite the imagination, something to start a train of reason- ing, or something to call into play one of those ideas of the reason which, whether consciously or unconsciouslv, condition all our tbinkino-. Take, for example, such a simple object as a piece of bread. The teacher may call the attention of his class to the sowing of the seed, the gathering of the harvest, the threshing of the grain, the grinding of the flour, the baking of the bread — all of which furnish exercise to the perceptive powers and the memory. The imagination is exercised as well in conceiving the ripening wheat, harvest-time, the threshers at their work, the mill, the bakery. A very little child can answer such questions as — "Why is the ground ploughed and harrowed when it is desired to sow it with wheat ? Why is the ripe wheat gathered and put in barns ? Why is it threshed out and taken to mills? — and thus learn to use his judgment or learn to think. So, too, it would be proper in giving such a lesson, for the teacher to say that God gave us the grains of wheat ; He causes it to grow; He ripens it and makes it fit for food; 13 ^ ■ 146 ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE, and lie is good. Such instruction will find a lodge- ment in children's minds, hecause it is adapted to their mental nature, thus showing that the noblest faculty of our minds, the reason, is active in early youth. The matter of Object Lessons must be adapted to increase the pupil's facility in the use of language. Thoughts are helpless without words. But words are best learned in connection with things. With fit opportunity, it is surprising how rapidly a child becomes acquainted with language, but the ordinary instruction of our primary schools does not furnish this opportunity. If the system of object teaching is not diverted from its true function, it will give prominence to linguistic culture. According to this system, the names of things, and the names of qualities of things are constantly pressed upon the attention of the pupils. They are taught, not only to make observations, but to tell what they know, to repeat what they have learned ; and every lesson acquaints them with new words. A constant suc- cession of interesting objects is made to pass before them, and they are taught to give them names. An Object Lesson is, in part, an exhibition of objects, and, in part, an application of words, and the two processes should be inseparable. The matter of Object Lessons must be adapted to communicate the elementary fiicts which constitute th