Page:Philosophical Review Volume 21.djvu/142

124 influence. This law of assimilation is verified in pathology, and is used in the production of anti-toxins. Traces of the struggle are left in the structure of the organism, and may be transmitted, if they are acquired in the same manner during several generations. Among the acquired characteristics that may be transmitted must be mentioned the instincts and the 'logic' that synthesizes everything. Vegetation also has its 'logic,' and uses it as we use ours. The idea of intelligence cannot be separated from the idea of life. The part of ancestral experience that is transmitted is the part which has been necessary to preserve life. When the young of the species are educated by their parents, some parts of ancestral experience are handed down by tradition, and acquired by imitation. Imitation may be defined as the revenge of the milieu upon the living organism, for it betrays the inability of the latter to assimilate all the necessary elements of the milieu. Imitation takes place when we hear a sound, or when our digestive system struggles with a toxin. In both cases we may say that a rhythmic activity is set up, and by means of a functional assimilation, a new structural organ is created having the properties of the exterior rhythm. The imitative organs, being gradually fixed in our heredity (as acquired characteristics), make possible the rapid education of the young. It is all a matter of functional assimilation. What we call imperfections, are the souvenirs of an absolute assimilation, and what we designate as our superior faculties, are the failures in our assimilation. That is to say, our ancestral 'logic,' the resume of our ancestral experience, is composed of souvenirs from a partial assimilation of the milieu, and if there is any distinction here between and, it lies in the more complete assimilation of the milieu by the latter.

The facts of education, although now mere isolated observations, are susceptible of scientific treatment. Such a treatment would generalize and systematize to the extent which the facts warrant, but would never pass over into a priori constructions. In conformity to this principle, education may be defined as the preparation of the child to realize an ideal, the content of which is determined by the particular conditions of his life. The data of education are: the pupil, who is at once a child and a future man; the educator, who is a real person and not an ideal being; and the medium in which the child must develop and to which he must be adapted. All facts which deal with the control of action by reason are subject-matter for pedagogy. These facts should fall into one of two general classes: (1) they may be centrifugal, that is, they may relate to the training of the child's mind and character for expression in a certain ideal; (2) they may be centripetal, that is, they may relate to the acquisition of elements of knowledge and reasoning. While this classification presents abstractions, it abstracts from real facts, and is therefore relevant to actual educational processes.