Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/36

26 in observation will secure a full development of the powers of abstract thought. This matter is very fully and clearly set forth in Mr. James Sully's new work, "Outlines of Psychology." "In the second place," continues Mr. Sully, "the whole scheme of training should conform to the natural order of development of the faculties. Those faculties which develop first must be exercised first. It is vain, for example, to try to cultivate the power of abstraction before the powers of observation (perception) and imagination have reached a certain degree of strength. This self-evident proposition is one of the best accepted principles in the modern theory of education, though there is reason to apprehend that it is still frequently violated in practice."

The course of study for boys until they are eighteen years old which conforms to these principles would be as follows: Since sensation is the first faculty to be born, the first lessons should consist in presenting to the child objects on which he can exercise this faculty. This is the method of the Kindergarten, and has sufficiently demonstrated its wisdom. Gradually the child should be led to make more and more minute and complete observations, and plants, animals, and minerals should be put within his reach for comparison and classification. Next he should be set to discovering the physical properties of matter and the laws of force, and after this the chemical properties of matter should be investigated to some extent. Human physiology and hygiene should also form a part of the course. These subjects should be so arranged that a part of the pupil's time throughout his school course would be devoted to the scientific method of studying things, which is a far different matter from committing to memory the pages of the ordinary text-book on science, or sitting passively like a pitcher under a spout while the teacher pours information into listless ears, perhaps showing experiments and specimens, and telling the pupils what to see.-The benefits of scientific culture have been often and ably stated. One of the most important is that it prevents the disastrous credulity which prevails even among those accounted well educated according to the ancient standard. If the opponents of science had been familiar with the scientific method of getting at truth, as exemplified, for instance, by the classical experiments, of Sir Humphry Davy on the electrolysis of water, they would not have so eagerly published their understanding of the "Berlin report" without a single attempt to eliminate sources of error.

The study of language also should run through the whole school course. The process of learning to talk should be continued in the school, the pupil's discoveries about things furnishing the subject matter on which to exercise his powers of expression. He should begin early to write a part of what he has to say, and may thus be introduced to Composition without knowing the dread which that big name commonly inspires in the minds of school-children. Elocution should receive some attention, and the derivation and composition of