Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/240

226 the constitutive fibers of civilization, and would have them wrought into every young man or woman who might seek an education. Nevertheless—and this is the point of all our urging—true reform in education can not be found on this path. Agreement as to the subject-matter of study is an impossibility. All judgment on this point roots itself in the constitution of the individual, and, while many may agree that the topics named above compass the circle of being, they will not agree as to the desirability, much less the necessity, of demanding years of toil in such topics from each young man and woman. Professor Howison believes that "thoughtful and competent judges—outside of the Harvard circle—will stand by the plainly reasonable conviction that there is a sum of knowledge touched with sentiment, and invigorated by masterly grasp, the lack of which demonstrates the lack of a truly cultivated mind." This is most admirable. But who are the thoughtful and competent judges? And, when they have been found, who shall assure us that their curriculum will be that of Professor Howison? From the nature of human nature there can not be such agreement. Individuality is as much a constitutive fact of each human being as is the trait which he shows in common with his fellows. This individuality, representing his inheritance, his childhood, his training by environment, will assert itself. And this means nothing more or less than that he, the given person, will go out toward certain subjects and withdraw from others. Force him to study Latin and Greek, or mathematics and physics, even through the college course, and you may do him irreparable harm. At all events, there is here an open question. The writer believes it will remain an open question until the time of the perfect psychology. Meanwhile the course of education can be advanced, and that on another line. This is the line of better teaching. One of the most important truths contained in Mr.Spencer's treatise is found, as I think, in the following paragraph: "A branch of knowledge which, as commonly taught, is dry and even repulsive, may, by following the method of Nature, be made extremely interesting and profoundly beneficial. "We say profoundly beneficial, because the effects are not confined to the gaining of facts, but often revolutionize the whole state of mind." A more pregnant sentence with regard to education can not be found. To follow the method of Nature in teaching a given subject means to recognize the special character of the subject itself, and at the same time to discern its  natural place in the unfolding being of the pupil. The first secures the organic presentation of the subject per se, the second finds in the pupil a natural—i.e., a constitutive—response to the matter as developed. The business of teaching is to establish relations, not to communicate facts; these relations are between the being of the pupil and subject studied. That there are, for all subjects, such relations, that these relations are, in all cases, natural, must be the guiding conviction with every teacher. Instead, then, of