Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/723

Rh, using the records of other men's experience as we may need them.

Again, mental discipline is mental habit. How do we form habits that are desirable? Not by seeking some course of activity that shall create the habit, but by trying to do something that is desirable. Useful habits are incidental results of doing useful work. The mechanic does not use extra care that he may form habits of accuracy, but that he may produce better work. The astronomer does not make his observations with the view of forming habits, but to learn the phenomena of the heavens; and if he be called upon to observe some phenomenon that occurs but once in a lifetime, he will hardly think of seeking that special discipline which the observation may require by studying the conjugation of the Greek verb.

I think we meet this fact everywhere out of the schools, that discipline is not sought as an end. The idea of discipline for its own sake was asceticism in religion. Men sought moral excellence by retiring from the world, and contemplating the things within them. The same idea of discipline led men to look for knowledge within themselves, instead of seeking it by observing things around them. But the system failed in religion and morals, as it failed in discovering truth and educating the intellect. We see why it must fail; it wastes the energies of the individual in acting upon his own powers. What is progress in its last analysis? Is it not change of relation? We are superior to our savage ancestors, because our relations to society and the forces of Nature differ from theirs. What is knowledge but a mental accumulation of true relations? What is reason but the power to compare relations, and what is wisdom but the ability to perceive true relations, and direct our actions in accordance with them? Discipline, habit, and character, appear to be activity crystallized in seeking adaptation to our environments. What is the truth that stands out in relief? Clearly, that character, habit, and discipline, are the reflex upon ourselves of activity, moral, mental, or physical. Whence it seems to follow that useless or vicious activity will appear as useless or vicious character and discipline. On the other hand, we may be sure that the study of those things which it is most important we should know, and the activities which it is most important we should pursue, will give the best discipline, the most valuable habits, and the most excellent character.

The conclusion appears to be that mental discipline is an incident of right education, never an end.

The real educational question is, not of the value of discipline, but of the relative values of the different kinds of knowledge. When we learn what knowledge is most valuable, the habit or discipline incidentally acquired in seeking that knowledge will, no doubt, be the discipline which will aid most in seeking and applying other valuable knowledge throughout the whole course of life.