Page:The Conception of God (1897).djvu/90



unworthy of note, in the exercises of this evening, is the fact that nearly all the participants have stood to each other in the relation of teacher and pupil. Only a few years ago, the meeting of such persons in a public discussion would have been nearly impossible; or, at all events, the key-note of the meeting would most probably have been an entirely genuine and yet somewhat monotonous agreement. But a frank independence of thought is the informing spirit of modern teaching in this country. Teachers care comparatively little to have students agree with them, but insist very strongly that they shall think out their own thoughts for themselves. Students are not merely informed of old solutions. They are rather trained and encouraged to think out new solutions, on the chance that the new may supplement some of the imperfections of the old. Some modern teachers even carry this so far as positively to distrust such students as agree with them. Now, Professor Royce is a typical modern teacher; and, indeed, in what I have just said, I am doing little more than repeat what I have often heard him say to his classes. For a long time, as I will now confess, it was desperately difficult to