Page:The Teacher's Practical Philosophy.djvu/124

 The work of education, whether we view it from the point of standing which estimates its value for the individual, or from that which surveys its broader relations to society and to the state, culminates in the production of character. But this word "character" is fitted to cover a conception of very comprehensive and somewhat shifty nature. Character can not be built without using all the materials which enter into the constitution of personal life. To assist in its building is the highest and most comprehensive and difficult, but valuable kind of personal intercourse. In treating of the teacher's function in the formation of the pupil's character, I must, therefore, assume your consent, in principle, at least, to much which has been said in all the previous lectures. It has been shown how impossible it is to separate between the work of training the mental faculties and the imparting of knowledge; and that the imparting of knowledge can not take place without exciting interest, guiding attention, and thus arousing and directing the mind's own activities. In the same manner, the